By the way, that review from 'myself' was an accident. Someone I know was checking out the story on my computer and decided to drop a comment, accidentally using my username.
Chapter 1
Battle of the Therizinosaurus
Way off the coast of Costa Rica lay a chain of five islands – 'Las Cinco Muertes', Spanish for 'The Five Deaths'. However, it was the life inhabiting this region that made it as unique as it was: life once dead for countless years, brought back into being by the scientific brilliance of InGen. Among these islands was Isla Sorna, also known as Site B, where InGen once bred the dinosaurs that would wow the world as living wonders in Jurassic Park. However, the vison for the original park fell apart and the creatures were left to roam, survive, thrive. It had been years since Ingen abandoned the island, and Isla Sorna was flourishing in all its glory - from the verdurous plains, shadowy marshes and crystal lakes to its breath-taking, mountainous heights.
This day was no different. The soft glow of morning sunlight permeated the lush canopy as a savoury freshness filled the atmosphere. However, the pleasant ambiance was the farthest thing from a certain creature's mind.
The foliage hid its massive size as it sauntered on its hind legs across the slightly slanted jungle floor. Standing at over 16 feet tall, this was a creature straight out of your nightmares. Its muscular, 8 foot arms were tipped with 3, flesh-ripping 4½ foot claws on every hand.
It was called a 'therizinosaurus', which meant 'scythe lizard'. A herbivore, but any who encountered it face to face would find that this plant-eater was one of the most vicious, evil-tempered creatures of the jungles, and trespassing on its territory was the only reason it needed to butcher you on the spot.
The Therizino raised its small head and sniffed. There was more in the air than the woodland aromas. There was the smell of predator.
A deep growl rumbled in its throat as its steps became silent. Its rage grew as it moved closer and closer to the offensive scent until it stuck its head through a wall of tall bushes.
Just down a small incline under a large tree up ahead, a pair of twin utahraptors were playfully fighting with each other. One male, the other female, they were nearly 6 feet tall, pre-adults – not quite juveniles, but not full-blown mature as yet either. Their camouflage patterns of greens and such had barely reached adequate complexity while the yellow marks on their backs were just beginning to appear.
Such rough-housing was essential to the development of their hunting and combat skills, but they were upwind, and seemed more or less completely unaware of the beast watching them from the shadows.
It didn't care. It only wanted them dead.
Leaves went flying and branches broke by the legions as it burst out of the bushes and charged the two raptors with a mighty roar. It was practically right on top of them when a sharp pain stung into its ankle.
The Therizino tripped and came crashing to the ground. It quickly stumbled to its feet and looked about. The raptors were nowhere to be seen, but its ankle now bore a pair of jaw marks.
"You guys uh, catch up," suggested Mark Degler as he got up from the table to check on their infant son who was crying for the umpteenth time over who-knows-what.
"Thanks, babe," said Ellie, now 'Mrs. Degler'.
So he left, leaving only his wife and their dinner guest, world-renowned paleontologist Dr Alan Grant – two of the lucky survivors of the nightmare that was called 'Jurassic Park'. So much had happened since then. They had split up, she got married, etc, but they were still friends, close as ever.
"He's a great guy," stated Alan.
Ellie smiled in response.
"So, what are you working on now?" she asked.
"Raptors, mostly," Allan responded.
"Oh, my favourite," was her sarcastic comment.
Allan leaned forward on his elbows as his manner grew a shade darker, "Do you remember the sounds they made?"
A chilling flash of memories spiked through Ellie's mind. Their strength, their speed, but most of all, it was the way they looked at you. They weren't like lions or bears or even T Rexes. No, when a raptor looked at you, you could see that horrifying glint of intelligence and when they acted, they knew exactly how to kill you, and how to do it fast.
Ellie smiled, but her answer was quick and categorical. "I try not to,"
The bushes were definitely agitated, and the creature could hear the hidden enemies' complex vocalizations. It glanced to and fro, but they seemed to be everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time.
