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CRACK!

There was a trickling; the liquid that had long surrounded her body began to drain.

CRACK-CRACKLE-CREAK!

The cracks upon the glass began to grow, long streaks appearing along the length of the container.

Then it shattered!

The contents came spilling out, the poor creature inside went sliding onto the floor.

She creaked her eyes open, taking in the dim light; her legs felt weak...

Panic began to set over her, her breath began to come out shuttered. Where was she? How did she get here?

She couldn't remember anything - not just how she got here, but nothing at all.

What even is my name? She asked herself with fear rising.

She had to get control of herself, she had to figure this out.

So, fighting down her panic, she pulled herself to her feet.

Woah, that felt strange, her legs felt wobbly, like she had never used them before, but it was as if a muscle memory from times long gone was still there.

She looked around her, her surroundings, nothing seemed to make much sense to her, strange lights illuminating and flickering from various places on the walls and ceiling. She seemed to be in some sort of cavern. There was a lot of clutter in here, lots of outcroppings with more flickering lights, strange cylindrical things that could only be assumed as transparent stalactites with sinister glowing liquids inside.

She looked back. That's where she had come from, she had been in one of those stalactites as well.

She shuttered, she didn't like this place, she had to get out of here. She couldn't tell what kind of creature had lived here, but at the very least, something told her it was abandoned.

Looking around, walking with light, cautious footsteps, she found a tunnel that seemed to lead out of the place, it was dark with only the briefest trace of those mysterious flickering lights on the walls, but it was forward.

It was so strange, as she traveled down the hallway, she couldn't help but notice how symmetrical everything was, the walls and floors and ceilings all meeting at perfect angles. Had some creature made this place? It all seemed to purposeful to be natural.

She nearly panicked when she ran into a dead end, but then she noticed there was just the smallest crack leading to the other side. She knew she could never make it through that, but if she picked at it...

But the moment she began to claw at it, the wall swung easily aside.

Strange. And convenient.

Perhaps it was like one of those rocks that creatures would sometimes put in front of their caves, but this seemed much more advanced.

But then she felt the breeze, and she stepped out into the night.

The first thing she noticed, the air smelled strange, not a bit of familiarity to it, not even a trace. It all felt wrong, like she didn't belong here, like nothing in her body was made to adapt to this sort of environment, not even the least bit.

A deep sorrow washed over her, a feeling of something lost deep inside.

But as she stood there, she noticed the Moonlight glowing off her paws and she looked up, a sense of comfort came over her. It was still there; the Moon, the stars - though dimmer than she felt she should remember - all still there as she remembered; shining, shimmering in the way they must've always had, saying to her we're still here.

This gave her the strength to do what needed to be done.

She looked around again, she seemed to be in some sort of canyon (or sinkhole?) with flat gray walls surrounding her on all sides - turns out the cavern she had been in had been dug out of a hill with the same sharp angles as the inside, it was all confusing.

It must be some kind of structure she thought. But what sorts of dinosaurs were able to build structures of so much detail?

First things first, she had to find a way out of this canyon.

Fortunately, she found an opening in canyon's walls after not much looking, and after climbing over a stripy log that was elevated strangely over the opening, she was out.

Okay, that wasn't too hard.

The outside wasn't much better though, she found herself at the end of a long pathway with more of those strange mound-structures of straight and even angles in each and every direction. The path was illuminated by more of those eerie lights hanging from the top of bare lifeless trees leading as far as eye could see.

She shuttered once more, where am I? She asked herself again uncertainly.

Still, with the exception of the place she had just come from, it didn't look inhospitable exactly, there were some trees here and there (though not of the kinds she readily recognized), it was just like nothing she had ever seen before.

If I've ever seen anything before.

And that was perhaps the worst of it all, she had no memories, no life experiences to go off of, it was just her and her instincts, those feelings inside her that had been adapted and built in through the experiences of her kind, from generations to generations before she had even set foot on this world. But here she was in this place where none of those instincts seemed to matter, none of those feelings seemed to have any connection to any of the sights and smells and sounds that surrounded her.

Perhaps she had stumbled into some other part of the world she'd never heard of before - the world was vast and so much of it unknown - or maybe... She couldn't think of anything else, there couldn't be any worlds outside her own could there?

Regardless she had to get away from this place, find someplace that could give her what she needed to survive as her kind.

So she hurried down the path in front of her, hoping beyond hope it would take her where she needed to go.

