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Vash nipped at a small Maiasaur’s tail a little as he played with the group of kids. Wolfwood was always astounded that the youngsters don’t run full pace back to their homes when Vash approached.
The parents of the kids were nowhere to be found, but none of the passing residents of the small town seemed to be too concerned with the squealing and laughing of the hatchlings.
Vash was not a small dinosaur. He was Carnotaurus, and an exceptionally large one at that. His horns poked from above his eyes, but he made sure to keep his head held high out of reach of the kids who seemed desperate to climb him as much as possible with their quadrupedal limbs. Vash’s glasses had been lost at some point, revealing his striking blue eyes for moments between squinting an empty smile.
As the girls approached Wolfwood under the awning, Vash made a loud show of falling onto his side to let the kids scale him like a sandcastle. He was writhing in fake agony and throwing dirt all over his red scales to turn them a muted brown. Wolfwood was not paying for a bath, so Vash would have to deal with the consequences of his actions on his own.
“Mr Vash always seems so cheerful when playing.” Milly chimed, moving to stand on her hind legs to let Meryl pass under her. The Parasaurolophus was far too cheery after their long day in the hot sun (granted, he had no idea how Vash was even awake, let alone playing, considering the weeks of walking they had just endured), her excited smile seemed to radiate the same heat that the harsh dunes were, making Wolfwood wish he was actually indoors.
It had been an especially long stretch for the two wanderers, with the insurance girls only joining them on the last two days. Wolfwood was sure that if he were a normal dinosaur, he would be long dead and buried in the cruel sands of no man's land with no one to remember his name. Alas, he wasn’t normal, and so wasn’t blessed with the cold embrace of death yet. He had a job to do, so he wasn’t allowed to die until they reached their destination.
Meryl huffed through the paper bag she was holding when Wolfwood didn’t make any move to allow more room for the two of them, stomping her foot when she was ignored again. She was rearing up for a headbutt when Wolfwood finally moved. The small Pachycephalosaurus had nearly broken his rib last time he’d taken one of her hits point-blank, and she’d left a gnarly bruise that took weeks to finally clear up. He had to sleep on his left for much longer than he’d want to admit after that. Satisfied with her work, Meryl sat down next to the significantly larger Allosaurus and placed down the bag in her beak.
“You always seem to make things as difficult as possible.” She sighed and started digging through the bag.
Milly sat on the other side of her, caging the small dino in. Instinctively, Wolfwood wrapped his tail behind Meryl, only noticing when Milly chuckled and gave him a knowing look.
Milly did the same thing with Meryl occasionally. It seems their instincts from being an older child surrounded by hatchlings never really wore off.
Wolfwood moved his tail away as soon as he could without raising suspicion.
It seems the exhaustion might have finally caught up to Vash, as he was not lying motionless on the ground as the kids all attempted to get him up. If not for the subtle movement under his skin of muscles tensing whenever a kid pressed a little too hard with a hoof, Wolfwood would have thought he’d finally died.
Not wanting to yell, Wolfwood got up on aching legs and walked towards him. The kids backed off a little when Wolfwood approached (owch) but didn’t make any move to run.
“Come on, Spikey.” He nudged Vash with his hind foot, “the girls got food.”
Vash groaned and the kids piped up, clearly he hadn’t done anything in a while. He opened his eye to look at Wolfwood over his shoulder, then at the girls sitting in the shade. He groaned again, louder this time, before exaggeratedly rolling onto his stomach and standing up.
The kids ran between his legs as he steadied himself and he chuckled, “Playtime with me’s over now, I know you can keep yourselves busy.” The kids seemed distraught that he was leaving, and some tried to protest as Vash walked away. “And stay out of trouble! If you do, I might be able to play again tomorrow!” He called to the kids as he and Wolfwood walked off. Wolfwood heard a few of the kids exchange words on what to do with him tomorrow.
