Chapter 4: Slice of Life, Piece of Cake.
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shadowfang jutsu: Got it to work was able to read this chapter, I will say again love this fic so far
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ThermalsniperN7: Very nice.
-Isla Nublar-
It was a couple days later after the gyrosphere incident and the introduction of the Ultimasaurs to their new habitats—and the campers were being given something that Dan himself hadn't expected: A tour of the I-Rex paddock per Owen's recommendation with Claire's approval—after some convincing.
In terms of particular reactions to this news, Darius was practically nearing the point of jumping out of his skin in excitement to see the two hybrids—particularly after seeing Whitley and Jack two days prior, while Ben was… Let's say very nervous about it for the sake of simplicity.
"I wonder how Opal and Ivory are doing with their sons." The 11 year old mused as they rode the jeeps to their destination.
"Pretty good, I imagine." Dave chimed in.
After a few more minutes of travel, they finally reached the paddock where they could hear the sounds of the two adult I-Rexes walking around. Following Dave and Roxy in, the group soon reached the catwalks over the paddock where there were some employees running about.
"Uh… Where are they?" Darius asked with a blink as he looked into the paddock but saw it looked seemingly empty.
"They are a lot better at hiding than you think." Dan told him as he looked into the paddock as well. "One sec." He said as he leaned forward over the railing. "Opal, Ivory! Come out you two!" He called down into the paddock, causing a slight echo.
There was silence for a long moment after this.
"Yeah, I don't think—." Before Kenji could say anything further, he was surprised by the sudden appearance of the I-Rexes when he saw the two dinos seemingly materialize from thin air—causing him to whip around and actually fall on his ass.
"Told you ya shouldn't have been that close to the rail." Zack snorted.
"They can turn invisible?!" Brooklyn exclaimed in wide eyed shock.
"That's awesome!" Darius exclaimed excitedly.
"Been thinking of why and I think it's because of the cuttlefish dna meant to help their growth rate." Dan mused idly, taking a pair of juicy looking meat chunks and tossing them to the two super predators.
They happily devoured them, obviously.
"Hey, where are their kids at?" Yaz wondered as she looked around.
"Oh, they're in a different part of the paddock probably playing with each other or chasing live prey." Roxy replied with a shrug.
"Wouldn't surprise me if they were, honestly." Dan nodded as he started to rub the I-Rexes on their noses. "Anyone wanna have a go? I'll make sure they won't bite." He told them.
"Much." Ivory snickered, getting her a stern glare in response.
"Um, I'll pass." Ben gulped nervously. He didn't feel like being near two large carnivores.
"Pig loose in the paddock!" One of the workers exclaimed as he rushed by them in a hurry. In his haste, he accidentally knocked Ben off the catwalk with his equipment, causing the boy to scream in panic as he fell.
"BEN!" Darius yelled in alarm.
"Oh I can't watch!" Sammy gasped, covering her eyes in response to the impending doom.
Opal, upon seeing the falling teen, immediately dashed forward and let him land on her back. When the germaphobe felt what he landed on, it took him a moment to realize where he was. When he did, he looked at Opal, who was glancing back at him with what could only be concern.
"Uh… Thanks for the save." He said awkwardly.
Opal gently set him down on the ground, watching to make sure if he showed any signs of injury or not.
"You're welcome." The I-Rex nodded, even if she wasn't understood.
"I'll get him!" Dan said as he slid down the ladder to the paddock. "Roxy, mind lending a hand?" He asked the councilor.
"Right behind you." The woman nodded as she followed him.
When the two were on the paddock's ground, they rushed up to Ben, who was rubbing Opal's snout. The lithe I-Rex was very much enjoying it.
Ivory, meanwhile, took one look at him and had only one conclusion…
"Yeah, this kid isn't a concern." She muttered, easily seeing that Ben was safe to be around, before she laid down and decided to sleep.
"Are you alright, Ben?" Roxy, ever the responsible councilor, asked, checking the boy over—though her mannerisms were a bit muted on account of being so close to Opal.
"Surprisingly, yes, thanks to Opal." The boy nodded, offering a grateful smile to the I-Rex who shivered in a small twitch of pride.
"… Yeah, I think I made a good call asking you to come with me." Dan mused as both Roxy and Ben turned to face where he was facing. "Because now we're completely surrounded." He stated, noticing that Jack and Whitley were now flanking them.
