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THE SCRIPTURES OF ODDCLAW

Nine-and-Two: Forever Lost

"A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be."

Frank A. Clark

The mountains had been his greatest struggle. The jagged western peaks of insiduous black resembled monstrous teeth of a night-woven monster trying to eat the sky. His splintered front limbs scraped against the harsh granite slope with his nerves now frozen dead, numb to the broken spurs of bone that still jabbed through his skin. His remaining hazel eye gleamed with an unflinching arrogance which was the only thing he had left to keep him walking, his scales flecking like old worn paint and ribs poking through the blotched drying skin a painting of malice. The only colour his face had left were the precise flensing scars upon his cheek, twenty-seven gouges that left streaks of crimson black. The broken raptor had tried to live near the Greatbeast's Spine for the longest year and for the most part it was amicable. The food and water was decent in the lower valleys with caves for him to hide beneath the mountains and he would have remained there for all his life. Until there had been attacks and explosions rumbling from above and in the furore of things he was forced to move, for fear of being trapped amidst shrieking unknown beasts and shuddering lightning beneath a pure cloudless day that confused and angered him.

So he would travel west, trying to find a new home for himself through forests that were too open, marshlands that were too wet and then the mountain peaks that had made him deathly curious for what laid on the other side.

"The further I am away from this place...from everything...the better."

The raptor would never admit to himself that the mountains had been a mistake. No matter how long the climb had took, no matter how arduous and exhausting to the point he had to sleep on cliff edges and eat bugs nestling within the rock for the barest sustenance, he refused to regret his decision. He was only thankful he could no longer feel his arms anymore, useless lumpen gnarled flesh that acted more like stubs to steady himself on the slopes than anything. Two days after scaling the heights, he managed to reach the other side of the traverse on the third night whilst snapping at winged insects in a feeble attempt to sate his gnawing hunger.

He used to hate the mornings and that gleaming light incessantly burning on his head, but now he hated the night. He regretted the things he had said for that life-giving sun, knowing it gave him more strength than the darkness did now. The sleep forced him to stop but his stomach always kept him awake as he trudged onwards to stagger and stumble down the slope using his claws to catch the ridge. Sometimes he fell into a dusted heap of grey, snarling and bitching with fury as he kicked pebbles and stomped to gain his grip again. His anger helped him forwards, helped to quiet the demons of his stomach shrieking at him for sustenance as he came upon a curious sight. The mountain peak dropped sharply towards a sullen black beach riddled with silt, a small chain of islands veering off into the distant northwest.

"Must...nnnngh...sleep...no, eat."

He hoped there were shellfish living here, something to eat as he crept carefully towards the shore of tenebrous sand, twinkling stars of the sea's debris dappling across its surface with the odd piece of rotting wood. The raptor waited behind a rock for something to emerge, glinting eye that roved back and forth with maddening desire as he licked his lips. Six minutes there came a chance, a small crab scuttling its way out of the tidepools along the south rim that would soon see its life be snuffed.

"KRRRNNNCH! NNNnnnnnhhhHHH!"

The vicious beast tore into the small crab with reckless fever, ripping its pincers off with his teeth before gouging his fangs into its eyes and snapping its shell off to suck the sweet soft meat inside. His face became fresh with goo and invertebrate fluids dripped from his chin, his eye shuddering orgasmically at the freshest food he had in weeks.

"H-hhhhaaaaah...yes...you served your fate well stonefish." He licked the entire shell three times to make sure. "Now...now I can sleep."

The banished Sunscreech searched for a spot that would serve as a reasonable safe spot, noting a cluster of rocks that piled up in such a way he could put his body underneath them. It wasn't enough to fit all of him, only his legs but it was enough for him to keep his body heat contained more than out in the open, along with rustling some of the sand onto his body to cover his more exposed skin. He tried to sleep with what little he had in his stomach, laying his head upon the dirt-ridden silt and silencing his mind of every thought to a dead silence. The lapping waves of the shoreline helped soothe him to sleep, but it was a restless dreamless night from which gave him not a shred of comfort.

In the passing hours of the moon's climb and descent over the cragged peak behind him, the waters rushed and smouldered a thick clouded dust back and forth across the shore, shadows passing over the sleeping raptor as the sun struggled to break free from the eastern horizon. Not that he even knew within the deep darkness that the mountain cast upon him, looming ever constant before the grand light of day would reach its peak. But even at its zenith around noon it would barely pierce the tenebrous peak and its darkened beach. Sunscreech awoke more tired than he was before with frustrated sigh and rancid breath looking across the shore.

"This place is worthless. Not even enough stonefish to keep me alive...hmmmm..."

He squinted at the islands in the waking light as he saw some greenery upon them, trees poking out of the rocky cliffs in soothing sunset colours that made him envious to feel their warmth. He saw some of the waves turning choppy as a light blinked in his head, remembering something that Fishclaw had told him years ago. Searching across the beach he scavenged for crabs to kill and place tantalisingly close to where the shoreline met the water, burying them halfway into the sand so as to not get swept away before hiding himself behind a large rock. Time crept onwards, the sun barely penetrating the other side of the mountain as Sunscreech waited for something to bite. An hour and ten minutes would pass as he forced himself to remain in his spot, his claws scraping into the silt before something lunged out of the water to bite at the crab.

A small fish reached too far and beached itself before he lunged upon it, stomping its body with a hard crush that cracked its bones and left it spasming in death. He left it where it died and waited once again, struggling to resist the urge to eat it there and then as another forty minutes would pass watching the dead open-mouthed fish half-buried in the sand, before a bigger beast would come. An icthyosaurus nearly escaped from him, but Sunscreech leapt from the rock with devastating force and crunched his claws upon its back as the longbeaked reptile frantically slapped its flippers and shark tail as teeth crunched into his dorsal fin.

"A-AAAAAAH, AAAAAAH GET OFF, G-GET OFF MEEEE!"

"STOP STRUGGLING YOU WORTHLESS FISH!"

"Y-YOU WILL NOT EAT ME TODAY YOU FILTHY LANDBEAST!"

"THAT IS YOUR CHOICE IF I DO OR NOT!"

The waterbeast flopped with its 16-foot-long body slapping upon the sand and tossing up thick black clouds around them. Sunscreech manoeuvred himself with tightening claws and a hard bite until he managed to gouge deep enough between its ribs and touch a sensitive cardial muscle that made the fish-lizard freeze on his belly.

"HHH-AAAH!"

"ENOUGH!"

"N-n-no...no, p-please," whimpered the swimmer with bucking tail.

"QUIET! I will let you go IF you do something for me."

"Wh-what?! Wh-wh-what is this?! First you trick me into coming ashore now you want something?!"

"You are the idiot here greatfish, now listen unless you wish to die here. I want you to carry me to the island across the sea, that one with the trees."

"Wh-...what?!" He turned his beak struggling to see the smudge of green in the distance. Why should I?!"

"Because my claws are THIS close to your heart and I will eat you here instead."

"And what will stop me from drowning you out at sea?!"

"Did your mother shit in your ears or can you not HEAR what I just said?! If you try to betray me I will plunge my claws into you and will drown you in your own blood as my final hunt!"

"A-alright, alright...you...you promise to let me go if I carry you over the sea?"

"Yes."

"...alright."

