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LBT Fanfiction / Truths: Search and Chaos
« on: October 25, 2015, 06:40:02 PM »
Chapter Seven: Bleeding Wounds
Just a warning: Lots of Gore throughout the whole chapter.
“How could you lead Coldbreath to us?” Pine shouted. The brown Stegosaurus strode up to the healer, flank facing the red Triceratops. He lashed his tail back and forth, readying to defend the yellow-scaled sprinter if the older male three-horn decided to charge. “He almost killed a passer-by yesterday. Now you brought him back to kill one of the herd?”
“How was I supposed to shake off a rabid sharptooth thirsting for my blood?” the Triceratops roared back. He took a step forward, only to have his left back leg almost give out. Blood glanced back at his wounded leg, much of the muscle and tendons ripped to shreds. One small patch even revealed bits of bone. It was a miracle that he was able to run this far to the herd.
“What the hell did you do, Blood?” Pine asked, panic lacing his deep voice as fear swirled within his green eyes. “What the hell did you do?”
Just as Pine asked this question, another roar echoed throughout the forest. A few dinosaurs not already paralyzed by fear, fled. There was no way they would be sticking around to, if not be killed by Coldbreath, watch one of the herd members die at his jaws. They were cowards and would not stand to defend their herd.
Hyacinth and Orchid did not flee. They could not. Orchid stood beside her gray longneck friend, who had painfully managed to climb to her feet when she first heard the roar. She leaned against her purple spiketail friend, still weak from yesterday’s battle. Hyacinth would have ran off with the others if it was not for her wounds. Orchid, on the other hand, was scared stiff, unable to move, memories of not only yesterday, but also of her friend Pebble’s death, replying in her mind. As far as the two adolescent females knew, Coldbreath was back for revenge.
Blood looked over his shoulder again, fuchsia eyes filled with terror as the ground shook with each step the massive carnivore slowly took. Each step silently telling him his end of nearing closer and closer. The threehorn turned back to Pine, completely forgetting about the question the younger male had asked. He tried to take a step forward again, this time his leg giving way. The adrenaline finally wearing off from the surprise attack and savage bite Coldbreath had given him.
Letting out a groan of pain, Blood looked back at his leg once more only to notice the clearly visible trail of blood he had left. He had made it ten times easier for the dark feathered backed rex to follow him. He had put everyone in danger, just like the last few times that he had acted so recklessly without thought. He thought he was doing something good this time for the plant eater world by getting rid of one more carnivore.
The red Triceratops tore his fuchsia eyes from his wounded leg to his left flank. He gave a hard swallow at the sight of blood oozing out of a deep wound caused by the gray Tyrannosaurus rex’s razor sharp teeth grazing over his side in a glancing bite. He would surely die from blood loss, if not from the jaws of Coldbreath. Tearing his eyes away from his bleeding wounds, Blood focused his gaze onto Pine. “Please, help me. He’s going to kill me. I’m going to die.”
“Then be it,” retorted the orange Antarctosaurus whom had winked at Hyacinth earlier that day.
“Heat!” Pine snapped. “Let me speak.” The brown Stegosaurus took a few steps forward to stand in front of the fallen Triceratops. “Answer my question. What did you do?”
“I crushed a sharptooth egg,” Blood cried out. “I thought I was doing something good. I was getting rid of one more sharptooth that could split a family a part. I didn’t think he would find out and chase after me.”
“Was it Coldbreath’s?”
“I don’t know. Just don’t let him kill me. I have children. My son, Crash, is sick. I was looking for a healer. I came back to you Crooked, to see if you knew any healer that could help me. I want to return to them, alive.”
Pine said nothing, only turning his green gaze away from the terrified threehorn. Crooked turned to him before taking his own steps forward to comfort Blood. He placed a hand-like paw on the Triceratop’s nose horn. “I am very sorry, but I do not know of any other healers that could even come close to healing your son’s illness. I can though, help you get back to your daughter and son, alive.”
The yellow Dryosaurus then turned to his mixed herd. “To all who are left. We must help Blood. He may have been kicked out of the herd for his reckless actions and endangerment to it, but he is still one of us, a plant eater. We must defend him from Coldbreath.”
