Sturm's Territorium - Die etwas andere Dinosaurierseite

Minstelae clears her throat and addresses the pack. "As much as I hate to say this, we have three days until the attack," she tells them. A few of them nod, but most have worried expressions cross their faces. "I know, I know. I'm just as nervous and afraid as you guys are, but the Daya are a danger, if left alone, they will become more powerful, and they will come and hunt us down and well, you know the rest. You know what I have told you about them," she tells them. "But I have faith in all of you, as a pack. I have seen how you work, and I know that not a single one of you will let me down," she says. "But, at least we have the Shrenaea Clan on our side, that is better than nothing." She then nods to them. "Thank you all for listening. That will be all," she says, and the pack goes back to doing whatever they were doing before Minstelae addressed them.

Celeea walks up to Minstelae. "Everything gonna be okay?" she asks Minstelae, with a little tremor in her voice. Poor chick must be scared out of her wits, even if she doesn't have to fight, and will be safe, Minstelae thinks.

Min nods. "Yes, everything will be fine, you'll see," she tells Celeea with a little smile and muzzle-rub.

"Okay..." she pauses. "You sure?" Celeea asks.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Min lies. She knows that they are strong and powerful as a pack, but she is still worried that something bad might happen.

"I just don't want to lose you, Mother, and I don't want to lose Dad, either," Celeea tells Min, who smiles down at her sympathetically.

"Don't worry, you won't. I'll see to it that I make it. And I'm sure Crike will do the same. Now, that's enough worrying. As hard as it is not to worry, it will only make things worse," Min tells Celeea. She does suspect, though, that Celeea won't be able to not worry, as she knows very good and well that she can't not worry, either.

Celeea doesn't say anything, but looks down, whimpers slightly, and nods.

"Don't worry, little one, you'll be okay. We all will," Min tells her. She is just trying to act calm. She realizes that if she isn't strong, the rest of the pack will pick up on it and be even more scared and worried than they already are. She is really just as worried as anybody else, but she tries to hold it in, although she isn't sure just how long she will be able to.

Minstelae waits until Celeea is playing with Crike to leave. She walks off into the sunset and sighs to herself. She just wants some time alone, and she sits atop her favorite hill and watches the sun set. She cries to herself softly, hoping to relieve herself of some of the pent-up stress and worry that was inside of her. She goes back to the den after sunset, and goes to sleep, with the others, curling up next to Celeea and Crike.

The three days, finally pass, and Minstelae wakes up to the rest of the pack moving around, and to Deiny scent. Evidently she had overslept, and throughout all of the commotion, no one had bothered to wake her. She stretches, still trying to act like she's not in the least bit stressed out, when really, inside, she is a nervous wreck.

She does not look forward to attacking the pack who betrayed her, who hurt her, because she is well aware of their power. She wants badly to get revenge on them, to kill them, to make them suffer for what they did to her parents. But she is also afraid that they will be too powerful.

Hey... they don't have the Deiny pack, she tells herself in her mind. Besides, don't you want to get revenge for what they did to you? Minstelae decides to focus on this angry energy. On the fact that she had trusted them. That they had killed her second set of parents. That they had killed her future brothers and sisters. That they had hurt her. That they had made her Omega. She remembers back to those days, when all those things happened, and the anger fills her whole being, and she just wants to kill. She flexes her claws and snaps her jaws at the memories. She growls and hisses and snarls.

But she realizes that she should probably cool it down just a little bit when some of the others, including the chicks, glance at her and back away. Min's pack had never seen her this angry before, and it scared them, even if Minstelae herself would never dream of hurting them.

It had been agreed that they would all go up there and start the attack in mid-afternoon, and now it was just morning. Minstelae goes to their most recent kill site, and eats some Astrodon there that they had killed a few days ago. She wants to be filled and ready to go. She needs all the energy and reserve that she can get. She stays there for about a half-hour. At first, other packmates had gotten her same idea, to go out there and eat. But after a while, they stop their coming and going, and Minstelae can now hear loud screeches and screams back where the den is.

What is going on? Something bad was happening over there, so she hightails it, and runs back as fast as she can. She comes to see a gory sight, the Daya are attacking them. Minstelae eyes their leader, Shrenula, viciously.

