The Path, a land before time fanfic

Heyo!

I'm back with another special prompt response from the winner of last month's prompt, Keijo6 (Sovereign to those on the GoF). His prompt for Rhombus and I this month was:

"The endless, agonizing expanse of the deepest parts of the Mysterious Beyond hold many eerie and haunting locations. Ones that seem able to break anyone's spirit solely by their overall atmosphere or through threats that more often are imagined than real. However, there is always a fountain to wash your tears away in this land of decay and unseen grace..."

Now I feel I should commend Keijo on giving us a prompt that, honestly, was a challenge to interpret at first. It's nice to have something that you need to think about before jumping into it, and this prompt does just that, opening itself up to a wide variety of unique interpretations. But now, before we get onto the meat of this, I want to give a little context.

For those who have not read my primary fanfic, To Tread Upon Fields Afar, the story features a female Austroraptor, Rear, who was once a part of a pack that hunted the dangerous and exotic Forest of Sand. The Fast Biters in this area are unique in that they have a communal pack system, wherein several packs all answer to an Alpha Superior, and are themselves controlled by Alphas. These packs lead expeditionary hunts into other territories, returning to a single area to mate, raise hatchlings, and generally mingle once every year or two. Their naming conventions are quite... literal. When you are accepted into a pack, you take on the name of your position, so you're either Alpha, Rear, Left Flank, or Right Flank. Before that, your name is based on the color of your feather crest. They're an odd bunch.

Anyway, this story details the rise of Rear as she casts off the name of her childhood in the hopes of accepting a new one. It features Rear (Yellow-Crest) and Alpha (Red-Crest) in a tale that takes place long before Fyn and his sister ever set foot in the Mysterious Beyond. This is the first short I've published in a while without any proofreading, so here's to hoping it's turned out all right! Next on the docket is "Fields," assuming I don't suddenly make a surge of progress on my response to the primary prompt this month (a short story featuring a heavily underutilized favorite character of mine from LBT V). Until then, I submit this for your perusal and (hopefully) enjoyment!

Fast Biter (Forest of Sand): Austroraptor
Sailbeak: Ouranosaurus

The Path

"Why?"

…

Two Fast Biters darted quietly through the thick brush, their movements so fluid and precise that they barely disturbed the grains of sand resting on the leaves, left there by the last big sandstorm. There was no particular reason for stealth here, but the yellow-crested, tan and brown female following the red-crested male softened her footfalls anyway. While the red-crest, better known to her as Red for short, hadn't explicitly said this was part of the test, he hadn't said it wasn't, either, and that made her wary. There was a lot riding on the outcome of whatever he was leading her towards.

Above them, the Night Circle shone down, its soft white light spilling through the treetops like water, casting strange shadows upon the ground. Once, she'd feared these shadows, not that she could remember that far back. Apparently her Nest-Mother often chided her on her overactive imagination. On nights like this she'd stay close to the nest and jump at the slightest breeze. Were it not for her mother's decision to take her aside one day and help her to cope with her fears, she might not have lasted childhood, or so the others said.

"Yellow crest, yellow belly! Yellow crest, yellow belly!"

It hurt to recall those memories, the chants the other young Fast Biters berated her with on a daily basis, but it helped to remember them now, in the face of her biggest and most important challenge yet. They had always picked on her for her fearful demeanor and strange, yellow crest. Most Fast Biters bore crests of red or blue, so with such a strange color atop her head, it was just one more way for the others to pick her out of a crowd. Their thinly-veiled accusations of cowardice and jests towards her appearance and unnatural interest in the hunt led to more than one confrontation, and it was a wonder she hadn't been killed. By the time she grew to an adult, however, they were singing a different tune.

She had proven them all wrong. Her first hunt had been a complete success. Alpha Superior had selected the target himself- an isolated armored Longneck. Not one of the hunters was injured in the ensuing attack, and it was she, yellow-crest, who struck the final blow.

