Waking up on a new world is always disorienting. Often you're on a beach, many times there are already some small predators lurking around, sniffing at the fresh meat. On this world, where I believe no survivor has yet set food, I find myself amidst a small pod of parasaurs, combing the beach.
With no immediate danger, I looked around. Forest to one side - dense forest at that - and to the other the ocean. Standing on this broad beach I was immediately away of my state: naked and alone. A typical start to a journey.
Fortunately for me, I am lucky enough to always bring a friendly Argentavis with me, and the two of us took to the sky, over the dense forest, soon finding a rocky outcrop with a Brontosaur on it. How he ascended that mighty, jagged rock I'm not sure, but there he was, towering over the surrounding forest. In hindsight, I suspect that he was somehow a look-out posted by his herdmates below, but that would be unusual behavior for a dinosaur of their supposed intelligence and unlike anything I've witnessed before.
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South, beyond that hill and the lush forest of behemoths was a sea equally stocked with its own titans. The large Leedsichthys here seem to enjoy swimming in the shallows, this is the first of many that I found lurking near the shores of the many isles of this world, a friendly and gentle giant.
The next island is much the same as the first, only now I start to sense of the real danger of this place. By now I'd only seen a few sharks in the sea and small predators and scavengers on land. As the sun began to set, I saw the first Spinosaur, those massive predators adapted to life near and in water. It was doing battle with something under the sea which I couldn't make out in the fading sunlight.
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As sun set and the chill wind blew across the sea, I quickly cobbled together the resources to erect a shelter on a small island. The inhabitants were nothing to be afraid of and gave me little trouble as I worked in the dim of the night. Once the fire place warmed up the area, I was able to finally relax and let the chill leak out of my bones.
| House, seen from above | The morning fog |
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As morning came into focus, I could see an isle covered in redwoods awaiting me across a short sea flight. To the West! We flew over the sea, we flew through the trees, and we flew over densely populated verdant land. Small sea birds were everywhere, chasing after me, hoping to steal a curious crumb, below every manner of cretacious herbivore wandered, grazing without a care among the mosses and trees. The only sign of danger were dilophosaurs, chasing after the hapless Dodo birds.
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One curious sight was a giant Bronto stranded on a small shallow at sea, a long swim from safety. How had the brute beast found his way to that errant shoal? How was it planning to go home?
Beyond it was a rocky protuberance, a small volcanic island upthrust from the sea floor which was home to a massive flight of birds. As my brave mount and I flew near it, the seabirds and Pteranodons emerged from the island. Whether they were startled by such a large bird flying near their home or curious at the sight of perhaps the first survivor to see their home, I'm not sure.
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Many of these islands along the fringe of the world were similar to what I'd seen before. Spinosaurs lurked just off shore, waiting to ambush any prey foolish enough to approach. Dense forests led immediately away from sandy shores and shallow seas teeming with life. There were islands flecked here and there, densely populated with stranded life. I can only hypothesize that this world is wracked by great storms which sweep much of these animals out into the ever present seas.
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As we flew north, over the last of the forested isles, I saw the cold approaching. A sudden, strict snowline cut across the landscape, the temperature dropped, and nothing could prepare me for what we saw on the other side of this demarcation.
It was war. There's no other way to put it. Might herds of mammoths did battle with the great lizard king across beaches, forests, and the tiniest rocky islands that somehow great armies would crowd upon. Among the carnage ran sheep, elk, wild Argentavis, and packs of wolves tearing apart anything that wasn't a Tyrannosaurus. I've never in all my years of travel and study witnessed such a site and as I quickly flew away to safety and warmer shores, I was left with a churning feeling in the place where my stomach had shrunken in disbelief.
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As I close out this visit, and as the sun began to swing towards the far horizon at the end of the second day, I saw one last monster. From this distance I can't tell if it is an alligator or crocodile, but its size is tremendous, and they lurked in the same waters that I'd observed Spinosaurs occupying. Could this creature be the great foe that the first Spinosaur was battling in the sea?
My faithful bird and I flew back to my makeshift shelter, remote and protected from the travails of this world. I had some final preparations to make before finding a way to escape this world and move on to the next for further exploration, but perhaps one day I might return and try to make sense of what I saw in the cold and frozen west, a land that could only be called the Bloody Snow.
Until then, I leave you with this report of my observations from one end of this world all the way round again.