"Excuse me, I didn't quite catch that. You said you were-"

"Blue. The raptor."

Owen stared at this strange girl with disbelief. She certainly wasn't a raptor now, that much was clear. From her bare feet to her long, tangled hair, he saw nothing that indicated she had once been a prehistoric reptile, much less the Blue he once trained. As he met her eyes, however, he saw a familiar amber sparkle and knew that she was telling the truth. Mouth agape, he struggled to find something appropriate to say.

"You're . . . Blue . . ."

"Yes," she replied.

"And you're here . . . to see me?" he ventured.

"Of course."

Owen rubbed the back of his neck.

"I don't know what to say."

He looked at Blue, then at her companions. As he examined each person, he began to recognize them.

"Delta . . ."

The girl with red hair nodded.

"Echo, Charlie . . ."

A blonde and a brunette did the same. Owen blinked in confusion as he glanced at the fifth member. Seeing that he was staring at her, she stopped nibbling her arm (which she had been doing for some reason) and smiled pleasantly.

"I'm Foxtrot. The new one."

Owen gulped.

"Foxtrot. Okay. Um . . . Not to seem rude or anything, but why are you guys . . . here?"

Blue reached out and took his hand.

"As for the others, it's a story we'll have to tell later, but I willed myself to become human out of devotion to you. For eighteen years, I've been searching the globe, hoping that one day we could be together again. Today, we are reunited once and for all. Now that I'm human, there's nothing on Earth or Heaven that can keep us apart. Tell me, Owen, what have you been doing all these years?"

He quirked the corner of his mouth awkwardly.

"Well, um, I married Claire and we have a daughter now . . ."

Blue became petrified. Before she could speak, Owen gave a little jump and dropped her hand in order to press a button on the wall.

"I completely forgot! Claire and Lily are still in the panic room. They'll be out shortly. I'll introduce you."

Blue was still staring ahead with a stunned expression. Her wide eyes showed a kind of devastation, or perhaps incredulity. It went unnoticed by Owen, who waved Claire over as she rounded the corner.

"Hey, Claire! It's Blue and the raptors!"

She gave a surprised moo and reared up on her hind legs.

"Raptors?! Owen, are you cr-"

She caught sight of the women and froze.

"Those aren't- Where's the- What's going on?"

Lily pushed past her excitedly.

"Who's here? Are they new?" she chirped.

Owen shook his head.

"No, they're old friends . . . but I guess they're kind of new since they're human now . . ."

He moved out of the doorway.

"You five can come in, if you want."

The non-raptors strutted into the room one by one. Even though they were human, Owen could see the raptorness shining through. They bobbed their heads gently and held their arms in a dinosaur way. It was an amusing sight, if a little unnatural.

"Owen . . ." Claire mumbled, "Are you sure it's safe to let them in?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" he asked.

"They're former raptors who came back from the dead. That's a little suspicious, don't you think?"

"No, not really."

Lily tapped her mother's shoulder with worry.

"Does this mean we have to put our game on hold?"

Claire looked at her sadly.

"I'm sorry, honey, but this is kind of important."

Lily nodded dolefully and followed Owen as he led the raptors to the living room, where he had them sit down on a couch. He sat opposite them on a plush chair with Claire and Lily by his side, and took a deep breath.

"Okay, I don't want this to sound brusque, because I'm somewhat glad to see you again, but I have a few questions about how you got here."

"We walked!" Charlie piped up.

She flinched as Blue snapped at her, then looked away in shame.

"We've been traveling the world, mostly on foot," Blue reiterated, "Before we came looking for you, we had to find each other. I hired someone to locate my sisters, but unfortunately, it took all of my resources. We've been basically homeless for the past decade or so."

Owen nodded.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Would you be able to tell me how it is that you came to be human?"

"Well, as I said before, I willed myself to change. The others had their essence transferred to comatose bodies after they died through a device that can only be described as a soul pot."

Owen blinked.

"Soul pot? Why does that sound familiar? . . ."

"So, you entered other people's bodies?" Claire pressed suspiciously.

"Only the bodies of those who were already braindead," Blue replied with a faint aggression, "And it's not like they had a choice. Once my sisters were stuck as humans, they made the bodies their own, as you can see from their eyes. They couldn't change back into raptors completely. They were trapped in the shells that their souls chose, hence the age difference."

It was true that they were different ages. Blue seemed to be in her late twenties, while Charlie was a teenager and Delta was middle-aged. Echo was the oldest of all, looking around sixty, and Foxtrot-

"What about you?" Owen asked the new member, "How did you come to join the group?"

Foxtrot shrugged.

"Well, it should be obvious. As you can see, I'm a raptor, so I got along well with these fine ladies. I decided to run away with them."

Owen laughed.

