“WWRRROOOO!!!”
“Easy ... easy … stand back,” Eric said calmly as his hands made the pushing moves in the air.
“WWRRROOOO!!!”
“I’m not that tasty, you don’t want … here, try this,” he slowly put his hand in the stream, grabbing a fish that got caught in the blazer.
“…”
“It’s fish. It’s good. Much better than I am,” he wiggled the fish in his hand before throwing it in front of the animal, “Here, here … have some more,” his hand went back into the stream, “Here, I caught two more, here … have all of it.”
He threw all the fish that got caught in his blazer in front of the reptile.
“…”
“Try it out, it’s good.”
The reptile approached the fish and made a few smelling noises before digging in.
MUNCH! MUNCH!
“Yeah, it’s good, isn’t it? Much better than I am.”
MUNCH! MUNCH!
“Look, how about this? How about you let me go this time and I’ll have more fish ready for you later? Sounds good?”
The intruder turned its head away from the free meal to scrutinize Eric.
“It’s not a big deal for me. The fish falls into my trap on its own. I just pick them up from the stream. There’s more than I can eat, so I don’t mind sharing.”
After staring at Eric for a while, the large reptile picked up the fish with its large mouth before turning around and walking back the way it came.
“Wro!”
“Yeah, you’re welcome!”
“…”
Once the reptile was gone, Eric collapsed to the ground, grabbing his head with a horrified expression all over his face, “Holly, fucking shit! That was a real dinosaur! Jesus Christ, what the fuck!”
“This isn’t a god-damn prison! They sent me here to die! To get eaten by a …”
“Man, I was never good with dinosaurs. I always liked snails and slugs more. What kind was that, anyway? I think I saw them in Jurassic Park, those little … not so little compared to a human, but much smaller than the other dinosaurs. Those smaller versions of T-rex with longer arms.”
“Whatever it was, man, that was scary as fuck! And that’s certainly not the only one roaming around. Why did it get here? Was it the smell of the cooked fish? But the smoke goes up to the ceiling and disappears in the moss. Then again, the animals do have far superior sense of smell.”
“And I swear it looked like it could understand me. The way it turned around and walked away ... I certainly didn’t scare it away. It walked away on its own.”
He shook his head, “What are you mumbling about, Eric? You’re speaking in a language that’s alien to this world! Even if it could understand people by some miracle, there’s no way it would understand English!”
“But boy … was I lucky. Imagine if I had met it while collecting wood. I’d end up as its dinner.”
“How the fuck am I going to fall asleep now, knowing beasts are roaming around? I …”
“I definitely need a spear, and fast. Everything else can wait.”
“And I also need to stop talking with myself out loud. That’s for sure.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
-----
After hastily making another campfire at the entrance, Eric spent the rest of the day cutting a long spear from the piece of fine wood he found with the stone he already sharpened. It needed much more work than he anticipated, the kind of work that caused quite a lot of pain to his gentle, unskilled arms and hands.
But fear is a hell of a drug, so he persevered until the job was finally done.
“Huh … damn, I’m sweating like a pig,” he said while wiping his forehead, “It’s not perfectly straight, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end. I guess this will have to do.”
“Wait … wait, wait …”
He lowered his head in defeat, exhaling loudly.
“Once again, I’m a fucking idiot. A torch,” he lifted his head, his hands taking a choking posture, “A torch, you fucking idiot! Animals are much more afraid of fire than of that silly spear of yours, and you have a perfectly functioning lighter!”
“How stupid do I have to be to light a fire at the entrance and then completely forget about it!”
“But what can I use as the fuel? The blazer is gone, and I’m not sure how good it would be as fuel in the first place. Besides, it’s much more useful as a fishing net. It’s the only reason why I’m still alive in the first place.”
“I never made a torch before, but I could probably use the same things I use for the campfire. I need something to tie it all to a stick, though. Maybe there are some vines in the forest? I wasn’t really looking for those.”
“I’m half-tempted to use my pants for it, but what happens once those burn out completely?”
