Jurassic Park^TM III Novelization by Scott Ciencin

a shadow fall over the group. He tensed as several other shadows joined it—thirty-foot shadows.
    Cahhhhhrrrrrr!
    A flock of Pteranodons had dropped from the sky and were now landing in front of Alan and the Kirbys. Several had auburn wings. One had gray wings and an orange-and-black-striped head. It was the Pteranodon that had snatched Eric up and taken him to its nest!
    The giant reptile lurched nightmarishly toward Eric, but his mother stepped in front of him. The Pteranodon advanced on her in a blur. Before it could strike, Paul leaped onto the Pteranodon’s back, grabbing its pointed crest. He wrestled with the fierce predator to keep its stabbing beak away from his wife.
    Flapping its wings and spinning without warning, the giant Pteranodon flung Paul to the sand. Other Pteranodons whipped their wings excitedly as they prepared to join the attack.
    Alan looked for a tree branch, a rock, anything he could use for a weapon.
    Suddenly, an alien but oddly familiar sound pierced the air. Then blurs of yipping, howling, furious motion raced in from every direction.
    Raptors!
    The Pteranodons shrieked in rage, as if they were meeting an ancient enemy last encountered 65 million years ago!
    Eric saw two raptors move in front of the others. They were bigger, clearly the pack leaders. The alpha male had a smoky gray stripe that lined its entire body, right down to the tip of its tail. The alpha female had jagged diamond-shaped patterns running along its flank and rubylike scales dotting the depressions of its eye sockets.
    The alpha male leaped into the air, bringing down the giant Pteranodon as it tried to escape.
    Chaos erupted around Alan and the Kirbys.
    A trio of Pteranodons swooped down and seized the alpha male raptor, lifting it! The giant Pteranodon fought its way free of the melee and rose into the sky, circling and cawing. The airborne combatants rose higher and soon dis-appeared over the tree line.
    “This way!” Alan yelled. “Quick!”
    He led the group away from the battle, toward a barren knoll. Eric could see blue water ahead. The edge of Isla Sorna was in sight. All that stood between them and the ocean was twenty feet of sand and—
    Yip! Yip! HISSSSS-YIEEEEE!
    A dozen raptors charged in and circled the group.
    There was nowhere to run. Eric’s parents and Alan huddled around him, trying to protect him, but Eric knew it was no use. The raptors would shred them all in seconds.
    Yet—the raptors didn’t attack.
    Eric stared into the eyes of the closest raptor.
They want something from us,
Eric realized.
    “The eggs,” Alan said. “They want the eggs. Otherwise we’d be dead already.”
    With painstaking care, Alan eased the pack off his shoulder. He opened it, reached inside, and pulled out the camera bag. As he did, he spotted something else in the pack—the cast of the raptor resonating chamber. Days ago he’d put it in his pack and forgotten about it!
    The circle of raptors broke ranks, and slowly the alpha female raptor approached. Closer and closer, she came. She circled the humans, raising and lowering her head as if with some grave purpose.
    “Everyone, get down!” Alan said. “She’s challenging us!”
    Eric and the others dropped to their knees.
    The alpha female stopped before Eric’s mother. The dinosaur leaned forward, until it was inches away from Amanda’s face. The woman trembled.
    “She thinks I did it,” Amanda said. “She thinks I stole the eggs!”
    Paul tried to edge his way in front of his wife, but the alpha female raptor barked once and snarled at Paul.
    “Give me the eggs,” Amanda said.
    With extreme care, Alan handed the eggs to Amanda. She set them down in the sand.
    The raptors became agitated. Some tensed, as if ready to launch into a killing frenzy. Others trembled and looked to one another for guidance.
    Suddenly, an eerie sound filled the air.
    Hrrrrrr-rreeeee!
    Everyone turned to look at Alan, who held the cast of the raptor resonating chamber near his