Welcome to Isla Sorna: Be the Raptor Quest

[AnimalKrazed]

Oh, right forgot to mention I updated the Character page with the hatchling picture and basic information about your abilities, as of this moment. I'll post them here for future readers so they can have a basic map as we march ever forwards into the future.

The protagonist knows very little about the world, only instinct providing names for the more important objects in his life. While prominent in your life now, instinct will eventually fade back so as to let his natural intellect come more into play. You has no self-word, no rank beyond hatchling, and little practice surviving in the world. Almost everything in this world sees you as prey or something to get rid of.

You are currently only the size of a human hand, or 7.4 inches. You are the same shade of gray as most stereotypical stone, allowing you to blend in well with most environments. During maturity, your hide will slowly shed away the gray scales and trade them in for shades of red with dark stripes. Your eyes are the same yellow/green shade as most hatchlings and females of your kind and shares the same brown/red blood vessels in your eyes with them. Your eyes will eventually become the lime green shade of males upon your maturity. Your claws are still soft, only just able to pierce flesh and the chitin of most bugs, they will harden given time.

Hunting Skills: Extreme Novice
Sensing Skills: Novice
Hiding Skills: Extreme Novice
Intellectual Skills: Growing Quickly
Social Skills: Growing Quickly
Survival Skills: Extreme Novice
Inner Self: Prominent For Now!

Species Ability: Pack Loyalty Your pack stands by you in all things.
Species Disadvantage: Bloodrush Blood for Blood, Arm for an Arm. VENGANCE! in all things.

Click to shrink...

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter One: Interlude Two
The Great Dying

Soundtrack: Be Prepared Instrumental from TLK
​

In the six nights and days that had passed since Mother had told your siblings the story of The Miracle, you had been pondering and questioning something that just wouldn't leave you alone. Questions like, 'What happened to your older siblings,' and 'Where are the yearlings from the previous two years,' buzzed in your hear like the black, biting bugs that always seemed to find the leavings of the pack. These questions had bothered you so much that sometimes they would stir you in your sleep in the form of dreams. You would see dark things in the night snatch hatchlings from Mother's side, or feel the claws of Hunter-Birds pierce your sides before dropping you from the blue sky above. Always, these dreams would wake you before you died which bothered you with further questions

You had brought up these dreams to your siblings to see if they bothered them too. While not the dreams as yours, each of your siblings had dreams where they were stalked, hunted by something. Each time, they admitted to wondering about just what happened to the yearlings and siblings that should have come before you. The closest thing to an explanation you and your siblings had was Second-Male, who fit the description of what a survivor of two years would look like in your siblings' collective minds.

When you had play/fought with him two days ago, you had questioned him about such things and he pinned you with a forelimb as soon as you had. "Little Pebble Brother," he had told you, "I have no desire to explain such things." He lifted his forelimb after that and was quick to resume play-fighting with you; yowling when you bit him, and dramatically hiss-screaming when you landed a claw blow to a location where there would be a vital. Second-Male was your siblings' favoured playmate too, and he often would have to fend off a hunting party of your sisters and brothers when he wanted to just doze in the sun.

A loud clicking sound brought you out of a found recollection of playing Hunt and Seek with your brothers and Second-Male. It was noon, the time when the Sun was at it's highest point in the sky. Easily the hottest point of the day, the entirety of the pack often slept this time of day away with the exception of your more playful siblings. Siblings like Light Blue-Gray Brother, as you found yourself calling your most constant brotherly companion.

Your ears pinpointed the source of the summoning click to be Mother, calling for your siblings to gather around her nest mound. As with the time eleven days ago, you and your siblings fought amongst each other for positions closest to Mother while still being in front of her. Those siblings that were pushed from their little indent/nests inevitably took their revenge by lounging themselves on top of their nest-thieves, which ended when the winners tired of the losers' revenge and nipped at them. This often resulted in even more wrestling. You won the majority of your fights, though your not so sure if you really had when you were sat on by Dull, Dark Gray Brother... Multiple times.

Mother tired of our wrestling after a time, and clicked her jaws' many fangs together again, a slight warning hiss echoing from her throat as she did so. Losers toppled off of winners as your siblings scrambled to make or remake good indent-nests. Only Dull, Dark Gray Brother and you didn't, and that was because he had decided to nap on top of you mid-tussle. A tiny bug flew into your eye and you felt it, your eye, spasm for a moment. Blinking your annoyance out, both the annoyance at the bug and your lazy brother, you focus on Mother as she begins her story of the day. Normally, she'll tell a hunting story to impassion you and your siblings to the thrill of the hunt and to give a summary of potential strategies. Most of the time, observations such as this fly right just out of your reach, however, you have managed to catch these insights a couple times. So have your siblings.

"Today," Mother begins, "I will answer the questions that you have been asking yourselves and the Grown of the pack for. The Great Dying happened for our pack during the last dry time. The pack had twenty-one hatchlings and nine yearlings to feed during those days. The pack had been relatively successful the previous year and a half, some hatchlings from every member of the pack had survived their first wet time. Though the pack's first laying had been few, each of the pack laying four eggs successfully, only five made it through their first cycle."

"The very first hatchlings the pack lost, two years ago, were lost to Hunter-Birds from above. The pack had never had to fear the death from above that the Hunter-Birds brought with them before, and so only learned and adapted to this potential threat to our young too late to save them," Mother's eyes wondered toward the Above, almost as if watching for diving shadows. Shaking herself from her regrets, Mother continued her storytelling, "Three hatchlings were lost to the Hunter-Birds, one of mine and two of Second-Sister's. Playing near Beak-Frills (protoceratops) took two of Scar Snout's hatchlings close to the end of the wet time during their first year. We learned to not let the prey near our young, for we learned from the prey knows their hunters' young are vulnerable. The pack still made the hatchling-killers feel our wrath, in the end."

Mother hestitated for a moment, before narrating her story some more, "The pack lost seven hatchlings suddenly, during the harshness of the dry time that year. Prey evacuated the territory and headed for the Great Rocks by the Open Water pack's and the Great Clearing pack's boundaries. The clearings of grass dried up and blew away on the wind and trees lost their vitality more than normal during the dry times before. Killing-Light (fire) flashed suddenly through streches of the territory, leaving the blackened bones of the trees in their wake. The pack had to range further and further to to get enough prey to feed themselves, let alone the young. Five young were lost to the Killing-Light while the pack had been hunting further than normal, even in those tough times. Two more hatchlings had been lost to thirst and sickness when they lost themselves in Light-Madness. Even then, we had lost two hatchlings to the ravenous Jade-Hunters (complies) throughout the course of that year."

"The pack laid nine more eggs each the during the end of the dry time. The threats to our young were more so that year then the last one. The pack had entered the wet cycle with fourty-five eggs and left that wet time with only twenty-three hatchlings. We lost too many of our young, twelve hatchlings and one yearling in total, to the unforeseen sickness that wet time. Jade-Hunters were more courageous that year and stole away with nine of our hatchlings throughout the wet time," Mother snarled the Jade-Hunter's name as if they were a threat to the pack right at that moment, "We began to start leaving two of our sisters behind to fend off the Jade-Hunters throughout the wet time while the rest of the pack hunted what they could, instead of just the one sister that we had left before."

"Facing the dry time, the pack were prepared for the worst. The dry time that year wasn't near as bad as the one before. The grass still dried up and was tossed away upon the wind, but the trees had more strength in them than they had the previous dry time. The leaves stayed upon them and their shadows, while barren of soft grass, provided relief from the blistering heat of the harsh Sun throughout the dry time," Mother took a moment to collect herself, and nuzzled the lump of a brother who laid half-awake on you. You hissed silently at him to get off, but he only stretched for a moment then relaxed again. Tired of his laziness, you shake him off. He just slowly turns himself around to face Mother, then dozes off again. You snort, before refocusing on Mother.

"-he Great Dying happened close to the middle of the dry time before this wet time. We lost twenty hatchlings and six yearlings in one go over the course of twenty days. The Jade-Hunters snatched the first two hatchlings in one go while they were climbing high above the pack's collective snouts. We hadn't smelled the foul scent of the Jade-Hunters till it was too late, when it dropped upon our nostrils alongside the blood drops of our young. They devoured two of our hatchlings while in the branches beyond our reach and on parts of the trees too fragile for our greater weight," Mother grimly flinched as she recounted the incident, "Eight of them lounged there, one hatchling for every four of them. No matter how much we threatened them or how loudly we hiss-screamed at them, they did not leave, would not leave. They taunted us till the Sun disappeared and the Moon rose."

