Isla Sorna Stories: Rebirth

[saurus172]

Nuka, though wounded, traveled fast. Her immense legs took her large body far in only a few strides. She stopped, hungry and tired. "Tomorrow there will be no stops," she growled to herself quietly, heading toward the scent of multiple herbivores. She soon spotted the dinosaurs: herds of stegos, hardosaurs, gallis and drys mixed in, a large herd of some unknown sauropod, apparently ones with clubbed tails like ankylosaurs, and even a group of brachiosaurus browsing high in the treetops at the plains. She locked onto a target, a sickly looking adult brach lying down low to the ground yards away from the others. With a purr of joy she headed toward the elder, staying close to the forests edge.

[The Kingpin]

"Leave? Are you nuts?!" hissed Fatalis with a snicker. "I don't think he'll tell us anything we don't already know, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a chance to piss off the most dangerous Spinosaurus on the island" he added, smirking as he hopped back up into the trees, trying to get closer to the Spinosaurs' line of sight. This would be fun...


As Fatalis disappeared into the trees, Hellfire was picking up the Spinosaurs' trail, intentionally avoiding going back through the clearing. Eyeing the path carved in the forest by the Spinosaurs, he took off, quickly making up lost ground, thankful for the pace the Spinosaurs likely moved at. He'd catch up to Aircrest and Fatalis in no time...

[C S]

"Well at least one of us enjoys doing Ripper's errands," Aircrest snorted. Without any delay, he sped along the forest floor along the edge of the path, weaving through the shrubbery in pursuit of the group of sailed titans.

[saurus172]

She neared the brachiosaur, only about a small run away. She slowly inched forward, her claws ready to grab. With a loud thud, she pounced, charging toward the suorised herbivore. The goliath bellowed in fear, quickly cut off as Nuka bit down on the herbivore's neck, crushing it windpipe suffocating it. Quickly the giant died, leaving the spinosaur to her kill. The herd made no attempts to attack the carnivore, only leaving the area, herding the youngsters away. Satisfied, she ripped open the monumental pile of flesh, gorging on the plentiful meal. A few hundred yards away a pair of carnotaurus were watching, one substantially larger than the other.

[The Kingpin]

"That was PATHETIC!" screeched Fatalis in the trees as he hopped from branch to branch to one side of the Spinosaurs. "Leave us, Raptor. I'm not in the mood to have to show you what it feels like to be ripped in half" growled Thrasher through narrowed eyes. "Ha. Yeah, says the one who couldn't keep up with a Rex nearly his own size. You'd sooner die from over exertion" barked the speckled Raptor with a smirk. "You could go back and try fighting him yourself. Save me the trouble" rumbled the giant in annoyance. "He won. That means he's the dangerous one of the two. I prefer the slow stupid ones" responded Fatalis as he hopped off the branch, landing on Bahari's head, leaping over Thrasher's and landing on a branch on the opposite side, just out of reach of an annoyed Spinosaur's jaws as he continued. "Then go find a Brachiosaur" snarled the jagged-sailed Spinosaur. "They're too big. Oh, and they wouldn't care. Most packs won't mess with them. You? Ha. After how thoroughly that Rex mangled you you're easy prey to anyone persistent enough" barked Fatalis with a snicker. "Then try it and watch your entire pack die" snarled Thrasher. "Oooh, testy. Didn't you tell the Rex the same thing? And then he almost killed you. Yeah, not intimidated" hissed the Raptor, hopping off a branch as one of the Spinosaurs lunged, smashing it with a bite. "Oh, by the way, is there like, a place where beaten up Spinosaurs go? I mean, obviously you're going somewhere" growled Fatalis, continuing unfazed...




It wasn't long before Hellfire caught up with Aircrest, steadily coming up to his side. "What'd I miss?" he growled, so nonchalant no one would've guessed he'd run a half-mile to catch up...

[C S]

Aircrest cocked his head at the familiar voice. He swerved out of his cover and into the clearing where he looked over his shoulder at the deinonychus. His approach was mostly masked by the commotion farther up ahead, signs of Fatalis' progress. Or lack thereof.

"Ah, there you are. The Hotshot and I were starting to think you weren't going to turn up again after that little mess we got ourselves into," Aircrest barked in response.

