YES! I finally uploaded this! HURRAY! This is the moment you've been waiting for (Drexel's Backstory)! This scene was really hard to make, but it was also cool and really....really...*sob*...sad and depressing. This is the reason Drexel changes from happy lovable Utahraptor to serious and moody Utahraptor :(. Hope you enjoy!
My mom's green and blue eyes flashed bright in the whitish glow of the full moon, locked and everso moving slowly across the navy blue sky. The forest illuminated like wildfires, flashing sometimes with the life of fireflies and the flutter of falling leaves. The air was humid and fresh, and the ground itself was soft and delicate beneath my claws. Mom watched me gobble down some of Stegosaur's meat we savagely hunted earlier on in the day. I licked my lips, swallowed again, then licked my fingers from the excess blood that stained my skin.
"You keep eating like that Drexel, you'll get fat!" Mom teased from the ground, nudging her underside pubis. I rolled my eyes annoyingly.
"I'm starving!"
"But you eat too fast," She insisted, "You don't want a huge herbivore in your gut now would you? You'd look like a seed, plump and all."
"I look like a stick," I countered with a whine, making her laugh quietly, "You're already filled up, I could tell."
"Ah...not quite," She clicked. I looked at her, then dug into the carcass, ripping out a huge white piece of fresh red meat for her to munch on. Slowly, I walked towards her with the delicacy in my jaws, placed it on the ground, then poked the flesh towards her. Mom shook her head.
"C'mon mom, it's your birthday!" I encouraged tapping my toe claw silently, "You should enjoy it while it lasts! And eat! Nobody should go to be on an empty stomach anyways."
"Hehe, that's true," She pointed at me with a grin with her index finger, then dug into the meat. But seconds later, she swallowed with a look of disgust. I frowned oddly.
"What is it?" I wondered. She bit her lip, then swallowed again.
"For some reason, it doesn't taste as good as before," She muffled with her mouth still full. I watched her swallow again, straining her throat to take in the meat, until finally, it submitted to her force and traveled down her esophagus. Mom sighed and shrugged.
"Oh well," She grinned, "It's just meat. Doesn't really matter how it tastes right?"
"I guess...." Then trailed off in thought. What if I got her more meat that she could enjoy! She loves Iguanodon flesh!
"What if I got you something that you love?" I croaked, "Instead of eating this....junk."
"Junk?" She narrowed her eyes, "I mean, it's not bad, but it's not as tasty. Yet it gives us energy despite of its taste. That's all that matters for now."
"But today's your day!" I smiled, nudging her by the side, "Let me get something for you mom as a...gift! Yeah, a gift! And I know exactly which one to get to you."
"Drexel," She sighed stammering, "I-I don't know."
"I'll be quick!" I persuaded her, bouncing up and down on my clawed feet, "please?" Mom just laughed, shook her head, then look back at me. Her eyes searched for something within my own, before her mouth spoke with happiness.
"10 minutes!"
"10 minutes," I squeaked.
"Nothing more okay?"
"Got it."
"Alright then," She giggled, "One.......Two...." I grinned, spun around, then raced into the forest, hearing her voice thunder over the forest to my ears.
"Three........Four..........Five...." She continued faintly. I sniffed the air, searched wildly around for the scent of those thumb-clawed herbivores. The sky looked down upon me, flashing the moonlight upon my feathered spine, while the wind blew along with me, pushing me forwards and spiking my adrenaline. I think I passed multiple herbivores
"Ten...Eleven," Mom called. I smiled from her playful voice and huffed away, rumbling in my throat. Eventually, I reached a point in the forest where I could no longer hear her voice petrify the shadowed forest. I heard the ground vibrate northbound to me, and with strucken speed in my joints, I folded my skin over, twitched my muscles and bounded forwards, skidding through the lush green trees and bushes that littered the ground. But then, the vibrations stopped, and my sprints halted dead in the tracks. My heart pounded tirelessly, and my throat burned strangely in my chest. I must've been winded from the amount of running I was doing. But where was the Iguanodon I was tracking? Turns out, when I finally caught up to the prey, it was already down. Blood bubbled up from its side as it laid there silent and motionless, and the smell of fresh flesh soothed my own brain. I looked around worrisome, then leaned downwards to pick up the carcass in my widened jaws.
