by Eddie Patin
This must be eighty pounds, he thought. It would be a lot of meat...
Chapter 30
The next morning, Jason sat at the mouth of his cave watching the valley come alive.
He watched the wyvern leave its cavern in the distance—he could hear its shriek all the way from his home—then took a bite of cooked meat as he observed the monster rising into the air on creaky wings. It flew off to the west where—if this was Jason's world—it would soon fly over the town of Granby near Highway 40.
Jason chuckled, imaging the small mountain town freaking out over a terrible wyvern suddenly appearing in the sky.
The ostrich dinosaur’s meat tasted fantastic—not at all like the bitter garbage meat of the cannibal. It was by far the best meal Jason had eaten in his recent memory. He’d never appreciated a belly full of meat as much as he did yesterday when he ate for the first time in over a week. Not only because of how damned tasty it was cooked fresh on the fire, but also because Jason had created it. He took down that animal on his own and he made meat from a living being.
After getting back to his cave yesterday afternoon with the massive haunch, Jason had skinned it, immediately cooked up a long strip of it, and ate it as soon as he could without burning his mouth.
It was bliss. There was nothing like eating something he'd killed after starving for over a week.
Cooked meat and water. In a wild, primordial world with the only modern conveniences being the gear on his back and in his pockets, cooked meat and clean water was freaking amazing.
Jason had spent the rest of the evening cooking up the remaining meat of the leg in steak-like strips, dumping one of his turtle shells full of rainwater to repurpose it as a somewhat-clean giant bowl. This place was hot and humid and full of bugs. Jason knew that he’d have to cook the whole shebang and eat it when he could, otherwise, the meat would go bad in short order or be eaten by and infested with insects.
After inspecting his many wounds and spending an unreasonable amount of time worrying about infection, Jason slept well for the first time in a long time. After all—he had water, shelter, now food, and was working on getting back home. Now that his belly was full and he had plenty of meat for another day or two, he’d be good to go for days more and could hunt and kill another dinosaur without as much urgency.
He also knew they key to getting home: it had something to do with that portal...
Jason stared at the wyvern’s cave across the distance, taking another bite of the wonderful, crispy-edged meat. It was a lot like chicken but denser. Dark meat, he thought. Like a gigantic chicken leg and thigh. Maybe it was more like turkey; smoked turkey, because he cooked it on a campfire.
The man needed some time to experiment with that gateway. If he wasn’t in such a rush, he could just sit there in the dark, switching through world after world like changing channels on a TV. He could calmly examine the worlds that looked like his own Earth in relative safety.
Jason knew that he could figure it out. Even if he had to check a hundred worlds before finding his own, he had a plan. He had a method. Hell—he’d even switched from one world to another on his own already, shuffling through a few before heading into the one with his parents.
The thought of aged Mom and Dad in that other world made Jason feel a twinge of sadness. He could have stayed there. He could have lived there for the rest of his life somehow...
"Maybe," he said. "Maybe not. I didn’t belong there."
What if there are infinite worlds? he thought. He may never see his home world again—just similar, parallel worlds, one after another endlessly with bizarre realms of unimaginable horror mixed in here and there for good measure.
"I need time..."
You need to get rid of the wyvern, he thought.
"True."
Pulling out his Glock 26, Jason counted the ammo he had left. Seven rounds—probably not enough to kill it. If Jason tried to confront the wyvern with his pistol, it would have to be on the ground. If the beast was flying, he’d surely miss. It would probably be moving faster than he would anticipate, as moving targets usually did. Even still, seven rounds of 9mm against that monster's skull, plated and armored with spikes and spines...
The wyvern was about as big as the mini-rexes, but with wings. He probably wouldn’t be able to kill it with body shots, and its vicious head bobbing around on that long, serpentine neck would be a hard (and armored) target—especially snaking around trying to bite his limbs off...
To get the time Jason needed to experiment with the portal, he knew that he would need to kill the wyvern.
