The Shift

A fanfiction by SilverWings

Chapter 10-

Goldfeather's burial was a rushed affair, carried out by Bloodfeather and Goldfeather's family - Grey, Tawny and Forest. The old raptor had died of starvation, and her corpse looked thin and sad as it was lowered to her final resting place. Teal noticed Bronzefeather and Greyfeather growing thinner, dark circle under their eyes. She assumed the same changes were reflected in herself. The only one who hadn't suffered in the slightest from the effects of dehydration and hunger was Bloodfeather, the leader looking plump and sleek as always. Teal seethe internally at her father, but kept quiet, preserving whatever moisture she had left in her parched throat. Teal was going out hunting. She silently crept past Bronzefeather, who would want to go with her. She couldn't risk his safety as well. This was the last time she could hunt, she knew, before she would be too weak to catch any prey.

The hot sun beat relentlessly on the hard, dry ground. The cracked mud flats kept claiming Tealfeather claws, and she had to keep wrenching them out of the cracks in between the chunks of sun-beaten earth. She hadn't found any prey. The creatures here seemed smarter than the prey back home - there had been barely any prey and little to no water for days. Teal began to make her way to an obelisk - a towering black pille embellished with a bright coloured gen in its centre. This one was red, and cast a red-orange glow, tingeing the sky's natural blue hue.

Suddenly, Tealfeather's legs gave way. She collapsed on the hard ground, unable to muster the strength to get up. Her head was spinning, and she felt as if she might black out. *I must be dying,* she thought, but to part of her's dismay, she felt comfortable with that. The mountains in the distance began to drop away leaving a distortion. *Must be the heat,* Teal though, her thoughts muddling together. She shut her bloodshot eyes, and the world went dark.