by Steve Cole
They pressed on. The vegetation grew thicker and thornier. Teggs started walking backwards, swinging his spiky tail from side to side to clear a path for his friends.
“Wait!” Arx held up a paw in warning. “I think I heard something.”
Teggs listened hard. Sure enough, in the distance, he could hear something crashing through the undergrowth. “It’s getting louder.”
Arx nodded gravely. “We might have lost that unknown creature’s trail . . . but now I think it’s found ours!”
Chapter Three
BLOOMING AWFUL!
Teggs tensed himself for action, as the clattering, crashing noise grew ever louder.
Suddenly, an enormous dinosaur exploded through the branches and brambles! It reared up and its jaws swung open, revealing rows of super-sharp teeth. Grey fabric hung in tatters from its powerful body, and its short, stocky arms ended in vicious claws.
Arx gasped. Gipsy’s headcrest flushed blue with alarm, and Teggs prepared to fight . . .
But then he realized the carnivore wasn’t even looking at them. It had gone cross-eyed, and was waggling its tongue to make funny bibbling noises. “Wibble!” it cried, and then hit itself on the head with its tail – BOMP! – and laughed.
“What’s it doing?” hissed Gipsy.
“I have no idea,” Teggs admitted.
“We scientists have a name for this sort of behaviour,” said Arx. “We call it ‘going completely nutty-bonkers’!”
The fearsome dinosaur whacked itself on the head again. Then it giggled and ran past them, tearing its way through the thick forest until it was lost from sight.
“Where did that thing come from?” said Gipsy shakily. “It looked like a T-rex.”
“Close,” said Arx. “I think it was a gigantosaurus.”
“At least now we know what made those tracks,” said Teggs grimly. “Gigantosaurus are smarter than T-rexes, and a whole lot sneakier.”
“But what is that one doing here?” Gipsy wondered.
“Let’s find out!” Teggs pelted off in pursuit of the runaway gigantosaurus, his friends close behind him. The carnivore had torn a ragged pathway through the undergrowth that made it easy to follow.
“That thing said ‘wibble’,” Arx panted as they ran. “I just remembered – Frisbee said ‘wibble’ too, in his distress call.”
Teggs nodded. “Perhaps he discovered that gigantosaurus but it turned him funny to stop him warning anyone properly.”
“And then he chased it into the forest.” Gipsy ducked to avoid a broken tree branch. “Never to be seen again . . .”
Suddenly a terrible yowl of pain cut through the forest, quickly followed by the sounds of a violent struggle.
“Sounds like our meat-munching mate,” said Teggs, galloping even faster. “Come on!”
The three astrosaurs burst from the trees like bullets into a gloomy glade. But what they saw there froze them, speechless, in their tracks.
The gigantosaurus had fallen into a clump of fearblooms – and the fleshy plants were biting and chomping it all over! Caught in the thick tentacles of the fearblooms’ roots, the carnivore couldn’t break free as the plants dragged it down into the mud.
Teggs wanted to help the carnivore – but knew it was already too late. In a matter of seconds, the dinosaur was completely buried and the fearblooms wriggled down into the mud after it. Then a sinister silence returned to the forest.
Gipsy held her stomach. “I feel sick.”
“It seems fearblooms were named with good reason,” said Teggs grimly. “I wonder who that gigantosaurus was?”
“This should tell us.” Arx stooped to pick up a grey scrap of material with a plastic disk inside. “It’s an ID card – the dino must have lost this in its struggle to get free.”
Teggs read the scrawled writing. “Captain Krokk, Carnivore Space Force, Sneaky Missions Squad.”
“How did he get here?” Arx wondered. “And if his mission was sneaky, why was he drawing attention to himself?”
“Do you think Krokk is the one who’s killed all the crops?” Gipsy shivered. “And are there others here like him?”
“That’s what we’ve got to find out.” Teggs pulled out his communicator. “I think it’s time we called in some help . . .”
Back in the fields beyond the forest, Iggy was still trying to pinch plant samples – and getting crosser, muckier and more and more sore with every failed attempt.
He’d made a fishing rod and tried to hook out some withered leaves. But a robo-reaper sliced his stick in half.
He’d tried to sneak up on the failed crops wearing a gorse bush as a disguise. But another turbo-tractor rolled along and ran him over.
