Part VI: The Revelation
Upon recieving no response, but just a couple of astonished and awed stares, the dragon lowered her massive head towards the ground. She pressed her snout gently next to Pterano's long beak, and then positioned her head so that her eye was only a few inches in front of the sharp end of the beak. She seemed to be examining him, or reading his thoughts. Pterano felt small and weak in front of this gigantic flyer. "Are you not going to give me a response?" She asked the tiny flyer. "Or shall I bid farewell now?"
Pterano finally found his voice. "N-No! No!" He cried. "I was just...I..." He stammered, his knees knocking against each other as he shook. "You see..."
"He wants to make a wish." Gorjak replied, looking slightly calmer than Pterano. "I-I...I guess he's just a bit...a bit... Oh what's the word...?"
"Nervous?" The flamebreath asked.
"Yeah! That's it!" Gorjak said, nodding his head quickly. "Nervous."
Pterano narrowed his eyes. "I-I am not n-nervous!" He said almost defiently. "I...I'm just...a bit..." His voice faded. He couldn't think of what else to say. The dragon lifted her head up, and looked down at both the flyers, trying to determine what to do. She had laid dormant inside the threehorn's body for years, and this was the first time in years she was awakened from her slumber, and she was just told they want a wish. She sighed mentally. What selfish wish would they possibly want?
The dragon smiled slightly, but the flyers couldn't see it. She was so sick of animals making selfish wishes that she decided to steal the life force of the wisher, and say she needed it to make big wishes come true. She didn't do this out of cruelty. She just wanted some more animals to make wishes for everyone, and not just for a single being; themselves. But sadly, she did realize that once she had done this, there was no way to reverse it. She had slowly realized that it was she who was being selfish now. Now she cannot undo the spell she put on herself. She felt ashamed.
She finally spoke after a few long minutes of cold silence. "What wish do you want?" She asked, her eyes glowing slightly. "I shall grant you any wish you want. But be careful: a simple wish I can grant free, but make a complex wish, I need lifeforce of thee."
Pterano nodded. "Yes, we know that." His claws fumbled together in a nervous manner. "I know just what I want to." He took in a deep breath, and prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. "I wish that..."
"WAIT!" Gorjak cried out. He quickly grabbed Pterano's beak, and squeezed it shut, preventing the flyer from talking. Pterano glared at the black flyer, and squirmed to get free, his voice nothing but mutters and indistinguishable gibberish. "I have a wish!" He looked down at the larger flyer, who looked up at him with angry and shocked eyes. "I'm sorry. I want to go first." He said, smiling slightly.
The dragon blinked, but nodded, and said, "Okay then. Proceed."
Gorjak nodded, and lowered his head. He released his grip on Pterano. Before he could get a word out, Pterano shouted, "What do you think you are doing! I am the one who should sacrifice my life, not you!"
The dark flyer laughed softly, grinning. "I already said I was sorry. I cannot let you throw your life away. I may not know you that well, but I won't allow you to go through with this." He turned his attention back up to the female flamebreath. "Flamebreath, I wish that the loved ones who perished in this valley thanks to the sharptooth horde would come back and combat against this enemy!"
Pterano's mouth dropped open. "What...?" He said, staring at Gorjak, unblinking. "You're wishing that..."
Gorjak turned to Pterano. "The Living Dead are immortal, Pterano. They cannot die, because they are already dead."
Pterano felt color fade away from his face. "Y-You can't be serious... You didn't just...you didn't just wish that...the living dead...would come here... D-D-Did you?"
Gorjak smiled, almost slightly darkly, and turned his back to Pterano, and looked up at the flamebreath. "I am ready." He announced, and closed his eyes.
The dragon nodded. "As you desire. I shall grant thy wish!" She held up her paws, the sharp talons glowing with a bright yellow energy. Electricity crackled from it. As the flyers watched, the energy became larger, and more vibrant and active. The dragon's entire body started to glow. She then lowered one paw down, and tapped her claw in Gorjak's head. The flyer's eyes widened, and he let out a scream as electricity invaded his body. Pterano watched, horrified, as Gorjak convulsed right in front of him. Gorjak's body glowed bright yellow for a few seconds, and then suddenly he fell to the ground, the light fading.
The dragon pulled her claw away, leaving the dead body of Gorjak just laying there. She then held her paw in the air, and many hundreds of little bolts of energy crackled out, shooting their energy into the ground all across the Great Valley. This process lasted a few seconds. When all the energy in her paw was gone, she went back on all fours. "It is done." With that, the dragon disappeared into a glow of yellow light, and escaped back inside Cera's dead, rotting body.
Pterano ignored the dragon's words. He was too busy staring in shock at Gorjak's electrocuted body. He was now entirely black, completely charred by the electrical current. His eyes were wide open, and pure white, no pupil in sight. His mouth was open as if he was still screaming. When Pterano looked harder, he could see a bit of blood leaking from underneath the body, possibly coming from the head where the claw had shot electricity into. Pterano sniffed the air, and flinched. The stench of cooked flesh was apparent in the air. He started breathing through his mouth.
