Kate and the Raptor Dinosaurs

by Thomas Kennedy

  “Sure,” Nach said confidently.

  “We will have a race to see who is quicker.”

  “Who is quicker?” the Farmer asked.

  “You or what you think of as lunch.”

  “Fascinating,” the Farmer said. “And now you know…” “Just look how well the clothes they are wearing fit,” his wife interjected.

  “I wonder what is it we have found here?” the Farmer agreed.

  “You’re so gullible,” his wife chided. “Don’t fall for these sales gimmicks,” she warned.

  Kate shrugged with impatience and filled in the top line of three boxes.

  “Eight, three, four, equals fifteen,” she said.

  They stared.

  “You can copy me if you like?” Kate offered.

  “I’m good at Math,” Nahc said, getting a marker out of his bag.

  “Careful,” his mother said as he went to the wall and wrote. “Six, seven, two, equals fifteen,” he said.

  “Very good,” the Farmer encouraged.

  “One, five, nine,” Kate said, filling in the second line.

  “What about four, nine, two?” Nahc’s mom said, getting in on the act.

  She took Nahc’s marker to do a line. The Farmer and Asil came closer to watch.

  Ben signalled Conchobar and they edged out of the way in the direction of the door to the cage.

  “Six, seven, two,” Kate said filling in her bottom line.

  “They are my numbers,” Nahc protested.

  “My goodness!” the Farmer interjected. “The human has the grid correct.”

  “Is it?” his wife asked.

  “Whatever way you add it up, be it down or across or diagonally the answer is always fifteen.”

  “Let me check,” his wife said, pushing Kate to the side. “There must be a trick to it.”

  Kate backed away as the Raptors examined her grid with jerky head movements, checking the tots and comparing to Nahc’s grid.

  When Ben gave the signal, Kate sprinted to the door of the cage.

  The Raptors reacted with amazing swiftness but Ben and Conchobar got the door closed and the lock slammed across just as Kate came through.

  Asil banged her nose and the other Raptors bumped her.

  Conchobar pulled the key out of the lock.

  “We have to go now,” Kate said calmly.

  “Amazing,” the Farmer said.

  His wife met his eye in an expression that seemed like she agreed.

  Nahc slashed through the bars with his foot hook and snagged Ben by the Backpack.

  Quickly with Conchobar’s help, Ben twisted out of the backpack and lashed out with his Hurley stick.

  Conchobar and Kate helped pull him out of range.

  Conchobar shouted at them through the bars and did a dance but they just looked puzzled.

  “He says that if you call for help he will set fire to this outhouse,” Kate explained.

  “Amazing,” the Farmer said, putting his protective arms around his family.

  “You’ll not escape,” he added. “Orang-utan farms are fully fenced.”

  “This way,” Conchobar instructed and led them towards a side door, dodging between machinery and pallets.

  “There’s a gate,” Kate pointed as they got outside.

  “Not there,” Conchobar shuddered.

  “That’s the slaughter area where they take their meals. They like fresh prey.”

  “They really have awful eating habits,” Kate agreed.

  They ducked behind a bale of straw as they heard a tractor coming around the corner of the building. The tractor had no cab and the driver was sitting on what looked like a motorcycle with his tail sticking out behind.

  The tractor was towing a trailer with a load of bales of hay.

  “Quick,” Conchobar said.

  They hopped into the back of the trailer and ducked low between the bales.

  “Where do you think he’ll take us?” Kate asked as they jolted along.

  “Did you notice as you came across the field that there was hay spread around the feeding and watering troughs?” Conchobar asked.

  “Yes,” Kate replied.

  “I hope that’s where he’s going.”

  The tractor jolted to a halt and the children crouched low, eyes meeting but not speaking.

  There was a screeching metallic sound as a gate opened and what sounded like some friendly banter.

  As they went through they could see the fence. They were in the Fairy field travelling alongside the feeding troughs.

  Kate risked a quick look over the side of the trailer, keeping her head as low a possible.

  There were Orang-utan about and it seemed most were moving off, back towards the woods carrying bananas and straw.

  Then Kate could see the mound with the Blackthorn trees. The tractor stopped and Kate ducked as the driver began to climb down.

  Helped by two farmhands, the driver began to herd the last of the Orang-utan away from the troughs.

  The tractor engine revved up and Kate was startled to see Conchobar at the controls. He got the machine going and steered in the direction of the Blackthorns and the Fairy mound.

  The tractor driver and the other farmhands stopped and stared in surprise when the tractor engine revved up.

