As Pangaea and Guido approached the Rock Circle, the former’s mind was churning with ideas, as he pondered what he would say at the meeting should his input be needed. It usually took Pangaea a while to formulate an argument from scratch, and there had been many times in the past when he had devised a sound line of reasoning too late to share it in the discussion it applied to. Therefore, he wanted to have something prepared to say in case Mr. Threehorn presented an unfavorable contention.
Pangaea found himself distracted somewhat from his thoughts as he and Guido entered the Rock Circle, passing under the massive stone arch overlooking its entrance. The meeting place itself resembled a natural amphitheater, with tiered terraces of rock encircling the stage-like center.
The two gliders had arrived somewhat late, and a substantial crowd was already gathered there. Pangaea marveled at all the different types of dinosaurs present; so many creatures he had spent his entire life wishing to see in the flesh, standing all around him. For a time he forgot his apprehension about the meeting, as he gazed, mesmerized, at the menagerie of dinosaurs assembled in the meeting place.
Soon, however, Pangaea realized that he was attracting his fair share of glances himself, most of them from dinosaurs he didn’t even recognize, except possibly as background characters from the LBT films. He wasn’t sure whether they were looking at him because of his bizarre appearance (Guido was the only Microraptor they had ever seen, and Pangaea, with his larger size and striking red plumage, was all the more noticeable), or because they thought he was staring at them. Maybe it was both. In any case, it made Pangaea feel self-conscious, and he tried to make himself inconspicuous. He found himself growing increasingly anxious, and began glancing nervously around the meeting area, each turn of his head a birdlike twitching motion (This had nothing to do with the biological avian affinities of his new body; it had been typical nervous behavior for his human form as well).
Pangaea uttered a quiet, high-pitched, shuddering sigh as he attempted to calm himself down. He returned to brainstorming potential arguments, as he waited for the meeting to begin.