"Do you rember the first ti you saw a dinosaur?"
Claire initiated the conversation with Owen, perhaps driven by the restless energy of being a captive with nothing to do.
"When I first saw them, it was like seeing a... a miracle?"
In the cage directly opposite them sat a pair of Triceratops, a mother and her calf. They had just begun to stir from the sedation. The little Trike seed terrified by the alien environnt, pressing itself tightly against its mother's flank.
"You'd read about them in books, seen their skeletons in museums... but you didn't quite believe they existed. Like they were just myths or legends."
Claire's gaze remained fixed on the Triceratops across the way, watching the mother and child interact with a distant, haunted look in her eyes.
"Until one day... you saw a living, breathing dinosaur."
Owen sat quietly, leaning his back against the wall. He was likely thinking of his own Raptors; even now, when his own life hung in the balance, he was still worried whether Charlie would make it through.
"Even now... I still think they're a miracle."
Owen's sudden voice drew Claire's attention. However, he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were trained on Carlo's cage in the distance.
"Have you ever seen a sight like that in a book?"
Claire stood up and moved to Owen's side, following his gaze toward Carlo's enclosure.
Old Lockwood appeared to have fallen asleep, resting against Carlo's massive thigh, his chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. Carlo sat there, perfectly still, watching the digital antics of Mr. DNA on the television.
"It wasn't your fault... You were right. They actually accepted our presence a long ti ago. It was us… it was , who kept rejecting them."
Owen fell into a long silence. He had always shared an inseparable bond with the Raptors, but until this very mont, his plan had only been to move them to a sanctuary, save them from a natural disaster, and then say goodbye to return to a "normal" life. But now...
He pushed himself off the ground and walked toward the iron bars, his resolve hardening.
"Alright. We'll have plenty of ti to talk about dinosaurs later."
"If we even have a 'later.'"
"Of course we do." Owen leaned against the wall, peering out to scout for an escape. "I haven't even finished building my cabin yet."
Just as the words left his mouth, a loud THUD echoed behind him as sothing slamd into the brick wall.
The pair's attention snapped toward the sound. Owen rushed to the iron-barred window at the top of the wall. With a running start and a leap, he pulled himself up to check on their neighbor.
"Look who's awake."
…
"Welco... ladies and gentlen, to this unparalleled evening. Let's get straight to the point. Please, bring out Lot Number One..."
The lighting in the auction hall was dim, yet elegant, with glowing tubes illuminating only the transport lanes. It was designed like a theater, perfectly focusing the audience's attention on the "rchandise."
Gunnar Eversoll stood at the podium, presiding over the event. Behind him, a massive screen displayed the climbing bids for the current lot.
"Ankylosaurus."
As he spoke, the black security partitions slid open. A flood of brilliant white light surged out, montarily blinding the audience.
A massive cage containing an Ankylosaurus rolled forward. Bathed in the glare, its features were hard to distinguish at first; one could only marvel at its sheer, bulky silhouette, creating a mont of breathless suspense for the buyers.
"A quadrupedal herbivore from the Late Cretaceous, and one of the largest armored dinosaurs to ever live. Paleontologists have hailed it as... 'the living tank.'"
As the Ankylosaurus moved out of the glare and into the ambient light, its full form was revealed: a dorsal carapace bristling with blade-like bony spikes, a massive tail club, and a skull encased in thick armor.
"Aunnng—"
The Ankylosaurus let out a low, trumpeting call, clearly agitated and unsettled by the strange surroundings.
CRACK!
The massive tail club slamd into the iron bars. The deafening impact caused the rods to visibly deform.
The crowd gasped in a collective thrill. While the sudden display of power startled so, it only served to drive up the creature's value.
"Four million dollars!"
"The bid is at four million. Do I hear five?"
Eversoll remained unflappable, clearly pleased with the animal's performance.
"Five million dollars. Do I hear six?"
A white paddle snapped up, starkly visible against the dark formal wear of the attendees.
"Six million dollars! And now... seven million."
His voice could barely keep pace with the rising paddles. Had he not presided over countless auctions, he surely would have been tripping over his words by now.
"Eight million... A phone bid for nine. Do we have ten?"
So buyers preferred not to raise paddles, fearing that showing their faces would make them targets once they took possession of their prizes; they chose the anonymity of the telephone instead.
Eversoll's voice possessed a hypnotic, provocative magic. He seized every gap to goad these billionaires, who viewed money as nothing more than dirt, into raising their bids.
"Ten million dollars. Going once... twice... Sold!"
He knew the danger of overplaying his hand. Once the price hit the sweet spot, he closed the deal imdiately. The sharp crack of the gavel signaled that the Ankylosaurus was now officially human property.
"Congratulations to the gentleman from Indonesia."
Applause broke out as the atmosphere of the auction reached its first crescendo.
…
"Grandpa? Grandpa, where are you?!"
Maisie scrambled back through the window into the interior of the manor. She was in Old Lockwood's bedroom, but the room was empty.
The space was in total disarray. Ornate bedding was strewn across the floor, and the photo album the old man always carried had been tossed aside like trash, its contents scattered everywhere.
Maisie froze. Hearing movent outside the door, she snapped back to reality. She grabbed the album, scooped up as many loose photos as she could carry, and ducked into the small dumbwaiter used for transporting laundry.
…
"Carcharodontosaurus. A ruthless predator. In the old park, he earned the fearso title of 'Alpha,' the strongest, the leader."
The partitions opened wider this ti as a colossal shadow lood over the crowd. Even though it had received dical treatnt before its debut, the Carcharodontosaurus was covered in jagged scars that drew gasps of horror and awe from the audience.
Prods from electric batons struck its skin, but the beast seed oblivious to the pain, throwing its weight against the iron bars.
"Nineteen million dollars! Sold!"
"Deinocheirus... Sold! It prefers the company of ducks, so we're throwing those in as a complintary gift."
"Tyrannotitan... Sold!"
The hamr fell again and again. Dinosaurs were being crated and shipped to every corner of the globe.
Amidst the flickering lights, another cage began to rise. Exposed teeth, a half-open maw, and a spine bristling with steel-like spikes, its restless, twitching body made it look far more terrifying than any dinosaur that had co before.
———————
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