This chapter contains a bit more brutality and blood than my previous ones. Reader discretion is advised.
What did we bird-kids do when we found non-pink Erasers in our hotel room? Did we
A)Scream in terror and run away
B)Launch ourselves straight into a fight
C)Stare blankly at the Erasers while they simply sit there
D)Eat a carrot while doing the Caramelldansen and singing "Pants on the Ground"
Well, that should be a hard one, but I'm not going to give you the answer. (The answer is E- none of the above)
What did happen: Max and Fang said a string of naughty words, Iggy looked confused (that is, until Nudge screamed "ERASERS!"), Angel looked very surprised, and Gazzy went into a fighting pose. Dylan did the same, although a bit more tense and scared than the Gasman. As for Jeb, well, he also got into a fighting pose too, although he truly saw the danger in what could happen.
What I did was tense up and unsheathe my claws. I was prepared to tear flesh and fur. In the back of my mind I was remembering my other fight against the wolf-monsters, where my little claws and smallness was not enough to win.
And so, when the tension finally broke and the Erasers leaped at us, I transformed yet again into a Utahraptor. Okay, so I would've been a spinosaur, which is 60 feet long and the biggest carnivorous dino, but I don't think that the hotel people would appreciate it.
One giant Eraser leaped at me with claws extended. I snarled at it and leaped, raising one giant toeclaw to slash. This thing dodged out of the way, but barely.
I landed on one foot and used the other to swing around and step closer to my target. It growled at me, and tried to tackle me. I stepped to the side and grabbed its neck in my now-powerful jaws. I shook my head fiercely to snap it, although before I did I got a long gash in my side.
Growling to myself, I scanned the room for other opponents. There were almost unheard of amounts of Erasers in the room, and most were smart enough not to attack me in my almighty form. I am a Utahraptor, here me roar! Oh, wait, that's T-Rexes that roar… Raptors snarl.
One Eraser, smaller and faster than the last one I'd faced jumped at me. It stopped just outside of my reach, but no matter. I'd get it anyway.
I growled at the Eraser menacingly, flaring my feather crest and unfurling my wings slightly to make me look as big and scary as possible.
When it didn't flinch, I bared my now-bloody teeth, increasing the volume of my snarls. It shied away slightly, but then attacked.
It caught me off guard and managed to cuff me around my head. I swung around angrily, whacking a couple of Erasers behind me in the process with my long tail.
Trading tactics, I reached up one of those blessed long arms of a raptor and slashed the Erasers stomach. Blood spurted out in an angry red spray, and the Eraser howled. I chose that moment to slash once with my long toeclaw across its throat, and it was gone.
Lifting my muzzle from the kill, I surveyed the room. Max and Fang were fighting back to back against five Erasers. Roundhouse kicks were flying. Was that the only type of kick that they knew how to do? Geez, and they say they're good at fighting…
Gazzy was punching, and I hope my eyes didn't deceive me, but he… looked like he was using my style a bit! His fighting was much smoother and more elegant than Max's or Fang's.
Iggy and Nudge seemed to be holding their own, and Jeb was too, amazingly. Well, he was the one who taught the Flock how to fight…
Angel was fine, she was using a combination of mind tricks and classic fighting. It was easy to see that.
And Dylan… he was holding out, too. He was near Jeb, and was jabbing ferociously, driving the Erasers away.
My attention was diverted when not one, but two more Erasers leaped at me. I groaned inwardly. Would the fighting never cease?
Either way, I turned and whacked them both with my tail… which only resulted in a sore tail. Ouch. Not fun.
Wincing, I twisted around and snapped at the Erasers, catching one on the arm. I pulled on it, hard, and with a pop it dislocated from its shoulder. I tried to throw it, but it only resulted in it skidding across the floor.
The other one jumped on me. I bit it as hard as I could on its side. A chunk of flesh easily pulled away, and it screamed, dropping like a fly.
I snarled, then straightened myself up, as tall as I could get. I nearly scraped the ceiling. I did the closest thing to roar I could do in triumph.
You see, I was powerful, I was graceful, I was the raptor. I was the perfection of nature's design, sleek and strong and intelligent. The raptor is sharp-eyed and deadly, as deadly and as beautiful as a finely crafted sword. Modern animals cannot achieve the level of perfection in design as a hunter, for it took the raptor several million years of undisturbed evolution to reach this point.
I didn't have much time to get more egotistical, for an Eraser tackled me from behind. I yelped in shock, and was so startled I tumbled forward, transforming back into a human.
I yelled in pain and surprise as I landed on my left arm while the lower half of my body was in the process of transforming. It still had the huge, muscular legs of the raptor and whip tail for balance. I heard a snap from my arm and felt a thunderbolt of pain.
Whimpering, I landed on my knees, curling up slightly. With my left arm almost definitely broken, my chances of getting out were slim.
The Eraser that stood over me no chuckled in amusement. I growled back, baring my teeth again. The effect was not as much as the one I'd given off as a raptor.
Tucking my left arm close to my torso, I let my right one fall. The claws, not as long as they were moments ago but still sharp, unsheathed.
The Eraser raised one giant, clawed, hairy paw high, preparing to strike a terrible blow. I tensed my self to dodge and forced myself to ignore the pain that throbbed from my left arm.
Before the Eraser could hit me, a tan-colored blur did a magnificent jump kick into its belly. It revealed itself to be Dylan, who was now beating the crap out of his victim. Within seconds it was unconscious.
I used this time to look at the scene around me. Only a couple of Erasers remained, and they were being set upon by the furious Flock. I set my sights back to Dylan, who was now looking at my cradled arm concernedly.
"Is that broken?" he asked quietly.
I hesitated before nodding, saying, "I think it is."
Dylan didn't say anything else, instead reaching out a hand to help me up.
I accepted it and stood up. Max and Fang were dealing with the last two Erasers. Max dealt a punch to one that sent in staggering, and Max leaped on it kicking like a maniac.
Huh. So they could do kicks other than roundhouse ones…
Fang was squaring off against the final monster. I did a quick head count at this time and saw that every bird-kid plus Jeb was alive and not in mortal danger of dying.
Fang swung a blow at the Eraser, who dodged. It was much bigger than him, but Fang was much faster.
They fight went on for a few minutes, dragging on longer than normal. I could tell that Max was itching to join in, yet all of our instincts told us that this was Fang's fight alone.
Fang's style was an odd combination of mine and Max's styles, strong like Max's, but smooth and elegant like mine.
Eventually Fang got the upper hand and looked like he was bout to deal the final blow. The Eraser didn't look good, but as we watched, its eyes gleamed with the last desperate emotion of prey. It slashed a paw upwards.
The claws hit Fang's throat. All of us let out a gasp of shock and horror as Fang hit the ground and his enemy collapsed beside him.
Correction- That is a cliffhanger.
Now, imagine, if you will, what Spark looked like while growling at the Eraser. First, think of the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park. Now make them ten feet tall. Add in the feather crest, which is flared, and an angry snarl. The raptor is revealing very large, sharp, bloody teeth. Don't forget the dark wings that are partially extended!
Well, I hope you all learned something today.