Chapter 2: Rex and The Brain Grain Graduates
Sam named him Rex.
It was a very generic name, something one could name a dog. He even had a gold medallion around his neck to prove it, courtesy of Sam and Vorb. Not to mention the name fitted him as Rex means "king" in Latin. She was given the task by Vorb to show him the ropes around the ship. Before that could happen. The first thing that the two did was give Rex a little bit more of Brain Grain cereal, since he needed more of it before he could join the others. Then, the second thing was Sam needed a shower because she stank due to the dinosaur's saliva getting on her when he spat wet cereal on her. Something that made him feel awful about doing that.
She went back to her room to fetch another robot to help since she didn't want to touch her clothes for risk of getting nasty cereal on them. This robot was one of her original inventions that she made years ago before R.A.L.P.H. as this one was more cylinder shaped with a black coating. The robot was called The Worker Environmental Biomechanical Electrical Robot, or W.E.B.E.R. for short. She made two of them in case she ever needed one while the other robot, who she calls W.E.B.E. , was already busy keeping company with the other dinosaurs that were already on the ship.
With a simple clap of the hands and calling out, "W.E.B.E.R.!" The robot beeped to life as wheels activated and was at attention. "I need you to get my other overalls and some pair of clothes 'cause I'm going to take a shower." She motioned her body to simplify. "As you can tell why."
A hole opened on the side as a mechanical hand with a white glove came out from W.E.B.E.R. and gave her a circle with three fingers raised, it's way of telling her okay.
As it went away to fetch her clothes, Sam quickly added, "Oh, be sure to get my shoes."
Another mechanical hand pops out of W.E.B.E.R. and gives her a thumbs up.
"Hello, Sam," R.A.L.P.H. greeted as he was on her desk. "How did it go with catching the T-Rex?"
Sam sighed as she looked at the small robot with an unamused look and answered, "Don't ask." She felt a small tug on her leg, getting her attention as W.E.B.E.R. retracted its third mechanical hand. It was carrying her clothes on one hand while on the other had her tennis shoes. "Good work, W.E.B.E.R. Come along now."
As she left her room with W.E.B.E.R. following her, R.A.L.P.H. tilted his head slightly, pondering on what had happened to Sam while she was away.
When Sam arrived at the bathroom, she was relieved to have a good wash as she needed to get all that nasty dino stench and sticky cereal off her. The smell was making her uncomfortable as it almost smelled like death. It reminded her of Rex eating that dead animal and remembering the smell of heavy blood in the air. Those thoughts almost made her hurl, but thankfully she thought of other things to take her mind off it like: history from traveling across time and experiencing it first hand, thinking up new ideas to invent and create, and music. Speaking of music, while she continues to wash, she starts singing one of her favorite songs.
Gimme one reason why you look so sad
A heart like yours isn't made for that
Gimme your hand, I'll pull you through
Gimme some time and I swear to you
Every night
I be so close
Every night
Hey, don't you know?
You and me
Were made to be in love
Don't let them tear us apart
You and me
Were made for love
Meanwhile as Sam continued her singing, Vorb gave Rex a small tour of the ship before Sam could start since she needed a shower. He too probably needed a wash since he was starting to stink and he'll probably have to clean his jetpack as well. However, the two of them heard the young girl's voice as Vorb went close to the door and cupped his suction cup ear as Sam sang, "Baby, you know, it's a matter of fact. I can't stand by when you feel like that."
As Vorb nods his head in beat with her singing, knowing that whenever she's in one of her calmer moods or wants to take her mind off, Rex couldn't help but admire such a great voice. Unlike the previous song she sang earlier today, this one sounded more upbeat. He tries to do the same thing the martian did by leaning his head into the door, listening to more of Sam's singing. "Baby, you know, when it comes to love. I got time and that's time enough." However, he leans in too close as he makes Vorb grunt, almost getting squished to the door as he tells the dinosaur, "Hey, hey, hey! Not so close, big guy!"
Realizing his mistake, he moves his head away from him. "Oh, sorry," he apologized.
Every night
I be so close
Every night
Hey, don't you know?
You and me
Were made to be in love
Don't let them tear us apart
You and me
You're all I ever need
Look at my eyes can't you see?
