Valley of the Dinosaurs

by Matthew Dennion

  As the Emperor came into view of the Triceratops, the dinosaurs quickly formed a circle around the youngest of them. The circle of Triceratops formed an impenetrable ring of horns and shielded faces. There was only one Triceratops who stood outside the circle of dinosaurs. He was a large male who stood between the circle and the Emperor. The male was snorting and dragging his foot across the ground as a warning to the Emperor.

  Birilus rode up next to Amazon and Hectseus. “Defeating that ring of dragons will be difficult. Perhaps we should start by firing a volley of arrows into the center of the ring. If fire falls on them from above, it may separate them.”

  Hectseus shook his head. “Their young are the center of the ring. I will not kill them unless we have no other way.” He pointed to the large male who was standing outside of the ring and challenging the Emperor. “That male is their alpha. The other creatures are simply holding a defensive position. If we can defeat him, the rest of the herd might disperse.”

  Birilus shrugged. “We should be able to drive off a single dragon with an entire regiment.”

  Hectseus directed the Emperor to take a step forward as he looked down at Birilus. “I have seen similar behavior from wild elephants. The other creatures may be more prone to attack if we go at the alpha with large numbers. We have a better chance of driving off the rest of the herd if a single challenger defeats their alpha.”

  Amazon briefly looked up at Hectseus and nodded at him. She knew that no other words of encouragement were needed for her lover. Both Amazon and Birilus held their positions as Hectseus rode the Emperor out to meet the alpha Triceratops.

  When the dinosaur noticed the Emperor moving toward his herd, the beast bellowed loudly and then charged. Hectseus directed the Emperor to move forward but as he did with the rhinoceros earlier, he had the elephant step to the side before colliding head-on with the dinosaur. As the Triceratops was moving past the Emperor, the elephant pushed him aside with his right tusk and trunk. The Triceratops was shifted to the right, but unlike the rhinoceros, the beast was not knocked over.

  The dinosaur quickly turned around and charged the Emperor again. This time, Hectseus was unable to maneuver the great beast around the Triceratops. The two titans drove their heads into each other, causing their horns and tusks to interlock. The Emperor’s tusks were longer than the ceratopsid’s horns but instead of digging into the dinosaur’s face, they simply slid across the hard shield covering it.

  The Triceratops took a step forward and as he did so, the tips of his horns sliced into the Emperor’s trunk and the sides of his face. Hectseus held on tightly to the elephant’s reins as the two beasts jockeyed for position. The Emperor was forced back several steps at first, but the colossal elephant was able to stop his backward progress and then push the dinosaur back several steps. After being pushed back himself several steps, the Triceratops grunted and once more forced the Emperor to back up.

  Hectseus could see that the two animals were evenly matched in strength. He quickly decided that a new plan of attack was required. He pulled back on the Emperor’s reins and directed the animal to back away from the encounter. The Emperor complied with his master’s request, but the move nearly cost the animal its life. As the elephant was pulling away, the dinosaur thrust his head forward. Aside from slicing open another deep gash on the Emperor’s face, the Triceratops’ momentum also knocked the elephant off balance.

  The Emperor was stumbling backward as the Triceratops bellowed and charged yet again. In an act of desperation to save the elephant which had saved his life so many times, Hectseus grabbed his battle axe and hurled it at the charging dinosaur. The young warrior threw his axe with such force that when it struck the Triceratops between the eyes, it split the hard crest on its head and drew blood. The blow caused the dinosaur to veer off course and to narrowly miss the broad side of the Emperor.

  As the Emperor was regaining his footing, the Triceratops turned to attack once again. Hectseus cringed when he saw the beast looking at him with his battle axe still embedded in between its eyes. Hectseus quickly shifted his mind from looking at the gruesome sight to developing a new plan of attack. He recalled some of the numerous bullfights he had seen during his time as an heir, and how the matadors would injure the bull in order to weaken it and slow it down. Hectseus grabbed hold of his spear and once more directed the Emperor to charge. The Emperor complied with the request and once the elephant charged, the Triceratops reacted in kind.