That, she supposed as she ran to keep up with the red-crest, was why she was here tonight. Red-crest was a new pack leader, and he was in the process of forming his first pack. She had reached the age where a decision was expected of her: stay as a Nest-Mother and start mating or try her luck getting picked up by a pack. Naturally, she chose the latter, wondering if in some small way, she was carrying on her mother's legacy. She didn't know her mother, those memories had faded long ago, but from what the others had said, she doubted she had ever meant for her to sit on a nest for the rest of her life. If she had, she'd have let her go on being afraid of the dark. Nesting, to Rear, was a waste of talent, and that above all else was what motivated her tonight- fear of failure.

It didn't help that Red-Crest hadn't put a pack together before. Few of the pack leaders had ever accepted a female into their ranks before, and out of them all, he was the only one who took her in and decided to give her a chance. Problem was, she knew from the stories others told that first time pack initiations were usually disastrous. Pack leaders always chose a challenge that ended up being a little too easy or a little too hard. Red-Crest seemed intelligent, a quiet, thoughtful individual, but that didn't necessarily mean he was capable of coming up with a good test. But regardless of what he planned to put her through, she was ready. She could take it.

Frankly, she had to take it.

They stopped just shy of a slightly-trodden path leading into the trees. Red-Crest leaped into the bushes, rustled around for a moment, and then started pushing a large, hollow log out from the side of the path. Yellow-Crest moved to help him, but he shook his head.

"No," he said, speaking the first words he'd uttered since they set off, "wait here."

Yellow-Crest's stomach growled as she watched the male Fast Biter push the log to the center of the path, and then stop. He had instructed her not to eat anything that day, an order she had followed to the letter, but she couldn't deny her own hunger any longer. If anything, she could use it to her own advantage. If Red-Crest didn't want her to eat, it was a sure bet he was planning on having her hunt something. That was a challenge she could handle.

Satisfied with the log's position, Red-Crest turned and strode slowly back towards Yellow-Crest.

"Your test begins now. You will climb inside that log, and you will wait there until the Night Circle rises a second time-"

Two days without food? Yellow almost squawked back in surprise, but she held her tongue. This had to be part of the test. Perhaps it was her endurance he wanted to test. If so, she was still prepared, if a little shaken by his first order. The next day would suck, stuck in a log with nothing to eat, but at least it would be over quickly.

He wasn't finished, however.

"When it rises tomorrow night, you will leave the log and travel down this path-" he pointed with one of his short arms down the path in front of them. Rear peered into the darkness, her eyes adjusting to the dim light. It was difficult to see far, especially with how overgrown the path looked up ahead. There didn't seem to be anything overly challenging about it, but she supposed looks could be deceiving.

"-and at the end of the path, you will find me. I will make no effort to hide. I will simply await your arrival. If I do not see you by the rise of the Bright Circle, I will consider your test a failure, and I will look for my first Rear elsewhere, am I clear?"

Yellow peered into Red's face, looking for any readable emotion in his eyes. She saw none, neither expectation of success or failure. He was completely unreadable. Shivering instinctively, she gave him one brief nod.

"I understand."

The male dipped his head toward the log. "Then let us begin."

As Yellow wormed her way into the soggy, cold enclosure, she heard the patter of Red's feet as he took off down the trail. Her bumping and scraping drowned the sound out occasionally, but she was still able to hear his footsteps faintly as she settled down in place. She listened to them, following them with her ears until they faded into silence. Red was gone,and the test- the thing she had been waiting her whole life for- was now underway.

Yellow's stomach growled once more, and she turned over, clutching her arms tightly together and bringing her feet in as far as they could go as the cold moisture of the log seeped into her skin. The test had begun, alright, but it was unlike any test she had ever heard about. She wondered what the young male's plan was. After all, a little hike wasn't a challenge by any stretch of the imagination- and she had quite the imagination.

What she couldn't possibly have known as she lay shivering under the light of the Night Circle, was that this was exactly what Red was planning on.

…

When the Bright Circle returned, Yellow found herself grateful for the log's cool interior. From the looks of things, it was turning out to be quite a hot day outside, as was usual in the Forest of Sand. Already she could see the ground blurred by rising heat waves. Here in the shade, as cramped as she was, she found herself glad she wasn't out tracking prey down under the Bright Circle's heat. As hungry as she was, she doubted she was in any shape to hunt in such exhausting weather.