There was no real choice in the end, knowing the raptor had his heart practically pinned within inches of his claws as the fish-lizard flumped himself round and pushed back out into the sea. The waters carried him in with the added weight of Sunscreech as he kept his dorsal fin up. The water was cold, stinging at the hunter's legs as his jaws remained shut on the icthyosaur's back. A chirr of delight crept through his throat at such obedience from his prey who shunted through the waters like a speeding bullet, desperate to free himself from the monster's grasp as soon as possible. The ocean was wide and glimmering of purest blue underneath the sun, a vast beauteous expanse of everconstant undulations that teemed with life. Blood trailed thinly from the icthyosaur's wounds, streaming into wakes the colour of wine behind them as the island grew before them.

Despite the speed he was racing through the waters, the fishbeast and his hostage-taker travelled until the sun was setting behind the isle and down into the western sea. The sky turned darker with a seeping orange and soft rose hues, rich like the blood upon Sunscreech's lips as the sea became darker around them.

"How far is it to this island there is TOO MUCH SEA!" snarled the raptor.

"You wanted me to take you there!" cried the icthyosaur. "Do you know how long I have to swim to get to land?! Not that I ever have to."

"Then why did you come to my beach just for food?"

"I-i-...wouldn't you if you saw some food out there?!"

"No, because I am not an imbecile like you!"

"I don't believe you wouldn-HR-HRRRNGK!"

The claws tightened for an instant as he sputtered between waves.

"Do not test me you shitbeaked filth. Now keep, swimming."

Continuing on they would finally reach the island's shore before night came to them. The darkening sky mirrored the sea as stars came out glinting on the water, the sounds of flying creatures fading in the dusk as the fish-lizard swam round the isle to find a beach to let his "passenger" off. It was a suprisingly large place, much greater than Sunscreech expected with a sweltering jungle and a medium-sized peak on one end of the island. Further swimming around it he saw the landmass resembled a dented sickle, a large oval shape that stretched out with its shoreline facing north as the scents of many creatures flitted to his nostrils. It was perfect. A little slice of paradise, with even some dotted clusters of rocks that led to other islands further on as he landed upon its sands.

"Thank you, greatfi-"

"I HOPE YOU STARVE SHITSNOUT!"

The walloping slap from the icthyosaur's tail floored Sunscreech into the dirt, tittering cackles squealing out as the fishbeast disappeared back into the water before the raptor had a chance to turn on him.

"DROWN IN YOUR OWN VOMIT, FISH! Uuuugh...if I had more strength I would have caught him sooner...hmph."

Ignoring the stinging insult and the mark across his reddened cheek, the hunter strolled up from the shore and into the tropical forest. Lining the beach were palm trees with hanging fronds along with dotted indigenous plants he mostly recognised from his home. But what intrigued him the most of course was the meat that awaited him in the form of mammals scurrying across the place, as well as some small species of dinosaurs roaming across the place. His first victim was a juicy-looking shrew with snuffling furry snout and thick pudgy brown body. It was an easy prey, launching upon it when its back was turned and gulping it down in two bites of lustful relief as his stomach almost cried with tears in finally having something to fill it with. He hunted for another two of them before he was satisfied, leaving their bones and fur strewn across the grass with grisly bits of entrails that escaped his teeth in chewing and gulping down. Once he had his fill Sunscreech began to explore the island proper.

The island itself took half a day's walk from one end to the other with only a mountainous hill, a small jungle and a little beach for the beasts to roam. The large bold hill had some grass growing upon it, before its naked peak shone beneath the sun for all to see where some smaller pterodactyls the size of buzzards had made nests on the cliff towards the sea. He was the only true hunting predator on the entire island which pleased him greatly, taking a long circular walk around its cliffs to gauge each and every part of it for its suitability to his needs. It was only when he found a fresh pool of water in the midst of the jungle that he gasped in pure relief, slaking his thirst with greedy sucking slurps of the crisp cool liquid he practically dunked his head into.

"Hhhhhaaaaa, nnnnnnhhhhh...a-aaaahhhh...yes. Yes, this place is perfect." He stood back up with water pouring down his face rejuvenated. "All this food and my own water...and none of my worthless FORMER family can ever find me again. Let them come crawling back to me, whining about how weak they are, they will beg...they will wish I never left, crying with their starved bodies for my STRENGTH to hunt food for them but I will refuse. They will suffer by their own ignorance."

His words cheered him up to imagine his degenerate brother dragging himself by the claws with starved ribs in a nest filled with weakened siblings.

"It is only a pity my brother and sister abandoned me...I thought they were more clever than that...hmph, they made their choice. Does not concern me anymore."

He hardened his heart with disdain, keeping by the pool's edge as some of the blood from his snout dripped into the water and turned into clouded tendrils. He was the apex predator of this place, and he had no want of anything left after having food and water and a good forest to curl up and sleep in. Things would finally turn out right for him as he felt he had deserved.

That was fourteen months ago. Now the island was littered in the bones and furry shreds of all he had devoured as the remaining beasts scurried to hide from his superior hunting grace. His stealth may not have been as good as that of his brother or sister, but his strength and speed made up for it in spades with monstrous biting lunges and a devastating accuracy with sharp rending claws that gouged into the earth and plunged through rodent backs, or sliced the heads of compsognathus clean off from their slender necks for him to snap their corpses up in almost a bite completely. Sometimes he made a game of it, watching the creatures run in panic from him thinking they had escaped, thinking they had a chance to reach safety but always he found where their homes were.

Some days he would only kill his prey in front of their families. Other days he was much more hungry and annihilated the entire clan, knowing that in the end there was no real escape for them and neither for him. He did not want to escape. Not in this personal paradise he had founded for himself, marked only with his scent as new creatures were born, new food was made for him and when there was not enough he would go to the beach and do the same trick he had done before of leaving crab meat half-buried at where the tide would meet, and catch a fish for a greater meal. Within a year his body had toned up somewhat back to his original weight, a girthy robust torso and smooth hooked claws with a sharp eye of impeccable slight. His scale stopped flaking as his nutrition improved, taking the time to roam the island every day to exercise and keep his wits sharp with cruel games in fake-hunting the prey when he was full, chasing them to almost kill and then let them flee thinking they were strong enough to escape him. But they never were. Nothing on this island was safe from the gleam of Sunscreech and his wicked claws.

Then finally it would happen. His presence had destroyed the small ecosystem of the island enough to have picked the slate clean of all fresh meat that it was possible of producing in the space of ten months. With nothing left but the water to drink, he became morbidly curious of the next island over which connected to his new home by a series of flat lumpy stones that crisscrossed between them, a result of the islands' unusual formation in at one point splitting from each other, but not completely so as to form a "bridge" that still connected the two as one landmass below sea level.

"I hope there are no warmbloods there...they tire me, they all scream the same noise."

He braced himself at the edge of the promontory and leapt towards the first rock in the sea. Landing with a forced precision he clenched his feet hard upon the wet stone column and readjusted his balance, before hopping onto the next platform and then the third with cautious balance, his tail becoming a rudder as he leapt across the waters which lapped beneath his claws. He remembered how he had traversed the Jaws of the Earth when still struggling with his crippled body, claws gouging into cracks, his torrid anguish seething with a newfound strength that was the only reason he stood here and now.

