Chapter 3:
Achilles, Airia and the Microraptors
The Airakoraptor yawns a raptor yawn. Her belly is bloated from eating the entire batch of Oviraptor eggs and a third of their father's flesh all in one setting. Her act was one of dinosaur sadism and gluttony. Now she looks like a very pregnant raptor, lying on her right side so that her belly is exposed to the sun. If she were alone, this would be a foolish act on Airia's part. But Achilles is watching over his hunting partner while she rests. He knew better than to eat so much that he would become lethargic. But he has never known Airia to have the same amount of self-control a Dromaeosaur should have.
Secretly, this involuntary laziness stems from Airia spending nearly her entire life as an orphan. She never had a parental figure to teach her how a raptor should behave. If it weren't for a merciful Achillobator mother who had just lost her mate and nest finding the month-old orphan, Airia wouldn't be alive today. The one egg the mother saved from her best hatched into Achilles. Achilles' mother died, too, in a terrible hunting mishap involving a male Torosaurus before she could teach them proper raptor etiquette. The Torosaurus impaled Achilles' mother through the chest with his horns. It was an instantaneous death. She never felt the pain of the horns stabbing through her ribcage and heart and lungs.
The deceased Achillobator that raised Airia was his mother. Achilles' father died in the jaws of a red-snouted Tyrannosaurus Rex who become infamous for leaving dozens of young dinosaurs orphaned. That includes Speckles, the same Tarbosaurus who Achilles and his hunting partner observed a few days ago disturbing the Oviraptor family they recently slaughtered.
Airia is one of the few dinosaurs orphaned during One-Eye's reign of terror who wasn't orphaned because of the sadistic T-Rex. Rather, Mother Nature robbed Airia of her entire family in one instance. She remembered her mother deciding to lead her family during a particularly violent storm fifteen years ago when her father was fast becoming exhausted. A tornado had destroyed the nest but everyone escaped without injury.
But the swamp Airia's mother had led them to flooded rapidly before any of the raptor family, other than Airia, could climb into the trees. She watched her parents and older siblings perish in the flood of muddy water.
Her mother was the last one to die. She suffered a slower death than the rest of her family. She painfully suffocated in the mud that quickly thickened around her body. To this day, Airia continues having terrible flashbacks to the day she lost her entire family. Airia still hears her mother choking on the mud flooding down her gullet every time she closes her eyes at night. Achilles often has to help her get back to sleep on such nights, then sleep close to Airia until sunrise so she remains relatively calm. Achilles has never before seen a dinosaur suffering post-traumatic stress disorder until Airia began behaving this way.
However, the Airakoraptor is pleased with herself right now, in spite of her terrible past. (She tries as much as possible not to dwell on it.) She has eaten enough already that her belly is bloated to where she feels lazier than is normal. She has also made an Oviraptor mother suffer today, too, and it was in the most ironic way imaginable (in her false way of thinking). Airia always wanted to make an Oviraptor mother watch another dinosaur eat her own eggs. This is ironic justice in Airia's raptor brain because one of the few things her mother taught her was that Oviraptors are egg thieves that deserve punishing. Airia may never learn, though, that female Oviraptors often become the best mothers if they reach adulthood.
Achilles loudly sniffs the air. The powerful odor of fresh blood coming from the Oviraptor carcass makes it difficult for him to smell approaching dangers. Airia smelling like blood too doesn't help matters any. Her snout and teeth and claws are all stained with dried blood. Between this and her extra-plump belly, Airia looks like an Airakoraptor who has purposefully been stuffed so she can be served as a feast for other carnivorous dinosaurs. There is no way she could fight to defend herself if a situation arose where she would be required. All the excess meat and the seven or more eggs she consumed are weighing her down.
