Location: Magicon Empire; Song Duchy; Vexton System; Vexton 2

After a nice dinner, we all go to bed rather quickly. I bid good night to Lucy, then I'm asleep within minutes. Next thing I know is Lucy shaking me awake. In the background, I can hear my alarm going off.

I must have slept like a stone!

"Morning, sleepyhead. Would you mind turning off your alarm? It's been going for the past five minutes and it's annoying as hell."

I let out a yawn, then I deactivate the alarm clock. "Yeah, sorry… I guess the bed was too nice."

Lucy laughs. "Oh, absolutely. I slept like a baby! I almost want to cut the bed out of here and put it in my room back in Imperia."

That gets a laugh out of me, and I finally sit up. After a quick breakfast and shower, it's time to suit up again. After that, we join the others back outside. As we don't know if we're coming back to this place, I ask Tim to pack the tents back up.

He nods and taps a button on his interface. Then, the magic supporting the tents dissipates and I hear air streaming out into the environment. The tents deflate like a balloon, and after two minutes they are flat squares again.

"What now?" I ask.

"Now we have to fold them back up," Tim replies with a grin.

"No way! Don't tell me there's all this luxury and then we have to pack them back up ourselves," Lydia cries out in mock outrage.

Tim laughs and taps another button. Suddenly, the tents start folding themselves up, and soon there are only the three black square boxes left. Tim floats them back into the crate with a quick Telekinesis spell, while looking very smug all the way.

After that, we're ready to head out. Apparently, Nick and Clara went over her drone data last night and decided that we'll probably have the best chances to find some local reptiles if we head east right through the forest below the plateau.

We fall into our usual formation with Lucy up front and Alina bringing up the rear. The only difference is that Nick stops us now and then to take some samples. Lydia on the other hand carries a weird device in her hand. From time to time, it makes a beeping sound.

When it beeps for the tenth time, I can't reign in my curiosity anymore. "Hey Lydia, do you mind telling me what that device is?"

"Sure, it's a magical resonator… Practically, it searches for magical emanations and then tries to triangulate the location."

"Oh, so you're thinking that the weird interference we had on our scans from orbit might be magical in nature?" I stop speaking momentarily, a sudden realization dawning in my head. "Oh! You think this might be another bonus objective just like on that moon."

Lydia grins back at me. "Got it in one!"

Around noon, the forest gets thinner and thinner. So far, we still haven't found any signs of animals whatsoever. I'm starting to believe that the sensor readings were a fluke. We stop for a quick lunch – this time consisting of protein bars that can be fed into the suit through a special hatch and are then put into our mouths by our Telekinesis spells.

After that, we finally exit the forest and all stop and stare. "What the hell?" Tim exclaims.

I can only agree with him. Before us is a gigantic valley, stretching as far as our eyes can see. And down on the ground, it's teeming with life!

"Are those… Are those dinosaurs?" Lucy voices what everyone is thinking.

That's exactly what's down below us! Hundreds of dinosaurs of varying kinds. Some walk on two feet others on four. Some have long necks, others do not. Some are with horns, others with big bone plates. They have one thing in common though. Every single one looks peaceful.

They stand together in small groups and munch on grass or leaves. A few even lie out in the open, obviously fast asleep. It's like they don't even know of predators. I can't explain it any other way. They are just too peaceful. The only case of unnatural death here is probably when one of the really big ones accidentally tramples a small one.

"How is this even possible?" Alina asks.

"I don't know… It doesn't even make sense. Why revive a dead species and then place them on a planet in the ass end of nowhere?" I reply while shaking my head. I don't even see the end of the herd below us. It's truly gigantic. Come to think of it, why are those dinosaurs only in that valley and not all over the planet?

"Who cares! They are so cute," Lydia exclaims from almost halfway down the slope. She looks at a trio of particularly fluffy dinosaurs right where the slope meets the ground closest to us. As we were all looking at the absurdity below us, we didn't even notice Lydia walking toward them.

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When we notice, it's too late to catch up before she reaches the reptiles below us. We try anyway and rush after her. "Lydia, wait!" Nick calls out.

She doesn't listen and continues downward. That changes when she's two-thirds down the slope. Suddenly, she stops and looks at the magical resonator she's still carrying. A frown enters her face, and she looks back up at us with a sheepish expression. "Sorry, guys… I got carried away."

At least she comes to her senses now. That doesn't stop Lucy from chewing her out. I've never heard that many curse words out of her mouth before. Holy smokes! Lydia flushes in embarrassment and apologizes again.

Finally, Nick points at the device in her hand. "You found something?"

Lydia's face brightens a bit again. "Yeah, right here, there's something like a barrier… Not exactly the same but I guess this is what keeps the dinosaurs inside the valley. Some sort of signal that drives them away from the borders of the valley. It also sends out some kind of diffusion signal. Probably that's what messed our sensors so much."

I frown. This sounds weird. Almost like an enclosure in a zoo. Suddenly, my eyes widen and I stop all the other conversations by letting out a shout of disbelief. "Guys, has anyone of you watched those ancient movies about an amusement park with dinosaurs? I'm somehow getting the same vibes from here."

