Sturm's Territorium - Die etwas andere Dinosaurierseite

The sky was darkening in rain, indicating that there would soon be a downpour, and torrents of rain. The chick looks up at the incoming clouds and sighs. "Better go back, to the den," she hears her father tell her. She looks at her sister, who nods quietly, not saying much. She always was the shy one of the two, though both of them didn't tend to say much at times. They had been gathering food, for their mother, who was back in the den, sick. She had suddenly caught an unknown disease a few weeks ago, and she did not seem to be getting any better. Minstelae was worried about her. She had seen the way that her mother barely even opened her eyes anymore, and how she could barely even moan in her miserable state, though she tried. She could never bear to see her mother die. It would be too much for her to take, too much for her to handle.

Fortunately, they had found a kill that had been made nearby, and didn't need to hunt, that being a good thing, since Minstelae's mother was so ill, she could not aid in hunting with her mate. And fortunately, she and her sister, Amber, had been able to eat something, as there had not been much to eat lately. Usually the two would stay in the den and wait for their parents to bring them food, but it had been nice out earlier, and they wanted to join their father, rather than staying in the den. They had been in the den with their mother for quite a few days now, and it had been getting to them. After all, they weren't going far away from their territory. But, the storm clouds were moving in quickly and without warning.

Sighing, Minstelae averts her eyes from looking at the clouds, and begins following her father and sister back to the den, not wanting to be left alone. They had been in such a hurry to get back that no one had noticed that they were being followed, that there was a slight scent lingering in the air. Amber noticed it first. "What…… what is that?" she asks in fear. Then the scent hits Minstelae, and then finally, her father. Minstelae can hear her father bellowing to her to run, and suddenly, it is too late. She feels herself being lifted upwards, in huge gaping jaws, then she hears her father shrieking in anger, and watches as he attacks her oppressor. Minstelae is dropped, the ground moving ever closer to her, and she finally hits it with a dull thud. She tries to move, but she is frightened. She can only make little whimpering noises in the back of her throat. Minstelae finally regains her ability to move, and she runs like mad and hides from a safe-enough distance, although she wants to make sure her sister and father are all right. She watches as her sister is picked up in those huge jaws as well, not having been fast enough in her reaction. She watches her father attack again, screaming in anger and lashing out with his claws. Her sister is shaken madly and flung into the air, landing farther away, yet Minstelae stays still. Then her father falls somehow, and then he gets back up again. He runs back, preparing himself to attack again, but he is limping. He is no longer in any condition to attack. Minstelae watches as he jumps up again, digs his claws into the creature's sides, biting at its neck and eyes. Then, he falls again, no longer being able to get up. He is stepped on repeatedly, and bitten at, until his body becomes one with the soil, no longer moving. She hides, watches that horrible thing eating her father, and is trying not to cry or whimper or make any other noises that might betray her presence. It is all she can do, not to. Finally, after what seems like forever, it leaves, yet Minstelae stays in hiding for an hour or so afterwards, to make sure that the horrible attacker is gone. She then comes out of hiding and runs over to where her father is. He is no longer recognizable. He is just a mangled mass of arms and tail and viscera. Minstelae feels sick inside. This could not have just happened. Not to her. Not to them. No. It couldn't be. Not with their sick mother. She and her sister could not survive……. Her sister! Minstelae searches the air for any sign of her sister's scent, whimpering softly to herself. She sniffs long and loudly, and then she catches it. Faint, but it is there. She sighs, whimpers and follows the scent of her fallen sister.

The scent gets stronger, and Minstelae is running now in hopes that her sister Amber is fine. But she whines loudly and lowers her head when she gets there. Her sister is there, all right, but is barely breathing. Her leg is bent at some odd angle, and she is bleeding; yet it is hard to tell where the wound is or where the blood is coming from. Minstelae sighs and nudges her sister, getting no response from her. Her breathing becomes labored, and she lies down next to Amber, alternating nudges and nuzzles with whimpering and soft whining. Inside, the realization hits her. Her sister will not live much longer. All Minstelae wants to do is go back to their den and cry softly.

The thunder roars loudly now, and lightning illuminates the dark, clouded sky. It is so cloudy now that it is very dark outside. She can still see, of course, but everything has this dark, foreboding essence about it. She whimpers as the lightning strikes, then hears a loud crack, even louder than the thunder, and there is a burning smell in the air, and a tree falls. She runs, terrified, back towards the den. But she cannot leave her sister there. There is still the small chance that…… that she might live. Not knowing what to do, she stands there, as her snout is pelted by first one drop, then another, and another. She must act fast.

