A/N: This story is AU, just letting you know. Trust me, it’s important to know that. However, the movies and TV series have still occurred. This takes place roughly a few days after the last episode.
Freedom. I was finally free.
That idea didn’t quite sink in. The fact that I finally escaped Baxter still hadn’t caught on.
But it was true. I had finally ended Baxter’s hold over me. The wasted years of being a guinea pig and servant were over. All thanks to the bastard’s latest invention.
Excuse me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jack Cutler Anderson.
If you’re going to understand what I am talking about, then I should go back to the beginning. It all started when I was eight years old. My parents died in a fire, leaving me with my “third cousin two times removed”, Dr. Richard Baxter.
If you’ve ever seen a Saturday morning cartoon, then you would understand what Baxter was. He was the epitome of a mad scientist, complete with all these crazy inventions and experiments. All of his inventions were solar powered, so they didn’t have to worry about batteries running out.
He invented a lot of things that could have helped humanity. Chief among them was a genetic food replicator, which basically stored a sample of DNA from meat or plants and would grow it quickly. It could easily produce a huge amount of food in a short amount of time. If he revealed it to the public, it could have ended world hunger.
But the stingy bastard was too afraid of “Big Brother” stealing his ideas that he kept all his inventions secret. To defend his “kingdom”, as he called his lab, he also created deadly weapons. There was a proton bolt rifle, and a plasma beam sword. Like his other inventions, they were solar powered.
The crazy asshole also had a thing for freakish experiments, such as intentionally poisoning people, so he could gauge how long they survived. He evaded getting in trouble with the law by choosing his victims from places where law was corrupt.
But his latest device was something even stranger. He long hypothesized that a parallel universe existed, where past present and future collided on a single planet. Based on his research, he believed that each period was clustered in different locations on the planet. For example, there would be a medieval island near an ice age island.
His goal was to create a portal that would allow its user to go to this dimension. It would be controlled by a remote that determined if the portal was open or closed.
At first, I didn’t believe it could be true, but to my surprise, he actually created the portal. That was when I realized I had a chance to escape. While he was asleep, I stole his weapons, a genetic food replicator, and the remote.
Now, I was in that world. Free from Baxter. I had everything I needed to survive. I had a food supply, weapons to defend myself, and I controlled the means by which Baxter could get here in the first place. It took him months of work and a million dollars in parts to build it. It would be a long time before he would be able to rebuild it, if he ever could.
Without that device, he had no control over me.
I looked around. The landscape resembled a jungle in South America or Africa. It was hot and humid.
A loud screeching sound caught my attention. Turning around, I saw…Pterosaurs! Living, breathing Pterosaurs!
I loved dinosaurs since I was little. I could identify them easily. They were Tropegnathus, medium sized Pterosaurs from the early cretaceous.
As I watched, I wondered what their life cycle was like. We still had so little knowledge of dinosaurs. We barely knew anything about them at all.
Then I heard something. A twig snap. In most periods of the Earth’s history, how I reacted to that sound meant the difference between life and death. It sounded small, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t deadly. Just look at Raptors or other small dinosaurs.
Running wasn’t an option. It exposed me to an attack from the rear. It also meant that I showed I was weak. No, I needed to stand and fight.
I unsheathed my sword, and turned to face my assailant. I pointed the weapon directly to the trees.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you mister.”
I froze.
That was the voice of a young human.
What the hell are they doing here?!
Something even more surprising soon revealed itself.
What walked out of the underbrush wasn’t a human, but a young Brontosaurus.
I blinked for a second.
“Did-did you just talk?!”
“Um yes.”
Everything went black.
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Littlefoot looked at the human. Sure they had heard the stories, but to actually see a real human was considered unheard of, especially here. The human’s called it “The Great Western Continent”.
To most of the creatures who lived here, it was simply called home.
Granted, the various regions each had their own inhabitants, but humans were rarely seen here. According to Mr. Thicknose, a great human Empire dominated the continent hundreds of years ago, before it fell. It was called the Roman Empire, and apparently was a massive and influential group.
It unified the Dinosaur herds of the tropics, the Sabertooth packs to the north, and the Lion kingdoms of the south. Rome even extended its influence to the unknown world beyond the Big Water.
Now, however, only ruins of that great empire remained. Legend had it that a sharptooth rebellion led by a finback named Blackclaw conquered it. His domain was called the Dark Age by most of those after it finally fell with his death. But humanity was wiped from the continent, and no one knew what exactly happened.
Sure, explorers from across the sea had arrived intermittently, but that was considered rare. To find a human here was considered beyond rare.
“Guys, look at this!” Littlefoot cried.
His friends, Cera the Threehorn, Ducky the Swimmer, Petrie the Flyer, Spike the Spiketail, Chomper the Sharptooth, and Ruby the Fast Runner soon arrived.
“Is that a human?” Chomper asked. “I think so. I tried to talk to him but he fainted.” Littlefoot replied.
“Why? I thought humans were used to other groups talking?” Cera asked. “Maybe you just scared him Littlefoot?” Ducky suggested.
“I don’t know…” Littlefoot began. “I just tried to introduce myself. I don’t know what happened.”
“Well, we can’t just leave him. If we could, we would leave him.” Ruby commented. “Ruby right. Human might be able to help fight Redclaw.” Petrie suggested.
