Gaia Date 2, Part 2: Riding a Dinosaur

Jenny

Tessa didn’t come down for dinner. So, Jenny got something for the teacher to-go. When she heads up to the Autumn Room to deliver it, she is hit with a sight that figuratively knocks her off her feet: Tessa, curled up in a ball, bawling her eyes out. Her breath sounds ragged.

No! This can’t be happening. Not again! Jenny doesn’t notice her setting the food down; she just finds herself wrapping Tessa in a hug, tears streaming down her face. Please, don’t let Mona be a monster. Not again!

Tessa returns the hug. She must have anticipated Jenny’s panic, for she murmurs, voice hoarse from too many tears, “Mona had the same reaction I did; she was just able to compartmentalize it better. You were right; it was a painful thing to watch all of that. Necessary, but so painful. What the game can do to her, to us, if my sister was cruel is...”

Tessa’s voice gives out as she starts crying again. Her breathing gets worse. Tyalangan saved me from Bob. She will give me every chance I need to avoid becoming a coffee table again. She wants me to be happy and whole. Why is it so hard to believe that?

The sound of Tessa starting to choke snaps Jenny out of her spiraling. Lyra breaks them apart and starts to bodily drag Tessa out of the room. The maid shouts, “She needs to get to the pool, now! You gonna help?”

Jenny grabs Tessa’s other arm to help prop her up. The seconds it takes to get her to the teleportation floor feels like hours. Plugging in the pool destination feels like several more. Tessa’s face is so blue that it’s almost purple. They throw her in with more force than Jenny thought was necessary.

Tessa sinks to the bottom. Did we just... Then she starts to kick, treading water just enough to get her eyes above the waterline. A mermaid swims up, nodding. She looks to the dryad and answers, “Auntie Tessa is sorry for scaring you. She should have come to the pool after watching the show but felt too sad? Aww, Auntie, you shouldn’t feel sad from watching the show!”

Jenny doesn’t understand the whalesong that reverberates through the water, but she sees the result. The mermaid blanches, then swims away. Another one timidly approaches. She lets out a much less audible burst of whale, and Tessa nods.

The mermaid speaks, “H-hi, Jenny? I’m Melody, one of the lifeguards for the contestant pool. Nice to meet you, even in not the best circumstances. Sorry about my sister. She often speaks before thinking. Auntie Tessa has a limited lung capacity on land and needs to spend time in saltwater to rest them. I can translate for you, if you’d like to talk?”

Jenny looks at Tessa. “Are you okay?”

Tessa, through Melody, responds, “Physically, yes. I should probably eat something, but that can wait until I can get back upstairs. Emotionally, not really. Watching those men, who at least initially were decent people, descend into different flavors of hedonistic overbearing monsters from the power of the show really got to me. I understand if you need to go. I heard you having nightmares.”

As much as Jenny doesn’t want to talk about it, she can’t bring herself to leaving Tessa alone. “I am not going to let my fear tear me away from another family, Tessa. So, what can I do to help?”

“I know it’s been only a couple of days, but does Mona set off any red flags for you?”

That was not an idiom used in the 90s, but is self-explanatory enough. “I don’t know any of the details, but she did seem to enjoy controlling Craig a little too much.”

“He basically date raped her last week. And has spent every moment since sulking over being punished for not immediately stopping when she asked him too.”

“Oh,” Jenny hugs herself. So, he did to Mona what Bob did to me. Fuck Craig. Still, the ease at which she slipped into that is mildly concerning. I wasn’t planning on hurting her, but...

Tessa answers through the shark-toothed translator, “You don’t have to share, but do you want to talk about your experience on the show?”

Jenny shakes her head no, still holding herself. “No, not now. Maybe not ever.”

Tessa looks mildly disappointed, but nods, head half submerged. “I understand. Let’s drop the topic. What did you do today?”

And so, Jenny finds herself sitting cross-legged at the edge of the pool, describing Mineko pouncing on grasshoppers. It looks like Tessa feels a bit less burdened; Jenny feels the same. Bob is going to haunt my dreams again tonight, I just know it. I hope I don’t disturb Tessa. She needs a break from show trauma.

