CHAPTER 17: Collision
Darkness fell across the whole of the dinosaur world. It wasn't pitch black due to the tropical atmosphere which made it somewhat easier to navigate. It was more so a dark blue, where the sky projected a very gloomy looking shade of blue. The air was much cooler, and although the scent of burning still remained in the air, it wasn't quite as prominent.
For Michael, getting to the night time, concluding a day that had shook him up and completely changed his perspective on being down here, only made him even more anxious. The near death experiences, particularly jumping off that edge into the water, nearly getting killed by Rudy, the night time had brought all of those horrific experiences back mentally.
Michael was cautiously and groggily walking through the various silky leaves of all the big palm trees, stepping over the uneven grounds as he did so. In the back of his head he felt like he was being watched from all corners, he'd considered himself lucky that Rudy hadn't yet caught up with him. With it being night time though, the Baryonyx was definitely out on a rampage, seemingly looking for Michael specifically.
There was an everlasting ache that hooked Michael's heart as he groggily walked past and through the jungle. Giant leaves would slap him in the face as he made his way aimlessly through the thick environment of the jungle, but despite the cover he was getting from being in such a dense part of it, he couldn't escape the ache in his chest. He feared death, he had a looming cloud of apprehension that ran laps around him that he couldn't escape.
Therefore, every step he made, every single movement he made, and the further he continued walking through an environment that he found impossible, without guidance, to navigate successfully, came with heart beats that produced a sense of fear. His whole body felt like jelly, he felt like he was walking on egg shells.
It didn't help either that he could hear massive amounts of crickets just singing endlessly all within the trees surrounding him as he walked. They'd only start doing that at night and for Michael, in his shook up state, it was somewhat intimidating. He hated insects as it was, so to hear hundreds of crickets mysteriously singing their nightly sound, not knowing precisely where they were, made his job even more difficult.
Suddenly, a bare opening ahead became clear to see as he seemed to reach the end of this part of the jungle. Stepping up and over a couple of mossy boulders and just generally uneven terrain as the blue sky loomed at large, Michael slowly pushed the giant leaves out of the way and stopped at the open area. One quick look at what was in front of him was enough for him to suddenly feel a lot safer. He gasped, and his eyes looked upwards.
A giant bulk of rock, seemingly linking up to the edge of this part of the dinosaur world, was what Michael looked at. But about halfway up it was a cave opening with heaps of moss scattered all around the rock like Christmas decorations. The actual opening was huge, it was like a big mouth. The cave was dark inside and nothing could be seen inside it. It looked like even Rudy could've fit inside it. From Michael's perspective it looked like a tower insofar as the height of it.
"Oh my god."
That was all Michael could whisper, eager to avoid making noise, for he'd come across a spot he wanted to find just as much, if not more, than he did Lava Falls - the cave that Momma Dino took Sid and her babies up to that night to rest from Rudy. Strangely enough, his whole mood had been pulled out of the ground, and in its place an aura of being safe, protected, and secured.
He carefully walked up to the cave and the giant mountainous rock that the opening was plastered into. Michael looked around himself and noticed that this whole opening was relatively medium sized, nothing but tropical trees surrounded it, like a half-circle shaped sort of open area because of that. He didn't hear anything but crickets, and he looked back at the cave.
As soon as he took a few steps closer, he heard an extremely slow puff, like a sleeping dinosaur was inside the cave. Upon hearing that, Michael had quickly put the pieces together, and all of a sudden, he had a brief outburst of excitement. There was only one dinosaur that'd have ever lived in that cave, and Michael, knowing what he knew from the movie, quickly acknowledged which dinosaur was making those crooning sounds - Momma Dino herself.
"Oh my god, oh my god," he said, unsure as to how to approach this.
There was nothing Michael wanted more than to be protected by Momma Dino, especially with the danger he faced. But this was a whole different ballpark compared to the movie. Momma Dino wasn't just going to let some strange sentimental creature she'd never ever seen before, a human, be allowed around the three babies who were all presumably up in the cave with her, fully sheltered and protected and kept warm.
Secondly, Momma Dino from the movie and Momma Dino in real life were potentially two different things entirely, much like how coming down here was a lot more dangerous and difficult than it otherwise looked in the movie, especially with Buck out of the picture. And ultimately, she was still a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a big one by historical standards. She was still a dinosaur. Michael had no idea why he thought he wanted this, to be taken up there and protected by her, but at this point, fearing for his life and fearing he'd never be able to see his mum ever again if he didn't make it out, he wanted to take the chance.
Plus, on top of that, the scene from the movie where Sid was taken up into the cave to be protected and kept safe, as well as being given a place to sleep, was Michael's favourite scene in Ice Age 3. It was a touching scene, which was part of why all of this time he'd wanted to come and find the cave just to check it out given the significance of the location.
