Chapter 46: The rival's fall

Jocelyne wasn't awakened by the sunlight. This time what took her out from the dream world was a heavy weight pressing on her chest that was making difficult for her to breathe. When she opened her sleepy eyes she found a large head with two enormous eyes watching her. She almost screamed and she immediately pushed the animal away; the creature fell off her chest and screeched in annoyance. When she calmed down, Jocelyne relaxed: the animal in front of her wasn't dangerous at all. It was a pterosaur, but it was rather strange: the muzzle was broad and flattened and the neck was practically non-existent. It must have been no more than a few tens of centimeters tall and it scuttled across the ground like a clumsy bat. Jocelyne remembered seeing that animal in a book once. If she wasn't wrong, it was called jeholopterus. The pterosaur screeched furiously and scurried away from her. It almost seemed to be offended by something. Jocelyne followed it with her eyes until the jeholopterus reached the body of the spinosaurus. It was then that she realized what was happening. Dozens and dozens of small pterosaurs and birds perched on the spinosaurus' back, neck, legs, and tail, eagerly licking the congealed blood. The wounds the animal had received the day before were gone, but the blood and dead skin remained, and now the little creatures were feasting on them. The spinosaurus had also opened its huge mouth wide, allowing several birds and pterosaurs to enter and brush its teeth. Several small mammals and lizards had also arrived and were scavenging the remains of the dead scorpion, and even some tiny dinosaurs. "Wow... well, this is unexpected..." Jocelyne thought, observing the strange scene. Seeing such an imposing reptile surrounded by such tiny creatures gave her a strange feeling. The spinosaurus could have killed and devoured any of those animals without any effort, yet none of them seemed to care. It was as if they knew it wouldn't have hurt them. "How do they know?" Jocelyne wondered. "I doubt they can discuss about it, after all..." Yet the animals knew it. It was as if nature had an unwritten law known to both sides. The spinosaurus wouldn't have attacked and the other animals wouldn't have had to fear being attacked. Jocelyne now understood why the jeholopterus had seemed offended: touching her chest she clearly felt that the places where her dress was dirtiest had been cleaned, at least of insects and bloodstains. Probably from the pterosaur's point of view it was helping her, and she was an ungrateful who had chased it away. "Well... I'm sorry! I didn't know about this!" she grumbled in her mind as she watched that same jeholopterus climb onto the spinosaurus' body and begin cleaning it like its companions. Suddenly the young girl heard a squeak. She looked down and saw a tiny, chicken-sized dinosaur with two long claws in its front legs and a very elongated snout, staring at her with interest. Jocelyne didn't know what to do, so she just stood still. The dinosaur stared at her for a few more seconds, then it walked towards her and began to remove dead bugs from her clothes. "Uh... thanks". In reality Jocelyne was a little disgusted, as the animal was basically licking her, but she managed to put the disgust aside. She looked at the creature's one-clawed paws. "You are a mononykus, right? You are really cute" She raised her hand to caress the dinosaur, but the mononykus didn't seem to like that contact and drew back quickly, blowing lightly in her direction. "Sorry, sorry!" Jocelyne hastened to say, withdrawing her hands. It seemed the wild animals didn't like being touched. "Well, at least it didn't bite me" the young girl thought looking at the little creature walking away in annoyance. "I really don't understand how it works... if they are the first to approach, why don't they let themselves be touched? Are they afraid it's a trap, maybe?" Jocelyne didn't have time to ask further questions: with a snort, the spinosaurus closed its mouth and stood up stretching. Birds and pterosaurs took off and small mammals, lizards and dinosaurs quickly disappeared into the thick of the forest. The spinosaurus grabbed Jocelyne again with its jaws and placed her on the top of the tree. The young girl panicked when the animal's mouth closed on her, but even more when she realized that the spinosaurus was about to leave. "No, no, wait!" she screamed as the dinosaur began to hide her with the fronds. Incredibly, the spinosaurus stopped and looked at her with a probing eye. "Take me with you! I won't be in your way, I promise you! Please, I don't want to be alone!" If a few days ago she had sighed with relief at seeing the spinosaurus move away from her, now she was terrified of seeing it go away. What had happened the day before had traumatized her. Just the thought of another predator finding her while the spinosaurus wasn't around was enough to make her shake from head to toe. She didn't care if the top of the tree was a safe place: she didn't want to remain alone. The spinosaurus grunted, then rolled its eyes and continued to hide her completely regardless of her opinion. "No! Come on! I told you I'm not going to get in your way!" Jocelyne pleaded, but the spinosaurus didn't seem interested, or maybe it didn't even understand what she was saying. As soon as it finished, it turned on its heels and it walked towards the depths of the forest. Jocelyne felt the fear gripping her heart like a vise. For an instant she could hardly breathe and it seemed to her that the branches of the tree were turning into tentacles, claws and snakes, as the plant opened under her revealing a mouth bristling with teeth... "Calm down... calm down!" she screamed to herself, pinching her elbow to return to reality. She did it with such force that a bruise formed on her