Sam got shocked in his place as he was looking at what was inside the chamber behind the opening he got into through it. That might be his card to get rid of the trouble he was in. Also, the same thing was what had made the Dinobird's anger burst out as if it sensed what was Sam planning to do.
*QUAKAA!
The Dinobird dashed and jumped up in Sam's direction, pulling its arm back to throw a fist downward at him and smash him heavily, yet he was barely able to avoid the attack with a hair's width as he leaped back and tripped up in the last moment. The attack destroyed the ground and dust scattered up.
Seeing what its sheer strength caused threw into Sam a surge of panic. If it had hit him, he would have been already a soul-less body by now. He then got himself up and started to run again, thinking he instead had to keep moving rather than being a still target easy to get attacked, forgetting the things inside the chamber that he planned to use against the Dinobird.
'...Today is the worst day in my whole life!' Sam thought while running. 'This damn world Monsetopia is too much dangerous! At this rate, I'm going to die even before meeting any humans... by the way, how many times I had already thought I was going to die today? I lost count.'
Sam kept running away until he didn't find another way to run; he got trapped. Sam then turned around and saw the dinobird behind him. It was glaring at him with a frowning face and flaming furious eyes.
*QUAKAA!
It was shouting out aloud.
'Oh crap! I guess I've set my feet into a forbidden area of this so-called Dinobird. I'm terribly doomed... maybe?' Sam thought, unsure as he had already said it quite a lot of times, yet had survived so far... somehow.
The Dinobird didn't charge in like last time, instead, it began to flap its wings, blowing a rough wind at him like it was trying to scare him as Sam thought that was the case. But with every flutter its wings made, it gritted its teeth, and buckets of sweat-filled its face with furrowed brows. It seemed like it was in pain.
'I need to find out why in order to figure out if it's possible to take advantage of,' Sam thought.
Looking up and down the Dinobird, to learn what was the reason for its hardened and pained face, was just a failure as Sam couldn't figure it out. Perhaps the cause was on its back, still, he was unsure about it, Sam thought before something clicked in his mind, remembering what he had spotted inside the chamber.
With that, Sam then decided to take advantage of the Dinobird's weakest point. That was why he thought he had to distract it first off even a little in order to get able to get past it and approach the thing.
The Dinobird then began to get closer and closer to Sam while still flapping its wings, which was why the panic inside him was rising up even more and more, urging him to put his plan on process as quickly as he would be able to make it.
'I have an idea to distract it, but it won't work unless this damn Dinobird has the intelligence to understand me... I hope. It's the last resort as I ran out of ideas,' Sam thought. 'Back at the previous cavern, thankfully, it's somehow worked, and now I hope it to work again unless... it was just my imagination back then.'
It sounded greatly risky, but Sam decided to bet on it. The reason why was, he didn't have anything else to rely on anymore. In a way, prayers resounded in his mind nonstop as he was putting his life on the line for sure.
'It's now or never,' Sam thought, his determination immersed him from head to toe.
Right then, Sam clenched his hands and flexed his knees slightly to get himself ready to jump, waiting for the right time to make a move as if he was to jump at it. The Dinobird noticed Sam was planning on doing something, so it stopped flapping its wings, thinking its flapping was quite weak to scare the weakling in front of it enough, and started readying its body to counter anything this human would throw.
'It's the last plan I can think of,' Sam thought, praying desperately for it to work. 'If it didn't work, which I don't wish, then this time I'm really a lump of dead meat.'
Not too long after, Sam leaped up to the air and the Dinobird clenching its fists was about to throw out a blow as powerful as enough to knock the weakling out rather than kill him.
The Dinobirds were peaceful monsters to the core. The reason why the Dinobird hadn't taken Sam's life yet was, apart from Tigowls, Dinobirds hated to take out the lives of other creatures unless their own lives were on the line. If so, then they would do everything in their capability to protect their kind's lives.
However, the enmity between both the Dinobirds and the Tigowls had been vaguely unexplainable where no one had been able to find out the reason for such an incredibly hateful enmity till now.
Perhaps Sam would be able to find out if he wanted to as he had a chance by having the ability to tame, that's if him obtaining a skill to understand the monsters' language, especially one of the two mentioned ones, was quite possible, getting able to ask them and investigate about their past.
