Author's note:
Don't worry if you read... strange... comments on this story, particularly from Moistspider5. It's a friend of mine who's trolling me for fun. No need to report her or anything. XD
"Good morning!" Kenji exclaims, sitting up and yawning obnoxiously. Toothless lifts her head and climbs up Kenji's back. The black hatchling grabs onto his face as he turns to look at her and clings to him like a lizard. Kenji looks over at the others as they laugh at his predicament.
"How did I end up here?" Sammy laughs, confused as she shakes Kenji's legs off her back.
"You move around," Ben says. "A lot."
"Where did Yaz go?" Sammy giggles. "Oh, she's under you." The girl laughs harder.
"Why'd you roll on top of me?" Yasmina asks sleepily, pushing Ben off.
"What?! You pulled me on top of you!" Ben exclaims.
"Nuh uh, I don't believe that," Yasmina groans. She flops back down and groans again as Rima begins to eat her hair. "Stop it," she chuckles wearily.
Brooklynn sits up slowly, blinking her eyes sleepily. Her hair was in her mouth. "Why do I have the Fabletics ad stuck in my head?" she groans. "'Do you have a loose caboose that you'd like to boost?'"
Sammy snorts as she heads to make breakfast. "That's a good question."
The campers eat breakfast. As he wakes up, Darius decides on what to do for the day. "We need to start training the Indoraptors," he says. "We need to work on training them to listen to commands and hand signals. They need to learn how to hunt on their own, but I'm not sure how we could do that."
Brooklynn pulls out Owen Grady's notes. The two look through them, trying to figure out what he did to train Blue. For the most part, they seemed to be trained like dogs.
"All right, we're going to try to work on commands," Darius says. "They seem to understand that yes is positive and no is negative. What else could we work on…"
"Good job," Brooklynn suggests. "Train them to want to hear us say that. We could train them to sit and stay. Maybe roll over. Simple things you'd train dogs with should work right now. After they learn to hunt, we'll have to train them when it's okay to hunt, and when not to. Who to hunt and who not hunt…"
"We could try to train them to protect," Yasmina says. "Attack and make enemies back off, but don't kill…"
"What about Tornado?" Sammy asks. "I'll have to train her to be rideable."
"You can work on Tornado," Darius says. "I don't know if you want Ben to help you, since he trained Bumpy."
"You might have your hands full with Princess," Sammy giggles.
"She's pretty laid back," Ben shrugs. "She might be easy to train."
"Let's get started!" Kenji exclaims, imitating Gobber the Belch from How To Train Your Dragon. "Welcome to Dragon Training!" He hobbles around, waving his finger in the air like a hook. "First up, we got Hiccup," he points to Darius, who shakes his head.
"Ay, over 'ere is the tough Astrid!" he points to Yasmina, who rolls her eyes.
"Ah, Fishlegs, nice of you to join the party!" he winks at Ben. The younger boy chuckles and gives a half-effort salute.
"Ah… Tuffnut!" he gestures to Sammy. "And Ruffnut!" he points to Brooklynn. Sammy giggles while the Superstar rolls her eyes.
"And I'm Gobber the Belch," Kenji declares proudly. "Slash Snotlout."
"Can we get to work now?" Yasmina quirks an eyebrow in annoyance.
"Fine," Kenji slumps, disappointed that she wasn't having fun with him.
The group gets to work training their new dino companions. Tornado was big enough to ride now. Unlike with Bumpy, Sammy had to work on getting the Triceratops to let her mother mount her. The feisty herbivore was calm as Sammy petted her, calm as she hugged her, and totally fine with Sammy climbing on her back. But as soon as the Texan was seated, the Triceratops youngling would buck her off. By the end of the fifteenth try, Sammy's face was covered in dirt and her hair was a mess.
"Having issues?" Ben asks.
Sammy sputters. "Got any ideas?"
The blonde camper shakes his head. "Bumpy wasn't one to buck."
The Texan sighs. "I need a way to stay on her until she stops bucking. Yaz, I can hear you laughing."