But how?
He’d always seen the wyvern fly west and south—usually over to where the herds of ceratopsians hung out in the valley, or toward where the town of Granby would be back home. Jason hadn’t ever seen the beast fly north toward the lake, or east toward the ridge, where he was now—or over it.
Why not? he wondered. No prey? The wyvern was the apex predator in this area. Was there nothing of interest further up the ridge?
What was on the other side?
Back home, the other side of the ridge was wilderness heading up into the Rocky Mountain National Park. There was Apache Peak and a bunch of other mountains, then the cities of Boulder and Longmont on the other side of that range...
Maybe it was time to explore some more. Jason had satisfied the four requirements of his original survival plan.
He could head to Lake Granby to the north...
"But the cannibals are in the woods to the north..." he said.
What was on the other side of the ridge?
Later in the morning, Jason was hiking along steep slope above his cave, making sure to lean on his cane and spear alternatively to avoid irritating his right knee. It would be a good climb to the ridge—he’d done it before back home a few times—and it wouldn’t do any good to get hurt along the way.
He did the best he could packing some of the cooked dinosaur meat in his CamelBak's main compartment, but there was no clean way to do it. The only way Jason could keep the meat from fouling the inside of his bag was to wrap it up in his long underwear. The clothes would get dirty, but it was important to eat the meat before it spoiled. With the primitive stone axe tucked in among his rolled-up jackets, Jason climbed the incline with his cane in one hand and his spear in the other. Since his bladder was full of purified rain-water, he left his coffee cup and its sling back in the cave.
It was a hot and humid day. Before long, Jason had sweat pouring off of him, but he had plenty of water. Being hydrated and well-fed again, the man actually felt a good for once...
At one point, high above his cave and crossing a slanted clearing, Jason felt a small shot of fear when he heard a bellow and a loud thump. Crouching in surprise, he looked toward the sound with wide eyes and saw a lone Ankylosaurus, heavy and huge, wandering through the highlands. The tank-like beast stared down at him and gave two easy swings back and forth with its heavy, clubbed tail.
Jason smiled up at the armored brute from a comfortable distance of thirty yards or so away, knowing full-well that the creature could flatten him easily with its heavy, bone-plated body if it attacked. Looking into the strange creature’s dull eyes, Jason had the feeling that it just didn’t know what to make of him—a strange and small multicolored human—and that if he kept his distance, he’d be okay. He hoped so, anyway. He thought of highly aggressive herbivores, like hippopotamus and cape buffalo, or rhinoceros. Such creatures wouldn't think twice about squishing a man that got in their way.
Further up the slope Jason walked in on another family of Monoclonius. There were six of the large creatures with stout tails and legs more slender than the larger ceratopsians down in the valley. The sedan-sized beasts all regarded him with dumb eyes from behind long and curved white horns on compact snouts.
Jason gave the Monos a wide berth and continued up, now eyeing the sharp, broad ridges of naked stone that capped the ridge, peppered with small pine trees and scraggly bushes th
at held on up there however they could.
When a large creature with a wide wingspan glided into a hidden area of the ridge above him—its shadowy form sweeping through the air—Jason felt a quick fright, expecting the wyvern. An instant later, when he realized that the creature lacked the apex predator's long, barbed tail, Jason immediately realized that it must have been some kind of pterosaur. The flying dinosaur was also considerably sleeker than the wyvern’s beefy and spiky form.
"Almost as big, though," Jason muttered to himself, taking another drink from his bite valve.
The way up was starting to become a lot more difficult and Jason found himself eventually climbing and stepping across boulders and large chunks of granite. He pulled himself up on the sparse tree trunks wherever he could—sometimes using the hook of his cane to help him—getting higher and higher; closer to the top of the ridge.
In the end, he had to climb up a rock wall—maybe ten feet of it, which started up the pain in his bad knee again—then sighed in relief and accomplishment when he finally pulled himself up to sit on the highest point of the ridge’s spine.
