Notes
Soundtrack suggestions:
The Dawn:
- New Dawn - Benjamin Bartlett, Walking With Beasts (Up to 00:52).
The apatosaurs:
- Life Finds a Way - Jeremiah Pena, Jurassic World: Evolution.
- My friend the Brachiosaurus - John Williams, Jurassic Park.
-o-
Owen was awakened by the stegosaurs' bellows and the gentle caress of dawn. He opened his eyes, yawned, but as he stretched, he noticed that Claire and her shoes were gone.
She's probably taking a piss, he thought.
He continued stretching, grimacing, and sat up. He looked at his watch: Half past five. Since he had to be back at the hacienda by a quarter to eight at the latest in order to have breakfast there, and doubted that Claire would want to go back to bed while the day was breaking and the dinosaurs in the neighbouring stalls waking up, he grabbed his girlfriend's backpack and opened it to put the blanket in, right next to the machete they had "borrowed" the previous day at the shed.
Coming from further away, he heard a kind of squealing, and then heard Claire giggle. He stood up and looked around. From the stall they had slept in, he saw neither her nor the source of the squeak, but the noises were coming from behind him, further along the apatosaurs' large stall.
"Hey! Easy," he heard Claire say. "You're worse than Sigurd..."
Owen put on his shoes and slipped out of the stall on the side of the service corridor, taking the bag with him, and after a turn, he saw Claire further ahead, in front of the barrier. She was handing branches through the bars to a baby Apatosaurus which made the squeaks he had heard. The young animal stretched its neck and its snout through the bars without taking its eyes off Claire, who was feeding it.
"Take your time," she said, stroking its head. "Don't worry, you'll get as much as you want. You like it, huh?"
She turned around and saw Owen looking at her.
"Isn't that sweetie adorable?" she asked him.
"It is."
He looked around the stall and saw that the adults and subadults were busy feeding from the large hanging baskets while at their feet the other two babies had their necks stretched upwards, waiting for bits to fall from the shaken baskets or from the mouths of the older animals. Unlike them, the babies had no spines on their backs and under the neck and were grey-brown, whereas the adults had a light grey body with dark blue mottling, a yellowish underside, and a striped tail whose whip-like end sported black rings.
Farther behind Claire, he saw the stall of the male Apatosaurus. Its occupant, which stood motionless behind the barrier, was staring at them and Owen gave him a sideways glance. Although female apatosaurs were sturdy beasts, the males were even sturdier and resembled the sauropod equivalent of a bodybuilder due to their muscular build and unusually broad neck, a far cry from that of giraffatitans, more graceful animals described by many as scaly giraffes of tremendous size. The male apatosaurus locked up alone in his stall was also distinguished from females and immature males by more developed and pointed spines, which were used during combat. If no barrier had separated him and Claire, Owen would have been no more comfortable with him than in the presence of a large carnivore because under certain circumstances, male apatosaurs could pose an equally important danger. Some in times of musth had even attacked other dinosaurs and vehicles in the Five Deaths without any provocation while those in Jurassic World had been isolated and confined during breeding periods to avoid possible disastrous incidents with the safari trucks. Not only were they big and powerful, but they were also not very smart and had a tendency to be reckless, like this individual which, during the fall of Isla Nublar's park, attacked the Indominus herself at the exit of a wood and had wounded her back. He made a huge mistake and Owen and Claire had then found his body in a sorry state.
The baby Apatosaurus looked up at Owen while still raking the branch with its teeth. A few leaves sticking out from its mouth fell on the ground.
"He's a bit more delicate than Lindsay," Claire said.
"Lindsay?
"That's how I nicknamed one of the baby Triceratops. Since she's fat and a bitch which can't stop growling, she reminds me of a certain Lindsay."
The young animal swallowed the leaves it had just grabbed and opened its mouth to ask for more. Owen moved closer and gently put his hand on the neck of the Apatosaurus, whose skin was dry and warm. The sauropod let out a small squeak as the keeper began to pet it.
While raking its branch, the baby Apatosaurus looked alternately at Claire and Owen without showing the slightest sign of fear. The Raptor Whisperer smirked and chuckled.
"Why are you laughing?" His girlfriend asked.
"It reminds me of that stupid movie with Sean Young and the Brontosaurs in Africa. On one side, it's supposed to be a Disney production for the whole family but on the other, you've got shootings, some blood and even a sex scene. It's quite amazing. Ah, that was another time...," he answered in an almost nostalgic tone.
Owen's gaze wandered behind the bars, towards the stall's gate and the dimly lit meadow beyond. If they wanted to have the maximum amount of time to look for the house in the woods and search it, they had to leave soon.
They heard a kind of sneeze, a loud breath similar to the snorting of a big horse, and the baby stirred. It stepped back and brought its head and neck back inside the stall. Suddenly, a shadow fell over the three of them and a huge leg, as big as a tree trunk and equipped with a single curved claw, appeared.
The couple looked up and saw that it was one of the adult females. The huge animal looked up at Claire and Owen, then she blinked slightly and returned her attention to the baby. She lowered her neck and nudged it gently, leading it away from the bars, like if she didn't trust the two humans.
The baby turned away from the barrier and walked towards the other apatosaurs. From time to time, the adult nudged it with her snout to indicate the direction to follow and the two dinosaurs slowly moved away.
Claire turned and saw that Owen had picked up her backpack.
"You're ready?" He asked her.
"Yes. Let's find that cabin in the woods."
Retracing their steps, they returned to their stall and left the barn by the same path they had taken during the night. Once they'd left the corrals behind, they turned due north and moved deeper into the jungle.