Hey guys! You're probably thinking- but wait, this isn't "Fields!" And you'd be right. This is a short story created as a response to a prompt challenge that user "The Rhombus" and I developed on the Gang of Five forums. The goal is to take a prompt and craft a short story around it. This month, the featured prompt was to use the phrase "as far as he was concerned, if his mom wanted to sleep in instead of waking at daybreak, that was fine with him" in the story narrative. I took that in a direction I hadn't originally been planning to go when I decided to watch the Land Before Time TV series over the course of a few days and noticed a character whose side of the story was just begging to be told. I'm talking, of course, about the "Great Hideous Beast" from the episode "Visitor from the Mysterious Above." I've always loved reading stories that look at an established event from someone else's point of view- now, I present my take on it! Enjoy!
Littlefrill: Leptoceratops (for the sake of this story. The actual character's species is debatable)
The Littlefrill and the Big Underground
"Now listen closely, children. You may run and play to your hearts' content while your mother and I gather tree sweets, but stay away from the bubbling goo."
Lepto stated the instructions as clearly as he could, but to no surprise of his, a hand quickly shot up, attached to his bouncing, bright yellow, youngest daughter, a Littlefrill named Tumble.
"Yes, Tumble," he said, acknowledging her on the off chance that she had something important to say.
"There are rocks leading across the bubbling goo! Could we play on those? Please? It's so fun to watch the bubbles pop!"
"No, Tumble," Lepto groaned. "And if I catch any of you kids playing in or around the bubbling goo…" he stopped, tapping his chin thoughtfully. He hadn't actually thought that far ahead- something his mate often chided him for. It was an issue he'd dealt with most of his life, and the reason he felt the need to caution his children.
"Well, I'll think of something. But it won't be pleasant, you can count on that. Nipper?"
The eldest of the children, a green male, looked up at him.
"I'm counting on you to keep everyone in line. Play safe, and come back here when the Bright Circle touches the mountains, okay?"
The Littlefrill gave an affirmative squeak, and puffed out his chest, grinning to his two siblings. Cetris, a red female and the middle child, glared and stuck out her tongue in response.
"Dad!"
"I don't want to hear it," Lepto cut Nipper off, rising to his feet. On the other side of the tall grass, he could see his mate already picking tree sweets and placing them in a pile. She gave him a cheerful little wave, and he smiled back.
"I'll be right over, dear!" he called out. Then, turning to his children, he added, "have fun! This is a great place to play; I'm sure you can find many things to do that aren't near the bubbling goo. Use your imaginations! This whole field is yours to do with whatever you wish. Go make an adventure!"
And with that, he turned and loped off to join his mate at the tree sweet bushes, leaving his three children standing alone in the tall grass.
"Wow," Cetris groaned, sarcasm positively dripping from her voice, "a whole field. Woohoo. Just look at all this… grass."
"Hey! That's not nice to say," Nipper snapped, falling right into his assumed position of authority. Neither Cetris nor Tumble were having it, however.
"You're just saying that to get on his good side," Tumble argued, a point that was probably true. Nipper had a reputation as a tattletale, and a goody two-claws with no sense of fun, mostly because good little dinosaurs got extra tree sweets when it came time to divide them up after foraging. This wasn't to say Cetris and Tumble were bad dinosaurs, per se, but they had an adventurous (or more accurately in Cetris's case rebellious) streak that sometimes clashed with established rules. It didn't help that word among the children of the Great Valley was widespread that its five leaders were once adventurers themselves. Rumor had it they'd even crossed the bubbling goo- and lived to tell about it- so it was somewhat of a status symbol for one of the youngsters to claim they'd replicated the feat (though neither they nor the Five had actually crossed it).
After the three dinosaurs' squabbles had died down, they attempted a half-hearted game of "Swimmer and Splasher," albeit a version that took place on dry land. The outcome was just as dull as they'd expected, and by the time the Bright Circle was hanging lower in the sky, the children found themselves wandering aimlessly through the tall grass, bored out of their minds.
A snapping sound caused the older siblings to jump, only to find Tumble with a huge grin on her face, and a crazed light in her eyes. They both knew that face, and it more often than not led to trouble.
"Tumble, whatever it is, no," Nipper said, hoping to squash the idea before it got all three of them in trouble. But Tumble held up her paws, waving them at her brother.
"It's nothing dangerous. I just figured out what we can do!"