"Sorry," the athlete wheezes. "It's kinda funny."
"Maybe for you," Sammy shakes her head, grinning nonetheless.
The other five weren't without their challenges. For the most part, the Indoraptors would rather be chasing dragonflies or rolling around on the grass or napping than following commands. Toothless was too scatterbrained, Rima just didn't care, Mocha was curious, and Indigo was a brat. Princess was the only one who seemed to catch on. After ten tries, she correlated that when Ben told her to sit, and she did, that he would tell her good job and give her a small bite of meat. By the end of the day, she was sitting and staying without trouble, and understood that "Good job" meant Ben was happy.
The other hatchlings weren't as bright—or cooperative. They knew that Ben was giving Princess food, but they couldn't understand why their parents weren't doing the same. Toothless and Mocha were trying their best, but hadn't grasped the concept yet. Rima and Indigo, on the other hand, were a bit indignant about the "unfairness" of the situation.
The campers go to bed, exhausted. The next day, they try again. "Sit," Darius commands. Mocha scampers over to his feet to beg for the meat in his hands. "No, no, no," Darius sighs, putting her back in her place a few feet in front of him. "Come on, sit." The little brown Indo hatchling doesn't get it just yet.
"Focus, Hiccup! You're not even trying!" Kenji exclaims from yards away. Ironically, he was doing worse with Toothless than Darius with Mocha.
Darius sighs with frustration. Mocha tilts her head, unsure what she did wrong.
"Try using only positive reinforcement," Brooklynn suggests, coming up behind him. "Don't do anything until she sits, then give her the treat."
Darius glares at her. "What do you think I've been doing?"
"Try this," Brooklynn says, placing Indigo in front of her. "Sit." The grey Indo stands up on her hind legs and stares at the meat in the pinkette's hands. "Sit," Brooklynn says again, not moving or sighing. She tries this a couple times, staying completely neutral. Indigo finally gives up and sits down, disappointed that her mother wasn't giving her the treat. Suddenly, Brooklynn's face lights up. "Good job!" she exclaims, giving her hatchling a thumbs up and the treat. The grey hatchling tilts her head, wondering what she did, but accepts the treat nonetheless.
"Don't react to anything except when she sits," Brooklynn instructs. "Then she knows exactly what she did."
Darius tries it. After hearing the command "Sit" a couple times, Mocha tilts her head, twitters at Indigo, looks up at Darius and sits down. "Good job!" Darius exclaims, giving her a thumbs up and a treat. The little brown hatchling chirps happily.
Brooklynn giggles. "Now you're catching on."
"Her or me?" Darius frowns.
Brooklynn shrugs. "Both I guess? It works with dogs to only give them positive behavior. If you hit them and give them negative behavior, they won't know what they did wrong."
The comment irks Darius. "Dino nerd is being outdone by the dog Youtuber, even though she comes to me for dino knowledge," he thinks to himself, miffed. "Yep, I should always listen to the Youtuber," he says sarcastically.
"That's right," Brooklynn laughs. She doesn't notice that it bothered the Dino nerd to be outdone like that.
"Maybe we should place them side by side," Yasmina suggests. "And train them one at a time. Maybe if they see the others getting a treat when they sit, they'll find it easier to understand what to do."
The campers set the five hatchlings down in a row. Ben tells Princess to sit, and gives her a treat when she immediately sits. Then Darius commands Mocha to sit. The brown hatchling twitters to Princess, who chirps. Darius's hatchling sits down and wags her tail. Darius gives her a treat.
Brooklynn tells Indigo to sit. After a couple tries, the hatchling smirks and sits down. The pinkette gives her a treat. The little Indo smirks knowingly. "Oh dear, she's gonna try to put on a show," Brooklynn cackles.
Yasmina instructs Rima to sit. The little Indo tilts her head, squints at her mother, and lays down. Yasmina frowns. "If you want a treat, you have to sit." After trying to get her mother to give her the treat without actually sitting, she rolls her eyes and sits. Yasmina gives her a happy thumbs up and the treat.
