[Trade] Let's Be The Runt With Mama!

The sedentary lifestyle of incubating eggs was beginning to wear thin for Ophelia. The rest of the clutch was already being miniature menaces around the lake, chasing waterfowl with their tiny tails paddling furiously behind them. But this one, this solitary silent egg, still waited in the nest. She could feel movement when she pressed the end of her snout into it and she had taken to gently rocking it to try and encourage it to hatch. There was a chick in there, it was just being a little slow about it, testing its mother’s patience to its limits. However, this early dawn with the thin pinkish rays of spring sun brought with it the first signs of life from her final child. The egg began to crack, its leathery shell trembling as tiny movements stirred from within. Ophelia leaned in to help, peeling the shell back deftly with her sharp teeth and revealing the cream-coloured feathery baby inside. Her back was striped with barred patterns and a crest lay stuck to her skull with the membranes of her egg. The hatchling was still again, making Ophelia panic and lick around her mouth to check if she could breathe. With the sudden contact the chick sat upright, her huge lavender eyes blinking wearily at her mother.

“Were you sleeping, little one?” Ophelia asked in disbelief. This child had finally cracked her egg through the fits of a dream? Well, at least she was out now and ready to join her siblings.

---

Elisia didn’t make much of an impact outside of her egg. If one were being cruel one could suggest it wasn’t all that different to before she had hatched. She was quiet and stuck to her mother’s shadow constantly. She eschewed the playful antics of her siblings and simply waited for their mother to bring her dinner. Her first words were a softly spoken ‘thank you’ for a meal, followed by her neatly cleaning her snout and feathers for the next half an hour in the shallows. Her swimming was equally placid, copying the easy motions of the swans that shared their home. Her mother barely noticed her, frequently almost standing on her silent child and almost forgetting her share at meal times. She became almost aggravated by the hatchling’s passivity, showing none of her mother’s fire. Still, Ophelia held out hope that it was simply a case of being a late bloomer. 

Elisia’s precocious siblings were already diving to the lakebed and grabbing their own fish. She would watch from the shore as they revelled in their successful hunts, showing no real desire to join them. They would tease and cajole her in equal measure those first few weeks, before their barbs became more targeted as she continued to blend in with the background. Eventually their mother would have to step in and separate the more rambunctious hatchlings from their sister for fear they would completely ruin her confidence and stunt her growth. In fact, Ophelia felt she had to intervene even further. One bright morning, not unlike the one when Elisia had hatched, she decided to bring her youngest off for some one-on-one training. 

---

“What are we doing?” Elisia asked softly, her eyes on the shallow pond that Ophelia had brought her to. The air was quiet around them, lacking the usual calls and responses of the creatures that inhabited the lake.

“You,” Ophelia said with emphasis, “are going to catch your first meal.” Elisia’s large eyes widened even further.

“That’s a lot,” she whispered. 

“You can do it, we’re going to start easy,” her mother reassured her. “Now, watch the pond and try to find something.”

“Bugs on the surface?” Elisia offered. Her mother nodded but looked expectantly at her so the hatchling returned her gaze to the pond. The water rippled with a brief movement and her eyes instinctively snapped over to it. Some kind of crawfish was shuffling sand out of its burrow, widening the entrance and surrounding it with high walls of mud. Elsisia was fascinated and continued to watch the creature build its home until Ophelia cleared her throat.

“See something?” Brought back to the task at hand, Elisia bobbed her head vigorously.

“There’s a shrimp makin’ a hole,” she said fervently. 

“Good work, that’s a small meal but a great start, now try to grab it,” Ophelia encouraged. Elisia shook with nerves but stood over the diligently working crawfish. She waited until it had emerged with its claws full of grit and lunged, blindly snapping in the water until she felt its exoskeleton between her teeth. She raised her head up, snorting water from her nose and raising the crustacean high in the air. Her panicked face turned to her mother, who cheered her on. “Good, now snap it again, crunch it!” Elisia shut her eyes and tried to readjust her grip on the crawfish when she felt its claws pinch on her lips. The pain sent her into an even greater fluster and she flung the crawfish clean off her face with a violent shake of her head. The dazed crustacean landed in the pond with a loud ‘plop’ and lay stunned until Ophelia walked over and ended its misery.

“Sorry,” Elisia mumbled, still holding her scratched snout.

“It’s alright,” her mother sighed. “It was your first try. You’ll do better each time you practice.”

--

“It’s time!” Ophelia called to her brood. The young suchos scrambled over each other to stand in front of their towering mama. She glowed with pride as she looked over them all. “I’ve taught you all I can, it’s time for you to leave together and find your own way in the world.” The buzz of excited hatchling chatters 

“That includes you, Elisia,” Ophelia chided.

“That’s alright, I’ll just stay here,” the child replied mildly. She turned back to the nest, missing her mother’s anxious expression.

When night fell and the nest grew still, the adult Suchomimus slipped away into the dark. Guilt panged in her chest but she knew without the push Elisia would never find her own way in the world. She would simply let things happen around her instead of seizing her own destiny and that was what frightened Ophelia the most. She expected that things wouldn’t always be smooth sailing for her children but at the very least they were in charge of their own lives, she couldn’t guarantee that for Elisia unless she made it happen. With a final look over her shoulder, she left her youngest daughter behind to fend for herself.