Alone No More

June… was alone. Not only was she alone, but she was completely, totally, and utterly lost. She had no idea where she was. Every direction she turned looked the same as the last. The same impassable dark water laden with algae, duckweed, lilypads, horsetails, and other water plants. Twisted, gnarled trees with knobbly knees and scraggly moss beards hanging off their branches that towered over the water, dense vegetation on floating islands that she couldn’t see past, grass so thick that she couldn’t push through it.

And it was getting dark. Tiny, scared peeps punctuated the still evening air, interrupted the buzzing of insects and croaking frogs. Croaking frogs which were… occasionally, horrifyingly snapped up with sharp beaks by tall, gangly birds that could easily stab and eat her as well.

June shivered, her downy feathers plastered to her body from when she had fallen into the water earlier. It had only been a little fall, into just the shallows past what passed as a “shoreline” in the swamp, but it had been deep enough that she was soaked to her skin. She missed the warmth and safety - the relative warmth and safety - of her mother’s nest. The soft feathers, the woven reeds and grasses; it all sounded so nice and comfortable and she wanted it now. Why had she thought that it was a good idea to wander so far?

The answer was simple. She hadn’t thought that it was far at the time. Quagmire left her alone again and she’d gotten bored, so she’d gone off to have an adventure of her own. She’d had great fun hopping from tree root to tree root where they jutted out of the marsh, and it was so funny to jump out of cover and surprise frogs so that they leapt and disappeared into the water, and chasing turtles until they disappeared into the water as well, and-

June peeped again; a tiny, sad little sound compared to the droning calls of the creatures waking and preparing for the night. It had all been so fun, but now there was a lot of that dreaded deep, dark water between her and home, and she had taken such a convoluted route to get to where she was now that she didn’t know how to get back. She sat on the one dry, or dry enough, spot that she could find. She was so sleepy. Her tiny legs and feet ached with the effort of her adventure; her head, her eyelids, and her limbs felt so heavy. She wanted to curl up and sleep until the daylight came, and then she could find her way back. Maybe.

But she couldn’t sleep, not here out in the open. She felt so exposed, so unsafe. And she was cold. She didn’t remember the night being so cold. Or full of scary sounds. But then again, she’d never spent the night outside the safety of her mother’s nest.

Her peeps grew faster, more concerned when she heard another sound, more frightening than those that came before. Splashing in the water, and it was getting closer. Big, wading splashes, like something much bigger than the gangly hunter bird was approaching her.

June squashed herself lower to the ground, finally realising that she should be quiet. The splashing stopped when she quieted, and June held her breath.

A moment passed.

Then another.

“Hello?”

June flinched, and an involuntary peep of surprise came out. More splashing followed, even when she snapped her jaws shut. Her heart was pounding in her tiny body, her breaths coming quick and shallow. A beast towered over her hiding spot. Not her mother, this was something far larger. Something big, and strange, with a long, bald muzzle and thick, smooth feathers over the rest of his head and neck.

“There you are. I thought I heard a lost little voice. Good thing you’re so bright,” the figure mused.

June didn’t move, terrified and… confused. This was definitely not her mother, but… friendly? Yes. He spoke with a friendly voice, and his bright, pale blue eyes were kind as well.

”Where’s your guardian?” His voice was a rumble compared to Quagmire’s. It shook her bones - though perhaps that was just because she was shaking. She didn’t know what a guardian was. She didn’t know where her mother was. She was cold, and tired, and hungry, and lost, and he seemed to notice as much, because he gently bumped her with the very tip of his snout. It was a soft touch, just a nudge to get her to step out of the way, but it was enough to send her scurrying away. He climbed up onto her island and settled down amongst the grasses and reeds.

“I’ll sit with you a while, just ‘til they come back,” he said, matter-of-factly. Oswald didn’t smell any other cryos nearby, but that could just be the swamp stink covering it up. He hadn’t been able to smell this little thing very well, either. She reeked of bogwater and muck - must’ve taken a tumble at some point.

June peered at Oswald from her hiding place - she’d forced herself underneath a plant with large, broad leaves, not realising that it wasn’t nearly as concealing as she thought it was. Oswald could see her just fine, especially due to her brilliantly pink colouration. She’d be easy prey for any carnivore - dinosaur or otherwise - if she was alone for too long.

So he’d wait with her. Just until her guardian came back. He was not adopting another hatchling to take care of, he had his claws full with reviving Osa as it was.

But the longer he waited, the longer the night drew on, the more obvious it was that whoever her guardian was, they were not searching the swamplands for their lost hatchling. Who had… curled up against him, nestled into his feathers, much like Osa had after he’d found her and gotten her to dry, solid land. Poor little scrap. At least the little cryo wasn’t shaking cold anymore, and her soft hatchling feathers had started to dry off.

June startled awake at the sound of Oswald’s tremendous sigh. Tremendous for her; for him, it was just a sigh. She scrambled to her feet, stumbling when her small claws got tangled in grass that had flattened out when Oswald stepped on it.