Kenji tries to get Toothless to sit, but the black Indoraptor was in her own little world and wasn't paying attention. They try for the rest of the day to get the last one to sit. Finally, Rima waltzes over to Toothless, and smacks her sister's rump. Kenji gives Toothless the treat. After several times of Rima forcing her sister to sit, the black hatchling finally understands.
As for Sammy, she was finally able to sit on top of Tornado for a few minutes before being bucked off. The Triceratops baby was slowly warming up to having someone ride on her back.
The third day, all five Indo hatchlings could sit for about ten seconds before getting a treat. Then the group moves on to lay down. After the Indos figured out that they had to do what their parents commanded them to get a treat, it was easier to train them. The only problem was helping them connect English to actions.
Darius takes Mocha and gently lays her down, then gives her a treat. "Lay down," he says. Mocha's pupils dilate to cute proportions. "Lay down," Darius says, gesturing with his hand. Mocha purrs and lays down on her stomach. Darius rewards her. After watching Princess and Mocha lay down, the others began to catch on.
The Indoraptors caught on quickly, and training was no longer a nuisance. It was a game where they learned new tricks and got treats for it. Sammy was able to successfully ride Tornado around in a circle before the Triceratops began to buck. The campers go to bed, thinking that day was a win.
The fourth day of training started out pretty well. The Indoraptor hatchlings were excited and attentive. They learned to sit and lay down for longer periods of time. Princess caught on that the campers didn't really care what tricks they learned; they just wanted the babies to listen to them. The laid back hatchling was fine with that, and it made it extremely easy for the group to train her. The others… well, some of them had trouble accepting that.
"Come on, Rima, sit," Yasmina commands. Her white hatchling tilts her head, wondering how long she could disobey her mother.
"She's too rebellious," Kenji says.
"We have to train her now to follow orders," Yasmina breathes. "If she figures out that she can kill us whenever she wants to and we haven't trained her, nothing could stop her."
"What if they start to question orders?" Sammy asks warily. "There would be nothing we could do to stop them. They could totally mutilate us in seconds; what's stopping them from doing that?"
Darius gulps. "Hopefully we've created a strong enough bond with them that they won't feel the need to do that."
"What happens when they learn to hunt?" Brooklynn asks.
"If they learn to hunt," Ben says. "We can't exactly teach them how to. We have no idea how to explain raptor hunting patterns."
As if on cue, a twig snaps behind the group. The campers turn around quickly to see Blue coming out from the bushes. The velociraptor croaks, giving them a friendly, yet chilling stare. The children move a step back. Kenji grabs Yasmina's arm, holding her up as she wobbles a bit. The campers were still wary, even though she had repeatedly shown herself to be on their side. Something about a powerful velociraptor calmly walking up to them felt unnatural.
The Indoraptor hatchlings peep out from behind the campers legs. Blue's amber gaze darts down to the hatchlings. The babies twitter at her, curious about this new comer.
The adult raptor lifts her head and stares Darius in the eye. She lets out a loud puff of air and tilts her head. The velociraptor sensed that the humans weren't comfortable with her. It didn't take a lot of brain power to sense that. Blue was the second most intelligent species on the planet; she fully understood why. She had seen the dark skinned boy and the older, blue male run and cower from her when they jumped into her pen. She knew that if she wanted to, she could rip them limb from limb and they would be helpless to stop her.
That being said, something had changed inside her after the Indominus fiasco. Humans were one of three things to her before the attack: Master, prey, or predator. Owen was her master; her alpha. The humans who fell into her pen: prey. The fat, disgusting man called Hoskins who touched her when she didn't like it: predator. Most humans she met fell into the prey category. Some fell into the predator category; despicable humans who wanted to control her every move. Very few fell into the master category.
But after she was let loose and was allowed to hunt and eat humans, something changed. Even the predators became prey, and her master almost became prey. It was then that she realized why they tried to control her: because they were scared of her. Humans weren't as all powerful as she used to think. They were softer and easier to break than other dinosaurs. They had a hard time defending themselves without those long sticks that spit fire or the sticks that shocked her. They couldn't bite or claw at their attackers. Humans were smart creatures; the only way they could defend themselves was to control the dinosaurs. But in a blink of an eye, they could go from being the antagonist to the antagonized.