A ripple of murmurs flittered among the remaining herd members. They were wary of helping someone who had put their lives in danger more than once. Just as a few began to step cautiously forward, a thunderous roar ripped through the air, the temperature dropping drastically as the sound faded away. Only a moment of pure silence passed before all chaos broke loose.
Coldbreath emerged from the trees. The predator lunged forward and his scaly gray jaws clamped down on Blood’s lower back, causing the Triceratops to roar out in pain. He pulled the herbivore back and away from the waiting herd who was once again paralyzed with fear. Releasing his grip on Blood, Coldbreath looked up at the watching herbivores, red eyes scrutinizing every single one of them. He gave a deafening roar, warning them to not intervene.
The massive beast turned to Blood. He let out a low rumbling roar, lowering himself close to the Triceratops’s head. He gave a huff, bathing the older male in his icy cold breath. He parted his jaws slightly, letting Blood gaze at the monstrous, slimy saliva coated fangs, which had been used to slaughter many. The red threehorn could see the predator’s tongue move as he gave another, louder growl as if he was trying to say something to him. As if mocking him for crushing his beloved’s lone egg.
Blood clenched his bright pink eyes shut, not wanting to see anymore. When Coldbreath noticed this, he snapped his jaws closed. Blood flinched at the sound, his eyes slowly opening. He did not want to see, but he could not keep his eyes close for more than a few seconds.
Coldbreath moved his snout to Blood’s belly. As he did with the threehorn’s head, he let out a long breath, bathing his underside with his icy breath. This time, the red threehorn shivered, his underside much more sensitive than his frilled and horned head. It felt unprotected, even the creamy peach scales were softer.
Blood let out a loud yelp when he felt the carnivore’s snout press into his belly. Coldbreath was truly toying with him. Making him suffer not from pain, but postponing each wound he could inflict with a simple touch. The Tyrannosaurus rex gave another low, rumbling growl before his tongue flicked out. Slowly he licked upwards, leaving an icy trail of saliva on the creamy peach scales of Blood’s underside. As Coldbreath drew back, ice crystals were visible where he had licked the herbivore.
The bonecrusher sharptooth stared down at his prey. His eyes, the same color as Blood’s freshly spilt life retaining liquid, gazed over the wounded threehorn. A low hum resonated from the beast’s chest as he continued to calculate, a delighted twinkled flickering in his red eyes. In one swift motion, he lunged forward; steel jaws clamping down on Blood’s wounded leg.
Coldbreath gave a vicious tug, pulling the herbivore back with the force. The threehorn cried out as pain radiated throughout his body. Teeth scraping against bone. Muscle and tendons straining to stay attached to the femur. The beast gave another brutal tug. The pop of Blood’s hip dislocating echoed through the forest along with his pained bellows that only grew louder in volume and intensity. Another tug. The sound of ripping flesh and sinew either detaching from bone or tearing by the Coldbreath’s fangs. One more jerk of his head, Blood’s leg came loose, spraying bright crimson blood onto the ground and the predator’s face.
Most of the still standing herbivores of the mixed herd looked away. A few vomiting their lunch. Many were also crying, Blood’s howls tearing into their hearts. For any who wanted to help before, there was no way that they could intervene now. Blood was as good as dead, if not from Coldbreath’s jaws, then blood loss. Even Crooked’s miraculous ability to heal wounds quickly were of no use now. The sprinter’s earlier words would not be kept.
Coldbreath turned to the watching herd, having finally noticed their crying and the sound of retching. He stared at them for a moment, Blood’s leg hanging in his jaws. With a loud huff, the carnivore tossed the limb into the crowd, causing many to scream in horror and scatter. Letting out of a sound akin to a coughing, chortling-like laugh, the rex turned back to his dying prey.
He dove forward, jaws clamping down on Blood’s upper back. Coldbreath applied as much pressure as he could, crushing both ribs and spinal cord. The Triceratops could no longer move anything other than his head. Coldbreath had done what his kind were named for, crushing bone.
