Herbert kept Shirley’s retreating backside in his sight, purposely allowing her to stay ahead.
-INSTALLATION: THE ISLAND-
-Eastern Swamp Biome-
The lights of the artificial night’s crescent moon crept through the swamp’s forestation as Herbert and Shirley stomped through the muddy terrain, the Paraceratherium couple locked in conversation.
“Ooh, I already miss our babies so much, and that Rainbow Dash Equus was such a sweetheart,” Shirley said, reminiscing.
During their conversation, they began to cross a shallow, mossy waterway, lilypads floating at the water’s surface with white flowers in bloom. But below the surface, a school of Megapirahna swam around the Paracers’ tree-trunked legs—the mammals being far too large to be considered prey.
The pair flickered their ears to bat away small and bothersome insects and even courteously stepped around a Salamander-like entity with a crescent-shaped head that swam in their path.
“We can always visit them again tomorrow, dear,” Herbert comforts, water splashing as the duo crosses the waterway. “They just returned from their latest venture, so I’m sure they’ll be stationed at the Outpost for a few more days before leaving again.”
“I know, sweetie… It’s just…” Sadness and worry form on Shirley’s face, followed by a sigh. “They’re always going on adventures with the merchants and… and running into trouble…”
She came to a stop near the water’s shoreline, Herbert following suit while scraping his mind for the appropriate words. He knew where this was going, especially since they’d had this very same conversation many times before.
“I’m just scared that, one day,” Shirley’s neck lowers, her gaze locked onto the ground, “they won’t come back home.” She finished, ears folding against her head.
“Oh, dear…” Herbert stepped closer, resting his neck over Shirley’s shoulders. “I know how you feel, for I share that worry.” He sighed. “But this island will always have its share of dangers, you know that. And no matter how hard we try to shelter our children from it, they need to face it.”
Shirley raises her neck with a sigh, Herbert lifting his own and taking a step back.
“Even if they did stay here with us, trouble would inevitably find us no matter what we did to avoid it.” A thought within Herbert’s mind caused him to chuckle.
“This isn’t funny, Herb,” Shirley scolds. “I’m filled with worry here about the safety of our children!” She stomped a forelimb, water and mud being sent aloft.
“I know, I know, I’m sorry, Shirley,” He regained his bearings, his laughter fading away slowly. “It’s just—they remind me of how we were ten or twenty years ago.”
Shirley’s ears perked up attentively, prompting her husband to continue. “We were quite adventurous ourselves. Say, do you remember a certain day our herd grazed in the Redwood Biome?”
Shirley lets loose a heartful chuckle, smiling at the memory. “It was the day we met…”
“Yup!” Herbert’s ears wiggled, but a mischievous grin formed on his prehensile lips. “But do you remember exactly how we met?”
Shirley rolls her eyes. “I try not to.”
“Well, I remember,” In one swift motion, Herbert curled his lips and positioned his face mere inches away from Shirley’s, causing her to giggle.
“Excuse me? Can you check to see if I have a Narcoberry stuck in my teeth?”
“Ohohoho!” Shirley laughed, moving her neck around to avoid his gaze, but to no avail as he simply mirrored her movements. “Haha, s-stop it, Herb!” She gleefully boomed. “You look so ridiculous, hahaha!”
Shirley then turns around and playfully flees from Herbert, the male Paracer chasing after her as they laughingly continue their trek onward together.
Herbert kept Shirley’s retreating backside in his sight, purposely allowing her to stay ahead.
“I’m going to get you!” He exclaimed playfully. “You can’t escape from this mass of hunk, my dear!”
Shirley takes a moment from her laughter while still ‘fleeing.’ “Th-this isn’t even remotely close to what happened that day, hahaha.”
She bursts through a dense barrier of bushes, Herbert spotting a large sandy clearing on the other side before the greenery of the bushel closes together.
“True, but this is the Herbert Edition,” He plows through the greenery, entering the clearing with the night ocean visible to his right and a cliff face to his left, grains of sand being kicked up as he came to a sudden yet exciting stop.
“Here’s Herby!” His gaze shot left to right with a smile, setting it forth, only to spot his lover staging upward to a nearby cliff face.
Herbert’s excitement slowly morphed into curiosity and confusion, stepping forth and approaching his lover. “Shirley?” He questioned, his stomps signaling his approach. “Dear? Are you ok?”