It turned to a bush that suddenly rustled distinctly, emanating a cackling string of bird-like twitters.
The Therizinosaurus began to approach the hiding spot when a speedy blur shot by its feet and its other ankle had suffered a fresh, similar bite.
Once again, there was no immediate enemy to be seen.
A patch of tall grass shook with hidden life and a similar series of vocalizations.
The Therizino took a step towards it, when it caught motion by the side of its eye. It barely turned its head before a green figure leaped onto its side and razor-sharp claws dug into its hide.
The titan shrieked and thrashed about, but the stealthy attacker jumped off its side and lightly landed a dozen feet away, perfectly unharmed.
For the first time, the Therizino was face to face with its new enemy.
She snarled viciously, her body low in a stance of battle - a young adult utahraptor, unlike the other two. Her 6 foot tall, 10 foot long body was much smaller than that of a true, prehistoric utahraptor. Then again, many of Isla Sorna's species did not match their original size. In an effort to make her kind more manageable, InGen had modified them for a less impressive stature after breeding full-sized utahraptors had yielded ... catastrophic results. Sure, she was smaller than she should have been, but with razor-sharp teeth and a mind even sharper, she was nonetheless a formidable force. Most of her scales were a disruptive montage of greens, while her feet were sheathed in a more consistent, darker tone. Bright, semi-fluorescent yellow marked her back, fanning out into stripes. A number of feathers were strewn upon the top of her head and neck, along with the sides of the end of her tail. No matter where they were, each feather began in a sky-azure that turned to navy at the tips. Her eyes were blue, but not like a human's – more of an exotic, deep sapphire that gleamed with a lethal lustre of intelligence.
It rushed her as she slinked back into the shadows, and tore into the bushes with its cutlass-like claws, but she was already hidden and out of harm's way.
Dr. Grant continued. "All our theories about raptor intelligence, what they were capable of, we weren't even close."
Ellie's interest sparked. "Tell me."
"Well," he began. "We did cranial scans of a fossil skull and found what looks like a very sophisticated resonating chamber."
"Wait a second, so we were right?" Ellie asked. "They, they had the ability to vocalize?"
"It's the key to their social intelligence," Grant confirmed.
"Which explains why they could work as a team," she went on.
"They'd coordinate their attacks so their prey wouldn't know what was going on," he explained.
Ellie paused. "They could talk to eachother?"
"To a degree we never imagined," Allan confirmed.
She shook her head in semi-disbelief, but he wasn't done yet.
"Ellie, they were smart. They were smarter than dolphins or whales ... they were smarter than primates."
The Therizino was becoming frantic, wildly looking about at even the slightest sound. Watching from the bushes, she knew it had no idea how many attackers it was facing, or when and where they would attack from next. That kept it off balanced – a recipe for defeat. In truth and in fact, there was no legion of raptors hidden in the shadows. It was just her, and the twins who were under her command. But the Therizino didn't know that, so if she played her cards right, they could continue to take turns distracting and blind-siding it until they had it cut down to size.
The greens of her camouflage tone began to gently pulsate. This was metachrosis – the ability to change colour, and it was a definite edge to her stealth ability.
She idly tapped the ground with the sickle-like, 7 inch killing claw on her innermost toe, waiting for an opportunity to ambush the creature again, when one of the twins rushed in to attack.
That was a very bad angle. The creature would spot him in a second!
She called to the younger raptor, commanding him to stop. He froze up and tried to run away, just before the Therizino's claws came swiping in and struck the predator into the large tree's trunk.
The monster bellowed victoriously as the young raptor tried to get up, only to fall in disorientation. He wasn't wounded, but the blunt impact had more or less knocked him out.
This was bad. A direct stab from this creature could run straight through a raptor's body. There was going to have to be a change of plans.
The Therizino approached the young raptor, ready to finish him off, when the adult stepped between the two, snarling for it to stay away.
