The light disappeared from the sky quicker than I’d anticipated, though the night really wasn’t that cold.

Perhaps because it’s summer? Or a thousand other environmental factors, I suppose.

I swiftly located a large thicket that had a clearing within. My legs were burning from the long hike today, and with no reference for time, I couldn’t even tell if the day was as long as or perhaps even longer or shorter than what I was used to. This spot would have to do, at least until the sun came up. The bushes reached up over me, enabling me to sleep in relative privacy, and still keep an eye on the Metamorphic Impersonators.

I won’t lie. Their existence intrigued me. Up until now, I’d only seen normal forest creatures and huge dinosaurs, but since modern society really didn’t have an exact picture of what they looked like, I didn’t really question the biology of those dinosaurs.

But now that I had the ability to pull up some limited data, I’d definitely be observing them all, if only to determine their names.

Alright… Let’s try something out. I thought, staring at the leaf-covered clearing before me. Damn, even the leaves are huge. Well, those will work, I guess.

Using the massive leaves, which were even larger than my dino foot, as targets, I started using the skills I knew I possessed.

Bite! Ew… Claw! Stomp! Claw! Bite!

I ripped the ground up while I slammed my hands and feet against it, biting into the leaves and tearing them apart. Somehow, I knew instinctively how to perform each move. It was a vague sense of déjà vu, as though I’d done the moves before, even though I hadn’t bitten or clawed anything since hatching.

After about ten minutes of nonstop skill grinding, I opened my status to see if anything had changed without notifying me.

Frail Baby Dino

Level:

3 [5/30]

Health:

30/30

Stamina:

20/20

Skills

[Bite]

[Lvl 1]

[Claw]

[Lvl 1]

[Flee]

[Lvl 2]

[Stomp]

[Lvl 2]

Instincts

[Fight or Flight]

[Lvl 2]

[Freeze]

[Lvl 2]

[Fearful Flight]

[Lvl 2]

[Observe]

[Lvl 2]

Damn. No changes, really?

It appeared my strategy of grinding the skills wouldn’t work unless they were used on valid targets. In hindsight, I guess it made sense, because what game lets you gain experience in a skill or ability without using it correctly? Most of the games I’d played would only level up skills through combat, anyway.

Could that be the difference between Skills and Instincts? The Skills are combat-based, and the Instincts aren’t?

That explanation seemed plausible, but it didn’t make total sense since Flee was listed as a skill, but Fearful Flight was listed as an instinct. It seemed as though the difference might’ve had something to do more with the usability of the two, but until I had more examples, it would be impossible to really know. For now, though, I reasoned that I could only gain levels in situations where the skill or instinct was applicable.

I was about to settle down for the night, atop my pile of torn-up grass, dirt, and leaves, when I heard a strange… laughter?

“Kck krk khkhkh!”

Definitely not human. I peeked out into the twilight of the wood, just barely managing to catch a glimpse of something about my size moving slowly towards the fruit, its eyes gleaming in the night.

Here we go again…

I observed the dark dinosaur, which kept low to the ground and moved seemingly unhindered on all fours even as it crouched.

Night Stalker [Lvl ???]

So this dinosaur was definitely not named anything I was familiar with. Perhaps this world labeled the creatures less as fancy translations of what the person who discovered them thought about them, and more about what they actually did in the world?

Well… RIP, Night Stalker…

I watched as the small, nimble creature glided over the ground, barely making any noise except for when it stopped, ducking its head into its shoulder and releasing the same muffled laugh. Finally, the small dinosaur had reached the edge of the pile and, unlike the previous lizard I’d seen before, it stopped.

Strange.

This dinosaur crouched, even lower than before, its head basically resting upon the ground. And, after a deep breath that caused the small dinosaur to swell up, it launched itself through the air, pushing off the ground and snatching the odorous fruit from the top of the pile, landing on the other side with a “Kck kh krk!”

I gasped. Had this creature really just managed to get by the Impersonators? Could you hunt successfully while they slept?

That was when the cocoons erupted once more.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

The vicious wyverns descended upon the Night Stalker with hell’s fury. They bit snapped and crunched, but their maws met only empty air.

The black lizard was already frantically running, carrying the fruit between its two front arms as it ran on its hind legs much like a bearded dragon might.

Run Forrest! I shouted in my mind, cheering internally for the successful thief.

Hey, if he could do it, what was stopping me, a dinosaur of similar size with the brain of a human? Of course, I probably wouldn’t pursue the same course of action, but there was proof here that an animal could, in fact, steal one of those delectable fruits.

The wyverns strained on their cords, reaching as far out of their cocoons as they could to chase the black reptile through the brush. I lost sight of the creature and swiftly moved to a better position atop a boulder to view the scene.

The wyverns stretched as far as they could on their cords, viciously howling as they pulled themselves across the trees, the cocoons straining to hold them back.

And then the cords broke.

Like racehorses after the gunshot, the wyverns shot across the treetops, their cords trailing behind them like long tails. One of them positioned itself on a branch and hurled its tail forward, wrapping it around a thick branch and swinging through the trees like a monkey.

The Night Stalker was slowly losing ground. As the poor creature carried the watermelon-sized fruit over a fallen tree, the Impersonators caught up, propelling themselves through the air as though fired out of a slingshot.

“Kch krk kek!” the dinosaur laughed as it darted into some bushes, the pack of wyverns following suit.

It dashed around in circles, weaving between trees and under logs.

And just as one of the Impersonators reached it, about to snap down on its head, it turned and stood, a grin across its face. I cringed, watching as the once-cocooned monster flung towards it.

Snap!

The Impersonator was mere inches from the reptile’s face. I followed its body, seeing the tail wrapping throughout the woods, having squeezed through cracks too small for the body, and barely fitting as it wrapped under logs. The tail wrapped around trees and rocks before coming to a stop in the bush.

The bush the Night Stalker had jumped into as all the wyverns were on its tail. From that bush, several Impersonators stretched out, strewn across the jungle’s floor, wrapped and twisted as they snapped angrily at the lizard and each other.

The Impersonator that had almost gotten the black dinosaur growled, biting viciously at the air. But the Night Stalker had the same cheeky smile on its face, wiggling the fruit back and forth before it actually bonked the larger monster on the head with it like Little Dino Foo Foo. Then it turned and disappeared into the woods.

Clever girl...