Welcome to Isla Sorna: Be the Raptor Quest

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter 1:1
Life Starts Small

Soundtrack: Hatching Baby Raptor
​

From the depths of unawareness, you awake to the sound of something beating ever so softly. Slowly, you open your eyes to look at the interplay of light and shadow flicker across the All-You-Have-Ever-Known You hear something slowly leak its way into your All-You-Have-Ever-Known from the Outside. It's a familiar huffing-purr. Something inside compels you to respond, to make a sound back to the being from the Outside. It compels you to respond to this being you know you have heard before, even in the depths of your unawareness. You wait, unsure and unused to the oddness of your awareness, your being, all the while faintly hearing others around you follow that compulsion, hearing them trill, purr, huff, and hiss to make themselves known to Mother, yes that sounds about right. You let out the first sound you have ever made, a healthy hiss. Mother makes a huffing purr of contentment at our chorus of sounds.

Mother purrs to us for a time, familiarizing us with her voice, with her. The chorus of voices around you chirp, trill, purr to one another as we keep each other company through the tension that builds throughout this dark-cold. Mother protects, guards us from the bite of the dark-cold with the warmth of her size. She is surrounded by some of the Others. We, the small, do not know what the Others are, only that they are like Mother. They are like her in sound; purring, trilling, chirping, hissing like Mother does. Mother hisses at them, snapping something-('her jaws,' something softly trills inside you)-when the Others' sounds get too close or too excited, and they hiss-shriek back in reply.

Finally, the first trills of warmth from the warm-light shine through the thin walls of All-You-Have-Ever-Known. Mother purrs encouragement to us, her small hatchlings, to break out and greet the day. Pondering what Mother could mean by hatchlings, and softly contemplating what a day is, you hear one of the small do something to the All-They-Have-Ever-Known. Cracking, splitting, and crumbling resound from where they are, all the while Mother purrs to them small comforts. Mother trill-purrs her excitement as that member of the small manages to get away from their All-They-Have-Ever-Known to the Outside.

Others of the small around you do the same, using whatever they can to break free. You do the same, lunging your-('your snout,' the inside sound chirps), yes that sounds right, your snout at the part of the All-You-Have-Ever-Known in front of you. This makes a loud snapping sound as you injure the All-You-Have-Ever-Known. You lunge again at the All-You-Have-Ever-Known, shaking it and yourself as everything wobbles. This shaking pushes your-('your arms,' the unknowable sound purrs)-arms uncomfortably between yourself and the All-You-Have-Ever-Known. You lash out with-('your claws,' something inside you hisses)-your front claws and chip away more of the All-You-Have-Ever-Known. Bright light enters though the cracks you have made, and Mother purrs as another one of the small makes it out to her.

You hiss angrily, and strike out at the All-You-Have-Ever-Known separating you from Mother with claw and snout before being blinded by the brightness of the light. You hiss-scream your frustration and pain, before you hear Mother purr to you. Blinking, you look towards where the shadow of Mother should have been and see the loving being who has protected you for as long as you have been. She rubs her scaled face against, still huff-purring and you rub your entire self against her. You huffingly purr to her in content, before looking around you at the brilliant world that surrounds you.

You take in the sounds of things-('birds,' something trills)-birds flying through the things-('trees,' the inside sound chirps)-the trees. You stumble forth from your All-You-Have-Ever-Known and inspect the green and yellows of the-('grass,' the unknowable sound purrs)-grass and the prey on them. You lunge at a large, brilliant green prey and trip over your own-('feet,' the silent sound huffs)-feet and face-plant into the soft mound of Mother's nest. Looking behind you, you can see that your the third of the small to have made it out of the All-You/They-Have-Ever-Known. Your fellow two small ones are also exploring the clearing of grass that Mother has nested in. They chase the small prey, running with the feet and-('legs,' the inner sound chirps)-legs after them. They often miss, but they are having fun and are learning. When they do catch one of the small prey, like the brilliant green prey you failed to catch earlier, they make a satisfying crunching sound. You look elsewhere in the clearing, spying furry prey and feathered prey dotted here and there throughout the clearing. As you survey the clearing, you decide to...

Choose Two.

[X] Join your fellow small ones in trying to catch the small, crunchy prey.
[X] Try to get your fellow small ones to play/fight with you.
[X] Try to catch the furry prey.
[X] Try to catch the feathered prey.
[X] Snuggle with Mother.
[X] Write-In option.

GM Note: Voting for the first chapter lasts till Tuesday June 16th, 1:00pm (EST). The picture for your current self will be up on the main page soon. Please let me know if spot any grammar mistakes I may have made, I tried to get them all but some probs made it through the cracks of my attention. Hope you guys enjoy, have a great read.

