CHAPTER 13: Familiar
The whole feeling had changed now that they were firmly on the same stretch of territory as Lava Falls. It was hard to put a finger exactly on it, but the aura changed now they were at this point in the dinosaur world. Just another half hour or so of walking and they'd be at either the Plates of Woe or Lava Falls. The culmination of two hours of walking through tropical heat was soon to pay off.
And they'd done it so far without any fatal encounters either with Rudy or Momma Dino. Everything was going smoothly.
Michael and Nathan followed Buck as they looked around their surroundings more as another portion of the jungle reached them. Just knowing that they were on the same grounds as Lava Falls was enough to spark the interest in them to look around. Michael was especially keen.
They looked up at the sky and noticed it'd gone even more of an orange colour, the prelude to dusk. The one thing that'd put a spanner in the works would be for them to be here when it was night time, but they were about to get to Lava Falls anyways, so it'd be a case of simply walking all the way back before it hit night time.
"It's a lot cooler now around here, still hot but more or less cooler."
Buck turned around upon hearing those words.
"Yeah, around this time of the day the weather is less of a roast, makes it all the more bearable, doesn't it?" Buck asked.
Michael nodded. It felt a lot milder around these parts of the jungle than it did earlier on, even an hour ago.
"On top of that, fellas, I think I'm getting a sense of dejavu. Let's not beat around the bush and miss it!"
They continued walking on. Michael and Nathan watched their surroundings as more of a spacious jungle approached them. Still covered with heaps of trees and an oak-coloured stone ground, but with less clustered branches all over the place. This part of the dinosaur world was definitely at the opposite end as to where they were at the start.
"How do you feel so far?" Michael asked Nathan, as the two of them followed Buck through the open jungle.
"Pretty good, actually. I was just proper paranoid earlier, just the thought of potentially getting lost here forever and ever, it got to my head. But given we're pretty much at our destination, I feel a lot better. We'll be able to safely go back when the time comes to it at this rate."
"Yeah, I just wanna see Lava Falls from a distance I think, because there's those dinosaurs that hang out around the Plates of Woe, and they're actually quite aggressive, not too sure we'd be able to handle them."
"What? the Guanlongs?" Buck asked, overhearing the conversation from in front.
"Yeah yeah, those ones. The blue ones."
"At the time the fat mammoth and her mate were doing battles with them, I'm fairly certain there was just one pack of them. They all got trapped in their little hidey holes when those plates of rock collapsed in front of the entrance. We'll have to wait and see!" Buck said.
"See I'm not too sure if I'd actually want to face that, Buck. If it's safe for us to take a few steps onto the Plates of Woe, then we'll do it. But I don't wanna go to the same area where Manny and all that lot went, just...you know. I'm a bit cautious about that."
"That's no worries lad, we can just study Lava Falls from the distance then if that'll be better. I know where it's safe on the Plates of Woe, too, so we can take a couple of steps onto there without any worry."
They plowed on through the jungle. Michael had originally wanted to get as close as possible to Lava Falls but now that they were actually coming up to the Plates of Woe imminently, he'd decided to be a lot more cautious about it, not least because of the Guanlongs that roamed the Plates of Woe.
Although if it was true that there was only one pack of them at the time Manny and the herd fought them off, with it now being the case that their nest entrance was blocked up by the collapsed plates of rock, then it'd be significantly safer. The only way they'd know for sure is when they actually got there and had a look themselves in person.
Ten more minutes of walking had passed. The sky had turned further orange, possibly indicating it was coming towards the end of the day. Michael, Nathan and Buck continued walking through the jungle but ahead they noticed a complete opening. And the ceiling above them, the mountainous brown rocky ceiling which was now visible because of how high up this portion of the dinosaur world was, was a lot closer to the ground here than ever before as a result.
"Aye, there's a bit of an opening over here, I think I can see a big round stone table looking thing there too."
"A stone table?" Michael asked, his chest aching upon the realization.
"Yeppp, that's what it seems to be."
Without warning, Michael upped the speed of his pace and quickly walked past Buck, catching the weasel by surprise. He was the first one to push out of the collection of trees, coming into the opening. The sight of what he was seeing made him shocked. He gasped for a brief moment as he realized where they now were.
The stone table was surrounded by heaps of vegetables scattered across the rocky ground, a large bone from a big chicken was also on the ground a short distance away from the table, and ahead in the distance just behind the table was a clear opening, like a cliff edge, from this side of the dinosaur world. Over the edge was a gigantic drop, about 30 meters down, with a clear bird's eye view over a lower level of the dinosaur world.
