Well, here's the update I promised; hope you like it. I also decided to scrap the prologue idea, so this is all Chapter 1: New Life. Carry on.
M
"Fuck. My. Life!" yelled Dylan Smith.
His long, black hair was soaked and matted, and his tattered clothes didn't fare any better. He scanned the scene before him with his green eyes; his small boat had just crashed on an unidentified island a couple hundred miles from Costa Rica. It looked tropical, but he didn't know what was out there. The island wasn't on his map, nor any map he's seen in the past few months, so this immediately worried him.
Add the fact that he felt like the entire island itself was watching him, and you got paranoia in the making.
"Where the fuck am I?" he asked himself as if he hadn't already been asking that question in his head.
"Well, guess I can do what I do best and survive," he said to himself. "Great… now I'm talking to myself…."
He made his way back to his little makeshift boat to retrieve his supplies. "Wet," he said as he picked up an AK-47 round. He knew what it meant of one round got wet; every round got wet.
"No matter how much we evolve, we can't solve the problem of wet gunpowder…" he muttered as he picked up his backpack and medkit.
He had nothing better to do, so he wandered into the forest to find a place secure enough to sleep. As soon as he got his camp up and running, he'd hide the boat so no one could follow his trail.
"If this island isn't on a map, it's supposed to stay secret," he reasoned as he walked to the treeline and into the forest.
"I'm gonna have to map this place sooner or later," he said as he started looking around for some kind of clearing in the lush forests.
"Right, all I need is fire, and I'll be good for the night," said Dylan as he set his medkit down and started to head back to the boat.
He had luckily found a clearing quite early in his little adventure, but it seemed that the only life here was birds and insects, which was fine by him. Until he came face-to-face with….
"A dinosaur?!" he shouted as he looked at the sleeping Carnotaurus.
Thankfully, the shout didn't wake up the slumbering titan. He slowly backed up, hoping he wasn't going crazy from one day on this island, plus however many more at sea. But as he was slowly retreating, he snapped a twig under his size 13, causing the Carno to snap open its eye and focused its fire on Dylan.
"Really? You don't even stir up when I shout, but a damn twig wakes you right up?" he asked in disbelief.
In response, the large carnivore stood up and let out a thunderous roar, making Dylan cover his ears and back up even more. When the roar ended, Dylan turned around and high-tailed it out of the clearing.
Unfortunately for him, the large carnivore had no intentions of showing mercy to anyone, and started to chase him. He ran for what felt like hours, but in reality was only about five minutes, before he saw a little hole in the ground just big enough for him to slide in.
"Fuck!" he yelled as he slid in the hole in the nick of time, feeling the air from the jaws snapping where his head had been just mere milliseconds ago.
"That was way to close for comfort," he muttered as the Carno tried to reach its jaws in the small hole. When it saw that it couldn't get to Dylan, it let out another thunderous roar and stomped off.
"Thank fuck," he said quietly as he crawled back out of the hole and ran to his boat.
"I'm gonna have to set up my camp there," he said to himself as he emerged from the forest; the cave was rather large and had a little stream in the ground, so he wouldn't be pressed for leg room or a freshwater source, and he could easily make a fire in a little indentation in the ground.
When he reached the boat, he saw that he left his most important item and resource laying on the seat.
"My translator!" he exclaimed as he grabbed the earpiece; it was one of his greatest invention before he had to travel Central America. Before that, he was an avid inventor with new ideas popping into his head without any effort on his part.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by a chirp behind him. He turned around to see a little green dinosaur around the size of a chicken. It stared at him with little yellow eyes that seemed to pierce his soul.
"Hey, buddy, what's up?" he said as he inserted the translator in his ear.
'Food?' it chirped. Dylan's face went slack at this, making the little dino screech, 'Food!'
When it did, about a dozen more green dinos came out of various hiding places and tried to swarm Dylan. At this point, Dylan had pieced together where he was.
