Chapter 10: A rude awakening and trouble

Momma Dino opened her eyes as the sunlight streamed in from outside the cave. Lifting her head, she yawned showing her rows of teeth. She nudged her children awake with her snout and they got up groggily, yawning in unison. Using her flexible tail, she lowered them down to the ground. Before she could climb out of the cave herself, she suddenly remembered something. She looked back down at the still sleeping Ken. He was nestled beside the base of her tail and was snoring softly. Lowering her head, she started to nudge him awake. But that didn’t do any good. The boy was still sleeping. Momma grunted in irritation and tried again. Ken still refused to come around. Then Momma got an idea. Sticking out her tongue, she snaked it towered the sleeping two-leg and….
SLUUUURPPP! Licked him right in face. 
When he felt that, Ken woke up suddenly and when the stench hit him he let out a yell of disgust. Then he looked up and saw Momma’s tongue near his face. He rolled away, looked up at the dinosaur and glared at her with revulsion. He could feel the warm, wet foam of dinosaur spit on his face.
“Ugh! Dino breath! Yuck!” 
Ken got up and started wiping the slobber from his mug to get rid of the smell. He felt like he was going to choke. Momma made a sniggering sound in her throat as if she was laughing.
But Ken didn’t find it funny at all. 
“That’s not funny!” he snapped. He walked to the entrance of the cave and started climbing down. Momma was still chuckling a bit but stopped when she had climbed down after him. Her kids gave her a questioning look as if asking what’s so funny. Their mother lowered her head and growled something in their small ears.
When she was done, they turned their heads to Ken and let out squealing giggles, while trying to cover their mouths with their short claws. Ken gave them an irritated look.
“You guys should tell your mother to lay off the meat, nasty!” 
Momma lowered her head down to gently nuzzle Ken on shoulder to tell him she was sorry. Ken gave her another irritated glare but softened up after words. She was only trying to wake him up and in truth, he was a heavy sleeper. At home his mother would try five times to wake him up and get him ready for school. A glass of water was the last straw for her to get him up.
Except, Ken didn’t get a class of water in the face. He got a lick attack in the face by a t-rex. Talk about a rude awakening! 
Ken’s stomach rumbled. As did the baby dino’s. They hadn’t eaten since yesterday. When she heard the stomachs of the young ones growling, Momma decided to go hunting. She led the children back to lava falls and told them to wait around a flat round rock to eat.
While they waited, Ken tried his wrist communicator to see if it still worked. The device was giving off bleeping sounds and Ken saw the red dot that was him. But then his eyes traced to two other dots not far away from his location. ‘It couldn’t be,’ He thought. ‘is that Josiah And Shelly?’
He looked again. It was them. He knew it was them. But why hadn’t the device gone off last night? Then he remembered he turned it off right before he slept with Momma Dino and the kids.
His time watch was left in the tent with his other stuff during the night he got kidnapped. Ken knew that his only chance to get away now was to run away from Momma Dino.
At first, he didn’t want to leave. Momma had been kind to him, sort of, and Ken didn’t want to hurt her feelings by running away. So as an alternative, he activated his location beacon on the left side of device. If he couldn’t go to them, he would lead them to him. The communicator was linked to the other’s communicators by a radio wave link. He hoped they would pick up the signal soon.
Momma came back carrying a large chicken leg-like carcass. She dropped it on the stone table and stepped back to let them eat. The dino kids instantly dove in. but Ken was a little apprehensive about eating raw meat. But hunger in his stomach made him think otherwise and he took a large chunk of meat from carcass. It didn’t smell too bad and he was hungry. But the thought eating raw meat made his stomach tighten. He opened his mouth, took a bite, and chewed. It had a gummy texture to it and the smell was a bit off. But it really didn’t taste that bad. He took another bite, chewed and swallowed. It was chewy but satisfying. He turned and nodded up at Momma. “Thanks for the food, Momma,”
The rex nodded back at Ken with a smile. 
