CHAPTER 24: Morning
All around the trees and the skies of the dinosaur world was a sort of foggy mist coating the vicinity. Every morning, as the cool airs of the dawn broke across and gradually rose in temperature, this pink-looking mist surrounded the outskirts of the dinosaur world and in some cases the ground.
That was no different now. The morning brought with it dawn, a very cool temperature that'd gradually increase in line with the tropical atmosphere of this place, and this mist which resembled a universal fog that'd flattened itself across all areas of the dinosaur world. It was actually a nice sight, and it only enhanced the feeling for Michael of this place being a tropical holiday of sorts.
Feeling a lot fresher and more energized after a full night's rest, in thanks to the protection and mercy by Momma Dino, Michael stood adjacent from the cave - he and the three babies had been gently taken down from the cave from atop Momma Dino's head. After they got to the ground, Momma Dino groaned for her babies to follow her into the jungle, in which they were clearly looking for some sort of nourishment for the morning.
Michael, however, remained put within the vicinity and the open gap of the jungle in front of the cave. With his bag on his back, holding a fresh bottle of water to hydrate himself for the morning and the day, he simply studied the surrounding jungle and its ruined trees from last night's clash between Momma Dino and Rudy.
As far as Michael was concerned, he wasn't bothered that Momma Dino had simply left with her three babies. He got what he wanted from her, security from the dangers of the night, mercy, and just that feeling of being protected. He got a full night's sleep following a day where he had to jump off a ledge into a pool of water to escape Rudy, and also a day where he initially struggled to win over Momma Dino's trust.
He felt wholeheartedly accomplished - he wasn't one for showing his emotions outside of life or death situations, but he felt like his heartstrings were permanently broken because of the mercy and protection he'd received from Momma Dino. Given her treatment of Sid in the movie and now Michael as he was here, she clearly and truly was a dinosaur with a motherly soft spot.
And it was on that basis that he genuinely didn't expect to be a nuisance around her or her babies anymore. He was completely content with her seemingly heading off into the jungle to prioritize Eggbert, Shelly and Yoko. After last night's protection, Michael felt like she'd done more than enough, and so he didn't want to risk being a nuisance and just generally an annoyance to her by sticking by her side during the whole of today.
For Michael, today was going to be one that involved a course of action that was inevitable for him - to locate and find Nathan. Now that he's woken up a bit more, feeling much more hydrated, it dawned on him that he was still technically lost down here, as was Nathan. The two men still needed to get home.
"How the hell am I going to go back there?" Michael asked himself, as he wandered near the damaged tropical trees.
He was referring to the area in which he'd last seen Nathan, shortly before Rudy's arrival and pursuit of the two men. Getting back there was an incredibly daunting prospect. Something else that Michael hadn't forgotten was the fact that he had no food on his person - he only had a couple of bottles of water. Sooner, rather than later, he was going to be very hungry.
He had no idea what the food situation was like for Nathan, and so it was even more paramount for Michael to get back to Nathan and to find him in time.
Michael looked back at the cave one last time, even though nobody was inside it.
"Thank you," he whispered, referring to Momma Dino.
Michael took a big gulp of air and released it with a heavy sigh. It was a new day, and today was ultimately the last chance both men had to utilize to get back home up to the surface. Looking at the various big stone pillars of a giant width in the distance around the hundreds of trees, holding up the top areas of the dinosaur world, Michael knew it was going to be a dangerous and daunting task.
He heard similar thumping footsteps gradually emerging back into the vicinity. He instantly looked to the other side of the jungle within the open space in front of the cave, and out from it emerged three little khaki and dark red-coloured baby T-rexes and Momma Dino herself, carrying a carcass of sorts, clearly for her babies.
She gently lowered the carcass to the ground, as Eggbert, Shelly and Yoko eagerly squealed and tapped the ground with their tails awaiting to eat. It appeared to be a flying dino of sorts that they'd managed to scramble. All Michael did was watch on from the distance, on the other side of the vicinity, as Momma gently lowered her towering neck towards her three babies to drop the carcass down for them.
The tropical birds and flying dinosaurs in the open distance sung and chirped their echoing sounds across the skies, and as they did so, Momma Dino looked ahead to the lone figure of Michael, pink top and khaki shorts holding his bag, just standing there without a purpose. The T-rex simply looked at him in a manner whereby she wasn't remotely bothered by his presence - if he wanted to come and spend time among her babies, she had no qualms about it.
She'd never ever seen a human before, which had made her so merciful and protecting of him. He'd proven himself as a helpless lost creature down here, and as a mother dinosaur in which she had a similar experience with Sid the sloth, she was simply the only dinosaur down here with that sort of personality as a result.
As much as Michael didn't want to be a nuisance to the dinosaurs, he couldn't help but concede that he absolutely needed to be by her side if he was to get out of here, but also he couldn't help but want to stay with her and the babies - both for company, protection, and also just generally to keep being at the forefront of her caring, merciful nature.
He slowly walked towards the three babies as they munched away on their nourishment that Momma had managed to capture for them. As he did so, he quickly found himself walking into her reflecting shadow on the ground as her towering height took up a huge portion of the skies. Michael's heart was beating a tad faster the closer he got to her, knowing full well that he was about to once again hopefully be protected and given her full mercy.
