Raptor at Heart - Unfamiliar World

[nikohl]

"Yeah, this is Baik. He's with us now. I think he's, uh... a real one?" Brigitte nods her head a couple of times, then looks around again. "Why are you all running? Is the trike still coming?!"

[kurik]

"No, the trike's dead. It, uh, it got Doug before we managed to take it down. Then the little ones began swarming, and that's never a good sign so we decided to high tail it out of there." Brock shakes his head to get some of the water off. "A real one huh? Can he talk?" Brock turns to the unknown raptor "Can you talk?"

[Mereneth]

Baik snorted, unamused by the newcomers insult towards his ability to communicate. Angry, he barked out a harsh response.

"I can bark and chirp as well as any raptor not egg addled, unlike you. Can I 'talk'. Do you want me to take a chunk out of your hide or something? I won't settle for being picked on anymore now that i'm following Alpha Brigitte. She has earned my respect, unlike you, despite how odd she acts sometimes. What is it with all of you anyhow? You're not misshapen or show any signs of injuries that affect thinking, yet you all seem to act like little hatchlings, clueless about the world or how to even do something as simple as drink."

He glared at Brock as he drove home the insult, flexing his talons and keeping his rage in check as frustration and confusion pounded his senses in the presence of the growing group of odd raptors. The matter dealt with as much as he could expect to without drawing blood, he turned to the female who had introduced herself as Lauren. An odd name, to be sure, but at least she seemed to be somewhat like Brigitte; while confusing, she was still a female and, as a new member of the pack, he needed to be on her good side for his own sake.

"I am Baik, and you don't need to run anymore. These bites are not fleeing a great one, but are spooked by something that has merely made them piss themselves in confused fear. I would guess some leaf-eater blundered into something that startled it and simply fled in its stupidity. Those that eat plants as their main food are rarely smart. Blood in your gullet makes you smart; an unfortunate turn for them, while fortune shows her sharp teeth in our favor."

[kurik]

So they can talk, good to know. This guy doesn't seem to bright though. Short fuse to, but he'll know the area. Could be useful but I better keep an eye on him.Brock thought to himself. "Heh, I like you. Bit of an anger problem, but you're closer to the truth than you'd think." That said, Brock Moves to examine a tree, keeping his attention half on the newcomer, and see if he can try to climb it at all or not. If it feels to awkward of difficult, he'll stop. It's not worth getting hurt over.

► Show Spoiler

I hate it when I forget part of what I wanted to say.

[SamWiser]

"Bridgette is your alpha now? When did that happen? She ran from the triceratops. If anything I think Hoff should be the alpha. He's the one who took down the trike. Sheesh, you would probably be the better alpha. You know the area. Maybe I should be the alpha. I took a wound from the battle. She just ran."

Sam looks at the new raptor, interested in his reaction to his statement.

[GathersIngredients]

At the friendly and sensible sounding reply from Baik to her, Lauren decided to stop completely. "Thank you for your insights on this matter, Baik. And you are right, in a way we are like hatch-lings, because until very recently we were other beings, in a completely other place. I don't know what changed that, or how. Therefore we could really use someone to teach us about this world and how to successfully be a raptor in it, starting with the simplest, most obvious things. Do you think you could do that for us?" Lauren asked him in a very friendly, coaxing tone of voice approaching him in a non-threatening way and subconsciously swaying her tail to and fro in an almost hypnotic way. "I can assure you, it will be worth your time, because we are capable or great things as a team. Already we brought down a pretty giant three-horn in the clearing. Why don't you come back there with us, we'll check out what spooked the 'bites' as you call them, make sure Jorge is ok, and you can have as much three-horn meat as you like while you think about being our guide?"

Before going back, Lauren followed Brock's example and stopped at the pool to have a drink, but she attempted bending down upper body, bringing her head close to the surface and trying to get some water inside her mouth, by opening it, pushing the lower jaw under water and rising it up, full now, closing her mouth again, head in the back of her neck, trying to sip the water down her throat before it escaped through the gaps between her pointy teeth. As Baik was still around - if only because he didn't know where the three horn feast was to be found - she smiled at him, a little embarrassed that she didn't even know how to drink with this body, and asked: "Am I doing this right?"

[BadgeAddict]

After he had dragged the body until he couldnÔÇÖt see the clearing any longer (maybe 100 ÔÇô 200 feet) he laid the corpse, already somewhat eaten, on the ground before Queen. After setting it in front of her he backed away slowly, as he had no intention to eat any. He hoped that his actions showed her that he had no desire to steal the food from her and that he was offering it to her and her tribe.

