I'm a spinosaurus with a System to raise a dinosaur army

Another year had passed. And the world had continued to move on.

Sobek could barely keep up with the rest of the planet now. The technological and scientific level progressed so rapidly that he didn't have time to get used to one novelty that another immediately appeared.

The planet Sarah now looked completely different from her appearance a few years ago. Oceans, continents and countless small islands were formed. Thanks to the huge mirrors positioned in space, the planet was able to receive the right amount of sunlight. However, many planetary scientists had begun to consider whether it was not possible to accelerate the planet's rotation in an artificial way using gravity control technology. At the moment there were only plans on paper, but in the future they could come true. Meanwhile, some small settlements had already been established on Sarah, and thousands of animals had decided to travel there to explore a new resource-rich planet.

Davis was now effectively considered a second home, with a population of two hundred million people and billions of animals growing every day. It was now the main source of several raw materials, including dust, rare gases and other resources.

The colonies on Leviathan's moons had expanded slightly. They were doing it very slowly due to the complications of the enormous distance from the Sun and therefore the low temperature, but many scientists were already designing new megastructures to make these worlds more pleasant.

The planet Raab, this universe's equivalent of Mercury, was still the main source of energy in the entire solar system… but that would soon change. In fact, humanity had decided to embark on its most ambitious project: to build a Dyson Sphere, a gigantic megastructure aimed at capturing the energy of the Sun and thus truly donating infinite energy to the entire solar system. Work had begun at the end of the year and using a combination of teleportation technology and manual labor it was speculated that this incredible project could be completed in just a few years.

Sobek didn't understand much of those projects; while he knew something, he wasn't exactly an astrophysicist. However, he could understand its usefulness: with the Dyson Sphere and the enormous amount of planets, moons, asteroids and comets in the solar system, humanity would no longer have to worry about energy or resources.

Instead, the one who was able to understand those projects was Nefertiti. Yes, Nefertiti…

Sobek was starting to have serious problems handling her. Nefertiti had effectively entered the 'rebel phase' and she seemed to be trying to piss him off in any way possible. She ran away whenever she got the chance, she gave orders in his name without his permission, and she relied less and less on the advice he gave her.

Sobek was really struggling to communicate with her daughter, both because the latter was not very willing to do it (like every teenager) and because she had a very different mentality from hers. While Sobek was calm, pragmatic and very calculating, Nefertiti was more carefree, acting without thinking and reasoning based on the progress achieved by the new generation that Sobek was having a hard time understanding.

"I guess it's impossible to avoid. Now I know how the parents of millennials feel on Earth…" Sobek thought melancholy. The difference between the two generations, the new and the old, seemed to become more and more profound. He wouldn't be surprised if his daughter started calling him a 'boomer'.

Also that day Nefertiti had disappeared without saying anything to him. Sobek could have just waited for her, but he wanted to know where she had gone and with who.

He couldn't track her with her [Contract], but after years of living together he'd learned a way around that: just track down the people she came into frequent contact with. Friends, relatives, acquaintances, or even just people who lived in the places where she liked to go. Once done, it was enough to go to them and sooner or later he would find her in the company of one of them. And even if he didn't find her, he just had to ask them a couple of questions; Nefertiti generally did not leave without warning someone.

That day was no different. "Come on, speak up! Where did she go this time?" Sobek asked a poor young pterosaur, who seemed about to faint from how much he was sweating. This was one of Nefertiti's friends and he revered Sobek as his hero, and even after years of knowing him he still got nervous in his presence.

"Here... she asked me not to..."

"You know you're going to tell me willy-nilly. Come on, spit it out"

"But…"

"Now"

The pterosaur gulped. "She told me she was going to her uncle's place... please don't tell her I told you"

"Which uncle?"

"I do not know. She just called him 'uncle Sno'. That's all I know, I swear!"

Sobek sighed. "Okay, I understand. Thanks for your cooperation"

"Not at all! Well, maybe you could..."

Sobek activated [Teleportation] before the poor fellow could finish his sentence. When the transporter finished he found himself in a rather familiar place. A small clearing in a forest in the north, in the center of which stood a young sapling. Lying next to it, two huge dinosaurs seemed to be deep in conversation.

Sobek approached them. "Nefertiti, if you wanted to come and see your uncle, you could just let me know"

"Dad!" the young spinosaurus jumped. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to check you were okay, of course" Sobek replied rolling his eyes and sighing at the obviousness of the answer. He looked at the other dinosaur: "Hello, Snock"

"Hello, pack leader" the giganotosaurus replied with a smile.

