[Trade] All This River Can Give You

The sun was already high in a completely cloudless, bright blue sky. A gentle breeze was blowing—barely perceptible even in its gusts, yet pleasant nonetheless. All around, lush green young grass grew thickly, and the clearing was dotted with blooming, multicoloured flowers. The scene seemed nothing short of heavenly. There was, however, something that marred this idyllic picture.


Suddenly, the air was pierced by a strange, loud sound—a horrible rumbling in the stomach—as if an arrow had been released from somewhere hidden. Alarmed, Shilo raised her head sharply and looked at her companion, who was clearly desperately hungry. Lying on his side, Snip did indeed look as though he were on the very brink of death. His grave, hopeless expression and somewhat strange, slumped posture made it abundantly clear that the male was not feeling his best today. Of course, he was exaggerating a bit – he was hungry, but he was far from actually starving; however, possible accusations of hypochondria did not stop him from continuing his almost theatrical performance.

Watching this display of acting skills (which was actually quite good, especially for an acting debut), Shilo realised that she, too, didn’t feel particularly full. As a herbivore, she had to eat far more frequently than her carnivorous companion, and quite some time had passed since her last proper meal—which hadn’t been just a few nibbles of grass. The awakening of spring had evidently filled the two adolescents with new energy, and with that energy came an increased appetite. They had to do something about it.

Shilo, her head brimming with new ideas, stood up, somewhat sluggishly. With age, her movements were becoming increasingly slow and sweeping. Although she still had some way to go before reaching adulthood, she could already boast a rather impressive body weight – her carnivorous companion couldn’t even boast a quarter of what Shilo weighed. The female was definitely growing into a truly powerful, armoured herbivore.

Piebald euoplocephalus, seeing how hopelessly resigned Snip looked, intended to do something about it. Without giving her plan much thought, she struck the male’s side with her head. Snip jumped up violently, screeching in pain. Shilo had forgotten that her (once almost completely smooth) head was now covered in thick armour and massive horns. “Oops,” the female smiled listlessly, trying to lighten the mood.

Still in pain, Snip stood up, provoking another wave of rumbling in his stomach with this sudden movement. The male’s hunger grew with every passing minute. He hadn’t managed to catch anything for several days – he was still an inexperienced hunter and had much to learn before hunting would come to him with any relative ease. What’s more, his father, Slash, who was experienced in this field, was sharing his food with his offspring less and less often. Both Snip and his brother were now adolescents, so they had to rely on themselves more and more. Soon this family group would likely break up, and each of the males would go their separate ways. Until then, the young cryolophosaurus had to learn the basic skills, if he wanted to survive.

The male began circling the clearing like an irritated insect. He had to solve this problem somehow, but he hadn’t the faintest idea how. He glanced at Shilo, standing in the middle of the small meadow – the female hadn’t come up with any clever ideas either. She had to admit that her plan had run out of steam at the point of trying to get her hungry friend to stand up. Despite their efforts, neither of them had a clue how to satisfy their hunger when the usual methods weren’t working. Resigned, Snip slumped to the ground, as if completely drained of strength. Was he doomed to starve?

Above the heads of the distraught youngsters, a piercing, loud cry suddenly rang out. The dinosaurs instinctively looked up, knowing what to expect from that cry. Against the backdrop of the blue sky, two pterosaurs were circling, displaying their aerial acrobatics with impressive agility. At first, the two observers on the ground thought they were merely accidental visitors to the area, but when the two pterosaurs lowered their flight slightly, everything became clear – they knew each other!

The outlines, blurred by their considerable speed, quickly began to take on familiar shapes. Circling above the youngsters were two grey flyers, their colouring perfectly complementing one another – the tips of one’s wings were darker than the rest of the pterosaur’s body, whilst on the other, the flying reptile was the exact opposite. What’s more, on the underside of the first one’s wings, dark, bluish-green markings resembling flames were visible. This duo could not be mistaken for anyone else. Sage and Appy!

Excited, Shilo let out a roar in her low, guttural voice, letting the new arrivals know that they were welcome. They didn’t have to wait long for a response – within a dozen or so seconds, both tapejaras were choosing a place to land. They performed this manoeuvre with unrivalled grace as well. The youngsters ran out to meet them, sensing the soothing presence of the older, far more experienced pterosaurs. Perhaps all hope was not lost!

“Your wailing could be heard from a distance,” Sage announced in his typical cool, disinterested tone. He was, of course, referring to Snip.

