[Gift] Seasonal | Skeletons in the Basement | Uncomfortable Finds

She had been accustomed to the outside world by now. The fresh air. The vibrancy of the colours that surrounded spring, summer and fall. Even during the winter the colours were stronger than inside the laboratory. There was dust everywhere mudding down the greyish colours that painted the halls. It felt as if it crawled inside of her nostrils with every breath.

She had promised herself she would not return down into the laboratories again. She was hatched in these hallways somewhere. She probably couldn’t find the exact hallways even if she tried. But she had never longed to return to the hallways, yet here she was. Walking the halls. Followed by two other dinosaurs. 

Oramei stood out a tiny bit against the grey, dusty hallways with off-white piebald and neon green markings but the yellow albertosaurus walking behind her stood out even more. He seemed to almost shine against the grey. His dark markings made the yellow even more vibrant whenever she looked back at him. His vibrant colours were made only more vibrant by the Acro walking behind him.

Ash, the grey Acro with an even darker tabby, did not outshine neither Lumos nor Oramei. But he did outsize them both. As the two albos walked with a more sweeping body movement he had to restrain his movement in the corridor unless he wanted his grey feathers to appear even more dusty grey than it already did by essentially swiping the walls clean with his body like an oversized feather-duster. 

As the three big dinosaurs walked down the hallway far down in the lower basements of the laboratories they would occasionally come across rooms filled with big vials of liquid. It looked slightly green. Most of them were hard to see through as the outside glass had grown stiff with layers and layers of dust. You could even see claw marks where other dinosaurs had tried to dust away the layers to get a better idea of what lay inside of the vial. If there was anything at all in them. It made all three of them curious for sure. What would you use vials of these sizes for?

“I bet it’s for drinking.” Lumous said with a slight nod. Ash and Oramei both looked at him. Green water? He had to be kidding. Who would drink green water? “We’re so far down here. It’s probably really annoying to go up to the lakes and get water every single time you're thirsty.” Oramei let her gaze travel to Ash who simply rolled his eyes and shook his head. He too did not see the reason in drinking green old water. Neither of them had a better idea at the moment however and decided to keep on walking without saying anything.

They soon arrived at another room. This one was far bigger than any other they had passed by or entered so far. Some of the lamps seemed to be working, dimly lighting up the vials of unmoving water. Oramei walked up to one of the bigger ones. Getting her face close to the glass where other dinosaurs had cleaned the glass previously. Apparently this big tank had gained many other dinosaurs’ attention.

She tried to reach her short arm up to clean off more of the dust but before she knew it the grey feathers of the Acro had pushed her slightly aside. She gave off a slight scoff but before she could scold him to wait for his turn he had moved away from the tank. The big Acro moved on but as he walked past her she could see his feathers stained with a spot of dust. 

Neither of them spoke. Ash simply walked over to a bench with shelves hanging over it filled with different bottles of liquids and a few, much smaller vials as well. Oramei let her gaze travel to Lumos who was busy checking the cupboards for anything interesting in his own corner of the room. She placed her eye close to the glass. Looking into the dimly lit liquid. Unlike many of the vials something seemed to be causing just the slightest movement in the liquid. Could anything be living in these tanks? 

“I don’t think I want to drink this water anymore.” Lumos' tone was a mixture of comedic and horrified as he spoke. Clearly trying to make the situation lighter. Ash turned around to face him as he saw what the big, yellow Albo was pointing at. It was a decent sized bottle, stashed in a dark corner of the cupboard, and inside it was an animal. 

“What is that?” Ash spoke with a certain level of disgust in his voice as he moved closer to Lumos. “It sort of looks like..” 

“A tiny, tiny raptor.” Lumos' voice was slightly shocked when he realised what he had seen in the bottle. 

“It’s so tiny.” Ash joined up beside Lumos as they both got as close to the floor as possible to keep looking. 

“Who would do something like this?” Lumos shook his head but Ash turned his head back to Oramei just as she spoke.

“You guys should check this out.” Her gaze never left the big tank as she spoke. The small, small movement in the tank had drifted something closer to the spot where she was standing. Lumos and Ash didn’t really need to get much closer to see it. Even if the rest of the glass was covered with a thick layer of dust they could still see the blurred outline of whatever was kept in the tank. Oramei could see the specimen clearly. It was a raptor. It looked as if it had hit adolescence at least, as if it was sleeping in the liquid surrounding it. As if it could wake up at any moment to look back at her. But it was these things that made her keep looking, unable to move her gaze. It was the fact that the raptor had two heads. One bald, like the rest of its body - and the other one with tiny feathers sticking out.

Ash carefully pushed her out of the way to get a better look as well. She did not complain and just looked at the outline of the shape through the blurry layer of dust. Lumos just managed to get a look as it once again drifted away from the opening. Oramei followed it with her gaze. 

“Who would do something like this?” She asked as the specimen became just a slightly darker blur in the tank and she could finally will herself to look around the room again. She now knew that most of these vials and bottles, although covered in dust and barely see through, must have similar things in them.

“I do not know.” Ash added with a thoughtful tone. “But I do not wish to find out.” He looked back at Lumos who nodded his head in agreement.

“I think we’ve seen enough, let's go back up.” Lumos headed to the door with Ash in tow. It was only Oramei who stood still in the room. They didn’t wait for her, and eventually her legs started moving by themselves as if her subconscious wanted her to leave the room.

“I grew up here. I never even knew this stuff existed down here.” 

She could see Ash ahead of her. Knowing he had heard her but rather just didn’t want to answer her thoughtful reminiscence. Lumos was now leading the way out of the basement, not stopping at the various open doors they had entered before. Simply wanting to get back up to a higher level again. Perhaps to continue their search in a less horrifying area. Oramei could see Ash’s gaze travel into the rooms as he walked past. Clearly thinking the same as her. How many others did they miss just because they didn’t know what they were looking for?

Perhaps they would never find out and be happy that whatever did this happened before their time.

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