New Worlds

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Well Hello there my wonderful readers! So this is it, the last set of chapters before we hit the epilogue. Are you excited?! I know I am! For this chapter, however, things are going to get graphic. So take this as the trigger warning for the whole chapter. If descriptions of the female menstrual cycle is something that you can't handle, definitely don't read this chapter, and don't read the next one either! As always don't forget to drop a review or a fav or a follow and I'll do my best to get the chapter up next week!

Chapter 19 – The Troublesome Twelves Part 1

Una had been acting strange for the last week or so.

She was moody, and snappy, which she usually never was. She was usually so very well behaved, or at the very least respectful. But for some reason, all this week she had been horrible.

She was sick a lot too. Suddenly her stomach hurt and these weird white bumps appeared on her skin, especially on her shoulders and face.

At first they thought she had burned her skin. That had happened a couple times when she was little. These big leaking pockets on her shoulders. Terra had told Rela it was from the sun, that bipeds were weak against the sun, which was ridiculous.

But Una was careful, she very rarely got the burns from the sun anymore, and these were smaller. And while white came out of these too, it was a different consistency.

But then, these little white pockets, the weird moods they only happened for a few days, but it was happening every moon cycle. Especially when the moon was high and full.

Rela knew that some creatures on the island were ruled by the moon but she had never thought that her little hatchling would be one of them.

Her hatchling was going through so many changes recently.

For starters her scent had changed, in fact it went through many changes. It always got a little muskier around her moody days. She was suddenly sprouting up, getting taller. She was almost as tall as her mummy.

Rela knew that Una would one day grow out of her cute little stage, but she was so used to it now that she found she didn't want her hatchling to change or grow up.

Hair was starting to go on her too. Her arms and legs and always had fine hair, but now it seemed to be getting darker and thicker, though it was still thin around her ankles and feet where she was the muddiest. The hair on her head was growing longer too.

It was getting harder for her to manage, though she was using bits of her second skin to tie it back and out of her face and eyes. Otherwise she wouldn't have been able to see at all.

She kept saying if she found something sharp she'd cut it all off again. At this rate it was almost all the way down her back.

But then, just when she had thought that she had gotten accustomed to all her hatchlings changes a new one came, literally out of nowhere.

She was just walking through the jungle, the whole pack with them, when the smell of blood hit the air. The tanginess of it meant it was fresh, but this wasn't a kill. Not that they knew of, not this close to them, not when they hadn't heard the struggle.

Immediately they were all looking around. Spontaneous blood smells meant injuries. And if someone was injured it would be up to Una to heal them the way she had been taking care of her herbivores.

But it wasn't one of the raptors… it was Una.

"You're bleeding,"

That had come from Rhum. Rela turned to him and realize he was talking to Una and she was staring at him confused.

Which made no sense because she was the one bleeding and she hadn't seemed to realize that she was. But there it was, they could see it dripping down the insides of her legs.

"You are!" Rela cried moving towards her.

"I am?" she asked. "Where?"

There wasn't a lot of blood, but it was enough to be leaking down her legs. How could she not tell she was hurt?

"Where is it coming from?" Roc asked, nudging his way into through the crowd that had surrounded her hatchling.

"I'm not sure," Rela said, lowing herself. She tried to nudge her way up Una's second skin but she moved away.

"Stop it mummy," she hissed. "I'm fine, I'm not hurt."

"But you're bleeding," she said insistently. Creatures didn't just bleed for no reason. Una had to be hurt in some way.

"I'm not, I don't know… I don't know what's happening," she said staring down at her feet, where the blood was starting to drip to.

"Show me, I need to know where it's coming from."

Una hissed at her, because she was in her moody, disobedient days, but after Rela just shot her with a challenging glare, she did as she was told. She lifted her second skin up and she was right, there were no injuries so to say. No punctures or scrapes.

So where was it coming from?

"I think… I think it's coming out of her," Roc said softly.

Rela had only seen something like that once.

One of the pack had been rammed straight on by a triceratops during a hunt. The poor creature had been in agony, coughing up blood until finally it went quiet.

But her hatchling wasn't coughing it out.

It seemed to be coming out of her… sex part?

Oh that couldn't be normal!

She knew other things came out of that area, bodily wastes and such, but never had there ever been blood before.

"Out of me? Out of where?"

Her fingers probed into her sex area and came back slick with blood.

She stared at her fingers and then she dropped the second skin to hatchling rub the blood off of her fingers. Her hatchling was starting to panic, she could tell. And to be fair Rela was starting to panic too.

"Does it hurt there?" her mother asked, trying to butt her head under the second skin to see what was going on. Una swatted her away again. She was very sensitive around her sex parts these days, didn't like her mom going near there.

Used to be she'd let her mom thoroughly clean her, but now Una did it herself.

"No… I mean… my stomach kind of hurts…"

"And you're sure you didn't hit it?"

"No. I didn't."

Roc turned to Rela. "If she isn't hurt why is she bleeding?"

