Hey guys. Since Jurassic World came out, I have been itching to try out a new story. It may seem confusing at first, but things will clear up as time goes on. Please note, this story does contain some spoilers of the movie.
Food. That's what went through the animal's mind as it stalked through the forest, seeking out nourishment. Its large, muscular legs kept an even pace while its head turned slowly trying to locate a suitable food source. Stepping over a fallen log, it smelled the distinct scent of cattle. Its pace quickened, following its nose to the source of the smell. The moon was full, providing adequate lighting for the hunt. The animal came to a clearing, getting a quick count of the warm bodies in the field using its ability to detect heat. It slowly crept out of the tree cover, exposing it to the wind. The animal took a few strides at the cattle, and then stopped short of the fence line. It cautiously stepped over the wooden fencing, then lunged at the nearest sleeping cow and caught it in its jaws, eliciting a frightened moo, which woke the rest of the herd. The stampede thundered about the enclosure trying to escape, but couldn't smash through the wooden poles. With its prey trapped, the hunting beast ripped into the first animal, tearing its innards out, and gorging on the exposed flesh. The cows continued to run about, terrified. When it felt it had eaten enough of the first cow, the hunting animal stalked towards the rest of herd, towering over them, cramming them tighter and tighter into the corner of the enclosure, roaring at them, making mock lunges, snapping its jaws shut a few inches from the nearest cow.
Through all the noise, the farmer woke to see what in the world was going on. Lighting a lantern, he made his was outside, just in time to see a large reptilian tail twenty feet in the air slip into the forest. Going down to check on the cows, the farmer saw it wasn't good. He lost one cow, with its belly slashed out and its innards all over the ground. A bull was slashed in the hindquarters and along its side. Since its injuries were not fatal, the farmer went inside to send his wife to fetch the vet.
While his wife was gone, the farmer stood guard with his rifle, a present from his cousin in England, ready to engage the beast that had slaughtered his animals.
Queen Elsa of Arendelle was sitting in her office organizing an alliance with the neighboring country of Sweden when somebody knocked on her door. Before she could answer, her sister, Princess Anna, bounced into the room.
"Hello, Anna," Elsa said without looking up from her work.
"Hi, Elsa," Anna said cheerily. "What are you doing?"
"Organizing an alliance with Sweden," Elsa said blatantly. Suddenly another person knocked, but as Anna always seemed to forget to close doors, both could see who it was.
"Your Highness," a messenger said. "You have some urgent business awaiting you."
"Alright, I'm coming," said Elsa.
"Can I come too?" Anna practically begged.
"Why not?" Elsa said. Most of the time, whenever she had "urgent business" to attend to, it was normally quite simple. That and, Elsa had been trying to include Anna more after shutting her out of her life for about ten years.
When the pair of royals entered the throne room, it was clear that there was something wrong, as the vet, Doctor Jones, who the Queen rarely saw, was in a state of complete shock.
"Now," Elsa said calmly, "What seems to be the problem?"
Doctor Jones shuddered as he took a breath, and replied "Your Majesties, I believe we have a large problem that involves the safety and productivity of the entire kingdom."
After glancing at Anna, Elsa said "Please explain."
"Well," Doctor Jones said wearily "I was called out to an attack this morning on a herd of cattle. After examining the evidence, I strongly believe we have a large predator somewhere in Arendelle."
"How large, exactly?" Elsa asked worriedly. The habitation of any large predator in Arendelle was enough to look into. Any bigger than a bear was enough to certainly be concerned about.
"If you could come with me to the site of the incident," the vet said "I think you will find what I have deduced much more believable."
"Lead the way," Elsa said, rising from her throne, thinking what sort of carnage she had let Anna into.
"Of course," Doctor Jones said, bowing.
At the site of the attack, it was immediately noticeable that something had been here. The farmer and his wife were nursing the injured bull's wounds, rising when they noticed the royal sisters coming down the hill towards them, with an armed escort. The vet led them to the carcass of the first cow. Elsa immediately saw that it was a terrible death, and the carnage that the animal did to the cow was horrendous. The ribcage was exposed, the internal organs slashed. Glancing at Anna, Elsa saw she was nearly sick.
