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 comfortabl
Unbeknownst to Jocelyne, Sobek hadn't limited himself to just hunting the boar.He knew that the little girl was probably very hungry, but he couldn't worry exclusively about her. He was still a living being and therefore just like everyone he needed to eat a certain amount of food every day if he wanted to continue to live, an amount that surely wouldn't have been satisfied by such a small prey like a boar. Consequently, he had to hunt primarily for himself.After all, humans, even though they had long since abandoned the natural state, had retained all the survival techniques they had evolved over millions of years: being able to survive for a long time without food was one of them. A human body could last for three months without eating. That little girl could therefore keep herself hungry for half a day. He didn't know how ethical this thought of his was, but in nature no one cared about ethics, so it certainly wasn't his problem.As for the water, instead, he hadn't had to worry.
Unfortunately, Sobek discovered that he was quite tired: even though he needed less sleep now, he had not slept for an entire night for several days. So he ended up falling asleep this time, which wasn't a good idea at all.From his point of view, the little girl would have remained stationary in the same place where he had left her. Jocelyne, however, had other plans.When the sun rose, she opened her eyes and found that the 'spinosaurus' hadn't yet awakened. She immediately understood that this was her chance. Very quickly she got out of the bed and, being careful to not make any noise, she walked off into the forest.The idea of walking alone in the middle of that jungle terrified her, but the logic told her it was the best thing to do to survive. She still didn't know why the 'spinosaurus' (she decided to identify it as a spinosaurus since she didn't know what it was) was helping her instead of eating her, but she didn't want to discover how long the situation would remain stable
"YOU AGAIN!?" was what Sobek wanted to scream at that moment if he had had a human voice.That day hadn't absolutly started in the best way. First he woke up and discovered that the little girl had disappeared, which was already enough to irritate him: come on, someone gave you food and protection and you ran away like that? Even though he knew it was a normal reaction from a human point of view, for his animal self it was an absolute lack of respect: since it was difficult for animals to get food, giving it to others was a very altruistic action, therefore not receiving trust in return was equivalent to a great lack of respect.He had been tempted to just leave, but that shred of humanity that he still had in the end prevailed and so he began to follow the olfactory traces left by the girl, sure that she would have gotten into some trouble. And when he finally found her, not only she was (obviously) in serious danger, but the source of that danger was the same carcharodontosaurus that
Jocelyne hadn't dared to move a muscle as the two superpredators fought. She almost forgot to breathe.She didn't remember ever seeing such a scary scene in her life. She'd seen some animal fights before, but it was mostly big cats and sometimes a few dogs. But that… that was nothing in comparison. It had been a battle between monsters, literally. Even the conformation of the land had changed: the dinosaurs had cut down trees and moved rocks and earth with their mighty legs. Many low plants and bushes had been uprooted within seconds.She couldn't imagine how primitive humans could have survived in a world ruled by such animals. Such beasts could have killed a person with just their finger. Jocelyne felt small and helpless when confronted with such monstrous creatures. They were literally the representation of power.When the battle finally came to an end, the ground was dotted with red spots. The blood of the two predators had spilled everywhere. Much of that blood still dripped from
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 reac
When they reached the river bank, Jocelyne immediately ran to get her feet wet; she took off her shoes and stockings and let the waves cover her up to her ankles. As soon as the magnificent sensation of freshness reached her legs, she couldn't suppress a groan of satisfaction.If it hadn't been that she didn't have any spare parts, she would have taken off her clothes too and washed them from top to bottom. She had been wearing them for three days now and they were covered in leaves, drool, sweat, sand, dirt and even dead insects. If she would have had an alternative she wouldn't have hesitated to tear them off and burn them.She cupped her hands and took some water which she carried to her mouth. The river water was less good and harsher than the dew, but it was nice to be able to drink a large amount of water all at once. Then she took some more water and threw it on her hair. She didn't know in what state her head was and when she saw the dry leaves and dead insects falling from it
"Damn you, Oz! Mobilize those damn troops! Now! Bring my daughter back here! NOW!"Marcus Jersey had been yelling at his chief officer for half an hour. Like all great families, he also had a private militia. Too bad it wasn't doing its duty.Jackson Oz, the chief officer, couldn't do nothing except remain silent while his master let off steam. Unfortunately, screaming wasn't very useful: the criminals didn't care about the people screaming, so they continue to remain hiding from the cops as usually.Jersey screamed for the next ten minutes, then he finally calmed down. Jackson waited patiently. He had been at his master's service for years and he knew he was a composed, serious, and rational man; his fury of the moment was only due to the frustration of losing his daughter.Unlike many of Odaria's breadwinners, Jersey didn't care that his child was a girl. He had loved her just as if she were a son and he never thought about using her as a political tool. Indeed, he was thinking of gr