Countdown ✓

Whiteclaw (13 days after)

Thump

Thump

Thump

That's the first thing I felt. My eyes opened up wearily as the thumping continued faintly. Was that Drexel? I wondered, knowing how his size did confuse my own self into thinking that it was something else. But I was wrong. I stared in horror as a huge foot came crashing down right in front of me, clawed and all, three toed and sharpened. It was black and scaled from top to bottom, and dust clogged up the underbelly of each claw. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another claw quickly slapped onto my mouth, silencing it before anything could spill out.

"Stay....down," whispered Drexel. I nodded with widened eyes of pure terror, watching the foot twist and turn in various directions, as if it were searching for something. Or perhaps it was lost. My heart raced wildly as Drexel released his hand from my mouth, then partially slithered on over to a shadowed area of the cave. The giant took a few more steps around the front of the cave, which shook dust from the ceiling, before trampling off in some direction. Everything settled back down into silence, and my breathing finally opened back up into hard inhales, as if panting. Drexel looked outside, relief flooding back into his system, and turned around to face me.

"That was lucky," He muttered, flexing his body into a downward stretch, "What a way to wake up."

"Was it a carnivore?" I wondered, lifting to my clawed feet. My injury from the countdown clock was starting to wear off a bit, so I was able to push in some pressure on the hole. Drexel nodded solemnly.

"Surely was. I think it was a Tyrannosaur-" He cut off as more thumps began to echo the cave, and shrunk back into the shadows where I was.

"Its back again," I whispered, hearing the feet scrape against the sedimentary rocks above and around us. I laid down, feeling the earth thud beneath my belly with fear. I looked around, suddenly noticing something.

"Where's Amberclaw?" I asked him. Drexel looked at me.

"What?"

"Where's Amberclaw?!" I grew more worried, "He's not here!" A ground shaking stomp made the cave quake silently, dropping a few rocks from above to hit below.

"He went to the clock again," Drexel hissed through his pointed teeth, "Said he wanted to learn more about it."

"Couldn't it scent him?" I realized vaguely. Drexel sniffed the air, then shook his head.

"Nah," He lied. I heard another stomp, then a faded one, until it disappeared. But the stomps led directly to where the countdown clock was. Amberclaw! Drexel heard the thumps head in the direction we clearly didn't want it to go and sighed, getting to his feet.

"Crap.....I sort of......lied-"

"YOU THINK?!" I growled, lurching onto my clawed feet with a predatory act. I slid outside, then quickly pulled myself up a few rocks of the cave to its apex. Sniffing the air, I realized that Amberclaw's scent was clearly noticeable by even anyone who was still alive here. Too big of a giveaway from my point of view. But the creature we saw wasn't there. In fact, I would've seen a footprint by now. I moved forwards a bit, keeping my head low, tail high, claws outstretched and ready, but bravery unstable. I sniffed the air, catching any irregular scents. But the wind came from the countdown clock's direction towards me. Certainly there wasn't an aroma that could explain to me where it was. I decided since there wasn't any signs of it, it possibly wasn't even there! But would it make sense that me and Drexel had the same vision or dream? I decided to go back downhill and move away from the cave in search for that scene that we felt, that mysterious creature with the blackened three-toed feet. I trotted forwards for a few minutes, practicing with my partially healed wound deep in my calf. I wasn't in a major limp anymore, more so like a gallop through the barren terrain. After tracking for what seemed like minutes, (which were actually seconds), I found myself drinking in the hole of a small little watering hole. There were footprints around here as well, but with no sight as to where other dinosaurs were, I drank without even caring. The water splashed in my face, and tickled my pink tongue silly, and even cleaned out the tartar from within my teeth. It thankfully quenched my thirst, and part of my internal hunger at most. I kept drinking for a while, I had no idea how long though, but it was worth it. That's when I heard a different sound.