But it didn't it was just more and more of the same, just a jumbling bunch of confusion she could not even begin to process. After about five crossroads of the path, she came to a stop, she had still not seen anybody (which perhaps was fortunate as that also meant no predators), but the lights had become warmer now, the structures seemed more inviting. It still meant little to her, but there was a sort of comfort here that gave her the hope that all might not be lost.

She went over to one of the structures, a transparent wall seeming to separate the inside from the out (she tested it a few times just to make sure there was really something there, how peculiar), and looked at the display inside. There seemed to be a mini-version of the type of place that she was in set up, with frozen figures of unknown creatures standing around in various poses, living their lives, supposedly joyfully.

She looked around her again, in the dead of the night, this place seemed dead, but maybe it was just the case that none of the creatures that existed in this kind of place were nocturnal, maybe during the day it would become as bright and lively as this mini-place seemed to indicate.

Or she hoped that's what this mini-place meant, maybe it meant something completely different that she had none of the necessary experience in life to interpret.

She went on, turning a corner. The area she walked now was much quieter, the lights fewer and further between, more trees and grass lined the sides of the path, but though still nothing like the kinds of plantlife she would've expected to be in her own natural home.

Whatever her own natural home could be.

She didn't know anything, not her name, not her surroundings...

She didn't even know if she was male or female.

She stopped, bending her head down to check. Okay, she was certainly female. She didn't know whether that was a good thing or not, she'd have to get back with herself on that.

As long as I don't have to prove how I know I'm female to anyone, she thought awkwardly, I wouldn't care to explain how I know that.

Otherwise, female was fine.

Okay, she was a female parasaur with no name (she wasn't sure how she knew what a parasaur was, she just did), and looking at her back, she was brown with a dusting of white along her spine... Oh, and her lower body was a lighter brown it seemed.

And looking toward her tail end - though she didn't have the best view from her vantage point... but from what she did have... Hmm, not bad.

Okay, awkward, she shook her head, clearing it. Definitely didn't want to admit to self admiration as one of the first things she did after awaking... wherever she was.

But somehow, knowing what she looked like calmed her, it helped to give her some idea of what she was in this foreign environment, that she was something real, and not just a nightmare with no substance.

Maybe this was a nightmare, she thought to herself.

But somehow that didn't seem right, nothing made sense, but regardless of the confusion she felt, it all felt too real to pass off as some wild dream. Even if it was, would she really have the imagination to make something like this all up?

Suddenly, she heard a sound coming down the path, loud and revving, if that even made much sense.

She ducked down behind a bush as a bright light began to grow closer along the path, a strange looking black rock or something moving completely on its own jarred to a stop in front of the structure she was hiding behind the bush near.

From inside came a whoop! And out stumbled a creature that she had never seen before.

The mysterious other was covered in feathers, she looked kind of like one of the other dinosaurs, but not exactly - but she was also covered in some sort of colorful leaf-like things or something, obscuring most of her body, including what must be her...

Hmm, not too bad of an idea, she thought to herself. That could certainly help obscure some of the more... obvious awkwardness of knowing between males and females, but looking back at herself, she couldn't imagine that ever being any level of comfortable.

She turned her attention back to the creature; it seemed she was trying not to stumble about too much. The creature certainly didn't look like a predator, and looked completely helpless in case of one- watching her, she didn't feel confident in the thing's chances of survival.

"Thank you for the ride," the creature giggled with a hiccup in a voice that was surprisingly in a voice she could understand, "Toyota Controller is it?"

"The Toyota Corolla Hatchback 2024," a voice from inside corrected, "Laid it myself."

The creature outside giggled, then hiccuped again, "You have to tell me about that sometime." Hic.

"Will do!" Said the voice inside, then as if speaking to someone else, "Now Let's Go Places Miguel!"

And the opening on the rock slammed shut, and the Controlla, or whatever it was, sped away.

That left the poor strange creature stranded alone in the open of this strange place, just as she herself was. And the poor thing looked like she could barely hold her feet.

As the creature was stood there, she noticed it was looking at something held in her wing, it was the unmistakable shape of an egg.

The creature giggle-hicced, "Bet Cole got a kick out of you, di'n't he?" giggle-HIC!

She glanced around from her bush; she didn't know what she could do, but she couldn't leave the poor creature like this out here alone with an egg in this kind of shape.

She would have to find her shelter, she could only hope that one of these structures would do the trick.

