dinohigh, no humans allowed!

I blink my eyes to check if I am dreaming. This is either a dream come true. being in a room with cute girls. but then I double-take and snap myself out of my primal excitement and realize.

They are dinos. and I'm actually more likely to die horribly in my sleep. This is bad. They have me outnumbered, and worse, they seem to be getting along. Normally, them being different species would mean I could pit them against each other to my benefit. but at this rate, if I make even one upset, the entire group will turn against me, and already one of them doesn't like me, the triceratops.

A feather falls from the rafter on my shoulder. I look at it, perplexed, and brush it off. ignoring the sound above me. I ask the principle why he placed me in a room. with a triceratops. a stegasaur. ankylosaur. brontosaur. parasaur. So that's a total of 5 girls.

Your not serious, sir? 5 girls, where will I change? How will I take a bath? It means I can't relax. and they will always feel uncomfortable here and won't be able to relax like in their homes.

The principle looks unamused. ungrateful human rat. Fewer men would die to be in your position.

BUT SIR! I will die in this position. 

The conversation was happening quietly, with mouth movements and subsonic noise. I was facing away from the girls, so they couldn't see my face mouthing the words.

so uhhh? Are you guys gay? Why are you staring into each other's eyes so intensely? The stegasaur girl said that. I couldn't tell if it was going to provoke me or not.

I rapidly turned around. anger in my eyes as the girls recoiled back and the stega hid behind a chair, terrified at my advance. All I wanted to do was get closer and look her in the eye so she could hear my expertly crafted speech, which I thought of in 3 seconds on how I am absolutely not gay. especially not with the principle. and also because he's a reptile.

I took one step forward.

Leave her alone. A voice screams at the top of their lungs out of nowhere.

and the rafter above me splintered as it cracked from a heavy weight jumping off it. I look up, stunned but not that surprised. Wat the fuck was with dinosaurs and trying to always get the high ground and diving down in a lunge. They were something human science on dinosaurs failed to mention. But honestly, it was really obvious that a creature in a high-density environment filled with giant trees and bird-like claws. They would naturally seek out the safety of high-up, out-of-sight places.

6 was all I heard the principle tell me—6 girls, not 5. You have to get better at counting chimps. I felt the dive kick hit my arm. I brought it up just in time. There was no time to dodge. damnit. I could feel my arm buckling from the weight of her foot. her shoe being made of hard leather. I look at her features. She had white feathers. blue eyes. pink hair with white shades of fur.

I could see wings on her arms and a large feathery tail that was double the length of her body, ending in a fan-shaped plumage.

For a bird reptile thing, she was super heavy. I guess I should have expected this. I formulate a counter-attack plan. I steady my feet. moving my arm in a way that blocks her downward kick. twisting my arm in such a direction that she would begin to fall without my body supporting hers on my arm. My strength is wavering, and I am doing my best to do this as fast as I can. 

I reach my free hand toward her leg. and begin to pull. The motion was so quick. But nights and nights of paranoid fear in all those sleepless beds I lay on have given me enough anxiety and paranoia to move quickly at the slightest sign. of a bug crawling on my leg to wack it at superhuman speed. 

I will pull her leg down, then arch my arm, and then slam her into the ground. I can't believe it. I was actually pulling off this fight. I can't believe I wasted all those years trying to talk my way through things. Fighting feels so good. It feels so liberating to just outsmart people in a fight. They are all so predictable. A wide smile crawls onto my face, and I can't help but grin with the light reflecting on my teeth as my mask falls down my face from my mouth's motion, the tension holding the cloth and shaking it loose.

Nothing could go wrong. 

CRACK. my kneeeee. I collapse to the floor, and the girl falls with me with a loud thud. 

what! I don't think my brain is overloaded with warning alarms. My eyes are flashing all the lights in the rainbow. My body feels numb, and my hearing is all just echoing. I can't make up what hit me.? why can't I move? shaking my leg, I feel a sharp, crushing pain. What the hell happened? I vomited my breakfast on the floor, the impact of which upset my stomach since I landed on someone's toaster on the floor with a fork sticking out. the odd angle causing me to hurl. out the chocolate banana from earlier, and in it were some weird tiny purple crystals and powder. that smelled like weird medicine.

I looked up at the girls around me as I lay collapsed on the floor. I fell on a bowl of cereal, shattering it, and the milk was all over my face and the candy oats were stuck to my shirt. ughh, I hate these things. They advertised dinosaur shapes, but they only had 4 shapes, and 2 of them were just different-sized ankylosaurs. wait wat.