Minstelae runs up to where her sister is. Perhaps she can do it. She gently takes the neck of her sister in her jaws and wraps her arms around her sister's torso, tasting her sister's blood. She whimpers and lets go with her jaws. She notices that her sister's little feather-crest, which was once a shade of gray-blue, is now dark in color, encrusted in blood. She takes her sister's neck in her jaws again and pulls, mustering all of her strength, and slowly makes her way towards their little den. It seems to take forever, and it is pouring now. Minstelae quivers and eeps with every loud crack of thunder, every flash of lightning. She is almost there. She is pulling her sister uphill now, which makes it even harder, but she is almost there. The little chick twists her ankle slightly on a rock, and falls over. She feels a sudden pain in her ankle, but she gets up and resumes pulling anyway, this time being more careful. With each step uphill, Minstelae can smell the scent of her mother getting stronger and stronger as she gets closer to the den. But, something is not right about her scent, though Minstelae cannot tell what it is about it that is wrong.

Finally, she is there. Minstelae drags the frail, slender body of her sister Amber into the den, and finally allows herself to collapse once more, panting deeply. At least they had shelter now. She catches her breath, then walks over to her mother. Her scent was bothering her. Something was horribly wrong. Whining, she runs over to her mother and nudges her. She is not moving. There is no response, and her body seems different somehow, though Minstelae cannot quite place it. What was wrong? She nudges again and whines loudly, hoping to get some sort of response from her mother. She then sees it, notices what is wrong. There is no heavy, labored breathing, her torso no longer rising and falling intermittently. Her mother is dead. Minstelae cannot believe this. How did she lose her sister, mother and her father in one day? And here she had initially only her mother to worry about. But now…… now she had no one. And she was way too young to be able to care for her sister; she was just a chick herself. Minstelae runs over to a dark, still place in the cave, and falls, hitting the ground hard, her body shaking in sobs and whimpers. She cannot stand this. It is just too much. She cries like this for an hour or two, then slowly becomes quiet, falling into a deep sleep of exhaustion.

Her dreams are unpleasant and dark, dreaming of all that had happened in the last day. She twitches and moans in her sleep, alternated with whimpering when she dreams of her sister and her parents. She awakens the next day, and the rain is gone, though the sky is still overcast. What was she going to do now? The silence was overbearing.

She stretches and goes outside, gazing into a puddle of water left by the rainstorm. She can almost see her sister looking back at her. She sees her own yellow eyes tinged with red at the edges, her own blue-green feather-crest, and her own reddish-brown skin. What she sees is herself, but she didn't realize how much she resembled her sister. She looks back over to her sister's still form, then back into the puddle. Yes, they were alike, almost identical. They had hatched from the same brood, after all.

Minstelae sighs and walks over to where her sister is. Yes, she is still breathing, but Minstelae is discouraged by the way she looks. Inside, she knows she cannot take care of her sister, that she has no way to do so, and that she will be incredibly lucky if she can take care of herself. Giving her sister one last nuzzle to say goodbye, she walks slowly, head hanging, from the den. She will not come back here for a very long time, if ever. She must leave this place behind her for now, for good.

About a week later...........

It is getting dark, the sun is setting, and Minstelae continues wandering. She is far from where she initially began, with her family, and most of her wounds have healed. She was lucky she didn't suffer worse, at least, on the outside. The sunset is beautiful, but Minstelae can still only feel sadness and worry. She has not been able to find anything to eat for the last week, save the few dead fish she has found here and there near the river she has been following. A few minutes later, she catches the scent of others, others of her species. It seems that she smells two or three of her kind nearby. And she also smells the scent of food, and that scent is unmistakable to her. She is afraid, but she has no other choice but to follow them. She might as well risk it, because if she doesn't she will soon starve to death anyway. She can just barely walk, as it is. Minstelae continues walking, as fast as she can, towards that scent, although at the moment, all she can muster is a slow walk, almost a limp, and she can't even walk straight, as it is.

Minstelae is very close now, the scent is very strong. She follows until she gets there, stumbling. She hides in some bushes, panting for air and almost blacking out. There are two others, a male and a female, eating from the carcass of some sauropod that had been killed recently, probably earlier in the day. Minstelae was so hungry, she could not take it. She had to do something; she could not wait any longer. She sees the other two Utahraptors looking in her direction, obviously having caught her scent. She figures she might as well come out from hiding, they had found her already anyway. She stands up, musters a small, quiet eep, and walks towards them, and then everything goes black....

When she wakes up, it is daytime again, probably somewhere during mid-afternoon. Then the memories slowly come back to her, being alone, following the scent of two Utahraptors and their prey, them finding her, but what had happened after that? She opens her eyes and sniffs the air, trying to decipher where she is now. There are others around her, lots of them, she can see and smell them, and she is in a cave somewhere, though she hasn't the slightest idea of where. No matter. She had to figure out how she had gotten here and who these strangers were.

