Surf and Turf

                “Isn’t it pretty, little flower?”

                Lotus gawked at the sight before her. She had been on this earth for all of a few months but in that time her mother had showed her a great deal. Spring made it easy to travel, keeping her warm as they wandered the isles but never too hot. There was food aplenty as they traveled, too. But Lotus had always been far more interested in the sheer amount of other children there were of so many other species.

                And the ocean was no different. The sun hit her feathers in just the right way, keeping her warm as she ran ahead of her mother and splashed around in the sparkling water. Gulls called overhead, and the tidepools around them were full of life. Other parents had brought their hatchlings down to enjoy the surf, while even older children played in the waves. Not far from the beach, further out in deeper water, Lotus could see bigger creatures playing out there. Dinosaurs with oddly long necks and flippers instead of hands.

                Some of the odd creatures seemed to be there for the same reason the landwalkers were there, letting their children enjoy the shallower water. She could see smaller Aristo’s darting here and there, jumping from bigger tidepools that were being fed by the ocean back into the ocean itself. She was loving every single moment of it.

                Her mother kept up with her as she ran around, laughing and giggling as she stopped here and there to play with other hatchlings. And eventually, the little pink raptor found herself standing at a deep tidepool that had been cut off from the ocean some time ago. Little fish swam at the surface, crabs hid under rocks, and swimming slowly at the bottom of the pool was one of the odd long-necked water dinosaurs.

                Lotus watched the black and gray colored Aristo before she smacked the surface of the water to see if that would get its attention. Her mother looked concerned but she didn’t pay attention to her mother. The older Utahraptor standing straight up and looked around, trying to spot any signs of an Aristonectes parent that was worried or seemed to be in distress about their child being stuck. But she saw none.

                The smacking at the top of the water made the newborn Aristo turn its head, looking up at Lotus before he swam over. What Lotus thought had been tiny fishbones stuck to the sides and top of the little water dino had turned out to be actual markings. White stripes and spots that made a faux-fishbone look. And as the Aristo came to a stop under the water in front of her, she gently tapped the water again while her mother held onto her tail to ensure she didn’t fall in.

                Dreadnaught carefully brought his head to the surface, popping his eyes up and unsealed his nose to exhale and spray water up at Lotus. She snorted, waving her hands in front of her while Dreadnaught himself just started to laugh and swam around happily at the surface of the water.

                “You got me!” Lotus called, laughing a little as well once she had cleared her face from the saltwater.

                “You should’ve seen your face! You’re so funny.” Dreadnaught replied and laughed as he swam back over to the cursed tropical Utahraptor.

                “Child, are you stuck here? Or is there a tunnel back out to the ocean under there?” Lotus’s mother asked, crouching down on the rocks beside her daughter to look over the hatchling Aristo. He seemed in good health and wasn’t distressed. She wondered how many times he got stuck in that same tidepool if there was no tunnel out into the ocean among the rocks that lined that pool.

                “Nope! Well. Yes. There’s no way back out into the ocean, miss! I have to either wait for the tide to come back in or ask a friend to come and get me out. There’s a Cryo named Waverunner that’s around here somewhere! I ask him to carry me out to the ocean sometimes. But this pool is safe.” Dreadnaught replied and smiled. Lotus glanced up at her mother as well, the logic sound with her, but didn’t seem to be pleasing her mother at all.

                “Alright, little fish. What is your name then?” Her mother asked, her expression softening into a smile as she watched him.

                “Dreadnaught! And I’m not a fish! I eat fish. But I guess my hide makes me look like a fish. My parents love my hide. They say I’ll be able to sneak up on so many fish because I look like one!” He replied.

                Lotus’s mother didn’t have the heart to tell him that he looked like a dead fish.

                “What’s your name!” Dreadnaught asked, looking over at Lotus and flipped onto his side to use a flipper to splash up at her. She laughed and splashed back at him, unfolding the feathers along her arm to try and get more water splashed back at him.

                “Lotus! Mom said she named me after these pretty water flowers that were by my nest when I was hatching. I don’t remember them, though. But she says they were the exact color of my feathers!” The little pink Utahraptor chirped.

                “That sounds pretty. There’s flowers under the water that are the same color! I mean, we call them flowers. But some of the older landwalkers say they’re called coral. Say! Do you guys think that the next time you come here, you can bring one of those lotus flowers? Then you can see one in person and I can see what they actually look like! I don’t know what a land-flower looks like.” Dreadnaught asked, cocking his head to the side as he watched Lotus and her mother.

                “We can do that. I think there’s a little pond of water not far from here that they grow in, if I remember correctly.” Lotus’s mother replied and smiled.

                “Yes! That means we can see you again! Maybe you can show me how to swim?” Lotus asked and looked down at Dreadnaught.

                “Yeah! In the meantime, you wanna see some of the cool rocks I’ve found down here?” He replied, making Lotus quickly nod her head.

                As if that was even a question she could say no to.