All that's possible only if he got out of his trouble now in one piece.
The Dinobird was waiting for a good chance to counterattack, but once Sam landed on the ground, he instantly kneeled down, startling it with confusion as it never did expect him to do such a thing and land a bit out of its reach.
The Dinobird had thought he would charge in directly, but now that made it think he was to use a ranged attack like last time, making it nervously tense its body up. The reason why, it didn't want to go through that heavy pain again. But Sam's next words were what slapped it, stunning it.
"Please, don't kill me," Sam pleaded. "Forgive me if I've done something wrong to you, and make sure that I didn't mean it. Just let me live, I'm begging you!"
The Dinobird was frozen in its place and got heavily confused. It wasn't because of the unexpected act of the odd human but because of something far else.
As known, most of the monsters weren't able to understand what humans say where their language wasn't understood by the monsters. However, this Dinobird monster just now understood for the first time in its whole life what a human had said, yet that didn't mean it now was able to understand other humans' spoken words as well. This human was an exception, the Dinobird thought in disbelief.
*Qua?
But how? This was the question that immersed the Dinobird's mind fully. It didn't know that it was yet to find out 'how' not too long after.
But surprisingly, the Dinobird's reaction didn't go unnoticed which meant Sam's distraction had hit its goal successfully, yet he was completely unaware and was yet to know of the fact that it understood his whole words.
Sam had assumed it had quite some intelligence and also expected it might understand him to some extent. But what he had thought it would understand wasn't his words but his actions instead, though. He was wrong about that. However, his idea succeeded actually.
'Hehe, now it's my chance,' Sam thought, snickering and putting a sly smile.
Not allowing to let such a golden opportunity off, Sam took advantage of the Dinobird off-guard. The smiling Sam bolted past the bewildered Dinobird approaching the things that had been considered its weakest point and for their safety, the Dinobird would sacrifice itself gladly.
Yes, they were five sky-blue little Dinobirds, having the size of a small puppy or so, who seemed to be the adult one's children, looking so cute. They were sitting on a straw bed-like bird nest. These little Dinobirds were hugging each other, trembling in fear with their glistening eyes occupied with tears.
The little Dinobirds were pretty scared of Sam. The closer to them he got, the more frightened they became. The look of fear on their faces hurt Sam's heart, replacing his smiled face with a troubled one. And what hurt him, even more, was that he needed to use them to survive.
[Wonders of Parallel Realms] had mentioned that the Dinobirds would sacrifice themselves for the sake of their children. For this reason, although hating to do it so much, Sam snatched one of the little Dinobirds away as a hostage as he thought he had to do it for his life's continuation's sake, but soon Sam was about to know how pretty wrong was he.
"Hey, you Dinobird thing. If you don't want-" Sam said, before he paused as soon as he looked to the adult Dinobird.
As everything happened in no time, the adult Dinobird couldn't act in time which gave Sam the chance to see it before it turned around. Sam saw its back and his eyes clearly spotted the reason why its wings flapped oddly before they widened; it had a big injury on its back.
'So this is why...' Sam now understood why it flapped its wings strangely as well as the reason for the pained look on its face.
*QAQAA!
The so-called hostage Dinobird that Sam took was crying out for the adult one.
*Qua, qua!
The adult Dinobird got panicked when it saw the little one in Sam's hands, and started yelling nervously and waving its two hands right and left. It felt as if it was begging him to not harm and put the little Dinobird down free.
Thinking about what he was about to do, Sam gritted his teeth and cursed himself inwardly as he hated anyone hurt other unharming creatures, but he had nearly done it and almost become no different from them, Sam thought.
He then put the little Dinobird down before he shifted his sight to the adult one and said, "I'm not sure if you understand what I say or not, but I'm sure I want to say I'm sorry though. I didn't mean to harm you or your children. It's just... I wanted to survive."
Sam clenched his hands and felt regret for using such an insidious trick on a child, not caring if it was just a monster before he turned away and closed his eyes from the shame.
Sam considered all the creatures equal; animals, birds, insects, monsters, and even humans. They all breathed the same air, ate in the same way, became diseased, eventually died, and even far more things. It's right almost all had differences in shape and some other things while some got special privileges like human's ability to think. Still, that didn't mean that because of such privileges, one could do whatever they desired to other whatever kind of creatures. On contrary, privileges were given to their owners to help and protect those weaker, Sam thought.