"The next day, the satisfied cowards returned with twenty-two more of their starving companions, though the pack only knew of eight at first. The eight that the pack first noticed seemed, to the pack, to taunt us more just by the bloating remains of our dead," Mother sadly recounted, "it was not till we heard the snapping of a neck behind us and the screeching of scared young and the yowl of the yearlings that we saw the ruse for what it was. By that time, five of the hatchlings had killed, and seven of the hatchlings and three of the yearlings had been injured fending off the invading party of Jade-Hunters. The pack chased them off, killing four of them, but it was already too late. The most badly injured hatchling didn't make it through to see the next rise of the Sun. The pack became more vigilant than before, half sleeping while the other half stood vigil over the remaining young. Still, whether in the sight of the moon or in the brightness of the Sun, the pack lost more and more hatchlings to the sickness that the bites of the Jade-Hunters let in. By the end of the seventh day, we had lost seven of the bitten hatchlings. The pack devoured their remains," Mother depressingly admitted, seeming to flinch as if the taste and scent of dead siblings drifted back to her snout, "partially to spite and deprive the living Jade-Hunters of their kills, but also to prevent the scent of our dead from attracting worse Hunters and to avoid leaving the last young open to attack."

"When we heard the hooting and trilling of the Two-Crested (real life dilos), the pack knew it was time to abandon the nests. We hadn't desired to leave, the pack had laid and brooded in the same clearing for two years and nested there for three more before that. The instincts would have had us defend the area to the death, but they also directed us to protect the young at ALL costs. Thus, the pack abandoned the only nesting site we had ever known. We left behind all the sure familiarity the pack had ever known," Mother huffed, flaring her nostrils. "I wish you hatchlings could have seen that nesting site. We had sprawling trees and a gently sloping hill with burrows left by Beak-Frills (protoceratops) just large enough for the pack to nest in. A jump-sized trail of water rushed soothingly over a dabbling of rocks at the bottom, where the water would vanish to a trickle in the dry times. You would have loved it."

"During the journey to the current nesting site, we lost the remaining hatchlings, to Hunters and sickness. The remaining three bitten young," Mother hissed her pains, "The three bitten yearlings were lost to the Frilled Rattlers (JP movie dilos) that found us on the journey to our current nesting grounds. They died fighting Frilled Rattlers after they ambushed and killed the final two hatchlings from that years laying. They lost themselves to the Bloodrush and sickness and acted madly. They rushed the Frilled Rattlers snout on. The Frilled Rattlers spat in the eyes of the first two and tackled the third. They both died in a tangled heap, insides spilled against one another by their opponent. Jade-Hunters ended the suffering of the two yearlings that had sight-loss from the vomit of the Frilled Rattlers."

"We only had two yearlings to guard after that. Second-Male and his sister, Little Stone. Second-Male proved himself worthy of the Second position in the pack during the move to this nesting site, both for his ingenuity in hunting the Jade-Hunters and by out-fighting the Three Boulder-Sisters. Boulder-Sister, Scar-Snout got her self-word earning scar from Second-Male's fore-claws in their battle for Third position," Mother fondly remembered. "Little Stone was content to remain at the bottom of the pack. She never really cared for raising herself in the pack positions. She was wooed away by a wandering male, just nine days before you hatchlings were laid. She and her mate have claimed territory by the Bay, close to the BigRock. We hear their claiming calls on patrol, once in a while, and smell her well-being in the scent markers that mark the boundaries of their territory," Mother bittersweetly touched upon the successes of their pack's young.

Shaking herself out of more happy recollections, Mother gazed upon her current hatchling. She looked deeply into each of our eyes, before chuffing, "Hopefully, the pack won't suffer from another Great Dying. We have lost enough eggs this wet time to the thieving Jade-Hunters, just as we have lost more than too many young to them and the things that follow them."

You nuzzle into the body of Dull, Dark Gray Brother, hoping that being close to a sibling, any sibling, will provide comfort. It doesn't.

QM Note: Finally finished this. Took me a while, but I'm glad I did. Hope you guys like it. Point out any spelling errors if you can, I appreciate all the help I can get.

The roll 5 for the Great Dying ended up giving your pack the Compy Problems. If you didn't catch it, your pack really hates Compys now. Can't stand 'em. They will hunt them down and slaughter them given less than half a chance, and it isn't even that hard. Of course, they have to watch out for invading and hunting parties from them at the same time. Over the course of two years, those Compys figured out that your pack makes for good eating while your young. Welcome to a Jurassic World ladies, gentlemen, and readers of all kinds. It's a eat-all-the-things kinda world out there.

The other results of the roll could have been as follows:
0 - The Hunger (Occurs if no-one rolls)
1 - Traitor in Pack (Occurs with a 1)
2 - Strength-Eater (Occurs with a 2)
3 - Crunchy Swarm (Occurs with a 3)
4 - Feathered Menace (Occurs with a 4)
5 - Jade Thieves (Occurs with a 5)
6 - Killing-Light (Occurs with a 6)

Edit: I might ask for a roll sometime tomorrow if I manage to get enough writing done. Thanks for the tally Night_Stalker. Happy 4th of July Everyone!

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter Two: Part One
Games Galore!

Soundtrack: Make a Man Out of You
​

Your days and nights begin to blur into a flurry of activity, fun, and learning. Mother, and the other Grown tells stories to you and your siblings, stories of the Hunt and Conflict. A small part of you, way back in the far behind of your head, knows that the Grown tell you these stories for to help you learn from their successes and mistakes, to better prepare you for the world you find yourself in, to better adapt to situations you find yourself in, but for the most part you listen to the stories for the entertainment they provide and for inspiration for games you and your siblings play.

Your favourite game is to play fight with your siblings and the Grown. You pretend to be Father every chance you get, taking down the strange watching Odds and beating up Two-Crested with ease, when you play fight on your own. Of course, the majority of the time you have plenty of Precise-Claws to play with. You and Light Blue Gray Brother often play fight against one another. He is slightly faster and more agile than you, his lighter body build allowing him to maneuver around you better. You are more in touch with your inner self and smarter, so your pretty equal in combat wins and are pretty high in the rankings with him.

In the sibling combat wins, you and Light Blue Gray Brother are among the highest for wins. You raised to your position through many play fights, over fifty-three at last count, you think. Dull, Dark Gray Brother is mid-tier in the rankings, but he really doesn't care. He prefers to sleep his days away, but he gets his way during meal time and access to the better bits of Grown-brought meat because he knows how to push his weight around. The play fights between you and your siblings are often just play, but on occasion they are ranking based of arguments gone really bad.

Silver Sister and Bright, Dark Gray Sister thirteen days back, for example, got into an almost real play fight trying to decide who was better at fighting. All your siblings, watched, always sleepy Light Gray brother even managed to get himself into position to watch, as they circled around each other and sized each other up, then the actual combat. Scratches and small wounds were made, but somehow, your not quite sure, they managed to pin one another at the same time. The Grown chuffed it up at the sight of your strongest sisters all wrapped up around one another.

Stone Gray sister ranks just above you, so you often challenge her to fights. Just two nights ago, you almost won before she managed to toss you off your pin and push you down with her superior weight and muscle. You'll beat her someday though. The Grown play fight with your siblings often too. Mother and Father use their snouts and forelimbs to combat you and your siblings while their are curled up, to make things fair. The rest of the pack each have their own ways. The Boulder Sisters all try to kick you and your siblings over while you dodge and tackle their feet claws and gnaw when and what you can. They make sounds when you do, but not the almost enthusiastic sounds of Second-Male. He is the funniest Grown to play with and is almost always exhausted by Brightest Light when the rest of the pack sleeps for the longest time.

Day after day, during the afternoon you and your siblings took to the trees, where the Sun almost feels in your grasp. There you and your siblings play would chase, running one another down and trying not to fall off the branches. You and your siblings started off just slowly walking and hopping branch from branch. You don't want to fall off, after all. But soon, one sibling started getting every sibling to go about in a faster pace. Pebble Sister loved the branches and challenge of jumping from one branch to another. She's held the record for as long as you can remember. Whenever someone beats her old record, she'd just make a new one.

Falling. It's happened to every sibling, though no one sibling has been hurt seriously. Only Pebble Sister landed awkwardly when she took a jump too far, ending up in a heap on top of Father during his Brightest Light sleep. He sprung and ran around, startled out of his dream but gave Pebble Sister an amused look when he noticed that she was the one to wake him up. The Grown say that the climbing strengthens your arm muscles and allows you to better practice your ability to move around with grace and your claws dexterity. Of course, you and your siblings prefer climbing as a game of seeing who can leap the farthest from one branch to another further away. Pebble Sister still has the record, even after thirty days, getting two Grown's tail lengths the one leap after having landed on Father. She claims its all in how you jump and balance your tail, but you can't get quite as far. Then again, maybe she's telling a lie. Oh well, you'll figure it out eventually. Precise-Claws always do.

