"He disappeared?!"

The family stood around Barkclaw as he looked at them with frightened face.

        "He...h-he was...we were going to meet, but I have not seen him."

        "Maybe he got lost?!" added Sandrunner.

        "No, h-he would NEVER g-get lost, he...he would not break a promise to me."

        "Promise?"

        "HE ALWAYS PROMISED!  HE WOULD NEVER, N-N-NEVER, BREAK ONE TO ME!"

        "Barkclaw, please, calm down."

Eggfang stood by him with her calm demeanour trying to soothe him.  The young male was scratching at his head with frantic agitation, whimpering and raising his voice to a terrible screech.

        "We have to find him," stated Barren firmly.

        "How?!" asked Sunscreech.  "We do not know where he even went!"

        "I am going to ask Alpha if he can help."

        "Do you really think he will bother?"

        "Oddclaw is my SON and YOUR brother, do you not care?!"

        "Of course I do!  But one missing brother is not a problem Alpha will deal with!"

        "How do you know that?!" cried Fishclaw.  "Do you not have faith in our leader!?"

        "This is a family, we should do this by ourselves and look after each other-SHUT UP YOU DEGENERATE!"

        "DON'T SHOUT AT OUR BROTHER!" screeched Leafrunner.

        "HE WILL NOT STOP WHINING THE LITTLE FILTH!"

        "HE IS UPSET!  If I lost Sandrunner I would be the same as him, would you not cry if Fishclaw disappeared?!"

        "No, because I KNOW my brother can take care of himself!"

        "That does not matter," snarled Barren, "we are family, and we care about each other and your BROTHER is upset!"

        "This is not helping us!  We need to do something NOW instead of whining, we have to find where we last saw him and start hunting for him from there."

        "I agree Sunscreech, which is why I want to speak to Alpha.  Look after Barkclaw until I return."

The mother walked towards the leader's grounds, whilst Barkclaw sat into the nest and rocked his head back and forth with shivering sobs of frantic confusion.  Sand and Leaf walked over to sit on either side of him offering company.

        "We will find him Barkclaw, please, don't cry."

        "Yeah Oddie can fight through anything, he's really smart, he'll find his way home!"

        "H-he...h-h-he...promised-"

        "You said it yourself, he would never break a promise and that means he will find his way back to us."

        "You can sit here and whine," ranted Sunscreech, "but I am going."

The red raptor turned tail and walked towards the lake as Fishclaw chased after him.

        "Sunscreech where are you going?!"

        "I TOLD you to call me Shaderun-"

        "SHUT UP!  Do not give me that, where are you going?!"

        "Doing something useful, starting the search for our weak moron hatchling."

        "What is wrong with you?!"

        "Hmm?!"

        "Barkclaw needs us to be here for him."

        "He cannot even LOOK us in the eye, he is useless like we are if we just stay in the nest."

        "What is it with you and being looked at in the eye, you disturb me sometimes."

        "Are you going to help me find him or waste the day arguing?  Whatever you choose to do, I am going to find him and make him learn not to upset this family ever again!"

        "......why do you care?"

        "Hmm?!"

        "You never liked Oddclaw.  Why are you searching first?"

        "Because...if we do not find him, then mother is going to never stop talking about him as another male that has left her.  And unlike SOME of our brothers who are whining in the nest doing nothing, I actually care about making her happy.  And if finding her precious son will make her happy, then I will do that."

Fishclaw looked at him confused, but he had to concede his point and let him walk off towards the lake.  He went back to the nest hoping to console his younger brother who now lied in a fetal position whimpering with his claws over his face, shutting himself down to the point of immobile.  Throughout all this, nobody ever saw the smile Sunscreech reflected within the waters of the lake.  The face that would forever haunt his half-brother far beneath the sea.

        "N-NO!  B-BROTHER!"

The water was deep.  The sounds of beasts screamed inside his head as his family began to fade into his last thoughts whilst fear tugged at his heart deeper into the abyss.  The sirens pulled him in to devour his existence, his memory.  His voice.

        "Please...do not do this.  Mother...m-mother would not want you to."

        "Mother does not have to know."

Darkness poured into his thoughts, drowning them slowly like stars disappearing from the night sky one by one.  He could not feel himself, yet he could see his body sinking down deep beyond the reach of his home.  He felt so cold.

        "P-p-please...please brother.  I will never fight you again, I will never insult your father again, I...I promise."

        "You are right.  I know you will not."

He landed on something solid, his feet touching the depths of the world as he stared up above him.  There was nothing.  Nothing but the infinite until he brought his gaze downwards to find a path snaking out before him.  A spark of light disappeared to the ends of it as he chased after, the only thing that kept the darkness from closing in as voices whispered to him.  All around and from underneath he could hear them passing.

        "The path of light, sweet Oddclaw.  Light...that shall ensure we shall never die lost within the darkness."

His feet began to run against his will, following the winding passage as a strange howling noise began to tremble from the depths, one that was thick with primal fury that made his skin shudder from its bass vibrations echoing throughout the place.  He remembered the Roaring Caves, the sound of thunderous monstrosity and the cruelty of nature.  He had always known nature to be like this.  That was not what frightened him.  What truly frightened him, was that the sound was nothing he had heard before, one that could not be heard.  But felt in his soul.

        "Your father was different too."

        "I do not care if they are clever or naive...so long as they are kind and merciful."

        "You are a saviour's son."

        "Oddclaw......promise you will not leave."

He stopped.  He fell to his knees and began sobbing, fearful of never seeing his family again as the light continued onwards without stopping.  Fading from his sight.  His legs had become weak, as he laid on his side in the midst of the darkness.  Writhing tendrils of foul tenebrous intent came to caress along his body, seeping underneath his skin.  He felt his heartbeat.  Slowing.  Breathless.  His eyes began to close.