You and me
Were made for love
Sam had already finished washing herself while the bathroom had a built-in dry mode for the body. Making it easier than drying off with a simple towel as she was dried instantly by the cool winds. Proceeding to fix her hair into a ponytail with the use of some clear rubber that she calls the elastic wonder, another useful invention created by her after handing it to W.E.B.E.R. as the robot returned it to her, she continued to sing, "You can lock your door. You can live alone." The robot snapped its fingers in beat with her singing. She didn't seem to mind as she smiled. "You can dim your lights. Disconnect the phone. You can run, but you will live in a lie." She puts on her overalls after putting on a white shirt, then proceeds to put on her tennis shoes. "You and me were made to be in love. Don't let them tear us apart! You and me." After tying her shoes, she finishes her singing, "You're all I ever need. Look in my eyes can't you see? You and me were made for love."
No sooner had she finished and opened the door with W.E.B.E.R. following her, she gasped and jumped when she saw Rex and Vorb. "Hiya Sam," the martian greeted as he waved.
"How long were you two standing there?"
Vorb chuckled and clapped his hands slightly while answering her question, "Long enough to hear you finish that song of yours. Bravo, kiddo."
W.E.B.E.R. seemed to agree with the martian as it brought out the other three mechanical hands and all fours hands clapped, as if giving Sam an applause. She looks and glares at the robot, seeing that this was not helping her as she sharply says to it, "W.E.B.E.R., stop that!" The robot flinched all four of its mechanical hands from her voice. "Take my stuff and see that they get washed." It didn't seem to move until she pointed to the hallway. "Go on!"
Taking the command, it returned it's four mechanical limbs back inside itself and proceeded to carry her dirty clothes on one hand while hanging her rubber overalls on its arm and carrying her rubber boots with the other hand. As it left them, Vorb buzzed by her head and crossed his arms saying, "You didn't have to be so snappy to it."
She looks at the martian with those glaring eyes.
Getting the gif that she was in one of her moods, he then said, "Yeah, maybe I should go. I need to check on the other dinosaurs anyway. Have fun, Sam."
As he buzzed away, leaving Sam and Rex alone, she sighed as she covered her eyes. Sam had never felt that embarrassed in her life. Looking back at the dinosaur, she sighed again as the atmosphere felt awkward for her, then motioned her hand to follow while saying to him, "Come on, let's get this tour over and done with."
Rex followed her behind and said, "I like your voice."
"Oh, shut up, Rex! Never speak about that again!"
When they started the rest of the tour of the ship, Sam couldn't help but be a little uncomfortable with Rex looming over her. It only made things worse with his childlike enthusiasm and curiosity of the smallest to the very interesting things of the ship that he's seen so far. It didn't help that he immediately liked her and insisted on following her around like a baby bird imprinting on the first thing it sees. A rather large baby bird who had to be careful not to step on her, which he almost did twice now.
"Watch it!" Sam snapped as his foot barely sidestepped around her. "What did I tell you? Stay at least ten feet away from me."
"Oh, um...sorry," Rex apologized with a guilty smile and walked backwards ten steps.
Sam sighed and facepalmed at the incredible distance that was formed between them. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted to him across the hall, "No! I meant ten human feet!" He tilted his head at her, clearly having no idea what she was talking about. With a sigh and a roll of the eyes, she then said, "Forget what I just said and get over here, but don't step on me!" She flinched as he quickly walked back over to her, feeling the floor shake beneath his weight.
He stopped a reasonable distance away and smiled, "Is this good?"
"Yeah, that's perfect. Let's keep it that way, shall we?" The girl eyed at him warily, then she turned around and continued leading the way.
"So, where are we going?" Rex asked as he followed after her with steps that felt exaggeratedly slow for him.
"To meet others like you," Sam replied blandly.
"Like me?"
"Yeah. Large, scaly, and cold-blooded."
"Cold-blooded?" Rex blinked as he had a confused look, having no idea what that is. He curled his mouth into a smile and hugged himself while saying, "I think I'm more of a big, warm, huggable type."
Sam peered over her shoulder at him. "Yeah. I noticed."
