by ElijahCole11

You are a dakotaraptor. Not just any dakotaraptor, no, you're a hungry and starving carnivore, desperate to sink your ivory fangs into the fleshy bloody hides of those lumbering herbivores. As you creep viciously in the shadows, you lift your snout and hiss darkly, retracting your sickle toe claws back to silence your steps. Your heart throbs and your stomach snarls quietly, writhing inside your body as it eagerly desires some fresh meat. Out of the faint breezes of the Cretaceous, you catch the strong aroma of nearby prey digging into the back of your mind, nostrils expanding ever more wider as you growl in hunger and follow the scent. Your tail constricts while you walk towards the smell, claws clutching tightly to itself and knife-like teeth rubbing against each other within your maw. It's only when you poke your head out the shadows of the forest and spot your target when your maw salivates and drips with warm drool. The blood roars in your ears as you pad a little closer, now inches away from dinner, and with one large screech, you lunge.

Right into a book.

Of course, a raptor cannot physically jump into your novel just like that. And yes, that makes absolutely no sense to throw yourself into a piece of paper. But you can make your story real if you sink into the mindset and let your prehistoric-spirit change into something else. Writing about the past doesn't just test your knowledge, it changes you too.

Prehistoric Fantasy is a genre that truly opens up to your natural state as an author on wattpad and tests your imagination of the past. It's defined as a literary genre that is set in the past, typically a past that is before history or a written record of it ever existed. Whether its a story about the birth of earth, dinosaurs hunting and fighting for survival, sabertooth tigers looking for its destiny, tribal wars and the dawn of humanity, shamans, ancient beings, and mystical creatures; all are a part of the vast universe of pre-historical fiction.

The Fantastical aspect of Prehistoric fantasy is a pretty interesting niche. It acquires attributes within an epic fantasy adventure that combines fantasy story elements with realistic historical worlds from stories of escapist realism. You as an author are able to enjoy mashing scientific evidence and historical events/organisms along with your own creativity! This is what makes up the character of your story and eventually the mood. You as an author are able to send a lasting impact and change the world while bound to the course of Earthen history.

When you think of Prehistoric Fantasy, what do you think of? Movies of course share this trait, and I'm sure many of you wattpadders could identify this towards Ice Age, The Land Before Time, or the new 2018 movie Alpha.

To be honest, finding fun-loving Prehistoric Fantastical Published stories (besides Wattpad) across the world is difficult. They're considered rare, and those that are prehistoric fiction are mainly that of ancient tribes before time and before history. Books like Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson and The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel characterize the dawn of humanity and our old primitive ways. To find stories beyond that is tricky. Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker is one of the only primal stories of the very past that's prehistoric fiction and very accurate in various ways. It tells the story about a raptor trying to uphold to her future family legacy and find a mate after hers perishes during a hunt. The Cave and Shaman stories are about natives and their beliefs in ancient gods that change their lives for better or worse. Though sometimes, prehistoric-fiction could go beyond some limits as to be fantastical, such as ancient dragons before mankind, gods that created the earth, Adam and Eve, and much more.

Prehistoric Setting is a crucial portion of your story if your intention of making one is relatable to this topic. Prehistoric Settings mainly consist of natural things, mountains, rivers, dense forests, burning deserts, blue oceans, and more. They are crucial to denote the difference between a Jurassic World/Park to an actual prehistoric story of nothing necessarily modernized. Typically when developing your ancient settings, they tend to have natural disasters or natural predators that roam in the shadows. If your story exists during the Ice Age Era, use glaciers, cold weather, frosted winds of the tundra and especially snow. For places such as dinosaurs, use firestorms, earthquakes, and rainstorms. Even for tribal areas, you could squeeze in some scary flash floods or even tornadoes of the plainlands.

Be creative and try to make your character(s) struggle!

You could also use characters that could relate to actual prehistory, just to detail and make your story a bit more vivid! For a Dinosaur story for example, if you or your character is resembled as a carnivore, like a Dakotaraptor in the Cretaceous, add herbivores or competitive creatures that live amongst it: (Triceratops, Iguanodons, Ankylosaurus, Velociraptors, Nanotyrannus, etc.). This will better develop your story and add a certain feel to it that I guarantee will make your readers fall in love with you or other characters.

