Kestrel had not wanted the help of those strange "colonists" in the slightest. She had lived on her own for years, and for years she had had been just fine. A new world wasn't going to stop her. She had assured herself that she would stay, just long enough to get back on her feet, and then leave to wander these strange lands along again. The swamps were strange, and not at all something she had been used to. Neither were Quartz and Citrine, though, so the trio stuck together, with the yellow Tark'ee watching over Malachite, as always. Citrine and Quartz seemed to have settle in with the colony far better than Kestrel had, which Kestrel partially put on the colony helping to take care of the little one. She couldn't blame the others for being more easily persuaded than her, she supposed. Citrine and Quartz still seemed oddly attached to Kestrel though, even if the three had never been close before leaving the bunker. The marigold Tark'ee specifically had pinned it on "Malachite seems to like you." which made little sense to kestrel, as Malachite liked anything that moved. ((The four had been walking across the mushroom covered

swamp, careful to follow the paths that the colonists had formed trough the strange land.)) "Who would even choose to live in a swamp?" Kestrel muttered annoyed at the terrain- her feet kept sinking into the soggy soil. Citrine and Quartz had wanted to look for more mushrooms, jokingly claiming that little that little Malachite ate more than the colony could handle. While Kestrel knew that this was likely incorrect, she had still agreed to come along- it would be nice to get accustomed to the new region she had found herself in. "Don't be rude, Kestrel." Citrine chided. "I know it's not great, at least to you, but we've been taken care of so well." Kestrel snorted "They just want something from us." to which Quartz frowned "They have been going above and beyond- you need to stop being fussy, they have done nothing to harm you." Kestrel rolled her eyes. "Let's just find those mushrooms and go back." Citrine snorted, rolling his eyes. To nobody's surprise Malachite had ran off again, disappearing behind a hill, which signalled the end of the conversation as the adults sped up in an attempt to keep up with the hatchling. The group

was quite shocked when they got Malachite in view again. He had managed to find a piece of bone, and was pawing around it, clumsily trying to dig more of it up. He wasn't accomplishing much but just from the bit poking out of the earth Kestrel could see that the bones were huge. Citrine had hurried over, picking hatchling up as soon as he got close. "That's ah- not normal, is it?" Kestrel shrugged. "How am I supposed to know?" Quartz walked towards the skeleton hesitantly. "It looks quite large- I'd say that's part of a rib, but it's hard to know for sure " Kestrel approached, trying to pull the bone out of the earth. Quartz and Citrine seemed more hesitant, almost as if they were worried that the creature would just back alive and come after them. "Doesn't seem like these are going anywhere-" Kestrel said. "If they're still here, just jutting out, then I'm sure they're nothing special." Citrine gave her an odd look. "I mean, I guess?" He seemed hesitant, like he didn't really want to be near the large skeletal remains. Let's just move on for now- I think Quartz spotted some of those

cheesey-looking mushrooms over there." "Why are you so scared of it anyways?" Kestrel asked, now curious. Quartz and Citrine looked at eachother. "Well, you know- if one giant skeleton is here, there are probably more. And with Malachite here- well, he is kind of easy pickings right now." Citrine explained cautiously, still holding the now squirming hatchling. "We just don't want anything to happen to him, really." Quartz added. Kestrel sighed. It was a bit silly to be scared of a skeleton- especially one that was who knows how old, but she supposed that this at least meant that the trio wouldn't be hanging around here much longer. She was kind of done with the foraging session by now.