d**k by Law

Chapter 8

8China, 130 Million Years Ago - Cretaceous Period, Mesozoic EraRepenomamus gigantus: the largest known early mammal, over one meter long. The first fossil evidence of this canine species was found in the Liaoning Province fossil beds of China. Thought to have been a carnivore whose diet included small dinosaurs.

If the doglike creature had had a name, it might have been Grip. Of all the fur-covered, warm-blooded, doglike things roaming that prehistoric forest, his jaws had the most powerful grip by far. Once he got hold of something, he never let go.

It didn't matter if he sunk his teeth into one of the four-winged feathered flyers or one of the furry, ratlike mammals...a long-legged frog in a steaming marsh or the egg of a monstrous dinosaur whose head towered among the tops of the pine and fir trees. He never let go.

On one blistering hot afternoon, for example, Grip's mouth was latched onto the leg of a dinosaur...a small dinosaur, but still twice Grip's size. The gray-and-white striped dino was a runner, upright and skinny, but it wasn't going anywhere fast with Grip clamped onto one leg.

Blood oozed from the punctures Grip's teeth made in the leg. The salty, metallic taste of it stirred his appetite, making his mouth water and his stomach growl. He couldn't wait to eat.

And he'd be eating soon, he knew it. Grip had been holding on a while, and the dino was getting tired. Squawking and squealing, it tried to shake Grip free, but with nowhere near the force it had used moments earlier.

Grip knew it was time to make a move. Red-tipped ears flattened against the mottled brown and white fur of his neck, he twisted his body hard to one side, wrenching the dino's leg out from under it. The dino screeched and flailed, trying to stay erect, but Grip sealed its fate with another twist.

The dino fell thrashing into the thick ferns. It knew one last instant of freedom, when Grip let go of its leg, and it scrambled to try to escape...but the instant passed, and Grip lunged for its throat with a snarl.

Grip's teeth sank into the dino's long, slender neck and tore out a tender strip of flesh. Blood gushed from a shredded artery, and Grip kept ripping.

Ripping and chewing.

By the time Grip was done, the dino's head was almost completely severed from its body. Grip gulped down hunks of meat and lapped up blood, and soon even the last twitches of the dino's pieces had stopped.

With relish, Grip ate his fill. He felt an extra flare of pride for bringing down a dino twice his size, and he felt a ripple of relief for knowing he'd be able to feed his family that night.

Such was life in the Mesozoic Era of the Cretaceous Period in the place that would someday be known as China's Liaoning Province. Kill or be killed, every morning, noon, and night. Survival of the fittest.

Dog eat dinosaur.

When Grip had eaten all he could hold, he latched onto the dino's leg again and began to drag it. What mattered most now was getting the meat back to the burrow before something else stole it or it spoiled...getting good meat into the bellies of his mate and pups.

They were the reason he hunted so hard and never let go. They made him happier than anything in the world.

And nothing could ever make him let go of them.