Enigmatic Jungle

The pleasant, not too loud sound of waves echoed off the sandy dunes, signalling to everyone around that the sea was calm today. A gentle breeze brushed the surface of the beach, doing so so subtly that it was difficult to see any effects of its actions. Swavelli lay on the warm sand, allowing the loose substance to cover her limbs. With a gentle gaze and half-closed eyes, she observed her surroundings - she was completely relaxed.

Seffe snuggled up to her side, absorbing the warmth transmitted by the female's light-coloured scales. The utahraptor was a little more alert. His orange eyes scanned the beach vigilantly, looking for anything that might be interesting. So far, however (which was not surprising at all), the most interesting sight in the area was Flare, trying hard to hunt fish. Seffe chuckled to himself at the suchomimus' efforts. Flare was young and still had a lot to learn. For example, that a crisp morning was not the best time to fish.

The raptor rolled over onto his other side, kicking up a cloud of sand. He sneezed reflexively, trying to blow away the irritating little grains. They had been sitting there aimlessly for about an hour, and to be honest, Seffe was fed up with it – he wasn't cut out for stagnation. If it were up to him, instead of lying aimlessly on the beach, the three of them would already be in the middle of some exciting expedition.

The male glanced surreptitiously at Swavelli, observing the expression on her face. The female was his complete opposite - for her, this painfully tedious way of spending time was just perfect. Convincing her to do anything else could be difficult. However, he had an ace up his sleeve. This argument, which was difficult to dismiss, was the fact that Seffe had recently heard about an interesting place that would be worth seeing with their own eyes.

This place was located in the jungle, rather on its edge, so not too far away – one day should be enough for them to get there and explore this interesting location (although they would not be able to return in time, so they would have to spend the night somewhere in the wilderness). Seffe had heard rumours that there were some human ruins in the tropical forest. However, they were not similar to those that were abundant in certain areas of the island. According to reports, they looked much older and more damaged by the passage of time. Not only was the structure itself intriguing, but also what they might find inside - apparently, people had left many objects there. Most of them were probably just useless curiosities, but some might prove useful. It was worth checking out.

Seffe turned his head towards his companion, trying to signal that he wanted to tell her something. She quickly responded to his intention, making eye contact with him.

"You know, I have this idea..."

~*~

Surprisingly, they set off shortly afterwards. As expected, Swavelli was not enthusiastic about her friend's idea, but she was outvoted when Flare unequivocally supported the raptor. The young male, frustrated that despite his efforts, he had only managed to catch one fish today, had also had enough of the beach.

They knew that a rather long journey awaited them, so they walked at a brisk pace, paying little attention to any distractions around them. They were fully focused on the task at hand.

~*~

Flare laughed quietly, pleased with his discovery - in the distance, the first towering trees were already visible, towering above the dense, greenish layer of lower tree crowns. The image was slightly distorted by the mist hanging over the jungle. The male turned to his companions, wanting to share the joyful news with them. Unnecessarily - they had also already realised how close they were to their goal. Seffe chirped happily, then, flapping his wings playfully, began to run towards the forest. The suchomimus had no intention of letting him get away – they also quickened their pace considerably.

It quickly became clear that, as they had suspected, none of them had ever been here before. Although seemingly similar to other tropical forests covering the island, this jungle had certain distinctive features that were impossible to miss. Even from their current external perspective, this forest seemed much more vibrant and colorful than the others. Even the first layer of trees growing in front of them was densely covered with vines tightly entwined around the rough bark. In addition, dozens of different flowers could be seen on the spreading branches. Most of them had beautiful, rounded petals in various shades of pink and purple, but there were also some that were completely white. However, the dinosaurs did not even have to raise their heads to notice the striking beauty of this place - among the lush green grass, strange plants with pointed leaves and red, fleshy inflorescences grew out of the ground. The edge of the jungle was so full of beautiful phenomena that none of them knew where to focus their gaze.

Fortunately, this momentary distraction did not mean that they could not experience the beauty of this fairy-tale location. On the contrary, when the three of them stopped clinging so tightly to their sight, the stimuli received by their other senses began to reach them more intensely.

The first thing that struck them was the wonderful, multidimensional, almost intoxicating scent. They weren't surprised—the multitude of flowers growing here had to attract the insects that pollinated them somehow. In a place where absolutely every plant shamelessly showed off its breathtaking colors and shapes, the scent it gave off was the only feature that could give them an advantage. The further they went into the forest, the more intense the scent became. It was so sweet and almost palpably heavy that the three friends felt as if it were sticking to their skin.

Of course, there were also sounds, the variety of which mercilessly assaulted their ears, unaccustomed to such variability. On the beach, regardless of the time of day or season, the repertoire of sounds was almost the same - the sound of waves, gentle or stormy; the cries of seagulls and other water birds fighting for food; the sound of footsteps on the soft sand. Here, it was completely different—the sound of leaves rustling in the gentle breeze, the buzzing of various insects, the rustling of thick, tall grass, and amid all this, strange cries, squeaks, roars, and calls, so unusual that none of them even knew who could be making them. They were completely lost in this cacophony.

