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Whiteclaw (The Clock Part 1)

Me and Stella held onto each other for a few more moments in the dark silence, gripping each other's skin and scales for if we let go, the worst would come. Even after the quake, we were still trembling, fearful of our next act of movement. As the silence aged on, our grip finally loosened a bit, though our muscles continued to twitch uncontrollably. A few more mere minutes of nothingness later, Stella was the first to speak.

"You alright?" She whispered. I swallowed hard and pointed my tail straight and rigid, pushing my terror to the tip of my scale. My knees themselves were like jelly, and as if the earthquake was still making my body rumble, my knees remained bent.

"I think so," I pressed my snout into my cold shoulders for comfort, then exhaled hard at my chest. Thank goodness I wasn't in my original body, for that injury would've killed me by now.

But that'll probably be the only good luck for the time being.

My keen eyes flashed over the dark atmosphere, seeking out various types of rocks I've never seen before, mixed with darkened gold that was once embedded in the clock. The ground felt slanted too, dressed in bumps from the horizon down, or wherever that horizon was in the sea of shallow waters. My eyes slowly fell onto an object in the rubble of the clock, and instantaneously, my heart froze solid.

There laid a skeleton of a Triceratops, slumped over on a fallen rock, bones splayed out from its arms, and head ramshackled upon its cracked frill. The healthy white bone seemed to be covered in liquid lava, black and red. It seemed as though he were to crumble apart if he dared moved a muscle.

Though looks could be deceiving.

I moved forwards a bit more, splashing the liquid over my toe-claw and upon my albino shin, when his frill and frail empty eye sockets glanced up from the ground.

Almost immediately, he gave out an annoyed groan and shook his head.

"You idiots never give up do you," He rasped, moving upwards a bit where his left arm pushed down on the rocks, his right in the water, and his back legs still hanging low in the shallow sea. My eyes were wide as I stared at his body wincing in pain and looking rather 'dead' than alive to me.

"What happened to you?" I asked softly, feeling the ground thud as Stella moved in on my side. Another huge jolt in the ground shook the blackened world, then paused suddenly with a groaning sigh. The Clock turned his head and just chuckled, his voice low and weak.

"I've been the mischief of all deaths through thousands of years," He whispered, "Changed forms throughout all the lives. The Ordovician times....huh, that was memorable and fun. Fun to use power and fear...over prey."

I just stood quietly as he spoke on, feeling the earth quake for the third time.

"When this world falls apart for the final time," He nodded seeing debris fall from the darkness, "I go down with you and it. Though this clock will stay standing, there's no reason for me to be alive once my task is finished. I know that in the future, the next species won't need one of me. They probably won't ever die out." Then his dark glare flashed towards me, "But you will soon enough."

"Where's Shadow?" Stella asked first before I could moving forwards. The clock's gaze narrowed down to her, and he squinted.

"I must be dreaming," He drunkenly muttered, "Seeing a Triceratops work among carnivores. Like seeing a buffet walking around on four legs, right Whiteclaw?"

"Where's Shadow?" I hissed to ignore his recent comment, turning my claws into trembling fists, then curling my lips into a hard snarl, "I don't care about your crap anymore,.........where is he?"