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THE SCRIPTURES OF ODDCLAW

Twelve-and-One: Angels of Aurum

"A malady

Preys on my heart that med'cine cannot reach."

Charles Maturin

A year before demons would come to this earth, the hive of ultraraptors was clamouring with activity, the sounds of chewing bark and sawing motions rang throughout the island forest. Morning had broken on what was now the third week since Sunscreech had first taught them how to capture the greatfish, which were now kept in bondage by vines tightly wrapped around their tails. Sunscreech and Methyl watched over the new slaves from the sea, the thrashing icthyosaurs struggling to break free from their bondage as the two raptors fed them with meat.

"Why do you keep us here?" murmured one fishbeast.

"Because you will serve us," said Sunscreech, "you will carry us across the sea when we are ready."

"B-but...my family, th-they have not seen me in days!"

"If your family are strong they will survive without you. Now eat."

"You just want to fatten us for food!" cried another slave. "I WON'T DO IT, I WOULD RATHER STARVE!"

"Calm down idiot," snarled Methyl with a warning claw near his eye, "we wouldn't bother to fatten you, you have plenty meat already, we're just making sure you don't die on us now eat your food. Haven't we treated you well? We gave you our food and let you sleep comfortably with enough length of your restraints to let you swim at your pleasure."

"This is...th-this is not a life worth living!"

"Then I will take one of your eyes instead and you can live an even worse life, now EAT."

They submitted soon enough, fearing for the day their captors would decide they were not worth the trouble as they devoured what they were given. Sunscreech turned towards the forest which was slowly being torn down by his new tribe as razor-sharp tails tore through ancient bark, teeth twisted off branches and claws of plasma-grade sharpness smoothed down the trunk of all its roughness. Another group of raptors including Riptor herself were binding logs together with vines using their semi-dexterous claws and teeth to twist them into knots and push them out to water as simple rafts, testing their seaworthiness before pulling them back in to retighten the knots when water seeped through. Some raptors were even sculpting bowls and containers with their claws before filling them up with fresh water or meat and closing the tops.

"Your tribe are incredible," muttered Sunscreech shaking his head, "to have such odd ways and yet such a new cunning I have rarely seen."

"When have you last seen it then?" the green raptor asked.

"My family. We were...different."

"Hmm. Why were you banished? I don't think I ever asked you that."

"I tried to rid my family of my brother. But he had fed his weakness into them."

"Fed his weakness?"

"I lured him to a cave to kill him. The family would have been better off without him, but somehow he survived cycles later, returning to shame me in front of them for my want to make them stronger without him."

"Oh..." she licked her lips nervously, "I was not expecting that."

"Do not feel pity for him, or me." He looked at her with his single eye coldly. "I made my choice, and had I succeeded none would have given his death another thought."

"If you say so."

Methyl turned away from him awkwardly, seeing for a moment his ragged look and dead hollow left eyesocket amidst the two-dozen scars that raked across his right cheek.

"How old are you?" she asked without looking.

"Why so many questions?" he asked warily.

"What, I'm not your appointed mate all of a sudden, I have a right to know who Riptor lumps me with!"

"Six-and-one days after you fought me, begged me to kill you and insulted me!"

"Well, I am trying to make the best of it!" she huffed with a thick snort at his face. "Come on, we might as well try to get along with each other if we're being forced to have a family. How old?"

"Forty cycles."

"F-forty?!" She gasped with a hand to her neck. "Are you...wow, I didn't know we could live that long."

"What do you mean, how old are you?"

"I'm nine years old."

"Wha-what?!" Sunscreech reeled back with a frightful thought. "You are but a child!?"

"No, no I was already born like this!"

"Wha-but, how is that possible?! No creature is born that way!"

"And no creature has THIS but here we are!" she emphasised with her sleek interconnecting tail. "Remember that we're different from you, we didn't come from eggs but machines."

"But...b-but, that does not make any sense."

"I know." She looked away with a shameful sigh. "We're not natural...yet we were sculpted to look like this. Riptor is our oldest, but we know little about what we are other than the fact that she is our leader, she was the one to free us and is our God-Slayer."

"God slayer?" Sunscreech leaned forwards with a curious glint almost brushing her cheek.

"She was created by humans to kill gods. Her power is unreal, her strength no one can match."

"Hmm...well, you are all very odd beasts, and none of you smell like children so I must believe what you say."

"Can I ask you something then?" Methyl raised her head to stare into his eye firmly. "What...what's it like to be a child?"

"What?!"

"We have few children, in the other families but...none of us know what it's like. What was childhood like for you?"

"I do not...it was...I am not sure." The older raptor laid down with a sombre weight on his back. "Mother cared for me well, along with the degenerate who took her from my father."

"Took her?"

"My worthless brother's father. Oddscar they called him."

"Your brother or father?"

"Father, OddCLAW is the wastrel he birthed. Just like his son he was a weak pathetic beast, but somehow Oddscar managed to fight the hairless so our tribe could escape. He could wield the fire of the hairless, just as his own worthless son could."

"Fire of the hairless?" She smirked at him snorting back a muted laugh. "You mean a gun, right?"

"Whatever you call it, it is a stone that makes fire."

"Hahaha, I love how you describe things, it's very cute."

"Cute?!" he reeled back insulted. "That is what it is called, do not condescend me!"

"I'm not, I like it, you sound different from the others and that makes you unique to me."

"Oh...hm...well, I-..."

He cleared his throat having lost his train of thought before she rubbed his cheek and slightly leaned back with another lick of her lips. Soon the entire tribe was out on the beach as a proper raft had been built to be large enough to carry six raptors upon it. Riptor and Sulphide stood before their pack as the leader stepped onto the raft and felt it slightly shift beneath her feet whilst the reptiles held their breath. She stomped, nodded, trotted back and forth testing its stability before she was satisfied. The other raptors waded into the waters and pulled three icthyosaurs by their vine-leashes before tethering them to the boat's front. Some resisted but they were given a warning strike close to their eyes to force them silent as they faced towards the open sea.

