Aerial Warfare

The coast of Isla Kela during winter was freezing cold, and a light breeze chilled Raoul to the bone. He was walking towards the coast, wanting to fish in his favourite coral reef spot which had now been covered in a sheet of ice. The tide was slow and long but it was still cold enough to form ice floes, some thick enough to stand on. It was hard to believe that the Islands got so extremely cold, seeing as during the summer it often felt like swimming in lava to Raoul. No matter, It was determined to fish anyway.

Winter always seems great in theory but maybe not in practice. It was beautiful but Raoul hated swimming in cold water - he would avoid it as much as possible. He would much prefer to be at home, atleast sheltered from the cold wind in his cozy spot in the museum.

My museum…The one that's been taken over…

Raoul wasn't present to see it, but one day after coming back from fishing he noticed A LOT had changed. First of all there were decorations everywhere - and then he saw what looked to be an oversized turkey yelling at the top of its lungs ! The turkey even had the nerve to say he's not leaving any time soon. Pah! I should just eat him.

…Fine. Maybe not. I prefer fish anyway.

That was what led him to the coast on such a dark and cold night. It needed some time to think through what to do about the intruder and get snacks in the meantime. Brain food. It's a perfect plan - although Raoul is nervous since he prefers to hunt in the daytime, when he can actually see. Maybe there is some fish frozen in the ice that he could carve out without having to go underwater. Pressing forward, he decides to try it out.

Walking to the edge of the water, the cold shards of ice pool around his feet and he winces. He takes long and deep breaths as he walks into the sea, pushing away any ice until he is completely submerged. Raoul opens his eyes to complete darkness. Great. I can't see a thing. I guess I'll try and sense something out.

Minutes stretched for what seemed like hours as the large suchomimus moved through the current, nose first while he swam up and down and around. It didn't seem like there was much around here and now Raoul needed air. It turned its nose up and eventually it met ice, and its large snout poked through the surface until its front claws could grip onto the largest closest ice floe. It then took a long, deep breath.

Upon opening his eyes, it realised that it was pretty far out from the coast now and peered outward to take everything in. It wasn't until he looked up again that he gasped.

The sky was filled with stars, so much that you could see The Milky Way. He had seen it been called that before, on posters around the museum. It was beautiful and kind of looked like a sea in its own right. Raoul was still halfway submerged and could not feel anything but joy as he looked up in awe.

For the moment, he was content stargazing. It wasn't until he could see some shapes above that he snapped out of it. He could see stars disappear as the shapes turned and glided southward, until both shapes started to circle above him.

Wait a minute. Why are they circling above me?

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a different thought came crashing right down into his face. The moment felt like slow motion, and he could feel wings and feathers and a beak as it hit him and slid down to his side. Into the water.

Raoul adjusted his eyes as fast as he could as he stared down at the wet lump of feathers floating next to him, clinging onto him for dear life.

"What…are you?" He could hardly see, but he could make out a shape and a color: green. Whatever this thing is that just crashed into him, it's green. Yeah that really narrows it down, me.

The wet bundle began to speak, "Oh no, oh no, nonono please don't eat me. Get me out of this freezing cold water! PLEASE!"

Raoul forgot he could move for a second, and he still could feel nothing as he grabbed the bundle and placed it onto the ice he was still gripping on to.

"Why did you crash into me? That hurt!"

They were nose to nose and it wasn't hard to understand what it was now. It was a large flier- a Tropeognathus. A very fluffy one at that, with a blue head and some lighter spots. "Who are you?"

The Tropeo shakily stood up and began to shake itself, getting cold salty water droplets into Raoul's face and eyes.

Ack!

"Oh, I'm sorry!" The Tropeo then curled in on itself and stared at him. "My name is Sasha. I'm sorry I crashed into you. Erm…Thank you for saving me."

"Didn't I see two shapes up there?" Raoul was sure he could see two shapes. One large and one smaller, but he didn't see any now.

Sasha made a noise of what Raoul can only assume was a laugh, and then clacked her large beak together. With that, he felt a breeze as another lump of feathers crashed into him for the second time.

This time, he caught it before it could fall. Raoul turned his head slightly to look down upon the second flying creature to slap him in the face on this evening alone.

"What is wrong with you?! Why I oughta….."

