206
JUAN FRANCISCO BLANCO
Around the campsite the land lay flat for almost a kilometer
towards the interior then it gradually rose in elevation. Out in
the distance there were scattered large White Oak, Black Walnut,
and Shagbark Hickory trees. Most of the territory was open
ground that had an abundant supply of red clover interspersed
with bluegrass, Bermuda and broom grass.
As Tital walked out of camp he told everyone, “Get your longbows, and let’s clear Kaóc Island of Gigantoraptors!”
Viviana didn’t wait a moment, telling Moka to have his tribe
fan out and start collecting eggs. With the woven baskets in their
hands, the tall grass was carefully searched. As soon as the monkeys filled a basket, they signaled to Jonathan with an upraised
arm. Jonathan then pointed a finger and levitated the woven
basket. He was in charge of moving the baskets to the edge of
the hill by the camp. Viviana took over then, levitating the line of
baskets down to the waiting sailboats on the beach. Lena and
Kuó then took charge, and stacked the baskets safely on board.
They then took stout hemp ropes and secured the baskets of
fragile eggs for the trip planned for later that evening.
More than five hundred eggs had been harvested without any
adult Gigantoraptors noticing what was happening, and causing
problems for the harvesters. But suddenly trouble erupted. One
of the baskets full of the grey-speckled eggs was sitting at the
edge of the camp. It was waiting in line to be levitated down to
the sailboats by Viviana. She had just pointed her finger at it, and
moved it upward, when one of the eggs cracked open. It had
hatched. The tiny baby Gigantoraptor, all brown and green, with
specks of yellow on his leathery skin, lifted his head on its long
neck and looked around once before starting to emit some rather
ear-piercing screeching!