Chapter Ten

Emily was, of course, right. It ended up being freezing that night, and were glad of each other's company on that "mattress". (If that was even what it was for, I wasn't sure, honestly.) We snuggled up close and shared our warmth as best we could, and I kept wishing we had a blanket.

In the morning, I awakened to the lilac and lavander scent…My mind a blur, it took me a few seconds to realize that I was spooning Emily. My arms were around her waist, and the back of her head was pretty much shoved into my face. The scent that had woken me up, was, of course, her perfume…But her hair was practically being shoved into my nose, so I couldn't really focus.

At this point you may have noticed something. The answer is, yes. Yes, I do kind of crush on Em. It's kinda hard not to, as well…She's strikingly beautiful. But she is also my best friend, and I can't imagine my life without her. Period. Which is why I've never hit on her, never made a move…I couldn't stand my life without her, and I would never risk it.

Truth be told, I might not have had the courage to do this whole space thing if she hadn't come. Finding someone in your life that you can connect to on that level is hard. Emily is my rock, the constant in my life.

She rolled over on the mattress so that her face was facing mine, and snuggled closer. Beginning to feel a bit self-conscious and awkward, I cleared my throat. Her eyes fluttered open.

She instantly realized how close we had huddled in the night, flushed, and rolled over out of my grip.

I cleared my throat again. "Sorry."

"No," she said, sounding rather embarrassed. "No need to apologize. I was the one who insisted we sleep togeth—Next to each other. Next to each other."

"Well," I said. "You were right, it did get quite cold."

"I'm hungry," she said getting up, and she began fidgeting with her hair, attempting to comb it with her fingers.

"Pretty sure that George and Martha ate all the leftover protoceratops," I commented. "We'll have to hunt for more food. Or forage, but hunting seems safer…No idea what plants are good to eat around here. But humans can eat just about any kind of meat."

"I'm really craving, like eggs benedict and your mom's beignets," Emily said.

"I am not my mom," I said. "I wouldn't even be able to spell beignet, let alone make one. And you can forget about eggs benny…But…If there is any kind of bird or dinosaur nest nearby…I might be able to get us some scrambled eggs…I can scramble a mean egg."

Emily giggled. "Sounds wonderful."

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After cleaning myself up a bit (I splashed water on my face in the bathroom.) I stepped outside. There was no sign of the Deinonychus. There was a small pile of bones near where they had been eating, though.

Emily and I had started calling them "George and Martha" last night, but wherever they were before, they weren't here now.

I stopped short upon seeing the large dragonfly…

It was resting on the wall to the right of the door…And it was huge. As big as a hawk…The wingspan must have been two feet long…I just gapped at the big bug. It was bright blue-green, and at least two and a half feet from head to 'tail'.

Suddenly, it took off, buzzing into the air…And then landing on my head.

"Jeeze!" I exclaimed…But that didn't seem to scare the bug off…It just continued to rest on my head. I was afraid of swatting at it…Because…Well…It was a VERY big bug. And also a nightmare hat.

I wondered…It was already touching me…

I focused my mind on the dragonfly…It's wings stopped twitching. I kept my focus on the insect, and slowly reached up and grabbed it. I gently removed it from my head, and it didn't resist.

I placed it on the ground. Ten seconds later it shot into the air, and then darted into the forest.

"Freaky," I commented. "Okay…Let's go find some eggs for Emily."

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Not far from the clone dome was a large clearing. In it, there were dozens of herbivorous species milling about. More protoceratops wandering about, looking and acting for all the world like modern pigs.

But also in the clearing were Iguanodons, Styracosauruses, Pachycephalosauruses, Maiasauruses, and even a few dinosaurs it didn't recognize. Which is impressive, considering even after becoming obsessed with morphing, I stayed abreast of paleontological news.

Most of these herbivores appeared to be tending to nests. I eyed the eggs, but was uncertain how to go about getting one. (Most dinosaur eggs are not gigantic, like in cartoons, but rather, about twice the size of chicken eggs, tops.)

I considered the morphs I had. The Dragonfly was untested, and probably not strong enough to heft away a dinosaur egg anyway. None of my other morphs seemed vaguely useful. I considered tyrannosaur or deinonychus…But suspected that a large predator like a T. rex would just cause a stampede, and a smaller one like Deinonychus would just get assaulted by an angry mother dinosaur.

I slumped against a tree at the edge of the clearing. Maybe if I morphed into a falcon and flew around a bit, I could find a bird or lizard nest or something.

I glanced up and noticed two dinosaurs snorting at each other. They were dancing in a circle, bobbing their heads and occasionally striking each other. They looked rather like miniature dragons, with spikey heads. They were about the size of a large horse, like a Clydesdale. Each in a display dance of dominance, presumably attempting to impress a potential mate.

"Dracorex Hogwarstia," I commented, finally placing the pair. A newer species…Or…More recently discovered anyway. Dracorex was named for it's dragonish features, and it's scientific name in honor of the Harry Potter books.

There was suddenly a large commotion at the far end of the clearing. I glanced over and saw a pair of dinosaurs exit the forest. Smaller, by far, than my T. rex morph, but larger than Deinonychus…These two blood red dinosaurs stood maybe 15 feet tall. Each had boxy faces and bull-like horns above their eyes.

"Carnotaurus," I said. "The Meat-Bull."

The Styracosaurus were linking up in a circle, rather like the Chasmosaurs I saw yesterday. Guess it was a common defense for ceratopsians.

The other dinosaurs, however, were starting to stampede away from the predators. I pressed close to the tree…Preparing to morph if one of the Carnotaurs saw me…But they launched forwards towards the massive stampede…Lunging at an iguanodon.

Spotting a nearby nest that had been abandoned, I rushed over, and grabbed two of the eggs, I turned to go, when I heard an angry snort.

I slowly turned around, and noticed that one of the Dracorexes was unbelievably close to me. He snorted angrily at me. I don't know if it was a Dracorex nest, or if he was just in a bad mood…But I guess he wasn't keen on me taking those eggs.

Slowly…Calmly…I reached up, and pressed my palm into his dragon-like face. His eyes flickered as I added another batch of saurian DNA to my collection.

I mused that with the additions of the Dracorex and the Dragonfly, I had finally caught up to Emily in terms of number of morphs. I quietly broke contact with the dinosaur, and slipped back into the forest with my eggs. The Dracorex, however, seemed to have forgotten me in a post-acquisition trance haze.

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I had no pan to scramble the eggs with. I had gone to all the trouble of getting the eggs…And I had no way of cooking them.

I returned to the dome, (and immediately had my two latest acquisitions cloned—I also noted that the morphs from yesterday appeared to have vanished.) And informed Emily of my combined success and failure.

As it turned out, Emily had realized my conundrum after I had left. She had used the Dracon beam (or whatever it was.) to slice off a small piece of metal paneling from the wall.

Restarting our fire from last night, and using the paneling as a pan, we messily scrambled the dinosaur eggs…Which…Turned out to be pretty tasty, though I still think it needed some Tabasco sauce.

Later that afternoon, when we got hungry again, Em and I morphed Deinonychuses, with the intention of hunting down another small dinosaur for our dinner.

Shortly after we finished morphing, we caught the scent of the real Deinonychuses nearby.

On an impulse, we darted to their location (a mere 300 feet from our home in the dome.) We found that they had been spending the day, constructing what appeared to be a nest.

Upon seeing us, they immediately leapt to their feet, ready and eager to hunt.

I grinned at Emily.

(Let's go catch dinner…)

(You are loving this WAY too much.)