"Alphiiii." I complained. "My feet hurt." He rolled his eyes at my remark. Or more accurately, my seventh remark. "Can you carry me?" I asked. "For the last time, no! Do I look like I'm strong enough to carry you?" He looked at me. "Yes." I replied and he facepalmed. "I'm not gonna carry you. Just keep moving so we can get back to the base." Alphinaud said. We were out on our third metal run this week. It was incredible how fast we burned through it. Then again, we were making a lot of better quality gear. And the fabricator took the last of our supply. "We should get a new mount." I commented. "I beg your pardon?" Alphinaud turned to look at me. "Like Krile. We should get a new mount to ride on. They can help us carry stuff as well." I said. "Well, I guess. But be careful of that spino." Alphinaud pointed to the spinosaurus that roamed the swamp outside of our base as he opened the behemoth gate. "Don't you wanna come with me?" I asked. "I would, but there's a lot of maintenance stuff that needs to be tended to. We need to cook meat, create a water pipe that flows into our base, and make gasoline and gunpowder. And you know how long making gunpowder takes." Alphinaud said. I nodded. "Ok, but you also have to be careful of the spino. It's right outside the second gate where we planned on putting the pipe." I told him. He nodded back. "Good luck." He said to me as I waved to him. Shutting the door behind me, I began my search. Papalymo barked. "I don't know if I want another ravager yet. Just seeing wild ones make me break down." I told him as he wagged his tail. "But then how would we get up the vines?" I wondered outloud. "Doesn't matter. We need a fast mount. Like that Raptor coming up on us." I said. "WAIT WHAT?!" I swiveled to the side and faced the approaching threat. "Ohhh no oh no." I panicked and shot it with the crossbow before it jumped on me. "Uhh whoops." I said. I was supposed to hit it with the club, not shoot it with the arrows! The Raptor seemed to sway, and I remembered the greenish hue on the arrows. "Wait a minute... aren't these the ones that Alphinaud wanted to 'enchant' with narcotics?" I asked Papalymo. The bulbdog cocked his head. "Well I sure hope they are." I said as I continued to shoot at the Raptor. It got too close and slashed my arm, knocking me over. It stood over me and I shot it in the head with another arrow. Then I rolled away as it fell to the ground. "Welp, there's our new mount." I told Papalymo. He licked my arm, trying to stop the bleeding. "It's ok boy, it's not that deep. Just a small cut." I said. I put some meat near the Raptor, then backed up. It sniffed the air, then chomped the food and pulled it into its mouth. The raptor continued to do this for about five minutes before its breathing sped up. The raptor suddenly leaped up and wheeled around to look at us. "Um... did we tame it?" I asked. It slowly approached us, halting a few feet from my face. "It can't be that easy." I said.
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"It's that easy." I commented in surprise as I lead Alisaie, our new raptor back to the base. I opened the gate, not seeing Alphinaud at first. "Hello? We're home!" I called. There was a red liquid smeared on the floor. My heart rate sped up. "Oh gosh, sorry Jackie!" Alphinaud said from behind me. I jumped and spun around. "Alphi! You're ok!" I hugged him tightly. "Uh, yes. What made you think-" he stopped as he saw the red splatter. "Oh. Again, I'm sorry. I went out to get a few new pieces of hide so that I could clean this mess before you got back. I dropped some tintoberries." He said. "I don't care about the mess. I was worried that the spino got you!" I exclaimed, releasing him. "No need to fear, my friend. I'm glad to see you're safe as well." He put a hand to my cheek. I hoped he couldn't feel how warm it was getting. "I see you brought us a new tame." Alphinaud pulled his hand back and approached the raptor. "Her name is Alisaie." I stated. He almost choked upon hearing that I named a raptor after his twin sister. "Seriously?" Alphinaud asked. "Yup. Get used to it." I giggled as he shook his head. "Fine. Welcome to the team, Alisaie."