New Worlds
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. I'm sorry that I didn't get to update last week, but as you can see I have a chapter ready for this week! We're getting closer to the end how are you guys enjoying Una growing up? As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week! (Hopefully)
Chapter 13 – The Eager Eights
Una was a disastrously bad raptor.
It was to the point that Rela was certain that her little hatchling would never be able to hunt on her own. But, since they had taken her on hunts now, they've established properly that she didn't like meat. At all.
It was abundantly clear that Una was not a carnivore. She was an herbivore like the ones they hunted.
As soon as that became clear Rela immediately began to regret ever letting Una spend so much time with that blasted Triceratops.
She wouldn't have been surprised if she had something to do with this.
But it wasn't just that Una didn't like the taste of meat, she couldn't bite through the scales, and she couldn't crunch through bones as it hurt her to try. It make matters worse she had been violently ill each and every time she had tried to eat with them.
Una wasn't just an herbivore, she was literally unable to be anything else.
But it wasn't just the aversion to meat that was the problem.
Una literally could not hunt.
She couldn't track her prey by smell, she couldn't hear them, she could follow tracks but without the sense of smell she couldn't tell what was fresh and what wasn't.
She was also a lot slower than the pack. Yes, she had gotten a lot faster, but she could not keep up with them, nor could she keep up with the herd when they were running.
Several times, Una had fallen and almost gotten trampled.
Though there were clear draw backs, Una was very quick to adapt and she was very good at setting traps.
Though Rela hated it, her hatchling was almost always bait.
She was the raptor that would stand out in the open, goading the cornered prey to attack them.
She was relatively good at diving out of the way when they charged, leading them straight into the trap. The prey would run head long into the other raptors waiting to swoop in for the kill.
The only problem was, sometimes, sometimes she was too slow to move, or the creature was quicker than anticipated.
And today, that had been the problem.
This particular stegosaur was old and already injured. If it wasn't them it would have been literally anything else.
Rela and the pack planned to take it the rest of the way down. To feast until something bigger showed up to claim the kill.
The rest of the pack had run it down. Ran it ragged, until it felt it couldn't run anymore so it got in a defensive position.
This was where Una came in.
She stepped out into view, made her raptor noises and then waited. The plan was the dive out of the way, confuse it, lead it to where the pack was waiting to move for the kill but it was faster than expected.
Instead of charging her like expected, it whirled around, spiked tail ready to descend going straight for where Una was diving away from.
The tail hit the ground right where Una had been and Rela actually let out a bray of fear, giving away her position. It turned it's beady eyes onto her, a new target in mind but all she could think of was her poor Una, impaled upon it's terrible tail.
Her pack changed tactics, coming at the stegosaur from a different angle and managed to take it down.
Normally, the first bite would be reserved for her, but she didn't care about that. She rushed around to where she last saw her hatchling and found her lying on the ground.
Blood was pouring from her arm, but other then that she seemed okay.
She was just lying there, hands over her eyes, curled into a ball. Rela had to nudge her to get her to look at her. Which she did, squinting up at her mother through her fingers.
"Is it down?"
"Yes," Rela said trying to mask the excitement and relief in her voice. "What about you? Hurt anywhere else?"
It looked as if only one spine had hit her, miraculously all others must have missed. How that was possible, Rela was unsure, but she sure was grateful.
But it definitely highlighted something.
Una really shouldn't been on hunts.
And if Rela got her way, this would be her hatchling's last one.
-JP-JP-JP-
Una had one scratch, well it was more like a gouge. Still one little injury and her mummy gets mad.
Honestly, raptors got hurt all the time, sooner or later Una was going to get hurt too, it was part of living in the jungle.
They walked together to the biped buildings to find more of the second skins to wrap around this injury as it was really bleeding a lot.
She could also tell that her mom was upset. She just wished she knew why.
Rela couldn't help but be concerned.
Her hatchling was proving herself more and more hazardous to the hunt, to herself. She was most definitely not a raptor in the hunting sense, and unless she found some kind of use for Una soon, the pack would be urging her to get rid of her.
And Rela didn't want to lose her hatchling. They had gone through so much, overcome many trials, she would hate to see it all be for nothing.
As they walked Una seemed to pick up on Rela's discomfort.