Shrenula walks up to Minstelae in a jaunty manner, self-assured and cocky. "So... we meet again, Omega?" she hisses at Min.

Minstelae growls. "For your information, I am now Alpha."

"Of this sorry little pack?" Shrenula snorts.

"My pack isn't sorry," Min growls.

"Oh? They're not? Then how come you have a traitor?" Shrenula smirks at Minstelae.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Minstelae retorts. "Every packmate I've got is trustworthy and wouldn't dream of being a traitor," she says angrily. Perhaps she is just playing mind games, Minstelae thinks to herself. She remembers that Shrenula was a tricky one, and that she should never be trusted.

Minstelae snorts. "So are you here just to talk and throw insults, or what?" she glares at Shrenula.

"No, stupid, I'm here mainly to do this!" Shrenula laughs wickedly, then jumps at Min and slashes her chest, causing her to bleed. Minstelae jumps back and hisses, but Shrenula ignores her threats. "It is finally time for you to die. You were a traitor from Day Number One. And your little plan to attack us proves it. And for that, you and your whole pack must die!" Shrenula hisses, flexing her claws in wide arcs.

Minstelae shrieks loudly and attacks Shrenula, knocking her to the ground. Evidently Shrenula hadn't expected that. Still, she fights back, but soon, the rest of the Daya Clan is on Min as well, attacking with all of their ferocity. "Kill Min first, the rest of the pack will be easy... save the chicks for last," Min can hear Shrenula instructing the rest of the pack.

The rest of Min's pack doesn't have to wait for instructions. They attack the Daya as soon as they jump at Minstelae, all except Amber. And before too long, the two packs are fighting evenly with one another.

Amber wastes no time. The chicks are still in the area, and she must take them to safety, before the Daya Clan realizes that she is leaving with them. One of the Deinonychus approaches her. ~Take the chicks to our den, they will be safe there,~ he tells her. ~Let's go now... I will take them, and you can come with me to make sure that they are safe,~ he tells her, and he walks off.

Amber didn't fully understand the Deinonychus language, but she knew a little. She had heard him say something about den and chicks and safe, and then he had walked off. So she got the general idea of what he had said to her. Amber gathers the chicks, who all seem terrified, and Celeea helps her with the younger chicks, and they escape, careful to watch for any rogue Daya Clan members who might try to prevent them from escaping with the chicks. Fortunately, for the moment, they are all too into the fight to realize that Amber is leaving with the chicks, but she must do something first. She runs into the den, picks something up in her forepaws, and then she escapes unhindered with the male Deinonychus.

Meanwhile, Minstelae is so caught up in defending herself and her pack, that she doesn't realize Amber is leaving with the chicks. So she worries about them as she fights. If they are okay... she hopes that Amber has had the sense to escape with them. But for the moment, she really shouldn't let her mind wander. Letting her mind wander would kill her in a matter of seconds. At least she isn't being attacked by the whole pack anymore, since the rest of the pack is defending her.

The Deinonychus are fighting as well, and Min is impressed every time one saves her from being ripped open. She hadn't realized that Deinonychus were such quick thinkers or at least, had never thought of it.

Minstelae herself is being attacked by two of the Daya Clan, and fortunately for the moment, Shrenaea has been distracted by two of the Silent Claw, and the Deinonychus who are throwing things at her. Before Min realizes it, a raptor jumps onto her and lifts his foot, about to attempt to gut her. But Minstelae shrieks in anger and grabs his ankles with her hand-claws, careful to dig them into the ankles as deep as she can. The Daya raptor screams in pain and hisses at Minstelae for a moment.

That moment is enough. Minstelae reaches up with her right hindclaw and rips his belly open. The raptor attempts to do the same to her, but he is already about to die, and each second of movement slows him down. Minstelae knocks his foot away from her belly with a forepaw and rolls over quickly, getting back onto her feet.

She is attacked by another Daya member, a young female. Probably like I was... alone and brainwashed, she thinks. The raptor is a young female, not still a chick, but about a year or so in age. She hesitates to attack this raptor, but she dodges any attacks from this raptor. Fortunately this raptor isn't very experienced in the art of attacking and killing yet, and Minstelae takes that to her advantage. She dodges the chick's every attack until she makes her way over to two other Daya members, who are attacking Crike and S'rena.

