A mere twenty minutes away from the Giant’s Ditch, the group had to put a halt on traveling to their intended location. They weren’t in trouble, or anything like that, Anna just stopped Gutaxun on his spot, and made a special demand.
Without the slightest bit of shame, she pointed at a reptile as tall as Gutaxun himself, and demanded it as a pet.
"I want that one." She said. "Can you tame her for me?"
"You gotta be kidding, right?" He got nervous. "That thing can eat me in one bite!"
"One gulp, technically." She corrected him shamelessly. "We’re looking at a dinosaur of the future, Jimmy. I want her."
Anna was pointing at a Quetzalcoatlus Northropi. Back on earth, it was known as the largest flying animal to ever exist! It goes without saying that it didn’t belong in this era either.
It was so huge that when it walked on the ground, it looked like a giraffe, with a beak that was nearly half its body size, that is! It was an apex predator, through and through, perhaps one of the most efficient ones as well.
Anna kept insisting to have it as a pet, and so she added, "Imagine how much progress we can make if we have eyes from the sky. I could probably find the rest of the survivors faster than anyone else."
At that moment, Eni popped up in front of them, right on top of Gutaxun’s back. When she stopped, the shock-wave like impact of her breasts flinging forward, almost caused Jimmy’s hairline to recede.
"No one made it home!" She exclaimed, and tried to catch her breath. "Not even the Field Runners! I don’t know what’s going on!"
"Maybe they found other hunters, and holed up somewhere." Zik added. "It’s what we were trying to do before you found us."
"Yeah, that’s probably it." Jimmy held his head, and he was getting quite frustrated. "But since no one’s home yet, we have to assume the survivors are either lost, or can’t afford to move. They might be holed up somewhere, stuck, surrounded by some kind of vicious bastard of a dinosaur. Or giant? I don’t know, but we can’t go home yet, we have to find the hunters, and get them home safely."
"About that," Anna nudged him. "Will you get me my Quetzalcoatlus Northropi already? Or QT for short? I wanna ride that beauty."
"Jesus, alright." He ran his hand across his face. "I’ll get you your cutie."
Afterwards, he grabbed Nechi’s hand, and dragged her along with him. "If that big fucker tries to eat me, rip its wings apart."
"Okay," Nechi said.
For once, she was very cooperative, and willing to use her dark, magical abilities. She knew what was at stake, so she wanted to help. The day wasn’t getting any longer, after all, and the sun was close to setting beyond the horizon.
The Quetzalcoatlus Northropi was a magnificent species. It was five-meters tall, for a start, or sixteen feet. Its wingspan was double that size, certainly good enough to carry a light-weight human on its back, and through the air.
Other than having a massive beak that could scare most creatures into submission, it also had an intimidating color variation. Its body was brown, its neck white, and the top of its head had a radiant red spot.
The Quetzalcoatlus Northropi looked like this era’s version of a giant Bald Eagle. The fact that it had these fur-like filaments covering its body, instead of scales, made it look all the more like an eagle. An eagle on steroids, that is. It was the most badass pet one could hope for!
Jimmy approached the beast with caution. By all odds, it would not get spooked and fly away if he approached it, even though he was hoping for that to happen. It would most likely charge at him at great speeds, since it used its wings like a second pair of legs, and then it would try and peck the life out of him. He was absolutely terrified.
Once he got close enough to it, in an estimated twenty meter radius, or sixty-five feet, he could hear its heartbeat. Its heartbeat was fast, so the melody he heard was much like listening to techno music, but he could read between the notes, and was looking for an edge.
Yesterday, he tamed Gutaxun by healing his hurt foot, followed by whatever else he did in his trance-like state, but this beast, this flying reptile did not have any weaknesses. It was not hurt, it didn’t need treatment of any sort, so it was almost impossible to bond with it, or tame it. The Quetzalcoatlus Northropi has not dropped into this world just to be used like a unicorn.
Jimmy still gave it a shot, because he wanted to give his new girlfriend a great gift. Sure he was hoping that this beast flew away, but he would sooner see it dead rather than give up.
"Talk to me, big girl." He whispered, and got closer to it.
The beast’s heartbeat increased dramatically the more he approached it, and he noticed this, but he still took a few more steps forward. He saw its distress as an advantage.
"Calm down, beauty." He whispered. "Watch that darn beak. I don’t want a new hole in my face."
Jimmy wiggled his fingers around, from a mildly safe distance, and started playing with the beast’s blood. There was a lot of blood to work with here, considering its size, but this turned out to be a good thing.
As he lowered its heartbeat down, something clicked in his head, and he somehow got access to its nervous system. This was new, at least, it felt new.
Jimmy had approached the beast without the faintest clue of how to tame it, and he was still clueless, but now he got access to its nervous system, and managed to keep the beast calm enough to prevent it from attacking. He had a moment to experiment.
"Move your beak away," He demanded.
To his surprise, the Quetzalcoatlus Northropi moved its massive beak away. It seemed unwilling to listen to his commands, but it did not refuse them either.
"Oh..." He sighed in relief, as he made a realization. "Nerves are tied to the brain..."
Jimmy then focused his abilities towards the beast’s head, and got a decent visualization of its brain. He could picture it in his mind with some detail, but it was hardly like a brain scan or anything like that. It was just enough to help his abilities creep into the QT’s brain.
"Jesus!" He exclaimed. "So much violence in that peanut of yours, huh?"