Rex's smile fell at her prickly mood. It felt like to him he was walking on eggshells with a barrier kept safely surrounding her. He could obviously tell that his company was one that she did not want to have as she intended on keeping him out. He was even getting a hunch that it had something to do with him wanting to eat her a few hours ago. He opened his mouth to try again and hopefully lighten the mood, but Sam interrupted him by saying, "In here." She motioned with her arms at a beautifully crafted golden elevator. He carefully walked inside before Sam came in after him. She opened a small door that was inside on one of the pillars and pressed a button, causing the contraption to start to rise. Rex jerked in surprise, nearly knocking his tail against the girl. "Careful!" Sam exclaimed as she teetered near the edge. She wrapped her arms on the same pillar she pressed the button that was holding the elevator together. "Don't knock me off! This thing doesn't have walls you know!"
"Sorry," Rex winced. He backed up to give her some more room, but Sam didn't move from her spot while holding onto the pillar. She didn't even look up at him.
Meanwhile on the top floor, Vorb and W.E.B.E.R.2 were serving plates of freshly hot hotdogs to three dinosaurs who were sitting around a giant lava lamp as their makeshift fireplace while around that said lamp were other hotdogs that were slowly being cooked. The martian had managed to find another bathroom to get both himself and his jetpack cleaned before arriving. W.E.B.E.R.2 was the same as the other W.E.B.E.R., except its coating was light-brown instead of black to give it more like its twin. The first dinosaur who the martian was serving was a male light-blued triceratops. He had three hotdogs stuck on his horns and a red napkin tied around his neck. His name was Woog, a name given to him by Vorb as he was the second dinosaur to be caught. He takes a handful of hotdogs and stuffs them into his mouth.
The second dinosaur that was being served hotdogs by W.E.B.E.R.2 was a female purple pterodactyl and the first dinosaur to be caught before the others. Her name was Elsa, a name given to her by Sam. She thought her name was beautiful, but Sam only came up with that name after watching a movie in 2013 called Frozen. Mainly because it was the only name she could come up with while getting away from her for the time being. She sat on her large bird perch and finished off her hotdog, then took another one from the robot. She gave off a small burp and cleared her throat. "Oh, excuse me."
The third and last dinosaur was a male light-green parasaurolophus with buck teeth. He seemed to look a little dimwitted, but nevertheless he was still considered a smart mammal, and his name was Dweeb, another name that Vorb gave him as it seemed to fit him and he was the last dinosaur before Rex. He managed to finish off one hotdog and burped before swallowing and then took a bite of the current hotdog he was holding.
When the elevator finally reached the top floor, Vorb gave the plate of hotdogs to W.E.B.E.R.2 , then the martian buzzed his way to Sam and Rex as he greeted cheerily, "Hiya! How's it going?"
"Swell…" Sam answered sarcastically.
Vorb floated next to Rex's head and asked quietly, "How's Sam treating ya?"
"I don't think she likes me," Rex replied just as quietly, his eyes darting over to her to make sure she wasn't overhearing him.
The martian barked out a laugh. "Sam doesn't like anyone, except me, the Captain, and her robots."
"The Captain? Robots?"
"You'll meet him soon enough," Vorb shrugged off his first question, knowing that Rex and the other dinosaurs will know who the Captain looks like. "As for the robots, remember that tin-can that was with Sam in the bathroom?"
Rex nods his head. In fact, he never had the chance to ask Sam what that was that was with her.
"Well, that's called a robot. A machine built by man and that was W.E.B.E.R., one of Sam's inventions."
"Inventions?" Rex said, confused. "What's that?"
"Something that was created by someone," Vorb answered. "Just like that robot over there." He points to the robot that was with the other dinosaurs as Rex followed to where the martian was pointing. "That one's called W.E.B.E.R.2, another robot that's the same as the other one and was built by Sam."
Rex was a little surprised, but at the same time amazed. Sam actually built these robots all by herself? Guess there were a lot of things he didn't know about her.
"Although to be honest," the martian whispered so Rex could hear. "She spends more time with both her inventions and robots other than making real friends." He smiled as he spoke up. "Speaking about that, if you want friends, why don'tcha check out the other Brain Grain graduates? I gotta report to Captain Neweyes."
Rex looked across the room to see three other dinosaurs. Knowing how coldly Sam responded to her earlier, he was suddenly filled with nervous anxiety. What if the others were to treat him the same way? He backed away from the elevator's exit, his body curling downwards as if to make himself as small as possible.
"Get social." Vorb pushed Rex out the elevator none too gently and left.
