"Zara! Snap out of it!" Claire shrieked as her former assistant tried to nip at her heels. The creature barked and snarled, completely ignoring her request. Claire yelped and ducked out of the way as she tried to stab her with her half-beak.

"Zara, what's wrong with you?" Vivian wailed, "Are you mad because I didn't get you an engagement present?"

Claire's eyes went wide.

"Zara is engaged? How did you know that?"

"How did you not know that?" Owen retorted.

They all screamed as Zara made another lunge for them. She ended up inhaling a mouthful of dirt, which only made her angrier.

"Zara, please don't do this!" Lowery pleaded, "Be cool!"

"You can't just tell a monster to be cool, Lowery!" Claire snapped.

"She's not a monster, she's Zara, and something is making her very cranky!" Lowery growled.

"Just feed her a crumpet or something!"

"They don't all eat crumpets, Claire!" Owen squeaked, cuffing her frill.

"RAAAAAAAAAH!"

They covered their ears as Zara gave a hideous roar.

"Zara, please don't eat us!" Vivian begged, "This isn't you. You're not a murderer!"

With a furious screech, Zara chomped down on Vivian. As she was scooped up, she tried to hold Zara's mouth open with her feet. Claire trumpeted in panic and rammed into the monster's stomach (taking care not to stab her with her horns). She coughed up Vivian, who landed on the forest floor with a loud whump. Lowery ran over to help, but Zara knocked him over with her tail. Barry flashed his brights in her eyes, blinding her temporarily. As she screeched and wailed, Owen crawled up her hanging hair, eventually reaching her snout-beak. She tossed her head, but he lifted her eyelid with one paw and stared at her intensely.

"Zara, listen to me. You are not a monster. You work at Jurassic World. You're engaged to a man named Steve. Your favorite band is Queen. You drink expensive coffee-"

"How do you know all of this?" Claire asked from the ground.

"I talked to her once. I'm surprised she never mentioned any of this to you. She's quite talkative."

Claire sighed.

"Maybe I'm just a bad listener . . ."

Zara, meanwhile, had begun to stop thrashing around. Her eyes were no longer pure black, and her face was less tense. Gasping for air, she let Owen climb down from her face and spoke quickly.

"Not much time . . . Something wrong with my mind . . . Run while you still can . . ."

Suddenly, she grabbed her head, wincing in pain. As she squeezed her eyes shut, she sent two small tears sliding down her cheeks. Then, she gave a furious bark and snapped at them once more.

"You see what we can do with a little tweaking?"

The group turned to glare at Hoskins as he stepped out of the trees.

"I thought the raptors were powerful, but man alive, this is ten times as awesome."

Owen gave a high-pitched growl and balled his hands into fists.

"Let her go, Hoskins!"

He gave a guttural laugh.

"I'm not controlling her, buddy. If you have a problem with the Mozaradon, you'll have to discuss it with the dragon."

Owen blinked.

"I've had a lot of weird things happen to me this week, so I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not."

Zara gave another shriek and dove for Owen, who leapt to the side. Judging by the changing size of her pupils, she was doing her best to stop herself from harming anyone. It was a battle that she was about to lose.

"See, nature is all about control," Hoskins philosophized, "As long as you find a way to stay on top, nothing upsets the order of-"

Hoskins had (unwisely) walked directly in front of Zara. With a quick jerk of her head, she swallowed him whole. Owen watched his tail disappear into her mouth.

"Wow . . . He never learns, does he?"

While Zara's head was on ground level, Claire took the opportunity to figure out what was wrong with her. She ran over and yanked a large, black device from her tangled hair. Zara jolted, then became relatively still. Claire walked over to her trembling form cautiously.

"Zara? . . . Are you okay? . . ."

The hybrid reptile gave a quiet whimper and placed her leathery wings over her eyes. It took Claire a moment to process the fact that she was crying.

"Zara? What's wrong?"

She sniffled and peeked out from under her wings.

"I killed that poor dinosaur, didn't I?"

Owen grimaced.

"I wouldn't exactly call Hoskins a 'poor dinosaur' . . ."

Zara wailed.

"I'm a murderer . . . I'm a murderer . . ."

Claire looked at her sadly, then placed her front foot on her shoulder.

