Beast Revealing
#30 of Out of the Shadows: AnthroLover's Version
Part 30 now.
The once proud and callous general lay on his knees, broken and sullen. Tears of confusion flowed from his eyes. He could not understand why he let her go. He could not understand why he couldn't harm her, why he suddenly stopped. His claws dug into the ground as frustration started to set in. He shouldn't be like this! He was a general! Generals are suppose to remain emotionless...and yet he wasn't, not anymore. Chomper could hear Ducky's fading footfalls. He was tempted to go after her, but an invisible force was preventing him. He reached out a claw in her direction, although she did not see it. She had already disappeared among the foliage.
"Why...why am I like this...?" Chomper's mind was plagued with so many thoughts and questions. And none of the questions he could seek an answer to. He had believed he became like his father, cold, blood-thirsty, savage. But in the face of trying to kill Ducky, he hesitated. Why? Why did he hesitate? He could kill Cera no problem. "But that was because I didn't like her..." It was true. Chomper had always hated Cera, hated her for the way she treated him.
It all made a little bit of sense now for the horned sharptooth. When he had tried to kill Petrie, he couldn't bring himself to. So instead he captured him and took him away. He had recently tried to kill Spike, but the look on Spike's face made him feel weak and he turned his attention to his most recent victim: Bron, Littlefoot's father.
Chomper had killed Bron in order to make Littlefoot suffer what he had gone through. He wanted to make him suffer through the loss of both parents. But now, now that feeling of sweet revenge doesn't seem to satisfy him anymore. It all but vanished, and yet the feeling of wanting revenge was still there. Chomper had no idea what was going on with him, but he was determined to find out. "I will find out... but first I must rally up my troops. I will have to find someone else to take my place...but who...?" As his mind entered deep thought, on the other part of the valley, a certain dracovol was flying towards a racing figure.
"Ducky...?" The dracovol flew down and landed just a few feet in front of the cave. He waited for the swimmer to run closer to him and catch her breath before he made any attempt to speak. "What are you doing here...?"
"I-I must tell Littlefoot...something...yep yep...yep..." Her eyes were drooped halfway down and her tongue hung out of her open beak. Her diaphram expanded and contracted several times a minute rapidly. "I found out something...important..."
Littlefoot walked out of the cave as he heard the sound of Ducky's voice. He was ecstatic to see her again. He thought she perished in the battle. "Ducky, I'm so glad to see y.."
"I know I know..." Ducky rudely interrupted. "But Littlefoot I got something to tell you." She looked around her, almost as if she didn't want the wrong people to hear it. This confused Littlefoot. Was it some terrible secret that, if in the wrong hands, would do harm? She walked close to Littlefoot and said in a soft voice, "Chomper is possessed."
But the whisper was, unfortunately for her, loud enough for nearly everyone around her to hear it. "Chomper is what!" She heard the unison shout and covered her ears to shield herself from the loud clamore.
"Yes yes yes, I know it sounds strange, but...the way he was acting...it was just so bizarre." Ducky could feel herself shuddering at the mere thought of the event that took place only an hr or two ago. "He was about to attack me...and he then let me go."
Littlefoot thought about this. This was the first time that Chomper had actually let one of his victims go, or so he thinks. While this behavior confused him, it almost made him happy. He knew the Chomper he once cared for was still in there, encouraging him even more that Chomper's former life as their sharptooth friend could be restored. "It could be a trap..." He finally said, thinking that if he got too happy about Chomper not being in his own control, it could backfire in the end.
Ducky shook her head furiously. "It is not a trap, no no no! I know what I saw." She was about to say something else, but sealed her mouth shut. She knew that if she revealed that Chomper had killed his father, Littlefoot would never consider the possibility of Chomper being possessed.
"Hey Ducky." Ali said softly as she stepped from the cave. She had heard the commotion and decided to come out. She was considering leaving the Great Valley so she could help take care of the kid she and Littlefoot were going to have. But she was debating whether or not she should leave. A pregnant dinosaur isn't much use in battle, since a blow to their stomachs could injure the eggs. And when the eggs are lain, they need constant protection and warmth, and they cannot be left alone that long. With the valley infested with sharpteeth and the occasional egg stealers, Ali may need to find a new place to store her eggs.
"Hi Ali." Ducky said almost dryly.
'Where is Spike?"
"I couldn't find him."
Ali said, "I'm...sorry about that."
Ducky shook her head. "No...no you don't have to be sorry. It's not even your fault anyway."
"So Ducky..." Littlefoot chimed in, drawing Ducky's attention to him. "If you think he's possessed, then who is possessing him, and why?"
"I sadly don't have the answer to that one, no no no." Ducky replied, sounding upset that she couldn't give a reason to the young longneck. "All I know is he wasn't acting like his usual 'psycho' self." Rex chuckled slightly at the 'psycho' comment, but when silent when a few glares came his way.
"What, a guy can't have fun?" He sheepishly asked, knowing very well he wouldn't get much of a good answer out of any one of them. After a long moment of silence, he let out a weak laugh, and then his face changed to that of shame. "Sorry."
Littlefoot slowly shook his head and turned his attention back towards the young swimmer. "How was he not acting like himself?"
"Well he was about to attack me, but stopped, and...and he just started screaming into the sky." Ducky recalled the entire event in her brain. "He said how he wasn't going to do this anymore."
Suddenly a strange and yet familiar voice sounded out behind them. The voice startled the young group and they jumped in shock. "I was correct. My suspicions were correct, sadly but truly."
Littlefoot exclaimed, "Doc!"
