Chapter 3:4
AnimalKrazed
Caw Caw!
- Location
- Above You
Chapter Three: Part Four
OddFather's Hunt
SoundTrack: Remember from the Lion King
OddFather's Hunt
SoundTrack: Remember from the Lion King
OddFather…You want to know more about OddFather and Mother Mammal. You know so little about them. At least with Mother Mammal you have a fairly good head picture of. Mother was not so good at describing what OddFather looked like. All you know was that he was an Odd, which is something you still cannot quite picture. Odds are supposed to look something like a tree-dweller mammal but with the texture and furlessness of a small Mammal's tail. You know that their skins come in four colours, the darker browns of mud, the blacks of talons and claws, the lighter brown of sand, and apparently the whites of clouds. You could believe most of that, but white as a cloud? Nothing is that white, it would stand out way too much. At least with the greys and silvers of your kind they could easily blend into the times of dusk and dawn.
Mother described Odd-Father as a male, which in Odds apparently means a flat, muscular body and snout fur. Females have bubbles of flesh on their chest and longer head fur, or so Mother claims. Oh, and all Odds have a secondary skin that can be any colour of the rainbow and they change the second skin as they wished. You are not convinced at all, because it sounds like something from a not-flesh (mushroom) dream. Still, if Mother, Father, and the rest of the pack believe that something like this raised them then something must have being going on. Precise-Claws (raptors) do not just come from nowhere after all.
Shaking yourself from thinking about the oddities of the Odd, you quietly chirp to Slack Jaw that you want to hear about OddFather. She huffs through her nostrils for a moment, before asking what you want to hear about him. You ponder for a moment about what you want to hear. Slack Jaw's sudden near-silent huffing startles you as she begins your her storytelling. You feel a moment of loss at having the choice of topic taken from you, but let it go. You had no idea what you were going to ask for anyway, so it is not much of a loss.
Slack Jaw chitters to you softly, "OddFather was a great parent, caring and stern as needed. He tore and shared the meat of his kills when we sisters were still hatchlings, even though we were not of his young or of his kind. He taught us how to play and how to withhold ourselves so that we would not hurt one another in play. He would watch my sisters and I chase Mother Mammal in fun and play our games. He was stern and wise, chastising us when blood was unnecessarily spilled. Even in the times when we grew large enough to do him serious harm should we have wished it, he never stood down or feared us. Though our talons, fangs, and claws might have nicked him, he made sure to engage in play. He was the best fighter out of the pack, able to wrestle us to the ground and pin us in submission even when the pack worked together. Looking back on those shining times, he was a much better parent to us, then any of our pack, our family, has been able to be." Slack Jaw pauses in thought, ignoring your polite nibble of reassurance that she is a good parent.
"OddFather's most dominating trait was his self-assurance. He strode everywhere like the Two-Claws (Rexes) and Long-Jaws (Baryonx) do, fearless and proud of his might and power. He was an Alpha like no other I have seen since. Strong Jaw of the BigRock pack is the closest I have seen to having the same stride that OddFather had," she stops for a moment and collects herself, "and even that does not compare. Strong Jaw, he is strong and fierce but his stride, like every other smart Precise-Claw, holds that knowledge that there are things in our lands that have the capability to finish our lives like we finish the lives of a small Mammal. OddFather was his own Alpha and he was not scared of anything like that. Mother Mammal had a similar gait, but only when she was nearby OddFather. His walking stride seeming to be an infectious thing for her. Sometimes I wonder if we had that same stride when we were if him…" Slack Jaw stops in her chittering and reflects for a moment.
