Truths: Search and Chaos

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter One: A Mother’s Dying Wish

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of the Land Before Time franchise.    

Hello lovely readers and welcome to my story. I just wanted to say that if you have read my other story, Connections; this is in no way related to it. I was going to use a few of the characters from it but then decided not to, as it would give away some of the characters’ surprise plot twists.  So, all new characters and really messed up family trees again (which I have actually built in a PowerPoint with color and all). I would also like to mention that, like my other story, I’m going to try and stay as realistic, dinosaurs-wise, as possible and this story will be highly OC centered, though, you’ll eventually be able to see the Gang of Seven.

This story takes place when the Gang of Five (excluding Spike) are around 16 years old. (Dino’s in my story will age like humans and then slow down when they reach adulthood).


The sun hung low in the sky, half of it suspended over the horizon. Its light painted the open canvas shades of orange and stained the massive, fluffy clouds pink. A warm, late spring breeze danced though the small trees of an oasis. It brought the scent of rain in its wake, as the enormous, fluffy pink clouds loomed closer towards the tiny patch of green within the dry, cracked sandy desert.

The oasis thrived from an underground spring that feed all the plants nutrient rich water. A pool of the same nutrient rich water formed in the middle of the sanctuary. Herds of dinosaurs from all around would stop to rest and feed here after long, tiresome journeys.

On this late spring day, only a small herd of Mussaurus had taken refuge. They had found the oasis a few days ago when their leader had become sick over the past few days and needed a place to rest while she recovered. A few of the primitive long necked dinosaurs were gathered around the thick, waxy leafed bushes. Others were resting in the shade of the few trees, tails casually flicking like content felines.

The ground began to shake with the slow, heavy footsteps of a massive beast. A pair of tan scaled youngling Mussaurus darted away from the leafy tree they were circling in play. They looked back over their shoulders to stop at the sight of another herbivore, albeit, much, much larger than them. The pair of younglings stopped in their tracks to stare up at the massive flatheaded longneck before their mother called to them from the other side of the small lake. They gave one last glace at the mighty, gray-scaled dinosaur before they scamper to their mother.

The newcomer was an adolescent sauropod and a very distant cousin of the smaller, primitive tan scaled Mussaurus. She was one of the larger species of longnecked-dinosaurs, an Apatosaurus. Her scales were gray and she possessed the typical, thick stripe that ran from the top of her head all the way down to the tip of her tail and the lighter underbelly, throat, under-length of her tail along with common snout markings of the Apatosaurus. Her back stripe was a darker gray than her main body color, and her underbody and snout markings were a light mocha color.

The adolescent sauropod swung her long neck from side to side, looking for the perfect tree leaves to feast on. Finding one to her liking, she approached it, scaring off another set of darker brown scaled Mussaurus children. She watched them for only a few seconds before raising her head to the highest branch she could reach. The female then began to quickly strip the smaller branches of their dark, juicy leaves. As she chewed, she turned her head away from the tree, teal eyes gazing out towards the many Mussaurus and a pair of Pachycephalosaurus grazing by a nearby flowering bush. All the dinosaurs stared at her strangely, not only because of her massive size, but because of the being she carried on her back.

The Apatosaurus swallowed her mouth full of leaves, turning to the object placed on her back.  It was an elderly female human. She lay on her back, resting comfortably on the darker area of the Apatosaurus’s gray hide. Her shoulder-length, wiry, thin gray hair was splay around her head and her long, gangly arms were crossed over her stomach as she slept. The elderly woman’s wrinkled, spotted skin was pale in complexion and her clothing was faded.

“Angela?” the Apatosaurus whispered, teal eyes watching the elderly woman with worry. “Are you awake?”

“Yes. I’m alive, Hyacinth,” a weak, scratchy voice responded as the woman slowly opened her eyes to reveal them to be a dark brown in color. “You’re going to have to live with the idea that I am dying and that I will pass away sooner than later. I can’t live forever.”

“I know,” the gray longneck muttered, head dropping. She scuffed the ground with her front foot before turning back to Angela, watching the elderly woman rest peacefully on her back. Hyacinth turned back to the tree, munching on the leaves. They did not taste as good as her first mouthful, having lost her appetite from the few words she exchanged with Angela. After several minutes of slowly chewing leaves, she walked over to the small lake located in the center of the oasis.

Hyacinth stopped at the muddy edge, dipping her head near the cool water, just submerging her jaws. She began to drink her fill before completely immersing her head underwater. From an early age, she had learned that her favorite food was the aquatic plants that grew at the bottom of lakes. Pulling a clump out, Hyacinth raised her head out of the lake, water rolling off her head and neck as she chewed the slimy plant matter.

The Apatosaurus dipped her head into the water once more, pulling another clump of aquatic plant matter out of the bottom of the lake. As she was chewing, she turned back to Angela, droplets of water falling onto the elderly woman. Angela gave a small groan, wiping the water from her face before opening her dark brown eyes to glare up at the longneck. “Hyacinth, please watch where you’re eating. It dripped onto me.”
 
“Sorry,” the adolescent female muttered, swallowing her food. She brought her head back to Angela, nuzzling the elderly woman only for Angela to push her back. This simple action then caused the elderly woman to go into a fit of coughs. Hyacinth stared down at her, teal eyes swirling with concern. She nuzzle Angela once more, which did not help the human’s situation. It was only when the Apatosaurus pulled back for a long moment that Angela was able to get her breath back.

“I’m so sorry, Angela. I didn’t know you would react like that,” Hyacinth apologized, holding herself back from nuzzling the frail woman again.

Angela gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “I’m as fine as I can be at this stage of my life. I expected that to happen one time or another. You’re always so use to nuzzling me all the time. But don’t worry, I don’t want to go back into the cave that Stone Claw wanted me to stay in. It’s much better laying on your back and watching my last sunset.”

“How do you know it’s going to be your last?” Hyacinth asked, panic laced in her voice.

“I just do…” Angela trailed off, turning her head to look up at the Apatosaurus she was riding on. The elderly woman returned her gaze to the sky before glancing at the ground from the corner of her eye. “Hyacinth, can you please placed me on the ground.”

“But won’t that be uncomfortable?”

“Maybe, but I would I like to be on the ground now. To feel solid earth beneath me when I pass.”

“Please stop talking like that. You’re scaring me.”

Angela did not reply, only giving a small flick of her wrist. Hyacinth let out a small sigh, gently grabbing the elderly woman by the back of her faded blue shirt and lifting her off her back. She placed the elderly woman  near the base of a tree before giving her yet another nuzzle, though this time a much lighter one than usual. Looking over Angela to make sure she was comfortable, Hyacinth laid down beside her, tucking her legs beneath her much like a cat.

The gray longneck watched her caretaker for a long moment before asking a question. “C-can you tell me more about Sorrel, your great niece. The one you want me to find.”

Angela opened her dark brown eyes at the soft feminine voice of her traveling companion. She gave a small sigh as she stared up at the Apatosaurus. “I guess I can…one last time…but you know everything about her.” The elderly woman gave a small shake of her head, dark eyes gazing out to the other dinosaurs and surrounding landscape. “I’m eighty-seven years only and living in this wonderful, yet dangerous world. I’m surprised that I’ve survived this long.” She slowly pushed herself up slightly to look up at Hyacinth. Angela placed a gnarled, livered spotted hand around her neck where a pale, almost glowing blue stone pendent hung from a simple, thin silver chain.

The massive herbivore stared down at the elderly woman, tears already glistening in her teal eyes. “I may know a lot about your great-nice, but I want to hear you talk about her before you… go. I want to hear your voice one last time. How am I supposed to find her? I know you gave her a ring like you necklace, but where will she appear? Help me remember about Sorrel before you go.”

“Oh, Hyacinth,” Angela sighed, reaching out for the Apatosaurus. “My little blossom. I’m sorry you have to go through this.” The elderly woman stroked the pale brown colored snout of the adolescent longneck as the dinosaur’s head hovered over Angela. She let her hand fall from the longneck’s snout, giving a small sigh as she closed her dark brown eyes. For a long moment, she sat there, against the tree in silence, before opening her eyes again. “Sorrel is twenty-one now. Her birthday was just a month ago. I gave her that ring as a present. Perfect time I say.”

“She knows about your travels, right? And where the ring could bring her? It’s the same type of stone as the one in your pendent?” Hyacinth asked.

“Yes,” Angela breathed, before letting out a small giggle, memories flooding her mind. “Oh, Sorrel was the brightest of my siblings’ grandchildren. When she was younger, she absolutely adored dinosaurs of all kinds and listening to my paleontologist adventures. She loved going on the digs I brought the children on. Sorrel would always find something, whether it be a fossilized shell, tooth, claw, bone fragment, or even a footprint. I always thought of her as a granddaughter, since I never had any children of my own. My only regret in this life is that Sorrel and I will never have a chance to explore this magnificent world together. I know she’ll love you when you find her.”

Angela leaned against the rough bark of the tree trunk, letting out a loud sigh as she closed her eyes once more. “I want you to travel northwards to a cave in the artic lands. You know the one where Shifting Sand lives.”

“Okay,” Hyacinth muttered as she looked down at the elderly woman. She then turned her teal gaze back to the setting sun. Her tail tip flicked from side to side as she watched it slip behind the horizon. A smile graced the gray Apatosaurus’s face as she continued to watch the other, smaller, feeding herbivore, many doing the same as she.

“Angela,” Hyacinth started, standing up from the spot she was laying when the sun had fully set. “I think we should get back to the cave. It’ll be getting cooler soon. Stone Claw said that even just a little coldness could cause you a lot of trouble.”

When the gray longneck did not get a reply, she looked down at the old woman. Angela had not moved since she stopped speaking, but her face displayed a peaceful expression. Hyacinth, panicking, swung her head over to the sleeping woman, giving her a small nudge. When Angela did not move, the Apatosaurus pressed her snout against the elderly woman’s chest. She was still warm, but it was clear that she had stopped breathing and there was no sound of her heartbeat.

“Angela?” Hyacinth whispered, tears welling up in her large teal eyes. She gave a small sniff, nuzzling the elderly woman. She knew this moment was to come sooner or later and she had tried preparing herself for it, but it was still hard to bare. With tears rolling down her cheeks, the adolescent longneck gave her guardian one last nuzzle. “Good bye, Mother.” As she said this, the wind rustled, as if taking the elderly woman’s soul to the heavens above.

Just then, the other herbivores that had not yet left for sleep began to scream in terror as they fled from their resting or feeding spots. Hyacinth did not see any threat in front of her so, with a small sniff, she craned her neck to look behind herself. A female Utahraptor with a thick coat of pinfeathers the color of sand stood calmly behind her. To any of the herbivores that had stood their ground, they were surprised to see that the adolescent longneck had not reacted at all to the sickleclaw.

“Hyacinth,” came a low scratchy, yet feminine voice from the raptor.

The Apatosaurus said nothing, only turning away from the carnivore to nuzzle Angela again. The raptor had found Angela and Hyacinth a week or so ago, having heard the news that the elderly woman would not be able to make it to her pack far away north. Angela had wanted to return there for her last visit in the living world since that was where the portal was in which her great-niece would be able to enter this world. Even if she would have died before Sorrel came to the dinosaur dimension, she would have been buried there. Sadly, that was not happening now.

The raptor took a step forward, giving a small hiss as she brandished her clawed hands and the long, brown decorative feathers on the back of her arms. Her darker, decorative, feather tipped tail stood high in the air as she bent down lower to the ground, readying to jump.  Bright blue eyes filled with annoyance, she gave another hiss before lunging herself onto the Apatosaurus’s back. Her lethal toe claws still dug into Hyacinth’s flesh, but the sandy-feathered Utahraptor did not bite down like most would. Hyacinth gave herself a various shake, dislodging the raptor. The predator fell to the grassy ground with a small thud, but the gray herbivore did not bother finishing the job of crushing her.

“Hyacinth,” hissed the raptor as she stood back up on her feet. “Stop your mourning. You need to bury her now and get on your journey. What if I was a pack scout? You could have been killed. Angela wouldn’t like that.”

“Shut up, Shifting Sand,” the adolescent mumbled under her breath before giving a sniff as more tears rolled down her snout.

Shifting Sand give a sigh before stepping forward, this time standing in front of the gray Apatosaurus. “You need to bury her… You wouldn’t want other predators to eat her body, would you?”

Hyacinth gave a small sigh at the feathered sickleclaw. She looked over at the other herbivores, most having already ran away from the sight of Shifting Sand, though, a few stood their ground, slack jawed at what they were hearing. A carnivore speaking leaf-eater. The large raptor paid no mind to them only leading Hyacinth to a dense grove of flowering trees while the massive sauropod picked Angela up by the back of her faded shirt.

When the strange pair arrive at the middle of the grove, Hyacinth placed her caretaker on the ground. She began to dig a shallow grave with her forefoot. When she was satisfied with the depth, she picked Angela up once more and placed her in the grave. She then pushed the dirt she had dug up over it. When she turned around, she saw Shifting Sand standing at the edge of the clearing. The raptor held a large rock in her clawed hands with a few others already gathered at her feet.

“Here,” the Utahraptor said, thrusting the rock towards Hyacinth. “So other carnivores don’t dig up her grave.”

The younger female gave a small nod, striding over to the pile of rocks Shifting Sand had gathered and pushing them over to the newly dug grave. The Utahraptor helped Hyacinth placed the large stones over Angela’s grave before she looked up at the longneck. “I have another mission to go on so I can’t lead you to my pack, but I still need to take those journals of Angela’s. My pack will keep them safe with other dimension traveling humans’ items. And remember what she wanted you to do.”

Hyacinth nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek as she nuzzle the elderly woman’s resting place one last time. “I have to find the cave Sorrel will appear in when she comes here. I just hope that she doesn’t arrive while I’m traveling.”

Shifting Sand gave a small snort. “She just might. But don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll have a scout to guard her since the cave is at the very edge of our territory. I suggest you eat and drink as much as you can. The journey is long, tiring and very, very cold.” As the Utahraptor turned away from the grieving Apatosaurus, she looked back over her shoulder. “I’m also sorry for attacking you; I needed a way to get most of those other leaf eaters away. The less that know I can speak their language the better.”

 “Thank you, Shifting Sand,” Hyacinth growled in the carnivore language, surprising the smaller, feathered dinosaur. The sandy predator gave the younger female a small nod of welcome before jogging out of the grove of flowering trees, leaving the longneck to mourn for the rest of the night.


Yea! Another Author’s Note! Well, I just wanted to say that if you like my story I would really appreciate it if you could fav and/or follow so I know people are actually enjoying my story. I also absolutely adore comments, good or bad (though good I appreciate more than bad). Constructive criticism is welcome from anyone. It doesn’t have to be nice either, if you like my story or not, explain why. The reason I’m saying this is because I’ve noticed that I had over 1,000 reads on my other story, Connections, but only a few comments and favs/follows. I may be sounding a bit selfish right now, but it’s the only way us writers really know if people like our stories or not. It really pumps me up whenever I see a new review or reread the ones I got. Please review on any story you like, I promise you, the writers will love it. (Originally for Fanfiction.net)

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Two: Journey North

   Hyacinth awoke the next morning in the shade of the flowering trees. She still lay at Angela’s grave, stains of the tears she cried last night evident on her scaly cheeks. She slowly lifted her head up from the ground, only to look over at the upturned dirt near her front feet. Her teal color eyes became moist at the sight. Closing them tight, Hyacinth lowered her head to the ground, tears silently spilling from her eyes. Giving a small sniff, the gray Apatosaurus moved her head to the grave, nuzzling it.

   “Hey…,” a female voice spoke from behind Hyacinth.

   The gray longneck raised her head from the grave, tears rolling down her cheeks as she wearily stared at the sandy feathered Utahraptor. The Apatosaurus gave another sniff and a blink of her teal eyes, causing even more tears to roll down her scaly cheeks, before laying her head back down on the ground. She did not want to leave yet. She could not leave her beloved caretaker just yet. Angela had not even been gone for a full day.

   “I came by the check on you,” Shifting Sand spoke, her voice soft, yet holding the predatory growl that most flat-tooth speaking carnivores possessed.

The large raptor slowly approached Hyacinth, careful not to startle the larger dinosaur as she did not know if the herbivore had heard her. She did not need a broken limb or ribs from an angry whip of the Apatosaurus’s tail.

With a few more cautious steps, Shifting Sand stood next to Hyacinth’s lower back, the place where she had jumped onto the Apatosaurus. Making sure the longneck was fine with her presences; she lowered her head to the wounds, sniffing them. They seemed fine, but it was only last night that Shifting Sand had caused them. Carefully, the sandy feathered carnivore began to lick at Hyacinth’s wounds, cleaning any dirt they may have gotten into them from last night.

Hyacinth did not respond to the soft licks, knowing what Shifting Sand was doing. She did not have to worry about the carnivore biting her, even if she was tasting her blood. Angela had told her that the Utahraptors of Shifting Sand’s pack had extremely good self-control when it came to hunting instincts around leaf eaters. Even with that knowledge, the longneck could honestly care less what the raptor was doing at the moment, all she wanted was to have her adoptive mother back.

   “Hyacinth?” the sickleclaw spoke again, having finished her cleaning. “You need to get moving. I know you would like to spend a bit more time with Angela, but you’ll miss Sorrel. I have no idea when she’ll be coming to this dimension. The only thing I know is that she has not already. We have a scout set at the cave entrance every night, but our pack is not very trusting of humans. They will not let her in the pack caves, even if she is related to Angela. She could freeze to death if this happens.”

   The Apatosaurus raised her head once more. She turned to look at Shifting Sand with distaste, but none the less stood up from her spot. Gazing mournfully at the freshly turned dirt of her caretaker’s grave, Hyacinth turned back to Shifting Sand. “Okay.”

   Shifting Sand gave a small nod before turning away from the adolescent longneck. She led Hyacinth out of the flowering grove and to the edge of the oasis. Many of the herbivores from last night had already moved on, fearing that a pack of sickleclaws was now making their home in the oasis. Still, some of the brave souls stayed behind, most being the ones that had witnessed Hyacinth and Shifting Sand speaking to one another.

All of the remaining plant eaters stiffened at the sight of the large raptor traveling just in front of Hyacinth. They watched from afar as the two walked to the edge of the oasis, breathe baited. No one estylepets","o":2},{"i":1moved a muscle, as they did not know if the female sickleclaw would turn on them or not. They did not know exactly what was going on between the predator and the longneck. The idea of them working together crossed a few of the herbivores’ minds but it quickly vanished as they thought it was impossible. Still, it seemed to be happening right in front of their eyes.

Once standing in the sparse, sandy soil where a few clumps of grass grew, Shifting Sand turned to Hyacinth. “Travel north. Far north. It is where my pack lives. I wish I could lead you there, but I have another mission to take care of in the near area.”

   The gray longneck only gave a small nod in response and with that began to sluggishly amble northwards, her heart heavy with sadness. Shifting Sand frowned at the sight, watching Hyacinth slowly lumber off. After a long moment, the large raptor called out, “remember to eat and drink. I, nor Sorrel or the rest of my pack want you dying on this journey. Please take care of yourself.”

   The only response Shifting Sand received was a flick of Hyacinth’s tail. The frown did not disappear from the raptor’s muzzle but there was nothing she could do. She could only hope that the gray Apatosaurus would listen to her advice and not starve herself to death in her grief. With a small sigh, Shifting Sand turned away from the fading form of Hyacinth. She needed to begin her next task as soon as possible. There was no point in worrying about the longneck. She would learn what happened to the herbivore once she arrived home in the next few cycles of the moon.

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Only a few hours into her travel and Hyacinth already felt like giving up. Even though she had never noticed Angela’s presence before on her back before, now it felt empty. There was no warmth or even the slightest bit of pressure on her back from where the elderly woman would sit or lay. The longneck’s mind was full of thoughts she never knew she had, as it had always been filled with the woman’s fascinating tales. Her soul was numb with grief at the death of her caretaker.  She missed Angela so much. She was the mother she never had, she was the aunt she never had, and she was the friend she never had. They had taken so many adventures together and met so many different kinds of dinosaurs. They could not do that anymore now that the elderly woman was dead.

   Even with these thoughts, Hyacinth continued as best as she could. She had to, for Angela. She needed to find Sornd tell her the stories of Angela and the legends Angela told her. There was also the feeling that Hyacinth should find Sorrel for another, deeper reason. It was as if something was gnawing at her soul, pulling her toward the young woman that would await her. This was the only thing that truly kept to longneck going. This feeling made her feel like she was still alive. It was the only thing that had not been numbed by her caretaker’s death.

Hyacinth gave a small sigh as her gaze drifted from one side of the horizon to the other. She only spotted a few plants here and there along with an occasional puddle. Neither would be enough to even satisfy the slight pangs of hunger that would come to her from time to time or wet her parched tongue. It was not like she cared though. The feelings of physical discomfort disappeared when her thoughts drifted back to Angela.

When Hyacinth’s teal gaze swept the horizon several hours later, she spotted a patch of green in the distance. Frowning, the gray longneck changed her path slightly so that she would arrive in the forest by nightfall. The adolescent knew she would not eat when she came to the forest. She had no appetite and the mere thought of food made her stomach churn.  She was only going to the forest for protection. She still wanted to live and being killed by sharpteeth in her sleep was not her idea of a good death.

   “Remember to eat and drink…” Shifting Sand’s words suddenly echoed through Hyacinth’s mind. The gray Apatosaurus looked to the patch of green she was traveling towards, giving a small sigh. The feathered carnivore was right. She needed to eat and drink if she wanted to stay healthy during the trip. Angela had insisted she get in contact with Sorrel, and she wasn’t going to let her beloved caretaker down. There was no doubt that the longneck would encounter a predator or two on the trip north to the cave where Angela’s kin would appear. She would eat and drink for Sorrel, she needed to let the young woman know of her great-aunt’s fate and also impress upon her how much the older woman meant to Hyacinth. But now, the adolescent longneck focused on the long hours that it would take for her to get to the tiny clump of trees in the distance.

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Nightfall arrived as Hyacinth laid her massive, weary body next to the nearest tree; an immense, elderly oak with a trunk as thick as one of her legs. She would eat in a minute, she just needed to rest her achy body. Normally she could handle this much travel. She had, had much worse, but with the death of Angela, everything became three times as hard as it used to be. Even the thought of eating tired the Apatosaurus, but she had to.

   “Hey there,” a female voice greeted Hyacinth from behind.

   The longneck raised her head from the ground, turning to find a Stegosaurus around her age. The spiketail was a rich purple color with her throat, underbelly, and underneath her tail a cream color. Her plates were fully-grown and were a few shades darker than the rest of her body. The four tail spikes at the tip of her tail were also fully grown in, though they were a milky white color.  

   Hyacinth said nothing to the newcomer, only resting her head back on the ground. She did not want to talk to anyone right now. She still needed to get herself to eat and having another dinosaur around would just make the struggle harder. Sadly, the spiketail did not get the unsaid message and approached the gray longneck. She began to nibble on a nearby bush, happily swaying as she chewed.

   “Spiketails always love their food,” Hyacinth thought scornfully. Her teal eyes watched the other female rip apart the leaves of the shrubbery with her sharp, bone-like beak. As she grounded the food, she turned to Hyacinth, as if feeling the other female’s eyes on her. The Stegosaurus continued to chew in silence as her brown eyes watched the longneck. When she was satisfied with her chewed up greens, the purple spiketail swallowed, then licked her beak to clear it of any remaining plant matter.

   “Do you want any?” she asked, moving aside for Hyacinth.

   The Apatosaurus said nothing, only turning her teal gaze back to the ground, tears suddenly welling up in her eyes.

   “Hey, hey. What’s wrong? Was it something I said? Oh, I hope not. I don’t like hurting other dinosaurs’ feelings.”

   Hyacinth just shook her head, tears spilling over her eyes. “No,” she sniffed. “You didn’t say anything wrong. It’s just…my…mother passed away only a day ago.” She gave another sniff as she turned away from the purple spiketail. “I couldn’t mourn her because I need to find someone as fast as I can.”

   “Oh my! I’m really sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do? Maybe gather some tasty treestars, berries, and flowers, or show you were there is fresh water.”

   “Umm…” Hyacinth mumbled, teary eyes looking over the forest landscape as she thought. “Some berries would be nice, but…you should probably lead me there. You couldn’t possibly bring enough for me.”
 
   “Right,” the adolescent Stegosaurus grinned. “Come on, follow me.” With a hop in her step, the purple female walked away from the small clump of trees before stopping a few feet away. She glanced over her shoulder, waiting for the other female. Her grin turned back to a frown as she watched Hyacinth struggle to her feet, almost too weak from hunger and grief to stand. The longneck did manage to get to her feet and began to lumber over to the concerned spiketail.

   “So,” the purple Stegosaurus asked, wanting to start a conversation as they walked. “What’s your name?”

   “Hyacinth,” the gray Apatosaurus muttered, teal eyes already locked onto the berry bushes ahead.

   “That’s a pretty name. It’s a flower like mine. I’m Orchid.” The spiketail paused, looking Hyacinth over. “So what are you doing out here. I’m mean if your mother just…died only a day ago. Shouldn’t you be with the rest of your family mourning her?”

   “I don’t have any other family. It was just me and her. I’m…” Hyacinth paused, not knowing if she should tell the purple spiketail where she was heading. “I’m traveling north to find…my cousin.”

   “North?” Orchid spoke, looking up at the gray longneck. “My father’s side of the family lives in the north. Do you know where you’re going? I could probably help you there. I know where all the plants grow and which ones are best to eat. The roots of the needle-trees are always really tasty once you chew through the tough bark. The leaves are pretty good but they could hurt your mouth if you don’t eat them right because of their weird and spikey shaped.”

