Funk had set up the campfire, Lorraine had patched up Abby, she was still sleeping, she barely made it. If one of those teeth had hit a vital organ, she would have been dead.

Lorraine is now patching up my back, “Is it bad?”

She exhaled deeply, “It is not bad, you can handle quite some punishment, your body must be quite extraordinary. This is surely related to your race.”

I sighed, “Well, it still hurts.”

Funk walked over with two cups of water, Lorraine took one and drank it in one go, I took my cup, “Thanks, Funk, can you get some food this time?”

He smiled, “I looted that dinosaur, is anyone up for some, dino steak?”

I had to laugh, “Come on, that is so bad.”

Lorraine giggled, “I would love some dino steak Funk, we do need to save some for Abby.”

While Funk prepared the dinosaur meat, in a cooking pan this time, Lorraine showed me a small map. “We should be around here, the ravine is nearby.”

I pointed at some colored skulls on the map, “You have these signs for common enemies, is that giant dinosaur we killed common?”

Lorraine shook her head, “It is a monster that should only attack sleeping prey, and in the middle of the night.”

Funk called out, “I don’t think this one agrees with that.”

I sighed, “You could have figured out how to kill it faster, Funk, it was scary, seeing that mouth closing more and more. My bones were about to snap like a twig.”

He scratched his head, “Sorry, I did my best, how did you not snap?”

“I infused myself with silver energy, it just happened.”

Lorraine smiled, “You might be a true fighter, Steve, you just need to hone your skills.” I nodded towards her. After Lorraine had patched me up, we got a plate with meat from Funk, Lorraine leaned against me, and we just ate the dinosaur, all I could think presently when I took a bite was, vengeance.

After I had eaten the dino steak, I retreated to my tent and Lorraine followed me. Soon after that, I fell into a deep sleep, tired from the battle. Perhaps, if we find another moment of peace, we should train a little. When I woke up, Lorraine used me as a pillow, I put her hair behind her ear.

She yawned and looked at me. “Hey there.”

I just smiled at her, after putting on my shredded clothes, now even more, I went outside. I saw Abby sitting in the ambulance, “Hey Abby, how are you?”

She grunted in pain, “Like I saw the inside of a dinosaur’s mouth.”

“Oh, yeah, I know the feeling.” Abby tried getting up, I stopped her, “Just sit down for now.”

She nodded, “Sorry for my failure.”

“Don’t apologize, we are just glad you did not get eaten and chewed up into small pieces.”

Abby chuckled but stopped immediately, “Ouch, laughing hurts.”

Lorraine came out of the tent, “How is she?”

“Traumatized but alive.”

Lorraine smiled, “Good.”

Abby looked at her, “How is that good?”

Lorraine grinned, “If you are dead, you cannot have a trauma.”

Abby laughed, but she clutched her wounds, “Oh, fuck, that hurts.”

“Are you hungry, Abby?” She nodded.

I started preparing some dino steak for her, “You don’t mind eating meat in the morning, right?”

She smiled, “Some meat would be nice.”

“Good, then Let me continue with preparing you some dino steak, give me a second to restart the fire.” While I lit the campfire and prepared some meat for Abby, Lorraine checked her wounds. Lorraine gave Abby a dinosaur tooth.

She looked at Lorraine, “This tooth is huge.”

Lorraine giggled, “It got stuck inside your wounds.”

I gave a plate with dino steak to Abby. “Here, this is the dinosaur, or what is left of it.”

Abby smiled and greedily took it, Funk came out of his tent, he sighed while stretching, “That battle really took it out of me.” He spawned his dark blade, “I just cannot get that sub element to work properly.”

Lorraine smiled at him, “Just keep training.”

I took a few steps out of camp and focused on spawning my silver blade, It appeared in my hand, A long, slim, barbed blade made of silver energy. Then I spawned a dark blade in my other hand, it looks almost the same. I crossed them and put them under my face, “I must look menacing.”

Lorraine laughed, “All I can see is your thick eyebrows.”

I sighed, “I don't have thick eyebrows.”

Abby chuckled while chewing on some dino steak, “Yes, you do.”

Funk walked over towards me and pointed his sword at me, I nodded. He swung his sword at me and I blocked it by forming my two blades in an X formation. We slowly kept trading blows, working on our stance, our footing, and even our energy management. Funk did a front flip and slashed his sword down with hefty force, As I blocked it with two blades, I got pushed back quite a lot.

I swung my blades in an X motion at him, and a wave of mixed energy flew towards Funk, he managed to make a dark wall to block it. He looked at me, “You have to teach me that.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Oh, yeah, sure, I just hold them like this and instead of slashing, I let the energy free.”

