Chapter 11

The Pteranodon Search

James opened the door to a small cabinet he had in his house. There were several odds and ends inside. Trophies from various dinosaurs, blueprints, and a photograph of the ESC he had saved from the wreckage. There were a few new mementos he placed inside. He put in one of Barry's spines, and one of his sickle toe claws. He sighed. It would be a while before he'd want to train a Raptor again. Barry had been a good friend, and had met an untimely death. But James wasn't one to dwell on sorrow. Looking down at the floor, he closed the cabinet door.

Several weeks later and James had gotten over his loss. He had been given a pretty nasty job by Rhino. One of the stables were being repaired, and James was given the task of temporarily moving the creatures from that stable to another one. Rhino had left the animals just outside, and James was going to have his hands seriously full. He had to move Tusker, his Phiomia, Cuddles the Sarcosuchus, Mr. Tractor the Triceratops, Bowser the Colossochelys, Brownie the Ankylosaurus, Rufus, another Phiomia, and Bumper the Parasaurolophus.

He sighed, and got on with it. They followed him for a bit, until Cuddles decided to lay down, and the rest of the animals followed suit. James whistled sharply for them to follow, and they went forward a bit more before settling down again.

James began shouting now, "Hey! Hey! C'mon! Let's go! Move it!"

This time the animals actually obeyed and the entire misfit herd rumbled down to the other stable. James carefully put them each in their compartments and locked the stable doors. The stable was just at the parameters of Ark Village, and it was the biggest one in the village.

He had a run on Tusker, which was the fastest Phiomia any of the villagers had seen. He was just heading back when Shadow waved James over.

"What's the problem?" asked James.

"Brownie is missing. He must've wandered off."

They began hunting for the missing Ankylosaurus, and when they found him, he was stuck between two trees. James cut down one of the trees, freeing Brownie, who he rode up to the stables.

Brownie had a tan underbelly with chestnut brown armor and a dark brown stripe running down it with chocolate colored spikes. He returned the armored dinosaur to the stable, and then went out to harvest some dodos. With all the carnivores they had in the camp now, it took a good deal of meat to sustain them all, so they regularly harvested dodos to feed to the big carnivores. James collected two, and got their meat, before feeding them to Bloodrush the Carnotaurus. It belonged to Brian, who regularly took it out on little jaunts.

Just as he was leaving, Brian came in to ride him. Bloodrush was a very intimidating looking Carnotaurus, with yellow eyes and blood red scales. At a distance, somebody might even mistake it for an Alpha Carnotaurus, which were extremely rare.

James decided to join Brian on his run, while riding Tusker. They went along the beach and found a wild Dilophosaurus, who attacked James. Bloodrush made short work of it. He looked into the air and saw a Pteranodon come gliding down. Shadow was riding it. It was named Ptera, and Shadow used it to get around from place to place very quickly. This is when James decided to go out and tame a Pteranodon for himself. He returned to Ark Village, got a bow and tranquilizer arrows, and then got Brownie to ride.

He went out to the meadow, where Pteranodon seemed to congregate. He would've liked a green one, but he'd settle for any color. Brownie thundered and rumbled into the clearing like a huge chocolate colored tank. James looked around, and saw a Pteranodon land. He got off Brownie and looked at it. It was orange, with some maroon stripes running vertically down its beak. Like a quiet cat stalking its prey, James stalked what he hoped would be his new Pteranodon. He pulled out an arrow and shot. The Pteranodon screeched and fluttered up into the air. He shot the Pterosaur twice more, and it flew into a tree. James thought it may have blacked out and fallen down.

He looked over the entire tree but the Pteranodon was nowhere to be found. James was dumbfounded. The Pterosaur almost seemed to disappear. He did a lot of head scratching before he gave up and decided to look around a bit more.

He mounted Brownie again and moved. He went further down the meadow and saw another Pteranodon on the ground. It was a green Pteranodon! Shadow flew over on his Pteranodon and dropped a package on the ground full of tranq arrows. James waved up and Shadow waved back.

"How did he know?" asked James.

He knocked an arrow in the bow, carefully aimed for its shoulder, and shot. The Pteranodon screeched and flapped its huge wings as it clumsily ascended into the air. James shot again, hitting it. Before it got out of range, he shot it one last time. It jerked, flapped irregularly, before falling slowly into the ground. He ran up to it, and got a good look. It was green with very dark blue-grey stripes; quite a nice color.

Brian came over on Bloodrush and asked James if he had enough meat.

"I have enough meat. I think I'll be OK."

He saw Shadow rounding up his Stegosaurs further down the field. He grabbed out the flare gun Rhino had made and sent out a yellow firework into the air. It got Shadow's attention, and he flew over and landed a few yards away.

Shadow came over looking excited, "You got one!"

James smiled and pointed to it.

Shadow crouched down next the Pteranodon, "You know…I can watch over it if you want me to. You could come back in an hour or two."

James smiled, nodded, "That's actually a good idea. I need to collect some berries for the storehouse. Thanks. I'll be back in a bit."

Shadow nodded, sat down below a tree and looked off into the sky.

James decided to take out Spike, his Stegosaurus. He gathered some berries, and Spike browsed a bit on his own. As he was going back to his house a half hour later, he passed up Brian on his Pteranodon, and Rhino on his white and black striped Carnotaurus, Snowstorm.

All the sudden Snowstorm rushed past James, almost brushing against him. James dodged.

"What's going on?" James asked.

"Brian's speeding on his Pteranodon, and Snowstorm won't stop following him." Rhino replied.

James chuckled, "Speeding?! Give that man a ticket!"

As soon as he said this Snowstorm almost bowled him over again.

He returned to the Pteranodon an hour later, and it was getting dark. Brian and Shira had come to see it. Brian was still on Bloodrush and Shira was on her Carnotaurus, Shullershy. McClure also came over on his pride and joy: his Raptor Sandstorm. The taming process was coming along nicely.

Shira crouched and got a look at the Pteranodon, "He's a nice one. Do you have a name for it?"

James rubbed his chin, "No, not yet."

Shira looked into the air, as if to get inspiration from it, "OK...Let me think...Cyclone?"

James mulled it over.

Shira chuckled to herself, "I really can't think of any names right now."

Shadow spoke up, "What about Jet?"

James gave Shadow a look, and Shadow burst into laughter.

James took his shift watching the Pteranodon before quickly going off to get some more meat. He was almost out. He went inside the storage shed and saw some meat, which he gathered and took. He passed up his Apatosaurus, Littlefoot, and then reached his Pteranodon. Still asleep. it was dark now, and he wondered how much longer it would take. Shadow came by again.

"I still think Jet is a good name," he said.

James chuckled, "Only you could think of a name like that."

Shadow dismounted Ronen and continued. "How about Drake?"

James looked at Shadow, "You know what? You, Shira and Rhino all have the most pitiful imaginations."

Shadow laughed, "You're probably right!"

A few hours later, in the dark of night, he had a tamed Pteranodon. He named it Jetstream. He mounted, and the Pteranodon flew up. He had ridden Pteranodon before, but now he was riding his very own. He flew up almost into the clouds, far above Ark Village. When he got a bit lower, he flew over to the base at Lake Lore, and landed there. He decided to bed there for the night. As he entered the building, Shadow came from behind.

James said, "Look, I pretty much chose your name."

Shadow perked up, "Really?"

"Jetstream. Happy now?"