Chapter 24 is finally complete! ^_^ It took a little longer due to adding some more details, but I'm happy that I stayed true to my word and was able to post it in the same 24 hours as chapter 23.

Again, thank you everyone for the patience. ^_^ I hope that you like this chapter as well, and I hope you leave a review letting me know what you thought. Criticism leads me on the road to improvement, so give it to me straight. lol


"Jurassic World: Why So Blue?"

Chapter: 24

"Unexpected Discovery"


In the back of her mind she knew what she did was wrong. She knew it was foolish and disobedient to Kilo's orders, knowing he would be furious if he found out...and he would find out, when he realized she wasn't even with the pack.

Blue couldn't help it. The moment her mind grasped the possibility of Owen's return, it became abuzz with excitement that had her restless and wild. It had her pacing at the edge of the rival pack's borders, chittering to herself and whipping her tail with indecisive conflict. Her eyes gleamed and her teeth bared.

It didn't take Blue long to give in to her excitement and plunge forth into the foliage. The pack went on as though nothing were amiss, and thus them failing to acknowledge their omega's behavior allowed for her to leave the path of the straight and narrow.

The only thing Blue could think was Owen. She dismissed all awareness of her raptor alpha; what he would think of her going alone into enemy lands, or what he would think in response to her doing it all on the whim of a single scent. She dismissed it because he wouldn't possibly let her go, and he wouldn't possibly understand her urges to see the man that had raised her.

All Blue could hear was her own voice chanting on.

Find Owen! Find human! Find alpha! Greet alpha! No matter the fact that he was in rival lands, and no matter the possibility Kilo would have a cow over her disobedience. Seeing Owen again was worth any rage Kilo could throw at her. Blue was sure of that.

So, the female marched on until all sense of her group's position was gone. She ducked under the vines and through thick patches of ferns, then jumped over the occasional fallen log and tiny stream of water. Sometimes she strode through patches of mud as the land became a bit more swampy and the air became a bit heavier with moisture.

Moisture made scents stale and hard to detect. This meant Blue often lost her way and had to backtrack to the last hint of human scent. It was like a whisper on the wind, how it tickled her and called for the slightest of olfactory stimulation.

The scent was too faint to identify as any single individual. This didn't discourage Blue from her mission, but it was small detail that bothered her greatly to the point she began snorting to express her agitation.

Alpha Owen had a distinct human scent. From what Blue had stored in her memories, he had a mixed aroma of shaving cream, motor oil, leather, and sweat after he had worked hard. It was joined by his individual identity, and the scent Blue had come to accept as his alpha signature.

Owen was easy to recognize, yet the raptor couldn't pick up any specific tags in the humans scent. It was simply there, floating around with no identity and nothing to give her imagination some much needed fuel.

It didn't help that the place wreaked of other raptors. The deeper Blue went into the forest the more her nostrils were filled with male smell and aggressive scent posts. Sometimes she found their footprints in the mud, or caught a place where their scent was particularly heavy and she became uneasy for the fear that they would suddenly jump her.

Very faintly Blue began to regret she went in without alpha Kilo...but then she stopped.

Through the rustling of the leaves and the tweeting of birds, Blue thought she heard something quite unusual for forest sounds. Her head shot up and her eyes widened, while her tail flicked and she slowly turned in a circle like a radar.

Birds, fluttering, distant dinosaurs calls...then she had it. Her mind gave of a ping like an alarm, grabbing at a particular sound that was of great interest to her and her memories.

The sound was like the rumble of a Triceratops running over the plains, or the distant crashing of boulders falling down a mountain side. Some creatures would have mistaken it for an odd thunder, but the more Blue listened to it the more excited she became and her body began to wiggle.

Deep in her memories, such a rumble belonged to the metal beasts the humans used to get around quickly. Such vehicles she remembered would make a roar from deep within their cold cavities, alive but not alive, similar to her heartbeat but different.

Human scent and human vehicle sounds. Blue's optimism and excitement was growing by the second.

She couldn't have been far from where the clues originated. She couldn't have been far from where Owen was, probably searching for her.

From that point Blue kicked her pace into a slow jog, respecting the damage on her lungs but assuring that she got to her destination sooner. She coughed from time to time but she didn't focus on the discomfort, as she slipped past thickets and sniffed the air every few strides to keep on track. It was clear for many long minutes, until she came to a bush with big leaves and sharp thorns that blocked her way.

The raptor flicked her tail and bobbed her head. She looked up at the sunlight coming through the canopy, but for some distance she could not see a way past her new obstacle. She could hear the human vehicles quite clear from where she stood, but the wall of thorns was between her.

Owen was top priority. Blue had to get to him as soon as possible.

So, she slipped her muzzle into the bush and closed her eyes. She pressed on until her entire body entered the thorny mass, which grabbed and pricked at her scales until she uttered soft yelps and chirps of pain. The roots of the plant were often coiling up above the surface of the ground, making horrible places where the raptor's big feet caught and her talons hooked so that she stumbled.

Suddenly, the sun appeared from above, so bright it blinded Blue momentarily. With that blindness she failed to maneuver around an upturned root. Her foot caught under it and she tumbled forward, straight through the thorn bush and into the free air with a startled cry. Her eyes widened in time to see the earth come up at her. Her body protested pain as her chin clipped the dirt and she crashed onto her belly with legs everywhere.

That hurt. That definitely hurt.

Blue clamped her eyes shut and whimpered. She went limp over the ground and took in a few deep breaths, trying not to focus on the pain in her chest from the harsh impact with the earth. Her lungs burned from sudden surprise that put a quick muscle spasm through her body.

