Forest Airspace

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  A vast gray shadow tore across the grassy plains, skimming just above the ground!

  It was a colossal pterosaur, darting through the air like a living missile!

  Its massive wings stirred up fierce gusts in its wake!

  That same gale swept a small boy tumbling across the field, knocking him off his intended path.

  Only in that split second—his reflexes kicking in—did he narrowly avoid being snapped up by the beast’s monstrous, gaping maw!

  He scrambled to his feet, slapping the dust off his hide tunic.

  Barely a meter tall, yet he had to face this skyborne behemoth on his own!

  Another dodge, another brush with death—yet there was no time for relief.

  The lunging pterosaur hadn't retreated; with a single beat of its wings, it soared skyward again.

  It circled and looped twice—then banked hard into another dive!

  Its wings tucked in, plunging like a bolt from the heavens!

  "Again? Really?!" the boy shouted, trembling with fury and the urge to cry—but what could he do?

  It was coming—again!

  He clenched his jaw, eyes locked on the sky-blotting curtain of wings surging toward him.

  He knew—he couldn’t move yet. It wasn’t time to strike!

  Even as his body shook, he forced himself to stay calm, to hold the line!

  The curtain of wings grew larger and larger, devouring the landscape. It was as if the sky and earth themselves were about to vanish!

  Here it comes—!

  Get ready... run!

  He burst into a sprint.

  The wind roared as the monstrous beast descended—just meters away, almost within reach!

  The same deadly dance resumed—

  Not only did he have to run like hell, he had to keep his eyes locked on that colossal predator!

  It was terrifying. So close, he could almost touch it.

  So close, it felt like it could swallow everything he had ever known!

  But he couldn’t shut his eyes. He couldn’t look away.

  Barely four or five years old—yet he understood this with chilling clarity:

  When death stares you in the face, fear, panic, hesitation...

  None of them help.

  You fight it head-on.

  Suddenly—

  That massive maw surged forward!

  Its open jaws became a cavern, a sinkhole collapsing out of nowhere!

  The pterosaur’s snout shot down like a ballista bolt from a monstrous siege engine!

  All he could do was run, dodge—

  He wasn’t a fortress wall built to withstand siege bolts. He was just a child!

  He could no longer hear anything. In his vision, only the “arrowhead” loomed larger—

  Closer. Closer. Closer—like the tip of a giant spear, seconds from impact.

  Now!

  Mid-sprint, he dove low, tucked into a ball, and rolled!

  Like a desert spider curling tight between bounds—

  He compacted into a spinning disc and darted downslope in a blur!

  The movement was so fast, he evaded the deadly sky-hunter—

  just like that, dodging the fatal strike of a hornet from above!

  Originally, a child's body was too small, too slow, too weak—a glaring disadvantage.

  But that very weakness became his edge: with short limbs and natural flexibility, he could curl tighter, rounder, and roll better!

  Skimming mere inches above the ground, he became a near-flat target—

  and to a pterosaur clumsy at low altitudes, that made him much harder to catch.

  Worse still for the beast: the “target” was rolling—nearly spherical, almost impossible to bite into.

  Mid-roll, he slipped past that monstrous snout again!

  How many times now?

  That had to be the second—maybe third—time he dodged that spear-like maw!

  And this time, too—

  Whoosh! Another gust!

  "Huh?"

  As he spun, a wave of dizziness struck him—and suddenly, everything went dark...

  "Dizzy? ...Low blood sugar?"

  As his roll slowed, something pressed in around him.

  Had he fallen into a pit?

  A hole that big in the middle of a plain?

  Dazed, he realized he was still moving.

  That deep? Dug by a beast?

  No—this didn’t feel like falling...

  At that instant, his hairs stood on end—

  a cold sweat raced up his skin and stabbed into his skull!

  He shook his head—and the darkness vanished. He could see—

  A line? A horizon?

  Tilted... rotating...

  The ground was moving?!

  "No way!"

  Grass, rocks, trees...

  All the familiar sights were shrinking, receding, pulling away—as if being sucked into the distance!

  In a blink, everything compressed into something unrecognizable!

  "Oh my god, this is—!"

  The pterosaur had clamped him inside its specialized, oversized beak!

  After several failed strikes, the beast had figured out the boy’s rolling trick—

  This time, with a corrected trajectory, its second bite was a clean hit!

  To the pterosaur, that dodge-and-roll move wasn’t anything new.

  Plenty of prey darted and thrashed; if it couldn’t adapt, it’d have starved long ago!

  It had locked onto the boy’s pattern. As its jaws nearly overshot him, it flapped with explosive force—

  pulling a sudden brake, shifting its angle, and curling its neck mid-air—

  fine-tuning its path just enough to snap the boy into its mouth!

  Inside that draconic maw, escape wasn’t even a fantasy—he could barely move, let alone fight back.

  Eyes wide, body frozen, he understood the futility of struggling.

  And strangely, a calm washed over him. He managed a bitter smirk and muttered to himself:

  "Talk about panic-stricken eyes... or maybe in this case, dragon-stricken eyes."

  He knew it too well: escaping now—

  was impossible.

  Trying would only get him killed faster.

  Cornered and powerless, he simply opened his eyes wide, observing—memorizing—the beast’s mouth.

  Its beak resembled that of a stork or pelican, but with a disproportionate bulk more like a toucan’s.

  "These memories and references... they don’t belong to this time or place.

  That 'dragon-stricken eyes' line didn’t either."

  He realized—much of the knowledge in his head didn’t seem to fit this world at all.

  But this wasn’t the moment to unpack that mystery.

