Chapter 115: Jurassic? Or somewhere else?

Opening the doors, I am assaulted by a cacophony of sound. Bird calls, mixed with rustling, banging, and a whole host of other noises, I can barely hear myself think. Closing the door, I suddenly hear silence.

“Damn, that’s some power noise insulation,” I say to Cassie.

Looking over, I see Cassie, not by my side; she is instead behind the console.

I just lightly facepalm. “I am opening a door, not defusing a bomb!” I shout over.

She shouts back, “Not risking it!”

“This is stupid,” I murmur. Rubbing my temples as I say it.

“It's just a jungle!” I shout.

“A what?”

“A jungle!!”

“I see.” And with that, the silly woman finally chose to join me.

I open the door again, showing her the jungle. She steps back as she is equally assaulted by the noise. “Bit loud.”

“Just a bit,” I say jokingly.

I close the door to allow some sweet, sweet silence.

“So… down for some exploring?” I say to Cassie.

“Well, not much else to do.” She shrugs.

“I am sure I could think of something.”

She turns away, strutting out the doors.

Following her, we exit into the jungle. I make sure to mark the Tardis with a teleport. Don’t want to get lost after all. We just wander in a random direction. One with a little less dense foliage; you can’t walk a meter without hitting a branch here. All I see is green, hints of brown, and a few wisps of light. Honestly, it’s quite dark; I didn’t expect that. The dense canopy blocks a lot of light.

Walking past a jungle tree, I grab some saplings and coco-beans. I am going to make some chocolate.

Cassie lifts an eyebrow at my actions but doesn’t comment. We continue on, moving through thick underbrush and passing ancient trees. After a short while, we suddenly hear a loud noise. A thundering road like an explosion; it echoed through the forest.

We both drop low to the ground in panic. Looking at each other, we both agree we should remain silent. Slowly we walk in the opposite direction to the sound. It rings out again but far quieter. We take that as an indicator we are moving far away from it. Something we fully intend and wish to do.

The air is humid and damp here; Cassie is bombarded with insects. Thankfully, the insects simply rebound off my armor. I occasionally hear a ping that brings a smile to my face and a frown to Cassies.

“Not fair.”

“I can get you armor.”

“But it’s heavy.”

“That’s life, I am afraid.”

She sulks after the small conversation. Clearly unhappy, materials made of metal are heavy. Sorry, can't change the law of physics… actually, I should try that sometime. With the power of mods, anything is possible.

We continue on for a while, Cassie getting redder by the minute from a combination of heat and insect bites. Eventually, the trees begin to thin. Continuing on the route, we break into a large flat clearing. Trees spare over the grassy plains. The heat having turned them all a shade of yellow.

Looking over the vast expanse, I spot a few strange things. I stop Cassie by the shoulder. She looks at me with a look of annoyance. I just beckon her to look towards what I see.

She turns up, only to spot a giant dinosaur with a massive neck, eating greens from above our head. She shrieks before running back into the forest. Chasing after her, I manage to catch up quickly. Giving her a quick hug before talking.

“Don’t worry, they are herbivorous. Only eat plants, see.” I say, pointing towards the half-eaten tree.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” She says in a huff.

“Read a book of dinos or something?” I add helpfully.

“I will… put it on my reading list.” She says politely.

I failed the mention I don’t even know if such a book exists. But hey, I’ve seen fossils; maybe it’s somewhere.

We return to the plans, walking towards a hilly area. With height on our side, we can survey most of the plains. We see a massive array of clearly herbivorous dinosaurs. Lazily munching on grass in the sun, sunbathing, or swimming in the occasional pond.

Spending some time on that hill, we spot some small predators. Some kind of raptor with feathers slowly stalking a smaller reptile. I watch as it sneakily creeps up on the unsuspecting prey and pounces on it. Digging its reverse claws into its back before biting at its throat. It was slower than I expected, the beast slowing down bit by bit. The combined might of exsanguination and oxygen deprivation, causing it to collapse; how terrifying.

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What happens next surprised me. With an intriguing show of cunning, the animal takes the body towards some shade. A dark spot in the middle of the open grassland, it made a tactically sound choice. Looking closer at its hiding spot, I see a thorn bush. The bush sports knives instead of thorns; I definitely would think twice before going through it.

It’s a great choice of spot. No normal creature would pass through the bush, so its back is defended. It only has to look ahead and above while it eats.

Having spent only a few moments looking at the bush, I look back over at the dinosaur. Spotting an almost completely bare carcass, having been eaten in record time. With only the bones, teeth, hair, and organs remaining, it moves the corpse again.

Returning it to the kill site before walking back towards the bush. Kicking up dirt over the blood trail as it walks.

I watch this whole event take place with an almost religious focus. Just watching nature at work was far better than the discovery channel.

