Chapter Four
‘The Egg Thief’
This new dinosaur strutted over to
the stream. Kypou lowered his bow and
sighed impatiently.
“What are you doing skulking around
Egbert? I could have shot you!” he
snapped.
Egbert bowed deeply to Kypou.
“Ah Egbert is very sorry. Did not mean to alarm you. Egbert is friend.”
Tommy couldn’t put his finger on it
but there was definitely something creepy about this dinosaur. Egbert looked from face to face until his
cold stare landed upon Tommy and Jason.
The creepy dinosaur strutted closer to them. When he moved, Egbert reminded Tommy of a giant, completely
insane, peacock.
The dinosaur was a bit taller than
Kypou. His hind legs had thick thighs
and narrow calves. Each foot had three
clawed toes with a tiny fourth toe at the rear of each foot. He had a long tail and long powerful arms
with three long clawed fingers on each hand.
Egbert’s neck was thick but long, with a long head and a snout that
ended in a sharp toothless beak. There
was a stubby horn on the top of his nose.
He was dark gray with black spots on his back.
Tommy recognized Egbert as an
Oviraptor also known as the ‘egg thief’ dinosaur because it was said to have
stolen eggs from the nests of other dinosaurs.
Egbert stared down at the boys. His eyes had a strange glint in them that
the boys didn’t at all like the looks of.
The strange dinosaur glanced over at Kypou.
“Egbert see you have found new
friends.” He looked back to Tommy and
Jason. “Will new friends be Egbert’s
friends also?” The dinosaur gave them a
wide toothless grin.
Kypou walked over and inserted
himself between Egbert and the boys.
“What do you want Egbert?” he said
with slight annoyance.
The Oviraptor straightened up and
looked directly at Kypou.
“Egbert want nothing, nothing. Just glad to see his friends have not been
captured.”
There was something slightly
deceiving in the way Egbert said this.
“Egbert see...” The dinosaur went
on, looking past everyone until his eyes rested upon Peko. “...his friends still have the little
seer. How fortunate.”
Kypou was unmoved by all Egbert’s nice talk.
“We’re busy, so why don’t you run
along,” he said firmly.
Egbert’s eyes came back to Kypou’s
face. His eyes narrowing with anger for
a brief moment. Then he smiled widely.
“Egbert understands. Knows how hard it is to fight the enemy when
there are so few,” he sighed deeply.
“Egbert only wishes he could help but Egbert is so lame.”
Kypou crossed his arms and rolled
his eyes with irritation. It was well
know that Egbert was of no use to anyone.
“Egbert hopes his friends remain...
unharmed.” His voice grew cold and
biting when he spoke the last word.
With that said, Egbert turned and strutted off into the jungle. Everyone relaxed.
“Who was that?” asked Jason. “And why does he start all his sentences
with his name? I mean, that’s kind of
weird isn’t it?”
“Egbert is a sad crazy creature,”
said Kypou. “It’s best to just ignore
him.”
“He’s icky,” said Peko.
“Boy, having to deal with guys like
him and your invisible enemies sounds like a lot of trouble,” said Tommy.
“Who’s invisible?” said Jason.
“Egbert is no threat to us,” Kypou
told Tommy.
“Who’s invisible?” said Jason
again. He had a horrible feeling he’d
missed out on an important conversation.
“I’ll explain later,” Tommy told
him.
They continued on to the cave Kypou
had mentioned earlier. On the way Kypou
left several times to make sure they weren’t being followed. There still was no sign of Harpi.
The group waded through the dense
jungle until finally coming to a stop in front of a huge tree. It’s leaves were long and thin and hung all
the way down to the jungle floor like a leaf curtain. Kypou pushed some of the leaves aside. Behind, was a rock wall.
Cut into the rock was a large people size opening. The dinosaurs, except for Kypou, walked into
the opening and disappeared into the darkness beyond. Tommy and Jason hesitated for a moment. So far Kypou and the others appeared to pose no threat, but could
they be sure this would continue. Kypou
beckoned them forward, and seeing they had little choice but to follow, they
cautiously stepped into the darkness of the cave.