All I could do was scream.

Just scream in pain.

In Fear.

Anger.

Sadness...

I just watched a young Tyrannosaurus get killed right before my eyes.

Though I couldn't see his face, his back and spine was turned to me now, exposing loads of flesh and blood, and his tail just laid silently in the black water. The Spinosaurus-creature just had his huge claw on his body, pinning him, despite the fact that he died, and glared at me with a still-broken neck.

A whip of his tail struck me backwards with so much force, the air got knocked out of my lungs. I just fell backwards, watching in sadness as the Spinosaurus roared down at me flying in slow motion. I could still see his tail below my foot claw as I fell backwards, and with a painful stretch, my claw slid right though the tip of his tail's flesh. At the same time, my spine collided with the clock's surface, but before I could die from a broken skull, everything vanished around me.

And I woke up screaming.

"NOO!" I cried, "NO!!"

Literally every carnivore in this dark cave nearby me screeched in fear, jolting backwards as if they saw a ghost.

"Whiteclaw?" Atlas's voice cried out.

"No!" I kept screaming, "IT KILLED HIM! IT KILLED HIM!"

"Whiteclaw wait!" Queen stomped over from a Lythronax's side, holding me down as I thrashed to break away.

"It freaking killed him! It killed him, it killed him..." I laid on the floor, crying so hard that I couldn't even breathe, and quaked in pure anger and fear. I buried my head into my curled tail as I rocked myself back and forth, speechless and feeling quite useless for the most part.

But mostly, I felt as though I lost everything.

Everything.

Including myself.

But then again, I thought as my heart bounced back to normal, could he make it back? I touched his tail when I struck the clock.

Shouldn't hope be among our hearts for now?

Can't there be another chance?

------

"He's alive?" Stella gasped as I stumbled in. Thunder's eyes widened, and a flicker of hope sparked in his face.

And that was a face I wished had never came.

"Shadow must've made it out too," He muttered.

My heart sank.

Stella moved over to me slowly, glimmer flashing in her eyes below her three horns, and dipped her head towards me.

"I thought you were dead."

"I'm not," I weakly clicked, "Not yet at least."

"You're spotless too," Stella smirked, "Wonder how you survived without a scratch." I looked down and chuckled,

"Well actually-"

"Why isn't he coming back?" Thunder suddenly growled in a panicked tone, "Why isn't Shadow waking up?"

And just like that, my heart sank deeper and deeper. Oh no....but I touched his tail, he should've come back by now!

"What?"

"He's not coming back!" Thunder cried. Stella glanced at me once, then rushed over with the sudden group of carnivores behind me to the body of the Tyrannosaurus. Shadow laid a few feet away from the clock, lying so peacefully that you could almost fall for him sleeping rather that being....well y'know....dead.

Thunder nudged his belly, then tapped his neck. But nothing from the young dinosaur stirred. Thunder turned to me with wide eyes.

"Why isn't he coming back Whiteclaw?"

"I...." My heart thundered endlessly, "He should've came back, I touched the clock with his body! He should've-" Then I gasped as a flashback struck my mind.

A dark flashback.

"What happens if we die twice?" Shadow questioned worrisome.

But all that came back was the stomach turning grin from the skull that made both of our hearts jump in fear.

"Shadow?" Thunder's screeched drowned my thought, "Wake up!"

My jaws just dropped.

He died twice.

HE DIED TWICE!!

My claw went over my snout, and a suddenly strike of painful sadness gripped my soul unlike anything I've ever felt.

"Whiteclaw what happened to my hatchling?!" Thunder trembled, shaking his head with his jaws, "What happened to my youngling?!"

Stella rushed over to the Tyrannosaurus in fear, and strangely enough, my feet followed behind the Triceratops.

"Shadow?" I choked, "Shadow?"

But I already knew the answer to what had happened.

Shadow died twice.

And once you're taken twice......

"C'mon kid please," I placed my claws on his bony snout, "Please wake up. I know you're still in there.....I know you're not gone."

