The Look of Death
#48 of Out of the Shadows: AnthroLover's Version
As Dark Rex was menacing the teenagers, somewhere deep inside his mind, a voice was crying out. In the deep compounds of his brain, a voice of reason rang out. Somewhere in his deep unconsciousness, a light is trying to shine through. "NO! NO! NO! NO!" The voice screamed again and again, trying to be heard, but only silence greeted him. Still chained to the wall, the real Rex struggled to be free. Groaning and grunting, he tried to rip the vines open. Normal vines would have been easy to tear. So what was so different about these? He pulled his left arm as far as he could, trying to break the plant. But before it could break, he would run out of energy and relax, and his arm would be slammed against the wall once more.
"Struggle all you want." A chilling voice that belong to Dark Rex said. "It matters not." The dragon/dinosaur hybrid grinned as he approached the struggling dinosaur. "There's no way you could break out of those binds, my boy."
"Just wait and see!" Rex shouted bravely. "I will find a way! I will make you pay for what you've done!" He frantically tried to break free, but only rewarded with a cold laugh from Dark Rex. Rex finally gave up the struggle and relaxed, his muscles aching from all the strain.
"You might as well give up, young dinosaur." The hybrid laughed and turned and walked a way. "Those vines are reinforced. You will never break them. And because you will never break them, I will be in control of your body until the time comes for me to let you go." He sneered to himself at this statement. "Toodles!"
Rex tried to pull himself forward. "Come back here!" But it was too late. Dark Rex had slipped back into the shadows. Rex was once again all alone. The room was so dark he could barely see his own snout at the end of his face. He could not see the vines, but feel them. He tried struggling free once more, but his energy had been depleted. Defeated, he hung his head mournfully. "He's right...I'll never be able to break free...Never..." He felt large tears emerging from his eyes as he spoke these words. He didn't bother noting if they were streaming down his face or not. He didn't care how many of them came out of his eyes. He didn't care if Dark Rex was watching him from the shadows.
There was only one thing that Rex cared about now. It was the fact that Dark Rex was going to kill his friends and there's nothing he can do stop it. And to make matters worse, once it was all over, Rex would still get the full blame for it. He would be an outcast, shunned away by everyone. His heart had broken into two as he thought about this.
"I have to find a way to get free." Rex thought frantically. "There must be a way."
"There is." A voice had broken through the silence, and this time, it didn't belong to Dark Rex. But Rex couldn't recognize who owned the voice that spoke to him. It was feminine and enchanting. "There is a way to break free of the spell, young one." The voice spoke again.
"How!" Rex shouted, struggling against his binds, straining his head in every which way to search for the voice. "I struggle all I want, but I cannot break free!"
"Even if you break the binds, young one," the voice said, "You will still be under the spell. You will need to do more than just simply break the ropes holding you. You must break the beast that's holding you."
Rex sounded confused and scared. "What...? Beast...?"
The female voice spoke again. "To release yourself from this mind prison, young one, you must tame the beast within..."
Now the dracovol was even more frightened and confused. As if Dark Rex wasn't bad enough, but now there's a beast lurking inside his mind? How could things get any worse! "I must tame the beast? How? Where?"
"You have already met the beast, but that is not his true form." The voice said in a warning tone. "When he is in his true form, you will be free to fight him. But be warned, he will not be so easily taken down. But not worry, because you will be not alone in this fight, someone will help you. Let courage guide you, Rex..." The voice slowly faded until it was silent once more.
Rex was stunned. He was so surprised that he relaxed all his muscles in his arms and legs, giving them a well deserved rest. "I must fight Dark Rex's true form...but what could that be...?" Then his eyes widened in fear when a memory came back to him. That day, when he looked into the water, and saw the beast.
"That beast..." He shuddered. "T-T-That must be his true form!"
Inside the cave, where Ali's egg was still sitting, the flames had stopped burning, and smoke was leaving the room. The gray smoke stained the walls a darker color, and the smell of something burning, namely some leaves and grass that were stored away in there, seemed to almost completely cover the smell of rotting flesh that came from the strange egg.
The egg suddenly moved, rolling onto one side, and then the other. The shell was starting to crack. A horrible sound emitted from the egg. It sounded like a mix of a raptor shrill and a T-Rex's roar. A large piece of the shell fell to the ground. Then another piece fell down as well. A maze of cracks covered the egg, and then finally, with one kick of its claws, the shell broke open, and stepped out the cockatrice.
The cockatrice was rather small, but size does not matter for a cockatrice. And within a few minutes, it grew larger anyway, until it reached the size of a bellydragger. The stoneglare shook its head and opened its eyes for the first time. They were large and pure yellow, and the pupils were slits, like a raptor's. But instead of being colored black, the pupil was colored a blood red. The cockatrice was covered in feathers, and a sharply hooked, but rather short, beak. It wore a crown of long features and horns around its head. It had feet like that of a sharpbeak, but it they weren't webbed.
