[CHAPTER SEVEN]
The Rhinosaur Stampede
The decision was made for them by the rhinosaur. The great scaled beast began to turn around, crashing down brush as he moved. In a few seconds he would be facing directly toward them.
"Tree," Baba clicked very softly. Johnny nodded. The two slinked like hunting cats toward the tree. They didn't dare look back.
"I think the guard saw us," Baba clicked. "He was waving his arms." The jewel bear had already climbed part way up the trunk. He motioned for Johnny to grab the harness.
Not making a sound Johnny took hold of the harness, and the two of them started up the tree. When they reached the first branch, Johnny let go the harness and clambered up as quickly and quietly as he could. Only when they were screened from view by the fleshy leaves of the meat tree did he dare to look down.
Through little openings between the leaves he could see the rhinosaur. It was shaking its ugly horned head. Its little black-blue eyes peered about under blue scaled eyelids. It trumpeted. The deep blasting sound echoed against the settlement walls. For some minutes it moved around in the brush, snorting. It paused, snuffing in air in great gulps. Then it headed straight for the tree and began to trot back and forth under it.
It had smelled Johnny!
Its hoofbeats on the ground made the limb Johnny sat on tremble. If the rhinosaur sensed that Johnny was in the tree it was the end. The tree was easily four feet thick at the base, but a rhinosaur could knock it down with one rush. Johnny and Baba were on the highest and smallest branch, but they were barely twenty feet above its head.
The rhinosaur's shoulder brushed against the lowest branch and the whole tree swayed back and forth as if hit by a hurricane.