ReBirth Of The Primordial

Io's sides heaved raggedly as she lay under a knobby broken tree. Black blood wet the ground around her turning the once green grass a deep shade of emerald. Bone played peek-a-boo through deep gashes across her ribs, shoulders, the scales curled chaotically at the edges of the garish wounds.

Just this alone, she could have dealt with, painful as it was, but what got to her was that two of her legs lay in unnatural positions. Walking just this far had been hellish, but it had been necessary to get out of the way of the blood lake that was forming under the colossus talk her the meaning of torture. This was worse than her time physically in The Tunnels.

'So this is it?' Io thought hazily as she eyed the dead prehistoric-like creature from her good eye, the other had swollen shut, and given the massive amount of pain she felt, the socket was broken as well if not shattered. 'Worth it though' she managed with a slightly less than toothy grin. Her beloved siblings were safe. Thinking over the days-long battle she couldn't help herself when her toothy grin turned into a snarl. Come after her family would ya? Hmph, fine, but better expect to lose your life before laying one hand, er claw on her little monsters

Not to mention that the damn thing was seven or eight stories tall and built like a damn armored tank from the pictures she had seen in the books. It may have looked crocodilian but the sheer thickness of the scales had been insane. Those plates had been the hardest parts to break off let alone not mention she'd had to avoid the sharp spines that grew from its joints. Teeth almost the size of Io herself and claws big enough to mash her into compost.

She had struggled for hours with the one plate on its belly close to the armpit where it would be difficult to reach and hard to grind her into pulp. She was able to create a gap big enough to start digging and digging, but it had been difficult nonetheless. If the beast wasn't rolling it was slapping at her, striking out with its claws or club tail. Before it could even get that far Io had kite'd the fuċker for a whole, pissing it off time and time again to get it to stray from the mountain. Io had gained valuable information from this though. The timing was too convenient between Eden's hatching and the colossus tracking them down.

Io frowned, as she thought about repeated attempts the monster had made to head towards where she had stashed her siblings. 'Why would it go after them?' She wondered. From its actions, the monster's aggressive behavior was certainly not in favor of her family, but she just couldn't figure out what they had done to aggravate the giant.

It had been merely a speck on the horizon when they had initially noticed it, given thirty, thirty-five minutes to get to, stash, and camouflage her siblings, it had been less than two kilometers away. Io was just grateful that Dagan and Sorcha had hatched underground. Maybe that was the secret and other creatures couldn't pick up on the scent or whatever gave away Eden's hatching. Io's brows furrowed. That creature had been too far away to possibly pick up Eden's hatching by scent right?

Was it truly Eden that had attracted that thing's attention though? It made no sense, but then what about Dagan and Sorcha then? More and more questions circled endlessly as her mind grew sluggish, the ground under her was completely black and as the blood trickled out of her onto the dirt below the black pool looked as if it were a shadow stretching and growing. Io's sight started to dim, which scared her to bits.

She couldn't fall asleep here and the only thing that could pull her out of it? Letting out a huff Io tried getting up only to fall back down when she accidentally put weight on her broken limbs she couldn't help to bite down hard, drawing even more blood. Io cringed, swallowing the blood-accompanied roar back down. It was enough that she was bleeding so much, but at least the colossus's blood lake overpowered the scent of her blood, but if she howled her pain, then there was a possibility that she may attract predators in her weakened state.

'You can't die here Io, they need you. Who will take care of them? Sorcha, Dagan, and Eden need you. If you die, you are killing them!' Io screamed internally as she let out a ragged muffled while pushing herself to stand up again. The pain was like a black hole, engulfing her very being. 'Io keep going!' She gritted her fangs and went to take a step but nothing happened. Blood ran down her jagged scales and matted fur onto the ground below like beautiful obsidian gems, gleaming in the moonlight. 'Io you have to move' she yelled at herself. Io moved to step forward with her broken front leg but nothing happened.

'IO, YOU ARE GOING TO KILL THEM IF YOU DIE HERE! YOU PROMISED THEM! ALWAYS!' Io at this point couldn't help but let out a resounding roar of anguish as she put weight onto her broken front leg, and slowly started making her way back to the den where she had left her heart. Her life. Her very reason for breathing. One step. Two steps. With every step forward, Io whimpered. She did her best step quickly on her broken legs and lengthen her gait, but it was to no avail in maintaining her balance, not when she had a broken front and back leg.

It wasn't easy. Many times Io fell further jarring her wounds, but when it began raining she felt like hell had opened up its gates and sent a welcome party in the guise of softened earth below her paws, making it not only slippery but difficult to coordinate with her hampered sense of balance.

Io could feel her sanity beginning to slip, driven away by the sheer agony. Bones poked out of the skin on her front leg and her shoulder bones rubbed against the gash on her shoulder making it wider. Io knew that she would get to her little monsters, but as for what state, that was the concern. That night long ago when she had gotten the Mend from The Tart's Pie, she had been in a blood frenzy when she left. She was scared now that if she lost to the fury rising, the agony that pounded into her sanity that she would lose herself.

Io took another step forward and with a snap, the bone finally broke in half. Io went down with a crash and she let out a howl of agony. Io stood up once again, her vocal cords raw and blood dribbled down her muzzle from where she had bitten herself. Io stepped forward. She was not able to keep her snapped leg completely off the ground and her mind overstimulated beyond all reason, narrowed down to a mere pinprick. Dagan, Sorcha, and Eden. She would get back to them even if she had to drag herself there and eventually that ended up being the case when three hours into her trek back her other leg finally gave way.. That night the animals hid from the unknown maddened creature that drug itself over rock and soil, letting out a mixture of furious roars and anguished howls.