As if to answer her question, two raptors, the same two who had found her the previous day, approach her and drop some meat on the ground for her. Suddenly remembering just how ravenous she is, she eats all of it. The female of the pair looks back up at the male, and he leaves, coming back soon with more food. Minstelae eats her fill and stands up weakly, trying to walk about, and she finds that she can walk all right once more, that she had just been exhausted and starving. Now that she had her rest, she would be fine. Or so she hoped. She still didn't know who she was with, nor did she know what they were like. She looks back up at the two. "Thanks, but who are you? And why…… am I here?" she asks curiously.

"You are here…… because we brought you here. You seemed in a bad way," the female raptor responds. "By the way, I am Hedda," she smiles. "And this is Arame," she says, looking over at her mate. "And you are?" she asks the little chick.

Minstelae stammers. "Minstelae. I-I'm Minstelae," she tells them, looking at the ground.

Hedda nods and has an expression of deep thought cross her face. "Where you from?" she asks simply.

Minstelae isn't sure how to respond. "F-From far away, over in the Ananda territory. My family was killed, and so I was looking for……." she lets her words trail off.

Arame nods. "Yes. We know. Looking for food and shelter. Well, you have it now, and hope that you will stay with us."

Minstelae figures she might as well. They seem nice enough to her, and she doesn't sense a threat, as of yet. "W-Will this pack accept me?" she asks simply, still kind of afraid that someone might harm her.

Arame chuckles. "Are you kidding, the Daya Clan? No, no one will hurt you here and yes, they will accept you."

Minstelae looks up at them, looks at the others. She thinks that she will stay with this group, and take Arame's word for it. Perhaps she could stay with them and everything would be all right. "Thank you," she says shyly. "I think I will stay and are you new parents?" she asks, tilting her head to one side curiously.

"If you so wish," Hedda smiles. "Actually, we had that in mind when we first saw you," she says thoughtfully.

Arame nods. "That we did. That we did."

Minstelae thinks for a while, then stands up. "Arame, Hedda? My sister wasn't dead when I left. Can we look for her and bring her back, if she is okay?" she asks hopefully. She misses her sister terribly already, and she would give almost anything to have her back, let alone the rest of her family.

Arame thinks about it, then looks over to Hedda, who nods at him. "Yes," he says. "We will go look for her, if you show us where it was that you last saw her." Minstelae agrees, and they head off.

They walk, the three of them, for quite some time, and finally, they get there, to the same den that Minstelae remembers being in. Her family, her mother, this was going to be painful. Still, she has to be strong, to see if her sister is okay. She walks inside the cave and still her mother lies there, as if in a peaceful slumber. Too peaceful. She looks around for her sister, and finally walks back out again, looking up at her new parents longingly.

"She's gone," she says simply. Now she knows for sure that she never wants to return here again. Something had to have happened to her sister, and she didn't want to know what.

A year or so had gone by, and things were pretty good now, for the most part. Minstelae had learned to deal with the deaths of her parents, and the loss of her sister, although to think about them, still hurt her inside. She was glad, though, to have found new parents, who had raised her, and who had cared deeply for her, and they had definitely helped her. They had taught her how to hunt, protected her, and taught her everything she would need to know to live successfully in a hard world.

Minstelae had noticed lately that the pack's Alpha pair, Shrenula and Bikkerae, had seemed sort of... off, lately. They had always been good pack leaders in the past, or so she had thought. They were strong, had good convictions, good judgments and seemed to care about even the more lowly-ranked raptors in the pack. In fact, they had all been considered equals although admittedly, the Alphas were the most respected. Now, Shrenula and Bikkerae were gradually beginning to change, and become more domineering, although the change seemed to be very slight. Minstelae had never really worried about it though. No one in the pack had been hurt or mistreated, as of yet, so she just let it go, since she didn't see a problem, and was still young. But Minstelae had seen how they treated anyone of another pack or species. It was rare for them to be invaded by other packs or to be visited by other species, but on the rare event that it happened, the Alphas would have nothing of it, even if the visitors were peaceful and meant no harm. They would attack whoever it was that was in their territory, no questions asked. And that bothered her, but she didn't feel that she could do anything about it. It would be a bad idea for such a young raptor to challenge the Alphas of this pack. A really bad idea. And Minstelae had never wanted to, anyway. She had never thought of it, and was still loyal to those in her group.

But at the moment, things were going pretty well, and Minstelae had no real worries. Her adopted parents had laid eggs recently, and she was looking forward to having young siblings to take care of, even if they didn't share her genes. Minstelae was a young adult now, and it would help her to learn anyway. Besides, she liked chicks, and she loved the idea of having siblings once again. But, it was getting dark, and she might as well be turning in, to go to her nest in the den and sleep. She yawns, already tired, and goes back, lies down, and falls into a deep sleep.

