Postmortem Ch10 || Threat Display

Sunflower exclaimed something when the blur of black and grey feathers rushed by, and a roar from Hazard shook the tiles. Callahan knew in an instant she’d made a mistake with getting their attention, but it was better than the alternative. Petrichor was silenced by the roar that she could feel in her bones, she’d never heard such a sound - even from the angriest suchomimus. What was going on out there?

The tiny scales on the bottoms of Callahan’s feet slid across the tile. She had no grip in this forsaken place, there wasn’t any way for her to slow down as she’d intended. She could only go forwards and hope that she didn’t slip and fall in her attempts to make a hasty retreat.

Confusion and chaos filled the hallway as Callahan darted between the pair of giants. Sunflower could only turn and wave his tail so much to avoid hitting Hazard, and the alberto couldn’t run and snap his jaws at Callahan without risking getting impaled on the dacen’s spikes - or biting the doctor instead.

Callahan crashed into the far wall, unable to slow down enough to stop herself ahead of time. She glared at the gargantuan pair, herself smaller than the average utahraptor and feeling even smaller in their presence. Still, she bared her teeth, taunting them and daring them to chase after her.

But she was too small to do any real damage, and neither of them were impressed by her display.

Dr. Sunflower looked guarded, but wasn’t going to give chase - he preferred to help and heal, not to fight and hurt others. Unless he had to, of course, but this little pile of feathers was hardly a danger. Hazard seemed to think the same. Her teeth had barely scraped his hide when she snapped at his ankle - there wasn’t even any blood.

“Hello,” the dacen started. He lowered his tail ever so slightly. Not that he could use it very well in such a small space.  “We don’t want to fight.”

Callahan hissed, a sound much like a snake puffing up and ready to strike. Her feathers fluffed up as she spread her wings and curved her tail upwards, making herself look larger than she really was. She wasn’t a fighter either, but she could certainly try to look the part.

Sunflower continued to be...less than impressed, and shifted his feet. Utahraptors. What was it with these little carnivores that made them so poorly tempered? Hazard seemed to be thinking of the same utahraptor - Prototype was a menace across the whole of the Alpha labs, not confined to any one level as many of the other inhabitants were.

“Are you from this level?” the dacen asked hesitantly. He’d never seen her before, and imagined that anyone as small as she was would have no problem navigating around the facility, but she smelled more like the labs than she did the outside like the other strangers that had come through.

Callahan simply stared for a moment, jaws parted. Had she encountered the two least combative individuals in the entire complex?

“You...do understand what we’re saying, right?” Hazard asked. He’d turned back from looking at where they’d come from. A roar that loud would have gotten the attention of anyone listening - and anyone that wasn’t. But there was no sign of Tobias, nor of Rime. Rime, he wasn’t surprised by. The acro seemed determined to be done with them. But why had Tobias not come to see what the fuss was about?

“Of course I understand you!” Callahan snapped. She just didn’t understand why they were talking instead of chasing her. She wanted to lead them away from here, away from Petrichor!

“We’re not here to fight you,” Sunflower repeated, “we’re just here for supplies. Our friend was hurt-”

“I saw,” Callahan quipped, cutting the dacen off.

Sunflower’s tail swayed slowly behind him. That was a bit rude, wasn’t it?

“Can we go on, then?” Hazard asked. There was warmth in his voice that was more than just the large carnivore trying to keep the peace - he was humouring her. Asking a carnivore several times smaller than himself if they could pass her by when they all three knew that she wouldn’t be able to stop them if they tried to force their way past.

The several times smaller carnivore bristled at him, her amethyst eyes burning with unbridled fury. She opened her jaws to fire back at him, only to pause when she heard an odd scraping-shuffling sound coming from the opposite direction she’d planned on going.

“Of course you can go on.” Petrichor’s lilting, amusement-laced voice came from the hallway. Callahan’s voice died in her throat as she jerked her head towards the larger, featherless utahraptor. Petrichor was limping, leaning against the wall for support whenever she needed to rest. Her ankle was still swollen, but she could still walk. It was just...slower. And with more effort.