I've watched all the movies back when I was little together with Thomas. Those were the best moments back at the orphanage. It's still crazy how such movies survived. I mean they were made on Earth. And I know best just how long ago that was.

Lucy and Lydia both shake their heads. Nick scratches his head in thought. Alina and Tim on the other hand grin broadly. "Of course," Alina says and face palms. "That's exactly how this looks! Why didn't I think of this sooner?"

Tim is a bit more subdued. "If I remember correctly, everything went wrong in the movies… Do you think this is what happened here as well?"

Huh, that might just be it. Maybe they lost control and wrote off the whole planet. With those contaminated asteroids, the whole system is rather worthless anyway. But the dinosaurs here are so peaceful. How can you lose control of that? Or are there predators somewhere?

I nod at Tim. "Maybe, yeah. Clara, can you send out the drones for long-range recon? We're looking for other kinds of dinosaurs… Probably predators. Also, Lydia and Nick, try to get as much information from the dinosaurs here as possible. You have as long as Clara needs for her recon."

Together with Lucy, Nick and Lydia approach the closest dinosaurs. Luckily for Lydia, those are also the fluffy ones, she ran toward earlier. Surprisingly, the reptiles aren't shy at all. They look at the approaching trio, curiously. Lydia puts away her device and starts cuddling one of the little dinosaurs. "Aahh, so soft!" Her voice rings through our communication network. Nick clears his throat, and I can imagine her blushing furiously.

"Should we head down there too?" Lucy asks after we watched them for five minutes without anything happening.

"Yeah, I guess so… Tim, can you join the others in case we need to escape? I think I'll take a look at the bigger ones with Lucy."

He shrugs. "Sure, but be careful!"

"Always." I stand close to Lucy. "Ready?"

She voices her agreement, and I cast a Teleportation spell.

As I don't want to bother Clara with coordinates, I choose a destination in line of sight. We reappear roughly in the middle of the valley pretty close to one of the big ones. Up close it's even bigger! Its four legs are as thick as tree trunks, and I could walk comfortably below its belly. The long neck puts the head almost twenty meters above the ground and it munches on some leaves of a nearby tree.

"Whoa!" Lucy exclaims and reaches out to touch one of the legs. The dinosaur doesn't even twitch and continues with its meal. "Can we ride it?"

The question shakes me out of my thoughts, and I look at her with wide eyes. "Are you serious?" Actually, I don't see a reason why we couldn't ride it…

"Yeah, why not? I mean look at it. It isn't bothered by our presence at all. I guess it wouldn't even notice our weight on its back…"

"Alright, fine…" I answer with a shrug and cast the Teleportation spell for the second time today. We reappear on the beast's back and sit down. Lucy was right, it doesn't even react.

"Oh, this is nice! Does Clara still have a drone here to take a picture? Jack's never gonna believe it."

Imagining Jack's face is the final straw, and I completely lose it. I burst out laughing.

"Say cheese!" Is the only warning we get when one of Clara's drones suddenly flies by to take a picture of us. I'm dreading the result, as I'm probably looking like an idiot while laughing so hard. When Clara sends the picture to our interfaces, I inwardly sigh in relief. The picture is taken from far enough away that it looks like I'm just smiling very broadly from behind Lucy.

After another few minutes, I teleport us back toward the others. "Good, you're back! We're pretty much finished here, wanna hear what we found out?" Nick greets me when he notices that we are back. I nod at him to go ahead.

He tells me and Lucy a lot of scientific details. Most of them are way over my head, but I don't want to interrupt him by telling him I've got no clue what he's talking about. So I just smile and nod. I can see how much he's enjoying this. The gist of things is that the dinosaurs they examined were born naturally from eggs. They're about fifteen years old and are almost fully grown.

Nick estimates another twenty centimeters in height until they stop growing. Other than that, they are very healthy and seem to completely miss any feelings of fear. Nick concludes that those dinosaurs have lived here for hundreds of generations in complete peace. Otherwise, the natural fear of predators wouldn't be bred out of them.

That's thousands of years in the past! It's like their first generation was put here, and everyone forgot about them. The magical ward around them is the only sign of at least semi-regular maintenance. Though, I don't know anything about such things… It could very well be self-sustaining. Who knows what kind of weird Artifacts are out there? Hell, I don't even know if this barrier is from an Artifact.

"Thanks, Nick. Not to dismiss your work, but what use is all this for our assignment?"

Nick starts laughing. "Oh, I know this question would come. I saw you zoning out a lot just now. Don't worry, I get it. Anyway, what I managed to find right here is not directly relevant for the assignment, but I would still put it in there, at least in the appendix. Indirectly, we can argue that this planet could be seen as a nature reserve for an endangered species and therefore shouldn't be inhabited by humans. Combine this with the contaminated asteroids and I think we've got some good reasons why this system isn't worth any colonization or industrialization."

I nod at him. "That's a good point. It will probably be our leading argument as long as we don't find anything groundbreaking in the remaining days we're here. Nice job!"

That's when Clara's voice sounds in all six of our helmets. "Guys, I think I found our predators!"

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