Tosser

With Cheron leading him along, Kaiwi watched as the crowd parted before them. The carnival's ringmaster drew eyes as he passed by, his sparkling red robe reflecting pale lights across the ceiling from the shining sequins sewn into it. They approached a display with a small plane, a significant crowd separated from it by a velvet rope suspended from two golden poles. Between the plane and the raucous crowds throwing rings at it, Kaiwi nearly missed a familiar face amongst them. He watched as Cassidy grabbed a red plastic ring between her teeth and flicked her head to throw it towards the plane.

"Another one!" she crowed and the Oviraptor standing nearby dutifully handed her both another ring and a red paper ticket.

"Well, it's strange to see you in the city this time of year," Kaiwi noted, making her jump and spin around to see him. The others around her kept throwing rings and cheering so she jerked her head to the side and beckoned him somewhere quieter. In the shadow of a suspended wooden plane, she stopped and sighed, grimacing at his expression.

"Look, it wasn't my idea, Wisteria wanted to come look at the fancy rocks they have here or something. She's in the other wing and I needed to keep myself occupied." Kaiwi didn't say anything, prompting her to continue, "I was going to your place tomorrow on the way home, I'm not avoiding you."

"I never said you were," Kaiwi replied, but it lacked the venom he intended, sounding instead like a sulking hatchling.

"But I wouldn't blame you for thinking it," she assured him. Before she could reassure him further a familiar winged head poked around the corner.

"Ah, sneaking off, lovebirds?" Cheron chirped, clasping his hands together, "You left before I had the chance to explain one of our most popular games, my friend." Cassidy gave Kaiwi a look that read 'you know this weirdo' but Kaiwi refused to meet her gaze for fear of offending their host.

"Sorry about that, you know how it is, when you haven't seen an old friend in a long time it's hard to not get lost in conversation," he lied easily but Cheron's face softened nonetheless. 

"Of course, of course, everything feels so amplified in the cold doesn't it?" he asked wistfully, looking in their direction but seeming to stare straight through them. "But now, you will not escape the joys of my festival so easily, come along!"

Cheron didn't take no for an answer, ushering them both back to the ring toss. He was escorting Kaiwi specifically since Cassdy had already played it, but she tagged along out of some kind of solidarity. The line of dinosaurs was still there, standing behind the rope in front of the unusual plane that had been dragged here by the festival workers, judging by the ropes still looped over the wings. The plane was far smaller than the one Kaiwi had seen crashed on the beach before. That one's frame stretched far above his head like the ribs of a massive creature, while this one's immaculately preserved fish-shaped body was barely longer than his own. Its snout was snubbed and a bulb-shaped protrusion served as the base for the plane's propellers. The propellers themselves were unusually shaped, at least as compared to the other models in the hall. They had blunt ends and were relatively thin, about the shape of a blade but blunted into a round end. The wings were as stubby as the snout, making Kaiwi doubt it was able to fly at all.

"what in the world?" Kaiwi murmured under his breath.

"It is an Ecroupe, my friend! Cheron said enthusiastically, "You see, in nineteen and thirty one-"

"Oh, I'm sorry, that was rhetorical," the raptor cut him off. Cassidy ducked her head down, feigning searching for a ring to avoid revealing the grin on her face. 

As the rings flew, Kaiwi couldn;t help but notice throws that were going well under the blades of the propeller. He looked down, seeing a raptor hatchling dwarfed by the throwing rings but still managing to fling it a surprising distance. The dusty purple hatchling would clench her little jaws around the ring, spin in a full circle and then let the ring fly in the general correct direction. Still, with the height disadvantage he knew there was little chance of the poor thing ever landing a shot. Cassidy noticed he had stopped playing and followed his eyeline down to where the child stood. She made eye contact with him and nodded with a slight smile, despite her protests Kaiwi knew she had a heart in there somewhere. 

“Oopsy daisy,” Kaiwi said as he hoisted the youngster onto his head, “now, that's a little more fair.”

