Disclaimer: I do not own anything with the name of Land Before Time!

I got inspired by a very old memory from the original movie. Weird how such minor characters as those rogue Domeheads could leave an impression. But they have: when we were little, my sister and I would bonk our heads together in a rather...painful...game. Anywho, even then, I wondered...why were those Pachys attacking Cera? My first assumption was that they were trying to eat her. That stuck for a while before I learned that they were Leaf Eaters. Then it changed to them either being viciously territorial, or that they were just sadistically playing with Cera...to her obvious expense. Only thing clear to me this whole time was that those Domeheads were obviously intent to kill her. Now about the story itself, I reconsidered my initial opinion on their motives and found it to be an interesting plot to write about. So I hope you enjoy this rather dark story.

Prologue

Hunger, starvation...It's strange what that state can do to you. It makes you think of things you never would have even considered before. With no plants to eat around here, there was only one option left for him. Sure, it was other Leaf Eaters, not his own kind. As such, they might as well be dirt. He had no issues with attacking them, even killing them if the situation called for it. But still...this? The ultimate taboo of taboos, the inconceivable? Cepher shook his head a bit, blinking before looking down at the beaten body of a young Fan-Backed Swimmer. Nearby, his two companions watched him in confusion, wondering when he'll lead them off to continue their journey to the Great Valley. But their leader wasn't moving.

Was it possible he was starting to feel sympathy for their latest victim? No, no, that's never happened before. But why else would he just be standing there, seemingly very deep in thought? One of them, a black-colored female named Pacia, stepped towards the largest member of the trio, voice surprisingly soft for her fierce appearance and demeanor.

"Cepher? Are you alright?" she asked him. Cepher didn't seem to hear her at first, still staring at the body blankly. The third in the group, a small male named Rus, also walked closer when their leader made no response. He reached out and gave a small push to get his attention. It worked and Cepher blinked again before raising his head to look at the other two as if asking what they wanted.

"Are you alright?" Rus repeated Pacia's question. Cepher nodded before looking back at the body.

"Yeah, just thinking about...something." he told them quietly, knowing the thoughts in his head was not at all good. His traveling comrades picked up on this and looked at each other, then back at Cepher.

"About what?" they both asked simultaneously. There was silence for another moment before they got their answer, this one spoken even softer than the last.

"Something bad," he informed vaguely, looking at them, sharp claws clenching and unclenching in what seemed to be anxiety. This was quite unlike him. And at this response, Pacia and Rus tilted their thick domed heads, eyes widening a little. Time to see if their hunch was correct.

"You're not feeling bad for that hatchling, are you?" Pacia asked. At this, Cepher huffed in deep disdain as he returned his attention to the corpse of said hatchling, his own eyes narrowing. It was obvious he was not pleased with their guesswork; how dare they even think he was feeling for this pathetic excuse for a Leaf Eater laying at his feet.

"Of course not." he assured them sharply, hearing them sigh in relief. But this relief was short-lived when their leader's strange look returned as he continued with one simple question: "When was the last time we had so much as a bite to eat?"

Pacia and Rus looked to each other in growing consternation at the question. Where was this going? Finally, Rus shrugged. "I don't remember."

Pacia nodded in agreement. "It's been too long really." It was true. The Bright Circle had passed over them many times from the day they were lucky enough to find some buried roots in the ground and having to laboriously dig them out of the hardened earth. And even then, it was far from a satisfying meal, hardly helping in the slightest.

Cepher grunted before very softly starting to explain to them what his mind has been saying ever since they rammed this hatchling to death. "We'll never make it to the Valley if we don't find something to eat and fast." Silence came as that was said. As much as they didn't like it, they knew he was right. They needed food, more than just a few little roots that were more trouble than they were worth, but there was no sign of anything even remotely edible nearby. Or so they thought as Cepher resumed. "It's obvious we won't be finding green food anytime soon. So if we want to survive long enough to get to our destination, we'll have to change our tactics a bit."

"What do you mean?" Pacia asked, her tail flicking to and fro. Another pause before Cepher spoke in his softest tone yet.

"We have food, all around us. We just have to let our eyes wander to what's at our feet." At this, Rus indeed looked to his leader's feet at the hatchling's body, soon understanding and jerking back in shock.

"Are you saying that we should...eat other Leaf Eaters?" he exclaimed more or less loudly, although his voice dropped when Cepher glared at him. He looked about to make sure nobody else was around to hear this before looking back to the largest member and speaking softly. "Are you?"

"Yes. I am."

At this confirmation, Pacia backed up a few steps, a look of horror on her face. "But we're Leaf Eaters. Not sharpteeth. We couldn't possibly-" Cepher cut her off, his voice still a conspiring whisper.

"Look, it's either that or we die. We're not going to make it to the Great Valley if all we do is forage for weeks on end for leaves that aren't there. Yet we meet up with trespassing hatchlings like this one practically everyday. We kill the majority of them anyway, so we might as well make some use of them."

