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One day, two brothers crashed through the redwood forest, trampling the ferns that grew beneath the massive trees, and generally making an awful racket. As little boys do, when they’re out by themselves - particularly when they’re brothers. Except these two little boys were especially loud, because they rode tyrannosaurus rexes.
The boys encouraged their great mounts to charge, weaving around the gigantic trunks, and causing all sorts of mayhem amongst the inhabitants of the hot and humid forest. But the boys had a very good reason for their disruptive behaviour. They were chasing after a troodon. The very same beast that had stolen their only hope of returning home.
“Can you see it?” Amario asked, as his t-rex leapt over a huge fallen bough.
“It's just ahead,” Gianni called back, from his dinosaur as it made a slow curve to the right. “Balla can still smell it.”
“What if it dropped the portal gun?”
“It didn't,” Gianni reassured his brother.
And so, the t-rexes ducked under the low hanging branches and leapt over the rotting logs, as they pursued the small birdlike dinosaur.
Troodons run very fast, and the enormous trunks and thick vegetation made it difficult for the boys to see very far ahead. They had to trust that the dinosaurs were still on the thief's trail. They also had to trust that they could keep hanging on for their dear lives.
Riding a dinosaur of any type is not easy, but riding a four metre tall apex carnivore is especially difficult. There’s no telling when one might suddenly spot a delicious sauropod and charge off after it to have a feed. It was particularly challenging for the brothers because they rode without saddles (if such a thing as a t-rex saddle had ever been invented), and clung on to the reins they had made from lengths of vine with their sweaty hands.
While Gianni peered ahead hoping to glimpse the escaping troodon, Amario kept an eye on his dinosaur. Spider was his name, and Amario could sense that he was starting to tire. Amario was very good with animals, and dinosaurs were no exception.
Ahead, he could see the tell-tale signs that Gianni's dinosaur, Balla, was also beginning to suffer. T-rexes don't normally run for so long.
“Gianni!” Amario cried, “We have to stop. Spider and Balla are too hot.”
“We're so close.”
“Gianni!”
“Okay,” Gianni reluctantly agreed.
Both boys reined in their t-rexes, bringing them to a stop.
Amario immediately began scritching Spider. Tyrannosaurus rexes have a fearsome reputation, but they're softies at heart. With their short arms they simply can't scratch the really important places. Give them a scratch, and they'll be your friend for life. Spider really liked to be kittled on the bright red part of his neck. He would shiver and huff softly every time Amario touched him there, almost as if he was laughing.
Now they weren't making so much noise, the boys could hear the sounds of the forest. The wind in the trees. The croaking of frogs. The squawking of birds. There seemed to be a large number of them deep within the forest to their right. There seemed to be some sort of hill that way.
“What's that?” Amario asked, “Birds?”
“Let's find out.”
“Slowly. Spider and Balla are tired.”
“Amario is so silly,” Gianni said as he scratched Balla's bright yellow spot. “Mighty Balla can run forever.”
Balla nodded, but Gianni still only eased him forward into a slow walk through the trees.
Even compared to the t-rex the trees were massive. Holding hands, with their arms both outstretched, the boys would have barely covered a small portion of the trunk's width. Not even with their parents joining them would they have been able to encircle one. And their tops reached up as high as the boys could see disappearing into the golden afternoon light.
Both boys kept a close eye out for any danger. While they were relatively safe riding on the backs of their t-rex a Cretaceous forest is still a dangerous place.
“Can you see that?” Gianni asked.
“Where?”
“There. Near that log.”
By log, Gianni meant the fallen tree to the right. It was huge with bright orange mushrooms growing all over it. In the ferns around it, there was a giant footprint. Fresh too. Amario knew the print well.
“T-rex.”
“Look, another one.”
This print was slightly smaller than the first.
“Two t-rexes.”
“Running,” Gianni added. Both boys could see more tracks disappearing into the forest. “Don't worry, little brother. Balla and Spider will protect us.”
Amario nodded, but he wondered, who will protect Spider and Balla? T-rex were very protective, and were known to attack anything that intruded into their territory.
They moved through the forest climbing up the small hill. The further they climbed the louder the squawking became. It appeared to be coming from the very top of the hill, although neither of the boys could see what was causing it. The sound reminded them of their toy crocodile. It was called Mister Squeaky. Except there were dozens of them and they were having an argument.
“Gianni!” Amario cried. “Look!”
There were more tracks on the ground. They could see two sets of distinct t-rex footprints. Like the others the tracks indicated that the dinosaurs had been running. They cut across from right to left and disappeared amongst the trees.
“There must be a lot of t-rexes in this forest,” Gianni mused. “Come on,” he said, eager to reach the top of the hill.
“Wait,” Amario said manoeuvring Spider over towards the nearest set of t-rex tracks.
“What are you doing little brother?”
“Look,” Amario said, pointing at the set of Spider's tracks he had just made beside the ones they'd just found. “They're Spider's tracks.”
“We've been running around in circles,” Gianni realised.
“It's easy to get lost in a forest,” Amario offered.
Gianni nodded. “You know what that means, little brother?”
