Author's Note: Hello! Sorry the posting is so inconsistent. I know I'm heading for burn out if I don't exercise some self-control with posting. I would love to be several chapters ahead, but I get too excited to share these.

Chapter 13

Killdeer Plovers

Aaron woke up tasting an anthill. It was the insect bites on his face that woke him up, not the pounding in his head nor the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. He could vaguely feel mottled sunlight across his back and arms.

He wanted to go back to sleep, but then some terrified part of him noticed the silence.

He…he was in the jungle wasn't he? It was never just…silent. There was no birdsong. Even the insects that plagued all the staff living on the island just…weren't there. The uncanny wrongness itched some instinct deep within his brain and he suddenly had the urge to get to his feet. He was too vulnerable lying down. He couldn't defend himself.

Something rumbled above him.

In terror, he tried to push himself up, but a very heavy something FIRMLY shoved him down into the grass hard enough that he hit his nose. He just wasn't stupid enough to argue after that. He turned his head to avoid a more absolute broken nose if that happened again and came face to foot with green and purple microscales. Fighting against his body's urge to freeze, he tried to twist enough to see what his attacker was.

He was too out of it to really consider that he probably didn't want the last thing he saw to be a mouth full of teeth.

He wasn't very flexible but he saw enough. A rather large, albeit featherless, Dakotaraptor, was crouched beside and somewhat on top of him, completely still with her bird-like eyes hyper-focused on something ahead of them. She didn't even look down, one foot still on his back, although she shifted as he did and he could feel claws flex.

He couldn't help shuddering at the sudden knowledge that there was a very large and very sharp sickle claw inches from his spine.

What the hell happened? His head hurt too much to remember. Aaron couldn't see whatever she was watching from his somewhat painful position.

"Ms Moy—?!" he mumbled. He must have hit his head hard. He could barely hear his own voice.

The weight on his back increased sharply. It was a terrifying sensation, but even with his brain rattled, he had the wherewithal to understand she was not so politely telling him to shut up and stay still.

He listened.

The raptor let out a very low hiss that made Aaron freeze involuntarily. It sounded almost exactly like the hiss of a crocodile, and he could feel the rumble in his bones.

She seemed to be waiting for something.

What? He couldn't see anything but dirt, glass, and angry ants. He couldn't hear anything. He tasted blood. He smelled gasoline…

It suddenly came in bits and pieces. He…crashed?

He struggled to remember the last few minutes.

Him hanging upside down from his seat.

Hot breath by his ear as something dug around his car door.

A shriek of tearing metal and his panic as sharp claws reached toward him.

Him passing out again as the claws ripped his seat belt and not his face.

The breath along the back of his neck and a quiet but sharp snarl as he struggled, half-awake while being dragged over hard rocks and possibly broken glass while his shirt choked him.

She couldn't afford to be gentle…

His situational awareness was leaking back.

One thought prevailed even through the muddled memory and confusion as he lay there covered in dirt and ant bites.

Ms Moynihan is a raptor...

She was a dinosaur right that minute.

Something about that realization cut through the fog and terrified him more than knowing he had been so close to dying in a car wreck.

He had known her his entire life while growing up in Kittery Point and had only ever seen her as a dinosaur once in over thirty years.

Something scared her, enough to make her break her rules.

He had the horrible feeling that he was forgetting something incredibly important.

There was movement and he stiffened, startled as the raptor crouching above him darted out from their hiding place, running through the trees and leaping through the brush with incredible agility before she skidded to a stop in a little clearing, sunlight streaming across her side as her tail lashed.

Her olive-green skin with brownish-purple markings looked dull to him, but he knew better. If she wanted, she could blend into the foliage easily, the markings breaking up her shape and hiding her from animals with less sense of color. Like him. But to other dinosaurs, she probably looked more bright and saturated, like a toothy featherless parrot. Saurischian dinosaurs could see more colors than humans. They learned that through research years ago.

He idly wondered if Caruso and Rodger saw their teacher and teammates as less brightly colored compared to the eyes of Fiona, Max, and possibly Buzz.

Ms Moynihan had sent him pictures of them. They all had distinct markers, but he would be hard-pressed to really distinguish them from the dinosaurs in the park if he didn't know better, besides the obvious size difference due to age in some of their cases.

Aaron internally yelled at himself. Now was not the time to be a nerd! He needed to focus, even if his possible concussion made him want to think of more fun things at the moment.

Damnit. He had no survival instincts. He'd probably be eaten by whatever was out there already if it weren't for her.

Oh, shit...

There it was. A pesky memory. He remembered now. It wasn't his poor driving that nearly killed them.

Something had run them off the road. Something big.

He peeked through blades of grass and held his breath. What the hell was she doing?!

The green and purple raptor raised her head and started barking into the air with hollow, almost birdlike vocalizations anyone who worked with Owen's raptors could recognize. It was almost like the "help" call, but more…pitiful?

Nothing happened for a moment, but Aaron didn't dare move. His head was pounding so much he didn't think he'd be able to move if he wanted to.

Ms Moynihan turned and started running away, but to Aaron's alarm, she was limping.

What happened?! She was fine a moment ago! He needed to…

There was a faint thud that vibrated through his bones.

Aaron flattened himself into the dirt and covered his mouth, the biting ants forgotten.

There, a shifting in the trees nearly 200 feet away, by the wreckage of his jeep that he hadn't noticed before. He saw the outline when motion broke the camouflage while the animal moved toward Ms Moynihan.

He knew what it was.

He drafted the proposed diet based on the size, growth rate, and hypothetical metabolic parameters Dr. Wu had provided. It was a hyper-carnivore, projected at fifty feet long when finished maturing. It didn't look that big yet, but snack-sized him was not in the mood to nitpick.

He was planning to bring it up with Ms Moynihan, but he supposed it was a little late for that.

Run!

Why was she just standing there? It was getting too close!

To his relief, the green raptor ran, staying well ahead of the Indominus, although she limped through the brush and kept "chirping" as she did.

The Indominus followed for a bit, watching the raptor limp farther away from the man hidden in a bush. It rattled as it got closer. Then it stopped following and tilted its head.

Ms Moynihan suddenly froze and turned back around with a faint warble. The two stared at each other.

Were they…talking?

The mistake was just a moment. It was so quick that he nearly missed it.

Ms Moynihan glanced his way. They made eye contact.

She immediately realized her deadly error and her eyes passed over him as she looked around the rest of the area, but it was too late.

The Indominus followed the raptor's gaze.

Author's Note: AND WE HAVE THE FIRST GOING DINO OF THE STORY!

Ok, this was a really mean place to put yet another cliffhanger. I promise not every chapter will be like this. I will post the next chapter this afternoon after a nap and some checking over! I just want that last hopefully terrifying image to hang on the end of the chapter.

Some discerning readers might notice that I'm writing honorifics in the UK style instead of US now i.e. "Ms" instead of "Ms." And later "Dr" instead of "Dr." This is because the text-to-speech readers (at least all the ones I've used) all take a long awkward pause with between "Miss" and "Moynihan" and it keeps saying "Dree" instead of "Doctor" when I write "Dr. Veloci." If I were professionally publishing this, I would stick to one set of grammar rules, but since I like to listen to my chapters after I post them, I'm trying to make the listening experience less annoying for me and anyone who might have sight or reading issues.