The predator drew back once more, jaws drenched in blood. He stared down at the herbivore; his shallow breathing and the random blink of his fuchsia eyes were the only indications that his prey was still alive. The gray Tyrannosaurus rex took a step forward. Slowly, he lowered his jaws to the back of Blood’s neck, icy cold breath bathing the dying threehorn. The carnivore hovered there for a long moment, bloody jaws parted slightly, as if teasing Blood. The rex then spoke in a mocking tone, which held a strange smoothness to it. “See what happens when you anger a carnivore?”
Blood’s bright pink eyes widened in horror. A sharptooth had just spooken to him. His living nightmare had just spoke to him. Breathing hard, he moved his head around in a frantic panic. He would not die here. He had to see his daughter and his son. He had to live for them. Sadly, his dying wish would not come true.
The bonecrusher sharptooth moved agonizingly slow towards Blood’s neck. He opened his jaws slightly wider, enabling him to slide them around the plant eater’s neck, large teeth just grazing his red scales. Time seemed to slow as the carnivore stalled, again, in a scene of mocking. Then, he suddenly snapped his jaws shut around Blood’s neck, killing him instantly.
Every dinosaur still watching flinched at the action. Coldbreath released the now dead threehorn from his jaws, staring over at the other herbivores. He red eyes looked them over for a moment before letting out a mighty roar, as if warning them to stay back. He then leaned down and picked up the fresh kill in his jaws, half carrying, half dragging it away.
A high-pitched bellow suddenly echoed through the trees before a dull red dinosaur came charging forward from the underbrush. It was an adolescent threehorn, only a few seasons younger than Hyacinth. She was clearly the daughter of Blood, having followed her father’s blood trail after she had heard him attacked by the massive beast.
Her dull red body slammed into Coldbreath’s left leg, one of her brow horns slicing cleanly through his calf muscle. Coldbreath’s deafening, agonizing roar ripped through the forest, causing many to winch in pain before it faded to ringing in their ears. The feathered Tyrannosaurs rex dropped his prey as he turned on the dull red herbivore, her horn still lodged in his leg. He was too enraged to even notice the pain after the fact of the stab. The temperature around the two dropped significantly. The female’s breath was visible by quick puff of steam floating out from her boney beaked jaws. Steam seemed to roll off Coldbreath’s body as he began to lean forward, mighty jaws agape.
He lunged forward, causing the Triceratops to take a step back, her horn sliding out of the carnivore’s leg. Coldbreath’s jaws still caught onto her frill. He pulled towards himself, aiming to bring her closer. The young female gave a cry of distress as she thrashed her head from side to side, trying to dislodge the predator’s teeth from her shield. She was already panicking. Her frill had become strangely numb with cold.
The threehorn suddenly felt something soft and squishy press against her frill. It was Coldbreath’s tongue. But as he did this, her head shield become incredibly cold until she could not feel any sensation on her head. She could only feel a strange presser on her frill, no doubt from Coldbreath’s tongue. The sudden sound akin to a thick sheet of ice breaking, rang through the forest. Coldbreath drew back, the female Triceratops’ dark brown eyes staring up at him in disbelief and horror. She knew what had happened not only by the sight of him crunching on her broken piece of frill, but also due to the lightness of her head. He had broken her beautiful head shield.
Rage quickly filled her entire being. With a roar that could match any carnivore’s, she charged forward. Coldbreath stepped out of the way, only to stumble onto the ground, his left leg giving out underneath him. He turned to it, watching the bright crimson blood pour from the gaping hole. Glancing up at the female herbivore, he looked back down at his wound. Leaning forward as best as he could in the positon he was in, he lapped at his wound, tongue still as icy cold as it had been when he had broken the Triceratops’s shield. As soon as he licked it, the blood pouring from his wound began to freeze. With only a few more licks, the wound was frozen shut with blood. He would not die of blood lost or even infection, the frozen blood much too cold for bacteria to thrive in.
Just as he turned away from his wound, he found his face full of horns. Just before the female could stab him in the eye, Coldbreath grabbed onto one of her horns with his jaws. He tugged downwards, blood red eyes staring into the female’s dark brown ones. “I suggest you back off unless you want to lose a horn.”