"This was the first thing I examined when I arrived," said Doctor Jones. "The first thing I noticed was that some of the internal organs had been eaten. The heart and liver, the most nutritious organs in the body, had been eaten, but most of the other organs, you see, are laying here on the ground. This animal also left tooth marks. If you look here at the rib here, you will see the large breakages. The spacing of the animal's teeth indicates a large animal," Doctor Jones took his finger and traced the where the animal's jawline was, "with a jaw width of about four feet. We don't know how long the animal's head was, since we only have a section of the total jaw length to work with. Now, if you come with me to the bull."
A bull, Elsa thought. This animal wasn't content with one cow, and it tried to go after two. It certainly has a very large appetite.
"This animal was lucky, as you see two sets of large slash marks on its body, one on each flank," Doctor Jones said, gesturing towards the large bull. "This animal somehow managed to escape a brush with death; you will see the claw marks are all at least six inches across. This indicates a very large animal. Also, you will notice that both sets of claw marks are going in the same relative direction; backwards and up. This says that the animal has some sort of hand-like appendages, and was trying to pick up the bull from behind."
The farmer then whispered something into Doctor Jones' ear.
"A what?! You said you found a footprint?" The vet said. The farmer nodded the affirmative. "Show me."
The farmer led the entire group over to the site of the footprint, near the edge of the enclosure.
"This animal clearly is large," Elsa began, examining the footprint, which was very birdlike, as long as the distance between Anna's knees to her throat. "But how large exactly?"
"I have deduced, Your Majesty," Doctor Jones replied, "that the animal in question, based on the size and depth of the footprint, is at least at a weight of, at the very least, three tons, more than likely larger."
"Dear God," Elsa whispered, covering her mouth in shock. An animal of the minimum size could ruin the entire kingdom, devouring a large portion of game, as well as ruin tourism. "What is the maximum weight?"
"I dare not say," said Doctor Jones, Iooking towards the forest.
Anna started to glance around, wondering if the monster was watching them from the trees. She noticed another large footprint about fifteen feet away, on the other side of the.
"Elsa," Anna said gesturing towards the second footprint near the edge of the forest.
"Doctor," Elsa began, "Could you determine the length of the animal using two footprints?"
"Yes, I believe so," Doctor Jones answered. "Why?"
"Anna has located another footprint," Elsa said, "directly on the other side of the fence."
"Ah, yes," Doctor Jones said, tapping his chin. "Well, this seems like a logically sized stride for an animal with feet of this scale. And with a stride of about fifteen feet or so, this animal would have been moving at a good clip, but not that much of an effort on its part. But this animal, since it seems to be a biped, or walks on two legs, has a length of about fifty feet long, and about twenty feet tall, based on the height of the reptilian tail the farmer saw slipping into the forest."
"So, just to sum it all up," Anna began, "we have a fifty-foot long, twenty-foot tall, carnivorous, reptilian monster, weighing at least three tons, living somewhere in the forest of Arendelle."
"That seems to be the case, dearest," Elsa said. Turning towards the vet, "What should we do about this animal?"
"Other than kill it, I would suggest you should locate its territory, and keep people out of it," the vet said. "That's the best advice I can give you."
"Thank you for your expertise," Elsa said.
At that instant, a very loud, blasting roar, louder than a thunderclap, tore through the air from deep inside the forest. The guards surrounding the royal sisters immediately drew their swords and their crossbows, everyone's eyes locked onto where the roar came from. After a few seconds, three loud, deep, resonant cawing barks came from the same direction.
"Perhaps," one of the guards suggested, "Your Highness, we should get you two back to the castle, for safety's sake."
"Yes, I fully agree," Elsa said, shaken from the otherworldly vocalizations.
Doctor," Anna said warily, "Does that noise match any known animal?"
"Not to my knowledge, no. However, a call as loud and deep as that would certainly suit this animal. This also rules out what the calls we heard meant; it could be territorial, a distress call, claiming a kill, or, Heaven forbid, a mating call."
"Dear Lord," Elsa said, shaking her head. "If there is more than one of those things out there, we may have to evacuate citizens from near the forest."
"I highly doubt it," the vet said. "It would take a large amount of food to feed one of these creatures. If we had any more than that, the animals would surely have emerged before now, eaten most of the game and livestock, and resorted to eating humans.
The royal sisters made their way back to the carriage, and made the journey back to the castle in complete silence. They would need to confer with Kristoff, who seemed to be pretty knowledgeable of predator behavior, to help the guards track and defend against the beast.
So, if you haven't seen Jurassic World, I highly recommend it. I require it as a necessity to understand some of the events in the story.
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