Fruit for the Oviraptor

A trio of flying dinosaurs- tapejara- soar over the ruins of a human settlement, searching for the mysterious ‘oviraptor’ dinosaurs that they've heard other dinosaurs talk about.

Bassoon, a dark feathered tapejara with bright white markings along his face, leads the way.

Teacup, a sandy brown shaggy tapejara with blue markings along his wings and face follows a bit behind him, with another dark coloured feathered tapejara, Aurora, following close behind Teacup. 

Bassoon flapped his wings, occasionally lowering his long neck to peer under one of them towards the two strangers following them. The three had met when Basson had almost flown into Aurora, knocking the pair out of the air. They had quickly come to find that they were on the same mission, and had combined their strengths in order to get to the bottom of this. “So, what brings you two here?” Bassoon shouted loudly, an attempt to be heard over the sound of the wind.

Teacup flies closer to Bassoon, and Aurora follows behind him. “We've seen a bunch of strange plants around the beach where we live!” He shouts to the other tapejara. “And we heard that some strange raptors were seen planting them!”

“The local herbivores have said that the plants are toxic so we're trying to find these raptors to find out if that's true or not!” Aurora chimes in. “I don't know why anyone would plant something dangerous, but I don't want it near my nest!” 

Bassoon flinched. As omnivores, plants were a large part of a tapejaras diet. Especially fruits. If something was to happen to them… “We better find them, then!” The purple tapejara folded his wings and let himself dive, the other two following in his tracks.

As they swooped closer to the ground, something unusual became clear. Piles of freshly dug dirt and small footprints, larger than the tapejaras own but smaller than almost any other dinosaur. “Its close.” Bassoon chriped to the other two. “These are fresh.” 

It took a few more minutes of flying before they found it- but once they did, it was extremely obvious. Some kind of white dinosaur, similar to a raptor but much smaller and with a large crest on its head, was scraping in the dirt. Pink spots and stripes covered its body, and a gentle beak was nudging at a native plant curiously. Long, feathered claws were stained with dirt- clearly, the creature had been digging. They had found the culprit.

“What a strange looking raptor.” Teacup whispers to the other tapejaras.

Aurora tilts his head, considering the dinosaur before them. “I don't think it is a raptor.” 

“Only one way to find out!” Teacup darts ahead, ignoring the cries of the rest of the group, and circles around the white dinosaur. “Hey, you! Are you a raptor?”

The white dinosaur startles and flinches back, not expecting to be snuck up on so easily by other dinosaurs in this area. It ducks under the wings of the flier and flees, running away from the group. 

“I think they're shy!” Teacup hollers to the other tapejaras. Aurora sighs and he and Bassoon regroup with Teacup.

“We'll need to find some way to approach them without scaring them off.” Aurora glances around the area, trying to spot the white dinosaur. It runs faster than he was expecting it to. 

Bassoon hummed slowly. “Maybe we can bribe them with food!” He chirped, clawing at the dirt beneath his claws. “They seem to really like plants, right? If we find some kind of fruit or plant that they cannot normally reach, maybe we can convince them to come talk to us!” Bassoon took into the air, scanning the area around them for any possible targets. And as luck would have it, a large tree was nearby. Soft fruits lined the tops of the trees, delicate enough that falling from the branch would result in them being inedible. “Like… that!”

“Great idea!” Aurora takes off and flies to the tree. He hovers beside a branch before landing on it. The branch says and he hops back into the air, not wanting to snap it and drop the fruit.

He spots a green fruit and attempts to pluck it off gently but it slips out of his beak… only to be caught by Teacup. The sandy tapejara places the fruit on the ground. 

“Is it ok?”

Teacup nods. “This one's pretty hard. I don't think it's ripe!”

Aurora frowns and flies closer to the tree and inspects each fruit slowly for a ripe one before plucking one from a branch. It's much softer than the last one and squishes slightly between his beak. He flies down to the ground and places it beside the fruit that Teacup saved. “Squished it a bit.” 

A rustle in the bushes caught Bassoons attention- he looked up, letting out a yelp as he almost smacked his head against the oviraptor creeping forward. The white omnivore scampered back a bit, but looked longingly at the fruit. Bassoon looked at the other two tapejaras, who stepped back a few feet. 

“You want the fruit?” Bassoon cooed softly, gently grabbing the fruit in his claws. Even the soft touch made a loud squish sound, the scent of juice filling the air. “We’ll give it to you… if you give us the information we need.”

The oviraptor looked between Bassoon and the fruit again, seemingly weighing the procs and cons in its head before letting out a soft sigh. “Fine.” Its voice was soft and shaky, with some kind of strange edge to it. “Pass the fruit over.” Bassoon rolled it over, Teacup and Aurora spreading out to block off the edge of the clearing in case the small creature tried to run after finishing the fruit. The three watched anxiously as the oviraptor scooped the fruit into its claws, carefully examining it. After a moment, the oviraptor carefully took a bite. Almost instantly the tension seemed to drain out of its body. “Well, what do you want to know?”