"I must be on Isla Sorna," he said as he started to dodge the little green dinos until he heard a distant roar that would've drowned out the Carno's without a problem.
"That's not somewhere I want to be," he muttered as he took off into the forest towards his little camp.
Thankfully, the green dinos seemed to be frozen in fear of the roar, and Dylan got back to camp without incident. Good thing, too, because it was getting pretty dark, so he would have limited time to move his campsite into the cave.
He didn't want to see what lurked in the dark.
M
Dylan woke up to the sound of water rushing, and he momentarily forgot where he was and what he was doing. He slipped out of the sleeping bag he had in his backpack and put out the fire he had going from the previous night.
Even after two months on the island, he was still getting used to falling asleep at night. He learned the hard way not to stay up past dark; that's when a lot of the carnivores go hunting, and he was on the menu since he couldn't retrieve his guns yet, since he couldn't remember where he hid them.
But today was the day he would look for them; he remembered the general area quite well, so if he could find that, he would find his guns.
He crawled out of the cave with ease, as he had gotten used to the terrain in and around the cave, which animals hung around the most most, and how not to get eaten; all in all, he was perfectly comfortable with where he was.
The translator, unfortunately, wasn't of much use, as he hadn't run into animals smarter than the compys for the entire time he was on the island, but he had it just in case he ran into something like Troodons or Utahraptors.
He didn't want to run into Velociraptors, though; they're said to be vicious killers here, no respect for each other, much less outsiders. He didn't feel like becoming a meal anytime soon.
"Well, time to go," he said to himself.
He had a feeling he was going mental, but he ignored it, mostly because he had much more control over his mind than others, which is pretty much what made him a genius.
But with enough time in complete isolation with absolutely no one to talk to, anyone would go crazy, and he knew that.
"Alright, so… water to the right, trees to the left, the beach is… right behind me, I think," he said as he made his way towards the beach, which was right behind him. When he reached the beach, he immediately saw the area he was searching for.
"Huh… that was way easier than it should've been," he said dryly, frowning.
He made his way over to the treeline and spotted the fake canopy with ease. He lifted it up to reveal the boat and he grabbed his AK-47, M16, and 9mm, along with his butterfly knife and machete. When he got the machete strapped onto his waist, he heard a shriek of pain coming from the forest right in front of him. After that, he heard gunshots, which he ran after happily.
"Finally, some real action," he said as he grinned and took off into the forest.
M
"You! Stop right there!" yelled a burly man with a heavy machine gun. He took aim at Dylan and said, "Drop your weapon! Now!"
Dylan complied instantly, even taking it a step further by kicking the AK away as he held his hands in the air. The man then walked over to him and hit him in the head with the butt of the gun.
Before he passed out, Dylan heard the shriek of pain again. With a more effort than he should've needed, he lifted his head up to see who had made the shriek.
"Raptor…" he said quietly before passing out.
M
Dylan woke with a start, breathing heavily as he tried to take in as much of his surroundings as he could in the dark. He didn't hear the comforting chuckle of the water right by his bed, and right away, he was concerned for his safety.
The paranoia started to set in after five seconds, after which he started to breathe heavily as his heart rate picked up.
Just then, light flooded the room as he heard the sound of a doorknob being turned. A door to the right of his bed opened, revealing a man with blonde hair, blue eyes, and glasses.
"Hello, Dylan Smith," he said softly, though Dylan could practically hear the madness and insanity lacing his voice.
"Where the hell am I?" he asked.
The man ignored his question and said, "My name is Dr. Jonathan Roberts, the lead scientist and geneticist at InGen. I'm sure you're very confused, but don't worry; you'll be free of our custody before you know it if you comply."
"Like Hell I will," said Dylan, lacing his voice with so much venom, it could kill a man.
Dr. Roberts didn't even bat an eye as he said, "I'm sorry to hear that, Dylan. I shall inform my higher-ups about our commencement of our experiment, and our subject's choice to resist."
Dylan shot him a gaze that could've burned a hole through any man, but again, Dr. Roberts paid him no mind as he said, "Sedate the subject and bring him to the labs."
