ADAPTATIONS
21 - Analyzing and Appreciating
A warm shower had given the chilled hybrid a small jolt of energy unlike the sluggishness she had carried throughout the day. She stepped out of the shower dressed her favorite butterfly pajama shorts and long sleeve black shirt. Muldoon and Grant were talking about possibly using the Jeep to transport some of the smaller fossils to the museum where they would be protected from the rain if need be. In the time Derek had been gone, things were admittedly quieter and less stressful for everyone.
She looked around for Billy and frowned when she didn't see him anywhere. He was probably busy elsewhere. Pet took a seat on a barstool beside Grant to listen on their conversation. Her raptor like eyes saw the basket of fresh fruit on the bar and debated on eating one of the shiny red apples. But it wasn't what she was hungry for. She wanted meat and from a fresh kill, at that. It made the hybrid think of the last time she had gone hunting and frowned. Months. That's how long it had been and much too long for her liking.
Pet interrupted the two men's conversation. "Are there any good places around here to hunt?"
Grant lowered his brow and looked to his right at the inquiring hybrid. "If you're asking for rifles, then yes. There's a private hunting reserve about two hours away." Blue eyes studied quiet raptor ones. "Knowing you, you're not."
"I'm part Velociraptor, Alan. As disturbing as it might be for you to think on, I do have cravings for raw flesh and from a fresh kill, too."
Yeah, it was disturbing to think on but not surprising for the scientist. "Some miles from here is a clearing surrounded by woods. Some of the guys at the dig site go hunting there in the fall for white tailed deer."
Muldoon shook his head. "Best not chance it. Someone might see more than they need to."
Pet ignored him. "When is the best time to go out there?"
Grant shrugged. "Early evening…at night to early morning, maybe."
"Do you how the directions so I can find it?"
Muldoon cut in. "You're not going out there alone, I don't care what time of day or night."
Grant broke his watch off the woman's eyes to examine her clawed hands. How innocent they looked in their dulled down, manicured appearance. His mind was brought back to his first night on Jurassic Park and seeing her covered in the T-Rex's blood. He was so scared out of his mind that he didn't immediately notice how she moved with a deadly grace in her attacks against the Rex.
Grant visually studied her naturally light bronzed skin, next, and how it appeared thicker than a normal person's, which wasn't a bad thing. It worked in her favor as any injury she received would be reduced in lethality.
Pet both saw and sensed the man's demeanor's change and was baffled by this. "What are you looking at?"
"You," Grant answered. "You're the closest thing I'll ever get to studying a live Velociraptor without injury."
A small smile upturned one of the corners of Pet's mouth. "Too bad I'm not a full blood raptor."
"I wouldn't say that." He ran the backs of his fingers along the top of her hand. "How much thicker is a raptor's skin than yours?"
Pet unfolded her hands from around the other's so her friend could get a better look at her hand. He gently squeezed each her center three fingers, explaining how they felt so similar to how a raptor's was structured, except smaller and more human. Next, he felt of her wrist and massaged the area with his finger tips to compare the difference between hers and a raptor's. Her wrists looked and felt as though lifting anything over five pounds would break them, which brought to mind another question.
"Your bone density," he began, eyes never leaving his studying her arm. "Is it like a human's or is it more hallow like a bird's?"
Pet's smile grew a little bigger. "Lighter than a human's, actually. Not hallow, just not much bone matter like a human's. A human's skeleton weighs I think fourteen percent of a person's total body weight. Mine would be more around twelve percent."
A faint laugh escaped the scientist. "You truly are a remarkable piece of work." He tried to feel what he could of her arm through her long sleeve, but could only get as far up as her elbow.
Pet reached for the bottom of her shirt and peeled it upwards to remove it, leaving her in a sports bra and her shorts. She tossed the shirt to the floor and stood up. "I don't know why you're suddenly fascinated with how I'm made and how I work."
Grant wasn't sure either, himself, as he noticed how muscular toned the hybrid was for the first time. Though he had seen her, he had never actually looked at her, let alone think about touching key parts of her that made her just as deadly as a raptor. His eyes sailed down her muscular, two toned legs and to the signature sickle shaped claws of her inner toes.