Either someone purposely left the carcass here, or this was my, and Mom's lucky day! I made sure I locked the meat between my huge jaws, and with a heaving grunt, carried the dead prey through the blackened forest. The ground shifted between each struggling step, and I strained my neck to hold the prey upright.
Don't take a bite, don't take a bite, I urged myself.
For mom, for mom.
I turned a corner, twisting my tail around as I slowly turned my steps into trots, scurrying through the undergrowth of young trees. Eventually after a while of walking, I found the resourceful scent of home where Mom probably still waiting, counting silently in her head. Of course that was my opinion as to what she was doing. She could be sleeping or hunting herself. But that thought of hunting made me nervous and annoying, so I had to make this quick. I brushed passed the elephant-eared leaves that flowed in the winds of the green forest, following the memorable scent that I knew so well. Eventually, I broke through another barrier of plants, edging closer to the clearing where my Mom was.
"You won't believe it Mom!" I called with a grin, crushing the meat in my jaws as I held it upright. The sticks and twigs pulled at my scales strangly, pushing me away from the clearing, "I didn't need to hunt the herbivore! How lucky was that eh?" I lifted my foot up over another branch, then tripped a bit into the moonlight with laughter, lifting my eyes into the scenic view.
"This might be the best birthday that you'll ever have..." I trailed off suddenly, stopping my walk abruptly short. The Iguanodon my my mouth swung to a stop along with me.
And I just stared.
All that could be heard was the loud chirps of nearby cicadas and crickets, calling to their mates. As beautiful as the scene was, nothing was more terrifying than the one that laid before me.
I stared silently across the field of black lush soil and darkened moon shadows, and allowed my small eyes to fall upon a bloody jerking body.
My mother's body.
Her claws shook like an earthquake, and her jaws were open wide on the ground, teeth stained with the red liquid. Her vertebrae laid broken and unstraightened, while her tail in the back thumped painfully as if she was pinned by an invisible force. In the background, I just solemnly watched her body tremble and vibrate without speaking another word. For the first time, I was emotionless.
Nothing inside me budged.
Nothing snapped.
No tears were shed in my eyes.
All I could do was watch, with my feet deep in a sinkhole of pure terror.
Blood sputtered from her ripped neck, spreading all around her body to the tip of her tail. Deep gashes also bleed all around her, adding onto the pain she embraced. He jaw remained open wide, unable to say anything at all, while her body moved around like a decapitated limb. My heart sank lower and lower as I watched her fight the agony, trembling hard in the blood stained soil. I turned my eyes around, seeing her blood on the walls of some rocks, and impaled on a sharp thorn, extended from the dead tree.
She was fighting before she was injured
Someone purposely killed her.
After a few more minutes of staring, her body finally settled down, and the disturbing twitching vanished. One of Mom's claw slowly slid from her feathered vertebrae and bloody neck, and hit the earth with a loud thud on its backside. Her eyes stared up unmoving, while her jaws laid open on the ground, stained with her own forsaken blood.
I was still speechless.
But now, I was able to move my joints, twisting my hip bone in a circular motion to take a step, then do the same for the other. I laid the carcass from my mouth to the ground cautiously, then padded on over to my Mother's silent body. Each step brought more pain, more horror, and more anger throbbing in my soul, and as her physical appearance opened up in my eyes, that anger turned to rage.
"Mom?" I whimpered a bit, sniveling hard. But I already knew that she was gone for good. Her heart never pumped another beat. And her flesh was as cold as death. I shook my head, swallowing hard.
Don't you dare cry, my brain hissed behind my ears, and the salt that was bubbling down from my lacrimal lopes faded back inwards with a silent pop. I lowered down a bit to stare at my mother's body, still confused and stunned of what happened to her. I next gripped her cold lifeless hand in my own, shuddering in sadness, and even struggling to hold in the cold tears that somehow returned to the bottom of my eyes. I clutched her hand tightly, watching it flap around like a wing of a sleeping bird. After holding on, I finally felt the sorrow wash over me, draining the life from my soul, and let the water flow from my eyes as tears.
"Mom?!" I whimpered softly, feeling the warm saltwater slip down my cheek and drip off my snout, "MOM!" I squeezed my eyes closed, letting more tears fall down my cheek and slide into the corners of my mouth.
She was truly gone.
I knew that by now, but I didn't care. I still wanted her back.
"Mom...." I sobbed again, lowering her hands down with sniffled and hard inhales. Who did this to you?
