*DISCLAIMER: I'm only going to do this once, so this will apply to the whole story! I do not own any of the Characters of Jurassic Park, except for Una.*
Two Worlds
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello my old readers and maybe even some new readers. I have finally decided to get around to redoing this story. It still gets a lot of attention so I'm hoping the rewritten version will please some of the readers I have left and hopefully attract more. My old readers might have noticed that I deleted the other chapters, that is because I've redone them entirely and I didn't want anyone to read a head and get confused. Don't worry, this will be a short little fiction, there will be a few more chapters than before, simply because I was adding scenes some of the chapters grew to be too long, so I cut them in half. But with any luck it will read better. This Story will update every Tuesday and all the chapters are ready to post so you won't have to worry about having to wait for me to write the next update. So, don't forget to leave a review, I'd love to hear what you guys think of this new version and I will see you guys next week.
Prologue: Losses and Gains
Lightning flashed through the night sky, and amidst the crashing waves a little boat pitched back and forth struggling to stay upright.
The storm had snuck up on the tiny boat, a mere pleasure craft, forcing it closer and closer to Isla Sorna. This was an island the couple knew very well to stay clear of, having been warned of tales of monsters by the locals.
They knew it would be dangerous to wait out the storm on the actual island but they were hoping that weighing anchor by the shore would keep their boat from capsizing until it was safe to go back to the island where they were vacationing.
With their two-year-old daughter sleeping peacefully in her crib they took their little yacht as close to the shore as they deemed safe and then threw the anchor overboard. The plan was to hunker down below for the rest of the night but it wasn't until something bumped into the boat that they realized that even being close to the island was a dangerous place to be. By then it was too late.
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The storm wasn't just tossing around that little boat. Deeper into the jungle the winds shook the trees and the rain pelted down through the thick canopy and onto the creatures searching for shelter. One such set of creatures was a pack of Raptors. They were all hunkered down in their nest for the night, the expecting mothers hovering over their clutches to protect them from the elements.
Normally their nest would have been protected by the trees and their strong branches, but this storm was much worse than the ones they usually expected and thus their safe area became a hazard.
And the hatching was upon them. They could all feel their little ones moving in their shells and soon they would start pushing and cracking their way into the world. This particular mother had long since dreamed of her children. She imagined the great hunters her children would become, and how, one day, one of her daughters would grow to be the strongest in the pack, and inherit their mother's position as Alpha.
But happiness was not to be for this mother, and her dreams would be all for naught. The wind threw itself against the trees again and above her came the screaming crack of splintering wood. She had only time to stagger out of the way as the largest tree encircling and protecting their nest turned on them.
It came down with the wind, crashing to the ground, destroying all the clutches in its way. Raptors screamed their cries of anger and grief as the reality became clear. That tree had just taken out at least three separate clutches of raptors and now lay in the middle of their nest as the wind continued to howl and the females all brayed in grief and fear.
The only one that hadn't cried, and wouldn't cry, was the Alpha. But not for lack of grief. Had her clutch survived this would have been her first brood of hatchlings but as Alpha it would be unseemly for her to mourn the future young that were due to come into the world that morning.
And she wasn't the only one to lose their clutch to the downed tree.
She forced herself to move, to check on the grieving lower females in her pack, each butting their snouts against the tree, a combined effort to move the tree to see if any of their eggs had survived.
The Alpha barked at them. A curt order to stop. Rolling the tree endangered the other nests and it wouldn't be fair to the others to disturb it and flatten any other nests that might be in the way. They could try to move it once the eggs hatched and hatchlings could be moved.
The others back away as ordered and the ex-mother went back to her own nest. She did not bump her snout into the tree to see if any of her eggs were intact, she already knew they weren't, instead she just stared down that the cresting ridges of the nest she had lovingly and carefully constructed out of mud to keep them warm while they were off hunting. It was all flattened and smushed down, there would be nothing left for her there. No new young ones to greet, no children to lead into adulthood.
And not long after that tree was felled did the wind finally die down and the first of the hatchlings began to break their way out of their shells. And their Alpha found that she could not bear to watch it.
She barked a command to stay, to have one of the males watch the now bare opening, to have another scout out a safer place to move the nest, and then she left her pack.
A walk, she had told them, to ensure that the perimeter of their territory was still safe. But that was not where she went.
Away from her pack her grief quickly consumed her. She was once again lost to the dreams of what could have been. Unhappy that she seemed doomed to a childless existence. And in her daze she walked right out of their territory with no regard for her safety or returning to her pack any time soon. She merely wanted to walk away until the pain left her.
And then something stopped her. Something crying out, seemingly to her, from across the jungle. A distance away something was squawking. Not a sort of noise she was used to, but it sounded awfully hatchling like and to be in great distress.
