The food chain

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James and Mrs white made their way on the eastern side of the mountains, heading in a northerly route. Mrs. White had said that she remembered the mangoes being near the pteranodon cage.

"You mean the aviary?" James asked, adjusting the duffle bag on his back to a more comfortable position. "What were you doing all the way up here?" Mrs. White stepped over a fallen tree before responding.

"Looking." Was all she said. James looked back at the small woman. She was breathing hard, her shirt was caked in sweat, mud, and a little bit of blood. She looked like she had just come through a war zone. James snorted at the thought. She has probably been through much worse.

James looked up, trying to judge the time of day by the sun. It had been steadily growing darker, but James guessed it was wasn't quite evening yet. Clouds were rolling in, from which direction James couldn't tell.

"This could be fun." James said sarcastically. A low rumble of thunder in the distance seemed to agree with him.

The sun was not yet hidden by the dark clouds, and continued to beat down steadily onto the trees.

"I'm going to take a quick look around." James said, and swung the duffle bag off of his back. He selected a tree and jumped for a low branch. He hoisted himself up and then continued his ascent until he was at the very top of the tree.

"What do you see?" Mrs. White called up to him. James glanced around. Straight ahead, not too far away, nestled in between two mountains rose a large dome.

"I think it's the aviary!" James called back down.

"Great! Hey, on your way down, could you grab a couple of mangoes? I'm kinda hungry." James could almost hear the smile on her voice.

"You've gotta be kidding me." He mumbled as he ducked back below the canopy of the tree. Sure enough, here and there he could see the ripe, yellow ovals, along with some not yet ripe green ones. James' stomach grumbled. "You said you shook branches the last time you collected these things, right?"

"Yes!" Mrs. White yelled back, using her hand to shade her eyes from what was left of the sun. The clouds were steadily moving in, and would block its light soon enough.

"Stand clear!" James called down, and gripped a branch above him with both hands. He began to jump up and down on the branch below him, doing his best to shake free the ripe fruit.

They fell like rain. The plop, plop of the fresh fruit sounded satisfying to James ears, and he repeated the jumping process on two more branches, before climbing down to help Mrs. White gather the slightly bruised fruit.

Both humans were extremely hungry, having only had melted snicker bars for lunch, and after collecting five mangos, hunger over came them. Mrs. White picked up a fruit and showed James how he could bite into the skin with his teeth, and peel it away in chunks with a jerking motion of the head.

In this way they ate, mango juice dripping down their faces and onto the ground. A gentle, cool breeze began to blow, much different from the hot and sticky one that had continued from the start of their hike early that morning.

"My that feels lovely." Mrs. White sighed. She held a half eaten mango in one hand, and wiped away some juice from her mouth with the other.

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