2016 Young Explorer's Adventure Guide

by Maggie Allen

  Ellen suddenly remembered the books about prehistoric periods where she’d seen pictures of these strange trees before.

  “Risako!” Ellen cried. She stumbled forward, reaching for the tree. She didn’t even think of the oozy sap as she wrapped her arms around the trunk.

  The pterodactyl screeched, Little Sister shrieked, and Ellen twisted her head up to see the monster flapping up and through the canopy.

  Little Sister hung from its claws, her yells growing fainter as the pterodactyl carried her away.

  Ellen dropped back down to the muddy ground, tears blurring her vision. She was hot, dirty, her arms and legs stung from a million scrapes, and her sister was about to be a dinosaur’s lunch.

  Pterodactyls aren’t dinosaurs, Little Sister would have said in her know-it-all scientist voice. But Ellen didn’t care about the correct classification of the monster that was going to eat her sister.

  A huge, prickly insect crawled up Ellen’s leg, and she batted it away with a strangled yell. The thing opened its way-too-huge wings and buzzed away with a deep drone. It flew in the same direction the pterodactyl had gone.

  Ellen dashed her tears away. Sitting in a stinky mud puddle and crying wasn’t going to save Little Sister, and it certainly wasn’t going to get her out of the Cretaceous Period and back to the school library.

  Brushing what mud she could from herself, she set off through the thick ferns, following the pterodactyl. She tried not to think about how she was following the big insect, too.

  What was she going to do? She had no idea where the pterodactyl had gone, and it was certainly flying faster than she was clawing her way through these ferns. Even if she managed to find it again, she had no way of fighting it off of Little Sister.

  The time machine’s wristband dug into her palm, and she stopped to look at it again. How did it work? It was just an old watch and some pipe cleaners. The hands were unmoving, stuck on 12:00. The cardboard disk hung limply from its pipe cleaner hook, damp from the mud. It had stopped working as soon as it was out of Little Sister’s hands. Ellen couldn’t fathom how to get it to work again, and she was afraid to try. She didn’t actually want to leave Little Sister behind here.

  Even though that’s what she’d said. It didn’t matter that Little Sister had known she was lying. The last thing she’d said to Little Sister was that she wanted to leave her behind in this horrible place, right before she’d been scooped up by a big not-dinosaur.

  Tears pricked at her eyes again, but Ellen blinked them away. She’d apologize to Little Sister as soon as she’d rescued her. Then they’d go back home. She tucked the time machine into her skirt pocket.

  She struggled against the underbrush until her stomach let out a long, uncomfortable growl. Lunch period had come and gone, and Ellen had skipped it to go to the library.

  She found a small patch of open ground and stopped to open her backpack. The bento her mom had packed her sat right on top of her books, and Ellen pulled it out and snapped the plastic lid open. The salty aroma of the seaweed and rice and the faint undertone of the salmon and mayonnaise filling had her stomach growling again. Her favorite. She pulled the first one out and took a big bite.

  She finished that one in record time just to make her stomach stop growling. As she picked up the second onigiri, she realized that her stomach wasn’t the only thing growling nearby.

  Something lurked in the clump of ferns to Ellen’s left. Something that sounded big and hungry.

  Ellen held herself still despite every instinct screaming at her to bolt. Weren’t dinosaurs dependent on sight to hunt? She remembered that from somewhere. Then again, she’d never really kept up with dinosaur research.

  The fronds rustled, and a snout like a curved parrot’s beak poked out. The scaly nostrils flared, and a whuffling sound filled the tiny clearing.

  Ellen clutched her plastic bento box in trembling hands as a big triceratops stepped out of the ferns. Its frill was as big as the chalkboard in Ms. Haley’s classroom, and just as green. The three horns curved upwards to end in sharp points. The dinosaur walked right for Ellen.

  Ellen squeezed her eyes shut. Triceratops ate plants, she chanted to herself. It doesn’t want to eat me.

  Still, the bento box rattled in her hands when the triceratops stopped right in front of her. A musty smell wafted off its scaly hide, and it reminded Ellen of old books.

  The triceratops sniffed at the bento box with deep breaths that dragged at Ellen’s school clothes and smelled like it really needed to brush its teeth. Then it butted at her with its beak.

