a even better H-day present?

suddenly like that, things were all good again. i'd be rescued from the poachers, by none other than my former roommate dan, of all people!?!

not only was this a shock to me, as i'd thought i'd said goodbye to him for the final time, but now it was turning out that he was not who i thought he was. dan it was out was a member of palaeo-central...

don't get me wrong. i was pleased about all of this initially. dan after all had been the one who'd saved me. more to the point was the one to untie me as well.

"there we go," dan said as he undid the last knot.

"thanks!" i enthusiastically thanked him, as i stretched my arms... do you know how much it hurts to have those tied up for a few hours?!?

"no worries," dan replied. "could we consider it your hatching day present?"

"my what?" i asked in disbelief. it couldn't be my hatching day again already could it? though as i thought about i was shocked to realize he was right! today was my 6th hatching day! man it feels like i hardly got anything done this year (:P)...
`
"i guess wishing you a happy hatching day, after all this, would be kind of pointless wouldn't it?" dan sympathized with me.

it certainly had been a weird hatching day... i didn't even want to know what present might be coming my way this year... considering everything that had happened as a result of my last one!!!

there was a silence at that thought, as both of us had nothing to say. dan trying to segue the conversation asked. "so how's the rest of your trip been since i last saw you?"

how has my trip been?... how has my trip been!?! after everything i've been through today, and more to the point all the things dan has been keeping from me... that was the best dan could come up with!!!

"you lied to me! " i accused dan madly... which i guess was a little ungrateful as he'd just saved me, but i was really angry at him now. "i thought you moved away!"

"i did," dan stated matter of fact, unable to believe i'd accused him of that. "you saw all my stuff in the truck, and me drive off... oh and not to mention crushing richardo!" oh yeah, i did do that didn't i...

okay i wasn't really mad at him for that... though his being here did raise the question if he'd moved away why was he back... however i was pretty sure it was part of my next question. "why didn't you ever tell me you were in palaeo-central?"

my question didn't phase dan one bit. "it wouldn't have been a secret then," he replied matter of factly. "not much point to being an undercover operative, if everyone knows your an operative. especially those closest to you."

i got it... no i seriously got it, it made total sense. still it really hurt to hear. if i was capable of crying i'd have been pouring like a river right at that moment. sure me and dan had never exactly gotten along, but that can be said for me and most other humans/dinosaurs (when you have a brain as small as mine it can be hard to not mess up with everyone). yet he and my legal guardian craig were the closest thing i had to a family... isn't family supposed to be honest with you?

then a more to the point occurred to me, which might explain. "how long have you been an 'operative'? i inquired thinking i'd figured out why he hadn't told me. dan must have started with paradigm just recently, and thus it was a new thing. there was no big secret, just a short one...

his answer shattered my hope. "5 years," dan answered finally with a bit of guilt. despite how we often were confrontational, dan still had always looked out for me (or so i thought anyways). he could see i was really upset learning all this. "i joined a couple months after craig..." dan suddenly trailed off realizing what he'd just told me.

WHAT?!? i nearly fell over from the shock of this revelation... my legal guardian was part of palaeo-central, and he'd never even so much as hinted at it once in the time he'd taken care of me. hmmm, okay apart from the last time i saw him 2 years ago! he had threatened larry in reference to central, but i hadn't realized what it was at the time...

the two people i trusted the most in the whole wide world, and they'd been lying to me nearly my whole life!

dan knew just how hurt i was. "traum, i'm sorry we never told you," he began. "it was just..."

"it was just what. that you actually did hate me?!?" i screamed, which with my tyrannosaurian voice box came out more like a scary roar. i'd always knew i annoyed dan, but up till now i'd always thought we were still close.

dan came in close and put his hand on my back. "no, traum," he calmly assured me. "quite the opposite. craig insisted we never tell you, to try and shelter you from all the evils centrals fights against everyday. it is a scary world for you fossils. we didn't want your life to be dominated or limited by them."

it may not have been much of an explanation, but it certainly was helping me to feel better. he could have been lying, but i knew dan, and despite my small brain i trusted my memories of my childhood. him and craig had always tried to do what was best for me. whether i knew it at the time or not (i could make it very difficult on them if i didn't see it their way).

