A/N: Hello everyone! It's been ages since I've done an LBT story and most of you probably have no idea who I am. I had two LBT stories ages ago; one was completed, but the other one is on extended hiatus due to lack of popularity. I'm here now to bring you all a story that was requested (my first request!) by a friend and fellow author, Godzilla 2004. The story, plot and main OC character are all hers, so if you like the story, be sure to thank her.
This story is a mystery/adventure/friendship. Hope everyone enjoys!

Disclaimer: Neither I nor Godzilla 2004 own any of the canon characters. Godzilla 2004 owns the story, plot and main OC.

Land Before Time: The Curse

Chapter 1: Stranger From A Far Land

Millions of years ago the world was a much different place that it is today. It was a world free of wars and pollution. A world of beauty and danger. A world filled with wonder and mysteries beyond our wildest dreams. It is in this world that we find the Great Valley, a happy and peaceful home to multiple species of dinosaurs. And it is here in the Great Valley that Littlefoot and his friends often start their adventures. Including this latest one.

Somewhere in the Mysterious Beyond stood a lone secluded valley that was radically set apart from the surrounding land. The Great Valley, as this land was known, was filled with trees of the most pristine leaves and streams of the cleanest sparkling water and lush fields of perfect green grass. A good sized fruit flew through the air in on such field where ten kids were playing.

"Ooh! Me got it!" Cried Petrie, flying up in front of the fruit. It struck him and continued on its path with the small flyer stuck to it. However, Petrie's weight and body changed the fruit's aerodynamics, causing it to sail past the 'goal post' of two trees, missing completely. The fruit hit the ground rolling and Petrie flew up, dazed, but none the worse for wear. Petrie's teammates, Littlefoot, Spike, Hyp and Mutt cheered the save.

"Yep. He got it." Said Hyp, going over to the fruit. "Our ball."

"Actually, he's your player so it's our ball." Said Cera as she walked over.

"What?! But he blocked it!" Hyp protested.

"But it went out of bounds when he did so." Cera countered.

"Cera's right, Hyp." Said Littlefoot, getting between the two before a fight broke out. "It's their ball."

"Hmph!" Said Cera sticking her tongue out at Hyp. She picked up the fruit in her mouth, raised her nose in the air, and proudly strutted off.

"Errh." Hyp groaned in annoyance and muttered, "Sore winner…" before walking away back to the field. Cera arrived at her side of the field and met with her teammates, Ducky, Chomper, Ruby and Nod.

"Alright." Said Cera to her teammates. "We're going with the play."

"Ooh! This is going to be good!" Said Ruby.

"I think we can actually win this!" Said Chomper.

"Oh yes, yes, yes! We can!" Ducky agreed.

"Agreed!" Said Nod. Cera put down the fruit and her teammates took their positions.

"Ready?" The threehorn asked. Her team nodded. "On three." She lowered her head, charged and punted the fruit. "Three!" Cera passed the fruit to Ducky, who while too small to grab the fruit, was able to redirect it to Ruby, who quickly picked up the fruit and ran with it.

"Pass it to me!" Said Chomper, hopping in place. Ruby threw the fruit, but a certain spiketail appeared in front of Chomper. The fruit went flying in Spike's direction, who happily opened his mouth wide.

"Spike, don't eat it!" The other nine kids yelled.

"Eeehh!" Spike replied in the affirmative. Instead of catching the fruit in his mouth, he head-butted it. Unfortunately, this just smashed the fruit rather than send it flying.

"Well that happened." Said Cera.

"Me get another one!" Petrie volunteered.

"Petrie!" Came Mama Flyer's voice.

"Oh! Me have to go! Sorry guys!" Said Petrie, turning towards his nest.

"Ducky! Spike!"

"We have to go to Spike." Said Ducky. "Goodbye everyone."

"Well, we can still play three on three and somebody referees."

"Cera!"

"Urrgh." Cera groaned in annoyance before turning to head to her father's voice. "See you guys."

"Littlefoot!" Came Grandpa Longneck's voice.

"I guess we'll play later." Said Littlefoot running off too.

"Well, we can still play with you hatchlings." Hyp said to the four remaining dinosaurs.

"What?! Coming dad!" Nod suddenly shouted before running off.

"What? You're dad's not calling!" Said Hyp.