After being the predator and seeing what she could do, Blue had come to feel sympathy for humans. Not for the predatory humans; those were despicable. But these young children were no threat to her. They were abandoned on the island and were just trying to survive. She felt pity for them when she found them that night. Exhausted, injured, bleeding. They were helpless and defenseless. They didn't even have grown humans to protect them like the young ones Owen was protecting.
Something welled up inside her that night. A motherly instinct, maybe. Whatever it was, she couldn't eat them. She couldn't kill them. Blue had decided then and there that she would protect them like Owen did her. She watched from afar; keeping her distance while scouting the perimeter to keep them safe. That night when the Ceratosaurus came, she was there. As they ran, she attacked. When Rexy attacked, she was there for these helpless, juvenile humans.
Because no one else was.
Blue looks down again at the little raptor-like heads peeking out from behind the humans. The little hatchlings were young, and didn't seem to have much fear. They had definitely imprinted on the humans, though. The velociraptor doesn't recognize the babies; they reminded her of the Indominus rex. She shudders. Maybe they were another horrid creation from the despicable humans.
The raptor looks back up at the humans. Despite what her kind had done to them, they were still willing to take in these hatchlings, as well as two herbivores. Yes, they were scared of what would happen if the hatchlings grew up to become murderous predators. And they were trying to control them to keep themselves safe. But they weren't controlling them through cages and shocks. They were training them; giving them treats when they did what they wanted and showing them affection. These young children were caring for them like parents…
Blue tilts her head and chitters at Darius. She could sense that he was the youngest of the juvenile humans, but for some reason, they all listened to him.
Darius looks at his friends. "I… I think she wants to help us with the Indos."
"What if she trains them to hunt and they turn on us?" Brooklynn whispers, holding onto his arm.
"She's not aggressive towards us," Sammy murmurs.
"But that doesn't mean she can't be," Yasmina hisses.
Darius takes a deep breath and makes a decision. He slowly bends down and picks up Mocha. The boy slowly places her in front of Blue. The hatchling looks back at her father, twittering in confusion. "Let's try this," he breathes.
"You're going to let her near them?" Brooklynn whimpers.
"He has this way with the beasts," Kenji whispers encouragingly in a Gobber voice.
"Would you stop goofing off in serious situations?!" Yasmina hisses at him.
"Let's try this," Darius repeats, gesturing for the others to give the Indos to Blue to meet.
The others look at him and follow his lead. The little Indos look between their human parents and the adult Velociraptor. Blue leans down and sniffs the hatchlings, curious about where they came from. Mocha is the bravest and stands up to sniff the adult female. The hatchlings crowd around Blue, checking her out and chattering.
After bonding a bit, Blue stands up and purrs at the humans. She turns around and walks towards the woods, then turns back to them. She was asking if she could take the hatchlings into the woods to teach them how to hunt.
"Should we let her?" Kenji asks. "Teach them how to hunt, I mean."
"Only if we go with her," Darius says, bravely walking towards the raptor. He stops a few feet away from her, communicating that he wanted to go with her. "We want to be the alphas here. We're going with her."
The others follow him. Kenji hoists Yasmina up onto his back and they follow Blue and the hatchlings into the woods. Blue sniffs the air, and turns to Darius. She stands there, waiting. "What?" Darius asks, looking at the others confused.
Blue looks down at the hatchlings, glances in the direction of her prey, then turns back to Darius. He catches on quickly. "Oh, you want me to be their alpha."
"How are we supposed to be their alphas?" Ben asks.
"Tell them to hunt," Darius says. He looks down at Mocha. "Hunt," he says, pointing to where Blue wanted to go. The others copy him. The hatchlings look around, unsure what the command was.
