Chapter 41: Jocelyne

When Jocelyne woke up she was convinced that she had been having a nightmare, because only a nightmare could justify the terrible chain of events that had taken place the previous night. She was quietly accompanying her father on his visit to Cartago, enjoying the trip as she always had, when those bad guys came to ruin her life. They had kidnapped her from her hotel room and dragged her into the forest to marry one of them. They had beaten her, insulted her and screamed at her, and she wouldn't have been surprised if they killed her too. And then a monster had come. A gigantic dinosaur, bigger than any other Jocelyne had ever seen in zoos, that had wreaked havoc under her eyes by devouring her attackers one after another. Yet that same monster hadn't eaten her, but instead it had free her and given her a medical plant to relieve her pain. Yes, it could only have been a dream. It was too absurd. However, when she finally made up her mind to open her eyes, she didn't find her comfortable hotel bed to welcome her, but the damp ground and the sultry heat of the forest. She jumped up. The dinosaur was still there, lying in front of her, staring at her with one half-open eye. Jocelyne's heart skipped a beat and her legs turned to mozzarella. For several minutes she was unable to articulate any sound or move a single muscle. There was only one thought in her head: for such a large beast, she was nothing more than a tasty potato chip. She had to do something, and quickly. While she trembled from head to toe, she was able to find the strength to get up. The dinosaur remained still, looking at her with its big eye. With an effort that seemed superhuman to her, she tried to back away and run away. But as soon as she had gone more than five meters, the dinosaur let out an irritated snort that made her freeze in place. Her little heart skipped a beat, but luckily the animal just seemed annoyed. Jocelyne tried to get away again, but again the dinosaur blew at her. That scene repeated itself for a couple of minutes before she gave up. "It doesn't want me to walk away... what should I do!?" she screamed in her desperate head. Fortunately, her neurons gave her the answer very quickly. "A phone... yes, a phone! I have to find a phone!" she thought. Trying to not make any sudden movements that could irritate the animal, she headed for the remains of her captors' vehicles. When she touched them she almost burned: they were still hot from the flames and some metal parts still glowed with the red glow of the fire. She tried with all her force, looked at the most unthinkable points, even tried to move the rubble at the risk of cutting herself. Anything. Whatever was in the cars was quickly devoured by the flames. Phones, radios, pagers... not a single communication device remained intact. "Am I really stuck here?" she desperatly thought, while suddenly she felt a movement behind her. The dinosaur suddenly grunted and stood up, lifting itself up on its massive hind legs. It stirred a little to shake the earth off its body, then it walked over to her and opened its mouth. "No! No! No! Mom! Dad! Someone!!!" Jocelyne screamed in her head; she wanted to escape, but no muscle in her body responded. She could only watch as the dinosaur's jaws closed on her and grabbed her by the waist. Eventually she closed her eyes, expecting the pain that would have came as soon as it started chewing her. However, that pain never arrived. Instead, she felt herself lifted off the ground and then laid back down on a solid surface; then the dinosaur let her go. Jocelyne didn't remember ever having felt so much relief as in that moment: finally the intensity with which her heart was beating began to diminish. Looking around, she saw only branches. "Am I on a tree?" she thought, only to see the dinosaur's snout again as it was dragging a branch full of leaves towards her. With extreme skill it wedged it between the leaves. The dinosaur repeated the operation several times, until she almost disappeared under the leaves. When Jocelyne realized what it was doing she couldn't believe it. "Does it want to hide me?" Apparently that was the case. When it was sure that no one could see her anymore, the dinosaur turned on its heels and walked away, disappearing from her sight. The tension finally left Jocelyne completely; she felt safer now. But she soon realized that its hiding place was also a prison. She was at least six meters above the forest's floor and the trunk had no grips: if she tried to go down she would have broken both her legs. Not to mention what she would have found once she got off: she didn't know which way to go to get home, and walking into the forest without weapons or equipment was the equivalent to committing suicide. As a result, she could only wait for someone to find her. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!" she screamed in her mind. She was terrified and unable to think to something. Her parents had always tell her that she was a smart girl, but she was just good in studying, in talking and in other human things. No one ever explained her how to survive alone in a forest full of monstruos predators! She sighed. She was tremendous thirsty. She hadn't had a drink since the evening before. She needed some water! But she couldn't go out from the tree. "Wait... maybe I can..." Her juvenile brain started to work. Without the fear, she was finally capable to analize the situation. She wasn't a survivalist, but she knew something. She had to assess her needs: first, she needed to find water; next, she needed to find food; next again, she needed to find help. There was only a way to find water without take it from a river or something: the dew. It was summer and the forest was pretty wet; the dew would have collected under the leaves. Carefully, she moved on the tree's branches until she reached some leaves. She touched them and a liquid wet her fingers. She was right! One by one, she took all the leaves that she could and she drink the little amount of water under each of them. She needed to do this for almost half an hour before she didn't feel thirsty anymore. Now she needed to find food... but she rapidly realized that she couldn't. There weren't fruits on the tree and she didn't see animals or other meat sources. Same problems in her research of help: she couldn't do basically nothing while she was on the tree. Disconsolate, she surrendered to reality and accepted that she could do nothing but wait. Thus the whole day passed. Unfortunately, what in the end came was not a rescue team, but its bizarre protector. The dinosaur was carrying in its mouth something that looked like a giant boar; well, 'giant' was a big word, since it looked small compared to its killer. After having placed it on the ground the dinosaur walked towards the tree, pushed the fronds with its muzzle and