Children of the Pale One

                As the rain started to pour down there was a streak of yellow and black zipping from tree to tree in the highland ‘jungle’ of Isle Pera. The small creature breathing hard as he ran, his eyes wide as he darted around in search of warmth and a dry place to rest. His legs were on fire from how long he’d been running. He had long since stopped yelling for help, knowing no one was around to help him or his mother who had stopped moving some time ago after falling from a cliff as the rocks had gave way under her weight.

                Blight finally came to a stop under an assortment of rocks that were just large enough for him to get under but wouldn’t allow anything larger than a hatchling to rest under them. The rocks provided warmth that he desperately needed, and they were shelter from the rain that wasn’t stopping and didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping.

                He didn’t know what to do.

                He didn’t even know where he was.

                He had broken out of his shell three days ago and had been the only hatchling from his mother’s clutch. She had loved him so much and had doted on him all day and night since he’d broken free from his shell-prison. They had only been trying to get up to higher ground to get to a new territory, something about the area they had entered that morning had put his mother on edge all day. He didn’t know why, he only knew that she wanted to leave.

                Was he in danger? Did he need to keep running? Would he be safe from whatever was out in the forest? There were too many questions and he didn’t have the answers to any of them.

                Blight gasped as a crack of thunder rang overhead, shaking the rocks he hid under and made him back as far back into the tiny cave as he could and hunkered down. He had long since ran out of tears. He just wanted warmth, and the gentle cooing and humming of his mother as she ‘sang’ to him. She was all he had known, and he had felt safe with her. Then again, he had never known he had felt that until he now felt the harsh reality of the unknown. Laying in his mother’s arms at night had been a comfort, he’d been relaxed. But as he stayed hunched in the back of the stoney cavern, he felt the complete opposite of everything he’d learned over the last few days.

                The little Acro turned his head to the entrance of the rocks when he heard rapidly approaching footsteps. The wet sounds of drench grass being crunched and slapping against something that was coming directly towards him. Blight couldn’t even scream as the two legged creature burst from the grass outside the cave and ran into the cave with him. The creature skidding to a stop and looked just as scared as he felt when it saw Blight at the back of the cave with his mouth open as wide as he could open it as if that would intimidate the creature.

                But the fear that locked the two in place gave them plenty of time to realize the other was just as afraid as they were. And while Blight knew that he, too, had two legs and two small arms, he was not like the other hatchling at the front of the cave. It had much tinier arms, and there were two nubs at the top of his head just over his eyes that Blight knew he didn’t have. And the other hatchling looked smaller.

                The two boys gradually settled down, their breathing coming under control and the pair settled down into a laying position as they eyed each other.

                “What are you doing here?” The Carno hatchling asked, voice weak and cracked here and there as he spoke.

                “What are YOU doing here?” Blight asked.

                Neither wanted to admit what they were doing alone in the forest, hiding in a cavern of rocks.

                “What’s your name?” The Carno asked.

                “Blight. What’s your name?” Blight replied and cocked his head to the side quizzically.

                “Relic. I’m coming closer.” The Carno replied, standing up and didn’t give the other boy a chance to protest before he walked over and then turned so he could sit down directly beside Blight. He enjoyed the warmth of the other, and Blight found himself enjoying the warmth and comfort of another dinosaur his age as well.

                The pair watched the entrance of their tiny cave as it grew darker outside, the clouds covering up what little moonlight there would’ve been. All they could hear was the breathing of each other as well as the rain pouring down outside their cave. Thunder and lightning broke the otherwise quiet night here and there. And as the hours passed, the two boys gradually started to find it harder and harder to keep their eyes open.

                Until they heard the footsteps.

                Large footsteps, something crashing through the forest ahead of their cave. The two were quick to wake back up, eyes wide as they huddled together and held each other, their eyes glued to the entrance as they waited to see what would show up.

                The footsteps grew louder, making the rocks they were staying under rumble and shake until they saw the hide of the creature that stomped through the jungle ahead of them. The two boys saw a pale hide, horrifically white in the darkness of night and the size of the creature? Massive. To them it seemed larger than the trees that surrounded their safe, rocky, haven. With every step the muscles of the creature shuddered, shaking, as if the thing had a great amount of heft to it. The two hardly breathed as they watched the creature stomp by between the trees. They never saw its face, only its pale hide and quilled back as it passed their cave and continued to walk. Before long there was silence once more, but the pair were too startled to go back to sleep.

