Aiya… I found this buried in my files and thought "Why not?" The writing style is a bit childish, but I wrote this in 8th grade (as an assignment for science class, none the less!) Also, I tried to stay away from editing the actual content of it other than grammar and a few sentences that just bugged me. I hope you enjoy it!

It could have been your average, run of the mill day. Birds were squawking out threats to each other; soft threads of grass rippled in a soothing wind; insects chirped away in that mysterious way of communicating they possess; oversized reptiles bounded through the brush and trees.

Wait a second.

Oversized reptiles?

As in…

Blinking, the young girl did a major double take, her eyes widening in surprise and slight apprehension.

It had actually worked?

She had thought it a joke, a strange one, but a joke all the same. Unfortunately, what she saw before her eyes was anything but a jest.

The shiny and slightly bulky time machine; the strange and horrifying feeling of being torn apart from inside as the world around her shattered like a fragile glass wall leaving nothing but an endless void of black; the blinding flash of white light that had left her in a wary state of unconsciousness… All of it was very real.

"No way. No freaking way!"

Instantly, she regretted her words, as the world about her seemed to fall silent.

With a muffled "Eeep!", she scrambled backwards, successfully falling flat on her rear end in a thick and very painful bush. Clamping her hands over her mouth to prevent a cry, she gingerly climbed out, taking special care not to jar her now painful hip.

It was true. Adrienne was now officially 225 million years in the past.

Mr. McHatton stood rattled to the bone, shortly cropped hair now blackened from the burst of flame his machine had given off upon its departure. In fact, the whole room including him was covered in soot and burnt to a crisp. Jerkily, he waddled over to his desk and sat down in a total state of shock.

It was supposed to have been a joke! A simple, playful bit of fun at one of his students. No, this was not supposed to happen. That metal concoction of his was not supposed to work, and it most definitely was not supposed to burn his whole classroom.

Sighing, he rubbed his temples. This just wasn’t his day.

"AAAH! Get them away from me! YAAH!!"

The peaceful silence of an ancient forest was broken as a clumsy intruder burst through its borders, a pair of "small" lizards hot on her heals.

Tripping, she was suddenly reminded of her backpack that she was still wearing as her body came in contact roughly with the ground, the pack swinging out behind her and slapping her back. How it had managed to cling on to her throughout her mad dash was a mystery, but she was thankful all the same.

Trembling fingers fumbled with the zipper, and she found herself cursing the backpack to be tortured by her cooking for all eternity if it didn’t open. With an audible "Snap!", the clasp of the zipper sprung loose, flying off into the brush somewhere. Letting loose an angered grunt of frustration, she busied herself with searching through her pack, the whole time stumbling unsteadily through the forest.

"Aha!"

Adrienne tucked her pack under her arm, the other one clutching a can of pepper spray in a death grip. I knew this would come in handy!

Glancing back, she could see them clearly now: their sharp, pointy teeth glistening with saliva; long, muscular tails whipping out behind them like banners; sleek bodies bent low to the ground for maximum speed and agility. Her eyes widened in terror. She couldn’t do this! No! This wasn’t going to work! As they neared, she thrust her hand out and squeezed.

The dinosaurs let loose with a series of unearthly, pained screams, blinded by the spray that had found its mark perfectly.

A small smirk of triumph found its way across her face as she rose to her feet, the spray still on full blast.

"That’s it! Come and get it!" Blinking, she stared down at her mouth, curious as to why it had chosen to become competitive.

Still, she gave a whoop as her attackers scurried off, still shrieking in pain. However, Adrienne’s excitement didn’t last long as her attention was drawn to a new problem.

"Oh no…"

In her fear-driven haste to find a weapon of defense, she had unknowingly broken her pack in a way that made it so the zipper would not close.

"This is so not good!"

Helplessly, she dangled it from one finger and allowed the rest of the contents to fall to the leaf-covered ground with a soft clatter. Kneeling down, she stared at the items. Besides her pepper spray, she had in her possession a long and rough looking rope, a sharp stick, one Swiss Army knife she had long ago deemed Excalibur, a portable CD player with her The Best of Slayers CD and extra batteries, and…

"What’s this doing here?!"

Startled, she picked up a can of mandarin oranges. With a gasp of joy, Adrienne lifted the green can towards the sky, and a beam of light broke through the thick branches of the trees to play across the gleaming metal surface of the aforementioned can with perfect timing.

Shaking herself, Adrienne broke out of her reverie of worship and hugged the object close.

"Aa… glory be to the one who did this…!" With a blissful smile, she repacked her "belongings", and, after slicing a piece of sufficient length with the knife, wrapped the rope securely about the pack.

Looking around, she sighed, "You, know… this place isn’t that bad once one gets past the deadly reptiles… searing heat… annoying bugs… Gah!" She slapped her forehead, "Not even thirty minutes away from home and I’m already talking to myself. I am not going to end up like some psychotic bum who lives on a deserted island!" Without another thought, she breaks into song, "Amore mio eien nante nai! Koi dakara moetai! Deai kara ikubyo de ochita! Koi datte inochigake! Ah moshi anata…"

"Oooh! I’m sooo tired!"