"Wait a minute, is that…?" Yaz muttered.
"Jack and Whitley, they sure grew quickly." Brooklyn nodded, noticing that the juvenile I-Rex Draconi were now the size of Velociraptors.
"Aw, they're so cute!" Sammy exclaimed, before realizing what kind of position Dan, Ben and Roxy were in. "But maybe not the best idea to stay down there, in case they start wanting to play wrestling." She noted.
Meanwhile back with the other three…
"Clever boys…" Dan muttered as the two therapods sized them up—as if they were about to make the trio into Dino chow—before they both started bouncing around and acting like two rambunctious puppies.
"Yay! Friends!" Jack cheered, rolling on the ground like a Labrador puppy meeting a potential owner.
"Play with us! Play with us!" Whitley chirped, hopping and zipping around in an attempt to appear non threatening.
"What're they saying?" Roxy questioned.
"Oh boy, they wanna play." Dan chuckled.
"Is that bad?" The woman asked as she looked at the two young I-Rexes.
"No. It's the kind of playing that you actually wanna do with them." The boy clarified. "Problem is due to their growth spurt, even just playing can get dodgy if they get too rough." He admitted. "Sorry buddies, but Ben isn't quite up for your kind of play, you know how rough you can get when you're too excited." He stated as Whitley accidentally knocked over a small extra watering tank. "Case in point." He added.
"Awwww!" The two whined, disappointed, dropping to their bellies and covering their eyes in dismay, whimpering.
"What about the others?" Opal asked, looking up at the rest of the group.
"Not all of them, but some of them could handle it." Dan hummed. "Hey guys, you wanna play with Jack and Whitely?" He asked.
The kids' bodies tensed visibly as they processed this offer, before they slowly looked over at Dave for a word.
"Whaddya think, Roxy?" Dave called down, sensing the unease.
"Things seem okay down here, but let's proceed with extreme caution." The woman replied.
The campers (with much wariness) climbed down into the paddock with Dave following.
"Okay you two, come on over. But play nice, we don't need any accidents." Dan told the two, gesturing for the twin therapods to come over.
Jack looked at Darius curiously and walked up to him, stopping to sniff him. Naturally, the boy was instinctively nervous… Before the young hybrid started licking his face, causing him to laugh.
"Huh, looks like he likes you, Darius." Dave noted.
"Give it a minute…" Dan said as he counted down from five on his hand, before Jack leapt on top of Darius and nested himself on top of the boy. "There it is." He nodded. "Jack always makes you think he's not gonna do anything, then he gets you when your guard is down." He added, shooting a stern look at the theropod. "A habit I've been trying to get him to kick." He stated.
"You can't stop me!" Jack cackled mischievously.
"The other one is certainly nice." Yaz smiled as she hugged Whitely, who enjoyed the gesture.
"That's Whitley, he's the more well behaved of the two, he's not nearly as prone to causing trouble as Jack here—which I'm starting to notice may be a result of Opal being the more well behaved of their mothers…" The auxiliary handler hummed to himself as he looked at the two grown I-Rexes, Ivory letting out a chortled snort and Opal seemingly humming at the compliment.
"You may have a point there…" Roxy hummed, seeing what Dan was getting at. Different parents meant different temperaments.
"You're so cute Whitleyyyy!~" Sammy squealed as she hugged the baby I-Rex and scratched his head.
The well mannered I-Rex greatly enjoyed her ministrations. So much that he didn't notice a scale chip off his body.
Dan could only smile as he saw everyone playing with the two juvenile I-Rexes, seeing them play so well with people who weren't even their handlers filled him with a warm feeling in his chest akin to pride—it meant that his efforts were paying off.
(Later)
Later on, back at the camp house, it was raining outside again and Dan was brewing everyone tea again while also using the camp's juicer to make some fruit/vegetable juice for those not in the mood for something warm, additionally, Sammy was helping him bake some chocolate chip cookies for everyone.
"Appreciate the help again, Sammy. It's kinda hard to do multiple things at once. Especially in the kitchen." The boy smiled as he poured the juices into mason jars and the tea into mugs.
Going in order they were: Camomile and mint tea for Yaz. Orange, Pineapple, and carrot juice with lemon and ginger for Brooklyn. Earl Grey tea for Maisie. Apple Blueberry lemon and ginger juice for Darius. Beet, apple, lemon and ginger juice for Ben. Green Apple, Celery, lemon and ginger juice for Kenji. Some regular old milk for Gray and Sammy. And lastly some coffee for Zack, Roxy and Dave.
