Spynosaur gripped Amber to his chest as the force of the explosion blew them through the air. Searing flames and rubble accompanied them as they fell, spinning and spiralling to the ground below. They crashed through a snow-covered pine tree, Spynosaur’s dense, dinosaurian body snapping branch after branch until he finally landed in a mound of mercifully soft snow.
“AAH! And OW!” yelped Amber as Spynosaur got to his feet. He deposited his daughter on the ground and casually extinguished a small fire on his left arm.
“Well, I’d say our cover is well and truly blown,” he noted, looking up at the flaming remains of the fort. Then he held up the attaché case to check it was intact.
“Who tried to blow us up? I’ll ninja kick them to bits!” declared Amber. “But wait, where’s Danger Mo—?”
Amber didn’t even see the blade spinning towards her head. With the unmatched reflexes of the world’s first and only super-secret agent dinosaur, Spynosaur swung the attaché case in front of her face just in time. The blade embedded in the metal case with a SHHUNK!
“Talk about getting to the point,” said Spynosaur, plucking the deadly blade from the case to get a closer look.
It was in the shape of a snowflake.
“Diabolical,” said Spynosaur, following the trajectory of the snowflake blade back up to the mountain’s ridge.
There were four rotund figures on the horizon, framed in white against the clear blue sky.
“Snowmen?” blurted Amber.
“Ninja snowmen,” corrected Spynosaur, staring at the snowmen’s gleaming katana swords and carrot noses. “Cold-hearted contract killers who won’t melt till they’ve terminated their target – namely, us.”
The snowmen began sliding towards them with breathtaking speed. Spynosaur glanced towards the maze of trees leading down the mountain. He handed Amber the attaché case. “He who spies and runs away, lives to spy another day. Get on my back!”
“What are you going to do?” Amber shrieked, grabbing hold of her dad’s shoulders.
“I’m literally on top of the problem,” Spynosaur replied. “Claw skis!”
With a SHUFFF! a pair of long, green skis shot out from beneath Spynosaur’s feet.
“I want secret skis! How come I don’t have secret skis?” huffed Amber.
“When you prove you can look after that new rabbit of yours, then you can have secret skis,” replied her dad.
“I have proved it! Mr Fleming is— Yaah!” Amber shrieked as more deadly snowflakes whizzed past her head.
“Hang on – and don’t let go of that case,” said Spynosaur. He sped down the mountain, his skis carving through the snow as he aimed for the maze of trees.
Amber ducked as they raced under a low-hanging branch, with the ninja snowmen in hot pursuit. One of the snowmen bowed too late, and with a FWUMP! the branch knocked his head clean off. Spynosaur and Amber glanced back to see the snowman’s body topple limply to the ground.
“If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs…” said Spynosaur with a smirk.
“One down, three to go!” cried Amber.
The remaining snowmen leaned backwards as they approached the branch, sliding under it in a stylish sub-zero limbo. Within moments they were gaining fast.
“They’re still com— AAH!” screamed Amber as a snowflake blade skimmed past her head, slicing off a lock of hair.
“This calls for next-level impressiveness,” noted Spynosaur. He turned his skis swiftly in the snow, spinning round to face the snowmen. As he sped backwards down the hill, narrowly avoiding tree after tree, Spynosaur drew his pistol.
“The heat … is on,” he said.
“Well, the reception was a little frosty at first, but I think they warmed to me in the end,” said Spynosaur, as the last of the ninja snowmen ground to a slushy halt.
“Da-ad,” began Amber. “Would you please stop with the p— AAAH!”
The cliff edge came without warning. Spynosaur and Amber found themselves falling through the air. As they spun and spiralled, Amber saw the ground far below. Craggy rock jutted from beneath a covering of snow.
“We’re going to SPLAAAAAAT!” she howled.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you – and dinosaurs always land on their feet!” said Spynosaur, his eyes flashing with a confident glint.
“That’s cats!” shrieked Amber as the ground rushed towards them.
“Is it?” said Spynosaur. “Oh, dear.”