I look at the girl close to my leg. It was the ankylosaur who was raising her tail in a defensive motion. but wait. Her face looked off. The make-up was now dripping down it. 

Wait, that girl! that girl who locked me in. But how come I didn't see her? when I got in here. I could have recognized her face. no wait. I notice her face pulsating as her scales shift and change. damn wait? Can these things alter their face with their muscles and scales to reshape it and its color? And the food? Was it some sort of hormonal stimulus to induce hallucinations? or maybe her pattern messes with my head since I'm technically a prey animal. meaning any form of psychological camouflage related to mental tricks in geometric and sensory patterns may also work on me.

Or maybe it's because my species are also hunters. Some species of fish have false eyes to scare predators hunting them. To us, it looks just like a painted face. It looks like actual eyes; could this be an herbivore adaptation to counter humans? or is this an evolutionary blindside that just conveniently works against me?

It's not looking good for me, but these stupid lizards haven't gotten the best of me. I wiggle my leg. Damn, I can't feel one of them. This bitch has shattered my knee. I feel the anger surge in me, and just as I was going to pull some hair-brained plan out to counter the unprovoked attack,.

damnit these dinos. Reaching for my pocket, I feel my knife handle. I'm not holding back. I push myself forward as I try to get up. These animals are going to see what happens when they refuse to act like civilized people.

unsheeting my knife. I see the ankylosaur swing her tail at me. I position my knife in a direction to counter her attack. aiming for the base of the tail as I aim my blade downward at an angle. The circular diagonal curved edges guaranteed to cut through her thick armor. I plunge down. 

stabbing the tail mid-air, lunging it downward, and impaling it into the wooden floor. as she screams in surprise, and then agonizing pain as the room around me gasps in horror.

I did it. I beat the odds. The cards were stacked against me, and I still

smack. I felt a strong hoof-like foot kick my chest. I felt my ribs crack and blood cough out. knocking the air out of me. What the hell did that come from? I look at the winged raptor. and she was still down on the ground. Suddenly, she hit her head on the lunchbox and knocked herself out. Then who was it?

and I see another girl. the parasaur. No, not again. I already killed one of you today. Do you really want to join your friend? I screamed loudly in primal rage. I was like a dying animal fighting for its life.

but it felt good. to be perfectly honest? I enjoyed the fight; it was sort of liberating. I didn't have to speak so much and really rely on direct results like my instincts and moment-to-moment decisions to do the thing I was good at. I pull the knife out of the girl's tail, and she recoils, clutching it in her arms and crying loudly. waaaaaa, ahhhh, no fair. I thought we weren't allowed weapons in school! you cheated.

She sounded so childish, like in the halls. how annoying. I spin the knife in my palm, facing forward from its downward position. glaring at the parasaur. I crawled forward, positioning one arm down to act as a foreleg. and ready my working leg in a coiling motion, ready to lunge myself toward her. 

Don't count me out of the fight yet, you dino bitch! I lunge forward and raise my knife. I can feel the apprehension leave me as I let bloodlust cloud my mind. Everything is red. She is too in shock to move. She looked like the type to interrupt a fight and not know how to handle it. She kicked instinctively and predictably at my chest again. I moved slightly, catching it with my left hand and clutching it in my arm. as I twisted it wrongly. I could feel the tension in her muscles. as she screamed in pain.

and my knife hand dropped down to stab her in the face. DIEEEE YOU FUCKING FIGHT INTERUPTING BITC-

My hand stood still. It wasn't coming down. Something had stopped it. I felt a warm sensation, and my arm was cold. the knife slipping from my grip as it became weak and lost its strength. hitting the ground, the knife was stained with blood and had some broken scales. 

I look at my hand. a sharp tail, and two tail spikes were impaled in my forearm. I could feel them going through my bones. The girl under me was terrified as the knife dropped next to her face. falling harmlessly on the floor. She closed her eyes as my blood dripped down.

the tail. I looked to my side from where it came from, and it was the stegasaur girl still behind her chair, but I failed to notice the reach of her tail and how I entered her field of attack by lunging forward towards this parasaur. She was just staring at me with tears in her eyes.

and her mouth moving the same word over and over, but her voice failing to say it. Stop, stop, stop.