So, double checking to make sure there were no predators around, she slipped out of her cover, and cautiously made her way up to the confused expecting mother.

"Excuse me," she said politely.

The creature looked up at her and paused a moment. She blinked, said nothing, then blinked again.

"Nobody told me alcohol would cause hallucinating dinosaurs," the creature burst out giggle-hiccing.

She didn't know what to do, the thing was not well, and seemed to have completely lost it. There was no way she'd survive if a predator was to swoop in and swoop her away right this very moment.

"Listen," she said kindly, "You need to get out of the open, especially with your unborn child."

The creature looked at her completely baffled, as if she was the one who completely lost it. Then a look of realization came to her face, "Oh, yo' mean this?" She chortle-clucked, "Hens don't lay eggs with babies in them, this one was just my period!" HIC!

Confusion washed over her, it seemed to click somewhere inside that those of her kind might sometimes lay eggs unable to produce hatchlings, but doing it all the time?

Still, it didn't change that this creature was practically helpless.

"I need to get you somewhere safe, okay? I can't leave you here like this."

The hen, as she guessed she was, pointed to the structure at the end of the path they were on, "This would be the place."

She looked at it uncertainly; she hoped this hen knew what she was doing. If it was anything like the last structure it would at least be a good place to take cover, as long as there weren't any predators residing in there, though she dreaded the thought of going back to that place. She could only hope this hen knew this place better than her, and would just have to trust her judgment, no matter how seemingly lacking it was.

So she let the hen lean against her as they made their way toward the structure.

When they reached it, the hen reached for something on its side, which she turned, and a part of the wall swung aside.

"After you," the hen said, gesturing with a giggle. "My own hallucinatory dinosaur."

She wanted to shake her head "no", but she knew she couldn't send the hen in there in this condition without first making sure it was safe, she doubted it would even be able to detect a threat at this point if it hit her in the face.

So she took a cautious step forward; she was small enough to just fit through the opening, but she suspected that once she became full grown, that might not always be the same situation.

It was dark inside, but she could still see lights from the outside shining through those transparent spots on the walls she had seen on the other structures. Not very hidden, she thought to herself. Perhaps they were made from some kind of crystal or diamond or something. There were also a few faint glowing lights here and there, which she figured to be some kind of glowworm or something.

She turned her head this way and that, trying to detect any trace of potential threats, there were strange humming sounds she couldn't quite place, they didn't sound alive exactly, but they didn't sound natural either.

The hen followed her into the structure and hit something on the wall, and suddenly, the whole place illuminated with light. She took a step back in shock.

The hen gave her a look, "Electricity," she said, "I'm guessing you don't have any of that where you come from?"

She shook her head.

The Hen looked frustrated, like the prospect of explaining further was hurting her head "It's like lightning, okay, but continuous. It helps us see at night." Hic! "Excuse me."

She really didn't understand, but at least it gave her a good look at her surroundings. The place was cramped, compared to most caves, cluttered with all sorts of things she didn't understand (seemed like a common occurrence on this particular night), but at the very least, she couldn't detect the trace of any predators. And if she was being honest, there was an almost cozy feel to it if it hadn't been so foreign, something that couldn't be said for that weird place that she had started her night in.

"Is it safe," she asked the hen again, turning back to the question of electricity.

"Safe? We use it all the time," the Hen said as she made her way to one of the flat outcroppings. She pulled a lever-like thing, and suddenly the smallest of waterfalls began to pour from a rock jutting out of the outcropping just below the lever. The Hen took out a hollowed out piece of clear crystal and held it under the waterfall until it was full, then brought it to her beak and took a drink.

She looked at the waterfall longingly, in the confusion of the night, she had only just realized how thirsty she was. When the Hen had finished with her drink, she bent her head under the waterfall, and began to drink as well. So nice and cool, but very strangely tinted with something that tasted off.

After a moment, she noticed the Hen staring at her.

"You were supposed to use a cup," the hen said helplessly. Then she hicced, and simply sighed, "just help me to my room, okay, and we can see about getting you a place to rest the night. You don't have anyplace else to go tonight I'm assuming?"

She looked once more around the place she had stepped into feeling uncertain. But this hen was offering her shelter, and she didn't think she was in a place to turn it down. Besides, she couldn't imagine this hen to be a threat by any stretch of the imagination, it felt pretty safe to assume she wasn't being lured into her lair just to be eaten.

So, no better ideas coming to her, she followed the hen into the depths of this alien structure.