Nefertiti's paws scraped the ground. "Why do you always insist on checking me out!?" she snapped. "I just came to see my uncle!"

"Nefertiti, I already told you that you can go wherever you want, but you should at least warn me first" Sobek said tiredly, aware that he had already made that speech thousands of times and would have to repeat it as many thousands of times in the future. "If you don't, you can't complain if I worry"

"You don't need to worry! I'm not a child anymore!" Nefertiti growled. "Why can't you just trust me?"

"Because to trust someone, that someone must first be responsible"

"I am responsible!"

"No, you're not"

"Uuuurgh! You are the worst!" Nefertiti turned angrily and ran towards the woods. A couple of poor trees were knocked down by the passage of the furious young spinosaurus.

There was a moment of silence, then the giganotosaurus lying on the ground burst out laughing. "Ah, the young ones" Snock exclaimed. "Managing a teenager isn't easy, is it?"

"Imagine having to defuse an atomic bomb placed in the center of a kindergarten with children screaming and jumping at you, using a manual written by a guy with Parkinson's in an alien language, and the timer expires in ten seconds. Well, that's my current daily mood" Sobek replied lying down next to him.

"You should trust her more. She's growing up, you can't expect her to always obey you"

"I don't want her to always obey me. I know she's growing. But I wish she would show some common sense every once in a while"

Snock shook his head. "I guess from your point of view as a parent it is different… but I am happy to see that she has so little common sense"

"What do you mean?"

"Pack leader, at her age we fought in wars. We have been forced to grow up and develop common sense in a very short period of time. We could never be this…" Snock thought about it for a moment, not finding the right word. "… carefree. We always had to think about how to survive. Seeing her so joyful and free is a constant reminder that the war is finally over, and that we have won: our children are now living without fear"

Sobek smiled. "Yeah… I guess your point of view makes sense" he said. "But anyway, sooner or later she'll have to calm down"

"Give her time. Let her enjoy adolescence. When the time is right I'm sure she'll show you that she's matured" Snock told him, then he let out a loud sneeze.

Sobek narrowed his pupils. "Are you okay?"

"No" was the answer. "My lungs are failing by now, I'm sure you've noticed. It's hard to breathe… but it doesn't matter. I'm old, it's normal"

"You know what that means, right?"

"Of course I know. But I'm not afraid. I've lived long enough and I can say I have no regrets. And then I have a friend waiting for me on the other side"

Snock turned his head slightly and looked at the tree. It was a walnut tree, no more than four meters tall, which had grown on the exact same spot where the giganotosaurus had buried Rambo.

After the rhamphorhynchus died, Snock had never left the clearing. He had officially retired from his position and devoted himself to his 'retirement'. In particular, he had taken up gardening. He had planted that nut that Rambo had given him years before right there, at the point where the hole with the rhamphorhynchus was inside. The nut had sprouted under his careful care and the tree had grown year after year under the watchful eye of the giganotosaurus.

Sobek had come to see Snock many times during that time. He had watched him grow older and weaker, but he had never stopped and had never accepted help from anyone. He retained a certain pride and wanted to take care of the tree by himself. "How was it?" he asked him.

Snock shrugged. "To be honest… it was therapeutic. Taking care of another form of life has made my own life more enjoyable. Even in death that idiot was able to lend me a hand. It stopped me from thinking about…unpleasant things"

"Do you still think about it?"

"No… or at least I try not to. But I dream about them. From time to time" Snock replied. "Sometimes I still feel the scars, you know? It's been decades, they are all healed, yet sometimes when I scratch my face I think 'wait, didn't I have a wound here'? It's really weird. I guess I'll never be able to put it behind me… but I moved on. As you told me, pack leader"

Sobek sighed. He knew that Snock would never be able to fully erase the traumas he had suffered when he was held in the illegal market and forced to fight to the death. Unfortunately, even though all the medicines had made great strides, no medicine could heal the scars of the mind or those of the soul. But he at least was happy to see that he had managed to find serenity.

Another cough brought his attention back to the giganotosaurus. "Pack leader" Snock whispered suddenly. "Thank you"

"Uh? For what?"