  Ellen screamed and fell over, but she managed to keep ahold of her bento box. The triceratops took a single step to follow her, and she found herself looking up at its neck and chin.

  Maybe the triceratops didn’t want to eat her, but that wouldn’t stop it from stepping on her!

  Luckily, the dinosaur backed up and stuck its beak right into Ellen’s face. It nudged at her hands and the bento box.

  “What, do you want a snack?” Ellen asked. “You want my onigiri?” Maybe triceratopses liked seaweed and rice and salmon.

  An idea formed in Ellen’s head. The triceratops didn’t have any trouble barreling through the underbrush, unlike her. And she had something he obviously wanted to eat.

  A quick scan of the area showed Ellen a supply of branches littering the ground, as well as vines crawling up the wide trunks of the prehistoric trees.

  The triceratops nudged at her again, reminding her that he wanted his treat. Ellen fumbled at the lid of her bento while she figured out the rest of her plan. This certainly wasn’t the first time she’d shared Japanese food with a strange companion in order to save her own life.

  She dug one of the two remaining onigiri out of the bento box and tossed it a little ways away from her. It landed in the dirt with a soft thump.

  The triceratops stepped over to it, crushing a fern on the way, and lowered his head to eat.

  With her new friend distracted, Ellen rushed to get a sturdy branch, and then she moved to the nearest tree trunk. She wrapped her fingers around a vine and tugged on it. It was just like playing tug-of-war in gym class, right down to the burn of the rope as it slid against her hands, but more was riding on her winning this match than a grade in gym.

  Finally, Ellen freed the vine from the tree. While the triceratops finished off his snack, Ellen wrestled the vine, branch, and bento box with the remaining onigiri into a lure.

  Her lure finished, Ellen clambered onto the triceratops’s back before he could stand back up. She was surprised at how leathery the dinosaur’s skin was. She’d thought they had scales like the pet lizards in her science classroom did.

  The triceratops stood with a lurch, and Ellen nearly dropped her branch lure. The huge frill rotated away as her new friend tried to look over his shoulder at her. Ellen regained her balance and giggled at the few grains of white rice stuck to the triceratops’s beak.

  “Okay, ’Tops. You want this other onigiri? You gotta help me rescue Little Sister first.”

  Ellen slid forward and dangled her bento lure in front of ’Tops’ face. Just as she’d hoped, the dangling box and the remaining onigiri drew his attention immediately. Ellen swung the branch in the direction of the pterodactyl’s flight.

  ’Tops bulldozed through the underbrush, while Ellen held onto his frill with one hand and directed him with the lure in the other. She kept her eyes on the canopy of leaves ahead of them, hoping to get some hint of where the pterodactyl had taken Little Sister.

  After a while, Ellen pulled the lure up, and ’Tops came to a stop. There’d been no sign of Little Sister or the pterodactyl, and Ellen was afraid they’d lost the trail long ago.

  What was she thinking, trying to use a land-bound dinosaur to track a flying kidnapper? And now she was sitting here, hot and stinky, and sleepy, with her skirt pocket vibrating and her only companion a hungry triceratops.

  Ellen snapped awake. Her skirt pocket was vibrating! She dug into i
t and pulled the time machine out. The pipe cleaners were twitching, the cardboard circle was swaying, and the hands of the watch were pointing to Ellen’s right. When she twisted that way, the hands swung like a compass needle.

  Ellen peered through the dense foliage over that way and thought she could make out a craggy rock face a ways out.

  ’Tops set off as soon as she dropped the lure before his beak again, and they covered the distance in the time it took Ellen to question her trust of a broken wristwatch. Then again, Little Sister’s devices did seem to work best when she was around them.

  As they neared the tree line, Ellen spotted a cave high up on the cliff face. A pterodactyl sat there, spreading its giant bat-wings.

  A splash of blue and white the exact shades of their school uniforms waved like a flag as the pterodactyl herded Little Sister into its nest.

  A surge of victory rushed through Ellen, and she urged ’Tops on faster.

  They were just about to break out of the trees when ’Tops came to a shuddering halt. He refused to budge another step, no matter how much Ellen waved the bento box.