"what's your name, scrap?" Cassidy asked as she handed a ring up to the hatchling.

"Urm, Foff-fluff," the little raptor mumbled around her full mouth. She threw the ring, watching it glance off the propeller with a scowl, "I mean, Foxglove, sorry, I shouldn't talk with my mouth full."

"Eh, lame rule for nerds with nothing good to say at dinner," Cassidy scoffed, "Try again, you nearly got it that time." Kaiwi stayed quiet, happy to be a stepping stool instead of tossing the rings himself. He felt it when the kid giggled at Cassidy's proclamation. 

"You're silly, grown ups are not supposed to be silly," she admonished the adult raptor.

"Oh there's plenty of silly grown ups, just look at all the ones around you playing this game," Kaiwi remarked, keeping his voice low to avoid starting a fight.

"O-oh, is this silly?" Foxglove asked, fidgeting with the ring in her claws instead of throwing it.

"Not for kiddos, you have fun with it," he reassured her quickly when he heard the hesitance in her voice. The last thing he wanted to do was crush some poor kid's vibe when she was only trying to have fun. He caught the tail end of an acidic look that Cassidy gave him before she pointedly grabbed a ring for herself. Kaiwi bit his tongue.

"Okay, here I go!" Foxglove said firmly, planting her feet into Kaiwi's head and grabbing the ring in her jaws. She whipped her head with enough force that she went tumbling off of the adult raptor's head and he hurried to bring his arms up to catch her. As she fell, like it was happening in slow motion, she watched as the bright pink plastic ring caught the end of the propeller blade, circled the top for a moment, like it was thinking about ringing straight off, before hooping downward along the blade.

"We got one!" Cheron announced loudly. The rest of the crowd cheered before returning to their own throws and the ringmaster ducked under the flying rings to approach the three raptors. "HEre you are, you can trade these for prizes near the entrance," he told her.

"Wow," Foxglove breathed, holding the small red ticket in her claws and looking at it like she had been handed a rare gem, "Can I get something for just one?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Of course, of course, I'll show you," Cheron offered, holding his claw lower to the ground for Foxglove to eagerly grab and be led to the prize stand.

"Oh wait, one minute," she said suddenly to the ringmaster. She doubled back under the rope and wrapped her arms around Kaiwi's legs before letting go and doing the same to Cassidy, "Thank you so much," she said cheerfully, her smile almost as wide as her little face. Foxglove ran back to the ringmaster who waited patiently for her and took her hand as he began to explain the different treats she could afford with her ticket. She looked down at the red ticket, grasped as tightly as she could manage without tearing it. "Can I get something that I could split up into three?" she asked shyly. Cheron stroked his chin as he thought, theatrical even in his musings.

"I'm... unsure, why do you ask, little one?" 

"I want to be able to share my prize with my friends," Foxglove explained, "Thistle and Misu are too sick to walk all the way here but they told me to go and have fun. I'd like to bring them back something to make them feel better." Cheron looked away quickly, leaving Foxglove unable to judge his reaction. She held even tighter to the ticket, hoping there would be something the three of them could enjoy togather. If not, even something she could split between Thistle and Tiramisu, since she had already had the gift of such a fun day out, even if she was missing her pack terribly. 

"I think there should be some fun things to buy," the ringmaster replied, clearing his throat with a cough, "Especially with all of... these." He revealed a handful of tickets, nearly spilling from between his long fingers from the sheer volume of them. They seemed to sprout from him, coming in waves that rained down over the little hatchling as she watched in awe. She was too excited to even ask if he was sure, she just scooped the fallen tickets in her wings and beamed up at the ringmaster, her eyes glazing over with tears of joy.

"What a little sweetie," Cassidy remarked, watching Foxglove and Cheron disappear beyond the crowd, "I don't remember being that polite as a sprout."

"Your poor parents definitely had their claws full with you," Kaiwi remarked, earning him a shouldering from the pink raptor.

"Like you were any better! Now, c'mon, you need to win me one of these big prizes so get throwing!"