Hey guys. Marc-Ello and Darksage here with the long-awaited DaPPA Christmas Special. Now, before we begin, we just want to let you know that we put a lot of work into this story. It was originally planned to be released last year, but due to other conflicts that came our way and ill-timing, we couldn't get it up in time. We're so sorry about the huge delay, but we hope that this story will make up for it.
Now, since Christmas is coming up, we've decided to post the chapters simultaneously (right on time for Christmas). So expect updates within short periods of time.
Disclaimer: We don't own Prehistoric Park, Disney's Dinosaur, Walking with Dinosaurs, or Dinosaur Revolution. They belong to their respective owners. We also don't own the songs associated with the story.
Now without further ado, let's get this Christmas special on the road! Enjoy!
The smell of roasting chestnuts in the air. The sound of fire crackling on wood. Holly and tinsel draped over a beautiful terra-colored stone fireplace. And the sight of quiet falling snow blessed the window with a magnificent sight of winter.
The room was dimly lit, only having the fire as the source of light. Over to the left of the small room was an intricately carved circular mirror, which hung over a small, mahogany cabinet. The carpet was of a deep scarlet like that of a blooming poinsettia. On the right of the room was a large bookshelf containing brightly colored stories from many years past.
In the middle of the room was a lone red velvet recliner. The chair's arms were also draped in velvet, and were so cushioned that any arm could fall asleep on them. There was even a small table that stood next to it that had a cup of steaming hot cocoa sitting on it.
But what was so intriguing of the sight was not of the tiny room, the falling snow, nor the large imposing chair that sat in front of the fireplace. It was of the one who was sitting in the chair.
Reclined on the antique cushion was a large, ten-foot-tall bird with yellow feathers, black streaks on his body, a large beak that could crush anything with one stroke, and three feathers that stood above his head.
"Oh! Hello there! I didn't expect to see any of you here!" Espantos giggled. He then brought an antique cigar he had been holding on one of his feet towards his mouth. The Terror Bird quickly took one huff of it, let out a slight cough with a puff of smoke, and then smiled at his unseen audience.
"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Espantos! As for why I'm here, well I was off hunting for a snack when I accidentally found this place. I can't remember how I exactly got here, but who cares. This place is great! I feel like I'm in some kind of storybook!" he recanted towards the audience.
"Now, you guys probably know from one of my other visits that my kind has a holiday called Remembrance Jubilation, or Jubie Day for some. It's the day to celebrate my fallen brethren and to celebrate my species as a whole. But there was something I neglected to tell you guys," he then leaned in closer with one of his feet covering the side of his mouth. His tone turned into that of a whisper. "It turns out...there are other holidays celebrated during this time of year."
"CRAZY RIGHT!?" Espantos hollered then let out a laugh. "It's so interesting! I really have to tell you all about them! I even wrote a story so that you can all get the picture. And get this; everything in this story is all true..."
The Miocene denizen then used his lengthy neck to reach over to the side of the chair. With one quick movement, he hauled up a large, leather bound book with numerous dinosaur articulations at the front. From far away, it looked like some kind of antique storybook that could be found in old libraries. However, this one was brand new due to the fact that there were no ripped portions of the binding or any dust.
Using his strength, Espantos placed the book on his lap. He let out a squawk when the sudden weight of the book nearly crushed his leg bones. But that didn't really hurt him one bit.
"Now let's see," he said after using his beak to turn the cover to reach the first page. "This story that I wrote may be about the holidays that my friends at Prehistoric Park celebrate. But, it's also a story about one of my other friends too. A certain lady who we all adore so much...and has a knack for bringing back new friends on her trips. Yup! Her name is Hazelnut. You see, she may be a nice girl and adores everyone around her, but there's something that was missing in her life. She may be happy in Prehistoric Park, but things with her life weren't going so well. Or so I was told. I don't know, I just heard that from my friends at the park. She and her mama...well...let's just say they got into a huge yelling contest some time ago that ended in a draw. And this was way before I met Hazel-nut too. Since that time, she and her mama weren't getting along very well. Her family was breaking up...and she needed a miracle."
Espantos cleared his throat and shot a smile at his unseen visitors. "But sometimes! Miracles do happen! Especially around the holidays! Now sit back and relax! Because I'm about to tell you the story of peace, joy, family, and love...and a whole lot of FOOD!"
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Things were very busy around Prehistoric Park. And not in the usual daily routines where the staff members would tend to the Residents' needs or where staff members would go back in time to bring in some new additions. No, the Park was very busy because of what was coming in a few days.