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter 1:2
Lucky First-Timers​

Soundtrack: Fireflies Instrumental
​

Deciding that you want to join your fellow small ones in hunting the small, crunchy prey, you move forwards to join them. Before you can get more than two steps, Mother gently picked you up in her jaws as you automatically lay limp. You can see her sharp-('fangs,' the unknown sound barks)-fangs, as she lifts you up and slowly, gently places you back in the middle of her nest. She holds you down for a moment with her arms, before cleaning of the fluids you hadn't noticed covering you. You whine-hiss in complaint as she tenderly laps the red liquids-('blood,' the invisible thing caws)-off your scales, removing the scents of the All-You-Have-Ever-Known and replacing it with the scent of the fluids-('saliva,' the unseeable being purrs)-saliva in her jaws.

After her-('tongue,' something trills)-tongue has masked the scents of blood and new life, Mother purrs softly, 'Go, learn/play/hunt with your siblings,' her voice compels you as she nudges you towards your fellow small ones. As you internally wonder what she meant by siblings, you pad over to a big, yellow/brown, small prey. It notices you, and starts to expand large, transparent thingies-('wings,' the inside voice huffs)-wings and begins to flap them. You hold it down with one of your forelimbs and attempt to bite into the small prey's head. The hard casing of the small prey protects it from the sharp fangs of your jaws though. You try to bite into other bits of the small prey, but nothing gives way. Disappointed by the lack of crunchy meat, you decide to toss it around for a bit instead.

After a time, having growing bored of the hard, yellow/brown, small prey, you let it go and move on to other, easier prey. Taking in the available small prey, you observe a pitch black small prey with its transparent wings already out. You take in the lack of hard casing, and decide to stalk in closer to have better chances of catching this, likely, faster prey. Sneaking through the grass, you get within a nest's distance of the black small prey before one of your siblings scares your small prey. Fortunately, your sibling scared your small prey in your direction. Taking a chance, you leap for the small prey. You manage to grip one of its wings in your mouth and shake to rip it off. The black, smal prey, now flightless, tries to scurry away. You pin it down with a leg and kill it with a claw strike to the head. You rip into the black, small prey meat with vigour and enjoy the juicy meat it provides. You only leave the transparent wings behind when your down.

Feeling almost full, you suddenly take notice of a brilliant, large, blue small prey fluttering its way across the field. You charge outright at it as it flutters your way. You jump and inpale the big, blue small prey as soon as your within pouncing range. You manage to land on top of the prey, pinning it. You decide to finish off this prey by lowering your head and killing it with a final bite. You enjoy what flesh is to be had, however little there maybe in the case of this small prey, and finish the meal off with the blue wings of the creature. Licking your lips and looking around, you notice that your one of your fellow small ones, 'siblings Mother called them,' you think to yourself as the connection is finally made, is resting in the nest by Mother. You look around and notice that the other sibling is still hunting the small prey, now stalking it carefully from the taller grass rather than charging it head on like they did before.

You look between the two, trying to decide whether you try to convince the hunting sibling to join you in taking down a furry prey or join the resting sibling in snuggling with Mother in the nest. You decide to test one of the furry prey, to figure out how dangerous it is. You screech a battle-cry, and charge the furry prey head on to scare it into action. The furry prey, now that you are closer to it, has large ears and has been cautiously observing you since you and your siblings started to hunt in the tall grass clearing around the nest. It rises form its four-leg feeding stance to a two-leg stance that makes it a little taller than you and hisses a warning with sharp teeth bared. Coming to an immediate stop, you turn tail and race back to the nest convinced that the furry prey is too much to take on for now.

As you make it make within a Mother's length of the nest, you slow your pace and steady your breathing rate. You slowly, calmly, stride back into the nest and join your sibling in resting and snuggling alongside Mother. You look over to your older sibling, from your position in front of Mother, to see that that have taken Mother's back as their's. Looking for another place where you could rest beside, or on top of, Mother. Finally deciding to lay beside Mother, you dig into the soft dirt with your leg claws-('feet,' your inner voice huffs)-feet a couple times, then nestle into the resting place you made by her. You lean into Mother's warmth and close your-('eyes,' the inside sound purrs)-eyes before unawareness grabs you.

You awake to the sound of Mother cawing harshly to something. You immediately awake and take in the various signs of incoming Others, all of them about the same size as Mother. The Others carry scents similar to Mother, but different enough to cause concern and caution to arise from the murky depths of your inners. You look around, seeing nothing but your siblings, and sense the Others surrounding the clearing. Panicked by the sudden presence of intruders, you choose to...

Choose One.