The fight goes on for several hours, and Minstelae is getting tired. Fortunately the Silent Claw are taking quite a toll against the Daya, and many of the Daya have fallen to their deaths. It isn't until late afternoon that the fight ceases, and everything is silent once again.

Minstelae rolls back onto her belly once more, which hurts, due to some scratches she received there. She gets back up on her feet after killing the last Daya member who had attacked her, and she surveys her surroundings.

It's a horrible sight. Many of the Daya are dead, and the two or three that lived ran off with terrible wounds. But many of Minstelae's pack are dead, as well, and worst off, she can't find Amber or Crike. She finds S'rena, who is lying in a bloody heap on the ground, barely breathing. She tries to decide what to do about this. Perhaps S'rena just needed a lot of rest, food and time to heal. Perhaps she would be okay, if Minstelae got her back to the den safely.

Before she can figure out what to do, Minstelae is interrupted by a growling-hiss. A form makes itself known, emerging from behind some bushes. It's Shrenula. "So I bet you think you won, that the fight is over, and everything's okay, now, huh? I must say that your pack and your pathetic excuses for allies did fight well, though," she hisses at Minstelae cockily.

Minstelae hisses back. "And now that you seem to be the only one left, you will die, too," Minstelae tells her in a low growl.

"We'll just see how this little spat turns out, okay?" Shrenula says smugly.

Minstelae watches Shrenula's every move. She is not attacking yet, but is circling Minstelae, eyeing her. Minstelae also circles, and watches Shrenula's claws, feet and ankles as well, wanting to be able to judge her every movement accurately.

"I know how it will turn out. You will die whether or not I have to die in the process of getting you there," Min hisses. "I will make you pay for what you did to my parents, my family, my dignity. I will make you pay for this!" she says, and raises herself a little bit so that she can show Shrenula the long scar on her belly from when she was attacked as a young raptor, before she escaped the Daya Clan.

"Oh, yes, that," Shrenula laughs cockily. "I remember doing that to you. It's a nice scar, if I must say so myself."

That is it. Minstelae can no longer control her anger. She thought she was out of energy, but she can feel her anger reviving her, giving her more and more energy, more will to fight, more will to kill. She hisses and slashes at Shrenula with her foreclaws. Shrenula dodges.

"You... will... DIE!!!" Minstelae screams, hissing and attacking Shrenula. Shrenula jumps back several steps, dodging Min's attack, and she responds with an attack of her own, knocking Minstelae to the ground.

Minstelae rolls over and tries to get back up, but Shrenula jumps onto her back, pinning her to the ground. For the moment, Minstelae feels helpless, that she can't do anything. This is a bad position to be if you are fighting to the death. She can't quite reach up with her foreclaws. But she struggles to fight, struggles to move, and finally, just from moving herself around on the ground, she manages to knock Shrenula off of her. She then gets up, as does Shrenula.

Shrenula slashes at Min again, who manages to dodge. "You like doing that, I see," she tells Shrenula.

"Anything to kill you, Omega," she hisses at Minstelae. Minstelae hisses, but realizes that this is just an attempt of Shrenula's to get her off guard and make a predictable move. She doesn't attack, but growl-hisses menacingly at Shrenula. She feels a presence in front of her, and through her peripheral vision, she sees a Deinonychus, one who has managed to make it through the fight, one who hadn't left yet. She doesn't give any indication whatsoever that there is a Deinonychus behind Shrenula. Minstelae makes mock-attacks, and the Deinonychus climbs a tree, just over where the two Utahraptors are fighting.

Minstelae catches Shrenula off guard, and knocks her to the ground. The Deinonychus, a young male, falls from the tree and lands on Shrenula, distracting her into clawing at his face in an attempt to get him off of her. Minstelae then approaches quickly, and slashes at Shrenula's belly with her killing-claws, making careful, precise movements. Shrenula shrieks in rage and tries to roll over, but Minstelae can see that she is bleeding horribly, and her movements have been slowed down slightly.

The Deinonychus continues distracting Shrenula as Minstelae slashes at her. The two raptors currently are too much for Shrenula to handle, and are seriously hurting her. The Deinonychus waits until Shrenula is close to death and unable to move before he stops attacking.

