Hallek

Hurt. Pain.

Killed us!

Killed me.

No, I'm alive, I...

They were eating us! EATING us!

Our child.

Pain.

Everything was clear until the sword cut into the giganotosaur's neck. After that it was madness, splinters of thought in jerky flashes. He was fifty feet tall and stomping across the plains. He was back in the alley, clinging to his food. He was standing proudly over a nest dug out of the dirt as the single egg inside rolled around the cushioning reeds inside, beginning to crack open. He was in Downwind, shoveling with men three times his age, because this wonderful new place had food and all you had to do was work. He tore a village apart with his fangs throwing little yelling creatures right and left. Their weapons stung but didn't hurt. And there was one, one who smelled the most like his fallen child, and that one would pay. His fangs cracked open the thing's skull and tasted its blood.

The village was gone. Destroyed. His revenge was complete. But his child was still there somehow. There was a body that looked the same and smelled right, but it wouldn't move. But from somewhere nearby he could feel his child's presence. It was maddening. And the prey among the dense trees was so small. Even the gray things were small, compared to the great long necked beasts he was used to hunting. But he had to stay, he couldn't go home, not until he found his child...

No, Hallek reminded himself. No. These aren't my memories. They're not.

Hallek didn't know anything about infusion but he could tell what had happened. Somehow using the sword had gotten him and the giganotosaurs mixed together. A tiny part of him was stable enough to hope it was reversible before the thoughts were whirled away in the chaotic hurricane his mind had become. It was like he kept falling asleep and waking up, over and over again, but he could only remember the dreams, and even then he lost important bits and pieces.

He remembered fighting the eoraptors, but how strong and fast he'd been had to be an illusion. He remembered Shylldra calming him down and the horde of scavengers descending on (his) the massive corpse. He remembered being dragged out of the pool of blood. He had a vague memory of being put back onto the cart.

Has to be a dream. How'd we get the minmi and the cart back? Except no, I think I can feel the cart moving under me right now. Maybe that was real?

No, wait, the motion stopped. It was a dream after all.

The pain rolled through his body again, like every muscle was being pulled and pushed and twisted at the same time. He held himself until the spasms stopped.

“I'm just making camp for the night,” Shylldra's voice fell down from the sky. The ground. Outside. Something. “If I don't we're going to run off the road and crash. I need to sleep. But I promise, just for a little while. Okay? Just a couple of hours and we'll be back on the road. Dyryl's mother will know what to do.”

Dyryl's sexy, he thought again. He'd had that thought before. Shylldra had been there. Why had he said that to Shylldra? That sounded pretty stupid.

Danger.

The thought was like a brick falling into his mind. Suddenly everything felt so much clearer, so much more focused. Like the winds of the hurricane had stopped fighting against each other and were all moving in one direction. My metaphor sucks. That alone was enough to tell him he was thinking a little clearer.

Danger. Forest ghosts. Troodon.

Hallek had only ever heard rumors of troodon. But he feared them the same way he feared the humans. Small, almost inconsequential, but tricky. Unpredictable.

I'm a human! He reminded himself sternly.

Not so many. They don't have swords like humans...like WE humans do. There's no danger.

No wait. Wait. I'm smaller now. These few might still be dangerous.

Something thunked against the wood outside.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Shylldra's voice. And the steady rhythm of weapons clashing together. A blade and Shylldra's staff. Someone was attacking her. He forced himself through the pain and made himself stand. Shylldra was in danger. His mate was in danger! But he was so small and weak now. Except...except in his hands there was the sword. A part of him. He could feel himself inside it.

He'd brought along his fangs after all.

He stood up in the back and glared at the enemies. A pack of troodon led by a woman covered in leather, who felt like a troodon herself. Shylldra had cuts and bruises on her arms and legs, but no real damage. Good. He'd have killed them for touching his mate no matter what, but it was good she was safe.

“Hallek!” Shylldra said.

The woman in the leathers took a step back, raising her daggers.

“This isn't your business.” Her voice was scratchy, a weird sultry growl that sent shivers up Hallek's spine. But both halves of his mind agreed this was no time to be thinking about that kind of thing. And we already have a mate, a portion of his brain said. That part of his brain had mostly been raging, but now it just sounded confused. Once you chose a mate, you chose a mate. That's why choosing well was so important. “I'm only supposed to kill her, and you can't take all of us. Especially not wounded like that. Go back inside and lie down. I'll make it as painless as she'll let me.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Emperor,” he croaked. The dinosaur confusion had cleared his brain a little “The emperor sent you.”

“Yes,” the woman shrugged.

“She's the emperor's claw,” Shylldra said, backing towards the cart. “She's his personal assassin. Hallek, for generations no one's ever...we have to try and run.”

She moved close enough to the cart that the troodon must have thought she might escape, so one of them hissed and shifted to hold her off.

To everyone else, it looked like Hallek was suddenly just there.

With what felt to him like little more than a flex of his muscles Hallek closed the distance and grabbed the snarling troodon around the throat. With a casual twist of his hand he snapped the dinosaur's neck, and as the echo of the sickening crack faded into the trees it went limp in his hands. He tossed the corpse at the assassin's feet.

“Get in the cart,” Hallek said.

“Hallek wait,” Shylldra said. She was trembling. He wanted to reach out and hold her but there wasn't time. “When I was growing up in the palace...there were stories about the Emperor's Claw. Lots and lots of stories. And they all worked out really badly. For the people like us in them, I mean. We have to...”

