RUN- PA quest

RUN

It was a quiet night on the island, cloaked in a dark night sky. All the prehistoric wildlife were at rest upon the island, a bone yard lay silent within a grove of trees. Various bones littered the soft dirt and a dark figure stood over them digging at the dirt. Graveyard a pale styracosaurus soon sorted through the bone piles he had been collecting. He pushed dirt revealing more as he dug, this was a place graveyard visited as he loved collecting trinkets and bones. He shifted his weight moving to a spot that was not yet uncovered in the dirt. Little did he know a danger was on the way towards him and it was moving fast. Graveyard kept on sifting through the various dirt piles.

A smoldering smell started to fill the air of the island, it eventually made its way to where Graveyard was the smoked smell burning his nose. He snorted at the uncomfortableness “ What is this burning smell…” he said, shaking his head to clear the smokiness from his nostrils mumbling to himself. He paid no mind to it and moved a pile of various bone trinkets he found pushing them into a pile. The fire was slowly approaching the area he was in, roaring flames smoldering everything in its pathway. Graveyard picked up the bones he had picked out as he was foraging, his pale eyes picking up on an orange color off in the distance but not too far off. His pale eyes trying to hone on the flash of orange and yellow colors. “ Is that fire..?” he mumbled slowly out of his beak. 

Soon hearing a loud rumbling heading towards him, seeing the rubble and dirt he had dug up bouncing around to the rumbling. A large herd of parasaur busted through the large tree line that stood before the old boneyard. Loud roars of fear filled the air as adults and young tried to keep pace with them, Graveyard dropped his bones and stumbled backwards being stuck in the middle of the stampede. Fearful roars rumbled in Graveyard's ears as he was being slammed into parasaurs who had no sense of direction as the smoke built up behind the tree line, he was slammed into the dirt crushing the bones underneath his chin seeing various feet nearly hitting his head.  Dazed and feeling pain Graveyard found his feet under him, shaking his head to get his bearings back.

The flames roared creeping past the tree line, soon followed by other prehistoric life making efforts to escape the flames. Graveyard felt the hot flame wall approaching closer and closer the heat started to warm his scales. He stood front faced towards the flames before turning and soon his pace turned into a fast trot and then into a run. Soon Graveyard had caught up with the scared parasaur herd who were now stopped at a fast running river all stopped on the banks, nervous to cross the murky water. Graveyard pushed and shuffled within the parasaur herd trying to get to the front of the herd who sat on the edge banks of the river. “ Move!! “ he snorted, pushing past several parasaur who were frozen with fear, “ the fire it's coming” he yelled at the top of his lungs as loud as he could. They needed to cross before the flames reached the river and if it did they would be caught in it. 

Graveyard finally made his way to the front, his feet slipping against the wet mud, he stared into the dark murky water. He froze this was a dangerous river to cross and he knew that. He was stuck between a wall of fire and a large river, the fearful roars from the parasaur soon drowned out as he lost touch with his thoughts. Without a thought Graveyard plunged into the bone chilling river, his head going under the water and finally snapping him back to reality. Taking a deep breath and water filling his lungs causing him to cough, shaking the water off his face he began to fight the rough current soon followed by the parasaur taking the plunge as well. He was determined to get across the river, his body aching from being hit by the many parasaur.

Eventually he had pulled himself out of the cold water on the other side of the river bank. Sinking into the mud that covered his feet. Graveyard trucked through the mud water dripping off his back and crest. He looked across the river bank to the other side, seeing a large wall of fire raging and stopping at the edge of the river. “ Where did this come from.. And my bone collection!” he snorted annoyed soon turning to the parasaurs who made it across getting to their feet on the muddy bank. His eyes locked with a large female white parasaur who was helping out others from the river's edge. 

Graveyard trotted over to her as maybe she may know where the fires had come from. “ Hey! Excuse me” he shouted lightly at her. The female para was named Tara, she had been traveling with her herd before they were forced to flee from the flames. She turned her focus to Graveyard as he approached her. “ Do you know where this fire started from?” Graveyard asked, stopping a little bit in front of her shaking the last of the water that pooled on his scales. Awaiting an answer from the white parasaur, seeing if she knew anything about it.

“ Oh! I am so sorry I didn’t see you” She said lowering her head towards Graveyard inspecting the grey and black styracosaurus that stood in front of her. She soon shook her head in regards to the question he had asked her. “ I am afraid I don’t, we were just grazing as usual before the crackling noises began” she paused looking back towards the charred forest “ Then the heat came soon followed by the flames, then we fled towards the river”. Tara stood tall surveying their surroundings. Before showing a faint smile “ We could use your help, we searched the area and found a pathway that the fires hadn’t gotten to. There is a fallen log we can’t get past, we could use your horn for the job”. Graveyard gave a soft smile “ I don’t mind helping! Maybe you can help me find some grub, after all that swimming my stomach is killing me”. Tara motioned forward with her head as she led the way, the herd following behind her. Graveyard slowly followed behind the herd walking past various parasaur to catch up to Tara.

After a little bit of a walk through a pathway they came to the fallen branch that had been knocked over probably by other dinosaurs who were feeling the fires. Graveyard nodded at Tara and assumed a stable stance, locking his horn under the fallen tree, before lifting it and throwing it to the side of the pathway. Some good grub after the stressful run from the fires was in store for them and now with the path cleared it was time to get moving again. Graveyard followed behind Tara looking at the burnt forest approaching on their sides, it seemed even across the river it wasn’t safe. The fire had burnt over here too, the ground grey and ashy, black charred trees with no leaves stood bare. Well the least of what was left of them, The entire island had been on fire and they had no idea how much damage it had caused but by all means it was not little.  Massive forests that they once knew burnt to a crisp and all that was left was ash, but it didn’t seem like a natural fire.

Soon hours had passed and the herd had been walking forever it felt, young where lagging behind and Tara had noticed. She let out a loud call to the herd “ We will rest here for tonight’ as she found a spot to lay and rest. Graveyard’s feet had been killing him for the past hour, he flopped to the ground with a sigh of relief. As the night grew darker he and Tara had stayed up keeping watch over the herd. They had conversations throughout the night before finally resting their eyes. This was the start of a friendship blossoming from chaos in the time of need. The fire had brought them together and Graveyard didn’t mind herding up for a while, it was new to him that was for sure but he would make the best of it. The only thing the fire had taken from him was various trinkets but he could always find more, but maybe trying friends was a good thing for the loner styracosaurus. 

The fires didn’t seem natural and were never that big on the island , would they ever find out what caused this fire to occur or was it something more sinister hidden within the island. But for now he was safe.