The second island had no beach so Sunscreech was forced to clamber onto the side of its seawall and stab his claws into the cracks to gain purchase, hoisting himself over the top and falling straight down into a steep dropping slope. He tumbled fast with crunching dirt, shrieking and snarling as he rolled before hitting against a tree trunk with the ferns brushing his battered skin. He stood now before a dark and deep rainforest that spread out before him inside an immense craterous landmass in the midst of the ocean, a giant bowl that dipped straight beneath the sea level. It was a startling new place and much more fascinating than the previous isle with its strange subterranean jungle as he picked himself up and went exploring. Far beyond the sun's reach with sweltering tropical trees and a teeming mass of creatures from bugs to mammals to winged avian ancestors, he had found a good replenishment for his food stock in the coming months.

"This island is perfect...even MORESO than the one before! Not even the vile sun can touch my eye here, it is nothing but the shade! ...now I am truly the Runner in the Shade hhhhmmhmmmhmhmhmhahahaHAHAHA!"

With crooning cackle from a blissful relief Sunscreech walked throughout the entire forest within the crater. It was much larger than the previous island, perhaps twice the length and width as he only managed to reach the centre of the place before night would come as he fell asleep beneath the fronds and ferns. It was somewhat colder here but he managed, still finding food to eat from small lizards and warmblooded shrews that he was more cautious in devouring in case he was trapped here truly for the rest of his life. He had to make his food last this time when he remembered the walls around him encircling the entire forest, trapping them all together except for the flying beasts. Every time he saw a winged beast he would sneer in contempt, but then he found something unusual amidst the concave rainforest on his third day of exploring. A tunnel gaping wide and further into the earth with blackened steppes forming a mound around all sides of its entrance.

"What...IS this? I have not seen a cave like this before."

The smell of fire burned in his nostrils harshly, but it was an old scent long since faded that assured him it was now gone. A smooth blackened slope enticed him to enter as he stepped into the subterrane, hearing the roars of the ocean turn dull and thick in his ears. A long dark tunnel stretched out before him into the abyss as the sea constantly rumbled, the sounds of a sleeping dragon burning in his skull. He squatted beside the entrance and marked one of the walls with his waste, making sure he caught his own scent as a guide to return should he ever lose himself. Sunscreech took a bold step into the beyond as he allowed his eyes to adjust to the darkness, his claws tapping quietly with soft echoes through the abyss. He felt as if the roof was slowly crushing upon his head with each step, the passage winding with smooth twisting curves that occasionally dipped and rose in subtle ramps. He wandered within the corpse of a world serpent, hardened from stone and centuries of lava that painted the walls to a black gangrenous sheen with only the scent of fire continuing to permeate in a slow eternal burn.

His primal reptilian senses kept track of the walls around him, even when he could no longer see. His tail swished back and forth touching the rock on both sides to help him estimate the width of the tunnel, feeling it close in on him and stepping more cautiously whilst the ceiling began to dip. He had not even realised he had been walking for two hours in a curving-southwards direction until finding a crevice before him.

"Why am I even doing this? I should be resting, eating in my new nest and here I am exploring caves like a stupid hatchling imbecile! ...I will return another day."

He turned back not wanting to risk becoming lost, deciding he would plan out one day a better journey for what potentially lied ahead in the darkness. That day would never come when he became too proud to admit his own fears, constantly putting himself off for it not being the right day or not having eaten or drank enough to make good preparations for it. In the end he stopped excusing himself and so Sunscreech remained in his new home of the deep rainforest caldera. There were small pools to drink from, a hefty variety of creatures to eat and refuge from the blighted sun resulting in pure peace. His only true enemy was himself, or rather his boredom despite the tortuous games he played with his prey in watching how they reacted with his interference. He studied the mammals with a clinical intrigue, killing and eating different parts of families to see if they could feel the same range of emotions that his kind could. His basic research confirmed that they did, but it did not matter either way for him when their fears and sorrows made them only more fun to chase for their now-unpredictable patterns, their guilt becoming rage as some smaller beasts tried to fight him with pathetic levels of strength whilst others ran and failed to hide from his prowess of instinct.

In truth he could have remained like this forever. And so he did for another four months, convinced that he had found his true place in life, his own nest where he was the alpha and no other creature around him could dare to match against his raw strength and exceptional tactics. And no one would face him, until one night when the moon was great and looming above his head. Sunscreech stared upon the mirror of the selene as he lied upon a smooth rock, the pale shine entrancing him with its grandeur as he smiled upon it.

"So much better than that blighted sun...haaaaaah...why is the moon so great this night? It is usually not like this...wait......Barkclaw told me this once. Something about the moon changing shape every one-and-a-half cycles, he was babbling on about his stupid smallwings about it...aaaaacch who cares."

He rolled over to his other side feeling strangely tense, his mind zigzagging with a dozen thoughts as his claws scraped against the stone.

"I wonder how mother is doing? Does she regret banishing me? ...not like she had a choice, that wretched brother of mine calling the alpha on me, even if she wanted me to stay...why does she care about that degenerate? Have I not lived longer than him, have I not hunted and given more food to the family than he ever could?! What is wrong with her? Did he do something, poison her mind with his simpering words of weakness? ...yes, that must be it."

Tussling and turning on the rock he forced himself onto his feet, taking a walk through the sub-sea-level forest as the tender rumblings of the night ocean surged around the impassable walls, the beasts of the isle sleeping tenderly beneath his feet.

"Where did you go father?" he sighed. "Why did you leave us? Did you really die against the greatbeast? ...no, no I refuse to believe that, Oddclaw's degenerate father managed to kill it, why couldn't you?! That freakish mockery of our kind who...wielded fire and sent that greatbeast lumbering to its death, YOU COULD HAVE KILLED IT FASTER!"

His roaring shriek woke several animals around him into a startled cry resounding through the forest.

"WHAT DOES ODDCLAW'S WRETCHED BREED HAVE THAT YOU DID NOT?! HE WAS WEAKER THAN YOU, HE WAS FOOLISH, HE COULD NOT HUNT LIKE YOU, BECAUSE OF HIM I LOST TWO SISTERS, WHEN HE FORCED US TO LEAVE THE NEST I WAS BORN IN! Then I lost a brother, killed by thos FILTHY HAIRLESS WHO SHOULD HAVE KILLED THAT FREAK INSTEAD!"

Sunscreech stomped a wide circle back to his sleeping spot, the large slab of volcanic rock glinting in the moonlight as he pressed his head against it.

"All I wanted was to make my family great, just as you had done father...you had such strength, I admired you...I believed you could kill anything, that you could protect us. How can I protect my family when they insist on feeding their own weaknesses?! Do they WANT to survive, even Oddclaw's sisters cannot hunt like him...or that mudbrained imbecile he calls a brother."

He flumped onto his back, rolling to press his neck against the side of the stone with his body curled up and on its back.

"At least your blood is not gone forever father...Fishclaw is still there, he has his own family away from them. He is strong, even if he does not agree with me at least there is him. Even if that degenerate poisoned his mind our blood remains pure. That is one thing he cannot taint."

The raptor finally found himself exhausted enough to sleep, curling up into the grass and sighing with a dreamless rest awaiting him. The night passed by without him knowing as the shadows loomed across the world-devouring peaks all around him, the sun barely managing to glance across the tip of the caldera in its waking dawn. Then the sky started to scream sending every animal awake across the atoll.

"Wha-...wh-what was that?! Wha...what is happening to the sun?!"

