Thrown For A Loop

Amaryllis straightened her neck and held her head up high, looking out over the metal bird-like structures to observe the festivities with bright, glittering warmth in her eyes to see everyone having such a nice time. And it was a nice time! She was so glad that after the events with the Atlanteans, and she had heard such dreadful things about what happened in the land-below-the-sea, that everyone could come together and not only be kind to one another, but to spread a little joy and cheer as well.

Not only were there dinosaurs from across the islands showing off in another part of the museum, but here amongst the planes and odd gadgets and photos of the stars there were also games. She had thought that it might be difficult to find something that she would be able to participate in, but the population of the islands had changed quite a bit since she was young. Shunos were not the largest dinosaurs on the islands anymore, and the games seemed to have been adjusted accordingly. Theris, acros, iguanodon, albertos, suchos, dacen, and even shunos could get in on the fun. It was nice to see.

It would be even nicer to see an old friend, who she had been looking for since she arrived at the museum. With so many around from all across the islands, she was hoping that she would encounter… Her eyes lit up. There. Finally! A familiar blue-grey parasaur, quietly standing near the edge of the crowd and keeping an eye on things just like he always had.

“Hael!” Amaryllis called delightedly, raising her voice to be heard above the crowd. She made her way over to him, careful to not step on anyone smaller (or on anyone’s toes), and called to him again when it seemed that he hadn’t heard her. Or he was too deep in “surveillance mode” to notice, that happened sometimes too.

“Hael! It’s good to see you - “ Amaryllis’s greeting cut off abruptly when she noticed the scar peering around the front of his chest - and became an enormous, gnarled patch on his shoulder which travelled up in a thin line towards his back.

“Oh, Hael what happened…” Her voice was pitifully soft. She hadn’t seen him in some time, and this looked like an old wound.

Hael responded with a gentle, good-natured huff. He was used to that look by now. “It’s good to see you too.”

Amaryllis leaned her head down to inspect the injury, but it really was well and truly healed, scarred over a long time ago.

“It turns out that it would’ve been safer if I had stayed with the herd. I had… a hard fall, exploring inside an upwalker remnant when we were exploring Pera,” he explained.

“But you’re okay now?” Amaryllis asked, lifting her head from the old injury to inspect more of him. There were not any other injuries that she just had not seen yet, were there?

“I’m okay now,” he agreed quietly. He shifted, a bit stiffly, as a few festival-goers wandered by. “Just a bit sore every now and then. Don’t think I can keep up with you if we were gonna try to swim out to some seagrass again,” he teased, quietly trying to assure her that he really was okay, “but I can still get around.”

“And… play some games, if we come across one?” Amaryllis asked. She wanted to spend more time with him to catch up, but if he had something else he wanted to do… they could always spend some time chatting together later, if they ran into each other again.

Hael huffed quietly, an airy sound which reverberated inside his crest bone. “Did you have one in mind?” He was already a little uncomfortable being here among such a large crowd, but maybe being here with a friend would help.

Amaryllis’s demeanour brightened considerably, though there was still a glimmer of worry in her eyes for her childhood friend. Hael had the distinct suspicion that they were not done talking about his exploits and what trouble it had landed him in. “What about that one over there?” she asked, turning her snout down the corridor of impromptu game stands.

Hael stood on his hind legs to get a better look at what she was suggesting and agreed. It looked at the very least like it wouldn’t be very physically demanding. The towering theri described the game as a ring toss, of sorts, but rather than the goal being to land rings around bottles, it was to land rings on your partner. The “rings” that they had to toss were all manner of upwalker artifacts - namely old bicycle tires which had been pried from their spokes, as well as a number of colourful hula hoops.

The pair were split up and stood at opposite sides of the considerably-sized game “tent,” which stretched from one wingtip of a forest green plane all the way to the opposite wingtip. It was a considerable distance, and others had been paired up much more closely together, but the theri explained that the distance between them was to make it fair for their greater size compared to other festival goers. It made sense, even if Hael did not enjoy the thought of putting that much heft in a toss for a bike tire to make it all the way to Amaryllis - and over her head or tail.

He didn’t want to disappoint her, though. She had seemed so excited to play something with him. It was five tosses each - it wouldn’t be that bad. They could find some food from one of the festival’s various stalls afterwards, sit, and have a chat.

Hael picked up a bike tire in his bill and tossed his head, slinging the bike tire towards Amaryllis - only for it to loop perfectly around a colourful tapejara flying conveniently in the tire’s path. Felix squawked in alarm, flapping his wings erratically to catch his balance in the air. Hael and Amaryllis looked up at him, unsure of exactly what to do, and Felix looked down at them. A plan very quickly hatched in his head. This was an excellent opportunity for him to scrounge up more prizes, and for doing only a small portion of the work.

“Come on then!” he called to them, glancing between the pair. “What else do you have for me?”

Amaryllis laughed and stamped her feet lightly. Alright, if that was how they were going to play the game, then so be it! There hadn’t been any rule that they had heard that said they couldn’t involve a third player, let alone one that could fly between them. She picked up a bike tire of her own and tossed it in Hael’s direction. It whirled through the air, but ultimately starting to fall a little short the closer it got to the para. Felix swooped in to hook it around his head, but that much rubber (even sun-baked as it was) was a bit heavy for the relatively small tapejara.

Hael could have this one, Felix decided, and dropped it over the para’s crest horn. Hael grunted softly. That wasn’t the ideal spot for the bike tire to have been placed since he had more rings to toss, and he wasn’t sure how “legal” this was for the game, but… he looked towards the theri, who seemed busy with other festival goers. Sure, why not then? He tossed a pink and blue striped hula hoop towards Amaryllis, which Felix helped guide through the air and dropped it around her neck. It made a lovely necklace, he told her, which just made Amaryllis laugh again.

Hael huffed in quiet amusement. It was nice to hear Amaryllis’s laughter again. It had been a long time.

That was how they played the game - back and forth, Amaryllis and Hael tossed “rings” to one another, with Felix flying back and forth between them to catch them if they started to fall a little short. It made it even easier on Hael as well, since he had to put less strength and torque behind his throws with Felix being there to “help” the rings along. By the time they ran out of rings, Hael had two bike tires around his horn and a hula hoop held around his right front leg, Amaryllis had three hula hoops around her neck, and Felix had four assorted “rings” around his neck as well. It was all much too heavy for him to carry in the air at that point, so he rested on Amaryllis’s shoulder as they approached the theri, laughing and ready for their prizes.

The theri seemed suspicious of their success - if Hael was partnered with Amaryllis, and Amaryllis was partnered with Hael, who had the tapejara joined up with? Well both of them, obviously.

The theri gave them each a long look, but after a moment, decided that arguing was more trouble than it was worth when they were all here to have a good time. He had other festival goers to attend to and he gestured them to go away towards the prizes with a wave of his lengthy claws.

“Well that was a treat,” Felix crowed. His eyes glinted with mischief, “we should do this again sometime!”

Amaryllis merely laughed at the tapejara and thanked him for his help. She wasn’t sure that they would have actually made it to the prizes if he hadn’t been around to get caught by one of the rings. They were going to take a break now - Hael looked like he needed a rest, even if he didn’t want to say it - but Felix was welcome to join them for another game later!

The tapejara glanced between the pair and decided in an instant that no… no, he’d rather try his luck somewhere else much more immediately. Farewell!