Land Before Time: The Time of Wolves
Disclaimer: Balto and the Land Before Time are like one of my favorite movies, so I thought to give this story a shot. On a side note, I don't own any of the characters except the main sharptooth.
Summary: Everything was peaceful for Balto until he found himself in the time of the dinosaurs. Now Balto must find out how to get home, and while he's doing that he befriends the well-known dinosaur children of the Great Valley.
Rating: K
Author's Notes: I'll explain the story idea at the end of this chapter. Also, this story takes place after the third Balto and the fifth Land Before Time movie.
Genre: Adventure/Friendship
Chapter 1: A Precious Thing to Waste
Nome Alaska 1927
Dawn was coming to the town of Nome. Soon everyone in this small town would be waking up and be on with their daily lives. However when the sun was coming up there was still one who lived on an abandoned fishing boat that wasn't waking up. The famous wolfdog who has saved Nome's children, Balto. Balto would usually wake up before most of the town did as it proved efficient means of entering the village without being noticed by the citizens. Back in those days, Balto was believed to be nothing more than a dangerous stray. Dangerous due to his heritage of being half wolf. People hated, feared, and blamed some of the problem caused by other dogs on him merely because of this harsh fact. Times have changed since then after rescuing the local sled team from being lost so that they could save the town's children from a diphtheria outbreak. From that day forward, the wolfdog was seen as a hero and thus didn't need to get up as early to sneak into town anymore. However, after all this time it has become a habit of his, but today he was fatigued than he usually was. Reason being was that he was up all night with his sights towards the stars. Mainly for finding the fate of his mother. It felt like just yesterday when he found out that his mother was the great spirit Aniu. Even when it's been months since he found out he still couldn't believe it. Anyway, today was meant to be a special day which Balto was about to miss it if he doesn't wake up.
"Balto, Balto!" shouted a voice somewhere on the boat. The voice came from an old goose named Boris; Balto's oldest friend. "Wake up boy chick you're going to miss the big day." Boris had a bucket of water which he threw in Balto's face.
Balto jumped up in surprise until he realized what happened. "Uh, Boris couldn't you find a more peaceful way of waking me up?" he asked as he stretched and started shaking the water off.
"How can I? You're such a heavy sleeper." Boris replied as Balto was still stretching. "Anyway, you should be in town. Remember it's Kodi's first day of being lead dog."
Balto now remembered why this day was so important. Today was the day his son, Kodi was coming back from his first day of being the lead dog on the mail team. Something that the young husky had to strive for. Balto didn't want to miss this day for the world. He thanked Boris for reminding him and ran off into town before it was too late.
When Balto got into town, he saw that everyone was already awake, but he couldn't find the mail team. Balto sighed in relief knowing that he wasn't late for his son's return.
"Balto!" said a voice from behind him. Balto looked to see it came from his mate, Jenna. Balto went over and nuzzled his mate. "You were almost late sleepyhead. What were you doing all night?"
"I was just looking at the stars," he answered. "I'm just glad I didn't oversleep to miss this." Balto and Jenna decided to walk to the post office to wait for the mail team. "So Jenna how's Duke feeling lately? Is he getting any better since Kodi and I rescued him?"
"Actually he's doing just fine," Jenna answered. "They said he just had to wear a cast over his leg for a while."
Balto smiled and nuzzled his mate again, "That's good to hear."
For those who didn't know, Duke is the bush plane pilot for the U.S mail who arrived in Nome a week ago. During that week the mail team of Nome challenged Duke to a race to see who would be the ones to keep their jobs. In the middle of the race, Duke got lost in a blizzard and ended up crashing in the middle of nowhere. When Balto found out, he went out to help Duke to bring him back into town. When Balto found him, the wolfdog carried Duke back to town, but Balto found himself in a situation that almost led him to his death. Luckily his son Kodi and some of the other dogs on the mail team came at the last minute to save him. In fact, it was Kodi that led the mail team all the way to save Balto and Duke, and that's the reason he's lead dog now. After they reached Nome, the people of the town and Duke made a deal. The mail dogs would deliver the mail during the winter while Duke delivers it during the summer. All of this is what leads up to where we are now.
The mail team was finally coming to the town about an hour after sunrise. Kodi, of course, was in the front leading the charge. When the team stopped at the post office, Balto and Jenna went over to greet their son.
"Hey Mom, Dad!" Kodi said excitedly to see his parents.
"Hello Kodi did you have a great time being lead dog?" asked Jenna as she welcomed her son with a nuzzle.
"Oh it was the best thing ever, and we actually got the mail on time," he answered.
At that time it was Balto's turn to greet his son. "You did good out there son. I'm proud of you."