However, for Michael, it wasn't so much to relive the experience Sid had when he was lucky enough to have been taken up there to be protected and given a safe place to sleep, as much as it was a desire to simply have a chance at living to see his family again. Unlike Rudy, Michael inherently felt like Momma Dino wouldn't be nearly as brutal or as much a savage of a dinosaur, but he was only basing that on her from the movie. In real life? much like the dinosaur world so far, she had the potential to be a lot more like Rudy than in the movie. Plus, she was still a mother dinosaur, any mother animal would kill to protect their young.
A bear and their cubs - the mother bear in the wild would kill with no hesitation, for instance, even if someone happened to unintentionally be walking near the cubs.
Irrespective, Michael knew it was his only chance of survival. He had no idea how he was going to get back to Nathan, but he felt like he'd found his safe spot. There was only one problem, though - Momma Dino was quite clearly asleep, and Michael wasn't even going to try and climb up the rock to get to the cave opening, not least because he had no idea how she'd react.
In an ideal world, he'd have wanted to try and wake her up, and inevitably, her three babies. But he didn't want to do that. He knew it'd be a daft idea to even attempt that. All he wanted to do was find somewhere safe, if not the cave itself with Momma Dino. He walked around slowly, as to not make any loud steps that'd wake her up.
The hellish, all too familiar roar in the distance that Michael's back faced once again reared its ugly head into the air, prompting Michael to rush around as his ears triumphed with Rudy's distant roar. The Baryonyx was closing in. His steps could be heard getting closer and closer.
"No, no, no NO!" Michael said, his voice louder and louder as he suddenly found himself rapidly sprinting back and forth, not thinking clearly as he panicked.
His heart was once again aching, as did his whole chest. The steps of Rudy continued to get louder and louder, they were like giant boulders smashing into the ground, they sounded that heavy. Michael, quickly sprinting more towards the left, noticed a small gap, similar to the one he and Nathan initially hid in besides the Plates of Woe. The gap was covered by a giant dangling piece of moss that happened to conceal it.
Hearing Rudy get closer and closer, and another roar of his break the air like an asteroid through the solar system, Michael sprinted, his bag barely hanging onto his back, and headed for the gap. His trainers rapidly clashed with the ground as he panic sprinted, his intense breathing making his throat feel dry as he upped the pace. He wasted no time in ducking down to his knees and getting into a seated position after pushing through the moss. He pulled the moss down as much as he possibly could've done, and the result was that he could only see nothing but a dangling bit of green moss right in his face.
Trying his best to stay quiet, Michael gently took off his bag and planted it in front of his legs, so as to prevent his brightly coloured khaki shorts from being noticed through the moss from the outside. His bag was a dark colour so it worked. But any possibility of Michael retaining his rational state of thoughts went right out of the window as the roar of Rudy found itself only twenty meters or so away. Rudy was here.
The growling was intense. The giant footsteps were like rocks being pelted from the sky. And Rudy's devilish and intimidating sounds of predatory aggression made Michael's breathing turn up a notch. He had no idea why he was being followed like this by Rudy. Hearing Rudy's growls and roars this close, as well as his huffs and puffs and giant steps, only made him breath heavier. He didn't want to die.
He closed his eyes and just prayed that Rudy wouldn't even think to notice a dangling bit of moss around the corner of the rocky wall where the cave entrance was.
"Mum...I love you, I love you mum..." he sobbed, as he tried to calm himself down.
He was crying tears of panic. He never knew, facing the situation he was, how much he'd miss his family and how much he wanted to be back home with the comforts of his mum's company, and his job. Staring down the barrel at a painful devouring from Rudy was enough to make Michael wish he'd never come down here.
Any moment now, he felt, Rudy was going to pick up the scent of his body deodorant and just snap him up to be devoured and eaten. But something else suddenly happened. Whatever was going on out there, Michael couldn't see any of it due to hiding in the gap with the moss in front of him.
The ground shook and the air was greeted by an equally dangerous sounding roar, followed by a growl. But this roar wasn't Rudy's roar, it was Momma Dino's roar. She wasted no time, from the sounds of it, in making her presence known from the cave towards Rudy, who had been scouting the vicinity in front of it, clearly in search of Michael.
Two giant thuds hit the ground, causing Michael himself to briefly be thrown to the side given the weight of the thumps. Roars had ruthlessly dominated the air as they grazed through his ears. They were actually hurting his ears. The steps, the roars, the growls, this close in person with neither dinosaur realizing a strange creature was within their area, made Michael on the brink of collapse from fear.
Momma Dino was quick to hop up and out of the cave, landing fiercely onto the ground, to confront Rudy - having shoved the Baryonyx off that cliff a while back before he went to kill Sid, the Tyrannosaurus Rex felt compelled, both from her instincts as a mother dinosaur to protect her kids much like a bear would with her cubs, and also from facing Rudy down once before, to clash with the Baryonyx.
