"I hope the boys are alight," sighed Claire as Owen drove them on the old road through the deep jungle.
"Relax, we are nearly there," Owen told her. "So don´t stress so much."
She looked at him. "You are talking. Don´t forget that we have a dinosaur on the run, with no way of tracking it down. What if it finds Zach and Gray before we do?"
The raptor trainer rolled his eyes at her. "If those boys have any common sense in them, then at the first sign of trouble they would hide and contact us. Since that didn´t happen, I think they are alright and waiting, like they are supposed to."
Claire just huffed and looked out of the window.
This whole situation was a mess. A mess that started perfectly normally. First, there was a meeting with investors, where she introduced their newest dinosaur, the Indominus rex. After that, her boss wanted to personally take a look at their newest dinosaur, so they went to its assigned paddock. Then something made Mr Masrani think that it would be a good idea to ask a behavioural specialist to inspect the paddock and look into possible holes the animal might exploit. So she went to Owen and together they came back for inspection. And from there it was one catastrophe after another. First, Owen noticed claw marks that suggested the Indominus managed to escape from Paddock 11. But, as she learned later, it had all been a trick, made-up and carried out by said animal, nonetheless! The dinosaur made them open the gates of the paddock and while the people, who were there to figure out HOW it "escaped" without them noticing, ran with fear, it escaped for real. Thanks to genetics that they weren´t aware of until now, it managed to break free and their capture attempts turned into spectacular failures. Thanks to intelligence they underestimated, it managed to get rid of the only way they had of tracking it. They never met an animal with such a resourceful and trickster nature and they were paying the price for their mistakes. The only saving grace of the whole situation was that nobody was killed by the dinosaur.
Yet.
Now, that all would have been bad enough, but when she decided to call Zara to check on the boys. It was just to make sure they were safe and inform them that there were complications, so they should stick to the main area of the park.
Then she got her biggest shock of the day – her nephews were missing!
She nearly went mad with worry right on the place, but thankfully, she managed to pull herself together. With a mind as rational as it could be in that situation, she asked Owen for help finding her boys. He agreed and they went on their way, she called Zach. To her relief, her eldest nephew picked it up. She immediately told him and his brother to meet her at the nearest safe location for them to meet her and Owen. After that, she called Lowery to track down Zach´s phone and send him the instruction to the nearest safe place, which turned out to be a radio bunker.
Now she and Owen were on their here, to collect the boys and get them to the safety of a hotel room. Hopefully, doing all of it without once running into the blasted white monster that cause the whole mess.
Lovely.
"We´re here," announced Owen and the car stopped.
They got out and Claire looked around. If the coordinates from Lowery are right, then the boys should be… here!
"Zach!" the red-haired woman cried out and hurried over to the older teen.
"Aunt Claire, um, hi…" whatever Zach was trying to say was cut off when Claire warped her arms around him in a bone-crushing hug.
"Don´t ´hi´ me, kid!" she scolded him as she squeezed him, before pulling away. "Do you have any idea how worried was I? Running away from Zara? What the hell were you thinking?!"
Zach, to his credit, had the decency to look guilty. "I´m sorry! I just thought it would be fun to enjoy the park without adult supervision…"
"Well, that ends here! Once we are back in the main area, you are so sticking close to me or Zara," declared Claire firmly. "And if you try something like this again, I will call your mother and you will be grounded until college, at least! Understood?"
"Yes, aunt Claire."
"Good. Now," she looked around "where is Gray? Is he inside?" she asked, not seeing her youngest nephew.
"Well…not exactly…" Zach drawled out, fidgeting nervously.
She honed on him with eyes narrowed. "Where is he?"
"Outside, but… well… not alone…" the teenager seemed unsure about what he should say to avoid getting in trouble with his aunt.
"What is the matter, kid?" asked Owen, who, up until now, was silently watching the interaction between the relatives.
The brunet looked at him. "And who are you?"
"That´s Owen Grady, a co-worker of mine. Owen, my oldest nephew Zach Mitchell," Claire introduced them. "Now, Zach, answer his question."