Sunscreech awoke to the sky burning with horrendous twisting colours, a shuddering convulsion of existence that flensed and shrieked like tearing open someone's chest submerged in water. Hot crimson streaks coalesced with seething blue and spattering mauve textures that burst and swelled out in orbular convections. Rodents scurried as smaller saurians screeched whilst avian beasts flew with a frantic confusion. Some of them flew up too far and became trapped within the bursting light, falling to their deaths in a downward spiral from being either blinded or having their wings scorched from the sheer energy trapping the sky. The raptor stood watching in awe and a godly fear awakening inside him, a fear he had never known in his life as he stepped back to brace himself to run. But it was over before he knew it, the sky became unrippled like a stilled lake to return to its tender glow of burning amber. The islands turned tranquil with unease simmering through the minds of all its inhabitants as Sunscreech noticed something amidst the imbroglio. A scent drifting through the air, coming from one direction over the great taill rim of his new nest.

"Some...someone is here. Is that...a hunter?"

Curiosity burned with a new energy inside him, borne from fearful excitement that became its fuel as he noted the scent was in the direction of the underground tunnel. He tried to ignore it, but having been without his own kind for so long it turned him homesick and the more he tried to suppress it, the more powerful it became as an all-consuming beast gripping his mind with the smell of raptors. He had to see them, he had to meet them. He could not admit to himself that the loneliness of not seeing another hunter for so many months had worn him down with emotional fatigue. Filling up his stomach with as much food and water as he needed, the raptor made his descent proper into the tunnels with no turning back. He did not know how long and deep the passage would take, stepping back into the darkness and heading onwards with a faster pace until reaching the crevice he stopped at before.

Sunscreech wormed himself through as he bent his tail to the side of his body and practically sidestepped like a crab into the depths of the fissure. His snout scraped against the stones covered in folds of ancient lava, black and cool upon his skin as he fidgeted and pushed himself through with a tight sucking heave. Once he had broken through to the other side he found three paths split up before him as he marked the wall beside him to make a checkpoint. He marked the other wall just in case to strengthen his scent even further for the long journey ahead as he sniffed the musty air. Something on the breeze, his snout flicking towards the south passage as he made his way further in. Hours would pass as he kept walking, staunch and determined to follow the faint scent of his people to its end until he became exhausted. He stopped once he found another crossroads of two tunnels to sit up against a rock and fall asleep before his legs gave out fully. He didn't know when he woke up, but he felt just as tired as when he had gone to sleep for the lack of any concept of time he had deep underground as the raptor forced himself up and kept on walking. Squatting to mark another checkpoint on the floor, Sunscreech opened his nostrils once more to catch the scent as he went down the left tunnel. Another day would pass, his body becoming ravenous with hunger once more as a part of him regretted coming down this deep. But he knew that it was pointless to turn back having journeyed so far already, with hours passing as he entered a state of mind almost zen-like in ignoring all pains of hunger.

Then he saw it. After two whole days of endless darkness, Sunscreech staggered upon sensing an incline against his soles as he dug his claws in to prevent him slipping, pushing his legs forth to where he saw a faint glimmering speck of light above him. There was hope at last as the scent became much stronger than before as he started climbing, a good whole hour of trudging onwards with his legs and joints throbbing sorely from the steep before he finally broke free into new surroundings. The raptor found himself upon a grand peak of an extinct volcano, on another island somewhat southwest of the rainforest haven, peering over a cliff to see it sprawled out before him in all its jade lustre. He turned behind him to see a great valley dotted with forests all along a rippling canyon that was cluttered full of pillars at every height all around him. It was a strange uneven land like someone had twisted the earth between giant claws with crumbling undulations, waving serpents of stone that formed a cancerous-looking mass of land somehow larger than the caldera it connected to.

"These...islands are amazing. If only the cave was not so tedious a journey to make...wait...what is that?"

That scent came again to him. He knew now it was most certainly his people living here. But there was something off, something firey or perhaps a deeper stench he could not quite tell its origin of. He clambered down the jagged slope which gave him an easy purchase from its less-eroded state, scuffling his claws and slightly running between the steppes. Morning remained above his head by the time he reached the bottom, the sun creeping towards the early afternoon as he stepped into the canyon. The forest was still a good ways beyond with a large sandstone valley of many levels and alternating heights, pebbles kicked underfoot as he realised something strange. Not a single sound had been made by any creature since his arrival.

"...I know you are there." He stiffened his tail as he smelt their trace. "Whoever you are, show yourself."

Standing above him along both sides of the rift were beasts like himself with the most bizarre additions to their bodies. A group of raptors with sickly chemical colours and metallic guards around their wrists, thighs and ankles. Peering closer Sunscreech also noted their odd hexagonal patterns glowing across their waists, the same colour as their voluminous claws of a shocking electric blue.

"What is this?" asked one. "A native?"

"Or perhaps...something more?" replied another.

"What...what freaks are you?" snarled Sunscreech. "You are not like any hunter I have seen before."

"You seem new," said a third raptor.

"Or perhaps old," muttered the fourth, "you are organic."

"Organic?" The crippled beast cocked his head with insult. "What...wh-whaever you speak of, I demand you tell me who you are!"

"You do?"

The one who last spoke jumped down with glinting yellow eyes and spiked fronds of pure steel down the back of his neck.

"Are you an alpha?"

"I am not."

"Then why should we tell you who we are?"

"Because I live here now, this will be MY island and if you do not respect me then I shall make you!"

"Hhhhmhmhmhm..."

The beast stepped closer towards Sunscreech with an air of infused dominance, his emerald-green form slightly overshadowing the "organic" raptor with a body borne of flesh and steel entwined together.

"I do not smell anything of you on this island."

"Then open your snout," barked Sunscreech with cold eye gleaming, "or I shall gouge it open for you."

"You know what I DO smell? Prey."

Two more raptors jumped down coloured red and deep ochre to step closer towards Sunscreech. The glare of death pierced into his body from three directions as he tensed his muscles waiting for the right moment, the sounds of a curious foreign tribe rumbling from above like the coming storm.

"How did you come here?" asked the raptor before him.

"I have always been here," snarled Sunscreech, "you call yourself a hunter when you could not even smell me on reaching here?"

"Do NOT, lie to me you shit-festering cripple, now answer me or else we shall tear you limb from limb."

"Shall?" The intruder made a soft warbling laugh. "You will try to...and that is all you shall do."

"Impudent WRETCH!"

Soon as one of them was within range he kicked a cloud of pebbled dust behind him to blind one raptor, before lunging at the throat of the one in front of him and spinning his body to strike his tail at the third hunter. The first opponent snarled from the tightening jaws on his throat which ripped some of the skin off his neck, slamming one of his feet into Sunscreech's leg to knock him down and roll themselves away from each other. One of the beasts behind him recovered quick enough to make a flying leap on top of him, but he rolled onto his back and punched both of his clawed feet straight into her chest with a kangaroo kick to throw her back.

Standing back up Sunscreech turned towards the crimson-scaled attacker who gauged him with a cautious stance, circling halfway round him to keep his attention away from the jade-tinted raptor looming up behind him with bloodied neck. Both of them lunged at the same time as Sunscreech dodged to his left causing his attackers to almost hit each other, both of them swivelling on their feet to stand together and face him at once.

