You are in the floodplains of Russia, 252 million years ago.

The air in the Late Permian plains was thick, dry, and tasted of ash. Your knees ached as you crouched behind the sparse, stiff ferns, observing the living tanks of the Permian—a herd of Scutosaurus.

There were about ten of them, roughly the size of a black rhino, moving with a slow, heavy gait that made the ground tremble slightly. Up close, they were terrifyingly robust. Their skin was not smooth, but rather covered in pebbly, armored plates—osteoderms—that created a rough, defensive mosaic across their backs. Their broad, horned skulls, ornamented with bony spikes, swung low, grazing on the tough, fibrous conifers and mosses.