Prologue

Treacherous, paranoiac, and a living nightmare. Three of the many words that described the Mysterious Beyond perfectly. For many years ever since Littlefoot and his gang had arrived in the Great Valley, the grownups had established ground rules that they were to never set foot in the Mysterious Beyond. Sandstorms, heat, lava, and other natural dangers have always been common occurrences here but the threats are not limited to just these environmental treacheries. Roaming these lands were various "sharpteeth" as the valley dwellers referred. Predatory monsters that wanted nothing more than to taste the blood of any unfortunate leaf eater that had wandered into their vicinities. Though Littlefoot and many others had survived many ordeals here, not everyone had the fortune and countless lives had been lost here. Years have past though, and with them changes had also occurred. The gang had now become grownups themselves, perfectly formidable of holding their own against the very dangers they once ran from, yet the eldest member of the gang did go through the same experience.

Ruby, a magenta oviraptor and a good friend to Littlefoot and his gang had ventured out into the Mysterious Beyond in search of a mate and a new nest. Though many fast runners were notorious for being egg thieves, Ruby was not like them. She was a caring individual that had always put her friends first and most importantly, Chomper, the first ever sharptooth to inhabit the great valley. She vowed to never steal and consume any eggs in her life, although as she had grown, her tendencies to the latter had become more frequent and she could no longer control herself. As a result, she had drifted off and disappeared from the Great valley for many years. No one had ever seen or heard from her since.

Dusk had arrived as she approached a cave in the outskirts of the land, one that was small and conformable enough for her and her future family. Not to mention the scarcity of other sharpteeth that would have wanted to prey on her. She took a few sticks and twigs and placed them in the clearing of the cave with any leaves she could find to add extra comfort. Though she did not find much, she knew that she had to adjust to a new life, one more rough and unforgiving but also one where she could be able to do what she had to in order to survive and not have anyone take her to task for it.

Hours had past and night had fallen. Ruby was able to find herself in a deep and comfortable sleep that she had not been able to for a long time. Yet something felt a bit off as the cave started to get cooler. The following howls of the wind took her attention as she woke up to find a hole in the cave.

"Hmm, I wonder where this goes to," she thought to herself as she crouched and squeezed her way through the hole. After a few minutes of crawling through the tunnel she had ended up in larger area of the cave with an even larger passageway. She could only assume that it lead to the Mysterious Beyond as there were no other ways besides this one and the one she had just crawled through.

Though something else had caught her attention now. She lifted her head and discovered a smell. A smell so foreign and putrid that it did not take long for her to find out exactly what it was. As she moved towards the centre of the cave, she found the corpse of a duckbill with huge chunk of flesh bitten out of the stomach, exposing its bones. Though the creature was large, it certainly was not as large as the creature that killed it. Ruby may have been an egg and leaf eater, but she was not willing to pass up the opportunity to feed herself up. She moved towards the carcass and one by one she started to gobble small chunks of flesh off the bones.

Suddenly, crumples of rock started to fall down around her, though she was too busy indulging herself to notice. It was only when she felt the vibrations underneath her that she realized something was happening.

"Earthshake?!" she gasped, thinking the cave was going to level her. She was ultimately proven false at when she realized said vibrations had intervals between them, providing an even stranger sense of relief and horror. Something was coming. She knew she had to hide if she didn't want to join the horned sharptooth in death. Immediately she tried to run towards the tunnel she used to enter but she missed her opportunity by one precious second as rocks fell down and blocked off the path.

"Oh no!" she exclaimed as she looked around herself for another way out but it was all in vain as in only a few seconds, a giant sharptooth grisly entered the cave from behind her. She whimpered as she backed into a corner of the cave. At this point, all she could do was hope that the sharptooth would focus on the kill in front of it as opposed to her. Unfortunately, her hopes did not last long.

"Hello, Ruby," growled the sharptooth.

"H-how do you know me?" she whimpered

"Well, you of all creatures know,Ruby, I love having friends for dinner!"

"Ch-Chomper?!" she gasped as her world just shattered right before her eyes. She looked at the carcass and then at Chomper and immediately made the correlation.

"Did you… do this?!" she exclaimed, trying to comprehend the situation.

"Why are you surprised? I'm a sharptooth. Isn't this what we do?!" he walked closer and closer to her, trying to cut off all her escape routes.

"What happened to you! I… I thought you were dead!"

"So that's what they told you. Those sniveling cowards!" snarled Chomper angrily.

"Come back to the Great Valley, Chomper! We miss you!" Ruby begged.

"Silence! If everyone did miss me, then why am I here? Why am I a murderer?!"

"I can help you, Chomper! That was my promise to ever since I met you!'

"That happy hatchling you all knew is gone Ruby! This is what I am now! But at least I can kill you now!" he roared as he tried to grab Ruby with his jaws.

She screamed as the evaded the bite and ran through his legs. He turned around and started chasing her through the cave. All she could hear was the roaring of her former child figure and the shaking of the ground beneath her as she leapt over multiple rocks and dodged many falling rocks and stalagmites

After a few turns she managed to find the exit of the cave but to her shock, it was a cliff was too high for her to simply run up. She had to jump if she was to escape. As she ran towards the exit she put all her strength into her run and made a massive leap in hopes of reaching the top of the cliff. She barely reached the top and held on for her life.

Just as she was about to make it out, Chomper came from behind and slammed the cliff, knocking Ruby down. The fast runner screamed as she fell to the Earth beneath her, landing with a massive thud. She looked up with horror in her eyes as the last thing she was were the massive jaws of the giant sharptooth that, in an instant, grabbed her and thrashed the life out of her.

Chomper then took Ruby's corpse and swallowed her whole, leaving nothing behind.

"This will send them a message," he growled before he headed back into the cave to sleep.