[Gift] Event | Step Right Up

The three colourful raptors stood outside the old museum building. The sun had risen lazily, barely peeking above the horizon line as it tinted the sky vaguely rose. Although the sun had already been up for hours the blades of grass that survived the cold were still covered with a layer of morning frost. The grass had crackled lightly as they had walked over the yard to the museum building. 

“No biting.” Kormal said the words with a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, yet delivered with a stern tone. “No misbehaving at all.”

Phaeniss rolled his eyes as he walked behind the other two raptors. That was always the case wasn’t it. No biting, no misbehaving. Boring. Boring. The green, yellow and white raptor let his gaze travel from the pink and orange raptor over to the building. It looked big, but that was about it. It was also boring with its gray looming colour and the ivy that climbed the side of it. A big, boring building. There were so many other buildings they could have chosen over this one but apparently a carnival had taken over it. There was barely any evidence on the outside structure of the museum at all that this had happened, but there were colourful papers strung around the ground of the entrance. Apparently there were prices to be won inside and that’s why he had to behave. Otherwise they might get thrown out, of course the other two raptors would be angry with him if he caused them any problems like getting kicked out of the carnival, and he loved causing problems for his two partners. Phaeniss couldn’t really fathom any prizes that would mean more than the chaos he could create. And yet he only nodded when the rules yet again were repeated before they entered the building.

Behave. Behave. Behave. It felt as if that word echoed inside of the building even if neither Kormal or . The entrance was filled with skeletons and animals made out of plastic in real life size but this was not where they were supposed to go. They followed the trails of stars and space until they arrived into the aerospace part of the museum. Phaeniss would have preferred the animals over this. At least they were fun to look at. These chunks of metal and spheres were nothing but boring. 

“Step right up here!” One of the dinosaurs hosting a game called out into the open space. “Test your luck over here!”

He wasn’t the only dinosaur that called out. It seemed as if to the right there was a game that would test your strength. Phaeniss saw how a dinosaur smashed his tail down onto it, almost ringing the bell at the top. Another game to his left seemed to be more the three raptors speed. It was all about hitting a hole with bags containing different types of seeds and corn.

“What are we doing first?” Phaeniss asked the other two raptors, his voice slightly more excited than it had been when they walked over to the museum. Both Kormal and Ferdinand smirked at the way he was unable to hide his change in interest. It would be a lie to say that he wasn’t at the very least a tiny bit intrigued by the games now, he hadn’t pictured games like this when the idea was more forced than proposed to him earlier. He hadn’t imagined any games before that he could actually do. Now however, it seemed like there were quite a few games he could play and perhaps even win. Winning always makes things better after all, if he couldn’t create chaos then at least he could showcase his skills. His eyes kept returning to the cornhole game as he waited for the other two to decide. Watching as an Oviraptor completely missed the board two times in a row and somehow managing to get the third bag dead center of the hole. He was convinced he could hit it all three times. 

Kormal had a big grin on his face when he watched their colourful, yellow and green partner intently watching the cornhole game. He carefully nudged the orange raptor. Keeping Phaeniss happy was absolutely the easiest way to keep him from creating chaos at the carnival. But messing with him was absolutely fun as well. 

“I don’t know Ferdinand. This game over in the corner looks very interesting. I bet Phaeniss could spend all day on that game and barely even catch anything.”

“Oh, absolutely Kormal.” The Orange raptor responded loud enough so that Phaeniss could hear it. 

Phaeniss whipping his head around to check out what the two other raptors were talking about was well expected and his face expressed the dislike of what he saw with a small snarl even if he managed to keep quiet. His eyes moved from the corner game, it was partially hidden between a couple of planes with a whole bunch of colourful posters posted on the walls adding to how fun and interesting they tried to make that corner for the younger ones with perhaps a little bit less attentionspan. A section of games that were perhaps easier than all the other ones. There were a few families surrounding the small fishing game. It seemed to have been made specifically for the younger dinosaurs to catch a small price for themselves. Phaeniss let out a displeased growl.

“Behave.” Kormal warned, his words carried a laugh and Phaeniss shook his head to get the snarl to leave his face.

“I don’t want to do that game.” Phaeniss said with a clear distaste in his voice. 

“But it’s perfect for you.” Ferdinand laughed as he spoke. Every word just taunting enough to not cause the third raptor to do anything stupid. 

“It is a child's game.” Phaeniss spoke through his teeth. “I want to do that one.” He pointed towards the cornhole as if Kormal and Ferdinand hadn’t guessed that already. Phaeniss didn’t know how easily they could read his face and actions.

