The gorlen seemed confused when I settled myself back into the nest. He shuffled away slowly, and I watched him for a bit through an open eye, straining to see his outline.

Eventually, I guess he got up the courage to move again, cause he dashed for the exit of the cave with a sort of rapid shuffling movement.

Buh. Bye.

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

Day broke and I woke to a pleasant breeze drifting in through the opening of the cave, bringing with it the scents of the outdoors.

Pro tip, by the way. If you’ve never gone camping, cause I certainly never did, you should. Nature feels… different. It smells clean, crisp, and beautiful. And the sights are relaxing, provided you aren’t being chased by a megasaurus, or anything.

Yeah, come to think of it, if this world didn’t have any of the dinosaurs it did, I’d feel very comfortable just resting in the woods and overloading my senses with nature’s glory.

I sighed contentedly, resting on my comfortable dirt and grass bed, stretching my body out as much as I could.

You know… This is the life…

A brief moment of panic overran me as I worried about whether or not that thought was going to bring some bad juju. But as I lay there, looking around the chamber, nothing bad happened.

Phew…

Guess it was time to go. As I began my walk up the incline, my talons tap-tapping on the stone, splashes reached my ear. I cocked my head at the sounds.

Perhaps the Chaotic Monarch had returned?

I exited the cave, pushing through the leaves into the woods near the watering hold. Looking around to see if anything had observed me exiting my new hiding place, and feeling satisfied nothing had, I made my way towards the break in the trees.

Laughter reached my ears and I immediately froze.

That sound… wasn’t like Rex’s laughter, when he’d been splashing me.

No. That was human. Or at least, as close to human as I’d likely hear in this world.

Maybe it was a monkey or something similar? But did monkeys even exist when dinosaurs did?

I ducked behind a tree and peered around it towards the watering hole. My jaw dropped at what I saw. Standing there, before the watering hole, was a human girl.

Splash!

“Ah!” Gasped the beautiful blonde girl, dressed in what I could best describe as a green fantasy-bikini. Weird description, I know, but it definitely wasn’t a normal material.

Anyway, there was a handsome shirtless guy with brown hair splashing her with water from inside the pond.

“Jigur dath!” he shouted back, laughing. “Der vatten treen!”

What?

The language… Did it mean anything?

“Na!” the girl shouted back. “Ter shak!”

I shook my head, puzzled. The only thing I could imagine the two saying in this situation was “Jump in, the water’s fine” or something like that. And obviously the girl was having none of it.

Since when are there people here?

My thoughts were interrupted by the familiar blue boxes.

Congratulations! You’ve learned a new language: [Yatten Lvl 1].

[Yatten Lvl 1]- Slight comprehension of spoken Yatten.

I blinked. That definitely wasn’t a language I was familiar with. Certainly nothing from my world.

What were these two doing here? Didn’t they know there were massive dinos around? Did they not care?

Were they brought here from another world like me?

I watched them for a few minutes as the girl deftly dodged most of the splashes of water before a shout from the woods near me sent me leaping into the air. A burly man dressed in leather armor came rushing out of the woods, a fat sack, tied closed at the top, resting over his shoulder like Santa. Unlike Santa, though, were the countless blades that hung from straps across his body. Thick, sharp knives adorned his legs, and a heavy mace hung under his waist. A bow was slung over his other shoulder, the quiver hanging beside the mace, and a thick, weighted net hung from the other hip. His shocking black hair grew upwards lushly.

I got the gist of their conversation, even if I didn’t know the words. Behold, my rough translation:

The new guy gestured at the man in the pond with his thumb.

“What are you idiots doing? Get out!” The brunette guy’s face grew sour.

“But we brought our bathing suits!” He pointed towards the girl who stood near the water, drying off the splashes of water.

“I don’t care!” replied the dangerous-looking guy. “Out!” He tossed the bag to the ground, and a squeal burst out of it when it dropped.

Your comprehension of [Yatten] has leveled up. It is now level 2.

“Get your stuff!” The burly man shouted at the others, before looking around the area, scanning for something. I guessed he was probably on the lookout for any dinosaurs or giant worms in the vicinity.

Finally, I rememberd to employ my skills, and observed the trio.

Barlan, Yatten Squire [Lvl 9]

That was the guy swimming in the pond, splashing the girl again to her dismay, laughing as she gasped at the cold.

Shella, Yatten Squire [Lvl 11]

She was the girl, standing with a pout on her face as she wrung out her hair over the ground.

Sir Grenzer, the Unbent [Lvl ???]

Damnit.

Yet another “Lvl ???” entity. And to make it worse, I couldn’t see any information about the three besides their names.

Grenzer continued to scold the other two as he virtually yanked the guy out of the pond by his hair, before carefully peering into the deeps. He followed them around to the other side of the pond, watching as they dug through the large leaves, pulling out bags and pieces of armor.

A clawed hand poked itself halfway out of the thick sack Grenzer had tossed to the ground, reaching around for something, but the effort was futile.

Damnit… I thought again. That wasn’t just any clawed hand.

That was a clawed hand that I recognized.