The cookies, meanwhile, were made by combining double the butter which he browned first—nearly burning said butter and filling the room with smoke on account of trying to do multiple things at once—hence his later request for help from Sammy.
"No problem. You looked like you needed more than a bit of help." The ranch girl commented in reply.
Dan hummed as he put the now set brown butter in a bowl with brown sugar and flour and started mixing, adding in eggs, milk and various toppings like chocolate chips, toffee, popcorn and anything else he could get his hands on.
"Still, thanks." The boy nodded as the ding of the timer for the oven alerted him of the baked goods being finished. "Alright everyone, here it is!" He called as he pulled the cookies out with some T-Rex oven mits, the chocolate chips just starting to melt and the steam from their time in the oven causing their sweet aroma to drift through the air.
Everyone was quick to grab their tea, juice, milk or coffee from the counter while grabbing some cookies, condemnation and steam shifting between the two drink mediums every so often.
Dan, meanwhile, made himself a combination of the three, specifically a "Blue" Aqua Fresca from the Jurassic World cookbook, which was a combination of blueberry, ginger, butterfly pea blossom water and just a little bit of cream.
With that, he sat down and joined everyone on the couches and chairs, before pulling out his journal and starting to write—the click of his Bakugan limited edition pen causing some of the others to take notice.
"What are you writing about, little guy?" Kenji wondered, trying to steal a glance at the journal's contents.
"Nothing, just what happened today." The animal whisperer replied, too busy jotting down the things he did that day to notice Kenji seeing what he was writing.
Overall it was a good day… But I'm not sure Friday will be. It's my birthday that day and… it's the fifth one without dad this—and—I just can't bring myself to get excited. It read.
'Ooh boy… The kid's probably gonna yell at me for this later, but I better help him.' Kenji thought with an unnoticeable wince, the early stage of a plan forming in his head.
"Thanks for the cookies, Dan." Brooklyn noted. "Ya know I did some baking videos before, maybe we could do a collab or something?" She offered.
"Pass." Dan told her, not looking up from his writing—causing the girl to visibly deflate. "On the video part, I mean." He amended, which seemed to bring some wind back in the girl's sails, causing Maisie to chuckle.
"Video or no video, cookies inside with a drink on a rainy night sure beats being out in the rain—especially after a day with I-Rexes." Darius noted. "Eh? Right guys?" He added awkwardly.
"D-man's got a point there." Kenji nodded, taking a bite from his cookie and sipping his green juice. "Whoo! That is tart! Nice." He coughed with a wrench, but he hardly found it unpleasant as the tartness gave way to a slight bittersweet not not unlike an actual green apple.
This ended up causing Zack to roll his eyes as he, the adults and those with milk just straight up dipped their cookies in their drinks.
"This one's pretty good too." Darius nodded, liking the sweetness of the Blueberry apple juice.
"It's my second favorite. I figured you'd like it." Dan nodded as he continued to write and sketch.
"This beet apple juice is just what I needed. Lemon and ginger too—after getting so close to the Dinos and getting slobbered on—I sure need it." Ben nodded, shivering in slight delight at the bitter sweet and earthy taste of the juice.
"Figured as much. That one's my favorite, and since beets are good for immune health I knew you'd like it." The animal whisperer said.
This caused Darius and Ben to look at each other before exchanging pleased expressions. "Thanks, Dan." They smiled.
"You're welcome, guys." Dan nodded, smiling back as he looked at them—before returning to his sketch—which was a sketch of everyone with the I-Rexes.
"Gotta love the way Dan makes stuff taste good." Dave chuckled as he drank some coffee. This comment was a moment of him reflecting on when he first tried the boy's cooking, and he had to admit, the boy was a natural.
"Comes with the territory of being in a military and single parent household." Daniel nodded with a slight shrug as he finished writing in his journal and took his own cookies and drink. "They're my mom's recipe, she used to make these with my dad when they watched King of the Hill together when they were dating." He added.
His comment causes everyone to fall into a slightly solemn silence, either having heard the story about the boy's father's demise or were made aware of it later.
Luckily—Sammy—ever the enthusiastic one, decided to chime in with something to lighten the mood.
