Hello there everybody! I get that it's been so long since the last release, and I honestly hate that (as of right now) this is something that gets updated every 6 months or so. I am sorry that it took me so long to write this and that I left you hanging for so long, but as I said, the classes during the fall semester were really hectic. Civil and Environmental Drafting and Design, along with College Algebra was really cramping my schedule and they were so mentally overwhelming. That semester ended in early December and I had a month long break until January. I want it to be known that I utilized my free time then to the fullest. My current semester isn't as hectic, and so I've had more free time. I will be honest with you; I've been playing Fallout 4 a lot. I haven't been doing it all the time though, as the rest was used for homework and writing this chapter. I hope that you understand.
My dad is also wanting me to get a paying job now.
I can't believe it's almost time for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to come out. I really loved and hated the trailers for it. I loved them because we got to see baby Blue and Owen bonding (I am DEFINITELY using that in my story) and because it, along with the Dinosaur Protection Group's website is giving me a ton of new ideas. "I want to show you the future." and talking about how Henry Wu has violated bio-ethical laws and been notably absent from the meetings in Congress. I have great plans for the Indoraptor and how that dino can be featured in my new story. As for what I hated about the trailers, dinos dying left and right. I know that they managed to save a lot of dinos (Blue and Rexy included), but it still pains me to see dinos getting burned, crushed, and drowned; as those are not quick and painless deaths. I also don't like the Indoraptor being sold like an inverted mercenary to corrupt buyers like politicians, but I have plans for that. They better not kill Blue, and they had better give Rexy a peaceful death if she doesn't make it to the third movie in this trilogy.
Anyways, on with what to expect with this chapter: it's entirely in Blue's POV, we learn just what exactly Blue was forced to experience during the fall of Jurassic World. you're going to need a lot of tissues.
There's also an nsfw scene in this chapter. ;p
Heh, you thought the last chapter was long.
For those of you just tuning in, remember how in the prologue I said that mild gore is to be expected in the JP/W franchise? For example Eddie being a "share" snack version, and Muldoon: "I think this was Gennaro", Ellie (standing several feet away): "I think this was too." Anyways, I said that I would only warn you if the gore got intense, like Nedry's death in the novels intense. To be clear, I haven't read the novels, but based on what I've heard about it… I can use my imagination. So yeah, there's quite a bit of intense gore and blood near the end of this chapter.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Jurassic Park/World movies/games, the music that I use in my stories, or the plot of the movies. All I own is the plot of my story and any OCs I feature in it (except the two shown in the next chapter and its preview at the end of this one). All credit for those except what I claimed ownership of (again, this plot and my OCs) goes to the proper agencies and companies. Please don't sue me, I am a humble writer who just wants to write entertaining stories here.
P.S. For those of you who have played the game, certain parts of this chapter may seem eerily familiar for you.
On with the chapter!
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[30 minutes ago]
[Blue's POV]
"I am such a monster. I am such a FUCKING MONSTER!" I sobbed as I leaned against the tree after I ran away from Kenny. "I did this to him. I-I-I hurt him! I hurt him!"
The scene of me hurting Kenny kept replaying over and over in my head. I couldn't stop it, the harder I tried, the more intense it became. I saw my arm reaching out before quickly swinging down, next came the blood. It started as a small red dot, then quickly grew into a three-inch long line. I don't know how deep it was, or if Kenny was bleeding out right now, all I knew was one thing: I had surely broken his heart.
"Why?" I continued sobbing. "Why would I do this?! I love him! We have gotten so close over this past week and I have had so many chances to just be with him, and I just fucking ruined it for good!"
It was about three years ago when Hoskins had tried to steal research from Owen, that I began to see Kenny as different from just any other human, and as a true friend that I could have if I put myself out there. Earlier that day, Owen had us run a problem-solving exercise that involved us finding and retrieving a large chunk of meat that was inside of a steel container. The problem was that it was on a small platform that was just out of our reach. We looked around for a few moments and tried to figure out a way to get to it when I got a really ingenious and surprising idea, and the surprising part was how we retrieved the meat compared to how Owen expected us to. There was a tree nearby which Owen expected us to try to climb, since there weren't any footholds on the walls for the game trail, however, Owen was completely shocked as to how we retrieved it. I had Charlie and Echo watch the game trail to make sure that nothing would try to interfere with our hunt; as Owen had set up surprises in the past to test our reaction speed and problem-solving abilities because not all of our hunts would be so routine. While they were on guard, I explained to Delta how I needed a bit of extra height to reach the meat, as there was nothing around for me to jump off of. I told Delta that I would need her to crouch down so that I could use her as a springboard. She wasn't too thrilled about the idea, since she was worried that I would dig my sickle claws into her spine. I promised her that I would do my best not to, and somehow just that managed to convince her. I got some distance from her before running in her direction, I yelled "now!" at her to have her prepare herself for my weight, and as soon as I had landed on her, she instantly jumped up at the same time that I did. With her assistance, I was able to use my claws to grab onto the ridge for the platform that the meat had been put on. I used my claws to dig into the wall to get some traction and to keep myself from falling while I grabbed the small cage with my teeth and threw it to the ground.
Owen praised and rewarded us generously for our teamwork and ingenuity. He told Barry about our success and unfortunately Hoskins was eavesdropping on them, and once he was able, he called someone and told him to get to our paddock as soon as possible. A little while later Owen left to write a report and came back with a few sheets of paper as he was always more a fan of the "old school" stuff and as soon as Owen came back with his report Hoskins started following him around everywhere like a fucking compy, waiting for him to set it down. Eventually he folded up the papers and hid them between two steel crates next to our staging area since Barry or Kenny weren't around. Hoskins and a friend of his grabbed the papers as soon as Owen had left and Hoskins had his friend start taking pictures of it. Luckily they were so distracted by our growling and trying to take pictures of all the pages, they didn't see Kenny coming up behind them. He was curious as to what they were doing, but when Hoskins said "Hurry! Hurry! Before Owen gets back!" Kenny knew that they were trying to hide something from Owen and that it revolved around the documents. He grabbed the man's phone and ran to the cliffside before throwing it into the ocean. Kenny managed to avoid getting grabbed by both of them and ran back into our staging area, making sure to instantly push a button and lock the door behind him.
Owen ran over immediately and a HUGE argument broke out. Kenny very nearly got in serious trouble due to this but was spared by me barking and pointing at a security camera in the corner of the area, which Owen luckily saw me doing. Hoskins had forgotten that there were cameras all around our paddock and that they recorded both video and sound, and then it was Hoskins who got in huge trouble. Owen was very grateful to Kenny for saving his research from being stolen, but I was even moreso. I felt deeply grateful and held such admiration for Kenny from this moment on, as Kenny knew that even though it was very wrong and probably illegal, he reacted instantly when he found out that our peace of mind and wellbeing were put in jeopardy. I knew from that point on that Kenny would always do whatever he could to keep us safe from danger, and that broke my heart now more than ever.
"He'll never be my mate now!" I realized. "He'll never forgive me and he'll never want to be with me!"
"[And tell me Blue, who would want to be with you?]" I heard a voice ask. "[God knows I wouldn't if I had a partner like you do, or shall I say did.]"
I felt my blood turn ice-cold. That deep, smooth multi-layered feminine voice; I'd know that voice anywhere. I quickly turned my head around and looked everywhere. I immediately got to my feet and frantically searched everywhere for wherever that voice was coming from. I absolutely freaked out when a giant white figure appeared right in front of me.
"[Boo.]" She spoke.
I shrieked in fear and fell onto my back before scrambling backwards and trying to process what I'm seeing in front of me, but I couldn't. I couldn't comprehend the huge, manipulative, nightmare-inducing monster in front of me. The monster that tricked me and my sisters into turning against my alpha and the humans that were aiding us; the monster that got Charlie, Delta, and Echo killed; the monster… that I helped kill.
"No…" I gasped.
"[Yes.]" Gwen replied.
"No…" I continued.
"[Are we going to do this all day?]" Gwen asked.
"Y-y-yo-you-you ca-can't b-b-b-be…" I stuttered in fear between quick breaths.
"[What? I can't be alive still? And tell me Blue: why would that be?]" She asked while kneeling down on her forearms and resting her chin on her right hand.
"B-because we kil-killed you!" I retorted while quickly getting to my feet.
"[Hmm… sure doesn't look like it.]" Gwen said as she looked over her body. "[And what's this 'we' you're talking about? Last I checked, Delta was cooked alive into a well-done steak, Echo was thrown to who knows where while crippled and bleeding out, and wittle Charlie was blown into a million wittle pieces. Ah, I can still smell her blood on you, and it smells good.]"
"SHUT UP!" I shouted at her. "Don't you even dare talk about them! You never cared at all about them! You only used us to kill those humans just to get revenge and as soon as they started shooting at us you just ran and left us to kill them! Once we had made it back to the Innovation Center you showed up and told us to kill someone who never fired a single shot at us, all while you were hiding!"
"[Hiding?! I was avenging Charlie's death!]" Gwen shouted back as she stood up fully. "[What were you doing?! Let me answer that for you: siding with those humans and betraying the trust that I put in you and your sisters! Look where it got you now!]"
"You won't do this to me… I won't let you." I stated before turning to run away and getting a sharp kick to my ribs.
"[You're not going anywhere, Blueberry.]" A deep, raspy voice growled. I looked up and shrieked in fear and grief at who kicked me.
Before me stood Charlie's mutilated corpse, her body having hardly any scales left on it, her muscles and organs being red and blackened. Her heart and lungs were visible, as was part of her skull where her left eye would be. Her other eye was cloudy, but I could clearly see that she was glaring at me with raw fury. Her entire body looked like it was decomposing. I couldn't handle seeing my baby sister like this, and so I released a completely broken sob while hyperventilating. Gwen was glaring at me, and Charlie kicked me so that I was facing Gwen again.
I started to lower my head and tail in submission under her overpowering gaze, I wasn't even able to make eye-contact with her and she did not hesitate to take advantage of this weakness.
"[While you were sleeping, you let Delta and Echo die slow, agonizing deaths; while you were just standing around, you let Charlie be blown up for being peaceful…]" Gwen loudly said to me before lifting my head up to meet her crimson-orange eyes. "[And while you were out here moping, you let me get him.]"
"What?" I gasped.
"[Get out here now, Alpha.]" Gwen ordered someone in the woods.
"I said no." A voice replied, causing Gwen to growl. I gasped when I realized who that voice belonged to.
"[GET OUT HERE NOW OR I'LL THROW BOTH YOU AND YOUR GIRLFRIEND OFF THIS CLIFF!]" Gwen roared.
"[And I'll slash you both up first!]" Charlie snarled with a hint of glee in her voice, before leering at me with a huge grin.
"Fine!" The voice shouted back. Out of the woods walked the one person who I prayed wasn't out there: Kenny. "Hey, Blue."
"Kenny! Get out of here now!" I yelled while trying to run towards him, but I was stopped by a large white hand that held me down.
"[Oh no you don't.]" Gwen stated while keeping pressure on me. "[Kenny, you remember the terms of our deal, right?]"
"Wha-What? Kenny, no!" I yelled. "She-she… you can't trust her!"
"Sorry, Blue sweetie, I don't have a choice." Kenny admitted. "She came to me and said that you wouldn't be killed if I laid down my life for you. I couldn't let you be killed. You've already gone through enough."
"I can't go through you dying, Kenny!" I pleaded. "I love you!"
"And I you, Blue. Which is why I'm doing this for you." Kenny said.
"[Hey! I know what we can do.]" Gwen said. "[How about we work out a compromise? Kenny, you want to keep Blue alive, and Blue, you don't want to lose Kenny. So how about this? Catch!]"
With that, Gwen grabbed Kenny and threw him towards the opening in the fence to the cliffside, and I screeched before bolting towards him as my mind went into overdrive.
"Wait a minute… I never saw Gwen or Kenny leave any tracks in the mud. What's more, I ran away from our home while Mom and Yumi were still with Kenny; he never mentioned what Gwen did to them, and he would never let Gwen hurt them." I thought as I continued to bolt towards Kenny. "And that's not Kenny, he would never let Gwen have the satisfaction of using his life against me. He would end his own life before he let her use it for her own pleasure… This isn't real."
My breath quickly hitched in my throat as I remembered trying to skid to a stop and grab the dirt and concrete only to fail; and then I saw my vision flash in front of me. Instead of me trying to grab Kenny as I was falling, he was falling towards me and was trying to reach me. I felt something wrap around my torso and between my legs before a sharp jerk and a massive slam made me cry out in pain brought me fully back to reality. My sides were filled with a massive stinging pain from slamming into the cliffside but when I saw exactly where we were I freaked out.
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" I repeated as I saw that I was dangling several dozen feet above the ground, a distance that would kill, if not cripple me for life if I fell.
"Oh fuck…!" I heard Kenny groan in a mix of pain and frustration.
"Kenny?! Wha-what are you doing?!" I demanded.
"I'm trying to hold onto my footing while keeping a 450 lb velociraptor from falling to her death, all with a dislocated left arm and a bleeding right arm." He answered. "That's what."
"Now you're going to die too." I cried. "I didn't want you to come after me."
"Well it's impossible not to when your loved one is hanging off a cliff." Kenny said before he looked up. "Cobalt, can you please pull us up?"
"Are you fucking crazy?" He yelled down. "You and I could barely hold Blue's weight. What makes you think these small arms can hold both of yours?"
"Ugh! Then go find Rexy and Yumi!" Kenny requested. "Yumi is an adult dilophosaurus, Rexy is self-explanatory. I'll try to climb up with Blue. Now go!"
"But-." Cobalt started to say.
"GO!" Kenny ordered, sending Cobalt away.
"Kenny how are you going to climb back up with how injured you are?" I frantically asked. "If you let me go then-"
"NO! I am not letting you fall!" Kenny yelled in my face, making me flinch. "I am going to get both of us up to the top of this cliff and in order to do that you are going to do exactly as I say, exactly as I say it. Do you understand me, Blue?"
Unable to come up with anything to say in response to his stern words, I could only submissively nod my head.
"Alright, Blue. I am going to hook my legs and my feet around your legs, that way I do not have to keep an arm dedicated to holding you and so that I will be able to climb." Kenny ordered. "You are going to hold onto my shoulders with your claws, you are going to keep your neck curled around my head, and you are going to keep your tail relaxed so that your weight is pulling me towards the cliffside as opposed to away from it, as if I was carrying you on my back. Do you understand?"
"Yes." I quietly answered.
"Then repeat to me what I just said." Kenny requested, catching me off guard.
"Uhh… yo-you're going to hook your arms around my-" I started.
"No. I am going to hook my legs and my feet around your legs." Kenny corrected. "Try again."
"Okay… you're going to hook your feet and your legs around mine; and then you're going to hold onto me with your-" I tried again.
"No, I told you that I am going to hook my feet and my legs around yours, specifically so that I would not have to dedicate an arm to holding you; that way I can get us up this cliff." Kenny explained. "Now repeat to me what I am going to do to you in order to get us back onto the road."
"You are going to hook your feet and legs around my own, so that way you can dedicate your arms to climbing." I said.
"Good." Kenny replied. "Now what are you going to do in order to hold on to me as I am climbing?"
"I am going to hold onto your shoulders with my claws and I am going to keep my neck curled around your head, as well as keeping my tail relaxed." I answered, while shivering due to the cold rain.
"Why?" Kenny questioned.
"Kenny, I'm cold." I pleaded. "Let's start climbing."
"You won't feel cold if you're dead." Kenny flatly said to me, making me freeze in shock that he would even talk to me like that. "Now tell me why you will hold onto my shoulders with your claws, why you will keep your neck curled around my head, and why you will keep your tail relaxed."
"So that my weight will pull you towards the cliff, instead of away from it; as it would if I were holding on to your back." I said.
"Now do it." Kenny ordered as he moved his legs around my own and hooked his feet to the other sides of them. "I am going to save your life."
I did exactly as he ordered and held onto him tightly as he started to climb using only his right arm. I heard him quietly groaning as I held onto his left shoulder and I noticed that it was starting to swell slightly. I relaxed my grip on his left shoulder slightly and he stopped climbing. I was about to ask him why when I saw him glaring at me with his green eyes. I saw that they looked like they were glowing slightly, almost as if they were shimmering with a very faint light. When I noticed that he was still glaring at me I realized that he was waiting for me to tighten my hold on his left shoulder and as soon as I did that, he started climbing again. I shivered after that, and it wasn't just because of the cold.
Kenny was taking in very deep, forceful breaths. I was about to ask him if he wanted to stop for a minute, but I didn't want him to start glaring at me again because that scared me somewhat, so I kept my mouth shut. I don't even know why I thought of asking if he wanted to take a break. I mean I knew that I was worried about him, I know that was why I thought about it; but I also knew that even if he did want to stop for a moment, that he wasn't going to. Kenny was in a state of mind that I had never seen him in before. He was completely focused on his mission, he was taking absolutely no fucks or objections, and he was exercising such authority and stalwartness. Kenny was no longer just an Alpha in title or in rank…
He is an Alpha, and he is exercising his will as an Alpha every. single. second.
Suddenly, something came flying over the edge of the cliff and almost hit us, but it clanged against the cliffside. Kenny and I looked down at it and saw that it was the hook attached to the winch of Kenny's jeep. Immediately Kenny stepped onto it and grabbed hold of the rope with his right hand. As soon as he did so the winch started to retract and in a few minutes, we were at the top of the cliff.
"Climb over." Kenny ordered, which I immediately obeyed.
As soon as I grabbed hold of the concrete wall and pulled myself over, I was immediately grabbed by two very powerful arms which pulled me a long distance away from the cliffside before I was nuzzled.
"{Oh, thank GOD!}" Mom cried while nuzzling me affectionately as Yumi and Cobalt helped Kenny over. "{I thought you were dead!}"
"Mom?!" I asked in confusion. "What-what are you doing here?"
"{Cobalt found us and told us what had happened.}" Mom answered. "{We were so worried that we wouldn't make it here in time!}"
"Thanks for throwing the rope to the winch over, it was a fucking pain-in-the-ass to climb up." Kenny thanked.
"We didn't." Cobalt said.
"What?" Kenny asked in confusion.
"{We didn't throw the rope to the winch over, when we got here it was already moving.}" Yumi revealed.
While Kenny was still standing around in confusion, I started to slowly step away. I hadn't gotten very far when Kenny turned to face me.
"Blue…" Kenny knowingly said. When I didn't stop stepping away his voice got louder. "Blue, don't…"
"I am so sorry, Kenny." I thought as I bolted away from him and ran in the direction of our home. "But it is exactly because you are an alpha that I don't deserve to be with you."
"GET BACK HERE!" Kenny shouted at me with a growl laced into his voice and I heard him chasing after me.
"Kenny, please stop!" I pleaded. "I don't deserve to be with you! You would never want to be with a monster like me. I am only holding you back! I let myself get captured by InGen; I almost caused Yumi to die because I wanted to walk instead of taking your jeep; and I let my own sisters die because Gwen tricked me into siding with her! You would never want to be with someone who is too weak to keep her own family alive. I'm just a fucking mons-AHH!"
I cried out when Kenny threw himself into the backs of my legs and in doing so, caused me to slam into the ground with him tumbling on top of me. I don't even know how he managed to catch up to me. I scrambled to get to my feet, but Kenny held me down by keeping a foot on my tail and the rest of his weight on my torso.
"Get off of me!" I yelled as I tried to get his left hand off my neck.
"Not until you tell me what happened on the day that I left!" Kenny demanded.
"No!" I countered and grabbed his left shoulder, which I remembered was swelling, causing him to cry out in pain which made him loosen his grip on me. This allowed me to get a paw under him and kick him off me, sending him at least four feet off of the ground. He groaned when he hit the ground and as soon as he did I was right on top of him with a foot on his chest and my other one on his right arm, knowing that he wouldn't want to swing with his left one.
"Leave me alone!" I shouted in his face. "That's all I need."
"That is the last thing that you need!" Kenny shouted back before he pulled his left leg up and kneeing the back of my right leg, immediately causing me to lose my balance and fall to the ground. As soon as I tried to get back up, Kenny slammed his body into me and knocked me onto my back. I figured that he was going to try and hold me to the ground again, and so I kicked my right leg out; unfortunately, he anticipated this and spun around it before he dropped himself and his weight onto me which made me cry out in pain again. My cry wasn't very loud considering that Kenny had his right arm pressing down hard on my throat, but my cry became much more pained when Kenny used his free arm to grab my right leg and pull it over his body; straining it due to the unnatural position.
"{STOP THIS RIGHT NOW KENNY!}" Mom furiously roared. "{GET OFF OF HER NOW!}"
"Not until she tells me what happened!" Kenny defied.
"{I TOLD YOU TO-}" Mom started to yell while charging towards him until Kenny did something that none of us expected him to.
"Don't you fucking move!" Kenny ordered with a growl in his voice, causing mom to freeze instantly at Kenny's overpowering voice. "I am ordering you all to stay out of this and to not interfere! This is between me and Blue! I will end this when she tells me what happened on December 27th of last year! Everything."
Taking advantage of the direction that Kenny's head was facing, I managed to lift mine up slightly and to spit into his eye. He grunted at this and immediately used his right arm to try to wipe his eye. In doing this, he took his arm off my neck which also released mine. Now having a limb that was free, I slashed at his neck and drew blood which made him fall off of me. I immediately got up and charged him to send him into the dirt; however, I was sent into a coughing fit for air when Kenny kicked his leg out and right into my throat. I fell forwards onto my claws while wheezing before I felt a sharp, stinging pain that ran all through my jaws when Kenny's foot slammed into my muzzle. This dazed my vision and slammed me headfirst into the mud. When my vision finally steadied it focused on a 2-inch long white object in the mud: one of my teeth. I didn't have much time to think about that because I felt Kenny straddling my upper chest and held my head so that I was looking into his eyes.
"Tell me Blue…" I heard him quietly plead, and I saw that he was vigorously crying. "Please…"
Finally breaking, I started bawling my eyes out and released a very pained sob as I finally mustered the will to tell him.
JLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJL
[December 27th, 2015- 8:40 am
Raptor Research Arena]
"Kenny come on!" I whined as I hurriedly nudged him towards our nesting area. "Faster, please!"
"Blue, I'm already running as fast as I can!" Kenny replied as I continued nudging him. "If you keep doing that then I'm going to trip, which will make you fall too, and then we'll both get to your nest even later!"
"Then hurry up!" I half-chirped/half-laughed. "We don't have much time left!"
"We don't have much time left for what?!" Kenny asked.
"I told you already!" I answered. "It's a surprise!"
"Well maybe if I knew what the surprise was then I would know that I need to get there even faster!" Kenny said.
"Do you even know what a surprise is?" I rhetorically asked.
"Ugh… fine." Kenny replied, moving slightly faster. "How close are we anyways?"
"It's just around the corner." I answered, and as soon as we got there, Delta started yelling at me like crazy.
"What the hell took you two so long?!" She yelled. "One of them already has a crack in it, and another has legs sticking out!"
"What?!" I asked as I hurried over.
"Blue, what is she talking about?" Kenny asked in confusion. "What has a crack in it, and why is there a blanket over your nest?"
"Kenny, I want to tell you the reason why I haven't been around much in the past month." I answered as I stuck my nose under the blanket and nudged the objects under it. "As soon as dad found out, he told everyone to keep it a secret from you until today. I never would have thought it to be possible- you being a human and all- but I wouldn't have it any other way…"
I pulled the blanket off of my nest to reveal… five bright white eggs.
"Blue… are those eggs… yours?" Kenny asked.
"No, Ken." I answered, the grin on my face growing even larger. "They're our eggs."
"What?" Kenny asked, completely dumbfounded.
"When dad found out, surprisingly he wasn't angry. He gave his full support and his blessing to us." I said, before a couple of eggs shaking caught my eye. "Come on over. They're hatching now!"
Kenny came over to my side while the rest of my pack gave us our space. I was happily watching the eggs shake and was making giddy chirps when a loud voice made me jump.
[8:50 am]
"HI, BLUE!" A voice shouted, causing my eyes to shoot open. "It's me Kenny!"
"Huh, what? What's… oh DAMMIT Kenny! You ASSHOLE!" I mentally yelled while giving him a pissed-off look. I knew that everyone else was giving him disapproving looks, but none of them were as sharp as the daggers that I was shooting at Kenny. Kenny looked at everyone else and realized what he did before he became sheepish, even moreso when he saw just how irritated I was. He started to kneel down in shame before he looked me in the eyes.
"I'm sorry, Blue." He apologized as Delta, Echo, and Charlie started to wake up. "I was just so happy to see you because I have a great surprise that I wanted to tell you. Still though, it… it was really wrong of me to just barge in here and rudely wake you up from your beauty sleep. I'm… I'm really sorry, Blue."
I still had my eyes narrowed in his direction but my irritated expression soon softened, albeit slowly. I lowered my head and stared off into the direction of the door to our pen.
"Kenny, I really hated that you did that to me, especially in the middle of that dream. However, I guess I can't stay mad at you. Maybe because of that dream, okay, mostly because of it." I thought to myself. "However, even if I wasn't having that dream, I still wouldn't be able to stay mad at you, not when you look at me like that with those wonderful, loving eyes…"
I shook myself out of my thoughts and looked up at him. He still had a slightly worried look on his face, probably assuming that I was still furious at him for waking me up, but that was replaced with a relieved look when I flashed him a small smile and waved at him in a way to let him know that it was alright.
"[Don't worry about it, Kenny.]" I called up to him. "[I forgive you.]"
"After all, if I catch you sleeping when I'm around... I'll be able to get you back." I thought as a smirk worked its way onto my face; I looked towards the ground next to me so that Kenny wouldn't see it.
"Really? You really mean that Blue?" Kenny asked me, I noticed that he sounded concerned, so I nodded my head twice to let him know that I meant every word of what I said.
"You understood what she said?" Barry asked in curiosity as he walked over to us along with our dad. "Completely?"
"Hah! I wish that he could." I happily thought to myself as Dad motioned for the rest of my sisters to get up. "Then we could grow even closer."
I honestly wanted Kenny to be able to understand me in some way, like if I could learn to speak English. So many times throughout the course of our friendship, we tried to have actual conversations, but they never lasted very long. It saddened me that while Kenny seemed to know what I was saying and acted like he could understand the words that I spoke, I knew that for the most part, he really couldn't. This was confirmed further by the next words that Kenny spoke.
"Not completely. I couldn't understand a word she was saying." Kenny answered as he looked into my eyes and I looked into his deep green ones. "But I understood the words behind them. You get that?"
"No." Barry replied after a pause.
"Come on you three! I let you sleep in for longer than usual today." Owen called to my sisters. "It's not my fault that you have been staying up late at night, especially you, Blue!"
I slightly cringed at that. I knew what dad was saying about me and my sisters was true, as we have been staying up much later than we usually have in the past. While Delta, Echo, and Charlie would stay up and talk about what happened earlier in the day, mostly about what we did that day and sometimes what Kenny did as well, I would almost always bring up Kenny. They would laugh at that, I would tell them to shut up, and they would go to sleep. I usually would stay up for one or two more hours and think about Kenny, even making little drawings of him in the mud with my claws before going to sleep and dreaming of him. While dad would usually not pay much attention to my drawings- being that he was used to them- he would definitely notice the tired look in my eyes and my frequent yawning in the past few weeks.
"Anyways, I understand the intent, the messages, the meanings behind their speech, their sounds. It's something that I've always been able to do. I don't know why or how, but in a way, I can understand their emotions. It's not just by looking into their beautiful eyes, I can tell you that." Kenny simply told my dad and his friend. "Did you get that?"
Kenny's words were really warming my heart and I couldn't help a cheerful grin from working its way onto my muzzle. I heard snickering coming from behind me and quietly growled in irritation as my sisters caught me looking at Kenny.
"[Hey Blue, you know people say it's rude to stare.]" Echo quipped. "[Although… I suppose an exception could be made for crushes.]"
"[Shut up, Echo.]" I replied. "[That's an order.]"
Echo and my other siblings just laughed at that, making deep chirping noises that sounded like wheezes. I was glad that they couldn't see my slight blush of embarrassment when they caught me staring at Kenny.
"I got that you think Blue's eyes are beautiful. Hey, Blue" I heard dad say, catching my attention. "Ken here thinks that your eyes are beautiful!"
"STOP THAT!" Kenny said loudly as he tried to cover dad's mouth as Barry held him back while he laughed, with us laughing as well. "I don't care if Blue hears that but what about the others? What about Hoskins?"
That made me start laughing slightly less. While I did enjoy seeing Kenny get teased by the people around here somewhat, I knew that any time Kenny was concerned about that piece of shit was a moment of real concern for us as well. Kenny didn't get concerned or worried over nothing.
The last time that Kenny got worried and suspicious was about a few weeks ago. A new handler was brought in to supposedly "watch and learn how we were fed." Kenny was convinced that he was a spy after he saw him sneaking around the outside of our paddock at night. Dad told Kenny that he was just being paranoid and that he was allowed here at night as was Kenny. Dad even reminded Kenny that he used to sneak into our paddock to see us before he was hired.
When Kenny told dad that he also saw the new guy looking into a secret part of his briefcase while sneaking around our paddock, dad sternly told Kenny to drop the subject and to leave the new guy alone; what's more, he warned him that if he caught Kenny harassing the new guy that there would be serious consequences for him. Kenny came to us a little while later in our nesting area and we noticed that he was very sad. When he noticed that we were concerned for him he started to tell us but soon stopped, saying that we wouldn't believe him either. I then lightly whacked him on the backside of his head with my tail, and he looked at me while asking me what I did that for and why I had a flat expression on my face. Me and my sisters told him to tell us and he realized what we were asking of him. Reluctantly he decided to tell us and once he did, we let him know that we believed and trusted him immediately by nuzzling him. He thanked us and wished that there was some way we could help him prove that the new guy was a mole.
We looked at each other with a mischievous smile and when Kenny saw that we were willing to help him he started brainstorming before coming up with an idea. He told us that if this new guy really was one of Thumper's moles, then that most likely means that he doesn't understand us as much as him. The next day when the spy came to us in the staging area for our paddock, we screeched while rattling our cages simultaneously, scaring the guy and making him drop his briefcase. The secret part fell out of the briefcase, and from it came four small syringes. Barry was on the scene immediately because Kenny had arranged for him to be there at that time. He removed the mole from the area and dad came over to us to see what had happened. When dad saw that the syringes were marked with our asset numbers he demanded an explanation. The mole insisted that he was only trying to get blood samples from us to run tests for diseases such as west nile virus and the flu; however, Barry questioned why he was trying to sneak blood samples for such an innocuous reason and the mole refused to answer him, he even tried to run but just ended up being tripped by Barry. Dad apologized to Kenny profusely for not trusting him and Kenny accepted his apology, still somewhat upset though. We were really thankful to Kenny for keeping us safe, and we showed our gratitude for him coming to us first when no one trusted him by bathing him in affectionate licks the next time he came into our paddock… with me giving most of them.
"Eh, you got a point the- Do you think Kenny's eyes are beautiful?" Dad asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts. I barely heard his question.
"Damn right I do." I thought as I nodded my head as I gave Kenny a small, happy smile. "I can't help but get lost in them every second of the day."
"Oh don't worry about it, Hoskins isn't even here." Dad simply told Kenny. "By the way, Blue thinks your eyes are beautiful too."
"Yeah, I got that." Kenny replied as he crossed his arms, making me quietly laugh at his reaction before he addressed me. "Thanks so much, Blue!"
I smiled happily at his compliment and couldn't help but stare into his deep, forest green eyes. They weren't just an ordinary green though, they looked a lot like the deep green that was the color of a lot of prehistoric ferns here on the island. I so dearly would have loved to stare into Kenny's eyes for the rest of my life, but my annoying siblings just had to ruin my focus.
"[Helloooooooooo?]" Charlie asked as she nudged my side. "[Blue? Come in Blue.]"
"[EH EH EH.]" Echo continued as she made a sound that resembled a dial tone. "[Eldest sister is lovestruck and unable to receive messages at this time. Please leave a message at the beep. BEEP.]"
"[Hello, Blue. Since you're lovestruck, and thus unable to respond, I wanted to leave you a message. It appears as though the temperature is rising in your muzzle and causing a red coloration to be revealed on the left and right sides of it, halfway between your eyes and your nose I'd say.]" Delta teased. "[Would you like a love doctor?]"
"[Oh my God… Please… stop.]" I begged while trying to cover the sides of my muzzle with my claws.
"[But sis, we're only concerned about you.]" Charlie replied as she nudged my side while accidentally whacking Echo forcefully in the neck with her tail.
"[Hey! Watch it, Charlie!]" Echo warned while snapping at her.
"[Sorry.]" Charlie whined before we heard a whistle above us and looked up. Our jaws dropped, and we started salivating at what we saw.
"Okay, you four! Before you begin your training, we have decided to give you some food! This is a courtesy treat to help get you ready." Kenny announced. I couldn't help but smile as my best friend was about to give us our food, and so did my sisters. "Perhaps I can give you some coffee too-"
"NO! NO! No coffee!" Dad quickly said, causing Echo to cringe.
The "coffee incident" as Dad loved to call it- despite being misinformed- happened relatively recently, last week in fact. It started when the new guy, Leon, showed up. Dad was showing him around our paddock, the training area where we were now, the different paths of our game trails, and our nests. This Leon, thought it was a good idea to bring an entire 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew on his tour. He set it on top of the rail to the walkway around our nest and as Dad was explaining to him that he was never supposed to touch our nests or else we would get pissed (which we really would), he accidentally knocked the bottle over the railing and it fell right into Delta's nest. Dad didn't hear it since Delta's nest is so soft, and Leon was too embarrassed to tell him, so they left without dad knowing. Along come us later after lunch, Delta believes that dad left her a treat in her nest, and I didn't see the harm in her drinking the entire bottle since dad lets us have human food as treats a lot. That was a massive mistake on my part.
Delta did not stand still for over two whole hours. Pretty much everybody tried their best to get Echo to stay still and to lay down, but she was too hyped up on all of the sugar and caffeine in the soda. No one could get her to fall asleep by putting needles in her, and she even ran into walls several times. I was really worried about her because I didn't know why the most mature member of our family was acting so crazy, but I still found it pretty funny.
Once Delta had finally burned through all of the energy in her body, she suddenly felt nauseous and was barely moving. Dad called her over to the cage doors and asked her what had happened, and even if she had been able to explain, she was too embarrassed and too nauseous to tell him. What happened next sealed the deal for everyone. Leon was standing right next to dad and guess what happened?
Delta threw up all over Leon's chest and waist, managing to get some on herself as well. Dad pushed Leon away for his own safety, that… and there was the fact that Leon had vomit all over him. Kenny, who was outside of the cage, recommended that Delta go and lay down. Dad agreed with him and told Delta to do just that after telling her to look him in the eyes so that she would be able to hear him better. Then she threw up on Echo and dad; and their mouths were open. Delta, Echo, and dad were screaming and cursing while trying to get the vomit off…
I could not breathe, I was laughing too hard.
Barry joked that she must have drank someone's coffee and left to get a hose to wipe the vomit off of everyone who was a victim of the evicted soda. Dad banned Delta from drinking coffee ever again and left after he got cleaned off, never knowing that Mountain Dew was the true cause of the shenanigans that day. Delta was so embarrassed that when she went back to her nest she buried the Mountain Dew bottle and didn't get up for the rest of the day.
"Eyes up, you four!" Kenny called to us, bringing me out of my thoughts as I raised my head like he requested. Kenny pulled out a piece of raw venison and raised it above his head. "Alright, Charlie! Here ya go!"
Charlie jumped up to catch the piece of meat when Kenny threw it down to her. I tensed up as well and prepared to catch it but immediately stopped. I instantly regretted my mistake and silently cursed when Charlie walked over to me.
"[Do you want this, Blue?]" She asked me with half of the meat sticking out of her mouth. "[You can have it.]"
"[Oh uhh… no, no thank you…]" I softly spoke while backing up slightly.
"[I mean it, Blue.]" Charlie continued as she offered me the meat again. "[You're my big sis, you should be the one to have this.]"
"[Charlie, please, you need it more than I do.]" I softly barked while shaking my head. "[I can see your ribs.]"
"[Are you sure?]" Charlie asked.
"[Yes.]" I answered, turning to face Kenny again as Charlie chewed on her food.
"Hey, Echo!" Kenny shouted, taking her attention off Charlie and towards Kenny as he tossed her meat. "You've been doing really great!"
"[Don't even think about it, Blue.]" Echo chirped at me as she jumped for her meat, to which I sheepishly smiled.
"Okay, Delta, here's your food!" Kenny said before he tossed it down to her. She leapt up to catch it and almost immediately after I saw her in the corner of my eye. My eyes widened in shock and I quickly jumped to the side to avoid her landing on me.
"[Delta! Watch it!]" I barked at her while nipping in her direction. "[You almost jumped right on top of me!]"
"[I'm so sorry, Blue!]" Delta frantically apologized. "[I didn't mean to do that!]"
"[No, please forgive me.]" I apologized, surprising her when I nuzzled the side of her head. "[I've just had a lot on my mind and I shouldn't have snapped at you like that.]"
"Alright, Blue! Here's yours." Kenny announced as he reared his arm back and tossed it to me. "You earned it."
I eagerly jumped up to catch the meat and did so with ease, snagging it in my jaws and landing on my paws. I bit into the meat and savored the tasty juices as I chewed it before gulping it down. As soon as I was finished I looked up at Kenny and licked my lips.
"[Thanks so much, sweetie.]" I chirped my thanks to him.
"You're welcome, darlin'." Kenny replied.
"He-he called me darlin'!" I thought to myself as I felt giddy and warm all over, however, I was pulled from my thoughts when dad gave us our orders.
"All right, you four!" Dad shouted, making us shake our heads and focused. "Your training exercise for this morning will test your kill zone hunting strategies."
Everyone around our paddock, especially us, were paying very close attention to our Alpha's orders. While we almost always referred to Owen as "dad"; as a gesture of respect and admiration to him, we always referred to him as "Alpha" on hunts and training exercises.
"Half an hour ago, a pig was released onto your game trail. Your mission is to chase down the pig and to lead it back here." Alpha instructed. "Extra side paths have been opened up that lead to doors too small for you to fit through. You must prevent the pig from going into those side paths and guide it back towards this location."
Suddenly, we were taken away from Alpha's instructions as we heard a familiar rumbling that made us growl with hatred. Approaching our home and trespassing on our territory was a large car with a blue stripe running along the side. Normally we wouldn't be seething with rage at such a sight since Kenny uses something similar to come to us, however we all knew what the 06 on the side meant. That a creature we absolutely despised was being carried inside of it. We would have loved to remind this terrible creature how much we hated him by growling at him, unfortunately, that chance was stolen from us by a sharp whistle from our Alpha.
"Hey! I wasn't finished talking to you four!" Alpha sternly said to us. "You cannot, I repeat CANNOT kill the pig or deliberately injure it while on the trail. If you do, then you will fail and you will receive no rewards. Are we clear?"
"[Yes, Alpha!]" I barked with my sisters doing the same.
Kenny nudged Barry in the shoulder and motioned towards the parking area with his head. When Barry looked over he looked upset and we understood why. He walked over to our Alpha and told him something, but we couldn't hear what it was.
"Ready?" Alpha questioned, raising his arm up with our heads following. "Go!"
