Family is where the nest is

The night had passed more eventfully than she had ever expected it to, perhaps more eventfully than she had ever had. Interacting with other species was something she had not done but in passing, so it was all new experience for Clay. New, and tiring experience, of course, as the styracosaurus had grown weary of watching the beaches and all of the fuss, so much so that she had began to dooze off on the beach, falling asleep next to the cryolophosaurus before the night had even crested the mid-point. Perhaps it was the calm, happy atmosphere, perhaps it was the warm feathers of the theropod, perhaps it was the lapping of the waves just beyond her feet. She didn't know, and perhaps she never will.

When she woke up again, it was to the cold tide lapping at her feet. Not unexpected, considering where she had fallen asleep, but it was certainly a cold awakening. The styracosaurus hopped up with a confused roar, backing away from the cold with speed a two ton animal had no business exhibiting. The mild sense of panic persisted for a little while, until she had realized it was just water, but this sense was replaced with that of confusion and a little bit of sadness as she looked around. The small camp that was built just last night was no more, the embers still warm in the early morning sun. Other than the many footprints that were not yet lapped up by the waves, and an occasional feather or two strewn about along with some less desirable trinkets, there was little proof of anything that had happened last night, like it was all but a dream her mind conjured as a punishment for sleeping in the sand and open.

She shook her head side to side in a low stance, drawing figure eights in the sand as she tried to clear her head. The grogginess of last night still hung heavy, and she had yet to properly make heads or tails of the situation she had found herself last night. The music, the games, the peace was still something that was almost engraved into her mind, it felt far too real to be simply a figment of her imagination. Her beak clicked, she took in the scent of the charcoal and ash around where the fire was and assured herself that it was no dream, stretching herself out by the embers that still radiated heat before the morning sun can properly shine. The sow took a moment to examine her surroundings, perhaps determine where the herbivores had gone off to after the night's end, hoping slightly that they'd be nearby for her to catch up with, but nothing gave any indication of direction beyond a few steps, and the scents were too intertwined for her to isolate a single one to follow. There was no lead, and no way of knowing where to go, so she was once again on her lonesome...

Chirp!

With how fresh the memory was, she'd recognize the sound in a heartbeat. The ceratopsian's head whipped around towards the sea just in time to catch one of those same odd raptor-like creatures waddle up onto the shore. It looked at her with curiosity, and then recognition, and she too had recognized it after a long while of staring. It had been the same one that had checked up on her when she had first joined the party. It was far too dark to recognize it immediately, but now that she had had the opportunity to see it in a more favorable sunlight, she could slowly make out the specific appearance, the large markings first and then the small ones and the correct color of it.

It was a female, a simple feathered one. Her body was a pale steel color, fading into a darker, colder tone of gray as it approached the limbs. A peppering of white dots covered her back. Her belly was a white color, starting off clean but quickly becoming more cluttered as it approached the head. her front half was of far more not than the rear, smeared with black around her eyes and face as if she had dove straight into the ash and soot of the fireplace, accenting the near perfect white eyes she had. This same black extended in continuous stripes down the front of her belly, from the head down to her chest, while the sooty face had been broken up by white spotting of all sizes, creating great contrast in her face and making it so that she looked as if both colors had been splattered across each other haphazardly, yet somehow beautifully nonetheless.

She seemed rather happy to see the styracosaurus, approaching her fearlessly with many chirps and greetings, causing Clay to back off just a little bit, lest the little critter poke her in the eye. Gently, the Neuquenraptor hen began to grip the ceratiopsian's horn and tug, as if she wanted to be followed, and while it took a moment for the large sow to realize, Clay had little qualms being led. Having grown up with much fiercer beasts, she was confident she could defend herself if need be, though she also didn't believe there was any need to defend yourself in the first place with such a friendly creature.

Gently, though with plenty of excitement, the neuq hen led her along the shore, often running forward a little too far and having to backtrack to let the styraco keep up once she'd finally realize. They trailed along the coastline for a little while, so long that the forest began to give way to the more open grasslands as backdrop, until they had arrived to a rockface that split the rest of the grasslands and the beach proper. In it, there was a small indent, a small alcove packed full of various grasses, kelp, branches and feathers, all of which the hen was more than happy to show to Clay... much to the sow's confusion.

That was, until a head popped out of the mass of soft material. Both of them seemed to spook each other at first, the small piscivorous raptor flying out to attempt to shoo the large herbivore away and having to be calmed by his partner, and Clay backing off to give them space as she observed this new addition to her group. Unlike his partner, he was without a feather in sight, entirely smooth head to toe making him look almost slim compared to the female. His head was entirely black, accented only by blue eyes and a seafoam colored crescent under them. At the end of the jaw, the black split into an undulating stripe that led down his side to his front limbs, equally black as the head, and the second, much smoother stripe running down the entirety of his spine to the tip of the tail. His body was a light silver, slowly transitioning into a white belly, though it was hard to properly judge with all the striping that covered it and the black hind limbs. His tail had a different kind of striping: while it was as thin as the body stripes, it was more round and created 'holes' with dots in them, with small crescent shapes in the first few largest ones.

She observed him calm down to cranky before she dared approach again, offering the hard end of her beak for him to sniff and potentially claw at if he did not appreciate it. However, outside of a few hisses, he didn't seem to particularly mind now that he had some assurance from the hen, which allowed Clay to gently try and sniff them both as well as the hole they lived in. Of course, she had already known it was a nest, they were both far too protective and coddling of it not to be, but she was curious nonetheless. It took a little work on both parties' sides, but slowly, they grew to be comfortable with each other, much to the hen's chagrin. Having little else to do, the sow moved to graze on the few tufts of grass that were still growing at the bottom of the cliffs at this point, sticking to them both for company, however weird it may be or feel.

And by the nightfall, when they had both returned from their fishing trips and gotten cozy in their nest for the night, she moved next to the entrance, dug in her nest and laid down. She had found the company she was looking for.