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  The crushing pressure of the jaws, combined with the high-speed flight, was starting to choke his breath.

  Wind howled into his ears like blades, thunderous noise pounding his skull, echoing in his mind.

  He wanted to scream—but held it in.

  The flight path sliced through the skies like a shortcut—

  in no time, they plunged into a vast, wild primeval forest!

  A land swarming with monsters—perhaps even beasts that hunted pterosaurs lurked below.

  The beast flew above a towering spire of rock, then descended onto the broad stone platform at its peak.

  These steep, pillar-like rock towers were favored by its kind for nesting.

  And this one—flat-topped and spacious—was a rare gem among them.

  Such a lofty perch kept egg-thieves and large predators at bay.

  To a pterosaur nesting on this natural watchtower, it offered solitude, safety, and a perfect view.

  Especially at night—no threat could sneak up on it.

  Ancient times. Towering cliffs. A long, pointed beak—

  It reminded the boy of a prehistoric creature: a giant orthocone, like a monstrous nautilus with a conical shell. (Orthoceras, an ancient straight-shelled cephalopod.)

  "This feels just like the Jurassic... like a lost..."

  A lost world.

  That science fiction novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

  If he remembered right, the first creatures the explorers encountered—

  were flying pterodactyls!

  "Another thing I shouldn’t know? Wow..."

  Dizziness and pressure hit him again—the pterosaur had landed.

  It lowered its head and spat him out.

  "Ow!"

  Luckily, the drop wasn’t too high, and a layer of branches cushioned his fall.

  No time to worry about pain—he scrambled to scan his surroundings.

  The platform was far too high to climb down from. For now, he had to find a place to hide.

  Thankfully, there were some scattered boulders near the center—maybe enough to take cover.

  The problem was—

  He had to force himself to look up, face-to-face with the four-meter-tall pterosaur.

  As tall as a giraffe—it could easily poke its head through a second-story window.

  But it only gazed out toward the distant sky, paying him no attention for now.

  He followed its gaze—

  Whoa!

  A massive bird-shaped shadow was approaching from afar!

  "That’s gotta be another pterosaur?!"

  That’s it.

  If this one didn’t eat him, the next one surely would!

  Quick! Hide! Don’t let it notice you!

  He scrambled and rolled, crawling and clawing for cover—

  Then suddenly, in the corner of his eye, he spotted a shallow hollow between the rocks behind the pterosaur.

  Among the twigs, something was nestled—

  “Eggs?!”

  Slightly larger than goose eggs, elongated like oval capsules.

  Earth-toned shells with hints of mottled gradients, almost camouflaged.

  “Pterosaur eggs? What else could they be?”

  He snapped his head up—the pterosaur was still staring off into the sky.

  Wait a second... eggs—

  Could they be... a pair?!

  If those two giants were mates, then he, the fish in the pot, was absolutely doomed!

  No! He had to think—fast—

  A way to survive!

  Hide? Where? Could he hide forever?

  Even if he could turn invisible, he’d starve eventually.

  No—more likely die of thirst first!

  This was an open-air platform. One way or another, the sun would cook him alive!

  Hiding was not an option. There weren’t even any real holes to hide in.

  And even if there was a hole, those jaws would just pluck him right out!

  Think! Think!

  What else? What else could he do?!

  Ah! Got it!

  A single ray of hope pierced the chaos—and with it came a sobering realization:

  This line of thinking...

  No normal kid should be thinking like this.

  And these fractured, time-warped memories...

  But there was no time to dwell on that now.

  He had to act—now.

  He crept toward the pterosaur eggs—

  Step one: Hostage tactic.

  Make it clear to the beast—he could smash the eggs.

  That alone might buy him time.

  At the very least, it might stop them from turning him into lunch.

  Of course, this wasn’t a long-term solution. So…

  Step two—Pretend to be a caretaker.

  Handle the eggs gently. Show kindness.

  When the hatchlings emerged, he’d try to build a bond—

  Maybe get accepted as part of the “family”… even if just as a servant.

  He even began to hope—what if this really became a dragon-taming story?

  What if… he could actually train them?

  “Wait… pets? Taming? Birds? Cats and dogs?”

  Again, he noticed thoughts that didn’t belong in this time and world.

  Even the idea of capsules—that came from some future civilization!

  Still, he followed the plan.

  He picked up one egg—it fit perfectly in his palms.

  The shell felt like jelly, soft and trembling, as if the slightest pressure could rupture it.

  A solid core swam inside a fluid membrane.

  His brain even compared it to the little paddling limbs under a shrimp’s belly—

  pleopods, he recalled—but he forced that thought away.

  Reaching out again, he carefully scooped up the one with dark green mottling.

  He began backing away—

  Suddenly, the wind around him shifted!

  The second pterosaur had arrived!

  It landed.

  The first one remained where it stood, barely moving.

  The two beasts looked nearly identical—grayish-brown bodies, emitting a low buzzing call.

  A weird buzzing call—half donkey bray, half grinding machinery. The sound grated on his nerves.

  Hiding behind the rocks, the boy held up two eggs in both hands, arms raised.

  His heart pounded like a drum—he could only pray the pterosaurs wouldn’t come closer.

  And yet… he hoped—

  That holding their eggs might touch something in them. That maybe, just maybe, they’d entrust him with hatching duty.

  But what happened next—was shocking!

  Suddenly, both pterosaurs stretched their necks, opened their mouths—

  and started pecking at each other?!

  Once!

  Twice!

  Wait—were they… fighting each other?!

  Then what about my plan—what now!?