At least the first part of the plan put in place by the governments proved to be working: when the factories began to be converted into new plants, the population had flocked in search of work. As Sobek had predicted, providing food and shelter was not enough to ensure that humans could provide for all of their services. Even though they were no longer at risk of starvation or cold, people still needed to work.

For the time being, governments and large financial groups were doing their job. The demand for workers to repair and modify the factories had greatly lowered the unemployment rate. Obviously, this was not a definitive solution: once the repairs were completed, further maneuvers would be necessary to guarantee the workers a permanent job. However, for at least a few months, many people could finally go home with a salary.

Converting the entire energy industry of the country into clean energy was a titanic undertaking. Not only the factories: even the houses and buildings had to be modified so that they had new heating, electricity, gas and running water systems that would respect environmental criteria. Therefore, it could be said that there was absolutely no shortage of work. Most of the population, after years of struggling to make ends meet, could finally find a job easily.

While no one knew how long the situation could last, it seemed to many people that society was finally recovering. Many hoped that life would soon be boring again.

And then… the dinosaurs had arrived.

Obviously, they were not welcomed with open arms. The tension between humans and dinosaurs, even though peace had been signed, was still very much present. Although many people began to admire Sobek after his speech, most of them still preferred to keep their distance from the dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs, however, had expected this and in fact had not cared about it. They just went to work as usual, restoring the forests that had been turned into deserts by human activity. Since there were 'only' twenty thousand dinosaurs, they had spread over all the nations of the Eden Union, and therefore each nation had no more than a few hundred.

Humans had initially stayed away from them. That situation did not displease both sides: it was as if there was an unwritten agreement in which the dinosaurs stayed out of the cities and in return the humans didn't mess around. If the situation had persisted, most likely there would have been no accidents or similar problems. However, there would be no progress either.

Dinosaurs and humans alike knew this was not what Sobek was aiming for. Therefore, the MCD immediately got underway: many of its members went to work voluntarily in the environmental restoration work. Furthermore, governments began to incite their people to participate in it. This, coupled with the possibility of receiving a salary, convinced several humans to join them.

However, the tensions were far from subsiding. During the work they were all so nervous that they hardly spoke to each other. The dinosaurs had tried to be as kind as possible, but humans preferred to stay away from them and work on their own.

With very few exceptions, most of the people who chose to work on that project were over 50. This is for two simple reasons. First, because the families did not want their children to work near the dinosaurs, and therefore only the fathers or mothers went there. Second, because people of a young age were clearly preferred in the selection for jobs in the repair of factories. As a result, only the older workers had chosen to participate in the reforestation project.

Humans and dinosaurs spoke little and worked almost separately. The few times they interacted, humans treated the dinosaurs either coldly or fearfully. This certainly did not help the relations between the two species. Both Old Li and MCD had tried to get them closer, but while the dinosaurs tried hard to do as Old Li advised them, the humans weren't even trying to meet the dinosaurs.

"Hey, can I help you?"

At one of the job sites, a man suddenly heard himself calling. Asking him if he needed help was an einiosaurus, a large ceratopsid with a strange curved horn. "No thank you. I can get by on my own" he replied with a scornful look.

Normally, after that sentence, the dinosaurs would leave discouraged. But this time the einiosaurus didn't seem willing to give up. "Wait up! At least listen to my proposal! You're plowing the field, aren't you?". In fact it was like this: man was helping to plow the land which would then be sown with seeds of all kinds. Machines would normally have done such work, but since oil was now rare and industry was still converting to other forms of energy, humans had to plow with old hand plows.

The man emitted a grunt, but replied anyway: "Yes, that's right. So?"

"My horn can plow much easier, but unfortunately I don't see well. If you led me in the right direction, I could plow for you, and you in return could sow the land I plowed. Here, we could do this: you will get on my back, so I will plow with my horn and you will guide me with your voice, while you scatter the seeds behind us"

From the point of view of the einiosaurus, that was a more than advantageous proposition. However, the man did not even think about it for a second. "No thank you. I prefer to work the normal way" he replied, and having said that he resumed plowing.

"Why?"

The man turned back to the dinosaur, who seemed discouraged. "Why what?"

"Why did you refuse? What did I do wrong?"

"Why this question?"

"Because you are already the third to whom I make this proposal, yet no one has accepted. I do not understand. It's a win-win deal for both of us and would save us a lot of effort. So why refuse? What is it that I haven't considered? Please tell me, so next time I won't make the same mistake again"

The man felt uncomfortable. The einiosaur was staring at him with trepidation, as if he expected some sort of enlightenment. The man did not know what to say; the honest answer would have been 'because you are a dinosaur', but he didn't want to risk offending him. So he tried to sweeten the pill: "You didn't make a mistake. This is simply not how it works. Since we started working, dinosaurs have worked with dinosaurs and humans have worked with humans. That's the way it is. This is why we cannot work together"

"But that's silly! Just because we've done things one way before doesn't mean we have to do them later!" answered the einiosaurus. "If there is an easier method, then we should use it instead of using the more difficult ones"

"Maybe, but I'm a traditionalist. I like doing things the old way. And other humans like it too, so I don't recommend bothering someone else again"

"Why do you like it?"

"Why… UGH! Okay, I can't take it anymore" the man snapped. "Let's do this: I give you an exhaustive answer, and then you get out of here and let me work in peace"

The einiosaurus seemed a little in awe of the sudden aggression, but he nodded.

"It's not that we like doing things the old wa," the man explained. "We like to do things without you dinosaurs around. Here, this is the answer"

"But why? What have we done to you?" the einiosaurus protested. "Since we have been here, we have always treated you with the utmost kindness! None of us have hurt you! We just helped you and..."