Kodi smiled when he heard that. "Thanks, Dad. I only hope I'm as good as you someday."
"Well if you keep practicing you'll become even faster then me," Balto replied.
"I don't think anyone's faster than you."
After his conversation with his parents, Kodi went to hang out with his friends from the mail team Kirby, Dusty, and Ralph. Balto and Jenna watched their son until he was out of site with his friends. From there, Balto decided to stay with Jenna for the rest of the day. However, something was bothering Balto. That today something odd was to come along the horizon. He couldn't explain it, and it was just one of those feelings he gets. Similar to the dreams he used to have when his daughter, Alue was born. That deep down something was calling out to him. Soon the day turned to dusk, and it was almost time for everyone to turn in. Balto was just ready heading back to his boat to get some sleep tonight. However, while he reached the outskirts of Nome, he was intercepted by Kodi.
"Kodi what are you doing here?" Balto asked.
"Well, I was wondering if you can practice with me, Dad?" Kodi replied. "I think I could get some work in before I have to leave for White Mountain."
Balto couldn't say no to his son when it came to spending time with him. Since Kodi was off delivering the mail for days on end, he and Balto didn't get to spend much time together as they used to. So, before Kodi went to deliver the mail again, he and his father would spend as much time as they could. After all, time is a precious thing to waste. Balto and Kodi went to the forest to practice. The practices would involve races, maneuvering through trees, and Balto setting up a small obstacle course for Kodi. However, Kodi just brushed through them with ease. Balto was always impressed to see how much Kodi has progressed since being a pup. The wolfdog was not boasting earlier when he said his son would be faster than him one day. Ever since joining the mail team, Kodi has shown much promise in his ability. Balto couldn't help but feel proud of his son.
"Well son, it's getting late." Balto said when his son was done practicing, "We should be heading back."
That was when Kodi had an idea in mind. "Hey, Dad how about we have a race back home?"
Balto agreed to this, and such got into position alongside his son. Not long after doing so the race began with the both of them being neck and neck. Though, it didn't take long for Balto to get ahead up on Kodi and was leading the race. Balto was halfway to Nome before he fell in a river of thin ice that was hidden by the snow. He tried his hardest to swim to shore, but the current was too strong for him. However, the wolfdog noticed a boulder big enough to stick out of the water's surface and attempted to swim over and grab hold of it. Seconds later Kodi came along and realized what had transpired.
"Oh my God, Dad!" Kodi shouted as he was getting ready to jump in the water. "Don't worry Dad I'll save you."
"No Kodi stay right there," Balto said worried that his son would get hurt helping him. "Just stay there son I'll be fine."
Not long after, a massive chunk of ice came and hit the wolfdog off the rock. Balto was then being pushed further downstream with Kodi following from the shoreline; trying to find a way to help his father. As if things couldn't get any worse, Balto saw that the river was heading straight for a waterfall. He tried his hardest to swim back to shore, but the current was still too strong for him. Kodi had a hard time catching up with the current even to do anything to help his father. Soon Balto went over the edge of the waterfall plummeting to the bottom.
"NO!" Kodi yelled.
Kodi raced to the edge of the waterfall only to see Balto falling straight to the bottom. The misty bottom hindered Kodi ability to see what had become of Balto. The young husky soon felt tears streaming down from his eyes as he feared the worst for his father.
"Dad."
The Great Valley 65 million years ago
It was the middle of the night in the land of the dinosaurs, and everyone was peacefully sleeping in their nest. Since here in the Great Valley was where leaf eaters were protected from carnivores by a giant wall the surrounded it they could all afford such luxury. Only one dinosaur couldn't find sleep this night; a longneck named Littlefoot. In fact, he was having a nightmare of some sort, and it didn't take long before he woke up screaming. After which he began panting heavily from fright before he realized it was just a dream and sighed in relief.
"Littlefoot?" a voice said from behind him. Littlefoot looked to see that it was his grandpa. "What's the matter Littlefoot is something wrong?"
"Nothing Grandpa, it was just another bad dream," Littlefoot answered as he was catching his breath.
His grandpa then gave him a concerned look. "Littlefoot you've been having these bad dreams for a while now. Maybe it's time you tell me what they're about." since this was the third-night Littlefoot had woken in the middle of the night from these dreams, so his grandfather couldn't help but worry about him.
Littlefoot took a deep breath before he started. "Well, Grandpa I keep dreaming that I fall in the fast water and I can't get out." Littlefoot paused for a moment to remember the dream. "I try my hardest to swim out cause it's so much colder than usual, but the current is too strong. I also keep hearing someone I don't recognize trying to help me but they can't for some reason, and then the fast water sends me over the thundering falls. The rest is a blur." after that took a while for either of them to say anything.
