This is another idea I had from way back, that I even implented bits of, in an LBT fanfic that is no longer on Fanfiction.net.  I decided to flesh it out more, and try it out here.  I also wanted to try something that was action packed, but not as overly gruesome as Chronicles of The Balaur, because I realize that seems to turn off some of the LBT fanfic readers out there.

The following is inspired largely by a Japanese series called Kamen Rider Black.  Look it up on Youtube some time, and you'll see why I picked who I picked to be the hero.  The design of Black's costume just seems to match up with this character in some odd way.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDaTxJvXRs0  Opening


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdgzRtsf4eY  End credits

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I have up, and what I hope to put up in the future.

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The Earth is far older than one may think...

It's history stretches far beyond what humans can trace.

No one in today's world would know it, but there was once an age of beings that existed on Earth long before even the dinosaurs.  They were known as the Golgomites, and they called the planet Golgom at that time.    

The only reason they left no evidence of their existence, was that many years before the first dinosaur had walked the Earth, the Golgomites had been nearly wiped out by a civil war that had consumed the entire planet. It destroyed much of their environment, and made the planet uninhabitable for many years.  

The war had been carried out by a Golgomite calling himself the Eon King.  He wished to rule the planet with an Iron fist, but met with resistance all across the planet.  Once he gained the control he so desired, and saw the surface world in ruins, he gathered what remained of his followers, and retreated into the underground world.  

From there, he used his power to ignite the earth's core, and cleanse the surface world with volcanic activity all around.  He then decreed that no Golgomite would go to the surface until he reached his 1000th year of life, died, and was succeeded.

Years passed, and when the new Eon King was crowned, the Golgomites went to the surface to see what had become of their world...they were shocked to find that it had now been taken over by the giant creatures, the dinosaurs.  It was no longer a world for their kind.  

The new Eon King realized that cleansing the Earth again was no longer an option...his people had been slowly dying out in the underground world, and without their life forces to sustain him, he knew his own life would be much, much shorter than that of his predecessor.  

They needed blood...fresh blood from the world above, he decided, to finally give the Golgomites a chance to reclaim what was once theirs.  It was radical thinking for a Golgomite, but he believed the circumstances called for it.

All he needed to do was find test subjects...two of them...  

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Episode 1:  The Change

Night had fallen on the world above, as one of the descendants of the original Golgomites walked down the dark, forbidding hall of a dark mountain, inside of which the faithful followers of the Eon King had built their base of operations, waiting for one faithful day...

a day that they had finally reached.

The cloaked, hooded figure of the humanoid creature walked slowly into what looked like a dark operating room, meeting two other hooded figures in front of him.  One was a female, having the face and bill of a hadrosaur, only with dark red eyes, and black streaks along the sides of her white face.

The second figure was male, his dark blue face having a pointed nose, and short horns coming from his head, obviously related to a three-horn.  He towered over the other female, who was still taller than the third figure.  

The third creature seemed to resemble a longneck in his face, only his skin was all pale and crinkled, apparently showing the ravages of age, as he lurched in front of his two comrades, carrying two crystal orbs in his hands.  

"Dai Shin Kan Baroumu..." He addressed the three-horn by his priest title, before calling the female by hers.  "Dai Shin Kan Bishimu...The great Eon King has entrusted me with the two holy King Stones...are our sacrifices prepared?"

"All is ready for the ceremony, Dai Shin Kan Daroumu..."  The female bowed as she spoke in her deep, smooth voice.  

"It was only a matter of time before we found two subjects to the Eon King's liking..." Baroumu smiled.  "One is older than the other, but he is still capable, I believe."

Daroumu nodded as he crept slowly into the room with the two lit operating tables...it was on these tables where the forms of Petrie, and his uncle Pterano, were restrained, looking as frightened as they were when they were first captured.

"Yes..." Daroumu walked over to the now-teen-aged flier first.  "They both resemble our great King in his former state quite well..."  

"Don't touch him!"  Pterano yelled as he struggled against the restraints.  "Don't touch him!"  

"You shall be silent!"  Baroumu growled as he held out his hand, and shot lightning bolts from a special device placed over all of his fingers.  The bolts shocked Pterano, making him cry out in pain.  

