Chapter 477

“On my home world, we would have called those things dinosaurs,” I told the boys one day as we flew over something that looked very much like an apatosaurus, originally misnamed brontosaurus Earth. On Pateria they were called Untars.

The massive herd of herbivores was moving about a wide, shallow lake eating the tasty vegetation in the water. They had long necks, powerful bodies, and enormous tails, but they were essentially peaceful. We stayed far above on our transports to avoid other smaller creatures that tended to travel near them.

“You see the creatures in the water displaced by the Untars feeding?” I asked Mycah’s family. “If they do not find cover soon they will be plucked out by the Crassas. The Crassas follow the Untars and eat the smaller creatures flushed out of their homes. Those things attack in packs and can overwhelm a single family of men. You must not be on the ground when they are near.”

Jonathan had been looking like he was going to ask to get c