Cetris turned an eye up towards the Bright Circle. It was almost touching the peaks.
"Oh goody," she droned, "took you that long to figure something out?"
Ignoring her sister's bad temper, Tumble began to pace about, thinking aloud.
"So, Dad said we couldn't play in the Bubbling Goo."
"-or around it," Nipper pointed out.
"Right, but he never said we couldn't look at it."
There was a moment of stunned silence. Whether it was because Tumble had a point, or because the point was actually a good one, none could say. But now, she had their attention. Even Nipper seemed interested.
"So we go, we look, and then we come right back?"
Tumble nodded, rubbing her paws together. "And we come right back. It'll be fun! They won't care," she added, nodding towards the trees where their parents were still working on their assortment of tree sweets.
"Well, I guess as long as we just look… Cetris? What do you think?"
"Can't see why not. Let's just get it over with."
Neither parent saw as the grass leading to the Bubbling Goo began to wave in the wake of each child's excited sprint.
…
It wasn't far to the Bubbling Goo, and fortunately for the Littlefrills, there was plenty of open space between the end of the tall grass and the goo itself. Which was a good thing, because Cetris, the first one out of the grass, slammed her feet into the ground to stop herself as soon as the mucky pit appeared. Unprepared for her sudden stop, both Nipper and Tumble crashed headlong into her, tangling all three children in a tired, panting heap.
Tumble was the first to notice the smell- a terrible, pervasive odor that smelled of bad eggs and dung. It was no wonder most dinosaurs avoided this place. Looking at the expanse of bubbling mud in front of her, it was hard to see why the Five had ever bothered coming here after all.
Just as promised, she also saw the rocks leading across. They were smaller than expected, probably not big enough to hold a young Threehorn, but for a Littlefrill like her, they would be an easy platform.
But I'm not going to jump, she reminded herself, I'm just going to look.
Not that she believed any of that for a second.
While Tumble got a closer look at the rocks, Nipper was busy chasing a strange-looking Buzzer that she hadn't seen before. Cetris busied herself by piling up some of the wet mud on the shore, then collecting sticks, stones, or just about anything else she found lying around and sticking them into the pile.
"Watch where you're going!" she snapped as her brother narrowly avoided her mud pile for the fourth time.
"Sorry!" he called back, already halfway around the Bubbling Goo again, "this Buzzer goes wherever it wants! I can't tell it what to do!"
"Then stop chasing it," she snarled in a low voice. Nipper simply pretended not to hear, and went right on skipping after the Buzzer.
It wasn't until that moment that both siblings realized they didn't know where Tumble was. Unfortunately, they were soon reminded when Tumble's voice came squeaking out over the Bubbling Goo.
"Hey guys! Look! I'm doing it!"
To their horror, the siblings saw the tiny Littlefrill dancing atop one of the rocks in the middle of the pit, oblivious to the sticky, hot mud bubbling all around her. Cetris dropped the shell she was holding and just stared, petrified as her sister pranced about mere foot-lengths away from a slow, suffocating death. The Cetris of yesterday would have been jealous, but today she wanted nothing more than for her sister to come right back.
Nipper reacted in the usual manner, dropping his pursuit of the Buzzer and racing off in the direction of Lepto, all the while yelling at the top of his lungs about his sister's disobedience.
"Don't you dare tell Dad!" she called after him, but it was no use. No amount of yelling could get him to turn back.
"Rgh!" she growled, kicking at a pebble, scuffing her foot on the rough surface in the process. The move threw her off balance, and for a moment, she swung out over the mud before settling back onto the rock.
"Don't move, Sis! Okay?"
Cetris's request from the shore caused Tumble to pause. That wasn't her jealous-voice she was using, it was her scared-voice, maybe even her sad-voice. She stopped what she was doing, and sat down.
"Cetris? What's wrong?"
It was at that moment that Lepto's red, frilled head appeared through the grass, Nipper in tow. Their mother, Lea, was on scene as well, nervously biting at her claws. Both of her parents looked afraid, rather than angry. Tumble was confused.
"Don't move!" Lepto replied from the shore. There was shaking in his voice- fear. As tears welled up in her mother's eyes, Tumble began to cry as well, unable to understand why her parents were behaving so strangely.
Carefully, Lepto made his way out to the rock Tumble was perched on. Without a word he leaned down, clasped her arms around his shoulders, and made his way back safely to shore, where the family embraced. A tragedy had been averted.