"Pterano!"  Petrie yelled to his Uncle, before Baroumu stopped, leaving him to smoke and moan.  

"Great Eon King!"  Daroumu called up to the sky as he reached up with both of his hands, extending both the king stones over the two fliers...the red stone was over Petrie, while the green hovered Pterano.

"With your blessing, let us transfer the power of these stones into the bodies of these two creatures!  Let them transcend their once meaningless lives as denizens of this ruined world, and live their lives anew as our Century Kings!"  

He then held the red stone over Petrie as it began to glow..."Black Sun!"

He then quickly held the glowing green stone over Pterano.  "Shadow Moon!"

With that, two great beams of energy shot into the bodies of the two fliers, making them tremble and convulse with their power.  Petrie trembled and cried out in pain, as Pterano heard this, making himself cry out even more at his Nephew's suffering.

It was in that moment, that Pterano did something the priests would have never expected...with a sudden burst of strength, he was able to break his wings out of the restraints on his arms.  Baroumu tried to subdue him with a lightning blast, before Pterano flew over and grabbed him by the arm.

This action threw Baroumu off guard, making his lightning bolts hit Petrie's table, just as Daroumu had finished with the energy transfer.  A second later, the battery on the table died, causing all of Petrie's restraints to come apart.  

"Run!"  Pterano yelled to his nephew.  "Run!  Get out of here!  Get help!"  

Petrie quickly nodded, not wanting to leave his Uncle, but not wanting to stay behind either...as he flew off, Baroumu quickly threw Pterano off of him, and in a rage, nailed him with an even harsher blast of energy bolts, knocking him into unconsciousness.  

Petrie breathed heavily in fear as he flew about the cavernous tunnels of the mountain, trying to find a way out.  He searched and searched for light, but there was none to be found.

It was then that he heard a loud pulsing noise in his direction.  He turned to see a rather startling contraption in one of the several caverns.  It stood on two wheels, with a green and black color scheme, along with two red eyes that glowed through the darkness.  

The machine made the pulsing noise again as Petrie flew towards it.  Petrie was afraid it would attack, but it didn't seem interested in doing so...it was designed to interact with whomever possessed a king stone, which, unknown to Petrie, was now inside of his body.

It turned its head to a passage, and nodded to it with its handlebars, making a revving noise now.  Petrie swallowed, as he climbed aboard the sentient bike slowly, and held on for dear life...

The Bike then revved again, and zoomed quickly through the caverns, eventually taking Petrie out into the open land again.  

"What a way to spend my hatchday..."  Petrie thought to himself as he held tightly to the bike.   Indeed, Petrie had agreed to Pterano's idea of flying him out to some special sections of the Mysterious Beyond that he knew of, as a special gift to his Nephew.

Only something happened along the way back home...a huge cluster of swarming leaf-gobblers attacked them, aggressively zooming around them and interrupting their flight...almost as if they were being controlled.  It was then that the three priests emerged and grabbed them.  

But now he was safe...only Pterano still wasn't, he realized.  He thought to himself as he rode along to safety, trying to think of a way to save him.  

Before he could plan something, however, something suddenly made the bike waver and fall over, crashing as it threw him off.  He tumbled and looked up to see the priests hovering above the ground, looking down at him.  Daroumu had just used his powers of telekinesis to through the bike off of its track.  

He then shot out his hand again as Petrie tried to fly away, making a guttural "chhhhhhwoooooo!" noise as he did it, pulling the young flier towards the priests with his energy.  

"It's no use running, boy..." Daroumu growled.  "The transfer of power is finished.  You are one of us."  

"No!"  Petrie yelled as he struggled in midair.  

"It's too late to protest..." Bishimu smiled.  "Your body is no longer that of a normal dinosaur."  

"Allow me to demonstrate..." Daroumu grinned.  He Then pushed out with his right hand, using his telekinesis to fling Petrie into a large tree.  He slammed Petrie into the bark again and again, before throwing him down into a big pile of rocks, making them shatter.  

Petrie grunted and struggled to pull himself out of the rubble, hurt, but alive...

"You see, boy..." Baroumu spoke now.  "The power and protection of the king stone flows through your body.  Why try to run from us, and return to those who would only reject you as you are now, when you could join us, and cleanse this world once and for all?"  