All around, the staff members were either performing some daily routines, or helping with putting up the Christmas decorations. It was December 21 after all, and with Christmas coming, the urge to make the place festive for the holidays was at an all-time high. And with the amount of new Residents that came in many months before, specifically Aladar's herd, the park has been anything but slow.
Normally, the staff would hold a Christmas party on the 21st to celebrate the holidays. Then a large fraction of them would leave to go home and be with their families. Some of them would remain behind for their own reasons, or they feel that the Residents should not be left alone during such a glorious holiday. One staff member on the other hand never broke her tradition to go home.
Her name was Hazel, the youngest staff member in Prehistoric Park. Dressed up in a red cold shoulder tee and black jeans, she was showing off her Christmas spirit. Her hair had grown a bit longer, but she still managed to pull off the short hair parted off to the ride side style.
Today, she and her friends were helping to decorate the large Christmas tree that always stood vigil in the middle of the park at this time near the holding pens. The huge 80-foot tall pine tree that the Park keeps in a separate storage facility a few miles to the south would look imposing to anyone who saw it. But this tree was not real. There was no need to neither water it nor use any pesticides to keep it healthy.
The group comprising of various species large and small had managed to put up the Christmas lights, thanks to help from Zini, Aya, Suri, Plio, Yar, and even Flia. Baylene, Eema, Talin, Alden, Charon, Tirech, Aladar, Neera, Maya, Kaya, Saya, and even little Mikiya were helping by putting up the large round balls on the imposing vegetation. Being creatures of the distant past, except for young Mikiya, seeing these items drew up many questions about this tradition, and of the human holiday overall.
"So you guys really put up trees like this to celebrate this 'Christmas'?" Aladar questioned the human who held a giant glittering gold ball in her hands. Since the tree was so huge, Hazel needed help with putting up the decorations that were too high for humans to reach. Thankfully, the ball she was holding wasn't that heavy and she had friends that could help her reach those heights. In this case, she was riding on Aladar and would go on his head to get to the spot where the ball would go.
"Yup!" she declared. Once the ornithopod got to a certain section of the tree, Hazel balanced herself towards his head. The Iguanodon then reared up on his hind legs and slowly elevated the human to a higher portion, albeit causing her to yelp a bit. She then used the strong, golden clad wire on the ball to hang it on one of the sturdy branches. "It's a tradition that humans started hundreds of years ago. We put up trees like this because it's just one of the symbols of Christmas. And then we decorate them with these colorful balls and trinkets called ornaments, and then put up special lights that would make it look prettier at night."
One of the lemurs, a female with most white fur with brown patches, nimbly climbed down the branches and sat down on one of them to be closer to the human.
"This 'Christmas', it's something you humans celebrate once a year?" Plio asked her.
Hazel nodded. "Yup. Christmas is truly a time of celebration. It's a time of peace, love, joy, and togetherness. Many cultures have different interpretations of the holiday, but the main one is that it's about being together with those you care about. It's a time when...everyone is brought together as a family. Where no one should be alone. Where there is no fighting. Where the mantra "giving is better than taking" is everywhere."
"And it's also about presents, singing, playing, and partying!" Mikiya giggled as she rolled a scarlet red ornament on the ground towards the tree.
The human shrugged shoulders. "Well...I guess those count too."
"Url! Those things are not for eating!" a gravelly voice boomed from off to the left.
Looking over in that direction, the group noticed a certain elderly Styracosaurus lumbering towards a playful Ankylosaur. Eema had finished gingerly emptying the box full of tinsels when she noticed Url jump into the pile. Apparently, he thought they were some kind of new snack for him. The tinsels, comprising of gold and silver, were now strewn all around him like cobwebs. One of the gold streamers was now in his mouth.
"Spit that out! Right now!" She ordered him. Unfortunately, Url had other plans, He bolted from his guardian and ran around the tree, thus spreading the tinsel around the base.
During the armored dinosaur's "rampage", he nearly collided with the Iguanodon triplets, who were all practicing perfect posture by balancing an ornament on their heads. The jade, pink, and lavender colored ornithopods desperately moved around in different directions in an attempt to prevent the ornaments from falling. Their attempts worked and they succeeded in walking gracefully towards the tree, where they carefully placed the small silver, purple, and gold balls on separate branches.