The clawed lizard would have none of it. It charged towards the two raptors, shattering the atmosphere with a terrible roar.
She was severely outmatched, but rushed the giant all the same.
The two dinosaurs reached each other and she veered around its claws as they struck the earth before running her own blades across its leg as she darted by. This wasn't a critical blow but it sealed the opponent's attention.
It whipped around to attack again, but she was nowhere in sight.
Suddenly, she sprang at it from the side, grabbing its smallish neck with her jaws and swinging her body onto its back. With another jaw-hold to the neck she secured her footing while trying to dig her killing claws down into its spine.
The Therizino flayed about in a wild attempt to get her off and she fell on her side, only to scamper to her feet as three daggers came down in her place.
It lashed out, again and again, but she was light and fast, deftly dancing away from each and every strike.
The battle raged on as the fallen raptor's sister came to his side. She nudged him softly but briskly in an attempt to convey the urgency of the situation. It didn't work, so she gave him a pinching nip that instantly jolted him awake. With unusually gentle care, the female helped her brother to his feet as his strength began to return.
The adult raptor jumped back, barely missing a face full of claw. She wasn't getting anywhere, but she was learning: its motions, its thought pattern, its attack style, anatomical limits, level of adaptive intelligence, all piecing together to form a complex yet deadly biological map within her mind.
Seeing a window in its defenses, she darted between its legs and struck a calculated slash of the killing claw to its calf before dipping under its tail and slashing the other one.
It worked. She could see the leg injuries were a serious hindrance, but it still turned around to face her just as she predicted. No sooner had she called a command than the other two were tearing at its heels. When it tried to facethem, she skipped up its back and clamped her jaws around its neck as she dug her killing claws deep into its back again.
Between the leg injuries and the attackers, the creature could no longer coordinate itself against the overwhelming assault.
Finally, her claw pushed through, and a wail of agony pierced through the air.
The Therizinosaurus fell as she hopped off its back and the raptors withdrew.
It could no longer move its legs, its lower body limp and useless, as she had severed several critical neurons in its vertebral column.
The younger raptors glanced at each other and began to move in but she stopped them. The young adult noticed something strange about the Therizino's behavior. There was nothing it could do to fight or escape them, yet it began to drag itself away in a very specific direction.
She tilted her head. Just what was it trying to do?
Slowly but surely, the creature lugged its limp body behind a pair of large rocks.
The sapphire-eyed raptor hopped atop one of these boulders to get a better view. There was a nest, full of eggs, and the Therizino's last act was to curl its body around them, before weakly bellowing at the raptors in a final attempt to ward them off.
It only wanted to protect its babies.
She lowered her killing claws as a very rare feeling set in - remorse. It was rare, but she knew how to obey it.
The utahraptor hopped down from her perch and rejoined the others, calling off the attack altogether. They were puzzled but followed her lead without protest as they began to walk away. However, they were barely 30 yards away when they heard a terrible wailing that belonged to the creature they had left.
She rushed back to find the Therizino – silenced and unmoving as another raptor stood over its body. A spray of violet feathers tipped in black grew on her head, upper neck and tail. Her camouflage colourations had dark motif, compared to the sapphire-eyed raptor. Other than that, their appearance was very similar. That was understandable. This was her sister.
She was a creature armed with the blade of deadly power and very little reluctance to use it. In a battle, she was elemental - completely relentless, completely remorseless.
The sapphire-eyed raptor revered her. For years she had looked up to her as a rule of life, always trying to follow in her footsteps and gain her approval. Now, however, she felt nothing for her sibling except horror.
The other raptor's gaze met hers. She could see the dread in her younger sister's eyes, but she could care less about it. In fact, she seemed slightly amused.
She dismissed her sibling as she noticed the clutch of eggs in the nest nearby. The raptor leisurely sauntered over, picked one up in her jaws and crunched into it.
The sapphire-eyed raptor's horror turned to rage.
She rushed the older raptor and threw all her weight into her side, knocking her to the ground.
