The Shift

A fanfiction by SilverWings

Chapter 4-

The sun beat down on Tealfeather's skin. Slowly she pried open her eyes. A barren, sandy landscape stretched out as far as her keen eyes could see. A group of slow, lumbering creatures shuffled across her field of vision. Whatever plants there were were small and tough-looking. A small patch of spiky, tall, green plants stood a little away. Driven by a fierce hunger that had developed while she was unconscious, she took off toward the slow dinosaurs and pounced on the smallest of the group. It bellowed in pain, much like a parasaur, and tried to shake her off. Tealfeather hung on and bit another creature who was charging at her. It whimpered and fled, and Teal dug her claws deeper into the one she had injured initially. It collapsed, not quite dead. The others, seeing there was nothing they could do for the injured creature, fled at a particularly slow pace. Tealfeather could be caught them if she wanted to. She quickly finished off the prey and tore off a large chunk of meat. Liquid trickled from the creature. *Water!* Teal gratefully drank, realising just now how thirsty she was. The water was stored in the creature's hump. It was a good survival strategy. She ate most of the prey, but kept a leg for the rest of the clan. *The rest of the clan...* Teal realised she had no idea where the rest of the clan was. *poor Bronzefeather,* she thought, *he must be FREAKING out.* Tealfeather put the leg down and looked at her surroundings. A minute's walk away was a grove of trees. Maybe the rest of the clan were there. She picked up her prey and started walking in the direction of the trees. There was a bloodcurdling scream from somewhere behind her.

Tealfeather stopped in her tracks. She knew that voice. "Bronze!" she screamed, dropping the prey and running in the direction of the screaming. Bronzefeather was on the ground, being attacked by a flock of Terror Birds. Without thinking, Teal ran headfirst into the battle, knocking two of the birds aside. She chased the last, biting at it until it ran for its life. Bronze had picked himself back up, and was desperately trying to fight off the remaining two terror birds. Tealfeather pounced on one, snapping its neck in a single, smooth movement. She leapt off the corpse of the first bird and ran to help Bronze with the last. As she watched, he knocked it to the ground and bit down on its neck in a killing blow.

The pair stood panting for a while, recovering from the battle. Teal had sustained a few minor wounds, but Bronzefeather was in much worse shape. He was covered in small cuts and blood was flowing freely from a deep gash on his shoulder. "What... was that... about?" Asked Tealfeather.

"I came to find you," he said, as though That was a perfectly rational though to act upon.

Tealfeather sighed and sat down.

"Did you just abandon the rest of the camp?" She asked, appalled.

"Maaaaybe. But I know where they are! Just over there." he replied, pointing to the vast expanse of desert opposite the grove of trees.

As much a Teal was mad at him, she couldn't help thinking that information was quite useful. While they had been talking, Bronze had helped himself to the leg of the odd creature Tealfeather had killed earlier. She grabbed one of the terror birds by its broken neck and motioned for Bronze to do the same. "Show us the way." Teal mumbled around a mouthful of feather.