The next day seems to be a pretty one, no clouds, the outside temperature just perfect, not too hot, and not too cold either. Minstelae yawns and gets back up. She looks around for Hedda and Arame. They are over with the Alphas, talking to them. Nothing new, she thinks. Her parents were the Betas of the group now, and they were often found conversing with the Alphas about things, regarding the pack, regarding decisions. It was generally nothing to worry about. She stretches and rolls over onto her side, and closes here eyes, lying in a sunny spot, enjoying it all. She almost drifts off to sleep again, it is so pleasant.

She then hears a loud hiss, and opens her eyes to see what is going on. Her parents are being dragged away by the Alphas, the other members of the pack following them, and she watches as they approach her. She gets up, wanting to know what is going on. One of the stronger pack members, a large female, hisses at her. "Come with us," she says in a not-too-pleasant tone of voice. It is not as if Minstelae has any other option anyway. They grab her, shove her into the middle of the group with her parents, and force her to go. She begins to wonder what has happened, and where they are taking her. Oh, this can't be good, she thinks to herself.

They reach a clearing, which is surrounded by lots of trees and underbrush. Ironically, it is the same place that Minstelae would often be caught playing with her parents about a half-year ago. The pack splits up, four raptors surround her, and the rest shove her parents into the middle of the clearing. She can't bear to see Hedda and Arame lying on the ground, quivering in fear, wondering what all is going on. Her eyes wander over to two raptors to the right of the group she is being held hostage by. She sees that they are holding something in their hands and jaws. 'The eggs!', she thinks. 'Now what are they doing? They can't!' The thoughts scream in her mind. She knows by now that the rest of the pack does not have good intentions for them. She looks over to Shrenula and Bikkerae. Shrenula nods her head at the two raptors holding the eggs. Minstelae cringes. She knows what they are about to do. But why? She cannot make this out in her mind as to why they would do this, what her parents had done, what she might have done without knowing it...

She hears a grating crunch as one of the raptors crunches down on the egg that is in his mouth. He then proceeds to do the same with another. The other raptor beside him proceeds to do the same thing with one egg, and then throws one of the eggs to the ground, breaking it. Hedda screams. Minstelae watches and stares in terror. Arame tries to get up but is forced down Shrenula. Evidently, the majority of the pack had changed, just like the Alphas had, and all this time, Minstelae had not been aware of it. It disgusted her.

Another sickening crunch, and it is all over. At least, Minstelae thinks it is all over. She has a sickening feeling that it isn't though, and she is right. The two raptors then place their attention on Hedda and Arame, smirking evilly.

"What? What..." Arame stammers at them, wanting to know why they are being treated like this.

Shrenula saunters over to Arame. "You challenged me. I do not take lightly to a challenge," she hiss-growls at him.

Hedda speaks. "He did not. He was only commenting on some changes that were occurring in..." she tries to reason with them but is cut off.

"Occurring in us? Occurring in us?" Shrenula screams at them. She then lets her voice trail off into a menacing hiss-whisper. "You told us that you did not like what you were seeing, and that you were wondering about us, and that you did not like to see such changes in an Alpha raptor. I take that as a direct challenge. And for that, you will pay."

"H-How so?" Arame asks in fear. "Are you going to kill all that we have loved? All that we have worked so hard to keep alive, and leave us in the dirt?" he asks, glancing over at Minstelae, obviously worried that they would kill her as well.

"No. You only have that partially right," Shrenula growls at him, teeth bared, close to his face. "What I am going to do, now that you have had your little punishment of watching your precious eggs get crushed right before your eyes, is kill the two of you. And Minstelae will be alive the whole time to watch it. She will pay for your misdoings." And with that, before either one of them can say or do anything, Shrenula nods at Bikkerae, and Bikkerae nods to the rest of the pack.

Before the rest of the pack can do anything, Minstelae screams out. "No! You can't do this to them, or to me! We never were going to……"

Bikkerae hisses at Minstelae. "For that, young one, you shall pay, and your parents will watch. Then we shall kill them."

"What, you're going to kill me too?" she asks.

"Not kill you, just ah, shall we say, punish you. You have to be alive to watch your parents die, now don't you? We will make sure that you remain fully conscious, and for that, Minstelae, you will be of the lowest status in our pack, and no one will care whether you live or die, or about giving you any of the comforts that you are so used to."

Minstelae growls. "You can't do this, you can't..." She lets her words trail off as Shrenula nods to the others.

The attack comes at full force, before Minstelae even realizes it. She can feel the pain of someone's killing-claws tearing into her belly, her sides, her back, tail, everywhere. She screams out in agony. Then it stops.