                The rain had started to clear by the time the sun had started to come up, waking the two boys from their daze. In the light of day Blight could see that the little carno that he’d spend the night with was a deep gradient of reds, creams, and an off purplish color with golden eyes that darted back to look at Blight.

                “Where are you going?” Blight asked, not moving from his spot in the cave.

                “I don’t know. Maybe to follow the footprints of the thing that came through the forest last night? I haven’t seen anything else aside from that and you in these parts. I’m starving. I haven’t eaten in days.” Relic said and lowered his head, frowning as his arms drooped.

                Blight frowned.

                “I’ll come with you. I’m hungry, too.” Blight said, getting back up onto his feet and walked over to Relic. The pair adventuring back into the light of day and looked around at the forest that surrounded them. Rain dripping here and there from the leaves and onto the jungle floor. Everything was quiet aside from the birds that were chirping, letting the two know that the coast was clear for them to head out into.

                It didn’t take long to find the tracks, both of their little feet being able to fit into the massive three toed footprints that went up further into the mountains. But as they walked it quickly became clear to them there was another set of tracks that walked with the massive beast. They had three toes as well, but they weren’t the same as the first set. Not only due to the size of them, being much smaller than the first set, but also just the shape of them. They weren’t from the same species.

                Relic glanced over at Blight, wondering if they should keep following. Blight met his gaze and didn’t say a word nor nod but kept walking. And they walked for hours, or so it felt. Time wasn’t entirely known to the boys, they just knew they had walked for what felt like ages until Relic finally collapsed. His legs too tired to keep going.

                Blight stopped beside the carno and looked around before sitting down with him. He heard Relic’s stomach rumbling and the soft whimper from the carno from the pain of the hunger. The two were silent, listening for anything that sounded like food nearby. Anything at all. And after a moment they heard something being carried gently in the wind.

                It reminded Blight of how his mother would sing to him. It was a tune, a hum, melodic and beautiful. And it sounded as if it was coming just over the ridge of rocks in front of them a few hundred yards.

                “Come on. Maybe it’s what we saw last night. It sounds nice. We should go and see.” Blight said and nudged Relic.

                “I can’t. I’m too tired. My legs hurt. I don’t feel good, I feel weak.” Relic said, shaking his head and refused to budge from his spot. Blight frowned as he stood and looked down at Relic.

                “What if there is food right over those rocks? Come on, Relic. You can do it. It’s just a little further.” Blight said, nudging Relic again.

                It took Relic two good tries to get back on his feet. The first attempt resulted in him getting halfway up before his legs wobbled wildly and he felt back down. The second time Blight had quickly walked behind him and used his head to help the Carno get back up as soon as he saw his legs starting to give again. And the nudge was all that Relic needed, taking the momentum and took off running. Blight running directly after him and up the ridge.

                As soon as the pair got to the top of the ridge, they were met with the sight of a small two legged creature with what they thought was impossibly long arms and claws. Its head topped in a crest and its mouth had a strange beak, making them think they had found some sort of plant eater at first. Without thinking the pair ran down the ridge and towards the green and black hided creature, chirping and chittering as they careened towards the thing as it kept humming and picking flowers.

                At the sound of the chirps and chitters, the creature turned its head quickly and caught sight of the pair as she stopped humming. They were too small to be of any actual harm to her, but their parents would surely cause her harm if they were around!

                Blight frowned and watched as the creature turned and ran without a second thought, vanishing into the forest on the other side of the clearing. All hope of being saved and fed were crushed in that instant, and Relic felt the same as he didn’t stop running and just fell to the ground. Blight turned to the Carno hatchling, running to him as the other boy slid a few more feet on the wet grass before coming to a stop.

                Blight slowed, stopping beside Relic and frowned as he saw the other hatchling simply curl up and start giving out loud chirps as tears streaked down his face. The Acro felt the sadness from his not-brother in that moment. This would be it for the tiny Carnotaur. He hadn’t eaten in an unknown amount of time, but he could feel the impending doom from starvation. The two boys, for one reason or another, felt the dread of their situation.

                “It’s okay! It’s okay. I’ll find food. I’ll find you something to eat.” Blight said and started to quickly look around. There had to be something…bugs? Berries, maybe? Anything to eat! They needed any-

                The Acro felt his stomach drop as he felt the ground shake.

                Thump…Thump…

                It was rhythmic. And very much like what they had heard the previous night. Blight crouched down and tried to silence Relic. But the Carno would not silence his cries.

                The footsteps came closer.

                The trees near them rumbled.

