Ten men walked on the gravel shore of the lake towards Jack and the others. Each of them carried a torch and a long spear. Only one of them was tipped with stone, the others all sharpened wood. Jack immediately found it weird that they walked so close to the water. The ground was uneven and wet, not to mention the cool wind that blew over the lake.

  The grass that surrounded the lake was much easier to walk on, and the danger much more predictable. The jungle was deadly, but you could hear or see the dinosaurs coming. The water could be home to any number of ambush predators, the giant crocodiles alone were enough to make Jack uneasy near dark or murky water.

  Jack had Tilly slink into the jungle with a wave. Then he stopped the group. He would have to keep the Chungs away from Tilly until they were all tamed. That was a surefire way to have one of them get hurt. He moved to pet the untamed Chungs. He didn’t see any tamed dinos with them, but that didn’t mean they weren’t in the jungle like Tilly was.

  The approaching group only took a few minutes to cross the field. They stood about ten feet from the party. The lead man stepped forward and ran his eyes across Jack and the group. He appeared to be in his mid thirties, and was tall with short brown hair and a light stubble. His skin was tan from long days in the sun. Notably, several of the men behind him had much darker skin. They were all shirtless, just like Jack and Soren, and they wore a variety of jeans and cargo shorts. Only three had shoes, and one of them was wearing flip flops. They were all well muscled, though not as fit as Jack. They seemed like people used to working labor intensive jobs. The way they all handled their spears with hesitation though, told Jack that they were not yet used to violence.

  Jack couldn’t make out anything more about the man from just the torchlight. The leader spoke in a deep voice that demanded attention. His tone was authoritative, but not directly hostile. There was a note of worry as he eyed Thrasher and the three Chungs.

  “Who goes there?” He shouted. “Identify yourselves!”

  Jack stepped forward, leaving the protection of the dinosaurs. He kept his club by his side, and only loosely held onto it. He honestly wasn’t expecting trouble from them. Cassady had spoken well of them, and they had a lot to gain by helping each other.

  “Hello. I am Jack Wilson of the Roaring Falls Tribe. These are my fellow tribe mates, Clara, Soren, and Shelby.” He gestured to each of his friends in turn. “We also have Thrasher, our Parasaurolophus, and these three Chung’s are Rose, Blanche, and Dorothy. Be careful around Blanche and Dorothy, they are not tamed yet. They are friendly, but unpredictable.”

  “And what do you all want?” The man asked, his tone still suspicious.

  “We came to discuss the possibility of an alliance. We have formed one with the Wild Bunch a day's walk south of here, and are interested in trading knowledge as well as goods.” Jack answered smoothly. He was tired and didn’t like the man’s tone, but he needed these people to help him so he did his best to remain professional. He was sure there was some annoyance in his tone, but he couldn’t blame the Lake tribe for being cautious.

  The man glanced back towards his men, but Jack noticed he was actually looking towards the water. It was pitch black at the edge of the torchlight, but his instincts told him something was in there. The other men nodded to their leader after a brief whispered conversation.

  “My name is Tom Booth, of the Deep Water Tribe. You can come back to our camp, but the untamed dinos will have to stay outside the wall. I can’t promise that we will agree to anything, but we will hear you out” He said.

  Jack nodded.

  “Thank you. In that case I will introduce our final creature. Don’t be alarmed, she won’t attack anyone unless ordered too. She is tamed.” He put his fingers to his lip and he made a sharp whistling sound. Thrasher immediately perked up at the noise, but to his surprise the Chung’s seemed to not even hear it, more interested in munching on the grass around them. The men all eyed the forest, and some of them started shaking when Tilly sauntered out of the woods with a dead raptor in her mouth. She dropped it at Jack’s feet, then bumped her head against his leg for pats which he gladly provided.

  “Is that a Sabertooth Tiger?”

  “No way. I thought this planet was only full of dinosaurs.”

  “How did they tame something like that?”

  “It's huge.”

  “It’s kinda cute. I wonder if we can get one for Jess.”

  “I hope they don’t live in the jungle. I heard of tigers back on earth that used to hunt people. They could be worse than the dinos.”