arm. She watched the spinosaurus walk away with a mixture of anger and fear in her eyes. "Okay! If you don't want to take me with you, then I'll follow you!" After the spinosaurus had first placed her on the tree, she had prepared herself. While she had built her bed she had also worked on another small project: she had torn several lianas and intertwined them, after which she had hidden them under her clothes. She did it because she didn't want to risk being trapped in the top of the tree in case the spinosaurus didn't return one day. Carefully she tied one end of the vine to the lowest branch she could reach, then lowered herself hoping it could hold her weight. Fortunately, both the branch and the vine were very hardy. Jocekyne had to call on all her strength to not slip, and very quickly her palms began to ache from the effort. Unfortunately, she didn't have more than two meters of vines with her, which meant that there still were four meters left to descend without the use of the rope. However, that was an acceptable height, since beneath her was a huge pile of leaves that she had specially prepared two nights earlier. She reached the end of the vine, after which she let herself fall. Although the pile of leaves softened the fall, the impact was very violent. Jocelyne felt as if her legs had just exploded and she was tempted to scream for the pain, luckily suffocated just in time. For a moment she feared she had broken her bones, but after a few moments she was able to get back on her feet; apparently nothing was broken, it was just a great pain in the muscles. "Well... It worked!" she exclaimed with satisfaction, and then quickly followed in the footsteps of the spinosaurus, despite the staggering and still struggling to not cry for the pain in her legs. She expected to have to work a little to reach the spinosaurus, but instead she found it not far away, intent on sniffing the air. Jocelyne hid behind the trees trying to get as little notice as possible. The spinosaurus continued for a while, pausing constantly to smell the air and emitting low grunts. Jocelyne was lucky: if it had simply walked without stopping, she would never have been able to keep up with a dinosaur more than six times her height. Eventually, they reached their goal. They arrived in a sort of clearing, where the trees opened wide letting in a little more sunlight. There, lying on the ground, was the other predatory dinosaur that had collided with the spinosaurus the day before. Jocelyne held her breath at the sight. The spinosaurus was apparently looking for its opponent, but there would be no rematch. The other dinosaur hadn't survive the night. The carcass was surrounded by several animals. Land crocodiles, varans, lions, hyenas, tigers, bears of all kinds, some of them as big as cars; all of them were gathered, intent on stripping the carcass. Many other smaller carnivorous animals were lurking in the nearby trees, waiting their turn. As soon as they saw the spinosaurus arrive, the animals that were plucking the carcass stopped eating and stepped aside. A few bears tried to roar in the direction of the dinosaur, but it was enough for the spinosaurus to emit a snort to make them retreat. Apparently, the rule was that the strongest ate first and the others waited. Jocelyne saw the spinosaurus bending over the other dinosaur. It didn't bite the corpse immediately: it emitted a few guttural noises and rubbed its muzzle on the animal's body. Only then did it open its jaws and began to tear large flaps of skin. As the first bite vanished into its throat, however, the spinosaurus seemed to realize something and looked in her direction, emitting an angry sound. "Oh no..." Jocelyne thought, realizing she had been discovered. ************ Sobek was disappointed. He hoped he could get a good amount of skill points that day, but he was left empty-handed. Apparently the wounds he had inflicted on the carcharodontosaurus were deeper than he imagined. From the smell, the animal must have been dead for at least three or four hours. He was a little sorry. Dying from wounds wasn't an end he would have wished for anyone. It was painful, debilitating, and terribly slow. If Sobek could have chosen how to die, he would no doubt have preferred to be killed immediately by his opponent rather than die after hours of agony. However, he couldn't leave the carcass there now. As he had already confirmed, the smell of corpses attracted dangerous predators. Although it could no longer provide him with any skill points or experience points, he began to take big bites from the dinosaur's body. From his point of view it was also a kind of way to honor it: rather than letting the other beasts wreak havoc on its corpse, it was he, the one who had defeated it, to feed on its body. Sobek felt there was something poetic about it, and perhaps the carcharodontosaurus would approve it. He looked at the other animals that had come to feed on the carcass. There were cave bears, cave lions, hyaenodon, smilodon, creodons, barbourofelis, amphicyon, and even some 21° century's Earth animals such as lions, tigers, and jaguars. From his point of view that was a feast of skill points, but sadly he didn't have a chance to get even one. All the animals there were faster than him and certainly would not have let themselves be captured. The only way to get them was to use [Ambush], but sadly it was impossible because of... her. "Come on, come here. I've noticed you for a while" he thought as he uttered a guttural sound towards a spot in the forest. After a few moments, a human head peeked out through the vegetation. Sobek had smelled her for a long time, but had been too eager to find the carcharodontosaurus to bring her back. He knew the young girl was controlling him, so he couldn't use [Ambush]. He sighed mentally thinking about how many