FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Plot Synopsis

Set in an alternative timeline that breaks away from reality in the 1970s, around the time medical technology began to blossom, the world has come to embrace biotechnology instead of shun it as the "devil's work". In an effort to expand upon the exotic pet industry, wealthy corporations began to mass extract DNA preserves from peat bogs, eventually piecing it together to resurrect a few select species of dromaeosauridae. The theory that they were social creatures, and would be a friendly, loyal companion in a domestic environment, raised around humans, was proven to be quite true.

Protected by the hostile, primal world they once inhabited, their intelligence was catalyzed by human intervention. With each new generation, they became smarter, and even more civil. Many were trained to speak SSL - a simplified sign language designed for their physiology. Despite their own achievements, the world would not recognize raptors as sapient beings, and remained as a highly regulated corporate product - an expensive, exotic pet. While the raptors generally enjoy friendly relations with their human companions, some are beginning to become vaguely aware of their specie's greater situation.

Set in the year 2025, Chris Waller, a VIP in the industry, comes home to an unexpected surprise...

---

Friday, August 29th, 2025

An iron gate slid open along its long, squeaky rail, granting passage into the gated neighborhood that it protected. Friday! The weekend's mine. A four day weekend, at that. My meek smile turned into a frown at the unusual sight of paper litter flying down the road, carried by the strong Hawaiian winds, but nonetheless disturbing the beauty of this neighborhood. Another gust send the trash flying off into the sky and over my car as I continued down the quiet neighborhood street.

About twenty houses and a mile later, I was home. The large house was certainly a mansion for a man just living on his own. That was not the idea I originally had in store for this house, having just recently divorced, taking away any thought of this place being the home of a new family in the near future. But I was content being single for the time being, and the freedom was refreshing.

Emerging from the car in the garage, I approached the door leading into the house, but squinted and slowed down thinking I perhaps heard something inside. I paused, waiting to listen again. Nothing? I thought, waiting a few seconds more. The silence in the garage was at last disturbed by the unnatural chime of my cell phone. Shaking off the spook it gave me, I slid the smart glasses down off the top of my head and over my eyes.

My brown haired co-worker's face came into focus. "Hi Katie," I greeted her as I pointed my thumb ring at myself so she could see me as well.

"What are you, in a closet? Why is so dark over there?" she asked in her usual spunky tone.

"I just got home, I'm in the garage."

"It's Friday, labor day weekend! What are you doing at home? Come out with us, we're at Marty's," she said, although she didn't need to. I could hear the commotion and sort of see behind her to know that already.

"Meh, it looks like it's going to storm out there soon. I don't know if I want to head out tonight," I said in excuse. Forgetting about my previous concern, I proceeded inside the house. I only opened the door part way before I gasped and retreated back into the garage, slamming the door hard, shaking the objects on the walls.

"The hell?!" I exclaimed in fright.

"What?!" she reacted, her face possibility showing more shock than mine at my unusual demonstration.

"There's...there's fucking droms in my kitchen!" For that brief moment I saw a pair of droms, one big, one small just standing there inside, looking at me, as if they were just waiting for me.

"Oh...what? Come one Chris, if you don't want to come out tonight--"

"I'm not kidding. I'll call you back, gotta go." I cut her off and double tapped my thumb ring to end the call.

Alright, calm down....Did I see that right? Those were droms, right?, I rapidly tapped my finger against my hips in a tell of nervousness. The idea of there being intruders in my house - animal or not - would rattle anyone. I'm sure they're friendly, maybe just lost or something, I rationalized. Being a member of the industry that deals with the raptors, I knew enough to know they should all, in theory, be tamed. Not much unlike dogs, anyway. There are feral, dangerous dogs. Could the same be true for droms? I asked myself. It would be unusual to come across an aggressive one, I concluded after giving it some thought.

After a few moments of building up my courage, I took a big breath and opened the door slowly to peek inside. Sure enough, I wasn't seeing things. Both of the droms leaned to the side, craning their head to look back at me from where they were standing. The bigger one seemed happy and excited to see me, while the smaller one seemed reserved and shot piercing eyes at me, but didn't move.

I opened the door some more and took one foot inside. "Hey there, guys. It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you," I pleaded diplomatically, more concerned with defusing any danger than I was befriending them. "Is there anyone in here?" I spoke louder, wondering if perhaps their owner was inside.

With eyes that came up to about my first rib, the bigger one was obviously a deinonychus of a fine, light-grey coat with an underside that was of even shorter, snow white feathers. Its shapely body was topped by a large head crest. Letting off an inquisitive whine, it seemed bright eyed and perky, and seemed to enjoy the human contact I was affording it. A harness was partially hidden under its feather coat, curiously attached to a leash that the smaller raptor had looped over its arm.

The smaller raptor may have been either a velociraptor or a dromaeosaurus, I wasn't certain. Standing at about a 45 to me, it stood alert and still with a hunched over posture and flattened crest to demonstrate its uncertainty. Gold coated and decked out, this one clearly had a strong affinity for brass. It was adorned with a brass breastplated harness, triangular forehead protector which split its head crest into a "V" shape, ribbed bracers on its forearms and digitigrade feet, and an oversized brass ring on its swaying tail, held in place by its fanned tail feathers.

The floor let off a back-and-forth clicking noise. I looked down and retreated a step back into the garage at the frightening sight of sickle claws that were actually still in tact on the smaller raptor, each claw tapping the floor anxiously. Wow, look at those, I thought with an amazed look about me. Weaponized raptors were rare, even the breeds that were intended for law enforcement or special tactics. I couldn't imagine why an unmodified raptor would be running around on its own, at my house no less. The theory that it was an "attack raptor" belonging to a yet-unseen burglar crossed my mind, and I took another step back in retreat.

As if sensing my flight, the smaller one took a step forward and held its hand up in the air in the universal "waving hello" sign, though otherwise not giving me much expression to go off of.

"Hello back. Are you friendly?" I wearily said as I semi-aborted my retreat, talking through the cracked door. I took my gaze off the raptors for a moment, wondering how they got in here. The answer was clear, as I saw the back sliding door was left wide open by my unlikely intruders. Damn, I need to get in the habit of locking up around here more consistently, I scolded myself. "You guys lost?" I asked, returning my attention to them.

The white one let off a friendly chirp as it took a step forward and extended its nose to me, as if trying to read my scent. After a hesitant pause, I cautiously extended a palm out to it, not detecting a sense of threat from this one. It sniffed my hand for a still moment while the smaller one just silently watched with unblinking eyes, as if not trusting a moment of darkness. "It's okay," I said calmly, as I reached out further and attempted to pet the side of its head. This one is obviously tame, I concluded to myself as it allowed me to pet it, cooing happily at the attention.

