CHAPTER III: First steps
Nathan and Michael continued standing just a few meters away from the hole they'd just entered through to get here. They both looked up at the pretty pink skies, and it was weird because the skies actually looked like they extended out into space, like there wasn't any rock above this world.
The other thing that was noticeable to the two was the fact that, from where they were stood anyways, the whole world here retained its appearance exactly as it had looked in the movie of Ice Age 3.
"Look at them over there," an ecstatic Michael said, pointing down towards the thick forests below where a couple of Brachiosaurus were grazing away, "they've still got those human-looking eyes like they did in the movie."
"Oh yeah, wow," Nathan replied, as the two carefully inched closer to the edge of where they were stood, "they look the exact same as they did in the movies, and this whole place actually looks the same too, that's crazy."
Michael raised his arm up and looked at himself. The fact this world retained its look exactly from the movie made him curious to look at himself to see if he looked 'animated' or anything, but he didn't - he was just as realistic looking as he was back in the above world. It was going to be so surreal to see all of these dinosaurs exactly as they looked in the movies.
But the dinosaurs regardless still looked extremely real, they just retained their eyes they had from the movies, and didn't have the sort of eyes Nathan and Michael were expecting them to have. They'd expected them to look like Jurassic Park dinosaurs, but they didn't. And that was something that was relieving, because now the magic and aura of this place was able to be felt and retained, truly having that Ice Age 3 feel.
"God that's boiling, isn't it? it's like we're in Spain."
Upon hearing Nathan's words, Michael nodded. The two continued overlooking from their elevated position across the dino world. Michael leaned a bit closer to the edge and looked down, knowing full well he was safe. There was a huge lake that surrounded the underneath portions of the elevated rocky platform they were stood on.
"There's water down there, I can see a couple more of those long necked dinos, god, I can't get it through my head we're actually here, especially when this whole place looks exactly like I was hoping from the movie."
As Michael scouted the vicinity with his eyes from the edge, Nathan looked around. Various jungle vines and leaves were scattered along the rocky walls like Christmas decorations near the entrance. The distant sounds of dinosaur roars and those of the flying ones were rampant in the air.
"What do you think we should do then?" Nathan said, walking over to Michael as the sun scorched the two of them with its tropical warmth.
Michael released his left bag strap from his shoulders to loosen the bag against his back, just so he had a bit more air passing by him. It was that hot down here, keeping the bag against his back was making him sweat around his shoulders.
"You remember in the movie where they've gotta go to Lava Falls when they had to rescue Sid?" Michael asked Nathan.
"Oh yeah?"
"I reckon we should take a full on hike through here, to Lava Falls, and back. It's all in good fun really isn't it?"
"There were other areas that they had to pass though didn't they, the erm...I can't even remember the names."
"Chasm of Death, Plates of Woe, and erm...the Jungle of Misery?"
"How did you remember that so easily?" Nathan said, surprised at Michael's rapid naming of the places down here.
"I've got wikipedia up on my phone, I actually brought the wikpedia up as soon as I realized we were at the same skeleton bridge. We can literally use our phones to find our way around, it's gonna be dead easy I think."
Nathan thought that was a smart idea. So much so that he intended on copying Michael. He took his phone out of his shorts and entered in his pin, and then proceeded to tap to his browser. But there wasn't any signal he could receive. The only page that was showing up was the one that said 'there is no internet connection'.
"I don't have any wifi, do you?"
Michael held up his phone, "I should do, I haven't turned my data off."
As Michael looked at his phone, that same page stating there was no connection popped up.
"Oh, I don't have it either, even my data doesn't work here."
It didn't particularly surprise either Michael or Nathan that there wouldn't be any form of wifi access on their phones down here, but it wasn't helpful.
"We remember the movie well enough I guess, we'll know where to navigate and where to avoid. We're literally just going at most...an hour down there and back?" Michael said, pointing ahead to the vast forests in the distance.
As Michael pointed ahead, Nathan had another revelation to share in regards to their phones.
"Yep, it's basically like flight mode on a plane here. Can't even send texts or messages or anything, the whole signal is blank and cut off."
"That's weird because I literally had wifi when we were on the other side of that hole a few minutes ago?"
"I guess this place is truly another world, it's completely cut off from above, and even the skies look like there's no rock 'roof' over them. I guess realistically no signal is going to be getting down here considering how deep it is and how it feels and looks like a whole new universe," Nathan concluded.
"It's literally just one hike down there and back, we'll be able to get back here easily I think. We've seen the Ice Age 3 movie a ton of times and we've seen the game for it, we just use that as a point of navigation."
Nathan could only shrug his shoulders. He wasn't quite as buoyant as Michael now that their phones were completely cut off from the internet as well as the ability to send texts/call people. But he was still subtly curious to just do the hike through the dino world to get a good look at it.
"Then again," he said, "we could potentially look for Buck? doubt he'd actually talk for real though, he's a weasel."
Michael looked at Nathan, turning his back to the vast forests and scorching skies of the dinosaur world with his bag half loose on his back whilst holding it just by the one strap.
"Yeah, that'd be cool to be fair. But I think if we're gonna make this as magical as possible, it'd be better for them to come to us first rather than vice versa, you know?"
"True, true. But we still need to remember that our safety is paramount, it's still got dinosaurs in it hasn't it. What about Rudy, and what about that T-Rex?"
"Yeah, Rudy and erm...Momma Dino?" Michael said, finding it surreal having to use that name, "we just need to go on the hike and we'll be back here. I really wanna do this Nathan, if we come across Rudy, we literally hide."
