Madoline awoke to, “Warning! Safety Mesh integrity at 50%.”

“Shit!” Madoline understood the situation mid-yawn. The once skintight electric mesh projected from the disk stuck to her back had become an enlarged bubble. This meant it was breaking.

“Warning! Safety Mesh integrity at 30%,” the liquid surrounding Madoline bubbled as it slowly ate through the electric mesh protecting her.

Madoline curled up as small as she could to allow the bubble to condense and thicken, “No, no, no…”

“Warning! Safety Mesh integrity at 15%” it had no effect. “Warning! Safety Mesh integrity at 1%.”

“No.” The electric bubble popped, and Madoline fell splash into the boiling acid.

*          *

Ilean awoke in a dense forest with a thick canopy that stopped the majority of the heavy rains falling down from the skies above. She had a terrible ache in her gut, and the last thing she could remember was being directly hit by an asteroid made of copper. She dry-heaved repeatedly as an unbearably foul taste overwhelmed her from her throat’s end to her tongue’s tip. With one final heave, she belched forth a snot covered chunk and immediately began dragging her tongue across the ground in an effort to drown out the taste. The snot bubble popped and, “Ah!!!” Mad rolled out screaming extendedly as she scurried backward until her back hit a tree. Too frightened to move, she looked around, “Eww yuck,” and noticed she was covered in a mass of ooze. Now more disgusted than afraid, she had begun scraping the snot off herself when she noticed a familiar theropod dragging her tongue through the dirt leaving a trench behind her as she moaned and grunted disgustedly until she had reached a stream.

Ilean gargled water from the stream three times before drinking a large amount and, after a brief moment, belched with relief. “ah, so much better. That was disgusting,” Ilean shook her head loosely. The pupils in Madoline’s eyes grew wide as the realization hit her. She had understood every word Ilean just said. Ilean looked at Madoline and tilted her head, “What?”

Madoline froze up again, “ya… you… uh… you can talk?” she managed to stutter with a swallow. Ilean appeared confused as she got within Madoline’s personal space and began sniffing. Still frozen with fear, Madoline couldn’t stop shaking.

“Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you,” Ilean reassured as she continued to sniff until something made her sneeze, “that foul taste was you?!” she took a step back and heaved with disgust. “Do not ever jump into my mouth again.”

“I did not jump into your mouth!” Madoline snapped. “I was tossed!” Then she remembered the disk on her back and grabbed it. Looking at her reflection in the metallic surface she could hear her father’s last words echo within her mind as a tear slid down her cheek, “That’s the last thing you chose to say to me? Brace for impact?” She started to cry. Ilean got close again, this time in an attempt to comfort Madoline, “go away,” when Ilean wouldn’t back down Mad pushed against her, “get away from me. This is your fault!”

“My fault?” Ilean argued.

“You didn’t save him!” Madoline screamed. “You didn’t save any of them!”

Ilean roared in Madoline’s face, but all Madoline could hear was Ilean yelling, “I was not sent here to save anyone. I was not even aware there was anyone to save. I was sent to hunt the Wyyvern that created you and your Realm.”

“Then why did you save me?!” Madoline snapped interruptingly before she started crying again, “why me?” She sat down, cross-legged, and stared at the disk with longing, “I wish he had just let me die with him.”

“Your father must have been aware of my inability to digest flesh, blood, and bone,” Ilean laid her head upon the ground so that Madoline could be at eye level with her. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save them. I failed you, but your father did not,” Madoline looked into Ilean’s eyes and saw genuine empathy and unconditional love within them, which did not match her outside appearance at all.

Ilean suddenly perked up and looked around twitchingly, “what’s wrong?” asked Madoline.

“Get under me,” Ilean insisted.

Madoline did, “why, what is it?” and immediately Ilean was rammed in her side by another theropod. Much shorter and stockier than Ilean and covered in spikes with too large horns facing forward on its head, the theropod roared aggressively at Ilean before charging in at Madoline again. This time Ilean caught its head with her foot but was unable to slam it down as the horned theropod pushed Ilean back and shrugged her foot off. Shaking its head in irritation, the horned theropod looked around until it saw Madoline and roared at her before snapping its jaws shut just out of reach of her. With the horned theropod’s tail in her mouth, Ilean pulled it back and began smacking it against the ground repeatedly, back and forth, until she heard bones crack. Then she slammed it to the ground one last time, held it down with her foot, and closed her mouth over its head. The horned theropod struggled as Ilean tried to twist its neck until a loud crack sounded and the horned theropod went limp. “What was that thing? You think there are any more?”

“Where I come from, it’s called a Carnotaur. Get on my back,” Ilean knelt down, remaining alert, and Madoline did as she asked. “Hold on to the big scales on the back of my neck and shoulders.”

“Ilean!” Mad screamed. Ilean quickly turned and clamped her jaws around a second theropod’s neck. This one had a fin on its back.

