Scavenging the Highlands

Bolide pushed through the underbrush, the soft ground squelching beneath each step. She felt a small cold prick on her nose and scrunched her face a little. The snow was beginning to melt and there was now no time of day she could escape the constant feeling of damp. She had grown fast, too fast almost, and was still growing. The acro now towered over the height she had been only a month ago. On her back Bergamot let out a irritated chirp as she too was hit with a couple drops from the canopy.

“It’s been two days, do you smell anything yet?” Bergamot said with a hiss in her tone. Bolide glared, keeping her eyes on the ground ahead of her, and did her best to resist the urge to shake the Utahraptor off her.

“No, I haven’t. Not like you have either.” She hissed back, allowing irritation to get the better of her. It had been two days since they set out to find food. They had opted to continue in a wide spiral rather than return to the nest each night in hopes they may run across a new scent. Her stomach had hurt since sunrise, her unusual amounts of activity had drained the energy from her last meager meal fast. Bergamot huffed and shuffled her arms, tail twitching in annoyance.

The smells of the Peravian Highlands were changing with the seasons, and Bolide was unfamiliar with the new musty odor that rose from the wet ground. The ground had been covered by snow since her hatching. Snow which barely had a scent of its own and rarely kept the scents of the things passing through it. The young acro could feel the weight of the air in her sinuses and lungs, saturated with the smells of spring. It was so much more than she was used to. Every once and a while she got a whiff of something that would make her sneeze, jolting Bergamot from her torpor.

Bergamot, for her part, was genuinely trying to catch a scent too. Unfortunately, she was running into the same issue. All she could smell was wet dirt, and it made her want to shove her claws up her nostrils to scrape her sinuses clear of the scent. She looked up Bolide’s body to the back of her head and forced her tail to still itself. She hadn’t meant to be snappy. Between the two of them Bolide probably needed food the most right now, yet she had held her tongue. She always did. Bergamot sighed and hopped down, trotting just ahead of Bolide with her nose to the dirt. It was all that same awful wet stench, and it got stronger under any leaves she passed. Mushrooms were sure to begin sprouting soon if they hadn’t already.

There was a grunt from behind her and she heard Bolide’s steps stop abruptly. She opened her mouth to ask what the stop was for, but her parted lips allowed the scent to brush against her Jacobson’s organ. Meat. Old meat, but still meat. Wordlessly she shot off in the direction of the scent, Bolide trailing her as quietly as her padded feet would allow. Bergamot skipped lightly over the ground, bouncing off logs and rock cairns. Her legs carried her rapidly through the forest, never slowing. The smell was getting stronger. Suddenly she was hit by another smell. The dusty smell of cryolophosaurus feathers. It was faint, buried under the scent of blood and mud, but it was there. The utahraptor slowed to a crawl and dropped her body low in the foliage. Silently she cursed her lack of foresight in not having covered her pale feathers with mud before chasing the scent.

Bergamot steadied her breath, listening for the cryo moving through the brush. It wasn’t long before she could hear it. Its steps were loud and clumsy compared to hers. This would be so easy. All she needed to do was distract it until Bolide got closer, then they could drive it away and take the carcass for themselves. It walked right past her and continued tramping through the underbrush. Maybe she wouldn’t even have to distract it- somehow it had missed her. She listened as it arced through the forest, continuing to circle around the clearing where the body presumably lay. It would be better for both her and Bolide if the acro could do most of the work. They were both exhausted, and if Bergamot got injured it would put them in an even worse position as she was the scout. The footsteps began to approach again. She slowed her breath. This time, they stopped and she heard some shuffling as the cryo turned towards her. It lowered its head and hissed, attempting to scare her off. It would have worked if she were hunting solo. There’s no way she was in any shape to take a cryo alone right now. With a hiss she lept out of the bushed and kicked, aiming for the chest. She missed and slashed through the skin of the arm instead. She backed off and began circling as he watched her, chittering and hissing to draw Bolide in. It didn’t matter for her to be quiet anymore, so it was better to make more noise and hopefully distract from the sounds of the acro’s approach. The cryo looked her up and down, sizing her up, then lunged at her and snapped. She got louder and lightly danced backwards out of reach. The cryo hissed and lunged again, and again she stepped back out of reach. She could barely hear the sound of Bolide brushing against trees as she got closer, and got louder to try and drown the noise out. Suddenly with a bellow, Bolide crashed through the trees behind her. With practiced precision, Bergamot side stepped the acro and swung back to catch her breath. It would be easy now. Bolide would either crush the cryo’s spine or scare it off and they could have an easy meal.

Bolide stopped and turned, lining up again with the screeching cryo and opening her jaws wide. She rushed forward and it screeched louder, trying to scramble out of her way as she bared down on it. There was a bellow to her left and before she had a chance to turn a male acro slammed into her ribs and shoved her to the ground. She sputtered and flailed, pushing herself up to her feet as fast as she could. It was a miracle the acro didn’t finish her off right there. If I were him, I would have, she thought. There was no use in letting an evenly matched opponent get up. She made it to her feet and shook herself off, eyeing the male up. He was much better fed, that was for sure. His light brown coat had a healthy glisten to it in the foggy morning air. She squared up against the male acro, hissing and snapping her jaws. Bergamot would jump him from behind and tear into him, it would have to happen. There was no way she was making it out alive if Bergamot didn’t. Her eyes caught a flash of white rocketing through the bushes and got ready to go for the throat. They always turned in surprise when Bergamot got on their backs, which gave her enough of an opening to- There was a harsh shriek and Bergamot was sent tumbling across the forest floor. Bolide almost turned to run to her before noticing the male’s head beginning to turn. She threw herself at him, jaws open. It wasn’t as well-aimed a bite as she would have hoped. Her teeth glanced painfully off his muscular shoulder, but it was enough to release a trickle of blood into her mouth. She stepped back, barely avoiding the male’s furious jaws, and hissed. The cryo stood confidently beside the male acro. You little- Bolide snapped her jaws at him and was quickly shoved away by the male acro. She felt teeth around her neck and froze. Bergamot couldn’t do anything for her. There was no surprise attack coming. The male has spared her before when he threw her to the ground, so she swallowed her pride and let out a soft hiss.

“You win. We’ll leave.”

The teeth didn’t tighten around her throat, and a couple moments later she was free of them. Stepping back quickly, she held her head low and walked off after Bergamot as the male hissed and followed her with his eyes. She didn’t feel safe until she was deep enough in the brush not to hear his hissing, at which point she began sniffing around for Bergamot. They needed food now more than ever, Bergamot was likely badly injured from that cryo throwing her to the ground and they both needed energy to recover. Bolide wandered after the scent until she found Bergamot collapsed by a mossy rock breathing shallowly. Wordlessly Bolide scooped her up carefully, Bergamot yelped a quiet protest but allowed herself to dangle from the acro’s jaws. They needed desperately to keep moving. They needed to find a better spot to scavenge.