“The minmi can't outrun the troodons. We have to fight. You don't fight. So get in the cart. I'm alright. I can...I can think clearly again. For now.”

Sort of. The clarity came because every part of him, every voice in his head, agreed completely on a single course of action. The mate must be protected. The thought came with wave of pain and loss, and vague memories of a smaller giganotosaurus with white scales in pretty patterns along her snout.

“Hallek...” Shylldra said again. Hallek scooped her up in one arm and and threw her into the back of the cart. She yelped but it sounded like she'd landed on the bedding. Out of the way. Good. Two more troodon's attacked, bolting at him from either side. He casually flicked his sword left and right and they fell back in sprays of blood. One of them was nearly beheaded, the other had a deep gash across its chest.

But in the few seconds it took him to fend them off the asassin's aura changed, and suddenly she felt like a pack of troodons. He could feel them, dozens of them all inside one body. An infusion. She's tied to the pack somehow. When she moved again she was faster, a bolt of lightning that tore at him with daggers. He blocked them with the sword but she used the recoil to roll back and dart at him again in one fluid motion. He was too slow to block both her daggers and one dug into his thigh. He kicked out reflexively, catching her in the chest and sending her flying across the clearing into a tree.

It was his turn to charge. He shot across the clearing ready to cut her in half but she ducked under the swing. His blade slicked through the tree but she spun on the ground and kicked him in the kneecap, making him stumble. She took the opportunity to jump up, vault off the tree stump, and come down at the back of his neck with both daggers. He caught her ankle in midair and threw her across the clearing. She bounced off the dirt and rolled into the brush.

By the time he got to where she'd fallen she'd disappeared. Two more troodon dropped out of the trees onto his back, biting and clawing at his skin. Normally he'd have been a shreddedpile of meat in seconds but whatever made him stronger also made him harder to hurt. Their teeth and claws left ugly bleeding gouges but nothing immediately fatal. He threw the troodons off him into the palms and brush.

Behind me.

He whirled around just in time to catch the assassin's daggers on the blade of his sword. She tried to pull away again, but he grabbed her by the shoulder. He was going to tear her apart.

No. Wait. I've never killed someone.

He remembered the village, the screams, all the people running...

That wasn't me!

“Go away,” he snarled, forcing himself to remember he was human. “Stop. Leave us alone.” Fury welled up. It got harder to focus. Orange light glowed from every wound. “MATE...MINE!” he roared in her face, shoving her away. The assassin stumbled, but the moment she regained her footing she was back.

He stepped to the side and brought his sword down. He was aiming for her head but caught her arms, slicing them off just above the elbow. He caught her again on the backswing, blade going low. He cut one of her legs off just below the knee, the other just above it. Her limbless torso spun through the air and landed heavily on the ground. He felt the aura of the troodon pack leave her.

Kill.

Troodons exploded from the bushes, four of them at once charging out of the crowd at Hallek. He killed them with two swings of his sword, and turned to fight the rest, but that wasn't what they were there for. The troodons were dragging the assassin to the treeline, some of them carrying on their backs, others pulling along, still others surrounding her as a guard in case Hallek tried to fight them. They were retreating. He'd won.

He stumbled back to the cart, blood seeping down his back. He'd lost a lot of blood over the past few days. He needed food. And rest.

“Hallek?” Shylldra said, climbing out of the cart. “Sweet gods, I can't believe you just did that!”

She was beautiful. He reached up and grabbed her, pulling her into a kiss. After a startled moment she returned it, wrapping her arms around his back. But then she jerked away.

“Oh gods!” she said, looking down at the blood soaking her from fingers to elbows. “Hallek, stop. Turn around, let me see.”

Hallek pushed her up against the wall of the cart. Injuries were for later. Fight, then mate. That was how it worked...

Shylldra slapped him across the face.

He blinked. Once again confusion brought his mind into focus. No one had ever slapped Hallek across the face before, and the giganotosaurus he was bonded with had never even considered the concept of slaps to the face.

“Shylldra?” he said, feeling a little less saurian. “What...I just...I'm sorry...”

“Normally I'd be flattered but you're bleeding. And your eyes were glowing orange. And you're still holding the sword.”

He looked down. The sword was still in his hand. Dark red blood streamed down the blade.

The assassin's blood.

Oh gods I killed someone. I just killed another human being.

Maybe not. She wasn't dead when they dragged her away. She might survive.

And then she'll come after Shylldra. It's better she's dead.

I killed her. I had to kill her. I have to kill her.

I killed somebody.

The pain came again, clawing itsway through his body, a thousand daggers made of fire. His mind began to whirl. He wanted to find the assassin and make sure she was dead. He wanted to curl into a ball for the rest of his life and cry. He wanted to throw up. That last one was easiest so he went with it. It burned coming up his throat, a think stream of acid and bile with just a little bit of blood mixed in. Another agonizing eruption started, but then the air around him started to feel warm. Safe. He was still in agony, but it felt...distant.

Shylldra was kneeling next to him praying on her staff, calling out to Maia to ease his pain. He did cry then, tears falling from his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but all he could do was cough up another spatter of bile and blood.

The agonizing spasm passed, and he fell to the ground. Shylldra caught him and rested his head on her lap. The world was going fuzzy again, everything coming in confusing swirls. He tensed as a pair of shadows fell over them. More enemies? No they didn't feel like enemies. And Shylldra sounded so happy to see them. He couldn't make out the words, but he could hear the tone of her voice. So not enemies. Friends. Safe for now.

Hallek closed his eyes and let himself pass out.