"Brothers and sisters," began Riptor turning towards her kind, "today we shall make a journey, a grand expedition to discover new lands that shall bring us closer to a perfect paradise for our species. I leave you now but only so I shall return with news of prosperity and peace for our children. Radium, Tesla, Sunscreech and Methyl shall join me."

"What?!" Sunscreech looked towards his mate who smiled back at him. "You are coming too?!"

"If we're going to be a family yes," she said, "I signed myself on, wouldn't it be better if we learned to fight and hunt together?"

"Hm...I, suppose it would be better yes."

"Sulphide shall be your leader," continued Riptor, "until I return you must obey him as you would me. Now, any questions?"

"How long will you be?" asked one male of the pack.

"No more than two weeks. We shall see, but no matter what may come, I will return to you. Now return to your nests...and hope for our fortune. FOR OUR FUTURE!"

"AND OUR FUTURE'S HOPE!" they cried back in a single bark.

The pack soon left to their nests but Sulphide stayed behind to walk to his ruler with a tender nuzzle against her face. She nuzzled him in turn with sweet soft licks across each other's necks whilst the raptors known as Radium and Tesla brought supplies in the form of meat and water held in separate crude containers made of rock. The two newcomers also had made sling-bags out of flesh and vines to keep against their chests.

"Please be careful," mewled Sulphide gently, "I'm not ready for you to leave me."

"I know," she said rubbing his neck, "but I am your goddess right? Nothing can kill me."

"I know...h-hah, you finally call yourself that?"

"Only you get to call me that. My first and greatest."

She pulled him close in some semblance of a hug. Sulphide started to whimper that little bit harder and nuzzled harder into her neck before they parted. But he hung on for a second longer and pulled her back in again much to her annoyance that lasted only moments before she humoured him.

"Remember, I am your eyes-"

"And you are my ears...yes."

"If ever you need me, I am but a signal away."

He finally released her, an effortful motion as he stepped back whimpering quietly before Riptor stepped onto the raft with four other raptors and Sunscreech commanded:

"TO THE NORTH, NOW!"

The fishbeasts lurched into motion as the raft slumped forwards almsot unbalancing him until Methyl pushed against him. Sulphide watched alone from the shore as Riptor gave a smile to him. He smiled back, tearfully, but smiled nonetheless as he went back into the forests with a deep sniff and hardened his teeth to perform his duties.

The ocean was enormous, far more than Sunscreech remembered it, the waves carefully sloshing past them as the ichthyosaurs worked together in correcting their courses, making sure the raft would not capsize for fear of being dragged down to drown with them. It was an uncomfortable trust position, one that both slave and master unconsciously knew could destroy them both at any time but that fear was enough to keep them both safe, a prisoner's dilemma as the salt swept into their nostrils.

Tesla was a greyish-white raptor who handled the provisions in semi-sealed containers crafted from stone, whilst Radium was black and green and made small noises with his teeth clicking together. Methyl and Sunscreech kept watch over the fishbeasts, guiding them with both words of hinted violence and a humbling compassion to distort their intentions and pacify them.

"W-when can we eat?" gasped one icthyosaur between waves.

"When the sun has set," said Methyl, "we must all feed from the same food."

"Y-you will not...starve us, right?"

"Of course not," said Sunscreech with an insulted snarl, "if you starved then you would have no strength and we would die out here the same as you. You understand that both of us keep each other alive."

"Why not stay on the island?! You have everything there!"

"Enough, now keep swimming!"

"What can you sense?" Riptor asked the navigator.

"Landmass," said the radioactive raptor pointing with his claw, "north-by-northwest, seems barren but it'll make good progress as a landmark."

"Slaves, turn that way!"

They followed her orders and carefully skirted slightly westwards. Two days passed since they left their new island home before they reached a new place. A barren island like Radium had said, but one that still had wildlife in the form of nesting birds and burrowing rodents that they caught, killed and ate as well as fed to their icthyosaurs who were kept tied against the rocks at the shore. It was a good place to sleep, better for them than on the raft as Methyl and Sunscreech gazed at the stars of a clear endless night, the sounds of the ocean fuming around them with tremblings of the earth as they dug into the sand and covered their bodies like a blanket.

"I've never seen a night like this," she said laying down in the dirt, "so beautiful."

"You have never seen the stars?" he asked.

"Not this many...where I came from there was light pollution, too many human lights blotting them out."

"Human lite...poh-looshun?"

"Hairless mammals, stand on two feet?"

"OH, the hairless yes, I forget you call them different...they can take the stars from you?"

"Not exactly," she stretched herself out as he shifted himself to kick some stones out underneath, "they make their own light, and it's so bright that they blot out the stars."

"Really? Why?"

"Because they are pathetic beasts, they want to own everything because they are too weak to become true hunters. They want the stars so they make their own, they want hunters like us so they made us as such."

"Is that why they took my tribe into their caves?" asked Sunscreech looking up to the stars. "Because they wanted us as-"

"Look at the fish. The way we have made them to be ours, is the same way the humans wanted your tribe."

"I...then, wait, if the hairless are so pathetic why are we doing this?"

"Because we are not perfect. We cannot cross the sea without them, just as humans cannot see without their light so precious, and cannot hunt without those like us."

"Hm...I do not know what to think."

"Then don't." She moved up closer to him with a soft lick. "Don't think about it, just trust in our leader, your leader, she knows what is right for us."

"Does she?" he asked squinting his dead socket at her. "You speak of the hairless being weak and using us, but we are using these greatfish because of something we are too weak to do."

"That is different, we're treating the fish well, we're showing them how to respect us, we're not seeing them as toys but as useful creatures with a place in this world!"

"All they are is food to me!"

"Then why did you use one to cross the ocean?!"

"That is-...diff..."

He struggled as she smiled at him, nodding with a mutual understanding as Methyl chuckled and cuddled up to him.

