Authors Notes At The End!
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The Ceratosaurus opened his eyes. He just had a good nap on the rocky floor of a sandstone cave. Why was there a tree next to him though? And the floor was made of dirt, not rock. Getting up quickly, he growled, wondering if something brought him out of the cave. He sniffed the air and bellowed, trying to see if there was a response from a member of his species. Nothing.
Exhaling like a sigh, he started walking through the forest he had found himself in. The trees were taller than what he’s used to. Taking in the new surroundings, he stopped suddenly as he smelt something. It wasn’t exactly a dinosaur, yet not exactly a lizard or mammal either. He turned to face the smell and snarled, noticing the thing.
It was somewhat large, probably being longer than his twenty foot length, but was much thinner. In fact, it almost looked like a branch, and it only had two limbs, each seemingly a third of its length. It looked like a thin and stretched out lizard, but it was still highly different.
The Ceratosaurus stood wary, unsure at what this beast was, but at least it didn’t seem aggressive. The serpent stared at the Ceratosaurus as well before tensing up and using its limbs to leap into the air, revealing they were wings and flying away. The Ceratosaurus turned, unsure on what it did, but was stopped by a new smell, seeming like a mammal.
He turned and growled as he saw that three bipedal things were staring at him. They each had a figure like a theropod if the front and back were squished to being right above the legs. They were also covered in something that wasn’t quite skin, scales, or feathers, or at least above their regular skin, and surprisingly each had a furry pair of ear-like organs on their head, reminiscent of some of the mammals he’d seen. They continued advancing, each pointing a stick at him. “Well,” vocalized the first mammal. “The amphiptere escaped, but at least this showed up.”
They all chuckled and advanced towards him, causing the Ceratosaurus to snarl and back up, before roaring as something pricked him in the leg. He turned to see it was another mammal, this one holding a stick with a sharp, green tip. The bellowed and charged, evidently scaring the mammal, and causing them to dive out of the way of a horn jab. He turned sharply and spread out his arms and opened his jaws, ready to attack, though he suddenly felt sleepy. Trying to keep his eyes open, he became dizzy and tripped, falling on the ground, knocked out.
He awoke in a different place, where the floor was cold and hard and it was heavily shady, as if he was in a cave. He shook his head and tried to open his mouth, but couldn’t as he felt the same cold and hard material around his mouth. He growled and lowered his snout to his arms and started trying to pull it off, though that failed.
Snorting in anger, he slammed himself into the walls of this cave, which were also cold and hard and most definitely not rock. Noticing the walls, they were somewhat open? What the hell? It seemed as though there was a pillar of this material, separated from others with air in between, forming a space that he could stick out his snout.
Sticking out his head carefully to make sure it doesn’t get stuck, he noticed a sharp and likely hard object on the ground outside of the cave, looking like a thagomizer. Lowering his head, he used the band around his jaws to touch it and carefully bring it closer to the cave, which he successfully did. Chirping happily, he stuck the object in a position between his skin and the band, and then pushed it against the floor with all his strength, causing the band to break and him to open his jaws.
Roaring in freedom and joy he now had to figure out how to leave this cave. Before he could do so though, he noticed his surroundings. The thing he was in didn’t seem to be a cave, instead being more like a fallen and hollowed out log. And he wasn’t the only one in these objects, as he saw something like the mammals from earlier, though it was wearing a different covering, as well as a creature that looked like a lizard mixed with a sized-up Ornitholestes.
Growling curiously, some noises captured his attention. Some more of those mammals from earlier arrived, with a few holding pointy sticks and two holding brown vines. As they headed towards the Ceratosaurus, he roared and assumed a threatening stance.
“Bloody hell,” one said. “How did it break the band?”
The Ceratosaurus snarled in response as the ones with the pointy sticks somehow moved a wall, causing there to be a path outside. The Ceratosaurus tilted its head curiously and exited, but the two with the brown vines stuck them around his neck. He growled, but they hadn’t actually attacked him yet, so maybe he’ll be merciful. The ones with pointy sticks started pushing them forward, almost as if they were directing him to go somewhere. He growled, but went along with it.
They reached a stone wall before the mammals stopped, with two removing the vines as the wall started retracting into the ground. Scared, the Ceratosaurus backed up, but the ones with pointy sticks pushed him forward and in front of the wall. He growled and turned to fight, but the wall suddenly shot back up. Noticing his surroundings, he was surrounded by stone walls on all sides with the mammals being on top of them. He was also outside and in the sunlight. That was nice at least. He heard a scraping sound and turned to look at it. Another wall was retracting into the floor as a mammal entered the area.