        "Say hello to your father for me."

But then they froze.  Something struck forth, the sound of a cracking shot deafening like thunder as they disappeared with a piercing white that shimmered like an arrow through the air as he smelled something familiar.  Something he had always known as the scent of his family.  There was a raptor just ahead of him, standing on the very end of the twisting path with purple markings on his back.

        "F-...f-f-father?"

He staggered onto his feet, trying to walk with what little energy he had left as he snarled gritting his teeth to push himself forwards.  Gasping with exhaustion as a weight came upon his back threatening to break him in two, he fought against the thickening pressure as his breaths became ragged as he almost screamed with the desperate urge to live.  He managed to reach him, collapsing onto his knees fully before the familiar stranger.

        "F-...f-father...f-father please...h-h-help me.  Please do not let me..."

The son looked up with a gasp of shock.  His father had turned to face him, but his entire face had gone leaving a hollow abscess.  No eyes, no snout, nothing but the back of his head turning itself towards him.  The sound came back again, screaming inside of him as he watched his faceless father stare deep into his eyes.

        "Where...did you go?  Why did you leave us?  Why did you leave me...why...do I have this body that cannot even DO anything right?!  ...mother loved you, never says a bad word against you...did you even want us, my brother and sisters?"

The faceless did not speak, his head gently tilting to one side as if trying to comprehend what he said.  Oddclaw did not know what to think, with one hand of his struggling to clench his fearful anger, whilst the other reached out in earnest need for his father's touch.  His hand barely touched the vision of his father before it was grabbed by his father's hand, twisting him viciously by the wrist and pulling him up hard to his feet before bringing him close to his head.  Staring into the abyss.  He saw nothing else, the screaming rose louder in his soul when he realised it was coming from his father's shape, a violent cacophony of shrieking despair and confusion that tore apart at his face.  The flesh ripped from his skull as he cried frantically, tears swept away into the void never to be seen again along with his bones.  He soon became faceless as his father was, the two staring at each other's emptiness.  They soon pressed their heads together into a longful embrace, almost intimately so.

The screaming stopped.

        "Is it still alive?"

        "His brainwaves register fine, surprisingly like ours along with his body."

        "We do not call this a 'he', doctor."

        "Well judging by the salchichon between his legs I am going to call him a 'he'."

        "What IS he?  Looks like sum poor dab to me whut got sum bad skin disease-"

        "This is clearly a side effect from the project.  The Third Energy incident clearly upset the balance of life much farther than we expected."

        "To create THIS thing?!  But how, th-that's not even possible, how can there be something that has crossed between two completely different species?!"

        "The interior is very similar to ours, there is more human than reptilian I see."

        "Despite the snout, eyes, skin, claws and tail."

        "Well that's mostly external isn't it?"

        "What do we do with him then?"

        "I am not cutting him open that's for starters."

        "It's not a 'he', doctor Izquier-"

        "Look this creature flies against everything we have ever known!"

        "He's right Major, if you've got a living breathing alien in front of you would you not want to at least TRY to observe its actions and inner workings, rather than just take it apart like some machine?!"

        "That thing is a danger to this facility Jane, we have no idea what it's capable of!"

        "Exactly.  And that is why we must let him live, besides this is a scientific operation, not a military one.  We have to work together, and I vote that we let this creature remain alive but in containment for observation.  You brought me here to study the animals around us, well THIS is why I'm here, this exact reason!"

        "I agree too."

        "I wouldn't mind seeing how this lad lives,  could be a right gas."

        "Fine.  Since you so kindly offered, Dr. Addison, you can make yourself responsible for it.  'Observe its actions and inner workings' as you call it."

        "Hmph...very well Major General."

        "You nervous pet?"

        "No, not at all Jer I just...hoo...this...this is going to be a lot more different than working with hyenas."

        "Oh ah dunno 'bout that, there's plenny of 'em round 'ere, some of which even have guns!"

        "HAHA...ohhhh god, what are we getting ourselves into?"

        "Woah woah woah, who's WE, this dab's all on you Jane."

The first thing he woke up to was a scent he had never known before.  A raw blistering chemical stench that pervaded his nostrils as they flared out in dull shock.

        A-...a-am I dead?

His claws gently scraped upon the smoothest stone he had ever felt, cold and yet shining like the sun as other smells came to him.  Burning leaves and the presence of a living creature he did not recognise as he slowly pushed himself up from the floor to gaze all around him.  Everything was white like the sun with three walls around him along with the ceiling.  But the wall in front of him was different, showing a grey oval indent that reached about 7 feet tall next to a long horizontal gap that showed an entirely different room.  Carefully testing his feet, he staggered gently towards the hole only to find his hand press against solid air.  It made a tapping clink.  He could even scrape his claw on it to make a piffling screech that stung his hearing, but he couldn't pass his hands through it at all.

        "What is this place?  Why...wh-why is this...what is this?  Am I dead?  ...please tell me I am not dead.  I cannot...I must be alive still, I-i can still feel...h-hhhh..."

Slowly sitting himself down into the corner of the room he hunched his knees against his chest and started to weep.  His wounds had mostly healed except the ones in his heart from the betrayal of his half-brother Sunscreech.  He feared for his family, his siblings but most of all his true brother Barkclaw.  He looked at his hands with strange opposable thumbs and simply cried even harder from rage and spite against himself, cursing this body he had been born with as the constant source of all his inequalities.