The dinosaur's eyes turned to Rex who shuffled uncomfortably under their scrutiny. He smiled toothily, trying to conceal his shyness, and clasped his tiny arms together. "Hi, everybody," he greeted awkwardly. He grabbed at the golden medallion around his neck and began to read it aloud as if it were a written speech. "Yer...nee uh nyum my," he blinked in confusion.
"You're holding it upside down, smart guy," Sam elbowed his leg as she made her way over to him.
"Oh. Oh." Embarrassed, Rex quickly turned it over and tried again, "My name...is...Rex!" He was surprised to realize that he could understand the words. "Hey, how did I do that?" he asked as they walked over to the rest of the company, his nervousness overruled by excitement.
"The magic of Brain Grain cereal," Sam replied. "Don't ask me how it works 'cause it's too complicated to explain. Apparently, it also allows herbivores to digest meat."
"I'm Elsa," the female pterodactyl introduced herself, flinging her hotdog away carelessly while W.E.B.E.R.2 caught it with one of its hands and placed it on the plate and the female dinosaur pressed herself against him. "Enchanted and delighted to make your acquaintance, Rex." She let out a small chuckle. "Pardon my wingspan, won't you please?"
Stiff and completely unsure how to handle himself in this uncomfortable situation, Rex nodded and cleared his throat. "Yeah, okay."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Cut it out, Elsa. You're freaking the new guy out."
Elsa gave a delighted squawk at the sight of Sam. "Oh! Samantha, sweetheart! I've been wondering when you'd come and visit!" She flapped her large wings, nearly smacking Rex in the face.
Before Sam could prepare herself, the girl found herself wrapped in the embrace of the reptile's wings. "E-Elsa! Ever heard of personal space?!" she stuttered, her face slightly red from embarrassment and a little flustered by Elsa's affections.
This was probably the reason she didn't want to come up here in the first place. Not because of the two dinosaurs she hadn't met yet, but because of Elsa. Ever since she managed to gain her intelligence, Elsa was acting like a doting mother to her, as if she was a chick that was recently hatched. It was annoying that she had to deal with her for the past few hours before her grandfather sent Elsa to another floor to eat. As long as she kept her distance from that female, she wouldn't have to worry about her. Now she was starting to regret it, the moment she stepped on that elevator. Why couldn't she just leave when she had the chance? Better yet, why couldn't she just direct Rex to the elevator and press the button before hopping off? It was bad enough she was in this embarrassing position. What was even more embarrassing were those three dinosaurs staring at her.
Elsa laughed and let goes of Sam. "Forgive me, dear. I'm just so happy to see you. How have you been? I've simply been worried sick."
The light-blue triceratops gave a small chuckle and nudged Rex as Elsa continued to chatter over Sam. "There she goes. Maternal instinct. Be grateful that it's stronger than all of her other instincts." They watched as Sam walked away from Elsa, after she heard the teenager's stomach starting to rumble from hunger and her telling her she needs to eat while Sam made a blah gesture with her right hand without the female dinosaur noticing as she kept chatting before finishing. Rex looked at Elsa, who the female gave him a wave of her fingers before Rex looked at Woog. "Careful," the triceratops winked suggestively at the larger dinosaur. "I think she's taken a shine to you."
"Huh? Oh, um...alright."
Noticing the confusion, the triceratops smiled, "I'm Woog, by the way." He then looked to Sam who had already passed him as she was making her way towards W.E.B.E.R.2 while he added, "Oh, pleasure to meet you face to face for real, Sam."
"Yeah, whatever," Sam said without looking at him while nonchalantly giving him a small backwards wave.
Rex became even more confused. "'Face to face for real'? Do you know Sam?"
"Well, not exactly, Rex," Woog admitted. "But we did see her message to know her face."
"Message?"
While Woog was talking to Rex, Sam passed the parasaurolophus and went towards the robot as he greeted her with a wave, "Hi, I'm Dweeb."
"Charmed," she answered sarcastically. "W.E.B.E.R.2." The robot stood at attention. "Please tell me if there's any more buns left?" She watches as the robot brings out one of its mechanical hands and picks up a plate of hotdog buns that hadn't been used by any of the dinosaurs from the floor and offers it to Sam. The girl lays out her hands flat together, as if she was praying to God, and looks up at the ceiling and mouths, "Thank you." She takes a bun off the plate along with a hotdog that the robot had on another plate. One of the robot's mechanical hands tapped on her shoulder, getting her attention as it already brought out a jar of sauerkraut from out of the floor. "Oh, thank you." One of its mechanical hands gave her a thumbs up, knowing how much its creator loved the sauerkraut when it came to hotdogs or sandwiches. It poured some of the sauerkraut onto her bun before she put the piece of meat on top of it.
