Goosfraba

                The rage that had built to a head inside her had spread to her entire body and she hated every minute of it. It boiled in her stomach, made the muscles in her arms clench and burn as she yearned to fight something. Instead she just flexed her fingers as if clenching her hands into fists, if only she had more than three fingers. Her jaw had been clenched off and on for hours as her mind buzzed.

                Would she have been able to avoid confrontation with that Parasaur from the previous day? Had something been lost in translation? It was possible. Cleric had thought she had been helping when she pointed out everything the Para had been doing wrong, thinking that the creature would then understand that they could avoid doing x,y, and z thing. Instead the Parasaur had gone and lashed out at her verbally. Telling her that she had been nit picking and that she should stop.

                The initial hurt had turned to rage over the last day as the Utahraptor stomped through the underbrush of Atlantis. And the rage that had started in her mind had spread to the rest of her body like some sort of cancer. She hated it. She hated being angry for so long and feeling it to such a degree. It was fully encompassing and the worst part of it all? She didn’t have Moose there to talk her out of it.

                A treebranch she had moved out of the way snapped back into place as she passed by, smacking her on the rear and making her turn on a dime. She latched onto the branch and shook her head violently, reaching up to claw into the bark as well and attempted to unleash her rage on the poor plant. She raged against it for a solid two or three minutes before finally letting go as the branch had snapped and dangled limply from the rest of the tree.

                It hadn’t helped. She was still mad.

                Why couldn’t people just accept criticism? Why couldn’t people understand she was only trying to help? She didn’t LIKE to tell people they were being fucking stupid. She didn’t wake up in the morning going ‘oh, I think I’ll make someone’s life today a living hell’ for fun.

                The raptor just glared at the branch before continuing on. She needed to find her brother and her mind being full of hatred wasn’t going to help things. She needed to be calm, to be able to think and plan. Not be consumed by the anger that welled up within her from an endless source.

                As she continued to march through the green hell she found herself in, Cleric realized she had no idea where she even was anymore. She had never seen this section of Atlantis before and she didn’t hear any of the calls from the Euo’s that guarded the place, or any sounds from passing Oviraptors. She was alone.

                Which, unfortunately, only made her more angry.

                If Moose had been there he would’ve given her shit. He would’ve told her about how just doesn’t care for other dinosaurs. The only dinos he had to worry and care for were himself and her.

                It was too bad. She needed his dumb humor to make her smile instead of stew in her irritation.

                The smell of water knocked her from her quickly descending thoughts again, making the raptor stop and raise her head to sniff the air. It was fresh water and…there. Behind the background noise of the jungle she could hear the very faint trickle and burble of water ahead of her. Cleric trotted off, following her nose and the sound to see about getting something to drink. She hadn’t had a rest in quite some time, or anything to drink.

                Before long she popped free into a small ‘clearing’. The grass there was still up to her back, but there were no trees or vines that threatened to attack her. And in the center of the clearing was a distinct lack of grass. Cleric ran over, darting through the grass and stopped as she came through the grass and saw a little pond being fed by an even smaller stream of gently flowing water.

                The water itself was clear and a deep teal. Around the pond were rocks and cattails that decorated the scene, making her think of something she would’ve seen in a human city. Cleric stepped up onto a larger stone that overlooked the little pond and found it comfortably warm, inviting her to lay down on it and relax. And she did so without hesitation.

                The feelings of anger that had not ceased in her mind for the last day finally started to melt away as she was consumed with the sight in front of her as well as the sounds. She had always found water relaxing, there was just something about it. It moved on its own pace, did what it wanted. And when the water was clear, it was even more enticing to her. To be able to see in the water and observe a whole other world was…something else. And in the pond she sat over, she could see multicolored fish gently swimming about, weaving in and out of the grass at the bottom of the pond.

                Cleric put her head down on the rock and sighed, all her feathers finally laying down as she watched the fish and smelled the freshness of the pond. It was cleansing for the body as well as the mind. The raptor reached a hand out, dipping a clawed finger into the water to test the temperature and found it was pleasantly warm. Not cold like the river water on the main isles at that time of year.

                One of the koi swam over to her claw, circling it lazily as if checking to see if it was food before it swam away just as calmly. The humans had taste, for sure. She’d seen the Koi fish before in several ponds and manmade lakes and had always found them calming. On more than one occasion she had attempted to talk her mate into stealing a few and bringing them into a pond nearer to their own territory. But the fish would die long before they could get them to another pond.

                All thoughts of the previous day’s encounter with the Parasaur faded as she mulled over the idea on how to steal koi. She’d need a bucket, but even if she got the koi to a pond she had made would they have enough to eat? She wasn’t entirely sure what koi ate, she’d ever seen them eat anything. They only ever swam in lazy circles and seemed at peace with life.

                How long Cleric spent at that pond she did not know, nor did she care. She only cared that her mind was finally, blissfully, at peace. The feelings that had filled her entire body had finally released their hold of her as well. She stayed for another hour after that, enjoying the peace and quiet and only moved down from her warm rock to get a sip of water or place her hands on the surface of the water to feel the ripples.

                Cleric had always been rather sure she was born in the wrong body. She should’ve been born as a water dweller. An Aristo would’ve been nice. She could just swim around and be big enough that nothing would bother her. She could be a part of the water, enjoy it fully then.

                Finally, and with a heavy sigh, she got back to her feet. She would remember that pond for later, but for now she needed to continue her search for her brother and mothers. She could return to the pond at a later time.