[Trade] The Horrible Day

Maeve, Meteor and Deadnettle walked through the vast forest with a soft, cheerful step. It was still relatively early, but the sun was already high in the sky, reminding the three of them that noon was fast approaching. They had no particular destination in mind – just a small group of young friends looking for something to do. Every now and then, they would stop for a moment whenever they saw a particularly particularly luscious plant so that the females could feed. Deadnettle had already eaten – early that morning, he had managed to catch a careless young badger who, apparently tired from a night of foraging, had not noticed that he was heading straight for the lair of someone higher up the food chain. The young acrocanthosaurus did not complain about this turn of events.

At first, nothing caught their attention – they had been living in this forest for several weeks and, admittedly, not much had changed here. The ancient forest was extremely resistant to any changes, and exploring it almost never brought any interesting discoveries. Every metre they travelled revealed the same trees they had seen yesterday; moss-covered stones, identical to those that had caught their eye a week ago; small, sun-drenched glades that looked deceptively similar to those they had already discovered many times before, all accompanied by the songs of the same birds residing in the area. But on that fateful day, not everything was the same.

At one point, an unusual, sudden sound cut through the air, striking them like a whip. All three instantly raised their heads, listening intently. As it turned out a moment later, this single sound was only a harbinger of the cacophony that reached their ears as soon as they got a little closer.

The youngsters looked at each other, gesturing slightly, consulting without words - it was clear that everyone considered tracking down the source of the sounds to be the best option. They did not intend to delay this undertaking. Immediately, before any of them had time to think through their plan more thoroughly, they set off in close formation, full of hope for an interesting discovery.

The search was not difficult. The group approached their goal very quickly and effortlessly, as the sounds did not fade for more than a few seconds - it was impossible to lose track of it. Finally, they reached a veritable wall built of a jumble of densely growing bushes. A wall that was the only thing separating them from what they wanted to see.

Deadnettle's head poked out from behind the bushes - still small, his light-coloured scaly muzzle easily pushing aside the leaves and thin twigs that stood in his way. Meteor stood next to him, parting the thicket with her impressive claws. Maeve, much shorter than her two friends, stood slightly to the side, struggling to push through the wall of bushes at the bottom, where the vegetation was densest - her dark horn, growing larger every day, became entangled in the twigs, hindering her every movement.

The strange sounds, suggesting some sudden movement, the sounds that had drawn them here, ceased to be mysterious as soon as the three youngsters looked out onto the clearing - their source became painfully clear.

As they had suspected, they were not alone here. In the middle of the clearing, with his back to them, stood a huge acrocanthosaurus - judging by the size of his body, it must have weighed at least 6 tonnes. He was covered here and there with irregular black patches, and the rest of his blue-coloured feathers shimmered in the sun like the feathers of a beautiful bird of paradise. However, all three of them would soon find out that there wasn't much paradise here.

From behind this massive mountain of flesh and muscles protruded a bright, organic shape, initially difficult to grasp and describe, but finally they succeeded. Meteor was the first to notice the striking resemblance of this silhouette to her own body, watching with growing unease what was happening in front of them. A little deeper into the clearing stood a therizinosaurus, an adult, light coloured female with almost violet eyes. Just below those intriguing eyes, the animal's cream-coloured neck was stained with blood.

Maeve, shocked by the sight, gasped for air, instinctively taking a step back. Her sudden breath was loud enough to provoke the black-and-blue predator to turn his head slightly towards the sound. The other two youngsters hastily scolded the styracosaurus, feeling their hearts beating wildly with fear, almost jumping out of their chests.

The wounded herbivore let out a long, weary, pain-filled moan, probably as a last attempt to scare the predator away. The acrocanthosaurus, however, did not seem concerned. The huge male moved forward, accelerating his massive body, and the entire clearing shook under the weight of his steps. The cream-coloured female instinctively raised her arms in a defensive gesture, directing her sharp claws towards her tormentor. But even that was not enough to stop the male.

None of them knew it, but this particular acrocanthosaurus was a skilled hunter, surprisingly experienced for his young age. Dodging the daggers aimed at him was no trouble at all. The male stretched out his neck, opening his jaws bristling with sharp teeth. This time, all three young observers squealed in terror, unable to resist their negative emotions.

The predator's jaws closed on the female's pale neck with a wet, disgusting smack. The effect was immediate - streams of bright, pulsating blood flowed down her body, which suddenly looked surprisingly small, inexorably staining her cream-coloured feathers with its scarlet. The herbivore's body shook several times in convulsions until finally, after an uncomfortably long moment, it suddenly went limp. Until then, post-mortem muscle spasms must have kept the female in a standing position, because as soon as her body fully surrendered, the weight of several tonnes began to pull the acrocanthosaurus's head down. The male opened his jaws, allowing his prey to collapse to the ground.

The dull, loud thud sent an unpleasant shiver down the three friends' spines. Despite how gruesome the sight was, none of them could look away - they stood there paralysed, fixated on this display of brutality.

Acrocanthosaurus wasted no time. Before the shape lying before him had fully changed from a body into a carcass, while the warm blood was still evaporating, he began his feast, indiscriminately tearing off bloody chunks of flesh with his sharp teeth. The hunt had paid off.

This was too much. Meteor, until now completely overcome with fear and despair, let out a pitiful squeal. She was too young and too unaccustomed to the horrors of nature to calmly accept what she had just seen. Her kin, another therizinosaurus, someone with whom she could have formed a herd, had fallen so easily under the brutal weight of a predator. An acrocanthosaurus. Just like Deadnettle.

The weight of this terrible realisation fell on her like a heavy boulder. How could she have trusted someone like that until now? A predator who may have been content to hunt mere rodents for now, but both he and his appetite were growing every day. When would this young killer turn against them?

The rush of thoughts in Maeve's head was much quieter. The female styracosaurus was stuck in some strange limbo, still staring maniacally at the centre of the clearing. However, her fixation on this one point was not an expression of any interest - her eyes seemed clouded over, cutting her off from what was happening in front of her. The past events had shaken her so much that her brain was unable to fully process them — every time she tried to focus on a specific thought, even for a moment, her nostrils were irritated by the suffocating smell of fresh blood, completely throwing her off balance.

Only Deadnettle, at least at first glance, seemed unaffected by the whole situation. He stood confidently, staring straight ahead at the black and blue coloured, rhythmically moving back of the predator. However, it was enough to give him more than just a fleeting, accidental glance to see how nervously his jaw muscles twitched and how tense and stiff his entire young body was. In his head, just like in Meteor and Maeve's heads, a real race of thoughts was going on - but their main theme was slightly different. Much worse.

Maeve finally moved, at first somewhat sluggishly, stiffly, like a wounded animal, but after a few steps her movements became more balanced and fluid. She gave up on formulating complex conclusions – the only thing that registered with her was the fact that they had just witnessed something terrible. The female pushed that thought away, trying to focus on what she should do now. Maeve approached Meteor and gently, tenderly nudged her shoulder with her muzzle. The therizinosaurus reacted to this gesture with a reflexive fright - Meteor was still deep in thought.

Deadnettle, trying to calm the persistent trembling of his jaw, clicked his teeth quietly - fortunately, no one noticed this somewhat disturbing movement in the current situation. The male moved away from the tangle of bushes, signalling to his companions that they should leave. Maeve reacted immediately, following in his footsteps without the slightest hesitation.

Meteor, although she also moved in the indicated direction, gave him a distrustful look, full of sudden hostility.

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