Muldoon watched the paleontologist curiously. If this man was anyone else, he would be genuinely bothered, but he wasn't. He saw how the man was analyzing the hybrid. There was science in his eyes and a deep desire to learn what he could about her prehistoric counterpart. He had seen that look before at Jurassic Park when the raptors were getting fed.
"What's the fastest you can run? Jump in height? In distance?"
Pet laughed. "One question at a time, Doctor!" She couldn't look away from the boyish grin across his face. "Fastest I can run, I'm not sure anymore given how I haven't been clocked in years. How high I can jump depends on how much speed and effort I put behind it, but no higher than seven feet. Raptors can jump higher than that, but I'm not full raptor so I'm limited in ability. Same with distance. Raptors are like cheetahs, in that aspect. They can't run for very long at fast speeds. They were made for burst speeds to chase their prey, not run marathons."
An idea came over Pet and she lunged onto the bar top. Another series of flash backs over came Grant. He was back at the wrecked tour car and trying to help the kids get to safety. Then he saw her jump onto the Rex so effortlessly with sickle claws tearing at its thigh. Suddenly he was escaping the raptor with Ellie and the kids, watching it jump up in an attempt to grab Lexi as she tried not to fall the remainder of the distance from the ceiling and to the floor.
His blue eyes darted upwards to meet the crouching hybrid's raptor like ones staring down at him.
Pet briefly smelled it on him; fear. The same fear that was usually associated with PTSD. She made sure to move more slowly as she sat down on the ledge of the bar, sickle claws scraping along its polished surface. She rested her feet on the stool she previously sat on and watched him cautiously near her.
Grant reached out with a surprisingly steady hand and traced the top of one of sickle claws with a thumb. It was much smoother in comparison to the fossils he excavated in the past. The tip was sharp, which was no surprise, along with the much smaller claws on the other two toes. He began to massage her foot in getting a better idea of its bone and muscle structure. From what he could tell, her feet were just like that of a raptor's in both appearance and structure.
His touch was very gentle, as though he was afraid he'd break her when touring the top of her foot and ankle with his fingers. "Can you walk flat foot or on the balls of your feet, only?" His blue eyes searched her raptor ones for his answer.
Pet's voice was soft in response. "I can, but only for a short amount of time. My feet weren't designed to walk like that and it hurts after a while trying to." Grant nodded in acceptance of the answer and continued his analyzing the woman.
Up her leg he went, feeling the tight knot her calf muscles were as she flexed them. Over her knee and to her thigh he ventured, seeing the naturally darker skin pattern of her upper leg become darker the higher up to her hip it went. He could see her belly and sides were a paler and softer skin as were the underneath of her arms without dare touching her any higher than her thigh.
"Amazing," he breathlessly stated. "Is a raptor's skin thinner on parts of their bodies as it is a human's?"
Pet nodded. "As it is on any animal. It's why I prefer to slash at an animal's sides or stomach and bite, here." She pointed at the soft spot between Grant's neck and shoulder, just in front of the trapezoid muscle.
A shiver ran down her spine as the chill in the trailer settled in over her. Or maybe that was because she had become extremely distracted by the man's touches and gentle massages. She slid off the bar top and put her shirt back on. "How about that hunting spot? I'd like to sate this need to hunt before I start preying on your dig site workers." She gave him a joking smile.
Muldoon side stepped over to the keyring hanging up by the front door and grabbed the Jeep's keys beside Terrence's 4runner's. "Just give me the coordinates, Doctor, and Pet and I can go from there."
Grant's cocked smile looked between Pet and Muldoon. "If I may, I'd like to accompany you."
Pet shot her best friend and guardian and a scheming smile.
The three people were on their way out of Quarantine's front door when Billy walked in. He saw the people looking as though about to go somewhere, except Pet who was wearing pajama shorts. But she had her boots on, so he was confused by this. Muldoon was carrying a cooler for what, he could only guess. Maybe they were doing a beer run? "Going to town?"
Pet stepped past Muldoon, innocently smiling. "Going hunting."