[The Kingpin]

"Ripper let me know you two had gone ahead, so I followed" hissed Hellfire calmly as he advanced at Aircrest's side. "Sorry about the last few days. After we got split up I couldn't find your scents, so I just kinda wandered around the area for a while" he growled, cringing at an irritated roar up ahead. It was almost unnerving how skilled Fatalis was at driving larger predators mad...


"You're arrogant for a Raptor" hissed Bahari annoyedly, Thrasher having already blocked him out. "Well you're ugly for a Spinosaur, but I don't go and point that out now do I? Oh wait, I just did" hissed Fatalis, the female swiping at the branch, smashing right through it, only to find Fatalis perched on her snout in the aftermath. "What did Thrasher see in you anyway? You look like an overweight crocodile and smell like a swamp" barked the Raptor, Bahari swinging her head up, launching the Raptor into the air, her jaws parted to catch him, though he never came down. "Hm. Stupid too. Guess it wasn't for your brains. A little help here Thrasher? I'm honestly confused" growled the Raptor from a branch higher in the canopy...

[C S]

Aircrest grunted in acknowledgement and nodded, waiting for the screaming to be carried off on the breeze to be a distant annoyance to others across the island. When an opportunity to speak came, he growled, "The deed was done either way. Just be glad small mistakes didn't become bigger ones."

[The Kingpin]

"Not like we could've known we'd've been attacked from two sides at once" hissed Hellfire with a shrug, just as another roar tore through the forest. "What is the plan anyway? Seems like he's just messing with them for fun" he growled immediately as the roar ended...


"Look at you! Bumping heads, biting eachother, eating branches, it's no wonder the Rex wiped the floor with you! You're inept as a pack of sleepy Ankylosaurs!" screeched Fatalis, his tone frustrated as he all but danced around them, leaping from branch to branch, before one branch was smashed to bits before he could reach it, a furious Thrasher cutting him off. "DAMN IIIT!" screeched the Raptor as he fell into the bushes, Thrasher hot on his heels, jaws slamming shut right where the Raptor was a split second earlier, Fatalis disappearing amidst the trees in a sprint, a low, rumbling snarl coming from the Spinosaur as he watched the Raptor retreat. "Fool" snarled the giant as he returned to the path they were carving through the forest, resuming their journey...

[C S]

"He was supposed to provoke Thrasher into spilling some information we could use to tackle the mutant problem, but from the sound of things it seems like the plan's hit a snag," Aircrest replied. He motioned over to the treeline with his snout and growled, "We'd better go make sure he's still breathing. And in one piece, while we're at it." With that, the green and black raptor slipped back into the brush.

[saurus172]

Having eaten her fill,she grabbed a large chunk of meat for tomorrow. She left, heading toward the concophony of roars and snapping, knowing that it meant Thrasher. She disappeared into the trees, the carnotaurs immediately going straight for the carcass.

[The Kingpin]

Hellfire fell in behind the Raptor, moving swiftly through the undergrowth towards where Fatalis's last screech had come from, the thumping strides of Thrasher's family fading into the distance. The Deinonychus glanced around in search for signs of where Fatalis had gone, thus far seeing nothing, aside from a broken branch on the edge of the Spinosaurs' path...

[C S]

"I don't smell any blood aside from the spinosaurs," Aircrest stated as he walked around the area, nose pointed upwards. It wasn't a problem finding Fatalis' scent trail. In fact, it took almost no effort to catch the raptor's scent amidst that of the spinosaur group. The problem was how erratic it was, no doubt a result of Fatalis' efforts to dodge death in the form of claws and jaws. The way it wafted down from the treetops did not aid the search, either.

But still, at least there was nothing to suggest their yellow-spotted friend was dead.

[The Kingpin]

"Nothing of use gained" growled a voice in a bush, Fatalis's head sticking out of it, a broken branch in his mouth, the Raptor looking down at it for a moment before spitting it out. Hellfire's gaze shifted to the Raptor, staring at him in disbelief...

[C S]

"Old log-head's more resilient than I thought. I'll give him credit for that, if nothing else," Aircrest growled thoughtfully, scratching the underside of his jaw with a claw. He stared off into space, mulling this over before he realized that, yes, Fatalis had just survived a violent reintroduction with the ground. With a shake of his head, the green raptor asked, "A-are you alright? Nothing broken?"