I quickly readied my phone to call 911, just in case, then returned back inside, just barely. I looked down at the smaller one, trying to gauge the level of threat. It just looked back up at me, and stood there still, but then tapped its sickle claws asynchronously some more against the bamboo floors as if it was provoked by my approach and stare down.

Not wanting to provoke it, I turned my attention back to the friendlier deinonychus as I took a step back to put it between me and the smaller raptor. I scanned it head-down, looking for perhaps an ID of some sort. I did manage to find some type of pink band wrapped around its wrist. "Don't mind me," I said as I gently gripped its arm and brought its wrist up to inspect. The band read "Sophie." A girl's name. "Huh, so your name is Sophie, eh?" I said to her as I gave her a scratch on the neck. She closed her eyes and pushed herself into my scratch, inviting the sensation.

My attention was interrupted as the smaller one stepped forward, letting out a couple raptor'esque barks. The noisy outburst echoed throughout the still house and spooked me as I released the dein and jumped back, readying my defenses. "It's okay it's okay, I won't touch her," I blurted out, making assumptions.

It took another step forward and gestured hello again. Its long, pointed head rolled about slightly while its slitted eyes remained aimed at me with suspicion.

"Yeah...uh, hi, hello," I swallowed my shock, its sudden outburst sending my heart racing. I imagined if it wanted to attack me, it would have done so by now. I recomposed myself as well as I could. "Wh-why are you here?" I asked. I wasn't entirely sure how to communicate with them, but I at least knew some could communicate via SSL - simplified sign language - a language that was custom designed for the raptor's unique hand physiology. Despite working in the industry, my job didn't actually have me dealing with droms personally. I only dealt with business politics, so my low-level knowledge was a bit limited, but I knew a few gestures.

I closed my eyes for two seconds to fetch my memory on the topic, although the stressful situation made it difficult. "I think it's..." I extended a pointer finger in front of me and slashed the air diagonally. "Question," I declared my statement...then flattened each hand level to the floor, "here...why are you here?" I asked, hoping that was correct.

The golden raptor turned around and trotted over to a small console table, pulling Sophie with her on the leash. The deinonychus's long feathery tail whipped around from the turn and slapped me clean across the face. "Ow, what the..?" I blurted out as I readjusted my glasses, wondering if that was perhaps intentional.

Oblivious to that little jab, the strange couple walked across the room a few paces. There on the lower shelf of a console table was a folder I have never seen. I watched as it slid the folder off the shelf and pressed it between its boney hands. It hopped back over to me and held the folder out for me to take.

I squinted and raised one eyebrow at the unexpected gesture. "What are you, some kind of raptor courier service?" I remarked. "Don't...bite me," I nervously said as I slowly reached down to take the folder being presented to me. It seemed to obey peacefully as it allowed me to take it. I opened it up and gave a blank stare as there was nothing inside. It was empty. I returned a confused look the unusual courier, although it seemed to have a content expression now. It made an unfamiliar gesture to me. "What'd you say?" I asked. "Dangit, I need a translator or something," I grunted in frustration. I looked at the folder again, front and back, checking for any writing on the folder itself. It was as empty as could be.

I gave the smaller raptor a closer inspection now that it had loosened up a bit. Upon a lengthier study of its body, I was pretty certain it was pure blooded velociraptor, unlike Sophie's hybrid breed which was devoid of any sickle claws. Crouching down to get a closer view, the brass breastplate had "Quinn" written across it, and three hearts engraved below that. Your name is Quinn. I'm pretty sure that's a girl's name too, I thought. She took a step back from my advancement and made a few more gestures at me. While I was pleasantly surprised to be in the presence of a talker, my lack of knowledge on SSL was problematic.

Quinn didn't seem too happy about my reaction to her delivery, or perhaps my ignoring of whatever it was she was gesturing to me. She barked a couple of a times, pointed to the folder I was now ignoring in my hand, and made that same gesture. "I don't know what you're saying, or what you want me to do with this," I just said as I looked down at her, confused.

Quinn's crest flattened and she just continued to look up at me expectantly with yellow slitted eyes.

Maybe if I... I thought as I took a step into the kitchen and took a handful of paper - mostly just junk in the mail. I showed Quinn the papers, and placed it in the folder. "See? There should be stuff in here, right?" I tried to explained. I felt a little silly, talking this way to a drom. I had no idea what I was doing.

Whatever I did got a big reaction out of Quinn as she watched me pull the papers out the folder. Like the flip of a switch, anger spilled across Quinn's expression, unleashing a rapid series of barking at Sophie and fearlessly slapping the larger raptor's chest with the back of her winged arm. Sophie, as well as myself, took a startled step back from the scolding, whining but not defending herself.

Three times towards Sophie, Quinn pointed up, then forward with each hand, a simple "Go" gesture, barking each time. The meek dein took a step back and pinched the air with her fingers, replying "No". Those were at least signs that were basic enough that I remembered from some time ago, but it didn't help with my confusion of the situation any. Nothing was making any sense.

The velociraptor let out a frustrated growl and marched out the back door, forcing Sophie to follow and keep a brisk pace. Before I knew it, they were both gone. I looked at the useless folder again. "What the fuck?" was all I could make out of this.

The text "wtf is going on over there???" rolled across my vision in my glasses, a text message from Katie.

Not right now, I answered in my thoughts. My interest was far too occupied at the moment, and I wasn't going to let this drop so suddenly. I looked out the back, but they were already gone, but then I saw them out through the front window. Emerging from the front door, I walked out to the street to tag along, curious at what they were doing. The two raptors marched down the street for about a minute until they got to the top of a long descent, manifesting a fairly good view over the rest of the neighborhood below.

As I caught up to them, they both were hunched over slightly and let out off a worrisome whine. Quinn looked back me with a none-too-happy expression, made another unfamiliar gesture, then pointed down at the neighborhood below. At what, exactly, I couldn't discern. I just saw houses about as big as mine, the long, curved neighbor street, tropical flora, and the community gate off in the distance. All three of us jerked at the sudden gust of tropic wind, pulling a few loose feathers off each of them. Quinn had to shift in place to prevent almost getting knocked over.

Sophie laid down in the street in a brooding position, letting off another whine as she looked up at Quinn with what seemed like depressed eyes. I took a moment to try and solve this puzzle logically. Remembering how Quinn had awkwardly held the folder earlier, I had to call into question their ability to carry a folder securely for any extended length of time. If the contents fell out of that folder, I wonder if they think anything of it?

"'Go go go', eh?" I repeated as the three of us looked over the land below. "If you dropped it on your way here, there's no way you're going to find it with all this wind." I looked down at them, seeing that they were both looking off into the distance with uneasy eyes. Of course, the thought I should be wondering is why anybody would deliver something to me in such a bizarre manner. Was this some sort of joke a friend was playing?