"My goodness." was all Grandpa could say at that moment. "No wonder you have trouble sleeping Littlefoot. Why I remember having such dreams like that scared me awake from time to time."
"Why do you suppose I keep having this same dream over and over again Grandpa?" Littlefoot looked to him for answers. "What do you think it all means?"
"I don't know Littlefoot. Dreams are truly one of the greatest mystery of our world; why who knows how or why we have them." Grandpa, however, knew this wasn't the answer his grandson wanted, "But the important thing is that it's over." Grandpa then nuzzled Littlefoot to let him know it was safe. "Now try to go back to sleep."
Littlefoot did as his grandfather said and laid back down. However, Littlefoot couldn't help but feel like something was about to happen and soon. Though not sure what or how to handle this, whatever it may be, would change his life forever.
Somewhere outside the Great Valley
The sun was already high in the sky, and Balto was lying unconscious on the shoreline of the river. When he woke up, he coughed up some water that went down his throat during his ordeal and tried to catch his breath. Balto took in his surroundings to realize that wherever he was, it wasn't Nome. This place, wherever it was, was filled with trees and plants that he had never seen before, he noticed some of the mountains were volcanoes, and it was way too humid to be Nome. I mean sure spring was coming, but it was never this humid at Nome. Not even during the summer time. It was easy to say that Balto was utterly lost.
"Where am I? What is this place?" Balto asked himself as he was getting used to the dense jungle that surrounded him, "More importantly how did I get here?"
Balto then shook himself dry and started to walk away from the river to find any clues to where he was. Everything around him seemed different like he was on another planet or something. He then heard something over a small hill in front of him, so he ran over to investigate. When Balto went over the terrain, he was surprised by what he saw. He saw a group of huge reptiles like creatures grazing around a field. Balto recognized these creatures form Rosy's (Jenna's owner) picture books that she had around.
"Dinosaurs? But that's impossible." Balto said trying not to go into shock. Balto then started walking in circles to keep his mind preoccupied. "Okay settle down Balto. This has to be some sort of dream. That's it. I hit my head in the river, and now I have a crazy dream." after saying that Balto accidentally hit his head on a nearby tree and noticed that it hurt. "Okay scratch that this is not a dream."
With that in mind, Balto decided it might be best if he kept his distance from the dinosaurs. Even though Balto could tell that these dinosaurs were plant eaters he thought that if he went near them, there would be two possibilities. The dinosaurs might think he was just an odd creature and leave him alone, or they might think he was a type of carnivore and attack him out of self-defense. Balto then had no idea what to do at this point. All he wanted was to go home, but he didn't know how. Suddenly Balto heard a loud roar coming from the nearby jungle, and saw all the plant eaters running in circles shouting "Sharptooth!" Balto just stood there confused until he saw what the plant eaters were worked up about, for out of the jungle came out a huge black two-legged dinosaur with red stripes and two horns on the top of its head (Carnotaurus). Balto then realized why they called it a sharptooth after seeing all the teeth in its mouth and knew it was a meat eater.
The massive meat eater then started attacking any plant eater it could find. However, it had a hard time catching anything since its pray was running around in every direction so that it couldn't focus on just one. Suddenly the sharptooth noticed something that wasn't running and made a mad dash at it. It took a minute for Balto to realize what it was running at.
"Oh no," Balto said as the sharptooth came closer to him with its mouth wide open.
The meat eater made a strike at Balto, but Balto jumped out of the way just in time not to be a meal for the monster. Balto then started running for his life with the sharptooth right on his tail. Balto went straight into the jungle so he could outmaneuver that thing. The dinosaur made another strike at Balto before entering the forest but missed. When Balto reached the wilderness, his plan was working perfectly with him running clearly through it, and the sharptooth having a hard time maneuvering through the trees. Balto then jumped through two trees that were close together with the sharptooth making a strike in that area. After that the large meat-eater found its head stuck between the two trees while Balto was getting away, so it made a loud roar in anger as if saying "I'll get you back for humiliating me like this!" but Balto couldn't understand it. When Balto exited the jungle and noticed the dinosaur wasn't chasing him anymore, so he decided to rest.
"Now I know what a rabbit feels like."
Balto then heard some voices coming from a few feet away and went over to see what it was. When he got to where the sounds were coming from he hid behind a large rock and looked over to see what was going on. What he saw were two club tail type dinosaurs having a conversation.
"You know I'm getting tired of being chased around by sharpteeth every day." one of the clubtail said.
"I know." replied the other. "If only there were a place we wouldn't have to worry about them anymore."
"Well there is one place that I know about." the first clubtail informed. "It's called the Great Valley; a fertile place protected from any sharptooth."
