THE BLUE FEATHER THE BLUE FEATHER | Page 216

207 THE BLUE FEATHER “RRRRRRAAAAAAACKKKKK! RRRRRRAAAAACKKKK!” What a dandy welcome to life by the leathery little monster. Just what the egg-harvesters needed. It seemed, Tital thought later, that every single Gigantoraptor on Kaóc Island heard that baby raptor’s high-pitched screeching. Ronú and Jonathan immediately paired up, levitating to a higher level, and nocked arrows on their Alpine longbows, waiting for the battle to come. Bardala and Tital had Kuó with them off to the right of the other boys. From behind the tall trees, in the deep jungle off to the west, there resonated horrendous noises of angry Gigantoraptors. The war began, as a pair of the Gigantoraptors broke through the trees and dense brush to the open ground. They took one look around and spotted the humans. This caused them to break into a full-bore charge toward them, trying to gain enough ground speed to launch themselves for an airborne attack. Brilloso, sensing danger for little Moka, ran to protect him in the tall grass. “Let’s take them out!” Jonathan shouted to Ronú while they waited for the charging beasts to come into a perfect kill range. “I’ve got the one on the left!” Ronú shouted, launching his razor-tipped missile of death. “TTTTTHUMMPP!” Went the hard-hitting arrow, deep into the hard, bony skull of the leading low-flying Gigantoraptor. It shook its head once, trying to dislodge the arrow, not even realizing that death had entered its dull reptilian brain. “AAAAAWWWRRRRRKKKKK!” It screamed, as it went crashing into two Hickory trees, tearing off huge limbs, and hitting the hard ground behind them with a sickening “CCCRRRRUNCHHH!”