Hay Fever

Winter, although it had ruled the archipelago with an iron fist for a good dozen weeks, finally gave way to spring. The sun rose earlier and set much later than it had just a few days ago. Various animals awoke to life – not only those that had survived the winter in hibernation, but also a whole host of birds and other creatures. With the arrival of warmer months, birds began to show off their synchronised singing from the early hours of the morning, providing a pleasant, gentle alarm clock for everyone living in the area.

Spring also meant the awakening of various types of plants. The monotonous, somewhat depressing landscape, full of dead, sharp branches, interspersed with dark green coniferous trees, blossomed beyond recognition. Now the grey-brown, sad colours gave way to lush greens and yellows, making every trip through the forest much more pleasing to the eye.

This was exactly the conclusion reached by Sage, Costel and Appy. The trio, awakened in the morning by the gentle singing of birds, decided to go for a walk. They did not have to worry about food (recently, thanks to their cooperation, they had hunted a quite impressively sized mountain goat, so their stomachs were satisfied for the next few days), so they could devote themselves entirely to pleasure.

Although it was not their permanent residence, they were currently staying in the mountains located roughly in the centre of the island. The steep cliffs and soaring peaks provided them with shelter from hostile dinosaurs, but the endless strolls through deep, barren ravines quickly became tedious. So the trio decided to venture into the unknown, descending to the much lower parts of the island.

The flyers set off first, observing the terrain from above like scouts. These parts of the mountains were relatively safe, but they could never let their guard down. Costel followed behind them, constantly looking up, searching for the two small silhouettes against the bright sky, which were like a compass to him, guiding him to his destination.

As time passed, the landscape around them began to change. The sharp, rather uninviting ridges soon gave way to much gentler hills, largely covered with young spring grass. Appy and Sage, delighted with this change, lowered their flight considerably, hovering in the air not much higher than the carnotaurus' head. Costel watched these flying reptiles with joy, following their impressive aerial acrobatics.

Less than an hour into this relaxing, peaceful journey, the tapejaras informed their ground companion of another change that awaited them soon. They said goodbye to the high mountains for good – they had reached the point where the gradually descending terrain was no longer lashed by such merciless winds as before. These milder conditions allowed plants much taller than the mountain pines, whose branches almost touched the ground, to grow here. A forest was beginning to grow in these moderately elevated areas. To the surprise of the aerial scouts, it was a deciduous forest - something rather unusual in such high mountains.

What's more, it was clearly a young forest - the trees grew densely here, but were not very tall. These two features alone made this place rather unusual, but there was one more thing that surprised the trio. The crowns of most of the trees within sight were densely covered with small, colourful flowers that perfectly matched the lush green of the young spring leaves. This completely unexpected and intriguing sight made the trio speed up, excited by the prospect of exploring a new place.

Further reconnaissance was no longer necessary, so the tapejaras could give up their energy-consuming flight. The two skilled flyers critically lowered their flight with truly admirable grace, then landed so softly, almost imperceptibly, on Costel's back. The carnotaurus' back often served as a platform on which they could rest.

In this formation, they moved forward at a steady pace until they finally reached the edge of the forest. Costel instinctively took a deep breath, inhaling the crisp air, fragrant with flowers and blossoming nature. Appy and Sage looked at each other with a sparkle in their purple eyes - it had been a long time since they had had the opportunity to smell this energising scent. After this momentary, almost spiritual pause, Costel moved forward, confidently entering the area covered the young, brightly coloured trees. Although the surroundings were fabulous, all three strained their senses - the forest was so dense that the tapejaras would have great difficulty taking flight here, so they couldn't survey the terrain ahead of them. The trio had to rely on their good old sense of smell and hearing.

The carnotaurus walked straight ahead, only occasionally veering slightly off course to avoid a tree in his path. Costel was completely immersed in this candy-coloured world, barely paying attention to his surroundings. Due to his distraction, he failed to notice two things. Firstly, each breath was becoming slightly more difficult due to the constantly increasing swelling of the mucous membrane in his nasal cavity. Secondly, mixed in with the overpowering scent of flowering vegetation was another, much weaker scent - the scent of another dinosaur, a predator. In fact, these two issues were quite closely related.

The tapejaras, although in a similar situation, were completely unaware of this - their rather poor sense of smell was of little use. Fortunately, fate did not hold this against them – after all, it knew that they had at least one much better developed sense. Hearing.

Somewhere in the dense vegetation, behind a wall of trees, just a dozen or so metres away from them, someone sneezed. All three jumped in surprise, and Appy, frightened by the sudden sound, opened her beak in surprise and gasped for air. It was a mistake – the female began to cough so suddenly that she barely managed to stay on the carnotaurus' back.

This chaos was like the beginning of the end. Every movement caused another movement, every sneeze provoked someone else to do the same, and grunts, sniffs and hoarse breaths echoed throughout the forest. Soon, this barrage of sounds became so bewildering that none of them - neither the peculiar trio nor the mysterious, sniffling creature from the bushes - knew where to run. So they began to run blindly.

Poor judgement led the carnotaurus, still carrying the unsteady tapejaras on his back, to run straight towards the direction from which the first sneeze had come. He realised this when, instead of a road leading to safety, he saw the grey-brown feathers of the stranger.

Costel crashed into Silvercloud with ground-breaking force, knocking the female over. The poor, confused utahraptor hit the ground covered with young grass and was once again overcome by a sudden attack of rhinitis.

The trio, their eyes wide with surprise, watched the petite female writhing chaotically on the ground. This time, Sage broke the brief moment of concentration by coughing loudly.

Although it should have been obvious at this point, none of them had yet realised that their sudden sneezing and coughing was not some strange, evil spell, but a consequence of the arrival of spring. The air in this blossoming forest was filled to the brim with all kinds of pollen, which tended to cause allergies. As it turned out, each of them was sensitive to it.

They may not have been aware of the cause of their ailments, but they knew one thing: if they didn't want to lose their breath completely, they had to get out of there as quickly as possible. Without thinking, Costel gently pushed the female raptor with his snout, helping her to her feet. Silvercloud initially recoiled from his touch, but one glance at the young carnotaurus was enough for her to realise that he could not have had bad intentions. She accepted his help.

Sage, still tormented by a persistent cough, barely held on to Costel's back. Appy looked around, searching for the best escape route - it quickly became clear that she couldn't determine it from her current position. She had to take to the air. Fortunately, the small and agile female overcame this challenge, rising above the treetops with a few flaps of her wings. She quickly located her target - the edge of the forest. She intended to lead her companions there with short, loud cries.

Silvercloud, although usually distrustful and reluctant to interact with strangers, had little choice this time. The torture caused by the combination of her own respiratory system and the ubiquitous pollen was definitely worse than anything the strangers could do to her. So she followed the cries of one of the flyers, running right behind the friendly carnotaurus.

Fortunately, the road was not long - all four of them reached the edge of the forest with great relief, escaping the cloud of pollen. However, this place evoked such aversion in them that they did not intend to stop right away. Appy only stopped calling them when they were a good hundred metres away from the furthest trees.

The two exhausted carnivores fell to the ground with a thud, sighing loudly, while the tapejaras landed on the grass nearby, finally able to catch their breath. Only now, when the air was much cleaner, could the unexpectedly enlarged group discuss what had just happened...