Hybrids: An Indoraptor Story ✓

Time Runs Out

"AGH!" An animalistic screech left me, body arching in anguish. A burst of warmth painted over my back, fueling Ripper's lust like nothing else. Back-kicking his skull to the thickets, I leaped back to all fours, and scrambled into the marshlands.

To where, I had no clue.

All this time I've been beside someone. Click, Blink, Ripper, Indy -- they all played a part to fill an emptiness that I had feared for so long. Yes, dependency is a weakness, but, in the confines of war, it became a strength. I lavished in it, despite how many times I've tried to stray away. Many have saved me whenever the world went south. And, in turn, I have saved them.

But nothing is more gut-wrenching when your life is at stake, and you're all alone. When the ones you've trusted look upon you like a prize to slaughter. When all that hope and joy falls to fate, a terrible fate you cannot escape from.

I didn't know where to go. Or what to do. I sprinted into the vastness of this dying marshland world, stumbling into little pockets of mud and water, or diving into deeper realms unaccustomed to my kind. The excited roars of both hybrids behind me only made me run faster, begging the stars to keep them away.

I spent so much time trying to get back to Click. I couldn't let it end here.

Blink suddenly hopped right in front of me, his roar deafening my squeak of horror. I jerked right, soon finding Ripper taking a new position ahead of me, his eyes burning bright with the thrill of the hunt. Both predators stalked me in the dying light of the sun, their silhouettes flickering off the heat wave of the bleeding star.

Nowhere to go, Seven...

A heavy force ran me over, my body flailed head-over-tail to the ground. Blink rounded back to me, only to win three wounds across his face from my claws. Teeth suddenly sank into my spine and threw me into a rock, a sharp bony 'POP' echoing the sky. Toppling to the ground, broken and battered, Ripper's jaws snapped onto my tail, yanking me from the ground and throwing me into the deeper thickets, where I rolled to a stop.

Can't... fight this...

But not everything was hopeless; the wetlands soon offered a helping hand. A flutter of birds from our squander caught the hybrids' attention, allowing me enough time to look down at the mud that squished beneath my talons, and the loose threads of yellow that hovered to my right and left.

Hide.

I rolled into the mud as fast as I could, decorating my ivory scales with dark, brown earth. It stung at my injuries, but I couldn't let that matter. As soon as I heard Ripper approaching, I willed every bit of myself to camouflage, and ducked to the ground.

Now!

"RAGH!" He pounced forward, halting short of his lunge in confusion. He was staring at me, two blood-orange eyes now fixed upon my soul, yet he couldn't tell. His nose said otherwise, but his eyes failed to agree.

    I crouched even lower, keeping still as he stared ahead, just inches from my snout. My breath ceased, forcing my camouflage to steady within the thickets, and  I sealed my eyes away before the indoraptor could notice. Two puffs of steam trickled onto my nostrils, then a growl, and a roar from the carnivore.   

    Then silence.

    I didn't move. Snorting, Ripper backtracked from the reeds, looking around at his surroundings for the white indoraptor he was once after. Blink trailed from behind, trying to sniff me out.

    At least now I have time.

Calm down, calm down. I forced a needed breath. You're not dying here. You just need to think.