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Whiteclaw (12 days left)

I came into consciousness with the sense of pain in my skull. It sucked to wake up like this. Like an agonizing ringing noise, almost similar to a siren blaring loud and clear in an echoed location. But the worst part is, it just goes on and on. I didn't think the pain would come first before anything else when I had to awaken. But it certainly brought fear into my scaled chest. And yet, Deinonychus wasn't supposed to feel, or fear pain. Or to be more specific, feel and fear anything. My pack's motto was that "fear is for prey." 

But what if you're afraid of dying? Then aren't you considered prey, or....weak? 

I wasn't completely awake as I could tell, but I knew I was badly injured. I felt completely useless for the first time, or dead somewhat. 

My body was a liability to myself. 

Maybe because it wasn't functioning at all! 

Besides my chest hurting, a throbbing intense electric-like feeling sank deep into my own flesh, and deep into my bone nearest to it. My left eye felt seared like a baking skull in a hot summer sun. 

I gotta be injured alright. Gotta. It's definite. 

I could barely move! I wanted to panic, and I couldn't do that either. 

What was happening to me? What did happen? 

I couldn't quite remember. But perhaps, I could sense where I was. With my own senses. 'It's your greatest weapon besides instincts', someone I knew really well once told me. 

So I decided to put it to the test. My hand spread against the cold dry earth, and instantly I could feel that the ground was shaking for some apparent reason as if two long-necks were wrestling right next to me. As the feelings floated up to my arms and to my claws, I felt a soft oozing liquid, thicker than water, but softer than sand stain my black claw. 

Then the sense of smell came in. I, for one in my pack, could pick up any scent and tell what it is. It's an incredible gift that made me unique. But all I smelled was death. And blood. That sickening smell was like a mixture of flesh, dust, and smoke, with a sprinkle of fear added to its mixing bowl. Stir it up, you get a dead dinosaur. But, was that me? 

Finally, for the first time in eternity, the feeling came through my entire body, from my brain to the tip of my white tail. I felt every muscle in my body wake up, but some were still numb and twitching. And some were throbbing. At this moment, I ignored pain and tried to figure out myself. And just like that, one of my eyes opened. But I just saw blurs. A Troodon's own orbs could do better than my eyesight alone at this moment. Which isn't supposed to happen. 

If I could describe my blurs, it was like looking at a large dinosaur-ish shape chasing its tail around and around in a tornado, then rolling over like a pet. Those brown and grey shapes were having a piggyback ride upon that animal, and looked like they were enjoying it, while another hung on to its leg with its teeth. There was water near me, I knew that, but the ground seemed polka dotted with green and tan colors. Strange. Then, before my (terribly sighted) eye, the dinosaur spinning around and doing cartwheels finally collapsed with a ground-shaking crash. Along with the tornado. And the flying carnivores. 

A faint hiss-, no, a powerful screech emitted from the jaws of one of the few brown creatures. It stood as a victorious blob, but I didn't know which direction it was looking in. My vision became a bit darker and blurrier now as more of my own blood dribbled into my claw. It was then when I realized that the blood was from my ribs in my chest. 

I was bleeding out. 

The brown blobs were speaking, yet, not even my own hearing could define what they said. Until they got closer, their voices cleared up.

"Whiteclaw?!" A male voice cried out. A rumble of claws and feet wobbled up to my position, and as my eyesight un-blurred itself, a bunch of heads entered my circle of vision as the dinosaur continued, "He's injured!"

"More like he's bleeding," Another voice sighed to the right, "He got hit badly by that herbivore."

"We gotta help him!" Someone else spoke on the left, "We can't just leave him here to die. He's a part of our pack."

"None of us are medics though," The first voice countered, "We can't really help." The heads looked down at me, my red lashing eyes looking back up in worry. I still had no clue as to my current condition.

"We gotta do something," The dino on the left cooed again, "He's a contribution of our pack. He saved my life."

"No one gets left behind Blackclaw," Another one hissed, "Did you forget already?" 

The Deinonychus to the right of me, black like the skin of a volcano looked around me at his allies before he actually sighed.

"Fine. C'mon, help me lift him up." The Deinonychus growled. I felt a bony head slide underneath my injured belly, lifting me up towards the dinosaur's back. The last thing I remember before darkness consumed my brain was seeing the puddle of blood left from where I was laying.

A puddle of fear.