Where was she?

The sun was the first thing that pulsed on Blue's sensed, when she opened her eyes and once again became blinded by its unexpected brightness. It caused her to sit still another moment and focus on other things; depending on her hearing, smell, and sense of touch.

Hearing: The rumbling was still ahead of her, but it was getting louder and seemed to be joined by higher pitched sounds. This was confusing to Blue, but told her that she had at least gotten closer to her target.

Touch: The earth was oddly soft where she had landed. It was dry, and from what she could tell there was no grass. She couldn't feel any ferns or leaves brushing up against her either.

The sun was beating down on her eyelids, so that meant there were no trees above her. How odd...

Smell: Now that...that was odd. The moment Blue focused and flared her nostrils, her olfactory sensors were overloaded by human scent. It was all around her. It was in the dirt, smelling of rubber, gasoline, and oil.

Blue chuffed. She cracked one eye open and winced at the sun, but pushed past it and waited until her eyes adjusted. Upon doing that the glaring gold melted into clear vision, revealing dark soil that rose up ahead of her in big heaps that blocked her view of any land beyond.

She was right, there were no plants around her.

Confused by the lack of foliage, Blue propped up onto her elbows in a proper laying position. She lifted her head and looked about, taking in her surroundings and flicking her tail at the sight of it.

Behind her, the forest was healthy and bursting with bright green colors. The birds were roosting and fluttering about the canopy, adding dashes of red and orange along with other hues of brilliant avian plumage.

Ahead of Blue was barren. The soil was churned and piled into great dunes, or dug out so that there were ditches and dips. Mixed in with the dirt was chopped up pieces of wood or broken branches, and ever so often Blue could see a large tree that lay torn from the ground with roots flaring in all directions.

It was done in such a way that Blue could tell no force of mother nature was the cause. When she looked down she noticed that the dirt had odd impressions, going everywhere in straight lines with bumps and textures she had never seen before. She tilted her head trying to recognize what animal could create such tracks, but none jumped to mind and she looked back up. Being a raptor she didn't know that they were the marks of a bull-dozer tread.

Unable to see more than a few hundred feet, Blue got up on her feet after a little sorting of her limbs and making sure nothing was damaged. What she saw from there was the same churned up earth and tree scraps, stretching a couple hundred yards into the distance where she could see an opposite tree line.

Something had come through and wiped out a dozen acres of forest. Judging from the heavy scents, Blue suspected that humans were the culprits, and judging from the scents of tree sap, damp soil, and gasoline, the logging had happened recently.

Slowly Blue began to realize something. Owen couldn't possibly have anything to do with the logging. Did that mean he wasn't on the island, and the scents she smelled were other humans entirely?

Blue had known there was a chance the human she smelled was not Owen, but that thought had been pushed to the back of her mind by her excitement. Her hope had gotten in the way of her judgement.

The thought that she was false in Owen's return was devastating, so much that Blue's head drooped and a soft whimper escaped her. Her eyes looked about the clearing with a lost spark, taking it all in before exhaling a painful breath and turning around.

Owen was the only human in the world that Blue had any interest in meeting. She needed to get back with Kilo and the others before he had a fit.

But, as Blue pivoted towards the trees again, the rumbling that she had heard made a sudden change. It became significantly louder and more distinctive, to the point that Blue could identify not one, but multiple human vehicle engines.

There was a whole herd coming towards her and the clearing.

Curious and concerned by the ruckus, Blue turned back and crept towards onto of the dirt dunes before her. She crouched on her haunches and peeked over, looking across the clearing before seeing movement off in the distance.

Across the way, Blue realized there was some sort of dirt road that ran down the middle of the clearing. It began to the left at the edge of the clearing where all the sound was coming from, and came quite close to her on one of its bends.

There! She could see them!

From the beginning of the road Blue began to see a cloud of dust billowing up from the ground. At first there was nothing else to see, but with a sudden burst of movement a small object burst out into clear view. It ran over the ground at raptor speed, but it was very clearly not a raptor as it drove up over a dune and jumped through the air.

It was a human vehicle Blue knew well, because it was a two wheeled human vehicle. She didn't know the name of it in their language, but Owen used to have one, and it made him fast enough to keep up with any raptor.

In that moment Blue sat up and wagged her tail. Unable to identify the rider from her distance, she had the sliver of hope to think that maybe, it could in fact be Owen. In her mind she assumed that any motorcycle or dirt-bike was his, because he was the only human she ever saw riding one.

The human and dirt bike leapt over another pile of dirt, but behind it Blue saw more movement and the appearance of multiple other vehicles. There were two dirt-bikes, one four-wheeler, and two off road jeeps. The dust they kicked up was enough for a hundred big herbivores on the run, but they were moving just as fast, if not faster.

Sometimes Owen would race his bike in to work, back at their enclosure on Isla Nublar. Blue could often tell by the smile on his face that he was simply having fun. She could watch him through the gate's bars and hear him laughing as mud was thrown up by his wheels.

These humans raced blindly, and she could see some of the drivers glance over their shoulders like they were looking at something. She tried to see but the dust cloud was thick, and the noise from the engines were too loud to distinguish much of anything else.

Suddenly, as the humans got closer and closer to where Blue was, a figure in the back of one of the jeeps stood up. It held onto the bar frame for support with one hand, and lifted a pistol with the other before letting off a sharp bang. It echoed louder than the engines, and at the sound of it Blue pressed her belly to the ground with a hiss.

