Dan, still stunned, chewed his muddy fingertips and held his palms out to the Hylonomus. His instinct said it was a girl. “It’s okay, it’s okay—I won’t hurt you.” He’d rather see a Hylonomus than an Arthropleura any day.

        She sniffed his palms and touched his finger with her little foot. One would mistake her for a lizard, but she wasn’t. They didn’t appear until the Jurassic Period. However, there was no doubt she was a reptile trapped in the Lost World of Bugs, Dan’s nickname for the Carboniferous. She was also much friendlier than the Temnospondyli, who got him in this mess in the first place—trapped in a coal swamp with broken rocket boots and an injured leg. However, the Hylonomus lifted his spirits.

        “Is this your swamp?” Dan gently asked.

        She responded by licking her right eye.

        “Sorry,” Dan apologized. “I’ll go if you want me to.” He then remembered that PPMC told him to stay put and added, “However, my starship told me not to go anywhere. So…”

        The Hylonomus seemed to smile. She ran in a circle on Dan’s palms and stretched her body like a cat. What was it about him that she liked? Dan thought she’d be shyer.

        He placed her on his shoulder and limped through the swamp, approaching the rocket boots. Dan picked them up and groaned. “PPMC’s gonna kill me.” He wasn’t going to get out of this one easily. He needed a day in a Carboniferous coal swamp to find an excuse. However, he couldn’t stay exposed in the Lost World of Bugs with an injured leg for long.

        With that in mind, Dan asked the Hylonomus, “Do you have a nest around here that may be—well, you know—a little hidden?” Oh, who was he kidding? A Hylonomus wouldn’t understand him.

        It looked like she did, though. She hopped off Dan’s shoulder and hurried to a log in front of another cluster of ferns. There, the Hylonomus turned and waited for him.

        “Where are you taking me, girl?” Dan could trust her, right? She didn’t seem like a troublemaker—just an animal curious about an unexpected visitor.

        He headed for her, but his leg screamed in pain, and Dan fell over, smearing a few plants with blood.

        Concerned, the Hylonomus stepped forward.

        “I’m okay.” But between his leg and illness, Dan knew he wasn’t. That hookup and a new prehistoric world were waiting, though.

        Holding onto that thought, Dan pushed through the pain and joined the Hylonomus at the log. “Take me to your nest.”

        At once, she popped into the ferns.

        Dan split them and checked for another sudden drop. The last thing he wanted was to bust his other leg.

        Once he ensured the coast was clear, Dan stepped into the ferns and saw the Hylonomus. “There you are,” he said, smiling. Dan moved toward her but yelled when something suddenly entered his peripheral and buzzed by him.

        The Meganeura, a dragonfly the size of an eagle, landed on a tree branch, its wings ringing like wind chimes.

        “Meganeura!” Dan hollered. Holy smokes—they really were enormous! The thanks for that went to Earth’s high oxygen levels during the Carboniferous. Dan never thought he’d see a Meganeura up close! He started for it, but the dragonfly flitted away. It looked like it wasn’t as social as the Hylonomus. Maybe the next Meganeura.

        Dan and the Hylonomus trekked through the forest for a good while, but then the Hylonomus reached a new cluster of ferns. Here we are! was the look it gave Dan.

        “Is your home through here?” he eagerly questioned.

        She nodded and slipped through the ferns.

        At first, Dan hesitated. How far away from PPMC was he? At the same time, though, he needed shelter. Dan couldn’t walk much longer with his leg. Considering that, he pushed the ferns aside and stepped into a vast but wondrous coal swamp. “Whoa!”

        Unlike the swamp Dan fell into, the Hylonomus’s was less foggy and had healthier trees. He smelled an ocean breeze and peered up at the blue sky, visible through the gaps in the trees.

        The Hylonomus jumped from log to log in the swamp. She hit each one like they were drums.

        Dan set his rocket boots down and followed her. His jaw dropped when a few more Hylonomus emerged from a hole at the top of the log his Hylonomus rested on. They tackled each other and rolled around like children.

        “OMG!” Dan laughed. “Is this your family, little one?”

