Whee! Yay! Sorry this took so long. School started and swimming got uber busy, and this was really long. Parts of it are iffy, I know, but I was tired. Over all it wasn't bad, right? I had to work to cut out the swearing. This chapter's thanks go to Jelly Princess. And I'll see you all next time when we go anachronistic! Please leave a review and blog comment.

For the record, I came up with this chapter before I watched Dinosaur on a Spaceship.

Sorry about Moustache Man (that's my uncle, by the way, who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'shave'). Thanks for the Spots gun! I can threaten my friends into giving me cookies now. Muahahahaha!

~Jelly Princess

Anachronistic

"So, I hope we didn't get you in trouble with Moustache Man, Jelly Princess," I say, spinning round and round in a chair in the middle of the secret lab. "And I also hope we didn't crush your rose bushes too bad. They really were quite nice."

Samik sets the camera down on a table and rolls into the shot on his chair, knocking into me and almost making me fall off my seat. "You should get him a razor for his birthday with a set of very detailed instructions complete with pictures."

"I liked the whole cookie idea," I continued. "Cookies are good door openers. I met one of my very good friends because of cookies. And they're super yummy."

Samik makes a double thumbs-up gesture at the camera.

"So what are we going to do today, Sam-Sam?" I asked, lacing my fingers behind my head. He raises an incredulous eyebrow. I grimace. "Don't worry; I'm never calling you that again."

He laughs. "Yes, please don't." He pauses for a moment and taps his chin. "Maybe we could take your time machine out for a spin."

I bound out of my chair, sending it crashing into the wall behind me, and start to dash away. "Great idea"

"Hey, wait up!" Samik calls, laughing. I look back to see him scoop up the camera and run after me. The time machine is in a dark corner, hidden beneath a white sheet. Unfortunately, it's not a TARDIS. I haven't been able to find one of those yet, but I'm still looking. My time machine looks like a cardboard refrigerator box. It has a 'this way up' arrow and a floppy door cut into one side. It's also utterly indestructible. You'd be safe from the implosion of the Universe inside that thing; though once you left it you'd be screwed. But then you could go back in time and prevent the implosion of the Universe. Time machine. Good for anything (even making hot chocolate).

I open the door and the two of us squeeze inside. "I still can't believe you haven't figured out how to make this thing bigger on the inside," Samik grumbles as he wedges himself into a corner.

"I'm working on it," I snap, closing the door. "I know the spell is somewhere in one of my books. I just have to find it." I pick up a dry erase marker and turn towards a small whiteboard glued to the wall of the time machine. "So, when do you want to go?"

"I want to see the dinosaurs!"

I grin and scribble a date on the whiteboard. "It's like you read my mind."

"That's because I did."

"Would you stop doing that?!"

Samik laughs and hits the button marked 'GO' beside the board with the date. A single beep resonates through the time machine. "Fasten your seat belts!" I yell.

"What seat belts?!"

"Exactly!"

The time machine begins to shake and lights start to flash. Then everything goes dark and the cardboard box becomes still. The sudden silence is oppressive, the sweet scent of exotic flora slowly filters through the cracks, and the leftover electric charge from the time travel dissipates into the ground. I grin and shove the door open, letting in a flood of light. I step out and throw my arms into the air. "Dinosaurs!"

Samik sweeps the camera across the vibrant plant life. The trees tower above us with arcing, leaf-laden branches, and the bright, eye-popping flowers are easily triple the size of the ones back home. The long grass is soft beneath my bare feet. It looks more like my home and makes the human world seem pale in comparison. What happened to all this vibrancy, all this life? Kudos to anyone who can figure it out.

"Uh, Enia?" Samik asks, pointing the camera at me. "Where are the dinosaurs?"

I realize that everything is too quiet. Where are the ferocious roars of the tyrannosaurus rexes hunting their prey? Where are the torturous screams of smaller dinosaurs being ripped to pieces by a larger predator and devoured alive? The mating calls, the playful honking, the challenges, and the protective parents? We should be able to hear something besides the heavy droning of mammoth flies and the rustling of the wind through the leaves.

"Did you take us to the wrong time?" Samik accuses, fighting back a smile.

"I did not!" I protest indignantly.

"Really? Because all you did was draw a cartoon dinosaur on the whiteboard, and a bad one at that."

