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A/N: A couple people were confused by the background/characterization of Echo in the last chapter. It's based off of the raptors' official profiles from LEGO, and the Masrani Corp. info is from the movie promotion websites.
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After chattering into his metal neck-thing for a while, Alpha looks around the nest. He picks up a hard water that's rolled away and crouches down just out of nuzzling distance from Delta's head. He's better at giving water to her than Blue is. Her foreclaws can't hold the smooth hard water like he does, tilting it gradually to make a steady stream for Delta to snap at. Delta gulps mouthfuls of water from the air as he pours it in front of her snout.
Blue watches him, cocking her head from side to side rapidly, but she can't figure out the trick. She searches out another rolled-away hard water and brings it to Echo in her jaws. The burnt raptor blinks wearily at her. Blue crunches the hard water over Echo's head, but it produces only a brief shower of water. Echo is baffled but gamely twists her head to lap water off the floor.
It frustrates Blue, but Alpha stands to walk near enough to touch-nuzzle her neck, happy-barking at her. 'That a girl.' He chatters at all of them, a soothing flow of Alpha-sounds. It's been the background noise of their entire lives. They're an extremely vocal species raised by an even more vocal species. Body language is an incredibly large portion of their social cues, but vocal sound has been highly encouraged since they first heard muffled words outside their eggs. Imprinting on Alpha didn't change their instinctive repertoire of sounds, but raptors are smart. They learned his vocalizations, even attempted to imitate the weird honks and barks as chicks.
Blue leans into his hand but snuffles at her siblings, who snort and growl back. Alpha joins in the general pack-chatter, and the muscles down Blue's back, wound tight from days of nonstop tension, slowly relax. It's a piece of normal that's been absent, something that comforts her just by hearing it again. He chitters at them, and they chatter back, and together they are a noisy, talkative pack.
Humans change their tones and inflections, adding cues that make the same word mean different things. The pack can recognize some particular chitters Alpha makes no matter what pitch he says them in, but they also recognize when he's talking to them. They can recognize communication. For instance, Blue can, sometimes, understand in a straining kind of way that the 'Blue' sound while Alpha chitters at prey means he's talking about her, to the prey. It's a logical leap that's hard for her to make. Big as her brain is, she's still an animal. It's difficult for a raptor, however smart, to make that sort of extended connection, and she will never associate talking into a radio with anything.
Alpha is pack. Whatever she doesn't understand about what he does, she understands that. Blue will accept chattering into a metal-thing from Alpha.
Metal roars outside, distant but coming closer. Blue stomps nervously, tail lashing. Her head goes up, turning to track the smell and noise of metal approaching. The blue-marked raptor doesn't hiss at the metal thing as it rumbles to a stop outside, but only because she recognizes it. She grew up around metal things. They don't scare her, and she's used to this one in particular. It smells strongly of her and her siblings. She doesn't remember being on it, but the pack's woken up smelling of it before, usually after one of the blurry dark times.
The metal creature honks outside the nest, on the other side of the wall. Delta and Echo screech, alarmed, but Blue just cocks her head and growls, shifting her feet and clicking her foreclaws to warn she'll attack if it gets any closer. Is it curious? Threat-to-pack? She can smell prey. Prey-with-fangs?
Alpha calm-cries at her as he moves across the nest. He pushes a door open, and she twitches, ducking her head. Delta cheeps, anxious, and she creels reassurance. Echo howls a wary threat growl. Blue stalks forward to stand between them and the door, lips wrinkling to bare her teeth at the metal thing right outside. It blocks most of the door, leaving the nest open but not exposed. The raptors still don't like it. Blue spreads her foreclaws, hissing softly as she coils into a taut crouch with her chest close to the ground, ready to spring.
'Easy, easy,' Alpha calm-cries to her, hand up. With his hand up like a sibling's snout and his eyes level on her, he faces her down. She opens her mouth and hisses in a long, slow breath in preparation for a snarling hunt cry, but his hand flattens into a stern, 'Back off.'
She doesn't want to. The metal creature has its back to the nest, but it's too close. The pack is helpless.
'Back off,' Alpha's hand says, and he barks at her. It's a different chitter but the same tone. It's the tone of snapping teeth warding her away.
Her head bobs, eyes flicking from him to the metal creature. It hasn't moved, and its dull roar stopped. Maybe it's not threat-to-pack.
'Back off.'
She straightens, pulling her head up to huff, annoyed. She's used to metal creatures being near, although not this near. Echo and Delta are both staring at it warily, shifting where they lay, but they're suspicious, not afraid. As long as it doesn't try to come into the nest, she'll allow it to sleep there.
Blue doesn't like it, but she doesn't want to challenge Alpha, and his eyes are narrow on her. She looks to one side.
Without looking away or lowering his hand, he backs through the door. Her eyes snap back to him. She rattle-calls a protest as he climbs up onto the metal thing's flat back, but he calm-cries back at her, 'Easy, easy.'
He tosses something out onto the ground, a bundle of sticks and soft skin, but it's forgotten when he jumps down carrying a food bucket.
Wariness disappears. The pack regards the bucket with interest. They know what that means.