Playing chase is something you and your siblings do on the ground too. Faster siblings like Pebble Sister and Light Blue Gray Brother are the ones that do better here, beating out heavier siblings like Dull, Dark Gray Brother and Stone Sister. The best sibling at playing chase is Light Gray Brother. He sleeps most of the time, like Dull, Dark Gray Brother, but when he wants to he is the quickest thing your size that you have ever seen. He has a bite wound on his limb from one of the Jade-Hunter's, but it's gotten better. It'll scar, so some call him Scar-Leg Brother, and he likes that self-word better. Says it makes him sound more like a Grown. Of course, no sibling has a Grown name yet though. You are not ready, not having been on a First Hunt yet.

The Grown say that is why they encourage us to play chase though. To prepare us for the First Hunt, to get us to run longer, faster, and take down prey harder. You don't care, the play chase is all fun for you. You can pretend your siblings are what you imagine Beak-Frills look like or some other thing that the Grown describe in their stories, you don't care so long as you have fun. It's a little scarier when you imagine the siblings chasing you as the Long Jaws that the Grown say inhabit the river not far too far from your pack territory. The play chase is all fun and games for your siblings too, they imagine the same things you do. The Grown are different when they join the game of play chase. They just lope around the clearing a little faster and almost always win, so you and your siblings don't play this game with them as often. Scar-Leg Brother does though, saying he likes the challenge. He actually wins sometimes, so he might have a point...

Play hunt is just like the play chase games you and your siblings play. Every sibling hides in the tall grass around the clearing, chooses a sibling to hunt down and the game starts whenever you feel ready. It's a chaotic game, almost always resulting in a tangle of bodies tackling one another at the same moment. Stone Sister likes to tease you by making as if she is hunting you when you are hunting her, only to go for another sibling that's right behind you. There isn't anyway to tell who is better since you can't tell if your siblings are telling the truth or lying when talking about their wins and losses. You don't care though, because it is the best game ever.

Play hunt with the Grown is just as fun. You and/or your siblings sneak around the clearing, closing in on the part of the Grown your hunting, most often their tail or forelimb claws. You can tell that they see you coming, the target you are hunting is always just swaying as if waving in the wind. You don't care, it's just too much fun. Especially if you are hunting Second-Male. The moment you pounce, whatever you have latched on starts going crazy and it's difficult to hang on. The Grown always makes funny almost hurt sounds and calls too. Second-Male goes so far as to fake an excessive death when you or your siblings win. He's only gotten worse since the day you hatched. At first it was just him falling over and hanging his tongue out. Now, now Second-Male will flail about screeching in not-pain before wobbling and collapsing... He still hangs his tongue out though. He's the best Grown for play hunting.

It's only in the last four days, thirty long days and nights of waiting for you, that you and your siblings have been allowed to hunt the small Mammals. You want revenge for the scare that the furry one gave you on your first day. You spend the first day that Mammal hunting has been allowed trying to remember and track down the scent of the Mammal that scared you on your first day. You want vengeance, dung it! You end up spending your second and third days doing the same. Today you gave it up as a lost cause.

You can't seem to be able to remember what that one that scared the dung out of you smelled like, but you find one just like him. You corner it against a tree in the clearing with the help of Light Blue Gray Brother and Pebble Sister. You made sure that you drove it away from its retreat burrow, which is on the other side of the clearing. You have it against the lone tree inside the clearing, while it is only a Grown's length from the other trees in the forest it's still a good distance for a hatchling at mid-leg height. Seeing no way out for the Mammal you lunge, snapping your jaws at its neck. It dodges, jumping on your face, and leaping over your body, getting away. It's left you and your two companions just blinking in shock before screeching after it. It's zig-zagged it's way a Grown tail length from you into the tall grass of the clearing, so you should be able to catch up to it. You won't lose this time!

Choose Course of Action
[X] Write-In Option (Under Eighty Words Please)

QM Notes: Apologies about taking so long for this chapter. I have never written a Timeskip chapter before so I wasn't sure just how to go about it. Hope that this works well enough, same with the soundtrack. I'm not sure it fits, but oh well. It's the first thing that came to mind for Timeskip music.

Yes, I just left off at a hunting strategy write-in thing. Wasn't plannig this originally, but decided it would be a great treat for you guys and maybe a nice way to make up for the longer than usual wait. For strategies, just come up wih a plan of action. The Mammal your hunting is going straight for its burrow, zigging and zagging. Remember to communicate with your two sibling/companions in your write-ins. They won't know what your planning if you don't let them know. I'll update your character sheet later this week and make a dictionary for raptor words... Eventually. Just remember that you guys are still novices in hunting activities, also only a foot tall. Remember, KISS works most of the time. I won't go too hard on you guys, early days right?

Hope you guys enjoy! Voting ends Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 1:00pm (EST).

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter Two: Part Two
Rats!

Soundtrack: Light 'em Up by the Fallout Boys

​

As you and your siblings manage to catch up to and keep pace with the small Mammal, you in the center with your siblings on either side. Your prey's set pace has quickly put it and your trio of hunters a quarter of the way through the clearing at the moment that you and yours put yourselves within pouncing distance.

You caw for Light Blue Gray Brother to get ahead of you and Pebble Sister to try and cut off the prey's path to its escape burrow. He hiss-snarls his discontent with being told what to do, the sound conveying that he already has his own plan. He rushes away from you and Pebble Sister, getting two Grown's lengths away from your hunting party before seeming to put a burst of energy into his legs that puts himself ahead of the prey and into the tall grass on the fringes of the clearing.

Wondering what the leavings Light Blue Gray Brother is planning to do, you bark for Pebble Sister to nip, lunge, snap at the heels of the prey in order to try and trip it up or injure it. Pebble Sister huffs annoyance, but complies hesitantly. She lunges herself forward, right behind the prey, as you position yourself to a spot where you can observe Pebble Sister opposite the area Light Blue Gray Brother ran off to. Pebble Sister's first lunge misses, as the small Mammal twists its hindquarters away from the oncoming fangs. Her second bite clips off a section of it's tail, which sets the prey to squealing in pain. More inspired now than before, the prey goes even faster, and makes it's path more erratic, unpredictable than before.

Pebble Sister attempts to snap her jaws around the rapidly moving limbs of the prey as she keeps pace with it's zigging and zagging. The lunges of her snout and jaws are inaccurate, missing every time. The closest she gets is results in jaw filled with fluff and nothing else. The vast majority of the time, though, mostly do to her inexperience and the unpredictable path of the prey, she gets naught but air. Snarling angry curses under her breath, she proceeds to bark a command at you to do something. You huff an answering reply, "okay," and push yourself to go faster, to head off the prey yourself. Just managing to bypass Pebble Sister, you eventually get yourself ahead of the prey by an acceptable margin by the time the prey and Pebble Sister are two thirds of the way across the clearing.

You take a moment to cast quick glances across the clearing to watch out for kill stealers. Thankfully, it appears that the rest of your siblings are occupied with their own activities and haven't noticed you, Pebble Sister, and Light Blue Gray Brother chasing prey down the middle of the nest clearing. You place yourself right in front of the prey and charge, making angry hisses and snarls at it. You do so hoping to buy time for whatever Light Blue Gray Brother is doing. As it zips right around you, you lash out with an arm claw and cut a limb. The scent of spilt blood excites you and Pebble Sister as you join her in snapping and lunging to cripple the prey further. The best you and Pebble Sister manage is to get fangs just grazing the flesh of the small Mammal.

As the prey finally zags it way within a Grown length and a half of it's burrow, you lose the confidence you had before that you would succeed in the hunt. Still, you refuse to give up on the hunt and your revenge, so instead of lunging your jaws at the prey you attempt to stomp on it instead. You get a solid hit, raking talons just into the side of the prey's fleshy rump, and spilling more blood. By this point you can feel saliva start to pool around your fangs at the sight, even as the burrow gets within reach.

From out of the tall grass around the burrow, and seemingly out of nowhere to you, Light Blue Gray Brother tackles the prey and digs his precise claw into it's shoulder. He spreads his arms wide to stabilize himself as the small Mammal tries to buck him off. It squeals loudly, chittering and hissing at you and your siblings. You and Pebble Sister circle around the commotion, taking turns cutting off the prey's route to the burrow as Light Blue Gray Brother raises his other foot off the ground, and quickly slices it into the throat of the prey, even as it bucks him off balance. You can tell that it's pure chance that Light Blue Gray Brother manages to severe an important spot in the prey that stops it movements and squealing.