Her stomach protested through most of the day, and the only thing she could do to quiet it was to shift around, hoping to distract herself. It didn't work, but eventually it seemed her stomach got the idea that her hunger was intentional, and seemed content with leaving her alone for a little while. By this point, she could see that the Bright Circle was beginning its descent, judging by the orange hue that had fallen over the ground outside her log. The ground outside was wet, a small amount of Skywater had fallen around the middle of the day, and Yellow had welcomed it with open claws. Some of the water dripped down into the log, and she had lapped at it greedily, satisfying her thirst. Now, however, the water was gone, and she was left to her own thoughts again, waiting, watching as the Bright Circle descended at an agonizingly slow pace.

You could just go home.

The voice that spoke was a familiar one, familiar to any dinosaur, really. It was the one that urged her to give up and become a Nest Mother, the one that had told her it might be best to hang back and let the others go off on the armored Longneck hunt. It was impossible to silence. She knew. She'd tried.

"Shut up, you," she muttered, trying to reach up to preen her feathers. She couldn't manage it; the log was too cramped to allow all but the smallest of movements. Yellow groaned and settled back down, watching the light outside fade to a deeper and deeper orange, counting down the moments until it finally took on that welcome blue tint.

I bet there's food back there. We smelled a Longneck before we left, didn't we? Not too often one of those comes walking by.

Even as she tried to block the voice, her mouth began to salivate. Her head swam as another hunger pang ripped through her belly. It felt as if someone was digging around a claw in there. She pulled her head back, up toward the log's opening, and for a moment, she thought she saw a pair of flickering eyes staring back at her. But then they were gone.

"Come on," she groaned, clenching her teeth as she cursed the Bright Circle, "fall already you stupid orange ball."

But the Bright Circle didn't care. The request of one small Fast Biter went unheard, and Yellow remained that way- tense, angry, and hungry- until it finally slipped below the horizon.

…

Blue. The outside of the log was blue.

For a moment, Yellow wondered if she'd dozed off and was experiencing a sleep story, but the empty, growling pain in her belly told her otherwise. Perhaps she'd fallen asleep for a moment, or maybe the last few hours had been only a blur in retrospect, but now it was time for her to start the walk.

She brought her claws up, latching them onto the inside of the log, and started to pull in an attempt to squeeze herself out of her dark confinement as quickly as possible. There was a wet tearing sound, and suddenly both her front and back claws gave out, shredding easily through the soft wet wood as she lost her grip. The breath caught in Yellow's throat. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to get out and find Red, not sit inside this little log for-

At that moment, a terrible thought occurred to her. What if she couldn't get out? She dug her claws in again, but once more she only tore more wet, splintery sludge from the inside of the log.

"No," she whispered, "come on, no! Not like this!"

Panic began to take hold, freeing her of her hunger and sleep deprivation-induced stupor as she kicked and lashed out, striking at the inside of the log with her feet and hands, not caring in the least as splinters fell down on her from above. She attacked the log's slimy innards as if she was fighting a real, living foe, the sound of her scratching boring loud holes in her brain.

"Come on!"

She shoved her claws in again and again, the smell of peaty earth was strong and pungent, filling her nostrils with a scent that she felt she would never be rid of She closed her eyes and focused solely on the scratching, no longer concerned with where her claws hit.

And then she found it. Having dug deep enough, she found dry wood. Right now, that single sliver of light brown among the dark was exactly what she needed, more so than food, water, or sleep. Shaking with both relief and disbelief, she dug her claw in, pulling down to test her new grip. It held, and she roared, overcome by joy. Beside and slightly ahead of the mark, she did the same with her other claws, carefully scratching away the wet wood until she reached the dry center. Her eyes were adjusting now, and she could see the ceiling above her decorated with her own frenzied claw-marks. She shuddered to look at them, swallowing back the panic that threatened to surface again. Yellow turned her eyes away from the marks, and towards the blue opening just above her head. Those claw marks meant nothing now. It would do her no good to dwell on what had happened. She had to keep going, and focus on the path ahead.

