The only reason that Hobbes woke up was because the sun was inclined to move.

"Nrgggh…"

The tiger sleepily opened his eyes, and his face instantly contorted into a scowl. Just great, he whined bitterly. Woken up from the perfect tuna dream. Just great.

Looking forward, Hobbes could only discern the shadowy outline of a forest. A slight breeze managed to sneak its way under the canopy, making his orange, striped fur ripple. He turned his head, expecting to find Calvin snoring right by him in their treehouse.

Except… Calvin wasn't there, and he was not in a treehouse.

In fact, as he looked about, Hobbes realized that he didn't know where he was. His eyes fully open, he found himself surrounded by unfamiliar forest consisting of large, tall trees with immense canopies and stands of thick shoots of bamboo!

Preoccupied with this unexpected change of location, he belatedly realized that he was slipping off of the tree branch he was sleeping on. Too late, he tried to latch on. It didn't work, and he uttered a surprised, "Whoa!" as he fell to the ground with a thud.

"Nnrgh…" he moaned, and sat up. "That felt bad."

Rising up, his attention was brought to a… sandy beach, visible due to a break in the trees. Rapidly growing more and more confused, he blinked, clearing his eyes, and verified that, yes, there was a beach, perhaps less than a kilometer away. The body of water beyond the faraway strip of sand looked big. Big enough to probably not be one of the small lakes around where he and Calvin lived.

It wasn't one of Michigan's big lakes either. The only times he and Calvin went there was during one of Calvin's dad's camping trips, and they had recently come back from one. It wasn't likely for his best friend's father to unexpectedly drive them there on a follow-up trip while they were asleep.

"Then again…" he mumbled, weighing the idea for another few seconds before deciding it ludicrous. He racked his brain for another possibility.

Then, Hobbes remembered the lovely tuna-tsunami dream he had been in.

Could I be dreaming? He wondered, and looked around once more, suddenly reminded of a small memory. About a year ago, Calvin had wanted to watch a movie called Inception. They had (for the second time) tried to sneak into the theaters by sitting on top of one another and wearing a hat and trench coat.

It had not worked, but from what he could remember, the movie was about a team of dream-infiltrating thieves who had to steal something. In the previews, the thieves went into a dream within the first dream in a clever ploy to extract information from the unsuspecting dreamer. Had something similar happened here?

Calvin said that it once happened to him, but I take all of Calvin's claims with a grain of salt, he thought to himself, and chuckled. He brought up his paw to try pinching himself, but… couldn't.

Looking down at his paw, his face morphed from confusion into surprise, and then worry. Back home, he had a special quality in that he had opposable thumbs, just like Calvin, and could grab things. Now, he could barely flex them, much less grab anything!

"Oh, no," he muttered, and sighed. Just great.

He then remembered another one of his defining abilities: standing erect on two legs like a human. Without thinking, Hobbes tried to stand on his hind legs instead of all fours. The result was a loud 'Thump!' as he fell flat on his back.

"Oh, great!" he frustratedly spat. "Two of my most unique qualities gone, just like that!" He automatically tried to snap his fingers to emphasize his statement, but couldn't. Infuriated, he groaned.

After a few minutes, he had finally gotten over the changes enough to consider his next move, and was laying on the jungle floor, still irritated, when a thought popped into his head.

Where was Calvin?

After a quick look around, verifying that Calvin wasn't anywhere near him, he contemplated what to do next. He could try and find a vantage point to help in finding Calvin, but couldn't see any hill or mountain nearby. Or he could go in a circle and spiral out to cover some ground. But he would need a large landmark to know when he was veering off course. And here there was nothing but trees.

He was debating using the spiral method anyway when a distant roar sounded from deep in the woods. Immediately, his heartbeat increased and his fur stood on end. Was that a bear? A crocodile, even?

"Well," he decided looking back at the beach in the distance, "Might as well get out of this dark forest anyway."

And with that, the annoyed and very worried tiger started to run away in the direction of the beach.