  Prior to reaching the dinosaur, Hectseus had the Emperor side-step the beast again. As the Triceratops was moving past him, Hectseus reached out with his spear and plunged it deep into the middle of the dinosaur’s back between its two front legs. The Triceratops bellowed in pain and as it slowly turned around, Hectseus was confident that his spear had given the Emperor the advantage he needed.

  The dinosaur had an axe embedded between its eyes and a spear sticking out of its back as the Emperor circled to the creature’s right side. As blood poured down the dinosaur’s back and face, Hectseus almost felt sorry for the creature. The fact that the Triceratops was trying to protect those under his command just as Hectseus was trying to find a safe place for his regiment was not lost on the young warrior.

  By the time the Emperor had positioned himself perpendicular to the ceratopsid’s right side, the beast had only half turned around to counter the elephant. Seeing his chance to finish the battle, Hectseus directed the Emperor to charge. The elephant trumpeted loudly then he drove his tusks into the dinosaur and knocked it on its side. Hectseus could feel the Emperor’s body tensing beneath him as the elephant prepared to gore the alpha dinosaur to death. Hectseus looked down at the injured creature and he thought that, while painful, the Emperor’s tusks had not yet caused enough damage to kill the dinosaur.

  Hectseus ordered the Emperor to pull back and back away from the injured Triceratops. Hectseus looked down at the defeated dinosaur and shouted, “You have fought bravely to defend your herd, dragon. I will grant you this one show of mercy. Leave now with your herd and you may live. Stay and continue to battle and you die!”

  Hectseus doubted that the injured beast understood him but when the Triceratops regained his feet, he limped off into the jungle. The rest of the alpha’s herd stood around their young, bellowing for a few minutes before they followed their defeated leader into the trees.

  As the herd of Triceratops walked into the forest, Hectseus climbed down from atop the Emperor. He was first met by Amazon who threw her arms around him and kissed him passionately.

  Birilus came up to the couple and looked quizzically at Hectseus. “Why did you not slay the beast? The meat he would have provided could have fed us for over a week!”

  Hectseus shook his head. “There will be time to hunt those horned dragons for food later. Now, the important objective was to gain access to the river. Had I killed the alpha and with only the river behind them, the rest of his herd would have kept their circle around the young ones until we left. We would have to have waited in the jungle and risk ambush until the rest of the herd decided to leave. By letting the alpha escape with his life, the rest of the herd followed him. Now, all we have to do is wait for the long necks to come so that we can access the river.”

  Hectseus gestured for the rest of the regiment to come from out of the jungle and to set up camp in the large clearing, far enough away from the river to avoid the giant crocodiles. The gathered warriors and animals waited as the sun set and the moon filled the sky. Once the moon was at its zenith, the ground began to shake, and the sound of trees being crushed could be heard. When the alpha male of the long necks stepped out of the jungle, his head loomed so high over the warriors that it looked as if it would reach the moon itself. As the huge creature walked into the water, Hectseus could see shapes moving across the river and toward the far bank. After several giant crocodiles had surfaced on the far side of the river away from the sauropods, Hectseus directed his regiment to enter the water. Elephants, horses, men, and wom
en all entered the river alongside the sauropods and drank their fill.

  As every other creature entered the water, Amazon walked to Hectseus. The young warrior looked over at his lover. “The first step is successful. Driving the herd away and accessing the river is the first step in living a life for ourselves and not for generals or armies.” He grabbed his lover’s hand and looked into her eyes. “I am only here because of you. Everyone here was only able to take this first step because of you and the wisdom and insight you have imparted on us. I want to continue this journey but to do so, I need to take each and every step with you. Will you stay with me? Will you stay with me on this new path that stands before us?”

  Amazon kissed Hectseus and then hugged him as she spoke into his ear. “From this day forward, ‘til the day I die, I will take every step forward with you.”

