Author's Note: Good evening, everyone! What I am introducing today is a short ficlet surrounding one of my OCs, Nahoda, which you might have encountered from Mender's Tale. However, knowledge of that story is not necessary to follow this story. I am not sure how well received this tale will be, but in the end I found that I simply had to write something in order to break through the debilitating writer's block that came upon me during the busy months of November and December, and this ended up being the result. Nonetheless, whether positive or negative, I appreciate any feedback you wish to leave for this short story.
This is my response to the November 2017 Land Before Time prompt which was: Either incorporate this into the dialogue, or use it as one of your story's themes: "Even in our times of hardship there is still much to be grateful for."
Nahoda’s Gratitude
♪ Nahoda, Nahoda, you had better run!
If you are not fast then your life will be done!
How many times can you avoid the chase?
Weak in sense, but strong in the race ♪
~Ode to Nahoda,
Authorship unknown, but generally attributed to Taunt
Consortium Archive for Sol Three
The cavern reverberated as the tyrannosaurus slammed against the small opening in a mixture of desperation and rage. Inside the small opening, no larger than necessary to accommodate a young Oviraptor and barely offering room to breathe, Nahoda willed his body to calm as the predator’s roar overwhelmed his ears. The spattering of saliva and stench of death from the massive carnivore did not exactly make his attempt any easier.
Well it had been two days until a near-death experience. I must be getting better at this whole surviving thing! Nahoda noted sarcastically. His tentative decision to leave the Valley of the Rivers, made a few days prior, was now looking like the best course of action.
The fastrunner sighed and closed his eyes. It was hard to believe it had been an entire Night Circle cycle since he had left his parents’ territory. An entire childhood of relative prosperity and safety had been replaced with endless nights of danger and worry. Was this what his father had gone through when he had to leave the nest?
The cavern shuddered once more as Nahoda’s head erupted in pain.
“Ow! What the…”
A small rock, with one of his purple feathers underneath for good measure, greeted his eyes as the sharptooth’s roar continued to deafen his ears. With each percussion debris began to fall from the cavern’s delicate ceiling.
Spiketail shit! If scales-for-brains doesn’t stop it soon then I will be a flat runner! Silently berating himself for letting his own melancholic thoughts get in the way of the desperate task at hand, he quickly began to search the dim cavern with his uncertain limbs, searching for any sign of an opening.
It only took him a few seconds to realize that this task was hopeless. The only way out was the way that he had come in. A lone source of light in the small citadel of rock that now served as his sanctuary from the determined carnivore.
That was when the source of light suddenly went out.
Nahoda held his breath as the massive head of the tyrannosaurus enveloped the opening like the Night Circle eclipsing the Bright Circle under its jealous shade. The cold eyes of the sharptooth, dispassionate and calculating, bore down upon his prey like a spider sizing up an unlucky buzzer caught up in its web. Despite the fear that radiated from him like heat from a raging wildfire, Nahoda could not look away from the horrifying sight that lay before him.
“Hmph… not coming out of there are you?”
Nahoda opened his mouth in shock, before promptly closing his beak with a click. The predator had asked him a question but in that moment his mind was only processing one thought.
“I don’t want to die!”
For a brief moment Nahoda thought that another fastrunner had crawled into the cave with him in order to beg for his life, but he quickly realized that the pathetic, squeaked out voice was his own.
The thunderous laughter from the massive sharptooth, sounding like a combination of a roar and a death scream, filled Nahoda with dread. He would have bolted from the cavern in that instant if that hadn’t meant him leaping straight into the sharptooth’s gaping mouth.
“Not many living things do. But your likes are irrelevant.”
The cavern shook once more as the sharptooth’s body collided into the rock wall. Both the sudden gust of air from the maneuver and the resulting surprise sent Nahoda falling over himself into the back of his refuge.
That was when a chunk of rock the size of the fastrunner himself landed right where he had been standing.