She glared at him for a long moment before backing off. She understood every word he growled out. Losing a horn would be much worse than what had happened to her frill. Not only was there a chance of her bleeding out, but it would be an enormous dent in her pride. A threehorn with only two horns was pathetic.
Satisfied that the threehorn would stay down, Coldbreath turned to the rest of the paralyzed herbivores, his red eyes landing on Hyacinth. Knowing that she could somewhat understand him, he began to speak slowly in carnivore. “You do not mess with a carnivore as big as me. When one of you idiotic plant eaters think you are doing yourself good by crushing an egg or killing a newly hatched infant, you are only giving yourself a death sentence.”
With those words, the massive beast gave a loud huff. As he began to turn away, he gave himself a shake before walking over to his kill. Just as he bent down to pick up Blood’s mutilated body, he noticed the dull red Triceratops brandishing her horns, clearly getting ready to charge him again. Giving a grunt, he turned to her. “You’re all the same. Hornfaces too blinded by their own pride to back down.”
He approached her, jaws only slightly parted. Lowering his head, he let out a low, rumbling snarl. With a snap of his jaws, he lunged forward, only a faint, but still frightening the already shaken Triceratops. Seeing that she had taken a step back, Coldbreath used his massive head as a battering ram, slamming it against the adolescent’s flank.
The female stumbled and before she could regain her breath or footing, Coldbreath’s jaws clamped down on her back. He was not aiming to kill her though. No, he was going to do something much worse. He forced her down with a thrust of his head. She now lay on her side, and to keep her there, the feather backed rex placed a massive foot onto her side. His three, enormous clawed toes digging into her side, reducing her struggles. She may be prideful, but she did not want to be killed.
Her dark brown eyes watched as Coldbreath leaned forward, jaws slightly parted. Slowly, he slide her bloody left horn into his jaws, the one that had stabbed him in the calf. Knowing exactly what he was going to do, the female began to struggle again, distressed whimpers sounding from deep in her throat. He was going to fulfill his promise, to rip off her horn.
Coldbreath gave a mock tug, causing the female to let out a loud whine and clench her eyes shut. At this, he gave a chuckle before releasing the horn. He licked at the base of her horn, icy crystals forming on the dull red scales of the adolescent’s head. He continued to lick and the base of the horn steadily decreased in temperature until the female could no longer feel were that horn was on her head. Only the heaviness of it told her it was still there.
The Tyrannosaurus rex pressed his nose to the threehorn’s neck, letting out a slow breath, which bathed her in icy cold air just as he had done with her father. In a menacing whisper that only the terrified female could hear, he spoke to her in herbivore. “I don’t want to kill you, so I’m just helping your chance of survival by freezing your flesh and bone. It’s pretty lucky that the infamous healer Crooked is here.” He paused, letting out a low rumbling growl before touching his nose to the underside of her neck, tongue flicking out to ever so slowly lick at the ash colored scales. “Impale,” he breathed. “No, I will not kill you, dear Impale. I will just let you live a miserable life of torture, knowing that it was your prideful mistake of even thinking about charging me once more. Now you’re a threehorn with only two horns.”
The dull red threehorn’s eyes snapped open as sheer panic pumped through her veins. The carnivore had just spoked her name in leaf-eater. Breathing hard she looked at Coldbreath, an evil glint in his eyes. Suddenly, he lunged forward, jaws clamping down on her horn. He only had to give one powerful yank for the horn to come loose, the base of the horn shattering like ice.
Coldbreath stepped back, dropping the horn in front of Impale. “Here’s your present,” his voice rumbled out mockingly. He then leaned forward, giving one lasting impression to terrorize the threehorn’s dreams at night. His tongue snaked out to lap at the slightly bleeding wound on her forehead, freezing the oozing blood. “There, now you don’t need to worry about bleeding out for a while.”
Turning back to the watching herd, the gray scaled Tyrannosaurus rex gave a loud huff, satisfied that his message had been received across the herbivores. Do not mess with a carnivore. Leaning down, he picked up Impale’s dead father once again, carrying the heavy body as best as he could back to the cave he lived in. Now he had food to feed his beloved and to comfort her from the loss of her lone egg. She was so weak and small, he did not know if she would survive another egg laying, or if she could even create another one.