  A cacophony of excitement and surprise arose from the men. None of them aimed their spears at Tilly, though they all gripped them tighter when she first appeared. Tom examined her for a moment before nodding.

  “Impressive tame. I bet there is a story behind her. Come back to camp. You lot look like you could use a tall glass of water and some food. The Sabertooth can guard the Chung’s. The dumb creatures don’t seem to realize that she is a predator.” Tom turned his back to them and started leading the way to their camp.

  The first thing Jack noticed about the camp was that it was too close to the water. It was built right against it, and the main bonfire was only ten feet from the water. If anyone sat with their backs to the lake, a crocodile or some other sort of ambush predator could pull them into the water before anyone had a chance to call an alarm or rescue them.

  The second thing he noticed was that their wall was far too short. It stood a good six feet tall, and was made from debarked sticks planted in a line and secured with a rough twine. The top of the wall had been sharpened, but not consistently. There were at least two spots that Jack was confident he could pull himself over without issue. The main issue however, which Thrasher demonstrated to the entire tribe as he approached, was that even the medium sized herbivores were twice the height of the wall. Thrasher could have bowled it over by accident if Soren hadn't kept him back. An angry Triceratops would have stepped over the wall without a second thought, and it would be worthless against a T-Rex or other superpredator.

  The third thing Jack noticed was that they had made five large tents out of sticks, large jungle leaves, twine, and tree bark. They lay scattered around the interior of the camp, and he could see two more that were half finished. There was a wooden rack that held three massive fish. They had been cut open and seemed to be drying out. Jack wasn’t familiar with the process, but he thought it required a smoke house of some type to properly store meat like that.

  From what he could see, there were around fifty people at the camp, including the nine men who were escorting them. The majority were men, but he spotted around twenty women between them. They were a true melting pot group of people. Several of the men had large beards and seemed at home, roasting small fish by the fire and laughing at each other's stories. There was a man with thick glasses and half a brown suit that looked like he would much rather be inside a library or college. One man was covered in tattoos and had several piercings, while another looked like he crawled out of a swamp.

  The women he split into two categories, one group of them were dressed in what Jack assumed had used to be very high quality clubbing outfits. Short shorts made of some type of black leather, and a variety of colorful and frilly shirts. They each wore multiple rings, had large gold or silver ear and nose piercings, and one of them was still in high heels. Out of the four women, two of them were still wearing makeup, but they all looked exhausted and miserable. It was clear they had not taken to the new world well. From the lack of dirt and grime on them, at least compared to the men of the tribe, it seemed they hadn’t been made to work or contribute. Jack did not envy whoever’s job it was to deal with them.

  The other group of women seemed like they were used to hard work and were happily sitting beside the men, laughing and smiling. They seemed well fed and healthy. They all wore simple clothing made from jungle leaves and twine, similar to what Clara was wearing. One of them, a young woman with pale skin and long brown hair that she wore in a braid, had a Microraptor curled up in her lap with a stick in its mouth like a pacifier.

  The Microraptor looked like a mix between its larger brethren that Jack had grown slightly used to, and a flying squirrel. It had a long tail, and brightly colored wing feathers in a vibrant mix of blue and red. Its claws were hidden under its body as it curled up, but Jack had no doubt the tiny creature could be quite dangerous. The man sitting beside the woman and her raptor had already shot the creature a hateful glare, and the missing tip of his right pinky finger painted a story as to why.

  The camp was built between three tall willow trees, and took advantage of a natural peninsula that jutted out into the lake. They had cleared most of the smaller trees away, but hadn't been able to remove the larger tree stumps. Miles had used Thrasher, and later Mike to pull the stumps out of the ground, but with no large dinos here the Deep Water tribe wasn’t able to do that. This meant they had not been able to flatten out the ground in their campsite for anything more than small tents, leaving dozens of stumps littering the floor for people to sit on and no space for something as big as Thrasher to comfortably lay down.