Blue hated all guns, after what happened to her sister Charlie. She knew that they spit fire and pain, and could tear through flesh like a dinosaur's teeth. The humans used it to make their attacks more lethal. Owen was the only human Blue trusted with a gun.

So, as the human let off multiple rounds into the dust cloud behind him, Blue tried hard to see what he was shooting at. She squinted and let her eyes flick to every hint of movement, not finding anything until suddenly a bright flash of color darted in and out of the cloud.

There...an S arched neck and long tail. The creature was fast, and just barely Blue could hear a shrill cry rise up with the chaos.

A raptor...the humans were being chased by raptors.

With that realization Blue saw many streamline forms burst in and out of the dust. She heard them shriek and snarl with every moment that the group got closer, then heard their claws clash with the jeep's metal parts when they made lunging strikes.

In total, there were fifteen raptors that Blue could see. Some were dull shades, others were bright and decorated with feathers similar to how Curare wore her plumage. Blue could smell their scent and immediately her lips curled.

Rival pack.

Theoretically, Blue was still standing in the rival pack's territory. If the humans had also made such a mistake and were intruding upon raptor land, then it was no surprise that the pack went after them and attacked.

Blue knew she would have done the same thing, if humans other than Owen had come into Kilo's territory.

There was a slightly frightening point to Blue's assumptions. If the pack was attacking the humans, what would happen if Owen was one of them?

If they caught him, then he would surely die. Blue couldn't let that happen.

So, baring her teeth and ignoring the sound of gunshots in the air, the omega stood up on the dirt mound and arched her neck. She looked to the bike riders with a sharp gaze, staring at them in some hope of confirming one was her human.

The bikes came closer, but when the riders looked up and saw Blue on the mound, they gave small shouts of shock and struggled to swerve away. They wore no helmets, so when each human turned their faces upwards Blue was given a clear view of their features.

One human was female with long black hair in a pony tail. Definitely not Owen.

Blue then looked to the other, but just as she was disappointed the first time, she saw that it was a young man. He bore no similar features with Owen, and when he saw her, he let out a cry that was high pitched and fearful. He swore as though he worried she would jump him, but his bike zoomed past and Blue backed off down the dirt pile with a low chuff.

Owen would never be that fearful, not even if he was facing off with an Indominus Rex. That somehow confirmed that he was not in the group, and she had no business being there in the rival pack's territory.

Blue ducked her head low and shook the hope out of her heart. As she did that the four-wheeler and one of the jeeps shot past her place and threw up a storm of dust. It swooped down around her and stung at her eyes, making her squint and rub her face with the backsides of her hands.

Head back into the trees, her mind begged as she turned and tried to see the forest.

But, as Blue attempted to step forward, she went wide eyed. To the side of her a figure darted past, so close that the wind of it moving brushed against her flank and made her yelp. She spun and bared her teeth but it snarled and continued in its chase after the humans.

The raptors were running through. She had to hurry.

Again a raptor flashed through the dust, but that time its tail smacked against Blue's chest and she jumped back. She hurried into a place between dirt piles in an effort to avoid their paths, as the others jumped and dove across the terrain.

Stupid, stupid, Blue. Look what trouble you got yourself in, her mind scolded. It made her feel guilt and fear, as her eyes darted about and she snarled as though one of the rivals would suddenly realize who she was. She thrashed her tail in response to their thick scent in the dust, foreign and threatening to her pack instincts.

Suddenly, everything around Blue erupted into movement and chaos.

As the raptors leapt past her with snarls and cries, the female caught a sound that came from behind. It made her stand up and twist her head around with a concerned gurgle, shifting uneasily on the pads of her feet and stepping backwards.

Blue couldn't see more than ten yards in front of her, but in that moment a dune of churned up soil and tree bits ahead of her exploded. It went in all directions through the air as a large human jeep plowed through with engine sputtering, swerving upon impact with the obstacle and loosing control as a panicked driver struggled at the wheel.

It was going straight for Blue, whether by accident or by the human's pure choice. Blue wasn't sure which but she could see what was happening and time seemed to go into slow motion for her. Her body wrenched as if to somehow get away, but her reaction came two seconds too late and the truck was moving at far too impressive a pace.

She was going to be hit. A head on collision with the jeep was going to kill her.

Blue was sure she was going to die. In those fleeting moments she puffed out her chest and snarled threateningly, as memories and micro flashes went through her brain expressing disappointment in herself and worry for the pack.

Would they miss her when she was gone? Would they care?

But then, Blue saw something flash out of the corner of her eye. She heard a sharp hiss and felt something crash into her shoulder, so hard the force sent her tumbling sideways into a deep ditch. She cried out but the thing landed on top of her and cut off her breath.

What in the name of Compies!

Blinded by dirt Blue shook her head and felt claws grip at her shoulders. Her mind processed it into fear that she had been tackled by a rival raptor, so she showed her teeth and snarled angrily, shaking herself in efforts to get out from underneath her attacker. She wanted to attack but the heavy thing pressed down on her and forced her onto her stomach. A stern voice rose above the chaos and ordered her to stay down, to keep out of sight and not make a sound.

Stop struggling you idiot!

Kilo?

Blue faltered. She went wide eyed and froze, stopping her panicking long enough to realize who it was on top of her.

Kilo...alpha Kilo had come for her. Once she calmed she could smell his scent and hear the familiarity of his commanding voice, even through the noise around them.