Little by little she shimmied her way out, wiggling to make the most of her claw-pulls. The climb out was slow and tiring, but when her face finally touched the night's cool air, she breathed the sweet, fresh air in like it was the only thing in the world that mattered. As she squeezed herself free of the log, she rolled to the ground with a muted "thump," threw back her head, and laughed up at the stars. There was no doubt in her mind that the log had been Red's challenge, but it was a challenge she had conquered. She smirked in spite of herself.

"You won't be rid of me that easy, Red," she whispered, getting to her feet.

Now free of her dark confinement, Yellow took some time to reacquire her bearings. It had been a full day since she stood at the edge of the path, and somehow it seemed different to her. The skywater that had fallen today, heated and then cooled by the night air, had become a fine mist, and the path through the trees seemed more narrow now because of it. To her tired eyes, the way forward looked less like a beaten down space between the trees as it did a yawning mouth, one she stood on the verge of falling into.

"Well, let's see what you've got planned for me," she said, and at a slow clip began her journey through the dark, misty forest.

…

By the time she came to her first hurdle, it was clear that the log had not been Red's only test. Rounding a sharp corner, Yellow stopped suddenly, her claws dangling over the edge of a precipice that had materialized quite suddenly out of the mist. Two more steps, and she would have fallen, probably with disastrous results.

This is more like it. No more of that weird mind stuff. This is a challenge I can see.

Spanning the length of the gap was a thick branch. Not quite a log, at least not by any sensible Sharptooth's standards, but it was clearly wide enough for her to stand on. The tracks leading up to and over it were a sure sign of what she was supposed to do. Red had climbed this; it was time for her to follow in his footsteps. She put a cautious foot up on the makeshift bridge. It held firm, completely stationary, though its loud creaking still left a lot to be desired. Confident that it was safe enough, Yellow stood fully on the log, and started across, keeping her tail extended for balance.

"Balance," Alpha Superior had been so fond of saying, "is your greatest ally and your deadliest weapon. A balanced Fast BIter is a quick, precise, and lethal hunter. An unbalanced Fast Biter is fodder for the tail of a Longneck or the foot of a Clubtail. You must endeavor at all times to maintain your balance. It is the difference for many between success and failure in the hunt."

One foot in front of the other, Yellow crossed slowly, trying not to think of the very clear consequences of slipping right now. Her balance was perfect and, unlike the log she'd been stuck in all day, the wood here was dry and easy to grip. The creaking, on the other claw, was a different matter, and the mist spanning the forest and concealing the drop below her didn't help either.

"Yellow-Crest."

Yellow stopped suddenly, twisting her neck around to see who had called her name. No one was there; all that lay behind her was the swirling mist and rows of dark, unmoving trees.

"Hmph," she snorted, turning back towards the other side of the chasm, "probably just the hunger. Now I'm hearing things."

The last few steps were uneventful, but when Yellow reached the other side and looked back, she couldn't help but feel a tingle of fear scratching at the back of her mind. The other side was completely obscured now. The branch protruding from the mist and the darkness was the only indication that it was even still there. That branch was her link, her one way back. If she kept going forward, that too would disappear.

You can always turn around and go back right now. They never expected you to be more than a Nest Mother anyway, right?

"Yellow crest, yellow belly!"

Yellow's mouth curved up in a snarl as a low, guttural growl emanated from deep within her lungs. She stole one more contemptuous glance back at the branch before she quickly turned and, before she could second guess herself again, bolted down the path.

The feel of the ground beneath her feet began to change, and as she pressed on, Yellow realized that the sandy, soft dirt was giving way to stones and pebbles. Jagged rocks loomed on either side of the path, breaking up the trees every now and then as their menacing forms appeared out of the mist. She looked up, fixing her eyes on the Night Circle as she stopped to catch her breath. To her surprise, she was breathing quite rapidly. She hadn't felt afraid, at least not consciously, so why was she panicking now?

