The red had spread. The further and further back to the cave I ran, the more surprised I became at how far the red tint reached. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it at all before. Or perhaps it had just gotten that much worse that fast.

Well, if I failed the megadino, at least I could say that I tried to save him. It took me another couple of hours to get back to the Dino Cave, and Frieda was napping soundly.

Oh, Frieda. I’d almost forgotten about the experience I’d put her through...

Well, my plan hinged on her, so waking her was unfortunately the only choice.

Hey.

I nudged her with one of my clawed hands a few times before she blinked open her eyes, stretching and yawning cutely. But her eyes were still red.

It seemed she’d been crying.

Sorry, Frieda.

She watched as I walked over to one of the herb packets, not moving from the nest as I carried it back to her. I pointed at the herb packet, then gestured around, trying to symbolize a woman.

C’mon. I need the Nature Spirit. Take me.

Frieda just stood there staring at me. I frantically waved my hands, knowing it was futile to try to communicate the idea that way. But I think the gorlen understood my exasperation. She reached forward and grabbed the herb packet, dumping the leaves into her mouth and chewing on them for a minute. Then, she spit them back out onto the large leaf, and I recognized the paste.

Crude Health Packet

This crude packet of restorative herbs blended into a paste can be ingested to provide minor healing.

She held the leaf out to me, a blank look on her face.

No! I need the Nature Spirit!

I shook my head, gesturing again and trying to explain with motions. It wasn’t a very efficient form of communication, and I made it a point to improve our methods when there was time.

It felt like I wasted another ten minutes trying to convey my message to her. But Frieda didn’t move from the nest, and didn’t seem to understand me.

Maybe she was too mentally exhausted to try. I slammed my head against the pile of dirt in frustration.

I. Need. To. Talk. To. The. Nature. Spirit!

My head hurt. I sighed.

Magic boxes. Are you any help? Can I speak to the Nature Spirit? Do you know anything? Please help!

Nature’s Embrace [Trait]

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Atypical of Saurians, you’ve shown a passion for life and respect for the organisms around you, and been rewarded for it. In times of dire need, your soul might connect with the nature around you to summon aid.

Wait.

Had the magic boxes actually responded to my begging for help? But, all they’d done is display the information about the Nature’s Embrace trait…

Wait!

The trait said “in times of dire need”, right? So all I had to do was let my “soul connect with nature around me”, right??

It was worth a shot. I shut my eyes and tried to project my thoughts into the area around me, however one might do that.

Nature Spirit! Please! Hear me! I need your help!

I popped open an eye to look around. Nothing. The chair in the corner of the room remained empty, and no voice projected back into my mind. Hadn’t she said that if I ever needed her to simply call upon her?

Maybe it wasn’t so literal? Perhaps “call upon” meant to visit?

Damnit, Frieda!

I sighed, scratching my head aggressively. Why was I so stressed about this, anyway?

Obviously, the Nature Spirit didn’t consider me to be in times of dire need, because the trait didn’t seem to be triggering, either.

I’d say that Karavos was in great need, since he was almost dead, but it’s not like he had the Nature’s Embrace trait to call upon help…

No. Karavos didn’t have the trait… probably. But… almost dead, huh? Now there was an idea.

Was that all I needed to summon aid and call out to the Nature Spirit?

I suppose being almost dead does count as being in dire need of assistance. And the last time the Nature Spirit had helped me, I’d been dying. But it wasn’t like I could find Savage Santa, walk up to him, and say something like “Oh, hey! I was looking for you! Hoping you could stab me just enough to nearly kill me again? But don’t kill me, though.”

Even if I could find the group of humans, there was no way they’d cooperate. And if I could communicate with them, if they found out it was Karavos, there was no way they’d help me. After all, Karavos held the title “Ghindo’s Menace”. There was probably not a high chance they would want to save his life.

I had to figure something out on my own. And my solution had to be something that wasn’t going to outright kill me with no chance of success. Preferably, it would be something I was reasonably certain wouldn’t actually kill me.

Because Rule #1 of waking up as a dinosaur is keeping yourself alive, after all. Though, they do say rules are made to be broken… The real rules are the friends we made along the way, after all. Something to that effect.

I’ve never been good at public speaking, so sorry if the things I say don’t make sense sometimes.

Frieda snored quietly while I tried to figure out where such a place might exist. A place where I might be able to get just near enough to death that I trigger the Nature’s Embrace ability…

The idea gnawed at me as I frantically paced through the room. It annoyed me to no end.

Why is this so hard to figure out?!

I couldn’t go to Sailboat. He’d kill me immediately. I saw what he did to that armored dino when I was born. No chance. I disregarded the Deotrexaptors immediately, too. I had no idea where to find them, and didn’t have time to go looking.

Rexcelsis? Maybe… But communicating that I wanted him to nearly kill me might cause a problem. Plus, he hadn’t exactly been the most easy to locate thus far.

Maybe I could find a dinosaur out on the plains to fight? No. Again, it could take too long to find something willing to fight me.

I guess… I could always poison myself from the watering hole, right? But… how long would that take to affect me? It’d been a whole day since Karavos had drank that water. And I didn’t think he had another whole day to wait for me. And that's only if the pond was still poisoned...

This is driving me nuts! Who’d have thought the question of “what will almost kill me” would bug me so much?!

A light flicked on in my head.

Oh...

I looked towards the possible solution to my problem. Risky Business better put work in now.

No... I can't believe I'm actually considering this.