Hypersensitivosaurus swiftly moved his agile raptor body through the forest, all the while keeping his 7 senses ( yes! 7 ) open to the world around him.
He was in a hurry and couldn't risk a confrontation with a fellow predator, an agressive plant eater or even an annoying but otherwise harmless oviraptor
( egg - and at times - cheese thief ).*
Hypersensitivosaurus was carrying fresh fish and had to make sure that he made it safely to his cave, before it had turned into a puddle of not very appetizing, defrosted fish.
You read that right. It wasn't actual fresh fish, it was store bought.
Only years ago, he roamed the land, acting the part of a carnivorous raptor - a fierce looking dino that hunted for prey. But lately he had felt a strong urge to change and he had transformed into such a friendly fellow that he had stopped hunting all together.
He still had a craving for meat and fish, every now and then, though.
Aside from that, he needed some more time to grow his veggies and fruit trees, before the amount of fresh produce was sizable enough to actually feed an often hangry raptor.
Talking about fish, there was another reason why he had to go for the frozen version. Open spaces with natural water triggered a trauma that was too tough to deal with, right now.
He was still a fairly young dino, when he had lost his brother to a mesosaurus. This sad occurence took place while he and his siblings were playing at the river bank. Even worse, Hypersensitivosaurus was the one standing watch over his younger siblings and his mom had told them to NOT play near the river.
How could he hunt for fish ( even if he would still be hunting ), after having gone through such a horrible experience?
Little Hyper had literally seen his brother being devoured by a huge water monster - a gigantic mesosaurus, that had been lurking in the deep, waiting for an easy prey. He witnessed, in helpless horror, how the beast struck, gulping up the unsuspecting little raptor and how it then closed its jaws around it and dove in, to never submerge, ever again.
Not only had it traumatized him, it had clearly traumatized his younger sister even more, as she was not only younger but also closer to this gruesome slice of life ( and death ). It could have been her and she had often thought, in fact, that it should have been her.
While eating his fish dish, that night, Hypersensitivosaurus cried silently, all by himself.
He sometimes wondered if the act of eating fish was merely a retribution. Was he perhaps punishing himself for that one faithful day, that had taken place a long time ago but would probably never leave his memory.
The above trauma scene was inspired by a story in my original, but never finished, novel attempt ( The Story of Hypersensitivosaurus ), talking about a struggling writer, working on his first book, with a dino as the main character.
It's fair to say that I like to still throw in bits and pieces of it, in my current stories, as it has been what started my short dino stories and I feel it would be a shame to let these 50k words go to waste :<)
Also, I am eating fish tonight, and while walking home from the shop, today, with the sun beating down on me ( and somewhat defrosting the filets that I carried ), inspiration hit me.
TO BE CONDINOED...
*oviraptors play a role in my stories/ dinoverse and there's even a two part story that they star in ( as the bad 'guys' ) in my upcoming book. I call them 'eggheads', in there, which is meant as an insult and not just because they stuff eggs inside of their mouths.
Oh and in case you wondered, the image above this post was drawn by me, about a year ago, and shows Hypersensitivosaurus and a ( hammer ) shark, trying to get (y)our friendly raptor's crypto. I felt it was pretty fitting for today's story, plus I like the art :<)