Yawning, Adrienne looked about her surroundings, and her mood instantly went down the drain. Green foliage, mainly tall trees and thick shrubs bursting with unwieldy leaves, completely surrounded her. Strange looking fern-like plants dotted the scenery, and vines mingled among the tops of trees. Soft moss and dead leaves covered the ground creating a soft "bed."

"Oh no! I’m lost!" She pouted, ignoring the fact that she had never once known where she was in the first place, and plopped down on the ground. With a small sigh, she reached into her pack, " Oh well. Might as well make the best of it!" With that said, she happily listens to her CD, singing along as well, "Kurushii hodo setsunai hodo! Suki na hito ni aitai!…"

"Aa… Yep, I could really get used to this!" Absent mindedly, Adrienne plucks a small insect off her leg, throwing it off into the distance. As she studied an interesting looking plant, its leaves long and snake-like with little raised lumps covering its stem, she began to think that being sent here wasn’t so bad after all. The only danger she had spotted had been the two dinosaurs she had met earlier, and she had easily proved she could handle them. Well, not easily, but still…

"I don’t know…" Now that she thought about, the peace and silence was starting to get to her, "Oh, I wish something would happen!"

Oh how those were the wrong words to say.

"EEK!" Adrienne let out a squeal very unlike her as she felt something brush up against her arm. Slowly, she turned around and found herself face to face with another dinosaur. This one had a sort of reddish ridge crowning its head, and it was a bit smaller, but it was still a dinosaur.

Past experience and the small voice in the back of her mind screamed at her to run away as fast as she could and get ready with the pepper spray again, but her fear-clouded mind didn’t register those thoughts. All she could see was that scaly and deadly face inches from her own with jaws powerful enough to crush bones.

Fear sent tiny spots of black across her vision as her eyes widened to unproportional sizes. She bit her tongue hard to check the scream that was tearing through her throat, and slowly, ever so slowly, backed away, a gray haze filling the corners of her sight until she was limited to tunnel vision.

The dinosaur emitted a low-pitched click as it cocked its head to the side in what Adrienne could have sworn was curiosity. It stepped through the thick wall of ferns to reveal its entire body.

A long, whip-like tail swished gently back and for in an ‘S’ shape. Two, muscular and powerful-looking legs, each sporting a trio of sharp and deadly claws, shifted from side to side in unison with its tail, its thin, streamlined body moving with it.

"Erm… hello…? Um, my names… A-Adrienne… who… are you…?" Was all she could stutter out through clenched teeth. Her knuckles were white from sqeezing her fists, and her breath came in short, shallow bursts. The gray haze grew to encompass most of her vision, black starting to work its way inward from the corners. Quaking with fear, she slowly moved one hand back towards her pack, slipping it in and drawing out the sharp stick.

And I thought this would never come in handy… Let’s hope this works, unlike the time on Jurassic Park…

Shuddering, she tentatively waved the stick in front of her, "H-hey, dino. Um… I have a stick you might… like…? Maybe you could… chase it… please…?"

Again, the dinosaur clicked, this time making the noise a higher, forced sound.

"Um… you sound… angry…?? Do… do you want… the s-stick?" Her voice wavered as the clicking increased to a high-pitched growl.

Without warning, it gave a howl, its jaws springing open to reveal row upon rows of needle-like teeth that Adrienne had no doubt they could pierce flesh easily.

"AH!" In a rush of fear, she thrust the stick foreword right as the giant lizard snapped its jaws shut.

She silently thanked any higher power she could think of when the stick miraculously did not break beneath the crushing strength of its jaws, and in a flash she was running as fast as she possibly could. Behind her, she could hear the dinosaur sounding out frustrated screams, but luckily they were getting farther away as she ran.

Thank Eru it isn’t following me!

Unfortunately, that problem faded immediately as she stopped to catch her breath. The black that had been slowly creeping up from the corners of her sight gobbled up her vision as she fell forward and unconsciousness enveloped her.

"Ugh…"

Thin beams of light forced their way through her tightly shut eyelids as consciousness returned to her. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes to be greeted by a most unwelcomed sight.

"I thought… wished it was a dream…"

After shutting her eyes for a few more minutes, she allowed light to flood back into them in hopes of making her surroundings change. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Yes, she was still stuck in the Triassic period. At least, thanks to Mr. M, she knew when she was. The only dinosaurs she had seen had been small, and she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any flowers. Everything was green. Everything.

And to top it off, she was hungry. Hungry and thirsty.

Slowly, Adrienne stood up, her legs wobbling like Jell-O beneath her as they tried to support her. Why was this happening to her?

The question popped into her head, and at the moment, she really didn’t want to try to answer it. Everything seemed to happen to her. Sighing, she shook her head.

"That’s life, I guess."

Picking up her pack, she slung it over her shoulder and looked out across the vast expanse of endless green.

Yes, it was just another day for Adrienne D’Agostino.

Eru – This one is kind of hard to explain. Eru is a… god (for lack of better terms) that, in my religion, created Arda, the Earth. Um… yes. Don’t mind me. I know perfectly well that I am a bit odd for following a religion from a book. ; )