The meraxes was a predatory dinosaur that belongs to the family of giant carnivores like giganotosaurus, mapusaurus and carcharodonthosaurus. It could exceed ten meters in length and was taller than a modern house.The Neanderthals had begun to fidget in fright, and many of them had dropped their jugs in fear. They had put their weapons on, but it was clear from their eyes that they knew they would do nothing.The meraxes seemed to know that they were an easy prey. It opened its enormous jaws and roared. Some leaves fell from the trees for the extreme loud sound.Some of the Neanderthals shouted something to their companions, then threw themselves at the dinosaur. They threw their spears at the animal's paws and tried to hit it in the eye with their bows.But it was clear that they couldn't win. The difference of strength was too much. The skin of the meraxes was barely scratch by the spears and that only made the predator even angrier.Without the
Unbeknownst to Sobek, the Neanderthals he had encountered lived not far from the lake, on a rather high hill that soared above all the surrounding environment. The choice of that place was purely logistical: from an elevated position it was easier to see any large predators and it was possible to establish with more confidence whether it was safe to go out or not.The Neanderthal city was in fact surrounded by a huge wooden palisade made up of layers and layers of logs, seven meters high and almost two meters thick. If a large carnivorous dinosaur had worked hard, it might have been able to take it down, but no predator would have been stupid enough to waste time and energy on such small preys. In addition, the Neanderthals would have bombarded it from above with spears and arrows, and perhaps even with stones, which, although not very efficient, would have annoyed and perhaps even wounded it if they had hit in the right places. Any predator, even the largest and most ferocio
The mythology of the Neanderthals (or at least those of that particular tribe) was quite varied. According to them above all was Eywa, the Creator Principle, an entity who had shaped everything and everyone, and that constantly reigned over the whole universe moving the sun, moon and stars in the sky and making sure that the balance between life and death wasn't affected. Below her were other supreme beings called Lords of the World, creatures halfway between the divine and the mortal world, created by Eywa at the dawn of time to rule over the elements. Probably in the Western mentality of the Earth they could have identified as spirits, angels or even demigods. There was the Lord of the Waters, the Patron of the Mountains, the Lightning Master... The Neanderthals believed that such entities incarnated themselves in the form of legendary animals (a bit like Egyptian gods or the Native American totems). The Lightning Master, for example, was pictured as an extremely large pterosaur, so
Even though he was practically being idolized as a god, Sobek didn't notice anything.The reason was simple: the city of Thirkiom had just over ten thousand inhabitants. Furthermore, the Neanderthals had no contact with other cities: due to the large predators it had never been possible in history to establish trade routes. Even Homo sapiens sapiens had never had contact with other tribes before the advent of firearms.As a result, the fame points Sobek had earned were just ten thousand. Perhaps he would have noticed that little change when he was still a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, when the fame points bar peaked at one million, but now that that bar had expanded to one hundred million a change of only ten thousand points remained unnoticed.On the other hand, Sobek had better things to think about than Neanderthals. He had initially been tempted to follow their scent to see their city, but he soon dismissed that thought: he would gain nothing from that experience
For the next days and weeks Sobek remained in the area. Although he could have eaten quite a lot of fishes, he hadn't seen many big carnivores. Unfortunately, the presence of the large herd of spinosaurs discouraged other predators. And since he didn't like the idea to eat his own 'family', Sobek had to settle for smaller preys, such as freshwater sharks and some dwarf crocodiles. In fact, he hadn't gotten many skill points.But just when he had started to think that staying there hadn't been such a good idea, fate came to his aid again. Or rather, it hit him. Straight to the right shoulder, and with a lot of force.Sobek was swimming placidly in the waters of the lake, watching the spinosaurs feast on nearby fishes when something hit him like a train. Sobek had been pushed at least ten meters to the side by something huge. When he recovered, he saw a giant crocodile furiously biting his neck!He had been attacked by another sarcosuchus!If they had met e
Sobek retreated to the forest and pulled a cellphone out of his inventory. He typed 'spinosaurus' into G****e and the first result he got left him speechless for a moment. The first thing that appeared was a two-hour video titled 'The little girl and the spinosaurus'! Sobek quickly scrambled and discovered that the video was nothing more than a documentary produced and directed by a certain Michael Crichton. Sobek had no idea who he was, but searching for information on Internet he discovered that he was a very famous international director and producer. Suddenly everything became clear to him: the increase in fame points was due to that documentary! A lot of people must have seen it. Even if the same rule applied to the news, namely that only those who would have fixed his existence in the heart could have provided him with fame points, a documentary was very different from an article in a scientific magazine or a television news. After this would tell the story in detail, many mor
Sobek cursed several times in his mind as he tried to move the tiny cursor to skip the commercial. When he finally did, he was so nervous that he was thankful for having something to distract himself with, or he would have to bite into a tree trunk to let off steam. Damn commercial! Apparently the evils of television were the same in any world of any size. The documentary resumed, and the spinosaurus was shown meekly carrying large carcasses to Jocelyne and gently pulling her down from the tree to let her eat. The narrator told how for the next few days he had done nothing but bring her the results of his hunt. "But after a little time, a new enemy arrives" With a quick cut, a huge paw banging on the ground was framed; soon after, the gigantic body of a carcharodontosaurus appeared on the screen. "A new superpredator has begun to prowl around. Almost 13 meters long and second in power only to the fearsome tyrannosaurus rex, a carcharodontosaurus is a very dangerous opponent even fo
"However, after a wait of almost nine days, the spinosaurus finally smells a familiar smell" the narrator continued. Subsequent scenes showed the spinosaurus sniffing the air and fidgeting. Jocelyne briefly recounted how the spinosaurus started acting weird and then grabbed her and carried away. In the reconstruction, his words took shape like the scenes of a film. Finally there was the long-awaited moment: the reunion of the little girl with her family. This time the reconstruction was interspersed with real scenes, shot by cameras incorporated into the vests of the soldiers in the field. At that point the narrator said something strange: "But Jocelyne's parents inadvertently make a mistake" 'Uh?' Sobek thought. What was the narrator saying? The reconstruction showed the spinosaurus observing the scene from behind the trees; as soon as there was an embrace, the animal got nervous and began to move forward. Cut to Max. "What for us is a demonstration of affection, for animals ofte