It was similar to the ones before, though something odd was that it had a green streak of fur with the other fur being black. Perhaps this was an intimidation technique? Anyway, it seemed to have covered itself with armor somehow.
“FOR today’s battle,” said a voice coming from somewhere above, scaring the Ceratosaurus. “We are having a prisoner who’s managed to survive two battles already. Say hello to Luna!” The mammal still looked timid as it held up an identical thagomizer from the one before, her ears curling up. “She not only has to fight a new beast, but a Spirit Wolf as well!”
The Ceratosaurus looked confused as a third wall lowered into the ground, though he was less confused as a different mammal came out, this time quadrupedal. It seemingly was glowing blue, and it also looked around his size or less. The jaws on the mammal still seemed as though they could deal real damage if it decided to go after it.
The Ceratosaurus started to back away from the blue mammal and the bipedal mammal, though the blue one growled and stared at him. The Ceratosaurus moved to the edge of the area, lined up against the wall, and sat down, as he wasn’t in the mood to fight today. The blue mammal stopped growling and went to lay down where it once stood. The bipedal mammal in the armor was highly confused at this possible intimidation display, and slowly and carefully sat down on the ground herself.
The mammals who sat on the walls looked around, as if in anger, confusion, and wonder before vocalizing. Quite annoying noises in all honesty. The Ceratosaurus growled and started to get up when the same voice from earlier spoke once more.
“Since the beasts and gladiator aren’t fighting, they will get a new opponent,” it said as another wall retracted. A different creature came out, larger than even the Ceratosaurus. Seemingly similar to a theropod in body plan, though it had a beak on its snout like the Stegosaurus he used to live with. Its tail had sharpened scales on it, likely similar to the thagomizer of the aforementioned thyreophoran, though they weren’t as large. Strangest of all was the creature’s arms, looking like the wings of the pterosaurs the Ceratosaurus used to chase after.
“Behold, the Desert Wyvern!” said the voice. “This large dragon will hopefully provide some entertainment!” The newly coined wyvern roared and started charging towards the bipedal mammal, which the voice had called “Luna”. Luna quickly got up and dived out of the way, nearly getting snapped up in the process. The blue quadruped, which the voice stated was a “Spirit Wolf” jumped to its feet and started growling, but the wyvern smacked it into a wall with its tail, growling.
Looking at the fight, the Ceratosaurus just continued backing himself closer to the wall. It’s better to not fight whenever possible, but this wyvern seemed similar to a creature he was familiar with. Allosaurus. Aggressive and larger than him, and always seemed to bully his kind for meals, space, water, and the like. He growled and shook his head as he saw the wyvern pinning down Luna with its wings. It was going to come after him anyway, so why not fight it now?
He roared and sprinted at the wyvern, who turned too slowly as the Ceratosaurus rammed into it, pushing it across the arena and slashing the dragon’s chest. The wyvern roared and bit on the Ceratosaurus’ neck, though to less of an effect than desired due to his osteoderms. The Ceratosaurus shook it off before biting the face of the beast and managing to tear off some skin. The wyvern snarled and turned to bite the tail of the Ceratosaurus, which was at least better than the head, which also allowed him to bite down on the leg of the wyvern, allowing him to get an edge. That did not last long as he suddenly felt a horrid sensation. Burning.
Roaring in pain, he dragged his tail out of the jaws of the wyvern and turned to look at his posterior side, thankful it wasn’t on fire. However, the wyvern started expanding its throat, as if it had a sac, and spat out some liquid. Not dodging due to curiosity, the Ceratosaurus snarled as it felt that burning sensation hit him once more. The wyvern used some type of venom or acid, like the few arthropods he ate when he was young. Still screeching in pain, the Ceratosaurus turned away and slapped the wyvern’s face with his tail before turning to face it once more and roaring, with his arms outstretched.
The wyvern reared upon its hind legs and smacked the Ceratosaurus in the face with its wing claws, knocking it to the ground. Snarling, it bit down on the neck of the dinosaur and dragged it along the floor before slamming him into the arena walls. The Ceratosaurus growled in pain and tried to kick the dragon off, but the wyvern held it down with its wings before letting go with its mouth, a smirk seemingly on its face.
The Ceratosaurus looked at it and mimicked a sigh. Getting beaten by a larger creature, how unexpected. At least he put up a good fight though. He growled once more as the wyvern opened its maw before a flash of blue suddenly hit the head of the creature, knocking it back as it fell over. The blue flash landed, showing it to be the quadruped from earlier, the spirit wolf. It growled at the wyvern before turning to the Ceratosaurus and seemingly gesturing for it to also join in the fight.
