TIMESCAPE

5

The spinning ended and gradually Dante's vision returned. It was like someone had turned the lights on in a dark room, blinding at first, but slowly you got used to it. The place Dante found himself in was humid, the sun was up, but he couldn't see it because of the foliage. Tall trees stretched upwards, hundreds of feet in the air. Strange plants that he'd never seen surrounded him. They are were in the middle of the jungle, but the jungle millions of years ago.

"Does time travel give anyone else a headache?" Paige asked.

"Doc said it'll take some getting used to," Will responded. "A small price to pay to travel through time."

"Well, as much as I'd love to stay here, I'd really rather live through today. So if we could put our heads together and start figuring out where this box is, I'd greatly appreciate it," Lincoln stood with his arms folded.

"Way to be a spoil sport," Paige said.

"He's right," said Will "We need to do this quickly."

Katrina had wandered a bit away from the group and was admiring the scenery. Dante watched her. She was currently inspecting the bark of an enormous tree. "Katrina," Dante called out "You coming?"

"Sorry," she walked back over to them "It's not everyday you get to see the Jurassic period. I should try and take back some samples or something. Think of all we could learn!"

"We should focus on the mission," said Will "What was the first clue again?"

"Where the sky and earth meet," blurted Evelyn. "I've been thinking about it, the earth meets the sky on the horizon. But that can't be it. The horizon is unreachable."

Everyone grew quiet and began to think. "I hate to be that person, but I don't think I'm going to be much help here. I'm terrible at riddles," said Paige.

"Then shut up and let us think," shot Lincoln.

Now it was Paige's turn to scowl "Oh, we're going to get along great, aren't we?"

Dante wasn't good at riddles either. Where earth meets the sky...The earth doesn't ever meet the sky...not really, at least. So it had to be something symbolic. But he couldn't think of it.

"What about water?" Katrina asked

"What do mean?" said Will.

"Well, the sky is reflected in the water. It could be telling us to look for a body of water where you can see the sky."

"Could be," said Evelyn, "Or it could mean some landmark, some raised landmark in the air that touches the sky, like a mountain. But it's impossible to say with all this foliage, we'll never see anything."

"There's one way we could," Will motioned to the nearest tree, "We climb."

Paige looked up at the trees, physically intimidated by them. "No way, man. That's super dangerous."

"I'll do it," Katrina stepped forward. "I love climbing. I can climb anything."

"Anything?" asked Dante.

"Anything," said Katrina. She flashed him a look, daring him to suggest something she couldn't climb.

"Well, unless anyone has any better ideas," Will said.

No one said anything. Katrina picked a tree, one with a lot of branches, and began to climb. "Wish me luck," she said to Dante.

"Good luck." He liked Katrina. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Lincoln looked over at Dante to see him staring up at Katrina "Are you going to go up after her then?"

"Excuse me?" Dante asked. He turned to look at Lincoln.

"Nothing. Nothing wrong with admiring the view."

Dante turned away. He had barely said two words to Lincoln and already he didn't like him. He was negative and annoying. Why did the professor pick him?

Despite Lincoln calling him out, it wasn't long before Dante was gazing back up the tree. There wasn't much else to do besides wait. They had no idea where to go. Katrina was climbing quickly, she was nearly a third of the way up the tree now.

Paige had wandered a ways off. She was walking toward a spot where the sunlight shone through the trees and reached the ground, creating a bright spot amidst the darkness around them. As she reached it, the sun touched her skin and she smiled. She looked up at the bright sky. The sun was brighter than it was in the present.

Dante watched her carefully. He didn't like the idea of someone getting lost here. It might be impossible to find them.

Paige looked up into the bright sky, and there was a speck there. The speck was getting closer. "Hey guys! I think I see something! It's moving! What are the ones that fly called?"

"Pterodactyls," muttered Dante under his breath. He knew that much. He had gone through a dinosaur phase as a kid. If there was a real pterodactyl, he had to see it! He began walking over to Paige.

Paige shielded her eyes from the sun, it was so bright! She watched as the graceful creature swooped down. It was close enough to see in detail, now. The dinosaur was bigger than she'd originally thought. It's wingspan had to be about 15 feet. The pterodactyl looked like a small dragon flying around. It swooped down through the top of the canopy. The thing had seen her, it was coming to say hello.

The pterodactyl made a shrieking cry. Everyone turned to watch it as the creature continued to shriek. It flew around above their heads, staying mostly in the sunlight. It's flesh was dark blue.

Dante watched, mouth open. "I don't believe it...it's a dinosaur."

Will stepped up next to him "Yeah it is. And it's amazing. But how do we know this thing doesn't want to eat us?

"We don't," said Evelyn. She was careful to stand behind the others, just in case.

"I mean am I the only one who's seen Jurassic Park?" Will asked " Dinosaurs aren't things you wanna mess with."

The birdlike creature swooped down again, this time directly toward Paige. As it folded its wings inward, it began a fast dive right for her. Suddenly the bird wasn't so cute. Dante's heart dropped. Paige had mere seconds to react. But there was nothing she could do, what could they possibly do against a dinosaur?

The bird swung its taloned feet up at the last moment, Paige screamed but it was too late. The bird had her in its claws. Paige was yanked off her feet and up into the air. She fought and kicked, but it was useless. The monster had her.

"Hang on, Paige!" Will yelled.

"We should never have come here!" Evelyn ducked down close to the ground, as if to protect herself.

But the bird already had Paige in it's claws. It circled around and flew back towards the opening in the canopy. The pterodactyl flew up and out, away from them, Paige dangling from below. She was gone.