"Darius... Darius!"
Yasmina hissed in a low voice, desperately calling for his attention.
"Huh? What is—"
Darius, who had been scribbling away in his notebook, turned around and immediately dropped his pen in shock. His voice cut out instantly. He slowly lowered his notebook, stood up, and pressed a finger to his lips, signaling Yaz to stay absolutely silent.
Waves of heat continued to radiate against Yasmina's back. Carlo tilted his head, unable to see clearly what was on the paper in her hands.
Is it the lighting?
He shifted his massive body higher, blocking out the sun and peering down at the sketchbook from above. To Darius, it looked like Carlo was seconds away from opening his jaws and swallowing Yasmina whole.
In a panic, Darius began clapping his hands to create noise, desperately trying to draw Carlo's attention away from her.
But Carlo was now completely captivated by the drawing in Yasmina's hands.
It's me! She's drawing me!
For some reason, Carlo felt like he had discovered a new world; he was incredibly excited. The other two were also experiencing rapid heartbeats, though "excitement" wasn't exactly the word for it.
Carlo turned and walked toward a nearby thicket.
"Phew…"
Darius and Yasmina exhaled in unison, but they inhaled again just as quickly.
Carlo had returned. This time, he sat down directly on the open ground next to Yasmina, clutching a thick, sturdy branch in his mouth.
The duo wasn't as terrified as before because it was clear they weren't the target. Carlo tilted his head, jammed the branch into the dirt, and focused one eye on the ground. He began maneuvering his entire head, occasionally releasing the stick to adjust his grip before pressing it back into the earth to continue his movements.
Yasmina and Darius's jaws literally dropped. The sheer shock of the moment rapidly suppressed their fear. As humans, they understood the implication instantly: he was drawing.
A moment later, Carlo straightened his head and looked at his handiwork on the ground, thoroughly satisfied.
Heh heh. This one is me.
A massive dinosaur head appeared on the ground. While highly abstract, it was unmistakably a Giganotosaurus.
Feeling like it wasn't enough, Carlo returned to the bushes to select a new "pencil."
Yasmina climbed down from the rock and slowly moved to Darius's side. Her stunned gaze never left Carlo as she whispered, "Is this... normal?"
Darius shook his head stiffly. "Absolutely not."
Carlo returned once more, this time with a longer branch. He didn't sit down; instead, he tilted his head and continued his masterpiece. He drew two more portraits of the same style next to his own, but with slight variations.
This is Dad; his crest is a bit bigger.
This is Mom; her teeth are thicker.
Then, he moved the stick below his own portrait.
This is Katyusha. She's a little troublemaker who loves my Triceratops skull.
This is Karl. He's a quiet kid who loves to mimic me, he'd even try to eat grass if he saw me doing it.
This is Kafka. Hmm... she's a night owl, I need to make the eyes bigger.
Three somewhat comical Giganotosaurus portraits emerged. Katyusha had two strange horns on her head, Karl was chewing on several blades of grass, and Kafka's eyes were huge, like an owl's.
To Darius and Yasmina, the result was incredibly abstract. Their current state of mind was essentially: I don't understand it, but I am profoundly shaken.
Carlo then moved to the left of his own image. Two more heads appeared, but these had a single horn on the snout.
Ceratosaurus One's skin pattern is striped.
Ceratosaurus Two is stripes plus spots.
He extended a portion of the neck below the heads, using simple strokes to distinguish them.
Carlo straightened up and looked at the scene, feeling very happy, even if he couldn't quite interpret his own art. Below the Ceratosaurus couple, he added two more heads. This time he added two horns each: Carnotaurus One and Carnotaurus Two.
Carnotaurus Two has big horns. Carnotaurus One... what did he look like again?
Carlo paused for a moment, then pecked a few dots onto the "face." Dissatisfied, he used his foot to wipe it away. Finally, he drew Carnotaurus One's entire body, depicting him in a state of running away.
Right... he's terrified of me!
Carlo dropped the branch and let it fall aside. He lifted his head and shook it to clear the slight dizziness from the effort. Suddenly, noticing the Parasaurolophus hatchlings playing in the distance, he picked the stick back up and started drawing on his right side.
This is the Parasaurolophus mother. She seems to love sleeping next to me... and I like it too.
Carlo drew a moon shape without sharp corners, then added an irregular triangle inside, barely managing to sketch her likeness. To her right, he drew five more in the same style, only smaller.
These are her children.
Then, below those five, he added eight even smaller Parasaurolophus portraits.
And these are the ones I'm temporarily fostering.
Carlo lifted his head to survey the work, then added a large semi-circle below the portraits of the three kids. Four small circles, an oval head, a long triangular tail, and several irregular pentagons on the back.
The Stegosaurus brother who is never afraid of me.
When it was all done, Carlo did a final check to ensure nothing was missing. He sat back down and gently rested his head on the ground to one side, admiring his magnum opus.
Hmm... can't tell what it is.
But he was happy.
The Parasaurolophus Toddlers seemed to have tired themselves out; they returned to Carlo and flopped down nearby for a nap. They had grown quite a bit, and Carlo no longer let them huddle against him to sleep. It was simply too hot.
Meanwhile, the pen in Darius's hand was practically smoking from how fast he was writing. His body was trembling slightly, his entire worldview having been shattered and rebuilt.
Yasmina didn't go back to her rock. Instead, she walked over to the area where Carlo had been drawing, trying to decipher his work. Predictably, she failed.
She sat back down on her rock, facing Carlo, and continued her drawing.
Fear? How could you be afraid of a soul like this?
If every dinosaur in the world were like Carlo, Yasmina might actually consider becoming a dinosaur enthusiast like Darius.
"I really regret not bringing Brooklynn's data recorder to capture this," Darius said as he sat down, looking like an author with writer's block, struggling to find the words to describe the scene.
"Me too."
Yasmina specialized in pen-and-ink sketches and line art; she was a master at capturing the essence of a subject with simple strokes. She finished her drawing quickly, turned it toward Carlo, and slowly approached to within five meters.
"Look... this is you."
Carlo shifted his attention to her artwork, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward.
She draws way better than I do.
Yasmina noticed Carlo's expression. For some reason, she wasn't even that shocked anymore.
Well, when they got back today, it would be her turn to tell everyone the story vividly... No, wait. She wasn't great at storytelling. She'd better leave that to Darius.
———————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over here ——— pa-tre-on.c-om/AlexandrusTL [remove the hyphen for normal access]