The dinosaur's chest swelled as he drew in a deep breath, his powerful lungs filling with the stale air of the wasteland. Then, with a force that shook the cracked earth beneath him, he unleashed a roar—a sound that hadn't echoed across this land in millennia. It was thunderous, primal, a call that reverberated through the canyons and over the barren plains, carrying with it the weight of extinction and the faintest spark of hope.

Silence followed. The wind stilled. Even the dust seemed to pause in midair. His yellow eyes scanned the horizon, his body taut with anticipation. Then, just as he began to lower his head in resignation, a sound answered. Distant. Faint. But undeniably real. A chirping cry, high and reedy, nothing like his own voice—but alive.

His claws dug into the earth as he turned toward the sound, his heart pounding. The cry came again, this time closer, and with it, a rustling from behind a cluster of boulders. Something small darted between the rocks, too quick to see clearly. A flash of scales? Feathers? His instincts screamed at him to chase, to hunt, but another, stranger impulse held him still. He tilted his head, listening as the strange cries continued, almost... playful?

Then, from the shadow of the largest boulder, a creature emerged. Tiny compared to him, no larger than one of his claws, with a slender body covered in patchy down and scales. It stood on two legs, its beaked face tilted curiously as it studied him. The dinosaur exhaled sharply, his breath stirring the dust at his feet. This... this was no dinosaur. But it was alive. And it was looking right at him.