Countdown ✓

Whiteclaw (22 days after)

Drexel lied to me about what happened to my parents.

He lied about fear.

He lied about life.

He lied to keep me from understanding the truth.

But now it was out. And all hell broke loose.

Amberclaw was struggling to cheer me up a bit with some of the meat from yesterday's hunt, but nothing seemed to work. I was so dead inside. I stared at the chuck of a rib as if there was nothing there but some Stillwater hosting a bloodthirsty family of mosquitos.

"You can't go on with your life moping around like a walking corpse," Amberclaw advised me, "It's not healthy. Sometimes, you just need to let it go."

"Did you know?" I asked painfully through my red eyes. He glanced at me, then sat down.

"About mom and dad?" He thumped his tail on the ground in thought, "Not really. I already knew from Blackclaw's tellings. He never told you was the problem. And even so, when I touched the Countdown clock, it showed different images. And memories of what happened. I don't blame myself, or the Utahraptor for their deaths. In reality, Mom and Dad attacked first."

"But he killed for murder and his own anger. He did it for fun."

"That's not true-"

"Than what is?!" I snapped, gripping my claws. Amberclaw flinched, then sighed. He shook his head and stared outwards into the smoked filled sky.

"I know it.......it seems as though he was the cause of their pain and their death, but,......just because he did something wrong doesn't make him a bad dinosaur." 

He shifted his body over and trembled from the coolness of the shade, "You know when you......make mistakes, bad mistakes sometimes, you feel like you've ruined your life for good. But you need to understand that,.....forgiveness to yourself and to others can make the pain go away. And making mistakes is part of life! Drexel is a good dinosaur, and....., accepting his forgiving nature is the right thing to do, even if it sounds wrong. He didn't know that they were our parents. So it was a mistake worth honoring for once." I looked down as he talked, staring at my claws. I could only imagine seeing my parent's blood spilled on them, like Drexel's own claws. Perhaps Amberclaw had a point to something. Perhaps he-

I cut off in my thoughts when a loud hair-raising scream of pain and mercy filled the valley. The mountains, the hills, everything echoed from the voice for many seconds. And my heart skipped a beat. That was Drexel's cry. I hopped to my clawed feet with wide eyes.

"That's Drexel..." I cried to Amberclaw, panicking, "And isn't Blackclaw's there with him too?!" Another horrifying howl of agonizing pain ripped through the air like a rocket, which jumpstarted my legs. I didn't realize that I was running until I felt the heat strike my scales outside the cave. I followed the scent of a bunch of herbivores through the valley and over a few hills. But the scent of animals turned into another painful scent.

Blood.

Not like herbivore blood, carnivore blood.

Raptor blood.

Was it Blackclaw?

I saw the herbivores after crossing over another hill, circled up for some reason around something. I raced faster and faster until the Tenontosaurs were taller than me at the bottom of the hill, and their features were so detailed to my predatory eyes. But when I turned a corner around the occupied herbivores, my eyes laid upon a Utahraptor, lying awkwardly on the ground. And everything around me froze.

It was Drexel.

My heart sank like a rock in an open sea and shattered into thousands of fragments. He was still alive, but the sight of his body fooled me into believing that he wasn't.