Chapter 92 - 'Big One'
-Eastern Swamp Biome-
“And that’s a cryopod in a nutshell.”
Rainbow had finished explaining the concept of a cryopod as she and Thrum sat on chairs surrounded by wooden spiked walls with a gap for exiting and entering, Vanellope and Walken slumbering peacefully nearby.
“Heh. You’re lucky that I gave you the awesome version of an explanation. If Twilight or HLN-A were here, those eggheads would put you down faster than a tranq arrow as they go on and on and on.” She ends with a heartful chuckle, accessing her inventory to check the time.
4:23 pm.
“See? It only took me, like, two minutes to do it.” She waited expectantly for the top-hatted ape to form a proper response, aside from the dumbfounded look he had given her halfway through her explanation and still maintained.
“S-so, let me get this straight,” Thrum managed, fidgeting in his seat and leaning in. “You have an engram that allows you to craft this cryopod, which allows a tribe to securely store away any of their tamed allies regardless of if they’re a land, air, or sea-based lifeform…?”
The pegasus nods with a cocky grin.
“And one would effectively be able to summon said ally,” he snaps his fingers, “just like that?”
“Just. Like. That.”
Silence takes hold as the equine awaits knowingly for the ape beside them to form a proper response. She could tell that his mind was working through several ideas, followed by a calculative expression.
Seemingly satisfied, Thrum smirks as he slowly clasps his fingers together, “I think we could come to a certain arrangement here, Rainbow.”
Rainbow’s ears twitch as she leans forward and claps her forehooves together. “I’m all ea-”
“Thrum!” A familiar voice beckoned, prompting Rainbow and Thrum to look at a dark-gray ape donned in metallic armor entering the gap urgently. “You’ll need to see this.”
“What did you manage to find, Tharn?” Thrum asked the ape on approach, Rainbow looking on attentively.
The armored ape lifts his left arm and accesses his inventory as the implant beneath his wrist glows with light-blue energy that leaks through the gauntlet. Seconds after, a particular object manifests into Tharn’s left palm as he presents it to Rainbow and Thrum—the pegasus’ eyes widening in recognition.
“Woah…” Rainbow said in awe, yet with the slightest hint of forebodingness. “That raptor claw is crazy big.”
“That’s an understatement, Rainbow,” Tharn answered while handing the sickle over to Thrum, who studied it in deep thought. “I’ve killed many raptors in my time and have amassed quite the collection of trophies. But I can tell just by looking that that, right there, belongs to a big one.”
“Not just a ‘big one,’ Tharn,” Thrum’s words immediately gain their attention. “The individual this claw came from is plausibly the largest raptor this island has ever seen.” The top-hatted ape rises up, maneuvering the claw between his fingers while continuing to look it over. “We’ll need to get Sir. Gideon Apesworth to study it.”
“Actually…” Rainbow injects. “Hey, uh, Thrum?
“Yes, Rainbow?”
“I have a friend who might just know a thing or two.” The pegasus’ offer caused the apes to share a curious look. “Hay, I’d even wager that she knows even more than that Gideon guy.”
“Truly?” Thrum asked in interest.
“I don’t know,” Tharn comments while crossing his arms, followed by a playfully raised brow. “You did fail one wager today.” He ends with a grin.
“Hey!” Rainbow flared with an appointed forehoof. “That was that big, stupid cat’s fault!” She finished with a glaring pout—Tharn, greatly amused.
A rumbling chuckle escapes from Thrum. “Well, at least you returned to us afterward. Were it not for you, who knows if we would’ve ever discovered the circumstances of Herbert and Shirley’s deaths.” The leader of the merchants approaches Rainbow and offers the claw to her, “You’ve given us no reason to doubt you, Rainbow. So I choose to trust you on this.”
With a grateful nod, the pegasus takes the claw and sends it away to her inventory.
“If you truly believe that your friend can help us,” Thrum continued, “then we look forward to any information she can offer.”
“Trust me,” Rainbow assured. “If anyone can figure this out, it’s HLN-A. As soon as Vanellope gets up, I’ll head home.”
"If it gets too dark by then, you guys are more than welcome to spend the night with us and set out in the morning," Tharn offered.
Thrum nods in agreement. However, he abruptly shifts his posture to one Rainbow recognizes as the top-hatted ape preparing to make a deal or business arrangement.
“I do have an offer for you, which pertains to that arrangement I mentioned and coincides with your payment for services rendered.” He was about to reveal the proposal following the equine’s shift in stature but was intercepted by her words.
“If you guys could provide me the materials needed for fur armor and two of those cryopods, I’ll happily give you one.” Rainbow nervously rubs the back of her neck, “I, uh, never actually crafted them before. Hehe. I know that it’s safe to use, but-”
“It’s fine,” Thrum assures with a raised hand. “We understand. There’ve been times when I unlock a new engram and have complete confidence that the item I craft will work and is generally safe to use, despite never doing so before.”
“The ways of engrams still amaze us to this day,” Tharn added. “We’ve kind of just accepted it at this point.”
“Hah! Tell me about it,” Rainbow said as the trio took a moment to muse on it together.
“Ok, then,” Thrum starts after a moment’s pause. “I accept your request, Rainbow. However, I’d like to add a little bonus, if you will.” He gestures to Walken, “Feel free to claim Walken as your own.”
The wide-eyed pegasus looks at the raptor and slowly returns to the top-hatted merchant. “Y-you sure?”