Whatever the case, these droms appeared to be defeated and lost now, frozen in the street and without a plan of recourse. I didn't know their story or their purpose, but this scene, combined with the depressing weather, was bringing me down and making me feel empathy for them. "Come on, you can't stay here in the street. I guess I better try and get you two home," I said, gesturing them to follow me back to the house. "Somehow..."

---

Part 2

"Other hand," Fiona commanded as she gestured Dante to present his left manus. The bronze deinonychus emitted an affirmative grunt as he did so, and the girl went to work manicuring the last set of claws.

The TV drowned out the noise of the continual squabbling of velociraptors outside. They were fighting again. Fiona glanced outside the nearby window occasionally to make sure their roughhousing didn't get too out of control. The pack had arranged a make-shift tournament of their own in their abundance of leisure time, always eager to pit their abilities against their packmates. At the moment, their activity was ignorable, and so she put her attention back on her own dein.

"You been busy, haven't you," she commented, noticing the chipped up claw tip. "You better not be trying to climb trees again, mister."

The docile dein, sitting down in front of Fiona by the couch, just looked at her with attentive, green-yellow eyes. He merely looked into his companion's eyes patiently while she took care of him.

"There we go, all set," Fiona said after about a minute of trimming, set down the clipper, only to be replaced by a coarse comb. Dante, trained by repetition, lowered his head down closer to her lap while Fiona groomed his crest feathers. "Good boy," she whispered.

Her whisper was drowned out by the velociraptors outside, growing louder and louder. Perking herself up to see out the window better, she saw a couple of the girls tangled up in a ball, locked in a battle. The other packmates, circling the duel, were all barking rapidly, filling the air with excitement and fueling the activity. Fiona let off a heavy sigh, raised the whistle hanging around her neck to her lips, and gave it a few toots. "Settle down out there!" she yelled.

The pack instantly broke it off and scattered, not wishing to be scolded further. A red feathered velo jumped up onto some clutter outside and pressed the side of her face to the glass. Without missing a beat, Fiona stuck her tongue out, making a face at the small spy in the window. It licked the window, hopped off, and skittered away, the sounds of its unique version of laughter fading off with distance.

Fiona rolled her eyes at its typical shenanigans and went back to work on Dante. While the velos were usually careful with their battles, the young assistant there has had to patch up her fair share of scratches, and she didn't want to deal with it right now.

"What a bunch of stinkers, huh?" she said to Dante.

Dante was voluntarily oblivious to the activity, his head resting in her lap as he enjoyed the scheduled grooming, though equally enjoying spending time with his human companion. His nostrils flared after some time, and he shifted closer to Fiona, shamelessly wedging his nose between her legs.

Fiona squirmed at the intrusion, but grinned. "Yeah, I know what you want," she said in a coy tone. She scratched the side of Dante's head and adjusted her posture in the couch, spreading her legs a couple inches, inviting the attention.

Beginning to awaken from his trance, Dante grunted and started fumbling with Fiona's clothes carefully with his claws. She didn't help, rather enjoying watching the drom try to figure out how clothing worked. With a long tail swishing about, the dein eventually managed to slip its claw under the base of her skirt and was tugging it down.

Before he managed to progress much further, the pack outside all began resounding their raptor'esque yipping and barking, obviously very worked up over something.

"For crying out loud," Fiona signed and reached for her whistle again. She stopped herself just below blowing it, as she saw the raptors hopping up to perch along the fence outside. "Maybe some other time," she smirked and pushed Dante away as she stood up, recomposing herself.

The bronze raptor looked up at her playfully, his tail whipping about. His companion was looking out the window instead of at him. He tapped her thigh with his snout to get her attention, then simply gestured the sign for "Question" with a diagonal slash, vaguely asking what's happening.

"Settle down, Dante, Herschel is back," she said as she patted his crest and walked outside, the dein keeping to her right.

Fiona and Dante joined the lineup of velos perched along the wood log fence outside in front of the large house. Everybody watched as the orange van pulled up and came to a park. Known to only Fiona there, this was going to be a special delivery. The rest of them were simply interested in their pseudo-pack-leader returning.

Emerging from the van, a grey haired, weathered man in equally weathered clothes walked around to greet the pack. As if well trained, the nine velociraptors along the fence uniformly saluted him with a manus up, greeting him "Hello". Dante copied suite a second later.

"Welcome back," Fiona said, and after a moment's paused added, "So let's see her."

Herschel waved back and turned to let the passenger out of the van. "You're going to like this one, she's a real beaut," he said as he unlatched the van's side door and slid it open.

Detecting that there was a new, unknown drom in their midst, the pack of velos all began to yip excitedly. A couple of the bolder, younger ones hopped down from the fence and approached the van.

Assaulted by the noise and approach of so many strangers, the new drom retreated to the back of the van.

"Ah ah!" Fiona scolded them and stepped forward quickly. She gestured "Go. Quiet," and pointed back to the lineup. They obeyed, rejoining the distanced group, but not before trying to sneak a peek inside first.

After a few moments of forced silence, Herschel leaned into the van. "It's okay, sweety, come on out," he coaxed her.

She slowly peeked her head out the door and looked outside again. There looking back at her were 24 eyes, 18 of which belonged to a colorful row of smaller, curious raptors perched along a fence.

"Her name is Sophie," Herschel said to Fiona.

"You're right, she's beautiful. What a cute face," she replied in an adoring tone. "What's wrong with her?"

Herschel unpocketed and unfolded a paper and looked it over. "Something to do with the eggs not taking, as far as I can tell," he said, then handed the paperwork over to his assistant. Prototype engineered droms that didn't mature as expected were given to foster centers such as this one. Since females were always first to be engineered in a new breed, the foster centers were expectedly gender imbalanced.

Herschel spent about the next two minutes coaxing Sophie out of the van. The lineup of velos were fidgeting about, their patience being put to the test. A few of them leaned over to look at eachother, gesturing a variety of a remarks such as "Deinonychus white scared," and "Question go?", eager to investigate closer.

There near the end of the lineup stood a golden pure named Quinn, and next to her stood a black and white named Shiroku, also a pure and the acting leader of the group when there were no people around. Shiroku squawked as she looked down the lineup, pinching the air to reply "No", followed by "Quiet".

Sophie began to act like she was about to step out of the van, but just as soon retreated back in. "A shy one isn't she," Fiona finally spoke up, taking a moment to look away from reading over the paperwork.

Herschel just grunted his acknowledgement. "Well, it's a lot to take in. Poor thing has probably only seen a few other droms in her life so far."