“You’re too much of a softie.” Wolfwood huffed as he slumped to the ground. He took the worm-meat slab that Meryl slid over to him without argument; a small town like this didn’t have the resources to produce actual meat. Vash looked at his slab with anguish, but he didn’t complain either. He never liked eating worm.
“You call me a softie,” Vash said to avoid having to eat, “but look in a mirror, Wolfwood.”
He was trying to get a rise, but unfortunately, Wolfwood was one blink away from falling asleep and didn’t care to take the bait. He ignored the red dinosaur and continued to eat. The girls looked like they were enjoying their meals far more than the boys, seems the plant in this town was able to create greens. While everyone can eat worms, pretty much no one actually likes to. They are some weird fungus-like animal with enough nutrients to get one through a day or two, but fucking hell they tasted bad.
The girls chatted through their meal, expressing interest in the nice older gallimimus at the inn, wondering if she needed any help while they were in town. They were always too chatty during meal times, he’d noticed. Actually, he’d noticed that most herbivores were fairly chatty when eating. Growing up in The Eye, no one spoke unless spoken to, and especially not during meals. The dirt-like taste of worm sat heavy on his tongue as he imagined digging into fresh meat, and all of a sudden he didn’t want to finish his food. The carnivores were given a fresh carcass weekly in The Eye; some poor soul who got in Chapels' way usually. The delivery day was always hectic; he’d nearly lost limbs on multiple occasions in the scramble to get the best parts. Luckily as he grew, fewer people tried to get in his way. Being big had its perks, even if he missed how easy stealth missions used to be.
Wolfwood forced himself to take the rest of the dry slab in his mouth, knowing if he didn’t then his appetite for anything but actual meat would leave him.
Milly had spent a little extra to get some tea, but Wolfwood had no interest in it. When he was done swallowing, he made a move to get up. Meryl looked at him confused, tilting her head slightly as she chewed her mouthful.
“Tired.” Wolfwood said, “I’ll meet ya’s back at the inn.”
Vash made a move to follow him, but Wolfwood put a foot on his rump to stop him in place. “Finish your meal.” He growled. Vash pouted, but turned back to look at it.
Wolfwood had made it about a block away when he heard shouting.
“Vash the Stampede! The Diablo! We know you are in this town! Show yourself!” An ankylosaur of some kind stomped down the middle of the street, shouting every which way to try and get Vash’s attention. There was no doubt that Vash knew he was there by now, it was just a matter of if he was going to run away or stay and fight.
Wolfwood was going to give him more time to make the decision. He stepped out in front of the ankylosaur with a toothy grin.
“Hey there, care for a sermon?” He beamed and leant down to his height.
“Fuck off.” He spat, swaying his tail side to side. He didn’t have a club, but he had a few ridges that Wolfwood knew could probably do some damage if given the opportunity.
“No need for that, friend.” Wolfwood put a hand up, “Now, what’s got you so pressed?”
“Get out of my way unless you want to be mice-meat,” He tried to move around Wolfwood, but Wolfwood just stepped in his way again. “I have somewhere to be.”
“Ah yes, I heard, going to cash in Vash the Stampede, yes?” Wolfwood started to rear back to his full height, catching a flash of recognition and fear in the ankylosaur’s eyes. “You do realise he’s pretty hard to catch, right?”
Without warning, the ankylosaur charged him, shoving his armoured back into Wolfwood’s space. Wolfwood was quick to move aside, trying to get a bite off on his neck, but he tucked it in and turned to follow Wolfwood. Ankylosaurs were always a pain in the ass to kill, Wolfwood would have to find a way to get to his underbelly.
Suddenly, he heard a yowl from behind him and was able to glance back in time to see a small dromaeosaur charging at him with bared teeth. Wolfwood flicked at it with his tail, colliding with it’s face with a harsh slap that sent it tumbling down the street with a pained screech. The ankylosaur turned to see his comrade and Wolfwood took the moment of distraction to shove him off balance. With his legs unsteady, it was easy for Wolfwood to grip his claws under his back plates and shove with all his might until he could push him over with a full-body shove.
