AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Razor-sharp teeth line its mouth in a double row and they glint menacingly in the light. A whiff of its breath reaches me and it’s pungent with the vile smell of rotting flesh that’s stuck between its teeth. Vomit rises in my throat, but I gulp and force it down.
The dinosaur kind of resembles a t-rex, but shorter and squatter than the ones I’ve seen in museums. It’s about as tall as a big truck and walks upright on two legs with two spindly arms that stick out from its chest. Its powerful back legs bunch and stretch as it lunges quickly towards Draggar with its jaws snapping shut and its arms lashing out with knife-sharp claws. A line of spikes sticks up from the top of its head all the way down to the tip of its tail. It’s a dark green in color with bright, almost neon blue spots all over its body.
It knocks Draggar to the ground and lunges to land on top of him. He grunts as the bulk of the beast’s heavy body presses him down into the ground. There’s little room for him to move with the large dinosaur on top of him, but he manages to wedge his sword between them to keep its massive jaws from taking a bite out of him. That doesn’t stop the beast from trying though, and it snaps its mouth full of sharp teeth closed over and over, trying its best to reach the struggling alien.
They’re in a fight to the death, and my breath catches in my throat as I watch frozen in fear. I’m terrified the dinosaur is going to win the fight. The urge to do something, to help the alien man who has fought so tenaciously, overrides my common sense, and I search the ground for something, anything I can use.
I spy a rock the size of a softball, and I pick it up, hefting it in my hand. I may not have ever been very athletic back on Earth, but I’ve always had pretty good aim.
Quickly rising, I steady myself, then rear my arm back and let the rock fly loose. It tumbles through the air and smacks the dinosaur right in the middle of one of its large eyes. The beast rears back with a roar, blinking for a moment as if confused about where the rock came from before it shakes its head and focuses its gaze back on Draggar.
I spy a tree branch lying on the ground nearby that looks like it’s just small enough for me to handle, but heavy enough to at least get the dinosaur’s attention. I quickly grab it and run forward getting as close as I dare to the ferocious battle in front of me.
Putting as much strength behind my swing as I can, I wallop the wannabe t-rex right across its head with a resounding crack. The dried wood of the stick crumbles, pieces of it flying everywhere. The dinosaur makes a whining noise and shakes its head as if stunned. Then its eyes slowly blink before it tilts its head and focuses its cold gaze right on me.
I can see the muscles bunching in its body as it prepares to launch itself towards me, but Draggar uses the moment of distraction to slide out from under the beast and slash his sword at the underside of the dino’s neck. Blood trickles out of the wound, but it barely fazes the animal. It rears back in a frenzy, preparing to lunge, its focus now back on the alien man battling it. As it does, Draggar’s sword goes tumbling down to the ground, knocked out of his hands by the dino’s claws.
Fuck!
I hold my breath expecting to see Draggar become dino breakfast in front of me, but he jumps out of the way at the last minute. The momentum of the lunge causes the not-a-t-rex to stumble, almost toppling over, but it regains its balance at the last moment and charges again towards Draggar with its jaws wide open ready to snap him in two.
I cringe, terrified for the alien that I only just met. He’s going to be killed right here in front of me.
But that split second of the dinosaur’s stumble allowed Draggar to regroup and grab his sword. He plunges the sharp blade deep into the open, gaping mouth of the beast as it runs towards him. The not-a-t-rex releases an earsplitting shriek and staggers forward a few steps before collapsing on top of Draggar with a rumbling groan. A thick trail of blood pours from its mouth as it rattles out its last breath and finally grows still.
I can just barely see the alien’s booted feet sticking out from where the massive beast has landed sprawled on top of him. He’s completely still, and a bolt of fear races through me as I worry that the dinosaur did manage to kill him.
“Draggar? Are you okay?” I don’t know why I should care so much about this strange alien, but I do. The thought of him dying leaves a hollow ache deep inside of my chest that makes me want to run towards him to make sure everything is okay.
But I don’t. I cautiously approach, drawing near to the massive pile of dino and alien. Leaning down, I get a close-up view of the scary mass that is the not-a-t-rex’s scaly head, its yellow, reptilian eyes are fixed and already beginning to cloud over. Now, that I’m closer, I can see the top of Draggar’s head peeking out just above the point of the beast’s muzzle.
“Draggar?” I bend down closer and raise my voice a little louder. The tension ratcheting down my spine feels like it will explode. “Draggar?”
A rumbling groan makes me take a step back and warily eye the dinosaur. Before I can react any further, a brawny arm reaches out and shoves the massive beast aside to reveal Draggar drenched in sticky blood. He groans again as he stumbles to his feet with a grimace on his angular face.
I gape in awe. He just shoved aside a dead dinosaur like it was nothing. Seriously, those muscles are not just for show. Then again, watching him fight proved that. Then, I shake my head and snap back to the present and move forward to wrap my arm around him as he sways where he stands.
“Here, let me help you.” I reach out and up and wrap an arm around his broad back, and I nearly jump out of my skin. It felt almost like a static charge raced from his body to mine as soon I touched him. He must have noticed it, too, because I felt him stiffen in reaction.
He stares down at me, and his pupils dilate as his gaze bores into me. Now, that I’m closer, I can see that his eyes aren’t just silver. There are small flecks of gold bursting around the center that seem to grow larger as I watch. A frisson of awareness develops between us growing bigger and stretching until it almost seems to become a living, breathing connection tying us together. We’re both frozen in place staring at each other until the call of a bird in the distance breaks the spell.
Draggar turns to me, the prominent brow ridge over his eyes bunches in what I think looks like concern. He reaches out and quickly, but efficiently runs his hands down my body.
My eyes widen and I yelp, but I let him. I’m on the verge of opening my mouth and telling him to go find someone else to grope, when he speaks, “Are you injured, Haley?” His eyes are warm as he gazes down at me, and I notice that his hands tremble as he runs them over me. Huh, he’s just checking me for injuries.
I snap my mouth closed and shake my head no. He moves behind me and checks over my back, and when he is satisfied that I am not injured, he grunts in approval and releases me.
Draggar bends over to remove his sword from where it’s still imbedded in the dinosaur’s mouth and the hitch of his breath reminds me of his injuries. It’s then that the full reality of what just happened finally hits me.
This alien saved me. He went head to head with a freaking dinosaur and he won!
Without a second thought to himself, he pushed me to safety and risked his own life to take down the dinosaur, and when it was all over, he was more concerned about whether I had been injured than himself. I place my hand on his broad chest, pat him, and look up to meet his gaze.
“Thank you. You saved my life, Draggar. You’re a hero.” He wrinkles his brow and looks at me quizzically. So, I try again a little louder. Maybe he’s a hard of hearing or maybe the fight with the dino injured him in some way that I can’t see. I raise my voice until I’m almost shouting. “Thank you for saving my life.”
He shakes his head as if he doesn’t understand me, and then with a dawning realization, it hits me. He really doesn’t understand me. I’ve become so accustomed to having the translator chip and being able to communicate that it didn’t even occur to me that Draggar might not be able to interpret my words.
But his next words clear it all up for me. “I do not know your strange language, Haley the alien.”
