[Trade] Ball

They were an odd trio, that was for sure- a pair of styracosaurus, one with deep scars across his face and sides, long healed but still pink- and a brown and white cryolophosaurus, blue eyes glittering good-naturedly. The three had been traveling separately, with Vulcan leading Crusader and Tyr traveling on his own, but they had merged together to safely navigate the night. That being said, there was a strange lack of carnivores- normally by now they would have come across at least one hungry carnivore, but the road ahead was clear.

That was perhaps one of the few reasons Vulcan and Crusader were even tolerating traveling with a carnivore in the first place- they had all heard the rumors, but Tyr had the better night vision, as well as the better nose. They were on the trail that had been trodden many times recently- footprints in the snow revealed as much, but in places they faded. Tyr had claimed he had smelled out a variety of species, from carnivores to herbivores; but there was no blood. Somehow, they had all passed through this area peacefully, with little to no bloodshed. It was bizarre, to say the least.

Eventually, Tyr paused- causing the two herbivores behind him to stop short, scanning the world around them. “There!” He nodded forward. Vulcan and Crusader squinted- even with how clear the night was, they couldn’t see what Tyr was talking about. They shot him flat looks, but he was already running ahead. Crusader let out a low curse and began to run after him, Vulcan following close behind.

Soon it was clear just what Tyr was talking about- a grand building, far outside of the city range and left to rot for years. But tonight, it was alive again- even from outside the two herbivores could hear the sound of creatures roaming around inside, the sound of noisy chatter filling the air. Yet there was no hint of bloodshed, or violence. Tyr was already scaling the steps, calling back to the two of them. “This must be it! Let's check it out!”

“After you.” Vulcan took up the back, shooing Crusader ahead of him. “This place is…” words failed him as he entered the museum, craning his head as far back as he could to observe the world around him. Life had been restored to the long dead halls as those that may have once decorated it roamed free, the survivors of a world where humankind was gone. Crusader seemed a bit less awed, as he instead kept an eye on the carnivores around them. However, no aggressive behavior was seen- so he decided he could let them be, although he would keep an eye out.

“Where did that rat go?” Crusader mumbled, looking around for Tyr. He eventually spotted the cryolophosaurus chatting with a brown oviraptor at some kind of large stall run by several creatures. The two styracosaurus made their way over, scanning the stall as they did so. Various prizes hung from the wall, ranging from bits of cooked food and fish to fruits, exotic seeds, and even human objects. A suchomimus handed a clawful of red tickets to one of the oviraptors manning the booth, pointing at a strange human object. The oviraptor nodded, sliding it over. Some kind of currency?

“Hey guys!” Tyr turned to them as they walked up. “Java here was telling me all about this place!” The oviraptor looked a little bashful, but continued as Tyr nodded at him.

“Welcome to the Lunar Light Festival! We’ve come together to celebrate these beautiful times.” Java smiled, causing Crusader to snort a little, but Vulcan quickly nudged him. “We have plenty of fun games for people to play, along with various prizes!” He waved at the wall. Something on it caught Crusaders attention; a metal, sharp looking claw that seemed to be fairly stable. Seemed interesting enough.

“Where do we find these games?” Vulcan cut in, seeming fairly excited by the glint in his eye and the slight swish of his tail. The second the oviraptor pointed in a direction, the three were off; vanishing down a long, winding hallway.

They came out the other side into a large room with an almost dome-like ceiling that seemed to have been painted like the night sky- an effect a bit ruined by the broken roof, revealing the actual night above it. Strange, enormous human vehicles laid scattered across the room, their bright white color faded away with time. Large orbs of varying bright shades and colors lay collapsed across the room, long worn down until they were unable to roll anymore.

But that was of little interest to the three dinosaurs- what they were really focused on was the various games scattered across the large room. Large, colorful hoops hung in the air for flyers to fly through, a purple tapejara effortlessly making wide, sweeping loops around the dome. Another corner had a barrel of water, two suchomimus eagerly dunking into it while the floor around it grew wetter and wetter. Crusader eyed it warily, carefully keeping away from it. In another a pair of parasauorlophus were stacking cups higher and higher, only for a slight shift to cause the whole pile to collapse.

Vulcan was the one who ended up finding the perfect game for them. “There! Look!” He pointed with his horn to one of the games at the very end of the hall. A flat plane of some kind of metal had been laid out as smooth as possible, with several cans stacked on the end. A large, round ball was held under the foot of a bored looking pachycephalosaurus. She perked up as they approached, a grin on her beak. “Welcome to bowling!” She greeted. “The goal of this game is to kick this here ball down the lane. Whoever manages to knock the most cans over, wins! Welcome a try?”

Tyr grinned, eager, but turned back to Vulcan and Crusader. They both nodded after a moment, with the cryolophosaurus stepping up first. “I’ll start us off!” He attempted to grab at the ball, only to flinch. “Ow! That things heavy!” The theropod complained. “How are we supposed to move this thing!”

“Simple enough!” The omnivore helped move the ball to position, where a small groove held it loosely. “Just kick it!” She mimed kicking it, before backing to the other end and leaving them with the ball.

Tyr slunk forward, seemingly a bit more nervous now that he had felt the sheer strength of this simple ball. He placed the flat of his foot around the ball, before pushing off. It wasn’t a position that gave him as much power as a kick- but it was good enough to get it rolling. The three watched as the ball slowly rolled down the flat plane, the slightly upcurved side stopping it from rolling completely off. However, by the time the ball reached the other end, it had lost almost all of its force- instead of knocking any cans over, it just lightly tapped on them. Tyr slumped, and the staff whistled. “Oof, bad luck! Need to give it a bit more. Well, who's next?”

“Ill go.” Vulcan volunteered, stepping up once the pachycephalosaurus rolled the ball back and returned to her point of vantage. The styracosaurus first poked the ball with his long frontal horn, snorting when it didnt move an inch. Instead, he moved forward, kicking the ball with his front leg. The ball didn’t go flying, but it certainly moved with more force than Tyr's kick. This time the ball actually hit the cans, knocking the first few over with a loud clatter- but missing the ones in the back.

“Not bad!” The pachycephalosaurus chirped, picking the cans back up as she held the ball still. “You knocked down three out of nine! Good for your first time.” She kicked the ball, rolling it back over and into its slot. While she busied herself setting them up, Crusader took his place at the front. Like the other two, he gently pressed his foot against it to test the resistance… but he had a better idea. Unlike most styracosaurus who had sharp horns, his had long ago been broken in battle, leaving it with a dull end. While this made it inconvenient as a piercing weapon, it was plenty good at delivering a lot of force…

Lining up his head, Crusader lowered his horn down to the level of the ball and backed up a few paces. Somewhere further back he heard Tyr ask what he was doing, only to be shushed by Vulcan, who seemed to have picked up on it. Crusader took a deep breath, then lunged forward. His horn hit against the ball in an impact that was almost painful, but caused it to rocket off and slam against the cans. Nearly all of them fell over with a loud, ringing clatter as they smacked against the metal floor. 

“Wow!” The pachycephalosaurus clapped as Tyr and Vulcan cheered. “That was a damn good hit! You got… seven!” She quickly kicked the ball back over to prevent it from rolling, before returning to the stand and grabbing several slips of paper. “Your tickets.” Crusader ended up with the most, and Tyr the least. “Hope you enjoyed it!” 

Crusader turned to the other two with a wide grin on his face. “So… what next?” He was feeling a lot more cheery once he had won something, it seemed. 

“Oh! Oh! Over there!” Tyr darted off into the crowd, leaving the other two to sigh and follow him. Seems this would be their night, then…