Valley of the Dinosaurs

by Matthew Dennion

  The Behemoth Master rode the Emperor in front of the party with the Harpy and Birilus riding their horses directly behind him. The regiment had only been moving for a few minutes when the first raptor crept out of the jungle and peered at them. The Harpy had been working furiously to use her flint to light a branch she had picked up from one of the trampled trees when the raptor made itself known. Despite the difficulty of trying to light the branch while on a moving horse, the Harpy’s determination finally led to the stick catching fire when then raptor took a slight step toward the elephants. The warrior woman quickly rode her horse to the elephant closest to the raptor. She then grabbed another stick off the ground, lit it with her torch, and handed the new torch to the elephant’s rider. The rider immediately turned toward the raptor and waved the torch back and forth. At the sight of the flames, the dinosaur slipped back into the cover of the jungle.

  The Harpy rode around the circle of elephants lighting new torches and handing them to the elephant riders. As she rode around the interior of the wall of flesh that was the war elephants, she kept her eyes on the jungle. With each torch the Harpy handed out, she noticed that the raptors who were watching them took a few more seconds to slip back into the jungle after seeing the flames. Once she handed a torch to the last elephant rider, she rode back over to the Emperor and the Behemoth Master.

  The Harpy called out to her mate, “The bird dragons are becoming less wary of the elephants and the fire. Soon their hunger will outweigh their fear. I suspect that an attack will be coming at any moment.”

  The Behemoth Master looked down at Birilus. “These bird dragons, you feel as if they can outrun our horses?”

  Birilus looked over to see the Harpy’s harsh gaze upon him. He knew the warrior woman was all but daring him to suggest the monsters were faster than her horses. The scout sighed. “I have seen these creatures first hand. I would fear that even the fine horses of our brigade would not be able to outrun them.”

  The Behemoth Master shifted his gaze toward the mountains. “We have only covered half the distance between the river and the mountains. If these bird dragons are as intelligent as you say and they know the mountains are their limit, the creatures will almost assuredly attack before we reach them.” He directed the Emperor to stop moving and held up his hand to stop the rest of the regiment as well. He then looked down at the Harpy. “I can see an open field ahead of us. We will be better able to see the monsters there than we can here in the woods. If we are going to make a stand, we need to do it in the field.”

  Birilus shook his head. “If we try to fight these monsters, we will all die bravely in battle but we will die.”

  The Behemoth Master ignored the scout and looked to the Harpy. “They may be intelligent but they are still primitive beasts. Their minds are no match for ours.” He looked back to the jungle to see several of the raptors darting through the trees. He kept his eyes fixed on the monsters as he continued speaking to the Harpy. “We know they have at least two preferred attack methods. A distraction followed by an attack to the side or to run down slower prey on the move. Our only hope is to coerce them into attacking in a method they are unaccustomed to. If we can get them to attack in a method they are uncomfortable with, it will give us an advantage.”

  He turned back toward Birilus. “When the creatures attacked before, did you manage to slay any of them?”

  Birilus nodded.

  The Behemoth Master then pointed to the jungle. “Those beasts, do they eat their own dead?”

  “Yes. Ferian killed one of the bird dragons and I saw another of its kind devour it.”

  The Behemoth Master looked back toward the Harpy. “They are hungry and they will eat their own. If we can give them what looks like an easy kill, perhaps their desire to feed will outweigh their caution and cause them to rush in.”

  The Harpy pulled and arrow from her quiver then ran it across her arm, causing it to bleed. She then turned and looked at her horseback division. Without a word, every woman under the Harpy’s command followed their leader’s example and cut themselves as she did. The Harpy then looked up at the Behemoth Master. “Have the elephants form lines on either side of us and have all of the torches moved to the back of the lines. Nothing will entice a predator to attack like the smell of injured prey. You saw what we could do with our spears and arrows against the gazelle; we shall employ those same tactics here.”

