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Post by Infinity Blade on Jul 18, 2019 0:55:19 GMT 5
My idea is that I make my two protagonists feel the true weight of being forgotten and insignificant during the Oligocene chapter. I'm still writing the Eocene chapter (thinking about transitioning to the main conflict of the chapter right about now), but since it's only been two days, the characters may not have fully felt the overarching implications of their time travel experiences.
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Post by creature386 on Jul 18, 2019 1:29:37 GMT 5
Definitely. The midway mark is generally a good place to hit the lowest point of dispair as you wouldn't want to have the turning point too early.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jul 24, 2019 2:35:11 GMT 5
I'm done chapter 4. I kind of just wanted to get the ending over with. creature386, this is just to notify you once you come back. A New Actor Every Scene
Chapter 4
China (Inner Mongolia), 36 million years ago (Priabonian)
Vibrations coming from thumping footsteps disturbed Hem’yoc and Flurr’dkick from their slumber; the two woke up right next to each other. The footsteps were becoming more apparent, and the two quickly sped out of the way of the beast that would have crushed them.
This beast, an adult male Embolotherium andrewsi, was enormous. And a mammal. Although not quite as big as some of the dinosaurs they had seen in their Mesozoic lives, this behemoth would have absolutely dwarfed any of the animals the two had seen during their day in the Paleocene. A 20 kilogram Periptychus? Please, this thing was a hundred times bigger than that. It had light grey skin covered in dust, and in a few respects reminded both Hem’yoc and Flurr’dkick of a Triceratops. Short, robust legs, a bulky body, and a heavy head held by a short, muscular neck. But the similarities ended there. The two tiny animals stared at the megamammal as it fed on some leaves.
Eventually the Embolotherium noticed the two staring at him with mouths and eyelids agape. “What’re you puny losers lookin’ at?”, he said in a low, one might say badass voice.
Flurr’dkick stuttered, “W…w…well, you almost walked right on top of us while we were sleeping and, uh…”.
“Outta my way, tiny wimps”, he said, almost trampling the two again as he left the area.
After the Embolotherium was out of sight and hearing range, Hem’yoc swore at megamammal while flipping him off behind his back.
“Be careful with Big Bron, he’s not a nice guy at all”. Hem’yoc and Flurr’dkick turned in the direction of the voice behind them. Of course, it just had to be another giant mammal. An even bigger mammal. The Urtinotherium intermedium towering above them was tall enough to rival a few of the trees in the vicinity, being 3.5 meters tall at the shoulder, and weighing as much as a bull African bush elephant. His long legs seemed quite slim for an animal of his enormous size and stature. A somewhat longish neck supported a head sporting a short proboscis.
“Evidently”. Hem’yoc’s deadpan concealed just how flabbergasted she was at the extreme size of the mammals. Speaking of which, “He’s huge”. Turning towards the Urtinotherium, she looked up and down before saying “But you. I think you’re as big as a F***ing Tyrannosaurus rex”.
The hyracodont’s face immediately contorted into a puzzled look and raised an eyebrow. “Tyranno…what now?”.
It was Flurr’dkick’s turn to be nonplussed. “Uhh…Tyrannosaurus rex…ya ever heard of the thing? Gigantic meat-eating dinosaur, walked on two legs...“.
“Oh, that’s just silly!”, the Urtinotherium said picking his chipper tone back up. “At best I may have heard of a few weird birds mentioning legends about how big they used to be millions of years ago. Of course, we have to take such claims with a grain of salt. I mean, a bird that big!”, chuckled the indricothere.
The two former Cretaceous denizens remained silent. A bird that big? Tyrannosaurus rex was no bird. Did animals in this time period think ‘bird’ and ‘dinosaur’ were interchangeable terms? “Well, it wasn’t a bird per se”, replied Hem’yoc.
“Well, if it wasn’t a bird then what was it? They’re the only creatures that walk on two legs as far as I can tell”; the indricothere sounded ever so slightly intrigued.
“Well, it didn’t really have a whole lot of feathers, not like Flurr’dkick over here. Just some small strands of feathers here and there. Also it had some tiny arms. Well, big to tiny creatures like us, but small compared to the rest of it, with two fingers on the end of each. It had a long tail, a big head filled with sharp serrated teeth, and…yeah”.
The Urtinotherium paused for a brief moment. Once Hem’yoc’s description failed to take any semblance of a form in his mind, the hyracodont tersely replied “I have never heard of that”. It was clear now that wherever in the space-time continuum they landed, Hem’yoc and Flurr’dkick’s time period - their world - was long forgotten. A long silence followed before the two got their bearings (at least somewhat) straight and left the Urtinotherium on his own.
