The bell shall toll

Intro - starry–knight

The islands never seemed to have a shortage of unexpected guests, or for that matter, strange events. And it had seemed that not long after the Atlanteans appearance an even stranger caravan came into town. One with tents, games, even more new dinosaurs… leading everyone to wonder once more, where on Earth do these strangers keep coming from?
58 Words 

Reuger & Sonnet - starry–knight

Reuger was an already distrustful sort, so to see yet another strange bunch of dinosaurs roll into town made his skin crawl. He was always on high alert, and had made his stance clear about not attending such an event given the immense risk it could be to life and limb. Yet, Sonnet was curious and gentler in nature. The bright lights as well as the myriad of roaming herbi’s around them made her feel safer, and therefore more apt to see what the fuss was all about.

So there they were, walking along side by side, taking in the shouts of excitement from dinosaurs as they won a prize from games the pair couldn't quite discern. Yet, the feeling of the space around them was electric, the buzz in the room was one of such wonder and child like freedom, it was hard not to also feel the pull to leap in. 

Sonnet was already trying to find her chance and see a game that the pair of them could do together when her eyes began to gleam at the sight of a very tall and gleaming red bell!

 “Step Right Up! Step Right up!” The stall master called, turning a few heads as he did, “Test your strength and ring the bell!” -insert pa character description to be the stall guy- 

“Oh Reuger!” Sonnet gleefully spoke, turning around quickly to face him. “You'd be great at this! Let's try together!” She added in haste. 

Well, with a sparkle like that in her eyes, how could he really say no…

“Okay.”
262 Words 

Samuel - AberrantKapro

The young and calm parasaur, Samuel, was walking around the festival and observing everyone. For reasons unknown to him it had been set up in a museum, perhaps to avoid the cold winter winds, or perhaps just because it was a fun place. It was  fun to speculate. Whatever the reason was, he was quite happy and in good spirits, the holiday feeling had washed over him the second he sat foot in the beautifully decorated event area. He hoped that he would either stumble upon someone he knew, or that he could perhaps make a new friend or two that he could hang out with again in the future. He did need to socialise more, after all.

The young para stopped in his tracks as he saw a bunch of tropeos and shunos trying to catch some apples from a big tub of water, it looked rather fun, but he did not want to push himself between the crowd to approach, he would rather wait and see if less dinos were around later, so the dull, brown herbivore moved along to see what other games might be available that he could partake in. Some cryos and ovis he passed by were throwing up and smacking some red bags into buckets, that looked like a game he could have fun with too, but he would feel out of place among the theropods.

He eventually noticed a pair of parasaurs that approached a stall with some sort of bell thing. He wasn’t sure what it was all about, but there weren’t too many others around so he felt brave enough to approach and ask if they would let him join, especially since they were the same species and all, it gave him a small sense of comfort. He cleared his throat as quietly as he could before walking up and starting to speak.

“Hello, my name is Samuel.” he started, as a simple enough introduction. “Would you mind if I join? I have never tried this game before but I promise not to be a bother.”

He was always a little bit nervous as he tried to talk to strangers, but when he was little his mom had told him that he needed to put himself out there in order to get to know new dinos and make meaningful relationships, so this was a good step towards that, he thought to himself as he hoped his nervousness wouldn’t shine through. Even if they perhaps did not want to become his friends, he at least hoped that they would tolerate him for the night.
432 Words

Reuger & Sonnet - starry–knight

“The more the merrier-” Sonnet spoke softly. Glancing up to Reuger who, in turn, offered no protest. It was settled then, Samuel the Para, would join them. 

Reuger hadn't anticipated picking a straggler as they pressed the games, though he imagined based on the crowd that this Para felt out of place anywhere else. No matter, they would play the game and move on- for Sonnets sake. 

“Alrighty then dear, how about you go first.” Reuger encouraged, using his nose to gently push her forward toward the bell. 

Sonnet quickly hit on the brakes, her feet planting in as she started to get nervous. “Hmm.. mmm, maybe you could try it first. Just so I can see how it's done.” She whispered, the previous bravado she had had since melted away. 

Reuger just nodded, stopping in his own tracks and letting her move to the side before he stepped up to the contraption. 

“Kick, stomp, roll, whatever it takes to reach the top of the bell! Be the strongest!” The store clerk added as Reuger prepared to go. 

Easy enough, he thought. Now turning to where his back was towards the bell- rearing up onto his hind legs to use all of his back legs force to strike the metal plate. As he did, the bell whistled, climbing the post before striking at the top with a vibrant and hollering “RINNNNG”. 

“WINNER!” The clerk said with glee, equally matched by Sonnet in excitement. “It was easy love, why don't you go now.” Reuger added before moving out of the way again. 

Sonnet nodded, thinking heavily to herself to remember exactly how Reguer was standing and how he struck the plate on the wall. She wanted to impress him with making a similar impressive feat, though ultimately after 1, 2 , 3 tries to land on the mark, Sonnet hasn't managed to even get the thing to move. 

Her head lowered slightly, despairing of her failure. Though Reuger used it as a teaching moment. “Watch a little more carefully this next time around, see how our pal Samuel does it. You'll see.”

350 Words 

Samuel - AberrantKapro

Samuel was watching and listening carefully as the game stall clerk explained how the game worked to them. He was eager to try, but also a little nervous, so it seemed one of the others were as well, the female, so the male offered to go first. The young para thought it would be a good opportunity for him to get a hang of the game, without making a fool of himself, so he stood back and watched as the older male started.

Unsurprisingly, the male para hit the bell on his first try. Samuel was very impressed, but it also made him feel a little anxious about his upcoming attempt. He also wanted to do good, but he knew he was nowhere near as strong. Before his turn, he waited for the other stranger to have a go, but it seemed that she struggled to figure it out, which made the male look over to Samuel as he comforted her and told her to watch what he did.
Samuel felt the pressure now, but he took a deep breath to focus. He had to do it, he had to look as cool as possible or he would be so disappointed in himself. He let out a deep, long breath before also rearing up and landing on the pad as hard as he could. While the thing moved, it didn’t even come halfway up, which kinda made Samuel pout. He wished he could have done better, but he also knew he would never be able to hit the bell.

”Well that is too bad, would you like to try again?” The clerk very kindly asked him, but Samuel shook his head.
”No thank you, but it was fun.” He replied with a gentle smile and turned to the two kind strangers that had let him join as they were going to play. ”Thank you so much for letting me play with you today, it means a lot.”

327 words

Total: 1429 words