No one could say how they had survived: least of all, Doctor Elijah Stewart. A month ago, he had been given all the information anyone knew. Now it was his job to determine anything he could.

They stood about the height of a chicken. But that was the extent of their outward similarity. Their skin was thick and colored a dark, mottled, brown. There was no fur or feathers: the skin was creased, somewhat like an elephant's, and just as tough. However, the creases in it ran hexagonally over the surface, and so resembled scales. Males differed from females only in that the skin at the top of their heads was a copper color. Dr. Stewart called it the "bronze crown".

The tail was tiny at the tip, but rapidly flared to merge with the body at the rear haunches. Here, it was very muscular and, as the animal thrashed its tail, one could see huge muscles ripple beneath the skin. The rear legs were massive in proportion to the top third of the beast. When they were hungry, they could use their well-developed hind legs and tail to  perform a spring-board-like jump of amazing length to land on their prey. They had jumped as high as Doctor Stewart's shoulders, around 5 feet, straight up.

Ordinarily, this was extremely dangerous, as the cat-sized head was very Komodo dragon-like. It was chock full of little razor-sharp teeth. If their forepaws had evolved into a longer variety, they would have been able to grab on and make a hasty meal out of a full-grown man. As it was, the forelegs were short, stubby and barely useful. Plus, Doctor Stewart was smart enough to view them through thick glass, rather than "in person".

Initial DNA samples had indicated that these animals were an 80% match to MOR 1125: a T. Rex, found in the sandstone of Montana in 2005. The DNA was matched to soft tissue found in MOR 1125's thigh bone. Dr. Stewart surmised that a majority of the allele differences had caused their size reduction over the last 70 million years.

He opened the files he had been given and read through them for what seemed the thousandth time. A total of twelve encounters were recorded by explorers between 1962 and 2008. All incidents were in the western section of Mongolia, in the Bayan-Ölgii aimag, or province. Five of the sightings were near wooded areas, comprised mostly of Siberian larch. Two sightings of a dozen (a herd?) of the creatures was near a small lake noted for its brackish waters. Other sightings were mentioned on the steppes and in the mountains.

In every case, the T. Rex had acted in a more or less collective way, according to the reports. When approached, The group grunted and hissed while they thrashed their tails and bobbed their heads up and down. The documents contained similar descriptions in the two longest encounters: in both cases, four of the dinosaurs lagged behind as the main body were led off by a single member of the group. The four laggards would hiss and thrash thier tails, retreat, stop, and hiss and thrash again. This would repeat until the four were satisfied that they were not being followed, at which time they would lift their tails and run away at astonishing speeds.

He also reread the latest report - from six months ago. There was also a DVD. Some unnamed billionaire had funded a team to document and capture these creatures. This billionaire's intention, of course, was to have the only "herd" of T. Rex on the planet. His contribution to science was to have been the release of the "documentary" to the world. Fortunately, that didn't happen. Not exactly, anyway. Two members of the team were killed during the capture of about 25 dinosaurs. Only one of the T. Rex enclave was killed: accidentally. The unfortunate one was the source of the DNA for testing. In the end, the billionaire went empty handed and the Mongolians decided to allow the more advanced American scientists to examine the animals.

He closed the file and stared blankly out the window. He, his team, and the dinosaurs, were housed in an old zoo in what the press referred to as "an undisclosed location". Obviously, he had taken as many precautions as he could. They had reproduced the capture area in Mongolia as best they could on short notice. Brackish water was imported from the very lake at which some of the sightings had occured. Siberian larches were brought in. Probable food sources were established. Everything was ready for the dinosaurs to begin their new life in captivity.

Except no one, apparently, told this to the T. Rex. They were mostly uncooperative. He had hoped they would return to some of the habits he had seen in the billionaire's documentary footage: hunting in packs, mating, foraging and all the other very dinosaur-like things.

Instead, they seemed to be observing him and his staff.

The first problem was when the dinosaurs refused to hunt. Rather than have them starve to death, his staff had loaded up a truck with carcasses and drove into the enclosure to deposit them. These, the dinosaurs had eaten. He waited 2 days for them to begin hunting. When they showed no interest, he sent in another truckload. After 2 days more with no hunting in evidence, he ordered a third feeding. However, the driver returned and reported that the pack had been too near the gate and so the food could not be delivered. Dr. Stewart was astonished. It was possible, though unlikely, that the dinosaurs had intentionally waited at the gate for the food. He had then set up a test and had the food delivered via a second gate. Within 2 feedings, the dinosaurs were massing at the second gate. Obviously, this was not a chance event. He then scheduled random feedings at each gate, in order not to offer an escape route to the animals.