"For what? Cough, cough! 'For what', he asks!" the giganotosaurus exclaimed continuing to cough. "For everything, pack leader. For giving me, indeed, for giving us all a future. A house. Serenity. Everything"

"I didn't give them to you. We have conquered them. Together"

"But without you, it would never have been possible" Snock rested his head on one of the tree's roots. "You were the one who brought us together. You were the one who gave us a goal. And... you were the one who taught me how to live again. To look ahead. Not to let myself be consumed by revenge but to think of others. Seeking a new happiness"

The giganotosaurus let out a snort. "I've hated humans my whole life, even after the war… but now I could see what we accomplished together. I've seen the new children, the new generations, grow up free and fearless... just like your daughter. She is the living representation of what we have achieved: a world where young people can grow up carefree and in peace. By joining forces all of us, humans and animals, have achieved extraordinary things. We've set foot on new worlds, restored this entire planet, built giant structures in the sky that I can't even comprehend… and all of this was only possible because of you, pack leader. If you hadn't shouted 'STOP' and declared war on the human species that day at that lake, today none of this would be reality. We did it all together, that's true… but we did it under your guidance. So in my name, and in the name of all living beings of this and all other worlds… thank you"

Sobek couldn't help but feel a pang of pride at those compliments. Although he thought of himself as a rather modest person, he too was somewhat sensitive to flattery. "In that case, thank you for your thanks" he said, then he asked: "Now what? Do you still hate humans?"

He expected the giganotosaurus to answer 'yes', instead Snock shook his head: "The truth is... I don't know. I don't forget what they did to me, but I'm not blind enough to see what we achieved together. But personally, I don't care anymore. I'm too old to examine my conscience"

Sobek smiled. "I am happy for you"

"Thank you. Now, can you leave, so your daughter comes back to join me? You know she won't be back as long as you're here, and you also know that I prefer her company to yours"

The spinosaurus sighed. "Yes, I know" he replied. "I envy you, you know? You and everyone else. You only enjoy the beautiful part of having a niece, I'm the one who has to put up with the paternity issues"

"You know what they say, don't you? Raise the kids and spoil the grandkids. I extended it to my niece too" Snock teased him. "You'll understand when she gives you a grandchild, trust me"

"I hope as late as possible"

"Oh come on, don't be like that. She too will have to be a mother sooner or later"

"Exactly, let's do this later. Much later"

"I didn't think you were so bigot"

"Shut up!"

Snock chuckled seeing his pack leader so uncomfortable, then another cough stopped his laughter. "I know it's none of my business, but… don't be too hard on her, pack leader. She may seem stubborn and silly at times, but trust me, she is very intelligent and judicious. Just give her time to prove it to you"

Sobek nodded. "I will try to follow your advice"

"Well. Oh, before you go, would you like to try one?" Snock asked as he picked a nut off the tree. "I've always wondered why Rambo liked them so much, but I've never tasted them in these years"

"You know you're a carnivorous animal, right?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can't try something new, right?" Snock answered, then he tossed the nut into his mouth. He chewed lightly, then swallowed. "Not bad…"

"You look like you're going to vomit" Sobek told him with a chuckle, seeing the disgusted face of the giganotosaurus.

"It is not true! It's very good!"

"You don't even have the necessary taste buds to be able to taste it"

"Oh, stop it!"

The two of them laughed and talked for another ten minutes, then Sobek left. He teleported a short distance away and activated [Ambush], and watched the situation for a while. As Snock had predicted, Nefertiti reappeared less than two minutes after her father had left and went back to talking to her uncle as if nothing had happened.

Sobek smiled to see that scene, but his smile was veiled by sadness. He knew Snock's life was almost over. But after all, that was the natural course of things, and his friend wanted the longed-for peace.

He returned to visit him often over the next few days. Nefertiti did too. And also Buck, Carnopo, Apache and Blue. Snock spent his last three weeks wrapped up in the warmth of family and friends.

Then, one morning, he never woke up again. His body was found cold and lifeless next to the tree that he had grown and cared for with so much love. A serene smile loomed on his face, testifying that he had gone away without any regret or pain.

Snock was buried right there, and a nut that fell from the tree he had grown was planted on his grave. From that nut a second tree grew. In the years to come, many of Snock's ex-subordinates or even just his admirers took care of the two trees. The two trees grew and over the decades would become the tallest in the forest, and anyone who passed by would know that they had grown feeding on the bodies of the two people who had contributed most to the war: the intelligence commander Rambo and the covert operations commander Snock.