  “Fine, you lazy bum,” she grumbled, sliding off his back. “You couldn’t climb those cliffs, anyway. At least I got full marks on the climbing wall in gym.”

  Ellen set off into the open area, dry dirt and rocks crunching under her school shoes. The area was silent, but at least the air tasted fresh out here. Ellen took a deep, appreciative breath.

  Now that she looked at the cliff face from the ground instead of perched on ’Tops’ back, it looked really high. Climbing up there would take hours, and while the open space let a breeze ruffle her hair, the hot sun still beat down relentlessly. She might pass out before she got halfway up!

  Unless she got a ride up there.

  “Hey, ptero-brain!” Ellen shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. “My sister’s not a big enough snack for you. Come get me, too!”

  High above her, the pterodactyl poked its long beak out of its cave.

  Ellen waved her arms and shouted some more, but the pterodactyl didn’t come any closer.

  Exhausted, Ellen slumped forward and panted. Stupid pterodactyl. No wonder they were extinct.

  Maybe she could still find a use for ’Tops. There had to be a path she could ride him up. She turned around to walk back to the trees.

  Something towered between Ellen and the trees, its mouth open to display its sharp teeth and its cruel talons tearing up the dirt. Its head was tilted so one cantaloupe-sized, yellow eye peered down at her. The crimson feathers along its head, back, and even on its disproportionately tiny arms, didn’t look quite the way Ellen remembered from the drawings in her school books, but she still knew the T. rex on sight.

  Ellen couldn’t help herself. She screamed and dropped her bento box lure as she tore off towards the cliffs at her top speed.

  Her feet slapped against the hard ground, sending puffs of dust flying, and her chest heaved as she dragged breath after breath into her lungs.

  Behind her, the T. rex followed, its footsteps shaking the earth. It let out a screech that filled Ellen’s mind with images of birds of prey swooping in on her. Its hot breath brushed the back of her neck.

  Ellen put on another burst of speed and flung herself into the rocks at the cliff bottom. She ducked under a rocky ledge when she felt the snap of massive jaws closing behind her ear.

  Pressed against the cliff wall and shaking with fear, Ellen watched the T. rex shuffling around, trying to poke its snout under the ledge.

  Finally, the T. rex roared loud enough to rattle every rock in the area and stomped a few paces away to wait for Ellen to come back out.

  Ellen scanned her tiny sanctuary for anything she could use. All she found were rocks and more dirt. At least it was cool and dry here in the shade. She’d catch her breath for a moment and figure something out.

  The time machine buzzed in her skirt pocket again. She pulled it out to see the hands spinning rapidly. Did that mean Little Sister was directly above her now? Ellen couldn’t get any closer without going where the T. rex could catch her.

  Ellen scowled and sat down. It would be nice if Little Sister would help out some. Couldn’t she find a way to climb down here on her own? Surely she’d seen Ellen come out of the jungle.

  A wave of anger washed over her, even though she knew it wasn’t fair of her. This was all Little Sister’s fault! Ellen wished she could tackle her into the cliff wall like she did at the bookshelves back in the library. Falling rocks would hurt more than falling books, but...

  Ellen jerked to her feet. She could bring Little Sister down to her! She’d just have to be quick. Very quick.

  Ellen stepped out from her little rock ledge and waved her arms at the T. rex.

  “Come and eat me, you overgrown chicken!” Ellen shouted.

  The T. rex came towards her with thundering steps and gaping jaws. The only thing faster than the reptile was its nasty meat-breath.

  Ellen forced herself to stay where she was until the T. rex was close enough to bite her in two. As its toothy maw descended like a screaming missile, she scrambled back to her rock ledge and cowered with her arms over her head.

  The impact of the massive T. rex into the cliff face sent tremors through the rocks and Ellen. Cracks appeared in the wall, but it wasn’t quite enough yet. Ellen saw the dinosaur back up, shaking its head. It turned to walk away.

  “No!” Ellen cried. She grabbed up a rock and hurled it after the retreating T. rex.

  It howled and swung back around, its yellow eyes rolling in fury. Crimson feathers flew as it charged forward again.

  A loud crack reverberated at the second impact, and Ellen ran to avoid the rockslide as the cliff face came crashing down.

  “Little Sister!” Ellen yelled once the echoes faded.

