Tamer- King of Dinosaurs 5

by Michael-Scott Earle

  And rivers tended to flow into oceans.

  “Hey Bruce!” I called up into the air where my brown, yellow, and green scaled pteranodon floated on heat waves above me. “Do you see the ocean that way? Honk once for yes and twice for no.”

  Bruce looked up away from me and toward the horizon, then he looked back down at me and honked once.

  “How far-- ahh you won’t be able to tell me,” I sighed and then I looked at the closest redwood tree. It was about twelve feet in diameter but the first branches only started about thirty feet up.

  “Mike D, can you move me under that branch?” I asked, and the stego gave a hum before complying. The branch was still a bit out of reach when I stood on his back, but I carefully climbed up onto one of his armored plates and was able to pull myself up.

  I was nowhere near as good of a climber as Trel with her spider legs, or Sheela with her claws, but I managed to make my way up the branches of the redwood until I was about ten feet from the top and it didn’t seem safe to go up any more.

  Then I looked west and felt my heart tumble out my asshole and bounce off every single branch on the way down.

  The blue line of the ocean was just a small sliver. It was far away. Really damn far away, and I couldn’t even begin to guess at the distance. Twenty miles? Fourty? Sixty? A hundred? I doubted it was a hundred, but there was no way I would make it there before the sunset today, and I doubted I would get there by nightfall tomorrow.

  “Okay,” I cleared my throat and wiped my palm over my sweaty face. “I can do this. I tame dinosaurs, I know how to survive. It’s just going to take me two or four days to get back. No problem. First thing I need to do is find food, water, and shelter.” I glanced down to the forest of oak trees below me and then remembered that the previous valley had more jungle-like banyan trees, ferns, and cane plants. These would be easier for me to work with to build a shelter, but the oak and redwoods here would also give me potential firewood.

  But having a shelter and fire weren’t going to be enough in Dinosaurland. There were spinos, carnos, and who knew what else roaming around out here. Ideally, I needed a cave, or some way that I could escape if I got attacked in the middle of the night.

  “But I could spend the rest of the afternoon looking for a cave and not find one,” I said to myself as I climbed down the branches. “I only have six or so hours of light left. I’m going to be better off doing a quick scout around to see if I can find something, and then just focusing on building a hut.”

  Bruce landed on the ground beside the redwood tree as I dangled from the last branch and landed on top of Mike D. The pteranodon seemed to realize that I was worried, and he let out an inquisitive honk as he looked up at me with his big brown eyes.

  “Yeah, sorry buddy,” I said as I took a deep breath and smiled at him. “Let’s take an inventory first.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the only two items I found. One was my trusty flint edge, and the other was a one inch long obsidian knife with a two inch handle. The flint’s edge wasn’t that great, and if I was back in my fort, I would have tossed it and grabbed another piece from our work space, but the obsidian was razor sharp.

  “I’m going to need something to make an axe out of,” I said to Bruce. “A rock with a nub for a handle, or even a rock that I might be able to attach to a piece of wood would work.” I looked down at Mike D’s back where I stood and let out a little chuckle. “Cool thing is that I don’t really need to make a saddle or a platform. I can put some wood between the plates here to create a box. Then I can keep other stuff up here.”

  Mike D let out a low pitched note, and then MCA and Ad-Rock repeated it right afterward.

  “I just need to be in gathering mode,” I said as I slid off the stego’s back and started searching the ground. There was plenty of small branches, twigs, pine needles, and old oak-tree leaves on the ground, and I quickly gathered up an arm full of smaller wood pieces as I walked around the area at the base of the redwood.

  “Don’t just stand around,” I chuckled at Bruce, “see if you can find a cave or something to take shelter in. If you can’t find a cave, maybe a freshwater spring or creek would work; something away from the river so there will be less dinosaur traffic. Look in the valley we just walked through, this one, or the next one downstream so I don’t have to walk that far.”

