[Trade] Junkyard Scrap

Metal towers gleamed in the dying light of sunset as Veikur made her rounds. It had only grown more difficult to navigate between the scrapheaps as she grew older, so she spent a lot of time elsewhere in the city. But the old human trinkets held nostalgia for her. When she was a hatchling, she’d spent her days building a miniature empire among the garbage heaps. There were always plenty of small creatures rummaging around, which made for an excellent feast for a young acrocanthosaurus. Now, it was mostly a novelty. But she still liked to scout out the place now and then, to keep acquainted with any new arrivals to the abandoned city.

Speaking of new arrivals, one was very conspicuously tailing her today. They weren’t trying to be stealthy… or, if they were, they weren’t very good at it. Veikur was very aware of the pitter-patter of little feet that started up whenever she began walking, and came to a delayed stop whenever she paused.

It went on for a while until either curiosity or impatience made her whip around—with surprising speed for a dinosaur of her size—catching her follower in the act. It was an anteosaurus; an utterly tiny one. Not much bigger than the squirrels that Veikur used to snack on. Veikur guessed she couldn’t be more than a week or two old.

The anteo didn’t seem worried at all that she’d been spotted by a very large, potentially very hungry predator.

“Hello! I’m Liiah!” she barked.

“Hello.” Veikur’s gaze wandered and she sniffed the air, trying to find other anteos, but she turned up empty. The little one was all on her own. “What are you doing here?”

“’Sploring!” she said proudly.

“Okay. Are you going to keep following me?”

“Can I?” Funny that she was asking, considering she’d been following her for some time already without waiting for permission. Not that it particularly bothered Veikur.

“Knock yourself out.”

And so Liiah began to follow after her. Without needing to be “stealthy,” she didn’t bother keeping a distance between them, and was practically under Veikur’s feet.

“Hey, if you’re going to be walking with me, don’t go under me like that. I can’t see you. You’re going to get stepped on.”

“Oh. Sorry!”

Veikur heard the sound of metal clanking as Liiah clambered onto some of the trash lining their path. The menagerie of rusting scraps made something of an elevated walkway, allowing Liiah to follow along without being crushed underfoot. Liiah traversed the cracking cinder blocks and half-crushed cars with surprising tenacity, disappearing for a moment into dark interiors before popping her little green head back out without a care in the world.

What a strange little thing Veikur had found.

And everything went smoothly, until with a small “Woah!” and a loud crash, Liiah went tumbling into an old wire cage. The current occupant of which was a big, black rat. It scrambled to the other end of the cage from where Liiah had fallen, trying to get as far as possible from the anteo.

Veikur’s mind jumped to that saying about cornered rats biting. Little Liiah was hardly bigger than the rat.

“Liiah! Stay calm!”

The rat eyed her with its little beady eyes, cold and calculating. Liiah watched the rat from her side of the cage, her tail slowly swaying from side to side. She cast a glance up at Veikur.

“Strike first! Be quick and get it by surprise.”

Liiah nodded slightly, and that was the only sign she gave before pouncing. Her tubby hatchling body missed the mark, and she landed in a tumble very noisily next to the rat. The rat screeched and panicked, trying to leap away, but Liiah recovered and grabbed its haunches in her jaws.

“Its neck! Get it in your mouth and break it!”

As the rat struggled, it twisted around and nipped her on the nose. But the hatchling didn’t let go. With a clawed paw, she held the rat’s head down and adjusted her grip, moving her teeth to the rat’s neck. After some awkward thrashing, she managed to snap the rat’s neck, and her surprise prey had become her first kill.

“Excellent, Liiah!” Veikur’s voice swelled with pride. Not just for the anteo, but for herself as well. She’d never coached someone on how to hunt before.

Her tail wagging all the way, Liiah managed to drag the carcass up and out of the cage. “Do you want it?”

Veikur suppressed a chuckle. “No, no, I’m good.” The rat would barely be a snack to her, but to Liiah, it could keep her fed for the rest of the day.

“Okay!” Liiah buried her nose in the rat’s fur, chewing loudly and happily. Veikur settled down and kept an eye on her while she ate, to make sure no scavengers tried to spoil the moment. Liiah seemed to savor every bite, because she took longer than Veikur predicted to eat it all. Well, it’s not like she had anything better to do than babysit.

“Miss!” she cried out suddenly.

“Yes?”

Liiah pushed what remained of the rat—little more than a pile of bones—towards her. “For you!”

“I told you, I don’t wait it.”

“But I…” She was quiet for a moment, her eyebrows drawing close like she was thinking very hard. “Exist!”

“Insist?”

“Insist!”

Well, she shouldn’t turn down a free meal… even if it was about the same weight and volume of one of her teeth. Veikur dutifully swallowed the morsel of meat. Liiah looked very pleased with herself.

“’Sploring is fun,” she said. “Do you know anywhere else cool? With tasty rats?”

“Go anywhere in the city if you want rats. Y can’t go two steps without nearly stepping on one.”

Liiah nodded, sprang to her feet, then groaned. “Ohhh… I think I should take a nap before I do more ‘sploring…”

“That would be a good idea.” Her belly was swollen like a ripe watermelon.

With slow, plodding steps, Liiah sauntered over to Veikur, flopped down on her forearm, and instantly fell asleep. She snored softly.

Veikur stared, dumbfounded, but didn’t move. She didn’t want to disturb her. It seemed she wouldn’t be relieved of babysitting duty just yet.