"But we're not sharpteeth." Pacia repeated. "We're not made to eat meat..." she added, looking down at the body like it was going to rise up from the dead and attack them for having this conversation. Rus shared her look and gave a nod.

"Yeah. We might have the claws and teeth of a sharptooth, but not the appetite or stomach of one. For all we know, eating another Leaf Eater might do more harm than good."

"We won't know that if we don't try. Really, we have no other choice." He looked at them for a long time before changing his approach. "You both want to live, right?" This got a nod. "You want to reach the Valley, right?" Another nod. "And you're both starving, right?" Yet another nod, this one more hesitant. "Then what's the deal? The other Leaf Eaters and the other Domeheads won't know we're doing it. If anything, there's no reason to pass up this opportunity."

"There is a reason. It's called right and wrong." Pacia said. "Look, the other herds of Leaf eaters are low-lives, I admit. Some deserve to die by our claws. But eating them is more than crossing the line. Following a sharptooth's example will make us no better than the sharptooth itself." A couple more moments of silence passed before she shook her head. "No. No. This is where I put my foot down. I won't eat the flesh of another."

"Me neither." Rus agreed.

Cepher glared at them before softening, fully understanding what they're saying and, deep down, he agreed with them. Domeheads may be one of the most vicious of the Leaf Eaters, but even they had a sense of morals...to some extent. Unfortunately, his stomach had no such morals and it growled loudly, reminding him and the others of their extremely dangerous level of hunger. "I'm not liking the idea either, trust me. But like I said, we have no choice." He turned back to the body, frowning a bit. "It'll only be temporary anyway, only until we reach the Valley."

More silence, but even that was broken by more growls, this time coming from the stomachs of the other two. Their spirits sagged noticeably as their resolve began to break down and they looked at each other before Rus muttered very softly. "Only temporary?" Cepher nodded slightly. "Then we'll be right back to eating green food?"

"Exactly. And on the chance we find more green food on our journey, we'll enjoy them like we normally would. It's not like we'll be forsaking leaves forever."

More silence, shattered this time by Pacia. "And we won't actually...hunt down the other Leaf Eaters, right?"

"Of course not. We'll be doing exactly what we've always been doing, with just the little twist of eating what we kill. But we won't be actively stalking them or anything; we won't kill more than we usually do. In fact, we won't be changing much of anything, really."

"We'll just be eating them instead of leaving them for the sharpteeth..." the female continued with a meekness that was uncharacteristic for her.

"Precisely. They're gonna get eaten anyways, why not let it be us who eats them?" He watched the duo before him for a while before adding. "What else do we have to lose?"

This time, the silence went on undisturbed and was almost suffocating as nobody moved a muscle for what seemed like forever. Finally considering their very few options and choices, the two smaller members nodded very slightly, almost shamefully and they approached the hatchling as Cepher leaned down to sniff it a bit. He was hesitant as well, but determined to eat something. Clawing the carcass a bit, he took his first tentative bite. Pacia and Rus watched in disgust, to see how Cepher would react to this carnivorous action. Their leader wore a heavy grimace and he retched a few times, trying to keep the piece of meat in his mouth, but not wanting it in there at the same time. It was obvious he felt deep shame about this, like it was something truly evil, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from doing this. Dying of starvation was not the way he wanted to go. He couldn't really bring himself to chew it and just swallowed hard, panting heavily afterwards, as if exhausted by the effort of fighting his gag reflexes. After a moment of recovering from the deed, he reluctantly took another bite.

Pacia and Rus, seeing this, fought back their horror at the spectacle and at the knowledge that they'd have to follow the example as they stepped even closer to the body to give this a try themselves. They had pretty much the same reaction as Cepher, Rus actually spitting out his piece before forcing himself to try again. Each could only manage a few small bites, enough to take the edge off their hunger, before they hurriedly backed away from the body in revulsion at what they just had to do.

"That was...That was horrible..." Pacia muttered, rubbing her snout against the ground in an attempt to wipe off the blood without having to touch it with her hands.

"I don't want to do that again..." Rus added, trying to keep down what he nibbled off the carcass.

"We'll have to... We just gotta get used to it..." Cepher said as he gingerly laid himself down, not feeling too well as his stomach tried to cope with this sudden change of diet. "It'll get easier...eventually..." He wasn't sure if that was true, but he felt the need to reassure his companions as well as himself. The others nodded half-heartedly as they laid down in turn, neither feeling very good as they tried to keep their stomachs calm. Their stomachs weren't cooperating and neither were their minds, which were practically flooded with the feeling of shame and self-loathing for their unnatural actions.

But thank goodness it's all just temporary...

Just a prologue of what's to come. It's a bit different from my other LBT stories as it'll actually have chapters, and the main characters here aren't really main characters in the movies and whatnot. Anywho, I hope guys like this and I'll get started on the next chappy asap!