Unalike

Eos ran as quickly as she could across the Peran landscape, claws kicking up pebbles and small bits of debris with every frantic step. She panted as she ran, arms folded close to her chest with her claws tucked away so that they didn’t catch or break on anything as she ran through the twisting, turning corridors and crags of the rock and boulder-strewn stretch of the Peran scrublands. The landscape was rapidly turning into a canyon, the ground curving downwards into the earth where high stone walls, marbled and rippled with layers of colours, would surround her. She would have no choice to run forwards until she was backed into a corner, but she had little choice already.

She hazarded a glance over her shoulder, hearing but not seeing the utahraptors pursuing her. Their barks, their howls, their calls. The horrible sounds of the hunters chasing her echoed off the canyon walls, bit after the sounds of her footsteps. Her heart pounded in her chest. She had swiped her claws at them already, but it had done nothing to dissuade them. They only kept out of reach, determined to wear her down until she couldn’t get back up again and they would be able to freely pin her down and consume her.

The thought of it was so visceral, so utterly terrifying - to be considered food for another dinosaur - that it had sent Eos running as soon as she realised they weren't going to back down just because she swiped at them.

Stones tumbled down the canyon wall, turning her gaze upwards. She only caught a glimpse of them, one of those horrible pack hunters, as they raced along the edge of the cliff in time with her, ahead of her. It wasn’t even a challenge for them to keep up. This was a leisurely pace, a stroll. They were toying with her, just waiting for her to get tired.

The realisation spurred Eos to try to run even faster, even deeper into the canyon until they lost her trail or until the walls grew so tall they would never be able to climb down to reach her.

It was already far too late for that. Some of the pack had followed her into the canyon while others tracked her from above, calling out directions to those below. Their footsteps echoed off the walls just as hers did. They kept a healthy distance away from her, watching and chasing and waiting.

Among the hunters was a shadow, a feathered utahraptor with feathers as black as night that seemed to gleam in the scattered rays of sunlight that made it to the bottom of the canyon. His beady, dark eyes never left Eos, and always looked calculating as they hunted her. Measuring exactly how close to Eos he could be before it was dangerous, how long the other utahraptors would tolerate his presence before they tried to run him off again. They wouldn’t, not yet. A therizinosaur, even a young one, was dangerous prey to go after, and this one was tall with a considerable wingspan that could reach them from even further away than they realised. It could injure any one of them badly - or worse. They had to plan their movements exceedingly carefully.

Eos was cooperating wonderfully, almost willfully allowing herself to be driven into the canyon, into a corner. She’d have no place to escape, no place but to stop and rest but in a place of their choosing. Once she grew tired enough, she would have nowhere to hide. The pack could get to her and finish her off, and then… 

Rook’s heart softened with pity and apprehension. Then he could take some food to Shred. He wasn’t even sure that she would eat - whether she didn’t want to, or if she just wasn’t capable yet - but she needed it. He needed her to try.

But first they had to get to her. Finish the plan, then move on from there.

Skele raised his head, turning his attention from what he had been doing. There wasn’t much in the way of food in this dry, hot place, but down here in the canyon there was shelter. There was shade where water pooled and stayed for longer than a moment, where tough and woody plants clung to the base of the towering, winding walls of stone and fed on what water had gathered there. It was a fair enough place to rest from the heat and sun before he could continue on his travels.

The tall, thin male made a sound deep in his chest, something like a drumming or a very deep cluck - a sound of curiosity. He could hear footsteps, maybe dozens of them, coming from another part of the canyon. He hadn’t heard of many other dinosaurs being here. These footsteps sounded hurried. Frantic. Some sounded very large, much like his own, and others sounded considerably smaller. Faster. He could hear raptor barks. A hunt?

Skele clucked quietly again and started to walk deeper into the canyon, forgetting about the corpse he was leaving behind. He had gotten what he wanted from it, anyway, and it sounded as though there would be more to pick over soon. He just wasn’t sure which body he would be picking bones from.

Heavy footfalls snapped bone-dry twigs underfoot as Eos ran through the increasingly confusing passages of stone. It sounded as though footsteps were coming from every direction and she wasn’t sure anymore if she was still going forwards or if she had looped back around and was now running directly into danger. She took a corner which lead to a narrow passage - and stopped dead in her tracks.

At the end of the corridor was not another utahraptor, but another theri. A tall, gangly thing with scruffy feathers the colour of weathered bone, of a hide left to dry and rot away in the sun. Eos might have been relieved to see another theri but this one, this creature that stared at her with an unblinking gaze with eyes the colour of putrescence, had blood staining its claws. There was blood on its face, even spiking the feathers on the back of his head where it had dried and stiffened. Viscera clung to his beak and the bare skin of his head. It was an awful, grisly sight.

And suddenly she was stuck between him, and a pack of utahraptors.

Skele stared at her with his claws slightly spread, ready to fight should the footsteps that got to him first belong to hunters - but it was another theri that first stepped into view, not a carnivore. She had a look in her eyes… eyes like cold and distant stars that stood in stark contrast to her night-touched and otherwise pale, dawn feathers. Eyes filled with terror of being hunted, then horror with what she regarded. She was terrified of him.

He didn’t understand. They were the same, why did he frighten her so? He was here to help her.

Yellow eyes shifted almost imperceptibly to stare behind her as the utahraptors stalking her prowled into view. He spread his claws and made a booming, grunting sound in his throat as he stepped forwards, a threatening display that he had seen his uncle perform once or twice. The sound reverberated in Eos’ chest, the utahraptors felt it in their bones.

Eos stepped back, turning to face behind her to become witness to the small number of utahraptors that had now gathered. She spread her claws as well, though she was almost as afraid of what the other theri might do as she was of the utahraptors hunting her.

Rook balked, studying the scene before them. As much as he wanted to bring something back for Shred, as much as he wanted to help make her feel better, perhaps this was not the hunt to do so with. A lone young theri was a fine choice for prey, particularly with the numbers of the pack and the location of the hunt, but two? No, he didn’t have a death wish. He would find something else to hunt for Shred, something considerably more manageable than these two reapers.

The raven male gave the pair of theris a final look before he turned and retreated. The pack was no weaker for his departure - he wasn’t one of them, not really, and didn't often follow orders because of it - but they, too, decided that this was not a fight they were willing to take a chance with. Their strength and efforts were better used elsewhere.

Skele didn’t lower his claws until the utahraptors had gone from sight and he could no longer hear their footsteps echoing on the stone. Eos didn’t relax even then and when Skele looked to her for approval, he saw her posture still stiff, her feathers still raised in a threatening posture.

Skele simply stared, watching her response to him wordlessly, trying to understand what he had done to make her react this way. He cocked his head in an abrupt movement and she flinched, and that was all it took for her to break out of what paralysis held her in place. She turned and ran through another corridor, away from the utahraptors and away from Skele, leaving the bloodstained male alone with nothing but the company of a quiet wind whistling through the canyon and smooth stone walls.