"in fact," dan concluded. "it was because of you that craig joined. he wanted so much to keep you safe from all the dangers out there."

"really?" i asked very moved.

"yes really, you pea brain!" dan retorted. "even i have to admit you were quite cute as a hatchling, won't want anything to happen to you then," he fondly recalled, but quickly added. "not that you stayed that way for long, mind you."

i was suddenly feeling a sort of sad happiness. sad because it was about times long gone, my childhood was gone and it was never coming back, but yet happy because suddenly my two human roommate's sacrifice on my behalf had been revealed to me. i DID have a family who cared about me!!!

i started to thank dan. "thank you so much for trying to protect me. i can't believe you guys signed on for all that, just for me."

"woah! woah!" dan cut me off, and then corrected me. "i said craig joined because of you. i signed on just because craig asked me too."

i slumped a bit again, so dan didn't really like me, but in response to this he cracked a big smile. "alright," he admitted. "i did do it a bit because of you. only a bit, though."

"you've always annoyed me traum," dan said scornfully, but then suddenly he grabbed me up into a big hug. "but it's only because you're family... really, really, really annoying family, but family none the same."

i had never been so happy to be hugged before (which are actually kind of painful for us theropods with our not straight up and down backbones...).

suddenly from behind us came the booming voice of professor paradigm, who'd clearly recovered from being knocked out. he was looking away from our embrace as he stated. "i hate to interrupt this touching moment, but this is hardly the time or the place gentlemen."

"yes professor," dan said over my shoulder.

"you mean palaeo-prime don't you?" paradigm sharply corrected.

"sorry sir," dan apologized.

"i would prefer not to leave both suspects alone with agent montgomery, so if you could please assist her, dan," paradigm insisted.

"i guess that's my cue," dan said with some conclusion. "i guess i'll see you around sometime, traum," as he let go and started to walk off in the direction of amanda and the two poachers.

"you're not coming back?" i asked in disbelief.

"i moved remember?" dan replied in irritation.

"i just meant after dropping them off in jail," i responded feeling dumb.

"ah right," dan said in his usual way, remembering my brain deficit. "we aren't going to be processing them 'locally'. i'm going to have to escort the two of them a little ways away," i was about to ask where that was, when dan reminded me. "top secret, remember. i can't tell, so don't ask."

i dumbly replied with the only thing that came to mind "bye!"

"now that you're in the 'know', i'm sure we'll be seeing you again traum. don't you worry," dan assured me as he walked off. he suddenly stopped. "oh and when you see him, tell craig i said hi," dan resumed walking, but stopped suddenly as a thought occurred to him. he turned with a intense seriousness. "and if you tell anyone i hugged you, we're not cool anymore. you understand me?"

i nodded, and with that dan gave me a salute off his head as farewell and walked off through the badlands back to the car.

holy smokes what a H-day! everything i thought i knew about those who raised me turns out to be wrong!

wait, did dan just say when i saw craig? i haven't seen him in a couple years... when was that suddenly going to change?

then it occurred to me where i was standing. in the middle of the badlands, poaching remnants all around me. what was i supposed to do now, i thought. i hadn't been at all that many foiled fossil poachings before. what was i supposed to do now?

as though to answer my question a big strong hand settled on my neck. "i hope you're not planning on running off," professor paradigm boomed. "we need to talk!"

right. the professor. oops. i found myself gulping in panic. he'd warned me he'd give me quite the thrashing if he found me still investigating the poachings... and here i was, not only at the crime scene, but captured by the very criminals he'd been worried about getting me.

yeah this was turning out to be one "great" 6th hatching day!

next an old "friend" of paradigm's!

agents of palaeo-central...

things were looking grim... REALLY grim people of the innerweb!

i'd solved the case, and figured out who was poaching fossils... the tag-team of a rogue technician named megan sauer and a PHD student gone bad called "jo" jocelyn harvager, who were after vivusly preserved dinosaur eggs.