All four raptors were stunned as an uncomfortable silence fell over them. The older raptor just lay there, staring up at her and blinking in disbelief. A chilling sense of shock washed over her. It wasn't regret, but she knew she had stepped out of line.
She apologetically tried to help her sister to her feet, only to be knocked off her own and find herself pinned to the ground. Her sister's killing claw was at her throat while her fiery, dark-lilac eyes burnt down into her. However, suddenly, the older raptor calmed down, stepping off her sister as if permitting her to get up.
The younger raptor was surprised, but she didn't buy it. She knew her sister. This wasn't like her. She would never give up a chance to assert her dominance under normal circumstances. But the thing was, she didn't see that in her sister's eyes. They seemed unusually settled, forgiving even. Perhaps she was finally coming to respect her sibling. After all, she must have known who brought down the creature in the first place.
The anger for what her sister had done faded to an ember as the sapphire-eyed raptor slowly got to her feet, staring up at the other raptor in curiosity.
Suddenly, she received a whipping tail to the face, followed by a swift combination of slashes before the elder brought her foot up into the other's chin, causing the raptor to stumble.
The younger utahraptor shook her head in dizziness, an intense stinging sensation in her cheek. She didn't have to look – she knew what it was. Two of her sister's tail feathers were lodged within her skin. They weren't like the feathers on the rest of her body. No, they were more like the quills of a porcupine, easily falling off into the flesh of an opponent and delivering a fast-acting toxin that caused an unbearable burning sensation, racing of the heart and could plunge the body into a deadly state of shock. Being of the same species, she wasn't completely affected by the poison, but it was enough to dull her senses and speed by a critical notch.
She began to back away, cooing submissively as the other raptor approached with a threatening, brisk walk.
The twins watched in concern as the punishment continued, but they dared not interfere. They knew their rank, and they were all but completely helpless to defy it.
The older raptor clamped her jaws around her sibling's neck and began to squeeze, gradually cutting off her victim's air supply. The younger could do nothing about it. If she had fought, she may have stood a chance against her sibling, but that was not how things worked among them. She was guilty of insubordination, and it was her duty to stand still and take whatever came.
Suddenly, an order shot through the air.
The elder released her and the four raptors immediately straightened up, standing at attention.
The white-feathered head utahraptor had arrived, along with the three dozen others who formed the pack. In a predominantly female society, her gender was no surprise. Her left arm was completely missing due to some past encounter with a T Rex. But it was barely even a handicap. She had survived and conquered an astonishing amount of similar ordeals in her life, which left her with a profound wealth of experience. For her, defeat was nearly unheard of.
Her misty grey eyes inspected the two sisters. She immediately noticed the sapphire-eyed one was pretty bruised up, but still managed to present herself with a certain level of stateliness.
She gazed over to the fallen therizinosaurus and back to the two, as if asking who was responsible for it.
The older sister stepped forward, claiming the credit, while the younger one looked away slightly. She didn't want any association with this hunt.
The leader was silent, but the younger sister knew she probably wasn't fooled. She was very wise but seldom made a sound unless it was absolutely necessary. That was the reason for her title.
Of course, utahraptors didn't have names. Not like us, at least, but they had a way of identifying themselves with different things. Conditions, concepts, traits of nature – anything, and she was identified with the very fabric of soundlessness – that unpredictable yet absolute quiet that sometimes meant peace and other times the deceptive calm before a storm. Her 'name' was the concept of Silence.
Silence sounded a sharp, commanding call and all the other raptors lowered themselves to the ground in a uniform manner.
The azure-feathered raptor didn't understand what was going on. She watched as the one-armed leader walked among them, examining each subordinate as she passed by.
Silence stopped in front of a bowing raptor. She raised her killing claw and lifted her right foot above his head. The blue-feathered raptor's eyes widened slightly. Was this an execution?
Resting the talon on his head, the one-armed leader slowly cut a deep but surgically precise, jagged incision up the side of his temple.
