DinoSquad: Saurian War

First Mutation

Zephyr Gravemaskr stepped out of his van and was immediately buffeted by a gust of cold, salty sea breeze.

He was a tall and thin boy with an unruly mop of brownish-gold hair atop his head. He wore a gray hoodie and a pair of gray sweatpants that were caked with mud near the bottom. He fidgeted with his right hand for a moment, looking out on the rest of the small parking lot that sat on a cliff just above the shore.

There were a few other cars parked around and a large, yellow school bus letting out a large number of high school students and a handful of teachers.

The beach itself was a protected marine area located down a long winding slope that had been carved into the cliffside and it was covered in tidepools. Above the cliffs were high, sloping mountains covered in protected forest and ringed in dense fog.

If he were here voluntarily, he would've been happy to be there. But alas, he was forced to be a part of a group project for his school science class. He was supposed to go down and categorize as many different species of animal as they could and write down their role in the ecosystem.

He walked over to the rest of the group as one of the teachers was taking attendance. He had already been told who was going to be in his group. Taking a moment to locate them he stood, somewhat awkwardly, next to them.

His group members took a glance away from their phones to side eye him, confirming he was the final teammate.

Allison was, in Zephyr's opinion, one of the best-looking girls in school. She had long blond hair that today was wrapped up into a messy bun, she was wearing a yellow jacket with white accents that displayed the logo for the Orca Point Aquarium and black leggings that hugged her legs tightly. But Zephyr tried not to look out of respect, as he had a slight crush on the girl and he secretly hoped that he could get in good graces with her during their assignment.

Ben was quite a popular guy, as one of the best linebackers the school had seen in its one-hundred year history, it seemed just about everyone wanted to be in his good graces, but he seemed to prefer to stay away from all that attention. It was hard though, as the guy was massive, at 6 '8 and pushing 300 lbs of muscle, he was always easily visible wherever he went. He had long messy black hair and was wearing a blue and white leather jacket emblazoned with their school's emblem and mascot, atop a floral and tiki printed Hawaiian shirt and athletic shorts. Ben gave Zephyr a slight wave and a smile, an action which Zephyr shyly repeated back to him.

Kevin was seemingly the opposite of Ben, he was short and seemingly skin and bone. He was bright eyed and had an excitable demeanor, his hair was well-maintained and he wore a baggy flannel jacket and a pair of ripped jeans. He seemed the most friendly towards him already, giving him a small smile and far more enthused wave than Ben did.

Laura was even more frail looking, she was only 4'10 and probably didn't even weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. She was bundled up in a pink beanie cap, fluffy-looking scarf, pink turtleneck, black leggings and a pair of heavy-looking boots. She ignored him more than the others, outright refusing to even make eye contact with him.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, but was actually 10 minutes, the groups were sent out onto the beach. A clipboard holding their assignment in the hand of each group's leader, which in their case was Ben.

The waves crashing against the algae-coated rocks sent spray flying into their face, while the sea winds held aloft a variety of seabirds calling to one another in their shrill voices. Looking up the cliffs, the forest and fog looked even more imposing than from the top of the slope.

The autumn weather sent a nostalgic chill up Zephyr's spine as he imagined the area before humans had arrived. But he knew now was not the time to get lost in his own thoughts. He stayed with his group as they all crowded around a rocky pool.