I was a little apprehensive of returning to the place where the Deotrexaptors had pursued me. The jungle was dangerous. I’d already seen enough to know that. My eyes no longer happily flitted from tree to bush to flower or branch. Instead, I scanned the area carefully, looking for threats.

My loot—the windfall of two giant wings I’d scored from the plains—was grasped tightly between my hands. Being thumbless made carrying stuff far harder than it should’ve been. If there was one thing I definitely missed about my old life, it was opposable thumbs.

You might ask “Dino-Friend, couldn’t you just eat the wings?” Well, I could’ve—that’s true. But if I even thought about doing that, I could almost feel the xaptor meat in my throat. I’d already eaten too much to trigger Feast, and these wings weren’t going down. No. For now, they would slow me, and I was prepared to ditch them if I needed to run.

The solace I felt came from the knowledge that I wouldn’t be going too far back into the jungle. I’d really much rather stay close to the last known location of the destructive dino who spared me. If he was capable of eating a similar food-to-body ratio as me, then those nuggets he consumed weren’t enough. And that meant that he’d spared me.

For what reason, though? Could Rex see in me the same intelligence I saw in him? Or maybe… was it a decision made just on a whim?

I don’t know much about Earth dinosaurs, but I’d assume the fathers wouldn’t just abandon their kids. So he probably wasn’t my dad.

I decided to stay nearby the watering hole in case he returned. Trying my luck with Sailboat was not on the agenda. In fact, it was a huge risk I was entirely unwilling to take.

But sleeping in the open wasn’t going to make me feel any safer so I decided to remain in the outskirts of the jungle. I inhaled deeply, breathing in the usual earthy scents. Something else was there, though, a tang nested inside the typical jungle fragrance. It was faint, but it reminded me of a stinky wet dog.

Better be careful… I thought. Don’t want to end up as Fenrir chow.

It was time to find a place to sleep. And I wanted it near the pond. I pushed through the undergrowth, blazing a trail through bushes and ferns, looking for another of the massive bushes I’d found to sleep in before. The area seemed to be… empty, though. Back where I’d hatched, the undergrowth had been thicker, and the trees had been larger. Here, while the forest floor was still coated in moss, and the trees still much larger than most I’d seen in my past life, the space seemed far more open.

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I guess the best way to explain it would be to say that the visibility was far greater in this area. It left an array of emotions churning within me. I felt unsafe because it felt like there was less to conceal my presence, but at the same time, part of me was relieved that I could see threats better now. It was a strange mix.

I stopped my hike, turning and walking far around a pile of fruit I could see through the trees. I recognized it from my previous encounter with the Metamorphic Impersonators. Even if I was a higher level than them, until I understood them better, I would avoid them. For now, I skirted the area, keeping an eye out for any rogue cocoons above me.

I passed by a massive boulder that reminded me of Rexcelsis’ head, and stepped cautiously over a low, thorny bush right down onto a patch of soft leaves.

Well, I thought it was a patch of soft leaves, anyway. Until I actually stepped on it.

My weight was already committed to the forward foot, and as the leaves collapsed around me, it felt as if a hot hand had clenched into a fist around my heart. The sudden fall had me flailing my arms. I could only think about how this was the way I’d go out.

After everything I’d been through in this new world: the close encounters I’d experienced with the Deotrexaptors and the Fenrirs, being targeted by Sailboat, the god of the jungle, nearly getting drowned by a siren… This was how it ended?

I didn’t want to just die by falling into a pit.

A toe from my rear foot—the one I had no weight on anymore—caught on a rock jutting out of the pit’s edge, and I catapulted forward. I crashed onto my belly, sliding down a sudden decline I hadn’t noticed before. It wasn’t uncomfortably steep, either.

If I was still human, my skin probably would’ve burned from the friction. Luckily, though, my scales were much tougher.

As I sat at the bottom in a heap, the wings piled next to me, I looked back up to the top of the pit. It had been covered back up by the leaves again. From the outside, they shielded the view of the opening from sight, but the leaves were transparent enough that they let the light flood in, illuminating the dark area around me.

I sat in the middle of a small, empty stone cave, no trace of life to be seen, and as I sniffed the air, no traces of death, either. I tried something new, gazing intently around me.

Cave

This area is a cave. Certain types of creatures like to live within them.

Wow, I thought sarcastically. Very helpful.

There needed to be some exploring, of course, and I could definitely decorate the interior so it wasn’t so… empty. But, all in all, this spot would make for a nice home base! Though… that was conditional on whether I could remember how to get to it or not. But, a hidden entrance, eh?

…

Have I just stumbled into my very own Dino Cave?