[Trade] Purple Colored Confusion - Digging Deep

                Spring had come like a freight train with no breaks at full speed through winter. There had been no gradual build to the warmer days, the greener grass, the days of rain. It had, instead, been snowing one day and then the next day all the snow had melted and the sun was beating down on the isle. Which is what had brought Eos and Snowbird down to the sparse forest that butted up against the ocean.

                The mountains were still too cold to reside in comfortably, and on that day in particular it was still too hot in the ashlands for Eos to be happy. So, the pair had settled on trying to find some food near the coast. But as the sun had climbed further into the sky, the pair had opted to hunker down in the shade of some trees. They could hear the distant sound of waves and gulls screaming as they fought over food, but the forest brought them safety as they rested and kept them out of the sun.

                Snowbird sat right beside Eos, using her claws to carefully pick and pluck through Eos’ feathers. Her features were soft, a gentle smile across her face as she worked to make her mate beautiful. Of course, Eos was already beautiful, but Snowbird loved to help where she could. Eos couldn’t reach all of her feathers, after all.

                Eos, on the other hand, had been finding it hard to keep her eyes open as Snowbird loved on her. The gentle breeze helped cool her while the smell of spring had started to lull her into doze. Her feathers stood on end, puffed up ever so slightly to help Snowbird as the preened. Days like that were amazing. Everything in the world felt right. Good. They had nothing to worry about.

                The flapping of wings made both women stop everything they had been doing. They knew the sound. Wings larger than a seagull, and made by no small bird. And it was close.

                Eos opened her eyes, her feathers, laying flat across her body as she and Snowbird started to scan the area. It wasn’t long before the source of the flapping came into view.

                A night-touched Tropeo. Her dark green feathers nearly the same as the black of the cursed marks on her. Though there were bright yellows and golds on her wings and body. To the pair of Therizinosaurs it was akin to a threat display. No good carnivore had bright colors. But then again, carnivores in general weren’t good.

                The Trope was descending through the trees some meters away from them, a good enough distance away that the pair didn’t immediately get up. They simply watched, studying. The female Tropeognathus stopped just below the tree tops, looking as if she was searching for something as she slowly spun in a circle in the air. If she saw the pair, she never let on. But after a moment she glided over to another tree and did the same thing, pumping her wings hard to stay in place as she did a slow spin.

                Snowbird narrowed her eyes, her expression no longer relaxed and happy when Eos glanced her way. It was now tense, annoyed. The two women looked at each other, unsure about the unusual behavior before they looked back towards the sky-rat. By that point, the Tropeo had found whatever it was she had been looking for and started to lower to the ground. That’s when the pair saw the marker that had been left behind at some point by the Trope. A single sunflower top that had been pinned to the ground with a stick. Something easy enough to see from the air but a little less visible to something that could’ve just been walking through the area due to the forest leaf litter.

                Eos and Snowbird watched in complete confusion as the Tropeognathus started to dig. At first using her tiny fingers on her wings and then switching to her feet. The wet ground from the melting snow had made it easy for her to claw away at the dirt, but it still took her time to dig. And the more the Tropeo worked, the more confused Snowbird became. Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head as she watched the creature moving, slowly digging a circle around a single plant.

                If it hadn’t been for the fact that she was very sure Tropes were all strictly carnivores, Snowbird would’ve thought that the creature was actually trying to dig up something to eat.

                “Is it trying to dig up a potato? Or…what is that?” Eos whispered to Snowbird, her mouth slightly agape. In all their years of wandering Pera, this was the first time they’d seen a Tropeo trying to dig up a root and go through the effort of not harming it. The creature worked with care, to an odd degree.

                Snowbird just looked back at Eos, opening her mouth to reply in some way. She felt like words suited this situation, but instead of finding words hard from her past traumas, she found words hard just because of the situation. She finally just shut her mouth and shook her head, raising her eyebrows in complete defeat as to what was happening.

                The pair looked over as the Tropeo stopped digging and sat beside the hole where the single tuber sat still planted in dirt. She used one of her wing-fingers to reach in and claw at it, carefully slicing away a chunk and held it up in the air so she could better inspect it.

                Snowbird wondered if she was awake.

                What sort of an odd dream would she be having to allow a sky-rat dig around for food. Only to find the food and it be a…purple yam? It looked purple, from where she and Eos sat. But yams weren’t purple. And she actually wasn’t sure of any potatoes in this part of the forest. Let alone purple ones.

                Slowly, very slowly, Snowbird started to stand.

                “Hey. What are you doing? You’re not going to go over and look at that, are you?” Eos whispered up to Snowbird quickly but started to stand up as well. Wherever her mate went, Eos would follow. If Snowbird wanted to go pick a fight with a Tropeo, then Eos would go pick a fight with a Tropeo. In all her years she just never thought they’d fight a Tropeo over a root.