“Heh … I’m such an optimist … thinking I will live among the dinos that long.”
“Well … the campfire at the entrance is still burning … and I don’t have anything to carry the water with to put it out. Meaning that there’s no way for me to leave in the first place.”
“Besides, that woodwork I did is some serious shit. That’s some real work I haven’t done in ages. Got me real tired, all right.”
“I guess … I guess it would be for the best to take some rest now. I’ve been working ever since I came here, and I don’t want to overwork myself to death. And I better be at my best when walking those dangerous halls. The last thing I need is for some beast to catch me unprepared, tired, and exhausted.”
“I’ll just add some more wood to the fire and take some rest.”
He threw some more wood into the campfire at the entrance, “Yeah, that’s more like it.”
“Although, I would feel far more comfortable sleeping on the bed than on the ground.”
“Still … it’s not bad for a cave … the floor isn’t that hard, just like the walls.”
He lay on the ground, curling into a fetal position.
“Ok, so … I need a torch, something to keep it together … I could also put that torch on the end of the spear for some bonus effect, and I also need something that will work as a makeshift bed. That moss on the ceiling looks promising, considering how much of it there is, but there’s no way I can reach it.”
“Maybe there is something I’ve missed in that wood. Or ... somewhere else …”
“Yeah … there has … to be … something …”
“…”
“Zzzzz …”
-----
“Wro!”
“…”
“Wro!”
“…”
“WWRRROOOO!!!” A loud roar woke Eric up from his sleep.
“Ahh! What the fuck!”
“Wro!” The reptile was back but didn’t appear menacing or hostile this time. It just stared him in the eyes.
“Ah, it’s … you … you want some more fish, right?”
“Wro!”
“Oh, well … let me see if there’s some more,” Eric stood up and started walking towards the stream slowly and carefully, “Ah, good … mhhh … here, have some more.”
“Wro!” The animal barked before grabbing the new catch with its jaws and turning around.
“Yeah, goodbye to you too.”
The reptile walked away, leaving Eric completely dumbfounded.
“How the … I thought …”
“Ah … the fire is out.”
“I … the watch … oh fuck, it looks as if I fell asleep! Damn, I slept way too long. No wonder the fire went out.”
“I’ll have to find some better way to secure the entrance. Maybe some gate with pointy sticks?”
“Still, I’m so glad that guy likes fish so much. Hmm … maybe the same is true for his entire species? That would be neat. I should always have some fish on me, just in case. It can certainly work as distraction …”
“… or attract every single animal in this cave with its smell …”
“… or … maybe I could tame that guy? I’ve heard that reptiles are very dumb, but that guy looks really smart, almost like a dog. I swear, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think we had a conversation. And he was smart enough to wake me up instead of eating me. That certainly shows some intelligence.”
“Besides, aren’t birds related to dinosaurs? I know that chickens used to be dinosaurs, there used to be a meme of it. And some birds can be damn smart. Parrots can talk. Crows can even do some basic calculations. They even know how to use physics and water displacement to their advantage.”
“And not to mention that I’m in an alien world. As far as I know, everything is possible.”
“It’s certainly possible to get teleported out of nowhere.”
“Still, it’s nice to know that my neighbor isn’t violent, even though he’s a bully. He’s taking my lunch money, but hey, if that’s all that happens I’ll be a happy guy.”
“And if I could tame him somehow, that would give me a huge advantage. I can’t fight for shit, not unless you give me a gun. Hopefully, smartass is smart enough to realize that he should keep his feeder alive and well.”
“Maybe I could make him a leash, he he …”
“Ah, yes, I’ll need some vines for that. And for some other things too. So, to the woods once again. But at least I have a spear with me this time …” he gave it a quick glance, his mood souring visibly, “… such as it is.”
“But I can’t go anywhere on an empty stomach. And luckily, smartass isn’t smart enough to check how many fishes are in the blazer.”
“Let’s hope my cooking doesn’t attract any more unwanted guests.”