The feathers of her crest began to rise as a cold chill crept up the back of her neck. Something was here. She could feel it. Yellow raised her snout to the air, taking in a series of deep sniffs, but she could discern no scents. The lingering scent of the log hung with her, an olfactory stain that she could not get rid of. Frustrated, she rocked her head back down, pawing angrily at the ground with her killing claw.

That was when she saw them. Or more accurately, when she saw them again.

Eyes. Gleaming eyes, predator's eyes, reflecting the Night Circle's light as they stared at her from just beyond the path. Yellow's killing claws sprang to life, alert, tapping anxiously at the ground. Her tail swayed gently from side to side and she hunched down, tensing her legs to spring. She blinked once.

And then they were gone.

Confused, she whipped her head around, frantically searching for any sign of whoever had been watching her. Her stomach rumbled again, and without even thinking she turned around quickly, ready to spring at what she had perceived as a growl. No one was there.

"Yellow crest, yellow belly," she whispered to herself, and then flinched as if she'd been stung. The insult was particularly abrasive when she turned it on herself.

She began to walk again, following the ever-widening trail forward. Sometimes she thought she saw the eyes again, and for the first few times she reacted the same way as before. Gradually, however, she grew used to their occasional appearance and let them be. By the time the Night Circle had reached its peak, however, she began to realize that the longer she ignored them, the longer they stayed, hidden just outside of the corner of her vision. Behind a rock, perhaps, or underneath a tree. She would flick her eyes, hoping to catch their owner without turning her head to alert them, but each time she saw nothing.

Yellow quickened her pace. There were more of them now. It seemed that with each step, one more pair of eyes joined their ranks, yet she never saw them. A part of her suggested that these things simply should not be possible, but that voice was buried beneath tired eyes and hunger.

Before her, the path seemed to curve, twisting and winding in directions that made no sense, and the eyes- the eyes felt as if they were closing in, eagerly surrounding her as they waited to pounce. She shut her eyes, gritted her teeth and broke into a sprint. It was short-lasted. A root in the middle of the path hooked itself around her killing claw-

(a root? Or something else? Someone else?)

-dragging her down and throwing her off balance. She tried to correct with her tail, but the world before her eyes refused to orient itself, the image so distorted it felt as if she were looking at it from the bottom of a pond.

She hit the path hard, pain shooting up the right side of her body where she hit the rocks. It actually seemed to help clear her head, and for a moment, she was able to think straight. The eyes disappeared, and she became suddenly aware of how tired she was. She wanted to stand, but it felt as if something big was forcing her back down, pressing her into the path. It wasn't a secret to her- she was exhausted.

Maybe if I shut my eyes for just a moment…

"Yes, Yellow-Crest. Shut your eyes and lie down. Let sleep take you. I promise you'll wake before the Bright Circle rises."

The voice came from right next to her, a faint hiss that sounded like a distorted version of her own voice. It seemed so sure of itself, so trustworthy. She stopped struggling, stopped trying to stand, and let her eyelids begin to close the rest of the way…

"No!" she barked suddenly, shaking her head as she sat upright. No one was there, naturally. The weight of the night still pressed down on her, but she ignored it, shaking it off. She didn't know what sort of tricks Red was playing, but that was all they were- tricks. Yellow returned shakily to her feet, and this time when her stomach protested, she growled right back at it.

But the distorted vision returned quickly, accompanied by a faint, light, fuzzy feeling in the back of her head. She shook her head again, and was rewarded with a piercing ringing sound in her ears for the trouble.

She could already see them coming back. The eyes were watching her, observing her from the darkness, and as they came into focus again, she wondered if she was really being hunted at all. They had watched as she struggled to get out of the log. They were watching as she sank down and almost fell asleep. Now they were watching again as she tried to work up the resolve to continue forward. They were judging her.