…
The children sat in silence as their parents discussed quietly among themselves what to do next. While Tumble was the one who had done the deed, all three of them felt guilty for agreeing to go to the Bubbling Goo in the first place. They knew they were in trouble, and that the punishment for disobedience, especially because it had put Tumble at risk- would be severe. Nipper imagined no tree sweets for a month. To Cetris, a restriction from playing with their friends felt more appropriate. Tumble couldn't even make up her mind what to think. She was still thinking about how sad and scared her father had looked when he rescued her.
When Lepto finally made his way over to the children and sat down, they prepared for the worst. He didn't seem overly angry; on the contrary, he had to stretch a claw up to his eye to wipe away a single, solitary tear as he looked at his children. He sighed deeply before speaking.
"Kids, I'm so glad you're all safe," he began, "I'm glad that, in the face of something dangerous you had the courage to own up to your own mistake and come get me."
The children breathed a little more easily after he said this. If nothing else, at least they wouldn't be yelled at.
"But you disobeyed me. And you should all know by now that what you did was wrong. I told you not to play in the bubbling goo, but you did it anyway. Think what might have happened if Tumble had fallen in! I'm a small dinosaur. I probably wouldn't have been able to get her out. Think about that for a moment."
The thought hadn't occurred to the children, but Cetris was reminded of the way Tumble lost her balance. She shut her eyes, hoping to block the memory out.
"So, your mother and I have agreed on a punishment. And it's probably not what you think."
The Bright Circle was going down below the mountains- Chirpers could be heard making their nighttime clicks, and the calls of nesting dinosaurs echoed across the Valley. A soft, cool breeze blew past the family of Littlefrills as Lepto made his declaration.
"Tonight we have agreed that it is time you children heard the story of the Littlefrill and the Big Underground."
The kids looked to one another in confusion. A story as punishment? That didn't make any sense. Still, they were getting off easy, and not one of them raised their voice to complain. Lepto cleared his throat as his mate sat down beside him, and began.
"Once upon a time, when I was very young, my own mother told me a rule I would never forget. She said 'Lepto, under no circumstances must you ever play in the caves.' We used to live in a different part of the Great Valley, you see, and there were a great many caves near our nest that I was just dying to play in. And as it turned out, one day I got my chance…"
…
Lepto could hear the snores as he woke up. His mother was sleeping. As far as he was concerned if his mom wanted to sleep in instead of her usual habit of waking at daybreak then that was fine with him. It simply meant that now, he finally had the freedom to do what she had always told him not to do- explore the caves. He'd already had one in mind- a big, gaping mouth carved out of a rock face by years upon years of erosion, and while his mother had warned him that caves in these parts tended to lead to the Big Underground, a place where it was easy to get lost- he felt confident that such a wide and inviting cave would hold no such danger. After all, he wasn't planning on going far.
His father was out foraging, so he wouldn't be back until about mid-day or so. As long as he was back by then, he could tell his mother he was just out playing, and didn't want to wait for her to get up. No one would ever know that he'd broken their biggest rule.
The red Littlefrill peeked cautiously over the mound of dirt that made up his sleeping place. Sure enough, his mother was snoozing comfortably nearby, probably the result of a long night the previous day. Cautiously, he tiptoed over the nest, and past the sleeping form of his mother. The larger Littlefrill rolled over, snorting as she did so, and he jumped back, freezing in place. She muttered something, but her eyes remained closed and within moments, she was back to sleep. Hurriedly, he shuffled past her and dove headlong into the forest surrounding his home. He stole one more glance back to make sure she was still asleep, and then darted ahead on his adventure. He knew the way. He'd been scouting out this area for a while now, in preparation for a day like this. The quickest way was through a dry riverbed- a favorite place of his to play due to the abundance of smooth stones, which he liked to collect. Today, however, he had more important things on his mind, and skipped right on past the shiny treasures.
"I'll come back one day, smooth stones!" he called out cheerfully, "but today I'm on a grown-up mission!"
Before long, he reached the mouth of the cave. Sharptooth Jaws Cave, he called it, not because it actually looked like a Sharptooth, but because it sounded cooler that way. Tomorrow, he would tell all his friends about how he braved the horrors of the cave and came out a hero. Today, that daunting task lay dead ahead of him. He shivered with anticipation, took in a deep, grown-up breath, and started forward into the dark.
