Now, if you want to know what this fanfic is about, it is basically a fanfic of a fanfic, that is, a fanfic of Elise Lowing's The Land Before Time: Retold. It is basically the events of her fic, with a few differences, of course. The biggest one is that ANOTHER human joins Aylene and the gang from the start, and one characteristic of this guy is that he's an Anti-Hero. And ethnically Franco-Scottish. And native with both English and French. Anyways, on with it.
Note that I do not own The Land Before Time (which belongs to Universal), The Land Before Time Retold, or Aylene (both of which belong to Elise Lowing). Like Elise Lowing, I am just exploring an alternate story. And before you ask, I am doing this with her permission.
"You better get out of this valley now, imbecile."
"Why should I? There's too much prey, including you, for me to ignore!"
"Well, there are a few hundred of us, and only one of you. So it is best for you to say "Je m'en vais!" and leave."
"And what if I don't, cocky little two-footer?"
"Then the result will be simple: Nous allons tu enterrer!"
Fourteen-year-old Tormod Robert Metais felt a hand rubbing his side as he slept. He had just been having a dream about facing down a Dromaeosaur-type dinosaur, maybe a Dakotaraptor or Utahraptor, whatever it was. It would have been interesting to see the dream through a little further, but feeling this hand on this side meant one thing, he had slept for too long. And what he heard next confirmed this.
"Reveille-toi (Wake up), Tormod." a female adult voice told him. "This is a later time than usual for you to wake up."
Tormod finally opened his eyes, and when he did, he saw his mother, Caitriona, standing over his bed. She didn't look upset or displeased at him, though she did look surprised, probably by the long amount of time that Tormod had been asleep.
"How long did I sleep, mother?" Tormod asked.
"Il suffit de regarder l'heure (Just look at the time)." Caitriona answered, motioning to a clock on the table near Tormod's bed.
Tormod then looked to his left at the clock, and groaned when he saw the time: 8:43. Even though, at the time, Tormod was now out of middle school and a week into his Summer Break, he still preferred to keep a get-up-early-go-to-sleep-early like he would during school so that his sleep schedule wouldn't change, so he would usually wake up at 6 or 7 at the latest. And the reason why he did this was not only so that, sleep schedule-wise, he wouldn't have a problem with going back to school, but because Tormod was a physically fit and active person who liked to stay physically fit and strong, as he actually lived in Montana, and such fitness was necessary if he was to help protect his family's country property, for he and his family often had to deal with bears trying to barge in.
"Oh, fantastique." Tormod said sarcastically as he got out of bed. "That's way later than normal."
Once he was out of bed, he turned to his mother.
"Well, anything special today?" Tormod asked.
"Il y a (There is)." Caitriona answered her son. "Your father and I have been spending all morning preparing your gear for something."
"Et qu'est-ce (And what is that)?"
"Well, we are going to give you quite a gift." Caitriona told him. "And as for what this gift does...well, it will take you somewhere, and it would be unwise to go anywhere without your gear, as you may already know."
Tormod nodded at the fact that his gear was necessary. His "gear" consisted of a Scottish Claymore (a large two-handed sword for melee combat), a Scottish Dirk (a fair-sized knife, also for melee combat), a Hungarian Recurve Bow (for ranged combat), a pocketknife (for utility purposes), and a backpack (which stored his water bottles, quite a few granola bars, and a few other necessary items). The reason why he had a Claymore, a Bow, and a Dirk as part of his gear was because his father, Louis, despite being French-born, was a medieval weapons enthusiast who had blacksmithing as a hobby (yes, you heard that right).
At that, Tormod got his clothes changed. He changed out his pajamas for a grey shirt and brown jeans, along with now having his black outdoor shoes on. Once he got his clothes changed, he went downstairs with his mother to where his father was waiting with his gear.
"Bonjour, Tormod (Good morning, Tormod)." Louis greeted. "Took you a long time to wake up today, didn't it?"