"You're a feisty bastard aren't you?"

"What does THAT mean?"

"It means I like you more. You keep me on my toes, same way you like me because I fight back."

"Hmph...let us sleep now."

"Alright. Goodnight Sunscreech."

They curled up close together, mounds of sand on the empty beach as the waves rolled past the shore. The stars gleamed with eternal thousands as Sunscreech sighed looking up towards the universe. He turned his head towards Methyl, trying to unravel the furore inside his head between resignation of his future and the waking realisation of a potential family with his newly appointed mate. He had never considered a family anymore than any other raptor would have, more as a duty than a goal in his life and was still unclear what the connection between all of the ultraraptors were to make it so hard for them to breed with each other, but he felt a greater sense of importance that made his duty much stronger in his mind than before. There was not doubt in his mind, certainly not, but he was confused more than anything. Why had he been given this female that already despised him for the death of her mate?

The next day they were back on the raft, sending the icthyosaurs further north as dictated by Radium. The salt-stricken breeze was warm on their backs as they pushed onwards, carefully lapping from the makeshift bowl of water and gingerly eating food between each other. When night would come they took turns sleeping to keep watch on their slaves, the bound beasts swimming onwards in their half-sleep state to never stop moving. Sometimes another beast would come to threaten them, other hunters of the sea that Riptor would repel with blasts of fire that sizzled like burning oil across the waves. Another two days would pass before they reached a greater landmass. The scent of larger prey was on the horizon as their blood became incensed with the urge to hunt, the raft landing upon a quiet shore hidden beneath a cragged set of cliffs upon the southernmost brink. Once they tied up the icthyosaurs they climbed up the rocky steps to discover a wide-open plain of purest green with a cluster of mountains rising from the centre of the island.

"This is a good place!" cried Riptor with pride. "Excellent work Radium, this land has potential for a perfect second nest."

"You sure about that?" asked Tesla the grey-backed beast. "We only just got here, there enough food even?"

"This land is much wider than our first nest," said Radium clicking his teeth, "the earth spans westwards for days, and there are valleys plentiful enough for both water and meat."

"Hmmm...what are your orders Riptor?"

"Scope the land but do not hunt anything yet," she said stepping forwards onto the grass near the sandy beach, "Sunscreech and Methyl shall join you, I will stay behind to keep watch on our slaves."

"Really?" The silver and emerald beasts leered towards them. "Why exactly?"

"Sunscreech knows the animals here, he will advise you. Unless you believe you will fail me."

"Of course not Riptor, we shall scout this new land easily. How far should we travel?"

"Two days' worth is good. Try to reach the mountain and then come back to me. I will see you soon."

They left their leader at the shore as she crept her snarl across her lip to frighten the fish into silence. The four raptors headed out into the strange wild savannah where larger beasts easily roamed, traipsing through the long grass and keeping their bodies downwind of them. Sprawling wide fields with hot scents in the air rejuvenated them as their tails flicked behind them. Strange trees twisted above the land, dotted across the savannah where pterodactyls perched and surveyed the land with sharp eyes as Sunscreech tensed his body with grinding teeth.

"What is it?" asked Methyl.

"Skyflesh...disgusting vermin."

"Those winged things? Why are they vermin?"

"They are filthy scum-eaters, keep away from them, they will only upset your stomach. Kill them if you must, but they are not good to eat."

"Are they dangerous?" asked Radium peering towards their roost.

"They can carry you if they so choose, but I think your tails can kill them easily."

"Tesla is our anti-aerial expert," he nodded towards the silver-backed beast who sent trembling motions through the grass, "if any of them come he will shoot them out of the sky."

"Good."

"What are those?!"

Methyl pointed towards a herd of stegosaurus trundling across the field, semi-circular beasts with plated spikes cresting their backs down to the sharp pointed tail.

"Fangbacks," said Sunscreech sniffing at them, "very dangerous, their tails can rip your stomach apart from your body."

"And their backs are armoured I see."

"You cannot tear through their backs. The head is where you must attack, I would recommend distracting them with an attack to one side only, then one of us from the front can rip its throat."

"Small head for such a fatass," muttered Tesla pawing the dirt, "difficult to reach, evolution really made a bastard."

"It was not made like you were, it was born."

"Alright don't get shitty with us old-timer," snorted the silver raptor, "you know all these monsters more than we do."

"Lead on Sunscreech," said Radium bowing to him, "your knowledge and experience shall help us colonise this land."

"Alright...see that thing?" The old raptor pointed his snout to another large-plated beast. "That, is a stonetail."

He taught them the dangers of every saurian they came across, whilst Radium compiled data in his head to a meticulous point. Stone-tailed ankylosaurs with huge clubbing instruments and jagged heads; skittish parasaurolophus that made perfect prey to hunt in packs; staunch-bellied triceratops with giant piercing horns and that clashed against each other in bloodied contests of strength. All of them were new to the ultraraptors as they watched duckbilled hadrosaurs drink and bathe in large pools next to frill-headed corythosaurus. Sometimes they saw feathery beasts flapping across the winds, other raptors that had developed strange long limbs that gave them greater heights to glide and leap over the grass. Then there were the sauropods, grand titanic beasts with huge necks and tails that stretched to 130 feet from end to end. The ultraraptors were astonished, almost terrified by the colossal creatures until Sunscreech walked between their legs showing they were gentle giants, or at the very least not actively harmful for the complete lack of attention they gave to the smaller denizens of the world.

The first morning upon the island was a joy for them to witness, watching triceratops gouge each other in bloodied contests of leadership whilst pterosaurs swooped along the coasts after moments of rest to catch fish from the sea. Sunscreech guided the newcomers in how to hunt each type of prey properly, starting with the parasaurolophus that they chased in pincer-formation, driving one of them out from the herd to catch and kill with a hard burst of shocking lightning that tore from Tesla's tail to send it crumpling in arrhythmic arrest. Radium used his tail as well as Methyl to kill their prey, deciding against the use of their acid to not contaminate food whilst Sunscreech went the traditional fashion of singling out his target before the lunging kill of his ruthless claws with a vicious leap and gouged through its torso. The sun drifted lazily over the land as they continued on west, the mountains rising before them as they saw forests dotted across the coasts to the west and east ends of the isle.