  The dinosaurs all stayed at the edge of the camp, outside the walls. The Chung’s settled down remarkably quickly, even with Tilly around them. As long as Thrasher was between them, the simple dinos didn’t seem to care. Thrasher took a few minutes to settle down, and didn’t like having the humans leave him alone. Tilly also clearly wanted to follow Jack and the others into the new camp, but he got her settled and promised he would come to check on her before going to sleep.

  Their arrival had caused a bit of commotion, and nearly everyone in the tribe came to gawk at Tilly from behind their wall. It was clear from their reactions that they had seen plenty of Parasaurs, and the Chung’s didn’t seem to gather more than a few curious glances. Tilly was the center of attention, but no one was brave enough to go up to her with good reason. Until the alliance was formed, nothing was stopping the tiger from attacking anyone in the tribe. Jack made sure to point that out to the guard as they were led into the camp.

  While most of the tribe went to look at the newcomers, Jack made note of four individuals who didn’t. The first was the woman with the Microraptor. One of the guards had whispered into her ear when they arrived and she had moved inside the largest tent. She took a glance at Jack and Soren, then at the two women in their group before ducking inside. The second was a man with a broken leg. He didn’t bother to get up and fight for a position at the wall. His leg was wrapped in a series of dark green leaves and tied to a large stick to keep the leg from moving accidentally. It was a primitive splint, but Jack was more impressed by the leafy bandages. It was a good sign that someone with medical training was here.

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  The other two men he noticed hadn’t come to look at Tilly and the others were standing beside the water. They tossed a small fish into the dark water. It splashed, and they seemed satisfied. It made no sense to Jack for them to waste food, but he quickly came up with another theory. He suspected they had tamed something in the water. That would make sense why they had walked so close to the lake when they had met, seemingly without fear, and why they built so close to the water. He had gathered that many of these men must have been fishermen back on earth and could probably make a simple net or go spear fishing.

  Tom and the guard who had not introduced himself lead them to the largest tent. It wasn’t that much bigger than the others, but clear effort had been made to make sure that everyone could stand at their full height while inside. At least two of the other tents would require someone to crawl into them on their hands and knees. Inside the tent a large slab of stone had been placed in the center of the floor, long enough for a man to lay down on. All of the grass and debris had been pushed out, leaving only the hard dirt floor. A small pile of modern clothing had been made along one wall, and a basket had been woven out of willow branches and filled with a small knife and several other stone tools that Jack could only assume had some medical use. A simple bed made of leaves took up the far wall of the tent.

  More interesting than the interior of the tent, were the people inside it. The woman with the long braid and the micro raptor was sitting beside a man in his late thirties. He was wearing a torn lab coat covered in grass and bloodstains, no shirt, and khaki pants. Large brown eyes hidden behind thick rimmed glasses studied Jack and the others. His pale white skin was bright red with sunburn, but he didn’t seem to be letting it bother him. His brown hair was short, and he was somehow clean shaven. The alien bracelet was on the wrist, and his position in the center of the room, as well as Tom’s and the yet unnamed women’s deference towards him clearly marked him as the leader and the doctor they had come to meet.

  Tom moved to sit on the leader’s right and gestured for Jack and the crew to sit across from them. Jack sat across from the leader, with Soren on his right and Clara on his left. Shelby sat beside Clara, but her attention quickly moved to the basket full of primitive medical supplies. Once everyone was settled, the leader spoke. His voice was softer than Jack had expected, and much less friendly than he had hoped for.

  “You must be the group we saw across the lake. Jess tells me you have a Sabertooth and have managed to drag a small herd of Chung’s with you, untamed. I’m tired, so let's cut to the chase. What do you want?”

  Jack raised an eyebrow. He had not been expecting hostility from the man. He hadn't even introduced himself. Tom’s face was impassive, but the woman, who he gathered was named Jess, looked like she was holding back an eyeroll. His first instinct was to respond in kind. Bullies of any sort grated on him and he was more than willing to throw down, but the man simply didn’t look like a standard bully. He was a doctor, and nothing special physically. He looked like he went to the gym maybe once a week, but mostly to do cardio and keep in general shape. The man was either just an asshole, or more likely had been under a huge amount of stress.