A delighted, slightly deranged and maddening look flashed across Alexs face as he watched the minis rip into Doug, no, the grey raptors body. I have to distance myself from the thought that these things were ever human, Alex thought to himself. He felt almost like a father as he watched hischildrenrip into the food that he had found for them. A sense of pride swelled up in his chest as he watched them devour their food. Soon, the meeps and peeps of children with full tummies could be heard softly; at least, in Alexs delusional mind he thought he could hear them.

ÔÇ£Queen, will the rest of your pack be joining us for this feast?ÔÇØ Alex asked the Queen.

(Action: Alex keeps his distance (~10 ft.) from the minis as they eat)

[Theis2]

John still trying to get caught up with the rest is delighted to discover his new body is far better conditioned than he was as a human. Still unsure about how his new body handles and his careful way of moving himself around keep him from catching up with the others before they suddenly stop.
John makes sure to slow down before hand, as he rather avoid embarrassing himself by tumbling past the others including the new raptors.

"You made it! What happened? Where is Doug and Jorge?"
Okay maybe not new, but they might as well had been. It's not easy to distinct each raptor from each other except the color, and they could just as well have been other raptors with similar coloring as the two others.

John stays in the back just observing the others trying to go unnoticed which seems to go fairly well as the others seems to aggravate this new guy.

Hmm seems the native are pretty feral even though they seem just as intellegent.. Or at least able to communicate and knowing how to survive this place. Oh and it sounds like a matriachal society.. or is it another word?..
Well it doesn't matter anymore, I hardly doubt they even use words like that or have any understanding of science for the matter. It's going to be hard to fit in.
John realised he was zoning out and snaps back to reality as Lauren ask if she is drinking correctly, and he makes a mental note to stop zoning out and keep alert.

► Show Spoiler

Sorry about the late posting, I've been rather exhausted this last couple of days

[Mereneth]

The minis quickly filled up on the flesh offered and fled into the underbrush, save for the female, Queen, who barked confused orders at them, demanding they return. One showed itself again, cheeped meekly at her, then vanished once more. Enraged, the little female gave chase, disappearing beneath the foliage and barking out her outrage. The noise faded quickly, leaving Alex alone with Doug's corpse.

---

Jorge reached the fallen herbivores side and planted one foot across its neck to hold it still as he pulled the player and speakers free. Too exhausted to care any longer, its heart still visibly pounding in its chest, the beast heaved a sigh and surrendered itself to the inevitable, only to be surprised as the weight lifted from its neck. Confused, it raised its head, trembling from the effort, to watch Jorge limp off to the south, following the trampled trail towards the others.

As he walked he fiddled with the device clumsily until he manage to change the song. He raised an eye-ridge in mild surprise as an [unfamiliar tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSwUFI18s7s) played from the speakers instead of more Pitbull. Curious, he listened as he walked, but eventually decided to turn the device off to save its battery. Where was he to find a place to charge such a novelty here, after all? MP3 secured, he trudged on towards the pack.

Back in the clearing, the herbivore felt itself calming as the predator left, and allowed herself to take deep breaths as she rested. She knew the way back to the herd; as soon as her exhaustion passed she intended to be reunited. Ignoring the various sounds around her, she closed her eyes and prepared to relax. A moment later a pressure on her back and the horrible pain of large claws biting into her hide brought her immediately alert, though she had no further chance to discover what was on top of her as a pair of massive jaws shut out the light of day and tore off her head.

---

Baik gave Sam a look, not wanting to explain but feeling it necessary given how half of these raptors were... very confused. Of course, her suggestion that he be the Alpha was tempting, but given how he'd already made up his mind he figured it best to wait till later to see about making that happen. Not wanting to start a fight just yet with Brock, he chooses to ignore him for the most part until he'd addressed the females speaking to him, especially given they all had the same questions.

"First, if you've abandoned a kill, I don't recommend going back to it. You mentioned you lost one of your pack... Doug, to it, yes? That isn't strength; you should never lose a pack member to your prey. Injuries happen, but those will seal. A lost raptor might be one less mouth to feed, but it is also one less member contributing to a kill."

He snorted, clearing dust from his nostrils before continuing to inform the... hatchlings. What else could he refer to them as, given how little they seemed to know? He'd never fathered hatchlings before, but somehow this seemed like how it might be if he had to raise his own. It was incredibly frustrating. He watched Lauren bend over to drink, albeit poorly, and settled for assessing her and Sam's bodies until Lauren posed another question.

"You... uh... That isn't the best way to drink and makes you look like you've got shell shards in your head; it's like you're drooling uncontrollably but not over flesh. Let me show you..."

