Regicide

Chapter 18

He didn't know how long he had been knocked out, but it did not matter. He awoke sometime after the storm had passed, and the sun was starting to rise up in the east. Everything around him was still wet from the rain. The sound of the ocean beside him was the first thing he heard, and its scent was calming, though there were hints of blood mixed in as well.

Bone's blood. My blood.

Dune lay there for half an hour or so, not wanting to get up. Once he killed his sister, it would all be over. He will have achieved his goal- what would come next? After all, he had spent years training himself for the moment he would kill his sister- and that moment was within reach.

He remembered what Sand said about Fern killing her own child just because it resembled him.

Is that how much you hate me, sister? Disgraceful.

He snorted in disgust. That thought was enough to get him back onto his feet. He had to kill her; she deserved it, and he would be the one to thrust death upon her. He would take over the pack once she was dead, taking his rightful place as alpha.

Yes. That was a good plan.

He dragged himself on his feet, and took Bone's skull. It was a slippery process, considering that the rain had not fully dried from her, but he managed it eventually. With a snort, he tied it to his right arm. Now, all his limbs had their skulls. Strangely, it wasn't quite as satisfying as he thought it would be.

But that didn't matter- he would complete the set with the death of his sister. Her skull would be tied to the top of his own cranium.

Dune lapped up some rainwater from a puddle, then began his journey back to the desert. He was glad that his final battle would be in his homeland, and not in some other kind of unfamiliar habitat.

All creatures who saw him- from the smallest rodent to the deadliest Tarbosaurus- knew well to stay out of his way. They were not fooled by his small stature. They could sense his brutal, merciless nature. Even natural predators of Velociraptor felt nothing but fear when they saw his bloodied figure trudging through the sand, not daring to even try to come near him. But, Dune was not interested in killing them- he was only focused on slaughtering one being in the entire world. And now, with her friends dead and rotting in the scorching desert sand...

He will kill her.

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There was once a time when Fern had a sense of caring towards Dune.

Of course, that time was long gone. She genuinely did hate him now.

But it was a lie when she told her friends that she never cared for him.

She found him to be the most interesting of her siblings. Since they were in the same clutch, she, being the eldest, witnessed the births of all her brothers and sisters. Dune was the second oldest, and even at such a young age of only a few hours, she couldn't help but feel an instant curiosity towards him- he was the first baby raptor she ever saw, after all, as well as the her first sibling. She saw how different he looked from her- she was white, he was black, she had a black underbelly, spots, and stripes while he had white ones.

When her parents came along, they were happy with their clutch. Their father, Blaze, seemed unsure about the small black raptor, but their mother (Shrub) seemed to like him. At three weeks old, Fern and her siblings learned to speak the raptor way. The small black one was not as talkative as the others, but the more time they spent together, the more comfortable he felt talking. Fern and her other siblings all got their names, but for some reason, he didn't.