He then jumps off of her and nods to Minstelae. ~With all due respect, she's yours to kill. You are entitled to this kill, and not I,~ he tells Minstelae, bobbing his head in respect towards her.

Minstelae smiles at him, glad to know that at the moment, Shrenula is going nowhere, and is unable to move. She then makes her move, and walks up to Shrenula.

"This is for killing my parents," Minstelae says as she slashes at Shrenula's face with her deadly hand-claws.

Shrenula moans, but doesn't say anything. She glares at Minstelae hatefully.

"And this, Omega Pack Leader, is for crushing the eggs of my beloved siblings," Minstelae adds a little laugh in there, imitating Shrenula's cocky laughter that she had hurled at Min earlier.

Shrenula hisses, but her eyes close slowly and her breathing slows.

"And THIS!!! This is for hurting ME!!!" Minstelae screeches, and jumps onto Shrenula's now-quiet form, digging her claws into her with all of her might. She digs her hand-claws into her belly, and slashes madly with both of her killing claws, for a few minutes, before she finally relents.

Shrenula is now dead. And Minstelae can see the bodies of raptors nearby. She knows now that the Daya will never bother her again as a pack.

Minstelae now has time to survey her surroundings, and it's not a pretty sight. She sees that a few of her pack have died, and several Deinonychuss have died, as well. And most of the Daya are now dead, as well. At least we got the Alphas, she thinks to herself. She was feeling quite good about the fact that she had gotten her revenge on Shrenula, and that whoever that particular Deinonychus was, he had been very nice to her. She stands up tall and utters a victory whoop, figuring there would be someone around who would respond to it. But the Deinonychuss have gone, and some of her packmates are gone, as well.

She notices that S'rena is now dead. It is obvious from her very limp and bloodied form that she did not make it. She worried for her chicks, and just hoped that her mate, J'rakae was alive, as well. She whimpers at the loss of her packmates.

But where were the others? She wasn't sure where Amber was, but on further examination of her den, she notices that the chicks are gone, as well. So she figures that Amber took the chicks somewhere, for safety. She hopes so, at least. She doesn't see Jabari or his parents around anywhere, so she hopes that they have left, and are safe somewhere.

She walks around, and sniffs, although it is hard to differentiate one raptor's scent from another, unless she gets close to one, because of all of the dead and dying raptors lying nearby. But she is looking for J'rakae. She wants to make sure that he is alive, at least. She walks around for a bit, and finally detects his scent. She follows it, and is led to a broken form lying over some bracken.

"J'rakae? You there?" she asks, very worried.

She gets no answer. She decides to try it again. "J'rakae? Please answer me!"

A barely-audible moan is heard, and she quickly approaches J'rakae. "I will not be around much longer, is S'rena okay?" he asks her.

Min whimpers sadly and shakes her head. "No... she died," she tells him, trying not to break down.

"I... don't... have much longer to live either," he says, struggling to stay conscious. "Please... find someone you can trust... to... " he trails off, blacking out.

Minstelae whacks him hard with her snout, and he comes to.

"Find someone I can trust to do what?" she asks.

"To... take care of... my young ones... Ak'rita and Chraak. I trust you, Minstelae," he says, then blacks out again.

Minstelae nudges him again, several times, then whacks him again. "Wake up!" She tells him.

He does wake up. "Min... you were a good Alpha... not many are privileged to be a part of such a great pack as the... the... Silent Claw Clan." He blacks out again.

Minstelae nudges him again. She looks at his belly, which is not rising and falling in slow, labored breaths anymore. She whacks him again, hoping he will come to. He doesn't.

"No! You will live, hear me?" She says loudly. He remains limp, and he does so for twenty minutes.

Minstelae whimpers to herself, knowing the truth. She would have to take care of his chicks, or at least, see to it that somebody did, and that they stayed safe. But it made her sad to see her packmates die.

Minstelae sighs softly, and walks off slowly. Where's Crike? she asks herself in her mind. Must... find... Crike. She goes back to the den, back to the initial battleground. She cannot find him anywhere. She begins to hope that he was all right, that he had run off and joined Amber at the Deinonychuss' den. Yes. That had to be it. I'm sure he's fine, like Celeea is, she thinks to herself, trying to reassure her own mind. Still, she decides to search a little bit more. Still, no Crike.

