Judging by the scent of meat and territorial markings, I couldn't have been more than a few miles away from the camp when I sensed that something was wrong. I knew I was in the right place, but there was a new smell that I had never experienced before. It was only a moment later that I felt invisible eyes watching me. I was rarely wrong about such feelings, but I kept walking along the path as if I hadn't noticed anything.

            I casually scanned my surroundings, but I could perceive nothing except the sound of the wind. No, not wind... breathing. Though it was rare, there were predators in these woulds that had been known to attack lone raptors to eliminate competition. The sound of dirt and leaves crunching underfoot was my signal that the time to prepare was over. I spun around as quickly as I could, only to be knocked flat on my back by a large, scaly blur. The air was forced from my lungs painfully, but I knew I had to act quickly. I snarled fiercely and swiped my claws upwards, but I soon found my wrists pinned to the ground. A low growl rumbled from above. As I finally took a moment to take in my assailant, I widened my eyes in shock. I hadn't been expecting that...

            "Jalen?!" I asked in surprise, recognizing my old friend's scent.

            "I finally got you, Razor!" Jalen said, laughing triumphantly.

It didn't take me long to realize what was going on. I growled playfully and managed to yank one of my wrists free, and then wrestle my way on top of the larger green raptor after a brief scuffle. "Gods, you scared the shit out of me!" I said as I tried to hold the stronger raptor down beneath me. "Since when do they put you on guard duty?"

"Since I knocked down the Alpha's tent again," Jalen replied sheepishly. He pulled his leg up to get a foot against my belly and used the leverage to push me off him forcefully. He then pushed himself back onto his feet and offered a scaly hand to me.

"Again?" I asked incredulously as I took the offered hand and stood as well. "You're lucky it's just guard duty!" I couldn't help but laugh at my friend's clumsiness. He was much taller than the average deinonychus, and he often had trouble with maintaining his balance or hitting his head on low-hanging tree limbs. He also had a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. "How long is it this time?"

"The whole month," the green raptor replied with a soft chuckle. "But in my defense, I didn't knock it ALL the way down..."

"Just half, right?" I joked, giving him a playful slap on the shoulder.

"Oh, shut up," he said, punching my arm lightly in turn. "My shift ends pretty soon, so I can just take you back to the camp now. You won't believe how much has changed since you left!"

"I don't know, I've seen a lot," I said as we began walking back along the path. "I don't think there's much that would surprise me anymore."

That drew a smug grin from Jalen. "I'll bet you won't think that when you see what we found just recently..."

"What did you find?" I asked curiously.

"It's a surprise," my friend answered, failing miserably at suppressing a grin. "Not everybody knows about it yet, but let's just say we've found some rather interesting religious artifacts..."

I cocked my head to the side. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, even more confused now than I was before. But Jalen's lips were sealed on the subject, so I decided not to press him about it further. We had plenty to talk about in the meantime.

            Despite his clumsiness, Jalen was a skilled blacksmith. He wasn't the best by any means, but the uniqueness of his blades was what drew my eye. His skill lay in creating ceremonial or otherwise aesthetically appealing weapons and armor. He promised to show me some of his most recent creations soon, after we got something to eat. It takes a lot of food to keep the metabolism of a raptor going; even more so in Jalen's case, being as tall as he was.

            My pack's camp consisted of several dozen tents scattered around a flat plain with a fire pit placed between every few tents. We required the tents primarily for storage and shelter from the elements, so most of them were communal, with the exception of those used as shops and the tent reserved for the Alpha. It was only in the last 50 or 60 years that my pack had begun to accept gold as a standard of currency, but we were adapting to it quickly. The prospect of buying unique new weapons and armor from human and anthro settlements was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

            This change also aided us in more efficient use of the skills of each raptor. Every member of the pack did at least some hunting, but about a third had another profession alongside. For example, Jalen would use the gold he earned from forging tools and weapons to purchase meat from one of the hunters' recent kills so he could continue to do his job unhindered. Likewise, hunters could buy weapons, armor, and camouflage without having to invst countless hours learning an entirely new craft. It was also nice to be able to come home after a long trip and just buy some meat rather than spending several hours hunting. I believe the term used by humans to describe this level of sophistication is "civilized."

            After Jalen and I had finished our meal, we stopped by his forge. There was a young raptor there I didn't recognize. Jalen wordlessly handed him a few coins, and the youth was on his way.

"The worst part of guard duty," he said, "is that I have to pay someone to watch the forge while I'm gone, or else everything might catch on fire."

"That sucks," I said, not knowing how else to reply. "Who was that?"

"Just some hatchling looking to earn a few coins," Jalen replied. "Doesn't matter though. I have something to show you."

"You're just full of surprises today, aren't you?" I teased.

