CHAPTER 306
Arby, Diego, and Baselton all fell on their backs as a rush of flying creatures hurled at them. Arby felt claws on his skin. They were tiny, but sharp, and dug into his shoulders and clavicle as flapping wings beat around his face. He grabbed at the animal and tore it away, throwing it aside with both hands.
Arby sprang to his feet and was ready to run, but the situation around him was hardly one of danger or alarm. As his breath settled he looked around. Diego and Baselton were still on the ground where they fell. Dr. Levine and Kelly were hovering close by. They looked startled, but that was rapidly altering to expressions of wonder. Their eyes were trained on Baselton, who still had one of the creatures clinging to his stomach.
It took no time at all to see that the animal was no bat at all but something else entirely. The wingspan was a little over two feet, and the bone structure was all wrong for a bat. It had a compact body covered in what looked like fur and a slender neck. The head was bony and scaly. It had a beak but was not reminiscent of a bird. The creature's eyes were wide with caution and blinked up at the people around it.
"My God," Dr. Levine crouched. "It's a pterosaur."
Kelly squatted beside her. "It's a baby."
Dr. Levine nodded. "It appears to be so."
Baselton made a nervous laugh as he stared face to face with the little winged creature. "Is it dangerous?"
Dr. Levine smiled. "I think you're safe, Mr. Baselton, but I wouldn't put your fingers near its mouth."
Arby began to feel silly for having been so scared of the creature a moment ago. Although it was a strange hybrid of a bird, bat, and reptile in appearance its demeanor was very akin to a duckling or chick. It was the down like fluff that really made it so, yet at the same time it still crawled somewhat like a bat as it scaled over Baselton's belly toward his head.
Arby crouched with the others. His face brightened into a full grin. "It's a prehistoric animal. I mean, there's a real, live, living, breathing, extinct animal right here in front of us." He laughed, "This is unreal."
"On the contrary, Mr. Benton. This seems to be very real." Dr. Levine reached out and gently touched the ends of the hairs on the pterosaur's back. "Very real indeed."
The little pterosaur squeaked and tucked its neck.
Dr. Levine laughed and drew her hand away. "My apologies, little one."
Kelly was dissecting every detail of the creature with her eyes. "Maybe some kind of pteranodon?"
Arby nodded, "that might fit." He pointed. "The shape of the beak fits, and look at the crest forming on the back of its head." He shifted his finger to a nub on the posterior of the animal's cranium.
The pterosaur was still inching closer to Baselton's face, and Dr. Levine could see that he was getting nervous about it. "Perhaps we should move the little one elsewhere."
Baselton was eager to nod in agreement.
Dr. Levine nodded to Kelly. "Ms. Curtis, your assistance please."
The two of them cradled their palms beneath the baby pterosaur and gingerly lifted it.
When the creature began to flap and squeak Dr. Levine said, "Mr. Benton."
Arby rested a gentle palm on the furry back of the animal, and together they slowly moved it aside.
With another squeak the baby pterosaur slipped from beneath Arby's hand and flapped onto a nearby fence where there were other young pterosaurs that had fled from beneath the tarp. The little creatures chirped and flapped their wings. Some of them pecked at each other, and a few watched the people around them with casual precaution.
Baselton pushed to his feet and took a less nervous gander at the prehistoric creatures. "This is great. I mean, this is magnificent!" He spread his hands out like someone describing how big a fish they had caught. His thick fingers moved as if he were tickling the keys of a piano. "We have to find the rest."