#bumpy jwcc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gingericywolf · 5 months

Text

one day I'll make myself an Ao3 account, until then

[Carrying the bull's shadow part ??; A Safe Space (temp title?); Word count: 3875; have fun on this trip in Ben's mind]

Ben couldn’t sleep. He had tried, multiple times already that night, managing to only get short naps before his body woke up again. He looked at his watch, but it was useless, the thing had stopped at some point, not sure if the battery ran out or it just broke the day all fell, the hands fixing at 2:38 and never moving again. Why did he keep the thing he didn’t really know. Its reflective surface was good to start fires with the sun. Right. He closed his eyes hoping to rest at the images of flames flickering and rising, keeping him warm and cooking the fish he caught. But a few minutes later they were open again, mind on alert. It was a stupid habit that just didn’t want to let go from his time alone, when any sound would mean a dinosaur coming to get an easy meal, a sleeping human. Sleeping on trees had helped ease the constant anxiety a bit, at least from the idea of Compys chewing on him alive, not that they would have dared after that stunt he had pulled on them.

He could not stop the smirk coming and pulling at his lips at the memory. Yeah it had been like one of the worst days ever. Even then he couldn’t sleep, both for anxiety and Bumpy stealing his leaf ‘bed’ in the small shelter he had. And apparently he got a really bad temper when sleep deprived. He had snapped against Bumpy, scaring her away, shelter destroyed. And without the, at the time, baby ankylosaur at his side the Compys seemed to decide to torment him. The whole day, everytime more of them showed up, until after he had cried himself to sleep he woke up to a storm thundering and a swarm of like fifty-more Compys surrounding him. And that was the night they learned to fear Benjamin Fitzgerald Pincus. So many things changed since then. It was like the island opened a door for him, taking him in, and he became who he was now. Not anymore scared Ben from camp, but a true survivor, a fighter, the boy of the island, wild child, as sometimes they called him now. One that instead of running from an angry dinosaur would stand his ground and fight. And somehow this worried the rest of them more. I can take care of myself. They don’t have to worry. A bitter thought, but a true one. He had survived alone for he didn’t know how long while they had each other, easy access to ‘food’, if that canned stuff could be called food, and a “solid” safe base. If there was something that still scared him, it was the idea of turning back to who he was before. There were only a few times where he wished he wasn't like this, that he still was the same as before, that the… incident…, had never happened, that he could have stayed with the others from the moment of their stranding. For the most part he was happier with how things went. Here. On the island. He learned to call the place Home, to the point he was reconsidering leaving it. Staying on the island.

Maybe that was something he should have worried about more, but he was done worrying and overthinking and panicking and… oh that was what he was doing now, wasn’t it? Who did he want to fool, he still was scared of many things, he just learned to hide it better and to fight. Scared and armed, a terrible combination. He sighted and slowly started sitting up in his bunk, looking around.

It wasn’t actually his bunk, it was Yaz’s, but she was sharing the bed below with Sammy that night and he had been just too tired to stay on the couch or a branch, wanting the feeling of something closer to a bed under him.

And then he didn’t sleep, because of course that was how it worked.

He rolled over and silently jumped off, avoiding the creaking planks and casting a quick glance behind, making sure to not have disturbed the two girls cuddled together. Sammy holding Yaz and Yaz’s head resting on Sammy’s chest. Quite the adorable sight.

The impromptu cuddle sessions were probably the reason the two had claimed the bunks hidden behind the couch, which was the most amount of privacy any of them had… if you didn’t count the couch piece was usually Ben’s night spot, since he didn’t have a bed, and in the weeks passed he had gotten a lot of material to tease the Track-star like an annoying little sibling.

Peeking over he took a quick head count. Darius bunk was on the floor above, the only other instance of privacy in the treehouse, and hopefully he was asleep. Kenji was in the hammock at the other side of the treehouse, his tall frame barely fitting and one of his legs dangling out, but definitely sound asleep. A dinosaur could roar in his face and he would still keep on sleeping probably. Then the bunk on top… was empty. Must have been Brooklynn’s time to take watch. And indeed there she was next to the ladder, resting on the railing with her bat in hand. Rip the possibility of sneaking out. He could have managed if any of the others were up, but Brooklynn was impossible to deceive, second to her were only Yaz and himself probably. Still it didn’t kill to try. Unless Lynn hits me with that bat, then maybe it would kill to try.

Picking up his own weapon he silently moved out of his hiding spot, still sure to avoid the creaking and unstable bits of flooring. If he could reach the tree on the side maybe he could swing off the branches.