Minstelae gives up after a while and figures he had left with Jabari, Filia, Khalil and the Deinonychuss. She decides to go back, to tell the others that everything was okay, now, that it was okay for the chicks to come home now.

She begins to head towards Shrenaea territory. But she doesn't walk too long before she sees a crumpled, unmoving form lying hidden near a rock under a tree-fern. She sniffs the air. The wind is blowing in the wrong direction, so it's hard to detect a scent. Still, it is barely there. If it weren't for the scent, she would have thought it was just a rock, and that her eyes were playing tricks on her. She sniffs again, and the wind slows down. She can smell it more distinctly, now. It's Crike.

She screams in panic, in worry that the worst may be true. She runs up to Crike's unmoving form and nuzzles his snout softly. His eyes do not open. His is breathing very shallowly, but it is hard as anything to tell if he is breathing at all.

"Crike. You will be okay. Listen to me," she tells him.

He does not open his eyes, but he responds. "Min... love... you," he mumbles almost incoherently. It takes Min a few seconds to realize what he was saying to her.

She reaches down and nuzzles his neck and snout lovingly. "I love you too, Crike," she says, with a slight tremor in her voice. She nuzzles him again, and lies there with him for a few minutes. He doesn't make any movements, and he is no longer breathing.

But Minstelae cannot accept the fact that he is dead. She continues to nudge and nuzzle him softly, and she even tries whacking him hard with her snout, as she had done with J'rakae. He still doesn't move. Minstelae falls onto the ground, her head and neck lying on Crike's.

"You can't die on me, Crike, you just can't!" she screams. She then begins to tremble and shake, loud whimpers emerge from deep down in her throat. She thought she would always have her mate, her Crike. She had loved him, and could never have asked for a better mate. And now that he was gone, things would never be the same ever again. 'Why can't I just live a happy life with a pack, a mate, and love?' she thinks to herself, still crying.

Min doesn't know how much time has passed, but she cries for a long time. She continues whimpering and trembling for a while, and then is gently touched on the shoulder by someone. She is so lost in her crying that she doesn't feel it until she is gently nudged again. It's Amber.

Amber lies down beside Min and nuzzles her. "I'm so sorry," she says softly, but does not say anything else for a while.

A slight rustling sound is heard in the foliage nearby, and Celeea emerges. She sees what has happened and collapses next to Min. "NO!!! Daddy!!!" she exclaims, then breaks down crying, herself. The three lie there next to Crike for an hour or two, before Amber finally nudges Minstelae.

"Lakura says we can stay with them until we find somewhere better to live," she says, then helps Minstelae and Celeea up. "Let's go," she says quietly.

"Okay," Minstelae whimpers, and turns away. Amber gets up and walks off, followed by Celeea. But Minstelae pauses for just a little bit. She nudges Crike softly. "I will always love you, Crike," she mutters softly, then gets up herself, and follows the two to the Shrenaea territory, her head hanging.

Minstelae wakes up late the next afternoon. She hadn't realized how worn out she was. Her wounds had taken more of a toll on her than she had thought they had. She had lots of cuts and scratches, although none of them were lethal. She had a long cut beginning at the top of her head and running down the left side of her snout. But she would be okay, once she healed. At least she could feed herself and walk around.

Filia hadn't been so lucky. She was alive, and would be fine soon enough, but she could not walk, due to something that had happened to her ankle throughout the fight. Jabari and Khalil were fine, other than the same cuts and scratches that Minstelae had suffered. Jabari had a gash on his belly, but it was far from fatal. Probably just a painful annoyance until it healed.

All three of the chicks were there, Celeea, and the two chicks of S'rena and J'rakae. The two younger Utahraptor chicks looked up at everyone with shyness, and their expressions told Minstelae that even if they were still really young, that they knew what had happened to their parents. Minstelae walks up to them and nuzzles them gently. "Don't worry. You won't be alone, I will be with you," she tells them softly. They nudge her back, but don't say anything.

Minstelae lies down next to the chicks, and is glad to see that Lakura and her mate, Shanlee, are fine, and the Deinonychus pack, although they lost many, are still large and strong. She walks up to Lakura and bows in respect. "Lakura, I cannot thank you enough. I am indebted to you," she tells the alpha female Deinonychus.

