CHAPTER 11: Rapport
Buck led Nathan and Michael to a bit of shelter. And a stunning shelter at that. Just a few minutes of walking and they ended up at this giant boulder, but you couldn't tell it was a giant rocky boulder because it was covered entirely with ferns and moss and leaves like the ones on the trees around here. It was shaped like a grand entrance and it was incredibly tall like a tower. The whole underneath part of it was so thick and big that it felt like a roof.
Through the opening of it in the middle was the sunlight, it was like the entrance to Wonderland, a paradise.
It was well over 50 meters in height. It was gorgeous to look at, especially with all of the shininess emitting off the leaves and the green colouration. Ironically, it was here where Buck had first encountered that initial butterfly when he was escorting the herd through the dinosaur world to rescue Sid. Because it was so tall and big the shade was cool and it was the perfect place to have a sit down for a little bit.
For Michael, looking up at tall things like a tower for instance was something that'd make him lose his balance - he couldn't ever explain why, but he felt like the ground beneath him would feel shaky and unstable the moment he looked right up to something as tall as a skyscraper. This moss covered bridge shaped entrance looking boulder was no exception, so Michael didn't bother looking up at it.
"Aye, this'll provide you the shelter you wanted whilst we have a little sit down. Smell that? it's nature, the grass and the tropical scent of warmth!" said Buck.
"This is where you first found that initial butterfly wasn't it, when you were taking Manny and that lot through?" Michael said.
"Blimey, so it is. I'd totally forgotten about this area having that relevance! this is why I ought to sit down with you on your little chill break and get to know you both a bit better. You're so...magical and it's quite uncanny mate!"
Michael and Nathan were more than obliged to hang around the underneath space of the beautiful structure. The heat wasn't so hot now so it'd be especially nice to hang out underneath a bit of formidable shade. Plus, Nathan was feeling a bit peckish, not least following his brief tirade of wanting to get out of here to get back to safety.
Michael found a soothing space among the moss where he could comfortably sit with his back against the boulder. He took off his bag and slid down onto the dry ground. The rough boulder up against his back was actually quite a nice feeling considering they'd been walking all day. It meant he didn't have to put in the effort to keep his back straight.
Buck simply tossed the tooth up into the air before stabbing it flat into the trail, letting it hang out as he prepared to sit down himself. Nathan grabbed his back and took out a couple of sandwiches and grabbed a space just a bit further away from Michael. He was more surrounded by the ferns than Michael was but it was actually a nice feeling. Hanging out in nature was always a nicer feeling as opposed to being in a busy environment with constant activity.
The dinosaur world was perfect for that sort of desire, to just forget about everything and to just rest in nature rather than a place of constant business.
Nathan tucked into the first bite of his sandwich, it was brown bread, lettuce, tomato, ham and butter. Michael wasn't so hungry yet. He was more thirsty than anything, and so he took a drink of water once again. This was the life - the heat, the tropical jungle around them, it felt like a holiday turned up to eleven.
"I reckon we'll catch a break here for about half an hour, what do you fellas say?" Buck said.
Nathan nodded as he ate.
"Sounds good, I love how cool the heat's become, and it just looks so nice, you know?" Michael said, looking up to the overhanging moss of the boulder.
Buck adjusted his eye patch. He adjusted himself so he was sitting directly against the tooth hanging from the ground. Even as a weasel, he often felt like he wanted to catch a break every now and then.
"What exactly are you two, then?" Buck said, feeling like it was the perfect time now to find out more about these two.
"In what sense?" Michael asked.
Buck was usually cheesy half of the time, cracking a joke whenever possible, but he'd suddenly developed a much more serious tone. He'd never seen humans before and it was strange to him, and he was genuinely curious not only about what Nathan and Michael were, but where they came from.
Tropical mosquitoes and dinosaur screeches from the sky were heard buzzing and screaming respectively as they all sat down.
"You know, it's like I said before, we're just...humans, that's about it really."
"Now the funny thing is, I have never before heard of humans. What a bizarre name for a species. You can clearly talk like those mammoths did, but...what's your origins exactly? I know I've come across unusual dinos down here before but I've never come across humans before, as you call yourselves."
"I'm actually surprised we were able to come down here at all in fairness, we never thought this place existed beyond fiction. We come from Britain, which is our country. Where we're from, there's over 60 million of us living in Britain."
That was astonishing to Buck to hear, so much so that the weasel didn't believe it.
"You're lying to me?" Buck insisted.
"Nope, that's genuinely the case. 60 million of us in the country we're from. Australia is another one, we mentioned it before when we saw those butterflies. Australia is a separate country but that's also got millions in population."
It felt strange for Michael to be talking about himself in this way, as if he was some sort of strange alien creature. But to Buck, he was genuinely foreign - the weasel hadn't ever seen a human before in his life.
"As far as I was aware, up there is just a whole valley of ice where that herd came from, surely?"
"We thought the same," said Michael, "but there was a cave-like fissure that we came across and it led us here. I'm not gonna question it to be fair as it's still cool that we're here."
Buck was trying to wrap this all up in his head, but none of it made sense. These two guys were human, they could talk like he and the herd could, and they seemed to know more or less everything about this place despite never being here before. What Buck didn't know was that back home, Michael and Nathan already had a glimpse of this place on their televisions and they were big fans of the movie. Not that Buck would understand any of that though.