"Oh! I know! My parents and I always liked playing board games during rainy days and nights, why don't we play one now?" She offered.
"Like what?" Yaz questioned.
"Anyone up for Monopoly?" Sammy asked in response.
"Hey yeah. I saw an electronic Jurassic World Monopoly on the shelf earlier." Darius nodded. "Great idea, Sammy." He added.
"Alright, let's play." Kenji smirked.
(Later)
After getting the gaming laptops that the camp had on hand ready, the kids and adults got around the table and booted up the game—the screens sparking to life as the park logo and theme music played—before being cut with the monopoly logo.
"Vibration setting, yes. Vibrate my mouse please." Gray chuckled, causing everyone to snort or guffaw while trying to stifle their laughter.
"I guess this can be played with a controller…?" Ben trailed off in confusion.
"I'm using a controller." Dan nodded as he held his controller up, shaking it.
"M and K is freaking cracked on monopoly, not gonna lie…" Kenji mused as the game started.
"Yeah, like I got an aimbot, for this." Zack nodded, causing everyone to start laughing.
"Aimbot?" His brother questioned.
"So I can snipe those properties, bro!" The older brother chuckled.
"… So apparently I go first." Brooklyn noted as she prompted her device to roll for her.
"What? Why do you—?" Darius questioned.
"Because she rolled a ten first, she goes first." Dan told him.
"Streamer benefits, am I right?" Brooklyn nodded as her dice rolled.
"Yeah yeah." The boys nodded, eyes rolling.
"Ooh! Double!" The pink haired girl smiled as her dice popped up as a double six.
"What the-Double sixes already?!" Dan exclaimed in surprise.
"It bounced off your hat, Brooklyn!" Yaz exclaimed.
"Uh, yeah, I'll buy that, why not?" The blonde mused as she bought an electric company. "And I get to roll again, don't I?" She chuckled as she rolled a four.
"Community chest." Dan nodded. "Go to jail!" He added, deciding to troll Brooklyn for the double sixes.
"Community Chest can't send you to jail, can it?" Brooklyn asked as she moved onto the space in question. "I don't think it can." She noted.
"I think it can." The younger boy countered as the community chest revealed a card that gave Brooklyn $200 right off the bat. "Oh come on!" He groaned, his arms flailing in exasperation.
"Game's rigged." Kenji stated.
"Time to drift!" Zack grinned as he rolled the dice… Only for one of them to hit his piece. "Uh oh…" He uttered, and saw that he got a seven.
"So much for drifting." Dave chuckled as the move revealed a less than advantageous card that gave Darius money before even moving.
"I haven't even moved yet and I've already made bank!" The Dino nerd exclaimed as Dan took his turn, the dice knocking over his Pterodactyl piece. "You knocked over my piece!" He exclaimed.
"Alright yes!" Dan whooped as the card he got from chance gave him a free property slot.
Seconds later…
"Come on!" Kenji cheered as he rolled, only for one of the dice to be launched clear across the board.
"Uh… Yeet?" Gray questioned.
"Where'd the other dice go?" Zack questioned.
Then it was revealed to be a seven—income tax.
"Ooh, income tax!" Roxy laughed.
"Kiss my ass! I'm not paying that!" The Japanese boy barked.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you, tax evasion!" Ben heckled.
…
Later on, the game continues.
"Okay I'd just like to point out, right." Dan said as everyone took their turns. "We have a self made YouTuber, who has a goddamn flash apartment." He noted, looking at Brooklyn. "A high ranking business heir." He continued, looking at Kenji.
"Whaddya mean, high ranking? I'm not in business yet." The boy stated.
"Dude, have you seen your room?!" The Dino whisperer said, recalling the pictures he'd seen.
"That's a fair point." Brooklyn chuckled with a nod.
"Then we have Darius, who's damn near rich off video game carries." Dan continued.
"As if I get paid for those?" The Dino nerd retorted. "I don't get paid for that!" He added, causing everyone to laugh.
…
"What the-?!" Dave exclaimed as he got income tax.
"Rest in peace, my boy." Kenji snorted, right before his roll had him landing on Sammy's space. "Aw come on!" He groaned.
"Yee haw!" Sammy cheered.
Right after this, Dan, Roxy and Maisie seemed to get into a move based bickering match.
"YES!" The boy cheered as he got double twos.
"You jammy little twirp!" Maisie exclaimed in envy.
Then on the second roll he got double fours.