"Hey... it's okay... we did what we could, and we got 'em," she says, with a hint of a smile.

"Yeah, we did... and we would not have been able to, if it had not been for you and your pack. And you will be happy to know that I killed Shrenula. And I noticed that Bikkerae died, as well."

"Yeah... I am glad to hear that. Were there any survivors? I saw two or three of them run off as we were leaving," Lakura tells Min.

"Yeah... that's what I saw, too. But I don't think they will ever be a threat to us again, and we have their territory to hunt on now. Perhaps I can run the last few off and claim their territory as my own," Minstelae smirks. "And of course, you will always be welcome to hunt there, as well," she tells Lakura.

"I figured that would be the case," Lakura smiles smugly. Her expression then becomes a lot more serious, and she looks up at Minstelae with honest eyes. "By the way, I'm terribly sorry about your mate," she says with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I know that must be hard."

Minstelae bows again. "Thank you. That really means a lot. And again, I am indebted to you and your pack for helping me out. Now... I think I'm going to see what's happening on the Daya's old territory," she smirks, then walks off, leaving Lakura with a smirk on her face, as well.

It is as she had suspected, except that nobody from the Daya were there. Not even the few who had escaped and were still living somewhere. All sign of them was gone. Perhaps they had gone to find new territory. Perhaps they had been smart enough to know that they would be run off of their territory.

Minstelae snorts to herself proudly and marks the spot as her own. She scratches deep gashes in the trees and rubs her neck up against them. The spot was hers now. And if the few remaining members of the Daya Clan didn't like that, well then, too bad. Minstelae heads back to Lakura's den, and tells the others that their new territory is safe. They all leave and go there the next day.

Minstelae wakes up a day later, in their new territory, and Amber, seeing that she is awake, approaches her, her head hung low. "Min, I need to talk to you, preferably alone," she says softly.

Minstelae nods and motions for Amber to follow her. The two walk out of earshot of the rest of the pack, and Amber speaks, or rather, attempts to.

"Min... I... have something to tell you," she says softly.

"What is it?" Minstelae asks quietly as well, her body posture expressing that she's concerned for her sister.

Amber is silent for a few minutes, and Minstelae nuzzles her. "No. Min, I don't deserve that," she says, then adds a slight whimper.

"Don't deserve what, Amber? I don't understand," Minstelae says.

"I don't deserve to be nuzzled. I don't deserve to be your sister, and I don't even deserve to be a part of your pack," she says lowly, obviously trying hard not to whimper.

"But why, Amber?" Minstelae asks simply.

"I... let you down. I wasn't there. If it had not been for me..." she trails off.

"What happened?"

"I... went off with the chicks and didn't return until... much later. And... I should have been back earlier. If it hadn't been for me, your mate might have lived," she says, sighing and lying down on the ground.

"Aww, c'mon, I don't blame you," Minstelae tells her. "You had to get the chicks to safety. That had already been agreed on."

"Yes... but I should have come back much sooner," Amber says. "The chicks didn't want me to leave, and even though I... felt it was my duty to leave and to fight with the rest of the pack, I didn't. I should have listened to my instincts. I should not have stayed," she says, her head lowered and not making eye contact with Min.

"I still don't blame you. Someone had to stay there with the chicks."

"But there was someone, a Deinonychus. She was watching both our chicks and their chicks with her mate, the raptor who took us here in the first place when we were attacked. So it is my fault. I should have returned. But by the time I could convince the chicks to let me, it was... too late. I'm so sorry, Minstelae, sister. I don't deserve to be here," she whimpers.

"For the last time, I don't blame you, Amber. Everything is okay, and you cannot take Crike's death on your back," Minstelae says softly.

"But... I could have... helped you fight... kept him from being killed," she looks up at Min, still being careful to avoid eye contact.

"Amber... you did the right thing. Our chicks probably needed someone they were familiar with, somebody to comfort them. If you hadn't been there, they would have been scared senseless. You could not be in two places at once," Minstelae says, nuzzling Amber.

"You sure?" Amber asks.

