The journey was boring, that much was certain. At least, Ducky thought so as they trudged through a forest to reach their Courtship-spot. Sure, the surrounding areas were interesting, but after the 302th tree even that got boring. She shook her head, sighing in exasperation.
"Are you alright?" Her mother came to walk beside her, ducking under a low-hanging branch as she did so.
"It's a bit boring." Ducky admitted, looking around. "And strange to not have Spike with us."
"True." Her mother, Olophia, agreed. "But I don't think he would find anyone at the Swimmer-courtship, or what don't you agree?"
Both chuckled at the thought. Spike had grown these last few Cold Times and had reached the size of a grown-up recently, making him one of those dinosaurs that are ridiculously easy to pick from amongst the Swimmers he still called family.
"Somehow I doubt he'll find anyone at the Spiketail-Courtship either." Ducky's crest-call bounced back from several trees. "He's still more interested in peace and dinner." She nodded along with the statement, missing the branch on collision-course with her sensitive crest. "Autsch…" She muttered, rubbing the dark-green length.
"Careful there, you are no longer small enough to pass under everything anymore." Olophia rubbed the crest gently. "Can't have you break it, after al."
"That would hurt…" Ducky muttered, dropping her arms down again. "Considering a bump feels like a Longneck stepped on my head."
"That too." The older female agreed. "Not to mention you most likely wouldn't survive if that happened."
"Way to make us happy, mom!" One of Ducky's brothers called, snorting as he did so.
His mother just rolled her eyes, snorting herself. "You just concentrate on practicing your song, young man, otherwise there's no way you'll ever get happy."
He frowned, growling something under his breath, quite displeased that his mother had reminded him that his musical skills were not exactly at 'get a girl'-levels so callously. His brother's just patted him on the back in comfort, while his sisters giggled at his predicament.
The old female took the lead of the herd again, leading them down a rocky path left by Fast Waters long ago. Massive boulders lay strewn on the ground, carried by the water which had rushed down this particular hillside long ago.
Stones rolled down beneath their feet, bouncing the entire way.
Suddenly their mother froze, raising herself on her hind-legs to full standing-height. The rest stopped immediately, several brothers mirroring her while peering through the thick foliage.
There were many calls that could be made with a Swimmer's crest, each sounding different according to the form of the crest in question. But there was one call that sounded the same across all the different Swimmer-kinds: Sharpteeth.
The small herd worth of Swimmers ran down the hillside, Ducky now clearly being able to see the forms running alongside of them. She counted at least two of them, blurred by the trees and just waiting for one of them to fall behind.
The way their mother lead them turned into the forest where the great Sharpteeth would have trouble maneuvering. Sadly, the many trees now in their way forced the herd to scatter, weaving through the brown giants rising into the sky.
Ducky missed being small: when she could just have hidden in the small spaces between the roots of the trees and waited the attack out.
She risked a glance over her shoulder, noting with horror that the two Sharpteeth were hot on their heels. The next thing she realized was that her foot got stuck behind a root. Just a little less than two and a half tons of Swimmer tumbled to the ground, pain shooting through her side as she slapped against the solid trunk of one of the many trees.
She gasped in pain, struggling to get back to her feet. She didn't know if her family had even noticed she had fallen behind quite literally, but right now all that mattered was to get away.
But the dark-green Swimmer froze in horror when she saw that there were three Sharpteeth, one of which already moving past her to cut off the path to her family. The other two were on something that could only be called a 'killing-course' with her.
She managed to get up just in time to avoid the jaws of the smaller individual, only to nearly run in the larger one. She wheeled around just in time, avoiding them by the width of a breath. She could feel the teeth scrape across her skin!
The one that had cut her off attacked her, jaws snapping closed dangerously close to her face. The small one used her distraction, ramming her into the ground.
"Ducky!" The voice of one of her sisters echoed from lower on the hill, but there was nothing she could do to save her sibling.
