Messy Day

Latte shuffled around awkwardly in the jungle’s underbrush, occasionally tripping on the odd root or stem and throwing up globs of mud. He had come up to the highlands out of desperation more than anything. As the air warmed and the snow melted, the highlands were one of the first parts of Pera to come back to life. Even so, it was hardly the fertile land he had hoped for. The ground was musty and spongey, having soaked up the melt-water dripping off the trees. Fog made it hard to see, and the wet dirt made it hard to smell. On top of all that, the constant noise of dripping water was beginning to dig into his skull and make it hard to think. He wrinkled his nose and scratched his belly, this place was not to his preferences but at least he had a better chance of surviving the transition to spring. He raised his head, squinting through the leaves and the bright fog. He felt so blind up here, maybe it would have been better to stick to the lowlands and wait. Latte inhaled strongly and- sneezed. Loudly. He heard a pachy alert somewhere nearby and cursed himself as it began crashing through the forest away from him.

It was his second day without food, but the winter hadn’t been too hard on him. He had leeched off the fairgrounds as long as he could without participating, eating the tossed scraps from fair-goers out of the trash piles that inevitably happened with so many dinos in one place. No one had minded him doing so, they all knew it was better not to waste any of the food that came through during times of plenty. He had seen a few dinosaurs beg food right off of the passers-by but had never been bold or hungry enough to try it himself. No, he was fine just being a scavenger. That’s what he had planned to do here in the highlands. Stake a claim on a body that had been kept edible by the cold and stay there for as long as he could. Latte risked another inhale, this time managing to hold back the sneeze, and caught a whiff of something. The scent had the distinctive tang of death to it, with an almost dusty smell implying some age but not rot. Perfect. He began tromping off in the direction of the carcass leaving muddy prints behind.

He approached carefully, making sure no one else had claimed the kill. The cryo crept forward, swinging his head back and forth with each step in a rehearsed rhythm as if performing each step perfectly would grant good luck. He crept around the clearing, observing the body and the area around it carefully. It was a dead styra, the outer flesh had been stripped from the haunches, but the rest of the body seemed untouched by anything larger than a crow. It was certainly an odd sight, almost looking planted, but why would you bring down a styra just to draw something else in without eating it? Finally after completing two full circuits he turned toward the body and began creeping and bobbing his way toward it. The ground around it was as wet as anything else, and no footprints seemed to be present near it. A few yards away he broke from his careful stepping and darted towards it, tearing into the soft belly and beginning to gorge himself on the slightly smelly innards. A small part of him winced at his breakage from his routine, but it would have to be fine. He only had so much self-control and he had checked the perimeter same as always.

When he finally settled his entire front end was covered in gore from the carcass. The cryo huffed irritably now that his belly was full. With all the water around here, there was sure to be a stream nearby. He didn’t want to leave the body unguarded though, at least not until he had to, so he accepted his situation begrudgingly and began preening the grime out as best he could. Eventually he realized the attempt was futile. Not only was he covered in gore from the carcass, but he had managed to collect mud during his constant walking the past few days. He was an absolute mess. He pushed himself up to a standing position and began a spiral out into the woods just beyond the clearing. The cryo continued to trip and stumble through the underbrush, as he had done before. In the distance he heard a flock of tapejara cackling at something. He turned to face the noise, scratching his belly. Maybe it wasn’t worth defending the carcass. There were plenty of things around here that could squish him without a second thought. He began his circuit again, stopping every few steps and looking around. On the third circuit something caught his eye. A patch of white hidden barely by the underbrush. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to be too large- easy to scare off for sure. He hissed softly and turned to face it, bringing his chin down and puffing up his chest.