  The Behemoth Master looked once more to the nearby field. “We will stop at the center of the field. How many shots with your arrows do you think you and your warriors can fire from the center of the field at the bird dragon before they reach you?”

  The Harpy looked at the field. “If the creatures are at least as fast as our horses, we can fire three shots before they reach us.”

  The Behemoth Master nodded. “Very well then. Kill as many as you can and the elephants shall crush those that make it near to us. From there, hopefully we can put up enough of a fight to convince the rest of the pack that their dead are an easier and more plentiful meal than we are.”

  The Harpy pointed to the far end of the field. “We can further dissuade them from attacking us by setting fire to the field as we re-enter the jungle. It is the same tactic we used against the gazelle but this time it will serve to drive the animals away from us instead of toward us.”

  The Behemoth Master nodded in response to the Harpy’s suggestion. Then he looked over his regiment. “You all heard the plan. We need to move quickly. Aside from giving us more time to prepare ourselves, increasing our speed will help to convince the bird dragons that we are injured and scared.”

  The Behemoth Master gave the command to double their speed and the regiment followed his orders. As the elephants picked up their pace, the accompanying raptors did the same.

  When the regiment reached the center of the field, he ordered them to stop. He then had the war elephants form two lines with the horseback riders between them. The young leader then positioned himself at the end of the line closest to the side of the jungle where the raptors had been stalking them. He knew this plan had a high likelihood of casualties for his warriors and as their leader and with their most powerful asset under his command, he and the Emperor could not afford to be away from the main assault.

  The Harpy and her warriors stayed on their horses so that they could run from the field as soon as possible. Blood dripped down from the Harpy’s arm as she pulled her bow off her back and loaded an arrow into it. She looked to her left and right to see each of her warriors with blood-covered arms also grabbing arrows. The warrior woman then looked back to the jungle to see one of the raptors poke its head out from the foliage. The beast did not roar, hiss, or chirp. It simply ran out into the field followed by over a dozen of its pack mates.

  When she finally got a good look at the charging monsters, the Harpy shouted, “Aim for eyes, mouths, and legs! I doubt we can penetrate their breastplates but we can blind and cripple them!”

  Her warriors screamed in response to their leader and then let their arrows fly. Despite having seen the warrior women’s skill with a bow and arrow during their hunting trip, the Behemoth Master was still awed by the fact that nearly every arrow struck a charging raptor in the face or legs. While the women’s arrows were accurate, they were not deadly, as not only were the raptors not slowed down by the barrage but more of them were still bounding out of the jungle.

  In unison, the Harpy and her warriors reloaded their arrows and fired a second volley at the charging raptors. With the second volley, four raptors fell to the ground from wounds to their mouths and necks. When the dead dinosaurs hit the ground, some of their pack mates stopped to feast on their remains but the majority of the pack kept running toward the Carthaginians.

  The Harpy could see eight raptors with arrows sticking out of their faces and legs nearly upon her. As she was loading a third arrow, she heard the Behemoth Master scream, “Fire and then make for the jungle!”

  The Harpy slowed her heartbeat, foc
used on the eye of the nearest raptor, and then fired her arrow into its eye socket. The injured beast screeched in pain then brought its claw up to its injured eye. The motion caused the monster to lose some of its momentum and caused the raptor behind it to slam into him, sending them both crashing into the ground at the feet of the Emperor.

  The Behemoth Master, with sword in hand, directed the Emperor to rear up and as the beast was leaning back, he saw the Harpy and her warriors riding toward the far end of the field. The colossal elephant lifted his hind legs into the air and then dropped them down onto the two raptors below him. The dinosaurs’ bodies exploded outward in a cascade of blood and bone beneath the Emperor’s weight.

  The Behemoth Master looked across from him to see an elephant using his tusks to knock a raptor to the ground. Next to the elephant knocking down the dinosaur, another elephant had two raptors hanging off its side with their hook-like hind claws dug into its flesh.