        "Wh-h-why?  Wh-why...did you give me this pathetic body f-father?  ...why am I so weak?  Wh-wh-why...was I hated so much b-by my own brother that he would t-try to kill me?  Where...where are you father?  Are you...are you also here, in this...shining cave?  Is this where...the moon is?  What if I am inside the moon?  Maybe..."

He tapped on every wall he could, sniffing for a possible way out as he felt a breeze from somewhere that filtered the air into his room.  It tasted odd to him, not like the air was back home, this felt devoid of any scent.  He could not smell the trees, the sky, the water or any creatures.  The lack of any awareness in his senses frightened him as he rubbed at himself, only to find there was a weird fabric wrapped around his head.  Then he looked down at his body to find strange white soft lumps placed upon his skin, covering his wounds as something whirred from the other room.

        "I know, I read his report-"

        "Well it certainly doesn't LOOK like it!"

        "I can't be bothered to deal with his bloody ffiloreg now can I?!"

        "It's SCIENCE, chemistry!"

        "You really expect ME to know about all this?"

        "I expect you to learn at least some of it yes!"

        "...oh, edrych!"

        "OH h-hoh my god!"

Standing before Oddclaw were two strange creatures he had never seen in his life, never smelt nor heard until this very moment.  They had pale skin of a pinkish complexion and almost entirely without hair except for the top of their heads.  One of them had a wrinkled face and puffy cheeks with some hair just underneath its nose fading to a snowy-white pallour, whilst the other had medium-length dark brown hair and a rather pointed chin.  The wrinkled one was taller with more muscle and a scent that Oddclaw could define as masculine from the clear testosterone despite the rest of his body being covered in strange colours, whilst the other creature was shorter than the raptor and had no testosterone along with two plain bulges side by side on her chest beneath another variety of colours.

        "Who...who are you?"

        "It's looking at us," said the female.

        "Yes I can see that," replied the male, "why not say hello back, he's your lad now."

        "Um...h-h-hello.  Can...can you understand me?"

        "What are you?  Where am I?  Are we in the stars?"

        "Sh-should I approach him?"

        "The glass won't break," said the male, "you go first, you look less threatening."

        "Or you're just trying to make me a human shield."

        "You know I'd put meself before you if that were the case."

        "Are you finally being chivalrous now, hmm?"

        "I've already died once, whut's it matter fer round two?"

        "Hah...that's a relief."

The female walked slowly towards the glass window as Oddclaw stood his ground curious to see the newcomer close up.  He could not smell her clearly, the scents in his room being old and lingering as he heard her speak, but could not understand a single thing.  Likewise she could only hear the most bestial grunts and snarling from him.

        "Do you understand me?"

        "Am I dead?  Please, tell me."

        "You are not in any danger.  It's going to be alright."

        "What...I cannot understand you, please tell me where I am!"

        "My name is Dr. Jane Addison.  This is my friend Jeremy Holt."

        "Don't drag me into this," said Holt putting hands up, "I don't do blind dates."

        "Oh my god," she rolled her eyes, "it's not even human Jer."

        "I have standards Jane, please, I'll introduce meself when I want to."

        "It doesn't...even-I don't think he can understand us."

        "Why would it, it's a bloody deinosor."

        "Velociraptor."

        "Righ' one of those, either way."

        "But he can't JUST be that," she argued, "he has to be something else, you don't just have raptors suddenly evolve to look like humans and then just wash up on the shore!"

        "Wh-what are you saying?!  Wh-where am I please!?  Just tell me where I am!"

        "He seems agitated."

        "Well he would be," said the man scratching his cheek, "he just woke up in a room with two people staring at him like we're at a zoo."

        "Let's just give him some time to calm down."

The creatures soon left, but not before Oddclaw shouted desperately with his hands pounding on the solid see-through gap which startled them.

        "NO, NO COME BACK NO, TELL ME!  WHO ARE YOU!?!  WHERE IS SUNSCREECH, WHERE IS MY FAMILY?!?"

        "WHAT'S HE DOING?!"

The raptor tried to tear the white lumps off his body before scrabbling at the bandage around his head, threatening to tear it off as a sudden splintering pain pierced through his brain causing him to shriek and panic even worse.  Ripping a few of them free to reveal his shimmering wounds that struggled to heal in bleeding, the female rushed over to the gap and pounded at it to try and get his attention.

        "NO!  S-STOP IT, DON'T, STOP IT YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF!"

        "LET ME OUT!  LET ME OUT, PLEAAASE!  WHERE IS MY FAMILY?!  TELL ME WHERE!  WHERE...wh-where...no...b-brother..."

With no alternative, she rushed over to the wall near the window, feeling the shuddering vibrations of the raptor banging harder as she tapped her fingers across the surface to activate something.  Something he could not see, but almost smell too clearly was an oddly sweet noxious odour that clouded his mind and turned his eyelids heavy with exhaustion.  His claws dragged on the opaque as he fell to the floor slowly, setting down on his knees before he passed out onto his side as his breathing became lethargic.  Time passed, what felt like minutes would be at least a few hours later as he woke up still in the same room.  His first seconds of consciousness he hoped would be hallucinating, that it was all a dream.  But on finding himself back in the same room it only made him feel worse.

        "It...n-no...no it was...m-mother...sister h-help me...h-h-help me."

Progress Diary of Subject "Nu-Raptor" - Week 1

13-02-2029

Observed by Dr. Jane Addison

We discovered a strange creature washed up on the shore.  A velociraptor, but one that was very unusual in having a human build.  The torso and limbs are like ours but he still has claws, teeth, digitigrade feet and reptilian eyes and head.  Kevin, our biochemist/chief medic, has confirmed his anatomy is also similar to us despite only being semi-capable of retaining heat.