Of course, it's not like Airia is thinking about that right now. Having her gut stuffed with so much fresh meat makes her feel like a lazy and somewhat vain Airakoraptor. She hasn't eaten this well ever since the volcano destroyed everything in this region a year ago. When she gets this way, Airia almost expects Achilles to serve her hand and foot as long as she isn't in danger. She is too lethargic to feel up to cleaning the blood from her snout and claws. She will feel like cleaning herself once the meat in her stomach is digested.
Until then, Airia will have to rely on her Achillobator hunting partner to continue serving as her lookout. She will continue to rest for as long as she wishes because she knows Achilles will never abandon her. They have been through too much in their lives to have any kind of falling out.
Achilles and Airia have known each other ever since they were chicks when his mother rescued the orphaned Airakoraptor. In that time, Achilles has become used to Airia being this way after she feasts well. This time, he can't really blame her. This is the first time they've been well fed in over a year. Before now, they've just scraped by on scraps of half-burnt dinosaur carcasses left by the volcanic disaster.
Airia is otherwise as good of a hunter and fighter as Achilles is. They have never let each other down on a hunt or when defending territory. Never again will two dinosaurs of two different, but so similar at the same time, raptor species work together so well with each other.
Sometimes Airia has a wish that she could take Achilles as her mate, but her raptor instinct has forbid her from acting on it so far. This is because she is an Airakoraptor and he is an Achillobator. They are both of the Dromaeosauridae family, but Airia is a maniraptoran raptor and Achilles is not. Her ancestors' instinct passed down through generations to her almost prevents Airia from taking a non-Airakoraptor male as a mate. She fears there is just enough difference between her and Achilles' species' genes that an Airakoraptor and an Achillobator would never produce healthy chicks if they did copulate.
There has always naturally been a faint sexual attraction between Achilles and Airia because they are both Dromaeosauridae but they may never act on these feelings. They have been through enough tragedy in their lives that producing chicks that die during their infancy would be too much for Achilles and Airia. In the modern era humans will discover that some closely related species can reproduce, but eighty million years ago, dinosaurs do not possess this kind of knowledge yet. They learn through experimentation and life experiences, not through studying their species' biology.
Suddenly, Achilles growls at a Microraptor that got too close to him when it scurries past their temporary shelter. Then he attacks. The Achillobator thousand-pound body snaps the Microraptor's body like a twig. The sound of his spine snapping almost turns Airia on more than the thought of reproducing does. She and Achilles have grown to love the sound of other dinosaurs suffering more than thoughts of making love. They are envoys of suffering and terror not of love. Mating crosses their mind but they will always act on the former if a present situation calls for it. Their sadism is because they never had parental figures to teach them how raptors should behave.
Achilles swallows the broken and dying Microraptor whole, bones and feathers and all. It sides down Achilles' gullet without much resistance. The animal's feathery body tickles his throat on the way down, but that's about it. It can't fight on the way down because of its broken spine.
Airia sighs, almost romantically, but in a sadistic, dinosaur way. This may be because she loves brutal males. But then again, she hates Microraptors too. So it's a win-win. In Airia's mind, Microraptors are pests of the Dromaeosauridae family and the dinosaur world. They are imposter raptors as far as she is concerned. Microraptors are a species she wouldn't mind watching face extinction. She wishes she was the one who snapped that Microraptor's fragile body in half but her plump belly doesn't allow her to do much.
Achilles returns to his watch post like nothing happened. His teeth are red with the Microraptor's blood. Unbeknownst to either of them, there is a second Microraptor. She has frozen in terror behind the partial stump of a burned tree. She witnessed that monster of a raptor break her mate's fragile body in half and swallow him whole while he was still breathing. (She sensed her mate was still alive as that monster swallowed him whole.)
The Microraptor flees at the first opportunity she gets, when both of those monsters look away from the tree stump. Achilles and Airia will never know she was there. But now she must return to the nest and her week-old chicks without their father and without anything to satisfy their hunger. She feels defeated. All because of one mistake, she watched her mate die. Now she can't even feed their chicks because of those monsters. She used to hunt this land with her mate because the Oviraptor family living here was non-aggressive. She saw the male's half-eaten body, but that doesn't shift her main concern away from her now fatherless chicks.
