Chapter Five

For an hour did Patrick and Julie rest in the cavern. As they rested, they continued to speak. Again, Julie asked about Patrick.

"What made you choose to become an assistant to your Uncle Enrico in Egyptology?" she asked. She was resting on her stomach, an elbow on the ground and a hand on the side of her face.

"Ever since he took me to see 'The Egyptian' it has interested me." Explained Patrick. "My dad works in paleontology, my Uncle Enrico in Egyptology and my Uncle Mark Pack is on the board... Whenever I express my beliefs like Ramses II was a redhead and everyone laughs at me, Uncle Enrico doesn't. I saw a picture of his mummy, I saw his face and I exclaimed with the rest of the department present 'Now there is the face of a redhead!' Everyone but Uncle Enrico laughed at me. He took a drawing he had done of Ramses and made the hair red instead of black. It is the little things like that which makes me happy to be his assistant." He gave a smile. Uncle Enrico was truly a good man. "What do you do, Julie?"

"I'm a dancer." Stated Julie. "Been one since I was eight. I'm a classical ballerina specifically. It was my mother who got me into it." Patrick looked at Julie with a look of embarrassment. This only caused Julie to ask: "What's the matter?"

"I was raised on a lot of stuff: Shakespeare, Chekhov, Mozart, folk tales and the work of Agatha Christie, Mary Shelley and Anthony Shaffer. I don't really know anything about dance." He confessed.

"Well, I don't know anything about what you were raised on." Replied Julie. "Would you like to tell me about it and I'll tell you about dance?"

They did just that. Both were amazed by what one told the other with interest forming about what they learned. They were attracted to one another but with them having only known each other for a matter of hours, to act on their attraction was not something they would do.

Yet even as they spoke, Patrick's mind turned to Carolingian and his noisome face. Was he dead? Had he and Lang killed one another? He could only hope. He feared what Carolingian would do to Julie if he found her. He feared it would be as Ragnar Lothbrok had done to Enid of York in the Edison Marshall novel "The Viking."

When the hour was up, they then did continue on their journey. As they did, Patrick kept an eye out for danger. The Smilodon he had seen had ambushed the Hagerman horse thus it was an ambush predator. They had to make sure they noticed one.

"You know this kind of reminds me of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel 'The Lost World." Mused Patrick as he walked with Julie. "Except we are in Africa instead of South America... And we have prehistoric mammals that came after the dinosaurs instead of the dinosaurs... And we have a mutant Nazi ruling over the native ape-man population."

Julie laughed. "I saw the movie at the cinema. The dinosaurs looked horrible! Just lizards with horns and spike put on!"

Patrick joined in the laughter. "The stop-motion dinosaurs from the old one looked so much better!"

"How did you see that? My dad owns a copy of the film reel."

"I saw it at a theatre owned by this guy who worships the silent." Stated Patrick. "I've never heard so much piano music in all my life!"

"Better than what I heard!" commented Julie. "A lot of nothing while my siblings, dad and stepmom prattle on."

"Must make paying attention to the title cards hard."

"It certainly does! I'm trying to pay attention and they are chatting like they are at a tea party!"

The sound of a creature crashing through the underbrush then came to their ears. Patrick froze in his tracks, Julie got close to him, he put an arm around her and then the creature came crashing through the trees. A megatherium! As it came crashing through the underbrush, it stopped and stared at the two. The face had scars on it and for a moment it looked like the ground sloth was deciding on whether or not it would attack. Ultimately, it decided on just continuing on its way.

And then came the Phorusrhacos. Six of them, all of them with the speed of cheetahs! They began pecking at the megatherium, who responded by standing up to its full height and swatting four out of the six of them, killing the four instantly. The two surviving birds backed away and turned to see Patrick and Julie standing right there. The megatherium had continued on its way with the remaining two phorusrhacos turning their attention away from it.

"This just isn't fair." Groaned Patrick.

"Do you have enough energy to run?" asked Julie.

"I don't think it would matter." Replied Patrick. "We'd never outrun them." And then came the roars of something a thousand times worse that sent the birds fleeing. "Oh, please, God, no!" Patrick and Julie both turned to see a daeodon standing right behind them. "I stand corrected. This just isn't fair. Smilodon or hyaenodon would be preferable." He gripped Julie's hand darted in the opposite direction of the daeodon.

The daeodon chased after them and ever they ran from it. To run from a pig was something neither Patrick nor Julie ever thought they would do! The fact that it more reminded Patrick of a killer whale on legs and it more reminded Julie of a hippopotamus might have had something to do with why they were so frightened of the daeodon. That isn't to say a modern pig would be worse since pig herding was so dangerous a profession that only bravest of men would become pig herders. When the creature you herd could attack, kill and eat you that is indeed something that takes a lot of courage. The herding of a daeodon would probably be far worse.

Patrick and Julie found themselves at the edge of a bluff. The bluff was a steep bank and it caused Patrick to realize that it the highland was on a lake. This meant Carolingian would have had to climb down the bluff and swim across the lake.

"Can you swim?" asked Julie.

"Well enough." Replied Patrick.

And so they both leapt off the bluff and into the lake water. As they swam towards the other shore, the sound of a large splash came to their ears. Patrick and Julie didn't even pause to look. They knew what it was. The daeodon had jumped into the water after them.

"Pertinacious guy." Commented Julie upon reaching the shore.

"Abominate that in a daeodon." Added Patrick as he followed her.

The roar of the daeodon was heard once more. It came jumping from the water with teeth bared and the one it got was Patrick himself.