                Blight turned quickly and his eyes went wide as he watched the pale hide from the previous night come into sight but was still mostly obscured from view due to the trees.

                “Relic. Relic, please! Shhh, shhh. I can’t move you! Please! Be quiet! That monster from last night is back! I can’t hide without you. I don’t even know where to hide.” Blight begged, laying down and pressing himself up against Relic and looked over at the forest where the creature was.

                He was horrified to watch as a massive Acro walked from the trees, his horrific face looking right at them. Or ‘looking’ at them. There were no eyes, only holes in its head where eyes should’ve been. Its face and body scarred and gnarled. Quills poked out at odd angles. The beast looked almost sick with something, blue streaks marred its hide along with pale white and fleshy pink blotches of color. It looked like a walking corpse and Blight could do nothing as he just stared.

                He could not run. He could not hide. Which left him only one option as the massive beast approached them, its mouth open with a deep rumble being emitted.

                Blight stood and ran to get a few yards in front of Relic and opened his mouth, flashing the blue of his gums and tongue as he started to hiss. Trying to be as intimidating as he possibly could to the creature that was infinitely larger than he was.

                “Yeah! That’s them!”

                Blight glanced over, seeing the smaller creature from a short time ago skittering around the legs of the monstrous Acro. The beast continued his march directly up to Blight and stopped, no longer making that unnerving rumble and closed his mouth to sniff the hatchling. For a moment Blight thought the thing had two sets of nostrils, its actual nostrils covered in a black dimorphic that mimicked nostrils, and directly behind them were another pair of spots that mimicked the nostrils as well. The mottled hide of the older male Acro was just that, marked. He didn’t actually have patches of thinner flesh in some spots. It was just all in how the creature looked. The blue that Blight had thought were veins that he could see through the skin was actually just striping of pale blue along the creatures body.

                Blight snapped his mouth shut as the Acro exhaled, snorting with enough force to knock the hatchling over before it continued on to stop beside Relic and sniffed him as well. “The first smells of death. This one is too…pale. I don’t smell much. If he is being cared for by parents, they are starving him. Get some fish.” The pale Acro said, his voice deep, commanding. But there was a softness to it that Blight couldn’t quite understand.

                The Oviraptor that had been trailing behind the Acro gave a nod and without another word darted off. Blight watched her go then looked back over to Relic and watched in horror as the older male Acro opened his mouth and picked Relic up, tilting his head back to show teeth pressed gently to the hide of the small Carno hatchling. There was a quick flick of his head and the Acro had tossed the hatchling back into what Blight thought was his gullet, swallowing the Carno whole.

                Blight screamed as he ran forward, only to come to a stop and fall onto his side as the male turned and opened his mouth. Blight could do nothing to stop himself from sliding directly into the mouth of the Acro and found the massive teeth pressing into him as well. But they didn’t pierce flesh, and instead they were careful. It didn’t hurt as the Pale One held him and flicked his head back, tossing Blight back into his mouth as well.

                He closed his eyes, expecting to fly back into his throat, but came to a soft landing on the males tongue. Blight quickly opened his eyes and looked around as the Acro closed his mouth but kept his lips bared to allow the two hatchlings to see through the gaps in his teeth. Blight looked behind him and found Relic curled up in the tight space they both had found themselves in.

                “I think we’re okay.” Relic said.

                Blight just stared at him before looking over at the curled tongue in the mouth they were in, blocking the back of the throat so the boys couldn’t adventure further and to give the pair more space in the already cramped maw.

                “I think we’re okay.” Relic repeated, eyes rolling up as his lids closed and the little Carnotaur passed out. Blight quickly wiggled his way over, holding his friend’s head up to keep it out of the saliva that was pooling under them and towards the gap in the teeth near them to make sure his not-brother had fresh air to take in.

                Blight didn’t know if they were safe. But they certainly weren’t going to be snacks that day. He watched through the cracks in the teeth as the male Acro wandered back into the jungle. The rumble from before started up again, the adult male lowering his head closer to the ground.

                At first the growl was almost deafening, waking Relic for a few moments before he went back to sleep. But Blight started to find the rumble comforting after a short while. It was not an aggressive sound after all. It was just…something that the adult did. He could ask questions later, but the droning sound was starting to lull him into an odd sleep. As much as he tried to fight it, Blight couldn’t. The rumble reverberated through his body, drowned out all thought, and after a while he felt himself falling asleep while holding his brother.

                For the first time since he had lost his mother, he felt safe and warm.