They hiked through the nearest canyon and came to the first set of fossils. Callum read his notes. “This is where they found an oviraptor.”

     “Wow! Look at the bones,” Fiona said.

     “It says that oviraptor means egg thief. They have a beak, see it?” Callum pointed it out. “They also have two small teeth. They eat eggs, fruit and shellfish.”

     “How can they eat shellfish out here? There’s no sea around here?” Elspet frowned. “Unless you know something I don’t know.”

     “I think this area was a sea in the times of the dinosaurs,” Fiona said.

     “It doesn’t say it eats people though,” Elspet said, relieved.

     “Maybe there weren’t people around this area then. They eat plants and animals, therefore they are called omnivores. They walk on two legs and have a parrot-like head with strong jaws for crushing hard objects.” Callum finished reading his notes on that particular dinosaur. “Oh, and it’s the size of a grown man. It might not say it eats people, but I’m sure the ones we may encounter today will.”

     A grunting sound caught their attention. “I do not like the sound of that. Please, oh please, tell me there’s not a velociraptor or oviraptor standing behind me.” Elspet fought back tears.

     “There isn’t, but something is nearby. We’re stuck here in the middle of this canyon with no place to run except into another canyon. What should we do?” Callum picked up a bone lying on top of the ground. “I’m not going down without a fight.”

     A shadow turned into the canyon and behind it was a velociraptor. Behind the velociraptor were three more. They made strange clicking sounds and lined up in a row, blocking the exit.

“Do you know what velociraptor means?” Callum searched for a route of escape as he spoke. “It means swift thief because it runs fast and can grasp things. Pay attention to the runs fast part. Fiona, what are we going to do? Can you think of some sort of magic to use?”

“I’ll use every one of them if I have to.” Fiona closed her eyes. A fire began to burn between them and the raptors. The flames grew in intensity. The creatures screeched and backed away from the fire.

“It’s working, Fiona. They won’t run through it,” Elspet said.

“They can run around and come behind us,” Callum said.

“I’ll solve that.” Fiona made a fire behind them, enclosing them between two walls of flame.

“This will keep us safe for a while, but sooner or later they’ll figure out that they can go above us and jump down on us.” Callum looked up at the tops of the cliffs. “Oops. Spoke too soon. They’ve already figured it out. They are smart. Look.”

The four raptors perched on the cliff above. “Oh no! They’ll jump down and kill us. I saw that dinosaur movie too. Those velociraptors have this special claw that rips open people’s bellies and they have a lot of sharp teeth to finish us off. I’ve never been more scared in my life.” Elspet went into hysterical sobbing.

“I’ll try to use the weather to stop them,” Fiona said.

“Wait. If you make it rain, it will flood us out. We’re stuck down here in this canyon,” Callum said.

“Right. I can turn myself into something else, but what?”

“How about a t-rex? T-rex eat velociraptors, don’t they? Elspet added her suggestion.

“They do, but there are four of them and there would only be one of me and they’ve got that sharp extra claw, remember?” Fiona wiped sweat from her brow. “Okay, I’ve got it. I’ll make myself into a giant t-rex, ten times the size of a normal one and then I’ll swat them away like flies.”

The first raptor jumped down into the canyon and stood in front of Callum.  The second, third and fourth followed. They formed a semi-circle around them, snarling and hissing. “Do it now, Fiona.” Callum backed up against the wall and pulled Elspet with him. “Pick up a bone, Elspet and hit them if they come near. Hurry Fiona.”

Fiona turned herself into a t-rex. The raptors backed away, surprised by the sudden appearance of their enemy. She roared and bent over to snap at them.

“Grow bigger. They’ll kill you. There are too many of them.” Callum shouted and swung the bone at an approaching raptor. “They’re surrounding you and moving in for the kill, Fiona.”

Fiona needed no more encouragement. She made herself grow. Her head passed the tops of the cliff. She kept growing until she felt confident she could destroy the velociraptors without getting hurt herself.

The raptors ran back, away from Elspet and Callum. When Fiona roared, they darted off in different directions. “Oh no you don’t,” Fiona said. She roared, shaking the bushes and trees. Slobber fell from her teeth. “Gross.” She reached over and picked up a raptor that was running into a dead end canyon. It nipped at her fingers, taking chunks from them. “Ouch, you nasty velociraptor.” She flicked it with the fingers of her other hand, knocking it unconscious. “What to do with you. Hmm.” She picked it up by the legs and swung it around in circles and then let go. The raptor flew through the air and landed with a thud against the side of a cliff. “That’ll do you. One down, three to go.”

She grabbed another that was hiding behind a bush. She grabbed it by the tail and held it in front of her face. With an enormous roar, she dropped the raptor into her mouth, crunched it with her teeth and swallowed. “Ew. That tasted so gross. Yuck. Raw velociraptor Tartar.”

The third and fourth raptors hid and Fiona couldn’t find them until one of them made a stupid error and ran from its hiding place. Fiona let it run into her cupped hand and lifted it. “What should I do with you?” It snapped at her nose and used its claw to rip open a hole in her cheek. Blood poured from the giant t-rex. This excited the raptor even more, but it angered Fiona. She squeezed the dinosaur until it exploded and then tossed the remains on the ground. She stepped on it with her clawed foot and smashed it into the ground.

Fiona couldn’t find the fourth raptor, so presumed it had run away. She shrunk back down to normal t-rex size.