Coconut Cracking

The beach was crowded today, it made Wollemia nervous. She was already having difficulty adjusting to the surface world and crowds never made it any easier. Still, Argos and Lego were insistent that she come along with them and she had a hard time saying no to either of them.

"So we can head to the water if you want," Argos was saying to Lego, "but there's something close to the trees I wanna check out first."

"Ooo, I'll come with you, tell me what we're looking for," Lego enthused and Argos beamed with delight.

"We're looking for coconuts, a fruit that's hard to crack open but once you do it's filled with so much nutritional water it'll be impossible to become dehydrated, even in this heat!" he declared with his usual aplomb for storytelling. Wollemia followed behind them, not really wanting to head to the water alone, she wasn't even sure what she was supposed to do when she got there. 

"Why am I here?" she asked suddenly, making both of her companions stop.

"Firstly, you're here because you';re our friend and we love spending time with you," Argos said firmly before his expression lightened up, "And secondly, I believe you'll both love coconuts and be helpful in cracking them open!" The Oviraptor had yet to steer her wrong so she took his words as truth and kept close behind them both as they walked the line between sand dune and forest grass. 

"what way.." Argos hummed to himself as he circled the tree, staring up at the fruit, "Stand closer to the trees than the sand, then let it rip!" Lego nodded, shuffled into position behind the tree and waited until both of her friends were standing clear before swinging her club at the trunk. The entire tree shook, the leaves especially trembled with the force of the Euoplo's blow but only one green fruit fell from its pinnacle.

"Oh, we got one!" Lego cheered.

"Perfect, starting with one would be best for figuring things out," Argos said happily, hurrying to pick up the fruit and dusting the sand from its surface. "Now, Lemi, could you present your spike?" Wollemia stayed lying down and turned her thumb spike upwards. "Perfect, perfect, " the oviraptor said to himself, coming over with the coconut in his grasp.

"What are you planning?" Wollemia asked, raising her brow.

"The plan is to crack it open using your spike," Argos explained, "we could try Lego's club but I fear the bludgeoning force may leave us with little to eat afterwards." Lego nodded in agreement, not looking offended whatsoever.

"Go for it then," Wollemia relented. SHe held out her thumb and leaned back away from the potential splash zone. Argos took a firm hold of the green fruit with each of his claws, raising it as high as his arms would allow and bringing it down hard on her spike. Wollemia barely felt the force of it strike her, but Argos wobbled with the effort of his blow. He had successfully managed to impale the coconut on her thumb spike, but he seemed at a loss at this point.

"Okay so now, uh, I guess we pull it off?" he said, though his uncertainty made it come out as a question. Wollemia raised her forelimb and turned it so her spike pointed downward as much as she could manage. 

"Oh! You're so clever, Lemi!" Lego praised, "We won't lose all the water this way!"

"A true genius of our times," Argos agreed with gusto. He reached up and grabbed the coconut, using gravity to his advantage to slide it off of the Iggy's thumb. His grip slipped at first and Wollemia stood up to allow for a greater force to be applied, as in, Argos would jump up and use his entire suspended body weight to pull the coconut. Lego watched anxiously from the side, surprising her lack of dexterity. With his full weight behind it, the coconut slid smoothly from the spike and both it and Argos landed softly on the sand beneath them. The Oviraptor held the fruit up with a crow of triumph and offered the punctured side to Wollemia. "The first drink to our most valuable team member," he said. Wollemia would have to disagree, Lego had been the one to shake it down after all, but she humoured both of her friends' cheering by taking a sip from the fruit. It was like water, as Argos described, but with an unmistakable aftertaste to it. She let the taste roll around her tongue as she handed it back, unsure if she liked it or not yet. Argos took the coconut to Lego next, holding it up for her to drink from it the way Wollemia did.

"Oh, it's strange!" she cooed, smacking her beak loudly, "I've never had anything like that before!" Finally taking his turn, Argos drank what the other two had left for him within the coconut. 

"It's certainly unique," he said slowly, like the taste was being savoured with each word.

"Do none of us like it?" Wollemia asked plainly. Argos and Lego looked at her and then at each other before bursting into peals of laughter.

"I don't think we do," Lego said through her giggles, letting Argos lean on her as the laughing fit overtook him.

"All that work," the Oviraptor sighed eventually, though cackles were still bubbling from his throat, "At least it was a fun day out."