“Where are you going?” The whisper was loud enough for him to hear without disturbing the others, and the tone firm and serious. Ben froze in his tracks and slowly turned to the girl, trying to not look too guilty and come up with an excuse. Brooklynn was still facing the jungle, and not looking at him. How in hell did she bust him? And I'm the one with freaky jungle senses?

“Uh. Umh. Bathroom?” He attempted. Oh now she turned her head towards him, eyebrow raised. Not buying it. He did not mean to make it sound like a question and that busted the lie.

“Ok ok… uh, just checking on Bumpy.” He hoped this was more convincing.

Brooklynn pointed under the treehouse, where Bumpy was resting. Then she fully turned to him, arms crossed and bat bouncing, like the tail of a cat that was getting slightly pissed off. Pink hair glowing almost white in the moonlight and giving her a more menacing aura.

“Oh, weeelll, look at her. Sleeping nicely” He said a bit too enthusiastically and leaning on the railing himself. Idea! “Yooou know what, you look pretty tired too, why don't you go to have a nice rest, mm? I’m plenty awake. I can take the watch turn” He smiled at her, putting an arm around her shoulders and pointing at her bunk.

“And yooou know you are a terrible liar. Also Darius just woke me up for the turn change so, I’m plenty rested too.” She smugly said, “And as if I didn't know you’d sneak away god knows where.”

“Aw. shit.” He was so unlucky tonight, and if Darius had just woke her up then he probably was still awake too, so he was probably observing the interaction. He had noticed how he seemed to keep an extra eye on him. Everyone was worried he’d disappear in thin air. Sometimes he thought of doing it. There was a reason they didn’t let him do many night shifts.

With a groan, he basically slumped against the railing, letting one leg fall between the bars, enjoying the feeling of partly weightlessness.

“Ben?” She was looking at him, bat resting at her side. He gripped his spear tighter.

With a roll of eyes Brooklynn went back to watch the jungle. “If you need to go out a bit, I'm not stopping you, you know. Just… don’t hide it. I guess we get a bit too much sometimes, but it’s just because we are..”

“Worried? yeah.. you guys don’t have to. I..”

“Can take care of yourself. We know.” She finished. “See you are fitting right back in, we are starting to know your lines.”

He should have been happy about that, why wasn't he? Still a small smile formed on his face. “I knew it was useless to try and sneak past you. Thanks for… letting me out,” he laughed a bit, “I just need to go on a walk and get some air. I can’t sleep anyway” He started making his way down the ladder, securing the spear in his belt.

“I’ll bring Bumpster with me, so I’ll not be alone. She will wake up anyway once she senses me on the ground, we have a bond like that.” He proudly smirked.

“Yeah sure, Wild Child. You and your Amazing Dino be careful, and don’t give me that look, I’ve heard some big roars.” That nickname Yaz had given him really had stuck with everyone it seemed.

Ben gave her a thumbs up, indicating he had heard her, and jumped the last steps landing on the ground. On cue, Bumpy stirred and looked at him questioningly.

He greeted her and patted her head, then rubbed her horns in apology for waking her up. He didn’t need to speak, but did anyway.

“Sorry girl, wanna go for a walk and get a midnight snack, or two or three a.m one. I have no clue what hour it is”. Walking at her side he directed her to the shrubbery and out the camp clearing.

Brooklynn watched him disappear in the dark jungle, a bad feeling of deja-vu coming to her. Then she looked at the upper floor of the treehouse and crossed eyes with Darius.

As he walked next to the bushes, Ben picked up a few berries and tossed them to Bumpy, who wasn’t one to refuse the sweet snacks. He felt bad for needing this time alone, but he also knew that if he didn’t move he would go insane in bed without sleep. He planned on tiring himself out so that at least the next night he would pass out without a doubt.

He took a drink at the river and then kept walking along it, trying to remember to not stray too far from the camp. Bumpy nudged him in the arm.

“What's up girl?” She looked at him, making a low bellow. He wished he could understand her as well as she seemed to get him. After a while, heading back, they found a big bush, filled with the red berries they both loved. Bumpy started munching on it happily and Ben refilled his bag. You never had enough stash here in the jungle

As he did so his mind started spiraling again on many unsaid things. There was a lot he wasn’t sure he would ever be ready to share with the group. The only thing he ever talked about was his fight with Toro, and even there just part of it. He thought a lot about the Carnotaurus, who a few weeks after the fight, started appearing everywhere he went. Following him like a shadow. Or was Ben unknowingly following the dinosaur? Sure it was more than just coincidence, considering he even saw him…

He got distracted by some chirping and the sound of tossing around. Picking his spear back in hand he went looking. He took notice of Bumpy huffing and was quick to tell her she could keep on eating. He had an idea of what it was. He had been thinking about them just now.