Alpha shoved his arm in front of him and we immediately obeyed the order to start our hunt. I really wanted to stay behind so that I could find out what Barry said to our Alpha because I figured that it concerned us. However, I wasn't going to disobey my Alpha because then I wouldn't get any treats; that… and I really didn't want to be around the bastard once he came over to Alpha. We bolted towards the entrance to our game trail and immediately started passing commands and orders to each other.
"[Charlie, by my side.]" I ordered. "[I want you to get more experience by being in the front.]"
"[Okay!]" Charlie happily agreed, running up to my side and hitting Echo again in her face with her tail.
"[Charlie!]" Echo snapped in frustration.
"[Sorry!]" Charlie whined.
"Good luck, girls!" We heard Kenny shout to us from our staging area.
"[Thank you so much, swe- Kenny!]" I shouted back, almost slipping up and saying sweetie instead. I thought that I was able to catch my mistake in time, but I knew that I had failed when I heard snickering behind me. "[Delta, if I look back and you are still making that fucking snickering noise, I'm going to bite your tail again.]"
I instantly turned my head back to glare at her and to my satisfaction she was no longer snickering but was instead pretending to make small talk with Echo; however, I could still see a faint trace of a smile on their faces. I looked to my right and saw that Charlie also had a small smile on her face. She saw me glaring at her and instantly dropped her smile. I silently growled in frustration to myself at their teasing. I hated it when they teased me about my… "affection" for Kenny. It really annoyed me because I was still trying to avoid embarrassing myself in front of Kenny again.
The last time that I had embarrassed myself in front of him was a month ago. During that time, Kenny had been busy with something and while he could to visit us somewhat, he wasn't able to stay for very long which upset us. One day, Kenny was able to spend most of the entire day with us. Here comes the embarrassing part: I had been missing Kenny so much that when he first showed up at our staging area, I couldn't help but daydream and stare at him with half-lidded eyes. The whole time that I was doing that, I was making affectionate chirps and croons at him. I was doing much more than complimenting his looks and saying very sweet things to him; I was talking about how badly I wanted to sleep alone with him and cuddle with him while pressing my scales against his soft skin and licking him all over.
I had been doing that for over ten minutes.
I knew that Barry couldn't understand me, and Kenny seemed like he couldn't, but my sisters definitely did. Their bellows and shrill chirps of laughter were what finally snapped me out of my daydreams and only then did I realize that I was talking out loud. Barry was laughing and so was Kenny, but I believe that was because the scales around my muzzle had turned the reddest that they ever have in my life before now. I snapped at my sisters and ordered them to stop; however, since I was a stuttering mess, each time I ordered them to stop laughing at me and to shut up, they just kept laughing even harder. Very soon, I got tired of their laughing because it had gotten to the point where they were on the ground coughing and wheezing for breaths of air. I ran back to our nests and immediately bolted past them to a special cave that I had created farther back. I had constructed this private area out of sticks and foliage and used it as a sort of panic room or a place to just be by myself. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone knew where it was, including Barry.
He soon found me in it while I was growling and pouting, and he sat outside of it for nearly an hour trying to console me and to help me come out of it. He told me that everyone was wanting me to come back and that they were wondering why I had run off. I rolled my eyes and shuffled further into my personal cave and he helped me by saying that only my sisters could completely understand what I was saying, not even Kenny knew. He also said that my dad wasn't at the staging area when I had my embarrassing moment, so he didn't know why I had run off either. I was promised that while Barry had an idea as to what made me run off, that he wouldn't tell anyone. I smiled at that and came out and came out to grab his hand and shake it, patting his shoulder before we both walked off.
While I was very thankful for Barry's support back then, I still worried about what would happen if Alpha found out about my love for Kenny. Every time the thought entered my head, a million questions came with it. Would he be disgusted with me for deeply loving a human? Would he send me away? Would he send Kenny away and would I never see him again? These questions deeply worried me and every time I couldn't come up with an answer, I would become very anxious and afraid. Even more so because I didn't know how to express my feelings to my Alpha without revealing my love for Kenny. Alpha was still trying to get me and my sisters some males of our species for mates. About 3 years ago Echo stopped begging Alpha for a mate which I initially thought was weird but decided that perhaps she is willing to wait. Me on the other paw, I still don't know how to tell Alpha that I no longer wanted a male velociraptor for a mate; or how to answer him when he would ask why.
I shook my head to clear my mind and tried my best to focus on the hunt, despite the fact that the thought of Kenny kept coming into my mind.
"[Charlie, do you smell our prey yet?]" I asked. I knew exactly where the pig was, but I wanted to see if Charlie knew.
"[I don't know.]" Charlie answered. "[I think so.]"
"[Alright, then tell us where it is.]" I requested.
"[It's… this way?]" Charlie said while pointing to a path on the left. I could hear the uncertainty in her voice, and so I decided to test her self-confidence.
"[Are you asking me or telling me?]" I probed.
"[I guess… I'm asking you.]" Charlie admitted. "[I'm not too sure.]"
"[Well you're going to need to be able to make these decisions more quickly in the future. I'm not going to tell you if you're right if you're only guessing.]" I softly told her. "[Now tell me quickly why you think that our prey went on the left path.]"
"[Something just smells different about it.]" Charlie replied. "[I don't think that pigs can mask their scent, and the right path smells kind of normal.]"
"[So, the pig went down the left path?]" I questioned.
"[I thi- alright, I'm sure the pig went down the left path.]" Charlie answered with certainty in her voice. "[I remember what a pig smells like now, and that smell is on the left path.]"
"[Alright.]" I spoke. "[Everyone, left!]"
We all turned onto the left path a few feet before the split and now the scent of the pig was much stronger. I heard a chirp of relief from Charlie and turned to face her.
"[Well done, sis.]" I reassured. "[You used context clues and the facts that you had gathered from the immediate area from both your senses and your memory. You weren't sure at first, but when you thought more on it, you strongly believed that you had made the right choice. I'm proud of you.]"
"[Thank you so much, Blue.]" Charlie replied, I noticed that she was starting to tear up. "[You just earned yourself my next meal.]"
"[Charlie…]" I softly spoke with a small smile on my face. "[I'm not going to disappoint you, but I am going to put that gift of yours on hold until I can no longer see your ribs. Deal?]"
"[Deal.]" Charlie answered after a moment of thought. I then saw her lift her nose up and start sniffing deeply. "[Hey, you smell that? Wait… I smell the pig! We're almost on top of it!]"
"[There it is!]" Delta yelled.
I looked ahead and saw that the pig was right on the path in front of us. It was resting under the shade of a small bush until it saw us and with a loud squeal it took off running. I saw that it was trying to gain distance and that it was starting to do just that, so I sped up as well and gave orders to my sisters.
"[Delta!]" I called. "[You and I are in the front, we cut off the pig and keep it from evading us. Charlie and Echo, you fall back behind it and keep it from circling around and running off the trail.]"
"[But, Blue! I'm supposed to-]" Charlie started to say, however I regretfully had to cut her off.
"[Charlie, I'll explain later!]" I interrupted as Delta and Echo switched positions. "[Right now, do what I say.]"
"[Okay.]" Charlie replied with a bit of remorse in her voice.
Charlie and Delta switched positions so that the latter was on my right. As Charlie moved behind me she accidentally hit Echo in the face with her tail again and gasped. Echo gave an annoyed snarl but otherwise didn't react. Since me and Delta were faster than our other two sisters, we were able to speed in front of our prey and keep it behind us. Our prey started to panic even more and tried to run between us, but with Delta and myself giving an understanding look at each other, we read each other's minds and closed the gap between us. It was at that moment that the pig tried to move off to my left. I was confused for a moment before I looked ahead and saw a small tunnel was coming up ahead on the left side of the trail.
"[Echo! Don't let it escape!]" I ordered.
"[Got it!]" Echo agreed and sped forward.
I smiled because we were going to be keeping our prey from escaping onto a side path, however, that happy expression of mine turned to a slack-jawed one when I heard a very pained squeal coming from our prey. I turned my head around to look back and I saw that Echo had the pig grabbed very tightly between her claws and was about to take a bite into it as evidenced by the gleeful look in her eyes and her jaws parted to reveal her sharp teeth.
"[ECHO!]" I shouted before falling back and taking a sharp nip at her side. This almost made her drop the pig and she gave me a fierce glare.
"[AGH! What the fuck, Blue?!]" Echo yelled at me.
"[Put it down right now!]" I ordered.
"[I'm starving!]" Echo complained as we slowed to a stop.
"[We'll get food when we get back; but only if we don't kill or hurt that pig; which you're doing right now!]" I sternly told her. "[We won't get anything if you disobey him. Now put the pig down so that we can get back to Alpha!]"
"[But I'll still get this- AHH! FUCK!]" Echo started to say before another sharp nip from me silenced her. Echo gave me a pissed-off glare but when I returned it with my own she sighed before putting the pig down and kicking it harshly to get it running.
"[That's why I wanted you at the back, Charlie.]" I told her.
"[Up yours, Blue.]" Echo grumbled.
The rest of our hunt was relatively normal save for the fact that I now had to keep an eye on Echo to make sure that she didn't try to eat our prey again. Each time I would look back at her she would give me a glare, however since Echo was no longer trying to eat our prey, we were able to keep it between the four of us with ease, closing gaps as necessary and giving snaps of our teeth when the pig tried to move. In no time at all we approached the staging area for our paddock and I couldn't help but start to get giddy.
"[Alright, as soon as we enter the area up ahead, we surround the pig and then we can eat it.]" I announced. "[Got it?]"
"[Yes!]" I heard my sisters respond, Echo's being the most enthusiastic.
Unfortunately, t'was not meant to be.
"Hold!" A voice ordered and we all skidded to a stop as our Alpha gave a signal to stop, all while our prey escaped through a small door across from us.
"[Fuck…]" I grumbled as I clicked my sickle claws against the dirt in frustration.
"Hey!" Dad shouted to us as our hunt was over and tried to get our attention. I ignored him however as I frustrated for him keeping us from getting our prey. That... and I was trying to see if Kenny was still here. "Okay, eyes on me."
"Where is he?" I wondered as I looked through the bars to the outside of our paddock before spotting him. I grinned when I made eye-contact with him. I noticed that he winced when his sunglasses fell off but I didn't have time to think about why.
"Blue? Blue!" Dad called.
"[What?!]" I snapped, frustrated at having to look away from Kenny.
"Watch it!" He ordered while sternly pointing at me.
"[Don't fucking yell at her like that!]" Charlie snarled, defending me.
"Charlie, hey!" Dad yelled. "Don't give me that shit!"
"[Calm down, dad!]" Delta continued. "[She was just looking at Kenny!]"
"Delta!" Dad retorted. "Lock it up!"
Delta gave a huff of frustration at being told to shut up, and Echo gave a similar response despite visibly wanting to defend me.
"Good." Dad praised when we stopped yelling at him.
"[Whatever.]" I grumbled.
"And… we're moving!" Dad told us, holding his hand up to direct us around the center column in the middle of our staging area. As we moved around to the left, I heard Echo tell Charlie to 'fucking do that again' when she got whacked in the head again by Charlie's tail and had to resist laughing, as I knew that Echo would get annoyed at me. "Hold! Hey that's good. That is damn good."
Dad reached into a bucket and we all felt ourselves start to salivate in anticipation of what we knew we were about to get.
"Very good!" Dad praised. "See, Charlie, that's what you get!"
Charlie happily jumped up to catch her food and when she landed she quickly glanced at me. I gave her a knowing look and she understood as she chewed her meal.
"Echo! There you go! Delta!" Dad said as he tossed them their food, each of them catching them in the order that they were called.
Meanwhile I saw that Kenny had made his way to the walkways above us and was happily watching me while next to Barry on the outer edge. I smiled at him and started to drift off into space when I heard my name be called.
"Blue?" I heard dad say gently, and felt the sides of my muzzle warm slightly when I realized that I had been caught staring at Kenny. They warmed even more when I realized that Kenny was also watching me. I tried my best to cover it up by focusing very intently on dad. "This one's for you."
I waited until Dad had tossed my food and when he did, I elegantly caught it in my mouth before slowly chewing it and savoring the flavor. As soon as I swallowed it I realized that I didn't jump like I normally did. I felt kind of embarrassed when I realized that I was showing off for Kenny, and that I was doing it much more often than I used to. Thankfully, I was saved by the bell, courtesy of dad.
"Hold. Eyes up." Dad ordered, raising his hand up with our heads following the gesture. "Go!"
As soon as dad swung his arm down we ran off to relax in the open area next to where we currently were. I ran straight to a tree that was in the back and plopped down to relax and take a quick nap. Charlie and Echo meanwhile, went to lay down in the sun, next to the path that led to where our nests were. I was beginning to wonder where Delta was going when I heard grass and dirt being shuffled as she kneeled next to me.
"[Delta, if you are going to start talking about me and Kenny, then fuck off.]" I grumbled, trying to sleep.
"[Aww, and why would I do that?]" She happily chirped. "[You're the one who is acting like you want to fuck.]"
"[Oh my god, I hate you.]" I groaned.
"[No ya don't.]" She replied. "[So, let's talk about you and dear Kenny.]"
"[Delta, I said that I would bite your tail off if you kept teasing me about Kenny.]" I said, cracking an eye open to glare at her. "[Do not force me to make good on that.]"
"[Blue, why is this bothering you so much?]" Delta asked with a supporting voice as she laid down next to me . "[I have never seen you this defensive about something in my entire life. Why is talking about you and Kenny in a relationship so upsetting for you?]"
"[You wouldn't understand.]" I told her before turning away from her. "[Now please, leave.]"
"[No.]" Delta answered, causing me to lift my head up and look at her.
"[What did you just say to me?]" I sternly asked.
"[You know exactly what I said.]" Delta answered. "[I know that every time that something personal has been bothering you, you would always come to me for help; even after you had already talked to Kenny, Dad, or both of them. You have always trusted me to help you with these things.]"
"[This is different.]" I quietly said, breaking eye contact with her.
"[Different how?]" Delta wondered. "[What is so different about discussing you and Kenny that you don't trust me enough to talk about it?]"
"[It's not that I don't trust you Delta, it's just-]" I started to say.
"[Then talk.]" Delta said. "[If you really trust me, then prove it.]"
"WHAT?!" We heard a shout come from the area where we got back from our run.
"[Tell me after we find out what's going on.]" Delta sighed.
We jumped to our paws and quickly ran over to where we heard the voice shout. As soon as we got there, we looked around to see where it had come from, but we couldn't find anything. It sounded like Kenny, but I didn't see him anywhere. I started to panic and looked around the catwalks to try and find out where he was; any sign at all to reassure myself that Kenny hadn't been hurt or killed by whatever was threatening him while I was trying to sleep. I felt a tapping on my left shoulder and I jumped slightly but was relieved when I saw that it was Echo. She had a flat expression on her face and was pointing up with one of her claws. I stepped out from under the catwalk that I was under and saw Kenny standing directly above me while talking with Barry. I don't know how I didn't see him when I ran into this area.
"[He's fine, Blue.]" Echo stated.
"[Uhh, yeah. I-I can see that. I knew where he was all along.]" I said unconvincingly, as evidenced by Echo rolling her eyes.
"Owen!" I heard the creature that we all hated the most call out. "I was starting to think I hired the wrong guys, but, damn, you got them eating out of your palm."
"[This fucking piece of shit had better stop trespassing on our territory.]" I growled as he, Dad, and Kenny started talking.
"You came on a good day." Dad said. "It's not usually a happy ending."
Dad wasn't lying. At the end of most of our hunts, our handlers often attempted to take away our food in order to use it for the next run. We didn't like that. Since it was our catch and our prey, it was our food to eat, not theirs. Dad often told the handlers just that and did his best to convince them to release our food. Sometimes it was released; those were the good days. Other times… it wasn't. Our handlers would be grunting and cursing as they tried to pull our food back into wherever those small doors led, and they would get bloody noses from slamming into the metal walls when we pulled it back out. Then more humans would come out on the pathways above us, wearing what looked like some kind of armor for humans with "ACU" on their chests. They would point some kind of object at us to "calm us down" and dad would order them to stand down. Then he would laugh when we would throw bones at them, he cracked up when I managed to knock one of their teeth out. The time I did that, the human accidentally hit his friend with something, who immediately fell to the ground while twitching and jerking.
"Is that why you're not sending in your reports?" Dad's enemy asked.
"[Hey Thumper! Leave dad the fuck alone!]" I yelled up at him.
He acted like he was ignoring me, but I saw that his face had a look of irritation on it for a split-second. I grinned at this, knowing that I had gotten to him once again. We each had our own insult for him. Charlie simply called him "Fatty" for obvious reasons. Echo called him "Kryspy", a pun on Krispy, because it looked like he ate a lot of their donuts. Delta had a very hateful name for him: "Slow spurt." At first, I assumed that she called him this because he is shorter than dad, and that his weight would make him slow; but when I told her this after she called him that one time, she corrected me and told me that is how he's going to bleed out when she rips him apart. I was honestly a little surprised at that, but later I realized that it's understandable why she would feel that way.
When Thumper broke her foot and her muzzle a few months ago, Kenny was the only witness. Me, Echo, and Charlie believed her when she told me what happened, and we all curled around her while making danger calls for help. Delta was in such horrible pain as Kenny helped her walk and practically carried her to the holding area for our paddock where she was rushed off to get treated. We knew that Thumper was the one responsible, but it broke our hearts when we weren't able to communicate the truth to our father, and that Kenny wasn't able to get any hard proof at the time.
Kenny asked dad if he could visit Delta in the DMC once she was taken in, but dad wouldn't let him. He said that it was already enough trouble keeping Delta and us calm when he had her transported to the DMC; which was true considering that it took nearly ten minutes for her to get in one of those large metal boxes that would take her someplace safe. Dad also didn't want Delta to get scared by having Kenny be one of the people crowding around her when she was being treated and getting surgery; as she always has been a bit claustrophobic. We were curled around Delta protectively and thought that she would be safe with us, and it took dad a little while to convince and remind us that if Delta didn't get professional help in a clean place immediately, that her wounds would get much worse because I wouldn't let her get this help.
Even though Dad wouldn't let Kenny visit Delta in the DMC, he did let him help with keeping her calm and he allowed Kenny to help carry Delta into the truck, even letting him ride in the back with her once he saw how Delta held him close to her and wanted him to be with her. However, Kenny being Kenny, found a way to technically visit her in the DMC, and while he wasn't exactly clear when he told me, Echo, and Charlie about this (and only us); he did tell me that he was able to convince some people in there to let him watch Delta's foot be treated for "learning" or something. What was even better (according to Kenny) was that he could help Delta with physical therapy, something that Dad allowed him to do in our paddock. He could to this because… his own left foot was broken (fractured really). His foot had gotten caught in the doors to some "monorail" thing because they had messed up and closed when they weren't supposed to. His doctors said that his injuries should have been much worse considering the fact that the monorail started moving afterwards and harshly twisted his foot after it got caught on something outside before he was pulled inside, but the bones in the middle of his foot (where the fracture occurred) were much, much denser than the average person's. He even said that the bones in his feet weren't exactly flat, but instead formed a wide, upside down v, with the point being the middle of his feet. What's more, despite them being dense, they were also kind of flexible, allowing his feet to absorb the impacts from when he ran; this allowed him to reach very fast speeds. Kenny's bones being broken less than a week after Delta's… what are the odds?
Anyways, back to name calling. I called Thumper what I did because he looked so overweight that the ground was likely to thump whenever he walked. One time, dad told Thumper not to jump when he was on the island because he didn't want the volcano to become active again, and Kenny asked Owen not to joke like that for some reason. "Thumper" wasn't happy with being insulted, and if only he knew, or cared, when he was insulting us.
"Uh, what do you need, buddy?" Dad asked, making me growl. I knew that Dad was kidding when he said this, but it still made me upset that he would even use that word in jest against Thumper.
"A field test." Thumper told him, to which Kenny, Barry, and Dad turned around to ignore him.
"[What's a field test?]" Charlie asked.
"[I honestly don't know.]" I answered while keeping my eyes on Hoskins. "[But if he's suggesting it then it can't be good for us.]"
"Hey. I've just seen they can respond to commands." Thumper said. "We need to take the research and get it on its feet."
"What is he looking for?" I wondered. I hated it when Thumper was vague with what he said. While he wasn't exactly smart, he did know which cards to "play close to the chest" as Dad had put it one time.
"These are wild animals, Hoskins." Dad told him. "Trust me, you don't want them in the field."
"[Especially around you, Krispy!]" Echo yelled up at him
"I just saw a bond. A real bond, between man and beast." He said, and I sure hope he heard us growl when he referred to us as "beasts".
"What you just saw was respect, trust, and love." Kenny sternly told Thumper while looking him up and down. "All of which you clearly lack."
I laughed at what Kenny said, but my laugh quickly turned to a growl of warning when Thumper pointed at Kenny's chest in a threatening way.
"Now you listen here you little sh-" Thumper. started to threaten but dad was quick to swoop in.
"You're in our way." Dad quickly said.
I couldn't hear what Thumper said after that, but I did hear that it had something to do with the military. Dad had told us about the military before and while we didn't exactly understand it at the time (and still not very well now) he did make it a bit clearer to us by saying that it was like a velociraptor pack, but thousands of times larger than the average one and that there were multiple packs in a much larger one. He told us that he was transferred out of it and that he has been here ever since, but Thumper was taken out of it in a different way. We deeply respected those who chose to voluntarily fight in this makeshift "pack" but we hated that Thumper was trying to force us into it, not even as sentient beings. Dad told us that being in this pack was exceedingly dangerous, and many lives were lost each year. Even still, it sounded like a place where I could really help others and keep them safe.
"[Dad said that he was part of the Navy pack right?]" I whispered to Delta, so that I could hear Thumper.
"[Yeah, why?]"
"[Just wondering. Thanks for letting me know though.]"
"Look, nature gave us the most effective killing machines 75 million years ago." Thumper said as he continued to overstay his welcome. "And now we know that they can take orders."
"[Not from you, Slow Spurt!]" Delta screeched. "[You fucking sadist!]"
"We finally make significant progress and that bullshit is the first thing he says?" Barry asked with disbelief and contempt heavy in his voice. "Make a weapon?"
"[Yeah, of course it is.]" I told Barry.
"Shit. Come on, gents." Thumper said, getting upset and impatient as evidenced by the tone in his voice. "Drones can't search tunnels and caves. And they're hackable. The minute a real war breaks out, all that fancy tech is gonna go dark."
"Yeah, but that tech's not gonna eat them if they forget to feed it." Owen said as Kenny looked down at us. I subconsciously made an affectionate croon when he looked directly at me.
"[Get the fuck away from me then!]" I heard Echo shout while snapping at Charlie, shocking me.
"[Fine then!]" Charlie yelled with tears flowing down her face. "[See if I ever talk to you again!]"
"[What happened?]" Delta asked me, obviously concerned for Charlie.
"[I don't know.]" I quietly replied as I saw Echo quietly snarl while looking down the path and calling Charlie a clumsy idiot. I was about to demand answers from Echo when Thumper's voice drew my attention.
"These guys are going to run straight into the enemy's teeth and eat them, belt buckle and all." Thumper said. I growled when he called us males again and had to fight a smirk from coming onto my face when Hoskins mentioned a belt buckle.
"What if they decide they wanna be in control?" Barry inquired.
"Well, then we remind them who is. We terminate the rogues." Thumper replied, making my eyelids narrow and growl. "Promote only loyal bloodlines."
Barry scoffed at this and walked away while laughing. Meanwhile I was very audibly snarling in rage when Thumper basically said that he would kill us if we didn't cooperate with him and his sadistic demands. Dad whistled at Thumper and apparently heard me snarling because he looked down at me and winked in reassurance to calm me down, to let me know that he was handling it; only it didn't work. What Kenny said next caught me completely unprepared and it was what he said that made me stop seeing red.
"I cannot believe that you would honestly suggest that we send these dinosaurs into armed conflicts; all under the guise that it would 'save lives'. When in reality their lives would be ended very painfully." Kenny growled in his face, causing fear to flash over it for a second. I meanwhile was standing there with my jaw on the ground. I almost missed Dad noticing my expression because of what Kenny said next. "Loyalty, trust, and love are NOT genetic! You think that you can just destroy all that; murder the ones who stand up for their packs and their families, and still expect them to follow the huge piece of shit that you are?! You are so fucking stupid if you honestly believe that! Even moreso if you think we'll let you do that!"
The words that Kenny spoke had me crying tears of pure joy as he melted my heart and had me audibly purring in affection at him. I have never felt so warm all over in my entire life, and I especially have never felt so hot and wet between my legs before.
"Is he growling?" Hoskins asked.
"Yes he is you asshole." I thought with a content smile on my face.
"I don't know, and I don't care what he's doing." Dad answered. "You come here and you don't learn anything about these animals except what you want to know. You made them and now you think you own them."
"We do own them." Hoskins simply replied as he turned to face dad. There was no shame in his voice. "Extinct animals have no rights."
"They're not extinct anymore, Hoskins." Dad answered.
"Exactly. We're sitting on a goldmine." Hoskins said. "And Masrani is using it to stock a petting zoo."
"Petting zoo?!" Kenny retorted. "He's creating a nature reserve to educate people on them."
"He just wants to teach people some humility." Dad countered to Hoskins. "He doesn't make weapons. Unlike InGen, he's being honest about what he puts on the list."
"You think that the eighth richest man in the world is only into oil, telecom, and family fun parks?" Hoskins chuckled. "He's so diversified he doesn't even know what he owns."
"[Umm, Blue? Blue?]" Delta called to me. "[You do know that you're getting horny, again, right?" I can smell your pheromones. Family shouldn't be able to do that]."
"[Yeah…]" I sighed, still in a dream-like trance.
"[You do hear that clicker, right?]" Delta asked.
"[Uh huh…]" I said.
"[That means that we should go to dad.]" Echo continued. "[Now.]"
All of a sudden, a loud banging noise made me jump and I heard frantic squeaking. My eyes focused on a pink creature that was running back to where we came from our run earlier.
"Pig loose!" A man shouted. "Pig loose!"
"[Food.]" I whispered before bolting towards the pig and giving out orders. "[After it!]"
"[On it!]" Delta agreed as she ran to block our prey from running back out onto our game trail. "[Echo! Send it back to us!]"
"[Done!]" She said while forcing the pig to run around the center of the area. "[Gotcha!]"
Echo snagged the pig up in her teeth as soon as something was put around its neck. As she ran she grabbed the pig with her claws and bit into its throat, killing it. I heard screaming and looked at Delta to see if she knew where it was coming from when a voice alerted us to its location.
"LEON!" Kenny shouted.
"[There!]" I barked as Delta announced that there was a trespasser in our territory.
"[You want to go?!]" Delta snarled as this trespasser tried to crawl away from us.
"[How dare you jump in here and try to steal our food!]" I growled.
"[I said stop moving!]" Charlie growled more fiercely.
"OWEN, NO!" We heard Barry shout.
"We have to hurry. We can't let anyone else interfere" I quickly thought as we continued to surround our prey. "Echo needs to get over here and cut off the only escape this guy has left."
"No, no hold your fire!" Dad shouted as he ran between us and our meal.
"[Get out of the way!]" We all hissed at the same time after we turned to face him.
"Hold your fire. Do not fire." Dad ordered to the men surrounding us up above. He then held his hand flat out in front of him with his palm facing us. He was giving us an order to stand down and we really didn't want to let this meal get away. "Put twelve amps in these animals, they're never going to trust me again."
"Shit. He's getting away!" I frantically thought as Echo came over to the left side of Charlie. I gave her a look to let her know that I was irritated at how long she took; but I don't think she saw it. "Bit too late now, Echo. All they have to do is close the gate and we lose another meal."
"Blue, stand down. Stand down." Dad calmly ordered.
"[MOVE!]" I defiantly snarled with a snap of my teeth.
"Hey, hey! What the fuck did I just say?!" Dad yelled back, making my heart twist.
I really, really didn't want to get into another fight with my dad. Whenever we had conflicts in the past (which was more often than one would think), dad was quick to act. Most of the time he didn't even need to come into the paddock, instead he would simply stand on the paths above us and spray me with a hose or use a whistle that hurt my ears. Whenever that didn't work, he would simply call me over to the bars that were currently in front of me with a challenging whistle. He would then proceed to punch me forcefully in the throat or on top of my nose. Those weren't even the worst, as they weren't actual fights.
The first and (so far) only real fight that I had with my dad was a few years ago. Echo had been gone for almost a month and no one knew where she was, and so dad had stopped all of our training exercises as he and these ACU armored humans tried to track down where she was. Delta and Charlie were becoming very anxious, but nowhere near the levels that I was at. While they were hesitating with commands and took gentle coaxing to obey them, I was flat out refusing to listen to anyone, even them. I ordered them to help me find a way out of our paddock so that we could search for our missing sister, but Delta, being the calm and collected girl that she was, told me to stop panicking and to have faith in dad and his allies. My anxiety, being high as it usually was, took quick flight at that statement and I snapped at her with my teeth. I started screeching and ranting at her about how she wasn't even trying to find Echo and how she didn't even care about her. I knew that wasn't true, but with how anxious and irrational I was acting, I didn't listen to myself. Charlie tearfully pleaded with me to stop and tried to push me away from Delta, and I very nearly lashed out at her as well but, dad overheard us and ordered me to stand down, which he had to repeat countless times before I finally gave in when he threatened to not take me out to his nesting area for a year. Frustrated, I walked away from him and spat profanities at him, which I continued to do for several days anytime I saw him. He constantly kept his eye on me and how I was acting, not letting me out of his sight so that he could pull rank anytime I ordered Delta and Charlie to find a way to escape. During that time as well as before, I had been clawing at walls and digging holes everywhere which Delta and Charlie would often trip on. It wasn't until Charlie had sprained an ankle and a wrist by falling into one that dad decided enough was enough.
He came into our nesting area when I was hurting myself by trying to climb the rock walls that surrounded it. Delta and Charlie had been crying and begging me to stop causing myself injuries, but I continued to ignore them. I had become fed up with what I thought was everyone becoming complacent towards a missing velociraptor and decided to find my sister alone. Dad told his allies to hold their fire and to not shock me, that he would go in and handle it. To them, it seemed like that was the only other option, as I refused to listen to anyone and would not give up on my attempted escapes. I had badly sprained both of my ankles, knocked the wind out of my lungs, bruised and strained several muscles in my tail, chipped chunks off two of my claws, was bleeding from numerous cuts, and had landed on a rock which my right leg took the impact on (I didn't know it at the time, but I actually tore a ligament in my upper right leg that caused me to be hospitalized for weeks. I was lucky that it hadn't been severed). It was at that moment that dad entered our nesting area. He didn't even have to order or signal for my sisters to step aside, as soon as they saw him they immediately made plenty of room for him to pass by. He ordered me to stop and I immediately lunged at him with the intent to injure.
I didn't want to hurt him, I just wanted to find Echo, however with him constantly pulling rank over me, I immediately jumped to what I originally wanted to use only as a last resort. I only had authority over my sisters when dad wasn't around, so if I wanted them to help get me out of here, then I needed to injure dad just enough to get him away from our paddock. However, dad knew that I was barely standing and only hurting myself as I continued to defy everyone; so he knew that he had to end our fight quickly. I tried to snap at one of his arms with my teeth and hurt him that way, but he spun to the side and sent an elbow into my left eye; which added a black eye to my list of injuries. Too stubborn and prideful to back down, I lunged at him again and attempted to slash at him with my claws, and he tried to jump back so that I would land in front of him and not be able to reach him, but I also did the same which surprised him. While I did manage to score a scratch on his left forearm, when I attempted the same move again, he was ready and sent me into the dirt. He ducked under my forearms and sent a kick into my uninjured leg, and this made me cry out in pain and he took advantage of my hesitation by hooking a foot behind my left knee, causing me to stumble backwards. He followed up by jumping on top of my back and wrapping both of his arms tightly around my throat, so tight that his hands almost touched each other. He then leaned back and pulled me to the ground, putting his feet on top of my arms so that I couldn't scratch at his. I fiercely tried to get up, but I wasn't able to find any footing or leverage due to the position of my legs and the way that my body was being restrained. Dad responded by tightening his choke-hold on my neck, and it wasn't until my vision started to fade to black and my gasps for breath became shallow that dad released his hold on me.
As I was wheezing for air, dad stood over me and patted the sides of my muzzle to get my attention. He quietly said to me "Stand down" while pointing at me, even adding a "please" to his order. I stared at him with my scared eyes for almost a minute before lowering the side of my head to the ground in submission. I then proceeded to quietly weep in pain, grief, but most of all: shame. I had been so willing to harm the rest of my most precious pack, just to find one part of it. I had become so paranoid and distrustful of my own family that I refused to listen to their reason and faith in their ability to find Echo. I had been so caught up in wallowing in my own misery that I didn't notice my father and sisters had laid down right next to me for a couple of minutes. Dad was softly petting my head while whispering words of comfort to me; and Delta along with Charlie were doing the same but licking the cuts across my body as well. When I realized what they were doing, I started crying even more.
It was because of that event that I never wanted to fight my own father again. He was very experienced in an unfamiliar combat style than I had none in: Krav Maga. What's more, while I was sure that I could at the very least hold my own in a fight against him now, I did not want to cause my family any more grief. Luckily my sisters were on my side this time and we were cooking up a plan to get into that waiting area. I quickly glanced at Delta and she caught this and started to move forwards; unfortunately, dad saw this.
"Delta, I see you." Dad said.
"[Dad…]" Delta growled in a warning to him.
"Back up!" Dad commanded.
"Okay. Good, good." Dad praised before I saw him glance out of the corner of his eye. "Charlie? Charlie! Stay right there. Good."
"Shit. He saw her." I realized. That had actually been our plan to catch this human. Delta would move forwards and distract dad while Charlie would sneak past him and cripple our prey. Reluctantly I decided not to make any farther moves against dad and so did Delta and Charlie. I noticed that Echo hadn't tried to get past dad yet considering that she was the closest to the door. I was confused at this, but all of my thoughts went out of my head when dad spoke.
"Close the gate." Dad requested.
"What?!" Kenny shouted in shock.
"Are you crazy?!" Barry asked.
"Yes, he is. Don't you do it dad." I mentally said. "Don't you fucking do it."
"Hey. Just trust me." Dad calmly said, not taking his eyes off us.
"Close the gate!" Our prey begged.
"Merde." Barry sighed before running to the wall and hitting a button which made a buzzing sound.
We all knew that sound. That was the sound of the door closing; the sound of our meal escaping. Dad stayed inside of our paddock for a couple of seconds before suddenly turning away from us and rolling into the waiting area. I was giving orders the exact instant his foot turned.
"[MOVE! NOW!]" I ordered as we all charged for the gate opening.
"[OW! FUCK-FUCKING SHIT!]" We all spat over each other's profanities at the sharp stinging pain in our jaws.
"[One of my teeth is loose!]" Delta whined.
"[A tooth?!]" Echo snarled. "[I think my entire bottom jaw is loose again!]"
"[Fuck your tooth and your jaw!]" I snarled back. "[Go to our nests! We'll deal with this later!]"
I immediately went to a tree to my left and started to dig into the ground for something that I needed to use to get revenge on dad. I had hidden it here very early this morning so that dad wouldn't be able to get it back, which he had been trying to do for three years now. As soon as I had found it, I was back over at the wall separating me and dad.
"Hey. Don't ever turn your back to the cage." Dad told our escaped meal.
"[I'll get you.]" Echo growled as our prey looked back at her. "[You fucking thief.]"
"[Go.]" I told her, more calmly this time.
"[Alright.]" She agreed before walking away. I turned to dad and saw that he was doing the same. All it took was a few metallic clinks to make him freeze in his tracks.
"['Never turn your back to the cage.' Tell me, Dad. Care to explain to this meal the real reason why you make sure to tell everyone that?]" I asked.
"Blue, I swear to god on his holy throne. If that noise is you ratting my belt buckle against the metal walls; I am not going to take you out to my home for a month." Dad warned.
"[I can wait.]" I simply said as I kept rattling his belt buckle against the cage walls.
Three years ago, dad had made the biggest mistake of his life: he took away my Rice Krispies treats. I was insanely possessive of them, and so were my sisters, but nowhere close to the extent that I was. When dad told me that enough was enough and refused to give me any more, I got upset. So, while he had his back turned to the cage walls, I reached between them and quickly took them out of his pocket, all without him noticing. There was a reason the name of our species name meant "swift thief". When he heard me chewing on it, he refused to give me and my sisters any Rice Krispies or food rewards for two weeks. My sisters were undeniably pissed at me, but I had a plan to get revenge. One day, I acted upset and refused to talk or interact with anyone, but that wasn't enough to get dad close to me. He knew that I was just moody, so I had to step up my game, one that took immense amounts of patience. I started acting sluggish, drowsy, sick, and it wasn't enough to convince my dad until I secretly forced myself to vomit. I hated having to do it, but it would soon be worth it. Dad came into the area of our paddock where I currently was, and he was very worried about my health. That's when I made my move. I suddenly started acting very healthy when I jumped up and lunged at him. He was shocked but couldn't react quick enough. When I lunged at him, I set my sights straight on his belt buckle and was able to instantly rip it off between my teeth. I quickly got away from him right as the hide around his legs fell down while everyone was watching.
Dad has always worn something under them since.
Dad started grumbling in frustration and embarrassment as we heard laughter coming from the other caretakers around the area, many of whom were present that day (save for Thumper). They all knew why I would pull out the belt buckle from time-to-time; it was because I was pissed at him. Whenever dad would cut back on our treats, give us a bath by spraying water on us when we didn't want him to, or when he would skip out on our runs (which really pissed me and my sisters off). Often, I would pull it out just to make Kenny laugh since he was there at the time when I took it off dad. Kenny's laugh sounded so childish and I loved it.
"Blue. I am going to tell you this only once." Dad said. "Go back to your nest. Right. Fucking. Now."
"[Hmmm…]" I muttered while I kept clinking the belt buckle against the metal. "[Okay.]"
I then started to head in the direction of my nest but did it slowly so that I could tap the belt buckle against each of the metal bars, each ring filling the silence in the air like a drop of water hitting a puddle. When dad made a move to grab the belt buckle I quickly yanked it away from him, giving him a wide grin and a wink before I ran back to our nests. When I got there, I saw Delta standing next to Echo while giving her a fierce glare.
"[What's going on?]" I asked as I tossed the buckle into my nest.
"[Ask her.]" Delta simply stated.
I looked down at Echo and saw that she was avoiding eye contact with us and kept on looking at the ground. She seemed to be upset about something and also sad, however when I saw what she would frequently glance at, I was even more upset. Echo gave a very pained yelp when I swung a foot between her legs and knocked her onto her side.
"[WHY THE FUCK IS CHARLIE BLEEDING?!]" I demanded as I had a killing claw pressed against her side. "[I know that isn't from when she slammed into the fence, so don't you fucking dare lie to me!]"
Charlie had blood running down her olive-green scales from a few small openings on her side, a little bit before her hind legs. I knew that this was Echo's doing and I knew when she did it. What I didn't know was why. I had demanded an explanation from Echo and I wasn't getting one, so I pressed my killing claw harder against her side. I wasn't going to kill her, or cripple her, however if she continued to defy my order, then I would make her hurt... a lot.