He stepped up to the pool, eyed the corpse of Maieieh floating off to the side for a moment, then made the first motion.

"First, fill your mouth, then close it."

He dipped his mouth into the water, slurping it up through his muzzle while keeping it mostly shut until he had a comfortable amount. Then, that done, he closed his mouth completely and tilted his head back, letting the cool liquid pour down his throat.

"Then, like I did, tilt your head back and just let it drain; don't try to breathe till it is all past, though, or you will find yourself choking and coughing."

He turned from Lauren and back to Sam. He stared at her, contemplating what to say, until he found himself looking over her crushed, bleeding tail tip. Without waiting for approval, he settled behind her on his haunches and licked at the upper end of the wound, coating it with saliva and making it more difficult for the blood to go far from the wound that it might seal up quickly. Briefly he debated simply biting the wounded end off cleanly, though he was rather sure that even as incompetent as they seemed, their sheer numbers would overwhelm him if they found such an action unwelcome. The wound would have the same effect, regardless of what he did. She would have one hell of a time with balance when making any major leaps till she had months of time to get used to the change.

► Show Spoiler

Kurik, i'm not deciding what you do for you. Either you try to climb the tree, or you don't. I'll determine the results of such a choice, but i won't make the choice for you!

[kurik]

► Show Spoiler

Yes. I said I was climbing the tree, but if it starts to feel like something my body can't handle because of lack of strength or raptors just plain not being able to climb, aborting the attempt and hoping back to the ground before I got so high at to risk serious injury.

Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

[nikohl]

"Yeah, I ran. And if you lot had run too like I said, maybe you wouldn't be missing Doug, and the other one, and the end of your tail wouldn't look like that. Stupidity and bravery are different things." Brigitte sniffed in annoyance at Sam's speech, then turned to look around.

"Baik, I need you to tell us how far your old pack's territory is. We need somewhere to call home and if there really are like, twenty of them, I don't want to try and set up shop in the middle of their back yard. Zaki, do you want to help me scout out a territory like he said? Scratch the trees and stuff?"

[BadgeAddict]

As the little ones started to run away, and Alex saw that Queen was about to follow, he called after her ÔÇ£IÔÇÖm sure we will meet again little one, when you are in need, you have but find me, my name is Alex.ÔÇØ

After the minis darted into the forest growth Alex realized that he was once again alone in the world. Remembering that the group he had come here with had started moving away from the clearing. He ran in the direction that they had gone in the hopes of catching up with them. As he ran he stopped now and then to sniff the ground, trying to pick out the now familiar scents of a raptor. He found that the ones that he smelled, although similar to his own, were different in their own unique ways. ÔÇ£I wonder if this is how the wild ones can differentiate between each other.ÔÇØ Alex wondered to himself. Once finding the smell of many raptors, all slightly different, he continued on, running in the direction of the group.

[SamWiser]

Sam winces when Baik starts licking his tail, but tries to make light of the situation. "Sheesh, he didn't even buy me dinner first. They get right to the point here."

Sam lets Baik lick his tail for a little bit, and when he is finished, Sam asks a question. "So how does one become alpha, anyway? Is it fighting the current one? Or is there a more non-lethal way?"

"Yeah, I ran. And if you lot had run too like I said, maybe you wouldn't be missing Doug, and the other one, and the end of your tail wouldn't look like that. Stupidity and bravery are different things." Bridgette says to him.

"I think you have your timeline wrong. We lost the little one before we anybody ran. Also, Doug wasn't leaving. We had two choices. We could run and leave him to die, or try to save him so we could have an experienced commander in our pack. You decided to run and think for yourself. I decided to try to help the pack. If I had to sacrifice the end of my tail then I'm ok with that. We're here, and we might as well try to survive as long as possible. That's what I'm trying to do."

[nikohl]

"Did you lose your ability to count when you lost your hands? You're missing one. Not the girl that the trike killed, the coppery one. I didn't know his name, but I at least remember he exists." Brigitte snorts and shakes her head, moving away from Sam and walking around the pool to push Maieieh's body further into the water in the hope that it sinks. "...They're going to find this."

[Jibjib]

Terrence hurries back to join the group, anxious not to be left exposed on his own.

[GathersIngredients]

Lauren tries drinking again, following Baik's instructions. It works much better now and she drinks her fill. "Thank you for your help." she says, as she gently touches his shoulder with her "hand" from behind in a very human gesture of gratitude, careful not to startle him or accidentally hurt him with her claws.
"But I think you are too strict with your judgment. Considering that we haven't even had a day's experience, I think we did pretty well, losing just one of us in the actual fight. Or how do you figure freshly hatched raptors would have fared in our places?" she tries to convince him of her point of view.
"And with your instructions, we will get even better.

