Chapter Text
The spinosaurus stumbled along the wide riverbed and hunched down to take a sip of water, just to nearly get his ankle bitten by a not even well hidden sarcosuchus, and the large crocodilian hissed at the dinosaur in anger for the disturbance. Odette watched, hidden in the dense foliage, Ammit by her side.
“He must be stupid” Odette said. “Definitely not a guardian, I’ve never seen one who walked like a newborn mammal as much as him. It’s a wonder he hasn’t tripped over his own damn feet yet.” They had followed and watched him for a while, but he hadn’t noticed them. At this point, Odette didn’t even try to cover well anymore and she was sure, if she would have just sat down on the opposite side of the riverbank, watching the adult male spinosaurus, he wouldn’t have noticed her either.
“You’re judging very harshly,” Ammit said.
“Yeah. That’s why you brought me here, dear.”
Ammit chuckled.
“Also, he hasn’t eaten since we spotted him a few days ago. How long will it be until he can’t think because of hunger?” Odette asked. “I mean, maybe he’ll catch something. But I’m not very impressed with what I’ve seen, so I highly doubt it.”
“Hard to say. I’ve mostly avoided male spinosaurus.”
“You don’t avoid them. You’re actively shoo-ing them off. And with ‘them’ I mean ‘that one guy’.”
“I wouldn’t say that’s ‘not avoiding’, it’s just… avoiding something a little harder than the usual meaning.”
Odette gave Ammit a judgemental gaze, but didn’t comment any further. “We should tell Acalan when he visits next time.”
Ammit nodded.
“Until then… I don’t know. Keep an eye on him. Or chase him away. Whatever. But Acalan should know about him.”
“If he gets naughty, I’ll chase him away”, Ammit said. She watched as the spinosaurus somehow managed to disturb another sarcosuchus, albeit a smaller one this time. It was low tide in the dry season. It was inherently stupid to try to fish and drink here at this time of day and since the dinosaur was an adult, he should have known this. Ammit thought that maybe his parents had died early, and hadn’t been able to teach him a whole lot. But even then, he must have somehow survived until now. Maybe he was used to other biomes, but it would have been new to Ammit that there were spinosaurus there. She knew a baryonyx from a colder zone and an ichthyovenator from a more tropical one. But not a spinosaurus.
Then the spinosaurus lunged at the crocodilian. The latter was surprised, as at its size, a threatening gesture would normally do, and in the boldest move Ammit had ever seen, the dinosaur seized the crocodilian’s jaw and tried to pull it ashore. It wriggled and hissed, alarming all his conspecimen in the riverbed, but the spinosaurus did not care. He bit down on its head, managed to turn it on its back and then temporarily let go. As the sarcosuchus tried to move back in its natural position, the spinosaurus gashed at his softer belly with his front claws and then, he took a bite. His prey snarled, snapping at its attacker, injuring him at neck and ankles, but to no avail. Soon, its guts spilled out into the river and the spinosaurus dragged its victim away for safe consumption. He limped.
Odette was speechless. He’s no guardian, she thought. But not a normal dinosaur as well.
At her side, Ammit bared her teeth, and with an unusually cold and determined voice, she said: “He means trouble. I’ll take care of him.”