5

And you—are you ready to head home? You've mostly completed your preflight checklist. All you would have to do is press the dual launch buttons simultaneously. (You built in the double control as a precaution to guard against an accidental launch.)

As you hesitate, a yet more alarming sound, if that's possible, reaches your ears. From the opposite direction, comes an answering roar very much like the first, only louder, angrier. You glimpse a second triceratops—an even larger male—approaching from the far side of the stream you crossed. Its frill has also flushed bright pink.

The first dinosaur repeats its thunderous challenge, paws the ground, and shakes those horns. The second triceratops roars back for all its worth, although it stops, one oversize foot poised at the water's edge. This does you little good, as the first dinosaur bulls its way toward the pterosaur nest where you sit, horns still shaking.

Brett twists around in her seat, reaching for her rifle. That's Brett—never one to go down without a fight!

Battleground