Light Blue Gray Brother takes his prime bite out of the small Mammal, quickly taking all the tasty inner bits and juices with him. He leaves you and Pebble Sister to squabble over who gets what of the remains as he climbs into the lower branches of a nearby tree. As you and Pebble Sister tug on separate ends of the small Mammal, fighting to break the prey in half, angry hissing and chattering sounds from underground in the burrow. You use the distraction to chomp down heavily and take the head half of the small Mammal, just as a horde of small Mammals just like the one you and your siblings killed erupt from underground and start hissing and attacking every sibling in sight.

As you, Pebble Sister, and your other siblings take to the trees, you and every other sibling hiss and snarl at the aggressors and for once are of one mind. "Vengeance! We will have vengeance," echoes from the throats of your siblings and yourself, down from the tree branches to the small Mammals below as they take the few remaining bones of their fellow mammal back underground.

Choose Two:

[X] Play Tree Jump
[X] Play Hide and Hunt
[X] Play Fight
[X] Play Chase
[X] Invent Game (Describe Game underneath vote)

QM Notes: So you guys got the kill! Good job! Sucks that you guys didn't kill it yourselves, but meh. What happens, happens. Hope that I wrote an invigorating hunt-action scene that was worth the wait.

Rolls:
QuantumPuppy rolled a 10 for How Distracted your other Siblings are.
Night_Stalker rolled a 2 for LBGB's obedience to you and a 4 for just how good a shot LBGB would have at the kill.
Daecl rolled a 1 for your success at the kill and a second 1 for Pebble Sister's success at the kill.
Smugraptor rolled a 3 for chances that rats wouldn't show up for defence around the burrow.

So, not the best of rolls. But hey, still managed to get the kill and have fun... Apologies for the shortness of the segment, it's shorter than some of the previous parts. May your grudge/war against rats carry on!

Hope you guys enjoy! Voting ends Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 6:00pm (EST).

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter Two: Part Three
Yahoo! Hiding and Tree Jumping

Soundtrack: Young Allosaurus from BBC's Ballad of Big Al
​

By the time the small Mammals' finally retreat back to their burrow, the Sun has begun to sink beyond sight behind the expanse of trees that surround your clearing. You are surprised by how long your pack let the small mammals scamper across the clearing, but you leave the topic alone for now. You can ask Mother or another pack member about that later. As the Moon and stars cast their silver glow across the clearing, your exhaustion makes itself known. You and your siblings, all tired from the excitement of hunting, playing, and running away and hiding from the small mammals, clamber down from the branches to the forest floor below.

Making your way from the roots of the trees, you and your siblings slowly lope across the clearing to Mother, Father, and the rest of the pack. The nests that Mother insisted that you and your siblings use had been outgrown quite quickly, so you and your fellow hatchlings have since joined the rest of the pack in the huddle that they form when they sleep for a time during the night. Precise-Claws, you have learned, are active whether or not the Sun and her harsh gaze watch over you. Under the Moon and star's shining watch, your pack finds more success against even the largest of prey.

As you and your siblings wriggle your way into the nooks and crannies of the pack's pile, you overhear Scar-Snout and Second-Female chittering about some of the strange signs that had been noticed around the closest river. The pack had been told earlier by Slack-Jaw and Scar-Scales that signs of a larger prey, probably a the Bugle-Crest (Parasaurolophus) judging by the spoor left behind, had lead up to water of the river then just disappeared into the slowly moving waters with no signs indicating it had come back out anywhere within the several tree lengths. Other signs told a story that around the same time as the Bugle-Crest vanished into the water, it's herd panicked and left it behind.

"Why won't you agree with me that the Bulge-Crest was taken by a Long-Jaws (Baryonx)? They always hunt fish by the water, they have the jaws and strength to do it, why wouldn't one of them want a Bugle-Crest? It is probably boring to just eat the scaly-water-prey time and time again. I would want a change if scaly-water-prey was all I ate," Scar-Snout chirped at Second-Female. "It is because," Second Female twittered in reply, "Long-Jaws just don't eat land-prey. All we have ever seen them do is stalk the water-prey on shore or in the water. I'm sure they would not change their ways so quickly. It would not make sense to, especially in the midst of the starting weeks of the wet-time. The water-prey are starting to peak at towards their most numerous during this time." Scar-Snout huffed at Second-Female, "I am not disagreeing with you on that, I'm just saying..."

You turn your attention away from the two bickering sentries, returning to the action of burrowing yourself into a nice, warm spot right in-between Mother, Father, and Slack-Jaw. You nestle in, safe, warm, and comfy, and let sleep take you to the sleep-life.

You awake when Mother and Father begin stretching, getting out any cramps that might have come with sleep. You stretch too, starting with your precise-claw, and finishing off by yawning while pushing your hand claws against the dirt. You get onto your feet and look up at the Moon and his twinkling helpers in the Above. You blink happily at them, before cawing for your siblings to join you in a game of Hide and Hunt to start off the night.

Most of them join you, though Silver Sister and Bright, Dark Gray Sister aren't among them. You look over by the now slumbering Scar-Snout and Second-Female, sleeping now that the rest of the pack is awake enough to take over sentry duty and catching up on the sleep they missed protecting the pack, and spot your two dominant sisters already jostling for the first hatchling position through play-fighting. You ignore them for now, and focus on the ten siblings in front of you.

Dominant sibling Stone Sister takes over control of the game. She decides that Stone Brother will be the hunter for the first round, before calling for everyone to hide. The entirety of your brood scatter to random hiding spots they have found throughout their time in the clearing. You decide to go for a hollow you found during the retreat into the trees during the day. You silently, stealthily make your way up into the closest tree before leaping from branch to branch to the hollow. You snatch various leaves from the branches around as you go and when you curl up in the hollow, you push them upwards to cover you in your spot. Then you wait.

Some time passes before Pebble Sister, who was caught at some point before you, finds you and brings you to Stone Brother as one of the caught. Now that your caught, your one of Stone's hunting part and have to help catch the rest of your siblings. Slowly at first, you, Stone Brother, Pebble Sister, and Light Gray Brother find more of your siblings up till only Gray Sister is the only one left to be found.

You and your siblings you and your siblings search for her until everyone gets bored of trying to find her. Not even trying to follow her scent trail gave any idea of where she which, mainly because she somehow figured out a way to loop it into itself over by the two slumbering Grown. Stone Brother, having given up trying to find her, hooted out his surrender to her. A few moments later, we heard muffled peeping from underneath Scar-Snout,

Stone Brother's hunting party slowly gathered around Scar-Snout, tilting heads and looking all over Scar-Snout trying to figure out just where Gray Sister was. Finally, Gray Sister wriggled her way out from underneath Scar-Snout's stomach. Her snout just poked out from between Scar-Snout's legs, just underneath her tail. Gray Sister was bragging about her victory, rubbing our snouts in it when Scar-Snout passed gas. Everyone that was watching, both Grown and hatchling, started chuffing as Gray Sister started squealing about the smell and flailing for someone to get her out.

It didn't take long for Scar-Snout to wake up, what with all the commotion going on around her. Gray Sister immediately ran out from under her and thanking the Moon for the fresh air as Scar-Snout just watched her, tilting her head in confusion before rolling her shoulder to get out the knots there.

The next two games of Hide and Hunt weren't anywhere near as entertaining or noteworthy. You weren't the first hunter in either of them nor did you hide yourself so well no-one could find you. When your siblings tired of the game, the Soft Light was past the height of it's nightly flight and was beginning to coming down. Pebble Sister, Stone Brother, Light Blue Gray Brother, and Light Gray Brother take to the trees with you.

The five of you spend the rest of the night trying to beat Pebble Sister's record length of Two Grown tail lengths. Pebble Sister constantly comes close to beating her own record, but that is to be expected. She made it, after all. Only Gray Brother actually comes close with his sprinting jump of a Grown tail length and three halves. You manage to misjudge a jump and accidentally slip off your landing branch on to Scar-Scales who on sentry duty below.

You land and cling to her snout, looking at her apologetically. Scar-Scales chuffs for a moment, before lowering herself to drop you off at ground level. You let go and fall the short distance between her snout and the grassy ground below. You trill a thanks to Scar-Scales and scurry to a tree to rejoin the game of Tree-Jump above.

By the time the Soft Light is three fourth's of the way through it's path through the Above, you and your siblings are all tired out again. Still, you are really excited. After the Bright Light comes up, you and your siblings will be leaving the clearing for the first time to explore and play around the nearest long water. You can hardly wait, but sleep still manages to find you when you finally settle down beside Light Blue Gray Brother, Pebble Sister, Second Female, and Father.

