[Trade] Day Of Giving

Vanuatu—a murky green-colored Atopo—swam through the underwater tunnels swiftly, diving left and right to avoid hitting jagged rocks face first. In his mouth, he held a collection of corals and other ocean plant life. A gift, he had prepared it in advance! This time of year was special, every time the snow came around Vanuatu would gather up items he thought were pretty and give them out to whoever he could find. It was a tradition of his by now, and he always enjoyed how those receiving such gifts seemed to light up with joy. It made him happy to make others happy, to say the least.

Ducking beneath an arch of rocks, Vanuatu found the end of the tunnel, swimming and breaking the surface at last. He shook his head off as he peered around, trying to find at least one other dinosaur to bring his gifts to. In the distance, he spotted a pair of Cryolophosaurus walking along the beach, seemingly enjoying the rare warm winter weather and chatting with each other. One of the cryos was a rich brown with dark brown fawn spotting and creamy-colored unders. His hands, feet, and tail almost seemed like they’d been dipped in ink, separating them from the pale cream color that covered the rest of the cryo’s lower body. The other cryo was feathered and cream-colored with pale brown patches running all across his sides. From the tip of his nose to the tops of his crest ran a vibrant yellow blaze, a recognizable marking of his heritage and relation to the infamous Khan.

They seemed friendly enough in Vanuatu’s opinion. So he approached, dipping beneath the water and swimming up to the shoreline swiftly with a loud chirp and chitter in greeting. “Hello! Hello friends!” Vanuatu spoke excitedly, though muffled by the items in his mouth. Throwing his upper body onto the wet sand and letting the waves push him further, setting the bundle of things in front of him with a little wag of his thick tail.

The cryos both paused in surprise, the lighter one turning to Vanuatu first. He blinked, craning his neck to look down at the Atopo and his items. “Oh, hello! Whatcha got there?” The cream cryo inquired, using a single claw to point at the many plants and corals Vanuatu had brought.

“Gifts, gifts for all! Please, choose a few, I wish to share with you!” Vanuatu explained, nudging the corals and other items forward with his shovel-like mouth. His eyes were wide with excitement—while the gifts were quite big in comparison to himself, they were on the smaller side when next to the larger cryos.

The feathered cryo smiled, tilting his head and looking over the collection of corals Vanuatu had offered. “Thank you, what a kind little creature you are! I’m Mocker, by the way. Who might you be?” Mocker said, picking up a few of the corals and inspecting them curiously.

“I am Vanuatu, it is nice to meet you Mocker,” Vanuatu replied, his tail wagging and dragging against the sands. He was glad that at least one of the cryos had accepted his gifts, many did not- and it seemed like the brown cryo may be one who did not. The brown cryo seemed more apprehensive than his feathered friend, his gaze full of distrust. Vanuatu turned his head to the brown cryo, tilting his head curiously. “And you, would you like a gift too? I am happy to part with many, I only wish to spread joy on this day!”

“Uh… sure, I’ll take one. You can call me Bulrush.” The cryo paused and glanced at Mocker, hesitantly taking a step forward to nose through the items Vanuatu had set down. Eventually, his eyes settled on a piece of bright yellow coral. Bulrush hummed in consideration, picking up the coral and holding it between his teeth gently. Now with his voice muffled he spoke again, “Thank you, Vanuatu.”

“You’re welcome, Bulrush. I am happy you like my coral enough to accept even just one!” Vanuatu chirped in return, using his webbed feet to push himself back into the water, floating in the shallow waves as they bobbed him back and forth. The trio chatted back and forth for a while, enough for Vanuatu to receive an invitation to hang out with them for a while— and he normally would have accepted, but the day was already coming to an end far quicker than he’d like, and he still had many gifts to hand out. He’d grown fond of Bulrush and Mocker in a short time, promising them he’d see them again some other day.

After bidding his goodbyes and gathering his gifts Vanuatu took off into the ocean once more. He collected a few more pretty things from the sea before heading back inland. Throughout the rest of the evening, Vanuatu visited many different dinosaurs. Some were friendly, some were not- some were even aquatic living creatures like himself, overall he was pleased that he’d given away a good handful of his gifts. He’d learned a great many names today, he’d seen a peach-colored and banded utahraptor with pale blue eyes named Rambler. He’d met a crested, bright yellow cryo with black markings, her name had been Piper. A few others he’d met and were worth mentioning had been a green and black suchomimus named Charon, a spiked albertosaurus named Phobos, and a spiked acrocanthosaurus with soft purple glowing markings who called themself Xewntelier. Many different faces and those were just a few! And not all had taken his gifts.

Overall, Vanuatu felt satisfied with his day and had settled on a rocky island in the middle of the ocean to watch the sunset. A well-spent day, Vanuatu thought to himself as he rested his head over his front legs. Perhaps tomorrow he could reunite with Mocker and Bulrush- if they were down by the shore once more. Vanuatu considered the idea as he allowed his eyes to close, drifting into a sleep filled with peace and warmth.