CHAPTER X: Butterflies
Further into the Jungle of Misery they went, and everything was going well so far. The strange plants, the unusual scents and the whole environment of this jungle which gave it an isolated vibe within this world was a ton to take in. Even so, Michael was having an extremely interesting time, studying all the plants as Buck led him and Nathan along.
Walking past the carcass of that big carnivorous plant, Buck led the two of them towards a path that seemed to descend ever so slightly downwards. It looked like they were already exiting the Jungle of Misery, judging by the fact the yellow and purple flowers scattered all over the place seemed to gradually become lower in numbers the further they walked down.
"Is that all to the Jungle?" Michael asked, suddenly grasping that very realization.
"Yeah, that's all she wrote. It's a small kinda misery if you get me," Buck said, "there ain't much to it."
"I thought it'd be a lot bigger, I guess we spent like a good 20 minutes or so walking through it but that's crazy."
"And if you want a good way to cap off this jungle, stop right there."
Buck pointed to the spot Michael and Nathan were stood on, indicating for them to stop for a moment. There were final traces of those yellow and purple flowers scattered on the ground with random collections of moss and leaves among the light brown trail around them.
Buck had told them to stop walking right where the path began descending downwards back into the regular jungles of the lost world. He then slowly pointed his Rudy tooth upwards, and their eyes followed the direction it pointed. The most beautiful view of the lost world suddenly became within sight of Michael and Nathan.
They got an overview of the rest of the dinosaur world from here. Just slightly above them was a giant boulder overhanging them like a bridge shape, but beyond that boulder the two of them caught a glimpse of the vast jungles ahead from here. And with it, the coat of the sunlight throwing its weight down onto the jungles in the distance - it was a beautiful sight.
A giant rocky wall which clearly extended to the very top of the dinosaur world could be seen in the distance. Rows of pure green trees on some rocky ledges and uneven terrain looked gorgeous as the colours surprisingly stood out. The sky wasn't so pink now, but a combination of orange and grey. The trees and the jungle that they were heading towards looked super tiny from here, it was like they were overlooking it from a tall mountain.
"That's a nice view," Michael said, "and you can just feel that heat."
"Nice isn't it?" Buck said, "I try not to take for granted what I've got down here, it's a lovely old place. We'll be heading through the jungle that you can see from that view ahead, and we'll be covering a shortcut from the Chasm of Death as you so requested."
Michael could smell the scent of burning even more, like a bonfire was going off. That was because of the tropical heat being tossed around the air, but it added to the whole aura of the dinosaur world. It was pretty cool and it just further gave off the vibe of a whole special place.
Buck started walking ahead once again, and Michael carried on behind him. He loved that he got to get such a nice overview just now. It looked even nicer in person than it did in the movie. Nathan was admittedly impressed by the view too, but he still wasn't able to crack his cautious shell.
More and more screeching noises could be heard from above as all the flying dinosaurs seemed to circle the vicinity above. Nathan looked up at them as he could catch a few of them briefly looking down on their presence. He was hoping that they were just looking and not perceiving them to be something edible.
"Careful on your way down here, you don't want to roll down like a ball and hurt yourselves!" Buck said.
Michael and Nathan both looked down at the dry brown trail, and realized their trainers had caught a bit of a light brown dust, not a lot, but some of it, on their trainers. It wasn't a big deal and they expected it, but clearly the trails down here were pretty ancient and the terrain was anything but young.
About ten minutes of walking had passed, and the terrain was ascending up again. The trail had taken them up a hilly part of the dino world as the jungle around them was evidently no longer the Jungle of Misery. To the left of them were heaps of palm and cycad trees in varying heights, trunk sizes and bushes to the point that anything, any dinosaur, could be hiding behind the maze of trees and neither Nathan or Michael would know. Luckily, there weren't any dinosaurs hiding within them.
To the right of them the trail was completely open, revealing that they were indeed walking on a hill. The open space that surrounded their right side, just the ground below the hill, there were once again heaps of small bushes, ferns and collections of leaves, but a bunch of Kentrosaurus munching away on some of the greenery. Michael stopped in his path as he looked at them.
"Oh wow, do you remember those ones?" Michael said to Nathan, looking at the dinosaurs. He remembered them from some of the scenes from the movie.
Nathan looked to the right, noticing that they were on a path that was ascending, and the open space was on a lower level. The uneven nature of the terrain down here was mind boggling to Nathan. Nonetheless, he recognized precisely the dinosaurs known as Kentrosaurus.
They were extremely broadened out towards the middle of their body, and they looked like they had a big humpback. Their necks were much more narrower than their bodies as the big row of spikes along the back of their bodies stood out, giving them a unique appearance. Some of these dinosaurs were subtle orange, some of them were grey were hints of red nearer their spikes, but all of them universally had red colouration on their spikes. Their tails narrowed towards the end much like their necks did, with much smaller spikes running across the top of them.
They too, like the Triceratops and Brachiosaurus, had human-looking eyes, much like they did in the movie. Their eyelids were somewhat green too, and they had all concentrated their sight on the two strange species that were walking on the hill. Buck didn't bother them because he resembled nothing unique.
"Oh wow, they've already noticed us," said Michael, "I don't have a clue what type of dinosaur they are but we've seen them in the movie."
Nathan nodded. He seemed to perk up slightly at the sight of a new dinosaur. New in terms of being a dinosaur they hadn't yet come across down here until now.
"They look like they'd be a lot bigger up close, I suppose?" Nathan said.
Their mouths looked like the peaks of a bird. Buck was resting his chest onto the tooth as he planted it firmly into the rock solid trail as Nathan and Michael looked in awe at the pack of Kentrosaurus. Luckily, they weren't physically able to approach them given the height difference of the terrain they were on.