The other clubtail awed in disbelief. "But I thought the Great Valley was just a myth."
"No it's a real place; my brother lives there since we went off on our own." the first clubtail reassured his friend. "All you have to do is follow the Bright Circle through the smoking mountains, and it will lead you straight to a giant wall. There should be a trail in the wall that leads in the valley in a place no sharptooth would think to look."
"But if it's the last place they would look wouldn't they look there first?"
"Of course not, sharpteeth are just dumb brutes. Trust me I visited my brother there loads of times." the clubtail then smelled something. "Oh, what's that awkward smell?"
Balto then hid back behind the rock knowing that it was him the clubtail smelled. After all, he did smell like a wet dog. At least Balto knew what to do now. "If I go to this Great Valley, then I could think of how I could get home without worrying about being someone's meal." he then tried to remember the club tail's direction. However, he didn't understand what the Bright Circle was until he looked up at the sun. "The sun that's the Bright Circle?" At that time Balto realized that the dinosaurs had their own name for things. He then started thinking about what the smoking mountains were supposed to be, and he remembered the volcanoes he saw earlier and knew that's what the clubtail meant. "Well, I better get there before that monster comes after me."
Balto then headed west to where the sun was setting as the clubtail said. While he was heading to the Great Valley, Balto encountered many different dinosaurs, but he still kept his distance from them. After an hour or so Balto then found himself about to enter a valley filled with nothing but volcanoes. At that time Balto knew he was on the right track so went straight through these smoking mountains. The road through the volcano valley was a difficult one; the place was hot, and the rocks were dangerous. Balto almost fell in lava a many of times because the foundation was so unstable. When Balto got out of this valley his fur was filled with dust and soot; luckily he found a lake where he could wash up before continuing. It then took him the rest of the day when he saw the giant wall the clubtail talked about.
"Okay, that clubtail dinosaur said that the trail inside the valley is in a place where no sharptooth would ever look." Balto then started thinking about where that might be. "So if I were a sharptooth where is the place I wouldn't look?"
Balto then looked around the giant wall to find a way in the Great Valley. In an hour Balto found something that was interesting. He saw a weird rock formation that looked like a type of staircase that led to the top of the giant wall.
"That's the place that no meat eater would ever look?" Balto asked himself as he stared at the rock formation. "Well, that clubtail did say sharpteeth were dumb brutes. Didn't think he meant this dumb."
Balto smelled something strange, but ignored it and scaled the wall to enter the Great Valley. While he was doing this, Balto decided to look down when he was halfway there and noticed how high he was. At that time Balto thought that maybe the reason that sharpteeth didn't come this way was that they thought they might fall off, but it was just a hunch he couldn't be sure. When Balto got to the top of the wall he was amazed by what he saw; even though it was dark, he could see everything perfectly. He saw how big the valley was, how much life it could support, and that the giant wall he scaled stretched all the way around the valley. Even though it was dark, Balto could tell that the valley was a beautiful place that he could get used to staying in. So he went down another path that leads to the Great Valley floor. When he got down, his stomach was starting to growl and remembered that he had nothing to eat all day.
"Oh I have to eat something, but I really don't want to hurt any of the dinosaurs." Balto tried to think of something, but his stomach was driving him crazy. "What should I do?"
Balto then caught the smell of something and whatever it was it smelled edible, so he decided to follow it. In a matter of seconds, the scent led him straight to a bush, and the smell was coming from a star-shaped plant. Balto then found himself wondering if this plant was edible, so he smelled it again to make sure if the smell was coming from the plant. After he was sure of it, he then decided to lick the plant and noticed it tasted much sweeter than any other plant he tasted. Only after that did he take the plant in his mouth and started eating it and found that he liked it. Although crunchy as a plant would be; the sweet, juicy nectar it produced just melted away in his mouth. Balto then found himself eating most of the plants on the bush before his stomach was full. After that Balto then started to feel tired, so he began to find a place to sleep. It took awhile, but Balto found a cave that would be perfect for him not to be seen by any dinosaurs. He went inside the cave and curled up into a ball.
"Tomorrow I'll find out how I got here, and when I do I'll go back where I belong." after saying that Balto went to sleep.
Even after going to sleep Balto felt like something was going to happen here. He didn't know what, he didn't know when. It was just one of those feelings he has, and it made Balto more anxious to leave before it did; since this was one of those feelings that would lead to heartache of some sort.
End of Chapter 1
A/N: Hey guys I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new story. Reasons for this story was that I had the idea when starting out on the site, and didn't go through with it until I told a friend recently and he liked it so here it is. Like I said I own none of the characters except the Carnotaurus that for now on will be called the Horned Sharptooth. Hoped you enjoyed and don't forget to review.