After a couple of minutes, Hobbes finally passed the treeline and walked out onto the sandy beach, away from the forest. He glanced behind him, then looked around, taking everything in.

There were a lot of palm trees (no coconuts, he idly noted), some rocks, shells, and large boulders, and tons of washed up seaweed everywhere. It didn't look too clean up close. But one thing he was sure of now was that this wasn't a lake. The lovely smell of saltwater definitely confirmed that.

Hey, he wondered. Maybe I could catch a fish!

Before Hobbes could expand on this new, great idea, the rustling of a clump of bushes about twenty yards away had him darting behind a rock. Slowly, he peeked out again, but for several seconds, only flashes of whatever was in those bushes were visible…

And then, to his complete and utter amazement, out walked a Dilophosaurus.

What?! Okay, this is too much! he thought, stunned beyond belief. Here, right in front of him, was a green frilled, poison spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park. Jurassic PARK! Reminded of the creature's alleged poison ability, he instinctively ducked back behind the rock formation. That part of the movie, where the Dilophosaur had spat poison in the fat guy's face, gave him and Calvin several nightmares each.

After calming himself down, Hobbes peeked over the rock yet again. The Dilophosaurus was now walking west, parallel to the shore. Was it hunting?

It doesn't matter, he reminded himself. It's just a good thing that it didn't notice me.

The dinosaur kept going until he could barely see it. And as it disappeared between a stand of large trees, he sighed and wiped his brow.

"That's what I call close…"

But then, as he turned to go in the other direction, Hobbes smelled it through the salty aroma. Smoke. Turning back, he took a closer look at the sky, his eyes scanning the air for any semblance of a distortion.

Suddenly, far off, it shimmered, the carbon dioxide bending the light. A sure sign of smoke, he realized, and felt hope. The smoke seemed concentrated on one spot, so perhaps it was a controlled fire! Probably people! Maybe even Calvin!

He began to run towards the smoke, but stopped after only four bounds. The dilophosaurus was still there.

But there might be people over there! Hobbes reminded himself, and sat down to consider what the best thing to do would be. Suddenly a terrifying realization popped into his head, and he looked back up in worry.

The dilophosaurus went west, he realized, in the direction of the smoke. If it finds people there… it'll kill them!

He made his decision, and started cautiously walking in the direction of the smoke, staying close to the shore. That way, if the Dilophosaurus tried to attack him, Hobbes could very quickly swim away to safety. Swimming was one of his favorite things to do anyway, with him being a tiger and all.

For twelve tense minutes, Hobbes stalked the Dilophosaurus, staying far behind and counting each second. Interestingly enough, he soon noticed, the Dilophosaurus seemed to be more curious about the smoke than actually hunting because of it.

Then, rounding a bend, Hobbes saw him at the same time that the Dilophosaur did.

Calvin! His mind screamed at seeing the boy fueling a small campfire, humming as he did so. His face had a small smile, apparently oblivious to the presence of the Dilophosaurus.

To Hobbes' horror, the dinosaur had spied and had begun sneaking up on the teen, who seemed to be wearing nothing but… underwear?

Focus, he told himself, and started to hunt the Dilophosaurus, who had receded into several large bushes to better stalk the boy. His ears flattened back, and his tail twitched restlessly as he cleared the short distance between him and the dinosaur.

He just had to get a few yards closer.

Twenty feet.

Fifteen.

Ten.

Then, ready to attack, the Dilophosaurus sprang out of the bushes straight at Calvin with a piercing shriek, and Hobbes bounded forward in panic, all stealth discarded. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Calvin look up, eyes widening, and launch himself to one side so fast that even he was impressed. But the Dilophosaur was fast and as it pounced through the air where the boy had just sat, it clipped his shoulder, knocking him to the ground and disorienting him.

Turning, the unfazed dinosaur started to do something with its throat, it's frills extended, and Hobbes knew at once that it was about to launch a load of poisonous spit. He leapt up through the air and uttered a terrifying roar.

With desperation and anger, he slammed into the Dilophosaurus.