Speaking of which, why shouldn't we return to an abandoned kill?" she asks him, eager to learn more about this strange new world she will have to live and fight for her survival in from now on.
"Be that how it may, I think ... Jorge is still back there, and we need each and every last one of us to work together, pulling into the same direction, if we want to succeed," she remarks with a meaningful look towards Sam and Brigitte, "therefore we really should try and see what is up with him, if there is no danger around. Baik, would you come with me and teach me how to approach a potentially dangerous area best, please?"
Lauren waits for Baik's replies and, hopefully in his company sets out to go and find Jorge.

[kurik]

► Show Spoiler

GAH! twice I've tried to post an action and got called away all day without internet.

Brock finds a stick and tries to pick it up with his claws in order to see how well they work at manipulating objects, and how well he can grip things. He also swings it around a bit like a nerd with a plastic lightsaber. Which is basically what he still is. *Sigh*"I miss my thumbs already."

After listening to the others talking about someone missing: "Crap, yeah, we need to find him. Gotta stick together. I may not know much of value here, but I know rule number one is Never Split The Party." He drinks some more water like the real raptor showed (still holding the stick) and turns towards the way they came. "We should go and make sure everyone's okay."

[SamWiser]

"Yeah guys. First rule of camping. Never leave a buddy behind. We aren't camping, but we are in the woods so I think it still applies."

Sam waits to see if some of the others go back the direction they came, and if so he follows them.

[nikohl]

"Splitting up didn't go so well for us last time, so if we're going, we'll all go." Brigitte agrees, nodding her head a little and giving Maieieh's body one last shove into the centre of the pool before leaving it and turning back in the direction they came from. "Wasn't there another little one? A darker one? Maybe he's back with Jorge?"

[Theis2]

John slightly worried about how the interaction amongst each other is turning out, just silently follows along to avoid getting mixed into the troublesome discussion.

[nikohl]

(Mereneth is having trouble with 500 errors when he tries to use the forum, so has copy-pasted this to me on MSN so we can continue, and he says he will get back on as soon as he can)
---

Baik snorted in refusal, growing impatient with his new pack.

"An abandoned kill means you don't want it anymore and will always bring the Big ones or another pack. I mean, the Big ones still come after they catch wind of it, but for some reason they take their time if they think another is at the kill."

He ran after those leaving for a moment, but stopped short and simply barked out to them instead of going against his judgement. He wasn't about to get killed over egg addled raptors.

"We need to either wait here for your missing egg-head or move on, now. You left a kill to the north, my old pack is south of us and you have no marked territory."

Frustrated, he turned back to Brigitte, glaring at the silent, meek Niyazaki as he sidled up along side his Alpha.

"You need to control your pack, Alpha, or we'll all end up worse than Maieieh, there."

He chirped on, muttering to himself as he watched her nudge at the corpse. Still upset, old wounds throbbing in his mind, he waited till she moved away and walked over to the corpse. He worried at the head of his old 'comrade' and, after that proved to not be enough to satisfy his anger, he turned and marked the pool and the carcass in a last act of contempt.

While the act didn't satisfy him entirely, he saw no other options to alleviate his frustrations and settled for returning to Brigitte's side.

► Show Spoiler

Alex will encounter Jorge on his way to join the others; somewhere around halfway there.

[nikohl]

Brigitte listens for a moment, turning back to watch Baik as he speaks - then can't help breaking out into barking giggles as Baik pees on the head of the raptor corpse. After a second or two she composes herself and coughs.

"Okay, okay. I gotta listen to him, because... well, he knows what he's talking about." She shakes her head at Lauren and continues to speak. "No offence, lady, but he knows more than you and if he says it's not safe, then I ain't going and you shouldn't either. How about we go part way back and see if we can hear Jorge, or that other small one whose name I still don't know. But not all the way back to the clearing, because it's not safe. Then whether we find them or not, we pick a direction, east or west since we can't go north or south, and get moving. Baik, what else is round here that I should know about?"

[BadgeAddict]

► Show Spoiler

I apologize for how long this is, I needed to go through some more internal morality conflicts.

Alex stopped yet again to find the scent of the group that he was trailing, it was exactly like all of the other times, nothing changed, or so he thought. This time in particular as he stopped to snuff heavily around the area for the smells of those that he was trying to catch up with he caught a whiff of a scent that was much fresher than the others. Nose to the ground like a border collie Alex snuffed and snorted with his nostrils pushed into the dirt in a way that, if he wasnÔÇÖt a large flesh eating raptor, could only be seen as hilarious. ÔÇ£Hmm, strangeÔÇØ Alex thought as he again found the scent of the group, but another as well.