The wings it had were like a flamebreath's, and were sharply hooked to the touch. A long scale-covered tail swooshed from side to side, the tip of it being armed with a deadly stinger. When the stoneglare opened its mouth to let out a screech, a row of sharp teeth lined its beak. The cockatrice's feathers were pure white except the ones on its head, which were red tipped with yellow. The scales it had were a gray color, like the color of stone. Black claws and spikes it had, and the inside of its wings were light gray. Its beak was black.
As the sound of the cockatrice emerged from the cave, the ones standing outside immediately stopped, and listened with absolute horror. Sandstorm's eyes widened in fear, and he started to tremble. Yu was backing away slowly, shaking his head as if saying no over and over again. Spike, who had barely managed to get out of the cave, could only watch, and shiver. Ducky could only stand there, and watched in sheer horror. Ali was in disbelief. How could her egg turn out to be such a monster? Petrie clung onto Yu's neck, and trembling miserably.
Dark Rex released his grip from Ali, and walked a few steps towards the cave. A nasty grin on his face, he turned to look at the gang. "Well...I see you have a new play date." He chuckled. "Well I suppose this means that I can leave and go back to Chomper and tell him the good news. See you later!" The dark creature opened his wings and took flight, heading back to where Chomper was.
Ali slowly climbed to her feet. "Why did he leave just like that?" She wondered.
"He was saving his own neck!" Sandstorm shouted. "He's leaving us to the stoneglare!"
"The stoneglare can kill us if he just look into its eyes!" Yu yelled, horrified.
As he said that, something started walking slowly out of the cave. It screeched a few times, its feet snapping twigs, leaves, and ash as it walked forward. The others forgot all about the fire that Dark Rex had started, their attention focused on the creature walking out. As soon as a glint of something looking out was noticed, Sandstorm quickly warned everyone. "LOOK AWAY! DON'T LOOK AT ITS EYES!"
Everyone broke their direct stare away, looking at the ground, the fire, the sky, the plants, the rocks, anywhere but in the same direction as the cockatrice that was stepping out of the cave. It cawed a few times, kicking up dirt. It bobbed its head up and down, checking out the figures that stood before it. It hissed, and let out a loud screech. It took a few steps closer, lowering its head, and glancing up at the beasts.
Although Ali, Petrie, and Ducky could handle the smell better since their noses weren't as sensitive, the remaining dinosaurs had a hard time ignoring the retched smell. Yu and Sandstorm plugged their noses and started breathing in through their mouths to try and avoid the smell. Spike's eyes were shut tightly, and his eyes were watery. He shivered terribly, whimpering. He couldn't look away. He had to keep his eyes shut. The cockatrice looked in Spike's direction, and seemed to know he was an easy target.
The stoneglare walked closer and closer. It stroked its beak against Spike's head in an almost affectionate manner. The stegosaurus squeezed his eyes shut even tighter and groaned. The stoneglare suddenly opened up its sharp beak and let out a terrible shrill. The sound was so loud that Spike was forced to open up his eyes...
...and look deep into the cockatrice's eyes.
Spike didn't even get a chance to say anything when his heart suddenly stopped beating. His eyes became glossy, losing their depthness. Then his whole body turned into rock, freezing him in that position for all eternity.
The others knew what had just happened. They all witnessed it. They quickly looked away, trying to keep themselves from suffering the same fate. Ducky couldn't hold back her tears any longer as they flooded from her eyes. "S-S-Spike...n-no...no...n-n-no..." She choked, and wiped away a tear.
Littlefoot, Spellbound, and Shuva had just arrived onto the scene when they saw Spike frozen in time. "What happened!" Littlefoot cried out.
Spellbound's eyes widened in horror. "Quick! Close your eyes!"
"Why?"
"Just do it!" Spellbound shrilled.
"It's a stoneglare!" Shuva said, frightened. "One glance will kill."
Quickly, Littlefoot turned his head away, and squeezed his eyes shut. He walked towards where he had seen Ali, and whispered, "What's going on here?"
Ali didn't even look at him as she gave her answer. "Our offspring was a stoneglare..."
Gorjak was nearby as well. He had heard what they were saying, and quickly closed his eyes. He had a look of sorrow on his face. "A stoneglare...What a low down dirty trick." He said to himself. Not even Chomper himself would have done such a thing. Chomper...Gorjak suddenly suspected that maybe Chomper was not the one behind this whole mess. Thinking back to those alimons, he knew very well that some of them are magical. Could they have something to do with this?
Dark Rex landed near the platform where Chomper had tried to kill Dil and Ichy only to be thwarted by their meddling mates, Mel and Lizzy. The sharpteeth have mostly dispersed to other parts for the time being. However a few remained. As Dark Rex walked among them, he recognized them. He had fought with them before.
