Chapter 1: Prelude to the mystery
Possibly the strangest part of the Mystery of the Blackweeds was the way it all began. Nothing to anticipate the turn of events. No signs, no premonitions. It all started like any other day in the Great Valley.
The sky was clear, the sky-puffies notably absent, the grass was green, the inhabitants, those proud, majestic creatures, the Dinosaurs, as blissfully unaware as always of the impending turn of events. The Flyers flew in the sky, the swimmers paddled playfully in the ponds, the Threehorns found more and more ways to argue with the Longnecks, and the children played blissfully and energetically, as always.
This morning in particular, Litlefoot and his friends had discovered a colossal melon at the base of a tree. How it came to be there was a mystery, since it was still hard and unripe. But they took the opportunity when they saw it, and soon a game of kicking the melon to eachother ensued.
"Over here Spike! To me!"
Spike obediently butted the melon with his forehead, towards Cera. She in turn, kicked it to Littlefoot. He skillfully manouevred the melon with his tail, in and out of the clumps of long grass. He would have made it towards the pair of trees serving as a goal, had he not been skilfully tackled from behind by Ruby.
"Heh, you have to be faster if you want to go faster than me!" she cried back as she turned the melon away from the goal, kicking it over to Chomper. And with a mighty boot, the melon was away from the goal and back into play!
The game went back and forth for hours, the playing field moving with them. Every time they scored a goal, they would allocate a new goal, farther away. The game was fully underway, and all were fully into it. So into it, in fact, that none seemed to notice how high up they had moved.
Until, that is, a well aimed push by Ducky sent the melon inbetween the two rocks which formed the goal, and down the other side of the mountain ridge. The very ridge that formed the wall betwen the Valley and what lay beyond.
"Oops..."
Littlefoot, Chomper and Cera peeked over the rocks to see where the melon had gone. The trees were too dense to see for sure.
"Great!" the young Threehorn muttered, "That was our last good fruitball, and now we've lost it!"
"I am sorry, I am, I am!" Ducky cried, "But I did not realise we were up so high."
"She right! Even me not notice, and me could see everything from up high" Petried added, hovering a few meters off the ground. A sudden gust of wind picked up, and he quickly returned to the ground.
"You only ever notice something like that when you see it. And I didn't see it at all." Ruby piped in.
"So now what do we do?" Chomper asked, sitting on a nearby rock.
Littlefoot paced back and forth a few times, trying to come up with some idea of where they could get a new fruitball. Most of the other ones on the ground were too squishy to play with, and the ones in the tree would be hard to get down.
"Why don't we just go get it back?"
Petrie looked at Cera as if she had just suggested murder. "Go down there? Into Mysterious Beyond? No way, too dangerous!"
But Cera was adamant "Look, it's not that far down, and since it's a valley, the fruit probably rolled really close to the wall anyway. We could go down there and get it back before anyone knows we're gone!"
The gang looked to Littlefoot. He looked back into the valley, and saw that most of the grownups were over by the Thundering falls, well away. Turning back to his friends, he nodded reluctantly.
"Alright, but who goes? We need to think this through."
Within a few minutes, it was decided. Ducky and Cera would keep a lookout in case the grownups approached, from atop the ridge. Littlefoot and Spike would wait halfway down the slope, ready to help if anything went awry. Petrie would fly above them all, keeping a lookout for where the fruitball may have gone, as well as whether any sharpteeth were around.
Chomper and Ruby, having once been residents of the Beyond themselves, were given the task of actually going into the Beyond to retrieve the fruit. The other leaf-eaters would look a bit conspicuous, but Chomper was a Sharptooth himself, and Ruby a Fast-Biter, so if they encountered any creatures, they might be able to talk their way out of it.
And so they went to work, scouring the rocky canyons and wastes just by the Great Wall, all the while keeping an eye out for any movement.
"Chomper, I'll look this way. You try over by the wall."
Chomper nodded, sniffing for any scent of the aromatic fruit. Suddenly, he stopped stock still. He knew that smell for sure; The fruitball was so close! He ran in the direction of the smell, which got stronger and stronger with every step. He rounded a corner, the smell was so strong he felt like he'd be sick!