Almost an hour passed. Because Hem’yoc was a herbivore, finding food was somewhat more of a challenge for her than for Flurr’dkick; the vegetation in this world of megamammals wasn’t completely the same. Flurr’dkick, though, could just hunt for some small bugs, and he’d be fine. Maybe it was just the particular habitat in the world, but this place, wherever it was, was far less densely packed with trees than yesterday’s era.
The crack of a twig prompted Hem’yoc’s head to twitch up almost instantaneously. Flurr’dkick froze and then raised his head. A light brown Mongolestes sniffed out the two from a few feet away, being completely unfamiliar with the scent of these foreigners. A brief glimpse of his fangs was enough to alarm the two vermin.
“You two don’t seem to be from around here…what is it that brings you here?”, he asked with suspicion.
“I-…it’s a complicated story”, mumbled Hem’yoc. For a moment, the mesonychid raised an eyebrow at her answer. Taking in a deep breath, the Mongolestes then ordered for the two to follow. As Flurr’dkick looked at everything around him, finding some joy (sometimes trying) at some of the plants, scenery, and even others animals around him, Hem’yoc could still think of nothing other than the changes the world had undergone since her own time. Despite knowing the futility of persuading the mesonychid of her true origins, she explained them to him anyway.
“So, about where we came from. We…well…we’re not from this time period. You see, we’re originally from a time where mammals were tiny and reptiles were huge. I had a litter of pups, mostofwhomwereeatenwithonlyoneleftaliveandnowthey’reallgonandtheworldaroundushasbeeninexplicablychangingforusliterallyeverydayforthepastcoupleofdaysand-“.
“Yer starting to talk like me here, Hem”, Flurr’dkick said cracking up. Hem’yoc looked up at the Mongolestes, who simply had a puzzled, dare she say slightly irritated, face from her breathless rambling.
Hem’yoc continued, “Sorry. The point is, we’re from a different place from a different time, and somehow it seems like we’re traveling forward in time every day, and we don’t know how to stop it or when it will stop”.
The Mongolestes bluntly responded with “How do you expect me to believe your extraordinary claims of time travel? What compels me to not walk away silently from you two with a bewildered look on my face?”.
The multituberculate was at a loss for words. How could she possibly provide such a satisfactory answer? She simply mumbled “Well…you said it yourself, we’re not from here”.
“Unfamiliar you may be, but a small mammal and bird aren’t out of place here, or anywhere else in the world”.
For a moment, there was an awkward silence. It was after this point that Flurr’dkick interjected. “Ooh! We don’t know the names of any of the animals at this point in time. And that includes elsewhere in the world!”.
“One could be ignorant of the outside world and its inhabitants if they were living under a rock, whether figuratively or literally. It may seem like a strange charge, but it’s far more plausible than time travel”. Unsatisfied with their previous answer, the Mongolestes asked again, “So, like I said, how do you expect me to believe your extraordinary claims of time travel?”.
Frustration boiling inside her, Hem’yoc was about to snap out at the mesonychid, but still lacked any good answer. Just before she could let out a yelp, Flurr’dkick told the Mongolestes “Look, I get where yer comin’ from, but no matter how insane you think we are, we aren’t gonna backtrack on what we said about coming from a time millions of years before on a different continent. It’s your choice to waste your time arguing with us back and forth going “No you’re not” and “Yes we are”, or, to make things just somewhat easier for yourself, you could, in your mind, play along. Hint: it’s better than the other option and you’ll save us, well, mostly Hem here, the anguish over being called crazy over something that’s true. Or true at least in her mind, in your mind. You get what I’m sayin’?”.
The three stopped at a water hole filled with animals, where the carnivorous mammal decided to quench his thirst, and believed the two insane strangers might as well. He thought for a brief moment before sighing in resignation and deciding to go along with Flurr’dkick’s latter proposal. “Very well”. But before the Mongolestes could say another word, a voice that was all too well known in this habitat went through his ears.
“Outta my way wimps. This is my watering hole”. It was Big Bron, coming down to the watering hole and forcing smaller animals out of his way. The Mongolestes frowned in disappointment when seeing who had arrived at the watering hole. The brontothere shoved away Amynodontopsis in his path. He seemed to enjoy terrorizing this. A little too much, in fact. In fact, once he got his fill of water, he continued his harassment of the smaller fauna. Big Bron charged at some gracile-legged rhinos (Ulania), knocking one down to the ground with his body and repeatedly stomping on it with one forefoot while emitting low-pitched laughter. Just as she was with the two crocodilians from the previous epoch, Hem’yoc was angered at the sight of the brontothere’s sadism. Both Flurr’dkick and the Mongolestes were hesitant to let her do something. The stomping stopped when Big Bron heard angry grumbling noises clearly directed at him, turning to see three angry Schizotherium glaring at him. With a deep, almost superhero-like voice, one chalicothere declared “Stop this at once, hooligan! This watering hole is meant to be a place of refuge from the grim law of the jungle. A place of camaraderie and merriment among the beasts who call this habitat home”.