The herbivories could only stare in stunned silence as they watched their biggest nightmare slowly disappear into the forest.
Just a warning: Lots of Gore throughout the whole chapter.
“How could you lead Coldbreath to us?” Pine shouted. The brown Stegosaurus strode up to the healer, flank facing the red Triceratops. He lashed his tail back and forth, readying to defend the yellow-scaled sprinter if the older male three-horn decided to charge. “He almost killed a passer-by yesterday. Now you brought him back to kill one of the herd?”
“How was I supposed to shake off a rabid sharptooth thirsting for my blood?” the Triceratops roared back. He took a step forward, only to have his left back leg almost give out. Blood glanced back at his wounded leg, much of the muscle and tendons ripped to shreds. One small patch even revealed bits of bone. It was a miracle that he was able to run this far to the herd.
“What the hell did you do, Blood?” Pine asked, panic lacing his deep voice as fear swirled within his green eyes. “What the hell did you do?”
Just as Pine asked this question, another roar echoed throughout the forest. A few dinosaurs not already paralyzed by fear, fled. There was no way they would be sticking around to, if not be killed by Coldbreath, watch one of the herd members die at his jaws. They were cowards and would not stand to defend their herd.
Hyacinth and Orchid did not flee. They could not. Orchid stood beside her gray longneck friend, who had painfully managed to climb to her feet when she first heard the roar. She leaned against her purple spiketail friend, still weak from yesterday’s battle. Hyacinth would have ran off with the others if it was not for her wounds. Orchid, on the other hand, was scared stiff, unable to move, memories of not only yesterday, but also of her friend Pebble’s death, replying in her mind. As far as the two adolescent females knew, Coldbreath was back for revenge.
Blood looked over his shoulder again, fuchsia eyes filled with terror as the ground shook with each step the massive carnivore slowly took. Each step silently telling him his end of nearing closer and closer. The threehorn turned back to Pine, completely forgetting about the question the younger male had asked. He tried to take a step forward again, this time his leg giving way. The adrenaline finally wearing off from the surprise attack and savage bite Coldbreath had given him.
Letting out a groan of pain, Blood looked back at his leg once more only to notice the clearly visible trail of blood he had left. He had made it ten times easier for the dark feathered backed rex to follow him. He had put everyone in danger, just like the last few times that he had acted so recklessly without thought. He thought he was doing something good this time for the plant eater world by getting rid of one more carnivore.
The red Triceratops tore his fuchsia eyes from his wounded leg to his left flank. He gave a hard swallow at the sight of blood oozing out of a deep wound caused by the gray Tyrannosaurus rex’s razor sharp teeth grazing over his side in a glancing bite. He would surely die from blood loss, if not from the jaws of Coldbreath. Tearing his eyes away from his bleeding wounds, Blood focused his gaze onto Pine. “Please, help me. He’s going to kill me. I’m going to die.”
“Then be it,” retorted the orange Antarctosaurus whom had winked at Hyacinth earlier that day.
“Heat!” Pine snapped. “Let me speak.” The brown Stegosaurus took a few steps forward to stand in front of the fallen Triceratops. “Answer my question. What did you do?”
“I crushed a sharptooth egg,” Blood cried out. “I thought I was doing something good. I was getting rid of one more sharptooth that could split a family a part. I didn’t think he would find out and chase after me.”
“Was it Coldbreath’s?”
“I don’t know. Just don’t let him kill me. I have children. My son, Crash, is sick. I was looking for a healer. I came back to you Crooked, to see if you knew any healer that could help me. I want to return to them, alive.”
Pine said nothing, only turning his green gaze away from the terrified threehorn. Crooked turned to him before taking his own steps forward to comfort Blood. He placed a hand-like paw on the Triceratop’s nose horn. “I am very sorry, but I do not know of any other healers that could even come close to healing your son’s illness. I can though, help you get back to your daughter and son, alive.”
The yellow Dryosaurus then turned to his mixed herd. “To all who are left. We must help Blood. He may have been kicked out of the herd for his reckless actions and endangerment to it, but he is still one of us, a plant eater. We must defend him from Coldbreath.”