As my claws made their way to his chest, I felt fear shatter my soul.

His heart wasn't beating.

And neither was his chest.

"Shadow?!" I shrieked, "C'mon please! Come back to us! C'MON!" I shook him harder and harder. Yet the Tyrannosaurus's body was still and quiet.

And so was his heart.

His father stood on the right of him, nudging him harder, sometimes even nibbling his neck to wake him up. Blood dribbled from the sides of Shadow's lips, and a darker presence fell upon everyone as they watched the droplet.

"No...." I felt tears rush to my eyes as I watched the droplets fall. And then the sobbing commenced, "....No...." I shook him harder.

Nothing happened.

"Shadow!" I began to scream as tears fell from the sides of my face, then slammed my balled-up claws onto his chest, "Shadow!"

"Whiteclaw!" Stella warned, but I ignored.

I was in so much pain.

I was in so much agony.

I was so scared...

"SHADOW!!" I slammed once more, then let out a cry of tears.

I LEFT HIM TO DIE!

I LEFT A KID!

Stella shrank into the corner, and as far as I could tell, that was the first time I saw her shed a tear. I sank my snout into his hide, feeling pain far worse than death, far worse than suffering shatter my inners, blooming rage inside my body. I kept sobbing, trembling violently as I held onto a dead friend, unable to sooth myself anymore. Thunder was in tears too, looking around to see if anyone could give him comfort, or if there was some symbol of hope around them.

But there was none.

There probably never will be one.

I drew up from Shadow's side, my hands and tears still trapped on his skin, and only sniffled once. I realized with a heavy heart that everybody's eyes were locked on me.

Included Thunder.

"You left him to die in there...." He whispered, fire blazing in his eyes, "Like how you left Drexel to die."

"Thunder," Stella began, sniffling hard, but a swing of his tail in front of her mouth silenced her moving beak.

"Don't Stella...Don't." He turned to me, growling darkly in his heart, "Every death that has happened, has been around you. Everything that's happened has happened because of you! They all died not because of their actions,....but because of you."

"Thunder..." I was sobbing again, wanting to apologize.

But I was truly out of apologizes by now.

"How could you?"

"I didn't-"

"This is all you FAULT!" He roared, slamming his foot onto the ground. I took a step back, hissing with bent knees, while everybody in the cave flinched. But in my belly, everything wanted to stand up. Everything in my soul wanted to give up, to submit to death.

Everything was my fault.

"That's not the evil Deinonychus," Thunder snarled, pointing to the clock, "YOU ARE!"

And then he started to move towards me.

No,....he wanted to kill me!

"Thunder-" Atlas began, before his tail slapped the Indosuchus backwards into the wall. Finch jumped, and Queen with her babies stepped backwards.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" He screeched, seeing Feather move towards me, "HE'LL DIE FOR WHAT HE DID TO SHADOW!!"

Stella broke free from Thunder's tail, and jerked in front of his face with a rumble.

"Thunder!" She growled, "We are not here to rip each other apart!"

"We're risking our lives to protect each other. But all he protects and thinks about is HIMSELF! If he wasn't so selfish maybe Amberclaw would be alive! Maybe even his other friends, maybe even Shadow! But I can't trust him anymore!" He shook his head, breathing harder and harder, "No longer am I putting my faith into a Deinonychus. NEVER AGAIN YOU HEAR?"

I felt sick in my stomach again, and my head just bowed down in shame. Thunder let out a puff of steam, glaring at everybody who just stared, surrounding my own body.

"I can't believe you guys.....to protect someone not worth saving! He took my son!" Tears swarmed down his face, and his closed his mouth to prevent any slight choke in his throat, "It's over for me now..........My world's already gone."

"Thunder-"

"I'm sorry Stella. There's nothing for me to live for anymore..."

And like that, he walked off, shuddering the cave and clock.

Without another word.

Everybody relaxed finally, then went completely speechless from Thunder's words. Feather and Atlas just stared at each other, trembling side by side. Stella moved back to her normal position, wide with terrified eyes, then turned back to me, unable to say anything.