The world opened up to Jason on both side of the ridge and he sat there for a time, drinking, eating meat, and surveying the land. He had apparently climbed up in a pretty convenient place for him to be. To the north and south along the stony tops of the ridge were massive nests here and there and Jason could see big pterosaurs—flying dinosaurs with broad wingspans and long, pelican-like beaks—coming and going and tending to their young in all directions. Many took to the skies when they left and headed for the Lake Granby.
"They like fish," Jason said to himself.
Those pterosaur creatures sure wouldn’t be happy if Jason had climbed up near one of their nests...
On the west side of the ridge, Jason could peer all the way down the hill—past where his cave was hiding somewhere in one of the open fields—to the thick, wild forests where he knew Doe Creek snaked through full of crocodiles. As the man expected, he saw that in the forest to the north, there was a sort of cliff or small ridge under the trees that probably blocked the cannibals somewhat from traveling in the direction of his cave. The shape of the land under the canopy of trees there also showed how the savage creatures’ path was encouraged naturally toward the wyvern’s cave. From what he could see up on the ridge, Jason had a pretty good idea about where the cannibals' encampment—or village, or whatever—was nestled into a particular wooded valley, isolated by natural cliffs and ridges. He could also see the wyvern’s cave of course, as well as the valley stretching off into the distance to the south, past the southern-most tip of the ridge where it diminished into more of a small hill and took a turn east, merging with the mountain range that led to the peaks in the eastern sky.
Jason remembered that one of the tall mountains was Apache Peak, but he couldn’t remember which one it was. They tallest one over there was ... Long’s Peak? It had been a long time since Jason’s mountain-climbing days...
From up here, Jason could see that—to the west over and past the wyvern's cave—there was, indeed, no town of Granby. There were no farmlands and no roads. Instead, there was just more forest; an infinity of green and rolling hills and mountains stretching off into the distance. To his north, Lake Granby was brilliant and shining in the sun, as blue as blue could be, but there was no Highway 6 going around it; no marinas or sailboats. Nada.
To the east, over the edge of the ridge from home and down the incline on the other side, Jason saw a similar, smaller valley. More mountains connected to the ridge on the valley’s south end, making the entire lush lowland into a giant thick forest with a large and triangular grassy valley in the center—much smaller than the valley outside the wyvern’s cave.
Jason saw something new down there: several massive dinosaurs in the distance that stood almost as tall as the ancient trees strode slowly with immeasurably heavy bodies. The behemoths stood tall on thick, elephant-like legs. Impossibly long necks allowed them to reach high into the trees to eat. The long-neck herbivores—absolutely huge—were as big as houses, and much taller.
Brach... Jason thought. Brachiosaurus ... or something like them. He remembered that name clearly from his younger years, but didn’t know if those ... sauropods? ... were that species specifically. They sure looked like them. Even from here, Jason could discern the distinctive shape of their heads with smaller snouts and strange, dome-like foreheads that might have held their nostrils, like in Jurassic Park.
Jason looked back west to the wyvern’s cave, far in the distance.
Maybe the wyvern just didn’t feel like flying over the ridge to look for prey in the other valley. Why wasn't it crossing over? Jason figured that a predator like that, in reality, would probably range over a large territory. This eastern valley certainly wasn’t far away—not to something like a wyvern that could fly...
Maybe it doesn’t feel like going far, Jason thought, because it’s got a tribe of cannibals bringing it regular gifts of food...
"Yeah, maybe."
Jason looked up at the sun.
It was early afternoon. He could head down there and look around for a bit, then cross back over the ridge again before evening to head home.
Standing to start down the other side of the ridge, Jason prodded at the ground with his cane and spear, his boots crunching on loose granite and gravel. He avoided the pterosaur nests and scrambled around the rocky area until he found a way off of the ridgeline without having to climb down another wall. Then he started following the ridge north and down the slope, toward the sparkling blue waters of Lake Granby.