"If you want to kill me, then kill me. I got sick of all the failing running away and surviving attempts," Sam said while his head down. "I promise I will never harm you or your children."
Waiting for an attack to come from the adult Dinobird, Sam had his eyes closed. The sound of each one of its steps resounded in his ears, getting more nervous with every step until it eventually got directly right behind him. Sam was shaking nonstop, yet rather than being flung back and feeling pain on his body, Sam felt utterly unexpected things else instead.
The Dinobird, that wanted to kill him not too long ago, was caressing on his head, completely taking him off-guard.
Sam was extremely stunned. That was something he never did expect. How could something like this happen when it was a monster and he was a human? This question kept bugging him in the back of his mind.
After opening his eyes, Sam looked back and saw the Dinobird looking at him with a warming smile. It retreated for a bit and started to bend its body down, making a ninety-degree angle, and then stand back, bend down and stand back, with a high speed of motion.
*Qua qua qua
The adult Dinobird kept on doing this several times. It seemed like it was apologizing to Sam. Sam was in disbelief before he smiled nervously and said, "S-stop doing this. There's no need to do apologize. Just stop it, okay?"
*Qua!
As soon as Sam told it to stop, it stopped suddenly resulting in its body vibrating from head to toe. That made him smile nervously even more, and also feel strange.
'What is this awkward feeling?' Sam asked himself inwardly. 'I think the sudden total change in the situation makes me feel so.'
It was his first time that someone did exactly what he said. It was like ordering others and controlling them. The desire to control the others filled him. But suddenly, something clicked in his head, could the Dinobird really understand what he said? There was no other explanation for the current situation. Sam also thought, once he spoke out loud when he wanted to distract it, its reaction was too much.
And another question kept nagging him; if that was really the case, then could the other monsters as well understand the humans' language? Or this was just an exception? Sam was starting to get a headache from all the thinking, so he just ignored it, letting it for the future to come with the answers.
Not too long after, Sam had ignored the adult Dinobird to shift his gaze towards the little Dinobirds. They still were looking at him with their eyes glistened with tears. The one Sam had taken as a hostage, dug its head down between its two flexed thighs and held it between its two arms like a ball as it was still fearing Sam would do harm it. But once sat down beside it and extended his hand to it and started to caress it, it significantly calmed down as it locked its gleaming eyes on him while in awe.
"I'm sorry for scaring you, little one," Sam apologized, putting a warm smile fully calmed it. "I didn't mean to do any harm to you. I just wanted to survive. So, please forgive me."
*Qaa
Liking what Sam was doing, the same little Dinobird got closer and dipped its body into his lap, wanting him to keep caressing it.
*Qaa
"Heheh, you sly little Dinobird," Sam said while smiling and chuckling calmly.
But what was actually rumbling inside Sam's mind was quite the opposite; not calm at all, as he thought with his eyes somehow felt like they were filled with hearts, 'Aah, it's super cute! How could I resist something this cute?!'
Watching the whole scene, the other little Dinobirds were stunned, gazing at them silently. Even they stopped trembling and calmed down by the 'never ever having happened before' situation. Was it even possible for one of the merciless humankind to have such kindness towards monsters?
Generally, humans had been hunting monsters since they all existed in life, no matter what kind they were, carelessly. Some humans did that to train their strength and increase it, or to survive if they got trapped with a strong monster, fearing for their lives, even if it did never attack them first, whereas others did that to get rid of their frustration. At a point, even some slaughtered monsters mercilessly without any reason, just because they wanted to, or all that was what the Dinobirds had known from their elders and ancestors.
But upon witnessing such completely opposite event for the first time ever, the whole picture of the human kind's cruel nature that was planted in the little Dinobirds' minds, as well as the adult one's, started to crack as they started to doubt the reliability of what they had learned about humans.
After all, never had one of their kind met such a human.
The adult Dinobird was standing not too far, watching everything with its eyes widened, shocked by the second most unexpected occurrence, as the first one was their enmity with the Tigowls reaching an end, for its kind to witness was still taking place in front of its very eyes. It felt like it was inside an impossible dream to happen rather than in reality.
