Chapter Two: Predatory and Parental Instincts
Being a T-Rex was a lot less cool then Penn had first thought.
For starters, his massive size made it nearly impossible for him to properly camouflage himself. Following the list of things he had to fight through was that his leg muscles where so strong now that every time he took a step, it made the ground shake and alerted every living thing to his presences. To top it all off was of course his now useless arms, which could barley even scratch the tiniest of itches on his neck. It had spotted several herbivores on his hunt, but they had already sen him coming and quickly escaped before he got to close to them.
As he roamed around the dense jungles of the island, Penn began to wonder why his friend had acted so aggressively toward the infant T-Rex. She was a violent girl by nature, but seeing her react the way she did to the baby threw him off. He didn't understand why she was so against raising the child when they were the two largest predators on Isla Sorna, but at the rate of how well his hunt was going, they may just starve to death before the mission was over.
"I'm starting to see why these guys went extinct" he thought to himself "I can't find anything slow enough or dumb enough to chase down!"
As Penn continued his search for a meal, he began to wonder how well Sashi was doing on her own with the baby.
…
The answer was not well.
Shortly after her friend had left to find something to eat, the infant Rex continued to whine for food and it goes without saying that it was getting on the violent teen's last nerve. If this was a human child, she just employ a simple distraction tactic and get the kid to shut up, however this was clearly not a human she was dealing with. As the infant's yelps and whines grew louder, the quicker Sashi's rage grew until finally she had enough. She slammed down one of her feet, making the ground shake violently beneath her as it did.
"SHUT UP!" she roared in the baby's face at the top of her lungs
The young T-Rex instantly shut its mouth upon hearing its mother's command. It let out a low whimper and it looked up at Sashi with fear in its reptilian eyes as it began to back away from its parent. As she looked down at the infant reptile, it was only then that the part-time sidekick had realized that she had frightened the young Rex.
"I—I'm sorry…" she apologized softly as she took a step toward him in an attempt to comfort the child
Suddenly, the infant let out a yelp in fright and took of into the jungle that surrounded the nest. Despite being shocked by the baby's course of action, Sashi quickly gave chase after the child, hoping that it wouldn't get into to much trouble along the way. As she ran after the infant, the part-time side-kick inwardly cursed herself for yelling (or better put, roaring) at the baby for just being hungry. It wasn't unknown to her that she had a temper, but she never thought herself capable of snapping like that.
"Just please be ok…" she prayed in her mind as she followed
….
Thanks to his smaller build, the baby Rex had managed to get some major distance between itself and his mother. The infant didn't know why his parents had become so strange all of a sudden; they had gone out hunting for food at first light like they always had done, but when they returned they had changed as far as the baby could tell for the worst. Sure, they would snap their jaws or growl at him to get him to settle down, but what his mother had just done was something that was just not her. It was if some force had taken over them and replaced them with something different.
As the baby ran from the nest, Sashi tried to keep up with the infant, but the terrain made difficult to move through thanks to her massive size. She had to tear down trees or crush rocks under her feet in order to foot through the dense jungle that now surrounded her, however this only increased the baby's fear of her as he watched her tear done everything in her path to get to him.
The baby T-Rex kept running blindly through the jungle until he collided with something hard like a tree trunk, however unlike a tree trunk it felt rough and scaly. He looked up to see to not a plant, but a very large carnivore looking down him with hunger in its eyes. The predator had dark red scales on its back while the rest of its body was covered in grey scales. It had two tiny arms like the Rex did and had two horns atop its head.
A Carnotaurus.
The larger dinosaur let out a low snarl as it opened its jaws, ready to consume the infant. The baby Rex attempted to flee, but terror had made his legs useless to use. The Carnotaurus was just about to dine on the smaller dinosaurs when it felt the earth shake under its feet. The meat-eating bull turned around to see a very angry looking female T-Rex right behind him.
"That's my bread and butter your screwing with" Sashi warned despite knowing the predator couldn't understand her
While the Carnotaurus was distracted by the larger hunter, the infant T-Rex quickly ran for the safety of his mother and hide behind her leg; even though he was still in fear of his parent, he would rather be with her instead of the belly of the other reptile. Normally, the smaller would back down at the sight of a T-Rex, but the Carnotaurus stood its ground and let out a roar to challenge his foe, to which the part-time sidekick agreed with a roar of her own. Sashi had both the size and the height advantage over the meat-eating bull, but she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe this hunter had trick up its sleeve. She looked over to her baby and motioned to him hide in the underbrush until the fight was over before looking back at her enemy.
The two reptilian titans charged at one another with the full intention of killing each other. Sashi lunged at the Carnotaurus's throat, but the smaller predator evaded the bite and knocked her head back with a sideways headbutt, making her stagger back. While she was shortly dazed, the meat-eating bull rammed his horns into her side, slamming her into a nearby tree. Sashi quickly recoiled with a swipe of her tail, knocking back her attacker back and giving her enough time to correct herself. The part-time sidekick then reached out with her jaws and bite down on the smaller carnivore's side, making him let out a shriek in pain before she hurled him into the ground.