He has tried to take off his bandages several times, but I managed to convince him that they're there to help him.  I am not sure how but, the best way I was able to was to hurt myself, then put a bandage over the wound and demonstrate that it was healing.  He is frightened of a new place, like any animal, but my question is how much of an animal is he truly?

Honestly, I do not know what I aim to achieve through learning about this creature, the only reason we have kept him is because he is possible proof of a Third Energy anomaly.  I manage to feed him meat, he wasn't sure of it at first, some of it was raw and some of it was roasted just to see what he would take.  He loves the roasted meat, wolfed it down which is good because every animal understands that anyone who feeds you can be trusted.  Even us humans.

The creatures monitored him over the course of a week.  They fed him meat through a slot in the grey section of the wall, some of which was roasted and some of which was raw.  He smelt no poison, realising if these creatures wanted him dead they would have done so already as he ate up his food carefully.  The roasted meat however was surprisingly delicious, much more than he had ever tasted in his life as he devoured it ravenously.  The more they fed him, the more compliant he became despite his growing fears that he would not be leaving this place.  Everytime he slept with the induction of the gas, he woke up to find his room had been cleaned completely of any urine and faeces he left in the corners which only further upset him.  They wouldn't even let him mark his own territory here, and always he woke up to this new disorienting stench of powerful bleach that stung at his nostrils.  Were they marking over his scent, claiming the room he lived in as their own regardless?

He watched the female coming in every day, curious to see her sit into an odd sculpture that rested at her back and swivelled on four legs, whilst facing a wall she pressed at occasionally.  Her face gleamed with a bluish texture from the wall as she stared intently at it, her lithe claw-less fingers dancing across a slab of something that clicked and chittered every time she touched it.  Oddclaw was strangely fascinated, cocking his head at the noise as she would sometimes turn to speak to him, smiling without showing her teeth.

        "I um...hope you are doing well today?"

        "Why do you keep looking at that wall?"

        "You seem less upset today.  Your food will be coming soon, don't you worry."

        "Why can I not smell you through this?  Is this like frozen water, that I can see through but not smell?"

        "Do you know...what you are even?  I mean I...I-i-i can't even fathom your existence quite frankly but, you must have been born here surely, is that right?"

        "Why do you not have claws?  I have never seen one without claws except for the fish."

The female stood up and walked towards him, her body covered in a blue fabric except for her head and hands as she stopped two feet from in front of the raptor.  They studied each other's expressions closely, eyes glancing, carefully looking over each and every little twitch within their faces.  Her soft smooth mammalian skin and muddied eyes of brownish-green, whilst his own pupils reflected purest emerald amidst the dozens of cuts and scrapes that marked across his snout.  She turned her head slightly to look at his left cheek and noticed the odd 9-shaped amber marking that spread across it.

        "Goodness...blends very nicely, that must be quite a birthmark on you hmm?"

        "Are...are you the...hairless that my mother told me of?  But...I thought they all disappeared cycles ago."

        "I wouldn't get so close."

A voice came from behind her as she turned, seeing a new creature enter the room.  A rather stocky square-headed male with his hair cut exceptionally short, wearing a murky green fabric from neck to toe.

        "Much as I have faith in our security, I always feel nothing is absolutely foolproof."

        "Are you needing something Major-General?"

        "Just checking on our new prisoner."

        "IS he really a prisoner?"

        "I told you not to call it a 'he'."

        "Kevin and I disagree, and I think you'll find we're more capable of scientific study than you, sir."

        "I do not want you humanising this...thing."

The way he said "thing" made his entire upper lip crawl with disgust.

        "It's still a wild beast and has every intent on killing you."

        "He hasn't tried to break the glass since he first came here, and he LOVED his roasted meat, he's only truly happy when it's feeding time."

        "Like I said, it's a wild beast and it would be more than happy to feast on you should it have the chance."

        "Well we are hardly treating him any better, he doesn't even have a toilet that room is only meant for temporary containment!"

        "It does its job well enough.  Just try not to get too attached to it, we still have our work to do, and you've still got patients mind, HUMAN patients that need you to unravel the stress in their minds."

        "Yes, Major-General."

The stern authority figure left, and Oddclaw could tell the relief on the female's face along with stifling frustration as she rolled her eyes and sat back at her wall.  Their language was strange to him, a variety of sounds so very different from each other, nothing like the subtle pitches of his own tongue where every growl and trembling chirr was but half a sentence in itself.  The length at which they spoke to each other made him think as he scratched his head asking in his muted snarl:

        "Was that...your Alpha?  He does not like me, does he?  I must be an intruder, I must have...where did you find me?  Was I sent here by the sea, washed up like a dead fish?  ...I must be far away from home, much more than I ever have been for they never spoke of any hairless near us.

Progress Diary of Subject "Nu-Raptor" - Week 2

20-02-2029

Observed by Dr. Jane Addison

The raptor has settled down more, less frantic than he was before thanks to the food.  Several of my colleagues and superiors have come round more often to visit him in their lunch break, fascinated or at least somewhat curious.  I appreciate them coming mainly for the company since the only people I meet are my patients.  Sometimes the raptor looks at me, he certainly takes an interest in everyone he meets.  Kevin is very friendly to him, being responsible for getting good meat to our friend.

We are also trying to exercise him, moving him whilst sedated to the athletics training room we have, mainly to observe how he moves in a more free environment.  He takes to it very well, circling the place, jumping over obstacles and swinging over the climbing frames, in fact I would say it has markedly improved his disposition like...well, a dog.  Long as he is well-fed and exercised, he is happy.  Maybe he is just a slightly more intelligent animal, but still an animal nonetheless.

