Chapter Raptor

[The following chapter contains strong language. Reader caution is advised.]

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Monday 25th October 1999

 

 

“Let’s all watch Walking with Dinosaurs tonight!” Bao said. “It’ll be fun!” he said.

 

Look, I’m not disagreeing in principle. I’d already seen the first three episodes, and it’s a pretty awesome show. Some great effects and a lot of cool stuff I never knew about dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. We’ve all been watching, more-or-less – not always live, but keeping up with it. And hey, I’m never one to say no to all of us grabbing pizza for dinner and watching something together.

 

It's not even like I was worried about Bao providing a running commentary – over the past few weeks, he’s been steadily getting more and more engrossed in dinosaurs thanks to the show – because, well, I figured he’d have his eyes glued to the screen most of the time anyway.

 

(He did have his eyes glued to the screen, by the way.)

 

The episode itself was great, all about this huge Ornithocheirus (yes, I had to cross-reference that spelling – Bao bought a Radio Times special on Walking with Dinosaurs that he’s been taking with him everywhere so that was easily done). It took a long migratory journey from Brazil to its mating grounds in Spain, only to fail to attract a mate and wind up dying. In fact, the focal creature of the episode dying at the end is starting to look like a theme in this show…

 

Along the way, we saw dinosaurs from both the Americas and Europe, including a pack of Utahraptors that hunted and took down an Iguanodon. I really enjoyed the Raptors in the Jurassic Park films, so it was a lot of fun seeing dinosaurs like them in the show. Kitty, on the other hand, winced her way through the scenes of the pack chowing down on their prey, which included some meaty practical-effects shots in amongst the CGI. Fair play to her for not simply covering her eyes or looking away, although at the same time, my gut reaction when I glanced at her squinting uncomfortably at the telly was concern at her forcing herself to watch it.

 

“Poor thing…” Kendal cooed over the final shots of the focal pterosaur’s lifeless body.

 

“We did see it was gonna die at the start…” Zahid reasoned, with a shrug that morphed into a stretch.

 

“That was before we knew his story! He was just some dead pterodactyl!”

 

“Pterosaur,” Bao corrected her with a thumbs-up; she lowered her eyebrows, but nodded all the same.

 

“It’s wild to think that stuff like that was happening a hundred million years ago…”

Dakota took no time to let that statement linger, instead looking between the rest of us uneasily.

“I mean, I know this is just a TV show, but…!”

 

“Wait, the next-time preview!” Bao urged us, and we listened to Kenneth Branagh’s narration establishing the following episode over the credits before being shown a brief sequence of a predator catching one of numerous smaller fleeing dinosaurs.

 

“I bet the they’ll all get eaten by the end or something…” Kitty murmured.

 

“Noooo,” Harriet cooed to her from the sofa, “they’d never make it that sad.”

 

“So!” Bao spoke up with a grin. “What did we all think?”

 

“Sad and awesome!” was Kendal’s verdict.

 

“I like the other pterosaurs… Tappy-”

 

“Tapejara,” Bao told me without missing a beat.

 

“Yeah, they were neat. And the Utahraptors,” I added.

 

“Got to love the predators,” Zahid nodded in approval.

 

Kitty grumbled to herself a little, quietly enough that I only just made it out.

 

“I agree with Kendal, it was sad…”

Dakota ran her hand through her hair as contemplation crossed her face.

 

“It really was… poor old thing…” Harriet mewed next to her.

 

“Okay, you know it was made-up, right?”

Zahid leant forward in the armchair, a look of genuine disbelief on his face.

“Like, sure, these things existed, but they’re making up stories to make good TV.”

 

“That doesn’t mean it’s not sad… he just wanted to mate…” the blonde girl insisted as Bao rubbed her back sympathetically.

 

“But it was really interesting,” Dakota carried on. “I liked the Iguanodons, and those little blue birds.”

 

“I liked the birds too…” Kitty’s voice just about reached me.

 

“The Raptors were metal,” Zahid smiled, “like the big guys from the other week.”

