Countdown ✓

Shadow (The Clock)

And yet, it happened right before my starry eyes.

Whiteclaw pushed up from the ground, to his feet, while a few feet away, I groaned at the throbbing burn on my scales. My jaws felt like they chewed through rock, or even got crushed by them all together. Flexing them only made things worse.

"I cut myself," I hissed, feeling blood trickle on my tongue, "I'm never doing that again." Whiteclaw sighed, then dipping his head solemnly.

"Where'd you learn how to do that?" he asked. I turned to him, still flexing my jaws back and forth, then shrugged.

"I.......I don't know actually. Instincts I guess."

"Well, " Whiteclaw nodded with another soft purr, "You got some pretty good instincts, eh?"

BOOM.

The sound of splashing water and rumbling earth sounded beneath our feet, yet outburst in a puddle-like forms. We both knew immediately, without a doubt, that it was the shadow, waking up from death.

Even worse, it could be possibly immune to death.

"Alright," It hissed, half snake-like, half roared, then curled its shadowy tentacles into the ground, "No more games carnivores..." I stared at the skull him confusingly with shadowy parts floating in the air, when out of nowhere, the claw snapped into the ground with power. It turned orange, an settled in with scales and a claw on its thumb. I didn't know what the clock was up too, but when I looked down at Whiteclaw, his facial expression seemed as though he'd seen a ghost.

A dark vision.

I killed this creature before....I've seen it before.

I saw it when Drexel died. When Blackclaw died.

When Whiteclaw was almost murdered.

Twice.

"Like I said Whiteclaw," The Tenontosaurus growled, "I know you more than you think."

Fury burned bright in Whiteclaw's eyes, and without saying anything to me, he hissed in a miniature roar, growling with outstretched claws and a furious toe-claw spasm.

"Yes.....let out your anger!" It continued, moving towards him, "You can't defeat your fears by yourself!" Whiteclaw's eyes widened and his body just froze, trembling for some reason.

Was he scared?

What was he seeing?

Whiteclaw's eyes narrowed, his knees bounded low, and his long tail and pubis snapped up.

"MURDERER!" He screeched defiantly, then lunged. Then I froze next.

He was using Whiteclaw's anger...

"Whiteclaw wait!" I cried out, but it was too late. The Tenontosaurus' claw went up, then flew downwards with so much speed, you could miss it in a blink. Whiteclaw's body went from flight in the desolate atmosphere, to dropping, and his body flimsily slapped the earth, rolled around, then stopped. I could see Whiteclaw impotently strain himself to stand, yet I knew that it was impossible at this point, with a towering herbivore right at your feet.

"You can't defeat your fears!" The clock howled yet again, kicking Whiteclaw with its back foot. The raptor got thrown backwards into the water again, but this time, he didn't even bother getting up. A swing from the thumb-clawed finger made Whiteclaw's skull get thrown to the left violently, and strangely his body followed his head's example. He collapsed on his back, a perfect cut drawn from behind his eye to the bottom of his tiny jaws. The Tenontosaurus lifted a paw suddenly, and fear suddenly flowered in my soul.