HAD TO SPLIT THIS CHAPTER TOO....LOL
I also wanna give a shout-out to @Avantika_19 @EurusAthena @Skate_Embers@Hufflepuff_Person for all their support! @Skate_Embers has a book she's working on, you guys should check out "Kingdom Life"!
Few more chapters left, wish me luck on making them LOL
Everything seemed to be blurry blobs in my deplenished eyes, and the feeling in my arms, claws, and tail were diminishing slowly and painfully. But even through my dying sight, I knew where we were. I slid off of Stella's back when we reached the caverns, and immediately just plopped onto the floor, not even having a fighting chance to stand. I was loosing strength.
I was losing blood.
"Hang on Whiteclaw," Stella's soft voice soothed my mind and my panic, "Hang in there."
"Huh," I grinned, "That's the one thing I don't know how to do..."
Something slipped into my claws for a moment, and in response, my claw rushed it over to my wound. The object was flat and smooth, and curled slightly with a twist of my fingers. On my wound however, it did nothing, just put agonizing pressure on the injury.
"Hold it down," Stella voice muttered, before her stomps faded somewhere else. I growled endlessly as more blood recolored the rocks, and when the spasms struck back after a while, I squeezed my eyes shut and doubled over, breathing harshly while my noggin pressed on the dried sedimentaries of the cave.
"Is everybody in here?" Stella wondered, seeing Queen in the corner with her youngling and egg.
"Way ahead of you Stella!" Atlas's voice chirped, and his blurred body was seen dragging a crippled Lythronax through the dirt. Finch huffed, then growled to himself.
"Damn this crushed leg," He snarled, jerking it like a piece of meat, "from this rate, I ain't going to make it."
"Don't overthink it," Atlas grumbled, eyeing Feather with a hopeful smile. I felt his eyes fall upon my back, and a sharp gasp fluttered out his jaws.
"What happened to..." He turned to Stella, still covered in ash and cuts, "What happened to you guys?"
"We were fighting for our lives," Stella weakly nodded, "He saved my life."
"He's bleeding out," Atlas sounded worried.
"I'm fine- AH!" I screeched, squeezing my jaws tighter and tighter. I tasted the sweet and sour droplets of warm thick blood seep over my tongue and discolor my teeth, and in disgust, I spat some out, seeing my own saliva turn dark. The ground strangely left my fingers for a second, and I found myself leaning against the wall, panting painfully, while my claw dug into my injury. A blurry green face of Stella backed up from me, following with a puff of steam from her circular nostrils.
"I-It's alright," I choked, trembling harder, "I-I c-can make it..." Stella's frill spun to Thunder's worrisome eyes, and fear crawled through my skin.
I have to make it.
I'm the last one of my kind.
"What do we do now?" Atlas clicked from the right of me, "There's gotta be a way to get out of this place."
"I think there is," Stella sighed, then motioned her three horns towards the clock, "Through there."
Everybody's head turned to the golden wall.
Silence.
"Does anybody else wanna die today?" Atlas snarled, "Because that's all we've been doing, risking our lives just to die-"
"We're not going to die!" Thunder growled in the darkness, moving towards Atlas, until he was a few inches away, "Don't you even have faith in anyone anymore?"
"I do," He hissed quickly, "But this is way too risky. We already lost half the amount of lives coming here, what makes this any different? Its literally a trap that you're all setting yourselves up for. But don't blame me when you find yourself fresh-meat for the scavengers."
Only a puff of steam shot from the T-Rex's nose, and though his eyes blazed with annoyance, his limbs held their ground, knowing for sure that some part of his words were accurate. But then, the Indosuchus continued to speak between his tongue and teeth.
"For some reason I'm younger than you, and I have more common sense than a ."
That was the flint sparked the fire in Shadow's father.
"My son risked his life for Whiteclaw and all of us in there! And if you think he wasted his life for some crap that you keep thinking about, than you're as stupid as when you were a youngling."
"Watch it Tyrannosaurus....."
Whittttteeeecllaawww..... A horrifying voice seared into my mind, boiling my blood with red hot anger and cool bits of fear, WHITTEEECLAWWW!!!
The whispers turned to growls and wails, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut to pull away from the noise. The world around me silenced as the voice groaned on and on, until it became agonizing. My claw scraped at the earth painfully, and my pointed teeth gritted upon themselves.
WHITTECCLAWWW!!
"STOP!" I shrieked finally, throwing my claws over the tiny holes on the side of my skull, "AH!"
"Whiteclaw?" Stella's horrified squeak sank my heart, and as the noise bore upon my body, I yanked myself away from the wall, falling onto the ground in pain. The world itself was wobbling all over from the intensity of the Clock's voice, and its bass shook my eyes within its sockets. I saw flashing images of the region outside, each frame zooming into one specific spot.