 

“Of course you like all the predators,” Kendal remarked playfully, before yawning.

 

“Well, they’re usually the cooler ones,” Bao considered, a thoughtful look on his face, “but then you’ve got ceratopsians and ankylosaurs and stuff like…”

His sentence trailed off as a yawn took his voice.

 

“Nice work, Kendal, now we’re all gonna be yawning,” I quipped as Bao recovered.

 

“Not my fault they’re infectious!” she countered while Dakota yawned beside me.

 

I had been joking, but it did seem like this yawn was set to spread across all seven of us…

 

Kitty was next to yawn, almost curling up a little as she did, and then it was my turn, a light whine coming from my throat, my eyes welling up ever-so-slightly.

 

“This is actually kind of weird…” Zahid managed to note before he had his turn, rubbing his eyes after for good measure. “Like… Lokon-weird…”

 

“Defin…”

Harriet rounded us out with an almighty yawn, and it was right around there that my memory goes fuzzy. I don’t think I missed out on much, but I know for a fact that within a few moments, we’d all fallen fast asleep.

 

The first thing I noticed as my consciousness returned to me was an itchy feeling on the tip of my nose. I tried to reach my hand out to scratch at it, only my arm couldn’t seem to reach until I moved my head downwards, towards my chest (it didn’t even dawn on me that I was now lying on my side, on the ground). A faint buzzing and a lessening to the itch made me figure, in my dozy state, that I’d probably had a fly on my nose… all the same, I let my fingers scratch away.

 

My fingers felt scales, and my nose felt claws.

 

There was a slight delay in my synapses firing, but as soon as that all registered, my eyes shot open in shock.

 

What greeted me was a sideways view of the Early Cretaceous European landscape.

 

I attempted to sit upright, only to find my tail – because I had a tail now – prevented me from sitting on my butt. Naturally. It took a little trial and error before I managed to get my arms and legs beneath my body, belly-down, and rise to my feet.

 

I’m sure you get the gist of this. I definitely had, at that point. But I inspected my new body all the same, and yes, I was now a Utahraptor. At the very least, some kind of Raptor: I was covered in a black pelt of scales, with occasional Lokon-blue patterning here and there; my arms, feeling most comfortable tucked close to my chest, ended in three claw-tipped fingers; my feet were adorned with those iconic sickle-claws; and my tail was long and stiffened, supporting my balance.

 

Lokonraptor Alex Matthews.

 

“I know I like Raptors, but this is taking it to the extreme,” I attempted to say, only a series of hisses and chirps escaped my reptilian lips instead. Of course…

 

As though a veil was suddenly pulled away, I inexplicably noticed only then several other Raptors surrounding me – and they too only seemed to register that they weren’t alone at that moment. Five of them were like me, mostly black with some coloured portions, so of course they had to be my fellow Painters, while one sported the colours of Walking with Dinosaurs’ Utahraptors, save replacing their pale yellow for something a little more golden, and so I took that to be Harriet.

 

While most of my dino-buddies were perplexed if anything, I could tell that Kitty was on-edge, glancing around, and… well, I could kind of read her body language, somehow, even though I’d only been a Raptor for all of a minute.

 

Dakota chirped and clicked as she looked amongst us, and I inherently understood that she was checking if we were all okay. I answered with an affirmative bark, and Kendal and Zahid did the same. Bao proceeded to chatter away for several seconds, and I both understood him and didn’t understand him at the same time – I could comprehend him, but not the references he appeared to be making.

 

Harriet looked around us with timid body language, uneasy steps, and questioned what was happening. Somewhat contemplative, Dakota cawed back that we should explore our new surroundings more and see if we could find anything out of the ordinary. While Zahid growled lowly to contest that the entire thing was out of the ordinary, Dakota set off out of the little area enclosed by shrubbery that we’d awoken in and down a steady incline. The rest of us began following after her; Kitty continued to hesitate, looking more out-of-sorts than any of us, and I walked over to her, chirping comfortingly and, rather intuitively in my new Raptor state, nudged her forward with my head. She trotted off, and I headed after her and the rest.

