You are in the badlands of South America, 5 million years ago.

Trekking near a slow-moving river, you notice a strange stillness. From a dense thicket, a stocky, brown-furred creature—not quite a cat, but something ancient—emerges. Its body is shorter than a jaguar, with powerful, short limbs designed for leverage.

The most striking feature that caught your attention isn't its eyes. The massive, blade-like canines, which are ridiculously long, extended down past its lower jaw like a saber-toothed cat. But this was no ordinary saber-toothed cat. You notice the strange, heavy sheath of bone on its lower jaw—the "scabbard" for those curved sabers.

It could be none other than Thylacosmilus, you realized.

The cat-like marsupial doesn't charge. It sits, exhibiting a slow, confident presence, seemingly unfazed by your presence. The eyes are wide-set, reminiscent of a cow, struggling to focus on you directly—a trade-off for having to accommodate the massive canine roots in its skull. The Thylacosmilus gives a low snarl, showing a weirdly weak jaw, yet you can feel the raw power in its shoulders…