[X] Posture threateningly, and hiss.
[X] Kaw for your siblings and rally them.
[X] Hide behind Mother.
[X] Run for the tall grass and hide there.
[X] Run for the mounds behind Mother and hide in one of them.
[X] Write-In Option (Under 50 Words Please)

QM Note: Okay, finally managed to figure out how to get this out. Sorry it took so long guys. Quick question, do you guys have any preferences for what the males of the Dull-Back pack look like? Do you want them to look like small versions of the females, or something a little fancier. If you want somethig fancier, please suggest but remember nothing to fancy. Something akin to Blue's design from JW would fit the bill for a male Dull-Back. I could give suggestions if people decide that the male Dull-Backs should have brighter colours than the females. Sorry if this rubs anyone the wrong way, I'm just used to visual sexual dimorphism in bird species and figured it was probably used by dinosaurs too. That and male Dull-Back raptors weren't shown in the film if you don't count the brown/black striped raptors of Lost World: Jurassic Park as males for the females in the first movie.

Anyways, while this chapter was a bit of a pain to get out (mainly cause I had to figure out how to work the rolls in) it was definitely worth it. I like it and I hope that you guys like it too. As always, if you guys notice spelling/grammar errors point them out to me. Editing is always appreciated.

Edit: Oh, and voting ends Saturday, June 20th 2015, at 12:00 noon (EST).

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter 1:3
Hunters; Large and Small
Soundtrack: High-Wire Stunts
​

You can feel your mind split in indecision between going into a threat display, while calling for your siblings to join you in said threat display, and a hasty retreat into the tall grass to hide. Mother is curling herself around you and her siblings, covering you as she hisses at the invaders. It's only when the intruders are revealed to be jade green coloured hunters, large enough that you are easy enough prey for them to hunt down and devour, that your indecision between flight or fight resolves itself to flight.

Figuring that there are too many of you and your siblings for Mother to defend all at once, you decide that getting out of sight, and hopefully away from the minds and jaws of the oncoming Jade-hunters, you rush for the tall grass. Fleeing through Mother's legs as she uncurls herself and stands tall, escalating to scream-hissing at the three Jade-hunters that enter into the clearing in front of her, you chuff-call for some of your siblings to join in the tall grass. You hear some of them join you in your retreat into the tall grass, but you can't tell if everyone of them has followed you. The number of feet softly pattering against the grass suggests that five have joined you though.

You burst from the smaller patches of the tall grass that surround Mother's nest, and the dirt mounds around her nest, towards the thicker patchs of tall grass that engulf the rest of the clearing. Two of the siblings that followed you separate and disappear into the tall grass away from your trio as they enter the tall grass. Safety in numbers may apply when your in the open, but when your trying to hide, numbers are a hindrance. You shake in fright a little as the sounds of Mother screaming her fury at the Jade-hunters for daring to intrude her nesting site and the reply of eerie chirping that seems to echo from the entirety of the jungle around the clearing.

You are accompanied by the two siblings, that didn't leave you, one a slightly heftier male with a dull, dark gray coloration and the other a more slightly male with a light blue-gray tone to their hide. You and your partners slowly make your way through the tall grass, moving in time with the gusts of wind on an attempt to avoid drawing attention to yourselves. You make it to what you assume is a good spot; far enough from the nest to not be easily spotted by the Jade-hunters, but not so far as to be impossible for Mother to find. You huddle up against your pair of companions, for warmth and comfort. You can feel the impulse to shiver. You don't though, shivering of any kind would be enough to wiggle the grass around you and give away your position to the Jade-hunters. You feel a whine begin to build in the back of your throat, but you hold it in. You hear, feel, the steps of the Jade-hunters as some enter the clearing out of sight from Mother, even as she engages the Jade-hunters in front of her.

You listen to the righteous anger Mother displays and lets loose on the intruders. Squealing resounds from one, then all three of the Jade-hunters that were distracting Mother as the rest of the Jade-hunter pack try to find and kill/steal/devour your siblings/your family/yourself. You stop to sense your further surroundings, taking in the sounds of Mother's battle against the Jade-hunters, and the squeals of the maimed Jade-hunters that Mother has left in her wake as she deals with the other invaders. The squeak of what you assume is something dying in the jaws of another resound from the other side of the clearing, all the while thuds of larger beings making their way t-.

You squeal in surprise when a Jade-hunter picks you up in their jaws. You manage to twist yourself free of it's jaws just before it can crush or maim you in a serious manner. Wincing from the scratches that cross your back, you scream-hiss and posture yourself in a threat display. Your partners are quick to join you in your posturing and screeching of death threats.
The sounds of the majority of the Jade-hunters screeching a retreat order barely reach you.
The Jade-hunter cocks its head at you, as if curious for moment, before lunging and snapping at you, you just manage to leap back and away from it. Your two partners take advantage of the brief opening that the would-be predator has given them and target what they feel are weak points. One, the smaller, light blue-gray male, pounces onto the Jade-hunters face and gets a piercing claw into position to puncture the nostrils while clawing for grip around the eyes. Your other companion, the heavier dull, dark gray male, tackles the Jade-hunter's side, knocking it over and begins leaving large slashes with his claws. As the larger opponent is toppling, the blue-gray male, adjusts the grip his piercing claws have in the Jade-hunter's nostrils to push off it's face and land away from the snapping jaws of your angered opponent. You hear one of the larger beings from earlier leap from the edge of the clearing and see them land right on top of the Jade-hunter you and yours were fighting. A large piercing claw impales the doomed would-be predator right though the eye.