The grass started to fade and soon the earth became hard with stony flints, the air changing to become the dusty pallour rolling off from pewter cliffs. Theropods roamed this area, other raptors that nested in caves watching them warily as the newcomers skirted round the telltale scents of their territorial reach. Slowly rearing their heads with cautious eyes and tensing claws, they rose from their caves with tepid snarls as the newcomers kept walking through a field of large stones without making eye contact. Then they were approached by a lone scout that appeared from behind a large rock.

"Halt."

The raptor was a purest black, coal from head to tail as the foreigners stopped.

"Where do you come from? You do not smell of this land."

"We are the Ultraraptors," said Radium stepping forward, "we have no intention to fight, we're just searching for a new home."

"Your home is not here oddbeasts. Leave our home now."

"We did not intend to stay. You can call off your seven guards."

He looked round towards the large stones which surprisingly began to move. Some of them unfurled to show they were raptors in hiding, camouflaged by their markings that resembled granite and shale.

"Impressive," said the scout before them with a toothy grin, "but you did not answer me. WHERE do you come from?"

"That's none of your business," argued Radium with forward step, "you know we're not from this land, that's enough for you to know."

"I decide what is enough for me to know, oddbeast."

"And what if I refuse? Will you fight us?"

"If you so choose to insult us, yes."

"Then I'll give you a warning. Tesla."

The grey raptor gave a cruel grin and raised his tail upwards to extend with clacking slits, stiffening into a rod of pure energy that pulsed with a tensing bluish gleam. The black raptors became nervous but made no motion to attack, sensing something wrong in the air around them that tingled along their spines and without warning there came a fiendish shock of burst lightning sprouting forth from Tesla's tip. Thunderous bolts cracked the air in half with such force that every raptor screeched from the deafening assault except for Radium who stood smiling. The sky flashed once and it left behind one deadened tree split apart by the beam of light, its ancient wood carved in twain to leave a burning husk of scorched flames. They all backed down as the dark green raptor stepped forwards. The scout leader reared back in submissive fear before he felt his claws pressing against his neck with a dexterous thumb.

"Do I need to give a second warning?"

The native mewled a quiet "no".

"Then get the fuck out of my way savage, or I'll burn your family next. Your family who are watching us from the left side of that cave's entrance."

They looked aside briefly to see a small cluster of particular dark snouts that tightened up with fright, mirroring the same look in the scout's eyes as he turned back to Radium. With a hard shove the green-beryl raptor thrust the scout aside into the dirt, motioning his squad to follow towards the forests that spanned the western shore.

"Wh-what did you do?!" cried Sunscreech.

"Whatcha mean?" said Tesla looking back.

"You...you made FIRE from your tail!"

"Oh yeah that's a trick of mine. Some of us got that, some spit acid, others breathe fire, some shoot lightning."

"But...HOW?!"

"Cuz I'm the new breed grandpa, get with the times."

Confused and dismayed he tried to ignore Tesla's odd wording before the night would come as they slept in the woods, huddling in the long rough beneath the wings of insects and the swaying of leaves that gave a peaceful melody of the earth. The smell of the sea whispered things of faraway lands and a constant sweetness from the salt that soothed their hearts.

"Everything smells so fresh here," muttered Sunscreech. "Fresher than...I have smelt in cycles."

"It's lovely," said Methyl curling up next to him, "I love this place already. Wide open plains, a forest close to the sea...it would be a perfect place to raise..."

She stopped for a moment. Her heart sank as a new scent came to Sunscreech that made him turn to her. He said nothing, his tongue becoming trapped in his mouth as he looked up to the stars between the trees.

"Hm...funny."

"What?" she looked up with him.

"The stars...they shine brighter than they did before."

"Before last night?"

"No...before I met you. I am not sure why but, I never really noticed the stars until you told me how you never saw them before coming to this land."

"Maybe you're just appreciating them more," said Methyl tipping her head against his chin, "you never thought the stars could disappear, or you could live a life without ever seeing them right?"

"Yes...it is a frightening thing to think of, like being trapped in a cave since the day you were born and never seeing the sky."

"Ooooh philosophy now is it? Hmhmhm, you're full of surprises."

"I do not know what you mean," he said rearing his head away from her, "that is just what I think."

"Of course...just out of curiosity, what do you think the stars are?"

"What?! What do you mean?!"

"What are they? Humour me, I want to hear what you think."

"Hm, well, I suppose you would not know this but...hmmm...my tribe's elder once told me, that stars are the hopes and dreams of every beast that has died. They fly to the sky every night and shine their brightest so that no beast is ever forgotten."

"Tha...that's actually quite sweet." She purred with a new sense of wonder to the sky. "I like that idea. It's very hopeful."

"What do you think they are?"

"Balls of incandescent gas burning constant fires in the cold empty depths of space."

He gave her a look as if she had just proclaimed herself the emperor of the sea.

"That is a stupid thing to say!"

"Hey I didn't mock YOUR belief, so shut up!"

"Hmph, fine. I am tired, let us sleep."

The next day would come as they skirted round the coastline to try and reach as far as they could to the other end of the island. It was a foolish task they realised as soon as they saw yet another great expanse of fields more rough than the savannah previous. The wild veldt had more of the same beasts, but in the farthest edge of it there was a canyon where the ground became a bright azure as one giant rip that tore through the landscape and separated half of the island.

"Well that's weird," said Tesla peering over the edge, "never seen rock like this before."

Look at the sloping of the rock,"[/i] said Radium pointing along the southern ridge, "something came from up high and crashed all through here into the ocean."

"A meteorite?"

"Possibly. Might be hibonite."

"What are you babbling about?" asked Sunscreech.

