CHAPTER TWO: THE PHANTOM RETURNS


"You're going where exactly?" Baylene asked Aladar.

"I'm looking for Neera's old friend Ayala."

"Do you have any idea where she might be?"

"No."

"Well, then it will be tough to find her." remarked Eema.

"We've got to try at least." Aladar said.

"How long do you think you will be gone?" Baylene asked.

"Until we can find out what happened to Ayala." Aladar replied.

"That could take forever. Who's going to watch the herd in the meantime?"

"You could."

"Me? I don't know if I'm up to it. I'm getting quite old."

"You don't look that old to me."

"I'm glad you don't think that I look that old for 105."

"You're 105?"

"My 106th hatch day is coming up in a week, actually."

"Wow, congratulations!"

"You seriously think that I could manage the whole herd?"

"We're in the Nesting Grounds, not in the desert with carnivore everywhere."

"This place has been attacked before, back when I was younger."

"You were here when the attacks happened?"

"Yes. My husband was killed in one of the attacks."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"It's why I didn't return here until the meteors came. It was when Kron felt that we had no choice."

"Did they ever find the Phantom of the Nesting Grounds? Whatever it was letting all those predators in?"

"No. They hadn't when we last left. And Ayala was the last one here after Kron took everyone else; seeing as she's not here now, we don't know if she ever found the Phantom or not."

"So, the Phantom could still be out there then."

"I'm afraid so."

"How do you think that they've been undetected for so long?"

"No idea. Maybe they're some kind of ghost."

"Hope not. I don't think we can stop a ghost. Or at least I haven't the foggiest idea of how to fight a ghost."

"Aladar, we need to get going!" Neera reminded him.

"Right. Bye. And good luck." Aladar said to Baylene.

"Any idea where we should look first?" Neera asked him.

"How about the hills on the other side of the Nesting Grounds?" Aladar suggested.

"Let's check there first. Hopefully we can find her there and be back here before sundown."

After the two had gone, a voice said "No, I don't think so. If I have anything to say about the matter, you two will never be making it back alive to the Nesting Grounds. They are mine!"

Sometime later, the two had reached the hills. However, Ayala wasn't there nor was there any sign of her having been there recently either. "Well, she's not here." Neera said.

"I really wasn't expecting her to be. We'd have heard word of her by now if she was here. Still, we had to check." Aladar replied.

"So where should we look next?"

"How about by that large river?"

"Sounds good to me."

They searched both sides of the banks of the large river but still couldn't locate Ayala. "Nope, not here. She must have gone quite a ways away." Aladar said.

"Which way, though?"

"One guess is as good as another."

"I guess it doesn't matter right now. The sun is setting and it's not wise to look around in the dark after we've been searching all day and are tired." They began to look for a place to rest. It wouldn't do to rest out here in the open. With a herd they would have been a lot safer, but alone, they were a tempting target for predators. Luckily, they soon found a cave to rest in for the night.

"Goodnight Neera. I hope we can have better luck at guessing where Ayala is than we did today." Aladar said, curling up beside her.

"Goodnight Aladar."

As the two went to sleep, a figure watched them from several feet away. "End of the line you two!" she said. The figure, hidden in the shadows, then turned to half a dozen raptors. "I know where you can get food. Go into that cave there." The raptors eagerly headed toward the cave.

Aladar, meanwhile, tossed in his sleep. He dreamed that he was inside of an egg and was being flown somewhere. He'd had this dream before a few times but not in many years. At the point in his dream where his egg suddenly started to fall, he woke up. He heard something outside the cave moving toward them. Neera was fast asleep beside him, unaware that anything was amiss.

"Neera, dear, wake up, something is outside!" he said, shaking his wife.

"What?" she asked sleepily.

"I don't know."

"Let's go check. We don't anything sneaking up on us."

As they came closer, they realized that it was a pack of raptors. "Quiet, don't let them see us." he whispered.

The two slowly crept away from the cave. They hadn't moved far from the cave, however, before the raptors spotted them. "They've spotted us!" Neera cried.

The two bolted. "After them! Don't let them get away!" the Phantom told the carnivores.

"I thought I saw the shadow of something by those raptors. Whatever it was, it wasn't a raptor, and they weren't attacking it." Aladar said.

"Maybe it's a tree or something."

"Negative. It wasn't staying in one place nor was it moving back and forth like a tree branch would. And there's something else. I think it was talking to the raptors."

"Talking to them?"

"Yes."

"And did you get a good look at this thing's shadow?"

"Unfortunately, no. It was really stretched and seemed to be something about our sized, but it might just be a trick of the light. The thing could be smaller."

"What do you think…get down!" The two ducked, and just in time, for three raptors jumped past them, snapping at where their necks had been.

WHACK! Aladar slapped one of the raptors in the head with his tail, knocking him over. The two iguanodons bolted. The raptors chased after them. "We need to get back to the Nesting Grounds!" Aladar said.

"Yes, but we also need to these guys first."

"Agreed. We don't want to lead them back. I think that's what that thing wants."

"How would you know what it wants?"

"I can't be sure, but something just crossed my mind."

"What?"

"That that thing is the Phantom."

"The Phantom?"

"Yes. And maybe it wants us to lead the raptors back to the Nesting Grounds."

"Whether that is the Phantom or not, I agree we shouldn't be leading them back to the Nesting Grounds."

"I say we lead them away from the Nesting Grounds. How about across that river we passed half an ago?"

"Yes, and we go for a swim and they get drowned."

"Good idea."

As expected, the raptors followed them into the water. The two made it to deep water, kicking their legs to stay afloat. The raptors, of course, didn't see that the water was over their head in time and sank and drowned.

"Let's see if we can find this Phantom before returning to the Nesting Grounds," Aladar said.

However, despite searching for over an hour, they were unable to locate the Phantom. "Guess it left," Neera sighed as the two headed back to the Nesting Grounds.

As soon as the two had turned their backs and began to head back toward the Nesting Grounds, a shadow began to appear behind them. The Phantom had come out of its hiding spot to watch them leave. These two are going to be trouble. the Phantom thought.