Lepto had never been inside a cave before. Every corner he turned marked a new discovery. Cave teeth dripped water from the ceiling, gathering in little reflective pools on the cave , luminescent squishies lined the walls in certain areas. Occasionally, he'd even run across a collection of shiny stones. One of these, he reasoned, would be the perfect souvenir to bring back, and prove to his friends that he'd conquered the dark. Maybe, eventually, he'd even show his parents, proving to them once and for all that he was capable of handling the dangers they warned him about.
He paused, rounding a corner. A crack in the rocks lay in front of him, and inside he could see the telltale gleaming of a shiny stone- and a big one at that.
"That's the one I'll take," he whispered, in awe of the bright, shining treasure before his eyes, "and then I'll turn around and go back the way I came.
He turned his head sideways, sliding into the crack. It was a tight fit, and for a moment he thought the cave would squeeze together, pressing him flatter than a leaf. Sharptooth Jaws Cave indeed. But no such thing happened. He continued to slide to the side, crawling forward at a ground slime's pace, until he found himself coming to a slow but definite halt. A little nub of rock stood in the way of his frill- the only thing barring him entry into the shiny stone's cavern.
"You've got to be kidding me!" he groaned in frustration. He thought about turning back, getting a smaller shiny stone to show off instead, but he couldn't- not while he was so close.
Then he had an idea. He recalled his father, using his hard head and frill to bash through obstacles. If his father could do it, why couldn't he do the same? He reared his head back, focusing on the nub of stone that stood defiantly between him and his goal, gave a mighty snort (in reality it was more of a squeak) and bashed his head against the piece of rock. His world was ringing, and his vision blurred, but as it cleared, he could see cracks in the rock. He smiled to himself.
Again.
He drove his head forward, this time smashing right through the rock. His momentum carried him forward into the cavern, where he ran straight into the shiny stone, dislodging it from its resting place. Unfortunately, he was not the only thing moving. The sound of the shattering rock gave way to a much louder roar. Lepto looked back just in time to see the crack through which he'd entered collapse in on itself. With a sound like a roaring Threehorn, his only way out disappeared in a cloud of dust and debris. Suddenly the shiny stone didn't matter anymore. He ran back to the pile of rocks, pounding on it and yelling.
"Mom! Mom! Help!"
There was no answer, just as he'd expected, but he tried pounding harder, calling out louder. He yelled and screamed until his voice was hoarse, and he could do nothing but cry, and finally- when no help came- he sat down alone in the pitch blackness, sobbing, his tears streaking the dust on his face.
…
The children were in awe. They'd never imagined that their father had lived through such an intense experience.
"How did you get out?" Tumble piped up finally.
"Well, that's the thing," Lepto answered, closing his eyes as he sorted through his old, painful memories, "I didn't. At least, not at first. When I finally cleared my head, I started to dig my way out. It took a long time, probably almost a day, but when I emerged, I knew I was really in trouble. You see, the cave branched out from where I was, meaning that I couldn't find the right tunnel to go back to the surface. I was so scared and confused, that I'd completely forgotten my way home. So I took one of the tunnels at random, and that was when I met my first Cave Fuzzy…"
…
The fear was gone, replaced with an overwhelming feeling of futility. He still shivered, but it was out of cold, hunger, and thirst rather than fear. After leaving his cavern (and leaving the shiny stone behind) Lepto had chosen a tunnel that he hoped would lead to the surface. Thankfully, his night vision had had a chance to adjust, and he could at least somewhat make out where he was going.
But now, almost two days since the cave-in, he wasn't sure he was going the right way. The tunnel he'd picked stretched on and on, and he had no idea where he was anymore. It had occurred to him that turning back might be the best course of action, but he could no longer determine where "back" was. So he kept moving forward, hoping to see some sign of hope.
His throat burned. His constant yelling on the first day, accompanied by the dust he'd been breathing in and now the dryness that came with a lack of water meant that even taking a breath was painful. He needed to find a good source of water- dripping cave teeth wouldn't be enough to keep him alive for much longer. He needed food, too. He'd learned to ignore his growling stomach, for the most part, but now those growls hurt, and came more frequently. There was nothing left in his stomach. If he didn't eat soon, he would starve down here, alone, and then what would his parents think?
His parents. They were on his mind constantly, every waking hour. If only he'd listened to his mother. And now that he'd gone away, without telling either of them where he was, what would they think? Maybe they thought he'd fallen into the bubbling goo, or was gobbled up by a Sharptooth. Maybe the grown-ups were gathering a group to go search for him now. It wouldn't do them any good. No one would think to look for him underground, and even if they did, he was pretty well lost by now.
