Day 31.
Well. I've been on the island for almost a month, and I have to say that it's been pretty lonely. Until now, that is. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I haven't been doing much building lately, mostly because there's been some sort of movement of the larger animals on the island through this area, although mostly across the river. I don't know if it's some sort of migratory movement, or if it's just chance, but I've taken the opportunity to tame three of them.
First was the Brontosaurus. I found a relatively young one, tranquilized him with some arrows, and tamed him, though it took a while:
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I'd been hoping to use him to help me cart iron ore down from the hillsides, but he's just so freaking slow. He's reasonably useful as a pack animal, just not for fast trips. I can do better simply flying there and back with small loads on Ariel. Anyway, I also was attacked by a Carnotaurus, a mid-sized predator, and knocked him out too. Taming him took a bit of work...
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...and I'm not even sure I should have bothered. He's lazy, although very fast when you ride him. Until he gets tired and just stands there. And he's too small to carry much. He's also as dumb as a rock. Come to think of it, so is my stegosaurus and the Bronto. Their idea of intellect is to sit somewhere chewing on something, then poop on your shoe when you get close.
However, all of that doesn't matter. Because I've tamed a T-Rex. She was down by the riverbank, and wounded. There were some raptors around, and another T-Rex, so I don't exactly know what hurt her, but I spent a few days nursing her back to health and bandaging her wounds:
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I was keeping my spear close just in case.
Later, I started hand feeding her meat (and my berry mix):
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Eventually, I got her back on her feet:
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I wouldn't say she's docile, but she's reasonably affectionate. I guess those paleontologists who claim Tyrannosaurs were social were right. She's actually bigger than the skeletons I saw back in the world (back on earth?), but probably just a sub-strain of the species. I've named her Alexia.
I've been making saddles for all of the dinosaurs I've tamed, and I have to admit that I was a bit worried about her taking to it badly. But she seemed to enjoy it, and didn't take long at all to get the knack of being ridden. I spent the next day and a half riding her up north and back through the hills, mapping out some of the territory I've seen. It was a lot of fun, I even did some camping with her when it got dark. There's nothing like curling up with a blanket beside a couple campfires with you and your T-Rex huddling between them for warmth.
She's definitely a vicious predator, though. She goes after almost everything, and she likes to roam when I'm not with her, to the point that she can be hard to locate. Right now she's busily prowling the shore of the river a bit east of here.
I also took a flight over the cold northwest of the island. I saw an even bigger predator there, going after woolly mammoths. Taming that one would be exceptionally difficult, and I'm not sure I should try.
What I do know is that I need to build a better home, preferably one made of metal, as I keep having various creatures attack or otherwise damage this one. Stone, clay, and wood are pretty resilient, but not enough to keep, say, an overly friendly brontosaur from accidentally crunching a wall.
Anyway, more later.
-Victoria