"This canyon," said the dark verdant beast clicking his teeth towards the rift, "it was made by a giant stone that fell from the stars."

"But, the sky does have not stones, it is just air!"

"A stone fell from someplace," said Tesla shrugging at him, "where else would it come from?"

"The sea, that has stones in it!"

"Hahaha, nah the grading on these walls don't fit, just leave the science to us old-timer."

"STOP calling me that, I know more about this land than you!"

"Correction, you know more about the BEASTS of this land, but this actual land itself, that's our speciality."

"Can we use it for anything?" asked Methyl pushing herself between them.

"It's very hard," said Radium standing back up, "about seven-point-five, not impossible but it would take a lot of work."

"But it would make good armour, yes?"

"It would...I like the way you think Methyl."

"Can we go down inside it?"

"From the south side it seems, let's try."

They ventured inside the sloping canyon after a long walk to its entrance, the other side of the isle still inaccessible by means of a splitting causeway. The crystals shone beautifully from all around them, glistening scars of cyan left engraved into the earth that sparkled like ice. It was warm to the touch, chipping under the swift rake of the ultraraptors' claws as they tested its toughness. They were not able to reach too far however once they hit sea level, the waters surging between cliffs in a constant restless adulation that made it treacherous from being constantly fed the tides from its estuary. Tesla and Radium picked off what they could from the hibonite and stashed it into their sling-pouches.

"Your tribe make so many odd things," muttered Sunscreech, "just to carry stones or carry us across the sea."

"Better than carrying rocks in your teeth," said Tesla snorting, "if you're not able to make one we can get one for ya."

"I do not need such things, I am a hunter and nothing but."

"You got that right, what'd the humans say about old dogs and new tricks?"

"Enough," said Radium nipping his head, "we've canvassed enough of the island, let's get back to Riptor and tell her our report."

"What about the other side of the rift?" asked Methyl.

"We can't reach it anyway, let's not concern ourselves with it yet. But let's go the other way round the mountain just so we maximise our search."

The raptors agreed and so made their way around the northeast sector of the isle. There was little else that was new apart from other caves in the mountain cliffs that were not occupied by the raptors of the southern range. They took a brief nap to recharge and hunted some local beasts, devouring a pubescent triceratops that had foolishly strayed from the herd to fall prey to their ruthless claws. But whilst heading southwards back to the raft Radium stopped in his tracks with a frantic clicking in his teeth.

"Stop."

"What's up?" asked Tesla.

"I...there's something southeast. Something I cannot quite, it's...a creature of some sort."

"I cannot smell anything," said Sunscreech sniffing hard, "how can you sense beasts without smell?"

"It's hard to explain, I can 'see' scents by this sound I make," he emphasised with further clicks, "there is something huge that way and I feel we should investigate."

"Should we not tell Riptor first?"

"She'll be fine, she trusts us."

Taking first point the black-green raptor led on towards the coastline somewhere east of their raft's dockage. It was already sunset when they reached it to find a tremendous scene of violence upon the seacliffs. What had once been finely-jagged shale carved from natural effervescence of the ocean waves had now been torn asunder by some unseen force of vile strength, cracks that had ripped through the shelf and left crunching patterns that gave the raptors a fearful apprehension. There came a stench of death throughout the place, a vile malodorous presence that hung like a mourner's veil.

"What is THIS?!" gasped Methyl. "What monster could have made this?"

"I do not know," muttered Sunscreech, "I...those are teeth markings."

"In the rock?! Can anything do that?"

"Nothing I have seen or faced...where could it be?"

"It's close," said Radium, "it's waiting in the sea."

"Waiting for what?!"

"Prey."

The air became silent. The breeze turned quiet. Something rumbled from below the waves and burst free with a raw guttural screech that terrified them back. A tremendous 56-foot long neck that surged from the depths of prehistoric hell, roaring with a torn throat that gaped the entire length of its neck revealing a wrothful pulchritudinous wound that festered with pus, spilling like oil upon the waters.

"GET BACK!"

They dodged back in fright as the creature swung its head upon the cliff, crunching its skull without even flinching as it smashed off another chunk of the rock shelf. Its eyes were black as death, mould forming on its sclera as it opened its mouth to reveal a horrendous broken valley of teeth, cracked molars and crippled fangs that remained sharp as glass.

"What is THAT?!" cried Tesla.

"I-i do not know!" stuttered Sunscreech. "This thing looks dead!"

"Well it's not, so what do we do?!"

"FIGHT IT OF COURSE, USE YOUR TAILFIRE OR WHATEVER IT IS!"

"LOOK OUT!"

They dodged from the looming sweep of its neck, crunching through the plateau as Tesla recoiled with a vicious spark of his lightning tail. Shooting a tremendous bolt, it lanced vigorously up the creature's throat but failed to paralyse it enough to come lunging forth with another attack. Methyl and Radium hocked back a thick wad of acid spit from hidden sacs within their throats, searing hot burns that crackled the dead flesh and singed its grime-infested sockets. The beast made another sweep of its grotesque appendage, crumbling earth being scooped up in its wake like a bulldozer as the land decayed even further from the weight of its force. Sunscreech kept himself back trying to gauge the creature's unearthly movements, awkward and sluggish but ruthlessly powerful in its torpid strength, using its own head as a club to lunge with raw twisted teeth at the raptors.

Radium backflipped above one such attack, landing upon the snout and vomiting a thick virescent bile into one of its eyesockets as it shrieked snarling with the essence of pain that still lingered in its mind. It seemed at first that it would retreat with a drooling burn of liquid rage from its sclera, but then it suddenly lurched forwards to push its entire body out from the waves with a surging typhoon behind it.

"GET BACK GET BACK!"

The water gushed across the plateau as its body revealed itself, four thick flippers that had long since rotted to reveal bony large fingers that dragged themselves through the dirt, cracking against stone like broken shovels and roaring with frenzied death-lust upon its prey. Its body combined gave it a full length of 74 feet, despite its tail having long since lost its flesh to show a thick bony serpent that raked against the gravel with a hissing shriek of scraping sounds that set the raptors' teeth on edge.

