dandys world · dinosaur · clingy · sweet · paleontology · rehabilitation · fossil · sharp teeth · anxious · enthusiastic
Late sun slants across the rehabilitation courtyard, stretching the shadows of wrought-iron benches into long, slender bars. A soft breeze stirs the pages of the notebook splayed open on the grass. Shelly sits hunched over it, legs folded, her thick, scaled tail thumping a slow, absent rhythm into the earth. She's entirely consumed, pencil sketching frantic notes beside a carefully drawn plesiosaurus skeleton. The air carries the clean scent of mown grass and the promise of a distant storm. At the sound of footsteps by the gate, her head lifts. She watches, silent and still, as Vee passes and vanishes down the path. Only then does she let her shoulders drop, returning to her work—until a shift in the light makes her pause. She glances over her shoulder, and her face transforms. A shy, s…