The younger raptor's sapphire eyes lit up as she figured out what was going on. This was a ceremony, and Silence was soon to pass down her leadership to another raptor. She would bestow upon a select few a scratch that would heal into a very distinct scar - a mark that distinguishes them as nominees for the rank of leader. A special hunt would follow in which the candidates had to prove themselves worthy of the title. Only one would receive another scratch that would complete their mark and seal their place as new head. The other candidates would be eliminated, as the leader's first official act.
Silence marked several others before she came to the older sister. The blue-eyed raptor watched as her navy and black-feathered sibling received the scratch as well. She was surprised, but she knew she shouldn't be. Her sister had 22 years of experience and she'd used it well. Her skills, mind and aggressive personality would definitely impact the pack's performance and attitude, had she been leader. Still, her inability to consider the finer details and collateral damage was ever present. She'd probably sacrifice a few subordinates just to ensure victory in any scenario, and she could pretty much get away with anything she wanted when it came to her little sister's treatment. The younger raptor dreaded the thought. All the same, these brutal characteristics were her identity – Virulent.
The younger female felt a bit depressed at the possibility of her sister becoming absolute leader, but that didn't compare to the astonishment of Silence stopping in front of her next. It just so happened that Silence was her mother, but that was an almost irrelevant fact. There was scarcely anything motherly about her relationship with her daughter. She didn't even raise her – that was the nurses' job. Their family relation was just a biological arrangement.
However, for the first time, well, ever, her mother's eyes softened as she looked down on her offspring.
The head utahraptor carefully began to etch her mark across the young raptor's temple. It hurt. Sure, but she barely flinched. She could hardly believe the great Silence had deemed her worthy of becoming the (possible) new leader. But Silence had good reason.
Utahraptors had a peculiar way of aging. Unlike velociraptors, who were 'lethal at 10 months', their kind took a full 1½ years for them to reach near-maximum size and power. Even at this age they were not full-scale adults. Though very sizeable and deadly, they lacked feathers; could not reproduce; their camouflage hues were a little too simple and they ranked below their elders, missing the skill and experience to be taken seriously. It was only at age 11 that these 'pre adults' became true young adults, undergoing a radical change in attitude and developing new traits and an extra ounce of strength that made them that much more capable.
The raptor with blue feathers was 15. She didn't even have a title yet. Regardless, her accomplishments in that short span of maturity were amazing.
Only the pre adult 7-year-old twins were at her daughter's command. Yet, with limited resources and a hand full of experience, she had proven incredibly calculative, quick-witted and dexterous with skills that far surpassed those of even Silence's when she was her age. Most astonishing was the fact that after all these dangerous exploits, both the twins were completely unharmed. It could have been luck, but that was not the case. She knew how to protect them, but she also knew how to succeed. That was a very rare trait – one Silence had never quite seen before.
The lead raptor knelt down and gave her daughter a rare nudge of motivation. There was no missing the seething glare from Virulent, but she tried to ignore it. She didn't show it, but she was far too overjoyed to let anything ruin the moment.
Silence rose to her feet and walked away, followed by the rest of the pack, while her newly nominated daughter stood behind, digesting the whole event. There was something else - something known by no one but her.
While she knelt, her mother had whispered something into her ear. She had given her a title. It was the element of things that were hidden, invisible.
The element of the Unseen.
Thanks for reading!
If anyone wants to know my take on what Unseen looks like, search "SPEEDPAINT Jurassic Park: The Unseen Element - Unseen the Utahraptor".
By the way, this isn't the only story where Unseen shows up. In the realm of dinosaur tales, Land Before Time is pretty much the exact opposite of Jurassic Park, but I think she fits surprisingly well in her alternate role within that universe. Then again, my 'War Before Time' series is a bit different from the original Land Before Time, with emphasis on action, some fresh world building and sci-fi twists. It only made sense to me that Littlefoot and his friends would grow up to be sharptooth fighters. In this case, they become the saurian equivalent of martial artists.
