Making Friends
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, but belong to Impossible Pictures™.
Late Permian, 248 MYA
The land of the late Permian lay out like one vast desert, greater even than the Sahara of the modern day or the dried-out Mediterranean Sea's basin in the future. Unlike the basin of the vanished sea, though, this desert was 'made' out of sand rather than salt, and as such it had more widespread wildlife of both plant and animal kingdoms, as Helen Cutter couldn't help but notice.
Conversely, though, since in this case the representative of the local charter of the animal kingdom was a rhino-sized gorgonopsid, Helen was considerably less than thrilled. The only fact that made this entire situation liveable was that the gorgonopsid wasn't in the best of physical conditions and didn't intend to charge Helen yet, despite their differences in size, strength and weight.
Nonetheless, Helen wasn't in the best of moods on this day: the late Permian was even hotter and drier than the late Triassic, the sand was more plentiful and got absolutely everywhere, and while she didn't have a diploma in meteorology, her experience told her that a storm was coming up fast, and she wasn't quite sure where she was going to find a shelter, besides – maybe – a hollow between two sand dunes or something equally shaky.
Unexpectedly, the gorgonopsid made a whining sound, rather like an oversized – a greatly oversized – dog, startling Helen somewhat and causing her to whirl around in concern. Sure enough, the mammal-like reptile seemed to be preparing to bull rush her once and for all – but that wasn't what had alarmed the anthropologist turned time traveller: rather, it was the onrushing wall of sand in the distance beyond the gorgonops, threatening to overtake them both.
Throughout her time travels, Helen Cutter had dealt with many animal threats – prehistoric crocodiles, spiders, killer whales, even meat-eating dinosaurs – and she managed to triumph over them, but an onrushing element was something else, something that no one could fight, but could only flee and hide...
And that was what Helen did, basically: she stopped confronting the gorgonops and instead fled to her left, where several rows of dunes formed a sequence hollows – a scanty shelter but still marginally better than being flatly out in the open.
Unfortunately, Helen had momentarily forgotten about her pursuer, and now was in risk to pay for that – the carnivore failed to notice the sand storm for the moment due to its own hunger and instead chased the fleeing human, gathering its strength for one final lunge...
...only to overshoot by a bit of distance as Helen dropped the bottom of the hollow and began to dig-out a crude shelter in the sand. Immediately, the gorgonops pounced once more, failing to notice the oncoming wall of wind-swept sand... and then it was upon it and Helen, slamming into the dunes even as the gorgonops tried to pin Helen Cutter down. And then there was nothing, but a wall of yellow-grey.
Modern times
"So, professor, what do you think of my thesis?" Connor Temple spoke up in a cautious tone of voice. "I'm basing it on how life on Earth was brought by alien space craft-"
Without much ado, Nick Cutter just threw Connor's 'theses' back into the waste bin, causing the young man to wince, and desperately think of a topic that could or would catch the professor's attention. Sadly enough, he couldn't find any.
Late Permian, 248 MYA
Helen got lucky, in a good way, perhaps for the first time a long while. The sand storm hit her – and the gorgonops – low enough and strong enough to actually drag them along, rather than bury them in the wind-swept sand, and since it had also hit them early enough they were once more able to avoid the worst of the sand.
Finally, the combined body mass of the gorgonops and Helen had eventually slowed them both down enough to have them fall out of the sandstorm, as it had eventually dissipated... And speaking of the gorgonops, it was slowly lifting itself from the sand, clearly preparing to lash-out with its' massive and fanged maw...
Yet, now that Helen had a chance to see her pursuer closer than before, she saw that it was in a rather poor shape, almost emaciated, and was clearly favouring one of its forelegs now that the sandstorm was over.
However, the animal's maw was still studded with plenty of fangs, some almost as long as a rhino's horn and the look in its smallish eyes was both stubborn and starving. Then the gorgonops opened its jaws to take a bite-
-and Helen threw several of her fish pemmican supplies into that mouth. Instinctively, the jaws snapped shut and the massive throat gulped. Then those smallish eyes blinked, clearly confused about something-
-and Helen began to back away, slowly, towards the time anomaly that she could now see, clearly twinkling in the still-dusty air of the Late Permian.
Immediately, however, the gorgonops began to follow her, and this just wouldn't do. Reacting quickly, Helen threw another portion of her pemmican at the gorgonops, causing it to look away from her, and then she fled towards the time anomaly.
Snapping at the thrown pemmican bars and catching in mid-air, the gorgonops followed suit.
Modern times
"Let me guess, my job's got the least seniority, so it's got to go first," Abby Maitland told her boss, crossly.
"I'm afraid so," the older zoo worker replied, taking a look at the decisively non-mating iguanas in the reptile house. "Still, maybe we can find you a new position, maybe with the elephants..."
A dyed-through reptile fan, it took Abby a truly titanic effort of will to suppress the words "Keep looking". She reminded herself that she couldn't afford to antagonize anyone even remotely helpful to her at this point and re-phrased her reply into:
"Well, maybe a temporary position there..."
"Yes, yes, exactly!" her interlocutor spoke-up enthusiastically, clearly intent on avoiding a confrontation as much as she did. "Now why don't we, uh, step into my office and discuss your future in more peaceful conditions?"
Abby just nodded in reply and walked out of the reptile house.
Early Triassic, 242 MYA
Helen has become used to abrupt shifts in time and space that occurred whenever she would jump through a time anomaly, but after the monotonously sandy world of the late Permian, the lush, subtropical rainforest was a bit of a shock.
However, after several time anomaly jumps Helen learned to get very quickly over shocks, or she would've been eaten a long time ago. Therefore, she carefully leaned against a tree and began to observe any local wildlife.
And sure enough, the locals made an eventual appearance: vaguely barrel-shaped, middle-sized, pig-like... reptiles, their faces both tusked and beaked and their hides grey and bare.
"More mammal-like reptiles," Helen mused to herself. "Look somewhat like the small ones I've noticed in the late Permian, but quite a bit bigger – maybe their descendants..."
Like a striped lightning, the gorgonops sprung, startling Helen, for once. Fortunately for the time traveller, the massive carnivore chose a bigger, slower target: one of the reptilian herbivores of this time that Helen was looking-at earlier...
Now, however, instead of observing, Helen just stared blankly, as the starving carnivore took little time in slaying its chosen meal and beginning to consume it, eagerly. "Oh boy, I think I have a problem," she muttered, before the gorgonops interrupted its meal, trotted over to her, and cast a biggish slab of meat and entrails at her feet.
Helen blinked and stared at the gorgonops, who stared back, emitting some sort of a whining or placating sound in her direction.
Helen blinked again and looked down at the meat at her feet. She remembered, that back in the late Permian, this gorgonops had been the only representative of its kind that Helen had met in several days of travel...
"You know," she spoke to the gorgonops in – hopefully – equally placating and peaceful tone of voice, "this could the beginning of something interesting."
Modern times
Claudia Brown was in a bad mood. Her boss had given her the week off and here she was, stuck in some local bar, listening to some local braggart brag about his local exploits.
Wearily, Claudia looked around, seeking out someone better than her current interlocutor in order to keep her manners and leave the current company. No luck, all the current customers seemed to be pretty much par for the course of her current interlocutor.
"Bugger this," Claudia spoke-up suddenly, startling the aforementioned character, and just left the bar. She didn't want to be rude and her vacation was just starting, but this was not what she wanted.
As the bar's door closed behind her and she walked to her parking spot, boot heels clicking upon the pavement, Claudia Brown just took a deep breath and promised herself that this was the lowest point in her social life, and that from now on, things will get better...