Seffe, absolutely enchanted by this almost surreal image, only after a long moment realized that the rumors he had heard did not mention the exact location of the mysterious ruins. Their plan ended here—now it was time for improvisation. Judging by their cheerful mood, however, none of them were frustrated by this turn of events. The trio was completely satisfied with the opportunity to explore the edge of the jungle itself, so no matter which part they visited next, everyone would be satisfied with the trip.

However, they had to make a decision—they didn't want to stand in the same place all the time. Lacking a more ambitious idea, they decided to simply move forward.

They persevered through the dense jungle, sometimes forced to use the claws on their hands like improvised machetes. Most of the time, the terrain was very difficult to navigate, but as a rule, after a few minutes of effort, they managed to break through to a small clearing - the trees growing here were slightly more scattered, but still formed an almost impenetrable canopy with their crowns, meaning that there was little direct sunlight here.

Just as they discovered one such clearing, they were struck by a strong, completely unexpected smell. None of them had smelled it before in this jungle. Seffe looked questioningly at Swavelli, scratching his cheek with his claw in a thoughtful gesture. Flare, on the other hand, stared intently at the source of the surprising stimulus. His pupils narrowed with emotion.

There was a strong smell of carrion in the air. The older members of the group were mainly intrigued by how large the carcass must be to smell so intensely. Flare, remembering his unsuccessful fishing trip that morning, had a slightly different plan - although he was not usually a scavenger, now his mouth watered at the very thought of what was emitting this smell. The trio agreed that it would be best to find out what was behind this mystery.

The scent trail was exceptionally strong, so finding the way to the mysterious object was not difficult. Of course, the challenge remained of pushing through the hostile jungle, but they already had some practice in this – Seffe went first, parting the plants with his sharp, hooked claws, and whenever he needed help in the form of greater size and mass, he signaled to one of the suchomimus.

The scent became so intense that whatever was emitting it must have been behind the last curtain of dense vegetation. The excited trio pushed through the green wall, expecting to see a huge carcass lying on the grass.

However, nothing of the sort appeared before their eyes. Instead, in the middle of another, exceptionally small clearing, a strange, enormous creature grew out of the ground. It was undoubtedly a plant, but what a plant! It was as tall as a suchomimus, absolutely shocking the three friends. A cup-shaped, green-purple, slightly wrinkled structure protected a yellowish, fleshy column that rose toward the sky from the very center of the plant. The bewildered dinosaurs looked at this stinking carrion botanical anomaly with disbelief - Flare was very disappointed.

As it turned out, however, the strange flower attracted more than just them. The smell of fresh carrion wafting through the air was tempting to every carnivore in the area, both small and large.

Of course, it wasn't the numerous scavenger beetles, flies, and other small creatures that had gathered around the flower. No, the trio saw someone much more impressive.

Suddenly, without warning, a strange animal, about the size of a suchomimus, jumped out of the bushes on the other side. All three instinctively backed away, a little frightened by this sudden appearance.

The first thing they noticed (even before identifying the species of the newcomer) was the intense blue, unnatural color of the feathers covering the female's entire body. Against this bright background, there were also black, parallel, narrow stripes. The female's head was also largely black. The trio looked at each other in disbelief—clearly, it wasn't just the plants that looked extravagant in this jungle.

The intruder albertosaurus also jumped, frightened by this unexpected encounter. The female instinctively opened her jaws, exposing her white, sharp teeth - she was outnumbered, which did not fill her with optimism. She took a few seconds to carefully assess her situation, then turned abruptly, trying to escape in the direction she had come from.

“Wait, we are not a danger to you!” Seffe shouted, struggling to refrain from following the female - it would not make a good impression on her.

Swavelli uttered similar words, hoping that the combined force of their message would reach this strange creature. She was right. Although Dart was able to ignore Seffe, Swavelli's calm, almost motherly voice calmed her down a bit and persuaded her to return to the clearing.

The first thing she did when she found herself in their company again was to make sure where the smell of carrion was coming from. In her initial shock, she completely overlooked this issue (for a second, she even forgot why she had come here in the first place), but now she too was disappointed. One glance at the peculiar plant was enough for her to realize that she had been deceived. It wasn't the first time, either — she had once found a similar specimen of this bizarre jungle flora, stinking of carrion for miles around. She knew what she was looking at.

Making sure that the female had calmed down a bit, Seffe slowly moved towards her. A moment earlier, he had signaled to Flare not to try any such antics - the young suchomimus could look really scary at times, especially to a frightened stranger.

When the utahraptor got a little closer, he introduced himself and his group in a cheerful, though not too energetic voice. The blue female reciprocated the gesture.

“Well, seems that you three have also been fooled by this stupid plant, right?” Dart laughed awkwardly to ease the tension a little.

It seemed that instead of magnificent old ruins, they had found a new friend.

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