Chapter 2- The wake up

Instructions

The concrete floor was cold, but the air smelled of damp earth, ferns, and blood. Borealis blinked her light blue eyes. Her vision swam. Her head throbbed with a rhythmic, pounding ache, and her muscles felt like lead. She tried to lift her snout, but a sharp pain in her ribs forced a low growl from her throat. Her gray fur-like feathers were matted with dirt and dried crimson. Looking down, she noticed her white tail tip was stained brown with dust. Memory was a blank, fractured wall. She knew her name was Borealis. She knew she was a Nanuqsaurus. But how she had gotten into this massive, heavily forested enclosure—surrounded by towering concrete walls topped with high-voltage wires—was a complete mystery. A heavy, wet snort echoed through the clearing. Borealis froze. Every instinct told her to hide, but the dense ferns offered little cover. Just ten paces away, a gargantuan shape was shifting in the shadows of a rocky overhang. It was a Giganotosaurus, easily three times her size. His dark blue back shimmered like the deep ocean under the enclosure’s artificial floodlights, fading into a grayish-blue base along his flanks. Vibrant purple spots dappled his muscular hide, and sharp, light blue stripes zipped down his powerful legs. The titan groaned, a sound that vibrated through the very ground beneath Borealis’s feet. He shook his massive, boxy head, and when his eyelids fluttered open, a pair of piercing purple-blue eyes locked directly onto her. For a long, agonizing moment, neither dinosaur moved. "Step back," the Giganotosaurus rumbled. His voice was a deep, gravelly baritone that sounded like grinding boulders. He tried to stand, but his legs buckled, his light blue stripes flashing through the dirt as he collapsed back into the ferns with a huff. "My head feels like it was hit by an ankylosaur." Borealis bared her teeth, stepping back despite the agony in her ribs. "Who are you? Where are we?" The massive predator blinked, looking around the realistic jungle enclosure. He stared at the glass observation windows embedded high up in the concrete walls. "I... I don't know. My name is Nyx. That is all I remember." He looked at her, his purple-blue eyes narrowing, though not with malice—just deep confusion. "Did you do this to me?" Borealis let out a bitter, breathy laugh, gesturing to her own battered, gray-and-white body. "Look at the size of you, Nyx. If I did this to you, you’d be dead, or I’d be inside your stomach. I woke up just a minute before you. I'm Borealis." Nyx grunted, slowly pushing himself up onto his hind legs. He loomed over her, a mountain of muscle, but his posture was defensive, not predatory. He examined the deep, bleeding gashes on his own chest, then looked at the faint black and blue stripes on Borealis’s neck and tail. "The wounds match," Nyx observed softly, his giant head tilting. "My claws fit the marks on your side. Your teeth fit the punctures on my neck. Borealis... we did this to each other." "But why?" Borealis asked, her voice dropping its defensive edge. "I don't even know you." High above them, a loud electronic beep echoed across the enclosure. A mechanical voice crackled over a speaker system hidden in the artificial trees. “Observation Log: Day 42. Asset Nyx (Giganotosaurus) and Live Prey Asset Borealis (Nanuqsaurus). Initial combat concluded in mutual incapacitation. Both assets are now conscious. Commencing secondary observation.” The words hung in the humid air. Live prey. Borealis’s light blue eyes widened as the realization hit her like a physical blow. "The handlers... the people outside the walls. They put me in here. Not to live. They put me in here to be your food." Nyx looked from the high glass windows down to the small, fluffy apex predator before him. He smelled the blood on her, and for a split second, a primal hunger flashed in his mind. But then he looked at his own scarred hide, remembering the fierce, desperate strength of the creature who had fought him to a standstill. She wasn't just a meal. She was a warrior who had fought him until they both literally passed out from exhaustion. "They want a show," Nyx growled, turning his back to the observation glass and facing Borealis. "They want me to finish it." "Are you going to?" Borealis asked, tensing her legs, ready to run or die fighting. Nyx snorted, a plume of mist escaping his nostrils. "I am a king of the apex predators, Borealis. I hunt to survive, not to perform for monkeys behind glass. If they want a fight, they will have to come down here and give us one themselves." He extended a massive, three-clawed hand in a surprisingly gentle gesture, offering her a truce. Borealis relaxed her posture, her white tail tip flicking with newfound determination. They didn't know how they got there, and they didn't know each other, but as they both looked up at the glass windows with shared hatred, they knew one thing: they were going to get out together.