 
Shelly and Josiah woke up from their sleep and wiped the sleepiness’ from their eyes. Josiah look around the outcropping for Buck. He couldn’t see the weasel anywhere. The morning sun cast an eerie gray morning in the plates of woe. It was creepy and didn’t seem safe just to lie here out in the open. Josiah got up and packed his sleeping bag as quickly as he could. Shelly did the same but more gradually.
“You seem tense,” Shelly pointed out to her friend. “What’s the hurry?” 
“Bucks not here,” Josiah said, hurriedly zipping up his bag. “I don’t know where that weasel went to, but we got to hurry.” He strapped on his pack and waited for Shelly.
Suddenly, a deafening roar came from the jungle. The two of them turned towered the sound and froze. 
Shelly looked at Josiah. “What was that?” 
Josiah took a step back and whispered, “That’s not the rex. Its sounds bigger.” 
A rustling came from the bushes to their left. Buck suddenly sprinted out of the jungle and headed for them. 
“We gotta leave!” Buck called. “We gotta leave now!” 
Josiah didn’t look at all pleased to see the weasel just show up out of nowhere. “Where did you go?” 
“No time, mate! Rudy’s coming!” gasped Buck. “We gotta get to pterosaur bluffs, now!” 
Buck took off running down the rocky path to the bluffs with Josiah and Shelly right behind him. As they ran, they heard the roar again. To Josiah it sounded like an evil primeval screeching roar from another world. The sound was blood-chilling.
Josiah hoped to god that Rudy didn’t find Ken before they did. 
 
As they hurried along the plates to pterosaur bluff, Josiah and Shelly tried to keep up with Buck. It was hard to believe that a weasel could run that fast when in a hurry. ‘That roar must have really frazzled Buck big time,’ Josiah thought while running alongside Shelly. ‘if that dinosaur finds Ken, I don’t know what I’ll do.’
At that moment, Buck came to a sudden halt which made Josiah and Shelly nearly crash right into him. 
“We got company, mates,” Buck said slowly. 
And he was right. In front of them was a pack of raptor-like guanlongs. But they were not normal guanlongs like the ones in fossil records in the museums in the future. The creatures were 4-feet tall and 3.4 m long from snout to tail. Their scales were blue with pale streaks across them. They had red-orange patches around their eyes and had cream underbellies. Along their neck and backs were black, porcupine-like quills that rattled like rattlesnakes.
Buck got into a battle stance and took out his knife. He turned to the kids and pointed down a clear path to the left. “You guys gotta’ take that path to pterosaur bluffs without me,” he informed them. “I’ll take care of these dinos!” with that, he jumped into the air and came down on dinosaurs with his knife and whip with such swiftness and cunning that the guanlongs were having a hard time trying to eat him.
With Buck battling the dinosaurs, Josiah and Shelly took off down the path to the left in a run. They darted over shattered logs and broken rocks which were scattered on the trail.
Behind them they heard Buck whoop and holler with exhilaration as he battled the pack of guanlongs. 
In this world, beneath the ice, no dinosaur was safe from the wily and swash-buckling weasel. 
Meanwhile, Momma dino had the kids huddle together under her belly for protection. For right in front of her was Rudy the Baryonyx. Rudy was a large albino Baryonyx with Red eyes, with yellow around his pupils. His scales did look like they were white, but there was a bit of gray to his small black spikes that ran down his head, neck and back. He had a long, narrow snout filled with teeth that were coned-shaped. His size was 33 feet long and 12 feet high. A normal sized dinosaur of his kind. But since he had been living under the ice in the secret world for ages, his size had been altered. He was bigger and longer then any of his kind could ever be.
Ken quivered behind the kids as the super predator narrowed his eyes at them. Momma growled at him to keep his distance. The Baryonyx snorted at her. He took a step forward. Momma lifted her head and roared at him threateningly to get back. Rudy snarled and backed off. As the savage behemoths growled at each other, Ken felt sweat pour down his face. The baby dinos weren’t afraid though. They growled at Rudy like their mother and showed their teeth.