Backing up, you and your companions hiss anxiously at the larger beings as you try to gaze past the bright-light shadowing the larger being. It's silhouette makes it look just like Mother, but your sense of smell easily conveys to you that this isn't her. It looks at you curiously, cocking it's head to the side as it leans down closer to observe you and your two companions. You shuffle away from the large predator as it smoothly ducks down to snap at a Jade-Hunter that you hadn't even noticed was positioned to snatch your blue-gray companion, as it turns tail and abandons the failed hunt.

From around the clearing you can hear the few remnants of the Jade-hunter hunting party being ruthlessly killed in various ways by other large beings, you look around to see if you can observe some of the carnage but the tall grass blocks out everything. Looking back at the large being in front of you, you note that is again watching you, waiting for you to do something. You let out a chuff-call so that you can take account of the locations and number of your siblings. You hear all nine of the voices that you know have hatched, which is a relief. As the tension of potential death is lifted off your shoulders, you gaze deep into the eyes of this larger being and decide to...

Choose One

[X] Hiss and posture in threat display at this potential threat
[X] Put yourself between this larger being and your companions
[X] Chirp at what you assume is Mother's pack member
[X] Go and seek Mother
[X] Ignore the large being and play with your two companions
[X] Write-In Option

QM: Alright this part is done. This part was fun, first fight scene. I think I did well for the amount of action in the fight scene and the soundtrack pick. It's my first action scene and I didn't know if I put enough detail in it to avoid ticking off the Mods so I mentioned as little gore as I could. I can draw a quick sketch of you and your companions if you would like. Oh, if anone finds grammar error and stuff like that please let me know so I can fix it.

Anyways, fan art and omakes are acceptable in case anyway wants to do those. Just thought to mention that now. Beyond all that, the rolls were as follows:
Night-Stalker - Retreat Party Number
Smugraptor - How many escape unharmed
EVA-Saiyajin - First Companion
Oh I Am Slain - Second Companion
Glitchrrr36 - Protagonist Injury Severity

Voting ends Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 6:00pm (EST).

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter 1:4
Tag, Your It
Soundtrack: We Are One from the Lion King 2

​

Having tired yourself of gazing into the eyes of the larger being, you decide to just leave it alone and go seek out Mother. The larger being looks like Mother, smells similar enough to Mother, and acts enough like Mother to be assumed to be one of Mother's pack, so you assume it is and as such that it is relatively safe. You twist and turn your head around in the tall grass, attempting to get a glimpse of Mother. Unable to see anything beyond the tall grass, you huff to yourself and look back at your two companions. The dull, dark grey male is lazing about, seemingly uninterested in everything around it beyond sleep. The smaller, bright blue-Gray male, however, is looking around for Mother, much like you are.

Noticing that your gaze is on him, the smaller male looks at you curiously while cocking his head. Slowly, he bobs and chirps at you. You blink, surprised, then bob your head in turn. The blue-gray male bops you with his snout in a playful manner before running in the direction of the nest for a Mother's length, then turns around and looks at you as if asking why you aren't chasing him. Deciding to play, you chase him in a game of pursuit towards the nest. You manage to speed up enough to briefly nip the tip of his tail. He manages to swiftly turn and almost nip you back, only missing you due to your foresight allowing you to dodge by a quill.

You manage to get a Mother's length and a half away from your playful sibling before he manages to catch up and nibble you in turn. You and your more brightly coloured comrade's entertaining game of prey-chase and pursuit eventually devolves into a match of play-fighting as you get closer to Mother and the nest. Flopping from pinning him on his back to him pinning you on your side, you and your playful sibling end up rolling into Mother. Immediately, both you and your blue-gray sibling straighten yourselves by untangling yourselves from each other and look up to Mother.

Mother herself is currently looking back the way you came, at the larger being that you were with earlier. Apparently, the larger being took it upon themself to carry the slightly larger napping sibling you left behind. Chirping at this larger being, you watch as it rests your sibling into the nest before lowering its head to Mother. Mother trills to it and rubs her snout alongside the larger being's for a moment before turning back to the nest. You blink in surprise as the body of one of the Jade-hunters lays limply across one of the sides of the nest, partially torn into already. You and your more active sibling carefully climb across the nest and the three remaining unbroken All-They-Have-Ever-Knowns, to reach the body.

