Scales Of Iron | an Indoraptor Story

I: Dead On Arrival

The wind blew hard against the trees forged by nature, and raindrops pelted the ground of the forest. The familiar green and brown colours that mother nature had dressed this area in shined the moonlight from rain that had been showering them for hours. Miles upon miles inside of the forest lied a beautiful manor built with brick and glass decades ago. It was a shining example of the corrupt genius of man.

Inside the manor, the halls were filled with shards of glass from broken windows and from the ruckus that happened just yesterday, when all kinds of dinosaurs unleashed hell upon this mansion.

A particular room, ladened with the long gone fossils of ancient beasts, which walked this earth tens of millions of years ago. One of the ceratopsian skulls in the room was different from the others however, as impaled upon the ivory horns of the skull lay the corpse of a mighty raptor.

But not just any raptor.

An Indoraptor.

An Indoraptor killed by his own hubris and Misunderstanding of the environment around him.

"Mmh..." I groaned, waking up. When I opened my eyes, I felt like the world around me had spun 360 degrees. My eyesight was blurry, but I could make out anything around me. I didn't even realize that I was looking down. When my eyesight had finally cleared, I was shocked to find I was impaled and in the air. "Argh... Agh! " I yelled after realizing I was lifted a few meters off the ground. I tried to move my body, but all that I received was a sharp bolt of pain. I let out a loud yelp, before coming back to my senses. "This can't be how I die..." I mumbled to myself. "No..."

"This- this c-can't be the end," I at least hoped it wasn't. I felt like death was looming over my body, waiting for me to trip into my inevitable doom. Seconds felt like minutes as I stared at the scarred wooden floor of the mansion, my wounds aching like needles being stabbed into naked flesh.

It felt hopeless. Every fiber of my being felt lost, like I was confined in a cage with nowhere to go. But alas, I had to push forward. My arms stretched out, hands gripping onto the horn that impaled my chest. The pain was horrible. It was like being boiled in hot water, unable to escape.

But I pushed forward.

I had to.

With a burst of determination I pushed myself higher and higher out of my ivory hell, with every charge feeling more and more exhausting.

Eventually, my broken body slipped off that horn, leaving me hanging by my thigh. The momentum I had carried from the drop had pushed the ceratopsian skull off balance, making it hang off the edge.

"...shit..."

The skull fell, dragging me down with it. I could see the bright night sky and stars glimmer just before the bones impacted the ground, sending my thigh sliding off the horn. My head hit the ground at such speed that it knocked me out cold.

...

...

"Wake up," I immediately was brought back to reality, sharply, suddenly. The seconds I was gone felt like an hour to me. I looked around slowly, trying to find the source of the sound. Standing around ten feet away from me was something familiar yet foreign. I could not see it clearly due to my blurry vision, but I could tell it was snow white, like an angel from the heavens as the humans would sometimes say. After the blur from my vision disappeared I could clearly make out what the white stranger was.

It was... me?

No, no, it couldn't be me.

"Geez dude, you look rough. What happened?" the creature asked with a snarky expression. At least, that's what I think it was, since I couldn't see very well.

"Who... *cough* the hell a-are you?" I managed to say out of my crimson maw as blood dripped down from it. My eyes began to blur again, like death himself was dragging me back. "No... Don't..." I thought, before losing consciousness.

Timeskip, duration unknown

When I opened my eyes, I was in a field. The hay tickled at my body as I looked up at the cloudy sky. The world around me felt dead, probably because everything was in a monochrome gray. I could see a figure, most likely human, standing across from me. It was far enough away that I couldn't make out its face, but it's silhouette was clearly that of an adult male. It was wearing a black suit and a tophat, complemented with a bow tie, one side white and the other black.

I stood up, looking around before locking my eyes upon the distant figure. Now that I could see clearly I could make out its brown mustache and facial form. I looked around, wondering where I was, before realizing the figure was walking towards me in rhythm.

"Back again I see."

I stumbled back in shock after hearing this ominous human speak to me. After regaining my composure from the sudden surprise, I stared at the mysterious man, who was staring right back at me with his white, seemingly dead eyes.

"I did not expect you to be back so quickly, Ripper."

"How do you know my name?" I asked, confused on how the human knew my name despite us having never met. On the other side of my mind, I knew that the human couldn't understand me.

"We've met before, although you don't seem to remember. Oh, and I know your name from a 'friend' of mine."

I was baffled. Not only did he know my name from someone, he also understood me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am an accountant, I manage accounts yours has quite the history, actually."

Before I could say a word, everything went black around me, before I myself was consumed by the darkness.

INGEN building, San Diego, 2:43 AM

The rain was pelting against the colourful streets of San Diego. In the array of skyscrapers that sat in the city, one stood out, as it had the INGEN logo on its front.

Inside the building was an office, with a dark wooden desk at the end of the room. There were two bookshelves in the room, both of which were on different sides of the office. On the desk sat a pearly white laptop, which was closed. Next to the laptop was a small, wide, wooden triangle with a golden slab that had a name ingrained in it. The name of the person that was ingrained in it was a man by the name of "William Ferguson".

A woman was walking towards the office, her steps beating against the floor like a piano. When she arrived at the door to the office, she took a deep breath, like she was about to deliver important information. The woman opened the door to the office and walked in with a fake smile plastered across her face.

"Excuse me, mr. Ferguson."

"What is it?" a voice from across the room said in a British accent.

"Someone monitoring the cameras in the manor saw 447 wake up."

The man across the room fell silent. It was almost as if he had become deaf.

"...What?"

"I am serious sir. 447 is alive. The cameras in the manor unfortunately cut before we could monitor it more for some reason."

"..."

"Tell the squad we sent there to hurry up NOW!"

The woman flinched, before hurrying out of the room. Ferguson was confused, how could something survive being impaled? He pondered for a bit, before grabbing a pen and writing something down.

"That thing... it... It's actually alive..." William let out a small chuckle as he stared at his desk in disbelief.

"He's a genius... I can't believe I doubted him for years..."

____________________________________

Chapter rewrite: complete. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.