Ice Age (c) Blue Sky
11,000 years ago, underneath the towering conifer forests, vast plains, and frozen steppes of the surface of western North America, there was a tropical wonderland; a paradise the size of modern day Rhode Island nestled under the hustle and bustle of the Pleistocene world. In this land lived creatures that had not seen the light of day in 66 million years; non-avian dinosaurs, sharing the world with their cousins, the pterosaurs, and unrelated mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, alongside other primordial beasts from long before the age of the mammoths and tigers that walked the Earth above "dinosaur world". The animals in this world were very different from their pre-Chicxulub ancestors, with the descendants of creatures such as T. rex and Troodon having completely lost the feathery coverings sported by their Mesozoic counterparts due to a mix of inbreeding and the hot, rather wet underground climate. Other creatures, such as the Baryonyx and Diplodocus, had grown to monstrous proportions; some individuals of the former creature approaching the sizes of sauropods in length and weight, and those of the latter often reaching Godzilla sizes.
In a nest on the cusp of the dinosaur world, a clutch of three Baryonyx eggs were beginning to crack open, readying themselves to enter the wide open cavern that their mother called "home". The white snout of one of the infant spinosaurids poked through the shell of its egg prison. The baby let out a chirp, trying to signal to its parent that it was ready to come out and it wanted to be fed. The eggshell cracked further, as the rest of the Baryonyx babies slowly made their way out of their eggs.
By the time the first baby had hatched, the mother dinosaur had made her way to the nest to witness her children coming into the world; the initial hatchling bore grey scales, yellow eyes, and a white crescent marking on his chest; "Moon". The second dinosaur to leave its egg bore darker grey scales, and a yellow underbelly; resembling an american alligator. She had yellow eyes, like her older brother, and had defined stripes running along the length of her body; "Darkscale". The third dinosaur looked little like his siblings; he had white scales with a yellow tint, red eyes, and had no markings; "Palescale". Both of his parents were shades of dark grey (though his mother a significantly lighter shade), with his nomadic father having green eyes and his nurturing mother having yellow.
Despite his strange appearance, Palescale was treated the same as both of his siblings, though he was much more sensitive to the sun that peered through the icy ceiling than his two partners, and he had poorer vision. He was much greedier than his two subordinates, however, which lead to him being the largest and most dominant of the group of three Baryonyx younglings.
About three months after their hatchings, Palescale was, as per usual, sitting atop the mound of dirt that he and his siblings used as shelter from the elements, vocalizing in hopes of attracting his parent, preferably with food in jaw. His mother, "Mother", came back to the nest, carrying the scarred corpse of a Kentrosaurus. Placing the stegosaur carcass next to the mound, she regurgitated a floppy hunk of meat she had been saving for her chicks. The children bounded towards their dinner, with Palescale quickly devouring most of the food, leaving his two siblings with little to eat. Mother, in the meantime, ate the kentrosaur as it was, having aged beyond the need to eat half-digested slop. The albino "duckling", after eating what he could manage with his siblings eating some of what he intended to down, tested the waters on the gargantuan lump of rough, orange leather, gnawing at what his mother had left intact in her assault on what could still be interpreted as what was once a living being.
It may have been the fact that he was incapable of piercing the skin to get to the meaty concoction underneath, but something told him that he liked mommy's meat globs better.