Countdown ✓

Shadow (27 days after)(200 votes special)

Maybe his heart was more broken than my own.

I heard the ground begin to rumble again in frantic footsteps, and mistaking them for Thunder, I growled.

"Dad, just leave me alone-" I spun around with a slight gasp of shock. Instead of seeing my carnivorous father, I saw a green Triceratops, Stella, glancing down at me, out of breath. Her face was way too close to me, so that when I did turn to see her, I flinched.

"Woah!"

"What?"

"Nothing."

I blinked once, then recomposed myself, "Anyways, what's going on? How's Amberclaw doing?"

"That's the problem little one," Stella huffed, close to an interruption, "Remember how I said that there was no natural medicine whatsoever anymore?" I remember that. That's when I had the sickening injury on my leg, which was now a black, but still gooey, scab.

"Yeah. So?"

"I can't do anything to help Amberclaw! There's nothing to do, I can't fix him-"

"Wait," I stopped her, beginning to stand up, "There's nothing? Then what's he been doing this entire time while I sat? How...." Then I felt darkness fall onto my heart, "How is he really?" Stella just glanced into my eyes and sighed,

"He's...dying."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first time I saw Amberclaw that dark and deadly night, I thought someone had ripped my heart apart from the inside out in rage and fury. The golden Deinonychus laid flat on his side, while silence and a malevolent sensation crowded around his body. Atlas and Finch, the Lythronax, sat nearby in the cold snow, shivering a bit. I was certain however, that even inside, their hearts were frozen in fear for a friend that they've never known that well. Finch stood with wide eyes when I slowly stomped over, clicking and growling upon my arrival.

"Shadow," He dipped his head, "Good to see you alive for once."

"Haven't I always been?" I frowned with a slight grin. The Lythronax shrugged.

"Well you and your father have been avoiding one another and wander around as if your life's blue. Surely that isn't living to me."

"Well I can't deal with him right now."

"Why not?"

"I-It's complicated."

"Family business?" He cocked his head, "I see." I turned away from the carnivore, glancing down at the sickening raptor.

"How's he doing?"

"Not good," Finch replied with a sigh, "He's trembling, suffocating, he's paralyzed bad. You're lucky you have a larger lung than him. It's only a matter of time before-"

"GAHAH!!" A scream broke out, flinching me, Atlas and Finch hard. Amberclaw was now violently jerking on the ground, his tail flapping around and eyes rolled towards the back of his head.

As if being electricuted.

"What the hell?"

"CRAP!" Stella shrieked out of nowhere, lumbering over, "CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!" I stared at the Deinonychus, spotting blood and a foam-like substance ooze out of his mouth.

"What's happening to him?!" I cried, "What's going on?"

"I..." Stella was speechless, trying to hold down Amberclaw. But even her lack of words told me that there was nothing to do to help the dying raptor. She backed up a bit, watching his body thrash and rattle disturbingly, and he seemed to be choking on air itself. I moved towards him slowly as his violent spasm began to subside, and his heartbeat began to fade, sniffing him with sorrow.

"Amberclaw..." I swallowed, lowering my huge skull to look deep into his petrified eyes, "What have I done?" Amberclaw's wails continued like rocks scraping against each other, as his body battled the strange poison in his breath. And seconds later, his trembling stopped.

And all went still.

I looked away, gulping hard again to contain my sorrow, then glanced back at his body with a heavy heart.

He was dead.

"He's really gone?" Atlas whispered behind me. But nobody responded, rather nobody intended to. I closed my eyes with a sigh, nudging his limp body once more as a symbol of honor to me and him. And the silence still rang on in our ears.

It was only then when peace were cut short suddenly, and Amberclaw's dead hand shot out straight at me. Everyone screamed again, but I was the one who got scared the most. I shrieked once, seeing his eyes flash black, dark black like ashes from a volcano, and his claw dug into my snout.

"Shadow!" Stella yelped. I thought someone else would respond next, but somehow, every other voice got muted thereafter. Amberclaw's mouth moved inaudible at first, then twirled into a scary snarl. And my eye pupils expanded outwards without control.

"Shadow, get out of the region!" Amberclaw pleaded, "Please! Its after you! Its after everybody!"

"What? What's after me..." I frowned, trying to pull away. But I too couldn't move.

"Listen to me! Get out while you still have the chance!!" He cried, "It's going to kill everybody! Everybody we cared about!"

"Let go!"

"The clock!" He shrieked as the vision began to fade, "The clock is the only way out! It's pretending to be the hunter but it's a key..." I froze.

There was a way out?

"What? Amberclaw?" But his voice was silent, quieter than a mere whisper. His black eyes returned to its dead state, and his claw went limp on my snout.

"Amberclaw?! AMBER!!" I felt voices return to my ears all of a sudden, and a sharp pull yank me off of his claw. I trampled over my feet clumsily and landed with a ground shaking thud on my side. Finch stood behind me, breathing hard, my tail still limp in his mouth. Atlas was also nearby to Stella, and I guessed both fled from whatever happened there. I laid quaking in the snow as the Lythronax released my tail, huffing to himself to calm his own unscaved breath.

"Shadow?" Finch nudged me. But I didn't dare move a muscle. I just stared at the Deinonychus that held me hostage, even in death, just to tell me something remarkable.

"Guys..." I breathed looking around at their terrified faces, awaiting what they may react to when me next three words sprung loose, "I think there's a way out."