A ripple of murmurs flittered among the remaining herd members. They were wary of helping someone who had put their lives in danger more than once. Just as a few began to step cautiously forward, a thunderous roar ripped through the air, the temperature dropping drastically as the sound faded away. Only a moment of pure silence passed before all chaos broke loose.
Coldbreath emerged from the trees. The predator lunged forward and his scaly gray jaws clamped down on Blood’s lower back, causing the Triceratops to roar out in pain. He pulled the herbivore back and away from the waiting herd who was once again paralyzed with fear. Releasing his grip on Blood, Coldbreath looked up at the watching herbivores, red eyes scrutinizing every single one of them. He gave a deafening roar, warning them to not intervene.
The massive beast turned to Blood. He let out a low rumbling roar, lowering himself close to the Triceratops’s head. He gave a huff, bathing the older male in his icy cold breath. He parted his jaws slightly, letting Blood gaze at the monstrous, slimy saliva coated fangs, which had been used to slaughter many. The red threehorn could see the predator’s tongue move as he gave another, louder growl as if he was trying to say something to him. As if mocking him for crushing his beloved’s lone egg.
Blood clenched his bright pink eyes shut, not wanting to see anymore. When Coldbreath noticed this, he snapped his jaws closed. Blood flinched at the sound, his eyes slowly opening. He did not want to see, but he could not keep his eyes close for more than a few seconds.
Coldbreath moved his snout to Blood’s belly. As he did with the threehorn’s head, he let out a long breath, bathing his underside with his icy breath. This time, the red threehorn shivered, his underside much more sensitive than his frilled and horned head. It felt unprotected, even the creamy peach scales were softer.
Blood let out a loud yelp when he felt the carnivore’s snout press into his belly. Coldbreath was truly toying with him. Making him suffer not from pain, but postponing each wound he could inflict with a simple touch. The Tyrannosaurus rex gave another low, rumbling growl before his tongue flicked out. Slowly he licked upwards, leaving an icy trail of saliva on the creamy peach scales of Blood’s underside. As Coldbreath drew back, ice crystals were visible where he had licked the herbivore.
The bonecrusher sharptooth stared down at his prey. His eyes, the same color as Blood’s freshly spilt life retaining liquid, gazed over the wounded threehorn. A low hum resonated from the beast’s chest as he continued to calculate, a delighted twinkled flickering in his red eyes. In one swift motion, he lunged forward; steel jaws clamping down on Blood’s wounded leg.
Coldbreath gave a vicious tug, pulling the herbivore back with the force. The threehorn cried out as pain radiated throughout his body. Teeth scraping against bone. Muscle and tendons straining to stay attached to the femur. The beast gave another brutal tug. The pop of Blood’s hip dislocating echoed through the forest along with his pained bellows that only grew louder in volume and intensity. Another tug. The sound of ripping flesh and sinew either detaching from bone or tearing by the Coldbreath’s fangs. One more jerk of his head, Blood’s leg came loose, spraying bright crimson blood onto the ground and the predator’s face.
Most of the still standing herbivores of the mixed herd looked away. A few vomiting their lunch. Many were also crying, Blood’s howls tearing into their hearts. For any who wanted to help before, there was no way that they could intervene now. Blood was as good as dead, if not from Coldbreath’s jaws, then blood loss. Even Crooked’s miraculous ability to heal wounds quickly were of no use now. The sprinter’s earlier words would not be kept.
Coldbreath turned to the watching herd, having finally noticed their crying and the sound of retching. He stared at them for a moment, Blood’s leg hanging in his jaws. With a loud huff, the carnivore tossed the limb into the crowd, causing many to scream in horror and scatter. Letting out of a sound akin to a coughing, chortling-like laugh, the rex turned back to his dying prey.
He dove forward, jaws clamping down on Blood’s upper back. Coldbreath applied as much pressure as he could, crushing both ribs and spinal cord. The Triceratops could no longer move anything other than his head. Coldbreath had done what his kind were named for, crushing bone.