"Oi!" I yelp. "Don't diss my drawing skills! I thought it was pretty good."

Samik raises an eyebrow. I stick my tongue out at him and turn around, preparing to stride off into the forest.

"You're going to remember where you parked it, right?" Samik asks.

"Yes, I'm going to remember where I parked it," I mock in a whiny, high-pitched voice.

"And no one's going to steal it?"

I roll my eyes. Seriously? "Who's around to steal a cardboard box in the middle of the dinosaur age?"

"Let me rephrase that. Nothing's going to step on it?"

"It's indestructible! Jeez, didn't you read the manual?"

"Did you?"

I decide not to answer that and instead push through a thick bush. The silence is overwhelming. I don't like it. I feel like I should burst into song or start screaming or something. But another instinct quells my urge. We may not want our presence known quite yet.

Suddenly, the forest disappears and just like that we're standing on a grassy bluff overlooking a deep blue, glittering lake. I stop, only inches away from the sheer, dizzying drop. The height doesn't bother me. "It looks like the Lake of Doom," I say, referring to a secluded lake back home. "I wonder if there's a sea monster living in it."

"Want to go find out?" Samik asks, grinning slightly.

I laugh. "I thought you'd never ask." I turn to the camera and flick a piece of wayward hair from my face. "So we're going to show you another couple of super cool tricks which you must never, ever speak of. We will boggle your mind and strain your boundaries. We will completely change your view of the world and you will never be the same…" I trail off, trying to come up with something else to say.

Samik snorted. "Overdramatic much?"

"Oi! Shut it!"

Samik and I stand side by side at the edge of the cliff, facing the sparkling water. "This is probably going to break the camera, isn't it?" Samik says matter-of-factly.

"Probably," I reply.

"We should probably figure out a better way of filming things."

I turn to Samik, one eyebrow raised. "We're in the middle of the dinosaur era, all the dinosaurs have mysteriously disappeared, we're about to jump off a one hundred foot cliff, and you're worried about the camera?"

Samik grins, a little sheepish. "How else are we going to document our awesome adventures?"

I pause. "True that. Ready?"

Samik's eyes twinkle. "Geronimo!"

I start laughing. "Alonzee!"

And with that, we jump. We hurtle downwards, faster and faster as gravity slowly exerts its hold over us. The wind grows to a deafening roar, filled with a shrill whistling. I shriek with delight as the water races ever closer. Fifteen feet from the surface of the lake, I fling my arms above my head and the roaring wind suddenly changes direction. It grabs us and forms a bubble of air to slow our fall. The water rises up and cradles around us, drawing us down into the lake with barely a jostle.

Everything is a different shade of brilliant blue. The water slowly darkens into black, hiding the bottom from view. Nothing moves except the current. It's peaceful…calm…the perfect time for the giant sea monster to arise from the deep and swallow us whole.

But nothing does. We break the surface with a gasp of breath. Samik holds the camera aloof triumphantly. Somehow it's still recording. "I'm really glad we sprung for the waterproof one!" he says, laughing and zooming in and out at a nauseating speed.

I slap at his hand. "Stop it. You're going to make our viewers sick.

As he laughs and speeds up his hectic zooming more than I thought possible, something flashes on the surface of the lake and nearly blinds me. My head immediately snaps up, searching for the source. A silver disk with flashing lights passes above me, silent as a stone. The clouds break up around it and are left scattered in the majestic ship's wake. Small birds wheel away from the unfamiliar object, cawing frantically. "Hm. Now that's interesting," I say, tapping my chin.

"Hello!" Samik calls, waving the camera around so it catches the light and glints. I feel really bad for the poor viewers back home.

The ship pauses in its seamless flight. "UNIDENTIFIED LIFE FORMS DETECTED," says a robotic voice. A glowing sphere appears on the belly of the ship and begins to move towards us. "PREPARE FOR TRANSPORT AND IDENTIFICATION."

"What a courteous ominous voice," I say cheerily as the glowing sphere grows closer.

The light envelops us as Samik starts to laugh. I grow warm and the picturesque world disappears. Then the feeling of weightlessness takes over and I get the sense of lift off. The feeling only lasts five seconds, though, and soon gravity reasserts itself. The blue surrounding us darkens into black and color bleeds back into the world. We're standing on a conveyor belt heading towards a disturbing looking silver box.