Minstelae lies there, still alive, still conscious, but barely able to move. Her belly has been badly torn, and she can feel a really sharp pain at the end of her tail, but there is still a possibility of it, and the other wounds, healing. None of the wounds are necessarily fatal, even the belly wound, although they are extremely painful.

She looks up at the others as soon as they back away, and they are now attacking her parents. Her parents scream in agony and severe pain and after a few seconds, they are totally silent, unmoving. Minstelae remains silent as well, not wanting to be killed herself. The raptors step back, and Minstelae sees them, her parents, unmoving, no longer alive. The ground is spattered by their blood and obviously, they have been gutted, as well. She cannot bear to see this. She tries to keep a tear from falling from one of her eyes, but she can't. They had been her only way, her only survival, the ones who had cared enough to take her in. And now... now they were... gone. Throughout her lifetime, she had lost two families: four parents, a sister, and her soon-to-be siblings as well. She remains totally silent, and lets her head hang as the others grab her arms and drag her back to the den.

They lay her on the ground outside of the den. Shrenula steps up to her. Minstelae can no longer move. "You shall sleep out here from now on, as you are now the lowest pack member. And you will live the rest of your life knowing what happened to your family because of what they did. I hope that you will learn from them," she hisses threateningly. The Alpha female walks away, back into the den, and Minstelae collapses in a deep sleep, not knowing whether she will wake up or not.

Seven years later........

Minstelae looks at the incoming clouds. They reminded her of the past. A lot had changed since then. After the ordeal with her parents, the Daya Clan had continued to change, and still, not for the better. It had all happened so slowly as to be unrecognizable, but the change had been great. They were no longer the peace-loving clan that Minstelae had initially grown up with. Everything had changed, it had seemed. The pack had grown, and had become even more unruly than they had been previously. Minstelae still, after all this time, could not believe what they had done to her parents and her potential siblings. And she still could not believe that she had managed to stay alive somehow. They had all been so defenseless, and in no way a threat to any pack member. There were other pack members as well, who hated what all had happened, but they had all been too afraid to stand up to it, after they had seen what had happened to Minstelae's parents. It had been they who had snuck in food for Minstelae during the night and fed her, this being the probable cause for her being able to heal. But still, there were too few of them and too many of the clan who would kill them in a heartbeat. And Minstelae was also too afraid to stand up to anyone. Yet, something had to be done, or it could get worse, and those of them who still followed the older beliefs of the pack, would probably eventually be found out and killed. It was only a matter of time.

All of the others were too afraid. There was nothing that they could, or would, do, at least, not alone. Minstelae would have to get them together, as a group, as soon as she thought of some way out. They were waiting for her to come up with something. Minstelae had grown up to be well-respected among those few clan members, and they all looked up to her, though she was unsure as to why they did. She would probably never know or realize the answer to that question.

Minstelae knew something had to be done. They could not stay there any longer. She had seen the way other pack members had been treated or rather, mistreated, when they voiced an opinion or even slightly went against the flow, even after the incident with her adopted parents. She had seen them be attacked in punishment by the rest of the pack, and the pack had stopped just before their victim reached that point of death, leaving them to try at a painful survival or to die in pain. And no one helped them either. No food, no water, nothing, except on the few occasions when the same packmates who had fed her, also did the same for them. They could only do that so often, or risk being found out. Those few who had survived this intense torture had many, many scars, and would never go against the grain again. They would always remain quiet about what had happened, and would never voice their true opinions.

Minstelae and the others tried to act just as the rest of the pack did, so as not to draw attention to themselves, though Minstelae could never force herself to participate in the painful "punishment" of the other pack members. She still had two very nasty scars from her incident with the Daya. One was on the base of her tail, and another was along the left side of her belly. Not to mention, the very tip of her tail was missing, due to that incident. And that particular punishment of hers had happened just because she had cried out in anguish when they had killed her adopted parents. It had been excruciatingly hard for her to lose two sets of parents in her lifetime. She had loved Hedda and Arame as much as she had loved her original parents who died long ago, and the feelings she had when watching their deaths as well, had been horrific.

And here it was going to rain. They needed the rain, it had not rained in a long time, and everything was dry. Still, Minstelae wasn't looking too forward to it. For whatever reason, though the pack had grown, they had not changed locations, and they still lived in the same caverns that they had resided in ever since Minstelae became a part of their group. And because of this, the lower-ranked pack members, which Minstelae was still considered to be, even after all of this time, had to not only sleep outside at night, but couldn't retreat into the den if it rained. So there she was again, and she would be stuck out in the rain. Ah, well, she thinks. Not like I haven't done this before. She mental-shrugs and eyes one of the others, Filia, whose mate, Khalil, is sitting beside her, both of which had better things in mind than staying here.