  Jack was trying to think of a way to disarm the tension in the room. The silence dragged on for several long seconds. He didn’t have enough time to come up with the perfect speech or a cunning retort, so instead cut to the heart of the issue.

  “We came for several reasons. First and foremost, we need help from a doctor.” Jack kept his tone civil, if a bit tense. “We currently have a veterinary student as the closest thing to a doctor in our tribe. On our journey here we met Shelby, who is a fully trained and practicing vet. We were hoping to trade information and some basic goods for as much medical training and advice as you can give over a few days.”

  The tribe leader started to speak, the look in his eyes was untrusting. But before he got a word out Jack continued to speak. He was tired too and not interested in playing any games with the man.

  “Furthermore, we want to establish an alliance between our tribes. We have set up in the river valley biome, and have access to different resources than you do in the lake and jungle biomes. Different types of twine, tools, dinosaurs, and eventually wood and other materials as we discover them. We already learned with the Wild Bunch that making an alliance will prevent tamed dinosaurs from attacking each other unless provoked, and will help in keeping everyone safe. The main reason for the alliance though, is to deal with a hostile tribe that attacked Shelby’s original tribe. They killed the men and took the women. Only a handful of them escaped, and the others we saved are recovering with the Wild Bunch. We want to form an alliance to destroy them before they grow too strong.”

  Jack took a breath. And all three of the Deep Water tribe members looked to Shelby, who nodded in confirmation of Jack’s story. But Jack still wasn’t done. He had made a note of the tribe leader's bracelet. They only had the starting three charms that allowed for mapping, taming, and checking what foods were safe to eat. They likely hadn’t uncovered the aliens' motivations, nor the hidden trap of taming a dinosaur without the tribe log. He held up his own bracelet and showed the extra charms dangling from it.

  “Finally, we have learned a bit about the aliens that are watching us. We believe they want to see us struggle and fight not only the wildlife, but each other. Our tribe has no interest in being warmongers, but we will fight to protect ourselves and oppose true monsters like the ones who attacked Shelby’s people. We believe that the aliens will be sending supply drops between us, filled with materials that could range from comfort items, to weapons, to life saving medication. We don’t want each supply drop to turn into a bloodbath, instead we want to work together to evenly split the drops, or set up a rotation of which tribe claims each one as they come down. This world is too dangerous to throw our lives away killing each other when diplomacy is an option.”

  With his words done Jack sat straight and looked the leader in his eyes. He hadn’t lost his cool, hadn’t made any demands, and laid out everything he wanted to as succinctly as he could. He was sure Clara could have been more diplomatic about it, and Soren likely would have added some clever bits of humor to be disarming and friendly, but Jack was happy to give it to the man straight.

  The doctor waited a minute before speaking. His body language had been dismissive up until Jack had started to share some of the knowledge they had gathered. Information about alliances, the threat of Tribe Gerling, and finally Jack showing the extra charms on his bracelet had captured the man’s full focus. Jess looked furious after he had mentioned what happened to Shelby’s tribe, enough so that her Microraptor had woken up and had its feathers all puffed out like a stray cat trying to make itself look bigger. Jack was sure she had a bond similar to the one he shared with Tilly, likely even stronger. Tom looked deeply troubled, but his face was hard to read.

  “Well. It seems like this won’t be a quick conversation.” The doctor said.

  He removed his glasses and took a cloth from his pocket, cleaning them before putting them back on.

  “My name is Doctor Austin Findley. I am the leader of this tribe. As for your requests. I will have to decline.”

  Before Jack could respond, Jess reached out and slapped the Doctor on the back of his head like a disobedient child. A look of anger crossed his face, followed by fear as he looked into her angry gaze.

  “Like hell. Did you not listen to anything they said? There is a tribe of murderous assholes raiding their neighbors to capture their women. There isn’t an army or police we can call to deal with them. We are the only help the women still being held captive are going to get. And if we don’t help, those assholes are going to keep attacking other tribes until they are either stopped, or reach us to do the same.” She glared at the man, who shrank away from her. The Microraptor was bouncing from knee to knee, full of energy and anger. It was hissing and baring its fangs at the tribe leader, though Jack didn’t think it was actually hostile towards the man, only worked up.