"Oui, je sais (Yes, I see that)." Tormod remarked. "Still, it happens. You know me: I am not perfect with my sleep schedule."
"Well, good to see that you're up." Louis told him. "I've been waiting for you, and I've spent all morning getting your stuff ready."
Then, Tormod walked over to his father.
"A propos de ce cadeau (About this gift)," Tormod began, "quel-est-il (what is it)?"
"Well, Tormod, this is a "Time Stone"." Louis replied, motioning to a little box on the nearby table, and opening it, revealing a necklace with what seemed to be some sort of jewel on the end. "Your mother might have already explained this to you, but what this does is that it will take you somewhere. As for where, well, we want you to find out for yourself, but what we will tell you is that your grandfather, that is, my father, would use it to go on adventures where it took him."
Tormod looked at his father with a stare for a few seconds before taking the Time Stone out of the box and putting it on.
"...Tres bien allors (Very well then)." Tormod responded, a little surprised. "So, what am I supposed to do now?"
"Well, for now, you could just do the morning routine that you have." Louis told his son. "We'll tell you what to do with this time stone later. For now, put your gear on if you want to practice your skills."
Kosh stirred in his nest until he woke up. The large, pink adult Clubtail woke up to the sight of the Great Valley around him, as usual. Like many other flatteeth, Kosh lived in the Great Valley, and it was his home, and his feeding ground, for there was a lot of food to be eaten, food being one thing that Kosh really liked. So, to start the day right, Kosh went looking for any berry bushes that he could find.
The Great Valley was perhaps the most fertile place in the world for dinosaurs. For some reason, plants would grow back absurdly fast. Leaves and berries would grow back in as little as a single day, and if a tree was knocked down, it would likely grow back in just a few weeks. Kosh didn't know why the valley was like this, but he didn't care. As long as there was plenty of food around, he was happy.
It wasn't very long before Kosh found a berry bush to eat from. And it wasn't long before he started eating. Even he had to admit that he was a messy eater, but that was the way that he was, as he didn't care much for manners, and he cared more about getting the food he needed than manners.
Soon, Kosh had eaten up all the berries of the berry bush, and he was looking for another one when he suddenly overheard an interesting conversation. This conversation was between a Swimmer and a Domehead over the existence of a type of creature. The Swimmer seemed to believe they existed, while the Domehead did not.
"Come on, you know they exist, don't you?"
"No, they don't!"
"Well, they do."
"And how would you know that?"
"Ever heard of the Lone Dinosaur? There was one who went with him."
"Bah, the Lone Dinosaur never existed. He was just a made up story. As was that human!"
Human. That word, especially the way that the Domehead put emphasis on it, really stood out to Kosh. This wasn't the first time that Kosh had heard of "humans". And he understood that, after 40 cold times of them not being seen, many dinosaurs, like this Domehead, would doubt that humans ever existed in this world. So Kosh walked off to ponder through his memories.
Normally, Kosh was quite a skeptic himself, and he often dismissed old stories as made up stories just for impressing hatchlings with. And he would have did the same thing with the stories about humans...except that there was one key fact that made him not do this:
He had seen a "human" himself. In fact, he had practically been RAISED by one.
Truth be told, Kosh was actually one of the older residents of the Great Valley (having lived to see 65 cold times, whereas most of the Great Valley's residents seemed younger, although dinosaurs could live for up to 200 cold times), and he had been living here for all of his life. However, he wasn't always the content individual he was today.
When Kosh was still a very young hatchling, he was having the worst of luck. The poor kid had only managed to celebrate his star day 5 times when the rest of his family died from a terrible disease, and Kosh was the only survivor of this outbreak. As you would expect, it turned Kosh into a broken mess who wasn't much into eating at all, and he was coming very close to losing the will to live.
