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Dinosaurs were a part of life in the rural north. They lived in the forests and lakes and rivers, avoiding humans where they could. Bands of young raptors stalked around the dairy farms, while slow-moving baby apatosaurs nosed around orchards.
Tien sighed quietly as he examined his crops. Farming was more of a training exercise than an actual livelihood for the two former Crane students, but the little injection of cash into their meagre budget was always appreciated.
He knelt and examined the beets closer, lifting them up and turning them over in his calloused hands. Ground, not bitten. Large areas spared between the small ground sections. The beet itself was actually untouched; only the leaves had been nibbled on.
Chiaotzu, they got the beets.
I know, Tien. It’s okay. She won’t do it again.
Tien straightened and frowned. She? Who was she? Chiaotzu was nowhere to be seen, which was odd. Reaching out telepathically located the boy in the wilderness behind their farm, deep in the forest.
Chiaotzu…what are you hiding?
Nothing, Tien.
He could hear the embarrassment in his brother’s voice. Clearly ‘she’ was someone that Chiaotzu did not want Tien to meet. Interesting.
It didn’t take him long to find the boy in a small clearing in the middle of the forest. Chiaotzu was patting a young apatosaurus, which had arched its long neck over his shoulder and was nuzzling at the pockets of his surcoat.
“Chiaotzu, who’s this?” Tien tried very hard not to smile.
“This is Manti,” Chiaotzu said, flushing as she nudged his elbow. “She’s an orphan. Like us. I…may have been feeding her beets…”
Tien sat beside Chiaotzu, who avoided his gaze. He held out one hand towards the apatosaurus as she purred curiously and nosed his palm. “Nice to meet you, Manti.”