Chapter 2: New Home on the Range
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Review dude 357: Will this story get an update, or is it dead in the water? (Yes, I made a pun. Deal with it!)
Dragon Emperor0: Hope this answers it. We… weren't sure what to do next, so we put our attention elsewhere.
ThermalsniperN7: Planning was pretty difficult to do…
-Crossbones Ranch, a day later-
The sun finally came up over the pastures of Crossbones Ranch–where cows and horses grazing in the green scattered fields for their daily food intake, while chickens pecked around coops, pigs rolled around in dirt, goats chewed on goat weed, and dogs laid on the porch while a Squad of cats hunted for pests.
Though this serenity and silence was soon interrupted when a leghorn rooster hopped on top of the bunk house–and cleared his throat before he crowed.
"COCKADOODLEDOOOO!" The male poultry crowed, causing everyone and thing within earshot to nearly jump out of their skins. Megaera in particular looked grumpy about being woken up like that.
"Can I kill that damned thing?" She grumbled.
"If we were allowed to, I would've done it already." The man griped as he forced his blush down, remembering that he'd fallen asleep with the mutant shark woman in his arms. "That was Foghorn. Our resident natural alarm clock." He added as he got out of the bed.
"Oh joy…" The shark woman groaned as she too got up, which caused her stomach to immediately start growling. "... Okay, so my average food intake hasn't decreased. That's good to know." She added.
"How much food do we need to give you to meet that average?" Arthur questioned as he stretched his body.
"I'd say… What you usually have… Four times a day." Meg nodded.
"I'll be sure to fill in mom and dad." Arthur sighed as he walked out of the room so the shark woman could get dressed. He still needed to get his clothes on himself, anyway.
After they got dressed, the two went downstairs and found the rest of the family having breakfast–which consisted of pancakes, bacon, ham, eggs–sunny side, over easy, soft boiled, hard boiled or scrambled–grits, oatmeal, toast, biscuits, yogurt, various fruits, a salad or two, and to drink was coffee, milk or juice.
'Yep, these meals should keep me fed, hopefully.' Meg thought as she sat down, fixing herself a plate and glass of coffee.
"Morning, you two. Sleep well?" Elanor asked as she ate some eggs.
"It was good, until that damn rooster woke me up." Meg replied, still feeling a little grumpy about that.
"You'll get used to him after a while." Casey told her while he ate some grits.
"Least it's better than a mechanical alarm clock." Rip grunted as he ate his own food. Meg couldn't help but glare at him, she wasn't sure why, but this guy pissed her off every time he opened his mouth–she just couldn't stand his rancid vibes.
"Megaera." John spoke up, getting her attention as she dropped her glare. "I know you just got here, but everybody has to do something to help out the ranch. What do you think you'll do?" He questioned.
"Honestly, I haven't the foggiest idea." She replied with a shrug. "I'll probably have a look around and see what feels right to me. All I know is it'll likely be something practical." She added.
"Well, I could use some help with finding, excavating, cleaning and categorizing all of my Fossil finds." Arthur noted. "It's been a real pain doing it on my own." He added.
"Sounds pretty good. Get me a kit, and I'll gladly help out." The shark gal nodded, feeling eager to do her first fossil dig.
"Good. I have some spare supplies in the storage shed that I can give you. I'll get them sorted out and ready for use." The youngest man in the family nodded.
"You probably just want her around so that you can stare at her all day instead of doing any actual work." Rip scoffed, which made Rouge and Ellie glare at him.
"Rip, shut up." The younger of the two hissed.
"And never insinuate that again." Arthur added firmly before looking at Meg. "Though you will need some training on how to use archaeological equipment and maintain it." He told her.
"It does sound like a serious profession, so I believe that." The shark woman nodded.
"Yeah, one wrong move, and you could destroy a priceless artifact." The young man nodded as they continued eating their breakfast.
(Later)
On the cliffs near Ammonite River, both Megaera and Arthur were busy excavating a new find the man had found a few days before: a perfectly preserved Appalachiosaurus encased in amber, almost as if in some sort of stasis.
"This is going to make mom and dad flip when they see it up close." Arthur said with a grin as he chipped away at the surrounding rock.
"I guess finds like these are a rarity that a lot of people wish they could get?" Megaera chuckled as she too chipped away at the rock.
