Chapter Three

That night, Whiptoe and Sett slept in Ealea's thicket near the edge of the Game Trail. It wasn't large, but then she hadn't prepared it for anyone other than her. Sett had to dig out a place for Whiptoe and himself to sleep.

In the morning, Ealea had gone-- Off hunting, presumably. Sett was still asleep when Whiptoe woke up. He was hungry and thirsty, but he didn't want to leave the nest by himself. He stood up and walked around the nest-- It was a small area between about four trees where there was a grown-up area of brush that had been matted down to sleep on. In the center, there was a depression with ripped plant material in it that Ealea had built for her to sleep on. Whiptoe tipped his snout up, catching the scent of a compsognathus nearby. His stomach felt like it was inverting, and he started into the brush after the smell.

Fifteen minutes later, Sett woke up. When he saw that Whiptoe and Ealea had gone, a sudden burst of panic came over him, and he jumped up, looking around quickly. He heard the faint noise of something approaching behind him, and whirled around. Whiptoe was walking toward him through the trees, his snout stained with spots of blood. Sett, relieved he hadn't run off to look for Whiptoe now, barked at him. Where did he go?! Whiptoe shrugged and simply asked Sett if he had seen Ealea.

A short while later, they left the nest and set out after Ealea. They went directly to the game trails, stopping to watch curiously as a small herd of Ankylosaurs crossed it, grazing as they went. Whiptoe wondered why such a large and menacing creature would eat the ground. He had tasted it before, and 'good' was not a word he associated that with, neither was 'food'. After a while they decided to head back to their nest, hopefully Ealea would be there.

While they were walking back, Whiptoe heard a bark nearby, and saw Ealea coming toward them. He barked, excited, and ran up to meet her. She barked at them, explaining she had killed a homalocehpale, and they needed to get back to the Game Trail before something else came along and ate it. She lead them back out of the jungle, onto the game trail.

As they passed through another thick area of foliage, Ealea stopped, hearing something close by. A single, adult male nublarensis raptor ran out in front of them and stopped. He looked right at Ealea and roared at her, starting to come closer. Ealea replied harshly, waving her claws in disgust. Whiptoe couldn't understand what they were saying, and the sight of the male made him uneasy.

During the breif time he spent at the nest where he was born, he learned quickly that the males were the most dangerous to a young male like himself. Sometimes they would kill their young so they could mate with the female again, but more commonly they did so because there was nothing else to eat.

Whiptoe backed up from them, trying to see what the male was going to do. He was roaring and shouting and just generally being loud and obnoxious to Ealea. As he did this, he also edged closer and closer to her until they were nearly bumping snouts. Ealea grimaced and barked again, this time slashing at his face and digging her claws deep into the side of his skull. He jumped back, howling in pain before shaking himself and lunging at her body. Ealea was knocked to the ground by the force of his thrust, but she recovered and stood back up, slashing at his gut this time. The male dodged, moving away and around her. Ealea flipped around, backing away from him as he approached again. She jumped at him and sunk her teeth into his shoulder, clawing him in the side as she did so. The male yelped in surprise from the intensity of the pain, and bit her on the back, pushing her away. Ealea backed up again, looking for a way away, and seeing if he would back down. Apparently, he wouldn't.

By this time, Whiptoe and Sett had retreated back far away, watching the two fight from afar.

Again, he rushed toward her, trying to bite and slash her, but she was too fast and his shoulder was now bleeding profusely. He charged one last time, but Ealea jumped straight up, and he ran right under her, slamming into a tree with the full force of his body behind him. Dazed, he stood and wobbled on his feet before hissing at Ealea and stumbling off into the jungle.