  The Emperor let loose a loud bellow as he used his trunk to swat aside one raptor while a second one leapt off the ground onto his head. The Behemoth Master suddenly found himself staring at a raptor. Before the young warrior could react, the raptor’s front claws slashed him across the chest. The cut was painful and bloody but not deep. The Behemoth Master reacted more on instinct than actual thought as he slashed out with his sword and decapitated the predator. The creature’s body fell to the side with the force of the blow and left a trail of blood down the Emperor’s side as it fell to the ground.

  The Behemoth Master looked over the head of the Emperor to see the mighty elephant thrusting his tusks into another raptor, impaling the foul creature. As if the Emperor knew the Behemoth Master’s plan, the elephant turned his head and sent the dead raptor flying off his tusk and into two oncoming raptors. The impact of the dead raptor striking his pack mates knocked the two oncoming raptors to the ground. The dinosaurs quickly stood up and then began devouring the carcass that had struck them.

  The Behemoth Master was shaken as a raptor dug its claws into the side of the Emperor, causing the elephant to bellow in pain. Enraged at the dinosaur attacking his noble mount, the Behemoth Master grabbed his club from his side, and then with a strength matched by few men on the planet, shattered it across the raptor’s head, crushing its skull.

  As the pieces of the shattered club fell from his hand, the Behemoth Master quickly surveyed the battlefield. He noticed at least two dead elephants with raptors feeding on them. He also saw more than 20 dead raptors with their living counterparts eating their remains. While some of his forces were still engaged in battles for their lives with the dinosaurs, he could see that for the most part, his plan had worked. He screamed, “Run for the jungle.”

  The warriors who were free directed their elephants to run toward the jungle while those still fighting did their best to slay the creatures attacking them.

  When the emperor completed his turn and was running for the jungle, the Behemoth Master saw the Harpy turning around and charging toward the lone raptor that had slipped through the elephants and was still chasing the horseback warriors.

  The Harpy and her horsewomen had covered nearly half the distance between the elephants and the jungle when she looked back to see the arrow-filled raptor chasing them. The Harpy grunted when she realized that Birilus was right. The bird dragons were faster than her horses.

  The Harpy drew her sword and yelled to her warriors, “Keep heading toward the jungle!”

  She then drew her sword and charged the attacking raptor. The Harpy had planned to utilize the same strategy she had against the enraged she-bear. When she had almost reached the raptor, the Harpy leaned away from the creature and had her sword ready to strike. To the Harpy’s surprise, the raptor leapt into the air when it was still more than 20 feet away from her.

  A large section of skin on the Harpy’s back was filleted off as the raptor came crashing down on top of her and pinned her to the ground. The Harpy looked up to see the raptor lift its hind leg into the air and then bury its claw into her left shoulder. The monster was leaning in for the kill when the Harpy slashed at it with her sword, cutting off its arms. The raptor reared back in pain and when it did so, the warrior woman thrust her sword through its open mouth and into the dinosaur’s brain.

  The Emperor had nearly reached her when she pulled her sword from the monster’s head. The Behemoth Master was ordering the Emperor to slow down when she waved him off and called for her horse. The warrior’s steed heeded its master’s call and despite being beaten and bloody itself, allowed the Harpy to climb on top of it. The Harpy and the Behemoth Master quickly rode their animals into the jungle. The two climbed off their mounts and took a look at the field of blood and gore behind them. Countless raptors were tearing apart dead elephants, what were once men and women, and other dead raptors.

  The Behemoth Master shook his head in disbelief. “Foul and dangerous creatures. I doubt we could survive a second encounter with them.”

