//------------------------------//
// Part 9: Welcome to the Jungle 
// Story: Adventures in the TARDIS 
// by Scroll 
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It is fascinating how, even in the broad daylight, it is still pretty dark on the floor of this jungle. That is because the trees around us are so tall and its branches/leaves are so spread out, it obstructs most of the daylight from reaching the ground. Nevertheless, the difference between night and day remains very clear. The daylight might be dimmer here, but the nights seem blacker than black.

And that is just our lighting situation. Our sound situation is another story. The sounds of the jungle around us rarely gives us even a second of pure silence. Instead of that, it is often filled with the sounds of fauna ranging from strange sounds of various insects, reptiles, unidentified mammals, and above all, exotic birds. Whether we spot any of these creatures or not, we are often surrounded by the sounds of them day and night. They are especially active during the day. The only time we get any silence from these creatures is during a heavy rainstorm, and only a heavy rainstorm. A light and moderate rainstorm happens with moderate frequency. During those times the noises of the creatures get reduced.

In other words, we are constantly surrounded by the sounds of either the jungle creatures or the weather, and all of that is just from our external environment alone. We're making a few sounds of our own to add to the local environment. This is particularly true of our three younger hired adventurers. Tanon scolds them for that several dozen times and made the claim that they should be more alert for danger instead, but such ridicule largely seemed to go over their heads. They are simply too excited to remain quiet during the journey. They are either talking about what they are discovering at this very moment, theorize what they might soon encounter which is largely held in a positive light, or how much they'll bask in glory upon returning to Equestria after this momentous achievement. I'm not even kidding when I say those three fully expect an entire parade to be held in their honor at least once even on the streets of a very busy city. Considering what we're doing, I can't reject that possibility either.

During our journey, I often feel as giddy as an excited schoolgirl because of the close proximity that Doctor Cabbelleron frequently remains. Not only does he stay close to me, but he often gives me much desired attention. In particular, he puts an especially strong emphasis to educate me further with details about some of the things we are encountering today. During this journey, I learn that most of what we encounter isn't something he's ever run into before, but that does not necessarily mean he's completely ignorant of it. This is particularly true of the flora around us. What is most personally interesting to me is his claim that some of this flora used to exist in Equestria and other lands our ancestors migrated from. That is already a vital clue that this new continent, at least in our local environment, is like a throwback to some ancient world.

Unlike our three other excited younger hired adventurers, though, Doctor Cabbelleron is far more quiet about his lectures to me and he also seems at least moderately alert as we continue our exploration. Between his reaction in conjunction with Tanon and Doctor Smith, I conclude that is probably the wisest policy during this situation. I hate to say it, or even privately think it, but all of that seems to reveal how much of an amateur those three other younger adventurers are. 

We all halt when Tanon Burrows, who is in the lead, stops while lifting a foreleg to his side in an sidewards L shape. For once, even the three chatty adventurers suddenly grow quiet when our lead guide seems particularly alert for something. Feeling curious, I venture a little closer to Tanon. I notice Doctor Cabbelleron also follow me along with his three henchponies. Doctor Smith was already close to Tanon.

Tanon bends down and puts his head on the ground while twisting his head to his right side. He also stabs one of his pair of floating machetes into the earth then cups the hoofle with both hooves and applies his left ear at the stem of the machete. When I see that, I grin a bit since I feel proud of myself because I knew why he is doing this.

After fifteen seconds of this, Tanon sits up in a straighter position as the expression of his face grows even more serious and grim. Before now, I did not know if that was possible.

“You hear it too, don't you?” Doctor Smith asks Tanon quietly. I wouldn't have heard that had I not ventured so close to them. “Something large is stalking us.”