After he said this, armored men came into the room with syringes in their hands. As they tried to restrain him, Dylan shot up and darted to the other side of the room.
'Thank God I'm not naked,' he thought as he darted out of the room. He push a scientist down as he sprinted full speed down the white hallway. He suddenly felt a prick on his back, and he felt it harder and harder to lift each leg off the ground. 'No, not like this,' he thought as his legs gave out from underneath him.
"Dylan, Dylan, Dylan. Any attempt to escape us will be met with the same result, over and over again. You won't get out of the place unless you comply to our every command."
Dylan found the strength to utter, "I command only myself."
"That's a pity. Take him to the lab," said the doctor.
And with that, he felt his limp body being dragged by his arms through the maze hallways until he felt himself being dropped again. He was the flipped over and lifted onto a cold, metal table.
"Subject VR-01, ready for injection," said a random scientist to his left.
He felt a bunch of needles going into his skin all across his body, and he tried to get up and take them out, but his limbs still felt like lead. When he felt whatever serum the needles had in them enter his body, he screamed out in agony, and he heard another shriek, but this time, one of anger.
"Dr. Teller, please keep him quiet; he shouldn't be scaring the animals," said Dr. Roberts without any emotion.
The pain only increased as he felt a needle stick his neck, and he only screamed louder; his screaming got so loud, the scientists had to cover their ears. But soon, he wasn't screaming, he was shrieking, and he felt his bones being shattered and reformed until they settled in place.
With one last shriek, Dylan lay limp on the table, feeling weird, but he was thankful for the painlessness.
"Take him to the cage," said Dr. Roberts with a hint of frustration in his voice.
Without a word, he felt himself being dragged again, until he was thrown down on the ground.
When his face came into contact with the ground, he let out a yelp of pain, before his eyes grew wide when he realized that he didn't sound like a human.
"What the fuck did they do to me?!" he roared angrily.
"What a foul mouth. You shouldn't be let anywhere near hatchlings, lest they learn these words," said a feminine voice from behind him.
He tried to get up, but the speaker instead walked around so they were facing each other.
She had a dark green hide with a tan underbelly and black racing stripes, with hypnotic amber eyes. He would've gotten an eyeful had he not been repulsed by her presence; right now, he just wanted to be left alone.
"Who are you?" he asked angrily.
"My name is Jade. I am part of the Refuge Pack not far from here. And you are…?" she asked.
Dylan tried to get up, but immediately fell back down.
"Dylan," he muttered before trying to get up again.
Jade reached a clawed hand out for him to grab. He grabbed it and felt himself being pulled up. When she let his hand go, he almost fell down again from the weird feeling in his legs, as well as something protruding from his backside. He looked behind him and his jaw went limp at the sight of his body.
He had a red hide and a black underbelly, with black stripes and white dots running along his sides. He looked at his hands; still five fingers, but they bore claws and scales.
He was a raptor.
All Dylan could do was stutter as he tried to process what he was seeing. The female seemed amused by this, as she said, "Why do you look at yourself the way you do? Do you not like your appearance?"
"Do you?" Dylan shot back.
She just stared him in the eye and said, "Very much so."
Dylan tried to see what emotions her eyes held, but his attempts were futile, as she was much better at hiding her emotions than a regular person. But soon, he found himself getting lost in her eyes.
'No, come on, Dylan! You're better than that!' he thought as he pulled his gaze away from her eyes.
He took another look down her body, which he found to be quite attractive. He shook his head, trying to clear his head as he lied down on the floor of the dark steel cage.
"Get up, Dylan. We must find a way to escape," said Jade calmly.
"Leave me alone," said Dylan groggily, suddenly feeling tired as he curled up like a cat and closed his eyes. Jade just huffed and curled up close to him, but not touching him.
"Fine, we will plan when you wake up," she said as she closed her eyes as well, and soon, both raptors were lost in dream world.
