IA3 -- Conversing with Buck

Diego couldn’t sleep, and it was beginning to piss him off.  The rain pattering on the jungle canopy above him didn’t help (though it should be noted he was glad he was dry).  It also didn’t help that every five minutes or so, a dinosaur would roar; his instincts would kick in, ready to protect the newborn Peaches.  But no attack would ever come.  Of course.  Buck had explained to him that dinosaurs didn’t roar only before an attack.  They roared -- and Diego remembered his exact quote -- to tell others of their species were they were, to signal their territory, or to find a mate and spend the night in merry bouts of lovemaking.

Diego gave up.  Stretching his stiff and tired muscles (he was a tad bit sore from fighting the guanlong pack), he stood to his paws.  His ear perked up as he caught a new sound.  It was, most certainly, not a roar.  It was, in fact, a mammalian voice.  And it was humming.

“Buck?” Diego muttered, slightly confused.  Why was Buck still awake?  Oh, yes, that’s right.  He was keeping watch.  Did that weasel ever sleep?

Blinking his eyes into focus, Diego spotted him.  Buck sat on a rock, his blind side facing the tiger, leaning his back against a nearby tree.  With his dagger, he whittled away at a piece of wood, humming happily.  He began to sing, quietly and cheerily:

“Behold, the lady, pretty and fair
‘Pon her ancient throne
Defeat the monster that devours her
And claim her has your own.”

It was a song unlike any Diego had ever heard.  Then again, the only songs he’d ever heard were those annoying, pointless ditties that Sid would invent.  While Buck’s song seemed pointless, it was actually quite catchy.  Taking care not to startle Buck (because, after all, he was approaching him via his blind side), Diego padded over.

“Nice song,” Diego said, sitting on the ground next to Buck’s rock; the cat and the weasel were now eye-to-eye.  “You make it up?”

“Yeah,” Buck replied.  He held up his finished project: a wooden model of a long-snouted dinosaur.

“Is that Rudy?” Diego asked.

Buck gave a small smirk.  “He’s the only thing I know how to make.  He’s taken up too much of my mind for me to try and whittle any other dino.”

Another roar echoed across the valley; Rudy's roar, Diego realized instinctively.  What else could sound so large or vicious?  Buck froze momentarily, then smiled.  It was a strange smile that sent shivers down Diego’s spine.  It was slow and deliberate…a strange mix of malice and excitement.

“Good night, big fella,” Buck growled.  Diego had hunted and fought weasels before, when normal prey was scarce; they were vicious beasts that loved nothing more than to draw blood in a battle.  But never, NEVER, had Diego heard such a fire or bloodlust as he heard with those four words.

Diego now realized why he hadn’t been able to sleep.  A dilemma had crossed his mind, and he hadn’t had the chance to present it to Buck.  But now he had that chance, so he did.  “Why,” he asked, “are you so damn obsessed?”

Buck faced the tiger.  “With who?  Rudy?” Buck asked.  He gestured towards his eye patch.  “He tore out me eye, remember?”

“An eye for a tooth,” Diego reminded him.  “You already got your revenge.  Why are you so obsessed --”

“Damn obsessed,” Buck corrected, “it’s been nearly eighteen years since I’ve heard a swear word been spoken by someone other than me.  Please, feel free to curse as you like.”

“-- fine, then, damn obsessed,” Diego chuckled, “with killing Rudy?”

Buck sat up straight, as though he’d been bitten in a very sensitive area by a horde of army ants.  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Buck declared, “who said anything about me killing Rudy?  That’s the last thing I’d ever want to do.”

Now, this surprised Diego.  “Really?  But, I thought --”

Buck interrupted him.  “Doubt I could, anyway.  Monsters as big as him can’t be killed.  He’s been around for…oh, I’d say, about five centuries.  Old age is the only thing that’ll take him.”

“Okay, then,” Diego said.  That was all he could think of to say.

