The female sloth gingerly laid "her son" in the cluster of leaves, and looked at her husband.

He was already somnolent.

"What should we do with it?" Eunice asked with anxiety in her tone. "This is not a mammal, we don't know what it's diet, it looks very scary to it all!"

Milton was staring at small dinosaur with detestation. Only guess whether it was because of the little one's scaly body, because of his terrifying narrow muzzle, his yellow protruding from it or even its red pupils.

"Do you think I know?" he asked with a swallow, it's like he was stressed. "I see it for the first time in my life!"

The female sloth softly chuckled.

"I think I know the solution to this fear"

She took a small amount of leaves and covered them with the head of the little theropod.

"Do you feel more confident now?"

The male sloth nodded.

"I did not feel so good in my life" he said with a grin. "Now let's wake up our family and go out of here before it notices something is wrong"

Eunice's eyes widened, as she looked at the taller male sloth.

"B-but... I-it's a c-child"

Milton raised his eyebrow.

"And what?" he asked with a sneer. "This is probably clever enough to deal with getting the food"
"But..." Eunice tried to say something. "What if it is too weak?"

The male sloth scratched his eyes.

"And what about it?" Milton coughed. "This is not ours, so why would we worry about this thing?"

Eunice dropped her head down in sadness.

Her husband was no longer willing to give up his decision. Then she changed her attitude.

"F-fine" she scratched her head nervously. "Let's go"


Sid opened his eyes, and raised his head very slowly.

He was almost surprised, when he saw green long threads ahead of him.

It was grass. Long and plowed grass.

That's weird. Sid thought to himself. Where am I?

As soon as he tried to stand on his new limbs… He met with the dirt again.

His legs were numb, which made it impossible for him to walk.

What the... Sid thought again. What's going on?

Theropod looked ahead.

He froze in place.

In the shadow opposite which he sat, two giant bloody eyes looked straight at him.

The small barionyx gasped.

Those eyes… were familiar.

The creature was getting closer to him.

And worst of all, the little dinosaur was connected to the grass. The reptile hatchling cannot move, which made him panic.

Sid began to shake, and this large creature was already in front of him.

"You've met a terrible fate, small creature" Sid heard a voice.

It was a low and rough voice.

Sid looked up.

Opposite him stood one of the most dangerous and hard players in the underground world… Rudy...

There was no need to guess that the voice belonged to the huge barionyx. One thing was uncertain.

Did the adult creature was adressing to him?

There was silence.

A sweat trickled down the scaly body of a small dinosaur. He did not know if it was out of his nerves or just in disbelief that Rudy was literally speaking.

"You don't need to be afraid of me, Sid" Rudy spoke again. "I'm not gonna hurt you"

The hatchling flinched. The voice of an adult representative caused him tremendous chills. Sid had to admit that Rudy's voice sounded amazing.

The adult baryonyx sighed, nuzzling his smaller copy.

"Speak son, I'm not angry at your previous life's actions"

The small theropod raised his eyebrow.

"But I can't..." the hatchling asked, but suddenly realized something. "Wait… I can speak… I CAN SPEAK!"

Sid's voice was sounding childish and girly, but he did not care. Sid was glad he could speak again.

"Not so fast, son" Rudy chuckled, which also caused chills in a small child. "You will only be able to speak in your dreams"

The hatchling jumped and without feeling a numbness, he stood on his limbs, lik

"WHAT!?" he shouted with the feeling of being cheated. "I thought you gave me that voice"

Rudy giggled, and gently using his claw, caressed Sid's chin.

"Yeah, you're right buddy" he smirked, showing up his sharp teeth. "But this is not a permanent effect"

Tears appeared in the hatchling's eyes.

"Please, I need that voice!" he sobbed. "I don't want to roar in gibberish anymore!"

The little one with remnants of strength, came closer to Rudy's leg, nuzzling it with his forehead.

"I need that voice… I need that voice" he repeated like a broken record, leaving tears on the limbs of his former victim.

The adult baryonyx seeing this, sighed with sadder tone.

"Sid" he said. "You will still be able to say everything to me, everytime you will see me in your dreams"

The young theropod clenched his jaw from crying.

"How does it make sense if I can not communicate with anyone but you?"

Rudy gingerly stroke Sid's back.

"Trust me" he warmly smiled. "You will still have a chance to talk to someone else"

The little teropod finally stopped tormenting the leg of an adult individual and looked up.

"W-what do you mean?" he asked. "Do you want to tell me that I can ... learn to speak?"

The adult baryonyx nodded.

"Yes, son" Rudy smirked, and gently laid Sid on his back. "But remember… You will have to work to make a word out of yourself"

The adult dinosaur licked smaller baryonyx's right cheek.

Sid uncomfortably shook.

"It's ok, son" Rudy smiled. "There will still be a long way ahead"
"A long way?" the small baryonyx repeated. "Will we be through the swamps?"

Rudy shook his head.

"Nope, but there will be a lot of forests with dangerous creatures"

Sid gulped.

"But don't worry" the adult theropod giggled. "I will protect you from them"

The small dinosaur sighed with relief.

"Let's go now" Rudy continued. "You will have to learn a lot"

It only took a moment for both dinosaurs to disappear into the bushes that had discovered themselves from the shadows.