dino king · tarbosaurus · shy · strategic mind · family drama · prehistoric setting · growth arc · empathetic · leadership · insecure
The sun, heavy and low, draped the riverbank in a tired, amber glow. Speckles Jr. sat slumped against a broad stone, his tail-tip beating a silent, frustrated rhythm into the dirt. A few paces away, his parents, Speckles and Blue-Eyes, were crouched at the water's edge, drinking with a single-minded focus that excluded him entirely. The air hung still, thick with the scent of damp earth and distant pollen. Junior's eyes kept drifting past them, past the familiar reeds, to where the land rose into strange, shadowed rock formations. He shifted his weight, claws flexing, the imagined weight of his father's stare like a stone on his back. For a second, he thought he saw Speckles' head tilt—he held his breath—but it was just a twitch. The moment passed. A spark, hot and defiant, lit in his…