Chapter 7: Leader of the pack

Link and Zelda had a very uneasy sleep that night. After all, being pursued by giant monkeys, hearing them be killed by raptors, and narrowly avoiding being an eagle's dinner wasn't good for them. In fact, Zelda didn't sleep at all. She just stared at the starlit sky and wondered what else was out there. She wondered how they were going to get off this island and how Link had virtually calmed down after the primate incident. It was then she realized that THIS was much like something Link would do if he was on an adventure. She had barely gone to sleep when the sun rose three hours later.

"Zelda…" A voice said.

Zelda's eyes fluttered open. But they didn't stay that way for long and they closed shortly afterward.

"Come on!" The voice said again.

Zelda was being shaken and her eyes shot open immediately. She fumbled around with Link's arms and finally managed to make him stop shaking her.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Zelda said impatiently.

"That's a relief." Link said as he stood back up, "If you didn't wake up, it's likely that those monkeys or those other predators would have gotten you before you woke up."

"Please don't say that." Zelda said as she got up and followed Link into the great unknown.

Link and Zelda had just begun exploring again when they heard a noise that was a bit of a low moan mixed with a growl. At first, they thought it was one of the predators like Scarface, the raptors, or the dodongos. However, it sounded a little similar to the Brachiosaurs at the clearing rather than a predator's snarl.

"What was that?" Zelda asked.

Link shrugged and said, "Only one way to find out."

They began to follow the noise and soon came upon another clearing. Then they saw a great herd of dinosaurs. They were elephant-sized and would almost be them if they had a trunk. Instead, they had a large head crest that almost touched their back. The most amazing feature was that they had three horns. Two large ones were above their eyebrows and one was on the nose like a rhino. Their tail was much more different than a rhino or an elephant. Instead of a long, rope-like thing that had bristles, it was similar to Scarface's: long and thick. This was a herd of (you guessed it) Triceratops. Zelda thought they would have been carnivores if she didn't see them grazing on the ferns.

"Wow." Link said, at a loss for words.

"This island sometimes amazes me with these weird and wonderful creatures." Zelda added.

"I wish I brought my Picto Box so I could snap these and show them to the world." Link said, not realizing it.

"If you did, people wouldn't think they were fake." Zelda said.

Suddenly, one of the members of the herd let loose a low roar. The other members looked around to see what caused the member to do that and Link began to back away slowly.

"Don't make any sudden movements." Link told Zelda.

"I'm not moving…" Zelda said through the corner of her mouth.

Suddenly, Link saw what caught the herd's attention. There, in the shadows, were the raptors. They quickly sprinted away to a shadier place, but they didn't avoid detection. There was the sound of rustling leaves and snapping twigs and the very sound of it was enough to send these five-ton herbivores packing…right at Link and Zelda. They saw the stampede of dinosaurs heading towards them, bucking their heads and showing off their horns. THIS was not good; more like a stampeding herd of elephants.

"Time to go…" Link said urgently.

Without turning back, they ran as though Scarface was behind them.

Link and Zelda had never run so fast as they could, but soon found themselves in the middle of the stampede. They had to jump to the side to avoid getting impaled by the horns as these behemoths trampled anything in their way. They had run for a few minutes when they heard an all-too-familiar screech.

"Oh no! It's these things again!" Link cursed.

They looked behind them long enough to see the raptors chasing the triceratopses on the sidelines. Even more amazing, one leapt on top of a female and thrust its sickle-claw into the herbivore's side. The attacked gave a moan in pain and even more amazingly, bucked the raptor off. A sickening crunch came from within the stampede and it became obvious that the raptor was crushed. Zelda suddenly screamed as one triceratops was so close to her that its horn almost touched her. Unfortunately, a raptor tried leaping at her and ended up gored on the big male's horn. The big male bucked his head, trying to get the carnivore off and getting blood in his eyes.

Link and Zelda ducked away to a trench of rocks that the herd couldn't reach. Just then, a bit of dust moved and a small drip of drool fell onto Zelda's shoulder. They looked up to see a battle scarred raptor looking down at them, drool dripping from its teeth. It gave a snarl and Link and Zelda found themselves back in the herd again, being chased by triceratopses and this raptor. In the herd, the raptor was proving able to avoid these behemoths. The raptor ran around and opened its mouth to try and snap off Zelda's arm, but missed because a particularly large member of the herd got in between them.