---

When they reached the hen's "room", the hen turned on the "electricity", and immediately made her way to what seemed an elevated seating place, sinking herself deep into it. Resting her egg on what appeared to be a wooden outcrop, she spun around in her seating place and looked at her, her eyes strained as if she was having a hard time keeping them open and concentrating.

"So you're a dinosaur?" she asked. "How exactly did you get here?" Hic! "Excuse me."

She stood still, not sure how to answer.

"I honestly don't remember anything," she said at last, "I just woke up. I was in this strange liquid in this unnatural stalactite thing, and it broke and I just tumbled free. I don't know how I got there, or anything about this place, it's all so confusing, and nothing is the same as what I feel it should be."

The hen leaned her head into her wing, like it hurt to think.

"Well, there's that old lab down the road," the hen answered finally, "Closed down a few months ago I think... I'm not entirely sure, nor do I really care right now... But... Do you have a name or something I can call you?"

She shook her head.

The hen looked at her a moment, "Well, if I remember correctly, you look like something like a..." She rotated her wing, looking for the right word... "Parasaur or something." ... "How does the name Priscilla suit you?"

The parasaur thought about it for a moment, then nodded, "I don't know how your naming works in you world, but one name is as good as any."

The hen managed a weak smile, hiccing before continuing "And you can call me Sicily, I don't know how the naming worked in your time," hic, "but it's the name my parents gave me."

Priscilla looked at the hen, concern filling her gaze, as she saw how weak and fragile her body seemed to be right now; something rough must've happened that she wasn't talking about. "I'm sorry for invading, but are you doing okay?" She turned her gaze to where the egg was on the outcropping, "was it your egg? Because you laid it?"

Sicily looked over where Priscilla was looking as if trying to process her words, then finally began to laugh, "Goodness, no, eggs aren't that intense, hic! ... "(Though letting you in on a secret, I wouldn't be entirely opposed to it if they were)" ... "Anyway, I'm sure Cole got a kick out of it at least, as should all boys, because girl-hens are funny when they lay," she then proceeded to giggle-cluckle-hic all at once.

Priscilla had no idea who Cole was, but by the look of it, she could only assumed he must be a boy-hen Sicily liked.

"But if you must know," Sicily admitted finally, "I was out drinking, okay?" Hic! "I'm fine, I'm old enough to be making my own decisions you know."

These words were not words Priscilla wanted to hear, "The water here? Do you mean it's poisonous?" Oh no, should she not have consumed any? Is that why it tasted strange?

"Cluckers no, not the water, it's a kind of... special drink. It's fun at parties and stuff, but it makes you act like this." Hic!

...

"Well, whatever it is, I don't think it's good for you."

Sicily looked down for a moment, her whole body reading what Priscilla could only guess was shame, "I know, it's just... you all get together, and it's just you and your friends, and you're all having so much fun... and I guess one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know..." Hic!

Priscilla looked at her regretfully; as much as she wanted to help this hen with what she was going through, she was in her own situation, and couldn't hold back the urgency that had been building within her since the moment she had awoken.

"You mentioned this 'lab'? Do you know what's happened to me? Do you know how I got here?"

Sicily looked at her sympathetically, "I'm sorry, but I really, really, don't have the energy to discuss this tonight, my head's pounding and I don't think I can think that hard even if I tried. I really want to help, okay? Just not tonight, please."

Priscilla looked again around the room, then back at the hen. As anxious as she was about her surroundings, she knew Sicily was right, they both could use some rest. It wouldn't do to keep this poor creature up and talking, no matter how badly Priscilla needed answers.

So as Sicily got up to turn off the electricity and climb into her nest, Priscilla found a nice place in the corner with plenty of the same types of leafs Sicily had covered herself with. Rotating around and kicking the makeshift nest to get comfortable, she curled herself up, readying herself for sleep.

As she laid her head into herself, she could only hear the confusing sounds of the structure, the strange hummings and breathings of things she didn't understand; the occasional sniffle or sob from Sicily the only thing to help give a sense of life to all that was wrong.

She didn't belong here, she didn't even know if she was meant to survive here. Why was it she knew all these things about how things should be, but remembered nothing? Her family, her life before this, she could remember none of it, it was as if it had never existed at all. Why couldn't she remember any of it? Any of it except that she didn't belong here, that she was all alone.

But as she looked up, she could see outside through one those transparent spots on the wall. Moonlight shined in on her illuminating the room with a cool warmth.