"I won't do it..." Petrie shook his head as he struggled back to his feet. "I won't do it..."

Daroumu shook his head slowly.  "You still need more persuasion I see..."  He then pulled back and pushed with his hand, sending a powerful blast of telekinetic energy, making Petrie fly through the sky as he yelled and hurtled down towards a cave.  

The three priests then floated after him, as they heard the sound of him crashing into the cave, and the dust rising from the opening soon after.  They all landed near this same opening, preparing to go in after him.  

"Wait..." Daroumu suddenly spoke as he put his hand out towards the other two.  "I sense something...

The impact of the last throw had knocked Petrie half-unconscious...and in that state, he had somehow activated his king stone, and was now transforming.

The priests looked over and saw a figure rising to his feet in the darkness, walking slowly to the opening of the cave with each gentle step.  At the moment the figure had emerged, he had achieved his full transformed state.  

Petrie was now in the form of a tall creature dressed in black armor.  His slim, almost spindly figure concealed great power and agility, as his red eyes glowed on his black helmet, complete with metal antennae, and an insect-like mouthpiece.  Red and yellow power stripes ran around his wrists and ankles, as well as up and over the top of his helmet.  His red king stone was visible as well, on his waist in a metallic device.  

"Ah...Black Sun!"  Baroumu proclaimed as he confirmed the creature's appearance.  

Petrie just stared at the three in his new form, his body temperature rising as steam rose out of open spaces in his armor, showing off bits of his new muscles.  

"Be Careful..." Daroumu warned as he walked towards Petrie.  "His memory hasn't been wiped yet...there's no telling what he could-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Petrie suddenly jumped, and kicked Daroumu right in the chest on his way back down.  Baroumu quickly tried to hit him with more lightning bolts, but Petrie was too fast now.  He quickly rolled to avoid the blast, before picking up a rock and throwing it at Baroumu.  

Baroumu had shot more bolts out as this happened.  They hit the rock instead, as it crashed into him, shocking him greatly.  

Bishimu then sprung into action, as she turned her head to Petrie, and shot great beams of concussive energy from her red eyes.  These beams hit Petrie in his midsection, and made him grunt in pain as he fell to his back.  

She then floated over to grab him, before he quickly recovered and flipped up back onto his feet.  His king stone began to glow with increasing power, as he punched and kicked at the priestess, who dodged each of these moves.  

She fired another beam from her eyes at him, as he rolled out of the way, and they smashed into more rocks instead.  He then jumped and flew down to her, catching her in the face with a hard right fist.  She could sense the power rising in his form as she backed away from him.  

Before he could pursue her, though, he suddenly felt something tighten around his neck.  Daroumu had now recovered from the surprise blow, and caught him in the grasp of his telekinesis once more, growling as he had his right hand extended in a crushing fist.

"Like it or not..." Daroumu grunted.  "Like it or not, you're coming back to your new home boy...so make it easy on yourself...don't make me choke the life out of your frail body..."

Petrie grunted, and thought of something...it was a new impulse, that was a part of his new self.  He looked to the right as his eyes suddenly started flashing.

"Battle Hopper!"  He finally yelled through his choking.

The priests then heard the engine of the bike that he Petrie had found revving up in the distance.  It zipped past them faster than they expected, and made a head-on collision with Daroumu, making him release Petrie.  

Daroumu growled in pain as he backed off, watching as Petrie quickly hopped onto the bike, revved it up himself through the handlebar, and zipped off into the night at an incredible speed.  

"Damn it all!"  Baroumu clenched his fists in anger.  

"He's gaining power faster than we expected..." Bishimu observed, her face now slightly bruised.  

"We must correct this mistake as soon as possible..." Daroumu frowned.  "Or else the Eon King may see to our execution..."

"Let's find him, then!"  Baroumu began to float away from the other two.  

"No!"  Daroumu shook his head.  "He's become too strong for us simple priests to apprehend...we must return to base, and seek assistance from one of our Warriors."  

"We must also check on the condition of our Shadow Moon..."  Bishimu added.