Blue warbles approval, suddenly much less nervous about the metal thing in the door. Alpha uses metal things. Obviously, he used this one to bring prey to the pack. Good Alpha. Blue trots over to investigate, ignoring the hand going up, and sniffs at the bucket. Fresh meat!
She lunges down, mouth open, but he gives the familiar, "Ho!"
She jerks back, cocking her head to look up at him. It's his 'Stop; pay attention' warn-howl, the one he uses in training-games, but in the 'Back off' voice. Familiar chitter, wrong tone. She whines, confused, tipping her head the other way. The meat tempts her to take another snap at it.
But Alpha slowly pivots, taking the bucket out from under her snout. His hand goes up in the 'Back off' signal in front of her nose. Her eyes flick to the bucket, to his hand, to the bucket. It's fresh meat. She's hungry. The urge to bite prey rises, fighting pack. This is Alpha, but Alpha is prey, but Alpha is pack.
"Delta. Echo," Alpha calls as though this is a training-game and he going to toss them extra treats, and Blue blinks at him. She's not her siblings. He's not looking at the other two. He's looking at her, not them, but giving her the 'Back off' signal.
It's a leap of logic, one a raptor can barely make, but it suddenly connects as she stares at him. She understands. He's not talking to them. He's talking about them.
Food for the pack. Alpha brought food for her siblings. The mixed signals mean 'Not for you.'
She straightens, foreclaws uncurling in abrupt release. She backs off, chuffing air hard as she whirls around, checking the entrance of the nest before turning to face Alpha with her head up, waiting.
Watching her, never turning his back, he walks along the wall toward Delta. Delta smells the meat, too, and she cheeps frantically, her good leg paddling air as if she can run to the meat-smell. Blue creels back at her, then chirps. Alpha brought food.
He crouches down out of Delta's reach and hums his feeding-chirr. 'Hold on, hold on.'
Delta paddles faster, excited by hatchling memory and food. She trills loudly and bites at the metal claw he takes out of the bucket. That's the feeding claw! It means food. She wants food now.
Alpha snorts amusement and grabs a claw full of bloody meat from the bucket.
Blue ducks her head low, purrling submission as she ventures near to sniff delicately at the metal claw. Alpha's offering Delta meat with it, but he narrows his eyes as he watches Blue inch closer. She's allowed to approach, but the feeding-chirr barks stern when she gets too close. She flattens herself close to the ground, head and tail low, and purrls earnestly. Not threat-to-pack. Not challenging Alpha. She won't steal meat from her siblings like a greedy hatchling. They aren't fighting over a prey carcass inside the walls. She's the largest and strongest in the pack, owed the largest share of the kill, but right now, that means she provides for the pack first.
Like Alpha is. Like Alpha always has. Alpha has always fed the raptors. He's always fed her last, too, glaring her down until she accepts he controls the food from his hand. He's not behind the bars this time, safe from slashing claws and dominance fights, but she accepts his control of the food bucket. 'Not for you,' he tells her by repeating, "Delta."
Blue lays her chin on the floor and looks up at him, purrling agreement-submission.
He watches her a moment more before digging the metal claw back into the bucket. Delta gobbles more bloody flesh. As soon as she's gulped down a few claws full, Alpha stands up and carries the food bucket to Echo, whose desolate cheeping hasn't stopped since she smelled meat. Blue's eyes follow him, but she doesn't stand up. She snakes around to keep watching, blinking owlishly as she looks up at Alpha from the floor. He taps the bucket, looking back at her thoughtfully.
When he crouches this time, it's with his side to her. She can see him looking at her sidelong, waiting for her to move. She snuffles, sneezes, shakes her head, but stays where she is.
The feeding-chirr starts again.
Only after Echo's eaten her share does Alpha set the bucket down. Echo whines, nosing after it, but he stands and pushes it with his foot toward Blue. "Blue."
She blinks at him. Hesitantly, she straightens up and takes a step forward. He doesn't warn her away. She takes another step.
Ducking her head down, she plunges her snout into the bucket. The meat is fresh and still warm, blood tasty on her tongue. She straightens and blinks at Alpha, blood dribbling from the meat hanging out the sides of her mouth, then turns to walk to Delta. The blue-marked raptor bobs, chirring as she lowers her head. Delta trills in response, opening her mouth.
"Blue!" Alpha points at her. 'This one's for you.'
Blue tips her head, puzzled. She starts to lift her head to toss the food back and swallow, but Delta chirrs. She lowers her head to offer her sibling the meat without a thought. Echo trills, wanting more. Blue turns back to the bucket to get another mouthful.
Alpha sighs and goes back to the metal thing in the door to chitter at the prey Blue can smell outside. It's one prey, a familiar one. She wants to hunt it, but there is meat in the food bucket. Alpha will bring them more food. He's pack. He communicates with prey and uses metal things, but he feeds the rest of the pack.
She patiently feeds her crippled siblings the meat he brought them.
They fall asleep soon after.
Alpha comes back into the nest and stares at her. He doesn't chatter at her, but there's a clear overtone of 'Don't give me that shit' to his strange, stilted body language.
Blue squawks at him, ready to hunt. She's not sleepy at all.
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