“I told you it couldn’t be done,” said Leefer sadly. “‘Know-it-all Leefer’, they call me.”
Iggy glared at him – and then his communicator bleeped. “Iggy here. Captain, is that you?”
“It certainly is,” came Teggs’s voice. “Get to the shuttle, Ig. Call the Sauropod and tell the dimorphodon to get down here straight away.”
Leefer frowned. “Who are the dimorphodon?”
“Our flight crew,” Iggy explained. “Fifty flying reptiles who help steer the spaceship.” He spoke back into the communicator: “That’s a great idea, Captain! See, the robots won’t let me take any crop samples, but I bet Sprite and his flying mates could whizz around and catch the robots out!”
“Nice idea, Ig, but I’m afraid Leefer will have to try and get that sample by himself,” said Teggs. “First of all, I need the dimorphodon to search this forest from above – and I need you to help us look around at ground level. We’ve found something nasty – and there may be others like it!”
Iggy jumped up. “I’ll get to the shuttle right away. Over and out.”
“I’d like to know what’s he found,” said Leefer worriedly. “And I’d also like to know how he expects me to get a crop sample if you couldn’t? Does he think I can magic one from out of the ground?”
A slow grin spread over Iggy’s face. “Perhaps you can magic one from under the ground! Are you any good at digging?”
“Give me a superspade and watch me go!” said Leefer proudly. “ ‘Big-digger Leefer’, they call me.”
“Then get digging, big-digger.” Iggy slapped him on the back. “Make a tunnel in the hillside just under the field – and pull the crops down by the roots. The robots will never notice!”
“That’s a clever plan.” Leefer smiled. “You leave it to me.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to,” said Iggy, running off to the shuttle. “Good luck, and don’t let the robots bring you down – at least, not until you’ve brought down one of those plants!”
Back in the forest, Gipsy was poking the muddy ground that had swallowed Captain Krokk. It looked like a freshly dug flower bed, the soil newly turned in big crumbly clods.
Teggs lowered his communicator and he and Arx came to join her. “It’s hard to believe anything ever happened here.”
Gipsy nodded. “How could the fearblooms wriggle underground like that? Do you think they’ve . . . eaten him?”
“So it seems.” Arx shrugged. “Dinosaurs have been eating plants for millions of years. Now it seems we’ve found one that bites back!”
“Well, carnivores bite harder,” Teggs reminded his friends. “So we’d better start searching for others. Iggy is calling the dimorphodon to help us. In the meantime, Arx, you search south, I’ll head east, and Gipsy, you go west.”
“Yes, Captain,” chorused Arx and Gipsy.
Gipsy rubbed her tummy as she walked away into the thick forest. She really wasn’t feeling well. “But I can’t rest now,” she muttered. “We’ve got a job to do – and astrosaurs never give up.”
On and on she went, over a stream, past fallen tree trunks, forcing her way through the thick forest. Finally she paused for breath in a small clearing.
SNAP!
Gipsy froze. It sounded like a twig snapping underfoot. Could
someone be trying to sneak up behind her?
Then a cloud of big blue butterflies fluttered into the clearing. Gipsy let out a huge sigh of relief, and the beautiful insects flew happily around her. One landed on her hoof, another tickled her nose. Laughing, she gently blew it away . . .
Just as four fearblooms poked their ugly heads out of the close-by undergrowth – and somehow started to move. Gipsy stared in horror as the towering plants used their thick, twitching roots like legs.
Jaws swinging open, they rushed towards her . . .
Chapter Four
FOREST TRICKERY
“The lady’s not for chomping,” growled Gipsy. She jumped into a dino-judo fighting stance, scattering butterflies in all directions, ready to drive off her weird attackers . . .
But then a shower of purple liquid sprayed out from the forest behind her and coated the closest fearbloom. SMOOSH! It shrivelled up, its stalk blackening, leaves withering away.
The other fearblooms snapped their jaws and rattled their roots – then turned and retreated back into the greenery.
Gipsy turned to thank her rescuer. “Thank space you came when you . . . did?”