 

Since we had no idea where to go, Dakota simply led us on through our Mesozoic landscape in the broad direction she’d chosen. The terrain was largely uneven, occasional plateaus in amongst slopes and rises and craggy outcrops of rock, for as far as the dinosaur-eye could see. It wasn’t barren, of course – ferns and all manner of other ancient plants flourished across the region, bringing an abundance of green in a dozen different shades, and some primitive flowers bloomed in certain patches. There were even taller trees here and there, providing nice shade from the early-evening sun as we walked beneath them.

 

It was decently hot – the narration in the episode had mentioned the temperature being higher in the time of the dinosaurs, and I could certainly feel it, like a hot summer’s day even as the sun steadily headed for the horizon. Saying that, despite knowing it was that hot, the temperature didn’t bother me all that much. Whether that was Lokonessence working its magic as it did with the temperature-regulation of our Painter gear, or whether it was simply being a Raptor adjusted to these conditions, I honestly wasn’t sure.

 

Really, the entire experience was surreal. I know that should go without saying, but… the earth beneath my Raptor feet. The scents I could smell so acutely. Even the movement of my body, the posture, my tail swaying side-to-side as I walked. It didn’t even feel like I was my normal human self imitating a dinosaur stance, my entire body naturally accommodated all of it. It felt right, comfortable.

 

My mind began to wander as our trek continued. As much as I still had my human self-awareness, my memory of my real life, my knowledge of a time after this particular period in Earth’s history (though of course this had to be an artificial recreation)… I was, for all intents and purposes, experiencing life in the Cretaceous, as a dinosaur. The sights, the sounds, the scents, the heat, the insects buzzing about, it was a slice of a time from over 100 million years ago and we were the first humans – or Lokonraptors or whatever – to ever experience this.

 

(At least as best as we’ll ever know.)

 

Reaching the peak of a steep outcrop, the seven of us found ourselves overlooking a wide plateau with a large herd of Iguanodon trundling through, munching on plants, accompanied in Walking with Dinosaurs tradition by a single Polacanthus.

 

All at once, there was a palpable feeling among us that this was our aim. We had to take down one of these dinosaurs. Even without communication, I could sense this unanimous realisation, a sudden electricity in the air.

 

Kitty growled lowly, stepping back away from the peak. When Harriet turned to her with a gentle chirp, Kitty stopped reluctantly, avoiding looking at the rest of us, fidgeting a little.

 

As my attention returned to the plateau, I spotted something on the far edge, atop another rocky point like ours. Kendal noticed it at the same time, and cawed for our attention before I got to. The more I looked, the more I could make it out… another Raptor, seemingly alone, black scales like ours only with occasional markings in white…

 

Melody.

 

I conveyed through chatters and snarls that, surely, this couldn’t really be her. She was able to resist Lokonessence, so there seemed to be no chance of her mind being scooped into this… weird Lokon dream… in the same fashion as us. It was probably a manifestation of her, a Raptor replica.

 

She called across to us, a threat, a challenge; then, she darted down into the plateau, and a dozen fully-white Raptors followed after her.

 

After a brief growl, Dakota barked a command to us: move.

 

We sprinted ahead, covering ground at what felt like breakneck speed and racing towards the Iguanodon herd. I didn’t particularly want to kill one, even if I knew they weren’t real, but there was a certain predatory thrill in sprinting towards the herbivores and watching them notice us and begin to panic. Everything quickly fell into a frenzy, as the herd dispersed and its members bolted in every direction, and my Raptor-friends began fanning out, half-instinct and half-winging-it. The first of Melody’s Raptors suddenly leapt into my field of view before I could work on singling out a target, and it barrelled my way with killing intent.