  Bruce let out a honk, flexed his arms out, and then leapt back up into the air. He made it out of the canopy of oak trees as I ordered Ad-Rock to lay on his belly. It took me a few tries, but I was eventually able to sprint up the curve of his tail and spine while I carried my load of firewood and I wedged a few sticks between his armored plates and then dumped the rest of the wood in the space.

  By the time I had gathered and set my third arm load of firewood on top of Ad-Rock, Bruce returned and swooped over my head with a happy sounding honk.

  “Looks like he found something,” I said to the stegos as I finished placing the last of my wood. “Let’s follow him.”

  We set off in the south direction away from the river and then started to twist back eastward when we caught glimpses of Bruce through the canopy of tall oaks. We walked for about ten minutes, and then I saw the big pteranodon land on the ground and hop toward the easternmost canyon wall that separated the valleys that ran along the beach.

  I parked the stegos near the spot Bruce had landed, slid off Ad-Rock’s side, and then made my way over to the spot where Bruce was hopping, before I got there, I heard the small trickle of water, and I stepped over a small creek that was running out of a rocky indent in the canyon.

  “What did you find, Bruce?” I asked as I leaned around the canyon walls toward the sound of the water. There were a few banyan trees guarding the edges of the opening, and I had to push aside a bunch of head high ferns to get inside, but once I did. I was rewarded with the sight of a small hollowed out space that was the source of the spring drip.

  The little nook was about forty feet across, covered with moss and ferns on the ground, and surrounded by sheer walls of granite on all sides. Bruce pushed his way through the tall ferns to stand next to me, and then he let out an inquisitive honk.

  “It’s great!” I said as I patted him on the neck. “I can’t believe you found this place. Good job!” I pointed to the opposite side of the hideaway, to where I saw another cluster of ferns, and then I shot Bruce a questioning look. “Is that another exit?”

  Bruce let a honk out that sounded a lot like “I dunno, dude, I’m just a pteranodon,” and I chuckled as I stepped across the small stream and jogged over.

  Sure enough. There was another curtain of high ferns that guarded a second exit out of the nook. This exit was only three or so feet wide, and the high sides of the rock gave me a bit of a claustrophobic feel. Still, I wanted to see where it went, and I knew Bruce couldn’t fit through, so I ordered him to remain here while I pushed through the narrow passage.

  The hallway through the cliff didn’t twist and turn as much as I thought it would, but it was a lot longer than I expected, and I didn’t come out of the hallway until after a good two minutes of walking. When the area opened up, I was in the thickness of tropical banyan, cane, and palm trees. To my left through the forest, I saw the start of the beach about a quarter of a mile down at the bottom of a gentle slope, and I could almost hear the sound of the river that we had followed for the last few hours, even though I guessed it was a mile or two away.

  I looked up through the jungle canopy and studied the sun for a few moments. The one issue with making my home tonight in the nook was that it was hidden from the sun. I’d probably get a few hours less of daylight inside there, but then again, it was probably worth it because I’d be somewhat protected from predators, and any fire that I did light would be really difficult to see.

  I ordered Bruce to fly over the canyon tops and then come back down and land beside me while I searched the ground for something I could use as an axe. By the time my pteranodon landed next to me, I’d set three “p
retty close to perfect” rocks to the side, and I figured that I give it a few more minutes before I just worked with one of them.

  Bruce hopped along next to me as I walked around the cliff face looking for stones, but then he let out a honk and gestured some fifteen feet away from us in the direction of the beach.

  “You see one?” I asked as I walked past him. I bent down at the spot where he seemed to be pointing with his beak and found a chisel-shaped rock that had a four-inch elbow at the rear. It wasn’t perfect, but very few rock shaped tools were, in dinosaur land. This stone looked like it was almost sharp, and the part at the back almost looked like a mini-handle.

  I’d make it work.

  “Good job, buddy!” I said as I flipped the wedge over in my hand and then patted Bruce on the neck. He let out a happy honk, and then I looked around for trees that I could use to start building my hut frame. There were two younger trees with trunks about three inches in diameter within twenty feet, so I guessed there would be plenty more within easy walking distance.