Remember, it's still here.

Except it wasn't, as she looked at the stars, dimmer than she remembered, she noticed that this star should've been here, and that star should've been there, each and every one of them out of sync with where her inner guidance instincts felt they should be, like the whole Universe had shifted upon her.

But they were still there, maybe different, but not gone, speaking back to her with light that seemed to come from long ago; light that came from home.

So closing her eyes, she let her worries of her new surroundings fade, and let herself fall into a deep sleep.

---

Warm beams of sunlight shinning down on her through the transparent wall awoke her. The light was comforting, reminding her that even in this world, night didn't last forever.

But she was still in this world, wasn't she? She opened her eyes and blinked them a few times glancing around the strange place; it was definitely not home. But what was home, she knew that this wasn't it, but in the end, all of her memories were here- it just wasn't right.

Figuring there was nothing she could do about her predicament other than make the best of it, Priscilla got to her feet and began to stretch, first her legs, then her neck and tail-

There was a groan behind her, which stopped abruptly with a startled breath.

Priscilla stopped her stretching and turned to see Sicily, sitting up in her nest, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Is everything okay?" Priscilla asked.

"It really happened," Sicily stammered to herself, "Last night really happened. I went out, got drunk, and I brought home a dinosaur. I brought home a dinosaur!"

Priscilla shuffled on her toes, knowing it would be awkward, but feeling it needed to be said "I'm sorry, I know you're not doing well," she said hesitantly, "but wouldn't it make more sense to think you've been eaten? You don't look like something that could easily be drunk, unless they only wanted your blood, which either way, I have to tell you you're mistaken, because you're all here..." She felt she wasn't making much sense. "I'm sorry, I just don't know how things work around here..."

Sicily was just looking at her, the hen rendered speechless.

"Oh, it's a figure of speech," Priscilla backstepped quickly, "I think..."

"Smart-aleck dinosaur," Sicily mumbled to herself, grabbing the hollowed-out crystal from beside her nest and taking a drink. Sicily sat for a moment as she seemed to be getting her head back together.

Finally, "Dinosaur?" Priscilla looked at herself, "Is that what you think I am?"

"Oh yes," Sicily said, climbing out of her nest with a new energy, and falling into her seat as she spun across the cavern to a cozy outcropping. She opened up a tablet like thing which instantly illuminated with all sorts of intricate cave-paintings way more advanced and realistic than anything Priscilla had ever seen before, tapped on some pebbles...

And suddenly the cave paintings changed into images that Priscilla recognized from something deep inside her.

"Dinosaurs," Sicily said proudly.

"Home," Priscilla breathed, reaching for the paintings to touch them.

"Careful," Sicily said, reaching quickly to stop her talons, "It's not a touch-screen."

Priscilla lowered her talons and just resorted to looking at the images instead. Sicily did something with her wing on another thing to move down through them.

Some of the images were clearly goofy, but many of them contained depictions of fellow creatures Priscilla was sure she recognized, most in warm temperate climates, wild and free of any of these strange structures that made up this current place.

Finally, Sicily landed on a picture of a creature that looked just like Priscilla figured she looked like, roaming happily through a calm, overgrown forest.

"A parasaur," Sicily said gently, "Or more exact, a Parasaurolophosus... Parasaurolophosuses... Huh?" She looked closer, "Pa-ra-saur-o-lo-phus."

Priscilla just looked at the image, imagining herself there in place of the one in the image. "That's home," Priscilla said, "Can you help me get back?"

Sicily's face fell, "I hate to tell you this, but your home... It's been gone for millions of years. Everything about my world, all the history that led to everything I know, your world has been gone long before any of this even started."

Priscilla felt her heart beginning to race. It couldn't be true. How could everything...

"Or it could only be a few thousand if you believe in Genesis and all that," Sicily added quickly.

But that didn't help things at all, Priscilla felt every emotion building in her at once, fear, sadness, horror... Whoever her family had been, they were all dead, even if there had been a world to remember them by, that'd all be dead too. Priscilla raised her head and gave a horrible cry, shaking the whole place to its roots.

"No, no, no," Sicily cried, having to catch her egg before the vibrations sent it crashing to the floor.

But Priscilla wouldn't stop- couldn't, it was all too much to understand.

Sicily looked up at Priscilla, seeing her for the grief she felt, so lost and alone, everything she knew of as dead...

...

