I struggled and pulled on the plate, trying to wrench it from the jaws of my carnivorous companion before the frankly terrifying Shannon got to him with her oversize knife. The red handed dilo refused to let go, digging his teeth into the plate and shaking his head back and forth. He seemed to be enjoying the game of tug and war, though if he won, his prize would probably be a knife to the throat. I pulled back as hard as I could, and actually lifted the dinosaur off the ground for a brief moment. He yelped but refused to let go, then pulled as hard as he could. Abruptly, I let go of the plate and he tumbled backwards with a yelp.
The plate went flying and landed upright like a wheel, then rolled for maybe a foot before falling on it's side with a quiet thud. The dilo scrabbles on the ground and looked around before noticing where the plate went. He made to pounce, but I beat him to it, latching onto his tail and knocking him to the ground. He hooted and thrashed wildly, confused and surprised by my actions. Shannon came charging up, prepared to gut the still drugged saurian to get back the plate, only to freeze with a confused face visible through her helmet at the sight. I lay on the ground, my arms wrapped around the tail of a dilo, who lay on his back, kicking and hooting and struggling to get up, being pinned down by my grip on his tail. I point towards the plate with one of my hands, then grab back onto his tail as fast as I could, the dilo nearly escaping my grip.
Shannon caught onto my gesture and grabbed the plate off the ground, still pointing the knife at the offending dilo. He hooted and howled, protesting as she took the plate out of his reach. One of his kicks nearly hit me in the face, reminding me that I need to be aware of his clawed feet as well as his quills. "This is miine! You hellspawn. Get your own chew toy." Shannon spat as she walked back towards the house, leaving me to deal with my still mildly drugged but quickly recovering dilo.
Realizing what I was doing, I release the flailing dinosaurs tail and darted back, getting to my feet. He wriggled on his back for a moment, then rolled over. He got up and shook himself, clearing the dirt and bits of grass and tiny twigs off of his quills. I very slowly backed away, hoping to escape unnoticed, or at least get close enough to Fatty that he could drug the dilo with his nose mist if need be. My companion turned to look straight at me and I froze, my escape plan shut down in an instant. He glared at me full force and growled, his frill twitching but not fully opening. He scratched at his snout with a claw and snorted, then shot me a glare before stalking over to his pitiful nest. Currently his nest was a clawful of grass and a large bone, which is quite pitiful and hardly deserves to even be called a nest.
I breath a sigh of relief that at least most of my blood will be staying in my body and my body parts are remaining intact and still attached. I walk back over to house, glancing back one more time to be sure the dilophosaurus isn't going to sneakily attack me from behind. He's pouting in his tiny nest and scratching at the bone, thankfully doing nothing of the aggressive ambush attack sort. I enter the wood and thatch building and find that neither Moth or Shannon are anywhere to be found. I check in the living room, but like the kitchen it too is empty. The drop down staircase is still protruding from the ceiling, so I can assume that Shannon is upstairs, but the titanic wolf and it's much smaller companion are still absent.
I cross the room to Moth's door and go to open it, but hesitate. It would be really rude to just barge in, so I raise my hands to knock. Abruptly my knee is slammed into the door as it opens from the other side. I make a shout of pain and surprise and try to clutch my knee while taking a step away. I manage to stumble clear of the door and the dire wolf pads out, walking past me without sparing more than a turn of the head. Moth followed behind, having held the door for him, and notices me standing there clutching my kneecap. She gives me puzzled look, then realizes what happened. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! Are you ok?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. You don't pack much of a punch when you're just opening a door." She nods.
"Still I'm sorry. I didnt mean to hit you." I laugh and wave it off.
"Seriously kid, im fine. You didn't break my kneecap or anything." She still looks unsure and like she's nearly ready to cry. A grin splits my face as an idea comes to mind. "Tibia honest, I'm feeling much better now. It was my fault for being a bonehead and standing in front of your door." She perks up immediately and claps a hand over her mouth to stop her giggling. Seeing results, i continue. "What? Don't you find me humerus? I thought they were rib ticklers myself." That did it, she's leaning against the doorframe laughing her head off, to the confusion of the dire wolf. Her laughter is contagious, and I can't help but laugh along with her. Footsteps sound from the other side of the room and I glance over to see Shannon coming down the stairs. She gives us a confused look, oddly similar to that of the dire wolf's.
"What are you two laughing about?" She says notably aggravated. I grin again, seeing the perfect opportunity for a pun.
"Hey, no need to be so sternum." Moth erupts into furthur laughter, practically sliding down the wall at this point. Shannon scowls, then walks off into the kitchen without another word. Moth is giggling and practically rolling on the floor, the dire wolf standing over her with concern. She pets his face blindly between laughs and pushes him out of the way. I offer a hand to her when she calms down enough to actually be aware of her environment. She grabs it with her own smaller hand and i help her to her feet. She probably doesnt weigh any more than eighty pounds if that much. She brushes some stray dirt off her shirt then hug tackles the dire wolf. He doesn't flinch, most likely used to that kind of behavior. "So you're a fan of puns then?" She nods, smiling brightly.