The robot then brings out a bottle of mustard and squirts some on the hotdog, but before it could finish up with the ketchup that it brought out last, Woog calls out, "Hey Webs! Come over here and show the new guy the message from Sam."
Sam takes the bottle of ketchup from it. "Go ahead, I'll finish from here."
The robot makes its way to the two dinosaurs while Sam squirts the ketchup on her hotdog, puts the bottle down, and begins taking a bite. When the robot arrived towards Rex and Woog, the triceratops said to it, "Do your thing, little buddy."
It gave Woog a thumbs up before putting the items down, then retracted its arms, leaving only two as it motioned its hands, almost like it was presenting something. The top part of the robot opened up, revealing a disk attached to an antenna. Materializing in front of the two dinosaurs was Sam, who was actually small and sitting on a chair. Rex's eyes darted at the two Sam's. How were there two of them and why was this one small?
"Hello," the small Sam said. "If you're with Elsa and wondering why you're here or why you were given intelligence thanks to the Brain Grain cereal? I can assure you, you will know when others like you will appear." She shrugs her shoulders. "And honestly, I don't know how many of you will arrive on the ship. Anyway, in case you're wondering who I am. I'm Samantha, call me Sam. And no, if you're also wondering if I'm here inside this robot or something, what you're seeing is a holographic recording for any new dinosaur who's arrived."
Rex was confused. What was a hologram? He's never heard of such a thing. Whatever it was, it amazed him to no end.
"Other than that, since you're probably hungry, have a bunch of hotdogs with anything you want with it. The robot you see in front of you is called W.E.B.E.R.2. It'll be your serving bot until further notice. Nevertheless, I hope we see each other again." The holographic Sam gives a two-fingered salute. "Till then, later."
Sam sighed while she rolled eyes and had already stood next to the robot. She even wondered why she had to say that last part. It would've been better if she was with her grandfather waiting for them, instead of coming to these cold-blooded mammals, and with Rex no less. As the holographic message came to an end, the disk returned back inside W.E.B.E.R.2 and the robot gave a small bow.
"Wow! That was amazing!" Rex said with glee. "H-How did it do that?"
"The magic of technology," Sam replied. "Again, don't ask, 'cause it's too complicated for you to understand. Let's just say…" She pats the top part of the robot. "I make my mechanical friends unique in their own special way." She brought out a fist. "Am I right, W.E.B.E.R.2?"
The robot seemed to agree as it brought out a mechanical hand while it formed into a fist and bumps it with hers. Rex started to understand a little why Sam spent more time with robots. It was because she had already formed an attachment to them, despite them being mechanical.
Woog chuckled a little and said, "Well, now that that's done. You want a hotdog?" He grabs a handful of hotdogs and Dweeb opens his mouth to chomp down on them. The triceratops didn't notice but moved the meat out of the way before it was eaten, earning an annoyed glare from his neighbor, then offered the handful of hotdogs to Rex. "Or do you want a hotdog?"
Rex gave them a loud sniff, accidentally sucking one into his nose. Sam snorted loudly while covering her mouth, trying not to spit out her food that she took another bite from. Seeing his stunned look with a hotdog stuck in one of his nostrils was absolutely funny.
"Is it good?" he asked nasally, coming out of his momentary stun and causing Sam to finally laugh a little while keeping her hand in her mouth.
"Is it good?" Woog laughed at the question as Rex plucked the hotdog out of his nose and hid it behind his back, giving a toothy grin of embarrassment. "Words fail me. How many we had so far today, Dweeb?" he shook his neighbor's foot.
"250, and that's with everything," Dweeb answered before glaring at Woog as the triceratops took another bite of a hotdog.
"Take it on faith, Rex. You want a hotdog, bad." Woog hardly flinched when Dweeb squirted mustard on him, after already taking it from the robot.
"Hi, I'm Dweeb," the peeved dinosaur allowed himself to greet the newcomer. He squirted some of the yellow sauce onto his hotdog. "It's gotta have mustard on it."
