You are in the forests of Germany, 150 million years ago.

The air was thick with the scent of salty mud and strange ferns. Resting on a weathered limestone outcrop above a sparkling lagoon, you saw it—the Archaeopteryx. It was smaller than you imagined, barely the size of a raven, yet undeniably fierce.

It preened its feathers, which were a deep, shiny black, catching the sunlight, yet the structure was clumsy and uneven compared to modern birds. It looked toward the water, and you saw a flash of its true nature: a long, heavy, bony tail balanced its weight, identical to the small predatory dinosaurs that stalked the forest floor.

Suddenly, it snapped its head, opening a jaw filled with tiny, sharp teeth to hiss at a hovering dragonfly. It climbed a nearby cycad tree using the three curved, clawed digits on each of its wings, scrambling up the bark like a lizard.