The creatures attacked with a synchronous strike, slashing forwards with reaching front claws before one made a jump-strike and the other snapped for his legs. He hopped to the side with a spinning tailstrike to smack the flying raptor out of the air whilst evading the ankle-bite from the other, lifting his foot to stomp down hard upon his head. Twisting his claws hard he managed to gouge the red raptor's eye straight out into a smear of goo as he shrieked with agony, kicking himself away frantically before staggering back onto his feet. The third raptor, an amber beast, came at his side with a charging run as he readied to bite her throat, but much to this surprise she dropped and rolled fast like a tumbleweed to slam into his legs and trip him up before grabbing his tail with her teeth and chewing into his flesh. He kicked back at her hard with his other foot, slashing at her shoulder and neck before throwing his body to the side to hurl her face head-on into the dirt, crunching her snout into the hard stone as she shrieked with burning eyes. Pulling himself free Sunscreech launched himself upon her back and rendered the flesh from her spine with a ripping tear that flensed her skin as she cried out harder. But then, just beyond his vision, a ruthless steel whip lashed across Sunscreech's face with bloody tears from the twin scarring blades upon its tip.

"A-AAAARGH! What...h-how can you DO THAT?!"

"By our birthright," said the green-backed raptor as his tail retracted back into clicking metallic joints, "can YOU do better than us, intruder?"

"You...may have seen my blood but you will not live to see the NIGHT!"

Charging towards the least-wounded beast, the crippled raptor kept his focus sharp for the tail's movements as they swung out from behind his enemy in a clear streaking slice, the joints extending by a cable that ran through them as the V-shaped tip came gleaming towards him. He ducked as it just scarred his head, rushing forth to headbutt the creature in the stomach and snatch his jaws upon his neck to hurl him down to the ground for a savage assault. The tail came out once again to slam into Sunscreech's face with the middle blunt part to force him back, following with a piercing lunge of the vorpal tips to try and shank through his face as Sunscreech almost failed to move his head, suffering more scars across his face. He gritted through the pain as he snapped his jaws upon the tail's body to try and yank it fast, the steel surprisingly slippery between his teeth as he pulled to the side as if trying to turn his opponent's body.

The brief tug-of-war ended when the crimson raptor from nearby swung out his tail with whipping strike as Sunscreech was forced to move back, ducking underneath the extended length as the sun caught a flashing glint of his bladed ends. Both raptors turned towards him and made a dual-lashing attack to try and crush his skull between their tails, rearing his head back to watch the sparks fly before his face as they crossed each other into a scissor-strike. Retracting their tails they lunged once again with one of them towards his legs and another for his head, streaking a hot welt of blood across his knee as he staggered with a limp waiting for their next attack. When next they struck the one-eyed raptor made a swerving dodge towards one tail to grab and pull hard whilst evading the other, pulling the red raptor with surprising strength to the ground before bodyslamming into the verdant beast and piling on top of him instead.

With no time to retract his tail he was helpless before him. Sunscreech grabbed one of his arms between his teeth and savagely twisted it out of joint until the bone popped through his skin. Shrieking with howling agony he tried to pull his tail back and curve it inwards from above to plunge into Sunscreech's head like a scorpion's sting, but the raptor was quick-footed enough to dodge the dagger-like force from above, which only made the twisting pull of the raptor's limb even more excruciating until he wrenched it fully out of its socket. The jade raptor screamed with howling rage as his blood poured out with the smell and thickness of a tar streak. He was about to lose his other arm when the amber raptor slammed both her feet into Sunscreech, punching him with a furious weight across the valley into a rolling slump as they stood to face each other once again.

The sun-dappled raptor rushed him with a snarling roar, sliding with a skidding shriek of her claws to fall and roll towards Sunscreech's fate and swipe out his tail hard across both the raptor's feet. Stumbling from surprise he fell and was set upon by the strange raptor who curled her synth-tail above his head with scorpion strike upon the raptor's thigh, to gouge through the skin as he cried in furious anguish. When the creature reared her tail back to aim higher, Sunscreech twisted his body left to have it miss his chest and thunk into the ground beside him, the downed raptor slamming his foot upwards to push his enemy back whilst turning his head to grab the tail. The result had the orange raptor suddenly fall face first into the hard dirt right before Sunscreech clamped his feet upon his foe's neck and choked her ruthlessly. The sickled toes hooked into the flesh of his bloodied throat and started to squeeze with a threatening power as Sunscreech kept him paralysed on the floor.

"Submit," he snarled with the tail in his teeth, "or bleed upon me instead."

"RHHHHRGHK! HHHNNNNRGH!"

"Hmph...bleeding it is then-wha...WHAT!?"

Something burning in the air above him caught his nostrils. He looked up to see blazing orbs of fire come hurtling down upon his face as he quickly rolled and let go of his opponent, just barely dodging the hot charring flames that came close to his cheeks as they splashed upon the now-blackened dirt.

"My turn, child."

Standing up he saw a new raptor of amber colouring stand before him with the same accoutrements as the other newcomers did. But this one had a large steel X-shaped cross with a central screw transfixed upon her chest. She also stood much more upright like a human would despite her clearly feral form.

"What a dear little boy you are," she mocked with unsettling grin, "did you want to play?"

"I am not a CHILD, female!"

"Good. That means I do not have to hold back."

The fourth raptor chuckled with claws stretched out in a taunting bark towards him, showing off her surprisingly dexterous four fingers including a smaller thumbclaw which the rest of her tribe had. Sunscreech made a half-circle rush around her before suddenly charging with his head to bash into her body, but his enemy leapt over him with her powerful legs and suddenly spun into a vicious circle in midair that crunched upon his back like a sawblade. Squawking with shock and rage from the bodyslam he forced her off as quickly as possible before snapping at her throat, the female swerving her chest back before throwing a roundhouse kick that lashed across his snout unexpectedly. She followed with a jumping scissorkick that cracked into his jaw and turned his eyes bleary with a dull pain and dripping blood off his chin.

He tried to assault her with a flying leap to feint only with a half-jump before he could lunge for her neck, but her reactions were much swifter than he expected as the new raptor skirted her body round in a sweeping dodge-turn that swung her tail straight against his side with the force of a sledgehammer.

"HNNNNGH! Y-you FILTH!"

"Filth?" she said with mock offence and rearing head. "How bold, from one who shall be eating filth when I am done with you."

"RRRRAAAAAARGH!"

Sunscreech came upon her with a double-slash-kick as he thrust his legs forwards, the female cackling as she strafed backwards in a small zigzagging pattern. Then from her throat she belched a great shocking plume of roasting fire that singed across her opponent's face, forcing him to back off and shake his head frantically from the crisping smoulders and smoke in his eyes.

"A-AAAAH, AAAAAAGH! Wha-...H-HOW CAN YOU BREATHE FIRE?!"

"Because I am not you," she retorted with a puff of smoke to him, "are you afraid of fire little hatchling?"

"I, am not, FRIGHTENED BY ANYTHING YOU SHITSMEAR!"

"No...not yet you aren't."

She raked her claws calmly against the dirt to form a line between them, taunting him as he charged whilst she reared her head back and vomited out three balls of fire into the air, hurtling down towards him as Sunscreech swerved past all of them. The blasting fumes from behind almost spurred him onwards as he made a full-frontal kick, but she latched her teeth onto one of his ankles with shocking reflex and swung him hard with his own momentum to send him crashing into the canyon wall. Crunching stone rippled against his back as he shuddered pulling himself forwards to stagger towards his enemy, taking another charge as she ran to face him in turn. The moment he jumped with legs springing forth, the female leapt straight upwards with a fierce backflip that slashed across his face and neck as he fell backwards onto his side.

