Excerpt
So I was reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, thinking about how much I wished I could be a hunter-gatherer. Screw this society shit. Which brought to mind my other ambition, which is to be a carniverous dinosaur...
Sideways running - weird, he thinks. Carefully he lifts up the rock, and the pointy thing runs sideways the other way.
Fhhhhwhop! He jumps on the sideways-creature, smushing it down into the mud. Bubbles come up. He fishes down to grab the thing - but the thing grabs him.
His index finger suffers a sudden sharp pain, and as he pulls his hand up, the crab holds on with one if its big, heavy pincher-claws. This is perfect, he thinks.
He runs back to where the family is sitting. Raptor Red’s sister is still snoring. The chicks are just waking up. He bobs his head at Raptor Red. She doesn’t look up. He drops the crab between her legs, and it scuttles straight up her chest.
“Eeeeep!” Raptor Red makes a little cry and stands up. Suddenly she’s out of her mood and into figuring out this new thing.
She chases the crab up the beach, and her consort chases it back down. They push it down into the mud, and they dig it back up. He holds it against a rock, and she tries to pry into the crab’s shell with her thumb and her teeth.
As last she succeeds in popping the bottom shell off. Her male consort refuses to taste it, but Raptor Red immediately chews off pieces.
She likes it a lot.
The rest of the day is spent crab-catching and crab-eating. They catch them together, and Raptor Red eats every one.
Raptor Red and her mate spend the day with the chicks. It’s not a bad life at all, being a pack of beachcombers…
From Raptor Red, by Bob Bakker.
Addendum: How did the author of G,G,S know that I'd had berry-picking days?
Sideways running - weird, he thinks. Carefully he lifts up the rock, and the pointy thing runs sideways the other way.
Fhhhhwhop! He jumps on the sideways-creature, smushing it down into the mud. Bubbles come up. He fishes down to grab the thing - but the thing grabs him.
His index finger suffers a sudden sharp pain, and as he pulls his hand up, the crab holds on with one if its big, heavy pincher-claws. This is perfect, he thinks.
He runs back to where the family is sitting. Raptor Red’s sister is still snoring. The chicks are just waking up. He bobs his head at Raptor Red. She doesn’t look up. He drops the crab between her legs, and it scuttles straight up her chest.
“Eeeeep!” Raptor Red makes a little cry and stands up. Suddenly she’s out of her mood and into figuring out this new thing.
She chases the crab up the beach, and her consort chases it back down. They push it down into the mud, and they dig it back up. He holds it against a rock, and she tries to pry into the crab’s shell with her thumb and her teeth.
As last she succeeds in popping the bottom shell off. Her male consort refuses to taste it, but Raptor Red immediately chews off pieces.
She likes it a lot.
The rest of the day is spent crab-catching and crab-eating. They catch them together, and Raptor Red eats every one.
Raptor Red and her mate spend the day with the chicks. It’s not a bad life at all, being a pack of beachcombers…
From Raptor Red, by Bob Bakker.
Addendum: How did the author of G,G,S know that I'd had berry-picking days?