they'd captured me when i snooped around their dig site for too long (oops...). things seemed like they were going to turn out alright when professor paradigm showed up on the scene. he was able to take out one poacher (megan), but jo proved a very capable fighter and out fought the professor. meaning it was now the eggs, me, professor paradigm who were in big trouble.

the only good news was jo being at a momentary lose right after defeating the professor. she was the only one of us at the site who could do anything (i was tied up and the other two were unconscious) and without megan to help her, it was clear jo didn't know how to proceed. who can blame her really lugging out all the fossils AND an out cold colleague was a bit much for anyone person...

however when jo picked up megan's gun off the ground, i suddenly felt a massive chill down my spine. as jo walked up towards the professor i couldn't help but get the distinct impression she intended to finish him off... sadly it made sense to me. one less thing for her to worry about, as she waited for megan to come back too.

jo pointed the gun at the professors limp body when suddenly a song could be heard from around the hill... i couldn't believe my ears, not that jo would probably have known the voice, but i sure did!

jo marched over to investigate, and came face to face with my former roommate dan!?!

a million and one questions raced through my head... most importantly what was dan doing here??? the last time i saw him, he was moving out of town!

i had a lot of other questions. even if dan had come back to town, how did he end up here? why this spot?

as jo approached she pointed the gun at dan, who just obliviously kept singing "i'm walking on sunshine".

"who the hell are you?" jo demanded. clearly all the random people showing up at her illegal dig was trying her patience... well maybe if you weren't do illegal stuff this wouldn't happen to you jo! have you thought about that?!? sorry got a little carried away for a second!

dan in a most uncharacteristic for him way, happily answered. "i'm dan," as he dumbly waved at her. what was going on i thought. in all my years living with dan i'd never seen him this silly or happy (most of the time i'd know him he was always grumpy... though i guess the might have been due to the trouble i caused him all the time!)

dan's weird behaviour was wigging jo out. "what is the matter with you?" she flailed the gun in her hand to ensure he'd noticed it.

"oh nothing," dan happily replied, as he ambled towards jo. she raised her firearm, and made it clear she'd shot dan if he got closer. he stopped but kept his goofy grin and a bizarre body posture. "i'm just out enjoying a good old fashion sing in the badlands, jo."

jo dropped her jaw at her name being mentioned, but she stiffened ready to fire.

"before you do anything rash," dan said almost unconcerned by jo's actions. "you might want to consider that no matter what you do to me, palaeo-central has you IDed now. which means there really isn't anywhere you're going to be able to run to that we can't find you."

did i just hear him right?!? as i was on the other side of the hill there was a chance i miss heard dan. if i did though, he just said he was with palaeo-central if i'm right!!! my own former roommate, one of the closest people i have to an actual family, and he has kept that secret from me?!?

before i could stew on this any further tons of things happened at once. jo now aimed the gun at a fairly lethal spot of dan. at the same moment as i turned to look away (which was silly of me as all i could see was the hill between us, but i felt i shouldn't be facing away when dan was made no more) i found i was suddenly face to face with a girl who was crouched beside me. i nearly screamed out loud, but she grabbed my snout and kept it from opening.

"be absolutely quiet," this stranger instructed me. "i'd untie you, but i have a bit of rescuing to do. excuse me." with that she shot up the hillside.

to emerge right behind jo. who was telling dan. "too bad that palaeo-central isn't here right now then isn't it!"

dan just snickered. "if you say so."

as the new girl on the scene leapt from the hill...

right onto jo!

before you knew it the new girl had jo down in an armlock. "get off me!" jo screamed in both pain and frustration.

jo still had the gun in her hand, but before she could think to use it, dan pounced on it. "i don't think so ms. harvager," he stated pulling the weapon from jo. dan then looked at the girl immobilizing the poacher. "could you have left it any closer to the last second there amanda?"

amanda responded. "sorry, i was distracted," she motioned over her shoulder with her head in my direction. "there's a miniature tyrannosaur all tied up on the other side of the hill."

