Rugrats Type Beat

Days were a loose concept down in Atlantis, so Wollemia had no idea how old she was when the guards brought her to the nursery. One of the guards may have been her parent, but having been raised by a revolving door of iguanodons since she hatched she wasn't sure about that either. The ones currently escorting her were both unfeathered and stoic, not giving her any clue of a relationship. She managed to keep pace with their enormous strides by hurrying at a brisk gallop through the jungle. She hadn't seen this jungle before, her only frame of reference had been the talk of the elders she had overheard in the nest. Something about things that were dangerous 

The thick plants parted to reveal a bustling hub in a large clearing, so large that Wollemia couldn't see the trees on the other side. There was a large pen close to the trees and at the gate there were two gangly two legged dinosaurs that seemed to be waiting for them. She hadn’t met one of them directly but on occasion she had seen them run past her hatchery room and admired their swiftness in the narrow hallways. In the pen, a number of different hatchlings played and rolled around in the grass, miniature versions of the skinny things and small, round things with spikes and stubby legs. She was entranced and walked straight into the gate while the guards were still talking with the caretakers.

Wollemia automatically sat next to the colourful spiky thing and the gangly brown thing before the caretakers could direct her towards the other Iggys. When they approached, arms out pleadingly, she just looked at them blankly until they sighed and walked away. With them gone she turned back to the other dinosaurs who were staring at her in wonder.

“I'm Wollemia, I'm new,” she finally said, remembering her brief lesson on manners. The others didn't respond and she wasn't sure where to go from there. “Who are you?” She decided to ask bluntly.

“I'm Lego,” the brightly coloured one replied eventually, her voice soft.

“I'm Argos,” the brown gangly one said, looking nervously at Lego before continuing, “Wollemia, aren't you supposed to be with the other Iguanodons?”

“Are you not Iguanodons?” She asked blankly, tilting her head a little at him.

“Oh, no! I'm an Oviraptor and Lego is a Euoplo... Euoploseffy...”

“Euoplocephalus,” Lego corrected gently, “usually the Iguanodons stay together over there, we mix together.” Wollemia frowned, looking over at the few sedate hatchling Iguanodon that sat around while the Ovis and Euoplos ran around and played with each other.

“It's more fun here I think,” Wollemia said, her tone not changing. Argos and Lego looked nervous still, but they didn't interrogate her further. Instead the two showed her a collection of brightly coloured pebbles in a pile in front of them.

“The blue ones can beat the red ones and the green ones beat the blue ones,” Argos explained.

“And the red ones beat the green ones,” Lego added helpfully. Wollemia nodded seriously, absorbing the information. 

“We put them in a box, rattle one out and then that's our pebble for the round,” Argos continued, putting a handful of the coloured pebbles into a wooden box and shook it. As promised, a pebble fell out, bright red against the short green grass. “So I've rolled red,” he pointed at the pebble. He offered the box to Wollemia who held it carefully between her forelimbs, each paw grasping it with reverence. She looked up and both Argos and Lego nodded encouragingly. She shook the box and a gleaming blue pebble fell onto the grass.

“Oh! Look at that, you won!” Lego cheered.

“This is fun,” Wollemia said, still not showing any hint of inflection in her voice, “Can I play another round?” 

“Of course, just shake another pebble out.” She did as instructed and a blue pebble came out again.

“Blue like me,” she said softly, handing the box back to Argos. He took it graciously and shook it, sending a green pebble skittering out of the hole. Strangely, his face fell and he looked helplessly at Lego, who seemed equally distressed. This confused Wollemia and she hurried to reciprocate the previous round's felicitations. “You won, Argos, well done,” she said, “Now Lego has a turn, right?” She seemed to have completed the conversation correctly as both dinosaurs relaxed and smiled at her.

“That's right, Lego's next!”

Argos had never spoken directly to an Iguandodon before, at most he had been spoken at by one, and not kindly either. The hatchlings were usually skirted away from the common folk and he had never seen one be allowed to come bear them. Wollemia had simply ploughed through the caretakers to take a seat next to them without caring. Someone had forgotten to tell her not to mingle and now he and his good friend Lego were in a tricky situation. Wollemia was kind and friendly, but he feared getting in trouble once the Iguanodons realised they were mixing. The caretakers, as Oviraptors, didn't have the authority to order the hatchling away but Argos couldn't imagine this not having consequences.

Lego was having similar thoughts, delighted to have a new friend but worried that either they or she would get in trouble for it. Wollemia seemed gentle and fair, not seeing them as lesser despite what most hatchlings were told from birth. Iguanodons were at the top, Euoplos were below them and Oviraptors were even further below them. As she shook her pebble from the box she kept sending glances towards the caretakers, who were talking with animated gestures to the two Iggys that had arrived with Wollemia. To her surprise, they were smiling, waving away the anxious Ovis in favour of watching the hatchlings playing. She looked away nervously, not wanting them to see her watching.

“You have a blue pebble,” Wollemia said helpfully, waiting for Argos to shake the next one out. She was enjoying herself, even just watching the other two was far more fun than staring at the walls of her hatchery room. “I hope I get to come back here,” she said suddenly, making the other two look up at her.

“We come here every day, and so do the other hatchlings,” Lego told her, trying to come off as reassuring instead of being a know-it-all. 

“That’s good, I like it here, I like you both,” the Iggy hatchling said in what was quickly becoming a familiar flat tone.

“We like you too,” Argos beamed before looking down at his pebble, “Green! I win! Okay Wollemia, it’s your turn again.”