Secrets - book two

New Friends?

Blue was the last to enter the cave, and what a cave it was. It was at least twice the size of any temporary cave she and Ripper have ever stayed in. Blue had never seen anything like it, the inside was lit up by something that was out of sight. There twelve Raptors in the cave in total (Ripper and Blue included). There were Raptors of all sizes everywhere, some were baby Raptors, some were adults and some looked like they were ages in between.

As Blue looked around, she Ripper saw Ripper cautiously wandering around aimlessly as if he was lost. Blue began to walk over to where he was, weaving her way through a crowded area of Raptors chatting amongst each other. Finally, she reached him, his tall, dark figure towering over her. He was looking around like confused new-born Raptor staring at a new world.

"I-I've never seen this many..." he said, his mouth agape.

"Raptors?" Blue finished for him, but he shook his head.

"Anything," he breathed.

Blue placed a talon on his side, getting his attention. He looked down at her, his orange eyes gleaming in the weird light that was illuminating the cave. They stared at each other for a moment, looking deeply into each others eyes, and slowly, slowly leaning toward each other.

Ripper's heart was pounding, what was he doing?! Why was he doing? So many questions were spiralling around his head, none of which he could answer as he could hear his heart beating in his head. Every sound started to blur out.

As Ripper panicked over what was happening, he didn't notice Blue's snout nuzzling the crook in between his head and shoulder, and suddenly, all his panic dissipated, and he just melted into her embrace.

"I'm so glad you're ok," she whispered, both of them shedding a small, silent tear. They stayed in that position for a while, enjoying each others embrace, until...

"Awwww," someone cooed from across the cave. Blue opened her eyes, and slowly left the comfort of Ripper's warm scales, which was like leaving a nice warm island, and going to a bone chilling island. She turned around, and was greeted by a very, uh, energetic Raptor shall we say.

"Hey, new Raptor!" She said, bouncing back and forth.

"Uh, Hi..." Blue said, stepping back a bit.

"Hi!" She bounced. "My name is whoa..."

Blue was a bit puzzled by this, "your name is 'Whoa'?" The Raptor stood there, her mouth a agape, staring at something behind Blue. It took a while for Blue to realise what, or rather who, she was staring at.

"W-what is th-that?" She asked in a trembling voice. Blue could tell that Ripper was cringing at the word 'what' behind her. And she was right. He was, he was in fact bowing his head submissively as he was a small dog being punished.

"His name is Ripper," Blue said, defending her friend. The once full-of-energy Raptor, was now staring blankly at Ripper.

"Is he friendly?" She asked.

"Very," Blue said, looking back at Ripper who was making a sceptical face that really said, 'am I?' And Blue responded with a 'yes you are' face.

The jumpy Raptor slowly approached the hybrid as if he was a radioactive and unpredictable beast, but Blue was confident he wouldn't react violently, why would he? The only reason he would react is because in this world trust was earned not just there. And considering Ripper's past, earning his trust was one of the hardest thing to do.

"H-hey there, Ripper," she said.

Blue noticed that Ripper's chest start to rise and fall quickly, she saw air being dispersed as he breathed in through his nose.