#Also! bishop is one of Rainydaze-rhys' characters

[kyanitegemverse]

Reunion - Ark AU -

Here we are! A bit about two idiots in love seeing each other again. 

some things will have links to help with some context! 

It was dawn when Avry woke up. The little makeshift camp she and Bishop had set up was hardly comfortable, what with the two of them and Bishop’s Argentavis all huddled under one roof. She groaned as she sat up, her back making a loud snap as she stretched. How long has it been now that she and Bishop had been stuck away from the rest of their little group? She wasn’t too sure. The days all seemed to blur together since she woke up here. How long exactly had it been? A few months? It had to have been considering the lunar cycle had gone through at least a few times. Her brow furrowed, a frown making its way onto her freckled face as thoughts came rushing back. Sometimes it was impossible to not think of how she was so far from everyone she cared about. All it took sometimes was the littlest things to remind her.

A stupid pun here, an excited tangent there. Thoughts of orange fur, red hair Avry had dyed, and long black expressive ears came bursting through. A reminder of a friend who put everyone else before herself. A reminder of warm fuzzy hugs just when Avry needed them. Off key duets belted out at the tops of lungs without a care in the world, and tired blue eyes that hid the stress the twitching tail betrayed. Sure they made her sad and gave her a dull ache, wishing for nothing more than for one of Aurora’s bone crushing hugs. But this? This was different.

The Moon and stars were a nightly reminder of the one person she loved more than anything. The one person who had stuck with her through everything. It reminded her of countless nights in her teenage years, looking up at the stars and the full moon, wondering if she was looking at them too.  The tears of joy the two shared at their first in person meeting at the airport that one spring. The many many nights they had stayed up way too late, talking about everything, nothing and all in between. Of how the sun shone on her skin and the wind tossed her hair during a Totally-Not-A-Date flight around town. Where one glance over at her with those violet eyes had stolen the breath right from Avry’s lungs and set a fire under her skin. If it weren’t for the whistling wind around them Avry was sure her pounding heart would have been heard. ‘Oh’ she had thought at the realization, and the questions that swarmed her mind as she could have sworn she saw the faintest dusting of pink on the shapeshifters cheeks. A first kiss, awkward and clumsy, with foreheads crashing into one another. Giddy nervous laughter as a second attempt is made with better results. 

The thoughts made Avry wonder. Did the others know she was stuck here? Did they care? ‘No of course they care!’ a voice cried out inside, trying to reason with her doubts and worries. But what if they didn’t? We’re they looking for her? Was she thinking of all their shared experiences too? ‘Does she miss me like I miss her?’ 

Something hard and cold brushed against her shoulder, snapping her out of her thought spiral. She was curled up against one of the shack walls, arms wrapped tightly around her legs. How long had she been crying? Red eyes looked over to see the beak of Macaw resting gently on her arm. “Hey buddy don’t worry I’m okay.” Her voice croaked out, reaching over to give the giant bird a scratch on the top of its head. The poor thing had been through just as much as Bishop and herself. A broken wing was objectively worse than an aching heart, especially now that the bird was their only real  means to getting back to their camp. Something did strike her as odd though. It had been at least a few days or so since the trip out to scout out the area just south of them. Surely the other three would have at least tried to look for them? She looked over at the bird again, noticing the expectant look in its eyes. “You must be hungry  huh. How about I try and get us something to eat.” 

With that Avry stood up, Stretching as best she could in the cramped space before grabbing her spear. Macaw turned to follow before Avry held up her hand. “You stay here okay? Make sure he doesn’t get hurt.” She said, nodding over to where Bishop was curled up. She made her way outside of the shack before the bird could attempt to follow her and set off hunting. 

It didn’t take her long to scavenge a decent amount of the edible berries Colby had taught her about. “Red, Blue, and Yellow. Don’t eat the black or purple ones.”  came the voice of the cook in her mind. 

Avry rolled her eyes at the phantom reminder. “But what if I want to try the purple ones.” She eyed the one on the bush in front of her. It was just sitting there. Taunting her with its inability to be eaten. Just one wouldn’t hurt right? She could finally figure out why her stegosaurus was so wild about them. They had to taste good then right? Right? Was she really going to try this? Avry looked up and around, knowing full well she was alone and far enough away from the prying eyes of her group mates and their judgement on these sorts of dumb ideas. Yes. She absolutely was going to try this. Plucking the purple berry from the tree, she held it up, sticking her tongue out to give it a little taste test. Or at least she would have if a loud thunderous roar didn’t cause her to toss the thing as it shocked her out of her concentration. Whipping her head around to the direction of the roaring, her eyes widened as panic set in. It wasn’t hard to see the Carnotaurus  in the distance, hell she could practically feel the ground shaking beneath her as it walked this way. If she moved on from here now she could avoid running into it for longer. “Alright I guess I’ll have to figure that out another time.” She muttered to herself as she wandered off, away from the destination of the titanic carnivore. 