And then Priscilla stopped, the warmth of soft wings wrapped around her. Priscilla looked down to see Sicily standing there, holding her tightly. Priscilla felt a tear trickle from her eye, but with a stuttering breath, all of a sudden, she felt her quaking heart beginning to calm a little.

"Come on big girl," Sicily said, taking a step back and giving her a pat, "I know none of this is right, but you have me, good old Sicily."

And then there was a knock on the door.

Sicily spun to Priscilla urgently, "Hide!" She said.

A moment later, Sicily cracked open her door, her mother standing before it, stern.

"What are you up to making a racket like that?"

"Nothin' just a project on, uh, dinosaurs."

"Well, it sure is a loud project, can you keep it down?" Sicily's mom said, turning to go, "You're going to disturb the neighborhood."

"Can do," Sicily said.

Sicily closed the door behind her, then turned to look at Priscilla.

"You okay" Sicily asked.

Priscilla still stood there, holding her paws together, the threat of tears still on the edge of her eyes.

"I am kind of hungry," she managed weakly. A whole night since she had awakened, having not eaten for as long as her living memory, the hunger was beginning to get to her.

"You don't happen to know what you eat, do you?"

"Well, I know I eat plants," Priscilla said.

"Yes, but what kinds?" Sicily asked, starting to pace as the considerations hit her, "Lettuce? Kale? Are there certain kinds of food that are good for you and certain kinds that aren't?"

"I don't know," Priscilla answered nervously, "I know I should be able to tell them by sight and smell, but I don't think I remember any of the names you mentioned."

Sicily was starting to get frantic, "And that's the problem, we don't even know if any of your plants exist anymore, your entire diet could be extinct just like you." Sicily fell into her chair in frustration, spinning it slightly with the suddenness of her weight.

Priscilla held her talons, concern rising again, "You mean I may not even be able to eat?"

Sicily looked at her gravely. "And that might not even be the worst of it, we don't even know if the bacteria your body needs to survive even exists anymore, bacteria extinction can happen you know. And then there's the bad stuff; even in this cozy world we've made for ourselves since you've left, we don't know if it's habitable for you. It's not just your species that may be extinct, but your entire biological habitat!"

Priscilla felt her heart beginning to race, she could feel panic once again setting, deep within her being, "Am I going to die?"

Sicily looked at her, realizing what she was saying, and her face softened, "What I'm saying is that your body is completely alien to our modern world, you might as well be on another planet. Everything you are doesn't belong in this environment..." Sicily paused and took a deep breath, suspecting this wasn't making anything better, "So perhaps what you need is a friend who can help you as you find your place in this new home of yours."

Priscilla wasn't sure if she felt convinced.

"Don't worry big gal," Sicily said, getting up encouragingly, "Let's see if I can get you something you recognize."

So Sicily made her way to the kitchen where her mom was already preparing brunch. Giving her mom a greeting, she went to the fridge and looked inside.

"Mom? Do you know what parasaurs like to eat?" She asked "Like do they like salad or something? Fruit cobbler? Tuna? Like are they like Ducky from Land Before Time, or are they something entirely different."

"I have no idea," her mom answered dismissively, going back to her preparations.

"Wikipedia then," Sicily sighed, knowing for sure how absolutely reliable Wikipedia was supposed to be.

"Great, always trust Wikipedia," her mother sighed sarcastically.

Sicily pulled out a large stack of veggies and various greens from the fridge, and laid them out on the countertop, inspecting them.

Sicily's mother looked up from her work suspiciously.

"Great wattles! What ever are you doing?"

Sicily didn't bother to look up, just continued sorting through the selection, looking at the labels, "Oh, you know, just grabbing a snack."

Sicily's mom looked down at the fresh produce all piled on the counter ready to go.

"Veggies...? You?"

"Yes..." Sicily answered slowly.

THUMP!

Sicily's mother turned her head toward the hallway, in the direction of Sicily's room.

"What was that?"

Sicily's eyes went wide.

"I'm sure it's nothing," she said hurriedly, rushing to stand before the hallway, blocking her mother's view.

Sicily's mom looked at her daughter long and hard. "Oh cluckers, don't tell me you snuck any boys into your room last night?"

"Boys?" Sicily laughed, "Nope, I don't have no boys in my room," she said confidently "thank you very much."

Sicily's mother narrowed her eyes, "Girls?"

Sicily hesitated, "Well, uh..."

