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Eira Drake was most certainly not a morning person. She preferred the solitude the night brought, even if it included the calls from outside the gates as carnivores hunted. Hell, even those had their own, strange way of comforting her. Packs of smaller hunters were common, but sometimes the night air was punctuated by the rumbling calls of a larger carnivore. Luckily there hadn't been any incursions; the walls and gate were still in good shape.

She'd spent the night in a tree where the Schäfer family kept their herd animals. They were somewhat smaller than the herbivores outside of the gates, and more amicable. Not quite tame, like the cows and horses her grandfather told her about before he'd passed away, but less likely to charge you if you got between them and their calf.

"Oi, Eira!"

Eita began to turn to the voice before a surprisingly strong arm wrapped around her shoulder. "Whatcha up to? Fancy goin' outside the gates in a bit?"

Eira's muscles tightened, at first, and then relaxed, and her hand reflexively went for the knife sheathed at her belt. Cerys was a familiar face. She had an adventurous spirit, and while Eira could appreciate it, lots of energy wasn't what she wanted just yet. "I'll be ready as soon as I get breakfast," she said quietly. Eira looked up at the sky. It didn't feel or smell like rain. "Niji's probably sleeping last night's hunt off, and I'd rather not go out without him this early."

Sidney sat just outside his house, facing the main gate. His house (though it was his aunt and uncle's house, really) was close to the edge of Amberstone, since they arrived when the village had been settled in for a long time. He didn't mind it so much, it was kind of the village to give them anything at all. And so Sidney sat, supporting his head with an upraised arm propped up on his leg, staring at the gates. It was early in the day and there were a good many villagers going about their morning duties, and he supposed that he should do so too. But he didn't really have any to do, since he'd already done them. He'd woken up early, as usual, and did the preparations while it was still dark. He was used to the dark before the sun rose and he liked the solitude. Still, it had a tendency of causing issues just like the one he was experiencing now. Simply put, he had nothing else to do. Sidney was bored and he didn't know what to do.

Sidney and the members of his old village helped Amberstone by setting traps and gathering, and they were quite good at getting dinosaur eggs. But the eggs were picked pretty recently, and they wouldn't be doing it again for a while. The traps would be checked later, but he wouldn't be doing that anyway. In the end, there was nothing more to do. But of course, that meant...
"Looks like I'm going outside today." Sidney muttered to himself.

He picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off before going towards the gate. There was some distance between him and the main gate but he took his time, savoring the moment. Days where Sidney had nothing to do were a precious commodity in this day and age.

---

Hugo had been awake since early dawn, he was almost always awake early for practically no reason. It occurred to him that just because he woke up early, he was not a morning person. After he woke up he grabbed a notepad that was sitting on a rickety wooden bedside table and scribbled a few things down with a pen, after a few minutes Hugo set the notepad down and hopped off of his twin sized bed. He quietly walked over to the old dresser that was and settled in the lower right corner of his room. He grabbed a pair of cargo shorts and a green t-shirt and slipped them on, throwing his pajamas on the floor. Hugo then glanced at the small mirror that was hanging on the wall and was met with disappointment, why did he ever expect anything different? He mentally noted to toss the mirror before his opinion of himself plummeted to an all-time low. He didn't need a stupid mirror to remind of everything wrong with every single thing, he could do that on his own.

Hugo left the room and dragged himself to the kitchen and filled himself a glass of water. Hugo also grabbed an apple and then sat down at the table in one of the three chairs. For some reason, he tried to think of the bright side of things. For someone like him, this was not a simple task. The first things that came to mind were "You're not dead." and "No one you care about is dead.". Hugo also thought of the fact that maybe he should seek out more positivity in his life, the only problem is that he had no idea where to find it. He figured that being more outgoing would bring him more opportunities, of course, this was a revelation he had years ago. It's all easier said than done. Hugo thought to himself.

The sudden sound of small children laughing snapped him back to reality, he recalled the few times he joined in group activities and most of the time he just found them tiring. Hugo tossed the apple core into the bin and picked up a brown and gray canvas backpack that contained a notebook and a few pens. He opened the front door and stepped outside, somewhat disliking the bright morning sunlight. Maybe today he'd be able to hold a conversation without acting too weird. At least he wasn't as weird as Milo, the guy didn't act that weird but something about him just creeped Hugo out, he knew from the get-go that Milo wasn't the type of person he said he was. Maybe Hugo was just being paranoid or jealous because unlike him, Milo had a somewhat decent social life since he could actually talk to people.

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Milo woke up at around 7 a.m. and got out of bed, briskly straightening out his sheets soon after. Milo quickly got dressed in a citrus orange tank-top and a pair of black running shorts, he had made plans for a morning run before breakfast. It may be the dinosaur apocalypse, but that’s not an excuse to hone his skills and overall better himself. At least that’s what Milo thought, he was always trying to make the best of his current situation. Milo grabbed his black and white tennis shoes from the closet and slipped them on before walking to the kitchen. He grabbed an empty water bottle from a cabinet and filled it with cold water. He set the bottle on the countertop and picked up a drawstring bag that was hanging on a chair and put the water bottle and a fitness towel inside. He slung the drawstring over his shoulder and walked towards the front door.

Milo reached for the doorknob on the front but stopped midway, he grimaced as he was suddenly reminded of James, someone Milo had started to hate thinking about. “Today is a new day.” He sighed and opened the door, not wanting to think about what happened years ago. As soon as he stepped out, all of his regrets melted away as he realized how beautiful the day was. Milo smiled with his classic happy-go-lucky smile as he walked down the street, saying “hello” and “good morning” to his neighbors. Most of them didn't say any greetings in return but Milo understood why. He was still "new" to Amberstone and in this day and age, you never really know who to trust. That's why Milo always strived to be friendly, he wanted to be trustworthy.