Turning another corner, and there it was! Perched among a crop of boulders, just atop the shortest one, the fruitball rested, pierced slightly by a spike of rock.
Grinning with satisfaction, he looked up. There was Petrie, a tiny speck in the sky, flying steadily, which could only mean that there was no trouble abound. As he turned his head back to the ground, he noticed another, larger flyer in the sky. It flew slowly, gliding on an air current, not too far from Petrie, not really moving anywhere. However, Petrie did not seem to react, so it couldn't be a problem.
Shrugging, he scampered up towards the rocks where the fruitball lay. His feet trampled the shale and slate underfoot, causing him to slip momentarily. But he regained his balance and continued on. Looking for a better footing, he moved towards a flat piece of stone, larger than the others, and placed a foot on it. It wobbled a bit, then was still. he placed another foot on it.
The stone held his weight for only a moment, before it gave under him, burying him in slate and gravel.
Chomper screamed for help, but only recieved a mouthful of grit in reply. Spitting it out, his eyesight became blurred. Looking skyward, he saw Petrie suddenly stop in the sky and flutter about in a panic. Obviously he had seen it, Chomper thought to himself. However, his relief turned to exhaustion as he felt the weight of the rock crushing the air from his lungs.
He noted two things before he blacked out. One, that Petrie finally seemed to notice the other flyer in the sky, as the larger of the two suddenly turned and flew towards the rest of the Mysterious Beyond. The second thing was that as well as the darkness of the rocks, he could see the sillhouette of strange figures, peering in through the gap in the rocks. Their eyes stood out in the darkness, one pair were red, one pair yellow, and the third pair a dark brownish-grey.
That was all he noted, before he blacked out.
A great cloud of dust arose from the ridge as Littlefoot and Spike scrambled to the top of the ridge. As their forepaws finally reached the top of the ridge, they were relieved to see Ducky and Cera rush to meet him.
"Littlefoot! What's going on?" Cera asked, as she helped pull him atop the ridge. He tried his best to relate what Petrie had told him, but he was so out of breath, all he could manage was a hoarse "...Chomper!" before h collapsed, completely winded, along the equally exhausted Spike.
Ducky turned to Cera, a look of worry on her face "What do you think happened?"
Luckily, Petrie swooped down from the sky to land beside them "It Chomper! He in big trouble!"
Cera peered out across the Beyond "Where? What happened?"
"He look for fruitball near big pile of rocks, when it fall! Right ontop of him!"
Ducky gasped "Oh, no no no! That is not good!"
"What about Ruby?"
As if on cue, Ruby's head peeked over the top of the ridge "Here I am! Petrie told me the news before he went to tell you the news!"
"We gotta get him back! C'mon!" Cera shouted, as she headed won the ridge herself. She would have gotten all the way, had Ducky and Ruby not accosted her half way.
"But Cera, Chomper is in the Mysterious Beyond! It is dangerous!" Ducky reasoned, as Ruby tried to hold Cera back
"And that's why we have to help him!" Came Littlefoot's voice from atop the ridge. He and Spike slid down the ridge to where the others were waiting, now fully recovered. "We can't leave Chomper out there alone! What if he runs into another Sharptooth, like Redclaw or something?"
Spike nodded, stomping his way past the others and down the slope. Ducky trusted her brother's instincts, they had steered them well before, and followed. Behind her, Littlefoot, Cera and Ruby hurried, with Petrie flying above.
"Me show you where it happened! But we gotta be quick before grownups find out we gone!"
Littlefoot inwardly agreed, and quickened his pace. As they reached the opening to the twisted rocky gorges and wastes of the Beyond, he kept a sharp eye out for any movement, ready to point it out, be it Chomper, or something less friendly.
He gazed up to the sky, where he could see Petrie soaring a few meters above their head, leading the way.