  I stepped closer to the side of the cliff face and looked for any sort of flat spot on the wall or a wide flat stone that I could use to sharpen my new stone axe. I didn’t see anything on the ground which would work, so I found the flattest spot on the wall and began to rub one side of my wedge against it.

  “This works a bit better with downward pressure,” I said to Bruce as I scraped my wedge against the wall. “Also works with a bit of water to build up a slurry, but I’m not looking for perfection here. Just want to give it a bit of an edge so I don’t waste too much energy cutting down the trees. Get it?”

  Bruce honked, and I flipped it over to sharpen the other side of the axe after I hit a count of one-hundred. After I finished sharpening the other side, I inspected the edge of my wedge. It was surprisingly sharp for how much time I had spent on it, and I prayed that it wouldn’t shatter when I started to use it.

  “Let’s cut down this guy,” I said as I moved over to the nearest tree. It stood some twelve-feet high, and I pushed my left palm against the trunk to help steady myself as I bent over and slammed the wedge in my right hand into the base of the tree.

  “You know,” I said to Bruce as I counted the wacks. “A few months ago trying this kind of thing would have made my hands hurt, but now I don’t even feel anything.” On my tenth wack, the trunk lurched under my palm, and I dropped the axe so that I could pull on the tree. It twisted around in my hands as I walked it around in a circle and then it broke cleanly from its stump.

  “Easy peasy,” I said as I picked up my axe again and moved to the next tree. This one only took nine hits to cut down, and I cut down four more of the trees before I laid them all in a pile next to each other.

  “The vines on this tree look good for some heavy cordage,” I said as I moved to a young banyan tree with drooping branches. The twisty arms of the tree were super easy to climb, and soon I was on top of the nearest limb and cutting off vines easily. As soon as I had a pile made, I scaled back down, wrapped up the cluster of tree trunks with some vines, and the coiled the rest on top.

  “Alright,” I said as I tucked my axe in my belt, spat in my hands, and rubbed them together. “I’m no Liahpa, but I think I can drag this whole thing back to the nook. What do you think?”

  Bruce let out a honk and seemed to shrug his narrow shoulders.

  “You don’t even know her,” I laughed. “She’s really cool. You’ll like her. You’ll like Sheela, Trel, Galmine, Kacerie, and Emerald too. Ahh, I guess we have Nomi, Keefaye, Adella, Urka, Youleena, Zoru, Emta, and Quwaru now as well. I don’t know them too well, but they seem nice.”

  Bruce honked again, and I lifted up one of the bound ends of the log stack and began to pull it into the narrow hallway. The whole group of logs probably weighed four hundred pounds, and I was a bit surprised by how easy it was for me to drag it. When I made it back to the hidden spring, I wasn’t even breathing hard, but my mind was spinning with all the tasks I needed to get done quickly.

  “These vines will probably work for cordage,” I said as I looked at the big pile I had on top of the logs. “Might be a little too thick, but it looks like I can split it and then weave it easy enough. The logs I just brought over I can cut into two or three pieces to make the bones of my hut and a raised bed, so all I really need is a fire, some food to cook for dinner, and some ferns or palm fronds for a roof. Bruce, I’m guessing you are really good at fishing, you wanna catch us some dinner while I get a fire ready?”

  Bruce let out a happy honk, and then he hopped out of the exit ferns toward the oak and redwood forest before taking to the air.

  I jogged back out to the stegos and climbed up Ad-Rock’s back to get all my wood. It would take me a long time to carry it all down neatly, so I had him back his ass into the narrow opening of the nook, and I just tossed all the sticks I had collected down to the mossy floor. Then I climbed down and ordered the three stegos to do some nearby grazing.

  I gathered some flat stones, laid them in a circle, and then stacked my firewood in an arranged square. I didn’t know anything about starting fire before I came to Dinosaurland, but Sheela had taught me enough to be a master. I called this initial set up a “log cabin” type fire, and it was good for cooking since I could lay a rock on top of the wooden square walls of the cabin for cooking. In the center of my square Lincoln Log design, I put a pile of the dry leaves and bark. I still kept the fluffiest pieces of bark and dried moss separate, and I moved it all onto a flat rock along with two pieces of wood I was going to use to get the initial coal going.

