Chapter #5Meeting the others by: Unknown “Alright then,” you replied after thinking for a while, “you've convinced me, Carl. I will go with you and stay with your herd for a while.”
“Awesome!” Carl says in enthusiasm. “You will see, Jack, you won’t regret it!” the stegosaurus adds happily.
“I think I’m regretting it right now…” you whisper as the gigantic herbivorous dinosaur opens his beak to pick you up. In the moment you’re clenched from your front and back like in the pincers and then lifted from the ground like a mote. The sudden shift in gravity makes you close your eyes in fear for a moment and when you open them you are greeted by a view into the red tunnel diving into black abyss. “Carl, please be careful!” you thought in fear as you imagined what could happen if the stegosaur lost his grip on you.
The reptile behemoth looked around, to make sure that there were no predators around. When he was sure there weren’t even any small pterosaurs which could snatch you up with their beaks, Carl turned his neck back and gently placed you between his back plates. “Here we go!” he smiled at you, “Make yourself comfortable, we're off!” the stego said with tireless optimism and when he looked back to front the jurassic giant heavyweight went forward with a kindly step.
***
Riding a stegosaurus was a heck of an experience. You were sitting on top of the moving living mountain, covered by the shadow of its skyscraper-sized dorsal plates, which were swaying gracefully from side to side with every Carl’s step. The overall movement of the body, you were sitting on, was moving swayingly but at the same time slowly and gently - resembling a giant ship bobbing on waves of calm sea.
You didn’t know how to describe that feeling. You had a chance to ride on horse or even on camel, and you knew that people were also riding on elephants, however, this was something completely different: From everywhere you looked, the behemoth sized dinosaur formed a organic scaly landscape - a landscape so huge, that crossing the distance from the forehead to the tip of the tail on foot would take you hours. You suddenly realise the meagre size of this new word you were thrown into - if you were left to fend for yourself, it would take you days or weeks to surpass even just a mile even with your newfound ability to jump like a flea… Flea. With the great size difference between you and the stegosaurus, you were truly like a flea. A little, lost flea travelling across the sea alienness and unknown on its moving scaly island of security - and this thought made you both feel safe and uncertain.
***
It took a good quarter of an hour for Carl to walk from the sparse forest on the wise meadow. It was quite a change from the secretive nature of the trees undergrowth - Standing on top of Carl’s back you could see everything, like looking from the outlook on top of the hill down into the valley, from one corner of meadow to another. And as far as dinosaurs were concerned, there were plenty of them.
And as far as dinosaurs were concerned, there were plenty of them. To be fair, it wasn’t as big as herds in the African savannahs during the migration, however, you could swear that there were at least fifty of them. “So many stegosauruses…” you thought in awe, “Is… Is Carl going to introduce myself to them all?” You get a little nervous. Carl assured you that other stegos will like you, but from experience with your own kind that isn't true for all. People are various: Different in their personalities and opinions, and it would be foolish to think that all herd members are like Carl. You just hoped that at least most of them will accept you.
“So Carl, all those spike-tails in the distance, that is your herd?” You asked even though you already knew the answer.
“Yep!” the gentle giant replied, “My herd, my friends and my family… And soon also yours Jack!”
“Maybe in this place and era…” you replied back calmly and then you added: “You sound pretty sure about it. But I can’t help thinking that somebody won’t be really happy about my presence.”
“Nah!” Carl tossed his head aside. “Look Jack: Herd is herd - This is the rule we grazers instinctively follow. And since I believe in you not being like your so-called ‘relatives’, I know you will not cause any trouble. Jack, you will be fine with us!” the behemoth pointed with his beak on the spot somewhere between the other dinos, “Look! We even have a honk-crest, and nobody has a problem with her.”
“A ‘honk-crest’?” you gasped in wonder.
“Yeah, you heard well. She doesn’t have the dorsal plates or spikes like we spike-tails do, however, she has some strange long bump on her head. You can’t miss her, she is slightly bigger than us, spike-tales… Yeah and you'll recognize her by the fact that she has scales more like dry mud, unlike our which shine like sand.”