She returns to the nest heartbroken. Her chicks' constant squealing only makes her feel worse. Unless she finds another place to hunt now, they will starve to death. Food has been scarce in the forest turned desert ever since the volcanic eruption turned much of the landscape into desert in two weeks. She does not know what to do for her chicks. There is nowhere else the Microraptor mother knows to hunt for them. Her mate knew the terrain and all the best hunting spots better than she did.
She makes a sort of weeping sound that only Microraptors can make. It is a high-pitched screech that would leave a non-Microraptor dinosaur's ears ringing. She wishes she could switch places with her chicks' father. She does not even know where to begin hunting now that their usual hunting ground has been taken over by that pair of murderous raptors.
The Microraptor family leaves this region of the desert following two weeks of scraping by on insects, birds and lizards. Her chicks survive long enough that they can all walk on their own. But it will be a long journey for them all. They do not know where to go from here. To make matters worse, food will continue to be scarce.
For the past two weeks, the mother has chosen to feed her chicks at the cost of herself being malnourished and slightly dehydrated. Her ribs are showing through her once beautifully feathered skin. Her feathers are shedding, and not growing back, from the lack of nutrition. Her body is eating away as itself, but she doesn't want her chicks to starve. She knows they will if she dies. It is beginning to look like the widowed Microraptor is damned either way. They will not live much longer if they cannot find a paradise somewhere in this wasteland. Spiders and scorpions and lizards cannot keep four-week old Microraptors that cannot fend for themselves and their mother fed forever.
Their mother is suffering trying to keep her chicks well fed. She will be dead in a week's time, or less, if a miracle doesn't happen. Then her chicks will die because they cannot hope to hunt for themselves. They shouldn't be out of the nest yet, but their mother wasn't left with much choice. The invading Airakoraptor and Achillobator have made it too dangerous for them to stay at their previous nest. They have been vagabonds for the past fourteen days. The mother knows this will be their last week of life if she can't find a good food and water source soon. She won't let her chicks wander this desert without her if that happens. She'll mercifully her five chicks if it comes to that. They don't deserve to suffer the fate of having no parents. She'll spare them wandering this desert without her if she has to.
She groans miserably. But starving herself to ensure her chicks are well fed is a price she is willing to pay if the chicks survive long enough to discover hope. But the Microraptor mother wonders if they will even live long enough to accomplish that. She wants to give him. Those monsters ruined her life and she can hardly feed keep her chicks fed, let alone herself. She wants to end her chicks' suffering, crawl under the sand and just die there. It has become too dangerous for her to hunt scorpions and spiders. Her reflexes aren't what they were the week before. Just yesterday, she was almost stung by an aggressive scorpion protecting its nest.
A faint scent hits the Microraptor mother's nose. It sends an ounce of hope through her half-naked, de-feathered and skinny body. At first, she thinks it is water from an oasis, but then the scent disappears with any hope she has left. She gives up at this point. She does not see things getting better for them now.
There is no hope left for the Microraptor family at this point. Their lifeless bodies will be buried under the desert sand once the end of the next week comes around.
Airia stretches as she gets up. A whole day as passed since she gorged herself on Oviraptor eggs and flesh. The excess weight she put on from the best meal she's had in a year has since gone away. Following a quick snack on what is left of the Oviraptor father, Achilles and his hunting partner intend to move on.
Recently, they have been spying on dinosaurs migrating from the desert to the east, to the peninsula where that Tarbosaurus and Quetzalcoatlus pair came from. So the two raptors will follow these dinosaurs to the east. Their only food source is leaving and so will they.
A new terror will descend on the peninsula in a few days.
Author's note: For those wondering, the story's focus will be shifting back to Speckles and his son in the next chapter. I mainly wanted to take some time to introduce new characters.