#darriusbowman

@darrius-bowman

Random Starters || Always Accepting

It hadn't been long since the park had complete shut down. Since the security detail had disappeared and the lights shut off, the ambient speakers had gone quiet and the security doors had stopped working. At least, it hadn't felt like very long.

As soon as the food stopped being dropped into the paddock, Ambrose began to get worried. It was morbidly interesting to be privy to a Utahraptor that was in a survival panic. Fariah stayed out of his way as the bird exercised his penchant for escaping, tearing with little ceremony through bars and grates and the heavy steel doors that no longer 'boop'd for his entertainment. He'd come to check on her after a path to the world outside had been carved, and she very carefully made sure he wasn't injured. Outside a slight limp that disappeared a couple of days later and a couple of bumps and scrapes, he seemed fine.

The first while was rocky, getting used to what felt like being hopelessly alone. Her supplies in the little bunker room had dwindled almost too fast, it felt like, and that was what forced Fariah to finally leave the security of the paddock into the rest of the park.

Much to mild surprise, Ambrose followed her when she left. At a fair distance for a while, but even if he was a big carnivore she knew had the capability to devour her in two bites, she admitted quietly to herself that she was happy he chose to be around. Other dinosaurs tended to shy from a raptor of his size, leaving her occasional forays into the main park blessedly uneventful. If something did happen, it happened away from her.

Out of sight, out of mind...

Over time, Ambrose had started getting closer and closer to her. She could reach out at times, feel the brush of his feathers against her fingertips. He kept himself well-groomed, feathers shiny and straight at all times. Was that the parrot bridge, or was that simply just natural instinct?

She was wondering such things, as she often did, when his head perked up suddenly, like he heard something. Alert, his head tilting one way to the other, his body following a sinuous line as it turned to face the same way his ears pointed him toward. With his arms pulled up to his sides, she noted he looked remarkably more birdlike than usual.

Before she could process his stance, he was off like a shot. Silent like he was hunting and stalking, instead of his trills and chirps and vocals. She contemplated moving on and continuing her own scavenging, and she even turned to take a few steps in the opposite direction from him. But there was a feeling roiling in her gut. She wasn't sure if it was fear for what might be waiting for her, or fear for what Ambrose was running toward. It caused her a moment to pause and to think on what her next steps should be. She wasn't sure when she turned to follow the raptor's path.

Ambrose, on the other hand, was already on his way toward the noise that had alerted him. An animal in distress, the smell of injury on the air. An easy meal. He did not rationalize that it was human, like his strange raptor mother. Through fronds and leaves and shadows, he saw it limping. The hunter's instinct took over, and he became a flash of black and brilliant red through foliage as he turned to find the best point to intercept.

It didn't take him long to overtake his target, several good strong strides all he needed to exert before he was far enough ahead. Very little energy expended, distance enough for the ambush to work. His mother would be proud of him, he was such a good hunter. He would be praised, he would be pet, he would be told he was the best prettiest boy when she was given her share.

A Utahraptor in full display was a sight to behold to anything capable enough to think about it. Ambrose burst from the forest surroundings, stopping directly in the littler human's path, the feathers behind his head and down his spine standing straight up, his lip fluttering in a toothy 'smile'.

"NO! STOP!" was bellowed toward his target, crisp perfect syllables.

He knew that talking stunned prey long enough to take a bite out of it, as most of his usual prey were familiar to humans talking. He was counting on it working here, a quiver of tensing muscles running along his body to ready for it.