The Tyrant's Roar: Chapter 9

Sorry for the lack of activity.  School work is a killer.  This one's a little long, but it is crucial.  Enjoy!

Chapter 9:  Challenger

Hades cautiously wandered through the woodland to the western plains.  He did not sleep well the previous night; his ears were still ringing from the amplified echoes of the Tyrannosaurus’ mating roars.  The cave walls resonated the sound very well, but that was the only bad thing about his new lair.

Hades had stayed in the same cave that Tytus and Poppaea chased him into, and he had hid from them until they left.  Then, he marked the entrance of the cave with his own feces at the first sign of dusk.  He had no intention of leaving the valley, but he would have to plan his take-over much more carefully than simply facing two healthy Tyrannosaurus head-on.  Blindly charging them was Hades’ big mistake yesterday, and he was too lucky to escape with only a scrape on his nose.  It wasn’t too serious, but Tytus’ nip had cut right into the bone, and it stung.  Hades couldn’t even reach his nose to apply any pressure because his shoulder muscles and joints drastically limited his arms’ mobility.

His hunger drove him out of the cave; he hadn’t eaten anything since that morsal of Edmontosaurus steak he swallowed before running away from Tytus and Poppaea.  After he recovered from the chase, Hades realized that it tasted really good, better even than Andesaurus which was his all-time favourite meat.

But Hades needed to be very cautious before heading out to hunt, because if he ran into Tytus and Poppaea once again, he’d be slaughtered.  When Hades left in the morning, he couldn’t see the Tyrannosaurus pair anywhere, but he could smell them; they headed far to the east the previous night.  They were far enough away to not pose as an immediate threat to himself at the moment.

Even so, Hades kept his eyes, ears, and nose open to track Tytus and Poppaea, just in case they were following him.  So far, their scents were as faint as the scrubland on the valley’s outside from Hades’ old territory.  But a new scent had just filled Hades’ nostrils; it was musky and strong, but enticing nonetheless.  Hades changed course and headed southwest.  He hoped that it was another Edmontosaurus, maybe even a herd.

Pretty soon he heard the creatures too.  The bellows were very loud, and they sounded big.  Nevertheless, Hades was undeterred by the menacing roars.  He was too hungry to care.

Soon Hades reached the edge of the woodland, and what he saw on the expansive savannah surprised him.  He had never seen these creatures before…

There were about 20 individuals.  The herd consisted of both juveniles and adults, and each one of them had large frills behind their heads.  But the scariest features were possessed by the adults:  a four foot-long horn above each eye, a short but broad horn just above the nostrils, and a menacing beak.  To top it off, the Triceratops seemed extremely agitated by the loud roars Hades heard.

Hades looked in the direction that the adult Triceratops were looking, and saw why they were so restless.  Two huge Triceratops were bellowing at each other some 300 feet away from the herd.  They were both larger than the other herd members, and sported bright red colouring on their frills and faces.  One large yellow ellipse was on each half of their frills.  One animal was slightly bigger, whose colours were a bit duller than his rival’s.  They were a menacing pair, each 8 ton bull shaking his head up and down and scraping the ground with their feet while roaring.

Hades heard a whimper from one of the youngsters in the herd, and turned to see its mother nuzzle it.  Beside the brown female, there was a sub-adult male sporting the same colours as the two bulls on the herd’s edge.  This one was nowhere near fully grown, and neither were any of the other young males in the herd.

Hades suddenly realized that this was the Triceratops rutting season, where all males competed for dominance and access to females in order to father offspring of their own.  But all but two of the males were not considered old enough or strong enough to lead, and the older bull was being challenged for his alpha status by the younger challenger.

In Hades’ experience, fights between two evenly-matched male herbivores resulted in exhaustion and severe injury, especially during the mating season.  If the younger Triceratops was as stubborn as he looked angry, Hades would soon have a hearty meal to help him regain his strength.

The two bulls reared up on their hind legs and pawed the air with their front feet.  Then, they came crashing down to the ground and charged head-on.  With their horns interlocked with each other, they began to push each other backwards.  They twisted their heads back and forth, each trying to force the other to unlock their horns and back down.  But neither did.

Slowly but surely, the alpha male’s strength and experience began to show.  He was pushing his rival back; the fatigue of the confrontation had not hindered him as early as it had for the younger male.

Finally, the younger male backed off, interrupting the confrontation.  Both Triceratops were breathing heavily, but the herd’s leader still held his head high.  Hades admired the older bull’s resolve and strength, but if he knew anything about younger adversaries, the challenging Triceratops would attempt to pull something dirty on its elder, who deserved to be on top no matter what.

And Hades was right.  Just as the victor turned away thinking that he won the battle, his younger rival surged forward, mouth agape.  Before the alpha realized what was happening, the challenger bit down on the side of the alpha Triceratops’ frill.

Fortunately for the herd leader, he snapped his head to the left before his rival could get a good grip.  Then, he swung his head in the opposite direction and clamped down on the other bull’s right horn.  Both Triceratops grunted, pulled, and shoved, each trying to gain the upper hand.

