AN: This is the updated and sort of spinoff version of a story I wrote about two years ago under OpenUpMyHeart... I decided to change some things, make characters older, add new one's in, and go down a different story route altogether (It's sort of The Hardship Of a secret, only set a few years later, sort of)

Warning: Foul language ahead.

Chapter Two:

A memory, Part I

Isabella surviving

She had been stuck in the Jurassic period for four months after leaving the late cretaceous; if felt odd, travelling ever backwards in time instead of the usual ever forwards. But the days and nights were warmer, and though the creatures were of more of a dangerous disposition, she preferred it to the colder nights; there were no flying birds yet, so she was only about 160 million or so years before her own time.

But it meant sleeping in trees was definitely a safer option.

However, she was almost out of food again; she'd been killing smaller animals with a makeshift spear that looked like a poorly carved pointy stick; and she'd been catching fish in the streams; but small animals meant that food was in short supply most of the time, which in turn means she has to leave the safety of the trees to find food every other day. Something she'd rather not do, but food was a necessity if she was going to survive.

Cracking her knuckles; a bad habit she'd picked up from her Father at a young age, she sighed and reached upwards to grab at her rucksack, which she'd stuck on a brand higher up above. Once she had her bag on her shoulders, she untied her waist from the tree; tying herself was a great method to ensure she didn't fall out whilst she was sleeping at night, or more often during the morning hours.

Once she'd untied herself, she used the rope to walk and swing herself down from her high position in the tree. Once on the ground she put the rope in the bag, and made her way to other side of the tree, where under the large roots, she'd hidden her make-shift-pointy-stick. It was hard to get it up the tree all the time.

She knew where an entire group of juvenile Compsognathus were currently making their home; she reckoned she could catch one or two and cook them before the bigger creatures came out of their shade.

She'd been walking in a western direction for just over ten minutes when she spotted them; Compsognathus were small bipedal dinosaurs, around the size of chickens, but carnivores with a nasty nick of a bite. These one's were definitely juvenile because they were only half the size of the regular Compsognathus' she'd seen previously.

She crouched down low behind the roots of one of the tree's, and pulled from her pocket a small lizard like creature and tossed it over the root; it landed just on the other side, and caught the attention of one of the smaller of the group. She readied her 'spear' as the Compsognathus came closer, sniffing at the air around it.

"Come on little guy" she breathed "Just a little closer"

The Compsognathus took another few steps, sniffed at the lizard, and began eating it.

She swung her spear with suck a force that it went straight through the Compsognathus' neck and into the ground. The small creature made a wounded noise before dying, and she quickly pulled the spear back towards her, pulling her food along with it, and darting away before the noises could attract the rest of the Compsognathus' group.

She ran all the way back to her tree, and made a hallow whole in the ground before lighting the twigs and dried leaves with a few quick slides of her jagged stones. Whilst the fire got going, she quickly cut apart the Compsognathus with her pocket knife, chucking the legs and arms of the wooded sticks; there was no time for etiquette or to fully skin anything, she just kept cutting pieces off and chucking them on.

She left them to quick as she made a quick dash to the stream of water, filling her flasks, and when she got back, the meat was deemed eatable; it was still a little pink, but she didn't have a lot of time, so it would have to do.

She pulled out the plastic container in her bag, and wrapped the meat up in several plant leaves before putting them in the container and into her bag. She had just enough time to chuck the carcass downstream and stamp out the small fire before the noise in the tree's around her started; the animals started up before they would hunt.

She'd just begun climbing the tree when the ground trembled. And she'd been climbing for a few minutes when the large grey-green head of a Barosaurus poked its way through the tree's across the little clearing.

But she was high up enough the it didn't notice her; she continued climbing; putting her feet on the climbing pegs that were ARC standard issue, until she deemed herself sufficiently high enough.

She tied herself loosely to the trunk, put her bag between her legs that were stretched out on the branch, opened the container, and began tearing her teeth into the Compsognathus meat; which oddly enough tasted like chicken.

All the while, watching the herds of Brachiosaurus', Apatosaurus' and Ceratosaurus' graze openly in the fields beyond the stream.

So this is the first in many of 'Memory' chapters, to help fill in the past of the story and of the characters.

Let me know what you think!