Her words trailed off as another grey gigantosaurus stepped into the clearing. Massive and muscular, it wore a black skullcap. Jars full of powders and potions clinked together in a belt around its middle. Its yellow eyes shone cold and cunning, and Gipsy almost choked on the sharp whiff of chemicals that came off the creature.
She raised her hooves in warning. “Who are you?”
“My name is Gucklock,” the sinister figure replied.
“Well, I’ve got some bad news for you, Gucklock. Your captain’s been got by the fearblooms.”
“I was afraid of that,” he said quietly. “How inconvenient.”
“You carnivores are completely cold-hearted, aren’t you?” Gipsy scowled. “But since you’ve lost your leader – you may as well give up now.”
“No, little plant-eater,” growled Gucklock. “You will surrender to me – for I have need of you and your astrosaur friends . . .” He opened a glass tube and threw yellow powder at Gipsy. With a choking gasp, she felt cold all over – and then she felt nothing at all . . .
Half an hour later and two miles away, Teggs was climbing through clumps of blue bracken, every sense alert for trouble. Now Iggy and the dimorphodon had joined in the search to the north, they were covering ground quickly. Led by chief dino-bird Sprite, the flying reptiles flitted from branch to branch, keen eyes scanning the forest for anything unusual.
All Teggs had spotted so far were a couple of lurking fearblooms, biting at butterflies. Teggs threw a big stick at the plants and they snapped at it crossly. One butterfly settled briefly on his arm before taking off again.
Suddenly, Teggs heard a crackling noise to his right. His back-plates flushed red and he raised his tail to strike.
But it was only Iggy, scrambling through dead leaves to join him. “Found anything, Captain?”
Teggs shook his head. “Only you, Ig!” Then a flying reptile clattered down from some high branches to land on Iggy’s cap. “And here’s Sprite. Anything to report?”
Sprite let out a series of clicks and whistles and shook his head crossly.
“That’ll be a no, then,” said Iggy.
Teggs’s communicator beeped. “Arx here, sir,” came the triceratops’s familiar voice. “Nothing to report so far.”
“That just leaves Gipsy. She hasn’t called in yet.” Teggs pressed a button on his communicator. “Hello, Gipsy? Are you there?”
A hoot of dismay sounded in the distance.
Iggy jumped, sending his cap – and Sprite – flying. “She’s there, Captain. I’d know her hoots anywhere.”
Teggs nodded, staring around wildly. “It sounds like she’s in trouble.”
“Eeep!” cried Sprite, flapping up and sniffing the air. “Chrrrp!”
“He’s got her scent!” Teggs cried, as Sprite flapped away. “Iggy, he can lead us straight to her!”
The two friends charged off after Sprite, crashing through bushes, storming through swamps and barging through brambles. Teggs barely felt the sting of thorns or the bruises of branches. He just kept on following Sprite as the plucky dino-bird dived this way and that through the forest’s dense design.
The trees grew more and more twisted and more and more tangled. Giant bushes towered all around, their black leaves caked in yellow mould. Brambles grew in odd, misshapen clumps. There was a sharp chemical tang to the air.
Something nasty’s happened here, thought Teggs.
Sprite flapped up to perch in a treetop to get a better view, when suddenly – CLANNNG! He bounced straight off the branch, dazed senseless! He went into a nosedive but Teggs caught him just in time.
“Urp,” said Sprite, rubbing his beak.
“The tree is metal?” Teggs translated. Then he peered carefully at the view in front of him – a massive tree, some red ivy, and pale green sky up above. But somehow it all seemed oddly flat. Almost like an enormous photograph . . .
Iggy pulled an astro-wrench from his belt and tapped the tree. It rang like metal – just as Sprite had said! “This isn’t part of the forest, Captain.” He started tapping the ivy, which clanged in just the same way. “Our eyes are playing tricks on us. A super-sneaky gadget is disguising the true appearance of whatever’s here.”
“And stopping us from reaching Gipsy.” In frustration, Teggs thumped the metal tree with his tail – and with a sparking bang, the view began to shimmer and blur. In a matter of moments, the vision of the tree and the ivy was gone . . .
And Teggs, Sprite and Iggy were left gaping at a gigantic space rocket, taller than the blackened trees all around! A crimson skull was stencilled on the side.
“The mark of meat-eaters,” Teggs breathed – as Gipsy hooted for help more urgently.
