Chapter Three - Act 1 - Daily Slice
Not much about the day was too interesting for Libby so far, as things around the homestead were usual as always. For Libby, it wasn't that 'usual' was bad, it was more on the lines of being too mundane for her lifestyle. While the usual daily job change did spice things at times, it didn't really change much between the family and their friends. From what she could remember about today, Henry was the food carrier to transport from the fields over to the silo. Arlo was assigned to studying the various critters, mostly the small ones, and see which ones were purely pests and which were neutral or even beneficial for the homestead. Ida had been given a similar chore as Henry, which did help out a fair bit. Buck had to water the last field, and Arlie chopped down some nearby trees to serve as fire wood for when it got cold outside.
As for Libby, she took the food transported from the fields and stored them in the secondary silo. She didn't mind the job, in fact she preferred this one despite her otherwise lack of interest in repeatable things. Though that wasn't to say they couldn't take a break, Libby felt she was taking the most breaks to just walk around the homestead and see how things had changed. With the obvious examples of the extra homes as well as the new fields each having the capacity for multiple kinds of fruit and crops, she could only marvel at how large their territory had become; the main fence now further from the farm than it was when it was just them.
And it wasn't just this side of the river, she looked beyond the bridge that crossed over the river and gazed at the herd of longhorns that Butch, Ramsey, and Nash were keeping track of. Even though by now it was just how things were, she couldn't help but be amazed at the sight of the herd every time. On occasion she would wake up early just to see the sunrise along side the herd. It was just those little things that made the ordinary days just that little bit special. Libby headed back and continued storing more food into the main silo, she noticed from time to time that Buck wasn't as eager to do his chore as she thought he was. As it would happen, he too looked her way, and they both seemed to realise at the same moment that they were looking at each other. Instead of instantly looking away however, Buck slowly walked up to her, and she knew exactly what he wanted.
"Before you say it, I'm not trading my job with yours." Libby said, awaiting the inevitable groaning that would ensue. Before he could have a chance to protest, she continued. "This is why we have the job changes each day. You can try to trade with Ramsey or Nash for a job, but I really don't think you know enough to do their jobs well." She hoped that would put a stop to it, after all she knew that no one in her family plus Arlie wanted a different job. And while the tyrannosaurs were an option, she was right that Buck hadn't yet been taught lessons on their jobs to perform them. So in that regard there would be no way for Buck to-
"Thanks Libby!" Before she even knew it he had gone off in the direction that she hoped he wouldn't go. On one side, it was very likely that neither Ramsey nor Nash would actually trade jobs. On the other side, it would be somewhat amusing to see how both individuals would respond to each other's jobs. However, seeing that once again she would have to be the responsible one, she decided to at least inform Ida and Butch about the situation... just in case.
First was Ida; Libby knew if anyone were to disagree with Buck's actions she would have the first say. Libby had considered Henry but, there was a slight chance he would also see the fun side of it. Fortunately both Ida and Henry were right near each other, with Henry carrying a stack of corn and Ida plucking the ones that were just right to uproot. "Have you already done the previous batch?" Ida asked surprised, Libby shook her head before explaining. "Nope, about half way through that lot. I actually came over to inform you that Buck's looking to trade jobs with either Ramsey or Nash."
"Oh?" Henry perked up, "This ought to be interesting." Before he could move a step, Ida moved both faster and went between him and Libby. At first Libby saw this as a sign that Ida had at least some objections to Buck's decision. "We'll be on the look out, thanks for informing us." Ida responded, surprising both Libby and Henry, the latter merely staring at Ida in awe. Libby walked away, it seemed as if things were harmless enough for even Ida to allow it. For whatever reason she couldn't explain however, Libby had a gut feeling something was going to go wrong. If neither Henry nor Ida had any objections, there was only one other individual who could have any say.
