The world of prehistoric earth was lively and vibrant. Trees stand tall like giant, together with the beast that inhabits it's top.
The skies was filled with pterodactyl and pterosaur, as well as the quetzalcoatlus that bullied both. With the deepest abyss of ocean inhabited by the likes of mosasaur as it's reigning apex. While the land was left with competition between closely strong and beast as oppressive as the tyrannical T-rex.
In these lands, at an most unassuming cave, lived perhaps the most dangerous one there is. nestled between jagged rocks with stalagmite as decoration of their home, lived the raptors. Noise of their chattering, chirping, and rattling filled the air.
Inside sat a pack of velociraptors. Their sharp eyes glowed in the dim light, their tails flicking lazily. And in the middle of them all was their so-called "leader." Kerl, the very creature with (possibly) no rival in this era.
He himself was amongt the greatest talent in human history, arm that intelligence with raptor's physique and you get yourself the next super-predator.
And right now, that supposed genius was hunched forward, intensely focused, trying to learn raptor language.
"ckr-" "Bok, bok, btook!" he tested the sounds he could make.
His raptors stared at him.
They had fought alongside him. Trusted him. Followed his orders.
But this?
This was the most confusing thing he had ever done.
From the outside, Kerl was simply testing sounds. Random syllables, grunts, and clicks, all to gauge their reactions.
But from the raptor gang's perspective?
Their leader- this mighty, clever, alpha of theirs—was saying some straight-up prehistoric bullshit.
"Lotato. Bananana. Labarabolo. Tapoz—" Was all they could decipher with their understanding of raptor communication, perhaps he meant something but they with their limited intelligence could only dicern so. If he was using any advanced raptor alphabet, they would have to level up their own learning.
Kerl was losing his patience. «Oh seriously!?» i've been spouting for a whole hour and there's still little to no reaction?»
This couldn't go on, if he apout any more bullshit, they— the raptors would lose all their respect to him as a leader.
«i gotta keep trying!» he steeled his will.
"RAH!" this time, the raptors looked just as confused as last time.
«judging by their expression, perhaps it's a word that require other word to form command with. or i made a mistake. how about his?»
He tried again, "RAH, eur."
And the raptors all rested on the pile of leaves they treat as their bed.
he noted and moved on, «how about this?» he had an idea to try every combination if any sound didn't work. Since sentences require more than a word.
"Rukh, RAH!" he tested.
The raptors who finally got some coherent order from the alpha followed with high-spirit.
«FINALLY!» Kerl celebrated the reaction, that's something to work from. Since they responded, it means he was getting somewhere.
With perseverence, he He clenched his jaw. He was a scientist, damn it! Learning a new language—even an extinct, dino-bird one—was just a matter of trial and error. continuing the raptornese training.
"IRKH!" He chirped. The sharp chirp made the raptors snap their heads up, observing the area.
Kerl blinked. «Oh? That meant something?»
He noted once again. Before testing a different sound, "RAH, uAR." Which made the raptor start bobbing their like how a parrot would when hearing song or ordered by it's owner.
Kerl, now hyped up by the fact that he was making actual progress, continued his experiments with reckless enthusiasm.
Kerl grinned. «Oh yeah, baby. We're getting somewhere!»
He flapped his arms—uh, tiny raptor limbs—just to see if body movement added extra meaning to the sounds. The raptors stared, unimpressed.
"Alright, fair enough," he muttered. "Too early for interpretive dance."
Switching tactics, he decided to experiment with non-verbal sounds. He whipped his tail against a rock. THWAP. The raptors flinched and looked alert.
"Ooooh, so tail-whipping means something?" He did it again. THWAP-THWAP
The raptors chittered amongst themselves, shifting uncomfortably. Kerl got the distinct feeling he had just screamed something in a crowded theater.
"Okay, maybe let's leave that one for now."
He went back to vocalizations. "AURH, GURKH!"
WHAM!
Three hundred pounds of raw raptor muscle slammed into his side, nearly taking him off his feet.
Kerl barely caught himself before face-planting. His ribs were *definitely* going to feel that one later.
"WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!" He clutched his side, shooting an incredulous look at the raptor who tackled him. "did i just ordered him to commit assault on me or did i just said something incredibly offensive?"
The offending raptor merely flicked its tail, looking smug.
Kerl exhaled slowly. «Alright. Noted. Do NOT say 'AURH, GURKH' unless I want to get trucked.»
He thought of something and shouted to two of his raptors "RHOU, GURKH!" and they slammed towards one another.
«ah, i see..»
For the sake of scientific rigor, he repeated the phrase with some extra word added—
WHAM!
«GODDAMN IT!» He wheezed, sprawled in the dirt. «Okay, okay! That definitely means 'attack this subject' or something»
He pulled himself up, groaning. «i sure hope I didn't just say the velociraptor equivalent of an n word."
Now he had to reconsider the plan of testing the language, word by word just for communication. It was too risky— He wouldn't want to accidentally order them to kill him.
Rethinking his strategy, Kerl scratched his chin—er, snout. "This is taking too long. I need a better approach."
His human mind flicked through the options. Trial and error was fine, but it wasn't efficient. If he really wanted to drill commands into these guys, he needed something every animal understood... positivereinforcement.
«Operant conditioning! That's what it's called!» He clapped his claws together. «Raptors might not understand what I'm saying, but they do understand Food!»
He glanced at the pack, already scheming. "Body language is the universal language, after all."
The plan was simple. Instead of guessing and hoping they got the message, he would reward correct responses with food until they associated certain sounds with specific actions. Classic Pavlovian conditioning, just with dinosaurs.
«Alright, nerds. Who's ready to play police and do as bribed?»
The raptors, of course, had no idea what he was saying. But they did know he was grinning like a madman, which probably wasn't reassuring.
Kerl cracked his claws. «Let's get to work.»