Funk spawned a second blade and mimicked what I did, he sent a wave of black energy towards me. I made an energy wall with my silver energy, We smiled at each other as we continued trading some blows with each other.

After a while of training, I signalled to Funk that I was done, Funk nodded, and he kept slashing at the air.

I walked over to Abby, “Do you think, you can keep going on?”

Abby nodded, “Yes, no worries, I just have huge teeth marks in my stomach.”

Lorraine called out, “Mostly your intestines.”

Abby sighed, “I will be fine, we might need to take it slower, is that a problem?”

I shook my head, “I'd rather go slower with a complete party, Lorraine told me, you almost got snapped like a twig.”

Abby looked around and seemed to be thinking, “Yeah, that thing should not have been there.”

“What do you mean, Abby?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing”

I sighed and dismissed her strange comment, “If you are ready, then we can start cleaning up camp.”

Abby smiled, “It seems this ambulance was a good idea after all.”

“Thank you, I won’t tell you about the things I took from the inn.”

Lorraine laughed, “He took all the tiny items, he even took the candy wrappers!”

I grunted in frustration at her, “You told me you would keep that between us.”

“Yeah, I know, let’s clean up camp.”

After we had cleaned up the camp, I picked up the ambulance, as Abby moved, she grunted in pain. I let her lean on my shoulder, Lorraine soon joined me on the other side of Abby.

Funk looked at us, “Shall I lead the way then?” Abby nodded, Lorraine looked at me, it was all I needed to know how fast she wanted to walk.

We started following Funk, Abby grunted in pain, “It hurts to get bit by an overgrown lizard.”

“I wanted to swallow this comment but, I just, can’t, you should have run faster.”

Lorraine started to laugh, and I heard Funk chuckle in front of us, Abby looked at me, “Too soon, Steve, too soon.”

We followed the road as we tried to get to the ravine. I am quite bummed Abby got hurt, but I am glad she is alive.

Lorraine looked at me, “What are you thinking, Steve?”

“Oh, just glad Abby is not dinosaur chow.”

Abby looked at me, “That was almost nice.”

Funk stopped walking after we walked for a few hours with some breaks in between, I actually started admiring the scenery as I felt, happy. “What is it, Funk?”

“We have reached the ravine, there is a bridge.”

I put Abby down together with Lorraine, I kneeled beside Abby, “How are you doing?”

“It still hurts, but I am doing a bit better, what is the plan with the bridge?”

“I am going to check it out.” I walked over to the bridge, after seeing the bridge, I sighed, “Why is there a shabby rope bridge, I had hoped for a normal decent bridge.”

Lorraine walked over, “We need to cross this bridge to get to the quarry, the voidlands should be behind them.”

Funk walked over to us after checking on Abby, “What is the plan? Do we go one by one, or all at once?”

I put my hand on my chin, “I think it will be a miracle if one of us can even cross that bridge before it collapses.”

Lorraine looked at me, “I can try to see if it can hold me?”

I looked at her, “Is there any way around this ravine?”

Lorraine nodded, “It would take some time. We need to backtrack a bit, then go into the Poluma woods. Then we can end up at the other side of the ravine, but it will be at least an extra week of travelling.”

I looked at Funk, “What do you think?”

He shrugged, “I am fine with either, I do not think this bridge is going to crash.”

I looked at Abby, “She is hurt, she can have the final vote.” They both nodded as I walked over to Abby and sat down next to her.

She smiled at me, “Are we going over the bridge?”

“There is a slight problem with the bridge.”

“What is it?”

“It is just a bad rope bridge, we are unsure if it can even hold one of us.”

Abby looked down, “And what is the other option?”

“To travel an extra week.”

She sighed, “Help me up and let me look at the bridge,” I helped her up, and we walked over to the bridge. Abby looked at the bridge, “I have no clue, to be honest.”

We felt an earthquake behind us, then another one, as we looked behind us, we saw two of the Tarbosaurus dinosaurs.

Funk looked at me, “I say, we try the bridge right now.”

Lorraine nodded, “I have to agree.”

I sighed, “Alright, go, go, run for your fucking life, I am right behind you with Abby,” We started running over the bridge, it snapped on both sides when we were in the middle. The rope bridge started going down, I picked Lorraine up and threw her with all of my strength, and I saw her grab the edge of the ravine. Next, I grabbed Abby, “We are going down, this will hurt, make a shield with your energy.”

She nodded and did so, but black tentacles came out of her and wrapped around us, I used my own silver energy. We hit the bottom of the ravine with a loud thud, the black tentacles retreated into Abby. My vision started to get blurry, I could not see where Funk had landed, or if he had made it. Abby, however, seemed to have made it, as I felt my consciousness fade, something dragged me away.