Leafclaw: The End of an Era

Chapter 5

Leafclaw staggered along under the fuming black sky above.

The world around him was silent, aside from the crackling of the fires that he passed along his winding road to nowhere.

His right leg was now stiff and weak from hours of walking, and a steady stream of blood trickled from his dry nose. The rumbling of his starving belly had ceased long ago. Now, a simple feeling of numbness began to surpass his limbs, and his beautiful green feathers were smeared with black soot. The climate had even changed from unbearable heat to prickling cold as the smoke blocked out any warmth from the sun.

Despite his fatigue, Leafclaw stumbled on.

He had no specific destination in mind, only the will to keep moving. Constitutionally, he could either walk or die. Eventually, if the dinosaur stumbled upon a carcass or river, he could re-sustain himself and continue on.

The chances of that didn't look too promising.

There was absolutely no traces of anything, dead or alive, and the areas that had been filled with water were either overflowing with lava, or simply nonexistent.

Something tickled his nose.

Leafclaw lifted his head and froze.

A flake of some sort fell into his nose, and he sneezed. One fell onto his head, and another onto his back, until Leafclaw was suddenly being drenched in the strange material.

Lifting his head skywards, Leafclaw caught sight of thousands of white flakes falling from the dark clouds. He shivered as they tickled his skin, leaving a slight itch where they landed.

Snow? Leafclaw had only experienced snow once durning a severely cold winter, but otherwise the atmosphere of the jungle had kept the temperatures to a comfortable level durning the chilly months. His experience in the snow had actually been quite pleasant. Overnight, the stream outside his cave had frozen over. Not understanding what that entailed, Leafclaw had stepped onto the ice, only to slip and fall onto his feathery rear end. Luckily, he was unharmed, and actually found the activity of sliding to be quite fun.

Now confused, the pectinodon opened his mouth and caught a flake on his tongue. It tasted like soot, and it filled his mouth with a dry, chalky flavor. He coughed, immediately spitting it out onto the filthy ground.

In no time, Leafclaw's back was covered in a sheet of white, despite his feeble attempts to shake the ash from his hide. However, he continued on, refusing to let the annoying matter stop his march. Before long, his limbs became more of a hindrance than a help, and his small body began to shut down, already trembling with exhaustion.

Yet he still trekked on.

The sky grew darker, if possible, and the temperature began to drop. Leafclaw gave up on trying to keep the ash out of his eyes, and they watered unceasingly, sending rivulets of salty water dripping down his muzzle.

In the near distance, a single, almost unreal feature stood out against the debris that coated the ground: a small, flat faced rock.

Leafclaw struggled towards it, his vision going blurry. The soot seemed to grasp at his feet, forcing him to trip and stumble as he dragged his unwilling body closer to the small structure.

Upon finally reaching it, he blinked the water from his eyes one last time before collapsing onto it's familiar smooth surface. Leafclaw curled his tail around his head, shivering as the chill seeped into his bones. The cold fingers of death grasped at his rib cage, stoking his tired heart and willing him to give into the darkness. He shook his head, struggling to find warmth within his feathered hide.

Suddenly, Leafclaw was in this broken, hellish world no longer, but instead basking in golden sunlight, bathing in its brilliance and warmth. The jungle trees whispered comfortingly overhead, and birds sang joyously as they hopped from branch to branch. The world was warm and pleasant, and his shimmering green feathers rippled in the breeze. A sudden feeling of joy and happiness rose from the back of his maw, and Leafclaw opened his mouth to chortle with glee, but the sound caught in his throat, dying on his withered lips.

Leafclaw turned to stared at the glowing sun, eyes watering as it blurred in and out of view.

Far above him, in the cold, blackened sky, the clouds drifted shut, sealing the last of the moon from view.