Zephyr | Camp Cretaceous

The Cattle Drive/Zephyr Terrifies the Guests

[Camp/Valley]

Breakfast the next day was painful for Yasmina Fadoula. Regrettably, as it happens, the cabin walls were a bit thinner than she'd expected, and Darius the Dino-nerd happened to have been walking by the restroom the night before and overheard Yaz mentioning "Masrani" and the "new dinosaur," so naturally, Darius just had to bring it up as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that was during breakfast.

She glared at Darius similarly to how she glared at her cousin whenever he got on her nerves, glad to see him shrink into his seat. But the others didn't give up, and Brooklynn bombarded her with questions while a disbelieving Kenji muttered about not being told about any new dinosaur. That gave her some satisfaction but still annoyed her. To Sammy, hearing confirmation that Yasmina did have a friend made the Texan girl look like Christmas came early—she was sending Yaz rather smug glances the whole time.

"No," Yasmina growled for the umpteenth time since they'd hopped into the truckbed and driven through rolling hills and verdant fields where dinos of all non-man-eating sorts grazed. "I'm not hiding anything."

"Come on," Darius whined, looking at her incredulously as he gestured with his hands to help get his point across. "You were talking to someone who works for Masrani about a new dinosaur. Have I mentioned that I love dinosaurs yet?" The others gave him blank looks.

"Uh, yeah, I think we got that," Brooklynn drawled, rolling her eyes before saying to Yasmina, "But you've got to tell us now. Call it getting even for letting you use my phone. Twice." Yasmina shifted uneasily in her seat, looking anywhere but at her fellow campers. The clouds were darkening overhead, she noted.

Uncomfortable though she was, Yasmina decided to rip the bandaid. "Um... I don't know anything about the new dino," she said. "But I've known its handler for the last two years; all I know is it's a carnivore and would like to eat the rest of her." The campers blinked at her, glanced between one another, then stared for a solid minute before Kenji chuckled nervously and asked what they were all thinking.

"The rest of her?"

"She lost her ring finger," Yasmina said sadly. Sammy gasped while Brooklynn glanced uneasily at her own finger. "It's not as bad as some other handlers, but it wasn't the finger she's the most upset about losing. It hurt, sure, but that could be healed." Glancing over her shoulder at Stegosaurus, she finished. "She loved that dinosaur as though it were her own child, and after ACU tased it..."

Darius added sadly, "It'll never trust her again."

Thankfully, Roxie stopped the truck in a dip in the valley, and everyone's moods brightened when they saw the hamster balls with blue seats awaiting them. Yasmina sighed, feeling drained, and hopped out with the others, who were celebrating getting to drive Gyrospheres; even Ben was excited, which Yasmina thought was pretty believable, seeing that it was basically air-tight bubbles protecting him from the gross outside world the campers would be piloting through the valley.

"Saddle up, dudes and dudettes," Dave said, tapping one hamster ball. "We're going on a cattle drive, but with dinosaurs! It's a dino drive!" As always, the counsellor had enough excitement to power New York.

"And just to be clear," Ben piped nervously, "all these dinosaurs are herbivores, right? Nothing that wants to bite off my finger?" Yasmina looked at him sharply—Ben yelped and smiled apologetically.

Roxie narrowed her eyes, a spark of realisation in her gaze as she glanced at Yasmina. Yaz suddenly found a certain stormcloud immensely interesting. "Well, they only chewed on the last a kid a little," Roxie said in an amused voice, rubbing her chin, "so we're, like, 99 per cent sure they're cool." Ben whimpered while their counsellor leaned her elbow on Dave's shoulder. "Park personnel are moving a group of dinosaurs to fresh grazing lands across the island, and we get to ride behind the herd."