Competitive Planting

Beak to the ground, Marsh pushed his head forwards, gouging a groove into the soil as he moved along. Having left the Atlantean dome, the green Styracosaurus was hard at work on another task- helping to plant seeds. Skittering along behind him, Vee lowered her head to inspect the earth, the green and black Oviraptor ruffling her feathers slightly.

And, walking along beside them, tall and imposing, was… an Iguanodon. One with a dark hide and pale face, formidable spines along his neck and tail, utterly silent as he watched the other two move along. Blot, Vee says his name is- he’s an entertainer for the court, though how he can entertain, Marsh wasn’t sure- he never seemed to make a sound. He’d tagged along in order to help with the planting efforts, but Marsh just… couldn’t help but get an odd feeling about him.

Marsh let out a little huff and continued along. The trio had this down to a science, at this point- Marsh and Blot would plow grooves into the soil with their snouts, while Vee would skitter along behind, dropping seeds down into the grooves and covering them up with the freshly-tilled earth.

Blot had briefly stopped, but soon enough, he lowered his head once more, nudging the dirt with his beak before rooting into the soil and beginning to move once more. He locked eyes with Marsh for a brief moment, as his head lowered- before glancing away rather quickly. Marsh squinted suspiciously, letting out a snort and flicking his tail. There was something off about that guy, he swears, but… he had work to do. He couldn’t linger on that, right now.

Being the tallest in the group, Blot took larger strides, moving along faster at just a walking pace than Marsh could. Vee had to keep up a quick pace in order to not get left behind- drop a seed, use a foot to push the soil back over it, run forwards. Rinse and repeat, over and over. Marsh flicked his tail and pawed at the earth a bit, squinting up at Blot. He wasn’t normally the competitive type, but… he couldn’t just let this guy do his job better than him, with less effort to boot!

With a bit of a grumble, Marsh dug his beak into the dirt and rushed forwards- giving Vee a startle, making her squawk and flutter back with ruffled feathers as the Stryracosaurus ran past, scraping a deep groove into the dirt. Then, she stamped her foot with a huff- great! That left a big swathe of unplanted soil she had to go back and sow. Her routine just got utterly bungled.

As Vee made her way over to the plowed soil Marsh had left behind, Marsh himself had just caught up with Blot- practically glaring over at the Iguanodon as he kept pace with him. Blot almost seemed a little shocked, blue eye wide as he glanced over at Marsh- the Styracosaurus only letting out an annoyed little huff in response to the other’s gaze.

Blot squinted back without a word, before his expression shifted- glancing away for a moment before smiling. He shifted his gaze back to Marsh- and then, without warning, he pushed his beak into the dirt a bit firmer and burst forwards himself- dashing ahead and leaving Marsh completely, utterly in the dust.

It took a few moments for Marsh to process what had happened, lifting his head out of the dirt and blinking incredulously. Somewhere behind him, he heard Vee let out a frustrated groan- come on! She’s the one doing the planting, here- can’t you two keep a decent pace with the tilling so she can keep up?

Rather unfortunately for Vee, the competitive spirit had been awakened. At least there’d… surely be plenty of plowed soil for her to plant? Marsh tamped one of his feet against the ground with a frustrated snort, glaring off in the direction Blot had gone off in. He stuck his beak back into the dirt, scraped one of his feet against the ground in anticipation, and once more rushed ahead- leaving a line of upturned soil behind him as he attempted to catch up with the far ahead Iguanodon.

Vee watched him rush off with an unamused stare, before sighing heavily, lowering her head and dropping a seed from her beak into some of the freshly-plowed earth. She might’ve been left in the dust, but at least the two were leaving behind plenty of churned soil to plant in. Once those two idiots got tired of fighting, though, she WAS going to make them help her sow seeds in the grooves they left behind, she swears.

Further ahead, Marsh panted for breath as he ran- trying his hardest not to get dirt into his nostrils. He’d show that Iguanodon! He was going to till the soil better than any dinosaur this side of the island- and faster, to boot! The thing is, though- Marsh’s eyes were… closed at this point as he focused entirely on just running ahead. So, he didn’t notice…

THUNK.

…The rock in his path.

Marsh suddenly stumbled back, vision spinning- and the bridge of his snout stinging from the impact, ow. With a thump, he sat back, hanging his head low and pawing at his beak… ow, ow- dangit! He’d never catch up with Blot, at this rate- Blot really was better at this job than him, huh…

Marsh paused, though, lifting his head- as a certain someone approached from somewhere up ahead, head tilted in concern. Blot must’ve heard the crack of Marsh running into the rock- silently, the Iguanodon lowered his head and nudged Marsh’s side. You alright?

Marsh grimaced a bit and let out a huff, shifting to stand back on his feet. Yeah, yeah, he was fine… though, he felt a little bad, now. Blot shifted to stand beside him, giving Marsh something to lean on if he still needed it, and… man. Marsh kind of did judge him a little bit quickly, didn’t he? Silent or not, he… seemed like a nice enough guy. Marsh averted his gaze and pawed at the soil a bit.

Blot frowned and lowered his head once more, nudging Marsh a bit with his beak- and Marsh let out a snort, nudging the other’s head with his own. He’s fine, he’s fine! Come on, let’s head back and help Vee with the seeds, now that they had tilled more than enough soil to plant in. Marsh didn’t want to get his head squawked off by an irate Oviraptor!