[Trade] Pera Planting

Morning on the island of Pera was always a time to be welcomed. The sun coming over the horizon lit up the scorched ashlands and shone light into the darkest corners where unknown dangers stalked overnight. Morning on Pera was like a long sigh of relief after eight hours of holding your breath. The three Styras lined up at the edge of the coast shuffled idly as the waves pushed and pulled against the beach. Now they had more daylight; they had fallen out of their circle formation and instead watched the mouth of the tunnel embedded into the cliff for any sign of movement. Smirch's eyes would dart to it at the slightest flicker of shadows in the dark, eager to get back to his own business instead of hanging around doing nothing. Canella and Smokelake had been overly enthusiastic and volunteered their services to the weird underground dome dwellers before he even had a chance to dissuade them. Not all new things were untrustworthy, but Smirch had had a bad feeling ever since the Oviraptors had started poking their heads above ground. He was only here to make sure nothing snuck up on the two younger Styras overnight, once their guide for the day arrived he could clear off. 

Canella was staring into the tunnel's entrance and her soft 'ooo look' alerted the others to the arrival of the Iguanodon. She was tall, like all of them were, heavily built and was laden down with tools and tightly wrapped saplings. They were stuffed into bags that hung off of a harness that was secured around the Iggy's chest and stomach, keeping it immobile even as she hurried up the incline to reach the beach.

"Ah! Hello there!" she called cheerfully up the cliff, "You must be my little helpers, how wonderful!" She hurried up to meet them, impressively unimpeded by the heavy load she carried. As they all did, she towered above the Styras but made an effort to stoop down to speak face to face. Smirch felt it was a touch demeaning but he kept his thoughts to himself.

"Are those the plants we're gonna be uh- planting?" Smokelake asked, leaning around to get a proper look at the Iggy's pack.

"Correct, you clever little thing," the Iggy said, sounding proud of the complete stranger for asking a simple question. "I'm Soraya and these are my babies, the sentinel plants of Atlantis." Smirch tried to exchange a worried look with Canella and Smokelake but they were both too enamoured to look his way. 

"What are they?" Smokelake pressed as Soraya began to unload the harness, carefully unclipping it and letting the saplings land softly on the ground.

"They're truly wonderful plants, let me show you," Soraya gushed, gesturing for them to come closer. Canella and Smokelake rushed over while Smirch kept his distance, waiting for the right moment to take his leave. "If you look at these feathery stalks that run along each of them, these bloom into photosensitive receptors."

"Photosensitive receptors?" Canella repeated.

"It means they're sensitive to light," Smirch grunted.

"Correct! Goodness I've been given some clever helpers," Soraya beamed at him. Smirch tried to interject but the Iggy ploughed onwards with her explanation, "They react to light, meaning they can kind of 'see' things around them, so we use them as our warning signs. When they see something coming they react very sensitively and curl inwards, so if we do a patrol and see they're closed we know that someone has already been by in the last hour." 

"That's amazing," Smokelake said, his voice awed.

"It truly is, I cannot thank you enough for all agreeing to help," Soraya said warmly, scooping up one of the saplings and placing it gently on Smirch's back. The older Styra spluttered in indignation but the Iguanodon wasn't phased, "Let's start planting these, shall we?" The younger Styras nodded enthusiastically and followed closely as the Iggy walked a line up and down the cliff to assess the soil. When she prodded a patch that seemed to meet her standards she gestured to Smirch to follow along too. Resigned to his fate, he trudged over as the younger two began using their nasal horns to make scratches in the soil. 

"Do we have a lot of these to plant?" Canella panted as she watched Smirch drop the sapling into the deep hole they had dug. Smokelake jumped back to work, pawing the dirt back into the hole and tamping it down securely around the sapling's woody stem.

"Not many, but I'm afraid we have to plant them quite far apart from each other, they work best when planted on their own," Soraya explained, heading back to her arrival point to grab another one. At the very least she didn't assign Smirch to be a work mule this time, so he followed idly as Canella and Smokelake searched for another planting spot. On their way, Smokelake began to pry at Soraya as to why she didn't want to avail of the fertile soil in the Ashlands, especially so soon after an eruption. The Iggy's face turned briefly horrified at the mention of the eruption but she quickly assured him that here was fine and there was no need to put anyone in the group at risk by travelling there.

“Pfft, we could bring you to the Ashlands, no problem,” Smokelake bragged.

“But if you really don't want to go then we don't mind that either,” Canella added quickly.

“I think it would be better to build our first line of defence on the coast first,” Soraya said gently, “we can't expand too quickly or we'll be spread too thin to defend ourselves.”

“You'll have to defend yourselves anyway,” Smirch said gruffly, “not many folk on these islands will let you walk all over them, let alone the folk here on Pera.” There was a tense silence between the group now, Soraya staring blankly at the oldest Styra. For the first time since she arrived the smile had dropped from her face.

“We'll find a way,” she said finally, her voice unusually cool, “Now, shall we keep going?” She asked, back to her cheerful self. Smokelake nodded happily, not seeming to notice the chilliness in the air.

“Yeah, sooner we get this done the sooner I get to give you a tour of the place,” he said confidently. Cannella seemed more reluctant but a reassuring smile from Soraya got her moving again, sticking closer to her fellow Styras this time. Knowing this was the time to step away, Smirch hesitated. Soraya didn't seem that dangerous but the uneasiness that came from her sudden shift in mood wouldn't leave him. Against his better judgement, he decided to stay with them for Smokelake and Canella's sake.