Chapter 2

A person was brushing loose dirt off a dark grey, almost rock-like bone. More people could be seen brushing off more bones. Another was hand-scooping dirt out of the eye socket of the skull. At least six people are working on uncovering a complete fossilized skeleton, trying to excavate it.

A woman with shoulder-length black hair and blue tips came up the hill towards the skeleton. "Dr. Strauss. Dr. Scarlet. We're ready to try again," she said.

An all white-haired woman named Mirajane Strauss stood up, her straight-length white hair, she wore a white flannel shirt rolled up to her elbows with gray gloves, pants and sunglasses.

"I hate computers," she said to herself.

A woman with beautiful red hair named Erza Scarlet, Mira's best friend, stood up next to her wearing a red shirt rolled up to her elbows and tied around her midriff and blue jeans. She wore a tan safari hat and sunglasses. She tied a red bandana around her forehead.

"The feeling's mutual," Erza said with a chuckle. They both walked down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill, a pair of young men put a black shotgun shell into the top of a strange looking machine with wheels. They locked it into place and stood on it. One of the men pulled the pin on the shell and the machine shook as it fired the shell into the ground, creating a cloud of dust. While the men ejected the shell and reset the machine, a crowd gathered around a tent where a computer station was set up. Mirajane and Erza were at the front, looking at the screen.

"How long does this usually take?" Erza asked the young man operating the computer.

"It should bring an immediate return," the man said as he typed on the keyboard and turned on the screen, "Shoot the radar into the ground and the bone bounces the image back." He started talking to himself as he worked. The screen started out blurry, but as the man continued typing, it became clearer, showing a complete skeleton, like what the team on the hill was already digging up. "This new program is incredible. Few more years of development and we won't even have to dig anymore."

"Where's the fun in that?" Mira asked, making Erza laugh.

"It's a little distorted, but I don't think it's the computer," the young tech said.

"It's not," Erza said, approaching the computer. "Post-mortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments. Velociraptor."

"Yeah. Good shape, too," Mirajane said, taking a closer look at the computer screen and pointing at it. "It's five, six feet high. I'm guessing nine feet long. Look at the extraord…" Mirajane stopped as the screen frizzed out when she accidentally touched it.

"What'd you do?" the tech asked as he worked to fix the image.

"He touched it," Erza said with a laugh. "Dr. Stauss' not machine compatible."

"Hell, they've got it in for me," Mirajane said. "And look at the half-moon shaped bones in the wrists. It's no wonder these guys learned how to fly." The people around her began to chuckle. "No, seriously," she said, turning to face them. "Alright, well, maybe dinosaurs have more in common with present-day birds, than they do with reptiles. Look at the pubic bone; turned backwards, just like a bird. Look at the vertebrae; full of air sacks and hollows, just like a bird. And even the word 'raptor' means 'bird of prey'."

"That doesn't look very scary," said a voice from behind. Everyone turned to see a short, chubby boy in a t-shirt, shorts and a ball cap speaking, "Looks more like a six-foot turkey." This elicited even more chuckling from the crowd.

"A turkey, huh?" Mira said, putting her hands on her hips and giving the kid her full attention.

"Oh, no," Erza groaned. "Here we go."

"Okay, try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous period. You see this six-foot turkey as you enter a clearing. He moves like a bird, lightly bobbing his head. And you keep still because you think that maybe his visual acuity is based on movement, like the T-Rex. He'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not the Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes, not from the front, but from the side." She made a whistle as she brought a finger from each hand in front of the kid. "The other two raptors, you didn't even know were there. Because Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see. He uses coordinated attack patterns, and he is a hunting force today." She circled around the back of the kid and brought out something from her back pocket. "And he slashes at you with this." She showed it to the kid, it was a long, curved fossil claw that she held in one hand between her index and middle fingers. "A six-inch, retractable claw, like a razor, on the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite you like a jaguar or a lion. He slashes at you here," she cuts across the boy's chest with the claw, "or here," she cut along one of his thighs, "or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you. So, you know, try to show a little respect."

"Okay," the boy whispered. Mirajane started back up the hill to the main dig with a small smile on her face. Erza soon caught up with her.

"Hey, Mira, if you wanted to scare the kid, you could have pulled a gun on him, ya know," she said.

"Yeah, I know. Kids," she said exasperated. "You want to have one of those."

"Not a smart ass mouth kid like that, but I think a kid coming from your bloodline could be intriguing. I mean, what's so wrong with kids?"

"Ah, Erza, look, they're messy, noisy, expensive, cheap and they smell."

"Come one, they don't smell."

"Some of them smell. Especially babies."

"Give me a break," Erza said, laughing.

Suddenly, a helicopter came over the rise and began to set down near the camp, throwing up dust and dirt, and endangering the bones. Mirajane and Erza ran back down the hill to preserve their hard work, yelling at their students to cover it up. Erza moved to help them lash a tarp over the bones, while Mira ran up to the helicopter cockpit and began yelling at the pilot.

"Just cut it, will ya. Shut it down!" she yelled, but the pilot began pointing to the trailer, trying to tell her something. Giving up, Mira ran to the trailer and stormed in.