My buddy—the gorlen—seemed rather confused when all I did was settle myself back into my totally Grade-A quality nest. He shuffled away from me slowly as I watched him through a half-lidded eye, straining to see his outline. Eventually, he seemed to have gotten up the courage to move again, because he dashed for the exit of the cave with a sort of rapid shuffling movement.

Buh-bye, you dork.

I closed my eye and went back to sleep. Thankfully, this time, none of the boxes interrupted my slumber.

Day broke and I awoke to a pleasant breeze wafting in through the opening of the cave. The scents of the outdoors flooded my nose.

Pro-tip, by the way. If you’ve never gone camping—’cause I certainly never did—I highly recommend you give it a shot. Nature just somehow feels different. It smells clean, crisp, and beautiful. And the sights are relaxing, provided you aren’t being chased by a megasaurus, or anything.

Basically, if you have the time to enjoy the sights, they’ll give you a newfound appreciation for both the outside world and yourself.

Yeah, come to think of it, if this world didn’t have any of the highly dangerous and sometimes frighteningly well-hidden threats it did, I’d feel awfully comfortable just resting in the woods and overloading my senses with nature’s glory.

I sighed contentedly, adjusting my position on my comfortable homemade bed, stretching my body out as much as I could. I groaned as the stretching led to a few pops bouncing around the cave. Let me just say, it feels good to feel good. Yeah.

You know… This right here? This is the life… I could get used to this.

A brief moment of panic overran me as I worried about whether or not having those thoughts was going to bring me some bad juju, but as I lay there, looking around at the poorly decorated chamber, nothing bad happened.

Phew…

After a few more minutes of decompression, though, I figured it was time to get a move on. My breakfast was no longer on the table, literally, and so I’d need to find something to munch on.

But first, water.

I made my way out of the cave, wondering if I’d ever see the furry thief again.

From now on, I resolved myself, all food is consumed. There’s no telling how much experience I missed out on because of that wing-stealing, scrap-chewing dunderflungus!

My talons tapped on the stone as I walked up the incline, and I popped my head out from between the leaves, surveying the area to make sure I wasn’t about to walk into a xaptor bacchanal. When it seemed clear, I entered the land of the saurians once more.

Hey Dwayne, I said as I passed the t-rex head boulder. I’d decided on the name the night before because, well… he’s a rock. I’ll be back in a bit. Keep the car running, would ya?

The trip back to the watering hole was confusing. And that was because I realize now that I have an awful sense of direction in the woods.

But hey! That’s something to work on!

Eventually, I stumbled upon the ambrosial scent of the Skurgis fruit and followed it carefully to reorient myself in the woods. From here, I remembered the way to the watering hole.

The walk was surprisingly peaceful. I squinted in suspicion. No way this place lets me get away with a casual walk to the pond for a drink… right?

But as I leaned down to the water, still looking around distrustfully, nothing happened. I drank deeply, slaking my thirst and cleansing my mouth of the bits of dirt still hanging around.

Then I sat back on my haunches.

Wow. Is this… really happening?

It was.

I was appreciating the beauty of the plains before me and nothing was attacking me. And nothing was creeping up behind me. Nothing at all. No distended creature with sickles for claws and rows of sharp teeth, eyes glowing red as it approached—no, no. That wasn’t happening. This peace was entirely natural.

Damnit!

The image in my mind grew creepier and creepier, and I gave in. I spun around, checking behind me, but the open gap to the forest was just empty.

I’m actually traumatized.

A roar caught my attention, and I was happy to let my anxious thoughts be flushed away. Far in the distance, a giant…. Uhh… Well, the best way I can describe it is a… land… flounder? Anyway, it had burst from the ground to attack a smaller pack of rhinoceros-looking creatures which had rapidly scattered, but now was doing its best to flop away from… hey! It was Rexcelsis!

I laughed. No way that thing was getting away from my man! It was like watching a documentary, only, there wasn’t a soothing British-accented narrator accompanying the action on screen.

I kind of wished there was.

Oh, and by the way, keep your seven-year-olds away from laughing dinosaurs. No matter how fascinated with us they might be, a laughing dinosaur is the stuff of nightmares. A laughing dinosaur is vaguely reminiscent of a certain extraterrestrial hunter that likes to explode when it knows it's lost a fight.

Well anyway, Rexcelsis was charging across the plains after the flopping thing. I actually thought it might stand a decent chance of escaping him, but then a red light began to suck in the particles in the air around his horns.

Oh, you’re done for, Fishboy.

True to my thoughts, the Nonparticulate Eradication Rex fired off burned a hole straight through the flounder’s… chest? I don’t really know fish biology. Was that thing even a fish?

British-accented narrator guy would know.

Wow, the fish is pretty impressive, huh?

Even after a direct shot from a Nonparticulate Eradication, the flounder-like creature still flopped weakly. It hadn’t disintegrated from the shot.

So there are things that can survive that death beam… Good to know.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t run in his direction. Why didn’t I go and try to grab some free grub from the massive prey? Well, for one, I don’t know how Rexelcis would react to me trying to steal some food. Sailboat certainly hadn’t taken it well.

Also, I know I described the scene in great detail, but it was probably a couple of miles away so by the time I got to him, Rex would probably wander off again, leaving me to fend for myself. Plus… well, after seeing an invisible flounder monster—one that could take a death beam to the chest and live—explode out of the ground, I didn’t think I was ready to take on the plains yet.

Speaking of which…

I scanned the open fields.

The Burning Steppe

This area is filled with monstrosities that do battle daily. The strongest and scrappiest survive, while the rest become fodder to the king.

Oh? There's a king, eh? That was actually helpful!

Thanks, magic boxes. Hey, is Rex a king?

I tried to observe him in detail since I could now obtain additional details, but he was too far away for my ability to activate. Well, at least I tried.