Buck sighed.  How could he ever explain this?  He gave it a shot.  “I fancy,” he said, “that this ice-covered valley, a hell if there ever was one…is a woman.”  He stabbed his dagger into the tree behind him and continued.  “She’s unpredictable and passionate, keen to fits and quick to pleasure.  You never know if she’ll tear our your throat or love you through the night.  She’s the spirit of a woman, in the form of a dinosaur-filled valley.”

“I think I can understand that,” Diego said, “but where does hunting Rudy come into play?”

“Simple,” Buck said, “he’s ‘the monster that devours her.’  See, all the other dinos here work with the land.  They eat what they need and destroy only what they must.  Rudy, however, has grown so big -- he’s several times larger than most Barys like him get -- that he can’t follow those guidelines.  Or won’t.  He kills everything in his path, simply because he can.  He tears down trees and floods rivers.  He’s destroying her.  Raping her.  And what sort of mammal would I be if I stood by and let him do that?  When I fight him, he doesn’t think about devouring her.”

“Instead, he devours you,” Diego remarked acidly.  If Buck had picked up on Diego’s disgust, he ignored it.

“Now you’ve got it!” Buck cheered.  He examined the wooden Rudy he held in his paw.  “You know what?  I think I’ll give this to Peaches, so she‘ll have something to remember me by.  I got a million of ‘em in my cave already.”  He slid off his perch, strutting to where Peaches slept, warm and content between her parents.

Diego followed, still pondering Buck’s situation.  “But…” he said as Buck gently slid the wooden dinosaur under Peaches’ trunk, “aren’t you afraid of being eaten by him?”

“No, not at all,” Buck said, “ever since that day he tore out my eye, I knew he would be the one who’d kill me.  And, to be honest?”  He leaned closer to Diego and hissed, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

As he hopped back onto his rock, Diego followed.  He exclaimed, “You want to be eaten by him?  But you just said yourself he’s a monster!”

“Aren’t we all monsters, to some extent?” Buck declared, pulling his dagger out of the tree and examining the blade.

Diego winced; considering his violent past, he realized how close Buck had hit the mark.

“Besides,” Buck continued, “he’s a…noble monster, I suppose you could say.  I can hardly look at him without gasping in awe.  His very stature demands respect.  And, when it comes right down to it…I love him.  Not in a romantic sense, of course -- I saw you grimace a bit, and I know what you were thinking.  No, I love him as a brother of sorts.  He’s my greatest enemy and my dearest friend down here.  I consider it an honor to have lost this eye to him; an honor that his tooth is the blade of me dagger; an honor that it is him I will fight till the day he kills me.”

Diego understood now.  He wasn’t entirely sure how, but he did.  “So…” he said, seeing if his understanding was correct, “…you fight Rudy to keep the Dino World safe.”

Buck nodded, smiling proudly.

“And you also fight Rudy because you know he’s going to kill you,” Diego continued, “And because you love him.”

“As a brother,” Buck reminded.

“As a brother,” Diego repeated.

“You forgot that it’s also because it’s an honor to fight a monster as magnificent as him,” Buck added.

“And an honor to be eaten by someone like him,” Diego finished, giving Buck a brotherly smile.  “Well, I think I can rest easy now.  A load’s been taken off my mind.  Thanks, Buck.”

“You’re welcome, Tiger,” Buck said, “Now, go on and get some rest.  Got a ways to go before we get back to the portal.”

Diego turned to leave, when Buck called him.  “And, Diego?” Buck said, “Keep this between us, eh?  A carnivore’s pact.  I don’t think the others would really understand.”

Diego nodded.  “Of course.  Then again, I doubt anyone, even me, will ever fully be able to understand you.”

Buck gave another proud smile, and wished him good-night.  As Diego drifted off to sleep, he could hear Buck finish the song, which Diego now realized was the song about the adventuresome weasel’s life.

“Approach the beaten monster now,
And though it may be a sin
Show the beastie love and respect
For he is your closest friend and kin.”