It was a bird, sort of, stretching 10 feet from beak to claw. It was a little like an ostrich, except the head was two feet in length, ferocious-looking, and with a huge trap-like serrated beak. The claws on the end of its powerful legs would have been more at home on some prehistoric creature as they were fearsome-looking scaly talons.
The plumage was red and brown, and flightless wings were tucked tight in against a barrel body.
Mitch Connors, the local MD, and the closest thing they had to a science type, leaned in closer, and then grunted.
“Terror Turkey.”
The crowd turned to him.
He nodded. “Yep, now I remember, called a Phorusrhacid. Rare, but they come out of the forest this time of year.” He looked up at the crowd. “Dontcha remember?”
Billy Douglas began to slowly nod. “Oh, yeah, I do. Now I remember.”
Then they all did.
CHAPTER 03
Ben Cartwright hung on the cliff face, resting and sucking in deep breaths. He turned and looked out over the landscape. The cliff face he and Emma were on was of medium difficulty, but it was high, and afforded a view for miles over the forested landscape.
Elm, spruce, ash, and other tree varieties all competed for sunlight and created a multi-hued mosaic as they crowded together over the breathtaking landscape. Ben grinned; it looked inviting, safe, and felt like home.
He couldn’t help his mind going back to a similar vista where he looked out over another forest from upon high — that one, the Cretaceous jungle of 100 million years ago. Back then, there were more dangers in a single square mile than this place where there was the occasional bear, mountain lion, or skinny wolf. In that time and place, there were things that were monstrously huge, cunning, and hunted with senses well beyond those of the soft, pink, hairless apes called mankind.
When he was trapped there, he’d had to hide buried in mud, in caves, and on treetops. He’d eaten carrion, insects, grass, and anything he could find to stay alive. His body became crisscrossed with more scars in a few months than his entire time with Special Forces operations.
He was about to turn away, when an odd tingling feeling washed through his body. And then everything blacked out.
“What the…?”
It was over as quickly as it started and Ben looked up to see if something had passed over the sun, but the sky was as cloudless and azure as ever. Looking down again, his eyes narrowed as he gazed out over the trees — something about them now. Different. He hung on the rope and tried to tease it out, but it wouldn’t come.
It’s nothing, he thought, and pulled himself back to the moment. He was here now, home, and he had survived his ordeal. He was safe.
Ben grinned, then laughed out loud, and then threw his head back. “I’m alive.”
“You won’t be for long if you don’t hurry up, buster.”
Ben grinned wider and looked up. Emma was already at the top, standing on the very cliff edge, unafraid, with her hands on perfect hips. Her tanned, muscled shoulders gleamed with perspiration in the sunlight.
He chuckled and started to climb again. Though she was the expert climber, she had taken him on more climbs now than he could remember. It had made him stay fit, in top shape, and though there were silver streaks in his hair, he was still as tough as iron — at least in his book.
He began to climb faster, and his arms and shoulders screamed. He bet he’d need a good soak in a warm tub, plus a few cold beers after this one.
He reached the top and shook his arms and hands out, letting the muscles unwind. He grinned at her.
“Funny, it looked a lot easier from all the way down there.”
Emma smiled back, her green eyes crinkling at the corners. To him, she was still as beautiful as ever, and though the years had lined the corners of her eyes and mouth, and the sun had given her a million more freckles across the nose and cheeks, she still made his heart leap.
She held her arms wide. “But didn’t I just hear you say you feel alive up here, Captain Cartwright?”
“I sure did. After all, you have to be alive to feel pain, right.” He grimaced theatrically.
“Oh, you big baby.” She walked right up to the cliff edge again and peered over, absolutely fearless. “Climb down, or via the path?”
He held up both hands. “Two votes for the path.”
She laughed. “Deal, but we jog, okay?”
He groaned. “Can we enjoy the view for a few more moments?”
He sat down on a rock, she beside him. Nine years had passed since Emma had ventured to the dark heart of the Amazon Jungle to find him and bring him home. The psychological scars for both of them ran deep, and would take a lot longer to heal, but would never ever fade from their memories.
Ben looked up at the sky. Soon, the comet, Primordia, would arrive back again. Frankly, he didn’t want to give a shit, but every year at this time, it managed to creep back into his consciousness. It was an evil anniversary that had burned itself deep into his brain.
He felt Emma’s thigh rub up against his and he felt he was the luckiest man alive. He sighed and looked back out over the view. The trees drew his attention again.
“Hey, Em, the forest, what’s different about it?”
She stood and walked to the precipice edge and put a hand above her eyes. Her head turned slowly as she scanned along the treetops. She began to shake her head and looked over her shoulder.
“Sorry, I love the view, but I’m usually more focused on the rock faces.” She turned and walked back to him, and came and tapped his broad chest. “You’re the ex-special forces guy supposed to be observing things.”
She was right, he was, and he did. He smiled crookedly up at her for a moment and looked back to the trees. He was sure those pine trees weren’t there before. And they were huge, abnormally huge, and for some reason, familiar.
He wracked his mind, but it just wouldn’t come. He gave up, smiling up at Emma who was still half-turned to him and looking out at the trees again. He smacked her tight butt.
“Okay, last one down buys the beers.” He began to sprint.
CHAPTER 04
Comet P/2018-YG874, designate name, Primordia, had finished its elliptical curve around the sun and was on its way back toward Earth. In a few more months, it would be at its apparition point — the closest point to Earth where it becomes visible to the naked eye.
At that time, its astral effects would be felt, but only in one place on the globe — a tabletop mountain, or tepui, deep in the Venezuelan jungles of the Amazon. Primordia had done this for 100 million years, and maybe would for 100 million more.
Unless.
At the other end of space in a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, approximately 31 million miles from the sun in a place called the Kuiper belt, an astral body rushed to join the countless other fragments of space debris that already existed there.
Most of the astral bodies were small, made up of little more than frozen gases such as methane, ammonia, and water, and were remnants from when the Solar System was formed. But other suspended bodies were of titanic proportions, and were composed of dense rock and metals.