He walked towards the gate with a bit of a pep in his step while he whistled a cheerful tune, he was just happy for the sake of being happy. When Milo reached the gate, he set the drawstring down and looked around. Milo watched people walk up and down the streets, doing whatever it is they had to do. He spotted Hugo in the distance, looking rather glum as usual. Milo had a feeling that Hugo wasn't ever really fond of him, come to think of it, Hugo was barely fond of anyone new. Milo then saw Sidney, a boy who was slightly older than himself. "Morning!" He called over to Sidney.

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The Madagascar hissing cockroach. A large and docile species of cockroach, popular within exotic pet circles and recognized by the ability to hiss through a specialized respiratory opening. One was currently snuggled up inside of the chest pocket of a fifteen year old boy in Amberstone. His disheveled appearance would have been interpreted as advanced homelessness by the general population had he actually left his home frequently. Today, however, was a rare day in which the young Oliver Clive actually did step outside.

The teenage boy´s plan was to go just outside of the town´s perimeter to scout for beetles to add to his insect menagerie back at home. Despite the area being relatively safe, his worrywart tendencies resulted in Oliver gearing up as if it were a daylong trip. A couple of snacks, a journal, thick tube socks, the usual. Any insect acquisitions would be transported with glass jars and fed with whatever food he had brought along for the day. This would all happen after a much desired visit to the library.

It was no exaggeration to say that Amberstone´s library was like a second home to him. There was no other place where so much information over the animal kingdom was readily available. Human societies had placed their focus entirely on dinosaurs and had completely ignored every other form of life on earth. Oliver was smart enough to know that it was because of the danger they posed to society, yet his teenage immaturity made him feel bitter all over. Why couldn´t anyone else appreciate insects like he did? Many of the library´s books were decades old, but if what they claimed was true, then the nutrition inside of most of them made them the holy grail of food sources. Not only that, but the fascinating properties contained within their various secretions and toxins made for an endless forest of possibilities with which humanity could defend itself.

It wasn´t hard to see why this fixation of his hadn´t exactly helped him in making friends.

A sharp noise caught his attention, causing his body to spin around the same way a small and fidgety animal does when suspicious. The source? Two girls, one of them dressed in white. He had seen her stay in the library every now and then and had concluded she was a grade A weirdo. From her unconventional tastes in clothing to the squabbles she´d get into with others over dinosaurs. Though he vehemently denied it, she reminded him of himself. He turned back to face the direction of the library and kept walking.

Sidney turned his head as he heard his name called and spotted a brown haired boy named Milo. Sidney wondered if the boy had business with him, and he briefly considered stopping in his tracks. Instead, he gave the boy a wave and turned back on his way. He remembered Milo, a friendly enough new arrival who said hello to everyone. Sidney supposed that it would be easier to live in Amberstone if he was friendlier with the people, but he'd never minded it so he'd never thought it through. Sidney had still been quite young when he'd arrived, and he had never been much of a talker. Eventually the people around him seemed to get used to him, and that was all he could really ask for.

Eventually, Sidney noticed that he'd slowed down. He hummed quietly to himself and picked up the pace a little. He was going to go outside the village walls, and while he wasn't planning to go very far, losing focus would still be dangerous. Sidney moved his thoughts of Milo and the past behind as he approached the gates. History was history, he wasn't planning on repeating it. He was sure he hadn't done anything special to elicit Milo's attention, but if Sidney had done something then the brown haired boy would surely make it known. In the mean time, however, Sidney would run at his own pace, like he usually did.

"Hey there little guy, come on over here!" Edgar Clarke said, standing under a decent sized tree not far from the settlement gates. In one hand, he held a small cracker, which he lightly waved up into the branches. After a few moments, a some kind of tiny rodent poked it's head down, before nervously crawling down the tree trunk to the ground.

"That's right, I'm not gonna hurt you..." He said as the tiny creature took a tentative sniff of the cracker, before finally beginning to nibble at it. Smiling, Ed let go of the cracker, leaving it in the rodents paws before sitting against the tree trunk next to it.

He sighed as he looked towards the settlements center. While he could distract himself with small animals and dinosaurs for the time being, it could get pretty damn lonely when you had pretty much no human friends. However, whenever he'd tried to socialise, something he rarely tried these days, it had always ended pretty terribly, with him trying to say something only to freeze up in panic, and the people he was trying to speak to thinking his panicked silence was angry silence and getting as far away as they could.

These days he was given quite a wide birth, with some people even flinching when they heard his voice. Hell, he'd even heard that some of the younger kids had made up a little song about him, like those nursery rhyme things his grandparents had told him about back when he was a kid. He didn't know the words, but from what he'd heard, it involved him feeding kids e finds to dinosaurs.

However, he was broken out of his thoughts by a number of voices, and he looked to the town center to see a number of the kids who were closer to his age going about their morning routines.

For a moment, just a single, fleeting moment, he considered trying to talk to them. However, even as he opened his mouth, hand raising to wave, his fear got the better of him.

'They probably wouldn't wanna talk to me anyway...' He thought to himself sadly, his hand returning to rest on the ground beside him.

Looking down to his side, he was able to muster up a small smile as he saw the rodent from before sniffing around said hand, apparently having finished his cracker. He let out a light chuckle, handing another cracker to it.

"Well, at least you're not scared of me." He said, a small smile on his face despite his growling voice.