Speak your words as a teacher to express how primitive humans/animals acted towards your readers. When I write, I try to make my characters flow off of my experiences, off of my known thoughts or facts, or out of my personality. Speak from your mind, and a picture will always be shown.

Of course, when using a prehistoric mood, you have to make your prehistoric characters act...well..., prehistoric! Unlike modern day creatures, primal creatures are curious, sometimes rogue, savage and dark. Acquire words that are primal in a way towards you. Using speaking words like snarling, growling, hissing, snorting, screeching and grunting are a great start! You could also add regular dialogue words if you want your characters to speak. Make your characters seem uncivilized and savage in some areas too. When describing a character or their actions, focus solely on how they act and what their body does.

Are their muscles tense?

Is their heart pounding? Organs shriveling?

Are they mentally prepared? What are they thinking?

This also is important in the characterization of your primitive individual.

If you're trapped in a black hole of unknown prehistoric fictional stories, let me tell you this, be creative! Most primal stories are explosive through themes and plotlines, and technically other genres could sink into this one as well. Some ideas include revenge stories, leadership themes, horror and terrorizing thrillers of the past, sad stories, or even life stories can help! Death and life stories are also great themes to express within. You can twist the story too, climax at a scary or jaw-dropping scene and fool your reader of his or her's previous thoughts. Most, if not all primal stories consist of fighting and violence. Protagonists and Antagonists tend to fight to the death in the past to gain leadership over a pack or food from another as their own prey. Fighting scenes adds tension and anxiety to your story, leaving readers on the edge of their seat in worry as to what may happen next! Trust me, savaged fight scenes are the most fun chapters you'll ever read and write in your novel.

Of course, you're probably wondering, why choose prehistoric fiction? Why did I especially fall in love with it? Well mainly, I love all the things I've elucidated above, but in truth, I love the past. I wish I could be in it and experience it, the way ancient animals and humans did. I love to envision and write stories of ancient creatures hunting and surviving in the wilderness, to express myself into a being that no longer exists. It's emotional, physically powerful, and dark in a way through death and life. When I write prehistoric fiction, I don't just imagine that I'm there, I felt as though I've lived it as if I was there in that time as if I was the hunter, the dinosaur, the Sabertooth, the warrior of the tribe and the hero. And that's what makes me enjoy this genre so much.

Example of Prehistoric Fantasy on Wattpad:
Countdown: A Dinosaur Story by ElijahCole11

Synopsis:

It is true that any creature fears what they cannot understand. Mystery seems to be the darkest void of the world, for if any heart dares stray too close to the impossible, then it shall perish.

Perhaps the greatest mystery to Whiteclaw was the bright circle in the blood-red sky, a beautiful unknown signal that would soon spell doom for Earth's deadliest dynasty millions of years ago. If only he knew of such a promise before the end had come.

Whiteclaw, including six other carnivorous dinosaurs, (A Tarbosaurus, a young T-Rex and his father, a Kronosaurus, A Quetzalcoatlus, and A Utahraptor) each battling a secret within their past must face off against their greatest threat when the most well-known mass extinction event in history destroys their whole world, and tears everything apart. No longer was this a fight for life, but a desolate battle for survival in the wastelands of their once-called heaven. But little did they know, the asteroid was only just the beginning of the end.

Excerpt:

I felt sick.

What's the point of killing prey if they're already killing themselves? And I'm going to eat that terribly tasting dead leaves and grass too? I grumbled to myself as I edged closer, perhaps I might as well. Survival's turning me down, so I need to up my game for now, while it lasts.

I scented the rocky earth, pacing myself around the dead twigs that reeked of rotten wood, and through the turned earth of some Tenontosaurus footprints. The sky glowed darkly, watching me from above, and often times rumbling whenever I stopped to force me forwards. The twigs were tall from its rooted bottom, in which covered me in cold darkness, shading away my albino flush in my scales. My nostrils pierced the air, while on my rear, my tail quivered and swung, excited and jumpy to hunt normally once again. I spotted the group of Tenontosaurs, seeing the hindquarters and their ugly faces look around, squawking, moaning, and snorting up a storm to each other. Their orange skin reflected blurbs of water, perhaps since they were tired and wet, or they purposely threw themselves in Shadow's Pond. And if they did, I'm not drinking out of there again. I stayed low, watching their tails fly over me and sniffed the air again. Where was I going to attack? They all seemed like adults...