But fortune, as it happened, smiled upon him this day. Descending down a wide corridor, he entered a wide room where the cave opened up. In the middle of that room was a shallow pool, surrounded by piles of fuzzfood. He couldn't believe his eyes. Lepto bolted forward on tired legs, fell onto all fours, and plunged his head into the water, lapping greedily at it. Every sip felt like he was swallowing sharp sticks, but he kept drinking, forcing the water down until he felt like he was about to burst. Then he turned his attention to the fuzzfood, eating two piles before stopping. He felt sick, but more importantly, he felt full.
That was when he noticed the eyes.
The cavern was dotted with small holes, and in almost every one of them, a pair of gleaming eyes stared out at him. He began to shake, afraid of what they might be. His mind ran through every possibility. Ghosts, little Sharpteeth, Hissers- none of the possibilities looked good. But he didn't dare to move. If he did, he felt certain that whatever was watching would run him down easily and eat him.
A small, twitching nose poked out of one of the holes and he locked onto it. It was a strange nose, covered in orange-brown fuzz. This was then followed by a head, also covered in fuzz, in which two small horns were set just between the nose and eyes. The creature was small, barely bigger than his foot, and contrary to the nightmarish images he'd imagined, it actually looked cute.
"Uh… hello, visitor!" it squeaked, once it was fully out of its hole, "welcome to our cave. Where do you come from?"
"I'm from the surface! Please, you have to get my mom and dad! Tell them I'm trapped down here!"
But those words were not the sounds that came out of his mouth. His voice was gone, distorting his words into harsh rasping calls. The little Cave Fuzzy seemed frightened by this, and she took a step back.
"Please don't hurt me! We only want to talk!"
"I'm trying to talk!" he croaked, advancing towards her, throwing his arms in an exasperated gesture. Unfortunately these words were just as unclear as the first, and at the sight of the strange creature throwing its arms in the air while moving toward her, the creature let out a shrill shriek before fleeing back into her tunnel. One by one, the eyes disappeared, leaving Lepto full of food, but alone once more.
…
"They sound so cute! Why did you try to scare them?" Cetris asked, scooching herself closer.
Lepto laughed. "I didn't, but since they couldn't understand me, I think they saw me as a monster of some kind. Imagine living somewhere with only other dinosaurs just like you for the rest of your life. What would you think if you saw a Threehorn for the first time?"
"Hmm," Nipper put a claw to the tip of his beak and tapped it- his favorite pose to use while thinking.
"I guess I'd be kind of scared," he concluded.
Lepto nodded. "And that's exactly what happened with the Cave Fuzzies. It'd be a week and a half more before my voice returned to normal, and until that time, the Cave Fuzzies helped me by giving me food every day. They called me a 'Great Hideous Beast.'. I don't know why they fed me; maybe they feared I'd try to eat them if I got hungry, but they kept me alive, even though I was scary to them. I'll always be grateful for that. As it turned out, though, there was still one more punishment I had to endure before I could go free. The very next week, something happened that would change everything…"
…
A loud crash shook Lepto from his slumber. Something much too big to be a Cave Fuzzy had fallen in the adjacent chamber. If, by some slim chance it was a dinosaur, then perhaps he'd finally found a way out!
He made sure to eat a good meal before investigating. Sound was funny in the caves- something might sound close by but actually be far away. Even though he was certain the crash had happened near him, he didn't know for sure, which meant that he couldn't risk going hungry again if his search took him far away.
The Cave Fuzzies were surprisingly absent from their chamber. Usually he'd find one or two watching him, but today they were apparently off somewhere else, somewhere that became abundantly clear once he entered the chamber where the sound had originated from.
As usual, he could see eyes on him, staring out from the dark, but just as many eyes were on something else. Something he could barely believe despite it being in front of his eyes.
It was a Spiketail. A young Spiketail. And above him, a hole in the ceiling through which the beautiful, soft rays of the Bright Circle fell, casting a golden glow on the dark cave floor.
The surface! He was free!
"Hello! Who are you?" he called out to the Spiketail. His words still came out as grunts, but they caught the attention of the Spiketail, who turned around to look at him before muttering something incomprehensible.