Which way was forward, though? Everything looked the same since she'd fallen. How long had she spent on the ground? Had it really been only a moment, or had it been longer than that? She didn't know anymore. In all directions her world was a blur, punctuated by those advancing eyes. She turned around. Trees barred her way forward. This was not the path. She turned right. Flat ground stretched out before her. Was this the way forward, or the way back? Yellow stole a glance backwards. The eyes were behind her. Whether the way ahead was forward or backward, it was forward now. Anything to get away from those judging eyes.

She resumed her sprint, staring down at the ground to avoid tripping like the last time. The path began to narrow, trees reaching across with their thin, gnarled branches like skeletons in the dark. The ground sloped sharply down, and now she found herself forced to divide her attention between the ground beneath her feet and the precarious trail in front of her. The eyes still followed, watching, but she could not allow herself to see them. They weren't real. They couldn't be real, and whatever they were, they would only slow her down.

"Yellow crest, yellow belly."

Yellow almost paused but forced herself to keep going. That voice hadn't been from her head. It had come from behind her, from…

(From the eyes)

"No, no, no, don't do this to me now. Not when I'm so close," she groaned. Some of the eyes were taking form now, dark shadows attached to them flitting through the trees just outside of her vision.

"Yellow crest, yellow belly, yellow crest, yellow belly!"

Yellow could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Her mouth was dry and her sides ached, but despite the steepness of her path, she forced herself to return to a sprint, knowing full well the risks she would face doing so. It didn't matter. She had to get away from those eyes, those terrible, infuriating taunts.

The ground leveled out, and Yellow vaguely realized that she had been traveling down some sort of rocky wall. Here, at the bottom, the path was harder to see, but the trees were spaced farther apart and the mist was almost gone. She could see much farther ahead, and even better, her sense of smell was returning.

I'm going to make it! The thought rang loudly in her ears, drowning out the fading chant behind her. Her legs burned with the exertion of running at full sprint for so long, but she ignored them. A little pain now was a small price to pay to leave the voices in the dust.

"You won't make it, Yellow Crest."

Something hissed in her ear and she recoiled, sidestepping just in time to avoid a tall tree.

"Go back to your nest, yellow-bellied coward."

"Superior was wrong about you."

The verbal assaults came from everywhere and nowhere at once, and Yellow began to realize that she hadn't outrun the eyes at all. They looked down at her from the trees above, she saw them in the forest to her right and left, running, keeping pace with her. Now she remembered those voices, those soft, malicious hatchlings' voices and adult voices that berated her from all sides. They were the voices she woke up to every day of her childhood, the ones that criticized her mother, telling her that her attempts to train her little daughter, to teach her to ignore her fear, were useless and a waste of time. She tried to block them out, but she heard them inside her head now, a whirling storm of criticism and hate.

But one voice stood out among the rest, a voice that she had never heard speak ill of her until now.

"You will never be my packmate," it said, "turn around and go back to your nest."

"Red Crest?" she choked, blinking as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes, "why?"

The Fast Biter let out a sharp gasp as she stumbled, tripping over a slick, hidden stone in the path. She could see all eyes upon her now, watching, judging. So many. She wanted to scream, to throw her head back and roar, but she didn't. Somehow she knew she couldn't. Yellow quivered, reduced to a pathetic, trembling heap in the middle of the trail. She could hear the soft footfalls of another Fast Biter approaching her, and she waited to hear his voice again, the one who should have been her Alpha. It was not his voice that she heard, however. The one that spoke, the single most clear female voice of the group, was one that made her bring her face back up to the light of the Night Circle in utter disbelief.

There was no mistaking the slender, yellow-crested Fast Biter who stood before her, staring down at her with a look of pure disdain. Behind her Red looked on as if to encourage her.

"Yellow-Crest, yellow belly," she spat, "how unsurprising."

The voice was her own, and the dinosaur that stood before her was clearly Yellow, but that couldn't possibly be true, could it? She squeezed her eyes shut, but when she opened them, her copy was still there, pacing, tail erect and killing claws up at the ready. It was the stance of a hunter preparing to make its strike.

"Y- you're not real," Yellow whispered. The second Yellow threw back her head and laughed, a hoarse, barking sound.