  Prologue

  Ten months had passed since Hectseus and Amazon had claimed the open area by the river from the Triceratops herd. Over that time, the regiment had become more accustomed to living in the valley. While there were some deaths at the jaws of the giant crocodiles, the tyrannosaurs, and the raptors, the majority of the warriors and the animals had lived. Fire had proved to be a strong deterrent at keeping the predators away from the campsite. Additionally, by identifying game trails, the camps hunting parties were able to minimize attacks in the jungle. Learning the habits of the giant crocodiles and the parts of the river to best avoid them gave the warriors access to river and the huge fish which lived there.

  Many of the male and female warriors paired off and mated. After the first few children were born, Hectseus and Amazon began to suggest to the new families that they could live free of war in the valley if they wished. Most of the warriors came to accept this future and agreed to stay in the valley. A small contingent of ten warriors led by Birilus and comprised of both men and women insisted that they would scale the mountains in the summer and return to Carthage where they would make sure that Casrubol paid for his treachery. Hectseus and Amazon supported this contingent and did what they could to gather food, weapons, and clothing for their journey through the Alps and back to Carthage.

  One horrible tragedy occurred when both parents of a newborn child were killed by a raptor attack. The child was one of the first to be born and her cries drew in the raptors from the jungle. The couple’s tent was situated on the edge of the campsite and while the mother was able to hold off the raptor from attacking the child until Amazon arrived to slay the dinosaur, it cost them their lives. After the attack, the campsite mimicked the habits of the Triceratops and had all tents with infants in them moved to the center of the camp.

  With the death of the newborn infant’s parents, Amazon walked over to the screaming baby and lifted her up. She held the infant and gently rocked it back and forth. When the infant stopped crying, she turned to Hectseus with tears in her eyes. Hectseus knew her intentions and he simply nodded at the new mother.

  The End

  Read on for a free sample of Backpacking With Dinosaurs

  Part 1: Predator and Prey Relationships

  New Profanity

  The rocks sang in the mid-morning air. A violent wind blew between massive rock formations, crashed into mountains, and carved draws. At the edge of one granite-rocked draw, a small hole emerged in the juniper. In the hole, a mother wolf slept with her pups. This was neither her first litter nor the first weeks of her pups’ lives, so their mewling and playful pushing and tugging at her body bothered her little. She could not ignore the growling in her stomach, though. She needed the hunters to return and feed the freshly weened pups so that she could go hunting herself. Joining her would be the female beta who helped her care for the pups while the rest of the pack was away.

  At the base of the mountain, one of the male wolves ran in the high grass less than a mile from his home. He had a thin black coat, yellow eyes, and a wiry frame. Like the rest of the wolf pack of New Profanity Mountain, he had descended from the mountain at sunrise, eager to hunt. Not elk or bison, no, the pack had discovered a new source of sustenance to get them through the summer: gophers.

  Impractical as it seemed, the gophers were plenty from years of overpopulation, and the wolves were eager to take advantage of the gophers’ complacency.

  At the edge of the flat ground, the black wolf darted between several large rocks. His alpha, a large gray, snapped at him. The black wolf stopped abruptly before entering the fields. The alpha had smelled something strange in the wind, something new that none of the wolves recognized, so they tarried in the rocks, poking their heads out into the wind every few minutes to observe and learn.

  The black male wondered if the new scent originated from the three legged black box, the one with the little red eye that sometimes clicked when the wolves got close. Humans put it there, and once every two weeks humans visited the clicking black box, and they left their scent all over it, but they never bothered the wolves. No, this new scent was definitely not from the box.

  When nothing appeared from the forest, the wolves entered the flats. They hunted unsuccessfully all morning, chasing gophers across the fields and pouncing on their holes. It was time to employ a new strategy. So they lay down on the ground and half-dozed in the warm late-morning air.

  The male kept one yellow eye half-open and directed at the hole. He slowed his breathing, and he stayed as still as possible. A tiny head popped out of the hole, looking away from him. It was only a head, so he waited. The gopher head disappeared, but a few seconds later reappeared, still not looking at him.

