Garden Guardians

                It was an odd thing to have family that supported different sides of a movement. Apocrypha knew that everyone would view Atlantis and her queen with a wide spectrum of ideas and opinions on the matter. Especially as the order had come for people to head back up to the islands and start planting more seeds and tending to the plants that would soon sprout.

                She and Kallista had spent most of the morning tending to their garden. Over the last few weeks they had marked off a sizeable area on their farm and had started to plant some of the more common, less aggressive, Atlantean crop species. The only downside was that ‘less aggressive’ didn’t mean the plants weren’t baseline incredibly aggressive.

                Within days the seeds had sprouted, and it was only a handful of days after that when they had fully grown and started to flower. It was a fulltime job keeping the garden contained to just the area they had set aside on the farm. They had neglected it for a single day and had returned to find plants were starting to grow outside the worked land. They wouldn’t have even known if it hadn’t been for Cleric.

                The Utahraptor was, overall, neutral towards the situation of the Atlanteans. She could understand why they were doing what they were doing but she did not agree with how they were, in her words, invading the islands. To Cleric, the Iguanodons were forcing their beliefs down the throats of the native islanders by way of wandering around and telling people they would be required to serve the Atlantean queen. Or, in the case of her parents, forcing people to farm.

                Kallista had been the first to spot Cleric. The Utah had been by the garden and aggressively ripping at the ground outside, and inside, the marked plot of dirt. She raked her claws through the ground, tearing up the tangle of vines and bushes and tossing the unearthed plants into the middle of the garden.

                “Cleric!” Kallista called as she glided over the area, slowly back-winging to give herself a soft landing beside the black and yellow raptor who quickly turned her attention to Kallista.

                “Your plants are getting out of hand. They’re escaping the garden. If you don’t keep an eye on them, they’ll take over the whole area. You have to be on top of it, mom. Otherwise why have the garden?” Cleric snapped.

                The Tropeo lifted her head, taken aback by the sharp words aimed at her. It wasn’t uncommon for Cleric to lash out, but normally there was at least a build up that she could see coming. Kallista turned her attention to the garden, down to their feet where there was nothing but dirt now.

                “It’s alright, Cleric. We’re figuring this all out together.” Apocrypha said calmly, smiling softly as she walked over to stand behind Kallista and looked over their daughter as well as the destruction she’d brought to the plants.

                “No. We’re not. This should not be up here. These plants should stay down in Atlantis. They were not bred to live on the island, with actual dinosaurs. With real plants. This shit will choke everything out.” Cleric replied quickly, turning her ire onto the Albertosaur.

                Kallista turned her head slightly to look up at Apocrypha, unsure how to answer Cleric without making the situation worse. Apocrypha’s gentle expression never faltered as she stepped over Kallista and started to carefully stamp the dirt down that Cleric had ripped into and tore plants out of. Cleric watched her as well, backing up but stopped her attack on the plants for the time being.

                “I hope to fix that. But, Cleric, it will take time. These plants do not speak like the plants of the islands, you are correct. But that’s why we should raise some up here. We can breed out the aggressive ones in time, make them more domesticated and less destructive if they’re not tended to daily. And, I hope in time, they will speak the same language as the island plants.” Apocrypha said, moving to the next patch of aggressively tilled dirt and started to stamp it down.

                “You and everyone else that stayed are being forced into doing this. You know you are being led, right? The Atlanteans will drop you and mom and deny any help that you both have done for them. You will be the enemy, too, just like everyone else after some time. They don’t actually care about you, mom.” Cleric said and glared up at Apocrypha.

                “Maybe. But if they really felt that way, why would they have offered us the chance to help them anyway? They have the numbers to give everyone on the islands a run for their money. They have the equipment to do so, too. None of us have armor, but they do. They have the means to do so much more, too. If they can make armor, they can make weapons more dangerous than tooth and claw.” Kallista said, finally looking back at Cleric while Apocrypha focused on fixing the damage done to the garden.

                Cleric remained silent as she listened, knowing that Kallista was correct. If the Atlanteans had been pressed, if Rhys hadn’t actually cared about dinosaurs outside of her own kingdom, they could’ve simply invaded the islands.

                “I know you dislike them. You don’t trust them. But I ask that you give at least your mother and I a chance. At the very least, let us try with this garden. I will make a deal with you, though.” Apocrypha said, pressing her foot into more dirt, already having worked along half of the garden plot and stamped down the ground around the stick barriers.

                The curse-marked Utahraptor tilted her head when Apocrypha offered a deal, her feathers playing out to show that she was listening.

                “You can make the wall around the garden here. Whatever you think would be required to keep the plants from overgrowing and spilling out into the outside area. And then whatever plants that start to come up outside of the wall, you are free to destroy.” The Albertosaur offered with a smile.

                Cleric narrowed her eyes. She hadn’t come to sign herself up for work. But even Kallista was giving a nod of agreement to what Apocrypha had said. The two older females watched their daughter for a few moments as she thought over the idea. And then, after considering just exactly what she would want to do, Cleric gave a nod.       

                “Thank you, Cleric. I promise, this will work out. I just need you to trust us.” Apocrypha said and smiled, happy that she and Kallista had managed to talk down Cleric from ripping the whole garden up, but had also managed to get her to help in protect it, in a backwards sort of way.