I KKKNNOWWW WHEEERRREE YOOOUUU ARRREE....
By now I was screaming, and I could feel the blood not only pound, but seep out my own ears. That scared me more than ever. The last frame was the cave itself, where everybody took refuge in. When the noise and pictures suddenly subsided into nothing. I found myself with a claw bloody from scratching, heart racing, and ears still throbbing in pain. I felt various cold fingers of darkness slide through my spine as I trembled on the ground, unable to speak for the seconds after.
"Give him some space!" Stella ushered, bumping some of the carnivores back before casting her own shadow on my back, "Whiteclaw, are you alright?"
I just slowly turned my head towards the outside world, seeing the ash fall like snow upon the mountainous lands, while in the distance lava bubbled to the atmosphere, spewing fire and smoke. A dark eerie silence filled the void within the cavern, and a sudden electrical sense flowed into my veins.
As if a storm was approaching from all around me.
And I felt it everywhere.
"I-It knows where we are," I stammered, realizing the meaning of the noise and flashing images.
It saw everything through my eyes.
It got into my head.
Only a few seconds later, a huge roar rippled the earth, and tumbling right after came the sharp jolt in the earth. The whole cave bent one way and groaned, splitting the rocks as if it were nothing but dry leaves in an open sun. The loose pebbles bounced around as I held onto the side of the wall in horror, watching everything fall apart before my very eyes. I heard Breeze scream as she rushed to her Zhuchengtyrannus mother, and the two bodies vanished in a sea of dust and rock, only to reappear at the entrance. Their voices shattered at the sound of grinding earth and flying sparks of flint, but when Queen screamed again, now with Atlas and Feather, her roar was among the loudest noise.
"GET OUT OF THERE!!"
Falling rocks fell from the ceiling as I crawled further back, watching bodies, along with my own get knocked around like rag dolls. I heard screams and shouts, one in which belonged to Finch, which cut off instantaneously through the fog. With a speck of confidence gaining in my heart, I pulled away from the wall, limping quickly to the exit.
"Whiteclaw!" Stella's voice blew through the dust, and though I couldn't see her body, something in her tone of voice warned me way to late, even after her next comment.
"Whiteclaw lookout-"
A huge rock slammed right onto my side, then dented the earth once it shattered into pieces, but the force itself threw me to my right shoulder with a heavy crash. Everything flew out of focus and sank into quiet silence. I could only feel the ground bounce my limp body as I laid there, feeling my cut expand in my chest. More blood poured out when I tried to move again, but it only worsened. My eyes weakly starred up, seeing another huge rock jerk around, loosening itself up to fall.
All I could do was gasp as I watched it fall.
Out of nowhere, a beak from the dust behind me snatched my tail and yanked me hard into the darkness. The spot where I was before was now just a pile of rubble and ashes. Stella's face arose from the beak, and before I could say anymore, she picked me up by her horns, yelling, "You're always getting yourself killed aren't you?"
"Sorry!" I weakly screamed back through the powerful cries of the earthquake. Thunder rushed forwards from his hiding spot towards us, nudging Stella by the frill towards the clock.
"Its closing up!" He shrieked, "Go while you still can!"
"But-"
"There's no time!" Thunder screeched, now pushing Stella by her hind-quarters, "If this closes, we're done for!" We edged closed to the quaking light, seeing the red lights flicker on and off. Then the Tyrannosaurus turned to us both, bending his knees and spoke deeply, "Finish this."
Stella swiftly nodded and watched Thunder's eyes glow with please. His face turned to mine and as a last sentence, he growled.
"And bring him back to me."
"I will," I whispered.
A horrible sound thundered above us suddenly, as rocks and more dust shook downwards, splitting me and Stella from Thunder. Without saying another word, Thunder used his tail and struck it against Stella's side. The Triceratops yelped in surprise, stumbling backwards while avoided a few more falling rocks, then collided into the clock. My arm struck the cold glossy wall, but before my eyes could lose sight of the blurred cave, I saw a worried Thunder look at us, a hole of sorrow and fear washed up on his face. His tail zipped and flicked away behind him as he ran, before darkness swallowed the world. A icy cold zap of pain made me yelp in pain, before out of nowhere....I found myself splashing onto cold thin water, with Stella right above me. Even in the clock, the ground was still quaking harder and harder, making the water dance upon the surface and bubble up like the underwater breath of a monster.
"Stella!" I cried, then gripped onto her skin. She held tight too as the world bumped, shook, then wobbled again. Things were falling all around us too, though I couldn't quite see what was collapsing. I squeezed my eyes shut and crushed my own gums beneath my teeth as I held on in terror, as if the world itself was falling to pieces. After a minute, the quake ceased its rage, slowing down to just a minor rumble.
And then came the silence.