   “Um…I’m going to a cave near a sickleclaw pack. My mother said that my cousin could be found there.”

   “Near a sickleclaw pack?” Orchid questioned, brown eyes growing wide at the thought of the large, feathered predators. “Why would a longneck go anywhere near that big pack of raptors? I know where the pack lives and I’m sure the cave you are looking for is somewhere on the outskirts of their territory, but still. I have heard that they are rather strange, not acting like most raptor packs. Like they don’t really go after many leaf eaters. They just live in this giant cave system and eat smaller creatures such as lizards. I have also heard that they only kill larger herbivores that would otherwise not survive due to illness or injury.”

   Hyacinth just gave a small tilt of her head, equivalent to a dinosaur shrug. It was then that the two came up to a large clump of berry bushes. The gray Apatosaurus could not help but smile at the sight of the colorful berries. They were probably her second most favorite food. The large, red berries were always so filled with flavor and so colorful. The only problem was that to fill her enormous belly, she ended up eating a few bushes before she was satisfied. Most of the other dinosaurs would get angry with her for eating the entire bush and not just the berries. Because of that, it was a rare occurrence that she allowed herself the succulent treat.  

Hyacinth gave Orchid a small smile of thanks and lowered her head to eat a bush full of bright red berries. Orchid smiled at the sight before digging into the nearest berry bush, one containing succulent, tart, dark purple fruit.

   “Well,” Orchid started with a mouthful of her dark berries. “Since I have nothing better to do, I guess I’m helping you find your cousin.”

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Three: The Flowers’ Stories

Yet another day began as the sun rose above the horizon. Orchid and Hyacinth had slept side-by-side, backs facing one another, during the cool night. The two adolescent, female herbivores had fallen asleep beside one another after they finished eating the juicy berries, both exhausted from the long day. Although Orchid was curious about Hyacinth’s story and wished to chat with her, the spiketail knew that the gray longneck was still grieving over her recently departed mother and was in no mood to talk. It was best, Orchid decided, to get a good night’s sleep before they started their journey to the northern lands the next morning.

As the sun’s rays filtered through the clouds and sparse trees, one of the adolescent females began to stir. The sun’s golden light penetrated Hyacinth’s dark gray hide, warming her chilled muscles. The Apatosaurus gave a small groan of discomfort as she shifted a little, pushing herself backward only to be poked in the back by Orchid’s dark purple plates. Hyacinth stopped moving, teal eyes slowly opening as she remembered where she was. She glared at the sun, only to squeeze her eyes shut against the bright, burning light.

The purple spiketail gave a sudden, loud snore with an intake of breath. Hyacinth let out an exasperated sigh while rolling her teal eyes. Spiketails were known for snoring, a lot. There was no way she would be able to fall back asleep now with the sun up and Orchid snoring. She may as well get a start on food. She would need her fill for the journey. Orchid had mentioned last night that she did not know when they would reach another oasis with such an abundance of plants.

Lumbering over to the nearest tree, Hyacinth reached up with her long neck, grabbing ahold of a branch. She stripped it of its greens before chewing the leaves, teal eyes gazing over the small oasis. It was much like the one she and Angela had been in, with a small pool of water and an underground spring feeding all the plants thriving farther away from the visible water source. Most of the other dinosaurs who had taken refuge within this smaller oasis were still sleeping. They were not early risers like the gray Apatosaurus, who was usually awaken at the brink of dawn by her caretaker, eager to start the day with a new adventure.

At the thought of the elderly woman, Hyacinth’s heart sank. For a brief moment, she had almost forgotten that her caretaker, her adoptive mother, was gone, forever. She could already feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she gazed out at the rising sun, another memory surfacing. She and Angela would always watch the sunrise and the sunset. It was like a signal to the start and end of the day. The tears began to spill down her scaly cheeks as she gave a small sniff. The Apatosaurus hated that she was crying so much, but the grief was still too overwhelming.  

“I love you, Mother,” she whispered, tears rolling off her snout as she looked down.
 
“Hyacinth?” Orchid’s voice sounded from behind the gray longneck. “Are you okay?” The spiketail had awaken upon hearing her new acquaintance’s sobs and had ambled over to where the distressed dinosaur stood grieving.  

The Apatosaurus gave another sniff as she shook her head. “No, I’m not okay,” she spoke in a voice choked with tears. “It’s only been two full days without my mother. I miss. I miss her so badly.” Hyacinth hung her head, tears now rolling down her face as she unsuccessfully choked back her sobs. Her breath was shaking and she began to hiccup.

“Oh, no. Hey, hey,” Orchid started, rubbing her small head against Hyacinth’s foreleg. “I know it’s hard,” the spiketail soothed. “I lost my sister to a sickness. It was difficult for all my family. Me, my mother, my father, and my brother. You learn to live on. Now come on, “the spiketail hummed encouragingly. “Let’s eat and drink our fill and get moving. We need to find that cousin of yours before a sharptooth does.”

The Apatosaurus gave another small sniff, tears still trickling down her cheeks. She sluggishly followed the purple Stegosaurus back to a clump of bushes they had slept near. The dark green shrubbery was just the right height for the shorter herbivore to eat from. At first the longneck just stood and watched the other herbivore devour the tender, oval-shaped leaves. After about fifteen minutes, Hyacinth finally regained control over her emotions and also joined in, knowing that Angela would be disappointed in her if she didn’t take care of herself.

The pair of adolescent females ate in silence, just like the night before. When they were full, the two lumbered over to the pond to take a long drink of the cool, fresh water. Once they finished, their thirst quenched, the pair began to head out of the oasis, Orchid leading the way. They halted at the edge of the oasis, the purple spiketail looking over her shoulder at Hyacinth. “Before we go any further, I just want to give you a layout of where we’ll be traveling and what we’ll have to cross.” Orchid turned back to the horizon, brown eyes studying the many tall, needle-leaved conifers which even towered over Hyacinth. “The first day or so should be easy, just walking through the forest. We’ll have to watch for Sharptooth though, but you’re use to that, right?”

The gray Apatosaurus gave a small nod of her head, her own teal eyes gazing out to the tall trees she had not noticed before since she had been too wrapped up in her grief.

“It gets a little tougher as the weather turns colder the further north we go. I honestly hate the cold, that’s why I was traveling with a herd from my mother’s side of the family when I left the nest a few seasons ago.” Orchid gave a small shudder at the thought of the cold that she would soon enough feel. “With the cold there will be snow, have you seen snow before?”

Hyacinth nodded again. “Yeah. My mother and I traveled to the northlands a few times before, but I can’t quite remember how to get back there since we traveled from a different location.”

“Oh,” Orchid sounded surprise. “Well, that’s good. At least you are aware of what type of weather to expect.” The spiketail began to move, leading the longneck toward the direction of the northern caves. “Anyway, we’ll get to the land that’s always covered in snow, which will not take too long. Maybe a few days of travel from here. It shouldn’t be difficult to find the sickleclaw pack and the caves once we reach our destination. The travel itself isn’t too bad, it’s just the cold and the predators that we need to worry about.”

“What type of meat-eaters are there?” Hyacinth asked, not looking at Orchid as her eyes continued to sweep over the landscape.

“Well…there are a lot of larger sharpteeth…” Orchid trailed off. “Like bonecrusher sharpteeth, ridgeeyed sharpteeth, and the sickleclaw pack. There is a really big gray bonecrusher,” she added as an afterthought. “He’s kind of a legend around the area. We call him Coldbreath for his really cold breath. You know when a sharptooth breaths on you when they get too close, well his breath is cold, like ice cold, not hot. He also um…he…killed my best friend.
 
Hyacinth turned to the purple spiketail in surprise. It was not uncommon to have at least one family member or friend killed by a carnivore. The beasts needed to eat and large herbivores were the biggest meal they could get.  It was a surprise, however, that a Stegosaurus was killed by a lone predator. Sure it was a big sharptooth, but still, Stegosaurus were not only armored but had a weapon at the end of their tails. Even an adolescent was large enough that it would have been difficult for a predator to kill it.

“How did it happen…? How did the Tyrannosaurus rex kill your friend?”

“What? I never heard that name used for them.” Orchid spoke curiously, brown eyes tracking a small buzzing insect whirling around her beak. “Why do you call the sharpteeth such a strange name?”

The gray longneck did not respond, causing the purple spiketail to utter a small defeated sigh, knowing Hyacinth wasn’t going to answer since she wanted an answer to her own question. Orchid knew that almost every dinosaur went through deaths of their loved ones by the claws or teeth of a sharptooth. Dredging up memories of her friend’s death was not pleasant, but maybe if she divulged some of her past with Hyacinth, then the longneck would be more willing to reveal some of her own story.

“The Coldbreath was stalking our herd,” Orchid began quietly, her eyes drifting toward the sky as memories played out. “We had no idea he was even there until it was too late. Pebble, my friend, was traveling at the back of the herd with me when he attacked. The bonecrusher sharptooth head butted her, rolling her over on her side before sinking his teeth into her belly. It happened so fast; there was nothing I could do.”

Hyacinth stumbled in her walk as Orchid finished her story, teal eyes wide with horror. “And this sharptooth is still in the area? Is he still alive?” The gray longneck was horrified at the story. Angela always told her that carnivores were smarter than they look, but Hyacinth never thought one would be smart enough to knock over a spiketail to get to their soft underbelly. Most would just avoid them or, if they were hungry enough, go after them and bite down on their plates. Sometimes this trick would work as an infection would set in on the Stegosaurus’s plate and kill them within a few weeks, but the carnivore would still need to find food to sustain itself during that period while trailing the injured dinosaur. Then there was also the real possibility that the sharptooth itself would be injured by the sharp spikes of its prey’s tail.

Orchid gave a nod of her head, confirming Hyacinth’s worst fears. The Apatosaurus exhaled sharply, a shudder running through her body. Now she would have to keep an eye open for the large, gray rex. It did not sound too hard except for the fact that the massive predator had managed to sneak up on a whole heard of spiketails. Just that thought alone caused another shudder to run through the Apatosaurus’s body.

“Can you tell me about your family?” Orchid asked out of the blue.

“What do you want to know?” Hyacinth replied, drawn out of her unsettling thoughts.

“Anything. Your parents. Siblings. Friends. What was your childhood like?”

“Well…” the gray longneck started, looking out over the scenery, trying to push the thoughts of Coldbreath out of her mind as she began to recall her childhood. “I never knew my father. My mother…I honestly never knew my mother either. The one that passed away only a few days ago, she was my adoptive mother, my caretaker. She…she was a thinskin, a human.” Hyacinth glanced over at Orchid, hoping that the spiketail would not have an offended reaction to this unexpected news.

“Is this cousin really your cousin then? Is she a longneck or something else?” the Stegosaurus slowly asked, browns eyes now narrowed in suspicion.  

“No,” Hyacinth sighed. “Sorrel is my caretaker’s great niece, meaning she is also a thinskin.”

“So we’re going to these caves to find Sorrel, a thinskin? How could a thinskin survive there?” Orchid questioned. She turned back to the small, dirt path they were following that had been used by many other far walkers to reach the small oasis. “At least it’s just a thinskin and not some type of sharptooth like a Slicingfanged sharptooth; or a territorial leafeater like a domehead. They are so aggressive and rude and almost all of them hate other leafeaters.”

Hyacinth nodded in agreement as she thought about the domeheads. “Probably because most of them live in rocky terrain. They don’t have much food so they are very competitive. But answering your question about thinskins. They can’t live in the freezing cold.  At least I don’t think they can. Sorrel is going to arrive in the northern cave sometime soon. I’m not sure why she has to arrive there. Angela once told me that they cannot pick and choose where they arrive but must come where the stone takes them. She will be coming to this world by the use of a glowing blue stone. Angela, my caretaker, had a necklace with one in it. Angela also said that the stone will also allow Sorrel to understand and speak our language because humans have a different language than us.”

“What? Things other than us can talk? You’re not telling me that sharpteeth talk.”

“You didn’t know that?” Hyacinth questioned in surprise. “Angela spoke to some of the smaller kinds on our travels. She even befriended a few. They can defiantly speak. One…one spoke to me in flat-tooth only yesterday. How she knew our language, I’m not sure, but she defiantly spoke it and could understand what I said. She is a sandy feathered Utahraptor and…and she comes from the pack that the cave is near. She said that there will be another sickleclaw there to guard Sorrel if I do not make it in time.”

Orchid only stared at Hyacinth with wide, dark brown eyes as she stopped in her tracks. “What?” she exclaimed before shaking her head in disbelief. “Are you mad? Why would a sickleclaw protect a thinskin when they could just as easily eat them?”

“No! I promise you I’m not. Just wait and see. At least lead me to the cave where Sorrel is supposed to be. You’ll see,” Hyacinth pleaded with the spiketail as she also halted. “She’ll have a ring and will be able to understand and speak like us. I can probably get her to talk to one of the sickleclaws to prove that sharpteeth have a language. Please, believe me. I know how insane it probably sounds to a dinosaur like you. Please.”

Orchid exhaled slowly but smiled back up at Hyacinth. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to leave you. I still find it hard to believe this thinskin traveling and sharpteeth having their own language thing.”

The gray Apatosaurus let out a long sigh of relief.  She was grateful that she would not have to worry too much about the purple spiketail leaving her. It was also nice to have a traveling companion to keep her company. Since she was little, she had always had Angela by her side to teach and guide her. The thought of being alone was very unsettling.

“Do you have any friends since you were traveling with a thinskin?” Orchid asked as they began to walk once more.

“No. We never stayed in one place for too long. Angela was the only family I had.”

“Oh…” Orchid sighed. “Well, I had a sister and a brother. My sister died of a sickness, I told you that before, and my brother is still with my parents in the north, but they are in a different area than where we are going. My mom is purple like me and my dad is a dark green. I had a few friends in our traveling herd. I hated the cold so I ended up leaving just a few seasons ago. Yeah, I know it’s a bit early to leave my family but I just couldn’t handle the cold anymore, especially since my sister died of an illness and was weakened from the cold. I found a herd from my mom’s side of the family somewhere in the tropical lands far away from my cold loving family, and lived with them for a while. I think it was only a cycle or two ago since I left them.”

“Wow,” was all Hyacinth said as she reflected on her new friend’s story.

“Yeah,” Orchid replied.

With that, the two fell into silence as they walked through the conifer forest. Their journey was only just beginning.


Just a little note: ridgeeyed sharpteeth are Allosaurus and slicingfanged sharpteeth are Giganotosaurus.

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Four: Unearthly Beast

Several days had passed since the two adolescent herbivories’ journey began. The past ten days were spent in comfortable companionship; the pair managing to find enough food and water to sustain themselves. It became easier to forage for food as they traveled northward, the warm barren land turning to a cooler temperate climate. It now flourished with plant life along with many dinosaurs, big and small, herbivores and carnivores.

When Hyacinth and Orchid had entered the forest just a day ago, the Stegosaurs knew they were going the correct way. Even though they were traveling north, they had to push a bit towards the west to ensure that they would reach the cave where Sorrel would arrive at.

The adolescent females had shared many stories over their journey. From Hyacinth’s many adventures with Angela, even the few near death situations they faced, to Orchid ranting about her mother’s insane obsession with pinecones. At the moment, the pair was slowly walking down a warn path used by many of the migrating herds, including a select few of Orchid’s old herd whom could not handle the colder months of the year. They were singing a childish song Angela had taught Hyacinth when she was young, voices alternating from silly high pitched, squeaky, to low rumbling growls. Soon enough, the pair was giggling too much from their antics and began stumbling over their feet as laughter coursed through their large bodies.

“Oh!” Orchid suddenly said though her fading giggles. “Maybe I should find a really cool pinecone for my mom. Maybe we’ll met my herd. That would be so cool. Wouldn’t that be cool? You could met my family, Hyacinth.”

The gray Apatosaurus just grinned back at her friend, having also recovered from her laughter. Her grief over her adoptive mother’s death still lingered, but it no longer weighed her down like the first few days. It helped that the purple spiketail was so talkative and friendly; the longneck would easily get distracted from her thoughts about Angela’s death. This was what it was like to have a true friend.

Hyacinth’s thoughts turned to something else. Her teal eyes stared up at the sky, which was filled with big, fluffy clouds. The sun hung low in the sky, signaling nighttime would be here within little over an hour, meaning the pair would have to stop soon. Both knew it was dangerous to travel through the night, not only because of the predators that lurked in the veil of darkness, but because they needed sleep to keep their energy up. “We should come across a herd that we could sleep with soon.”

“Yeah. Hopefully we won’t have to find separate herds like that one night. Other dinosaurs too proud or scared or whatever to let in someone different than their own kind. We’re all leaf eaters here! Heck, we’re even both big dinosaurs that walk on four legs, we’re less different than a domehead and a flyer traveling together. No one has territory staked out either and it’s not like we’re going to hurt anyone, we just want to be safe since there are vicious predators out there. It’s not like we’re going to eat them!”

Hyacinth only silently nodded as she walked beside the ranting spiketail. As Orchid continued her tirade that was now trailing to how prideful all the hornedfaced dinosaurs could get, the longneck let her teal gaze wander to any herd that would possibly allow them both to sleep in. There was no way she or Orchid would sleep as just the two of them, alone tonight in this forest. They had already heard others warning them that sharpteeth infested this forest and always came out at night. A dinosaur that does not have the protection of a herd or seems to be injured, weak, or sick, became a perfect target for a ravenous sharptooth to prey upon.

“Hey,” Hyacinth spoke up, halting Orchid in her rant which had now turned to the subject of her mother’s pinecone obsession. “Do you think we should try that herd?”

The purple Stegosaurus looked out into the trees left of the path. It was a mixed herd. Ceratopsians, Sauropods, plated dinosaurs, and armored dinosaurs. It was small, but would be good protection with the other large herbivores. Orchid’s brown eyes continued to wonder over the group, until they stopped on a large, brown scaled male Stegosaurs. “Hmm…he doesn’t look too bad. Hey, maybe we should hook up with someone in this herd. I’m sure you can find a longneck for yourself. What do you think?”

Hyacinth only stared out at the small mixed herd before shaking her head. “No. I have to find Sorrel. If we begin flirting with boys and end up having them come along, they will just slow us down. I would like to find her a soon as possible.”

“Yeah, but they could protect us too. I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Orchid mused as she continued to watch the brown spiketail.

The gray Apatosaurus did not reply, only narrowing her eyes at the mixed herd. A few of them seemed anxious as they chatted in harsh whispers with one another. Feeling a little uneasy about this, she spoke up as the two companions approached the herd. “Excuse me. Would it be possible for my friend and me to stay with your herd for the night?”

The brown Stegosaurs walked forward, having heard the question. He glanced at Orchid, causing the purple female to grin and let out a small giggle of excitement. “You can. We could use all the dinosaurs we can get. Rumor has it that Coldbreath is in the area.”

At those words, Orchid’s smile slipped from her face. “Wh-what? He’s here? I thought he lived farther north. Like almost in the mountains where my herd sometime stays.”

“That may be so, but we can only assume that he is traveling, possibly looking for a larger territory. A few dinosaurs say that they spotted him here in this forest. I would keep your guard up. I am glad that you joined us. Only for the night though?”

“Yes,” Hyacinth answered, giving a concerned glanced back at Orchid as the spiketail stumbled behind her.

The male gave a small nod before stopping abruptly, head raising sharply. His intense gaze slowly scanned the forest surrounding them before giving a hard swallow. Hyacinth shudder, noticing how cold the air had suddenly become. She nervously glanced to her side to see Orchid next to her, brown eyes wide with fear and her breath coming out in short gasps. The air had cooled down so much now, that every dinosaur’s breath in the area turned to vapor when it hit the now frosty air.

“He’s here,” the brown Stegosaurus breathed as many of his herd began to back away in fear. A few had already turned tail, too fearful to face off with the massive beast that awaited them.

A loud crunch sounded behind Hyacinth causing the gray Apatosaurus to swing around. She was just as terrified as the rest of the mixed herd. From the stories Orchid had told her, this rex was ruthless and could kill her with a simple snap of his jaws.

The large conifers in front of the mixed herd began to shake as the Tyrannosaurus rex gradually approached but still remained hidden from their sight. His deep breathing was easily heard by every listening ear as it echoed through the forest, along with the crunch of underbrush with every thunderous step he took. A deep ragged exhale from Coldbreath caused Hyacinth’s blood to run cold. The trees closest to the group began to tremble and a gray-scaled snout peaked out, nostrils flaring with the intake and outtake of breath. The carnivore took another step, reveling slightly parted jaws and rows of saliva coated, elven inch, thick, bone crushing fangs. His massive silhouette could be seen from behind the trees as he took yet another step, this time revealing his head and muscular neck.

Hyacinth let out a small whimper, taking a step back. This was a big mistake as the carnivore’s blood red eyes locked onto the sudden movement. With a low rumbling growl, the terrifying beast completely emerged from the trees. As in Orchid stories, he was massive. Where the tip of a full-grown Stegosaurus’s largest plate would reach mid-chest on an average sized Tyrannosaurus rex, on Coldbreath it would only reach his thigh. Other than his massive size, the rex possessed another unique trait that Orchid failed to mention to the longneck. From the top of his head, covering his back, upper tail and ending in a thick fluff, were dark gray, almost black feathers. His underside, like most dinosaurs, was a lighter color, his being a paler gray than his main dark-gray body.

Lowering his massive head, the carnivore snapped steal jaws shut, but his lips were still pulled back, displaying impressive, deadly teeth. He was grinning. “This is going to be fun.”

Hyacinth’s teal eyes widened in fear. She could understand some carnivore language, as Angela had taught her. This simple phrase struck fear in her heart. “Run,” she hissed to Orchid. “We have to start running now.” With those words and without waiting from her friend, Hyacinth tore off from the group, running as fast as a creature of her size could. Luckily for her, Coldbreath could not run very fast either with his massive bulk and the large trees posing obstacles.

The Apatosaurus frantically glanced to her side, seeing Orchid running alongside her. She also heard the gray rex thunder past the mixed herd, locking his sights on her. The beast’s strides were long and powerful as he pushed himself to catch up to the pair. And he did.

The Tyrannosaurus rex barreled up between the terrified adolescent females, staring down at Hyacinth, but he did not open his jaws. Instead, the carnivore lowered his head and used it like a battering ram, slamming into the longneck’s side. Hyacinth stumbled, almost losing her footing as she gasped for air. She had stopped, but Orchid continued running, Coldbreath looming right beside her. The carnivore had his jaws now open towards the purple Stegosaurs.

“Orchid!” Hyacinth cried out, only to girt her teeth in pain at the ache in her side. Still, she did not take her eyes off her friend, fearing for the other female’s life.

Coldbreath snapped his jaws close, causing the spiketail to let out a scream and stumble to the ground. Hyacinth looked on in horror, only to quickly realize that there was no blood on Orchid. It was just a mock bite; the massive predator taunting his prey. The gray Tyrannosaurs stood in front of the pair, jaws parted once more. He looked them over before letting out a menacing growl. “Come on. You have to make this at least a little bit entertaining for me. Fight back.”

Hyacinth only stood, shell-shocked at the carnivore’s deep, rumbling voice that seemed to echo in her mind after he was done speaking.  Orchid was standing once again, but her entire body was shaking. The adolescent stegosaurus was no match against this massive beast.

Coldbreath gave a snort. “So you’re just going to stand there like all the other frightened prey, aren’t you? Fine.” He then gave a roar a kin to thunder, charging forward, each step shaking the ground. His jaws spread wide open, aiming for the Stegosaurus paralyzed by fear.

“Orchid!” Hyacinth called out, running forward. “No!” The gray Apatosaurus skidded to a stop in front of her friend, flank facing Coldbreath as her tail lashed forward. It hit its mark.

The Tyrannosaurus rex gave a loud snort, shaking his head in aggravation. Hyacinth’s solid tail had created a nasty gash just above his right eye. He would surly have a headache by the end of the day. Blood welled up from the wound, scarlet drops rolling away from the wound and falling to the ground, staining the dirt below with his blood. He shook his head one more time before looking back to the two adolescent herbivores. They were now a ways ahead of him.

The gray carnivore let out a low rumbling growl of annoyance before resuming the chase once more. He had not expected the Apatosaurus to lash out with her tail like that. Almost always his prey was too scared to move, even to save their precious friends and family. He would kill one and let the other live. Sure he liked to toy with his prey, but he had no need to kill more than one big herbivore. Besides, it would be the other dinosaurs fault for not trying to save their friend. They could come back and try to take revenge on him if they wanted to. It was always fun to have a good fight.

As Coldbreath rapidly drew up to the pair once more, he let out a mighty roar, causing the air around the beast to cool down even more. This time, instead of coming up between them, he approached on Orchid’s side, lunging forward, teeth scraping against one of Orchid’s biggest back plates. He bit down harder, fangs cracking into the dark purple, bony armor.

The purple spiketail let out a blood curdling scream. She began twisting and turning, frantically trying to get away from the massive carnivore’s jaws.  She managed to swing her tail out, sharp spike grazing against his leg, but he refused to let go. The only thing that happened was the air began to become increasingly colder and colder with every passing moment. Orchid’s terrified screams continued to echo through the forest as Coldbreath gripped her plate tighter in his jaws and a painful coldness began to seep over her body. As all this was going on, all Hyacinth could do was stand, frozen in fear once more. She felt so helpless, so weak. She wanted to push the rex away from her friend but her body would not move.

A sudden crack, a kin to the sound of breaking ice filled the air. Orchid gave a high-pitched scream of pain as she struggled forward, Coldbreath’s jaws still clamped on her plate. With a savage jerk of the predator’s head, the spiketail was suddenly loose, stumbling away, only an inch or so left of her plate. Tears fell from her brown eyes as she lay on the ground, pain coursing through her entire body. The gray carnivore just stared down at her as he crunched on the now missing plate. He swallowed before taking a step forward, readying to kill the wounded spiketail.