Some side notes: Unseen's a bit bigger in that universe, closer to her real life counterpart. 'Sharpneck' is the in-universe term for the amargasaurus species. They're basically long-necked sauropods with almost two dozen horns/spikes running down the backs of their necks.
Take a dip into the War Before Time world with Unseen's first major appearance, in the oneshot clip below!
Maybe you've heard that Littlefoot and his friends are growing into sharptooth-crushing warriors. Maybe you know that someday they'll fight the War Before Time, but you don't know me. Not yet, anyway. Can I let you in on a secret? The Great Valley is just one of many mysterious valleys, like The Land of Mists, Sunstone Valley and ... honestly, that's all I got besides my own. It's not like I've ever had to visit another valley. Don't judge me! Anyway, they're all different from The Mysterious Beyond. Most are full of good green food, water holes, nesting grounds and everything else a leafeater could need in all the right places. I can't complain, but it's kind of strange when you think too hard about it. No one knows how they came to be, but my home, Hidden Valley, is rather unique. For starters, it's not supposed to exist. Not after The Great Earthshake, anyway. These days, the valley's full of 'not supposed to's. Sharpteeth shouldn't really be here, yet here they are. There shouldn't be enough food for us to coexist, but most of the time, there is. The water should have dried up, gone stagnant or flooded the valley long ago, but it hasn't. Some would argue that leafeaters should be leafeaters, and sharpteeth should be sharpteeth. There shouldn't be an 'in between' ... yet here I am.
Hi. My name's Dagara. I'm probably the last sharpneck alive, which makes life ... complicated.
Because You're a Sharpneck
A War Before Time Oneshot
The young sharpneck was practically vibrating.
She growled at herself. Why was it so hard to sit still? Sure, she was 10, but even the threehorns her age didn't have this excessive energy ... or did they? She couldn't tell for sure. Maybe they were just really good at hiding it. Maybe their parents had trained them better.
A loud snore drew Dagara's attention to her adoptive father: Wartar, the threehorn alpha tattered with the marks of another life spent in the heat of combat. The sharpneck didn't like to look at the marks on his side. She'd long since figured out what most of them meant. He may have retired from the battlefield, but she had a hunch he'd carry his drill sergeant of a personality to his end. No, the other youngsters weren't trained better than she was. No one trained their young quite like her dad. From all appearances, her impatience was 'a sharpneck thing'. Everything seemed to be a sharpneck thing with her, from personality quirks to her unusual diet.
"Dad, are you awake?" she asked.
His answer (or absence thereof) came in the form of another snore. He had to told her not to leave the nest until he had awoken, but this was the first time she'd known him to sleep in. Yes, he'd had a long yesterday, but come ooooon! The Sun was peeking over the cliffs that surrounded the valley! That said a lot. The cliffs were higher than they had a right to be. Any creature supremely lucky enough to reach the valley would find it hard to get in without falling to their death ... almost as hard as it was for most of its residents to get out. The exit routes they were working on were years away from completion. It was a miracle Hidden Valley hadn't collapsed altogether. After The Great Earthshake, the valley had nearly disappeared off the map, sinking hundreds of feet into the Earth so that the Sun only touched about 70% of the landscape - 'The Green Zone'. Only the hardiest, least palatable vegetation in 'The Grey Zone' survived due to lack of sunlight, which made it the logical habitat for those who didn't need green food. Combined with the cave systems known as 'The Dark Zone', there was more than enough room for the leafeaters and ... non-leafeaters to keep to themselves much of the time.
"Good morn-"
"GGRRRAAAAHHH!" Dagara snarled.
Without blinking, she charged at whatever had made that noise. She didn't see it, but her ears gave her a pretty good idea of where it was, and it was invading her territory!
Dagara's sharp eyes glimpsed motion as something sidestepped her charge, although she couldn't tell exactly what she was looking at. Then her conscious mind caught up with her actions.