The second week since his arrival was a lot more busy.  Once things had relaxed around security concerning their new prisoner, more creatures came to see him with such fascination in their eyes ranging from contempt to purest intrigue.  He saw many hairless come to visit, colours ranging from pale pink to earthen brown to the odd shade of sand that reminded him of his sister.  he worried for his family, and all his attempts to communicate with each of them, any of them, would fail utterly in them not comprehending but a single word of his speech, and he in turn could not understand them well enough to even differentiate a single word amongst the babbling medley that ensued in their conversations.  One creature especially enjoyed visiting him, a tanned-looking male wearing white long sweeping fabrics whose skin resembled a smooth rockface at sunset, his legs making strange clacking sounds with every step.

        "How is he today?"

        "Ohhh same as always," replied the female, "occasionally he growls to himself, he eats, he defecates, he goes to sleep and we clean it up.  He likes watching me though, I mean normally I would find that a bit creepy."

        "Well you're English, I am sure you're used to that."

        "What's that supposed to mean?!"

        "I heard in London you get captured on CCTV more than any other city in the world."

        "OH...well I came from Shropshire, we don't even have CCTV where I lived."

        "Where, the Eighties?"

        "They had cameras back then Kevin."

        "Not in England I bet.  But to be fair they did not have any where I came from either."

        "What security did you have back home?"

        "A dog, I guess?"

        "Well that's frankly more reliable," said the female.

        "Not the ones I knew," replied the male.

He walked over to the gap in the wall where Oddclaw could see him.  This one was surprisingly forward, moreso than any other hairless he had seen since his arrival, always standing as close as possible with his hand on the solid opaque whilst smiling.

        "Holaaaaa.  Como te sientes amigo?  Necesitas algo?"

        "He's not going to say anything."

        "Why not?!"

        "He can't even understand English, do you think he'll even know what Spanish is?"

        "What, he might!  What if he only knows like Tagalog or something?"

        "Then I hardly think he will understand Spanish either way."

        "Well you won't know unless you try."

The raptor walked up closer to the male on the other side staring deep into his eyes.  The bright twinkling of dusty blue pupils.

        "Desea que recomende algo de la cocina?"

        "Do you...not fear me?"

        "Hey, he said something back!"

        "He's just observing you," said the female cupping her chin, "he does that with everyone.  That is something I've noticed actually, it's very unusual for a wild animal to do."

        "What?"

        "That he stares at you in the eye directly.  Most animals see that as a sign of threat or dominance but he doesn't.  He's watching you, studying you...trying to understand you."

        "Just like we are trying to understand him."

        "How old do you think he is?  What sort of life must he have had?"

        "He is definitely under twenty, his anatomy is human enough I can determine him to be around eighteen.  His scales sort of complicate it and all those scars but he has no static lines and has very smooth skin underneath the eyes."

        "Or perhaps he ages differently."

        "Ehh, let's not get complicated before we know what he is.  Anyway, my lunch break is nearly over so I need to get back.  Hasta luego Jane."

        "Later Kev."

        "Buenas noches dinomigo."

Oddclaw watched the male wave his hand back at him as he left the room, confused as ever by these odd creatures and their customs as the female went right back to staring at the wall.  A few hours later, there came a new person he had not seen before, another female with very dark skin who also wore white fabrics.  The pale female was shocked at her arrival.

        "OH!  Hello there stranger, nice to see you out of the lab for once."

        "Don't be coy, you know I get barely any time to leave.  Is that him?"

        "Yes, our new guest as it were."

        "Hmmm."

The dark one approached the gap, peering forwards but keeping her distance.  Her eyes were firm and unblinking with a tinted hazel, the raptor cocking his head with a muted growl.

        "How many of you are there in this place?"

        "I've never seen any animal stare at me like this."

        "He does that with everyone.  Brightman hates him, said it was a waste of our time."

        "At this point he could argue everything is, when we have no idea of knowing when we'll get back home.  If this creature is because of our interference, that would make things interesting."

        "How so?"

        "You ever read 'A Sound of Thunder' by Ray Bradbury?"

        "No."

        "I should lend you it...it shouldn't make sense for this thing to exist, but here we are."

        "Well, technically we shouldn't be existing here at all, period."

        "Hm, haha, period, nice.  What does he eat, can he talk?"

        "He growls occasionally, LOVES roasted meat, we fed him some raw and some roasted, he much prefers meat when it's cooked."

        "Hm, once you taste real cooking you never really go back.  At least he appreciates that."

        "How's work going in the lab?" asked the pale one crossing her legs.

        "Still struggling," replied the dark one rubbing her eyes.  "We're trying our best to stabilise it but, can only do so much."

        "Anything I can do?"

        "Hm, no you just keep everyone calm when it gets too much, not everyone can handle it like us."

        "It's hard enough being in another country but another time period is still bloody absurd."

        "We still can't communicate with Edward City.  Wherever they are, if they're even in the same time period as us."

        "You're the only one that thinks that Andrea," said the pale woman shaking her head.

        "I have to accept the possibility," replied the dark woman crossing her arms, "that we may well be completely alone in this world, it has been a long eight years."

        "You should tell that to Jeremy, he's managed to cope marvellously since our first...experiment."

        "I am genuinely surprised by him every day.  Well, time to get back, we'll do lunch later."

        "Take care, and good luck!"

The other female left as the pale one stayed, still working away with Oddclaw remaining oblivious as always.  Days passed on with very little interaction, the hairless busying themselves with tasks unknown but still remembering to feed him and clean his room which he became more used to.  He wanted to try escaping at some point whilst they were cleaning, but he always slept much longer than he expected due to the strange gas they pumped in to make sure he was out like a light.

