The Story of Cleo, Episode 13: The Family Challenge

It has been a couple years since Theo joined the pack, and the three oldest Deltadromeus are all teenagers. Roman, Kate, and Terry have had a pretty good life. Not having having to fight much, and having lots of food. Right now, Draco is off hunting. He stops by a big river to take a drink, unaware that he is being watched. Out from the river explodes a Sarcosuchus. The giant crocodile gets his jaws around Draco and bites down as hard as it can, killing the Deltadromeus. After a few hours of Draco not coming back, Cleo gets worried. She decides to go look for him, and leaves Reyna in charge of the pack while she is gone. Cleo follows Draco's sent trail to the river. When she gets to the river, a horrible site befalls her. Where Draco's sent stops, one of his limbs remains. She can tell that her mate it dead, and from that moment on, there will be a part of her that has been lost forever. When Cleo returns to the nest in a bad mood, the other Deltadromeus can instantly tell something is wrong. Then Luke growls and in Deltadromeus language, it means "where is dad?" The question no one wanted to ask. Cleo responds just by nodding her head, and the others got what happened from just the head nod. Roman lets out a mourning cry, followed by Kate, then Terry, and soon the rest of the family is crying, even Theo is crying. Over the next few years the family stayed alive, but always had to use everyone in the hunt, and small fights would break out. Theo, Reyna and Luke have grown up to adulthood, and Theo preformed a mating dance to Reyna. He did it with perfection, even though he didn't have too. Luke, on the other hand, is still lonely, and is becoming more and more short tempered. One day, an adult female Deltadromeus wandered near the pack. Luke could tell this and got very excited. He and his family went to go great the new Deltadromeus, and Luke started to preform a mating dance. The female watched him at first, but then her eyes drifted over to Theo, who is both bigger and slightly stronger than Luke. Reyna sees this and growls very softly, but with a clear message " don't even look at him, he's mine!" The female walks away as Luke is doing his dance. Luke is confused, and then angry, but he is not sure what to be angry at. The next time, two females come, and Reyna is left home, and once again, the females look at Theo instead of Luke. This time, Theo lets out a little growl that says, "I'm taken," the two females stick around for a bit more, and then decide to leave, not being able to look at Theo for long. Once again, Luke has been dumped, but this time, he knows why. Luke turns around and growls at Theo. Theo doesn't respond. Luke is angry, but he can't take it out on Theo. After all, Theo has saved his life once, and he considers him family. He can still show his annoyance and frustration by giving Theo a very angry growl. Twice more this happens. WhetherTheo is there or not, the females can tell he's near, and want Theo over Luke. Finally, after another female lost, Luke turns on Theo. Reyna is with the her brother and mate, and can tell this is going to turn into a fight. She wishes Cleo were here and not hunting with her youngest childeren. Luke gives Theo an all out roar and charges him. Luke slashes at Theo's face, leaving large gash marks. Theo roars and bites Luke's snout. Luke gives a shake of his head and dislodges Theo. Reyna tries to intervene, but is pushed aside or ignored. Luke and Theo are clawing and biting each other. Cleo comes back form her hunt and sees what is happening. She gives a growl telling them to knock it off but is ignored. Cleo is a mother of five, nearly thirty feet long (longer than any other Deltadromeus has ever been), and is not about to be ignored. She runs in and grabs Luke by the back if his throat. She throws Luke nearly ten feet across the nest, but she is not finished. Cleo slams into Theo and sends him flying just as far. Cleo broke many of the two Deltadromeus' bones, but she doesn't care. Cleo knows that they will heal, but ignoring her is a very bad idea, and now all her children know it. Roman Terry an Kate drag back a large Stomatosuchus, and then start to eat. Then Cleo walks over and takes a bite, followed by Reyna. Luke gets up very painfully and walks over to eat. Cleo growls at him and is saying that he is going to be punished. She does the same for Theo, and they don't eat that night.