                Snowbird watched as Eos stood, seeing the concern in her lover’s face and just smiled. She lowered her head, gently headbutting Eos before looking back over at the confusing sight ahead of them and started walking. Snowbird held her head high, her arms carefully tucked against her chest so that her claws covered her chest and stomach. Each step had purpose, her pose carefully curated to ensure that as soon as the Tropeognathus saw her, the creature would be in awe and feel a sense of dread. Behind her, Eos walked with the same sort of confidence. The pair looking as if they were the rightful rulers of that part of the forest, at least.

                And it didn’t take long at all for the Trope to look their way.

                Kallista had quickly put her wing-arm down and stood up as the two Therizinosaurs approached. They held their claws close, their eyes locked on her as they strode directly towards her. Where had they even come from? She hadn’t seen anything on her way in, but then again, she’d only been looking for the sunflower on the ground. She muttered a curse under her breath and started to try and carefully take the yam from the hole she’d been digging around it.

                It had taken her days to find the plant that Apocrypha had told her about, showed her pictures of leaves from the books of plant life that the monkeys before them had made. It had been a long shot that she would even find the purple colored plant, the leaves and stalks looked so close to the normal colored yams. And when she had taken a sample from the tuber and found it was actually purple, she had been so excited to show Apocrypha.

                And now she was about to lose it.

                Normally she would’ve attempted to talk, but the pair of Theris didn’t seem to be in a talking mood. Especially as the light and curse colored one held her arms out to display her claws and feathers. Kallista knew a threat display when she saw one and wasn’t about to be maimed over a silly purple root. She could just come back later and try to find another. She lowered her head, fanning her wings out slightly as she grabbed the chunk of purple yam she’d cut off earlier and backed away from the two females.

                As soon as Snowbird saw the Tropeo start to back away in a clear sign of submission, she held out her own arms and splayed her fingers much like her mate was doing. The pair gave a deep rumbling warning before Snowbird bugled and charged forward. The Tropeo didn’t stick around instantly unfurling her wings and ran, flapping hard to get into the air and fly off with her small piece of weird yam. She and Eos continued their display, calling warnings up to Kallista until she was out of sight and only then did they drop their arms.

                Snowbird turned, looking at the hole that had been carefully dug around the tuber. It was as if the Tropeo had been trying to harvest the whole thing. The little chunk that she had taken and run off with was an odd choice. Why hadn’t she tried to take the whole thing? What would damaging it do?

                “You ever see anything like that before? I’ve never seen a sky-rat try to eat a plant. What use could it even have for something like this?” Eos asked, walking over to stop on the other side of the hole with Snowbird. Snowbird simply shook her head, furrowing her brows as she tried to understand. She crouched down after a second, sniffing at the yam and confirmed it did smell like all the others she’d tried before. Though maybe slightly sweeter.

                Snowbird used one of her claws to carefully cut the oddity in half and then dig both out of the ground. She speared one with a claw and held it up to show Eos, the darker colored Theri sniffing it as well. Before Eos could object or even talk her out of it, Snowbird ate the half she’d been showing off. She squinted as she chewed, a look of horror coming across Eos’s face as she watched her friend just try an unknown plant. But after a moment, the focused look that Snowbird had been giving faded, and she smiled as she chewed.

                “Trust me. You have to try this.” Snowbird said, picking up the other half and held it out for Eos. Words had failed her all day to describe everything that was going on, and it was uncomfortable to speak in general. But for what she had just tried? Words were worth it. She knew the crunch of the tuber would be a positive for Eos. The sweetness of it as well might be a good bonus for her. As for Snowbird herself, the purple colored yam was incredible!

                As soon as the other half was held out for her to try, Eos just looked at it then looked at Snowbird, then back at the potential food. Without another word she did as she had been instructed and took the yam half from Snowbird’s claw. As she chewed, her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Roots and things from the ground weren’t normally her thing. They tasted too earthy most of the time, or they always had weird flavors that were too strong. But the weirdly colored root? Perfection.

                “You know what. Maybe that sky-rat was onto something. Think you could find more of these?” Eos asked, smiling over at Snowbird.

                The sight of Eos enjoying the yam made Snowbird smile, her stomach feel like she’d swallowed butterflies. No matter how long the two were together, she always got that feeling whenever Eos liked something she did. She gave a quick nod to the question and motioned for Eos to follow along.

                Over the next few hours the pair wandered around that small section of forest, Snowbird pointing out the leaves from the plants they were looking for and then showed Eos how to dig the tubers out. They stopped here and there to rest and cool back off, but by the end of the day they had found enough of the oddly colored yams, as well as some berries, to have a nice supper. Enjoying their bounty as the moon graced the sky and the stars came out to put on their own twinkling show.