"I take it she doesn't speak?" Fiona asked, assuming that if she did, this would be a lot easier. SSL trained deinonychii were fairly uncommon, unlike the velociraptors.

"Nah, she just knows the basic dozen," he replied, referring to universally common commands, not unlike how dogs have a basic set of commands they almost all know.

The boring minutes rolled by, and one by one the velos began to lose interest and returned to the side yard to go about their usual activities. Herschel encouraged Dante to look after the pack, and so he wandered off as well. The remaining velos were Shiroku, Quinn, and pure white named Xueh, the three of them acting as somewhat the "wise elders" of the pack. They continued to wait patiently, close together.

Herschel sat in the door of the van, petting Sophie, allowing her to settle in at her own pace. Finally, with less faces staring at her, she stepped out of the van and presented herself to the remaining audience. The scutum of her elegant feet crunched the gravel below, 140 lbs of well toned muscle dropping down.

Fiona chuckled, "Oh wow, look at her. Damn Hersh, she's show quality. But I have to ask the obvious here: who's going to take care of her?" After he didn't answer immediately, she continued, "What, are you going to look after both her and your own?"

"Yeah," Herschel stalled, scratching the back of his neck, "I'm still trying to work that little detail out of course."

Sophie looked rather nervous still, her crest flat and head twitching all about, although her eyes remained fixated on the three velociraptors as if she has never seen one before in her life.

As if thinking now was the time, Shiroku jumped down from the fence. Sophie, however, did not appreciate this sudden gesture and just as quickly hopped back into the van and fled to the back.

Both Herschel and Fiona sighed. "She sure is skittish," Fiona said with crossed arms.

"I don't think she's ever seen a velociraptor before," he said, then leaned in to look at her in the van. "You big baby, you're four times their size."

Shiroku let out an elongated bark and didn't appear to be too impressed. "Deinonychus scare much," she gestured, then looked back behind her for a moment before continuing, "Deinonychus family fun more. Bye," she finished, pointing to herself for a moment before storming off to join the others around back.

Xeuh watched Shiroku leave them, glanced at Quinn for a moment, then hopped down and ran after her to catch up.

"And then there were three," Herschel muttered. "Going to stick around, are you?" he said to Quinn.

Quinn cocked her head curiously and remained silent. After another uneventful minute rolled by, she finally spoke up with a small yip, and upon receiving attention gestured "Help". Not waiting for a confirmation, she hopped down and approached the van, her agile body and tail swaying side to side with each casual stride.

"Alrighty then, do your thing," Herschel bowed aside.

Quinn hopped up into the van and faced the shy dein in the back, who, on the sight of the intruder, proned herself in a submissive position with her hands held over her snout and letting off a meek whine.

The would-be ambassador sat down where she stood and allowed the dein to get used to her for a moment. She gestured "Hello deinonychus," followed by "Trust," and pointed at herself.

From outside the van, Herschel snapped his fingers to get her attention. "Deinonychus no sign," he explained.

Giving up on speaking to her, Quinn huffed and faced Sophie again. The dein remained still and shrunken with her tail wrapped around herself. Quinn took a look around the inside of the van, and spotted a polished slinky on the floor. She reached out and grasped it, and watched as the other end of the lazy spring remained on the floor. The sunlight refracted through the back cabin and lit up the metal, fascinating both droms.

Quinn continued to play around with the bouncy toy, now grasping the coil with both hands and moving it all about with a semi-amused expression. She focused beyond the toy and saw Sophie beginning to loosen up, her eyes glimmering with utmost interest at the interactive, shiny object.

This wasn't the first time Quinn volunteered to break in a newbie, although it didn't happen very often. The "gold teacher", as the others referred to her as, was well versed in socializing with other dromaeosauridians, although her reserved, introverted personality begged the question on if she actually wanted to do this, or if she just felt as though it were her role.

Herschel and Fiona would occasionally exchange banter with her, although despite her being a resident there for several years and generally considered one of the best socializers, Quinn would rarely, if ever, speak about herself. Velociraptors were especially observant, but not very self-observant, making this behavior somewhat of an expected stereotype. It, however, seemed to be most true for her, and the others would often see her as a mysterious paragon of sorts.

Quinn lowered her nose to the floor and pushed one end of the slinky towards Sophie, allowing it to roll a bit closer. The temptation was too strong, drowning out her prior concerns. The dein surrendered protecting her snout with her manus as she reached out and grasped the coil, her tail now twitching about. Quinn jerked her arms, causing the strange toy to wave about.

Sophie's crest finally lifted, being quite entertained by the gesture, and slowly, she stood herself up as the two continued to interact together with the toy. Eventually Quinn let go of the slinky, allowing some of to retreat towards Sophie, but Sophie copied her and dropped it as well.

With the dein in good spirits now, Quinn moved in to finish her job. Having observed the human gesture countless times and learning to adopt it as their own, Quinn extended her right hand out to Sophie.

The newcomer cocked her head curiously at the gesture, but eventually picked up in the intent, and reached out to copy. Quinn took the manus into her own, and gave it a shake.

"Well done, Quinn," Herschel said as the two emerged together a few moments later. With all the other droms, other than Quinn, out of sight, Sophie returned to her usual, perky self. Her head twitched all about as she took in the new environment. However, within a few moments, her attention shot skyward as a bird flew by. So much life and energy has never been witnessed before by any of them as Sophie took off like a bullet in a hopeless pursuit, leaving the three of them in her dust. Sophie ran with her head pointed up at the flying bird as she chased after it, and it wasn't long before the unskilled hunter tripped over an obstacle on the ground, dropping her to the ground with a clumsy squawk.

Herschel sighed and shook his head. "Well then, good luck training her."

---

Part 3

"No, no, drop it," I scolded Sophie, "that's not yours," I said as I tried to take the chrome candlestick Sophie swiped from the entry table on the way back in.

Sophie chirped and hopped back and away from me, her gaze fixated on the reflection in the chrome.

"Come on, drop it," I said in a more commanding voice as I reached out at her.

Lively eyes looked up at me for a moment, and she twitched about, dropped the candlestick and fled to the side into the living room. I flinched as the metal weight crashed into the floorboards, leaving a small dent. A zipping whirl of the leash was heard as it rapidly extended away from Quinn, the energetic deinonychus rendering an unacceptable distance away from her holder.

Quinn stumbled a couple steps, trying hard to brace her foot against the escaping force. With a hiss and bark in protest, she whipped her arm about trying to reel Sophie back in.

Sophie squawked and erected her crest in shock as the leash snagged her advancement. She turned around to face Quinn, her long tail whipping around and slapping a table lamp. I cringed as the lamp wobbled about unsteadily while Sophie, hearing the noise behind her, turned around again with a playful expression. Her tail made a full circle and smacked the other end table's lamp, which I lunged out towards to steady while the first lamp settled back onto its base on its own.