A few hours passed and Avry was beginning to remember why exactly she left the hunting side of this to Cheddar. These obnoxious birds had been ever so slightly out of her range for who knows how long now. Perhaps longer than Avry would like to admit. But she had them now. There was no escape for these little dodo bastards. Finally some good fucking food. Or at least it would be if she could just catch the thing on the end of her spear. She broke out into a sprint from her hiding spot at one of the little flightless birds. It squawked and bolted off in a random direction in a panic with Avry close behind. It ducked past a few trees and took a sharp turn to the right, missing the sharp tip of the spear by a feather. “Are you kidding me?!” the woman growled in frustration before continuing her pursuit of the stupid bird.  Taking the sharp turn she found herself tumbling to the ground. She had tripped on something. A root? This was just her luck. The carnivore earlier, now losing her  potential dinner? She frowned as she sat up. “Good one Rayne. Can’t even catch a bird that has no self preservation instincts. Oh yeah Avry Rayne, hunter of the year right here.” She stopped herself as she turned to look at what she had actually tripped on. 

That was no root. Oh. Oh no. No.. that was absolutely a foot. A foot belonging to a rather familiar looking carnivore. “Oh fuck.” she muttered under her breath, unsure of what to do. How had she not heard the Carnotaurus coming? Was she really that focused on her hunt that she failed to see the danger that was so close to her? Wow this day really was getting worse by the minute wasn’t it. 

It was about to get a whole lot worse as the dinosaur above her moved as she was stuck frozen to the spot. The creature let out a low rumbling, almost sounding confused as to what had just happened itself. Avry could only watch from her spot on the ground as it turned. This was no place to stay but she really had no chance of out running this thing. If she remembered all the books she had as a kid, this thing could run at a max of fifty kilometers an hour. She always wondered why that exact fact stood out to her after all these years. Maybe she was about to figure out why. Funny how things like that work out.

Given there really was no hope in running from this beast, the best hope Avry had at not becoming lunch herself was to deter it with the spear. Backing up against one of the trees, she used it to stand herself up, shaking hands pointing the spear up at the thing that was absolutely going to send her back to the camp in just about the worst way she could think of.  The beast seemed to be eyeing her, a low growl in its throat as it stepped closer.

“S-stay back!” She warned, knowing full well the thing wouldn’t understand a word she said. “Trust me buddy I’m kinda lanky. “ She let out a nervous laugh. “Y-yeah that's right. I’m all stringy and gross and probably taste really game-y. There's really not enough meat here to be a snack! You’d be better off with a few dodos!” 

The Carnotaurus was still looking at her, moving its head from side to side, as if it was curious in its own meat eating way. The low growl continued to rumble in its throat as it stood up a little straighter, causing Avry to flinch. She held the spear out, tensing her muscles and shutting her eyes tight. This was it. This was how she died. Died stumbling through unknown territory doing her best to survive. But as with most things it seemed like her best just wasn’t good enough. She hadn’t felt this small and helpless in a long time as she waited for the feeling of sharp teeth clamping down on her.

But the feeling never came.

In fact the low rumble had stopped as well. But it hadn’t wandered off or she would have felt the heavy steps of it walking off completely disinterested. So what was it doing? Why was it taking so long?

“Avry?”

The sound of a familiar voice made her heart miss a beat. Daring to open her eyes, the sight before her caused Avry to gasp. The large prehistoric predator that was staring her down in her final moments had all but vanished. In its place however, was a person. Someone she had figured she may never see again. Was she dreaming? Because if she was this would be the point where she’d wake up back in her bed at camp. She did no such thing however as she stared at the shapeshifter in front of her with disbelief, shoulders slowly lowering as the tension in her body was let go. Avry opened her mouth to speak, hardly able to form words due to the emotional whiplash she was experiencing. 

“Avry is that really you?” The person called out to her again, sounding on the verge of tears herself. She too was frozen in place, mind racing probably much like her own was.