"You—!" Roxy exclaimed.
"I'm going to brown town! Let's go!" Dan whooped as his piece picked up a brown space and passed go, giving him $200.
…
A few minutes later…
Roxy landed on a free space, and unfortunately she was short by two dollars.
"Oh no, I'm two short!" The counselor groaned in dismay.
"It's going to auction baby!" Dan exclaimed before everyone got into a bidding war—which slowly became just them increasing by a dollar every time until someone gave up.
"Hey Brooklyn, is this considered content?" Yaz questioned.
"What a furious bidding war!" Sammy laughed before it suddenly stopped.
"Ya know, I'm looking at Dan's money and I think you're paying enough right now." Dave said before letting the boy win.
"That's fair." Dan nodded.
…
"Hey Roxy, I got a trade for you." Dan said after a bit.
"Do you think I'm stupid, Dan?" Roxy questioned with a raised eyebrow as she saw the boy's offer. "Thirteen bucks?!" She gawked in disbelief. "Counter offer—you give all of your money!" She added.
"This is the worst trade deal in the history of forever." Dan sighed, causing everyone to guffaw and start laughing.
"Yeah, you gotta manually click each dollar!" Kenji laughed in agreement.
"Isn't there a button to make this go faster?" Dave questioned.
"Yeah, you can scroll." Roxy confirmed as she kept taking Dan's money. "I'm taking your cash for all its worth!" She cackled. "There." She nodded.
"You seriously gonna accept that?" Maisie questioned.
"Roxy…" Dan said, a sly smile playing on his lips, causing the woman to look at him. "You didn't press submit." He told her.
This made the woman's eyes go wide as everyone burst out laughing.
"It's the same offer! THANK YOU!" The dino whisperer cackled, the tables turning for him. "Thank you very much! Ha ha!" He laughed.
"Dan, I'm not letting you near the PC anymore." Roxy stated.
"Remind me never to play poker with him." Kenji whispered to Ben.
…
"Oh yeah!" Sammy exclaimed as her rolled allowed her to pass go, land on chance and pull a card that sent her to free parking.
"For anyone else following that's $1800 bucks this chick got from free parking!" Kenji called.
…
"You want the yellows, right?" Maisie grinned.
"Uh, yeah?" Brooklyn nodded.
"No Brooklyn." Darius told her.
"We can drain her ass right now, do not give her anything." Kenji added.
"I'm trying to do a solid for you here, Brooklyn." Maisie told the blogger, trying to keep her from changing her mind.
"You're not, Maisie." Yaz deadpanned, seeing right through her.
"You're a liar and a fraud." Ben and Gray nodded. "Jinx!" They exclaimed.
"Ten dollars for you to get this monopoly." The eleven year old girl offered.
Brooklyn was very suspicious of this, but a nagging feeling in the back of her head caused her to start twitching, her head telling her to say yes.
"Wait… Are– Are you messing with me?" She questioned.
"Brooklyn no…" Darius said.
"I'm sorry, I know it's a bad idea—but I'm ready to live with the consequences." The pink haired girl said.
"Because I provide content for your followers?" Maisie questioned.
"… Yes." She nodded as she accepted the deal.
"You just gonna bow to content that easily?!" Yaz questioned incredulously.
"Absolutely I'm gonna bow to content—it pays my bills!" The influencer nodded.
"Oh no…" Dan groaned.
"I'd like the record to show that this was when the game would be 'nice' to play—and now this is going to take six hours to complete." Kenji pointed out.
"I hear ya…" Dave sighed.
(Timeskip)
It was the next day and while Dan was busy taking a shower, Kenji decided to mention what he'd discovered the previous night, before the monopoly game.
"Guys, I managed to get a look at Dan's journal last night, and it gave me an idea we could pull to help him out a bit." He told the other campers.
"Okay, first, why did you do that?" Yaz questioned.
"Yeah, that's an invasion of his privacy." Maisie nodded.
"Not cool, Kenji." Brooklyn stated.
"Now hold your horses, guys, you haven't heard why I looked." The older teen told them.
"Against my better judgement… Why?" Yaz asked reluctantly.
"His birthday is this Friday." Kenji revealed, causing the others to blink.
"Seriously?" Darius asked in surprise.
"Wait, really? Why didn't he say anything?" Sammy questioned.
"Yeah, now that I think about it, he's never even mentioned his birthday before." Darius nodded.