"No offense, but I didn't know you were a raptor."

Foxtrot snuffed.

"Isn't it obvious? I thought you were supposed to be an expert on raptors, but you can't even tell the difference between these humans and me! Didn't you notice my tail?"

Owen leaned over and looked at her perfectly normal behind. He frowned in confusion.

"You don't have-"

Blue coughed to get his attention, then gave him a look of warning. He turned back to Foxtrot, who was preening her arm again, and realized that pointing out that she wasn't currently a large, scaly creature would conflict with some kind of delusion she was experiencing. He decided to let it go, assuming that her insanity was harmless if left unaddressed. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at the other girls.

"Alright. So you're back now. Where does that leave us?"

"We'll continue where we left off," Blue stated, "It will be like we never left."

Owen looked down at the carpet with guilt.

"Blue . . . Things have changed. You're not a raptor anymore, and I'm not a raptor trainer."

Blue gave him an uncertain look.

"I know we're a little different, but does it really matter? We're still your girls, and we need our Alpha."

Owen stared at her for a moment, then touched Claire's shoulder.

"Take Lily to her room, please. I need a moment alone with my raptors."

Claire nodded and shepherded their daughter away. When he was sure that they were out of earshot, Owen turned back to Blue and laced his fingers together.

"I have to say, I wasn't expecting this visit, but I'm glad you came back. I can't tell you how many times I've thought about what happened that night and wished that I could have saved you all, somehow. I'd be glad to let you stay here, but as my guests, not as livestock. You can be a part of this family, but if you choose to do so, you have to abide by certain rules."

Blue leaned forward.

"I promise to do anything you ask."

Owen smiled.

"I'm glad. First things first, Lily doesn't know that Claire used to be human. You are not to reveal this information under any circumstances. I can't stress how important this is. Do not tell her about Claire. Understood?"

The raptors nodded.

"Good. Second, you have to listen to and respect my wife. Claire is just as much the Alpha of this household as I am, and you will treat her as such."

"But she's prey!" Foxtrot complained.

Blue stomped on her foot.

"Listen to the Alpha, Fox. Unless you want trouble . . ."

She shook her head.

"No, I'm good. We'll obey the sack of meat- I mean 'Claire' . . ."

Owen gave her a warning frown, then continued his speech.

"Third- and I don't think this one will be as hard as the others- you need to pitch in around the house. It takes a lot of work to run a ranch, even if we're not doing it for profit. I'm going to need each of you to take up a chore or two . . . except for feeding the chickens, because that's Lily's job."

Charlie looked disappointed by this rule. Owen noticed this, and gave her a nod.

"Actually, I changed my mind. Charlie, since you're the youngest, you can help Lily with her chores. She'll tell you what to do when the time comes. Delta, Echo: you're on garden duty. That means you need to water and fertilize, respectively. I'll leave it up to you which one of you does what. Blue, you can do the dishes. Foxtrot-"

He noticed that she was gnawing on her own foot.

". . . Foxtrot, you can help Claire with small tasks. She'll be needing assistance every now and then, so do everything she says. And don't call her a sack of meat."

The faux-raptor gave him a little salute, then went back to chewing her toenails.

"Alright, now that that's sorted, I'm going to tell Claire about the plan."

"Do you think she'll let us stay?" Charlie asked hopefully.

Owen smiled warmly.

"Of course she will."

***TSJWFEW***

"Absolutely not!" Claire barked, "I will not have five strange women- one of them clinically insane- wandering around the ranch. They're raptors, Owen. What if they kill the chickens or tear up the garden or fiddle with our farming equipment?"

Owen gave her a pleading look.

"Claire, they're not wild animals anymore: they're people. They understand English, so it shouldn't be hard to communicate with them and keep them under control."

"And what if they decide they want to be in control?" she snapped.

Owen shrugged and squeaked evasively.

"God, Owen, sometimes I think you're totally dense," Claire sighed with frustration, "Nothing good can come from this. It would be best if we tell them to leave and forget this ever happened."

Owen tried to block the doorway.

"Claire, we can't just kick them out!" he protested.

"Oh, yes we can!" she growled.

She pushed past him with her horn and marched down the hall. When she reached the living room, she puffed out her chest and stomped her foot with an authoritative air.

"Alright, you overgrown chickens, it's time to-"

She broke off when she saw the raptors huddled on the couch. They were fast asleep in a kind of dog-pile, and aside from a twitch or a murmur every now and then, they seemed to be quite content in this position. Seeing their gentle smiles, Claire's face softened. She paused, then sighed and turned to Owen, giving him a halfhearted glower.

"They can stay for a while, but I don't want them here forever," she muttered.

Owen knelt down and kissed her front horn tenderly.

"I know. Thank you, Clairebear."

She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't make anything of it."