"Hey, hey hey, you wouldn't eat me would you? I'm very stringy! Not nutritious at all!"

The trope that he was holding was trying to wriggle out of his grasp.  "I'm sorry, Mr Sucho, okay? Please let me go!"

"Don't worry Jack, if it wanted to eat us I'd already be in its belly."

The sound of Sasha's voice seemed to instantly soothe the Tropeo in his arm. Speaking of his arm, it was getting tired and so he lifted the flier up onto the ice floe right next to Sasha.

"Why have you two decided to smack me in the face? Can either of you tell me why?"

Both tropeos looked at each other sheepishly. Raoul felt like he was telling off some hatchlings for misbehaving, not two fully grown Tropeos.

"We thought you were a carcass…"

…

"WHAT?"

With that outburst, both Tropeos got up and made more space between them.

They know the floe can't hold my weight. Grr, I wasn't going to eat you, but now I just might! Argh!

Raoul began to kick his legs in frustration under the water. "Why would you think I'm a carcass? Don't you guys have eagle eyes?"

The Tropeos walked a little closer and split up so that Jack was on Raoul's left and Sasha was on his right side. Jack was the one to speak up.

"Listen…It's really dark okay? We were just looking at the sky. Then we could just see a ball of pinkish red from up there, so we thought it must've been an animal that got stuck in the ice."

"Yeah, well I'm not stuck in the ice, and I'm not dead, so thank you for the head injury."

Jack piped up with a playful tone, "Grumpy, are we? It was just a silly mistake, cmon…We won't do it again!"

Raoul made a deep growl, "You'd better not, because then I would eat you."

Sasha made a laughing noise again as she looked at him, "Ha! You say that but you had ample time to eat both of us just then. You didn't."

"I'm just saying that I may be provoked to bite you if you do try it again."

Raoul narrowed his eyes as he looked between both of them. Then he noticed Jack was looking up and she let out a gasp. All three of them turned up to look at the sky.

Now, the Milky Way was no longer alone. Gorgeous blue and green lines stretched out above them as they all realised they were looking at the Northern Lights as well.

Wow, that's even more beautiful than before. It's so bright.

"See, now that's what I came to see." Sasha was whispering as if the stars could hear.

"Isn't this beautiful?"

Jack was not whispering, "It really is. It kind of looks like you, mama." 

Both of the Tropeos looked at each other before making a cooing noise and then continued looking up. Sasha is Jack's mother? I see why this happened now. Like mother like son.

The sucho felt like he was intruding on their conversation somehow, even though they are the ones who bumped into him. Literally. "I've never seen anything quite like this."

"If only this had happened earlier, then we could have seen you clearer."

Raoul whipped his head around to look at Sasha, who had an amused expression.

"What if you guys are just blind?"

Both of the Tropeos erupted into laughter. Well I'm glad someone thinks I'm funny around here. What's not funny though is you smacking me in the h-

"What are you doing here anyway, Mr Sucho?" Sasha tilted her head as she spoke.

"It's really really cold, and the coral fish are probably sleeping, you know."

It was then Raoul realised he never told them his name. I guess I could tell them why I'm here.

"I thought maybe a few fish might have gotten frozen okay? But really I was just wanting to clear my head and get out of that stuffy museum." He let out a huff at the reminder.

"My name is Raoul, by the way…"

"The museum?" Jack whisper-yelled, even though no one was whispering anymore. He seemed really excited about it. "You mean The Lunar Light Festival slash Carnival led by the Great Ringmaster Cheron?"

"...Is that what the bastard's name is? Ohhh I'll get him…" Raoul remembered what that turkey had said to him. He never told me his name. Maybe he knows I'm onto him.

"Whaaat? You don't like the Carnival?" Sasha seemed surprised while Jack just looked amused by his anger. "It's really fun. We've been there a few times to play the games."

Jack piped up again, "Yeah! You should come with us next time!"

Raoul couldn't believe his inner ears. Games? What confounded games are there to be played in a museum: a place of worship and reverence? …Gasp. It better not involve the fossils.

"Why don't we go…right now?" The tropeos could see the gleam in his eye as he turned his head to the direction of the museum. "I know of a really fun game we can play. It's called Eat the turkey!"