"Shannon doesn't though, and she gets grumpy when people tell them." I caste a glance at the kitchen, where i presume she is, unless there is some sort of trapdoor or passage in there. Considering the drop down staircase, I wouldnt put it past them.
"Well that's her loss. Puns are sacrum and should be revered above all else." I expected Moth to find this hysterical, but she only gives me a confused look as she tries to decipher what I've just said. I give her a few seconds then realize the problem. "Your sacrum is a bone in your lower back. Sounds like sacred." She nods and smiles, but a joke is ruined when you have to explain it. "Why doesn't miss military like puns? Did you tell her too many or something and ruin them for her?"
"Nah, she hasn't liked them since before I knew her. I've asked her about it before but she just gives me this wierd look and goes to her room or the kitchen or out to check the traps." She runs over and jumps onto the couch, and the wolf follows, but since he's pretty much as big as the couch itself he just rests his chin on the edge.
"How long have you two known each other anyway? How long have you been out here?" I sit down on the other end of the couch, then remember that it's basically a bench covered in a layer of fluffy fur. Soft to sit on but not particularly comfortable.
"Well I think I've been out here for either eight or nine months and lived with Shannon for almost all of it. Shannon... I think she's been here for two years. I asked her a couple months ago and she said at least a year and a half."
"Wow, no wonder she's so scary. She lived alone for a year in crazy dinosaur land. I almost died what, three, four times and I've only been here for three days. That's gotta be rough. I'm also a little more scared of her now. Good to know." Moth shook her head.
"I don't think she was alone. My bedroom was already made when I started living with Shannon. If she built the house all by herself she wouldn't have put in a second bedroom. Though she is friends with that big tribe up through the Smuggler Pass. She might have built it for them. She had Fatty too when i got here."
"Well isn't she a bundle of mysteries -wait, you said there was a tribe? As in people tribe?" She nods and pats the dire wolf on the head, who makes a rumbling noise in appreciation.
"There are other people out here. Not a ton of people, but there are some pretty big tribes. The one north of here has a little town and everything. There's also a pretty big tribe in the snowy place, and a big one way down south. Those are the ones I know about. You'll get to see some soon, Shannon doesn't trust you enough to leave you alone here, so we'll all go up for Thanksfest together. It'll be tons of fun!"
"What's Thanksfest? It sounds like some knock-off Thanksgiving." Abruptly a clatter comes from the kitchen and a muttered curse follows. All three of us turn to look at the kitchen, waiting for another clang or an explanation, but nothing more than a few muttered words is given in explanation. we wait q few moments before me and Moth return to our conversation and the dire wolf lays his head back down.
"Well, every year, a whole lot of tribes across the island call a truce and get together to trade and be friendly and stuff even if they aren't usually. I've never been to one, but Shannon has. That's were she got the stove and the wool for the couch." To emphasize this, she bounced up and down on the couch and rubbed the soft fur that covered it.
"That actually sounds pretty cool. But what if they try to attack each other when they let their guards down? I can't be the only person who thought of that."
"Shannon said that if anybody breaks the rules the other tribes all gang up on them for payment or revenge. She said that last year a small tribe tried to steal some dinosaurs from the tribe she's 's friends with, and it wasn't pretty. Practically everybody nearby pulled a weapon on them. Then they tried to fight their way out. One guy got all the bones in his hand broke, and she said he was lucky compared to some of them." At the shocked look that I'm sure was on my face, she continued. "It's not usually like that though. She says most people who are dumb enough to try something aren't dumb enough to try to stand and fight like that. Most people just want to have a good time. At least that's what she says." I nod, feeling reassured but still not totally confident on the matter.
"She's been around the block a couple times hasn't she." I ask, though it's more of a statement than an actual question. "I guess that makes sense. She came after a dino she called a hellspawn with only a knife. That definitely takes guts."
"Yeah. She's pretty great. But Red hands is only a dilo. Even a really scary dilo is just a dilo. If he were a raptor or a hyena or something she definitely would have worn her armor or took a javelin with her."
"You guys have hyenas out here too? Geez."
"Nuh uh, I'm pretty sure they aren't actually hyena. They don't look like them, but it's what everyone calls them. Some people call them dogs but they don't know what they're talking about," she turns to the wolf and grabs the sides of his head with her hands and touches her nose to his, "You're way cuter, and cooler than they are aren't you? Yes you are, yes you are!" The dire wolf blinks lazily and huffs, then licked her nose, getting slobber up half her face. She pulls back and sticks her tongue out in disgust. She wipes the saliva from her face onto her hands, then onto the shaggy neck fur of the wolf itself. He gives what I can confidently say is probably the closest thing I'll ever see to a dog rolling its eyes, but doesn't lift his head from its resting place.
