145: Montague and Capulet Dinosaurs

The Earth was once filled with giant lizards called dinosaurs which lumbered massively through the forests and open lands that covered the planet’s surface.  There were two types of dinosaur – the Montagues and the Capulets.  The Montagues were peace-loving, lived in huge gatherings of families that shared food and raising the young, and ate only the fruit, flowers, grass and leaves of the plants on Earth.  The Capulets were sneaky and self-centred, lived singly or in small mutually-beneficial groups, and they ate anything that wasn’t fruit and flowers and grass and leaves.

Over the years the Montagues and Capulets had existed together, if not happily then at least grudgingly.  The Capulets often wanted to eat the Montagues, but their skin was scaly, green and knobbled with a roughness similar to sandstone.  It was also rather unpalatable, useful if the activity that took up most of the day was surviving.  Most Montagues had built-in weapons like horns and heavy tails, so that Capulets who dared to get too close could be poked or speared out of the way.  The Montagues often wanted to convert the Capulets to their communal life, but they lacked the capacity for compassion herd living required.  Those who tried it were usually searching for insider-information that might identify a way to kill and eat a Montague safely and before any other Capulet could steal the carcass.

Then a Montague baby and a Capulet baby made friends at the river bank.  Both were too young to have learned how they were expected to behave towards each other.  Each saw someone to chase and run with in the meadows stretching for miles.  So they played together every day and were the happiest baby dinosaurs the Earth had ever seen.  Until their parents found out.  Capulets were sighted near the river so the Montague security came looking for the baby.  Finding him with a baby Capulet, they surrounded him and hurried him back to the group.  Baby Capulet stood alone by the water waving to his friend and Baby Montague found his view back blocked by 10 feet of scaly lizard.

And that was all it took for the simple non-negotiated truce between the Montagues and the Capulets to break down.  There were killings and retributions, hectorings and forced exorcisms.  Fury raged between the two groups and nobody felt safe.  Within their own enclaves the two babies tried to escape and meet at their playground but they each was watched too closely to getaway.  Baby Montague finally persuaded an elderly watcher to hide a note at the river bank where he hoped Baby Capulet would find it.  He pleaded with her to take him there each day and at last she agreed.  The watcher however, planned to kill Baby Capulet and took poisoned berries with them.

When they managed to slip away from the security and arrived at the water, Baby Montague was overjoyed to see Baby Capulet waiting for him.  They ran and chased each other across the meadow and back again whilst the watcher waited for her chance to poison the Capulet.  The sun beat down hot on her thick hide and she grew drowsy watching the babies racing about.  Soon she fell asleep and began to snore.

Baby Montague and Baby Capulet, hungry from their run, noticed the watcher was asleep and crept up to taste just one berry each.  They were delicious and one berry became one more berry and soon they were all gone.  The happy friends stretched in the sun then both began having cramping pains.  They began to wail and thrash about, waking up the watcher who saw instantly what had happened.  She could only watch as the poisoned babies died in front of her.

The Montagues and The Capulets were devastated, blaming each other for the loss and for starting the feud.  Missing the opportunity to unify over the double tragedy and put their quarrels aside, instead both sides determined to destroy the other.  They attacked each other at every chance, poisoned and hunted each other, destroyed the environments the others lived in and developed more barbaric weapons with which to fight.

The Earth was once filled with giant lizards called dinosaurs which were all too stupid to live together and whose fighting and hatred reached such meteoric levels that they eventually wiped themselves out.