By the end of November...

Disclaimer: Abby and Connor belong to Impossible Pictures™.

Another two – practically three – more months passed in the late Cretaceous. During that time, Connor managed to invent scissors, which meant that some aspects of personal hygiene could be now resolved – namely the hair issues.

"Well, glad to see that we're finally re-starting to look like ourselves!" Connor spoke proudly to Abby one fine morning in late November. "Now all that we need to do is to invent some sort of soap or something, and we can start to invent needles next!"

"Interesting plan," Abby nodded sagely, "but there is a flaw in it, I would think."

"Oh? What flaw?"

"There aren't any big furry animals around, Connor! Or cotton or any similar plants! From what we could invent thread to use with needles?"

"Well," Connor rubbed his still very hairy chin, "that is a very good point. Can't we use sinews or something?"

"Sinews of what?" Abby wouldn't let up.

Now Connor was quite aware that logically he was at a dead end, as always, in no small part because neither he nor Abby actually had a good idea how to spin thread or what to invent to make thread spinning possible (yes, they knew that they needed a spindle or a loom to do that, but how to invent them – they had no idea), and because Abby's point were very true as well-

A sudden clang that resonated in the jungle caused Connor to break away from his line of thought. "What was it?" asked Abby, also startled by the sudden loud sound. "It sounds kind of familiar."

"That's because it is," Connor said grumpily. "The horned herbivore dinosaurs have started their mating period, which includes fights for dominance." He hesitated but asked anyways: "Want to sneak a peek?"

Personally, Abby wasn't all that enthused to go and witness several multi-ton primeval versions of rhinos settle their scores in the old-fashioned way, but Connor lately was looking rather downcast, so she just nodded in consent instead.

"Let's go, then."

Since their last meeting with the horned dinosaurs – whether they were triceratopses or some other specie – the latter didn't change much, except that now the herd was composedly mostly of adult animals and very few smaller juveniles, who retained several very faint horizontal stripes on their bodies and looked somewhat nervous (inasmuch an expressionless dinosaur can look nervous) and clearly intent on leaving the herd before some of the adults made them.

Connor's attention, however, wasn't focused on the juveniles, but on the adults in the front of the herd. Two of these adult males were once more engaged in a fight for dominance, their horned heads and protected necks straining against each other, generating the crude, clanging sounds of horn striking horn and bone.

For some reason that Abby could never fully understand, Connor – as usual – was awestruck by the sight of two dinosaurs engaging in animal activities. Abby, however, liked dinosaurs not so much, and consequently she was able to be more attentive to the surrounding countryside: that was why she was able to notice the approaching danger first.

"Raptors!" she abruptly exhaled, jabbing Connor in the ribs. "Connor, we must retreat!"

Indeed, a small pack of raptors had appeared in some distance. Not too long ago there would've been a river that separated them from Abby, Connor and the horned dinosaurs, but now the river was gone, leaving in its place just a series of unconnected pools and bogs and mudflats and sandbars. And right now, a smallish pack of raptors was navigating through one of those mudflats, clearly intent to observe the fighting of the herbivores much more closely.

Connor, however, didn't seem to be very bothered by the new development. "Abby, don't worry," he whispered to her. "The raptors are more interested in attacking the potential loser than us. By the time they switch their attention to us, we will be long gone, so relax and-"

With a thunderous bellow, the water in one of the pools exploded, revealing a pair of monstrous jaws that snapped on the raptors like a pair of tongs and pulled it underwater, causing the rest of the pack to scatter.

"Fascinating!" Connor's attention switched from the herbivores to the now-fleeing raptors. "It seems that deinosuchus made burrows to wait-out the drought, just like the modern American alligators."

A heavy snort resonated through the silence that remained after the raptors had fled from the hidden menace – and it wasn't from the deinosuchus. Rather, it was another one of the herbivores, who had finally noticed Connor and Abby, and was now approaching them with an increasingly faster trot, it head held low, and its longer horns pointing straight ahead.

"I see," Connor said, not missing a beat. "Rutting dinosaurs are like the stags of modern moose and deer – they attack practically anything that is not a female of their species. Abby, run!"

And that was exactly what they did, pursued by a very cranky dinosaur with a testosterone overload.

"Connor," Abby snarled, "when we get back, you're so making up for this!"

TBC...