Egg: Part 2

By Leafmuncher

It wasn’t long before Whiptail was chattering on to Leaf Muncher about everything he could think of to do with Waterfall City. For once Leaf Muncher couldn’t say much but listened intently to the Struthie and gazed at all the buildings around her. James couldn’t help but laugh to himself. Who’d have thought that one day he would witness a speechless Iguanodon and a bragging Struthiomimus? The air force certainly never advertised that in their campaign to get people to join up. Before long Leaf Muncher found herself looking upon a hatchery, she smiled as she saw Simon waving and walking towards them with a big watermelon grin on his face. Whiptail bade farewell to her and promised that he’d give her another free tour around Waterfall city if she were around. She didn’t exactly say “yes” to this, the little saurian had worn her out with all his talking, but she did promise to come see him if she was ever back in Waterfall City.

“You made it! Splendid! Leaf Muncher you look exhausted. James’s whatever happened to your feet?” Asked Simon cheerfully.

Leaf Muncher gave him a smile “Nice to see you again Simon. How is my egg?” Leaf Muncher had almost convinced herself that it was her egg by now.

“Come this way and have a look,” said Simon, leading her towards the door. James followed too, his head in-line with her shoulder.

It was pleasantly warm inside the hatchery. Before her was a large wooden table with almost every shape and size of an egg that you could imagine. Each egg was neatly laid and tucked up in a bed of mosses and soft ferns. Her egg was a large one compared to the others and was darker and plainer than some of the pattern ones she saw, but she didn’t mind at all.

A female human approached her and pointed to the egg she found “Ah, you must be Leaf Muncher, pleased to have met you I’m Cassandra. The egg you found is fine and healthy thanks to you bringing it here so swiftly. We have never seen an egg like it, where abouts did you find it?”

“Hello Cassandra. I appreciate you looking after my, um I mean the egg I found. I discovered it not too far off from the outer areas of the city, in a forest part,” replied Leaf Muncher.

“There wasn’t a mother about or anything?” asked Cassandra.

“No, I looked for tracks and called to see if anyone was about, but no reply came. How far has it got till it hatches?” asked Leaf Muncher.

“We think about another two days or more. It’s amazing that it’s survived so long without being in a hatchery.”

Just then James tapped on her tail. Leaf Muncher turned around. “Do you want to send a messenger out to your herd explaining where you are?” asked James.

“That’s a good idea. Might need to send one to the nursery as well; I’m supposed to be working there tomorrow.”

“I’ve got two Dimorphodons here ready. This is Redtail and this is Enara,” said James, motioning to the two small pterosaurs perched on his arm. One had a distinct red tail.

They both flew off and landed on top of Leaf Muncher’s head, she grinned. “How are you two? Are you OK for sending a message to the Hadro Swamp area?” she asked straining to look up wards.

“We’re fine.” They both chanted in reply.

Leaf Muncher explained where her herd lived to Redtail, then to Enara where she worked, giving them both simple short messages to tell her family and friends. “Good luck, I hope the wind is well for both of you. Breath Deep, Seek Peace,” she called to them as they flew out of the hatchery door.

James yawned “It’s too late for you to start walking back now Leaf Muncher, why don’t you come stay with me and Parle for the night? We have a spare Hadrosaur sized bed, and I know that Parle would be happy to meet you.”

Leaf Muncher, who had previously gone back to admiring the egg she found turned once again to face James. “I’d love to stay James. Thank you for your kind offer.”

James smiled his relaxing smile just as a bright gold and blue female Ovinutrix walked in to the room. The raptor talked quietly to Cassandra for a while before turning to face Leaf Muncher. In normal Dinotopian she said, “Hello Leaf Muncher my name is Shinoba, I work at the hatchery too. I must say by acting the way you did and covering the egg with mosses has helped us a great deal.”

Leaf Muncher smiled politely “Thank you.”

“We don’t often get cases of Dinotopians bringing in lost eggs, but when we do, if the mother of the egg cannot be found, we ask the finder of the egg if they would like it.”

Leaf Muncher’s face couldn’t help but light up at the possibility of looking after her own egg and her own hatchling.

Shinoba continued “The area in which you found the egg has no known residents living there, so it would be near impossible to track down the mother. Even so we have sent out messengers to all residents living near by, all have come back negative. Sometimes mother dinosaurs do not wish to have the egg so they abandon it, other times the mother might have been ill or dieing and laid the egg near civilization before committing themselves to the Rainy Basin.”

Leaf Muncher felt sad all of a sudden as she pictured a desperate mother laying her last egg before she died. The Oviraptor’s tone was quiet and the whole room seemed humbled. “I’ll look after it as if it was my own hatchling. That mother obviously wanted it to have a decent chance and I think that I can give it one,” said Leaf Muncher solemnly.

A smile came over Shinoba’s face and her red crest seemed to light up with color. “Good, I think you will make a fine mother. Because you’re young I’m sure the Dinotopians at your hatchery will help you along the way. You should go and get some sleep now; tomorrow you can set off home again with the egg and then your nursery can hatch it out. It will be nearer to you’re home then. Breath Deep, Seek Peace.”

