We all stared at the water in dismay.

Cynthia gave me a look like I should be doing something.

"I can't swim. Could you bring the boat closer to shore? I mean, that is where she's going..."

"I'm more concerned about her drowning..." She put her hands on her hips as she watched Cassie expertly crawl stroke away from us. "The shore's not that close. If we move the boat, she'll freak out and swallow water..."

Cynthia glanced at Mr. Arnold.

The man raised his hands. "Don't look at me. The best I can do is dog paddle."

"Fine!" The woman dove into the water.

Webbigail hopped on the gunwale and dove right in. Amazing swimmer, but not really sure what she intended to do once she reached shore. Buttface, though, grunted "Unh-uh", shaking her head and backing away from the water.

I frowned at John for a moment, then snatched a life preserver from a crate, buckling it around my body. Reeeeally snug fit, by the way. Anyway, in I jumped, frantically paddling after the two.

Yeah, yeah. Soooo not heroic, right? Not my fault. Hammond never took me to the Dinosaur YMCA for swim lessons, you know, for the same reasons why they didn't have swim classes at Alcatraz.

Did I mention he removed that entry from my encyclopedia set? It almost looked like he photocopied the crusty encyclopedia entry about Alcatraz from the actual Alcatraz library and stapled it to the place where the other one had been.

Cassie made it to shore before I did, hacking and spearing Teenysauruses right and left.

Compys are small but mighty in number, and a couple children made for an even fight. By the time I'd paddled into the shallows, Cassie had a bunch of ripped clothing and scratches all over, her new acquaintance screaming as the rest of the Teenysaurus pack dragged her off into the jungle.

I mean, Cynthia was also present, but she'd come unarmed, I guess intent on just bringing Cassie back to the boat. The woman now shrieked and fought to pull little dinosaurs off her face and hair, harmlessly punting the ones attached to her legs off into the sand.

And Webby? Well, these things were basically the same height, so when he butted them with her head, she received some nasty bites and cuts in exchange. "Papa! They are hurting!" she shrieked in Parasaurolophus, rushing out to me on the water.

Pretty embarrassing, that. She could swim circles around me. "Why are you wearing that orange thing?"

"Papa can't swim," I gasped. "You're a chunky biped. How can you swim?"

"I dunno..." Webby circled me. "That human is a chunky biped...I just did what came naturally...Are you saying I'm fat?"

"No, I'm saying your species is pretty weighty."

As soon as I had sand under my scaly feet, I splashed my way to shore, giving my most ferocious shriek.

For a brief second, all the little bitty dinosaurs froze in terror. Even Cassie flinched, slowly craning her neck to see what made such a terrible roar.

But then she noticed the life preserver and chortled through her nose. "Albert?"

A Compsognathus scampered up to me, bobbing its head, chicken-like. Stripy green-brown, standing on its hind legs. "Hey, man, nice orange neck thing!"

All the rest of the tiny dinosaurs fell over backwards, pointing at me, rolling with laughter, even the ones perched on Cynthia and Cassie's bodies (they fell on the sand) and the ones that had been dragging her new friend away (because they wanted to laugh too).

"You know, I was thinking about eating some fish today, but why not have a few appetizers?" I stuffed the little dinosaur into my mouth. Chomp, chomp. "Mmmm! That wasn't too bad!"

The other Teenysauruses stopped laughing, gaping at me as I snacked on a couple more of their friends.

Thinking quickly, Cassie rushed into the foliage with her knife. Compys let out anguished peeps as she splattered saurian blood on jungle leaves.

"Cassie!" I shouted. "Hey! Don't get lost!"

I lost sight of her.

The puttering sound behind me indicated that John had reached shore, but I and Cynthia were already rushing into the jungle, Cynthia armed with a pointy piece of driftwood. "Cassie! Come back here!"

The blonde kid came running back our way as fast as her short little legs could carry her, a dozen Teenysauruses nipping at her heels. After I snacked on a couple more of these itty bitty lizards, the dispersed somewhere into the ferns and elephant leaves. The girl rushed sobbing into Cynthia's arms.

I darted out further into the jungle, nibbling on the little dinosaurs brave enough to sink their teeth into my legs. "Cassie! Where are you?"

Silence answered me.

"All right...Guess we're doing this oldschool...bloodhound powers activate." I sniffed the leaves all around me for the appropriate little girl scent.

Buttface scampered up beside me to help, but mostly she just peed and growled at the Compys that nipped her.

A red haired face emerged from a clump of leaves. "Albert! Help me with these guys! They're—"

Her arms flailed as she dropped down a hole with a scream.

"Cassie!" I rushed to the place where I'd last seen her, staring down.

The child dangled by a thin vine, over a chamber crafted from chiseled stone.

Weird little place. Although overgrown with moss and vines and stuff, you could still see someone had carved a bunch of small loincloth clad...cartoon guys all over the gray limestone walls.

I and Cassie seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Hey neat!" she made no motion to climb back up. "Albert, is that girl okay?"

"Yeah, I thi—"

"Cool!" she hopped down the rest of the way. "Hey! No fair! You can't explore an ancient Mayan ruin!"

"Yeah? Watch me!"

For a few glorious moments, she happily wandered around the chamber, examining all the carvings while whistling the `Slave Children's Crusade' tune from Temple of Doom.

Cynthia leaned over the hole. "Cassie! Are you all right?"

"Yeah!" the girl called back. "I'm going to decipher these...hieroglyphics and find their treasure vault!"

Cynthia blew a raspberry. "Cassie, can we play Indiana Joneslater? It's dangerous down there!"

"It's okay! I don't see any snakes or dinosaurs or booby traps!"

The woman clenched her hands into fists, making dirt crumble into the chamber. "Young lady, this thing could collapse at any second! Get your little butt back up here this instant!"

Cassie scoffed. "Jeez, you sound like my mother! Look, the Mayans were smart guys that made stuff that really lasts, like that thing in Machu Picchu, I'm sure it's—"

"Cass, the Incans built Machu Picchu."

"So...maybe they built this place too! I mean, look at this floor. It's—"

The girl shrieked as limestone gave way beneath her feet, and she disappeared into the darkness below.