Return To Lan Darr by Anderson Atlas

Author:Anderson Atlas [Atlas, Anderson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-30T23:00:00+00:00

He runs back to the small cave. The dinosaur pursues him, quick now that it’s mad. Before Rubic gets to the cave, the tail comes down on the entrance. Stones shatter and collapse on Jibbawk, but they fail to wake it.

“Jibbawk, wake up!” Rubic yells. He reaches into the half-collapsed cave and shakes Jibbawk, careful not to get poked by the quills. He gets no response. The tail is going to hit again. Rubic grabs Jibbawk’s arms, where the quills are thin and small and more like coarse hair, and drags it out. It feels like he’s pulling on a cactus. He can’t pick up Jibbawk, fearing the larger quills will impale him, so he tries to drag it up the hill.

The dinosaur pulls back its tail for another strike. The tail comes down as close as it has ever come. Sand and dust rain on Rubic. Jibbawk wakes with a jerk, eyes focusing on the beast, and jumps to its feet. It whips an arm out, releasing a large quill from its forearm. The quill bounces off the dinosaur’s scales harmlessly. The tail swoops down, but Jibbawk and Rubic dash up the hill. After each step, the loose sand cascades down in small avalanches.

Jibbawk turns and flings another quill. This time it spears the shoulder where the dinosaur’s scales are smaller. The beast roars and moves back. It can’t look at the quill, but tries. Its eyes widen, and it falls on its side, trying to rub the quill out of its hide.

“We don’t have much time! I can hear other beastsss coming!” Jibbawk hisses and continues up the sandy hill, running sidelong instead of directly up.

The intermittent flashes of lightning give Rubic sunspots that make it harder to see, but he has to retrieve his backpack. He slides down the hill, finds the cave, and peers into the rubble. “Oh no.” His backpack is buried under rubble. It has all his food, water, and supplies. He tries to remove a large black rock, pulling until his feet sink into the sandy hill and his muscles burn.

Freeing his backpack is hopeless. It is his safety, his security, his lifeline, all bundled neatly into one compact interior-frame hiking pack that took him years to perfect. His camping stove, fuel, foil blanket are in there. Rubic feels fear crawl up his spine like a rattlesnake in his shirt.

The beast snorts only a few yards away.

“Come, Rubic!” Jibbawk yells from farther up the sandy hill.

As the thunder encore ratchets up, the humungous beast stands, snapping twigs under its huge feet. Rubic pulls his feet from the sand and runs to Jibbawk. The crashing sounds of other beasts fill the valley. The herd of dinosaurs ram trees and stomp, adding more deathly instruments to the ensemble of thunder and lightning.

At the top of the hill are more outcroppings of black stones. One is large enough to hide behind. Jibbawk and Rubic stop shoulder to shoulder, gasping for breath, feeling severely strained from running on sand.

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