Blue lets out a croak and trots into the woods. "Hunt," Darius says, pointing again. The Indoraptors catch on and follow Blue into the woods. The campers follow slowly, not wanting to startle the prey. They step into a clearing. Blue has captured a lone Compy and is playing cat and mouse with it. She lets it run before capturing it again, gently gnawing on its neck as if she were going to kill it. She beckons Mocha forward. The brown hatchling chases after the Compy. It almost gets away, but Blue catches it again and brings it back. Mocha finally catches up and pounces on it. The Compy puts up a good fight, scaring the hatchling. She releases her prey and it turns on her.
"Oh no," Sammy gasps.
Blue grabs the Compy with her teeth before it can hurt Mocha. The little hatchling stands up and twitters. Blue purrs and releases it. Mocha chases after it and captures it. This time, she puts up a fight and finally bites its neck. She struggles, but the Compy eventually goes limp. Mocha chitters and looks up at Blue proudly. The adult raptor purrs. Mocha turns around and tweets at Darius. He gives her a thumbs up.
Blue darts into the woods and catches another Compy. She brings it back and allows Rima to try. The dirty white Indo growls and pounces on the Compy. She wrestles it to the ground and bites hard; the predatory instinct was very strong in her. Indigo demonstrates the same thing. Toothless was too clumsy, but she finally achieved her goal. Princess didn't see the point until Blue let her taste one of the other Compies. The hunter instinct was turned on after tasting fresh meat and Princess was a decent killer after that.
Blue calls it a day and the Indo hatchlings bring back their dead Compies to the camp where they feast on the fruits of their labor. The sun goes down as the campers sit around the fire. Tornado was snoring next to Sammy as the Texan rewraps Yasmina's wound. Bumpy was resting next to Ben. As soon as Princess trots over to her father, though, the Ankylosaurus gets up and saunters off, bellowing a complaint to her human father. Ben rolls his eyes.
The other Indoraptors hang with their parents, enjoying tummy rubs. Blue was resting a couple feet away from the humans. This was the most they had ever seen of her.
Rima, the more feisty hatchling, watches as Sammy changes her mommy's wound. The cuts were healing up nicely, but the Indo could still sense blood. Thrilled by her first hunt, she wanted more. It crossed the little one's mind that her mother never taught her how to hunt. She had to have another raptor do it. It confused her; how could her mother be the alpha and yet, not hunt?
The little hatchling starts to wonder if her mother really was the alpha. Not fully understanding what "Kill" meant, she growls and tries to pounce on Yasmina's leg, wondering what would happen.
Yasmina shoots her hand out to stop Rima from biting her injured leg. The Indoraptor bites down full force. "Ow!" Yasmina yelps, shaking her hatchling from her hand. Rima jumps to her feet and tilts her head at her mother, wondering why her mother was distressed. Yasmina holds her hand close to her chest. Rima's sharp teeth had broken the skin and blood started to drip down her wrist.
The other Indoraptors watch and twitter in confusion. The humans had been their parents; their caretakers and providers. As with little children, they thought that their parents were all-knowing and that nothing could stop them. To see Rima distress her mother and draw blood was confusing. How could she hurt her mother?
The other hatchlings start tilting their heads at their parents, wondering if they could do the same to them. With childlike curiosity, Indigo sniffs Brooklynn's hand, thinking about biting and seeing what would happen. Brooklynn quickly draws back, and her hatchling can sense her fear. The other campers draw away, too, wary of what the hatchlings would do. The Indo's are further confused. Never had their parents shown fear.
"What's going on?" Kenji asks. "Why did Rima bite?"
"They now know that we can bleed, too," Darius hisses.
"Do you think they see us as prey?" Brooklynn trembles.
Rima tilts her head, chirping in concern. She moves forward to check on her mother, not yet connecting her actions with her mothers distress. Fearful, Yasmina shoves her away. "No!" The little Indo is even more hurt and confused, and tries again.
Blue moves forward and carefully picks up Rima with her mouth. She croaks out a command to the others and sets Rima down yards away from the campers. The other hatchlings scamper after her and look up at her expectantly. She begins to talk to them, trying to explain that they couldn't bite their parents. Rima twitters, casting a glance over at Yasmina. Blue looks up at the sky, a low rumble emitted from her throat as she thinks.