M
"Leave me the fuck alone!" Dylan bellowed in rage.
Jade, who was on the flipside of his anger, just blinked slowly and said, "If you want to stay here, that's fine by me. But I have to get back to my pack."
Dylan sighed, now feeling bad for yelling at her; he'd been alone for most of his life, and he wanted to be somewhere that didn't make him feel like a complete outcast. He wanted to help her get out so she could have the life he never could, not make her life like his out of jealousy.
"Fine, I'll help you," he said as he walked over to her.
She just looked at him and asked, "Feel that?" Dylan focused all of his feelings, trying to sort them out, trying to find which one didn't belong.
"Yeah," he said as he felt a tingling sensation in the nape of his neck.
"That means there's a storm coming," said Jade bluntly.
Dylan tried to figure out why that was important before he felt just how intense the feeling was.
"A really bad storm," he said, "which means no power, which means we get out of here!" Jade just nodded, and for the briefest moment, Dylan swore he saw content in her eyes before she masked her feelings again.
"But when that happens, we have to be careful, 'cause that's probably when security's gonna be on their A-game," said Dylan. Jade just agreed and turned around to face the wall.
"So we take them out," she said coldly.
Dylan just smiled creepily as he said, "I'll take take care of Roberts." She turned back to him just as he turned to face the wall opposite of the one she was looking at, so she couldn't see the gleam of insanity in his eye.
"Not if we don't need to; there's no need for unnecessary casualties," said Jade.
Dylan let his face go slack again as he said, "I need to."
Jade cocked her head to the right, confused as to why he wanted to murder innocents.
"He did this to me, he'll pay for playing God," Dylan said with a wild gleam in his eyes as he fantasized about ripping out Roberts's innards.
Jade just nodded and looked back to her wall as she suddenly felt scared of Dylan. She felt his malicious intents, and she wanted no part in his revenge.
But Dylan could now read Jade; the scent of fear reminded him of the rush of pain, and he instantly wanted more of it. But he resisted, and when he began to calm back down, Jade relaxed and asked, "Why did you come to the island in the first place?"
Dylan masked his emotions as he said, "It's complicated."
Jade figured that if she couldn't smell rotting flesh, he wasn't lying, so she dropped the subject and asked, "Do you have a family?"
She suddenly felt the air grow cold as he said, "Nope." He played it cool, but she knew that he was saddened by it.
"When was the last time you had a family?"
The air only grew colder as Dylan grew sadder. "When I was about four," he said nonchalantly.
"So you left the nest when you were four?" asked Jade, surprised.
"Can we just drop the subject?" said Dylan as he curled up on the ground again.
"No, I want to know," said Jade confidently.
"Why? My story's not special," said Dylan with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Just tell me," pushed Jade. Dylan huffed and began his story.
"When I was four, my mom, dad, and brother were killed in a really bad car crash coming back from the ice cream shop. They put me into a foster home right after, not even bothering to let me go to the funeral. The home they put me in wasn't the best, and I got out of that place as soon as I was eighteen. I've been on my own ever since, working three day jobs for minimum wage, trying to get by. I guess I just never had the time for friends or family."
By the time he finished, the air was so cold, it caused Jade to shiver.
"Are you cold?" he asked, legitimately concerned for her well-being.
She nodded, and Dylan softened up as he patted the ground next to him. She immediately went over and curled up next to him. Dylan cuddled up to her and put his arm around her as the cold in the air slowly went away. That was the best sleep either of them had in awhile.
The pair of raptor spent the next few days biding their time, touching up their plan to get out of that place. The people there were dumb enough to leave a layout of the facility, so they knew exactly where to go.
But if they weren't planning their escape, they mostly kept to themselves after Jade blurted that it was mating season; she didn't know why she told Dylan that, but she told herself that it was so he could get used to being a raptor, and to give him a heads-up for when they got back to the nest.
"So how about we just take out the generator so this place won't have any power when the storm's over," said Dylan.
"So that they won't have a use for this facility, and they leave the island," finished Jade.