The predator drew back once more, jaws drenched in blood. He stared down at the herbivore; his shallow breathing and the random blink of his fuchsia eyes were the only indications that his prey was still alive. The gray Tyrannosaurus rex took a step forward. Slowly, he lowered his jaws to the back of Blood’s neck, icy cold breath bathing the dying threehorn. The carnivore hovered there for a long moment, bloody jaws parted slightly, as if teasing Blood. The rex then spoke in a mocking tone, which held a strange smoothness to it. “See what happens when you anger a carnivore?”
Blood’s bright pink eyes widened in horror. A sharptooth had just spooken to him. His living nightmare had just spoke to him. Breathing hard, he moved his head around in a frantic panic. He would not die here. He had to see his daughter and his son. He had to live for them. Sadly, his dying wish would not come true.
The bonecrusher sharptooth moved agonizingly slow towards Blood’s neck. He opened his jaws slightly wider, enabling him to slide them around the plant eater’s neck, large teeth just grazing his red scales. Time seemed to slow as the carnivore stalled, again, in a scene of mocking. Then, he suddenly snapped his jaws shut around Blood’s neck, killing him instantly.
Every dinosaur still watching flinched at the action. Coldbreath released the now dead threehorn from his jaws, staring over at the other herbivores. He red eyes looked them over for a moment before letting out a mighty roar, as if warning them to stay back. He then leaned down and picked up the fresh kill in his jaws, half carrying, half dragging it away.
A high-pitched bellow suddenly echoed through the trees before a dull red dinosaur came charging forward from the underbrush. It was an adolescent threehorn, only a few seasons younger than Hyacinth. She was clearly the daughter of Blood, having followed her father’s blood trail after she had heard him attacked by the massive beast.
Her dull red body slammed into Coldbreath’s left leg, one of her brow horns slicing cleanly through his calf muscle. Coldbreath’s deafening, agonizing roar ripped through the forest, causing many to winch in pain before it faded to ringing in their ears. The feathered Tyrannosaurs rex dropped his prey as he turned on the dull red herbivore, her horn still lodged in his leg. He was too enraged to even notice the pain after the fact of the stab. The temperature around the two dropped significantly. The female’s breath was visible by quick puff of steam floating out from her boney beaked jaws. Steam seemed to roll off Coldbreath’s body as he began to lean forward, mighty jaws agape.
He lunged forward, causing the Triceratops to take a step back, her horn sliding out of the carnivore’s leg. Coldbreath’s jaws still caught onto her frill. He pulled towards himself, aiming to bring her closer. The young female gave a cry of distress as she thrashed her head from side to side, trying to dislodge the predator’s teeth from her shield. She was already panicking. Her frill had become strangely numb with cold.
The threehorn suddenly felt something soft and squishy press against her frill. It was Coldbreath’s tongue. But as he did this, her head shield become incredibly cold until she could not feel any sensation on her head. She could only feel a strange presser on her frill, no doubt from Coldbreath’s tongue. The sudden sound akin to a thick sheet of ice breaking, rang through the forest. Coldbreath drew back, the female Triceratops’ dark brown eyes staring up at him in disbelief and horror. She knew what had happened not only by the sight of him crunching on her broken piece of frill, but also due to the lightness of her head. He had broken her beautiful head shield.
Rage quickly filled her entire being. With a roar that could match any carnivore’s, she charged forward. Coldbreath stepped out of the way, only to stumble onto the ground, his left leg giving out underneath him. He turned to it, watching the bright crimson blood pour from the gaping hole. Glancing up at the female herbivore, he looked back down at his wound. Leaning forward as best as he could in the positon he was in, he lapped at his wound, tongue still as icy cold as it had been when he had broken the Triceratops’s shield. As soon as he licked it, the blood pouring from his wound began to freeze. With only a few more licks, the wound was frozen shut with blood. He would not die of blood lost or even infection, the frozen blood much too cold for bacteria to thrive in.
Just as he turned away from his wound, he found his face full of horns. Just before the female could stab him in the eye, Coldbreath grabbed onto one of her horns with his jaws. He tugged downwards, blood red eyes staring into the female’s dark brown ones. “I suggest you back off unless you want to lose a horn.”
She glared at him for a long moment before backing off. She understood every word he growled out. Losing a horn would be much worse than what had happened to her frill. Not only was there a chance of her bleeding out, but it would be an enormous dent in her pride. A threehorn with only two horns was pathetic.
