"Owen!"
"Barry? What the hell is going on? What is A.C.U. doing in our paddock?"
The dark man rushed down the catwalks above disappearing as he ran down the stairs. Making his own hasty entrance into the enclosure, he finally stopped next to his fellow trainer with a distinctly worried look on his face.
"I'm sorry Owen, but when I couldn't reach you, the vets insisted on calling them. The pack won't let anyone near Delta."
"Why does she need a vet? What happened?"
His friend shook his head, "I don't know. She collapsed during our morning routine. When I went down to investigate, Blue and the others wouldn't let me near her."
Owen grimaced, a thousand possibilities flashing through his head. Without turning he responded. "Go back upstairs and tell the men to on the catwalks to stand down. I'll deal with the guys down here. I'm not sure what these men are trying to do, but they are going to get themselves killed."
His friend nodded and turned to leave.
"Barry, grab the food pills. If we have to tranquilize them, we will; but we are not letting those men shoot our raptors."
With his friend taking care of things above, Owen set about clearing things up on the ground. His fists tightened as he approached the men surrounding his pack. Regardless of their intent, they were threatening his animals and escalating an issue that would already be challenging enough.
"What the Hell do you think you are doing? Do you want to get kill-" he froze mid-sentence.
Blue had noticed his approach from behind the threatening men. He watched as her stance changed almost imperceptibly. A new gleam appeared in her eye, and he immediately knew that she was prepared to hunt. Both trainer and raptor recognized the flanking pattern and she was prepared to fight.
He had watched his girls use this maneuver on a recent pig hunt. It was ruthless, it was quick, and if he wasn't careful things were about to escalate even further.
Owen's voice immediately calmed and his arms raised in a natural warning for his girls to wait. "I need everyone in this enclosure to back away from my raptors."
His voice was firm, any anger from before was gone, replaced by cold determination to get these men away as safely as possible.
"I can handle my girls, but I need each of you to back slowly to the gate and leave the area."
"With all due respect-"
"No. If you want your men to leave this paddock alive, then I need you to do as I say right now."
"What abo-"
"I will be fine and I will take care of my girl, now back away!"
There were several nods of agreement and a couple men began to turn towar-
"Don't turn away from them! Back away slowly as a group. Never let your eyes leave the pack."
The armed men did as they were told and Owen focused on sliding to the side of the group, hoping to remove his flanking advantage. His movements were smooth and confident. He watched both his pack and the men as they continued to back further away from the danger they had walked into.
Through several tense moments, the men backed past the raptor trainer and Owen began to move back toward his pack, putting himself between his raptors and the men. It was only when he heard the large gate close behind him that he dared approach the pack again. His girls hadn't moved, instead they stood in a tight grouping, covering Delta as much as possible.
The look in Blue's eye made him nervous. It was more distant and predatory than usual. He approached her slowly and received a light growl from the defensive raptor, a noise that echoed as the other two raptors joined in.
"Easy girls."
The blue streaked raptor replied with a hissing bark as she coiled her neck back, ready to strike. Owen continued to move slowly, approaching the group of predators at a cautious pace. He had to pause when Blue shifted her weight and coiled her legs in.
The snap of her jaw was sudden and violent, forcing the trainer to throw himself backwards in order to avoid her teeth.
"Blue!" The snapping admonishment was singular and powerful. The cobalt raptor reeled back with a start at the sudden noise before recovering with a soft hiss.
"Eyes on me!"
She let out another hiss, her lips pulled back and jaw snapping quietly in frustration.
"Blue! Don't give me that shit!"
Owens voice was sharp, each syllable pointed and disapproving. He had never spoken to them like this, but his tone seemed to startle the raptor and she took a hesitant step back.
He responded with a step forward, extending his hand calmly toward the nervous animals, unwilling to back down, but wary of their reach.
After nearly a minute, the tension seemed to break and Blue turned, dashing into the edge of the clearing. He watched her go and saw her stop in the undergrowth to watch him. Purposely ignoring her, he turned to the other raptors who had seemed to loosen up now that Blue had retreated. Deciding to ignore them as well, the trainer knelt down before Delta's prone form.