After thinking, she reaches down and bites Rima's front leg. Not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to cause pain. The little white hatchling squeals and pulls away. Blue does this to all of the hatchlings. She then barks out a little lecture, trying to explain to the hatchlings that that is what they could do to the humans.
Rima lowers her head and lets out an ashamed growl. She turns around to go back to her mother, but Blue picks her up again and stops her. Ordering the hatchlings to stay put, she darts into the woods. She's gone for five minutes, and the Indos look around restlessly. Blue returns with a Compy in her mouth. The Compy shrieks and struggles. Blue holds it out in front of the hatchlings, letting them smell it's fear. She bites down, and the Compy screeches in pain. Blood starts to well up.
Blue lets the hatchlings see this, making sure they connect that biting a living creature causes pain. She then crushes its neck, killing it. She spits it out in front of the Indoraptors, letting them examine the body. She shakes it around, prodes it, and tears off a leg to eat. Then she purrs at the babies, as if she was asking a question.
Death was a new concept to the hatchlings. They had hunted dragonflies and Compies by now, but death wasn't fully understood. They saw their prey as food, not as living creatures. After Blue's demonstration, it was starting to connect in their tiny little minds. Just as they felt pain from the fire, the humans could feel pain from being bitten. The humans felt the same pain they did, as did the Compies. When their parents said no, not only were they trying to protect the hatchlings from pain, but they were trying to protect themselves from pain.
Mocha sniffs the dead Compy and nudges it. The hatchlings were starting to understand that when a living creature became food, not only would they feel pain, but they would be gone. Death meant no more Compy. Death meant no more Mommy and Daddy…
Blue croaks. It was as if she was asking: "Do you want your Mommies and Daddies to become food and go away forever?"
The Indoraptors twitter and look sad. Princess and Mocha quickly scampers back to Ben and Darius, licking their hands as a way of apologizing. Toothless and Indigo quickly follow. Rima, on the other hand, looked up at Blue. The white hatchling warbles out an ashamed apology. She tears off the tail of the Compy and carries it back to Yasmina. With a lowered head and her tail between her legs, she sets it in front of her Mommy. Then she obediently sits down, not twitching or being restless like she normally was.
Yasmina and Sammy—who was cleaning her new wound—aww at the sight of the cute little hatchling apologizing. Yasmina picks up the Compy's tail, and—steeling herself for the disgusting taste—puts it in her mouth. Rima's tail starts to wag happily. Yasmina picks up her dino baby and places her in her lap. The little dino closes her eyes and purrs, happy that her Mom forgave her. While Rima wasn't looking, Yasmina takes the tail out of her mouth and tosses it to Blue, who gobbles it up with a chuckling croak.
"I think today went well," Darius nods. "Minus Yaz's new injury. You're just prone to injuries, aren't you."
"Hey, wasn't my fault," Yasmina huffs. "... This time," she adds sheepishly.
"And the hatchlings learned many new things today," Ben says, scratching Princess under the chin.
"I hereby dub thee, Grandma Blue!" Kenji exclaims, pointing at the velociraptor. The grey and blue dino tilts her head in confusion. "Mimi Blue," Kenji suggests. "Grammy Blue? Idk."
"Why?" Yasmina frowns.
"Because she protects us like we're her babies," Kenji explains. "Therefore, the hatchlings are like her grandchildren."
Blue looks up at the stars. For the most part, she could understand English. But there were words that she didn't know. By now, she had come to learn that whenever this particular human made grand gestures, odd faces, and loudly proclaimed something, it most likely meant nothing important.
"I think she's doing what we do, ignore you for the most part," Yasmina sassily says. Kenji sticks his tongue out at her.
The campers climb back up into their shelter, bringing the hatchlings with them. Tornado and Bumpy go to sleep underneath the shelter. Darius gestures to Blue, telling her that she could sleep with them. The raptor croaks and races off into the woods, preferring to hunt at night. Darius shrugs and lays down to fall asleep. The day had been good and productive and it was time for everyone to rest.