Cassie seems to disagree with my opinion. Turning away, green in the gills at the sight of the play. I give her a single-arm hug to ease her stomach. Not everyone is made for gore; Cassie seems to fall into the category.

She closes her eyes on my shoulder, catching a light snooze. I watch as some form of carrion bird swoops down and finishes what’s left of the animal. They even cracked the bones, eating the marrow. After all is said and done, I see bone fragments as the only evidence of a life once lived. No wonder fossils are a rarity if nature is that throughout.

This takes place in different ways all over the plains. Predators definitely are a minority but efficient hunters.

I lean back a little, enjoying the cool breeze. I don’t fall asleep, too many threats around. I just relax, enjoying the cool air and interesting clouds. Watching as they pass by in a combination of shapes. The white is occasionally broken by black reptilian fliers passing by. At one point, a small flock of tiny scaled birds flies over.

If only I knew what types of dinosaurs these are.

This gets me thinking. Did we travel back in time? Forward in time? Or is this someplace on the planet at the moment? I am leaning on us not having traveled time, it’s unlikely. I didn’t set any time traveling up, nor did I even see the controls for it.

Well, it doesn’t matter. Once we finish the journey if we did deviate from the time. We will return at the same time, it’s the end journey after all. Then, all we need to do is head home.

With a plan in mind, I feel my heart settle. The slight anxiety quietly sitting in my heart is gone.

After a while, Cassie stirs from her quiet slumber. Sitting up with tired eyes, rubbing them slightly.

“Sleep well?”

“Yeah…” She replies.

“It’s good you woke up. We should head back to the Tardis.”

“Why?”

“Well, that big old carnivore is slowly creeping towards us.”

She turns her tired head to the side. She sees the large retile I’ve been watching for the last half hour. The sod thinks he’s sneaky, but I see it.

She pulls her head back slightly in shock. “Errm, shouldn’t we run?” She asks me.

“No rush, he thinks we haven’t spotted it yet. Won't rush us until he thinks we have seen him.”

“What makes you think it’s a He?”

“The giant nuts.”

She lowers her gaze before averting it. “I see.” A tinge of red on her cheeks.

“Let’s get going then,” I say, pulling her up with an arm around the waist. Our sudden movement causes the beast to quickly run towards us. Roaring loudly towards us as its massive feet make a pounding noise on the earth.

Turning my head towards the beast, I smirk. Disappearing like smoke with Cassie. We quickly appear in front of the Tardis. Once again berated with the noisy jungle around us. We enter the Tardis quickly, thoroughly enjoying the peace and quiet.

I check the batteries, finding them full. I bookmark the location for if I ever wish to have a dinosaur army. We chill in the library for a bit, enjoying some light reading. I got a few more cuddles before we eventually decided to leave.

Making my way towards the console, I start up the machine. Feeling the familiar rumble of the Tardis reassuring. I wonder which generation of Tardis this is. I doubt it’s as easy to find out as looking at the back of the box. Well, not like it matters. It does what it needs to do; I don’t need it to fart rainbows.

Turning the speed up to half, I begin the fun run around. Hitting dials and dohickeys' here and there. Feeling truly like the doctor as I do so. It’s not long before the tardis levels once more.

With a loud clang, we reach our destination. Cassie quickly appears from the library.

She immediately speaks, “That is one great library. I’ve never heard of books like that.”

“It sure is.”

“SO, we have landed?”

“Yep, want to do the honors and open the door?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, just remember. We should be in the sky, don’t fall.” She nods.

Cautiously she walks towards the door. Opening it with a delicate hand. I spot a blue sky from the console. Checking the cameras, I see a town below me. “Hmm, seems familiar.”

Cassie peers down. Turning back to me, “It’s a town.”

“Yeah, the cameras agree.”

“Wait, you could have just checked the cameras?”

“Yeah.” Which got a light punch. Which she quickly regrets, I am still in armor.

I go to the door, having an in=person look. The town is familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it. Massive walls look like a turtle. Looks like they are mounting some kind of artillery on the walls, I wonder why?

Wait… it’s not that town, is it? I think as they start pointing those massive ballistic weapons at us. “Shit, that’s not good.”

Rushing towards the console, I set it to return home. Missing a few controls as the Tardis shakes violently. Should have upgraded the shield. As I start the launch sequence, I look out the camera. Seeing the militaristic town bombarding us with massive arrows. I see a large tower suddenly light up before a massive white blast launches from it.

The Tardis shakes dangerously as the shield receives that blast. But, finally, we are off. Away from the town, safely in the time vortex.

Cassie is currently braced against the side, face confused.

“You see, that town doesn’t like things above it.”

“You think? They tried to shoot us down.”

“Don’t worry, not my first time being shot at around here.”

“Should I even ask?”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Uh huh.” She said rolling her eyes.

We quickly reach home. It wasn’t a long-distance after all. We both disembark tired from the long journey. We both promptly collapse on the sofa, having had a busy day.