"Probably because of bad memories." Zack chimed in.
"That would do it." Ben nodded in agreement.
"Oh, right, his dad." Gray winced, having heard about it from Ben during the gyrosphere ride.
Brooklyn, though seemed more interested in something that she noticed on her phone from the night before—but she was pulled from her thoughts when Sammy hopped from her seat.
"I know! Let's throw Dan a birthday party!" She exclaimed.
"Now you're seeing what I came up with." Kenji grinned. "Who's up for throwing Dan a surprise birthday party?" He questioned.
"I mean… I'd totally want to, especially after everything he's done for us but…" Brooklyn said, turning to meet them. "Don't you think it's a little insensitive?" She asked.
"How so?" Yaz questioned.
"He's gonna ask how we found out, and that's gonna go straight back to Kenji, which could cause problems." The blogger explained. "Not to mention, it's probably another birthday he has to spend without his dad." She added.
"If you ask me that seems like even more of a reason to throw him a party." Gray countered.
"Yeah, we gotta do something to make it better for him." Maisie nodded.
"One issue. How're we gonna do that? We don't even know what he'd want or what to do for decorations, a cake and presents." Zack pointed out.
"Yeah. But I think we know who could give us that info…" Darius said as he trailed off when Dan came back from his shower, now dressed in some comfy red Bakugan Battle Brawlers Pajama pants and a yellow tank top, since they weren't planning on heading anywhere.
"… Something wrong?" He asked, confused as he dried his hair idly.
"Nope!" The kid chorused.
Shrugging, Dan headed elsewhere, unaware of the other campers conspiring.
(Later)
"Wait, you guys wanna go where?" Dave questioned as the kids came to him and Roxy.
"We were wondering if you could take us to see Dan's uncle Owen." Darius explained.
"There's a few things we need to ask him." Brooklyn nodded.
"Uh, okay. As long as he's not busy." The councilor shrugged, seeing no problems.
"Mind telling us what you want to ask him?" Roxy questioned.
The kids all exchanged a few looks before they decided to let Sammy do the whispering.
"We're gonna try throwing Dan a birthday party." She told them.
"That's thoughtful of you lot, what brought this on?" The woman asked.
"You know how Dan's had a few parentless birthdays already?" Kenji asked a little tactlessly.
"Not particularly." Dave admitted.
"Well, seeing as he's done a lot for us already, we really want to try and do something special for him." Darius stated.
"Throwing a big birthday party seemed like a really good way to do that." Yaz nodded.
"That would be quite a good idea." Roxy hummed. "Okay, we'll need to keep Dan busy though." She noted.
Dave seemed to take this in with the rest of the kids before he snapped his fingers.
"Ya know, I think I remember hearing that Barry from asset containment needing help with a trike heard that's gotten lost." He hummed after a brief pause.
"You think we can use that?" Darius asked.
"Oh yeah, I'll give Barry a quick call and he'll send a message to Dan's tablet, that'll get him to go there while we get to work." The man nodded.
"Perfect." Sammy nodded with a smile.
(Later)
After a brief drive to Owen's trailer, the man soon took notice of the kids' arrival.
"Oh hey kids, Roxy, Dave. What's up?" He asked.
"We have something specifically regarding Dan that we needed to ask you about in person." Darius began.
"Oh yeah? What would that be?" The raptor handler questioned.
"We… Found out that Dan's birthday is coming up and we wanted to do something special for him." Sammy explained, looking at Kenji.
Owen, being experienced at connecting dots thanks to his navy experience, saw how they found out.
"You saw Dan's journal, didn't you?" He deadpanned disapprovingly.
"What? Moi? No!" The rich kid said in mock offense with a nervous chuckle before sighing as everyone looked at him. "... It was in my line of sight, okay? Jeez." He groaned.
"I still don't approve, but I do have some ideas in mind." Owen sighed.
"Great! That's exactly what we need!" Darius beamed.
"What kind of party are you guys going for, by the way?" The ex-navy soldier questioned.
"Classic surprise party." Sammy replied.
"Ha! Perfect! Dan loves surprise parties!" Owen grinned. "Now I'm not sure what kind of decorations you kids can get around here, but in terms of food I strongly suggest looking at the Jurassic World cookbook. Dan loves just about everything in that book." He told them.
"Sounds doable, we even have ingredients for stuff in the book at camp." Roxy nodded.