“I've seen several signs of it earlier,” Tanon admits as he floats his wide brim pith hat off of his head and uses it to fan himself. “I smelled large droppings in the distance, saw prints of large creatures in the earth, snapped twigs and branches indicative to the passage of a large creature. Judging from the evidence I've gathered so far, I estimate that we have a creature roaming about the local area which stands about eighteen to twenty-five feet high and weighs seven to nine tons. I think there is a total of three of them about this area and they are not always roaming together. Chances are strong we are being hunted right now.” He glowers back at our party and certain ponies in particular. “We're certainly leaving a wide enough trail, scent, and sound for them to follow.”

“Okay, fine,” the purple pony stallion, Leg It, accepts with a shrug. “But it's not as if we're unprepared for a fight either. If worse comes to worse, we've got crossbows and machetes to-”

“And your plan is to actually attack a creature standing eighteen to twenty five feet high and weighs nearly nine tons?” Tanon interrupts. “Do you realize how thick of a hide a creature like that would likely possess just to maintain its own body weight? And even if you can somehow pierce its thick hide, our weapons would be akin to toothpicks to these creatures.”

“Weapons and spells,” Leg It reminds. “Also we are equipped with a great deal of more intelligence than these creatures.”

“Prove it by actually not being an idiot for once,” Tanon growls.

“Hey-hey!” calls out Doctor Smith. “Fighting among ourselves isn't going to alleviate the situation. Instead, I say we keep all of our options on the table, including running.” The brown coat stallion wearing a darker brown coat scans about the area carefully. “Perhaps into something too small for this creature to follow us into.”

“That works for me too,” agrees Doctor Grazy Venture. “But that means we'll also have to identify some place we can flee to which the creature cannot follow us. Most ideally, it should also be someplace large enough for us all to fit inside.” She gazes up. “Failing that, maybe we can scale these trees instead. If these creatures are up to twenty five feet high, then we simply need to climb higher than that.”

“Get down!” Tanon suddenly orders then crawls along the ground until he rests his back against one of the trees. Instinctively, the rest of us follow, but some of us wonder why until we, too, hear and feel the vibrations in the earth. Shortly later, we see a large and mostly erect creature break through a nearby line of trees with some vines and foliage between those trees, but this creature broke through that with ease. This curiously two legged creature has almost humorously small fore claws, but it also has a large head and elongated snout. It has especially large carnivorous jaws. This creature looks like it can chew through a horse carriage with ease. Failing that, this creature can certainly crush a carriage with its own body weight. It is followed by a long tail that swishes low to the ground almost to the point of dragging it. The hide of this creature is dark gray and leaning on dark brown in some parts of its body.

“Well I'll be,” Doctor Smith mutters quietly as he peers at this creature from behind a thick bramble of vines. “Hello beautiful. Funny to see you around here too.”

“HOW CAN YOU BE SO CASUAL AROUND A CREATURE LIKE THAT?!” Leg It nearly shouts in panic. Because he did that, the long snout of the tall, two-legged creature snaps its gaze in our general direction.

“Be quiet, you fool!” quietly complains Doctor Cabbelleron to Leg It. “You'll lure the creature right to us!”

While we've been talking, quietly and otherwise, the large creature starts stalking closer to us to find out what it heard earlier in this vicinity.

“Oh boy,” Doctor Smith mumbles with a sigh. “Here it comes.” Then he shouts, “RUN!”

All at once, the majority of the herd flee away from this giant creature. Behind us, the creature snaps its gaze to follow us before opening its huge jaw and issuing a terrible roar that has the apparent volume of hundreds of lions roaring at once. Following that, it starts charging towards us and quickly picks up speed.

When I quickly glance over my left shoulder with wide eyes, I happen to catch a glimpse of the three very old retired unicorn guards nod grimly but dutifully at each other before deliberately turning about then charging right back at the tall creature. I widen my eyes even further at this when I see those three split apart from each other and shoot hornbeams at the creature from three different angles, the effect of which only slightly singes this giant creatures hide. It does, however, stall the giant creature to a halt as it whips its head back and forth in an attempt to identify this new and very unfamiliar threat to it. It seems to try to analyze this new situation with animal-like intelligence.

That is the last I see of this encounter before I round the corner of another giant tree then keep galloping on in a panic.