[Trade] The Special Day

The whole courtyard was filled with excited, intermittent whispers. As soon as one of them died down for a moment, another would immediately grow louder, maintaining a constant level of noise. The square was teeming with excited dinosaurs – it was so crowded here that, if viewed from above, the courtyard must have looked like a huge anthill full of busy ants scurrying about.

Right at the front of the gathering, in the front row, just beneath the large wooden stage, stood Marble and Gaol, accompanied by other iguanodons. On the other side of the square, also in the front row, was Slug, with her unusual, patchy colouring, standing out from a sizeable group of young oviraptors. Between these two extremes of the palace square stood a herd of euoplocephalus, crowded together in the very centre, grunting excitedly every now and then.

The young dinosaurs, the vast majority of whom were adolescents on the cusp of adulthood, were the very cause of all this commotion. Roughly once a year, right in the heart of Atlantis, a traditional event of great cultural significance took place – in the courtyard before the royal palace, all the youngsters who had not yet been assigned any specific task would gather. Behind them, offering their support with kind words and, at times, loud cheers of approval, gathered a crowd of Atlantis’s inhabitants – all those who wished to be part of this important gathering.

The whole point of the day was that these young dinosaurs, now almost adults, were being assessed by the queen and the royal court in terms of their aptitudes, achievements to date and dreams for the future. After this brief assessment, each of them was assigned a task, a job they would perform from then on – after all, Atlantis was good to its inhabitants, so they had to repay it. Everyone here had to work for the common good.

Punctuality was important and valued in these parts, so all the youngsters were already in their places, lined up in the pre-determined order to avoid causing too much confusion. Although each of them tried with all their might to convince the others that they were completely calm and unconcerned by everything happening around them, they were all just bluffing. All these almost-adult dinosaurs were so excited that they could barely breathe. After all, their future depended on this day.

The whispers in the crowd were becoming almost unbearably loud. The general excitement, mixed with a hint of anxiety, only grew in intensity until it finally reached its climax.

The palace doors burst open, and a figure familiar to all appeared in the doorway. Her white, speckled feathers and the purple colouring of her head, contrasting with the rest of her body, left no room for doubt – it was Queen Rhys! Along with her, several small monkeys of various kinds ran out from inside the building. Some of them clung to the queen’s feathers, travelling proudly on her back. From behind the vitiligo female emerged a few more iguanodons, the highest-ranking ones apart from her. The ceremony was about to begin any moment now.

It began exactly as it always did. Queen Rhys stood in the centre of the stage, proudly throwing out her white chest. The mere sight of her caused everyone gathered there to fall suddenly silent, too absorbed in gazing at their sovereign to bother with their mundane conversations. The charisma that characterised the crested female was almost palpable. Everyone naturally trusted her and her judgements. When Rhys felt she had made a sufficient impression with her presence, she began to speak. To tell the truth, it was simply a rehearsed formula, repeated on every such occasion, with just a few moments of improvisation. The solemn explanation of the purpose of this gathering, however, introduced a sense of grandeur that the rulers of Atlantis held in high regard.

As always, the order of the groups to be assessed was the same – first the iguanodons, then the euoplocephalus, and at the very end, the smallest of them all (and apparently often underestimated) oviraptors. These rules certainly laid bare the true mood prevailing in Atlantis – beneath the veneer of unifying slogans about community and mutual aid lay blatant favouritism.

Queen Rhys approached the first group, situated on the left-hand side of the courtyard, with a slow, solemn stride. The little monkeys accompanying her scattered across the scene, emitting all manner of loud noises. Fortunately, the inhabitants of Atlantis were already accustomed to this cacophony.

Neither Marble nor Gaol were first in the queue, but the adrenaline coursing through their veins meant that waiting their turn wasn’t a chore for them. To tell the truth, the two youngsters were so excited that they were, in fact, unable to focus on the passing of time. Neither of them could say whether a mere minute had passed since the Queen’s arrival, or perhaps a full quarter of an hour. They both stood restlessly in place, constantly shifting their feet, trying to push their anxiety and uncertainty to the very edge of their subconscious.

