This first scene in the novel was inspired by the story of Percival, from Arthurian legend. One morning, he crosses paths with a knight of the Round Table and the encounter changes his life forever. It also provides the perfect way to show what is likely to be everyone's favorite dinosaur. The deinonychus is a cousin to the velociraptor, and apart from a stouter nose, looked much like a the over-sized raptors featured in Jurassic Park. In fact, the deinonychus was somewhat earlier in the fossil record than I was aiming for, but since the closes relative of this size at the end of the Cretaceous was called bambiraptor, I had no choice but to go with deinonychus, if only for the name.

As it would turn out, this is the only illustration to feature Jaral, though the first of three to feature Sir Taranar. The plants at their feet are ordinary ferns and the tree a simple pine.