“She must be on the other side of this ship,” Iggy cried.
Teggs tried to squeeze through the overgrown tangle of bushes and trees. “Sprite, you go on ahead.”
Sprite zoomed away like a missile, up and over the top of the rocket – and then his cry of alarm joined Gipsy’s in a great, hooting squawk.
“Faster, Iggy!” In desperation, Teggs started chewing his way through the gnarled wood like a demented beaver, while Iggy slashed away with his thumbspikes.
‘We’ve got to help them before it’s too late!’
Chapter Five
THE DOORS OF DEATH
Finally, Teggs and Iggy broke through the barricade of trees. They saw Gipsy tied up with plant vines . . . Sprite pecking madly at the knots . . .
And four fearblooms scuttling towards her on wriggling root-legs!
“Clear off!” Teggs bellowed at the plants. He jumped through the air and lashed out his tail. Two of the plants cringed away, but the other two lunged forward to bite him.
Iggy threw his cap like a discus and clobbered one, knocking it back – but its friend chowed down on Teggs’s arm.
Gasping, Teggs tore himself free – and Sprite pecked the fearbloom like a woodpecker, right on its roots. Thrashing and swaying, the plant retreated and the others scuttled after it into the shadows of the forest.
“Oh, Captain!” Gipsy cried. “And Iggy, Sprite, I’m so glad to see you. Are you all right?”
Teggs checked the bite mark on his aching arm. The plant’s jaw had left a smear of yellow slime and he quickly wiped it on some grass. “I’m fine – I think.”
Iggy helped Sprite to untie Gipsy’s wrists. “What happened to you?”
“Another gigantosaurus,” said Gipsy, pulling her hands free as Teggs worked on the vines around her feet. “A proper charmer called Gucklock. He said he needed me for something and threw some kind of powder at me. The next thing I knew, I was here.” She looked behind her and gasped. “Huh? There was no spaceship there a minute ago!”
“There was,” Iggy assured her. “But it was in disguise.” He pointed to a black box stuck to the rock
et’s side by a spaghetti of cables. “See that? It’s a class-one delusion engine – it made the whole ship look like a part of the forest so no one noticed it.”
Teggs untied Gipsy’s feet and she wriggled them gratefully. “Ig, now that we have noticed it,” he said, “what do you think it is?”
Iggy was marvelling at the vessel. “I reckon it’s a Solar-Storm warship.”
“I read a DSS spy report on those,” Teggs recalled. “Solar-Storms are secret, experimental crafts created by the Carnivore Space Force. They don’t run on burning dung like most spaceships. They are powered by a miniature sun.”
“A sun?” Gipsy boggled.
“A small ball of super-heated mega-fire,” Iggy explained. “It lets the Solar-Storm travel close to the speed of light.”
“Just the job for sneaky missions.” Gipsy tried to stand, dizzily. “I bet Krokk and his crew used it to zoom down here in the blink of an eye.”
“And then disguised it so no one would know they were here,” Teggs added. “But I heard that the Solar-Storms aren’t very safe – those tiny stars are so powerful they’re hard to contain.”
Iggy nodded. “Several prototypes blew themselves to bits – along with the planets they were parked on!”
Gipsy shuddered. “Let’s hope they’ve perfected the wibble!”
Teggs frowned. “Pardon?”
“Er, the design, I mean,” Gipsy said quickly.
“You sure you’re feeling all right?” Iggy asked worriedly.
“I feel a bit rotten,” Gipsy admitted. “Ever since that ho-wibble – I mean, horrible – Gucklock threw his powder at me.”
“Eeep-cheep?” Sprite asked suddenly.
“Good question,” said Teggs. “I don’t know why this Gucklock tied up Gipsy and left her outside his ship in plain sight. But I do know he’ll be sorry for it.”
Iggy pointed to a wide metal shutter in the side of the warship.
“He must be hiding in there.”
“Well, he won’t escape us,” said Teggs. “We’ll charge the door on the count of three. One . . . two . . .!”
“Three!” Iggy joined in with his captain’s cry, lowered his shoulder and ran at the shutter.
KA-ZZZZZZZ! An electric blaze of light engulfed the two astrosaurs. They cried out in pain and strained to pull free – but they were stuck helplessly to the door.