As she got lost in his amazing emerald eyes for what seemed like the millionth time, he turned away and said, "So we have to make sure the generator would be unsalvageable, or we'll have InGen back in this place in no time after the storm." She just looked at him.
'He would probably make a great mate,' she thought as she looked at his elegant yet built form, his strong legs, his powerful claws, his confident stance; everything she wanted in a mate. He knew how to keep himself under control around females, yet she knew that wasn't because he didn't want a female; he wanted a strong relationship built on love instead of lust or instinct.
"Hey! Earth to Jade!" said Dylan as he waved his arm in front of her face.
She snapped her gaze on him, careful to look at anything but his eyes as she was pulled from her thoughts about him.
"What?" she asked a little more bitter than she meant.
"Hey, the lights are flickering! I think the storm already began!" said Dylan.
She risked a glance at his eyes and he turned away again before she could get lost in his eyes. "We have to he ready in case the power –"
He was interrupted by the power cutting out, leaving the room in the dark as the door to their cage swung open by itself. Dylan looked at Jade as he stepped out of the cage and into the gray room that it was held in.
The sound of shouting was soon heard approaching the gray room as Dylan swung the big metal door open just as easily as the cage, which lead into a hallway.
He took one more quick glance at the map before speeding down the hallway with Jade right behind him. The shouting soon grew distant as they approached the entrance. But when they got to the elevator, the sound of a gun being cocked was heard by the raptors.
"Now, Dylan. You know that you can't leave here without consequences. You know that you're not used to life in the wild. You'll never survive more than a day here on Isla Sorna," said Dr. Roberts as he pointed a gun right at Dylan's heart.
"Of course I will. I have a stronger conscience than you think," said Dylan as he let out an earsplitting shriek, causing the doctor to drop his gun and cover his ears.
This is when Dylan took the time to attack. He tackled the doctor and bit his right shoulder, making the man scream in agony as Dylan had when he was in the lab. Dylan pulled away without opening his mouth, tearing a chunk out of the man's shoulder. He then took his killing claw and made several incisions on the man's torso, including on a body part that all men treasured. Dylan then dragged his claw against the man's stomach, exposing his intestines. The cut wasn't lethal, though, and Dylan walked to the elevator and pressed the button with his claw, never once looking back at the doctor's mangled form.
"You forget; I made you, and I can unmake you," sputtered Dr. Roberts as Jade walked past the man and next to Dylan as he cooly said, "You've played God once, which is one times too many." He looked back at the smiling doctor before he fell limp, dying from his wounds.
Dylan walked into the elevator the moment it opened, followed by Jade. It was pretty crowded with two raptors in the elevator, so it was already pretty awkward. The fact that Jade was facing Dylan's posterior didn't help, and she felt the blood rush to her snout. She refused to make eye contact with him out of an illogical fear that he would call her a "pervert" or a "stalker," or something of the sort.
When they reached ground floor, they made their way to the generator and spent ten minutes cutting and slashing before something caught Dylan's eye. 'A grenade!' he thought as he made his way over to the little green object.
"Jade, run," he said.
She nodded and ran towards the exit as Dylan pulled the pin and tossed it in front of the generator. He followed Jade and ran like hell, and as soon as he made it out of the door, he and Jade heard the explosion.
He looked at her awkwardly as he said, "Well, I guess this is goodbye."
She snorted and said, "Not if you come with me." Dylan looked at her, dumbfounded and speechless.
"Of course, you'll be given a new name if you choose to become part of my pack," she said.
Dylan immediately knew what name he would go with. The three large dots in a row on his left side reminded him of his favorite constellation, which was now his namesake; "Orion," he said without hesitation.
She looked stunned by his immediate response, but she regained her composure as she said, "Very well; from now on, you shall be known as Orion. Follow," said Jade as she ran into the forest. Orion followed without question.
But he couldn't help but notice a weird feeling in his stomach, like something big was about to happen.
