The Isle - A Collage of Dinosaur Short Stories

3

It was just another day on the hunt.

The rex pair, a gorgeous cream and brown dappled female with a pitch black male, plodded along in the thick woodland. The female was agile and large, while the male was bulky and small. The perfect hunting party.

The female let out a soft rumble, communicating her thoughts to her mate. They would split away from each other; the female flushing the prey from herself, and the male awaiting in the trees for an ambush. They had no doubts to their plans, as it was a success nearly every time.

Today, the two were hunting a herd of hadrosaurs. The large ones, the shants, grazed peacefully in the moor. The medium ones, the parasaurs, trumpeted to the air with their loud voices. And the smallest, the maias, bounded alongside their young with a playful grace. Life was simple for them, as they all existed to die and to feed the predators.

The female crept around the brim of the forest, just far in enough to be camouflaged, but just enough to have easy sights on her prey. A youthful parasaur had dispatched from the herd, seeking better food to chow down on. He was creeping towards the forest, head to the air as he tested for berries.

A trumpet of alarm exploded from him as he caught the female's scent.

With a bellowing roar, she exploded from the underbrush. Her large legs pounded against the ground as she raced in a pursuit, and the male fled to his herdmates with a string of alarmed cries. But when he reached his herd, the strangest thing happened.

The herbivores stood their ground.

The hadrosaurs formed a line in front of their nesting grounds, eyes glued to the rex and furious roars erupting from their mouths. The shants stood in the dead center, paras following the edges, and the maias the outline. They all bellowed with rage, advancing slowly towards the rex with stances that screamed with aggression.

The female rex faltered in her pursuit, slowing to a steady trot with a faint rumble of confusion. Her head tilted slightly, but then she shook it. It did not matter if the herbivores decided to brave her presence, as they were herbivores. They were *created* to be food. They would never win against she and her mate.

With a snarl, she continued her sprint. She was beginning to feel a bit worn down, a few pants escaping her large jaws as her lungs struggled to keep up with her extreme activity. She turned sharply in the direction of the parasaurs and maias, keenly avoiding the mighty shants. However, her plans were foiled as with rumbling bellows, the shants kept pace with her.

Her eyes flickered desperately to the trees, as their plans had begun to crumble. Her mate still resided there, his eyes wide with confusion and fear. The female let out a sharp cry as a parasaur kicked her in the flank, and she whipped around with vicious jaws that shattered it's foreleg. The parasaur wailed as it stumbled out of the way, before retreating back to the ranks of herbivores.

The female snarled with fury, whipping around to face her quarry once again. This was all wrong! They weren't supposed to fight back! She was meant to be the strongest, the monarch of the land with her mate by her side. She turned her head and opened her jaws as she screamed for the male rex to join her in this undesired fight to survive.

In answer to her calls, the black rex emerged from the trees with gaping jaws, fangs flashing in the sunlight and eyes glinting with rage. The female suddenly felt a hit to her rear, and she cried out in surprise as a maia bashed its head at her. While she was distracted, a shant had risen above her and brought its legs down, crushing her with its weight and puncturing her side with its hooves.

The female rex was driven to the ground by the shant. She was now wild with terror, trying to scramble away with herself now crippled. Her ribs had been broken and a leg had been crushed, and she was now rendered useless to fight back. Blow after blow she grew weaker, and she struggled to land a bite on her attackers. Her mate charged through the unsuspecting herbivores and with ease he downed a distracted maiasaura, and at its death the herd let out mournful cries and fled back to their young.

The female rex shivered on the ground, every movement inducing unbearable pain. Even breathing struck more pain than she ever thought possible. Her eyes flickered to her mate, who's back rippled with the magnificent light of the sunset that had ensued. He let out a soft rumble, his voice comforting until the female registered what he had just said.

He was leaving her. She was too weak for them to remain together.

The female rex let out a raspy rumble of her own voice, begging him to stay. But it was too late, she knew this was what would happen, but the reality of the situation wouldn't dare to settle in. Her body wracked with grief as the male rex turned from her. He ripped a chunk out of the maia's body, and with that hunk of meat, he came to her and placed it at her side. He stood there, gazing into her eyes before he grabbed the remainder of the body, and dragged it away into the forest.

Hurt, confused, and alone, the female rex remained there, lying helplessly on the grass. Scavengers were about now, and they could smell her pain with their keen noses. She knew they would be upon her at any moment. With a long, rattling sigh, she remained still into the night, waiting for what was to come.

~*~
Written on February 18th, 2019.