Walking over the bridge she glanced at Buck who, from the direction he was walking from, looked as if Ramsey had declined. There was still a chance Nash could agree, so she continued her way over to Butch. "You here to tell me what Buck's up to?" Butch asked, Libby stopped in her tracks and nodded. "Buck wants to trade jobs with someone, everyone in my family is comfortable with their chores and I told him he might as well ask Ramsey and Nash, turns out he took it literally like always. Poppa and momma don't seem to mind which is why I came over to get your opinion on it."
Butch said nothing at first, instead shifting his focus from Libby over to where Buck was, currently about to meet up with Nash. "Hm, your parents saw little issue but your guts tellin' you something ain't right. Tell ya what, you and I keep a tab on Buck doing his chore here, while your parents watch over Nash doing..."
"Oh, Buck was supposed to water the last crop field." Butch was the one this time to be surprised. "Ha! Seeing Nash try to spray water across the whole field will be something, I wish I would be there to see that, but I gotta admit that seeing Buck try to herd those longhorns will be more important between you and I. At the very least you'll be learning alongside 'im without needing to do anything."
Libby held back a laugh from that. "He wouldn't be amused if he saw me. Once, I got him to water the crops for me, so I had one less task and he did one more. I feel like he would be reminded of that."
"Sounds like you two had some fun one upping another, you get smart coming up with new ways to do certain things. Nash 'n Ramsey used to do that all the time, they still do just... not the way it was." Libby looked at Butch, who looked to be completely lost in thought. Before Libby had a chance to ask, both she and Butch saw Nash going over the bridge and over to the farm, while Buck remained. Knowing what must've happened, Libby immediately made her way over to her brother, only to be stopped by the tyrannosaur. "Easy there lass, knowing your brother he'd be more open to me giving him the option to be taught if he didn't see you near. You can still watch but, it might do for you to go in The Cover."
Libby understood, and so walked over as quietly as she could to The Cover. 'The Cover' was a term used to refer to a fairly large ditch in the ground used by the tyrannosaurs to hide, with a makeshift grass cover to make things more conspicuous, hence the term. The way in which one could actually see what was going on above was to use the hollowed out boulder at the end of the ditch, which from a normal view would look like a boulder in the middle of a grassy field. It proved to be a key tool for the tyrannosaur family to find any trespassers before anything happened to the longhorn herd. Libby opened the grass cover up to reveal the ditch, before walking down the slope and closing the grass cover and ending up at the boulder. Amongst the boulder were some small holes, which from the outside wouldn't reveal much given how little light even entered through.
From her new view, she could see between the longhorns a blotch of green and orange coming closer, which she knew could only be Buck and Butch. Here she could only imagine how Nash was doing with Buck's chore, and she had a feeling that Henry and Ida would enjoy every moment of it. Even Arlo and Arlie might enjoy it if they ever saw what was happening, which Libby knew was a high chance. After what seemed like quite the while, the herd of longhorns started to move, a sign that Buck was actually doing well on his task. A distant but sudden thump changed that. It was powerful enough to cause a little dirt to trickle down, but it was also apparently loud enough to stir the longhorns into a stampede that headed away from the homestead.
Waiting long enough to see that the grass cover was clear, she opened it up and ran as fast as she could to catch up with the herd. With Ramsey just ahead of her, the two soon caught up and began attempting to control the herd. While Libby had some idea how given what she heard from Arlo, she still had to look at what Ramsey, Butch and Buck were doing in order to understand the tactics better. Slowly but surely, the longhorns slowed down, though not without some issues of the terrain becoming rougher as they nearly reached the southern end of the basin. It was a fair ways back to the homestead, and was long enough for Buck to notice Libby's presence.
"Libby? What are you doing here?" Buck questioned, "I saw the herd running off and thought I'd-" She was about to finish her sentence when Butch lifted his hand up. She awaited for what the tyrannosaur had to say to both of them. "Buck, Libby informed me of your little trade with Nash. Had she not done so, you would've been ill-prepared for a situation like this. There are times when even a little squabble can be more costly than you realise. I do 'ave to say, you two might be more suited to this than even Nash and Ramsey," Ramsey was quick to shoot a surprised glance at her father. "those two still haven't learnt that lesson yet, so you two ought to catch up to them real fast." Libby and Buck couldn't help but giggle over that thought. "As for what stirred the longhorns in the first place, we might have to check up on Nash to see how watering the crops went."
