We had been walking for a while over the rocky road, the surrounding mountains are huge, there were some trees and I could smell aromatic plants that were growing at the base of the cliffs. The trees seemed to adapt to being around the mountains, they did not look anything like the trees we have at home. It suddenly occurred to me, I stopped paying attention to what I smell and see for a long time. I smiled at Lorraine since she makes me happy, and I kept looking around me. I looked at the bluestem grass that is growing near the base of the mountains, it seemed like a normal grass field instead of what we have in our reality.
Abby drew attention away from the grass as she pointed at a mountain with a hole in it, Funk looked at it, “It must have been an energy blast.”
Lorraine grunted, “It must have been a mighty being.”
I chuckled, luckily, that mountain is very far away, things had been weighing on my mind, the fact that the Bishop fears me. How they immediately imprisoned me, even taking Lorraine with me into the dungeon for standing up for me. Talia knowing some of the answers I seek, yet not willing to share them. Lorraine is clearly getting attached to me, and to be fair, I am getting attached to her as well, even if she is keeping secrets. It felt different compared to what I had with Haley. Maybe it has to do with that mechanical thing I vomited out. Some kind of implant, those strange people did not see fit to replace, as long as I did not look at them. There are so many questions, and barely any answers.
Lorraine stopped me, “Is something wrong, Steve?”
“Huh? No, why?”
“You are just very silent.”
Abby chuckled, Lorraine looked at her, “What is so funny?”
Funk smiled, “He is usually silent or brooding, his brain is working overtime.”
Lorraine looked at me, “Share your troubles with me, Steve.”
Abby burst out in laughter, “He never shares what he is thinking, good luck with that.”
I stopped Lorraine and told the others to move out of range, as I saw them in the distance, I looked at Lorraine, “It is just, your mom knowing things, it struck me as strange. Why does she know what I am?”
Lorraine put a hand on her chin, “She has spent a lot of time with fairies, she must know something about the enemies they have faced. When she saw you, she must have put it together.”
I nodded, “That is a very likely answer, then why doesn’t she want to tell us?”
Lorraine seemed to be thinking, “Perhaps because she thinks you are dangerous, and it might be better if you find out yourself?”
“Yes, you must be right, there is something else.”
Lorraine tilted her head, “Yes?”
“A couple of nights ago, when I stepped away from the camp for a moment, I vomited up a piece of mechanical equipment, it came out like juice.”
Lorraine had a strange look on her face, “That is, very strange, are you some kind of robot?”
“No, I don’t think so, I mean, I bleed.”
Lorraine nodded, “that is true, and I expect you also have normal bones.”
I smiled at her, glad I could confide in her, “These people appeared out of nowhere, talking about some kind of implant being broken, and wiping my memories.”
Lorraine gasped, “That sounds horrible, do you think, you are missing memories?”
I nodded, “Yes, do you remember the flesh cave we saw?”
She simply nodded.
I crossed my arms, “I can’t remember that, they must have wiped that, but what else am I missing?”
Lorraine smiled, “You will find your memories, I am sure of it, eventually, we will find out who those people are. We will force them to give you back your memories.”
“Thanks, Lorraine, that makes me feel better.”
Lorraine smiled, and her fangs appeared, seeing them, actually made me feel happy for some reason.
Lorraine took my hand, “Is there anything else you want to share?”
“Yes, this is going to sound strange, when I met Haley, and I fell in love with her, my ex-wife. It felt, fake, I don’t know if that is the right description, perhaps, manufactured? But here I am with you and this feels, different. Better, real, I actually wanted to hit on you just for a booty call. However, yeah, feelings got involved, it turned into more.”
Lorraine chuckled. “You can be honest to me, that means a lot to me. I am falling for you too, perhaps, those people have something to do with you and Haley.”
I looked up, “Do you think, they manufactured that?”
Lorraine nodded, “With how you are saying it to me, it sounds as if they are trying to take away your power and break you. What better way to break someone, than make him think he is in love with someone, and then have that person die on him? Wiping your identity, your race, maybe they even implanted fake memories.”
I smiled, “you are very keen, being a part-wolf.”
She kissed me, “I am keen, and not manufactured.”
I grimaced, “Yes, I am starting to notice that, this was not the plan.”
Lorraine smiled, “Sometimes, the best things are those that are not planned.”
I nodded, “Shall we go on towards the ravine? The other two are waiting for us.”
Lorraine smiled and nodded, She took my hand, we walked over to them, Abby looked up, “And?”
Lorraine let out a grin towards Abby that made her look superior, “He told me everything, and I am keeping it a secret.”
Funk gasped, “But, how?”
I smiled, “She just, listened.”
Abby shook her head, “I just needed some wolf ears.”
Lorraine chuckled, “I don’t think it is just the wolf ears.”
Funk laughed as we started to continue our road, “You also needed a tail, Abby.”
I chuckled as I looked at the rocky area around us and actually enjoyed the scenery again, I stopped us, “Did you just hear that?”
Lorraine immediately started using her ears, she drew her sword, “An enemy is coming closer.”
Lorraine and I bumped against each other’s side and looked at the small stones falling down, Abby spawned a crossbow and I saw Funk with two dark blades. A loud roar echoed, then a dinosaur slid down the mountain. It had green with red skin, it had these small claws, and it walked on two legs. A theropod, those large teeth, It has to be a Tarbosaurus.
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Abby screamed, “Fuck! A dinosaur.”
Funk looked at her, “What is a dinosaur? We call these things overgrown lizards.”
Lorraine gritted her teeth, “You would rather not find out what a carnivore is, Steve, plan?”
