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Hearing the familiar ringtone tone he stopped his training and answered his phone. Down below, he could see them separate, going off to do their own thing. Only Blue remained nearby, recognizing the ringtone.
“Owen?”
“Claire? What’s going on? Why are you calling me?”
“I have something very important I need you to do. Meet me in the control room.”
“I’m on it.”
He hung up the phone and turned to Barry.
“I’m assuming that’s Claire. What does your future wife want?”
He smirked, teasing him about his upcoming wedding.
“I’m not sure yet. She told me to meet her at the control room.”
“I can handle the girls while you're gone.”
“Thanks, Barry.”
“Go see what your future wife wants, Owen.”
Barry continued to tease, still amazed that someone was willing to marry him, much less Claire.
He said goodbye to his girls and climbed onto his bike. He sped along the trail leading towards the main area of the park. When he arrived at the control room, Claire was waiting for him outside and looked tired.
“Are you okay? What do you need from me?”
“I have a very important meeting later today, and even though I’d like to be there, I need you to pick the flavor of our cake.”
“What?”
“We only have 174 more days until our wedding, and I need to get this done. I trust your judgment, and I know you’ll pick a good flavor.”
“You called me away from my girls to sample cake flavors?”
“I’m sorry, Owen. I can’t cancel this meeting.”
“It’s fine. Why don’t we just reschedule?”
“We can’t do that. There is only one bakery on this island worthy of making our wedding cake, and they're always swamped. It was difficult enough getting this consultation; I can’t just reschedule. Besides, all you have to do is try some cake. I know you can do that.”
She smiled slightly, and he nodded, giving her a serious look.
“I will pick the best cake flavor possible.”
“I’m counting on you.”
Claire kissed him and then walked back into the control room. Knowing how important all of this was to Claire, he didn’t want to mess it up. Which is why he decided to get some help from the best taste testers he knows.
He drove back to the raptor padlock and kept working with his girls on their training. When it neared the time for his appointment, he let them out of their padlock. They looked at him seriously as he told them what he needed done.
“I know you’ll help me pick the best cake flavor for Claire.”
Barry stood in the corner, trying not to laugh, and invited himself along. When they got there, the park was closed, and he didn’t have to deal with any tourists bothering his girls. Walking over to the bakery, the staff noticed their guests and freaked out.
“The Raptors have escaped!”
“No, they haven’t. I brought them here to help me pick a flavor.”
He quickly reassured, not wanting them to panic.
Barry laughed behind him, and his girls barked in agreement.
“They're not coming inside.”
The head baker looked at him as though he were insane.
“That’s fine, we can try it out here.”
Barry walked inside and grabbed the slices of cake while he watched his girls. They looked around, sniffing the air in excitement. Their tails were waving happily, and he smiled.
“What flavors do you have for us to try?”
“We have vanilla, chocolate, lemon, carrot, white chocolate, spice cake, red velvet, and funfetti.”
The head baker spoke, standing behind the door and watching the raptors in fear. He didn’t know why since they weren’t doing anything aggressive.
“Are you sure you should be feeding them cake?”
“They’ll be fine.”
He turned to his raptors, who were eyeing the cake.
“Okay, girls, eyes on me.”
They moved until they were standing in front of him, and he felt four eyes on him.
“Today, you will be trying different flavors of cake. When we're done, I want you to point at your favorite flavor.”
The girls nodded, and he handed each of them a small slice of vanilla.
“This one is vanilla.”
He passed a slice to Barry and ate one as well.
“Chocolate.”
He again gave them another small slice, watching as they quickly ate it.
They tried each one of the cakes, and he watched his girls' reactions to see what they thought. When they tried the spice cake, none of them liked it, and Echo even hissed at it.
“What’s wrong?”
The head baker jumped in fear, and he gave her a reassuring smile.
“They're not a fan of the spiced cake.”
When he gave them carrot cake, they had a similar reaction and gave it a displeased look, clearly not happy that it had bits of carrot in it.
Once they finished trying the cake, he asked them to point at the one they liked.
Charlie pointed at the chocolate. Echo pointed at Red Velvet. Delta pointed at Vanilla, and Blue pointed at Lemon. Barry told the girls he liked the carrot cake and was hissed at by four displeased raptors. He laughed, and Barry grumbled about him not teaching the girls to like their veggies.
The girls, realizing none of them agreed, began fighting with each other, likely arguing over which flavor was best. Before he needed to break up any fights, Blue got involved and snapped at them. All of them looked down and finally agreed that lemon was the best choice. He also preferred that flavor and scratched behind Blue's eye. There was a reason she was his best girl. She knew him so well.
“I think it's decided we’ll go with lemon.”
The head baker nodded, looking relieved that they were leaving. He took the girls back home and told Claire which flavor he picked. When she later learned he brought his raptors, she forced him to apologize for scaring them.