"You traded with Nash because you didn't like watering the crops?" Ramsey looked down at Buck, the latter nodding. Libby had a funny feeling Ramsey was gonna enjoy seeing how her brother fared, seeing she would do the same. Eventually arriving back near the homestead and finishing the task, all four of them walked across the bridge only to hear the sound of laughter. When they got closer they found everyone else - Henry, Ida, Arlo, Arlie, and Nash - all together discussing over something.
Buck was the first to ask, which didn't surprise Libby. What was a surprise was that Nash was the one to explain. "So I go over to water the field right? It turns out the field is just a bit too big for my range, even when moving to the other side. I ask Arlo and then Arlie for any help but Arlie hadn't done the job before and Arlo hadn't encountered a situation like I had. So I try leaning a little and it's still not enough, I try jumping a little and it's not enough, I try both at the same time and I finally do it, but I end up falling into the field."
"So he comes over to me and Henry not sure how to apologise, and we explain how the field is just a surplus field, no one actually needed to water it. We all see what's happening over your end and we have a good laugh as to how everything turned out." Ida finished, Libby soon caught onto what was implied, and it wasn't long before Buck knew as well. "You mean I didn't have to- so then what was my chore for the day?"
Henry and Ida glanced each other for a fraction of a second, before Libby realised the full situation and she couldn't help but groan over the obviousness. With a sigh, she reluctantly told Buck, "I forgot to tell you Buck, you were gonna store the food in the silo with me." Libby said, knowing fully well that all of this was technically on her end. That gut feeling of what was wrong turned out to be right in the end. She could only laugh to release the tension, which inevitably caused Buck to do the same. A very interesting start to the day after all.
Less than an hour after that... interesting morning, Jack could see from Mary that the place they were heading was not exactly Clawtooth. He did hear her mumble something about being too far north, and in hindsight he should've seen that from the direction they were heading the day before. Since they were just about to start climbing, there wasn't really any way to mention it aloud. It would be much easier, at least in his opinion, to get over the mountain range first before saying anything. One thing he did like about the range was how it curved slightly around the basin on the other side, such that they had easy access going around without being noticed.
His thoughts went back to the main problem at hand, if they weren't going to the homestead, then what else near was of interest. He knew the river did bend up north, but that was definitely within Spinos' territory. If Clay was actually thinking of meeting up with the spinosaur, then they might all as well be dead. Both Will and Mary also knew of Spinos, how could they not after that one time a few years back when they accidentally strayed too close. Spinos wasn't the one to deal with trespassers kindly, even if it was on accident. He put himself at ease and reminded himself that Clay was also as much aware of Spinos as the others, otherwise Mary would've spoken up by now as well.
It wasn't long for the ascent of the mountain to become noticeable, though fortunately since they were up north it weren't nearly as high as the main Clawtooths. Though they were mostly going around for the adventure, it would seem this time there was an actual purpose other than the aforementioned adventure side of it. Clay had mentioned Zerxes earlier, and Jack had a vague idea of what Zerxes was like, but he was still eager to at least see him if Clay was so keen to talk about him. Of course, Mary did remind him and Will that Zerxes was shy to new individuals, which included them. How shy was up for debate, so he thought he might as well play it out safe for once.
Reaching the top wasn't as tiring as he thought it would be, and the view on the other side was worth the minor trouble. "Would you look at all that..." Clay said. Off in the distance, Jack could just make out the homestead, though he decided not to inform anyone else about it to avoid any awkward silence. He glanced to Mary who also looked like she saw the same view, though Will and Clay were looking around the opposite direction.