"Are those guys quite aggressive would you say?" Michael asked Buck, adjusting his bag straps briefly.
Nathan took a small drink of water - walking up the hill in this heat had caused him to sweat ever so slightly. It seemed to cool down a bit overall though.
"Like any dino really, you just don't wanna push em too far. They're no Rudy, put it that way for you. Mind you, when I had to throw my berry grenades all over the place to hide the herd when they first came down here, one of those guys were within the group of dinos potentially looking to eat em. But yeah, they're another dino I don't normally bother with, if ever. My dino down here is my best mate, Rudy."
Michael nodded. The more he knew, the better. It was dead interesting to just know all of these little things. As Buck told him about them and as Nathan seemed to perk up slightly, the Kentrosaurus continued to watch both him and Michael, like they were some sort of foreign beings - none of the dinosaurs down here had ever seen humans before.
He could see their eyes just glimpsing right at them like a bullet through their chest. Michael was keen to get to Lava Falls pronto so he didn't want to bother risking anything much more by wasting time trying to get down to their level to see them. He wasn't sure if those guys were as placid as the Brachiosaurus anyways, so it was a smart thing to just carry on. Nathan wasn't particularly keen to test his luck with them either.
There were about five or six Kentrosaurus munching away on the ferns, but suddenly the lot of them, after staring at Michael and Nathan for about two minutes, started slowly strolling their way towards the hill they were stood on, keeping their eyes locked onto the two guys. A gentle croon was heard breaking out from the throat of one of the Kentrosaurus as they gently and slowly walked over.
"I think that's your cue to get a move on, I dunno what they're curious about but I reckon we ought to move on," said Buck, "curiosity ain't always a good sign with dinos, fellas."
Michael felt quite intrigued at the fact the dinosaurs were curious to the point they were actually starting to, in their whole pack, walk towards their direction. He didn't feel at risk given it was impossible for them to physically get within close distance due to the terrain difference, but he couldn't put his hand on the word he was looking for to describe the positive feeling he had at being the middle of the curiosity of these dinosaurs.
It made him wonder how that T-Rex, Momma Dino, would react in the event they ever came across her. He didn't even consider Rudy because of his well known temperament and, according to Buck, his elevated deadliness and predatory nature from being defeated initially by Momma Dino just before he was going to eat Sid, like a vindictive sort of aggressiveness.
"Fair play, that's quite cool to see," said Nathan, "one of em just made that noise, I imagine that's like a calling sign to the pack?"
"Yeah, it's basically that lot saying 'come here guys and look at these ugly strange creatures, reckon we ought to eat em?!', at least that's my assumption anyways."
After a few more minutes watching the Kentrosaurus pack make their way towards them, Buck once again walked forwards and continued leading the guys towards Lava Falls.
Another half hour had passed and the heat was continuing to cool down more. Throughout the last half hour, Michael noticed that Nathan was much more talkative and just overall a lot more perked up. Seeing those dinosaurs just now had clearly gotten to him in a good way. The sky was much more brightly coloured yellow and white, as the sunlight bounced off all the boulder walls on the edges of the dinosaur world.
"Ooft, have a look at these guys!" Buck said, pointing up towards the sky.
What was flying above them caused both Nathan and Michael's chests to ache from the surreal nature of it all - a bunch of giant butterflies.
These butterflies were flying in a big group of six, half a dozen of them, and they were absolutely huge. Michael and Nathan both recognized them from their style and colouration in the movie, and the one in the movie completely dwarfed Manny and Ellie, and they more than dwarfed Nathan and Michael themselves as humans.
The butterflies had eye spots on their giant wings, which were famously mistaken in the movie as being the eyes of Rudy. Their bodies were a dark blue colour and the area around their heads were pure red, with their actual heads being blue too. Their wings resembled a painting, an artist's dream of patterns thrown onto a painting. The 'eye spots' on the wings had perimeters of red around them, and the base of the wings were cyan in their colour. Their giant size was evidently from the oxygen levels down here.
And as harmless as they were, Michael and Nathan didn't think they could face looking up at them. Seeing butterflies of that giant size was somewhat intimidating as they weren't used to it. Them being insects didn't help.
"Do you want me to call one down for you guys to see? I've given em all names you know?" Buck offered.
Michael covered his face with his palms as he slowly let go of his face.
"I don't know if I can, Buck, I just don't think I can. I've never seen them that big before," said Michael, "they're bigger than my mum's car at home."
"Seeing them makes me feel like I'm in Australia or something," said Nathan, "that's so weird."
Buck seemed to take their words as being an emphatic 'no'. He genuinely did have a name for each of those butterflies, but Michael and Nathan were actually quite intimidated. So much so, that Michael started slowly ducking down by instinct, like a fight or flight sort of thing. Even as a fully grown man, he couldn't stand crane flies or insects similar to them, and that was very much the same level of weirdness he was getting from these butterflies.
"Australia, huh?" Buck said.
"Yeah, it's a country in 'our world', it's got a load of giant spiders and a load of deadly insects."
"You know something fellas? we're gonna have to have a sit down at some point because you're comin out with all of these words and whatnot, I still don't even know what type of species to call you both...and yet I've been utterly braindead enough to take you on a free-of-charge tour down here to Lava Falls despite all of that. I must be bonkers, mate."
"I wouldn't mind taking a break at some point," said Michael, "but can we just find shelter somewhere, away from those butterflies? I'm proper on edge about them, I can't lie."
Buck simply sighed, but he was interested himself in taking a break so he could actually get to know these two a bit better before proceeding on.
Lava Falls wasn't too dreadfully far away now. Buck was genuinely interested to find out more about Michael and Nathan though, so his plan was to find shelter somewhere for the two of them to take a rest in, to, at their wish, avoid the harmless butterflies above, whilst he got to know them and such.