Samik and I hop down to the metal floor below.

"What's going on here?" Samik asks quietly as we take a look around. The room is large and oval-shaped. Conveyor belts zigzag around it, dotted by more of the strange silver boxes. Doors with blinking lights are planted in the walls at equal intervals.

"Well, it's a spaceship," I say.

Samik gives me an annoyed look out of the corner of his eye. "No shit, Sherlock."

I grin. "Well, the voice said something about identification. I'll bet that's what those silver things are for."

"But identifying what?"

"Unidentified life forms?" I guess.

"Well, duh. But why don't they know what the species on this planet are?"

"Because they're aliens," I say in my best 'derr' voice.

Samik pauses at the simplicity. "Er, right. I knew that."

I giggle and nudge him in the ribs with my elbow. Suddenly, one of the dark doors opens. I only notice it because I'm looking right at it. A shadowy shape glides through on the conveyor belt. It's large, four-legged, and has horns protruding from its head. A wide grin splits my face as it comes into the light. "Dinosaurs!" I exclaim loudly. "On a spaceship!"

My voice and Samik's laughter echoes around the room. "UNIDENTIFIED VOICE PRINT," says a familiar robotic voice. "INTRUDER ALERT."

Previously unnoticed windows across the roof of the oval room open with a flash of white light. Silver robots descend towards us, spewing laser beams. The dinosaur roars in distress as a projectile hits the conveyor belt in front of it. "Duck and cover!" I yell and dive behind one of the silver boxes. Samik rolls after me, looking heroic.

Laser beams scour the ground around us, leaving burnt, smoking craters in the floor and an acrid smell in the air. I expect the robots to start chanting, "DELETE! DELETE!" or "INFORMATION: KILL" but they don't. They remain ominously silent, making no noise as they fly or shoot glowing balls of death at us. There's no way of knowing where they are.

The dinosaur bellows in pain. I gasp, angry. "We've got to stop them. They're hurting the dinosaur."

Samik nods and straps the camera tightly to his wrist. "Let's take these bastards down."

Fire flickers to life in my palm. I know it casts shadows on our faces and I can only wonder what we look like to the viewers safe at home. Do we look heroic and dramatic, people to cheer for? Do we look dark and powerful, people to watch out for? Or do we just look silly like children trying to play superhero?

There's no time to ponder it, though. A laser beam hits our hiding spot dead-on, making it shake violently and heat bleed through to our backs. "Attack!" I yell and I leap out from behind the box, flinging fireballs at what I think is a robot. It starts chanting; "INTRUDER ALERT!" as soon as it sees us and continues even after my attack hits it in the shoulder and knocks it off course.

"Oh, shut up," Samik growls and throws the camera at it. And he say's I'll break the camera if I so much as touch it! The device hits the robot in the head with a loud thump, right between the eyes. It twitches violently and its crystalline eyes begin to flicker rapidly. Its chant grows gargled and it collapses to the floor in a sparking heap. "Would you stop risking the camera?" I snap, leaping around a second robot and wrapping my hand around its neck. I seek out the rock particles and squeeze. The metal collapses and the robot becomes motionless. When I let go, it falls into a pile.

"It was the first object at hand," Samik answers.

There are seven humanoid robots left. Ten seconds later, they're nothing but scraps. I brush some dust from my shoulders. "They really ought to update their security systems."

"Robot drones are soooo outdated," Samik agrees.

When the dust clears, the dinosaur is gone, but the lights on one of silver boxes are lit up. Curious, I wander over, wondering what exactly the contraptions do. I push and shove on the sliding doors, but they refuse to yield. I'm fed up after about five seconds and rip the doors out of their frame with my magic.

There is nothing inside. I know that this is the one the dinosaur disappeared into. I take another look, tempted to get inside, but something holds me back. My Spidey Sense is tingling.

The floor is a metal grate with wide slots just smaller than my feet. The three walls are slick and blend into each other seamlessly. What looks like a showerhead protrudes from the ceiling. Against my better judgment (what better judgment, one might ask), I stick my hand inside and wave it around a little. A white liquid immediately begins to spray from the showerhead. I quickly pull my hand back before any of it can touch me, my fears confirmed.

"What is it?" Samik asks, sauntering over to poke the camera inside.

"An acid bath."

He freezes, turns to look at me, face shocked. "W-what?"

