Jurassic Park: The Broken Lives Saga by Dinohunter55
Chapter 7: When Dinosaurs Speak
Silver Claw pulled a compsognathus from the fridge and closed the door like he was told to do by Amanda. In the days following Tyrannous effectively trapping them inside the fence, Silver Claw managed to catch several of the small dinosaurs when they ventured in through the drainage pipe to scavenge the caudipteryx carcass. Ellie was disgusted watching him catch and eat them and did not try to hide that fact.
Amanda however disappeared into the building. Later that day, she convinced him to bring his meals to the fridge after she thoroughly cleaned it. She said it was so that they would not rot. It took some convincing on her part, and in the end she had to promise him that she would not take them for herself while he was not looking before he agreed to try it. He disliked the cold meat but it did not spoil as quickly like she said.
This was the last compsognathus.
Silver Claw found Amanda sitting against the window of the lobby. She turned one of the brown feathers of the caudipteryx between her fingers while watching Ellie through the door. Ellie had become obsessed over the vehicle parked near the entrance and was trying to get it started. So far nothing had worked.
"She has some knowledge about engines," Amanda said as Silver Claw sat down beside her and started eating. Whatever initial disgust Amanda had for seeing it happen had disappeared quickly over the first few days and if any remained, she did not show it. "After her brother died, Ellie tried to take his place at her father's side. He's a bit of a car nut." Amanda laughed. "If it's fixable, she might get it going. I don't know where we'd go though."
Ellie cursed and banged a wrench on something in the engine.
"I don't have high hopes though." Amanda set the feather down and pulled her knees up to her chest.
Silver Claw heard Amanda's stomach growl. He slowed his eating. Amanda and Ellie had finished the last of their food the day before. They were able to refill the water bottles with the frequent rain at least so they would not go thirsty.
"Silver Claw," Amanda said.
It took him a moment but he realized that she spoke it passably in his language. Silver Claw looked her in the eyes and nodded.
Amanda smiled. "I finally managed it?"
He nodded again.
"That's good," she leaned back and closed her eyes, "Silver Claw."
Silver Claw stopped eating and looked down at the remains. He pulled a leg from the compsognathus and set it aside. He quickly finished the rest, bones and meat. He nudged Amanda's leg and she looked at him. Silver Claw picked up the leg and set it beside her.
Amanda looked between the leg and him wearily. "I'm not going to touch it. I told you that."
Silver Claw picked it up and pressed it to her hand.
"Are you offering it to me?" Amanda looked confused.
Silver Claw hesitated but nodded slowly. It felt uncomfortable giving up food to another but he wanted her to survive.
Amanda gently took it from his mouth and turned it over in her hand. The thigh had a good amount of meat on it and the calf a little as well. "I can't cook this. The stove isn't working. How am I supposed to eat it?"
Silver Claw made a chewing motion and then stared expectantly at her. He hoped she would understand.
Amanda swallowed nervously and looked out at Ellie. She was walking over to the garage with a battery held in two hands. Amanda closed her eyes, hesitated, and then brought the thigh up to her lips. She took a small tentative bite and winced. She chewed it slowly and swallowed. Immediately, Amanda took another bite, larger than the first.
Silver Claw nodded as Amanda finally opened her eyes.
She gave a sheepish shrug. "I guess I'm pretty hungry." She ate what she could and set the rest aside.
Silver Claw snapped up the bones and ate them. The small bones broke and digested easily and the rare time he got a hold of larger bones he would gnaw them until he reached the tasty marrow inside. Sometimes he found them already broken after a larger predator finished on a kill. His teeth were not designed to break bone but tear flesh.
"This was the last one," Amanda said. "Thanks for sharing."
Silver Claw cocked his head.
"I was just checking to make sure the fridge was still working." She threw her hands up in protest. "I didn't take any, promise."
Silver Claw shifted closer and set his head on her knees. He watched the jungle beyond the fence. He saw a flash of green and hissed.
"I see him," Amanda said and stroked Silver Claw's quills down.
Tyrannous followed Ellie along the fence but disappeared out of sight when Ellie entered the garage.
"He's a stubborn one," Amanda said.
Silver Claw wanted to teach Amanda now but had to wait until she brought the subject up to do it. He desperately wanted to talk to her, to have her understand. The fact he could not frustrated him most of all.