The young cryolophosaurus, called out so viciously like that, was flustered and attempted to explain his behaviour. Appy cut him off with a flap of her wing, closing the distance between them with a few energetic leaps.

“Don’t fuss, child. We’ll get you something to eat. And you too, Shilo!” The grey-and-white female turned her gaze to the piebald euoplocephalus standing a little way back in the clearing.

This news certainly lifted the young dinosaurs’ gloomy spirits. Seeing the agreement flowing from their now hopeful faces, the tapejaras took to the air once more, this time keeping to a low altitude. The pterosaurs knew exactly where they intended to lead the young ones, and Snip and Shilo submitted to their will without protest.

It took them just a few minutes of brisk walking to reach the stream. The river was wide (in fact, in places its bed seemed to blur, forming a floodplain), but relatively shallow – certainly none of the youngsters had to fear drowning in it. Moreover, the stream’s current was quite slow, meaning that most of the river creatures living here were not very active, and many species of aquatic plants grew here in abundance.

Shilo and Snip immediately understood why the older reptiles had brought them here – the place was brimming with food! However, another problem arose. None of them had ever foraged for food in this sort of location, so they weren’t quite sure how to go about it. How do you catch fish? How do you get at the armoured crustaceans? Which plant species are the tastiest, and which are poisonous?

Fortunately, the tapejaras were there to help them with that too.

Due to their differing dietary preferences, the group had to split up. The carnivorous group was led by Sage, who was larger and much stronger than his companion, whilst the gentle Appy took charge of the young Shilo.

The latter pair began their training first. Both females positioned themselves at a convenient spot (right by the edge of the floodplain; for this training session, the tapejara had to land, so she couldn’t afford to stray too far from the shore – the water was shallow, but not shallow enough for a small pterosaur), and Appy immediately prepared for the demonstration. She couldn’t waste even a moment – she had many types of plants to discuss.

She began with the algae drifting here and there on the water’s surface. Hungry Shilo instinctively wanted to scoop a few of them into her mouth, but her older companion sternly forbade it. “Algae floating on the surface aren’t tasty or healthy. What’s more, if there’s too much of it on a body of water, it means that body of water is sick! Don’t go in there!” The piebald female nodded, soaking up the knowledge like a sponge.

“Those little green flakes are duckweed. You won’t get very full on them, but they make quite a tasty snack!” Shilo immediately put the other female’s words to the test. Indeed, the tiny, round plants were pretty tasty.

After this short break, Appy suddenly plunged her entire head beneath the surface of the water, and after a moment resurfaced, holding some dark green, slimy thing in her beak. “These are… some kind of seaweed,” the female clearly didn’t have much botanical knowledge. “You should mainly look for this! They’re quite nutritious and healthy!” Shilo nodded vigorously, pleased with this brief but oh-so-important lesson.

On the other side of the wide river, a completely different spectacle was taking place. It began with the most obvious way of obtaining food in this sort of environment – fishing. Sage was good at it; he already had experience fishing in both saltwater and freshwater, so he could do it almost with his eyes closed. The same certainly could not be said of Snip. The young male was far too slow and not agile enough, and on top of that, standing still in anticipation of his prey posed great difficulties for him. He still had a lot to learn.

In this lesson, which was not exactly rich in verbal instructions, the time had therefore come for something easier. With unwavering focus, Sage scanned the stream bed, searching for those distinctive yellow-brown patches. He quickly found a whole cluster of them.

Delighted with his success, Sage dived down and then triumphantly seized one of the clams in his beak. He brought it to the shore, where Snip was waiting. With a deft movement, using his sharp beak, he pried open the mollusc’s shell and then sucked out the slimy, nutritious contents from inside.


Snip wasn’t entirely convinced by this display, but obediently waded into the stream to look for his own mussel. It didn’t take him long – Sage had already pointed out the perfect spot for them to search. The young male dragged his catch onto the bank, struggling with the clamped shell. He tried to force one of his long, curved claws through the narrow slit, but it was no easy task. He had to struggle with it for a painfully long time, but finally succeeded. The reward, however, was not worth the effort – Snip grimaced the moment he felt the soft, mushy texture of the clam. He would definitely not be a mollusc taster.

Sage sighed heavily. The young cryolophosaurus was not the most grateful of pupils, and the poor pterosaur did not have much patience for this sort of situation.

He had one last resort left – teaching him to hunt crustaceans. If even that proved insufficient, Sage would probably let himself be hunted out of sheer frustration…

1815 words