Chapter 210: Peacock?

Just like Jimmy suspected, either the tribesfolk or his own friends could not go through the large fish in front of them.

Most could barely stomach eating half of their meal, except for Eni, who somehow ate a total of three pounds, and even more impressive, she didn’t seem as bloated and immobile as the rest of them were. She even outperformed some of the biggest, most muscular men around her, which at this point seemed impossible.

“If I thought you’d get this hungry, I would’ve brought more food with us.” Jimmy said.

“You brought plenty,” She smiled at him, and wiped the smudges away from her chin, and lips. “We still have plenty of dino meat to snack on later, on our way home.”

“Amazing…” He expressed. “You’re a hell of a woman, Eni, you know that?”

Catching up with what he was trying to say, she added, “Why? Because I can eat more than you? That’s not my fault. Field Runners burn through food a lot faster than you slow pokes.”

“Ah…” He winced. “Yeah, that makes more sense, actually. You burn more calories.”

“Calories?” She repeated, as she washed her hands.

“Nevermind,” He chuckled, and crawled over.

Jimmy wanted to use this particular moment to remind Eni that she was loved, so he ran his palms above hers, and helped her clean her hands better. She smiled, and grew a tiny blush across her face.

“Thanks,” She said.

As the shapeshifters gathered up the leftover meat to take to their children, a bird landed close to the lake, and started pecking on Jimmy’s leftovers.

Jimmy expected any one of the shapeshifters to kill it on the spot, but he was surprised to see that no one even bothered to scare the bird away, nonetheless kill it.

This was odd, because the bird was too big to be considered a sweet little song bird. It was cat-sized, and it could even be dangerous if it used its claws to fight back. It wouldn’t be able to kill a full grown man, sure, but it could still leave some nasty scars if it wanted to.

“Maybe they don’t kill it cause it’s a pretty boy?” He chuckled, then he looked at Zik, and asked. “This guy looks unique. Have you ever seen a bird like this before?”

“Bird?” Zik repeated, the word foreign to him. “Feathered dinosaurs are pretty rare. I’ve seen a few of them before, but they were a lot bigger than this fish muncher.”

“Have you killed any of them?” He asked. “What do they taste like?”

“They taste weird,” Zik answered, “And they’re not worth the trouble. It takes a damn long time to pluck their feathers out, and their meat can never fill your gut even if you ate the whole thing. We stopped bothering with them a long time ago.”

Jimmy wanted to know Zik’s opinion on the matter, because unlike everyone else, he knew how significant it was for such an albeit small bird to be present in an Era where most of the creatures were considered to be from the Jurassic Era. He knew that Anna would lose her nut if she saw this bird, for one thing, but he was also intrigued by the fact that this bird looked a lot like a Peacock, with the exception of having a much smaller, and much less beautiful tail.

Odds were, it was a lot more dangerous than a Peacock, even though it was smaller in comparison, but that aside, he was aware that this bird was not supposed to exist yet! Not at all, and it wasn’t even supposed to be in any Era with dinosaurs in it! He was no Paleontologist, but he knew at least that much.

Laylania saw that her guests were talking about the bird, and she came over to repeat a variation of what Zik said.

She first sliced half of the fish, and gave it to the bird, which was unexpected from her side. Jimmy expected her to shoo it away, so he looked at her, prompting her to speak.

“Birds usually never cause us any trouble,” She said. “We like to feed them when we can.”

“What do you know about this pretty bird in particular?” He asked. “I’m asking because I want to figure out if I can tame them.”

Jimmy did not want to tame them, not at all. He just wanted to draw information out of her without looking suspicious himself.

Laylania was helpful, and answered, “They’re common. We don’t eat them, and dinosaurs can’t catch them, so I guess they have all the room they need to hatch many babies.”

“Interesting…” He stroked his chin.

Other than that, he thought, ’Anna is gonna love hearing about this. I don’t know if I should mention birds to her, or leave it as a surprise. Darn… I won’t be able to get her out of here once I bring her in.’

Anyway, the shapeshifters gathered the meat up, put it in a large leather bag, which Jimmy assumed it to be a bag made out of dinosaur skin, or something of that equivalent, since it seemed dependable, other than big, and then, a good third of the shapeshifters dipped into the lake, and dragged the bag of fish food across it.

The fish was going to taste disgusting, since it got wet, and bundled together in a bag, but assuming that the kids warm the food up close to a fire, on the other side of the lake, they’d make their meals a little less gross. That aside, their safety was valued a lot more than their tastebuds, so even the tribe’s Cook didn’t seem to care about the food getting wet.

As the shapeshifters swam away, Jimmy turned around, and observed the jungle in front of him. He was amazed by how big this world was, stretching out wider than his eye, or even his human mind could comprehend, and he nurtured this great urge to explore this world as soon as possible! He hated the fact that he and his tribe were in the middle of a war right now, because he would love to spend weeks, or even months down here.

While he observed the jungle, he looked down, and spotted a dinosaur that looked a lot like Gutaxun. It was an Allosaurus Fragilis, with the exception of a few distinct features, that might actually make it a sub species, or an entirely different species altogether, but it did look very familiar.

Jimmy was amazed, but then he noticed that the dinosaur was walking over, too close for his comfort.

When it saw a bunch of people walking around at the edge of the lake, it was somehow threatened, and was prompted to pick up its speed, charge, and attack!

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