[Trade] Know Your Enemy

The forests that hugged the edge of Roseate's savannah home were frequently visited by him in the height of summer. When the sun grew too unbearable, he would slink away into the undergrowth and find shade until the cool evening air began to chill his feathers. He picked his way through the edges of the trees until he found a simple pathway into the woods, barely taking a step before leaning in to smell the red blossoms that grew along the path. He had found some of his favourite flowers along this forest's edge during his short life and always stopped to smell as he went past. As he did, he found no harm in looking around, which was when he spotted something eerie.

A pair of eyes were watching him from the dark.

Roseate struggled to contain his cry of fear, letting a croaking gurgle escape instead as he planted his footing into the dirt. His first instinct was to keep upright instead of falling over out of fear. Falling over left him vulnerable, gave whatever it was in the dark the advantage, and lost him a fight before it began. He faced forward instead, cocking his head to the side and squinting through the leaves. He took a single step into the woods and let the canopy cover him, letting his eyes adjust and take a look. The eyes that watched him were nightshade coloured, matching the tongue and gums of the mouth that opened to pant loudly. The snout was familiar, a shape that looked back at Roseate whenever he was staring into the surface of the water. He was facing another Utahraptor, which calmed his panicked palpitations somewhat. There was a chance for this potential foe to become a friend.

"Hello there, I don't mean any harm," Roseate said, his voice shaking. He cursed his lack of composure but the raptor only tilted its head at him. When it seemed to speak, instead a croaking sound seeped through its teeth. "Are you injured? I can go get help," Roseate offered. 

"Hell- o? Hell-o there help?" the other raptor said, its voice deep and raspy. This poor thing, Roseate thought, didn't even know how to speak, all it could manage was a faint mimicry of his own words. As his eyes adjusted further, he could see the pitch black feathers marked by pale pink stripes, like the scarce herd of zebras that wandered the savannah and fled the moment they saw Roseate in the grass. He wondered if his new acquaintance would be that skittish, and resolved to keep his voice low and slow. It stayed hunched in the dark, not moving an inch but keeping its eyes locked on him, watching his every move with an uncanny stillness. Shaking his feeling of unease, Roseate moved a scant inch closer as slow as he could, telegraphing every motion of every limb. The purple eyes didn't even blink as he came closer, and the dark patches on the raptor's face, somehow even darker than the rest of his feathers, came into focus. 

"It's alright, I don't know if you can understand but I'm here to help," Roseate said softly, holding out his arms as much as he could, showing his palms flat and his claws lax. 

"Help, help," the other raptor repeated, still gravelly, still breathing heavily through its open mouth. Something was deeply wrong with it, Roseate could tell, and he fought the urge to save himself or to help a struggling raptor in its time of need. He resolved to help instead, knowing that in his time of need he would want a stranger to show him kindness, he could extend this to a raptor that lay wheezing on the forest floor without any words to communicate. 

"It's okay, I'm right-"

"Help."

Roseate reeled back as the claw struck his chest, feeling its tip plunge into his skin and pull downwards sharply. He hadn't gone close enough for the claw to hook onto him properly and he was able to stagger backwards out of the raptor's reach. He could see its striped head slithering out of the dark and didn't hesitate a second longer, he turned around and bolted into the light. He was blinded momentarily but stayed running, he couldn't afford to look back or pause for even a moment. He could only hear his own footsteps in the grass but he couldn't rely on that alone to know he wasn't being pursued. His breathing came in sharp gasps as he struggled around the pain in his chest but he refused to stop until he reached the familiar river. He stumbled into it, splashing loudly and hoping the feathered pusuer would be discouraged by the water and allow him to catch his breath. When he looked back up the banks of the river, he saw nothing but the empty summer sky. He stood there, up to his neck in water, until the sun began to set and the encroaching darkness forced him to cross the river fully to put the body of water between them. He climbed up, seeing the dark crimson stain on his soft pink chest as he did and flinched away from the sight of it. It wasn't bleeding anymore but he hated to imagine what soaking it in the river had done. Once he had found his footing, he looked back over the river again but still there was no sign of anything watching him from the grass on the far side. He searched the bank for a pair of gleaming eyes in the moonlight, the clear sky giving him as much light as he would find at this hour. The eyes, they flashed in his mind unbidden, flat and staring, the eyes of an unthinking animal. Roseate felt a shudder run through his body at the memory, his first encounter with such a monster. The thought that another raptor couldn't be reasoned with, that they had the same thoughtless instinct of the blank-faced birds that had tried to snatch him from the nest as a hatchling. The same blank face on the wading birds that shared the river with him. He had been nothing but a writhing, grounded fish to that other raptor. Before his stomach turned even further, Roseate shook his head and hurried into the long grass.