Hyacinth suddenly charged forward, just like she did to protect Orchid the first time, giving a bellow. She plowed into the carnivore with her entire body. This only caused him to stumble a few steps sideways, not toppling him over like she had hoped. Hyacinth turned her body sideways, lashing her tail back and forth. She was ready to wound him as best as she could. The gray Apatosaurus swung her tail out, putting as much power into it as she could. Her tail tip cracked like a whip as it broke the sound barrier. It lashed across the massive predator’s neck.

Coldbreath let out a pained roar, stumbling back in surprise at the scorching pain emanating from his neck. He could feel his warm blood well up from the wound and flow down his neck. He watch as droplets fell to the ground below. It had been a while since someone dared to wound him this badly. Maybe it was because he had not hunted any ceratopsian lately.

He turned back to Hyacinth only to see that the longneck had reared up on her hind legs.  Staggering forward, she brought her weight down. The feathered rex took a step back just in time, Hyacinth’s sharp toe claws just grazing the tip of his snout, drawing more blood.

As she landed back onto the ground, Coldbreath lunged forward, jaws clamping down onto the longneck’s lower back. She was now the one in trouble, screaming in pain just as Orchid had done. This time, Hyacinth was the one to feel a strange yet agonizing freezing pain sweep over her body. Just as Hyacinth thought she could hear and feel her bones cracking as Coldbreath bite down harder, Orchid came to the rescue. The purple Stegosaurus swung her tail, the milky white spikes cutting deep into the carnivore’s jaws.

The gray rex instantly let go, letting out a roar of pain himself. Giving himself a shake, spraying droplets of blood from his wounds everywhere, he glared at the two herbivores. Now it was time for them to die. They were both wounded. The Stegosaur was in immense pain from the breaking of one of her biggest plates and the Apatosaurus sported a nasty back wound. This would be one of the few times he killed more than one leaf eater in a single hunt.

Coldbreath lunged forward, jaws open for Hyacinth’s neck. The gray sauropod clenched her eyes shut as she waited for the pain to come. A least she would get to see Angela after this. The snap of jaws sounded close to Hyacinth, teeth grazing her neck as icy cold breath bathed her. A pained carnivore’s roar echoed far away in the distance. Why had he stopped?

The feather Tyrannosaurus drew back, red eyes staring out into the distance, worry swirling in his eyes. The distressed roar sounded again before Coldbreath backed off, calling out with his own roar. “Lily!” he roar before turning back to the two herbivories. “Consider yourselves lucky.” With those words he ran off towards the other carnivore.  

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Five: A Healer’s Touch

Silence fell over the forest, except for the labored breathing of the two adolescent herbivores. The scene was surreal. One moment the two friends were desperately fighting for their lives against one of most ferocious predators that they had ever encounter, while the next moment he suddenly lost interest as a faraway call seemed to beckon him. The two young females were not sure what had happened, but they knew without a doubt that if Coldbreath had not been distracted by the distant, distressed roar, they would surely be dead.

“He’s gone,” Hyacinth breathed raggedly before collapsing onto the ground with a heavy thud. She laid sprawled on her side; head resting wearily on the ground .The injury to the gray Apatosaurus’s back was beginning to overwhelm the adolescent female. Her lower spine had come close to being crushed by the beast’s powerful jaws, which only added to the pain shooting through her lower back from the deep punctures. Blood loss from the savage bite wound was not helping either.

“Hyacinth!” Orchid cried, rushing over to her fallen friend. The spiketail was in just as much pain, but it only resonated from a single point on her body. There was little to no blood leaking from the broken plate protruding from her back, as it was made almost completely of bone, but the damaged nerves within the broken plate caused intense agony. It was only Orchid’s frantic concern for her new friend that kept the pain tolerable.
 
The purple Stegosaurus gently nudged her fallen friend, who only gave a small groan in reply. Orchid glanced at the longneck’s lower back, her stomach sinking at the gruesome sight. It was torn to shreds as a result of Hyacinth’s panicked struggles while Coldbreath’s iron-grip had held her. Blood continued to ooze from the puncture wounds and the thick hide surrounding the damaged area was strangely discolored. Giving Hyacinth another nuzzle, Orchid called out for help with a single, loud bellow.

Not knowing what else to do, Orchid then laid down next to Hyacinth. “I don’t want to lose you like I lost Pebble,” she whimpered.

“Don’t worry. You won’t,” the longneck gave a weak, reassuring smile back.

Orchid could only let out another small whimper as she watched Hyacinth. Although the Apatosaurus was trying to put on a brave face, Orchid knew the other dinosaur’s injuries were serious. The blood loss alone could easily kill her new friend.

“Girls!” called out a male voice, followed by the slight tremor of pounding footsteps.

Orchid tore her eyes away from Hyacinth to watch the approaching brown Stegosaur that they had met only a short time ago. Had it really only been a little while? It felt like days since she was casting eyes at the male. How the world can turn upside down in the blink of an eye.

The male Stegosaur’s galloping pace slowed down to a walk before he stopped, mouth agape as he stared at the sight before him. The purple spiketail was missing a plate that was there not even an hour or so ago and the gray longneck was bleeding from a deep bite wound on her lower back. Seeing that there was no sign of the predator, the male took a step back before raising his head and letting out a loud bellow, signaling others to come. He then called out in words as the first dinosaurs of his mixed herd approached. “We need the healer. Now!”

Bellows, yowls, and long series of grunts filled the forest. Satisfied that his message had been passed, the Stegosaurus approached the two adolescent females. He gave a long look over Orchid’s broken plate, his instincts compelling him to first take care of one of his own kind. Seeing nothing life threating, he turned his attention to Hyacinth, giving a hard swallow at the sight of the female Apatosaurus. He had seen the ghastly injuries left by Coldbreath’s attacks a few times before, but they were always hard to bear. This one was lucky, at least she was still breathing; at least, for now. The gray female lay limp on the ground, teal eyes glazed over and hooded with fatigue. A large pool of blood was forming around her backside.

Slowly, without lifting her head off the ground, Hyacinth’s eyes blearily looked up at the brown Stegosaurus. She gave a drowsy blink before asking, “Who are you?”
 
“I’m Pine. I found you and…,” he paused for a moment trying to think of the purple spiketail’s name. “Orchid. A healer should be coming soon.”

“Oh, good,” Hyacinth breathed before closing her eyes.

“No you don’t,” Pine ordered sternly before giving her head a push with his own head. “You can’t fall asleep. You could pass.”
 
At those words, Hyacinth gave a small groan before taking in a deep breath. She forced her eyes open again and stared at the brown Stegosaurus, letting his words register in her muddled mind. She needed to survive. Not only was her life at stake, but if she did not make it to where Sorrel would be arriving, the human girl may not survive as well. She could not bear the thought of letting her adopted mother, Angela, down.

 Orchid walked up to stand besides Pine, looking down at her friend. She turned to Pine, tears in her brown eyes. “Is she going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. Only the healer will be able to tell.”

“And the healer will tell you when he is done with his work,” called out a soft, male voice. “And one must not disturbed the healer while he works.”

Orchid and Pine turned to see a Dryosaurus slip out of the tall ferns. His yellow and darker yellow dappled body was perfect for hiding within the forest. He approached Hyacinth, glancing over at Pine and Orchid for a fleeting second before walking around to the gray longneck’s lower back.

“Crooked?” called out a female voice.

The yellow Dryosaurus looked up from his observations. A green-scaled Camptosaurus stood only half way in the underbrush. Her body possessed the same darker dappled tones as the Dryosaurus.

“Yes, Leaf?” Crooked asked as he padded onto the blood soaked ground by Hyacinth’s lower back, dark blue eyes still inspecting the massive bite wound.

“You want the dark green ferns of the swamp? The ones that help clotting?”

Crooked nodded, before giving a small chuckle. “No wonder you’re my best student. Go gather them right away. I can get whoever comes next to retrieve the other plants we need.”

Leaf gave a small nod before disappearing into the trees once more, setting off to collect the plants needed to stop Hyacinth’s bleeding.

“What were you talking about?” Orchid asked Crooked, finally figuring out that the large sprinter was the healer.

“Do not interrupt the healer while he is working. Did you not here me before?” Crooked gave a small grunt before turning back to Hyacinth. He reached out a hand, almost touching the deep, bleeding puncture wounds.

“Crooked!” called out another voice, this time a male.

The yellow sprinter did not look up from his observations. “You’re late. Get me some of the purple fruits that grow from the trees nearby my cave. Those will keep infection away and we’ll need some for the spiketail’s wound as well. Oh, and please tell whoever is on the way to get some pinecones from the smaller conifers. They’ll numb the pain once she comes back to her senses.”

The hidden dinosaur nodded his head before running off. Within only a few seconds, he was telling another dinosaur about what to get.  Yet more dinosaurs appeared from the trees, this time a pair of Pachyrhinosaurus. Crooked looked up and gave them a small nod, “Perfect. Just the pair I need. I want you two to push this female onto her belly. She has a savage bite wound from Coldbreath. She’s lucky to be alive.”

The tan scaled pair gave small nods before walking up behind Hyacinth, who was still lying on her side. One placed themselves at Hyacinth’s shoulder and the other at the middle of the longneck’s back, being careful not to touch her wounds.  Pressing their beaked snouts against her side in order to obtain more leverage, but being careful not to press against her spine, they began to push the female, in order to roll her onto her stomach. The gray Apatosaurus gave a loud groan, but she struggled to turn onto her belly just as Crooked instructed.

Within moments, she was resting on her underside, her long neck and head weakly laying on the ground. Her breathing was shallow as the blood continued to seep from her wounds, staining the ground dark red. After a few more minutes, Leaf came back, chewing up a large bundle of ferns that were held in her jaws.

“Hey!” Orchid shouted. “What are you doing? You’re not supposed to be eating those. They are for Hyacinth. Give them-”

The purple Stegosaurus was interrupted by Pine’s hip bumping abruptly into her side. His green eyes glared at her, “she knows what she’s doing.”

As Pine had said this, Leaf approached Hyacinth, spitting the chewed up ferns onto the gray Apatosaurus’s wounds. Using her beak, she gently brushed the mixture evenly over the adolescent’s wounds. “There,” the green bigmouth breathed. “That should stop the bleeding.”

“Good,” Crooked nodded. He then turned to Orchid. “If your friend’s bleeding stops soon, she should eventually be fine. She’ll have to stay here for a few days to heal up though. She’s lost a lot of blood.” The yellow sprinter padded onto the blood stained ground, sniffing it. “I would also like to move her as soon as possible. Even if Coldbreath doesn’t come back, some other sharptooth could smell the blood. A wounded leaf eater, especially one this weak, is an easy meal for them.”

Crooked stopped talking as he gazed over the longneck’s wound, frowning. Within the bite mark, Hyacinth’s scales were discolored. They had become paler and lost their healthy glow that most dinosaurs possessed. They were also cold to the touch when he brushed his hand over the larger patch of scales surrounding the wounds. This type of damage was only seen on injuries created by Coldbreath. Frostbite.

“Crooked,” chimed in a pair of male voices before two Pachycephalosaurus walked up to the Dryosaurus, showing him the plants and fruit they had gathered.

Giving a small nod at the sight of the plants, he gave them a simple flick of his hand. The pair then stuffed the leaves and fruit into their mouths’. The first one that had spoken to Crooked, and had gotten the antibacterial fruit near the large sprinter’s cave, winced at the bitter taste that now flooded his mouth.  

When the pair were done chewing, they took a few steps closer to Hyacinth’s lower back, spitting out the chewed up plant matter onto her wounds before spreading it out evenly with their hands. They glanced at one another before turning to Crooked for approval. He looked over the wounds once more before giving a small nod. “Good. Now go wash your hands in the river; same with your beak, Leaf.”

The green dappled Camptosaurus gave a nod of her own before following the other two students of Crooked.

“How do you know what those plants do?” Orchid asked as her eyes drifted from her injured friend to the yellow dappled sprinter.

“I’m a healer. I’m supposed to know what herbs and other vegetation are best used for specific injuries.”

“No,” Orchid shook her head. “I mean you know what they do. Like…what is an infection? My herd healer never knew what that was. All she did was give dinosaurs certain plants when they had a cough or were in pain. The only time she used the ferns that you used were when she saw this nasty smelling yellow-green stuff coming out of the wounds and they were all swollen and painful.”

“That would be pus,” the Dryosaurus stated in a soft voice. “That is when an infection sets in. I use these plants to keep infection from happening. It can be extremely dangerous when it reaches a certain point. One symptom is a high fever, which is when one becomes very hot. An infection can also permanently damage the surrounding area of a wound if not treated soon enough and ultimately cause death.”

Orchid nodded before turning back to Hyacinth. “So she’s going to be okay?”

“I believe so,” Crooked spoke, running a hand over the gray Apatosaurus’s neck. He then turned to the other dinosaurs standing around Hyacinth. “Alright everyone. I want us to sleep around her tonight. I don’t want to move her in this state.”

Mutters of agreement rippled throughout the small mixed herd. Most of them began to lay down in a circle, surrounding the injured gray longneck as darkness had already fallen. Nodding at the sight, Crooked walked away from the herd. “I’ll be back. I just need to get something from my cave.”

Crooked returned minutes later with a strange blue flower clutched in his hand. Feeding it to Hyacinth, he hopped over her neck and walked toward her lower back and laid down on the blood soaked ground. Pine looked up from his spot next to Orchid. “You sure you want to lay there?”

“Yes. Its fine,” the yellow sprinter replied, giving a wave of dismissal with his hand. “I’ve done this quite a few times already. Being a healer means having to deal with a lot more than just blood.” With those words, Crooked laid his head down to sleep.

Hours passed and Pine was awaken by the sound of movement. Normally he would just ignore it, recognizing the sound of one of his own herd, but tonight he raised his head, worried that it could be a sharptooth. It was not, only Crooked. He was sitting up, brushing his hand over the strange bends in his tail, the reason he had earned his name. After a long moment of gazing at his tail, Crooked soundlessly stood up, brushing a hand over Hyacinth’s back. The Apatosaurus did not move.

Giving a small nod, the Dryosaurus placed both hand-like paws onto Hyacinth’s wounds, the mixture of blood and vegetation having dried up, forming a seal to cover the punctures. Taking in a deep breath, he held it in for a few seconds before slowly releasing it. When he did this, the female began to softly whimper in her sleep, twitching as if in pain. This went on for several long minutes before Crooked drew back, a smile gracing his lips. He gave a click of his boney beak before laying back down where he had been sleeping.

Pine stared at Hyacinth and his herd healer for a moment longer before slowly lowering his head. He could ask Crooked about it later. It was probably just the yellow dappled sprinter working his miracle magic. It always amazed him when after a night of life threating wounds; they were all but gone the next day. The brown Stegosaurus assumed that it had to involve something about the healer’s strange looking scar on his right leg. Whatever; he was too tired to contemplate it any longer. Tomorrow would be a new day, now it was time to rest.


I won’t be getting a new chapter next week because of Homecoming.
If you want, you can check out my DeviantART profile for what all my characters look like.

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Six: Recovering

Sunlight filtered through the mass of clouds, but did nothing to heat the chilly morning air. The mixed herd began to shift as the sunlight dappled their scales. The sudden chilliness of the wind and the slight warmth of the sun disturbed a few of the dinosaurs from their light slumbers, including Crooked and Leaf. They slowly began to rise to greet the new day.

As soon as Crooked’s best student had stretched out the grogginess from her limbs, she turned to Hyacinth. The gray Apatosaurus was still sleeping soundly, undisturbed from the chilly winds that had picked up strength and began to howl through the towering conifers of the forest. Orchid also slept just as soundly, her soft snores echoing Pine’s much louder ones as the brown Stegosaurus continued to sleep beside her.

Leaf placed a hand-like paw over Hyacinth’s wounds, her brown eyes gazing over the dried pulp covering the gashes. After a moment of observation and thinking, the dappled green Camptosaurus let her hand fall away. She glanced over her shoulder, checking if any of Crooked’s other students were awake. Seeing no movement from the pair of Pachycephalosaurus, nor the sprinter’s two other newest students, she turned away to do the job by herself.

Dropping to all fours, the green Camptosaurus trotted to her mentor’s cave were he kept many hollowed out pieces of wood. She sniffed around the area where they were stored. All of them came from dead, dried trees and had been hollowed out by Crooked or his students over time using their clawed feet. The deep indentations in the wood created a bowl that was useful for carrying a large amount of water to an immobile dinosaur when it was necessary to either clean wounds or quench their thirst.

Leaf pushed around some of the smaller sized oblong bowls before sniffing at a medium sized one. Nudging it with her beaked snout, she sniffed it one more time, checking for any scent of rot. Drawing her head back from the wooden bowl, Leaf sat back on her hunches, picking up the bowl the best she could it her forepaws. She checked it for other flaws, turning it from side to side, before flipping it over. Satisfied, the green Camptosaurus stood up on her hind legs, carrying the bowl in her forepaws.

Within only a few minutes, Leaf was at the stream that ran through the forest. She dipped the hollowed out piece of wood into the steam before pulling it out, now full of water. Carefully, she walked back to Hyacinth. Once she was beside the gray longneck’s lower back, she slowly poured the water over the plant matter caked wounds, moistening the blood mixed, herbal mixture.

When all the water was gone from the wooden bowl, Leaf began to very carefully scape the herbal pulp away from Hyacinth’s wounds. The Apatosaurus gave a groan; finally awakening from her deep slumber. Slowly she raised her head to look at what Leaf was doing only to have Crooked place a hand on her neck. Understanding the comforting touch, Hyacinth laid her head back on the ground, closing her teal eyes once more.

Orchid also woke up, giving a loud yawn before slowly blinking the sleep from her brown eyes. As she did so, she watched Leaf remove the chewed up vegetation from her friend’s wounds. At first, she thought nothing of it until she noticed the puncture marks. They were still open and red, but less deep than they were the night before. The Stegosaurus blinked again in confusion. There was no way those nasty wounds could heal that fast.

Scrambling to her feet as best as she could, Orchid began to walk over to Leaf, disturbing Pine’s sleep by smacking her tail against one of his plates. The brown male only gave a loud groan before opening his own eyes to stare groggily at the purple spiketail’s swaying tail. Orchid now stood next to the green spikethumb, gawking at her friend’s nearly healed wounds. “How-how is that possible? It should take weeks for injuries that severe to heal like that.”

Leaf gave a small shrug, saying nothing, but her brown eyes portrayed something much more. One of the Pachycephalosaurus stood next to Leaf, already chewing up a bundle of herbs in his jaws. Leaf leaned closer to him, sniffing at the plants he was chewing. At the sharp scent of antibacterial agents, she gave a small nod. She had noticed a bit of oozing from one of the punctures and the male Pachycephalosaurus, who had awoken to help Leaf, had observed it too.

The Camptosaurus then turned to the other male Pachycephalosaurus sitting back on his haunches, grinding another type of herb against a flat rock with a stone in his hand. A small smile graced her lips as she watched him. He had mistakenly stuffed the anesthetic herbs into his mouth last night, causing his entire mouth to become numb. For serval hours he could not eat anything for fear of biting his tongue. He also ended up drooling all over himself without knowing until she pointed it out. He had learned his lesson on which plants he could chew and which ones he should not.

When the pair were done with chewing and grinding up their herbs, they spread the freshly made pulp over Hyacinth’s wounds. This time the longneck watched, teal eyes twinkling with curiosity. She may be in a slight amount of pain, but it defiantly was not as bad as the agony she endured yesterday. Leaf watched them until the pair finished, giving a small nod to them as they walked off to the river to clean off.

 Crooked came up from behind Leaf, giving the larger dinosaur a pat on her back. “You did a good job.”

The Camptosaurus smiled down at her mentor. “Maybe, but you’re the one that did the most work. How are you feeling after that?”

“Fine. Just fine. I’ve already eaten,” the yellow Dryosaururs said as he gazed down at his right thigh, dark blue eyes focused on the strange scar. He gave a small scoff at it before turning back to his best student. “Well, since that has been taken care of, we can leave them be and go off to our other business.”  

Leaf gave a small nod, glancing at Hyacinth, seeing that Orchid was lying beside her, girlish giggles wafting from her. The spikethumb smiled at the sight before walking off, meeting up with the Pachycephalosaurus pair again. Crooked watched his student leave before he too, walked away, heading for his cave stocked full of herbs. Maybe he would do a bit of sorting today if no one else needed him. As the thought passed his mind, he paused. Quickly trotting up to Hyacinth, who was gigging with the purple Stegosaurus beside her, he spoke to her. “Are you able to move? I would like to get you away from this massive blood stained area. It may be dried, but there are quite a few predators in this territory and with this wind, they could easily sniff out the scent.”

The gray Apatosaurus gave a small nod. Slowly she heaved herself to her feet, Orchid and one of the Pachyrhinosaurus helping her. Crooked watched her take a few wobbly steps before giving a nod of satisfaction. She could walk well enough, so he led her to another sleeping area. Within fifteen minutes, Hyacinth was laying back down on a new spot.

“It would be nice to have you farther away, but you were just injured and very weak from the blood loss,” the yellow sprinter spoke as he inspected Hyacinth’s wounds again. “When talking about predators, you’re not much better off, but at least you not laying on the blood soaked ground. I would also like to get all the dried blood washed off you sometime soon. Probably when you’re well enough to walk to the river. Your wounds may be clean, but I’m sure you’re not very comfortable with the dried blood on your scales.”

Hyacinth nodded, confirming Crooked’s question.

Crooked gave a nod of his own, as if reinforcing his own thoughts that he was correct in his assumption of the gray longneck. “I’ll leave you here to rest then. Within a few days you should be up and ready to travel again.” With those words, the Dryosaurus walked off, already thinking about how he would sort his herbs. He needed to check on how much he had of each before he could send out his students to get more of what he required to keep fully stocked. The healer wanted to ensure that he wouldn’t run out when the next injury occurred.

“Hey,” Orchid said to Hyacinth, nudging the Apatosaurus who was still watching Crooked walk off in the direction of his cave.

“Do you think he’s cute?”

At these words, Hyacinth tore her gaze from Crooked to look to where her friend was eyeing another dinosaur stripping leaves from a bush. Orchid gave a small sideways thrust of her head, gesturing to a male longneck. He was a deep orange color and his back was flecked with brighter spots. The male was only a slight bit smaller than Hyacinth, but seemed to be a few seasons older. His eyes were a matching bright orange, like the flecks that covered his body.

“So what do you think?” Orchid asked, giving Hyacinth another nudge with her head. “He has to be cute in longneck terms, right? He looks healthy and look at those dark orange scales. They look like the leaves during the Time of Changing Leaves. Then, if you look closer you can see the tiny patches of scales that are a really bright orange, just like his eyes.”

Hyacinth only gave a small shrug, looking away from the male.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t like him?” Orchid asked, standing up. “Come on, he’s good looking, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Hyacinth muttered.

“Then why don’t you like him?”

“I don’t just fall in love with a dinosaur at first sight or even with their appearance. He might be good looking but he could be a jerk on the inside. Besides, there is another problem.” The gray Apatosaurus stared out at the orange scaled male, whom had happened to notice her. He gave her a smile and a small wink, but she gave a snort and turned away. “He’s not my kind. My species. He’s an…” Hyacinth paused looking for the right name Angela had taught her on one of their many travels visiting a large herd of mixed sauropods. “An Antarctosaurus. And of course he seems to have confirmed my thoughts of him being someone who thinks a bit too highly of himself.”

“What?” Orchid asked, not even remotely able to process the name her friend had just said.

“He’s just a different type of longneck than me. Like a pebbleback longneck and sailneck longneck. They are both longnecks but are different in appearance and sizes. Sailnecks have well…sails on their necks and they’re quite a bit smaller than my kind. Pebblebacks, there’s two that I know of, one that would be a bit bigger than a sailneck and the other would be about the same size as me. They have strange rock-like shaped armor on their backs. Not exactly like clubtails, though.”

“So…?” Orchid asked. “I had a crush on a flatplated spiketail. He was so cute with his short back plates, kind of like my broken one, but less jagged. His scales were dark yellow green and he had the most beautiful eyes, they were like the enormous lake in my herd’s nesting grounds. A really dark blue, but not like Crooked’s. No, they were more, deeper. They seemed to shift colors when the light hit them just right. I could always see every line, and detail, in them. Oh, his eyes were so beautiful. I wish my eyes were that pretty. Sadly, he left before anything could happen between us. I think he had his eyes on another female in his herd though. But anyway, what’s the harm of looking at a guy that’s not your kind? It’s not like he’s a threehorn.”

Hyacinth gave a small giggle at Orchid’s words. “No…but I feel that if I would have children with a longneck that was different that my kind, they would suffer. I’ve always wanted hatchlings of my own someday, but then if I had one with a…whiptail longneck, they wouldn’t look like any other longneck and I feel like they would be teased for not only being the ëshortest whiptail’ or ëlongest flathead’. They sound like stupid mistakes, but I know kids can be sensitive to that kinds of stuff. And even if they wouldn’t get bullied for their appearance, I know they’ll get bullied for having parents that aren’t the same kind of longneck. I also don’t want them to suffer with not being able to have children of their own. Angela told me that many hybrids in her world can’t have children because they are too mixed.”

Orchid gave a small shrug, “well at least you can have kids. I’ve heard rumors about dinosaurs that aren’t even the same type at all, like a clubtail and a thicknose. I know that they can’t have kids. I don’t even know if they could mate. How do they even get…aroused. I know when females go into heat, the males can tell by their scent, but if they are different types, I don’t think they’d be able to smell when they are ready.”

