𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜 ; jurassic world

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍. Clouds On The Horizon

Owen and Claire trekked on relentlessly into the wilderness beyond the boundaries of the park as the sun gradually leaned towards the western sky casting longer shadows into the forest. There were dense woods and greens all around, everything quiet and calm except the crunching of leaves and twigs beneath their feet. With no further clue in which direction the lost trio could have possibly headed to, they could not but relay on the assumption Owen made and paced ahead carefully following the sloping lands by the water stream they left had behind long ago.

Claire kept calling out their names every now and then, hoping to hear their voices anytime soon until he pointed out that it was pointless and might only draw unwanted attention, like the escaped dinosaur. Other than that, it was awkwardly silent between them now.

Had not the situations be like this, they might not have even considered teaming up just on their own, and definitely not for this so long. But here they were, and so they could not but put up a professional act between themselves in order to find their detached dear ones only.

* * * * *

The trio had been focused into finishing the fixing of the jeep quickly. None of them were showing it, but each of them were on full alert as they worked on it. And they carried on like that for a while, until Gray could not bear the silence anymore. He peeked at Kate and asked in a small voice, "Can I ask you some questions? Maybe, about your life here?"

"Sure. Go on," she said taking a look at him and brushed some hair strands off her face.

Gray took some seconds to think before getting to his questions. "What do you do here on average days? What keeps you occupied?"

Kate looked at him, thinking and collecting her thoughts, so Zach took the chance to add, "Yeah. Like, school life preoccupies our lives mostly.... which is not as cool as yours. Quite stupid and boring, actually." He shrugged.

Kate chuckled at his words before answering. "Hmm... my life pretty much circles around the raptors squad and their trainings. Maintaining and strengthening our connection, the understanding and rapport with them— those sort of things. They tend to be disobedient or quirky in newer situations, you know? And it's been harder and trickier the more they grow into puberty, every now and then they're trying to make their own decisions and choices like they please. Can't but keep them in training."

"So... you don't you have school and classes here??" Gray's curiosity turned to astonishment when she shook her head in response. "For real? You don't need to do any classes here, no lessons, no home-works or tests??" He surely was not having it.

"You never went to a school??" asked Zach, who was equally surprised. He took off his sweater and threw it inside the jeep, it was getting too hot in here as they worked.

"Hey, it's not like I've been living on this island all my life. Before coming here, I did go to school. And I still gotta do it here, not all the conventional subjects and definitely not in your conventional ways. My brother sees to it."

"I see..." Zach thought about it and straightened his back for a few seconds, "What about your parents? Are they staffs here or live here, too?"

"It's just me, and my brother. Our parents went separate ways long ago, dumping me on my brother.... so they're out of the equation," Kate shrugged dismissively and was talking rather casually, but paused mid sentence noticing change in the looks of their eyes. "But that's not much of a deal, so, please, don't go feeling sorry about it, it kinda feels stupid when people take to pitying while it has never really bothered me."

"I'm really happy with my small family of just the two of us. We're really close," With a fond smile, she continued. "Owen, he has raised me on his own ever since. I may not have my mother and father, but he covers the both roles fine. You'd be surprised how at times he just knows about my thoughts and concerns, he gets me just right. He's really good at it, just like his expertise with the raptors," She concluded assuredly. As she let out a small breath, the concerns wanted to creep back in her mind.