“Yeah, they have those fire sticks and silver claws.” Chomper agreed. “Fine. I guess the grownups would like to hear about this.” Littlefoot sighed.
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I opened my eyes. And jumped back in surprise.
“What the hell?!” I cried. There were dinosaurs everywhere. What happened?!
I could count dozens of species, all herbivores, and all looking at me. One, a large Brontosaurus approached.
“We apologize human, we did not mean to startle you.”
“Wow, so you all really can talk?” I asked.
“Talk?! Why wouldn’t we be able to talk?” A Triceratops angrily asked.
“I meant no disrespect, sir.” I began, gritting my teeth. “Just where I come from, animals can’t talk.”
“Where you come from? Beyond the Big Water?” A Saurolophus asked. I was about to explain, but realized something. These were dinosaurs. No technology, all instinct. They couldn’t understand that I came from another dimension.
“Yes. Across the big water.” I replied.
“We haven’t seen a human here in years. My Grandfather said he saw a group here when he was a youngster.” The Brontosaurus stated. “Are you a Roman? A Spaniard? An Englishman?”
My jaw dropped. “How do you…”
“Everyone knows about humans. Tall, skinny, weak. Yet somehow, they use their firesticks and silver claws to rule everyone else. There was a great human herd that lived in this very valley a long time ago. We have a former settlement on the eastern side.” The Triceratops stated.
Roman?! Settlement?! Firesticks?!
What in the hell was going on here?!
I shook my head.
“So there are humans here?” I asked.
“Not anymore. Not for a hundred cold times.” The Brontosaurus replied. “None of us know about any humans on the continent. Not since the Romans fell. We’ve had explorers, yes. There was this man called Colombus who arrived in the south, and another named Drake in the north. But nothing else.”
I looked down. It sounded like the whole world’s past, present, and future were indeed all here.
And I was still free from Baxter, so maybe I could work with this.
“I was part of another explorer, by a guy named Balboa. I ran away.” I lied. “Do you mind if I stay here?”
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The dinosaurs began speaking amongst themselves. They were discussing about whether or not to let me stay. I waited patiently for them to make their decision.
“Um, excuse me Mr. Human?”
I looked behind me, and saw a group of young dinosaurs was looking at me. Among them was the young Brontosaurus. In addition, I could see various other species. A Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Saurolophus, Pteranodon, Oviraptor, and even a young Tyrannosaurus.
“Um, sure.” I replied.
“Sorry for scaring you earlier.” The young Brontosaurus apologized. “Its fine. I guess. I just wasn’t prepared for that.” I replied. I looked around the place I was in.
It was beautiful. I could see vast green plains of grass and in the distance, dense tropical rainforests. Behind those, vast mountains. I was in some sort of valley.
“Beautiful place you have here.” I commented. “Yeah, it’s called the Great Valley. It’s a place where we can live without worrying about sharpteeth.” The Triceratops stated.
“Sharpteeth?” I asked.
“Um…”
I turned. The group looked nervous. “Well, you know, carnivores.” The baby T-rex said sheepishly.
I nodded. It made sense. Most predators did have sharp teeth.
But it didn’t make sense ecologically. Where there were no predators, the herbivores would usually overpopulate and die.
“What’s your name anyway?”
That brought me back to my thoughts. “Jack. Jack Anderson.” I replied.
“I’m Littlefoot. This is Cera.” The Brontosaurus gestured to the Triceratops. “Ducky.” To the Saurolophus. “Petrie.” To the Pteranodon. “Spike.” To the Stegosaurus. “Ruby.” To the Oviraptor. “And this is Chomper.” Littlefoot gestured to the Tyrannosaurus.
“Nice to meet you all.” I replied with a smile.
“Where do you come from? England? France? Spain?” Ducky asked.
How did they know all these places?
“Um, England.” I replied. My family’s ancestry was mostly from Northern England and Germany.
“Cool. What’s going on? Are they still attacking France?”
Jeez. What was going on here? How were these places connected?
“Um, no. They signed a peace treaty. Now they’re fighting the Spanish.” I replied. I had no idea what was going on in this version of Europe, so I was just spit balling pretty much.
I looked down for a second.
“Do you have a fire stick? Or a silver claw?” Chomper asked.
I guessed they meant guns or swords.
“Um sure.” I pulled out my sword and activated it. “Woah! I never heard of one like that!” Littlefoot said in surprise.
“My…uncle had a lot of unusual things.” I replied. To call Baxter my uncle was like saying something horrible. It didn’t sit well with me at all.
“This is my rifle. That’s what we humans call a fire stick. We call silver claws swords.” I showed them my rifle.
“Excuse me. But we have made our decision.” The Brontosaurus walked over.
“We’ve decided you can stay. You are free to eat any of the tree sweets you wish. But you can’t hunt anything alive. We know some humans like to hunt others for sport.” The Triceratops looked at me suspiciously.
I nodded vigorously. I abhorred hunting. That wouldn’t be a problem. I was too squeamish to hurt another living thing.
A/N: So there’s the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Also, humans will play a major role later in the story. This takes place roughly in the mid-1700s era equivalent. So there may be some historical figures that make an appearance. Any questions? Concerns? Ideas? Please let me know. Until next time!