"Oh yeah, and given the quality of this one, it could very well be worth a fortune." The man nodded as the two kept working, the shark woman almost making a few accidental strikes that would've damaged the amber had Arthur not stopped her.
Once they were done, which was well into the afternoon, they admired their handiwork as the mutant Bull Shark woman ran her hand along the fossilized sap.
"Do you think it's still alive in there?" She asked as she looked at the creature that seemed to almost follow her as she walked by it.
"I highly doubt that, honestly. Even if it was this well preserved, the lack of sustenance and fresh air would've killed it before either of us were born." Arthur replied with a shake of his head as he looked at it.
It had green scales all along its body, boney ridges running along its back and green eyes. There were also small protrusions on top of its head and, of course, the two of them could see the sharp teeth in its open maw.
"Why do you ask?" He asked as he pulled out his camera to take pictures.
"I don't know, I just–can't shake the feeling that this thing is watching me." The Sea Wolf stated as she continued looking at their lucky find.
"It's probably just you. It might be nothing." The man told her as he looked at the preserved dinosaur. But he also started wondering the same thing. "Hey, Jamie? Call Allen at Wayland Construction, I'm gonna need to borrow his crane." He told his brother.
"What for?" Jamie asked.
"Me and Meg just unearthed an Appalachiosaurus preserved in amber. It's a big find, and I need some heavy equipment to move it." The youngest member of the family explained.
"Alright. I'll put in a call. Just leave a GPS beacon at the area you found it in and come back to the house so you can guide the crew there." The man replied before hanging up.
"How much do you think this is gonna get us?" Meg questioned as she dusted herself off.
"Honestly? I have no idea." Arthur replied. "Hundreds, thousands, millions, or maybe billions? I don't know." He added.
"It is a rare find, so it's kinda up in the air." The shark woman shrugged as Arthur placed a GPS beacon next to the preserved creature before the two got onto Aztec and rode off… Both of them missed the dino's eyes following them as they left… and the twitch of its massive brow.
(Later)
"Wait, so you mean you found a massive dinosaur, encased in amber, and completely preserved?" John questioned as they all looked at him in surprise.
"That's right. Something like that is gonna make us richer than we already are." Megaera nodded with a smirk before she frowned a bit. "But… Something about it felt… off." She added, much to the confusion of everyone but Arthur.
"Off how?" Rouge questioned.
"While we were looking it over, I felt like it was watching me, almost." The golden eyed mutant explained. "It's probably just me, but… I don't think that thing is really dead." She added.
"Sounds to me like the big bad Maneater's turning into a pussy." Rip scoffed.
"I will turn cannibal just to eat you." Meg threatened, baring her teeth.
"That's enough." Elanor interjected sternly. "Rip, shut up and quit acting like an idiot." She added, looking at the man who just looked away before she looked at Meg. "Meg, it's probably just your survival instincts acting up. I realize it hasn't really been remotely long enough for them to get rusty, but they could be wrong. Just saying." She continued.
"Yeah… You're probably right." The blue skinned woman sighed.
"Still, this is quite the find." Rouge stated. "We all know our land is rich with fossils, but this? This is something completely new." She added with a smile. It was then that they heard the sounds of vehicles arriving outside.
"Looks like they're finally here." John said.
"I'll lead the way to our find." Arthur said as he went out to get Aztec, Megaera following him.
Everyone grabbed flashlights and headed outside, the night sky stretching over the horizon as the moon rose over them, half phased.
(Elsewhere)
Back at the Appalachiosaurus site, it was not as vacant as it should've been. In fact, there were five thieves trespassing on the ranch when they happened across the dino and got greedy before they started figuring out how they would steal it.
"Oh ho ho! This is gonna make us rich!" One of them grinned as he started chiseled away at it.
"Fuck yeah, these Morgans don't need it, we do." Another added.
"If they find out, they'll kill us!" A third hissed.
"Oh shut up. They'll never know we were even here." The fourth stated nonchalantly.
"Yeah. Those fuckers can't possibly find their way here at this hour." The fifth chuckled. Apparently all five of them had failed to notice the GPS beacon that had been left behind. And now…
"Okay, we're– HEY!" Arthur started to say before barking upon spotting the thieves as the family shined their lights on them, the five idiots freezing on the spot. "This is private property, and that's a family find! Back the hell off!" He yelled in irritation.