  “A human!” Kate heard one of them shout.

  “Get the Farmer!” the driver shouted and began to pursue the tractor.

  The other farmhand stopped herding Orang-utan and joined in. The third farmhand sprinted back toward the house to get the Farmer.

  The Orang-utan scattered in confusion, upsetting the chase.

  But they were running very quickly, catching the bouncing tractor and trailer. A bale of straw fell off the trailer and as the load moved Ben and Kate were hard put to hang on inside.

  As the driver grabbed the back of the trailer in a triumphant angry snarl he began to climb aboard with his eyes fixed in gleeful malice on Conchobar’s back, thinking now he had his prey.

  On his back inside the trailer Ben braced himself and swung hard with his Hurley stick.

  The Raptor took the blow on his knee and fell back off the trailer with a scream rolling over and ending up in a heap. In seconds he was up and shaking himself off, looking to resume pursuit.

  The farmhand came along the other side and made a snap at Kate and then hooked his leg hook on the side of the trailer and began to swing aboard, snarling and snapping his jaws.

  In desperation Ben lunged forward and rammed his Hurley stick down the gaping jaws as the Raptor concentrated on Kate.

  The Raptor snapped and bit through the stick but the remainder in its mouth gagged at the throat forcing him to stop and sway as he tried to dislodge and clear his throat. Kate kicked out and unbalanced him further and he fell out of the Trailer.

  The Driver stumbled over the falling Raptor just as he came up to the trailer again and they both fell into a heap.

  “Quickly!” Conchobar shouted as they reached the entrance to the Blackthorns.

  They jumped off the still moving tractor and trailer and scrambled down the entrance.

  The pursuing Raptors found their feet and went after the tractor and trailer and got it under control.

  The took a further moment before concluding that the humans had jumped off and hidden in the Blackthorns.

  “Stop, no further,” King Olaf cried out as they scrambled into the hollow centre of the Blackthorns.

  King Olaf jumped at Conchobar.

  Ben grabbed one of Olaf’s arms but was helpless against his strength.

  Olaf effortlessly pinned them both to the ground with a pleased grunt.

  Kate jumped on Olaf’s back but could not shift him.

  Outside the sounds gathered, there was shouting and a barking sound near the Blackthorns.

  “Dogs,” Olaf hissed in terror, “they’re sending in the raptor dogs, we’ll be torn to pieces.”

  “Do exactly as I say!” Kate instruc
ted urgently.

  “Nothing,” the farmhand told the Farmer.

  “Nothing?” the Farmer echoed in disbelief.

  “Not in the Blackthorns,” the farmhand reported.

  “Then fan out and search as far as the tree line. Try to cut them off.”

  “Right boss,” the Farmhand said and gave a signal.

  Small donkey sized savage doglike raptors with salivating molars were let off their long leads and fanned out in a systematic search of the field supervised by the farmhands who were carrying long poles with spikes at the end.

  The farmhand passed on the farmer’s instruction to his fellow workers and they began a systematic sweep towards the tree line.

  “One of the dogs came out of the Blackthorns with this in its mouth,” the farmhand said as he handed the Farmer a dull pewter coloured piece of metal.

  “Nothing else?”

  “Nothing,” the farmhand reassured.

  “Anyone or anything in there would have been torn to pieces by the dogs I suppose.”

  “They must have found an escape route towards the trees. We were certain that they were in the Blackthorns.”

  “O.K. just keep looking.”

  The Farmer examined the length of metal. It was light and dull and uninteresting, made of an unattractive pewter-like material. No value he thought and went to throw it back into the Blackthorns.

  Then he changed his mind.

  He had brought the backpack Ben had lost. They had also found the almost empty plastic bottle, and wondered what it was made of.

  He dropped the piece of metal into the backpack with the rest of his finds.

  The Farmer was fascinated with the zip on Ben’s backpack. He ran it up and down and up and down.

  He was calm now, not like when they’d rescued him from the cage. So embarrassing, a Farmer locked up by his own animals.

  He knew the farmhands would joke about it forever. He’d never live it down.

  But he was in control now. He pulled out Ben’s torch and clicked it on and off, and then he returned it to the pack.

  He was coolly calculating now and amazed. How could feral humans have this sort of technology, it was just not possible?

  The Farmer was an intelligent well read man and he was aware that little was known on wild humans, other than that they lived in remote locations and avoided contact with Raptors.

  However some academics specialised in the field and he sensed they would be very interested in what he had come across.

  When he pulled the zip again he looked into the backpack and his eyes opened in amazement.