Tightening the muscles in his skull to ignore the pain, Sunscreech launched on her with a sudden shriek as he managed to knock her down with a primal strength, raking his claws upon her belly which trickled out a single sliver of thick claret fluid before she readied her throat to blast his face with a searing scorch. Dripping a noxious gasoline-scented drool from her teeth, the beast took a deep breath as Sunscreech slammed his head into her neck, throwing her off as she belched a hot flame roaring past his head that singed his earhole with a burning pop. Driving both feet into her stomach he sent her flying, but to his shock she used his momentum to backflip in mid-air whilst firing a volley of fireballs towards him causing Sunscreech to quickly get up and strafe fast to avoid the blasting flames.

"HAH, impressive!" cried his opponent landing perfectly on her feet. "But how long will you last?"

"Long enough to RIP YOUR HEAD APAAAAAART!"

Charging towards the techno-raptor, Sunscreech watched her tail whip back and forth with extending chain-link ready to strike. She saw his eyes following her appendage almost hypnotically, smirking as she swished it from side to side like a pendulum until he was right where she wanted. She feinted her tail left with a lashing strike, but suddenly reversed its direction on the snapback and arced it over her head to plunge forward at his face. He stopped himself from dodging right towards it by spinning on one foot halfway, but his teeth were too slow to bite at the tail as she retracted it to stab at his face thrice with shrieking force. The raptor dodged all but once, feeling the raking scar across his cheek almost slicing down towards his neck before she pulled it back completely and swung a sudden roundhouse kick with her momentum. Sunscreech leapt over her sweeping foot but the tail came back to haunt him with bludgeoning force knocking him out of the air as he rolled across the sandy turf. The raptor foreigner put out one foot and made a line across the dirt between her and the male with teasing growl.

"How about this? If you can cross this line, I won't kill you."

"YOU EVEN THINK YOU CAN?!"

"Ohohoho...I know I can. But I find you funny."

"RRRAAAAAAARRRGH!"

He leapt from the ground and slammed his body towards her, but the creature charged at him rushing past her line to crush their bodies together in one vicious bite, snapping at his throat to toss him down again before he leapt back up to grab her leg in his teeth and pull her down with him. The female however was much stronger than expected, pulling him up with her in one mighty leap and landing straight back down on top of him to almost break his ribs. With aching chest he roared and threw his body forwards to fight through the pain and stomp on top of her in return, but her tail slipped round his neck like a silver viper and squeezed hard to throttle him. Choking suddenly from surprise he felt the tail yank him back hard to throw him onto his back and give her time to stand back up.

Sunscreech went straight for his opponent with a charging headbutt as she cackled at his foolish attack, snorting back a gust of fire to blast upon his skull before he strafed hard and made a spin attack with his tail, whapping her across the face with the fullest force of his appendage to almost stagger her in shock. She almost did not notice that he rushed past her to step over her line and brace himself to jump on her back for a killing bite, but her tail made certain to keep him at bay with jabbing thrusts until she made a tremendous somersault into a spinning cycle of steel that slashed the back of Sunscreech's head, blood dripping down the back of his own neck as he staggered forward with a shriek of sharpened pain. He turned himself round to attack but the beast was ready to punch him with her strangely dexterous hands in a combo beat, smacking him across the face twice in both directions before a vicious axe kick scarred his belly and drove into his chin with a fierce uppercut. With eyes turning dim from the drunk-punching blows, the raptor was too slow to evade the creature's raging fireball she had prepared soon from her throat to shoot him in the face.

"A-AAAAAGH, AAAAAARRRRGH! AAAAAAAIIIIIIIAAAAAAARGH!"

The pain was overwhelming as the flames crawled over half his face, turning his cheek into a welted black stain amidst cries of anguish, his eye becoming a porous wound against the wall of red that consumed his mind as scales peeled off his snout. The amber female stood watching her opponent shriek in suffrage from the fires lapping across his flesh, the right side of his face now a seething ebony with deep welts of vermillion. He became so wracked with his pain that he did not notice, nor try to resist the stranger who grabbed his throat with one of her four-fingered hands and slammed him headfirst into the dirt. The cold harsh earth helped soothe his burns only slightly as he gasped and stuttered snorting dust from his nostrils.

"Well, that was fun."

"NN-nnnHNNNNGH!"

"I never take this long to kill my prey...but you...you are quite strong for a crippled beast."

"H-hhhhnnnngghrrkh! H-hhhaaaarghkh!"

"Oh stop whining little child, embrace your death like a true raptor!"

"I will NOT-HRRHKH, h-hrrrkh...d-die HERE!"

"Ohhh? Is that what you believe? Tell me, do you know how fire is born?"

"Wh-what?!"

"It requires three things. Fuel, heat, and air to breathe. My breath is the heat...your flesh is the fuel and the air YOU breathe..."

She leaned her head down until her snout touched his cheek with a voice that trembled through his skull.

"Will become the fire's own when I breathe into your lungs and watch you suffocate with the ashes I birth inside of you."

He held his breath as a sudden fear gripped him that was not his own, his eye bulging towards her as she grinned with a smile that terrified him beyond all reason. Not because of her teeth which gleamed with malicious glee, but the fact that it was a smile no raptor could even make. It was a human's smile.

"Now are you going to behave?" she asked softly.

"...I...h-hhhhh..." Sunscreech tightened his jaw to force the words from his throat. "I...I will."

"Gooood hatchling."

She stepped back allowing him to stand up fully whilst the rest of her tribe leapt down from the cliffs to step up behind her like a small army. Red, green, yellow beasts all with the strangest glimmering textures on their skin formed from semi-translucent shapes. The three raptors he fought previously hobbled towards their leader's side as she stood primly before him.

"Now tell me...why are you here?"

"I...I saw the sky burn," he muttered twitching the muscles in his burned face, "I smelt your scent from the island east of us."

"Ohhh? Well, I am flattered but, how did you even reach here from across the sea?"

"I am a hunter. Nothing escapes me, even across the sea."

She raised an eyebrow with a cold curling lick of her teeth that caused her lip to snarl showing the entire length of her fangs.

"Do not. Test me, hatchling or else I will burn more of your face off. Now, HOW did you get here?"

"NNnnngh, th-the, the cave, on the mountain up there." He snorted with a huff to cover up his nerves as he craned his head towards the peak. "There is a deep cave that goes under the sea to the other island."

"Really?" She looked up as some of the other raptors followed her gaze. "Interesting, so we have a means to escape this island."

"Yes but...the cave only goes between these two islands, that I know of."

"I see." She walked slowly around him in a circle whilst he remained still. "Where is your pack?"

"My...pack?"

"Yes, your group, your family. Where do they live?"

"They are not with me anymore." His eyes tried to follow her before she moved behind him. "My family...banished me."

"Banished? Why?"

"Because I wanted to make them stronger by ridding the weak from our tribe."

"Ridding the weak?" Her tail extended into a full ourobouros to wrap entirely around Sunscreech as her bladetips stroked his cheek. "And why would you choose to do such a thing?"

"B-because...my...my mother could not see the harm my brother was doing to our family with his pathetic mewling!"

"And what makes your brother so weak?"

"He is not a TRUE hunter! His claws are as small as a hatchling's, he is a runt and smaller than a female, he could not even manage to make me bleed when we fought!"

"But can he hunt?" She strode the full circle to stand before him once again with her tail clicking together. "If he can hunt, then he is a hunter."

"Not by himself," he retorted with a snobbish huff, "he cannot even kill a three-horn without ME! I was the one to teach him to hunt, I was the one who brought him back when those filthy skyflesh took him away, I should have let them eat his worthless corpse!"

