Pangaea took a few deep breaths, thinking hard about what he was going to say to Rebecca.
“Thank you…Rebecca,” he said, also making sure to keep his voice low enough that only she could hear him. “Now, let me emphasize that I have always made a point of never associating with the wrong sort of…dinosaurs. And I can honestly say that up until last night, when I ran into those two up by the Great Wall and tried to convince them not to come into the valleyóI can explain more lateróI had never met them in person before. However, I do know them, in a sense. It’s extremely hard to explain how, but yes, I do have a good idea of what they’re like.” He surreptitiously gestured to the two egg stealers. “The, uh…the grayer oneóthe one with the orange eyesóhis name is Ozzy, and he’s the one who’s crazy about eggs. The other one is his brother, Strut, and I think he’d be happy just living on green food like any leafeater; Ozzy just won’t let him.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Now, don’t let them know I said this, but as far as I've seen, neither of them are very bright, they’re both really clumsy and not too good at nest-raiding, and frankly, they’re downright cowardly.”
Pangaea took a brief glance back at the egg stealers, and sighed. “But, somehow, even though I’ve never actually met them until recently, I’d really hate to see anything bad happen to them. I pity them, really. Ozzy definitely has a mean streak, but I think it might be that he’s always stressed out because he has such a hard time getting food, and he takes it out on Strut, who goes along with everything Ozzy does because he doesn’t want his brother to be mad at him. Truthfully, I think that under good circumstances, if they were given an opportunity to change, they might not be such bad dinosaurs. I mean, even Ozzy can’t be entirely blamed for trying to steal eggs; just like Chomper can’t help being a sharptooth, I think at least part of it is that it’s just his nature to want to eat eggs. Granted, I think the Great Valley’s nests would be too much of a temptation for Ozzy to allow him to live here, but if we took him to a source of eggs that no one would mind being eaten, I don’t think he or Strut would bother anyone here again. That’s what I’m proposing here. The thing with me is, I don’t like to see anyone get hurtónot even an egg stealer, not even a sharptoothónot if there’s another way to do things that will let everyone walk away unharmed and satisfied.”
--------------------------------------------------
Ozzy and Strut, meanwhile, were looking around terrified at the creatures surrounding them. Even though the red fuzzball had insisted that she was harmless, they were unnerved by the massive-clawed (supposed) leafeater standing so close to them. Even more disconcerting were the bizarre, vertical-bodied twofooters with the loose, multicolored skins, one of which had pulled what looked like a giant, shiny sharptooth’s tooth out of a mysterious fold in its hide, then put it back and taken out a strange black object that it placed on its head.
“What under the Bright Circle are those…things?” Ozzy whispered to Strut.
“Uh…Pangaea tells me they’re called ëhumans’,” Guido replied, having overheard the question and decided to answer it, despite still being a little unclear on what exactly was going on.
“And who’s Pan-jee-uh?” Ozzy asked irritably, obviously not happy being out of the loop as he was.
“Him,” Guido responded with slight incredulity, pointing at the larger glider engaged in conversation with Rebecca, “the guy you were just talking to!”
“But I thought he said his name was ëMike Trapper Gooey’ or something,” Strut said.
“That’s what he said he was, not who he was, Grains-for-brains,” Ozzy hissed.
“What?” a bamboozled Guido exclaimed. “He knows what our kind is called? I’m gonna have to ask him about that…”