Sicily's mom put down her knife and pushed past Sicily, heading into the hallway and up the stairs towards Sicily's room.

"No! Mom! Wait! I don't-! You know I like boys!" Sicily cried, scrambling frantically up the steps after her renegade mother. "The whole reason I like to lay eggs is because I like boys!"

Sicily reached the door right before her mother, holding her wings out before it protectively.

Sicily's mother looked at her, now thoroughly sure something was going on.

Then Sicily sighed, "Okay mom, if you want the truth, I have a dinosaur in my room, okay? Not like a chicken dinosaur - or a rooster, as amazing as that may sound, but an actual, real life, long extinct dinosaur. So if you may please, can you please leave the two of us in peace to figure some very important dinosaur stuff out? Please?"

Sicily's mother just narrowed her eyes and reached for the door handle.

"Wait," Sicily cried, grabbing her mother's wing to stop it just in time, "Can you at least promise, if there really is a real life dinosaur in there, that you won't get me in trouble?"

Sicily's mom studied Sicily's expression a good long moment. "Oh, of course," she finally answered sarcastically, "If you have a real life dinosaur in there with you, I'll leave the two of you to do whatever you want with eachother."

And with that, she pushed past Sicily and opened the door.

And there she stood in her tracks.

Priscilla dipped her head in a shy greeting.

"See, I told you," Sicily said, following her mom into the room, "I may have brought a dinosaur home last night. I got drunk and I brought a dinosaur home."

Sicily's mother spun to look at her.

"You promised you wouldn't get me in trouble," Sicily said, throwing up her wings in defense.

"I said I wouldn't punish you for having a dinosaur in your room, I never said anything about you going out and drinking!" she turned again to look at Priscilla, "How?"

Sicily gestured quietly, and pulled her mother aside, "You know that lab down the road?" She said in as low a voice as she could; Sicily's mom nodded, "I think she came from there."

Sicily's mom looked at Priscilla sympathetically, then looked at Sicily, "Find out what you're going to do with the dinosaur, then we'll talk about you sneaking out later. And make sure she doesn't poo in any of your nice clothes."

"Too late," Priscilla said uncomfortably, not really sure what clothes were, but having a strong suspicion they were the same thing as the colorful leaves she had just pooed in.

Sicily's mother just gave a helpless huff, and then turned back down the hall from where she just came. Sicily closed the door behind her.

"I don't think she's used to seeing many of my kind," Priscilla said, discouragedingly.

"Yeah. About the dino poo, we really need to take care of that. Cockerel, I really don't want to find out what it looks like. Or smells like."

---

Spoiler alert, it wasn't the prettiest thing she'd ever seen.

When Sicily returned to her room with Priscilla's veggies after she had taken care of the clothes, the two of them looked through them together to see if there was anything Priscilla knew would be edible for her.

After shifting through them a bit with her claws, she looked at Sicily and shook her head in despair.

"Well, there's gotta be something," Sicily replied frantically, "Think. If you were to eat, what would be your first instinct."

"Well, I'd try to find a tree..." Priscilla turned her glance out the window and trailed off; she took a step forward and pointed, "That looks about right."

Sicily looked outside to where Priscilla had indicated, and gave an irritable huff, "That garbage cockerel still hasn't taken our Christmas Tree!?" Then she looked at Priscilla, sudden realization, "Wait, you eat that?"

Priscilla nodded slightly, "I think."

"Well then," Priscilla said, "Maybe that's not quite a bad thing. Let me go out and get it."

As Priscilla dragged the Christmas Tree through the back door, spilling dead pine needles all over the floor, her mom turned to look at her in horror.

"Whatever in the name of King Cluck's tailfeathers are you doing!" She cried.

"Priscilla needs a Christmas Tree to eat!" Sicily grunted, finally jerking the rest of the tree through the door.

Sicily's mom grumbled to herself but said nothing more. Hens these days.

Sicily struggled hardest with getting the tree up the steps, but fortunately, Priscilla came and helped her up with the last leg of the journey.

When they had finally maneuvered the hunk of tree into Sicily's room, Priscilla looked at it uncertainly.

"It looks fairly dead," she said.

"Will it at least hold you over until I can get to the park later?" Sicily asked, "They have plenty more at the park, but I don't know if you want to wait."

Priscilla lowered her head and took a cautious nibble of the pine needles, then nodded, "I think this will do."

As Priscilla began digging into her Christmas Tree, Sicily returned to her chair and spun back to her computer.