Leaf Muncher nodded to Shinoba. She then said goodbye to everyone and thanked them before following James out the door.

James’s feet slopped as he walked, they were still very wet and Leaf Muncher couldn’t help but laugh. “Do you want to take them off and have another ride?” she asked James.

James chuckled “No thanks, it’s just a little way till we reach my house.”

“Will Parle be there?”

“Yes, she will be home from her job by now.”

They followed a small cobbled path winding through buildings here and there. Leaf Muncher admired every statue and every building they came across. “Well here we are,” announced James.

They were stood in front of a tall building with carvings of hadrosaurs of all kinds all over it.

“Did you do them?” asked Leaf Muncher, motioning to the detailed carvings.

“Yes, call it a hobby,” said James.

“They are very good.”

“Thanks. Well, shall we go in or are you going to stand out here looking at carvings all night?”

“Tough decision! The carving option is tempting, but I’m looking forward to meeting Parle,” laughed Leaf Muncher.

James gave her a look, then laughed as he pushed open the big wooden doors that led into his house. It was large inside; everything was big enough to accommodate a Saurlophus. Iguanodon’s didn’t grow as big as them, and Leaf Muncher wasn’t even fully-grown! “Here we are. Parle, We’ve got a visitor tonight,” called James.

Parle’s head appeared from a doorway. She was a light sky blue in color with red patches following down her back, from her flat bill-like beak to the tip of her tail. Upon the back of her head was a very small crest like a Parasaurolophus’ but a lot smaller; it was a deep vivid green in color.

“Hello,” said Leaf Muncher politely.

“Hello there! Oh, I haven’t had a chance to practice my Iguanodon tongue in quite awhile, this will be good for me,” replied Parle in a cheery voice.

James walked over to her “We’ve got enough food for Leaf Muncher here for tonight haven’t we?”

“Oh yes, plenty of the stuff. Glad you didn’t bring home a therapod though, they are terrible things to feed, bugs and all.” Parle pulled a face at the thought of eating bugs.

James laughed and patted her shoulder. “Leaf Muncher meet Parle, Parle meet Leaf Muncher,” said James.

“Hello. Why don’t I show you where you can sleep for the night, while James makes up some dinner?” said Parle with a cunning smile, which confused Leaf Muncher initially, but it soon became clear why.

“Arrggg, I always end up making dinner in this house! Right it’s your turn tomorrow night Parle!” said James in fake anger.

Parle ignored this and turned to Leaf Muncher. “Leaf Muncher come this way with me. So what brings you to mine and James’s humble home?”

Leaf Muncher followed Parle into another room telling her about how she met James and the situation that had occurred. The room that she was now in was a simple one, with one human sized nest bed on one side of the room and a large Saurlophus sized one on the other side, there was perhaps enough room for another Saurlophus next to Parle’s bed. “Hang on a moment Leaf Muncher I’ll just sort this out,” said Parle who had pulled out an armful of fresh straw from somewhere to make up a nest bed.

Leaf Muncher wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing; she was too busy admiring the paintings and small statues that were spread about the room everywhere. The statues were mainly of hadrosaurs; every type and color was there. Close to Parle’s bed was a statue that was modeled on her; it looked very life like. The paintings were all good too, very colorful pictures. Some scenes included a Maiasaura mother playing with her new hatchling. Others were mighty Lambeosaurus playing music through their crests for a human audience.

“They are goods aren’t they?” said Parle who had finished making up the nest bed and followed Leaf Muncher’s gaze to the pictures.

“Yes. I take it that he likes hadrosaurs?”

Parle laughed a loud trumpeting noise, “Yes, you could say that.”

Just then James’s voice could be heard yelling to them. “Parle, if you keep laughing like that you will bring the ceiling down! Come on you two I’ve got dinner ready!”

Parle and Leaf Muncher chuckled then made their way into the original room they came in. James was sat on a cushion made from various soft ferns woven together and had a bowl of rice in his hand. There were two large baskets in front of him containing various plants and ferns; one was bigger than the other. Leaf Muncher lay down in front of the smaller one, next to Parle who was also laid down. Hadrosaurs can’t really sit.

Dinner was long and fun; all three of them talked about this and that afterwards and practiced their Iguanodon tongue. “You must come visit us again Leaf Muncher, if you are ever in Waterfall City,” said Parle.

“And you two must come and see me if you are ever near Hadro Swamp.”

“Leaf Muncher, what are you going to call the hatchling?” asked James.

“I don’t know, I hadn’t thought about it that much.” admitted Leaf Muncher.

“Why don’t you call it Troove?”

“That’s a nice name, I like the sound of it. Troove,” replied Leaf Muncher sounding out the word as James had said it. “It’s like a word Trouver that means found in French, I thought it would be good seeing as your egg was once hopelessly lost, but now it’s been found by you.”

“Oh yes I like that name too. Very profound,” added Parle.

“Alright then Troove it is!” it was a lot later on that Leaf Muncher found herself on top of the soft comfortable nest bed and quickly falling into a deep sleep wondering about what Troove would look like.

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