“A Spinosaurus?” Ilean mumbled with her mouth full and then rolled her eyed when the Spino’s fin started to spin, “of course. Why not?”

“That thing has a chain-saw on its back,” Mad pointed out.

The Spino shook its head and clawed at the air aggressively as Ilean let go of the Spino’s neck and created some space, “I know.” Another Spino cautiously approached as it communicated with the other and then they both looked at Madoline. “Hold on tight,” Ilean dipped under a leap attack and caught a tail swipe in her mouth. Bringing that Spino around she knocked it into the other before adjusting her grip and swinging it into a tree. Using the Spino, stuck by its fin, in the tree as a stepping stone she warped its fin so it could not spin and jumped over a rush attack from the other. The still standing Spino looked at the moaning Spino in the tree with its fin broken, looked at Ilean, then looked at Madoline. Ilean roared viciously at the Spino telling it to back off.

“Yeah, that’s right. This child is her’s,” Madoline repeated what Ilean had said. “Wait, child? Yours?” The Spino rolled in this time, and Ilean dodged, but the Spino ran up a tree and came down back first. Revving its fin like a chain-saw, the Spino cut Ilean in half, rolled back to its feet and roared at Madoline. Cornered with her back to a tree, Madoline closed her eyes as the Spino opened its mouth and slowly moved it over Mad when a sharp crack sounded. The Spino perked up and turned slowly as Ilean pulled her flesh together and mended her bones, staring the Spino down, until she was fully restored. She clamped her jaws shut over the Spino’s snout and held on as the Spino twisted, jerked, and pulled. Ilean brought it into and smashed it through the tree the other Spino was still stuck to. Before it could get up, Ilean had one foot on its back and its fin in her mouth. After a few tries and quite a bit of effort, she managed to rip the fin from the Spino’s back. She adjusted her grip and cut the Spinosaurus’s head off as she stabbed the massive spiked disk into the ground. She snapped the other Spino’s neck to stop its moaning. “Madoline?” Ilean could not see her, “Madoline?” She became worried, “Madoline?”

“Over here!” Madoline shouted from not far off.

Ilean rushed over, “not so loud.”

“I found Betty,” Madoline said quietly with excitement. “Not bad condition either,” she got inside the cockpit and tried the engines, “fried,” she said disappointedly. Ilean picked Madoline up by the collar of her jacket, “hey, what gives?” walked her to a small clearing, “put me down!” and did as Madoline asked.

“Make a fire,” said Ilean.

“A fire? Now?” Madoline questioned. Ilean got close and stared her down. “Alright, geez. I’ll make a fire,” she begrudgingly replied as she started gathering wood. She could here dragging and crushing as she laid out the kindling, stacked the wood, and pulled out a lighter. Trying it a few times, “out of juice. Guess I’m doing this the old fashioned way,” she said to herself as she struck a flint to rock trying to produce a spark. “This may take a while,” she said as she turned to find Ilean adjusting her grip in an attempt to pull the canon off Betty. “You’ll never break her, she’s solid graph…” she watched as Ilean pulled the canon from her tank as though it were made of cardboard, “ene…”

Ilean dropped the incredibly lightweight cylinder, “that fire ready yet?”

“Why do we need a fire, I wanna help,” Madoline begged.

“You are helping,” Ilean replied as she pulled the combined carcasses of the Carno and the two Spinos next to the cannon. “Don’t turn around until you’re done.”

Madoline had become distracted by Ilean’s crafting, “I’m sparking, I’m sparking,” she replied as she struck a flint to rock again. She could hear the pulling of rope, jolts of electricity, and bones clanking on metal as she hurried to spark a flame so she could turn around and watch. A spark, “Yes!” and the kindling ignited. Ilean came from behind her and blew gently into the newborn flames causing them to flash up and ignite the wood.

“Look away,” Ilean said before inhaling and consuming the fire.

Ilean belched, and Madoline waved her arms frantically in response, “What was the last thing you ate?”

A sphere of fiery light formed in Ilean’s mouth that shot forth a concentrated beam which she used to carefully weld her craft together. Then she went to the stream, drank it dry, and became aqueous in form as she submerged her freshly forged weapon within herself to cool. When she was done, she went to Madoline and replied, “You. You were the last thing I ate.”