Within minutes, they had found the clearing, with the ledge, where the melon lay crushed by a boulder bigger than Spike. The landslide had been a big one, and Ruby wasted no time in digging away at the rock and shale that buried her friend.
Ducky and Cera were quickly at her side, the former pushing as much of the gravel as she could away, the latter pushing as many of the bigger rocks as she could down the hill. Spike joined the effort, working alongside Cera, and Littlefoot did his best to clear the rubble from the base, all the while calling out to Chomper
"Chomper! Chomper ,can you hear me? Say something if you can!"
"Oh, this is my fault!" Ruby moaned as she stubbed a finger on a particularly stubborn rock "He'd never have been trapped on his own if I was there with him!"
"Don't...Blame...Yourself..." Cera grunted between pushes, as she and Spike sent another boulder rolling to Littlefoot, who cleared it to the side "If you had been wit him, you would just be trapped too!"
"But at least then Chomper would not be alone." Ducky piped up, as she scrabbled away at a makeshift tunnel through the dirt and gravel.
Petrie watched from above, as his friends worked diligently away, knowing that any hesitation would spell instant doom for poor Chomper. Strange, Petrie thought to himself. he was certain that this was the pile of rocks that had buried him, and it didn't exactly fall right ontop of him, so he couldn't be that deep in the rock. Yet no matter how much they dug, no matter how much they reduced the heap, no sign of Chomper came up.
However, his musings were cut short as he saw a shadow coming round the bend towards the clearing. He cried out in shock and hurried towards the ground to warn the others.
"AAGH! Sharpteeth coming! Hurry!" he screamed as he swooped overhead, keeping his eye on the silhouetted mass coming ever nearer.
Littlefoot halted or a moment as he heard Petrie's cry, then doubling his efforts at digging. He cried out in pain as his foot hit something far more solid than a boulder. He had dug straight through the pile of rocks, right to the foot of the cliff, and still no sign of Chomper.
"Guys! Chomper's not in here!" he shouted to the others, as he looked back to the shadowy form appearing round the bend. He lowered his head as Ducky climbed onto his back, and after looking back to check the others were on their way, he hurried towards the way they came, back to the Valley.
Inside, Littlefoot was seething with anger at himself. Here he was, fleeing from danger, when one of his friends might be in even greater danger! He just hoped Chomper would be able to forgive him.
His musings were, however, cut short as he was met with a wall of rock. He had taken a wrong turn! Worse still, he had led his friends the wrong way as well!
"Oh no,no, no!" came the terrified squeak from Ducky, on his back. They looked frantically for another way, even attempting to scrabble up the wall. But it was no use, as he slid down to earth.
Cera and Spike came cannoning round the bend into him and Ducky, and they collapsed into a heap at the base of the sheer cliff that lay before them, followed close behind by Ruby and Petrie.
"Ohh, we trapped!" Petrie groaned as he covered his eyes and buried his face in Spike's back.
The young dinosaurs huddled together in fear, their eyes closed, as the menacing sound approached. Ruby hazarded a peek, and saw that it was more than one figure. She could discern a group of several dinosaurs, of varying size, both bipedal and quadruped. Strange, she thought, that a group of Sharpteeth could be so varied. Or maybe they had just attracted all the solitary Sharpteeth from around. But it mattered little. They were trapped, they had no idea where Chomper was, and the group of creatures were getting closer every second. She closed her eyes, only hearing the sound of their stomping feet.
Then the stomping stopped. She felt the warmth of a paw touching her back, and heard a voice.
"Okay, you can relax now."
She slowly looked up, and found herself staring into a pair of big, red, bloodshot eyes.
Ruby moved like an animal scalded, she was so quick. The minute her eyes met those huge, red eyes she scuttled back over the top of the heap of young dinosaurs, straight to the back. Peeking over the top, she ducked under again as she almost met those eyes again, and saw the creature tey were attached to. Poking Littlefoot lightly, she motioned over the top of Spike's back. He nodded and slowly, ever so slowly, moved his head up and over, until he had full view of the figures standing before them.