Of course, it would welcome such a thing with wide open hands because, well, it once had thought if such thing was to really happen, it would love to live in peace with other creatures, including humans. And now unbelievably, it was seeing a very tiny part of its impossible wish somehow happening, turning it into a rather possible one.
This thought filled the Dinobird with hope. It thought it had finally got a glimpse of the possiblity of its wish to take place in reality. It was indeed a slight glimpse, but the key for that would make it more and more possible, and that key was the human right in front of its eyes who was sitting with a little Dinobird monster playing with it, that was what the adult Dinobird wished, or more accurately, believed to happen.
Shifting its eyes, the adult Dinobird gazed at the other little Dinobirds watching the strange human and their sibling with their mouths wide open. It warmly smiled whenever seeing its little Dinobirds experience a totally new thing for their first time, and this time was no exception, it also was its first time though. Well, it liked to watch them growing up with its own eyes actually.
After not too long watching their sibling with Sam, a bizarre feeling started to find its way into the other four little Dinobirds' hearts as it carried on increasing the more they saw Sam caress their sibling. Each one felt like it need to take its sibling and drag it around, before taking its place on the human's lap, just to satisfy the bizarre feeling.
Yes, it appeared to be jealousy.
Then soon after, the four little Dinobirds exchanged glances with each other to just find out they four had the same thought. They then had shifted their gazes to Sam before their eyes looked like they were blazing in competition, each one wanting to solely snatch Sam for itself. Right then, they kicked on the ground at the same time and began to race up to Sam like they were in a marathon.
*Qaqaa!
*Qo qaaqo!
*Qaqaqaqaa!
....
Three of them were shouting at each other as if they were squabbling over who to take over Sam, but what actually took his attention more was that one of them kept silent.
Sam watching them was completely taken by. What smart kids! That was much to his surprise. They were super cute where it made his heart skip as he still was watching them.
'Aah, no one can resist such super cuteness! That got me completely off-guard,' Sam thought.
Once the little Dinobirds got close enough to reach Sam out, the four at once leaped up onto Sam's lap. But surprisingly, the first one to reach was the silent little Dinobird.
*Quaaquaqua
'What! Is it laughing or it's just my imagination?' Sam wondered, stunned by its attitude.
Yes, that's right, it was laughing. It looked like it was saying, <"Who laughs last, laughs best, you all talk dunderheads."> [1]
The other three appeared to be disappointed by the results; one was stomping his foot on Sam, as they all had already got on his lap, while the other, its face was sunk, sitting on the edge of Sam's thigh where his legs were dangling, it looked as if life had betrayed it. The last one was staring at the air silently, shocked by its loss.
Sam watching their strange reactions was about to burst out laughing before he blocked his mouth with his hand and thought, 'Pfft... What smart kids they are!'
Soon then, Sam caressed the 'no more' hostage Dinobird. Therefore, the moment the other four had noticed that, they instantly stopped their squabble and started to make cuter expressions with their faces like puppies. They wanted Sam to caress them as well. Sam couldn't refuse them, so he decided to give them what they wished.
"Heheh, don't worry," Sam chuckled. "I'm going to do it for you all."
As soon as Sam uttered out these words, the little Dinobird, that he had taken firstly, glared at its other siblings with its eyebrows' area furrowed, like it was saying to them, <"Don't touch my property."> But when they saw its attitude, they turned their heads away indifferently, ignoring it. That was why it got even angrier as that had provoked it even more before it began to yell.
*QAA QA QAA!
It jumped at the others and they all began to fight each other. Scrimmage warmed up, and dust rose to cover them.
'So, this is how brotherhood is,' Sam thought, smiling while watching them. 'It's really wonderful! I wish I had a sibling, either brother or sister. I wish....'
In fact, seeing them made Sam feel a twinge of envy for their tight bond of brotherhood. Since he was an only child, never had he experienced how one would feel with having a sibling no matter what gender was. How would it feel when playing together, sharing each other secrets, even getting in fights and squabbles? Would they support the back of each other?
All these thoughts were only filling him with sadness as his parents were already no longer in life to give him a sibling. But what Sam didn't know was, there, of course, existed people whom it was quite possible for to become much of brothers and sisters for Sam. Even if they weren't related by blood though.
