(private roleplay between myself and Nate56mate, prequel to a number of silly roleplays, of which this one will not tonally mesh with in the slightest. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here - as with the first two parts, it must be stressed that the following story deals with a number of heavy themes, with this specific part seriously upping the ante in that regard; reader discretion is advised)
With a new friend by his side, "Sailback" Jack thinks he's at the top of the world - practically unstoppable and on the road to a brighter future.
He isn't.
...
A couple hundred of so miles north of the still-newly-marked border between North and South Dino Country, there is a small region celebrated by the severed land for its abundance of food and the diverse warmth of its inhabitants. In this rural time, some in distant stretches of Dino Country dismiss such prospects - depending on the soul, occasionally its physical existence outright - as a flight of fancy. Nowhere is that hospitable. No populated place can have so many clashing ideals and ways of life and mingling species without collapsing into a survivalist bloodbath.
Well, regardless of what some think, such a place exists.
Fairly divorced from the region's political upheavals and shrouded in morning mists, the Great Valley, almost as wonderful as made out to be with a few of its own unspoken problems for good measure, stands proud.
In a riverside copse of magnolias and introduced wollemi pines, a couple of young adult Pachyrhinosaurus and a teenage Plateosaurus are huddled around a radio.