“What the,” before Madoline, stabbed saw-blade first into the ground, was an ax with Betty’s cannon at its business end. The blades were Spino fin, the tang was forged of graphene from betty, and the grip was Carno hide that she had treated to taste better. Ilean opened the cannon’s cockpit, “Wait, no way,” excited, Madoline climbed up with a little help from Ilean and got in. “Comfier than I thought it would be,” the cockpit closed and a heads-up display appeared over a full view of her surroundings, “how did you?” She could feel Ilean pick the ax up, “and its gyroscopically stable!” Ilean adjusted the grip in her mouth. As she had hoped, the treated Carno hide had no flavor to it and with the interwoven graphene fibers it was also too tough for her to chew through unintentionally. “You changed my controls up, what do I push to fire the cannon?” Madoline pulled a tall lever extending from the floor and the ax’s spiked blade spun. Ilean tested the feature by cutting down a tree with a heavy swing. “Epic! Now how do I stop it?” Ilean slowly and carefully lowered the ax’s spinning blade to the ground and let go. “Ah!!!” the ax went flying along the ground on its rotating blade. Madoline grabbed hold of the steering wheel and turned, pulling a 180 and sending herself back to Ilean. Ilean caught the grip, dug the rotating blade into the ground, then twisted and pulled the grip locking it back in place. The word fire appeared on Madoline’s HUD with arrows pointing toward two buttons, one on either side of the steering wheel. The 1000mm round shot faster and father than Betty ever could, “ooh, that has some kick to it,” said Madoline as she pushed the lever that had started the saw back. She looked at her HUD, “Ok, the saw’s deactivated. We only have four shots left after that last one.” She pulled a projected screen from her left side over to the center console, “Full schematics with real-time integrity percentage counters? What are you, Ilean, a 3D printer?”

“It’s a Wyyvern thing,” Ilean replied. The red lever on the floor, right-hand side,” she instructed. Madoline pulled the lever, and the cockpit hatch opened. “Well Madoline, what do you think?”

“I think you can call me Mad,” Madoline replied. Then she hugged Ilean’s face, “and I love it.”

A loud roar echoed followed by replying howls and grunts, “get in,” Ilean said as she lifted Mad into her cockpit and locked it shut before cocking the ax back to load in a fresh round. “I need a sheath,” suddenly a Gorilla, equivalent in size to herself, landed in front of Ilean in a territorial manner, “You’ll do nicely.” Then a second came from the brush to Ilean’s right, so she stepped back to create space. Immediately a third attacked from behind grabbing hold of Ilean’s muzzle as it tried to pry the ax from her mouth. Ilean rolled the Gorilla off, then rolled over its back, and followed through with an upward slice from her ax’s spinning blade. The first Gorilla grabbed the ax before it could kill the third and tugged against Ilean as the third pulled her tail and the second helped to pull the ax. After much effort the Gorilla’s managed to separate Ilean and Mad, throwing the ax far off in the distance, “Mad!” The third Gorilla got a better hold under Ilean’s back and lifted into the air as she kicked to try and free herself. Taking the suplex, Ilean rolled back to her feet and shook it off when the second came in from the right with a massive balled up fist. Ilean caught it by its wrist, smacked it down on the third Gorilla, and brought it back up and around, so she was behind it. Still holding the second Gorilla’s wrist in her mouth with her foot to its back, she pulled, dislocated, and ripped its arm off. Smacking the Gorilla upside the head with its own arm she rolled under an attack from the first, tail swiped the second into a tree, adjusted her grip, and thrust the broken bone end of the severed arm into the chest of the first Gorilla. Then she heard Mad’s cannon fire. With all three downed for the moment, Ilean ran to the sound and to Madoline.

“Thank you, gyroscopically stable cockpit. Now, where am I?” Mad found herself stabbed, ax-blade first near the top of a very tall tree. “Okay, so I can’t get out. Maybe if I drive forward until I cut through…” she was interrupted by something that pulled the ax free and was holding it. Proud of itself the Great Ape howled, hooted, and beat his chest as he brandished his new weapon. Curious, it looked down the barrel to see what was inside, “that’s right. Just a little bit more to the left and,” the round fired took the Gorilla’s head clean off. Still holding the ax handle, the headless Gorilla fell out of the tree, “I didn’t think this through!” With a thud, the Gorilla fell on its back and dropped the ax. “Alright, now I just need to figure out how to set this thing upright. “There you are,” she pulled up the schematics screen and rotated the three-dimensional image by hand causing the mag-levs to activate lifting the ax and holding it suspended blade down. “How did you apply Magnet levitation to…”

“It’s a Wyyvern thing,” Ilean interrupted as she picked the ax up and used it to cut a thrown tree in half. Then she aimed it at the Gorilla who threw it, cocked the cannon back, “fire when ready, Mad,” and used the recoil to swing back and around for an uppercut that cutting the throat of the one-armed Gorilla behind her.

“Behind us!” Mad shouted, but the Gorilla already had the ax and tossed it to the side as it grabbed hold of Ilean’s mouth. Irritated by Ilean’s struggle, the Gorilla ripped out her tongue and kept prying her jaws apart until it had torn her head in half. Playing with the mouth to ensure Ilean was dead, the Gorilla stood atop her triumphantly beating its chest. Its attention now focused on the ax, it did not hear Ilean snap her jaw back in place as she resurrected. Lifting the ax up the Gorilla found its head in Ilean’s mouth causing it to frantically flail its arms about. A sharp snap and the Gorilla went limp. Ilean picked up her ax, stabbed it to the ground, and roared so the world could hear her. Then she felt a presence. A power beyond her own that caused her to feel fear and was followed by a savage cry.