"Me and him work in a gaming shop, we actually have a game in our shop dedicated to Ice Age 3, the title of the game."
"You fellas work? the only work I've ever known was just venturing down here, swinging on the vines whilst teasing the big guy, Rudy himself."
"We have to work otherwise we'd be without a house. That's how it works back where we're from. We earn money and then we pay bills with that money, you've actually got it quite good here Buck."
"I know mate, I know."
"Seriously though, you do. You live in this tropical paradise of dinosaurs, you basically get to do whatever you want without any worries. I guess if there's one worry for you, it's Rudy, but how many times have you dodged or outsmarted him?"
Buck felt quite complimented, he had a smug expression.
"Anywhere you go down here, you get to call your roof over your head. For us, if we don't work or pay bills we haven't got a roof over our heads, haha."
Buck thought their world sounded harsh, and incredibly gloomy.
"So you guys are humans...you work to keep shelter, from what I've gathered, and your place of origin is Britain?"
Michael nodded as he drank another sip of water.
"I was just mega curious because as you've probably realized, I've not come across humans before. It's all very surreal - I know this world like the back of my hand, I know the ins and outs, but never before had I stumbled across a pair of oddballs like you guys until earlier. I feel like my whole world's been turned upside down."
"Do you think you'd want to come and visit the surface? get a taste of where we're from?"
"Nice try, lad. The herd nearly got me going back up there, and if it hadn't been for Rudy surviving I'd have given up the best thing I'd ever invented as a life long hobby."
Michael shrugged as he remained sat. He noticed how intrigued Buck was in learning about them. And for Michael's part, it felt like it'd given him and Nathan a chance to actually build a proper rapport with Buck - he wasn't just an animated character from Ice Age 3, he actually had his own personality and such, and they were just as intrigued with him as he was with them.
"Do you wanna know something about Manny, Buck?" Michael asked.
"Hit me with it like Rudy's claws."
"He's seen humans before, he'd know what we were. I'm surprised he never mentioned that to you actually, now that I think about it."
Michael was referring to the first Ice Age movie, where Manny returned the baby to the human tribe at the end of the movie. It'd only just returned to Michael's head, and he had no idea why he didn't mention that earlier to Buck. It made the most sense to do it now whilst the weasel was throwing his curious questions their way about what they were.
"How do you know that?" Buck asked, amazed.
"Because we saw it, not from here, but from where we come from. It's hard to explain, but yeah, Manny would've known about humans like us, his family were actually targeted by humans."
"They were...targeted by humans you say? how? he's got Ellie and he's got his baby now, what do you mean targeted?"
Michael felt like he was teaching an Ice Age movie history lesson, recapping what happened in it in order to explain to Buck about Manny's past.
"Yeah, a load of humans in a tribe I think, he had another family before Ellie and all the rest, they basically used spears to, you know. But he played his part in rescuing a child from the ice age too."
"Why do you think Manny never told me any of this? it's amazing that you know all of this too, but you won't tell me exactly how you guys know about that?" Buck asked.
"It'd be completely complicated to be honest, you'd have a hard time understanding it."
Buck empathized with Manny's past - he had no idea why he was instantly believing everything to be true coming from Michael's mouth, but he was. The weasel was incredibly curious enough to have had a long conversation with both him and Nathan, and it was actually quite fascinating to learn about Manny's tragic backstory. It made him wish he'd been a lot less of a joker during the herd's time down here rescuing Sid and more of a serious partner in rescuing the 'floppy green thing' at the time.
"From weasel to man, thanks for informing me of that mate. I didn't think I'd learn from anything in my world, usually I know everything, the ins and outs, but not today."
"No worries. We're not barbaric or anything, we just happened to end up here accidentally. The sooner we get to Lava Falls, the better."
Buck turned his attention to Nathan as the 28 year old finished off the rest of his sandwich.
"You've come out of your shell a bit mate haven't you?" said the weasel.
"I'm gonna be honest with you and also you Michael," Nathan said, "I'm still somewhat cautious like, this is a lot more difficult and intimidating than I'd have thought, but...I think after seeing those previous dinosaurs, I've kinda got my mojo back to explore. The thing is Buck, without you, I'd have been out of here right away, since getting lost isn't an option to me. But yeah, I think I'm enjoying it again. What can we say, really?"
"I think a thank you would be in order for me, silly billy?" said Buck.
Michael intervened, "we've gotta get to Lava Falls first, when we see that famous lava waterfall after crossing the Plates of Woe, you'll get that much anticipated thanks, haha."
Buck nodded. They were readying up to carry on the hike through the jungle to Lava Falls. At this point, they were quite deep into the dinosaur world, to the point that they weren't too far off on closing in on a couple of famous spots seen in the movie of Ice Age 3 down here. Lava Falls wasn't too far off now, but the fact they were so deep into the jungle of this world now meant that it'd become much more unpredictable.
There was luckily no trace or sign of Momma Dino, aside from the initial footprints Michael and Nathan used to make their way to Lava Falls before Buck emerged, and Rudy. So far, everything was going to plan, and with Nathan once again relaxed, the journey there was only going to be made easier.