I don't need any artwork for my story. I make my own artwork, thank you.
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We all paused, gasping, before what appeared to be nothing more than a massive pile of rock. Behind us, beyond the slight concealment of some vines and palm branches, the terrible thunder lizard loomed, glancing between us and a mob of fleeing hunters like a customer at a buffet trying to decide between the crab Rangoon or the egg rolls.
I understand there was a waterfall in the other direction, but thats not the route we took.
Still very dark, pre-dawn, and cool for a tropical biome because the sun hadn't come up yet. Lots of plant smells. I'm a carnivore, not a plant aficionado, so I couldn't sniff and tell you the difference between flowers or between a salad and a bag of lawn clippings when growing in nature. To me it just smelled...planty.
Zelda detected orchids and lobster claw flowers.
Oh yeah, and dinosaur urine. Cassie and Cynthia both needed showers.
In terms of audio...in between all the people screaming, the guns going off, and the Rex family roaring, jungle creatures like birds and bugs and even snakes got really quiet. Mostly I just picked up a lot of wind blowing through the foliage.
We held our breath, forced our voices to a whisper. If this were the Ninja Turtles cartoon, we could maybe, I dunno, take a bunch of telephone poles and/or cables and tie them around the giant dinosaur to immobilize her. I saw a John Wayne movie where they greased the train tracks and tied a bunch of ropes to trees to stop a locomotive, but we didn't have that much rope, or time to even set that up.
Cassie pointed at the wall of boulders. "Albert! look!"
I frowned. "Yeah, I know. dead end—"
My eyes bugged out in surprise. "What in the name of Argonath?"
Amidst the rocks, two statues of humanoid reptiles in armor stood sentry around a metal door engraved with images of dinosaurs...eating and serving food...at a table.
I rushed up to it, searching for a knob, a handle, or a brass plaque reading 'Speak friend and enter.' It did have some carvings in the rock above...
Cynthia leaned in close beside me, irritating my nostrils with her urine smell. "That's Dinosaucer civilization writing, right?"
I shook my head. "Can't read it any better than when I last saw it."
Rexy smashed through the trees, destroying our cover. Her dark blue -purple tongue slurped her colossal lips.
"We'd better get in there somehow, or we're all lunch!" Cynthia stuck her fingers in a narrow crack in the door, grunting as she tried pulling it open.
"What if it opens inwards?"
Sergio shoved us aside and kicked it. The door only made a hollow gong sound.
"Nice pitch!"
Cynthia crossed her arms. "Damn! Then how do we get in?"
Rexy stomped closer, devouring a couple hunters.
Cassie pointed to a claw shaped depression in the rocks. "You think that does something?"
At first I thought it to be mere decoration, but now I noticed the glint of metal within.
Honestly, didn't expect it to do anything. I just marched up to it and said, "It's probably just like one of those painted wooden cutouts you stick your head through..." I placed my claw on the metal plate. pretty good fit. "Or that display I saw near the raptor pen where you could follow the claw prints with your feet to copy our mating dance —"
The rusty chrome barrier clanked open.
"...Or it might be a fancy door opening device!"
We all dove through the narrow gap.
At first it looked like a regular dark cave, with 'waterfall' formations, stalactites and whatnot, but one by one these little lights came flickering on. Cynthia made a remark about 'bioluminescence' , but stopped when she noticed the cavern moss' had symmetrical shapes, mechanical features...and showed evidence of rust.
Don't know what we tripped over when we got in, but something activated a kind of...Goonies pipe organ, and some smoking contraption that may have been an ancient pyrotechnics device. A huge amount of gray smoke came blasting out around the entrance.
Not one hundred percent certain, as the pipes had decayed and filled with dirt over time, and squealing furry cavies popped out a couple, but I thought the organ (player piano-like) had attempted to perform the theme to the Bubble Bobble video game.
Rexy shook her head right and left in attempts to clear the smoke. What the Heterodontosaurus?' I paraphrase.
We, of course, retreated.
Following our motion, Rexy smashed her head through the doorway, busting the doors off the hinges, but couldn't fit all the way through. Kinda got stuck a little, making the whole cavern quake and threaten to collapse as she fought to back out.
When she finally escaped the bottleneck, she roared, Don't think you've beaten me! I'll get you yet!...' At this point she noticed the other hunters making an escape. After I nab this easier prey.'
We paused a beat to catch our breath.
Just a couple minutes ago, the Rex family had paid a surprise visit to our campsite...
Boom. Boom. Water rippled inside the waterlogged Triceratops tracks. People started packing things up, but Sarah and Kelly decided, for some reason, to just...hide in their tent.
Rexy came crashing through the trees, poking her nose into the tent. I guess it makes sense, because earlier I saw Sarah hanging up a bloody shirt inside that tent. The same shirt she wore while working on Rex Junior.
"Junior?" Rexy growled. "What is this, some kind of taco?"
By the way, in case you forgot, I've been paraphrasing T-Rex speak this whole time. A T-Rex obviously doesn't know English, though they somehow got introduced to the concept of a taco, perhaps as a feeding experiment.
Mister Rex stomped out to join her. "It doesn't look very tasty to me."
Rexy stood up, taking the whole tent with her. The act uncovered a sleeping bag containing two human beings. Kind of an inefficient tent design, a dome tent with no floor. (Shrug). Humans.
Rexy pawed at the tent on her nose with her stubby arms. "Why does this thing smell like Junior?"
"Here. Let me get that off you."
Rexy kept pawing. "Leave me alone. I can get it myself."
The poachers, seeing these two massive brutes stumbling around, immediately panicked, running away from camp.
Not Sergio, of course. I wasn't going anywhere.
Buttface yelped as random strangers punted her sideways, stomped on her back. She bit a couple of them before Cynthia whistled no in Proceratosaurus. Not a stern no, I mean, a guy practically shoved the woman to the ground a second previous.
'Please? Just one?' Buttface replied.
Someone again collided with the woman. "You know, I'm seriously considering it."
"Everyone! Stop running!" Roland shouted. "You'll die!"
They ignored him, a few of them taking pot shots at Mr. and Mrs. Rex with their guns.
Rexy, with her nose now freed from the tent, scratched at the wounds. "Dang, I hate bug bites!"
The two turned and glared at me, baring their teeth.
Seemed as convenient a time as any to fertilize the soil...And Sergio's clothes.
"First you say it," Cynthia quoted, her face pale in fright. "Then you do it."