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Petrie had now changed back into his original self as he stumbled off of Battle Hopper.  The first transformation had taken its toll on him, as he fell to his knees, attempting to remember what had just happened.

He remembered he was abducted, along with his uncle...he had been inside a mountain...but where?  Where was this mountain.  That was the one thing he had trouble remembering.  He didn't know the area as well as Pterano did.  

Then he remembered the rest...transforming, and fighting off the evil priests.  He knew they still had his Uncle now, and he shuddered at the thought of what those three could be doing to him now.  

"Don't worry, Uncle..." Petrie looked off into the sky as he thought to himself.  "I'll find a way out of all this..." He looked at the hands on his wings.  "I don't what it is they gave to me...but I'll learn to use it...and soon...soon, I'm gonna get you out of there, once I find you."

He then walked to Battle Hopper, and got back onto the machine.

"Uhhh...Do you know the way back to the Great Valley?" he asked the bike.  

Battle hopper beeped a few times, turned its head to the direction of the valley, and revved its engine once more.  

"Great!"  Petrie smiled.  "Let's go back there first...I don't wanna leave Pterano behind, but I don't want Mom to worry about me either..."

Battle Hopper then beeped in response, as it then go itself moving again, and Drove off with Petrie on top.  




         

This is a fanfic I decided to try out a while ago...I finished Book I, and am working on Book II right now. So let me know what you think, since i don't get much response on fanfiction.net, hehe.

Warning: This fic is M rated, for some gruesome violence, and a little bit of foul language. Definitely not for young, or sensitive readers.

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Book I: Unwanted Genesis

Chapter 1

Shorty called out suddenly, bolting up from his sleep as he panted quickly from where he had just been sleeping a moment ago. This prompted a response from Bron, who was also awakened by the sound.

“Shorty?” he groggily called his adopted son’s name. “What’s wrong?”

Shorty sighed and just shook his head. “Nothing…”

“Bad dreams again?” Bron asked him, sympathetically.

Shorty just nodded slowly in response.

“You sure you don’t wanna talk about them?”

Shorty slowly looked up into his eyes. “I wouldn’t know what to tell you if I tried. I can’t understand what they’re about at all…all I know is I keep seeing this…thing. Whatever it is, it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever encountered.”

“Well, you know it’s not real, whatever it is…” Bron answered him, reassuringly. “So take it out of your mind…and try to think about something else, something pleasant, so you’ll sleep.”

Shorty nodded slowly, and settled back down into his sleeping spot. He took Bron’s advice, and started thinking about anything that was pleasant…not an easy task for someone who never had an easy life, never knew his mother or father…until he met Bron.

That was it…he focused on Bron, and the subsequent meeting with his son, Littlefoot, as well as all of his friends. He smiled as he began to drift off once more, thinking of one of the few comforts he had in this world…few, but plenty for him, as he hoped he would be meeting them all again soon.

But as his nightmares would foretell, that simply wasn’t in the cards for him…

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It was daytime now. In the meadow, among the other longnecks, a lone adult female walked slowly apart from the others. She moved past a few older longnecks, seemingly in search of one in particular. She looked to her left and right, before seeing a familiar face, helping himself to some tree-stars.

“Heya Shorty…” She smiled as she approached the teen longneck.

“Hm?” he looked up for a moment, and then smiled. “Oh…hey Mika.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know where Bron is right now, do you?” She asked him, innocently.

“Hmmm…” Shorty thought to himself as he chewed. “I think he’s over near that pond, right behind those trees to the right of you.” He motioned in the right direction with his head.

“Thanks, Shorty.” Mika smiled to him as she walked off, leaving him to eat.

Shorty slowly began to think to himself as he ate…she had been seeing Bron quite a bit ever since she first joined up with the herd at his permission. He then wondered what Bron thought of her coming to see him so much. Usually he didn’t like to be bothered too much by someone he didn’t really like…could it be? Was Bron developing a kind of fondness for this female?

He didn’t have much more time to think on this, however, as he suddenly heard one of the other longnecks shout “Redclaw! Redclaw!”

Shorty shot straight to attention, as the older, but still dangerous T-rex, and his two raptor allies, came rushing into the meadow, snarling and roaring. His body bore a few scars from past fights in the recent years, and his teeth were a little dirty, but still as sharp as ever, his two friends terrorizing the other longnecks.