"Does he have a favorite type of cake? Cuz there was a Blue cake in the cookbook now that I think about it." Sammy asked.
"Yeah, chocolate chili cake with raspberry jam, chocolate mousse and honeycomb. It's the cake he's had every birthday since." The man nodded.
"And I know exactly where to get the honeycomb, Triassic Sweets at the main park!" Gray chimed in.
"But if there's one thing I think he'd really appreciate—it's a batch of nutmeg ginger apple snap cookies." The raptor handler told them. "They were his dad's favorite, they'd eat them every year on thanksgiving and watch Fantastic Mr. Fox, their favorite movie." He explained.
"So we have a birthday movie picked out now. Okay." Roxy hummed.
"That's so sad, though." Sammy sighed, her posture visibly deflating.
"Well, hey. I know a few good YouTube videos about those same cookies, and I've done plenty of baking videos before, so I can definitely help with getting this prepped!" Brooklyn nodded, hopping on her heels.
"I can help with getting decorations set up." Dave chimed.
"I guess the rest of us can help out wherever we need." Darius shrugged.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, at the east side of the island, Barry was attempting to get a trike heard to follow him out of the area they were in, which was an ankylosaurus grazing ground—needing to get them moved before things got out of hand.
Especially since the herd in question was the one that Justinian and Theodora were a part of.
"Come on… Come on…" He muttered, trying to get them to follow him.
"Hey, Barry!" A voice called, causing him to turn around and see Dan hopping out of a Jeep after being brought there by Asset Containment.
"Oh, Dan. I'm glad you were able to come. I need some help getting this herd to move." He told the boy.
"What seems to be—aw hang me…" The animal whisperer said before groaning as he saw the trikes grazing just a mere few yards away from the ankylosaurus, and what was more striking, was that Justinian and Theodora were apparently playing with a familiar looking Teal colored Ankylosaur hatchling.
"Yes, the kids seem more interested in playing right now." Barry told him.
"And I'm guessing this is why things are being held up?" Dan questioned.
"Unfortunately." The man sighed.
"This is gonna take forever…" The preteen sighed as his muscles deflated, seeing the writing on the wall—or field, rather.
(Timeskip)
A couple days later on Friday, while Dan was out with Owen trying to help with social training for the Utah Raptors and Mortalodons—the campers were at work.
"Okay, camp fam! Let's get to making the best surprise party ever!" Sammy exclaimed as she and the other campers got to work.
Currently, they were doing an assortment of tasks to get everything where they needed to be. Brooklyn was baking with Darius helping out, Kenji was helping out with provisions and the councilors were bringing things in and so on.
"Okay so now that we have the cookies ready, all we need to do is dust them with powdered sugar and then put the candied apple slices on them." The girl said, prompting Maisie to do just that.
"Done." The granddaughter of Benjamin Lockwood nodded. "How's the cake and snacks coming, guys?" She called.
"The cake is looking good here." Sammy replied as she and Yaz started the finishing touches of said cake.
"Just gotta…" Yaz said, trying to get the icing right, only to get blue buttercream all over her face in a small blow back. "Add that." She uttered after a moment.
"Decorations are looking good over here." Roxy chimed in as she set up a birthday banner.
"… Hey, did we get any presents for Dan yet?" Gray asked, as he and Maisie finished working on the rest of the desserts from the JW cookbook.
*record scratch*
"... Uh oh." The others gulped.
"Guys, guys, chill." Kenji told them as he pulled out a large sack from behind the couch. "Dave, Roxy and I already got it handled." He continued as he pulled out the gifts and handed them to everyone.
The were:
A Charlie, Echo, Delta and even an Ultimasaurus plushie for Darius, Ben, Gray, and Dave to give him.
A JW Swig water bottle for Yaz to give Dan.
Brooklyn's gift would be a raptor themed MP3 player.
Maisie's was a heat changing dinosaur mug.
Sammy's was a copy of Dragon's Teeth by Michael Crighton. A book she'd heard Dan mention that he'd wanted a copy of.
Zack's Gift was a walky talky.
Roxy got him a few of his favorite Dr. Squatch "King of Brics" soap.
And Kenji… He got Dan a Fossil Brand JW themed automatic watch—a really nice one, too.
"Okay, good. Really saved our bacon on that one." Darius sighed in relief.