“You should be resting,” Callahan hissed.

Understanding lit up on Dr. Sunflower’s face as the smaller utahraptor rushed to her companion’s side to help her along. “I can help!” he offered eagerly, and rushed to add when Callahan shot him a death glare: “I tend to wounds and injuries. I know how to help that ankle heal faster.” He nodded towards Petrichor, who glanced towards Callahan with a look of fondness.

“You see?” she mused and nipped at some of the feathers on Callahan’s neck. “It’s a good thing I never do what you say.”

Callahan huffed and shook her head. If she hadn’t seen that they were already travelling with a wounded suchomimus that they were apparently intent on helping, she might not have believed Dr. Sunflower. But… “Fine,” she snipped. It would be better to get Petrichor back on her feet sooner - and without a limp that slowed her down so much. The next strangers that they encountered would likely not be so relaxed as these two.

Reluctantly, she gestured with her head towards the hall that Petrichor had come from. “...There are nesting materials down there. That’s what you’re here for, right?”

Petrichor watched the dacen and the alberto with great curiosity. She had gotten a good look at Ginseng when they had first entered the lab, so the new alberto was not quite such a surprise, but she’d never seen one of the dacen before - only imagined them from the descriptions that Callahan had given her whenever one passed through this first “zone.” They were as Callahan had described them - like a styracosaur, but as though they had been compressed vertically and stretched, and someone had taken the styra’s horns from its frill and instead placed them in rows along its neck, back, and tail. The massive spikes that stuck out from its shoulders only added to its visual oddity.

“It is,” Hazard agreed. Some of the best nesting materials were in the bunk area - it was little wonder that the tiny pair had found themselves here to rest and recover from whatever incident had wounded the featherless one.

Callahan sniffed and settled down, fluffing her feathers. “Then you better get to it. You can take some of what we gathered.” She wouldn’t be helping them. They were closer to the open door now, and the air was cooler. Petrichor would be getting cold, especially out of the soft nest that they had built, and she would stay to keep an eye on her until she felt well enough to move again.

“You can take all of what we gathered,” Petrichor added, resting against Callahan. The smaller female turned her sharp gaze towards Petrichor, who simply gazed at her in amusement in return. “We’ll join you wherever you build your nest,” she added, not looking away from Callahan.

“We can’t join them,” Callahan hissed.

“Why not?” Petrichor asked lightly. Dr. Sunflower looked like he had something to add, but decided against it when Petrichor turned her pale gaze briefly towards him. Perhaps it would be better if he and Hazard just...collected what they needed to before something else happened to stop them. He wanted to get to work treating Click, and he could only do that when he had his satchel - and he could only get his satchel once Click was made comfortable with whatever nesting materials they gathered.

“Would it not be easier for the healer to help if we were close by, and he didn’t have to travel between myself and whoever else needs him?”

“We can’t trust them,” Callahan retorted.

“Of course not. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have whatever help they offer anyway.”

“You’re going to get cold out there.”

“Callahan,” Petrichor laughed lightly. “I have lived through a few winters and been perfectly fine. Being in a sheltered building where the wind can hardly reach us won’t be the death of me, I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m sure that I’ll have my very own feathered warmer quite nearby,” she teased, nosing at Callahan’s feathers.

Callahan warmed slightly, and averted her piercing gaze. Of course she’d be close, she wasn’t going to leave Petrichor alone with these strangers. Especially not with the one with the dead eyes and flat voice that could see through the shadows.

She glanced down the hall instead, watching as the dacen and alberto split up to better gather materials from the various rooms. She didn’t like it. But of course, if she had said that out loud, Petrichor would be all too happy to remind her that she didn’t like a great deal of things.

She sighed, content to rest with Petrichor until the other two returned. At least the ill-tempered acro had left.