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!