"Oh my God, stop spinning around! It's only been 10 seconds and you nearly broke two things already," I said in an irritated tone after a sigh of relief. I walked over to Sophie to hang onto the base of her leash to secure her, but just as soon Quinn barked for attention.

The gold raptor gestured a string of strange signs to me again, then just stood there as if waiting for a reply.

I rubbed my eyes for a moment and shook my head, "Arg, I don't know SSL," I nearly yelled. The communication barrier was a recurring nuisance, and the non-stop string of events preventing me from gathering my thoughts was leading me to a imminent meltdown.

My grip on Sophie tightened as I felt her pulling away. Her head was darting about, as if restless and wanting to explore the strange house. Or explore more, even, I realized as my attention began to focus into my surroundings. I began to notice more and more items around the house have been disturbed, or were just flat out missing. "What the hell happened around here? How long were you troublemakers here before I got here?" I asked as I looked around.

Quinn, perhaps sensing the aura of irritation, barked a couple times, and Sophie copied suit. But she was tugging on the leash, trying to bring Sophie back towards her. I let go, and Sophie fell back to her apparent superior. Her tail squished about as she walked away from me, and smacked me a second time across the chest.

I grunted and rubbed my side. "You are aware you have a tail, yes?" I said with a sigh, wondering if perhaps all deinonychii were as oblivious as her.

Just as soon as she walked up to Quinn, the troublesome dein grabbed some faux tall grass in a potted plant near the entryway and liberated it, but just as soon found it to be uninteresting and dropped it on the floor.

"What? Why would you...ah!" I stumbled over my words and tried to keep my composure. "Out!" I commanded as I opened the front door. "You two are too much of a menace. You can hang out outside while I figure this out," I said.

Right on cue, my phone rang again. The eyepiece read Katie, who has no doubt become impatient with my silence.

"Shoo!" I commanded them again I pointed out the door.

Sensing my scolding, Quinn gave me a wide berth as she walked past me, outside, taking Sophie with her. She turned around once outside, looking up at me with an unsure look about her.

"Don't run off now. Wait I think I actually remember this one," I said as I rolled my eyes up in thought. I pointed at Quinn, then made the "Stay" gesture. It was the same as "Here", but with only one hand instead of two. On that note, I closed the door and answered the phone.

"Chris! The hell!" a none too happy Katie greeted me.

Not wishing to acknowledge her attitude, I broke right in with my questioning. "Hypothetically speaking, how would you go about returning a lost drom?" I asked.

Not helping my case any, Sophie's unmistakable raptorian bark was heard through the door.

"'Hypothetical', is it?" she quipped, obviously citing the noise.

I gave a forced smirk, "Yeah, I don't know where they came from," I admitted, but moved away from the front door to escape the noise.

"'They'"? she squinted one eye. "How many we talking about here," she chuckled.

"Oh. Two."

My view of Katie turned into a crazy blur as she turned the camera away, and I could hear her talking to someone there. By the sounds of it, she was immediately filling in the others on the news. I heard her say "Yeah, he said there's two of them," followed by some muffled replies in the background. I waited patiently.

Her face came back into focus, but I took the initiative, "Was that Devin? He there?" I asked. He most likely was.

"Yeah. So what--,"

"Don't suppose you could beam me over to him?" I interrupted her. Small talk with Katie wasn't going to help any, and I was sure Devin had more helpful knowledge on the topic.

"Fine," she said reluctantly, and a moment later Devin's face replaced her's.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, buddy," the spiky haired, chinese co-worker greeted me. I knew he dealt with the technical side of the business, and should at least be able to answer some basic questions.

I gave him the short version, that I just came home and they were there without any other hints of an owner. "Aren't they tagged or something like that?" I suggested to him.

"Yep, they should all be tagged. A lost drom shouldn't be an issue though. They all have a GPS on them, so I'm sure the owner will come a knocking any moment now," he explained.

"Oh, really?" I said, pleasantly surprised. "I didn't know that. Well that's a relief."

"But you could just scan the tags. Their tags are basically the same tech as your smartcard like you use to buy things, so give it a scan. Should be somewhere on their neck," he went on.

"Alright, I'll try that right now, one sec," I said as I stepped outside. Sophie and Quinn were just standing there near the door, thankfully not doing much at the moment. I tapped the "listen" button on my thumb ring and ran my finger up and down Sophie's neck.

I heard a blip and sure enough the tag info popped up on the screen.

"Alright, cool. Its got her name, and, uh, is that a phone number?"

"Yeah, should be."

"No, I mean...hold on," I tapped the side of my glasses and said, "Yuvy, what country is that phone number from?"

"That is an Australian phone number," Yuvy, the computer's AI, answered.

"Devin, this drom has an Australian phone number listed. What's up with that?"

"Hmm, that's sort of strange. Let's see what he looks like," he said.

"She," I corrected. I turned my hand around and pointed the camera at her for a few moments.

"Pretty girl. Doesn't look like any Australian breed I know of. In fact I've never really seen one with with black rectrix tips like that. That's kinda cool," he said. I heard Katie in the background wanting to sneak a peak.

"Other than an ID number, that's all there is on the tag," I said. I took a step towards Quinn to scan her, but she stepped back and wouldn't let me get near her. "I don't think I'll be able to scan the velociraptor."

"The ID is sort of useless to anyone other than the owner. And yeah, velos can be pretty skittish around strangers."

The thought struck me that he may ask to see Quinn next, which threw a red flag in my mind. Pure blooded raptors shouldn't be running about, and I didn't want to make light of that right now. I changed the topic before it could come up. "Thanks for the help, I'm going to try calling the owner right away. These two sort of tore up my house already," I said in a none-too-pleased tone. I stopped myself right before hanging up, "Oh hey, this velo is signing me. Don't suppose either of you know SSL?"

"Oh God, you mean to tell me you've never used the app?"

"App?" I said, feeling a bit dumber now.

"Dude, the company spent a ton of money buying a company license for everyone. It's on your work computer, link it up to your glasses."

"Yeah, I never really deal with the droms personally, so..."

"You should, it's fun talking to them," he said with a smile.

"Alright, noted. See ya!" I said before clicking off from the call. "Yuvy, call that number I was looking at," I instructed next.

The computer initiated the call, and the phone rang and rang, then abruptly terminated. "What happened?"

"Your call has was most likely blocked," Yuvy answered.

"Can you provide any information on that phone number?" I asked.

The computer took a while before it answered, "No known businesses match this number, so this is most likely an ordinary private number."

"No caller ID or anything?"

"This party would need to dial you first to render caller ID data."

"Great...well that sucks. What am I suppose to do with you guys in the meantime?"