All of their communication had been through eye movements and body gestures, which were done subtly, so as not to catch the attention of the rest of the pack. Since most of the pack members generally rested in the same general spots, when they rested, Minstelae and those who respected her, generally stayed in the same area. Because everyone generally chose similar resting-spots, no one had suspected them. And because there was no suspicious talking amongst them, their ideas were not obvious to the rest of the clan. Hence, they had learned to communicate using slight movements that did not appear to be anything more than normal raptor behavior. A small snout-movement or twitch of a hand-claw in a general direction or under certain circumstances could mean a lot whereas, to the others, it would appear as nothing but a mere twitch or reaction to an insect alighting on someone's snout.

There were four of them in all, with like mind. There had been others in the past who, unfortunately, had been found out and killed by the clan, and who did not survive the punishment. These four were the only ones left, Minstelae, Khalil, Filia and Jabari, the only ones who remembered or rather, cared to remember, the older times. Jabari was the only one left of the offspring of Khalil and Filia, although he was now fully grown, a young adult. The other three of his siblings had died at a young age, not able to withstand the pack's cruel treatment and politics. Somehow, Jabari had been very lucky to have stayed alive.

These were the three who remained on Minstelae's side. Filia was a strongly-built female, her skin being of a dark brown color with darker, almost black, markings. She had green eyes and a feather-crest of a bright, yet dark, blue. Her mate, Khalil, was more thin in appearance, although he wouldn't be considered to be skinny, and had more greenish undertones to him, being more greenish-brown than anything, with only slight markings of a dark green color along his back, with long, dark claws, yellow eyes and a reddish-colored crest. Their remaining offspring, Jabari, was strongly built, like his mother, but was a darker shade of green than his father was, minus the brownish tint to his base-color, with dark brown markings along his back. His eyes were a brilliant blue in color, and his crest was a lighter shade of blue than his mother's. He highly resembled his father in a way, even though he had traits from both of his parents.

In response to Minstelae's quick eyeing of Filia, the female does nothing but stretch her arms out on the ground, while lying there, feigning tiredness.

Minstelae stretches out her arms and legs, stretching herself towards the ground, while still standing on her feet. She then promptly lies down. They knew what she was talking or rather, gesturing, about. Minstelae was quite proud of the communications the four of them had developed between one another. So far, no one had suspected them of anything. It was all Minstelae could do not to grin knowingly at herself. But she could not risk any of the others knowing what they were up to, so she didn't.

She continues lying there with her eyes open, appearing to stare at nothing but watching the three in her peripheral vision. She had become good at this, as had they. She watches them for a minute. Nothing. Then, a slight twitch of the inner finger-claw of the left hand. 'Left-hand inner-finger twitch... means... night-walking,' she thinks to herself. She twitches the outer finger-claw of her left hand in response, hoping they would get the message. Before sunrise, she had said. She wanted them to leave past midnight but before the sun rose, when all would most likely be in their deepest sleep-states. 'Eyelid-twitch... agreement... understanding,' she thinks. And if it rained that night, then perhaps it would help in erasing their scent-trails. 'Good, good, it is set then,' she thinks, although slightly nervous about what is going to take place. Then, she remembers something. She snorts, as if a bug had landed on her snout, though further examination would reveal there was no bug. She then exhales deeply, while twitching her own left inner finger. The meaning of these gestures is... crouch-walk, indicating that they would have to move in a semi-crouched state until they had gotten farther out of the Daya territory. Filia makes a clawing motion with her hands lazily, and then her eyelid twitches again, indicating her agreement and in turn, stating that they would still have to move rather quickly. Minstelae twitches her own eyelid in agreement.

A few more minutes pass by, and the gesture-conversation subsides, after agreeing to stay awake all night, feigning sleep, and leaving when all is still. 'It is going to be one long night,' Minstelae thinks to herself. 'But then, if we escape, it will be well worth it...'

Minstelae lies awake for a moment, to make sure the conversation is now over, then allows herself to go to sleep. Since it is early afternoon and she will be needing to stay awake all night, she figures she should probably get some rest before then. Doesn't matter, she is sleepy anyway. Slowly, she begins to drift off.

Seven years later........

Minstelae looks at the incoming clouds. They reminded her of the past. A lot had changed since then. After the ordeal with her parents, the Daya Clan had continued to change, and still, not for the better. It had all happened so slowly as to be unrecognizable, but the change had been great. They were no longer the peace-loving clan that Minstelae had initially grown up with. Everything had changed, it had seemed. The pack had grown, and had become even more unruly than they had been previously. Minstelae still, after all this time, could not believe what they had done to her parents and her potential siblings. And she still could not believe that she had managed to stay alive somehow. They had all been so defenseless, and in no way a threat to any pack member. There were other pack members as well, who hated what all had happened, but they had all been too afraid to stand up to it, after they had seen what had happened to Minstelae's parents. It had been they who had snuck in food for Minstelae during the night and fed her, this being the probable cause for her being able to heal. But still, there were too few of them and too many of the clan who would kill them in a heartbeat. And Minstelae was also too afraid to stand up to anyone. Yet, something had to be done, or it could get worse, and those of them who still followed the older beliefs of the pack, would probably eventually be found out and killed. It was only a matter of time.

