Agni | Causing Problems

Agni was on the warpath. Not a day had gone by that he hadn’t been filled with rage at the presence of invasive, thorny vines and plants. They were squeezing out the good ones, the soft edible ferns that tasted delicious. These were fibrous like tree pulp and tasted bitter- the young styracosaurus bull wouldn’t stand for it. With each day that passed he saw more and more strange plants that didn’t belong and he couldn’t believe the number of dinosaurs he saw willingly planting the damn things. It disgusted him. He’d seen more nefarious planters as well, actively destroying the careful balance of the forests he’d been born to. He wouldn’t stand for it anymore- so he followed one to the source one day.

He’d followed one of the planters-  a strange and large hadrosaur he’d never seen before- from their sowing grounds to wherever they came from. His trailing and hunting lead him to the wide mouth of a cavern. The thought of disappearing into the deep maw curled his gut, he felt as if he was walking into the jaws of a massive carnivore. But his convictions were too strong to be swayed by a little fear. 

Slowly Agni crept forward, ducking his frill back to avoid knocking the walls of the cavern with his horns. It was a slow descent, eventually falling into complete darkness the further he walked. It was only the sound of the hadrosaur walking that kept him from becoming lost.

After what felt like hours light began to filter into the cavern, first in the faintest of streaks from ahead. He picked up the pace. He trotted forward, dodging around jutting pieces of jagged rock. Quickly the narrow sun motes turned into a bright and shining world. So bright that his eyes burned for just a moment.

As his pupils pinned more of this strange underground world came into view. Dense foliage was everywhere and all of it strangely familiar. It was the same types of plants that the sowers were planting above ground. Wretched things. Beyond the dense trees, what should have been the sky above was a dark, shimmering dome. It was disorienting. 

Agni grounded himself, reminding him of the whole reason he was here. These creatures, whatever they were doing, had to be stopped. He stormed forward, purposefully blowing through foliage with his head down. He’d rip up every fern, palm, and vine all by himself if he had to.

He slammed into a small tree, snapping the sapling as he barrelled over it. For a moment he felt unstoppable. He could only imagine what he’d be able to do once he was a full grown bull. He triumphantly bellowed- there was nothing that could stand in his way of tearing this place down, plant by plant. His determination led him further and further into the strange and foreign underground realm.

His warpath came to a halt as a large, towering beast came before him. It was the same, strange hadrosaur before. Agni had seen parasaurolophus before, but this one lacked the distinct headcrest he was accustomed to seeing and was twice the size. Agni stopped, growling and shaking his frill at the massive beast.

The iguanodon -a name Agni would learn some time later- was not intimidated. Instead he stood up on his hind legs, bellowing a threat to the smaller styracosaurus. Agni had been bested before by these fiendish foreigners, but he didn’t let that quell his confidence. Before the iguanodon could fall back down onto all fours, Agni charged. In that moment of unpreparedness he slammed into the hadrosaur’s side trying his best to tip him over. To Hauker’s credit he was a big and muscular beast. It took some effort but he stayed upright, despite Agni’s best efforts. He kicked out, catching his foot on Agni’s nasal horn, managing to get the bull out from beneath his belly before he could be gored.

The two males circled each other, each posturing and bellowing their anger. Hauker had size - a lot of size- and age on his side, but Agni was a determined little bastard- and he had horns. Agni didn’t make the mistake he’d made in past run-ins with these strangers, he didn’t feign a charge. He barrelled forward, horns aimed for Hauker’s legs and soft belly. While Agni was much smaller than his foe, he wasn’t going to let that scare him off. There was too much on line for him to be scared now. 

Hauker practically stepped over the smaller styracosaurus, letting him pass between his legs in his blind charge. He kicked again, this time catching Agni in the rump as he passed. He didn’t know what the little monster wanted and he wouldn’t have been nearly as concerned if it weren’t for those horns. One wrong move and he’d be seriously regretting his indifference. 

The hadrosaur spun again, but he moved too slow. Agni had already turned to make another pass, this time catching Hauker in the front legs, making him stumble over the smaller dinosaur. He barely kept his feet under him, much to his surprise. It seemed the little bull had more gumption and posed more of a threat than Hauker had assumed.

Growling, Hauker spun one last time on the smaller Agni. He wasn’t getting tired of the styracosaurus. The bull was moving fast, faster than Hauker was expecting from the little beast. He backed up, trying to avoid the horns aimed at his forelegs. He backed up enough that a hind leg slipped off of a dip. Hauker startled, bleating as he started tumbling down. His immense weight tipped back without much more help from Agni, tumbling down a short ravine.

Hauker landed with a heavy thud on his back, his legs kicking uselessly as he tried to turn over. Agni stood over him, beaming triumphantly. His confidence was redoubled now after all those previous failures he was managing a win on their own home turf. If he kept this up he’d have these strangers and their strangling plants ousted from his homeland in no time.