"So is it normal not to call stuff by name here? This place gets more confusing by the minute."
"Well everybody doesn't want to call stuff by its really long name so they come up with short ones. Like the Utahraptor, everybody just calls them raptors and knows what they're talking about." I nod, realizing I'm probably going to have to learn all of their nicknames along with what actually lives here.
"Isn't there like a guide or something for all this?" At that moment, Shannon walked into the room with a mug seemingly carved from bone with some dark drink in it. She sat down on the other side of Moth, forcing her to scoot down some and for thle wolf to move his head.
"There is, but they're ungodly expensive. Only one guy on the island makes 'em. Other people try but his are the most accurate by far. He's practically ancient, grey beard and everything, but he still travels the entire island to write in his book and get more information." She takes a gulp of her drink before continuing, "Every copy is handwritten. I've had my hands on an older copy for ages. Thing fell apart and half the pages tore out, but I will admit that several dinosaurs and guys who don't understand the meaning of 'no' have been struck over the head with it, so it's not like I i took the best care of it. If you want one, you're gonna have to find enough bartering materials. Chitin would be a good start."
"Isn't that bug's shells?" She nods, taking another gulp of drink. I shudder slightly, remembering the giant dragonflies. "Well how much of that would I need to get one of those books?" She thought about it for a moment, then took another drink.
"Well, if the value of chitin is good, probably twenty to forty pounds," i blanched and I'm sure my eyes opened far wider than they should, "if the price is bad, probably your weight of the stuff."
I dreaded to ask but I knew I had to. "How much does chitin weigh?" A pause, then an answer.
"Not much." I sunk back into the couch, my skin crawling from the thought of having to kill so many giant insects let alone be near them. I nearly died to a swarm of dragonflies, and I know those can't be the only dangerous insect out here. Really, I'm fine with the smaller, regular sized ones, but if they're bigger than my hand, I want absolutely nowhere within ten feet of them. I rub my hands down my face to clear away the crawling feeling and realize I'm at an impasse. "What? You got a fear of bugs or something?"
"Well when the bug has a wingspan half the size of mine, I get pretty creeped out."
"Pansy. You've only run into Meganuera haven't you? The dragonflies?" I nodded slowly. "Wow, wait til you see a Pulmonoscorpis. That is going to be fun." My eyes go wide.
"What is Pulmonoscorpis?" She doesn't answer, merely taking another drink from her mug with tje smuggest grin on her face. "What is a Pulmonoscorpis Shannon? Shannon, I'm not kidding, stop smiling like that. Seriously, Moth, what is a Pulmonoscorpis?" She giggles and barely stifles a grin. "Seriously, you guys are freaking me out, stop it." Shannon starts laughing too, something I never expected to hear from her. I stay there for a few more moments before standing and nearly spriniting through the door, shouting, "Nope, not doing this. Nope. I'm done here." I walk out the door, letting it slam behind me, but I can still hear her laughter, now joined by Moth, even outside.
Fatty is still laying next to the food trough, watching as the sun set between the trees. My red handed dilo has rebuilt his nest, and now sits atop a rather large pile of leaves and grass, the dire wolf's chewing bone sticking out from the base. He's fast asleep, curled up with the bristles on his tail tip rubbing his snout. He snorted every once in a while, blowing a breath of air out his nose and pushing the quills away, but they would always return to their position after a few moments and start the cycle over. I chuckle and debate whether to sit next to him, but decide against it, not knowing if he was still pacified or back to his sour self. I instead sat down with Fatty, leaning up against his scaly side. He regarded me with a snort but otherwise didn't appear to care, and continued to placidly watch as the sky changed from a light blue to fiery red to black. It really was beautiful, but it was better out on the plain; the trees obscured most of our view, but it was still nice. I just stayed out there well after the sun had set. A blanket had been thrown out the kitchen window and i caught a glance of the top of Moth's head darting away. I smile and go over to grab the blanket, dusting it off as i grab it. I lay back down next to the fancily horned ceratopsian, who groggily watched as I did so and spread the blanket over top of myself, then tossed the excess over Fatty's side. He grunted at me, then lay back down his head and promptly fell asleep. He snored, not loudly but it was present and just loud enough to drown out the chirps and drones of night nsects. Idly I noted that this was probably the most pleasant night I've had out here, then drifted off into sleep.
A/ N:
Sorry for your long wait everyone. We got a lot of dialogue, some humor, and a nice ending. I can't say much else about the chapter, but we did get a glimpse of Moth and Shannon's past. Do with that information what you will. Red hands finally has a proper nest again. Yay. Everything is staring to come together for a holiday mini arc. Or should I say mini ARK? Eh? Eh? Omg im sorrry for the puns, I couldn't help it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, let me know of any horrible grammar errors I've made. Comments and questions are very appreciated and encouraged, and have a great day, night, or whenever you're readings this. Or don't, it's entirely up to you and I can't tell you what to do.