[The Kingpin]

"Yup" responded Fatalis calmly as he stepped out of the bush, examining himself to make sure he was right. A couple of scratches along his side marked where a broken branch had grazed him on the way down, but he was clear aside from that. "Well, 'cept for that. Ow" he added, licking the wound as best he could. "What was the whole point of this anyway?" hissed Hellfire, somewhat confused.


Thrasher meanwhile, was heading towards the edge of the border, glancing out across uncharted land as a potential inhabitant for the first time in 16 years. It was a surreal sensation, the thought that this place was no longer his home. Crusher was a naive fool, vengeful and spiteful, clueless to the grander scheme of the island's workings. But his anger wasn't unjustified. Thrasher's initial plan, the orchestrating that went into that initial invasion of the territory, had been an act of pure greed; want for the living the Tyrannosaur Spectre had enjoyed, no more, no less. It was only many years later that he realised what having such a large territory entailed. Despite the sheer scale of the island, having the turf to satisfy several families of super-predators and maintain them meant a lot when it was occupied by far fewer individuals than it should. Between himself, his family, and a small handful of his and his father's allies, they had held a territory that could easily have sustained a dozen Tyrannosaurs as well. That many large predators, the sheer amount of food they required, forced out to the rim of the island, and constantly pestered, along with the rest of the predators that made the edges of Thrasher's borders their home, was sufficient to make life significantly harder for many creatures.

What Thrasher would never admit, however, was that the problem was not even close to as severe as he described....What he also would never admit....was that there was a greater force behind the original plan to take Spectre's territory...It was for that action that he was later praised, albeit quietly. Over the years, Scimitar's actions and behaviour had made it clear that he could not have been the one behind the decision, behind the plan that changed the lives of so many. Thrasher, while significantly more brutal, also didn't fit the plan's nature, though there were elements in it that were familiar to his own choices later in life. The true orchestrator of the entire incident, however, was thus far a mystery. One only Thrasher knew...and whose existence he would never reveal...

[C S]

"Fatalis' reward more than anything by now," Aircrest growled flatly. He looked in the direction that Thrasher went and added, "But that's not going to be enough to make him abandon his plans. He's got a destination and he's not wasting any time going there. We need to find out where that is." He looked back to Fatalis and barked, "Grab some moss for those scratches and come along. I'd rather not fall too far behind." With that, Aircrest sped off after the spinosaurs.

[saurus172]

Nuka was only halfway to the area where she thought the commotion was, only to realize with a sniff, that her quarry already left. With a grunt, she layed her body down right where she stopped, spitting out the chunk of meat a few feet away. She thumped her thick tail once, letting anyone who was listening to back off, or become her next carcass. She curled up and slept, rumbling deeply.

[The Kingpin]

"Go ahead. I'll catch up" hissed Fatalis with a smirk, before disappearing back into the undergrowth, leaving the two rag tag companions to go after the Spinosaurs, the footfalls swiftly fading as they walked off into the distance, leaving the territorial borders behind them. "One of these days we're gonna find him wrapped around a tree branch, broken into so many pieces nobody can tell what he's supposed to be" grunted Hellfire as he watched the Raptor depart, shrugging dismissively...

[C S]

When the sprawling forest of inland Sorna thinned some time later, Aircrest slowed his pursuit of the spinosaurs. The danger of being discovered increased by a significant degree without the cover of titanic plants acting as both shelter and obstacle to potential threats. The spinosaurs were not the only concern, many other predators prowled the open terrain. Where the trees were less frequent, wild, tall grass carpeted the landscape underneath a late afternoon sky. A few large trees were spread out along the open, with many more smaller ones in between. The smaller trees had slender trunks and they leaned to and fro with the direction of the wind.

The wind was Aircrest's major concern as he slunk through the grass. Staying low and moving through the grass was easy enough. Keeping his scent from being blown towards the giants in the distance was a more daunting task, as the winds constantly shifted over the green savanna. Whenever he felt the breeze blowing from behind, he hunkered down and meandered from his path, doing his best to scatter his trail to both his target and the hunters on the move.