Survivor 3295743

11

It took me three days of wandering parallel to the river before I found a region and terrain to settle down in. The ground here was becoming hilly with shallow valleys after rising a few dozen feet over less than twice as many miles. The mountains in the distance were now high climbing bodies of dark earth that began to fill the horizon up to the clouds with their bodies.

Where I stopped to rest now was an area dominated by sparse but enormous evergreen trees that could have housed small towns worth of people in an area that covered a small city at the very least. The trees here like in the past were mostly inhabited by reptiles and rodents. The one in which I was camping on a sappy branch carpeted with needles had housed several large lizards, some with spikes, comparable to miniature ponies in height and crocodiles in length.

However, they had oddly toad like heads and mouths that sported short but sharp omnivorous teeth. Those teeth came in three rows that probably pushed forward like a shark's whenever one was lost. They also gave me some inspiration for a distant hope.

They were a breeding group of one enormous male and three females controlling a large hollowed branch near the top of the tree. When I was only about halfway up after two hours of climbing and finally felt the exhaustion of travel and work on my body, the male noisily started making its way down. I did not even know about the nest until afterward.

After glimpsing large portions of its oddly six-legged body, I was content to wait for the beast to come down to my level. The branch I was rest on was broad enough to put large apartments down the length of. In an environment that favored this beast, I had no choice but to get as much open space as possible.

When the giant lizard finally crawled dropped onto my branch like a common pine lizard but with a quaking thud, I simply rushed at it while it was collecting its balance. Instead of attacking it outright as it started moving forward I sidestepped about ten feet away toward the edge of the branch after feinting a thrust towards its face. It reaction had been to move its head and scuttle a few feet to the other side, presenting a perfect opportunity for me to rush in again.

However, just as I was committing to the lunging thrust of my spear at its neck, its tail whipped around and swept the legs right out from under me. I performed half of a somersault before landing on the back of my head and shoulder and rolling toward the edge of the branch. Even though the thick mesh collar of my suit had cushioned some of the landing, the impact sent out a stiffening throb through my entire head that made me see stars.

My spear rolled away and over the side of the tree branch as I blearily gripped the wood with both hands. In my head, I was swearing in all the vulgarities of Earth that I knew of as I fought to regain my balance and get up. My suit grew its usual climbing spikes and claws from my arms and legs when I got up and reeled to the side as I stumbled away from the lizard.

The lizard calmly and slowly pursued me for more than ten yards down the branch as the pain slowly faded away. That was the first real hit I had ever taken in my life and I still felt like my neck had almost broken. However, when the lizard finally lunged forward with its mouth open wide I had no choice but the jump high into action.

My goal was to land with one knee and its spike aimed down on the top of its head, but once I was out of sight above its head it lurches up and back with its front legs to slam its head into my side like a battering ram. I soon found myself sprawled out on its spiky scaled back with more than a few broken needles of keratin sticking out of my suit. The pain of several small punctures in my shoulder and back helped to clear my head.

If I had time to concentrate on it I could have flexed the layers of my suit to remove the broken spikes but the lizard acrobatically hopped and spun about in the air to slam me down on the branch back toward the trunk of the tree.