"Yeah! Coming Nod's dad!" Yelled Mutt as he too ran off. Chomper and Ruby exchanged a glance before laughing nervously to Hyp and running off as well.

"Hrrn…" Hyp groaned in annoyance.

"Hey Grandma! Grandpa!" Littlefoot called as he reached his grandparents.

"Hello there, Littlefoot." Greeted his grandparents.

"Is something happening?" Littlefoot asked curiously.

"Yes, a herd of far walkers are arriving today." Grandma Longneck replied.

"We're going to go meet them later in the day, then all the valley dinosaurs will gather to grret them properly.

"Okay, cool!" Said Littlefoot. "Can I watch?"

"Yes you can. But first," Said Grandma Longneck. She picked Littlefoot up and placed him under a waterfall, "your bath." Once Littlefoot had finished and was clean, he went off to see what he could watch. Deciding to go watch the newcomers arriving, Littlefoot had run up a ridge overlooking one of the entrances to the Great Valley and was now watching as a herd of some thirty or so longnecks entered the valley.

"Hey! Far walkers!" Littlefoot said to himself. He wondered if there were any kids like him among them. As Littlefoot watched the herd of arriving longnecks, he noticed one, just one, that was a youth like he. The young longneck seemed to hang back from the others, walking at a slower pace and letting the grown-ups pass. From what Littlefoot could tell, it didn't look like this longneck was with any of the grown-ups, which barely acknowledged its presence. "That one who looks to be around my age!" He noted happily. With that, he made his way down the hill, hoping to greet the newcomer.

It took a while but Littlefoot finally spotted the young longneck. It was around his size and was looking down as it walked, its neck and head low. As Littlefoot studied the youngster before him, he realized something: it was a girl! As he got closer, Littlefoot was able to make out more of her appearance. She was of a similar color to Littlefoot, only of a darker shade, and she had red-brown eyes. Her eyes were sad and she kept them fixed to the ground as she walked.
"Hi! What's your name?" Littlefoot asked curiously as he approached. "I'm Littlefoot." The longneck didn't reply, only continuing to stare at him fearfully. "Can't you talk?" Still no response. "Are you able to talk or do you just choose not to?" And nothing yet. She wasn't even moving and her total lack of reaction was greatly confusing Littlefoot. "I'm getting nowhere fast, am I?" Littlefoot asked more to himself. "Can you at least nod or shake your head or something?" The young longneck finally replied, not verbally of course, but with a small, almost imperceptible nod of her head. "Great!" Littlefoot practically cheered, startling the newcomer a bit. "Are you here with your parents?" She shook her head in the negative. "Any relatives, family, of any sort?" Again, she gave him the same response. "So you're here by yourself?" This time, the new longneck nodded.
"I'm going to meet my friends. You can come along if you'd like." Littlefoot offered. He walked off to the edge of some trees, but the female longneck didn't budge. Littlefoot paused and turned around. "Well you coming?" The female longneck didn't reply, but as Littlefoot turned and continued on, this time she followed.

As Littlefoot walked, he could feel the female longneck's eyes boring into the back of his head and he had to admit, it was a little disconcerting. He stopped and turned around and as he did so, he saw she had also stopped and was staring off into the distance to one side as if pretending she hadn't been following him. Littlefoot's facial muscles contorted a bit and lifted on one side above his eye, the dinosaur equivalent of a raised eyebrow, but he said nothing and turned back, continuing on. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled across the sky causing the female longneck to gasp.
"It looks like sky water is going to fall soon." Littlefoot noted as he stared up at the sky, glancing towards his companion, he noticed her discomfort. "Are you afraid of sky water?" He asked curiously. The longneck shook her head. It wasn't sky water that frightened her, but rather the sky rumbles and sky fire. "Don't worry. You're safe here in the Great Valley. Just wait till you meet my friends. You'll love them! They're the nicest around! Well, Cera and Hyp are a little rough around the edges, but you get used to them."

