50 Million Years from Now

Act 22

"No. It can't be," Kay thought to himself, as the white monstrosity now looked like some sort of mutated candy cane as the blood of the Titan horn painted its body. The Cave dweller was soon joined by two others and they began to tear huge chunks out of the giant gazelle.

The Cave dwellers weren't usually so violent nor energetic. As their flooded subterranean homes usually had very few animals for them to feed on, they conserved their energy by barely moving. Yet when a rare and nutritious opportunity materialized, they forgot all about conserving energy and used it all in one explosive attack. Cave dwellers were one of the last species of sharks to exist, and they had changed very little over the millions of years that had passed. But because of their relative isolation in caves, they had lost their ability to see and all their colour pigments. They used long whisker-like protrusions at the end of their snouts to feel around the tunnels, similarly to the modern-day catfish. Their sense of smell was even better than that of the great white shark. These adaptations helped them find the relatively rare food sources that lived within the catacombs. But just like their ancestors, they were not the blood thirsty killers most think. They too like all other creatures were just trying to survive.

With such a large amount of food for them to eat, the Cave dwellers entered a feeding frenzy. Tails thrashed in and out of the water, jaws blindly snapped at anything and Titan horns were quickly torn apart and dragged back into the caves.

"Everyone! We've got to abandon this hunt! Take everything you can and start flying away!" Vall shouted at the top of his lungs, seeing that this was a losing battle. The Black beaks and Boltoccor ravens quickly began tearing out chunks of meat from the carcasses as the freshwater sharks continued their buffet. But then a loud belly roar was heard. They all looked to see a massive Grass stalker emerge from the vegetation.

"Oh, no!" Zenith murmured.

"Scarface," Roc completed the sentence.

Scarface let out another roar before charging towards the flock.

"Everyone! Get out of here!" Thunder Wing screamed forcefully.

Black beaks and Boltoccor ravens began to fly everywhere, the feathers confusing Scarface as he blindly snapped his jaws.

As the birds perched themselves in the leafless trees, Vall began to yell out names, "Zenith, Roc, is everyone here?"

"Present," Zenith managed to say in between heavy breathing.

"Present what??" Roc demanded.

"Just something I picked up from the Boltoccor ravens."

"Of course, you did!" Roc said jokingly. "Anyway, I'm here."

"Alright, good. But where is Kay?" Vall asked.

"Don't look at me," Zgall grumbled. "Last time I saw him he was looking at one of those... things."

Vall could practically feel the hatred come out of Zgall's beak as he finished his sentence.

"Don't worry Vall. This is Kay we are talking about. He can take care of himself," Zenith piped up.

"Alright, alright. But where is Moramma?" The Black beaks and Boltoccor ravens looked at each other. "Has anyone seen Moramma or Kay?" Vall desperately pleaded, his anxiety rising.

"Wait! Wait! Down there!" Roc shouted, pointing his beak towards Scarface.

As the dust settled, the crocodilian noticed one Black beak still on the ground. In the confusion, Moramma had been knocked out of the sky and was trying to get back up.

"Moramma!" Vall shrieked. He got ready to fly down when he heard something else.

"Wait! I can see Kay," Thunder Wing exclaimed as he saw his old friend stranded in between the Cave dweller feeding frenzy and a Titan horn carcass that had pinned his legs to the ground. It was only a matter of time before the future sharks would converge on the dead animal and their friend.

Vall looked back and forth, not knowing what to do. His heart raced and his blood ran cold as if a thousand ice cubes had been poured in it. "What do I do? What do I do?" Vall cried out desperately.

Moramma looked up to see Scarface glare back down at her. She grabbed her spear and thrust it at the old Grass stalker. Scarface easily bit down on her weapon, splintering it in half. Moramma was about to fly off when Scarface knocked her back down with his snout. Then the cracking of bones was heard on the other side of the river as a Cave dweller bit down on the Titan horn carcass and ripped off its left back leg. Then another rushed forward taking a bite out of the future gazelle's throat and barely missing Kay's wing.

For Vall it felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest. He had to do something. He just had to. But who to save? Then he heard a flapping noise that came from beside him. Zgall flew off with his cache of food.

"No," Vall thought.