Curiosity got the better of her and before she knew it, she was chasing the sound through the trees. She slowed as she neared the coast, only the largest of predators moved in that area. She set an uneasy clawed foot on the shifting sands assessing the wreckage in front of her.
It was one of those bipedal animal's creations, and it seemed to have been smashed into to pieces. She could smell the blood and judging by the sizable whole in the structure's side that had jagged imprints all over it, she would guess that the Spinosaurus had something to do with whatever had happened here. She could see some body parts lying around, looking to have belongs to the bipedal animals that seemed to happen upon the island every now and then, though none stayed for long and most were eaten. Her pack had had a few of them and they were quite tasty. Well the plump ones were anyways, if you could get past their layer of flavorless skin, and if you were fond of crunchy bones. However, their screams of terror and agony had amused her the one time she had caught her own. It wasn't like they went looking for them usually they just showed up.
She looked around, the Spinosaurus had to have been near by, it could have been in the waters, or his mate could be further down shore. Either way staying there was just not a good idea.
She sniffed at the air, wondering if her grieving mind had played tricks on her. That her own desires had her dreaming of lost little hatchlings that she could take in as her own. It was nothing but foolishness, and an Alpha was not allowed to be foolish.
So she turned, ready to move back into the jungle and back to the safety of her pack when it happened again. That squawking cry calling out to her from somewhere with in the wreckage.
Surely she could leave it there, let the laws of the jungle take it's course, but she wanted to see what it was.
Moving unsteadily on the sand she moved closer trying to find the sound, walking through the gapping whole she found more of the bipedal belongings. The flavorless second skin they often changed, strange objects of an undetermined function, the strange see through covering that was hard but easy enough to break through if you could hit it the right way, but would often leave tiny shards that would cut her feet. The cries continued, as she moved, louder now, more insistent.
She rooted through what was left, the smell of blood covering up anything else. But then she spotted it, a small bundle moving around under an extremely large layer of the tasteless skin. She gingerly moved it aside and assessed what was underneath.
A small bipedal child lay curled up, the tiny limbs waving about in the air, it's face scrunched up as it screamed. The Alpha was surprised, she had never seen a bipedal as a child before and she had never imagined they would be so ugly and bare.
For a while she just looked at it wondering just what she should do. The child had stopped crying now that it had spotted her and was looking back at her as intently as the Alpha was looking at it.
Hesitantly she dropped her muzzle closer to the little bipedal hatchling just to sniff at it. To get a better sense of it was hurt or sick or if it belonged to someone and was surprised to feel its small hands wrap around her muzzle tightly.
She jerked and the hatchling lifted off the floor. The hatchling's grip slipped and then suddenly fell back to the ground with a terrible smacking sound. For a second the hatchling was quiet as if surprised by this turn of events and then the crying started again, no longer a squawk but a terrible echoing shriek.
The Alpha was only startled for a few seconds. A noise like that was painful to hear, not just in loudness but in her heart. She moved back in making the soothing purr she had been ready to use on her young had they hatched and it worked. The little bipedal hatchling wrapped its little arms around her snout again and this time the Alpha didn't move.
As she continued to soothe the hatchling, the hatchling in turn made its own cooing noises back at her as its hands moved along the scales of her face, she made note of all the specifics of the child.
It had small but strong arms, and it seemed unable to walk on its own bipedal legs. Its bottom was covering in strange smelling and strange tasting white lump. It might have been a version of that tasteless skin that the bipeds were always wearing. It had no defenses. It didn't have teeth to bite, or claws to maim and its skin was soft. Too soft, too easy puncture with her teeth, easy to tear into accidentally, skin that would be ripped open by the jungle.
She settled herself down beside the child, cooing softly as the hatchling stroked her scales, every second growing more and more fond of the hatchling. Already she was thinking of bringing it home. But how would she carry it? Not in her mouth, her teeth would pierce its skin.
She finally reached a decision. She would find a large piece of the tasteless skin and wrap the hatchling up in it. That would keep it safe as she carried it through the jungle. She left her new hatchling's side only to search for what she needed and as she searched, she called out to it in soft little chirrups so it knew that she had not left it. It didn't know their language yet but she was certain she could teach her little hatchling all it would need to know to live with them.
She found herself the skin she was looking for and hen carefully dropped it to the ground beside her hatchling. When she had it as flat as she could she rolled her hatchling onto it and then went about folding it up until she had something that she could carry while the hatchling hung from the skin.
She tested the contraption a few times before she actually lifted the hatchling her whole height, just to be certain that it wouldn't fail and she'd drop her new hatchling once more. Once she was certain that it was safe, the Alpha left the Bipedal contraption and headed off of the beach and back into the jungle.
