Jurassic Attraction (DNF)

Chapter 13: Three at the Fence

George POV.

“I’m scared, should I be feeling scared?” Dream just chuckled, not giving me an actual answer. His hand was holding my arm as he led me through the gates and towards the first exhibit, although I wasn’t sure if it was to encourage me or to stop me from running in any direction from my strange fear and excitement.

Eventually he did respond, his voice soft and reassuring. “Don’t worry, it’s a gentle classic here. You’ll love it, I promise.” I wondered what he meant by gentle classic. Either way my fear was beginning to boil up. “This is one I know personally, I was there when she hatched.” He explained proudly.

“Her name is Twigs, a kid named her because she used to like to nibble on sticks in the petting zoo.” He explained, and I moved my gaze away from the pen he was leading me towards to look over at the blond. I listened to what he said, taking all of the information that he gave me to try and guess what it was that he was telling me.

If Twig was in a petting zoo then it… well she, must be something that isn’t too dangerous for kids, and the fact that she ate sticks and stuff meant she was likely a herbivore, or maybe an omnivore. The two of us kept walking over to a large enclosure, with a row of trees blocking the audience’s view of the enclosure.

Dream led us close to the fence, even though the path wrapped around the side of the enclosure and probably gave us a better space. I noticed the way that the wires on the fence were spread far apart, showing how gigantic this dinosaur must be.

The blond grabbed something out of a trough in front of the fence before passing it to me. It was quite a large palm leaf and I looked over it. “What dinosaur eats this?” I asked when my attention went back over to him, but once again he didn’t directly acknowledge my question.

“She’ll be over soon, trust me.” He reassured me. “We have a lot of ways to try and train our dinosaurs. Most of the dinosaurs have been trained to come to a certain point of their exhibit when they smell a certain aroma or high pitched sound. Twig will come here looking for food.”
“Interesting.” I murmured. “But how do you send out the signal?”

“All staff who have connections with the dinosaurs have a remote, there is one for each habitat and each species is trained to react to two different signals. One to get them near the guests and one to lead them away.” He explained. “Currently there was a disease which spread through some of the dinosaurs and so at the moment Twig is alone in here, so I try and bring her some food daily.”

Without a word I nodded, reminding myself to take down some notes after feeding whatever dinosaur did decide to show up. A few moments of tense silence passed but no dinosaur appeared. My eyes narrowed and I glanced over at Dream. “This isn’t convincing me that dinosaurs are real.” I told him.

“Just hush.” He responded, his hand snaking around my waist. I gasped at the sudden movement which he briefly teased me for before we both went quiet. From somewhere beyond my sight I heard the shrubbery moving, allowing some large strange creature to come closer to us.

“Do you need a moment or two for someone to put the costume on?” I added as a final jab, not getting a reaction from him. Perhaps I would have said something else, if I had the time I might have, but my breath seemed to fall away as a large creature appeared through the undergrowth.

It was twice my height, however its eyes were low enough that I was able to make eye contact. She, Twig, had grey scaled skin, reminding me of a rhino. What reminded me more of a dinosaur though was her crested head and the three horns on her forehead. The beaked mouth was parted slightly and she breathed loudly.

My eyes widened. Obviously I had believed that the dinosaurs were real, however I didn’t expect to see one this close and looking this majestic. I had always liked Triceratops’, they were one of my favourites, but seeing a real dinosaur was much different to seeing a cartoon or a toy. Twig blinked slowly at me, tilting her head to focus on the palm leaves Dream and I held.

“If you want to then you can feed her.” Dream offered, and I looked over at him curiously.
“Really?” I asked him, Obviously I should have expected it, otherwise why else would Dream have given me the palm leaf to begin with.
“No, I just gave the leaf to you since it looks cool.” He rolled his eyes.

“Okay, point taken.” Slowly I walked towards the fence before hesitating. The triceratops looked at me slowly, taking a half step closer as she anticipated her meal. “Is the fence… electric?” I questioned, having heard stories about people getting electrocuted in these parks which I wasn’t a fan of.

“Most of the herbivore fences aren’t.” Dream reassured me. “These guys are harmless. You could probably even pat her if you wanted.” My eyes widened more, with even more excitement, as I thought about the idea of actually getting to touch a dinosaur. Slowly I moved closer, only stopping briefly as a low rumbling noise came from the Triceratops.

“Just put the leaf through the fence.” The blond instructed. “She will take it and eat it, just like a giraffe at the zoo.” I followed what he said, slowly pushing the leaf between two of the thick wires. Twig moved closer, her beak parting and biting the end of the leaf. The sharpness of the beak easily cut through the palm and she chewed slowly before returning.

Her breath was warm against my hand but it smelt horrendous, however that was pushed back by the utter amazement that I had, standing only two metres away from a dinosaur. Twig looked lazily at me, continuing to munch on the food. “Holy shit,” I found myself muttering, “I am standing right next to a dinosaur.”

By this point in time the leaf had been nibbled down to the stem and the next time the large dinosaur bit on the food it was tugged right out of my hand. My hand pulled itself back as Twig snorted, continuing to chew everything I had given her. I seemed content just staring at the magnificent beast until Dream spoke up. “Do you want to pat her?”

My eyes widened as I looked over at him, he had made the offer before, however it felt a lot different when I was standing this close to a dinosaur. Slowly my hands moved back through the wires, keeping it flat like you would when you pat most animals. My breath shook as my hand pressed against the snout of the Triceratops, before a grin grew on my face.
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