"It must be how they process the unidentified species." My voice sounds detached though a hot anger is slowly building inside me. "The animals are shepherded inside, melted down, and removed through the drain. Then they must go through some complex computer thing that analyzes their DNA, or something like that."

Samik's face has grown cold and hard. His brown eyes look like falling boulders intent on crushing whoever happens to be below. "We're not going to stand for this, are we," he says. It's not a question.

"No," I agree. I don't care what kind of all-powerful, rare, cool aliens these things are. They're dissolving amazing, harmless creatures with acid. I can't allow this to continue. They're going down.

I break the conveyor system with a well-placed blast of electricity to a complex-control-panel-looking-thing. "Come on."

Samik and I leave the horrific room and I vaguely wish that we're wearing cloaks so they'd billow out behind us dramatically. Note to self: wear cloaks next time. The hallways we follow are a uniform, seamless, shining silver. As I walk along, I drag a flame-coated hand along the gleaming metal and punch giant dents into it. Anything to mar the perfection and piss off the unknown aliens.

"Hello!" Samik calls and his voice travels before us as an echo. "Come out, come out wherever you are! We're going to kick your asses!"

"That's not going to make them very eager to come out and play," I admonish.

He grins. "Well, they're just gonna have to come out and prove me wrong."

We reach a door without anything jumping out and yelling boo. I'm rather disappointed. But that all changes on the other side of the door.

The new room is also circular but it's built as a cage. There are dinosaurs and other animals everywhere. Claws descend from the ceiling and snatch the hapless creatures out of the crowd, carting them away to be deposited on the beginning of a conveyor belt. The prehistoric animals are terrified, bleating and roaring and crashing about the room.

"Breaky breaky!" I yell and leap into the air. I head straight for the claws and begin to break them apart piece by piece. The shards of metal hit the floor with a series of bangs to be trampled on by the dinosaurs. Then Samik opens all the doors he can find and allows the poor captive animals to escape.

Only then did we finally get a response.

The entire room begins to glow with a blue light, the same as the tractor beam from earlier. "Take me to your leader!" I say to Samik and grin.

The giant cell disappears all at once, replaced by darkness. An instant later, we're in a completely different room and inside a ring of phaser guns. "Ah, interesting," I say, staring down the barrel of one. "I suppose we should have suspected this."

The strange aliens start to laugh. They look like distorted humans, as if someone had tried to replicate a man but got everything a little off. Too tall and too thin with disproportionately long arms and bulbous heads. The eyes are too long and slanted, and the slit thin mouth frowns beneath a nearly nonexistent nose.

"Fear us…fear us!" they warble together. I can barely keep from bursting into peals of laughter.

"Ha. No. you're ugly and you kill dinosaurs. I'm not going to fear you."

"Fear us!" the aliens repeat in their obnoxious voices.

"I hate broken records," I say as I smash my fist into the nearest deformed face. The alien's eyes roll back and it crumples to the ground, but its comrades just stand around looking shocked.

"I thought aliens were supposed to be smart," Samik grumbles. He grabs one by the arm and slings it into anther, knocking them down like bowling pins.

"I'm soooo disappointed," I agree. I kick an alien in the kneecap and jam my own knee into its chin as it collapses. The circle of guns is rapidly deteriorating, but one of them finally remembers the weapon in its hands. It fumbles with the trigger as it brings the gun around to point at me. The phaser fires with a 'phfft' noise. I calmly hold up a hand and the air shimmers briefly. The laser beam is stopped dead in its tracks. The alien's freaky eyes widen. "Run," I say in my best vengeful hero voice.

The gun falls to the floor with a clatter. Then the alien turns tail and flees they room at a shambling, disjointed run. The others see it go immediately and they pause, staring at each other. Samik gets right in one's face, a disturbing smile playing on his lips. The alien cringes back, but Samik leans forward until they're practically nose to nose. A moment of silence stretches into infinity. "Boo," Samik says finally, slowly, perfectly enunciated.

The pathetic dinosaur stealers flee the room and the door slams shut behind them. Samik and I start to laugh. "Wussies," I say, a dark edge to my voice. The aliens are exactly the kind of people I hate.

Samik catches my tone and the expression on my face must be awful because he turns the camera away and starts to walk towards a door. "Come on, we've got to land this thing."