 

I waited until it had closed in, and turned sharply to avoid it, somehow releasing an arc of blue with my tail as I did. The arc slammed into my opponent, knocking it off of its feet, and I took the chance to pounce upon it, sinking my toe-claws into its side and feeling its flesh tear. I was distracted enough with incapacitating the one Raptor that the teeth digging into my tail took me completely by surprise, and the perpetrator managed to tug me back and throw my balance. Tumbling back off of the first Raptor, I couldn’t right myself in time before the second kicked out at me. All I could do was kick back at the same time.

 

Where our legs awkwardly met between our mutual kicks, a burst of Lokon-blue erupted and scorched my opponent, sending it reeling.

 

That confirmed it. Even without our weapons on-hand, we still had our Painter edge in this dino-dream world.

 

Excluding Harriet, of course: I surveyed the ever-worsening chaos around me, and spotted Bao and Harriet racing along, her sticking close to him. If anybody could keep her safe, it was him. Another of the white Raptors was pursuing them, but Zahid was almost literally snapping at its heels.

 

Dakota and Kendal, meanwhile, had identified a smaller Iguanodon with a limp – almost certainly a target specifically made for us by Harmony – and with the two Raptors I’d dealt with still down, I hurried over to join them. The sooner we dealt with this, the sooner we could return to normal.

 

No sign of Kitty. Perhaps she’d held back, or perhaps she was focusing on Melody’s white Raptors.

 

A large Iguanodon charged right past me, and I only just managed to stop myself from running right into its path. It struck me only then how large they really were… that creatures this large had once walked the Earth. That they would’ve had to deal with attacks from predators like this daily. I’d been thrust into the food-chain in such a visceral way, and that computer-animated sequence of Utahraptors killing an Iguanodon in the show was about to become a lived experience for me.

 

The elephant-sized creature had passed in moments, and now I could see that the Melody-Raptor and one of her pack had pounced onto the back of our target Iguanodon, with Dakota and Kendal snarling and hissing at them and the Iguanodon thrashing in an attempt to throw them off. While I made my way closer, I watched the white Raptor pounce from the juvenile Iguanodon’s back, lunging for Dakota. The two of them began scrapping furiously on the ground, while the Iguanodon threw Melody from its back.

 

In what I felt was ear-shot now, I barked at Kendal to focus on the Iguanodon before it could get away. She leapt onto its side, digging her claws in to take hold, and then I turned to Dakota and the artificial Raptor as they brawled in a flurry of green light. The moment I saw an opening, I leapt in, grabbing the enemy’s throat in my jaws and managing to tear it back from Dakota. In turn, Dakota took the opportunity to kick out at its gut, slashing it open with a green flash.

 

A split-second later, Melody slammed herself into me, sending me and the disembowelled white Raptor sprawling. She chattered at me, a taunt, and then snapped at my throat; I used all four limbs to push her off of me, feeling her teeth scrape out of my neck as she went flying.

 

Dakota chattered to me that Bao, Zahid and Harriet had joined Kendal in dealing with the Iguanodon, before leaping towards the Melody-Raptor and snarling threateningly at her. I copied the gesture, albeit from the ground; our nemesis returned the favour, and, unperturbed, charged for me again. I kicked out, sending a sickle-sharp bow of Lokonessence at her, but she leapt over it, and I barely managed to roll out of the way before she landed down where I’d been with full force.

 

While I got back to my feet, Dakota attempted to go for Melody, only for two more white Raptors to appear and start snapping at her, holding her back. The Melody-Raptor chirped approvingly at their actions, before turning back to me, both of us on level footing again. We snarled at one-another again, claws stretched, teeth bared, all intimidation and warning, but of course, it was all show and neither of us intended on backing down.

 

She moved first, I responded as quickly as I could, and we charged for each other.

 

Out of nowhere, Kitty pounced onto Melody’s back mid-sprint, toppling her immediately with their clashes of momentum. As they both fell to the ground, my friend rolled off, and managed to get herself upright before the Melody-Raptor could, her eyes locked on our nemesis all the while.