All of the others were too afraid. There was nothing that they could, or would, do, at least, not alone. Minstelae would have to get them together, as a group, as soon as she thought of some way out. They were waiting for her to come up with something. Minstelae had grown up to be well-respected among those few clan members, and they all looked up to her, though she was unsure as to why they did. She would probably never know or realize the answer to that question.

Minstelae knew something had to be done. They could not stay there any longer. She had seen the way other pack members had been treated or rather, mistreated, when they voiced an opinion or even slightly went against the flow, even after the incident with her adopted parents. She had seen them be attacked in punishment by the rest of the pack, and the pack had stopped just before their victim reached that point of death, leaving them to try at a painful survival or to die in pain. And no one helped them either. No food, no water, nothing, except on the few occasions when the same packmates who had fed her, also did the same for them. They could only do that so often, or risk being found out. Those few who had survived this intense torture had many, many scars, and would never go against the grain again. They would always remain quiet about what had happened, and would never voice their true opinions.

Minstelae and the others tried to act just as the rest of the pack did, so as not to draw attention to themselves, though Minstelae could never force herself to participate in the painful "punishment" of the other pack members. She still had two very nasty scars from her incident with the Daya. One was on the base of her tail, and another was along the left side of her belly. Not to mention, the very tip of her tail was missing, due to that incident. And that particular punishment of hers had happened just because she had cried out in anguish when they had killed her adopted parents. It had been excruciatingly hard for her to lose two sets of parents in her lifetime. She had loved Hedda and Arame as much as she had loved her original parents who died long ago, and the feelings she had when watching their deaths as well, had been horrific.

And here it was going to rain. They needed the rain, it had not rained in a long time, and everything was dry. Still, Minstelae wasn't looking too forward to it. For whatever reason, though the pack had grown, they had not changed locations, and they still lived in the same caverns that they had resided in ever since Minstelae became a part of their group. And because of this, the lower-ranked pack members, which Minstelae was still considered to be, even after all of this time, had to not only sleep outside at night, but couldn't retreat into the den if it rained. So there she was again, and she would be stuck out in the rain. Ah, well, she thinks. Not like I haven't done this before. She mental-shrugs and eyes one of the others, Filia, whose mate, Khalil, is sitting beside her, both of which had better things in mind than staying here.

All of their communication had been through eye movements and body gestures, which were done subtly, so as not to catch the attention of the rest of the pack. Since most of the pack members generally rested in the same general spots, when they rested, Minstelae and those who respected her, generally stayed in the same area. Because everyone generally chose similar resting-spots, no one had suspected them. And because there was no suspicious talking amongst them, their ideas were not obvious to the rest of the clan. Hence, they had learned to communicate using slight movements that did not appear to be anything more than normal raptor behavior. A small snout-movement or twitch of a hand-claw in a general direction or under certain circumstances could mean a lot whereas, to the others, it would appear as nothing but a mere twitch or reaction to an insect alighting on someone's snout.

There were four of them in all, with like mind. There had been others in the past who, unfortunately, had been found out and killed by the clan, and who did not survive the punishment. These four were the only ones left, Minstelae, Khalil, Filia and Jabari, the only ones who remembered or rather, cared to remember, the older times. Jabari was the only one left of the offspring of Khalil and Filia, although he was now fully grown, a young adult. The other three of his siblings had died at a young age, not able to withstand the pack's cruel treatment and politics. Somehow, Jabari had been very lucky to have stayed alive.

These were the three who remained on Minstelae's side. Filia was a strongly-built female, her skin being of a dark brown color with darker, almost black, markings. She had green eyes and a feather-crest of a bright, yet dark, blue. Her mate, Khalil, was more thin in appearance, although he wouldn't be considered to be skinny, and had more greenish undertones to him, being more greenish-brown than anything, with only slight markings of a dark green color along his back, with long, dark claws, yellow eyes and a reddish-colored crest. Their remaining offspring, Jabari, was strongly built, like his mother, but was a darker shade of green than his father was, minus the brownish tint to his base-color, with dark brown markings along his back. His eyes were a brilliant blue in color, and his crest was a lighter shade of blue than his mother's. He highly resembled his father in a way, even though he had traits from both of his parents.

In response to Minstelae's quick eyeing of Filia, the female does nothing but stretch her arms out on the ground, while lying there, feigning tiredness.