Ken stayed where his was. If he ran, he’d put himself in danger of being eaten alive. But he couldn’t stop his body from shaking like a leaf.
Rudy gave Momma one last growl of defiance, turned and walked back into the jungle with thundering footfalls. 
Ken and the kids breathed a sigh of relief and came out from under Momma. She was still looking intently at the spot were Rudy disappeared. Just seeing him again unnerved her. She felt that she had failed in defeating him when she had pushed him off the cliff to his apparent death. But this sudden encounter just confirmed her fears that Rudy did survive the fall into the chasm.
Then without warning, there was a sudden scream in the distance. Momma tilted her head to one side and listened closely. There was screeching, yelling and a familiar BOW, BOW sound she had heard before.
“That’s Josiah and my sister!” Ken said. He rushed off to follow the sound. Momma and the kids tried to follow, but Ken was darting too far ahead of them. He raced ahead with every intention of seeing them again. He burst out of the forest and into a rocky field and saw them. They were near a cliff and were battling a pack of raptor-like dinosaurs.
Momma Dino and the kids caught up with him and stared at the fight that was happening in the clearing. The other two-legs were fighting off the guanlongs with the same weapons she had seen that browned-skinned two-leg shoot at her with.
Ken tried to go into the clearing to help his friends, but Momma seized him by the scruff of his shirt collar to stop him. Ken tried to pull away but there was nothing he could do.
“Let me go, Momma!” he cried. “I have to help them!” He struggled again but to no avail. 
Momma wasn’t going to let him get hurt by those guanlongs. She knew how persistent and cunning they were in a pack. And how deadly, too. Large animals like iguanodons and triceratops were always targets for them. Gaunlongs never messed with her kind or any other super predators down here in her world. They scavenged for carcasses but that was about it. They never messed with a rex.
She looked down at Ken and then at his friends who were still battling the pack. They needed help. Her help. She had to do something.
Letting go of Ken, Momma opened her jaws, threw back her head and let out a mighty roar. It echoed across the clearing scaring birds from the trees.
The gaunlongs and the two two-legs stopped and looked towards the source of the roar. Then, with brutal speed, Momma charged into the clearing. The closest gaunlong near her was seized in her jaws and was chomped down on in an instant. It let out a pitiful shriek then was silent. Momma spat the gaunlong out and charged at the others. The pack scrambled for cover, but the t-rex was faster. She swung her tail and smacked several gaunlongs aside like bowling pins. She roared at the remaining pack members who were left behind and they ran.
Checking around the clearing for danger and finding nothing, Momma motioned for her kids and Ken to out. Upon seeing his sister and Josiah, Ken ran to them shouting, “Guys!”
As he ran to meet them, he read their faces-disbelief, joy, relief, and love. Every emotion seemed to be there in his friends faces, it felt wonderful!
Ken ran right into Shelly and Josiah’s arms and hugged them strongly. As tears spilled from Shelly’s eyes, she hugged her brother as if she’d never again let him go. Josiah hugged Ken strongly and smiled down at him.
“We thought we lost you, you silly kid,” 
“Was lost but now I’m found,” Ken said. “I thought I’d never see you guys again.” 
Momma and the kids approached the group. When he saw her come near, Josiah took out his pistol again and pointed it at her. She stopped and gave a confused grunt at him. Ken ran to her defense.
“Josiah, wait!” he pleaded, while standing between Momma and Josiah’s pistol. “It’s okay. She isn’t going to hurt anyone.” 
Josiah stared at Ken, unable to accept those words. This t-rex in front of them had kidnapped Ken with the intention of eating him. He glared at the rex while keeping his finger on the trigger of his pistol.
“This beast, Ken, took you away from us,” he said angrily. “It doesn’t deserve to live!” 