"I do not un--"

"Yeah yeah, shush, not you," I shut off the computer's listen mode. I sighed as I looked at the two droms standing before me, seemingly looking to me for guidance. My focus was more on Quinn at the moment. Perhaps if I could talk to her, she could clue me in. The golden velo nervously tapped its sickle claws twice as I stared at it.

The idea that Quinn was a pure blood was beginning to catch up to me now. Who the hell would own a pure? My eyes rolled off to the side as I tried to piece that puzzle together. I tapped my phone again. "Yuvy....can you look up Hawaiian state law regarding pet ownership?"

After a few moments, Yuvy answered, "Best match for your inquiry is the Hawaiian state government website."

"Search there for domestic pet ownership and tell me who may own a Type A velociraptor."

"There are no results for your inquiry," Yuvy answered.

That doesn't sound right, I thought. "Is there any relevant information?"

"Based on your inquiry, the closest relevant text states that 'it is prohibited to sell or exchange any Type A or AA dromaeosauridae.'"

"I see, so it's enforced at the point of sale then...is it the same in Australia?"

The words "Searching" blinked in front of me for awhile. "Yes, in all provinces," the computer finally answered.

"Well," I paused, finding my research to be somewhat inconclusive and perhaps useless. I had a few theories I opened my mouth to blurt out, but every one didn't add up. Sophie walked up to me and looked up into my eyes with a kind face. It seemed as though she had calmed down and was now focusing on me, seeking attention. I scratched her head, "You're kind of cute, aren't you?"

Sophie seemed content as I pet her. She was an attention sponge, and I began to recall that deins were fairly high maintenance when it came to needing social feedback. She pushed her head into my chest and rubbed around as I pet her. "Hey now," I chuckled "don't get too attached."

Quinn let out a couple barks, and I backed myself away from Sophie. I couldn't tell if she was just being protective of her, or if she was just wanting attention, but I was too intimidated by her to take any chances. Once again she gestured more unknown signs.

"Hmm," I grunted as I pursed my lips, recalling Devin's advice. "Let's try out this app, maybe you could clue me in here, since you obviously have so much to say," I said as I unpocketed a rolled up gadget, about the size of a pencil.

I unfurled the tablet, pinched out a charge, causing the device to become rigid. After waking up the computer, I fumbled around the interface for a bit. "Where is this thing?" I spoke to myself, but eventually found an app stowed away in memory called SORT, or "SSL Optical Recognition Translator". The app linked into my glasses, with the text "calibrating..." scrolling across my vision. As I looked down at Quinn, her body was outlined in a red glow, and various lines were shadowing her six fingers. After a few moments, I heard a ding, with the text "Ready!" onscreen. Her outline now glowed green, and her fingertips and knuckles had blue tracking dots rendered over them.

Quinn just stared up at me. She didn't appear to appreciate me looking at her, obviously, unless I perhaps had something to say. She took a step back and clicked her claws again. "Figures, now you don't talk."

I took a moment to poke around the interface a bit, and quickly discovered its other major feature was a signing guide. I just had to prepare the words I wanted to say, and my glasses would tell me how to do it. "Why are you here?" I dictated the command as I held down the listen key. The gestures rendered in front of me, but they were, unfortunately, something I've already asked before - "Question here". It was going to take some care to learn the right words to say.

"Why are you at my house?" I tried something more specific. I followed the instructions, albeit a bit slowly, gesturing "Question here home?"

Quinn seemed to lighten up her express now that I was finally speaking to her. She straightened out her posture and signed back to me. The text "Walk here" showed up onscreen. She then pointed at herself and the text changed to "I walk[ed] here."

I stared at the text for a moment. "Jee, thanks, that was helpful," I said sarcastically. "We humans have a word called 'smartass' for replies like that," I joked. I wasn't serious, of course, and reconsidered how I was going to ask her better questions.

"Where is your home?" I asked, then gesturing "Question home?" and pointed at her.

Quinn bounced her crest around, as if her mind trying to compute my question. She looked at my kind of funny but just gestured "Home".

I squinted and scratched my chin. "You're home is at home...I can see this isn't going to get me anywhere," I said, losing my faith in this interrogation idea. What should I ask? I racked my brain.

"Who is your owner?" translated to "Question own?", I asked, pointing to her.

The velo took the longest to answer this one, staring at me for some time, as if she has never been asked this before. She finally replied, "No. Question own?" bouncing the question to me as she pointed back.

"Hmph," I snorted, "Is that suppose to be a philosophical reply? 'No one owns me, who owns you?'" I wondered if that's what she meant.

Either way, I concluded it was going to be impossible to get any real specific information out of Quinn, since I doubted they had the means to gesture out any sort of signs such as names or addresses, or if they would even know them if they did. I wish I had known what she had been saying earlier, but I had no idea how to get her to repeat old history.

"Can't reach the owner, can't lookup the owner, can't communicate well with them...Plan C...Yuvy," I woke up the computer again, "Search for an animal shelter that can handle droms," I asked. I would hand the girls over to them as a last resort, but for now I just wanted to speak with someone, perhaps get some advice.

Once again the searching text blinked for a while. "This is the most probable result for your inquiry," the computer replied, displaying information of a shelter.

"Call them," I instructed. Sophie inched closer to me as it rang, and I cautiously pet her, though keeping my distance so as not to rile up Quinn. I frowned as an answering machine picked up, first reminding me that I was calling after hours, now closing in on 6PM, and second that it was a holiday weekend. It appeared that there was just a skeleton crew working there over the weekend, and so I wouldn't be able to get help from them for a few days. Sheesh, I imagine it's going to be like that everywhere else, too.

"Well shit, shot down at every end," I said as I looked at the droms defeated. As if on cue, I felt coldness tingling all over my body. The typical tropical storm had begun its next phase. "You girls sure did pick a lousy time," I said as I made my way back in.

I stood inside and looked out at them on the front porch. They looked slightly depressed out there in the chilling air, or maybe that was just my human interpretation of it. "Alright, fine, you can stay here for now. Hopefully your owner will show up soon enough," I said with my arms up in surrender. "Just give me a minute, 'stay here,'" I gestured and closed the door.

I briskly swept through my house and put away any fragile look item that I suspected a stray tail or curious claws would misplace. Candlesticks, a decorative mirror, nik-naks, mostly all stuff belonging to my ex that she never took with her. It was actually sort of a relief putting away all this stuff, since it wasn't serving me the most pleasant reminders. What a convenient excuse, I thought.

"Alright, come on in. Nobody needs a soggy raptor," I beckoned them inside. They didn't hesitate.

---

Part 4

Quinn clenched her manus and tapped them together. "Rock," she said, then picked up a suitable example next to her and showed it to Sophie.