I feel my anger boil. as my hand twitched angrily. I could feel the keratin tail spike in my arm. and it was beginning to shatter and bleed. her tail impaling itself in a metal plate I had kept under both my sleeves. boots and jacket torso.

without these inovating designs of human clothing lines. I would be dead. I should really upgrade to Tier 2 protection. I internally made a note. without it. My hand would be severed. My chest would have collapsed. and my leg would have been crushed into so many pieces that it would be dangling loose.

I could feel my body weaken. but it wasn't over. not yet. I had some fight left in me. CRACK. My off-hand snapping the knee of the parasaur girl, the last bits of bone structure finally gave into a loud burst as she screamed in pain, and her leg lay limp as she clutched on the ground, crying.

Take that, you stupid bitch. trying to kick me while I'm fighting someone else. I contemplated stabbing her in the face right now. but I worried someone else would enter the fight. The brontosaur was just there, sitting in a corner, crying into her scarf. She was really scared; I almost felt bad. Maybe I should apologize to her? 

Whack, I felt a surge of pain behind me as three horns arched themselves into my back, barely being kept from completely stabbing into me by my backpack. 

fucking trigger. I knew there had to be someone else. I could feel certain death behind me being narrowly avoided. I couldn't stop myself as she slammed us both into the stegasaur girl.

the stegasaurs large spikes and many small spikes stabbing into my chest at many shallow angles as she turned herself backwards instintively. Many of them cracked from the weight, and we fell on her. causing her a lot of pain. They weren't strong enough to withstand a charging force of two people on top of her. as the large ones began to dent and crack, and others chipped and shattered completely. or impaled themselves into my hands and legs.

This fucking trike used her own friend as a living ball of spikes and weaponized her defensive response to try to impale me.

I turn around in rage. but she kept behind me. Her head horns still impaled onto my bag. I think quickly and wipe my bag off. and struggling to orient myself. I twist the bag in a way that shes forced to turn her head and body away from me.

Shes struggling to get loose, clearly panicking, and by the looks and sound of her frantic movement. hasn't been in a life-or-death fight before. Great, it means I have the experience to win. I recoil my working leg and kick as hard as I can into her back. I feel the resistance her scales give, and I could feel their resistance being defeated by my metal-studded layer at the bottom of my booth. the same one I used to crush that parasaur head from a while ago.

BITCHHHH. crack. I could feel her back scales shatter. and she gasps for air and collapses to the ground, holding her back in pain. as everyone lay on the floor in pain. I looked at the ceiling and smiled to myself. i won? I can't believe I won.

fuck...

The brontosaur girl had begun to move toward me, and I could tell it was not a good look. Her eyes had that look of someone about to crush a bug. as she raised a large, powerful leg, and I felt the shadow over my face. and then black. 

stomp-

The principle cleared his throat. Okay, that's enough deer. She lifted her foot from the human. I only applied enough force to knock him out, sir. good good.

You crazy kids and your little love language.

Sir, I'm pretty sure they were trying to kill each other.

The principle rolled his eyes. Oh, I'm sure you will grow rather fond of each other. Maybe next time we can use our words. It will be cheaper.

first day of the school year. and his top students had already tried to kill each other. The principle looked at the stegasaur, ankylosaur, parasaur, and triceratops. Okay, now children, do your best to not provoke humans next time. You know how violent they are in a one-on-one fight.

If you don't want to come home in a body bag, I suggest you start getting along. okay students?

Now, if you excuse me, I have work to do in the rest of the school. And please, for the love of Kek, try flirting in a less destructive way. That toast was school property, and I'm billing you all twice for it. 

But, sir,. The triceratops said the bag still stuck to her head. The humans tried to kill us.

and you tried to kill him, but he replied flatly. laws of the jungle, little girl. 

BUT BUT ITS NOT SAFE FOR US TO SLEEP IN THIS ROOM I WANT TO TRANSFER.

No, the principle said unamused. The other rooms are reserved for students who rented them but haven't arrived yet. besides. The six of you worked together amazingly. if that was a real carnivorous dinosaur. You might have only suffered 1 or 2 fatalities. Keep up the good work.

You clearly can handle yourself. Otherwise, you wouldn't have won. Maybe next time, coordinate attacks better. and get your long-neck friend to actually help out instead of cowering in the corner. 

The brontosaur frowned and lowered her head in embarrassment, sad she couldn't have prevented this with one swift kick to stop the humans attack.

next time, she said. She will keep the group from fighting, and she will make them all get along. They were roommates, after all. and the only thing more dangerous than the animals in this room... 

where all the animals are outside. that wouldn't hold back.