Choose One

[X] Behave cautiously around the long water (River). Explore the area.
[X] Behave playfully around the long water (River). Start a game.
[X] Be interested in what the Grown are doing by the long water (River). Learn from the Grown.
[X] Behave a little recklessly around the long water (River) and splash around. Learn to swim.

QM Note: Alright, there we go. Hope I managed enough cute/funny points throughout the part keep you guys entertained. I hope the soundtrack works, but if you guys have better suggestions I appreciate them... Just spoiler them first. Makes everything easier for everybody. Looks like you guys are finally moving beyond the little clearing, eh? Hope that this sounds as promising for fun stuff as I hope to make. Oh, forgot to mention this before but I finished up a rough draft for a small dictionary for what actions mean in your pack. If you guys want me to post it, just let me know.

Voting for the next part ends Monday July 20th, 2015 at 6:00pm (EST).

Anyways, the roll for this part are below:
veekie - rolled a 3 for Random Event Bwahahaha. Not telling you more! Surprises!

As always, if you have advice, or find anything that needs grammatical correction please post them. I always appreciate a helping hand.

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter Two: Part Four
Swimming Lessons

Soundtrack: The Egg Travels from Disney's Dinosaur
​

Instead of waking to the warm light of the Sun upon your scales, you are welcomed back to the world of wakefulness by the harsh rumble of the impact of a Striking-Light (lightening) in the distance and the gentle, for now, feeling of rain on your scales. You blearily blink, and stretch your limbs. Around you, the pack members not on sentry duty do the same. Licking your lips then yawning away the last of the sleep in your body, you are quick to remember that this is the day that you and your siblings are going to be allowed far outside of the Nesting Clearing for the first time.

You are among the first of your siblings to be ready and raring to go. Only Silver Sister and Bright, Dark Gray Sister are more excited than you are to be allowed outside of the Nesting Clearing. Those two, you know all too well, are eager to grow up. They really hunger to join Mother's pack, and to eventually take it over when the time is right. They are the most ambitious of your clutch, and the most aggressive. You make sure to stay out of their way most of the time, finding that dealing with the near constant competitiveness they display for one to be unsettling. You can understand a little competition, you have your own rivalry with Stone Sister after all, but the lengths that Silver Sister and Bright, Dark Gray Sister go to in their rivalry almost scare you. You know you aren't ready for real fighting, but those two clearly think they are considering the almost real fight they got into not so long ago.

You join Light, Blue-Gray Brother, Pebble Sister, Dull, Dark Gray Brother, and Stone Brother in the midst of the pack as Mother and Father take point towards the long water. Surrounding your immediate sides are Scar-Scales, Scar-Snout, and Slack-Jaw. Second-Female and Second-Male cover the backside of the pack, on the look-out for a Jade-Hunter (compie) hunting party or a patrol of Two-Crests (IRL Dilo). You understand this quite well, Mother and Father have always put emphasis on how a pack is to always look out for one another, and always be on look-out. You sometimes wonder just how much blame they placed on themselves for the Great Dying and how much they placed on the Jade-Hunters.

Speak of the being, the pack goes on alert as the chirping of Jade-Hunters echoes from the depths of the jungle around you. The pack halts at the sound; the Grown tensing, preparing, silently planning what to do if a hunting party of Jade-Hunters revealed themselves. Only the constant pitter-patter of the falling water echoes through the trees during this tense time. The moment passes though, and the pack returns to the journey ahead of them with the sounds of tree-dwelling mammals and birds resounding overhead, along with the ever present tapping sound of rain on leaves.

As your clutch and the pack continue along a contrived path, you know it is contrived due to overhearing about how tricksy the Grown were planning to be by constantly overlaying their scent path over itself, you and your siblings stay quiet and try to interpret the pack's silent-talking. You aren't able to understand some of it, but what you can is primarily just the pack conversing about how helpful the falling-rain is to hiding the pack's scent and small talk that focuses on...tree beasts (sauropods) licking mushrooms? Maybe you need to work on your silent-talking more. You decide to do so later and playfully pounce on Stone Sister, initiating a quick game Chase within the boundaries set by the Grown's pack positioning.

The journey to the river is slow, the pack halting and waiting every time the crackling of a broken twig and crunch of a fallen leaf reaches the ears of the pack. It feels like it is noon by the time that the pack makes it to the long water. By now, the rainning has become one of the worst thunderstorms you have lived through. You can barely see fifty Grown lengths ahead of you. The Grown seem to have a similar problem, and are relying on their ears just as much as their eyes at this point. Still, you are excited to just be away from the Nesting Clearing. You feel more light-hearted just by exploring and taking in the sights you have seen on the way here. After all, before leaving the Nesting Clearing you didn't know what tree-dwelling mammals even looked like. Now you know they look like really long armed small mammals, with fuzzy tails and almost flat snouts and faces.

Mother warns your clutch not to stray to far, the water of the river is apparently quite swift moving in the Wet-Time despite it's deceptively slow moving appearance. At first, you and your clutch are quite content with just playing by and on the mangrove trees and bushes on the muddy side of the long water. Pebble Sister has started another game of Tree Jump, and was already well on her way to mastering the more difficult terrain that the tight spaces of the these trees provide.

The game of Tree Jump didn't last long though, the newness of everything around you served to distract your clutch too much. The lazy ones of your clutch, like Light Gray Brother and Dull, Dark Gray Brother found the shelter of the mangrove and the way that some of their branches tangled out made for perfect napping places. Silver Sister and Bright, Dark Gray Sister are tumbling in the mud, so coated in the wet dirt that you can barely tell one from another. Stone Sister is still playing with Pebble Sister, accompanied by Gray Sister, Blue-Gray Sister, and Stone Brother. Boulder Gray Sister is playing hunt with Second-Male, nibbling on his precise-claw while playful growling short sentences that are too muffled to make any sense.

Second-Female is curled up, sleeping away the pounding rain. Scar-Snout is playing with the rest of your siblings, though during the few moments you are watching her she tosses a quick glance at Second-Male before returning to her play. The rest of the pack are on constant look-out for any potential dangers. You know that this is necessary, having heard enough hunting stories that were backgrounded by various water sources to know that water sources were fantastic hunting grounds. Still, you wish that they could take a break and just enjoy this break from the dullness of the Nesting Clearing.

From your current perch on top of a mangrove branch overlooking the flowing currents of the river below, you can just make out the shapes of a herd of large grazing prey at a clearing on the other side of the long water. You can barely hear their soft grunting. A young grazer is actually splashing around in the water of the river. Watching the young grazer for a moment, you feel inspiration to ignore Mother's cautious advice not to splash around in the water. Clambering down slowly to avoid a tumble into the currents below, you make your way to the trunk and semi-solid ground.

Cautiously, you meander your way through the stones and mud till your right up to the waterside. You dip your Precise-Claw in and pull it back out almost before it can get wet. Nothing happens...so you dip your entire foot this time, wait several moments, then slowly pull your foot out. Satisfied that nothing terrible will happen if you get in, you leap into the shallows of the river. You don't go any deeper than the height of your legs, but you splash around and occasionally dip your head under the water. Nearby, just about six Grown lengths from you, you spot Slack-Jaw standing in the shallows too, keeping her head dipped in the water until something flashes by and is hastily snatched by her jaws and swallowed whole. You splash your way to her, cocking your head and chirp, "What you doing?"

Slack-Jaw tilts her head down to gaze at you and chitters, "Just getting something to satisfy a craving I have," before swiping a claw at something you didn't even see that flips over your head on to shore before being gutted by Father. "Go on," Slack-Jaw chatters, "have a bite. It'll taste better than the regurgitated flesh you have been devouring. Your entire brood is getting close to the age that hatchlings start longing for fresh meat."

You look back at the swimming grazer, before turning your back to it and climbing ashore to have some of whatever Slack-Jaw had hunted out of the water. Slack-Jaw makes some remark about you being a little too young to start hunting that kind of prey before chuffing to herself, but you ignore her. Getting to the scaly, wet prey thing, you pout up at Father and caw, "Can I have some?" Father turns his snout downward to look at you, looks to Mother who raises an eye-ridge, before chirruping, "Sure, I do not see why not." He stabs the prey with a Precise-Claw, pinning it and stabilizing himself on it, before slicing the belly open with a clean claw swipe. The insides spill out when you tug on a long coil of flesh, after you slip your head in through the flaps of scales, skin, and muscle. You are quick to fill yourself up on a large red/pink, fluid-filled flesh blob and part of the meat coil.