Above them the jeep shot past, nearly driving over their hiding place but blasting them with flying dirt. Continuing to swerve it swooped left and right before colliding with a fallen log and crashing to a stop. Its bumper collapsed and its hood buckled backwards, as smoke rose up from the radiator and a tire rim rolled off across the next dirt hump.

From that point the chaos began to quiet down. The engines and gunfire faded off into the distance, joined by the raptors that followed them. The dust began to clear and Blue began to see what was around her. Kilo was indeed there, but he was sprawled over her back with his cheek pressed against her own. His one golden eye flashed about with gleams of fury, as he snarled and thrashed his tail, then looked over at the female he pinned down.

Was she alright? Anything wounded?

Blue took a few deep breaths and coughed on the dirt choked air. She tried to sit up but he put one hand on her head and held her down, chuffing sternly for her to stay still.

Stupid female. She almost got killed!

Blue whimpered and showed her neck in a submissive way, as emotions of guilt flowed into her chest and she took in the weight of the wrong she did. In a desperate attempt to apologize she chittered softly.

Kilo stared down at her and flared his nostrils, then shifted so that he didn't put so much weight over the female's back.

Apologizing wouldn't have done any good if one of them was hurt. She had to learn to listen to him, under all situations and costs.

Blue exhaled softly. Deep inside she felt awe that Kilo had come to save her, but Kilo himself was no longer paying attention to her. He was slowly sitting up on his haunches, looking around with a keen eye that searched for any lingering danger. The dirt field was quiet, save for the hiss of radiator fluid spraying over a hot engine, back where the jeep had crashed. It was some twenty yards from them.

For a moment the male watched the jeep and mused over how odd it was. Having never seen one before he was both threatened and curious, until movement and sound made him feel nothing but threatened. He ducked back into the ditch and hissed, peeking over so that his eye locked on the jeep's driver side, where the plastic window began to unzip and the handle of the door began to rattle. It opened and a foot slipped out.

Very faintly Blue could hear grunts and groans, along with broken human language that made Kilo tremble and bare his teeth.

"-raptors, always ruining everything. They should burn the whole pack."

From the jeep's open door a human male appeared, dragging himself out until he sat on the ground with his leg in his hands. He glanced around with wild eyes, wearing a black uniform stained by blood that flowed from a wound on his head and a fractured bone in his lower leg.

Kilo growled deeply and let his eye lock on the human. His claws wriggled and his haunches shifted, like a cat trying to decide if what it saw was prey or not.

Blue herself didn't have an urge to attack the human before her, but as she watched her alpha she saw blood lust enter his gaze. He then began to stand, teeth flashing and neck bulging with aggressive muscle movements.

Wait in the ditch, was his order to the omega.

Blue wanted to obey. She still had her hate of humans, after the park incident. Only Owen, Barry, and Claire were on her list of "not prey"...but she had no interest in murdering the creature wounded before them. Something still told her that danger was lingering in the field, and it made her uneasy enough that she wanted to avoid any confrontation, especially with a human that could be armed.

So, the female chittered and attempted to bat Kilo's thigh with her hand. He ignored her the first time ,but when she did it again her voice got a bit too loud.

The human, alerted to their presence, lifted his head and began shaking. His wide eyes fixed on the place Kilo was standing up from, his hand reaching for his hip upon seeing the black beast with horrible scars and a dead eye.

"S-stay back!"

Kilo was about to growl, but as he stared the prey down he noticed movement from behind the jeep. He saw a flash of grey and smelled a scent, sucking all interest from the human and to a dark realization.

It was another raptor...and the scent told him it wasn't one of his pack.

Suddenly, the human drew a handgun and cocked it. He pointed it at Kilo as Blue sat up and saw what was taking place.

Guns equaled death in Blue's mind. Drawing back she slammed her forehead into Kilo's ribcage and knocked him down, just as the human screamed and shot one bullet after the other in a hope of filling them with holes. The bullets whizzed into the dirt pile behind them, but after a fleeting moment they stopped and the human cursed loudly. He frantically began searching a pack on his belt for a clip to reload, making small whimpering sounds in the moments he failed to do so.

When the gunshots stopped, Kilo and Blue both peeked out of their hole. They saw the human, but immediately the alpha male turned his eye upward with more interest on the flashes of movement. He bared his teeth and Blue followed suit when odd sounds reached her ears, causing her to look up as well.

A raptor, almost perfectly silent, was climbing on top of the jeep and its crunched hood. Blue could hear its talons scuffing on the metal, and with a quick breath she detected heavy male smell. The stranger was big, taller than Kilo but lacking the quality of well rounded muscle. He was pale grey in color with black splotches scattered over his eye sockets and neck. On the back of his head and on the tip of his tail were fine textured feathers, almost like hair in the way they tufted together and moved.

As Blue watched the raptor turned his head. She saw a familiar quality to him, displaying old age in the features of his face and the rugged look of his body frame.

The male was thin, as Blue could tell from his visible rubs and hips. For a split second she wondered how the pack's hunting fared, if it was difficult for them and if the humans had anything to do with it.

Interrupting her observations the grey raptor leapt on top of the jeep. Such an action made a sharp crashing sound and gave off his position, which was even further blown when he let out an ear splitting snarl. Kilo and Blue kept out of sight, but the human flashed his head around and went wide eyed. He screamed upon realizing he was being stalked, trying frantically to find an ammo clip and reload.

Blue could tell quickly that the human had no chance.

For a moment the grey rival eyed his target, but he bent down on his legs and arched his neck. His talons rose up, his tail compromised balance, then he lunged.

