[Trade] Coconut Type Guy

Doe stood on her tip toes to scan the crowd in search of a conspicuous grey Aristo while the green Alberto at her side did the same with noticeably less fervour. The floor was full of plane-themed games and the actual exhibits blocked her eyeline too, large planes and pieces of their fuselage covered in signs and flashing lights.

“She's only little, how much trouble could she get in?” The Alberto asked, yawning and allowing himself to be distracted by the games.

“Get real, Cucumber, Millie could find trouble in an empty room,” Doe retorted sharply. She squinted into the crowd again and saw a familiar fluffy grey head sitting in front of a long stretch of empty floor. “There she is, hurry before she moves,” she said quickly, ducking into the crowd and working her way through. Cucumber rolled his eyes but followed his friend anyway.

Millie sat innocently in front of a red and white awning, hanging over a plain wooden table that held a number of dark red balls sitting in evenly distributed piles across the surface. Behind the table, the floor was painted in a plain grey to mimic tarmac, framed by white lines and having a matching line down the middle too like the runway at an airport. Something was written in human language across the floor but none of the festival attendees had managed to decipher it so far. At the end of this short runway, five poles stood upright, each with a wide foot sticking to the floor at the bottom and a cup at the top. Each cup held a coconut, most being the same size but with natural variation across each of them. Cucumber was instantly intrigued, trying to look around and see what the aim of this game was. The backdrop was plastic sheeting painted in slapdash patches of sky blue, barely covering the original red and white of the sheet. It seemed to previously be a matching set with the same coloured awning that sat over the table, keeping their aquatic friend sheltered from the overhead lights.

“There you two are,” Millie greeted them blithely, “I was wondering if you’d gotten lost.” Doe drew breath to begin defending herself but deflated at seeing the blank, innocent expression on the Aristo’s face.

“I- yeah, we couldn’t find you in the crowd,” she said lamely.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Cucumber asked, still sizing up the particulars of this fairground game.

“Step right up to the coconut shy!” An Oviraptor, previously hidden by the heavy hang of the awning, boomed. Doe and Cucumber both jumped, instinctively stripping their teeth at the sudden racket. The festival worker was undeterred, gesturing to the red balls sitting on the table. “All you have to do is knock the coconuts off and you win tickets, all the tickets you can handle,” he assured them all.

“What does coconut shy mean?” Doe asked, “Are these especially bashful coconuts?” The Oviraptor shrugged.

“I don't know man, I just work here,” he said monotonously, losing his extravagant announcer's voice. Cucumber looked down at the balls and back up at the Oviraptor, who merely arched an eyebrow at him. He lowered his snout to the table and grabbed one of the balls in his teeth, surprised at the fact they were hard and unyielding like stone. He stood sideways to get a better view of the coconuts and tried to line up his shot with the limited range of aim his head afforded him. He rocked back and forth for a few motions, then whipped his head to the side and sent the ball flying towards the coconuts. He could feel his tail smack into the propellor of a display plane behind him and winced, but he remained determined that his aim had been true. His head spun with the force he exerted but he could hear the ‘clunk' of the coconut being struck and willed his eyes to focus faster and see his triumph. His smile began to slip, however, when the brown husks refused to move.

Millie narrowed her eyes, watching as the pole swayed back and forth but the coconut within stayed completely still. It didn't even rotate as its holding cup wobbled back into an upright position. She glanced over at the other two competitors and found they were still lining up their shots, throwing more once the backdrop stopped shaking. The Aristo chanced a look at the attendant, seeing they were looking down at their claws, picking at them like they were bored. It seemed they weren't expecting a coconut to fall any time soon. Millie huffed through her nose, certain that her suspicion was correct. You couldn't con a con artist, and she was one of the best across both islands.

“Yeah this isn't for me, flippers, y’know? It's already hard enough just getting around,” she waved one of her front flippers.

“Aw c'mon, you can try with your mouth instead?” Doe offered, taking a ball herself and whipping her head to the side to launch it towards the coconuts.

“Put that long ol’ neck to good use,” Cucumber teased, lining up his shot with his tail instead. Millie watched as he whipped the ball across the gap and heard the solid crack of the hard surface colliding with the coconut. It didn't move, again, but Cucumber returned to pitching more balls towards the targets. Using the fervour of the two land carnivores’ competitiveness, Millie took the opportunity to slip away. Neither her temporary companions nor the Oviraptor noticed her leaving, much to her delight. She dragged herself along the alleys between the fairground games, barely paying any attention to them as she tried to navigate around. At most she cast a glance to a small plane with a snarling face painted on it, including a bright red cone nose. If it was supposed to be intimidating, it failed. She turned to the right, coming back down the next alley and looking along the right side as she tried to identify the stand by its back. The red and white tarp stood out, thankfully, and she shuffled over to it, keeping her small body close to the floor to avoid detection. It was just about wide enough to hide the full length of a juvenile Aristo, so the folks out front wouldn’t be able to see her. She pressed her head to the plastic, wincing as she felt a ball hit the area above her and fall down to the painted floor. It rolled back to the front of the stand, like the floor had been sloped to return the ammunition back to the throwers with minimal effort on the Oviraptor's part. She listened to the sounds, trying to identify which were hits on the coconuts and which sailed straight past to hit the tarp. She thanked the stubbornness of the two carnivores as she listened, they were giving her plenty of time to figure out her timing.

‘CLONK’

As the ball hit the coconut, Millie slipped her fin just under the plastic, knocking the whole pole over with a quick swipe.

Doe cheered loudly as she finally managed to nail a coconut and watched the whole pole tumble to the ground. It landed at the foot of another and the chain reaction sent it falling too, the coconut staying put but hitting the floor with the pole.

“Two of them!” she crowed, “how many tickets is that worth?” She grinned at the stunned look on the Oviraptor's face, pleased with her clearly impressive performance.

“No, wait, let me get one!” Cucumber insisted, continuing with his tail strike method and sending another ball flying across the runway. It hit a coconut and he held his breath as it rocked back and forth, seeming like it was about to fall out but beginning to settle back in. He was about to lament his loss but with a sudden jerk the pole fell over completely. He tilted his head in confusion and as he looked at the ground he spotted a grey, feathery flipper disappearing behind the tarp.

“I suppose you both get tickets then,” the Oviraptor said slowly.

“Wait, hang on, there's still two coconuts left, we're not finished yet,” Cucumber interrupted, nudging Doe slightly with his hip. The Cryo looked back at him and when he was sure the Oviraptor was looking elsewhere he winked at her. Doe's eyes widened and followed his gaze to the back of the runway and then to the disgruntled look on the Ovi's face. She couldn't see anything, but she knew *something* was going on and decided to go with it.

“Yeah, one more and I've shut you out,” she grinned at Cucumber, grabbing another ball.

“As if, I'm getting both of them,” the Alberto boasted, setting his ball up for his tail to strike. The Ovi stuttered but the two theropods were unstoppable, firing shot after shot until the last of the coconuts were on the floor, still stuck like glue to the poles.

Their arms full of tickets, Cucumber and Doe hurried off to split the loot with their hidden helper, as the Ovi stared desolately into his empty ticket basket.