"Circle round it, find a weak point!" cried Radium. "Tesla, keep its head occupied!"

"GOT IT!"

The silver-backed raptor whipped his tail up to a frenzy as he shot back another spear of lightning, cracking booms that ripped across the layers of its skull as the skin peeled off in its blackened char to show its bare scalp. Methyl and Sunscreech raced to the left whilst Radium moved to the right to form a pincer attack upon the main body. Sunscreech leapt upon its side with clawed feet gripping the taut flesh, biting and chewing whilst shredding thick gouges into the corpulent mass. The ultraraptors carved through bone and flesh to form even greater wounds, but years in the sea had turned its organs into a bloated soup that spillt across their limbs and turned into a slippery mess under their feet.

"AAAGH, I-IT STINKS!" shrieked Methyl.

"This thing is not alive!" cried Sunscreech. "How is it moving?!"

"It has to stop moving eventually, just keep ripping more things out of it!"

"THE FINS! TAKE OUT THE FINS!"

Methyl leapt upon the first flipper she saw, cutting into the bone with her plasma claws that chipped and gouged tiny V-marks within its wretched marrow. Radium tore a new hole into its opposite side before spraying a thick glaucous bile into its body cavity, melting what was left of its heart still and unbeating as coagulated blood leaked round his feet in a slurried crimson sludge. The beast turned with surprising swiftness and almost whalloped him across the face, the raptor leaping back quickly as Tesla was forced to recharge his energies. Sunscreech however leapt onto its back, scrabbling with feet and jaws for support as he ripped across its spine and pulled back the layers to reveal the Mauisaurus' tremendous vertebrae, clicking against each other with a rearing of its neck to try and reach backwards to bite down on the pest. Methyl distracted it with a leaping bite, tearing part of its lower throat open as the monster turned to her with a mighty circular sweep she dodged beneath almost flat to the ground. Sunscreech kept ripping as much as he could, even trying to pull the bone from its spine in an attempt to cripple it but nothing would budge.

"JUST, DIE ALREADY!"

"Need some help!?"

Tesla had leapt up beside him with an energised tail that whipped up above him.

"Get off quick, I got an idea!"

The old raptor nodded and jumped to join Radium before the electric saurian plunged his tail into the spine like an audio jack, blasting a blue shockwave through the entire nervous system that still remained and causing the creature to roar in deep vibrato. Boiling its insides briefly, it was not stunned enough to stop it from reaching back by turning its neck to crush Tesla between its jaws as the grey raptor dodged with a mighty leap onto its head, jumping off once again to avoid being thrown off as his comrades continued to savage its intestines with as much frenzied pulling of organs as they could. Even when they Methyl had plunged deep with her extending tail to sever the heart completely, the beast still continued unabated and with one huge thwack of its flipper managed to send her feeling back towards the sea.

"A-AAAAAGH!"

She felt herself slip almost off the brink, scrabbling desperately before she felt something grab her tail and pull her back roughly to semi-solid earth. Sunscreech stared down upon her as a brief moment of surprise took them together, before the rancorous snarl of the sea-creature shook them back to their senses when it had turned to face them directly. Crunching its head down towards Sunscreech it barely missed him as the crippled raptor quickly ducked forwards and to the side whilst Methyl blasted a ball of acid into its single remaining eye, despite its vision clearly not being affected by such blinding tactics.

The two hunters leapt over one of the flippers but Sunscreech was slower, smacked underneath by its bony flap and falling onto his side before it came down upon him like a crushing boulder. He rolled fast to evade, the cloud of dust it sent up with a hefty swat of its weight causing him to cough and sneeze before he rolled to avoid once again until Radium's lancing squirt of vitriol poured down the side of the beast's neck with such stinging aberration it was forced to focus on him. Sunscreech pulled himself up with a hard push of his legs, staggering off to where Methyl stood as Tesla whipped his shrieking light across the Mauisaurus' face, burning its eyes even further to become black craters of toxic effluence much to its braying anguish.

In a sudden frenzy it began to stomp its huge flippers all at once, lifting its entire body with one tremendous crunch that brought even more of the earth down around them, crumbling lines that snapped the ground in half like brittle plates as the raptors staggered backwards. Jagged shards of rock jutted from the earth that they swiftly dodged with Radium leaping on one to slash at the creature's chin. Methyl joined his assault with a dual strike that split open the jaw and sent what remained of its tongue falling out through the wound underneath, flopping like a dead fish as its breaths became more ragged with a giant forwards rush, slamming its body forwards hard enough to send Tesla and Sunscreech tumbling backwards through the dirt.

"NNNGH!" The old raptor shuddered from a sprain in his leg. "STRIKE IT AGAIN!"

"I CAN'T!" cried Tesla. "I HAVE TO RECHARGE!"

"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?"

"IT MEANS YOU FIGHT AND I SLAP ITS SHIT WHEN I'M READY!"

"RRRRAAAAARGH!"

Sunscreech roared and hobbled his way towards the monstrous mauisaurus as it swung its neck towards him, the raptor dodgerolling fast and gritting his teeth against the swelling pain of his leg before he goaded the beast to attack again. It reared its head back for a tremendous crushing blow as the one-eyed raptor swerved his whole body aside and lunged his teeth upon its nostril, ripping an entire third of its face off with a snarling tear that exposed even more of its ravaged skull. The sea-monster shook him off with one whip of its head as he went rolling to the side and the creature followed with snapping jaws ready to crunch upon his leg, only to be stopped by Tesla's charging strike as the silver raptor dodgeflipped in the air like a shuriken to slice-crack his tail like a whip, lashing electric sparks across its snout as it flinched back with roaring shock.

"You alright?!" he asked Sunscreech. "Try not to die alright?!"

"Shut up freak, GET BACK!"