And turning behind a big tree, he found exactly what he was thinking of. Two baby dinosaurs. Small nubs on their heads where horns would soon grow, bodies made for running, sharp pin-needle teeth filled mouths, rows of rounded scales on the striped coloration.

Baby Carnotaurus. And not just any Carnotaurus.

Toro’s babies.

“Ehi, Arrow, Bullet,” he called. Yes he had named them.

The two raised their heads and stopped play-fighting, or better to say Bullet stopped bullying her brother, to go and jump on him. Ben raised his braced arm with practice as the little one grabbed onto it and they started playing tug, while Arrow watched, unsure. Shy. Ben smiled at that, he reminded him so much of how he was before. Still once he grew up he would become one of the greatest predators of the island.

Bullet was total opposite of her brother, as one could easily tell. She was totally her father’s daughter, having earned his aggressive disposition. She was very much a bite first and think later. Just like me now. As much as it made him proud it also worried him, her recklessness could bring her to danger. Just like the others worrying for me.

The brace snapped and Bullet ran away victorious with the bark piece in her mouth and low happy barks.

“Nice job girl, you were faster this time, I need to step up my game.” He clapped his hands. He had played with them like this a few times now, in the couple weeks they had hatched, sometimes even with Toro around watching. He wasn’t sure what all of that meant.

Truth was he only kept the brace for this. And for looks. He didn’t need it anymore, the skin under it having scarred completely. It was kinda ugly and he didn’t want to let the others see so he kept on covering it. Like he covered all the scars, the ones he could, physical and psychological ones. While he was overthinking again, Arrow had gotten closer, bumping his round scaly snout to his cheek, where another scar rested, one he could not hide. Then the chick crawled on his lap and half under his shirt, head poking at the neckline, nubs and scales tickling his chest. He laughed as the dinosaur shifted in a comfortable position and happily purred. He had been doing it since day one and didn’t seem to care he was quickly overgrowing his favorite spot. He checked back to see Bumpy still eating at the bush and he relaxed against the tree, before looking back again realizing they were quite close to camp.

Were the roars Brooklynn warned about Toro’s? Then where was he?

“What are you two doing over here, where is dad?”

That wording felt right.

Of course they could not answer him, instead just looking up with their big eyes. Bullet came at his side again, giving him the brace back, her little fangs showing through the lips and eyes shining.

“Round two?” He put the brace back on and prepared his arm again. It was harder playing with Arrow on his lap, chirping in protest. They kept playing for a while, until the ground started vibrating and the trees parted. The scarred Carnotaurus entering the small clearing.

Ben had smelled him before he came into view, the stench of burned flesh never seemingly leaving the creature. His skin still, and probably forever, not fully healed. He was amazed by how he still survived with everything he went through. With all the pain he was constantly subjected to. Probably as unlucky as he was.

The little ones ran to him chirping and he reached down rubbing his snout to theirs, lowly grumbling, sniffing. Then he saw Ben and grumbled again, louder. Before the boy could move the dinosaur closed the distance, leaving no way for escaping. Ben closed his eyes preparing for what was coming.

Lick.

Wet and sticky saliva all over him.

He opened an eye just as Toro snorted, the smell of rotting flesh from his meals filling the air around for a moment. He would definitely need to shower later. Another lick. His hair now sticking up like Kenji’s.

He was alive.

He was laughing.

He blinked trying to get the saliva out of his lashes, and looked up at the Carnotaurus. The scar on the snout glistening in the moonlight, mirroring the one on his cheek. His stomach twisted knowing he had partly reopened that scarring with the spear point at his side, hitting an already vulnerable spot. He looked into Toro's yellow eyes, and he was transported to a different clearing, at a more desperate him, ready to fight the one that was blocking his path, fear crashing through his body as he thought it was either win or death.

Rough scales rubbed against him and he took hold of the large head, scars brushing scars.

“What..” he managed to say, before the air was taken out of his lungs, body being pressed against the tree and he grabbed onto the horns. He felt his feet leave the ground as the dinosaur raised his head. “Well this is familiar.” He said, upper body now laying on the dinosaur head and snout, like it had once before, just that at that time he was being tossed around like on a rodeo bull, his shoulder scraped, remembering how it felt to hit the sharp horn. He also remembered the moment after it, when Toro roared at him and for a second he looked in his eyes and understood him. A feeling of respect and… something. Battle over. Then Bumpy came crashing before anything else could happen and the rest was so fast that he couldn’t rationalize anything. After that he just buried it all in his mind, happy to have Bumpy back and the rest is history.

