FINTAIL

𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

ROAR!

"I couldn't tell if that was a roar of pleasure or of anguish."

A perched dark violet longsnout upon the sandbar whirled her head around in an instant, her teeth bared to retort to the arriving female, Cora. Her turquoise sister didn't care — she brushed through the undergrowth and waded into the bitter cold water surrounding the bay. While there were many initial questions that meddled with the purple dinosaur, the female couldn't help but wonder why her older sister was covered from head to talon in mud.

"Did Jagger-"

"Nope," Cora beamed, sinking deeper into the swampy depths. "Riptide. He tackled me."

"And you just... let him?"

Cora frowned — now only her head bobbed from the water. "Just having some fun. You should give it a try sometime, Ripple!"

The purple longsnout snorted. A hard pass, Cora thought, casually drawing her talons against the shallow regions of the sandbar, and re-emerging to stand by her brooding sister. It was beautiful where they were — the world opened up like a clam in the shadows, unveiling its secrets to the few who find it. From here, the air became rich and clear, and the sky bloomed like blue buds under the warm spectacle. Blades of grass coated the regions ahead of them, morphing into rock and stone, and trailing upward toward the root of a magnificent volcano towering above all. A billow of smoke drifted from its top, and the rounded edges of its cone-like shape sparked of its frosted jewels and hidden treasures. The beauty in this simply made Cora grin. She could see why her sister rushed off to a place like this.

And speaking of which.

Blinking back into focus, Cora started cleaning away any excess muddy marks on her body, purring as her scales returned to their rightful colors. Still, the female found bother in her older sister's arrival, far more than usual.

"Why are you out here?" Ripple then hissed.

"I thought my little sister fell off of a cliff again," muttered Cora, still grooming her talons. "And, since none of our brothers seem to care, and our mother is sick... I'm doing it for them."

She shook her head in resentment. "I don't go that way anymore. It smells now."

"Like three-horn dung?"

"More like Jagger after he's jumped into a geyser pit full of discombobulated crabs," Ripple glowered while Cora laughed, her talons raising to muffle it. But the humor died out quickly once Ripple turned to her sister, a threatening growl escaping her maw. It didn't scare Cora, it only made her more curious.

"Cora, I'm fine. You can go now."

"So soon? But-"

"Yes. Now!" Ripple hissed in outrage.

Two things came across Cora's mind in that instant. The first was the tone of her sister's voice — it sounded erratic, as if she was near-close to begging for Cora to leave her side. And she looked defensive too — her claws were drawn, her fangs open and bared, and her pupils seemed dilated. Ripple seemed more predatory-like than necessary, and, knowing she wasn't hunting at all, Cora figured it was for some other reason.

And then came the second strike. It hit her just as it hit me, a powerful stench struck her nares like a literal wall. It made her snout wrinkle and filled her brain with utter confusion. She took it as the odor of the swamp itself — every so often it released chemicals into the air from the churning of the earth. But then she thought of Ripple — those strange bodily reactions, her defensive state — it was the same signs shown in longsnouts when they are in-