Rudy was precisely looking for Momma Dino all of this time, alongside the strange creature he'd seen earlier, the strange creature being Michael. But the Baronyx's hellish red eyes glowed an intimidating glance especially in the dark, as his grey thick hided body shadowed over all the nearby trees. The two dinosaurs circled one another, as Rudy looked at the cave.
The second Rudy glared at the cave, Momma Dino wasted no time in charging towards him, head first. The thumping rapid charge caused the ground and all the rocks to vibrate as earthquake-like sensations broke all across the land. Seeing Rudy glare at the cave enraged Momma Dino, her babies were her priority. Her equally matching height to Rudy gave her the advantage in catching the Baryonyx by surprise.
Michael covered his ears and could only keep his eyes closed, he didn't even want to hear what was going on, he was that scared. Unknown to him, a clash between Momma Dino and Rudy was taking place.
Momma Dino thrusted her head directly into Rudy's neck, causing the Baryonyx to be winded out of air, as he was once again being pushed by her body like he was before she sent him toppling over the edge and into a dark abyss when Momma Dino saved Sid that time from him. The Baryonyx opened his mouth as he got pushed, opening his daggers of rows of teeth to snap at her neck, but her rapid charge as she continued using her weight to push him meant he couldn't reach her. He tried to use his forelegs to claw at her eyes, but again, the rapid pace at which she was shoving him meant he couldn't do it.
Then, suddenly, Momma Dino dived her head down towards the ground, before quickly elevating it up, so the top of her head had directly collided with Rudy's thick hided chest. As she shoved the top of her head into his chest, the Baryonyx lost his balance, being shoved directly off his feet, collapsing onto the ground.
As Rudy's massive, fierce, heavy and thick hided body crashed into the ground, an even bigger earthquake sensation was felt across the ground. So much so, that Michael's back was actually hurting, and the sheer sound of what sounded like an asteroid hitting the ground was intimidating. He kept his eyes closed, and after hearing and feeling what was the biggest thud and collapse into the ground he'd felt thus far from whatever was going on out there, he was on the verge of collapsing out of not just panic and pure fear of death, but also light headedness.
He didn't know if Rudy was ruthlessly savaging the trees, damaging as much of the environment as possible, in an attempt to find him. What Michael didn't know was that Momma Dino and Rudy were having a collision, and it seemed like Momma Dino had won it.
Rudy stood back up, struggling, and all he could do was let off the biggest roar he could, it caused some of the nearby tropical trees to collapse, his tail smashed into as much of the ground as possible as he growled, and Momma Dino returned the favour with a roar of her own, very similar to the one she gave when she sent Rudy off that cliff edge a while back after saving Sid from certain death.
The Baryonyx was bigger than her, but he knew at this point that trying to take her down would be too much effort, and this was the second time now that she'd gotten the upper hand. The Baryonyx, rather than slowly walking off, charged off as his steps once again slammed into the ground, sounding like a big avalanche every time. Momma Dino simply stood her ground as she looked back to the opening of the cave, where Egbert, Shelly and Yoko were curiously sticking their heads out from.
She'd done it - despite being asleep just now, she'd caused Rudy to back down. Michael, panicked and spooked and just not thinking straight at all, acknowledged the different sounding steps and croons coming from the outside. He ever so slowly peered his head through the moss, barely moving it, to see what was going on outside.
Initially, all he could see was a heap of collapsed trees amid the dark blue environment of the night. Many branches were clustered all over the place like they'd been chopped down. He could only hear at this point much calmer croons, slower sounding steps, still loud, but slower and calmer, and he could also hear what sounded like affectionate huffs and sounds. He definitely recognized the last roar just now coming from Momma Dino, from what he recalled from hearing in the movie.
He pulled the moss back even more, ever so slowly - he didn't want to get noticed, no matter what. Momma Dino gently walked back to the opening of the cave to tend to her three babies. She was set to climb back up into the cave for the rest of the night, but not before quickly comforting her three babies. Michael, hidden in the gap behind the moss, finally caught a glimpse of a dinosaur.
It wasn't Rudy, it was Momma Dino herself. This was the first time he'd seen her in person, and she was equally a lot bigger in person than she was in the movie. He noticed that she had her face towards the rock - from Michael's perspective it was hard to see that she was sticking her head into the cave to gently nudge the babies. Seeing her had already given him a huge aura of safety, a feeling of protection, and just a general sense of relief. He oddly felt safe around Momma Dino, given that scene from the movie, but also the fact that, from the looks of it, she had just seen Rudy off, for the SECOND time.
Michael pulled the moss back even further, like he was pulling apart the curtains back at home. He noticed Momma Dino's snout turning directly towards his direction where the moss was, making it look like she had just looked directly at the gap with the conveniently dangling moss. Instantly, Michael, feeling his chest ache with anxiety yet again, let go of the moss.
As much as he felt safe around Momma Dino, he felt like just now...perhaps she'd seen him. He wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't sure how much differently she'd be in real life compared to the movies. But he was perhaps about to find out, and he had no idea what to do. He was once again panicking.