When he made contact with the human there was a shrill cry, cut off when both his feet hit across the chest, snapping ribs with the full 300 pounds of his weight. The man tried to wave his arms and hit with the pistol in his hand, but talons began to slash and his body lost control behind the writhing pain.

Cackling, the raptor then stooped low and clamped his jaws over the man's face. Blue thought he was going to twist and break his neck, but he held position and squeezed instead. The crunch of skull bone was loud through the human's cries. Flesh was stripped ragged from his face and eagerly swallowed, like meat was a rare thing and had to be inhaled lest it would disappear.

It was a disturbing thing to watch, even for Blue. Usually raptors sought a quick and clean kill, slashing the victim's stomach or breaking its neck and puncturing its life vein. The act of slowly killing and aiming for the face was a hateful one, not practical. The human was squirming and crying out right up to the moment his brain was punctured by bone fragments and teeth, damaging it enough that he lost consciousness and soon succumbed to loss of life.

Once the noise stopped and the strange raptor began feasting, Kilo sunk low on his legs and stared into the soil. Blue cooed like a whisper, but he failed to respond even when she nudged him with her snout.

Kilo was shaken. Blue could tell in the way his body froze and how his lips twitched, as a deep terror filled his eye more than she had ever seen.

Alpha?

Kilo suddenly flinched, then looked to Blue and shivered. He cast frightened looks to the rival raptor in front of them before chuffing urgently.

They had to leave immediately. She had to make sure to be as quiet as death, or death would surely come claim them.

Blue stared at him. He was frightened of a lone raptor? Couldn't they both take him?

Kilo clicked his teeth. No! Absolutely not!

He then forced himself to go quiet, to take a breath, before nudging Blue's flank. He urged her out the side of the ditch towards the tree line in the distance, where their route kept to the rival raptor's back and hopefully out of his perceptive radar.

As Blue crawled forward Kilo kept close to her. He watched the rival from time to time and curled his lips, but when Blue dragged behind he nipped her thigh with the softest of urging gestures.

Go! Go to the trees!

But then, Kilo's little nip became a little too urgent, and Blue yelped. At that time they were just yards from the tree line, only just out of safety.

That little mistake blew it.

Shocked by the noise behind him the rival lifted his head and swallowed a hunk of flesh. His bloody jaws worked as he looked about, then shifted on his legs so that he turned towards the two Waterfall raptors, suddenly putting them in his range of sight and making him arch his neck with a surprised snarl. Kilo pushed Blue so hard with his forehead that the female stumbled forward, shoving her into the tree line but not before she got a clear look of the grey elder.

Their gazes met and she saw sharp yellow eyes that bored into her soul, then the tiny scars that marred his scales. There were a few on his jaw and neck, but most of them were on his underbelly, more in quantity than even Kilo's scar collection although not as deep and jagged.

The raptor was an aggressive fighter, that much was clear when he puffed up his chest and fixed his eyes on Kilo. He blinked, then thrashed his tail and snarled.

Intruders!

Kilo yelped and shoved Blue with all of his body weight, pushing her further into the trees so that her face was slapped by the thick branches. She could hear the other raptor running towards them, so she took off into a dead run with her alpha close behind. They ran until the dirt clearing disappeared behind the trees, until the rival's voice began to fade and Blue got the sense that he had given up chasing them. Still they ran and Kilo ducked around her to take the lead, going on through the forest until Blue was gasping for breath and she stumbled in her stride.

Kilo!

The male didn't listen. He seemed to be in a trance, staring ahead and acting as though she wasn't even there. Blue tried to keep up with him but her coughing fits raced up her throat and she struggled. He was bigger and stronger than her, so even on a good day he would have pulled ahead.

Alpha! Wait!

Finally, it seemed that Blue's broken voice reached Kilo. He flinched and glanced over his shoulder at her, forcing his gait down into a jog as they entered a small opening in the trees. He watched her as she swayed side to side on the trail, which finally convinced him to come to a stop and give her a break.

Immediately Blue slid to a stop and fell back onto her haunches. She began coughing uncontrollably, as Kilo stood before her and stared off into the trees they came from. He watched for danger as her legs began to tremble from sudden exertion and shock, while her mouth gaped open panting for air between gut wrenching gags.

What had come over Kilo? Why didn't he think they could successfully attack the rival?

Blue curled her lips in pain, but in doing so she felt a stinging sensation on her face. She blinked and reached up to rub at it with the back of her hand, only to pull it away covered in blood. She realized that one of the branches had put a deep cut in her cheek when she had been running.

Kilo glanced down to watch his omega. He seemed to calm after they got away from the danger, but he made a little grunt when he saw that Blue was injured. He watched her try to lick at her wound from the corner of her mouth, but it continued to bleed and when she began rubbing it with her hand it dirtied up her face.

Alpha instincts told him to help her and clean her wound. His soft side jumped at the idea of giving her such comforting attention after what they experienced, but immediately he withdrew his head and exhaled with a stern chuff, remembering that she was on his bad list and he was supposed to be angry with her. He turned his eye away to inspect the little clearing they had entered and to try and figure out their location. He scolded her with anger in his voice and a flick of his tail.

It was very disrespectful for her to do what she did. She was to never question him in anything that involved the rival pack again. She was to listen to him, and certainly not run off on her own, nearly getting herself killed by the pack alpha himself.

Blue froze and looked up from her attempt at cleaning her wound. She coughed a bit but her head tilted and she chuffed.

Pack alpha? That grey elder was the rival pack's alpha?

Kilo faltered. He stared at the female, shaken, before he gurgled and flicked his tail.

