I'm a spinosaurus with a System to raise a dinosaur army

Chapter 362 362: The first true hunt

Time had passed again. Sobek couldn't even figure out how much time had actually passed now. One year? Two? Maybe three? He didn't know.

After his retirement, Sobek had gone deep into the forest of Maakanar. It was hard for him to move his huge body through the trees and very often ended up destroying them: his passage was evident as a trail of uprooted trunks was always behind him. He had moved permanently to the lake where he had met Buck and where he had established his first army. And he hadn't gone there alone.

Carnopo and Buck had joined him just a month after his departure. They, too, had decided they'd had enough and abandoned their roles entirely. After all, in the new world there was no longer a need for army commanders either. Now there was peace, and the old war veterans had no reason to try to find their place in their world. So they had decided to do what they had always done: follow their pack leader.

The trio spent their days by the lake enjoying the waves or took a walk on the beach; sometimes they swam, sometimes they slept, sometimes they lost themselves in memories and told each other the anecdotes of their lives. Even if each of them knew them by heart, remembering was always a good way to pass the time.

They seemed to have become a group of old men who spent their days sitting in a chair facing the landing.

Initially Nefertiti and some others still came every few months to ask them for some advice, but then they stopped. The young female spinosaurus was now completely autonomous. Under her leadership the pack thrived. And as much as Sobek hated to admit it, he knew she was far better at governing in peacetime than he was.

Now the only one who still came to see them periodically was Jocelyne. Occasionally a large pterosaur would come to the area and lift her off her back. Jocelyne would spend some time with them and update them on what was happening in the rest of the world… or rather, the entire solar system.

Apparently another terraforming project had begun: some of the moons of Behemoth and Leviathan were rapidly being turned into habitable worlds. To do this humans were building huge lenses that they would place in front of the moon to amplify the sunlight by a thousand times, until the temperatures were acceptable. Then a combination of magnetic umbrellas, modified plants, and gravity-control tools would do the rest.

It seemed only a matter of time now before humanity and consequently all species on the planet set off for the nearest star. Scientists had now managed to create a communication system that worked even with those distances. The establishment of a colony so far from the mother planet was therefore no longer impossible.

Sobek was happy that the previous limits were being torn down one by one. Eden's future looked like it would become a great power on a galactic level. Probably within a generation or two most of the nearby stars would have been colonized.

Sobek knew he wouldn't live to see it, but he didn't care. He had done what he had to do: now that the world was united, nothing prevented future generations from moving on towards a brighter future. His job was done.

Now all he had to do was enjoy his 'retirement'. A peaceful old age spent together with his two greatest remaining friends. Three old veterans who had lived their lives as true knights, and now they could rest.

One day, however, Carnopo joined Buck and Sobek on the lakeshore and came up with a strange request.

"Pack leader, I want to go hunting"

Sobek and Buck were quite surprised. The trio fed only from Sobek's [Personal Manger] which provided them with all the food they needed. Furthermore, it had been decades since any animal, or at least any vertebrate, ate other animals. "I'm not the pack leader anymore" Sobek reminded him. "If you want to go hunting, you don't need my permission"

"You will always be the leader of the pack for me" Carnopo said. "And I don't want to go hunting alone"

Sobek and Buck looked at each other, then nodded and stood up. "All right. What do you want to hunt? I hope not another member of the pack"

"Don't worry. I want to hunt a meganeura" the carnotaurus answered.

Meganeura was a giant dragonfly almost as big as an eagle. Being an arthropod, it was not part of Sobek's pack and had not yet evolved any form of intelligence. And despite being quite small compared to a carnotaurus, it was very difficult prey as it was able to fly very fast. Trying to catch a meganeura for a carnotaurus was like trying to catch a rabbit for a human.

The trio started walking along the lakeshore. Like all dragonflies, meganeuras were attracted to water, so they were easy to find there. And in fact within a short time they identified a particularly large one.

As soon as he saw it, Carnopo turned to Sobek: "Pack leader, please remove all my abilities, and then you and Buck activate [Ambush]. I want to capture it with my own strength"

Sobek nodded. "Yes…I see" he whispered, and did as he was told. The carnotaurus walked towards the lake, knees dipping slightly.

"But didn't he say he didn't want to hunt alone?" Buck asked confused.

