CHAPTER IX: Jungle of Misery
They came upon the Jungle of Misery ahead, as the sky turned a slightly more orange colour. The Jungle of Misery was a lot closer than expected for both Michael and Nathan, they thought it'd be at most an hour away. At this rate the chances of them reaching Lava Falls in one day was even more of a likely prospect.
"There we have it gentlemen," said Buck, pointing ahead with his prized possession of Rudy's tooth, "the Jungle of Misery. Look at those purples and yellows."
It was yet another surreal thing for Michael and Nathan to see in person. As they neared closer to it, the entire above vicinity was surrounded by thick intertwining branches covered with large, giant shiny leaves. And amid all of those were scattered flowers of some kind, also much bigger than Michael and Nathan were used to. The flowers were not only scattered in different shapes and sizes among the branches above, but also the semi-plain fields around the dry path.
The yellow flowers resembled ancient looking buttercups of some kind, whereas the purple flowers tended to be much more taller and more cylinder shaped, not looking like the typical flower. Nonetheless, they were clearly tropical flowers. Some of the purple flowers weren't just flowers either, some of them were actually carnivorous.
"This looks really good actually, it's like its own world here," said Michael, looking around as they finally entered the Jungle of Misery.
When they walked a few minutes through, the surrounding area on both sides of the path gradually became surrounded by heaps of purple flowers, of a decent size. The whole Jungle of Misery had these purple flowers on the steaming hot grounds within this portion. Michael couldn't help but stop briefly to look at them all. They were incredibly mesmerizing. He thought he could smell the scent of natural earth, like soil. There was a weirdly fruity scent among the Jungle of Misery too, and that was incredibly odd given there were no fruits here - none edible to humans or anyone at least, presumably.
"If you know your stuff, you know not to be taken in," said Buck, "a lot of these guys prey on the gullible."
"Yeah, I get that. I was just having a quick look because all of it just looks so nice, you know? my mum knows her flowers, she'd have a good guess at naming the variant of these ones, whatever they are, I haven't got a clue of them."
"Same here mate, same right here," replied Buck, "they ain't so tough looking with all of those big bright bubbly colours."
Michael started catching up with Buck and Nathan - he took another sip of water, nearly running out of his first bottle of it. Luckily, the intertwining branches above with the big leaves acted like a shade from the beaming sun, meaning it'd be easier to stay cool.
"Again, if you know your stuff, you'll be able to tell me what happened over there?" said Buck, pointing to a slightly hilly area with open grass, with a bunch of giant fallen leaves with spikes on them.
In the background was a large brown rocky wall with those flowers on it, alongside bits of moss, although the moss here looked lighter green than it did in the previous spots it was seen. Right away, Michael and Nathan knew exactly what they were looking at, and naturally they took a few steps back.
"I mean...I get why he went to grab it because it looked like an edible plant, but did they not actually think? I mean Manny, he went up to that and touched it without thinking it was actually like a lure?" said Michael.
"Aye, good chap, you truly do know your stuff. I'm sure his sabre tooth buddy warned him but when you've got a pregger in your group, you do some pretty stupid things."
Nathan took a few more steps back - being nervy and being apprehensive about being down here at all, it was like his mouth was taped shut. He didn't speak a single word or get involved.
They could see the untouched and the now dead leaves of that giant carnivorous spiky plant on the small plain collection of grass Buck had pointed at. It was the same plant he destroyed to free Diego and Manny. The four big leaves of the plant had red outlines on the edges and the giant red spikes kept them all slightly elevated at a stand. Even though that carnivorous deadly plant was no more, neither Michael or Nathan especially had the guts to walk over to its carcass.
"Watch this," said Buck, skipping over quickly towards the dead plant.
There, he started jumping on the leaves like a trampoline, and then he sent his Rudy tooth right through one of them, cutting a sharp hole. He did that to show just how safe it was to come and stand where he was. He was stood where the initial 'fruit' was, the one Manny initially grabbed which then triggered the plant to come alive and gulp them up.
It was the first time Michael was going to refuse to do something down here Nathan style. He wasn't gloomy or anything about it but he wanted to save the risk taking for when they got to Lava Falls.
"I'm not sure, I don't think I can."
"What? are you telling me you're a scaredy cat?" asked Buck, continuing to mess around with the spiky leaves of the plant.
"I'm just mega cautious, you know?" said Michael, not taking the bait.