Hem’yoc scoffed at the chalicothere’s hammy speech, and whispered to Flurr’dkick “What cushy childhood did this…thing, have, to call any place ‘a refuge from the law of the jungle?’”. Flurr’dkick simply shrugged.
The Schizotherium continued, “What has anyone here done to deserve your incessant, brutal tormenting? Keep to yourself or leave this place at once!”.
“Is that a threat?”, Big Bron growled menacingly.
The clawed herbivore replied, “It is but a simple choice. Although, comply with neither option, and…”. He and his posse each brandished a hand ending in sharp claws. Big Bron’s eye twitched at the sight of the hooks tipping the end of the beast’s fingers, and promptly, he ran towards the chalicotheres. Because the bony “battering ram” buried under flesh was hollow (something that always bothered him), Big Bron was weary of using it to ram his head into the still rather large chalicotheres. In lieu of this he slammed into one of the chalicotheres as it fumbled to evade his charge and slash his sides. Slamming into it hard with his shoulder, he knocked the chalicothere and it went down painfully. The two other chalicotheres ambled towards Big Bron and their comrade, digging their claws into Big Bron’s hide. But apart from inflicting some deep lacerations into Bron’s skin, this was a largely fruitless endeavor. The giant Embolotherium easily knocked down his two fellow perissodactyls and stomped on the skull of one. He incessantly crushed the three chalicotheres underfoot, letting off a sickening laugh as he did so. Suddenly, Big Bron felt a sharp pain attacking the deep, bleeding cuts the chalicotheres left behind. The Mongolestes had dug his canine teeth into the wounds and ripped further into them. He yelled out to Hem’yoc and Flurr’dkick to run from the scene, but was promptly slammed into a tree as the brontothere sought a way to shake the mesonychid off of him.
Hem’yoc wanted to help, but she could think of little to stop the mad beast as he repeatedly kicked the Mongolestes around and struck him with his bone horn. In several seconds Flurr’dkick thought of a few ways to stop Big Bron, ranging from kicking dust in his eyes to other, more ridiculous plans. Hem’yoc panicked and simply decided to throw some rocks at the brute. But just as it seemed like the Embolotherium was about to kill the Mongolestes for good, the strange, pulsing sound from yesterday (or rather, yesteryear?) made itself known to the ears of the animals at the watering hole, and Big Bron let out a loud bellow in pain. His largest cut, left by the chalicotheres and made larger by the Mongolestes’ teeth, was now burning. The beast made a dash into the water, but suddenly the pulsing noise was heard again. Suddenly, the entire watering hole had evaporated, leaving nothing but the debris that was once beneath the water. And Big Bron’s charred skeleton, devoid of any soft tissue, now collapsing into a jumbled pile of bones, emitting the smell of burnt flesh. Every animal at the watering hole could only stare in shock at what they had just witnessed, dumbfounded and at a loss for explanation.
“You know what Hem? I think I’ve seen enough for today. I’m just gonna sit down here until I fall asleep at dusk and wait for whatever crazy time period we end up in next”. Hem’yoc reacted with only a slightly nod in agreement. Once dusk arrived, her thought her last thoughts before falling asleep. On the one hand, where was this…force…when her litter was being assaulted by the Anzu? On the other hand, surely the time it evaporated the hole watering hole it must have killed every organism living in there too. Would it have even helped her litter and not reduced them to a pile of burnt bones? |
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Post by creature386 on Jul 30, 2019 21:50:05 GMT 5
Nice!