"You're right about that. I'm the you that went on to become a Rear in Alpha's pack. When this night came, I outran the voices, left them in my past. I didn't collapse like you did here, thinking of nothing but home and wallowing in my own sorrows, I ran because what I saw ahead of me was more powerful, more inspiring than the things I left behind. The taunts never got to me, my mother never had to teach me not to be afraid of the dark. I was born fearless. And you?" Her mouth curved up in a sneer, "you can't ever hope to become me. The odds were against you right from the start."

Ignoring the pain in her right flank where she fell, Yellow dug her claws into the rough path again and pushed herself back up. She slipped, blinking back tears and squinting through her tired, blurred eyes as she fell again, but despite her failure, she dug in one more time.

"And now you can't even stand up in the face of adversity. Yellow-crest, yellow belly. That's what they all said about you, isn't it? But it's not just your belly, your heart is yellow, too. That fear resides in your entire body, and you'll never be able to free yourself of it."

Yellow pushed, keeping her tail extended to balance herself as she rocked back onto the flat of her feet. Shaking, panting, she brought herself up to her own eye level, and stared calmly into the glowing eyes that challenged her. They didn't try to hide now; they had no need to. They had accomplished their purpose.

"What?" the apparition snorted, "you have something to say? Go run along home."

But Yellow did not run along home. Instead she turned around, away from the spectral, glowing-eyed Fast Biters and started walking, head high and tail proudly raised. She knew the way now- anywhere but towards the eyes. The Night Circle was still high,the trees beside the path, no longer skeletal and foreboding. The stones beneath her feet did not reach up to trip her; they were only stones. Out of the corner of her eye, the glowing eyes began to fade.

"Don't bother!" she heard herself say, "he'll never accept a yellow-bellied coward like you!"

She gave no response. There was no need to. Why waste time talking to what wasn't there?

"Yellow crest, yellow belly! Yellow crest, yellow belly! Yellow crest-"

But instead of running from the terrible, hateful cry of her double, Yellow only smiled. Those words had long since worn themselves out. They were as meaningless to her as the dead leaves that fell from the trees before the cold time, and they brushed just as harmlessly off her back. Before long, she ceased to hear them at all as the familiar, comforting sounds of the night took over. Her stomach rumbled loudly, and this time she welcomed the sound with a light nod.

She was back in control.

…

When the path opened up into a clearing, Yellow knew it was over. She knew even before she saw the slowly-flowing, gleaming stream that cut down the middle of the clearing, trickling quietly through a rocky shelf, the freshly-killed Sailbeak that lay far to the side, or the familiar, red-crested Fast Biter that stood over it, evenly watching as she entered. She did not turn to acknowledge him, but upon realizing that his presence signaled the end of her ordeal, she sank to the ground, weeping softly.

Footsteps approached her, and she was reminded of her confrontation with her strange, spectral double. Had it really happened? Had she imagined the whole thing? After two days without sleep, she wasn't sure what was real anymore, and maybe that was the point. Maybe that, in the end, was the challenge.

But when Red spoke, there was no trace of condescending malice in his tone. Instead, he simply uttered, "rise, Yellow-Crest. Your challenge is over."

Yellow looked up to him and was surprised to find that he bore a wide smile, something she'd never seen him do before. She mentally kicked herself as she blinked the tears from her eyes, chiding herself on what was probably a pathetic display in front of such an important dinosaur. As she returned to her feet, Red led her over to the stream, where she bent down to drink. Before she could lower her snout in, however, he stopped her.

"Look in that water, Yellow-Crest. What do you see?"

He hadn't said anything about the challenge yet, and Yellow was growing anxious waiting for his verdict. Had she passed, or was this just his way of giving her a nice meal before dismissing her?

"I see me," she answered him honestly, looking back at the gaunt, tired face that stared up at her from the reflective surface.

"I see more than that. I see the makings of a truly great hunter. Please, drink."

Yellow lowered her head down to the surface, lapping greedily at the water as Red continued to talk.

"I know who you are, Yellow-Crest, and I know the things you've had to deal with growing up. I know about your fears, the fights, all of the things they used to call you… and I know how you proved everyone wrong on your first hunt."

