Sevens A Hassle.

The sun shone high in the sky, looming over the islands and their inhabitants. The afternoon breeze was gentle, a cool brush against skin and feathers. It was a peaceful day, one full of life and warmth, a celebration of time that’d passed. On his back there was a worn saddlebag on each side of him, held together by a leather strap that seemed just about ready to fall apart. It was rather small for the size of an adult Iguanodon, but it carried a few things needed for their little excursion.

Cyneweard snorted as he lifted his head, his eyes scanning the area with caution. Ahead of him lay a beach, golden sands covering the shore as small waves came in and slowly receded. Palm trees and washed up driftwood were scattered across the shore, providing both shade and potential entertainment. The sight here was still unfamiliar to Cyneweard, the sand a kind of terrain he was still adjusting to, but he knew the waters were shallow and the waves calm, the area was safe. With an approving chuff and a firm nod, he craned his neck to look down at the young Iguanodon trailing behind him, a few of them already squabbling. “Come on, little ones. We’re only a few steps away, and then you can play.” He said, eliciting a mix of various noises of complaint and excitement.

Nonetheless, Cyneweard led the youngsters forward, until their feet met the sand. He watched as they began to scatter about, each finding their own fun as he settled beneath a palm tree. He’d have to keep count of them, seven mischievous Iguanodons could be a lot to handle. Really, he hadn’t understood why he’d needed to bring all seven of them along for the small celebration, but he wouldn’t complain either. The youth of Atlantis had always been spirited, most born into royalty with high expectations of the same pampered treatment. Cyneweard wasn’t royal himself, but he couldn’t deny even he held a certain level of ego as an Atlantean. It’d only been so long since their sudden peace with the surface dwellers and the declaration of the Atlanteans moving, while he hadn’t enjoyed it at first, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the beauty of the land above Atlantis’ dome.

He blinked, pulled from his thoughts of the past by a soft nudge at his side. Cyneweard turned his gaze downward, letting it fall on a small hatchling Iguanodon with a coat full of rich brown feathers. Darker than his own skin, but similar to a point. The little one had an off-white blaze along its face, subtle dapples scattered across their back and a star-like spot of off-white on their chest. They bore bright blue eyes, wide and perhaps even more curious than any other Cyneweard had seen. He tilted his head, adjusting himself to curl his tail in a semi-circle around himself and the hatchling. “Ah, Arum, what is it?”

Arum stared up at Cyneweard in return, his tail tip swishing back and forth. For a moment, it didn’t seem like he would say anything, but just before Cyneweard asked again, he chirped back. “SandWorm is being mean again. When are we gonna eat?”

Cyneweard paused, a chuckle escaping him despite his best efforts to hold it down. He never grew tired of the way younger dinos could barely seem to hold their tongues, speaking everything on their mind. “We just barely sat down, kid. Why don’t I deal with SandWorm, and you go play with the others, hm?” He offered, keeping his voice soft as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. There truly was no rest for him today, though he supposed he’d expected that. With a big bow and a long stretch of his limbs, Cyneweard shook off the sand that’d stuck to his skin. He watched as Arum nodded and excitedly trotted off, joining up with three of the other kids.

Cyneweard lifted his head to glance around, even briefly shifting onto his hind-legs to get a better view. It took only a few moments before he spotted them— SandWorm, Sequoia, and poor little Naveen. SandWorm and Sequoia appeared to be arguing, from what he could tell. Cyneweard sighed, settling back onto all fours as he walked over to the young Iguanodons.

“You’re being a jerk, leave them alone.” Sequoia huffed stubbornly, stamping one of her hooves against the sand. She held a soft coat of reddish-brown feathers, her colors similar to that of Cyneweard’s but a bit more saturated. She had a darker brown blaze extending from her beak to just past her eyes, and a paler brown underside that extended into singular stripes just above her shoulder and across the base of her tail.

SandWorm on the other hand, was a spiked Iguanodon, lacking feathers unlike most of the other young Iggys in their small group. He was a little older than the others, which meant he had more of his size to impose on them. His appearance was a stark contrast to the others, his skin a pale green nearly a true white and disrupted only by the sharp, spiky looking black bands that were scattered across his entire body. He had a few white patches here and there on top of the bands, however they were practically invisible on top of his already pale skin, the only truly noticeable one being the one on his face. His red eyes and bright blue beak were features no one could miss.

Cyneweard had known that SandWorm might have been a troublemaker, but he’d hoped that the distraction of play and celebration would have been enough to keep the peace. Apparently it wasn’t.

Naveen, who was sitting just a few steps behind Sequoia and looking particularly annoyed, was a quilled Iguanodon. They bore light gray-blue skin with a purple underbelly, their topside marked with a pale yellow and dark gray-brown pinstriping that began at their top beak and followed all the way to their tail. The stripes were thick, covering quite a lot of Naveen’s back. Alongside the striping, Naveen had a blaze like many of the others, though theirs was white and accompanied by white socks on each of their feet and at their tail tip. They had a large white dot just beneath their eye, somewhat resembling the orcas that many of the Atlantis Iguanodons were familiar with. 

“Well, maybe they should’ve watched where they were going!” SandWorm retorted, holding his head high in a classic defiant stance.