"Zara, it's okay. He was a very bad man."

Zara shook her head.

"It doesn't matter how bad he was! I- I- I- WAAAAAAAAAH!"

By this point, the tears were practically shooting out of her eyes. Vivian flinched as one landed on her snout.

"I'm a monster!" Zara choked.

"Oh, Zara. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry . . ." Claire muttered.

They all watched awkwardly as Zara continued to bawl her eyes out. After a few seconds, however, her sobbing turned into choking. She hawked and retched and coughed up a very sticky Hoskins. Claire thought (and hoped) that he was dead, but his toes twitched lightly, and he looked around with glazed eyes.

"Whajushappen?" he driveled.

Zara wiped her nose and looked down at him.

"I'm sorry . . ." she squeaked.

Hoskins' eyes went wide.

"She's awake! June! June!"

Before he could get away, Claire bopped him on the head with the side of her horn. Lowery darted forward and pulled a rope out of his jacket. He tied Hoskins' arms and legs together like a calf, then stood up and brushed himself off casually. When he noticed the peculiar look Claire was shooting him, he shrugged lightly.

"One of my heroes allegedly carries a rope around with him everywhere. According to him, if he ever encounters a dinosaur-"

Claire held up her front foot.

"Lowery, sometimes it's best not to know."

***TSJWFEW***

The group left Hoskins behind and found cover in a nearby cave. They didn't want to wander back into the camp, especially since Zara was technically and escapee. She refused to even look back at her former prison, and would tear up at the very mention of elephants. Of course, Humphrey was oblivious to her sensitivities (as he had hidden himself behind a bush when she first appeared), so he brought up her situation countless times. Zara didn't appear to remember much of what happened when she was under the control of the mysterious yellow dragon, but what she did recall was enough to make her break down in tears. The group agreed to let her calm down before enquiring further, and Claire even held her wing-hand in a comforting manner.

As night fell, the group huddled around a small campfire (courtesy of Owen) and brought each other up to speed on . . . well, everything. Of course, since their group consisted of eight very unique individuals, there was a lot to tell.

"I wasn't changed with the soul-pot or the wand," Vivian explained, "The blonde woman, Spurr, made her daughter inject me with this weird syrupy stuff. It hurt like hell. When I woke up, I didn't remember who I was. It was like being in a dream. Then I saw a Smurf keychain on the purple-haired girl's backpack, and it reminded me of Brad. All of a sudden, I remembered why I wanted to be human."

Zara nodded slowly, trying her best to hold back the tears.

"It was similar for me. Only . . . Only, I died . . ."

She buried her face in her wings, and Vivian leaned against her sympathetically. Owen lifted his ear from the ground and cleared his throat.

"Mr. Masrani says that he doesn't know how his consciousness came to be trapped inside the magic soul-pot, but when he was a helicopter, smashing into the anthill at a great speed somehow transferred his essence into a bug. I guess we already knew that . . ."

Barry sighed and rocked back and forth on his wheels.

"The purple-haired girl ambushed me. She chanted some sort of incantation, and I felt my soul being sucked into the pot. Then she dropped it on the car. You can probably figure out the rest."

The group nodded solemnly. Humphrey, who was sucking on his trunk, turned to Claire with puzzlement.

"And how did you change?"

Claire frowned in confusion.

"I . . . I don't know."

Vivian raised her eyebrow.

"Claire, how can you not know? If I was in your place, I'd circle the calendar or something . . ."

Claire gave a halfhearted shrug.

"Sorry. I just don't remember. Everything is so unclear . . ."

She winced as she experienced a quick flash of memory. She shook her head and tried to put it into words.

"I . . . I was in a room with a cat . . . No, a tiger . . ."

She closed her eyes and concentrated.

"And . . . And he gave me powers . . ."

***TSJWFEW***

"You will be able to change into dinosaurs whenever you are electrocuted. Once you transform, you won't be able to change back for three hours. Are we clear?"

"Yeah, sure. Hey, Claire! Have you seen me? I'm all white and spiky!"

"That's nice . . ."

"What about you? What do you look like?"

"I . . . I don't want you to see me."

"Why not? Are you a small dinosaur?"