We walk out the same door the aliens did. I hang back, trying to regain control over my anger. My emotions don't run away from me often and it takes a lot to illicit an extreme reaction out of me, but when they do escape, they really run free and sometimes bad things happen. I don't like emotions, I don't like feeling out of control, and I don't like to let my feelings show. I'm not entirely sure what kind of person that makes me.

"Ha! Found it!" Samik cheers from up ahead.

I hurry to catch up, the grinning, care-free, faintly cocky mask back in place. "The control room?"

"Yeah!" He pushes the door open and we step inside.

"…Oh shit."

It's a lot more complicated than our spaceship.

The controls fill an entire wall with computer screens and rows of buttons. Three steering wheels stand side by side in the center of the room, the middle one higher than the other two, and there's no visible instruction manual. There's also a row of plush seats, crisscrossed by straps.

Samik immediately heads for the steering wheels. He grabs the middle one and spins it sharply. The ship lurches and I'm thrown against the wall. A paperweight crashes to the floor beside my feet and shatters in a shower of glass. "Oi!" I yelp.

"Sorry!" Samik yells, spinning the wheel in the other direction. "Start pushing buttons!"

I don't question the intelligence or stupidity of the command. I just run over the large board of blinking buttons and start slamming my palms down on them, heedless of the color. From within the belly of the ship we can hear the terrified bellowing of gigantic animals.

Earth fills the largest screen on the wall, big and blue and approaching face. Glowing symbols scroll quickly across some of the other computers. I should probably wish that I know what it means. But I don't. Meh, it probably doesn't matter.

"I think we've locked onto a destination!" Samik announces.

"Let's land this thing!" I reply. Samik nods and presses a yellow button beside the steering wheels. The view through the screen blurs and we're both thrown to the floor by the g-force. Huh. So that's what those random chairs are for.

But just as quickly as it came, the g-force disappears and we're able to stand up again. "Let's go free the dinosaurs!" I yell and scramble to my feet, lunging towards the door.

We race through the noisy bowels of the ship. The dinosaurs know that freedom is close and they all want off this horrifying contraption. Their roars reverberate throughout the hallways, conducted by the metal. They're eager to be free. I'm eager to grant that wish.

Finally, we reach the place where the dinosaurs have converged. There's also a convenient (suspiciously so, if you ask me) door set into the back wall. I leap into the air and soar over the mass of animals, landing on a clear patch of floor on the far side of the room. I break the keypad and the heavy door slowly rises as the pad spews sparks. Sunlight spills in, nearly blinding me and I can't hear anything above the roars of the dinosaurs.

I step out grandly as soon as the gap is wide enough, raising my arms to the sides. "Welcome home, dino-!"

A car horn assaults my eardrums. Oh shit.

Face flaring red, I spin around and quickly retreat into the ship. "What is it?" Samik asks when he sees my shocked face.

"Twenty-first century New York."

His face pales and he quickly moves to help me close the door. A dinosaur moves into view briefly just before it shuts, and we hear startled shouts from outside. Hm, well, this may prove to be slightly problematic. Uh…opps.

Samik and I hurry back to the control room, eager to get the UFO out of twenty-first century New York as quickly as possible. "Let's hope this works," Samik says and throws a lever. I cross my finger sand we're once again thrown to the floor. A low keening noise fills the room and the ship shudders violently. I grip the nearest thing solidly attached to the floor; the leg of one of the chairs. I swear my body is lifted off the ground at one point.

Something starts to beep. It's an ominous, warning sort of beep. Then red lights begin to flash with disturbing frequency. Samik and I lock eyes. "Oh shit," we say together.

"CRASH LANDING IN SIXTY SECONDS AND COUNTING," a pleasant computerized voice informs us.

Samik rolls his eyes and sighs. "Of course we are."

"Story of our life," I add.

"FORTY-FIVE SECONDS AND COUNTING," the voice interface says helpfully.

"Thank you for that piece of information," I groan.

"YOU ARE WELCOME."

I pause and stare at Samik. It can hear us? He shrugs. Creepy.

"THIRTY SECONDS AND COUNTING. YOUR DEATHS ARE IMMINENT. PLEASE PREPARE YOURSELVES."

"Don't' tell me what to do," I snap. "And don't tell me what is or isn't imminent. I'll decide that, thank you very much."