"Yes, sister," Min says. "Nothing that happened or didn't happen was your fault. And you are just as deserving of this pack as you are of being my sister. And in both cases, you are very deserving. I could never bear to lose you again," Minstelae says, honestly.

"You... couldn't?" Amber asks simply.

"Of course not. My mate and my sister? You have to be kidding. Now... all is fine, all is forgiven, and I don't feel that you did anything wrong," Min says. "Now... let's go back, shall we?" Min says, smiling slightly.

"Okay... since I obviously can't change your mind otherwise," Amber smiles at Min and gives her a slight play-nuzzle.

"Nope... you can't. But you know what I think you are deserving of?" Minstelae grins.

"What, Min?" Amber asks.

"This!" Minstelae laughs, and then play-pounces her sister affectionately.

"Oh, you!" Amber play-growls at Minstelae, and wrestles back, gently biting at Minstelae's snout and bopping her gently against the neck. The two Utahraptors play-wrestle with wild abandon for an hour or two before returning back to the rest of the pack.

About a month later...

Everyone's wounds are healed now, and there has been no sign whatsoever of the remaining members of the Daya Clan. Minstelae decides that it is time to make another kill, and she leads the rest of the pack to their new hunting grounds, where prey is abundant. It is nice to be able to eat regularly again, to not have to worry about the next kills, or about anything else.

The Deinonychus clan often hunts when they do, and sometimes the two packs work together to cause confusion among the herds and to bring more prey down. It's a very effective technique, and no one has to worry about going hungry anymore, or about going long distances in order to kill prey and eat.

Everything goes well and the pack kills a small sauropod, which will be enough to feed the pack and the chicks for several days. Minstelae is still sad about losing her mate. Nothing, in her mind, will ever be able to replace him, but she at least has been able to move on, and to continue in her new life. She knows deep down that that is what Crike would have wanted, that he would have wanted her to carry on in life, and continue watching over her pack.

Celeea has also shown interest in learning to hunt, as well. She is still a bit too young to take on the larger prey that the Utahraptor pack takes on, but she does watch now, rather than staying in the den. And Minstelae has noticed that Celeea has asked her many times lately about hunting lessons. She smiles to herself. Little Celeea was all she could have asked for in a daughter, Deinonychus or not. She was a strong little chick, and was growing up fast. It would not be long before she would be a subadult. And Minstelae had to keep reassuring Celeea that she would teach her to hunt soon.

The pack eats at the kill site, but Minstelae leaves, and takes some of the meat back for the chicks, and Celeea stays and eats, still being young herself. She would help bring more meat back later.

Minstelae can't believe how Amber had thought she had been at fault a month or so ago. She and Jabari have taken on the duty of parenting Ak'rita and Chraak, And the two chicks who had been parented by S'rena and J'rakae were secure and happy. Minstelae takes comfort in knowing that J'rakae would have been pleased to have known that his two chicks were happy and were being parented by Amber and her mate, Jabari.

Minstelae enters the den and feeds the two young chicks, but then she notices something in the far left corner of the den, where she normally slept. She grins to herself happily and walks over there, after quickly feeding the two chicks. There are two eggs, hers, and one of them is cracking. It was time for the hatching, and Minstelae was more than happy. She had awaited this for quite some time now, and she thought that they would never hatch. These eggs, in fact, had been the objects that Amber had run into their old den and picked up during the war with the Daya Clan.

Minstelae watches the two eggs for ten minutes. The shells crack some more, little by little, as the chicks gradually hatch. It takes somewhere between a half-hour and an hour, but it seems like forever to Minstelae before they hatch. Finally, the time arrives, and the chicks are out. There is a male and a female. The male resembles Minstelae, being a light reddish brown, and having yellow eyes, but hasn't grown in a feather-crest yet, as that happens later on in a raptor chick's life. The female, looks almost exactly like Crike, except that she has the same facial structure that Minstelae does. Crike's snout had been slightly narrower than the norm.

Minstelae squeals softly in happiness, and Amber approaches her from behind. "Quick! Go get us some more meat! The chicks have hatched! Oh, and tell Celeea she has new siblings!" she exclaims happily, and Amber nuzzles Minstelae rather affectionately, then leaves.

Perhaps life was not so bad, after all -- for now.

Guess what?

THE END. (For now.)