Horns ✖

A Distant Call

"Hurts? Ha! What's there to expect? A broken bone won't mend in a day!" He snorted with amusement, "Though I wish it would. I'll crush Shocker for what he did to you last night, but that's for another time."

"Of course it is," I snorted back, recalling the short fight from last night. At the same time I didn't want to think about my ruptured rib cage, for the strike alone would have severed my inners had I not submitted to the injury. But even now I didn't care for it, not the injury, not the feelings, not any of it. Lying on the ground with the heat of the sun beating down upon my scales, I closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth flowing within...

Before being bumped back to the land of the living.

"Grr...What is it now?"

"You've barely moved since yesterday, so I'm urging you now to stand."

"Can't I rest?"

"You already have."

"I'm still tired."

The club-tail snorted with retortment, poking me by the thorns rustling upon his forehead and growled lowly, "That doesn't matter three-horn! Predator or prey, insect or long-neck, when the sun comes up, you start moving."

I sighed, opening my eyes again and willed my body to move, feeling the scales scrape the earth beneath me as I limped to all fours. I could feel the energy drain away immediately, the warm spot below already calling out for me to fall back down and sleep. But what's worse, to defy a friend, or sleep? Alas, sleep had done nothing but passed on time. And if there was anything I desperately needed, especially with death hanging over my head and an angry herd leader blood-thirsty to put me in the ground, it was time.

"Good," The club-tail grunted, shifting his weight to wander beside me, "Now, take your time walking, I'll stoll alongside you. I know that the crack on your ribs will be shifting about still, but it should ease up eventually."

As I began limping, the world began to flower with a light blue glow, the faint color proof that the day was already beginning, and that the night had ceased to be. The dying light above twinkled away, too faint to contend the blazing star itself, yet too surreal to defy it. The world was slowly awakening, the radiating colors and aromatic scents already beginning to surge into my nostrils. I sank it all in, the trickling dew, the crackling leaves beneath my claws, and the fresh foliage, just ripe for the taking. But the further we walked, the more faint the herd's scent became, to the point where I began to flinch with concern.

"W-Where are we going?"

The club-tail exhaled, his eyes turning away to stare into the forest before us both, "I hate carrying around everything and, well, doing the dirty work. So I'm taking you to my favorite spot in the gorges of the valley."

"To?"

"Well, to eat of course!" The club-tail smirked, "You look like a twig! And to gather some more herbs. After a nice warm morning like today, a couple more should be in their prime stages, perfect for picking. Alas, this may be the last warm morning we get, so I have to act quickly. And I might need your help."

"How so?"

"Your beak!" His exclaimed, both eyes now acknowledged my maw as if it was the answer to everything, "It's more pointed than mine, so you should be able to cut several at a time."

I reared my frilled head back upon pausing, narrowing my own eyes at the herbivore, "Cut herbs? I don't know what the herbs even look like. And I'm not a...whatever you call yourself."

"Healer," He would answer, smiling and twisting his club-tail about, "And trust me, it's more fun than it sounds. Use your nose, use your eyes, and your head. Who knows? You may get something out of it."