“Jess?” The name escaped her as if on its own, And Avry watched as the person responded. Straightening their posture a little bit, the hint of a smile making its way onto her face. Avry’s vision blurred as the mix of emotions came welling up to the surface. Without so much as a second thought, she tossed the spear to the side and broke out into a run. “JESSI!” 

“It is you!” The shapeshifter exclaimed, breaking out into a run towards her girlfriend. The two met in the middle, practically crashing into each other as they met in the middle of the space that had been between them. Avry wrapped her arms around Jessi the moment she was able to, burying her face into the crook of the other woman’s neck. She was openly sobbing at this point, hands grabbing at the fabric of Jessi’s shirt, as if needing some way of knowing this was all real. A moment later she could feel the shapeshifter’s arms wrap tightly around her, trying to pull her impossibly closer. Time seemed to stand still for the pair as they shared their first embrace in who knows how long. No words could exactly describe the mix of emotions Avry was experiencing. How long? How long had Jessi been there just ever so out of reach? Could she have found her sooner? If she had only looked then maybe just maybe the pair of them could have been surviving together from the beginning. 

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Avry said, voice muffled slightly from being up against the were-dragon's neck. She felt one of Jessi’s arms move, hand going to gently play with Avry’s hair - an action that did wonders for calming her down. 

“I’ve missed you so much Raynedrop.” Jessi murmured, tightening her grip around Avry’s waist. “There hasn’t been a day that's gone by where you weren’t in my thoughts.” The shapeshifter let out a shaky breath. “Everyday and night I that I could was filled with wishing to have you in my arms again.” The shapeshifter chuckled at her own mushy bullshit. “And now here you are, stumbling into my life by pure chance once again. It's almost like you’re supposed to be here or something.” 

Avry didn’t need to look at Jessi to know there was one of those lopsided grins on her face. “Oh can it you big sap.” She said with a laugh, moving to look into those stunning violet eyes. “I missed you too.” Sure enough, that lopsided grin had made its way onto Jessi’s face. She brought her hand to cup Avry’s cheek, thumb wiping away a stray tear. Avry leaned into the affectionate gesture, a lovestruck look on her face. For once the world was still. Nothing seemed to dare disturb the pair and their reunion and for the first in a long time, everything felt like it was going to be okay.

 The shapeshifter let out a happy sigh, placing a gentle kiss to Avry’s forehead. “Just wait till you meet the others at camp. I’m sure they’ll be surprised to see another person with me.” Jessi said with a grin.

“Wait. Others?” Avry questioned, raising an eyebrow. Then the realization hit her. “Oh fuck. Jess I can’t go! Not yet. I still have to get back to the makeshift camp! I’ve got another person and an injured giant vulture with me. Ah shit Bishop’s gonna kill me if I don't come back with some sort of food. They’re both probably starving.” A worried look made its way onto Avry’s face as Jessi moved her hand to brush some of her bangs out of the way and tuck them away behind Avry’s ear. 

“Woah hey it's all good! Tell you what. I have some extra rations with me. We’ll get something on the way back for the bird and all of us can head back to my camp. Okay?” The shapeshifter let go of the embrace, walking over to pick up the spear Avry had dropped not that long ago. “You also might want this. Just don’t point it at me alright?”

Avry turned to watch where Jess was going and put her hands on her hips at the remark. “Oh well excuse me. Need I remind you that you were a giant meat eating dinosaur? What the hell were  you even doing transformed like that? I didn’t realize you could shift into dinos!” She took the spear as the pair began to walk back the way Avry had come from earlier. 

“I couldn’t. At least not before waking up here. Now I can’t really change into anything else.” She answered with a shrug. “Now come on let's get travelling in style.” Jessi stretched out her arms as the changed, bright red scales flowing down them like a wave out to her hands which now had talons adorning each digit. A pair of wings stretched out from her back, ripping part of her shirt in the process. Lastly a long scaly tail with that iconic arrow head tail tip protruded from the base of the shapeshifters spine. “It’s been awhile since we did this so I thought it might be kind of nice.” 

“You want to sweep me off my feet again? Aww babe that's so sweet!” Avry leapt into Jessi’s outstretched arms without hesitation, wrapping an arm around her neck. “Hope you don’t mind me backseat flying again.” 

“Oh no don’t worry. I expect you to navigate at least part of the way back.” The response came with unfurled wings and a running start as Jess lifted off the ground, the pair setting off back to the makeshift shack. Together.