As they approached a clearing, both longnecks could here the chatter of the other kids. They'd apparently been told about the newcomers from their families and had gathered to await whatever news Littlefoot brought them. Littlefoot moved on ahead towards his friends, but the female longneck abruptly stopped in her tracks, gazing out into the field at the other dinosaurs.
From what she could see, Littlefoot's friends were a yellow threehorn, a green spiketail, a light green swimmer, a brown flyer, a gray big-jaw, a gray hardback and a pale gray-green largemouth. There was al a bipedal pink dinosaur she couldn't make out because Littlefoot was in the way, and she could also see a purple tail, but not who it belonged to as the owner was near the pink dinosaur, albeit shorter than the pink one, and Littlefoot also blocked her view of it. As she watched the group of friends, it very slowly dawned on her a fact that she already knew: these were real, living breathing strangers that she was expected to meet. A sudden wave of panic washed over her with dizzying abruptness that left her feelings more than a little nauseous.

"Hey guys! I want to introduce you to someone new!" Said Littlefoot as he ran to his friends. "She's- well, I don't know her name yet."

"Littlefoot, what are you talking about?" Asked Cera.

"The new longneck that's around our age!" Littlefoot replied.

"Uh, what new longneck?" Asked Mutt.

"Yeah, what is he talking about?" Asked Nod.

"Her! The longneck right behind me!" Littlefoot indicated behind him with his tail, yet didn't turn around himself. Everyone peeked around him, trying to see what he was indicating.

"Umm…" Said Petrie.

"Yeah…" Said Hyp.

"I don't see anyone." Added Ruby.

"Me neither." Agreed Chomper.

"She-!" Littlefoot finally turned around to see nothing behind him except a single tree.

"That's a tree." Said Cera matter-of-factly. Littlefoot turned to her giving a sarcastic 'seriously?' look.

"She's gone!"

"Don't worry Littlefoot." Said Ducky. "We still love you even if you are crazy."

"Guys! I didn't just make her up!" Littlefoot insisted. "She must have wandered off! We have to find her before she gets lost!"

The young female longneck ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Part of her felt immensely guilty about fleeing, but another part knew she couldn't help it. That biting, almost crippling fear that reached into the very core of her being had reared its ugly head, the terror of it overwhelming her, smothering her, until he felt all that she could do was flee. And so she ran. And she kept on running even as sky water began to fall.
So intent and focused was she on fleeing that she didn't see a large gray tree trunk in front of her until she collided with it. The impact threw he back and she unceremoniously fell to the ground. It took her a moment to get her bearings and in that time she realized two things. The first was that the tree trunk that she hit was rather soft for a tree trunk. The second was that tree trunks were not gray. And that's when the 'tree trunk' moved. A long neck descend before her and a kindly old face came into view.

"Are you okay little one?" Asked the kindly voice of none other than Littlefoot's grandfather. The younger longneck could only nod in quiet, open-mouthed astonishment. This old longneck, despite his age, was far bigger than the ones she'd ever seen. In the Mysterious Beyond, due to constant dangers, stress and lack of food, longneck's rarely achieved their full sizes; she'd never seen any herself. And his skin color was very bright and healthy, again despite his age. Soon they were joined by another longneck, a female, who was just as big as the male.

"What's your name young one?" Asked Grandma Longneck. The young longneck said something, but her voice was so low and hushed, neither grown-ups were able to make out what she said.

"I'm sorry dear, I'm afraid I didn't quite catch that." Said Grandpa Longneck.

"Our hearing isn't as good as it used to be." Grandma Longneck joked good humoredly.

"Grandma! Grandpa! I-!" Littlefoot ran to his grandparents and stopped upon seeing who was with them. "There you are! Are you okay?"

"You know her little one?" Asked Grandma.

"Yes… well, sorta." Littlefoot admitted. "I just met her a little while back. I was taking her to meet my friends when she disappeared. I was coming to you to ask if you could help me find her. I didn't even get her name yet."
Again the female longneck murmured something and again they missed it, but it did sound like it with a 'mee' sound.

"I'm sorry, one more time." Said Littlefoot.

"It's Mikasa." They young longneck whispered, but this time it was audible. "My name… it's Mikasa."

"What a unique name. Doesn't sound like it's from anywhere around here." Said Grandma Longneck

"I… I come from very far." Mikasa said, still in a very low voice.

A/N2: Well, that's it for the first chapter. I remember that when I wrote my own LBT fics, many people expressed doubt in my ability to write a "normal" LBT story, so I really hope I was able to do this and Godzilla 2004's vision justice, and I really hope I was able to capture the LBT 'feel' and keep it. Please review, and once again, thank Godzilla 2004 for her idea.