Back to the moment he could hear the babies’ chitters under him as he was put back down. They twirled around his legs as Toro laid down, with a big yawn but not relaxing, curling his tail around the babies and the boy.

Ben remained watching a bit, still dumbfounded by the situation, before resting his back on Toro’s side, feeling the scales with one hand. They were different from Bumpy’s ones, having a more leathery feeling even burned, with occasional hard bumps. Osteoderms was not the right words to describe them, but the only one that popped up in his mind. Darius would have known better, but it was the only word he could think of as it was the word for Bumpy’s, who even in the less armored spots had constant hardened scales, rough to the touch, abrasive almost, if his legs where any proof of what riding a dinosaur without protection and in shorts was like. So similar yet so different. Thinking and overthinking all the encounters with the dinosaur as he memorized the feeling of each nub and scale.

He stretched his legs and yawned, before curling against the warm side, feeling it rise and lower with every breath. Arrow took back his place on his lap, and Ben started petting him; Bullet attached herself to his side. He looked at the two babies and then at Toro, his attentive gaze resting on the three of them, a huff puffing his nostrils, lips curled in an almost amused expression, before turning to the jungle again. Maybe Ben was getting tired, because his mind was starting to give him absurd ideas. Yet it seemed so logical. Observing the dinosaur. Was it a crazy realization he had just now, or had he been too blind to notice earlier.

He had greeted him like he did his babies, he let him play with them, brought him to his nest, he had been watching over him from way before, after their fight.

It was because of an interrupted, unfinished battle first.

It was because he saw him as one of his own too, now.

Well that was going to be a hard thing to explain to the others, he didn’t even know how to start. Or if he wanted too. There was so much he was keeping from them, but would they understand or think he had completely lost his mind? He had not realized it until now sure but he somehow had felt it anyway, in the way he always found him.

In a way he too had watched over Toro. That's how he knew that there was something that was making him nervous at this moment, feeling the twitching muscles behind him, as the big dinosaur looked around the darkness, keeping them all close.There was a reason he had been now openly ‘affectionate’ with him. If he had moved the babies closer and closer to where the kids camp was. He would not be surprised if one morning he found them under the ladder, or directly on the treehouse. He did not know what could cause the normally bold and aggressive dinosaur to be more on the defensive side, but for sure it could not be anything good. Not if he wanted to keep his family close.

A heavy thumping came from the bushes that got Toro to look in the direction, baring his teeth growling.

A familiar asymmetric head popped in, bellowing, tail swishing from side to side and thumping on the ground.

A Small body trembled under his shirt, Arrow hiding as well as he could, Bullet stretching with an annoyed peep.

“Ehi Bumpster, it’s all ok, see. We are all chilling.” He raised his hands to calm his friend. “Look”.

And Bumpy looked, at him, at the babies, at Toro, and she huffed. Almost looking more jealous than anything. This surprised Ben and he wondered if Bumpy already knew, if she and Toro understood each other or if they were too different species.

Toro looked away, not fully relaxed, remembering the hard hit he took from her and the humiliation of falling off the cliff, but not hostile, giving space.The ankylosaurus was Ben’s pack and he accepted that long ago. What he could not accept were other members of said pack.

After a bit Bumpy lumbered closer, lowering herself to the ground and then plopping on her side with a sigh, effectively creating a shield, her tail close to Toro’s front side and her head next to his tail. Theoretically keeping watch on the backside, but practically falling asleep after the fill of berries. This got Ben to truly smile, the two sides of his dino family being ok with each other.

Because Ben didn’t know how or when it happened exactly, how long it had really gone on, but now he knew. And somehow that made sense. For once in his life he found it easy to accept what was probably the strangest thing ever happened to him. It was easy to feel like, and maybe imagine, the dinosaur as a father figure, that here was where he belonged. More than his own home had ever felt to him. Looking at the baby Carnotaurus again, no, at his little siblings, he let his eyes close and finally that night, sleep found him peacefully in that safe space within the forest of Nublar.

you reached the end! here a little treat with some bonus images, what i actually see on my pc, a version that i could not replicate and an un-burned toro one

#jwcc: carrying the bull's shadow au #jwcc #camp cretaceous #toro jwcc #bumpy jwcc #ben pincus #arrow and bullet the baby carnos #giw art #giw writes #jurassic world #carnotaurus #ankylosaurs #brooklynn jwcc #B-team #darius bowman #jurassic world: camp cretaceous

47 notes · View notes