“We were just playing, they already apologized.” Sequoia replied, clearly frustrated with the lack of understanding from SandWorm.

Cyneweard watched on for a moment, attempting to make sense of the childish argument before he intervened. Though it was a bit hard to tell what had happened, Cyneweard cleared his throat and stepped forward, dipping his head down to nudge SandWorm back ever so slightly. “Alright, alright, let’s all calm down. Can one of you explain to me what happened? And without calling each other names, preferably.”

Naveen tilted their head upward to look at Cyneweard, shuffling forward to sit beside him. “Sequoia and I were playing tag with Arum and Luna, but… I accidentally bumped into SandWorm and knocked him over. I didn’t mean to, and I tried to apologize but- but he got upset.” They said quietly, glancing over to SandWorm a few times. The juvenile looked as prickly as ever, but even he knew better than to start arguing with Cyneweard for no reason.

Cyneweard listened along with small nods of acknowledgment, a heavy sigh escaping him as he turned his head to look at SandWorm. The kid had always been a bit fiesty, and he still wasn’t sure how to get a handle on SandWorm, so maybe some other kind of distraction would do better. Food, maybe? Everyone liked food. “Okay… ah, let’s see.” Cyneweard paused, glancing around to make sure the other four children were still in sight and close enough he could call out to them. “How about we all settle down and stop playing for a minute so we can have some snacks, hm? We can all just calm down and enjoy some food.”

Cyneweard didn’t wait for the younger Iggys to reply, already turning to call out. He raised his voice, but didn’t quite shout, he didn’t want to spook poor Luna. “Arum, Luna, Delfin, Zedd! Come on over here, little ones.”

SandWorm and Sequoia didn’t seem the most pleased with Cyneweard’s decision, but he couldn’t bring himself to stress over it. He already had enough to deal with, having to watch all seven of them for the entire afternoon. The quicker he could distract them, the smoother the afternoon would go and the quicker he could go home. Cyneweard watched as the other four youngsters began to run over, completely unaware of the brief argument between their playmates. He gathered the seven up quickly, ushering them over onto the softer grasses that weren’t too far from the beach. As they all settled down and he delivered each of their individual snacks, he made sure to do a headcount. He couldn’t risk even one of the seven being missing, their relatives would have his head.

SandWorm sat near Zedd, who was feathered with a pale minty green coat. Zedd was quite the rainbow of colors, a golden tan color covering his underbelly, a splash of a brown gradient dotting the top of his head, his elbows, and his knees. He had a thick black stripe covering the front of his snout, extending along to his eyes before dipping downward and rounding off around his cheek. The same black lined his palms and hind-feet, finished off with gray-blue scutes across the tops of his muzzle and his feet. A similar gray-blue covered most of his back, fading near his neck. He even had spots of a darker green, splashed at his chest and his rump before fading into the mint green of his feathers. Looks aside, he seemed to be chattering SandWorm’s ear off, much to the juveniles annoyance, both of them with a pile of different foods settled in front of them. Apples, berries, and even a couple mushrooms.

Cyneweard nodded to himself, checking those two off the list before moving on. Arum sat with Sequoia, which he wasn’t surprised about. Those two were alike in many ways, though Arum was quite a bit louder than Sequoia. He was glad they were getting along. The two were snacking on something leafy, likely from one of the plants previously grown in Atlantis. Moving on once more, he landed on the final three.

Delfin, who he’d forgotten to check on earlier, was a brown Iguanodon. Spiked, like SandWorm, but differing significantly in personality. Delfin’s defining features were the dark brown cape that covered her back and extended up her neck and down to the base of her tail before fading out. A golden yellow seemed almost sprayed across her sides in a large patch, ending just behind her shoulder and beginning again at her throat and carrying along to her eyes, where it began to fade and slim out. Topping it off was the off-white blaze on her face, a star on her chest, and the same off-white covering all of her toes. Her legs and tail were dotted with dark brown spots, seeming to all follow a pattern of a line in some way. She was quite the pleasant little one, curious and a bit too high energy for Cyneweard sometimes, but overall very sweet.

She sat with Luna and Naveen, engaged in quiet conversation and the occasional preening of each other's feathers or skin. In front of them was a wide selection of edible foods—a couple leafy plants, some wild carrots, roots, and even a few pieces of honeycomb.

Ah, Luna. Cyneweard was glad to see the pale little Iguanodon was making friends, she was rather skittish and he’d been worried she might have been unintentionally excluded. Luna was another feathered Iguanodon, holding a more simple coat compared to many of the others around. She was a light gray, ever so slightly tinted purple with darker desaturated purple spots scattered about her body. She was leaning against Naveen, her head resting on their back as she drifted off into a nap.

Speaking of Naveen, they appeared to be doing better than earlier as well, seeming much more relaxed now that they were away from SandWorm. They were chewing on a small bone, a half eaten pear sitting next to them. 

All seven children were accounted for and had some sort of snack in front of them, Cyneweard breathed out in relief, settling not too far from them as he finally found a moment to relax. Food had clearly been a great distraction, and it’d made everything flow more smoothly. All in all, Cyneweard could count it as a successful adventure and celebration in one.