Chapter 21- talk

"Ok let's talk." Avery said after catching her breath. She wanted to go home before any more danger came. They could hear loud calls behind them, like deep bellowing moans. If they were the calls of herbivores, there would certainly be carnivores stalking them. She looked out at the water, legs drawn tight against her chest to conserve some warmth. The sun was warm but was cancelled out by the cold wind blowing over the empty beach.

She shivered, both out of cold and fear, when she saw a long fin cut through the water before a large blue-black shape came bursting out of the water, crunching down on another smaller shape. Mosasaurs. She thought. That could have been me.

"You should join me. I missed you Avery, you were always my daughter. I've missed you and your father." Helen said facing her.

"This is a hell of a way to show it. You could have killed me. Twice!" Avery yelled, Scottish accent getting deeper as she stood up, her slim figure towering over the woman. "So far all you have brought is pain and death. Living in the past is exactly the same, and it's even harder to look after yourself when you know very little about the true dangers out there or even what time period you're in. Just look at the arthropleurid, we thought they were non-poisonous but it turns out they are."

"But you've seen the beauty as well, the dragonfly was beautiful. There is always danger in beauty. Every rose has its thorns."

"Yes, but I rather look at the beauty somewhere I know. Knowing absolutely nothing scares me."

"It gets lonely being by yourself for years, living in constant fear knowing you only have yourself to rely on."

"You had 8 years to come back, and now you decide your lonely? I don't buy it." Avery said while crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at her mother.

"It's the truth. I've always loved you and your father."

"Even after you slept with his teaching assistant and best friend?" Helen flinched at the venom in Avery's tone. "Yes I know about you and Stephen. How could you betray us like that?"

"I don't want to talk about this." Helen finally said getting up. "It's clear you're not going to stay with me so I'll take you back to Nick."

"This will take you to the area with all the anomalies." Helen said pointing to the anomaly set within a large dark cave, lighting up the space and throwing dark menacing shadows across the walls.

"How do I know it's not some kind of trap." Avery said narrowing her eyes at her mother.

Helen sighed, "I would do nothing to hurt you and I don't want to lose you."

"You already did." Avery whispered, the word sounding loud in the quietness of the cave. She turned and walked through the anomaly, not trusting herself to look back.

"It's incredible." Nick said looking at a video recording of the anomalies behind the one in the fridge.

"It's the spaghetti junction of anomalies." Connor noted.

"There's no way I could follow them." Stephen said, he had no idea what anomaly Helen had dragged Avery through. They were gone by the time he had rushed through. But a few moments later she walked through the anomaly furthest away from them. Her clothes looked soggy and slightly burned, and black marks covered her bare arms, with little smudges on her face, but otherwise she was fine. "It would be like running into a Hall of Mirrors. At least Avery made in back in one piece," he shot a glance towards Avery who had changed into some spare clothes they had in the 4x4 "Sort of."

"Let me guess, not one sabre-toothed cat in sight." She stated as a statement.

"Not even a kitten."

"You tried to follow her." Claudia said looking towards Nick, they both knew she meant Helen.

"To stop her." He replied. "What possible reason could I have for wanting her to escape? I want answers more than anyone. I was also trying to stop her from taking Avery."

"Sure." Claudia said. "Did you see any saber-tooth cats when Helen dragged you through the anomaly?"

"No." Avery replied. "We ended up in the carboniferous then some other time period with mosasaurs." Avery had no idea what time period they were in was. It was a scary thought, not knowing the date as you jump from anomaly to anomaly. She wondered how her mother could have lived like this for 8 years, if the little time she spent here disorientated her. Perhaps you just get used to it, or maybe you never do.

"What else happened?" Claudia asked, but before Avery could reply they heard chirping noises from the anomaly.

"Incoming." Ryan called out as he and the other soldiers raised their guns towards the anomaly. They all turned and walked a bit closer, while still staying behind the protection of the soldiers. They tensed as chirps and roaring noises could be heard before jumping as a bunch of dodos came bursting through. One knocked a soldier over while the rest scattered amongst the group.

"Round them up, everybody. Don't let them get out!" Nick instructed as they split up to chase after the dodo's.

Avery went with Claudia and stood on one aisle where a dodo was pecking at its shadowy reflection in the shiny, silver metal of the kitchen cupboards. She stood there as Claudia went around the other side and tried herding it towards her. The creature turned and started running away from her, but noticing Avery it tried going through a gap in the cupboards then turned and ran towards her realizing it lead to nowhere.

Avery slowly backed out leading it towards a door Nick was holding open that lead to an empty first aid office. She saw Connor, Abby, Stephen and a scientist surround another dodo, trying to figure out how to capture it without their fingers being snapped off by its hard beak. Stephen found a solution by placing a black plastic bin over it.

After Avery's and Claudia's dodo was in the office Nick lead another one in by distracting it with his jacket, a trick she had seen him use with other wild birds. "Go on, get in. In you go. In there." He closed the door behind. She heard the two dodo's already in squawked at each other.

"Woo hoo!" Connor said breathlessly as he leaned against an industrial bench.

The bin with the dodo under it moves, and Stephen grabs it and holds it down.

"They're great!" Nick whispered with a wide smile. It was wonderful to see ancient creatures that could only be imagined in flesh, based off observations in modern day animals and fossilized remains.