Dragoon meeting a funny grey guy

The Red Patterned Utah had for once found herself outside of her usual stomping grounds, as well as her nest. Away from Gwyar and thankfully away from Rustic. Sure sure, family is good, family is important blah blah blah. It was something her father had tried to slap into hers and Rustic's head over and over since they began really fighting, but she still couldn't quite get it. To her, sure, family was nice, but it felt like a friend…sorta. She didn't exactly have anything to compare it to but either way it's what she assumed it would be similar too. Just, someone you care about, someone who cares about you.  

Dragoon let out a small groan, opening and closing her mouth with small squeaks accompanying each one. Yes, she was mocking Gwyar, yes she was mocking Rustic. Both of them always talked and talked- well- Rustic not so much but he was annoying and mean either way. One foot after the other, over and over. It didn't take long until she was once again in unfamiliar territory. It was…fine in her mind. Nothing wrong with a little adventuring. After-all she isn't a hatchling anymore, she can fend for herself, totally.

At least she was convinced of that, and she stuck by that as the seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes turned into hours, and from there she had no idea how long had actually passed and she was starting to think she should turn around. The Utah paused in place, slowly beginning to scrap her clawed toe against the ground anxiously. Nothing had come out at her yet, there were lots of places to hide. She didn't know how long she'd been gone for though. She thought she remembered the direction she came from, but then again she didn't dare to dwell on it.

The sun wasn't fully down yet, but it wasn't super high in the sky anymore, that was concerning. She didn't want to be out at night. She never really liked being out at night and if she was lucky she could get home just as the sun did actually set. The anxiety of being caught outside of her burrow without any real sense of protector started to weigh on her, and it only weighed on her more as she heard a whistle coming from somewhere around her. The wind whistling in the trees wasn't uncommon but it hadn't been windy up until now and she couldn't feel the breeze against her feathers. Her mind immediately ran to the worst and she quickly let out a squawk of panic before diving into a bush.

Dragoon's heart raced as the whistling continued to be the only thing which broke the silence of the forest. She stayed put, wanting to wait until she could calm down. Maybe she was overreacting, maybe it was just wind. Yeah, yeah its just her being nervous from being out on her- Snap!

Any thought of leaving the current bush she was hidden in immediately left her mind. It wasn’t a heavy crunch, but it was loud. Really really loud- wait could it just be because it was close? Oh no, could it have seen her?! Her heartrate did the exact opposite of what she wanted, speeding up as her breaths quickly began shallow and panicked as the whistling once again began echoing in the forest. The Utah couldn't help but let out a squeak of fear as she thought she heard more snapping and crunching. She hoped it wasn't footsteps, but her hopes were quickly dashed as they grew closer, and closer, and the whistling grew louder, and louder. 

She quickly tried to move her arms over her snout to…little success as the footsteps paused in front of her. The loud whistling slowly faded as she finally opened the eyes which she hadn't even realized she closed when she jumped in. It would explain the thought.

As her eyes slowly opened to look out in front of her, they were met with the snout of another dino. Her breathing came to a standstill as her heart dropped into her stomach. The muzzle was grey, just grey. It would’ve been something she questioned if the sight of another Dino she didn't know so close wasn't scaring her to the core. 

“Boo.”

The Grey dino spoke, plain and simply, only a minor hint of amusement fixed with its strangely flat delivery. Either way it caused Dragoon to launch herself from the bush with a loud screech. Her leg quickly caught on a branch of the bush as she tried to haphazardly rush out, causing her to immediately stumble and fall to the ground. Moving she had down, recovery she did not. Right as she finally began to collect herself from slamming her head against the ground, the grey dino quickly paused itself in front of her. Her eyes lingered on the dino’s legs, she didn't dare to look up and meet it eye to eye. 

Its legs were just as grey as its snout was, and the two large claws only made her squeeze her mouth shut tighter. It took only a couple seconds of her being frozen for the dino-wait a second. She squinted her eyes and slowly rose to meet the thing. It wasn't biting her, or scratching her, or anything like that. Shaking and scared as she was, maybe, just maybe she’d be able to actually get up and run. So she took the chance to at least get up, but couldn't bring herself to run once she finally got a good look at her potential stalker.