Dusk came and Silver Claw patrolled the fence line as he did every night before bed recently. He had an excess of energy from the day and had trouble sleeping if he did not burn some of it off. That would change soon as starvation took hold. He saw Tyrannous mirroring his path in the jungle. He did not hide his presence. Usually it took the form of a silent stalker. Even when Silver Claw asked something, he would not answer. Tyrannous was trying to unnerve him and it was working.
"I saw found your nest today," Tyrannous spoke for the first time in days. "Was it the spinosaurus?"
"It was," Silver Claw did not look at him but kept walking. He felt almost relieved to talk to someone, even his enemy.
"I'm sorry for that, I truly am." Tyrannous said without a trace of mockery. "I know the pain of losing one's pack. I learned that during the last conflict between ours."
"So are you trying to get your revenge?" Silver Claw stopped where the fence met the cliff and turned around.
"Not for that but in a way, yes," Tyrannous emerged from the trees and matched Silver Claw along the fence.
"Why attack me?" Silver Claw stopped and turned to look at Tyrannous. In the failing light, Tyrannous looked all the more terrifying.
Tyrannous considered the question for a while. "You're father. I have a grudge to settle with him but it seems he is dead so you'll have to do as the last one of his blood."
"You already killed my mother and my siblings." Silver Claw hissed.
"And I tried to kill you too. That break on the crest over your right eye still reminds you of that I'm sure." Tyrannous leaned in, "You're mother was an unfortunate necessity. She discovered that I was spying for the other pack and not the exile I played the part of during the initial conflict. I took no pleasure in it or your siblings. You were very little back then, wedged yourself into those roots perfectly."
"What did he do to you?"
"He killed my mate but that was something I learned after your mother," Tyrannous twisted his head and looked down at Silver Claw with an icy blue glare. "The start of it goes back to the time when we were caged by the humans, I'm sure you are feeling some of that now though you are in there with them. I don't know why you've spared them. But alas, the rest is a tale for another time."
Tyrannous disappeared into the jungle just before a light fell over Silver Claw.
"Was he out there?" Amanda asked.
Silver Claw just nodded, walked over to Amanda, and then led her inside for the night.
"I am Amanda," Amanda said slowly, the words harsh and unfamiliar on her vocal cords.
"Good," Silver Claw replied.
Amanda smiled. For a bit over a week, she spent much of her time with Silver Claw learning his language. She knew a few words now and could repeat them back to Silver Claw with some confidence. Coincidentally, the structure of the language was close enough to English that she found it easy to string words together as she learned them. She sounded like a child, she was sure, but it worked for simple conversation.
Silver Claw was an easily frustrated teacher however. Hunger made him restless. The discovery of a large rat nest in one of the rooms sated him for a while and he actually offered some to Amanda. She turned it down so pieces of the last one were acting as bait now to lure in some compsognathus or other scavengers. Ellie had discovered a large patch of raspberries and strawberries growing behind the garage. They were nearly all gone now but it allowed an excuse to avoid the raw rats.
"How about we try different objects next?" Amanda suggested in English.
"Ok," Silver Claw said and waited for Amanda to bring something forward.
Ellie walked the underground tunnel, flashlight shining ahead as she chewed a well-cooked chunk of meat. It pained her to have killed the rat and more that she had not shared the measly meal with Amanda but she was starving and saw that the velociraptor was offering Amanda parts of its food. It never offered her anything. But then again she would have refused it anyway. Eating raw meat was disgusting and Ellie only ate the rat once she cooked it thoroughly from the fire she started using a lighter she discovered in a locker. She had done it in the tunnel where neither Amanda nor the dinosaur would smell the smoke.
She hated that velociraptor. Amanda was blind to it but Ellie knew what it was capable of, she saw it on the beaches while she was helpless on the rock. The dinosaurs killed them all and the tide carried away the bodies for the sharks. She tried telling Amanda this but she refused to listen.
Years of friendship and she preferred to believe in her little saviour. It had not done anything yet but it was a wild animal and one day it would turn on them. Ellie was sure.
Ahead, the reflective orange of tail lights caught her eye. She found a gas powered cart just sitting abandoned in the tunnel. Not the best thing to leave idling in a confined space but potentially useful if it worked. The vehicle above ground was shot. Something was seized in the engine and she did not have the knowledge to figure out what or the means to repair it.
Ellie checked the gas tank. It smelled like gas. The keys were still in the ignition. The tried it. The engine turned over. That was a start. She tried it again and the engine turned and rumbled into life. Headlights flickered on and Ellie turned off her flashlight. She sat down in the seat and drove the cart back to the garage. She needed to get back before she was missed.