On the Hunt for Coconuts

“Macaw, wait up!”

Macaw looked back at her, stuck out his black tongue, and continued running down the beach, sending up sprays of sand as he went. Hummingbird managed to sigh through her panting as she struggled to keep up. It was, as always, impossible to get Macaw’s mind off of something once he got an idea. She knew better than to try and stop him. Still, the least he could do was slow down a little. They were far from the rest of the flock today on his latest self-appointed “mission,” and the distance was wearing on her.

Luckily, they were nearing their destination. Along this stretch of beach was a row of tall, broad-leafed coconut trees. And sheltered beneath the leaves were their real target: clusters of hard-shelled green coconuts. Macaw stared up at them, licking his lips. His tail twitched with barely contained excitement.

“So, um, Macaw…” Hummingbird stood next to him, gazing up at the tree that was several times their height. “How are we going to get them down?”

Macaw blinked. It didn’t seem like he gave that part of the plan much thought, too preoccupied with lapping up sweet coconut milk. He was usually hanging out with Fainel, so of course he wouldn’t wonder how he was supposed to get something down from a tree. He spent so much time with adults of other species that he seemed to forget that, as a hatchling oviraptor, he was one of the smallest dinosaurs on the islands.

“Are you just waiting for a friendly acro to come by or something?” It came out meaner than she meant, and Macaw glared at her. He circled the tree, looking it up and down, as if the answer would manifest itself if he stared hard enough. But the tree wasn’t getting any shorter.

Still… Hummingbird would like some milk to drink, too.

“I wonder,” she thought aloud, “we don’t have any dinosaurs to reach up that high, but maybe we could find something else? Like a big rock or something? Another of these trees might have something nearby that can help us reach the top.”

Macaw perked up, bouncing over to her and giving her a bump on the shoulder—a nonverbal “thank you.”

“Okay! Let’s see if we can find anything!”

The two set off again, this time slower and more methodical, and Macaw didn’t run ahead of her as often. When he remembered that they were supposed to be a team, working together could be a lot of fun.

“Wait, look up there.” They both stopped walking as she drew his attention to the cliffs along the beach. “If we stand up there, we’ll be at the same height as the coconuts. Maybe we could even reach them.”

Macaw nodded, and the two of them made their way up the rocks. Both of them were good climbers, so they didn’t have much trouble.

“If we stand right here… Yes! That tree’s so close! Hey, wait!”

Macaw, of course, ran right up to the edge and stretched out, teetering precariously on the edge. But even on the tips of his toes and stretching out his neck as far as he could, the coconuts were still out of reach.

Hummingbird came up behind him, nudging him away from the ledge. “Do you think… Oh, this is such a bad idea… If you sat on my shoulders, and we both went as far as we could, could we reach them then?”

It really was a horrible, reckless idea. But Hummingbird wanted the coconut milk just as badly as he did. And he was definitely up for it.

So she crouched down and let Macaw clamber onto her shoulders. It was a good thing that she was the one staying on the ground—she hated to think what his spikes would feel like, digging into her belly while she sat on his shoulders. Luckily, he didn’t have any spikes on his stomach, so she was safe.

Of course, he was still heavy. There wasn’t any getting around that. She wobbled, trying to keep balance as he leaned forward.

“Can you get them now?” She craned her neck to try and see what he was doing. “Ow! Why are you kicking me? I’m going to fall!”

He kicked her again.

“Wait, you don’t want me to jump, do you?”

He waited, expectantly.

“Oh, you do. This is an even worse idea than I thought.”

And what did it say about her that she was willing to go along with it? She took careful, slow steps backwards.

“Hold tight!”

Hummingbird ran, and jumped. And squealed as the world dropped away beneath her. Macaw was, as always, dead silent, and she wondered if he would be screaming in fright or delight as they sailed through the air.

They collided with the tree, Hummingbird’s beak clamping down painfully on her tongue, and they tumbled down onto the deceptively hard sand. Groaning, she squeezed her eyes shut.

Macaw poked her.

“Give me a second, okay? I just… need to catch my breath.” How was he on his feet already? The little weirdo was invincible…

She heard him pacing anxiously around her.

Eventually, she opened her eyes and sat up.

Sitting next to her were two coconuts.

“Macaw!” she gasped. “You did it!”

He bumped her again, a stern look in his eyes.

“We did it,” she amended.

Bubbling over with excitement, they both took a coconut and sat down to drink.

“Now, how do we get them open?”

Macaw stared at her. Then at the coconuts. Then off into the distance, like he was willing someone else to appear and answer for him.

It seemed he hadn’t given that part of the plan much thought, either.