CHAPTER FOUR: FIRE!

A few days later, Orni's fortune had changed. She'd had a harder time finding eggs. She had found some eggs just now, but the mother, a Flyer, had come back as she had grabbed an egg. The creature had tried to claw out her eyes, but missed, tearing out her shoulder. Orni had fled as fast as she could, dropping the egg as she shielded her face from attack. So now, she had no food and was putting some leaves on her bleeding shoulder in hopes of making it stop bleeding.

Something began to eat the leaf she was using as a bandage. She turned around to see a Spiketail. She glared at the creature in annoyance. "You know, I was using those to stop the bleeding, you stupid pointy-back! They won't taste very good!" Orni scolded the Spiketail.

"Good, I hope you bleed to death! The world needs less Egg Stealers!" the creature retorted.

"I won't. Just go away!"

"You're right. That would be waiting too long. I'll squish you myself right now."

Orni ran for it, going as fast as she could. She quickly outdistanced the lumbering Spiketail, who shouted "And don't ever come near here again you foul creature!"

Orni soon found more leaves, which she wrapped around her bleeding shoulder. "Stupid Spiketail! I hope the next egg I find is a Spiketail egg!" she fumed. It wasn't her fault, after all, that was she born to eat eggs.

Unfortunately for her, she not only didn't find any Spiketail eggs that day, but she found none at all and, begrungingly, ate some plants, which, due to the recent drought, tasted awful.

The following night, Orni, still not having any eggs, was looking for a place for cover. It wasn't raining, though the sky had many clouds and it seemed some kind of storm was brewing. She hoped it would bring rain. Not only was she hungry, and tired of eating dry plants, but she was thirsty as well. There were only two watering holes around, and they were both guarded, and the dinosaurs near it didn't want an Egg Stealer to drink from there.

KABOOM! Thunder rumbled in the sky. KABOOM! More thunder, this time with visible flashes of lightning overhead. However, no rain came, only more thunder and lightning. "I wish it would rain!" she sighed.

KSSSSSSSHHHT! A bolt of lightning shot from a cloud, slamming into a tree and breaking off flaming shards of wood. The tree, which was old, and also dry from the drought, quickly ignited. The fire soon spread to nearby trees, creating a rapidly-spreading inferno.

"EIGGGGH!" Orni shrieked as a flaming branch narrowly avoided hitting her in the head, instead striking her shoulder, the very same one she'd bandaged the day before.

The falling branch ignited brush nearby, setting the area ablaze. Orni had rested in a forest area at the edge of the desert she had crossed. She had thought this area would show more promise than the desert, especially with the lack of rainfall. However, now, with an inferno behind her, she realized that maybe she should have tried her luck with the desert instead. Coming to this forest at this moment didn't seem a very good move on her part.

As she ran, she began to hear an ominous sound that she was sure wasn't fire. PSSSSSHHHHT! A tree exploded, sending flaming debris everywhere. It had been sap boiling that she'd been hearing. The sap had boiled to the point that it burst the tree apart. As she picked up speed, nearly falling over a smoking log that lay her in path, more trees exploded behind her. She had to get out of here or she'd be fried to a crisp!

She decided to run toward the desert. There was nothing there to burn, after all. As Orni ran, several dinosaurs of all types ran by her: Flatteeth, Sharpteeth, including a large Strongbiter, a few Bothteeth, and even some other Egg Stealers. None of them really paid her any heed, as they were preoccupied with escaping from the raging inferno.

As she ran, she tripped. This allowed the fire to get very close to her. It had now cut off the path she had planned to go to get to the desert. So she ran the only way she could. This way, she soon found, led to a dead end, overlooking a cliff. However, as the fire neared, she figured that she might as well fall to her death as be burnt alive and so leaped over the edge, shutting her eyes as she jumped. Mercifully for her, she landed, not on sharp rocks, nor even hard earth, but into water, having been lucky enough to land in a lake below. She opened her eyes, realizing she had not died.

It hurt when she hit the water, her ankle being sprained. However, despite not knowing how to swim, she desperately paddled her arms, trying to stay afloat. She went under several times and her head began to feel light from lack of air. Finally, starting to sink, she grabbed onto something floating in the water. It was a tree branch, still hot to the touch from burning above, but having cooled in the water, it was no longer too hot to touch. However, that didn't mean it didn't hurt, as it soon scalded her hands. Still, she was able to use this large branch, almost half her size, to pull her up to the surface. She was now close to shore and kicking her legs, though her ankle was sprained , and swung her arms forward in a stroke, making it to shore, where she collapsed.. Thankfully the fire didn't come this way, but she didn't know that, deciding to head out, even with a sprained ankle, until, after twenty minutes, she felt she could go no further. She rested in a cave beside a waterfall, hoping it would be a deterrent to the fire if it came that way. She helped relocate her ankle by pressing it against a rock, though it still hurt terribly. With her hands blistered, her shoulder cut and burned, her ankle sore, and her body exhausted, Orni quickly fell asleep.