"Buddy if this plant was alive it'd have come alive already and swallowed me whole, I literally cut its life out of it at the time I saved the fat mammoth and the sabre. Just one step at least?"
Michael shrugged. It did look like the plant was truly dead given Buck himself was standing on the leaves, and in a way it was quite cool to be standing at the same spot the herd was stood on after Buck had saved them from the plant, like the exact spot where they were stood.
Despite all of that, Michael turned down the offer.
"Again though, I'm gonna hold off for now I think, I know it's obviously safe but I'm just wanting to do stuff like that when we get to where we're going."
Buck shrugged, grabbing his tooth.
"Suit yourself, thus far you're not quite the pansy the fat mammoth turned out to be. But I'm gonna be keeping marks on you sir."
"Like I say, I'll do that sort of risk taking at Lava Falls," Michael said, as the weasel made his way back towards both him and Nathan, "I just really want to get there before anything else."
Michael's determination to get to Lava Falls struck a curious chord in Buck. The weasel had no idea what Michael, and Nathan for that matter, had in mind for when they got there.
"Solve me this puzzle, will you? when we get to Lava Falls, what's exactly your game plan? I've never known someone of your kind to want to go to Lava Falls, not unless you want to provoke dinosaurs with babies."
"We just want to see it in person, I guess. It's something we never imagined existing, because where we come from, everything here is just...fictional really, not real. So seeing it in person will just be an incredibly surreal experience, basically."
Nathan somewhat nodded but he didn't like how Buck attempted to pressure Michael just now in taking a risk in stepping onto the carcass of that dead carnivorous plant. He was already on edge about being down here and he was having constant second thoughts as it was, so for Buck to be pressuring Michael like that didn't play well with him.
And the 28 year old was actually pleased Michael didn't accept the offer, it was the first 'smart' thing he'd done in Nathan's eyes since they got to the dinosaur world. Not that he was willing to indicate that to Michael or Buck.
"So if I'm not real according to you, how am I alive right now?" asked Buck.
"It's hard to explain, to be honest. It's a whole new world up there from your point of view."
"Who knows, I might tag along with you as you go back, but then again, Rudy awaits me down here, that's why I didn't go back up there the first time when that herd made the offer."
The group halted their discussion and proceeded on through the Jungle of Misery. They continued passing through the maze of flowers and weirdly intertwined branches, and suddenly a couple of the tall plants had long eyes peeking out from them. Michael took another sip of water as did Nathan, and the two of them looked at the flowers. As soon as they shared eye contact with them, the eyes vanished right back into their internal space in their plants.
"Buck, what are these flowers here? they've got eyes in them."
"Ohh, these harmless chaps?" Buck said, pointing to one of them, "good question mate, I don't know."
That was the most straightforward and to the point answer Michael had received, ever.
Buck continued leading the way after that brief exchange, through the dry trail surrounded by heaps of creepy plants and the dark moss and giant leaves above the intertwining branches. Michael side eyed the plants as their eyes slowly sneaked outside, but they didn't think they were being looked at because the faces of both Nathan and Michael were facing forwards.
They looked like snail eyes. It was weird, being watched like that by an actual plant. Nathan was weirded out by it too but he didn't bother trying to look at them whilst they thought they weren't being looked at. Michael opened up the remainder of his water and just threw the contents of the bottle towards one of the plants.
His movement instantly caused them all to go back into hiding - none of the water had even gotten inside the plant.
"Damn," Michael said to himself.
He could afford to waste one bottle of water as he had numerous ones in his bag. He continued walking but he rapidly took the bag off his shoulders, and unzipped it. Reaching inside it, among all the lunch and various bottles of water, Michael grabbed a fresh bottle and pulled it out. But as he pulled it out, he felt something odd in the bag. He curiously reached into the bag again and pulled out a pair of goggles.
Michael had forgotten to take the goggles out of the bag after he returned home from his previous holiday abroad - the bag he was using to carry his water and food was the same bag he'd take on holiday to carry extra things, and he loved having a swim in the sea hence the goggles. But he'd clearly forgotten to empty the entirety of the bag after he got back home from holiday at the time.
Michael figured the goggles could potentially come in handy if he ever wanted to have a quick peek underwater at some of the small collection of ponds across the dino world, with extra caution obviously. He put the goggles back into the bag and zipped it up, and quickly heaved the bag straps under his armpits and the bag onto his back.
They proceed forwards through the Jungle of Misery.