[Gift] Event | Thorn in the Side | Menaces

Their impression of the court had been bad from the start. At the same time there wasn’t an easy way to win over the three colourful raptors to begin with. They thought more about themselves than any other. They didn’t even really care about each other as much as they did themselves. So that’s why when there was an option to cause trouble for the court or help the court they decided on the most chaotic option. The queen had from the start been annoying. Everything they had heard about her seemed to put her in a high place among the people. Make her feel high and mighty. Something that bothered the two smarter raptors while the third, less smart raptor just enjoyed disliking people at all.

It was annoying that this herbivore decided that she was somehow better than them. Higher than them. A queen. They simply had to put her down. They had to make sure she knew that there was a chain of command here and just above her was Phaeniss, and way above him was Kormal and Ferdinand.

They had been brainstorming ideas. Causing annoying trouble for the Iguanadons was their priority. Every time Phaeniss came up with an idea it easily snowballed into a fight. That’s why he was put in a corner of shame while they brainstormed. He could hear them but he wasn’t allowed to plan anything. He could just nod along from his corner. 

“Annoying things huh?” Kormal said thoughtfully. It was a hard quest to come up with ideas for sure. “We should put up traps around the court entrance. But it will be slightly harder to get away with.”

“But it would probably shake them the most.” Ferdinand agreed with a malicious smile on his lips. “So close to home and all.” Phaeniss looked over at them from his corner. These pranks seem so meaningless. Was there a meaning to any of this if they couldn’t fight them for at least a little bit? He let out a barely audible sight that the other either ignored or didn’t hear. Still, the yellow and green raptor thought, at least causing trouble would cause trouble. For sure. And any trouble he could cause would be good. But he just thought that Kormal and Ferdinand were boring with their plans. They could go wilder. 

They had decided on putting up various traps outside the court entrance. It was early morning and as they sneaked past the big entrance the guards yawned loudly. Having had a boring night must have really caused them to lose energy. It was easy for the three raptors to sneak past them. If anything they had agility. Even Phaeniss with his bioluminescent markings could get past without being noticed. 

“Let's start with the pots.” There were a few pots around the entrance with smaller versions of the big plants that liked to grab things that passed them by. The three raptors rigged them to each other with thin rope and made sure that the rope could be triggered by a careless big Iguanodon passing by. When the first pot would fall all the other pots would also fall. Causing the grabby plants to tumble over and hopefully, in a form of plant panic, try and grab onto any living beings nearby.

Ferdinand had to carefully grab one of the plant's vines off of Phaeniss as it tried to grab him when he was trying to get the rope as tight around the pot. He didn’t want to accidentally hurt the plant in case any of the iguanodons would see the damage and realise that someone had tampered with the pots. Kormal easily avoided the vines that tiredly seemed to try and grab at him. Either these plants were tired at this time of the day or they were too small to actually grab erratically as the bigger plants did. Kormal frowned for a moment. He hoped they were just tired. Technically, even if this land was under water it was still keeping a form of day to night rhythm with the lamps and lights around. He hoped the plants just followed along in the day rhythm.

It didn’t take the three raptors too long to put up the plant in the room ahead of the entrance to the court. But by the time they were about to start on the next prank the guards seemed to get ready for the morning shift to take them off their post and to avoid getting caught and having their prank ruined the three colourful raptors decided to head out again. Sneaking past the guards was slightly harder at this moment and they really did want to at least hear if their prank actually worked so they would stay a small distance away. Hiding behind some walls that had slightly collapsed and provided not just good hiding in almost all directions but also gave them a very good position to hopefully see at least some of the chaos they caused. 

It took a while before the guards changed shifts but no one entire the courtroom yet. It wasn’t until a while after the guards had changed that the first member of court arrived. All the three raptors gazed at the entrance in anticipation for their prank but the member of court didn’t seem to be in any hurry to enter. He yawned as he talked to the guards. Phaeniss tapped his big claw into the ground over and over again. It didn’t annoy the other two raptors, they were more annoyed about the fact that no one had entered their trap yet. How hard could it be to actually just walk in?

It wasn’t until another Iguanodon joined them that the two members finally entered. The three raptors snickered to each other as they watched the two iguanadons enter. They were talking to each other as they walked to the entrance. The anticipation for the raptors were high. And it didn’t take long til they heard the first crash of a pot against the ground. At first there were no additional sounds and both Ferdinand and Kormal whipped their tails angrily behind them, ready to blame Phaeniss for whatever went wrong. But then the rest of the crashing came and the sound of raised, panicked voices could be heard as the guards hurried to enter the room as well to see what was happening. It was clearly a successful prank as they listened to the voices and yells of the iguanadons. 

“We should do more of these.” Phaeniss nodded happily as his tail whipped from side to side behind him. Kormal and Ferdinand agreed. There was something about the chaos that the three raptors found more amusing than they ever could’ve.

“Let’s go and plan some more stuff.” 

1135 words