I found myself alone for the first time in decades.
The ground beneath me was filled with the richness of yellow grass, dry and flaky, yet soothing to the touch. It stroked against my blood-soaked flesh as I wandered through it's forests, carelessly minding the direction I took. The mud beneath me squished and curled with each step taken, despite no rainstorm having come through in the last week. I was alone out here, underneath the bright blue sky and the whitened sun that stared down at me.
I was at peace. Though, it didn't actually feel like peace.
My flesh, despite it's yellow façade, wasn't enough to camouflage everything, not even the horns upon my skull still reeking with sharptooth blood. I paced around out here, walking to and fro, trying to summarize the last few days into a couple of seconds. But even I couldn't manage to process everything. This world of mine had fallen apart, and I finally lost the pieces that made it whole again.
Now that I thought about it, my actions alone were severe enough. I couldn't even imagine the horror written on my herd's faces when they noticed that I left them to die, or the anger in Livia's eyes if she was still alive. All my actions, all my decisions, they were all for selfish means. They all led to the deaths of so many.
All of this was my fault.
The eggs, Livia, the herd... I abandoned them all. I left them all to die...
Eventually I collapsed onto my underbelly, bowed my horned head, and began to weep. I let all those held back tears flow freely down my scales, and I choked upon the warmth of this anguish for minutes on end.
Until a ground-shaking stomp behind me startled me enough to stop.
My eyes widened, and I spun around, greeted by the last thing I wanted to see.
"Tooth... Tooth, I..."
I trailed off, already seeing the anger and pain glowing in the sharptooth's eyes, and closed my eyes in shame. The massive rex slowly walked toward me, hearing my snivels and whimpers growing louder by the second, and stared down at me. But his eyes weren't all that sad for himself... there was a part of his being that felt pity for me.
He curled around my body, drawing his tail against my flank, then sat beside me. All I could do was follow his example and lean against him. But I didn't dare look into his eyes. I couldn't, not after what I've done. We sat in silence for the time being, listening to my sniffles and whimpers cease, then fall into steady breaths. Tooth then looked down upon me, his eyes slightly peeking toward my blood-stained horns, then toward my eyes.
"Why?" he asked softly. I exhaled weakly, and closed my eyes.
"You wouldn't understand..."
Tooth snorted slightly, his eyes flashing toward me. "Any normal rex would kill you where you stand. Frankly my instincts are begging me to, even now."
"Then why don't you?"
"Because I'm not that kind of killer," he growled. "I refuse to lead by instinct and pleasures. You taught me that when you befriended me long ago."
I flared my nostrils, not bothering to look up at him, and tilted my head away.
"Back then... When things made sense. When nothing else mattered but each other. I prayed this day would never come... but we're not the same. We lived two different lives and now... now we're enemies."
Tooth's chest convulsed with anger and pain, and he whirled his head away, getting a grip on his emotions, then snarled at me.
"Why did you do it?!"
"They... killed Livia. The raptors..." I trailed off again, then closed my eyes. "We were expecting... and they murdered her."
The sharptooth flared his nostrils. "They said 'you' murdered them."
"They attacked first! I only acted out of self-defense!"
"Then what of my mother?! And my father of all creatures?!"
I shivered, letting a tear roll down my face and bowed my head. "I didn't mean... to kill your father. I n-never wanted to. I... I was angry, and scared... I-I wasn't thinking straight-"
"Don't LIE to me, three-horns!" he suddenly roared, rocking the earth with his vengeful voice. I shivered slightly, gritting my beak together and swallowed.
"I loved you, Tooth," I admitted weakly, trying to meet his furious gaze. "Much more than just a friend, but as a brother. I never w-wanted to hurt you. This is my fault... I put my herd before you... and it led me astray. I hurt you... and I... I can't forgive myself for that..."
Tooth gazed at me, then turned his head. "I want to believe you. I want to... trust you again. But I can't."
Turning away, I nodded to the ground, and exhaled. "Then don't. You still wouldn't get it anyway."
The sharptooth's eyes flashed once he heard me, and he bolted to his feet, jaws close into my face for me to watch him scream. I could still smell the burning hatred smoking off his snout, and it saddened me more than it haunted me.
"I get more than you have in a lifetime! We were friends, best friends even! I trained you to be like me, just like you trained me to be like you! And we understood each other. We made a pact upon a bite on our flesh, and we loved one another. And then you did this and turned everything on ME! Ever since you became pack leader you just pushed me away, as if I DONT MATTER ANYMORE! You promised you'd be there for me, and you lied!"
"I never wanted to..."
"WHAT?!" he roared out, startling me. "WHAT DID YOU NOT WANT? WHAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR FRIENDSHIP?!"
I lowered my gaze from him once more, unable to speak at first once his voice got into my skull. I tasted the terror upon my tongue, and felt my blood roaring with the demand to flee. But I held still, and forced my voice into the sunlight.
"This is what you don't understand..." I hissed softly. "I have too much on my shoulders. You don't. When the world asked me to be something else, it's impossible to carry on your promises, even to the ones you trust."
Tooth curled his lips into a snarl. "No kidding, bastard."
"Tooth, if I let them find out that I cared more about a rex than an entire herd... they'd hunt you down and kill you! I didn't want you to die over my choice... so I had to push you away."
"That's NO EXCUSE!"