“The troodon is on top of the hill. And it has friends.”
“With the Portal Gun. Are Balla and Spider cool enough now?”
“Yes.”
“Then, you know what we have to do.”
Amario nodded grimly.
Tyrannosaurus rex can climb hills very quietly when they want to. So when the boys reached the edge of the clearing the herd of Troodon didn't even know they were there. Not even the lookouts that had been posted to keep watch, just in case.
The clearing was surrounded by the tall redwoods making it look a little like the a large red crown on the top of a bald king's head. In the centre was a large golden boulder and on its surface was a blue-ringed hole. A portal. Through the hole they could see a black platform.
From their hiding place the boys could see why they hadn't been noticed by the troodons. They were all too busy looking at the two white and black objects that stood before the portal.
The two objects had similar looking arms and legs, but their bodies were quite different from one another. One was almost a perfect sphere, like a big white ball. The other looked as though someone had grabbed the top of an egg and stretched it. They each only had one eye, which was placed in the middle of their chest (they didn't appear to have a head at all). The spherical one had a blue eye. The egg-shaped one had an orange eye. They were robots and both boys knew what they were. They were trouble. Big trouble.
The troodons squawked at the robots. Even the lookouts were screeching and waving their winglike arms in protest. The robots in turn were talking back to the dinosaurs. Making electronic squeaks and squawks. It appeared to be some sort of argument, although the boys weren't sure because they couldn't understand either of them. All they knew was that the troodons didn't seem very happy, but who can really tell when it comes to dinosaurs?
“On three. You take the left. I'll take the right,” Gianni whispered.
Amario nodded, “One.”
“Two”
“Three,” both boys said together motioning their t-rex into a run. Not that Balla and Spider needed much prompting. Both the predators were eager to begin the carnage.
Spider swooped in and had already squished one of the troodons beneath his mighty claws. He swallowed another whole, all before the small birdlike dinosaurs even realised they were under attack.
It was one of the troodon's near the portal that signalled the alarm. It let out an almighty shriek as it saw Spider bearing down upon them. Then it was pandemonium as the troodons scattered, heading away from the rampaging t-rex.
That's when Balla emerged from the trees, right into their path. Some of the troodon actually fainted at the thought of being trapped between two angry carnivores. Others tried to stand and fight and were either crushed underfoot or swallowed whole. Most however fled at full speed taking the quickest route to the relative safety of the surrounding trees.
While Amario let Spider torment those trying to escape, Gianni noticed that there were three troodon still near the portal. And they were fighting with the robots. Two of them, both with green feathers, were shrieking and battering their wings against the egg-shaped robot. All the while trying to bite its arms. The third, which had bright red feathers, was in a tug-o-war with the round robot. They were struggling over something. And then Gianni saw what they were fighting over: the Portal Gun.
He spurred Balla toward the group. The tyrannosaur charged forward. Just as the blue-eyed robot won its struggle and snatched the Portal Gun. As it lost its grip, the red-feathered troodon was flung backwards and landed with a thud. Blue turned and ran straight for the portal only at the last moment realising that there was an enormous, hungry tyrannosaurus rex in its way. It stopped and gave a loud electronic squeak.
At Gianni's command, Balla reached out with his claw to crush the robot but Blue darted to the right. Balla tried again and this time Blue ducked to the left. Balla lifted his foot and began to put it down upon the robot. Blue leapt to the right, but Balla was only pretending. His foot changed course and landed right on top of Blue. Balla huffed. A hearty laugh. Blue squeaked in terror. Just as Balla’s foot crushed it, the robot threw the Portal Gun to the other robot.
Orange looked at the gun in its hands, then at the t-rex grinding its companion beneath its foot. It squealed and ran, still with the angry troodon attached. It was only a the last moment did it realise that it was running straight toward Spider, who was bearing down upon it.
“Get him, Spider!” Amario screamed.
Orange spun around, quickly, sending the two troodon flying off. The robot desperately aimed the gun at the ground before it. It triggered the mechanism and an orange-ringed portal opened up on the ground.
Orange gave an electronic, “Thppppt” and leapt through the hole.
However, it immediately emerged from the blue-ringed portal, flying through the air and passing through the orange-ringed portal again. And it kept doing this over and over. Flying out the blue portal and passing through the orange.
While Spider finished off the last of the troodons, Gianni slipped off Ballas' back and wandered over to the portal. He reached out and grabbed the Portal Gun from Orange as it passed.
Orange gave a squeal and tried to grab the gun back as it flew by, but Gianni was too clever for that. He stepped back out of range as he fiddled with the settings on the gun. Then timing it perfectly while Orange was still in the air, he replaced the orange portal. The robot disappeared through it and didn't emerge again.
“Where did you send it?” Amario asked still atop Spider.
“Back to the stupid computer,” Gianni replied, “We have to go.”
“Can we take Spider and Balla with us?”
“They won't fit through the portal.”
“But I like Spider.”
“We can visit them again soon.”
“Okay.” Amario said sadly.
Gianni closed the blue portal and opened up a new one that led back home.