Sometimes he was taken into other rooms and tested with various devices, most of which he was asleep for.  But there was the rare case where he needed to be awake in order to monitor his brain activity as he woke up in a different room, with a strange black circular device on the top of his head.  The room was some sort of obstacle course, a grey set of blocks, and climbing poles resembling a gymnasium as he ran around with frantic curiosity trying to escape.  The first time he was in such a room he tried to claw the device off, but it had been sealed fast and it hurt when he pulled at it so he left it be, thinking they wouldn't kill him after so long a length of time.  He ran through the entire course in a half-devoted circle, leaping over a set of large stairs before sliding down on a ramp, circumnavigating round to a large net hung over a red carpet he did not trust and swung his way across.  A tunnel confused him, peering inside as he decided not to go through and simply walked round it, but the more he went round the course the more uplifted and excited he became.

The hairless noted this from their observation room high above, watching and scribbling down the neural results from Oddclaw as he became more acrobatic and daring with each new runaround he made.  The giant stairs he would take greater leaps, the slide he would backflip off of, and the net he would use both his hands and feet to crawl upside down from like a spider.  Eventually he would even take his chance through the tunnel, worming his way through as fast as possible with a slight claustrophobia kicking in  before he scrabbled out the other end.  His youthful enthusiasm was noted, and despite the fearfulness he felt when being sent unconscious back and forth, he certainly appreciated the change of scenery and became less moody.  From that point on, they would take him to the room at least once a week, monitoring his physiology and how all his muscles operated to be exactly like that of a human's, with one exception being that of his feet.  Stepping almost on his toes like that of a feline, his heels remained raised constantly in digitigrade form as he ran as long as he could.  Some of the scientists watching him could not help but note his flaccid 8-inch penis that swung back and forth, astonished at its humanoid design despite having internal testes like that of a reptile.  With each new observation they had more questions than answers to write down on his very existence.

Three weeks after he first came to this shining room, something occurred that would change their relationship forever.  The wall in the other room suddenly made a noise, trilling with a strange sound that Oddclaw thought resembled that of a drowning skyflesh until the female grabbed at something within, her hand pulling out a long black stone she put against her ear.

        "Hello?  No, Terry, for the last time I am NOT available to 'hang out' with you, I have a lot of work!  ......look I am simply not interested, we had a nice dinner but I just don't feel the same spark as you do with me......I don't MIND being friends but I think you're being too insistent and that's sort of driving me away from you?"

The stone made her angry, clasping her head with her other hand as she got up to walk around the room before focusing on Oddclaw.  The look of queasiness and frustration was palpable as he kept watch on her lips whilst she spoke.

        "But, Terry that is my JOB, that's what I do, I help people open up to me.  I'm sorry if you were mistaken but I just want to remain colleagues, you are a smart resourceful guard and I am very thankful for the work you do.  But I am not romantically interested in you.  There are plenty other people in this place that you will connect with a lot more if you jus-......ri-...r-right-Terry, T-terry please, don't...don't cry please, I am sorry to be straight with you but I just don't want you making any false assumptions on my behalf, please.  Now, if you wanted I could just, let me-hello?  Hello?!  H-hello Terry, answer me!  Hello?!  HELLO?!  HELLO?!?  UUUGH bloody thin-HELLO?!  HELLOOO?!"

She pulled the oblong stone away from her ear with frustration, stomping around the room to calm herself.

        "Bloody useless STUPID bastard wireless, I know this is the middle of the sodding ocean but at the very LEAST could we have something standard in this place?!  Hhhhhhnnnngh...no...no I am not going to go running all over the base looking for him, that will just give off the wrong message."

        "H-hhhhcchhhhhech."

        "Wha-...what, wh-who, is someone there?!"

        "H-h-hhhhhhehhhhhhlllllll..."

        "......is...is someone sick?  Hello?!  Hello is, i-is someone needing help?!"

The female looked outside the room but there was no one nearby until she walked back in.  The voice was strange with crawling guttural sounds that made her constantly search around the wall.

        "If this is some bloody trick Kevin I am NOT in the mood!"

        "H-h-hehhhhwwwww..."

        "Okay STOP it!  Stop it now, is somebody there or-......wh-wh-what?"

        "H-hehhhhwwwlllllohhhh-h-h-h-h-h..."

She turned towards Oddclaw with a look of rising shock on her face.  Her eyes widened as she dropped her stone, clattering hollow upon the floor simply staring at him.

        "...did......did you just...no, no that isn't-"

        "H-hehhhhwwwlllohhhh."

        "OH!  OHHH!"

The female covered her mouth with fright, watching the raptor move his lips with an insufferable amount of effort.  His mouth contorted into a bizarre widening grin, reeling his teeth back to form an H breathlessly, then pushed his lips forwards to try and flow the sound into a deeper tone by forming them into a circle.

        "Hhhhhehhhhhwwwwlllllohhhh."

        "Oh my...god, no he...h-h-he's actually..."

She walked forwards by a small four steps, wringing her hands nervously as she cautiously bit her lip in trying to repeat what she thought she heard.

        "H-...hellooooo?"

        "H-h-hehhhwwllohhh."

        "......oh buggering shit."

Stepping backwards she almost tripped on her stone before she saw it and frantically picked it up, realising her mistake before she shoved it back into the wall and ran out of the room.

        "DENNIS!  DENNIS, I NEED YOU TO GET THE MAJOR!  BRING KEVIN AND JEREMY, THE STUPID PHONE ISN'T WORKING I NEED THEM HERE!"

Running straight back into the room with flustered excitement blooming in her heart, the female pranced with giddy fearful anticipation almost laughing from the anxiety creeping up along her spine whilst watching the captive.

        "Hohohohomy god, OH, my fucking god this, this, I-i-i-iI don't, know what, even, AAAAH!"

