January – a happy new year?
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine but belong to Impossible Pictures™.
Something was wrong, Abby just knew it. Almost a year has passed since Connor and she had come to late Cretaceous, which meant – if Connor had explained to her correctly – that the dry season should be ending and the wet or rainy season beginning... but it wasn't.
The big river had practically dried-out, leaving an expense of sun-baked mud...complete with mummified bodies of the water creatures, including the giant Cretaceous crocodiles or alligators (Abby wasn't quite sure what they were) sealed in it and there was no water left.
There was no dew left either, and Abby, for one, was beginning to feel more and more desiccated by the day, more and more weak and thin. Admittedly, Abby was never practically heavy, but now she was bonier than anything else, and that bothered her – a lot.
Connor, on the other hand, seemed rather unbothered by the fact that the two of them now resembled a pair of skeletons with some skin stretched rather tightly over it – instead, he continued to lead their mini-expedition, telling Abby that all will be all right, that they will reach the sea and there will be the river's delta, which will just have to have water, it just will have to- Abby didn't dissuade him: she feared that without that dream to keep them going, both she and Connor would just lay down and die then and there-
Suddenly, Abby became aware that while she hadn't lain down, she did stop moving and just continued to stare blankly and Connor was growing increasingly in trying to get her to re-start movement.
"Abby, Abby we've got to go," he said urgently, shaking her by the shoulders. "We can't stay here, it's too exposed!"
"So what?" Abby's lips moved before her brain could catch up with them. "The old money-lender and my lame ex-suitor had fed me a black toad. Connor, set us both alight – this world won't notice us gone, for Helen has won and we're the last people ever to live."
"Abby, you may be delirious, but don't say that," was Connor's only reply and he began to pull her by the arm. "Let's just go – I can smell the water from behind that hill's crest."
"You're only saying this to make me feel better. And I don't have an ex-suitor, all I had was Stephen, but he had eyes only for Cutter – or the other Cutter, and the two of them just ripped him to pieces until there was nothing left."
"Abby, don't say that. Future predators tore Stephen apart, and while I agree that Helen had some things to do with that – waa!"
The hill's crest on which Abby and Connor were walking upon promptly collapsed and the two of them went rolling down hill amongst clods of dirt. Before long, of course, one of these clods hit Abby square in the top of her head and then darkness claimed her.
Abby would never admit it, but it was the smell of water that roused her out of stupor: she opened her eyes and there it was a smallish stream of rather clay-coloured water that did indeed go to the sea which was flowing just a short distance away, looking rather worse for wear in its own way.
Half crawling, half stumbling on all four legs, Abby made her way across the dry expense to the stream, aware only dimly of Connor following her alongside, dragging his stick with him (he picked it up to use as a weapon against smaller predators and also to club small animals for food) as well as of several raptors, the leader of which was staring right across them over the stream-
"Abby," Connor began slowly, but Abby didn't care: she just stared at the raptor, daring it to pounce, when the dinosaur emitted a sound rather like that of a whistling tea kettle and promptly collapsed, landing face first in the stream.
"Err, Abby," Connor began, but Abby didn't feel like listening to him at the moment: she leaned over the stream – almost toppled into it, actually – and almost began to drink from it, when she noticed something on the water's surface. She whirled around to take a better look – but it was gone, and Connor was insistently pointing upwards into the air.
"What?" Abby looked upwards and saw one of the big flying reptiles of this time, swooping down at them, with its beak outstretched like a spear, aimed directly at them.
Something snapped in Abby, though not in a literal way. Jerkingly, she grasped Connor's impromptu club and swung it at the swooping pterosaur, connecting solidly with its' beak. This didn't harm the flying reptile at all, but it did cause him to miss and fly further out over the sea shallows proper. Immediately, a dark body shape easily 7 meters long burst from the depths and dragged the pterosaur into the murky depths with a single splash – apparently the sea shallows weren't so shallow after all.
"Maybe it's a sea reptile, maybe a shark, maybe a bony fish – I heard about such living the Cretaceous waters," Connor mused. "Uh, Abby, what are you doing?"
"I'm drinking," Abby muttered as she gulped down another mouthful of water. "And yes, I know that this may cause disease, but better that than thirst of hungry, do you understand?"
Connor gulped and followed the lead of Abby and the raptors, which also proceeded to drink the opaque waters. Of course, since he knew what he was looking for, he could see (or at least he thought that he did) see the tiny reflection of the meteorite, but he decided to keep this information away from Abby – she'll learn about this soon enough; for now, hunger and thirst were more important...
And so, Connor stopped his musings for now and continued to drink. He didn't dare to think that they were doomed unless a miracle would come soon – no, he just put his trust into his optimistic nature and he slaked his thirst.
To be continued...