We're seeing more of the time wizard shenanigans in action. Definitely enough buildup to get me hyped for chapter 5.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Aug 15, 2019 6:24:17 GMT 5
What I need right now is a good time (within the Oligocene epoch) and place for my fifth chapter to take place in. While I do want to cover as much of the world as possible, I need the Oligocene chapter to take place in a continent or other landmass where rodents exist. I'm currently thinking Europe. |
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Post by Infinity Blade on Dec 22, 2019 8:49:33 GMT 5
I've recently gotten back into my story after stalling for five months. I felt like there was so little information on the specific time and place of my intended fifth chapter. I'm going to use this page-> for reference. |
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 4, 2020 8:52:26 GMT 5
I'm still working on my fifth chapter for A New Actor Every Scene. In the meantime, though, I've also worked on two one-shots for Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal. One is shorter than the other. I'll let you guys read the shorter one (I'm still working on the longer one). This one pertains to the fifth episode, the last one that has aired up to this point. If you want to get a better idea of what this one-shot references, I recommend that you watch the episode. Psst. Try kimcartoon. |
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Post by creature386 on Mar 8, 2020 22:02:46 GMT 5
www.wattpad.com/story/212578156-life-before-man-fabian%27s-journey/rankingsLife Before Man: Fabian's Journey has become the 18th highest ranking documentary story on Wattpad. It is also the 7th highest ranking paleontology story and the 5th highest ranking story about zoology. Admittedly, these aren't very competitive categories, but still. I didn't expect anyone outside of these forums to read it at all. One fan even requested a sequel.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Mar 16, 2020 9:14:21 GMT 5
I uhh...I decided to finish up my fifth chapter of my story series this particular night for no particular reason. I guess I just really wanted to continue it and show that it's not completely dead. Sorry if it's not very good. A New Actor Every Scene
Chapter 5
France, 33 million years ago (Rupelian)
“Hem’yoc. Oi, Hem, wake up, wake up”. The blurred voice of Flurr’dkick resonated through Hem’yoc’s eardrums as she slowly opened her eyes while blinking. What really woke her up was an ear-splitting “HEM’YOOOOOCCCC!!!!!” from the bird. When she woke up, she could see Flurr’dkick staring at her, with some big, freaky-looking mammal staring at Flurr’dkick with a concerned expression. This creature had a bulky body with a short, thick neck. The massive head was adorned with two skin-covered bony flanges jutting out of its cheeks, along with two, no, maybe four smaller skin-covered bony protrusions projecting from below its jaw bone. It had relatively thin legs and seemed to bear all of its weight on two toenails on each foot. Hem’yoc stared at the beast like a deer caught in headlights, with Flurr’dkick giving her a subtle “…Yup…” look.
“Wh-…what the f-“, Hem’yoc said with wide eyes before being cut off.
Suddenly the creature grew an irritated facial expression. “Ugh, my kind are beautiful in our own way! Why does everyone have to be so expressive of how “ugly” we entelodonts supposedly are?!”, she ranted.
“Wh-, no!”, Hem’yoc responded with a slight tinge of exasperation. “I’m just confused, I’ve…never seen anything like you...”, trailing off as she finished her sentence.
The entelodont raised an eyebrow. “Well, come to think of it, I’ve lived in this here habitat for some years now, and I’ve never seen anything by the likes of you. Did you get drifted off from your homeland in some storm or something?”. Hem’yoc replied with a ‘no’, but wished that that was all that happened. Seeing how forlorn the multituberculate looked, and how low-key lost Flurr’dkick looked, the Entelodon offered to let the two to relax in her territory for as long as they felt; Hem’yoc “guess[ed]” so, while Flurr’dkick was fine as long as he got some insects to eat. Soon after, the Entelodon left to go find some food, and left the two Cretaceous strangers to their own devices in her turf.
“Welp, insect eating time!”, Flurr’dkick declared in a chipper voice. “Traveling in through the future don’t mean I can’t enjoy myself with precious meal time, does it?”.
“Shouldn’t we stay here?”, Hem’yoc inquired.
“Ahhhh, I don’t expect to go too far. If ya need me, just yell out or some shit…”.
Hem’yoc decided she might as well forage for some food too when she and another small mammal accidentally bumped into each other. “HEY WATCH IT FOOL!”, shrieked the little animal. This made Hem’yoc lose her temper.
“Well, maybe you should follow your own advice! You weren’t looking just as much as I wasn’t”.
“DON’T YOU SASS ME! DON’T YOU TRY TO PIN ANY BLAME ON ME! I’VE GOT A LITTER TO FEED, I’M FLUSTERED!”.
In a deadpan snarky tone the multituberculate replied “Didn’t turn me into a bumbling buffoon”. This earned Hem’yoc a tackle from the creature, and a fight ensued. Already Hem’yoc had her shoulder apprehended in her foe’s mouth, and it was surprisingly painful. In fact, this little mammal was a rodent, and her chisel-shaped teeth had started cutting on her shoulder. In turn, Hem’yoc raked furiously at the rodent with all the strength from her forelimbs she could muster. She kept reaching out with her mouth to literally bite back at the rodent, but she was too out of reach. Eventually, Hem’yoc plunged a claw into the rodent’s ear, causing her to squeak out in pain and to let go. The two tiny mammals faced each other. Hem’yoc took a quick look at her shoulder and it turned out she had inflicted some surprising damage to her. But while she could still fight, the rodent was reeling in pain.
“YOU WRETCHED LITTLE BEAST, YOU STUCK YOUR FILTHY CLAWS IN MY EAR! Now what?! Now I can’t hear out of it!!! What if some carnivore sneaks up on me and I can’t hear it??!!”.
Hem’yoc smirked. “Should have thought of that before you literally lunged at me for no good reason”.
“I. Have. PUPS TO FEED! You crippled a mother you jerkass!”.
“Then how come you can still hear me?”.
