[Trade] Is It a Bird?

One of the tree’s longer branches shook dangerously, drawing attention with the loud rustling sound that accompanied it. The tiny spring leaves seemed to be constantly moving, driven by some inexplicable force. Shilo watched this intriguing phenomenon with interest (and a slight tinge of fear), wondering what it might mean.

It soon became clear – from the depths of the tree’s dense, green canopy, a small bird fluttered out to the very edge of a branch. Its body was covered in black feathers of a rather unremarkable appearance. Yet something broke the monotony of its appearance – a vivid orange beak, surely visible from afar. The male blackbird, not remaining still for a moment, began to sing melodiously, for some purpose known only to himself.

Shilo sighed softly, shifting her position slightly. It was already afternoon, and the female had still done very little today – it was shaping up to be a truly lazy day. The young euoplocephalus was certainly looking forward to a blissful rest in the warm spring sunshine, but there was something preventing her from fully enjoying this relaxation – hunger.

Although the spring landscape was teeming with all manner of vegetation, given the young female’s size and abilities, few plant species were within her reach. Most of the time, Shilo had to make do with the ubiquitous, readily available grass. This staple food was certainly capable of providing her with the necessary nutrients, but it did not particularly satisfy her. Although the green blades of grass at this time of year were satisfactorily succulent and often had a rather pleasant, sweetish aftertaste, eating the same thing over and over again was downright depressingly monotonous. Unfortunately, Shilo didn’t often manage to find anything else. Occasionally she would come across various flowers—still not very numerous so early in the spring—(a real treat!). She would sometimes treat her taste buds to leaves that had fallen from the trees – usually thanks to the activity of birds or small mammals, which could truly scurry about the treetops with wild abandon. On this particular day, however, Shilo fancied something different.

Snip, lying beside her, shared these feelings. Ever since their first, unexpected encounter, he had been spending time with the piebald female on a regular basis. At first, their frequent meetings were shrouded in secrecy, and Snip had to sneak off to each one, carefully avoiding his father’s watchful eye. It didn’t last long, however – Slash was far too experienced and sharp to be fooled like that. Eventually, he realised what was going on, and once even decided to secretly follow his offspring. When he realised that Snip wasn’t straying far from their den and, for the most part, was behaving quite sensibly for his age, the adult male eased off on this almost police-like surveillance. After all, he couldn’t control his sons for their entire lives.

Despite the fact that Snip and his brother were growing up day by day, there was one thing Slash still wouldn’t let them do – hunting. The male, covered in numerous scars, surely had a solid reason for this. He himself, perhaps when he was still just a youngster, had likely barely escaped with his life after a failed hunt, during which he suddenly became the prey. So up to that point, he had consistently fed his chiks on his own, bringing them game he had killed to the den. Not exactly thrilling.

Whenever Snip slipped away from his father’s watchful eye, he rarely managed to find anything to eat. He would occasionally come across some carrion, and sometimes he managed (more through luck than skill) to catch an insect that kept buzzing around his snout. Other than that, however – nothing. So the young male, just like his herbivorous companion, longed for some variety in his diet. He didn’t really know how he could bring that about, though.

During this boring, not particularly exciting day so far, luck was about to smile upon them.

Dark, unidentified shapes had been circling above their heads for some time now, constantly on the move. It wasn’t the first time the young dinosaurs had seen this phenomenon, so over time they had learnt to ignore it. To them, the blobs against the sky were little more interesting than clouds – just another unexplained weather thing.

Neither of them knew that these shapes were closer to them both than to any atmospheric phenomenon.

Several loud, high-pitched, almost ear-piercing cries rang out through the air. This caught the attention of the somewhat sleepy youngsters – both Shilo and Snip raised their heads and watched intently as events unfolded in the unreachable space above them. The dark patches, until recently exceptionally numerous and clustered into a single group, suddenly scattered, and a growing chaos crept into their movements.

Soon, the sudden commotion caused many of these inexplicable shapes to vanish from the young dinosaurs’ sight. Just when it seemed that this strange spectacle had come to an end, the next act of the play suddenly began – two of the blobs against the sky began to grow rapidly, until finally, after a prelude of just a few seconds, some outlines could be made out in the image.

Alarmed by this sudden change, Snip jumped up, rousing the female leaning against him from her half-sleep. It took only a moment’s careful analysis of those outlines to realise that they were not dealing with just any cloud, but with a living creature – one that looked unusual and bore no resemblance to anything they had ever seen before, but was definitely some sort of flying reptile.

Shilo, who by now had also realised what they’d just discovered, stood up too, completely shocked. Her short life had already taught her that reptiles could run fast, be strong or have impressive horns, but flying? Until now, she’d thought that was a skill reserved only for birds and insects.

The two shapes in the sky had already come dangerously close, and then, despite Snip’s rather absurd-looking efforts to scare them off, they paid him no mind and settled on a branch nearby. Shilo tilted her head to one side, wanting to get a good look at the visitors from the sky. She was too curious to feel afraid.

Snip, however, perhaps following in the footsteps of his watchful father, felt the call of the protector within him. He began jumping about, growling at these unexpected visitors in his still ridiculously high-pitched voice. He shielded his companion with his body, separating her from the presumably extremely dangerous flying reptiles – unfortunately, even from a distance, the young male didn’t look as though he knew what he was doing.

The two tapejaras, who had landed nearby quite by chance and with no ill intent, were perfectly aware of their supposed opponent’s incompetence. Sage, preening his short feathers almost ostentatiously, paid little attention to the flustered youngsters. The younger Appy, as usual more taken with the situation around her, watched these bewildered dinosaurs closely. She immediately realised that this sudden landing had frightened the two juveniles – that was certainly not her intention.

Appy, as ever acting faster than she thought, took to the air again, and then, with a few swift flaps of her wings, closed the distance between herself and the dinosaurs in the clearing. She landed on the grass, about two metres from Snip (who was still pretending to be menacing). At that moment, Shilo, exceptionally intrigued by the small tapejara, sidestepped the hostile male – she was definitely in the mood to make friends.

Appy felt she would have to spend a long time explaining exactly who she was. Young, land-dwelling dinosaurs usually reacted this way when they learnt that flying reptiles existed on the archipelago.

1281 words