It was another Utahraptor, it looked similar enough to her, and her brother but it was…vaugely uncomfortable to look at in her opinion. No feathers, Grey all around apart from two really tiny spots. Slowly her fear began shifting into something more akin to confusion, though she was still shaking. The grey Utah didn't move much, other than its chest clearly shifting from breathing. At least it was a similar size to her, so she could’ve had a chance to fight back.

“You don’t talk much do you?”

The sudden burst of sound scared Dragoon once again, but to a much lesser degree. This time she only jumped a little bit instead of a lot. Progress possibly. 

“I- uh- you- hm-”

Dragoon stammered for several seconds before quickly hanging her head and taking a breath as she began scratching one of her large claws against the dirt.She held her breath before finally letting it out in a rather aggressive breath before quickly looking back up the grey Utah.

“What was all?! The whistling, the weird creepy walking towards me while I was hiding! What was that for?!”

Dragoon stepped back from the other Utah as she yelled at him, the Utah in response continued its weirdly blank stare. She couldn't get a single tell on this guy and it was creeping her out more than the whistling was. The Utah tilted its head down for a moment, letting out a small hum of thought before raising it back to meet Dragoon.

“It was funny.”

Again, dry and plain words have never been spoken to Dragoon before. She stammered yet again as she tried coming up with a rebuttal, but it was so…unemotional that she just couldn't think of something that would get a “real” answer in her mind. She just let out a loud groan as a response before opening and closing her mouth in a mocking fashion. He might’ve found it funny, but she sure didn't! It was mean, incredibly incredibly mean! She scoffed before turning and beginning to walk off. God, her sense of direction was completely shot, and the sun was a lot lower than she’d liked. The sky was slowly turning into pinker colors and she already knew she’d get an eareful for not only running off, but being away for so long. 

She gave the grey Utah one last glare before quickly turning and trying to get her bearings, trying to remember which way she came from. She stayed put, spinning in circles for a solid fifteen seconds before slamming a foot down in distress. She let out a soft whine as she struggled to recenter herself. The grey Utah slowly came up next to her, waiting for a second before using one of his claws to point in what Dragoon had assumed was a random direction.

“You came from that way.”

The way this guy spoke was something that was really getting on her nerves, but she couldn't help but be both relieved and disturbed that at least someone properly remembered where she came from. Dragoon narrowed her eyes at the Utah before looking in the direction it was pointing. She let out a defeated sigh before slowly trudging forward. Did she fully trust him? Not even close, however, this was the literal best chance she had and she knew it would be stupid to not take it. So she walked forward, seemingly on her own, hopefully on her own. 

She knew she was going to get an earful when she made it back, yelled at no, but being out this late? Never a good idea, especially without someone else. Probably would get told how stupid this was, how dumb she is by Rustic. She couldn't help but groan at the tiring thought. It wasn't the only one though, a myriad of variations of the same conversations continued to flood through her head and distract her as she walked. They continued like this before a loud sneeze came from behind her.

Jumping three or four times in one day, she was feeling more and more like a wuss as they happened but how could she not be scared? She quickly jumped and turned around just to see…that grey Utah following behind her. Seriously? She quickly stood up taller, spreading her arms in an attempt to look bigger. The grey Utah once more just stared.

“You- Why are you still here?! How long have you been following me for?! Who even are you, go away!”

Dragoon questioned, clearly angry but still trying to keep quiet to not drag any more attention than was needed, which was none. The Utah blinked at her a couple of times as he stayed quiet. It didn't respond as quickly this time, but still an aggravatingly dry tone. 

“Why not? A while. Mono. No”

It decided to go through her line of questions like bullet points. This damned Utah continued to aggravate her more and more. She couldn't tell if it was worse than Rustic or not, but it was certainly a close second at least. She wanted to yell at him, yell really loudly to get him to go away, but it was getting too late and she really really really didn't want to draw any thing larger than the two of them, or more accurately, larger than herself over towards them. The best she could do now is bite her tongue and let out a growl of anger.

“Fine, whatever “Mono”, just- Stay quiet and…keep pointing in the right direction until I can find something familiar.”

The newly named Utah raptor “Mono” nodded his head and moved up next to Dragoon, much to her momentarily disdain towards the fellow Utah.

“Okay.”