CHAPTER 226

Daniel hung among the vines watching and waiting. The brachiosaurus was stumbling further away. He couldn't see it anymore, but he could still hear it crashing against trees and snapping down branches. As the huge beast staggered deeper into the jungle it grew with quietness. The shifting of the trees became audible. Daniel watched the swaying vines around him relax only to be moved now by the air. His teeth tightened on the blade in his mouth. Daniel's eyes panned the area.

"Where the hell are you, Skeksi?" he whispered.

"Come out, you ugly buzzard."

Daniel's neck hairs prickled when he heard the utahraptor's purr. He let go of the vines with his right hand and slid the blade from between his teeth. He heard the purr again, but it had moved. It was behind him. Daniel listened and waited. There came another purr at his left, then at his right. More silence followed. A raptor cawed above him. He looked up only to see the canopy. In his peripherals there was movement, but it was gone before he could focus on any of it. Around him three different wakes of swaying vines were settling. Silence followed. Below him a shadow sprinted across the ground, and he caught a glimpse of it. Vulture's purr slithered through the air again, though Daniel could not tell where it was coming from.

With the tip of his knife Daniel reached out and parted the curtain of vines around him only to see more vines. He turned in another direction and did the same thing only to glean the same result. Daniel placed the knife back between his teeth with a quiet metal clink and reached out for the vines ahead of him. Gripping on, he swung over and dangled again.

Once more Daniel took the knife and parted the vines ahead of him. As he drew the curtain of growth aside this time he saw a full mouth of snarling teeth and a foul pair of eyes. The sinister face he was looking at was framed in wrinkly scaly skin, and was none other than Vulture.

To Daniel's right and left two velociraptors emerged. All three hunters used their talons to grip the vines as they moved closer to him. They hissed, and their lips curled high enough to bear their gums.

Daniel's eyes shifted between the three attackers. He was surrounded.

They all shrieked and jumped at him at once.

Daniel released his grip on the vines. "Wrong floor!"

He dropped thirty feet before using his knife and his boots as a break on the vines. Scraping down the last several feet Daniel hit the ground with a thud and his knees buckled. Springing up he began to run. Above him he heard a thrashing among the vines as the raptors furiously worked their way after him. Daniel did not get far at all before Vulture struck the dirt behind him. To Daniel's great surprise Vulture's impact created a shockwave through the ground that brought him to his hands and knees. It took Daniel a second to realize that the earth beneath him had actually shifted downward by six inches. Daniel turned around and looked at Vulture. She wasn't moving either. They exchanged looks, and Daniel could tell they were both realizing the same thing at once. The ground beneath them was hollow. There was a lava tube chamber below them, and all the brachiosaur's stomping around a moment ago had compromised its integrity.

There was more thrashing among the vines above, and Daniel and Vulture both realized that the two velociraptors were about to come down. With a look of panic Vulture barked at them, but it was too late. The oblivious pair of velociraptors dropped down beside Vulture, and there was a pause shared between Daniel and the utahraptor as they waited to see what happened.

With a boom the ground underneath Vulture and the two velociraptors crumbled in, and the rock below Daniel's boots slanted sharply toward the cave in. As he slid down into the mouth of a dark cavern he snatched at the vines around him. Daniel caught one as his feet flew off the edge. He dangled for a moment, kicking and swaying until he got a good foothold. As soon as he applied more weight to the unstable ground beneath him the rock and earth crumbled away, and he was left suspended freely above the opening.

Daniel looked down into the lava tube and saw Vulture laying at the bottom with the other two raptors. All three of them were stirring, and none looked badly injured. It was too high a jump for them to get out from there, but Daniel wagered they knew a way out through the tunnel system, and it would not be long before they were after him again.

"Damn," Daniel rubbed his forehead. "If only I had my pistols. It'd be like shootin' fish in a barrel."

Vulture got to her feet and looked up at Daniel. She growled and sneered. Her wrinkly skin twitched, and her plumage vibrated with detest.

Daniel tipped his brow and gave a little salute with his knife. "Better luck next time, Skeksi."