He was going somewhere with this, Yellow was certain, but right now she was too tired, hungry, and thirsty to really listen. Having drunk her fill, she turned her sights on the Sailbeak, then towards Red with an inquisitive look. He gave her a nod in response.

"I knew, from the moment you asked to join my pack, that you were something special, so I knew I couldn't give you an ordinary test. Instead I chose something a little non-traditional. Tonight you walked the Alpha's path."

Yellow almost choked on the piece of muscle she was chewing on. The very existence of the Alpha's path was regarded as something of a myth among most, namely because if the pack Alphas knew anything about it, they kept their mouths shut. But Red's confession seemed to shed some light on the otherwise unbelievable. It existed after all, and she…

She had walked it. It took a moment for that fact to sink in past her hazy thoughts, but when it did she felt a surge of excitement. The Alpha's path was supposed to be the hardest challenge any pack member could ever face, a challenge that went far beyond a test of physical prowess and coordination. To her knowledge, no other non-Alpha had ever walked it. She was the first.

"But.. but why me?" she asked as Red padded silently over to her. He seemed to take a moment to think about his answer, all the while locking his eyes on her own. She remembered the eyes on the path, but the recollection didn't scare her anymore. It was just another memory now.

"I had you walk the path because I knew no other challenge would truly test you. You've already proven that you can hunt with the best of them, and I know you're sharp, so I turned to the only enemy you had left: your own thoughts. It's hard to get rid of bad memories, and the Alpha's path, well, it has a funny way of bringing those things back into the light. The hunger and exhaustion tend to help with that. I remember my walk. Almost got lost in the woods following a voice that wasn't there."

Yellow tried to suppress a snort of disbelief. Red, the dinosaur who was by now prepared to become an Alpha, had lost his way on the trail? Suddenly her own stumblings seemed far less terrible. He caught on to her gesture and managed to chuckle at his own expense.

"Yeah, not my best moment. I saw things I had once hoped I would never see again. But they passed, and eventually, I came here, to this clearing, and Alpha Superior was waiting for me, just as I waited for you, to personally grant me my title. And speaking of which…"

Red climbed up on the Sailbeak, looking down at Yellow as he issued his proclamation.

"Yellow-Crest, you have passed your challenge as set forth by me. In accordance with our ways, I will now take the name of Alpha, and you will be Rear. You will stand guard at the rear of the pack as your name implies, and the safety of all will be entrusted to you. I cannot think of another dinosaur I would trust more with that responsibility."

"Thank you, R- Alpha," she whispered, tears brimming again in the corners of her eyes. This time she made no attempt to stop them, "thank you so much!"

"Congratulations, Rear," he replied, stepping down and helping himself to the carcass. Rear stepped back, breathing in the cool, night air as she embraced the reality of her new name, and her new life. She'd made it. She was part of a pack now. And as she returned to her Alpha's side to sate her hunger, she tossed around that new name in her mind, speaking it to herself in her mind's eye over and over again. "Rear." The most important position in a pack besides the Alpha. That was her now. Her crest was yellow, true, but that was no longer what defined her. She had proven herself on the Alpha's path; nothing would ever put her down again.

"Incidentally," Alpha asked, his voice taking on a much more conversational tone now that the two were officially of the same pack, "what did you see on that trail?"

Rear thought carefully about her answer. The things she had seen and heard, even if she knew them to be false, were quite personal. She wasn't sure she was ready to tell someone else about them just yet. As the hunter saying went, "check that the prey is really down before you start jumping on it." But she offered her new leader and friend a smile of her own as she replied with what was technically the truth.

"A lot of useless crap, Alpha. Nothing of importance anymore."

It was their first friendly conversation, and it would not be their last. And as the two Fast Biters finished their meal, their bellies full and satisfied, both lay down in the middle of the clearing, side-by-side, bathed in the calming light of the Night Circle, Rear and Alpha, protector and leader.

And together, the phantoms of their past far behind them, they drifted off into well-earned sleep.