“I’M JUST A MOM TRYING TO FEED HER PUPS!!!!”, the rodent angrily repeated in her high-pitched voice.
“You’re not special! So am I-err…was…”, Hem’yoc said, quietly trailing at the end.
“Was? A mother?”, the rodent asked. There was a brief pause before the rodent began chuckling and maliciously laughing. “Aww, poor little spotted B**** lost her pups!”, she said, followed by a laugh. Hem’yoc let out probably the most seething, blood-lusted growl in her life, which caught the rodent’s attention. “Wait, you don’t sound anything like any other small mammal I’ve met before”. She took a closer look at Hem’yoc’s bared teeth as the latter continued growling. “Wait…are you one of those ancient mammals with those serrated cutting teeth in your mouth? You are! I’ve seen those teeth still kept in some cave; the carvings say that they all disappeared at some point. Guess not but…you’re the only living one I’ve ever seen. You’ve got to be near extinction!”. Upon this realization the rodent kept on laughing at Hem’yoc. “How does it feel to be a species that was a total failure? How does it feel to have no young to speak of? How does it—“. She was cut off by Hem’yoc tackling her, as well as, to Hem’yoc’s surprise, Flurr’dkick now joining in the scuffle. The Meniscoessus bit onto the snout of the rodent, causing the latter’s nose to literally bleed into her mouth as her conical front teeth sunk further in. Hem’yoc likewise repeatedly rammed her claws into the rodent mother’s eyes and throat. Flurr’dkick just did was he was best at, kicking with his legs. He had actually managed to inflict some long, deep wounds on the rodent’s back and sides. Before long, the rodent was dead.
Though still very much seething with rage at the rodent’s mockery of her dead litter, Hem’yoc was still slightly surprised at Flurr’dkick’s sudden appearance, and took a glance at him.
“I uhh…overheard what she said. I…I couldn’t let her get away with that”. Hem’yoc’s head turned back to the ground, and eventually her anger turned to despair.
“My…my kind didn’t even make it this far. Even if my pups did survive our kind would just have all died out at this point…”, she softly stated. The Entelodon, with a dead Anthracotherium in her mouth, had returned by this point, and was now in shock at the scene before her. She immediately dropped the carcass in her mouth and slowly approached the defeated-looking Hem’yoc and concerned Flurr’dkick. The “terminator pig” could think of nothing to say but “I’m sorry”; her kind was still very much doing well. “You two are more than welcome to spend the night here”, the entelodont added. And so they did. |
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Post by 6f5e4d on Apr 28, 2020 15:50:21 GMT 5
Whew, had to read through all the stuff on this thread, and I can safely say, these stories are good.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jun 6, 2020 1:33:55 GMT 5
I am currently working on the Miocene chapter for my ongoing story. I think I have just now thought of a suitable main antagonist(s). Next chapter (for the Pliocene) I'm thinking I'll give the main characters a break with something trying to kill them, but only for that one time.
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Post by Supercommunist on Jun 6, 2020 22:54:26 GMT 5
You guys hear of Sousei no Taiga? It's a manga where a group of Japanese people are sent back in prehistoric times. The plot is nothing spectacular but the animals in it are drawn well, behave semi-realistically, and it can be occasionally educational. You can easily find it free online, so if you have some time to kill you could check it out.  |
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jun 7, 2020 8:19:36 GMT 5
Sixth chapter is out. When writing this chapter I think it became more apparent than ever that I'm really making this stuff up as I go. Except for the ultimate direction (my plans for that are still the same as they were a year ago). creature386 A New Actor Every Scene
Chapter 6
Argentina, 8 million years ago (Tortonian)
With a wounded shoulder and the emotional turmoil that occurred the previous “day”, our multituberculate was not in the least pleased to wake up to the smell of rotting flesh. Blinking her eyes open, Hem’yoc eventually realized she was looking at a truly enormous set of teeth grinning at her. She yelped and blitzed backwards, tripping over a sleeping Flurr’dkick. Predictably, the bird had gotten a rude awakening, and screeched at Hem’yoc. It didn’t take long for him to notice the huge toothy cadaver lying in front of them. The sight was enough to earn a light squeak from him.
The corpse of an enormous beached Livyatan lay baking under the hot sun, its flesh being torn at by scavenging birds. Hem’yoc and Flurr’dkick gaped at the sheer size of the beast. Both had seen beached mosasaurs washed up on Hell Creek’s shores, and of course, encountered several Tyrannosaurus in their lives; their fearsome jaws and teeth were enough to leave any tiny creature like them in awe. But this, this…monster, put them all to shame.
