Knife Goose

After a successful delivery of the first gift of their journey, Pumpkin, Carpet, and Pitch set out from Antares’ cavern to find their next victim of joy: Biscuit, a young therizinosaurus in the northern savannahs of Isla Pera. When Pitch agreed, she hadn’t truly thought about just how much she’d be walking, or the uphill battle from Antares’ to where Biscuit made her home. Pumpkin and Carpet scouted ahead, ultimately deciding that the highlands would be a better choice for the availability of snacks. They’d navigate around the jungles and thickets, Pumpkin determined, and go through the fields for ease of travel and the plentiful snacking flowers that hadn’t quite died in the first freeze of the season. After stopping at Antares’ and heading off for their next stop, Pumpkin had rooted around in the vine bag to make sure they hadn’t lost any of the items they’d gathered. Once it was confirmed that they still had an appropriate gift for each of their friends, they comfortably ambled forwards onto their destination.

“What did you guys end up finding to give to Biscuit?” Pitch asked softly, ambling along the faintly worn path through the highland field. Pumpkin was sleeping soundly as she had buried herself into Pitch’s chest feathers. Carpet wasn’t far off from sleeping either, settled comfortably on top of the bag on the therizinosaurus’s back. 

“We had a hard time finding something for her,” Carpet mumbled. “You know she doesn’t really like much since she moves so often, not keeping much on her so the trips are lightweight, but we found a cool rope over at that old cattle yard.” 

“Oh, that’s neat. I was over there about a moon ago,” Pitch reminisced. “There were a lot of bones–they tasted great. I didn’t really mess with the structures, though. They kinda spook me.”

“Pumpkin wasn’t too bothered, believe it or not. She just flew right in and started snoopin’.” 

Pitch looked about the field, slowing to pluck a few flowers to munch on. Carpet settled into the vines once more and huffed out a sigh. They continued in a peaceful silence, broken only by the sound of the breeze across the moor and the chirping of songbirds. Pitch figured they’d make it to the savannah by the evening, having to spend the night with Biscuit wherever she had settled down for the season. Breezy moors gave way to sparse jungle before the grasses dried out, the trees became more scattered, and Pitch could’ve sworn she saw a zebra. Pumpkin woke with a little grumble when Pitch gently nudged the Tapejara with her wrist. 

“C’mon Pumpkin,” She cooed. “You gotta scout for me, I don’t remember where all Biscuit roams. I got us to the grasslands, but that’s as far as I know. She mostly comes to visit me to take a trip to the boneyards.” 

Pumpkin grumbled a little bit more, nuzzling further into Pitch’s feathers before she could be convinced to take flight in the chilling air. They let Carpet sleep, as he’d done most of the scouting earlier on while Pumpkin got her shut-eye. 

The Tapejara drifted lazily on the drafts, gliding past various vultures before swooping and diving to wake herself up more. She first went to a watering hole she’d met Biscuit several times at in the past, but only saw a few zebras, a small herd of impala, and a giraffe. Pumpkin then flew further west, towards the scrubs and sand. It was there that she spotted a few familiar footprints as she flew lower to the ground; Pumpkin returned to Carpet and Pitch, happy to see Carpet up and stretching his wings. 

“I think I found where she went!” Pumpkin crowed, swooping down to land on Pitch’s back and shake out her feathers. “There’s an old ranger station on the western side of the savannahs–it’s got a cozy shelter she likes.” Carpet hopped off of Pitch’s back and took to the air.

“What are we waiting for, then?” He called, already taking off in the direction Pumpkin came from. 

Pitch kept moving, following the Tropeognathus until they happened upon a decaying human ranger station; one main building was accompanied by an empty metal awning, no vehicle in sight to be protected, providing the perfect spot for a large dinosaur to shelter from the elements. Within, a small brown therizinosaurus was busy at work stashing plants she’d foraged from the plains. She was humming a small tune, tail feathers swishing this way and that, crest fluttering up and down as she thought hard about how to sort her snacks. Pumpkin darted into the shed and Biscuit startled, whipping around with her claws raised and feathers all puffed out. Pumpkin laughed and flew back towards the entrance to avoid any fussy swipes while the therizinosaurus settled down with a huff. 

“One of these days, you’re gonna end up as a bird on a stick!” Biscuit nipped, shaking out her feathers to get them to settle. “I haven’t seen you in a while, wondered if a snapper finally got ahold of you.”

Carpet and Pitch made it to the shed, with Pitch letting the bag slide off of her back once more as Carpet landed to begin digging within it. Pitch smiled and waved while Carpet was too focused on his mission.

“Long time no see,” Pitch greeted. She sat down next to the bag, eager to rest her legs from the adventure she’d been dragged along.

“You’re a long ways out, I thought you never left the ash,” Biscuit half-joked. “I thought I smelled a brushfire moving in. How’ve you been?”

“Just trying to stay warm. Antares lives closer now, so we get to see each other more often. He’s trying his best,” Pitch shrugged. “You?”

Biscuit moved to sit next to Pitch, shuffling until their feathers touched and she could preen Pitch’s neck feathers. The larger therizinosaurus let out a soft chuff.

“The usual,” She spoke between feathers. “Mostly just avoiding hungry raptors, this cold has ‘em acting strange ‘round here.”

Pumpkin flew up to Biscuit’s neck and gently landed near her head, preening the long crest feathers adorning the therizinosaurus’s head. Carpet grunted as he dragged something out of the bag and in front of Biscuit. He proudly spread his wings to catch her attention and presented the gift they’d found for her. The two therizinosaurs looked down to the item, and Biscuit tilted her head.

“What’s this?” She asked, leaning down to sniff at it.

“It’s a gift, for you! We’re working on bringing all of our friends little trinkets to cheer them up in this dreary weather,” Pumpkin chirped.

“It’s… A claw? No, that’s too shiny… Unless you found a metal dinosaur?” She asked, nudging the hilt.

“It’s a knife!” Carpet proclaimed proudly. “We found it and figured you’d like it, it’s really sharp and shiny.”

Carpet, not a knife connoisseur, couldn’t really know that a rusty and dented old pocket knife wasn’t exactly sharp; the shine was minimal at best, but it caught his attention when he saw it stuck in a tree anyways. 

Biscuit scooted it around with her claws a bit before smiling at the Tropeognathus. Pumpkin dropped down to land next to him and shook out her feathers. 

“Wha’dya think?” Pumpkin picked up the knife in her beak and danced around a little bit, making poking motions towards Carpet as he then dramatically threw out his wings, crowed in false pain, and flopped over onto his back with an oomph. Pitch and Biscuit laughed at the theatrics. 

“I think it’s great, but if it came with the two performers it’d be even better,” Biscuit rose to her feet and nudged Pumpkin to drop the knife, picking it up to stash on one of her leaf piles. She then looked towards the entrance of the shed and back to the trio. “You should stay here for the night. It’s getting colder, and no one likes travelling in the dark in the savannah.”

Pitch looked at the two fliers before nodding. “I’d love that,” She chuffed, and kicked a little bit of dirt around where she was sitting to make a dip in the earth. 

“Sounds good to me! Napping on the go is great and all, but an unmoving bed would be nice for a bit,” Carpet remarked. 

Biscuit moved back to where she was sitting before, scooting closer into Pitch’s space before Carpet and Pumpkin piled onto the therizinosaurs. They shuffled around until cozy and warm in dense feathers, with Pitch resting her head on Biscuit’s back. Biscuit did the same, and their little cuddle pile slowly melted into the relaxation of sleep.