Shorty acted quickly, not wanting Bron to have to face Redclaw right now, as he ran straight out into his path. “Hey! Remember me, bonehead?” He yelled, making the T-Rex remember his past encounters with him and his great valley friends in the past.

Redclaw took one look at Shorty, and snarled loudly, roaring as he took off after the young longneck that dared to insult him. Shorty ran far ahead of him on all fours, trying to find a way to lose him for the moment.

He darted past a few trees, trying to hide behind them…no good, as Redclaw spotted him right away. He ran past a few more trees, and hopped over some rocks in what looked like a big quarry. He looked back and saw Redclaw hopping easily over the same big rocks, as he continued his pursuit into the rocky area.

Shorty ran around what he thought would be a quick corner leading him back to the forest…instead finding a big rock wall right in front of him. He was cornered, and about to be confronted and eaten by the angry Redclaw…he had to think quickly…he then tried to run away from the wall as fast as he could.

He then felt a big pair of jaws SLAM down onto his back.

“AAAAAHHHHH!” Shorty screamed, as Redclaw had managed to grab a hold of him in his teeth. He lifted Shorty off the ground, and tried to chomp down hard to finish him…discovering that he was having a hard time of it for some reason.

That bite, Redclaw would discover, had set something off inside of Shorty…something very bizarre. His eyes had suddenly changed completely red, blood red. His teeth started to get sharper as his muscles began to bulge and grow under his flesh. It grew so much, that the force ended up breaking off two of Redclaws teeth, making the T-Rex growl in pain as he finally dropped Shorty.

The young longneck continued to growl and shake his head all around, as his overall form changed…he painfully raised himself onto his hindlegs as his forelegs slowly took the shape of arms…immense green arms with sharp claws at the end of each finger. His tail stayed intact as he then looked up to the sky, slender horns growing out of his forehead and resting back on his head as he roared out to the sky in a shrill, menacing voice.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

Redclaw now looked down to see something…quite different from the usual longneck. His face (for the most part) and his skin color were intact, but were now part of a strong, glistening wet body, the new creature a biomechanical horror, with traces of metal in his body that weren’t quite evident…yet.

The creature roared at Redclaw, who gladly returned the roar. This thing was still smaller than he was…what possible damage could he do?

The answer to that quickly came, when the creature suddenly sprung off the ground on his powerful legs, and grabbed onto Redclaw’s muzzle with his arms, growling as he bit into the flesh, drawing blood.

Redclaw roared out in pain, shaking his head violently. The creature simply stayed latched on, not being shaken off at all as he chomped down for as long as he pleased. Redclaw finally found the rock wall, and threw his head against it, bashing the creature into it. The creature finally let go, and growled as it dropped onto the ground.

Redclaw took advantage as he lunged down, forcing the creature to block with his left arm as he chomped down onto it…again, having trouble tearing the limb from the body.

The creature roared again, in frustration, as slits suddenly opened up in his wrists. Two long steel blades shot out of these openings, as the creature then brought the right blade under Redclaws head…and promptly shoved it in straight up, impaling him through the lower jaw.

Redclaw almost screamed as he roared in pain, pulling back as the creature withdrew the blade, stained with blood. He then roared out in frustration, his bloody maw moving down to chomp at the creature again. This time, the creature grabbed his muzzle with his left arm, and powerfully slammed his head against the rock wall with it. He then quickly lunged over with his right arm at the ready, and roared as he plunged the blade right into Redclaw’s left eye.

Blood gushed out of where the eye had been, as Redclaw shrieked in agony, roaring and shaking his head around some more as the creature pulled out the blade and walked back. The now visually impaired T-Rex stumbled along the quarry, as he knew he was defeated now, using his one good eye to find a way out of the area.

The creature was now slowly calming down, as he then collapsed back on all fours, and felt his body slowly begin to reverse the dramatic change that he had experienced, his form shaking and grunting. In a matter of seconds he was Shorty once again.

“Shorty?” He heard Bron’s voice calling to him now, as the Male Longneck entered the area, not knowing what had just occurred. “Shorty, what’s going on? Are you ok? Where’s Redclaw?”

