A Light Snack

       

It doesn't remember the last time it ate. Its miniature brain can't conjure up the image of the creature it sprang upon last, how it ripped its belly open with its powerful muzzle, rending it to shreds with each savage bite. Memories of yesterday fade from its consciousness like the surrounding jungle mist evaporating with the rising sun. Oblivious of the past, the creature is conscious of only the present, moment by moment. One alarming sensation continues to override the others with its persistence.

    Hunger. It hungers again.

    The moist air melts with the sun's rekindled glare, dousing the trees with a soft, sticky mist. Roused by its gnawing emptiness, the reptile stands upright on its strong, oversized legs, muscles quivering as they stretch, straining to shake off the night's slumber and restore their full functionality once more. Off to its right a flock of pterodactyls quickly takes flight, seemingly sensing its approach. Swiftly cocking a head to one side, it watches the flock with a wide eye, straining to get a better look at the possible prey.

    A stream of saliva escapes its slackened jaws, the tiny rivulet trickling onto its coarse, leathery chest. As the winged creatures fade into the yellowing sky, they subsequently dissolve from the predator's fuzzy focus. With its undersized arms flailing awkwardly against its oversized body, the dinosaur tramples the vegetation below it as it begins the renewed search for sustenance.

    Bounding across the thick jungle loam, it carelessly plods through the thick brush to flush out some form of breakfast. Within minutes it comes upon a family of smaller creatures — undoubtedly close cousins of some sort — as they frantically scurry away to avoid the beast's fatal attention. The prospect of dinner clearly in sight, the hunter bounds forward in eager pursuit of the miniature pack. Emitting a flurry of high-pitched shrieks and peeps, the smaller reptiles scamper beneath fallen trees and inside stray burrows in the soft soil, desperately trying to escape.

    Despite its erratic darting between trees and shrubs, one of the slower creatures lags behind in its confusion and is quickly pinned beneath the crushing foot of its pursuant. It releases a final, frantic shriek before its head is detached with a single, voracious bite of the larger creature's giant jaws.

     Lodging its sharp rows of teeth deeper into its prey, the carnivore jerks back violently, tearing open the stomach with a sudden splattering of rich, crimson blood. Intestines spill lazily down its side, forming a sloppy pile on the ground beside it.

    The beast doesn't stop to catch a breath, chewing and ripping and rending the soft sinews below, each swallow providing it with minimal satisfaction, only serving to further escalate its eternal bloodlust. Still standing on its prey, the carnivore raises its head to bolt down the fresh meat, stopping for a few seconds to survey the surrounding area. Finding no challengers or possible threats to its new meal, it lowers its head and tears off another chunk out of the light yellow belly, the jungle floor now soaked with the blood flowing freely from the creature's carcass.

    After consuming half of its light snack, the dinosaur releases a roar of triumph to the jungle it owns. It's flooded with emotion, a combination of peace, power, and invincibility. It has once again conquered a lesser creature, reasserting itself as the jungle's rightful ruler. There are no worthy competitors — nothing in the jungle can harm it — nothing would dare to try, lest it face a grim death at the jaws of nature's selected royalty.

    Its attention diverts from its organic chew toy as it spots the slender neck of a brachiosaurus rising above a growth of trees a short distance away. The snack was satisfying, but the beast's appetite for fresh flesh remains far from satiated. It doesn't consider the larger dinosaur's size in comparison with its own; instead its mind obsesses with the image of pouncing upon the clueless creature. It envisions digging knifelike jaws deep into its side and drinking in the coppery blood as it slices through the slender, tender neck. Abandoning the half-eaten carcass to spoil in the sun, the creature quickly advances through the brush in pursuit of its latest lunch.

    The brachiosaurus doesn't notice the creature that now hunts it, consumed with bloodlust. Instead, it casually lowers its head once again to graze on the lush jungle growth flourishing around it. Oblivious of any possible danger, it sluggishly turns away from the approaching predator to chew the succulent leaves of an adjacent tree, lazily surveying the lush marshland surrounding it.

    The distance between them diminishes with every step of the predator's feverish sprint, its minute brain crazed as it anticipates the satisfaction of the kill. Within seconds it will leap upon the great beast's back, slicing open its thick tissues with its powerful jaws to be violently devoured with relentless urgency. It spots an opening in the thick foliage ahead of it, and its pace quickens.

    Suddenly the creature is enveloped with the blackness of a gigantic shadow from above. Before it can react to the anomaly, it is instantly pinned by the crushing foot of the Tyrannosaurus rex. Trapped beneath the awesome weight of the larger hunter, the Velociraptor releases a final, frantic shriek before its head is detached with a single, voracious bite of the T. rex's giant jaws.     

    Lodging its sharp rows of teeth deeper into its prey, the Tyrannosaurus jerks back violently, tearing the body wide open with a sudden splattering of rich, crimson blood.

     Standing on the remains of its prey, the Tyrannosaurus raises its head and bolts down its meat, returning to tear off another chunk out of the light yellow belly, the jungle floor now soaked with the blood flowing freely from the creature's carcass.

    As it consumes its light snack, the T. rex releases a roar of triumph to alert the surrounding jungle that it is once again the rightful ruler.

Short, sweet and surprising (I hope...)

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