3 Eggs-actly Right!

Chapter 3 EGGS-ACTLY RIGHT! The egg trembled. A crack zigzagged across its top. "It's hatching!" said Judy. crick… crack… crack… Now there was a hole in the top of the egg. From the hole poked a head as big as a puppy's. But this head was scaly. Sharp little teeth hung down from the top of its mouth. Its bright black eyes looked up at Judy and blinked. It gripped the edge of the shell with the two teeny fingers at the ends of its tiny little arms.

Judy slapped her hand over her mouth. "It's a…" meep… "Tyrannosaurus baby," said Thudd. "Beeper was right!" said Andrew. "This is what the DNA Detector was picking up!" meep… "Dinosaur baby called chick," said Thudd. "Just like bird. Dinosaurs are great-great- great-great-great-grandparents of birds. When you see bird, you see little dinosaur!" crick… crick… The shell cracked apart and the tiny dinosaur took a few wobbly steps toward Judy.

Judy backed away. "It's not even as high as my knee and it wants to eat me!" she said. meep… "Maybe not want to eat you," said Thudd. "Maybe chick think Oody is Tyrannosaurus mom." Judy frowned. "Are you saying I look like a Tyrannosaurus?" she asked. "Noop! Noop! Noop!" said Thudd. "When bird chick hatch out of egg, chick think first thing it see is mom. If baby duck see human first, baby duck think human is mom." As Judy stepped back, the Tyrannosaurus chick followed. Suddenly it lurched at Judy, opened its mouth, and bit the leg of her pajamas with its sharp little teeth. "NO!" said Judy loudly. She tapped the Tyrannosaurus on its snout. Unnk! it grunted as it shredded Judy's pajama leg. "He doesn't think I'm Mom," said Judy. "He thinks I'm lunch."

Just then, a yellow butterfly fluttered between Judy and the Tyrannosaurus. The baby dinosaur pawed the air trying to grab it. The butterfly darted off and the Tyrannosaurus followed it. Judy turned to Andrew. "You know, its mother could be back any minute to feed it." meep… "Nobody know if Tyrannosaurus mom take care of Tyrannosaurus babies," said Thudd. "Well," said Andrew, "if there's a little one here, there are big ones around somewhere. We'd better find that dino poop."

Andrew and Judy followed the Time-A-Tron's bright green beam up a hill. "Wait a minute," said Judy, stopping under a fern that towered over her head. She snapped off a bunch of fronds and handed half of them to Andrew. It wasn't long before the beam—and their noses —led them to a huge pile of brown stuff. "Eeeeuuw!" said Judy. "Yuckers!" said Andrew. meep… "Gotta do it!" said Thudd. Andrew and Judy looked at each other. Then Andrew swished his fern fronds across the poop. Judy did the same. They stuck the ends of the fronds into the waistbands of their pajamas. Judy pinched her nose with her fingers. Andrew typed "Beeper Jones" into the DNA Detector and pressed the Find It button. He moved the detector slowly in a circle. ping… ping… ping… "6,000 Feet" blinked on the display.

"Wowzers!" said Andrew. "Beeper's more than a mile away!" Andrew's and Judy's slippers were slippery, but they started slogging their way in the direction of the signal. Judy shook her head. "The ferns and bushes are so tall and thick we can't even tell where we're going." "I see a path," said Andrew. He pushed his way to a place where the ferns were squashed flat. "Uh-oh," said Andrew. In the middle of the flattened plants were gigantic holes—footprints! The three-toed footprints of something enormous!