The Valley of the Ancients

by David Alric

  After stopping and looking uncertainly at the plane for a moment or two the giant reptile came to inspect her eggs and nest. She was so close they could see every detail of her skin and could have touched her if the door had been open. The monkey whimpered and cowered once again behind Lucy’s seat.

  ‘Look!’ Lucy exclaimed. She pointed. ‘Look, she’s been hurt!’ And sure enough, there was a giant gash across the creature’s head, passing just below the left eye which was closed. The injury was obviously very recent, for the wound itself glistened in the sun and rivulets of congealed blood could be seen where they had coursed down over the irregular wrinkles of her leathery skin. The dinosaur sniffed at her eggs in turn and seemed unperturbed by the presence of the plane.

  ‘She’s ignoring us,’ said Richard, in relief and astonishment.

  ‘Yes, thank goodness,’ said Julian. ‘It’s the same phenomenon we noticed with the animals in the other valley – and with big game in Africa when we were out in a Land-Rover. Once the animals think an object is inanimate they ignore it. I suppose as far as she’s concerned it’s no different from a tree falling on her nest. We wouldn’t expect her to start attacking a tree trunk and it’s just the same with us. If we got out, though, it would be a very different matter.’

  ‘Well, what are we going to do?’ said Richard. ‘We’re trapped here with no food, a few bottles of water, and no radio.’

  ‘There’s only one thing to do,’ said Lucy slowly. She looked very worried. ‘I’m going to have to get out and see if I can talk to her.’

  ‘But you can’t possibly –’ her father started to protest.

  ‘She’s right, Richard,’ Julian interrupted. ‘There’s nothing else for it. Either she makes contact or we’re doomed. It’s as simple – and as awful – as that.’

  They discussed the matter for a while and eventually Richard accepted that there was no other possible course of action. He kissed his daughter and hugged her.

  ‘You’re incredibly brave and I’m so proud of you. Good luck.’ And with that he pulled back the door as gently as possible so as not to alarm the dinosaur with a sudden noise. The heat outside was incredible and their senses were overwhelmed with all kinds of strange sights and sounds from this alien world. There was a great variety of smells, dominant among which was a very strong smell of compost which, Julian later explained, was from the leaves and ferns that the dinosaur had put in the nest to keep her eggs warm. Clio retreated back behind her chair.

  Lucy moved to the open hatch, undecided as to whether to leave the plane or stay in the doorway. The decision was taken out of her hands for, aware of either the door opening or the unfamiliar scent of a human being, the dinosaur looked up from her eggs and glared straight at Lucy and Michelle with her remaining good eye. Lucy froze, motionless in the doorway. Then she spoke:

  ‘Greetings, O Prodigious One!’

  There was a long, breathless pause, punctuated only by the harsh and outlandish cries of the myriad creatures of the air, bush and swamp that belonged to a long-lost age. Lucy became progressively more nervous, but then suddenly had a feeling that the dinosaur’s expression had changed a fraction. Was the creature beginning to look slightly puzzled or was it just her imagination? There seemed nothing to lose, so she repeated her greeting:

  ‘Greetings, O Prodigious One!’

  Suddenly she heard a voice. A voice unlike any she had ever heard before. It was deep and resonant and had an echo-like quality, as though it were reverberating around some cold and desolate canyon. Most of all, it sounded as though it had somehow travelled on an endless journey through space and time; as though it had started on a far-distant world and come across an immeasurable void to reach her. To hear it gave her a strange and spooky sensation as though she were crossing some unseen boundary in history that nothing had ever been intended or expected to cross.

  ‘What … art … thou?’

  The monster spoke incredibly slowly. Her question was entirely reasonable but Lucy found it a difficult one to answer. Suddenly she didn’t feel frightened any more. Instead she was filled with excitement and anticipation, for she knew that she had now crossed a threshold of unimaginable significance in the history of the planet.

  ‘I am The Promised One.’ Lucy knew, even as she spoke, that what she had said would mean nothing and, as she expected, the dinosaur simply waited for her to say something that it could understand. She changed tack:

  ‘I have come with my kin from across the great rock. We mean no harm.’