It didn't matter who the raptor was...she was to never defy his words again. Was that understood?

Blue stared back at him, but after a moment she looked at the ground and gurgled, acknowledging that she understood his orders. He seemed pleased by that as he walked a few steps and arched his neck to sniff at the ground. Blue flicked her tail and tasted blood that dripped down into the corner of her mouth.

Kilo was scared of the rival alpha, that much the omega had put together. She didn't know why, but she saw it in his eye and she heard it in his voice, telling her of an old hate and fear deep within him.

Blue herself had felt something when the rival alpha looked at her. She felt fear...because the way he looked at her was like a raptor looks at its meat, yet not in a way that was normal. He looked to Kilo with rage, but he looked to her with something else, and it made her feel horrible.

As Blue sat there, she slowly became aware of movement from behind. At first it was just a niggling feeling, before branches began to rustle and fast footsteps reached her ears. Her eyes bulged and she struggled to stand with an alarmed cry.

Kilo!

Her alpha turned just in time to see a figure jumping from the trees. His body shrunk back and his teeth bared with a snarl, expressing fear and submission rather than his usual aggression and willingness to protect.

Both Kilo and Blue expected the rival alpha, but the raptor that appeared before them was none other than Shadow. She burst from the foliage and slid to a stop with gasping breaths, tail arched and head high.

Kilo grunted and shot back into a confident posture as quickly as he could.

Shadow?!

His sister took a moment to catch her breath before stepping forward. She approached her brother and circled around him, looking him over for any kind of wounds. When she found none she seemed to calm, and she looked up at him with an innocent show of her teeth.

Hello brother. She saw he found omega Blue.

Kilo bristled. He stared wide eyed at the female before growling and stomping a foot.

He told her to go home with the elders! Why did she follow him?

Shadow flicked her tail and wriggled her claws. He really expected her to listen? Didn't he know her enough to expect she would follow him?

The beta chuffed in amusement as she looked over towards where Blue lay. She mocked his poor expectance of her actions, scolding him at the same time for ordering her to stay behind.

Did he know how hard it was for her to show up and see them running off in the other direction? Did he know how hard she had to run to catch up with them?

Kilo blinked. He then chuffed, asking her where Hook and Alden were if she was there with them.

Shadow simply replied, informing him that she herself had ordered them home. They listened, because she was beta and they respected her wishes.

KILO should have done the same, when Blue went missing and she wanted so desperately to help find her.

In that moment, the older female looked at Blue with more focus. Doing so she saw the red on her face, oozing from the wound in her cheek's flesh. Immediately she made a startled gurgle and arched her tail.

Poor omega! What happened?

Blue was about to assure she was alright, but Shadow stepped forward and bent forward to nuzzle her with her snout. One arm then draped over Blue's neck to pull her close, so that she could sniff the cut and inspect it.

Blue remained still out of respect, but suddenly Shadow began licking her wound and she gave a little yelp of surprise. It stung a little but the beta cleaned her of blood and dirt, giving what raptors would call "medical care". She purred soothingly as though she were purring to a youngling.

Shadow was one Blue knew liked to dote on things in a motherly way. It surprised her to receive such attention but soon she closed her eyes and leaned into the cleaning, savoring the comfort it gave her.

Meanwhile, Kilo watched on with a disgruntled look. He was angry that both females had disobeyed his orders that day, but he was not so inclined to call Shadow out and scold her. He knew she would only argue with him, so he kept quiet and turned so that he could start looking for the way home.

Once he was out of hearing range, Shadow cooed softly.

What did they find? Why was her brother acting oddly?

Blue cracked one eye open and responded between licks, tilting her chin up when the beta began cleaning her jaw of blood. Her voice was soft so that Kilo wouldn't hear, because somehow she knew he wouldn't want Shadow knowing of his...fearfulness.

They found a pack of humans, and they were being attacked by the rivals. If it wasn't for Kilo, she would be dead, or worse attacked by the other pack's alpha.

Shadow flinched. She pulled away, putting her tongue back in her mouth with a shaky chuff.

They saw the pack's alpha? They saw humans?

Blue blinked, but bobbed her head and cooed as if to confirm Shadow's question. She didn't understand why the female was suddenly so shocked, or why her eyes looked to the ground with a gleam of fear.

Shadow?

Her beta looked up, forcing out a chitter and taking on an insecure happiness. She softly rejoiced that Blue was in good health and they had gotten out with their lives, as though she were trying to change the subject and distract Blue from what she had seen in the logged clearing.

Then, Shadow turned completely around and began walking after her brother, leaving Blue to blink and wonder why on earth the pack leaders were behaving so strangely. She watched them, then began to lurch to her feet and gurgle to herself.

Maybe they were unsettled by the humans. Maybe humans were something that they had not seen often, and thus were scared or confused by them?

Blue wouldn't blame them for such a thing, she supposed. The humans were odd looking creatures.

So, the female flicked her tail and stomped her feet a bit to get rid of their achy stiffness. She glanced over her shoulder out of caution, then walked forward and worked to catch up with Kilo and his sister. They were breaking through the trees, chittering to one another in stressed tones.

Blue couldn't translate their communications into any words or the like, but judging from Kilo's showing teeth and the droop in Shadow's tail, she knew that their conversation was an intense one to say the least.

Alpha? Beta? What were they going to do about the humans? What were they going to do about the Spinosaurus?

Even though the rival pack was a persistent topic in her mind, Blue found herself worried about the humans and why they were on the island. She found herself remembering the rival alpha and how thin he looked, and she found herself wondering if the humans had anything to do with it, or if they had anything to do with the Spinosaurus.