Like a meteor, the dinosaur leapt out of the bushes at him and kicked, barely missing his chest and catching his arm instead with a deadly claw. Raptor. Latte became a little uneasy when realizing just how large his opponent truly was. While she was certainly smaller than him, a utah’s deadly claw was nothing to scoff at. He had seen single raptors bring down a para with enough skill. The blood ran down his arm, mixing with the dried blood already there and dripping to the leaves below. The raptor eyed him up and down and circled a good distance away, chittering and hissing. Why wasn’t it going for him? Latte looked more carefully at her hips. She was hungry, much more hungry than he had been. He briefly considered forfeiting the kill, but he didn’t know if he would get this lucky again for a while in such a strange new place. His odds were pretty good against a starving raptor. Still not great- a hungry dinosaur will fight with reckless abandon- but a hungry dinosaur has less energy to spare in an even match. With this new information, he lunged forward confidently. The raptor danced backwards and chattered louder. Was she taunting him? Trying to wear him down so she would have better odds? Fine. He had much more energy to spare anyway, she could wear herself out dodging him for all he cared. He lunged and snapped again, being met with the same reaction again. Suddenly with a bellow a massive dinosaur charged out of the forest from behind the raptor, who side stepped the beast with incredible timing and dropped back. Latte screeched in surprise and tumbled out of the way, barely avoiding the swinging jaws of the acro. No wonder the raptor hadn’t bothered to retaliate. He turned towards the acro and screeched again in alarm as it turned and began barreling back towards him. With a bellow, another acro came crashing out of the woods and slammed into the side of the first one, driving her to the ground. Latte watched, frozen. The two acros seemed like they would be pretty evenly matched on a good day, but Latte checked and the hips of the large brown female were sharp with hunger. The lighter male bellowed again as the female got up and shook herself.

Inhaling sharply, Latte was suddenly struck with panic. Where was the raptor? He caught a glimpse of a white streak heading towards the male acro’s haunches and shot towards it. With a hefty thud he managed to hit the utah square in the side with his shoulder, sending her shrieking across the ground. The male acro briefly looked in the raptor’s direction, which gave the female just enough space to bring her jaws down on his side. It was a glancing blow, but blood began to run down the male’s side and he roared and snapped his jaws in fury. The female bared her teeth and stepped back, throwing quick glances at the raptor who was quietly starting to limp away. Latte considered following the utah, but decided to try and cement his alliance with the male acro instead. He lept to the acro’s side and hissed at the female, who snorted and took a snap at him. The male acro retaliated by shoulder checking her face away and getting his teeth around her neck. She froze and hissed quietly, “You win. We’ll leave.” It seemed honest enough. If she tried again, she would surely end up in the same situation. If she kept fighting here, her neck would be crushed in a matter of seconds. The male hissed softly and let go, body still tense. The female kept to her word and slunk off into the bushes without any further fight.

Once they were out of sight the male acro turned to Latte, who quickly darted backwards and began pleading.

“You can have the body! I don’t care! Thank you for your help, please don’t eat me!” His breath quickened as the acro took a step towards him, sniffing.

“You smell like a horrible snack.” It grinned reassuringly, soft blue eyes looking Latte up and down. He didn’t feel as threatened by it as he figured he should, and allowed the acro to approach him. He kicked himself mentally for just standing around and letting such a big animal get closer, but the acro didn’t approach with any malice and sat down before he reached the cryo.

“I’m Blood Splatter,” the acro said, eagerly looking at Latte. The cryo dared to shuffle closer so as not to be rude. After all, that utah had managed to befriend an acro. Maybe acros tended to travel with a smaller partner and this one needed one?

“I’m Latte,” he responded, dipping his head. “Thank you for your help.” He repeated, more genuinely this time. The acro genuinely seemed uninterested in harming him or in the food. The scent of fresh blood hit his nostrils. “Is your shoulder okay?” He stretched his neck out to get a better look at the damage. It wasn’t too deep, but it still looked like it must hurt at least a little bit.

“Oh, I’m fine.” Blood Splatter said dismissively, “How about you? You look like a disheveled mess.” The acro had a playful twinkle in his eye, and Latte couldn’t get upset at him when he was trying so hard to be friendly.

“I looked like that before they jumped be if you can believe it.” He laughed, “I’m no good around here, I’m used to the lowlands where there isn’t a branch to trip over every couple steps. The acro chuckled and bobbed his head in amusement.

“I can watch your back if you’d like,” Blood Splatter offered, “I could use the company, it gets too quiet around here sometimes.”

Latte breathed a sigh of relief, “that would be much appreciated, thank you Blood Splatter.” He looked down at himself briefly, “Now how about we head for a river and get cleaned up. I stink to high hell right now and I’m sure that wound could use some cleaning. Blood Splatter nodded and stood up, turning to make his way towards what Latte assumed was the nearest stream. He followed without a second thought.