You are in the snowy forests of China, 125 million years ago.

The wind howling through the Liaoning conifers was the only warning you had. It wasn’t a normal winter blast; it was too rhythmic, too deliberate. The snow, falling in thick, heavy sheets, usually muffled the world, but this sound was sharp, cutting through the freezing air.

You crouched behind the icy trunk of a towering pine, your breath hitching in your throat, freezing into ice on your collar. That was when you saw it.

At first, it just looked like a pile of dirty, white snow shifting between the trees. Then it stood up and you caught a glimpse of a pair of blue, cold eyes staring back at you.

Yutyrannus. A "feathered tyrant." You had read about them, but nothing prepared you for the sheer scale of the creature—nine meters of fluffy, deadly power. Its feathers were thick, downy, and pale gray, perfectly adapted for blending into this frozen hellscape, though a dark stripe ran along its sides like a ghastly camouflage pattern. Its head, crowned with a distinctive pair of horns and ridge on its snout, turned slowly towards you, instantly making eye contact with a deadly, but curious gaze.

It has been hunting you earlier, you realized...