Suddenly, not keeping an eye on the trail ahead, Blue collided with Kilo's haunches. She hit him hard and yelped as she nearly fell over, while he simply shifted slightly and remained strong footed. Rather than hissing and scolding her as usual he didn't even react.

In fact...the alpha and beta were just standing there, gazing off into the distance with wide eyed and flaring nostrils. Occasionally one of them snorted in a sign of alert tension, often associated with smelling something concerning or new.

Blue refocused and chirped. What were they looking at?

Without looking back at her Kilo twitched his lips and growled.

Quiet.

What was wrong?

He snorted, ordering her to stay behind him. Something was ahead in the trees and he didn't like it.

Blue blinked. She looked to the foliage and attempted to see what they saw, but he stepped in front of her and she gurgled.

Was it a rival? Was it a human?

She watched as her alpha then stepped forward, leaving her and Shadow's sides as he growled to himself and ducked under a thick cluster of branches in his pack. Blue wanted to follow him but Shadow chuffed softly and advised her to stay. The beta was moving her head around but from their place they couldn't see anything.

A few long moments passed and nothing happened, so Shadow reluctantly stepped forward and beckoned Blue to follow her. They both walked in a tiptoe, ever slowly through the trees until they could see a bit of Kilo's blank scales through the leaves.

Blue was chuffing out of curiosity and concern. She flared her nostrils in an effort to smell what Kilo smelled, but she only detected human smell. It wasn't much of a surprise, after her meeting with the humans, but something was odd about it. It almost didn't smell like a live creature. It almost gave her the image of an inanimate object, because the human scent was stale and distorted.

Blue poked her head through the last layer of bushes, only to go wide eyed and stare ahead with surprise. She snorted, making Kilo jump and look back with a hiss.

Don't scare him like that!

Sorry alpha.

Slightly ignoring Kilo's actions, Blue continued to stare blankly ahead. She made little noises and bobs of her head, which Shadow mimicked as she too stared with a look of concern.

Before the three raptors was another dirt clearing, logged out by human machines and torn up from their treads. Although only 70 yards to the other side, it was very long to the left and right, going off into the distance until it made a turn in the trees, or dipped off down a hill. It was unusual to see in the forest but it wasn't what had the raptors upset. Their eyes were all fixed on a thing just fifty years away, next to the opposite tree line and splitting the land in two by a barrier.

It was a big human fence.

Usually, Kilo and Shadow weren't bothered much by the presence of a human fence. Somewhat skeletons of the past, there were many sections of old fencing in multiple places on the island. Kilo himself had seen them, rusting and falling apart under the elements, just clues to the old days when Ingen's program was still operational.

Usually Kilo didn't see the fences as a disturbance of something to worry about...but this fence was different. It was relatively clean and new, nearly forty feet tall with a concrete base and big metal posts. Between each post were sections of thick twisted wire, supported by a metal rod and topped by coiled barbed wire. Blue's eyes caught flashes of color from shiny signs saying "Caution, 10k volts", something she couldn't read but something she recognized.

Blue knew how the fences worked. She remembered an extension paddock that was attached to her main enclosure, where the fence opened up into a forested area that gave her and her sisters room to move. Owen occasional let them out to wear off steam, and the first time he did so was a learning experience for all of them.

As curious raptors, it was an automatic response for them to test the fences and try to find a weakness to escape. They thought it would be easy, judging by the little wires, but quickly enough to discovered that the wire strands spit fire and pain upon flesh contact.

Blue learned that day that the fences were electrified and off limits to touch. They were of course deactivated upon the fall of the park, but it appeared as though the fences before her and the pack leaders was very much new...and possibly online.

Kilo snorted. What did the humans do to the forest? Why did they come and chance the island with their horrible things?

Blue glanced at him. For a moment they were all quiet, but he began to slink forward, and the two females went along with him. They entered the dirt clearing and maneuvered through the dirt piles, approaching the fence with sideways steps as though it would suddenly hurt them.

Blue walked cautiously, because she feared the lightning strikes of electricity. As she drew close she came to notice little flashing blue lights at the top of the posts, giving further reason to believe that the fence was indeed online.

Kilo arched his neck and growled. He strode forward with a sudden burst of speed, right up to the fence until it appeared he would go up to touch it.

Blue blinked. No! Don't do that!

The female cried out and jumped forward. Such a thing startled her two leaders but she put herself between Kilo and the fence, ducking her head low and chuffing frantically as though to make him understand.

Blue had no words to explain what she knew of the fences, but she tried to relay to Kilo her knowledge. She urged him to look at the wires and to listen, hard.

Kilo stared at his omega as though she were mad, but listening to her for once he turned to the fence flicked his tail. Shadow did the same, going silent as to somehow hear something that Blue warned them off.

There...they could hear it.

Like a little chirping bug, the fence made clicking and whirring sounds. They could also feel a presence coming from it, sensing the electrical waves like a horse senses when its electrical paddock is powered up.

Kilo wrinkled his lips and hissed. What was it doing?

Blue bobbed her head.

Fire ran through the wires. If they touched it, it would put a sparking pain into their body and their limbs would tingle. Their senses would overload with shock for a single split moment, then disappear.

Kilo chuffed. It sounded like an awful thing...how did she know of it?

Blue blinked. Since she was welcomed into the Waterfall pack, that was the first question anyone ever asked her about her past. Of course it wasn't communicated as directly as a human may speak, but through emotions and raptor sounds Kilo implied that he was curious and concerned why she would have such knowledge.