then grabbed Jocelyne again with its jaws. The little girl panicked again, but she relaxed when she understood that it had only brought her back down to the ground. Then the dinosaur unsheathed its claws and skinned the boar. Quickly the tender red meat was exposed to the light of the sun. The dinosaur then cut a large piece of it and motioned for Jocelyne to take it. If it had been any other circumstance Jocelyne wouldn't have touched that flesh even under torture, but now she couldn't resist. The rapture, the fear, the tension, the adrenaline, the abandonment, the terror of being eaten and a whole day spent alone in a tree had made her tremendously hungry. Her stomach was literally screaming for food. So she forgot the decorum, closed her eyes and bit into the big piece of meat. The taste of raw meat pinched her tongue, but she didn't complain. She had nothing else to put under her teeth after all, and unfortunately the fire of the vehicles was now out and she didn't know how to light it. Even so, however, she didn't remember ever having eaten so much. The piece of meat she was obtained was the size of a human arm, but she finished it all. Only when she had it all in her stomach she finally felt sated. The rest of the boar was quickly devoured by the dinosaur. Jocelyne was surprised to see how quickly it ate: it was pulping the carcass at an impressive speed. It also had to be said that many parts were swallowed whole, bones and all. Jocelyne took advantage of its distraction to allow herself to look at her monstrous savior with a more critical eye; she wouldn't have dared take her eyes off its muzzle as long as it was attentive, but now that it was distracted by the food she could get a better look at its body. At least she wanted to understand what dinosaur it was. However, she couldn't comprehend it. She had read a lot of biological books, but this dinosaur was really weird. But the thing that caught her attention was the huge sail on the back. "Spinosaurus?" she thought. But it didn't make sense. Spinosaurs were gigantic animals, yes, but they were stocky, unsuitable for hunting, and they lived in rivers. On the contrary, that one was well-build, good in hunting and judging by its body also very agile. Yet that sail was characteristic only of the spinosaurid family. Very few other creatures, such as dimetrodonts and edaphosaurs, shared it, but the animal in front of her wasn't certainly part of their family. Was it really a spinosaurus? A grunt roused her: she found that the dinosaur had finished eating. Fear took over again and forced her not to lose sight of it. However, the animal didn't seem to care much about this and lay down on the ground again. After thinking for a moment, Jocelyne stepped back and returned to the foot of the tree where she had slept the night before. There were still the ferns she had medicated with last night, so she used them again. The burning and the pain weren't quite gone yet. When she had finished to medicate herself she approached to some bushes. She didn't know much about survival, but she knew that sleeping on hard ground wouldn't have been good for her bones. She would have waken up all stiff and in pain all over, which was not good in a situation where her life was at risk. Furthermore, there was a possibility that sleeping on hard ground and exposing herself too much to the wind would have reopened her wounds, which would not only have been painful but would have attracted other predators. Or maybe the smell of blood would even have activated the predatory instinct of the dinosaur next to her... So, the best thing she could do now was create a bed. She was certainly not a seamstress and she had no cotton or industrial material, but she had ferns and leaves. She was about to start picking a few when she suddenly stopped and realized something. She didn't know what was hiding under the bushes. She was tempted to give herself a slap: if she wanted to survive she had to take into account all the possibilities. So she picked up a small stick and threw it into the bush. Never choice turned out to be more correct. The instant the stick struck, the bushes shivered and an eight-legged monstrous being the size of a human head ran out. Jocelyne nearly fainted at the sight of the giant spider. The animal looked annoyed and raised its front legs towards her, but as soon as it saw the huge dinosaur behind her it stopped and backed away, then it ran away and disappeared in the forest. Jocelyne sighed in relief. She was far bigger than the arachnid, but if a spider of that size jumped on her it would have been the end for her. It wouldn't have needed to be poisonous or to bite her: she would have died for fear. She vowed to always check what was in any bush, tree, stone or hole before touch it with her hands. After making sure there was nothing left under the bushes, she plucked several leaves and then collected numerous ferns. It wasn't an easy job: the stems of the plants were very resistant, so she had to call on all her strength to break them. For all the time her protector dinosaur had been watching her curiously. Once she had gathered all the material she needed, Jocelyne looked for a fairly flat spot on the ground; she found it near the roots of the tree. Then she began to remove stones and other sharp objects that would have made sleeping more painful. She knew it would have been a very tedious job, but as she was carrying the first load away she heard a thud and the earth shook slightly; she whirled around and she saw the dinosaur's huge tail crawl away from where she had chosen to sleep. She quickly returned there and found that the ground had been completely flattened: the dinosaur had transformed a pitted expanse into a perfectly smooth floor. Jocelyne looked the dinosaur. It just had moved its tail; it hadn't even got up and it continued to look at her with a curious gaze. "Well... thank you" she said, not knowing how exactly react. The dinosaur's expression didn't change. "Of course, why it should change? It doesn't understand me..." she thought while she returned to work. She collected the numerous ferns and spread them out on the newly flattened ground. Eventually she managed to get a layer of ferns at least ten centimeters thick. It wouldn't have been very comfortable, but at least it would have been soft. Then she took a pile of leaves and placed it at one end of the 'bed': that would have been her pillow. When she finished, she could be satisfied. She lay down on her new 'bed' and rested her head on the 'pillow'. It was a little uncomfortable, but if she slept there she wouldn't have woken up the next morning full of pains all over her body. This time she didn't fall asleep for a long time: she kept the big dinosaur under control until late at night, then she couldn't stand the tiredness anymore and collapsed again in the dream world.