She was excited to show her pack their new hatchling. Yes, there would be push back, she would no doubt have to challenge them for this, but she was going to stand by her new hatchling. And as Alpha she was ready to take down all who opposed her.
As she made her way carefully through the jungle, her little hatchling cooed and babbled at her in its own language and she trilled and chirped back in her own. She told it all about its new life, and how she was only carrying it this way to keep it safe, she was sure it didn't understand but the sounds seemed to soothe it. However, she was only in the jungle for a few minutes when an earth-shattering roar interrupted the cooing and the hatchling started to screech in fear.
The Alpha came to a complete stand still. Camouflaging in the bushes would do nothing with a squalling hatchling in her mouth, the noise would bring the hunter to her. Calling for her pack would only lead to slaughter, so she listened and tried to establish where it was coming from.
Over the cries of her hatchlings she heard nothing, but she could feel the quickening vibrations of something large coming for her. She darted into the trees just as the Spinosaurus burst out of the thicket to her left. She didn't wait to see if it was chasing her, she took off knowing that she could out run it if she made it hard for it to keep track of her.
She weaved back and forth between the trees, listening to the crashing thuds of the Spinosaurus' foot falls and the crunching sound of the trees that fell as he chased after her. She continued weave until she was certain she lost the large predator but even going through water didn't keep him from following her trail.
Tired of the chase, the Alpha went through the water one last time, came across a Tyrannosaurus-Rex's fringe of territory and stopped.
She dropped her little bundle into the mud of the river and then put herself directly on top of her squabbling hatchling. Then she waited. She waited and watched as the Spinosaurus came into the clearing, watched its cold unfeeling eyes find her just on the edge of the rive, just in the Rex's territory. Normally it wouldn't care, normally it would have come for her, but maybe after eating those bipeds it wasn't hungry any more for after a long stare-off it simply turned it's back on her and walked away.
When she was certain it was gone, she picked up her bundle and carried on into her own territory. As soon as she crossed into her space the braying barks of her pack mates could be heard calling out to her and she changed directions to where they had set up their newest nest with the new hatchlings.
They had gotten a good bunch despite the tree taking out half their eggs. And as she set up her own little nest which she was going to line with more suitable items when she could, the others milled around her all interested in her bundle.
Her mate, who had fought for the right to mate with her, helped her flatten up the mud and then watched as she put her bundle into the new nest and revealed the bipedal hatchling to her pack.
While she stared at the little biped with adoration, her pack stared at it in confusion and mild horror.
"What is this?" Her mate asked moving in to assess the cooing hatchling. His snout pressed into its belly and its little hands came to grab him causing him to rear back as if the hatchling had hurt him. The motion startled the little hatchling and it's cries began to rise again.
It took some time but the Alpha managed to settle it and then she settled herself into a protective position beside her new hatchling and glared up at her mate and her pack.
"It's a hatchling," she said in response.
"No it's not. It's a biped. A hatchling biped!" he cried as if she hadn't known that when she brought it back.
"Are we going to eat it?" A pack mate asked.
"NO! We're going to keep it,"
Silence met her announcement and they all stared down at it and the little hatchling who was now sucking on of it's fingers. It's skin was bubbling up and the Alpha realized that it was getting cold, so she wrapped it up in the skin to keep it warm.
"We can't keep it, it's not our kind," her mate announced and the others barked in accordance.
The Alpha quickly got to her feet. "You all dare to challenge me?"
One of the pack, another female, one who had lost her clutch that night too approached in a lowered submissive stance. "That thing will not replace your clutch."
The words hurt her, and she struggles not to show it. It was the law of the jungle, it took away but it also gave, and while it had taken away her clutch last night it had given her this new hatchling and she didn't want to let go of it yet.
"I know that," the Alpha told them. "I've gotten it this far. If it proves to be too much trouble, we will leave it and let the jungle have it. But for now, it is mine and I expect all of you to act accordingly."
She waits for them to challenge, waits to see what they'll say, but for the most part the others move away and with them goes her mate. The fact that he refused to stand with her stings at her pride. He would not get a second chance at mating with her. Next mating season she would pick a new mate, a better more subservient mate.
But some of the pack stay with her, settling down by her new nest and her little hatchling, each taking turns putting their snouts to the hatchling and feeling its little hands against their scales.
There were two females who also lost their clutch and she can tell that they will be allies in this endeavour. She knew the others were expecting her to fail. They didn't think that it would make it through the night. And if she was honest, she wasn't so sure either. But the Alpha wasn't about to give up on her little hatchling. The one and only biped-raptor.