Sisterhood of the Light

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright ã 2011 Plot Roach.
 
Sisterhood of the Light

By Plot Roach

The first thing that she saw when she broke free of the egg was the blinding light that enveloped her. The struggle that had taken her hours to begin was accomplished within the final few seconds as she was spilled out onto the dirt amongst a mass of her own kind. She was surrounded by hatchlings like herself, miniature versions of the behemoths they would grow into, provided that they survived. Slinking among the shadows was death. Predators dashed across the field of hatchlings, snatching up a few here and there. Instinct told the baby to run for the dense undergrowth of a nearby forest. And within minutes she and the remainder of her kind were safe -at least for the moment.

There, in the thickly wooded realm, she and the other survivors grew large upon the vegetation. There were still creatures to be feared, but very few of them could take on a beast of her bulk. One had only to be quick enough to outrun the larger predators and stay within the herd for safety. Soon she and her kind became too large for their forest home and moved again by instinct, made a trek across the great grassy plains. They traveled in a tight formation, the males on the outside and the females grouped in the center. They were preyed upon by predators along the way, losing half their number before they found their kin.

Her mother, aunts and others called out to her. She recognized them by smell, each bearing a portion of her pheromones. But they were huge compared to the newcomers. Their bodies were like large hills and their longs necks stretched across the sky. To the young female it seemed as thought they could feast upon the clouds. And that is what she called them, the Cloud Grazers. The females were greeted warmly, the males were kept at a distance. It was mating time and the older males jousted for the best mates, chasing off the newcomers if they got too close to a receptive female.

The young female watched the fights and ensuing courtship. The mating dance became burned into her brain as she breathed deeply of the scents of her clan. She traveled with the group, as did all the other females, the young males having been driven off to form their own bachelor group which followed at a distance.

In the years that followed, the young female grew again in size, and learned many things. She traveled to where her kind laid their eggs, learned which plants would grow during the seasons, and which predators to now avoid.

Among these were the Thunder Lords, loud of roar and sharp of tooth. And while they were only a third the size of her kind, they hunted in packs. They could wound a creature and wait for it to bleed to death or die of infection. She had seen it happen in the older ones too slow to keep up with the herd.

Soon came the time when she took a mate, laid her eggs and took her turn leading the herd to new grazing lands that had been visited by her grandmother, mother and sisters. She had many good years, laid many eggs and even recognized a few that joined her group as her own offspring.

The predators followed them like shadows, and she watched as those she called grandmother, mother, aunt and sister fell before those sharp teeth.

One summer, as she lead the Cloud Grazers to one of the few watering holes that could be had during the drought, she was ambushed by a Thunder Lord pack. And while bitten in several places, and suffering from a twisted ankle, she walked, albeit slowly, away from the fight and back into the protection of the herd, her sisters pressed against her on either side to protect her from further onslaught. But she knew that they could not protect her for long, as she felt the blood run down her hide and felt the fever that came with one of the bites. If she did not fall from fatigue, she would succumb to illness. But still her foot marched onward as if to say: I will not fall today. Soon the predators fell back, dusk painted the land bloody colors and the Thunder Lords knew that they could wait until dawn to make their kill. The stars shifted in the night sky and the old one, which was now matriarch, looked overhead. Among these lights was one that grew brighter, until it filled the darkness with daylight. Once again she was enveloped in a blinding light, as was all her kind. And the old one was no more.