"Can you help me get out of here?" he asked, approaching the visitor from above. "Please- I have to get out of here. I've been trapped for almost two weeks and my parents are probably worried sick!"
Something in his tone seemed to register with the Spiketail, even if his words did not. The bigger dinosaur turned around, and for a moment, Lepto thought he was going to finally be free.
Then the Spiketail's thick tail collided with his chest, knocking him off his feet. He hit the floor, dazed, but picked himself back up, hoping it had just been an accident.
"Stop, please! I just want to go home!"
The Spiketail turned around again, hitting Lepto and sending him flying in the opposite direction. He collided with the ground hard, knocking the air from his lungs. He gasped for air, wondering why one of his fellow dinosaurs had turned on him, when he heard a sound he hoped he'd never hear again- the sound of cracking rocks. Lepto looked up just in time to see a pile of rocks fall from the ceiling, shaken free by his fall. To his credit, he made a bold effort to outrun them, but the pile pushed him to the floor, pinning him with its weight in perfect view of the hole leading outside, tantalizingly close, but still so far away.
"You've done it! You defeated the Great Hideous Beast!"
Cave Fuzzies seemed to pour out of the walls from all directions, cheering for the Spiketail, lauding him as some sort of hero. The Spiketail looked back at Lepto one more time, regarding him with eyes that seemed to betray a quiet sadness. Suddenly Lepto understood.
This was his punishment for disobedience, to be thrashed around by one of his own before being trapped just short of his goal. He only hoped that, once he'd proved that he learned his lesson, the nightmare might finally end.
I'm sorry! He pleaded as the Ground Fuzzies celebrated, "please, I've learned my lesson!"
But no one heard him, and no one cared.
…
"He really was a nice Spiketail," Lepto recalled, "and he grew up to inherit quite the title. You've all heard of Spike the Spiketail by now, haven't you?"
"That was Spike? The Spiketail leader?" Cetris asked, incredulous, "then why did he beat you up?"
"Well, you know how your mother and I sometimes spanked you as hatchlings when you did something you weren't supposed to. That was because by spanking you, we could show you that whatever it was that you were going to do would hurt either yourselves or someone else a whole lot more than that brief pain on your backside. Looking back, maybe Spike was sent to teach me that lesson- to let me know that I'd hurt my parents- and almost myself- beyond the pain I felt at being hit by his tail. Does that make sense?"
The kids nodded, but without much conviction. Spanking was a recent memory for them, and one they wouldn't forget soon, but after hearing their father's reasoning, they could at least begin to make sense of it.
"Anyway, that day I was at the lowest I'd been in a long time…"
…
It only got worse from there. Over the next few hours he was forced to endure the taunts of the Cave Fuzzies that had so recently kept him fed. They marched past him with food, waving it in front of his mouth before giving it to the Spiketail. He tried reasoning with them, but the words wouldn't come out. They thought they'd just witnessed the defeat of a big, scary monster. He was that big scary monster. It was all becoming clear now. Dejected, he slunk back down into the rock pile as Cave Fuzzies marched triumphantly past, carrying sweet bubbles and fuzzfood for the newcomer.
He' almost given up hope when something from above tapped him on the shoulder.
It didn't feel like a claw, certainly not fuzzy like the Cave Fuzzies. It actually felt like-
He turned his tired eyes slowly upward. Beside him, he could hear the Spiketail saying his goodbyes to the Cave Fuzzies, but that wasn't nearly as important to him as what he found dangling above his head.
Vines!
Not only that, but he could hear voices above talking in Leafspeak. That was why the Spiketail was getting ready to leave! His time down here was finally up! Eagerly, he grabbed onto the vines. There was a strong tug on the other end; someone was really on the other side! Tears of joy clouded his vision as the vines began to lift him free of the rubble. With every rock that fell away from his trapped body, he felt his heart sing a song of joy. Lepto rode that vine all the way to the surface, where the light of the Bright Circle- blinding at first- hit him like a refreshing, cool breeze on a hot day. He squinted, trying to make out who had saved him so he could thank them.
"Huh? You are not Spike. No, no, no."
The voice came from a young Swimmer. He could barely make her out through the glare of the Bright Circle.
"I thought he felt lighter," he heard what he could only assume to be a Threehorn comment behind her.
"Thank you so much for rescuing me!" he croaked, "but now I really have to-"
He turned to leave and immediately tripped on one of the vines the kids had used to pull him up. Shaking his head, he turned around, only to be once more face to face with the Spiketail.
