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The Raptor's Tail
Ruby
A young mother Adasaurus forced to raise a family all by herself after the loss of her mate, and the main protagonist of The Raptor's Tail.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After struggling against her own kind, the elements, starvation and dehydration, pregnancy, aggressive giant herbivores, and being twice menaced by a pack of her natural predators; she's battered, cut, bruised, and starving. She's healthy and fit in the epilogue with all of her wounds healed, her first clutch hatched safely, and Khan's children happily see her as their mother alongside her own hatchlings. The narration implies she and Khan's families went on for many more generations.
- Expy: From her coloration to her status as an aggressive, widowed mother, Ruby can be seen as an Asian Raptor Red.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: The sudden pains of her new egg being developed come to get her at the worst possible times.
- Interspecies Friendship: Is in a healthy symbiotic relationship with Khan the Tarbosaurus.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Non-romantic example. She's roughly the size of a wolf whereas Khan is the size of an elephant.
- Mama Bear: Nothing, not even Tyrannosaurs that outclass her in every way, can keep her from defending her nest.
- Mimic Species: Her tail has green spots identical to the viridian eyes of a Tarbosaurus. By raising her tail and spreading her wings out while bellowing, she can fool some creatures into thinking the apex predator is right in front of them as her display looks like a Tarbosaurus face from head-on.
- Non-Indicative Name: Her genus, Adasaurus is named after a Mongolian demonic spirit; and Ruby is formally introduced hunting down and dispatching a small mammal. But despite being a killer as a predator, she's not at all evil and is life itself to the family she provides for.
- Red Is Heroic: Insofar as an animal played naturalistically can be heroic, whilst draped in bright red feathers. She's just a predatory animal going about her life, but is sympathetic the one to root for.
- Struggling Single Mother: The whole story chronicles her efforts to keep her nest safe. Then the climax shows that she's not so single after all.
- Raptor Attack: Averted to the moon and back. Ruby is as accurate as they come, complete with feathers and using her killing claw to pin down small prey as opposed to gutting bigger dinosaurs note . Also, she's not a social pack hunter, something Blackburn rightfully associates is rare outside of larger carnivores and so far is only indicated in substantially bigger Dromaeosaur species like Utahraptor.
- Voice Changeling: Has the uncanny ability to mimic the sound of a Tarbosaurus bellow. Quite useful when you want to get your partner's attention or dupe someone into thinking the resident apex predator is close.
Khan
A large Tarbosaurus who's presence is felt by almost every creature in the Mongolian glade. He is also the father of the eggs Ruby is watching, and in a very protective symbiotic relationship with her.
- Big Damn Heroes: Rushes to the rescue when the Alioramus pack tries to destroy his eggs and Ruby.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: He's an insanely powerful apex predator, but at the same time he's a doting parent and cares deeply about Ruby and her well-being (for his progeny's sake, yes, but still).
- Covered in Scars: His body is a tapestry of the many battles he's faced against both predator and prey.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Delivers one unto the Alioramus pack.
- Death Glare: Can deliver one that saps whatever bravado an attacker has instantly.
- The Dreaded: Any time his voice or even his scent is noticed, most animals turn tail and leave. Notably subverted with Ruby, who shares a symbiotic relationship with him.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He's over one hundred times heavier than Ruby, based on the science section's stats and size chart.
- Mighty Roar: Described as sounding like a deep bellow mixed with rolling thunder.
- Interspecies Friendship: He and Ruby help raise their kids together while looking after each other.
- Meaningful Name: Khan is a Mongolian term for "King" or "Lord", fitting for a powerful and feared Tyrannosaur.
- Slightly more subtle, but his species' full name, Tarbosaurus bataar, translates to "alarming lizard hero". He's certainly a cause for alarm, and he's certainly heroic to Ruby.
- Papa Wolf: Drops everything he's doing, his recent kill included, to rush in and utterly destroy the Alioramus pack menacing his nest and partner.
- Red Is Heroic: As far as an animal acting naturally can be, sporting a dark, ruddy reddish hue across his body. His species name bataar is a corruption of the Mongolian word for "hero".
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Non-human version. He is a ruddy red color with green eyes note . He also fits the relationship side of the trope in a naturalistic way as Ruby's symbiotic partner.
- Walking Spoiler: The many reveals about him change a lot of the context behind the story.
The Alioramus Pack
A trio of Alioramus siblings who drove Ruby out of her old home after killing her consort.
- Animal Jingoism: They're antagonistic to both Adasaurus and Tarbosaurus. The former threaten them when Alioramus are young and the latter are a threat to them as adults.
- Big Bad: Of The Raptor's Tail.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: All of them are horrifically injured by the enraged Khan, and barely get away with their lives.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: They're last seen being pursued by Khan into the forest and heard a long ways out. Khan later returns with blood on his jaws, and it is unclear if it is from him catching up and dispatching some or all of the pack, if the blood is from the battle or his prior hunt; or if Khan simply just chased them out of his territory.