The dein-in-training looked at it for a second, but, looked away as she found the hustle and bustle surrounding her to be more interesting to watch. Most of the pack were playing a game of some sort, although she had no idea how it worked. Day two now, her eyes wandered about her new home. It seemed this pack she was thrown into spent most of their time in this clearing. The house was on one side and a wood log fence surrounded them. Beyond that was a wall of dense tropical flora, and looking skyward, a curious assortment of instruments were hanging from lines across the clearing, which the velos seemed to be focussing their attention on as far as she could tell.

Growing accustomed to her short attention span, Quinn rotated herself to the side and whipped her tail tip across's Sophie's face to scold her. Sophie squawked, caught by surprise, and just as soon did Quinn take her hand and force her to grasp the stone. Quinn repeated the gesture "rock," then pointed at the stone Sophie was now holding.

Sophie paused for a few moments as she held the stone up to study it. It was just a boring stone, but Quinn seemed to be awful interested in it for some reason. She dropped the stone and copied the simple gesture Quinn had demonstrated. Whether she was actually picking up on the sign's meaning or had just learned to copy the gesture so that Quinn would stop bothering her had yet to be tested.

Quinn looked satisfied enough, and led Sophie to her next target. The questionable "student" followed the golden velo, for she knew she would be scolded if she wandered off. She tapped all 6 fingers together, forming an invisible ball. "Ball," she said, then picked up an idle ball next to her.

With curious eyes, Sophie leaned her head down and sniffed the ball. Without warning she captured the ball in her maw, and lifted her eyes up towards Quinn in a "like this?" expression. In no time at all did Quinn fan out her crest with an angry expression about her. She stepped back and slapped the yellow ball from out of her mouth, barking angrily. "No eat!" she gestured.

Some of the other velos were watching now, and Sophie whined and hunched over. She had been scolded a lot lately and was confused more so than usual. She wanted to instead be with the other two humans here, but they were only giving her minimal attention for some reason, and she had been left mostly in the hands of Quinn and Xueh since she arrived.

This place was strange to her. Just being outside for so long was unusual for her. The trees, and the noises were all so much different. She was quite certain the orientation of the sun wasn't the way it was a few days ago, and her perception on her place and time was thrown off course. The other droms here were all so small, unlike her. She saw a couple that were her own size, but they seemed to be inside with the humans most of the time. Why couldn't she be inside with them? Why does she have to be out here with the smaller ones?

Over the past day, she had learned to acclimate with a few of the velos, namely the ones that were wearing the most metal. They seemed to be okay with her, and their demeanor and way they looked at her made her feel safe. However, the rest of them...they appeared to be a little too interested in her. They'd look at her like she was a treasure, but they wouldn't approach her head on. She always felt like they were creeping up on her, and she'd occasionally catch them skittering away.

She whined and took a step back from everyone, but Quinn didn't let her wander off more than a couple steps. She barked, and held up the yellow ball again, waiting expectantly. Quinn had been harassing her the better part of the day with this bizarre activity, and so she perhaps knew how to react. She tried responding with the last sign that got her out of it. "Rock," she gestured. Quinn hissed and was about to gesture something, but Sophie immediately followed up with the "ball" sign, casting an unsure expression down towards her teacher.

Quinn stared at Sophie for a few moments with a studied expression, twitching her tail about. It was as though she doubted Sophie's competence. She spotted Xueh across the clearing, the all-white velo perched along the fence preening herself. After barking to get her attention, she gestured "Stick. Bowl. Here."

Within a few moments, Xueh hustled over clasping a long stick in one hand and hugging a plastic "bowl" to her chest with the other, although it was more like a child's sand bucket. In an unspoken, understood coordination, Quinn and Xueh laid out the bucket, stick, ball, and rock in a line in front of Sophie. Sophie watched them go about their strange task with an amused expression.

Once Quinn got Sophie's attention, she picked up each item and gestured the appropriate word, muttering raspy noises under her breath as she did so. Once she finished she took a step back, standing next to Xueh, and after a pause, gestured "stick".

Sophie watched the gesture, but just as quickly her gaze wandered off to the side to watch the other velos playing, which she found to be far more interesting. Or at least she thought they were playing. She couldn't quite understand what it was they were doing. One of them was awkwardly trying to hold a branch skyward, and the others were all looking up at it. Her attention was snapped back to Quinn by a series of angry barks, and she flinched as if expecting to be tail slapped again.

The "stick" gesture Quinn was making reminded her of a previous lesson, and so she looked down at the stick, but she wasn't quite clear on the intent yet. She copied the "stick" gesture, but Quinn just squawked at her and pointed down at the lineup, although not at any particular item. Sophie copied, pointing down at the lineup as well, but Quinn stepped forward and slapped her hand and barked.

Sophie whined in confusion and lowered herself down into a brooding position in surrender. Quinn just huffed and sat down, as if she needed a break. It was never easy to train other droms when they were just starting out, and she didn't have much experience with deins. There were the two other deins here, but she didn't interact with them very often. They seemed to spend most of their time with the humans inside, trained by them instead. But, it was in her mindset that deins were more difficult to train, so she figured this was going to take a while.

She looked to the side at Xueh. The white, hybridized velo was one of her closer allies around her. Like Quinn, she wore a fair amount of metal as well, although she preferred chrome instead of brass. She had a forehead protector with wide bands that went around the side's of her head. A dozen fine chains hung from the bands, as if they were the equivalent of earrings. Xueh would often rack her claws along the chains, perhaps entertained by the jingling.

The seniority of the velos in the pack tended to be in sync with the amount of metal they wore, as this was the one material possession they actually had an interest in. They were all designed in a way that they could wear it or take it off by themselves using their manus. While the humans tended to reward the velos with the adornments for good behavior, or even as a birthday present, there have been a few rare occasions where a trade was established amongst themselves.

"Sign bad," Xueh gestured to Quinn and pointed towards Sophie. The velo had a rather smug expression about her, not appearing to be at all upset, unlike Quinn who appeared to be a bit irritated. While Sophie already knew about a dozen basic signs already, being trained drom-to-drom was certainly a new experience for her, and it didn't help that she was still trying to adapt to her new home. The training was, for a deinonychus, intense anyway, considering deins were more fit for signing when they were older and more mellow.

Quinn was going to say something, but she was instead watching a trio of velos creeping up on both sides of the now-prone Sophie. She was aware the others have been trying to investigate Sophie since she arrived, but have been a bit too skittish to approach her directly. Perhaps they've mustered up the courage by now.