“Fine, fine.” Kormal walked towards the cornhole game. “But if you lose to both of us you’ll have to play the fishing game for the rest of the day.” He added with a taunt. Phaeniss let a snarl pass his face as Ferdinand and Kormal took the lead and walked over to the cornhole. They didn’t need to wait long. There was only one group of dinosaurs ahead of them. Kormal, the pink raptor, started. As he missed the board with the first beanbag Phaeniss snickered to himself. He really wanted to show the two raptors how it was done. But Kormal managed to get one bag into the hole and have the third one landed just by the hole on the board. For a moment it seemed like it could potentially lose its balance as it hung half way over the hole. But in the end it seemed to find its center of balance and simply hung, taunting Kormal with the potential of another bullseye. Kormal snarled in disappointment before he turned around, trading the disappointment to his usual, confident smile.

Ferdinand was the second to do the game of the three raptors. He walked past Kormal as he carried a confident smile on his lips.

“Easy.” He said with a big smile as he managed to get the first bean bag into the hole. “But I shouldn’t be surprised, I can’t believe you missed that one.” He added it as a taunting insult towards Kormal.
“Of course it’s easy, I’ve shown you how to do it.” Kormal responded to the orange raptor.

But after that first beanbag Ferdinand only managed to get two of the beanbags to land on the board, the second bag he threw was too far away from the hole to even attempt to knock in with the third beanbag, instead he aimed to try and get the third beanbag to go into the hole. Quite like with Kormals dangling beanbag it seemed to almost taunt him by dangling just close enough to the hole to make it seem as if it potentially could fall in.

“It could still fall.” Ferdinand said as the game-master went to pick the beanbags up again for the last round. The game-master did not look especially convinced that it would fall. He had probably seen it tethering on the edge far too many times and could probably tell by now when it was going to fall in. Still he waited for another minute until Ferdinand admitted that he had been defeated by gravity itself. It had not moved at all. “I still did way better than you did. Guess I am going to be the better of us.” 

Both Kormal and Ferdinand looked over at Phaeniss. He was looking down at the beanbags in his tiny arms. He hadn’t said anything when his two partners were taunting each other. He was dedicated to trying to understand just how the game worked instead. He could see it. Sort of. There was a moment when he felt he understood just how much power he needed to make it to the board just by watching. But now, when he held the beanbags he felt as if maybe he was kidding himself completely. 

“Do I need to use my arms?” He said thoughtfully to the game master.

“I would recommend it.” He looked curiously over at the raptor before him. “But you just have to throw it yourself. That’s the rule.” Phaeniss nodded. Both Kormal and Ferdinand looked curious as well. It was shocking to see their partner use his brain, even more shocking was the thoughtful tone he had used when he asked the question.

Phaeniss dropped the beanbag down onto his tail. He wanted to try using his feathered and wide tail to essentially throw the beanbag in a wide circle towards the board. If it worked it would probably be much easier than trying to use his short arm. If it didn’t work he could always try using his arms for the last two beanbags. He bent down as he carefully whipped his tail upwards. The high ceiling in this part of the museum made to host various different sizes of planes helped in the way he was trying to arch the beanbag towards the board. A big thud could be heard as the beanbag landed on the edge of the hole on the board. Not even attempting to taunt him with a dangle as only a bit of one of the corners hung above the hole. Phaeniss couldn’t help but to smile and quickly hurried to put the second beanbag on his tail as well and use the same technique. A thud as it landed on the edge of the board, not even remotely close to the hole but at least it wasn’t disqualified outside of the board. 

On the third attempt he took a bit more time and made sure to get a wide arch on the beanbag. As it gained memento it hit the beanbag that was stuck with one corner over the edge causing enough force to make it fall into the hole together with the third bag.

“Look at that! I beat both of you.” He smiled widely.

“I can’t believe it.” Ferdinand said.

“How did you manage to not overheat your brain with all that dust it must be carrying?” Kormal managed to keep a confused look on his face for a bit before letting his smile take back its rightful place on his face.  Phaeniss stuck out his tongue in response to their taunts. In the end he had at least beaten them. 

“Fine, fine. A deal is a deal. You don’t have to go to the kids corner for now.” Ferdinand said as they started heading over to the next game.

“Be careful and remember, if your brain starts hurting you have to tell us immediately. It has never been used quite this much before. It might start a fire from all that grinding. It could become a fire hazard.”

2025 words.