“He’s gone…” Shorty simply responded, standing back up fully.

“Well what happened?” Bron asked as he looked around the quarry. “There’s an awful lot of blood around here…”

“Yeah, he hurt himself pretty good this time.” Shorty smiled a bit, trying to keep a brave face. “I got him to trip on a big rock over there, and he smashed his face into the wall over there…I think a sharp rock got him right in the eye.”

Bron winced a bit as he heard this, but nodded. “Well…serves the bastard right.” He chuckled a little. “Come on back, Shorty…the rest of us already chased off his two fast-biter cronies…and Mika just found some sweet bubbles too.”

“Oh nice…” Shorty smiled. “I’ll be right with you…”

Bron nodded softly and walked off…leaving Shorty to contemplate what had just occurred. He looked down over himself with genuine fear and distress in his eyes.

“What…the hell…just happened…” He said out loud, before thinking to himself. “That can’t have been real….but I see all this blood from what I did…” He then sighed to himself as he began to walk off.

“I just hope I can keep control of whatever it was, so Bron never sees it…”

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Later that day, just as the sun was setting, Shorty, Bron, and Mika, were all enjoying some food. Shorty looked at the two, who were smiling at each other every so often, and couldn’t help but ask at this point.

“Hey Mika?” He spoke up. “Sorry if I’m being nosy…but I noticed you’ve been hanging around with Bron and me a lot lately”

Bron just ate, as Mika chuckled a little and tilted her head. “What’s wrong with that? Does it get on your nerves?”

“Oh, no, no…” Shorty shook his head slowly. “I was just wondering…Why only us? I don’t really see you with too many others in the herd.”

Mika looked over to Bron, wondering what to say. Bron just swallowed his food, and took over from there, looking down at his adopted son.

“Shorty…I guess we sort of left you out of the loop on this, but…well, Mika and I have developed a bit of a…fondness for each other ever since she joined us.”

Shorty had to think about this for a second, but the realization came to him like a light going on his head. “I see…” He immediately thought of something else. “Are you making plans to tell Littlefoot about you and her soon? I think he’s got a right to know.”

“That is the hardest part of all this.” Bron nodded slowly. “I guess I have been hesitating a bit…I mean, he loved his mother, and he never even met me for years. I can’t imagine this is going to sit well with him. And I haven’t even considered his grandparents…her parents.”

“You should still tell them…” Shorty spoke again before eating a few more leaves.

“He’s right.” Mika nodded slowly. “As uncomfortable they may be with this at first, they’ll really resent you if you hide this all from them.”

Shorty continued to eat…until he suddenly felt something…something off…

He slowly raised his head, as the uneasy continued to fill him. He didn’t know what was causing it…but it was there…and it seemed to be telling him something.

“Shorty…” Bron looked down at him. “What’s up?”

Shorty just stood there, paying attention to this new sensation…it seemed to be telling him that there was something near him…something malevolent…and it was approaching…right…behind him.

“SHORTY!” Bron suddenly shouted, spotting it just in time. Shorty moved quickly out of the way as the two raptors, Redclaw’s cronies, lunged towards him at the same time, narrowly missing.

Bron and Mika both quickly backed away, looking down and seeing that the raptors had no interest in either of them…they wanted the one that had attacked their leader…that had injured and humiliated him. Redclaw was ripe with Shorty’s scent when they found him stumbling around in the forest, and were able to use that to find the longneck. They looked at each other, puzzled as to how this teen longneck could do that to their ally…but the scent was an exact match, so they continued to approach him.

“Please…” Shorty shook his head as he backed away. “Please don’t attack me…” he said what he did, not out of fear for his life, but because of what he knew would happen now if he became as enraged as he did when Redclaw bit down on him.

Bron immediately took action, and swung out his tail to take down the raptors. He only managed to hit one, knocking it across the meadow, as the other one was able to stay in pursuit of Shorty.

Shorty continued to run, looking back and seeing the raptor quickly catching up, as he tried to find a place to hide…any place at all. He wasn’t having much luck with it.

His time ran out, and no other longneck in the area was able to catch the raptor, as it suddenly sprung into the air, and caught Shorty in its claws, rolling with him into some bushes as it attempted to finish him off.