"As a matter of fact I am!" the green raptor said with a grin as he pulled back a tarp that covered a few of his recently-finished weapons and armor. He turned back towards me holding a wicked, curved dagger in his hand. "A welcome home gift," he said with a smile. "I thought it would be useful when you uh..." he drew a line across his throat with a clawed finger.

            The blade itself was about seven inches in length, and had a dual tone; that is, half the steel was silver, and half had been dyed black.  The hilt was about another five inches with faint, horizontal red stripes running along its length. There was a metal ring attached to the end of the hilt, which confused me at first. Jalen explained that if I held the knife with my index finger through the ring, it would be far more difficult for the blade to be knocked from my grasp. In addition, the inner curve of the blade was designed to draw flesh into its cutting edge, making it perfect for slashing across the throat of an unsuspecting victim. I was in love with the blade instantly, and as such it soon found a home in a sheath at my left ankle.

            I was happy as ever to add a new weapon to my arsenal, but more than that, I was glad to know I had been missed. I hadn't imagined that many would even notice I had left. Realistically most probably hadn't, but that didn't matter to me at that moment. I finally felt like I was an important person again, instead of just a useful tool. There is a tremendous difference between being wanted for your skills and being wanted for who you are. But I couldn't show how much it truly meant to me. It would have made me appear weak to show emotion. I wasn't sad though. Over the years, I had come to accept the intolerance of emotions. The best I could do was to give Jalen a friendly nudge with my muzzle and thank him again.

            The forge consisted of two main parts. Half of it was outside, consisting of the built up stones holding the hot coals and all the equipment necessary create and refine weapons and armor. The rest was a box-shaped tent that mostly contained wooden shelves arranged around the sides of the tent to hold completed pieces and raw materials. On one of these shelves, Jalen allowed me to leave the few belongings I had brought with me, except of course my new dagger. There was also a small area between shelves designated for sleeping. There was a thinly padded, circular mat on the dirt floor there, mostly to keep dirt and mud from wedging between a raptor's scales while sleeping. Jalen said that he could get another mat for me if I didn't want to sleep in one of the communal tents. His forge kept the tent pleasantly warm at night anyways.

            As we were exiting the tent, I was greeted by my second fast-moving surprise of the day. I barely realized anything was happening before a brown-scaled raptor slammed into me and lifted me up into the air in a crushing hug. "RAZOR!!!" the raptor screeched happily as he squeezed me so tightly it seemed my intestines would be forced out through my mouth. The only person that would have greeted me like that was Shavek, who was a close friend to Jalen, and a... slightly more distant friend to me, partially due to greetings such as this one.

            "H... hi Shavek," I wheezed with a weak grin.

            "RAZOR!!!" Shavek shouted again enthusiastically, swishing his tail in excitement.

"Yeah, yeah... Great to see you too... Wanna think about putting me down now?" It was still nice to be missed, but Shavek tended to take things way over the top. Jalen was too busy laughing to do anything about it, but luckily Shavek did finally decide to put me down.

"How the hell have you been?" the brown raptor asked. "I haven't seen you in like a year!"

"Ten months," I corrected. I tended to be a bit of a downer when put into uncomfortable situations, as if limiting others' excitement would somehow give me more control or something. I don't know why I did it, but it seemed to marginally ease my discomfort. "I've been doing well," I said. "Being an assassin and... assassinating things..." I had never been any good at conversations.

            Since Jalen and I hadn't been headed anywhere in particular, he, Shavek, and I wordlessly agreed to pace around the camp as we talked. I was able to answer my friends' more specific questions with much more ease than the broad formalities that had started the conversation. I told them a bit about my life as an assassin. I explained that I took jobs primarily from regular clients that would specify a target to be eliminated, and sometimes when or how to do so. As assassinations required skill, planning, and significant risk to the assassin, each job paid quite well. Some targets were the object of family feuds or grudges, and others were significant political figures or businessmen.

            Shavek scoffed at the idea of hunting such small, weak pretty compared to the large sauropods that raptors typically hunt. I couldn't let that stand unchallenged.

            "Well you see, Shavek," I explained, "assassinations are a different kind of hunting entirely. While I don't have to bring down a creature twenty times my own size, I also can't rely on anyone but myself.  Moreover, it's not simply a matter of separating a stupid beast from the herd. People are intelligent, at least somewhat, and not easily fooled. There are times that I have to wait for hours on end for the perfect opportunity. And sometimes I have to plan the exact order to eliminate bodyguards just to safely reach my targets. In other words, assassination requires far more finesse that just slashing and biting a sauropod until it bleeds out."

