Alone

The Oryctodromeus poked her head out of the burrow, squinting from the sudden sunlight. She felt a faint shiver of anxiety at her temporary blindness, fearing a nearby predator may attack in her vulnerable state. With a few deep breaths, she did her best to calm herself down. I'm safe here, remember? No one else lives in this area. I'm alone.

Her vision gradually settled back to normal as she took in the world around her. A small pond, half crystallized with ice, lay near the entrance to her burrow. Towering rocks and herbs framed its shore, providing a sense of shelter. Snow shrouded the landscape, the peak of the tallest mountain in the land. On all sides of her, the Oryctodromeus could see the vast world stretching beneath and off into the horizons. The jungle hill, normally towering and daunting, looked like a mere speck from here. Even the faraway desert, her birth place, seemed inconsequential from this height, a tiny sliver of a huge world.

Satisfied that no nearby predators lurked around her, she dug her claws into the dirt below and sprung up from the earth, now fully exposed. She scampered over to the pond, drinking in the crisp water. Unlike so many of the lakes she had encountered in the past, this one was free from Mosasaurus and other aquatic predators. Back at the forest lake, she had almost met a fateful end from a Mosasaurus lurking in the water, ready to drag her down into the depths as she went for a drink of water. A nearby Saichania had arrived just in time to beat down the predator, saving her from an untimely end.

But that's why I'm here. To get away from all that. She raised her head to sniff at the air, taking in the fresh breeze. The violet herbs around her bent and fluttered in the wind, the only sound for many miles. She felt unease settle in her stomach; the quietness reminded her a bit too much of her younger days, when she lived in the desert. Born there with no parents in sight, she had stumbled across the sand in confusion, sick and nauseous all the time from eating cacti. It didn't take her long to wish for a better life, and so she set off for the greenery in the distance, an area she would later learn was the jungle.

She nearly died many, many times, with no parents or herd to protect her and teach her the ways of their kind. A sudden flood almost swept her away, and sometime after, she almost left this world from dehydration. If there was one thing she had learned about this world, it was that it had no problem switching from one extreme to the next. And it didn't care one way or another if she lived or died.

It was all up to her, then. Her heart had been lifted when she spotted an Oryctodromeus burrow in the jungle, overjoyed to meet her own kind and have a family for once in her life. Unfortunately, the burrow had long been abandoned, with no kin in sight. A kindly Apatosaurus took pity on her at that moment and sat beside her for a while, telling her grand tales of a mountain so high, it never flooded even during the very worst extinction floods. Of course, he had his own family, and the giant beast made her feel somewhat unnerved, so they parted ways shortly after.

Still, his words nagged at the back of her mind: A mountain safe from flooding, so high up and secluded other dinosaurs hardly ever visited it. No one could actually live there, since there wasn't any shelter in sight. They would be prime targets for a tornado or lightning, after all.

But an Oryctodromeus like herself could make burrows. She could create her own shelter, wherever she pleased. At that moment, she decided there and then she would migrate across the land to reach this mountain, no matter what. She would be completely safe there, away from all other dinosaurs and hidden from the elements. Nothing would ever threaten her again.

A harsh gust of wind beat down on the mountain peak, bringing her back to reality. Leaping up onto a rock, she let her tail dangle into the pond as she gazed down the mountainside. Her eyes followed the path she had taken many months ago to reach this peak. She could just barely make out the cliff that had almost taken her life as she slipped over the edge. And somewhere out there, she knew the forest lake still roared with its waterfall. A Tyrannosaurus Rex had nearly killed her there, too, but she refused to give up so close to her destination. She had darted away into the woods just in time, ready to live another day.

Everywhere she looked, she saw signs of the dangers she had encountered, replaying old memories in her head. Against all odds, she had made it to this peak. True to the Apatosaurus' words, it was the safest haven in the entire land: Fresh water, lots of plants, a cozy burrow she had dug up herself, and no other dinosaurs anywhere nearby. For the first time in her life, she was truly safe.

Yet she was still alone, arguably even more than before. At least during her migration, she had met a few fellow herbivores here and there, and even the predators had provided some amount of (albeit terrifying) interaction. Here, there was no one to talk to, no one to cuddle with even briefly. No fear, no danger, and no love or friendship.

But isn't this what I wanted? She whipped her tail in agitation, sending ripples through the water. Nothing can get me here. I should've died in the desert, but I made it. I should be proud.

Yet try as she might, she couldn't feel any pride at her accomplishments. There was only an emptiness, a gaping hole that had been there from the moment she was born. Rather than shrinking away, it had only grown bigger with time. Maybe this isolation hadn't been such a good idea...she could go back down to the forest lake, or maybe even the jungle. Perhaps she could find the friendly Saichania or Apatosaurus again. Maybe, if she could learn to be less intimidated by them, she could join their herds and find a family, even if they weren't her own kind.

But that was crazy talk. She hadn't risked everything to migrate here only to throw it all away now. On this peak, she was forever safe, and that was all that mattered. Right?

Deep down, she knew this wasn't right and she would forever feel incomplete, cut off from all contact with others and forced to live alone. But memories of the Mosasaurus, the flood, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, kept her rooted in place, stuck in this prison she called her home.

I'll dig some more tunnels. That always makes me feel better. With a little hop, she darted down onto the ground and squirmed back into her burrow, eager to numb her mind with the calming act of digging. In her burrow, she could dig to her heart's content, filled with joy she normally didn't feel. It would last until she finally stopped, exhausted, and sat down to rest, suddenly aware of the vast emptiness all around her.