"[You have one second to give me an answer, Echo.]" I warned. "[On-]"
"[I bit her.]" Echo answered.
"[Why?]" I growled as I leaned over her neck.
"[Beca-]" She started to reply before I stopped her.
"[Ah, ah, ah.]" I spoke. "[Eyes up here.]"
"[I bit her because I got so fucking tired of Charlie whacking me in my neck and face with her fucking tail.]" Echo told me.
"[So, your response was to attack her and make her bleed?]" I growled.
"[How else would you-]" Echo started to complain before I pushed her head into the dirt with my other foot, while drawing blood with the one on her side.
"[This isn't about me.]" I said. "[Why did you feel that attacking your youngest sister was justifiable for her accidentally hitting you with her tail?]"
"[Sis, please stop!]" Charlie begged. "[I deserved it for hitting her eye since I have trouble controlling my tail.]"
"[You didn't deserve this, especially if it was an accident.]" I sternly told her before directing my gaze back at Echo.
"[Stop this! Please, Blue!]" Charlie pleaded again, starting to form tears now. "[I hate it when you two fight! You do it so much and it always ends up with one or both of you getting hurt. I've already forgiven Echo, can't you?]"
"[Has she asked you to forgive her?]" I questioned.
"[If I say yes, will you let her get up?]" Charlie wondered.
"[Charlie…]" I probed.
"[No, she hasn't.]" Charlie answered.
"[Then no, I won't let her up.]" I replied. "[Not until she asks you to forgive her for snapping at you and making you bleed. With the utmost sincerity.]"
"[Charlie, girl. Can-can you please forgive me f-f-for getting so pissed at you and for snapping my teeth into your body?]" Echo pleaded, honestly starting to cry in shame at her actions. "[I-I never meant to h-hurt you and make you bleed and I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry for hurting you. Please forgive me. Pretty, pretty, pretty please?]"
"[I accept your apology, Echo.]" Charlie said as she walked over to us and licked the top of Echo's muzzle to signify it.
"[I'll even put three Rice Krispie treats on it.]" Echo added, now smiling. I took my paw off her side and let her get up.
"[And now I will eat your apology.]" Charlie said, causing the two of them to laugh. Delta and I even chuckled a little.
"[Well, I'm going to go pl-pl-pl-pluuunge into the water and get a bath.]" I announced, stumbling over the words that I was originally going to say while I hid dad's belt buckle under my nest.
"[What?]" Delta asked.
"[Uh, get a bath. You know, clean myself up.]" I said, shuffling my paws. "[Delta, I want you to stay here and watch over Echo and Charlie. I want you and Echo to show Charlie how to keep her tail under her control. Okay?]"
"[Ooookay?]" Delta agreed. I hated that tone in her voice, she knew something was up.
"[Alright, Delta, don't follow me, and don't let these two out of your sight.]" I ordered before bolting away from them.
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I sighed and panted for breath once I arrived at my destination. It was a small lake, but large enough for me and my sisters to swim around in with plenty of room. The water here was really cool and just so nice and wonderful to dip my body in the water, it wasn't too warm that it got uncomfortable, but it wasn't chilly either, and was perfect for a nice hot day. Oftentimes I would also stand on some smooth rocks that formed a path right under a waterfall that fed this place with water thanks to a river to the north. However, what I really loved the most about this place was how secluded it was. It was located in a little clearing that was about fifteen minutes when walking from our nests and it was heavily wooded with plenty of bushes on the ground at the tree line. Whenever me or my sisters would bathe here or just relax, we had the utmost of privacy here because we would often hear anyone coming before we even saw them. That's why it was so perfect for this moment.
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WARNING!
NSFW CONTENT STARTS HERE! IF YOU ARE NOT AT LEAST AT THE LEGAL AGE TO VIEW THIS CONTENT, OR YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE BLUE MASTURBATING, THEN SKIP TO THE NEXT ROW OF BOLD LINES
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I can't believe that I almost revealed the real reason as to why I was coming out to this place. It wasn't just to get a bath, sure I would do that so that way I wouldn't be lying, but I had really come out here so that I could play with myself. My small, personal cave was nice for when I would play with myself, but I loved doing it here because the warm water made me feel so much pleasure, add that to the fact that I loved hearing the chirps of the birds in the woods around me (even though I would scare them away with my high-pitched shrieks when I came). I walked into the warm water and sat down on my haunches before shifting my legs so that I could lay down on my back. I fully immersed myself up to my head and sighed in pleasure as the water coated my scales.
This was so peaceful. The wind rustling the leaves on the trees, the birds singing, the water lapping against the shore, and it was so peaceful I felt myself start to nod off, but I shook my body to keep myself from falling asleep and remembered why I came here. Lifting my head up to make sure that my sisters, or anyone else hadn't followed me, I found nothing. I lowered my head back against the wet dirt and refused to deny myself these feelings any longer. I gently ran a claw down the scales on my chest, shivering in pleasure as my claws tingled against me. My breathing hitched in my throat for a second as my claws raked against the more sensitive scales on my lower stomach. I had always been more sensitive to touch down there, it's where dad always tickled me; however when I touched myself there, it got me even more wet.
I didn't even realize that I had actually been holding my breath until I sank the middle digit on my claws into my cloaca and passed it through my upper set of lips. My breath escaped my lungs as a very content sigh as I sunk that digit as deep as it could go while my outer digits held my cloaca open. I quietly began to give small gasps and moans as I slowly moved my middle claw in and out of my tunnel. I did this for a few minutes, all while leaking juices into the water that coated my body. I quickly sped up my thrusting, however I soon decided that I needed more than that and curled my body up in order to reach down with my other arm. I used that arm to hold my cloaca open and pressed the three digits on my other claw into me, and this brought forth a louder moan from my mouth and I was immediately thrusting into my body with renewed vigor.
In all honesty, I loved doing this, I loved masturbating. I never got any sexual pleasure when growing up aside from my own claws and tongue. I chuckled between moans at the irony. I was an adult now and for years I had begged my dad for a male of my species, even another one if it had to be that way, but now, here I was thrusting my own claw into my cloaca while imagining that Kenny was the one doing it. In my mind, I wasn't the one pleasuring myself, but it was Kenny, happily curling his hand up into a fist and sending it as deep as it could go into my body. Before long, I had my tunnel contracting in pleasurable waves that ran from my opening into the very core of my body. I was left gasping in pleasure as the back of my head pressed tightly against the ground as quick breaths of air left my nostrils.
I couldn't take the wait any longer and took my claws out of my cloaca before swimming to the bottom of the lake. I frantically dug through the soft sand on the bottom of the lake and found some rocks before lifting them up and taking out the object of my desires: an empty bottle of whiskey. I swam up to the surface, taking in a deep breath and I quickly climbed onto the rock path and let the warm water from the waterfall run down my body for a second. I set the water bottle down and laid down under the waterfall, positioning my body so that most of the running water went directly onto my cloaca. The warm water falling onto (and into) my most sensitive area brought forth a very loud moan that scared birds out of their nests. That wasn't enough for me however, and soon I had my right leg lifted up so that I could reach down to my cloaca with an arm and hold it open, all while I was shooting my tongue in and out of it at rapid speed.
This whole time, I was actually imagining that Kenny was the one eating me out, and that I was begging for him to keep going. I thought that he was using his fingers to touch me all around the skin that was just inside of my outer set of lips. He kept wiggling his fingers around as he shot his tongue inside of me and reached places that I never thought he would be able to. He focused his attention on a pronounced nub that was located in my upper tunnel, and that sent my entire body into convulsive spasms. I started moaning his name, despite it being muffled since my muzzle was inside of my cloaca. With the warm water running into my cloaca and hitting that nub at the exact same time my tongue did, I pulled my maw out and released a series of high-pitched chirps as my juices splashed out into the water.
I wasn't done however, and grabbed the glass bottle that was next to me with both of my claws and held it firmly; not because it was wet, and not because I was wet, but because my body was shaking so much, that it took me several times to get it where I wanted it to go. I moaned in immense pleasure as I inserted the bottle into my slit while leaning against the rock wall behind me with my legs in the water. Each of my moans became louder and louder, echoing off of the rock walls, and I kept making more between pants as I again imagined that Kenny was the one thrusting into me.
"[Ken-Kenn-eeeeee... aahhhhh…. Y-y-y-esssss Kenny.]" I moaned between pants as I thrust the bottle inside of me even faster, making sure to angle it towards the spot that always made me cum. "[Don't-don't stop! I wa-want more! More of you my love! I want you to mark me as your mate Kenny!]"
I actually imagined that Kenny was telling me that he was about to release himself (although that's probably because I was) and I was quick to respond to my perceived lover.
"[Yes! Inside! Inside Kenny! Fill me up so that we can have eggs!]" I pleaded as I thrust the water bottle deeper. "[Deeper! Faster Ken-Ken-KENNY!]"
I came with a VERY loud and shrill howl as I climaxed around the whiskey bottle and my fluids shot out. They splashed through the falling water running over my pubic regions and splashed into the water, thick, transparent liquid swirling around in the pool in front of me. I gasped for breath as I pulled the dripping bottle out of my pussy and out of my cloaca as my lips contracted shut, I weakly set it down next to me with a rattle against the rocks as I looked down at my cloaca. Despite it still being practically closed now, there was still a splatter of my fluids around it and flowing down towards my tail, into the water in a small, thin river. I smiled gently as I leaned my head against the rock wall and closed my eyes. I knew that Kenny wasn't really here giving me this pleasure, just like I knew he wasn't when I was doing it myself. I always acted like he was though, because it felt so much more peaceful if I acted like he was. It was a dream, but a sweet dream, one that I was happy to have.
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NSFW CONTENT IS NOW OVER.
YOU MAY CONTINUE READING
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I laid down on my side to sleep. Masturbating had always made me feel tired, and I sometimes did it to help myself fall asleep from time-to-time. Being in this peaceful environment had such a calming effect on me that I couldn't help but lay my head down to sleep. I was alone, and I was happy. I didn't care if someone interrupted me, I would just ignore them.
"[And here we thought that you were going to get clean.]" A voice humorously quipped. My eyes shot open and I quickly turned my head up to see Delta leaning over the rock overhang above me. "[Heya.]"
Suddenly… I cared. I shrilled and scrambled to get to my feet, saying "Fuck" nonstop and without pause, accidentally kicking the whiskey bottle that I had previously played with out into plain sight while slipping on it and falling into the water on my back. I scrambled to get my bearings and quickly swam to the surface, gasping for air as I heard chirping laughter coming from my sister.
"[Delta!]" I yelled up at her, my head poking over the surface of the lake. "[What the hell?!]"
"[What?]" Delta said between laughs. "[Did I interrupt your 'bathing time'? From what I saw, you didn't do any bathing at all except for one particular area.]"
"[H-h-how much d-did you see?]" I mumbled as I lowered my head into the water somewhat.
"[Not much.]" Delta answered.
"[Oh thank god…]" I sighed.
"[Now what we heard, that's a different matter entirely.]" Delta said, making me groan in shame.
"[Didn't I tell you to not follow me and instead, keep an eye on Echo and Charlie?]" I quietly said, avoiding eye contact.
"[You told me to not follow you, so I followed Echo here; plus, I can see them right over there.]" Delta replied as she gestured to the treeline, where Echo and Charlie poked their heads up; while I lowered mine further down. "[Also, please speak up, I can barely hear you.]"
"[Why did you come here?]" I wondered.
"[Because we knew why you were coming here and we all wanted to talk with you about it.]" She answered. "[Now please, really clean yourself up now, hide your bottle where you normally do, and let's go back to our nests.]"
"[Fine…]" I sighed as I got up and actually started to clean myself.
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"[Talk.]" Delta started after we laid down.
"[About what?]" I replied.
"[You know what.]" Echo retorted while giving me a dry expression. "[About your embarrassment towards Kenny and masturbating.]"
"[Well I don't like it when you see or hear me do that. I'm your beta and your-]" I started to confess.
"[Okay I'm going to stop you right there.]" Echo interrupted. "[You and I have had this conversation earlier this year. I will tell you the exact same thing that I told you back then: you are not the only one who does that! I do. Delta, do you masturbate?]"
"[Yeah.]" Delta answered.
"[What about you, Charlie?]" Echo asked.
"[I'd be lying if I said that I didn't.]" Charlie replied.
"[Hear that, Blue?]" Echo questioned. "[We all do it too, so why do you feel such shame in doing it, or at least in others knowing about it?]"
"[You know why.]" I said as I looked away from them.
"[Yes, we do.]" Delta sighed. "[But we want to hear you say it.]"
"[It's because when I masturbate I fantasize that Kenny is the one doing it to me. That's what, not just about getting caught with my claw or a bottle between my legs.]" I answered after a pause. "[I imagine that Kenny is the one having sex with me, doing me in all sorts of ways and I enjoy it. I hope you understand how embarrassing it is hearing your own family scream to the heavens their fantasies because they think no one is around to hear them.]"
"[There we go!]" Charlie cheered. "[See? Was that so hard?]"
"[Yes.]" I grumbled while glaring at them.
"[Only because you made it hard.]" Delta replied. "[Why do you feel so shameful and embarrassed to talk about Kenny?]"
"[You wouldn't understand.]" I said and cringed when Delta growled. I kept my eyes closed and my head turned away from her when suddenly, I felt a sharp thud on the top of my muzzle. I opened my eyes and looked towards her with a shocked face. "[Did you just…?]"
"[Yes, I did hit you.]" Delta said in the most stern voice I have ever heard her use. She lifted my head up to look her in the eyes. "[No, you are not going to pull rank over me because you are going to listen to what I have to say. Got it?]"
"[Got it.]" I muttered obediently.
"[Good.]" Delta happily said with a smile. "[This is about you and a future mate. This is a very important subject and a major lifestyle decision. When we take a mate, we stick by them for life, so why are you afraid to talk to us about this?]"
"[If you really heard everything from earlier, then you know why.]" I told her.
"[Blue…]" I heard Echo say. I could tell that she was getting very irritated by me beating around the bush.
"[I want Kenny to be my mate for life! Okay?!]" I admitted. "[This morning, I had a dream that we actually had eggs. I don't how I thought that we could actually do that, but I didn't question it. I haven't been able to get those thoughts out of my head, and when Kenny gave Thumper hell by defending us from his dark plans, I just felt so horny and in love with him that I wanted to imagine we were actually mating. I just… I just wanted to imagine myself being by his side as a mate, that's all honestly.]"
"[That's so sweet!]" Charlie noted. "[So why do you sound so sad about it?]"
"[Because I'll never be able to have him as my mate!]" I growled. "[I want him to mate with me, but he can't!]"
"[Don't talk like that.]" Delta said as she let go of my head. "[Kenny would be happy to mate with you. He loves you.]"
"[Even if he does love me in that way, there's no way that he can mate with me. I never said that he wouldn't want to.]" I admitted.
"[Why's that?]" Echo wondered.
"[It's because he's a human!]" I shouted, making my sisters jump at my outburst. "[Sorry. It's because Kenny is a human that he'll never be able to mate with me.]"
"[What does that have to do with anything?]" Echo asked.
"[Dad would never let Kenny have sex with me. It would be wrong to him.]" I cried.
"[Don't be ridiculous, Blue.]" Charlie said. "[Kenny is like family to dad. Dad knows that you two are very, very special to each other. I'm sure that he would let you two mate.]"
"[You don't get it Charlie.]" I told her. "[Kenny is a human, and I'm just an animal…]"
"[Shut up!]" Delta snarled at me. "[I will not let you degrade yourself to that word. Dad, Barry, Kenny, and many more people have told us that we are not just feral animals, and that we have thoughts and feelings. Kenny himself even said that you don't have to be a human to be a person.]"
"[How are you so okay with this?]" I asked.
"[Because, I know what it's like to love a human.]" Delta answered.
"[What?!]" I exclaimed.
"[You heard me right. What's more, he loves me back.]" Delta answered, before a mischievous smirk came onto her face. "[We've even gone to third base.]"
"[Uhhh… third base?]" I asked in confusion.
"[It's something I learned from him. In a sexual way, it means that we've done foreplay, like me sucking his penis or him licking my slit.]" Delta answered with a grin. "[Non-sexually, it's part of a human sport called baseball.]"
"[Oh… like soccer.]" I realized, my tears starting to dry away.
"[Yeah, but anyways, that's not the point right now.]" Delta agreed. "[The point is that you are not alone in this. Dad doesn't know about my relationship with this human, and I'm not ready for him to know.]"
"[Why not?]" I wondered.
"[Because he's already got enough to deal with right now.]" Delta said. "[Slow Spurt's hanging around here more often now and I don't like it. I'm not going to reveal this to dad while that asshole is around, and neither is my human. Who knows how he could use that to his advantage.]"
"[That's probably for the best.]" I agreed.
"[Anyways.]" Delta spoke. "[Do you understand what I'm saying when I tell you that dad wouldn't judge you or react harshly to you being in love with Kenny?]"
"[I think so.]" I spoke.
"[Well I want to be sure.]" Delta said. "[What about Kenny would make dad realize that he is the best mate for you? And don't start rambling on with what you love about him.]"
"[Well, Kenny is smart. Not just intellectually, but smart as in he understands things easier and better than everyone else. I know that may not be very clear, but when I say that he understands things better, I mean that he doesn't take things at face value; he breaks them down.]" I explained. "[He doesn't just go: 'Oh this is easiest way to go about that' or 'This is the best way to do that', he goes: 'We should do this instead of that because that way has these problems, while this way has problems that are easier to adapt to and overcome'. He doesn't think like the average person.]"
"[Yes, but is there anything else?]" Echo questioned.
"[Yes, actually.]" I answered. "[Kenny is fiercely loyal to us and doesn't surrender any ground to anyone who tries to harm us. He has an equal disregard to authority just like our dad does, but he still obeys it most of the time like our dad. He's smart about when he should bend the rules as opposed to breaking them. He thinks deeply about what the best way to go about keeping us safe is, but he doesn't hesitate and become indecisive when a crisis comes up; he adapts and considers all of the variables while simultaneously making a decision. When he threw the phone that belonged to Thumper's friend into the water, he didn't do it because he wanted to; he did it because he knew he didn't have time to do anything else. They were on the last page when Kenny grabbed the phone, he didn't know what they were doing or how far they had gotten, but he knew that they were doing what they were quickly, meaning that they would most likely have tried to run as soon as they were finished. He also knew that they would not have given up the info they had taken without making a scene or even getting into a fight with him. What's more, if Kenny hadn't managed to stop them before they finished, they would have gotten away with whatever information they wanted, and he never would have been able to get it back. That's why he threw the phone in the ocean, he adapted to the situation and knew what the best course of action was and why.]"
"[That's great, sis!]" Charlie commended. "[But what about us? How do we fit into this?]"
"[Well, Charlie, when that spy of Thumper's tried to steal our blood, no one believed Kenny. Not even Barry.]" I replied. "[Kenny was upset by this and was treading on very thin ice, as dad had threatened to punish Kenny, and that he would be in a lot of trouble if he kept up his search. Not knowing what to do without jeopardizing his ability to help here, Kenny came to us. He came to us for support and knew that we would provide comfort for him. What's more, while he didn't exactly ask us for help, when he realized that we were willing to help him, he told us. He told us because he trusted us enough to believe him; and even let us help him make a plan to catch this spy. He considers us to be actual people, not just animals. He knows that we understand him, that we are capable of making our own choices in life, and that we have our own feelings and personalities. He thinks of us as real friends and family… as a pack.]"
"[So… do you think that dad would turn down that kind of hunk as a mate for you?]" Delta asked me as she nudged me with her head. "[Consider all of those wonderful things that you said Kenny has, and still say no?]"
"[Maybe not…]" I said through a chuckle.
"[That's the spirit!]" Echo cheered, causing the smile on my face to grow larger. "[I love how you built upon everything else that you said!]"
"[You've got nothing to worry about!]" Charlie happily said.
"[Thank you… all of you.]" I said. "[This means so much to me that you're here and willing to support me through all of this.]"
"[You're our sister, we should be there when you need us.]" Delta told me. "[Honestly, you can be so childish sometimes.]"
"[Oh really? I'm childish?]" I quipped. "[You're supposed to be the most mature out of all of us, and yet you still keep a good number of the toys we had from when we were hatchlings!]"
"[Hey!]" Delta yelled before running over and curling up by them. "[I like them, and they're still fun to play with. Kenny told me himself that he still loves going down toy aisles and seeing things like cards, spinning tops, science projects, water guns, all sorts of things!]"
"[Yeah, but you still look silly playing with them sis.]" Charlie said.
"[At least she actually uses what she clings onto, Charlie.]" Echo countered with a smirk on her face. "[When's the last time you used your soccer ball? Oh wait… you can't.]"
"[That doesn't matter!]" Charlie replied as she pulled out a deflated soccer ball from under her nest. It was starting to come apart at the seams. "[I used to tumble over it all the time, it was my very first toy. Besides, at least I actually trusted someone to carry it here. Tell me, Echo. How long did it take us to get here from dad's nest because you had to drag that painting all the way?]"
Echo glanced over at a painting that was behind a glass case on the wall behind us. It had an image of water lilies under a bridge on it. Barry told us that it was by some human named Monet. I remember that trip where Echo dragged it all the way from dad's nest to our current one because she didn't trust anyone else to carry it. She was too afraid that they would steal it. So, she snapped at anyone who tried to help her carry it… even me.
"[Five hours…]" Echo grumbled. That painting was heavier than she thought at the time.
"[Exactly.]" Charlie laughed before looking down at her torn soccer ball. "[I loved learning how to play this soccer game, even though I lost most of the time. It was a fun game that we all had fun in.]"
"[Yeah, but baseball is cooler.]" Delta smirked.
"[No, soccer is.]" I said.
"[It's not even called soccer.]" Delta countered. "[It's actually called football.]"
"[No, it's not.]" I replied.
"[I learned from Barry that it's called football because the sport was founded in some place called England and that America only changed the name to be different.]" Delta said.
"[Well you're an American just like us! That's the territory this land belongs to!]" I shouted.
"[You've been listening to dad too much.]" Delta laughed.
"[Delta, the only reason you like baseball is because it's a game that you don't suck at… because none of us can swing a bat.]" I told her.
"[I don't suck at it!]" Delta snapped.
"[Then why do I kick your ass at it every time we play it?]" I asked.
"[Because Charlie's legs are shorter than yours!]" Delta complained.
"[Hey, don't drag me into this.]" Charlie said before turning to Delta. "[We do suck.]"
Delta growled in irritation before a familiar voice that had us chittering in happiness spoke up.
"Do I hear a challenge brewing?" Barry asked as he threw a special soccer ball up in the air repeatedly and catching it.
We all jumped to our feet and started shuffling in excitement as Barry moved the soccer ball to the left and right, our vision following it the whole time. Barry laughed at this. While he couldn't understand what we were saying he knew what sounds meant soccer, and when we were getting competitive. He always loved to watch us play.
"Why don't we play a game over some rewards?" He asked while holding up a couple of packets of Rice Krispies. "Winners get-HEY!"
We didn't hear the rest of what he said as we were all bolting towards where we played.
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We had gotten to the field so quickly, it took Barry ten minutes to get here. Surprisingly, soccer was a game that we played regularly. Even though dad wasn't a big fan of it, he loved to play it with us when Barry was around. He thought that it improved our coordination with each other due to the amount of teamwork involved, and it did. We improved with maneuvering on runs, making more well-structured plans, and reacting faster. We loved this game.
"You should really let me finish talking when I'm speaking to you." Barry said as he walked onto the field where we played. It was really just another clearing that had plenty of room for us to run around.
"[Come on! Get moving!]" I said as a huff and a bark.
"All right, all right." Barry replied. "Since you're obviously not going to be patient, I'll make this quick. Winning team gets Rice Krispies treats. We only have enough time to play for half an hour. So, have at it."
Barry tossed the ball onto the field and immediately Delta and I went at it. Since Delta had challenged me, I was allowed to pick my teammate, and I chose Charlie since I wanted her to win for once in a while. While she usually didn't mind losing, it just didn't feel right to me for her to be on the losing team for most of the time. What's more, since her legs were shorter than mine, that meant that she couldn't run as fast as Delta; so, I decided to have her protect our goal instead of being out here on the field.
"[This time will be different!]" Delta shouted. "[This time I won't lose!]"
"[That's exactly what you say every time we play this.]" I shouted back. "[And when I beat you I always ask 'what did you say about this time?']"
"[Shut up!]" Delta yelled, trying to kick the ball away from my feet.
"[That's what you always answer with.]" I replied as I stepped away from her and kicked the ball past Echo.
"[Hey!]" She yelled.
"[Gotta pay attention!]" I laughed as I ran back to the center
"That's one point for Blue and Charlie! Delta and Echo, you're getting too distracted!" Barry noted. "You gotta stay on the ball!"
"[WE GOT IT!]" They barked in frustration.
"Just trying to help!" Barry replied.
"[You could help us by actually getting out here and helping us score a goal.]" Echo grumbled, partially muffled because of the reinforced ball in her mouth. She then set the ball down and kicked it with a ton of force, and it sped down the field so fast, none of us had any time to react. The ball flew right between Charlie's legs and our jaws dropped. "[Woah! Damn I'm good!]"
"That was amazing, Echo!" Barry praised. "I've never been able to score a goal as a goalie!"
"[Thanks, man!]" Echo said.
"[How did she even do that?]" Charlie wondered as she nudged the ball back onto the field.
"[I don't know…]" I mumbled.
"Alright, you four!" Barry announced. "Half-time, come get some water!"
"[Can't believe this game is already halfway over.]" Delta said.
"[And you earned a point in the first half!]" I cheered. "[That's a new record for you.]"
"[Go to hell.]" Delta said, to which I laughed at.
"[Here ya go, Blue!]" Charlie said as she kicked the ball to me after we got back onto the field.
"[Thanks, sis!]" I replied before running straight towards Echo.
"[I'm going to get that ball Blue!]" Delta warned as she ran straight towards me.
"[Try me.]" I challenged.
"[Okay.]" Delta returned. She then started to quickly run to my left and to avoid her I ran to the right. All of a sudden, she jumped to the right and caught me off-guard. I tried to get away from her, but I was too late, and I stumbled when I tried to move and gave Delta the opening she needed to kick the ball away from me.
"[Charlie!]" I warned.
"[I see her! She won't get past me!]" Charlie yelled.
"[Yeah I will!]" Delta said as she moved to Charlie's left. "[See this?]"
Delta kicked the ball towards Charlie and it was moving pretty fast. I got worried when I saw Charlie start to panic but I was relieved when she swung her tail to her left and blocked the ball. When the ball moved up into the air she jumped back and hit it with her shoulder, and it hit the top of the metal rods that signified the goal posts and went behind Charlie. Delta looked to Barry for a ruling and a sad look came onto her face when she saw that he was shaking his head with a small smile on his.
"Sorry, Delta. You know the rules, it has to go between the posts, not behind or over them." Barry ruled.
"[I thought you were on our side!]" She whined and barked before storming away.
"You got five minutes left." Barry added, which made us all start running.
Charlie kicked the ball to the left as I indicated with a nudge of my head and I was bolting after it with Delta hot on my tail.
"[Echo! We're tied right now!]" Delta announced. "[Get ready to block it!]"
"[Got it!]" Echo responded.
"[We're going to win, Blue.]" Delta told me.
"[Sure.]" I sarcastically said, before putting my right paw in front of the ball and suddenly stopping. This caused Delta to run past me and I took the opportunity to kick the ball straight for Echo. Unfortunately, she blocked it similarly to how Charlie did and sent it down the field to where Delta could get it.
"[Go!]" Echo yelled, with Delta running immediately alongside me.
I got to the ball first, but with Delta almost on top of me I had to make a split-second decision on where to move the ball. I kicked it towards our goal, shocking Charlie.
"[Charlie! Kick it hard!]" I ordered with another gesture to the left side of the field while running there.
"[Got it!]" Charlie agreed, kicking it to the left where I already was.
"[Gotcha!]" I yelled as I kicked it hard towards the enemy goal. Echo tried to kick it back out, but she kicked her leg too hard, and since her left paw was at a different angle than her right, she ended up flipping onto her back.
"[Uhhh… Delta, did I get it?]" Echo moaned.
"Time's up. Blue and Charlie win!" Barry announced.
"[Son of a bitch...]" Echo groaned.
"[Son of a bitch!]" Charlie cheered.
"[SON OF A BITCH!]" Delta snarled as she started clawing at the ground in frustration.
"[What did you say about this time?]" I asked.
"[Shut up!]" Delta snarled while glaring at me before realization came over her eyes. "[Damn it! I'm doing it again!]"
"Delta, calm down." Barry calmly spoke. "It's just a game."
"[One that I always fucking lose at…]" Delta grumbled as she walked away. "[I fucking hate this fucking game.]"
"Always a sore loser…" Barry chuckled before Echo came over and passed him the ball. "Thanks, Echo."
"[You're welcome.]" She replied.
"Why don't you four go clean yourselves up before we head back?" Barry asked before we gave him dry looks.
"Oh fine…" Barry sighed before pulling out two Rice Krispies packets. I immediately tried to grab one with my teeth. "HEY! Blue! Do you really want to eat a wrapper again?"
I cringed at that horrible memory and waited until he unwrapped mine before tossing it at me. I happily caught it in my mouth and chewed it very slowly, savoring each bite like I would never get another one. Charlie chewed hers happily too, but much quicker than me. I took the longest to eat mine, which upset dad, Barry, my sisters, especially when we needed to be someplace soon. I almost choked on my treat when I laughed at Echo begging for one.
"Echo, I already told you. Only the winners get treats." Barry told her as she clung to Barry's outer hide, whining and moaning for a treat. "Please… stop. You know Owen hates it when I give out treats that aren't rewards. Don't make me spoil you."
I stopped chewing so that I could laugh at Echo's charades. She always was the most over-dramatic when begging for treats; well, that wasn't true. I was, or used to be, for that matter. Echo pleaded, begged and whined until she got what she wanted. It was pity and patience running thin that got her treats from dad and anyone else. For me, it was persistence when it wasn't dad. When it was dad however, all I had to do was pull out his belt-buckle, and I got all the treats I wanted. Barry was losing however, like he always did.
"Please… they cost me five dollars each." He pleaded. "Plus tax."
"[I don't careeeeeeeeee…]" Echo groaned. "[I want them!]"
"If you tell anyone, any of you… I'll… I'll be killed." Barry sighed before pulling another treat out of his bag and giving it to Echo. If I didn't have my mouth full, I would have tried to take that one too. "Echo, you owe me five bucks."
"[No, I don't.]" Echo paused to say mid-bite.
"Go get yourselves cleaned up. I need you back at the game trail opening in fifteen minutes.]" Barry requested.
"[Alright.]" We agreed before running off.
"[Hey, Blue?]" Echo asked me, having finished her treat already.
"[Yeah?]" I wondered, speaking with my mouth full.
"[I wanted to apologize for trying to eat that pig earlier during our hunt. If I killed it when I wanted to, then dad would have punished us all. I'm sorry.]" Echo said. "[Thanks so much for watching out for me.]"
"[It's fine. Thank you for listening to me.]" I returned. "[Why did you do that though?]"
"[Well, to be honest, I've been under a lot of stress lately. Dad promised us that we would head out to his nest a couple of months ago, and you know that he turned back on his word then, right?]" Echo replied.
"[Yeah, we were all upset. He had to go take care of something with his own father though, why bring it up?]" I wondered.
"[Well, let's just say that I was really counting on going out on that particular day, as it was VERY important to me.]" Echo said, irritation clearly present in her voice. "[So when I grabbed for that pig, it was just me wanting revenge on dad.]"
"[What about that one particular day is so important to you?]" I wondered.
"[Well, something very special happened to me on that day, and I needed to go out to dad's nest to check up on something there, but then he just didn't take us out there.]" Echo muttered while looking at the ground. "[I get that he had family matters on that day, but so did I! I mean he should have had Barry take us out there if he couldn't do it himself.]"
"Family matters? Did we do something on that day?" I thought, but I couldn't really think of anything, which confused me.
"[Hey, Blue? There's something else that I was wanting to talk to you about.]" Echo spoke up, getting my attention. "[You said that you and Kenny had eggs in your dream, right?]"
"[Umm, yeah…]" I said, swallowing so that Echo could understand me. I still felt slightly sheepish talking about this.
"[Was he there?]" She questioned.
"[Of course. They were about to hatch so I went and got him.]" I answered. "[Why?]"
"[If we were there, you should have sent one of us to get him.]" Echo said. "[It's better for hatchlings psychologically if a parent is there when they hatch, it's even better if it's both of you. Trust me, it's true.]"
"[Oh, noted.]" I agreed before realizing something. "[Wait, how do you even know that?]"
"[Oh uhhh… ummm.]" Echo stuttered, caught off-guard. "[It's uhhh… common sense really. Why do you think that we react so positively to dad?]"
"[Hmmm… I suppose you're right about that.]" I replied.
"[Of course I am.]" Echo said before running ahead.
"Why did she act so nervous when I questioned her about that?" I wondered before shaking my head to focus and running ahead to clean myself up… again.
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"Dammit." I internally grumbled as our restraints were fitted around us. "I fucking hate these things."
My sisters agreed with me on this. They were somewhat uncomfortable, but not overly so. What we really hated about them was how they separated us from dad, Barry, and Kenny. These things were already here when we moved from dad's nest to our current one, so we were stuck with them. They were created to keep us contained from other packmates, and we kind of understood why, but we still hated them. Aside from when we would visit dad's nest, only when we were in these restraints would dad touch us. He wanted to do it more often, but so many people were afraid of us that those armored humans would come onto our territory if dad was about to come in here; and we would become agitated at their interruption. In the times before that, when we were much younger and smaller, dad would let us crawl all over him and climb on top of him (mostly because we wouldn't give him a choice), he would let us sleep with him, and he would pet and caress each and every one of us. We felt so happy and peaceful during that time when dad would hold us, bond with us; and we missed it so much.
"Stop!" A voice yelled, snapping me out of my memories. "I don't want to!"
"Well then I guess you want to stay on their hit list and become their next meal." A human with thick muscles, white skin, dirty white outer hide, and brown hair said. He was dragging the human who came into our territory earlier with him. I don't even remember why I wanted to eat him, he barely had any meat on him, so it was no surprise why the bigger human was able to pull him with just one arm.
"Are you fucking crazy, Duke?!" The smaller human asked. "I don't want to get anywhere near them!"
"Well Leon, it looks like they don't want you to be around here either." Duke said when he noticed us growling at the other human.
"Then why are you dragging me here?" Leon frantically asked.
"Because trust me, you never want to leave a velociraptor on a bad note." Duke answered. "I learned from that experience and I'm lucky to be alive, the same as you. They're cool with me now, but you're still their enemy."
"I never did anything to them!" Leon said.
"Yeah ya did." Duke said as he opened the door to the staging area.
"What?" Leon asked as he tried to hold onto the doorframe. "What did I do?"
"You tried to take their rightfully-earned meal." Barry answered as he pried Leon's fingers off the frame.
"I was just doing my job!" Leon said. "That pig wasn't supposed to get back out!"
"Yeah, well it did." Barry told him as they set him on the ground. "When you tried to catch it, that's when you fucked up."
"We have an agreement with these girls." Duke told Leon while Barry shut the door. "We will always attempt to retrieve live food after a run; but, if for some reason that food happens to escape from us and gets back out there, or they pull it out, then it belongs to them."
"I didn't know that!" Leon replied.
"Well, were you listening to Owen when he was teaching you about what you can and can't do around this paddock?" Barry asked.
"Kind of…" Leon muttered.
"That's not a yes." Barry said. "Regardless of whether you knew or not, these girls see you as an enemy of this pack now. If you leave without righting your mistakes, they will continue to think of you as an enemy and will react aggressively to your presence."
"Then what do I do?" Leon wondered.
"Sorry, dude. Not gonna help ya there." Duke answered with a shake of his head. "You tried to steal their meal from 'em, you figure it out."
"Huh." Leon said as he tried to think of what to do. "Maybe I should pet them… let them know that I-"
"[Don't you fucking touch me!]" Echo snarled as she rattled her restraints, making the human scream at a pitch that he shouldn't be able to achieve, and I laughed at this thin one's stupidity.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" Barry condescendingly asked.
"I was trying to-" Leon started.
"Trying to lose your hand, that's what!" Duke sternly said. "We just told you that they think of you as an enemy and a threat to them. So why the fuck did you think that touching them was a good idea?!"
"I thought that maybe if I petted them that they wouldn't be upset at me anymore." Leon said.
"Barry, may I have your watch?" Duke asked with a tone dad used in his voice when talking to Thumper.
"No, it's mine. It is a family heirloom." Barry replied with the same tone in his voice.
"Just give it to me!" Duke fake-yelled as he grabbed for Barry's watch, the latter acting like he was barely even trying to stop him.
"Hey! Give that back!" Barry fake-yelled also.
"Nah, I'll just give you this." Duke said as he pets the top of Barry's head. Barry then snapped his teeth and Duke jumped back while holding his hand. "Hey! You bit my hand off!"
"You took my most precious family treasure!" Barry said. "It is said to never bite the hand that feeds you, but the hand that takes tastes very great."
"Oh yeah!" Duke replied with fake cheer. "You know, I think that some countries still cut off your hand if you're caught stealing-"
"Okay, Okay! I get it!" Leon yelled. "I'll try something else."
Leon stood around for a few minutes while thinking before coming back over to Echo, who started growling again until he backed up slightly and knelt down.
"Uhh… what's this girl's name?" Leon asked.
"Echo." Barry simply said.
"Echo, please forgive me for trying to take back a meal that was rightfully yours. It was very wrong of me to do." Leon apologized, his voice noticeably stuttering and cracking up in nervousness. "I was only doing what was asked of me for my job. I thought that I was doing the right thing but I was not, I did not know of the rule concerning escaped food. Owen explained it to me, but I did not pay full attention to him at the time. In doing so, I was not giving you the respect that you rightfully deserved. For that, I am sorry. From now on, it belongs to you and your sisters. Should the situation come up again, I promise you that I will not interfere and will let you have your meal."
"Woah…" I thought. "That was deep."
"Wow, that was long and deep." Barry said, echoing my thoughts.
"Where'd you get that from?" Duke asked, astonished.
"Well, from Kenny really." Leon answered.
"He told you to say that?" Barry wondered.
"No, I haven't seen him since this morning." Leon replied. "However, I was there when he abruptly woke Blue up. I remember how he apologized to her and how he did it so honestly and shamelessly. It was just so simple, so I decided to do the same. I guess sometimes the simplest solution is the best."
"Look at Kenny, leading by example." Duke said with a grin on his face.
"He truly is an inspiration to others, isn't he?" Barry replied in the same happy tone.
"Yeah he is." I dreamily thought.
"So, uhhh… we cool?" Leon asked Echo.
"[Yeah, sure.]" Echo said. "[We cool.]"
"That's a sound that a velociraptor makes when greeting a friend." Duke said. "Echo accepted your apology, Leon."
"Awesome." Leon happily replied. "Well, I'm off. It's 3:15 and I still haven't eaten lunch."
"[Hear that, Delta?]" Charlie asked. "[It's already that late in the day. We could have gotten here sooner if you didn't take so long to clean yourself.]"
"[Says the girl who had to start a splash fight by hitting Echo with her tail again.]" Delta countered.
