Astrosaurs 2 (9 page)

“Just you wait, acorn-brain!” roared King Albu. “I'll get those eggs yet!”

“Not if I can help it,” muttered Teggs. He swung his head about wildly, looking for somewhere to hide from the gunfire. But the landscape was smooth and flat on all sides.

“Look out!” called Dippa.

Teggs skidded to a stop just in front of a huge gash in the ground. It was too wide to jump over.

“We'll have to turn back!” wailed Dippa.

“We can't!” said Teggs. As if to prove it, a laser beam whizzed past between them. “There's only one place we can go now!”

Teggs was pointing to the crack in the ground. “Down
there?”
Dippa gulped.

“Now!” cried Teggs.

Together, the two dinosaurs leaped into the blackness.

Luckily, Teggs and Dippa didn't have far to fall. They landed with a thump on a small ledge.

“Did you know this was here?” gasped Dippa.

“Er . . . of course!” said Teggs quickly.

Dippa peered over the edge. “How deep is this crack?” she wondered. “And what's at the bottom of it?”

A spooky, wailing noise rose up from the darkness. It was the same noise they had heard back on the
Sauropod.

“Who needs Gipsy's tracker?” said Teggs. “Whatever that thing is, it's right beneath us!” He explored along the ledge a little further. Soon the winking lights on his battle helmet lit up a jagged gash in the smooth rock beside him. “It's another crack . . . a sort of passageway! Come on, before the oviraptors find us.”

“I don't like scary passageways,” whispered Dippa. “Why don't we just let King Albu
have
the eggs?”

Teggs stared at her. “How can you even think such a thing?” Dippa shrugged. “It would be much easier.”

“It would be easier, but it would be
wrong,”
said Teggs sternly. “Those eggs hold the future of your
race! Isn't that worth fighting for?”

“Fighting ruined our old world,” said Dippa.

“Fighting is bad”

“But giving up is bad too, Dippa,” Teggs told her.

“I know you're scared. I am too! But you mustn't throw away your dreams”

Dippa nodded slowly. “I dream of a new place to call home,” she said. “I dream of having little baby plateosaurus to look after. I dream that one day there will be a whole, happy herd of us on our own planet.”

“Then
fight
for those dreams,” Teggs told her.

Just then, they heard a scuttling sound above them. “This way, boys!” came a familiar, wicked voice. “There's a ledge! They must have jumped down here!”

“King Albu!” hissed Teggs. “Quick! Let's get going!”

He and Dippa started galloping through the darkness on all fours. The oviraptors soon figured out where they had gone, and gave chase.

“They're catching up!” panted Dippa.

“Keep running!” cried Teggs.

Then the mysterious, ghostly wail started up again, chilling them to the bone. Teggs and Dippa skidded to a halt, and so did the oviraptor princes. Teggs saw them by the light of his
battle helmet, clutching each other in fear.

“We – we
have
to go back now, Father!” stammered Shelly.

“Never!” cried King Albu. “Now, grab those eggs, boys – or I'll hard-boil you all!”

Goopo and his brothers slowly advanced on the two herbivores.

“Get behind me, Dippa,” hissed Teggs. “Maybe I can scare them off.” He flexed his armoured tail, ready to fight. But the passage was too small, and his
tail was too big. It whacked against the smooth wall and suddenly, the whole passageway started to shake.

“Look out, Dippa!” shouted Teggs. “The walls are caving in!”

“Eeek!” squeaked Goopo. He turned and fled, his brothers close behind. Teggs and Dippa huddled together as big speckled slabs kept on falling. Soon the passage was completely blocked. They were safe from the oviraptors – but now there was no way back to the
Sauropod.

“There's only one path we can take now,” said Teggs quietly. “But it'll lead us right to whatever's been making that terrible noise!”

Meanwhile, Gipsy and were huddled outside in a howling gale, wishing they were warm and safe back on the
Sauropod.
Like Teggs and Dippa, they had hidden in one of the great splits in the planet's surface. But the ledge they were creeping along was very narrow. One slip, and they would fall to their doom.

“I wonder what caused all these cracks,” said Sog nervously. “If it was an earthquake, where's all the rubble? There's not a single loose stone round here!”

“Maybe it's special, super-tough rock,” said Gipsy. “That's why the explorers' seeds never grew.” Gipsy's tracker started beeping loudly. “You know, this thing is going crazy. It reckons the source of that signal is . . . everywhere!”

“Shhh!” gasped the little professor. “I think something's coming!”

He was right. Something heavy was creeping along the ledge in the opposite direction – straight towards them.

“It's too dark!” hissed Gipsy. “I can't see what it is!”