headaches she was giving him. The young girl joined him quickly. Some of the other animals seemed intent on trying to jump on her, but as soon as they realized she was under the protection of the spinosaurus they ignored her again. The young girl seemed to shrink even smaller under Sobek's stern gaze. "Sorry" she said, almost lowering her head. "But I don't really want to remain alone!" "You're more annoying than a fly" Sobek thought as he went back to eating the carcass. A moment later he realized just in time that the young girl was trying to take a piece. "Stop there!" he thought, emitting a slight growl that made her retreat immediately. "Stupid! This isn't fresh meat. Do you want to catch a parasite, perhaps?" The carcharodontosaurus had been exposed to the sun for several hours and numerous animals had already fed on its meat; which meant it was now a concentrate of viruses, bacteria and parasites waiting for nothing but a new host to proliferate. This without counting all the flies, mosquitoes, wasps, cockroaches and other insects that surely had already laid their eggs in the animal's flesh. Sobek wasn't afraid of that thanks to [Rapid digestion], but human stomaches weren't designed to digest such a cocktail of parasitic organisms. Feeding a piece of that meat to the young girl was no different from giving her poison. "Can't... Can't I take even a small piece?" the little girl asked. "Again? I said no!" Sobek exploded in his mind, even if he knew she couldn't hear his answer. The spinosaurus went back to swallowing large chunks of meat. However, Sobek didn't appreciate dead meat too much. It tasted really bad. So he decided to not keep everything to himself; he tore up several huge pieces and threw them in various parts of the clearing, obviously pretending it had happened by accident. The other animals wasted no time and began to devour them. Sobek noticed that the young girl had also grabbed a piece. He prepared to soothe her again, but then noticed that she wasn't eating it. For some reason she just stuffed the small piece of meat she had picked up in one of her pockets. "What is she doing? Mph. As long as she doesn't eat it, it's not my problem" Within half an hour, only the skeleton of the carcharodontosaurus remained and just some small parts of muscle and skin remained attached to the bones, which would have been cleaned by more specialized scavengers. Sobek decided that for the moment he could define himself satisfied: reduced thus, the carcass was not in danger of attracting other carnivores. So, he turned around and went on his way. The young girl followed him. "Are you still angry?" she asked him. "You know I can't answer you, right?" Sobek grumbled in his mind. "Look, I know the top of the tree is a safer place" the young girl admitted. "And you're right to be angry with me, my presence doesn't make your life easier. But seriously, I don't want to be alone. So... let's stay together, okay? I'll stay behind you, hidden among the branches, so you can hunt without worrying" "Without worrying? You are a constant source of worrying! I can't get distracted if you're around! Why don't you think about your safety instead of your selfishness?" Sobek snorted. "Please... Can you slow down a little?" she begged him. "As I expected, there she starts to create problems" Sobek thought, but he stopped anyway to allow her to reach him. The young girl was already sweating profusely. "Thank you. Sorry, it's just that it's really hot today. This temperature is melt me..." "It's called global warming, little girl. Your species is the cause" Sobek grumbled in his mind. And not wrongly. It hadn't rained once since he reincarnated. Sobek knew that a forest wasn't a habitat with so little rainfall. The absence of rain could be summed up in only one way: human activity. Even though Sobek and the other dinosaurs weren't feeling that much from the heat, the spinosaurus knew the plants were suffering from water shortages: he could see it from their trunks, which were less and less colored with moss and lichen. "You know, I still haven't thanked you properly for yesterday" the little girl continued. "Well... In reality I haven't thanked you properly for many things. I owe you my life and my freedom, after all. You were really very kind. By the way, I never even told you my name. I'm Jocelyne and I'm twelve years old. Well, twelve years old in human years. I don't know what my equivalent would be if I were one of your kind... " "Can you please shut up?" Sobek thought annoyed. "You haven't talked to another human being for what, three days? I'd say you can afford to shut your mouth for a little longer!" Sobek made a snout. With that young girl around he could say goodbye to a whole day of hunting. He could have led her back to the tree, but he suspected she would have found a way to get down and follow him again. He didn't want to risk her getting into trouble again. Walking aimlessly with her around was also a bad idea. It was unlikely that anything would decide to attack her with him around, but the forest was too unpredictable. Sobek didn't know if he would have met other fearsome adversaries like the carcharodontosaurus. As long as the young girl was with him, he would have much preferred to remain in a clearly defined place, so that he could keep a specific area under control with his nose and greatly diminish the chances of a surprise attack. Even so it was still difficult. If it wasn't for these complications he would have led her to the human city days ago. However, he wasn't even willing to spend the whole day lazing around. He wanted to get some skill points or at least some experience points. Which left him with only one option. He walked on followed by the young girl for a while longer, then finally the trees parted to reveal the familiar glint of the river's water.