Doc replied, "Yes. I was right about the situation then. Ducky confirmed it." He looked in her direction.
"What did she confirm?" Ali asked cautiously.
"Chomper was possessed this whole time." He closed his eyes and sighed sadly. "That explains a lot, if you think about it. But it also means something else. It also means that magic is in the air." He knew it sounded corny, and he somehow wished he worded it better.
"Magic...?" Rex blinked. "But I thought magic wasn't real..."
Doc lifted his head up high. "It's real all right, young man. How do you think I, a dead dinosaur, am still standing here, solid and in the flesh?" Rex tried to find an answer, but he remained silent as stone.
Sandstorm stepped up.
"Doc is right." He said softly. "You all must remember, magic may seem wonderous, but it can actually be quite deadly..if used in the wrong hands."
Outside the cave, Ichy and Gorjak clashed, high up in the skies. Their talons locked with each other. And then they started to spin around as they dove straight down. The ground grew larger and larger as they plummeted faster and faster. Soon the environment seemed to disappear into a blur of confusion and nothingness as their eyes and brain could no longer cope and they went blind.
"We are approaching the ground fast, little one." Gorjak sneared, showing no emotion whatsoever. "If you want to let go, if you want to live, I understand."
"What and risk you ruining the mission? I don't think so, pal!" Ichy fearlessly hung on, knowing well that if neither of them let go, they could risk killing each other. But the toothed bird would rather risk death than allow the rebel escape and do who knows what.
Dil wished with all her might that she could see what was going on. But in her eyes, the world was nothing but a blur. She couldn't make out the spinning figures in the air, let alone tell them apart. She could only faintly hear them scream at each other as they plummeted towards the earth. She felt compelled to spring forward to try to stop them. But she realized that she couldn't. How could one stop something they could not see?
"Ichy...be careful." She seemed almost horrified by what she said. Was she actually worried about the bird? He never treated her all that well, forcing her into all the hard work and complaining his job was just as hard. But she also knew she couldn't hunt without him. She was caught in a stone and hard place. She couldn't live with him, with his constant bossing around and pushing her around, but she couldn't live without him, for without his guidance, she couldn't catch the slowest of prey.
"Just what are you doing here?" Dil shuddered at the sound of the voice. She knew it wasn't Chomper, but the voice was just as threatening. She turned around to face the source of the voice, but the only thing she saw as a blur that was faintly purple.
Gasher snarled. "Answer me!"
"Why do you want to know?" Dil snapped back, revealing her sharp teeth.
"I don't recall General Chomper telling you and your bird...hey where is that bird brain of yours?" Gasher walked around in a circle, and stopped on the other side of Dil, looking left to right. "You're never without him."
Since Dil couldn't see, all she could do was point up and say, "He and Gorjak are up there, fighting."
"Wha...?" The purple raptor looked upwards to try and find the flyers. At first all he saw was a small dot. But it quickly grew larger and he recognized the two figures. It was the rebellious Gorjak and the bird, Ichy! He turned his head to Dil. "Why are they fighting?"
Dil rolled her eyes in annoyance. "If you must know, they made a little bet. Whoever won got a meal and whoever one got a..." She winced as Ichy and Gorjak made their crash landing...right on top of Gasher. "...meal..."
"Get of..." Gasher grumbled, pushing the bird and flyer off of his back.
"B-Best two of th-three..." Ichy muttered before falling onto the hard ground.
When nightfall came onto the valley once again, Rex had left the cave and travelled a few miles away. He just had to get away from it all. He'd seen enough already and the concept of magic was still nagging at his brain. Rex found it hard to believe that any individual dinosaur could harness incredible power. He decided to rest his mind. He walked over to the river, and began drinking.
"I just need to stop thinking so much."
As he raised his head to shake it dry, he opened his eyes and looked at his reflection. He gasped and stepped back. As he stared into the water, he could not see his own reflection. But instead, he was looking at the body of a sharptooth. It looked nothing like the kind that Chomper's 'adopted' parents were, a tyrannosaurus. It looked...different from any sharptooth he's seen personally. The snout of the sharptooth was long like a bellydragger's, lined with pointed teeth. It didn't walk almost upright, like Chomper did, but instead it walked with its body straight forward, like a pachy when it's charging at an enemy. Its long tail balanced its massive body, and its feet and hands were armed with claws.
Rex blinked. One feature stood out more than even the croc-like snout. On the hands were large sickle claws, like the raptors had. The sharp claw curved forward, well in front of the other digits. The vicious hooks looked much sharper than a raptor's own sickle claw, and it could possibly slice through flesh, not just puncture it. The sharptooth's body was a mild green with a pale yellow belly.
He blinked again, but this time, the image shifted. Then a new animal appeared. Rex backed away in almost sheer horror. The terrifying creature that now was in the water reflection as a gigantic long necked reptile with huge wings like that of a flyer, but with sharp hooks. Huge spines rose from its back and snaked along to the tip of its tail. The tail was sharply pointed and hard. It had muscular legs, the back ones curving like the modern day dog's. Horns jetted out on the face of the creature and huge sharp teeth curved out of its top jaw. Something that looked like fire steamed out of its nose.
"What...what is that...?" Rex shuddered, backing away from the terrible reflection. Little did he know that something was looking in his direction. In the trees nearby, a set of red eyes belonging to General Chomper, were shifting their intense gaze at the flying sharptooth.
"My search...is over." He spoke in a voice that was not his own.
At his same moment, far from there, Zera opened her eyes. "No." she sad to herself "It can't be. Rex is... I have to tell someone about this." and then she ran off.