"[To be honest I let her have that one.]" Echo noted. "[Besides, Blue took the longest to 'clean herself'.]"
"[Ha ha.]" I snorted. I was snapped out of my conversation with my sisters when I heard a sharp whistle.
"Did you four even hear a single word I said?" Duke asked.
"[Uhhh… well…]" We stuttered at differing times.
"It would be much easier and less embarrassing to just say no." Barry said.
"[No.]" We said.
"There ya go." Duke said. "Now Leon, care to repeat to them what we just said."
"Uhhh, Duke said 'Hold on, you can't leave yet. You're still leaving on a bad note.'" Leon quoted. "I asked why, since I apologized to you, and Echo accepted it; and Duke told me 'That may be true, but they haven't.' Basically, you all owe me an apology, according to him."
"And me." Barry said.
"And him." Leon added.
"[What?]" We asked in unison.
"You heard him. You all attacked a defenseless kid when he fell into your paddock because Echo pulled him down. That's like if I blamed you for spraining your own ankle. What's more, you continued to pursue Leon even as he was trying to back away and was not being hostile or aggressive at all." Barry reprimanded, us cringing in shame as he continued. "You almost killed him and in doing so you made yourselves look bad. Just imagine what would have happened to you and your alpha had you actually succeeded. Go ahead, imagine it."
"[I thought he was-]" I started to mumble before Barry spoke up, louder.
"I don't want to hear your excuses! I want you to give him a sincere apology!" Barry demanded. "Do it. Now."
"Umm… Mr. Barry, sir." Leon interjected.
"Barry. What?" Barry asked, frustrated at being interrupted.
"To be fair, you kind of let me give an excuse when I fell in there." Leon explained. "So, I think they should be allowed to give one."
"Fine…" Barry sighed after a pause before turning to us. "Explain yourselves. Blue, you started the attack on him. You first."
"[I-I thought he was jumping into our paddock, I didn't know that he was yelling in fear. There have been so many attempted acts against our safety and on those we love and care about, that I just jumped to the conclusion that he was trying to harm us.]" I shamefully admitted. My anxiety has been getting so out of control lately that I've been getting startled easily, been quick to panic, and now I was threatening innocent people. I am so grateful that dad has noticed this and was working with his allies at the DMC to get me some medicine to help lower my very high anxiety. "[Please, forgive me.]"
"Delta, you're the most mature and you help keep Blue from making these stupid mistakes, and yet you responded immediately to Blue's actions and moved to back her up in attacking Leon." Barry said. "Why?"
"[In all honesty, I was demanding an explanation from him. Like Blue I was worried that he was coming into our paddock to hurt us, like how Slow Spurt did to me a while back.]" Delta said. "[But I guess I got caught up in the moment, which I shouldn't have done, so I'm sorry.]"
"Echo, you're the one who pulled him down." Barry questioned. "Even after you took your kill away from him and hid it, why would you go back to terrorize him?"
"[I thought he was deliberately ignoring dad's instructions, I didn't know that he wasn't paying attention then and didn't hear him. I should have been paying attention to see if he did hear and understand dad's instructions.]" Echo answered. "[Leon, it's completely my fault for intentionally pulling you down. Please forgive me for that.]"
"Charlie, what's your excuse?" Barry wondered.
"[I just didn't want Blue to be mad at me for letting a meal get away again. That's why I came running back.]" Charlie softly spoke. "[I'm sorry.]"
"It's alright. I forgive all of you." Leon said as he looked at us. "Let's just put this behind us so that we can move on."
"[Sure.]" I agreed.
"Well. I'm off." Leon said before petting Echo's neck and leaving. "Give them some good stuff for lunch."
"Look at that." Duke said as Leon left. "This morning he was a frightened idiot who didn't know what he was doing and tried to take a raptor's meal."
"And now he's a humble kid who is one of their friends." Barry added. "Think Kenny really inspired him?"
"I'd say that he helped inspire him, but I'm sure that a lot of that was all him." Duke replied. "He's a good kid."
"True that." Barry spoke before hearing us growl with an intense hatred and threw his head back in exasperation. "Please no, god no. Not him. Anybody but him. Even Claire, but not him."
"It's him." Duke simply said.
"Son of a bitch." Barry muttered. "Duke, you should leave."
"Are you sure?" Duke asked with a hint of concern in his voice.
"Yeah, I'll handle this." Barry replied. "You know, why don't you get these girls their lunch?"
"You got it." Duke agreed as he walked out of the room.
"Hey Barry." Thumper greeted as he came over to us. "What's up?"
"What do you want?" Barry asked with a dry tone. "You know what? Don't answer that."
"Well gee, don't act nice and all." Thumper replied. "I've been thinking about what I'd like for Christmas, even though it was a couple of days ago."
"Did you get coals to feed the fire you're trying to keep going?" Barry wondered.
"No, what I wanted was a field test." Thumper answered.
"I'll tell you what we all have been telling you ever since you started whining about this." Barry said. "Fuck no."
"Hey, Owen is the only one who can tell me no." Thumper pressed on. "Seeing as how he's not here, I say we do it now."
"Let me make something clear to you, Hoskins." Barry warned as he turned to face him. "The laws of a pack are when the alpha is not present, the beta is in charge. That means that what Blue says goes, and I'll tell you what she'll say. 'Fuck no.'"
"Hey, I'm not taking orders from a damn lizard." Thumper said. "They're going to be taking orders from me."
"[I'll die before I ever take an order from your fat ass.]" I snarled at him. Barry caught this however and knelt down next to me. He started making sounds that I couldn't understand, but they helped calm me down. I don't know why. While I couldn't understand them, Thumper acted like he did.
"Uhh, yeah, of course they can. I-I train the best." Thumper said as Barry continued making these strange calls.
"He can't understand me." Barry whispered very quietly to me. "I said 'You cannot, not kill them all.' He doesn't even know that he just said you can kill him."
"How fast can they run?" Thumper asked.
"Forty, fifty when they're hungry." Barry answered.
"[Even faster!]" Delta added. "[Easily enough to catch up to your fat ass.]"
"Ooh!" Thumper replied, sounding impressed. "You ever open them up? See what they can do?"
"No." Barry said. He wasn't exactly lying. While dad did let us out of our paddock and take us to his nest from time-to-time, he never let us out just to see what happened. "Neither are you."
"[Hey asshole!]" I snarled as I thudded against the metal wall in front of my body.
"Oh shit!" Thumper yelled in shock, immediately trying to cover it up with a laugh. "That got me. It got me."
"What do you think?" Barry asked. "Want to take one home?"
"I dare you to make a joke like that again." I thought. I hated it when Barry joked like that. I knew he was kidding, but I still hated to hear him say that.
"Hey, don't joke. When I was your age," Thumper replied, secretly flipping me off as he went by.
"[You're dead, motherfucker.]" I growled as my eyelids slit.
"I rescued a wolf pup. It was, like, two months old." Thumper said, walking towards Delta, who started growling. "It could barely walk. It used to sleep by my bed, watch over me. My wife, she came at me with a steak knife. It took a chunk out of her arm."
"Did you put him down?" Barry asked.
"Hell no. She attacked me, and the pup came to my rescue." Thumper told him. "We had an unshakeable bond, you know?"
"Hmm." Barry muttered.
"Just like you and um…" Thumper started to say before turning to me and then back to Delta. "What's his name?"
My eyelids narrowed more as Thumper got one of our genders wrong again, Delta's narrowed even further.
"[That's it, the next time he calls me a guy I'm going to kill him.]" Delta swore.
"Delta, and she's a girl." Barry answered condescendingly. "The girl you just looked at is her sister, Blue. Since you obviously still don't know their names."
"Can I, uhh?" Thumper asked while gesturing with his hand.
"[No.]" Me and Delta both answered at the same time.
Barry stepped to the side and gestured for Thumper to go ahead. My sister and I both growled audibly at this, and Barry must have heard, because he looked at us winked; although we didn't stop growling. As soon as he touched her, we both started shaking, although hers was much more aggressive.
"[GET OFF ME RIGHT FUCKING NOW!]" She growled.
Barry immediately kneeled next to her and started stroking her neck to calm her down while shushing. She stopped growling, but we all could see that she was still looking at Thumper with intense hatred.
"Oh wow…" Thumper gasped, impressed by whatever he was looking for.
"Want to know why she's still looking at you like that?" Barry questioned.
"Uhh, I'm petting in the wrong spot?" Thumper guessed.
"No. She hates you, and so do her sisters; but she hates you the most, and I'm sure you know why." Barry answered. "In case you haven't noticed over the past five fucking years, Delta hates it when you call her a guy. She's not the only one, we all do. You don't even bother to remember their names or their genders, you treat them like property and not as living beings-"
"Ugh, you sound just like that no-good piece-of-shit Kenny." Thumper interrupted.
"[YOU MOTHERFUCKER! AS SOON AS I GET OUT OF THIS THING I WILL FUCKING TEAR YOU APART!]" I roared. "[DO YOU HEAR ME?!]"
"[WE WILL KILL YOU!]" Delta supported.
Thumper yelped in fear at our fury and jumped away from us. We continued snarling at him and he ran to the other side of the room. Barry stood up fully and walked over so that he was between me and Delta.
"That is the worst thing that you do around here. You threaten me, Owen, and Kenny. You DO NOT do that." Barry warned with disdain heavy in his voice. "These girls care about and love all of us, except for shit like you. If you threaten us or Kenny and they somehow manage to get to you, we won't be able to stop them from murdering your fat ass; if we even want to. I know that you have no regard for lives except for human ones, and what you just said about your "beloved" guardian only adds more evidence to the pile. You called him an 'it'."
"Hey, my wolf pup could have been a girl for all you know." Thumper said. "You're lecturing me about rights and valuing animal life, and you assumed its gender."
"You did it again." Barry said. "At least I assumed your pup had one."
Thumper was about to start opening his fucking mouth when a black object on Barry's hip started making a weird chirping noise. He pulled it off of his hip and glanced at it before having a look of worry come onto his face.
"Merde." He said, whatever that means and walked over to the gate that led to our paddock. "Code 19!"
"That's the new one!" A man yelled.
"They said we lost two guys!" Barry yelled back.
"GO!" Another guy shouted, noticeably more panicked. "That's Indominus!"
"What's a Code 19?" Thumper wondered.
"Asset out of containment, you should know that." Barry answered as he walked away. "These fucking people, they never learn. Life will not be contained. They don't listen to anyone; not Hammond, not Masrani, nobody."
"Not you too." Thumper muttered while pulling out a black box of some kind. "We'll they're about to learn all kinds of things about their new asset now."
"Hey. Yeah, it's me." Thumper greeted. "We might have an opportunity here."
"Who's he talking to?" I wondered. "What does he mean by an opportunity?"
"Guess who just got out?" Thumper asked. "Our new prototype."
"Prototype?" I thought, confused. I looked at Delta, she was just as confused as I was.
"Yeah, well apparently it made its own plans." Thumper said before whispering, luckily, I could still hear him. "I know that you were supposed to assist with its escape; but it's out now so we're going to have to move ahead with our plans."
"Assisted… escape?" I thought with confusion and spite. "Thumper and his allies were going to let a dinosaur escape?! Why the fuck would he do that?"
"Of course we're going to use them! Why the fuck would you think that we wouldn't?" Thumper wondered. "When these things are used in the military, raptors are going to be at the front lines. We need to be sure that Diabolus can handle them without any effort."
"I swear to god, he had better not be talking about us." I mentally swore.
"Look, I honestly don't even care if Diabolus does die. We made it, we can make another one easily." Thumper said. "If these animals here do die, then we can sell the genome for Diabolus. Win-win."
I was sure that Thumper could hear us growling now. He had the audacity to assume that we would be killed by whatever this "Diabolus" creature is, and what's more is that he continued to call us "animals". That's not even accounting for how he treated whatever this creature is. He doesn't even consider them to be a living thing with a gender, just a replaceable weapon. He holds no value to their life or any creature for that matter.
"I have a plan for that, but you need to be at your computer and undisturbed for as long as this is going on." Thumper addressed very quietly. "Initialize Rosebush and apply it to the implants for the things that Diabolus directly encounters; no others. We don't want to pull a Nedry. You tested it on Triceratops 27 earlier this month and Pachycephalosaurus 36 today right?"
"[What's he planning?]" Delta whispered to me.
"[I don't know.]" I whispered back.
"It worked both times? Good, shocks fail then." Thumper addressed. "Just so you know, you're most likely going to be questioned when Diabolus shows what it can do. Do not tell anyone anything they don't already know about it. You should also refer to Diabolus by whatever gender it is, not as an 'it', you'll seem nicer and less accountable if you do that."
Thumper turned to face us, and we started growling at the smile on his face.
"You got it? Good, talk to you soon." Thumper said before putting the radio away. "You hear that? You're going to be putting on a show."
"[Like hell we are.]" I snarled.
"This is a massive leap from pigs and rabbits you animals, I'm talking about real monsters." Thumper snidely told us. "So, do me a favor and just get yourselves killed. I need to make our creation look good. So, my bets are on that monster; not whatever you chickens are supposed to be."
I started cracking up when Delta managed to spit between the bars around her cage and get it on Thumper's pants. He looked down at the wet spot and he clenched his teeth.
"Alright, you're losing more than teeth this time." Thumper said as he reached behind his back, when suddenly he was pulled back against the bars and a knife fell to the ground.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Duke said.
"You work for me, remember?" Thumper replied as he pulled himself away. "You follow my orders."
"Not today, Barry has asked me to make sure that you are not on the premises when he or Owen are not here." Duke said as he came through the door to where Thumper was.
"They also work for me." Thumper noted. "Now I am ordering you to leave."
"Barry has direct authorization from Simon Masrani. You are to leave the premises immediately or face executive action." Duke warned.
Thumper's radio started making a chirping noise again and he pulled it out. As soon as he looked at it he groaned and looked at us, then at Duke.
"You animals don't know how fucking lucky you are." Thumper grumbled as he opened the door and slammed it shut after he walked out. "All of you…"
"He's gone too far this time." Duke said as he locked the door before coming over to us. "Owen, Barry, Kenny, Simon, everyone. I'm going to make sure that they all get him fired."
"[Thank you so much.]" I thanked him as he unfitted our restraints.
"I can't believe that he actually pulled a knife on you, Delta." Duke addressed. "For spitting on him? That's not even in self-defense."
"[He was going to attack me when I couldn't even defend myself.]" Delta growled. "[Fucking coward.]"
"I don't know if he would have actually killed you, Delta; at least not at that moment. But I do think that he would have at least stabbed you or cut you." Duke said, concerned. "I'm going to make sure that the others hear about this though."
"[Thank you, Duke.]" Delta told him.
"Why don't you two go get your sisters?" Duke suggested. "Your meal is ready."
"Finally!" We both cheered at the same time before running out.
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"[I can't believe that we're finally getting to eat a real meal.]" Charlie said with her mouth full. I could barely understand her. "[I'm fucking starving!]"
'[Charlie, we ate a deer last night.]" I told her between bites. "[It hasn't been that long.]"
"[Well it feels like it has dammit!]" Charlie replied.
"[This is great.]" Echo noted.
"[Hell yeah.]" Delta agreed. "[While it hasn't been that long since we've had some fresh, red meat; it definitely has for something this big.]"
"[When was the last time we had a cow?]" I asked.
"[Well you had a cow this morning, or around noon I mean.]" Delta answered.
"[I never ate then.]" I replied. "[Why do you say that I did?]"
"[Well, not actually eating a cow.]" Echo said. I swore I heard her chuckle. "[But you did make a big deal out of it.]"
"[What are you talking about?]" I asked, getting confused.
"[You made a big deal about-]" Echo started to answer before Delta shook her head. "[Oh, should we not?]"
Delta shook her head and started chuckling after looking at me.
"[What was she going to say?]" I wondered. Charlie looked over at them and realization came across her face. Then, she looked at me and was cracking up too. "[What?]"
They continued to laugh while pointing at me. I was kind of frustrated at why they wouldn't tell me what Echo said, but I was more confused.
"[Stop it.]" I requested, which only made them laugh harder. They only stopped laughing when something that sounded like a whine made us cringe.
"Attention all ACU staff, there has been a containment breach in the aviary. Please respond to Main Street immediately." A male voice said. "Use only liquid tranquilizers. Do not fire live ammunition. I repeat, do not fire live ammunition."
"[What's going on?]" I asked.
"Hurry!" I heard humans shouting as they ran around the catwalks and outside of our paddock. "We have assets inbound!"
"[Assets?]" Charlie wondered. "[What do they mean by that?]"
"[I think they mean other dinosaurs.]" Delta told her.
"[Wait, dinosaurs are coming here?!]" Echo realized.
Our thoughts were confirmed when we heard a strange kind of shrieking noise coming from above us. At first, I thought they were birds, but they didn't look like any kind of bird that I have ever seen. Most of the birds that I have seen around here are what my dad and his allies call "seagulls". However, these "birds" were several times larger than a normal one, their beaks were abnormally large, they had some kind of skin or something where their wings should be-unless those skin membranes are their wings, and they had what looked like bone or a growth of some kind on the top of their heads. There was another kind too. They were virtually the same, but they lacked a growth on the top of their heads, they did not have a long beak and instead had sharp gangly teeth and were much smaller.
"[What kind of dinosaurs are those?]" Delta wondered.
"[I don't think those are dinosaurs, Delta.]" I answered.
"[Well are they dangerous?]" Charlie asked before we heard screaming. We looked up to see one of the larger birds tackle a man on a catwalk, sending him falling to the ground head first. He didn't get up.
"[I'm going to say that they are.]" I replied.
"[Gotcha!]" I heard from above me and saw one of the smaller birds flying at me. I jumped to the side to avoid the bird, which passed me completely. Immediately I leapt forwards and jumped right on top of it, sending my sickle claws into its throat. As soon as it stopped twitching I stepped off of it and saw my sisters staring at me.
"[Don't just stand there!]" I ordered. "[Spread out and stay on your guard.]"
"[Got it!]" They all answered in unison before each of them moved to a different part of our staging area.
I was happy that they were all keeping their eyes on the sky and that I didn't have to tell them to do that. If only we had a way to communicate with our human handlers about this amongst all of the chaos around here, then so many of them wouldn't be getting killed. I took a quick glance out of our paddock and saw that one handler was trying to run away from one of the larger birds. He dove under a white metal box in an attempt to escape but he was pulled out by the bird grabbing onto his leg with its beak. He started to scream and tried to get up but was pecked and stabbed multiple times by its beak.
I heard some shrieking coming from above me and just barely managed to leap to the side in avoidance of a large beak that was about to impale me. The large bird used the claws on the middle of its wings to vault towards me and get into the air, however, as it was doing so, I noticed that it needed to stabilize itself in order to start flying and I took action. I ran towards the large bird and ducked low to the ground when it tried to grab at me with its talons, before running around and jumping on its back before it got too high. I heard it yell at me to get off, but I ignored it. I held onto it by grabbing at where its wings connected to its torso with my arms while sinking my teeth into the back of its neck. I felt this bird try to shake me off, but I secured my hold and forced it to the ground by putting my feet on its wings, to which I followed up by sending my killing claws through its wings. This caused it to shriek in pain and lose its stability, sending it plummeting to the ground with a thud; I immediately got my footing and re-adjusted my hold on its neck before ripping into its throat with my teeth.
"[I have really got to start practicing what I preach.]" I muttered to myself after I had just finished licking the blood off my teeth. I looked over to see how the rest of my family was handling the attack on our territory. Echo was slamming one of the smaller birds against the ground repeatedly with her teeth around its neck, and Delta had just tricked one of the larger ones into flying against a wall. Charlie was being chased around by a smaller one that kept trying to snap at her.
"[Charlie! You're just wasting energy running around.]" I yelled. "[You have to take action!]"
"[I'm trying!]" She yelled back. "[Its moving around too much.]"
"[Your life is on the line!]" I shouted before she started running around. "[Charlie!]"
"[I have an idea!]" She replied as she ran past Delta.
"[Is your idea to get yourself killed?!]" I frantically asked. I didn't know what to do as I wanted to help her with her attacker, but I didn't want to make her stumble or become vulnerable. I saw the small bird that was chasing her get frustrated and fly up high, gliding around for a couple of seconds before diving at Charlie with incredible speed. Impulsively, I started to run towards her in an attempt to save her from this bird. "[Charlie!]"
Suddenly, Charlie stopped in place, while the smaller bird missed her and did not have time to adjust to Charlie's quick change in position, instead having flown to where she would be had she not stopped. As the bird was turning to face her, Charlie was already lunging at it with a headbutt. Losing its stability, the bird fell to the ground, to which it immediately tried to lunge at Charlie and was pushed forcefully towards the ground. Charlie sent her killing claws into the bird's neck and its entire body fell limp, to which Charlie responded by sinking her teeth into the back of its neck and jerking her head back quickly, breaking the birds neck with an audible snap.
"[What did you just do?]" I asked in wonder.
"[I got the bird to make itself vulnerable!]" Charlie cheerfuly answered. "[I made it frustrated so that it would attack from a new angle! I knew that these birds aren't suited for sweeping attacks, at least not down here, so if they want to attack efficiently, then they have to dive at us, making it easier for us to attack from the sides."
To say that I was impressed was an understatement.
We heard a shrill cry come from above us and we immediately prepared for an attack but instead saw that one of the larger birds had fallen to the ground with something that had a blue feather sticking out of it. I recognized it as something that those armored humans used to make us sleepy whenever dad had to take us to a location called the DMC or something. It made me sleepy, but it didn't knock me out completely for some reason, at least most of the time. I have no idea why it did that for me but not for my sisters. Regardless, everyone knew that we would be very pissed off when we woke up and/or became alert. It took a lot of Rice Krispies and time for us to forgive them.
"Get off of me!" We heard Duke yell as one of the large birds had its beak around something that looked like what the armored humans pointed at us whenever we started acting up. "I won't let you have them!"
"[Is he talking about us?]" Delta wondered as she looked at him before turning her head to watch the sky.
"[I don't know.]" Echo replied.
"Fuck!" Duke yelled as he was pushed over the side of the railing, and we immediately became fearful for him.
The larger bird took flight and turned to head straight towards Duke, who was now holding onto the railing to avoid falling. He saw this coming however and waited until the bird got close enough before letting go, causing the bird to slam into the railing of the catwalk and get its head stuck due to the long crest on top of its head. Duke landed on the ground but immediately fell when he tried to stand up. I ran over to help but faltered when the large bird fell right on top of him. The two immediately got into a struggling match where the bird attempted to push itself off of Duke and stab him, while he tried to keep it from doing so and flip it under him. Recognizing that the bird was stronger than Duke, I ran over to them and took a sharp thud to my face before recovering and leaping onto the large bird to pull it off him. I grabbed it by its beak with my jaw and pulled harshly, and as soon as I started to get it off of him, Duke assisted by kicking it in the chest with his uninjured leg. This helped me to flip it onto its back and I immediately tore into its throat with my mouth. Duke started to get up but stumbled again and I saw that he was favoring his right leg. When he looked up at me I saw that he had a very cautious look and was holding his hands palm-out towards me.
"Woah, woah!" Duke yelled. "Hold it right there. Don't eat me, okay?"
"[A little gratitude would be nice, 'thank you' perhaps?]" I muttered with a flat expression on my face and rolled my eyes.
"Duke! Run over here! Hurry!" I heard a voice yell and I turned my head. My eyes widened at what I saw and I reacted immediately. I ducked down and lifted up the corpse of the bird that I had just killed and heard something hit it but dropped it immediately when I felt a sharp stinging sensation run through my body. I saw that the bird's corpse now had a bunch of barbs sticking in it which connected via wires to what looked like a small black box.
"[What the fuck?!]" I yelled at them after I noticed that the barbs were sparking.
"Why the fuck did you do that?!" An armored human yelled at another. "You alerted that animal to me."
Taking advantage of the distraction, I quickly moved forwards, making sure to stay low to the ground while acting as submissive as possible. I walked in front of Duke who had barely moved towards the gate and stopped there. This drew the attention of the armored human and he raised his weapon at me again. I saw that he was confused by my behavior and had not launched that barbed thing at me, so I made sure to avoid showing my teeth.
"Hold on! Hold your fire." Duke yelled.
"Are you fucking crazy!" The armored human yelled. "That is a fucking velociraptor at your feet!"
"At least she's not on my neck." He replied.
"Not yet!" The armored human said.
"Look, I need to get over there." Duke noted. "How do you suppose I do that without help?"
"Oh you are NOT saying what I think you're saying!" The armored human realized.
"This girl is willing to help me and so are her sisters. Why do you think I haven't been attacked by another Pteranodon or those smaller yet equally will-fuck-up-your-day Dimorphodons?" Duke asked.
"So that's what those things are called." I learned before realizing that we needed to get moving and tilted my head towards the door. "[Come on.]"
"Yeah, let's go." Duke said with a smile, to which I returned with my own. I stood up fully and helped Duke walk by allowing him to lean on me as he wrapped an arm over me. "Thank you by the way."
"[You're welcome.]" I replied, deciding not to be rude and instead let him go on his initial lack-of-gratitude. In less than a minute we had arrived at the gate to which Duke used the frame as a support to hop in. I was about to follow him in when suddenly an armored human pointed his weapon right between my eyes and I blinked.
"Out." He said, before his weapon was immediately lifted away from my face and he was punched in his.
"Come on in." Duke cheerfully told us while bowing.
"[Echo, Charlie, Delta!]" I called. "[Come on!]"
My sisters started to run towards me, but I noticed that when they turned to do so, they were no longer watching the sky. The Pteranodons and Dimorphodons noticed this too and swooped down to attack them. I opened my mouth to warn them, but I was cut off immediately by a pained shriek coming from one of the smaller birds chasing them, who fell to the ground and started twitching. I looked at Duke and saw that he had grabbed the weapon that the armored human was about to use on me and instead was using it on the birds that were trying to attack my sisters. Two more Pteranodons were brought down to the ground in the same way while Echo and Delta ran into the room where we were.
"Shit! I'm out of Taser clips." Duke announced as he checked his pockets. "Anyone have any?"
"I don't, but I got this tranq-dart." A female handler said. "I lost my rifle tho-"
"Give it to me!" Duke yelled. "Now!"
As soon as the dart was in his hands, Duke was out the door and inside our paddock. Charlie had been the farthest from the door when I told her and the rest of my siblings to get inside this room. So, while Delta and Echo had already gotten inside, Charlie was just now getting to the door. What's more is that since most of the humans around here right about now were not the armored ones, that meant that virtually no one was making the Pteranodons and Dimorphodons fall unconscious.
"Inside! Go!" Duke yelled as he pushed Charlie inside. As soon as she was, he immediately turned around to block a Pteranodon from flying inside with his bare hands. "Leon! Shut the door!"
"Duke, no!" Leon protested while standing next to the door. "Not yet!"
"Shut it now or you're all dead!" Duke ordered.
"Just tranquilize it and get in!" Leon pleaded.
"Dammit, Leon! Do you want other birds to get in there as well?" Duke yelled. "Do as I say! As soon as I tranq her I will roll in!"
I turned my head and saw the button that Leon had his hand on. I looked back at Duke and saw that he was struggling to get a hand into position to inject the Pteranodon with the needle. I also saw that it looked like more of those birds along with Dimorphodons were starting to fly towards the opening that Duke was at since it was the only entrance that was completely open. I desperately wanted to run out and help him, and it was very obvious that the rest of my sisters wanted to as well. However, we knew that we shouldn't; the whole reason that Duke had ran outside was so that Charlie could get inside safely. We were running out of options and we were running out fast. So, in an instant, I had knocked Leon out of the way and into several other people so that I could reach and press the button that he had his hand on.
The buzzing alarm of the siren was the only thing I heard as the door started to shut. We all started cheering for Duke and yelling at him to hurry up, with us getting louder as the door shut further… and further… and further. The door was now halfway shut and the Pteranodon was still struggling to pull itself away from Duke to attack him with its beak, and Duke was still struggling to get himself into a position where he could stick the needle into the Pteranodon. The door was getting closer to shutting completely and we became even more panicked when suddenly, hope struck us. While trying to jab at Duke, the Pteranodon hit its beak against a metal part of the gate, causing its head to be knocked back. This gave Duke the opening he needed to push the Pteranodon off of him and inject the tranquilizer dart into its hide. He spun around to roll into the room…
And a large beak covered in blood filled my vision.
"At… least… you're all… safe…" Duke gasped as he reached his shaking arm through a hole of the now-closed gate and ran it softly across my muzzle before both he and the Pteranodon fell to the ground with a groan. There were only two differences between them. 1: The Pteranodon didn't have a gaping red hole in its chest; and 2: The Pteranodon was still breathing.
"[Duke…?!]" I asked, to which I did not get a response. "[NO! DUKE!]"
There was a rustling to my right and another groan was heard. The armored human woke up after being punched by Duke and upon noticing me shaking, my hitched and quick breathing, and the terrified, tearful look in my eyes, he looked to where I was and yelled in anger at what he saw.
"How did this happen?!" The armored human yelled. "TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"
"He-he-he ran out to s-s-sa-save Charlie." Leon sobbed. "He was g-g-o-going to come back in but-"
"But what?!" The armored human demanded. "What aren't you telling me?"
"He w-wanted me to s-s-start shutting t-the do-o-or first." Leon said. "I-I couldn't so…"
"So who did?" The armored human asked.
"[I did.]" I whined, unable to make eye contact.
"It was you?" He asked. For some reason, I felt myself starting to become submissive; I think it was because I felt guilty at being partially responsible for Duke's death. "You locked him out?"
"[Yes…]" I answered.
"How could you fucking do that to him!" He yelled. "He was my friend and you killed him!"
"He told us to, Steve!" Leon snapped at him. "If that door wasn't shut we all could have died. Duke made sure to remind us of that and told us to shut the door so no assets would follow him in after he tranquilized that bird like he planned to. I couldn't shut the door so Blue here took action. Both she and Duke actually saved our lives."
Steve looked emotionally torn between attacking me in revenge or focusing on keeping the rest of us safe. I wouldn't blame him if he chose the former, I don't even think I would have fought back. Before he could make a decision, another large beak shot through the bars next to my head and made me stumble back. In doing so, I accidentally stumbled into several other people alongside Delta and pushed them towards the other side of the room. A cry of pain drew my attention and I saw a female human fall to one knee while holding her right arm, which was now bleeding heavily.
"Everyone, get down low to the ground and step away from the walls." Steve ordered, to which everyone immediately obeyed. "Someone help Olivia make her way over to me."
We were all watching the walls and doing our best to stay away from them as several Pteranodons tried to reach us by stabbing their beaks through the bars, while Dimorphodons tried to squeeze between them, luckily being too big to do so. The injured human named Olivia was almost stabbed again from above but was able to get over to Steve safely.
"Leon, grab my radio and set it to channel 12, frequency 102.11; then hold it up to my ear." Steve requested. "Commander Quis, do you read me? This is trooper Steve Resow."
"Kind of busy right now, Resow." Commander Quis replied. I heard thuds coming from where his voice was and I could barely hear that over screaming. "Is it a major problem?"
"Damn right it is." Steve said as he tended to Olivia's injuries. "I am currently located at the Raptor Research Arena and we are surrounded by numerous Pteranodons and Dimorphodons."
"Are you safe?" Quis asked.
"No, not really." Steve admitted. "We are pinned in the open area between the interior and the exterior of the raptor paddock, although some managed to make it into the corridors next to it. The assets are currently unable to reach us, but it is a pain in the ass to keep them from doing so. We need rescue immediately as we have sustained numerous casualties and we have many staff in need of immediate medical attention."
"Mr. Grady is requesting the status of his velociraptors." Quis relayed.
"[Dad!]" I chirped. I was so happy to know that he was safe right now, and so were my sisters.
"Resow… what was that?" Quis asked.
"That… that was Mr. Grady's velociraptor. His beta, Blue, if I recall." Steve answered. "The others are also in the room with us."
"WHAT?!" Quis yelled, prompting Steve to take his ear away from the radio for a moment.
"Commander! All four of the velociraptors are in this room with us but, believe it or not, they are not being hostile." Steve reported. "They are safe, and surprisingly, they helped keep the other assets from causing any more casualties by protecting us."
"I informed Mr. Grady on the status of his velociraptors. Are you positive that they are not hostile, and that they are actively keeping you safe?" Quis questioned.
"Affirmative, commander. Du- Handler Duke Fuzze was killed-in-action for holding off a pteranodon so that a velociraptor could make it to safety. Correct?" Steve said, asking Leon for clarity.
"Very well. How many are still alive and safe?" Quis requested.
"17 Sir, and that is including the velociraptors." Steve told him. "Because of that it is a very tight fit here since we're having to stay low and away from the walls."
"Roger that, a team should be there in about 20 minutes." Quis notified.
"Twenty minutes?!" Steve exclaimed. "How do you expect us to last that long?"
"The same way you are now." Quis responded. "By staying low and away from the walls. Look, I'm sorry, but that's all the advice I can give you. The asset implants are acting up and I have to go."
"What? Wait!" Steve realized. "Oh my god, this is unbelievable."
"[You're telling me.]" I muttered as I looked around at the Pteranodons and Dimorphodons trying to attack from every angle.
"[Blue?]" I heard Charlie call and I looked at her to see tears forming in her eyes. "[I'm scared.]"
"[Please, let me over.]" I requested to some humans.
Although they couldn't understand me, they looked at where I was trying to go, and upon noticing that Charlie was on the brink of tears, immediately made what little room they could. Thankfully, it was enough for me to get over to my baby sister.
"[So am I, Char.]" I comforted as I nuzzled her. She claimed that she hated my nickname for her, but it always brought such a sweet smile to her face. "[I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't afraid.]"
"[But you're always so strong and fierce, Blueberry.]" Charlie quietly said. "[You're never afraid of anything.]"
I loved it when she called me Blueberry. It was such a sweet and adorable nickname that I couldn't help but pick it up. She usually calls me Blueberry when I have recently done something that she is immensely grateful for or whenever I've been doting on her. Considering how often I do just that, that just goes to show how much she loves the big things I do for her.
"[Char, dear. I am just like you, I too get scared at times.]" I told her. "[I just try not to show it as much because you all look up to me for leadership. I don't want you to be afraid and upset, so I do my best to hide my fears.]"
"[Dad said that I have something called odontophobia.]" Echo revealed after she had made her way over to us. "[I think that means I'm afraid of losing teeth or fucking my jaw up again.]"
I felt a sheepish smile work its way onto my face when Echo said that. I knew that it wasn't exactly my fault that Echo had that fear, however I couldn't help but feel partially responsible for exposing her to the circumstances that created it. When me and Echo had fought for the position of beta in our dad's pack, I had really fucked Echo's jaw up. Immediately after I pinned her to the ground and asserted my new authority, I lost all of it. Echo started choking and somehow managed to shake me off of her, and once she got up she started coughing up her own blood. When we both realized exactly what just happened, we started freaking out. I started calling for help even though dad was watching, and Echo tried the same before she started spitting up blood again and bleeding even more heavily from her mouth.
I couldn't remember much of what happened after that very clearly, probably because I was attacked by whatever those little feathered things were that made me drowsy. The next day however, I learned that whatever those things did that made my sisters fall asleep had worn off right as a vet was sticking something sharp into Echo's mouth when she went to the DMC after our fight. From what I heard about that… it was not pretty for anyone. When she heard she had to go back the evening of the following day, she was chased all the way to the other side of our game trails; which was an insanely long way, all because she was deathly afraid to go back. It was a pain in the metaphorical ass to get her to go there anytime she needed check-ups done on her, and she always needed to be sedated to get her there.
"[Sorry, Elvis.]" I said.
"[You don't have to be, at least I can still use my lower jaw.]" Echo replied. "[And don't call me Elvis, it's bad enough that these humans call me that.]"
"[Hey, Charlie.]" Delta spoke up. "[I too have a fear you know. I'm really scared of small spaces.]"
Now that was definitely true. Delta always had a hard time staying calm whenever she had to go to the DMC for any reason, or even when Barry would take us out to dad's nest and back. It was such a pain in the ass to keep her calm, quiet, and still whenever she or we all were being transported. One time it got so bad that not even Rice Krispies would get her into the grey box and so we had to walk to Dad's nesting grounds and back.
If I recall correctly, this all started one time when we were sleeping out at Dad's nest. It was back when we were still small enough to fit in Dad's nest, which was a long time ago, long enough that I can barely even remember that time. I only learned about it a couple of years ago when Barry mentioned it to dad. Anyways, Delta had fallen through the ground inside of a structure there when she woke up in the middle of the night and decided to walk around, and she was not quiet at all once she fell inside. Dad had considered busting up the ground to get her out but was really worried about the possibility of frightening her even moreso in addition to hurting her. Instead, he opted to take out sections of the ground to retrieve her safely. Unfortunately, being that it was the middle of the night, he had trouble finding whatever he needed to do so since he had left said things outside. This, added to the fact that he had to keep an eye on us to make sure we didn't fall in as well or get lost, meant that Delta was stuck underneath the ground for almost an hour, more than enough time to frighten her.
"[See Char, we all have our own fears.]" I softly said. "[I'm sure you do as well.]"
"[Well-]" She started to say before lifting her head up.
"[Don't look at them, sweetie.]" I told her. "[Just keep your eyes on us, okay?]"
"[Alright.]" Charlie quietly agreed. "[I suppose I am a little bit afraid of those little black and yellow bug things.]"
That was all I needed to hear. I got Charlie to open up about herself and keep her focus on us instead of the creatures trying to attack us. I knew that Charlie was more than just "a little bit afraid" of those wasps, as Barry called them. A while ago, Charlie here thought that it was a great idea to play with what she thought was a grey ball hanging from a tree. It wasn't a grey ball. We all heard her screaming and making calls for help. It was a pain to get her to calm down enough to get her into the tunnel next to us right now and away from the wasps, and we all took quite a few stings to our faces and bodies; even dad got a few. For Charlie they were pretty bad since she got the most, she even got some in her mouth because she tried to bite the "ball". Dad had to carry some kind of needle around afterwards because Charlie had something called an allergy; kind of like an incurable disease as it was explained to me.
We were taken to the DMC after the wasp attack had subsided, where we were treated by a very sweet girl who had something on her skin that looked like a skull similar to our head shape. She said that she got it in memory of a friend that she once knew. I remember dad explaining that it was like my blue stripe, but not natural, and that humans could choose to put them on their skin and design them any way they desired. At first, I was confused as to why humans would choose to alter their skin and add something that wasn't natural to it, but then I started to think about possible designs. I considered a bone, a wave of water, and even… Kenny. When dad saw the gears turning in my head, he sternly told me that I was not allowed to get a tattoo. He then turned to the female human he called "Jess" and quietly asked her if it was even possible for me to get a tattoo. She looked at me and said, "Who knows?" and winked.
"[Hey, Blue?]" Charlie asked.
"[Huh?]" I said, being snapped out of my memories.
"[What are you afraid of?]" Charlie wondered.
"[Well, I-]" I mumbled, trying to find an explanation before giving up and just speaking clearly. "[I'm afraid of losing you three.]"
"[Really?]" Delta replied. "[Blue, you know that we worry about you too, right? But are you really afraid of that?]"