You leave the rest of the wet prey thingy to Father, quickly scrambling back to the water and splashing in the puddles along the way. You manage to attract the attention of Stone Sister, Pebble Sister, and Light Gray Brother, who quickly rejoin you. Just as you leap into the shallows of the long water, you take notice of what looks like a fallen tree disappear underwater halfway into the long water. Ignoring it, you and your siblings splash around and have fun. Your quartet of hatchlings play games such as Water-Chase, Big Splash, and Breath Hold.

After a while, the falling-water starts to lighten up, and the Striking-Light (lightening) hasn't roared through the air in a while. You aren't watching where you were going for the biggest splash yet, when you stumble into deeper water. You frantically splash around, trying to swim for a few moments before realizing how to paddle your hand-claws and feet in a particular rhythm that keeps your entire head above water. You paddle your way the short distance back to the shallows, head held high in pride of your new skill. You make it a good distance back into the shallows in good time, turn around to look back at the grazers across the long water to try and figure out how long it would take you to swim across to see them up close.

You take notice of several of the large grazers taking a drink almost directly across the long water from you, when suddenly a large gush of water blocks your view of the creatures. It's almost silent, with the exception of the panicky baying of the grazers who start to flee. When the uprising of water falls back to the ground, the large fallen tree from before is revealed, apparently not a tree, with a struggling bull grazer in it's toothy maw. The not-tree Predator (deinosuchus) drags the visibly panicked grazer into the middle of the river before vanishing with it's prey under the waves. There is no sign of a struggle beyond the markings on the other shore.

"Whelp," Second-Female chirped, "that solves that question." Mother almost absentmindedly smacks Second-Female across the snout with her tail in response.

Choose One Response

[X] Crap Self
[X] Press Self against nearest Grown
[X] Chuff in the face of Danger
[X] Write-In Option

Choose One Thing to do on the Way Back

[X] Play Chase
[X] Listen to the Grown Converse
[X] Play/Invent Eye-Spy
[X] Climb atop a Grown and nap

QM Note: Good job on the rolls guys! This could have turned out very badly, if your rolls hadn't been as good as they were. As is, you guys just managed to avoid attracting the attention of SUPER-CROC! Hey, I did say I was going to collect things from the various movies, books, and GAMES. This was just one thing that I couldn't resist grabbing. Good guessing by the way Night_Stalker.

By the way... I am going to sprinkle some other things in here and there from outside the franchise, not outside the topic though, to keep you guys on your toes. Don't worry about too much excess, there is already plenty available inside of the JP franchise to keep me entertained and you guys guessing.

Rolls for this Part:
Night-Stalker rolls a 2 for Odds of Attracting Deinosuchus.
SmugRaptor rolls a 7 for Sink or Swim
QuantumPuppy rolls a 4 for How Many in the Water

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. If there is anything that you guys think I could do better; grammar, word-use, vocabulary of the story, any advice or suggestions you guys give me are all readily received. Vote ends Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 6:00pm (EST).

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Finally I have to ask, @AnimalKrazed, why was Slack-Jaw fishing? If anything please answer so as to satisfy my curiosity.

Click to shrink...

Reasons

But seriously, I will let you know the reasons at a later time. I have already hinted at it in the story. Now for an Omake. Just letting you know now, it is a little gory at the end. Just a tad. Enjoy!

H-H-Hadrosaur Kill!​

Soundtrack: The River King from League of Legends
​

It was your turn on look-out duty. Protect the herd. Alert the herd. Save the herd. You were determined to do your duty, and spot any Killer before it had a chance to get one of the herd. It is a tough job, eroding your nerves till it feels like you are going to jump out of your hide at every broken twig and falling leaf. Still, you have a nerve-saving grace. You can leave the waterside be, the water too fast for a Killer to swim through. There was no such thing as a Water-Killer, you knew. Those were just tales to keep younglings from straying too far from their parents at the waterside.

You raise yourself onto your hindlegs, giving you a better vantage point to survey the meadow plains surrounded by the woodlands your herd called home. While many Killers called this thick woodland home as well, it was your home now and other places weren't. Better to stick with the Killers you know, should know, then the Killers you don't. Better to know what to expect.

A flash of movement in the water attracts your attention, a log floating in the water pretty far away from the herd. You overlook it, searching out dangers along with the others on look-out. A Spitting-Killer lurking in the shadows of the wood and a small grouping of the Dung-Eaters are all the potential dangers to be found. You bellow a challenge at the Spitting-Killer and it retreats out of sight. Huffing to yourself, you turn your gaze elsewhere.

The Light moves on by and suddenly it's no longer your turn on look-out duty. You stretch tired limbs, yawning away some of your exhaustion and boredom. You lazily blink as you meander your way up to the shoreline, enjoying the chill of cool water as you submerge parts of your limbs. You join the rest of the thirsty herd members a couple lengths from shore where the cleanest, freshest water is. Just as you duck your head down for a drink, you notice the log from before has gotten itself stuck on a part of the rocky shoreline closeby.

You gulp down several mouthfuls of refreshing water, before a resounding crack echoes across the meadow and the waterside. You raise your head abruptly at the sound as the log breaks free and slowly floats on by the herd. The herd watches it carefully, a strange foreboding falling over us as the log finally passes us by. Looking suspiciously at the water, your gut-voice almost unnoticeably whispers of warnings only half-way understood as you dip your snout back into the water.

Suddenly, an all-encompassing splash and your underwater. Pain resonates through you shoulders, what feels like fangs buried in them. You panick, flailing forelimbs inside of the maw you find your front half in, trying to hurt it and get it to let you go, even as you try to retreat with your hindlegs. Bubbles pass by your eyes as you bellow for the herd. You feel your limbs lose their grip on the wet rocks of the waterbed at the second tug from the jaws and feel the cold embrace of the water swallow your body.

Out of nowhere, a second pain that burns like a Killing-Light tears it's way across a hindleg. The fangs holding you under let you go, and you struggle for the surface with three, three? limbs, away from the Water-Killers that you now know to exist. Too soon, the fangs return, this time digging into your neck. A swift, near unnoticeable twist and it's over.

----------

In the swirling waters, a quartet of gigantic crocodilians beasts twist and tear chunks of flesh off the bleeding corpse of the hadrosaur. Blood and organs turn the water a red/pink hue around the corpse, clouding the scene from the herd that has retreated to the relative safety of the shore, but signalling the poor herbivore's fate all the same.

A large, heavily scaled head breaches the surface, the snout of the hadrosaur just peaking out from the enclosing jaws of the Killer. The maw lifts out of the water, tossing the head of the recently deceased into the throat and stomach of the beast. A bone-chilling rumble echoes across the lakeside, sending water flying in shimmering droplets around the beast, warning those that know of them just who rules these waters.

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter Two: Part Five
Lost Innocence

Soundtrack: Sad Emotional Guitar Backing Track in a Mirror
​

You stand there, just staring down into the suddenly obscenely dark depths of the river. The once soothing bubbling of the moving water now more a chilling melody. You can feel yourself shiver, frightened by the the monsters that lurks in its mysterious darkness. Looking back out to the deep water, you finally notice more of the water-based beasts. One breaks the surface not even a Grown's length from where you fell in. Another breaches the water by tossing it's head back, a gory chunk of limb falling into it's throat.

Lightly, you chuff, much to the consternation of Mother and the rest of the pack. As you chuff, your body shaking, your siblings huddle around you with worry laid out plain for you in the silent-language your are still learning. Light Gray Blue Brother, his worry manifesting in his vocal tones, warbles, "Pebble Brother, why are you chuffing?" You stop chuffing, only just managing to because you do not want to worry him or anyone else, and reply, "I do not know." You move far away from the water and curl up, still shivering, you do not want to be anywhere close to those monsters. You feel cold right now, too cold.

Mother leans her snout down and inhales your scent, interpreting what her sense of smell tells her of your well-being. Father lays himself down beside you, reaching out with the claws on one hand and gentling pushing your body closer to him. Slack-Jaw and Scar-Snout huddle around you as well. You are unable to pay attention to too much else. Your mind just keeps flashing back to how that grazer died, and placing you in its place. Your too fixated on the fact that you had been in that water, had been who knows how close to those sets of jaws...and death.

Mother, Father, and the other Grown have always, always, told you stories of the larger hunters in life. Had placed emphasis on just how brief life was, how dangerous the life of a hunter could be. Stories like the Great Dying were shared to convey just how short life could be, how even the smallest dangers needed to be watched. You knew that they told these stories to you and your clutch to remind you to enjoy your lives to the fullest, to enjoy every moment as if they were our last since they might be. Enjoying life has never come hard to you or any of your siblings, so this that had never been a hard lesson to learn or apply. But, but you had ignored, maybe on purpose, maybe not, the primary lesson they focused on, that Precise-Claws (raptors) are not the meanest things out here. That Precise-Claws aren't unbeatable, that Precise-Claws are in fact quite killable.

