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Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Broken Minds, Bruised Scales, Warm Hearts , Part 1 of Scales of Ash and Rime , Part 1 of Broken Raptors Series
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Published:
2020-07-31
Updated:
2022-09-13
Words:
68,351
Chapters:
24/?
Comments:
134
Kudos:
181
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24
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8,431

Broken Raptors

Summary:

E is a young raptor unable to vocally communicate. Driven by isolation, loneliness, and fear, E seeks companionship in a slew of animals. Desperate for acceptance, E finds herself in a constant struggle between lonely, cautious survival, and foolish, desperate acts for a companion.

For E, something is better than nothing.

For the Indoraptor, nothing is better than something.

Will the Indoraptor, mentally and physically scarred, be able to bond with another just as broken, yet so different?

Chapter Text

The soft pattering of feet hitting the warm sands could be heard, E trotting along the shoreline. The lulling sea licked at the sandy shores, water rushing forward and engulfing her clawed feet, before retreating once more. Her killing claws flicked the salty water off, spray briefly being illuminated by the sun's rays.

The red hued animal then slowed her stride, and narrowed her gaze. She spied a clam that had washed ashore, and was attempting to muscle its way back into the sea. E slowly approached, and grasped the shelled creature in her clawed hands. The muscle instantly closed its shell, to which E's serrated teeth scraped against, attempting to break it. Ceasing her trying, the raptor shook the clam harshly up and down within her hold, as if that would magically crack the clam open.

The red raptor released a squeaky huff of breath, and craned her neck to look around. She needed a rock!

The female raptor's search was halted by the sound of a beast landing upon a rocky outcropping above the coasts. It was a beast E was unfamiliar with, for it was large and scaled with leathery wings.

Her head warbled in inspection, killing claws thumping into the sands. Seeing a large predator nearby was making the lone female nervous-even if it was above a rise in elevation, and had a kill-if the scent of blood in the air was any indication.

It was dangerous to be near such a large predator, more so due to her being all alone. But E was also famished, and the opportunity to scavenge a fresh kill was hard to resist...

E looked from the larger, winged predator,then to the clam within her clawed hands, then back to the beast atop the rocky perch. Her weight shifted from side to side whilst she moved, uncertain, thinking, debating.

The clam was dropped into the sands, and E pattered off, seeking a more filling and easy meal.

While hunger was always on her mind, so was worry, and concern.

Fear.

As much as E would like to resume her hunt to fill her belly, she did not feel comfortable being out upon the shore.

In the open.

Where the strange winged creature with a sharp beak could see her.

Where it could hunt her, if it wanted.

The heat of the day was beginning to wear the red raptor down, and it was making her thirsty.

Moving into the shadowed underbrush meant safety. Where she could skulk and move within the shade. Hide. Lay low.

Like a rat to an every stalking cat.

The only problem was, E did not know where the stalking cat was. In her mind-it was everywhere.

The red raptor with a cream underbelly creeped through the dense foliage and dark shadows, returning to a small stream that lazily trickled through the rocks and mud. Her blue eyes focused upon the water, whose gentle current glimmered in the sun's rays. Her pupils were large and dilated, and upon taking that first brave step out of the shadows, and into the light, they were swift to shrink to two, tiny pin pricks.

From that first step into the light-E moved not.

The soft squeaking of her breathing could be heard by her own ears, but her senses were more honed to the environment around her. Senses alert, and muscles tense, E did not move.

She was in a constant state of alertness.

A constant state of danger.

A constant state of paranoia.

Her pupils adjusted to the harsh rays of the sun, blue eyes flicking to the running water-to the sunlit forest, to the darkened shadows surrounding the break in thick brush and light blotting trees. She focused upon the calloused pads of her feet. Feeling for any vibrations of large footsteps shaking the earth. She focused upon her ears. Listening for any angry bellows, heavy breaking or the pounding of footsteps. She focused upon her nares. Smelled for any odor that would indicate the musk of a nearing beast. Smelled for the iron in blood.

