Preaching to the Choir

Hart was pretty tired of dealing with work. He was mostly just excited to head back to Atlantis. Between leaving with Lobo to the expedition site and the tireless work from Opal digging and finally working with and training the basics to Hippocampus he was exhausted. He just wanted to go home.. But with the seismic activity, how much longer would he even have a home? If the seawater kept coming.. 

He tried not to think about it. Instead, he had to focus on his current task. At least this task meant that he would be able to go home.

“Tom recommended you,” The female Iguanadon’s voice was surprisingly soothing,”If you can get that bricks-for-brains to the surface and back I’m sure you’ll have no problem escorting me.”

Hart looked up at the imposing figure of the female Iguanadon. She seemed smug as she looked down at him. Whereas Tom had been a bit naive and dense something about her seemed.. More put together? Or maybe just more capable. Something about her seemed vaguely familiar as well. It didn’t help Hart was barely bigger than the claw on her front leg. 

“Uhm.. are you sure you want an Oviraptor guiding you? Just us two? No..  yknow, Euo guards?” Hart asked concernedly before the female Iguanadon nodded enthusiastically.

“Yep. Just us two.” She said as she settled down into a sit so she could look down more at Hart,”Whats your name? My names Bluebell.”

“Hart,” He responded before pausing,”Wait.. Bluebell, like.. The Musician?” He asked perking up as he took a step back to look at the Iguanadon.

“Eeyup!” Bluebell smirked as she let out a couple of hymnal tones.

“Wow, I heard that you’ve sung for the queen before!” Hart exclaimed as he looked up at the Iguanadon.

“Indeed I have,” Bluebell’s voice seemed to be almost akin to a purr at the recognition of the Oviraptor,”She quite liked it too. I made sure of it.”

Hart looked up at her with admiration, before he blinked as though reality was coming crashing down on him.

“Wait.. why am I escorting you?” He said bewildered,”If you’re THE Bluebell - which I don’t doubt you are - there REALLY should be a Euo guard here! Or two! Or three!” Hart’s mind began to race as he thought of the sudden weight of not only being the sole companion for an Iguanadon during a trek but also a rather high-class Iguanadon at that.

“Any Euos would just slow us down,” Bluebell pointed out,”We can move faster with just us two!” She practically sang.

“No- I mean--” He stammered,”There are dinosaurs bigger than you on the surface you know? And- and there are fliers out there specifically scouting and targeting Atlanteans!” Hart said as he all just about started dry heaving before the sharp movement from Bluebell standing snapped him out of it.

“No.” She said firmly,”I want you to help guide me because I want you to help me appeal to Oviraptors more with my music.”

Hart stared at her. Her expression seemed kind.. Genuinely, it did. She had this “sunshine and rainbows and everything will be fine” look in her eyes. Maybe her and Tom weren’t that different.. Where Tom seemed completely naive she still seemed capable. He supposed if she had the gall to sing in front of the Queen she must of had quite the strong will and spine. After all, he had heard of terrible things happening to the Queen’s company who failed to entertain her.

“... Why… ?” Was all that Hart could get out from past his lips.

There was a bit of a silence after that as Bluebell seemed to be contemplating what to say - or at least how to say it. Being an Iguanadon she had just about everything handed to her, so why did she need Hart to help her now? 

“Well, you see.. ” Bluebell said as she shuffled almost uncomfortably from what Hart could tell,”During my last concert I had another Iguanadon run statistics on who showed up.” She started as she started to make tallies in the dirt below them.

“About half of the turnout was fellow Iguanadons which wasn’t wholly unexpected,” She said as she drew a pie chart in the ground and pointed at the large slice representing Iguanadon,”About this much--” She said as she diced up about ⅔ of the remaining section,”Was Euos. That means that about an eighth of my attendance was Oviraptors.” 

All of the fractions were a bit out of Hart’s wheel house, but looking down at the chart below it made a lot of sense just to have a physical representation.

“Of those Oviraptors at least a noticeable amount seemed to be in public service roles. Assistants and whatnot.” Bluebell kept going,”So I’m not even sure if they would count but we did anyways since of course we can’t really just tell that by looking at them.”

Hart continued to stare at the pie chart for a while Bluebell let it seep in.

“Why?” He finally asked once again.

“Why what?” Bluebell echoed seemingly puzzled,”... Was something about the pie chart not clear?”

“No- no,” Hart said blinking before trying to focus,”Why do you care that Oviraptors aren’t attending your concerts?”

That question seemed to bring Bluebell to another long pause. Why did she care that Oviraptors weren’t attending her concerts? She hadn’t really pondered why she felt that way before she had opted to jump straight into just.. Fixing it.

“I guess I want everyone to enjoy my music.” Bluebell said finally, her voice seemingly confident coming to terms with her decision. 

Hart stared at her for a long time. He blinked once or twice, but mostly just stared. Bluebell seemed to get uncomfortable as even the Iguanadon 300x his size seemed to shuffle away from his gaze.

“Did I say something wrong?” Bluebell asked eventually.

“Do you want the truth?” Hart said,”I don’t think you can.”

Bluebell opened and closed her mouth trying to think of a response before eventually stammering out- “What do you mean?”

“Tell me- is this your first expedition on the surface?” Hart said as he began to trot forward.

“... Yes, actually, it is, although I’ve been up here for a while now. Just trying to learn about everything - and everyone - up here.”

“You have good intentions. I get it.” Hart said,”-- but while you’ve been back in homey Atlantis singing to the Queen and your choir we’ve been up here dying Bluebell.” He said as he began to walk forward,”You’re large. You’re use to kicking the ass of anything up here that is dangerous to you. In fact, I bet you’re use to not even being in danger.”

“Thats not true--” Bluebell interjected almost seeming to get angry,”Before I sang I often assisted with jungle work. I fought many carnivorous plants!”

“Ahuh, I am sure you did.” Hart said unable to help himself from getting irritated back,”So where were you when we first got to the surface? When the first Oviraptors were traveling topside? When we were getting beaten up by pachies and drinking noxious water that made us sick?” He said as he frowned,”We haven’t been going to your concerts because we’ve been busy doing grunt work up here so that YOU will have somewhere to keep singing if Atlantis caves in!” Hart had started to yell before he paused and winced.

He knew better than to raise his voice to his superiors. All it took was Bluebell making up a lie and everyone in this encampment - Oviraptors included - would turn on him and imprison him. Maybe even execute him on the spot depending on what Bluebell said.. But a part of him figured if he had gone this far he may as well commit to digging his grave. If the Iguanadons didn’t kill him the surface would at some point.

“Even now you don’t realize the danger this place holds just because you’re big and capable,” He said as he scratched at some of the dirt below his talons,”You’re trained, sure, but there are dinosaurs up here who are trained too. Trained in ways we couldn’t even fathom. You are confident because you’ve never seen a dinosaur as big and capable as you are - or one that relies solely on meat for their diet.” He said as he finally stopped kicking,”If an Acro came across you… You would die.” He finally finished,”-- And there is nothing I would be able to do to even try and stop it from eating you. Then because I was the one in charge of escorting you I’ll be executed too, but I won’t even have the privilege of my body being eaten. They’ll just throw me to the jungle.”

Bluebell stared at him for a long time - as though not expecting such harsh words out of an Oviraptor’s mouth - before she finally spoke again.

“... Maybe I will ask for a Euoplocephalus guard or two.” Bluebell finally concluded.