(AN) Hello there TimeLordMaster108 here with my first ever Land Before Time fanfiction and my first dedication fanfiction.
This story is a tribute fanfiction dedicated to the memory of Ducky's first Voice Actress Judith Eva Barsi.
for those not aware Judith Barsi was a very popular 80s Child Actress who stared in many films, TV shows and commercials with her most famous roles being, Thea from Jaws The Revenge, a younger version of Carol Sawyer in the sitcom Growing Pains and of course as the original voice of Ducky in the first Land Before Time film and Anne Marie in All Dogs Go To Heaven.
However while her acting career was great her home life was sadly not so great, her father Jozsef Barsi was a paranoid and jealous alcoholic with abandonment issues due to his father leaving his mother when he was born and being teased and bullied, Jozsef was afraid that Judith and her Mum Maria would leave him once her career took off and Judith and Maria suffered both physical and emotional abuse which led to Judith having a meltdown during a singing audition, an eating disorder and pulling her eyelashes out.
Then on the evening of the 25th of July 1988 Judith was shot and murdered in bed by Jozsef Before a struggle between him and Maria took place resulting in Maria's murder, Jozsef then wandered aimlessly through the house for two days before setting it on fire and then killing himself.
This story will basically be a Land Before Time version of that story but with a happier ending, it will also end on the 25th of July this year, 30 years since Judith's tragic murder, I hope you all enjoy and remember to Read and Review.
Disclaimer I don't own The Land Before Time, all locations and character are property of Sullivan Bluth Studios and Universal Pictures
IMPORTANT UPDATE
This story has been revised to more properly tie in with DiddyKF1's stories A Swim Of Silence And The sequal A Swimmer's Sad story so I'd recommend reading them and while I have put explanations about the stories I'd highly recommend reading them if you want a full understanding of what happens.
This story will now also feature Aylene and Derek from The Land Before Time Retold Series so all credit goes to Elise Lowing for allowing me to use her characters.
The Land Before Time XV: The Forgotten Friend
Prologue
The Bright Circle shone brightly over The desert like area known as the badlands, various herds of dinosaurs were making their way across the badlands in an attempt to reach the Great Valley, a lush oasis filled with pleanty Of food and water after their old home had become uninhabitable. The journey had been very long, made only harder by the feared Meat Eater Sharptooth stalking the herds.
The herds had so far made great progress in their journey to the Great Valley but they knew that there was still a great way to go.
two Swimmer families were over by a watering hole drinking water and resting their feet.
One of these Swimmers was only Six Cold Times Old But was keeping her distance, sitting on a rock and crying silently. Her name was Ducky and she was normally a happy go lucky Swimmer. During her first five years nobody apart from her siblings would play with her due to finding her Yep! Yep! Yep! annoying, a short while ago she had made friends with another lonely Swimmer named Judy, the two quickly became best friends, however Ducky discovered that Judy's dad Rolf was abusing her and her Mom because he feared they would leave. Ducky and her family tried to help, but it made things worse.
Then five days previously Judy and Nitha had been murdered by Rolf in the middle of the night before and Rolf killed himself. Ducky saw their bodies the next day.
Two of the other Swimmers named Juno and Hollow befriended her just a day after but Ducky wasn't sure about them and kept her distance.
Suddenly a shadow loomed over Ducky and she looked up too see her mother Sura gazing at her in concern.
"I'll take it your still upset about Judy?" Asked Sura gently, "Ducky look I know she was your friend but there was nothing anyone could do, the elders never took into account how far Rolf was willing to go, nobody knew he would murder them."
Ducky suddenly felt boiling hot anger fill her, everyone had told her that nothing could've been done, but she was convinced that she could have been saved. Sura gasped as her daughter whirled round to face her, her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she wore a look of anger.
"You Are wrong Mamma something could have been done it could, it could." Argued Ducky in anger, "We could have left with them and deserted-ed Rolf, we could have gotten rid of him."
"That wouldn't have worked Ducky." Explained Sura calmly, "If we did that we'd be making things worse, and as I said nobody thought it would go like that, nobody knew how dangerous Rolf was."
Those last words caused something to snap inside Ducky.
"EXCEPT YOU!" Yelled Ducky in a rare show of anger, "He came into our home twice, you both saw how aggressive and loud he was, you saw the bruises on Judy and Nitha and knew of the threats you saw him throw me into a rock and attack them, you did, you did, you could have fought and warned-ed the elders... you are a coward."
Ducky suddenly gasped in shock at her outburst before clapping her hands to her mouth. She then looked at her Mom who looked back baffled and a bit hurt.
Sura looked down at her daughter and immediately saw tears build up in her eyes. The young Swimmer then fell to her knees and began sobbing loudly and in despair.
"Oh... I am s-so, so, so v-very sorry Mamma, I did not mean to s-say those things." Wailed Ducky in despair and apologetically.
Sura felt a lump form in her throat. She then picked her daughter up and hugged her while rubbing her back. It was very clear to her that this had impacted Ducky a lot more than she'd originally thought.