After a few moments of staring, Flurr’dkick ruffled his feathers and cleared his eyes with his nictitating membranes to clear his thoughts and sight. He walked over to the hulking carcass, found a patch of torn skin and exposed flesh, and contently started picking off tiny bits of meat. Big and frightening as this thing may have been, in death it is nothing more than a jackpot of food. The massive horde of gulls and other scavenging birds gorging on top of the Livyatan evidently agree. As Flurr’dkick picked at the whale’s flesh, he noticed Hem’yoc still lying on the wet sand, looking forlorn. Learning that her kind was no more took a huge mental toll. She could only hope these torturous episodes through time would end soon, whether through their actual end or the end of her own life, she no longer cared. In fact, now that she thought about it, Hem’yoc would have preferred to die back in Hell Creek if she knew what was in store for her. Whatever thing, or perchance whatever beast was causing all of this pain definitely had to be to most savage and cruelest creature of all.
Hem’yoc only briefly glanced up at the scavenging birds calling out to the two former Hell Creek denizens, only to return her gaze down at the wet sandy ground. Flurr’dkick was more responsive. One of the birds on top of the carcass called out “Oi, we skinned the monster quite a bit up here! You’ll get easier pickings up on the top! Want a lift?”.
“Hell Creek yeah!”, shouted Flurr’dkick. The completely unfamiliar expression aside, the bird flew down, grabbed Flurr’dkick with his feet, and carried him up to the top of the Livyatan’s carcass. The bird noticed Hem’yoc motionless and seemingly depressed.
“‘Ey, ya want me to get that lass down there?”, inquired the bird.
Flurr’dkick took one look at Hem’yoc, and concluded that it would probably be a bad idea to bother her, lest he sour her mood further. “Hmm, probably best not to bother her”.
“Ayy. Well, that makes more for us then!”. After a prompt hardy laugh from the bird, the scavengers continued to feast. Flurr’dkick couldn’t help but notice the appearance of the bird who gave him a lift. This was an Argentavis. He was quite big for a bird. Actually, no, he was really big. His wingspan was unbelievably wide. His head and neck were bald and his beak was hooked. There was no doubt in Flurr’dkick’s mind that had he been around during the days of Hell Creek, he’d have been able to give some of the pterosaurs pause. His neck violently rocked back and forth every time he grabbed a piece of meat, using his feet for further leverage. Heh, he reminded Flurr’dkick of the toothy theropods back in his day. Simultaneously it was both surprising, given how long it must have been, and it wasn’t, since that was just what theropods did, really.
Pretty soon some beachcombers were visible, and they were heading out of a nearby jungle and towards the carcass. Two of them could be seen: the one to the left was a quadrupedal mammal, with long upper fangs fitted into what seemed to be bony flanges of the same shape as the fangs. His toes were scarcely, if at all, covered in hair, and his forearms were shockingly muscular. His fur was mostly dark brown with some beige spots. To his right was a tall flightless bird with an enormous head ending in a frightening hooked beak, mounted on a somewhat long but muscular neck. Her feet were armed with sharp hooked talons on them. The feathers were dark black, but became more grey and white as they went further down to her underside. Together, the duo looked like they could be the apex predators of this land. That was odd: did these theropods come to rule alongside mammals between “yesterday” and now? Hem’yoc expected the two to make trouble, maybe even put an end to her misery, but surprisingly they just walked past her, both slowing down for a moment to glance at her before continuing towards the dead Livyatan. “How’s it going, Arjay?”, yelled the toothy beast.
The Argentavis, who was apparently named Arjay (an…odd choice for a name), was quick to respond to this acquaintance of his. “Oi! Thylan! Ya made it! But the best meat is up here! How da ya suppose yar goin’ to get up here? Did Devin learn to fly with those wings of hers?”. Apparently the big walking bird’s name was Devin; again, a rather odd choice for a name.
“No need to”, replied Devin. “If you can pick at this whale, I can too!”. She took another brief look at Hem’yoc behind her, and then turned her attention back to the carcass. Thylan, a Thylacosmilus, wasn’t able to get a good grip on the wide body of the Livyatan. Hem’yoc watched Devin, a Devincenzia, picked at the corpse with a closed beak, tearing into the skin and allowing her to bite off chunks of flesh for herself and her saber-toothed friend. Pfft. How does that thing get by eating with teeth that big in the way? Did he only hunt much smaller animals? Did he always need this bird to tear off morsels for him? What a goofy-toothed freak.
She muttered that last one out a little too audibly, apparently, as the terror bird quickly turned her head and glanced at Hem’yoc and made a low-pitched cassowary-like growl towards her. Hem’yoc kept thinking to herself that she didn’t care what happened to her, but Devin’s response briefly startled her indeed. Thylan was unsure of what the commotion was. “Why don’t you tell Thylan what it is you said about him out loud?”, she said to Hem’yoc. Her knee-jerk response was a hiss, and soon Hem’yoc and Devin got into a hissing match, which Thylan quickly put an end to. Extremely irritated, Hem’yoc announced to Flurr’dkick that she was heading into the jungle. Thylan was about to try talking her out of it, but Devin stopped him.