Satisfied that the threehorn would stay down, Coldbreath turned to the rest of the paralyzed herbivores, his red eyes landing on Hyacinth. Knowing that she could somewhat understand him, he began to speak slowly in carnivore. “You do not mess with a carnivore as big as me. When one of you idiotic plant eaters think you are doing yourself good by crushing an egg or killing a newly hatched infant, you are only giving yourself a death sentence.”
With those words, the massive beast gave a loud huff. As he began to turn away, he gave himself a shake before walking over to his kill. Just as he bent down to pick up Blood’s mutilated body, he noticed the dull red Triceratops brandishing her horns, clearly getting ready to charge him again. Giving a grunt, he turned to her. “You’re all the same. Hornfaces too blinded by their own pride to back down.”
He approached her, jaws only slightly parted. Lowering his head, he let out a low, rumbling snarl. With a snap of his jaws, he lunged forward, only a faint, but still frightening the already shaken Triceratops. Seeing that she had taken a step back, Coldbreath used his massive head as a battering ram, slamming it against the adolescent’s flank.
The female stumbled and before she could regain her breath or footing, Coldbreath’s jaws clamped down on her back. He was not aiming to kill her though. No, he was going to do something much worse. He forced her down with a thrust of his head. She now lay on her side, and to keep her there, the feather backed rex placed a massive foot onto her side. His three, enormous clawed toes digging into her side, reducing her struggles. She may be prideful, but she did not want to be killed.
Her dark brown eyes watched as Coldbreath leaned forward, jaws slightly parted. Slowly, he slide her bloody left horn into his jaws, the one that had stabbed him in the calf. Knowing exactly what he was going to do, the female began to struggle again, distressed whimpers sounding from deep in her throat. He was going to fulfill his promise, to rip off her horn.
Coldbreath gave a mock tug, causing the female to let out a loud whine and clench her eyes shut. At this, he gave a chuckle before releasing the horn. He licked at the base of her horn, icy crystals forming on the dull red scales of the adolescent’s head. He continued to lick and the base of the horn steadily decreased in temperature until the female could no longer feel were that horn was on her head. Only the heaviness of it told her it was still there.
The Tyrannosaurus rex pressed his nose to the threehorn’s neck, letting out a slow breath, which bathed her in icy cold air just as he had done with her father. In a menacing whisper that only the terrified female could hear, he spoke to her in herbivore. “I don’t want to kill you, so I’m just helping your chance of survival by freezing your flesh and bone. It’s pretty lucky that the infamous healer Crooked is here.” He paused, letting out a low rumbling growl before touching his nose to the underside of her neck, tongue flicking out to ever so slowly lick at the ash colored scales. “Impale,” he breathed. “No, I will not kill you, dear Impale. I will just let you live a miserable life of torture, knowing that it was your prideful mistake of even thinking about charging me once more. Now you’re a threehorn with only two horns.”
The dull red threehorn’s eyes snapped open as sheer panic pumped through her veins. The carnivore had just spoked her name in leaf-eater. Breathing hard she looked at Coldbreath, an evil glint in his eyes. Suddenly, he lunged forward, jaws clamping down on her horn. He only had to give one powerful yank for the horn to come loose, the base of the horn shattering like ice.
Coldbreath stepped back, dropping the horn in front of Impale. “Here’s your present,” his voice rumbled out mockingly. He then leaned forward, giving one lasting impression to terrorize the threehorn’s dreams at night. His tongue snaked out to lap at the slightly bleeding wound on her forehead, freezing the oozing blood. “There, now you don’t need to worry about bleeding out for a while.”
Turning back to the watching herd, the gray scaled Tyrannosaurus rex gave a loud huff, satisfied that his message had been received across the herbivores. Do not mess with a carnivore. Leaning down, he picked up Impale’s dead father once again, carrying the heavy body as best as he could back to the cave he lived in. Now he had food to feed his beloved and to comfort her from the loss of her lone egg. She was so weak and small, he did not know if she would survive another egg laying, or if she could even create another one.
The herbivories could only stare in stunned silence as they watched their biggest nightmare slowly disappear into the forest.