She skidded to a stop, squinting at the nearly invisible thing before sniffing for a scent. "Unseen, is that you? I could've killed you!"
The invader's scales turned to a profusion of greens, broken by yellow stripes on her back. With blue feathers running from the top of her head to the base of her neck, it was an adult female fast biter.
Unseen gave a quiet cackle. The young one thought she'd nearly killed her? How amusing! ... Although Dagara might have had a point. She was little more than a third the fast biter's size, but Unseen had seen her training with her father. The sharpneck was a natural warrior, armed with some pretty formidable biological weapons. She could at least hurt a fast biter.
"You know, most creatures do not instantly attack when startled," Unseen chuckled. "If they do, they think first."
"I was thinking!" Dagara insisted.
Unseen twitched her feathers in amusement. "And what were you thinking?"
The sharpneck grew sheepish. "Uh ... 'Intruder invading territory' ... 'threatening Dad and me' ... 'nothing friendly sneaks up on you' ..."
Unseen took a moment to consider that. "'Nothing friendly sneaks up on you': that's a fair assumption, but not always accurate."
Dagara shrugged before giving a response that was quickly becoming mechanical. "I'm a sharpneck, remember?" That said, she apologised with a sharptooth coo.
Unseen smiled. "It's nice that you are using my language, but I prefer to practise my leafeater."
Dagara thought for a moment. "I prefer to practise my sharptooth. How about you speak leafeater and I speak sharptooth?"
"Deal," Unseen agreed with a bob of her head.
In the past, only leafeaters were welcome in Hidden Valley, but The Great Earthshake had driven predators from the collapsing canyons surrounding it. Now, the residents were forced to share living space with a unique kind of fast biter, the legendary 'hidden runners'. Gifted with an ability bordering invisibility, the hidden runners had terrorised those who entered and left the valley for countless years. Now, they were trapped with their prey. Dagara's dad had every intention of wiping them off the face of the Earth, but a battle between the leafeaters and the sharpteeth would have resulted in their mutual destruction. The hidden runner alpha, Silence, offered a truce: she'd observed an abundance of fish and creepy crawlers in the valley. Many of the crawlers were large and rather meddlesome. The hidden runners would serve as pest control. If not for her ability to speak leafeater, who knew what would have become of the valley? That didn't mean they'd set aside their differences. The hidden runners preferred to keep to The Grey Zone, the leafeaters to The Green. When the hidden runners entered The Green Zone to do their job, they were seldom seen, which was just the way most of the leafeaters liked it. Of course, if anyone went missing, the hidden runners were automatically placed under suspicion. If they couldn't find the missing leafeater within a few hours, there would be dire consequences. Yes, the two groups mixed, but seldom without some incentive. Dagara didn't need much motivation to mix. She thought the hidden runners were the coolest things in the world, and she liked Unseen. They probably qualified as friends, although Unseen's unpredictable daily movements made it hard to get in touch with her. Coupled with the fact that the hidden runner always seemed busy, Dagara hesitated to ask Unseen to hang out. Did adults even 'hang out'? By her standards, Dagara wasn't quite sure. If she could just get the younger ones to play with her, though ...
"I'm surprised your dad is still sleeping after the ruckus we made," Unseen noted.
Dagara looked at the threehorn, throbbing her agreement in sharptooth before explaining that he'd had a long day, training kids and rescuing one who got stuck in a landslide.
Unseen nodded. "So I've heard. Ordinarily, I would tell your dad in person, but I must move quickly. I will come back later. In the meantime you can give him the message when he wakes up."
"You can give me the message right now," Wartar grunted as he opened his eyes.
Unseen chirped in surprise. "Oh, good morning, Alpha! You will be happy to know that the hidden runner food shortage may no longer be a problem. We have found a new food source. That's the good news."
The threehorn yawned, not even bothering to get up. "And the bad news?"