"No . . . Maybe . . . Look, just close your eyes. This isn't proper."

"Oh, lighten up, Claire! We're both naked."

"Shut up. I hate you."

"Come on, Claire. Don't be a chicken. Show me what you look like."

". . . Okay, but don't laugh."

. . .

"Oh my god . . ."

"Stop it! It's not funny!"

"Haha! Claire, I had no idea that you were a herbivore! How do you expect to fight the hostiles as a cow?"

"I'm not a cow!"

"Sure, sure. But look, it's really not that bad."

". . . Really? . . ."

"Yeah. We can't all be awesome dinosaurs like me."

"Shut up. I just want to get this over with."

"Good. Let's get moo-ving!"

"SHUT UP, YOU SON OF A-"

***TSJWFEW***

Claire shook her head.

"It's really fuzzy."

The group seemed keen to pry further, but a rhythmic sliding sound caught their attention. They turned to see a purple starfish moving slowly towards them. In one of her arms was a magic wand, and a new soul-pot rested on her back.

"Look out!" Barry shrieked, "She has magical devices!"

Before they could get up and run, the starfish flicked her arm, sending a beam of sparkles towards Owen. He spun around and shimmered until he was human again. After patting himself down quickly, he grinned and looked at his hands.

"Yes!"

Claire ran over and hugged him.

"You're back!"

"I never left . . ." he muttered.

The starfish crawled over to Vivian, handing her the wand. She made vague gestures that approximated something similar to what she had done to change Owen. Vivian shrugged and tapped the starfish with the wand. When she was changed, everyone gasped.

"Purple-haired girl!"

The teen frowned and crossed her arms.

"My name is Raven."

Barry revved up his engine angrily.

"She's a witch! Get her!"

Before he could do any serious harm, Raven picked up her bowl, bonked him on the head, and shook a fine powder out of the base of the receptacle. A ghostly twister appeared over the lid and flew through the mouth of the cave.

"What did you do to him?" Owen snarled.

"Nothing! I sent him back to his old body," Raven hissed, "You guys are so ungrateful!"

Owen frowned.

"How do we know we can trust you?"

"I want to stick it to the Man," the girl replied.

As the group fell silent, they heard a tiny voice. Raven noticed Mr. Masrani, the ant, jumping up and down on Vivian's nose.

"I'm sorry, I can't change you back," Raven explained apologetically, "You don't have a body to return to."

Zara scooted towards her, using her wings to push herself forward like a seal.

"But you can change me, right? . . ." she asked hopefully.

Zara knew the answer when Raven looked away uncomfortably. She sniffled, then burst into tears.

"Oh god! Why is this happening to me?"

Vivian gave a sad hum.

"I guess that means I'm stuck too."

Raven nodded.

"Unless you want to steal the magic flower inside of Claire's stomach, you're gonna have to deal with it."

Zara wailed and moved deeper into the cave.

"I need . . . a minute . . . to be alone!" she gasped between sobs.

Claire watched her assistant inch away, her heart heavy with guilt. Now that she had witnessed how Zara reacted to her permanent transformation, being a dinosaur half of the time seemed merciful. At least Claire didn't have to live her entire life as . . . whatever Zara was considered.

"I think I've come to terms with this," Vivian announced, "I guess I always knew I'd be stuck this way forever. It might not be so bad. My grandpa owns a few acres of land in Minnesota, and I'm pretty sure he has horses. He'll hook me up."

Lowery looked at her sadly.

"You shouldn't have to live with horses, Viv."

She shook her head.

"I know, but that's just the way things have to be."

Claire exhaled and looked down at her feet guiltily.

"If there really is a magic flower inside of me, there could be more of them growing somewhere else."

Vivian lifted her head hopefully.

"We can go on a quest to find them!"

Claire nodded.

"Maybe. Before that, I have to take care of June."

Vivian's face fell.

"You're still going to-"

"Yes," Claire affirmed with a curt nod, "The stegoceratopses were right about the Lilylotusdrop, which means that the rest of the prophecy is true."

Owen gave a puzzled frown.

"What do you mean?"

Claire lifted her head boldly.

"June won't be able to defeat me."

"Why not?"

"I can't be killed by any creature woman-born."