Mineko

Mineko finds herself outside with her new slave-friends. Slave Trainer Tegan is bristling, trying her best to cover her expanded breasts despite the fact that her arms can go through them right now. Ootah, Kevin, and Winter are all scanning the environment. To be fair, that is the proper thing to do in a dangerous situation. Mineko starts doing the same.

They are on a forest trail. Before them is a small clearing. The ground is scorched, the grass blackened. A large singular pine tree stands in the middle of it, thoroughly turned into charcoal. As they approach, Mineko can see little things hanging from the lower branches.

Kevin spurts out, “Talos worshipers?”

Mineko cocks her head. Ootah and Winter nod. Tegan growls, “What?”

“Names and facts popped into my head, I guess from my Religion proficiency. Talos, an evil storm god. Pretty much the stereotypical high school bully jock, personality wise. I guess we are dealing with some cultists?”

As the group examines the tree, Mineko looks at the hanging things, which seem to be little dolls made of twigs. They smell... funny. The nekomata backs away from them; Slave Trainer Tegan is about to reach out, but Mineko pulls her arm away. “No touch!”

The sounds of marching pricks Mineko’s ears. The others scoot back to the far end of the clearing. They see orcs, futacocks erect, skin painted with lightning bolts, approach the trees and start stroking themselves off to the likely lightning struck pine. A couple of the orcs, with darker green hair like Ootah, have extra symbols painted on and start grunting in Orc.

Kevin asks, “You okay, Ootah?”

The orc nods, “Evil warbands exist. No problem wiping them out as long as I can see that they are evil first. Also, this is all fake. But, thanks for checking in.”

“Plan?” Tegan asks.

“The dark green haired ones will be more dangerous. The lime green haired ones are grunts. We need to knock out one if not both of the dark haired ones as soon as possible.”

“On it,” Winter declares.

“Tegan, take shots as you can. Mineko, Kevin, and I will try our best to keep the orcs off of you. We are outnumbered a bit more than two to one, so might get tricky. Everyone ready?”

The group nods, then they begin. Winter is fast, charging ahead and thrusting a grazing blow to one of the darker hair orc’s neck. Slave Trainer Tegan fires off a couple of arrows, then the orc is dead.

The orcs focus their attention onto Winter. The lime green ones are starting to swarm. Winter is in trouble! Well, Mineko can be fast, too. She burst ahead to cover the drow’s back, shouting, “KITTTTTTTEEEEEEH PAUUUUUUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!” as she throws a hook into the nearest orc’s ribs, then a cross into her cock, then an uppercut to the gut.

The darker haired orc casts a spell, then backs away a bit, getting the mob of lime green orcs between her and the party. The cock pummeling both of them take from the swarm of orcs keeps Mineko from figuring out exactly what the spellcaster actually did. Ouchie!

Ootah rushes past them, plate armor rhythmically clanking, giving the crowd a wide enough berth to avoid their swinging cocks, chops down the other dark haired orc in a single blow, then spins and delivers a nearly fatal slice into one of the minions. Kevin is slower, also clanking, but wades into battle. Another orc down.

Winter and Mineko are still surrounded. Winter thrusts and drops one. One of Tegan’s arrows fly wide, but the other one blasts through the skull of the orc in front of the nekomata. Mineko activates her defensive field; a shimmering pink light surrounds her. She then tries to activate a Thunderwave, but her armor shorts out for a second. Stupid armor damage...

The swarm attacks. Kevin raises his shield to help protect Winter, the one orc cock that swings at the hu-cow harmlessly bounces off his armor. Even so, Winter is on his last legs, wincing in pain. The bulk of the remaining orcs go at Mineko, but, between her armor and the field, she is fine.

Ootah cuts through the orc she hit, then severely injures another. Kevin drops the orc that hit him, then slashing into a different one. Winter delivers another glancing blow as he jukes back to get out of the melee; he probably gets over to Tegan, but Mineko can’t see that. Another arrow goes wide, but yet another orc is dead. The swarm is much smaller, so Mineko goes back to her fists.

“KITTTTTTTEEEEEEH PAUUUUUUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!”

The orc she wailed on is still up, unfortunately. That orc smacks Mineko with her cock sooooo hard. It feels like she got a cracked rib. Ouchie! By the time she opened her eyes, the fight is over.

“Okay, Winter and Mineko both look really hurt. We should stop and do some first aid.”

