Jeremy Green was a lot busier this Christmas than he normally was. Usually, it was just him and Polly celebrating the holiday together. But now he had two celebrations to attend to. The first was with Polly at her foster family's house. While it pained Jeremy a bit to see someone raising Polly instead of him, he had to admit that Polly was really prospering with her fellow polar bears. Jeremy had spent so much time trying to take care of Polly both with finding a cure with her original condition and then finding a way to undo her Animalian transformation, he overlooked a lot of what she really wanted. With the Whites, Polly had a much better emotional connection and they saw her as less of a patient or someone to watch over and more as a part of the family. She really was a part of the family now that she had been officially adopted, but Jeremy could see it was better for her this way.
"You want me to turn up the temperature a bit more?" asked Mrs. White.
"I'm fine," said Jeremy, "I'm not that cold-blooded." While dinosaurs were reptilian in many ways, they weren't as exothermic as them. But they were a bit more sensitive to the cold anyways so they had to bundle up a bit while outside in winter.
"Have another piece of seal meat," said Mr. White, passing Jeremy a plate, "I don't know how you were able to get this stuff before, but I'm starting to get hooked on it."
"It wasn't cheap, I can tell you that," said Jeremy as he took the plate. When he was human, he found seal meat a bit too rubbery for his taste. But as a Syntixisaurus rex, he found the blubbery meat more appealing. True, it was still very chewy, but his sharp teeth were designed to cut apart meat more easily.
"We probably shouldn't let our seal neighbors see what we're eating," said Marcy.
"The other carnivores still eat beef, pork, and chicken from mundane animals," said Chilly pointedly.
"Yes, but they don't eat them in front of the uplifted ones," said Marcy, "It's rather insensitive."
"So, Marcy, I hear you're quite the prodigy," said Jeremy conversationally.
"I've skipped a few grades, if that's what you mean," said Marcy.
"And now you're in advertisements for Coca-Cola," said Jeremy.
"I like Coca-Cola and they definitely pay good money," said Marcy, "But I don't plan on doing this for a full-time career."
"So what do you want to do?" asked Jeremy.
Marcy looked doubtful and said, "I'm not sure. Before the outbreak, I felt too mature for my age. I thought my body caught up with my mind after that, but I'm not sure if I'm really ready."
"That's part of growing up," said Mrs. White kindly.
"Did you have any thoughts before that?" asked Jeremy.
Marcy thought it over and said, "Well, I used to think about working for NASA. Hey, maybe I can be the first Animalian in space."
"That's something to aspire for," said Mr. White, "But you're going to have a lot of competition."
"But that's for the future," said Mrs. White, "Polly, why don't you tell us how you're doing with the Great Snow War?"
"Is there any score or marks of victories?" asked Jeremy.
"I don't think so," said Polly, "I think it's more about everyone having fun. But there were pretty awesome parts, like this time I took a bunch of snowballs..."
Polly talked rather animatedly about the snowball battles she's been in, about what she's done and saw. She wasn't even particularly upset about being hit a few times. It would take a very hard snowball to hurt a polar bear. But Jeremy was glad she was having fun and enjoying her Christmas. Though he couldn't stay too long as he had another Christmas party to get to.
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While Dinotopians weren't cold-blooded, they still prefer warm over cold. So it made sense for the members of Project Mesozoic to have their Christmas Party over at the Brumation House. The place was large enough even to have the larger Dinotopians inside. Considering the inside temperature was so balmy, the party goers were dressed a lot less warmly than the season would call for it. Well, they would certainly wrapped up in coats, jackets, pants, and other winter gear. But once they were inside, they shed their winter clothes to reveal what they had underneath; Hawaiian shirts, shorts, tank tops, and other summertime clothes. Quite a few came here with swimsuits as they were planning on spending time in the hot tubs, steam rooms, and saunas.
Jeremy was particularly grateful to get inside and shed his sweater, revealing the white casual polo underneath. Looking around, he soon spotted Heather. She looked particularly attractive in the halter top and shorts she was wearing. She was also with Tyra, who looked more like her older sister than her grandmother, especially in the two-piece swimsuit and wrap she was wearing. The two of them were talking to Rex, Trya's latest 'stud'. Jeremy was getting more familiar with Rex, not just because of who they were respectively dating. The paleontologist had been giving him a lot of help with Project Mesozoic, providing details about dinosaurs that Jeremy didn't know about.