She struggled not to rush towards him, not wanting to frighten the raptor as he looked strangely at her.

        "You, you can talk, you can actually TALK!"

        "Did I not speak it properly?  What did I say, did I offend you?!"

        "This, this is like bloody Tarzan, oh SHIT and I'm like-...oh...oh you have got to be kidding me, this is almost too perfect GOD I wish we had the internet here, this would be unbelieveable I cannot BELIEVE this alright now um, listen."

The female focused her gaze powerfully on Oddclaw for a brief moment.

        "My friends are coming up, well, two friends, one isn't but you get what I mean, now I need you to speak what you just told me, alright?  Hello.  That's what you said...is that right?  ...hello.  Helllllloh."

        "H-h-hehhhhwwwlllohhhh?"

        "YES, that's it, that's IT AAAH oh my god!  Just keep saying that, hello, hello, hello, that's-you somehow learnt it, I don't know how you learnt it but it could not be anymore perfect, hello.  Helloooooo!"

        "H-hehhhhwwwlllohhh."

        "Hellooo!"

        "Hehhhwwwlllohhh."

        "Hello!  Helloooo!"

        "Hehhhwwwlllohhh."

        "HELLO!"

        "And hello to you too!"

        "AHH!  K-KEVIN!"

The tanned human came through the door first, smirking bemused at her excitement.

        "What are we finally getting TV?"

        "NO!  Listen, this-...him, our friend here?  I want you to listen.  Right.  Hello.  Helllllo."

Judging by her glee and the way she practically dragged her companion over towards the raptor, he understood that what he had been trying to do was not offensive at all to them, but rather something that would astonish them.  He had never experienced stage fright in his life, until this moment when his throat became surprisingly parched as he croaked:

        "H-HEHHHwwwllllohhhhhhhhhh-h-h."

        "...what...the fuck was that?"

        "He said hello!"

        "......no...you are shitting me."

        "Say it again!  Hello!  HEL.  LO."

        "H-h-hehh...hehhwwwlllohhh, h-hehhwwwlllohhh."

        "JU-PUTA MADRE!"

The male staggered back hearing the word forming in the raptor's lips.  The same reaction would be seen in Jeremy, the older male with a hairy nose and Major-General with the square short-cut head.  Oddclaw would repeat this strange sound to each and every one of them as they now had a new dilemma on their hands.

Progress Diary of Subject "Nu-Raptor" - Week 3

27-02-2029

Observed by Dr. Jane Addison

The raptor is talking!  He somehow managed to speak "hello" back to us!  I was in a rather frantic phone call which disconnected due to the atrocious service in our base and he must have noted how my lips moved in a struggle to copy me.  Mimicry!  If that is not a sign of intelligence then I don't know what is!  I mean I know for certain that velociraptors are not one for mimicry but then this perhaps might be just another thing we do not know about them!  They are the ancestors of birds after all, and several bird species are famous for such talents.

I have spoken with my superiors to try and engage some sort of learning program for our new friend, if he is capable of learning our language then we must be able to form a bridge between two different species, like that with African Grey parrots or the gorillas!  Whatever comes out of this, whether he is learning or simply mimicking, this will not be a fruitless venture and uncover something more about a long-extinct species that humanity has never truly understood.

        "He is STILL an animal."

        "He can CLEARLY talk!"

        "That wasn't talking, that was some strange burping noise, I've seen dogs do that!"

        "He made the same sound SEVENTEEN TIMES, he was repeating it like a child!"

        "How the bloody hell did he learn it?!"

        "I don't know!  I was on a call, the phone, the wireless cut off and I just kept repeating it trying to get an answer, he must have......my lips.  He...he must have been reading my lips?"

        "What like a deaf person?"

        "Well you saw the way he moved his mouth, he was clearly mimicking wasn't he?!"

        "What do we do?"

        "H-hehhwwwlllohhh?"

They all turned towards the raptor who started to wave his hand up in the air repeating the one word that he knew.

        "H-h-hehhhwwwlllohhhhhh."

        "...that...is really creepy," mumbled Kevin.

        "Now he's WAVING at us," clamoured Jane, "this...this has to be a sign of intelligence, at LEAST to that of a human toddler.  Major-General I believe that our friend here could learn our language."

        "Don't be absurd!" blustered the Major-General.  "It's a damn beast, I'm not wasting time with something that can basically mimic something we-"

        "Oh gau i fyny Tom," said Jeremy the hair-nosed one, "she's clearly not-"

        "If you're going to talk back to me, you speak back in English, Holt."

        "Hahahahaha, nid wyf yn credu hynny ffycin but regardless, she's not makin' it up, the bloody thing's wavin' at us now he's basically actin' the same as a wee tot.  She's hardly doing anything else after we all had our evaluations checked."

        "We do not have time for this.  The T.E.A.R organisation was not founded to teach dinosaurs to talk."

        "It wasn't founded to pluck people like me out of the world but you still went and did that did you?"

        "That...was a different occasion."

He crossed his arms firmly in defiance, despite his three subordinates all turning against him as Oddclaw stopped waving.  Jane decided to try her hand at compromise by suggesting:

        "Look, I'm in this room all the time, I'm the one you said could keep watch on him, is it really a waste of anybody's time if I tried to teach him a little something?  He's already an anomaly, and that's what we are here for isn't that right?  To study anomalies, well we have one here, must have been caused by the Third Energy somehow!"

        "Hmmmmm......we still do not know when or how this creature came to be-"

        "I will not need anyone's help, I assure you.  You can keep guards outside that door but I will be inside safe and teaching him things that I can if he's able to.  Can we at least try, Major-General?"

