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Shadow (6 days after)

"I don't understand..." I whimpered, tears flooding down my face. But when she spoke again, first with the grunts, it turned into words. And then miraculously, I understood.

"Are you okay young-one?" The Triceratops spoke. I couldn't believe my ears. I could understand my own prey. My own nemesis. I shook my head as a painful response, gasping in a violent cry, and feeling the warm taste of blood rush to my mouth.

"I-It...hurts....s-so....much...." I wheezed, partially crying in my sentence.

"I could tell," She seemed playful and honestly calm, but also furious over my wound, "One of my herd members attacked you because I wanted to keep you alive unlike the rest."

"And I still will," A voice growled, stomping over. I saw the stain upon the horn and remembered immediately who that was. I saw his face, angered and threatening, bony and strong glance over me with pure anger,

"He's already weakened, and I could easily squeeze the life out of this carnivore if I have too-" He began, edging towards me. A sudden thrust of strength bolted from the female, knocking the young male backwards to his original spot. She slammed her paw into the earth, cracking it literally. The male flinched in worry as she spoke again, puffing steam, much alike to how smoke exits, from her nose above her beak.

"Don't touch him again," She growled, then turned back to me. The male cursed under his breath, then turned away angrily. I stared at him with deep concern and unprotection, feeling sorry for him, yet terrified of my own safety. My breathing was now slowing down, and it became harder to sink in a whiff of air, while at the same time spatting out blood. The older Triceratops looked at my belly, which I unraveled from my tail to open up. She swallowed hard, tapping at the two wounds, both in which opened up from the sudden attack, on my chest. Waves of pain came from all directions until she stopped, shifted her paws, and walked over.

"Stand still!" She growled, "It'll only make things worse if you keep moving around like a dead fish."

"Okay," I breathed, seeing her body vanish again. Another few waves knocked the sense out of me, and I gritted my teeth once more to stop the pain, until she walked back over, thinking first before talking.

"Its deep," She finally concluded, "really deep. There's a lot of blood everywhere, so I could see why you're acting this way."

"Am I going.....to be.....okay?" I whispered. Silence. She didn't even say a word. She looked down firstly, swallowed again, then back up at the sky. Thinking once more, she looked back at me, and smiled positively.

"Yes. You'll be fine." She didn't seem honest with me for some reason. I had that gut feeling that something was wrong. Literally too since the fire burned there. Questions scrambled in my mind like a tornado, and I couldn't really find out which ones I could ask for, since there's too much to bear, and too much pain to bear especially, but eventually I managed to get one out, one simple question to even the odds.

"I never...really got to know your name yet," I begin to ask, "what is it?" She looked at me calmly fiddling with her paws and tail, glancing at me as if I was some tasty green plant waiting to be eaten and spoke softly like a common mother.

"Stella," She smiled. I nodded my head, taking in the name from the side of my ear into my brain.

"Shadow....that's mine..." I responded back. Stella dipped her head as a sign of respect.

"Shadow...that's an interesting name. Like a darkness that can't be destroyed right? But to me, you're sort of like a lightning bolt, kind and caring. You act like the lighter part of the darkness." Usually, I've never been respected. She then lifted her paw upwards to the long-neck.

"That's Timber. He came to the watering hole weeks ago with his only surviving son." Then she thought, "And you save his son's life." I looked up to the dark sky above, seeing the smoke and toxins dance like leaves in the spring breeze, then back at Stella.

"Yeah, I guess I did-" I cut off, groaning in pain as another wave of nausea came across my face. Blood rushed to my face for a few seconds, which silenced the noise, then disappeared once more. She sat down to the elbows of her arms and back legs, already getting engaged into a new conversation. But this was about Timber's son unfortunately, not anything else like the nature or the watering hole.

"Why did you save his son she asks politely I've never seen anyone especially like you do something like that if you're rare and unrealistic not even normal I looked up at her inside I couldn't even answer that question myself I inhaled quietly taking in the air that surrounded me and breathed out a partial answer.

" I didn't know what happened Stella. I-It's like.....I couldn't even control myself to be honest. I didn't even know how to fight but somehow I ended up attacking the Spinosaurus, and well, everything went south. I didn't even know how to respond to what I did. I remember the feeling however, I felt strangely powerful in my muscles but at the same time I felt useless in my mind. It was when my body and my mind didn't cooperate enough when I finally lost." I said. Stella smiled with a strange and confusing look as if she really enjoyed what she heard.

"Fighting.......well......it really is a typical feeling that embraces your every move, and makes you uncontrollable of yourself,......but doing something that's right and just.......that's something different. You saved Timber's son.......and that amazing act to stand up for someone who can't can change your life forever." I felt a heartwarming sensation uplift over my struggling pain as she spoke about my courageous act, and silence tore through the valley, listening to her words petrify the earth, "And I've never seen a carnivore help a herbivore before....but it was something special. You did something special, and you should be proud of that."

"But its like you said;.......carnivores are not supposed to help herbivores. It's just not how nature works."

"That's sincerely true........Shadow,.......but think about this: Nature's dying already, right beneath our very feet and through the air, and if we are in need to survive........we need to adapt in the best way possible. Sometimes........adaptations can lead to certain and strange acts.......and those acts could be beneficial for our future." I thought about what she said and nodded. But I had something hidden beneath my jaws that I had to spill out. And I did.

"I.....acted.....because I saw something that haunted me. This blossom tree,........when it fell.......I saw all of its flowers come down along with it, as of life just gave up on it........never to be seen again. That scared me.......and I didn't want the same thing to happen to something......much more......alive.....than a plant."

"Well its a good thing that you did," Stella rumbled with a grin. Finally, after fighting myself from the pain embedded inside, the two Triceratops from before arrived back with some strange plants and objects. I couldn't quite understand what those objects were being used for, but perhaps it was for my own good, and maybe, just maybe to heal my wounds that were slowly killing me from inside. Nervousness crept through me like an internal shadow, and my heart race quickly and silently as I saw Stella approach the strange and unusual objects that lay waste on the ground. She picked one up, fiddling with it confused, until she realized what it was, then stumbled over to me, quietly and cautiously handling the object as if a newborn egg was just laid seconds ago. It was this yellow substance that I had no idea as to what it was. It contained a strange aroma to it, like honey but not sweet honey; rotting honey. Stella placed the liquid onto a couple of white cobwebs, fluffy and sticky to anything it touches. Using 3 balancing paws to walk over to me, she slowly and carefully placed each cobweb with a yellow substance on to my deep and gushing holes. Abruptly, a few seconds later, I felt a irritating sting whelmed up on my wound. I let out a peep of a cry, but not as big as expected. I never felt anything like this though, it was like a bee sting, but a bit worse, and it clouded up my vision for a few seconds until finally......everything stopped.......thus including the pain. I lifted my large toothy head around to face my belly, and noticed that the yellow substance was actually a sort of tree sap, designed to encrust whatever flowed into it's amber. It was a plug for my wounds in this case, a little bandage. I stared at it in wonder and amazement, unable to say anything. But I could think of something first; these herbivores are truly smart.