Sisters

Solveig lived in a land of giants. Giant buildings, giant shipping containers, giant machines left abandoned long ago by the upwalkers that used to pilot them. Giant suchomimus called this area home, and by the good graces of their gargantuan leader, Hyperion, a few utahraptors were permitted to live amongst them as well.

Solveig missed living with her father. Her heart still hurt that he had not decided to come all the way to the bask with them when her mother brought them to the safety of the Shipyard Bask’s borders. He had been so hurt before they left, and was getting better but… when they ran into another raptor (vibrantly blue, and odd, with the same jewel-toned eyes that her father had), he decided that he would leave with that other raptor instead. Would it not be better for him to live here too, where he could get better and not get more hurt by the utahraptors that had attacked him? Where he could stay and be with her and her mother? Maybe... he just did not love her or her mother enough to come with them. Signe said it was complicated, but Solveig was not so sure. It seemed simple to her.

She was also now thinking privately that her mother was unhappy with her for some reason. Why else would she be having another clutch? And with another utahraptor that was not Doruk, even. Signe said that Doruk had not visited the bask, but that this clutch was going to have Splatterball as the father.

Splatterball, like Signe and many of the other dinosaurs around the bask, was a giant compared to others of their same species. She was uncertain about the male. He was never aggressive towards her, and seemed to dote on her mother, but neither was he… very kind.

Solveig tried to keep her distance from him when Signe was not around.

That was getting harder and harder to do though, as the days approached where this new clutch of eggs would start to hatch. Solveig, despite being upset that her mother was going to raise more chicks and despite feeling more than a little pushed aside in favour of these new hatchlings, was curious. She had not met another raptor her age, and what was more… Signe had reminded her that she was going to be these hatchlings’ big sister. Solveig wanted to be around the nest, to actually see them hatch and meet them, but could not quite make herself brave the giant’s company - Splatterball always seemed to be hovering nearby.

Perhaps, though, that was for the best.

When it was finally time, when Chalcedony finally managed to break the hard outer shell of her cradle, she was one of the only eggs of the clutch to hatch. Considering her parents’ sizes, she was quite small, and the effort of breaking through the shell had exhausted her. The nest was warm and comfortable though, and she was met with the safety and gentle voices of her parents over the background din of waves washing ashore while she recovered from the exertion of being alive.

The other eggs, when it was clear that they were not going to hatch, were disposed of. Chalcedony would never know that she was meant to have clutchmates exactly her age, or that she was exceedingly fortunate to be alive at all.

Solveig did not get to meet her freshly hatched sister for another few days. Chalcedony’s tiny downy feathers fluffed and dried in the warm seaside air. She was at first unsteady on her feet as she started to explore the nest - which felt rather large to a single hatchling, but it just meant that she had plenty of room to cushion her fall when she tripped over herself - but slowly, she grew stronger and more confident in her steps until the day came that she was healthy enough to begin to make small excursions beyond the safety of the nest. The bask was safe enough for her to wander for the most part, thanks to the presence of the suchos that also called the area home, and they and the resident utahs were ever-watchful for an attack lead by Linette and her gang.

Under the watchful eyes of her parents, and one of the nearby giants who helped keep an eye on the bask’s swimlings, Chalcedony started to explore. Her adventure was relatively short-reaching, and took her towards the closest unfamiliar face.

She half-scurried, half-stumbled up to another small, grey utahraptor, who wore a deeper blue downy coat than she did yet was riddled with spots and flashes of white on her neck and extremities. “Hello!” Chalcedony chirped expectantly. She was doing exactly what she had been instructed to do by Signe - introduce herself.

Solveig’s feathers fluffed in surprise, her tiny feather crest raising slightly when she was disturbed from her nap. Unless one of Linette’s pack’s offspring had ventured into bask territory, there was only one young utahraptor that this could be. Solveig looked at the tiny hatchling with curiosity and apprehension. This was the hatchling that was going to replace her in her mother’s eyes. The hatchling whose young life had consumed Signe and Splatterball’s attention for the past few days. It felt like she had been waiting forever to finally meet her, and now that Chalcedony was standing right in front of her - Solveig did not know what to feel.

“My name is Chalcedony!” The tiny hatchling picked through each word purposefully and carefully, putting an odd emphasis at the start of each word. She looked exceptionally proud of herself to have gotten them all out though, her little chest puffed up while delight sparkled in her pale blue eyes - blue almost like Splatterball's.

Solveig shifted in her makeshift nest - just a pile of fabric that she had scraped together so that she could take a nap to wait out the midday heat - and blinked at her younger sister. She was not sure at this point that Chalcedony even knew who she was, but looking up she saw Signe watching. Her mother looked pleased, and gave a slight dip of her head.

“My name is Solveig.” She turned her gaze back towards Chalcedony. Her eyes were jewel-toned, like her father’s.

Chalcedony looked like she could squeak with delight, and she almost did. Her miniscule feather crest stood upright before she recovered enough composure to speak, which she only managed to do because her next question was very important. “Do you, um,” Chalcedony rocked on her feet, which gave her a bit of a wobble before she corrected her balance, “want to play with me?”

Solveig felt something strange, then. She did not know quite how to describe it. It was like an ache in her chest, something like a string that pulled at her from the inside out that tied her to her little sister. She still felt a little pushed to the side by her mother, and abandoned by her father, but Chalcedony coming up to her and asking to be her playmate made it hurt… just a little less.

The young raptor got to her feet and shook her downy feathers, fluffing them and smoothing them back down. “Okay.” There was a hint of brightness to her voice that had been missing for some time now. “What do you want to play?”

Chalcedony looked like she was thinking incredibly hard for a moment. She did not yet know a lot of games to pick from, which made the decision quite easy in the end. “I know! Chase me!” she chirped excitedly.

Solveig had hardly any time to prepare herself before Chalcedony ran away from her, her shrieks of laughter echoing around the shipyard. She decided to let Chalcedony get a bit of a head start on her before she started chasing her younger sister down, and miraculously did not seem to quite catch up to her for some time. It took a little while but, eventually, as they continued to run and chase one another, Solveig’s voice joined Chalcedony’s as the sisters played together for the first time.