  His muscles quivered and tightened.

  The gopher crept out of the hole on all fours and sniffed the air with his little black nose.

  The wolf slowly turned his head sideways, opening his mouth to reveal long, glistening teeth.

  The unfortunate gopher, still unaware, stood up on his hind legs.

  The black wolf shot forward. His mouth snapped shut. The gopher’s back snapped in his jaws. Delicious arterial blood exploded on the roof of the wolf’s mouth.

  Giddy, the wolf trotted away from the kill, careful to keep the smell of the killing as far from the hole as possible. If he left scent there, the gophers would stay away from the hole for days, and he needed to eat. He gobbled the gopher down.

  To his side, another pack member, using the same tactic, chased a gopher away from his hole and out into the grass where he would be defenseless and too slow for the wolf’s eager mouth.

  The black wolf spent the next hour canvassing the holes and devouring gophers. The last kill he did not consume but carried in his mouth. Each of the wolves were bringing home gophers to the three pups and the mother.

  The New Profanity pack moved lightly through the forest and up the mountainside. It had been a good day and a good hunt. Their strategy had paid off. As long as the gophers remained in the fields, the wolf pack would survive to autumn, and then the herds of elk would return, and the circle of life would continue.

  The alpha led the pack into the heavily covered forest. He was eager to return to his mate and his pups. They were his bloodline.

  A sudden blur flashed in front of the pack. A yelp shattered the quiet like a scream in the dark. The hunters looked to their alpha for direction, but the alpha had disappeared. The pack froze in its tracks. Ears perked.

  A bone crunched. Somewhere in the bushes, the alpha whined. The black wolf took several cautious steps toward the bushes. The other wolves followed suit. Suddenly, they saw it. Some new creature was on the mountain. It was at least as large as them, but it had eyes that dared them to retrieve their fallen pack member, eyes that gloated on the kill.

  The alpha lay on the ground, his stomach disemboweled. An undigested gopher’s paw hung out of the seam in the wolf’s belly. At the end of the open wound was the instrument of destruction, a five-inch long claw. The other foot stood on top of the poor alpha’s neck. As the wolf whined, one of the creature’s toes opened like a cat’s claw, slowly revealing that scimitar of a na
il. It tapped on the wolf’s jugular. He growled an impotent threat.

  The creature waited.

  The three remaining pack members growled menacingly. Lips curled, gophers dropped from their jaws, and fangs lanced the air. The wolves stood rigid and tall in the forest. The hairs on their backs bristled with fury.

  And then two more Velociraptors lashed out from the side. In the blink of an eye, two more wolves disappeared into the trees. The yelping of his fellow pack members as they were killed was ungodly.

  The black wolf, the lone remaining hunter, thought of the New Profanity pack up on the mountain. Two mothers and the pups remained. He could still rebuild the pack. The pups would have to be killed to ensure his bloodline, of course, but that was survival. “Of the Fittest.” He was the alpha now. His bloodline was the fittest. It was up to him to keep the pack alive. Before any of that could happen, he would need to escape this moment. He considered backing away and circling the mountain to return to his pack, but in the meantime, the remaining pack members would be at risk. What if these new predators attacked the pack?

  The black wolf ran the gauntlet. As he ran, the last death throes of his brothers echoed from the underbrush. He charged the hill, scared for the first time in years. He was an apex predator. He did not fear anything. He was cautious around bears and humans, but he would not admit to fear of them. This new thing, though, it terrified him. It was faster than him, and worse, it was more cunning. After he escaped, he would mark this ground to warn others to keep away. They would need to find a new hunting ground. A new apex predator had appeared.

  Two shapes leaped onto the trail behind the black wolf. A little whine escaped his throat. They were so fast! He feared he would never see the pack again. The sound of their snarls reminded him of lightning crashes. Suddenly, he was knocked off his feet. Rolling onto his back, he saw a raptor stretch out to grab him with its bloody claws and flashing, bloody teeth.