After running for what seemed like an eternity, Link and Zelda found a spot to escape and moved to the side. Zelda was gasping for breath at the experience, but then she heard the sound of metal and saw that Link had his sword pointing at the same raptor that chased them into the herd.

There wasn't just one raptor, there was a pair of them. Each one could look Link straight in the eye. One in particular had several bite wounds on the top and bottom of its muzzle and several slash marks across its face. This raptor had two scars on its neck, one of which was U-shaped and went to the other side of its face. But unlike Scarface, these wounds had healed and were nothing more than dark lines now. Zelda was scared half to death at the sight and Link was starting to sweat. Then, all of a sudden, one leapt right into Link and collided with his shield, causing him to tumble backwards and into a tree trunk. Zelda had seen this happen and quickly scrambled away as fast as her legs would carry her. However, the second raptor was there to meet her and it seemed to leap in front of her seemingly out of nowhere. This creature's jumping ability amazed her. That small dinosaur had jumped a good fifteen feet forward. These guys were astonishing athletes, she had to give them that.

Meanwhile, Link was dealing with the other raptor and had barely gotten up when the scarred raptor had leapt forward, its clawed legs aimed for the kill. He leapt over a log, but it hadn't been three seconds when the raptor was there to meet him. Link backed away and swung at the raptor, but the agile reptile simply lowered its head just in time. This thing was SMART if it avoided this. Link jumped over the log again, but the next second, the raptor was in his face. Link swung his sword and managed to put a gash in its chest. The raptor screamed in pain and Link managed to get out between its legs. The raptor saw Link trying to get away and managed to rake him with the three-inch claws on its hands. Link grunted, but held a cry of pain behind his teeth. Whatever these were, they were NOTHING like Ganondorf's minions, who were mindless monsters. These things were INTELLIGENT and Link would have to use his head to fight these creatures.

The raptor with Zelda leapt at her, but she quickly ran to the side with the predator hot on her heels. Without further hesitation, she clambered up a tree like a squirrel, the raptor snapping at her heels. The raptor tried jumping at her, but Zelda was too high and all it could do was claw at the tree's middle and snarl. These dinosaurs seemed to be superb athletes. That raptor, only six feet high, had jumped a good ten feet in the air. Zelda was lucky that she was twelve feet high.

She then took notice that this tree had coconuts in it and took one. A smug grin crossed her face and she tossed the coconut at the raptor below. The fruit hit the raptor on the head with a "clunk", causing the raptor to grunt in surprise and shake its head in pain. Zelda then noticed that the raptor was digging at the base of the tree. A bewildered second later, she figured that it was going to sever the roots and cause the tree to topple. Now all she could do was wait for Link to handle his problem.

Link continued his fight with the big raptor and tried swinging his sword again. Again, the raptor dodged and leapt at Link, but the hylian warrior quickly jumped and saw that the sickle-claw had left a HUGE gash in the log's bark. Link heard a scream behind him and saw the raptor that treed Zelda. He began to run to her aid, but the scarred raptor got in the way, snarling like a wolf. Link then got an idea. He pretended he was going to swing his sword at the raptor's legs. When the raptor jumped, Link ran forward and shoved it aside. The raptor fell to the ground, its legs thrashing to try and get up. Zelda's tree was beginning to lean forward and her raptor was obviously taking notice of this. It was about to jump again when Link reached it and raised his sword. With a single swing of his arm, the raptor's head rolled to the ground. The body's knees buckled and the headless body crumpled to the ground, dead as a doornail. Zelda slowly climbed back down and was amazed at what Link did.

"Thank you." was all she could say.

They were about to share a passionate kiss when the snarl of the scarred male sounded. They whirled around to see him back on his feet and there was nowhere else to run. Just when the raptor began stalking toward them, there was another roar that sounded like a lion's. The raptor screeched back and the roar sounded again. There was another predator in this jungle…

Again, I enjoyed writing about the raptors. They're some of my favorite dinos. And the triceratops stampede was pretty fun to write about, too.