        "Alright alright fine.  if you don't let this cut into your work you can at least attempt at communicating with it but don't come running to me whining when you can't get any results.  He's your responsibility."

        "Yes, I know, thank you sir."

Despite the clamouring conversations between them, Oddclaw became more accustomed to their sounds being directed at him.  The next day, the female came with something under her arm whilst accompanied by the nose-haired male.

        "He's not a bloody child," he said.

        "I know that but he doesn't understand English, and even less so understands human language.  We need to establish what is our language to him by first setting up a vocabulary."

        "D'you ever do this in your old work?"

        "No, I mean I never taught any animals our writing system, the closest I had was a roof contractor from Surrey who never learned how to read, but that was about it."

        "....'ang on wouldn't that be QUITE a problem in 'is line of work?"

        "You would be surprised, thank you for coming by the way."

        "Aw well ahm just knockin' about, might as well make meself useful."

        "Helloooo!"

        "H-h-heh-...wwwllohh."

She smiled at him warmly, pleased to see that he was becoming less guttural in his speech.  She sat down on a chair in front of him, opening what appeared to be a thin rectangular set of leaves coloured the blankest white.  She lifted up the first one to reveal a picture on the other side, a striking impression of several creatures exactly like her and the male standing together.  She pointed at the picture, then at herself and the male who also pointed at himself.

        "Human.  Hhhhhewwwww-man.  Hewwwman."

        "H-h-hehh...hehhhhwwww...hehwwwmuh-"

        "Yes yes, that's it come on...hewman.  Hewwwwwww...mmmmaaaan."

        "Is this really working?" asked the male turning his head.

        "Of course," she replied with eyes still on Oddclaw, "he needs to see my lips move so he can enunciate each syllable, that's how he understood 'hello'."

        "Alright then, yer the brain swot."

        "Hhhhhhewwwwwww...mmmmaaaaaaan.  Human.  Hewwwmaaaan."

        "H-h-hehhhhwwww...hhhhhewwwwwww......mmmmmmuuuuuuun."

        "YES, yes that's it he said it!  He said it!"

        "Hewwwwwwmuuuuun.  Hewwwmun."

From that second word alone, Oddclaw slowly learnt piece by piece as the human introduced word after word over the course of weeks, then onto months.  It provided a good distraction for the raptor, focusing his mind on his struggle to comprehend the language which made him think less about his family for the time being.  First the female introduced words basic to his understanding, things that he knew already from the world around him.  The sun, the moon, a tree, a rock, the water, the sky, the earth.  She built up his vocabulary first, and with each new word that came forming from his snout his pronunciation improved.  Soon they started to introduce names, the female making a point to use separate pictures showing specifically herself whilst also pointing at herself, then having the nose-haired male hold a different picture of his own self.

        "Jane.  Jaaayyyyynnnne.  Jane."

        "J-j-ja-ayne.  Jayyyyn."

        "Yes, yes that's it.  Jane.  Jayyyne."

        "J-jayne."

She then pointed to the man, both the picture and himself as he spoke his name.

        "Jeremy.  Jer, remy."

        "J-jer?  Jereh?"

        "No no Jeremy.  Jerrrrremy."

        "Jer-remy.  Jerrrrremy."

        "Hahaha bloody 'ell...can't believe 'e's learnin' that fast."

Jane then tried to bridge the gap closer, once they had asserted their two different names as individuals that Oddclaw slowly understood.  He already understood names of identity, but they had to be sure.

        "Jane.  Jeremy."

She then pointed to him.  They watched in silence as they expected him to say something as he became rather nervous.

        "Jane.  Jeremy.  .........hmm?"

Oddclaw thought at first that they were pointing to something behind him, but Jane then brought out a picture of the raptor to try and ask what his name was as he understood.  He pressed his hand on the glass, pointing his other hand towards the end of his fingers specifically as he tapped his claws in a one-two-three motion.

        "Hand?" asked Jeremy.  "That's his name?"

        "No, no he's specifying see he's pointing at the claws.  Claw?  Your name is claw?"

Again he pointed at his claws, tapping each of them in sequence repeatedly.  One-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three.

        "He...it's...it's a number sequence."

        "Wait 'e can count?!"

        "I-i don't know, we've never tried to-I-i was going to teach him that later!"

        "Well looks like 'e knows up to three, that's more than a pheasant does."

        "Three.  Three claws.  That must be his name."

        "Threeclaw?  That's a bit silly in't it, why not just call him Claude?"

        "PFFFT n-nooo Jeremy we can't confuse him!"

She had to stop herself from laughing as she covered her mouth.

        "Besides you shouldn't make fun of his name it's not polite."

Jane gave her full attention back to the raptor pointing at him.

        "Three.  Claw.  THREE.  Kh-lawww."

        "Th-threeeeee...khh-lawwwww."

        "Yes.  Your name is Threeclaw.  Hah...hhhhahahahaha, hhhhaahahaha ohoho my god we've...we've done it.  We've actually bloody done it, this...this is like first contact here."

        "Threeeeeeekh-lawwwww."

        "Hello Threeclaw.  Hello.  Threeclaw."

        "H-h-hel-...hhhhelloooo...Jayyyyne."

Her heart swelled like a mother watching her child take its first steps.  In turn Oddclaw felt strangely happy about seeing her smile at him, her eyes gleaming with excitement at a whole new world of possibility.  Whatever lied inside that creature's head, the thoughts and dreams of a velociraptor gave her the hope and sense of purpose that she had been oddly missing in her life since first landing with the T.E.A.R project.  In turn, Oddclaw would find his first friend outside of his family, and a hope sprang in his heart that maybe perhaps one day, he would finally be allowed to leave.