The Tall Grass

 Evan sat in the car and looked out into the tall grass. 

The dinosaurs were out there.

Up and out over the prairie was a vision of ragnarok, all tall clouds black and bruised purple painted by pinkish sunlight as dusk became night. Shadows grew long in the grass and Evan strained looking into it all, eager for a sighting. Even without seeing a thing for nearly thirty minutes— the thrill was there, he could feel it, ancient mammalian fear mixing with modern excitement. 

The dinosaurs were out there!

Motion, and Evan as well as his fellows in the car instantly turned, making the Jeep rock slightly. It was one of the guides, a tall and lethe woman with dark skin— she was standing. Gazing out to the left off into swaying, pink-tinted grass. Everyone seemed to hold their breath. 

She whistled then— or something like a whistle came out— long and thin sounding and oddly metallic. It echoed out into oncoming twilight. 

Silence. 

The guide looked back at everyone in the car with bottomless green eyes, nodded once, telling them all, it worked, whatever she had done. 

Right on cue came haunting clicks and shrill, lengthy whistles. Evan turned in his seat hard, eyes glued outside. Part of him just hadn’t believed it, couldn’t believe it, it was impossible… 

Aerodynamic, athletic shapes with long rigid tails raced by. They were fast, *too fast*, living predatory blurs. Primeval fear welled back up to the surface, grew and grew as the shapes became things and the things became creatures. 

They were beautiful. Terrifying. Like eagles the size of grizzly bears, fast as cheetahs and falcons, fast as lightning. Scraps of bodies flickered in and out of the grass: a long, black feathered tail, cunning talons on grasping hands, crimson-sepia eyes that flickered with an unnerving intelligence. The whistles cascaded into an almost disturbing loudness, an awful taunting orchestra that made Evan shiver, felt the hairs on his standing. Christ. One of the dinosaurs leapt then, and Evan saw it all it’s glory, draconian and graceful. All at once. 

A dinosaur. It’s body was pure musculature under regal looking feathers, arms and legs that would put any peak athlete to utter shame. Killing claws for pinning, slashing. It seemed to stare right at him through reinforced plexiglass. Come and play it beckoned, a predators taunt. And then it was gone. 

Back into the grass. 

Evan jumped, swiveling at a loud noise. Teeth flashed in his mind— but in reality, it was just a woman and her husband, clapping excitedly at their little prehistoric show. Outside, the dinosaurs were gone and the sun vanished into darkness.