"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. YOUR DEATH IS IMMINENT. FIFTEEN SECONDS AND COUNTING."

"You know what," I growl, beginning to push myself to my hands and knees. It's almost impossible to overcome the force pushing down on me. "I'm going to survive just to prove you wrong."

I'm on my hands and knees know. Samik grins ferally and let's go of the pole he's wrapped around with one hand to stretch it out to me. I take it and slowly rise into a crouch, one hand planted on the floor. "What are you going to do?" he asks.

"FIVE SECONDS AND COUNTING."

"Something stupid."

"FOUR…"

I stand up as quickly as I can, dragging Samik with me, and clap my hands above my head.

"THREE…"

I close my eyes and concentrate, feeling my body shake with the strain.

"TWO…"

I fling my arms outward along with a rush of energy and nearly collapse.

"ONE."

I feel the energy surrounding the ship; I force it to surround the ship. I will not let these dinosaurs die.

"PREPARE FOR DEATH."

But death doesn't come. There's no devastating crash, no explosion of fire, no excruciating pain and then darkness. There's a slightly jarring thump as I lose control of the forces keeping us stable. My knees buckle and I tumble towards the ground face-first, but Samik is there to catch me. I bury my face in his chest and breathe out a sigh of relief. I can feel myself trembling all over. "What the hell did you do?" Samik asks.

"I have no idea. Something to do with a bubble of air."

"Whatever it was, it was amazing."

"Thanks," I mumble, unable to come up with the energy to say something witty. I've never exhausted myself this much before. I've never even come close. It's kind of scary.

Samik props me upright on his shoulder and we stagger out of the control room. I don't even say something snarky to the silent computer. "Are you alright, Enia?" Samik asks as we walk. Or rather as he walks and drags me along beside him.

"Of course," I say automatically with a forced smile. "No worries."

I can tell he doesn't believe me, but I don't say anything else. "I hope this is the right time," he says finally.

"Yeah," I agree. "Because otherwise we're screwed."

When we make it down to the dinosaur waiting room, Samik has to do all the heavy lifting to open the door. I lean against the wall and close my eyes, head throbbing. From behind my eyelids, I see the sudden flood of light as Samik gets the door open and then it begins to flicker with the shadows of stampeding dinosaurs. I hope Samik managed to get out of the way.

A light touch on my arm makes me snap my eyes open. My best friend is standing right beside me, grinning. "We made it; we're right beside the lake."

"Oh, thank the gods," I say with a sigh of relief.

He takes my hand and leads me outside. My legs still feel rubbery, but at least the world isn't spinning anymore. "Let's go home," I say as we near the door. "I need a nap." I pause. "And lots of food."

"I'll make a cake," Samik promises. My face lights up. Samik's chocolate cake is to die for. Literally. People have killed for a small slice of it; I swear I'm not exaggerating. It's humongous; three-layered and triple-tiered. The cake is so moist it practically melts and there's a thick spread of chocolate ganache or chocolate mousse or chocolate whatever between each layer. The frosting can either be light and fluffy, or thick and creamy. It's soooooooooo good and it's a great thing that magic burns so many calories. Mmm…

I have to shield my eyes when we step through the giant doorway. "Oh shit," I hear Samik say and seconds later my vision adjusts enough that I can see the angry dinosaurs crowded around the ship. They start to growl ferociously when we emerge; they blame us for everything that's happened. Oh shit is correct.

"Um…" I say, unsure.

"Run?" Samik suggests.

I nod. "Yeah."

We shoo to the left and head towards the spot with the smallest density of dinosaurs and the smallest dinosaurs. It's not until it's too late to turn back that I realize we're heading straight for the velociraptors. They bounce in place and gnash their nasty-looking teeth, looking eager to red our flesh from our bones. "We're going to have to jump!" Samik yells.

"I'm not sure I can!"

"You're going to have to!"

He's right, of course. I'm going to have to. I don't really want to die by being ripped to shreds by dinosaurs and have it broadcasted across the world for all to see. And besides, I'm Enia Silverson; I can do anything, right? In theory.

The velociraptors know they have us beat. They don't even bother to come forward and intercept us as we barrel towards them. They wait for us and clack their teeth together in anticipation.