"Oh my god!" Michael uttered, looking around as he approached the table, "this is where that scene happened with the whole vegetarian dinosaurs, Nathan."
It quickly dawned on Nathan as he too approached the stone table with bundles of vegetables scattered besides it, as well as a couple of small uneven palm trees near the vicinity with intertwining branches.
Michael put his hands on the stone table - it was surprisingly stone cold. But to just touch the table, to be in this very vicinity right now of the dinosaur world, was not only exciting and smile-bringing, it was also surreal. This was the exact part of the dinosaur world where Sid had tried to turn the babies into vegetarians. Michael's whole demeanor was once again that of a fan wanting to laugh out loud with excitement.
"V...vegetarians? what on earth are you guys talking about?" Buck asked, totally confused at what was said just now.
Buck wasn't here during that moment, whereas Michael and Nathan both had the benefit of watching it back at home on the television. The weasel approached the table and planted his Rudy tooth into the ground, also studying the structure. And then it dawned on Buck where they were.
"Oh YES, I remember this too fellas, this was our crime scene!" Buck yelled.
Michael and Nathan also recalled that scene, where Buck came up with absurd unrealistic crime stories as to what happened to Sid when they stumbled across this area initially with the herd. Over near a pond there was a big piece of broccoli.
"Oh my, this is why it was worth coming down here, this is so strange but I feel dead happy about it, I am so glad we're here right now, hahaha."
Michael couldn't help but talk that way, given how excited he was. Nathan was also excited. They didn't know why exactly, but they were excited to be in the exact same spot where one of the more iconic scenes of the film took place. Seeing it in person was once again much more surreal as opposed to seeing it on the screens as Nathan and Michael did. To feel the heat, the scent of burning, the shine from the sun, the overall physical touches of the environment, was completely surreal but exciting.
Michael spotted the broccoli piece over near the pond - the same pond that Momma Dino had initially tossed Sid into with the broccoli. The pond was surrounded by small green leaves and a surprisingly tall bit of ground around it. He walked over to the pond, hearing a few frogs near it, and he picked up the broccoli.
As big as it was, it didn't look like it'd be impossible to fit it in his bag. Michael wasn't going to do that, nor did he have a reason to put it in his bag, but he just had that thought. He walked back over to the table and showed the vegetable to both Nathan and Buck.
"You could probably cook that and get tons of broccoli from it if you just pick off the pieces, you know?" Nathan laughed.
"Yeah, true. Although I wouldn't wanna eat this from here. If only we could buy broccoli this big at home, I'd be sorted."
All Buck could think about, seeing that broccoli, was his crime scene investigation.
"I still think that sloth would've had something to do with that vegetable, even though we long saved him. I dunno, something just felt...fishy about the placement of all of these. I mean, look at these vegetables on the floor."
Buck pointed to the floor around the stone table, and Michael with Nathan both looked at them. They were as big as basketballs, so much so that, out of excitement and energy, Michael went ahead and picked one up, and walked over to the cliff edge of this part of the dinosaur world just near the table. It was the same cliff edge that Sid has tossed that flightless bird off.
"Aye lad, what are you doing?" Buck asked, with Nathan slowly walking up to Michael.
Michael tossed the vegetables over the edge and watched as it rapidly descended into the forests below, never to be seen again. Unlike the flightless bird that Sid threw off, no flying dinosaur had caught it into its mouth, not that there were any flying dinosaurs around here at the moment anyways.
"I know that was immature but I needed to get that burst of energy out of me, I actually cannot believe we've made it this far. This is so surreal."
"Yeah mate, this is quite cool," said Nathan, "I think now that we're starting to get to where the more iconic moments happened, it's actually so much better now."
"I swear you fellas have already been down here based on what you've been sayin'. Maybe I was wrong, maybe that sloth didn't commit a murder with that broccoli."
Michael took his bag off and placed it on the stone table. Unzipping the bag, he reached for a water bottle, a new one. He took off the lid and grabbed a quick drink of it, with his mouth drying up from the excitement of being here.
"Alright fellas, this is it. Just a quick step up here...and you can see where we're goin'. Care to look?" Buck asked, walking up a slightly ascending bit of the ground.
Michael left his bag on the table as he and Nathan followed the weasel. A few steps up the green ascending bit of ground, it all came to a screeching halt when their eyes glimpsed at none other than the plates of woe. And in the distance, the famous lava waterfall.
"I think we can comfortably say...destination reached," Buck said.