His beloved gave no response, and Herbert soon made his way around Shirley’s rear to glimpse at her face. But at that very moment, fear consumed his form, matching the same horror plastered on his lover’s facial canvas.
His senses roared out to him, sending danger signals… Just like they did earlier in the day as they transported Rainbow Dash.
Shirley was simply at a loss for words, her mouth opening and closing as her ears are folded against her head. Herbert finally, yet hesitantly, followed her eyes… and he saw what could only be described as a nightmare given flesh:
Neither paracer could entirely describe it, and the only thing they could manage was the black silhouette of a raptor. But they had never seen one covered in what looked like flames, casting an eerie hue of crimson-orange.
It stared at them, and they could only peer back, not daring to lose sight of it—fearing where it could pop up from again if they did. Then, the duo gasped in unison as the flaming menace lifted its head and let loose a haunting call:
Dead silence takes hold…
Another raptor reveals itself… then another… and another, each lacking the flaming aura of the first, whose size dwarfed them all. They answered its’ call… The call of a true alpha.
More and more agile, sickle-toed presences arrived, standing on the cliff, eyes glowing red. Soon, an army of twenty raptors gazed down upon the mammals, teeth bared and claws at the ready.
Herbert and Shirley backed away slowly, but with another call from the flaming alpha, the army roared out and began to scale down the cliff with graceful yet savage ease. The raptors reached ground level and charged forth ravenously, roaring together in perfect sync.
All while the alpha watched from the elevation.
“Get behind me, Shirley!” Herbert roared, stomping his limbs in a threat display. But the encroaching predators were unfazed.
Seeing this, Herbert growled and narrowed his eyes. “You have to run away!” He threateningly roars at the approaching horde. “Go, now!”
“I can’t just leave you-!”
“This isn’t a normal raptor pack!” Herbert interjects. “The one covered in flames has done something to them! Leave! NOOOOW!”
The first raptor attempts to leap onto Herbert’s chest region as he shouts back to his lover, but the Paracer quickly swings his neck sideways and bats away the predator with frightening force, shattering the sickle-toed entity’s innards and immediately killing them.
“Run, Shirley!”
Shirley hated the very idea of leaving him behind. “No!” She shouts angrily, charging forth and standing beside Herbert.
“Darn it, Shirley, I told you to-!”
“We are mated for life, you foolish Paracer!” Shirley interjects sternly, the pack of raptors fanning out before them. “If you stay, I stay! If you fight, I’ll fight!”
Herbert knew better than to argue with her when she was like this. Then again, he liked the odds of them faring better together.
“Thank you,” He said, forming a smirk.
“Till death do us part, dear,” She responds, the duo rearing up and stomping their feet in unison.
“Till death do us part!”
Another call from the alpha echoed out, and the pack broke itself in half. They began to run around the Paracers in two separate directions, attempting to reach their flanks. Due to the open terrain, the more agile and speedy entities had favor, flawlessly maneuvering just beyond the reach of the titanic duo.
Herbert and Shirley could only turn with their opponents, each keeping an eye on the two separate halves of the pack. But something was off; why would both halves of the pack maneuver to the same location? The mammals would’ve expected one half to attack from the front, with the other half trying for the rear.
In that case, it would’ve been a simple act of the lovers standing back to back.
The pack reformed again, and in unison, they approached the Paracers, biting at the air and fainting a pounce, slashing at the sand beneath them with their claws. Herbert and Shirley backed up in unison, but another call from the alpha sounded off, similar to the first.
“We can do this, dear!” Herbert motivated, Shirley nodding with a scowl aimed at their opponents. “The entire pack is in front of us, so all we- AAAGH!”
A pained roar exits Herbert’s throat, and in one smooth, rapid motion, three raptors latched themselves onto either of his sides, two on the left and one scaling him on the right. Each repeatedly bites and carves into Herbert’s flesh, sending ripples of pain throughout his entire form.
“Herbert!” Shirley cried out, turning to swat the sickle-bearing threats off of Herbert. But then, she saw it coming from their rear: another pack closing in from behind them, its’ numbers rivaling the former’s.
-What?!- She screamed internally. -Another pack?! How?!- She was beginning to feel completely helpless, but Herbert’s pained-filled grunts snapped her out of her stupor, and she immediately tried to aid her mate.