Fire boiled in my stomach, and like a volcano I wanted to erupt with lava. I wanted to rip something to shreds. My fingers themselves curled and pressed into my palm, and my toe-claw drew a sharp line into the earth.

Why did I come back? Why did I come back alive?!

Why me?!

WHY?!

"Whiteclaw," Stella softly chirped, "I-It's not your fault....he's just letting off some steam-"

I shook my head as I moved forwards from Feather's protective tail circle, "No....he's right."

"That's not true. You got us far on this journey, and it's not over-"

"IT IS OVER, ALRIGHT?!" I snapped, tears welling up below my eyes, "IT'S OVER! THERE'S NO WAY OUT! NOWHERE LEFT TO GO! THERE'S NOTHING!"

"Whiteclaw-"

"It's like running into a brick wall Stella. You can't go over, you can't go right, left, backwards."

"You can still go through."

"There's nothing on the other side!" I hissed, "NOTHING! It's just.....its just...." I stared at Shadow's body, and felt another punch of sorrow.

I killed my best friend...

I killed us all.

I broke through Feather's tail, trembling and breathing harder and harder, then sprinted the fastest I could, away from the group, away from the world, away from the clock and everything else. I found myself out only a few seconds later, staring at a world on fire, bubbling with lava, and quaking constantly beneath my feet.

I turned after hearing Stella's voice call back for me, and ran upwards, towards Three-Toed Caverns.

It was just rubble.

"No...." I sobbed, feeling death envelop me with fear by his side, "NO!"

I twisted the other way, breaking into a burnt and smoky forest without fire. Branches and sticks struck my body, pulling me back as I ran, wanted to get away from myself, but it was a rock that stopped me in my tracks. I trembled as I pushed my way to my feet, scraped up from the scratches. I was breathing hard, straining to see clearly from the amount of tears built up below my eyes. I pressed my noggin on the timid bark of a tree and closed my eyes.

I felt some strange heartfeld feeling in my toe-claw, and slowly, I implanted it into the ground, and drew something.

And out came a peculiar shape to my eyes.

Dad drew this once....before he died to Drexel's hand....

It was a claw. A curved claw.

"This," Dad pointed to the ground where the claw was drawn, "Means more than what you could imagine. It's the symbol of our species Whiteclaw; the symbol of us. When you get older, you'll know who you are. You could be the light of the forest," He put a little haze on the claw's exterior, "Or the shadow in the dark," he shaded the claw in, "But your decision remains not in your mind little one, but rather," he pointed to my chest, "the heart, created and given by the blood your ancestors. My dad, and his dad told me once that nothing is perfect. Nothing is the same. But something can make a change. And you are that change."

I stared at the claw on the ground that I drew, and angrily, I shaded it in, quaking in my soul.

Blackclaw was never the rotten apple in the family tree....I was.

I was!

I WAS!!

My heart fumed like the volcano that submerged the region itself, and with a screech, I dug my claws at the picture, throwing up dust and soil all around.

Then my claw found my way to the hard bark of a tree, and slammed into it was an open palm.

My fault!

I felt Shadow's eyes stare at me. Then Drexel's presence found its way to my head.

My fault!

My palm turned into balled fists, which cracked on the wood as more images of those I lost flooded my memories. Amberclaw, Blackclaw....

My fault!

Brownclaw.......My fist struck again, going faster now as more blows went to that poor tree.

MY FAULT!!

By now, flesh had ripped on my dirty claws, and agony worst that the one I felt on the sides of my claws screamed at my soul. And then came the image of my parents, my pack.

NO!!

My claws shook the tree down to the roots, down to its bones as I stopped striking its thick body, and silently, my balled fist opened, bleeding pure blood and dark sap. And as I fell to my knees, the hands slid downwards until it touched the earth.

The earth shook a few times as I stood there on my knees, struggling to hold back tears.

But I broke to many promises.

I broke to many lives.

And I lost too many souls.

Including my own.

And just like that, I sobbed.