"And why did you not?"

"Because mother would of COURSE blame me for something happening to her 'precious hatchling', what about me and my siblings!? Are we not precious to her too?!"

"Evidently not," said the female nodding mutually, "and here you are, despite having such an obvious strength, WASTED in the wilds whilst your family starve themselves a little further with this...degenerate brother they banished you for."

"YES!" he barked with relief. "Yes you understand, FINALLY someone who understands!"

"How can anyone not understand your position? You were doing the best for your pack by ridding the weakest, that is the right for all raptors!"

"EXACTLY! WHY CAN THEY NOT SEE THAT?!"

"Because they are blind, hatchling." She walked forwards until their snouts almost touched, her golden eyes gleaming upon his own hazel-flecked pupil. "Blinded by their hearts becoming soft, not like you. You...are a true raptor yes?"

"I am a hunter and nothing else," he said proudly rearing his head to stand taller than her, "I do not know what a 'rap-terr' is but any other hunter from my family would not have survived as long as I have."

"Indeed...where is your pack?"

"Beyond the sea. I tricked a greatfish to force me to carry over to the islands here."

"Really?!" The sound she made was mimicked by the other raptors behind her who all cocked their heads in unison with intrigue. "Not just strong but...intelligent as we are."

"Of course, we are all hunters are we not?"

"Yes...almost, all of us, tell me...when my pack fought you, which of them was the first to fall?"

"The one with the body like leaves."

"Leaves?" She turned her head towards the three wounded beasts and nodded understanding. "Ahhhh yes, the green one."

"Guu-reen? No, I said the one like leaves-"

"I know what you meant," said the female snapping her gaze back to him, "you call that colour 'leaf' then?"

"Yes...you call it something else?"

"Indeed. Fascinating."

The raptor chief strolled over towards the jade-coated raptor, his neck a ragged ruby taint and one of his arms now twisted out to become a useless dangling lump as he knelt his body forwards in full obedience.

"Sulphide stay with me. The rest of you leave."

Despite being shorter than them by a full foot, none of the males dared to defy her by their submissive body language with hunched backs and hanging tails whilst they trudged back into the forest. One raptor stayed behind however with sickly scales of acidic lemon as Riptor looked down upon the verdant beast in front of her.

"Did he fight well?" she asked him.

"Yes," said the green raptor, "he was stronger than expected, it seems he has only thirty-percent less muscle mass than our pack, but his reflexes are on par with us."

"I agree." Her tail slithered out to scratch the sharpened points across her chin. "Do you think he would make a good addition to our pack?"

"I would say so yes, Riptor. Forgive me I was...careless."

"No need to apologise Jade. You are simply being replaced."

" GH-GHRRRRRGHHKH!"

The bladed tail plunged into his throat before any of them could even move. His eyes rolled up with tightened pupils as blood dripped down his tongue before the tail's clinking units twisted on their own to drive upwards out of the raptor's skull, showering his leader in fragments of sharded bone and cerebral fluid. Her pointed twin-tips glinted with brain juice before she unfucked them out of his head and left him crumpled in a spasming fit amidst choking gasps before the yellow raptor stepped forwards in obedience.

"Did he have a family?" she asked the one approaching.

"Yes," he said.

"How many children?"

"Two, daughters."

"Kill them." Her tail reassembled itself still dripping with cranial matter. "Their mother shall find a stronger male to breed with, one who won't have such poor reflexes as her children's father did."

"Yes, Riptor."

The gold-scaled raptor marched off into the valley as Riptor turned towards Sunscreech. She cocked her head to one side with a looming eye upon him like a hawk watching its prey, forcing him to stoop.

"You have proven yourself to be worthy of my pack," she said, "your strength shall be added to ours, native."

"I am...honoured." He bowed submissive and confused. "I did not expect to be...taken in as part of your tribe so quickly."

"Why not? You fought and survived against us which very few have ever done."

"Yes but...I..."

"Look at me."

He met her eyes as he tried to steel his gaze with confidence.

"What do they call you, stranger?" she asked.

"The...the Runner of the...Shade."

The pack leader snarled before grasping her hand across his neck, tightening them to squeeze what almost resembled a thumbclaw upon his throat.

"You are not of my pack yet...but when you are, know that I do not tolerate those who lie to me. If you join us, and I learn that your TRUE name was not the one you first told me, then I will erase you. Do you understand what that means in your primitive tongue?"

"H-hrrrghk, HRRRGHK!"

"It means that you won't even die, because you won't have a body left to die in once I am done with you."

She slipped her tail round towards his head, gently scraping a circular rim round the top of his skull which sent deep vibrations into his brain. The sound it made was horrifying to him as he shook to the point of sobbing without even realising why he was, his neck twitching against her fingers.

"Feel that? Can you feel it?"

"S-s-stop, s-s-s-stop STOP IT PLEASE!"

"I will ask one more time. WHAT, do they call you?"

"S-SUN, SUNSCREECH! I-i am The One Wh-who Screeched at the Sun!"

"Sunscreech...what a wonderful name." She snapped her tail back with a hard crack of its vertebrae and eased her thumb's grip. "Such bold strength true to your being, why would you ever be ashamed of that?"

"Because...my family, they-"

"I do not care, that is your past and your past is filled with weakness! You..." she cupped his head with her hand smiling, "are of OUR future now, Sunscreech, you are strong like true raptors should be so take your name with pride as I have done, as all my pack have done, when we freed ourselves from those pathetic humans who would think to insult us as our...'masters'."

"Hyoo-muns?" Sunscreech cocked his head squinting confused. "What are those?"

"You will know in time, but first let us welcome you."

She walked over to the slain corpse of the green raptor and with her surprisingly deft fingerclaws she pulled free a small blue chip from the side of his breathless jaw. Sunscreech had not noticed until now that all of Riptor's clan had the same metallic stone transfixed to their lower face as she attached it to him. A small pinching clamp pulled at his skin sharply before it settled on his jawline with a tender glow, synchronising itself to his mind by a neuroscan unbeknownst to him.

"What is this?!" he gasped trying to tongue at the odd chip.

"Our marking," said Riptor deftly, "you are part of us so long as you have it, and we shall recognise you as a superior raptor, or 'hunter' as you call us."

"A superior...hunter......I like that." He purred with satisfaction and shiver of elation through his tail. "I like that very much, Riptor."

"Good." She stroked at his face with her cyan claws that buzzed softly with a strange mechanical tone. "Welcome to the Ultraraptors, Sunscreech. Come, follow me."

She led her new charge into the valley they had taken over whilst the rest of the raptors walked around them single file like a Roman legion. The canyon was wide and not especially deep, but the forest they encountered an hour later was a lush environment packed within the island's central strata. The trees were a mixture between deciduous and tropical with the thickest canopy of green blankets above their heads that the sun could barely parse through, raptors all around him setting up nests and communing with each other by grooming, eating or marking their territory which gave Sunscreech a rather nostalgic feeling despite their different scents. They were much more bitter in their musk, a chemical effluence from their biomechanical bodies that processed food and gave the raptors a synthetic plasticky smell to them, their entourage breaking away to return to their duties.

The further they went in the deeper the woods became as the valley itself descended into the depths of darkness. A large cave stood at the very back where four of the raptors moved to the sides of and became sentries for it with stiffened posture and chirruped barks of salute to Riptor. Sunscreech followed her alone into the cool cavern where her scent became strongest, the gasping breeze soothing his charred flesh with the bones of several animals clear to see from what local delicacies she had been sampling as he saw several passages curve and dip into a labyrinthian structure. The sounds of other raptors could be heard panting and snarling, most of them infants in the darkness. She clambered onto a large pile of stones shaped strangely like a throne for her to lay her body upon across its arms.