As soon as you reach the body, you leap on top of it. Your sibling wanders over to look the creature in its not-right eyes. You pierce the hide of the creature a few times, and examine the lack of response. You lunge and tear into the arm of the limp opponent. It continues to not respond to your quite vicious attack, if you say so yourself. Bored of being ignored, you turn your attention away from the offensive thing and twist your gaze towards Mother. She is looking down at the three remaining All-They-Have-Ever-Knowns and speaks soft-nothings to them. Slowly, you notice, one of the All-They-Have-Ever-Knowns crack. Unsure of what to do, you...

Choose Two

[X] Decide to curl up by Mother and rest.
[X] Munch on the unresponsive Jade-hunter.
[X] Wander up to the hatching All-They-Have-Ever-Knowns.
[X] Reinitiate play with your more active sibling.
[X] Look around for your other siblings.
[X] Examine the other larger beings in the clearing.
[X] Write-In Option

QM: Voting ends Saturday June 27, 2015 at 1:00pm (EST). Sorry for all the delays, I've had a busy week.

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter 1:5
Nom Nom Nom
Soundtrack: Suggestions Appreciated
​

A great variety of choices and ideas for what you can do flood your mind. Temptations to play, investigate, snuggle, and more shout and fight for attention in your metaphorical mind's ears. Your mind struggles to comprehend and sort out the differing variables of each choice from the others so that you can begin to decide on what you want to do next, when something softly growls its own desires and needs from behind you.

Your confused by the sound, trying to figure out where, what, and how the sound originated from. You swivel your head from side to side to try and find th source of the growling, having heard it somewhere behind you, when it resounds again from somewhere around your back. You notice this time that with the growl, an odd, ticklish feeling from your lower body accompanies the sound. You curve your neck into an awkward shape so that your snout is directed at the point from your lower body where the growling and tickling comes from. The growling comes again, with the tickling feeling and you cock your head in confusion. You have no idea what is making the sound, nothing is there to make the sound then you, and you know you aren't making the sound on purpose.

Pondering on the possibilities of what is making the sound and feeling, you reflect on past experiences. Only aggressors have made the growling sound in your past, the jade-hunters are the most prominent example of such. The tickling feeling reminds you of the sensation of grass brushing your sides as your hunting the small, crunchy prey through it, of the hard grass softly digging and pressing into your lower body as you laid down against it to hide from the Jade-Hunters. Slowly putting together your experiences, you decide the growling sound from your lower body means it's trying to tell you something, the ticklish feeling being something inside you doing something.

You panick, the something in your lower body is growling and doing something. You are about chirp and squeal for your Mother's attention, when the insight hits you-('you hunger,' the unseen huffs)-your hungry for more prey. The tantalizing smell of the Jade-Hunter's remains, alongside the new revelation of the growl/tickle in your lower body meaning food, is too much to resist and you manage to tear loose a chunk of warm flesh from the not-live body of your once enemy. As you throw your head back and swallow the chunk, the not-there voice inside you guides you to a specific spot inside the body/meat. You eye the dull purple glob of meat, cocking your head this way and that in curiosity. You sniff it and smell the sharpness of the blood, slowly pooling out of the now opened body, and another strange smell you can't quite identify. However, the strange scent is oddly enticing so you snatch the purple glob of meat from the inside. You enjoy the taste of the glob, so you cock your head backwards and throw your snout forwards to get as much of the flesh into your jaws as possible. You continue doing so until the vast majority of it is inside your jaws, only closing your jaws on the flopping meat chunk then. Surprisingly, the flesh glob pops when you dig your fangs into it, and you find the taste of the fluids inside to be good.

You can feel your stomach swell from the mass of the content you've eaten. Feeling satisfaction, but still seeking more, you strip off a second chunk of meat from the lower body of the Jade-Hunter and devour that. Your forced to back off, immediately after to give the oncoming horde, consisting of three of your siblings, access to the body/meat where they immediately start fighting each other for their portion of the meat. The swell of your belly feels even better now that your observing the fierce competition for, what you assume the unseen calls are telling your siblings are, the best remaining bits of the body. You flick your tongue over your bloodied fangs, closing your eyes and enjoying the taste and feel of the personal cleansing. You watch your siblings squabble over their parts of the bodies, both the one you consumed from, and the other bodies that litter other parts of the clearing for a time before tiring of that.

