Trust Exercise

Dexter looked back over his shoulder to keep his eye on his friends in the crowd. Kisse had a tight hold on her egg, having refused to leave it unattended at home. It had been weeks with no movement beyond the shell, but neither Dexter nor Roswell had the heart to ask her to stop nurturing it. Roswell herself had been broody lately, preparing her own nest when she couldn't steal the egg for babysitting. All the signs were there, and Dexter was just waiting for the eggs to drop. With both of his dear friends in a delicate stage, he found himself keeping a sharper eye on then that probably necessary. It was hard to manage with the constantly moving crowd, especially when he could barely hear them over the noise. He hadn’t wanted to go at all but Roswell had pointed out it may be their last Lunar Festival as free agents, having to haul around hatchlings next time it rolled around. The games were loud enough but the true racket came from the workers’ voices calling punters in for the sport. No voice rang louder than the ringmaster, brandishing his cane and calling out into the hall.

“Roll up, roll up and pin the skull on the Elasmosaurus!” the Oviraptor called. His regalia was gleaming and the feathers around his crest fluttered like moth wings, captivating any eyes that landed upon him. Almost subconsciously, the trio drifted towards the stand and the ringmaster's eyes lit up. “Why do I have some takers?” He asked, his smile roguish. 

“What do we have to do?” Dexter asked suspiciously before the sisters dove in.

"It's simple my dear lad, you place the Elasmosaurus’ skull on the correct spot,” Cheron produced a flat unusually shaped piece of laminated paper from his sleeves. It was a skull surrounded by a white outline, its snout average in length and with sharp conical teeth and a wide eye socket. With a flourish, the ringmaster gestured behind him to the wall, where a large poster hung with what appeared to be the rest of the skeleton. It looked to be of the same body shape as the Aristos that Dexter had seen in the ocean when he had lived on the beach for a time as a youngster. The flipper bones were splayed out and the neck curved over its back, missing the head that Cheron held in his claws.

“Onto the neck? Do we have to throw it?” Kisse asked, shifting her egg further up in her arms.

“Not at all, you just have to place it with your own claws,” Cheron smiled, though he seemed to be holding something back.

“And the catch is?” Roswell asked, squinting at him.

“Ah, a clever lady, a remarkable lady, there's always a gimmick with these fabulous carnival games,” he crowed, his eyes twinkling, “You have to do it blindfolded!” Dexter nearly groaned out loud at the revelation but the sisters perked up, the quirk finally piquing their interest.

“Alright, it costs nothing to try,” Roswell shrugged, “Gimme the blindfold, chief.” Cheron helped her tie the black cloth around her eyes and stepped back, keeping his hands to his sides in an extravagantly gentlemanly fashion considering she couldn't see it. Roswell grasped at the air and the ringmaster obligingly placed the skull in her claws.

Her objective in hand, Roswell took a deep breath and turned to where she believed the poster was hanging. She took a bold step forward and her tow claw met the edge of a step upwards.

“Fuck, I didn't realise there was a step in the way,” she swore.

“There isn't,” Dexter's dry voice came from behind her, “You've turned yourself around.” Ignoring her sister's sniggering, Roswell spun on her heel at what she hoped was a hundred and eighty degrees. She reached out blindly, blinking into the cloth over her eyes. She shuffled cautiously forward until her claws met the smooth, laminated surface of the poster. She allowed herself a victorious grin and slapped the skull down where she knew the end of the neck would be, stepping back and whipping the blindfold off triumphantly. 

The skull stuck proudly on the right front flipper of the Elasmosaurus. Roswell immediately growled in defeat and buried her snout in her claws.

“Alright, step aside, let me try,” Kisse insisted, handing off her egg to Dexter. He was surprised, she didn't relinquish her charge so easily. Sibling rivalry was truly a powerful and unknowable force to him. 

Kisse faced the poster, eyeing the end of the neck and lining her arm up with the angle. Roswell began to raise her voice to argue cheating but her sister hissed at her before going back to lining up her shot.

"Are you ready?" Cheron asked, holding the blindfold over his arm.

"Ready, blindfold me," Kisse declared boldly. She shut her eyes and kept her arm ramrod-straight as the ringmaster tied the cloth and placed the cut-out in her waiting claw. Fully blind, she took a wobbling step forward and inched ahead until her hand met the cool surface of the poster. Without moving her arm at all, she pressed the sticky side of the cutout into the poster and took a step back, tugging eagerly at the blindfold to see how she had done. She felt Roiswell come up behind her to help her and didn't like the weird silence, knowing her sister was holding her breath. More reluctant now, Kisse cracked one eye open to see the Elasmosaurus skull placed squarely on the skeleton's back. As she deflated, Roswell finally burst into peals of laughter, clutching her stomach as she rolled around on the floor. They were beginning to draw a crowd with the racket and that only increased as Kisse tried to wrap her claws around her sister's neck and the two began brawling.

"Guys, can one of you take the baby while I try?" Dexter asked, standing cautiously over the lump of flying feathers. Like they had been shaken from a trance the sisters sat up straight away and Kisse held out her arms.

"Yeah of course dude, go for it," she said cheerfully. He had to set aside his confusion as he handed over the egg, he had long made his peace with the fact that Kisse and Roswell's strange animosity was kept between themselves and never seemed to run further than skin deep. With the baby safely back in its mother's arms, Dexter took the blindfold and tied it over his eyes himself. He felt Cheron stand closer to adjust it and hum, clearly happy he couldn't see through it or around the edges of it. He was glad he had discarded that plan right off the bat. Instead, he politely held out his hand for the skull and heard Cheron unstick it from the poster and hand it to him. The crowd around them went quiet 

"Roswell? Am I facing the right way?" he asked simply.

"Uh," He heard the raptor pause and knew she was looking at the ringmaster to see if she was allowed to help. He must have signalled some kind of silent affirmative as she continued, "Yeah, you're facing the right way. Maybe turn a half step to the left?" He should've known that Roswell would be on his wavelength, even without knowing the plan she was already taking part in. 

"So next I take a step forward?" he asked, holding out the skull in the direction he hoped to advance. 

"Yep, three normal steps and your snout will be right at the poster," Kisse chimed in, making him jolt a little from how close she'd gotten without him realising. Three normal steps, that seemed impossible with his sight restricted but he decided to put his full faith in Kisse's judgement and took three bold steps forward. As she had predicted, he could feel his own breath coming back onto his snout as he now breathed on top of the laminated surface of the poster.

"Oh, I'm right here," he chuckled nervously, hearing his voice bounce back at him.

"Just like she said, now raise your arm," Roswell ordered, leaning over his shoulder. He swatted her playfully away with his tail and raised his arm up as high as it could physically go. 

"One step right," Kisse instructed, her voice giddy with excitement.

"Lower your arm an egg's length," Roswell chipped in once he had taken the step. He did so and his claws hovered over the poster, waiting for further instruction. He could hear fervent murmurs behind him as the sisters conferred on their next move. 

"Move like... one twitch left, one twitch up," Kisse tried. An obscure direction but Dexter followed it as best as he could. Buoyed by their sudden exclamations of "now, now, now!" he pressed the skull directly into the wall in front of him. Dexter grinned behind his blindfold, not needing to take it off and view his result when he could hear the loud cheers behind him.