Free Trapped in Time 1: The Time Takers by Saxon Andrew Page B

“What are you doing?”
    “I’m going to introduce myself.”
    “Not alone, you aren’t.”
    Andy looked Linnae in the eyes, “Do you remember when you said you had to go out and confront those monsters?” Linnae nodded, “Now it’s my turn.” Andy kissed her on the cheek and walked out of the formation and advanced forty yards toward the forest’s edge. The roars from the forest doubled in volume. Andy stood out in the open and waited.
    Linnae was beyond fear and her anger was starting to get the better of her. Arashi walked up beside her and said, “Come on.”
    “Where?”
    “We need to be able to get a clear place to shoot.” Linnae followed Arashi through the Roman formation and moved a few steps beyond the front rank. Arashi said, “If more than one of them emerge from the forest, “I’ll take the one on the left; you take the one on the right.”
    “What if only one emerges?”
    Arashi smiled, “Then it is a fair fight. We will stay out of it.”
    “Are you crazy? I’m not going to stand by and watch him die.”
    “You will not take away his honor by interfering.”
    Linnae started to tell Arashi that he was full of more crap than a Christmas turkey but Maxus said next to her, “He’s right.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “We have to teach those monsters to fear us. It looks like the first meeting has taught them to respect us; we have to make them fear us.”
    “Just how do you think this is going to do that?”
    Maxus smiled, “Have you ever been stung by a hornet?”
    Linnae’s head went back and she said, “I have; what does that have to do with this?”
    “You’ll go out of your way to avoid a nest of hornets.” Maxus looked at Linnae, “Would you go out of your way to avoid just one hornet?”
    “You bet that polished helmet I would.”
    “How much bigger are you than a hornet?” Linnae just stared at Maxus. “We have to teach them that we can sting them where it hurts.” Linnae looked at Arashi and he slowly nodded.
    Suddenly a giant Allosaurus burst out of the tree line and charged in on Andy. Linnae’s heart went into her throat but it was over before it fairly started. Andy hit both of the huge dinosaur’s legs and it fell forward into the ground. Andy fired another arrow and he didn’t miss. It went through the monster’s eye and the giant’s roar ended abruptly. Andy walked forward and climbed on top of the dead dinosaur and screamed at the forest. There was loud crashing as the pack of Allosaurus ran quickly to the north. Andy climbed down off the dead monster and ran quickly back toward the ranks. From on top of the Allosaurus he saw several Raptors two hundred yards south of the fleeing Allosaurus suddenly disappear back into the tree line. They had to be scouts. Andy yelled as he arrived at the front line, “GET READY. IT WON’T BE LONG!!”
    Maxus yelled, “ARCHERS….PULL ARROWS!” All three hundred people in the semi-circle pulled an arrow from their quivers and knocked it to their bows.
    Andy stared at the tree line and Linnae saw the concern on his face, “What did you see?”
    “I saw several Raptors just outside the tree line two to three hundred yards south of here. They had to be scouts to warn the flock if the Allosaurus started moving their way. They saw the Allosaurus run away and they disappeared into the tree line. They had to see the Allosaurus I killed and know there is fresh meat for the taking.” Linnae looked down at the forest and saw the tops of tall ferns were moving; there was no wind. Andy looked with her and saw that the numbers moving through the forest were large. The flock had grown bigger. The large numbers killed in the first meeting must have brought many more Raptors to the area. Now they smelled blood and were getting ready to charge.
    Maxus also saw the movement in the forest and said, “Steady, soldiers. You know numbers don’t mean anything against disciplined warriors. Keep your hearts true to the work before us.”