"And don't forget the sauerkraut, I was amazed by the sauerkraut ever since Sam introduced me to that." She chuckled a little bit from that memory. "She truly has a knack for cuisine, it certainly has impressed me."
When Sam heard Elsa mentioning the sauerkraut, she smiled as she took this as an opportunity to punish her for embarrassing her earlier. Swallowing the last bit of her hotdog, she said, "Yeah, because of me she laid an egg."
Woog and Dweeb busted out laughing as the blue triceratops asked, "Seriously? She laid an egg?"
Sam nods truthfully to him.
While Woog and Dweeb continued to laugh, Elsa glared at Sam like a stern mother, putting her hands on her hips. However her stern expression quickly dissolved as she joined in with the laughter. "I did!" she admitted to Rex with slight humiliation. "I laid an egg. I was so embarrassed."
"It was the most delicious omelette I've ever had," Sam quipped, her lips perked up at the corners in amusement.
Rex looked at the girl, slightly horrified. He didn't know what an omelette was, but he had a good idea what she meant.
"Oh, don't look so distraught, Rex," Elsa smiled at him, adding to the joke. "It was a dud." She chuckled before flying up to gaze into his eyes. "Rex, I feel such a fool, but I must say it. You are a rough and handsome fellow," she fluttered her lashes at him.
Sam snorted at the sight. Even though she felt uncomfortable being around these mammals, she felt a little bad for Rex. It was probably still springtime around the current timeline for the reptilian bird. Poor Rex. She thought.
Elsa giggled at Rex's stunned expression. "Forgive me, I'm so flighty."
Rex gave a nervous laugh and cleared his throat, dodging Elsa to go and sit with the others around the giant lava lamp. He was starting to understand what Woog meant by "other instincts" and he sure didn't want to get caught up in that. He sat down with a loud thump and sniffed at the food, making Sam cringe as he did that.
"Smells good," he smiled and accepted the hotdog that Dweeb stretched out for him. While Sam was busy making herself another hotdog with the robot right next to her to help, Rex bit off a piece of the meat and his eyes widened in amazement. "Ah! Hey! That's what I call luunnnnchhh!" he practically roared the last word, causing the entire ship to shake and tremble.
The robot's mechanical hands became stunned as it's body shook and the items that it had fell off with the plates crashing to the floor on impact. Sam squeaked, fearful that the entire platform would collapse while trying to keep balance after already putting the ketchup on her hotdog. She lost her balance and started to fall, but the robot quickly used its mechanical hands to catch her before her bottom made contact with the floor, its hands acting like a makeshift chair. In the process, however, the bottle that Sam still had in her hand was squeezed so hard that the robot was dosed in red sauce.
As the tremor came to an end and Rex's rumbling echo dissipated, Sam sighed in relief and said, "Oh, thank you for-" She gasped and dropped the bottle, quickly going to the robot. "W.E.B.E.R.2! Oh, my God! I am so sorry! Are you okay?" While she took out her white neckerchief and started cleaning the robot, W.E.B.E.R.2 gave her thumbs up.
"Sweetheart, do you need some help?" Elsa asked as she reached for her.
Sam's eyes narrowed, then she turned around and slapped her hand away. "No! You stay away from my friend!"
"But, dear, I only-"
"I hate you," the words were out of her mouth before she could think. "I hate all of you!" She turned her attention to all the other dinosaurs, ignoring the shocked look that showed up on Rex's face. She takes one of the robot's mechanical hands and practically dragged it away from them. "C'mon, W.E.B.E.R.2, you've done enough. The last thing I want is for you to get damaged by them or else it'll be a pain in the ass to get you fixed."
No sooner had she made it to the elevator, Elsa was the first to come out of her stunned expression and once again glared sternly while putting her hands on her hips, saying to her, "Samantha, language!"
Turning to face her with her own glaring eyes, she said sharply, "I don't give a damn, just leave me alone!" With that being said, she hit the button of the elevator hard with her fist, then took a hard bite of her hotdog as the elevator descended out of view.
The silence dragged on for a bit longer before Dweeb broke it. "'Lunch'? That's what you used to call me."
"She hates me…" Rex breathed out, terribly crestfallen.
"Oh, Rex. Don't take her words to heart," Elsa turned to him with pitying eyes. "She doesn't hate you."
