They're after me-- I'm bleeding pretty bad from a bite mark on my hip and paw. I must get to the river at all costs.

I can hear them tracking the bastards...

I'm lying at the foot of a fir tree... hidden by bushes and shrubs.

I hear their growling and their sniffling. They're on my trail.

If I get up, my blood starts pouring out and my strength leaves me.

Yet I must get up and fall into the stream. I will resist the waterfalls, but not their bites. A ton and a half of pressure. Enough to crush a car and put my paw in lint.

I was reckless... I underestimated these animals and their intelligence...

They caught me with a bait and I fell into their trap an hour ago...

The worst part is that I saw them...

A couple of adult Ceratosaurs...

They were lying on the riverbank along high cliffs to the east. There were even caves in those cliffs.

Any fall would be fatal.

Those monsters were the same size as me and they hadn't seen me, or at least I thought they hadn't.

So I avoided passing them by entering the little woods to my left and moving away from the swift and tumultuous river.

They were growling at each other, probably their tongues or a trail to follow.

Strange animals.

I was hungry and the forest dense. Impossible to fly so I had to hunt on my feet.

I was far away from the ceratosaurs resting at the river. They had made their nests probably to spend the night, warm and close to each other.

These monsters, 9 meters long, with a tail shorter than me but a more massive body and especially a jaw to grind, were formidable predators.

I thus skirted the river upstream and I took advantage of the cry of the seagulls to remember that the sea was on the other side of the rocks.

The lawn was huge, as if millions of sheep had mowed the grass, but it wasn't. The grass was so big that I could see the sea. It must have been the variety of grass facing the sea spray.

The rocks to my right looked like meteorite impacts with sharp, torn splinters.

The area where I was was like an island, a gigantic island.

I knew that if I continued northward, steep rocks were waiting for me, leading to mountains and valleys covered with eternal ice.

At the foot of the glacier there was a volcano, relatively calm and only interrupted by the din of the swamps filled with geysers.

A dense forest dotted with clearings separated the great swamp from the river where I was standing.

I began to get hungry and began to hunt.

I walked in circles between the fir trees and heard the cries of a small herbivore as if to drown myself. A little Avaceratops

In a few seconds, he was dead, shattered by my paws, death, instantaneous...No pain.

And so I waited for the flesh to settle and life to be well and truly gone.

I liked to cook and started to prepare my evening meal on the spot. I didn't feel like flying with my meal, which was too heavy. I had gone too far out of my area to explore the area and find the ruined pillboxes.

I took some wood and made a big pile and blew lightly to light my fire, my meal impaled on a wood and turned to be cooked. A fumet!

Like a pita, I gnawed on the cooked carcass while turning the wood.

I was no longer hungry and with the heat, I dozed off...

A few hours later, the fire was nothing but embers...

STOMP STOMP STOMP (Running)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHH_

Sharp pain in the thigh.

He tried to crush my hind leg to keep me from running away...

- I'm in terrible pain and like lightning I blow in his direction just as he was about to break my neck.

But since I was little and he was very tall...

The pain took my breath away and I didn't realize the damage until I got up to run away.

I had a gaping wound. My scales had still protected my paw but the flesh had collapsed and the teeth were able to penetrate and tear my flesh.

I had to survive.

His companion came from the side to block my path.

No time to fly away: Running

I started to roar and clap violently with my mouth.

My shortness of breath hadn't burned the carnivore but just a little surprised.

Seeing me running away, they started chasing me.

It was dark and I ran into the trees.

The small branches entering the bloody wound made me moan.

STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP...

The tons of moving flesh betrayed the silence of the forest.

All the animals were silent and we could hear more than the breath of our lungs being put to the test.

It was a death race.

CLAP

CLAP

I could hear the jaw banging in my back and their foul breath blowing a few yards away from me.

I was running, running down, and my winged arms were used as legs to run faster.

Soon I touched sharp stones that tortured my legs.

They too took them.

Except I was fighting for my life.

You couldn't see a thing. Just 3-4 meters ahead for night vision.

My strength was dwindling. I could feel it... every step of the way.

I was losing a lot of blood, and the more I ran, the stronger it got. I had to rest to regenerate.

I had the resistance of the dragon and its regenerative power, but with such a wound, I had to rest so that the torn flesh could take its place.

I was crying.

"I don't want to die!"

"Mamaaaan...help!"

Mama...

Mama...

I shouted her name for help, a miracle.

The Ceratosaurs were gaining more and more ground every second.

Then it was a fall from a cliff and I opened my wings by reflex and landed below in the trees.

One of them punctured my wing skin on the right and I screamed in pain.

I was in tatters and the Ceratosaurs were sniffing and growling like, "We're coming to finish you off."

I got down on the ground and licked my wounds. It was horrible. The skin on my thigh was turned and hung down, leaving the muscle exposed and there was the river. I crawled down to the stream of water and almost fainted, the pain was so strong.

In my head Heater had become aware of my situation.

"Hang on, my little one, I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'll try to save you.

Try to go up the valley opposite and avoid the rocks above you, for the landslide.

In the distance, I could hear the pebbles and small stones falling from the predators chasing me.

They had found a way down the cliff and started hunting again.

We could hear them roaring to scare me and make me panic, so that I wouldn't be able to pull myself together and find a solution.

They had tasted my blood and the rage was in them.

They weren't going to let go.

So I dragged myself over the valley and heard the monsters coming.

I pinched my skin and put it back in place, hoping that the regeneration would work and I did the same with my injured arm. Finally, my injured wing.

The blood was slowly stopping and my regeneration was at its peak. I concentrated my mana to recover.

"Mama? Mama???? Help me!!!!!"

I was desperate... They were coming...

If I ran, my wounds would immediately reopen and, tirelessly, they would catch me and finish me off...

I also activated my fire gland, stimulating it to the maximum to get as much fire as possible.

It was going to be a fight to the death.

ROOOOAAAAAAAARR X2

The Ceratosaurs looked at each other and there was a lot of saliva coming out of their mouths.

Yes, they were smaller than the T-Rexes, but these were adult and more experienced hunters.

Then, determined to fight to the bitter end.

Then a thud. Terrible thud.

An earthquake.

Heater: "Fly"

"Mom... I have a wound to my groin."

I fell on my stomach

And the ground opened up.

The red light from the bowels of the planet illuminated the valley. Lava rose like a torrent, blocking the path between the predators and me.

Mother, had saved me...

Heater finally had a good heart. I was her child... not the equal of any animal on the planet, but truly loved by a benevolent entity.

The saurians were terrified and ran away, probably injured or with burns.

I watched the show and the lava became a source of protection. I watched it flow down the valley and probably make a cascade of lava falling into the sea from very high up.

The island was going to get bigger again.

"Mommy... Mommy... I love you..."

And, exhausted, I collapse from exhaustion and plunge into a restful sleep.

I was on the edge of lava and the heat was doing me a world of good. I wasn't burning... on the contrary, I wanted to dive into it and let myself sink to the centre to meet Mum.

I saw her in my dreams. A beautiful 16-year-old girl...