[Trade] Foraging For Friends

"Remind me why we're knee deep in muck again?" Rose asked rhetorically, truly fed up with Rei's shenanigans this time. Rei ignored the barbed tone and responded in full earnestness instead.

"We have to find something cool for the Ovis, I bet no one else thought to bring them some local delicacies," he bragged. Rosethorn rolled her eyes but stayed in the swamp with her two friends nonetheless. Seri had been quietly combing through the thick reeds trying to find something good to eat. He wasn't convinced that the Oviraptors would appreciate something pulled out of the swamps ofIsla Pera but if they didn't that just meant more for the Parasauralophuses to share together. Rei was fully committed to the idea, listing out every rare or weird thing he had eaten while brainstorming what an omnivore would enjoy the most. sSeri had listened attentively but silently as usual while Rose tried to discourage him from dragging them both into wading in swamp muck for hours. She hadn't been successful, and now the trio had been foraging for most of the morning. As the day grew warmer the flies began to swarm and seemed particularly drawn to their noses and eyes.

"You think these raptors would enjoy bugs? Might make them useful in the summer," Rose snarked.

"Rose, be nice, we don't know them," Seri chastised her gently.

"Yeah! What Seri said!" Rei chimed in with a mouthful of swampgrass. "We gotta be nice to them, wouldn't you like the same if you were new?"

"If I were new I probably wouldn't be planting seeds all over someone else's territory," Rose retorted, finally wading out of the water to lie down on the shore. She crossed her front legs, clearly signalling she was done playing in the mud with the other two. "What do you think they're up to with that, anyway?"

"Maybe they're farming like the Dacens did in the labs," Seri suggested, "Just in a way that's less... organised." Rose snorted.

"I'll say. Those Dacens had everything all in a row, these guys just seem to plant them where they fall," she observed. The flock of raptors they had seen moving through their usual grazing grounds seemed to have no rhyme or reason to where they scattered seeds from their pouches. Sometimes they left the seeds where they lay and others they stooped down to actually bury in the soil. Either way, it was weird and Rosethorn didn't like it, especially not knowing what species they were planting and if they were even edible or just a waste of ground cover.

"Aha!" Rei exclaimed with a mouthful of branches, "Sweet ambrosia!" His enthusiasm made even Rose look over to see what he had discovered. Rei was currently putting his entire weight into pulling down the branches of a fig tree. The figs themselves were decently sized, hanging precariously like they were just ripe enough to tumble straight off into the swamp water. Sensing the danger, Seri hurried to stand below them while Rei continued to wrestle with the foliage. Rose also waded over to the pair, holding out her small cloth bag for Seri to put the rescued figs into while Rei remained entirely convinced he could rip the branches off.

"He eats plants for a living, why is he so bad at this?" Seri gave Rose a sharp look but returned to picking figs until the branch was empty of its spoils.

"You can let go dear, we have them all," he said gently to feathery Para who looked startled at the interruption. Rei looked down to  where Rose was holding the bag open, revealing their haul.

"Great work, team!" he praised, landing hard on his front limbs and splashing them both. "Now we just need to find the raptors and give them their gifts!"

---

It wasn't a hard task, the Oviraptors were traveling through the grasslands and very little could hide out in the open, even the little birdlike dinosaurs. They were still a decent distance away when they spotted the Parasaur trio in turn and immediately went into high alert.

"Hey! We've got something for you!" Rei yelled loud enough to be heard across the whole savannah. Understandably, the Oviraptors began to flee from the perceived threat and the feathery Para watched them run with devastation. "C'mon, we need to go after them," he insisted. He took off before either Seri or Rose could reason with him and they all galloped across the grasslands in the direction the raptors had run. Despite their better judgemenet, Seri and Rose followed Rei's charge across the plains and were able to see it clearly when an Oviraptor stumbled and fell head over tail into the grass. Rei wasted no time and ran straight for the pile of dark grey feathers.

"Are you okay?" he asked loudly, using his front limbs to reposition the raptor into a sitting position. The Ovi blinked, stunned, at all three of the heavily breathing Paras in front of him.

"I, I think so?" he said cautiously. He stood up, testing each leg gingerly before spinning around to inspect his feathers. "Yes, I'm alright. You gave me quite a scare!" Rei had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Sorry about that, friend, we were trying to catch up to your herd and give you a welcome gift," he admitted. The Ovi looked curious.

"A welcome gift? Whatever do you mean?" he asked, peering around Rei's fluffy body to see Rose and Seri. On cue, Seri stepped forward with the bag and opened it for the raptor.

"We noticed you all sort of appeared from nowhere, and we got you some figs," he explained.

"Yeah, speaking of which," Rose interrupted, "where did you all actually come from anyway?" The Oviraptor took a fig before responding, inspecting in in his clawed hands before taking a bite and making a satisfied noise.

"We came from underground," he said through a mouth full of fig, “We’ve come to plant-” his words that followed were incomprehensible, muffled by figs seeds. He wiped his beak with his red-streaked forearms and smacked his beak in satisfaction. “You’re welcome to join us for a spot of gardening if you’d like? Especially if you bring more of those lovely figs with you.” Seri glanced nervously at Rei for a decision while Rose was frowning, still trying to interpret what the raptor had said. 

“We’d love to! Just tell us when and where,” Rei accepted cheerfully.