 

I chirped my gratitude to her, and she simply nodded in return before leaping back onto the enemy. I dove in at the first opening, and found myself snapping at Melody’s arms and legs and slashing at the soft flesh of her underbelly, taking every spot that Kitty wasn’t attacking in that moment, and bearing every scratch and slash and bite that the dinosaur version of Melody inflicted on me. A flurry of blue, purple and white consumed my vision as our claws and teeth flew about.

 

Eventually, our tussle found Melody on top, and she took the chance to leap away from us, visibly worse for wear, not that Kitty and I were in any better condition ourselves. I heard Dakota snarling behind us – again, somehow intuitively knowing it was her – and the Melody-Raptor seemed to flinch for the first time. Kitty and I both hissed at the enemy from the ground, and she growled lowly in response.

 

By what could only have been either sheer chance or careful engineering on Harmony’s part, the juvenile Iguanodon that Bao, Kendal, Zahid and Harriet were attacking stumbled past, on its last legs, torn up and exhausted. Melody scampered away to avoid it, and a couple of seconds later it finally tumbled over, fully spent, Bao and Kendal managing to leap off of it in time to not be trapped beneath it as it fell. Kitty hissed lightly at the sight, but when I looked to her, I could see her nostrils moving, and as the scent hit me too, I understood – that primal draw to our prey and its flesh.

 

My eyes were heavy all of a sudden, and I yawned. We’d won, and the experience was coming to an end.

 

I found myself chattering a congratulations to my fellow Lokonraptors before the tired feeling overtook me completely.

 

The next thing I knew, I was waking up on the sofa with Dakota beside me.

 

“I just had this really weird dream…” Bao told us groggily.

 

“I think we all did, Bao-bear…” Harriet replied to him uneasily, stretching.

 

“That was…”

Zahid mulled over his words.

“One weird fucking experience.”

 

Dakota rubbed her eyes beside me.

“I guess you’d all better head home, it’s got to be late now…” she muttered, drowsiness still clinging onto her.

 

“Good idea, boss-Raptor-lady,” Kendal chuckled to herself while easing herself off of the arm of the sofa (she was fortunate she hadn’t fallen off in her sleep).

 

“Don’t you mean…”

Because I don’t know how to write this, I’ll just say that Bao proceeded to imitate Raptor noises.

 

“That’s the one,” Kendal grinned approvingly while Harriet tittered.

 

Bao, Kendal, Zahid and Harriet all left in short order; Kendal making continued observations about our shared experience, Zahid quiet in deep thought over it, Harriet voicing her discomfort over it, Bao giving Kitty a warm smile and pat on the shoulder. As had become the norm for a weekday, I was the last to leave.

 

“Thanks for the help during all that,” I looked to Kitty in the midst of tying my shoelaces.

 

“You’re welcome.”

She hadn’t said much since we’d woken up, and like Zahid, she came across like she was processing the whole thing.

 

Maybe it wasn’t my place, but I felt I had to check on her.

“Are you feeling alright? Only I get that it must’ve been… uncomfortable for you…”

 

“Yeah.”

Her eyes lowered to the floor and didn’t move back up.

“I know animals eat other animals, but I don’t like seeing it, even if it’s just pretend. And being made to be like that was scary. But… it was… almost like being Nightmare. I got to be something else, and the more I did it, the more comfortable it got. I’m glad we didn’t have to eat the other dinosaur, but…”

 

“As long as you’re okay,” I assured her, smiling even though she wasn’t looking at me. “And if you need to talk about it more, Dakota’s here. She’s a great listener. I’m still getting used to letting her listen myself.”

 

“My ears are burning!” Dakota sang as she came down the stairs; Kitty looked over to her, then back to me, and gave me a nod and a faint smile.

 

I said my farewells and left the two of them together, and as I walked through the crisp, cloudy October night, through suburban roads illuminated by streetlights, I thought about how much the world has changed in its lifetime and wondered what creatures once walked the ground I walked.

 

… y’know what? On the whole, I think it was a good idea for us to all watch that episode together.

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