[COMPLETE] Life Before Man - Fabian's Journey

Chapter 4

The skeleton of a tree covered Fabian. All it was good for was its job as a parasol.

Joining his mother in the bull's shadow was no option for Fabian. The bull was too unstable, too unpredictable. He would snort and roar at anything that invaded his personal space. The paltry puddle of an oasis provided no comfort to his thirst. He stomped the ground, beat it up and scratched the dust away as if somewhere, somehow, there was a vein of water beneath.
Then he just continued his journey, accompanied by Aconia.
Fabian followed. There was no point in resisting, no point in hiding behind the tree. He needed his mother's protection at all costs.

The three were walking next to each other, Aconia between the two males with no-one explicitly ahead of the others. They were more like equals than like a leader and his followers. Not that anyone had a clue where to go anyway. The three gave in to the mountainside's magnetic draw.
It was the only of the four corners in the world filled with a goal. The corner to Fabian's left was obscured by the adults. Behind him, the skeleton of a tree divided the heavens from the Earth. To his right, the silhouette of a Liliensternus watched him from afar.
Fabian scrambled between his mother's legs and hid sandwiched between the bull and Aconia. From under his mother's legs, he saw a Liliensternus-free landscape. The predator escaped his mind seconds after it vanished from the horizon. Had he been smarter, this contradiction would have puzzled him. He might have concluded that the monster was either a product of the waterhole massacre's mental scars or just an innocent Plateosaurus.

Even without the inner conflict, the predator did not escape entirely. It left him glued to his stepfather's side, right next to his scarred arm. Fabian heard none of the dying Peteinosauruses' chirping and smelled none of the dry air. The bull's breath overshadowed everything else. It was that of a starved wolf and he fittingly held his head just barely above the ground.
The bull stopped.
Fabian wanted to leave him behind, but he couldn't, as his mother stopped, too. She knew that they were reliant on his support. Aconia bellowed to see his reaction, much like how a humans might talk to someone comatose. The bull did not respond. It was as if his mind had already died from thirst and starvation.
Only when Fabian bleated like a calf did he react. The bull titled his head in the young Plateosaurus' direction and opened his mouth. Fabian felt no leaves whatsoever beneath his tiny feet. The moment he ran away, the bull snatched his tail with his mouth. In dire times, even the Devil eats flies, indeed. Had Fabian only trusted his instincts over his fear of the Liliensternuses. Within seconds, the bull would haul him into the air and catch his fleshier parts with his jaws and then ram him to death.
Or he would have, had Aconia not rammed the bull first.
Fabian fell before he could rise higher than his own neck's length. Fortunately, his arms and torso absorbed most of the impact. The bull punched the blood out of Aconia's face with his thumb claw. She tried to retaliate by ramming him once more, but the bull easily caught her with his forearms.
The wrestling match bought Fabian time to rise to his feet. He did not even give his mother a second glance while he ran away, but he could clearly hear her screams. A sanddune provided him cover. It could not stop the bull, but it helped him psychologically. Bruised and exhausted, Fabian needed a resting place. He climbed its tip to see what had become of the fight, as he could still hear his mother, but he did not feel any steps in his direction.
As he reached the tip, he saw how his mother had been buried under the bull's forelimbs. His body mass quenched the life out of her lungs.
Fabian bleated again. His mother tried to reply, but lacked the air to respond.
Not caring for the murderer's presence, Fabian stared at the whole scenery for more than an hour. Over and over again, the bull would try to cut her skin open with his claw to lick more of her blood. His claw was not built for slicing and his iguana-like teeth had difficulties with her flesh and skin. He would wait for the carcass to decompose in the desperate hope to still both his thirst and hunger.