Federalize: To unite in compact as different States, to confederate for political purposes, to unite by or under the Federal Constitution

Granitical: Granitic, of granite like qualities

Sitology: the branch of medicine dealing with nutrition and dietetics

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The worn tread of the bike tossed dirt into the air with reckless abandon as Ned came sliding to a halt. Throwing his bike down, he patted the russet from his clothes as he half-walked, half-jogged over to where Julius was kneeling, consumed with whatever it was he’d found.

‘Whatcha got?’ asked Ned, hovering like fly over a piece of rancid meat.

‘Hmm?’ came the reply.

‘Come on Jules! Lemme see!’ wheedled Ned, his impatience betraying his young age. He crossed his arms and tried to itch away the dust that had gotten down the back of his t-shirt.

Julius delicately dusted away a thin patina to reveal the dark, granitical form of a bone embedded in the ground. He leant back, as if letting it breathe, and turned to his young companion, a grin spread across his face. It was a smoker’s smile; yellow as the sandstone he spent his days digging up. Julius often joked that his teeth were probably in worse condition than some of the critters he dug up.

‘Nuh-uh,’ was Ned’s usual response.

Julius didn’t care about Ned’s age. He liked the boy’s enthusiasm and besides, when you were working with 60-million-year-old bones, age really was just a number. Hell, Julius had uncovered some of the most ferocious predators to have ever walked the Earth – what was there to worry about with a kid?

‘Well?’ asked the Archaeologist expectantly. ‘What d’you reckon, Ned?’

Ned squinted his eyes against the early afternoon sun, patches of sweat forming under the armpits of his top.

‘I dunno…could be anything. You only got the top out!’

‘True,’ laughed Julius. Pointing to one side he added, ‘but if you look here you can see some coprolite – that’s fossilized poo to me and you – and you see them marks in it? That’s seeds. So sitology tells us, this old boy were a vegetarian, see?’

‘So…like, er… a stegosaurus or something?’ asked Ned

‘That’s right, something like that,’ said Julius, laughing again. He stood up and stretched, cracking the bones in his neck like popping candy.

‘Don’t that hurt?’ asked Ned, capping his eyes with a small, calloused hand.

‘Naw, it’s fine. Now, c’mere, I wanna show you somethin’ else.’

Julius headed down a nearby slope, clouds of dust fleeing like mayflies from his thick-soled boots. Ned skittered behind, sliding recklessly and whooping.

Not so long ago it’d have been more than just me and the kid, thought Julius morosely. But if the government didn’t want to federalize the project, then, well, it was now a matter of weeks before the money dried up and fossilized too.

‘Damn it all to hell!’ cursed Julius suddenly, his voice echoing off the rocks and into the distance. Ned stopped.

‘What’sa matter Jules?’

The Archaeologist surveyed his buried kingdom, the bodies of at least fifteen dinosaurs beneath his feet – a once in a lifetime haul if his micro-CT scans were correct.

Julius said nothing, then after a contemplative pause he began to walk. Ned loped behind, eager to see what his friend had to show him.