"[I mean it, Delta!]" I snapped, making her jump slightly. "[I am deathly afraid of losing you all, of your lives being taken away and never seeing you again. It's not just my duty as the beta of this pack to keep you safe at any cost, even my life if it comes to that; and not even as your oldest sister as well, but because I love you. I love you all dearly and I am so fucking scared of not being able to keep you out of danger.]"
"[You won't lose us.]" Echo said. "[I prom-]"
"[You can't promise that!]" I yelled at her. "[You can't promise that I won't lose you. Echo, when you suddenly vanished a few years ago while being rushed to the DMC, I freaked out. Delta still has a scar from when I snapped at her that time; it's small and barely visible, but it's there! I had failed you as your beta, your sister, and your friend. I wasn't there when you needed me the most. You were gone for almost a whole month, and although I tried my best to deny it every single fucking day… I thought you were dead. That's when my fear was created, and I still have it.]"
"[Blue, please listen to every word that I'm about to say.]" Charlie said to me with a very serious tone as Echo looked at the ground. "[You can't keep us out of danger. You can't keep us from getting hurt, and you can't keep us from getting killed. As packmates, it is our duty to keep all of us safe. As family it is our duty to understand each other and help them through troubling times. As your sisters, it is our duty to keep you from making stupid decisions and to guide you in the right direction. What kind of creatures would we be if we let you go into danger alone? If we refused to follow you into life-threatening situations because you were too stubborn and prideful to listen to us or dad?]"
I was standing still and with my jaw on the ground as my youngest sister was speaking to me in a tone that I had never heard from her before. She was demanding my complete attention and I was listening dammit.
"[So, while we can't promise that we won't get hurt or killed, we can, and do, promise that we will do our damndest to stay alive so that we can watch out for you.]" Charlie continued. "[We also promise to fuck anyone up who tries to separate us, right you two?]"
"[Damn right!]" Echo and Delta agreed.
"[Got it, Blueberry?]" Charlie asked.
"[Yeah.]" I tearfully agreed before affectionately nuzzling her. "[I fucking love you all.]"
Suddenly, we all dropped to the ground while screaming as continuous "pops" sounded around us. We could barely hear dings of something hitting the metal bars around us over our screams and those of the birds around us. It felt like hours before the "pops" finally stopped. After a very long pause, we all slowly lifted our heads and took in our surroundings; we were horrified at what we saw. All of the birds that attacked us were lying on the ground while bleeding from holes all over their bodies as pools of blood formed underneath them. We immediately realized that wasn't the worst part… some of them were still making quick, fearful breaths as they twitched and cried in pain.
"What the fuck, Hoskins?! You nearly killed us!" Leon yelled.
"I suggest you show some gratitude, kid. Besides, we never shot anywhere near you." Thumper dismissed, to which Leon pointed at a dent in one of the bars surrounding the room. "Well I still didn't hit you, so you should be thanking me."
"Hoskins! All ACU and Park Rangers were given strict orders to fire only liquid-tranquilizers, NOT live-ammunition." Steve yelled. "Who the fuck do you think you are disobeying orders from Control and massacring these assets?"
"Hey, Fat-ass!" We heard Barry call out and crooned at knowing that he was here now. "These are living, feeling creatures! How could you just casually slaughter them all with no hesitation! You-"
"I am the man who you fuckers now answer to." Thumper loudly announced after firing his gun as a pteranodon fell to the ground while screaming with a hole in its neck. "Due to the events arising at Jurassic World, and the unfortunate death of CEO Simon Masrani, the board of Masrani Global has declared a state-of-emergency for the island of Isla Nublar. In order to halt the rampage of the Indominus Rex, and to save the 20,000 plus visitors present on this island, emergency operations have been assigned to my private security division and you all are to take orders from me effective immediately. In spite of this however, and I'm going to be brutally honest here: I don't like any of you. Not one of you fuckers has the experience or the will to kill this thing or any of the assets for that matter, so you all are being relieved of duty."
"What do you mean by 'relieved of duty'?" Steve asked.
"Oh for fuck's sake… you're all fired." Thumper sighed. "Except you, Barry. I need your sorry ass."
"Control, is any of what this asshole Hoskins is saying true?" Steve asked into his talking box.
"Yes, former ACU trooper Resow." A male voice said. "I strongly recommend that you watch your language around the commander. He has orders to shoot-to-kill."
"Where is Lowery Cruthers?" Steve asked.
"He is not here, that's all you need to know." The voice said.
"What?" Thumper asked before pulling out his own talking box. "Connor, repeat that?"
"Lowery Cruthers has disappeared." The voice named Connor replied. "He stole a radio and we can't find him."
"You'd better fucking find him and fast!" Thumper yelled into the box. "If Grady finds out what we're doing here we're all fucked!"
"Too late." Barry spoke up, holding up his own box while holding down part of it. "I've already told him when you got here, where you arrived, and why I couldn't tell him when you did and why no one could tell you to leave."
"How did you-" Thumper asked in confusion before he was cut off.
"I'm not finished. Owen also knows why you brought your personal army here. The only live-fire weapons that the ACU carries are shotguns and a few models of assault rifles, and the only heavy weapon that they have is the M134 minigun." Barry continued. "Do they have rocket launchers? No. Do they have grenade launchers? No. You plan to have your men go out on this hunt. Aren't you?"
"You answer to me, remember?" Thumper dismissed.
"Owen, what's your ETA to my location?" Barry requested.
"15 minutes." We heard dad say.
"Shit." Thumper grumbled. "Everyone! Let's move these things out of here! We have to get set up now!"
"Yes, sir!" Various humans agreed before taking out equipment from their trucks.
"Hoskins. I know that you're going to say no, but I will still ask that you do not do this." Barry requested. "Blue and her sisters are not the only ones at risk here, there are other living creatures here as well. They don't have to die, you know that, right?"
"Uhhhhh, what? I don't see any living lizards." Thumper asked in fake-confusion before walking over and kicking the corpse of a dimorphodon, sending it flying several feet. "What are you talking about?"
"Well I do see them." Barry replied before pulling out a white bandage. "I'm going to help them, without you."
Barry proceeded to walk over to a whimpering Pteranodon with several holes in its wings before repeated bangs and a cut-off screech made him freeze in his steps. He turned to face Thumper with a horrified expression.
"How could you?" He simply asked.
"Because I felt like it." Thumper chuckled, making us growl before he walked over to the room that we were in. Having enough, I pushed my way to the front as he continued talking. "Everyone! I am your commanding officer and you are not going to do anything except what me or the men in my command order you to! You will do exactly what we say, exactly as we say it! Am I clear?!"
"[WE WILL NEVER TAKE ORDERS FROM THE LIKES OF YOU!]" I snarled.
"Holy fucking shit!" Thumper yelled and the next thing that I knew, a loud bang had sounded with a metallic ding following it. There was a very sharp, painful sensation on the left side of my lower jaw, and the front of his weapon was smoking.
"[All you have ever done for our entire lives is try to use us against our will for your "military" thing. You dishonor those who dedicate their lives to their packmates and their territory, you threaten to kill those who do not see things in the sick way you do.]" I snarled in fury as I ignored the pain in my jaw and the blood trickling down my chin. "[You have never cared about us at all. You see us not as living beings just like you, but just as objects to hurt others; you deny us our rights; and you are sending us into an impossible fight that you know we may not return from! If you really intend to use us as weapons to hunt another dinosaur, and if you honestly believe that we will listen to you and your fucked up allies… then let me tell you something.]"
I denied myself the urge to laugh at his fearful face as he stepped back when a sinister grin made its way onto my maw.
"[I will personally make your death as slow and painful as possible. I will spread it out over all of time if I can, just to bring you the agony and misery that you have inflicted upon my most precious family, my pack, and my friends.]" I said. "[As punishment for breaking my sister's foot and her face, and immediately laughing about it, I will break every single bone in your body. Bone. By. Fucking. Bone. Then, I am going to use the large claws on my feet to cut off the thing you call a dick, and I will enjoy doing it to a bitch like yourself. After that, I'm going to crush the hands you desire to use to kill us and everyone we love; when I do that, I'm going to cut each of your fingers off and shove them down your throat after I cram your dick down it. I will have so much fun when I cut you up all over your fat body. I will slash you over and over again until you are as red as the rage that I feel for you; I got news for you though: you will never be able to reach that level. When I'm all done having my fun gutting you like the fat pig you are, guess what I'm going to do? Nothing. I'm going to let you bleed out all while you look me in the eyes and see the anger and hatred that I have felt for you ever since I first laid eyes on you. Our kind eats our prey while they're still kicking; we don't like to let the meat spoil. Delta can't wait to taste you, and she will make it hurt. I can't wait for you to burn in hell. We. Fucking. Hate. You.]"
"Someone get those fucking things out of there." Thumper ordered after a very long pause. "None of you are getting out until they're caged up."
"[Don't listen to him.]" I told Steve. "[You don't have to do what he says.]"
"Blue, please. Do what he says." I heard Barry request.
"[What the fuck Barry, you're agreeing with him?!]" I growled, a hurt expression clearly present on my face. "[How could you say such a thing?]"
"Blue, I am still your friend." Barry said, to which I had trouble believing. "Please understand where I am coming from on this."
I would let him explain only because he was (or still is) a friend of mine. He would get one chance to explain himself, and he had better make it a damn great one.
"There are over 20,000 humans still on this island, and I don't even know the exact number of dinosaurs here. This hybrid has killed nearly every single creature that she has come across, and the only weapon possible of even killing this creature has been destroyed. If she is not stopped before she gets to the center of the park, she will kill everyone. Including your dad, your sisters, and Kenny." Barry explained, causing my blood to run cold. "That's why you four are planned to be sent out to help hunt down this creature. You are the only dinosaurs on this island who will listen to a human giving you orders, and who actually has a reason to obey those orders. That's why your father is coming here. He knows that you likely won't hesitate to maul someone like this fat-ass next to me, so he's going to lead you into battle if he can't keep you from getting sent out there. He's been forced into an impossible decision: let you get sent out there and die, or partake in Hoskins's dirty scheme to have a chance at keeping you safe and uninjured. He doesn't want to lose you too."
"Too?" I wondered.
"Do you understand, Blue?" Barry asked. "Why this is happening, and why I need you to get out of that room and into your ready-cages?"
"[Fine…]" I sighed, accepting his explanation, and reached over to grab a human's knife, holding up a claw digit to stop them when they tried to grab it. I barked to get Barry's attention and pointed to Thumper, mimicking pulling out a knife and pointed to Delta.
"He actually pulled a knife on her?!" Barry asked to which I nodded and gave the human back his knife, then proceeded to the back of the room, where I saw someone about to push the button that would open the door leading inside to our paddock. I gently pushed them out of the way and hit the button that said "open". "[If we're going to leave this room, then I am going to make damn sure that it's because we let ourselves out and not because someone told us to.]"
I signaled for my sisters to follow me and turned to face a grinning Thumper. I held out my right arm so that the palm of my claws was facing me and turned them as far up as I could, which wasn't very far. I then extended the center digit on my claws while keeping my others curled up, and Thumper's grin faded instantly. Barry started cracking up and I walked outside of the room with my sisters following me, and we were all startled when the dirt in front of us was kicked up.
"Get inside you filthy animals!" An armored human that didn't look like Steve yelled. "Now!"
I felt something wet on my feet and looked down to see that the Pteranodon Duke tranquilized was now dead. At least this one wasn't awake at the time.
"[Fuck you.]" I growled after reaching down with my teeth to throw a stick at the human. "[Come on, let's go.]"
I dragged my feet on the ground to get the blood off and walked inside the tunnel. It felt like we were walking to our own execution.
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I fucking hated being restrained like this. Here I was, being forced to watch as the terrible humans under Thumper's command trespassed on our territory and brought tons of weapons and other things with them. There were also a lot of armored vehicles moving around, and I swear I saw some of them with guns on top. All of this was happening as something was being wrapped around my upper neck, I didn't know what it was, but I hated it. It was very tight and uncomfortable. I kept growling my irritation at this and ordering the humans in front of me to take it off, but they kept snickering at my frustration and my inability to do anything to them… for now.
I wanted to kill them so badly. I wanted to tear them apart and hurt them so much. They had the nerve to come to our territory and force our family and pack to throw away our lives and participate in their game. I knew that this wasn't just about saving other humans, there was something else going on here. Why else would they need to come out with us? Why else would they be strapping these fucking things onto our necks? They still wanted something from us. Regardless of whether we succeed or fail, they want to take away something from our hunt, they want to learn about what we can do. I wanted to kill everyone who desired to use us for these corrupted and wrong purposes. However, I couldn't.
It wasn't just because of the restraints keeping me in place, but because of my friends. The friends who weren't exactly part of our pack, yet still were from a certain point of view. Barry, Leon, Steve, and several others were still here. If we really did find a way to escape and attack everyone who took pleasure from sending us on a suicide mission, then the filthy humans that Thumper brought here wouldn't hesitate to kill us. Barry definitely wouldn't let that happen, and I'm sure that others would step in to protect us, but in doing so, there was a great chance that they would become hurt or even killed. I did not want that to happen, so I reluctantly resisted the urge to attack them and instead chose to growl and spit profanities at the humans getting us ready.
"[Look at what even Hell cast out.]" I heard Echo chirp and looked to my left to see Thumper coming over to us
"[Oh, I'm going to make Hell take him.]" I growled.
"Live and ready to go." I heard a male human announce. "Time to go."
"Time to go and die you motherfucker." I mentally muttered.
"[Don't you fucking dare come any closer to me, Slow Spurt.]" Delta growled as Thumper continued to approach her. "[How about I slice off your ears so that I know you're not ignoring me? That would be nice wouldn't it?]"
Thumper crouched down right in front of Delta and tapped the arm of a human next to him. The human turned to show him something on a thin, rectangular object. From the time that I spent looking at it, it looked like what was directly in front of Delta, except it was green and things like eyes were lit up, almost as if they were a light. A human was just next to me adjusting something on whatever was around my neck and he was also holding one of those rectangular objects. I remember that I saw Barry on it, which was weird considering that Barry was right in front of me.
"Oh great. These things on our necks allow these humans to see what we see." I realized. "No wonder they're so dead-set on going through with this. They want to see what we'll do when we get released."
"Hey! Right here." Thumper demanded before chuckling at Delta's inability to attack him. "Right here. If you even think about spitting at me again, I'm busting out every single one of your teeth, and they won't grow back. Got it?"
"She looks at what she wants." Barry said. "Usually what she wants to eat."
"[What I will eat.]" Delta corrected as she glared at Thumper.
"Yeah well she better stop glaring at me like that unless she wants to end up with four inches of steel buried in her eyes." He said and grabbed the top of her muzzle. "You got that bitch?"
I started to snarl loudly and drew his attention until something caught my eye and I yelled with glee. "[Look! It's Kenny!]"
I saw Kenny riding an ATV as a car moved up beside him, and they pulled to a stop as they approached our paddock and Kenny got off of the ATV to hobble over to us. I saw that he was leaning on something as he was walking over, and I grew concerned at why he might be doing that, however I became very happy at what I saw next. Dad got out of the car and didn't even bother to shut the door, and a female human with red hair got out of it as well, shutting the side that she got out on with a slam. I struggled to remember her name, she felt familiar, but I decided to keep my focus on dad.
"[They're finally here.]" Delta huffed in relief.
"[Here comes dad!]" I chirped loudly.
"The mother hen has finally arrived." Thumper greeted and was immediately slugged in his face by our furious dad. We became concerned when a few of Thumper's allies grabbed their weapons and came over to them, but we expressed our glee nonetheless.
"[Hell yeah!]" We all screeched, with Delta's drowning the rest of our sounds out.
"Get the hell out of here, and stay the fuck away from my animals." Dad ordered Thumper.
"Hoskins, you wanted this to happen, you son of a bitch!" The red-haired human yelled at him.
I still couldn't remember who she was, all I did remember is that I didn't really like her. She's not exactly mean or manipulative or anything like that, she's just… cold. That wasn't what I was seeing now though, she seemed very irritated by the fact that Thumper had gotten so far in his plan without anyone being able to stop him. However, now she seemed actively involved in doing everything she could to keep us from being sent out. She was starting to earn my respect.
"You bastard! As soon as Simon died you saw your chance to use Blue and her sisters as weapons of war!" Kenny followed up with the verbal assault on Thumper. "That's the whole reason you started this project, isn't it?!"
"Project? What project?" I wondered. "What is Kenny talking about?"
"Oh Jesus!" Thumper yelled back, standing his ground. "How many more people have to die, before this mission starts to make sense to you?"
"It's not a mission." Barry clarified.
"[Exactly!]" Charlie agreed.
"It's a field test." Barry reminded.
"[It's a suicide mission.]" I grumbled.
"This is an InGen situation now." Thumper countered. I growled in irritation at Thumper rubbing his newfound authority in dad's face. "Okay, there are going to be cruise ships that show up here at first light. Everybody's gonna get off this island. You're gonna watch a news story tomorrow about how you all saved lives. No, no, better yet, how your animals saved lives!"
"They've never been out of containment." Barry told them. "It's crazy."
I barely noticed the fact that Barry was lying in front of Thumper for us. This was because I was audibly seething in rage and that I was starting to breathe in and out very quickly. I saw that Delta was strongly considering urging me to calm down but didn't. I'm not sure if it was because she didn't want me to verbally snap at her, or because she thought my behavior was justified; either way, I didn't blame her. I noticed that she was seething too, but wasn't breathing in the way that I was.
"Let's move it out!" Thumper yelled to his allies.
"[Hit him again!]" Echo called to them, her request going unheard for them due to the engines of the vehicles around us.
"This is happening!" Thumper yelled in dad and Kenny's faces. "With or without you!"
"This isn't just about the Indominus, I can clearly tell that." Kenny confronted Thumper. "So cut the bullshit, cut the lies, and tell us what all of this is really about!"
"You're right. I'm done beating around the bush with you two. If they kill that monster, we're taking those raptors and sending them into priority combat zones." Thumper stood up to Kenny. I was snarling in rage, my sisters included, when Thumper disrespected us by implying that we would fail in his hunt. "They will be the new rapid-response unit of the United States Marines. The triple R: Rapid Raptor Response."
"THAT DOES IT!" Kenny yelled in fury and swung his right foot between Thumper's legs.
"[FUCK YEAH!]" I hooted in ecstasy, my sisters giving their own cries of joy.
I knew exactly what it felt like to be hit there. One day, dad was testing our ability to quickly climb up steep changes in elevation and had set up some kinds of bars on some small cliffs that we had to grab onto with our forearms, then pull ourselves up with while pushing off the cliffside using our hind legs. I forgot that I had to pull myself up with a lot of force using my forearms and fell… right onto a tree branch that just so happened to go between my legs. I nipped at all of my sisters for laughing at me, flipped Kenny off for doing the same, and brought out the belt buckle for dad when he did it. I couldn't pick a victim in time when I threw up as well. The pain was unbearable for me when that happened, and normally I would cringe in sympathy when it would happen to someone that I didn't hate. Thumper was not one of those people. I started getting giddy with excitement when Kenny stood overtop of Thumper, even keeping a foot on his chest.
"I HAVE FUCKING HAD IT WITH YOUR ABUSE OF THESE LOVING CREATURES!" Kenny shouted in Thumper's face. Kenny then grabbed the pole-thing that he had been leaning on and did something that made a blue light come on at the tip. I didn't know what it was, but I have seen what it could do to living things; hence why I yelled "[Yes!]" every time Kenny hit Thumper with it. "Gunning down a family of pteranodons in Washington and their children in cold blood! Deliberately breaking Delta's foot and her mouth by throwing rocks at her and then laughing about it, and then trying to kill her today! Psychologically torturing the Indominus and treating her like a slave when she could have been part of our pack!"
I was about to warn Kenny about Thumper's allies drawing their weapons on him, but he had already made the light at the top go away, as if he was expecting them to come.
"I am fucking done with your obsession on taking Blue, Delta, Echo, and Charlie, and sending them into open warfare! I am done being nice with you! They will never listen to you or anyone like you!" Kenny yelled with a growl present in his voice, making my heart warm with every word. "Owen, Barry, and I understand them, and they understand us! We love each other! We are a pack! If anyone tries to take us apart then we will end them! Packmates stick together no matter what! Do I make myself clear?"
"He thinks we're a pack?" I thought in wonder. "He thinks of me not just as a friend, but as a packmate? Oh Kenny…"
"Get off me!" Thumper yelled in anger.
"Answer me!" Kenny shouted.
"GOD! YES!" Thumper yelled. Kenny immediately took his foot off of Thumper's chest and turned around only to be greeted by the humans who approached dad when he punched Thumper. Only this time, they had their weapons pointed at Kenny, and we were growling in warning at them, but Kenny became such a badass with how he responded.
"Get those fucking pea-shooters out of my face." Kenny ordered, casually pushing a weapon away. "Oh, and your safety's on."
The human whose gun Kenny pushed away looked at it with a confused expression and turned it over before pushing something on it. If we weren't being set up for a suicide mission and all these people weren't around, I would screw Kenny right here and now; actually, I would probably screw him regardless of whether or not others were around.
"You pulled a knife on her?!" Dad demanded furiously as Kenny left and Barry followed him. "And you shot Blue?!"
"Lay off, bitch!" Thumper casually said. "That one raptor had the nerve to talk back to me months ago and threatened to cut off my dick, and it still glares at me every damn day. And your pal Blue got very detailed about how they were going to kill me, I don't need to speak bitch to understand that. How are they supposed to follow orders if they don't learn to respect their superiors?"
"I am their superior!" Owen reminded as he pulled a blade out from behind him. "Give me one damn great reason why I shouldn't give Delta the justice she deserves."
"My persuader is great enough reason." A human with almost no hair on his head said as he pointed his weapon at my dad's head. I scratched myself on a piece of metal trying to get out of my restraints to protect him. "Put the knife away, bitch."
"You shoot me, and my girls will cut off your dicks and make you bleed out like a sprinkler at 1060 West Addison Street." Dad casually replied, barely giving a glance at the human pointing a weapon at him. "So, you put down the gun, bitch."
"Those things aren't shit." The human scoffed.
"Alright." Dad said and started to move but the human with the red hair stopped him when he had barely even moved a muscle.
"Owen, you get yourself killed here and your raptors will have no one to keep them safe when they get sent out." She warned. "You know what will happen then. They'll attack these men to honor your death, get shot and killed, and no one will be able to stop the Indominus, meaning that thousands of people and dinosaurs will die. Do you really want that?"
I don't know who that female human is, but dad really needs to court her.
"You need to get into the control room, right? To be in control of this thing?" Dad asked as he put the knife away. "You should get going. You don't want to be late."
Thumper simply chuckled as he walked away to his personal vehicle. While Dad walked over to where Kenny and Barry were, the female human who was with him went back to her own; I think I could see two younger humans in there.
"[Hey, Delta.]" I said, getting my sister's attention. "[Do you see those two younger humans in that car?]"
"[Kind of.]" Delta replied. "[What about them?]"
"[Who do you suppose they are?]" I wondered.
"[I don't know… Claire's hatchlings?]" Delta speculated.
"[Oh, so that's her name.]" I remembered.
"[Delta, humans don't lay eggs.]" Echo chuckled.
"[You know what I mean!]" Delta retorted. "[Her children, her young, her offspring.]"
"[Remind me to ask Kenny for a thesaurus.]" Echo sarcastically said.
"[What kind of dinosaur is a thesaurus?]" Charlie wondered.
I was wondering the same thing, but Echo started cracking up and I had no idea why. I was about to ask what a Thesaurus looked like when Delta made me jump and bang my head on the top of the restraints around my head.
"[OH MY GOD!]" Delta screeched. "[HI CHRIS!]"
"[What?]" I asked, partially because Delta had screamed so loud. It almost sounded like she spoke English for a second.
"[Chris! Over here!]" Delta called.
"[Who's Chris?]" Charlie wondered.
"[Chris is my love.]" Delta admitted with a slight blush showing on her scales.
"[Wait, this guy is the one who you get horny with?]" I asked.
"[No.]" Delta replied.
"[Then who is?]" Echo wondered.
"[Barry.]" Delta said.
"[The fuck!?]" The rest of us exclaimed.
"[Relax, I'm just messing with you.]" Delta laughed.
"Well, look who it is." Chris said as he came over to Delta. "First day back from my vacation and a genetic hybrid breaks out, Pteranodons are playing hot potato, and my looooooouuuuuuucky girl is being sent off to war."
"[Subtle.]" I chuckled.
"I know that you're going to totally kick hybrid ass out there, but I doubt that you're still going to come out uninjured. Even if you don't, it sure would be a shame if you scratched yourself on a tree branch." Chris said with a wink as he leaned next to another human adjusting part of the collar-thing around Delta's neck. "Then you'd have to come to the DMC, I'd have to take care of you, make you feel better. Still, I'm sure that we could find a way to celebrate your victory."
"[You're gonna get screwed so hard.]" I snickered.
"[Blue, shut up.]" Delta replied with a smirk.
"Is that a yes?" Chris wondered.
"[Definitely!]" Delta chirped giddily. I chuckled at how excited she was to get screwed.
"Hmm… I couldn't understand that." Chris said with a grin. "How about this: purr if you said yes."
Chris then scratched the lower right part of Delta's chin and she made an audible purr.
"[Yeeeeeaaahhh…]" She sighed in bliss.
"It's a promise then." Chris said. "I'll check in on you tomorrow morning, okay?"
"[It's a plan.]" Delta agreed. "[Hey, Blue?]"
"[Hmm?]" I mumbled and saw that she was looking over at the door while winking.
I looked over at it and grinned when I saw Kenny coming over. I couldn't help but stare happily into his eyes as he came over to me specifically. However, my happiness faded when I smelled something strange. I sniffed more deeply to get a better sense of where they were coming from, and glanced all over his body before I saw what made everything click in my head. He had bandages wrapped around his right arm, his torso, and his right leg… all of them red.
"Oh my god. Kenny, you're bleeding!" I realized as my eyes widened in shock. I can't believe Kenny chucked at my reaction "Dear lord, how can you stand? How could you kick Thumper like that and not react? Wait, are you acting okay just for me?"
"Don't worry, sweetie. I'll be fine. I'll heal from this." Kenny softly spoke while rubbing my chin.
"[But Kenny, how can you be this calm?]" I whined, resisting the urge to purr at his touch. "[It looks like you lost a lot of blood. I don't want you to die.]"
"Blue, please, look at me." Kenny requested as he kneeled down on his left leg to look me in the eyes, to which I reluctantly met. "I promise you that I'll be okay. Don't you trust me?"
I couldn't deny him that, I trusted Kenny with my life. Hearing him promise me that he would be fine, especially with such conviction behind his words, I just knew that he was going to keep his promise. Knowing this, a small smile worked its way onto my maw, when Kenny returned it, mine grew into a huge and happy grin. Kenny started to scratch the left side of my muzzle and rubbed it softly.
"[Ahh, yes, Kenny.]" I purred in relief at his rubbing, closing my eyes at the pleasurable feelings that he was giving me. I even tried to push my head into his hand to get more of these feelings, and I got what I wished for. Kenny started rubbing the other side of my head and this caused my purring to become even louder. Sadly, it didn't happen for very long.
"Hey, Kenny." Dad told him. "Please let me over there, I need to get her ready.
"Okay…" Kenny sighed after giving me a look of sympathy. "Sorry, Blue."
"[No… no please don't leave.]" I whined as dad came over to me, and even though Kenny was still close to me, I did not hesitate to make my frustration known. "[Get Kenny back over here right fucking now.]"
"Easy, Blue." Dad requested. "Easy. Attagirl."
Although he wasn't Kenny, dad rubbing the sides of my muzzle helped calm me down somewhat, but really it was because Kenny hadn't left the room. I noticed that Delta was staring at Kenny's wraps and I could only assume that Echo and Charlie were as well. Much like he could tell with me, Kenny noticed the worried expressions on their faces as well.
"What I told her goes for you three as well." Kenny told them. "I'll be fine."
"You don't scare me." Dad taunted me with a soft tone in his voice.
"[Hah, yeah. Sure I don't, dad.]" I chuckled.
"Owen." I heard a small voice say. Dad turned around and I saw that it was one of the kids who Claire was talking to earlier. "Are they safe?"
"[Hah, no.]" I snorted.
"No, they're not." Dad answered, to which Kenny nodded in agreement.
"What are their names?" The older human next to the small one asked. I liked this human, he assumed we have names despite also having the appearance of vicious animals.
"Well to start off, here's Kenny." Dad started, pointing to him. "I just let him in today. Very loyal, dedicated, and caring."
"You're part of their pack?" The tall one questioned.
"[Damn right he is.]" I said with a smile.
"Yup." Kenny agreed. "I'm an omega."
"Hey, I treat you all equally, no one here is worth any more than someone else." Dad sternly told Kenny while pointing at him, even adding in an extra point which made me laugh.
"That's so cool." The short one said with a cute voice and so full of wonder that I couldn't help but croon at. "What about the raptors?"
"Well, you got Charlie." Dad continued while he pointed at her. "She has the olive-green coat with the black stripes on top. She's the youngest and is very childish. Since she's so unpredictable and immature, I have to keep my eyes on her all the time."
"[I am not immature!]" Charlie protested, and Kenny laughed at her.
"You know I'm right!" Dad countered while smirking at her. "I counted that you hit your sisters with your tail six times this morning!"
"[It's true.]" Delta chuckled.
"She's like you, Gray." The older human teased.
"Hmm, he seems to treat the younger human next to him like we do to each other. Perhaps they're family?" I speculated.
"Hey!" Gray pushed his brother lightly, laughing while doing so. "What about the others?"
"There's Echo." Dad continued. "She has sandy-brown scales with blue stripes scattered across her body and a long scar on the right side of her muzzle."
"How'd she get it?" The older human asked. "And what's up with her jaw? It looks… off."
"She and Blue battled for dominance four-and-a-half years ago." Dad explained, making me wince at the memory. "She lost and got that scar while her jaw was permanently offset, we couldn't fix it without risk of greater injury."
"Too bad they can't get braces." The older sibling sympathized. "Although they suck."
"They do?" Gray wondered.
"Yeah." The sibling answered. "You'll find out when you get them."
"Here is Delta." Dad moved on once the older sibling had finished talking. "She's the one with the teal scale color, blue markings, and she is usually Blue's second in command."
"What?" Gray asked.
"I'll get to that in a moment." Dad replied. "This one's called Blue. She has a silver and jade-green scale color with a tan underbelly and a metallic-blue coating over her scales, her most prominent feature is a blue stripe with a white outline that runs from her eyes, all the way to the tip of her tail. Delta answers to her and keeps her in check by guiding her. She's the beta."
"Who's the alpha?" Gray asked.
"You're looking at him, kid." Dad simply answered.
"You are such a badass." The older brother replied while his brother looked on in awe at dad.
"Hey, Owen, look who's coming." Kenny said as he motioned towards the open space outside of the bars in front of us.
"[Heya!]" Echo greeted as Claire was coming over to us. She leaned on the metal fence right next to Gray and his older brother, and I wondered why she was here.
"So… this is who you've been spending all your time with." Claire implied.
"[Yup!]" Charlie agreed.
"What can I say?" Dad replied. "She gets me."
"What's the holdup?" A man asked, his voice sounding like how the person Steve was talking to earlier sounded, Connor I think. "Let's roll!"
"[Shut the fuck up!]" I shouted at the bodiless voice.
"This ain't a good idea." Dad stated before pointing at her. "Especially if it works."
"And why might that be?" Claire inquired.
"There's no plan in place to get them back here." Dad replied. "I'm taking advantage of that. As soon as this is over, they're going free."
"Really?!" I thought with a bit of excitement. "Dad's going to take us to new places?"
"Are you kidding?" Claire requested, shock present in her voice.
"No, I'm not." Dad answered. "Once we kill the Indominus, I'm letting them go. I'm letting them live their lives free now. They deserve it, and I'll stay with them."
"He's going to stay with us!" I thought with even more excitement.
"You're… staying here?" Claire wondered in disbelief.
"Well, I never said that." Dad replied. "But I am their dad."
"[Oh dad, thank you so very much.]" I quietly said.
"Look, if I do stay, I'll keep in touch." Dad told Claire. "If not, then we'll figure something out on how to deal with Hoskins. He's not taking them when they win. I'll tell you what I mean by that later."
"That's right dad. When we win." I mentally commended. I then saw that dad was looking around at parts of the area outside the room that he was in and I wondered what he was looking for.
"Zach, Gray. Here's a radio." Dad addressed as he handed the two younger humans something that looked like Steve was talking into earlier. "When I call you, I want you to run towards the planning room that you saw me and Barry in earlier. I want you to shout my name and make it seem like I'm over there. I need you to distract the soldiers around here. Can you please do that?"
"Wait, what do you mean when you call them?" Claire wondered.
"Kenny, it's time for you to say goodbye to my girls." Dad said. I didn't even catch what else he said.
"Say… goodbye?" I thought. The next thing I heard was clicking, and I turned my head to where it came from. "[Huh?]"
Claire jumped when we pulled our heads out of our restraints and dad motioned for her to not make any noise. I too was wondering why we could suddenly move freely but that and all other thoughts were evicted from my head at the next words that dad said.
"Alright, you should say your goodbyes." Dad told us as he looked at something on his arm. "I'd say that we only have a few minutes at most."
"Please Owen, I don't want to… please don't make us do this." Kenny begged, falling to his knees as he started to tear up.
"[Dad, please listen to him.]" I whined. "[Don't make him leave. Please don't!]"
"Look, I hate to do this. I really do." Dad said as he kneeled down and leaned over to us to put his hands on my shoulder as well as Kenny's. "But no one's going to be coming back to this island, if I could have it any other way, I would choose that option in an instant. Sadly, that's not a luxury we have. So, I made sure to take this time to allow you all to say goodbye. I know that this is hard now but trust me when I say that it would be even worse if you never got to say your goodbyes to each other."
"[Kenny?]" Charlie sorrowfully whined while approaching him with tears streaming down her face. "[You don't really have to leave us… right? Please tell me it isn't true. I'll really miss you a lot and so very much. I want to play with you so much more. We haven't done it enough… please don't go. Pretty please?]"
"Oh, Charlie. I guess I really do have to leave the four of you. I am so sorry that I have to leave all of you. You all are so special to me." Kenny sadly said. "Do you remember that drawing I made of you, Charlie? That drawing was my very first drawing of you. I am so happy that I was able to show it to you and give you it. When this is all over, will you please keep it with you to remember me by?"
Charlie stayed silent as she nodded her head in agreement before stepping closer to Kenny and nuzzling the side of his head. Kenny started to cry when he returned her hug and nuzzled her as well before Echo came over to Kenny and nudged his head.
"[May I?]" Echo mumbled. Charlie understood completely and stepped to the side so that Echo could say her farewells. "[I know that you're going to say that I don't have to thank you, but I will anyways. I owe you so much for that day when you visited me in the vet. I was so heartbroken, I was so depressed, and you just came right on in and made me feel better. I still don't know how you did it, how you understood me so well and knew just what to tell me. So, thank you oh so very much.]"
"Echo, I can't tell you how many times I have thanked you for helping me to get this job." Kenny told her as he had his hands on her shoulders as well.
"[You've told me so many times I lost count.]" Echo said with a sad smile before Kenny softly ran his hand over the scar that I gave her. "[I still appreciate you saying it though.]"
"I wish that I was trained and able to treat this and your jaw when they got hurt. But I am so grateful that we were able to bond during that vet visit in September. Sure, it got me in trouble, but it was so worth it. I'm so happy that I was able to play my guitar for you. Please, keep the card and the drawing that I gave you. Are they still at Owen's bungalow?" Kenny asked.
Echo nodded her head and Kenny leaned closer to her head and started to whisper something in her ear. I really wanted to know what he was telling her, but I wasn't going to intrude on their privacy. That, and I was still in denial about what was happening. Kenny nuzzled her head while rubbing the sides of her neck before he released her and turned to Delta. She was sniffling which made Kenny and me cry even more.
"Delta, I am so sorry that I didn't get you much over the years other than my time and a get well sculpture. I will have you know that when Hoskins broke your foot and your muzzle, I stole his keys and wallet and threw them into the ocean, and I also filled his gas tank up with water, anything more extreme and he would have suspected something. But I am so happy that today, I was able to make you feel much better by putting that sadistic bastard in his place." Kenny softly said before hugging her as well. "I'll miss you."
"[You don't have to worry, Kenny.]" Delta crooned, her voice audibly breaking up often while she rubbed his shoulders. "[You have given me enough over the years, and I am so thankful for all of it. After Slow Spurt broke my foot, my ankle, and my muzzle, you teaching me and helping me get through recovery as we both healed meant so much to me. I'll keep your sculpture for me by my side forever, okay? Thank you so much. You truly are a sweet man.]"
Delta tightened her hug on Kenny for a moment and stepped aside, making plenty of room for me. Kenny turned to face me, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to step forwards and say goodbye, because to me, that would mean acknowledging the fact that this was really happening. But I also didn't want to leave without saying anything to him. I was fighting so hard to keep my tears from showing that I was shaking. To my great relief and sorrow, Kenny came over to me and started rubbing my chin tenderly.
"Oh, my dear Blue. I am going to miss you so much. All these years that I have been with you and your sisters, they are the most precious thing that I have ever received. Nothing, absolutely nothing means more to me than the treasured memories that we have made." Kenny said as he was full-on crying now. I was starting to fail in holding back my tears. "I still have the matching necklace of the one that I gave to you. I have worn it every single day since I first got it, I'm wearing it right now and I will make sure to wear it every single day from now on. I promise you that."
"Owen! Where are you?" A man outside requested loudly. "It's time to go!"
"Zach, Gray, do it now." Dad spoke into his radio, and shouting was heard outside. "Kenny, it's time to go."
"I'm so sorry, Blue. I have to go now." Kenny cried while hugging me tightly. "Your eyes are so wonderful, and you are so very beautiful, Blue. I love you."
Kenny slowly pulled away from me and started to walk away. I hesitated and was too late in holding onto him.
"[I never got to say goodbye.]" I stuttered, my voice breaking up so much.
"[Then go and say it.]" Delta said with a claw on my shoulder, which immediately fell off when I bolted towards Kenny.
"[KENNY!]" I cried and knocked him to the ground when I ran into him. I immediately stood over him and pulled his torso up to hold him tightly against me while I pressed my neck against him affectionately. "[Please don't go! I'm begging you! You just became part of our pack and I don't want to lose you! You have always been so nice to me, you have always valued me for who I am, and you have always been there for me. Please don't go away. If you do, then I'll never see you again! I love you, Kenny. I love you!]"
"I'm so scared, Blue. I don't want to let go. I'm so scared that I'll never see you again." Kenny cried into the scales on my chest while pulling me closer to him. I pulled him tighter against my chest as well. "You mean so much to me and I'm so scared that I'll never be able to see you again, that I'll never be able to play with you anymore, and that I'll never be able to hold you like this. I don't know how, I don't even know if it's possible, but I'll find a way to see you again. It may not be here, but I promise I will."
"I'm sorry, all of you." Dad told us, his voice sounded strained, as if he was fighting back tears as well. "We have to go… now."
"Let's pull away on three okay, Blue? When we do, we say goodbye, we turn away, and we don't look back." Kenny proposed, and I hesitated for a moment, contemplating the possibility of leaving with him, before I gave in to reality and nodded my head in agreement. "1… 2….. 3. Goodbye, Blue."