You take the moment of silence to ask Slack Jaw something that you have wanted to ask Mother for a while now. "What is your favoured story of OddFather?" Her eyes light up for a moment, like they have caught a stray beam of light from the Moon, as Slack Jaw goes on to tell you of this precious time. "My favoured story," she begins, "is of the time that he taught us to hunt. He and Mother Mammal showed us the strategy they used and we have used since. OddFather had several other Sniffing Mammals (dogs) come with him for the hunt, though Mother Mammal was the alpha of their pack. We did not see her pack often, but sometimes OddFather would bring them to play when we were younger. The first thing we watched them hunt was a Tusk-Mammal (boar). Tusk-Mammals are moderately sized, about the same size of a Frill-Beak (protoceratops) and just as nastily tempered. Their tusks can pierce our scales like few other mammals can and…"
She stops for a moment and looks toward our slumbering family. Keeping one eye on them and another on sentry duty, she hisses as silently as she can, "I have seen them eat the eggs and young of a Two-Claw nest. I stumbled across the Tusk-Mammal alone while wandering the territory and followed it out of curiosity. It went straight through a marked Two-Crest sleeping den and I stalked along after it because I was too foolish to realize where it was going. I was too focused on the potential prey and did not keep an awareness of where I was. I only realized the dangers too late, having followed the prey right into a Two-Claw's nest site that was several slopes away from the Two-Crest's (real life dilos) sleeping den. I stuck to the outside boundary of the clearing they nested in at the time. I kept an eye on the Tusked-Mammal though because I was too curious for my own good. I watched it amble right up to the dirt mound the Two-Claws hid their eggs inside and start to root into it. When the stupid mammal started to crunch into the eggs inside, I ran for the clearing the pack nested in at the time. The pack heard the roar of fury the mother made just as I arrived back," her chuffs bring a light feeling in your chest. None of the Grown seem to chuff all that often and you think it is a shame. It is such a nice sound to hear, one of happiness and good times.
"Oh, right, where was I?" Slack Jaw asks you, finally remembers that she was already telling a story before going off into a smaller second one. "You were describing the Tusk-Mammal," you softly caw to her. "Right, of course. As I was chittering before, Tusk-Mammals are awful mammals and quite dangerous for other mammals to take on alone. OddFather had Mother Mammal and her pack sniffed out the prey, and they tracked it far from the den we were nesting in at the time. He had my sisters and I follow from a distance, not seeking to have one of us hurt the first time we watched him hunt. We were about your size, if I remember right. Not yet aged enough to properly partake in the hunt, but almost aged enough to begin to watch and learn how to hunt. When they found the Tusk-Mammal they were stalking, a sharp toothed thing with matted brown fur that had shoulders that would have reached my knees," she stops and takes a moment to lick her fangs. You have to admit, the mammal does sound particularly tasty right now. "OddFather had Mother Mammal and a few of her best fighters tackle the beast. They did so, aptly dodging the swiping tusks and striking of hard-feet that came soon after. The squeals, baying, and other battle cries we heard as we watched from the branches overhead sounded more like the challenging calls of a rival pack than any other sounds I have heard from mammals," she pauses, letting the ambiance of the surrounding forest take affect.
"Just as it looked like Mother Mammal was going to getting wounded by the tusks of the prey, she had been attempting for a neck hold I think, OddFather lunged onto the prey's back to pin it with his weight. This set the thing into a fury, before OddFather silenced it with his Not-Claw. It was astounding, but then I like to think every hunt that is a youngling's first is astounding," Slack Jaw trills before you both startle at the sound of a branch breaking. Slack Jaw puts her snout to the wind and checks for a scent, attempting to identify the potential threat before it arrives. Her eyes enlarge as she realizes just what the branch-breaker is. She loudly caws out a ready-alarm, awaking everyone and setting Scar-Snout and Blue Gray Sister into a quick running/fighting posture. "Incoming Thorn-Hand (Iguanadon)!" Slack Jaw bugles, before being cut off by the thundering cry of the Thorn-Hand.
What do you do? Pick ONE Action
[X] Run for the safety of the tree roots!
[X] Head for the safety of the tree branches!
[X] Ask Slack Jaw what to do.
[X] Head for Scar-Snout and Blue Gray Sister.
[X] Panic!
[X] Write-In (Less then forty words)
QM: Sorry I took so long with this. I got pestered by several projects in school and a small case of writer's block. I worked on this while I could, but stopped cause MidTerms arrived sooner this year then they did last year. I finally beat the writer's block though and editted several parts of this part to fit in the idea. Apparently midterms can come up anytime in October now, not just the end of the month... What is up with that?!
Anyways, hope that you guys enjoy. I will put up a InGen File tomorrow in apology for not getting the timing behind the finishing date for this part right. Oh, and if you don't recognize any of the terms used here just look them up in the terminology spoiler in the Index of Indexes. If I have missed any, just let me know and I will fix it up some more.
Deadline for Votes: October 23rd, 2015 at 8:00pm (EST).
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