"Oh, not again!" he cried out out, leaping up onto his feet and dashing off, vine in tow.
…
"And that was the end of it," Lepto concluded. "When I came back to my parents, they were overjoyed beyond belief that I was alive. They thought that I'd died, or had gotten lost forever. They had no way of knowing how right they almost were, and I never told them. I put them through enough trouble already. I was grounded from leaving nest for a week after that, but I didn't mind. I'd learned my lesson the hard way, that even if what they say isn't the most fun thing, oftentimes your parents know best. I'll always be grateful that I had the chance to make it out of that cave alive-"
"Wait, that was you?"
A new voice spoke up, from above the trees. The family of five looked up to see the head and neck of none other than Littlefoot, one of the Valley's foremost leaders, staring down at them in amazement.
"Oh, hello Littlefoot!" Lepto waved up at the towering figure, "I was just telling my kids a story from when I was a child."
"Well, I was just passing through on my way home, and heard you mention someone saying 'yep, yep, yep.' I hope you'll forgive me for stopping to listen in, but I came to realize that my friends and I were the ones that pulled you out!"
"You were?!" Lepto's eyes were wide with a mixture of disbelief and surprise. His mate held up a claw to stifle a chuckle. "Oh thank you, Littlefoot! A thousand blessings from the Bright Circle upon you and your friends!"
The giant Longneck gave a deep, hearty laugh that shook the ground. "Don't mention it. I'm just glad we found you. That was quite the story, too."
Littlefoot craned his neck down until he was looking at the children. Nipper straightened up immediately, Cetris gave a little wave, and Tumble couldn't stop beaming up at him. The sight of Lepto's and his mate's children was a truly humbling thing. He'd never considered what might have happened if they'd pulled up Spike instead, but seeing the life he'd unknowingly given the chance to go on, he felt a happiness he'd only felt rarely before.
"And did you kids learn your lesson?" he asked, his booming voice shaking them down to their toes. All three kids nodded eagerly, and Littlefoot gave them a curt nod in response.
"Good. Your parents are exceptional dinosaurs, who only want what's best for you. Don't ever take that for granted." He turned his head back toward the center of the Valley, no doubt where his own resting place was.
"Now I must return. It was a real pleasure meeting you all tonight!"
"Wait!" a little voice called out, " !"
The Longneck turned around once more to see the smallest of the Littlefrills looking up at him.
"Yes, little one?"
Tumble folded her arms and gave him a stern look. "You and your friends shouldn't have crossed the bubbling goo without telling your parents. That was bad!"
The faces of Lepto and his mate went white as bone at their daughter's accusation. Littlefoot raised an eyebrow in confusion, but then began to laugh. The children's parents began to laugh along with him, albeit a bit more nervously.
"I see now. You're right, young one. We absolutely shouldn't have tried to cross the bubbling goo, with or without telling our parents. That place is dangerous. But we never actually made it across. Where did you get that idea?"
"From the stories the other kids in the Valley tell," Cetris replied. "They say you guys were the only ones to ever cross the bubbling goo."
"They do? I can't recall saying-" his look of confusion suddenly turned in a disappointed scowl.
"On second thought, I've got a pretty good idea where that story came from. If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go have a talk with Cera. Have a wonderful night, everyone! It was nice meeting you!"
And with a chorus of goodbyes from the Littlefrills (and a few relieved sighs from the parents) at his back, the Longneck lumbered off into the night, leaving the family alone under the newly-risen Night Circle.
Lepto felt a little hand on his leg, and looked down. It was Tumble, looking up at him with a sincere smile, her lower jaw quivering as if she was about to cry.
"I'm sorry Daddy. From now on, I'll listen to you and Mommy when you ask us to do something."
It was a sentiment that Lepto knew would only last for about a month, if he was lucky, but that was the way it was with children. It was the thought that counted.
"Me too," Cetris said, joining the two of them.
"And me," Nipper added.
"Oh, come here," Lepto said, bringing his entire family in close, "I'm just thankful we're all here, safe in this wonderful Valley to be able to share stories like this together."
The family of five embraced each other in a tight hug underneath the night sky, watching the stars reveal themselves in all their glory. And as the night fell, and peace came to the Valley, a passing Flyer heard only one more thing before the Littlefrills made their way back to their nest for the night.
"Also, you're grounded to your nests for a week."
"Awww!"