The thieves continued to stare at them with wide eyes, like an antelope in headlights, before the more skittish one jumped when Rip cocked his 20 gauge shotgun, and accidentally cracked the amber with his pickaxe.
"You dumbasses oughta know what this family does to thieves that trespass on our land." John said gruffly as he glared at the five idiots, nobody noticing the cracks spreading as the Appalachiosaurus' eyes started to move, its mind coming back online after millions of years of slumber.
"Want me to take 'em to the canyon and dump their bodies there?" Rip offered as he glared at the trespassers.
"Yeah, and take Meg with you. I want to see what ha—" He started to say before…
Crrrrack!
SHATTER!
The amber fell apart and the dinosaur fell to the ground, surprising everybody. Then one of the thieves decided to put his foot in his mouth.
"Guess none of us get money from this find." He taunted. Meg growled and was about to lunge at him when the impossible happened in that very moment.
ROOOOOAAARRRRR!
The supposedly dead dinosaur lunged at him with a loud roar as he grabbed the thief by his upper half in its jaws and thrashed him around, scaring the hell out of everybody!
"SON OF A BITCH!" Rip yelled as he and the rest of the family backed the fuck off.
"I knew it was still alive!" Meg exclaimed with wide eyes as she instinctively clung to Arthur, who also clung onto her in return.
The thief screamed in agony as he was swung around by the still living predator before his lower half was separated and landed on the ground as the upper half was swallowed by the dinosaur. It then glared at the rest of the thieves and roared at them, causing them to scream in terror as they ran away as fast as their legs would let them, but John shot them in the legs with his revolver, leaving them at the mercy of the newly awakened Appalachiosaurus as they tried to futile crawl away.
"No, no, NO!" One of them yelled as the dino crushed his skull underfoot and carried on to the remaining three.
"How is that thing still alive?!" Rouge questioned in shock.
"We figured the amber would preserve it, but we never thought it would still be alive in stasis!" Arthur replied as the third thief had his head bitten off and eaten by the dino before it moved on to the other two.
"Uh, should we leave?" Jamie gulped as he clung to Rouge in fear.
"Honestly, I'm too scared to move." Elanor replied as her body shook in fear as well.
The Appalachiosaurus stomped down hard on the arm of the fourth thief as it used its jaws to rip off his other arm, causing him to scream his lungs out in sheer agony as he was left to suffer his fatal wounds as the dino moved on to the skittish thief, who had already soiled himself in terror.
"No, PLEASE! Spare me!" He tried to beg as the prehistoric predator stalked towards him, placed a foot on his lower half, and ripped his shirt off with its claws before biting down on him and pulling hard, separating his upper and lower halves before swallowing.
The dinosaur then turned its attention to the family, who looked ready to turn tail and run. It approached them slowly, Rip's arms shaking from fear as his fight or flight instinct kicked into high gear. When it was in front of them, it seemed to inspect them almost before its gaze landed on Arthur and Megaera. It stared at them for a long and very tense moment… Before it fell on its side, the energy of its awakening fading away as it took its impromptu nap.
Everyone couldn't stop themselves from falling on their asses after that.
"What. The. Actual. Hell?!" John got out as he tried to slow his heart rate from the very unexpected event of the night.
"First digs are supposed to be exciting, right? How the fuck was that exciting?!" Meg panted as she tried to calm her own racing heart.
"Um, what exactly should we do here? None of us have ever tried to deal with a live dinosaur before." Elanor wondered as she tried to calm her nerves.
"I say we tie this thing down. It can't try to eat us if it can't move." Jamie suggested, helping Rouge up, who looked like she was about to have a heart attack.
"With what? Rope? I doubt that'll be strong enough to hold the damn thing, even if it's weak from just waking up." Rip commented as he got to his feet and picked up his shotgun.
"Let's not forget where to keep it." John added with a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair.
"Try using nylon cables." Meg suggested, causing everyone to look at her. "What? If those things were able to hold me without my armors on, it'll hold this joker." She stated, jabbing a webbed thumb at the slumbering prehistoric reptile. The rest of the Morgans glanced at each other as they thought it over.