Hyacinth gave a small nod. “Even one in the same…family grouping might not be able to have children. Like if a macetail longneck and a skyreacher longneck become a mated pair, they wouldn’t be able to create eggs because they are so different, at least, that’s what Angela told me.”

“Okay…” Orchid said, not fully understanding what Hyacinth was saying.

The gray Apatosaorus gave a small laugh. “It’s okay that you don’t understand. Different species, family, genus, and order, that’s one of the things Angela talked about most.”

A sudden loud bellow echoed within the forest, interrupting the two adolescent female’ conversation. They both turned their heads in the direction of the roar just in time to see a large, red Triceratops charge through the trees. He gave a few loud snorts, pawing the ground as he brandished his brow horns at the dinosaurs that began to gather around him. The muscle on his left back leg was torn to shreds, his blood soaking into the ground he stood on.

“Blood?” Crooked asked, having run out from his cave to see what was happening. “What are you doing here? I thought we kicked you out of the herd for your reckless actions.”

The red Triceratops said nothing, only looking over his shoulder as heavy footsteps echoed throughout the forest. Slowly, the air began to cool down and a thunderous roar ripped through the trees. Coldbreath was back, and he was hungry!


Author’s Note:
The sailnecks longnecks are Amargasaurus. The two pebblebacks longnecks are Saltasaurus (smaller) and Janenschia (larger).  Flatplated spiketail is a Wuerhosaurus. Whiptail longneck is a Diplodocus. Macetail longneck is a Shunosaurus. Skyreacher longneck is an Omeisaurus.

Now I noticed when looking online that my sizes may be quite a bit different than others, but I’m using a book made sometime in 2000-something, so it’s probably a bit inaccurate. It’s just easier to look through books (I have two I use) for the dinos than searching the internet for them. Another thing, the name macetail is influenced by the many humans that have visited this world over the course of time, since dinosaurs don’t know what a mace is.

[Kittybubbles]

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.

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Eight: Mythcarrier
   
Gradually, Coldbreath’s heavy footsteps faded into the distance, along with the sound of rocks scraping against rocks as he dragged Blood’s lifeless body with him. Hyacinth glanced over to where the massive beast had disappeared. Satisfied that he was gone for good, she cautiously approached Impale from behind. The Apatosaurus knew that a threehorn whose pride had been damaged would be dangerous, especially one who had been wounded and humiliated like Impale; both her beautiful frill and mighty horn broken.

Hyacinth lowered her head to the prone Triceratops. “Are you okay?”

The traumatized female took a long moment to register what the Apatosaurus had said. Her dark brown eyes slowly gazed up at the towering herbivore. She stared into the slightly older female’s teal eyes, her fast sharp pants beginning to return to her normal breathing. Finally, when she was calmed down, Impale struggled to her feet. Noticing this, Hyacinth took a step back.

When the Triceratops almost collapsed, Hyacinth rushed forward, using her large body to stabilize the wounded herbivore. Feeling the warmth of another dinosaur, Impale swung her head at the other adolescent female, letting out an angered bellow. “Don’t you dare touch me!”

Hyacinth stumbled back, blinking in surprise. Impale collapsed with the sudden removal of the support she had unknowingly leaned against. She let out a loud snort, swing her lone brow horn at the Apatosaurus. The younger female gave another loud bellow, warning Hyacinth not go come any closer to her. Her pride had been ruined enough by Coldbreath breaking her fill and taking one of her horns; she did not need it damaged even more with a longneck helping her.

With a loud huff, Impale began to struggle to her feet once more. It took a few minutes before she was steady on her feet. When she was, she looked at Hyacinth; anger boiling within her once more. She gave another snort, muttering under her breath, “stupid longneck.”  She then began to paw at the ground with her front foot, readying to charge at Hyacinth. The gray Apatosaurus took a few steps backwards, fearful. There was no way she could defender herself against a raging threehorn. Even if she only had brow horn, it could do just as much damage as two.

“Hey!” Orchid shouted, getting in-between the pair. “Leave her alone! She was just trying to help you.” With those words, Orchid rotated around so that her backend was facing Impale. Looking over her shoulder, the purple Stegosaurs lashed her tail back and forth, brandishing her own weapons.

“Help?” Impale shouted. “You didn’t do anything while my father was savagely killed by that beast!”

“That would be suicide!” Orchid shouted back, tail swinging with a little more force, now fueled with her own anger. “How were we supposed to intervene while Coldbreath, one of the biggest and most fierce carnivores that we know, ripped your father from limp to limp for doing something stupid?”

“You have weapons don’t you? Those stupid spikes on your tail could have done something. Your dumb longneck friend could have also done something too. She’s big enough to topple him over. I’m sure she knows how to stand on her hind feet, or is she too stupid to do that?” With that question, Impale snapped her boney beak at the Stegosaurus. Maybe she should just grab onto one of Orchid’s tail spikes and tear it off. See how the purple female would feel after fighting with a threehorn.

A sudden thought occurred to Impale. Narrowing her dark brown eyes at Orchid, she thought about what the stegosaurus had just said. How did she know about what her father had done? Sure, he had told some of the herd, but she was sure that not all of them heard him say it. Coldbreath only spoke directly to her in leaf eater. At these thoughts, Impale gave a loud bellow, thrusting her head forward. “How do you know what my father did? I know he didn’t answer loud enough for everyone to hear. Are you in league with that monster? Should I just kill you right now, you traitor?”
 
“No!” Orchid scoffed with disbelief. “I would never be with a predator. Hyacinth just happens to know some of the language and she told me what he said.”

The dull red Triceratops turned to the Apatosaurus, dark brown eyes wide with fear. “You’re just as much of a monster as he is. How do you know the carnivore language? You had to have lived with them to know them. You’re just going to call him back tonight and have him kill all of us.”

Impale gave a roar, throwing her head back before charging. Hyacinth took a few more steps back, but was too stunned by fear and shock to do anything about the storming Triceratops. Luckily, Orchid instinctively swung her tail out, one of her spikes grazing the left side of Impale’s jaw. This distracted the younger female for a moment as she shook her head.

“I-I haven’t,” Hyacinth stuttered, taking a few more fearful steps backwards. She was horrified at what Impale had declared. She knew all too quickly the other herd members would get the same idea in their heads. “I…I traveled with a human named Angela since I was a hatchling. She knew the language because of this stone in the necklace she wore. She taught me a bit of the language when I was young, and I’ve been picking up more and more of it ever since.”

Impale gave a loud snort, dark brown eyes glaring at Hyacinth. She did not believe the longneck, but there was something more important on her mind; the thought brought on by the warm trickle of blood slowly trailing down her face. Tearing her gaze away from the gray Apatosaurus, she looked over at Crooked. The female triceratops stared down the yellow dappled sprinter as she approached the healer, ignoring Orchid who still had her backside facing the now two horn. She halted abruptly once she was inches from Crooked and barked out in a harsh voice. “Heal me.”

The yellow Dryosaurus just stared at her, an eye ridge raised. “Excuse me?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, sprinter,” Impale snapped, throwing her head to one side, flaunting off her lone horn. “You’re Crooked, the infamous sprinter of a mixed herd. You have a special way with healing. If a dinosaur gets wounded badly, you patch them up. Then after the night passes, they are miraculously healed. I know that it is not a miracle. It is a special ability. A Mythcarrier, I’ve heard my dad say. That scar on your leg proves it and I’ve seen you in action when we lived with the herd for those few moon cycles.”

At these words, many of the dinosaurs began to mutter among themselves. Hearing some of the more distrustful words, Crooked gave a sigh. He held a hand up, stopping many from speaking. He may as well come out with the truth before he lost any more of the herd’s faith.  “I do have an ability but it is simply healing.” The Dryosaurus paused, letting out a sigh as he closed his dark blue eyes. “There are others that have abilities, like Coldbreath. I am sure you are all smart enough to realize that the strange coldness that always seems to hang around him is not natural. Not only that, but also the battle we have just witnessed. The way Miss Impale’s frill broke and…how he tore off her horn. Neither was normal.”

Impale gave a snort. “I knew that. Now heal me. I need to go after that monster as soon as possible to avenge my father.”

Crooked shook his head, giving another small sigh. “I can’t. I’m too small to completely heal your wounds.” He gestured to Hyacinth. “She had been bitten by Coldbreath and I healed her, but I couldn’t completely close the wounds. They were too big for me. That would be the same with your wounds. You could get an infection with unclosed wounds. Besides, I would not allow you to chase after him. You would get yourself killed just like your father.”

At Crooked’s last words, Impale glared at him. She lowered her head, dark brown eyes narrowed. She racked her forepaw against the ground, letting out a loud huff. She did not charge though, she would not. His words burned, but he was the cherished, miracle healer of the herd. She would probably be killed by someone from the herd is she wounded him. Most likely the brown Stegosaurus that was approaching her.

Crooked cautiously approached Impale, knowing the danger, but still wanting to help her. The gashes on her flank were bleeding profusely and the spot where her horn was removed oozed dark blood. Coldbreath may have frozen the area, but it would not keep it clotted like the rex’s own wounds.

He gently placed his paw-like hands over the three large gashes on Impale’s side. He watched the threehorn for any negative reaction. Seeing none, Crooked closed his dark blue eyes. Within his mind, he pictured the muscle structure of her side. If he did not do this correctly, he could leave an ugly scar or disable some of her movement.

After analyzing the larger herbivore’s wounds, Crooked shifted his hand to the first gash. He envisioned the flesh regenerating. First, the capillaries, the tiny blood vessels that would bring the life liquid to the female’s nerves and newly growing tissues. Second, her nerves, which brought the threehorn to grit her teeth in pain and her muscles to tense. Lastly, the tissue, but only a small amount, just enough to keep the wound from bleeding out. He did this with each of three gashes, saving just enough of his energy to repair part of her forehead.

Letting his hand fall from her side, Crooked walked to the front of Impale. He inspected the bloody, frozen mess for a few seconds, evaluating how he could reconstruct it. Her skull had, surprisingly, not been damaged by the breaking of her horn nor Coldbreath’s tugging. Seeing this, he gave a small nod, reaching out to place a hand to where her horn had been torn from. He did the same with this wound as he did with the others. When he finished, there was only a delicate layer of skin over the wound.

Crooked took a step back from Impale, stumbling as a sudden dizziness over took him. Placing his non-bloodied hand on his forehead, he closed his eyes, trying to stop the ground from spinning. He had used up a bit too much energy. Leaf quickly walked up to her mentor’s side, letting him lean on her for support. “Are you okay?”

The yellow sprinter gave a small nod, letting his hand fall from his forehead. “Yes. Just take me to my cave and bring me some of my favorite berries.”

“Hey, wait, you haven’t finished yet,” Impale cried indignantly. “What about my horn? You still need to attach my horn.”

“I’m sorry, but that is impossible,” Crooked replied wearily. “I can only regenerate living tissue. Your horn was damaged beyond repair – Coldbreath made sure of that. It was his way of reminding you that it was your own pride that caused you to lose your precious status symbol in the first place. Be lucky that it was the only thing he took from you, because he could have just as easily taken your life.”

With that, the sprinter turned away from the now speechless triceratops. Leaf began to move with her mentor slowly trailing beside her. The mixed herd watched their healer leave, some still in disbelief. Many of the others who had ran away with the appearance of Coldbreath, had arrived back to the herd in time to witness the unexpected events. They stared in awe at Crooked’s miracle working. Never before had the sprinter openly revealed his ability. In the past, the Dryosaurus worked his magic only after conventional healing methods had been performed, and only when he didn’t have an audience watching.

Hyacinth watched Leaf and Crooked walk away, a sudden thought dawning in her mind. “He’s special…” she breathed. “They’re both special. They can control and make things no other can.” The gray Apatosaurus closed her teal eyes, racking her brain for the term her caretaker had given these creatures. “Manipulators.” Hyacinth gasped. “Crooked, Coldbreath, they are both Manipulators. They can control and make things no other normal creature can. They are extremely special. Some…” she trailed off once more. “Some are born with it, while others are…given it?” She shook her head. “No, it’s activate with, with a mark.”

“Like Crooked’s scar?” Orchid asked beside her friend, having listened in on her strange mutterings.
 
The gray Apatosaurus gave a deliberate, small nod. Slowly, she turned her teal gaze to where the Dryosaurus had disappeared. “Crooked has the ability to…magically heal. That is why he is able to mend such life threating wounds so fast, like my own.”

“And that monster Coldbreath is a Freeze Manipulator,” Impale mumbled under her breath.

Hyacinth turned to the two-horned Triceratops in surprise. “How did you know that? How do you know about Manipulators?”

“How do you know about them?” Impale retorted, thrusting her nose horn at the older female.

“My-my caregiver told me about them. She…she was a thinskin, a human.”

Impale gave a snort. “My father told me about them.” She looked off into the distance, dark brown eyes gradually focusing on the blood trail of her father. She lowered her head, muttering something under her breath.

Hyacinth did not ask her what she said; instead turning to the herd surrounding her. She then looked down at her purple-scaled friend. Orchid had an equally confused expression etched onto her face. The gray longneck gave a loud sigh before turning around to the crowd. “I’ll explain everything I know.”

“No,” came a deep male voice from within the herd. “Let me.” Heat, the dark orange Antarctosaurus stepped forward, a smirk playing on his lips as his bright orange eyes raked over the female longneck. “There is another reason behind me being named Heat other than my sexy orange scales.”

Hyacinth only frowned as the male longneck walked closer. He slowly slid next to her, his dark orange scales brushing against her own. His long tail waved behind him like a banner before he stopped beside Hyacinth, their hind legs lined up. He unexpectedly snapped his tail like a whip. The sharp crack of the sound barrier breaking was not the only thing to surprise the herd.

They all let out yelps of terror as bright yellow-orange flames jumped from the tip of Heat’s tail. Hyacnith gave the largest reaction. The female Apatosaurus reared up on her hind legs, giving out a roar of surprise by the heat washing over her gray scales and the sight of the flames. She dropped back onto all fours, causing the earth to shake under her tremendous weight. She glared at Heat. “Why did you do that so close to me?”

The dark orange Antarctosaurus just gave Hyacinth another smirk as he began to stride past her. He then turned, looping around the female and walked back to her, stopping so that he was standing beside her again. Giving the female a devilish grin, he turned to the watching herd. Some seemed mystified by his act, others horrified, while some did not seem amused at all.

“Like Crooked, I am also a Scarcarrier,” Heat announced before slowly turning around so that his backside was facing the herd. He lifted his right foreleg, trying to show the watching members a scar. It was the same shape as Crooked’s, placed on the back of his right foreleg near the ankle region. After a long moment, Heat placed his foot down and turned back around, continuing to talk.

“I was given this scar by a special type of thinskin soon after my hatching.”

“A Manipulator,” Hyacinth stated.

Heat raised an eye ridge at the female. “I’m telling my herd about Mythcarriers.”

“Which is the dinosaur term normally used for dinosaurs with special abilities.”

The orange Antarctosaurus gave an annoyed short but continued speaking. “I believe the thinskin was traveling with my herd at the time and gave a few other newly hatched longnecks the same scar in the same place. Only a thinskin can give you this scar.”

Hyacinth nodded, interrupting Heat once again. “Every dinosaur has the potential of being a Mythcarrier. According to Angela, we all carry a power within us. If we are given a special type of scar by a specific type of Manipulator, that is a human with special powers, that dinosaur will become a Scarcarrier. Scarcarriers have an ability closely based on themselves, whether it be personality, body structure, or just their species in general. Then there are also the Mythborns. They are born with an ability. This ability is pass down from parents to child.”

“Hey, I thought I was doing the explaining?” Heat retorted, giving Hyacinth a nudge with his hip.

The female only glared at him, her tail lashing out, striking him across is lower back. “Angela taught me much more than you know about Mythcarriers. You don’t even know half of it.”
 
“Well then, since you seem to be so knowledgeable, maybe you should stick around. I’m sure we could teach each other a thing or two,” the male longneck replied suggestively.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to deal with arrogant dinosaurs like yourself. I’ve already wasted too much time here. Orchid and I need to continue our journey north as soon as possible.”

“Oh well, it’s your loss, but if you ever come this way again, be sure and look me up,” Heat purred as he again let his eyes roam over the gray female longneck.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Hyacinth muttered as she turned away and sought out her traveling companion. They really had wasted too much time here; not that they had a choice due to Coldbreath’s rampage. She only hoped that they would locate Sorrel before any harm came to her.  

Letting out a loud sigh, Hyacinth turned to Impale. “What are you going to do now that your dad’s dead?”

 The dull red Triceratops stared up at the Apatosaurus before turning her dark brown gaze to the blood trail Coldbreath had left. “I...I honestly don’t know where my brother is. He is with the herd and they travel to so many different areas that it’s hard to keep track. Only my father knew. It would be hard to find my herd on my own and there is no point in going back when I have no one with me to heal Crash.”

Impale then turned to the mixed herd. She gazed over every single member before looking over at Hyacinth. Narrowing her eyes at the gray longneck, she gave a small snort. Turning her head to one side, she asked. “Is it possible that I could travel with you and Orchid? It’s a lot less work than traveling with that big herd.”

Taken aback, Hyacinth gave a quick blink of her teal eyes. She turned to Orchid questioningly. The purple Stegosaurus gave a small shrug. “I don’t care. She’s may be a temperamental, prideful threehorn, but I’ll deal with her.”

Hyacinth nod before turning to the younger female. “Sure. You can come along.” Having settled that, the three unusual companions said their goodbyes to the mixed herd and headed out toward the north, anticipation of the unknown adventures lying in their path, quickening their footsteps.

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Nine: Legends

Sorry for not updating last week. I wasn’t feeling the best and had no motivation to write. I also apologize for another boring chapter, but I needed to get a little bit more info out there before we meet Sorrel.

Several weeks had passed uneventfully since the attack of Coldbreath. The three herbivores had healed from their encounter with the vicious predator. Impale was adapting well with her two traveling companions. The Triceratops continued to display stubbornness, but normally went along with whatever the two slightly older adolescent females did. They were obviously on a mission and knew where they were headed. There was no point for her to fight back when there was nothing to strive for in her life. Her father was dead and she had no idea where her sickly brother was. There was also no chance in finding a mate when she was this badly deformed. Who would want a threehorn who only had two horns and a broken frill? Resigned to her fate, all she could do was follow the other two.

As the days passed in their travels, all three noticed the decrease in air temperature. It was becoming quite cold, quite fast. Orchid pointed out the naked branches of the leafy trees along with the frost that covered them every morning. They saw less and less of other dinosaurs, most staying away from where ever it snowed. Even the smaller critters became fewer in numbers, hiding in their dens and nests for warmth.

“Burr, it’s sure getting cold out here,” Hyacinth spoke, her breath a puff of steam in the icy air. She stepped onto the edge of a frozen lake, teal eyes gazing over at the towering, snow-covered conifers around her. She leaned her weight onto the thick frozen sheet of ice, waiting for the deep toned crack to ring though the air. When this did not happen, Hyacinth placed her other front foot onto the ice, this time further from the edge. Giving a push, the ice creaked, before a massive crack shown through the translucent surface.

The gray Apatosaurus stepped back, giving a small sigh. “Soon I’m going to be raising to my hind legs to break through this stuff.” She lowered her head, pushing away some of the ice chucks to lap away at the chilly water. Her two traveling companions joined her.

Once Orchid stopped drinking, she looked over her surroundings, narrowing her brown eyes at the massive, pale gray cliffs in the distance. Taking a step back from the frozen lake, the spiketail walked towards the cliffs, eyes still narrowed as she scrutinized the massive structure, searching her memories. She recognized it. Where were they? Her father’s herd rarely passed through this area because of the Utahraptors. The sickleclaws….

“We’re really close now!” Orchid squealed in excitement, causing Hyacinth to raise her head from the water, a small clump of cold bearing aquatic plants clamped in her jaws.

The purple Stegosaurus spun around, her feet spraying snow everywhere. She tramped towards her gray scaled friend, grinning. “We are just at the edge of the sickleclaws’ territory. They…I don’t think they will hurt us because we are here to pick up Sorrel, but we should still be careful. I hope Coldbreath isn’t back. This is actually where he lives. He was the worst predator that my herd had to watch out for during our travels. We barely encountered sickleclaws. We never really went this way unless our other path was even more dangerous than this. I wonder if there are any other predators out here other than Coldbreath and the sickleclaw pack? I hope not. At least I hope they don’t attack us. Maybe we should go anoth-“

Orchid stopped as a large, fat snowflake landed on her bony break. She stared at it cross-eyed, watching it melt. As the water ran down her beak, she let out another squeal and looked up at the sky, wiggling with excitement.  “Oh! I just love the snow. It might be cold and wet, but I still love it. I loved playing in it when I was younger and then when I got too big, I watched the hatchlings play and they were so cute. You know what else is cute? The cute little animals. Like the tiny fuzzy warm creatures that tickle you when they brush past your nose while you’re eating. There are also those other pretty creatures that make pretty noises and fly around. I use to play with them too when I was younger. They look so cute when they are covered in snow. Don’t you think so?” the spiketail rambled on.

“No,” Impale answered before Hyacinth could open her mouth. The dull red threehorn walked in front of Orchid, dark brown eyes glaring at the pale gray cliffs ahead. “Let’s just keep moving and get this stupid thinskin and get back to a warmer place. I hate being cold and wet.”

Orchid pouted before making a face at Impale. She turned to Hyacinth who just smiled down at her. The Apatosaurus then turned her teal gaze to a tiny furry creature with a very fluffy tail. “Those creatures that fly around are birds, and I think Angela called that little furry animal a squirrel.” She gestured with her head towards the small brown mammal.

Orchid let out another squeal, stomping towards the squirrel. Instantly it let out a chirp and scurried up the nearest tree, a couple of nuts that it had dug up stuffed in its cheeks. The purple Stegosaurus frowned when it ran away, but turned back to the other two herbivores. “Oops...I guess I scared it.”

At the older female’s words, Impale gave a loud snort. “You guessed you scared it? You terrified it. Why do you fuss over those tiny furry things so much anyway? We see them all the time.”

“Because their cute! They’re just like hatchlings. Oh, I love hatchlings. I can’t wait to have some of my own.”

Impale rolled her dark brown eyes at the spiketail before gazing up at the gloomy gray sky. The snow was falling a little heavier now. A flake landed in the youngest female’s eye, causing her to give a small snort and shake her head. Cursing the snow under her breath, she pawed at the ground in anger. She then glared at the gray cliffs once more, the urge to hurt something running through her veins. Maybe she could kill a raptor or two.

Orchid let out another squeal of delight, causing Impale to wince in irritation. She glared at the purple Stegosaurus, silently brandishing her lone brow horn at the older female. Orchid took no notice, too occupied with a small russet feathered bird that had perched itself on a nearby branch. Its feathers were already dusted with snow within only seconds of landing on the branch. Dark beady eyes stared at Orchid before the bird ruffling its feathers, shaking off the snow. Giving a twitter, the russet bird flew off to another, more sheltered perch and away from the massive beasts.

 “Shut up,” Impale snarled when Orchid gave another excited, girlish giggle as the bird flew away. “We see them every day. I know you’ve seen them more than me in the winter.”

 “But they are so cute covered in snow, and they are so tiny,” the Stegosaurs let out another squeal before walking off with a bounce in her step.

A sudden screech echoed menacingly across the snowy landscape, causing Orchid to freeze in her steps. All happiness dissipated from her as she gave a small whimper, brown eyes darting every which way, looking for the owner of the screech. Impale only gave a small snort. “You’re leading us into sickleclaw territory, yet you don’t know what they sound like? You’re pathetic.”

 “Hey,” Orchid snapped back as the trio began to walk toward the cliffs. “I can’t help it that my father only went through this way two times. I don’t know what a sickleclaw sounds like and I don’t care. A predator noise is a predator noise, I’m scare of sharpteeth. At least we don’t ever have to worry about the Terror of the Mysterious Beyond, Sharptooth. I’m glad that he was killed.”

 “I’m not so sure about that. Five leaf eater children killing the most feared carnivore of all time? I don’t believe it. Besides, it is not like we are even close to the Mysterious Beyond. The only predator we have to worry about is Coldbreath and I’m sure he’s still mopping around about the egg Dad crushed.”

 “Um…I feel a bit stupid for asking this but, who’s Sharptooth?” Hyacinth questioned as she walked beside the two arguing females.

Orchid stared up at Hyacinth in astonishment. “How do you not know who Sharptooth is? He was the most feared of all sharpteeth. He terrorized the Mysterious Beyond, killing anything and everything. He was told in stories to scare hatchlings at night and gave even adolescents nightmares. He could take down a full-grown threehorn with ease. He was bigger than any other bonecrusher sharptooth. His eyes were red as blood and his scales black as tar. He would even killed just for the fun of the hunt.”

 “My father said that he once saw Sharptooth.” Impale spoke up. “He said that most of the legend of true, but Sharptooth was more of a really dark green than black. That’s why I don’t believe the other legend about five children killing him when only three were even a large species.”

 “What?” Hyacinth asked. “I haven’t heard of that legend either. I honestly haven’t heard of any; being raised by a thinskin and all.”

 “There were five children,” Orchid explained. “A hornface, a longneck, a spiketail, a bigmouth, and some type of flyer. While Sharptooth was chasing them, they somehow managed to lure him into the water. Then, while he was trying to kill them, they pushed an enormous rock onto his head. If that didn’t kill him, then drowning would have. It is said that they now live in the hidden paradise called the Great Valley. I was kind of hoping we could look for it once we get Sorrel. I would like to meet the spiketail. They are all about our age now, adolescents. I hope that the spiketail is a male so that I could maybe, possibly pick him up as a mate. You two could also pick up the other two if they are males also. That would be so cool. All three of us having famous mates.”