Ignoring these thoughts, Sam then shifted his sight towards the adult Dinobird to see it watching its children, putting on its face a warming smile immersed with parenthood. That reminded Sam of his mother, Elina, who used to watch him in the same way, filling him again with hurting sadness.
'Mom... I miss you so much,' Sam thought sadly. The adult Dinobird noticed sadness clearly took over on his face and soon walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Sam, feeling the touch, looked back to it and got up right then. Somehow, it understood him feeling sadness. Sam, noticing that, was surprised by its intelligence. He then told her about Elina as he already confirmed it was able to understand what he spoke before tears started to fall down his cheeks. Understanding what he had gone through, the Dinobird caressed him on the head until he calmed.
After a while, it brought Sam to a hidden room. It took off a large rock that was blocking the entrance, and the light spread out into the interior. Once they got inside, Sam's eyes widened. There was a body of a bigger-sized Dinobird lying still on a bed of straw; Sam expected this to be...
"Is this their father... and your life partner?!" Sam asked.
It nodded its head in agreement with grief appearing on its face as the little ones got tearful. This was its husband's and their father's dead body. Seeing how they were sorrowful, Sam felt very sad and couldn't see them in the eye anymore, lowering his head.
"...I'm sorry," Sam said. "Are the Tigowls the cause for his death?"
Silently, it nodded with agreement.
"Do they still attack you?" Sam said and it nodded again.
Right then, Sam's hand was extending to reach out to its head and then started to caress it. The adult, Dinobird watching curiously what he want to do, was surprised. It didn't expect him to do for her what he did for the little ones, and this bothered them.
"Don't worry anymore," Sam reassured it. "From now on, I'll do my best to protect you... that's if you agree to accompany me in my journey," he suggested, a joyful wide grin filling his face.
Its gleaming eyes gazed at the unique human in disbelief, and its blue face flushed in embarrassment as soon as his words made their way into its ears. Then suddenly, unaware of the Dinobird, a faint light started to slightly glow on the right side of its chest. When the light had gone, in its place, there was now a symbol.
'W-what? This symbol...?!' Sam wondered, stunned.
Yes, it was like Sam's birthmark.
As soon as it appeared clearly on the Dinobird's chest, a speaking voice started to resonate inside Sam's mind suddenly.
-"What a nice guy!" The voice said. "He is exceptionally a kindhearted human to ask a monster like 'me' to accompany him. He also said he will protect us. Aaah, how would I be able to refuse such kindness?" [2]
Actually, hearing that startled Sam greatly as he turned his head left and right, to catch the source from where the voice was coming, but lastly, he opened his mouth wide as he fixed his sight at the Dinobird.
'Don't tell me.... what on earth is happening?!'
After making sure nothing was producing any sound, he figured out what it was. Sam became dumbfounded and speechless because... somehow, the voice had definitely spoken to him, only in his mind. It was as if someone's thoughts were transporting into his mind. His hunch was telling him something...
Soon, confirming his suspicions, the Dinobird looked at Sam with a wondered expression quite clear on its face as the same voice simultaneously began resounding in his head once more.
-"What's wrong with him?" The voice wondered.
Hearing that and seeing the Dinobird's expression, Sam's hunch turned out to be right. The Dinobird's attitude matched up with the wondered speech. That was why he assumed it was its voice. He also guessed that hearing the voice in his mind, in one way or another, was related to the sudden appearance of the symbol.
"Hey, miss Dinobird, somehow, I can hear you speaking inside my head," Sam noted, pointing to his head.
*Qua?
-"Huh?"
*BOOM! *BOOM!
At that moment, cutting the Dinobird's surprise off halfway, a sequence of big explosions was heard suddenly, and the cavern started to shake heavily, causing them to lose balance and fall nearly. They were in such a sheer panic where they forgot what they were doing, utterly.
"W-what the hell is happening this time?!" Sam shouted, panicked.
*QUA!
-"We are under attack!" The Dinobird replied.
*******
[1] Notice: If < > come in dialogue, that means the speech is in the language of monsters.
[2] Notice: If - preceded a dialogue, that means the speech is directly inside Sam's head.