I Need a Hero {Story}

                Thirteen years.

                It had been thirteen years since Ghast had been back to Atlantis. She dreaded the day the inevitable would happen. Either she would need to go back, or the politics of Atlantis would come to the surface. Figuratively and literally.

                Three days ago she had returned to Blight to ask the Acro what he and Argent had found in the tunnels. From all the stories she’d heard, she knew it would be Atlantis that they found, but why. What was going on in that biodome for it to be rearing its ugly head now? She had expected them both to go down. The Acro to be a deterrent for the Iguanodons that resided in the dome, and the Parasaur to keep Blight alive from the horrific flora that lived in the dome.

                Instead she was told that Argent alone had gone down into the tunnels and he had not returned. She had also heard that Apocrypha and Kallista had gone down after speaking with Pokie and hadn’t returned either. Some said Frankie had gone as well and she believed them. Who would lie about an eyesore of a dinosaur they saw?

                “I’ll go with you. These Iguanodons can’t be bad. This council.”

                “The Court. And no, it’s alright. I’ll go alone so I’m not a threat to them. I will be fine.”

                As Ghast trotted through the biodome, the conversation rang through her head. She had been with her friend since…hell. Almost since he’d hatched in a place not unlike where she had been born. But where she had been born under a false light that attempted to act like a sun and plants that grew everywhere, he had been born under cold artificial light and metal. She had no doubt the pale Acro could hold his own against one or two of the Iguanodons, but she knew he couldn’t take on the whole Court.

                The Oviraptor frowned as she ran, darting through the trees without having to think of where her feet were taking her. She knew the path well. It was, had, been her home long enough for the dome to be ingrained in her.

                Thoughts of the past were quickly pushed out from her mind as she tried to focus on there here and now of everything. There were too many unanswered questions. And she needed to be on her guard for when she arrived at Atlantis proper.

Would she still know the customs?

                Of course.

                Would they remember her after all these years?

                Most definitely.

                Would she be able to talk her way out of certain punishment for dereliction of duty?

                No. Never.

                Duty before life, which would be forfeit if there was any disobedience.

                Ghast had learned a lot on her travels on the surface world after so many years. She’d seen a great many things, even in the darkness of the Alpha Labs. Love could be found in a multitude of places and came in a wide variety of forms. Mates could be made between both genders, and she had seen love blossom between different species as well. Friendships were easily won and easily lost. And then there were the friendships that were made through the trials of life, and those forged in the face of death were the strongest she had seen.

                She did not consider the Pale One to be her mate. That would be silly. But she felt something to the Acro. They were bonded through many trials, many fights. If she was at all poetic she would try to think of how to say their souls were paired with an unbreakable bond. They knew each other. They KNEW each other. Which is why it had been so hard to leave the blind Acro up in the mountains to wait with a promise that she’d return but had no idea if she would be able to actually keep the promise. Would it be the first one she broke to him?

                “Halt!”

                Ghast stopped on command, her head twitching over quickly to eye the Euoplo that trotted down the ruined marble steps. The armor was easy to give the individual away.

                Talos.

                The guard captain of the city of Atlantis. She hadn’t expected to see him. And by the look he gave her with his eyes wide, he hadn’t expected to see her either.

                “Where are your colors, scout?” He barked, slamming his tail against the cracked tile pathway she had found herself following without even realizing.

                “I have none, Talos. I request to speak with the Court. Please.” Ghast said, bowing her head and fanned her arms out into a bow. Deep and low to show the amount of respect she should’ve had. The biggest kiss to his ass in hopes that he would overlook their entire past and bring her to whoever was currently ruling over the biodome.

                “Trespassers are not tolerated. If you have no colors to wear, then you are no one that belongs in Atlantis. You are an outsider.” Talos replied as he stopped before her and looked at her. Ghast could feel his gaze drilling a hole through her hide as she kept her own eyes down and fixed on the floor before them as she continued to bow.

                “Please, Talos. I am missing friends-“

                “Trespassers are not tolerated. Do not resist.”

                Ghast blinked and finally looked over at him, just in time for a few pieces of information to come to her. Firstly, there were far more Euoplo’s that had started to gather at the top of the steps, staring down at her coldly. Two others had stepped up behind her to keep her from running. Secondly, she had never known Talos to be so quick to the draw. He was aggressive, sure, but to jump so quickly to capture? And thirdly, she was able to catch sight of a tail-club being swung directly at her head before everything went black.