        Before she responded, one more Hylonomus, a bigger one, crawled out of the hole. Dan noticed he had a mouthful of water.

        He sprayed Dan’s Hylonomus, and she leaped up, rolling off the log.

        Dan caught her. “Is he your daddy?”

        She nodded again.

        “Oh.” Dan’s shoulders slumped. He remembered how much he missed his family seeing the Hylonomus’s. Gosh, he should’ve said goodbye to Ben! No, wait, he was the one who chose Dan as the Star of the PPMC Project. Why did Dan agree to it again? Gah, too many thoughts swam in his head, and his injured leg wasn’t helping. Dan needed to rest right now, and he would figure things out later.

        He started to lie down in the plants surrounding the Hylonomus’s home, but the sound of sticks cracking in the forest jolted him upright.

        The Hylonomus’s family hurried into their log, but she remained with him.

        “Danger! Danger!” Dan’s gauntlet announced.

        Oh God, what was it—another Meganeura or a wolf-sized scorpion? Dan’s heart pounded, but his curiosity bested him.

        An enormous, brownish-black figure slid out of the plants into the swamp. It had hundreds of legs and two massive antennae on its head.

        The eight-foot-long millipede bounced onto its backside and shook its legs like a modern rattlesnake.

        Dan’s Hylonomus dove for the log and ducked into it with her family, leaving him with the monstrous bug—the very one he begged not to encounter—Arthropleura.

        The hairs on Dan’s body stuck up like static electricity. That thing, that Arthropleura, could swallow him whole. “Arthropleura!” he screamed.

        Dan turned and crawled over the Hylonomus’s log. He rolled into the coal swamp but stood. “Ah!” Dan yelled, clutching his leg.

        The Hylonomus and her family left the log.

        When they did, the Arthropleura snapped it in two and knocked it aside. It slithered toward Dan, who limped backward.

        “Bro, chill!” he said. “I thought you were an herbivore!”

        “Yes, Dan, the Arthropleura is an herbivore,” his gauntlet explained. “However, they are also highly territorial and do not take kind to unexpected visitors. Therefore, running is your best choice.”

        “Or I could just use this.” Dan pressed the button for the energy sword and threatened the Arthropleura with it. “Stay back! Stay back, I say!”

        Unfazed by the blade, the Arthropleura stood again and stretched its antennae toward Dan.

        “That’s it. I’m out.” Dan deactivated the sword and hurried away from the bug, even though he could barely walk. His instincts took him to a tree, and Dan hastily climbed it. His leg burned, but he endured the pain to save his life and reached one of the highest branches.

        The Arthropleura paused at the tree’s base and circled it several times.

        Dan held his breath but felt another cough creeping up his throat. He distracted himself by looking across the canopy to a beach at the end and a few volcanoes. The sun’s rays beckoned him to the ocean, but he had to wait and hope for the millipede to leave. Luckily, his silence eventually came in handy.

        The millipede slithered away, and Dan could climb down. He kept a wary eye and searched for a way to the beach. Dan would love to see the difference between a Precambrian and a Paleozoic one. Unfortunately, when he thought he was safe, he heard something else.

        Two more Arthropleura escaped a few plants. The first one Dan saw joined them.

        “Oh, come on!” he begged. “Can’t you rodents tell I’m injured?” They likely could, which meant Dan was easy picking. No wonder they wouldn’t leave him alone.

        He hustled through the forest, pushing plants and branches aside, and reached the beach. Dan tripped over a rock and toppled onto his back on the white sand. That was different from the Precambrian beaches, where there were merely rocks.

        The Arthropleura appeared on the beach after Dan. One drew closer and soon stood next to the petrified teen. It tasted his face with its antennae, causing Dan to sneeze.

        God! God! God! Please say Dan was dreaming! He didn’t move—he was so scared—and nearly threw up his heart. This was the end, for sure.

        Strangely, before the millipede took a bite from him, it paused and went low like the other two. Without warning, they rushed back into the forest and left Dan doped up and alone.

        “Danger! Danger!” shouted his gauntlet.

        God, would this ever end?