  What a joke, she thought to herself, as if we could do any harm to this thing.

  Richard momentarily took his eyes off the immense creature in front of them to glance at Lucy and, to his partial relief, recognized the expression she always bore when communing with animals. Something was happening. Frantic to know what was being said, but desperate not to distract her from her critical task, he and Julian could only watch and wait in impatient silence.

  ‘The … Great … Pterokin … has … slain … the … Savage … One … who … sought … to … eat … my … eggs.’

  Lucy looked round and to her astonishment saw a massive dinosaur that looked like a tyrannosaurus, lying on the ground several yards behind the plane. Its neck was twisted at an angle that could only mean it was broken and it had obviously been killed by the plane. As she turned back to the dinosaur she glanced at Richard and Julian, waiting in agonized anticipation for some news.

  ‘Sorry about this,’ she hurriedly muttered to them. ‘She’s, like, really slow! Tell you more soon.’ The men relaxed slightly. At least she was able to talk to the monster. At that point Clio crept out again to sit by Lucy, which gave them further encouragement; she was presumably listening in on the conversation.

  Lucy now seized upon the opening the dinosuar had given her:

  ‘The pterokin is with me and does as I bid, but it is now injured and cannot move. It will not hurt thine eggs.’

  ‘I … am … indebted … to … thee … and … thy … pterokin … for … ye … have … saved … my … future … babykin.’ Lucy felt a surge of optimism at this development.

  Lucy turned once again to her rapt audience. To the men it seemed like an age since she had last spoken to them but, in reality, it had only been a few minutes.

  ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ she asked. There was a look of immense relief on her face.

  ‘Just get on with it, love,’ said Richard, somewhat impatiently. He was in no mood for flippancy. ‘Are we going to survive or not?’

  ‘Well, the good news is that she understands the common tongue, so at least we can speak. The bad news,’ she continued, ‘is that she’s obviously never heard of the Promised One, so I’m just any other animal so far as she’s concerned.’

  ‘And …?’ said Julian. He knew there must be more from the look of relief on Lucy’s face.

  ‘And …’ her face broke into a grin. ‘If you want the really good news look carefully at the nest. You’ll see that we haven’t actually broken any eggs – we ended up on the edge of the nest – but we did flatten that tyrannosaurus thing that had just attacked her and was about to eat her entire clutch of eggs.’ She pointed back. The men rushed to the rear window through which they could just see the mountainous carcass of the predator. It was already being sniffed at eagerly by some small scavenging dinosaurs, while a small, bird-like creature was busy pecking its eyes out.

  ‘That –’ breathed Julian, ‘that was the final bump before we ended up being cushioned by the nest.’

  Richard nodded in agreement.

  ‘What an extraordinary sequence of events,’ he mused. ‘We hit a flying dinosaur, do a blind crash landing and kill a tyrannosaurus that was about to destroy an entire family of Argentiwhatnots. Does this mean …?’ He turned back to Lucy with a hopeful expression on his face.

  ‘Oh yes, no doubt about it – we’re the good guys as far as she’s concerned. We’re OK.’ She glanced at Clio – clearly talking
to her – and the monkey leapt past Julian into the open air, thrilled to stretch her limbs and investigate the extraordinary sights, sounds and smells of this new world. Richard noticed that she was careful to avoid the giant leathery eggs as she leapt over the nest and immediately started to investigate a fig-like fruit growing on a nearby tree. Michelle watched her, then jumped down from Lucy’s shoulder and hopped into the nest where she started grubbing about for insects between the eggs and amongst the rotting stalks and leaves that partially covered them. Lucy turned to Julian.

  ‘What did you say she was – an Argentisomething? I want to give her a proper name.’

  ‘An Argentinosaurus.’ said Julian with a smile.

  ‘Right. I shall call her “Tina” then.’

  Lucy clambered down from the plane and picked her way gingerly to the edge of the nest. There she sat and started speaking once again to the dinosaur.