Charlie was the first to leave the area, turning with a quiet snort. She didn't move far, but she did move far enough to give the man some space. Echo remained close to Delta, her weight shifting and her talons digging light trenches in the ground as she moved.
Owen watched her for a minute, but it was incredibly clear that her focus was on her sister and she paid no mind to the handler kneeling on the ground. Finally confident that he wasn't going to be jumped while he worked, Owen began to examine Delta for any signs of what was wrong.
The green blotched raptor was out cold. Her breathing was shallow but steady. However, when Owen placed his hand on the side of her snout, he could tell that she was burning up with a fever. His raptors were warm blooded, but the regulatory systems within their bodies meant that they maintained a lower body temperature than most high metabolism predators.
Any time he had touched his girls, their skin had been cooler than his own. The vets had told him that he could expect his raptors to maintain a rough temperature of ninety one degrees. Delta's temperature was easily higher than his own right now and right now it worried him the most.
"Barry."
"I'm here Owen, what do you need?"
Owen didn't look up as he began to give his raptor a thorough examination. He was by no means a vet, but he had spent enough time with his girls to pinpoint abnormalities.
"Delta is burning up. I need you to get the vets ready and tell A.C.U to prep their transport. Do not let them enter the paddock until I say so."
He heard the man grunt a reply followed by his heavy footsteps resonating on the catwalk above him.
Carefully Owen pulled Delta's head into his lap and began to examine her starting with her eyes. He softly spread her eyelids apart, exposing the raptor's third eyelid. Her nictitating membrane was a recognizable trait shared by many of the predatory animals he had worked with. He held her outer eyelids gingerly and waited for the third eyelid to naturally recede. As it did so, he could see that her pupils were heavily dilated despite the noonday sun beating down on the paddock.
Letting her eyes close he moved on to her snout and jaws. Finding no abnormalities there, he carefully set her head back onto the ground and crawled over to her body. He looked her over carefully, looking for infected wounds or strange markings. When he found none, he began massaging the unconscious raptor's muscles and testing their resistance. Finally he stood back up, unsure of any other observations he could make.
For all intents and purposes, aside from the fever, she seemed healthy. He was turning to call the vets in when her head began to move. Freezing Owen could only watch as Delta let out a soft crooning noise, her head raising from the dirt. The movement was jagged, uncontrolled. Her head wobbled and swayed with lethargically. Her eyes opened and Owen could see her pupils, still clearly dilated.
He quickly knelt back down, taking her head on his knees. She fought him briefly, her head rising from his legs to wobble weakly in front of him as if she had no better control of her own neck. Her eyes stared blankly past him before finally closing as she rested her head back onto Owen's lap.
When she had calmed, Owen craned his neck around to find the vets awaiting his signal.
Looking back up to the catwalks, he found Barry staring worriedly down at him.
"Barry I need you to take the bucket and get each of our other girls to eat the pills. Take them to the far end of the enclosure and give them their medicine. We need to get Delta out of here as soon as possible."
With another silent nod, his friend was off, grabbing a treat bucket and hurrying to the far side of the enclosure. He heard Charlie get up and follow quickly behind. Laying Delta's head gently down, he stood up and began removing his vest. Spreading the leather out flat, he softly laid it across the raptor's snout, covering her eyes as effectively as he could.
The trainer glanced over to the nervous raptor beside him. Echo still watched her sister closely, releasing almost inaudible, mewling cries her tail swishing anxiously. Owen actually had to shoo her off towards the other end of the enclosure before she would finally leave to join her other sisters.
Barry returned a few minutes later holding his empty bucket high towards Owen. Giving a nod of approval, Owen glanced back down at the raptor laying by his feet. It was all he could do for her until her sisters succumbed to the tranquilizers.
It had been almost an hour and Owen was growing restless. Charlie was the first to fall. He almost hadn't noticed because she had already been laying on the ground about twenty feet away. A few minutes later, Echo began showing signs of the tranquilizer. Her balance shifted unnaturally and she drunkenly stumbled to catch herself before finally deciding where she stood would be just as good a place to lay down as any other.
Blue hadn't come out of the foliage, but he knew that she would be experiencing the same effects. He motioned to the vets. It was finally time.