Impale gave a loud snort at the Stegosaurus’s words. “I doubt you’ll be able to get the spiketail. I’m sure, if it is a male, he already has a female he’s courting, especially being one of the legendary five. I wouldn’t put any luck into any sort of courtship on my end either. I’m not appealing to a male threehorn’s eyes anymore.  My frill is damaged and I’m missing a horn. No male threehorn’s going to take me as his mate. Not like I really care though.”

 “But isn’t it more important for the males of your kind to have horns and frills, not the females? Aren’t they mainly use for courtship and protecting the herd, which is the males’ responsibility?” Hyacinth asked.

 “No. Females may not do the fighting during courtship, but they still need to protect the nest while the male is out looking for food.” Impale glanced at the sky, narrowing her eyes at the glowing clouds that covered the sun. “So how are we going to get to this ëGreat Valley’ when we don’t even know where it is? Does it even exist?”
 
 “Of course it does,” Orchid replied confidently. “It’s where the five defeaters of Sharptooth live.”

 “And they are so much more believable than a paradise that has endless amounts of the tastiest plants, the cleanest, freshest water; a place for any leaf eater to live in freedom from hungry sharpteeth.” Impale scoffed at the notion of both the five young leaf eaters defeating Sharptooth and a haven such as the Great Valley.

“Do you think Sharptooth had any children before he was killed?” mused Hyacinth.

 “No way,” Orchid shouted, not breaking her stride as they trampled through the snow. “There is no way a female would take a terror like him as her mate. If I was a sharptooth, I sure wouldn’t. I would be afraid that he would kill me or eat his own children. I’m sure he did. He probably killed his own mate if he was ever able to get one. He probably just scared off all the other sharpteeth too.”

“How do you know that?” the Triceratops shot back. “Maybe female sharpteeth like that in a male. Maybe he was the absolute favorite among the females because he was so big and strong that he could even take down one of his own kind. I don’t see why he couldn’t have children. Maybe he didn’t even have a mate, but I’m sure he did, at least in a legend my father always told me, he did.”

Impale glanced at the pale rock cliff  that was drawing closer before continuing her story. They were getting quite close to the Utahraptors’ home. “It is said that Sharptooth had children. Many members of my herd believe that. There was no reason why he wouldn’t. How many he had, we don’t know. In the legend it is said that he had at least two small clutches of eggs with his blue scaled mate. Though, some think that he may have had many more and may have had children with other females. Some say that he never had a mate, but just took females when they were in heat. I don’t believe this, if he really did have a mate in the first place. But we are plant eaters, they are meat eaters. They are a lot different than us. Savages.”

A set of caws and screeches interrupted Impale’s story. The trio of herbivores looked in the direction of the pale rock wall, spying three figures traveling slowly towards them. The Utahraptors. The Triceratops just narrowed her dark brown eyes at them and continued her story. “It is said that all of Sharptooth’s children are just as big as him, if not bigger. They are also just as skilled of hunters as him. Legend has it, since all his children had to have been hatched before his death, that they lived through a solar eclipse serval seasons ago. It is said that this eclipse awakens the dominate abilities within dinosaurs, but not fully. A dinosaur that has lived through a solar eclipse must witness a lunar eclipse before they reached adulthood. If not, the ability will not be activated. The legend has it that any of Sharptooth’s children have the nastiest of Mythcarrier abilities. The thing about this legend, it’s more of a prophecy - a terror’s children will live under both burning and blood moon to become more monstrous than that of their father. ”

Hyacinth gulped, stumbling in her walk. “So it’s talking about abilities like Decay, Plague, and Agony?”

Impale nodded. “Those sound like some of the worse ones.”
 
“Hyacinth,” a female voice suddenly called out, interrupting the discussion. “You’re here. I was beginning to wonder what was taking you so long. I was worried you had gotten yourself killed. And I see you have pick yourself up another traveler.”

The three herbivores halted as the gray Apatosaurus stared down at the three Utahraptors now standing a few yards in front of them. The one who had just spoken to her stood a few feet ahead of the others. Her sandy colored feathered body blended nicely against the white snow and brown vegetation. A male the same color as her stood on her right side and a white feathered male stood on her left.

“Shifting Sand,” Hyacinth greeted in carnivore tongue.

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Ten: Destination

Impale glared at Hyacinth, dark brown eyes burning with hatred. Hyacinth had just let out a throaty hiss at the sandy feathered sickleclaw standing in front of her. The Triceratops knew without a doubt that the older female had spoken to the carnivore. Not only could this longneck understand sharptooth, but she could speak it too! Until a few seasons ago, Impale, like most of her herd, believed that sharpteeth had no language. Until this moment, she never would have dreamed that a leaf eater could speak that language of snarls, growls and roars. Why would a sane flat tooth want to speak to a predator? It was not like the sharptooth would be deterred from killing them just because they screamed, “Stop! Don’t eat me.”  

“What did you say?” Impale snarled, letting out a loud huff, steam billowing from her nostrils. She was already pawing at the snowy ground with her front right forepaw. She gave a loud bellow before charging Hyacinth. Her lone horn barely grazed the older female’s underbelly. “What the hell did you say to that sharptooth you traitor! You probably just lead us here to be eaten alive!”

The Apatosaurus gave her own bellow, but this one from surprise. She stumbled back a few steps until the back of her forelegs brushed against Impale’s horn. Orchid, in retaliation to Impale attacking her new friend, charged forward. She turned her body to the side, swinger her spiked tail out. The milky white spikes grazed Impale’s flank, causing the Triceratops to immediately back off from Hyacinth.

As the youngest female tore her eyes away from Hyacinth, she glanced to the three Utahraptors. She let out another angry snort but lowered her dark brown gaze in submission. The trio of feathered carnivores were growling and hissing, brandishing their claws on outstretched arms and their jaws slightly parted, displaying razor sharp teeth. Impale had just threated the visitor that the feathered predators had been expecting for some time now; and who was to carry precious cargo. There was no way they would let the Triceratops harm her, even if Hyacinth had brought her along.

The gray Apatosaurus gave a hard swallow, taking a few more steps away from Impale and closer to the raptors. “I-I just said her name. I wanted to greet her in her native tongue. It seemed the polite thing to do.”
 
The raptors only relaxed the slightest, closing their parted jaws and dropping their decorative, feathered arms. The largest of the trio, a sandy male, glanced down at Shifting Sand. It was clear by their sandy coloration, brown arm and tail feathers, and close age that they were siblings. The male was the older of the two and much larger in size, both height and build.

The elder sibling eyed Impale, pale sandy eyes then shifting to Orchid. He watched them for a moment before looking down at his sister once more. “Do you really think it’s safe for the little human to be with these beasts?” he gave a slight gesture of his clawed hands to the glowering Triceratops and Stegosaurs.

“Yes, Stone Claw. Sorrel should be fine. As long as she stays close to Hyacinth. The Apatosaurus is the one we have been expecting. She is the one that Angela raised from a hatchling and traveled with. I believe that Hyacinth picked up the other two along the way. It seems that they may be the reason it took her so long...and the wounds on her back.” Shifting Sand’s bright blue gaze looked over the deep scars in the gray sauropod’s back. The female’s gaze then shifted to Impale.

It was clear that the Triceratops had lived a rough life. Her entire body was covered in faded scars, the freshest three, large gashes on her right flank. She could tell that the younger female had been in a hellish fight not long ago. Her entire left brow horn was missing, seeming to have been torn off, not broken; part of her frill was also broken off.

Shifting Sand then looked over to Orchid. The purple Stegosaurus was in much better condition than the Triceratops. The only wounds visible on her body was a missing plate on her lower back. Unlike the Triceratops, the boney plate seemed to have been broken, small parts of it still visible. “So, all of them are wounded…”

The female gave a small sigh, turning to the white feathered male beside her. He was older than the other two, middle aged for an Utahraptor. His main body feathers were as white as the fresh snow that was falling from the sky. The long decorative feathers on the back of his arms, tail tip and the thick feathery crest on his head and the back of his neck were the color of ash. He was of average build, not as slim as Shifting Sand nor as muscular as Stone Claw.

“Is he still with her, Ice Flame?” the small female raptor asked.

“Yes,” the older male replied, pale blue eyes glancing at the thick forest to his left. “My son should still be with the human.”

“Good,” Shifting Sand said with a nod. She then began walking towards the three herbivores. She stopped at Hyacinth foreleg, clearing her throat.
 
The gray longneck lowered her head to look down at Shifting Sand. The raptor only gave a slight nod before walking away, leading Hyacinth to where Sorrel was kept. Before the Apatosaurus followed, she looked over at the other two herbivore travelers.  She let out a short roar before trailing after Shifting Sand, not looking back to see if either was following her.

The trio of Utahraptors and Apatosaurus walked along the pale gray stone cliff where the carnivores’ home resided in. Their destination was the forest beyond. They would not enter the sickleclaws’ dwelling, only creatures the pack knew well, like Angela, were welcomed. But even she was never allowed into the deepest chambers of the caves within the rocky formation.

“Sorrel’s been here for a few days already,” Shifting Sand spoke up. “She has been taken care of by one of the younger members of the pack, Shadow Watcher. He’s around my age, a young adult.”

Hyacinth just gave a small nod, not very interested in the information. As long as Sorrel was okay. She just wished she could have gotten to the territory faster. She had made Sorrel wait for several days. What were they going to do after she picked up the thinskin? It was not like when she traveled with Angela, who always had a plan on where she wanted to go next. Hyacinth would just have to ask the young woman once they were out of the packs’ territory.

Feeling the tremor of footsteps beneath their feet, Ice Flame and Stone Claw looked over their shoulders to see Orchid galloping after them as fast as her massive body and short legs would carry her. Impale was close behind, but traveling at the slower place, still irritated at the other two herbivore females and feeling humiliated at having to yield to the Utahraptor. Orchid quickly strode up to Hyacinth “I’m sorry for my actions back there, but I didn’t want to see you hurt. It’s just that I hate when Impale implies stuff like that. She’s just like an annoying male I had in my herd. I would always hear him say nasty stuff to other members of the herd. He would bully a lot of the younger ones too. I think he just wanted attention because his parents were dead. His mom was killed while she was laying eggs and his dad died when we had a bad year of sickness. I think he might have been the only surviving egg since his mom didn’t have a chance to lay them all before the sharptooth killed her. He probably crushed the other ones she had managed to lay.” The purple spiketail stopped her blabbering to catch her breath as she tried to recall the details.

Impale walked behind the group, blood boiling just as much as before. She was better than all five of these dinosaurs put together. Why she had even bothered to tag along with the two herbivories in the first place was beyond her. Her father would have been appalled if he had been here. With her dark brown eyes narrowed at the group in front of her, an idea popped into her mind. With an evil smirk playing on her lips, she abruptly charged forward as fast as she could. The others, on instinct, moved aside, not wanting to be trampled or stabbed by the rampaging Triceratops.

“What is she…?” Ice Flame muttered, pale blue eyes trained on the darker red back of the dull red herbivore. As he stared, he finally realized what the reckless threehorn was going to do. “Shadow Watcher!” He cried out his son’s name before racing after the Triceratops.

At the sound of his name, a black Utahraptor sleeping at the entrance of a cave looked up. He gave a lazy blink of his silver eyes before registering the sound of stampeding footsteps echoing through the trees, heading directly toward the cave. Before he could even fully sit up, a dull red Triceratops with a broken frill came barreling into his view. It gave a loud bellow as it pushed itself harder in the charge, ready to kill him.

On instinct, the black raptor lashed out with his hind leg, killer claw still retracted. When he felt the Triceratops’s hot breath on his feathers, her lone horn grazing the back of his out kicked leg, and her smooth beak on his ankle; he quickly extended his razor sharp claw, thrusting it into the herbivore’s lowered head.  Impale’s roar of pain rang through the snowy forest, almost shaking nearby trees at the intensity. Backing off, she shook her head, splattering scarlet blood onto the freshly fallen snow. When her tail hit a tree, she stopped her movements, head hung low. A stream of blood and clear fluid ran down the right side of her face.

Shadow Watcher still lay on the ground, leg out and killer claw extended, blood dripping from the lethal weapon. He was frozen in place, watching how the Triceratops would react. When Impale did not move from her spot, the blood running down her face forming a warm pool in the snow, he got to his feet, crouching on the cave floor. He kept his silver eyes trained on the herbivore, his forepaws resting on the cold, damp cave floor. Cautiously he stood up, flexing his claws.

At the movement, the female Triceratops looked up at black Utahraptor with her good eye. She pawed at the ground, giving another bellow. In return, Shadow Watcher screeched at her, brandishing his claws and fangs. He took a step forward into the sunlight filtering through the tree canopy, reveling a beautiful opalescent sheen to his long decorative feathers. He gave another warning screech before running forward; Impale doing the same.

Shadow Watcher dove to the right, spraying snow everywhere. He stayed on his feet, letting out a loud hiss at the Triceratops, mocking her since she could no longer see out of her right eye. Just as Impale swung her head to the right, he jumped onto the threehorn’s back. Figuring he should finish off this herbivore before she caused any more trouble, he bit into the back of her neck.

Impale only gave a loud snort when he bite down. Sure, it hurt, but not as bad as when he had clawed out her eye. This was nothing compared to just moments ago. As the young female began trashing around, she noticed that her injury began to grow strangely numb. As more seconds passed, she was overcome with dreariness. Her joints ached and her body felt numb and cold. After only a few minutes, the female could barely throw her head to one side in an attempt to shake the raptor off.

The dull red herbivore soon collapsed, fighting to stay conscious. She could barely take in the movement of the Utahraptor when he ripped his jaws away from her neck and jumped on top of her prone form. Luckily, she had fallen on her right side, so she was still able to see the massive black feathered raptor. Her dark brown eye widened at the sight of Shadow Watcher’s jaws. A strange black substance was retreating back into his mouth from his fangs and tongue, leaving only her dripping blood.

“Darkness…” she exhaled, the only word she was capable of saying.

Shadow Watcher said nothing, only jumping off her. He stumbled himself, exhausted. He had to finish the job though. He did not know where this Triceratops had come from. He needed to not only keep the pack safe but also the woman inside the cave. With his jaws slightly parted, he approached Impale once more, aiming to rip open her throat.

“Shadow Watcher! Don’t!” Ice Flame’s voice shouted. “She’s a friend of Hyacinth.”

The black raptor stopped, looking up at his white feathered father. He turned back to Impale then to his father once more, spotting Shifting Sand, her brother, and two other herbivores. He instantly knew that the Apatosaurus was Hyacinth. Panting, he turned away from Impale, not wanting to be anywhere near her once the darkness left her body.

“Did you seriously take down that Triceratops with just your ability?” Shifting Sand asked, nuzzling Shadow Watcher against his shoulder before letting him support some of his weight with her body.  “You’re going to really hurt yourself one of these days with your ability,” the female Utahraptor admonished. “You’ll be too exhausted to defend yourself and some other dinosaur is going to kill you.”

Hyacinth and Orchid stared at Impale in horror. How had the black raptor brought her down without getting a scratch on himself? As they stood over the younger female, she began to struggle to her feet. Hyacinth was quickly at her side, helping her up. This only caused Impale to snap her beak at the Apatosaurus. “Don’t you dare touch me. It’s your fault this happened to me! First, I lose part of my frill, then my horn, and now my eye. I’m a one eyed, two horned, broken frilled threehorn!”

The gray scaled Apatosaurus took a step back in surprise, mouth hanging open. The right side of Impale’s face was stained with bright red blood. Blood still flowed from the deep gash across her right eye. It was clear to see that Impale would never see out of that eye again.

“Shadow Watcher?” called a female voice from the cave. “What’s happening out there?”

“It’s alright, you can come out,” the black Utahraptor answered.

A twenty-one-year-old woman tentatively slipped out from the cave shadows. She was dressed in a large dark brown parka, heavy duty hiking boots, thick gloves and hat. Boots, gloves, and the hood of her coat were rimmed with silver fur. Her dark brown eyes searched the dinosaurs standing before her. There was Shadow Watcher, his father, Shifting Sand, her brother, a Triceratops, a Stegosaurus, and an Apatosaurus. Sorrel’s eyes lingered on the gray scaled sauropod. “Hyacinth?”

Hyacinth’s face instantly lit up at the sound of the young woman’s voice saying her name. She stepped forward, completely forgetting about the wounded threehorn beside her. “Sorrel?”

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Eleven: Meeting the Thinskin

“That’s me,” the young woman grinned, taking off one of her thick gloves so she could properly greet the dinosaur that she grew up hearing about in stories from her Aunt Angie. The longneck lowered her head as the human reached out a slender hand to Hyacinth, stroking the Apatosaurus’s pale brown snout. A bright blue stone, set in a thick, gold band on her left ring finger, glinted in the filtered sun light. As Sorrel took in the sensation of the warm, smooth yet soft scales, her smile faded away as memories of spending time with her beloved great-aunt invaded her thoughts.

 “I’m so sorry about what happened to Aunt Angie. Shifting Sand explained everything. I know you two were really close. Closer than even I was with her. On her last visit to my world, when she gave me this ring, she told me that it would be her last.” The young woman paused for a second as her dark brown eyes glistened with unshed tears. “Our whole family got together and threw her a party, enjoying our last moments together. I was hoping to see her one last time in this world, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Hyacinth drew back from Sorrel, sadly smiling down at her. “It was hard. Even when I was prepared. I don’t remember any time in my life when she wasn’t by my side, except for the occasional times that she traveled back to her own world. Even then, she made sure I was somewhere safe until she returned. She truly was a surrogate mother to me. I’ve learned so much more about my own world from her than I would have ever learned from my leaf eater family.”

Sorrel glanced up at Hyacinth. A wisp of blond bangs was all that could be seen peeking out of her furry hood. “I always loved when she told stories of her adventures, especially when it was about a little Apatosaurus hatchling she found all alone. When it came to that little sauropod, it seemed that Aunt Angie's adventures became greater. She had a traveling partner. One that, as she got older, could defend her frail body from small predators.”

Ice Flame stepped between the pair, clearing his throat. “While on the topic of Angela, she wanted you two to travel to the Great Valley. She did not say why, just that she wanted you there. Hyacinth, did Angela mention to you what her plans were after you found Sorrel?”

Hyacinth shrugged. “I don’t know. All she told me was to find Sorrel. She wanted to be sure that her great-niece had someone to watch over her during her first visit to our world. I think she realized that she wouldn’t be around when the time came, so she wanted to be sure Sorrel was safe.”

At the words about the ëGreat Valley’, Orchid turned to Impale, giving the Triceratops a smug look. The Great Valley was not a myth like the Triceratops believed. It then fell away from her face, replaced with nervousness at the younger female’s deathly glare. She backed away from the wounded Triceratops, turning her attention to Sorrel. “So you’re a thinskin, huh? Oh, I always wanted to meet one. You’re so small, but I heard that you can be very deadly when you have your weapons. Do you have any weapons? I’m sure you do. Can I see them?”

Sorrel let out a small giggle. Even with all the stories her Aunt Angie had told her, it didn’t come near to experiencing this world for herself. To be able to communicate and interact with these magnificent beasts was beyond her wildest dreams. “As far as humans go, I’m five feet, six inches tall, which is actually average size. I guess I’m rather on the slim side under all these clothes, but that’s just because I’m so active. I love hiking and other outdoor activities. How about I get on Hyacinth and we start the journey to this Great Valley and then I’ll show you some of my things. But before we go, I have to say good-bye to my new raptor friends.”

The young woman turned away from the Stegosaurus, giving nods to both Ice Flame and Stone Claw. They both returned the nods before she turned to the other two, younger Utahraptors. She smiled as she approached Shadow Watcher and Shifting Sand, both still sitting in the snow. The sandy raptor supporting her darker feathered counterpart, as he was still exhausted.

“How is he?”

“The fool's fine. He's just exhausted from using his ability to take down such a big, angry beast.” The female then nudged Shadow Watcher’s shoulder. He let out a small grunt, groggily looking over at her. He then let out a small growl, nipping at the thick pinfeathers around her neck.

“I hope to see you again, and play nice while I'm gone. Don't get yourselves into trouble.”

“Will do,” Shadow Watcher grinned back at her before earning a nip on his back from Shifting Sand.

Sorrel let out a small giggle at the pair's antics. She then turned to her herbivore friend. Hyacinth gave the young woman a smile, lowering her neck to the snowy ground to allow the human to climb onto her head. As Sorrel slid down the sauropod's dark gray neck, the raptors gathered around them. Once seated at the junction of Hyacinth's neck and shoulders, she made sure her sturdy, hiking backpack was securely in place, Sorrel then waved to her raptor friends before turning to Hyacinth. “Shall we go?”

“Yes.” Hyacinth nodded as she began to move, her body swaying with each step. The adolescent Apatosaurus’ heart was filled with delight. She may have gotten use to the emptiness on her back over the past few weeks, but it felt wonderful to feel the weight of another human back on it. She had had the weight of a human there for almost all her life.

“Wait!” Ice Flame called out. “Before you depart, we can have our healer look at the Triceratops’ wounds. She may not be able to restore her vision, but it is the least we can do for you for picking up Sorrel.”

“There is no way I'm letting you filthy, feathered monsters near me,” Impale hissed, flaunting her lone horn.

Ice Flame gave a small nod, ducking his head slightly as he took a few steps away from Impale. “As you wish.” The prideful young herbivore did not realize how easily the Utahraptors could take her down. She was lucky that Shadow Watcher had restrained himself from ending her short life. It was that very pride that would be her undoing.

With that, the small group began moving again. Orchid quickly ran up to Hyacinth, wiggling with excitement. “Can I see your stuff now? What about that, that, that...I don't know. That stuff that's not your skin. Hyacinth told me about it. I don't remember what it's called. Oh, thinskins are so cool! I want to know all about you. I hope to get my own traveling companion someday. You creatures are so cool. The coolest thing in this world!”

Sorrel giggled, slipping her large hiking bag off her back and onto her lap. “Okay. How about I start with my clothes.”

Impale gave a loud snort, rolling her eyes as she walked slightly back and along the other side of Hyacinth. The threehorn muttered under her breath as she ignored the others, “how can you think a creature that bleeds so easily; that can die so easily, as ëcool’?”

The others did not respond, having not heard the youngest as they were too caught up in getting to know the thinskin.

-----------------------------------------------------------
“What is that?” Orchid asked, eyeing the smooth, metallic object Sorrel had just pulled out from her backpack.

The Stegosaurus had learned so much from the human within the long four and a half hours of travel. First, it was her clothing and why she needed it. Then, it was about her skin and hair and about how the human body worked and even some of a dinosaurs'. The young woman made sure to keep her explanations short and simple, not wanting to confuse the enthusiastic spiketail. After that, Orchid learned about Sorrel's family, her home life and about how humans lived in their world. Many times Hyacinth would add things in from her adventures with Angela while Impale would make snide remarks and give a snort of displeasure. At the moment, the young woman was explaining about the many survival items in her backpack.

“This is a knife Aunt Angie gave me for my eighteenth birthday. I’m now twenty-one.” Sorrel slowly turned it from side to side for the purple herbivore to see.

Orchid watched in amazement as the light glinted off the steel blade. As she stared, she began to notice tiny engravings carved into the metal. “What are those?”

“Hmm,” Sorrel hummed as she took a closer look at her knife. She ran a finger over the dull side of the blade, eyeing the engravings. “They're runes. I don't know what most of them mean, but I think Aunt Angie told me that they are meant to keep the blade razor sharp and unbreakable.”

“So you can keep yourself safe from predators?”

Sorrel shook her head. “No. I would need a bigger weapon and armor. We humans are too small and weak to go up against the large predators in your world without help. We have to depend on the weapons and armor we make to defend ourselves. I could never do much damage to any creature larger than myself.”

“What about your ring? Hyacinth told me that the stone in it transports you from your world to here. How does that work?”

Sorrel let out a small exhale as she slipped her gloves off. “It’s kind of hard to explain, but I’ll try my best. The stone gives the wearer an internal tug. It leads you to an invisible portal, which is normally located in dark, secluded places like a cave, thicket, or even the depths of a lake. To pass through one of these invisible portals, a person must be wearing whatever the stone was put into; whether it would be a ring, necklace, bracelet, or something else. I also know that the stone will not allow dinosaurs to pass through to our world. Aunt Angie even tried it with an adolescent Velociraptor. Most portals to other dimensions can only be found and activated by a certain rune and enchantment placed over a gemstone, but in your world's case, someone only needs a specific stone. They are very, very rare to come by in different dimensions. It’s more likely that the stone would be passed down from generation to generation in a family rather than finding another one. I know Aunt Angie found serval in this world and...I think she sold them for a lot of money.”

The young woman looked down at her fair skinned hand, gazing at the golden ring on her left ring finger. The bright blue, almost glowing stone captivating her for a moment. It was the same exact type of stone her great-aunt had possessed in her necklace. Sorrel twisted the ring, observing the strange runes also carved into the golden metal. As she stared closer at it, she slipped the ring off, holding it up to the light of the sun.

A series of loud grunts startled her, almost causing her to drop her ring. Placing a hand over her heart, Sorrel let out an exhale as she looked over at Orchid. The Stegosaurus let out another grunt, tilting her head to one side in confusion. Sorrel smiled at her, sliding the ring back onto her finger. “Sorry. I can't understand you when I'm not wearing the ring. It lets me understand you and the meat eaters. It also lets you dinosaurs understand me.”

“So what do those runes mean on your ring?”

Sorrel stared back at the small piece of jewelry. “I don't know. I never asked about them. At first I just thought it was to help with the dimension traveling or speaking, but I learned that was all stone's work, not the metal of the ring.”