Of all the Hunters, Predators, Killers your pack knew of in your territory, your kind were among the smallest. The Two-Crests (real life Dilos), the Hidden-Jaws (Early Gen Carnotaurs), the Two-Claws (Rexes), all of them so much larger than you and the Grown of your kind. Even with all the warnings and stories, you had never really understood just how dangerous your life would be. You had made light of it, imaging and playing out scenes where you would succeed in the face of every danger. You were, are, the excited and bold hatchling, the one always raring to go and do something new. To do something that the others had never done before. You are just now realizing that new doesn't always mean good, that being you doesn't translate to invulnerability.

Father nudges you lightly with his snout, sighing. He looks you in the eye, his gaze carrying some uninterpretable, knowing, ancient something. He chirps, "You doing okay? I know it is not easy seeing death that closely, especially so when you were the one that could have been grabbed instead." He looks back out to the water and the feasting monsters, the falling-water slowing to a drizzle as the Sun finally breaks the cover it was hidden behind.

"Life is a harsh mother, and as much a Hunter as we are," he caws. You look up at him, cocking your head to signal confusion. He chuffs for a moment, before continuing, "Life gives us so much, much like a mother does. The grass, the trees, the shade and the water. Life grants us the ground we walk upon and the sky to live under. These things provide for the Grazers, the mammals, the birds, and all other prey that we can, and do, hunt and thrive off of." He pauses and you can see his slit pupils narrow at the water monsters, "Yet, Life is also stern. Life births Hunters such as Precise-Claws, like you and I, the Jade-Hunters (compies), the Two-Claws, the Frilled-Rattlers (JP movie dilos), the Unseen-Jaws (Later Gen Carnotaurs) and whatever those things are. Each one so different, each one unique in comparison to the others. But even in the differences, we have similarities; we all live off of the death of another, stand on our feet, have jaws that bite, and limbs that move. We are all Life's hatchlings, from the greatest Tree-Beast (sauropod) to the smallest Jade-Hunter."

"Life gives, offering sustenance to her young and she hunts us, taking us away." He looks back down at you and warbles, "Life punishes foolish actions, like swimming in too fast water or hunting a Tree-Beast alone, with a scare, an injury, or death... Just as a mother punishes her hatchling for doing something foolish like disobeying her or ignoring her warnings," his look becomes an accusing stare. You scratch yourself, feeling suddenly bashful at the attention paid to the fact you ignored Mother's warning. "But just as Life punishes," Father turns back to his impromptu lesson, "she blesses and rewards her offsprings' smart actions and choices. She rewards good planning with a swift kill at the end of a hunt, and blesses mercy to the prey with mercy from our foes and enemies." You jump when Scar-Snout and Slack-Jaw remind you of their presence with reaffirming caws, supporting Father's words. The two Boulder-coloured sisters chuff good-naturedly at you, before getting up and joining Mother, the Seconds, and Scar-Scales, helping them in corralling your siblings and preparing them for the journey back the to Nesting-Clearing.

"Feeling better," Father asks. You chirp out an affirmative, just wanting to leave the whole incident behind. "It is alright to be scared of your mortality, son. Everyone goes through it, everyone feels the chill wind of death upon realizing that they are not invulnerable to dying. I experienced it just after my First Hunt... I was reluctant to hunt, to kill or do anything for a time after. The pack cared for me then, just as we care for each other now. I thought through what I knew back then, and came up with the realization I just told you. I have told it to each of my hatchlings when they first came to understand death and their vulnerability to it and I am going to tell it to each of my hatchlings when they first understand such. Hopefully, my hatchlings will tell their hatchlings this line of thought and so on."

Father pauses, looking at the setting Sun and huffs. "I didn't have anyone to help me understand this, and I was the first to experience this fearfulness of death in our pack. I won't let my young experience the feeling of hopelessness that I felt back then," Father warbles before getting up and stretching a tired leg. "Come on!" He exclaims! "We might want to join the pack before they leave. You do not want to be left behind, right?" You look to where the pack had been to see them disappearing into the underbrush. You take off, answering Father's question with a flurry of motion towards the pack. "That's my boy," you hear him chuff softly as he catches up to you.

----------

The Moon has dominated the sky with his helpers by the time that your pack is almost home. For most of the way back, you and your siblings played a new game that Scar-Snout introduced you to. Eye-Spy was a game that was more intellectually stimulating than any other game you and your siblings had played before. Your smarter siblings, like Dull, Dark Gray Brother and Light Gray Brother, excel at thinking up hard to guess things to spy, while introducing to those siblings that were physically inclined a more challenging game for them to figure out.

Your siblings had not kept count of just who was winning the most, so you had no clue who was winning. As it was, you were mostly quiet for the majority of the trip to the nest. Your closest siblings check up on you, making sure you are alright. You do your best to reassure them and convince them that you are okay, and to convince them that you had just been shocked by how big those water predators were. You did not want to worry your siblings with thoughts of their own vulnerability to death. You want to enjoy them as they are now, carefree.

Your pack is almost to the clearing when the bushes rustle with movement. The Grown of the pack pause, readying for whatever might come even as your siblings all go quiet and prepare to make a run for the nearest tree. A large, dual crested head pokes through the bushes at a Grown's head height. It immediately notices your pack, and looks down at you and your siblings. Suddenly, it hoot-warbles and a replying trill echoes out from the patch of forest behind it and wanders into full view. It is the same height as a Grown, but much longer. In the silver light of the Moon, the Two-Crest's (real life dilos) hide almost blends into the flickering shadows of the branches and leaves that fall from above. The only thing that gives the creature away is the warm, yellow colour of the majority of the being's scales and it's dual, red crests.

Father and Mother bugle a warning at the Two-Crest together, which is automatically echoed by the pack. The Two-Crest takes in the warning and slowly backs back into the bushes. Only when it is out of sight do you hear it turn around and run. Still, for the rest of the trip home, you can hear faintly echoing hoots, trills, and other Two-Crest calls. You fall asleep to the warm, staccato comfort of Mother and Father's heartbeats, and under the reassurance of your pack's sentries' watchful gaze.

Choose Two

[X] Play Pebble Sister's new game.
[X] Play Fight against your rival Stone Sister.
[X] Play with Light Blue Gray Brother.
[X] Nap with Light Gray Brother and Dull, Dark Gray Brother.
[X] Watch the two 'First' Sisters play fight.
[X] Be Introspective
Ponder about what happens after death
QM Note: Alright, that rounds up your trip to the river. Sanity Slippage or Break the Cutie moment, you decide! Smugraptor was right, I was inspired by The Lion King for this moment, but not in the way he expected. I took Mufasa's Circle of Life speech, melted it down into unrecognizableness, and remade it in my own Image. Anyways, here's hoping the next part isn't so sad. I touched on the subject of this part mainly because I wanted to get it out of the way. I figured that it was going to come up eventually, so why not get it out of the way now. We are a smart hatchling, so I figured making the connections between big crocs snatching things by the shore, and us having splashed around and fallen into the deep water was an easy enough thing to put together as a might have been situation. Have a feel and get ready for more cuteness, next part is fluffy to make up for the Feelz this chapter had.

Roll:
Glitchrrr36 rolled a 8 for Random Encounter.

Vote ends Saturday, July 24, 2015 at 3:00pm (EST).

As always reviews, comments, help with grammatical errors, omakes, and advice are always accepted. Hope you enjoyed!

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter Two: Part 6
Deep Thoughts

Soundtrack: I'm Not Alone by Aram

​

You awake to the Sun's unrepentant gaze, and the chatter of your siblings as they begin their games. Still exhausted, and maybe just a tad weary of doing anything, from the harrowing experience the day before, you lazily bring yourself to your feet and find a comfortable place to rest by the foot of a tree. From your spot at the foot of the tree, at one of the edges of the clearing, you can watch the majority of your siblings scramble around playing games even as Mother and Second-Male take their turns in protecting and overseeing them.

As you rest, you find your mind getting away from you. You review the stories the Grown have told you, the bug hunts you have taken part in, your first mammal hunt, the so many games that you have played, both communally and individually, and every other experience you can remember about your life thus far. You notice that each and every experience that has some meaning to it somehow incorporates death in it somehow. The realization settles in and you feel a great discomfort as it does, almost like the first time you observed worms writhing in the mud of a really violent rain but under your skin and in your emotions.

