Day 1: Part 2

Atlas Hotel Dinosaur Habitat and BBQ

Laurel had led Alan through a maze of passages before they emerged at the shore of a lake. A pack of creatures with Crawler-like faces surrounded them, barking and jumping in excitement.

"Hey, fellas!" Laurel extended a hand, which was explored by tendrils from the creatures. "Gondola!"

The creatures remained excited and fled into the water while Alan watched. "Um, what are those?"

"Dogs, mostly," Laurel answered. "They're not people, but they do a lot of work. They might be magical or have brain implants, or both." A gondola rose from the lake, and Laurel led Alan aboard.

"I wonder if it's weirder for me, or for you." Alan wondered out loud. "The time shift for you, the family secrets for me. It's so big."

"I'm guessing it's weirder for you. Head out of my ass, I got introduced to this step by step, while you're in the deep end. Let's talk about normal things for now." Laurel suggested. The boat moved across the lake, piloted by the animals.

"Well, what was your dream job as a kid?" Alan asked after thinking.

"Astronaut!" Laurel smiled. "Girls in space, exploring or teaching, like that woman who died on the _Challenger _before she was on a season of HH with Amelia Earhart."

Alan blinked. "Okay, that got dark. I wanted to be a musician."

"Well, that's a topic entirely devoid of tragic examples." Laurel laughed. "Nathan, your presumed father, was a musician. Maybe he still is, I guess. He and Kaitlyn bonded over it. Do you have any training, or was it just a daydream?"

"Kaitlyn was teaching me the guitar before I could walk, according to her. She might have exaggerated, but yeah, I can play. Alex, your half-sister, stuck with it. I couldn't keep up with her and Emma, Kaitlyn's first kid. Those two are amazing." Alan smiled.

"Man, Nate knocked up Mom. Good for them." Laurel looked out at the lake. "I'm glad they made a backup Laurel."

"Um, that's not fair," Alan muttered.

"No, it's not a complaint. I wanted them to be happy. I'm glad they weren't stuck on me while I was out." Laurel sighed. "Man, we're bad at light conversation. You also have that in common with Nathan."

"Really?" Alan smiled.

"Oh man, he was a total goth when we met. He'd cleaned up and started some preppy phase when we linked back up, but he ended up at Camp Prospero because his grandparents couldn't tell a goth phase from a mental health crisis. They're nice people, just dumb as rocks." Laurel chuckled.

"It sounds like that wilderness reform was a big deal." Alan frowned.

"I fell for Nathan because he realized the answer to **** was fire." Laurel grinned.

"Okay, that I can see." Alan nodded. "I can't see how Ali would've sent you somewhere like that."

"We didn't know." Laurel shrugged. "We were told it was like a summer program to make troubled kids responsible. Forcing girls with eating disorders to eat in public without utensils, sleeping in freezing weather without clothes or a blanket, the 'totally-not-****' with guides who just so happened to control every aspect of your life, that was all a surprise." Laurel looked relieved as the gondola turned and they saw a shore where more of the "dogs" were guiding a pair of triceratopses toward them.

"Okay, that's cool." Alan gestured at the enormous gray animals. They looked more like elephants than he had expected, or maybe hippos, with rounded faces and wrinkly gray skin.

"They're the best beginner dinosaur that has any bragging rights." Laurel nodded. "A few sauropods are more useful, but the Triceratops is stable and great for heavy loads."

"Have you ridden a lot of dinosaurs?" Alan asked.

"There are these ostrich-like things that are fast and smart, some sauropods that are clever enough that I think they qualify as dragons, and a few better armored ones that are stable but slow. I got familiar with all of them when I was training for the dinosaur race. This TF, Cowgirl, helps a lot. It tells me how to ride anything, and when that's either impossible or a terrible idea." Laurel explained.

"Huh, that might be why I've always had a knack with animals. Are TF's heritable?" Alan asked.

"Um, depends on the TF." Laurel shrugged. "Let's ride a fucking dinosaur!"

Alan sat with Laurel pressed against him in a kind of saddle that supported them against the dinosaur's frill. Alan felt the saddle could have been designed with more room, but ignored the complaint as "Optimus" moved patiently around the practice yard.

"Yeah, they definitely did something to my DNA with Cowgirl. It's a good thing I didn't get horns or something." Laurel smiled as she watched Alan work the reins. The Triceratops was modified with a sensitive node on the back of the neck that the saddle protected, and the node let Alan guide the animal without using much ****. It may have hurt the bragging rights inherent to dinosaur training, but Alan could imagine that elephant-sized animals without the grace and intelligence of elephants would not be safe working animals if they lacked modification.

"Where do these even come from?" Alan asked. "Is there some Flintstones dimension where dinosaurs survived, or do they have a time machine?"

"They resurrected them," Laurel answered. "Like, literal animals that died were brought back to life millions of years later. It was a big project, and Ariadne did a book report on the topic. Absolutely crazy, isn't it?"

"Um, yeah." Alan nodded. "So, what's the next step? Do we do tricks, or is this the end goal of dinosaur riding?"

"Um, honestly, I thought this would eat up way more time," Laurel admitted. "It's been about half an hour, and you've got the hang of it already. Normally, there's a period of falling on your ass or being ignored by the huge monster. Um, you already ate, and I don't think we're at the 'movie' stage."

"Yeah." Alan nodded. "What did you do for fun before you were drafted onto the evil game show?"

"Ooh.." Laurel smirked. "Ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth. That's um, I wanna say ancient Iranian parenting advice? Let's move on to step two of that, and find out how you shoot."