Sophie bent her head to the left, spotting the creeper, and tried to waddle away to the side while prone. She had seen that velo a few times now, always watching her with eyes that made her feel like she was the prey. She looked to the right and saw she was being surrounded by two other visitors. Quinn and Xueh stood in front of her, and she wasn't even sure if she could get up and leave because of them. Overwhelmed by anxiety and her struggle to adapt to the new home, she froze up and braced for the worse.

She let out a yip as she suddenly felt her left thigh poked, her outburst causing the creepers to hop back. What did they want with her? Why are they so interested in her? With her prior life equipping her with zero experience on dealing with unknown droms, she wasn't sure how to cope. All her frazzled mind could come up with was to drown out her senses and turtle up. She wrapped her tail around and allowed the spread of large feathers to completely cover her face, and used her hands to hold them down like a shelter as she whined, pleading mercy.

As if confirming that she wasn't going anywhere, the velos indulged their curiosity's hunger as they moved in. With outstretched arms, one tugged on her long crest feathers. Another lifted her tail and sniffed her cloaca, and the third was poking and lifting her claws, perhaps trying to assess if she had her sickle claws intact or not. They were all making raptorian chattering noises to one another. Xueh and Quinn just watched warily, familiar with this ritual of investigation. Innocent as it may be, Sophie was having a nervous breakdown, shaking and whining. Her easy-going, domesticated lifestyle had seemingly destroyed any beastial aggression she may have used to lash out at the unwanted attention.

Still, she had just about enough when one of them was so bold as to jump on her back. Sophie let out a hiss and fanned out her crest, but it didn't deter them any. It, in fact, only served to stroke their curiosity and they became more aggressive with their actions.

Quinn watched with well alert eyes, becoming aware of the escalating situation and Sophie's reaction. She warned them to back off with a series of threatening barks, but it seemed as though her voice was drowned out by their own fascination. Not one to take being ignored lightly, and her anger compromising her better judgement, she picked up the stick in the lineup. Grasping it as tight as she could with both hands, she stepped forward and batted the legs of the velo on Sophie's back with a sweeping blow.

With a loud squawk, the velo tried to keep its balance but failed and fell off Sophie to the ground in a puff of dust, stunned but okay. Quinn fanned her crest wide, whipped her tail about, and spread her arms as she uncharastically roared towards the trio.

They let off from Sophie and retreated a few hops back. Seeing as how Quinn was one of the only two pure blooded velos there, physically superior to any of them, they weren't about to provoke her further.

"Activity bad!" she gestured, her expression clearly illustrating her exclamation to them. Quinn was aware they didn't even know that intermediate-level word, but she was sure to get the point across regardless. After no one moved, she stepped forward as she let out another bark. It was successful in encouraging them to break away and return to their usual activities, although one of them carried away a limp.

"Bad bad," Xueh stepped forward, gesturing to Quinn with a worried look about her. She looked at the retreaters and gestured, "Hurt," pointing to Quinn first, then the limper, citing what Quinn had done.

Quinn flattened her crest and looked at the others for a moment. Was she in trouble? Like any velociraptor, she had a strong friction against finding fault in her own actions. Had she not stepped in, Sophie may have perhaps retaliated. So if anything, she had defused the situation. If Shiroku wanted to punish her for it, it would not go down lightly.

She turned to face Xueh again to reply, but her focus instead found a more alarming development. Quinn stepped forward and ran her manus through Sophie's feathers and then held it up to observe. Her manus was coated red. Still hiding under her own feathers, the dein's whining turned into shallow breathing, trying to cope with her injury. The wound was traced to her back, where apparently the velo's claws had caught her as it tried to keep its balance.

The red stain forming on the light feathers slowly expanded downwards. Quinn whined briefly, but started prodding Sophie to stand up by pushing her with her nose. The velos were no strangers to injuries, and she knew what to do. But Sophie wasn't budging. Without asking, Xueh began to assist as they tried to force her up, but they were no match for her sheer size. Now looking quite worried, Quinn forcefully pulled away the tail covering Sophie's face. Sophie's yellow slitted eyes looked up at Quinn standing before her, an expression perhaps reading, "Is it safe now?" while also showing a hint of discomfort at her situation. Quinn, however, was all business, and took her by the hand. She pulled her as hard as she could while Xueh pushed at her backside, wishing only to get her the help she needed.

Sophie seemed dazed and out of it, but she got a clue and took a few steps forward, although not standing up entirely. They got her about halfway across the clearing towards the house before she fell back prone again and wouldn't go any further, merely grunting out a brief whine. It seemed as though walking about was too painful for her.

Quinn circled around Sophie, barking at her, trying to get her to move, but she wasn't listening. Panic stricken, Quinn began to cry loudly in a pitch reserved and recognized for danger. Xueh joined in. This situation was beyond their capability, and they desperately cried out for human assistance. Their rally cries were shrill and long, and she knew the humans tended to react to it quickly. Quinn had seen them fix situations like this in the past, and she was confident they could fix this too. They had captivated the attention of everyone else there now, though they watched from afar, as if Quinn's attack on the others had left them unsure about approaching the scene.

Quinn paced several meters away from the scene, impatiently altering her point of view to seek out the humans. Within about a minute, both Fiona and Herschel emerged around the corner, and Quinn jumped in place demanding their urgent attention. She was relieved to see they acknowledged her as they hurried over, talking to one another in a more concerned tone.

"Hurt!" Quinn gestured to the approaching humans, pointing to Sophie and shifting about in place restlessly.

Sophie looked up and seemed very happy to see people once again, as indicated by her crest and swishing tail. She tried to stand up to greet them, but they embraced her as they kneeled down next to her and kept her in place.

The two of them consoled Sophie, petting and speaking softly to her while Herschel parted the feathers and observed the injury. Fiona looked up while he did that, perhaps trying to figure out what happened. Her eyes fixated on one distant velo who was sitting sort of funny, and she pointed out to her, alarming Herschel. He seemed to dismiss it and pointed back to the house, and within a minute Fiona came back with a bag in hand.

Quinn and Xueh stood by, sitting down next to the scene as they watched Herschel shave feathers off of Sophie's back. He then began poking her with a needle and string, an activity they've both have had done to themselves at least once in their life. It was Quinn's understanding, based on experience, that this unusual technique made the bleeding seize, so she concluded that the humans had the situation under control now.

With clever, observant eyes, she watched Herschel work his human magic. The things he could do would amaze her at times. He was her human, and she had the highest of respect for him. Her loyalty was unwavering, and this home was closely defended by her and many others like her. This honor was extended to Sophie, by proxy, as it was her understanding that she was to look after and integrate Sophie into the family. She was duty bound, and committed to helping her out.

Vocabulary was not the dein's strong suit. Quinn looked over her shoulder at the clearing. Her eyes crept up, observing the array of lines hanging overhead. Play, she thought, as she looked back at Sophie, scheming a new plan of action.