            I'm not sure if what I had said had quieted Shavek, or if he just hadn't been paying attention. Listening wasn't one of his strong points. His name literally meant "brawler." He was good at fighting, and not much else, so that is almost exclusively how he spent his time. He was rather thick and muscular for a raptor, but he only slightly slower than average, so he was an excellent combatant in tournaments. He was decent at hunting, but he was much better at fighting his fellow raptors than he was at picking an opportune time to pounce upon prey. But when he wasn't hunting or fighting, it didn't take long for him to become lazy and unproductive. The only thing that really seemed to motivate him was an empty belly.

            Yet for all our dysfunctional group's faults, between Jalen's clumsiness, Shavek's laziness, and my social awkwardness, we could all at least accept one another. Our pack-mates were not always so kind. For our various reasons, none of us were particularly good at making friends. We may have been outcasts, but it was in our mutual suffering that we found fellowship.

            It seemed like only a few minutes had passed since I had arrived, but it must have been a few hours. I realized this fact when I heard a sharp barking sound coming from the center of the camp, signaling the time to begin the evening Gathering of Hunters. I looked to the sky, and indeed the sun had dipped low and dyed the clouds an orange-tinged red. My friends and I returned the signal as soon as we heard it, repeating the barking sound in the backs of our throats, and began walking towards the Alpha's tent.

            "Damn, the time passed quickly," I muttered.

            "Yeah it seems like you only just got here," Jalen agreed.

            "Is Teelzec still the Alpha?" I asked.

            "No," Jalen answered, but didn't elaborate.

"Oh," I muttered softly. "He always gave such great speeches." I paused for a few moments. "Um, are you going to tell me who took his place?" I asked Jalen.

            "No," the green raptor answered with a grin.

            "Does it have anything to do with those religious artifacts you mentioned?" I pressed.

"It might," the green raptor replied, biting his lip and trying unsuccessfully to suppress a grin.

            I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. I would just wait until we arrived at the Gathering of Hunters. It was a religious ceremony in which every raptor participated, including several neighboring packs. It took place in the evening so the daytime hunters could give thanks for their successful hunts, and the night hunters would be preparing for theirs. The difference between them is self-explanatory. The ceremony was usually brief so as not to waste time, but it was an integral part of our culture. The basis of our religion, however, was focused on the glory of The Hunt.

            Upon reaching the Alpha's tent, my friends and I knelt down on one knee along with all the raptors that had arrived before us. There we were to wait until the Alpha began the ceremony, who was standing in front of his tent with his arms crossed, waiting for the last few raptors to arrive. I had to strain even my keen raptor vision to see who it was, as my friends and I had been among the last few to arrive. He had deep blue scales and pure white claws. The tips of the claws on one hand had been dipped in blood to symbolize a successful hunt, and the other had been thoroughly cleaned to symbolize anticipation for the hunt to come.

He wore the traditional Alpha's ceremonial apparel: a necklace of ancient, serrated teeth the size of steak knives and a helmet carved from bone to fit perfectly over his - no, her - own skull to give her the appearance of being an unearthly beast. I could just barely see beneath the mask that there was a faint scar across her lower jaw. Wait...

"Is... is that Lefira?" I whispered to Jalen.

My friend grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

"Well... I didn't expect that," I said, unsure of how to react to seeing her again. I guessed that was why Jalen hadn't been punished harshly for knocking over her tent. He and Lefira had been friends for years.

"I told you, you totally should have gone for her before you left!" Shavek interjected. I glared at the stockier, brown raptor, but I didn't have a chance to say anything, as Lefira was beginning the ceremony.

"Brothers!" She cried out in a commanding voice loud enough for all to hear. "Sisters! Hear my call!"

"We hear," all the members of the pack replied in unison.

"We gather now to thank the Great Hunters for granting us speed..."

We all gave a shout of confirmation.

"Strength..."

Another shout...

"And cunning," Lefira finished. When the final shout subsided, she continued, "We also ask the same blessings for those who begin their Hunt tonight

"Speed. Strength. Cunning," the night hunters repeated.

"Tonight, the gods are pleased," the blue Alpha raptor continued, raising her bloody hand to the sky, signaling everyone to stand.

We all stood and roared in approval The sound of so many raptors in one place was deafening. I had forgotten just how loud it could be, but that didn't stop me from adding my voice to the fearsome chorus.

"The gods," Lefira repeated, trying to get the crowd to quiet down again, "are very pleased with us... And as such they have elected to show us something: a new beginning for our race!"

            I cocked my head to the side curiously. What could she possibly mean? I soon felt and heard a deep rumbling unlike anything I had heard before. The sounds was so low it was barely within my range of hearing, but the painful resonance in my chest told me it was very loud. I looked around quickly, trying to spot the source of the unearthly sound. When I finally did, my eyes must have widened to the size of dinner plates. How could that be?! It wasn't possible! I only dimly recalled hearing Lefira shouting, "The gods walk among us!"