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Kicking off her shoes in front of the fire where dinner cooks, Chris relaxes, trying not to fall asleep, finding it easy to relax in her cavern home, safe from the predators outside. She closes her eyes, feeling the heat from the fire on her face, thinking of another time. Tanya nudges her to wake for dinner. Chris fills her plate with freshly cooked rabbit and wild green beans and begins eating.
During dinner, she looks out of the cave at the setting sun, a beautiful array of colors from what little she could see on the bluffs horizon. She hears the night predators as they come out in search of prey, knowing they can smell the cooked food. Dirt trickles down past the cave entrance as a beast paws at the ground above her. They will not leave the safety of their home until sunrise.

Riscaa smiles at Derek, watching him try to be a manly man. She admired him for a moment before replying to his question. "I had a good day, no encounters, nothing tried to kill me." Shaking her head at how that had become a rare day, she thought back. She had spotted the occasional dinosaur, sometimes in groups of three or four, hunting her or deciding if they should. She wished she had paid attention in school, perhaps she would know they names of the different animals she encountered knowing they were probably not the same creatures here anyway. "Hey, we need to start naming the locals. The Labrador sized ones with spiky tails and tan skin, they should be 'spikes'."

Riscaa pauses before saying to the others "Speaking of Spikes, listen." She could could hear them cooing down below, their numbers growing in dusk. "They're hunting something. I'm going down." She stuffs her dagger in a holder on her thigh and grabs the spear near the cave door. Reaching out for the rope she grips it tightly with her hands and feet and moves down slowly, looking into the riverbed. Her worst fear fulfilled, she sees a man being hunted, their tan bodies camouflaging with the sand. Reaching the bottom, she beings running toward him upriver, her footfalls almost silent. Almost to him, she whispers "Don't move."

Noting his response, not blaming him for thinking she's the enemy, she quickly tosses him the spear. "Put your back against mine and prepare to defend yourself or we are dinner." Riscaa lights a torch and pulls her blade, seemingly at the same time. She waves the torch around so that he can see the spiky tailed beasts eyes shine, all aimed at them.

Many of the creatures back away from the light, yet she see's one with desperation in his eyes just as he leaps at her, she jabs her dagger into it's jugular. It yipes almost dog like as it falls helplessly to the ground. She judges the distance to the sacrificial cavern and her cave where the others wait, deciding on home. "Hope you can climb a rope. We're going to walk back to back down the river and get out here. Got it?" She was surprised he fought so well and seemed, for the moment, unafraid. She grew more confident they would win this fight.

Derek watches Riscaa, suddenly hearing what she heard, hoping to hear another dinosaur being hunted, calling for help. He holsters his pistol and grabs the cool end of a log from the fire before following her to the rope and sliding down one handed. He reaches the ground and realizes he his eyes are adjusted to light and he cannot see her as she slips off into the thickening darkness. Dropping the burning log at his feet to mark they way back for her, he shakes his head, knowing what she fears. Is this not how she found Tanya and himself. And what of the nameless woman they found one morning, her flesh torn and her open eyes empty. He drew his gun and waited for her return or call for help.