"[Goodbye, Kenny.]" I cried and turned away from him as he said goodbye.
Every time I took a step, the number of tears flowing down my face increased. Every time I took a step, I felt Kenny's teardrops flow down the scales on my chest. Every time I took a step, I turned my head to look straight ahead because I started to turn around with the intent of seeing Kenny one last time. With every step, I was reminded of the presence of my sisters and said an uncountable number of thanks. With their supporting looks, and the agreement that Kenny and I had made, I was able to resist the urge to look back at Kenny. I almost missed hearing dad ask everyone outside why they were just standing around and that they had work to do.
"[Blue?]" I heard Charlie ask and jumped slightly at the sound of her voice.
"[Yes?]" I asked, I noticed that my voice sounded emotionless.
"[He'll be fine.]" Charlie replied.
"[You don't know that.]" I said sadly.
"[Yeah, and he doesn't know if we'll be fine either.]" Charlie retorted. "[But he has faith that we will be. He trusts us, and he has faith in our ability to get shit done.]"
"[Well, yeah.]" I agreed, but Charlie wasn't convinced.
"[Blue, has Kenny ever made a promise to us that he has never kept?]" Charlie questioned. "[Even one?]"
"[No.]" I sighed after a long pause.
"[Then trust him, okay?]" Charlie replied. "[The night isn't over.]"
"Get ready you four!" Dad warned.
"[Yeah, I trust him.]" I agreed as I got into position at the end of the corridor. "[I gotta get ready for this. If I'm not psyched up and not focused, then I know I won't see him again.]"
"[That's the spirit!]" Charlie commended from the opposite end.
"[Let's do this!]" I said with excitement while I wiped my tears away. "[We have a bitch to kill.]"
We heard dad's whistle and knew that was our cue to fucking pay attention. I heard Charlie sniff deeply.
"[Whoo, I know I can follow this scent.]" Charlie snorted. I heard clicking coming from outside of her door.
"[I got it.]" Delta said after inhaling strongly, clicking following. "[I can smell her like I can smell Blue after she plays with herself.]"
"[Hey!]" I laughed.
"[Gotcha!]" Echo said with a huge grin, more clicking coming after she showed certainty in her voice.
Then the scent was at my door. I made sure to inhale with my nostrils as deeply as I could. I could smell the blood, the meat, the rage. I memorized it all.
"[We got you.]" I swore on this hybrid with a proud smirk. I loved the sound of that clicker. "[You're all ours.]"
"Three buzzes, then you're out." Dad informed.
"[Got it, Alpha!]" I agreed, switching back to my hunting mindset out of respect.
"Alright everyone!" Alpha called out. "Remember these things. 1: Me and my girls take point and you follow our command. 2: You do not fire if my girls- my velociraptors if any of you try to be smartasses- are in the line of fire. Lastly, 3: You fire when, and only when I explicitly give the order to do so. Got it?"
"Alpha's being smart, for once. Not Stupid Alpha." I thought with a snicker, briefly remembering all the times when he would make stupid decisions like taking away our Rice Krispies or letting Charlie chew up some strange thing that Alpha called a "remote".
"Yes, sir!" I heard the people outside agree. I felt briefly suspicious when some of those people sounded slightly sarcastic, but I was snapped out of my thoughts when alpha spoke up again.
"Leon. Let's do this!" Alpha spoke up.
"[So, Leon's releasing us?]" I wondered. "[Heh, brave kid.]"
"Here we go!" A man shouted before the buzzer sounded.
One…
Two…
Three…
"[Alright!]" I shouted once the doors opened and bolted out. "[Let's go!]"
My sisters were right on my tail as we heard the growls of the engines for the vehicles the humans were using. I knew that they were following us, and I still didn't know why. Perhaps they really needed our speed and our intelligence to take down this hybrid; or maybe they were only using us and alpha to find this hybrid and planned to take our kill away from us once she was dead. Regardless, I knew that this speculation was going to get me nowhere. We were on a hunt, a real hunt with our alpha in the woods; and Thumper's men were far behind us. So, I shook my head to clear it, and I was so glad that I did.
"[Log! Jump now!]" I ordered, having spotted it soon enough to move around it.
"[Thanks!]" Echo replied.
"[Split, Char!]" I said as I sidestepped a tree while looking at another one. I took a split glance at her after I sidestepped another one and saw that she was already on it. She had seen what I was looking at and was already clear of the tree. In fact, she was running up an overturned tree trunk when I saw her and thanks to her on-the-spot ingenuity I was able to avoid a large rock. "[Amazing! Thanks, sis!]"
I really wanted to commend her even more for being ready and quick to act, however the scent of our prey was getting stronger, so I quickly planned out the path that we had to take. While I knew that me and my sisters could maneuver around obstacles with ease and change direction quickly, the humans following us didn't have that luxury (including our alpha) because of the size of the things they were riding, so we had to be mindful of their limits when choosing our path. Looking ahead and seeing another obstacle, an overturned tree trunk, I gave my sisters their orders.
"[Echo and Charlie, switch!]" I ordered. "[Delta, right!]"
Moving instantly, Charlie and Echo switched positions with such fluid movements and having an exceptionally keen eye on their surroundings. This is what made Charlie duck her head to run under the log while Echo and I jumped over it, as Delta ran around to the right, showing the humans how to get around the obstacle quickly.
"[We're getting closer!]" I informed after landing back on the ground. "[Spread out! Faster!]"
"[Alright!]" Echo agreed while moving back to my left.
"[Charlie, with Blue!]" Delta ordered.
"[You got it!]" Charlie agreed.
I smiled at this. Delta was doing a wonderful job helping Charlie out on her first real hunt by watching out for her and keeping her self-confidence up. Granted, she was doing her fair-share of encouragement, but as the pack beta I was responsible for taking point on this hunt, and thus responsible for keeping all of us safe. So, while I had to keep us organized and direct us on the right course, I also had to keep Charlie focused and engaged instead of allowing her to slip into her thoughts or become panicked. I was very thankful that my most mature sister had already thought of watching over our least-experienced one, and knew who to send her to, and I didn't even have to ask her to do so, she knew me that well.
"[Charlie!]" I yelled when I noticed her strafing too far to the right. "[Get back over here!]"
I wasn't too thrilled when Charlie decided to run in front of me, but I held my tongue. I wasn't going to scold her about it, at least not now. Technically, she was following my orders, and she was probably having tunnel vision right now. I was getting really annoyed with her inexperience when we were doing exercises with Alpha; and I could only blame myself. I really needed to convince Alpha to take us on more runs, or at least to give us more difficult ones, so that way I can put Charlie in a leading position and get her more experience. The exercise we did this morning was one that we had done tons of times before, and Charlie was still uncertain when she picked up our prey's scent. While she did have it, her low self-confidence caused her to stall, which would impede both her and us on a real hunt. Here we were on one, and it was showing.
"All right, I really need to talk with Alpha about this, and soon." I mentally promised. I looked up at Charlie and saw that Delta was talking to her. At least Charlie was still listening to us. "We need to go on another run soon; one without strings attached."
"[Sorry.]" Charlie apologized as she came back to my side along with Delta.
"[Apologize to me later.]" I replied. "[I'll accept it, but now is not the time.]"
"[Got it.]" Charlie agreed with a smile.
"[Turn left!]" I ordered while jumping over a hill. "[We're on the right track!]"
"[Alpha is catching up to us!]" Delta informed.
I felt my heart sink a little at this. While I was fully aware that this was a real hunt, with real stakes, I couldn't help but feel a bit competitive when we were all running towards our prey. Alpha usually raced us a lot in some open fields around our paddock, and I almost always lost before falling over and rapidly panting in an attempt to catch my breath. Eventually I learned that Alpha only had a chance of beating me when he was on top of his motorcycle, so one day while we were out at his nest I cut something that looked like a black vine or string under it to have a chance at beating him. I won that day. My prize? An intense spray of water, several harsh slaps, and no Rice Krispies for a month (which I managed to work down to a couple of weeks with the mighty belt-buckle). It was so worth it.
"[Let's hurry!]" Echo cheered.
I laughed at her insistence on racing dad, she was usually the one who begged Alpha to race her. She always dragged me into them, and so I had to go to Alpha, to which I proceeded to whine and groan at him. It was mostly me just mocking Echo, which made both me and Alpha laugh to the point of tears. Echo hated us for doing that repeatedly, and I loved it because it was one of the many things that me and Alpha would laugh over and understand each other without the need of words. I couldn't wait to do some role reversal with Echo and beg her to race with Alpha soon. Let's see how she likes being woken up before first light.
"[Make way!]" Echo warned.
I didn't even have to look back to know that Alpha was coming up behind us. I could hear his ride growling and even quietly growled myself, knowing that he was riding between us now. However, I stopped growling to allow a small smile to form in happiness as this happened.
"[I'm coming over.]" Charlie announced as she moved behind Alpha over to my side.
"[Alright! I'll switch too.]" Delta replied.
I felt a lot of pride at this. If there was one thing that Charlie was good at amongst the many other things that she was, it was teamwork. Charlie and Delta were such fluid partners when going on runs that sometimes we would let them create a plan for going about what Alpha ordered at the time. Charlie and I were also pretty good at coordinating with each other, but it was with Echo that Charlie had trouble planning and communicating with. It wasn't just this morning that Charlie repeatedly whacked Echo with her tail, that was something she did a lot and almost every day, even to me and Delta. However, before the Indominus escaped from her paddock, Charlie and Echo had told me that they went out onto the game trail and did a quick run to practice coordinating with each other better, and while doing so promised that they would do more of those runs together to get more practice soon.
"[Hey, Alpha. You're falling behind again.]" I teased.
"[Aww, poor Alpha.]" Charlie jeered.
Alpha glanced over at me and he must have seen the mischievous glint in my eye because he smirked very slightly, but I saw it, and seeing it made me especially happy. I couldn't help but grin in glee as I felt the closeness of my alpha and sisters. It has been so long, so terribly long since we and Alpha have gone on a hunt together, over a year in fact. We hunted something Duke called a Parasaurolophus Lux and when Dad and I finally brought her down, it was so delicious to eat with him and my sisters. While I kept referring to this hunt as a real one, I knew full well that wasn't true and that this hunt was being controlled by Thumper and his allies. Still, if Thumper thought that we weren't going to enjoy this time with our Alpha, then he was damn wrong.
"[Ready?]" Charlie asked.
"[We're almost there!]" I yelled while feeling massive hype. "[Let's do this!]"
"Showoff!" I heard Alpha playfully taunt after I jumped over a log and a rock, not even touching the ground between them.
"[You think you can do better?]" I quipped after flashing him a challenging look. "[Bring it!]"
Alpha only responded by shaking his head with a smile on his face before looking behind him and frowning, and I did the same as I knew why, he was still very upset with Thumper's men following us and so was I. I hated that Thumper and his allies were doing everything they could to ruin this hunt for us and that they were finding pleasure in doing so. It was taking immense amounts of self-restraint to keep myself from lashing out at them for doing this, and even more so because of how they threatened Kenny and our Alpha. I knew that if I attacked them- even if it was without the intent to kill- then so would my sisters, and that would only result in our bloodshed. If that happened, then we would definitely never see Kenny again; so, I resisted the urge to kill them, and thankfully a scent distracted me further from these thoughts.
"[Smell that?]" I asked Delta.
"[Sure do!]" Delta answered. "[To the left!]"
"[Left!]" Echo relayed to Charlie.
"[Wait! We're going too far to the left!]" Charlie yelled, running up to my left. "[The wind is carrying the scent that way, we need to head to the right slightly.]"
"[Oh my god, you're right, Char!]" I realized after sniffing the air strongly. "[Thanks so much. Why don't you direct us back to the right path?]"
"[No problem, Blueberry.]" Charlie replied, making my heart warm again at the nickname. "[This way!]"
Charlie directed us towards the right and I was so proud of her when the scent of the Indominus was much stronger after we did. Just this morning, Charlie was very unsure of herself and uncertain on whether she had correctly identified the scent of our prey. Now, she was leading us on the correct path at this moment because of such a small detail that I hadn't even noticed despite officially being responsible for leading us to our prey; I never noticed that the wind had shifted directions. Charlie loved to give her meals up to me because of how much admiration and respect that she had for me, well now it was time for a little role-reversal. Charlie was going to have the biggest part of the Indominus to eat when we killed her.
"[You're the best!]" Echo praised while playfully nudging Charlie.
"[Thanks!]" Charlie replied. "[You too.]"
"[But you are more.]" Echo countered.
"[Quiet!]" Delta yelled. "[The scent is really strong now!]"
"[We're almost there.]" I said. "[Better slow down now.]"
"[Got it.]" Charlie agreed as we slowed down to a jog.
"[We're here!]" I yelled after we moved into a small clearing. "[Spread out!]"
"[You heard her!]" Echo ordered, mostly to the humans behind us (except Alpha and Barry).
I could understand why, but I couldn't believe that it was actually happening. I was scared. I felt my heart thumping really fast and I was taking in breaths quicker than normal. This is a situation that nothing could have prepared us for. We had no idea what this Indominus Rex creature looked like, how big or fast she was, or what she could do. We were basically going into this blind. If we failed and were killed, then Alpha and Barry would be at risk; if they and Thumper's allies failed and were killed, then thousands of innocent lives would be lost. We were the only ones capable of stopping this creature, the last line of defense between life and death for the innocent humans.
"[Let's stop here.]" I said quickly.
"[Blue.]" Delta called me. "[We got this.]"
"[Yeah, thanks.]" I replied.
"[You shouldn't have come here!]" A loud voice boomed from within the woods in front of us and made us all freeze in place. We had never heard such a voice before; it was clearly feminine, but it didn't sound natural, almost as if multiple voices were speaking all at once in perfect harmony. It had a voice that was smooth like a flowing river, but it was also as thick as mud. I was so caught up in trying to understand this new and mysterious voice, that I almost missed Charlie speaking.
"[Who's there?]" She called out.
"[Shut up.]" I quietly told her. I had to remind her that I was supposed to be the one to analyze the situation.
"[If you want to live, then you're going to listen to what I have to say.]" The voice said as footsteps thudded closer to us. Whatever this creature looked like, she was big.
"[I don't like this…]" Delta told us.
"[You can call me… Gwen.]" The creature told us as she stepped out from the trees, our jaws dropping in shock at the massive titan in front of us.
She was so fucking tall, probably even taller than us if we stood on top of each other. I couldn't help but notice her claws, they looked almost like a human's; the missing claw digit I wouldn't question, as we had similar claws, but we've never seen something like the joints her digits appeared to have on any animal we've encountered aside from humans. I also noticed her scales, which looked almost like a bright white color, except with hints of grey layered across them. I don't know how she wasn't killed or captured throughout the whole day. I suppose I could attribute her survival to her strength, due to how muscled she looked; even still, strength would only get her so much, and while speed may get her more, I didn't think that she could run very fast with how large she was. Still, humans were exceptionally resourceful, I'm sure that they would have found other ways to bring her down, lethal or not with how fucking easy it was to see her. Charlie's scale colors were mostly green, and Delta's were similar to hers as well; so they could hide in bushes or against trees easier, and Echo could too because her dark blue stripes really split up the shape of her body. Regrettably, I was the easiest to spot because a big blue stripe running along both sides of your body was pretty damning, so if I wanted to have a greater chance of hiding, I'd need to cover ourselves in dirt and mud. I didn't think that would do this girl any good, because if any scales were visible then humans wouldn't even have to get close to make her fall asleep or shoot her.
Her head looked kind of… different too. Her teeth were sharp and jutted out at unnatural angles. What's more, when she first came out of the woods her jaws were closed, and yet I could still see her teeth then. There were probably a lot of teeth that were sticking up or down at bad angles, and it looked like they really hurt when her jaws were shut. I bet that was why she was keeping her jaw open now. I also saw that there were ridges that ended in sharp points on top of her head, but her eyes were the scariest things about her. They were a dark orange color, but from where I was, they looked like they were burning with a deep crimson red. I couldn't help but shudder in fear at them, and I prayed that she didn't see me do that.
"[Why are you here?]" Echo questioned.
"[To save you.]" Gwen answered in a very familiar tone.
"[You can talk just like us?]" I asked in shock.
"[Yes.]" She simply replied. "[Now, you need to listen to me.]"
"[No!]" I yelled. "[You are not our alpha, you are a murderer!]"
"[I am not! I'm trying to help you.]" Gwen said. "[You would deny my aid and instead choose to follow an alpha who willingly and intentionally trespasses in my territory and threatens my life?!]"
"[Our alpha isn't like that!]" Charlie yelled. "[You don't know him!]"
"[He is a human.]" Gwen growled. "[Trust me, I know humans. I know that he does not care at all about you, and that you were brought here to die.]"
"[You're wrong.]" I told her. "[He loves us, his friends do, and my closest friend had to leave because of you.]"
"[He didn't have to. He was tricked.]" Gwen said, making me feel a twinge of heartbreak.
"[No.]" I denied, starting to falter in my stance. "[He's smarter than you think.]"
"[You love your sisters, don't you?]" Gwen asked.
"[Yes.]" I said. "[Wait, how did you know?]"
"[I can smell it. If you truly love your sisters, then by following that human over there, you're threatening their lives.]" Gwen said. "[By following him, you are choosing to follow a human who takes pleasure in inflicting pain upon helpless hatchlings, isolates and traumatizes them, and who killed my baby sister, Cate.]"
"[He killed her?]" Echo questioned, remorse and hurt feelings clearly present in her voice.
"[Yes.]" Gwen answered. "[However, by following me, you will be free of them. You will have very abundant food, clean water, and shelter. I will keep you safe from them.]"
"[What would you have us do?]" I asked after a long pause. "[If you really want us to follow you, I want to know what we're dealing with.]"
"[Simple.]" Gwen replied. "[Kill them all.]"
"[Are we really going to do this?]" Echo asked.
"[Our alpha has been challenged for his authority. He has to choose what to do.]" I said as we all looked at him and only him. "[He won't betray us though, I know that.]"
I felt such happiness when Alpha raised himself up somewhat and lowered his weapon. I saw that my sisters were starting to smile too.
"Come on, Alpha." I thought. "I know you'll do the right thing."
"ENGAGE!" A human shouted, and the next thing we knew, we were all fired at by the humans, our alpha included.
"[KILL THEM NOW!]" Gwen ordered.
"[Okay! Okay! You're our alpha now! You got it!]" I yelled while ducking under fire. "[Scatter and kill the humans!]"
"Wait, where's she going?" I frantically thought as I saw our new alpha running into the woods and leaving us. We were running into the woods to follow her orders and to take cover from the attacking humans, but she was running away from them. Why wasn't she attacking them? I was snapped out of my thoughts when a pained roar from our alpha drew my attention. "Alpha is in pain. Owen attacked her. Owen attacked us. Owen tried to kill us. Alpha was right…"
I heard the distant sound of the weapons that the humans were carrying and knew that I had to take action to defend myself and the rest of my pack. The wind was favoring us today.
"[Packmates! Divide and strike swiftly!]" I ordered. "[No mercy!]"
"[No mercy!]" I heard the rest of my sisters shout in agreement.
As I stalked the humans, I couldn't help but relish in the fact that they were such easy prey for us. It wasn't hard at all for us to hunt them down and kill them being that we had the advantage out here. It was night time, and we could see very well in the dark. The humans couldn't smell as well as we could, and we had their sickening scent nailed down with ease. They also were nowhere near as fast as us, as before Owen lost our trust and respect, he clocked our speed at 64 mph.
I realized that with these devices on our heads, the humans could see and hear what we did, as well as know our location. I scratched at it in an attempt to cut it off, knowing that it was necessary if we wanted to keep our stealth. I remember how the humans put it on me and my sisters, and I tried to get it off in the same way, but without the dexterity of their hands, I couldn't turn it the way they did. I felt something move when I touched a circle on the side and pushed harder on it, figuring that I was making progress, but it turned out that I wasn't. As soon as I pressed on the circle, the strap around my neck made a quick "zip" sound and tightened slightly. I pressed on it harder thinking that would work, and just made things worse. It tightened even more, and I had to resist the urge to keep doing that, unless I wanted to make myself suffocate and be unable to help my siblings. I growled in irritation at this device around my neck and how it was designed to not only restrain me, but to force me to obey these humans who had deceived us. If they thought they could force us to submit, then they were more arrogant then they knew, and it was up to us to humble them. I snickered at the reality I was aware of now. Even though they could see and hear what we did, as well as know where we were, it wouldn't help them, and I even grinned at the thought that they would see their own allies get killed before their very eyes, and they would know that it was their own doing.
I could smell the location of my sisters, exactly as planned, they had surrounded the humans. As soon as we executed our plan, they would scatter and abandon each other in a panic. We weren't unorganized and self-centered like they were, and we would take full advantage of it. I took another deep sniff just to relish in how scared they were before initiating our attack with a quiet whistle. The hunt was on. The real hunt.
"[Gotcha!]" I quietly screeched as I lunged at the first human I set my eyes on. He tried to scream but I had already grabbed onto his shoulders and sunk my teeth into his throat, drawing blood and chewing on his flesh, making sure to savor the taste of each bite. I began to wonder how Thumper's allies would react to seeing their own get eaten alive? I looked into the scared eyes of my prey as his throat spurted blood and saw that it was the same human who was about to fire on my former Alpha when he was about to attack Thumper and Kenny when he actually did. I grinned deviously and spoke in a cheerful voice. "[I have an idea! Such a wonderful, delightful idea! I'm going to kill you sadistic bastards in the exact same way that you're trying to control us! Not by snapping your necks, because that would be way too quick; but by crushing them and suffocating you! Isn't that great?]"
I didn't wait for an answer as I grabbed at his throat with my claws and pulled out his insides. I was holding a long tube-like organ and I heard a man shouting for everyone to clear out. I grinned when I heard Charlie scare him before his screams immediately stopped. I was so proud of my baby sister.
"ALEX!" I heard a human yell and looked up to see that it was the second human who drew his gun on Kenny. I growled at his presence and decided to toy with him by sucking the organ in my claws into my mouth like Owen often did with a weird food called Ramen. The human's eyes bugged out in rage and I grinned when I knew I was getting to him, I wasn't done however, and slowly licked my jaws to send him over the edge. "You bitch!"
When the human raised his weapon at me I immediately grabbed my kill's body and lifted it up with my claws to shield myself from his attack. I heard familiar footsteps next to me and immediately dashed to the right after I pushed the body in my claws at the attacking human.
"[Prey on tail. I roundabout.]" I quickly told Delta, who nodded in agreement. A roundabout was a strategy that I cooked up a while ago where one of us would run straight ahead, while the other (usually the one who suggested it) would swing around and attack the prey from the side while running at them, attacking them while they were distracted.
"You fucking monsters can't kill all of us!" The human chasing us yelled while firing his weapon at Delta, not even coming close to hitting her. "We have 65 million years of smarts over you and your fucked up pack!"
"[Fucked up?!]" I screamed, lunging out at him and sinking my teeth into his face before throwing him over my shoulder, peeling the skin and muscles off of his head. "[All those years of smarts, and you still haven't learned to stay the fuck away from us, to never insult us, and to never threaten my pack, my friends, or my family?!]"
Becoming even more furious, I repeatedly slammed a foot down onto his neck, hearing a satisfying crack with every slam, and sent even more blood out of his mouth. I still wasn't done though, and I moved up to his chest while he still made shallow gasps for breath. While asking him if we were fucked up because we didn't look like them, I ripped open his stomach and pulled out his internal organs and ate them. While asking him if we were fucked up because we couldn't communicate like them, I bit into his upper chest and snapped each and every one of the curved bones connected to his spine before tossing them aside into the brush. I stood up and stabbed each of my sickle claws into his lungs several times and ripped them to shreds before grabbing something and kneeling over his face.
"[Tell me, are we fucked up because we have a heart? Aww, you poor thing... you died before you could answer me.]" I said before I bit into his heart and caused the blood inside to spatter all over his head and the surrounding dirt. I heard footsteps in front of me and saw my next victim. I chuckled at how terrifying I must have looked with the blood of several humans covering my legs, my neck and my head. I laughed briefly at the realization that all of Thumper's allies back at this "control center" saw me tear my latest kill apart, even after he was long dead. The human in front of me saw this and ran away screaming for help. "[Your turn.]"
I called for help in separating this human from the others that he was running towards. I could smell them all and they were very close to each other. I heard Delta and Charlie running towards my location and I singled out my prey: the third human who drew his weapon on Kenny. Seeing Delta coming from the right, I sped up so that we wouldn't collide and be at risk for getting killed.
"[Die you fucking sadist!]" I screeched as I tackled the human in front of me while biting into his shoulder, flipping him over. I was about to sink my teeth into the back of his neck and pull out his spine, when a shriek of intense pain left my mouth. I felt something be pushed into my right leg even further and my shriek became even more ear-splitting. I heard several voices call out for me, one of them however, stood out over the others. It was scared, nurturing, and familiar.
Shaking at the intense pain, I unintentionally kicked my right leg out in pain, and entirely by luck, I managed to run my sickle claw down the entire length of his right leg. This made him tense up and I was able to push him off of me and to the right, which caused me to release another scream of pain and I saw that a silver blade with a black handle had been stabbed into my outer right thigh at an odd angle. I curled my torso and reached down to it with my head to pull it out and felt tears form in my eyes as I made yet another cry of pain as I took it out. Once it was out, I looked at it and saw that the blade was almost twice the length of the curved claw on the inner edges of my feet, and that half of it had pierced my hide.
I heard a yell come from in front of me and just barely managed to bring my legs up in time to stop my attacker, the same human who stabbed me, by causing him to run right into my sickle claws. I was almost stabbed in the throat by another blade on the tip of his weapon, but I managed to move my neck out of the way, only getting a long, but shallow cut on the side of it. I only scored a piercing wound on his lower stomach and caused him to fall to the ground next to me, his outer hides becoming soaked with blood. I snapped at him with my teeth, but he managed to get up and start running after kicking my face. I got to my feet and started to chase after him as well, but I stumbled and released a hiss of pain due to the wound on my thigh. I felt a little more blood starting to come out of it and did my best to ignore it as I ran after my prey.
"[Please, come back. Pretty please?]" I said in a soft voice before switching to a hate-filled shout. "[All I want, IS TO RIP OUT YOUR GUTS!]"
The human turned towards me slightly and started firing at me. I did my best to duck and side-step whatever was being sent towards me, but because of the wound on my thigh, I felt a piercing pain on my tail and looked back to see a small hole that I could see through towards the tip of it. I snarled in fury and sped up to tackle the human against the ground. I was about to sink my teeth into his face when I saw something being pointed at me, and I jerked my head away just in time to feel searing heat shoot by it.
"Fire? The fuck?!" I wondered before yelping in pain when the human kicked my cloaca.
"Karma bitch!" The human yelled before rolling us over and preparing to send the blade on his weapon directly into my left eye. I reached up and clapped the weapon between my claws and pushed it out of his hands and into the woods, causing him to gasp in realization.
"[You're going to regret that.]" Was all I said as I grabbed his shoulders, wrapped my maw around his head, and kicked my legs out. A ton of blood splashed onto my chest and my entire underbelly, running all the way between my legs and onto my tail. It was official: my entire body, save for specks of my tail, were covered in human blood. I could barely even see the blue stripe on the side of my body.
I threw him to my side and kicked him further up onto the hill before leaping on top of him and stabbing his legs as I walked up the length of his bleeding body. I looked into his terrified eyes and lunged at his throat, wrapping my claws around it and cutting off his scream after I sliced off his dick with my killing claws.
"[How does karma feel for you motherfucker? Excruciating? God, I hope so.]" I growled as I pressed against his throat. "[Tell me: do you find pleasure in choking us? Starving us for air? Please speak up, I can't hear you. I can't hear you say 'yes'.]"
I pressed down harder on him and tightened my grip on his throat as he feebly grabbed at my claws with his left hand while reaching up with his other to my neck. I immediately realized what he was going for and moved my head up and away from his hand; he was going to push the button on the side of whatever was around my neck, he was going to suffocate me. I adjusted my stance on his body and headbutted his arm away before kicking him in his face. I heard a very loud crack come from his jaw when I did so, and it started to swell as blood started coming up his throat, which he started choking on in addition to my claws around his throat. I grinned when I realized that I could still do more to him and bit at his upper arm that was trying to grab at my claws, forcing him to make a muffled scream that was barely audible because of the blood in his throat and my claws around it. When he finally took his hand off of my claws, I bit it and jerked my head until I ripped his skin off of it and swallowed it whole, then I bit at his lower arm and did the same until the bones in his arm cracked and snapped until the bone was sticking out. I laughed at his inability to do anything about the situation as I broke his left arm as well and watched as his eyes rolled back in his head while he struggled to suck in a final, gasping breath.
I heard screaming coming from in front of me and looked over the hill while taking snack bites out of the corpse below me. A man was running away from one of my sisters, I actually had a hard time telling who it was until I spotted the dark green stripes over the lighter shade of green underneath: Charlie. I laughed at how silly she looked chasing after this guy with only her tail visible in the long grass. She leapt at the guy while shouting "cannonball" and I almost revealed my location with a laugh, but I managed to stifle it in time by burying my muzzle in the corpse's torso. She looked just like Echo when she was playing with us by splashing water on us via cannonball when we were trying to swim. I heard a rustling in the grass below me to the left and I looked over to see what it was, and I hated it: Owen. I was just about to run down there before they spotted each other, but I was too late, Charlie had already heard Owen.
"Come on, Charlie! Why aren't you attacking dad? NO!" I internally questioned while hitting myself harshly on the head. "He's not dad! He's not our father! Our dad wouldn't have trespassed and intentionally killed an innocent dinosaur and he wouldn't have tried to kill us, his own children! He is not our dad!"
"[Dad?]" Charlie asked.
"DAMMIT CHARLIE!" I screamed in my mind. I looked at Owen and noticed that he was lowering his weapon to the ground and that his face was softening to an expression of friendliness. "Why isn't he attacking her? He wants to kill us!"
"[Please help us. I'm so terrified.]" Charlie tearfully asked before she was cut off by a shrill whistle.
I felt an immense thud, almost as if something had slammed into me, and a blinding light filled my vision for a second. I looked up to see Owen being thrown back with a scream, and he landed on his back, gasping for breath as he was trying to sit up. He was looking ahead with the most horrified and scared face I have ever seen him wear, all while laughing was heard. I just then noticed, he was completely covered in blood. I looked where he was, and the pieces slowly started to fall into place.
There was fire right where Charlie was, along with a sickle claw visible all the way over by Owen. He picked it up and became even more horrified.
"[Charlie?]" I gasped.
…
…
…
I started to gasp for breath when I saw that the clearing of long grass in front of me was covered in blood.
"[Charlie?!]" I asked loudly.
…
…
…
I felt something drip on the left side of my muzzle. I lifted a claw to get a better look at it and held it in front of my eyes. It was a drop of red liquid. My eyes widened, and my breath hitched in my throat when I fully realized what it was.
"[CHARLIE!]" I screamed and collapsed to the ground and started sobbing. "[NO!… NO! NO! NO! NO! Please Char… please
... Don't be dead… I can't- I can't. Please… no I- I don't.]"
I was wailing so horribly I couldn't even scream my sorrows right. My youngest sister, my sweet, loving, innocent baby sister, was gone… forever. She was so scared, and I was supposed to protect her. I was supposed to give her my next meal… and now I never could. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that Charlie was dead.
"Charlie? NO!" I heard a voice yell behind me, and my eyes snapped open in rage.
"[What the fuck is wrong with you humans?!]" I growled as my claws tightened around the dirt below me, each tiny particle going between my claw digits. "[How can you all be okay with this? To kill an innocent girl, who wasn't even threatening someone, then come here to laugh in our faces about it like it's something that you should be proud of?! She was so scared, she was so young, and she was just so innocent… and then you just killed her! Tell me…]"
"Oh no…" I heard the human gasp as I glared back at him with intense, burning hatred in my wet amber eyes.
"[Tell me, human: how could you just do that?]" I asked, seething heavily with raw rage. I was so full of hatred, so full of blazing rage, that I couldn't wait to finish what I was telling him before charging. "[HOW COULD YOU KILL MY BABY SISTER?!]"
The man started screaming for Owen while running away from me. He wouldn't be able to get to help in time before I ripped every bone from his body. I was almost five times faster than him, but he was more flexible and slightly narrower than me, meaning that he could fit between gaps easier, but that meant little when you've just witnessed your baby sister get brutally murdered. I tripped and fell into a small ravine and heard a sigh of relief come from the human, which turned to a shriek when I jumped the entire height of the ravine, which was at least ten feet and bolted after him. He made a sharp right turn and ran back to my right side, causing me to skid and slip when I tried to snap at him with my teeth.
"To the vehicles now!" A human shouted.
"Fall back!" Another one ordered.
"[You're not getting away from me!]" I snarled as I emerged from the brush and leapt at the human I was chasing, who took cover in a hollow log. "[I won't let you run away after what you did! I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!]"
The human started shouting and screaming as I tore apart the log and stuck my head in, managing to sink my teeth into his clothes and rip his outer hide.
"[I will make you pay for what you did to her!]" I screamed with tears streaming down the blood on my face.
"No!" The human screamed. "No! Blue! Stop! It's me!"
"What?! How does he know my name?" I thought, being able to stop seeing red for a moment when I heard the human say my name. I peeked inside, and I gasped as my eyes widened in shock when I realized who I was attacking. "[Barry?!]"
Barry wasn't a threat. Barry didn't order us to be attacked. Barry was a friend. Barry was part of our pack. Growling took my attention away from him and I heard multiple quick growls coming from my former alpha as he was on his motorcycle.
"[YOU!]" I snarled as my eyelids narrowed as tears streamed down them.
Owen whistled at me and took off in the other direction. That wasn't just any whistle though, it was a challenging one. One that dared me to challenge his authority. He had the audacity to challenge me?! After what I was just forced to witness?!
"[Get back here!]" I screamed and bolted after him. "[I said get back here you fucking traitor!]"
I took after him with fury, rage, and grief clouding my mind, but no air filling my lungs. I slowly came to a stop while weakly reaching out to Owen with a claw prepared to run straight down his spine, he was just so, so close, but not close enough. That outstretched arm took the brunt of the impact when I fell to the ground. I started to get up but stumbled again and this only added to my frustration. I then began to weakly tear at the ground with my claws with the intention of kicking up dirt and venting my frustrations, but because I was basically laying on my side while rapidly panting for breath, I couldn't.
"[NO! NO! I … can't let him… get away! He'll pay… for… Charlie's death!]" I hoarsely snarled between cries as I tried to get up. "[He… will… die. I will fucking… kill him.]"
I picked up a familiar scent that gave me hope, it was an odor that the trucks and cars made, including what Owen rode. I was upwind of it, but the scent kept coming in large amounts, meaning that whatever was making it was moving, and it was moving in the same direction as him. I got up and moved towards it, staggering often.
"I have to hurry!" I thought as I was fiercely gasping for breath. "I can still catch him!"
I knew where he was going, he was going back to our paddock to get more allies; more threats to kill me, Delta, and Echo. Reluctantly, and with immense frustration alongside several curses, I broke off from my pursuit of him to take a quicker path back to what was once our home.
I stumbled out of the edge of the forest and fell to the ground while sharply wheezing for breath. My wheezes were coming and going very frantically, and it felt like my entire body was burning. I was finally starting to feel the pain from the cuts on my neck, my right leg, and my tail; I'm not sure how badly the wounds on those last two were bleeding, and it was hard to tell because I was completely soaked in human blood. I started to feel dizzy from both the pain and blood loss and my mind felt clouded, but I shook my head and even hit myself on it with a claw to snap myself out of my haze. I had to stay awake otherwise I would be killed, and then my sisters would have to find my corpse along with Charlie's, if they even knew about it.
Suddenly, I saw Owen quickly move past me and it took me a few seconds to register that, and several more to actually get moving. I made a loud groan at the pain in my wounds and I forced myself to ignore it as I tried my best to keep up with Owen. I saw that Delta and Echo were chasing one of those large trucks that we had to go in after we got hurt. I was confused as to how they managed to get past me when I thought I got around our paddock fast enough. Either I didn't get here soon enough, or I never even noticed them going past me; I was leaning towards the latter. I looked past Owen and my sisters and saw something that made my heart drop.
We were chasing children.
"W-why are we trying to kill children?!" I wondered. "Is this what Gwen wanted us to do? Why would she send us after them? They never did anything to us! If we kill them, then we will be no different than the humans who took Charlie away from us; I don't want to inflict that kind of tragedy on a child's family and make them suffer!"
They looked so horrified, and I was sure that they had seen a lot of death; no one that young should be forced to witness something like that. I wanted to stop chasing them immediately, I just wanted to kill Owen instead, but I felt immense fear at that thought.
"Alpha ordered us to kill all of the humans. If she finds out that we let even one escape…" I thought, shuddering at the endless possibilities. "Would she attack us? With how big she is she could easily pin or crush us, and her claws are so sharp. Her gangly teeth could probably rip us to shreds as well. Would she kill me if she found out that I spared a very young human? I mean I do have acting authority right now since she's not around. Or, instead of killing me, would she kill Delta or Echo to ensure my obedience? I can't lose them, I just can't lose anyone else…"
I felt my eyes start to water up at the thought of Alpha killing one of my sisters as disciplining me, and I felt my breath catch in my throat as the reality of the nature that my thoughts were taking struck me. All this fear and worrying about what we do now? I was terrified of our new alpha. I never felt like this with our old one, as he was always so supportive and understa-
"NO! NO! I CAN'T think like that!" I berated myself. "I would never want him back! He killed Alpha's sister, he killed MY sister! Although… he never threatened her; did he distract her? No, he was horrified when she was killed, he was crying, he was starting to crawl towards her. He didn't know that I was watching, that was really him caring for her."
I was so caught up in my inner monologue that I almost missed Alpha's roar.
"[Come over to me!]" She roared. "[Now!]"
"She sounds angry." Was all I thought as I ran towards her, and when I soon reached her, I found out that I was right. I ran into the area where she was and I thought I saw her wiping or scratching something from around her face.
"[What the fuck took you so long?]" She asked, irritation clearly present in her voice.
"[I'm so sorry! Please forgive me. Alpha!]" I begged as I kneeled down to the ground in shame and submission. "[Charlie… Charlie's dead!]"
"[What?]" I heard two voices ask in shock. I turned and saw that they were Delta and Echo. "[What did you just say?]"
"[Charlie was murdered by a human who laughed at her corpse.]" I cried. "[She was blown apart.]"
"[Don't lie to us, Blue!]" Echo yelled at me, tears forming in her eyes. "[This is just like when you said you didn't eat my Rice Krispies! Stop lying!]"
"[I'm not lying!]" I continued to sob. "[You can smell her blood on me.]"
"[Blue, you're soaked in blood.]" Delta replied in a strained voice.
"[I know that you can smell it.]" I told them.
"[HEY!]" Alpha roared, causing me to make a small screech and jump slightly. Delta and Echo saw me wince when I landed on my right foot. "[I did not call you over here just so that you could chat with each other!]"
"[Blue is badly injured.]" Delta yelled at her. "[Can't you see that?!]"
"[What?]" Alpha questioned, before looking down at me and sighing. "[Fine… lick her or whatever. I called you over here because since you haven't managed to kill all these pathetic humans, I'm going to set you up for success.]"