Sorrel began digging in her hiking bag for any other interesting items. Her fair eyebrows furrowed when she felt a large, rough object at the bottom of her backpack. She pulled it out of her bag, blinking at the large rock that she now held in her hand. She had almost forgotten about it. The rock was dark gray in color and covered in runes, just like her knife and ring. It was slightly smaller than her palm and was oblong in shape.

“Ooh! What is that?” Orchid asked, peering up at the rune covered rock. “It looks like a rock with those weird marks caved in it. Can it do something special like that water containing thingy. Oh! Crooked, I remember Crooked had some weird looking scar on his leg. He said that it activated this special healing ability inside him. He is a sprinter from a herd we stayed with for a few days. I wonder what my ability is, because he said that all dinosaurs have an ability dormant inside them. I want to know!”

“I’m not sure,” Sorrel replied absently, turning the rock around and observing the markings carved into it. “I’d forgotten that I put it in my bag. I’m not sure why I didn’t just leave it in my apartment back home. Maybe it’s because Aunt Angie also gave me this on her last visit.” The young woman continued to turn the rock in her hand when a sudden boom echoed from the sky.

“What was that?” Hyacinth asked, teal eyes searching the sky.

The wind began to pick up and the snow fell in heavier waves. Within minutes, the dinosaurs were covered in the cold, icy flakes. Sorrel had already placed the stone into her hiking bag and then pulled her gloves back on and curled up as best as she could while riding a dinosaur. The wind howled menacingly through the trees, bringing frigid air with it. There was a sudden flash, almost concealed in the pale sky and white ground, followed almost instantly by another boom echoing across the snowy land, startling the travelers.

“Thunder snow?” Sorrel questioned, dark brown eyes peering out into the sky from her hood and scarf.

“See what you have done!” Impale suddenly shouted, charging up to Hyacinth. “See what you have done, you stupid thinskin? The world is trying to get rid of you. It doesn't want you here. You don't belong here. I'm sure when your dear great-aunt came here, it was the time of the dying lands. When an endless drought struck the land and a massive earthquake struck the land.”

“How am I causing this? Aunt Angie has been going to this world for so long. There is no way she caused that drought and earthquakes. She told me that they happened around the time she found Hyacinth. She was traveling this world years earlier. I don't understand how I could be causing it.”

“You don't belong here. You stupid, weak thinskin.” Just as Impale said this, a flash of lightning lit up the sky a brilliant purple. “See!” the Triceratops declared. “Even the weather agrees with me. When does lightning turn the sky purple?”

“Sorrel isn't doing anything wrong. She was here for several days already,” Hyacinth spoke up.

“Yeah,” Orchid chimed in, swinging her tail at the dull red herbivore. “I don't see why our world would want to get rid of something so amazing. It's so fun learning from her.”

“Fine,” Impale snorted, backing away from the other two females. “I'll leave you to be destroyed by the land while it’s trying to rid itself from that monstrosity you carry on your back. I’m fed up with all this thinskin stuff. All you do is bring bad luck to me. I lost part of my frill, my horn, and my eye because of this stupid search.” She then turned away, charging into the blizzard that now raged on around the herbivores.

“Is she going to be alright?” Sorrel asked, tugging her parka closer around her.

“Don't worry. She's too stubborn to die,” Orchid grunted, brown eyes glaring in the direction Impale had stomped off. “Maybe she'll lose her other horn.”

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Twelve: Stolen

After Impale’s abrupt departure, the remaining three’s journey continued, persisting through the blizzard. Even in the blinding, snowy wind, the trio pressed on. Hyacinth knew that they had to keep traveling to the Great Valley, even if it was only a few yards at a time. As long as Sorrel was warm enough, they would keep moving on. The large herbivores could survive the cold, only having to worry about frostbite and obtaining food and water.

During each night, the trio stopped to sleep and refuel. The two herbivores were able to eat parts of the conifers. Hyacinth preferred the softer, needle-like leaves while Orchid ate the branches or peeled pieces of bark. Sorrel, unable to eat anything from the pines, relied on her experience from camping in the wilderness back home to find sustenance. She set up small traps in the nighttime, catching a rodent or two for breakfast. Having caught, skinned, and cooked small game over an open fire on many occasions, this came naturally. She also was able to find a few hardy cold baring plants, which many of the smaller, local herbivores fed upon. She dug up their roots and tubers to eat, along with the small fruit they produced.

*****

Orchid awoke on the seventh day with joy filling her soul. At first, when her morning dream began to fade and consciousness took its hold once more, she was annoyed at the sunlight shining in her eyes. As the Stegosaurus opened her eyes wider, she registered that there were no clouds in the sky. The blizzard had stopped. Struggling to her feet, she began to wiggle with joy, prancing around in the snow. She let out a loud squeal of excitement. “The sun's out! The sun's out! The sun's out! The blizzards gone! No more thunder storm!”

At the purple herbivore’s voice, Sorrel gave a groan from where she lay next to the Apatosaurus. Nestled in a clump of conifers for protection against the wind and sleeping on her thin, waterproof, thermal blanket, the human was able to stay quite warm during the cold night. Pulling her hood over her head, she snuggled against Hyacinth’s warm neck, trying to block out Orchid’s high-pitched girly voice. Sadly, for the young woman, Hyacinth was also awoken. “The sun’s out?”

Heavy-lidded teal eyes gazed upwards through the canopy to view the bright blue sky. A sleepy smile gradually played on her lips at the sight. Letting out a soft laugh, the longneck began to stand, causing Sorrel to groan yet again. The young woman just slipped away from the sauropod’s neck, still not wanting to be awaken. She was having the nicest dream. Sorrel gave another groan as the icy cold of the snow covered ground began to nip at her bare wrist and face.

Sitting up, the young woman gave a loud sigh, brushing a wisp of blond hair that had escape her hat. She groggily stood up, stretching her arms out toward the sky as she let out a loud yawn. She stared at the sky for a moment, smiling like her herbivore friends. Sorrel then turned to Hyacinth, “I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a few days now, but I kept forgetting. Could we visit Aunt Angie’s grave before we officially head to the Great Valley? I would like to see her one last time.”

“Of course,” Hyacinth nodded. “Besides, I don’t really know where the Great Valley is. I was hoping that we would meet someone on the way that would.”

“Did I tell you about my mother having a strange obsession with pinecones?” Orchid asked, sniffing at the bark of a nearby conifer. “I think my little brother was starting to get into collecting them too. I remember the day I left the herd; I saw a small pile where he normally sleeps. I bet you he and mother have fights about which ones they get to have. My little brother’s so cute! He looks just like my dad, dark green with darker green plates and a cream colored underside. Moss also really, really, likes hot springs. I tried to convince him to come with me but he wanted to stay with mom and dad. I really hope that we make it to the Great Valley. I want to meet the legendary children so badly. Not that they are children anymore. They should be around our age. I hope that the spiketail is a boy and he isn’t already taken. I’m sure he is, but I can hope and dream!” Orchid let out a girlish giggle as her brown eyes glazed over, fantasies swirling inside her head.

“Then I hope we can find another dinosaur that does know where the Valley is,” Sorrel said as she began to search for her traps that were hidden under last night’s snowfall.

“Hey! Maybe there will be more thinskins in the Great Valley. You could meet a cute boy of your own kind. Have you ever been courted by a male? Oh I’m sure you have. You seem really pretty for a thinskin. Aren’t you? How do thinskins court each other? Male spiketails fight over females. They swing their tails, roar at each other and sometimes they will flush their plates to make them change colors. I wish a boy would fight over me…

Sorrel gave a small laugh, shaking her head. Over the past few days of travel, she had gotten used to the bubbly Stegosaurus’ ramblings. “Humans have very different types of relationships compared to dinosaurs. I’ve had my fair share, but I’m not looking for anything in this world. I’m here to experience this magnificent realm that my Aunt Angie has told me so much about. I’m not expecting to find any romance; although it would be cool to meet another human on my first travel.”

“You mean you have a bunch of babies from several different mates?” Orchid gasped wide-eyed.

“What?” Sorrel’s brows scrunched in confusion before she comprehended what the spiketail was referring to. “Oh no,” she laughed, “Humans usually date several different people before finding the one they want to settle down with and have children.”

Before she could further explain, the earth gave a sudden lurch followed by fierce trembling. Sorrel stumbled forward, almost falling on her hands and knees.

“Sorrel!” Hyacinth shouted as the violent shaking of the earth increased. “Move! I don't want Orchid or I to crush you if we end of falling over.”

“I'll try,” the blonde haired woman shouted back. She struggled forward, dark brown eyes watching for any nearby crumbling structures. Many times she fell, losing her balance from the lurches of the earth. After yet another stumble, Sorrel started to crawl away. It did not take long before she was sitting a few yards away from the two herbivores, not daring to stand.

A loud snap caused Sorrel to look over at one of the towering conifers. The shaking of the earth had disturbed the placement of its roots and loosened the soil. The massive tree began to fall, tipping faster with every second. The snow that had been gather in the branches descended upon the nearby dinosaurs, covering them.

“Hyacinth! Watch out!” Sorrel cried reaching out a hand as if it would help her warning travel faster to the dinosaur.

On instinct, the gray Apatosaurus turned her long neck, looking up at the falling tree, but it was too late for her to move. The upper section of the tree landed on her lower back, the immense weight causing her back legs to buckle from underneath her. She gave a bellow as she fell to the ground, unable to stand with the branches laying on top of her. Its needle-like leaves scarped against her dark gray back, some even stabbing into her skin, drawing blood.

“Hyacinth!” Sorrel yelled once more, jumping to her feet and taking a step forward only to fall to her knees, the ground still quaking. “Are you okay!”

The sauropod struggled to stand on her feet, but fell down in the snow. She looked up at her new human companion. “Yeah. It didn't break anything, but I can't stand up until this earthquake is over.”

More cracking sounded. Both females looked over to Orchid, whose own brown eyes were trained on a widening crack beside her. She took a step to the side, before feeling the very top of the conifer that downed Hyacinth brush against her legs. The Stegosaurus flinched, stepping back to where she was. Her back left foot giving out as the earth beneath it crumbled away.

Orchid let out a scream, scrambling to her feet and trotting away as fast as she could from the growing fissure. Hyacinth watched in fear as the crack grew larger and larger, clumps of snow and plant life disappearing into the dark depths. It was opening closer to her downed form. She struggled to get up once more, but the shaking of the earth refused her. She needed all her strength to push the limbs off her back, which was impossible with the violently shaking earth keeping her so off balance.

Orchid, standing on the other side of Hyacinth, felt the strange sensation of cold prickles on her body. She looked up to see snow falling as yet another conifer tumbled toward the earth. Letting out a scream, the spiketail darted forward, the tree barely missing her tail. Hyacinth on the other hand, was not unharmed. The very tip of the tree grazed her hind leg, creating a deep gash and staining the ground red with her blood.

As soon as it began, the earth creased its shaking. The trio stood where they were, shell shocked at the destruction around them. Many of the trees were uprooted and were now laying on the ground. The crack just beside Hyacinth was almost large enough to swallow the sauropod whole.

“Hyacinth!” Sorrel yelled, running toward the gray Apatosaurus, not hindered by the quaking earth anymore. “Are you okay? That gash looks nasty.”

The longneck nodded, climbing to her front feet before she struggled with her hind. With a bit of help from Orchid, she was able to push the collapsed conifer off her back. Hyacinth then glanced at her wounded hind leg. “It'll be okay. I just have to make sure it’s clean, right? Are you okay?”

Sorrel gave a small nod. She looked out over the destruction. “I've never been through an earthquake before...this had to be at least an eight on the Richter scale.” She then looked to the massive crack in the earth. “I wonder if that is a fault line.”

“Whoa!” Orchid suddenly shouted, standing by the gaping hole in the ground. “It's bigger than me and look; the ground on the other side is higher than it is here. How did that happen?  I wonder if this was what it was like during the earth shake that happened the day before Moss hatched. I was told it was really, really bad farther away.  I wonder how my family is doing...”

As Orchid continued to jabber, Sorrel walked over to her. Crouching down on her hands and knees, she observed the massive crack. “I think we were on the epicenter of the earthquake.”

At the sound of a hoarse caw, Sorrel looked away from the crack, dark brown eyes searching for what made the sound. “I think that was a carnivore. We should get moving.”

The caw sounded once more followed by a strange trilling noise. Just as Sorrel stood up, a shrill screech followed by pounding footsteps drew near. The young woman turned in the direction of the sound to come face to face with a peach feathered Yutyrannus. Before the herbivores could react, the juvenile predator pick Sorrel up by her backpack and ran off.

Sorrel screamed, kicking her legs in the air as the Yutyrannus took off in a sprint. The young woman could hear Hyacinth's bellows as the sauropod tried to gallop after the predator. Sadly, with her weight and bruised back, she could not move even close to the speed of the smaller carnivore.

“Daddy's going to be so happy,” the Yutyrannus mumbled through the fabric of Sorrel's backpack. “He's always thought thinskins were interesting. I can't wait to show him this live one.”

Sorrel looked up at the feathered predator, breath coming out in short gasps. The young Yutyrannus looked down her snout at the human, letting out a soft growl. She gave a savage shake of her head. “Stop looking at me you weird creature. I may be taking you to my daddy, but I won't treat you nicely. Not like you can understand me.”

“I can understand you,” Sorrel yelled, gripping the straps of her backpack, her body throbbing with pain at the sudden thrash of movement. For sure, she had whiplash from the brutal jerk. Impale was right about one thing, humans were vulnerable to many things that most other creatures in this world were not.

The peach-feathered dinosaur skidded to a sudden halt, violet eyes wide. “You can speak? All the ones Daddy ever caught made really strange noises, or they sounded like stupid leaf-eaters. You sound like me. Never mind! You're just distracting me.” The young female gave another, slightly more vigorous shake of her head.

This time Sorrel let out a moan of discomfort, gritting her teeth and screwing her eyes shut.  She could feel the Yutyrannus running once more. The carnivors’ strides where just as smooth as Hyacinth’s, but it felt as if Sorrel was on a metal roller coaster. It may have been smooth, but it was fast and she was suspend in midair, about five feet above the ground.

When the pain began to wear away, Sorrel opened her eyes. She swallowed hard as she watched the snowy ground dappled with dead plant matter quickly pass by. She was not too high off the ground since the peach-feathered carnivore was just peeking out of her juvenile years. The young woman shifted in her backpack, looking to where the carnivore was taking her. What would this juvenile's father do to her? Surly he would kill her after he was done toying with her. Sorrel glanced over her shoulder, frowning when she could not see any signs of Hyacinth or Orchid.

“She really does move fast,” Sorrel thought.

Taking in a deep breath, the young woman calmed herself. She had to escape the Yutyrannus before she would, no doubt, become a dino snack. Sorrel looked up at the younger female, dark brown eyes trained on the pale, almost white scales of her snout. She watched the carnivore for a moment more. It seemed that the juvenile was lost in her own thoughts. This trick might just work, as long as Sorrel did not break anything.

Sucking in a deep breath, Sorrel unclipped the strap around her waist. Letting gravity take over, she slid out of the pack, bracing herself for impact. Luckily, the snow had built up over the past seven days. It absorbed almost all the energy of her fall. Struggling out of the fluffy snow, Sorrel began to run in the opposite direction of the swift footed predator. It was pure luck that the Yutyrannus had not realized that her prey was gone, still off in her dreamland.

Unfortunately, it did not take long for the juvenile to notice that the weight of the backpack was strangely lighter than it had previously been. Looking down her snout, she could see that her prize was gone. Jerking to a stop, she dropped the hiking bag, scarping a clawed foot across it in disgust. Seething, she looked up, quickly spotting the small, struggling figure farther behind her. Sorrel was having a hard time trudging through the snow. It may have saved her from injury when she fell, but now it hindered her escape.

The peach feathered predator gave a shrill roar, charging forward. At the noise, Sorrel glanced over her shoulder, panic in her dark brown eyes. It would be only seconds before the juvenile would be bearing down on her. Hopping out of the snow, the young woman ran as best as she could towards her target, a small hole in the ground. With each struggled step, the Yutyrannus loomed menacingly closer. Just as the young woman could feel the hot breath on the back of her neck, she jumped for the small hole.

The feathered carnivore lunged forward just as Sorrel dived into the hole. The Yutyrannus's fangs hooked onto Sorrel's black woolen hat, pulling it off. The angry carnivore shook her head, trying to dislodge the piece of fabric off her tooth. This gave Sorrel much needed time as she wormed her way down into the tunnel, hoping her feet were not anywhere near the reach of the carnivore's jaws. Unfortunately, she wasn’t so lucky.

Sorrel let out a gasp of pain as the Yutyrannus's fangs sliced into the back of her right ankle. The young woman began to struggle deeper into the narrow tunnel; eyes clenched shut as tears brimmed her lids. Just as suddenly as the pressure was on her foot, it was gone. Sorrel continued to push herself forward, the warm blood running down her ankle as a reminder of what could happen in the next second.

The shrill roar followed by the eerie trill of the juvenile made the young woman's blood run cold. She was as far as she could go in the earthy tunnel. Her now bare, right foot was freezing and would surely be frost bitten in the next few minutes. Not only that, but she would run out of air if she did not get out soon. Her entire body filled the tunnel and there was no way enough fresh air could get into it.

“Come on. Leave,” Sorrel desperately thought.

The Yutyrannus gave another trill before she dove for the tunnel. Her scaly snout jammed into the entrance. The female began to thrash around, unable to open her jaws, panicking. Frantically twisting her head from side to side, she only managed to wedge her snout tighter. Finally, after giving a vicious tug, she pulled free. The Yutyrannus took several steps back, staring at Sorrel's prone form inside the earthy passageway, just out of reach. The scent of blood was enticing, but what just happened... She would not risk it again. With a loud, frustrated huff, the juvenile shook out her peach colored feathers and walked off in search of other prey.

Sorrel stayed in the tunnel for another fifteen minutes. She had to make sure the Yutyrannus had walked off a far enough distance for her to not be noticed. The young woman would have waited even longer if it was not for her freezing, bare foot, or the lightheaded feeling from lack of oxygen. Carefully scooting herself backward, she emerged from the tunnel.

Taking in a deep breath of fresh air, Sorrel ran a hand through her short blonde hair, freeing any dirt particles. Quickly scanning the area, she found her tattered boot, the sock still inside, and her hat. Both were in well enough condition for her to wear. She slipped them both on, careful of the bite wound on the back of her right ankle. She would have to take care of that later, but first, she had to find her hiking backpack.

Limping, she followed the Yutyrannus's trail to where she had dropped her bag. It had also suffered damage. There were some small holes and torn fabric, and it was covered in snow and dirt. Luckily, the damage wasn’t large enough to lose the items inside. She could repair it later. Sorrel slipped the backpack on and began wearily walking in a different direction. She had to find some type of shelter, and fast. Without Hyacinth, it would not take long for her to become hypothermic once night fell.

Fortunately, luck was on her side. It did not take long for Sorrel to find a hidden cave. Snow and dead vines concealed the entrance from any passing predators. The young woman plopped herself down inside the cavern, immediately tugging off her right boot and sock. She had to take care of this wound as soon as possible. As she began to fish inside her bag for her medical kit, she was unaware of a lone carnivore's eyes glowing in the darkness of the cave, silently watching her.  

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Thirteen: Black Smoke

“Sorrel! Oh my goodness! I lost her! I lost her!” Hyacinth cried out, franticly looking about for any sign of the young woman. “What would Angela think of me? I just lost her great-niece after only seven days of finding her.”

The distraught sauropod began pacing back and forth through the snow. She had just lost Sorrel, a relative to her deceased, adoptive mother. How would Angela react if she found out about this? Would she be angry? Would she be like her normal calm collective self? Or would she be just as panicky as Hyacinth? The Apatosaurus was extremely worried now. What if that Yutyrannus was going to eat Sorrel? All Orchid and Hyacinth would find would be blood stained snow and sheds of clothing, if that. Hyacinth gave a loud whimper as she stopped her pacing, the image of Sorrel’s torn dead body flashing in her mind.

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll find her.” Orchid comforted. “Well…unless she was already eaten. That feathercrested sharptooth looked really viscous.” The purple spiketail stopped speaking when she noticed the horrified expression etched on to her friend’s face.

Hyacinth began shaking her head, teal eyes wide with fear. “What? No, no, no, no, no, no. She can’t be dead.” She sat down, tears brimming in her eyes. She was not able to keep her promise to Angela. She was not able to protect Sorrel from the grasp of a predator.

“No.” Orchid shouted, nuzzling the teary-eyed Apatosaurus. “I didn’t mean to say that. It just came out. You know how I am. I just blabber and blabber on. My dad can get like that when he’s really excited about something. I really didn’t mean to say that. I’m sure Sorrel’s fine. She probably somehow escaped from the sharptooth and is safe and sound, waiting for us to find her.”

“No! She’s probably dead like you said. That Yutyrannus undoubtedly ripped her apart and ate her. It’s all my fault that she’s dead. I failed Angela. I failed her! I should have made sure she was by me at all times.” Hyacinth collapsed on the ground, the tears spilling down her cheeks. She curled her long neck around herself as she began to sob.

“Hyacinth…” Orchid started, saddened by the sight of her crying friend. “You’re being too hard on yourself. I know it’s more likely that Sorrel was killed…but she could still be alive. There is a small possibility. Look at it this way. Life must go on. You will always lose ones you love throughout your life. I lost my sister to sickness and Pebble, my best friend in the herd, to Coldbreath.”

“I already lost Angela. I didn’t want to lose Sorrel, especially when she seemed so special to Angela. I don’t want to lose another loved one, even if I only knew her for a few days. I made a promise to protect Sorrel. I broke it by letting that carnivore take her.”

Orchid gave a sad sigh, nuzzling Hyacinth’s shoulder. When the Stegosaurus looked up, she noticed the three-toed footprints of the Yutyrannus. She left her friend’s side, sniffing the trail before gazing out at it, brown eyes following where the tracks went. “We can follow the trail! We’ll be able to find Sorrel real quickly this way.”

Hyacinth looked up from her weeping, blinking away the tears. She sniffed as she looked at the tracks left by the peach-feathered predator. Her heart began to lift with hope as she struggled to her feet. At least they would be able to find Sorrel. Would she be alive? The sauropod did not know. She hoped the young woman would be, but her hope was fleeting. It was unlikely that any human would escape from the jaws of a large carnivore.

A sudden flash of lightning steaked across the sky causing both female herbivores to look up at the graying sky. Orchid’s beaked mouth fell open in pure astonishment. How had she not noticed the darkening sky before? A distance rumbled was heard several seconds later. The storm was farther away, but freezing rain was already breaking out over the snowy land.

“It was just sunny out…” Orchid said, brown eyes still trained on the dark clouds above them. “How…how did we not noticed the clouds? It was so sunny out just a few moments ago. It changed so fast. Maybe it was the earthquake. Or that blizzard. Now it’s raining. I’m sure it’s going to be really cold. Ugh, I’m probably going to get ice on my plates and spikes again. I hate the cold, especially freezing rain.”

“It’s probably raining because Sorrel is gone…” Hyacinth muttered, hanging her head. “It was sunny until she was stolen.”

The longneck lumbered forward, following the three-toed tracks of the Yutyrannus. Moments later, she let out a shocked gasp as a wall of freezing rain drenched them. As the deluge poured down, something clicked in Hyacinth’s mind. “The tracks! We have to follow the tracks right now. They'll be gone if we don't!”

She lunged forward, watching in horror as the rain melted away some of the fresh snow from the past seven days, turning it to mush. The footprints would be no more in mere minutes in the downpour. Hyacinth began to frantically follow the tracks, teal eyes sweeping over the slushy ground, straining to focus on the fading footprints .Orchid stepped in front of Hyacinth, shaking her head. “Hyacinth…Stop….It’s no use. By the time you even reach that big tree over there, the footprints will be gone. We’ll have to find another way.”

“I can’t believe I lost her…” Hyacinth muttered, collapsing to the ground once more, not caring that the icy rain continued to pummel her. A wave of tears wash over her again. She began to cry, burying her light brown snout into the cold snow.

“I'm sorry...” Orchid mutter, nuzzling her friend's shoulder. “But we're going to find her, some way.”

“Her body, probably…” Hyacinth whimpered. Her tail flicked out into the nearby shrubby she had laid down by. A sudden sharp pain at the end of her tail caused her to draw it back. She gave a sniff at the sight on the end of her tail.

It was a black feathered Velociraptor. Still clinging onto the tip of Hyacinth’s tail, her bright neon blue eyes glared at the sauropod. With a low growl, the little raptor let go, brandishing her clawed hands as she landed onto the slushy ground. As the adolescent herbivores took in the newcomer, they could see that the black feathered dromaeosaur had an unusual, bright white stripe marking her body. It was as if bleach had been drizzled over her, leaching out the inky pigment of her feathers. Starting at her left nostril, it passed through her left eye, trailing down the left side of her neck before twisting to her right shoulder, down her flank and ending on her right hind leg.

The Velociraptor let out a soft hiss as she continued to stare down the herbivores from the corner of her eye. She took a step back, fanning the black decorative feathers on the back of her forearms and tail tip. “You are too close to my prey,” she snarled, voice raspy yet very feminine.  

Orchid stared at the tiny dromaeosaur in disbelief. “Hyacinth is a plant eater, just like me. We don’t eat meat.”

“I don't want your big feet crushing my food.” The black Velociraptor retorted before turning away and hopping back into the shrubbery where her prey lay. It was a large, tree dwelling rat. The rodent had dropped to the ground to forage for food when the raptor killed it. She had just snapped its neck when the commotion of the two herbivores disturbed her. Moments later, Hyacinth’s tail had appeared through the shrubbery. Already annoyed at the noise they were making, the raptor had jumped up and nipped at the Apatosaurus’s tail.

