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Disclaimer: I own no rights to The Lost World or the characters.

Any people you don't recognise are mine.

A New World

Prologue

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19th March 1996

I think that's what the date is anyway, its hard to keep track of the time here, Ellie made me do sums today and they were hard, I wish I could understand maths, she isn't a very good teacher. I wish I could've had Grandpa George teach me my sums, he'd would've explained everything better. I don't really remember him very well but I was only three when he died, Ellie misses him a lot but she never tells anyone what she feels.

Tom and Ellie went out looking for our parents again today, the treehouse was attacked a lot of years ago but they still carry on looking. I was about twelve when it happened but I remember things real well, Ellie and I where upstairs with our mother and Ton was off hunting with his father; our father was outside in the garden. Some men attacked, I think they were Vantu but I can't really remember that very well. We hid and mother went to fight them off but they got taken. Tom came running back a long while later, his father had made him run back to the treehouse to save himself, Mr Malone never came back.

Our fathers where born in one of the tribes on the Plateau, the Zanga I think, our mothers kept the last names of their parents. It's really hard keeping a diary and I shouldn't be writing this now, I'm supposed to be learning my French, it's Tom's paper that I'm using but he won't mind.

End of entry

Laura Roxton

I wonder if I'm supposed to write that, I'm not used to writing my thoughts, I'll ask Tom about it later he writes a lot.

*

"Tom!" Ellie shouted as loud as she could and her voice carried on the wind "Tom! Stop hiding…I need you're help, you know I can't drag this carcass by myself!" she kicked a stone in frustration when he didn't return her calls. "Fine! You starve then!" she headed away from the lake and back towards the treehouse. She hadn't been walking for very long when she heard a noise behind her, the sound of feet treading on dried leaves, she froze and a smiled appeared on her face "a T-Rex makes less noise than you do"

A hand grabbed her arm and she spun around, stepping back as she did so "T-Rex?" the man before her was definitely not Tom Malone, this person was tall, his hair black with traces of grey at the sides, he had a gun, not one she'd seen before. "Do you…live here?"

"Answer my question…who are you?" she pulled out of his grip.

"Joe Hawthorne, an archaeologist."

She eyed the gun warily "do…arc…arcaolgists carry guns where you come from?"

"Archaeologist" he said, pronouncing the word correctly for her "well to answer you're question, this is purely for protection…now who are you?" he asked his earlier question again, this time with slight impatience.

"I don't give out personal information to people I don't know" she said as she stepped back.

Joe moved forward "it isn't safe for you out here, you're coming with me back to my camp" he made to take her by the arm.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" She turned around to block her way but another man blocked her path.

"Nice catch" the newcomer said as he looked at Ellie.

"You haven't caught me yet" she moved into a position where she could see them both, she removed something from her coat pocket, the jacket had belonged to her mother and her mother before her, the men watched her in curiosity.

"What are you gonna do? Throw us the bone?" the newcomer asked sarcastically.

She shook her head, a glint came in her eye "no…this is special, she put it to her mouth and blew into it, she was calling to something.

"Oh that hurt us," the unnamed man said with a grin.

"Have you ever seen a raptor?" she asked as if making polite conversation.

The two men shook their heads "a raptor? A dinosaur?" Joe asked in disbelief.

Ellie nodded "well that noise sounded like the call of one of their own…it shouldn't be long now…I just called to us every raptor in the area, and its feeding time. "The two men looked to one another and laughed, then they heard a noise one that they didn't recognise. Ellie smiled at the sudden worried looks on their faces "I don't believe they've tasted archaeologist before."

TBC