Chapter 4: Out of Time and Here be Dinosaurs..

(Boudicca's POV)

  With a sudden gasp, Boudicca came to, her eyes wild as the last thing she remembered was her death. She clutched at her chest as phantom pains reminded her of the poison that killed her.

  It wasn't long before sobs wracked her body as she recalled the last moment up to her death. The Romans had defeated her resistance, and her remaining family was slaughtered before her. She'd refused to give the bastards the satisfaction of killing her themselves and took her own life with a concoction of hemlock and wolfsbane. The poison felt like fire burning her up from the inside, and she died in agony. 

  She doubted this to be the afterlife as she was alone and on a shore with nothing but undergarments and an odd, glowing metal piece on her arm. She scratched at it absentmindedly but realized it was embedded in her arm. She pondered on the idea that the fae or the gods had whisked her away, as she was still alive despite being sure of her death.

  Breaking out of her thoughts, she pushed herself to her feet. Determination to live burned in her gaze as she promised to live on for her daughters and the comrades-in-arms who had died because of her failure, and if she found those Roman dogs, she'd make every last one of them pay. 

  With no hesitation, Boudicca trekked into the shadows of the jungle canopy. With no heading or map, Boudicca decided to follow the shoreline but erred on the side of caution by staying just within the veil of the tree line. Within thirty minutes of walking, she could make out voices from further down the shore. She crouched low as she crept over a rise just as a distinct female scream cut through the jungle ambiance. Hearing the cry, Boudicca sped up her pace while minding her steps as she came upon a clearing open to the shore.

  In the center of the clearing was a trio of men gathered around a fire, and for a minute, their hunched figures blocked her vision of the horrible act being committed. A woman stripped bare lay motionless with dead eyes as the men continued to grope and molest her body, and she was coated in the men's vile fluids.

  Boudicca hid behind a tree as her breath came in ragged low pants, disgust, and rage in equal measure brewed. Flashbacks to her daughter's rape and her failure to protect them brought her a violent rage as her daughters' assailants silhouetted these men in her mind. Fueled by rage, she tensed as she prepared to attack these rapist bastards.

  But just as she went to push off from the tree she hid behind, a call cut through the men's jeering laughter. It was almost a bark like a dog but shriller, followed by a clicking growl, and as soon as the first call came, more answered from other locations around the clearing. Boudicca's heart shuddered in fear as she dropped to the ground and crawled beneath a nearby briar bush. She didn't know what made that sound, but it reminded her of how wolves would encircle prey silently before making their presence known. 

  The men didn't know what it was either as they whirled about frantically waving torches they'd pulled from the fire. It was all for naught as the jungle shade and undergrowth concealed the creatures, and all was silent for a moment.

  But with a pop from the nearby fire as if it was the signal, giant bipedal lizards launched themselves from the undergrowth, pouncing on a man each and using their weight to knock and pin the men to the ground. The men barely had time to scream in fear as razor-toothed jaws found throats and with a visceral ripping sound accompanied by a spray of blood, the swift and brutal encounter ended. Boudicca was frozen in terror as her many years on the battlefield were nothing compared to the brutal execution and ongoing feast on the men. These beasts moved with wild ferocity and precision as they ambushed the men, and their movements and tactics implied an intellect that frightened her.

  She watched from her hiding spot as one of the beasts approached the unconscious victim of the now deceased men, her jaw clenched as the beast grabbed the woman's head in its jaws before jerking its head at an angle. The grisly snap of the woman's neck brought an abrupt end to her suffering. Boudicca turned her face away at the sound before deciding now, while they were eating, was the best time to move out while she was still downwind of them. So, with careful movements, she crawled away from the clearing at a snail's pace, and just as she cleared the rise a couple of yards away, she opted for a full-blown sprint away from her first-ever encounter with dinosaurs.

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  Sometime later, Boudicca had been traveling down the coast in the opposite direction, hoping to find shelter from the beasts that hunted the jungles. After her fearful escape from the bipedal lizards, Boudicca had cobbled together a stone spear with some fiber from plants in the undergrowth, tying a sharp stone on a branch she'd broken off a green sapling.

  Still using the tree line as cover, Boudicca came upon what looked like a giant lake connected to the surrounding ocean through a narrow and relatively shallow inlet. The jagged rocks on the opposite shore of the lake brought her pause as it looked so unnatural, but she brushed that thought aside as a plume of smoke caught her attention. Moving towards the origin of the smoke, Boudicca began to smell the scent of cooking meat, and her stomach growled as she hadn't chanced to eat any of the berries she'd seen in the undergrowth. She died to poison once already and would rather not repeat the event.

  Peering through the trees, Boudicca noted that a man sat with his back to her by a fire as he roasted some animal atop a stone by the fire. Just like her, he sat with little more than a pair of Braies and nothing else. Boudicca noticed that he seemed to be unarmed other than a small stone hand tool despite having killed the creature he cooked, or perhaps he scavenged the carcass instead.

  Deciding to engage and possibly take a portion of the unsuspecting man's meal, Boudicca crept out of cover of the trees and snuck toward the man. She noticed that despite the creatures living here, this man seemed too unguarded and content to watch his meal cook. She decided to teach him a lesson in survival as she got within arm's reach of him. She pressed her spear into the small of his back and spoke, "Don't move."

  She watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the man stiffened in what she presumed was fear.

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(Silas's POV)

  Silas stiffened up as the woman held him at weapon point, and his mind was racing as he debated whether he should waste his mana and cast another Thorn Bind spell. Eventually, he decided to try and negotiate before using drastic measures, and just as he came to this decision, the woman spoke again.

  "I won't harm you if you toss away your weapon and give me some of your food."

  Silas sighed in relief in his mind as he tossed away his stone pick as it wouldn't help him at this point, and the woman seemed like she wasn't looking to take his life. He spoke aloud, "There I tossed it away, satisfied?"

  Her amused response came alongside the withdrawal of the weapon from his back, "Yes, very." Her tone then took deadly air as she spoke, "You wouldn't happen to know a trio of men that made camp a couple hours walk down the shore?"

  Silas turned around and held his hands up defensively, saying, " No, I just found myself on this beach about two hours ago."

  The woman nodded, not seeing any falsity in his face or voice, "I believe you. Mainly cause you are far too inattentive and naive to lie."

  "Hey, that's mean!" Silas exclaimed but couldn't help but blush in shame as he hadn't noticed her approach as he'd been distracted by his hunger. But now that he looked at the woman who held him at spearpoint, she was gorgeous with pale skin, a smattering of freckles, long, wavy red hair, and vibrant, forest-green eyes. Then his gaze began to wander before snapping his sight firmly back to her face as her half-naked curves were too much stimulation for his brain to function properly.

  The woman watched his almost innocent blushing with amusement and some disbelief as he was good-looking yet seemed so unused to female attention. She introduced herself, "The name's Boudicca of the Iceni. What's your name?"

  Silas froze as he heard the name of the woman before him, and he realized he'd already met someone from the past. Boudicca died almost two thousand years before he was even born. She was a famous queen of First century Britain, or Britannia as it was back then, and died fighting the Roman insurrection. He gave a small, sad smile towards her as he spoke, "I'm Silas Cosaint and I'd say it's nice to meet you despite the circumstances, Boudicca."