"Shhhh, shhhh, it's ok Ducky I forgive you." Reassured Sura in a comforting tone.
After a few minutes Ducky calmed down and Sura put her down to play with Juno who approached the young Swimmer with a look of concern.
"Hay Ducky you ok?" Asked Juno in concern.
"Oh I am fine Juno." Replied Ducky in a saddened voice, "You And Hollow just go and leave me be."
"Ducky I know you're really upset about Judy, but me and Hollow want to be your friend." Answered Juno in a nervous voice before looking up, "Oh my!, look at that."
Ducky looked in the direction that Juno was facing and her eyes widened in shock. there were two elderly Longnecks approaching her and Juno's parents, they were also accompanied by two adult Threehorns and three young child Threehorns the adult male one looked very irritated.
"Excuse me, but have any of you seen a child Longneck, a young human girl and an adult female Longneck?" Asked The male Longneck in concern.
"No we haven't." Replied Ducky's Mom, "Where did you last see them?"
"Well our Grandson went off to play and his friend but didn't return." Explained The female Longneck, "Our daughter went off to find him but she hasn't returned yet."
But before anyone could reply the male Threehorn shoved past the two Longnecks and growled at the Swimmers in aggression.
"Forget your Grandson." Barked The Threehorn, "My daughter Cera's gone too, and I really hope she hasn't disobeyed me and gone to play with that Longneck."
"Topsy please!" Said His mate in a shocked voice, "There's no reason that Cera should be stopped from making friends with other Leaf Eaters, I think we should try to mix more with other Leaf Eaters."
Topsy groaned in irritation as the others nodded in agreement.
"Oh stop being silly." Retorted Topsy, "It's been a tradition for a long time that other Leaf Eaters don't mix, our children would never get along, what's next them being friends with a Sharptooth."
The two Threehorns left while leading their children along and made sure they didn't stray from the path.
The two Longncks looked about with unsure expressions, they then seemed to agree on something and followed the Threehorns.
The children continued to play, soon Juno and her family left leaving just Ducky, her parents and her siblings. Suddenly the whole ground began shaking violently causing Ducky and her siblings to fall on their faces.
"EARTHSHAKE." Screamed eeryone in fear as deep cracks formed in the ground and headed straight through the watering hole draining all the water through the crack.
"Children COME HERE! HURRY!" Yelled Sura.
Echo, Rapid, Diver, Spinner, Ray, Sandy, Opal and Ducky ran towards Sura, Ruphus and Merrie, Sura's sister, Opal suddenly fell and twisted her ankle causing her to scream in pain, Ducky ran over to her twin sister and supported her.
A female voice could be heard screaming in fear.
Ducky and Opal jumped up in fright as the Male Threehorn roared in anguish.
The young swimmers began trying to keep up with their and Juno's families, she leapt over small crevices which were forming and boiling hot steam that shot from the ground.
"DADDY!" Screamed the same female voice before squealing in horror.
Ducky suddenly stopped as a huge Fissure opened up with the ground completely splitting apart.
"Mamma catch Opal." Yelled Ducky as she lifted Opal over her head and spun around before tossing her.
the ground beneath Ducky crumbled and the Big Mouth was sent plummeting before landing on a ledge.
Ducky then saw a Spiketail couple along with their eggs fall off her side of the canyon before being buried under a huge pile of rubble, one egg however went flying high into the sky before landing on a steep hill and rolling away.
A family of Flyers wobbled in the sky as the Earthshake continued, suddenly the female Flyer dropped the young child Flyer who was blown away by a sudden steam vent into the distance.
Ducky then began to make her way along the ledge she hoped that somehow she would get to the other side and reunite with her family. just as the Swimmer was about to jump to the next ledge she was lifted off the ground by her shoulders and carried up into the sky, Ducky's eyes widened in fear as she looked up and saw that she was being held by a large Flying Sharptooth.
"Oh no!, please! do not eat me." Begged Ducky in a scared voice, "I do not taste very good, I do not, Oh no! no! no!"
Ducky then began to wriggle free from the Flying Sharptooth's grasp, the Meat Eater shrieked in anger as it tried to keep a hold of it's meal.
unfortunately for the Flying Sharptooth it lost it's grip on Ducky who plummeted to the ground while screaming in terror, the Big Mouth came to land in a large pond.
Ducky popped her head out of the water and slowly swam towards the bank, she then crawled out and headed over to a small cave and lay down in the small cave area, this was lucky as quite suddenly Sky Water began to thunder down while Sky fire lit up the now inky Black sky.
"Oh Mamma, Daddy, Juno please find me." Whimpered Ducky in a distraught voice.
(AN) And that was the prologue for this story, I hope you enjoyed it and remember to Read an Review.
The next Chapter will start the story properly in the present day, I decided it would be interesting to see how Ducky got separated from her family, there were also a few other characters that I showed getting separated can you spot them.
And in case you're wondering why Juno wasn't at the Great Valley when the gang of five arrived well I'll explain in the next Chapter, until then this is TimeLordMaster108 signing out.)