Ken and Shelly couldn’t believe what Josiah was saying. Was he acutely going to kill a living thing with babies? In truth, Josiah was a bit vindictive toward anyone who hurt his friends and showed more aggression then the two of them combined. It was his aggression that got him in trouble with the staff at the corporation. Now he was going to turn that aggression on an animal that was bigger then him.
Josiah glared at the tyrannosaur and said, “Animals like this one only care about filling their bellies and killing innocent lives of those who have done no harm to it accept run away out of fear!” he looked down at Ken and frowned. “We have done nothing wrong to her accept for when I shot her with my pistol for us to get away to safety.”
Then Ken realized the truth. 
“So that was why she had the burn mark on her shoulder,” he said. “You shot her with your pistol!” 
“Serves her right!” said Josiah. “She was going to pursue us anyway even if I didn’t shoot my pistol.” 
“But she’s not attacking us now,” Ken pointed out. “I even saved Momma’s kids from being bitten by a snake. And in return, she saved me, Josiah.”
Josiah lowered his pistol and gave Ken a quizzical look with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean?” 
Ken explained what happened after he was abducted that night. He told them everything. Every detail. When he was done, Josiah and Shelly were sitting on the ground. Shelly was looking at her brother in admiration while Josiah, still holding the pistol in his lap, looked as if Ken’s story was untrue. Josiah knew from experience in books that a t-rex would eat and scavenge anything when ever it could. It didn’t matter if the victim was small or large because a tyrannosaur was not choosey about what it ate.
Shelly got up and walked over to her brother. She studies him for a moment then puts a hand on his shoulder. 
“Are you sure your alright, Ken?” she asked, concerned. 
Ken only shrugged and nodded his head. “I’m fine,” he says, with sigh and stretches himself. “Just a bit sore, that’s all.” 
Josiah stood up and walked over to Momma and the kids. He stopped a few feet from them and scowled at Momma. 
“You had no right to take Ken away from us,” he said furiously up at the female tyrannosaur. “He’s just a little kid! So why take him? I’m the one who shot you in the shoulder. Yet, you have the nerve to come into our campsite and take him away from us, anyway!”
Momma took a step forward and leaned down so that she was eye level with him. Josiah took a step back as a growl escaped her throat. Not a threatening growl but a growl of understanding and acknowledgment. Josiah lowered his voice and said, “I’m sorry that I shot you, Momma. I just wanted to protect my friend, that’s all.”
Momma nuzzled Josiah on his torso with her snout and made a soft growling sound while smiling in understanding. At first he was a bit tense at having a carnivore this close to him because the rex was so…so right. In his mind, Josiah saw this prehistoric animal as a great hunter. A tyrant queen of her kind that made him feel small in comparison to her size and power.
He reached out with his right hand and stroked Momma’s broad snout. 
“Can you ever forgive me for the wrong I did?” he inquired softly. 
Momma bent forward and gently licked Josiah with her pinkish-red tongue. It was wet, warm and peaceful and as she moved it to his face, Josiah didn’t move to avoid it. He just let it move across his face freely and felt the wet muscle run across his cheek and forehead.
When she was done, Josiah walked back to his friends. Ken was busy changing into a new set of clothes and Shelly was checking her Time watch. She gave him the heads up.
“The watches are ready for time travel, Josiah.” 
Josiah checked his and nodded. “I guess this means we can travel back through the tunnel and up to the surface. Then we can go to the time rings and activate our watches.”
Ken turned to Josiah and his sister. “We’re leaving?” he inquired while tying his shoes. Josiah nodded. 
“What about exploring this place a bit more?” he asked 
“Actually,” Shelly pointed out, “He as a point, Ken.” 
Josiah gave Ken an inquisitive look. “You don’t wanna’ leave?” 
Ken shook his head. “I want to stay down here a bit longer, for a while,” 
Josiah considered the decision. If they stayed down here and explored and interacted with the dinosaurs, how were they going to protect themselves better? And what about Rudy?
Category:Ice Age