Snowbound was standing with Shadow. The two looked like night and day put together. The white female looked into the skies. "I wonder...could Sandstorm have been right?" The black one looked at her, a curious look on his face. "I mean, these past few days...nothing but death and misery. I'm wondering, is it really all worth it?"
Shadow thought for a moment. He realized his ivory friend had a good point. "But we must not say anything. You know what happened to Sandstorm." His voice trailed off as misery filled his mind.
"I know..." Snowbound said. "I know..."
And close by stood the two feathered raptors, Jackel and Red. Red hissed softly to himself. He was watching Snowbound and Shadow from a safe distance. He knew very well that they had just said, but he decided not to do anything at the moment. "Let's just hope they don't follow in the ways of that traitorous Sandstorm." He said.
Jackel grinned, and nodded. "Yes, indeed. We wouldn't want anymore troublemakers slowing us down."
Red smiled as well. "Chomper has been regrouping us for another assault. And with the valley's defenses weakened, it will be ours in no time!"
"Oh you really think so?" Said a female voice behind them. The two raptors whirled around to see Blueye. The pale yellow raptor had disappeared for a while and no one knew why. "It will not be all that simple."
"And what makes you think that?" Jackel inquired, his green eyes narrowed.
"Don't ever misjudge your enemy." With that, she turned and walked away, leaving behind two baffled sharpteeth.
In another corner, was the sickleclaw knew as Nick, he seemed to busy apreciating a white and red flower. Next to him as the sharptooth named Terry, who seemed at all busy to, studing the other sharpteeth around him, and he seemed not very happy, to say the least.
Dark Rex ignored them, and continued strolling through the sharptooth pack until he found who he was looking for. Chomper was standing near the cave entrance where the sharpteeth have been residing since their original invasion. He was leaning against the rock, and staring up at the sky. He growled softly in frustration, wondering what he was going to do. When he turned around and saw Dark Rex, his frown turned into a smile.
"Welcome back Rex." He said, grinning. "I suppose you took care of those leaf-eaters?"
Dark Rex frowned and shook his head. "I left them be." He twiddled his fingers almost threateningly at himself.
"You what!?" Chomper cried, eyes widened with anger. "You just left them alone!?"
Dark Rex said, "Let me finish." His left eye was starting to glow a little, but it soon faded as he settled himself down quickly. "There was a stoneglare in their cave. It hatched. It will deal with them." He grinned nastily.
General Chomper looked a tiny bit horrified by this, but then smiled. Perhaps the cockatrice could pick off a couple of the dinosaurs, make his job a little easier. But he mostly felt happy that Rex was back with him, and by his side. He beckoned Rex to follow him into the cave.
"Anyway, Rex," Chomper said as they walked along one of the cave tunnels. "We are going to return for another battle against the enemy." Dark Rex narrowed his eyes, and nodded. "We will strike them while they are still weak! They will not be able to resist us!"
"Yes..." The hybrid said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Well, don't get too cocky."
"I won't." General Chomper growled. "I will take down Littlefoot myself...rip out his throat..." He knew that saying was getting old, but he couldn't help himself. He looked at Rex in almost affectionate manner, and said, "I wanted to tell you something, Rex." The dracovol looked at him, a little puzzled. "I never did this to anyone before, but, I'm so impressed by your performance earlier that I've decided to give you the title as General Rex."
Dark Rex's eyes widened in shock. "General...Rex?"
Chomper nodded. "Yes. You are now a general. You will lead half my sharptooth pack and I will lead the other. Together, we'll be invincible!" As he said that, he walked over to a corner of a cave that looked like a jail cell. He looked inside, and smiled maliciously. "Isn't that right...Pterano?" The figure inside, hidden in the shadows, glared daggers at the horned sharptooth outside. But he kept his mouth shut.
"Pterano...? I thought he died..." Dark Rex inquired, looking confused.
"On the contrary, he is very much alive." Chomper grinned. "And he may prove useful yet..."
As the sounds of the cockatrice shrills filled the air, Gris raised his head up. He was standing with his loyal pack and they too heard the sounds. A nasty grinned crossed over Gris's snout. He knew very well what it meant. The alimons who knew as well shuddered, though they too smiled evilly.
"The stoneglare...is out."
"It has begun?" Sumaru asked almost timidly.
Retaru snarled. "Yes..it has begun." Retaru would've smacked Sumaru across the head, but his better judgement told him otherwise. "Now all we have to do is wait."
"Wait for what?"
Retaru rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Wait until that idiot of a sharptooth Chomper goes in to another battle with the leaf-eaters." He chuckled to himself. "And when both sides are weakened, we shall conquer them both!"