"He just wanted us to accompany him. Let's just stay close to him" Sobek replied with a bitter taste in his mouth. "He wanted us to watch him in his last hunt"

"What do you mean… oh" Buck fell silent: now he too understood. "Now everything makes sense"

Carnopo slowly approached the meganeura, which was fluttering peacefully on the water, and then launched himself on it. However, the insect flew upwards and the carnotaurus fell into the lake. "Shit!" he growled as he came out spitting water from his mouth. "That bitch…"

"Weren't you a great hunter?" Buck told him. "Stay in the water, puny!"

Sobek looked surprised at Buck. The sadness, confusion and despondency of a moment before were gone. Now there was only a big smile on his face.

Carnopus snorted. "Tsk! As you can be better, you fat reptile. Come get it yourself!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, I accept the challenge!" Buck exclaimed. "Pack leader, remove my abilities as well. Let me show this softie what it's like to hunt!"

Sobek did as he was told. He was quite confused: as soon as his abilities were removed, Buck jumped into the lake and chased a dragonfly. He too ended up falling into the water after a short time.

"Ah! In your face, idiot!" Carnopo laughed, but then a spray of water (more a wave actually) hit his muzzle straight. "… did you just spit water in my face!?"

"What a fuss! Can't you bear it, little one?" Buck said back. In response, Carnopo wagged his tail and splashed water on his face. In response the tyrannosaurus rose to his full height, scooped up as much water in his jaws as he could and threw it at the carnotaurus.

Sobek couldn't help but smile at that scene. The two enormous dinosaurs, veterans of the greatest war ever seen, killing machines conceived by nature, were playing in the water like two children. Seeing the smile on both faces, the spinosaurus finally understood why Buck had acted that way, as if this were an ordinary day. Because, in fact, this was what Carnopo wanted. With that thought in mind, Sobek canceled [Ambush] and charged into the fray, engulfing the two of them in a tsunami as his tail grazed the water. In response, the two dinosaurs ganged up on him, combining their attacks and hitting him from several fronts.

The three dinosaurs continued to play throughout the day. Although they normally had pain in all parts of their bodies due to their old age, by that time any aches and pains had disappeared. Every now and then they splashed each other with water, every now and then they gave each other a friendly jab, and every now and then they chased (or at least tried to chase) the dragonflies that fluttered above the lake.

Time literally flew by and before the three of them knew it it was sunset. It was then that, now tired, the three dinosaurs collapsed on the beach, laughing like silly children. And after a few moments Carnopo shot with such a lightning movement that even Sobek only saw him out of the corner of his eye and which did not seem to be possible for an animal so big and so old. When he stopped, Carnopo was standing clutching a meganeura in his jaws, its wings still sizzling and its legs flailing.

Buck let out a laugh. "So you are capable of hunting, horned owl"

The carnotaurus sat down again. He looked very tired. Despite all the energy he had shown that day, just standing must have cost him a lot of effort. "Of course I know how to hunt. I just… never had a real chance to do it"

Sobek sighed. Carnopo had spent his life in a zoo and when he was released he had put hunting aside to worry about the herd. However, hunting had always been an intrinsic desire of the carnotaurus. Perhaps it was an inherent desire of every predatory animal. "You should be pleased with yourself" he told him. "Meganeures are real bastards. It's hard to get them. Even I was struggling a bit"

"Then I can say that I have taken a good prey" said Carnopo, and then swallowed the insect completely.

"How does it taste?" Buck asked him. "I've never tasted one"

"Weren't you the great hunter?"

"Cut it out! I hunted more big animals. Dragonflies were not on my menu"

"All excuses…"

"Yes, yes. What does it taste like, anyway?"

Carnopo seemed to reflect on it. "Sour. A sort of mixture between very rare meat and an unripe fruit. It's not much, but it's satisfying to eat something you caught"

"I know the feeling" Sobek confirmed. "I'm glad you got to try it now too"

"Yeah. It's something you have to do at least once in your life" Buck said. "Without it you cannot define yourself complete"

Carnopo raised his head with vanity. "So now I'm complete. Can I say that I have no regrets about this life?"

"Ha ha! What are you saying? You'll have a lot of regrets" Buck teased. "Do we want to remember the tumble you made in the water just now? You will surely regret that too in the afterlife, when your ancestors will look at you and express their dissent for having such an unattractive descendant"

"Right! And do we want to talk about how you hit the branch of that tree in full yesterday? Your muzzle is still printed on the bark" Sobek gave him a helping hand. "How will you explain this to the ancestors?"