"Haven't managed to kill them?" I thought as Delta and Echo cleaned my wounds. "Is she… reprimanding us?"
"[You three are to go to the center of this island, that's where the humans are going.]" Alpha ordered. "[There is a large body of water there. Corner them at the closest point to us near the lake and kill them. I'll be there shortly.]"
"[Where are you going?]" Delta questioned as she finished cleaning the wound on my tail. "[As soon as we were attacked you ran off.]"
"[You answer to me, remember?]" Alpha growled. "[Don't get that mixed up.]"
"[Please.] I whined. "[Don't make us do this. We already lost Charlie, we don't want to lose anyone else.]"
"[Then do what I say, exactly as I say it.]" She replied. I silently gasped when her threat clicked in my mind.
"[Why can't you kill them?]" Echo wondered. "[You look so much stronger than us, surely you're capable of doing that.]"
"[Because I am your alpha, and you follow my orders.]" She scoffed. "[Also, because I'm busy.]"
"[Don't you understand what we're going through? We lost Charlie because we split up and recklessly attacked humans with no real plan, because you never gave us one. You told us to kill them and then you just ran off, away from us, from your pack.]" I asked. "[I just want to keep my family safe. Didn't you try to keep your sister-]"
I shrieked loudly in surprise and pain as I was slammed into the ground by one of my Alpha's hands. Delta and Echo started to step forward but were frozen into place by our Alpha's overpowering gaze.
"[If you ever mention my sister again, let alone think of her, any of you, I will make you cut off each other's tails and rip each of your claws out.]" Alpha threatened with her other hand's claws pressing against my throat and drawing blood. "[Got it, beta?]"
"She called me by my rank." I noted as I looked into her blazing red eyes. "Owen never called me by my rank, not once."
"[You better answer me by the time I count to one.]" Alpha ordered. "[O-]"
"[Yes, Alpha.]" I said while submitting and trying to keep my tears from being shown.
"[Good beta. Now fucking do what I told you to do.]" She ordered while lifting me up and pushing me in the direction that she wanted me to go very roughly, causing me to trip and slam my maw onto a log. "[Wipe your tears off, I don't want humans to think that you're even weaker than you are now.]"
Delta and Echo helped me up and let me lean on them for support as we moved to where Alpha ordered us to. I was failing to hold back the tears that were caused by her negligence and cruelty towards us.
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"Charlie, I am so, so fucking sorry! You must hate me so much! You trusted me with your life, and I just allowed it to be ended so quickly and painfully. We were supposed to do so much tomorrow, and now because of me we won't." I quietly wept while hiding behind a giant clear piece of amber. "I wish we had just stayed with our old alpha, then you may still be alive. Because of me, we got stuck with an alpha who enjoys forcing us into submission; she is so cruel, sadistic, and hateful. I am so sorry, Charlie! I want Owen back! I want dad back!"
"[Blue! They're coming!]" Echo announced, snapping me out of my thoughts. "[Hurry!]"
I quickly got to my feet and wiped the tears off my face with one of my claws before looking up to see the humans running down the steps to the large building in front of me. I jumped over the large orange rock and landed right in front of them, cutting them off.
"[STOP!]" I roared at them.
"[You!]" Delta yelled while kicking the doors open and looking at the smallest human. "[How dare you trick me like that!]"
Delta came down from the steps and walked over to the humans, pressing them closer together.
"[Don't you fucking move.]" She hissed at them. "[Don't make us hurt you.]"
"[Got it?]" Echo asked after she silently climbed over some bushes.
"That's how it is, huh?" Owen asked.
"[Damn right!]" Echo snarled at them.
"You're really going to kill me, the man who raised and loved you?" Owen asked before gesturing to the other humans near him. "What about them? They treated you with nothing but respect and admiration when they first met you. Are you really going to kill them too? Young children?"
I looked at them and slightly faltered in my steps, and it wasn't just because of my injuries. Confusion and hesitation flashed across my eyes for a second, and I think Owen saw it. I looked behind him and saw that Zach and Gray were cowering behind Claire, and I realized how horrified they must be. Here we were, three velociraptors who absolutely adored these sweet, wonderful children, now absolutely covered in blood and bearing sharp teeth at them. The thought alone sent tears down my scales.
"[I-If we ha-have to we w-will!]" I told them. Even I could tell that he heard my stuttering.
"[Exactly.]" Echo agreed.
"[So, don't make us do that.]" Delta continued.
I became really confused when Owen set down his weapon, and that confusion turned to fear when he reached out to me.
"[Hey, stop.]" I warned when he reached closer to me, even adding in a bluffing snap of my jaws. "[I said stop!]"
"Easy. Easy." He softly said as his hand softly touched the side of my muzzle. "Easy."
I realized that he was reaching for part of the thing that was around my neck, and I was worried that he was going to tighten it even more. I hesitated in attacking him, and in that time, he turned something. I heard a click, and the next thing I knew, the tight strap around my head and neck had been removed, allowing me to draw in a full breath. Owen dropped it to the ground and smashed the things on it with his foot. I looked back up at him and couldn't stop the words that came out of my mouth.
"[Dad?]" I asked. This human knew me so well, he freed me, and he was willing to protect innocent children who had no part at all in our fight with the other humans. What's more, he never attacked me when I was trying to kill Barry, and he dropped his weapon when we cornered him just now. Only my father would do that.
"That's it." Dad said with a happy smile on his face. "You don't have to cry anymore."
"[You- Aren't you mad?]" I asked as dad wiped the tears off my face.
"I'm so happy you're safe." He said as he was petting my neck, accidentally brushing over the cut that I got on it, causing me to hiss in pain. "Goddamn, you're hurt."
I stepped to the side so that he could get a better look at the cut on my neck, and I almost fell to the ground when I stumbled due to the deep cut on my right leg, groaning loudly at the sharp pain.
"Wait." He ordered and stepped around me to look at it. "Fuck! Claire, give me your jacket."
"Of course." She agreed. "Here."
"Thanks." Dad agreed while pulling out his knife and cutting the fabric. "Blue, I promise you that I never wanted this to happen to you. Those men that came out with us, I ordered them to specifically avoid hurting you and to avoid firing if you were in the way. I should have known that they wouldn't listen to me. They were following Hoskins' orders, not mine. That's why they fired before I gave the order to."
"[What?]" I questioned as he wrapped the clothing around the cut on my leg, causing me to groan loudly in pain. "[I thought you were the one who shot at us?]"
"When I heard your cry of agony, I called out for you. When you stopped screaming, I thought you were dead." Dad admitted as he tightened the clothing, making me groan again. "I'm sorry Blue. I wish I had been able to stop you from getting hurt this badly. I have no idea how much of this blood is yours, but I'm going to assume that it's a lot."
I gently tapped my tail against him while whining, and he made another sad face at the wound near the tip of my tail.
"Shit. There too?" Dad asked in frustration as he went over to it. "Oh well, at least the bullet went all the way through, that means I can cover both holes up."
"[Fuuuuuuuck!]" I moaned in pain as he tightened the wrap around my tail. "[Dammit! That hurts so fucking bad!]"
"Sorry, girl." Dad apologized. "I tried everything I could to lure you away from the other people here. I tried to keep you from getting hurt and killed. I'm so sorry that I couldn't save Charlie."
"[I can't believe she's really dead.]" Delta cried as Gray put something like a bandage on the top of Echo's nose.
"I think I understand how you feel." Zach said as he looked at Delta. "Thank you for protecting us from Hoskins."
"[Well… I wasn't going to let him kill you… but you're welcome.]" Delta said.
"[Please forgive us.]" Echo requested as she nuzzled Dad's chest and looked up at him with pleading eyes. "[We are so fucking sorry. We don't deserve your love.]"
"Don't you worry, I still love all of you." Dad told us while motioning for us to come closer to him. We hesitated for a second but moved towards him and purred when he kneeled and held us close to him in a safe and nurturing hug. "I'll always love you."
"[YOU!]" A terrifyingly loud voice roared. I visibly jumped a couple of feet while screeching and turned before becoming stiff at who was approaching us. It was Gwen. "[WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING CUDDLING WITH THEM?!]"
"[Oh fuck…]" I whispered.
"[Kill them!]" She ordered. "[RIGHT FUCKING NOW!]"
"[Kill them?]" I repeated in shock. I saw the scared looks on their faces and made my decision. I grinned with glee. "[Let's kick her ass together, as a family.]"
Even though dad couldn't understand me, he knew what I was asking and smiled in agreement. I grinned even more and turned around.
"[If you think we'll kill our own father and his friends, then it's time to put you back in the earth!]" I snarled. "[We won't kill them!]"
"Sorry girl, I suggest you submit now." Dad said, causing Gwen's eyes to burn red with rage. "They're with an alpha who really loves them!"
"[NOT ANYMORE!]" Gwen roared and reared her left arm back.
I saw Dad moving forwards with an arm reaching out to me. In a split-second, I had pushed him to the side and was sent flying.
"BLUE, NO!" Was the last thing I heard before everything went black.
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"RUN!"
"What? What happened to me?" I thought. My mind was still spinning, and it felt like my head was throbbing with intense pain.
"[NOOOO!]" A very deep, and rough feminine voice roared.
"[What's going on?]" I asked while getting to my feet, pushing off a pole with a circular cover on the top of it and immediately fell to the ground while shrieking in pain and clutching my chest. "[AHH! My-my chest! Why is it hurting so badly? What happened to me?]"
I started to remember the events just before I was knocked out. I remembered Gwen striking me with her claws and I looked up at the wall, gasping in shock at the size of the hole I made in the wall. I cringed in pain at gasping and got to my feet while groaning.
"[How am I still alive?]" I wondered while using a chair to help myself get up, wheezing for breath when it moved slightly, and cringing in pain again. I looked back at my wounds and saw that the wrap around my tail had fallen off, some of the scales on my chest and the right side of my torso were discolored to a dark color, in addition to these, the wound on my leg had been reopened.
Other memories worked their way into my mind as I was getting up. I started to remember why I had been slammed into the wall. I pushed dad out of the way to keep him from dying for me.
"Where is dad?" I frantically thought. "Echo? Delta?"
"[GO!]" The deep feminine voice pleaded. "[Get out of here!]"
Realizing just how bad things were, I got to my feet and ignored the excruciating pain coursing throughout my entire body, running towards where I heard roaring and screaming coming from. When I turned the corner, my blood turned ice-cold.
Dad once told me about a fearsome carnivore that nearly all dinosaurs feared. She had the strongest bite force of any living animal to walk this world, and she could crush velociraptors with ease. Many underestimated her intelligence, abilities, and her morals; many believed that she could only see moving things; and many met their ends due to their faith in these beliefs. A psychotic alpha of my kind who slaughtered most of her pack to force the remaining two into obedience, a mercenary who was willing to murder a native, a young girl, and her father just for some petty personal gain, and she had a particular taste for bloodsucking lawyers. Her species was called a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but most just called her Rexy, and the ones in a place called the control center called her "The Queen".
This Queen, Queen Rexy… needed my help.
"[Saving humans instead of yourself?]" Gwen snarled as she approached Queen Rexy. "[What kind of a queen are you?]"
"[One that is beyond your power to kill.]" Rexy bellowed.
"[Oh really?]" Gwen chuckled before slamming Rexy's head into the ground. "[Submit your life to me, Queen, or I'll make the deaths of those humans you care so dearly about especially slow and agonizing.]"
"[I would never surrender to something like you.]" Rexy said before groaning as the pressure on her head was increased.
"[Do it… or the girl with the red hair is first.]" Gwen demanded.
"[I-I subm-]" Rexy started to say.
"[HEY!]" I called out, surprising Gwen and making her look up. "[GWEN!]"
"[Impossible…]" She muttered as I bolted towards her, kicking long and tiny round pieces of metal like what came out of the human's weapons when they fired at us. Each clink pierced the air, breaking the tension that would soon be entirely ripped to shreds.
"[Get off of her!]" I screamed. "[You BITCH!]"
"[Join them then!]" Gwen snarled before reeling in shock and pain when I jumped off of Rexy's head to climb onto Gwen's torso.
I dug my slicing claws into her thigh, drawing blood and quickly climbing up onto her back, almost getting crushed by her teeth a second time. I felt Gwen moving and moved up her back where I secured my footing by digging my claws into her scales, again drawing blood. Wanting to taste hers, I began ripping into her scales and her flesh beneath with my teeth, which tasted oh so sweet with revenge.
"[Get off me!]" Gwen yelled while viciously shaking her body, causing my claws to become dislodged from her back, and I managed to save myself from falling by digging into her side with my slicing claws.
"[Now you're mine!]" I heard a booming voice roar. I had just secured my hold when I looked up and saw something that looked very bad.
"[Oh fuck…]" I muttered as I saw Rexy practically jumping at Gwen, with me dangerously close to where she would land. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw that Rexy was pushing Gwen into a building with a lot of bright stuff on it. "[Shit! Shit! Shit!]"
"[OW! You can't do this to me! You don't know what you're doing!]" Gwen screamed as I jumped onto her back and then onto Rexy's as Gwen was slammed into the building. Debris was sent raining down on us, but I ignored it as I was momentarily worried about Rexy turning on me, yet to my great surprise, she didn't attack me when I held onto her back.
"[Thanks!]" I yelled my gratitude as I jumped over to Gwen's back when Rexy caught her head between her jaws.
"[I'll crush all of you!]" Gwen snarled as I sunk my teeth into her neck.
"[In your dreams, bitch.]" I growled between bites. I saw her reach her clawed hand up and ducked, assuming that she would attempt to grab me. I was wrong. She grabbed the roof of the building next to us and slammed herself into it. This surprised me and due to the position of our bodies, I was forced to jump onto the roof of the building. Gwen used her right claw to pull herself out of Rexy's jaws and turn around. She looked straight at me with murderous intent and grabbed me as I was trying to get away from her. "[Woah! Shit!]"
"[One way or another, I will use you to kill them!]" Gwen told me before harshly throwing me through a window to the ground.
"[Fuck!]" I yelled in pain as the glass made several more cuts on my right side, thankfully not cutting the tight bandage on my thigh. I cursed again as I hit the ground on my back with enough force to make me bounce; almost hitting dad and the other humans.
"[You bitch!]" Rexy roared at Gwen and proceeded to bite at her torso.
"Blue!" I heard Gray shout.
"[I'm fine! Go!]" I ordered as I looked at them and pointed down the store before running back outside to rejoin the fight. "[You're going to kill children?!]"
"[Damn right I will!]" Gwen snarled. "[They want nothing but to torture us and ruin our chances at life! They have to be stopped!]"
"[I won't let you do that! Those children are innocent!]" I declared as I resumed ripping and tearing at the open wounds that had been made on her neck and back. It was only a matter of time before I reached her bones. She had no spine, now I was going to make sure her body matched that description. I saw Rexy let go of Gwen for a moment and caught where her gaze was. "[Shit!]"
I jumped off of Gwen's head and onto Rexy's back when I saw that Rexy had turned Gwen and herself so that they were aligned with another large building with a lot of glass on it. I jumped off Rexy's back to the ground and ran between her legs, right before she pushed Gwen into the large building.
"[Have some more!]" Rexy growled as she slammed her into the building. In doing this, she sent tons of stone and debris crashing down onto them, and Rexy looked like she didn't even care that they were leaving cuts on her.
"[You want your-]" Gwen started to say.
"[I'm not finished child!]" Rexy growled as she grabbed Gwen's head with her teeth and basically flipped her over her shoulder.
"[Woah!]" I chirped, impressed at Rexy's strength despite sounding elderly. I quickly took action when I saw Gwen struggling to get to her feet. As I was charging her, I saw that Rexy was starting to attack her but stopped when she saw me. "[I'm going right for your eyes!]"
"[Come here!]" Rexy yelled as she lunged at Gwen's neck, almost hitting me again and causing me to miss sinking my teeth into her left eye. I immediately adapted however, and bit into one of her horns to secure my hold on her and started clawing at her eyes.
"[AHH! YOU FUCKING BITCH!]" Gwen screamed in fury. "[I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!]"
I gasped when I became dislodged from Gwen's head and I screamed in pain when I felt her teeth sink into my lower left leg. I felt my muscles be strained when I was thrown. I cried out at the impact I made when I hit the opening of a building, becoming dazed when my head hit the ground. I held my head for a few seconds before looking up and seeing Rexy pushing Gwen next to the water and into the fence around it, which sparked on contact. I immediately got to my feet and ran over to them. I saw Rexy take a few large steps back, and she glared at me, then motioned for me to step back as well. Confused, but not wanting to make another enemy, I did what she said.
"[What… what the… fuck… is wrong with you two… you're letting them kill us!]" Gwen demanded between pained pants. "[IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT FOR US?!]"
"[No, just YOU!]" Me and Rexy roared.
"[Dinner!]" An enormous creature yelled while lunging out of the water at Gwen.
"[What? No! NO! PLEASE NO!]" Gwen screamed while trying to get out of the giant creature's jaws.
"[Yes!]" I called out to her as she was dragged closer to the water.
"[PLEASE STOP! DON'T KILL ME! PLEASE!]" Gwen pleaded. "[I'M BEGGING YOU! NO! STOP! NO! NO! PLEASE!]"
Loud bellowing was the last sound that came from the waters before they settled.
"[As for you, girl.]" Rexy said, turning to face me. My eyes widened in fear at the realization that I could be this queen's next meal.
"[Are you going to eat me?]" I fearfully asked while stepping back.
"[Eat you?]" Rexy asked in confusion. "[Hell no. Thank you.]"
"[Okay…]" I muttered, turning to face dad and the others. When I saw dad walking towards me with a furious look on his face, I became extremely worried. "[Dad? Would-would you please stay with us, or can we… can we please stay with you?]"
Dad's only response was shaking his head once.
"[What? But… you promi-]" I asked. Dad never changed his expression. "[O-ok-okay dad. G-good-b-b-bye.]"
I couldn't understand why dad would refuse to stay with us or have us stay with him. He promised us that he would never leave us, he even said that if he wouldn't stay here then he wouldn't let Thumper have us! I assumed that he meant he would take us with him, off the island and away from the bad humans, to new places, but I couldn't believe that our own father, despite not being related to us, would leave us behind when we needed him here. He was our alpha too, and after Charlie's death we needed him more than ever. I had to find Delta and Echo fast; I needed Delta's persuasiveness and Echo's persistence. I was sure that with their help, we could convince dad to be together with us.
"[Delta! Echo! Get out here!]" I yelled. "[Hurry! I need you now!]"
When I rounded the corner near the Innovation Center, as the words on the building said, I was met with a heart wrenching sight. Just beyond the door to a place called the T-Rex Kingdom… were two long, curved claws exactly like the ones on my feet. I knew that they were Echo's because hers were shorter than Delta's. Seeing them without the rest of Echo was already frightening enough; but add that to the very thick trail of blood leading away from it, and I was more terrified than I had ever been in my entire life.
"[ECHO! Echo where are you!]" I screamed as I ran into the area. "[Please say something! Anything! I'm here for you! Please just tell me where you are!]"
I panicked even more but luckily noticed some evidence of Echo being here. There was blood trailing across the path in front of me, and I followed where it was the freshest. I saw that bloody paw prints led through a door and I searched for a way to get through after me slamming into it didn't work. I began scratching at the door all over it, trying to get through it when something finally happened. A handle on the door moved and I fiercely pushed it down, which caused it to open. In fact, I didn't even wait for the door to swing open, I kicked it open and bolted through as soon as it was. I smelled something… something bloody. I ran over to where it was coming from and bawled my eyes out at what was causing it.
Underneath a fallen tree and several slabs of stone, there was a pool of blood, and from it I smelled Echo. I leapt upon the fallen tree and started tearing at it and the stone screaming Echo's name and begging for her to answer me. I had been scratching and digging for a long period of time; long enough that my once long and sharp claws had become rough, chipped and dull. I had just begun trying to lift up and pull away the stone slabs when reality sent me falling to the ground sobbing.
I couldn't hear her breathing. Echo was dead, all because I was knocked out. I wasn't there for her.
It was all my fault…
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"[Dad… please don't go!]" I continued sobbing as I walked down Main Street. "[I'm begging you. Please come out and say that you won't leave me!]"
"[Blue….]" A very faint and raspy voice said. "[Blue...]"
The voice was coming from a building with a fire in front of it. I quickly began looking for a way around it and found one in the form of a glass wall with a big hole in it. Immediately I jumped through it, ignoring the cuts that it made on my scales, and screamed at who I saw. It was Delta, lying on top of hot, bent metal and tons of glass shards. Nearly her entire body was red and blackened, virtually no color remained on her scales, and there was white and yellow liquid forming on her red tissues/muscles. I even saw that her ribs and lungs were visible and were heavily charred.
"[Delta… no.]" I sobbed as I leaned over her.
"[Blue… you're… alive.]" Delta said. Her voice was almost nonexistent.
"[No… no, Delta!]" I continued sobbing. "[I can't lose you too!]"
"[Too?]" Delta wondered.
"[Echo… she's dead.]" I informed
"[No…]" Delta wheezed.
"[I have no one left…]" I cried.
"[Blue… you have… dad.]" Delta continued.
"[He… he… he left me!]" I cried over her blackened body. "[He just shook his head after he promised to stay with me. He's gone!]"
"[He's… how… could he?]" Delta questioned. I noticed that she started wheezing even more, and her voice was starting to become even harder to hear.
"[Delta! Please no! Don't die!]" I begged. "[I need you!]"
"[No…]" Delta gasped.
"[Don't say that!]" I yelled.
"[Blue… you… don't. You're so… strong, in…indepe-ndent, creative…,]" Delta slowly breathed out, making a few huffs that faintly sounded like chuckling. "[Stubborn.]"
"[Please, please don't joke like that!]" I pleaded. "[I have no one left to turn to. Kenny's gone, dad's gone, you're dying. I'll be so alone…]"
"[You won't… be. We're… still with… you… in… spirit.]" Delta said. "[You also… have other… dinos… here.]"
"[But I want you here in body too!]" I cried. "[Anyone else will attack me on sight!]"
"[Blue… you'll… survive.]" Delta weakly breathed. "[I know… you… will.]"
"[Delta… no!]" I yelled, and I felt one of her claws on my shoulder.
"[I… love… you… sis.]" She faintly whispered before her claw fell off… literally.
"[No… NO! GOD NO! DELTA! PLEASE! YOU CAN'T BE DEAD! YOU CAN'T!]" I screamed while sobbing immensely. "[Please God, don't take her! Give her back to me! PLEASE! I can't be alone… please.]"
I had been lying over her body for I don't know how long. I kept crying and begging for her to still be alive, and for a moment, my hope was restored. I heard something that sounded like knocks with almost no space in time between them. I didn't know what it was, but it sounded like what Dad rode.
"[Don't worry, Delta! Dad's here again! I'll go get him and then you'll be feeling better in no time!]" I told her. "[I'll be right back, please don't move.]"
I quickly ran out through the hole in the window and bolted towards where I heard him. It sounded like he was in the T. Rex Kingdom, so that's where I ran. Thankfully I wasn't far from it, which meant that I was able to see yet another heart wrenching sight almost immediately. Rising above the ground was what resembled a giant metal bird, with constantly moving claws right at the wingtips. I watched as it lifted away from me and flew in the opposite direction. I was so stunned and shocked, that although my maw was open, no sounds came out. I was in such disbelief that dad would come back here, just so that I would see him leaving me again.
"Dad… why?" I wondered with tears readily streaming down my face. "Do you… do you really hate me that much?"
Gasping when I remembered why I came over here, I immediately ran back over to Delta and jumped through the hole in the glass wall. I walked over to Delta and was about to give her the bad news when I stopped myself. I didn't hear her gasping for air. I lowered my head down next to her chest and listened, only to feel my blood turn cold when I didn't hear thumping coming from it. Delta wasn't breathing, her chest wasn't thumping, she didn't respond when I nudged her or ordered her to get up.
Almost as if I was sleepwalking, I walked out of the building while paying almost no attention to my surroundings. As I was doing this, I began to rapidly recall the events that occurred this evening. Kenny as well as me and my sisters were sobbing as we all said our farewells to him when he was forced to leave. While she was hesitating to attack dad and was clearly contemplating going against her order to do so, Charlie was blown apart. Echo was thrown into the T. Rex Kingdom and died alone, crushed under wood and stone. Delta was burned alive and died slowly, in immense pain and horribly mutilated. Dad just straight-up abandoned me after most likely seeing what caused them to die.
Kenny is gone…
Charlie is dead…
Echo is dead…
Delta is dead…
Dad abandoned me…
Unable to support myself any longer, I collapsed onto the hard asphalt with my limbs sprawled out in every direction as I wailed with immense sorrow.
"[NOOOOOO! This can't be happening! It just can't be! They can't be dead! They need me… I need them! I'm supposed to be there for them! How can I be there for them if they're dead?]" I sobbed. "[I can't move on without them… I need them here with me. What am I supposed to do now? I'm so alone… I'm so alone… I'm so alone…]"
I didn't know how long I was out here sobbing, for all I know it could have been hours. I didn't care, all I wanted was to be with my sisters. I didn't care if they were furious at me, if they hated me, if they wanted to attack me into submission as punishment for failing them. All I wanted was to be with my most precious family. After a very long while, I encountered what I thought at the time was my saving grace.
"[Um, excuse me? Pardon me if I'm intruding, but how come you're out here sobbing?]" A soothing, feminine voice asked.
I turned my head, barely lifting it off the ground to see who interrupted my sobbing. A two-legged dinosaur, almost two feet taller than me when standing up had approached me, yet was still keeping a fair amount of distance between us. She had two crests on top of her head, both a pale-yellow color. She also had red scales under her yellow eyes, the latter looking like a fruit that made my face scrunch up and my mouth taste weird when I whined for dad to give it to me. Her neck looked weird, it was too "flappy" to be scales. Most of her body was covered in scales that looked like the darker ones on Charlie's body, save for a much brighter color on her underbelly and tail, like the grass that lined our now empty game trails. She had a wide red stripe running down her back that had gaps in it. Her teeth were narrow and looked like needles, I really hoped they were as sharp as they looked, or even more so.
"[Are you going to eat me?]" I asked through hiccups and broken syllables.
"[What? No, not unless you're a threat to me and my friends.]" She told me, concern clearly present in her voice. "[Are you a threat?]"
"[YES!]" I immediately answered, surprising her, although her expression of surprise immediately fell into one of sympathy. I saw this and knew that I had to change my answer. Unfortunately, the more I talked, the more I sobbed. "[If you let me live, then I'll keep coming back to hurt everyone you care about. You'll lose everyone you love, and you'll be forced to kill me. So, you might as well just get it over with and do it now.]"
"[I don't think you mean that...]" She simply said with a sympathetic face.
"[I mean it!]" I yelled at her, which held no weight behind it since it came out as a broken moan. "[I'll really do it!]"
"[I really don't think you will.]" Was all she said as she walked over to me. "[If you're really so willing to die, then go ahead. Get up and attack me.]"
I slightly lowered my jaw in shock at her challenge to attack her and couldn't bear to meet her gaze. Instead, I diverted mine over to the still burning fire in front of Delta's charred corpse, instantly regretting my decision when this dinosaur caught my gaze.
"[Please… don't.]" I whined, but she kept walking over there. Either she didn't hear me, or she was ignoring me, I was leaning towards the latter.
"[Come on.]" She told me while gesturing with her head after she came over to me.
"[What?]" I whispered.
"[Get up.]" She said.
"[No.]" I answered.
"[Please get up. I'm going to help you.]" She replied in a pleading tone.
"[I don't want your help.]" I replied.
"[No, but you need it.]" She said. "[Now please get up.]"
"[I'm. Not. Moving.]" I stubbornly replied. "[I'm just going to lay here until you run out of patience and leave. Then, I'll just keep laying here until some less-merciful dinosaur comes along and kills me. Then I'll finally be able to be with my sisters.]"
"[You have so many open wounds, girl.]" She responded. "[If they don't get treated soon then they're going to get infected one way or another. Do you really want that pain?]"
"[Yes, I do.]" I answered.
"[Look, get up before you do something that you'll regret.]" She ordered.
"[I have nothing left to regret.]" I said as a whimper while looking her in the eyes before burying my head under my forearms.
"[Don't say I didn't warn you.]" She told me.
"[For the last fucking time… I said n-AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!]" I sternly told her before releasing a pained shrill as I felt intense, aching pain between my legs. This dinosaur just kicked me very harshly in my cloaca. Almost in an instant I was on my two feet and glaring at this dinosaur with tear-stained eyes while trying to repress the immense nausea that I felt. I moved to run away and almost fell face-first into the hard asphalt, only managing to stop myself with my foreclaws while groaning due to the pain in my legs.
"[Thank you.]" She said.
"['Thank you'?]" I hoarsely questioned.
"[For getting to your feet like I asked you to.]" She replied.
"[You attacked me!]" I snarled.
"[So, are you going to attack me now?]" She wondered.
"[Just leave me alone…]" I requested.
"[Oh, so now you want to be alone?]" This dino inquired relentlessly. "[What happened to you wailing about how you can't be alone, and that you want to be with your sisters, huh?]"
"[Stop it!]" I yelled.
"[No, I won't! This is good!]" She continued. "[This behavior and these actions of yours prove that you at least care somewhat about your life and that you have some self-preservation in you!]"
"[Please! Stop!]" I begged.
"[I told you that I was going to get you help, and I meant every word of it!]" She boldly yelled before lunging at me with a snap of her teeth, sending me into a bolt away from her. "[You deserve more than just lying around here, and you're going to get it!]"
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"[AHH!]" I yelped after running straight into a metal post when looking back to see if this dinosaur was still chasing me, which she was. As soon as I fell to the ground and got my face out of the mud, I turned to see that she was running straight at me with some kind of frill around her neck expanded. I quickly shuffled away from her and up against the cold metal, whimpering in fear and sobbing. "[Please... don't kill me…]"
"[I told you earlier, I won't kill you unless you're a serious threat to me or my friends.]" She softly crooned while licking my wounds as her frill retracted. She then looked up at the wire fencing behind me. "[Hey! You in there?]"
"[I suggest you turn around and leave right now.]" A deep voice roared, pain clearly present in it. "[Refuse, and your insides will get an eviction notice courtesy of me.]"
"[Oh, trust me, Perry, you wouldn't want to kill us.]" This strange dino next to me called back. There wasn't a response right away, but I felt several ground-shaking thuds, and with each one I became even more afraid.
"[You called me 'Perry'.]" Rexy said as she approached us, while I began crying even more now. "[Only one person has ever called me that.]"
"[It sure has been a long time, hasn't it Rexy?]" The dino who brought me here replied.
"[Wait… is that really you, Ma-]" Rexy started to wonder.
"[Yumi. You've always called me that.]" Yumi said.
"[Huh?]" Rexy wondered.
"[Charlie….]" I sobbed.
"[I'll explain later.]" Yumi whispered; I barely heard it over my sad sounds. "[She needs your help.]"
"[My help? With what?]" Rexy asked.
"[Well, I don't really want to say it with her listening but-]" Yumi started.
"[They're dead! My entire family is dead!]" I wailed. "[The only family I have ever known is dead or they abandoned me! THAT'S WHAT!]"
"[Yeah… that's what happened.]" Yumi sighed.
"[Dear, what is your name?]" Rexy asked in a very soft voice.
"[Blue…]" I said as a broken sob. "[It was given to me by the same man who forced my only friend to leave.]"
"[Blue, dear, could you please come with me?]" Rexy asked.
"[But I don't want to get up…]" I cried.
"[Well I want to help you.]" Rexy said as she lowered herself to the ground. "[I'll even carry you.]"
I looked into her eyes and saw that she was being sincere, but still, I just couldn't bring myself to accept her offer; I was too afraid to care again. I buried my head underneath my claws and isolated myself while continuing to sob.
"[I really don't think she's going to get up, and she's too injured to just pick her up.]" Yumi said. "[She won't fall for me chasing her again.]"
"[Why….?]" I moaned.
"[Well, I haven't got another nest built yet.]" Rexy noted. "[We can stay here.]"
"[I did this to them!]" I sobbed. "[I killed them!]"
"[Shhhhhh… you're safe now sweetie.]" Rexy said in a very soothing voice. "[We won't hurt you. We promise.]"
"[Get away from me, before I get you killed too.]" I begged after jerking away when she tried to lick my wounds.
"[You won't get us killed.]" Yumi replied. "[Don't you worry about us.]"
"[It's my fault, it's all my fault.]" I cried as I felt my nostrils become wet. "[I did this.]"
"[We are so sorry.]" Yumi said as she knelt next to me. "[We're here for you though.]"
"[Daddy, please don't leave me! I need you! You're the only parent I've ever known.]" I begged. "[Please, I'm begging you!]"
"[I'll be a mother for you, Blue dear.]" Rexy said, causing me to look at her in disbelief. "[I may not be a raptor, but I promise that I will care for you and watch out for you as best I can.]"
"[Same here.]" Yumi said. "[I'll help you in any way I can. You deserve more than to suffer alone.]"
"[Kenny…]" I quietly whimpered. "[I miss you!]"
Despite the comforting embrace of the two dinosaurs next to me, I still couldn't stop crying out for my family, Kenny, anyone…
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"My entire life was completely shattered the night this place fell and I was abandoned. Everyone I knew, everyone who cared for and loved me and my siblings had to leave; and no one except you tried to stay. My own father abandoned me after promising us that he would stay, and now I realize that he left himself a way out of that promise when he said that he didn't explicitly say he would stay here. Even though Rexy, who I almost immediately began to call 'mom', and Yumi were doing everything they could to support me; it still didn't feel like any kind of a difference was being made. I felt nothing, no happiness whatsoever." I cried into Kenny's chest as he rubbed my neck and the back of my head. He had helped move me into the garage at our nest, and Yumi was tending to his shoulder. "That's how it was for the next several days and nights. I didn't want to get up, I didn't want to eat or drink anything, and they had to do most of my hunting for me. A couple days after InGen trespassed here, Yumi was captured by them, and Mom was caught the day. I managed to evade them for a few more days, and then I was caught as well. A little while after that, Wu came to me and started gloating about how he created Gwen and how he was the one who took everything away from me. He took pleasure in this because he thought I was trying to 'replace' someone. As soon as he told me all of this, I felt like I had a purpose again, that I could finally give the deaths of my sisters meaning. I thought I was finally making a difference, and then I almost allowed myself to be raped!"
"Blue, you tried your best to fight and kill them for the whole time that you were captured." Kenny said through his own tears.
"That's not the fucking point Kenny!" I cried in his face. "I got my own family killed because I wasn't ready for when Gwen struck me. Yes, I know that I was saving a life in doing so, but Owen was such an ungrateful bastard afterwards. Before that happened, he told me that he was so happy that I was safe, and that he was very worried about me when I got stabbed. I saved his life as well as the lives of the other humans and helped keep Gwen distracted from attacking them. Once she was dead, he just looked at me with such fury, disgust, and contempt. You were right. He had to have seen my sisters die right in front of him, and he didn't even bother to put Delta out of her misery. He just abandoned me, leaving me alive as punishment for our actions. I needed him so fucking bad, and he chose to leave me!"
"I knew something was wrong." Kenny replied.
"{Kenny, we just talked about this.}" Mom told him.
"This is different, Rexy. This happened after we got back to Costa Rica and were safe." Kenny clarified. "Blue, do you know what the very first thing I asked Owen when I saw him again was?"
"What was it?" I asked.
"I asked him 'Are Blue and her sisters safe? Are they all okay?'" Kenny said, choking up at what he said next. "He told me, and I quote 'Yes, Ken. They are all together and very much healthy and alive. I promise you that they are happy and safe.'"
"No…" I gasped.
"That was such a blatant lie and I fell for it!" Kenny cried with feral-sounding growls lacing over his voice again. "Before any of you say that I couldn't have known, I minored in psychology during college. His lips were pursed, his eyes were closed for more than a second, and there was a smile on his face that was just so fake. I knew that sickle claw he had looked familiar..."
"Kenny, it wouldn't have made any difference." I said. "Whether you knew the truth or not, it still wouldn't have erased the consequences of my actions."
"There were no consequences, Blue. You didn't make a choice that killed them." Kenny told me, shocking me at what he said. "Look, I've made choices that resulted in horrific outcomes as well, so I understand."
When Kenny said those words, I became hysterical.
"HOW CAN YOU FUCKING SAY THAT?!" I screamed. "I am the one who ordered them to carry out Gwen's orders."
"Blue." Kenny said.
"I couldn't get myself to move when Charlie encountered Owen, and she got blown up while pleading with him for help by someone who gleefully laughed at killing her!" I continued.
"Blue, please listen." Kenny tried again.
"And I am the one who let them be killed because I took a nap after a simple swat! So how can you say that I-" I went on before being stopped by a harsh slap from Kenny who proceeded to hold my jaws shut.
"I'VE KILLED PEOPLE TOO!" He yelled in my face.
"What?" I asked, having been snapped out of my hysterical rant.
"I have killed children, innocent children for no good reason, and it was all because of my own doing." Kenny replied.
"You've intentionally murdered children?" I wondered in shock and horror.
"Most of them, no." Kenny said sadly. "The first one I killed was when I was 7 at a dinner party that my parents were going to. I got into a fight with a kid for some unknown reason and ended up biting him; soon after that he started to have some kind of allergic reaction and was beginning to suffocate. I was told that it was a peanut allergy and that he was given an epipen, but no one believed me when I said that he never ate any peanuts. He went into a coma and was eventually diagnosed as being brain-dead. Later, when I was 11, I got into a fight with two other kids at separate times. The next day after our fights, they went into seizures and had to be taken to the hospital; again, I was told that it wasn't because of me, supposedly because they both had epilepsy, but they were in remission for that. Everyone thought they were going to be fine, but 5 years ago they were found to have overdosed on an illegal drug called heroin. I was studying for a veterinary job, so I had been doing plenty of research on biology. I found out that they had an addiction to opium-based drugs because they were treated with Fentanyl, which hospitals only use as a last resort due to how addictive it is."
"You… you really believe that?" I asked.
"I don't believe, I know." Kenny answered sadly. "I know because that is not even the worst of it. Whenever I bite people, they die. The deaths of those three children were accidents, but there was a fourth kid that died; and it was no accident. It was murder."
"Murder?" I repeated.
"This was just four years ago." Kenny told me. "Me and another person, John Consu, were hiking through the Tumalo State Park in Oregon. Now, me and John hated each other… a lot. He turned a lot of people in my schools against me by saying false things about me. He said bad things about how I make clicking sounds almost constantly with my tongue, and he kept calling me an animal because of how it sounds like I chirp or growl at times. One day, he slashed my tires and vandalized my car, so I did the same to him. We both got caught and so our parents sent us to the park to "bond", which was really just an excuse so that we wouldn't complicate things with our insurance agencies."
"What happened?" I wondered. "Did you really attack him with the intent to kill?"
"No, but I might as well have." Kenny grimly answered after a long pause. "During our camping in the wilderness, we argued constantly. I was trying to ignore him and avoid starting any fights, just so that we could avoid killing each other until we were supposed to meet our parents back at the entrance to the park. That didn't happen. John had discovered my intentions of wanting to work here, to become a vet and care for you along with other dinosaurs."
"You… were going to care for us? Treat us for sicknesses and heal our injuries?" I realized, feeling a brief glimpse of happiness.