The bipedal mammal, Luna jumped upon the leg of wyvern and stabbed the thagomizer into the flesh of the beast. The wyvern roared in response and threw her off and prepared to slam its tail into her, but the spirit wolf glowed a bright blue before opening some osteoderm-like structures on its back, which glowed even brighter. It launched forward at a breakneck pace, slamming into the wyvern’s chest, pushing it back, before flipping and landing back on the ground. Quite odd, but oh well.
The Ceratosaurus bellowed and slammed back into the wyvern, grabbing it by the neck and doing a move similar to what it did earlier, as he slammed it against the wall of the arena, but one of the walls that retracted into the ground earlier. Slamming the wyvern hard into the wall, the Ceratosaurus let go, growled, and then body-slammed the wyvern once more, causing the wall to crack and allow access to the area with those cages. Wait, how does he know that word? No matter, just got to get out of here.
He growled towards Luna and the spirit wolf and headed inside of the area, with them following. The wyvern, still alive, though injured and shocked, did not follow them, instead heading back into the arena. It roared before taking off and landing on the pillar with the announcer, who looked upon it in fear. The wyvern snarled before grabbing the announcer and slamming them into the floor, the mammal screaming in pain. Time to eat.
With the Ceratosaurus and his two possible allies, he stopped as he entered a room with multiple cages, a few of them filled with Nekos, which he somehow knows are the bipedal mammals. Growling, he headed to one of the cages, seeing the nekos back up, likely out of fright.
“I-it’s ok guys,” vocalized Luna. “I-it’s a friendly thing. Possibly, at least.” The Ceratosaurus tilted its head, confused at what she was referring to, before shaking it and biting on the wall of the cage. Making sure he had a tight grip, he started to pull and rip it off. Chirping happily at being able to successfully break the cage, he turned to the nearest cage, which had that lizard thing from earlier, which his brain called a Cockatrice for some odd reason.
The cockatrice hissed at him, but the Ceratosaurus only growled back as he bit the cage and tried pulling, though this one was tougher than the last. He snarled and bit down on it once more, with the spirit wolf coming up next to him and biting down on it as well. Growling happily, the duo pulled and broke down the wall of the cage, allowing the cockatrice to go free. It chirped happily before running to a different part of the area to open up more cages, where one seemed as though it held a juvenile of the wyvern.
Turning to the wall opposite the one he entered from, the Ceratosaurus roared and slammed into it, trying to break it down. That did not work, however, as it seemed to be much thicker. He growled in anger, but stopped as the adult wyvern came in, along with a bloodied maw. He snarled at it, but the wyvern disregarded the dinosaur’s attempts at intimidation, seemingly focused on something. It started building up acid down its throat and spewed acid onto the wall, which, surprisingly, managed to dissolve the rock and stone. The wyvern did this a few more times, eventually reaching a point where the wall could easily be knocked over.
The wyvern grunted before turning to the Ceratosaurus and gesturing at the wall. The Ceratosaurus gave a grateful bellow and turned to the wall. He roared and slammed into the wall, breaking it as he saw the sun once more, as well as other buildings such as houses. Not sure how he knows those words, but oh well.
The Ceratosaurus turned back to the makeshift tunnel and growled, wanting the other creatures to see that it happened to be alright for them to leave. The wyvern and the juvenile were the first ones out and took to the air, as the spirit wolf led the cockatrice and a seemingly endless amount of other animals out. Kind of weird that there were so many other creatures, but eh, who really cares. The nekos were the last ones out and they seemed elated. The one named Luna went up to him and smiled.
“You know,” she started. “You really need a name, as it’ll be easier to thank you if you have one. What do you think of Lucky? It was lucky that you got caught so you could help us, and it was lucky that you survived the battle and stuff like that.”
The Ceratosaurus tilted his head. Lucky did seem like a good name, and it did have a nice ring to it. He gave a grateful bellow.
“Certainly”, the newly named Lucky stated. “From now on, I shall be named Lucky.”
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Trivia time!
Why Ceratosaurus? I like him and I don't want him to be beaten up all the time.
The Desert Wyvern's design is based on RJ Palmer's own Wyvern design, though I've changed it up a bit.
Lucky's name was inspired by the Ceratosaurus of the same name in Dinosaur King Retold by Drew Luczynski.
"uhhh why can he talk?" because when dinosaur gets name = dinosaur can talk
