[Event] Reunion

Galia’s feet sank into the wet sand as she trotted down the beach, stepping over washed up debris. The waves were choppy with a strong wind, but they were calmer than earlier. Above, the skies were dark grey, with just a hint of sunlight beginning to show through them. So far, she had seen no sign of any washed up flockmates after the heavy storm. She wasn’t sure if she liked that or not; she hoped they were safe and could fly themselves back to the cargo ship…

She caught a glimpse of movement further inland. Something very small and grey darted into the tall grass on the dunes. Galia turned her head and slowed to a cautious walk.
“Hello?” She called out.
With no reply, and no sign of any more movement, the carnotaurus approached.
“I’m with the Steelwater Flock and-,” she continued.
A small, feathered dinosaur with crests leapt out of the grass, arms splayed outwards as it hissed at her. The tiny creature startled Galia, causing her to stumble backwards, falling on her tail and kicking up sand all over the stranger.
“Oh I’m sorry!” she exclaimed.
The raptor shook their feathers to try to rid themself of the sand. To Galia, they appeared to be a small Utahraptor? But… odd. It was too lanky, even for a youngster.

“Fucking hate sand…” the little raptor mumbled, “gets everywhere.”
Galia slowly blinked. That was certainly not average juvenile vocabulary.
“Here, let me help,” she said as she finally got to her feet and slowly approached.
The carnotaurus lowered her head, before snorting directly over the raptor, blowing sand free from their feathers. Now they weren’t covered in sand, Galia could see the raptor more clearly. 

Their grey-ish blue coat was covered in thick darker stripes. They had a light tan underside, which extended up onto their neck in stripes, overlapping with the darker ones. Their legs were covered in the same tan colour, fading into a white towards their toes, with some spots breaking away into the grey on their thigh. They had pale yellow spots scattered throughout their feathers, which Galia mistook for more sand, and she tried to huff with more force. The raptor glared up at her with yellow eyes, a white stripe stretching across their unusually long snout.

“Uh, sorry,” Galia hesitated, “do you know where your parents are?”
The angry raptor’s expression softened into confusion, before bursting into a horrible squeaky chirp-laugh that sounded somewhat like a gull. Their bright blue mouth was visible as they did so. Galia shuffled her feet and glanced around.
“Parents?” The raptor shouted between laughs, “my parents?”
Galia hesitantly nodded.
“I’m a full grown man, darling,” the raptor exclaimed, throwing out his arms and tail feathers in display, wiggling his long, off-white claws. With that, Galia could also see the brighter yellow colouring on his chest, extending to the interior of his wing feathers.
“Oh,” Galia said, then more shocked, “oh! I’m so sorry. You’re just… so little…”
The carnotaurus trailed off as the raptor weakly chuckled.

“We haven’t been here for very long, the big storm flooded our home,” he paused, briefly glancing down with a sad look, “so we had to leave.”
Galia tilted her head. Whenever she had seen new dinosaurs arrive on the island, they would mention the strange concrete caves they came from.
“Was it one of those… caves?” She asked.
“Yes,” the little raptor replied, “it’s very strange up here.”
“What are you? And where are the others?” The carnotaurus continued to question.
“I’m a neuquenraptor, and I’m not sure,” he sighed, “we’re so small, the big wind lifted us and scattered us about.”

“I can help you find them!” Galia suddenly jolted her head up, flashing her teeth, “I’m looking for my flockmates too, you’re the first one I’ve seen like yourself. So maybe we should head that way?”
She turned her head to point in the direction she was originally traveling down the shore before seeing the little raptor. The two trotted off down the beach, exchanging stories about the labs and the surface.

Eventually, the smell of rot filled their nostrils.
“Oh no,” the neuquenraptor whispered, seeming to pick up something that Galia hadn’t, before sprinting ahead.
“Wait!” Galia shouted, running after the other dinosaur as he disappeared into the large rocks on this part of the shore. He reappeared atop a large rock, staring down at something. When Galia finally caught up, she looked up at the raptor on the rock and saw that he was crying. When she followed his gaze, she was confused to see a dead whale; bloated with the waves crashing against it.
“Are you okay?” she asked, puzzled.
“I thought it was her,” he stammered between sobs, which were beginning to fade, “I thought something happened to her.”
“Your mate?” Galia guessed, as the raptor had told her about his partner as they walked.
“Yes,” he sighed, before sniffling, “I smelled her scent, and I thought she was… gone…”

Galia tried her best to pick up the scent, but she couldn’t smell anything other than the stench of the rotting whale.
“We’ll find her,” the carnotaurus comforted, “do you think you could track her?”
The raptor shook his head with a sniffle, “not anymore.”
“That’s okay,” Galia said softly, “you just rest a minute.”
She circled around the carcass, it was covered in scars, as well as fresh bites that had been taken out of it. Some small, some big. Galia couldn’t really determine what had been feeding on it. She caught sight of some unusual footprints; just barely visible in the sand. As she followed them, she noticed they headed towards the ocean.
“Wait here,” she said, looking towards the grey raptor who was curled up on top of the rock.
With that, Galia waded into the rough seas.

It wasn’t long before she found a spiky neuquenraptor. She was beige with a brown gradient along her sides, with a more solid orange streak inside of that. Her chin and throat was solid white, with the rest of her underside displaying white stripes. She didn’t seem to notice the blue carnotaurus swimming towards her. Galia was able to grab her by the tail, lifting her to the surface. The raptor was screeching and nibbling at Galia’s chin, but the larger dinosaur barely felt it. The male on the rocks leapt to his feet, letting out a noise somewhere between a bird chirp and a trilling cat. The female seemed to calm down once she heard her partner.

“You found her!” He cheered, strutting towards the water, “I’ve been looking for you,” his voice softened, “I thought I lost you.”
Galia placed the raptor down on the sand.
“I’m sorry,” she sighed, “I should have waited longer, but I thought you were gone too,” she glanced towards the whale carcass, “I was looking for fish as this meat was horrid.”
“Are you alright at least?” Galia interrupted.
“Yes,” the female raptor said.
“I’ll be heading out to look for my flockmates,” Galia said, “I’ll keep an eye out for yours too.”
“Thank you!” The two raptors shouted as Galia began to leave them.