"But if you remember, Rudy comes out during the day too, as he did in the movie."
Michael shrugged his shoulders as the vast dino world forests were practically there for the taking in his head. He wanted to get down there and start hiking through with the buzz and excitement it's given him.
"Realistically we can't predict everything based on the film. It could be an entirely different scenario for us, this is reality. We've got the common knowledge of this place to be sensible about it. And honestly mate, I think if we come across Momma Dino, which I doubt we will given this place is HUGE, we'll be in a much safer scenario coming across her than if we did Rudy."
"She's still a T-Rex, how do you know for sure?"
"Christ, I'm gonna sound like a right hypocrite for saying this even though I said we can't predict literally everything here based on the movie...but Sid literally barely did anything other than be a bloody nuisance, and look what he got for it in return. She took him up to that little cave that night from Rudy, she gave him a secure place to sleep for the night with her own babies, a dinosaur that does that is one that I'd be more comfortable coming across. I genuinely do."
All of this deliberation and planning between Nathan and Michael had gradually emerged into a state of repetitiveness. So much so that the two of them just abruptly decided to end the whole conversation and just look out to the forests ahead, planning out their next path.
"Right, let's just get it over with, we're here, and we've just taken this far too seriously than we have to," Nathan said, "I guess because there's so many unanswered questions, I don't know man."
"Once we hit our stride we'll literally be at the Lava Falls before we know it. We won't get lost down here, it's basically impossible."
The two friends, once again united in their desire to live out their buzz and excitement, started walking. They noticed a downwards slope to the left from the entrance to the dino world. There was an extremely strong scent akin to a bonfire with burning wood, and the scorching sun had only made its presence known as the two men walked.
"I mean...look at that view," Michael said, pointing ahead, "we're gonna be going through all of that to get to Lava Falls and back."
"It is gorgeous to be fair. I'm just wondering if we'll come across anything bad, like Rudy or that T-Rex."
"I know what you mean Nathan, but this is such a vast maze of trees and heat, it's bigger than it looks from here, we'll never come across either of them I don't think. Part of me does wonder how she'd react to seeing humans though in fairness, given the way she treated Sid. I dunno."
Nathan and Michael were vastly overestimating their chances. Michael much more so, as Nathan initially indicated a bit of hesitation. But even he couldn't resist the excitement of entering a universe from a movie he'd thoroughly enjoyed and loved the plot of.
The screeches of the flying dinosaur birds above were all but too familiar at this point in the ears of the two men. They continued their careful walk to the side as the downward slope barely descended, but it was dropping to a downwards direction nonetheless. This slope would take them safely to the very bottom level of the dino world where the bulk of the forests were.
Swathes of palm trees and the light brown ground, combined with the monstrous bright skies with hints of pink in it, had all continued to be noticed in the eyes of Nathan and Michael. They continued walking as they took the environment in.
Michael in particular couldn't resist walking over to a small tree where the leaves were dangling off like a bad haircut. He held onto the strap of his bag, using his free hand to touch the silky leaf.
"That feels oily, and it's bloody boiling too."
"What is that?" Nathan asked, not noticing Michael had briefly turned further to the side towards one of the trees to feel the leaves.
"I'm just feeling one of these leaves, look at this tree, it's like the sort of thing you'd see on holiday."
"Yeah, that's crazy."
The two of them carried on. At this point, they both looked like literal tourists. One hand on their bag straps, the other hand dangling on their sides as they walked and rapidly looked around their vicinity. Sweat was already dripping off their foreheads but they had tons of water in their bags for that.
More so Michael than Nathan, the both of them were utterly convinced nothing bad could happen here.
"So what's the plan then, like to sort of finalize it I guess?" Nathan asked.
"We'll go to Lava Falls, we'll have a look around it, obviously we're not gonna go near all the lava or where the little baby dinos are, but we'll just sort of look at it from a distance. Then we'll hike back through here and make our way out. I'm actually not sure if I'll want to leave if this is as exciting and as dream-like as I'm expecting, haha."
"Before we know it mate we probably won't even be able to leave at all!" Nathan chuckled.
"More days off work then ain't it?"
Nathan nodded.
The two continued walking as more palm trees mixed with cycad ones surrounded them. This part of the dino world, where the rocky wall of it was extremely close by due to the entrance being near here, almost curved somewhat above the men before taking a vertical shape upwards towards the vast skies. It was a good way of getting shade from the sun.
Not to mention the heaps of green forest cycads and palm trees. There were some vines even protruding out from the ground.
"You know, part of me kinda is genuinely curious how some of these guys will react to humans."
Nathan nodded as Michael basically repeated himself.
"Are you saying you want to actually see the T-Rex or Rudy?" he asked Michael.
"I mean, the most we can do is take a gander and walk past where Momma Dino in the movie was, you know that stone table where Sid tried to give the babies vegetables? we'll look for that on the way, it'll be cool to see if it's basically the exact same as it was left in the movie."
"And Rudy?"
"Nah, we'll avoid him for sure."
The walking continued as the two men finally set off within the dino world. Totally confident of their success, confident they'd make it to Lava Falls and return back here. Neither of them hadn't thought truly about what they'd do if they came across Momma Dino or any other dinosaur, but the two big ones were Rudy and Momma.
A decision that could possibly hold consequences for them both if they come across either. Out of the two though, they'd much rather come across Momma Dino than Rudy due to the soft side she had with Sid in the movie.