“Running is no option, according to books I read it can reach about 25 miles per hour, if you didn't understand that, it is circa 40 kilometers per hour. The only person who might be able to escape this dinosaur is Lorraine, the others will be snacks, including me. We need to kill it.” It slowly came closer to us, It roared and saliva dripped to the ground. “That thing is twice our height. Get ready, here it comes.”
As the tarbosaurus charged at us, the ground shook, It tried to chomp down on us, Lorraine and I both rolled the other way. As the tarbosaurus got ready to attack, I slid on the sand road towards it legs, with force, I slashed my sword infused with dark energy across its leg, but it barely scraped through its thick skin. However, I pissed it off, It started stomping its giant feet, trying to squash me.
Abby started shooting arrows, It immediately looked at her, Lorraine threw her weapon at the tarbosaurus, while it was a perfect hit, the sword just bounced off the Tarbosaurus. Abby started to run, Funk tried chopping the tarbosaurus in his face, but he got pushed aside. Lorraine and I just, ran after the dinosaur, but it was too fast.
The tarbosaurus chomped down on Abby, and the upper half of Abby disappeared, I shot an energy blast together with Lorraine and the tarbosaurus spit Abby out while she got launched quite far away. Blood splattered everywhere as I saw her throat got slashed by one of the teeth. The tarbosaurus looked at us, It turned around while Funk kept shooting energy blasts at it. The tarbosaurus roared loudly and green energy from the land started infusing it. Its tiny arms grew into bigger arms.
I grunted, “damn, those are some sharp claws, fuck me, please lose your balance.” The energy must also keep it balanced for it did not fall over. It ran over towards us with those wacky stupid arms, it tried to slash me. I spawned an energy blade from silver energy, I don’t exactly know how, it just happened, since I am panicking here. With my new blade, I blocked the incoming claw with an X formation of my swords, but I got pushed back. As the other claw came for me, I saw Lorraine jump in and block it, Funk ran over and jumped on my shoulders, he used my shoulders to jump higher. The tarbosaurus tried to bite him, but Funk managed to land on the tarbosaurus’s head.
The tarbosaurus kept attempting to slash me and Lorraine with its new claws, I saw Lorraine slip up, and her right arm got slashed open, her blood splattered over me. Funk ram his dark blade down on its head. However, Funk’s blade shattered. He looked quite, panicked, too.
“Funk!?”
“Yes?”
“It is using green energy, you need to try to tap into a sub-element.”
“A what?”
“Don’t use dark, it is not working, try making it a flaming dark.”
“Dude, that is impossible.”
Lorraine gritted her teeth as we got pushed into the ground, “Just fucking do it, Funk.”
He slowly started figuring it out while the tarbosaurus pulled back its claws and slashed at Lorraine, I saw she had lost her footing due to the shaking of the earth, I pushed her aside and turned around. The massive claws slashed my back open and blood flew everywhere.
Lorraine pushed me aside and slashed down with burning green energy and cut off one nail, It made the tarbosaurus roar in pain. Funk needed to hold on as the dinosaur raised its head. I started shooting silver energy blasts out of my swords, Lorraine joined me and the tarbosaurus, suddenly rushed forward towards Lorraine with an open mouth, as if it wanted to scoop her up.
Once again I pushed her aside, she let me, I got scooped up into the dinosaur's mouth and as it wanted to close its jaw, I raised my arms and dropped my swords. “Funk, any moment now.”
“Yes, give me a second.”
“I don’t have many seconds.”
The jaw slowly started to close, Lorraine called out, “Hurry, Funk!”
I infused myself with energy; otherwise, I would have been a snack already. Then I heard a loud roar as everything started to shake, I spawned my silver energy blade back in my hand and stabbed the tarbosaurus right through its palette, hopefully near its brain. However, the mouth closed while the breeze stopped, meaning, this thing is dead. With a lot of grunting and getting scraped by the teeth, I managed to worm myself out as Lorraine helped open up the humongous jaw.
I rolled out and looked at the sky, “I need a shower, where is Abby?”
Lorraine looked down at me, “Funk is looking for her, he got injured when he got launched, his shell cracked.”
Funk walked over with Abby in his arms, I gritted my teeth, “Is she alright?”
Funk sighed, “sort of, she needs to get patched up, it is a miracle she is not dead, she should be dead a couple of times over.”
Lorraine nodded, “We shall set up camp and patch her up.”
Funk looked at the dinosaur, “What about this thing?”
Lorraine looked at it, “It’s dead.”
I spawned the ambulance, Funk nodded, “That is a good idea.” He put Abby on the stretcher.
I looked at her wounds, “These are pretty severe.”
Lorraine nodded, “No worries, she is alive, and I think she got lucky.”
With a deep sigh, I sat down on the chair as I saw Lorraine removing Abby’s shirt, one of the teeth seemed to be still inside of her neck.
Funk looked at me, “I hate dinosaurs.”
I looked at him, “In books, they look spectacular, in real, not so much, especially if they try to eat you.”
Funk looked at the blood dripping on the floor, “Are you hurt?”
“Yes, but mending Abby’s wound is more important right now, how are you?”
He showed me his shell, “It cracked.”
“Now what?”
“It will repair itself over time, however, my defense will be lowered.”
I nodded, “Lorraine?”
“Yes?”
“Will Abby be fine?”
“Yes, it seems when she got picked up and shook around like a chew toy, no vital organs were hit, it seems her pulse has stopped again, just like with the mushrooms. She did lose a lot of blood.”
I looked at Funk, “Could you start setting up camp?”
He nodded and started making space for camp, Lorraine looked at me, “You almost got eaten to save my ass.”
I chuckled, “This might sound wrong, but to save you, I would get eaten by a dinosaur.”