Url even passed by Neera and the other children, who were carefully bringing out the star for Baylene to put on top of the tree. The Ankylosaur accidentally collided into Charon, which caused her to lose her footing and thus almost caused the glittering white and beige star of Bethlehem to fall off of Talin, Alden, and Tirech's head. The kids yelped and swayed from side to side as they tried to balance the star again. Thankfully, with Neera's help by placing her hoof on it, the star ceased to move and the children regained their footing.
In the end, Url collapsed out of exhaustion and left a whole tinsel trail around the tree. Eema managed to catch up to the little armored dinosaur, ready to scold him.
"Url! You little nut! Look what you did! Now we got to clean this up! No ferns for you tonight!"
The Ankylosaur pouted and groaned sadly.
"Oh come now Eema," an elderly woman with a British accent sounded from above. When the Styracosaurus looked up, the towering form of Baylene lowered her head to the smaller ceratopsian's level. "He was just having fun. Though he nearly caused all of these...decorations to break, you shouldn't be so hard on him."
Eema let out a huff and looked back at the younger comrade. "Fine. But as punishment, you need to help clean this up."
The sadness on Url's face melted away instantaneously. The Ankylosaur got up and began to gather the tinsel in his mouth, thus helping the others pick up the whole mess. While they were doing that, however, they failed to notice a certain engineer approach them from behind.
Unlike the other days, where he would be dressed in a fan attire such as an Avengers T-shirt or some other form of media appreciation, Marcus chose to wear a bright red T-shirt that showed the face of Jack Skellington as "Sandy Claws". Nightmare Before Christmas was one of his favorite movies when he was a kid, and with Christmas coming soon, it was the perfect time to wear it, along with his favorite ripped jeans.
"Da nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah," he hummed out loud to the song he was listening to. Whether it was a normal day at work or a day off, Marcus never left without his phone and a pair of black earphones. Due to the holidays, he decided to listen to one of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's albums, and his song of choice at the moment was Christmas Eve/Sarajevo.
His humming had attracted the attention of everyone around him. While Hazel found it entertaining to see him play an air guitar with his hands and nodding his head to the beat, the others couldn't make heads or tails of what the engineer was doing. It looked like he was singing to himself.
"Uh Marcus?" Neera started, trying to attract his attention.
"Ba da duh duh," he jammed.
"Marcus?" Yar went next. He climbed down from one of the branches in order to get closer to the incoming human.
A moment passed and he was still jamming to his music. Wanting to know what was making him so attracted to his songs, the whole group, minus Hazel, did the only thing to attract his attention.
"MARCUS!" they all yelled.
At that moment, the man yelped in surprise and fell on his bottom. The earphones he carried fell off his ears. It was a good thing his phone was in his side pocket, otherwise his favorite device would have been crushed by his own weight.
"Jesus! What the heck!? I was listening to my favorite song!" he retorted. He slowly got back up and wiped the dirt off of his clothes.
"Sorry," the alpha male apologized. "But we just wanted to know what the whole fuss was about."
"Oh," Marcus began putting his earphones away with haste. Bringing out his earphone case, he began to roll up the wired contraption for storage. "I was just listening to a Christmas song. You know, since the holidays are coming."
"Wow, this Christmas holiday is really festive," Neera chuckled.
"Yeah. Oh right! I came here for a reason," he mentioned and dug out a phone from one of his pockets. It wasn't his because it had a purple and black casing on it while his had a pure orange military grade case. "Hazel, you left your phone back at my workshop."
Said woman widened her eyes and felt her back pocket for the familiar feel of the device she always kept on her. "Oh. Fancy that. I guess I did leave it there."
"You got a missed call too," Marcus continued.
"From who?" Hazel cocked an eyebrow up.
The engineer grimaced and flipped the phone in his right hand. His expression brought intense curiosity to the young staff member. "It's your mom."
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Hazel's Room...Prehistoric Park Staff Barracks
When someone thinks of the holidays, they would think of fun, joy and merriment with those you care about. Everyone would be jolly all around. Decorations would be put up to celebrate the biggest celebration in the world. Parties would occur nearly every night. And people would be rushing around buying presents for the big day. Christmas was a happy holiday, meaning that there shouldn't be any negative feelings.
Well . . . unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Hazel. She had to leave her friends with the tree decorating so that she could call her mother. At least Marcus was there to help guide them with finishing the tree. But she would rather be there, helping to put the large star at the top rather than be in her quiet, tidy room over at the staff living quarters talking to the one person she learned to hate.
