For the second time in so many minutes, Fletcher couldn't do much more than blink. "What do you mean, they were before your time? I thought..." Hadn't angels existed since the beginning of time? Weren't they some of the first beings God was supposed to have created? Fletcher didn't know for sure, and he didn't particularly want to say it out loud in case he was getting the Bible completely wrong (did it even mention dinosaurs?). Not because Gabriel might get angry - Fletcher wasn't really worried about that anymore - but because the Archangel might laugh at him, and as wonderful as he'd been so far, Fletcher really didn't feel like getting laughed at by anyone right now.

"I thought," he tried carefully, "that Archangels came way before dinosaurs." Lesser angels might have come later, but the first ones?

Gabriel's last questioning words, combined with the surrounding silence, put a slowly widening grin on Fletcher's face. He stepped back from the symbols. "You know, there isn't anyone around for miles. We could find out right now."