CHAPTER 10: ALONE IN THE WORLD
The sun constantly beat down on Marie like a hammer as she continued to fly through the skies in search of the Great Valley,she had embraced her newfound freedom with stride and tried to make as much distance as she could from her former underground prison. However her increasingly growing hunger due to the lack of any food had caused her to gently glide down to a small gorge and search for something to eat.
"I could really use something to eat,assuming I'm even able to find anything." moaned Marie in hunger as she could feel her stomach growling violently before proceeding to start her search by walking through the gorge. The land looked like it hadn't been touched by a single drop of water in ages,cracks in the ground caused it to cave in at completely random intervals and a pin drop silence filled the dusty air. After a little while of not having any luck,Marie was just about to give up and look someplace else until she spotted what appeared to be a cave in one of the walls of the gorge and the young Fire Breather perked up at the sight of it,surely there must have been some kind of food in there.
As Marie did a light jog towards the entrance of the cave,she suddenly stopped in her tracks when she swore she heard something that sounded like growling from behind her,albeit very faint as she turned around and called out "Hello?" only for her to not receive any answer before brushing it off and cautiously heading inside the cave,unaware that three silhouetted figures peaked up from behind a boulder.
The cave wasn't too dark thanks to rays of sunlight slicing through the very thin ceiling and also thanks to Marie's scales seemingly glowing in the faint darkness that there was,but unfortunately Marie was still having no luck finding anything to eat. Eventually she decided to give up and head on back but just as she turned around towards the entrance of the cave,she would be left startled when she saw three fast biters staring at her with menacing grins,she had only heard of sharpteeth via stories told to her by her mother as well as knowledge that they could speak and understand their language. One of the fast buyers had red skin while the second had blue skin and the last one had a mixture of black and green skin.
"Well,well,well what do we have here." said the first fast biter in it's distinct language before the second devilishly remarked "I think I know what it is,it looks like a good meal." to which the third biter hissed like a snake "We ain't never seen anything like you before. You're a long way from home aren't you?"
"Easy,easy." whispered Marie in a fearful yet composed tone as she slowly started to back away only for the fast bitters to give off a menacing hiss while they followed after her,resulting in the young one nervously trying to reason with them with a light chuckle "You really don't wanna do this. Surely I can't be enough for all three of you?"
"We'll manage,oh we will manage." cackled the first fast biter as he stuck out his snake like tongue before Marie turned around and quickly ran deeper into the cave,with the fast biters immediately following after her. Marie ran as fast as she could and didn't look back at the risk of tripping or getting nipped at by her pursuers' razor sharp teeth.
Unfortunately it didn't take Marie too long for her to reach a dead end that stood in her way,there was nowhere else for her to go,she couldn't turn back and she couldn't fly away because the ceiling was too low for her,she was literally stuck.
"There you are." the chilling voice of one of the fast biters chortled out as Marie fearfully turned around to see the three predators slowly approaching her with menacing grins on their faces. It was at this moment that Marie realized she only had one more option at her disposal,but it was not only extremely risky but not even guaranteed to work at all,but ultimately she knew she had to do something as she got into a battle stance.
"S-stay back!" demanded Marie in a fierce tone of voice only for the fast biters to snicker as they continued to approach her to which Marie once again commanded "I said stay back! I-I'm warning you!" but yet again the fast biters refused. Marie began to breathe heavily,intimidation wasn't working at all and she was mere moments away from being torn to shreds,but she wouldn't give up and yelled one last time as a blue light lit up in her mouth "I SAID BACK OFF!!"
Just as Marie yelled those words,a blue ball of fire shot out of her mouth at near lightning speed and struck the ground in front of the fast biters,just barely missing their feet as a pile of rocks and debris shot up into the air before landing down into a mess of rubble.
The fast biters were horrified at the sight in front them,they had never seen anything like that before and had no idea what could happen next. Marie didn't feel any better as panic began to set in,she didn't intend for a blast that big to come out and she didn't intend to nearly blow off their feet either.
"No no no no." whimpered Marie in a panic as she tried to back away from the fast biters only to be met with the cold feeling of the solid wall behind her,all while the fast biters looked down at the ground in fear stricken awe before one of them looked up at the child and stammered "What are you?"
"I warned you and you didn't listen! Just let me go please!" cried out Marie as a few tears of fear began to well up in her eyes,but before anyone else could respond another voice suddenly called out from behind the fast biters "That is enough!" sending chills to everyone that was in the cave. The voice was old and raspy,yet it had a booming tone to it that nearly shook the walls of the cave.
The ground began to vibrate as loud footsteps could be faintly heard before they grew louder and louder,and fear had completely taken over Marie at this point as she crouched down and shook like the floor. It didn't take long for the source of the footsteps to be made visible as what appeared to be none other than an elderly T-Rex stepped past the three fast biters and slowly approached the trembling child,he stopped mere feet away from Marie and lowered his head down before sniffing her a few times,much to her confusion and horror. Was this beast of a dinosaur going to eat her? However instead of chomping his large jaws on her in one fell swoop,the T-Rex instead did something completely different.
"Mmmmm,as I suspected." murmured the T-Rex to himself in an oddly calm voice before declaring in a much louder and authoritarian tone "She will not be harmed." resulting in the others including Marie gasping in shock.
"W-what?" questioned a confused Marie as she slowly looked up at the T-Rex only for the latter to smile and offer in an oddly kind manner "Come." to which Marie cautiously stood up and followed behind the towering T-Rex,with the fast biters following behind her. She had no idea what was going on and why they weren't gonna eat her but it seemed like her only option was to keep moving forward if she had any hope of reaching the Great Valley.