I lifted my eyes open again, with red-veined eyes, staring at a strange weaving trail of my mother's blood stains. They were small footprints, smaller than my own, and sank into the darkest part of the woods. That's when I changed entirely. I wasn't the nice kind of raptor I was before.
I was outraged.
I slammed my right foot into the ground, shaking it hard, then did the same with my left foot, bouncing my shoulders a bit with a large growl in my mouth.
Whomever hurt my mother, I thought with tears still flowing silently down my face, I will find them and rip them apart. Limb. From. Limb! I sniffed the air hard, straining my brain the catch the blood/feet scent, then sprinted into the forest, hissing wildly. The air felt cooler, dropping a soft mist-like atmosphere into the forest. The foliage of plants seemed like claws reaching out for me, or running away from me. I didn't really know however, since my mind mainly snarled upon the blood of my Mother upon my own enemy. Eventually, the trail's scent got so strong that I slowed my run into a crouch, following my nose into the perimeter of an empty clearing. My jaws gaped a bit, while my eyes still blazed with cruel fire inside.
They will pay! I screamed in my head, They'll all pay for what they've done!
I waited for the enemy in the shadows, snarling and hissing softly to myself to continue the anger that flared like a plague in my heart. Out of the Mist and Darkness came two figure, one in which was a female, and the other was a male. One had-
"That's mother's birthday gift!!" I hissed, feeling my heart explode with fury, "And the Stegosaur meat!" The male had blood covered all over him, and the same footprints as before that dragged upon his back feet.
They were Deinonychus! I realized crouching lower. Utahraptors and Deinonychus were common enemies. And since they hurt mother, they were about to face their worst enemy yet: me.
I moved forwards a bit, watching them bite into the fresh-kill, then drag their tail around like mini whips or weights as balance. My adrenaline rose higher and higher, until suddenly, I lifted up, breaking away from hiding, stomping right towards the raptors in the clearing.
The Deinonychus saw me two seconds after I got into the clearing, but even by then, I was already upon them.
Even it was too late to do anything.
The Male let out a shriek of pure terror when I approached him first, but before he could run away fast enough, I lunged at him, claws and talons outstretched. I landed on his back first, pulling him down quick with my jaws snapping and teeth crushing every muscles in my view. He tried to fight me off, slicing some flesh in deep cuts around my snout, but my weight and strength overcame him quick. My jaws found the edges of his vertebrae, and after quickly hauling him upright, I slammed him onto the ground multiple times, hearing his shrieks and yelps turn to whimpers and moans of pain.
"YOU KILLED HER!" I screamed angrily as I slammed him harder and harder, already seeing his body go limp, "You freaking MURDERED my mother! YOU FREAKING MURDERED HER!" I slammed him once more after a bone tearing crack sounded, making him body bounce up and down like a ball, and dropped him onto the earth, where he laid silently, blood spilling from his back and mouth with silent gurgles. My snout was dripping with sweat and blood, and I tasted the strange red liquid oozing into my mouth and nostrils. To make sure he was down, I slammed my foot with a ground shaking stomp onto the side of his hide, hissing with fiery gurgles at his only open eye.
I next heard a cry of horror from the female Deinonychus in front of me, watching me completely destroy her mate. She too had the scent of my mother's blood in her jaws and claws, and she seemed even more drenched in the carcass of my mother than her husband. She was speechless, and had her claw over her snout, realizing that she spoke way too loud, enough to make me look up from the dying Deinonychus towards her.
More anger flowered inside me, and I pulled away from the male to go towards the female. Her size itself told me that I could easily overpower her with strength and endurance. As far as I knew; she made a grave mistake.
I began to move faster towards the petrified Deinonychus, snarling loudly at her with open jaws. Finally, when I was about five tail lengths away, she snapped out of her trance, spun around and ran. But despite of her small body and quick feet, she was nowhere near escape. In a flash, I caught up to her side, then thrusted my snout and head underneath her belly. With a grunt, I hauled/jerked up hard, flipping the female right into the air. She screeched in horror at my attack, landing on her side flank and hip with a hard slam, then flipped a few times before crashing into a nearby tree. Leaves and sticks floated down from the tree as it wobbled a bit around from the impact. The female wheezed out of breath, then stumbled to her feet as I approached. Immediately, she hissed a dark warning, showing her blood-stained teeth at me.
I don't care, I thought angrily, you killed my mother.
