Under the Cover of Darkness

Shapes

Daisy was lying on her back, one eye shut pointing with her index finger skyward. Methodically, tracing the outline of a cat.

“What are you doing?” enquired Dylan looking up from his book.

“Can’t you see it?”

“See what?” he said looking up into the white clouds.

“The cat!”

“Aaaarggh! I can’t see anything now!”
Dylan was too late in shielding his eyes as the sun burst through the clouds.

Daisy ignored him shifting herself away from the sun to stare at another piece of sky. “It’s gone now anyway.”

Dylan rubbed his eyes. “What’s gone?”

“The cat, it turned into Mrs Fraser.”

“Who’s Mrs Fraser?”

“My history teacher, Oh! Look, there is a cloud like that boy from No Direction!”

He tried to see the shapes in the clouds that Daisy was pointing out to him, but he didn’t share the imagination of his ten-year-old sister. He was the academic type and being five years older than her needed to get back to his textbook. The exams were only three weeks away.

Daisy fell quiet as she continued to find all manner of celebrities in the clouds above her while Dylan returned to his books.

After what seemed like twenty minutes Daisy suddenly called out, “Dylan you really have got to see this, it’s wonderful!”

He rolled his eyes and put down his book. He wasn’t annoyed with his sister, to be honest he could do with a rest. “What have you seen now?”

Sliding up to her, he too was now lying on his back looking up at the clouds. Straight away he saw what his sister was pointing about.

High up in the clouds was another cloud that looked different from the standard cumulonimbus. It was darker in colour and seemed to be moving in the opposite direction to all the other clouds!

The dark cloud soon began to take on a new form twisting and stretching into the shape of a giant bird. It was like watching the birth of a new creature!

With his eyes still on the cloud, Dylan fumbled in his pocket for his phone. “I have got to take some pictures of this for the BBC Weather Watchers!”

As he continued to grope in his pockets, Daisy watched as the ‘bird cloud’ changed direction, it was now moving towards them.

Dylan took some photos and hurriedly uploaded them to the BBC website. As the last photo was uploaded, both him and Daisy heard what sounded like a shriek coming from the ‘bird cloud’.

By now both Daisy and Dylan were up on their feet. No need to stare into the distance. The ‘bird cloud’ was now above them! With its large bony beak, sharp talons and membrane wings, it was clear to Daisy being in Mrs Fraser history class. That what was homing in on them was not a bird but a prehistoric pterodactyl!

Daisy and Dylan had only word to say to each other.

“Run!”

Author Note:
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