Rela looked up to her hatchling who was staring down at her legs as the blood continued to trickle down them, like she had no idea what was happened and just seemed mesmerized by the way it was moving.

Roc moved towards her leg and licked at the blood and then reeled back.

"It tastes funny," he said and then all the raptors were moving forward to take a taste while Una squealed and tried to move away. Except she was surrounded and couldn't get far.

"It does," Rela concluded. "That's strange, I've never tasted anything like that before."

"Do you think that means it's not an injury then? She's not hurt, she's just… bleeding?"

"Maybe it's like shedding," Rhum said. "Monkeys do that."

"Their fur comes off sometimes, but that's a sign of disease," Rela snapped. She didn't want to think her hatchling was sick.

She didn't know how to heal biped sicknesses. She didn't have anyone to help her.

Una's breathing was getting laboured. She was getting overwhelmed. "Everyone back away now!" Rela ordered and they all moved away. "Go back to the hunt, Rhum, you take them."

Rhum bobbed his head in understanding, but before leaning in to lick at Una's wobbling chin. It was a sign of affection, as he was prone to giving her those.

All of the pack left, except Roc, who stood by side Rela. Once they were gone, Roc asked: "Is this a sickness?"

Rela had been wondering that too, but she didn't want to scared Una, which was exactly what happened.

"I'm sick?" Una cried.

"No!" Rela said quickly. "No… it's… you're fine. You feel fine don't you?"

Una nodded and Rela nodded to.

"See," she snarled to Roc. "She's fine."

"She's bleeding and we don't know why," Roc growled back.

They exchanged challenging stares for a while. This was clearly a problem, a problem that neither of them knew how to fix.

"Mummy," Una whined and Rela realized she was going to have to be strong.

"Do you have second skins that you can use?"

"I… no? I don't… this isn't… I don't think so…"

"We'll have to do something. That smell will attract every predator in the area and you know it."

Rela sighed, he was right, it would. They would have to do something.

"We'll keep her in the water until it stops, okay?"

"Do you think that'll work?"

Water covered most smells, it would have to work.

"I'll take her back to the nest. You, you see if you can gather some fruit for her."

Roc nodded before scampering off, disappearing into the foliage.

Rela brought Una back to the nest, nudging her into the creek as soon as they got close so she didn't leave a trail of blood all the way back to them. Roc would scent the place as he came back, she was sure of it. That would get rid of the smell she was leaving.

Once they got her in the water it seemed to stop, but then she'd stand up and it would start again. Her stomach wasn't that bad, rolling pain but nothing too serious.

Once Roc brought back food for her, Rela thought Una's stomach would feel better. But unfortunately it did not. Usually food made stomach stuffs better. What could be wrong with her that food couldn't fix?

By night time the bleeding had not let up and Rela was getting more and more worried. Una would have to sleep in the creek for the night. Una didn't like this, her toes were all wrinkly, which meant she had spent too much time in the water, and she was cold. But they didn't have a choice.

Rela curled herself up on the bank by her hatchling, allowing the girl to lean against her. She would stay the whole night, she had promised Una, and in the morning she'd be better. She just needed to sleep it off.

Rela herself needed to believe this too, because otherwise it meant something was seriously wrong with her hatchling. She wouldn't be able to handle it if there were.

She couldn't lose Una, too. She just couldn't.

-JP-JP-JP-

Rela woke up with the dawn that morning, as she always did, to her Hatchling curled up against her flank, the lower half of her still in the creek.

Though she usually let Una sleep in, she needed to see if she was right, so she nudged Una awake.

Her little hatchling had narrowed those blue eyes at her, not happy to be awoken that early, but she did as her mother was told. She got out of the water and together they waited to see if there was more blood.

And at first there wasn't.

Rela was relieved for those brief few moments

And then Una sneezed and it practically shot out of her like a water spout. Rela had barked in surprise which had prompted the awakening of the rest of the pack who all came to see the commotion.

Which meant they saw Una standing there, so much more blood dripping from her, painting her legs and creating a puddle around her feet.

The blood was different too. There were now thick black globs in it, and all of them were standing around staring at her whispering to one another in absolute horror because they had absolutely no idea what was happening.

So it wasn't entirely surprising when Una started crying.

Rela turned her focus away from the blood leaking out of her hatchling, and focused on the tears leaking out of her instead.

"No, no, it's okay, it's okay."

"What's happening, mummy? Why is this happening to me?"

But Rela had no idea. Literally not a single clue, the only thing she could think was that this had to be some biped illness. Her hatchling was sick, maybe even dying, and Rela wouldn't be able to help her.

"I don't know, I don't know… I… we're going to figure it out, please get back in the water. I'll… I'll be right back."

She nudged her hatchling into the little stream, watched as she sat down and used the water to rub all the blood away from her. The water briefly turning red around her until it was all gone.

This was serious.