"So how do we get down?" Will asked. It was a valid question, as the snow that capped these peaks would easily cause some slippage which could easily cause injury. Clay on the other hand got down onto his knees and slowly edged himself forwards. Things didn't click for Jack until right when Clay started to accelerate, Mary soon followed as did Will, leaving Jack to be the last to join them. To say sledding down a mountain was bumpy at times was a bit of an understatement, as Jack would often find himself having to keep his head near to the ground without actually touching it. Nonetheless it was still an enjoyable way to head down a mountain, even if the snow stopped about three quarters the way to the actual bottom.
Fortunately, the thinning snow helped to slow their speed to a safe level that they could stand from, and begin to walk the rest of the way. Looking forwards, the forest they were heading looked fresh and lively, a sign that this part of the basin was one of the few untouched places, though the fruit that were on said trees were no longer there either due to winter or picked off by those from the homestead.
"Zerxes shouldn't be far now." Clay muttered, just audible enough for Jack to hear. He was unsure whether or not the others heard, so he spoke louder than Clay, "You sure he's close? Doesn't sound like he specified to you where exactly he'd meet us 'over the mountain range'." Mary was quick to nudge him for that. "It's fine Mary. Don't know why I feel like he's close I just... do." Clay only whispered the last word, but the message was all too clear for Jack. Not that he was surprised, if he had a childhood friend he felt like he would also have that feeling of knowing that they were close.
Once they were actually inside the forest however, was when things seemed to change. He couldn't tell what exactly had changed, but something about the forest felt different. So this is what Clay meant? Jack thought, though only as a joke. Looking closer, the autumn leaves looked darker than usual, as did the grass which for some reason bore a similar colour to the leaves. Perhaps this part of the forest had different plants, it definitely seemed that way at least.
Since Jack had been in front of everyone else, he naturally assumed they were following him, but the silence told him otherwise and a hard U-turn only confirmed his suspicions. Must've followed Clay without me knowing, Jack thought as he came to terms that he was somewhat lost. While thinking of a plan, he was slowly walking backwards, and so was surprised when he walked into something that didn't feel anything like a tree.
Turning around, he faced someone which he had not seen before. First thing of note was that this individual was smaller in size to Clay, and bore similar features such as an elongated neck, as well as rounded teeth and even being on all fours. On the other hand some of his teeth were sharp, the hind legs look more like that of a raptor, and the individual soon stood up such that he was now almost taller than Clay whilst having actual hands like a theropod. Jack couldn't tell whether the individual in question was a meat eater like Spinos, or whether he was more like them in that he could eat plants.
Perhaps, he thought, that maybe the individual did a bit of both, which would explain quite a bit. What it wouldn't explain, is how conflicting the individual looked. The colours and patterns of the individual were more varied, the main body being a medium beige while the rest had more of a dark brown colour, with only a brown-ish red bordered the two contrasting colours. Most but not all other individuals would blend easier with the environment, the only reason Jack even bumped into the individual was because he was walking backwards. Nonetheless, none of the two said anything to the other, instead just observing every aspect of one another.
Feeling pressured by no one but the silence, Jack decided to be the one to start the conversation. "Uuuh, hello... I'm Jack. Who are you?" He said cautiously, still unsure about the true nature of this individual. From everything he was told, he probably overestimated how shy they were. "I'm Zerxes. You're one of Clay's friends, right?" Jack was thrown off for a second, both the tone as well as the sound of Zerxes' voice being new for him. "That's right, I think I lost them not too long ago. They shouldn't be too far." Since he still didn't know how shy Zerxes was, he decided to slowly build up his energy - he would've been racing everywhere trying to find the others if he wasn't being so cautious at that moment. "They should be fine, this part of the forest isn't that big..." Zerxes paused, in the midst of which Jack glanced around to find that the way he came from - the mountain range - was still visible from where he was.
"I guess in the meantime, we can talk for a little bit. I think meeting all three of you at once might be challenging." Zerxes finished. Jack now understood one of the boundaries, and so raised his confidence and pace of talking up a little bit more. "So I've heard. Clay talks about you a lot." Jack responded, to which Zerxes smiled at. "Not surprising, given that I was practically his only friend for some time before he met you three. I wish I could say I was the first friend of his but, I would be lying about that." Jack felt Zerxes looked more confident when he said that, but what really got Jack was what exactly he had said.