He boldly stopped right next to Eggbert. Taking off his bag and placing it onto the ground, Michael subsequently dropped down to his knees and sat on the bare ground, right next to the babies and in front of Momma Dino as she watched over her babies. He looked right up to her face as she calmly looked at him.
Michael didn't realize just how normal all of this felt to him now - seeing these dinosaurs exactly in person as they were in the movie was something that he thought would've made him feel a lot more taken aback by. But it no longer felt surreal to him - it felt just...normal. Given everything he went through yesterday, that probably explained it.
Michael watched with curiosity as the three babies munched and utterly tore apart their food. He let off a brief chuckle as he watched them, as he was reminded of that scene from Ice Age 3 where Sid had tried to persuade them to eat vegetables. He took another drink of water after the subtle chuckle.
Michael oddly felt...at home. Momma Dino's protection and motherly guarding of not just her babies but himself made him feel like he was in a place that he potentially did not want to leave. Of course, he wanted to get home and see his family again and he wanted to find Nathan.
But given how much care Momma Dino had given to him, as a giant tyrannosaurus rex who could've easily destroyed him if she wanted, much like how she could've done and tried to do with Sid in the movie, the thought of potentially leaving this world and potentially never being able to see Momma Dino again given what she did for him by keeping him covered and protected for a full night's sleep, all alongside her babies more significantly, was a thought that had the potential to break him.
"We're just getting reports now that the police and a specialized cave rescue team have discovered a fissure of sorts which seems...from what they've explored so far, to extend much further in than initially expected," said the reporter, holding her microphone as she stared right at the camera.
The UK media had quickly picked up on the news that a fissure/cave sort of formation had been discovered in the precise area Michael and Nathan went missing. The whole area was still taped off with yellow police tape, as canine dogs sniffed the vicinity for any clues on the ground above, and as various police officers generally patrolled the idea.
"So are the whereabouts of Nathan James and Michael Horde becoming crystal clear? will we have answers by the end of the day do you think, Angela?" asked the reporter on the other side of the feed.
Angela, as her name seemed to be, in her long red coat holding her microphone, quickly turned around to look at the entrance of the cave/fissure. She was stood about 3 meters away from it as it was taped off with even more yellow tape, as specialist cave teams with their helmets and gear studied the entrance.
"Well this is the key. We don't know if the two men simply got stuck in some sort of crevice, so far nothing has come to light, nothing has been made particularly clear, even this far into the search. But the consensus seems to be that the team are confident that they'll still track the two men down considering the time frame they've been missing."
"Well that's Angela, our correspondent-I'm so sorry, we're just going to cross over now to the Prime Minister who's got a further statement to make on the search for these two men."
Suddenly, the journalist sitting at the desk on the other side of the feed had been cut off as the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, emerged onto the podium in 10 Downing Streeting, with a couple of Union Flags on either side of him. The Prime Minister had an update to provide the nation as the whole country continued being baffled by the unorthodox disappearance of the two men.
From Scotland to Wales to Northern Ireland and England, a good chunk of Britain had heard of the missing men at this point, the circumstances of their disappearance was such that it cut through to the public and went viral - so much so that it was now going viral to other countries across the world.
Keir Starmer adjusted his notes on the podium and looked to the camera.
"Good morning," said Starmer, "the police have dispatched specialist caving experts to the site in order to conduct a thorough search of this fissure. The government has been in close contact with the friends and family of Nathan Horde and Michael James respectively and we are still working to ensure the safe rescue of the two men."
"From the early hours of this morning, a fissure was discovered near the walking trail, precisely in the area where these two young men went missing. The police had promptly and rightly called for expert cave teams onto the site in order to conduct a search. As of right now I cannot go into the detail of what has been discovered, and as of now there are confidential details to which I and my government, for the interests of the families involved, will not disclose, but I am prepared to give you all an update on the very small details."
"Insofar as the structures of the cave is concerned, it's a much longer extension internally than was expected. The team on the ground are taking phases to go further inside, it's an unorthodox formation of a cave. It's not got any tight crevices or internal fissures in which the two men might've been stuck, it's like a whole underground passage that, according to the team, seemed to be going on and on. One of the team members reportedly spotted a distant bright light, and as of this moment they're currently going further inside - the source of this light could pose various clues for their whereabouts."
As the Prime Minister continued talking and updating the nation on television, the actual team within the fissure, with their headlamps on their dusty helmets and geared up caving attire, consisting of four specialist cavers, cautiously moved forwards.
"YOU NEED TO TELL US IF YOU'RE IN HERE, GUYS, WE'RE HERE TO GET YOU BACK TO SAFETY!" yelled one of the cavers.
The bright light in the distance hadn't escaped their eyes, and that was the direction in which they were heading. Without the headlamps, this part of the cave would be pitch black. The team hadn't ever seen a cave formation like this before - it had stalagmites on every corner, and as specialists they weren't that unusual.
It was more unusual to them that the cave seemed to be stretching on and on like an underground hallway, usually a cave would descend 90 degrees or have various 'chambers' with dangerously tight fissures, crevices, for them to squeeze through, and bigger rooms than others. Not this one. This one was a straight 'hallway' formation with stalagmites, and a distant bright light in the far distance. They couldn't even see the entrance to the cave behind them anymore.
"MICHAEL, NATHAN, ARE YOU FELLAS HERE?!" yelled another team member as they cautiously moved forwards - his voice echoed sharply from the corners of the isolating cave.