He expected his bad knee to give him more trouble—especially after climbing that wall—but it was already feeling better. Strange. Maybe all of the hiking was strengthening his muscles enough to brace it better or something...
The man shrugged. "Can't complain," he said, focusing on the descent.
As Jason gradually climbed down into the thick trees, he watched for predators. Twice, he paused to admire the huge sauropods in the distance as they moved slowly and carefully through the woods like gigantic dinosaur-giraffes. The man was far away, but he figured that the behemoths were so big that he probably wouldn’t be able to reach all the way around one of their legs with both arms—assuming that they didn’t just crush Jason into red paste if he tried.
Heading down through the quiet forest, Jason watched the other familiar smaller dinosaurs hunt and leap and fly around; mini-raptors dashing through the thick underbrush and ferns, more of those four-winged crows, and other creatures that looked a lot more like normal birds. He was shocked to see a huge, shiny green dragonfly buzz past him with a wingspan longer than his hand. Jason paused when a large, orange-brown centipede crossed his path, then he noticed another family of Monoclonius in a distance copse of trees.
Continuing north, Jason hiked quietly. If the wyvern never frequented the area, then there had to be some sort of predators to fill the gap, right? Maybe more mini-rexes, he thought with a chill.
Up ahead, Jason could see the blue water of Lake Granby glittering through the trees. He realized that if he continued north to the lake, he could eventually pass around the north end of the ridge and return home south through the valley ... but he’d have to pass the cannibals.
A strange sound made Jason pause.
It made the hair on his neck stand on end.
There was a very, very low-pitched sound—almost inaudible, but Jason could feel it in his teeth and bones; something low and deep like a car stereo with its bass turned up too loud, far away...
The sound disappeared for a moment, leaving Jason in the quiet forest once again.
He looked around, but saw nothing.
Then the low-frequency sound returned like the distant buzzing rumble of an obnoxious car stereo's aftermarket bass stack, vibrating Jason’s body from wherever—
There! he thought, catching sight of something big and dark moving in the woods far from him. The creature was further down the hi
ll, deeper in the trees, near where the forest opened up into the grassy valley Jason had seen from up on the ridge.
Feeling an unexpected sense of braveness and curiosity, Jason used his cane and spear to help him quietly descend the slope more through the trees. As stealthily as he could manage, he followed the large, dark shadow that he saw moving down there. He had to get a little closer; maybe get a better angle...
The bass sound came again, shorter and more like a huff—like a low grunt.
It was the dark animal making the sound. What could make a sound like that?!
Jason crept through the forest, down and down, until he could see through a thick wood of tall, pine trees to the sunlit valley on the other side...
Then he saw the massive black creature that was making the strange noise.
A sense of awe and horror and destiny washed over Jason. He gasped, trying to make sense of what he saw...
"The Dreadwraith..."
Chapter 31
Jason could never remember exactly when it was that he had the dream about the monster that he later named the Dreadwraith. It was a time back before he was ten years old, and the vision he had of the massive creature—all the more towering because he was a little boy—stuck with him forever.
Back in a time when it was commonly accepted that dinosaurs were covered in thick, leathery hide and scales like reptiles, Jason didn’t think much of the fact that the Dreadwraith, without its feathers, would look a lot like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He thought of it like a gigantic bird that looked a bit like a dinosaur. The massive head and snout that reached out at him in his imagination stayed with him over the years; the thick coat of inky-black feathers and powerful hind legs with great talons that propelled the monster around was a wraith in the back of his mind.
In middle school English class, Jason had inserted the Dreadwraith into a short story he wrote about a haunted house. He wrote it as a dreadful creature that hovered around the outside of the property, roaming around with its heavy steps on violent claws, keeping the main character of the story stuck inside the house, much like the Sandworms kept the two ghost protagonists stuck inside their house in the old movie, Beetlejuice.
