CHAPTER 61

The pterosaurs dove off the crater rim and soared overhead. Their wings stretched an impressive span of forty feet, larger than any other in the known fossil record. The gray and tan skin membranes that formed the wings were like those on a bat, but the structure was entirely different. Only the arm and one long finger bone on either side supported them.

Kyra had her neck craned back to watch them. "They're monstrous! They're like airplanes."

Seth squinted above him. There were three of them making a wide circle over the terrain. "Do you think those are qu-quetzal-coatlus?" He was remembering the name he'd seen pinned to the wall in the abandoned office.

Kyra shrugged like it didn't make a difference to her. "I guess so."

Seth shielded his eyes from the brightness of the sky with a hand so he could get a better look. Their necks were very long, and unlike herons they didn't tuck them in when they flew, so it made them appear more the way one might imagine a dragon to look when in flight. A shorter pair of legs trailed behind the pterosaurs. There were tiny feet with tiny claws that only looked suited for walking and perching, and seemed to lack all the menace that a set of eagle talons would have.

Seth asked, "Do you think they're dangerous?"

"Beats me." Kyra was scanning around on the ground now.

"Doesn't that concern you?"

"No."

"Not even a little?"

"No. They look like big pelicans to me. I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Well, you were concerned earlier. Maybe we should hide under the trees or something."

"That was before, and this is now, Seth. Someone is bound to come and pick us up in a matter of minutes. There's nothing to worry about anymore."

"What are you doing?"

Kyra was inching her way down the short steep slope that led to the beach. "Going for a swim. It's hot, man."

"Don't you think we ought to stay near the camera so they know where we are?"

Kyra reached the base and dipped her sneakers in the sandy pool at the bottom. "I'm not going anywhere." She splashed in up to her waist and then sat down so only her head and neck were showing. Around her the water churned with the spilling of the waterfall.

Seth looked up at the pterosaurs. They were descending in a slow and steady spiral. "Kyra, I don't think you should do that. I think we should hide."

Kyra glanced at the quetzalcoatlus. "They're not gonna hurt you. They're just flying in circles." She kicked around in the pool. "Honestly, Seth, you need to relax before you give yourself a heart attack."

Seth looked up at the circling pterosaurs again. "Where's the other one? There were three. Now there's only two."

With a rush of air the third quetzalcoatlus appeared over the trees, its wings thrusting so much wind at Seth that he had to close his eyes. A blasting of sand kicked up around him as the flying reptile flapped toward the ground. There was a thud as the beast nearly landed right on top of Seth. When he opened his eyes the pterosaur was standing on all fours, with its wings folded up beside it the same way a World War II plane would stow them on an aircraft carrier. From this position the animal looked like a cross between a bat and a giraffe. Its lanky forelimbs and long neck certainly gave it the height of a giraffe, and as it took a step forward it moved like one too.

Seth was standing in the pterosaur's shadow. He fumbled back toward the beach on quaking legs and almost stumbled over the waterfall. With his heels teetering over the ledge he caught himself.

From the sharp tip of its narrow beak to the edge of a short mohawk crest at the back of its skull the quetzalcoatlus' head was comparable to the length of a grown human from head to toe. A pair of fierce eyes looked down at Seth from the height of a modest tree. They were in no way welcoming. Seth could hear the pterosaur sniffing the air and see the dark pupils sizing him up. With a bellow that sounded like the caw of a giant crow the quetzalcoatlus charged on all fours. Tromping forward like a gorilla on stilts it butted Seth with the long top edge of its beak, knocking him over the waterfall.

Seth landed in the pool below with a smack and dunked beneath the water.

"Seth!" Kyra dove over and pulled him up by the shoulders.

He coughed. His eyes fluttered open. A gash on his forehead was bleeding into his eye.

"Are you alright?" Kyra was propping him so he wouldn't slip back under the water. He seemed flustered and limp. "Put your feet under you, Seth."

From the top of the waterfall the quetzalcoatlus shrieked at them. The other two circling above were diving lower.

"Come on, Seth!" Kyra drug him out of the water and they ran along the beach.

The pterosaur launched from the waterfall and overshot them with a few quick power flaps. Landing ahead of them it wheeled around on all fours to face Kyra and Seth head on.

The two of them stopped in their tracks. A boulder of lava rock stood to either side of the quetzalcoatlus and it was guarding the passage between them. Behind Kyra and Seth the other two pterosaurs dropped out of the sky and surrounded them from the back.

Kyra squeezed Seth's hand. "Now would not be a good time to say I told you so."

Seth inched closer to her as the quetzalcoatlus closed in on them. "I was saving that one for later."