From everything Clay had told them he assumed that Zerxes was the first friend of his, he never said anything about someone before Zerxes, Jack wondered what exactly must've happened between them or who exactly this other friend was. He didn't want to ask however; he felt like that could've been a secret Clay had told Zerxes, if that were the case it would mean that Zerxes trusted Jack enough to mention it. Though that in itself raised questions, he didn't want to focus on them too much.
"I see. So uh... how did you two meet anyways?" Though he didn't intend the question to be so personal, Jack almost instantly regretted asking. Zerxes didn't say anything immediately, instead looking directly at Jack intensely, the latter feeling as if he were being studied. Zerxes abruptly changed his composure to a more casual stance, "So I was resting by the edge of a forest, and then I hear this loud yelling not too far away that woke me up. I got up and went to see what was happening, and saw Clay in this middle of this flat area. He sees me and asks who I am, we talk for a bit and decide to roam the landscape together."
Jack understood, and he must've nodded as Zerxes continued. "Before that... I'm not sure. I must've been roaming the lands just like you four do these days. Speaking of which, has Clay told you what we're supposed to do tonight?" The way in which Zerxes would change subjects was also something he had to deal with. By now though Jack felt that Zerxes could handle his personality, a much quicker development than with Mary, who still at times would be somewhat overwhelmed in his opinion. However in regards to what Zerxes asked, Jack had no knowledge of any plans that were to happen tonight, only solidifying the fact that Clay was close to Zerxes.
"No actually, what's happening?" Jack asked. He could tell that Zerxes seemed unsure whether to tell or not, as he had turned away from Jack briefly. "I'm not sure if I can say the specifics. What I can say is that we're going to start making progress with those from the homestead, and in order to do that, we need to get in touch with a very old friend, Clay's first friend in fact." Well that was big news for Jack, and at that instant he didn't know what to say. Before he had brushed aside the thought of who Clay's other friend was, but something about this friend being key to their plans upon the homestead - which were still up for debate - it was one of those things where the more Jack thought about it, the more intriguing this friend's role was.
He and his friends knew for some time that Clay had wanted answers from someone in the homestead, and that Clay certainly wanted to talk with them alone, meaning the individual Clay wanted answers from had to be isolated from the rest less things got too chaotic. But at the same time the four of them, even the five of them felt too little to deal with everyone at the homestead in a peaceful manner. This sixth individual had to be someone that was unique in a way such that everyone in the homestead would listen to Clay without there needing to be conflict, which was going to be difficult given the tyrannosaurs Clay mentioned about. For the longest time Clay was worried that the homesteaders would see them as trespassers, and have the tyrannosaurs force them to leave. In that regard, the individual in question would have to be able to take on all three tyrannosaurs, but Jack didn't know of many who could do that.
"You alright there Jack? They should've found us by now. We might be late if they don't find us soon." Zerxes interrupted his thoughts, but there was something which did seem to matter. Late for what exactly? he thought. He thought about where they were and what was near. After a few moments however, something had clicked, and Jack had a hunch of who it might be. If he was right however, then he knew that things were going to get really complicated. "I'm fine, Zerxes." Jack responded, right before the rustling of leaves could be heard not too far away. "That's probably them." Zerxes said, before raising his voice "Is that you Clay?"
Not even a second later, "Zerxes, we've been looking all over for Jack and you. Have you seen-" Clay stopped when he and the others were close enough to see Jack right next to Zerxes. "I told you two he wasn't that far from the entrance!" Will said only mildly annoyed at Mary and Clay. The apatosaur stood closer to Zerxes as he said confidently "Well we found each other now. I guess we can start discussing what we do from here on out."
A/N: As I probably should have mentioned in the last chapter, there's some new characters in this story. Most of these were actually introduced in the very last chapter of Henry's Long Adventure, but I didn't really develop them too much given the story in question was basically done. This story will hopefully develop them fully this time around with the format given.
Next Chapter: Mission Inbound