Read Online Taming a Planet (Trapped in Time Book 2) by Saxon Andrew - Free Book Online Page B

DINAH!” Dinah slid to a stop and Harmony jumped up into the saddle. She saw a large shadow moving toward the river but then it was over the trees and disappeared. She blew out a breath and tapped Dinah with her right knee. Dinah turned north and started jogging. She now knew that Andy’s community was much more advanced than she thought. Maybe they could stand up to the Destroyers. A small voice in her head kept telling her they wouldn’t.
    • • •
    Andy went to his knees on Dinah’s back and pulled a chord on the backpack. The spine of the glider’s frame pushed out behind him and he said, “Run!” Dinah accelerated and Andy felt the two wings shoot out to the sides and the vertical bars fall in front of him. He was ripped upward and he released the rope around Dinah’s neck as the glider moved rapidly upward as he raised the front edge of the glider. He saw Dinah sprint up to Harmony and slide to a stop. Good; he lifted the glider’s nose and it caught the breeze blowing from the ocean over the cliff. He flew slowly upward keeping the nose of the glider pointed into the wind. After ten minutes he reached the cliff and the wind blowing up the cliff walls jerked him viciously upward. He moved over the updraft and then turned and used it to move him higher as he flew south. Soon he was a speck in the sky, if an invisible speck could be seen.
    He looked south and saw some of the largest Pterodactyls he had ever seen. He pulled a small vial out of a pocket on the vertical bar. He popped the top off and sprinkled the contents on him. The early flyers had determined that even though they were invisible, the flying reptiles could smell them; their sense of smell was even better than Dinah’s. One of the first ancestors had made it his mission to learn how the giant flying carnivores operated in hopes of finding a way to stop them from homing in on the gliders. He discovered, by accident, that young males were ignored by all the adults. They weren’t of breeding age and represented no danger to the giant males.
    Some of the young males were collected and a small gland was found that produced a liquid that gave them a distinctive odor. The Early Flier doused himself with it and went up into a large flock of the flying carnivores. He feared that other young males might still come and investigate but found out quickly that the young males were afraid of everything, even each other. They would become aggressive as they aged and started breeding; that gland disappeared as the young males matured into adults.
    Andy was headed south toward the smoke plume that was still rising as it was blown inland. He knew that the fire was still hot and that something was being deliberately burned. He flew for an hour and finally arrived at the site of the fire. He found what remained of a small community. There were humans walking among the structures removing items. Once the small dwelling was emptied, it was torched. He saw the ones dressed in green had rifles slung over their shoulders. The captured inhabitants were all chained together by age and sex. The men and older boys were in one collection area and the very young boys, women and young girls were a hundred yards away. Andy flew away from the shoreline. The cliff had ended ten miles north of the community and a vast forest grew inland. He flew over the forest and caught the air blowing in off the ocean and rose higher. He finally saw numerous humans fleeing into the thick forest about eight miles from the site of destruction. Most of them were carrying bows and they looked organized at keeping the predators at bay. He whipped the glider around and flew back toward the shoreline.
    That’s where he saw the huge ships anchored offshore. They were further south and he moved over them. As he moved closer he heard rifle fire from the trees a mile inland. As he watched he heard a giant explosion and saw a black plume of smoke blow out from one of the boats. He looked inland and saw a