Strange thing was...even though Blue wanted them to understand her life...something felt wrong when she considered telling them.

Not all dinosaurs could see the humans as caregivers, or accept them as creatures that could ever be respected or cared for. Blue knew that from the Indominus Rex, who hated humans with a fury unimaginable.

Kilo and his pack, who lived in the wild without human interaction and care, wouldn't understand. They would probably view her as different, and Blue knew that Kilo had a tendency to reject things that were different or confusing.

How could she possibly make him understand or accept her life? How could she possibly describe her childhood, full of happiness and bliss, watched by Owen who was a tender and caring guardian. How could she possibly describe her relationship with him as beta and alpha?

Somehow, as Blue looked back on her life from the standpoint of a wild and independent raptor, she saw herself differently. She saw a raptor that depended on weaker beings for protection and food. She saw a raptor that was locked in a cage for the majority of her life, and a raptor that knew nothing of the outside world.

She saw a creature very unlike Kilo, so, with a great deal of heartache she refused to tell him of her past. She pulled her head up and pressed her lips together, then tried her best to appear serious, giving no hint to pain. She chuffed, simply informing him that she had felt the pain once and never wanted to feel it again.

Kilo stared at Blue for a moment, but slowly he looked away and accepted her explanation. He simply assumed that she had come into contact with one of the other fences in her life. Odd it had never happened to him before...but then again his omega was a strange one.

It was lucky he chose not to prod at the fence. Back on Nublar, the power in the raptor enclosure's fences were substantially weaker than that of the Tyrannosaurus pen or the large herbivore pen. At 10,000 volts with high amperage it would be a normal shock to their thicker hides and larger bodies...but to a raptor, it would be nothing short of lethal, frying out their systems and killing them within moments.

Blue didn't know this herself, but in that moment she did more than save Kilo from an electrical jolt.

After a few seconds the three raptors looked over the fence and inspected its qualities, before Shadow shivered and gave a small whimper. She seemed frightened, the way she glanced about and flared her nostrils to take in the human scent lingering in the area.

Kilo...she wanted to go home.

Her brother looked up and snorted. He saw her unease, and immediately his facial features softened into affection and a slight sorrow. He walked up and nuzzled her face, licking her before turning and chuffing.

They would return home as she wished.

Shadow thanked him, and the two led the way back towards the tree line with long strides. Blue watched them as the walked, thinking in her mind how oddly they had reacted that day and how much confusion it put in her mind.

It was all confusing...the humans...the rival pack...the Spinosaurus...

She hated the sick feeling it put in her heart. At that point she wanted to go back to the den and enjoy the pack's company, to forget all about the ordeal she witnessed and save it for the strength of another day.

Blue wanted to follow after her alpha, but with one final glance to the fence she looked up, glancing over the higher sections of wire and post.

Wait...there was movement there...

Forgetting about Kilo and Shadow for a split moment, Blue turned and faced the fence head on. She ducked her head and tilted it in order to better see it, picking out a small object that made her tail arch. She made little chitters to express her sudden curiosity.

She knew this thing. She had seen it before. She remembered it, but from where?

Up on the fence the small object was almost unnoticeable. It was white in color, with two little wired sticking out of it and one big black eye on the front face. The more Blue stared at the object the more recognizable it became, and soon she flicked her tail with a chitter. Her head lifted and she got as close to the fence as she would dare.

What had Owen called them? What sounds of his language did he use?

Security cameras. Blue remembered them fastened to the corners of her old enclosure, where they watched her and her sisters throughout the years. She remembered that they were not necessarily alive, but that they still saw things and moved as though they were alive.

They were similar to the human metal beasts that took them places. They could be alive if the humans wanted to, but they weren't alive in the same sense and that mystery always intrigued Blue.

Testing her memories, Blue shifted on her feet and hopped to the left. The camera hesitated for a moment, but it made a few micro whizzing sounds before focusing its lens and turning until she was again at the center of its visual range. She jumped back to the right and it did the same, all attention on her and her alone.

Just like they used to do. How peculiar one would be on this island too.

Chittering softly, Blue glanced over her shoulder to where Kilo and Shadow were walking. She found that her alpha had stopped and was staring at her, watching her with a soft golden eye as though he was trying to figure her out. His body was a bit stiff and he glanced often to the camera with a little curl of his lips.

After a moment, Kilo left Shadow's side and walked over to Blue. She arched her neck and chuffed softly, but he cut off her apology and bobbed his head.

It was time to go home omega. Come.

Blue could see that he was expressing caution. Upon his appearance the camera turned to him and focused on him, which made the male lifted his head and puff out his chest in a challenging way. He eyed the camera and showed his teeth to it, as though he was warning it to keep its distance.

Blue gurgled as though she were giggling. There was nothing for her alpha to be afraid of. The camera was no danger to them and wouldn't move from its spot, even with the greatest of teasing or threatening.

Kilo eyed her again with that look.

It wouldn't move?

Blue purred in a reassuring way, arching her neck with pride of her knowledge.

No. It wouldn't move.

The alpha was quiet, but flicking his tail he bobbed his head and began to turn.

Come.

Blue watched him and marveled as his soft voice, but with a little sigh she turned away from the fence and followed him back towards Shadow. She met her brother with a loving croon, and all three began walking over the logged clearing back to the forest.

The camera watched the blue marked omega leave. It panned from her to Kilo and Shadow, then back to her, before pulling out of focus completely. It went back to automated sweeps, back and forth keeping watch over the fence it was mounted upon.