Scouts from above

After they had been granted passage to the surface, as a truce had been established, the world felt so much bigger to the three iggies, and the air was so much fresher compared to the cramped dome because while it was ventilated, it was far from the same experience.

Anaconda, a brown pinstriped iggy with piebald, was taking the lead up a rocky mountain that the trio had decided to explore. While she was not necessarily a leader type, she knew the previous jailors happily listened to commands and followed along, as long as it did not go against their agendas.

Gaol was in a particularly devious mood today though, so he kept purposefully bumping into Marble as they walked, irritating him more and more each time.
“Could you not!?” Marble hissed at his childhood friend after about the tenth time.
“But it takes so long to walk up there.” the quilled male groaned. “I’m so bored.”
“Don’t take that out on me!” the spiked tabby whined and smacked his friend with his tail.
“Enough now, boys.” Anaconda said, with a sweet, motherly tone. She sighed to herself, as she realised bringing these young males with her would probably be more akin to babysitting than actual exploration, but it was too late to change her choice of companions now anyway, as they were about halfway up at this point.

Marble grinned at Gaol as he could no longer keep annoying him, at least for a while, but as the sun was starting to rise over a distant mountain top he stopped in his tracks, in awe at the magnificent view.
“This is so beautiful..” he said, mouth agape.
“It really is.” Gaol agreed as he walked past his friend to approach Anaconda for a little chat.
“How come you chose to bring us on this expedition?” he asked, as he was genuinely curious.
“I had just heard that you were very reliable, and a trustworthy duo. I had not expected you two to be so childish, hearing all that praise.” the older female said as she looked at Gaol with her green eyes.
“Us, childish?” Gaol scoffed, though he knew it was true.
“Very childish.” Anaconda assured the quilled male.

Marble shook away his awe so they could continue their climb, only to realise that they had not waited for him and were now quite far away. “Those bastards…” he muttered and hurried his way back to them, just in time for them to actually reach the top.

“You can see so much from up here.” Gaol said with a smile. “There is a whole herd of parasaurs by that lake down there, and some shunos.”
“Mapping out the surroundings is exactly why I brought you two here, we need to establish safe areas where we can build colonies, and safe routes for our fellow Atlanteans that decide to move to the surface, to keep everyone safe and our communities intact.” Anaconda explained to the two males, who both nodded as they listened to her instructions. “I need you two to look around down there, notify me of any suspicious looking areas, or places that look more safe that are not too invasive on the outsiders. Considering everything that happened, we don’t want to step on any toes.”
“We will do our best.” Marble assured the older female and immediately started looking around.
“You can count on us, I promise. When we work we are much more mature, you will see.” Gaol said with a smile as he walked off further away to see if he could find anything of interest.

Anaconda herself also spied down from the mountain, of course, her job was to locate all these places as well, either before and to have them confirm, or to double check them after the fact. There were many appropriate spots that would be good to investigate further, big open space with a mountain protecting them could be good, but if there lived many carnivores nearby it could potentially also be a trap.
There were also many nice lakes and streams around that could serve as reliable sources of water for a colony. So many options, so many places that needed closer inspection.
Anaconda sighed and laid down for a moment to take a break, enjoy the view some perhaps. The day was still rather young, but there was so much work to be done.

Gaol and Marble were eagerly looking around one one side each. Gaol was making note of some suspicious rock formation, it seemed like an ideal ambush site for smaller predators, utahs perhaps. They would pose a major threat for their ovi population and was a no-go. But he also spotted a very peaceful looking field, and it seemed uninhabited enough.
Marble took notes of a swamp, while he was naturally suspicious about a place like that, it could also be good, he was unsure at best but figured it was worth mentioning that it was there. He also suggested they have a chat with locals near that big lake where they saw the para herd, to see if they knew of any safe, hidden spots that they could potentially use. There was also a large hole in the ground, a sinkhole perhaps, that he noted down as potentially dangerous. 

After much hard work the two males joined Anaconda to have a break as well, and to discuss their findings. She was very pleased with their work and smiled as she praised them.
“Well done boys, with your help we will have a chance to thrive up here.” she said.