"Stop it!" the carnotaurus exclaimed with feigned offense. "I don't think you're exactly perfect. You tripped over your own paws the other day, fat man!"

"Hey! I already told you it was a rock!" Buck replied.

"There was no rock. We checked" Sobek told him.

"Sorry, but which side are you on!?"

"On mine, of course!"

The three dinosaurs looked at each other. Then they burst out laughing.

They continued to tease each other late into the night, telling jokes, making fun of each other and remembering bad things. Only when the moon was high in the sky did the trio stop chatting and fell asleep. The three dinosaurs slept close together: the huge body of Sobek on one side, Buck on the other, and Carnopo in between.

The pale rays of the morning sun then snatched them from the world of dreams.

Buck woke up.

Sobek woke up.

Carnopo never woke up again.

The spinosaurus and the tyrannosaurus remained for a long time next to the motionless body of the carnotaurus. There was no need to say anything: they both knew what had happened. Neither of them opened their mouth or moved, merely looking at their friend who had now departed for the world after life. Then, Buck rested his head on his friend's neck and began to sob.

Sobek let his friend mourn for a while and did his best to use his bulk to hide the carnotaur's dead body. He felt it was okay to give Buck some privacy. Only when the t-rex stopped sobbing and agreed did Sobek use the [Contract] to warn the world that the commander of the dinosaur army was gone. Within minutes, the beach was filled with creatures of all kinds who came to greet their former leader.

Buck and Sobek stepped aside and gave the other animals the chance to be close to one of their heroic figures. "We've lost too many" Buck whispered.

Sobek nodded. "I know, my friend… I know"

Suddenly a large spinosaurus appeared in the crowd. It was Nefertiti. She was almost forty meters long now and the carnotaurus looked small in comparison, yet she still looked like a desperate child as she said goodbye to her uncle.

Sobek almost envied her. Nefertiti had no qualms about showing her feelings in front of others. Sobek, on the other hand, was used to not showing the slightest sign of weakness. A pack leader must never cry: this was his philosophy... or at least, it had been.

It was indeed true that Nefertiti belonged to a different generation. A generation Sobek was sure was better than his.

When she had finished mourning her uncle, Nefertiti came beside them. "Dad, Uncle Buck… how are you?"

The tyrannosaurus snorted. "We've seen better days" he replied ruefully, then pointed to the body. "Don't give him a big grave or anything like that. Carnopo was a simple guy. A normal grave will be more welcome to him"

"Yes. I knew my uncle's tastes" Nefertiti said, then looked at Sobek. "Dad, is everything okay?"

The spinosaurus shook his head. "Not exactly"

"I imagine. Uncle Car was important to you…"

"Of course he was" Sobek growled. "He was the first to truly swear allegiance to me, the first to support me, the first to know my plans. He was the backbone of all of us. We won half our battles because of him, and now… now…"

"… now he's dead" Buck whispered softly. "But he didn't want us to despair. He would have wanted… for us to move on, even in old age"

Sobek nodded ruefully. "Yeah... he would have wanted it"

Nefertiti stared at the two sad old dinosaurs in front of her, then she said: "Dad, Uncle Buck… I know it's not a good time, but… I think it's only right to give you some happiness on this nefarious day. I have important news to tell you. Our family has lost an important member that no one will ever be able to replace… but will soon gain another one"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm pregnant"

Buck's eyes widened in astonishment. Sobek's heart nearly skipped a beat. "SERIOUSLY!?" they exclaimed in unison.

Nefertiti nodded with a half smile. "I made the decision a few days ago and turned on [Parthenogenesis]. Oh come on, Dad, don't make that face. I'm fifteen now. I want to be able to become a mother and have time to raise my child"

Sobek bit his tongue, but strangely he was immediately at ease with this news. Though he didn't like the idea that his daughter was pregnant so young (even though from a dinosaur's point of view she was already half her age) there were only a few words in his head now… "I'm going to be a grandfather" he whispered, as if he wasn't believing to what he was saying.

Nefertiti grazed her belly with her claws. "Soon I will have to lay my egg. Could I stay here for a while?"

"Of course yes. The forest is as much yours as it is ours, don't forget that" Buck replied with a smile, then looked down at Carnopo's body as a tear rolled down his face. "Did you hear, old friend? Our little girl has truly grown up"