Hybrids: An Indoraptor Story ✓

Blood Sisters

||𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟑𝐫𝐝, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎||

    The soft tweets and chirps of mother birds were the first to greet me.

    As well as the warmth of the speckled star above.

I found myself sprawled out upon the ground, folded between the blankets of stripped grass and shaded by orange deciduous trees that twinkled from above. The autumn wind brushed lightly against my scales, and a soothing warmth sank into my body, relieving me of my tensions.

    It, however, didn't take away the pain. Despite nature's attempt to calm me, I could still taste the sour tang of age-old blood against the folds of my pink  tongue -- a reminder of what had happened to me.

A reminder of how I died.

I found my fears the moment I began to examine myself. Strange new cuts and bruises had meddled into my scales, perfect in length, yet done by no natural cause. The entire left side of my body was bloodshot and blackened, now patched by strange white bandages that struggled to hide away the burns of the past. Above all else, my loving left eye, a gift that allowed me to seek out the secrets of the world, was lost to me. Only a blur remained in its place, turning the speckles of life into blobs of color.

Only one word sank into my mind at that moment - Crippled.

A word I only gave to the monsters I killed.

Click always felt uneasy with this lust of mine. I used to gleam at the way my prey would choke, gurgle, limp, and whimper underneath my blackened talons, and it satisfied me to know that dinner was deliciously near. Just to sink down upon them and feel your prey squirm and squeal was precious. I loved that feeling of power, of dominance, of queenship.

Of course, Click didn't.

But to see this word in me... that terrified me more than ever. No predator in the world lasts very long being deaf, blind, and injured. I knew that for certain, given I've seen plenty who've fallen over the years to their own demons. Either Nature put a mark on his or her hide, or they gave in to death before she garnered the chance.

Above all else I knew, eventually, there was always a creature lurking in the dark seeking a meal to savor. Predator or prey, if it was crippled, they wouldn't hesitate to take it.

Only now did that cross my mind, as I sat here in the shade. I should've known better than to stop and wait for it all to happen.

But by then it was too late.

A strange feeling suddenly shot into my gut, making me lift my head in unease. It was instinct that gripped my heart, informing me of a threat that laid outside my visage. Something was wrong here... in this strange place. Something was off.

Something was here.

I pointed my nose to the ground and leaned in close, watching the grassy threads shiver from an unnatural jolt.

The ground was shaking. And not in the way you think.

Those speckled leaves above me began to bounce from these strange, patterned tremors, and, even now, I could feel each ripple strike me. A sharp scent rushed into my nostrils, standing my quills up on end and dilating my eyes.

Only then did my body send a single primal word into my brain.

Run.

I scrambled to my feet, attempted to flee to the nearby trees mustering at the ends of the clearing, before a wave of absolute anguish erupted in my stomach. A single yelp was all I could muster as I skidded a couple feet forward, before dropping helplessly to the ground.