I paused.

There were four younglings in their pack, some of which squeaked and squealed for food, and others in which strayed. My mom told me once that those who usually stray away from the pact run into a world of danger and death. And that's where I come in, alert and prepared to strike against a common enemy to get the meat that, pretty much all my friends (except for Stella), deserve.

I saw one of them sneak away from his or her parents, bounding away to Shadow's Pond, which wasn't far from here. I looked at the adult Tenontosaurs once then too tiptoed away, following the stench of the young herbivore. My body slipped through the dead plants, and a rumble, like some kind of calming purr, uplifted in my throat. My eyes flashed when the youngling stopped by the edge, totally unprotected and paid attention too, which was clearly an opportunity for me.

Perfect.

I hissed softly, clearing my way through the sticks of foliage until my snout slowly moved from the shadows. My heart thudded loudly, for a second making me nervous that it could hear me, and I twisted to the side, moving to the area that could cut the Tenontosaurus off from its family, and towards The Open Zone. I felt the ground around me, detecting any vibrations. Those that did shake the earth was too far away for them to see me or this youngling, and Shadow's vibrations were strangely silent. Yet I didn't care, I was on a hunt. I tapped my toe claw on the ground, licking my lips and my sharpened teeth, and only two heartbeats after jumped out of hiding. I felt the ground leave my feet, the wind rush at me, and the bellow of the Tenontosaurus, but I knew that it was too late for him.

My claws came down first on its rib-side hide, sinking deep into the soft and delicate flesh, then my open jaws, which locked themselves tightly on its vertebrae. The youngling panicked, trying to shake me off, but even my weight was too much for it to bear. I slithered off a bit, building a long wound on the way down to the ground, then bounced off hissing. The juvenile hatchling was in loads of pain and limped around to get away. I knew that the wound bleeding out like that could kill him. Even its hoarse voice couldn't be heard from the adults as a cry for help.

I bent my knees, curling around the youngling until it backed up away from the safety of the ground, towards the Open Zone. That's when I lunged again, but this time, made sure that it hit the ground faster than my useless attacked. Using my feet and my strength, I struck the herbivore on the side, launching it to the earth with a ground shaking crash. I stumbled a bit, catching myself as I landed too, and watching the young Tenontosaurus lay there, unable to get up.

It was over this time.

I sighed hard, out of breath, hearing it's moans and groans, and stomped forwards, clicking and hissing. I put one foot on his hip side with a strong crushing stomp, then put my claws on its face. My toe claw went deep inside its hide, and a flow of blood stained my claws during the process. Quickly, I opened my jaws wide to sink my jaws into its throat, to end its life. But then I paused midway, watching with cautious eyes at the blood that wrapped around my black claw and slipped down with a gurgle to the sandy earth, where it evaporated.

The blood.

The vision.

Just like before.

No... I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut, Stop it....no! The blood kept gurgling, and I felt my toe claw begin to give out and release.

Fight it! I screeched inside my head, don't be afraid! don't be afraid! I won't let fear take me this time!

With a scowl and hungry primal eyes, I finally closed my sharpened jaws onto the Tenontosaurus's neck with a sorrowful heart for some reason and snapped to the left with a powerful bite force. I heard a terrified scream pierce my ears and closed my eyes, blocking it out the best I could, before twisting again with a crack.

Then it was truly over.

I dropped its head to the ground, watching it bounce lightly before settling.

What was that?

Why did I hesitate again?

I shook out the worries and thoughts for a moment, tasting the thick metallic blood that stained my tongue, and quickly spat it out. I stared at the, now dead, Tenontosaurus, whose eyes stared at me unmoving and lifeless and swallowed in that dark entity that almost costed my hunt. I disregarded the evil factor and decided to eat, since my belly was literally doing flips inside of me, growling noises from the inside instead from where my voice box supposed to be.

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Music

https://youtu.be/cV-p2DYK7Gc