“You will either run your last run and be my meal…”
Nahoda again felt the sensation of small pebbles landing on his flesh as the cavern reverberated from another impact. It couldn’t take much more of this…
“…or I will bury you right here!”
The fastrunner’s heart raced. It couldn’t end like this! If he was going to die anyway then he was going to die running; at least that way he could have a fighting chance. With the determination that could only come from certain death he flexed his legs in preparation for the final sprint.
--------
“What in the name of the ancestors are you doing, Dear?”
Terri was never one to dissuade her mate from being the fierce predator that had attracted her to him in the first place, but the last time she had checked rocky bluffs did not make good prey.
Dein growled in annoyance before turning towards his mate. “I’ve got one cornered! Don’t distract me!”
The female tyrannosaurus tilted her massive head at the comical sight in the distance. Her mate was focused on a crevice that was no wider than her daughter and no taller than a two-footer’s head. This was more than enough evidence to confirm her suspicions. Her eyes twinkled in a smile as she put on her most infuriating voice.
“Still two slow to catch a fast runner?”
The reaction was immediate as he roared in frustration, his head facing the skies. “Female, now is not the time!”
Her tail curved into the slightest hint of a tail-smile. If only Chomper or Verda were present to witness this scene. Though the thought of bribing a flyer with fish to relay the scene to her son was sounding more and more tempting in her mind.
Her walk now entered into a victorious trot as she approached the agitated male. If you think I am going to let this go then you have another thing coming, Dear…
“Oh Dein…” she allowed her voice to drag in an intentionally infuriating manner, “You don’t have to keep trying to catch one just because I caught one.”
“Dear, don’t…” Dein warned to no avail.
“There is no shame in having your female be a better hunter than you…”
“Dear!” Dein roared as he turned around in annoyance, his small arms gyrating in frustration at the insufferable female who had insulted his prowess at the most important duty of good mate and father.
This was exactly the opening that the desperate fastrunner needed as he practically ran over the sharptooth’s massive foot on his headlong struggle to escape from the source of his peril. Dein’s teeth nearly scraped the prey’s feathers as he disappeared from Dein’s midst in a blur of purple.
“Terri!”
The female sharptooth could only laugh heartedly as she made a hasty retreat from her fuming mate. Though she would undoubtedly not hear the end of this until the day drew to a close she knew it was well worth it.
Now maybe you will help me look for something that is actually big enough to feed the family.
--------
Had someone had asked Nahoda how he had made it to the stream he could not have provided an intelligible answer. All that he knew was that one moment the massive sharptooth was on the verge of ensuring that he had run his final chase, and the next moment he was sprinting by the enraged predator’s teeth. Several moments of panicked sprinting later he was collapsing at the edge of the river, allowing his body to catch its breath for the first time in nearly an hour.
He was alive.
Ever so slowly he raised his hand, with its delicate claws and slender feathers, and allowed the reality of the situation wash over him. A final dipping of the hands into the clear water, and the resulting splashing of his face, was the final confirmation that he needed.
I’m alive.
As he rose from the stream’s illusion of tranquility he quickly moved away from its edge. He had learned that looks could be deceiving over the last month and the last thing he needed was to be eaten by a well-hidden bellydragger or, knowing his luck, some mysterious giant snapping shell.
He closed his beak in a satisfying, if involuntary, click as the magnitude of his misadventure became apparent to him. This was followed by another click and an amused squawk. Before he realized it he was laughing rapturously at his sudden change in fortunes. He had suffered through a month of little food, horrible conditions, and the near-constant threat of a bloody end. But in the end he was still here.
He finally looked past the stream and to the distant vistas beyond. It was a great mystery, containing both great promise and unknown dangers. But if he were going to make his own way in the world and carry on his legacy then he would have to take such a risk. The fact that he was still here was testament to the fact that his luck had not left him yet.
All things considered he had much to be grateful for.
