It was the Cretaceous period. The sun crept over the horizon, as it had since the dawn of time. A pair of Tyrannosaurs were already awake, and caring for their baby. After they prodded him awake, the juvenile Tyrannosaur got the idea to leave the nest, though the parental pair were not having any of it, and they just kept nuzzling him back in with their snouts. The baby was getting frustrated. After all, what was he to do? He wanted to see the world, too, but his parents weren’t allowing him. It wasn’t until later on in the day that the father Tyrannosaur looked at him, then held his head up high into the air, and started to sniff. He picked up the scent and started to follow it. The juvenile dinosaur, realizing that this was his chance to see a bit of the world, followed suit.
The dino duo arrived in the forest. The trees were massive; however, it was the butterflies that caught the juvenile Tyrannosaur’s attention. As the father wasn’t paying attention, he did not see his son heading into danger.
When the baby Tyrannosaur, who’s named T, was wandering through the forest, his eyes grew wider. Everything from the sights to the sounds was brand new to him. However, T got a little ahead of himself and decided to leap before he looked, which led him into the darker part of the forest, where the canopy was so dense that he could barely see anything. He heard it, though. Giant stomping noises that sounded much like the ones his parents made were approaching him, and fast. T decided that his best chance of survival would be to hide in a bush nearby. He thought it was a good place to hide– until he heard the sniffing. The giant crept closer and closer as the sound became louder, and the vibrations heavier. It became unbearable to the juvenile, so he decided to run.
T took off, hoping that the other Tyrannosaur wasn’t able to detect him. But as he ran, the heavy vibrations stopped. Thinking that the coast was clear, T started to slow down. His life is safe for another day, so he started to walk back to his father.
When T got back to his father, whose name is Rex, he nuzzled up to his leg. The older dinosaur looked down and realized that it was his son, so he scooped the baby up with his mouth to make sure that he was safe on the return journey. There was no luck today, but maybe tomorrow would bring something more bountiful.
Tomorrow arrived, as it always had. T, who was still a little shaken from the threat on his life yesterday, was reluctant to leave the nest. It took a lot of unvocal encouragement from the parental dinosaurs to get him to change his mind. This time, things were going to be a little different as both parents were going to teach him how to hunt.
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The three entered the woods, but things were a little different this time. While the world yesterday seemed big and grand, something that waited to be explored. Now was too much for T. No, he decided that the best place to be was with his parents. Moments felt like hours as they waited to catch the scent of something, when suddenly the Tyrannosaur couple started to pick up the pace and headed deeper into the forest. T, who was still tiny compared to the Tyrant King and Queen, managed to keep pace with his parents, though it was difficult.
When he finally caught up to them he saw it, something that was entirely new to him. It was a dinosaur, like him, but this time it was different. The dinosaur he saw walked on four legs, and unlike him, the new dinosaur had three horns on his face. It stood its ground against T’s parents, scraping his manus against the ground, signifying that it was ready to fight, or die trying.
The pair of Tyrannosaurs started to jolt at the terrified Triceratops, but the horned dinosaur wasn’t one to back down from a fight so it charged, too. The Tyrant pair split apart, hoping that one of them would take their three horned opponent by surprise with a flank. However, they saw that the Triceratops wasn’t aiming for them… It was aiming for T. T, who was now less afraid after seeing how brave his parents were, decided to charge the beast head on. The Tyrannosaurs, whose parental instinct kicked in, moved to intercept the attack. A loud tearing sound could be heard in the forest that afternoon, but only one animal could feel it, it was the father Tyrannosaur, who took the attack for his baby. The mother Tyrannosaur, who saw that the Triceratops’ horn was stuck in her partner’s stomach. She opened her mouth and chomped down on the neck of the Triceratops, ending its life and providing nourishment for her and her baby over the next few days. She looked at Rex, realizing that his wound was too great, and that he probably didn’t have much longer to live. She wanted him to stay with her and T, but the horn couldn’t be removed from the abdomen of the Tyrant King, so she left it in there. He was unable to move, his body slowly giving way. It wasn’t long after that when he succumbed to his wound, leaving the mother Tyrannosaur and their baby to fend for themselves. They stood there for a moment in time, almost as if they were mourning.
T and his mother decided to head back to the nest after a very long day. Their stomachs were full, but their hearts were empty. They lie down in the nest and sleep.
Morning came again, but this time, things were different. It was just T and his mother. His father sacrificed himself for T’s safety. The juvenile Tyrannosaur decided that it was time to grow up and head out on his own. He looked over his shoulder, and realizing that his mother was sleeping, he headed off.
He got to a watering hole that his parents would take him to for a drink. He slowly went up to the blue body of water in front of him and stuck his foot into it. It was a cold but refreshing feeling. He was starting to enjoy it. He splashed around and flailed his tail in the water, disrupting the nearby fish and other dinosaurs. The day would bring more surprises, though, as above him, the sky started to crack. What appeared to be giant creatures started to fall out of the sky. T, who was feeling nervous at the sight of this organic rain, started to run back, but ran right into his mother, who had just arrived to see the new creatures falling from the sky.
T and his mother could both feel that things were going to be different from this point out. They were no longer going to be the apex of their world. Something bigger, something faster, and something meaner was coming. Survival was about to get a whole lot tougher.

