The day passed by quickly for us and there wasn't much to do, instead of playing or fighting with my brothers in the nest. Our parents never left us alone. While one was hunting or striving around in our territory, the other was keeping an eye on us.
Twice in a day, we were allowed to leave the nest and go down, accompanied by our parents, to the big bright lake, near our nest. There we could drink and explore a bit. It was the most exciting thing to do, at least for me. Lenny always seemed a bit scared, when he was out of the nest. And Archie? Well, he was always hunting after some flying insects. Jumping around the huge legs of our mother, while Jake never left my side, as if he wanted to protect me. I always wondered why, but after our first fight, he always was like that. A personal bodyguard, if you want to call it so. I thought it was cute and also was astonished by our parents, who managed to not trample on one of us. Accept being that huge and us only as small as a chicken and not even a claw of their hind legs, they were so careful and slow moving.
The nights were a bit colder and at first I couldn't sleep well, because I missed my bed and my blanket. But then I got an idea and got some big leaves, on our drinking walk. They were big enough, to not even cover half of my body, but also being used as a soft sheet. Yep, besides having no very useful arms and hands, I could manage to build me an improvised bed in our nest. My inovation caused my brothers to look a bit sceptical at it and me. And after I smelled something strange, I found out one of them had peed on my leave sheets, one day. I was so angered, that I hunted them down the lake and kicked two of them into the water, after charging into them with my head. At least I avoided to bite them, after I realised how sharp my little teeth were.
But there was also something more. Me being able to look around, I could see a big lake. Our nest and territory was near it. And part of the huge treed forest, that was covering one side of the lake. The other side of the lake was a wide and plane gras field. And from the top of our nest I could see some huge dinosaurs there grazing, or feasting on some of the bushes, that were to find. No doubt, that this was the place, were my parents went to hunt. But the strange thing I discovered was, that I found species there, that I thought never lived in south argentina (at that time) in the first place. There were a couple of Stegosaurids there. Big dinosaurs, that walked on all four legs, with their backs covered in big spikey scales. But the most terrifying on them was their tail, which had four big bonespikes on it and was a very intimidating weapon. Good, I also found some Triceratopsian specimen there. I wasn't as surprised as to discover Stegosaurids, because if I remembered right, they lived in the Jurassic era and not in the early Cretaceous, like the Giganotosaurus did. Discovering that, it gave me a chill feeling and a feeling that something was strange. but maybe I was just irritated. How could a former human like me possibly be sure about, what dinosaurs lived when and where? Maybe those fossils were never found till then and so nobody could say for sure, I thought at night, while I was laying on my side, snuggling my snout into a pile of leaves that I used as a pillow.
My siblings were snorting around me, they didn't seem to have such problems as thoughts, who kept you awake all night. Looking at Lenny, I had to smile again. Lifting my right lip, as I saw him kicking with his left hind leg in the air. At least they must have dreams, I thought and looked up in the night sky. It was one of those clear black sky nights. I could see a lot of stars blinking above my head. A sight, I never got while I lived in the city, back then. It was so beautiful, that I could feel a tear piling up and I quickly blinked it away. But then I froze on the spot, as I looked up to the half moon. Or should I say two half moons? I couldn't believe what I saw and I jumped up and ran to the edge of our nest. My shorter forearms clinged on the edge and I stretched out my body, raised my head and looked in disbelieve at those two half moons I had discovered on the nightsky. This couldn't be possible! Was there ever two moons around the earth? I tried to remember, but I couldn't. All I could was looking on the blueish half moon in the front and the more reddish half moon behind it. It again, gave me chills. Something was strange...I thought and snug back into my leave bed.
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Days passed further and I never could fully ignore that feeling, that something was strange. But also I kinda found something that was a bit more strange. Because after a month or so, me and my brothers grew so much, that we were to big to stay inside the nest anymore. Dinosaurs sure had huge growspurts! I remembered, when I stood in front of a bush, that I, at the beginning, wasn't be able to look over. But now it seemed very small and normal. We must at least be as big as a wolf now, I figured. Still, we were small in comparison with our huge parents. But well, now they were okay with it to leave us roam around the nest a bit more freely. Best thing to discover some more of my new home, I was thinking, while Jake followed me. 'Will you follow me everywhere?' I stopped, turned my head around and gave him kind of a bark, that he stopped and lowered his head. My voice for now was still cute, but also a bit darker now, I figured. I shook my head and returned to follow a trail I found on the ground. And after Jake was sure I didn't want to fight him again, or bite him, he continued to follow me. Well, should he do as he wanted to, I thought and lowered my head, sniffing on those small footprints on the ground. At first I imagined it to be a trail of a very small dinosaur. But after sniffing on it, I wasn't so sure anymore. The scent they gave me seemed familiar, but not in a way that it reminded me on my dinosaur family. No it reminded me, strangely or not, on my girlfriend, back when I was a human. Why I came up with those thoughts, I couldn't tell. So I followed the trail a bit more, until I looked at a hole, which was dug into the ground. The trail ended here and whatever had left it, was now hiding inside this burrow. It was a small burrow and when I sniffed on it's entrance, my snout was covering the hole fully. I could smell a much more intensive smell and even hear some voices. Voices I thought I would never hear around here.
Those were voices of guniea pigs! How could it be that there was a creature that made the exact same voices? I thought, while I stepped back from the entrance. Then I saw Jake, who stood before me. He must have smelled the same thing, but his thoughts were much simpler. He only thought about fresh food and had started to dug his bigger claws into the ground and was digging out the burrow. Soon I saw the noisy little creatures. And it were guniea pigs! White and black ones, those ones with long hairs. Impossible! I thought, until I twitched, as I heard one of the poor little creatures squeak in pain and suddenly be silent forever, while Jake bit into it and squished it to death in his jaws, swallowing down the remains. The other guniea pigs now ran into all directions, when suddenly Archie jumped out of a bush, near Jake and caught another one in his jaws. It reminded me on some raptors, because Lenny was also hiding and caught the next one. It was a feast for my brothers. Good thing my old girlfriend wasn't around, because she would have cried her eyes out, seeing this. I myself sighed and reminded me, that I now was a predator and this was something normal. Also, I never hunted myself. Till now, our food always came from our parents. It was already dead and sometimes it was nearly decaying meat...which I strangely liked. It tasted a bit like cheese.
I felt something between my legs and stumbled backwards, looking down I found another guniea pig, which thought it could hide between my hindlegs. I clenched my eyes. Well...I couldn't be picky or even show my brothers I wasn't able to hunt to. So I opened my jaws and caught the squeaking little thing and squished it so hard between my jaws, that his death cries never apeared. At least a quick death without much pain, I sighed, swallowing it down. 'Thank you little thing' I thought, because it satisfied my hunger a bit an would help me grow much more.
Guinea pigs...impossible that they were around! I was wondering and thinking about it all day. But then I remembered, what Death was telling me, when I was asking him, if he would send me back in time: 'Well, something like that...'
That must be it. The reason that there were guniea pigs around, or two moons up in the sky. I figured it out! I must be on another planet!
Well, little did I know back then. But also I was more excited about being able to not even discover how dinosaurs lived or enjoy how it would be to be one. I also was excited to discover a whole new world. Maybe there are even creatures I never heard of? I could name those! Good. Nobody would ever find out about it. But being the first to name something was always exciting and let me feel like an adventurer.