[Festival of Cheer '24: Future Proof] Paradise - High Time for a new Bower.

Another year, another failed bower…

Paradise sighed to himself. He thought this was his best one yet, especially after finding out how to get the vines of light he found around human dens to actually glow, thanks to the help of the Craftmaster. It took a good month or two of relocating the bower close enough to let the vines glow, since the whole thing was too far away from any suitable rooting location.

His back ached just thinking about moving all of those branches in a short amount of time. It seemed the vines were not worth the effort, it just limited where he could build the bower and the areas that could allow for the vines to glow were near human caves, places where Utahraptor liked to frequent with all the hiding spaces within.

Raptors were the main reason, he thought, that this year's bower did exceptionally bad. Prior years he at least got a couple of semi-interested eyes on his creations, but without the ability to safely call out to attract potential interest, he had to rely on any other cryo appearing on their own.

As he deconstructed the yesteryear’s bower, Paradise began to think about where there might be good spots for this year’s. He usually built them out in the forests, somewhere he could seclude the bower, while also creating and maintaining a sizable stage before it. There weren’t many predators that could be an issue out in the forests either, allowing for him to call out for an audience, but the recent appearance of both Albertosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus on the islands made him weary of most locations in the woods nowadays.

The grass and scrublands were entirely out of the question due to their exposed nature, Carnotaurus preferred those places, and while he might be able to out maneuver one or two, his bower could not. Ashlands generally just were not favorable for various reasons, including highly territorial herbivores that frequent the area. Wetlands, while Suchominus were unlikely to cause too much of an issue unless provoked, were bad for aesthetics, and the humid conditions caused many of the shiny objects to tarnish.

This narrowed down his options to the coast and the highlands. He had yet to try either location, though he was aware that many objects that tend to have a nice shine will end up tarnished on the coast, which is why he tended to avoid it so far. Though maybe he’d visit it for material to use in this bower. Many colorful objects such as see through rocks and shells were abundant there, but he usually sourced his colors from the human dens. It wouldn’t hurt to try and mix it up a bit this year, especially after how this year went…

That only left the highlands, while Isla Kela’s highlands were generally colder than the lowlands, Isla Pera’s highlands, especially on the caldera, were much warmer thanks to the living mountains. There were not any major threats to his safety that he could think of in the short term, highlands were only marginally more frequented by Utahraptor packs, but that was likely due to the poorer footing provided for larger dinosaurs, carnivore or herbivore. The higher vantage point would also allow him to call out farther, potentially casting a wider net for a potential audience.

By the time he decided to give the Highlands a shot, the bower had finally been broken down, trinkets and other shiny human objects had been carefully removed and set aside, which left the mainly dried and or rotting branches that made up the main structure to collapse with the kicks of his legs. Tarnished or heavily broken objects which were once as vibrant as those he carefully kept to the side were left as they lie under the post-bower pile.

After the tedious task of adorning himself in the salvaged trinkets and chains, hanging off of his head, crests, and neck. The smaller pieces that wouldn’t stay on his body were now grasped in his hands or in his mouth for the journey to Caldera. It was a good thing that he was already on Isla Pera, which would allow him to avoid many areas with larger predators, as well as the highly trafficked human trail between the two islands. His blue feathers already made him visible enough, but the gold and silver that glittered in the light would have made him a beacon for any Carnotaurus should he walk through an open field.

This did not mean the journey was a breeze, however, he still needed to cross though the sloped forests around Point, the living mountain which seemed to stir less than its shorter twin. If it was as active, then maybe he wouldn’t need to go so far, however at this point Paradise was set on Caldera’s highland.

Keeping to the denser parts of the forest, he could ensure that the only tell of his presence was the jangling of the many trinkets he carried. While he had a few sightings of herbivores, they were not too concerned with Paradise since they had heard him long before seeing him. Any carnivore that would try to sneak up on a herbivore with that many jangling objects on them either lost a bet or was incompetent.

As he was allowed to move on by indifferent herds, Paradise finally came upon the foothills of Caldera. He could already feel the warmth of the ground beneath him, if he managed to impress someone with his bower, the ground would be an excellent incubator. Of course he first had to make said bower. Traveling up the side of Caldera was troubled the the odd crevasse of an old lava tube or uncertain rocks which slid underfoot, but once Paradise found a nice, solid piece of ground, he placed the many shining, jangling objects to the side and began to select where he would built the bower itself.

A nice cove had been formed by a since eroded lava tube, an excellent support which he could lean many branches against to form shelter for a nest, and could scale it to include both himself and any partner he might attract. Since the ground was still fairly rocky underneath the claw deep dirt on this somewhat flat area, no trees had yet taken root, which would make clearing his stage much easier.

The whole location had made him giddy, why didn’t he think of coming to the highlands before for real estate? He could already see the bower in his mind, and it was time to make it a reality. His first order of business however was to find the starting branches, and off he went into the highland forests of Caldera to find them…