Returning to the trench in the nest you slept in before the Jade-Hunter attack, you nestle yourself inbetween Mother and her large being and observe the larger beings in the clearing. They number six, not including Mother. Most are coloured the same as your siblings, all slightly differing shades of gray. Mother is the largest of them, and is the brightest with an almost shiny gray hue to her scales. The large being that rubbed her snout before is a dull gray-red colour, with dark stripes starting to cross the length of his back, now that you have taken the time to scent them you can detect the small hints of your gender in him. He is only one of your piercing claws smaller than him. They are leaning against one another, snuggling, as they watch another of your siblings burst their snouts out of their All-They-Have-Ever-Known.

Further away in the clearing, curled around some of the dirt mounds, more larger beings lie. The closest one is also the second largest being, compared to Mother. She, her scent tells you she is a she, is a gray that reminds you of the small occasional pebbles that dot the area around Mother's nest. By her is a smaller, male, who is almost all gray. He is only starting to develop his red scales, and doesn't yet have the stripes that your inner guide knows signal maturity. The last three nests are all close together, with near identical larger beings in them. The only visible tell-tales to seperate them are faint scars that mark the snout, sides, and back of the furthest, the scars across the second furthest one's nostrils, and the closest identical one's slightly misaligned jaw. All three of them are the same dull gray of your larger sibling that accompanied you during the Jade-Hunter attack.

Having observed all seven of the large beings in the clearing, you decide that they are all somewhat friendly. Not one is being aggressive at them moment, and all of them are displaying signs of vulnerability to you and your siblings. The three near-identicals are sleeping, the-('Seconds,' the inside voice hisses)-Seconds, you label the closest sleeping duo. Mother and Father are right beside each other watching their young. Your inner voice communicates that they are the Firsts of your extended family's group. Feeling safe, full, content, you fall into peaceful slumber.

Choose Your Interlude
[X] The First Hunt Just read the label
[X] The First Years Just read the label
[X] The Miracle Girls = Boys????
[X] The Great Dying Bwahahahahahhahahah

QM Note: Second Apologies for taking so long to get this one out. I've had plenty of things get in the way IRL so there was nothing I could do about it. Anyways, if you guys have suggestions for soundtracks for this chapter, please spoiler them. This lowers the problems others might have with reading through pages and just makes the pages more pleasant to look at. As you can guess from descriptions in this chapter, and invistext hints from earlier, I have settled on the JP:LW raptor appearance for males in the Dull-Back Pack gens.

So, in case anyone is wondering just what you ate from the compy, well you got the most nutrious part of a fresh corpse... Yep, you guessed it, you guys just ate a liver. Ya, you guys. Hope that I included enough adorable moments to match the gross-out-factor of eating a bleh body part for you.

Rolls for this Part:
Night-Stalker - Survivors per Pack/Gen
Smugraptor - Which Pack/Gen Yours Is

Voting Ends Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 8:00pm (EST).

 

[AnimalKrazed]

Chapter One: Interlude One
The Miracle

Soundtrack: Transformation from Brother Bear
​

You awoke to the sound of Mother clicking. You don't know why, but the clicking she makes demands your attention. Judging from the lack of hissing, snapping, and chirping, your siblings have similar responses. Huffing through your nose, you clear your mind of the murkiness that sleep brought with it and focus on Mother. Your siblings are slowly gathering around her, all twelve of them. Your youngest siblings are the smallest, and closest to her. As one of the oldest, first to hatch, you can feel a protectiveness already swelling for each of your siblings. From the oldest, a large, bright/dark gray female, to whom you assume is the youngest, a fragile looking pebble gray female, you feel the desire to guard and protect. You know that this feeling is mutually spreading from Mother and her pack to you, her hatchlings.

Mother has been encouraging the protect/pack feeling since the day you hatched. After the Jade-Hunters failed to hunt us, Mother has been teaching us how to communicate with words. She explained things to us slowly, going over things again and again. Slowly you and your siblings managed to make the connections between Mother's variety of sounds and the objects she introduced. The small, crunchy prey became bugs, the feathered prey became birds, and the furry prey became the mammals. Mother described what the different kinds of large prey looked like and gave us their names. Mother described our kind and told us our kind's name, Precise Claws. Mother taught you the words for day and night, stone and dirt. With each passing day your siblings word list grew. Mother taught the numbers of her kind and the names of the prey her pack hunted. The world around you quickly expanded beyond the clearing with the stories she and her pack would tell.

It has only been three nights since you and your siblings hatched. You can already tell that you are quickly growing, from the regurgitated flesh that the pack brought for Mother and your siblings. You and your siblings aren't quite ready for the vigorous activity involved in digesting fresh prey just yet. Your stomach reminds of how harsh that lesson felt to you time from time when you think about it. While the flesh glob was easy enough to digest, the strips of meat you pulled off were not so quick to go away. You were eventually 'convinced' by Mother to let them go. It's something you and your siblings, all of whom tried to digest fresh meat, are determined not to let anyone bring up again. Every hatchling has agreed to mob the one who does. Somehow you can tell they will still do it because of the fun to be had by the Grown in playing with you and your siblings.

