Primal Saga Volume 1: The Queen of Silence

Chapter 14: Valley of Giants

The drone of the jungle insects began to pick up as midday passed by. We haven't encountered any dangerous dinosaurs during our trek, only small flocks of silvasornis. But we remained on guard. Unfortunately, despite how useful the tachi would be, we use it to cut a path because we didn't want to leave a trail that was too obvious for the hunters to follow. I wasn't even sure if they were going to follow us into the jungle deeps. They had their numbers cut down when the laughing death attacked both Keida and Oliver. Now we just had to worry about Mondo and that creepy phantom Godwin.

Ferns brushing up against me. I swear I always felt like something was crawling on, and not knowing what insects live here only made it worse.

Then.

The ground beneath my feet began to shake. "Earthquake," I said.

Miyabi pushed aside a cluster of large leaves. I heard the sound of a river, but there was something else. 

CRASH!

My heart stood still with anticipation for what was on the other side of the foliage, but Miyabi seemed calm. She motioned me to come forward and look. I looked through the opening she created and what I saw took my breath away.

We were now looking at the cliff face we saw earlier from the hillside. A wide but shallow river ran at the foot of the cliff with the bluest water I have ever seen in my life. I could see a ladder on the other side of the river which was then abruptly blocked from view by an incredibly large animal. The creature had a massive bluish-grey body with a long neck and tail horizontal to the ground. The titanic beast slowly marched down the river bed. Its long neck curved in a wide arc in our direction until its head was way above us. It let out a deep bellow. The bellow was answered by even more cries, I looked down the stream to see a caravan of more animals following the first one. There must have been two dozen of them ranging in a variety of sizes. Even so, the smallest members of the group must have still been at least fifty feet long with the largest more than two times that size.

"What are they," I asked.

"Nomadiosaurus," Miyabi said in a low voice. "They are making their seasonal migration to the plains. Moving south for the wet season."

"What are we going to do?"

"They won't attack because we pose no threat to them. As long as we are careful not to get stepped on we should be able to slip right under them."

I looked at her in disbelief. "Are you crazy?"

"Sooner we get to the tower the sooner we can call for help, right? Trust me. We can make it."

I stared up at the tower which was then obscured by a passing nomadiosaur. I let out a long breath. "Ok, let's do it."

We approached the herd of giants until we were about twenty feet away from their crashing feet. The ground shook more intensely the closer we got. The animals continued to move in two single-file lines not even taking notice of the two tiny humans creeping closer to them. There was a tall rocky sandbar in the middle of the river that they seemed to be avoiding. We just had to make it there and we would be halfway across, but the animal's feet formed a formidable barrier. If our timing was off we could be kicked or crushed. Miyabi and I watched for an opening-

"Now," Miyabi said.

We ran just as one of the nomadiosaur's feet raised up leaving an opening. We stumbled through the creek, water splashing everywhere. We reached the sandbar just as the place we just were was trampled by a series of crashing footsteps.

We were now perched on a big rock in the middle of the sand bar. We rested for a few minutes but my heart was still hammering in my chest. Being surrounded by these titans was a surreal experience. Never in my life had I felt so small, meanwhile, the nomadiosaurs just walked right by us like we were just harmless little insects.