The Tyrant's Roar: Chapter 10

School has taken up a lot of time, but more chapters on their way!

Chapter 10:  New Life

Tytus marched back to his nest in the eastern woodlands with a young Edmonotsaurus in his mouth.  He had to get there quickly, because it was his job now to hunt for Poppaea and patrol their territory.

Two months ago Tytus and Poppaea felt the need to build a nest.  They hollowed out a shallow pit in the ground, and they collected several branches from the trees that surrounded the clearing that they claimed as their main roost.  Then, one day after Tytus came back after a morning patrol, he saw something extraordinary.

Poppaea was bent over, huffing and puffing, with her rear end over the nest, and looking exhausted.  Tytus hung back, camouflaged among the trees.  He knew what she was doing, and despite them being bonded for life, he wanted to give her all the privacy he could.

Finally Poppaea gave one final shudder, and something long, speckled, and heavy fell into the nest with a thud.  She was gasping for breath, but remained on her feet.  As she turned around to survey the nest and its contents, Tytus let out a submissive grunt to let her know that he had returned.  Poppaea swiveled her head towards her mate, and purred in response.  Tytus could now safely approach the nest.

Tytus tip-toed to the edge of the nest and looked down.  In the seven-foot diameter pit were five elliptical grey eggs with brown speckles all over.  Tytus was in awe.  Never before had he come to appreciate the beauty of eggs before, not even as a youngster.

He looked at Poppaea proudly, and gently rubbed his snout against hers.  For the first time in both of their lives, they would become parents and pass their genes on to the next generation of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Poppaea greatly appreciated Tytus’ caress, but she couldn’t afford to stare at their creations for long.  She was very tired, and needed to keep their eggs warm.  So, she went off to search for ferns and cycads to incubate the eggs while Tytus guarded their nest.

She came back with a few broad fern leaves and placed them over the eggs.  Then, she lay down and closed her eyes.  Not only was laying her eggs hard work, but all of her medullary tissue was used up from the interior of her femurs.  This greatly weakened Poppaea, so much so that she doubted she could hunt.

Tytus had no idea of his wife’s physiological processes, but it was plain to see that Poppaea was not going to do any strenuous activity anytime soon.  So, as the good and righteous husband that he was, Tytus sat down by the nest amd watched over both Poppaea and their upcoming brood.  He felt that he must do his part to support Poppaea, and later their young.  He thought that he should hunt for her while she rested, for the entire incubation.  He decided he would start hunting on that very day, but only after Poppaea woke up so that she could guard the nest and finish its construction.

For the next sixty days, Tytus hunted for his mate every day and brought back some meat to the nest, while Poppaea tended the nest.  While Tytus did not make a kill every day, he did return to each kill and rip off good portions for his mate.  Their roost soon became littered with the remnants of Tytus’ victims, and that made the roost an area in the valley that frightened all creatures.

As Tytus returned with the Edmontosaurus calf, he sensed that today would be unlike any other day.  Poppaea felt the same way too.  She hurried over to Tytus as he returned, greeted him, then took the Edmontosaurus from him.  She then trotted to the nest and sat down beside it, but she didn’t eat Tytus’ gift.  Instead, she put it down beside the nest and stared at where the eggs rested underneath the ferns, cycads, and dirt.

Tytus was a little puzzled as to why Poppaea didn’t dig in, but he didn’t want to force the issue.  Instead, he sat down opposite her and stared at the nest too.

Tytus did not know when the chirping started, but he knew immediately what it signified:  his first child had started to hatch!  He and Poppaea could not contain their excitement, and they started to chirp and grunt and flap their arms.

Then, Poppaea leaned over the nest and removed the vegetation and soil with her arms, so that the rexlings could breathe when they were fully out of the eggs.  Her entire torso and head stretched very low across the nest’s diameter.  When she rose up again, Tytus saw that it was the largest egg that was hatching.  Their first-hatched would become the biggest of the clutch.

The two would-be parents stared intently at the hatching egg.  But all they saw were slight bulges that appeared and disappeared along the length of the leathery shell.  For several minutes, Tytus and Poppaea waited for the shell to break and for their little one’s head to pop out.  However, the hatchling could not crack the egg’s shell.

Poppaea couldn’t take it any longer.  She had to get the little rexling out of there.  Before Tytus knew what was happening, Poppaea scooped the egg up in her mouth.  Very gently she rolled the egg back and forth against the roof of her mouth.  This way, the shell would break.  But Tytus was worried.  After all, his mate had just put their child’s egg in her mouth!  He stood up frantically, but Poppaea grunted at him to relax, and that she knew what she was doing.

Tytus watched the underside of his mate’s mouth as she moved her tongue around.  He was still scared stiff that she might hurt their first hatchling, but he trusted her.  Then, Poppaea stilled, and her eyes widened.  Tytus knew the big moment had come.

Very slowly, Poppaea opened her jaws.  Peeking out of her mouth was a little baby T.rex.  Tytus just stared in awe as his son squinted in the afternoon light.  He marveled at how tiny Aries was with his little claws, thin snout, and big bulging eyes.  He breathed gently onto Aries so that he would recognize his father. 

Aries stilled at the sudden rush of air from the outside, and squinted towards the light from outside.  The light hurt his eyes, but his vision was improving.  Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw his father’s face looking right at him through his mother’s large teeth.  He was amazed at how big Tytus looked, and felt drawn to him.

Poppaea gently lowered her head and placed Aries in the middle of the nest.  For the first time, she could see her son.  Poppaea trembled with joy as Aries looked up at her with wide eyes and shivered in the new air.  She could not believe that she was now a mother.  Her heart broke out of sheer joy.  Just like Tytus, she blew air at her son, so that Aries knew her by scent and sight.  His brown down ruffled as Poppaea’s scent washed over him. 

Aries looked up at both of his gigantic parents and stared, taking in their forms and essences.  He imprinted on them.  He now knew that they were his parents, forever and always.  Both Tytus and Poppaea instinctively knew Aries was imprinting on them, and lowered their heads to rub snouts with Aries, to show their love.

But both parents were so focused on their son that they almost didn’t notice another egg hatching.

When they did notice, Poppaea snorted at Tytus to feed Aries with the Edmontosaurus calf that he brought in earlier as she attended the second hatching.  As Tytus began to shred tiny strings of meat from the carcass, Poppaea stared intently as little Celeste pushed against the tough shell and broke through.  Bits of egg shell clung to Celeste’s brown down as she shivered.  Then, Celeste looked up and saw her mother.  Her nostril’s filled with Poppaea’s scent, and she immediately imprinted on Poppaea. 

Poppaea leaned down and rubbed her snout against Celeste gently.  Celeste felt the warm leathery skin against her down and she squealed in delight at how close she was.  Then Tytus lowered his head and proceeded to do the same thing, but Celeste crawled away nervously.  To her, Tytus was a foreigner, a stranger who only looked like her mother.  But Poppaea reassured her with a soft purr, and Celeste crawled back to her father and nuzzled with him.

Then Celeste noticed her brother, who looked like her except that Aries had green skin while she had brown skin, like her mother.  Aries was chowing down on the meat that Tytus gave to him, and Celeste wanted that meat.  She crawled over to Aries, and with needle-sharp teeth, tried to wrest away his food.  Aries was stronger though, and he pulled back hard, dragging his food away to a different part of the nest.

As Celeste whined for food, Poppaea presented a thin strip of meat to her as Tytus had done for Aries, and fed it to her.  Celeste devoured the meat hungrily, and then she and Aries chirped for more food.

Tytus and Poppaea nuzzled their snouts together in affection.  Their genes were passed on and they could now experience the joys of parenthood.