"Guess all we gotta do now is wait." Maisie nodded as she watched Ben and Gray putting jars of the fresh juice into coolers.
"Sounds good to me." Kenji nodded.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile with Dan and Owen, they were busy supervising the socializing training of the Mortalodons and Utah Raptors by seeing how they interacted with Blue, Charlie, Delta and Echo.
Currently, the raptors were either socializing, playing or sleeping. There weren't any signs of conflict… So far.
"Kowabunga!" Zagreus cheered as he leapt on top of Nora, tackling her to the ground and initiating a wrestling match—which then turned into a dog pile with Wendy, Eve and Song following suit, trying to get the Mortalodon off their sister.
"... Yep, they're kids, alright." Dan remarked.
"They can't be anything else with that behavior." Owen nodded in agreement.
"But hey, at least it seems like they're not trying to kill each other." The boy nodded. "Think we're clear to try Empathy training?" He asked.
"I'd say so, yeah." His uncle nodded in reply. "Blue!" He whistled, causing the raptor to roll over and walk towards them, Dan scratching her under the chin and causing her foot to start thumping.
"Think you can help us with the empathy training with the hatchlings?" The boy asked.
"Yeah. I can do that." The striped raptor replied with a nod.
"She says she can." He told his uncle.
"That's my girl." The man nodded. "Alright, let's do it." He told them.
(Later)
It was later that evening and Owen was bringing his nephew back to camp on his motorcycle, and as the two got off, the man pulled something from his pocket.
"Before we head inside, I wanted to give you something." He said, handing him what looked like a loose leather bound book with a belt keeping it closed. "For when your old one gets full." He added.
Daniel looked at the book and saw that it was a journal, and as he opened it, he saw something etched in the leather.
Even in the greatest darkness, there's always light.
Happy birthday, Danny, I love you.
- Dad.
"He gave me that before his last mission. I was gonna give it to you sooner but I just couldn't find the right moment." Owen admitted.
"... Th-Thanks…" Dan whimpered as tears poured from his eyes—before he ran to his uncle and hugged him tightly. "I miss him, uncle Owen." He whispered shakily.
"I miss him too, kiddo, every day." The man nodded, hugging his nephew back. "But he's with us in spirit. He always will be." He told him, stroking the boy's hair. "Happy birthday, Dan." He smiled.
"I love you, uncle Owen." Dan whimpered shakily.
"Love you too, kiddo." The raptor handler whispered back.
The two stayed like that for a long moment before they slowly pulled apart and headed towards the top of the tree house—where they found the camp to be surprisingly quiet, and dark—suspiciously so.
"What the–? There's usually noise here." Dan muttered as he tried to listen for something.
Owen meanwhile was just trying to keep a straight face as they walked into the dark main room, knowing exactly what was about to happen.
"And he said: Let there be light!" The voice of Dave said as the lights came on and everyone jumped out of their hiding places—including Claire, and Barry!
"SURPRISE!" They all cheered.
"Hope you had a pleasant birthday, Daniel." One Simon Masrani said, revealing that he'd also come. "I certainly know you've more than earned it." He added as everyone gathered around the boy.
This led to the majority of the campers pulling the eleven—scratch that—twelve year old into a group hug.
"Happy birthday, Dan." The kids smiled.
"... Thanks, guys." The animal whisperer smiled as he relaxed into the giant embrace.
"Alright, let's go ahead and get to the presents and then we can get to the cake." Kenji nodded with a slight clap.
The festivities commenced after that, and Dan… He couldn't have been happier.
Dragon Emperor0: Hey guys. Just thought we'd do a few original chapters this story before we actually start getting ready for everything to go sideways—because at that point we'd only have two or three chapters of the campers actually at camp and that just doesn't seem fair, to us the writers, them the characters or you the readers. So, here's the first of a new line.
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah, there's gotta be a decent amount of good stuff before we leap into the chaos. Three or more chapters of good stuff before dinos rampage? Yeah, no. We need more of the characters actually having some fun.
Dragon Emperor0: Speaking of if you guys have any ideas in particular feel free to let us know. It could be fun to see what you all come up with. That said, man did writing a few parts of this chapter almost make me cry. I've never lost my dad nor have I done so at a young age—thank god—but I know the pain of loss all the same and it is not fun by any stretch of the imagination.
ThermalsniperN7: Boy, don't I know that all too well… Anyway, see you guys next time.
