One of the more interesting aspects of the first few chapters of the book is the unusual experience of riding in what is essentially a camper shell, but on the back of a massive dinosaur. As far as sauropod dinosaurs go, the saltasaurus is rather small, just larger than an elephant in terms of height, but with a much longer neck and tail. While it might be questionable that such a dinosaur could actually carry a large wooden structure, plus several people, on its back, as these dinosaurs already carried an amazing amount of weight in its own body, I’m hoping that it isn’t too much of a stretch of our imaginations—the suspension of disbelief, if you will.

Here we see the outside and a portion of the inside of this shell. As you can see, it isn’t very large, just a pair of benches, really, with a railed stoop on the back. This illustration was actually added after most of the others were complete, and I decided to expand from ten illustrations to twelve for each book. This was an obvious necessity, as it shows how I imagine this odd structure to look and function, as it plays such a large role in the first half of the book. It also gives another opportunity to show the dinosaur that I consider to be the star of the first novel, the deinonychus.