Chapter 7: First Impressions

"You ready Peter" Alma shook Peter out of sleep, an obvious level of excitement synced with its voice. "I know it's intelligent, but did they really have to have it simulate emotions, feels so creepy." Peter thought, before getting out of the bed. What was so funny for him was that there were 3 other beds, 1 on each of the walls next to him and the third being right above him; and it was for a good reason, with the shuttle designed for space there wouldn't have been any direction in the micro-gravity conditions prior to all this. But it was still funny that if there was anyone else on-board they were forced to sleep somewhere. Grabbing a drink out of the big and obvious drinks dispenser, along with a snack for the day, he had a quick 2 minute breakfast before thinking of going outside.

As soon as the doors opened the fresh air was daunting, it was somewhat too fresh - too... natural, for his liking, and up until now he had not noticed just how green the grass actually was. It was the first time Peter actually analysed everything around him and the differences to the world he came from. But what was most notable was the large amount of snow on the capped mountain. No mountain on his world looked like that, not anymore at least. He was beginning to realise just how much humanity changed the world from what he was seeing now to what he was seeing a mere week ago.

"Nice isn't it Peter. A three peeked mountain range with a surprisingly good amount of snow. Kinda looks like claws, don't they?" Alma understood what he was looking at, and decided to talk about it as calmly as possible.

Peter breathed in, and out, taking in the fresh air once more before responding "Nah, they look more like Teeth to me. Do uh... 'they' have a name for it Alma?" He asked, wondering that if mankind named remarkable things then a similar intelligence would also name the same things.

"Yeah, for them they're called the Clawtooth Mountains. Original, right?" Alma said, sarcastically laughing before adding "Well then, c'mon Peter get your things. If we're gonna have the day with them we might as well bring some things."

"Like what exactly? For me, it should be just us and nothing else. We can show them the fancy stuff later but lets keep it slow and steady. Remember that they're not so used to... new things I guess."

"Unknown Peter, it's the unknown that gets them. Justified nonetheless; it's what drove humanity to what they are now. Won't be long before they do the same."

It had been the first time Peter was more than 200 feet from the shuttle, and the true scale of the mountains was having a weird impact. A feeling of being small to the outside, a feeling of being... too little, was at hand when they went through the mountains. A glance at the river and Peter couldn't believe how clear it was, there were some rapids here and there but overall it was a very lazy river. Stopping suddenly Peter took a quarter of a liter of water before pulling an indicator out of his pocket, dipping it into the water it lit up with an average green, a clear sign it was freshwater with little to no other chemicals.

"You say they're farmers right?" Peter asked curiously.

"Yes, they just harvested their two fields, I wouldn't imagine they use artificial fertilizer like we do so no chance of contamination of the water. In fact they're so efficient that they're just as efficient as modern day farming, if not better." They were about half way through the v-shaped valley that was cut by the river, and the homestead was coming into view. Peter had no idea just what it would look like and was surprised to see the specific design of the homestead. Its shape looked so flat but as he knew they lived in it, it was likely to be much bigger than him. As it got bigger and bigger, I mean closer and closer, the thought of turning back grew and grew.

Eventually they were only 300 feet from the homestead, and a slightly audible voice sounded. Alma and Peter stopped, in case that any of the family took their movement as something for bad. From behind the homestead a large trunk of a tree had been flung up into the air, heading straight for them. Fortunately it came down nowhere near the two, who kept walking toward the house.

"What's up with them Alma?" Peter asked, slightly worrying about how the next few minutes will handle them.

"I'm guessing some of them think we're critters trying to take their food. I mean I wouldn't blame them for that, but seriously a tree? A bit overkill if you ask m- watch out!" Alma pushed Peter aside as this time a large boulder came crashing down, directly hitting Alma. Grazed but nothing more, Peter got up slowly, getting used to what happened in the previous three seconds. The dust began to clear, when from his left a large tail whipped him off his feet and back onto the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Peter said furiously "I came here with my friend hoping to make some new friends, and this is what I get in return? A rock to my friend and a tail to the legs? Forget first impressions this is pretty crap." Getting back up again, he brushed most of the dirt from his clothes and walked forward, only to stop as he saw the family Alma described. On the most left was a feminine-like Apatosaur, the largest of the bunch, it was most notable that this was the mother of the other three. Speaking of the three, the next one was much smaller, but still taller than the other two. Peter came to the conclusion that this was the son, and brother of the other two. The third one was slightly smaller than the brother, but not the smallest. The smallest was the brown-eyed male Apatosaur on the far right, however he was still very tall, about 20 feet in height.

"I take it, that you're the family Alma talked about. One of you is Arlo correct?" Peter said aloud, slightly tired after what he had been through. It took a while, but the one on the far right stepped forward, an indication that he was Arlo. "Nice to see you Arlo, sorry for the surprise I guess. I mean you can see us a mile off but somehow we managed to surprise you enough for this to happen. Oh, look what you've done here..." Peter ran up to the boulder, pushing it slowly out of the way to see Alma in pieces.

He knew the family was looking from behind, but he continued none the less to piece Alma back together in no more than 30 seconds flat. "Right, now uh... nice to meet you I guess? I'm Peter and this is Alma, uh..." After the drama that unfolded earlier, things had died down so fast that it became indefinitely awkward. It felt like it could go on for hours and even felt like it was, but it was only 30 seconds before Alma and Arlo stepped forward and said at the same time "So tell me more about yourselves."

Laughing slightly, Peter moved forward with Alma. "We uh, came to this place by accident. We're going back to our home soon but, we never knew you guys were here and so thought that we could see how things are going, I guess. How about you guys? How have you guys been lately, see you have some nice crop fields behind your large homestead."

"If you think you're gonna take our food that easily, then get out." The mother said tensely. "Wait, you thought?" Peter soon broke down into laughter before pulling it back together "Ah, no. I have food for my self, and Alma has uh, well it has food anywhere, anytime. But enough on that, we were only here looking for a source of uh... water, yes water. Unfortunately that rough storm over there by Clawtooth Mountain threw us out of track and well, here we are. We have no intentions to harm you guys or the place itself, just wanted to pop on down and say 'hello'. I guess even that is considered rude, I guess I'll see you off then." Peter turned but was soon whisked back by the mother.

"In that case we're sorry for ruining it. To make it up for you, you're welcome here for as long as you want, you can call me Ida. I'm sure Buck and Libby are going to ask something when they get used to it. And Arlo here, well, he couldn't stop talking about you two. Sorry for not believing you yesterday Arlo." Ida responded, with Arlo smiling back at his mother.

Peter sighed happily "Tomorrow me and Alma can move our shuttle near here, it'll make things easier having to not walk a mile back and fourth."

"Shuttle?" The whole family asked in unison. "It's just a thing we use to move faster than walking. Had to fix it after the storm, but for today I think it won't hurt to stay here for the day.

A/N: My goodness I'm so sorry for not uploading a chapter yesterday. It's been getting really busy despite it being the Easter holidays. But to make things better I have planned for the next weekend to also have chapters. I hope you enjoyed this chapter - and more importantly the story so far, there's much more to come, though how many chapters specifically I'm not sure. Let me know what you think so far, and as always... see you, in the next chapter. Bye for now!

Next Chapter: Questions on Origins

Notable Facts: Arlo is confirmed to be 18 feet high. It's also confirmed that Henry is 46 feet high but he's not going to be much in this story so... yeah. I might pull out some things related to the Family in the next chapter but for now, that's all the facts I got for ya!