Aging

The peace in their new home didn't last long for the twins. The next morning under a meagre sun, they had begun to redecorate the place and make it more comfortable. Frasil had put herself in charge of finding new bedding, the moss was nice but it grew damp in the chilly night air and she feared catching scale rot if she used it for too long. Fainel was arranging fronds of the highland forest plants into a cover for the entrance of the cave, taking great care in...

It was a warm spring morning when the young twins made their decision to strike out on their own. They were beginning to outgrow their nest and after learning to hunt for themselves they no longer relied on their mother to survive. They also had each other, a built-in mini pack to help stake out territory in their new lives. Frasil was convinced, and had convinced Fainel in turn, that nothing could stand up to two Cryos working in perfect tandem. Nothing they ha...

Life was rough for a lone baby dinosaur. When Kanna hatched, she was surrounded by eggshells and cryolophosaurus scent that was several days old. She’d been the last to hatch, and, evidently, her family hadn't felt like sticking around and waiting for her. So from the very beginning, she was alone. She spent a few days trying to follow the scent of her family, but she was slow, rambling, and inexperienced, and realized she had no hope of finding them. So she left the...

There were pros and cons to having only two eggs in a clutch. On one hand you had two hatchlings, easier to feed and easier to focus your attention on individually. They also only had each other in the nest when their parents left to hunt, so their bond could grow unbreakably strong. Unfortunately this also meant that the pure concentrated sibling urge to fight was focused entirely on one other individual. All the strict parenting in the world couldn't curb a ha...

Elisia woke with a startled snort in the dead of night. She hadn’t intended to fall asleep so soon in her new home, but it was encouraging that nothing had happened when her guard was down. She stretched her limbs and shook herself out, feeling refreshed from her rest. She slipped into the cool early morning waters and swam out into the main body of the river. The current was as gentle as it had been the previous day and Elisia let herself float along with it....

Morning came quickly and cold to Elisia’s nest, rousing the hatchling with a sudden stiff breeze. She sat up abruptly, her head spinning with the quick movement. Her eyes darted around in the darkness searching for the familiar large silhouette of her mother. Both the nest and the lake surrounding it were empty of her usual presence. Elisia stood on her spindly adolescent legs and tried to wade into the dark waters to search for her. She circled the nest, chir...

                Tempest had never thought of himself as someone that would make a good father. Which is exactly why he had never settled down with any one female to have children and raise them. He’d had plenty of one night stands, hell, even that time with Nightingale. But none of them had resulted in any of the mothers coming after him to demand anything of him.                 Until they did.                 Cheer had been droppe...

The sedentary lifestyle of incubating eggs was beginning to wear thin for Ophelia. The rest of the clutch was already being miniature menaces around the lake, chasing waterfowl with their tiny tails paddling furiously behind them. But this one, this solitary silent egg, still waited in the nest. She could feel movement when she pressed the end of her snout into it and she had taken to gently rocking it to try and encourage it to hatch. There was a chick in there...

A final jab with his snout sent sunlight flooding into the eyes of the fresh hatchling. He brought his forelimbs up to his face, shielding his vision from the blinding rays and tried to retreat back into his egg. The hollow casing rocked backwards, tipping over and causing the Suchomimus to spill out of its protective embrace. He lay stunned for a minute, looking up into the blue sky that swam through the grey buildings. The clouds drifted across their azure exp...

Cryolophosauruses had a particular hunting style. They didn’t have the stamina of the larger theropods on the island, nor the powerful pounces of the raptors; they couldn’t chase their prey until it tired or heckle it in a large pack, peppering it with wounds until it collapsed. But they had speed and a swift bite, and they had to use that to their advantage. One strong bite to the back of the neck to end things quickly was the ideal way for a hunt to go. ...

Swavelli had made good on her word; she was on a mission to find the ocean. She’d been trekking through the bayou for weeks, on the hunt of where the sun set every night. And she’d made good on her unspoken word, too, because Seffe was still with her. Both of them had grown significantly on their journey, and Seffe had learned many words, much to Swavelli’s chagrin. There were times where his constant chatter about what kind of frog t...