The briefly opened then closed door gave him the impression of a chain door lock being removed, and though he hadn't seen anything like them in any of the rooms he'd been in, he wasn't bothered. Of course, Vladimir's emotions made it clear what had really been going on, and Jasper also noted the position of the Baron's hand without actually looking at it. He could pretty accurately guess the significance of the gesture based on the marked sense of readiness. Very few details escaped his notice these days.
"Talking dragon? Smaug, or the even bigger black one? You'll most definitely know them when you see them. And thank you," Jasper said with a polite smile, offering a courteous nod as he stepped inside first, the raptor closely following him. He kept his hand on the dinosaur's neck, subtly increasing his calming influence over the beast. It would soon begin to make the raptor feel somnolent. He didn't wish for this meeting to stress his not-quite-pet any more than he wished for it to stress the Baron. Ideally they could both relax while Jasper did his best to mask his nerves.
"According to the school application records this guy's a Velociraptor, a species of dromaeosaurid—a dinosaur, that is, that went extinct millions of years ago on Earth, long before human ancestors were even around. But Velociraptor fossils have shown them to only be about three feet tall. I think he's closer to a Utahraptor, another, much bigger dromaeosaurid. If that's the case he may still have some growing to do. Fossils of them have specimens standing over six and a half feet tall, and their aptly named 'killing' claws," he paused as he knelt to touch one of the raptor's claws, the impressively large, curved one on the second toe of his foot, "were about 10 inches long. Huge, adept predators. Nothing else quite like him is still alive on Earth today, not even in the wizarding world."
Walking encyclopedia syndrome had stuck again. He ducked his head a little as he stood back up, hoping the Baron didn't mind how verbose and almost tediously thorough his answer was.
"I think he's remarkable," he concluded, fondly running his fingers over the quill-like spines along the back of the raptor's head. Would those eventually become feathers? "You should see him hunt. But he's tame as a kitten around me, for some reason. I promise you won't have to worry about him."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-05-12 06:55 am (UTC)"Talking dragon? Smaug, or the even bigger black one? You'll most definitely know them when you see them. And thank you," Jasper said with a polite smile, offering a courteous nod as he stepped inside first, the raptor closely following him. He kept his hand on the dinosaur's neck, subtly increasing his calming influence over the beast. It would soon begin to make the raptor feel somnolent. He didn't wish for this meeting to stress his not-quite-pet any more than he wished for it to stress the Baron. Ideally they could both relax while Jasper did his best to mask his nerves.
"According to the school application records this guy's a Velociraptor, a species of dromaeosaurid—a dinosaur, that is, that went extinct millions of years ago on Earth, long before human ancestors were even around. But Velociraptor fossils have shown them to only be about three feet tall. I think he's closer to a Utahraptor, another, much bigger dromaeosaurid. If that's the case he may still have some growing to do. Fossils of them have specimens standing over six and a half feet tall, and their aptly named 'killing' claws," he paused as he knelt to touch one of the raptor's claws, the impressively large, curved one on the second toe of his foot, "were about 10 inches long. Huge, adept predators. Nothing else quite like him is still alive on Earth today, not even in the wizarding world."
Walking encyclopedia syndrome had stuck again. He ducked his head a little as he stood back up, hoping the Baron didn't mind how verbose and almost tediously thorough his answer was.
"I think he's remarkable," he concluded, fondly running his fingers over the quill-like spines along the back of the raptor's head. Would those eventually become feathers? "You should see him hunt. But he's tame as a kitten around me, for some reason. I promise you won't have to worry about him."