As the smaller hunter lay on the ground trying to get back to its feet, the mother Rex charged at her opponent, ready to finish this fight. Suddenly, the Carnotaurus began to slowly fade away into seemingly then air, making Sashi stop dead in her tracks at the sight she had just seen in confusion. A flash of pain coursed through her body as she felt something sharp clamp down onto her thigh, forcing an agony-filled roar into the air. She turned her head to much to her shock; she found the Carnotaurus latched onto her leg. It was then that she put the pieces together in her head as to how this predator and managed to get the jump on her.
"It can cloak!" she thought to herself in horror
She whirled around and grabbed a hold of the meat-eating bull with her teeth and yanked her attacker off of her person, fighting through the pain as it ripped away some flesh from her thigh in the process. The Carnotaurus broke free from of her grip and smacked her across the face with her tail, making her stumble back. The horned hunted charged at her once more, only for Sashi to use her head like battering ram and knock him back again. The smaller carnivore then cloaked again, however this time the part-time sidekick was ready for him. She kept her eyes on the ground, watching the dirt as the now unseen Carnotaurus made footprints in the dirt. Her eyes tracked the footprints until they were close enough to her; giving her the chance to strike.
With her teeth at the ready, Sashi reached out and bite down on the other predator neck, making it de-cloak in the process. The Carnotaurus flailed around in a panic in her hold and cried out for help while the T-Rex's grip grew tighter and tighter until with one swift jerking motion she broke his neck, killing him instantly.
The part-time sidekick dropped the now lifeless predator to the ground before letting out a powerful roar in victory over enemy in her battle, letting everyone on the island know that she was not to be trifled with.
The infant Rex slowly emerged from its hiding place, looking up at his triumphant mother as it did. It then turned its attention toward the dead Carnotaurus, its hunger taking control. He began to gnaw at the lifeless predator's body with little success. Sashi reached down and tore off a large slab of meat from the corpse and dropped it in front of her child, giving the baby enough food to feed on. The young Rex made a chirping sound as a way of thanking his mother and began to feed on the slab of flesh. As she watched the young reptile ravenously engorge himself on the pound of meat, she couldn't help but smirk a bit with pride at the baby.
"Maybe theirs hope for you yet…" she said softly
…
After hearing Sashi's roar, Penn quickly hurried back to the nest as quickly as he could, fearing something may have attacked them while he was away, however much to his surprise he found a much different sight before him. At the center of the nest were Sashi and the baby Rex feasting on the dead body of another predator that she had apparently dragged from wherever she had killed outside of the nest.
"What uh…what happened?" the part-time hero asked, clearly dumbfounded
"Oh, nothing, just having some mother/son bounding time" Sashi casually replied with a bloodstained smile "I see you couldn't get anything for dinner. Fortunately, I went out and grabbed something to eat. Want some?"
Penn didn't want to admit it, but he was starving. He walked over to the feast and began to feed on the dead dinosaur as well. It was then that he saw Sashi's leg wound.
"Hold up—where did you get that?" he demanded
"What, that?" she answered, shrugging it off "it's only a flesh wound. This thing wasn't easy to kill you know"
"You need to be more careful Sash!" Penn warned "this whateverasaurs could've killed you and the baby!"
"Chill out PZ, I got him before he could get me" his friend defended "Now enough talk, eat up"
Penn knew at this point that arguing with Sashi was futile effort—let alone arguing on an empty stomach, so he went back to his meal. As he ate, he found his way to the beast's intestines at the exact same time his sidekick did. The two giant reptiles began to eat each end of the long organ not knowing that they were eating the same thing until their lips touched at the end of the intestine. They quickly broke away from one another and looked away in opposite directions out of embarrassment over what just happened.
"So um…that uh…that happened" Penn managed to say, blushing green as he did
"Y-Yeah" Sashi answered, blushing as well
"I-I'm sorry" her friend meekly stammered
"No, your fine" she assured him softly "I should've looked before eating"
There was a awkwardness in the air between them until Penn spoke up again.
"So I'm just gonna uh—stand guard—yeah!" he nervously informed her "You two should get some rest and heal up"
Before Sashi could protest his actions, the male Rex had already started off on his way to the edge of their territory, leaving the Asian teen alone with both the baby and her conflicting emotions.
….
A/N: a few things to cover for this chapter that have been asked in the reviews.
I know some people have wondered if the I-Rex will be in this story. The answer to that is no, this story is set before Jurassic World. The Spinosaurs on the other hand…well, I don't wanna spoil anything lol.
The reason behind why the Carnotaurus could go invisible is a reference to the Lost World novel which not only had had it in there, but also had it able to turn invisible. Also the design of the Carnotaurus in this chapter is based off of the one in Disney's Dinosaur
Don't worry, Rippin and Larry will be in this story, as to what they'll be I wanna keep that a secret.
There will be a few of dinosaurs that were not in either in the book or the movies. I thought I'd have a little bit of fun having Penn and Sashi fighting some new blood so to speak.
in any case I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!