Refocusing on Mother, who has been looking at you for your attention for a moment now, you find a spot to curl up alongside your smaller, light blue-gray brother. You and he have been near constant companions since the Jade-Hunter attack, playing and fighting with each other often since then. You rest your head on his leg, and he rests his snout on the tip of your tail. You yawn away the last of the sleep from your mind before Mother speaks again.

"My hatchlings," Mother calls, "I have regaled you with stories of recent hunts and taught you much. Now, I teach you again. Now, I teach you of events in our past times. We," Mother quickly eyes her quietly listening pack members, pointing them out to us, "remember the harsh times and the lessons learned from the dry times, just as much as we teach you the lessons we learned in the wet times. We, who have endured and survived the lonely times, rejoice in the company all hatchlings bring. We have raised you and will continue to raise you as our own." She nuzzles the closest sibling to her, who lovingly chirps back to her. "Times have not always been so kind to us, nor do we think they will always be so kind to us," Mother exhales slowly through her nostrils, sadly recounting something she doesn't tell us. The sad feeling resonants through the rest of the Grown of your pack, confusing you and your siblings.

As quickly as Mother was saddened, she rebounds from it. "There was a time, five times cycles ago that brought great sadness to the pack. We were younger than, only just becoming grown and coming into our own as grown. The Odd continued to patrol the gray vines as they still do now, and not much was different. The pack hunted the Tree-Dwelling Mammals, the Beak-Frills (protoceratops), and all other prey we found, and we guarded our territory. We no longer climbed trees as hatchlings are want to and remained dirt-bound as we assumed Grown are supposed to," Mother reminded us, "the sky was still blue, and mists obscured the terrain every morning. Much is the same now as it was then."

Mother paused to let the information sink in. This was the earliest past time she or any of the pack had told us about so far. Whenever we asked about the ones who came before them, they would look saddened and distract us with a hunting story. You and your siblings didn't know anything about the far past times of Mother and the pack. They really only told you and your siblings of hunting stories and only of ones in the last times cycle. "However," Mother continues her story, "in those times we had no males, and no other pack. We only had each other, we only had our pack. There were no Grown before us, so we had only each other to learn from. We did not known what males were in those times. We saw male birds, male bugs, and male mammals, but no males of ours." Mother stopped for a moment, to let the incrediblity of her statement sink in. It was hard for you to understand, what it would be like to live a life without brothers, without males around. It was harder for you to comprehend what it would be like to be female.

"As Grown, the pack began to seek males without knowing what males of our kind were like. We wanted hatchlings, we sought for new life in our pack. We wanted to teach and share the lessons and stories we had learned through our hard times and rejoice in our good times. We wanted to share," Mother pauses as some memory takes her. Father, the red, darkly striped male you remember from your first day, lovingly chuffs sweet nothings to her as he comforts her. She huffs out her sadness and emotional exhaustion, and returns to her story, "We, as a pack, searched throughout our territory for males. We called for brothers of our kind to find us and laid down scent trails to our nesting ground for them to follow as our instincts guided us to. None came. Not one male answered our calls, not one male was found in our territory, not one male followed our trails. We were alone in our territory."

Mother's eyes sharpened in this moment, her past determination shining through to the now time, "The pack would not be so easily discouraged. We went beyond our scent markers and sought males from other territories. We found packs of our kind when we went beyond our territory into the heights of the Great Rock where some of the Beak-Frills (protoceratops) climbed and gathered and in the place where the Great Clearing blends with the Great Trees. We even found our kind further to the southeast where the gray vines sink into the ocean," Mother paused for a moment in rememberance of the great journey they had gone on. "In all these places, we found younger members of our kind. In all those places, we found no males. So with much weight on our backs, we returned to our territory in the north and refreshed our scent markers." Mother almost silently to herself for a moment. Father reminds her of his presence, nudging his snout into her neck and cawing, "I'm here. I'm not going to leave you. We are not then, but here. Dont forget me." Mother lovingly nips him in reply, huffing, "I won't. I can't, you aren't going to let me," to him. He chuffs lightly. One of the pack, Second-Female, barks, "Continue the story! You have time for connecting later."

Mother glares at Second-Female for a moment, before exhaling softly and continuing, "We thought ourselves to be the first of the Great Hill pack when we were hatchlings, all alone with no Grown to protect us when we needed emotion uplifting in the harsh times, but the days after our failure to find males, our failure to find mates, were when we thought we would be the last of our pack. Our stories, our lessons all gathered so eagerly to be shared with our young, our hatchlings, would so sadly begin and end with us. There would be no future for our pack beyond us, no sharing between Mother and young. Just as we were the Beginning of our pack, we would be the End."