The new scent was traveling in the same general direction he was going so he decided he may as well find the new raptor and discover it meant any harm. After slightly re-directing himself in the direction of the smell he started to creep after it, stopping now and then to make sure that he was on a true course. A few moments later he found he could just make out another raptor in the distance. It seemed to be playing with something its hands, it was moving quite slowly and Alex could see that its leg had been wounded. There was a large bruise on the wounded leg, a swell of blood beneath the surface. This one is lucky the blood isnt oozing out or hed had minis swarming him Alex chuckled to himself at the thought of the minis swarming a raptor. As soon as this thought had entered his mind he was taken aback by the evil which had encroached upon his own mind. What is wrong with meIm laughing at the thought of someone dying. Alex was quickly overcome with disgust in himself for thinking such foul thoughts. Yet, he also remembered that only a short while ago he had allowed the minis to eat the silver raptor that he had pulled from the clearing.

What little morals he had left as a human being were slowly unraveling as he realized that he was a monster. A monster that ate raw meat, enjoyed the thrill of the kill, and fed potential friends to potential allies. As these thoughts started racing through his mind, he felt as though the beast within was smiling and nodding as he was finally embracing this darker path. Alex shook his head around and blinked his eyes, trying to clear the fogginess from his mind.

When the world came into focus once more, the raptor he had been following had once again disappeared into the wilderness. Finding its trail was quicker this time as he found his nose could very quickly pick up the scent of what he wanted to follow. Due to the wounded leg of his query he found himself again following closely behind the raptor.

As he slowly closed the between the two of them, cautiously so as not to make a sound, he found that he knew this one, he was one of the ones that had fed them the tri-horned baby. ÔÇ£He must have gotten that wound during the fight with the babyÔÇÖs father.ÔÇØ Alex chewed on this thought a little while and realized that if he got into a fight with him, though he was smaller, he would be at an advantage. As gram said ÔÇ£before you get in a fight, make sure you can win.ÔÇØ

Before closing the gap between them, Alex rounded the creature and found himself to a point in front of its path so that it was slowly walking toward him. After the raptor had closed the gap to a mere fifty feet, Alex thought that it would probably be in his benefit to announce his presence. ÔÇ£Ahoy there, what did you find that you are fiddling with?ÔÇØ Alex spoke just loud enough for the raptor to hear him, but hoped that he wasn't so loud he would spook him.

[GathersIngredients]

Lauren ruffled her feathers a bit, disgruntled at both being misunderstood, perchance even taken for a fool, as well as irritated about how disrespectful someone could let the otherwise regardful term "lady" sound. But she quickly shook those feelings and smoothed her plumes again, because she wasn't after confrontation. "Brigitte, was it? Another little one? I think you're talking about Hoff. And for the record, I didn't mean going back ALL the way, you know. I just wanted to go back a little in the general direction and see if we can find the missing ones or at least get an idea what happened to them. Like a recon mission? Besides, it would do all of us some good to learn how to move in unknown, potentially dangerous terrain, don't you think?"

With some difficulty, she ignored Baik's comment about Brigitte needing to control her pack. She, Lauren, would be open to any sensible suggestions from anyone, but no one was her boss here. While true raptors might very well have a need for one individual to take the lead, she despised the idea of doing whatever someone ordered her to do, just because they said so, and involuntarily, she shook her head at the thought.

The idea of having a place to call their own, on the other hand, to stay there and be somewhat safer, to belong to, appealed to Lauren. A lot.
"So, tell me about marking of one's own terrain, Baik, how does one go about that? How large an area are we talking about?"

[nikohl]

"No, not Hoff... he was there when I spoke to Doug, I know him. I'm sure there was another one when we woke up. He left to follow the one that went to pee, the one that the trike got. Maybe it got him too?" She shrugs to herself. "Maybe I made him up, since no-one else seems to remember him. Anyway, I don't know nothing about recon missions, I'm just saying... I'm gonna listen to my man here, 'cos he knows what he's talking about."

Brigitte shrugged her shoulders again and dipped her head to drink from the pond, then thought better of the idea when she remembered Baik had just peed there. Oh well - she wasn't that thirsty anyway, the liquid blood from her latest meal would tide her over 'til they found more water. She didn't particularly mind that Baik and Niyazaki were apparently following her lead now, and if the others did as well, then she'd step up - but she wasn't planning on stamping around exerting her dominance when she didn't know any more than the rest of them, even if Baik wanted her to get bossy.