Ch 5:
Sierra used to do a lot of reading.
With a home life like hers, any excuse to escape in any form was always welcome. That was why she would try different things like horseback riding and soccer. Practices and games kept her at school late or got her out of the house and away from her volatile home life.
But reading was a whole new level of escaping.
The fictitious worlds in novels and books offered a mental and emotional escape right in her bedroom.
She finished the first Harry Potter book in one night when she was nine. She became a lifelong fan from that night on and read all seven books several times over. Sure, she balled her eyes out over almost every character death, but she just went back and reread the books so they were alive again.
She also liked the book series 'His Dark Materials', which Owen had bought for her to try out for Christmas a few years back.
She also got into a book series called 'Warriors', which some teased her for because it was about clans of cats. But she liked animals and it was a surprisingly good series that she happened upon at a book fair in middle school.
But that was back when she lived with her parents.
Not to say she didn't still sit up late at night reading, getting pulled into whatever story she picked up. But it was no longer really an escape, and she didn't have nearly as much free time to do so.
She obviously spent most of her time with her tutor, especially once the school year started again. But other than that, she also spent most of her time helping Owen with the raptors. That was a given.
Owen had little free time other than a few hours each evening before bed, but he also went out of his way to put aside some brother-sister time. They had movie nights, went hiking, camping, and fishing. All like they used to when Sierra was little and her parents actually allowed her and Owen to hang out.
It helped that a lot of those things could be done literally outside their front steps.
This also led to a slightly new hobby of Sierra's.
Owen had taught her how to catch, clean, and gut fish from a pretty young age. She no longer squealed or gagged at the messy sight or smell. She didn't exactly love pulling out all the guts, but it was a necessary evil, so to speak.
After their first fishing trip at the lake on Isla Nublar, they caught a few more fish than they wanted to cook, so Sierra looked up different recipes on the internet and found that she could make jerky out of just about any kind of meat. Including fish.
She checked with Owen before trying, and he had to help her out a bit on the first try. After all, at 14 years old, she only knew so much about cooking and they didn't want her burning down their modest bungalow.
She made fish jerky.
Owen liked to use different kinds of jerky as training treats for the raptors sometimes, as well as small animals like rats. The kind Owen usually ordered or even made himself was venison, beef, and even duck jerky. But apparently there was also recipes for fish jerky.
Which is why she had a bag of freshly-made bass jerky as she drove to the research center one afternoon in March. She was on a short spring break and was using that time to help with the raptors more than she could during her school year. They were perfectly capable of hunting on their own now, but that didn't mean they weren't motivated by food.
Pulling up next to the research center, Sierra parked her four-wheeler and dismounted. Shouldering the backpack that contained the jerky, she approached the small holding cage that was attached to the large paddock. She could tell by the multiple groups of onlookers up on the walkways that Owen was likely up there doing some training with the raptors.
Taking the sets of stairs alongside the holding cage, Sierra made her way up to the walkways overlooking the paddock. The raptors were now eight months old, almost fully-grown if not fully-matured. They'd begun transitioning the four raptors between the nursery to the outdoor paddock when they were about three months old. When they turned six months they were permanently moved into the paddock after Delta nearly took off a handler's arm. Now they lived in the large, outdoor enclosure fulltime.
As she expected, Sierra found Owen standing a quarter of the way out on one of the walkways, several feet before the walkways crossed in the middle.
She was aware of several stares burning into her as she stepped a few feet out onto the walkway. Lots of people still weren't overly thrilled by her presence. She stopped there and waited for Owen to give her the okay to move closer, not wanting to distract the raptors.
They must have listened to one of his orders, because he tossed some dead rats to each raptor. While they gulped down their treats, Owen turned and grinned at Sierra, giving her the silent okay to move closer.
"They seem to be making progress." Sierra noted as she stopped next to him, setting the bag on an empty chair behind her brother.
"For the most part, yeah. Still giving me some attitude. Their moody teenagers, kinda like you." he grinned. Sierra smacked his shoulder. "What's in the bag?"
"I made some more bass jerky. Just finished this morning." Sierra answered.
"Charlie's going to love you." Owen joked with a grin. Like any other person or animal, the raptors had their favorite foods. Echo was partial to anything pork-related, whether that was bacon, ham, or the live pigs they'd started using to train the raptors to hunt. Charlie, meanwhile, became obsessed with any kind of fish jerky the first time Sierra made it. All the raptors liked it, of course, but Charlie especially did.
"Do you want me to take it inside?" Sierra asked.
"Actually, we could give them some right now." Owen suggested, looking down over the railing at the raptors below. "I think they know you have food up here."
Sierra followed his gaze to the ground below and grinned. All four raptors were staring intently up at them, necks stretched up as high as they could. She noticed a few had their nostrils flaring or twitching, and Charlie was shifting eagerly on her feet from the back of the pack.