Then Gorjak's body started to glow once more. As the pteranodon watched, the body transformed into a solid white light, and began to fall apart into little white circles. These particles then scattered across the sky, creating a miniature light show. Pterano watched as the lights shot out into outer space, and then vanished before his eyes.
"Gorjak..." Pterano whispered. "Why did you do that?" But he knew he would get no answer. Letting out a soft mournful sigh, he got up, and prepared to fly back to Littlefoot. But a noise caught his attention. He listened for it again, but it didn't come. He shrugged it off, and opened up his wing span to take off. But then he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.
"And where do you think you are going?"
"That voice..it can't be..." Pterano whispered, shaking. He then stiffened, and turned his head. "AHHHHHH!"
There, right before him, was Cera. But she wasn't healed or anything. Her head was still crushed, her body still torn. The maggots were still inside, eating away at her organs. Her mouth was open, and a few flies darted out, making Pterano feel like he was going to throw up. The threehorn was clearly not breathing, but she was standing, as though some outside force was assisting her.
Although she had no eyes, somehow she could still see, as though by magic. She took a few steps towards Pterano, her rotting face only inches from Pterano's own face. "Why are you here?" The threehorn asked worriedly, surprising the pteranodon. "Don't you know Chomper's back?"
Pterano gulped, and looked up at Cera's disgustingly deformed head. "Y-Yes o-o-o-of course I know-know..."
Although no expression could be placed physically, the sound of Cera's voice indicated just how she felt. "What is the matter with you? You act like you've seen a Living Dead." She laughed at that comment. Cera still didn't trust Pterano that much, but she felt she could rely on him in this time of crisis.
"W-Well..I just did..." Pterano squeaked.
"What...?" The triceratops asked.
Pterano covered his face, and pointed where some water was that would provide reflection for her. Cera walked towards it, and looked into it. She could see her mutilated face, her rotting body, up and walking. She could see the little bugs inside her. She could see her own torn muscles and her slightly exposed brain.
It took her only a second for the confirmation before her to sink in. She was the Living Dead that Pterano was talking about. She did the only thing she could think of: scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream echoed for miles. It was as though the whole valley could hear her. As she screamed, Pterano felt the ground rumble beneath his feet. The ground seemed to almost come alive right before him. He screamed loudly himself as rotting bodies emerged from the ground, shaking the dirt off of them. They were all victims of the sharptooth invasion, and they were all pretty torn up. A few places dismembered limbs also came to life, crawling out of the ground, dragging itself along the dirt.
Soon everyone in the valley, sharptooth and leaf-eater alike, stopped, stared in shock, and in somewhat horror, as the ground burst open, revealing lots of corpses, walking on their own, both leaf-eater and meat-eater.
"What the..?" Blueye asked herself, backing away as a torn-up Hyp rose from the ground, and walked towards her menacingly. She backed away, and allowed fear to grip hold of her heart. "I-It can't be!"
"But it is..." Sandstorm whispered in awe as he watched the Hyp zombie attack Blueye. "It's real."
Red watched in horror as Blueye found herself being mauled by a dead dinosaur. He quickly turned around and roared. "You! What have you done!" He advanced on the middle-aged velociraptor. "What did you just do!"
"I did nothing." Sandstorm said defiantly, glaring.
Red gripped him by the neck. "Liar!" He raised his paw to slash Sandstorm, but then something gripped his arm before he could make the swing. "Wha...?" He turned over and screamed when he saw the rotting corpse of Mutt pulling on his arm, growling mercilessly. "AAAAAHHHHH!" Red screamed again, releasing his grip on Sandstorm.
Sandstorm looked at Mutt and said, "Thank you." He then turned around and took off running.
"L-Littlefoot..." Rex pleaded as Littlefoot prepared to fight. "Please don't make me fight you... Surely there must be another way for you to trust me again." He almost had tears come out of his eyes.
Littlefoot didn't buy into this so-called 'act', and said, "Sorry, but yes, that's the only way..." He kicked up the dirt with his foot, a sign he's ready to charge. "Okay, sharptooth, prepare to..." Then he felt the ground shake beneath him. "What...?"
Rex felt it too. "What's going on?" He asked, but not expecting a reply. The dracovol searched all over for the sound. Suddenly General Chomper shouted something.
"THEY'RE HEADING THIS WAY! STAMPEDE!"
Suddenly, just as he said that, something charged into the clearing, knocking Chomper onto the ground. Littlefoot and Rex looked upon this in astonishment. The carnotaurus got up onto his feet, and turned to face the one who knocked him down. His eyes widened, and he backed away. "N-No...it can't be... Y-You're dead..." Chomper backed away some more, shaking from fright. "I-I killed you."
