A New Life - book one

The River

Not all dreams are nice.

A flash of lightning woke me up, the bright light illuminating my surroundings. My eyes opened before I lifted my head, the lightning was loud, too loud, and the fact that it woke me from my sleep irritated me. I could feel my heart pounding at my chest. That was when I realized it, I had no wounds. My eyes widened in surprise. Where are my wounds?

I pawed at the ground in confusion, but when my claws scraped against the earth, I found out that it wasn't earth at all, it felt... metallic. I looked up to see the outside world, only the outside was there anymore, instead rows upon rows of metal bars. The sight of this metallic monstrosity made me recoil in fear. Those bars, I remember them from when I was imprisoned by the humans.

My cage began to move, and before I knew it, I was slowly being carted away. I felt my heart rate increase as I neared a closed gate that would soon open.

When the gates opened I expected to see dozens of seated humans. But as my eyes adjusted to the... darkness? There weren't any humans there at all, just an ever expanding darkness.

I looked around, my mind was in a state of confusion, thoughts of where are we? And where are all the humans?

As I was looking around, I spotted a figure walk toward me. I squinted to see better, but all I could make out was a white lab coat. My heart sank as I realized who this was. My creator, the one who had brought me into this painful world.

Dr. Henry Wu.

I growled as he approached me, his white lab coat stainless. As always.

He smiled, ugh, how I hated that smile. "Hello, my creation," he cooed. I growled louder,this just seem to make is smile even bigger.

"Ssh, ssh, quiet now." He leaned down close to me, but stayed out of snapping distance. "You've done well getting this far," he stated. "But, alas all good things must come to an end." And in that moment, he vanished into thin air, and I was left alone.

Suddenly, I felt something tug at my tail, and suddenly, I was pulled out of the dream, back to the real world.

I jolted awake, I could hear my heart in my head, pounding like it was trying to escape. My vision was blurry for a bit until I took a in a breath of fresh air. When my vision cleared up, I could see the morning light. I looked at the ground, still breathing rapidly. It wasn't metallic. There were no bars in front of me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that, to my dismay, my wounds were still there. I groaned in defeat as I felt the pain return to my body.

Birds outside started to sing their weird little songs. I perked my head up at the sound, it was quite soothing.

I breathed in another breath of fresh air, and my body began to stop shaking. I took another breath and another and another, until I could finally breathe normally.

I suddenly growled in annoyance. As if my mind can hear me, I thought. I can hear you. I jumped at the sudden voice in my head. I growled again, more at myself for letting myself getting jumped by my own mind. Go away, I thought grouchily. Pfft, someone woke up on the wrong side of the... cave, my mind scoffed. I growled again, louder this time. Was my mind trying to annoy me? It was working. But rather than retort back with some snarky comment, I got up, and balanced on shaky legs. I curled my head down to look at the cuts and scratches on my legs. The cuts have stopped bleeding, I observed. My legs still felt weak, though. Not to mention the jagged holes in my side and chest left to me by the skull.

I growled as I pushed through the pain. I have to find that water source. Leaving the cave, my eyes were overwhelmed by the bright light emitted by the Bright Ball in the Sky.

The warm rays of light hit my scales and instantly do as they're intended to. Warm me up. I basked in the warm light, it was the first time I had properly felt this kind of warmth. I had felt a bit of this warmth when I was imprisoned with the humans, when my cage was sat in front of an open window. The rays of golden bliss almost seemed to bend around the window. At first I was afraid of it, I didn't know if it wanted to harm me. But once its rays hit my scales, I slowly let myself relax. It was only for a brief moment for after that second my cage was moved somewhere I can't remember where.

But now, I had all the time I needed to enjoy this warmth. But of course, my mind had to intervene.

You done sunbathing? My mind barked. I sighed, and made my way to the trees where the light found it harder to reach me.

The trees weren't very tall, at times I had to get onto all fours, at other times I could walk up right on my hind legs.

I limped on, every step bringing me closer to the water source. I perked my head up when I heard water rushing down stream. It was close. I kept walking, every now and then leaves from low hanging branches would brush over my snout. It felt funny, but funny in a good way. See? Not everything wants to hurt you, my mind said. Just most things, I growled, sarcasm laced my voice. Why are you so grouchy? my mind questioned. I barked a laugh, which made me cough up a bit of blood.

I clutched the part of my chest that didn't have a jagged hole as a sharp pain stabbed inside my chest. The sour taste of blood filled my mouth. I looked down to see my blood drip onto the ground, staining the grass in front of me.

That was stupid, my mind bluntly commented. Shut up! I growled. I-just-SHUT UP! I roared. My mind shut up instantly, too shocked at my anger to respond back to me.

I walked on in complete silence through the forest, the sound of the rushing water becoming louder, almost deafening.

The silence unnerving, and the fact that nothing was happening around me, not even the birds were singing their little songs. Did I overreact? My brain told me no. That wasn't an overreaction, it was a perfectly normal reaction. But there was some part of me that disagreed; that it was an overreaction. I tensed my muscles, stress of was that the right thing to do? Or not, began to flood my mind. The world around me seemed to quiet down, as if one wrong move would send me into a blind rage.

I pushed my head through a clump of bushes, and there it was, a beautiful sparkling river. I walked up to it, staying from the edge as to not fall in. The river was stunning, seeing the clear blue water crash into the rocks and creating a sort of white foam.

Walking along the river, I saw something that confused me. The bright light in the sky was no longer in the sky, it was in the river. I stopped, and looked up, making sure the light was still in the sky. It was! So why was it also in the water?

This question perplexed me, but instead of pondering on it, I pushed the question to the back of my mind, and pushed, trying to find a part of the river that wasn't speeding furiously passed.

It didn't take me long to find a relatively calm pool of water. I crept closer to it, testing each patch of dirt before I took the next step. I saw small clumps of dirt fall away from the main clumps of dirt that I was using as steps.

When I reached the bottom, I dug my Death Claws into the ground to stop myself from falling in. I looked down at the water, and widened my eyes. The water seemed to be glistening with some sort of light. The question of why the bright light in the sky was now in the water came back to mind. I shook the thought away again, and leaned down to take a sip from the sparkling clear water.

After a few sips, I noticed the water ripple at the surface. I stopped sipping the clear water, and narrowed my eyes as I tried to figure out what it was. That was when I noticed the figure in the water, and suddenly, my mind flashed back to the struggle in that clearing, who my attacker was, the slither of blue scales I saw as my attacker retreat. I felt my heart stop as I realized who it was. My eyes widened in fear, and slowly, I shakily brought my head up to meet the Velociraptor.

There she was, staring at me in more surprise than anything else. But my expression was fear with a hint of shock, but mostly fear. I stared into her light green eyes.

I was now staring at my mortal enemy.

I was staring at Blue.