As the gate slid open, four vets made their way briskly to the man and the prone dinosaur. Owen quickly relayed his observations about Delta to the lead vet tech. She nodded and then barked a few orders to her assistants. Owen stepped back as they got to work, performing their own battery of field tests.
Just when he was beginning to grow impatient, the party began laying out the portable stretcher beside his sick girl. When the glorified sticks and cloth had been laid out, Owen stepped in to help roll Delta onto the mat.
As they moved her onto the mat, the assistants began talking about the other dinosaurs they had the pleasure, or displeasure of moving. Owen tuned the conversation out. His thoughts were focused on the prone raptor and what might be causing her ailment.
The group of vets had just picked up the raptor when Blue stumbled out into the clearing. All four vets froze when the blue-streaked raptor locked eyes with them. Releasing an angry snarl, Blue started drunkenly towards the group.
Without a second thought, Owen stepped between the disgruntled raptor and now fearful clinicians. Holding his hand out he stood firm and let the dinosaur approach him. She was hissing irregularly, her head held low and her tail straight back as a counter weight. Owen could see the predatory gleam in her eyes. Her pupils expanded and contracted quickly as she fixated on the men and women carrying her sister toward the paddock exit.
"Blue, Eyes on me."
Her focus shifted, but it wasn't because he had asked.
Now that he had her attention, he waved the vets on, hoping they would get moving, but unable to check without risking an addled attack from the drugged up alpha.
Her attention shifted to the group the moment they began moving again and Owen had to call out again in a stern voice, just to get her to glance at him.
Almost immediately her attention was back on the group as they hoisted Delta's stretcher back into the air.
"BLUE!" Owen's voice bellowed out, reverberating against the concrete walls.
He had her undivided attention now.
She issued a challenging bugle in response and took a stumbling step toward the trainer. Owen bit back his nervousness at the situation. Blue was behaving erratically, and he was pretty sure he had just challenged the cobalt streaked raptor. Barry had been right. He really was going to get himself killed doing this.
Unable to change the situation now, he rolled his neck, stepping towards the raptor that was about to drunkenly maul him. It would be worth it though; if he kept her attention long enough then Delta could be safely removed and maybe the drugs would finally knock the alpha raptor out. With her dulled senses, he might even live through it.
He took several deep breaths.
He just needed to avoid her.
Blue stumbled forward and Owen half expected the display to finish before it began. Instead, the alpha raptor regained her footing and ran headlong towards the trainer.
He avoided her first lunge, stepping out of the way like some crazed matador. Blue slid to a stop just past him, her legs catching the dirt unevenly, causing her to topple into the soft ground and cedar bedding. She snarled in frustration.
Just as quickly as she'd gone down, the blue-streaked raptor was back on her feet and glaring at Owen. Her talons clicked the dirt dangerously and with a slurred bark she lunged at him again. This time, the crown of her head connected with Owen's shoulder and he immediately crumpled underneath her with a cry of pain.
Despite the jarring pain Owen acted. Quickly rolling away from the raptor, he stood back up in a defensive position.
Blue turned to him and let out a grumbling roar, her weight shifting erratically. She lunged at him again, this time snapping her jaws dangerously at his limbs.
Owen's eyes widened at the suddenly increased aggression and he turned quickly to the side to avoid her strike. It was when he stepped aside that he saw his only opening. As her head extended passed him, he clenched his hand into a tight fist and threw the hardest punch he could muster.
His hand impacted the side of Blue's head with a sharp crack. It landed just behind her eyes and below her earholes. Owen immediately felt the bones in his hand shift uncomfortably and a sharp pain erupted up his right arm like electricity.
Blue staggered back, dazed by the hit and affected heavily by the tranquilizing agent pumping through her system. With a confused warble, her legs give out and she rolled forward onto the packed dirt.
Owen however doubled over hissing in pain, gripping his right wrist angrily with his left. The man held the pained appendage tightly against his chest as he rocked erratically on his feet. He didn't know how long he stood there fighting the sharp pain and letting more than a few choice words drop from his mouth, but when he looked up, Blue was out cold and the vet clinicians were safely out of the enclosure.
With a frustrated grunt, he stood straight, his hand still clutched against his chest, and began to stiffly walk toward the gate. He sincerely hoping that when they arrived at the onsite vet clinic, someone would take the time to look at his hand.