The Obelisk

-Chapter 80-

Just like that he was running.

Rust wasn’t exactly sure what he was running from, but it made sense so he kept it up. Running from bigger carnivores, running from an angry Kapro, running from Terror birds.

He couldn’t help but laugh at it all. Stupid others, thinking they could catch him. Thinking they’d even get c l o s e.

Dark clouds approached the moon in the sky above, shadowing the ground behind him. He kept running.

“Stupid Deinonychus.”

He shook his head with a growl and leapt over a large creek, just barely missing the end of it as his talons landed at the edge with a small splash. The clouds were getting closer, the voices piling up in his head.

“No one can trust them.”

“A thieving deinonychus requesting assistance? Not happening.”

Screeches came from behind, loud and furious. He swung his head around to see a trio of Terror birds chasing after him.

“Don’t listen to them, Rust.”

“Listen to me!”

There was a loud crash as he tripped and fell over a sharp black stone, flipping forwards and slamming into a larger rock. Hissing with pain, he writhed on the ground a moment before his eyes opened and he quickly jumped up, whipping around to face the Terror birds in front of him.

“Alright, thief,” one of them hissed, her voice strange and echoey. “Give us the key.”

Rust paused, staring at her. He had no key. Last he looked, his talons were empty—

He realized he could feel the slight jab of something metal in his palm, and he looked down, opening his claws to see.

A silver, thin and sharply curved key sat in his talon. He glanced back up at the Terror birds.

“Now!” she yelled.

Rust smiled, lifting the key up to his snout. He opened his mouth wide and dropped it in.

“Wait—DON’T—” She shrieked with anger and he swallowed, feeling the key scrape horribly against his throat as it went down. “Are you INSANE?”

“Yup,” He said, and leaped right into the air, whirling his body around and landing with a giant thud behind the furious and baffled soldiers. He barked a laugh and ran.

He didn’t look behind him once for the long time he spent running and running, but after a moment he slowed himself down, finally noticing that everything was quiet.

He checked behind him, but there was just darkness. And when he turned back around, he saw that the whole forest had vanished.

Black, everywhere, but he could see just fine. He glanced down and saw that even the ground beneath him was just as black and smooth as the darkest humans glass. He let out a shocked yell, and his voice echoed all around him.

He realized there was a tiny shape padding towards him. He squinted, and as it got closer, he realized it was a surprisingly familiar Terror bird hatchling. She stopped, and stared up at him with her big brown eyes, saying nothing.

And then she glitched, her beak quickly shifting to a small snout, and then it glitched back. Her feathers went from fluffy to rough as she glitched again, her changes slight but different, her tail lengthening, her colors going from tan-ish yellow to brown and grey and blue.

From Terror bird to him.

Rust looked down at the glitching hatchling with awe, and they stared right back, their eyes shifting to his bright yellow. They stepped forward, reached one small talon out, whispered, “Stop running,” and everything went totally dark.