This took the young scientist by surprise seeing how not a single person had a rifle in hand. Ooooh! Of course, someone who was half raptor wouldn't need a rifle. Or would she? Not about to be left behind, Billy followed closely behind the three people.
Muldoon handed the keys to the senior scientist. "I trust you know the way?"
"Get in the Jeep."
Pet was in the passenger seat and digging around in the glove compartment. Muldoon glared at her impatiently. "Get your ass in the backseat!"
Pet snorted. "I'm looking for my travel nail file kit so hush it, you!" She found it under the vehicle's registration and crawled between the two front seats to settle into the back next to Billy.
She took out the file and looked at her evenly shaped, dulled claws. "Time to turn these things back into weapons of bloody destruction." Billy gave her a concerned look.
By the time they arrived to the spot Grant talked about, it was sprinkling rain again. Pet knew the light chill in the air was going to hinder her agility and speed when it came time to run. She started stretching, focusing on her legs the most since they were about to take the biggest beating of a work out.
Muldoon was kneeling just below a hilltop and looking out at the stretch of flatland next to a woodland area with a pair of binoculars. Sadly, no deer were present. He didn't have a problem sitting and waiting it out as well as Pet. Grant hoped it wouldn't take long as he still had his dig site to run. He hoped to sneak way without Billy knowing so his protégé could work on leading the site without him. Such was not the case.
An hour and a half later, a herd of eight deer wandered into the clearing. Then came another three with another four behind them. Pet saw them. During the wait, she had gotten an idea of the terrain and possible approaches to her prey in any given scenario. Seeing how the deer were coming from the woods, to attack them from the woods would chase them further into the open. Pet broke away from her companions to make her way to the woods.
For twenty minutes the three men sat, silent and watching for any movement from the hybrid. The deer had since moved further into the clearing and were grazing. Muldoon was sizing up each animal and narrowing it down to which one Pet would pick as her target.
A burst of movement erupted from the tree line, it being Pet. Her shrill echoed the air and filled the onlookers' ears. Muldoon watched her lithe form almost glide across the ground, her looking just as he had seen her in all the times' past chasing and tagging animals for Hammond's zoo and park.
The cold of the earth squished between her toes and the mud splashed onto her legs just as the air filled her lungs and the blades of tall grass whipped around her form. It felt like an eternity since she last felt the excitement of chasing down her prey. Fifty yards in front of her, the deer scattered and ran in several directions. All she cared about was one of them; a young doe barely old enough to be considered an adult. It darted to the left and then the right, Pet closing in on the deer little bit by little bit.
Ten feet, eight feet, seven, five, four…
Billy was both fascinated at the site of the running hybrid and horrified at what he was about to witness once she caught her target. "You guys do realize this is technically considered poaching? Hunting without a license or permit?"
Muldoon shrugged off the comment. "I consider it taking her out to dinner, not poaching."
Two feet… Pet leaped into the air in a growl and dug her toe's claws into the meat of the deer's haunches. It bellowed out in pain, but that was just the start of it. Both the deer and Pet tumbled to the muddy earth, kicking up quite the splash in the pool of standing water they landed in. The deer tried to get back up, but its back legs refused to work. Pet had been smart enough to limit the animal's ability to run so it couldn't escape. She jumped back onto the deer, knocking it to the ground once more and holding it down.
Grant ripped the binoculars out of Muldoon's hands to see the sight for himself. A twisted smile lit up his face. "Look at her… look at how she holds her prey down."
He could barely see a clawed foot through the tall stalks of grass tear at the deer's abdomen. A clawed hand was holding down its head while he could only guess she was biting its neck. Grant could see the animal's struggling gradually subside until it wasn't moving anymore after several minutes.
Senior scientist looked around for his protégé, but he was some feet away and hunched over, throwing up. Muldoon huffed a laugh. "What's wrong, Mr. Brennan? Never seen a lethal predator subdue its prey before?"
Billy gagged again and spit out the residual bile in his mouth. "There's a difference between a lion or leopard killing its prey and a person with her bare hands!"
"Better get used to it. Now that she knows there's decent hunting grounds around here, expect to see something like this more often."