- Fantastic Fauna Counterpart: Behavior wise, they have a lot in common with wolves as social, medium sized predators who hunt and operate in family unit packs. Their nocturnal habits, reflective yellow eyes, and tendency to shriek when alarmed also echo owls.
- Feathered Fiend: Subdued, but they do sport a coat of feathers across their upper bodies and backs and are the closest thing the story has to a central antagonist.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After Khan inflicted numerous injuries upon them and tossed the pack around around, they all eventually get the message and leave.
- Lean and Mean: Compared to their larger contemporary the Tarbosaurus, they're much slimmer and faster, and not quite as affable to other predators.
- Mook Chivalry: Sort of. They'd like to attack Khan all at once, but his quick reflexes prevent that from happening, and every attack ends up one-on-one.
- Nothing Personal: While they do menace Ruby, it's not out of malice. Just naturalistic animal behavior and is stated to be so when they Know When to Fold 'Em and retreat.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Their motivation to destroy Ruby's nest is that it's in fact a Tarbosaurus nest, and by getting rid of the eggs, there's less likely a chance that more Tarbosaurus will be in their turf.
- Savage Wolves: Are compared to wolves as opposed to Ruby's fox and Khan's tiger motifs, being pack hunting social predators who compensate for lack of power with numbers.
- Sibling Team: Two brothers and a sister.
- Spotting the Thread: The leader is the first to notice Ruby's disguise when he smells her blood over anything Tarbosaurus-related.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Granted of a smaller genera than most know. They're still huge compared to Ruby, however.
- Villainy-Free Villain: They're the main antagonist of A Raptor's Tail, but they're just predatory animals acting on instinct rather than any sense of actual malice.
- You Killed My Father: It was them that killed Ruby's mate at the very beginning.
The female Adasaurus
An older female Adasaurus who arrives at the glade Ruby's nest is in with the intention of claiming it as her own.
- Bait-and-Switch: Ruby calls out to try and find someone, and she shows up soon after. Initially, it looks like she's a packmate of Ruby's and all is well.. only for Ruby to immediately become mutually antagonistic with her, leading to their confrontation. This introduces the concept that Adasaurus is not a social species like a reader might expect a raptor to be and she's a huge threat to Ruby's eggs.
- Evil Is Bigger: Evil in the sense of being an antagonist. She's slightly larger than Ruby.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Her duel with Ruby ends as soon as one of them draws first blood and the wounded doesn't immediately resume her display. After a light wound is inflicted on her, she concedes defeat and departs.
- Raptor Attack: Averted, just like Ruby. She introduces Adasaurus being a solitary species. Their confrontation is mixed with a large amount of posturing and feathery displays like dueling birds often employ.
- Showdown at High Noon: The confrontation between her and Ruby is played out like one, including a shot of Ruby from between her legs for the book's cover that resembles the trope image. Fitting the Western tropes, she's called a "drifter" several times.
Therizinosaurus
A huge herbivorous theropod dinosaur that comes to the glade to browse.
- Behemoth Battle: Ends up in one with a musth-crazed Deinocheirus.
- Creepily Long Arms: It's arms are large, muscular, and punctuated by three long and sharp talons for browsing and slashing.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Played mostly straight, but realistically. Unlike the hyper-aggressive iterations in Dino Crisis or Jurassic World Dominion, this Therizinosaurus is no threat to Ruby due to how inconsequential she is to it. The same can't be said for the small creatures it accidentally shakes out of the trees while eating. It does violently defend itself against the Deinocheirus however, when trying to intimidate it away doesn't work.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: In practice, it's a lot like a bear and a goose put together.
- Wolverine Claws: It wouldn't be the Reaper Lizard without them. They're put to good use when browsing through vegetation and slashing/impaling the mad Deinocheirus.
Deinocheirus
A massive and unusual theropod dinosaur that lives near and in the water.
- Behemoth Battle: Attacks a hapless Therizinosaurus, triggering a bloody confrontation.
- Establishing Character Moment: Ruby notices a dead Tarchia near the lake. It's revealed to be the result of the Deinocheirus killing whatever comes near it.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted hard. This thing will destroy anything that dares cross its turf during mating season.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Ruby lets out a Tarbosaurus call and it smells Khan's scent markings, the Deinocheirus snaps out of its musth-induced craze, and retreats to the lake; allowing the Therizinosaurus to get out of the fight.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It's described by Blackburn as being a sort of burly-armed, pelican/goose creature with the temperamental problems of a bull elephant in heat.
- Red Baron: The River King.
- That's No Moon: Appears initially as a small island in the water. That's just its hump sticking out.