"We know it. In fact, you haven't done anything. The problem is more the fact that you exist" the man stopped him. "Simply put, we don't like you. None of you. If we are here, it is because we have to work to guarantee our children a decent lifestyle that has long been denied them through your fault. Nothing more. We aren't interested in making friends"

"Our fault…?"

"You have killed millions of our young people. You have blocked the trade on the sea. You have denied us access to resources and energy sources. Do you have a vague idea of how many families have been starving because of you?"

"It was your leaders the ones who first wage war against us. You can't blame us for defending ourselves!"

But humans were extraordinarily hypocritical. While the de facto extermination of six million soldiers could be considered an act of war, this justification was not sufficient. For humans, an act of war was justifiable only if it was carried out by the nation to which they belonged; if it was another nation doing it, it was considered barbarism.

This was the hypocrisy of human beings: when they were on the winning side they justified everything, when they were the losers they condemned everything. It didn't matter that Sobek had done everything to avoid war or that all his actions could be considered too good given all the offenses that humanity had caused him: for humans, dinosaurs remained in the wrong anyway.

That kind of thinking wasn't alien to Earth either. The saying 'History is written by the winners' wasn't wrong: it was rare for a people to admit their sins, especially if they were the winner. An emblematic example was the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: even after almost eighty years, many Americans justified that act in the most disparate ways, when instead a person endowed with reason could have called it only a one-sided massacre of civilians without any justification.

And on Eden, things didn't work out differently. "It does not matter. You could have defended yourself in a less bloody way!"

"How? We have done everything to avoid war! We have granted negotiations even when you have refused them several times! We have always killed the fewest civilians to show that we are not barbarians! We made more than generous concessions so that we could get what we were entitled to without ruining you and your company! We have even sent messengers to your fleet asking them to stop and resolve the issue peacefully! What else should we have done? Stay still and let us massacre?"

"Well, it wouldn't have been a bad idea"

"Sorry!?"

The man now seemed to have lost all fear and spoke only with contempt in his voice. "You could just die. It wouldn't have been bad. At least, we shouldn't have lived three years of hardship and endurance!"

Now the einiosaurus was indignant. "Are you telling me we should die!?"

"This is not your place. Your place was in the wilderness. You had to stay exactly who you were, too stupid to cause us problems" the man snapped. "You are nothing but the product of a mad scientist. Since you appeared on this earth you have only created problems"

"Only problems? We?" the einiosaurus seemed to struggle to restrain itself. "We who have guaranteed you infinite food and shelter, who are fixing all the damage you have done to this world, would we only create problems? What about you, then? How many problems have you created for us?"

"And who cares! We have the right to do so"

"What right? Who gives you this right? What makes you think you can put yourself on a pedestal and do what you like and like with other life forms?"

"We can. It is our natural role. We have become what we are because destiny has decided it. You only became it because a scientist decided it. We take precedence over this world, we are the superior race!"

By now the two were practically screaming, so much so that the other humans and dinosaurs working nearby had also stopped doing what they were doing and walked over to watch. There were no quiet expressions painted on their faces. The dinosaurs and many humans were clearly scared and were wondering if they shouldn't intervene before the situation escalated. However, some humans looked on with pride at the dude who was arguing with the einiosaurus, nodding at his every word.

The einiosaurus' expression became harsh. Being called an 'inferior race' was an insult to anyone. Dinosaurs weren't easy to anger, but even they couldn't resist a constant avalanche of insults and contempt.

But before anyone did or said anything, a voice that didn't belong to either of them stopped everything: "Excuse me? Are you the one who proposed to help with plowing?"

Both the einiosaurus and the man stopped glaring at each other and observed where the voice had come from. A guy was coming in their direction; a rather young person, with a shaved beard and very pronounced cheekbones. He wore only a tank top that showed off his developed muscles well. "Sorry?" asked the einiosaurus.

"Forgive me, I didn't want to interrupt you" replied the man. "But a little while ago my plow broke. I was about to start hoeing manually, but a guy told me that here there was a dinosaur with a big horn who offered to help. Are you that dinosaur?"

"Uh... yes, it's me"

"Gorgeous! My name is Owen Grady. I'd be happy if you were willing to give me a hand... oh, obviously if you haven't already reached an agreement with this man, of course"

"Er... no, we haven't reached any agreement"

"Yes, in fact I refused" the man added.

"Well, then there are no problems. So are we okay? Would you like to help me?"

"Mh... okay"

In an instant, the warm atmosphere that had been created was extinguished. Owen's sudden intervention had extinguished everyone's hot spirits. It was as if someone had lowered a curtain and the show was over. After a few seconds of confusion, humans and dinosaurs quietly returned to their former duties.

Owen guided the einiosaurus to where he was plowing, where there was actually a broken plow. Strangely, it seemed to the einiosaurus that the plow had been broken in a strange way, as if someone had thrown a hammer at it or used a stone to split it. However, he didn't ask questions.

"So, what are we going to do? They told me you proposed to get on your back so you could plow and I could guide you and sow" Owen said.

"Yes, it is. Are you ok with that?" the einiosaurus answered. He was quite confused: Owen's behavior was completely different from that of the one's of the man just before.

"Of course! You'll also save me the trouble of walking" Owen replied with a smile. "Can you just lower yourself a little...?"

The einiosaurus lowered onto its hind legs to allow Owen to climb up, after which the two set to work. Owen turned out to be a very kind person, guiding the dinosaur the right way and always making sure the part they had already plowed was sown. The einiosaurus liked his company, so he worked even harder. While they were working many people turned to stare at them with strange looks, but neither of them paid any attention.