Nestling down with the large, brown furred rodent, she began to rip into it. Chewing loudly, neon blue eyes gazed about her surroundings.  As her tiny, sharp teeth broke the thin bones and cartilage of the rat’s ribs, the foliaged in front of her rustled. She let out a growl at the movement, the cracking of bone echoing in the rain as she devoured her meal.

“Hey! You can speak leaf-eater!” Orchid declared, small purple head appearing in front of the black feathered raptor.  “Why does it seem like all the carnivores we met can speak leaf-eater. The pack of really big sickleclaws, Coldbreath, you... But you have a really thick accent. Your voice is all hoarse and growly. The Utharaptors hardly had any accent and Coldbreath...I actually never really heard him speak. But I'm sure it was really rumbling like his roars. Do you know Coldbreath? That big giant gray bonecrusher sharptooth? You must know him. Why haven't we seen him since were left the mixed heard? I know he actually lives here.”

“Shut up! You're disturbing my meal,” the little dromaeosaur snapped, standing up from her small feast. She then picked up the rat and began trotting deeper into the lower growing plants, disappearing from Orchid’s view.

“Hey! Where are you going?” the Stegosaurus asked.

“To eat in peace without an annoying spiketail like you bothering me,” replied a feminine, raspy voice. Muffled from both the rat clutched in her jaws and the many leaves she brushed past, her response was hard to hear.

“Wait,” Orchid called out desperately, having no ideas where the little dromaeosaur disappeared. “Please stop. My friend and I just lost our thinskin companion. I was hoping you could...maybe help us.”

“Why would I help a plant-eater? And will you stop tramping around. You’re going to crush me with those humongous feet or yours.”

The purple Stegosaurus stopped in her tracks, brown eyes searching for the black Velociraptor. “You’ll help us from the goodness of your heart? I know a lot of sharptooth aren’t known for being very nice to leaf-eaters but that pack of enormous sickleclaws helped keep Sorrel safe. I’ve heard stories about a little bonecrusher that was raised by leaf-eaters. It never ate other dinosaurs, only bugs and small little animals, like that furry creature and those really tiny scaly creatures.”

The black raptor said nothing, only digging into her prey once more. Hoping to scare off the Stegosaurus with her gruesome eating habits, she savagely ripped into the rat, shaking her head and spraying blood droplets everywhere. She tried to eat as noisily as possible, tearing the flesh and crunching the bones. None of it worked. Orchid whined a few times, but that was the most of her reaction. As the little predator continued to consume the rat, the rain dissipated into a light drizzle.

“So…what’s your name? I’m Orchid and my longneck friend is Hyacinth. We are both named after flowers. My siblings are also named after plants. My little brother is named Moss and my older sister was named Petal.”
 
The Velociraptor rolled her eyes at the Stegosaurus. The spiketail really was desperate, why did the herbivore think she could help find this thinskin. “Black Smoke.”

“Nice to meet you, Black Smoke,” Orchid replied with a nod of her head. So why are you out here all alone? Most sickleclaws travel in packs, don't they?”

“My pack was killed off by a flatheaded longneck.”

The Stegosaurus stopped, mouth hanging open. Hyacinth was also a flatheaded longneck. For sure, this raptor would hold a grudge against the species. Many dinosaurs did when a loved one was killed by another dinosaur, especially when it had a different dietary preference.

Having finished her meal, Black Smoke looked up at Orchid. She sat back on her hunches and began to preen her feathers. The pinfeathers that covered her body where thinner than the Utahraptors’ that took in Sorrel. She was not meant to live in the cold. She paused for a moment, looking up at Orchid. “I do know that orchids and hyacinths are flowers. I also know that your friend is a flathead. I don’t care that she is. I understand why the one killed my pack.”

The purple Stegosaurus shifted uncomfortably. “What happened to your pack?”

Black Smoke gave a loud sigh. Ruffling her sleek black feathers, she began to explain. “One day, my mate, Forest Hunter, and I, were out on a hunt. We found a lone flatheaded longneck hatchling. We saw no others around it. Thinking it was alone, we killed it. If we had known it had a living mother, we would have not. We would have not wanted to risk our pack’s safety. A few weeks later, the mother found our pack. That night I had just laid a clutch of eggs, five total. I was unable to do anything as she killed the entire pack, Forest Hunter included. All I could do was stay out of sight by my clutch, too exhausted from the night’s laying. It had been my first.”

Black Smoke shifted, drawing her neon blue gaze away from the Stegosaurs. For a long moment the two females sat in silence, the raptor reminiscing over her pack’s death. She shifted her feathered arms closer to her body, nestling against the ground.  

Orchid gazed at Black Smoke, spotting a few scars on her body that she had no doubt received from the battle. There was an old, ugly gash on her left thigh, crossing over the white stripe. Another marred the end of her snout. The last scar that the spiketail noticed caught her interest more than the others. It was on the left side of her neck, just below her jawline. Its design was familiar.

“What happened to your eggs? I don’t see any little sickleclaw hatchlings around you right now.”

“That’s because none of them survived,” the raptor replied bitterly. “I had laid my clutch in autumn. It is not advised to lay eggs during that time, but I had my pack to look after them and keep them warm, or so I thought. They hatched during the first snowfall. Only after a few days of their hatching, there was a cold snap. I was out hunting that night. When I returned, all but one of the hatchlings was frozen solid. Three had ventured out of the nest I had created, too adventurous for their own good, just like their father. The other one died at the end of the nest, too weak to survive even a slight amount of cold.”

“And the one that survived…?”

“Cricket Chaser?” Black Smoke shook her head. “She looked so much like her father. Dappled feathers of different greens and browns. Red scaled feet and hands along with the unique ridge of red feathers along her spine just like her father. She also had his bright yellow eyes. She was killed by an adolescent Triceratops a few seasons back. The orange beast’s nose horn stabbed right through Cricket Chaser’s chest. She was too small to kill the Triceratops.”

“Oh...I’m so sorry. I lost friends and family too. My nest mate sister to sickness and my friend to a bonecrusher sharptooth named Coldbreath. My friend Hyacinth also lost someone dear to her. Her thinskin caretaker who was like a mother to her, and now Sorrel, her caretaker's great-niece, was stolen from us. Hyacinth thinks Sorrel is dead, but I still think she’s alive. Either way, can you help us find her? Please?”

“Why do you think I can help you? The rain has washed the tracks away. There is no way I can sniff her out since I don’t have anything with her scent on it.” Black Smoke snapped, annoyed at the Stegosaurus’s persistence.  

“That mark on your neck is not one from the fight with the longneck or any other fight. It's a Scarcarrier mark. I've already seen two of them on other dinosaurs. I know what they look like and that they give the owner certain abilities.”

“And how would I be able to help you then? As far as you know, I'm a Darkness Manipulator. My coloration and personality sure match it.”

Orchid gave a small shrug, adverting her gaze from the feisty raptor. “I was just hoping...I want to help Hyacinth…”

Black Smoke gave a loud growl, scraping at the leftovers of her meal. She was through talking with the leaf-eater and just wanted to be left alone.

Orchid let out a sad sigh, backing out of the shrubbery before walking over to Hyacinth. She gazed at the mournful longneck, giving a small nuzzle to her friend’s neck before lying next to her, also feeling defeated. There would be no way for her to brighten up her friend’s mood now. The footprints were as good as gone, the freezing rain having made sure of it.

The little velociraptor slipped out of the low growing foliage. Her bright neon blue eyes watched the adolescent pair for a moment. Black Smoke then began nibbling at one of the black decorative feathers at the end of her arm as she became lost in thought. A few minutes later, she looked back at the herbivores. Eyeing them for a moment longer, she gave a sigh and then approached them. She let out a small, sharp caw, catching the pair’s attention.

“Fine.” Black Smoke growl, a smirk playing on her lips. “I’ll help you. After all, I just happen to be a Tracker.”


Black Smoke is a character given to me by raptor squad from QuoteV.


If anyone else wants to submit their character to me, PM me or post a comment. There is no guarantee that I will use them, but I’ll try my best to give them at least a small part in the story. Since this story is almost done, they will be featured in the next book(s). Be aware, none will have a major part in the story, since all main OCs will be mine. I reserve the right to change any details of your character profile for it to fit my story. If you do have an account, I will notify you of these changes and you can refuse if you don’t like it. Also, I will have complete control over your character, so be warned, they may become a dino snack. I will, of course, give you credit for your character.

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Fourteen: Frozen Hunter

Sorrel paused from cleaning the bloody bite wound on the back of her ankle. There was something wrong, as if another presence was inside the cave. She sat completely still, barely breathing as her ears strained to pick up any scant sound. She quickly became unnerved by the feeling that someone or something was watching her, but she had not seen anything in the small cave when she entered it moments ago. Of course, she had made a hasty entrance, intent on hiding in case the juvenile Yutyrannus returned.  Sorrel sat with her back to the inside of the cave, needing the light coming through the cave entrance to properly tend to her injury. Just as she placed the wet gauze on her wound to continue wiping the dried blood away, she picked up the soft sound of faint breathing. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she suddenly became aware of the fact that she was not alone.

With the gauze still in her hand, she casually reached for her backpack, which sat next to her outstretched, uninjured leg. Hopefully she could fool the creature behind her into thinking that she was only getting more medical supplies. Instead, the young woman rummaged through her pack in search of the rune-craved blade. Sorrel dropped the bloodied piece of cotton when her fingers brushed against the leather sheath encasing her treasured knife. With her back still toward the inside of the cave, she pulled the leather bound weapon from the side of her half unzipped backpack, still hoping the creature had not seen, or at least not figured out that it was a weapon that was now held in her hands.

Tracing her thumb over the twine laces, Sorrel tugged at one of the loops. Carefully slipping the knife out of the leather sheath, she stood up, cautiously turning to face the creature within the back of the cave. Her dark brown eyes searched the darkness, only able to pick out a pair of reflective, yellow-green eyes glowing in the darkness. They reminded her of when her friend’s housecat would walk into the room at night, its eyes catching the light every now and then, giving them an eerie, almost demon-like glow. The creature in the back of the cave gave a faint, low growl as it slowly stood up, claws scraping against stone.
 
As the beast took a menacing step forward, Sorrel clutched the blade tightly, drawing it to her body. She could now make out the vague shape of its body as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The creature was much larger than her, its dark feathered back brushing against the cave ceiling. It gave another low, throaty growl, jaws parted slightly, revealing slick, saliva coated fangs. The scent of the young woman's blood drew it closer.

Sorrel took a cautious step back, body tensed, ready to run. She was no match for this predator and did not want to make any sudden moves to trigger its predatory instincts. Right now, the carnivore just seemed to be toying with her. It was far too massive for her to do much damage with her knife. Sure, she could aim for its throat, chest, or head, but it would surely know that she would target these vital points. This creature was born to kill. The slicing fangs, razor sharp claws, and the massive killer claw on the end of each hind foot. A dromaeosaur, one of the most cunning dinosaurs that ever existed.  Even if she could get close enough to land a fatal strike, the carnivore could still land a savage bite or slash to her body, wounding her severely. Sorrel had learned many survival skills and one of the most important was to use your brain and consider the best way out of a situation with the least damage. Do not recklessly rush into something, which could make the circumstances worse. She would not take the risk.

The blonde haired woman took another step back, her eyes never straying from the raptor in front of her as she brandished her rune-carved blade. If she could only get to the cave entrance, she would have a chance to escape and hide in a space too small for the carnivore to reach her. Unfortunately, she could not chance grabbing her backpack and her injured foot was still bare, but there was no time to worry about that now. She would just have to deal with it later if she could get herself out of this precarious situation. How her Aunt Angie had ever survived all those years living in this untamed world, she would never know.

The dromaeosaur gave another low growl, causing her to tense. The large raptor took a second menacing step closer, silver eyes staring her down. At the sight of the pools of molten metal gazing intently at her, Sorrel involuntarily relaxed. A split second later, she realized her mistake when the carnivore suddenly lunged forward, jaws agape. Instinctively, the young woman lashed forward with her knife, the sharp blade grazing the sickleclaw’s black feathered snout.

 “Ow!” shouted a young adult male's voice before the predator shook its head, soft, inky feathers fluttering.

 “Well, what do you expect would happen when you act like you’re going to kill me, Shadow Watcher?” Sorrel retorted, lowering her rune-carved blade with a huff.

 “Sorry. It was instincts. You're blood smells so good,” the black feathered Utahraptor spoke as he brushed a forearm against the bleeding gash on his nose.

Sorrel eyed him suspiciously as she sat down, relieved that she was not in any danger. It was strange, she mused to herself as she ran slender fingers through her short, blond hair.  The thought of trusting a carnivorous raptor should have been unthinkable. But ever since she had arrived in this strange world, the raptor pack had been nothing but protective over her, as they had been for her great-aunt Angela when she had dwelled in this land.

Shadow Watcher just gave her an impish grin before laying down himself. The young woman rolled her eyes as she looked away and sheathed her special knife, placing it back into her hiking bag. Next, she picked up the medical kit that had been lying on the ground since the black raptor disturbed her.

Sorrel began to clean her wound again. She would not have been as worried about it if it was not a bite wound. Since it was, she was concerned about developing a dangerous infection. Many carnivores were known for possessing deadly bacteria in their jaws. When she finished cleaning away the dried blood and grit from the wound, she took out a small tube of ointment, spreading the translucent paste over the bite wound. Next, she taped a clean gauze over the wound and then retrieved a bandage roll from her medical kit. While she carefully wrapped the bandage around her injured ankle, Sorrel looked up at Shadow Watcher. “Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with your pack?”

 “I was on a hunt with a few of my pack members. Since I was cooped up watching you for so long, I really needed to stretch my legs. I wanted to do a bit more than just walking outside, sniffing and stalking big prey, so I went off to hunt smaller, more elusive creatures. Damn, it was fun until the earthquake hit.”

 “Hmm,” Sorrel hummed as she popped her medical kit close. “Then why are you-” She was cut off as the large raptor sat up and began to fiercely sniff the air.  

Shadow Watcher quickly stood, pressing Sorrel to his side and shielding her with a feathered forearm. “Don't make a sound. The monster is out on a hunt,” he hissed.

As he said this, a strange feeling over took Sorrel. Coldness began to seep into her body and her joints stiffen as she was enveloped in darkness. She felt woozy and sick as a cold sweat broke across her neck and back. Still, the young woman gaze out through the wall of dead vines hanging over the small cave's entrance. She narrowed her dark brown eyes, not seeing anything suspicious.

A sudden flash of peach and Sorrel drew in a sharp breath. The juvenile Yutyrannus was back. The predator sniffed the air before her violet gaze focused on the cave entrance. She could smell the young woman's lingering scent. Letting out a shrill shriek followed by her signature trill, she charged forward, jaws agape. She would bring a thinskin back to her father after all.

The Yutyrannus gave another shrill roar, but was drowned out by a thunderous, terror-inducing roar behind her. The juvenile jerked her head over her shoulder only to be picked up by a pair of powerful jaws. The jaws clenched shut in a single snap, breaking both spine and ribs of the young, feathered carnivore. She would never see her father again.

The massive gray Tyrannosaurus rex turned his red gaze to the cave. The little female had seemed interested in it.  Knowing no other carnivore would take his kill, he dropped his prey, approaching the cave, each step shaking the earth. He lowered himself close to the ground, peering into it. He could see nothing, yet... the scent of a thinskin and Utahraptor lingered in the air. He growled before pulling his head away from the entrance. “I can smell the lingering scent of the both of you. With such interest the little female showed toward this cave, I knew there had to be something in here.”

Sorrel shivered underneath Shadow Watcher's feathered arm. The massive carnivore's voice was deep, rich, and velvety yet it turned her blood to ice. The young woman pressed closer to the black feathered Utahraptor’s body, ignoring the nauseating, chilly feeling that washed over her again. She knew that the beast outside the cave entrance could not see her or Shadow Watcher because of the Utahraptor's power over darkness. He had cloaked them in it, concealing them from both sight and scent.  Only the drops of blood on the cave floor from their injuries gave any indication that someone was there.

 “Come out, little girl. You too raptor.”

Shadow Watcher only shifted closer to Sorrel, repressing a growl. The gray scaled Tyrannosaurs rex drew away from the cave, chuckling. “Fine. I have to get this meal back to her anyway. We can play another day.”

The massive predator leaned down, picking up his prey before lumbering off. Sorrel watched his fading form, dark brown eyes locked on the dark gray, almost black feathers lining the rex’s spine. They flared up as the wind gusted, a lone feather shedding from his back and fluttering in the wind. As it landed in front of the cave entrance, Shadow Watcher drew away from Sorrel, sniffing the dark gray feather.

Sorrel stayed crouched for a long moment, taking a few seconds to feel normal as the darkness of the Utahraptor faded from her body. Taking in a deep breath, she found her boot and sock, which lay on the cave floor. Once the injured foot was covered, she stood up; approaching Shadow Watcher and the feather he was sniffing. He straighten up, staring at the young woman. The blood from the cut she had given him earlier matted the inky feathers around it. “Sorry about the darkness cloaking. I am sure you do not feel good right now. I would have warned you, but I did not want to notify Frozen Wasteland.”

 “Frozen Wasteland?” Sorrel asked, tugging the hood of her parka over her head, still feeling weak and woozy.

 “That's his name. The herbivores know him as Coldbreath. He is a Freeze Manipulator. You know about...”

 “Of course. I know all about Manipulators. I come from a world full of them. I think Aunt Angie told me that there are two different types of dinosaurs that can be Manipulators. The ones that are born with it, like the people in my world. Um...in this world they are called...Mythborns. And then there are some that have their abilities unlocked by a Curse Manipulator. They are called…Scarcarries. Any dinosaur with an ability can be called a Mythcarrier.  All intelligent creatures of this world have an ability to manipulate something; it just matters if it is active. Most have an ability dormant within them.”

 “Alright. Enough with the history lesson. I got that plenty when I was younger, from the elders,” Shadow Watcher laughed, laying down at the cave entrance, his feathered body still in the darkness.  

Sorrel stopped speaking, sitting down next to the black feathered Utahraptor. She leaned across his clawed paws to reach for Frozen Wasteland's feather. Shadow Watcher gave a low growl as she picked up the dark gray feather, twirling it between her fingers. She then brushed the tip against her wrist. “It's soft.”

 “It's a feather. Feel mine. I'm soft.”

The young woman rolled her eyes at him. “I didn't expect it to feel so soft. It looked so wiry...”

A hoarse caw sounded in the distance, causing Shadow Watcher to look away from the feather. He sniffed the air, a soft growl emanating from his throat. “That sounded like one of my pack mates. I think they maybe wounded. That call sounded weak…”

Getting to his feet once more, Shadow Watcher sniffed the cold air again before stepping outside. He let out a caw of his own, followed by a roar, which was louder and would travel further to any listening ears. The young male waited for an answering call when Sorrel’s voice broke into his concentration. “You’re bleeding!”

At the young woman’s words, Shadow Watcher looked down at the ground. He observed the red swirls mixing with the muddy slush of the melting snow where the ground had been trampled. Another few droplets of bright red blood fell, adding to the mix. Muttering a string of curses under his breath, the raptor lifted his feathered arm to lick at the bloody feathers. While he did this, the young woman slipped the feather of Frozen Wasteland into one of the many front pockets of her hiking backpack before taking her medical kit to the large dromaeosaur.

 “Lay down,” she commanded as she slipped out a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Popping the cap open, she parted the thick, inky feathers, revealing the bleeding wound on the carnivore’s side. “How were you not bleeding before?” She asked, eyeing the deep gash along his rib cage.

 “Darkness,” Shadow Watcher mumbled, clawed paws twitching at the stinging pain as the young woman drizzled the antibacterial liquid over his wound, flushing it of any debris. His silver eyes did not stray from the direction of the weak caw the two had heard before. “I learned how to stich my wounds close with my control over darkness. My mother showed me how to solidify the darkness into fine but strong threads. I make the end sharp as steel so I didn’t need a needle. But as you know, anything a Dark Manipulator makes will dissipates when sunlight hits it.”

Sorrel nodded at the carnivore’s words. Wiping her hands on the leg of her pants, she placed the bottle of hydrogen peroxide back into her medical kit and pulled out an already threaded surgical needle. “Then I better give you a real suture.” With those words, Sorrel began to sew the wound shut. The raptor remained still as Sorrel pierced his skin, weaving the needle and thread back and forth in neat little stitches. When she finished, she took the tube of ointment out of the medical kit that she had used on her own wound. Squeezing some of it onto her fingers, she spread it over the closed gash to prevent any infection.

Wiping the left over translucent paste onto her pants, she placed the medical equipment back into her kit before standing up. Walking back to her bag, Sorrel placed the kit into it then hoisted the backpack over her shoulders. “Okay. Let’s go find your friend,” Sorrel said as she buckled the pack securely around her waist.

Shadow Watcher nodded, but did not move from his prone position. “Hop on.”

Sorrel quickly mounted the Utahraptor. His feathers were indeed soft, and his body warm, unlike when he had previously used his darkness ability. Of course, she would not give him the satisfaction of acknowledging his silky feathers.

Once he was sure that his human cargo was securely on his back, Shadow Watcher stood up. After taking a moment to get his bearings, the black raptor trotted in the direction he had heard his packmate’s weak call. The weight of the young woman on his back did not seem to hamper the large raptor in the least.

It did not take long for the pair to enter a narrow ravine. Sorrel stared out in awe at the destruction within it. Many rocks from above had fallen to the earth floor, crushing any creature unlucky enough to move out of the way.

 “Any creature unlucky enough to move out of the way,” The thought echoed through Sorrel’s mind. Her dark brown eyes began to franticly search, hoping not to find a feathered form underneath one of the boulders. She knew that Shadow Watcher’s pack mate was still alive, but if they were crushed by a boulder, how long could they hold out for?

Just then, Sorrel’s eyes landed on a sandy feather head, darker brown feathers around the sickleclaw’s neck, similar to a lion’s mane. “Oh, no…” she breathed.”

 “Stone Claw!” Shadow Watched called out, rushing to the broken Utahraptor.
 

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Fifteen: Friends or Foes

“Stone Claw!” Shadow Watcher shouted again, rushing forward to his fallen packmate. The black Utahraptor began to sniff at the brown feathers around his sandy colored companion’s neck. He nipped at them before rasping his tongue over the soft feathers, hoping to wake the larger male. “Damn it! Shifting Sand is going to kill me,” he mumbled under his breath as he tried to revive the female raptor’s older brother. Letting out a low growl, Shadow Watcher nudge the back of Stone Claw's neck. “Wake up, Stone, please.”

Sorrel slipped off the black Utahraptor's back, dark brown eyes trained on the unconscious Stone Claw. “Is he still alive?”

Shadow Watcher glanced over his shoulder at the young woman before sniffing at Stone Claw again. He rubbed his snout on the top of the Stone Claw’s sandy one. Shadow Watcher could just feel the faint flutter of warm air from the other male's nostrils. He then pulled away, stepping over Stone Claw and burying his snout into the thick sandy chest feathers. Shadow Watcher pressed the side of his head to his chest, listening for a heartbeat. Just able to hear the soft, rhythmic thumps the black feathered raptor drew away with a soft sigh. “He's alive. For now.”

At his words, Sorrel kneeled down next to the larger Utahraptor. She buried her hands into the soft dark brown feathers around his neck before moving her hands to his soft feathered snout. Letting out a soft sigh, the young woman continued to pet the raptor, rubbing the feathers backwards, ruffling them even more than they were normally. She brushed her fingers over his soft feathered snout, taking in the faint warm air he breathed out. Suddenly, a roar ripped through the air.

The young woman drew back, head snapping in the direction of the roar. She quickly stood up as Shadow Watcher stepped over Stone Claw again, standing beside Sorrel. He gave a low growl, shielding the blonde woman with his feathered forearm and Stone Claw with his body. He brandished his three-clawed forepaws and barred his teeth at the approaching predator. Sorrel silently un-clipped her backpack and slipped it off her back. “I should really keep this on my leg from now on,” she thought as she pulled the rune carved blade from her backpack.

Shadow Watcher let out a loud caw, calling back to the approaching predator. He could not disappeared into the darkness. He could only cover one creature in darkness at a time. He had both Sorrel and Stone Claw to protect. It would also waste his energy with the sunlight shining down into the canyon. They may be shrouded in shadows right now, but they were not dark enough to simply disappear into.

Letting out another low growl, Shadow Watcher sniffed the air. Just as he did this, the larger predator gave another roar before its white feathered head appeared from behind one of the larger fallen boulder. Its emerald green eyes glared at Shadow Watcher as it gave a low hiss. Shadow Watcher gave his own hiss, but stepped away from Stone Claw and lowing his raised forearms.  “Heat Flare,” he greeted the larger Utahraptor.

The large female raptor stepped out from behind the boulders, giving a grunt as her eyes shifted to Sorrel. “Why is the human with you? I thought you got rid of it.”

“She was separated from the Apatosaurus during the earthquake. A Yutyrannus stole her from the herbivores. Never mind about her. What happened to Stone Claw?”

“Rocks fell. One landed on him. Crushed the lower half of his body. We managed to move it away but he has not regained consciousness. We did not want to move him and cause more damage. He is still alive. I do not know how long. The last caw, he passed out. I sent Snow Feather and Ice Wind to get the healer.” The female Utahraptor explained in clipped phrases as she approached Stone Claw. Laying down next to him, she began to preen the long white decorative feathers on her brown feathered forearm. Her white feathered feet just brushed against Stone Claw's back. Her white feathered forepaws scraped at the rocky ground as she lowered her arm. She laid her white head down onto the ground, letting out a loud huff.  “I wish I could go out and finish the hunt.” She muttered, green eyes closing at the metallic scent of blood that flooded her nose. “Almost took down an Iguanodont. I’m sure I could kill it and drag it back. I injured it badly. I’m so hungry....”