Upon feeling the ground begin to quake in a pattern, and hearing the snap of lesser trees and the crushing of brush, E slipped back into the safety of the shadows. Her throat felt as if it tightened, her breathing rasping and high pitched. E's pupils dilated, and her killing claws twitched in nervousness, and anticipation. Her leg muscles tensed and rippled with powerful muscle just underneath crimson scales blotted with healing wounds and dried scabs upon her flanks. Her blue eyes became focused-locked-upon the rustling leaves and branches as a great beast neared.

She could feel the frantic beating of her heart, feel the blood course and pump to her clawed fingers.

Despite her hunger, and her thirst, she was ready to flee.

Flee like a rat from a nearing cat.

A low lying, armored head then popped through the brush on the other side, which was soon followed by a thick, if low slung, armored body upon stout legs.

E instantly fell lax.

She saw this creature before.

They were large, but slow, and heavily armored.

Their tail had a rock on the end.

And E knew that the rock could hit hard.

The red female watched as the armored prey waddled on out from the more dense brush, a path of ruined vegetation in its wake. The armored beast was more content to lazily eat and graze upon several grasses and berries, and seemed to pay E no heed.

But it more than likely didn't even know she was there.

The heavy animal waddled forth, grazing as it went, approaching the stream.

E looked on, scaled hands clenching with debate, head warbling. Was it safe? She supposed it was. After all, it would not eat her, and she could not eat it.

That, and despite the armored prey being different from her-it was at least something that had no intention to eat her.

It was something she could be near.

And being near something was better than being alone.

E then emerged from the brush, though did not stand at her full height. Rather, her posture was one of submission, one of low self esteem, one of insecurity.

One of vulnerability.

E learned that standing upright usually led to her being attacked.

Being targeted.

It was easier to hide this way.

It was easier to be unnoticed.

But hiding was a lot harder when loneliness was too much.

E didn't want to be attacked.

But she didn't want to be lonely, either.

A quiet, yet hoarse rasp escaped the raptor's throat-if only to announce her presence.

The prey with a rock for a tail looked up from its munching to have its beady eyes focus upon the little red predator. Other than a snort, the armored beast didn't appear to care about the pack creature's presence.

It saw her kind before. They were of no threat-even in packs.

Thus, the armored prey was swift to simply ignore E, and went back to the task of grazing, ever nearing the water.

E cocked her head, a soft gurgle escaping her throat. Her head warbled, as if in confusion, before the female decided the creature's indifference was acceptance. Or at least tolerance.

The hoarse dryness of her throat reminded the red predator that water was once again her top concern. Thus, the little beast approached the crick, slow and cautious, at first. Her neck craned and head swiveled, looking around for any encroaching danger. Keeping an eye upon her tolerant companion, if however uneasy. Upon reaching the lazily flowing stream, the beast with a rock for a tail noticed the red raptor closer, and released a harsh snort from its nares, nostrils flaring. One of its stout, front legs pawed at the ground, as if an angry bull, clubbed tail raising.

But it was simply a warning.

A warning to not get closer, as much as her presence was tolerated.

But the warning was enough to have E take a step back, and retreat a bit downstream with a squeak. Upon retreating to a spot she deemed safe, the small predator swiveled her head, looking around once more, before lowering herself to drink, hips raised. E didn't realize how thirsty she was until the water flowed into her mouth. She greedily drank and gorged herself upon the cool water-even when her thirst was long quenched.

She drank not just for her thirst.

But for her hunger.

Because she found that drinking more than enough briefly starved off the piercing pain of her belly being empty.

Because hunting was difficult, when alone.

And everything was worse when she couldn't even call for help, should she need it.

Because even if her kind were around to hear her calls-none would understand the meaning of her distorted pleas.

And that to E was terrifying.

But at least for now, she had companionship, if however tolerated.