she paused and then said in a slight amused voice. "oh and also the professor is lying the next hill over. i took a few seconds there to, come to think of it," dan glared at amanda. "what? like you won't have taken a moment to capture that on film?!? i'm going to legendary back at HQ when everyone sees these. though if you want in on the action and sneak a peak, i'd tread lightly. he won't be all that happy when he wakes up. especially if he found out we'd seen him laid out like that."

jo started to groan and struggle, but amanda just applied pressure to her wrist. "calm down tough girl," jo winced audibly in pain, as amanda warned her. "you might be a 3rd degree blackbelt, or so i assume based on the fact you beat up the professor back there, but i train against people at your level for my warm ups. just be a good girl and stay down... for your sake."

"i have her as my martial arts coach," dan quipped to jo. "trust me, you don't want to take her on, and i only have sparring as a reference."

amanda applied some handcuffs to jo's wrists, and hoisted the now relatively secure poacher to her feet. jo hanging her head in defeat grumbled. "we would have pulled it all off if not for that stupid tyrannosaur!"

dan overhearing that. "speaking of which, amanda think you can handle her on your own?"

"a mere 3rd degree," amanda replied sarcastically. "i think i'll just barely manage."

"good," dan replied as he started walking in my direction. "i've got a former housemate to untie."

next a secret that is as old as i am!!!

life moves on (homecoming part 3)

this is making no sense people of the innerweb!

i've flown back to my old home, drumheller canada, due to someone buying me the rather generous gift of a plane ticket for my 5th hatching day. the thing that makes no sense though is that this person is no where to be found...

why would you fly little old me halfway across the world if not to see me?!?

though in my efforts to find my mystery gifter, an obvious suggestion of their identity came up... my old roommate dan!

now i'd been meaning to look up dan anyways. for old times sake if anything else. though i had plenty of other things i wanted to sort out between me and him.

dan's one of the few people i have some, shall we say, troubled history with (you can catch a sample of that in these videos).

i've always caused problems for dan sadly... all because of my small brain, and not knowing quite how to do things right. usually poor dan was the one who had to pick up the pieces when i made things go wrong (oh and my legal guardian craig)!

it would be nice to try and make a mends with him about the past...

i won't lie it would also be nice to see dan and craig's old house again. i did grew up there for my first 2 years of life. it wasn't till, well the "unpleasantness", that i got kicked out of their home and moved into the museum. there are a lot of memories in that place, and i've been kinda wanting to get back in touch with my roots for a while (basically since i started up this blog!).

when i got to the house i saw a couple of things that made my jaw drop!

first off there was a sign saying "FOR SALE" on the lawn, and secondly a moving truck parked on the street!!!

what in the name of cornelius funk was going on here?!?

why was our old house on sale?

walking around the truck i found dan. he didn't look as surprised to see me as everyone else around town... had i solved the mystery of the present buyer?

"dan!' i said in a really really happy voice. to be fair i meant it in a mostly geniune way, but due to the awkward nature of our inter-relating i played it up a bit... which might have made it sound kind of, well, not real...

"traumador, what a 'surprise'," dan said in a weird way. it must have been because he bought me the plane ride!

"oh i get it," i whispered to him, as my tiny brain caught up with what was going on. i winked at him.

"you get what?" dan asked confused.

"you said surprise! that was everyone's cue to jump out of the truck and surprise me, right?" i kept talking quiet so not to alert them all to my being in the know!

dan suddenly lite up. "shucks, you figured me out," he said really really sadly... kinda like how i'd said his name really really happily earlier. wonder why he did that? "i rented this whole moving truck so i could get 'everyone' into it, just to surprise you..." he stated pointing at the truck, but he trailed off at the end of his statement for a moment...

than suddenly demanded. "surprise you for what? you stupid theropod! you suddenly show up at my door out of the blue, after years and years of NO contact, and expect me to have a welcome organized for you?!?"

oh no. this was just like old times... but i thought that i'd thought about this... ahhhh. i managed to mumble in embarrassment. "but i thought you were the one who bought my plane ticket here back home... and i thought the surprise was a belated surprise hatching day party..."