At first you scratch at yourself with claws and rub yourself against the bark of the tree to try and relieve yourself of this awkward, invasive, bad feeling. You nip at the scales on your shoulders, claw at your underside, and attempt to grate your side against smoother bark of the tree. You stop when it finally occurs to you that the sensation might be a inner self thing. Still, you take a moment to scratch at your left shoulder with a right hand-claw. You puff out a gust of air through your nostrils, and return to your surprisingly intense thoughts.

'Death. Why has death been such a large part of your life, with the hunting and killing of some many others. Others that had lives of their own, others that breathed the same air and moved on the same land?' You squirm a little in discomfort, before continuing. Father mentioned the day before that death is a part of life,' you remember. You question that, just what that means. 'Sleep and the sleep-life are part of life,' you compare the two, 'so is death like the sleep-life? Is death something like a sleep-life...or is life the sleep-life?' You shake your head for a moment, trying to clear the subtle pain that now notice is making it ache. 'Father chirped about life taking life away. Does that make death a destination,' you pause in your contemplations before snorting, 'Silly thought, death cannot be a destination? Death happens in the here, the now. Death happens to the self.'

You stop, a random thought slapping you across the snout like a stupid bug caught in the wind. 'Where does the self go,' you find yourself asking, 'after death? Does self stay in the body, or does the thing that makes self, self go elsewhere?' You suck in a breathe through your nostrils as your head pains get a little worse. The prominent scent of Stone Sister tangles into your nostrils alongside the smells of the jungle and pack. You blink your eyes a couple of times as you notice Stone Sister lying alongside you.

"Done thinking yet," she asks. You snort, "I am now," before getting up and stretching complaining muscles. As you stretch out your leg muscles, Stone Sister chirps, "So...you done being weird about what happened the day before? You are a better rival when you aren't being so dreary and hiding away from everybody." You mock-hiss at her, grateful that she cares despite her carefree, and somewhat insulting way of showing it, "Still better than you." As you strut over to fair distance from Stone Sister, and begin to flush your face scales dull red with inner blood, Stone Sister caws, "As if. You have been in your head too long."

Your sister, also flushing her facial scales a dull red, bobs her head in the typical way that you and your siblings have been shown to demonstrate play-fighting. You bob your head back at her, accepting her request to play/fight with her. You playfully hiss at her, and simultaneously begin the circling stage at the same time she does. She lets out an amused chittering-hiss of her own, and mock-swipes a hand-claw in your direction.

You, in turn, are already planning out a series of potential actions that may or may not let you win this round. You blaze through them, barely able to keep up with the speed you KNOW that Stone Sister is going through plots and plans. You just settle on one, when she strikes. As she leaps at you, an almost real heat feels like it bubbles in your blood as is usual for whenever you compete in something. As Stone Sister flies at you, you make as if to duck, than dodge to the left. Her leg flinches downwards to strike at where you would be if you had dived beneath her as you go in for a tackle and pin maneuver.

You push her off-center easily, due to her being having no friction on the ground to help counter your push, and find yourselves toppling head over tail inwards and away from the edge of the clearing. You huff out a breath, even as Stone Sister inhales. You attempt to gain a hold on her legs with your feet even as she kicks you upwards and off her. Just as you feel yourself lifted away from a dominant position, you boost the lift more by going into a jump. You fly more than Stone Sister intended and land in a practiced, crouched posture. She cackles, "You have been planning for that, have you?" You lift your head a little higher, keeping eyes locked with Stone Sister's' and caw, "Of course I did! After you managed to stun and pin me a few rounds ago by doing that, I had to figure out a counter."

You and your sister manage to keep your round of play fighting going up to the point when the Grown of the pack come pack with food. It is a pretty even round, four wins and four losses for each side of your rivalry. You find yourself thanking Stone Sister, near silently, as you pad your way to the center of the clearing to gain something to eat from the returned Grown. Stone Sister's posture raises a bit at the thanks, letting you know she appreciates it. It takes you up to the point where you, Stone Sister, and the rest of your siblings gather around the returned Grown to notice that the returned Grown is Scar-Snout and that the rest of the Grown are not here. You ignore that for the moment though.

As you and your siblings beg and whine for the flesh you know that Scar-Snout must have brought back with her, you sense Mother and Second-Male come around the wriggling mass of flesh that consists of you and your siblings. Mother barks, commanding quiet. You immediately quiet down, as do the rest of your siblings. Mother chitters with Scar-Snout for a moment, mostly using silent language to communicate...you really do not like when they do that because it is so much harder for you to interpret everything. It is times like this that you do not like how your small size can hinder you from seeing everything that is going on.

Mother's voice breaks the subtle near silence over the clearing, "The Grown have secured a kill in the thick of the trees some distance from here. They have not detected the presence of any larger or more dangerous Hunters having being in that area for several days and nights. We are going to take you to the kill. Behave, and everything will go alright," Mother's caws sound final just before the excited peeping and chirping of you and your siblings ruins what could have been a dramatic moment.

Choose a Behaviour

[X] Obey Mother and listen on the trio of Grown guiding your brood to the kill.
[X] Obey Mother and observe your surroundings on the way to the kill.
[X] Obey Mother and just quietly converse with your preferred sibling group.

QM Note: Alright, hope I didn't take too long on the update. So hope this was good enough for you guys. Sorry I didn't get it out yesterday, I was occupied with family and having fun.

Deadline for votes this time is Wednesday July 29, 2015 at 6:00pm (EST). Hope you guys enjoy. Let me know of any grammatical errors and such. Advice is always welcome too.

 

[AnimalKrazed]

InGen File: Deinosuchus​

Codenamed Specimen MF.01: The first mega-fauna species to undergo the process of de-extinction was more commonly known as Project Super-Croc when the exact nature of the revived species of creature was revealed at hatching, back in 1984. The specimens released into the wilds of Isla Sorna were resurrected by extensive use of crocodile DNA, with small additions of the genetic sequences that helped stimulate growth in animals such as [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] partially due to the speculation that crocodiles were close relatives of dinosaurs, partially due to scientists assuming that secrets of dinosaurian genetic material could be found in the crocodilian genetic sequence, and partially due to the desire to stimulate faster growth in the individuals. A senior member of this project, a Doctor [REDACTED], tried to propose total reconstruction of the genetic structure of the specimen but was denied due to the sketchy and untested nature of the process provided as well due to the expensive nature of the project.

It is currently unknown if the specimen is of the Purussaurus Brasiliensis or Deinosuchus Rugosus genus due to an incident of mislabelling that occurred early on in the amber collection stage of the project. Due to discreprencies noted between the revived species and both of the aforementioned specimens, the revived creatures have been labeled Deinosuchus Cubaensis so as to play off the Deinosuchus' popularity among the global populace if they are used in the [REDACTED] Project. It is predicted that the size of the adult specimens will range from 10-13 meters when full grown. All [REDACTED] specimens that were created and released into the wild are presumed female due to genetic tampering and use of the temperature / gender formula used for crocodilians today. This formula was modified to the best of our scientists' ability to match the presumed temperature ranges of the Cretaceous era. They have also all been sterilized through exposure to [REDACTED].

A budding biologist, [REDACTED], was brought into the project to try and affirm the genders of the specimens after hatching. They presume that the specimens are female. [REDACTED] did claim, however, that it would be difficult to judge the specimens' true genders until they were sexual maturity, due to the nature of reptilian maturation. It has been since judged to be too dangerous to recapture the full-grown specimens to reaffirm this fact as of this point in time.

The specimens' growth rates have been steady, a healthy 9 meters, fuelled by the various wildlife that is native to [REDACTED]. Such wildlife include various species of primate, rodent, amphibians, fish, reptiles, deer, boar, etc. The specimens' primarily inhabit the larger bodies of water, such as the small lakes inland and the large bay to the north of [REDACTED]. A station has been built close by to observe the delicate interactions of the various resurrected species around the Bay Area. The specimens' rarely venture out to ocean, where they are constantly under watch to protect the investments made into them. When the specimens do leave out for the ocean, it is primarily to more easily transport themselves to and from the central territories around the bay to inland rivers and lakes. No major incidents with the or between the specimens have been observed thus far.

QM Note: Sorry guys, I am not going to be able to finish the promised part today. IRL came up and I had to go and take care of stuff. I ended up too tired to productively think or work on anything today. Sorry again.

Anyways, I am glad I thought ahead and predicted this might happen again, so I made some InGen files I could post as a sort of apology when this does happen. Hope that it makes up for not getting the next part out today. Next part should be up tomorrow if nothing gets in my way, or Saturday if something does.

Let me know what you guys think of me doing stuff like this. I desire your opinions!​