"One day though, during the dry time two years ago, things changed. I felt the urge to make a larger nest come from inside me. Instincts is rarely wrong, so I did as it guided me to. I gathered dirt, pebbles, leaves, grass, and the fluff of lesser prey to soften my nest. I cared for it as my instincts would have me. Through it all, I watched as all my sisters, but one, were slowly guided to do the same. And so the first eggs of the pack were laid." We do not know how we laid eggs, we had no male to give them life. But our instincts had us care for these eggs all the same, and so we did. We hoped, asking those that came before to watch over us and grant us, to grant our pack, a future." Mother continued, her tone lighter than the heavier tune her vocalizations carried before, "They did. Despite all the odds against our pack, our eggs carried new life in them."

Before any of us could ask how the eggs could have carried new life, carried hatchlings in them without a male, Mother carried on with her story, "We don't know how, even now, those eggs carried new life but they did. Our pack didn't care then, and don't care now why those eggs carried new life. We are only grateful they did," Mother paused and looked to Father. He nodded an affirmation to some unvocalized question, before nuzzling your heftier, dull, dark gray brother. "As we raised those eggs, and then hatchlings, our sister who hadn't laid changed. She was the Second of the pack at the time. Her scales slowly were shed away and new, red and black ones took their place. Her scent changed, becoming more different then our own. Her insides were wrecked with pain for a time, so much so that she was unable to leave for hunts or patrol. She was unable to care for herself, and at more than one point wished to die so as to end her pain," as Mother hissed those words, her eyes hardened. She turned her gaze to match each of ours, before barking, "Pack doesn't let pack down. Pack doesn't let pack die. The pack is our future, and each and every part of it is special." She gazed down on us, judging us for a moment, "Do you understand?" You did, and you know your siblings did too. Alone, one Precise Claw is vulnerable and open to the wrongs of the world. In a pack, Precise Claws can do whatever they set themselves to.

Seeming to find what she sought in our eyes, Mother huffed happily to herself. The Grown of the pack seemed satisfied by the understanding we showed and Scar Snout silently asked Mother to continue her story. Mother, content in the pack, worked to finish her story, "It was for a full wet time that our sister was laid low by her pain, even as the pack cared for her and our young. By the end of that time, our hatchlings had grown from your size to a size where their eyes would match a Grown's shoulders. Our sister," Mother barked, "had been laid low by her pains as she had been hadn't changed in size, but almost everything else about her had. Her scent was heavier, and her hide red and black. Her eyes had a more green sheen than ours. Her habits and behaviours, while subtle, were different than before to. As our sister exercised her tired muscles and regained her strength in the many days after, the pack tried to figure out what had happened to our sister. We had some of the pack journey to the other packs and see if others had undergone their sister's change, while the others in the pack cared for their sister and the hatchlings that had survived their first wet time. Those journeying sisters found that only one pack had such a thing happen to them, that pack carrying members slightly older than ours. They didn't know what had happened to their sister, but didn't contact other packs in worry of showing what might be a weakness."

"Our journeying, tired sisters returned without knowledge or story of what had happened to our beloved sister. It wouldn't be until a year after our sister recovered that we figured out what had changed in our sister. One of the hatchlings that survived to that time had begun to shed their gray scales for red ones, when our pack sisters felt the urge to mate again. We had only begun to lay down the scent trails and call out mating calls when we noticed that our changed sister reacted to them. It intrigued us, so we investigated this happening for a long time. At the end, we managed to figure out that our changed sister was now a brother. And so The Miracle had come upon our pack and blessed us with our young and the promise of many more to come."

Choose One of Each:

[X] Timeskip
-[x] One Month
-[x] Two Months
-[x] To Hurricane Clarissa 3 months
Options for what occurs in Timeskip will be made available after vote finishes.

[X] Second Interlude
-[x] The First Years
-[x] The First Hunt
-[x] The Great Dying

QM Note: Hey everyone, answering the question everyone is going to ask. I borrowed a little something from a plausible genetic filler source, the Komodo dragon, for this chapter. Komodo dragons, several other birds, reptiles, and other vertebrates, all have the potential in them to carry out virgin births using differently structured male/female chromosomes that scientists have taken to calling W&Z chromosomes. The structure of these chromosomes allows creatures such as those select birds and Komodo dragons to reproduce asexually and give birth to male and female young. Tada! While not known to be able to do this back in the 80's and 90's, it is known in scientific and animal lover communities today. This allows me to use Komodo DNA for filler in Raptors and so give them this ability.

Anyways, this was a long chapter. Tell me how I did, it was harder than I thought to have a character tell a story while writing a story. Bleh, Storynception! Grammar critics are always welcome. Happy Canada Day!

Voting ends Friday July 3rd, 2015 at 6:00pm (EST).

 

[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.