Sorry about all the Whiteclaw (22 days after) thing. If I put them all together, it'd be way to long, so I had to shorten it. Hope you enjoy!
"GAH!" I gasped as pain boiled over my system. I wanted to cry as I felt agony wash over my brain and build tension in my chest. I inhaled hard, then exhaled. My rib wasn't puncturing my lungs now. I could breathe. Then another thought hit me. How long was I down? Blackclaw was somewhere, I didn't know where. But Drexel still laid limp on the ground, with closed eyes and a pool of blood around him. He's gotta be alive! I didn't want him to die! I couldn't move still and the more I struggled, the more blood trickled from my wounds. I gritted my teeth, using my claws to push me up. Fire sprang from its hiding inside of me, and I heard a strange click snap inside. Then another. And another. Each one more painful than the next, but the more that happened, the higher I got.
"C'mon!" I silently screeched in tears as I pushed up one more time. My jaw wasn't helping me at all as it just hung there. I found myself uplift from the ground for a few seconds, and joy splashed in my heart. It only sank thereafter when I lost my footing and plummeted to the earth once again. Everything rang around me, and my heart was beating faster when I was unable to move. Worst of all, I didn't know where that herbivore that crushed me was. I used my workable leg to try and get a full foot on the earth. But it just slipped. I was stuck.
"What do I do?" I whimpered, looking around frantically, "What do I do? Dad what do I-" I cut off. I remembered something. When I was teaching Shadow days ago on how to hunt. I remember the dream. The old dream I once had. Me and Dad. I remember it...
"Feel is important Whiteclaw," Dad grunted to me, "It could save your life someday. Like how it saved mine when me and your mother went hunting many years ago. Feel-" He took my clawed hand and bent down low until both of our hands were touching the moist earth of the forest floor, "is the waves of vibrations that echo around all living things."
I lifted my paw up from the side of the earth and moved it above my face. With a drop of weakness, my hand then splashed into the red dark blood. My own blood. I remember this blood. The blood of fear. The blood that a Tenontosaurus cut through during an important hunt. I levitated my paw over the blood and closed my eyes.
Everything has its own vibration. You must know some by heart, and separate others as another category." Dad whispered.
I kept my paw over the pool and struggled to listen and feel hard, straining my veins to catch the liquid's movement.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The pool of blood vibrated.
I felt them touch my paw in strange waves, like mini tsunamis, licking the bottom of my claw. I tilted my head, feeling the vibration go through me too. That wasn't a herbivore stomp.
That was a carnivore walking.
That was Shadow walking.
Towards me.
His vibrations were far away, but far enough for me to roar at. I twisted my head a bit away from the blood and shook away the little dust particles from my face.
He was there. But he didn't see where I was.
I tried to cry out, but nothing came out, besides the blood that discolored the string of saliva upon my maw.
I gotta get up, I thought with realization, I have no air on the ground. With a grunt and a hiss, I tried my second attempt to get to my feet. I glanced at my left ankle, analyzing it hard. That's when I noticed that it was dislocated. So it wasn't really broken at all! I lifted my upper body hard in searing pain, then grabbed my foot with my sharp teeth. I hesitated, knowing that what I was about to do would feel just as worse as the injury I sustained on my side. But I had to try.
This is going to hurt, I sighed, closing my eyes, then twisted my skull hard in the direction of my femur. A spasm of pain rushed up my leg as the bone snapped back into place, and I shrieked out of my throat from the suffering.
But it was working.
So now I could get up! I flexed my foot around in a perfect circle. It was good again, yet throbbing in agony.
I lifted my tail up as I pushed up with both knees to my feet. They trembled simultaneously but nonetheless kept me upright. I pushed up with my claws shakingly, then inhaled with a tight breath.
And weakly roared.
The herbivore that almost killed me heard my howl and growled down the hill with eyes of anger. He wanted to finish me off.
Hopefully, Shadow could get here first.
Hopefully.
But was hope enough?
I roared again, eyes now locked on the herbivore who was making his way towards me. I panicked, backing up quickly in the dirt and pulled myself faster with my tail leaning me back.
"Shadow!" I screamed, seeing the Tenontosaurus approach me, like a shadow over the land preparing to end and strike back. I felt the ground wobble as he approached, and roar at me, either mocking my roar or showing how he will murder me once and for all. I cowered back in terror, unable to slide back anymore, only to watch him lift his foot.
It was too late.
But then, something happened.
Mid-way through his stomp, the foot froze. I opened my eyes, not realizing that they were closed, and stared. They dragged back a bit, as the Tenontosaurus spun around towards a loud noise; A roar.
Shadow was there. I stumbled back to my feet as I saw the T-Rex approach, roaring powerfully at the herbivore, which returned the favor with his own bellow. But then I realized something else. His back was turned towards me. I quickly bent myself low to the earth, flexing my toe claws, knowing that this current attack could either spell doom for me, or for my attacker. And with a snarl, I lunged.
The herbivore was unaware of my attack, and I perfectly landed on the side of his neck, piercing his side bones with sharp claws. A caterwaul thundered from his lips, and the deep cut expanded as he tried to shake me off. I was covered in blood by the time he fell apart, and the herbivore just groaned and fell to his side. I hopped off, out of breath as I felt his body slap the earth with a tremendous boom.
He was losing too much blood.
He was dying.
And I won.
I turned to him inhaling painfully as I stared at his weakening eyes of anguish and madness. He wheezed in pain, groaning and moaning until his twitches went silent.