The second problem was Dr. Stewart's wife, Marie. Whenever she was at the observation windows, all the males would peer in at her and follow her every move. She was so unnerved by this behaviour that she requested clerical-only duties.

Lastly, and most astonishing, was that the dinosaurs had built a wall. About 100 feet out from the observation window, the dinosaurs had gathered together large limbs of the larches and interlaced them into a crude wall.  They spent most of their time behind it. Two attempts were made to dismantle the wall with a backhoe. Both times, the wall had been rebuilt in a matter of hours. Finally, the limbs had been removed from the enclosure. Overnight, the dinosaurs had built another wall with freshly chewed off limbs. This time, they also piled up fist-sized rocks and covered some gaps in the wall with grass. Two of their number would "patrol" the wall at all times, with each pair taking four hour shifts. The rest of the group would be behind the wall. It could be seen that they were doing something, but as of yet, their tasks were a mystery.

What was most frightening at this point were the reports from the human observers on duty that they could often see specific members of the dinosaur group staring through gaps in the wall - observing the observers. Almost all of the humans reported feelings of fear and dread associated with these discoveries.

Dr. Stewart decided to go to the observation area before leaving for the day. Tom was there, sipping a hot coffee, and recording a memo.

"And in other news, Otto and Tina are apparently engaged! That's right, folks. Our first mating encounter has been recorded!"

"What? You're kidding," Dr. Stewart yelled.

Tom spilled his coffee as he jumped up and spun around.

"Jeez! Dr. Stewart. Give a poor guy some notice, will ya?"

"Sorry, Tom. Did you say Otto and Tina were mating?"

Tom's patented childish grin spread from ear to ear.

"Yep. Happened about five minutes ago."

"But how did you see it? Weren't they behind the wall?"

"No, and that's the weird part, Doc. It's been crazy down here, today," Tom said, laughing like a schoolboy.

He switched in a new tape to the recording equipment and took the full tape to a playback unit.

"The show started about 2 hours ago, " Tom began, "when Max and Bobby came out to play."

He fast forwarded the tape to the point indicated by his notes. Dr. Stewart watched in awe as Bobby came out from behind the wall carrying a live European hare gently in his mouth. He stopped as Max continued walking closer to the observation window.

Both of the dinosaurs peered into the observation window, their heads turned to the side in their characteristic one-eyed peering stance. Apparently satisfied that someone was watching, they turned to each other. Bobby gently lowered the struggling hare to the ground and released it, as Max began hopping and bobbing his head. In a flash, Max jumped towards the hare as it bounded away from Bobby. Max lifted his tail and chased down the rabbit in a matter of seconds, snapping its back with the first bite. He ran to a point just a few feet away from the observation window and dropped his prey. It seemed to Dr. Stewart that Max made quite a show of using his left hind leg to hold the hare down as he ripped it apart and ate its flesh. After his meal, both Max and Bobby walked back to the wall and disappeared behind it.

Dr. Stewart could only move his mouth up and down. It was clearly a demonstration, by the dinosaurs, for the benefit of the humans. He had seen the documentary and knew how the dinosaurs hunted. It was exactly as Bobby had demonstrated just now. In the wild, of course, it took a bit longer to chase down a frightened rabbit. But it was essentially the same.

"It gets better," Tom said, fast forwarding again.

This time, two of the females brought out a limb of larch. They each carried one end in their mouths and more or less marched in unison to where Max had eaten his meal. Cindy, Bobby's sister, dropped her smaller end of the branch. She place one hind foot on top of the branch, at the end, and slid the other foot under it near the middle, holding it in place. The other female, Betty, began chewing on the larger end, shaping it into a point and stripping off the bark. This, the scientists had never seen before. The girls apparently finished their demonstration, picked up the branch and headed off behind the wall again.

"Astounding," was all Doc Stewart could manage.

"And for our final segment on today's show... the Mating Ritual, starring..."

Tom's announcement was interrupted by a steady tapping sound. Dr. Stewart and Tom turned around to look out the observation window. Otto, the dominant male, was tapping on it with the branch made by Cindy and Betty. The entire clan were standing abreast behind him. Otto dropped the branch and turned his head to peer in at the men.

The scientists stood, gawking at the sight before them. Otto slid his forepaws onto his stomach and did something no scientist would have imagined him capable of.

Otto laughed.