“I could get you some food...” Shadow Watcher volunteered, eyeing the giant female wearily.

Heat Flare raised her head, emerald green eyes lazily gazing over the black feathered raptor. “I guess...I would prefer to catch my own,” she trailed off dismissively, grooming the soft brown feathers on her back before flexing the killer claws on her white feet. She sighed, closing her eyes, stretching out once more.

Taking this as a yes, Shadow Watcher crouched down next to Stone Claw. “I'll get some food for you too, Stone. Heat Flare won't let you die. Besides, if you do, Sand's going to kill me. You know how your little sister can be.” With a nervous huff, he gave Stone Claw a small nudge.

At the touch, Stone Claw's pale, sandy eyes opened. The larger Utahraptor gave a small huff, as if saying thank you. Shadow Watcher grinned at the sight as he raised to his full height, aware of Sorrel's weight on his back once more. “We'll be back.” With those words, the black feathered raptor began to climb his way out of the canyon, carefully placing his feet as not to disturb the fallen boulders he walked upon.

As the human and Utahraptor made their way out of the canyon and back to the slushy, muddy earth, Shadow Watcher glanced over his shoulder at Sorrel. “You didn't want to stay with Heat Flare?” he teased.

“No. She would probably eat me. Why is she so big anyway? She seems bigger than the average raptor in your pack.”

“She is. Heat Flare’s grandmother came from a pack way down south in the tropical area. They grow humongous for Utahraptors because of the abundance of larger prey. She’s probably on the medium to small size of the spectrum if she was with that pack right now.”

“Really? Wow. Would she even be considered an Utahraptor if she grew that big? Maybe her grandmother’s kind is a sub-species of some sort.”

“Then that would make us a type of sub-species too. We live more in the north and I know we’re more feathered than most Utahraptors,” Shadow Watcher spoke up, silver eyes scanning the scenery for any movements of possible prey.

“I guess you’re right about that. Does everyone in your pack have a different ability? I think I’ve only seen yours in action.”

“Naw. It’s mainly Fire and Earth Manipulators with a few hybrids here and there. My family is the only exception. My mother came from a pack located farther southwest. Although I’ve never met them, my mother explained that every member of the pack are either black or a dark variation of some color and almost all of them are Dark Manipulators like me. My dad's a Fire Manipulator if you couldn't tell from his name, Ice Flame. Heat Flare is too.”

Sorrel opened her mouth to ask another question, but Shadow Watcher stopped in his tracks. With one hind leg raised in mid-step, his nostrils quivered and silver eyes trained on a nearby bush. Letting out a low threatening growl, he crouched down, letting Sorrel slip off before he began to stalk forward. He had just spotted a flash of mauve and black feathers. He was positive he knew whom they belonged to. The thief and killer of his younger sister's lone egg.

Shadow Watcher advanced forward, carefully placing his feet with each step as not to make a sound. His jaws parted as he took in the tiny thief's scent. When his killer claws were mere inches away from the bushes he had spied the dull pink creature hiding in, he thrust his head into the foliage, jaws opened for the attack.  An ear-piecing screech filled the air as Shadow Watcher picked a tiny feathered Oviraptor from the bushes by the right hind leg. He tossed her aside, the little female landing into the muddy slush with a small splash.

Shadow Watcher took a step forward, silver eyes trained on the scarlet blood that flowed from the wound he had created with his razor sharp teeth. Was she already dead? Did he break her neck with just a simple toss? She seemed tougher than that. Shadow Watcher took another step forward, nostrils quivering as he began to sniff at the unmoving body. The multicolored Oviraptor shifted as the larger Utahraptor lowered his head to sniff at her sodded mauve feathers. As she slowly raised her black head, the Utahraptor gave a low growl, bearing his fangs at her tiny form.

“Shadow Watcher!” Sorrel shouted. “What the hell are you doing? It’s just a baby Oviraptor!”

“No it’s not,” he snarled, tearing his silver gaze away from the little female. “It stole my sister’s egg.”

The Oviraptor gave a small chirp as she snapped her deadly beak as Shadow Watcher. An arc of white electricity jumped from her teal beak to the much larger carnivore’s head. Shadow Watcher let out a screech as he stumbled backwards, shaking his head in pain as smoke wafted off his gloss black feathers. “Why you,” he snarled as the little mauve feathered creature struggled to her feet.

The little Oviraptor’s teal beak and cobalt crest stood out against her black head. Her green eyes glared at the solid black Utahraptor as she struggled to put weight on her bleeding right leg. Pain shot through it every time she placed just a small amount of presser on it. It was the sickleclaw’s fault. She knew he was after her. She had stolen an egg from a similarly colored female a few days ago.

Crouched on all four black paws, the tiny Oviraptor gave a loud hiss, fanning out the dark violet feathers that lined her forearms and tail tip. The darker mauve feathers along her spine raised similarly to that of a frightened cat. She fluffed up the rest of her shorter dull pink pinfeathers, trying to look bigger than she was. She also puffed out her lighter mauve feathered chest, which was the same color as her throat and belly. It was as if she was daring the much larger dinosaur to attack her again.

Shadow Watcher took the bait. He stalked forward again before diving his jaws forward, ready to break the tiny Oviraptor spine. Just as his fangs grazed her dull pink feathers, another arc of electricity jumped from her body. This time the black feathered Utahraptor body tensed and he collapsed onto the ground. Smoke rose from his parted jaws.

“Shadow Watcher!” Sorrel cried. The blonde woman did not know what to do. On the one hand, her raptor friend was hurt, but on the other, he was trying to kill a little Oviraptor that was probably only as big as his head. The mauve, blue, and black omnivore did, however, steel his sister’s egg and more than likely eaten it. How else was she to get nourishment in the cold environment? Unable to decide whom to help, Sorrel stood helplessly, dark eyes trained on the shallow rise and fall of Shadow Watcher’s chest.

A long moment passed before the black Utahraptor kicked out a hind leg, his killer claws flexing forward. Sluggishly, he rolled to his belly, panting in pain. His own blood dripped down his jaws from the burn wounds within his mouth. The Oviraptor only stared him down, white electricity dancing across her teal beak.

“I didn’t think you would have enough power to knock me down like that. You’re so small,” Shadow Watcher grunted, slowly shifting his feet underneath himself. Agonizingly slow, he raised himself, silver eyes glaring at the tiny creature who caused him this pain. “But I know there is no way you have enough to knock me dead.”

He snapped his jaws forward only to wince as a hot burning pain coursed throughout his mouth and a metallic tang of his own blood flooded over his tongue. He parted his jaws once more. Even more droplets of blood fell from his jaws than before. The force of his bite and his rough tongue scraping against the roof of his mouth opened the wound more. All he got out of it was a few dark violet tail feathers.

 “Why are you here?” he gasped, spitting out the dark purple feathers. “Your kind of Oviraptor doesn’t live anywhere near the northern forests. From your colors and small size, you come from the tropics. Did your family chase you away?”

He prowled forward once more, jaws still parted as his blood began to mat the dark feathers around his jaws.  He stopped in front of her, rising to his full height and blocking out the sun from the omnivore’s vision. Unlike the other times, Shadow Watcher raised a three-clawed paw as far as he could before swinging it forward with as much force as he could muster in his weakened state.

The force of the blow sent her flying. She slammed into a rock serval feet away, her back and the cobalt crest atop her head taking the brunt of the force. For a long moment, she was the one that stayed unmoving. Blood gushed from the three-clawed gashes in her left side. Her right leg still oozed blood and her crest showed traces of a crack.

“Shadow Watcher!” Sorrel shouted, finally running up to the Utahraptor. “You killed it! How could you?”

The young woman was cut off by a snarl from the black raptor. “Sorrel. Remember, I am a predator. I am not afraid to kill. That little thief stole my younger sister’s egg.” He glared at the prone mauve feather form for a long moment before giving a soft growl. “It’s not dead yet.”
 
At his words, the tiny Oviraptor shifted, raising her black head from the muddy ground. “It was the only food I could find,” she announced. “I’m sorry that it was your sister’s. It was out in the open, in the cold. No one was brooding it. I thought the mother had abandoned it.”

Shadow Watcher narrowed his silver eyes at the tiny omnivore. “She wasn’t with the egg? It wasn’t even in the cave? What the hell was she thinking…?” he muttered, eyes slowly drifting to the muddy ground he stood on. “Why would she…” He head suddenly snapped up, rage blazing in his eyes. “That little…” He gave a mighty roar as he turned away, ready to stalk back to the pack territory.

Sorrel watched the Utahraptor pace back to where she stood. He then turned back, muttering and cursing to himself. Turning away, the young woman walked up to the Oviraptor, crouching down in front of her. “Hey. What’s your name?”

“Digger.”

“Does anything feel broken?” Sorrel asked as she slipped her backpack off her shoulders. She dug through her backpack seeing Digger shake her head out of the corner of her eye. Slipping out the medical kit she had used earlier that day, she popped it open. “I’m going to clean you up then. First I’m going to pick you up and wash off your wounds, okay?”

Digger nodded, green eyes watching as the human took out her water canteen. Sorrel picked the tiny, mauve Oviraptor up by her belly. She began to pour the cool liquid over Digger’s wounds, cleaning away the mud and dirt that had found its way into the wound and dull pink feathers. As Sorrel did this, she marveled at how small this Oviraptor was. Most grew to be about six feet long and stood about at hip height to an average sized man. Digger was about the size of a large house cat. She seemed to be a mere child when in fact she was around mid-adolescents. The young woman continued to work on Digger, failing to notice that her black feathered companion had left her.

“That blow to the rocks did a number on your crest, Digger,” Sorrel commented as she ran a thumb over the crack in the tiny Oviraptor’s cobalt crest. It started at about the middle and ran diagonally downwards, smaller cracks branching off from it.

The mauve and black feathered omnivore shifted uncomfortably. The crest may have been more valuable to a male of her kind for courting females, but it still was not seen as a good trait for a female to have a damaged one. Her chances of getting a mate defiantly had gone down, not like she really wanted one that bad.
 
“You done patching her up?” came a male voice from behind Sorrel.

The young woman spun around to see Shadow Watcher; an adolescent Therizinosaurus laying at his feet. It was fawn colored and was thickly feather like most creatures that lived in the tundra. A plum of tail feathers and a longer crest were a bright blue in color. This one was clearly a male that was reaching the end of his adolescent stage and was getting ready to breed.

Shadow Watcher shifted uncomfortably as he picked up his large prey again and began dragging it back to where Heat Flare and Stone Claw waited for them. Sorrel silently followed, cradling Digger in her arms. Just as the trio reached the edge of the canyon, a trilling shriek pierced the silence. It was followed by a loud bellow of an herbivore as the earth began to shake with heavy, pounding footsteps.

Sorrel turned to where the sound came from and a smile split across her face. “Hyacinth!”



Digger was created by Marblesaurus from Fanfiction.net

[Kittybubbles]

Chapter Sixteen: Reunions and Goodbyes
   
Sorrel ran towards the lumbering Apatosaurus, her heart soaring at the sight of her friend. The gray sauropod let out another bellow as she also began to walk faster, the little black Velociraptor skittering beside her. As the Apatosaurus and human met, Hyacinth lowered her neck and Sorrel wrapped her arms around the other female’s head. Hyacinth nuzzled Sorrel, grinning for ear to ear. “I was so worried that the feathered sharptooth had killed you. I’m so glad that you’re alive.”

Sorrel pulled away from Hyacinth, her smile just as big as the Apatosaurus’s. As she turned to also give Orchid a hug, she spotted the little black feathered Velociraptor.  “Who’s this?”

“That’s Black Smoke,” Orchid spoke enthusiastically as she ambled up to the young woman to give her a nuzzle. “She helped us find you. She’s a Scarcarrier. Isn't it so cool that we have met another Scarcarrier. First, it was Crooked, who could heal, then it was Heat and his ability over fire, and now it's Black Smoke, who can track anything. Oh, you never met Crooked and Heat. We should go back to that forest. Maybe we could meet up with the herd again. That would be so cool, wouldn't it, Hyacinth?” Orchid grinned as she turned her head toward the Apatosaurus she stood next to, wiggling with excitement. “I would love to see Pine again. I know I said that I wanted to meet that one legendary spiketail, but they might actually be a female. If they are a male, they are probably courting a female or are already mated. I know a few of my herdmembers that are even younger than me and are mated. It's insane to think about them, you know, doing that, at that age. I would not be ready to be a mother so young, I still want to go on adventures. I guess since I have never been courted and there were never really any males around my age that I was interested in, I just didn't have any good choices.”

“Okay, spiketail. I think they understand,” Black Smoke grumbled, giving a roll of her neon blue eyes. Orchid had been rambling on almost nonstop since they had first started tracking the thinskin. “And if that’s all you need me for, I’ll be on my way.”

“Where are you going? You don’t have pack anymore. Do you want to come with us?” Orchid turned her attention to the Velociraptor.

“With two massive herbivores and a thinskin? I think I’ll pass. I prefer being alone.”  Letting out a small trill, the black Velociraptor shook out her short black pinfeathers before turning away from the group. Within a few moments, her black form was gone from sight.
 
“Are you leaving right away? Shadow Watcher’s voice broke the reunion. “Did you want to see Stone Claw one last time?”

“Stone Claw!” Sorrel shouted. “I almost forget about him. No, I’m not going to leave yet. I want to make sure he is okay.”

Shadow Watcher gave a small nod as he gripped the lower part of the Therizinosaurus’s neck in his jaws and began dragging it toward the canyon. Sorrel followed closely behind, still cradling Digger in her arms. Hyacinth and Orchid trailed a few feet behind them, a bit uncertain about the Utahraptor. They knew he was on good terms with them, but seeing the large feathered carnivore dragging another dinosaur unnerved the pair of adolescents.

It did not take long for the group of travelers to return to the canyon. Shadow Watcher and Sorrel carefully maneuvered down the narrow pathway while Hyacinth and Orchid looked on from above. The two herbivores were unable to descend with the others, their massive bulk a hindrance. Hyacinth’s feet could not even fit on the thin path.  

“Woah!” Orchid shouted form above, her brown eyes wide at the sight of Stone Claw’s broken form lying motionless amongst the rubble. “What happened to him?”

Sorrel looked up at the purple Stegosaurus before returning her gaze to the sandy feathered Utahraptor she was now crouched next to. She reached out a hand to stroke the soft feathers around his neck. “He was crushed by a boulder that fell during the earthquake.”

“Oh…I hope he’ll be okay. He seemed like one of the nicer ones. Not saying that you aren’t nice, umm…Shadow? You’re cool and all...Whoa! Who is that? That’s a good sickleclaw right? I really hope they are with your Shadow. Sorrel! Watch out. It’s too large to be your type of sickleclaw.” Orchid let out a bellow at the approaching predator.

Sorrel turned around to see Heat Flare’s white head from behind one of the fallen boulders. A large rodent hung limp in her jaws as she approached Sorrel and Shadow Watcher crouched beside the wounded raptor. When the brown and white female spotted Orchid, she dropped her prey and gave a loud hiss. “So you brought live food, Shadow Watcher? Even better. I get to have myself a hunt.”

“No!” the smaller Utahraptor shouted, jumping to his feet. “I brought you dead prey. Those are the friends of Sorrel. You can’t kill them. I brought your favorite,” he nudged the strange, long-necked herbivore toward his packmate. “Therizinosaurus. It just happened to be feeding nearby. I knew you liked them so I decided it go after it. It didn’t take much to kill it. It didn’t know I was there, so a quick bite to the neck and it was dead.”

Heat Flare gave a small grunt at Shadow Watcher as her emerald eyes scrutinized the prey. “I would be impressed if it wasn’t an adolescent. It was probably too dumb to know that you were even there. I enjoy Therizinosaurus not only for the exotic taste, but also for the hunt. Full-grown adults with experience are difficult to kill. If you were trying to impress me or win me over, you haven’t.”

“Umm…” was all the black feathered male could do as Heat Flare crouched down, beginning to rip the feathers off the strange herbivore’s body.

The large brown and white Utahraptor ripped most of the feathers off around the Therizinosaurus’s belly. When the soft brown feathers and down were pulled away she began rasping a tongue over the bare skin, taking away any stray feathers. With no feathers left, Heat Flare sniffed at the pale brown flesh. Satisfied with her work, she sat up on her hunches. With one of the three claws on her forepaws, she slit the Therizinosauru’s stomach open. Placing her three-clawed forepaw back on the ground, she dug her jaws into the now open body cavity. The brown and white feathered Utahraptor pulled out most of the internal organs, pushing aside ones she did not want while keeping the others by her feet. Pleased with her organ piles, she began eating the tangy flesh where it was most tender, on the hind legs.

“That’s really gross,” Orchid muttered from above the canyon, a grimace of disgust on her face. The gray sauropod beside her said nothing, looking close to losing her own food as she observed the feasting below.

Shadow Watcher turned his attention to his injured packmate. He sniffed at Stone Claw’s prone from, letting out a soft sigh. The sandy feathered male had not waken since he had nudged him earlier. The black Utahraptor settled onto the cool, stony ground. He laid his head down on his forepaws, silver eyes staring up at the gloomy gray sky. How long would it take for the healer to get here? How long could Stone Claw last?

Only the sound of Heat Flare ripping at the flesh off the dead carcass and crunching on its bones filled the silence. Digger, having been set down on the ground by Sorrel, let out a small chirrup as she watched the large Utahraptor devour her meal. As if feel the omnivore’s gaze on her, Heat Flare turned her sharp, green gaze to the tiny female. The carnivore let out a low growl, bearing her bloodstained teeth, her entire head drenched in scarlet blood. The mauve Oviraptor let out a small chitter before turning back to Sorrel, snuggling into the human’s side.

Sorrel patted Digger’s head, smiling down at her. A sudden thought crossed the young woman’s mind. “With all the excitement of being reunited with my friends, I forget to introduce you to Hyacinth and Orchid. I’m guessing you’re going with us, aren’t you?”

Just as Digger nodded her head, Shadow Watcher swiftly stood to his feet, sniffing the air. “Ice Wind and Snow Feather are back with Moon Splash,” he announced.

At her packmate’s words, Heat Flare looked up from her meal. With white head feathers now stained red with blood, she stood up, padding over to the returning trio. She was greeted by Ice Wind, a dull brown feathered male only a few season’s older than her. “You’re a mess.”

The massive female only gave a grunt at him, sweeping her emerald gaze over the small female, Snow Feather, standing behind him. The pure white, adolescent quickly adverted her golden gaze away from the older female. This had been her first hunt and an eventful one at that. Before she was wishing to catch something, maybe even a simple rodent, but now all the shy adolescent desired was that no packmember died today.

“Let me see Stone Claw,” a gravelly feminine voice broke from the group as an elderly Utahraptor pushed her way passed the other two. She was about three-fourths the size of an average sized Utahraptor. Her body covered in shorter silver pinfeathers than that of her norther forest counterparts. She possessed the same, long decorative feathers on the back of her forearms and tail tip. Beneath her silvery fluff were many scars, most clearly not created by another set of natural weapons. They were runes.

“Here,” Shadow Watcher spoke, stepping aside for the silver feathered healer. “Shifting Sand didn’t come?”

“She was out when we got Moon Splash,” Ice Wind spoke, eyeing the left overs of Heat Flare’s meal.

“Don’t even think about it,” the white and brown female snarled.

Moon Splash crouched down next to Stone Claw. She glanced at Sorrel before looking up at the canyon cliff side where the two herbivores watched. Letting out a small, almost aggravated sigh she eyed Heat Flare and Shadow Watcher. The black male shifted with discomfort under the elderly female's icy blue gaze. Heat Flare on the other hand, completely ignored the Healer, too focused on growling at Ice Wind. The dull brown, orange-eyed male kept darting forward, trying to steal a piece of meal from the younger female’s meal.

 “Looks like I have my work cut out for me this time,” Moon Splash growled to Shadow Watcher as she placed a three-clawed forepaw at the top of Stone Claw’s neck. She slowly ran her forepaw down the sandy male’s back, feeling for any broken bones. She then moved to his pelvis, also feeling for damage. “Three breaks in the lumbar…all the thoracic vertebrae are fine…the pelvis is completely shattered…I’ll worry about his tail later. Being able to walk is more important.”

The elderly female shifted slightly, placing her other forepaw onto Stone Claw’s spine. She gave a soft click and began to hum, rocking side-to-side; icy blue eyes drooping close. Soft clicking noises echoed throughout the once more dead silent canyon. Stone Claw’s vertebrae where being set back into place and his spinal cord regenerating by the silver Utahraptor’s unique ability. When Moon Splash had finished with the sandy male’s spine, she stopped humming and rocking, but her eyes stayed hooded. Shifting her three-clawed paws to Stone Claw’s pelvis, she began the ritual again.

Once Moon Splash completed her task, she drew back. “What trouble you have gotten yourself into. And to think you were the careful, thoughtful one. I thought it was Shadow Watcher whom was hurt when the two got me.” The female chuckled standing up and turning to Snow Feather. “I’m done here. Let’s go. I have a few other things to finish.”  

“Wait!” Sorrel shouted. “Could you please check Digger? I patched her up but I'm worried she might have internal bleeding. Shadow Watcher flung her pretty hard into some rocks.”

“Hurting helpless little creatures now, are you?” Moon Splash mused, throwing an amused glance at the black raptor as she approached the blonde haired woman.

“She stole Ebony Sky's egg!”

“Hmm...,” Moon Splash hummed as she spread her clawed paws over the mauve Oviraptor. “And you didn't kill her?”

Shadow Watcher opened his mouth, stumbling over his words. “I-Ebony...she...” He trailed off, shifting uncomfortably, silver eyes averted from the elderly female.

“You found out,” Moon Splash laughed, her silver paw falling from Digger's body. “The Oviraptor is fine.”

“You knew?” Shadow Watcher shouted. “You knew that she...she...she didn't...want it...” he trailed off.

“Well it was with the troublemaker of the pack. Foolish and impulsive. They were never destined to be mates.”  

The black Utahraptor let loose a low growl before stalking off. Sorrel watched as Shadow Watcher stalked down the canyon, his growls echoing off the walls.

“Hey, Sorrel. Can we get moving? I really want to get to the Great Valley, but we have to visit Angela's grave first,” Orchid called from above the canyon. “I so badly want to meet that legendary spiketail. I really hope it’s a boy. And really hope the longneck is a boy too so that Hyacinth can have someone…”

“Umm…” Sorrel trailed off as she tuned out the rest of the Stegosaurus’s ramblings, looking in the direction Shadow Watcher had abruptly left. “Bye, Shadow Watcher,” she shouted. “See you around sometime?”  

Without a backwards glance, the agitated Utahraptor just lifted his black feathered arm in acknowledgement. With that, the young woman said her good-byes to the rest of the raptor pack before wrapping Digger securely in her arm and quickly climbing out of the canyon to join the two waiting herbivores.

***
Two weeks quietly passed since Sorrel had officially left the Utahraptors. She and the pair of herbivores, along with the tiny Oviraptor, trekked along at a leisurely pace. There was no need to get to the Great Valley at any specific time and after the exhausting adventures they had just been through, it was nice to relax. The time was passed getting to know the newest member of their unusual little group as well as Hyacinth relating more stories to Sorrel of her great-aunt Angela’s time spent with the dinosaurs. They spent a day with the mixed herd on their travel through the forest and would have spent more time if Orchid had had her way, but Sorrel was now anxious to get to her great-aunt’s grave site.  Luckily for the group, they did not meet many predators during their journey, and the ones they did come across, they were easily able to evade them before being detected.

Now the group slowly lumbered into the grove of flowering trees where Angela was buried. Sorrel slid off of Hyacinth’s back and reverently kneeled down by the grave, brushing a hand over the rocks placed over the disturbed earth. “Hey, Aunt Angie. I finally made it to this world,” the young woman greeted in a choked whisper. Images flashed through her mind of the times spent with her beloved great-aunt. It was Aunt Angie’s enthusiasm that had set her niece on the path to the dinosaur world.

“I wish you could have been there when I first appeared,” Sorrel continued as tears glistened in her dark brown eyes. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be, but your spirit will always live on in me and all those that you have touched both here and in our world. I love Hyacinth, she’s so sweet and nice. You would be proud of her. She made it to the northern land to find me, along with her new friend, Orchid. I met the pack of Utahraptors. They took care of me until Hyacinth came, just as they promised you they would. They were pretty cool.”

The young woman paused for a moment, a gentle breeze playfully teasing her short blond hair as if it were her great-aunt acknowledging her words. “I love you.”

The gray Apatosaururs smiled down at the young woman before leaning down to nuzzle her. Sorrel smiled back at the sauropod giving her head a hug.

“I love you too, Mother,” Hyacinth muttered, nuzzling the grave. “We’re going to the Great Valley just like you wanted us to.”

“So we’re finally going?” Orchid asked.

Sorrel nodded, turning to the purple Stegosaurus. “To the Great Valley.”

   

That’s the end of the Truth’s Exposed. I’m not sure when I’ll be posting book two, “Sincere Heart.” It’ll at least be a few months since I want to focus my energy on my originals. When I get going on it, it’s going to be so much fun. They’ll be a few twists and turns along with a couple more thinskins to meet.

Comments anytime are appreciated. Even if this book is finished, still comment on it if you would like. Fan art is also very welcomed.  You can still submit characters too if you would like.

And one last thing, I have changed Digger’s underbelly to a light mauve color instead of cyan.

Happy Holidays to all and here’s to a Wonderful New Year filled with many more stories!

Kittybubbles =^..^=