“SHORTY! NO!” Bron shouted again, looking on with a very concerned Mika at his side. The other raptor quickly got up, and ran over to the sight of the rustling bushes. It hoped that its partner had saved some of the longneck for its own dinner.

It then suddenly stopped as it heard a loud “GRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!” followed by the pained squealing of the attacking raptor…seconds later, the lifeless, bloody body of the raptor flew out from the bushes and landed right in front of its partner, its throat and belly slashed wide open.

Everyone watching was frozen in horror now, as the creature slowly stepped out from behind the bushes, the blades on its wrists already out as they dripped with blood. He then eyed the other raptor, and held out its fists, roaring angrily into the air.

The raptor wanted to run at first, but it then looked at the broken body of its longtime friend, and roared back, wanting revenge. It then leapt at the creature, its own claws fully extracted as it came down and slashed at him.

The creature moved quickly, the claws cutting a bit into his body as some greenish blood leaked out. It didn’t bother him though, as he knocked the raptor away with a hard sidekick to the jaw.

The raptor flew a few feet along the ground, before it got back up and growled at him again. The creature then roared back at him, and showed off its own jumping abilities, leaping high into the air on his strong legs.

The raptor didn’t have time to get out of the way, as the creature pounced right onto it, and sunk his sharp teeth right into its shoulder. The raptor squealed and growled as blood seeped out from the wound.

The creature then let go with his powerful jaws, through with playing as he readied the blade on his right arm, and waited for the raptor to get back onto its feet. The raptor struggled a bit, bleeding profusely from the shoulder as it quickly tried to think of a new maneuver.

Before it could even get a thought moving, however, the creature reared back and swung hard with his blade…decapitating the predator.

Bron watched in shock with everyone else, as the raptor’s headless body slumped forward onto the ground, the blood now staining the grass as the creature looked up to the sky, and roared out victoriously.

It was in that moment, that Bron suddenly saw something familiar in those crimson eyes.

“Shorty…”

The creature heard him speak, as he looked over to him…quickly remembering himself. Within a matter of seconds, he calmed down and changed, becoming his original self right there, in front of his whole herd, who had gathered to watch the gruesome scene. Shorty slowly lowered his head, in shame.

“Shorty…” Bron spoke again, trying to make sense out of this whole mess. “How…”

“How could you let such a dangerous thing live with us?” One of the longnecks suddenly spoke up, interrupting him.

“Now wait just a minute…” Bron tried to calm things down, but to no avail.

“You saw how he bit that sharptooth! You saw his teeth!” Another longneck spoke up. “What’s to stop him from doing that to one of us, huh? What if he gets a craving?”

“Please…” Shorty spoke with a distressed look on his face. “I don’t know how it happened, really!” Bron once again tried to speak up, but once again was interrupted. The hysteria was too much for even him to control.

“Get out of here!” Another longneck spoke out, making Shorty back off as he got right in his face. “We don’t want you in this herd anymore!”

“Please…” Shorty begged as he backed off. “I’ll be good, really…just give me a chance…”

“Get out!” One other longneck yelled, smacking him across the meadow with his powerful tail.

Shorty landed hard as he looked up at the angry herd that had just shunned him…he felt the anger growing in him again, and the creature inside him once more trying to surface…but that anger was soon overcome by guilt and sadness this time…

Tears had begun to well up in Shorty’s eyes as he turned and ran from the herd.

“Shorty! Wait!” Mika called out to him, as Bron still tried to calm everyone else down…but it was too late.

The night sky had now come out over the land, as Shorty made his way into the wilderness alone. He stopped for a moment and lowered his head. More tears flowed as the realization hit him…he was now without Bron, the only one who had ever shown any caring and love towards him…and he knew he could never see his friends again…not like this.

But Shorty was never the type to cry about something forever. He knew that this thing, whatever it was, was his new reality…and like it or not, he had to come to grips with it…learn to deal with it, in his own way.

He soon regained his composure, and looked up over the world he would now travel, alone. With that, he took a drink of water from a nearby pond, and slowly walked away…away from the life he had known until this point, and back into a life of solitude

He had done it before…he could do it again. He could do it forever if he had to…