The group was beginning to thin out – every young dinosaur to whom the queen had already assigned a future role stepped aside to allow their still-waiting companions a chance to prove themselves. Finally, when only half the iguanodons remained before the stage, it was Marble’s turn.

The grey-green male, as if on command, stepped forward, proudly puffing out his chest. He held his head high and stared straight ahead with a stony expression, like a true, seasoned warrior awaiting orders from his general. Only he knew that the muscles in his legs felt so weak he might collapse to the ground at any moment, and his heart was pounding so hard in his chest that in another moment it might burst right out of it.

Queen Rhys looked at the male with a critical, piercing gaze. For a rather brief, yet mercilessly drawn-out moment, one of the highest officials recited all of Marble’s achievements, misdeeds and abilities. When he finished his list, silence fell. The Queen, after a moment’s thought, took a deep breath.

“You will become one of my royal guards.”

All the tension and fear suddenly turned into overwhelming joy. Marble’s expression, which just a moment ago had been meticulously controlled and betrayed no emotion, now transformed into a joyful grimace, reminiscent of the delight of a happy, carefree hatchling. The male managed, with a trembling voice, to utter a brief “thank you”. He was still reeling from what he had just heard.

Gaol, somewhat hastily but also by way of congratulations, nudged the other male’s hip with his shoulder. Only then did Marble come to his senses – he was finally able to move. Just in time – Gaol’s moment had finally arrived. The two males had been incredibly close since they were chicks. They behaved, in essence, like brothers raised in the same clutch. It was evident at first glance – when Gaol stood before the queen, he adopted exactly the same posture as Marble had just a few minutes earlier. The cream-brown male also gazed through himself, alert and seemingly emotionless. The ritual repeated itself. Once again, one of the Queen’s attendants introduced the young iguanodon standing before them, accompanied by the ceaseless, varied shouts of the monkeys. Once more, the abyssal female paused for a moment, pondering what she had just heard.

Gaol felt his pounding heart almost bursting from his chest. Standing before the Queen, he had the impression that he was awaiting some judgement for an offence of which he was completely unaware. The uncomfortable lump in his throat seemed to grow larger with every passing second, making it difficult to breathe. At last, just as Gaol was on the verge of fainting, the Queen finally spoke.

“You, too, will be my royal guard,” the solemn words provoked cheers from the crowd.

The young iguanodon felt a shiver of excitement run through his entire body, and his almost paralysing stress gave way to positive emotions. He’d done it! What he’d dreamed of since the very beginning of his life had finally come true! The male, his gait still somewhat unsteady with nervousness, stepped aside, towards Marble.

Once simply two brothers, and now two future guards of the Queen.

The ceremony continued.

~*~

A fair bit of time had passed before it was the oviraptors’ turn. By this point, many onlookers had dispersed, meaning the courtyard was no longer so crowded and overwhelming. The inhabitants of Atlantis did not treat these small, omnivorous dinosaurs with the respect they deserved.

There were only three youngsters in the queue ahead of Slug. Each of them looked truly dazzling, with their shiny, bright feathers and large crests on their heads. The young female felt a little out of place among them.

She was calmer than the iguanodons she knew. This was for a very simple reason – unlike them, she had no specific goal. It wasn’t that, from the moment she hatched from her egg, she had dreamed of performing specific tasks without which she couldn’t imagine life.

Despite this, she knew exactly what she didn’t want to do. All three who had been assessed before her had heard the same thing – “future gardener of the royal palaces”. Slug winced at the very thought of it. What a depressingly boring job! Spending her days in the vast, tediously monotonous and uniform gardens beneath the palace would be a nightmare for her. No adventure, no challenges, and no discovering new things – just the same, boring tasks every day, all to maintain a garden that looked as if it had been drawn using a ruler. Not even a single crooked leaf was allowed to remain in this seemingly perfect, artificial-looking place. Slug hated such arrangements.

“Now your turn,” she heard from one of the officials, a male covered in brown scales with a golden breastplate covering his broad chest.

Slug stepped forward. She heard what was being said about her as if through a fog. She could barely make out individual words. Finally, however, after a moment of unbearable waiting, silence fell, and shortly afterwards Queen Rhys spoke.

“You won’t be attending to the palace gardens. You’ll become a botanist, tasked with exploring the jungle.”

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