The mighty Tyrannosaur shook her head as she regained her feet. She had been stalking her prey through the sparse forest when she had seen a flash in the distance. Later she’d heard thunderous cracks, shortly followed by a shockwave of wind that had knocked her to the ground and made her unconscious. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out, but now that she had her senses back, she took in the devastation surrounding her. Fireballs of assorted sizes were falling from the sky and catching everything aflame, while the sky itself was slowly becoming darker as ash clouds roiled across it.
She raced through the flames, while avoiding the fireballs as best she could, heading back to her nest and defenseless young. She reached the valley of the nest and found all four of her hatchlings huddled under an overhanging cliff to keep clear of the falling debris. She squeezed herself under the cliff as well, further blocking her babies from harm’s reach. Luckily, she had placed her nest far enough away from the little forest to escape the vast heat being generated from its current incineration. The cries of burning and dying dinosaurs filled the air.
Come morning, a good foot of ash covered the canyon floor and there was more ash still wafting down from the sky like a fluffy snow. It didn’t really seem much like morning though since the sky was so dark and choked with smoke and ash that the sun couldn’t be seen. The glow cast on the underside of the clouds, from the raging ground fires, spread enough light to be able to see and move. The Tyrannosaur and her babies shook off the ash that had found its way under their shelter and began to move from the valley towards an unknown source of attraction in their heads.
As they left the valley, they joined hundreds of other dinosaurs moving in the same direction and seemingly under the same spell of urging in their minds … none of them bothering or fighting with each other, but all of them just moving at a slow and deliberate pace towards the mental calling.
Although they had traveled for several days, while thirst and hunger gripped their throats and bellies, none of the dinosaurs veered from the path of the attraction or stopped to drink or eat. Finally, they arrived at a great glimmering portal rising from the earth, taller than the tallest trees had been and wide enough that the widest dinosaur had ample room to walk through. Without question or hesitation, the dinosaurs calmly walked through the shining portal … and onto a new world, a parallel earth, soon to be called planet Anki …
… Millions of years later …