The birds sung across the jungle, their song sharp, loud, as if they knew they weren't supposed to be here. Even the small song birds were awfully predatory, hyped up by their high blood pressure as if they were teenagers with high testosterone. They were bullies, and these balls of feathers did in fact bully the weaklings amongst their bunch.

Weaker birds of their species were full of abscesses, caused by bacterial infections after their skin was exposed to the elements thanks to being pecked on. Their anti-bacterial medicine? Dandelion roots, stuffed a couple of inches beneath the ground, in rare spots where the jungle wasn't a complicated mess of vines. Even small runts knew how to maintain their health to some degree, granted, their brothers and sisters have bullied them away from their food supply, they still held strong to their instincts.

Their instinctual demand to survive shone like a tiny little star. Their attitude perhaps even more aggressive than their bigger siblings, even if they didn't have the mass to back up their attitude.

Survival was always tough, and across this horrid jungle of odd species, every creature fought twice as hard compared to those on the surface world. They didn't ask to be born, but they fought on.

Somewhere within the jungle, riding on top of a dinosaur, Anna asked herself, "What could possibly prompt a species of dinosaurs to evolve into a small bird? This is like the T-Rex/Chicken evolutionary line from back on Earth, Jimmy. The dinosaurs, the very few who managed to survive after the meteor hit, constantly evolved into smaller species in order for their blood line to survive. What fucking disaster forced an entire species to evolve into a smaller version of themselves, and why aren't the other dinosaurs small birds?"

"You're barking up the wrong tree, buddy," He chuckled, "I don't know."

"Maybe someone in the city knows?" She sighed, "This doesn't make any sense."

Anna sunk into deeper contemplation the more she observed the wildlife around her. Since not every species tried to attack them now when they were on the back of Almara, who had shapeshifted into a ten foot tall River Fatty, Anna got plenty of opportunities to watch the wildlife, from afar, as they continued piercing through the jungle.

Some species of dinosaurs were familiar to her, especially the ones that looked like Compsognathus Longipes (compies), or Allosaurus Fragilis (Gutaxun's species), but nevertheless, there appeared to be a multitude of species in that regard. Some dinosaurs similar to the aforementioned species were bigger, some smaller, some had long claws, some had bodies that were too elongated, and overall, it was difficult to make a safe assumption as to how they spread into so many subspecies.

As for other dinosaurs, she could not recognize them whatsoever. It got to the point where she was face-blinded by the dinosaurs, as there were too many species, and therefore she could not tell them apart. She counted thirty-five separate species so far, and could only recognize twelve of them!

On one hand, she had the urge to be the first Paleontologist to name them, even though she didn't have a degree in that field.

But on the other hand, she did not know where to base the standard of their pending names from. She could either call them variations of jungle dinosaurs, or give up on naming them all together. Either option was complicated for her.

Anyway, as they kept tearing through the jungle, the two of them noticed that Almara was panicking.

Considering how dense with creatures this jungle was, they immediately started looking around, frantically, trying to figure out if they were being approached by an Apex Predator that was bigger than her.

Jimmy wanted to have the advantage against whatever may be threatening them, so he made a strong attempt to focus.

A heartbeat, loud by definition, became more and more present in his mind. He even managed to tap into its heart, and quickly analyzed it.

"What the fuck?" He blurted, "A heart with chambers? Dinosaur hearts are supposed to have four chambers… what in the fuck am I hearing?"

Jimmy began to share Anna's confusion in regards to the jungle.

He stood on top of Almara's back, and looked around like a constipated chicken, trying to figure out what creature lurked near them.

Almara kept panicking, she even started bouncing, in a sense.

She was too big to jump high, so she started trampling, lifting one leg, smashing it to the ground, and then doing it with the other.

The commotion of her feet stomping, helped Jimmy get his head out of his ass. He finally looked directly downwards, instead of spinning in place, and this was when he saw a horrifying creature, tied around Almara's chunky, River Fatty leg!

It was a snake! It being a Boa would be a more accurate description.

"Jesus, fuck!" He shouted.

Jimmy managed to spot the snake's head. It was twice as tall as his, and perhaps three times wider!

The snake was tying itself around Almara's leg, surely trying to constrict her, and turn her into a meal.

This beast of a snake had the clear advantage. If it chomped down on her, then all three of them could be in big trouble, as the snake looked like it was a solid sixteen meters long, or fifty-two feet long! Weight-wise, it challenged that of Almara's by half a ton!

"Fuck you!" Jimmy shouted.

Afterwards, he burned through twenty percent of his mana to blow up the snake's heart on the spot! He couldn't afford to be greedy, because he wasted too much time already.

Seconds after, the snake lost its grip on Almara. Its massive muscles retracted, and in turn, Almara managed to pull her leg out of the snake's swirl.

Angry, she then started stomping on the fresh carcass. She crushed its head a few stomps later.

The snake's distinctive color scheme, with brown scales dominating, caught Anna's attention quite a bit. When she saw the dark brown spots across the snake's body, her eyes opened wide in shock!

"Millions of years early," She held in her breath, "Of course."

"What the fuck is it?" He asked.

"A Titanoboa," She answered. "I can tell you that for sure, but this one looks about 10% bigger than the maximum size these beasts are supposed to grow."

"Maybe it ate another fucking Titanoboa," He scoffed, "God, I hate snakes."

"Almara hates them too, from the looks of it." She added, "We're lucky the snake didn't bite her, or else we'd be tossed away in a snap."

Anna wanted to climb down there, and observe the carcass further, but Jimmy tied his arms around her waist, and lifted her up, as soon as he saw her squatting down to make the leap.

"Leave it, please," He said, "It's a big snake, and it's not supposed to be here like every other bastard we saw. Let's just leave it at that, and not put our lives at risk."

"Sure," She sighed, frustrated, "But I thought you brought me down here for research. How are we supposed to make any conclusions if we don't tear a few dinosaurs open?"

"We can do that… once we make it to the city." He insisted. "I'd rather help you do your research where we don't have to worry about what might attack us every other minute. Research takes hours, or days, after all."

Anna wanted to protest, but to everyone's luck, she wasn't as obsessive as she used to be. This jungle had confused her so much, that she already started developing an indifference to her surroundings.

In this horrid situation where nothing made sense, it was hard to grab the research by the tail, and put work in. She didn't know where to start, and she even had a feeling that dissecting the Titanoboa wouldn't get her anywhere. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Since Almara already started walking away from the carcass, Anna gave up altogether.

She said, "I suppose there will be other freakish snakes for me to rip apart."

"Yeah," He sighed in relief, "Plus, Almara fucked that poor bastard up pretty badly. There's no preserving that body."

Anyway, the three of them kept heading through the jungle. They were on their guard, always, as every creature, great and small, was violent enough to try and kill them.

At this point, Jimmy felt dumb that he hadn't gotten a second shapeshifter to come along, and turn them into flying dinosaurs. That approach would've been significantly safer, but he thought of it only after his life was put at constant risk. Sometimes he wondered if he had ADHD, because problems like these could've been avoided if he planned thoroughly enough.

What bothered him more, was the fact that the city he wanted to visit was several days away. That's what Almara claimed, at least, and judging from how their trip went so far, only a few hours in, he wasn't so sure if he and his friends could survive such a long trip.

He didn't have the faintest clue in regards to where they were supposed to camp out for the night, and sleep.