She hissed once more, but I growled back with her mate's blood still dripping from my nostrils. The Deinonychus flinched for a second, then lunged, poking her toe-claw up in the air to dig into my flesh. But with a screech, I slapped my tail hard into her flank, throwing her to the side and right into the forest floor. She landed on her hip again, her tail slipping on after her until she skidded to a stop. I stomped over the lying Deinonychus, but before I knew it, she popped up to her feet, bounding right at me with speed. Next thing I knew, I felt excruciating pain on my spine as the female dug her toe-claw in my back. I roared out in agony, squeezing my eyes closed, then snapped at her. Her jaws next buried themselves on the back of my neck, sending more spasms of fire all around my body. I saw her tail quickly and grabbed it, tossing the Deinonychus off my back and into the air again. She crashed into another tree, following up with a sickening crack of her leg, and her spine being shattered like glass. In a matter of seconds, she slumped to the bottom of the tree, trembling all over in pain, unable to say a word. I was breathing hard, staring at the carnivore with fury blazing in my red and black eyes.
"Do you even remember her?" I growled, "Do you even forgive what you've done?!" I didn't await a response, and quickly, I dashed to her position, snatched her by the neck and shook her hard.
"APOLOGIZE!" I screamed, "APOLOGIZE TO WHAT YOU'VE DONE WITH MY MOTHER! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOUR FREAKING FAULT!!" I shook her harder and harder, and her body parts that were once straining to fight back fell limp like the male, especially when the spine cracked right between my teeth. I lowered my eyes a bit to hers, seeing her own shake and tear up with blood. She seemed as if she wanted to say something, opening and closing her mouth continuously, like a door.
Just like mother did when she died.
Fire boiled over my system, and with fury and a scream, I threw her limp body right into a sharp tree stump. Immediately, the Deinonychus got impaled to the right of her chest, and howled so loud, I thought the forest (along with my ears) might've exploded. I kept going for some reason, slamming her harder and harder, until I felt the blood soak into my hands. My eyes widened with horror as I felt the red liquid spill into my claws, and pulled the body of the female from the tree, dropping her to the floor with a silent thud. Her eyes were closed, a teardrop still mid-way down her cheek, until it slipped into her jaws. I backed up in terror, crying out loudly when I saw what I've done to her body. A deep hole penetrated the side of her body, bloody all over and red with her exposed flesh.
"NO!!" I screamed in horror, putting my bloody claws on my head, "What have I done?! What have I done?!" I covered my snout with my bloody claw feeling the tears fall down from my eyes and drop to the forest floor, mixing with the Deinonychus's blood. I sank onto my knees, using my claws as a stand, and wept quietly, unforgiving to what I've done.
I was truly malevolent in my actions, I knew that now.
But I've never done something so brutal.
So inhumane.
So....not me.
That wasn't me, I thought sadly, trying to find an excuse, that wasn't me. I wasn't in control of myself, something took me away. Where's the old Drexel? I felt another regretful tear trickle off my chin, where is he?
I wiped the tears off my face, only to smear more blood on my face. Then I looked down at my claws and sobbed even harder.
The blood.
It was all over my claws.
All over the place.
I was drenched in my own kill
I was a murderer.
Not them.
Me.
Because I was too angry.
I wasn't even afraid. I was just angry. I was the hell from inside.
"I'm....so....sorry..." I sobbed shaking my head with hard inhales, "Its all.....my....fault..."
I heard a sharp snap of the branches to the right of me, deep in the heart of the black forest, and I jerked my head to the noise with a gasp. Then another came out seconds after.
It was a Deinonychus. Just like the rest. But he was younger. Blacker. Darker. Full of anger, just like me. He hid with his eyes wide in the bushes, watching me drip of the Female's blood. And then I realized.
It's not just a female. It's a mother. And the other was a father.
I just murdered his parents.
More sorrow overwhelmed in my stomach, forcing me back to my feet with a snivel. The black deinonychus stared at me silently, hissing angrily with fire blazing in his eyes. I backed up from his viewpoint, then with a terrible heart, fled into the darkness of the forest. I didn't stop to check the male. I didn't stop for Mother. I just ran, no matter the noises, the cries, the snarls, and the blood.
No matter the home either.
I just ran.
Ran until my heart would give out and kill me.
Ran right out of the forest into the small desert. And from there, right into a misty swampland.
Ran right into another home I made up. But I didn't know why I ran. I just did. To escape everything.
But mainly to escape a darker force.
Fear.