M
Jade and Orion ran for about two hours, and neither seemed fazed in the slightest.
"Hell yeah! I can finally run more than a mile without getting tired!" roared Orion victoriously. Jade just snorted and kept running. But Orion wanted more. After a couple seconds, Jade had been passed up by Orion.
"Eat my dust!" he yelled happily as he took off.
But then he remembered that it was supposed to be Jade leading, and he locked in by her side. They ran like this until they came to a small clearing.
"Woah…" said Orion.
The clearing held at least a dozen nests total, almost all of which were full of eggs. But it was the beautiful waterfall right next to the clearing that caught his attention, which fed a small stream to the left of the nests. The canopy shielded the nests from the elements, as well as provided shade on hot days. There was currently a female in every nest with eggs, all looking very grim. Until they saw Jade.
"Alpha!" they all cried.
'Uh… what?' thought Orion. He glanced at Jade, who shot him an apologetic look, then asked, "Is everyone else out hunting?"
One female approached her, bowed her head, and said, "Yes, Alpha. Storm is leading the hunt." At hearing the name, Orion saw Jade cringe. It wasn't enough for the whole pack to notice; in fact, only Orion seemed to notice.
He shrugged it off as a female in a nest without eggs asked, "Who's the male, Alpha?"
All eyes instantly turned on him. He felt all of their amber eyes gazing into his soul, and he felt himself shrink mentally under their gazes.
"His name is Orion. He was betrayed and outcast from another pack," explained Jade. 'Well, she's not technically wrong,' thought Orion.
Just then, there was a loud splash from their left, and from the lush vegetation, six male raptors appeared, each of them carrying a piece of meat. They quickly darted across the stream and into the nests.
The largest of the raptors dropped his piece of meat in an unoccupied nest and walked up to Jade. He had a dark gray hide and a slightly darker underbelly with crimson eyes.
"Hello, Jade." he said smoothly.
"Storm," she replied coolly as the other five raptors went over to the nests with the eggs and females and gave them some meat.
"So, who's the new male? Is he supposed to be your pet?" he asked, turning his gaze to Orion.
"He's supposed to be our new pack member, and you will treat him as such," said Jade, drawing multiple gasps from across the nest.
"His name's Orion," said a female to the left. She had an all white hide and amber eyes.
There was also a raptor sitting next to her; he had a brown hide with a tan underbelly with crimson eyes.
Storm never took his eyes off of Orion as he asked, "So, Orion, have you done much fighting?"
"I've been in more fights than I would've liked to been in," he replied, showing no emotion in his eyes or voice; only his posture betrayed sheer confidence.
"Well then, I challenge you to a dual. For her," said Storm as he pointed at Jade.
If he had eyebrows, Orion would've been raising one so far up, it would be near the top of his head.
"Storm, you will not fight this male. He's new to the pack. Let him get used to everybody before you go around challenging him," said Jade. But Orion was never one to back out of a fair fight.
"No, it's all good, Jade. I'll fight him," said Orion, never taking his eyes off Storm.
Storm's eyes filled with determination and confidence as he said, "If you lose, you will be outcasted from the pack." This caused several raptors to gasp, including Jade.
"And if I win, you won't go anywhere near Jade," replied Orion.
"Very well," said Storm as he shrieked and launched himself at Orion, who barely had any time to move out of the way.
"Woah, we're doing this now? I thought it would've been like a 'meet me here at this time' kind of deal," joked Orion. "Of course we're doing this now. It's tradition," said Storm.
The other raptors, including Jade, just sat back and watched as Storm launched himself at Orion once again. Orion predicted this, though, and was able to sidestep the attack much easier this time.
This repeated a few time before Storm said, "Fight me or forfeit!" yelled Storm in anger.
This is exactly what Orion wanted; Storm was being blinded by anger, and he was more likely to make rash moves, as evident when he charged directly at Orion.
Orion once again sidestepped, but this time, he cut a long gash on Storm's right side with his claws, drawing blood. Storm just bellowed in anger and leapt at Orion. This time, Orion stood where he was and knocked Storm back a couple feet with a nice headbutt to the abdomen.