  The Harpy walked over to a nearby warrior holding a torch and took it from him. She then walked over to the edge of the field. “Then let’s do all we can to make sure we don’t come across these demons again.” The Harpy then bent down and let the flames jump from her torch onto the grassy field. She slowly began walking along the grassline, setting more of it on fire and as she did so, more of the Carthaginian warriors followed her example. Within a few minutes, a wall of fire had formed on the once lush field. Then, as if at the command of a benevolent deity, the wind changed direction and pushed the flames toward the raptor pack.

  When the dinosaurs saw the approaching fire, they abandoned their meals and ran back into the far side of the jungle.

  The Harpy dropped her torch on the scorched ground of what was once the edge of the field. She saw the Behemoth Master looking over what remained of his regiment. There was hardly a human or animal that had escaped the battle unscathed. He nodded as he looked at the Harpy. “We are injured and we lost several more soldiers but we are still alive and our mission can still be a success.”

  She once more passionately kissed the Behemoth Master and said, “Yes, we did, and you’re quickly learning how a leader needs to evaluate the battles he leads his soldiers into. A leader will always lose warriors in battle but if he can attain an objective and bring the majority of his forces away from the encounter alive, then he is a fine commander.”

  The Behemoth Master nodded in reply and then looked toward the mountains and sighed as once more he was unable to see any torchers on the mountainsides. He turned back toward his regiment and called out his next command. “It will be nightfall soon. I want to reach the mountains and Casrubol before the sun sets. Keep our torches lit and hold them high so Casrubol can see the smoke and we can keep any more monsters at bay.”

  Chapter 11

  Prior to continuing to make their way toward the mountains, the Behemoth Master ordered that as many wounds as possible be dressed, in order to prevent the smell of blood from attracting more predators. The wounds of both warriors and animals were covered with everything from cloth and skins to mud and leaves in some instances. Once the regiment had limited the amount of blood flowing out of them to the greatest extent possible, the Behemoth Master once more ordered them to move forward.

  As they were moving toward the mountains, the Behemoth Master looked down at the Harpy and while he knew he needed to focus on the task of successfully having his forces traverse the valley and complete their mission, the young warrior could not help letting his mind drift to where he currently stood in his relationship with the warrior woman.

  The last few times that she had kissed him were not actions she was executing merely to placate the warriors; that much he was sure of. The first few times she had kissed him were deep and full of fury, but the last few times were different. The last few kisses had a feeling of concern and passion behind them.

  When he was first introduced to the Harpy, the Behemoth Master knew not only that he would have to win her over but t
hat do so would be a task perhaps even more difficult than defeating Rome. The Harpy was older than he was; she was a hardened veteran of numerous battles, and he while he had won his current position, he had never seen a battlefield prior to the start of his mission. While he was the leader of their regiment and she was his second-in-command, and her experience clearly made her the superior commander in the field. Then there was the fact that she was not only recently mated to his predecessor but to a man who was a legend. The previous Behemoth Master had led his regiment to victory in more battles than any other commander in the history of Carthage.

  With all of this in mind, the current Behemoth Master tried to put aside his pride and learn from Harpy, if not win her over. He had tried his best to take her counsel into consideration with every move they had made. He tried to learn battle and hunting tactics from her as they made their way to the valley. He had respected her wishes to not couple until she was ready. Most importantly, he tried to appear as a strong and able leader throughout their journey.

  When the young warrior’s feelings overwhelmed him after the avalanche had slain so many of his soldiers and he felt the Harpy place her arms around him, he cursed himself for appearing weak before the warrior woman. Yet, strangely, that was the first time that he felt genuine compassion from the woman toward him.

  As he looked down at the Harpy, he wondered how he should react to that compassion. Should he return it physically with more displays of physical attraction to her? While he desperately wanted to act on his desire for her, he decided to continue to honor her request of waiting for her to inform him that she was prepared for such interactions. The Behemoth Master’s eyes shifted to the bloody cloth wrapped around her shoulder from their battle with the bird dragons. He thought about asking her how she was dealing with such a painful injury but he immediately dismissed the idea as he realized to do so would be to insult her constitution as a warrior.