"... I guess it's a viable option." Arthur shrugged as he got up and dusted himself off before helping Meg up.
"But where do we keep the thing?" Casey questioned.
"The stadium barn oughta be big enough." Ellie chimed in, before looking at the titanic beast. "Though we'll have to leave it a good bit of meat so it won't try to eat us when it wakes up." She added.
"I think I can manage that. Rouge, think you can help me out there?" Meg asked.
"Of course." The woman replied with a nod as Meg started explaining her course of action to her while the others either got their prehistoric find secured or collected the shard of amber.
(The next day)
The following day, the Appalachiosaurus snored loudly as the morning sun began to rise, and failed to notice the chickens that pecked around its sleeping form.
Yellow, brown, black and other chicks of varying colors peeped as they hopped all over the terrible lizard, some even hopping into its mouth to peck its teeth clean as it yawned before hopping out.
However, this peaceful symbiosis was soon brought to a grinding halt–when Foghorn the Leghorn strutted up to the dinosaur, pushing past the hens and chick's.
"Hey, Ah-Ah say hey there, big fella. It's a time to wake up." The rooster clucked at the giant reptile in front of him. His voice had a thick Kentucky accent.
The giant lizard didn't even stir, which made Foghorn irritated. Right as he was about to yell at it, one of the other hens stopped him.
"Don't do it, man! You wanna die?!" She clucked nervously.
"Listen, Ah say, Listen sistah. This boy needs to wake up!" The Leghorn clucked back in reply. Right as he was about to crow in the dinosaur's face, its eyes snapped open and…
"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Roared right in the rooster's face, blowing his feathers off and leaving him pretty much naked.
Foghorn turned around and looked at the pile of feathers–which the chicks were playing in–before he started picking them up.
"Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for just such an occasion." He said as he walked away, feathers in hand–or wing, in this case.
Meanwhile, the Morgans all collectively fell out of their beds screaming in surprise from the noise of the Appolachiosaurus roaring. Megaera, who still had yet to adjust to such morning noises, nearly had a heart attack.
"Damn it all, and I thought Foghorn was bad!" She exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Now I know what dinosaurs sounded like." Arthur noted, shaking his head as he got off the floor–after having fallen out of bed.
"Let's just get dressed and check on the scaly bastard." The shark gal grunted as she got up herself.
A short while later after Arthur and his sharky companion were fully dressed, they went out to the stadium barn with the rest of the family and went inside to check on their prehistoric guest and found their poultry based animals playing around it. This unusual sight made them blink and rub their eyes, unable to fully grasp what was happening.
They then saw the beast open its mouth for the birds to continue cleaning its teeth as it slept, which gave them an idea of what was going on.
However, this did little to calm down Aztec, who was skittish as all get-out from the roar, or Bear and Hank who were growling at the large scaly mass.
"We don't take kindly to people causin' a ruckus 'round here, buster." Hank growled at the dinosaur.
"Yeah! What he said!" Bear yipped, despite the fact that the beast dwarfed him by at least ten times.
"Don't bother. Big fella's too tired to listen to you lot." Megaera told them, causing her brown haired companion to glance at her.
"Uh, what are you saying?" He questioned.
"I'm telling these two bone heads to not antagonize the terrible lizard over there." The shark woman stated.
"What? … Nevermind." The man questioned before shaking his head. "Anyway, where's that meat that was supposed to be here?" He wondered as he looked around.
As if on cue, the beast in front of them let out a low but forceful rumble, which sounded almost like a belch.
"That answer your question?" Casey questioned.
"Yep." Arthur deadpanned. "But at least it seems relaxed, I suppose." He added.
"That still leaves the question of what we should do with it." The matriarch of the family stated.
"I doubt we can sell it. We'll probably be accused of fraud or something." Rip commented with a frown. Seriously, even with all their influence, who would believe their claims of having a live dinosaur in their custody?
"We could just keep it, if nothing else." Jamie offered.
"What even is the gender of it, anyway?" Elanor wondered. It was at this point that the creature cracked an eye open and started scratching itself with one of its legs before turning around and going back to sleep, letting out a deep grunt.
"My money's on a male who's just gotten past puberty." Meg stated.
"How do you figure?" Arthur asked.