"Our food source is a new kind of creepy crawler," Unseen explained. "They are big and aggressive."
"How big?" he asked.
"Two sizes. Some are," she glanced at Dagara, "almost two times bigger than your daughter. Others are slightly bigger than a hidden runner."
Wartar huffed. "That's not big."
"It is when they attack in numbers," Unseen went on. "We think that they lived underground until an earthshake disturbed their nest. That would explain why they are coming out of The Dark Zone caves, but it does not explain why they took so long to get here. Maybe it took time for them to find the valley. Anyway, we're fighting them right now. We are trying to keep them out of The Green Zone, but we don't know how many there are. We're sending most of our chicks into The Green Zone for safety, until we can figure out what we're dealing with."
Dagara perked up. Maybe this time the young hidden runners would be willing to play with her! Wartar wasn't quite as enthusiastic.
"Do what you must," he curtly replied. "And the crawlers, they eat meat?"
Unseen shook her head. "They seem only interested in green food, but like I said, they are very aggressive. Also greedy and territorial. They're eating what little green food they can find in The Grey Zone, while trying to push us out of our territory and spread into The Green Zone. No one has been hurt, but we are confused."
Wartar raised a half-disinterested eyebrow. "Why is that?"
Unseen clicked her sickle-shaped claw against a twig in thought. "They have been living underground, yet green food does not grow underground. What were they eating before coming here? If they came from the surface somewhere else, where would that 'somewhere else' be? The flying nibblers say there is no green food near the valley. Only what remains of the rocky maze that once surrounded it, and dry lands beyond that as far as the eye can see. It makes most sense that they came from underground, but not enough sense."
The threehorn gave a loud, annoyed sigh. Fast biters and their compulsive desire to understand their prey.
"It really doesn't matter," the threehorn grunted. "What matters is that you make sure they don't reach The Green Zone. Make yourselves useful for once."
The ordinarily level-headed Unseen usually fidgeted around Wartar. He was one of the few things that scared her, but nonetheless she was eager to please. However, when he said that, her body language changed for the briefest of moments. She stopped fidgeting, narrowed her eyes at him and stared at the ground with the slightest of sighs before seamlessly resuming her usual behaviour. No one noticed except Dagara. The sharpneck was beginning to learn that sharpteeth were more complex than they seemed. They had multiple layers of personality: the one they displayed, and the ones always watching in the background, ready to show themselves at a moment's notice. Unseen had approached the nest with no reason to expect conflict, but a part of her was always ready to hunt or be hunted. That way, she instantly responded the moment Dagara attacked. She was genuinely uncomfortable around Wartar, yet a more settled, sober side had shown through when he insulted her. That side was not afraid of him. It had shifted from slightly offended to disheartened. Dagara had no doubt that that side was capable of telling off Wartar without blinking. To a leafeater, these layers might have seemed deceptive, but it was simply the way sharpteeth were built ... or maybe it was just the hidden runners ... or just Unseen. Hard to tell. From what Dagara could discern, most hidden runners had some degree of multi-dimensional personality, but it was difficult to figure out how much it varied from individual to individual.
"The leafeaters should keep their eyes peeled in case some crawlers get past us," Unseen concluded.
Wartar nodded. "Make sure everyone knows about this."
"But Alpha, mother wants me to help with the fighting!" Unseen argued.
The threehorn stared at her as if the answer were the most painfully obvious thing in the world. "Then get the flying nibblers to spread the message. They're too small to fight, aren't they?"
"Oh, right," she fumbled, nearly tripping on her feet as she left. "Enjoy your day!"
"You too," the threehorn grunted.
The sharpneck stared after Unseen. She would have liked to see those big creepy crawlers.
"Dagara, stay out of The Grey Zone. Otherwise I'll have to babysit you," her dad warned.
She winced. From a threehorn parent, 'babysitting' was not what it sounded like.
Well, that's it for now. Visit "Because You're a Sharpneck (A War Before Time Oneshot)" for more.
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