Hem’yoc ambled into the jungle alone. That wannabe dromaeosaur can go bite one of these thorny plants. But, now that she thought about it…what are these plants? Hem’yoc has seen nothing like them. They were green, long, and pole-like, divided into segments by these light brown ridges. She got closer and tried to take a bite out of one of these plants. Although her teeth were adapted for biting through tough, fibrous plant matter, she noticed that this unfamiliar plant was kind of splintery. Not wanting to risk any of these puncturing her throat, she spit the contents out, removed any remaining bits with her paws, and moved on; bamboo was not something she was meant to ingest. Hem’yoc might not have cared much for her fate at this point, but she didn’t want to prolong her own suffering. Some fallen Syagrus seeds proved more promising. Eventually Hem’yoc made her way to a watering hole connected to a stream. Maybe she could just drown herself here and be done with this entire ordeal. Slowly, Hem’yoc dipped her head in the water, but eventually was tempted to open her one remaining eye. Turtles and cynodontids (dogtooth characins) could be seen, as could an uninterested broad-snouted caiman who probably had eaten his fill recently. She even saw a swimming mammal with grasping hands and webbed feet. His fur was dark grey or blackish on top, while white on the underside. Before the creature turned his head toward her, Hem’yoc quickly pulled her head out of the water. Hem’yoc wasn’t even sure what she was doing anymore. Why did she still feel scared when that swimming mammal was about to see her? Could it be…she didn’t want to die just yet?
Hem’yoc moved to another area at the riverbank and tried to see what she could do there. She decided to submerge her entire body in the river this time. It wasn’t long before the multituberculate found herself in trouble. A fish had swam up to her and attempted to take a bite out of Hem’yoc; she reacted just barely enough to get off with a grazed wound to her right hindlimb. But quickly the fish had turned around and was coming toward her again. This kind of fish was strange to Hem’yoc, but it is known to us as Megapiranha. It had a very deep body, having a fat teardrop shape when viewed from the side. Its lower jaw seemed to be slanted upwards. The worst thing about it were all the serrated teeth and powerful jaws. Actually, no. It was the teeth, plus the fact that it was noticeably bigger than herself. Hem’yoc was surely doomed here. There was no way she could out-swim this predator. As the Megapiranha was gaining on her, she prepared for the worst, try as she might to avoid the cruel jaws of this fish. But suddenly, there was a huge splash in the water behind Hem’yoc. The Megapiranha blitzed through the water away from the scene, and Hem’yoc was grabbed and tossed out of the water just as quickly before she could react. Suddenly she was on dry land, and surrounded by several large flightless birds: Andalgalornis. Hem’yoc noticed how similar they looked to the Devincenzia she had met earlier, but they were individually smaller than her. They were much lighter colored too, being white and light grey in plumage. Four of these birds gazed down upon her, their faces mostly obscured in darkness as their silhouettes were made visible by the sunlight penetrating the forest canopy.
The one that plucked Hem’yoc out of the water approached her. “Just for reference, there are plenty of dangerous predators out here who’d love to make a meal out of a small creature like you”, followed by a sinister giggle. Hem’yoc rashly bit the leg of one of the terror birds in an attempt to break their circle and escape. But this only earned her getting flung into a tree.
“Ohoho, a fighter aren’t ya?”, said the bitten Andalgalornis, with a hint of anger and venom in his voice. Hem’yoc’s collision with the tree hurt, but she quickly recovered and attempted to flee. Unfortunately, one of the Andalgalornis quickly pinned her to the ground with one foot, his talons sinking into her hip to prevent escape. Hem’yoc screeched in pain and struggled in vain. The bird she had bitten walked up to her angrily.
“I oughta-“.
“Calm yourself”, the leader cut him off. “We’re going to have all the fun we want with this one right about now”. Lowering his head down to Hem’yoc’s level, he opened his mouth and was about to clamp down on her abdomen, only to stop himself. “No, no, we’ll gut you a little later. First…”. The Andalgalornis leader bit off the very tip of Hem’yoc’s tail, which earned a screech from her. Then one of the terror birds picked her by a hindlimb, lifted her up with his long muscular neck, and slammed her on the ground. He did this a second time, before attempting this on a small rock he found. The last thing Hem’yoc saw before losing consciousness was the Andalgalornis pack surrounding her.
Late evening
Hem’yoc opened her eyes and saw that it was dusk on the same beach she had woken up on. The saber-toothed freak, the black-feathered terror bird, the huge scavenging bird, several gulls, and even that swimming mammal, a yapok, were looking straight at her. Flurr’dkick’s voice got closer and closer. He sounded frantic. “Oh awesome…you’re alive…”, he sighed.