Oswald watched, puzzling some things out. Having Osa around hadn’t turned out to be so bad. And this little thing was clearly going to struggle by herself. Already was struggling by the looks of things, even though she wasn’t in nearly as rough a shape as Osa had been when he’d found her. And maybe... it would do Osa some good to have another young one around. A friend, someone who could help her settle down a bit. And… help her learn to share. She was gaining weight, though still very thin, but she wasn’t going to starve if she didn’t eat everything she saw the moment it got within reach.

Oswald scooped June up in careful jaws and walked her to where he’d left Osa when he’d first heard the sounds of a hatchling in distress.

Osa slept peacefully, full of fish that Oswald - Duck, as she knew him - had caught for them not long before the sun sunk below the horizon. It had been some time since Duck first found her, and she had grown considerably - though she was still small for her age, and underweight. Traveling was easier now, though, and she liked the adventures. Whenever she got tired of walking, she was proportioned in such a way that it allowed her to walk on all fours instead. As long as there was water for her to play in, and food for her to eat. There was always food. Duck made sure that she never again felt the hunger that he had found her with.

It was the feeling of Duck’s footsteps, more than than the sound, that pulled her from her slumber. Her first, tired thought was that maybe he was coming back with more fish, though he didn’t often bring her more food in the middle of the night. She wasn’t even all that hungry, not really, since she’d filled her gullet before she fell asleep - but that didn’t mean that she would turn down another meal.

She greeted Oswald’s return with a sleepy grunt, like the hatchling sound she had made that lead him to her in the first place.

Her excitement to see him returned soured when she saw that he had something else with him, nestled carefully in his jaws as he’d carried her a few times. A little pink and brown spotted… “something” was a good word for it. She was definitely not enthusiastic to see it, whatever it was.

June looked down at the much smaller, but still larger than her, juvenile suchomimus. She was similarly coloured to Oswald, but with a mottled sort of pale underbelly and a marking like water ripples along her back instead of the brilliant green head and yellow muzzle that Oswald had. And the juvenile suchomimus looked noticeably unhappy when Oswald set her down near to her.

“What is this?” Osa asked in a huff. She spared June barely a glance before she looked up at Duck in search of answers. This was not food.

“This is... “ Oswald paused. He wasn’t really sure what the little cryo’s name was. It was a discussion for tomorrow, when everyone had settled down and they’d all gotten some sleep. More sleep, in June and Osa’s case.

“A cryolophosaurus. Young, and alone, like you were. She’s coming with us.”

Osa huffed again. She couldn’t come with them, she was so small. Even with feathers, she looked little.

Oswald snorted a laugh, bumping Osa with his muzzle. “You were small like she was when I found you. You’re keeping up ok.” Osa slowed him down a little bit anyway, due to her age and tendency to knuckle-crawl. He was getting used to going more at her pace. It wasn’t turning out to be totally awful to have her under his care. Not that he was likely to admit it any time soon.

Osa turned her attention back towards June, still looking doubtful. She was bigger now. June didn’t look like she was going to get any bigger.

June looked at Osa as well, unsure and almost a little fearful of the juvenile. She still didn’t know where she was. She wasn’t alone anymore, but was this better? These weren’t cryos, they looked almost more like the stabby birds that she’d seen earlier. She wasn’t going to become their food, was she?

“Sit here for a moment, I’ll be back soon.”

Osa perked up. Duck was going fishing for her. She made her way back to their makeshift nest and settled down, as was her custom. She was perfectly happy to wait right here if it meant that Duck was going to return with a fish for her to pick at and nibble on until she was full again.

June watched as Osa went one way and Oswald went another. He was moving too fast for her to follow (and he was going back into the thicker undergrowth into the swamp, which she was not keen on returning to in case she got lost even worse than she already was). Osa… went a little ways, then stopped and got comfortable.

Osa watched as June looked between them and apparently chose her as the better option. The suchomimus puffed up slightly, both her feathers and her body, and she hissed - which stopped June in her tracks. Her eyes got big and she sniffed, the rest of her looking very small and pathetic and it… made Osa feel bad. She slowly deflated and, after a moment, scootched over a little, making just a bit of room in the nest for June.

But the hatchling just stood there, still looking small and miserable when she looked between Osa and towards where Duck had disappeared to.

Osa shifted, nestling into the bed of grass and moss and tucking her claws underneath her. She huffed, then quieted. Duck said he had found her the same way he’d found Osa. Osa didn’t remember much of that time anymore. Just that she felt very bad and weak, and she had been alone. June certainly looked like she had been alone as well, all dirty and scruffy and scared.

But Duck would come back. He always did. Sometimes he brought food.

Osa nosed the nest material, wordlessly beckoning June to join her. They could wait together, if June wanted. After a moment, June took a careful step forwards. Just one, in case Osa puffed up or hissed at her again. But Osa didn’t, so June took another step towards her. And another, and another, until she was in the nest with the suchomimus. Osa snorted quietly. June smelled like bogwater. Maybe she could convince Duck to preen June, like he did for her sometimes.

June didn’t seem to notice the snort, her face already tucked into Osa’s feathers and breathing slowly and deeply. Osa tilted her head. Had she fallen asleep so quickly?

… That was fine, she decided, and shifted to get more comfortable while she waited. If June was asleep already, that meant there would be more fish for her when Duck came back.