  The metal piece was resting on the strange stone in the bag and it was starting to glow. The Farmer swallowed nervously but resisted the impulse to drop the bag.

  He watched as the dull pewter colour changed to gold and the scoring along the side became pulsating emerald. Then suddenly the dull pewter metal changed into a two-inch long snakelike gold jewel with emerald spirals build into the sides.

  Gingerly he picked it out. It was too light to be solid gold, but his wife would love it as a brooch if he could get it mounted.

  A cunning look came into the Farmer’s eye. If he went to the University to report the incident he’d have to hand over his finds including what looked to be a valuable jewel. He decided he’d not be hasty. Maybe he’d try to get a look inside the Blackthorns, who knows what he’d find, maybe treasure.

  He returned the jewel to the backpack. Then he searched around inside. He examined the empty chocolate wrapper with a frown and put it back. He found a school copybook with inscriptions. He couldn’t read the strange writing but he put this back inside also. There was nothing else in the backpack so he closed the zip.

  The Farmer stood and watched his men search the field and the tree line. But in his heart he knew that the humans were gone.

  Chapter nine

  On the Home front

  “Funny thing,” Kate’s Dad said, coming in from the telephone in the hall.

  “What?” Mom asked with a smile as she passed the pancakes to the children for breakfast.

  ‘That was the local police station,’ Dad explained. “The Guard wanted to know about any guests in the Bed and Breakfast.”

  “None last night, as you know,” Mom explained.

  ‘You won’t believe this,” Dad added with a mischievous grin.

  “What?” Mom said, smiling. Kate and Ben just watched and listened as they put honey on their pancakes.

  “The thing is,” Dad said with a laugh. “A young red headed boy, a teenager, was picked up walking through the village very early this morning.”

  “A local child? A bit late for a teenager to be out alone?” Mom commented.

  Dad laughed and smiled.

  “What?” Mom insisted.

  “The thing is,” Dad explained with a laugh. “The boy wasn’t alone. He was walking along holding an Orang-utan by the hand.”

  “A what!” Mom asked amazed. “Is he with the circus?”

  “The local police are making enquiries.”

  “The circus people never use bed and breakfast establishments,” Mom spoke with the certainty of experience. “They have caravans with the circus and stay on site. And I never heard that the circus was in town.”

  “That’s what I told them, and I said they never stay here anyway.”

  ”Good, now sit and eat, you’ll be late for work.”

  “What did they do with them?” Ben asked through a mouthful of pancake.

  ”Don’t talk with food in your mouth Ben,” Mom admonished.

  “They are sending the Orang-utan up to Dublin zoo,” Dad explained as he sat for breakfast. “It appears it’s very tame. It has scars on its back and they are worried it is being mistreated by whatever circus owns it.”

  “And the boy?” Mom asked. “Is he local?

  “They don’t know but it appears the child speaks a strange dialect, and he’s European, he could be one of the migrant’s children I suppose.”

  “Polish or Russian?” Mom asked.

  “Donno, he has red hair, so I suppose anything’s possible.”

  “Ben and Kate stop staring,” Mom admonished mildly as she handed over their glasses of milk. “Your Dad can drop you off Ben if you finish up, you know you have to help this morning in your Uncle’s shop, so get a move on please. And you Kate, I need you to help me after breakfast.”

  “Yes Mom,” they both said in unison. Their eyes met and they giggled over the remains of their breakfasts.

  “The kids are in great form this morning,” Dad remarked as he kissed Mom goodbye.

  “Have a great day Kate,” he said as he gave her a goodbye kiss.

  Kate and Mom watched as Ben and Dad went to the car. Kate waved as the car went down the lane. Then Kate went to help her Mom in the kitchen.

  Today they were making a batch of scones for the market. Kate loved helping Mom to make scones. In the afternoon they would sell them from a stall in the Farmer’s market up in Greystones.

  Afterwards Mom would buy her an ice-cream cone.

  END

  Please take the time to review this work. Thanks, Thomas K

  Other Fantasy Fiction by Thomas Kennedy:

  Kate and the Raptor Dinosaurs

  Druids Raptors and Egyptians

  The New York Druid

  The Chicago Druid and the Ugly Princess

  The San Francisco Leprechauns

  Other Novels:

  Hard Boiled/Irish humour:

  Dark Drink and Conversation

  More Dark Drink and Conversation

  The Irish Detective

  Romance/Thriller:

  Love on the Dark Side of the City

  Twisted Love and Money

 
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