"He's lazy, cantankerous, and doesn't like to do anything himself. Just like a bunch of animals I've come across." She replied. Everyone looked at her before looking at the apparently lazy dino.
"She's got a point. I guess that kind of demeanor was present millions of years ago, apparently." John remarked.
This conversation got a snort from Rip, which got a pointed reply in the form of their saurian guest raising his tail and slapping it down at the man–causing him to roll out of the way–and a smirk from the beast as he continued snoring as if he didn't just attempt casual murder and start chuckling about it.
'I think me and him are gonna get along just fine.' Meg thought with a grin as she looked at the dinosaur.
"OK, this thing is definitely not your average nut brain." Rip states as he got up.
"And he's also pretty smart, too." Jamie noted. "Anybody got a good name for him?" He asked everyone, who started thinking.
"How about Newton?" Elanor suggested, which got another snort. "Okay, I'll take that as a no." She added.
"Einstein?" Jamie continued, earning him a smack with the animal's tail, which bowled him over. "... Nevermind, then."
"Hm… Khamsin?" Arthur offered, which caused the dino to perk up a bit. "Huh. I think he likes that one." He smiled.
"Great, so we got an Egyptian." Rip grunted as Khamsin just snorted and opened his mouth again, letting the chicks continue to peck his teeth clean.
"At least we have that issue taken care of." Rouge shrugged. "And we still have all that amber to make money off of, so it wasn't totally wasteful." She added.
"Reserve some of that amber for me. I've got some plans for it." Arthur told his mom.
"It'll definitely be useful for jewelry…" Elanor noted.
"And as for Khamsin here…" John said before he looked over at a rather empty plot of land outside of the window before turning to Meg. "Since you're an animal whisperer, why not ask him if he'd like an unused three acre plot as his territory." He added.
"Oh, good idea." The shark woman nodded with a smile before she worked her magic. "Hey Khamsin, want three acres of land as territory?" She asked, causing the large lizard to open one eye and look at her as the chickens hopped out of his mouth.
"New territory? Ah'll take that offer." He replied with a thick southern accent.
"He said he'll take it." Meg told the patriarch.
"Excellent." John nodded with a smile. Yawning, the dinosaur slowly got up and shook itself before slowly making his way outside, allowing the animals present to become much more relaxed.
"I'll show him to the pasture, think you guys can calm down the animals?" The woman asked.
"We got things here, Meg. You just show Khamsin to his new territory." Casey told her as he and the rest of the men got to work calming the animals.
"Alright, come on Kham, it's this way." The woman told the dinosaur as she led him towards the pasture, which was just east of the house.
The pasture itself was flanked by woods on either side and had an access way to the waterhole, which meant the Appalachiosaurus had plenty of room to roam, hunt and drink, while also having extra land that was still within the property boundaries to do more of these three things–that wasn't part of the immediate pasture vicinity.
"Oh yeah. This is real good." Khamsin said as he looked at his new territory.
"Well make yourself at home, then. Welcome to Crossbones Ranch." Meg told him with a smile.
"Welcome indeed." The beast nodded as he got in the sun and laid down in the field, soaking in the star's rays.
It would seem that life in the present for this dinosaur–despite a rather rude awakening–wasn't going to be so bad after all.
ThermalsniperN7: … Okay, I definitely didn't expect Arthur and Megaera to find a huge-ass dinosaur preserved in amber. I certainly didn't expect said dino to still be alive after millions of years of natural stasis, either!
Dragon Emperor0: Then clearly you've never seen many dinosaur Sci-fi films. But yeah, this won't be the last you'll see of finds like this in the story. Maybe the Morgans will even get a visit from Mr. "Spared no expense" himself, if you catch my meaning.
ThermalsniperN7: And boy howdy does Meg not like Rip at all. She doesn't even know why, but something about him makes her angry… Oh, and she's an animal whisperer.
Dragon Emperor0: And yes, the animals can talk to each other, but humans–save Meg–can't understand them. I got the idea from two sources: a book series I used to read in middle school called Hank the Cowdog, and a show I used to watch when all I had was cable called Horseland. Which–speaking of–if you think we should have those universes crossover here, let us know. It could add some variety to what kind of story arcs we could make.
ThermalsniperN7: Anyway, see you next time, and apologies for taking so long to get this chapter done.