“I’m sorry”, Devin said. “I thought the Light Feather gang was somewhere else today. They were supposed to be exploring some new hunting grounds for a few weeks, but I didn’t think they’d be back so early. I shouldn’t have let you go off like that”.
Thylan interjected, “Your friend here wanted to go find you in the jungle at one point. When we found you in the clutches of those ruffians, you were completely knocked out. I can’t imagine what we would have done if we decided to find you later”.
“…Wh…Where’s Flurr’dkick?”, inquired the beaten Meniscoessus. Immediately the small bird stepped forward closer to Hem’yoc.
“A part of me just wanted to be done with all this. But I guess…I still had some will to keep going, seeing how much I tried fighting my way out of that death trap. Flurr’dkick, I…I don't know what to do or what I'm doing anymore”.
"Well, if I may butt in here", the yapok responded. "I'm not really the best at knowing what to say to someone in your situation and your set of emotions, but, I think if there's one thing this whole ordeal has shown us...it's that you're stronger than you think".
"I wholeheartedly agree", concurred Thylan.
“Well, ya best get some rest tonight before ya continue yer quest to take on the world”, Arjay advised. With that, the flying birds flew off to their roosting spots, the yapok returned to the stream, and the ground dwellers slumbered on the beach under the late Miocene sky.I used this fossil formation-> as a guide to the flora and fauna. |
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all
Junior Member
Posts: 238
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Post by all on Jun 10, 2020 20:47:14 GMT 5
I would give you couple of creatures but Dinosauria pretty much named all of them
However I would add Dunkleosteus, Megalodon, Livyatan I mean there is nothing stopping you from having part of the story at sea.
In addition Titanoboa might be useful and ancient piranha sorry I forgot its name
Scorpions and Centipedes of Carboniferous era would be interesting addition
I'n not sure if anyone mentioned terror birds, marsupial lion, haast's eagle, and megalania.
Giant crocodiles are dangerous in and near the water but on land they are significantly less dangerous. Pristichampsus on the other hand was a crocodile that lived on land and could run with considerable speed. With its strong armor and serrated teeth he might be an interesting part of the story
I'm not sure if bear-dogs were mentioned sorry there were lots of posts before me I didn't reed them all. but if not they could be a part of it
I'm not sure if dire wolves were mentioned
I'm not sure Archaeopteryx was mentioned
Giant amphibians probably were mentioned but I'm not sure about mammal shaped reptiles especially ones that had fur.
If you wish something made up. Make a deinonychus with ability to change colors to blend with its environment, and larger denser brain
Snakes size of king cobra speed of black mamba with venom yield and fang length of Gaboon viper, and toxicity level of Inland taipan
and heat seeking pits like those of pit vipers, capable of spitting the venom would be all in one
Very large red tide created by dinoflagellate spreading Maitotoxin is all too real. But if it was very large red tide but those types of dinoflagellate could produce aerosols like those used by military along with the toxin. And live in fresh water as well as salt water that might be interesting.
I don't know how realistic this is. But a fresh water cone snail but larger and resembling a rock in shape and color that would blend it with the normal stones in the river.
Armed with three instead one harpoon all in separate pharynx with separate harpoons however located near each other. this would allow snail to shot three harpoons with one directly forward and two on diagonally. with three harpoons shot at the same time would look much like trident but with side prongs set diagonally to the outside.
This would allow it to miss with central harpoon but still hit with one of the ones on the side. Having to cross the river with such a snail waiting in there somewhere would be interesting
I know that using electricity is not I not ideal but since there actually are electric eels and some of those creatures don't have to be 100% realistic. 7 m catfish with electric appendages would be able to create mush stronger shock that 600-800 volts.
But if you are willing to bend the rules little bit further. A utahraptor that I put on create your own predator tread with ability to change colors, have both predatory and defensive venom, use heat sensing pits, and having larger denser brain. That would be interesting theropod as well. One thing which i would add but it might be too unrealistic to you. I would allow him to have astrocytes like those of a human being with diameter 2.6 times that of the human and larger in number. To further its intelligence
If having those features in utahraptor seems too unrealistic you can give the astrocye factor to Gigantopihtecus. This creature could be best friend or worst enemy depending on what you want.
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Post by creature386 on Jun 10, 2020 22:09:49 GMT 5
Thanks for the suggestions. I have writing projects higher on my priority list than that, so I likely won't continue any time soon.
That being said, I ditched the idea of writing a Primeval-style time travel story and instead aimed for a rather realistic WWD-style docufiction which would exclude these made-up creatures. I'm aiming for Planet Dinosaur-style accuracy/realism (which doesn't mean I'm good at achieving it, of course).
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