Mineko moves over and cast Cure Wounds on Winter a bunch of times before they truly get started. I’m tough and Winter needs the HP more than me. Then she curls up beside the drow to get a cat nap in.

Gaia

The tram ride was fun. The herbivores in the enclosures have associated the stampede of clawfoots as a source of free food and would amble really close to the cabins to get fed. The dinosaurs were huge and hungry. Mona squeaked with joy as the giant lizards would use tongues and sometimes beak-like lips to grab hold of the provided leaves. Gaia had fun feeding the dinosaurs, too.

Now, they are at a picnic area. It has a gift shop and a concession stand. It is kind of amazing how much Mona has grown as a person in the span of a week. She orders something that looks like it fits her diet without complaint, despite all of the junk food that is available. The stand has vegan food, too. They sit at a picnic table, eating and chatting, eyes half focused on a pair of hammerskulls slamming into each other to fight over a mate.

“That, what Deano call it, armasaur rubbing against the side of the cabin was so cool!”

“Yeah,” Gaia concurs, “it was. Does it weird you out that they have different names for the dinosaurs?”

The hammerskulls slamming into each other makes a loud cracking sound. The two watch as they both stagger, looking almost punch-drunk, then prepare to charge each other again.

“Not really. I mean, they aren’t exactly the same kind of dinosaur as the ones back home. Take those two,” Mona points at the hammerskulls, “They look vaguely like a couple of Pachycephalosauri, but the mouth is too beaky.”

The creatures slam into each other again. They both stumble. One stays on the ground; the other moves towards the female. Gaia squints at the mouths, shrugging, “I trust you, kid. You really remember all the dinosaur stuff? I know most kids go through a dino-craze phase, but...”

Mona’s eyes light up, “Dinosaurs are so cool! They’re big and powerful and no one forces them to clean their room!”

Gaia chuckles. That is exactly how a six year old would defend liking dinosaurs.

“The armasaur’s tail was also wrong for a Stegosaurus; too club-like.”

Gaia nods along. A stegosaurus is a dinosaur she recognizes and the armasaur had a spiky club tail instead of a normal lizard looking tail with some big spikes coming out of it.

“So, what’s next?”

“Well, they have clawfoot rides, a petting zoo, a big flying dinosaur aviary we can walk through, a footpath that will let us see some observation points for the carnivores...”

“We can RIDE a dinosaur!?!?!?!?”

Before Gaia can confirm, Mona already has grabbed her hand and pulled her up to her feet. Smiling, the bird-girl hands Mona the handle of her leash and leads the way to the Clawfoot Riding Enclosure.

The clawfoots themselves are apparently much bigger velociraptors; according to Mona, actual velociraptors were only about 6 foot long from snout to tip and the clawfoot’s hindlegs are nearly that long. The ones on the stagecoach were harnessed up; these are saddled like horses. Like the stagecoach clawfoots, these are muzzled with feed bags. Gaia doesn’t want to think about what is in them.

The preserve staff member assists in keeping the very deadly animal calm as Mona and Gaia get into the saddle. Mona pays close attention to directions. Gaia pays close attention to the clawfoot. Its noises seem like the animal is well taken care of.

Mona holds the reins as she was told and the clawfoot begins to walk forward. Other riders are around, with a couple of staff on clawfoot-back supervising.

Gaia asks, just loud enough for Mona to hear, “Psst, kid, wanna talk to the dinosaur? Give me a bit and I can serve as a translator.”

The squee Mona makes answers that question. Gaia starts to ritually cast Speak with Animals. It takes a bit, but she feels the magic sink in.

“Hey, buddy, you have a name?”

“No,” it answers.

“They treating you well? The elvenoids?”

A click of approval, then, “Yes. Much feeding. They give us fresh prey to kill and eat every evening. Yum!”

Well, that’s good! Gaia nods, pleased. “Wanna talk to my mistress?”

The clawfoot does the dinosaur equivalent of shrugging.

Gaia turns her attention back to Mona. “Dino is neutral to talking with you. What’s your first question?”

The rest of the spell’s duration is spent relaying questions and answers, which doesn’t bother Gaia and makes Mona giddy. Then, the staff has the clawfoots pick up the pace. Man, can these guys run!