FINTAIL

𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠

"NO. SCREW THAT."

Cora was the first to find her voice. The turquoise longsnout lunged her feet, sizing Tar'nex up like a knight to a duel and snarled, close enough for him to hear every baleful word. "I don't want a new purpose, I want my family; now where are they?!"

"Your brother is the ship's nurturing ward," the creature said rather bluntly. "Thorn, was it? There was an injury on his spinal fin, but we are taking passive measures to ensure his survival. Your mother's in the same location for the same reason."

That slightly eased the group.

...

For a minute.

"And Riptide?" Cora growled. "Where are you holding him?"

Speck's gut lurched. Riptide. Even if it was just a name spoken out of time, it rocked him out of his daze and impounded his poor soul until it burst into splinters. In its place came dread, creeping up from the pitfalls of his stomach and into his throat, forging a death knot that he could not heave. And it tightened, ever so slowly. It tightened until he could no longer breathe.

Riptide's death wasn't something Speck was conscious of since he lost consciousness. The atrocity of this place, mixed with the scentless fumes of sweltering darkness and deafening silence fixed his mind on the need to survive. But once that reminder set in, reality clicked, and all his hopes and dreams turned to rubble. He was the only one who knew Riptide's fate.

"Riptide?" Tar'nex frowned. "I was not informed of a seventh sibling."

"That's fish dung," Cora retorted, lashing her tail from behind. "You took us all from our home, so you know where he is!"

Speck's breathing quickened. He kept his eyes grounded; he would have alerted the deathly stares of his entire family had he looked. But he couldn't shake the feeling, it was as though something had walked through him and left him numb. Nor could he control his claws; they were shaking in an odd, trembling rhythm. Whimpering to himself, he quickly squeezed them into fists.

Fossil's eyes darted to Speck.

    "I can double check the catalog," the alien muttered in the background, forming a strange tar-shaped tablet from one of his arms. "No need to be hostile, spinosaurus. I am sure there is an explanation-"

    "I'm sure there is," hissed Cora, unaware that Fossil was now rounding about her tail, his eyes preying on Speck's shivering body. He wasn't acting like this before.

"Odd. I still see nothing." Tar'nex paused, searching the ground as his gears whirred. "Apologies, for this," he finally said, "allow me five... minutes, as you say on your planet. I shall return with some answers in lieu of this error, as well as provisions to satisfy your hunger. Perhaps that will ease your frustrations."

"Maybe," Cora snorted, wrinkling her lips to shed more of her teeth. Try as she might, it wasn't menacing enough; the creature just stared, more or less dumbfounded at her response. I could sense he was contemplating what to make of her, and only enveloped his oily tablet when he felt there were no words to disdain. Whether Tar'nex welcomed backtalk or not didn't seem to matter; he left much like he arrived -- a spiked ball of tar tumbling away from the room. The door sealed shut behind him not long after.

"What are minutes?" asked Ripple. That question was but a wisp in the wind to the others.

"We've got to get out of here," Fossil said, his head tilting to his side, but his sights still locked on Speck. "I don't feel safe in this rotten pit with that 'thing'. " Cora scoffed.

"Join the club."

"T-That wasn't a dinosaur," croaked Ripple, still crouching under Cora's shadow. "W-Was it?"