Littlefoot instantly felt a quiver of fear. From their size, he could tell hey were only a few cold-times older than them, but that did not make them any less creepy looking. Looming at the back, he saw a strange sort of belly-dragger, but with a face almost similar to a regular sharptooth, and a line of spkes running from his head, right down to his tail. Sitting atop this green and brown creature was a fast-biter, but alot more spindly and slender than Screech and Thud's kind of fast-biter, a light shade of green, with a yellow chest and red back. From it's eyes and general build, Littlefoot could tell it was a girl. Another figure loomed behind them, tall and thin, but it was cast in such shadow, he was usure what gender or even kind of creature it was.
But it was the creature at the front who frightened him the most, whose eyes had spooked Ruby so much. Clearly into its teenage years, it resembled a young version of the sharptooth he and his friends encountered when they followed Guido as he sleep-walked into the Mysterious Beyond, with the long snout and massive sail on its back. He had predominantly red skin, with black spikes of colour around the base of the yellow sail, and an orange underbelly. But what topped off their intimidating appearance was the strange black grass that was draped liberally over every one of them.
Littlefoot gulped and closed his eyes. Surrounded by three, maybe four sharpteeth. There was no way out of this one...
"Oh get up, will ya? We ain't gonna eat you!"
He opened his eyes. Who said that? It was too deep to be any of his friends. He looked around, in case some unseen help had arrived, but there was nobody around, except for the sharpteeth before him and his friends, quivering underneath him. Looking up to the sailbacked sharptooth, he felt unease at its grin, especially at the one huge tooth it had on either side of its mouth. But who else could it be?
"W...Was that y-you, who..spoke?" he stammered, feeling both terrified and stupid for asking such a question.
"Well, who else could it've been, the rocks?" The sailback replied. The belly-dragger and fast-biter behind him chuckled.
Littlefoot was gobsmacked. Apart from Chomper, sharpteeth couldn't speak the language of the Leaf-Eaters. Still stunned, he moved to the side, allowing his friends to get back up. If their lack of shaking was anything to go by, they were just as stunned.
The sailback's grin widened, revealing more massive teeth "Well, would ya look at this, eh guys? They dunno what to think."
The fast biter hopped down to the ground and skittered closer to Littlefoot. He was surprised at how small she was, only about a head taller than Ducky. She looked up at Littlefoot, and giggled
"Hee hee, I suppose yer wondering why we can talk like you, huh?"
Littlefoot nodded dumbly.
"Well, we owe it all to Tero here. Say hi, Tero!" She called back to the group.
The mysterious figure at the back moved out of the shadow, and all the gang were amazed to see it was a flyer, the same kind as Petrie, only older. He had dark brown skin, with a pale orange belly, and green eyes. The blankest, coldest eyes Littlefoot had ever seen. He nodded silently in acknowledgement, but said nothing.
The sailback turned back to Littlefoot and moved closer to him. He spoke with a odd elegance that contrasted massivly with the slight rasp in his voice."Yeah, he doesn't talk. But he used to! And he taught us how to speak after he joined us."
Ducky's voice rang out from behind Littlefoot "B-but, he is not a sharptooth like you. He is a flyer, like Petrie."
Petrie waved timidly to Tero, who didn't even look at him.
"Petrie, huh? Funny name." The sailback snorted. He turned to Littlefoot "And what's yer name, kid?"
"Erm...I'm Littlefoot." he replied, "A-and these are my friends. Cera, Petrie, Ducky, Spike, Ruby and... Well, there is one more of us, but we don't know what happened to him..."
"I'm here, Littlefoot!"
He looked up and was amazed to see, perched on the tail of the sailbacked sharptooth, Chomper!
"This little guy with you?"
Chomper hopped down and ran back to Ruby's side. She threw her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.
"Chomper! What happened?" she asked, slightly teary-eyed with relief.
Chomper grinned "I'm not sure. After I passed out in the pile of rocks, I woke up and I was by this weird swamp, filled with this black grass... Like the stuff you guys have!"