Zach battled with himself before he let out a defeated sigh. "It is better if you see it for yourself… just… promise you won´t freak out. Please?"
Okay, that… didn´t sound good.
She looked at him warily, then she and Owen followed Zach around the bunker. Mentally, she tried her best to prepare for whatever awaited them… but that was clearly not enough.
After all, very little could prepare someone for the sight of the Indominus rex, calmly lying on the ground, as it was being petted by an unknown raven teenager. With her youngest nephew climbing over the dinosaur´s back like it was some sort of kid´s playground. With the dinosaur being FINE with it.
Honestly, when her brain processed WHAT was she seeing, she could react only in one way.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Harry chuckled as he watched Gray climb over Enyo´s back, rambling alternatively about different scientific about dinosaurs facts and random information the Jurassic World. The kid was obviously over the moon with being able to see and touch a dinosaur up close. His childish joy was endearing. Some might have been worried, even frightened at the prospect of letting a kid near a clearly dangerous creature, like his Enyo. She was a carnivore, after all, and Gray was just a small child. That usually begged for a catastrophe to happen. But the raven was in luck, as his familiar had decided that the little blonde boy was no threat. Specifically, that Gray was no threat to him.
The wizard shouldn´t have been surprised, as the white beauty´s only concern was his safety. She was a freaking dinosaur and thus very little could be seen as a danger for her. He, on the other hand, was smaller and more fragile in comparison. Of course, she would be worried for him. But she also seemed to trust him, once he assured her that the boys wouldn´t be able to harm him in any way.
And if her concerns and trust made him feel warm and fuzzy inside, well, he wasn´t about to say anything.
Right now, though, he was feeling pride. Pride about how well did his girl handle the hyperactive kid – with patience and tolerant amusement. Also, it probably helped that, during the kid-being-a-kid situation, he kept petting her and telling her what a good girl she was.
"By the way, does her name mean anything?" asked Gray suddenly.
The green-eyed teen looked at him. "Why, does it sound strange?"
"No, it sounds cool. I´m just curious if there are any procedures for name choice or if you can decide on a whim, about what to call her," explained the blonde.
"Oh, well I don´t know about other animals here," the wizard started "But I choose Enyo´s name ´on a whim´, as you put it, shortly after meeting her. You see it is a name of a Greek goddess of a fierce battle. I thought it fitting considering, by appearance, she strikes me as a fierce opponent you wouldn´t want to face on a battlefield. And don´t try to deny it, we both saw her takedown and ankylosaur in less than five minutes."
"Yeah… that was kind of scary," admitted Gray.
"I know, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw how your vehicle got in the middle of it," he shuddered at the memory. "Thank God the sphere was strong enough to protect you."
The boy shuddered too, then looked at the dinosaur with renewed respect. "Enyo, the war goddess. Really fitting."
"Thank you, little two-legger," the familiar sounded very pleased.
Harry chuckled at this. "She agrees with you."
The blonde grinned at them.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!"
Both humans jumped at the shout and turned towards its source. They saw Zach standing there, accompanied by two adult people. The first was a smartly dressed red-haired woman and it was clear she was torn between shocked-stunned and hysteria. Next to her was a tall brunet man, that gave the feeling of someone from the military. Though his expression contradicted this, as he looked like someone slapped him silly with a fish, his eyes wide and mouth open in shock. Belatedly, the wizard realized that the woman was probably the aunt of the brothers. The moment that thought crossed his mind, he also winced, when he thought about the picture he, Gray and Enyo made: A teenager and a kid petting a dinosaur more than big enough to eat them both in one bite.
Not exactly the most reassuring thing to see.
Gray, bless his soul, seemed oblivious to the slowly rising tension. He greeted his aunt with open happiness, from his place on Enyo´s black.
"Hi, Aunt Clair! Glad to see you! Have you met Harry and Enyo? Zach and I ran into them by accident and when we lost our vehicle, they offered to take us here. It was exciting, we got to ride on Enyo and she is really fast! Probably faster than a tyrannosaurus rex! We also saw her hunt, it was a bit gross, but not as bad as when we saw the carnivore feedings…"
"The little two-legger sure can talk a lot, right My Harry?" commented Enyo as she listened.