  The Doctor found his confidence again a moment later. He composed himself and turned his stern gaze onto Jess.

  “It is not that I do not wish to help. I have no problem condemning those bastards and sending what support we can to help kill them and save the women. But that's the problem.” He turned to address Jack as well. “We do not have the manpower or security to defend ourselves properly. We have lost six men to Nemesis, and three more to the Chinese. We do not have any spare medical supplies to trade.” He shook his head.

  “But...” Jess started to speak, but Tom put his hand up between them and spoke over her.

  “You are both right. We currently can’t spare any men or resources. However, we need as much help as we can get and we have knowledge we can offer.” He turned to Jack, but Soren spoke up instead.

  “Who or what is Nemesis?” The redhead asked.

  “It’s a dinosaur. We aren't sure what type.” Tom answered. Jess and Austin had started a hushed argument behind the second in command, which the man was stoically ignoring.

  “Can you describe it?” Clara asked. “If it’s killed so many of your people, it must have a taste for human meat. It will probably keep coming back or seek out other people to attack.”

  Tom nodded.

  “It’s a big two legged carnivore with a long snout. Approximately twenty feet long and eight or nine feet tall. Greyish brown skin that blends in well in the dark. Long arms with hooked claws. Its mouth is crocodile-like, and we first encountered it when it was trying to fish on the side of the lake. The problem is that the monster clearly thought we were food, and it was injured. It walks with a limp, one of its arms hangs by its side, and it's missing an eye. Not to mention a dozen smaller wounds. It was looking fairly gaunt, but it has had a constant supply of people to eat and we think it's been either gorging itself or bringing its victims back to a nest somewhere.” He explained. The description made him think of a Baryonix, and the wounds he had described were similar to the ones that he had inflicted with the tribe's help on the Baryonyx they had fought during their first two days in the jungle. He had a bad feeling this was the same creature.

  “It sounds like a Baryonix. We have seen several of them along the river to the south of you. Our tribe managed to fight one off on the first day. A dozen men with spears should be able to handle an injured one.” Clara said.

  Tom sighed.

  ““Should" is the key word there. Our fellow tribe members are fishermen and housewives. A few of us know how to throw a punch or take a beating and no one here is afraid of hard work, but we aren't warriors or hunters. People are terrified. Our best hunter and the closest thing we had to a wilderness expert died in the first encounter with Nemesis, and we don’t have the dinosaurs tamed to take it in a straight fight.” He explained.

  “What do you have in the water?” Jack asked. He saw the Doctor’s eyes widen in surprise, as did Tom’s. Jess only smiled at the question.

  “How did you…” The doctor started to ask when Jess cut him off.

  “It’s an Elasmosaurus. Think loch ness monster. Her neck is long enough to surprise small land critters, but she mostly likes fish. She could probably take Nemesis, but only in the water and he hasn’t been hunting by the lake since he started getting the taste for humans. He attacks whenever we try to forage in the woods. It's easier to ambush us there.” She explained.

  “What about the Chinese?” Jack asked.

  “The assholes you saved Ms Shelby from are not the only bastards in the region. Five days ago we were attacked by a group of Chinese men covered in tattoos. None of them spoke English as far as we could tell. One of the men knows a few words in Mandarin and believes that is what they were speaking. They attacked our gathering party and stole a basket of twine, then killed the people they had captured. We found their bodies the next day. So we have been trying to prepare to fight back against them.” Austin said.

  Everyone was frowning at that. Soren asked the first question.

  “Any idea where they are camped?” He asked, but the Deep Water tribe members shook their heads no.

  “What else do you know about them?” Shelby asked, clearly concerned.

  “Nothing. We haven’t seen anything of them before or after they attacked. But when we do find them, we plan to kill them. They attacked us without reason and they tortured our people. They were probably criminals on earth, but who knows. Maybe they are just degenerates. It doesn’t matter, they can’t be reasoned with.” Austin said.

  Jack thought for a minute. He shared a glance with Soren and Clara. They both nodded, and he smiled.

  “Doctor Findley, if we kill Nemesis, will you agree to the alliance and help heal our people?”