The Land Behind the Mirror | ONC 2022

Chapter 11

When it comes to food, it's an ongoing issue. However, humans have found artificial supplements for meat that some dinosaurs like while others do not. They have even started making lab-grown meat so that my carnivorous brethren and I can satiate our needs.

"Wait a minute, then why did that T-Rex attack me?" Alba asked, violently jabbing her fork in Wisetail's direction.

It had an air of accusation that elicited sadness in Ana's eyes and an impatient wag of the tail in Wisetail's. They were clearly agitated by her interruptions, but Alba had a specific way of understanding things, and listening without asking questions didn't really work for her. She often needed to understand more than what was being said.

Well, there are factions in the dinosaur society that are against DHA.

"A what?" Alba asked impatiently.

She said it with her mouth full, allowing for a few grains of rice to escape back onto the plate.

Ana looked at her so intensely that Alba wondered if she thought that her endless patience could somehow transfer to Alba. It was impossible even when Alba tried really hard, which she stopped doing for the time being. For the moment, she needed to understand things if she was ever expected to cope with them.

"A Dinosaur Human Agreement. It's like a non-attack agreement they established when they first managed to communicate with each other," Ana explained concisely.

"Wow, how did that happen? Were you just like, 'Oh no, we won't eat you. Let's chat'?" Alba directed her question to Wisetail.

No. Unfortunately, nothing is as simple as that. If you had allowed me to present everything in orderly fashion, I might have been able to help you understand the reasons behind everything.

It was the first time Ana had heard Wisetail not being his happy, cheerful self. As a matter of fact, he sounded grumpy, as much as a velociraptor could be called so. It made her wonder if after all those students he taught, human and dinosaur, Alba might be the one to break him.

"Alba just has a different learning style. Her curiosity is often stronger than anything else. If she doesn't understand something completely, she can't follow the rest of the story. Her mind keeps circling back to that one hole in her understanding," Ana cautiously explained.

"I think I get the basic idea now. You can explain the way you like," Alba said.

She was in a whole different world. It only stood to reason that trying to be more diplomatic might be a better course of action.

As I was saying, when humans appeared, we realized their potential before they did. We could see that they could be so much more than a food source. That they were evolutionally equipped to change the world for the better. Or at least preserve it as it was.

"Does that mean you never ate humans?" Alba asked, allowing a small amount of hope to blossom in her chest.

Well, not exactly.

Upon saying that, Wisetail's foot started drawing circles in the ground, a strange thing to see in a dinosaur. His eyes filled with water, and Alba wondered if the odd velociraptor was about to cry.

Unfortunately, our survival instincts were overriding all others at first. So, there were a few slipups.

"Slipups? As in your kind ate my kind? Those kinds of slipups?" Alba asked harshly.

Yes. But you have to understand that we weren't as evolved as we are now. Our instincts were running rampant, but we did all we could to keep them in check. The herbivores were a great help in this matter as it was in their best interest, as well as humans, for us to get better control of our cravings.