  Someone coughed in the rubble. Ellen rushed to dig her out, tossing rocks haphazardly until she uncovered Little Sister. A bruise was forming on her cheek, but she didn’t look any worse for her tumble from the pterodactyl’s cave.

  “Wow, what a ride!” Little Sister said. “Nice thinking.”

  “Take the time machine and get us out of here,” Ellen said. She shoved the time machine into Little Sister’s hands, and Little Sister tweaked the pipe cleaners and spun the watch dial.

  The rocks to their left flew upwards as the T. rex clawed out of them with an earth-shattering roar. It wriggled towards them, moving like it hadn’t just been crushed in a rockslide.

  Ellen screamed again, and she and Little Sister grabbed each other. They wouldn’t be able to move away in time.

  A screech pierced out of the sky, and the pterodactyl shot down into the rubble, flapping its wings and jabbing its beak at the T. rex. It screeched again in challenge, then whipped around to face the girls, talons grasping.

  Ellen punched at the talon approaching Little Sister. This stupid not-a-dinosaur wouldn’t take her sister again.

  The pterodactyl rolled around her punch and reached for Ellen instead.

  The claws closed around Ellen’s shoulders and she was pulled out of the rocks. Little Sister’s hand slipped away.

  “Take the time machine back home, Risako,” Ellen yelled. “Save yourself!”

  At least Mom couldn’t ground her for a million years if she became ptero-lunch.

  The world dropped away below Ellen in a reverse of their arrival in this time, and she swallowed against the urge to scream again. She squeezed her eyes shut.

  Her arm jerked hard, and she opened her eyes to find Little Sister dangling from her hand. She’d jumped up at the last moment!

  “We’re both going home right now,” Little Sister called up to her.

  “What if we bring the pterodactyl back?” Ellen asked. Just imagine that in the library!

  “We don’t have a choice now. Hold on.”

  Little Sister fiddled with the time machine and clicked the dial back into place. Something yanked inside Ellen’s stomach, and the swirling vortex of color
s replaced the blue of the sky. The scent of copper returned, and Ellen no longer saw the ground miles below her. The pterodactyl’s grip on her shoulders faded.

  The vortex disappeared, and Ellen and Little Sister fell to the floral-patterned library carpet. Something crashed to the floor beside them, and a flat wing blocked the dim light from the ceiling.

  “We made it!” Little Sister said, sitting up. Ellen sat up, too, shoving the big papier-mâché model of a pterodactyl off herself. They must have knocked it down upon their arrival.

  “What on Earth is going on back here?” a woman cried. The librarian appeared from the bookshelves, her eyes squinty with anger and her fingers twitching for her detention pad like a cowboy at a shootout.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” Ellen mumbled, grabbing Little Sister’s hand and dragging her into the hallway.

  The bell rang to signal the end of lunch period. Students poured out of the cafeteria, groaning about the return to class.

  Ellen looked at herself and Little Sister. They weren’t as dirty as she’d thought, though they were both streaked with dust and small scratches that could be explained away as paper cuts.

  “I’m sorry about ruining your prototype test,” Ellen said. “And for the things I said back there.”

  Little Sister shook her head. “It was a pretty good test, anyway. I’ll just have to do my science project research the old-fashioned way.”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Ellen said, thinking of her own history paper.

  Little Sister waved goodbye and headed down the first-grader hallway.

  Ellen sighed. She needed to head to class, too. Shrugging her backpack onto a shoulder, she glanced back at the library.

  For some reason, the heavy doors didn’t look so intimidating anymore. What were silly library ghosts compared to facing down a T. rex?

  Although Mom might ground her for a million years for leaving her bento box in the Cretaceous Period!

  Alien Gifts

  Sherry D. Ramsey

  Sherry D. Ramsey is a Canadian speculative fiction writer, editor, publisher, creativity addict and self-confessed Internet geek. Her debut novel, One’s Aspect to the Sun, was published by Tyche Books in late 2013 and was awarded the Book Publishers of Alberta Book of the Year Award for Speculative Fiction. The sequel, Dark Beneath the Moon, came out from Tyche in 2015, and Sherry’s first middle grade novel, The Seventh Crow, was published by Dreaming Robot Press also in 2015.