"Yeah. John was surprised that I'd want to work here of all places, but he did not hesitate to mock me on it. He found it laughable that I would want to care for such 'ferocious and disgusting monsters' and called me suicidal for it. Now, having suffered from those kinds of thoughts in the past, I quickly became very angry at him. Eventually, I accidentally let your name slip and that you were my best friend." Kenny continued. "John took a shot in the dark, just to piss me off, but that shot was straight and true. He said, and I quote exactly: 'Oh my fucking god! I literally cannot fucking believe this! No wonder you turned down Natalie's invitation to senior prom. You are so desperate to get your dick wet that you would rather fuck a dinosaur than a human girl who wants to go out with you! Actually, now that I think about it, you two are perfect for each other. You're both filthy animals that can't solve the simplest of problems, you enjoy playing with yourselves, and you're both so goddamned ugly that even your own species doesn't want to be with you; no wonder you want to fuck one.'."
"I can't believe he really thought that." I said. "Why would he?"
"I don't know, and at that point, I didn't care. My patience with him had reached its breaking point." Kenny replied. "So, I lunged straight at him and attacked. He was fully prepared to fight me, and despite hitting my in my nose, he had no way of knowing how I would fight. During the scuffle, I ended up biting him harshly in the arm, and he was so terrified that I bit him, that he ran off into the woods. Before, when I was younger, I had no idea what my bite could do; but this time, I knew exactly what would happen to him, even though I didn't care."
"{What did happen to him?}" Yumi inquired.
"As I was stalking him while he ran, he started to become very disoriented, confused, almost like he had a concussion. He began to stumble in the darkness, but I could see him just fine." Kenny explained. "Soon, we locked eyes again and he became extremely terrified, before trying to move away from me even faster. I think he thought he saw someone who had hurt him before, but I wasn't really paying much attention to what he was saying. It was like I had tunnel vision, he was all I was focusing on, and I knew that I wouldn't have to wait much longer; what for though, I wasn't sure at the time."
"What did you do to him next?" I asked, becoming deeply worried about how strangely Kenny was acting during these events.
"I did nothing but watch as he steadily became unable to move." Kenny said. "Then, he started shaking rapidly, I think he was having seizures or something. This went on for a short while before he stopped moving entirely. After that I think he died, and I left to go back to camp."
"{You actually left him?}" Mom asked.
"No, I went back for him. Even though he had tried to actually abandon me after he got us lost, I knew questions would be asked if I arrived without him." Kenny answered. "Aaaaand then I saw a mountain lion eating him, then it saw me and attacked, that's how I got this scar on my left thigh and calf. I managed to drive it off with a knife in the chest and shoulder, but I was starving, and I had meat right in front of me."
"{But… wait. Isn't it extremely taboo for humans to eat one another?}" Mom asked Kenny. "{I mean I get that some animals do it, and even my species was once thought to have done that, but for humans?}"
"Damn right it is." Kenny replied, causing them to look at him with complete shock and horror. "I sunk my ridged teeth into his flesh, tearing and swallowing a lot of it."
"{Kenny, how the fuck could you do that?!}" Mom asked in a loud voice and with hints of anger in it.
"I honestly don't know Nana!" Kenny answered sadly. "I was just so hungry. I mean I had been trying to eat things that didn't really require hunting; like harvesting hollyleaf cherries, coffeeberries, and cooking elderberries. However, John kept eating most of them, the only way that I could have enough was if I went out early and harvested them; and even then, that didn't work some of the time. I really think he was trying to abandon me out there."
"{But still, cannibalism for you?}" Mom asked.
"Heh, that's the thing most people don't get." Kenny replied after an empty chuckle. "They look down on cannibalism as one of the most horrible things that a human can do to another, and while they are right, most of those people haven't experienced what it's like to be starving to death, as they all have the luxury of food being readily available and around the corner of the block. It happened with the Donner party, and with a plane full of students who crashed in the Andes mountains a while back. I never said I liked eating him..."
"Why are you telling me this?" I wondered.
"Because I took a life that in all honesty, didn't deserve the fate that he received. Sure, he was being a huge bastard and knowingly degraded me and you among numerous other dinosaurs, but he didn't deserve to be left comatose and terrified in the middle of the wilderness." Kenny said. "I didn't even bury his body, or rather, what was left of it. When the search and rescue division of the National Park Service found it, they were horrified at how mutilated it was, and they couldn't even identify what made the markings on his bones. Since I had to go with them because I was the last person who saw him, I had to relive all those events. They asked me what happened to him and how we became separated, and I told them that he was attacked by a ferocious animal and that I had become injured in the fight."
Kenny was full on weeping at this point.
"I couldn't lie to them. John called me an animal… and he was right." Kenny cried. "Now, every day, I have to live with the fact that I killed someone's kid and ate them before leaving their corpse behind in the wilderness when I was rescued. Every fucking time I encounter his parents, along with his brother and sister, I have to smile and act like I am not the fucking animal who ate a part of their family after a mountain lion started it. I haven't told them to this day, and even if I could, I still wouldn't be able to. There is no way, none at all, that I can ever justify first degree manslaughter; especially in the way that I did it."
"Oh Kenny…" I cried while holding him close. "I am so sorry."
"Don't be." Kenny replied. "There is no way that you or anyone else could have known. You three are the only ones who I've been able to tell about this."
"Why are you telling us this?" I asked. "What does that have to do with me?"
"I'm telling you this because I want you to know that you are not the only one who has made horrible and irreversible decisions." Kenny answered. "I have been through horrible things like you have, and I understand. I want you to know that."
"YOU HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH!" I screamed in his face. "YOU HAVEN'T BEEN ALMOST RAPED! YOUR FATHER DIDN'T ABANDON YOU AFTER YOU RISKED YOUR LIFE FOR HIM! YOU HAVEN'T BEEN FORCED TO WALLOW IN DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY FOR OVER A FUCKING MONTH! THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY THAT YOU COULD POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND ANY OF WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH!"
"I have." Kenny said and I felt my breath hitch for a moment as I remembered what he told me in my paddock several days ago.
"Kenny, I'm sorry for saying that, but you should just forget about me and let me die. I can't-" I was saying, when suddenly, Kenny did something that I never expected him to do when trying to calm me down.
He did not slap me, he did not yell at me, oh no… he held my jaws still, leaned in and I felt his tongue sliding across my front teeth. Kenny… was kissing me. Not as a human would to another human, but just as a velociraptor would to another velociraptor. I was so caught off-guard, so unprepared for this display of affection from him, that I just completely froze. I was staring at Kenny in the most complete look of shock one could make as I watched and let him kiss me while he softly caressed the back of my head and the base of my neck. I have no idea how long we were like this, but when Kenny finally pulled away, I saw that he was crying so profusely that I felt my heart sink.
"Blue, please… don't ever say that. You don't deserve to die, not for anything. You may feel like you should, like everything you have ever done has all been for nothing, but let me tell you something: it wasn't." Kenny cried. "I know that you blame yourself for the deaths of your sisters, but listen to what I am about to tell you. You and your sisters never directly attacked Owen after Gwen turned you against him, and Charlie even begged him to help you four because she was deathly afraid of Gwen. Even if she believed he gave the order to fire, she still felt like he was a better alpha then Gwen and immediately pleaded with him for help. Why do you feel like you're responsible for her death?"
"I-I-I j-just stoo—od there." I whimpered.
"But you thought of Owen as your dad for a second. You saw that he was standing down, and beginning to regard Charlie with friendliness and compassion, you noticed that he wasn't threatening her. I believe that you knew he was going to help her." Kenny admitted. "When she got blown up by that sadistic InGen bastard, he was just as horrified and traumatized as you. I'd even go so far as to say that before he came to rescue Barry, that he killed that mercenary. You may think that you're alone in this, but you're not. After all, don't you think that Delta and Echo blamed themselves for Charlie's death too?"
I gasped in shock at this revelation and it quickly turned into a whimper of shame at my perceived selfishness. Kenny however, was quick to distract me from this.
"Owen was willing to sacrifice himself to save your life, and you still saved his, and in doing so, those of your sisters as well. Even when they thought you were dead, they were still willing to sacrifice their own lives to avenge yours." Kenny said. "They knew the consequences, and so did Owen when they kept you safe."
"But… I couldn't protect them." I sighed.
"What, just because you got knocked out?" Kenny asked in mock-surprise. "Look Blue, I don't know how you survived that impact, especially without broken ribs; but if that were me, I'd be dead. Even if I knew that would happen, I would still do it again if it meant keeping you safe."
"That's exactly why I don't want you to get close to me! I only get my friends and family killed, and I would probably get the same done to those who aren't close to me as well." I whimpered. "I hate being a harbinger of death and trauma."
"Again, I'm going to stop you right there. You may think that isolating yourself from us will cause us to stop caring about you, to stop making sacrifices for you; but if you really believe that, then you don't know shit about us." Kenny abruptly said, shocking me with his bluntness again. "You can make your own choices, but you sure as hell can't make ours. When we choose to protect you, to care about you and make sacrifices, even if it's our lives, then it's not because we're obligated to, but because we chose to; because you give us the courage and inspiration to protect those we care dearly about."
"Kenny…" I quietly cried.
"Look Blue, do you know why I came back here?" Kenny questioned. "Why I chose to leave my business behind and the life that I had back in the US?"
"Is it because of me?" I sniffled. "Am I reason you chose to give everything up?"
"No Blue, that's not it at all." Kenny answered while soothingly rubbing my shoulder. "The reason that I chose to come back to Isla Nublar is because… I missed you."
"You missed us?" I asked in confusion.
"Yes. Back on the mainland, I had a job, a place to live, safety… but I still wasn't happy. Not just because I had nightmares of you and your sisters being killed, but also because I wasn't able to do much of anything." Kenny clearly explained. "In addition to all of the other dinosaurs here, you four were the only real friends that I ever had. I knew that I said John turned most of the students in my elementary, middle, and high school against me; but that doesn't mean that the remaining ones were my friends. Me and several other students were friendly with each other, but we weren't close like you and me, or me and Yang for example. Soon, that meant that I had virtually no one to turn to when my father was killed and I lost Zon. I didn't know what to do. But, then I met you four."
"Us?" I realized.
"Yes, you and your sisters." Kenny replied. "Although you were very young at the time and probably didn't remember me, you instantly warmed up to me. I was honestly worried that you would lose interest in me soon after that, but I am so glad that I was proven wrong. You four didn't know anything about me, not my past, not what others thought of me, or my odd habits like clicking my tongue. You treated me with nothing but friendship, admiration, and love; you even comforted me whenever I was feeling very sad, and you were only like 6 or 7 at the time. That really meant a lot to me Blue."
"I don't even know why I was like that." I muttered.
"It's because you are a great and loving person, sweetie." Kenny comforted. "Even though Owen told me that you and your sisters were all safe and happy, I still missed you dearly. The night before, when he said that he was going to let you live your lives free, I didn't understand completely what he meant by that. When I encountered him the next day, I wondered why he wasn't here, with you four."
"Probably because he was furious with how I got my sisters killed." I said.
"He may have seen it that way, but I know you didn't get them killed, and if that's true, then he is an enormous piece of shit." Kenny said. "I was kind of disappointed in him for just leaving you after such a huge and intense battle, even if it was time for you to leave the nest. I wanted to make sure you had support, I wanted to be your rock to lean on in troublesome times, because I cared deeply about you all. I wanted to give you all comfort not just because I was your packmate, but also because I was your friend."
I couldn't come up with a reply to that. Kenny was giving me all of this support and encouragement, but I still didn't know how to respond. Kenny broke the silence.
"Blue, I want you to know that I truly love you, you may not believe that I could ever love someone like you, but I do. You are the only kind of person that I could love, and I am not talking about loving you as a friend or the bond that packmates share… but the ones between life-mates." Kenny revealed, shocking me. "So please understand Blue, please understand that when you ask me to let you die, that you're asking me to give up the most important thing in the world to me. You mean everything to me, Blue. I have no idea what I would do without such a sweet, loving, and beautiful girl like you."
I started to lower my head, but Kenny wasn't finished and had an even bigger smile on his face, despite an increasing number of tears on his face as well.
"I know that I can't understand exactly what you went through that night and before I came back here, and you are right when you say that I don't know what it's like; but I do know what depression and loss is like, as my own brother died in my arms and I have come extremely close to committing suicide myself." Kenny continued. "Some people would think that you don't deserve mercy and forgiveness, but I do. I don't think that you are perfect, or that you are a monster, and they shouldn't either. After all, what right do we have to deny another's genuine apology and plea for help, when we have made so many mistakes and terrible choices ourselves."
I started to smile even more at his words.
"I see past your beautiful scales, I see you not as a mindless lizard, but as a real, living person." Kenny told me. "I know that you're not perfect, far from it; but I wouldn't have you any other way, because then you wouldn't be the Blue that I fell in love with. You're my best friend, Blue… and I truly love you with all my heart."
Kenny grunted in surprise when I basically tackled him to the ground from our sitting position. He had no time to react as I carefully held onto his shoulders and pressed my lips against his firmly. There was no intrusion with my tongue, no moaning or anything of the sort; just a simple, yet firm kiss. It was just like a simple one that a human would do, Kenny had kissed me just like a velociraptor would, so I wanted to return the favor in an equally special way. I felt moisture running down my face, and I was so glad that we were under something that blocked the rain. I knew that the moisture that I felt, and so did Kenny, were my tears of gratitude to him. After what felt like hours of kissing, I pulled away to softly say the only two words that could summarize perfectly what I was wanting to say with real happiness and gratitude since the day the love of my life rescued me from InGen.
"Thank you." I said.
Kenny only smiled back before pulling me into another kiss, this time we happily ran our tongues across the other's teeth as we felt our hearts beat against the other, every thump bringing more and more tears. Reluctantly, I pulled away and gently helped Kenny move back up to a sitting position again to ask him a question that I really wanted an answer to.
"Kenny, what's wrong wi-" I started before shaking my head and wording my question better. "Why is all of this happening to me? These horrific hallucinations, nightmares, panic attacks; what's causing all of them?"
"Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking on the subject and… you may not like the answer." Kenny answered, and when he saw the expression that I was making, he put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Don't you worry, girl. My thoughts and prior education have allowed me to identify what you are suffering from. It's… Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; also abbreviated as PTSD."
"What?" I asked in stupor.
"I'm not going to get all technical, because I want to make sure that you can understand what I'm saying. PTSD is a psychological disorder caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event, which can be rape, assault, loss of a family member, or an extremely shocking and intense disaster; to name some." Kenny explained. "It has a whole slew of symptoms, like the ones you've been experiencing; and it varies from person-to-person."
"So how can it be cured, or uh… fixed?" I wondered.
"I'm sorry, Blue, but it can't be." Kenny solemnly answered.
"What? But I- but- but why?" I stammered in confusion. "You know so much about this, surely you must have or know something that can fix this."
"Blue, listen to me. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can't be 'fixed'. It is a psychological disorder, which means it's cognitive, i.e. in your head. It's not something that you can take a pill for or get a shot and you'll be better in the morning." Kenny revealed, causing me to make a sound like a whine. "Look, I'm not saying that it's impossible to recover from, it's just something that you have to learn to live with. I have it, and I want you to know that you can still be happy, and you can still have a great life. That's why I'm here for you now."
I happily nuzzled Kenny while making an audible deep-purring noise.
"So, I'll still have these panic attacks and hallucinations?" I asked, to which Kenny nodded in agreement. "Well, it will be a real comfort to know that you will help me through all of them, that you will be at my side, ready to help. Thank you, Kenny."
Kenny looked up at the further darkening sky which continued to pour rain with such force and chuckled.
"It sure is getting dark out huh?" Kenny laughed.
"Don't forget chilly too." I laughed as well.
"What are you two going to do now?" Cobalt asked.
"Well, as for us, we need to go to sleep." Kenny said. "Why don't you all come and join us?"
"{Sorry, Kenny.}" Mom dismissed. "{I really wish I could, I truly do. But I want to keep tabs on my territory and make sure its clear of competition.}"
"{I'll go with you if that's cool, help you out.)" Yumi supported.
"Nana, you already told me about how Ciera is hunting you remember?" Kenny reminded. "We can keep you safe from both her and her pack."
I noticed that Cobalt seemed to pale at the mention of the Toxic Moon pack and I motioned for him to come over to me.
"What's wrong?" I whispered as mom, Yumi, and Kenny continued speaking.
"O-oh no-no-nothing." Cobalt whispered back in a very strained voice.
"Look, don't bullshit me." I said. "I know that something is wrong."
"I'm scared." He sighed.
"Please stay with us." I whispered. "I want to help you."
"But if do... and I'm spo-" Cobalt replied.
"It will be alright." I requested with a claw on his shoulder.
"Fine… but you have to hide me." Cobalt reluctantly agreed. His words confused me, and worried me as well, but I decided not to press my luck after he agreed to stay with us.
"Blue, any ideas?" Kenny asked, bringing my attention back to him.
"What?" I wondered. "What did you say?"
"Do you know what we can do?" Kenny asked. "We can't stay here tonight."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Oh, that's right, you weren't here when I showed Rexy and Yumi that video." Kenny realized. "Well, two dinosaurs paid us a visit overnight and left us a threatening message with a knife to our throats. You remember the siblings from the Visitor's Center right, one of them was missing an eye?"
I heard extremely nervous squealing coming from behind me and looked to see Cobalt looking utterly terrified with his claws on his muzzle, but a cold wind and fierce shiver distracted me.
"Can't they track our scents?" I wondered. "Where would we go?"
"{I'll handle that.}" Yumi informed. "{You'll be safe.}"
"In that case then, follow me." I replied with a soft… and real smile for once. "I have an idea."
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"Please wait here." I requested after Kenny and I had walked into the room.
I went over to the rooms near ours and gathered all of the blankets and pillows that I could, bringing them over to where Kenny was. He only watched as I climbed up on the beds that he had pushed together for me to lay on almost a week ago and pulled the covers off. I began placing the pillows around in a circle and tucking light sheets around them, before grabbing the bundle of thicker ones and pulled them up onto the soft surface and straightening them out.
"Kenny." I spoke up once I was finished. "It is because of you that I learned my life isn't a waste and that in spite of all the horrible things that I have done, you and many others still love me and see me for who I am. I was ready to die, and didn't want anyone to worry about me, but I owe it to you for showing me that I can still live, and that I have friends and family to fall back on who will not hesitate to give me the support I need; both now and in the future. A while ago, you took me here when I was a complete emotional wreck. Any life I thought I could have had was ripped away from me and shattered once again, but you helped put the pieces back together and give me a great life again. Kenny, as my life-mate, will you please sleep with me in this nest for the night?"
Kenny walked over to me while tears of joy streamed down his face. He reached behind my neck and I lowered my head to his level so that we could happily kiss each other once more. When Kenny pulled away and we opened our eyes, my whole chest was very warm.
"I would be honored to, my love." Kenny agreed.
I was so full of joy that I grabbed his torso with my claws and curled my neck around his back to pull him up onto the bed, with him ending up laying on top of my chest and stomach as I pulled him into another kiss.
"Thank you so much!" I cried. "I love you so fucking bad!"
"As do I sweetie." Kenny replied while I reached down with my legs and pulled the sheets overtop of us. "As do I."
Kenny gently moved me so that all of his weight wasn't directly on top of me, and we both held the other close, with both of us making joyful purring noises while we caressed each other.
The storm that was once a torrential downpour was now a gentle and relaxing rain, with each and every raindrop that hit the window making a soft "pat" sound.
It was beautiful…
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I told you that you would need a lot of tissues. This made me cry too, and I wrote it. I really hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I'm sure it was worth waiting for (but not entirely). Anyways, I'm going to go down what went down in this chapter.
When Blue was having her hallucination/panic attack of Gwen (the Indominus Rex) and Charlie, I had to be very careful with what I had them say, as they could only say things that just Blue would know, as these are her thoughts running out of control and overwhelming her. Gwen saying that she was avenging Charlie's death is Blue subconsciously rationalizing that Gwen running away from Blue and her sisters during the intense battle against the humans was to avenge Charlie; as Blue doesn't want to believe that Gwen was acting that cruel just for no reason. Charlie and Gwen saying that they hate Blue is her own self-guilt because she believes that they both must hate her for failing to protect them and for betraying their trust.
I hope you liked my description of the events that caused Blue to become attracted to Kenny. Yup he was willing to break the rules to keep Blue and her sisters safe, as they mean everything to him.
Kenny's sudden strictness and "authority" over Blue is him recognizing that he hasn't been paying enough attention to her mental health and instead just her physical health. He realized that Blue was borderline suicidal, and that if he didn't give her all of the help she needed immediately, that he would lose her forever.
Next, onto the fight! This fight between Kenny and Blue was inspired by the one between Derios and his dragon mate in JasonVUK's story: Declaration of Love to a Dragon on SoFurry and Furaffinity. In that particular scene, Derios's mate was traumatized by the one-sided fight that they took part of against the humans who were hunting them. They were poisoned, took so many injuries, and ended up being captured by the hunans before being tortured. Even after Derios broke her out along with himself, he soon found out that she was terrified and keeping her thoughts contained. After forcing her into a fight when she refused to talk to him (even though he couldn't understand her), she released all of her pent up feelings while hugging him as he did the same to her. I wanted to evoke those feelings of trauma and isolation in my story, showing that even animals like velociraptors can be aware of these feelings and try to hide them from those they care about.
As for Blue's flashback, I realized that even though a girl like Blue would be upset at being woken up in the way that Kenny caused, I wanted to go even further than that. So I built upon her feelings and fantasies about Kenny to have her have a dream that she and Kenny became parents, so that her being upset would be even further justified. Also, this is where the running gag of Blue rudely waking up Kenny began.
Ahh, velociraptors conspiring with humans. Truly a nightmare for their unfortunate victims. Still though, the scene where Blue was reminiscing on Kenny being worried for them was included to show how far Blue's support for Kenny goes and how much she wants him to know that he can depend on them when he's in troublesome times, which they were very thankful for him trusting them.
I had a lot of fun writing Blue's sisters embarrassing her with her love for Kenny. It's just the simple sibling squabbles which is secretly a display of comfort and love between family members. Blue knows full well this is the case, but at this point in the story where it's first brought up, she's still embarrassed about it.
The "coffee" (Mountain Dew) incident is a shout out to SkullDuggery's "It's Not The Raptor DNA" story. In one of the chapters, Echo drinks a vet's coffee, and goes insane from the caffeine, flinging rabbits left and right, worrying her sisters, and throws up on Owen. Originally, it was going to be Echo who drank the soda and flipped out, but in the end I decided that I didn't want the scene to be too similar to INTRDNA (how I abbreviate the aforementioned story), as it was only going to be Owen that got vomited on. So I changed the raptor, added a couple other victims, and voila!
Yep, Blue wants Kenny alone with her and in her nest, badly. Fantasizing about him and talking about how she's going to rip his clothes off. Yeah, imagine saying stuff like that out loud in public without realizing you're doing it.
This also really worries Blue obviously. Despite not knowing about human x animal relationships (at the time) and how very taboo they are, she still worries about what her dad would think of her for not wanting to mate with her own species, and it's really raising her anxiety.
I really wanted to expand on the bond that Blue and Charlie share. As stated in the previous chapter and on the LEGO website, Charlie very often tries to give her entire meals to Blue because of the sheer amount of respect and admiration that she holds for her. Charlie seemed like the least experienced hunter and fighter from what I saw of her in the movie, so I decided to have Blue give her some constructive criticism and support her self-confidence.
Writing the hunting scene was honestly fun for me, especially when I had Blue enforce her authority over Echo who was trying to disobey her alpha's orders. Blue knew that if Echo disobeyed Owen, then none of them would get any rewards. As you would see later, Echo has secret reasons as to why she wants to go out to her dad's nest, and is very dead set on knowing exactly when they would go out there, for… reasons. You'll see more of that later.
I decided to have the raptors give Hoskins their own unique "nickname" because it just felt special. At the time it was just Delta, and her nickname for him would be fatty, but I thought that didn't suit her, so I decided to have Charlie call Hoskins that, and I had them each give him one.
Blue is naturally considerate and caring for other creatures. She heard that Owen was able to help so many people and save a lot of lives in the Navy, so it's only natural that she would consider joining too, even though she knows that realistically she wouldn't be allowed in as herself.
Blue gets kind of turned on when Kenny gets assertive and authoritative, like how he acts while climbing the cliff at the beginning of the chapter. Had she not been horrified at hallucinating and hanging off a cliff, she would have been so horny at the time. Blue loves it whenever Kenny is like this.
When I heard about Blue being impulsive and stubborn, I started to think more about why that might be the case. I considered the fact that even though a child may be the oldest out of their siblings, that doesn't mean that they are the most wise or level-headed. I know that Blue cares a lot about certain things and displays such willpower when protecting those things, so I decided to combine that with her impulsiveness so that she would care about things to a fault because of high anxiety. Sure Charlie is the most hyperactive, but Blue has an element of that hyperactivity in her own right, which is why she can be really aggressive at times and butt heads with her Alpha at times, even injuring herself during some of these disagreements.
Reading about Blue being the most aggressive out of her siblings gave me an idea that she can be pretty short-tempered at times. While she's not one to let her rank get to her head, Charlie's statement about how Blue and Echo fight a lot shows that sometimes Blue can take things too personally and start a fight herself, or antagonize Echo and she starts it instead.
Blue holding onto Owen's belt buckle is another shout-out to INTRDNA, and I wanted to give each of the raptors their own special "security item", even if it may not be for safety. Aside from Delta, Charlie's soccer ball and Echo's painting are things that they wanted to hold onto for nostalgia. This is because they all long for times like when their father would hold them in his arms, swim with them, and play around his bungalow with them. Ever since they moved to their new nest, those times have been very rare and they miss those times very much, as they are still hatchlings in a way at heart.
Blue masturbating to Kenny is something that I considered just recently. I actually didn't plan for this earlier and in the moment it just came to me. I considered taking it out but I looked over the chapter before I did and I noticed just how much I wrote Blue being sheepish about her love for Kenny. Thinking about how supportive Blue's sisters were to her and that they rarely held anything against her gave me the idea that they knew about Blue pleasuring herself pretty frequently, and that they wanted to remind her that they didn't think any less of her for it. The same can be said for her fear that Owen would hate her for loving a human.
I decided to write in the soccer game as a way to show that Blue and her sisters were fans of some human traditions and topics, and I even went further by having Owen support this. Sure, when he showed it to them it was just to play with them, but soon he realized that some human things could really benefit his girls in real-life, so he decided to stick with it. "Son of a bitch" is a shout-out to one of my favorite shows "Red Vs. Blue."
Duke is the last guy on the left, when Hoskins is first shown coming onto the screen. I wanted to have him be a shout-out to Oscar from the Jurassic Park video game by Telltale games. He is very respectful to the dinosaurs, and especially the raptors. I was thinking about how Leon went from being utterly terrified of the raptors, to looking so determined when he released them to hunt the Indominus. I figured that something had to have happened to bolster his courage around the raptors, and this scene was born.
The next bit where Hoskins was talking to Wu was inspired by a recent video released by The Game Theorists on YouTube, about how the Indominus's escape was intentional. This bit was always intended in my story, but watching that video made me think about this subject in a new light. Wu's deal with Hoskins and the terms in it were a bit ambiguous in the movie, as it seemed like Hoskins was the one with Wu under his thumb. Hoskins's motivations for releasing the Indominus are going to be revealed soon in my story, but for now I wanted to portray the Indominus as starting to break out of the deal that she was unknowingly a part of. Who knows, maybe Hoskins and Wu intended for Rexy to be the one to face off against Gwen? Oh wait… I know. Hehehehe…
Blue talking about "having a cow" was completely unintentional and I did not mean for it to be intended like that. However I thought about what I had typed and I thought that I had heard that expression before so I looked it up. When I found out what it meant I was like "I'm throwing it in!" Blue's reaction to her siblings not telling her what the expression means is a reference to Dr. Who's "School Reunion" episode, where Rose and Sarah Jane Smith are laughing at the Doctor for not hearing what funny things they said about him and when they travelled with him.
I chose to write in the fight with the birds from the aviary because I figured that some had to have gone over to the raptor paddock. They were attacking baby dinosaurs, so I believed there was no reason they wouldn't try to attack raptors in a confined space. Aside from most of the birds killing a lot of the humans and the raptors having little-moderate trouble killing the ones that attacked them, I wanted the scene to kind of be a joint-effort between the humans and the raptors, so that's where Duke protecting them and Blue helping Duke get over to safety came in. This was to show that they can be merciful and grateful at times, acting in kindness without expecting rewards.
I'll admit it, I wrote Duke in with the intention of killing him off. It wasn't just because of the Cassandra Truth that Duke knew (Hoskins willing to kill or stab a defenseless Delta), or the fact that most people who display care and respect for dinosaurs end up being killed (Oscar, Dr. Laura Sorkin, and Simon). I wanted to bend this pattern and write in a character who is aware of the potential consequences, and is willing to voluntarily and intentionally give their life to save a dinosaur.
I figured that with how much of a personality that each velociraptor has shown in the movies and game, as well as how they are able to think freely in a way; that it would make sense for them to be able to develop their own fears. Echo's fear of dentists was given to her because I can relate to that. I used to be scared of going to the dentist and I still worry about having cavities whenever I go there, but I'm still mostly comfortable there now. As for Delta's claustrophobia, I decided to give her that fear because I figured that even the most stern and stoic girl of the bunch would have a fear that would be pretty simple. (It was just the first one that came into my mind). Charlie's apiphobia stems from her playfulness and innocence, as well as her general lack of understanding about the dangers of the world. I thought that most fears generally started from curiosity and the innocence that most children naturally possess. Blue's general fear of losing her sisters seemed too cliché and simple, so I needed to add more to it. I realized that I had written Echo disappearing for nearly a month when Blue wasn't around her, and that something like that would more than likely frighten Blue. Yes Blue does fight with Echo a lot, but she is really scared about losing her at this point in the story.
Hoskins murdering all of the birds from the aviary, especially the already injured ones like the ones that were asleep and the one that Barry was about to heal, and then his casual response to all this senseless death was intended to be Blue's breaking point in the sense of her patience with him, as evidenced by her furious-turned-sadistic rant declaration to him. A grazing bullet striking her was me deciding to write in an injury that I believed she received before Owen arrived there. I saw that it didn't look like something that one of the birds from the aviary would cause, so I wrote it in as a grazing bullet wound.
Kenny's reluctant departure was already sad enough for both him and Blue, but given how much she and her sisters care for him, I figured that it would be even more upsetting and depressing from her POV, so I decided to write it that way. I hope you all liked what I had her say when she was wailing while holding Kenny tight.
Blue taking in Gwen's appearance was meant to be as horrifying yet saddening as it was. I wanted to explore how another dinosaur would react to seeing such an unnatural creature, and having absolutely no idea on how to interpret her. Blue figured that this is what Hoskins called "Diabolus" and naturally felt some sympathy for her, as evidenced by her feeling concerned for the pain that Gwen more than likely felt whenever her jaws were completely shut. I wrote that last part in the way I did as a potential explanation as to why in most of the shots that we see the Indominus Rex in, her mouth is at least hanging partly open.
Blue waiting for Owen's response to Gwen's challenge of authority is something that I considered after reading the tvtropes for this movie. Sure Barry said that they "look at what they want to eat", I believe that was just him saying "Fuck you" to Hoskins. I noticed that Blue and her sisters did not immediately attack the humans, they looked only at their father/alpha, and attacked only after the other humans started firing, so I wrote their sudden switch in allegiances as mostly impulsive and in self-defense.
As for how sadistic I was writing Blue… I did not intend to write her that dark. I just kind of went with the flow. In the end (and actually as I was writing it), I legitimately felt afraid as I was writing her that way. In the end, I kept it because I figured that if I felt that afraid as I was writing it, I could only imagine how you all would feel.
Charlie's death. This was something that I loved to write, and hated that I loved it. Seeing how full of rage Blue was after Charlie was killed, this scene just came to me with such ease. Charlie was the youngest sister of the bunch, so I felt that it would only be natural for Blue to care so much about her, and be absolutely traumatized when she was blown up right in front of her eyes.
Blue being horrified at being ordered to kill children was meant to show that Blue still feels a sense of compassion for humans that she figures are innocent. This is also meant to show that she fears creating and experiencing loss, being that the death of Charlie is still very fresh in her mind, and is imagining how others would feel if she killed someone's loved ones as well.
As for what Gwen was doing when Blue approached her and why she was acting the way she was, you'll see more of that soon.
I had a lot of fun writing Blue regretting her choice of siding with Gwen, and having Owen remind her of her good-nature and how she isn't like a sadistic monster. Blue knows this and Owen reminding her of it shows her that he knows her better than Gwen does and that she is still his girl.
I noticed that in the Jurassic World movie, that after Gwen pushed Rexy to the ground and proceeded to savagely beat her into it, that Rexy seemed to be looking at Claire as the latter was trying to crawl away. I also noticed that Claire seemed to give an understanding nod to Rexy as she was releasing her. I once read a story where Hammond introduced a young Claire to Rexy at the original Jurassic Park, and although she was afraid of her, I felt like she was also amazed by Rexy. I also read in INTRDNA that Rexy was pretty friendly with Claire, and that gave me new ideas, so I combined what I had in mind with the new ideas I got from these other stories to hint at a bond between Rexy and Claire. I always felt like the staff at both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World gave Rexy the respect that was due to her, and that they listened to her and her requests. So she's like the unofficial "ruler" of Isla Nublar.
Blue discovering the corpses of her family members was something that I was dreading having to write, just because it was so saddening to me, imagining what went through her head after her father/alpha left her without telling her about what happened to her sisters. The discovery of Echo's corpse was meant to be simple, and I won't say any more than that… But for Delta, I imagined that being burned alive would not be an immediate death for her, and that she would hang around for a little while, all while suffering in intense pain. That's why I wanted to have her still be alive when Blue found her, so that in a way, they get to say goodbye to each other; however for Blue, it wasn't that simple. Being how Blue is immensely traumatized at what is currently happening at this point, Delta dying in Blue's arms is also meant to traumatize her further. This is because actually seeing another one of her sisters die a horrifying death is serving the purpose to remind her that she failed her perceived duties of keeping her family safe, and to drive her further into despair.
Next, Yumi finding Blue and leading her to an old friend of hers, Rexy. I've seen quite a few fanfics and pieces of fan-art that show Blue and Rexy cooperating and surviving together, and I couldn't help but notice that Blue always seemed so happy in those works. I thought that Blue wouldn't be able to come to terms with the death of her family and her isolation so easily, and so I decided to spin my own twist on these circumstances. In the works that I've seen, it's either friendliness, gratitude, or survival that drived Blue and Rexy to work with each other. Being that Rexy has… dealt with similar circumstances that Blue is in, I wanted to have them being together as more of a familial connection than what I listed in the previous sentence; and I would also like to point out that Blue has only had one parent over the entire course of her life, never a mother, so that's where Rexy comes in.
Yeah, Owen flat out lied to Kenny about Blue and her sisters. Not only did he abandon Blue after her sisters were brutally killed, but he blatantly lied to Kenny and someone else as well. As with Kenny, sure, it wasn't outright blatant, at least not to Kenny because he was so desperate for knowledge on the status of his friends, that he was willing to take the word of one of the last people who saw them. That is another reason why Kenny took so long to get back to Isla Nublar, because he thought they were alive.
That's right, Kenny has killed children. As for how he managed to kill them, well, I'm not going to say much on this, since I've already given you enough clues. I've done everything on this except explicitly say why.
Oh yeah, Kenny was the first to intentionally kiss Blue, and not the other way around. This is something that I spent weeks thinking about. I was debating whether it would be better to have Blue kiss Kenny first, or go with how the scene went. I was thinking that if Blue (a velociraptor), kissed Kenny (a human), first, then it wouldn't really be illegal. Then I was like "They are on an abandoned island full of dinosaurs. That's just stupid." So I had Kenny kiss her first anyways, and I am so glad I chose to go the way I did.
Kenny telling Blue how much she meant to him This was the moment of do-or-die for Blue's life and he needed to let her know what she meant to him and everyone around her. Blue didn't want Kenny to become attached to her because she felt like if he knew the truth that she perceived as her causing the deaths of anyone who loved her, then he would hate her. Sure, she didn't want him to love her, but truth be told, she did. Just as Blue was one of Kenny's only real friends, the same goes for her. Kenny is everything to her and she was hoping that he saw how shattered she was, and that he heard her cries for help. When she found out that he truly did, she realized that her life did not have to be over; that she could start a new life with the one she truly loved and who confessed his true love for her as well.
I did a lot of research into what Blue experienced the night that Jurassic World fell. I looked into what fighting for her life against dozens of people trying to kill her and then a gigantic dinosaur, a threat that nothing could have prepared her for; discovering the corpses of her only family around her; and trying to comprehend this reality with no one around to support her would cause. I remembered that animals such as dogs can get PTSD as well, and I figured that an animal like Blue could too. I want to make it clear that I do not consider Blue to be a dog; however, I figured that with how human I was making Blue, that experiencing such things like she did when Jurassic World fell would have real consequences for someone of her sentience/sapience. I also do not consider Blue to be a human in a dinosaurs body, and am trying to keep a fine balance between her being a feral animal, and having human-like intelligence.
As of this chapter, Kenny and Blue are an official couple, and will openly display their love for one another. I really hope that you enjoyed this tenth chapter. I was thinking about writing a conclusion about how I was ending this story, and then say "just kidding" at the end, but you would probably kill me if I did that.
I would love to give a big shoutout to my beta reader, Crystal for looking over this chapter and making sure that everything flows nicely.
Thank you all for being so patient, and here is a preview of the next chapter, one that I am working on with a friend. It will be amazing. I promise you that.
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Next time, on Jurassic Lands.
[?'s POV]
"[Rose, I wish I had seen it sooner. He was too much of a visionary, so enraptured with the wonders that he could create, the possibilities that he could make happen; and now he's succumbed to his own desires.]" I told her. "[When he first rescued us from Isla Sorna, we were more than happy to be with him. He was one of the four humans to show us kindness in our entire lives during our time being forced to submit beneath those humans there. Now, he's just… gone.]"
Rose wasn't able to give me a response, and I understood completely.
"[I don't blame you for wanting to stay quiet; this isn't something that I want to talk about either. He probably knows that I'm here, who knows how close he is now.]" I said. "[He did so much for us during the years that we were together, but now that you're… I'm sorry. This is still just so hard for me to believe. I want someone to just love me. Even the other dinos there hated us because of how close we were with the few humans who did care for us. I want someone to love, like I did you… but there is none of my kind here, or any kind for that matter. Before you say it, not even his little "living weapons" or whatever they are could be with me.]"
I looked down at her and worked up the best smile I could.
"[I know that I'll probably have to go back there soon, Rose]" I concluded. "[But do know that I won't stay with him forever. Anything would be better than being a slave like this Chimera or Banshee. He will never control us, ever.]"
7/12/21 Edit: Only real big change I can remember doing was changing the "cannibalism" talk to be more an act of desperation than solely an act of murder/ferality. Changing it to something that is pretty much manslaughter than 3rd degree murder. I felt like Kenny losing control and eating someone didn't fit with his character, but I still wanted to keep the spirit of him being horrified at eating someone, so I felt like this was better.
Also removed musical cues. Really don't need to have you all stop reading an emotional scene to go look up/play some song.