"My hair is too long," she said. "That's why I… I couldn't see…"
Rela bobbed her head. Of course it was the hair… not the fact that her hatchling hadn't been quick enough to get out of he way.
"And how do you plan to cut it?"
Una had bent down, digging through the contents of a biped hide-away she carried on her back. "Well… I'll have to find one of those… sharp things…"
Yes because Rela wanted to trust her hatchling with a sharp thing to cut her own hair.
"Well, we have some time to figure out what to do about that," Rela said. "I think we need to talk… about the hunts…"
Una turned on her mummy right away. No longer searching for second skins for her injury. Which was not good, as she was still bleeding a lot.
In response, Rela stooped down to lick away the rivers of blood cascading down her arm.
"I didn't do it on purpose mummy… I didn't know it was going to swing it's tail… and… and… I just…"
"I don't think it's wise to use you as bait anymore."
Una stared at her for a moment, lowered her eyes from her and then whispered: "But I'm not good at anything else."
That was true too. "Maybe you just catch fish for us? Hmm? Maybe that will be enough for now."
Except one fish barely fed a single raptor. Una would have to catch scores of fish to keep them fed so it wasn't like that was a long term viable option, but it would keep her busy for a while.
Una sat down on the floor with a sigh and then to Rela's horror she started to cry. "No, no, you're okay."
"No I'm not!" Una sobbed. "I'm not good at anything! And the pack's going to send me away!"
There had been no whisperings about that yet, there was no reason for Una to be aware of Rela's fears.
"Who told you that?"
"Roc did!"
Oh that idiot. Why would he talk to her about that?
"He said that if I don't learn to be a good raptor I won't be useful and the pack won't need me so I'll have to go away."
Rela crouched down beside her hatchling, nestling in close to her. "I won't let that happen," she whispered, butting her hatchling's head with her own. "You are special, and we will find your special purpose very soon."
She did her very best to sound as confident as she could, because they both knew that if they couldn't find a purpose for Una, one that directly benefited the pack, she would have to go.
-JP-JP-JP-
After that disastrous hunt, Una was told to hang back.
At first she could do whatever she wanted with that time. So she spent a lot of time exploring the biped nests with Roc.
But then they had that year's hatchlings. Or well, the eggs were laid. Then they wanted to use her as a babysitter.
The problem was she was bored. It was long, tedious, boring work to watch eggs all day alone in the nest. It wasn't like they did anything. She didn't have anyone to talk to, and it wasn't like she couldn't just sit there and count all day.
The number never changed.
She was bigger than Compies now, scarier than them too, which meant when they came to the nest she could scare them off.
They hadn't lost any egg since they put her in charge of egg guarding duty.
And while that made her proud it didn't change that she was bored.
So when the eggs hatched she was super excited because it meant that she'd have someone to talk to, she wouldn't be all alone in the nest. She would no longer be bored.
She also got to try out the new fishing trick. She'd spear the fish with the stegosaur barb she had gotten from the remains of that last hunt she had been on. Then she'd cut them up with the barb and then distribute the pieces amongst the hatchlings. She always made sure that everyone got a piece. The others in the pack were quick to remind her that feeing the ones that didn't get food wasn't the way of the jungle. If they weren't strong enough to get food from their siblings how would they survive in a pack? But Una didn't think it was fair that they would just let their own hatchlings die.
Everyone deserved a chance.
Even the weak ones could become strong predators if they were given a chance to, Una just wanted to give them that chance.
On yet another hunt day, the hatchlings were all milling around the nests, their eggshells all but trampled into little pieces. They were playing at hunting one another, and the weaker ones knew better than to stick around when they were doing that. The bigger ones weren't always the nicest to the smaller ones, and play hunting meant using the smaller ones as prey. This meant she had four or five smaller, thinner hatchlings crowding her and trying to climb into her lap.
"Fish Una!" they chattered at her while they others behind chanted: "Hunt, hunt, hunt."
Una reached for her pouch, pulling the sharp spine out of it.
"You stay here, I'll get fish for you."
She stood up and then stepped into the little stream. She was only in the stream for a little moment before she heard horrified shrieks.
She turned around right away to find that the smaller hatchlings were being ganged up on again.
"Hey! Hey! Stop that!" she cried rushing out of the water. Scattering them away from the smaller ones. "Do you want Fish or not?"
She got all the chirps of yes but she refused to move back to the water.
