Birds Birds Birds!!

Dawn arrived slowly in the densest portions of the jungle. Goldhour showered through the trees for an exceptionally long time, rousing howlers and birds that eventually joined the chorus of the song that was the background cacophony of the jungle. Amongst the canopy, tucked in the towering crown of a kapok, two tapejara were also slowly rousing themselves. The two unfurled themselves from their make-shift nest they’d spent the night in. Next followed a series of stretching and yawning, despite having a busy day ahead of them they still followed their morning tradition. 

Once all sleep-addled muscles were stretched and crust blinked from their eyes they were ready for take-off. Vanta spread his wings first, black glistening in the mid-morning light. He slowly fell forward, tipping off the branch till his feet left the safety of the nest. Vanta was in freefall, skillfully diving before he caught the air into an easy soar. The world stretched out beneath him, deep jungle giving way to patchy jungle. That was the first stop of the day. By the time Vanta slowed for the decline Graupel had caught up to him. In her beak she had breakfast, a hearty meal of the other half of a squirrel she’d caught and eaten. She tossed it his way, giving him enough time to scarf it down by the time they hit the ground. 

The first order of business was tending to the seedlings. Planting crews had already been through this area some days ago and their hard work had developed into foot tall saplings. The pterosaurs carefully preened and checked on each sprout to ensure they were healthy. Vanta carefully walked circles around each one inspecting carefully for any blemish or sign of disease. A few times he was lucky and found snacks. Little slugs or beetles were much too slow to avoid his dexterous beak as he plucked them out from between newly grown leaves. 

Graupel signalled it was time to move on with a short honk. She hopped up into the sky taking off with a few powerful downstrokes of her long and tapered wings. They came across dozens of other sites just like the one they had just visited. Other scouts were visiting some, making sure the reforestation of the island was going all according to plan. For the most part it was a calm and easy morning. More plants were checked, more bugs were eaten, and the more both trapjara felt successful in their very important task. 

Hours carried on in the gratifying monotony, to the degree that Graupel thought they had absolutely nothing to worry about. Those cheery hopes and dreams were quickly dashed as Vanta honed in on a problem- a rather large problem at that. Down beneath them in an untended lot there was a very angry creature taking out its rage on preciously young seedlings. It was a monstrous styracosaurus, ripping up plants by the roots and tossing them to the side. Graupel knew these things were herbivores but she’d never seen one on such a senseless rampage.

The pterosaurs circled lower and lower, heads tilted to the side to try and get the best look possible of the frenzied animal. This was a purposeful destruction of all their important and hard work and they couldn’t simply allow it to happen under their watch. Vanta dove down first, testing the waters. He snapped his beak close to the beast’s haunches. At closer look it was smaller than other styracosauruses that he’d seen in the past. A young one perhaps? It was foolish and going to learn a lesson regardless.

When assault the cerotopsian spun around, swinging its brutish head threateningly, but the trapejara were too fast and too agile to be concerned with its lumbering threats. The pterosaurs began to dive and dog after the beast. Vanta came back up to an easy, circling glide with tufts of brown feathers in his beak. He shook his head, spitting out the clinging feathers. When Vanta looked down he saw Graupel latched onto the young styracosaurus bull’s haunches. She was clawing and pecking at the young bull’s rump. His skin was thick so any real damage was mitigated, but the point was getting across- he had no business destroying all of their hard work.

The styracosaurus was bucking and bellowing, trying his hardest to dislodge the pestulous pterosaur. Graupel was merciless, she didn’t hop back up into the sky until she had made a sizable bald patch on the bull’s rump. They circled and taunted, calling and cawing down towards the cerotopsian. It seemed their hard work was enough to dissuade him from any further assaults on the young plants. He had turned to go barrelling back into the densest portion of the jungle. 

Vanta and Graupel landed, calling and spreading out their wings as they triumphantly trumpeted. Chittering their beaks contentedly, they turned to one another, checking each other over. They only spared a small amount of time to groom each other, and once satisfied that neither of them were hurt they turned to assess the wreckage.

Tragically, dozens of seedlings were torn out by the root and even some of the larger saplings hadn’t been spared from the massacre. Holes had been dug, seeds cruelly ripped free from their cradles. Carefully Vanta and Graupel tried to fix what they could. Carefully they scooped the seeds back into holes, righted some seedlings, and did their best to balance taller saplings so they wouldn’t slump over again. It was… far from perfect and there would need to be a reseeding of the area for sure, but for now it would have to be done.

They couldn’t linger forever, there were more planting sites to be visited. With one last look, Graupel did her best to remember the exact site tragedy had struck. Once more the trapejara took flight, gaining air quickly. With luck the rest of their day would continue smoothly- no more monstrous ceratopsians trying to ruin all the hard work the Queens crews were putting in to make this place home.