Jeremy walked over and asked, "Hey, how's it going?"
"Jeremy, we've been waiting for you to show up," said Heather.
"Well, I needed to see my sister first," said Jeremy, "Say, would you mind if I spoke with Rex for a few minutes?"
"Wait, Rex?" asked Heather.
"It's about something important," said Jeremy.
Tyra shrugged and said, "Fine with me. I think I'll go see how the Long Necks are doing." She then headed over to where Nessa was along with her current 'stud' Andrew. Perhaps it was because the two were the tallest Dinotopians and had a similar body shape. Or perhaps they were of a compatible size with each other. But the two of them had the same 'friends with benefits' relationship that Tyra and Rex currently had.
"Uh, I guess I'll go talk with my classmates for a bit," said Heather before walking off.
Jeremy turned to Rex and said, "So, how serious are you with Tyra?"
"Well, she's great in bed and a good listener, but I don't think we can be more than that," said Rex, "I know she has some Tyrannosaurus rex in her, but I don't think it's enough to count for Animalia's edicts."
"There's something I have to ask. Were you born with the name 'Rex' or did you change it?" asked Jeremy.
"It's my birth name," said Rex, "I guess it's one of the reasons I like dinosaurs so much."
"Well, about that thing I wanted to talk to you about-" started Jeremy.
"Yes, I have been looking over your theory," said Rex, "Since the 'snake heart' gene was enough to bond dinosaur DNA to human DNA, I would think there would be enough atavistic genes in bird DNA for dinosaur DNA to bond to. Of course, birds can't just become any sort of dinosaur. They'd be restricted to theropods."
"Weren't there some ceratopsians that were feathered?" asked Jeremy.
"Well, there were some other dinosaurs that had quills, like Psittaccosaurus. But I think birds would be restricted to their direct ancestors. And T. rex isn't one of them, before you ask," said Rex.
"We can talk about that later," said Jeremy, "I actually wanted to ask you a favor."
"Oh? What's that?" asked Rex.
"Mostly to help me film something," said Jeremy, handing Rex his phone, "I also need to be sure that Polly and the Whites are watching this."
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Some time later, Jeremy walked over to Heather. She was finishing up a conversation with Candace when she saw him approach. "You finished your business?" asked Heather.
"Pretty much," said Jeremy, "By the way, I want you to see this." He held out a large egg with a stony surface.
"What's this? A fossilized dinosaur egg?" asked Heather, picking up the egg. As soon as she touched the egg, she could feel that this was definitely not petrified egg shell. "It's fake," she said, feeling it over, "It's obviously plastic. I can even feel a hinge on it." With little effort, she opened the egg. Inside, it was lined with plush and in the center rested a gold ring set with a bright piece of amber. Heather froze in surprise as soon as she saw it. "Jeremy, what is this?" she asked.
"Well, considering we're already bond mates and there's not likely to be any other Syntixisauruses, why not take it to the next level?" asked Jeremy.
"Jeremy Green, are you being serious?" asked Heather.
"Perfectly serious," said Jeremy, "Heather, will you agree to marry me?"
It took barely a fraction of a second for the answer to come. "Yes! Of course I will!" cried Heather, throwing her arms around Jeremy and kissing him. The other Dinotopians were applauding. The one exception was Rex, who was holding up the cellphone so that Polly and her foster family could also watch this moment.
Jeremy slipped the ring onto Heather's finger and said, "We're lucky there was a gold vein here in Lyre. I couldn't afford a diamond or a sapphire to be set in it. But I think amber would be a good match for us."
Heather looked at the ring and said, "I think it works fine. There isn't a bug trapped in it, is there?"
"It's modern amber," said Jeremy.
"And amber's a good match for her personality too," said Tyra.
"It is?" asked Heather.
"Amber is supposed to improve sunny dispositions and draw out sicknesses and eliminate negative energy," said Tyra.
"You don't really believe that gemstone lore, do you?" asked Jeremy.
"Not really," said Tyra, "But it makes for interesting conversation."
"So, when were you planning on doing the wedding?" asked Heather.
"Not for a while," admitted Jeremy, "I thought we could do it during the summer unveiling of Project Dinotopia."
"I think I can wait that long," said Heather warmly. This was turning out to be one of the best Christmases of her life.