dan was a bit taken back by that. i quickly pulled myself together by telling him the tale of my getting back here to drumheller. he stood there for a moment taking it in, and than in total disbelief asked "who in their right mind would pay for you to come back? i was only pretending i wasn't surprised to see you because its really stressful around here at moment, and the only other thing that could have gone wrong would be you showing up!"

oh man. i'd left the things between me and him shimmer too long...

i've made plenty of mistakes in my time people of the innerweb, but about a year before i started this blog i made one of the ones i regret the most.

that was being really difficult, and okay i admit it, mean to dan and craig after getting my job at the museum. i thought i was suddenly a big shot with my first job (even though they both worked at the same place, and were my superiors by like a thousand levels... er well okay three, but still). craig shrugged it off for the most part, and tried to assure dan i'd grew out of it (as a 2 year old t-rex i was still growing a lot back than... just unlike normal t-rexs i stopped about than too!). dan got fed up with it though, and kicked me out...

back to the present though. "why are things so stressful?" i wondered out loud. "can i help?"

"your about a month and a few hundred of thousand dollars too late," dan stated in muted anger... this time not directly at me. he head motioned towards the house. "i'm having to sell the house, and head somewhere new."
_
"what? NO! not now..." i stammered a whole waterfall of thoughts and emotions rushed through my head. how could this be happening right after i'd finally made it back into town?!? "can't i at least go through the place once more?" i pleaded.
_

"traumador," dan turned away, clearly upset by my causing him to dwell on the situation. "not now. there's just been so much going on around here lately... i don't have time for this. could you please just let me wrap up and get on with what needs to be done..."
_
"i'm not leaving till i make things right between us!" i declared my thoughts out loud as they entered my head, i was upset too. i rushed for the truck's door. if dan wanted to leave he was going to have to deal with me first!
_

i just really wish i'd been paying more attention to my surroundings. in particular what was in the door's threshold...

slamming the door down firmly. "there, you're not going anywhere till..." i trailed off. dan had the most horrified face, but he wasn't looking at me...

"OH NO!!!" i cried when i caught sight of the tiny dinosaur i'd just crushed. dan's new dinosaur roommate richardo! dan was going to flip, this totally looked worse than it was. given what i'd done the first time i met the little long neck...

_

we both stood starring in disbelief for a moment. dan in absolute shock, and me in guilt.

_

i really hadn't meant to do anything bad to richardo, i swear! i just wanted to tell dan how sorry i was about years ago, and that i'd changed! now i was screwing up just like back in those days!!!

dan after a few seconds sprang into action getting richardo out of his predicament. "richardo, are you okay?!?" dan gently asked as the door eased off the tiny sauropod's neck.

_

thankfully richardo made a noise... phew... he was alright!

_

but i wasn't going to be! "TRRRRAAAAUUUUMMMMAAAAADDDDDOOOORRRR!!!" oh man i hadn't heard dan shout at me that loud since he kicked me out of the house 3 years ago...

_

he was so angry and into his scream of rage that dan started to crush poor richardo himself!

"AH, i'm sorry!" a startled dan pleaded when he realized the damage he himself was now inflicting.
_
richardo gave a forgiving bleat, and the two had a tender friend moment.

_

awww it was just so nice. i mean look at them. as i stood there i could feel the love in the air... it was just the sort of scene i was hoping me and dan were going to have today...

only i was brought back to reality as the two buddies exited their bonding to both glare at me!

"you better go traumador!" dan stated while richardo stared at me with his tiny but piercing little eyes.

_

"you wore out your welcome here a long time ago," he said coldly as he reclosed the truck door. "now it seems i have too," he added solemnly.

_

"but, but..." i started stammering, AGAIN! man i wasn't prepared for this part of coming home. i'd forgotten about all the not nice things that would be waiting with the nice for me from my past. "where are you going to go?"

_

"i'm not sure," he said contemplatively.

