Chapter 1: The Wide-Mouthed Herd
The floodplain stretched as far as Nilo could see — a carpet of green ferns broken only by the silver flash of rivers and the distant shapes of her herd moving slowly through the morning mist.
Nilo was young, as Nigersaurus went. Her neck was still growing into its full length, and her wide, flat mouth — what the older ones called a "harvester" — hadn't yet developed the full rows of replacement teeth that would one day let her graze for hours without rest. But she was learning.
"Keep your head low," said Skarl, the old male who led their group. His voice was a low rumble felt more than heard. "The ferns are thickest near the ground. We don't reach for the sky — we claim the earth."
Nilo dipped her head, sweeping her mouth in the slow arc she had been practising. Her small, flat teeth sheared cleanly through a stand of horsetails. She felt the satisfying crop of each stem and moved forward, never stopping. This was the way of their kind — always moving, always grazing, the whole herd a slow river of feeding creatures crossing the ancient floodplain.
Chapter 2: The Shadow in the River
It was Lena who first saw the shadow.
She made a sharp sound — not words, just a signal that every Nigersaurus in the herd understood instantly: danger near water. Heads lifted from the ferns. Twelve pairs of eyes swung toward the wide brown river running alongside the grazing grounds.
Something enormous was moving just below the surface.
"Sarcosuchus," Skarl said quietly. "Don't run. Move away slowly. Keep together."
Nilo had heard of Sarcosuchus — the great river predator, longer than their entire herd in single file, with jaws that could crush bone as easily as she crushed a fern stem. She had never seen one. Now she watched as a massive, ancient eye broke the water's surface, fixed on the herd for a long moment, and then slid slowly back beneath the brown current.
The herd moved inland, away from the river. No one needed to be told twice.
Chapter 3: Kova's Question
Kova was the youngest of the group — barely past the age when calves stopped following directly behind their mothers. He was full of questions, as young ones always are.
"Nilo," he said, falling into step beside her as the herd settled into a new grazing ground, far from the river, "why do we have so many teeth? I counted mine. I couldn't even finish."
Nilo smiled — or made the expression that passed for one among Nigersaurus. "Because we need them," she said. "Every day we graze for hours. The plants wear our teeth down. So our bodies grow new ones — always ready, always waiting. Behind every tooth you feel, there are eight more lined up."
Kova considered this. "So we're never without?"
"Never," said Nilo. "It is the gift of our kind. We are always sharp. Always ready. Always fed."
They grazed on through the long afternoon, the herd moving in its slow, ancient rhythm across the forgotten plains of a world that would one day become the Sahara — though neither Nilo nor Kova nor any creature alive could imagine such a thing. To them, there was only the green earth, the warm sky, and the endless, nourishing ferns.
End of Chapter 3. This story is original fiction created for AdsenService.com. All dinosaur science referenced is based on real paleontological research.