You followed Carl’s description. After staring into the herd you find her and you couldn’t believe your own eyes: She had black-ish upper skin and orange-brown underbelly, how your new found friend described. Balancing on her strong hind legs while having her tiny hooved front limbs in the, she was a creature with lavender coloured snorkel-like appendage on the back of her head. A creature which wasn’t supposed to walk between Jurassic stegosauruses: The parasaurolophus.
“No way!” yelped in disbelief. “What the hell does a Cretaceousian dinosaur in the Jurassic?” you whispered.
“Emm… Jack? Is that one other moment when you have a ‘random nonsense on your tongue’?” Carl addresses you, looking at you worried.
You panicked for a moment before you replied: “No, I’m just surprised to see a member of her kind here.”
“Oh…” the spike-tail realised, “To be fair, Diana… Yeah, I should tell you her name… Anyway: Daina, our honk-crest, is a foreigner just like you.”
“So there are no other para… honk-crests around?” you asked, curious.
“Nowhere I know.” Carl replied dryly, “Diana is the first one and only one grazer like her I and the rest of the herd even met. She told us that she originally lived in a place very far away with her own herd but then she got separated.”
“Did Diana also tell you where that was?”
“I think she tried to tell us but I have no idea. However, whatever that was, I think you two maybe could get along pretty well.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Maybe I’m not the sharpest stalactite in the cave but: She speaks about similar things. And like you Jack, Diana likes to put strange layers of ‘things’ on her and then wear them… Jack, will you mind if I ask you something?”
“Em, well, sure. Go on!”
“Why do you have those ‘things’ on your body? Is there any purpose in that?”
“You mean my clothes?” you lifted up your t-shirt a little bit. “It protects us from cold and from getting our skin burned during hot sunny days. It's also a way to show our way in our ‘herds’ or to express ourselves.”
“Express yourself?” Carl says in wonder, “Like to express to your partner during mating season?”
“NO!” you yelled in surprise, “No, no, no… Carl, I mean to express our personalities or the things we like. How did you even think of that?”
“Sorry…” Carl stopped for a moment and looked at you with an almost sorrowful expression: “I just, that your clothes are really colourful and that you are also male.”
After a while you both arrived towards the herd. Carl stood at attention and then he let out a short sound resembling a blow into a seashell horn. In a minute you were crowded by other members of the herd - some looking curious, others annoyed.
“Guys, I would like to introduce someone.” Carl began, and looked at you beckoning you gently with his look. So, you carefully stepped forward and then slided on Carl’s neck on top of his head, then the stego continued: “This is Jack. He is a mammal called Human - But don’t worry he is not like those pesky fuzzballs! Jack here is a foreigner who got lost and he is looking for some safe place to stay. I offered to let him stay with us, so I would like you guys to get to know him.”
“Hi Jack!” someone yipped from the crowd.
“Hi!” you replied nervously and waved your hand in greetings.
“What he just did with his front feet?” a female stego commented, which started the chatter in the herd:
“Do it again!”
“He is so tiny!”
“Where is his tail?”
“Did I hear right, that he is a mammal?”
“Hoo…man? Was that it?”
“What if he decides to eat our eggs?”
“Nah… Look at him, he is too small for that.”
“He is kinda cute…”
“Do you think that I can boob him?”
This felt like being an exhibit in some Monstarium. All the stegos were pushing each other - trying to have the best look at you. And in that chaos: You and Carl noticed two different dinos - both watching you, one’s eyes fixed on Carl and the other’s eyes fixed on you. She was truly different from the others… Various marks and simple clothes from plant fibres with jewellery made of seashells and pebbles decorated the otherwise earthy skin. You knew that all dinos here were sentient, however, she felt more closer to your kin than the stegos. She made an impression of a woman from some forgotten prehistoric tribe. You waved at her, and she gave you a confused look, however, after a while she looked at her front leg and then she waved at you back with a smile on her face. “I will have to find time to talk with her.” you thought.
And then when the gathering had no apparent end:  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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