Storm landed on his back and groaned in pain and anger. Once he got up, he tried to confuse Orion by running in a zigzag pattern. Thankfully, Orion's reflexes were always very fast, and he was ready when Storm came at him from his left side.
Storm made an attempt at biting Orion's neck, but instead ended up having his own head pinned by Orion's jaws. He didn't bite hard; just enough to keep Storm in place.
"Let me go!" he roared in anger. Orion just stood where he was, not even flinching when Storm raked his claws on his right side. Then, Storm shrieked, "I submit!" when Orion started to bite down even harder on his neck.
Orion ceased his attack and backed up, knowing he had won the battle. Storm just hung his head low as he walked back over to where he dropped off his meat.
Happy chirps and sqwaks filled the nesting area as Orion was swarmed by all the raptors, save for Storm, obviously, and Jade. They were all congratulating him on besting the beta of the pack in battle, especially since he had been fighting most of his life. Just like Orion, but without the sob story.
"How did you do it?" "Great job!" "Just like…" this voice trailed off, and he focused his attention on this one. "Like who?" he asked the raptor.
She had an orange hide with a blue underbelly. She didn't meet his eyes and slunk back to an empty nest with her head hung low. "Beta Orion!" called another raptor. Once he said it, the other raptors started chanting it.
Once they were done, Jade walked up to him and said, "Good job. You are now the Beta of this pack," before walking off into the jungle. Orion cocked his head and prepared to go after her when he heard a voice from behind him.
"Her nest is that way, Orion. You don't need to go after her." Orion spun around and came face-to-face with a raptor that had a dark green hide and a tan underbelly, just like Jade, but slightly darker. He sniffed the air around her and caught her scent.
'This must be her mother,' he thought. "And you are?" he asked.
"I am Thorn, the elder of this pack," she said. "Come. We must get you settled into your nest," she said before walking in the same direction as Jade.
After about two minutes of walking, they came to a clearing that held a vacant nest that looked like it hadn't been used in years.
"Welcome to your new home, Orion," she said as she walked out of the clearing and back the way the duo came from.
"Well, I got nothing better to do," he said as he curled up in the nest, waiting for sleep to take him. "Orion?" a voice asked timidly. He opened his eye to see the orange raptor that had trailed off earlier.
"Yeah?" he asked. "I… uh… need to talk to you," she said quietly. "About what?" he asked. She hung her head low and shyly asked, "May I enter?" Orion lifted his head from the ground and nodded, and she entered with her head still hung low; whether it was from submission or depression he couldn't tell.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Sunset," she replied timidly.
"What do you need to talk to me about?" he asked.
Sunset remained quiet for a few seconds before saying, "It's about my mate." Orion looked her over and the air suddenly grew cold. But he ignored it as he asked, "What about him?"
"M-my mate, Shadow, w-went missing a couple weeks ago. I didn't know whether he was dead or alive, and I was left in the dark. Until th-they b-brought him back…" she trailed off.
"So? That's good right? Where is he now?" asked Orion, mentally raising an eyebrow. "I-in the ground… or a-at least, w-what's left of him…" she said quietly. Then, she started to make noises that sounded like sobbing as tears flowed down her cheeks.
"I-I just w-wish I c-could've done more a-as his mate," she managed to say in between sobs.
"You think you could've saved him?" he asked sadly, remembering blaming himself for his family's death all those years ago. He got up and walked over to her and hugged her neck and stroked her head as she continued to sob.
"Shhh… it's okay, it's okay… it wasn't your fault," he whispered as he continued to comfort her.
Little did he know, he had a next-door neighbor who was watching the whole thing.
M
Thanks again for taking time out of your day to read this story; it means a lot as an author to know that people enjoy my work, however few in numbers they may be (that didn't make sense...). Again, feel free to review and critique so I can eventually go back and fix this (in whatever capacity I can).