He pushed his saviour out of the monster's reach, both of them stepping back as the four raptors reunited to gaze upon their fruitless work. Despite the gangrenous flesh having been peeled and ripped and burnt off numerous parts of its wretched body, the wroth-filled mauisaurus still pursued them further in-land with crunching bone from its raw spurious fins, dragging behind a mess of broken skin underneath its carcass.

"This...this thing is unstoppable!" gasped Methyl.

"Nothing is unstoppable," muttered Radium, "we just have to think smarter, think! What can we use against it?!"

"WE USED EVERYTHING WE HAVE BUT IT DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT WHAT WE-...wait," she turned her head towards to the western point, "is that..."

They watched a lone beast running towards the grotesque abomination, a raptor coloured pale amber with gleaming blue strips that leapt straight upon the creature's back and clamped its jaws hard into its spine. With horrifying strength it suddenly ripped one of its vertebrae free like a rotting tooth and hurled it towards the creature's head and cracked the back of its skull. Roaring with insult it turned and lunged towards the fifth attacker who stood waiting for the moment, jumping only seconds before it shoved its snout straight into its own crippled spine before the raptor landed with a crushing stomp, cracking the snout in half to trap its head inside its back.

"RIPTOR!"

The alpha female smiled at her group before walking past the creature's head and with a sudden turn slashed into its upper throat with a tremendous backflip. Both claws sliced a sonic boom that severed the head completely from its neck, before she spunkick in midair to crush the top of its skull forwards into the rest of its spine. Drooling murmurs of dying strength signalled its end when Riptor leapt up once more to crunch it even harder, fragments of skull silting like dust before she grabbed its jaw in her teeth, spun herself thrice and hurled it towards the sea like a hammer toss as the death knell for the corpse-beast. The monster stopped moving, flopping its fins in a desperate struggle as she looked down inside the brutal cavity of its spine to see something glinting.

"Huh...so that's what's making you tick."

She forced the hole even wider by shoving her feet against the vertebrae, cracking the entire spine in two pieces as she pushed herself in, much to the shock of the other raptors who watched in awe at her ferocious strength. Rustling sounds of slimy organs and mulch displaced, she burst from its insides covered in gloop with something in her teeth as she walked towards her pack, bloodied feet in the dirt behind her as the gargantuan beast finally stopped moving. Cold winds drifted between them as they said nothing until she spat the filthy object from her mouth.

"Not bad. You held out long enough for me to come running."

"R-ri...riptor," sputtered Radium, "h-how did you...manage to kill it?!"

"Not kill it. Destroy it." She waved a finger mockingly at them. "Can't kill that which is already dead."

"D-dead?!" gasped Tesla flinching back. "B-but how, how's that dead it was MOVING and roaring and biting like shit!"

"It was undead. A zombie."

"Wha-...zombie?!"

"I've seen it happen before, back when I was still in service to the humans." She looked back towards the bloated abomination as pus-ridden fumes rose from its gaping wounds. "Doesn't happen often...but it does, usually through some cursed means."

"Because of humans?" asked Methyl trying to look past her.

"Normally yes, humans trying to corrupt nature by their own means create such monsters...but there are no humans in this world so I do not know what it could be."

"Then what is that?"

Sunscreech prodded his nose at the foreign object between them, a long curved blade of rusted steel that was coated in blood.

"I found it inside that beast," said Riptor, "it must have been affecting it."

"This stone was making that longwaterneck go mad?! That is stupid I canno-...wait...it smells like-"

"In either case the monster is dead permanently and I shall be taking this thing back with us."

"WHAT!?" cried all four of them.

"But you just said it made that THING go crazy!" barked Methyl.

"AND bring it back from death!" snorted Tesla.

"Do NOT question me!" their leader roared with sharpened frills. "I want to investigate the origins of this object, if humans do not exist here then WHY did that thing reanimate itself with such a device? It will help us learn more about this world and its potential dangers."

"I heartily agree," said Radium bowing humbly, "we should not waste this opportunity to research such things."

"Now, tell me how was your island expedition?"

"This place shall make a fine nest for our families, there is plenty food to hunt as well as a wide gorge of hibonite towards the centre of the isle. We found a raptor tribe here but we frightened them well enough into submission."

"Good, did you kill any of them?"

"Not one, of course."

"Excellent. Perhaps we shall swell our ranks soon with more breeders for the future. Now, let's return home, Radium carry this for me."

"Yes Riptor."

The dark-emerald raptor took his leader's discovery and placed it in his pouch as they returned to the raft moored along the southwest beach. Trailing behind was Sunscreech with a limp, but he bared his teeth and held his pain despite Methyl sidling up to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Fine," he muttered, "Tesla is an imbecile."

"I uhm...want, to thank you for saving me."

"You should be more careful," he snorted walking faster in front of her, "if I am to be your mate I would rather not have to stop you from falling off cliffs every day."

"Wha-I'm just TRYING to thank you, you prick!"

"And I do not need gratitude from a beast that despises me already, your voice is empty enough to me!"

"I...I-I'M SORRY!"

He stopped at her shriek. The others paused briefly to watch the two from a further distance whilst Riptor continued to walk from the scene.

"I'm...I-i'm sorry, about the things I said to you." She gently kicked the dirt in a deep huff. "I've not had any time to grieve, and it's...it's hard, alright it's...it's hard to just suddenly have a new mate and be expected to have a family with him so soon after my first family was taken from me. But...I cannot blame you for what happened to Jade, I have no proof that you actually killed him a-and I just...I just...wanted someone easy to blame."

The older raptor stepped towards her curiously, bending his head down and looking up towards her downtrodden expression.

"Did Sulphide say something to you?"

"N-no."

"...you are a bad liar."

She looked away with biting teeth and a hiss of embarrassment. Sunscreech moved in closer to nuzzle her cheek.

"But if you are genuinely sorry, then I forgive you."

"Really?" she asked turning her eye to him. "I know I've treated you like shit, despite being a good provider and you've always hunted."