"Fear is for prey," I hissed to him with bared teeth. His eyes rolled up to his head, and his breathing ceased. He was officially dead. His pack of Tenontosaurs saw his body and began sprinting away, and Shadow helped a bit, chasing after him with roars. I wiped my albino face with red blood, out of breath and insecure about myself. I still didn't know if I was alive or not. Or where Blackclaw-
"NO!!" His voice snarled before his body crashed into mine, "You fool!" Blackclaw's eyes were dark and black, and his body seemed like a shadow of its own. As if death had controlled him. He looked even worse than before, veins and tendrils of blood thrashing excitingly upon his flesh, claws outstretched, and breath smelling of death.
"Blackclaw stop! I don't wanna-" I felt his claw come over the side of my skull. He knocked me to the side with his tail, then grabbed me by the vertebrae with his jaws.
I was doomed.
"This ends here!" He hissed, then yanked hard. Pain like fire spasmed in my back as he shook my spinal cord like an earthquake. I felt cracks and agony roar over me as I tried to fight it, but it only grew worse. My blood was painting his face as he jerked, killing me.
"AHH!" I screamed as the pain grew from intensifying to unbearable. But then, I felt the ground shake. And Blackclaw's grip on me vanished. I hit the earth hard on my chest, hearing his cries suddenly flask in my ears and slowly peered up from the earth, seeing Shadow holding Blackclaw in his mouth. My brother was fighting his jaws, slashing deep cuts around his snout. Shadow growled angrily, then squeezed. And I knew, T-Rex had the strongest bite of any dinosaur.
Shadow was gonna kill him!
"Shadow WAIT!"
Blackclaw screamed ugly, jerking and twisting in pain. The bite was cracking everything in his body, worst than a crush by a herbivore. He squealed again, trying to escape it, but there was no escape from a 6-ton bite of a T-Rex.
"SHADOW STOP!" I cried on the ground, dragging myself a bit forwards with tears streaming in my eyes. But Shadow couldn't hear, his predatory instincts were already in action. After a few moments of more bone breaking cracks, and violent stomach-twisting gurgles of yelps, Blackclaw slumped limply in Shadow's jaws, silent and unmoving.
No...
Shadow ended his life in such a brutal way before my terrified eyes. My heart shattered. He killed my brother.
My controlled brother.
He moved his head up, opening his mouth, and in slow motion, Blackclaw's body hit the ground and bounced like jelly on his side. I closed my eyes swallowing a type of guilt and shame from Blackclaw's death. I wasn't better than him. But I acted like it throughout my life. I'm sure he understood it better than I did. And even if his jealousy raged over my power on him, and even if the rage flowered from the clock's charms work led to his death: I had a feeling that even if he hated me, he still wanted to be me. And I failed in letting him in.
I swallowed hard. It wasn't his fault then...
Shadow sighed nearby and stomped towards me.
"I-I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking straight I-I thought he'd..." He gulped then trembled, "I-I didn't mean..."
"It's alright," I dipped my head wheezing, "You saved me." I weakly moved to my left foot up, then my right foot to stand upright.
"You good?" Shadow wondered, "Your jaw..." I stared at my limp jaw which I couldn't move for some reason, but nodded hence the abominable fact.
"Yeah, I'm okay...." Then I trailed off.
But Drexel wasn't.
"Whiteclaw where-" Shadow cut off as he saw me painfully bound away in terror. I limped into the opening, already seeing Drexel's body, then stopped a few feet away from him.
He wasn't moving.
His body laid on its side, still, lifeless, and bloody, broken bones spilling out from his flesh. He was so still, I fooled myself into thinking that he moved. His skin smelled dead and cold to my nostrils, which were red with blood and sweat.
"Drexel?" I called. There was no response. My voice just rolled over the hills and through the wind as if I was talking to nobody. I felt Shadow join me a few seconds later and a darkness in my soul swallowed me. He wasn't moving still.
"He's not going to wake up is he?" Shadow trailed off looking down at me. I stumbled over to his side, dazed for some reason, and sick to myself as I looked at his body. His jaw was open a bit as his head laid crushed in the earth. Blood trickled from his teeth and down his face, and his eyes were closed and silent.
He was gone.
He was really gone.
I felt salty liquid flush into my eyes, but I shut it quickly.
Stop. Stop it. Just stop it.
I turned my head away from the sight, not wanted to take any more visions of death to my soul. He was gone.
My fault, my fault, my fault, I thought in agony, ignoring my own pain for the fault of his. I sniffed hard, swallowing in the mucus that suddenly tickled my nostrils and coughed. I couldn't bear the pain anymore and allowed a few tears to stream down my face.
My fault, my fault, my fault, the thought repeated on and on. I nudged his lost face, feeling the cracks of bones that carved its way through his skull to his snout. I took in his dying scent and breathed it out in a hot breath. His body was cold and lifeless now, dark as a rock and bloody like a wet towel.
"I'm sorry..." I quietly sobbed, rubbing my side on his underjaw, "I never got to forgive you. I was just so angry that I cared about myself...........I left you here to die. And it's.....all..." I shuddered in pain, letting the tears fall faster, "...my fault...."
"Whiteclaw," Shadow whispered swallowing his own cries a few minutes later, "We need to go." But I was quiet. I felt a new kind of emptiness like I was alone for good. Even though I had Amberclaw left, I felt lost, trapped in my own mind for some reason.
"Whiteclaw...?"
I couldn't leave him here, I thought whimpering softly, I can't. I slowly lowered my skull down and sank my jaw into his back, lifting him off the ground. My bottom jaw hung a bit, though it managed to catch on with ease. He felt light to me now since he died, and his skin was flappy and dead. I looked at Shadow with sad eyes, my heart sinking deeper and deeper into my soul.
"We can go now."