  Julian and Richard looked at each other in amazement and Julian said: ‘Tell me this isn’t a dream. Are we actually watching your daughter talking to an animal that should have disappeared over ninety million years ago?’

  Richard put his arm round the other as though his physical contact would emphasize the reality of their experience.

  ‘No, it isn’t a dream – it is simply one of the most incredible sights that can ever have been witnessed by anyone, anytime, anywhere, in the entire history of the world.’

  11

  An Eye-opener for Tina

  Lucy sat on the edge of the dinosaur’s nest. As she looked at the dinosaur’s dreadful injury she felt sorry for her and decided to talk about it:

  ‘Thou art gravely injured, O Prodigious One.’

  ‘Yea, the Brilliant One has faded in half the world.’

  The dinosaur was now speaking slightly less ponderously and less hesitantly and Lucy decided that she must be recovering from her initial bewilderment, though she subsequently found that the dinosaurs always spoke more slowly than other creatures.

  In what Richard would later describe as a rash moment, Lucy decided to try and help.

  ‘One of my kin can make the Brilliant One return, but I alone can tell him for he speaks not the common tongue.’

  Richard and Julian watched this conversation from the door hatch of the plane, both still in a state of stupefaction at the sight they were witnessing. To their alarm, the gargantuan creature suddenly twisted its seemingly endless neck into a gentle curve and lowered its head towards Lucy but they were relieved to see that this was only to let Lucy inspect her wound. Richard’s relief was to be short-lived, however. Soon Lucy stood up and called over to him.

  ‘Well, she’s certain we saved her brood so we’re definitely in her good books for the moment. There is just one thing, Dad. You’ve got to get up on top of the plane – I want you to look at her face. She says that since that other thing bit her she can’t see properly. I’ve told her you’ll fix it.’ Richard had originally qualified as a doctor before taking up a career in botany and though his practical medical experience was extremely limited, Lucy seemed to imagine he could do anything.

  ‘You’ve what?’ exclaimed Richard. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous – she might have any kind of injury …’ But he was wasting his breath. Lucy completely ignored his protests as she interrupted:

  ‘… C’mon, Dad, she’s waiting; get up on top of the plane.’ Richard looked: sure enough, the great beast was standing expectantly by the plane.

  He got out of the door and clambered up on top of the plane, using the wing as a support. On Lucy’s instructions the dinosaur bent down so he could examine her face. It was a daunting yet fascinating experience looking at a living prehistoric beast at close quarters. Even though she was a herbivore, one snap of those jaws would be enough to finish him, yet here he was leaning against her nose and cheek to examine the terrible wound, already absorbed by professional interest in the exact nature of her injury. As he expected from seeing it at a distance, there was a terrible laceration that would undoubtedly have been fatal for a smaller creature. Inspecting the wound more closely, however, he saw something else; something that was yellow and glistening embedded in the depths of the wound. It had penetrated her face just below the eye, and the distortion and swelling it had created in the flesh around it had pushed up the lower eyelid and shut the eye completely. It looked like a piece of bone, but he didn’t think it could be hers; as he gently explored with his hands her skull and facial structures seemed intact and he was mystified as to what it was.

  ‘Warn her it may hurt,’ he called to Lucy, and after she had done so he stretched out and touched the object of his attention. It was jagged and discoloured at the top but, as he slid his fingers round it, he realized its sides were smooth and hard. Light suddenly dawned.

  ‘It’s a tooth!’ he called to the others. ‘She’s got a tooth stuck under her eye. I’m hoping it’s missed the actual eyeball but the swelling round it has squashed the eye shut. It must have belonged to the predator that attacked her, and got broken off in the struggle.’

  He looked at it. He had brought a few ampoules of local anaesthetic on the trip in case one of the party needed stitches, but there wasn’t remotely enough to anaesthetize a dinosaur, and he had no proper surgical instruments – certainly none suitable for this job. On the other hand, if he left it he was certain the animal would die of blood poisoning.