"You never asked me to be your mate, that was Riptor's doing. I would not want someone just choosing a mate for me either."

"I just wish I were allowed to keep my children...that is what hurts me most, Jade may not have been the best but I loved our daughters dearly."

"I am sorry." He licked Methyl's face. "I never asked for that. I had no reason to punish his family, I only fought him but I never killed him."

"Would you have killed him...if no one stopped you?"

"...if he did not stop fighting me, then yes I would have."

"Alright. That makes sense, sorry it's a stupid question."

"Your mate fought well and once he stopped fighting me I stopped too. That is all I can say."

"Thank you."

They walked together back to the raft. The day was too late to start their voyage and for the sake of safety they decided to sleep on the shoreline itself, deep in the scrublands with the soft sand against their bodies. The sound of the waves never outstayed their welcome as they all did their best to relax, eating up their rations and recovering from the battle.

"Do you want me...to be your mate?"

"Hmm?" Sunscreech looked over to Methyl's pale green face.

"I know we're partnered up to be mates but...I want to ask you properly. Do you WANT me for a mate?"

"I...I was not looking for a mate," said Sunscreech gently rubbing his crippled arm in the sand, "but I know Riptor wants a future for the tribe, yes?"

"She does," Methyl nodded. "She needs us to, that's what Sulphide told me, that you were chosen as an outsider who had fresh blood to make stronger children with, and those children shall breed with others in our pack and so strengthen us further down the generations."

"So I am to offer my seed to make your tribe great? Hmmm." A strange twinkle came to his eye at the prospect of this. "That is interesting...is something wrong with your tribe that you cannot breed with each other?"

"We are...closely related," she rubbed her claws in a nervous twitch, "not brothers and sisters no nothing like that! But...close enough that some of us can't breed with each other."

"So you are all from the same clutch somehow? I remember Sulphide saying something like this."

"Yes basically. You'd be a big help I know that but I also wouldn't want to raise a family where the father does not care about his children or basically just leave us the moment he's done with me-"

"That will not happen."

He stepped out in front of her and raised himself to his fullest height, lone hazel eye brimming with a fierce pride somehow different from his usual look.

"If we are to have a family, I will not abandon my children or have them live without a father."

"Really?" she asked with bemused smirk. "Because, well...I have to admit I really don't know where your priorities are Sunscreech."

"My want is to survive and nothing else. Even though this is the first time I have actually considered having children, but it would make sense."

"Did you not have a mate before?" She lifted her head up to meet his gaze proper.

"I did not have a mate, no, I despised all the females of my tribe, none of them were good for me. They were all simpering morons, crooning over nests and wanting only one thing. None of them would dare fight back against me...but you."

He lowered his head and walked slowly around her body, sniffing along her back.

"At first I was angry, that you would dare fight me and refuse to believe me without any proof. But now that you have admitted your fault...well, the fact you even fought me was something I realised that, that was what I was missing from a mate. Someone not afraid to fight me."

"I hardly fought when Sulphide took my daughters," she said drooping down to touch her chin to the sand.

"You could have done nothing to me either, but you fought me instead. I do not know why but I...hm, I......aaaacch!"

The cripple stomped away with his stumped arms waving slightly. Methyl looked at him with a strange chortle trying to read his face as she walked up alongside him to stare at the sea.

"We have to have a family either way," she said, "Riptor needs us to. I don't think she'll punish us for not doing so, but it'd be best for our pack we do so."

"Do you really just want children for the sake of children?" he asked. "Or will you care for them too?"

"Of course I will, I will love them and give them the best I can. What I want to ask is, will you?"

"I said before I will not abandon them. My family grew up without a father and look what happened to them."

"You came out well didn't you?"

"You think THIS came out well?!" He snarled suddenly leering his gouged eye socket at her. "My family ended up weak, I was the only one who still held to the truths of being a hunter that my father sought to be, but the rest of them are mindless degenerates!"

Sunscreech sighed to look back to the horizon.

"My brother and sister are still good hunters...he has a family of his own, so I hope he moved away from the mewling disgust of a wombsmear my other so-called brother was."

"What is so terrible about this other brother?" Methyl asked.

"He is a pathetic runt, small in every form and his claws barely able to carve through flesh. His sisters and his own brother are all stupid shits with the weakest minds yet SOMEHOW my so-called brother had a mate the last I saw him! Not that I am surprised, she was almost as old as mother was, probably barren and just desperate for someone who would even touch her." "Wow, okay." She sneered walking back away in disgust. "If you're going to be my mate you really need to curb that attitude."

"What, about my brother?!"

"Nooo about females, I don't care about your brother. I won't have you talking shit about females like that no matter how old they are and if I won't do something then Riptor will."

"Hmph. Fine." He nodded with forced graceful bow. "So you want me to be the father to your children?"

"If you can hold to your promise that you will not abandon them."

"I would die before I abandon our children." He pierced her gaze with coldest steel in his eye towards her. "I promise you now, I will protect our children, I shall raise them to be the greatest hunters this land has ever seen and I will make certain your tribe shall become the strongest swiftclaws for cycles upon cycles, even after we die."

"Hhhhmhmhmhm...wow, hohohowow you are certainly poetic all of a sudden with that old tongue," she snickered with a smile along her green snout, "but I believe you. Just, promise me I will not lose more children."

"You will lose me before you lose your children. THAT is a promise I can keep."

"Sounds good." She licked his face with a long dragging breath. "So it's settled, when it's time to breed I'll be riding you all night until you're empty."

"Guh-I...wh-wh-WHAT?!" he flustered taken aback.

"Oh come on don't be such a prude you'll want it as much as I do when the season hits."

"I-i will but you did not have to be so...forward about it!"

"HAH, hahaha ohhh great, I'm stuck with the one savage who doesn't shove his cock into every hole in every rock."

"I most certainly do NOT!" he shrieked with offence as she continued to laugh walking away from him back to their sleeping spot.

Riptor heard all of this, and smiled to herself.