"About that lab I mentioned last night," she said, turning serious, "I think we need to talk."

Sicily opened up her computer, clicked through a few pages, then finally pulled it up.

"Is this the place you came from?"

Priscilla looked up from her pine needles and looked at the screen. She felt a chill pass over her.

"Yes," she replied, "that's the place."

Sicily nodded grimly and started scrolling through a few pages. "It says here, the Dr. Ferguson Lab was closed down last July due to illegal experimentation." She tapped her mouse lightly as she scrolled, looking at the screen closely "It doesn't say what happened to the experiments after they left, but I'm guessing they just left them there to die out on their own. I don't think it happened quite like they were hoping though." Sicily turned to look at Priscilla, long and hard, "Priscilla, I hate to tell you this, but I'm pretty sure you're a clone."

Priscilla just stared at her. "Huh?"

"What I mean," Sicily said, trying to be patient, "the reason you don't remember your parents, or your family, or anything, is because you never had them, somebody made you, in a lab."

Priscilla looked even more confused, "But everyone was made, some way or another," she said, "That's exactly what parents are supposed to be there for."

"But not like that," Sicily said, "you were never meant to be made, your life, your whole body, anything that could be a semblance of any kind of parents, it came from dinosaurs who must've died millions of years ago. You... are just a copy." Sicily slumped back into her seat, deflating.

Priscilla didn't know what a copy was, but something about the way Sicily said it...

"Do you mean..." Priscilla hesitated, "I'm not real?" She poked herself testingly, trying to comprehend this. That couldn't be the case. Everything about her felt real, she had gone through this last night!

"No, I'm sure you're real," Sicily said finally, "But you were never meant to be, your kind died out long ago... you, or whatever you were made from, the real you, she died long ago as well."

Priscilla stumbled back a step. The glint of light reflecting caught her eye, and she turned to look at a perfect image of herself, staring back at her from the wall for the first time.

"I'm... dead," she managed.

"Not you you," Sicily said, "But the dinosaur you were made from, the dinosaur that shares your DNA..." Sicily squeezed her face shut, knowing she wasn't making a whole lot of sense, but knowing she had no other way to describe it. "What I mean is you died and some other dinosaur has come along to replace you, except you are the one who is replacing you and the other dinosaur is, well, the one who died. But I don't know, maybe that other dinosaur was you as well- perhaps your Soul follows around your genetic code or something, and you are always you as long as a clone of you exists; Sydney might know more about that than I do, but I'm not sure."

...

"You don't think it hurt, did it?"

Sicily looked at Priscilla, sympathy filling her, "I don't think we can ever know how you originally died," she admitted, "though you must've been well preserved for them to have been able to clone you. But don't try to focus on that, focus on where you are now; you got me, we can speak to eachother..." She stopped, "Not entirely sure how the scientists pulled that off actually, maybe they just talked a lot and you picked it up from memory or something. But anyway, I got you big gal, I'll get you fitting in with our modern world before you can say 'the cows come home'."

Priscilla wasn't fully convinced by these words, but at the very least, it was comforting to have someone to talk to. The world may be beyond anything she could comprehend right now, and Sicily certainly had her share of strange quirks, but Priscilla knew she was fortunate to have found her. She would need to time grieve the life she maybe never had, the world she knew that was long gone, but perhaps there was a chance she could adapt, just maybe.

"Besides," continued Sicily, jarring Priscilla from her thoughts, "You know what hurts a million times worse than death? Laying an egg, and I've laid millions of those, so basically, you're looking at a pain management expert. Except, I don't manage the pain that well, but that's part of the fun."

Priscilla looked at Sicily questioningly, "You hens really lay eggs that often?"

"You have no idea," Sicily said.

Priscilla glanced towards her back end, reminded that she too was female, "Well, I hope the same doesn't happen to parasaurs much, one death is enough for me."

Sicily glanced towards Priscilla's tail end, then back at her face. "Don't worry, I got more than enough eggs to keep myself entertained," she said, snatching up her own egg from last night and spinning in her chair. She hopped to her feet and looked again at Priscilla. "How about I show you around the house and get you up to speed on things, that sound alright? I promise to keep the egg talks to a minimum right now."

Priscilla nodded, didn't hurt to get started on this new life of hers as soon as she could.

As Sicily led her new friend from the room, a new trill of excitement began to rise within her, she now knew herself her very own dinosaur, and they were going to be roommates!