They were surrounded, but with a mighty swing of her head, Shirley bats off the raptor that had scaled onto Herbert’s back. And as the predator landed and writhed on the sandy floor, Shirley plummeted her right forelimb onto the dinosaur, mushing them in the process.
However, the raptors that had remained pounced on Herbert’s side suddenly jumped off, leaving behind several wounds as the Paracer grits his teeth. The newly arrived pack immediately repeats the actions of the first, spreading out and joining the other mass on the other side of the mammalian duo.
“Herbert!” Shirley cried in worry, spotting lines of blood traveling down from gaping wounds. “Oh, Herb.”
“I-I’m f-fine!” He tried, his neck slightly lowering to the ground. But before they could speak any more words, another call escaped from the fiery alpha on the cliff nearby.
Now numbering in the 30s, the conjoined pack proceeded toward the duo, causing them to back up in response. For every step the predators took forward, Herbert and Shirley took a step back. But something became apparent as Shirley glanced at their rear:
They were being driven to the cliff, but above all else, the flaming menace at the precipice was gone.
She shot her gaze forward again, and before long, Shirley and Herbert’s rears pressed up against the rocky walls of the cliff. The raptor pack had fearlessly pushed them back, and although the ridge prevented the pack from attacking their rears, there was nowhere else to go but forward.
“H-H-H-Herbert,” Fear drenched Shirley’s voice. “Wh-what do we d-do…?”
Herbert didn’t want to admit it outwardly; he couldn’t—he needed to be strong for her. But… he had no idea what to do. Except, there was one thing he could do for his beloved.
“Shirley…” Herbert began, a crowd of growling and sand movements ominously consuming the duo’s sense of hearing. “I’m going to buy you an opening.” He finished determinedly.
“Wait, what are you-”
Herbert roared with newfound vigor as he charged like a freight train, seemingly ignoring his lover’s voice. He makes contact with the mass of teeth and claws, stomping on several raptors, which causes others in great numbers to ounce onto him.
“Shirley!!” He painfully called out, swinging his body from left to right, throwing some of his opponents off in the process. “Goooo!”
A moment of inner conflict stopped Shirley dead in her tracks. But before she could decide, the Paracer felt several small rocks falling onto her back, garnering her gaze as she looked back to the wall and upward.
She immediately screamed as the fiery alpha was in the process of falling down upon her:
Shirley’s cries garnered Herbert’s attention, his body covered in raptors and wounds. “NO!” He roared out. “LEAVE HER ALONE!” He moved in her direction, pushing through the pain that literally ate at his body.
But members of the horde carved at Herbert’s hind legs’ tendons, causing him to fall over. His body’s girth shook the earth upon impact, and although he luckily smashed members of the pack in doing so, the remaining members swiftly went for his neck and head region, his voice being silenced by several well-placed cuts to his throat.
“HERBEEERT!” Shirley cried, but the haunting presence on her back drove its claws into her flesh. She cried out in pain, thrashing with all she could muster to get the alpha off her.
One of the alpha's sickled toes had snapped due to the large mammal's struggling. Even so, the fiery menace continues to claw its way over to the backside of Shirley’s neck base, harshly pulling its digits out of her as it crawled along before plunging them into her again with every move.
Reaching its’ targetted area of Shirley’s struggling mass, the alpha raptor maintained its grasp at the back of the Paracer’s neck base.
Shirley then plotted to slam herself against the wall of rock and dirt, hoping to smash her opponent. But before she could enact her plan, the presence on her back swiftly crawled to the under portions of her neck.
She could feel its’ claws digging into the sensitive area, and her head raised up to the night’s crescent moon.
“Moss! Harley! I l-love-!”
Her words were cut off, and she gargled as the alpha plunged its’ claws deep into her neck before driving it upward, roaring while doing so. Shirley could feel the coldness of the night enter her opened passageways, and she chokingly lost breath with every passing second.
The remaining Paracer fell over and onto her right side, her nearby mate’s body being devoured by the collective of raptors. Shirley’s left eye weakly stared into the night sky, memories and regrets filling her mind. And the last thing she saw was the flaming menace’s crimson orbs coming into view, staring into her own.
"My babies... I'm... s-sorry..."