Littlefoot gasped as he saw who it was who attacked Chomper. He gulped as the figure turned to face him. That face, he'd recognize it anywhere. Although the body was torn and mangled from when Chomper took this poor dinosaur's life, Littlefoot could still recognize it.
"Sh-Sh-Shorty...?"
Shorty smiled. "Miss me, Littlefoot?"
Littlefoot smiled in return, and nodded. "Yes..I have."
Jackal and Yu were just about to face off when something interrupted their battle. Yu had backed away and took off to save himself, leaving Jackal to his doom when a couple Living Dead attacked Jackal. Yu raced across the forest, almost scared half to death by what he had just seen. "Living Dead? Here? Now? How?" So many questions, his mind was boggled.
He then bumped into something, and slammed back into the ground. He rubbed his head, and looked up. "Who's there?" He asked, and then his mouth dropped open. He didn't recognize who it was, but it was indeed another Living Dead, a triceratops this time. This one had a crushed up head, but he could still tell it was snarling. It was black with light grey head and underside. The skin around its eyes were also black.
"Where is Chomper?" The figure demanded. "Take me to him, you good-for-nothing sharptooth!" He did a mach charge to both scare Yu and show him that he was being serious.
Yu stammered, "O-O-Okay, s-sir... I'll try to lead you to him."
Another snarl came from the torn throat of the black threehorn. "No, not try. You WILL!" He pointed one of his slightly shattered horn at Yu. "And if you mislead me, I will impale you! Go that?"
Yu gulped and nodded. "Y-Yes..."
The threehorn smiled almost evilly. "Okay. Let's go!"
"Chomper!" Dil cried out.
"Hey we got news!" Mel shouted.
"Where are you?" Ichy screamed.
"Chomper!" Lizzie exclaimed.
The bellydraggers and sharpbeaks had been looking for Chomper for a while, but they have had no luck in finding the sharptooth. They had not yet seen the Living Dead, and they were so preoccupied they had not heard Cera's scream.
"I don't get it..." Mel said, rolling his eyes. "I thought he was here." He stopped walking. "I need to rest."
"Rest!" Ichy said, perching ontop of Mel's nose. "Are you that lazy!"
Mel narrowed his eyes dangerously. He bared his teeth and let out a guttural growl. "What are you, my mother?" Ichy widened his eyes and gulped. He quickly flew off the angry croc's mouth and went back to Dil.
Dil sighed. "Mel's right about one thing, Ichy. We do need to rest."
"Why?" Ichy asked.
"Yeah, shouldn't we still be looking for General Chomper?" Lizzie asked. "We don't want to be late with our report."
"Hey! You sharpbeaks ride us, so of course you aren't tired!" Dil said angrily. "But we bellydraggers have been walking for a long time and we aren't as young as we used to be!"
Mel nodded. "Yeah, you two trying walking for many hours and see how tired you feel afterwards."
Ichy growled, but acknowledged what the bellydraggers told him. "All right, all right! We'll rest up for a few minutes."
"But after a few minutes, we continue searching." Lizzie said.
"All right, all right." Dil and Mel said at once before they curled up slightly, and closed their eyes. The sharpbeaks shook their heads, but also decided to rest as well. They lay next to the bellydraggers, and lay down on their stomachs.
But what they were unaware of was a pair of glowing white eyes watching them as they slept. They walked closer to the sleeping group, teeth bared menacingly. They casted a shadow across the pair, causing Lizzie to stir in her sleep.
"Hmm...who turned out the light...?" She murmured before opening one eye. She stared in horror at the creature standing before her. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Her scream caused Mel, Dil, and Ichy to jump awake. "Where's the fire!" Ichy said, looking around. He walked over to Lizzie. "Lizzie, what's wrong?"
"What's going on?" Dil said, turning her head left and right, trying to figure out what was going on. "I wish I had good sight!" She shouted to herself.
"Living Dead!" Mel shouted.
Ichy shook his head. "Living Dead? What's he talking about, Lizzie?" The female bird didn't respond. She just pointed a feather in front of her. Ichy sighed and took a look for himself. He almost screamed from fright.
"Living Dead!" He screamed. "Run! Fly!" As the group tried to make their getaway, they soon found themselves being pursued by some of the zombie dinosaurs from the war.
"How can they be alive?" Lizzie asked as she struggled to fly faster.
"Someone made a wish!" Mel shouted.
"It must've been that Pterano character who did this!" Ichy said. They continued running as the zombie dinosaurs started to catch up to them. "We've got to go faster!"
Suddenly they slammed into a hard rock wall. "Oh no..." Lizzie said. "Not the valley wall...not now..."
Mel shivered. "Now we're in for it..."
The group of meat-eaters prepared to stand and fight as the Living Dead sneered, and cornered them up against the wall. From miles away, some of the dinosaurs and other organisms could hear their screams echo as they were viciously and brutally attacked by the zombies.