                The darkness of oblivion had come and gone several times in the following hour. Her head killing her as she flickered her eyes once and felt herself being dragged along before the pain in her head brought her back into the sweet embrace of the darkness. She swam back up to the light for long enough to feel the polished stone below her and could hear the rattling and clanking of a gate being shut and locked before she was asleep again. She wanted to stay asleep that time. Sleep sounded so nice. So comfortable.

                ‘I’m coming.’

                It was a promise. The words deep and harsh. Made form the throat of a carnivore that was many times larger than she was.

                Her eyes opened and she gasped awake. She was alone. No one had been there talking to her. It was all in her mind. Her mind that was currently on fire, she realized as she lifted her hands to hold her head. The vision out her right eye was blurred, and as she put her hands on her face she could feel just how swollen her face was. Her eye was going to be a lost cause for a while, until the swelling could go down. She bit her tongue in pain as she felt around the socket and continued to feel her face. Nothing was majorly broken at least. But as she pulled her hands away she saw blood all over them.

                Head wounds were the worst. They bled entirely too much. Thankfully she knew it, and knew she was not dying, no matter how much her head killed her and she wished she was dead.

                The Oviraptor sat up, looking around as best she could to try and glean any information on where she was. The smooth, polished white stone below her marred only by her own blood was perfect otherwise. There was no plantlife. The clean smell of air and the distant echoes of drawled out speech clued her in almost instantly. She knew those speech patterns.

                She was in the prison of the Court. A place she remembered being told housed traitors and those that had the potential to bring down the rule of Atlantis. It was nice. And not where she wanted to be if she valued her life.

                Ghast scrambled to her feet, running over to the iron bars that made up an entire wall, the other three walls made of the same cool white stone that made up the ceiling and floor. A drain in the center of the room with nothing else.

                “Hello!” Ghast screamed, panic in her voice as it broke, trying to quickly slip from between the bars but found she was not able to. The bars spaced too closely together to get anything aside from her head through.

                “The Court will see to you soon enough. Get back in there and keep silent.”

                Ghast glanced to her right quickly, spotting a Euoplo in far more advanced armor sitting in the middle of the room so he could keep an eye on all the prisoners. Halberd. She knew his name and had heard a lot about him but had never actually seen him. She wondered if the armor he bore was made specifically for him or if it was something the humans had made for a few of the Knights.

                Then the words hit her. ‘The Court will see to you soon enough.’

                Talos might be a prick, but maybe there had been a reason he had so quickly jumped to detaining her? She had asked to see the Court. And barring some grand news, the Iguanodons of the Court would never waste their time on her. But why would Talos not even question her and fast track her right to seeing the Court? Did he want help? Was there something going on?

                Ghast had come there for answers. She had wanted to know where one of the local Spirit Talkers of the overworld had gone and disappeared to with her Tropeo mate and Utahraptor son. She had come to see what had happened to the Seer Argent. And now she was being thrust into the spotlight of the Court’s attention from a Euoplo that had sworn his allegiance to them.

                ‘I’m coming.’

                The words from her dream didn’t leave her. She knew that voice that had thrust itself into her mind. The Pale One was on his way. He would not leave her to die there alone. And if she did die, she knew full well that he would take out a good few of the Courtiers before they could finally take him out. An eye for an eye. A life for a life.

                The black marked Oviraptor settled down in the center of her cell, focusing on her breathing as she listened to the silence of the other cells around her. If there were others there, they were biding their time as well. But if she was the only one there, then that was all the better. She wouldn’t have to wait long to meet the Court. She at least needed to try and look presentable for when they came, and that would give her something else to focus on while she waited aside from her breathing.             

                Cold tile floor met her face as she put her head down, pressing her bruised and swollen side of her face and eye to the floor in hopes the cold would stop more swelling from happening. The bleeding would stop in time so long as she kept pressure against the ground. Not the most sanitary thing she could do, no. But in that situation, it was one of the only things she could do.

                The only other thing to be done was think about what was very possible to happen. Ghast felt the tears gently rolling from her eyes. She missed her friends. She missed Relic and his stupid ideas. Hecate and her quickness to anger. Blight and his aggressive laziness and Argent with his odd way of speaking with nature.

                But most importantly she missed her Acro. The Pale One himself, Hunter.

                Twelve years ago she had helped him escape from the Alpha labs. She only hoped now that he would return the favor and come and get her from Atlantis.

                “Please get here fast.” Ghast muttered, closing her only good eye as she relaxed against the bare stone floor.