A good night's sleep probably wouldn't have done much to cool my anger toward Cross, although I'd never know. Spending the night fending off mosquitoes had kept me from sleeping more than a few hours at a time. When Cross strode confidently into my hut sporting his biggest grin, it took all the self-control I had to keep from punching him in the face.

Seeing my anger he dropped the smile, "We have something amazing here, and I knew that with your past you'd leave…"

"You don't know anything about it. I'm through with archaeology and I'm through with you."

"We found a velociraptor."

"I don't care what you found. I swore never to go on a dig again. And a raptor none the less."

I had been on the Mongolia dig with Osborn in 1924 when the velociraptor was first discovered. Only a student at the time, and trying desperately to impress Osborn, I spent all my time studying the specimen, ignoring my mail for two weeks, including the letter informing me of the death of my fiancée.

Cross was undaunted, "Well, you don't seem to be able to leave right now, so wouldn't it be better to spend your time resurrecting your career in stead of wasting your family's money."

With all my might I tried to sum up some enthusiasm for the work ahead, "Is it a complete skeleton?"

To my surprise, Devon laughed in my face.

"What are you laughing at?"

"My dear boy, there is no skeleton."

Not yet struck with what Cross was implying, I asked, "What are you talking about?"

Before he spoke, the weight of his previous statement hit me like a tidal wave. "We have a living velociraptor on the island."

I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead. The possibility had always been discussed: a habitat isolated from the rest of the world that contained an otherwise extinct species. Confronted with the idea of a living dinosaur was quite another matter though.

Searching desperately for words, I stammered, "Where is it?"

"Now don't be concerned, but it escaped us."

I felt the cold sweat returning.

"Some of the local boys found it in the jungle near the center of the island about a week ago. Luckily I was with them, otherwise they might have killed it. The animal was apparently sick, and noticeably weak. We didn't have much trouble restraining it. This was when I first called you. In the intervening days, however, the animal recovered, and began searching for weaknesses in the fence we had put up around it. Apparently it found one. It sticks to the center of the island, eats the pigs we believe."

"What if it doesn't stay at the center of the island? How were you planning to capture it again?"

"That's the second reason you're here. As an expert on raptors, you are going to advise us."

"Kill it. Kill it before it kills you."

"You can't be serious, Eric, as a scientist…"

I had heard enough. "The knights in medieval England killed of the remnants of the Dinosaurs to insure their survival and we owe ourselves no less."

"Don't start that again Eric. Modern science has all but proven that there were nearly sixty million years separating man and the Dinosaurs."

My theory wasn't popular in modern circles, but as a student of medieval England and ancient Japan, the similarities between the stories of giant fire breathing dragons, and the skeletons I had helped uncover were not lost on me.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a blood-curdling scream from across the village.

Turning towards Cross, I said dryly, "It sounds like your raptor is tired of pork."