Of all the people she had to talk to at this time, did it have to be the person she hated intensely? Sure, the holidays were about being with your family and spending time with them, but Hazel's mother was anything but those. She pretty much ruined her daughter's life by spending less and less time with her after her husband died. She pretty much was never around during the important times of Hazel's life; her sweet 16, her prom date with her friends, not even her high school graduation. Heck, she never really came during the past Christmases. Her mother only ever called her once a year too, so why should she waste her time with her this time?
"You sure got some nerve calling me again," she hissed at her phone.
"What? I can't call my own daughter during the holidays?" Beth, her mother, replied unfazed on the phone.
"The last time you called me was over a year ago. I know your schedule; you only call once a year."
"I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep in touch with you. You know my job, it's demanding," her mother apologized over the phone.
"But you couldn't find the time to talk to me or Hanna, not even for a few minutes of your time," Hazel retorted vehemently. "Not even when we were younger either."
"I'm sorry Hazel. I'm sorry I put you and Hanna through all that. But you must know that all the work I've done was for the both of you. It's to support you both."
A moment of silence passed. Hazel did know that her mom spent all of her time away from her daughters because she was trying to support them. But she didn't make much of an effort to come and visit them when she was needed. All they had to rely on were their grandparents, who passed away years ago. Hanna may be staying with her friends, or other relatives for all she knew, but it was because of her mother that Hazel was now living in Prehistoric Park; not that there was any problem with it. This place was her home now, and she now had the best family she could ever have.
But every time her mother called, the girl couldn't help but remember the times when she was never around. She never came during the past Christmases, she never came on her and her sister's birthdays, she was never around when their grandparents died.
"Why did you call? Was it just to tell me all that?" Hazel once again told her with another hint of venom in her tone.
"Well, I spoke with your sister earlier. I...I want to make amends with the both of you. I managed to get some time off from work so I can be with you both. And with the holidays coming, what better way to do that than to have a little reunion? It'll be at our house, back in Florida. Hanna agreed to come along. It'll be just like the good old days," Beth explained sweetly.
The younger woman scoffed. "Just like the good old days...Mom, where were you when we needed you? You were never around! Lolo and Lola took over your job, and they did a pretty damn good one at that! But you!? You barely called us! Not even a single text too! Why, in the past, I would take the time to send you long text messages, explaining how my days went and how I was doing. I told you all my ups, and all my downs. I would stay up nights just for a reply from you. But did you reply? NO!"
"Hazel, could you just listen-"
Hazel let out a yell of frustration. "NO! Mom, you had your chances and you blew them! Why should I give you another one? You're just going to do the same thing again once it's all over. I've grown up, and I have a job. I've got a new home too where I intend to spend the holidays...without you!"
"You're going to spend Christmas? Alone? With complete strangers?" Beth was flabbergasted at the mention of Hazel's new home.
"They're my FRIENDS! And they along with Nigel have taken care of me since Lolo and Lola died."
Beth let out a grieving sigh. "Well...at least I know you're safe. I'm sorry to take up your time. I'll leave you alone now."
"Good! I got to get back to work anyway!"
"I...I hope you and your friends have a Merry Christmas," her mother sobbed over the phone. "And...I'm sorry…"
"Whatever," Hazel spat and quickly ended the call.
Once she did hang up on her, the young Asian felt a slight stab in her stomach. She was experienced enough to know that it was the sense of guilt. Hazel knew that saying all that did hurt her mom's feelings, and her own as well. But after all she went through, she felt it was something her mom deserved. She and Hanna were basically abandoned after all.
No matter. Hazel had done this before when her mother tried to call her in the past. A day with her friends and maybe a hot bath later tonight would fix her up.
Intent on forgetting the emotional ordeal she went through, Hazel quickly left her room, slamming the door on her way out. As she walked down the empty, white-tiled hallway floor, she hoped that this situation would just fade away into the dark recesses of her mind.
Little did she know that she was being watched during her whole conversation. If she had pulled apart the blinds that covered her front porch, she would have noticed five lemurs and a lone Pteranodon stare sullenly in her room. Flia, Plio, Yar, Zini, Suri, and Aya had heard the whole conversation through the glass doors. After seeing her walk away from them with annoyance on her face, they were worried of the kind of problem she would face. And they were right to follow.
None of them replied to each other when the human left. They just looked at each other with worry. They hoped that any one of them would have a way to fix this, but everyone stayed quiet. If they knew anything about their human friend, it's that this sort of thing requires time as a form of recovery. But they didn't realize that this sort of thing was going on for years.
The feeling of helplessness on their mind, the group quickly evacuated the vicinity to return to the rest of their friends. In their minds, they hoped that maybe later today, they could do something about this family problem Hazel was facing.