The ankylosaur landed heavily on his back and struggled to get up as Wolfwood pushed him down. He kicked and flailed his tail in an attempt to wobble Wolfwood enough to lose balance, but Wolfwood had danced this tango before and held steady. A lucky swing of the tail whacks Wolfwood’s leg. Searing heat ran up his thigh whiting out his vision as he hissed and tried to work faster. There were a few people out of the shops and houses now, watching as the supposed priest they’d let into their town pinned down and swiped at the other dinosaur.
Wolfwood was just about to make the killing blow to the neck when he was abruptly shoved off. He arched his neck to snap at the offender, but was able to stop himself from clamping down when he saw the familiar red of his companion. He hissed and pulled away as Vash tried to run him further down the street.
“WHAT THE FUCK.” Wolfwood roared at him, mouth wide and claws flexed as he found his legs again. His thigh screamed at him, and he tried to put less weight on it. Vash noticed, eyes flicking towards his leg before back at his face.
“Don’t kill him!” Vash roared back, a fury deep in his eyes that made Wolfwood second-guess himself for a second, but only a second.
“He attacked me first!” He reared back, trying to make himself more imposing to the slightly larger Carnotaurus. Vash met his eye level, and tilted his head to point his horns at him. Wolfwood couldn’t win this fight if he tried, so he backed off. The ankylosaur had scrambled to his feet in the meantime and was getting ready to charge at them.
“I’m sorry about my friend!” Vash tried to calm the raging man, “He doesn’t take kindly to threats, you see.” He tried to put on his friendly smile and dope act, but the ankylosaur wasn’t hearing a single word. He charged, but at their angle Vash would have to run into Wolfwood to escape. Wolfwood saw the split-second decision in his eyes before he turned and met the stampeding ankylosaur head-on.
Wolfwood was sure both of them would break their skulls on each other as they crashed forehead to forehead. At some point Meryl and Milly had appeared, and even Meryl winced at the smashing sound they made. Somehow, Vash held strong against the smaller dinosaur, legs tense as he pushed against him with his whole body weight. The ankylosaur took a step forward, then another. Vash’s feet made grooves in the dirt as he was pushed backwards.
“I’m going to kill you, Vash the Stampede!” The ankylosaur spat. “Then, I’m going to kill your friend!”
Vash tensed and dug his claws into the dirt. Wolfwood felt the atmosphere around them change, a buzzing in the air that got louder each second. He knew it was Vash, he’d experienced this feeling at Vash’s home when he fought Emilio. A small ripple flowed over Vash’s scales and unfurled into a white feather, then another, and another, until Vash was a mass of white glittering feathers. The ankylosaur didn’t noticed, but the townspeople did. Meryl and Milly ran towards Wolfwood, knowing they would have to leave as soon as Vash was out of immediate danger.
The feathers curled around the headlocked two, until suddenly Vash threw himself forward and was able to slip his head under the ankylosaur’s, throwing his head back and charging forward to knock the ankylosaur onto his back again. Vash roar was unnaturally thick as he asserted victory, feathers folding back into himself to leave his striking red and black markings in full view.
The ankylosaur clambered upright again and cowered away from Vash, sputtering and gasping.
“Diablo!” The dromaeosaur from earlier hissed at Vash. Who flinched at the name.
“We’re leaving” Vash hissed to his companions. “Can you walk, Wolfwood?”
“I’ll be fine.” Wolfwood hissed, taking a few unsteady steps to prove his point. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and forget the pure show of power he’d just witnessed. He had never seen someone stop a charging ankylosaur before…
The sun was setting as they made their way out of town. They were extremely lucky that the girls had gathered supplies while the two were resting.
The night was colder than usual, and they all used it as an excuse to not talk about the day.