_

i was all over the place, my brain wasn't coping with all of this well, and it probably make me seem like the old me all the more. "why haven't you checked in with craig? can't he help you save the house?"

_

dan turned a glared at me. "that good for nothing, he pulled out on the house a month ago. that's why i've had to sell it!"

_

"what?" i thought aloud. "why would he do that?"

_

"i don't know," dan grumbled as he secured the truck to leave. "he claimed it was a liability, and that it linked him back to drumheller. whatever that means. i personally just think he needed the money, because of some bonehead move he made. he came back into town a few months ago, and seemed set on settling back in. than suddenly a month ago he just suddenly had to skip town for no reason."

_

"now i'm sorry, traumador," dan turned to me. "whatever you had planned for the house and me. it won't happen today. not ever really. you're too late. it's over," he trailed off really sad. "it's all over."

_

"i'm leaving it all behind," he said. "i seriously suggest you do the same. just turn around and get back on that plane back to new zealand. get out of town, before you find out just how easily this place can forget us so easily."

_

than his voice lightened up from this harsh note, and for the first time i got to see a slight piece of the cool nice dude dan had been most of the time i'd lived with him. "take care of yourself traumador," dan smirked. "whatever you've been doing to make it so far on your own, keep it up. i honestly thought you were done for when they booted from town. clearly you've changed since the last time i last saw you. so yeah, keep it up i guess."

_

with that he got into the truck, closed the door as he went, started the engine, and drove away...

_

leaving me to swallow it all.

so craig hadn't just had a falling out with me, but now dan too... that made no sense. they'd been best friends since before i hatched...

more to the point my last main tie to my past still in town, had just left town... how was i going to find out more about where i'd come from now?

was my return a bad idea as dan had implied. was nothing but more bad memories and experiences going to come my way while here?

i sure hoped not.

one thing was clear though. i was bummed out by this, and i had nothing more in mind to do to get my mind off it. i'd been kinda thinking hanging out with and catching up with dan would have killed at least one day...

now what was i going to do?

special treat

well people of the world wide web due to all the commotion and craziness of the countdown of doom i've neglected a key promise i made to you guys a while back. i'd hoped to be sure to get a vlog up every 25 posts or so, but if you were paying attention i've gone a few over that with no vlog.

now sadly i still haven't had time in my busy schedule (what with the new job, and figuring out what life in dunedin is REALLY about) to get a vlog done. however the crazy guys at prehistoric insanity (the nice people who make my vlogs possible) have posted the UNOFFICIAL royal tyrrell museum training video. guess who it's about...

that's right... this is the true story of how it was all those years ago i got my job in drumheller!

it is kind of a fitting thing for me to post right now. the museum is no doubt in the midst of gearing up for a new summer, and this will be the first summer in years i haven't been there!

fortuently i don't have time to get sad or homesick about that last fact.

so take a trip back into my past... the year was 2004...

The Return

well i know that i said i'd post a vlog every 25 posts... well this is techincally in that limit. just a little sooner then i figured. alot of stuff has happened this week, and the only way to communicate it easily i found is through a vlog.



in spite of everything that has happened i'm going to hang out here for a few more days. the museum is having it's xmas party, and cam and krista have invited me to join them at it. so i figure i might as well go. i have no where better to be at moment...

100th post!!!

holy smokes people of the web wide world... i've already made 100 entries in my blog!!!

it seems like just yesterday i started this thing, and now here i am a true veteran of the super information highway.

now i figured i'd do something special for this entry... well okay. my talent agent peter figured i should...

since i've been on the innerweb all i've talked about is what's going on in my life thus far... i thought this would be a good entry to take a look back at where i came from. this also seemed very fitting since i'm currently on route to drumheller to see if i can reconnect with this past.





hope now you have a better idea of why i'm in search of my dinosaur roots. i also hope that after all i've seen and done in my journeys these last 4 months they'll take me back in drum. now i'm a super qualified dinosaur...

i'm also planning on doing this "vlog"s more often then every 100 posts... hopefully like every 25 from here on in.

catch you in drumheller people of the innerweb!