"If I'm going to get fish you all have to behave. No more fighting," she ordered.
Once she was certain that they'd leave the little ones alone she waded back into the water with her barb. She stood silently waiting for the fish to dart by and when they were close enough she'd spear them. Every fish she'd catch she toss to shore, with the order of leaving them until she was ready.
Five fish should be enough between them. Four for the larger ones, and one for the smaller ones to share. The biggest fish of course.
"Look… not mummys," the little ones were chirruping and Una stopped fishing and turned back to them.
"What?"
"They look like mummys, but they're not… they don't smell like mummys either."
With narrowed eyes Una waded out of the water again. She glanced to where the hatchlings were looking and saw what was another pack of Raptors.
On her mother's territory? The absolute audacity.
This wasn't good.
She dropped down low and scampered to her pouch and then back to the water's edge. She opened it up, threw the fish inside.
"Everyone in. Now!"
Usually the little ones weren't as cooperative but she had thrown the fish in first so they all scrambled to get into her pouch.
She got them all in and the pouch flap secured just as the other raptors made it to the nest.
Una slung the pouch over her back, stooped down for her barb and then took off, splashing through the creek while behind her the rival pack hissed and gave chase.
Una made it to the trees, scrambled up the largest and closest one, disappearing into the branches before the rival pack could catch her.
-JP-JP-JP-
Rela's pack was getting too strong.
That was the consensus.
The survival rate of her hatchlings were too high and her numbers were becoming larger and stronger than the other packs could handle.
Some of her hatchlings splintered off to make their own packs, but most stayed with her.
So when she heard the sound of another pack, braying threats around her own nest she was immediately worried. The plan had been to decimate this breeding season's hatchlings, but Una was alone with those hatchlings, so if they went for the hatchlings they'd go for Una too.
She had rushed back with the other mothers of the pack, leaving the others to protect the prey they had just taken down, to deal with the threat.
But the nest was empty.
No threat.
No Hatchlings.
No Una.
The scents were all strong though. The hatchlings and Una had been there recently, and so had the other pack.
But none were there now.
It didn't look like there had been any sort of skirmish. There was no blood in the air or on the ground. She couldn't hear the sound of distress or thrashing in the distance.
It was like they all just vanished.
Rela raised her head and let out a cry for Una. One long bark of her name. An insistent worried bark, the kind of bark she only needed to use once and her hatchling would either come back to her or respond.
She waited for the response.
Any sound.
Whether that be Una answering her call, or the sound of her coming towards them.
She got nothing.
She reared back and called again, worry really starting to plague her now. She should have never had to call more than once, Una knew that. If she wasn't answering something was wrong, she was hurt or dead or too far too hear. If it was the last one it wasn't that bad, but Una knew to stay where she could hear her mom, and she could hear her mom throughout her whole territory.
Luckily, that time she got a response.
"Mummy?"
That was Una. She sounded both close and far at the same time. Close in the sense that she was in the area, but she sounded super far away. How could she be both far and close at the same time?
"I'm coming mummy!"
Above them the branches creaked and right away Rela understood what her hatchling had done. She had climbed up into the trees.
She waited patiently until she could see Una again and then moved over to the tree she was climbing down.
"What happened?" Rela asked. "Why didn't you call for me?"
"I didn't want them to know what tree I was in," Una said as she got down to the ground. She straightened herself up.
She looked at all the faces of the mothers who were intently staring at her. Clearly wanting to know where the other hatchlings were.
"Are you alright? Where are the others?"
"I'm okay," she said pulling the pouch off of her back, she opened up the flap, put it down on the ground and all the hatchlings came spilling out, most wearing innards and covered in what had to be fish blood and scales.
Ah so she had lured them all in with food this time, smart.
"Everyone's all accounted for," she said as they rushed off to their mummies to retell the tale of Una and the other pack, even if it was rather boring.
They seemed to have enjoyed the adventure.
"You did good," Rela said to her little hatchling. "Very good."
Una smiled up to her mummy, butting her head into her shoulder as a sign of affection. Then she turned her eyes down to her pouch with a frown.
"It's going to take forever to get the fish guts out of this," Una said bitterly and Rela found herself chuffing in amusement at her little hatchling.
She'd help Una get the fish guts out of her pouch later, right now she was just glad that she had found her hatchling a purpose.
She was going to be the official hatchling minder from now on.