The Shift

A fanfiction by SilverWings

Chapter 3-

"Teal!"

Bronzefeather shook his sister awake.

"Teal! Scarletfeather's eggs hatched!" Bronze cried softly.

Tealfeather's eyes shot open.

"Scarletfeather's eggs?"

"No, I said Bloodfeather's eggs." Bronzefeather said with a straight face. "Of course I said Scarlet's, do you know any other raptors with eggs?"

Tealfeather got up and stretched out her stiff muscles. Yellowfeather was still sleeping in her spot, near the edge of the nest. Teal made her way toward Scarletfeather's nest, closely followed by Bronze, who was happily springing around her.

"Come *on*," he said.

Tealfeather laughed. There was nothing more adorable than her brother's obsession with baby raptors. They arrived at Scarletfeather's nest - a hollow tunnel in a rock with vines covering the entrance- and pushed their way through the curtain of writhing vines. Scarlet herself lay with her back pressed against the back wall, watching her children fondly. Two baby raptors were in the nest, one rolling around in a fragment of eggshell, the other attempting to stand on its tiny legs.

"So. Cute!" Bronzefeather breathed.

Tealfeather resisted the urge to laugh.

"What are their names?" Bronze asked.

"Indigofeather," she said pointing to the little raptor trying to stand, who had toppled over in a very cute and very funny way, "and Silverfeather. Both female."

Bronzefeather looked like he was going to collapse. The vines to the nest lifted once more and another raptor walked in.

"Greyfeather!" cried Teal, recognising her best friend.

"Hi Teal! I didn't know you were here too."

"Did you come to see the hatchlings?"

"What else would I come here for?" Grey chuckled, her light grey feathers bobbing as she laughed.

Scarlet gave her a glare.

"Oh... right." Greyfeather finished awkwardly.

"C'mon Bronze, we should let Grey see the babies.

"Hmm," replied Bronze, who wasn't paying attention in the slightest and was instead cooing at Indigo and Silver.

"Oh nevermind." she sighed affectionately. "I'm going out hunting."

"Bye Teal," Greyfeather and Bronzefeather replied in unison.

Tealfeather sighed. She wasn't having the nest luck with hunting. She'd found a parasaur, but it had whapped her painfully with its tail and gotten away. There was a rustling in the bushes. Teal froze. She looked over and saw a troodon creeping up behind a dodo. If she killed the troodon, she could bring back both the troodon *and* the dodo! Teal pounced, sinking her claws into the troodon back. It screeched and left a shallow bite on her arm. She howled in pain and bit down on the troodon's neck. The troodon screeched and went limp. Tealfeather glared at the bite on her arm, now dripping blood. She looked for the dodo. There it was! Fleeing the scene of the hunt at a pathetic pace. Suddenly the dodo... fell unconscious? The dodo suddenly tipped over, like it had passed out. A few seconds later, it was gone. *What in the..?*

Teal sighed. The troodon venom must be making her woozy. The world seemed to drop away behind the dodo, the trees swallowed up into the land, which was quickly replaced with some grey substance that moulded to fill the nooks and crannies of the world. A visual distortion seemed to be approaching, where the air itself looked... fake. It engulfed Teal and she fell into darkness.