Aqua (Jurassic World)

Chapter 6

I hadn't realised I had slept until I was finally woken up by Berilo moving. It was night-time, late at night. Berilo stood up, Kori was already standing and the two were heading to the lake.

I yawned and stood up, my back, limbs and neck sore from sleeping on the dirty, hard ground.

Berilo let out a chitter to me and nudged me to stand up. I pushed myself up and gave him a chin scratch and he made a low groan of satisfaction.

Kori rested his head on my shoulder and I reached my hand up to give him some chin scratches as well. Kori let out a purr of contentment and then Berilo called him and the two moved towards the lake. Berilo glanced at me and I nodded and went to join them.

I wouldn't have to go past the shallows.

Berilo waded through the shallow, excitement seemed to radiate from him until he could hide it no more and dove in the water, splashing crazily with enjoyment.

I couldn't help but giggle at his antics, he may be designed for water but his swimming was in no way graceful and melodic like you see dolphins and whales, he was more like a toddler, his tail flapping about mindlessly and his head lifted above the splashes.

Then Kori waded in, seeing his brother's antics he had decided to try and impress me with his gracefulness so he waded in and waited until his feet couldn't touch the ground anymore. His head disappeared under the water in surprise but soon resurfaced swimming awkwardly as he struggled to keep his head above.

I rolled my eyes and waded in the water myself. I was able to stand on my tippy-toes where Kori was struggling to swim and I held up his 150kg weight without much trouble because we were in the water as his body got used to paddling. I moved backwards as he pushed forward and slowly let go until he was moving forward while following me to the shallows.

I then turned to Berilo and did the same but he weighed more since we were in water that only went up to my lower chest. I made sure to back up into deeper water and it became slowly easy to guide Berilo. His arms were splashing in front of him so I held him up with one hand and used the other to arrange his arms by his side so he could use them to balance.

My childhood with crocodiles kicking in, I knew how an aquatic reptile should swim, so I knew how to help Berilo and Kori swim properly. I slowly moved from holding him up and he continued to push towards me. "Good job, Berilo!" I coo and move backwards towards where Kori was.

Berilo chittered excitedly but his head ducked below water in his excitement and I quickly went and grabbed him, holding his chest up so his head stayed above the water.

I led him to the shallows and he lay there. I went to get Kori who had started ducking his head under the water to see what was beneath it. The water wasn't that murky, it was pretty clear and the sky's reflection made it look blue.

"Come on, Kay," I slide my hands under his chest and he stops paddling and relaxes as I pull him back into the shallower parts.

Both boys lay on the shore happily sun bathing as the sun rose over the tree-tops.

I noticed something by the shore a couple feet across from us, laying there, stiff as a rock was the unmistakable build of an alligator or crocodile.

At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but the more I looked at it the more I realised my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. I let out a gasp.

Fear set in as I remembered what happened back on my parents property, Kori and Berilo looked at me confused, they obviously could smell my fear scent.

I moved out of the water, hoping that the alligator or crocodile wasn't swimming near us last night. That thought sent a shiver down my spine.

I called over to Kori and Berilo. "I'm going to go now..." I told them and hurried to the gate. I saw some members of ACU standing outside preparing guns, when they saw me they paused.

I guess seeing a soaking wet and dirty young lady with scars and bruises on her arms and hair that looked like it had never been brushed before would do that to you. I opened the door and walked through.

"What happened?" one asked.

"Everyone thought you died overnight!" another exclaimed.

"Let's just get out of here," I tell them firmly and begin walking to the nearest vehicle.

"Did they attack you ma'am?" one asked.

"No," I hoped I didn't look that shaken up, I was pretty sure if they ever wanted to kill me I would be dead already. They were fast, strong, smart and lethal. I took the head cam I was wearing off, and placed it securely in my pocket.

We drove back and I gave Claire my head cam to give it to whoever wanted to post a video with it.

I let someone else feed my boys today and spent some time by myself, shopping for new clothes that wouldn't be scratched up, and other useful things. I tried to distract my mind from thinking about alligators and crocodiles and my parents.

I stayed clear of water, unless it was for drinking, afraid of reminding myself further.

I then lay in bed and opened my phone, I looked on the jurassic world website and saw the latest video was about dinosaur attacks. I clicked on it and it showed the headcam video of Berilo and Kori running for me and knocking me over and nuzzling my neck.

Without context this looked like I started running towards attacking dinos and was happy while they attacked me. I guess it did show people how dangerous dinosaurs could be but seriously, they had to put it all out of words.

They should say 'this is how dinosaurs greet each other, remember, the black market can be a dangerous place' but noooo. Instead it's 'beware of dinosaurs', what if a kid actually thought someone died this way and was recorded and put on a theme-parks website. There has to be some backlash and I was kinda excited for that.

I scrolled down to the comments and the top one was saying 'wait a new attraction!?' I subconsciously rolled my eyes at that and read the next.

'Jurassic world is really desperate to show people dying to a young audience', I agreed with that a lot and liked the comment, 1.7k had also liked it so I was glad not everyone agreed with the parks actions.

— — —

The next day I took a ute and some food down to the rexes enclosure, an ACU member named Dan accompanied me to 'keep me safe' and 'make sure I didn't wreck the vehicle'. That was annoying.

But it came in handy when I wasn't the one who had to hook the crane head onto the meat and manoeuvre it into the paddock.

Kori and Berilo were already waiting by the watch tower.

I could guess Kori had probably figured out which time was feeding and when it was happening, he was a smart boy, obviously. He figured things out quickly and took things with caution and curiosity.

Meanwhile, Berilo, the social butterfly who had the bulk of the duo, used the 'lets rush in full-swing' tactic.

Yup, that's my boys.

They snapped at the meat as it got closer to the ground. I waited until they were busy eating before I entered through the small door-like gate and waited until they finished eating and noticed my presence.

Kori noticed me when he was finished and gave me a chitter as if to say 'come join us'.

I politely walked up to them and sat by the food and didn't eat any.

They gulped it down pretty quickly and it was reduced to nothing but scraps in a few minutes. Then, with their dirty jaws they pushed their snouts and nuzzled me.

I didn't mind the remains of their meal soaking my clothes though. I was glad to see them.

They were growing very big.