He pointed to the tendrils of grass hanging from the strangers. The sailback spoke up again "Yeah, we were the ones who got him outta that pile of rocks. Not right to leave a fellow sharptooth buried like that, is it?"
Chomper nodded, "So, when they came back, I asked them if they had seen my friends. They said they had heard someone moving around nearby, and took me with them to check it out. And then we found you!"
The belly-dragger stepped forwards "Bit of a weird group! What are sharpteeth like you doing hanging around with a bunch of grass-guzzlers?"
Cera growled quietly, pawing the earth as if preparing to charge, but the Sailback beat her to it as he promptly bonked the belly-dragger on the head with a claw "Now now, Rheddo. Mind yer manners around guests!"
He turned back to Littlefoot and bowed his head "My apologies...Littlefoot, was it? His manners have never been amazing. But anywho, my name is Redback."
He outstretched an arm to Littlefoot, who recoiled slightly.
"It's alright, I understand. Why trust a sharptooth, right?" Redback said, chuckling to himself. Littlefoot shuddered a little. The laugh was a little unnerving.
"I-it's just... how can you guys..talk?" Littlefoot asked nervously.
"Kinda a long story, that." The fast-biter piped up. "Why don't we find somewhere a bit less open? Y'never know what might be out and about round here."
"Where'd you lot come from, anyway?" Redback asked, leaning closer down to the huddled group of dinosaurs.
"We came from the Great Valley," Ducky said, stepping forwards." Where do you live?"
"Nowhere and everywhere, little lady. We live where we like and we like where we live. When we don't, we go somewhere else... Oh, by the way, lemme introduce the gang." Redback added, "That big fella is Rheddo."
The belly dragger nodded and grinned a toothy grin, his black-grass adornment rustling as he moved.
"This pretty li'l lady down here is Celya." He continued, pointing to the minute fast-biter, who snapped at his outstretched claw
"Red! I told you not to talk about me like that!"
The sharptooth just grinned back. "And that tall flyer guy in the back is Tero. Don't be offended if he doesn't talk to you, he doesn't talk to anyone."
Tero sniffed and looked wistfully skywards.
Redback continued his introductions "Poor fool lost his voice to another fast-biter, just days after he finished teaching us lot to talk. Same with his leg too. Never been the same since."
Littlefoot looked down at Tero's legs, and noticed that one was gruesomely scarred and twisted, giving the flyer a strange stance and an awkward walk.
"Gee... Did you help him get away?"
Redback's grin widened even further, revealing masses more teeth "Not exactly. But we did...ahem, deal with the fast-biter. Look, it's a long story, maybe some other time? Like Celya said, we should get into cover."
Littlefoot thought about this for a moment, but was interrupted by Ruby's hand tapping his shoulder.
"Littlefoot, I think that whatever we do, we better do something to get closer to home." She said nervously, as she looked around.
"Hey, I know, we could hide in the caves! We can get to them from outside the Valley, and nobody would know they were there!"
The others nodded at Littlefoot's idea, though Cera was notably hesitant. She was busy eyeing the strange dinosaurs up and down suspiciously.
"'Tis settled then! Lead on, Littlefoot!" Redback quipped, as he followed at his side.
The combined group of the Great Valley residents and the strange outsiders set off, mingling slightly, but mostly keeping to their own friends. Ducky, Petrie and Spike huddled together, flanked by Celya who strutted nimbly at Spike's right eye-level, and Tero, who silently limped at his left.
Rheddo and Celya walked alongside eachother, each looking straight at the other, watching.
Redback walked at the front, at Littlefoot's side. Littlefoot's snout twitched every time one of the black tendrils hanging from Redback's neck and arms brushed over his head.
"Hey, R-redback?" Littlefoot stammered "Why do you have those...things hanging all over you?"
Redback held up an arm, looking at the strands of grass, either tied tightly or hanging loosely over his limb. He turned his head to face Littlefoot's, his eyes meeting the longneck's.
"Cos that's who we are. We're the Blackweed Brotherhood."
Littlefoot looked away, as he turned the mysterious phrase over in his mind.
The Blackweed Brotherhood.