"That he does, girl," Harry murmured quietly.
"Why are they staring at us anyway?"
"They are unsure how should they take that one of their young is this close to a dangerous predator. No offence, but you are a very intimidating being."
The white dinosaur snorted. "So long as they won´t attack us or try something like that annoying two-legger that used to visit me, I won´t attack them."
Harry looked at her, eyes slightly narrowed. There was probably a story behind that annoying two-legger comment. One he was determined to get from her if only to find out if there was somebody that might cause them trouble in the future.
Later I will ask her, he promised himself, then refocused on the new arrivals. Both of them seemed to get over their shock or at least seemed to shake off the good portion of it. Particularly the man, who observed both him and his familiar, seemingly collecting clues and putting them together to get a whole picture. The moment he finished was clear to the teen, as the look of realization and then relief washed over the man. It was far too quick to catch by normal people, but Harry´s quidditch-trained eyes caught it easily. The man knew something. But what?
Maybe…
An idea occurred to him.
"Gray," he spoke, interrupting the boy´s ongoing rambling "why don´t you go over to your aunt and brother, so she can personally make sure you are alright? You can tell her all about your experienced from today, while I and her companion have a small talk," he said it loud enough for all his companions to hear.
The man seemed to catch up because he was quick to agree.
"What are you going to talk about?" Gray asked, but obediently got down.
"Oh, he would probably want to check on Enyo and know about our activities, you see. Just a boring routine, nothing more," Harry reassured him, then waved him off. "Go have fun with your aunt. We won´t go anywhere."
The blonde frowned a bit, then nodded. "Okay, but I will be back. I have more questions about Enyo."
"And I will try to answer them the best I could. Later," he stressed out. "Now, off you go, kid."
The kid nodded again and ran off to his aunt, who hugged him and then took him and his brother of to the side.
The moment they were out of sight and hearing, the raven turned to face the brunet. He decided to be blunt. "Hello. I´m Harry Potter and the terrifying beauty is Enyo. If I may, I would like to know your name and occupation, before I answer your questions."
The man eyed him for a moment before he smirked. "Fair enough. My name is Owen Grady and I´m a Navy soldier, a behaviourist and the main raptor trainer of Jurassic World. And for my questions," here the man looked at Enyo "Here is the first one: Is she your familiar?"
"As far as I can tell, yes. That´s the only explanation I can come up with since I can understand her and her eyes changed to match the colour of mine," the raven replied immediately.
"Okay, that also confirms that you are a wizard. Muggleborn?"
"Half-blood, from an old line. You?"
"Muggleborn, also one with a dinosaur familiar."
"One of your raptors?" Harry guessed.
The man nodded.
"Okay, that explains your reaction." Seeing the look the man gave him, he shrugged. "You´re talking with a Seeker. My eyes are trained to notice small details and I caught your relieved expression, which tipped med of the possibility that you know something. So I decided to confront you privately since I had no idea if Miss Claire or the boys knew about magic."
"Good thinking, kid. You´re right, I don´t think that Claire has the clearance needed to know about magic, but we, who deal mainly with the carnivores, do have it. Mainly because magic can guarantee another layer of security and because it makes handling the predators somehow easier," Owen explained.
"Especially, if there are familiars among them, right?" chuckled the teen.
"Definitely." Owen then paused and looked at Enyo. "Although sometimes the familiar bond can become a cause of problems. Particularly, if the bond causes them to escape from their paddock without warning."
"…I have the feeling this discussion will be longer than I anticipated," deadpanned Harry.
"What are you talking about?" inquired Enyo, tilting her head.
"Owen here just told me that he has someone with whom he shares a connection similar to the one we have. And how there are probably others like us around," Harry explained to her patiently.
That made her perk up. "Really? Will we meet them?"
"Something tells me that we will," sighed Harry, then turned to Owen. "I think you should call your boss because this will be a mess to explain…"
"You have no idea," Owen agreed, pulling out his phone.