Then, with a SNAP, the Triceratops backed off.  The young bull shrieked in pain as a hot sensation spread from his right horn to his head.  He looked at his elder, and gasped as he saw half of his own horn in the alpha’s mouth.

The younger bull had enough.  He knew now that he had lost, and it was foolish of him to continue the fight.  But the alpha wanted to further humiliate his subordinate for attacking him when he wasn’t looking.  After spitting out the horn, the old male snuck up on his still-stunned rival.  Then, he bit down hard on the side of his adversary’s frill.

The young bull felt the force of the bite, and instinctively bucked.  But the older Triceratops held fast and did not let go.  As his torso was lifted in the air by the bucking bronco’s vertical head jerks, the alpha Triceratops was able to use a bit of leverage to accomplish his goal.

SNAP!  With a quick downward twist of his head against the frill, the old bull broke off a good-sized portion from his challenger.  Blood spewed everywhere, and coated both Triceratops’ faces and snouts.  The shock and exhaustion caused the wounded male to collapse.  The alpha stood over him and glared, as if to say, “I dare you to get back up!”  Only a high-pitched squeak of submission could make the alpha leave.  And with a hard tail wack to the ribs, the alpha did leave the young bull alone.  He triumphantly returned to his herd with his head held high and a swagger in his gait.   

The younger bull shakily got up and walked away.  He had suffered considerable damage, and it wasn’t just in physical terms.  A Triceratops’ horns and frill were essential indicators of health, status, and potential Darwinian fitness.  Along with body size, this was especially true among males.  Basically, the bigger the male’s features were, the more desirable he was when it came to breeding and herd leadership.  But with a broken horn and a frill with a sizeable chunk missing, the young bull will not be considered for breeding.  His horn will eventually re-grow, but his frill won’t; the bone was snapped off and will hardly regenerate.

As he walked away from the herd and let the shame of losing his status as a desirable mate wash over him, he failed to hear the deep rumbling footsteps that were fast approaching.

Hades struck hard, driving his teeth deep into the Triceratops’ neck.  He pushed his quarry down onto his right side so that the bull could not get up.  But a swift kick to Hades’ toes made him back off and the Triceratops was back on his feet.

Both beasts were fuelled by adrenaline as they charged.  Hades side-stepped the desperate Triceratops and lunged towards his bloodied neck.  But Hades was on the Triceratops’ left side, and the angry bull swung his head hard, slashing Hades’ shoulder.

Hades screamed and backed off.  He thought that an exhausted Triceratops with serious armament wounds would be relatively easy to kill.  But once again, he misjudged the situation.

Now the old Giganotosaurus could get a good look at his prey.  The Triceratops was unsteady on his feet and was swaying back and forth.  There was a delirious look in his eyes, and blood poured from his frill and neck, staining the ground red.  But he still roared defiantly, wanting to fight to the death.  Hades on the other hand was feeling stronger and more focused by the second.  Then, he came up with a plan to end this fight.

Hades mock-charged the ailing Triceratops.  And just as planned, the Triceratops lunged forward for a full frontal assault that never came.  Hades side-stepped the charging male once again, and went to bite his neck on the side where his frill wasn't whole.  His teeth found their mark again and again as he snapped his jaws many times on his prey’s neck.

The Triceratops desperately threw his head back as hard as he could to crush Hades’ jaws and to make him let go.  But he could not succeed, for Hades’ right arm was digging deep into his nose ridge.  The opposing force generated by Hades’ arm was pushing his head down and his frill up, thus exposing his vulnerable neck even more.  Meanwhile, his shoulder and thorax felt as if they were being ripped apart as Hades’ left arm and foot claws easily cut through thick skin and muscle.

Finally, the Triceratops collapsed in exhaustion.  Hades saw the chance to put the poor creature out of his misery when he saw the throat and bit through the hide.  But just as Hades pulled his head back full of meat, the Triceratops felt his chest tighten, as if a vice had just started to crush his heart.  And then, the world went black.

Hades immediately began to devour his hard-earned prize.  The fight had exhausted him, but getting to eat the rich and nutritious flesh was worth it.  He felt himself re-gaining his strength with every swallow.

With each bite, a thought became clearer and clearer in Hades’ mind.  If he, a foreign predator, can take down such a formidably-armed creature as Triceratops, than he could certainly take down a Tyrannosaurus rex.  The valley will be his, because Hades had gone through more than any of his former pack-mates or the young T.rex couple.  He had seniority, and that alone merited a take-over.  While it won’t be easy, nothing will stand in Hades’ way of claiming this new world as his own…

A rumbling growl shattered Hades’ thoughts.  He looked up, and saw the alpha male Triceratops staring right at him from 300 feet away.  Both dinosaurs stared at each other for a long time.

Finally, Hades growled back.

“Thank you for the meal.  And for giving me strength.”

The alpha Triceratops rumbled for a second time.

“Thank you for destroying that brat of a brother.”

Hades went back to eating, lost in a day dream where he was murdering Tytus, while the alpha Triceratops lead his herd away from the large Giganotosaurus in case he decided to come after one of his girls.