Minstelae stretches out her arms and legs, stretching herself towards the ground, while still standing on her feet. She then promptly lies down. They knew what she was talking or rather, gesturing, about. Minstelae was quite proud of the communications the four of them had developed between one another. So far, no one had suspected them of anything. It was all Minstelae could do not to grin knowingly at herself. But she could not risk any of the others knowing what they were up to, so she didn't.

She continues lying there with her eyes open, appearing to stare at nothing but watching the three in her peripheral vision. She had become good at this, as had they. She watches them for a minute. Nothing. Then, a slight twitch of the inner finger-claw of the left hand. 'Left-hand inner-finger twitch... means... night-walking,' she thinks to herself. She twitches the outer finger-claw of her left hand in response, hoping they would get the message. Before sunrise, she had said. She wanted them to leave past midnight but before the sun rose, when all would most likely be in their deepest sleep-states. 'Eyelid-twitch... agreement... understanding,' she thinks. And if it rained that night, then perhaps it would help in erasing their scent-trails. 'Good, good, it is set then,' she thinks, although slightly nervous about what is going to take place. Then, she remembers something. She snorts, as if a bug had landed on her snout, though further examination would reveal there was no bug. She then exhales deeply, while twitching her own left inner finger. The meaning of these gestures is... crouch-walk, indicating that they would have to move in a semi-crouched state until they had gotten farther out of the Daya territory. Filia makes a clawing motion with her hands lazily, and then her eyelid twitches again, indicating her agreement and in turn, stating that they would still have to move rather quickly. Minstelae twitches her own eyelid in agreement.

A few more minutes pass by, and the gesture-conversation subsides, after agreeing to stay awake all night, feigning sleep, and leaving when all is still. 'It is going to be one long night,' Minstelae thinks to herself. 'But then, if we escape, it will be well worth it...'

Minstelae lies awake for a moment, to make sure the conversation is now over, then allows herself to go to sleep. Since it is early afternoon and she will be needing to stay awake all night, she figures she should probably get some rest before then. Doesn't matter, she is sleepy anyway. Slowly, she begins to drift off.

The scent gets closer and closer, and Minstelae finally finds its source. Another female raptor, yeah, she knew that already. But why…… was her scent so familiar? She decides she might as well go up to the raptor and find out. But the raptor catches her scent and begins heading in her direction. "Minstelae?" the female raptor asks. Minstelae walks up to her, deciding she must be friendly or at least, hoping she was. She obviously seemed to recognize Minstelae. But who was she?

"Y-Yes?" Minstelae asks, confused. "Who are you?" She looks at the new female raptor. Yellowish eyes, reddish-brown skin like her own, that blue-gray feather-crest with the distinctive green feather at the front. She realizes now who this is, and begins to hop up and down excitedly, not particularly caring what the others thought of her. She didn't have much energy but surprisingly, at this moment, she had found enough to hop up and down.

"Amber? Is that you?" she asks, grinning. The female raptor nods and head-bobs an overjoyed greeting.

"It's me. Took you a while to remember, didn't it?" she asks, smirking a little.

Minstelae walks up and nuzzles her. "Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't matter, I found you, didn't I?"

Amber laughs. "Well yes, but might I ask who these other three are?"

Minstelae remembers that the others are still standing there, silent. She looks over to them, then back at Amber. "One to the left, is Jabari, the offspring of Filia and Khalil here," she says, smiling. "We all um, had an incident that we had to get away from, so here we are."

Filia bows. "Nice to meet you, Amber, sister of Minstelae," she smiles. "Now, is there anywhere to sleep here, or anything to eat?" she asks, not wanting to be rude, but still getting to the point. All four of them were exhausted from the previous night's escape.

"Somewhere to sleep, perhaps not so out in the open?" Jabari asks, still fearful of the fact that they might be hunted down.

"Sure, I'll take you," Amber says simply to the four, and walks off, leading them. The others follow, and they soon get to a small den, not very large, but large enough for the five of them. "Good thing I made it large enough, I never really knew why I made it larger than I needed, it was a lot of work. But here, you are welcome to stay," Amber says, trying not to show how glad she is to have found not only her sister, but potential packmates as well. Amber had been alone for quite some time now, and things were beginning to get harder and harder. There was not that much to eat, at least, that a single raptor could kill. Still, she made it somehow. Fortunately, she had taught herself how to fish. That helped sometimes, although it wasn't quite enough for her. Therefore, Amber was quite thin.
Minstelae and the others lie down and go to sleep, and Amber is silent. She might as well nap with them. She wasn't terribly tired, but there wasn't much else to do at the moment. Perhaps they will be able to hunt later. They are all hungry, after all. But she will worry about that later. Amber lets herself drift off to sleep.