CHAPTER
1
Two months later
Cade pressed his face into the soil, praying he would remain unseen. He stilled his breath and listened to the throaty rumbles of the giant beasts ahead of him.
Not yet.
The rushing of the river beyond accompanied the sound, and the wind moaned through the leaves of the trees above. But only one sound broke through the tempest of his thoughts. Thudding. Footsteps that shook the very ground.
Branches crackled as they neared, snapping beneath an enormous weight. Cade clenched his fists, forcing himself to remain motionless.
Just a little closer.
One breath. Two.
They were right on top of him.
“Now!” he roared, leaping to his feet.
Without looking to see if his friends had joined him, he charged toward the herd that had halted no more than a stone’s throw ahead of them.
A pair of shouts joined his own as Cade waved his arms at the startled animals: A dozen long-necked sauropods seemed to blot out the sky. More than he had expected.
Twenty feet. Ten. Five.
Cade’s scream choked in his throat. He halted in the shadow of the nearest beast. For a moment their eyes met, and he saw the dull cow-like eyes roll back in their sockets.
Amber and Quintus came to a stop on either side of him, their yells fading, in awe of the elephantine beasts before them.
“Move,” Amber screamed hoarsely. “Come on!”
For a long, hanging second, the beasts only stared. And then, as if by some unknown signal, the herd turned and ran.
“Go!” Quintus yelled.
The very air thundered from the stampede. The chase had begun, and now Bea, Trix, and Yoshi emerged from the trees nearby, crowding in from the side, screaming like banshees and forcing the lumbering giants to hug the riverbank.
As they followed the path of least resistance between the tree line and the flowing water, Cade watched the largest of the beasts slow, though whether due to exhaustion or the realization that the small humans chasing them were no danger, Cade could not guess.
“Just a little farther!” Cade panted.
But the beasts had come to a halt, the nearest creature even turning to face them. It was a large specimen, its neck and flanks pitted with scars from attacks by far more formidable predators.
It took a step forward, its long tail lashing behind. And then, a final outcry, as two more figures emerged from the trees. Scott and Grace.
They waved a giant banner, hollering at the top of their lungs. The flag, no more than a stretched sackcloth between two poles, looked puny. But at its center, painted in ash, charcoal, and river clay, was a giant eye.
The sight was enough to startle the beasts once more, and the ground reverberated as they took a further few steps back from the new arrivals.
It was enough. The great matriarch that led them fell away from the front of the herd, braying with panic. And then the moan turned into a single scream, cut short almost immediately.
At the loss of their leader, the beasts scattered into the woods, barreling by Bea, Trix, and Yoshi as they dove for cover behind the trees.
Cade staggered, panting, to where the great sauropod had fallen: a pit that had been covered with branches, and then a thin screen of mud and leaves.
He crouched and peered over the crumbling edge. It was a cruel sight. The great beast had been spitted by stakes embedded at the bottom, fire hardened and sharpened to pierce the thick hide and flesh that had fallen upon them.
Even in his moment of triumph, Cade could not help but feel a tinge of regret for having killed the gentle giant. The sauropod breathed a last shuddering breath before its head fell to the ground.
“It worked!” Scott cried. He scrambled up beside Cade and stared down. The look of elation on his face soon faded at the grisly sight below.
The others joined them, equally in awe of what they had done.
“I didn’t think we’d … manage it,” Amber said.
Cade shook his head. “Native Americans used to do something similar for thousands of years. We just used a pit instead of a cliff.”
That hole in the ground had been their personal hell for longer than he cared to remember. It had taken weeks to dig. In fact, it would have been impossible had there not been a natural depression there already, likely carved by a now-defunct tributary of the river.
The gathering of their “bait” had also been tricky, for the sauropods would only be tempted by the tender shoots and buds from the tall branches that even they could not reach. Luckily, Quintus could climb like a monkey, cutting free the branches and gathering the bitter fruits that the great beasts seemed to love. They had left these near a natural bush trail, and had taken turns to camp out there, waiting for the herd to come.
As for the eye banner, Cade hadn’t been sure it would work. But Amber had come up with it when she saw the same markings on a butterfly’s wing, designed no doubt to scare other animals too.
“Now what?” Yoshi interrupted Cade’s thoughts.
“Fetch Amber’s axe,” Cade said. “And Scott, you go up ahead to watch for predators. We won’t have long before they come to scavenge.”
He gripped the knotted rope set in the pit’s side and began to descend. It was going to be a bloody evening.
Copyright © 2021 by Taran Matharu. All rights reserved.