  I took my obsidian knife and cut a bit of a divot in the larger flat stick, and then I trimmed some rough spots off the stick I was going to use as a drill. As soon as I was happy with the new tools, I set the end of the drill into the platform and began to twist it in between my palms with a downward motion. It only took a quarter of a minute to get a little coal going, and I carefully transferred that into the pile of fluffy tinder. A few careful blows created a bunch of smoke a half second before the flame, and then I picked it up in my hands, blew on it a few more times, and then set it into the center of my cabin where the tinder was.

  I smiled as I stared into the fire. The orange flames were beautiful, and every time I started a fire I was reminded of how far I’ve come in the last few months here on Dinosaurland. There wasn’t much call for survival skills in Los Angeles, and I had once been painfully inept at anything “manly”. I doubted I would have been able to start this same fire with a bottle of lighter fluid and a box of matches.

  But now I could survive by myself in a primitive dinosaur world.

  A muffled honk above me reminded me that I wasn’t quite alone, and Bruce dove into the narrow nook with a twist of his wide wings. The horse-sized flyer landed in the center of the grassy area by the start of the spring, and then he hopped over to me and showed me his beak. He had two large fish speared on the long point, and I let out a chuckle when I pulled them off.

  “Dang, you are a good hunter!” I said as soon as the fish were on the ground. “Do you want me to cook one up for you, or--”

  Bruce interrupted me with a negative honk, and I guessed that he had eaten on the fly and was bringing both of these for me.

  A few minutes later, I had cleaned and gutted the fish with my obsidian knife and laid the feast on a rock over the fire to cook. While it roasted, I moved back over to my trees, and began to measure them for cutting.

  “It’s getting a little colder out,” I said to Bruce as I started to chop into what would be the beams of the fort. “I can probably sleep on the floor tonight, but I think it might be worth it to make a raised bed that I can bring with us. What do you think?”

  Bruch let out a helpful honk, and I smiled over at him as I finished chopping through the last tree.

  Each of the trees were cut to a uniform height of about ten feet, I grabbed a four foot long stake and pounded it into the ground with a big flat rock. I used this as the center guide f
or the hut, and I laid one of the trees against the stake to use as a diameter measuring device while I took another stake and pounded in eight more post holes in a circle.

  As soon as the holes were pounded, I took each of the posts and slammed them down into them. The fit was perfect, and only one of the posts wiggled when it was in the hole. I could have fixed the problem by packing some dirt in there, but all the posts were going to be connected at the roof point and along the sides, so I figured it would be fine.

  I took three more five foot poles and used the vines to tie them together in a teepee shape. Then I bound two branches horizontally on one side to create a step stool. This helped me get high enough to grab all the tips of the posts, and I joined them all in the center with an expert tie of the vines.

  Ideally, I’d use some sort of cane or long green bark to thread between the posts of the hut to create cross sections for my roof thatching to lay, but I still had to harvest the ferns or palm fronds from the other side of the long rock corridor. I was running out of time, so I decided to just use vines instead and wound long strands around and between all eight of the posts; leaving a space for a doorway.

  The fish were done roasting on the rock by the time I’d gotten the framework up, so I took a quick break to eat and drink from the spring. The fish was delicious, and I thanked Bruce after every few bites. The pteranodon replied to each of my words with a happy honk, and he kind of let out a squeaky purr when I petted him after I had finished eating.

  “We are losing light,” I said to Bruce as I glanced up to the top of the cliffs that surrounded us. The sky was still blue, but the hidden nature of the nook where I was building my fort ensured that I’d lose the sunlight as soon as it began to set. “I’m going to go look for roof material. I can put it all together and lay it on top of the hut using the firelight, but I don’t want to be out in the jungle gathering it in the darkness.”