What's a "Long-Neck?"

Being a rather small thing was difficult work. Keeping up with the herd on short little legs was hard, and grazing on even the most succulent and young leaves left Hael full and sleepy. His siblings were more than happy to kick up a fuss and run around on wobbly legs as they started to develop their strength, but he just wanted to doze in the gentle afternoon sun.

Maybe not in the direct sun. His mother warned him into the shade - he was pale and his hide was still very soft; the sun could bite him if he stayed in it for too long. Hael whickered quietly at his mother’s attentive care, happy to rest wherever she put him as long as it wasn’t far from her or his father.

He was directed towards tall grasses that grew right up to the edge of the lake that the herd would be grazing at for the day, though he would be far enough back that he would be safe from the water. It wasn’t perfectly safe - not with suchomimus potentially stalking the waters - but there were Callers on guard to announce any threat that they noticed, and he would be safe enough where he was, nestled out of sight.

The sweet scents of fresh grass and blooming flowers, the gentle stir of a warm breeze, the soft buzz of insects, frog croaks, bird calls, and gentle sound of waves rippling over small rocks on the lakeshore was enough to lull anyone to sleep, and Hael was quite comfortable in the little nest his mother had stamped down for him.

He had expected that it was her muzzle that was nuzzling at him when he woke up, but it was another face entirely - a strange, rounded face at the end of a long neck with an almost equally long tail, which ended in a shape that looked like her tail tip had been stung by a bee.

Hael made a tiny honk of alarm as he tried to scramble to his feet, his gangly limbs tangling with one another.

Amaryllis giggled as she backed up and gave the young parasaur some space. What a silly little thing. “Little” - as though he were any smaller than she was. In all honesty, they were about the same size, though she might’ve been a bit taller.

“Hello,” she greeted, eyes bright and almost shining with amusement as she waited for him to greet her in return. When he stayed quiet, Amaryllis saw it as an open invitation to continue. “My name’s Amaryllis! What’s yours?”

Hael stared back at her, feeling rather unsure. This was definitely not his mother, nor his father, nor his siblings. He couldn’t even really hear the herd anymore, and that was most alarming of all. Had they left him there while he was sleeping? Was he forgotten? Would he never see them again?

Amaryllis’s bright expression never wavered even slightly despite Hael’s silence. So he was a little shy, that was okay! She’d met a few others like that, and she was more than happy to do all the talking.

“I didn’t mean to wake you up, I just haven’t seen a honker that was little like me before. My herd came here for a drink and a swim, I think there’s some nice food here too because there’s some big honkers that are swimming and pulling up green stuff out of the lake too. I got told to stay back just in case there’s something bad in the water but I think it’s probably okay, otherwise the honkers wouldn’t be here - ”

Hael’s head swam with the amount of words that Amaryllis was throwing at him at once. Didn’t she need to breathe?

“I’m a parasaur,” Hael mumbled, “not a… a ‘honker.’ My parents don’t like that word.” He’d heard a few other big dinosaurs throw the word at a few of the herd - shorter ones with big frills on their head and long spikes that grew out of their face and frills - and the paras didn’t like it. It felt like he was going to get in trouble for saying it, even if there was no one around but Amaryllis to hear it.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Amaryllis exclaimed. “I didn’t know what else to call you. It’s all I’ve heard.”

Hael looked at her, then to his hooves. It was okay, he guessed. He didn’t know what she was, either. She probably wouldn’t like it much if he called her a smooth-head.

Amaryllis continued on, apparently unfazed. “The other parasaurs here - that’s your herd, right?”

Hael made a small sound of agreement. It was a massive relief to know that they were still here, even if he didn’t quite know where they were. It was pretty clear to Amaryllis that he was lost, even if he hadn’t expressly said it.

“You want help getting back to them?”

Hael made another sound of agreement. He was certain that they wouldn’t leave the lake without him, but… they had left him alone here for this long, however long that had been. What if they did leave him? What if his mother and father and his siblings forgot about him, and he was left here all alone with this weird long-necked dinosaur?

Amaryllis craned her long neck back, but she was just too short to see over the grass standing as she was. She stood up on her hind legs, which gave her enough height to see over the rippling sea of rich emerald green grasses. “They’re not far, just over this big patch. C’mon, I’ll take you over that way.”

She started off in a direction almost parallel to the water, which Hael was still wary of. Amaryllis might be completely comfortable just because there were other herbivores here, but he wasn’t so sure. He'd heard scary things about the teeth that came from the water.

“What’s your name?” Amaryllis prompted again as she walked ahead. Hael was following behind her; she could hear the grass crunching under his small hooves and feet.

“Hael,” he replied quietly. It was only polite, since she was being nice to him too. After a moment, he had his own question to ask: “Did your herd wander off from you too?”

Amaryllis looked over her shoulder, a laugh in her voice like he’d asked something funny. “No, of course not! I just wandered a little. I wanted to see if I could find something tasty to eat before my brother got to it. Or the adults.” She huffed lightly, though her tone said that she wasn’t really mad. “They try to take all the good stuff.”

That sounded so bizarre to Hael. Why would she choose to wander off? Were her parents not worried about her? And they didn’t leave the soft stuff for her to eat first?

Amaryllis peered over the grass again. “Almost there!”

Hael almost didn’t believe her. They hadn’t been walking for that long, surely the herd was farther away than this. But, sure enough, the grass parted to reveal the edge of the lake, where the herds had mixed and mingled to become one unit. Parasaurs and shunosaurus alike were scooping up algae, lilies, and other submerged plants that evaded the reach of other herbivores in the valley.

Hael gave a tiny trumpet, almost jumping for joy to see the familiar blue spots and stripes of his parents among the many adults in the water. His parents raised their heads at the sound of their child announcing his approach, and a few other parasaurs glanced up to make sure that nothing was wrong. When they were satisfied that it was just the excited sounds of a hatchling, they returned to their grazing.

“See? Nothing to be worried about!” Amaryllis said, pleased.

Hael ducked his head and blew air quietly. He hadn’t been worried for no reason. They had left him there, they just hadn’t gone as far as he feared.

Amaryllis continued to beam at him. “You wanna go in the water and find something to eat? The flowers are my favourite!” She didn’t wait for an answer, heading into the water even as she spoke.

Hael only contemplated joining her for a minute. It was probably safe, with all the adults here, and finding some food did sound like a good plan. It also kept him close to his herd, just in case they almost forgot about him again.