Young Hunters: A Prehistoric Wild story

Hell Creek Formation, Montana, 68 MYA

Paying the T-Rexes no mind, the Torosaurus simply grunts before lowering his face back into the vegetation. The horned herbivore isn't their target for today anyway. Scratch and Shade may have the advantage in numbers, but it will take a much larger predator to take down this full-grown bull. Instead, the brothers have their sights set on a group of much smaller targets.

Further behind the Torosaurus is a herd of 15 Stygimolochs. They belong to the pachycephalosaur family, known for being bipedal herbivores with thick domes on their heads. Stygimolochs are distinguished by four large, gray spikes that grow from the back of their heads up to 4 feet in length. Their gray skin is rough and scaly, covered with dark brown splotches on the body and solid white on their underbellies. The gray skin is much darker on the males along with having bright red on their faces and the top of their 10-inch-thick domes. 10-foot-long adults mainly comprise this herd with a few 9-foot sub-adults. Their sounds are a mix of various snorts, grunts, and trills.

Much like the Torosaurus, the Stygimolochs are preoccupied with feeding on the plentiful plant life of Hell Creek. However, they'll occasionally find an insect like a butterfly to mix up their diet. In their foraging, the herd remains unaware of the Rex brothers creeping through the trees and thicker vegetation around them. Scratch and Shade inch closer and closer, the foliage around them lightly brushing against their skin and feathers. Now, only feet away from the dome heads, the young Tyrannosaurs steadily freeze, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

For Scratch, however, this stillness doesn't last for long. His nose starts to itch and wiggle. He struggles to contain the soft sniffs and snorts he starts to make. Gradually the sounds stop, and the smaller brother becomes silent once again. Suddenly, a loud, hissing sneeze erupts from his jaws and nose. His leg spasms and snaps a twig lying in front of him. One of the Stygimolochs jerks its head up seeing the young rex. The herbivore trills loudly as it dashes away with the rest of the herd.

Swiftly, the brothers follow, trailing only a couple of feet away. Thanks to their long, slender legs, young T-Rexes like Scratch and Shade can easily match the speed of the Stygimolochs. Whether or not their prey would escape is only a matter of how much stamina they have left. As the herd approaches a narrow, muddy river, one 9-foot male starts to lag. Shade runs in ever so close, his jaws opening for the first bite. As the young, dome-head gets further to the back of the herd, the bigger brother aims his head at his prey's left leg.

Scratch abruptly starts to slip on the river mud before falling and crashing into his brother. Shade only grazes the back of the Stygimoloch's leg before his face plants into the muddy ground. By the skin of their teeth, the dome-heads escape into the woods. All the brothers get for their efforts is just a mouth full of mud.

As both young Tyrannosaurs get up off the ground, Shade starts to growl. He turns toward Scratch, his eyes squinting. The smaller brother only lets out a chirp before slowly approaching the bigger one. With no hesitation, Shade bites down on the snout of his brother. Scratch shakes his head all while making muffled chirps and whimpers. Soon, he breaks free only as he's tossed away by his bigger brother. Scratch and Shade then start to make strained squawking sounds at each other.

As Shade opens his mouth ready to squawk, a loud, low-frequency bellow vibrates throughout the woods. It is very deep and raspy, starting with a pulsing boom followed by grumbling. The brothers stop their squawking and stare at each other perplexedly as neither of them could make such a sound, not yet anyway. They start to turn their attention back to the fern clearing as they hear another call, a deep prolonged honk. Quickly, the brothers glance at each other before going back to where they came from.

On their way, they find the source of the honk, a running Torosaurus. Only one thing could scare this living tank, thus the brothers know to jump into a batch of ferns and remain hidden. Soon, the large herbivore stops in his tracks, witnessing an absolute behemoth of a carnivore stepping in front of its path.