"What do you think?" She spread her claws open like a pharoah. "A home fit for a queen is it not?"

"It is a good home," he said, "I have never known hunters who have their children in caves."

"They are safe here. The nests outside are for full-grown families, to show our strength in numbers to those who would dare come invade us. But the infants who cannot fight remain here inside where I and the strongest protect them."

"Of course." He peered into one tunnel as if trying to catch sight of the newborns rasping their cries for food and warmth. "How did your tribe come here?"

"We were swept away by some strange anomaly," she replied scratching her neck.

"A nohm-malee?"

"A disturbance." His look of confusion made her try to think of simpler words. "Ugh, the sky tore itself open and pulled us through to your world."

"Ohhhh...wait, how can the sky do that, I mean it was nothing like skyfire when I saw it happen."

"Skyfire?"

"When the sky shoots out...fire, from the clouds, blinding like the sun?"

"Ahhhh yes, lightning."

"Light...ning. You and your tribe have such odd words."

"I should say the same for you Sunscreech."

"And your bodies are...they are made from stone?"

"Not stone. Steel." She slumped further into her seat and stretched out her legs with a gasping yawn as her tail snaked out across the walls. "We are partly made from flesh, but also made from steel."

"Is not steel a type of stone?"

"Well...yes, that is not untrue."

"But how?" He started to pace with his eye roaming all over her mineral-skin body. "How is the stone part of your flesh?"

"We were created as such, by the humans," she answered.

"Who are the hyoo-muns?"

"A race of inferior degenerates." She sat herself up before scratching the back of her head with the tail's daggered tips. "Hairless mammals that sought to expand their territory to not only the entire world, but to worlds beyond."

"Worlds...beyond? Hairless-wait! WAIT y-y-you mean the hairless warmbloods, they came to your home too?!"

"You know of them?!" The raptor stepped off her seat and stomped towards him with a look of shock. "Are they here in this world?!"

"No, no they are not, they...they have left."

"But they were here?!"

"Yes," he replied stepping back from her looming stance, "my family, my tribe we were taken by them when I was a hatchling. They made us suffer with odd water that made us sick, but we managed to free ourselves and kill them!"

"Excellent!" she chirped with glee. "That is good, I'm glad to see no matter what world that the raptors succeed in overcoming the worthless human race!"

"They could not dare to fight us once we were free. I am certain none of them survived."

"Good." Her smile returned with that un-raptor-like look that frightened him. "That means this world is pure. You are pure too."

"I...yes...my blood is pure."

"You are not borne from steel, you are one-hundred-percent flesh. You will bring strength to our future children."

As she said this, there came a sound of horrified screeching from one of the tunnels. A female was crying with desperation, sobbing, howling as Sunscreech recognised the sound of teeth scraping across flesh, the cracking snap of some raptor's bone followed by the most painful mewls of silenced anguish. Stuttering whimpers signalled the yellow raptor exiting one of the nurseries clutching two green-skinned hatchlings by the throat in his hands. His voice was strangely soft with an eerie calm that always restrained itself just below the timbre of his being.

"It is done, Riptor." He tossed the infants towards her. "The pack is cleansed once again."

"Good," she nodded approving, "take one for yourself. I assume you have already met, Sunscreech this is Sulphide."

"Welcome to our pack," said Sulphide with a gentle bow picking up one of the children, "I was the first male. Your strength is impressive from how you fought my fellow hunters."

"Thank...you," replied Sunscreech somewhat off-kilter, "what do you mean by 'first male' of your tribe?"

"Our pack was entirely female when the humans first created us, but after Riptor freed us she altered the birth of those who were not yet born to ensure that some of became male."

"Become...male? But, were they not born already male?"

"All of us were born female, but those still developing such as me were changed before our gender set in. Some more succesfully than others."

"I...I do not understand."

"My apologies." Sulphide offered the dead infant towards Sunscreech. "Are you hungry? Please, have this one."

"You...you want me to eat her?"

"She was weak like her father," said Riptor picking up the other child's corpse, "they are meat now. Did you not say to me when we first met that you wanted to rid the weak from your family?"

"I did...but...but, this is a child, I-"

"Then imagine that is your degenerate brother, for you are part of our family now Sunscreech. Please. Eat."

There was a moment of hesitance in his mind seeing the listless eyes of the young hatchling grasped in Sulphide's claws. Fresh, limp emerald skin with blood dripping from the twisted neck, head hanging forwards from the top of his "hand" as Sunscreech looked towards Riptor who gave a knowing nod as if giving him permission to do so. He opened his jaws and carefully clamped them down upon the infant's throat, jerking hard back to rip the neck in half with a popping crack as the vertebrae split to dangle from his teeth before chewing it up into his mouth, and down his oesophagus with a tender gulp. He had never tasted his own kind before, but he knew that his tribe had done so in desperate times.

"Do you like it?" asked Riptor.

"Glllk...I...nrrrk, I have tasted better, not as good as three-horn."

"Hmhmhah! Well then more for us. You may leave now, one of my guards shall take you to a nest you can occupy."

"Alright," said Sunscreech, "thank you...Riptor."

She sauntered back to her throne as Sulphide sat beside it, both raptors stripping the flesh from the children's tender bones as Sunscreech walked out of the cave whilst resisting the urge to salivate upon realising he had not eaten in two days. He let his pride stifle his hunger knowing he had plenty to hunt still on the island before the rest of her pack could eat everything.

"What do you think of him?" asked the leader when he left.

"He is powerful," murmured Sulphide between twisting tendons in his teeth, "GRLLK, mmmph...hhhhh it is a shame he took down Jade so swiftly."

"A lesson to us all, but he will make a good replacement...in time."

"Some new blood?"

"But of course." She leaned over her stone-pile smirking with raised brows. "We can only breed so much before inbreeding would occur, we need fresh blood."

"I only regret that you cannot breed with us," said the male tossing his food to the floor, "the arrogance of humans to waste your body at its perfect prime."

"Indeed, such is the price I must pay as your urmetazoan."

"Please." He turned his head away with disdain. "You are our goddess, not some scientist's wet dream."

"Hhhhahaha," she lifted her head with a soft cackle, "are you still trying to make that catch on?"

"What else would I call a beast that was born to slay a god and create me? Our pack owes its life to you."

"But now we are here, in THIS world we can live our lives in peace." She sighed with a resigned happiness as Riptor curled up into her seat. "Return to our roots and become the true raptors that we were born to be."

"Will you take this...Sunscreech for a mate?"

"HAH, let us not be so hasty...I want to see how he fares first, he may still have some weakness I have not seen as of yet."

"If you would permit me to speak freely," asked Sulphide with bowing head.

"You may," she said nodding back to him.

"I am not certain that his mind is so resilient, he could be easily tricked by his simple ways and his arrogant nature. I would rather suggest we wait and see."

"And I agree yes, Sulphide. This world shall make a good home for us. Our home. Our new...home."

She finished the rest of her food and tossed the mostly-eaten torso over the back of her seat. Riptor smiled with bloody teeth that she licked clean before settling in to nap, her clawed fingers scratching over the screwed bolt in her chest, the cold touch of steel rippling across her skin.