"She can't stay here," Roc whispered. "The others are getting nervous. Even with the water that smell is growing. She'll have to move…"

"Make her leave the nest? When something's wrong?" Rela hissed. "We're not abandoning her."

"I'm not saying to abandon her, I'm saying we needed to bring her somewhere else. Somewhere away from the others…"

Rela hated to admit it but he was right. As much as she loved her hatchling, she couldn't put Una's comfort above everyone else's safety.

"Fine, but I'm staying with her…"

"Of course, we can trade off, take turns."

But Rela didn't want to leave her hatchling. If she was right about what this was, and she was hoping she wasn't, she didn't have much time left with her hatchling. She didn't want to chance leaving her alone and having something happen.

"I'll find a suitable place for her," Rela said. "I'll let you know when I find it."

She plodded back to the river and Una looked up to her. "Come Una."

Una stood up right away, the second she was out of the water the blood started again. It was getting heavier. That definitely wasn't good.

But again, she didn't want to scare her hatchling, so she just nudged her forward like she normally would. So long as she seemed calm Una would be too.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see," Rela said because she couldn't bring herself to tell her hatchling what was happening.

She led her hatchling, farther and farther away. Not because she wanted her pack to be safe, but because she couldn't find a place along the banks of the stream that she thought would be a safe place to keep her hatchlings while she was going through this.

The walked all the way to waterfall that fed their stream. It wouldn't be the safest place to hide her hatchling as predators often used this waterfall to drink, but she could already make out a few safe nooks to hide them in to keep them safe.

"What are we doing here?"

Rela turned to her hatchling, and then nudged her into the water.

"Can't I get out now? We're far enough away from the others…"

"We need to keep the smell at bay. How… how are you feeling?"

"Fine. It feels… weird… like… sometimes I can feel it coming out of me… almost in a slow motion. I don't like it… I want it to stop. Why hasn't stopped yet?"

"I don't know. Why don't you… why don't you catch us some fish?"

Una didn't have her pouch, but she found a stick that she splintered into something sharp to use. She speared her mother some fish, Roc brought some mangoes for her to eat.

"Can we go home now?" she asked when they were done eating and Rela faltered.

"Not yet," she whispered.

"You're leaving me here, aren't you?" Una hissed, tears brimming up in her eyes again. Though she seemed to be angry instead of sad. "Aren't you?"

"I'm not leaving you, but we can't go back…"

The tears began to stream out of her face and with the tears came this sudden anger she had never see her hatchling possess.

"Just admit it! You're going to abandon me, because the pack matters more than me!"

"No Una! I'm not going to abandon you. I am going to be here until the very end. With you. I promise. We just… we can't have you bringing a predator back to the nest."

"Just leave me. Leave me to die! You never wanted me anyway! You just want that clutch! The one you let die!"

Rela reeled back. What a horrible accusation to hurl at her mummy. She had never ever said anything like that to her before, Rela hadn't ever thought she could give her hatchling that impression.

"Una!" she cried, and her hatchling flinched, those tears free flowing down her face.

She was scared. She was scared and lashing out like any animal would.

Rela nuzzled in close to her hatchling's side. "I know you're scared, but I promise you, all will be okay."

Una sniffed and then turned to her mummy. "How do you know?"

"A mother just knows."

She was lying of course. She had no idea how this was going to end, but she hadn't been lying about one thing.

She was going to be there until the very end.

-JP-JP-JP-

It had been hard to sleep, hidden amongst the reeds. Her hatchling half submerged in the water, leaning against her body.

Rela had watched through the night to make sure no predators came to them in the night.

By morning she was exhausted.

Roc had come to take her place. He brought Rela food, let her sleep, and when she was awake again he presented her with a problem.

Una was craving foods, badly.

He wasn't sure where to find the root she was asking for, so he was going to get Rhum and see if he knew where to find it.

He also relayed the pack was wondering if she meant to make Rhum new alpha, if he'd take her place. It was distressing that they were already thinking of replacing her. It meant she should go back, just to assert her dominance, but Rela refused to leave. Because Una mattered more to her.

She could always fight her way back to the top again if she had to.

She had Una stand again, to see if the bleeding had stopped, but it hadn't. It was just as bad as the day before, maybe even a fraction heavier.

Una's crabbiness was getting more vocal, more apparent on her face. Rela let her bathe in the sun to keep herself warm, but was sure to put her back in the water when the smell got to overpowering.

When Roc returned he had Rhum with him and they had brought back all of Una's favourite foods just in case.

She was so happy to see them that she had started crying.

Her emotions had never been that unstable before.

The root Una had wanted had been dug up out of the ground, they could only be found at one of the human compounds. Una spent a great deal of time washing the dirt off of them so she could peel the brown away to reveal an orange underside that she bit into right away.

Before he left for the day, Roc commented that things seemed to be calming down.

Yes, Rela had said, just like the calm before a storm.

The worst had yet to come, but she knew it was bearing down on them. She thought herself sufficiently prepared.

But she was wrong.