"Wanna help with some training?" Owen suggested, opening the backpack to pull out the Ziploc bag of jerky.
"Yes!" Sierra answered eagerly.
Owen passed her a handful of the jerky and gave her directions on what commands to give the raptors. Like any teenagers, the raptors weren't keen to take any orders at all, but were somewhat cooperative.
"Eyes up!" Sierra ordered. Charlie was the only one to listen, but that was probably because she knew Sierra had her favorite treat. The other three were shifting agitatedly on their feet, Blue looking around the paddock while Delta seemed to be eyeing the spectators across the paddock.
"Hey!" Owen snapped. "Blue! Delta! Eyes up!"
Delta snapped her jaws at them, and Blue looked up at Owen.
At Owen's nod, Sierra tossed jerky to first Charlie, then Echo, Blue, and finally Delta.
They did this a few more times, giving the raptors simple commands. They still weren't too keen to take orders from Sierra, but they weren't too bad.
After several commands, Sierra tossed yet another piece of jerky below, throwing it to Blue, only for Echo to jump in and snatch it from the air. The younger raptor had slowly been inching closer and closer to the front until she was level with Blue, and now she'd gone and stolen Blue's treat.
And Blue would not stand for that.
Screeching, Blue lunged at Echo, snapping her jaws. Echo dodged back just in time to avoid getting her neck chomped on.
"Hey! Echo! Blue!" Owen yelled, but he was completely ignored.
Instead of backing down like the pack had taken to doing when faced with Blue's wrath, Echo straightened her back and stood her ground. Sierra knew in that moment that this was what Owen had been talking about. Echo had decided to challenge Blue.
Blue lunged again, and this time Echo met her in the middle. Their jaws chomped, their claws slashed, their bodies crashed together. Charlie and Delta both backed away, circling their fighting sisters agitatedly.
Both Owen and Sierra tried calling for the two to stop fighting, but it did nothing. Several men ran out onto the walkway, holding guns and aiming them down at the fighting raptors.
"Hey, no! Don't shoot!" Owen yelled, throwing his hand out. "Hold your fire! Let them fight it out!"
"Are you sure?" Sierra asked, eyes fixed worriedly on the fighting raptors. "What if…?"
"As long as one of them backs down, they should be fine." Owen assured her. "We can tend to any injuries that may occur."
Sierra nodded, but was still tense as the fight continued.
After only a couple minutes, which were probably the two longest minutes of Sierra's life, the fight broke apart abruptly and viciously.
Echo managed to roll Blue onto her back, probably trying to force her older sister to submit. Blue thrashed and kicked until one of her powerful back legs managed to land a hit right in Echo's face. Echo flew back a few feet and landed hard on her back.
Sierra's hands latched onto the railing as she stared, body tense and on edge.
Blue rolled to her feet and approached Echo, who remained still on the ground. Sierra thought for one horrible moment that she was dead; the blood staining the dirt under Echo's head certainly didn't help. But then Echo jerked, trying to get up before shrieking in pain.
"She's hurt." Sierra stated the obvious. Part of her expected Blue to attack, to finish Echo off while she was defenseless.
But instead, Blue looked down at Echo, who turned her head to return the stare. Then, Echo appeared to tilt her head back, showing her neck in a sign of submission.
Blue snorted before turning and racing off into the trees, Delta and Charlie slowly following her. Sierra wasn't sure what to make of that reaction. She was relieved that Echo wasn't killed, but was she kicked out of the pack? Were the others rejecting her?
Before Sierra could voice her questions, her and Owen were joined by a most unwelcome guest.
"Well, I certainly picked an eventful afternoon to stop by." Vic announced, sauntering up to them with a couple lower-level security guys. "Dr. Wu's not going to be too thrilled to lose one of his raptors this early, but what can you do?"
As his words registered in Sierra's mind, she noticed Owen's hands clench around the railing in front of him.
"Echo's not dead." he stated calmly, waving over a few of the handlers. "We'll get the other three into the holding pen and have one of the vets take a look at her."
"Should we even bother?" Vic scoffed. "She challenged the pecking order. And she was weak enough to lose. I say we cut our losses now." He waved his hand and one of the guys with him raised his gun, aiming into the pen at Echo.
"No!" Owen ordered sternly, glaring between the guy with the gun, and Vic. "I told you all from the beginning it wouldn't be smooth, these are still wild animals. Yes, Echo was injured, but she submitted to Blue. She's accepted that Blue is Beta, like the other two already have. For now, we'll have her injuries tended to and go from there. None of these raptors will be destroyed on my watch."
Vic narrowed his eyes, but Owen returned the glare, refusing to back down. After a few moments, Vic gestured for the guy to lower his gun.