"It's plenty of an excuse!" I snarled back through my tears. "Because you don't know what it's like to be me, you never have! You wander the world like a king on a hill, and I'm fighting every little piece of it at the bottom of the food chain, to at least have a future, and now it's gone! I can't... I can't go back there. And I can't start over..."
I bowed my head again, shedding a tear. Tooth hissed slightly, looking over his shoulder, then stood up. I felt him brush away from my side, his footsteps pausing at my tail, and a somber sigh escaping his lips.
"I'm sorry, Tooth. I can't... hold on to the past anymore. This is who I am now... and I can't change that for you."
Tooth let a tear roll down his face and turned his head away. Whimpers and soft exhales rippled from the sobbing rex, and he closed his eyes in complete regret. After a moment to relax, his eyes scanned the treeline afar, as if noticing something, and he shuddered, knowing what he must do.
"I'm sorry, too," he began. "For leading you astray for me. For being your friend for so long. And... for doing this to you."
I narrowed my eyes. "Wait, what?"
All of a sudden, a sharpened pain stabbed into my tail, and I yelped as I was dragged in front of Tooth, who slammed a foot down onto my hip. His teeth widened, and his entire jaw sank into my hide, ripping clean through the flesh like a thorn. I screeched in anguish, trying to flee, only to get another stab go for my neck, pinning me as he rotated my body to my weakest section -- the underbelly. Injured and confused, I tried to reel back, but his press on my chest was sturdy and sharp.
"T-Tooth, stop!" I cried, blood smeared all across my chest where his claws dug in, "Please-!"
And he slashed backward.
My beak let out a blood-curdling scream, feeling my whole underbelly rip open wide and shook, an explosion of anguish rupturing my whole body. Tooth's primitive side snarled, lunging forward and snagged around my neck and squeezed. I gasped, suffocating and scratching at the earth as I strained to fight back. The rex hissed, tears flowing down his face and with one massive roar he violently slammed my head into the ground, stunning me.
"Stop it... stop..."
My vision went blurry on impact, the earth rocking from the sheer might of my body striking it, and for a moment I laid there, limp and weakened. I still fought onward, scrambling my feet and trying to break free, but my mind had been compromised entirely. Tooth tightened his grip, steadying me for a better aim, and slammed me down once more. A ringing noise shot into my ears as I hit, noticing a puddle of blood beginning to form beneath my head. I wheezed weakly, still trying my hardest to escape this doom, but I couldn't carry on.
"W-Why... are you... hurting me?"
The third slam broke me, my swinging claws and pained roars all but silenced at that very second. All I had left were my eyes - thin slits of saltwater and blood seeping from their underside, and having given in to my friend I closed my eyes, and sank into myself.
Tooth noticed my bloody arms and bent head swaying lifelessly in the wind and froze, swollen by grief. He wanted to stop but having his kind in the background watching, he had to abide by their call. He closed his eyes and reared back, gaining a better hold of my neck and slammed my skull a fourth time into an exposed rock in the mud. There was a subtle sound that shook his bones when I crashed, and upon the fifth ram Tooth winced upon hearing a sickening crack reverberate through my skull.
And it was all over.
The sharptooth found himself sobbing, still holding my bloody carcass in his jaws, too lost on what to do next. All he wanted was to take it back, to take it all back. But seeing me this broken, this lost and damaged, there was no way I'd survive. Even if I did, I was too broken to go on.
And he knew that.
After a few seconds, Tooth closed his eyes, and opened his jaws, hearing the soft thud of death hit the earth at his feet. He didn't want to look. He didn't want to see. But his snout told him everything he needed to know, even without sight he knew what I had become.
"F-Forgive me..."
Drurk, the new leader of the sharptooth herd, lumbered over to him, a small grin curled on his face. Upon approaching my body, the carnivore began sinking his fangs into a large chunk of meat near my belly. That act alone was enough to force the young sharptooth's eyes to pop open with horror, and snap.
"What are you-"
"Feasting," the new leader muttered, beginning to pull. "On a well-earned-"
"No!" Tooth snarled, stepping forward with a threatening growl. "No. Don't do that. That's not how I want to honor my friend."
The sharptooth stumbled away from the kill, confused and growling back.
"He's was never your friend. Just a piece of overdo fresh-kill."
"I beg to differ. His hide is worth more than the scraps I've bargained for," Tooth spat. Drurk took another step forward, only hearing another threatening snarl ripple from the younger rex.
"No. This belongs... to me."
Drurk studied the rex for a moment, his eyes glowing with annoyance. His outburst reminded him of the hostility of their kind, the way they'd fight over flesh and bones for the sake of dominance. Not wanting to risk an unneeded kill, Drurk snorted and turned away. As his footsteps settled, Tooth gazed back at my body, exhaling with a shallow breath, and nuzzled me. He nudged me over into the thickest rows of thickets, hidden beneath everything and away from it all. Once my scent began to cease, Tooth bowed his head and sighed.
"It's for the best..." he sighed quietly. "I'm sorry... for everything."
Tooth took a miserable step back, looking down at my hidden hide, then began to follow after Drurk away into the valley, leaving me for the scavengers to find. But none would come.
For three days none would come. Or anything for that matter.
And, upon the third hour of one particular day, my frozen muscles twitched, relieving me of the coma.
My tail flexed.
And both eyes snapped open.