The gallimimus trekked through the moorland, his long legs built for immense strides and swift runs. He was moving amongst his flock, hundreds, if not thousands of his kind traveling together in a migration to their spring nesting grounds.

A few gallimimus were young, fresh out of juvenilehood and boundless with energy. While others were old and senile, their skin wrinkled and pale with age. Those were the slowest, the ones who were most likely to fall to the unforgiving jaws of predators.

The male gallimimus, whose spine was dappled with a blood red, strode forward. He cooed gently to a honey-colored female, who clacked her beak harshly in a show disapproval. The male defiantly arched his neck and crooned into the sky as he twirled in a small dance, begging for the female's attention.

The honey-colored gallimimus shrieked with rage, and delivered a kick at the male's side. The male flinched and took a few steps away, arcing his neck to face the ground in a show of defeat as the female picked up speed and ran to the head of the flock.

As the herd continued moving, with the red-dappled male fruitlessly trying to swoon females, the roar of a carnotaurus lifted through the air. It rose and fell in the bellowing broadcast that sent terror sprinkling through the flock. One of the young adults wailed with fear, and the herd pressed closer together. The deeper amongst the ranks of swift-moving gallimimus, the better.

The red-dappled male however was one of the unlucky few, pinched from snapping beaks and shoved to the outermost of the herd. His footsteps were light and fearful, his eyes flickering to the rolling hills behind he and his flock as he braced himself to sprint. The bellows had come from behind, and presumably just out of sight.

As predicted, a carnotaurus rose over the hill with a roar of triumph. He bellowed once more and three more joined him at the peak. They all let out synchronized cries before charging down the hill as fast as their long legs could carry them.

The red dappled male could not contain his fear any further. He screamed with fright and ran as fast as he could through the field. The sound of thousands of feet pattering against grass was the only sound he could hear in the deathly silence, all until a younger gallimimus shrieked as its life ended.

Carnivores were a common thing during the migration period. They knew where the gallimimus were headed, and spread out in search for the new path they had chosen for the new year and awaited in an ambush, the only way they could actually catch the swift herbivores. However, unlike all the other carnivores, the carnotaurus could keep up to the gallimimus. Not only that, but the carnotaurus was faster than the gallimimus.

A bellow sounded by his ear and the red-dappled gallimimus swerved to avoid the snarling jaws of the carnotaurus, ramming into the honey-colored female's side. She flared her arms with an enraged shriek before tripping over her own feet and tumbling to the ground. The last sound she made was a mix between an furious and fearful cry as a carnotaurus bore over her.

The red-dappled male continued running, fear pulsating through his veins as he painfully tried to ignore the new splatter of red on his side. Another carnotaurus was growing near, his goading calls of excitement sending fresh sparks of fear jolting through the gallimimus' toes and giving him a fresh burst of speed.

Suddenly, the male realized that he had split off from his herd, and was being flanked on both sides. Panic swirled through him and he nearly stumbled, but kept his footing firm as he gathered his thoughts. His heart had jumped into his throat and panic began closing in as he struggled for dominance over his instincts. He wanted to turn right. He needed to turn right. But he couldn't turn right!

A carnotaurus' teeth flashed through the air, and with a push from his instincts, the gallimimus swerved sharply to the right. The other carnotaurus snapped his jaws and split through the skin of the gallimimus' shoulder. He shrieked as pain exploded with a rush of warm blood and tearing flesh, and he stumbled as he inevitably fell. He scrambled to try and find his footing to rise from the ground, but the pain was blinding and he couldn't think straight. I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die!

A carnotaurus bellowed above him. Too far above him. The gallimimus craned his long neck and felt surprise and terror course through him. Above him, on the ledge of a cliff, the two carnotaurus who had hunted him peered down. They began speaking softly to each other in rumbling calls, before their heads vanished from the ledge as they left.

The gallimimus grew harshly aware of his surroundings. The scurrying of a rodent, the buzz of insects, and the rushing of water below him. He turned his head, and with an unspeakable rise of dread, he noticed that he had fallen onto a ledge. He peered closer, and was revealed to the bottom of the canyon far, far below, the river churning hungrily against its shore, as if it trying to reach him.

With a wail of anguish, the gallimimus realized that the only way he could touch the land again, was to leap from the cliff and to the distant ground below.

~*~
Written on March 7th, 2019.