  He recalled that, on one of his field trips looking at rare trees on the islands of Indonesia, he had seen several of the largest species of lizard in the world – the Komodo dragon. These animals – three metres in length and weighing ninety kilos – are fierce predators and they have such virulent bacteria in their mouths and teeth that any creature they bite is almost certain to become infected and die of septicaemia. It seemed all too likely that the bite of a giant reptilian cousin such as the owner of this tooth might be equally pernicious.

  He called to Julian who was still standing in the doorway.

  ‘I’m going to try and get it out – I’ll need some stuff from the toolbox.’ He thought quickly. ‘A mole wrench, a claw-hammer, the biggest screwdriver and pliers you can find – oh – and a can of that spirit you use for cleaning engine parts, some squirty liquid soap and a bottle of water.’He broke off and looked enquiringly at Lucy about using up their precious water, but she nodded encouragingly; she was sure they could now find fresh water with the help of the monkey.

  Julian found the various items and passed them up to Richard who laid them out on the wing as if preparing for a surgical operation. He spoke again to Lucy. ‘Say this is going to hurt – a lot. But if I don’t do it she’ll die.’

  He gently tapped the tooth with the hammer but, to his intense dismay, it didn’t budge an inch. The dinosaur, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice this manoeuvre, which he felt was at least a good start. Maybe the whole area was already so painful or so numb from the injury that she didn’t notice a bit of extra discomfort, or maybe her entire pain system was less highly developed than that of a modern creature. Heartened by this Richard tried to get hold of the tooth with the wrench, but couldn’t get a proper grip. He took up the hammer again and, inserting it deep into the wound, just managed to wedge its metal claws around the stump of tooth. Breathing a silent prayer he then gradually levered the hammer against the creature’s cheek bone. As he exerted his full strength the animal let out a roar of pain – a small roar for the dinosaur but big enough almost to deafen Richard at such close quarters, and he was engulfed by a draught of foetid breath that made him retch. As the animal flinched, the movement of her head finally dislodged the tooth and to Richard’s relief he extracted it intact, still firmly gripped in the hammer claw. It was fully four inches long and razor sharp. The base of the tooth where it had snapped off was blackened with decay and gave off a disgusting smell. Richard couldn’t help thinking that its former owner must have had frightful breath.

  ‘Tell her I’ve nearly finished,’ he told Lucy, ‘but the next bit’s going to
be painful again.’

  He then squirted the entire bottle of liquid soap into the wound and flushed it out with the water. Then he poured the can of spirit into the wound and once again the beast groaned and winced. Already, however, the eye was slightly open and Richard could now see that it was unharmed.

  Richard passed the tools down to Julian and clambered back into the plane. He used another bottle of water to wash his hands which were covered in blood and gore.

  ‘Well, let’s keep our fingers crossed. If it doesn’t get too badly infected she should be OK and when the oedema – that’s the swelling – settles down I think she’ll be able to see perfectly again.’

  Soon they were all standing outside the great nest. They were actually very close to the escarpment and Clio had already found a rivulet of clear water running down from the rocks above, from which they drank their fill and replenished the empty bottles. She had now gone off to forage for food while the human trio reviewed their situation.

  They decided it would be safest to live in the plane for the time being – just as Julian and Helen had done on their previous adventure and, with the help of the dinosaur, the men hauled the plane off the edge of the nest so that they could get in and out without harming the eggs. While Julian took photographs and video recordings, scribbled notes, took specimens and made detailed measurements of the dinosaur eggs, the nest and the dead predator, Richard and Lucy sat down on a rock and discussed their plan of action.

  ‘It’s going to be very dangerous to move above,’ said Lucy, ‘because the animals don’t know I’m the Promised One. We’re OK here because Tina will protect us, but going anywhere out of sight of the plane and nest is going to be very dodgy. If only we knew exactly where the rope was, I might be able to think of a way to get Clio up to the top on this side and she could then climb down the rope into the other valley and take a message to the others.’ She frowned. ‘It’s going to be difficult getting her up though; the reason that this valley’s so special is that nothing can get out of it. Still, we’ll have to meet that problem when we get to it: the first job is to find where the rope is.’