We're ten feet away. I inhale sharply and a rush of energy floods through the ring on my finger and into my body. It won't last long and I'll crash badly later, but right now it's all I need. Samik and I leap into the air. It's harder than it's ever been to call up the wind and bend it to my will. I clutch Samik's hand as tightly as I can, so tight I almost fear his bones might break.

The velociraptors star up at us with shocked expressions on their faces for a moment. Then they're leaping up at us, jaws snapping, trying to snatch us from the air. "Suckers!" I yell. One of them snarls viciously at me.

We clear the pack and begin to fall. If one of us trips, it's all over. I stumble when I land and for one terrifying moment, I think I'm going to fall. But Samik saves me and we keep running, pouring all our energy into beating the velociraptors. I'm not entirely sure we'll be able to. Our magical abilities and species make us naturally stronger and faster than the fastest humans. But I'm exhausted, the velociraptors are built for speed, and we've got a ways to go.

"Samik," I pant, my words practically unintelligible. "You're got to slow them down."

"Okay. Keep running." He lets go of my hand and spins around. I don't know what he's going to do. Something awesome and badass and earthy. I want to turn around and see, but I can't. I have to find the time machine. Get it open. And get it ready to leave as soon as Samik arrives.

My heart is beating so fast I can't hear anything else above it, and my breath is rasping so hard it seems my lungs are going to rupture. I can't feel my legs and my head is throbbing. Black spots flicker in my vision as the forest wavers. I'm not going to make it. I have to make it. How much further? I hope it's close. I don't know how much further I can go. Please let it be close.

I run into something hard.

Instantly, I bounce off and collapse to the ground. It's soft and the grass is cool beneath my back. If only I can stay here…

"Enia!" The bellow comes from the forest behind me. It's Samik. I can hear him crashing through the trees with something in hot pursuit. Time to move.

I heave myself into a sitting position and scramble to my feet. There's a brown cardboard box in front of me, what I ran into. Why the hell is there a cardboard box in the middle of the dinosaur age?

…

It's my time machine, isn't it? Wow, I'm incredibly stupid. Er, right. Pretending that never happened.

I yank the door open and hurry inside, leaving it open for Samik. I grab the black dry erase marker and scribble on the whiteboard; October 13th, 2012. Then I turn to watch for Samik.

He bursts from the trees with the velociraptors in hot pursuit. There are less of them than before but they look angry. Somehow, he still has the camera strapped to one wrist. "Hurry!" I yell, stepping to the side to let him through.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" He dives at the time machine and tucks himself into a ball. He's going to make it! I slam the door shut as soon as he's through and a second later something crashes into the outside of the box. It shakes us, but doesn't do any damage.

Samik is sprawled on the floor with his head propped up by the wall. His chest is heaving and his face is bright red. "Let's go home," he says, panting, and presses the 'GO' button.

SPACESHIP LANDS IN DOWNTOWN NEW YORK!

DINOSAURS SIGHTED ON BOARD

1:42pm October 14, 2012

In a city where nothing is unusual, something happened to top the charts and shock everyone worldwide. A UFO landed in the middle of a busy New York City street. It appeared out of nowhere and shocked the living daylights out of the citizens of the city. Luckily, no one was hurt by its arrival. It sat there for a moment, but very suddenly the doors opened. The entire world held its breath as it waited for its first encounter with alien life. Tremendous roars could be heard coming from within, a witness recounted.

But it was not to be. A shadowy, humanoid figure appeared briefly, but immediately disappeared back inside. The doors began to close again, but before they could shut completely, another shape moved into view. Experts speculate from the pictures that it looked like a triceratops. Where did this ship come from? Why did it come here? And, most importantly, what does this mean for the future of the human race?

Samik and I stare at the article and accompanying pictures. Then we stare at each other. This could prove problematic.

I would like to point out once more that although there are copious amounts of Doctor Who references, I got the idea for this chapter before I watched Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. Although, I may have added a few extra things afterwards.

This chapter's thanks go, once again, to Jelly Princess and Anonymous 13, also known as my friend Jacob.

ANNOUNCEMENT! I have, finally, self-published a book! Whee! Its random and funny and super awesome, though my opinion may be considered biased. If you like this, you might like it. There's a link to it at the top of my profile page and a story involving the characters under my stories called a Purple Tractors Christmas Special. I'm not advertising or anything awkward like that, I'm just super proud and I thought I'd let you all know!

I'll see you all on Halloween! (hopefully)

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