“Of course!” Thrum declared gleefully. “Walken is what we call an Unclaimed Tame. Are you familiar with the concept?”
“Oh, yeah,” she answered. “HLN-A explained it to me. Pretty straightforward, but it’s when a tribe sets a dino free from the tribe, right?”
“You got the gist of it,” Tharn answered. “You could also say it’s the creatures of the island’s version of tribe banishment.”
“Got it, got it. But are you guys really, really sure about this?” The equine asks to be certain.
“Absolutely,” Thrum responds in utmost certainty. “That being said, I know what you’ll need for fur armor, but what materials will you require for your cryopods, Rainbow?”
The pegasus hummed as she looked back to her implant, accessed it, and skimmed through the engram-filled library before finally finding what she was looking for.
“Ok. So what I’ll need to forge the cryopod is…”
Night descends upon the Ark and blankets the land in complete darkness, as there wasn’t even a moon to offer some semblance of a light source.
Many swift and agile raptors maneuver through the dense forestation on the island’s eastern side, the distant Green Obelisk creeping through the treelines as if always watching events unfold.
The pack halts atop a cliff and looks down upon a vibrant settlement with alighted torches etched onto protective wooden walls and protruding from the ground as apes, beasts, and dinos of all shapes, age ranges, sizes, and colors prepare to turn in for the night and keep watch.
Low hisses, growls, and tapping sickled toes accompanied the pack as they continued their stealthy observation. They then began to break apart down the middle, moving aside for a much larger member of their collective, one whose eyes are consumed by the same fiery red and orange aura surrounding their body.
The giant raptor, an alpha among alphas, watched the guards on the settlement’s walls and even the walls themselves as if looking for a weakness, a chink in their defenses. And when it inevitably did, the alpha raptor raised its head and screeched out into the night.
The eyes of every other raptor in attendance then matched their leader’s, and the unsettling horde scales down the cliff masterfully before reaching a lower level and running toward the collection of prey ravenously.
A feminine scream echoes out into the night, followed by the sounds of raging conflict. Fires ran rampant as torches had been tipped over in the ensuing chaos, the resulting flames spreading alongside a wave of death across the settlement.
All of it was enough to bring out an amused chirp from the alpha raptor…who simply enjoys watching it all burn.
Apologies for the huge delay, everyone. It got pretty chaotic at work towards the end of last month. 
That said, this sets up some big things coming very soon! And I mean two to three chapters soon.
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Is there a Jurassic Park reference in there?
11688648
Hah!
I'd be lying if I'm not low-key setting Rainbow up for a future "Alan Grant" moment with that alpha raptor trophy.
11688785
Now time for the obvious question. How did the alpha lose its talon in the first place when they're only dropped on death?
11689099
It snapped off during Shirley's struggle back in chapter 74.
I thought it'd be cool if certain trophies could be naturally obtained without death, should circumstances allow it. A snapped-off alpha raptor claw seems quite reasonable.
Heck, even having a megalodon's teeth break while attacking prey is plausible, especially since that happens with modern-day sharks, too. A great white shark loses a tooth in nearly every hunt it partakes in, and I can definitely see the same happening with its monstrous cousin.
11689393
That makes sense.
And I could see the loss of a talon potentially saving a life if The Big One pins an unfortunate victim under the wrong foot.
Alpha Raptor in the story: Dangerous enemy that gathers an army of followers and kills the largest of opponents.
Alpha Raptors in game: Get a trike with 500+ health and good stamina and bully it to death...
Nevertheless awesome story so far, I wish the ingame raptors were like this. The part with the broken off alpha claw was also a pretty neat idea.
On a secondary note: I started a hidden lake playtrough because of this story, and created a new survivor a few days ago, when I ran into a scenario so redicilously convenient is would fit straight into this story.
Basically, I was looking for an early travel mount, when one of the tripwire alarms at one of the entrances went off. I went to check, and found an Iguanodon running from a raptor, before being blocked by the gate I placed. Deciding to help the poor fella I killed the raptor with a bola and a few spears and tamed the Iguanodon.
Overall this scenario has potential to be used in a story, and since I don't believe in coincidence, and I started this playtrough due to your story, I decided that I might as well tell you.
That's all for my feedback, stay awesome. 👍
PS: I hope I didn't ramble to much right here. 😅
11690196
I love that tactic. You get even a medioce trike on a slight incline against an alpha raptor, and that trike will win just about every damn time. Because by the time it gets back up the hill to get you, your knockback attack is ready to fire again. It's both absolutely hilarious, and so very satisfying after getting bullied by them so many times when first starting out in the game.
Alphas are weird though. When I was first starting out and not knowing anything because I went in cold, I didn't know how to read the map or use the locator, I was just wandering around with a pack of whatever animals I could tame, and an alpha raptor ran right past us without even stopping to look at us. Like it had better things to do and more important places to be.
11690196
A hundred percent accurate.
Yeah, I wanted to make alphas an actual menace in the story rather than just something that glows, has a lot of HP, hits hard, and has loot when you kill it. Despite all of that, it's just another raptor with the same abusable AI in-game.
I am absolutely honored to hear that!
You know...I could arrange that scenario.
It wouldn't even interrupt any planned events/the flow of the plot one bit, and would add to it.
Feedback is always gold on this site, and I always encourage readers to give it.
You're fine! I don't even consider it as rambling.