Rex sighed and asked his new friends, "Why does she hate us?"
"We're big," Woog shrugged.
"We're loud," Dweeb added.
"Have horrific table manners," the triceratops demonstrated his point by face planting into the hotdogs and coming out with at least ten of them into his mouth.
"The thing is, Rex," Elsa began as she flew and perched herself onto his leg, ignoring the boys. "When people get scared, they say things they don't mean or hurt someone they don't mean to do. It's something that happened to me once when I tried to hurt her." Rex looked at her with wide shocking eyes. "Yes, Rex, it's true. I did try to hurt her once before I became what I am now and she too hurt me badly, but I've managed to move on from that ghastly ordeal." She gently rubs her clawed hand at his neck. "So whenever she gets scared, don't take anything too personally or take any of her words to heart. It's only natural when someone gets scared. It doesn't mean that she hates us, goodness no."
"She's scared of us? Me?" Rex looked down at his feet dejectedly. Who was he kidding? Of course she was scared of him. Why wouldn't she be? The very first moment they met was when he was covered in the blood of his latest kill. He was already full from the meal, but after seeing the strange small creature spread across that rock with terrified eyes bearing into his, he wanted more. Food meant life and Rex was well aware of how hard it was to find anything to eat. Anything he could find was a blessing. He even remembered that he had her cornered and was about to eat her, but instead received a ball of fire in his mouth. He still couldn't figure out what that was that Sam shot at his mouth or how she did it, the bottom line was that Elsa made a valid point. If anyone felt threatened, they would do whatever it takes to survive. It's their basic instinct. However, if things would've been different, he would've tasted both her blood and flesh within his mouth. To feel her bones snap between his teeth.
Rex shook his head, trying to shove those horrible thoughts aside. He felt incredibly sick to his stomach at what he almost tried to do. He stared at the half-eaten hotdog in his clawed hand and suddenly didn't feel very hungry anymore. He looked up at the other dinosaurs before looking down again. He hunted them down before too, and now he was expecting them to be friends with them? How selfish could he be?
"Hey, I'm sorry about the way I've acted." Rex rubbed his arm uncomfortably. "I was a real animal."
"We all have regrets, Rex," Elsa said sadly before hugging him.
"Tell me about it. The things I've stepped on." Woog said, lifting up one leg as a demonstration. The dinosaurs looked down at the bottom of his foot and flinched, seeing an already dead flattened lizard with its tongue sticking out while remaining glued to his foot. How it remained stuck on said foot was a mystery to them.
Noticing the disturbed looks he was getting, he quickly put his foot down again to hide it. He stomps on it, making a squishy noise, and grins sheepishly before trying to scrape the thing off behind his back.
"Let's face it. We've evolved," Dweeb said, lightening the mood a bit.
Rex smiled a little before glancing over his shoulder to where the golden elevator was and his smile faded. He wanted to apologize to Sam. From the very first moment when his brain grew bigger in size and he gained the ability of speech, he wanted to become friends with the tiny human. He didn't deny what he said earlier about liking her voice. It was the first thing he actually liked aside from eating. He remembered her singing not one but two songs now and he desperately wanted to learn more songs from her. He wondered if she would forgive him, so he clicked his claws together nervously.
"She'll forgive you."
Rex's eyes widened and looked over to Elsa who gave him a knowing smile.
"Samantha's a good girl. I love her as if she were my own chick. Give her a little time, she'll come through. She just needs to get used to us and I'm sure you two will be good friends in no time."
The tyrannosaur smiled at that. He would like that. He would like that a lot. After cheering up, Rex felt his appetite return and tossed the rest of the hotdog in his mouth. Yeah, he couldn't wait to become Sam's friend.
After an hour, Vorb returned to collect the dinosaurs. "Everybody, up, up, up! The Captain will see you now!"
"The Captain?" Rex questioned as they all stood up while Woog polished off the hotdogs that were still on his horns and took off his red napkin.
"He's Sam's grandfather," Elsa told him. "You must meet him, he's such a nice person."
"Oh." Suddenly, Rex felt nervous again. Somehow, he didn't think that the Captain would take too kindly to him for almost eating his granddaughter.
Well, that takes care of both the prologue and the first two chapters. Hoped y'all enjoyed them so far. Till I come back to this story, later for now!