Seaside Dance

Summer was in full swing on Seffe’s corner of the beach, and with it, the inexplicable urge to build a nesting display. And not in the cave he and Swavelli lived in, no, he needed something individual. Personal. And, most of all, visible to everyone passing by!

It was a very serious ordeal to find the perfect place for construction. The beach was beautiful, and the sunsets would give his feathers a very flattering glow at the right hour, but the tide put his whole plan in danger. What good would it be to build the world’s most impressive display if it was swept away by the tide? So he needed somewhere that properly captured the ambiance of the beach, without being on the beach. It was a very particular balancing act.

The answer turned out to be closer than he expected. Right above his cave was an outcropping of rock, which gave a perfect view of the sun falling into the ocean in the evening while being perfectly out of reach. With a location successfully scouted, it was time to begin building.

He spent several days arranging and rearranging the display. He had pristine gull feathers, swirly seashells, and black-and-white beach tiger beetle carapaces. And he’d even managed to find a few pearls to toss in! Well, technically, Swavelli had been the one to find them and drag them out of the ocean, but that was a minute detail. If anything, it went to show that Seffe had good connections. He knew how to use his resources. He was sure that any worthwhile prospective mate would understand.

It took round after round of adjustments, but eventually, it reached a point where Seffe was satisfied with it. It was perfect. The pearls caught the light just right, the feathers sat in a perfect geometric pattern, and the shells added a splash of color to the slate-grey stone.

So Seffe sat at its edge and waited.

And he wondered if there was something he was supposed to do other than waiting.

He’d spent most of his life living away from other utahraptors. He never ever knew his parents, or his siblings. He had the ingrained instinct to make a nest, build something impressive… and then what? It felt like the sort of thing a family was supposed to teach him.

He started picking away at his own plumage, making sure it looked its best. That was probably important. His teal colors fit well with the oceanic backdrop, and he needed them to look as shiny and healthy as possible.

And then: a call echoed across the rocks. It was distant, but Seffe knew immediately that it was the call of another utahraptor. He shouted back, shrill from excitement, then sheepishly called back again in a more even tone.

He and the stranger exchanged wordlessly, and through it he learned her name was Beryl. A type of pretty mineral, if he recalled correctly—he’d seen some of the shiny stones near the cave he shared with Swavelli. He wondered why they were her namesake.

After a time, Beryl went quiet. She was on her way to him, Seffe hoped. He didn’t know if he could stand the anxiety of being alone, waiting.

But he had to. So he waited, and waited, for Beryl to appear on the rocks. It could have been a few minutes, if could have been a few days. Time passed by agonizingly slowly.

After Seffe had preened himself at least a dozen times, another utahraptor stepped into the light. Beryl. The name suited her well. Her feathers were a pale green, light as seafoam shooting out of the surf. Her eyes were entirely dark, making her expression hard to read and Seffe unreasonably nervous. She stood up tall, showing off her feathers’ healthy glow. She stared expectantly.

Seffe decided that the safest bet was to take things at her pace. He stood up to his full height—even from a distance, he could tell she was taller than him, which was mildly embarrassing. Still, he made sure to puff up his chest to show off the bright teal patch on his throat.

Beryl tilted her head, gave her broad wings a flap. Seffe mimicked that, too, adding in a bob of his head for good measure. Slowly, through copied movements and an occasional improvised addition, the two began to move in a loose circle, orbiting each other in a dance of wingbeats and elegant footwork. Seffe found himself falling into it. He stopped worrying about doing things the “right” way and simply started doing it. Beryl kept her expression carefully neutral throughout, but she didn’t break out of the performance, which was a good sign. She matched his tempo as the dance escalated, culminating in the two of them meeting in the center.

He steadied his breath and touched their noses together. Beryl’s dark eyes widened, and to Seffe’s relief, she didn’t jump back or snap at him. She let herself be nuzzled, trilling quietly.

When they broke off, Beryl went past him to examine his display. She took great care to not disturb it, but she was meticulous in observing it from every angle, trying to find the places where it best caught the light. She was paying attention to every detail that Seffe had so painstakingly laid out.

She was especially taken with the gleaming pearls, crouching down to get a better look at them. They were a stark contrast to her eyes.

“Have you ever had a clutch, Seffe?” He was shocked to hear her speak; they were the first real words he’d heard from her.

“Uh, no.”

She stood upright, and to his delight, she was smiling. “That makes two of us, then. We can figure things out together.”

“Oh! Yes, that would be wonderful!”

Beryl laughed, soft as waves lapping at the shore. “Let’s see if we can find a good place for a nest.”

“Is… is this spot not good enough?”

“We should find somewhere more hidden, I imagine.”

“Ah.” He did build his display to be noticed, after all. It would be a bad idea to leave precious eggs so exposed to passerby. “Right. There’s some nice caves on the beach, actually, maybe we could find something there…”

Thus they went on, discussing their soon-to-be brood, as they made their way down to the sand.