"If healing that animal takes too much time and money, we're cutting our losses." Vic stated firmly. "Get it out of there." With that, he turned and lead his friends away.
Owen had Sierra stay back from the cage once they got back on the ground, just in case. It took almost ten minutes, but they managed to get Blue, Charlie, and Delta in three of the chutes in the small holding pen, where it basically held the raptors in place with their heads sticking out of the holes, so they couldn't hurt themselves or anyone else. The raptors were just big enough to really fit in the chutes, since they're designed for full-grown raptors, but they're big enough to be held in place.
A couple vets and techs sedated Echo and took her inside, laying her out on a table so they could strap her down. Sierra followed at a small distance, wanting to see what was happening and hear what was wrong, while not getting in the way.
From the little she could see between the crush of bodies made of doctor coats and Owen's typical wrinkled shirt and brown vest, she could see someone stitching something up around Echo's head. There also appeared to be some bickering about something, and Owen appeared frustrated. Finally, he turned and walked away from the table, coming to a stop next to Sierra, his arms crossed tensely.
"What's happening?" Sierra asked worriedly.
"So, she has a gash down the left side of her face, which they stitched up. But she also has a broken jaw." Owen explained.
Sierra's stomach dropped even though she shouldn't be surprised. Velociraptor's legs were extremely powerful, and Blue landed a kick right to Echo's face. It's not surprising it broke her jaw.
"Will she be okay? They can fix it, right?" Sierra asked worriedly.
"They can, but they're debating how to go about it." Owen admitted. "It could take at least four weeks, maybe more than eight weeks, for her jaw to heal. And a couple of them want to keep her sedated that whole time so they can wire her jaw in place. Which to an extent, I get. She won't be able to move her jaw too much while it's healing, but if she's awake she'll want to move it, either to eat or bite or snap. If she can't, she'll be at risk. She might get frustrated and try to force her jaw to move, which could cause more damage. But keeping her sedated for more than a month…"
"Is there a way to fix her jaw without wiring it shut?" Sierra asked, worried.
"I don't know." Owen admitted. "I'm not a doctor." he joked slightly, pushing off the wall to rejoin the crush of doctors surrounding Echo's bedside.
After about ten minutes, most of the doctors left, leaving just Owen and one of the doctors. Sierra hesitantly moved closer and when no one yelled at her she made her way to Echo's bedside.
Echo was unconscious, but they still had her strapped to the table just in case. They had her hooked up to an IV, and there were stitches going down the left side of her face, the scratch going over her eye and down to just below her lower lip. But it was her jaw that drew Sierra's attention. It was very crooked, her lower jaw more to the right than it should.
Without much thought, Sierra's hand found itself gently resting on Echo's neck. She could feel her pulse, strong and steady, slightly slower since she was unconscious. Her skin was rough. Sierra obviously hadn't touched any of the raptors since they were tiny babies, just hatched from their eggs. But here she was, touching a nearly-fully-grown Velociraptor.
Echo twitched, and suddenly a sliver of glowing amber was peaking up at Sierra. She froze, her hand hovering a few inches above Echo's neck, their eyes locked together. But nothing else happened. Echo just peaked up at her, amber eyes both intelligent yet clouded over, a combination of the drugs and her pain.
Hesitantly, Sierra lowered her hand back down to Echo's neck, their eyes not moving away from each other's.
"You're going to be okay, Echo." Sierra whispered, her hand stroking soothingly down the raptor's neck. "Everything's going to be okay."
Echo released a hard breath through her nostrils, but other than that she didn't move.
"Sierra Isabelle Grady, what do you think you're doing?" a voice hissed quietly as Owen suddenly appeared at her side.
Sierra jerked her hand back, turning to gape up at her brother as he glared disapprovingly down at her. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but no answer came out. When Owen's eyes moved from her to Echo, they softened after a moment. Then, he seemed drawn by the same instinct she had been, as he gently rested his hand on Echo's shoulder, just below where a strap held her down.
"You're okay." he whispered, almost to himself, but Echo was sure to hear him. Sierra turned to look back down at the raptor, to find that Echo's eyes were now fixed on Owen. She was probably projecting; a fourteen-year-old's active imagination, but she could have sworn Echo relaxed more into the table, her eyes full of trust.
Sierra was probably imagining it.
Dr. Wu stormed in just then, ruining the calm and demanding an explanation in big terms that Sierra would never hope to understand. Owen sighed, but turned to talk to the doctor and discuss possible routes to take.
Sierra just stayed where she was, hoping no one would notice and make her leave. She stayed by Echo's side as long as she could, hoping in some small way that she was offering the raptor some comfort.
AN: And there's my take on how Echo lost her fight with Blue, which is mentioned on the Wiki page as well as a few other places. And we see a bit more on Sierra's growing bond with the raptors.