But then, something WONDERFUL happened. Just as Kosh thought that he couldn't live anymore, there was a blinding light before him, and once the light dissipated, there, in front of him, was an odd creature with pinkish-cream colored skin on his face, and black and grey skin on the rest of his body. When the creature woke up, Kosh, now afraid, and not knowing what to do, began to cry out of fear of what the creature could do to him. But then the creature did something unexpected but welcoming: instead of trying to harm Kosh, he hugged the young Clubtail, begging him not to cry, for he meant no harm.
Once Kosh calmed down, the creature explained that his name was "Charles", and he was a type of creature called a "human". Then, "Charles" began explaining to Kosh some more stuff about himself. The strange object that Charles was holding was called an "Arbalete", which he used to protect himself, and now Kosh, from any threats. The weird reed-like stuff on his head was called "hair", and most of his skin turned out to be something that he wore called "clothes". Now, sometimes, Charles slipped into what sounded to Kosh like some weird sounding gibberish that only had a few understandable words, but then Charles explained the concept of "languages", and explained that the language that they were speaking in at the moment was "English", and the language that he sometimes slipped into was "French".
At the same time, Charles expressed his desire to help poor Kosh, and he decided to take Kosh in, and take care of him as best as possible. Of course, best as possible was the key word, since he then told Kosh that he actually lived in another world, and he would have to travel between the two worlds.
For the next 15 cold times, Charles indeed did his best to raise Kosh, helping him mature, teaching him how to survive, and giving him the ability to defend himself by teaching him how to use that clubbed tail of his.
But then, one day, soon after Kosh had hit adulthood, Charles left, and he never came back. Kosh was obviously very upset at this, seeing his adopted father and friend leave for good. But after a brief period of mourning, Kosh remembered that Charles wouldn't have wanted to see him like this, and as a result, he helped himself get over it rather fast.
Even now, though, after all of these cold times, Kosh still missed Charles, and wished that he would at least see him or another human again.
After a little while, Tormod was finished with his morning training session, and he and his parents went back to their house.
It wasn't very long after they got inside that Tormod, who still had all of his gear on, decided to ask his parents about the stone again.
"Alors, ou cela me prend-il (So, where does this take me)?" Tormod asked.
"Comme tu vois (Well you see)," Louis explained, "it takes you to a world where creatures that are extinct in our world still live. The time periods of the creatures on our world, well, the ones that the evolutionists say that they lived in, that appear there are all further back than the Mammoth, though."
"And which time periods, if you put it that way?" Tormod inquired. "Devonien (Devonian)?"
"Trop loin en arriere (Too far back)." Louis told him.
"Carbonifere (Carboniferous)?"
"Encore trop loin (Still too far)."
"Permien (Permian)?"
"Pres (Close)."
"Triasique, Jurassique, ou Cretace (Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous)?"
"Tu devez decouvrir par-toi meme (You have to find out for yourself)."
"...D'accord (...Alright)." Tormod sighed in disappointment. Then, he reminded them of his passion for dinosaurs. "Well, you know me: the reason why I mentioned those last 3 periods was because I really like dinosaurs."
"Nous savons (We know)." Caitriona replied. "And who knows what creatures you might encounter? After all, there are endless possibilities as for which one."
"Of course, there are infinite possibilities, and I am aware that dinosaurs are a possible inhabitant of that world." Tormod responded. "Of course, as for dinosaurs..."
Kosh, in all of his pondering, ended up wandering back to his nest, devouring a few berry bushes along the way. He certainly wished that he could meet Charles again, but then he remembered that Charles once told him that humans lived for only half as long as dinosaurs did, and Charles looked like he was about middle-aged by the time of his last visit, which had been 45 cold times ago. Now, he was faced with a very unfortunate reality.
"I'm probably not gonna see Charles alive again." Kosh said to himself sadly as he sat down in his nest. "And I probably won't see another human ever again, either."
And then, he looked at the sky.
"Still,"
At that moment, two different creatures, one human, one dinosaur, from two different worlds, unintentionally made the exact same wish at the exact same time.
"It would be nice to meet one."
Louis and Caitriona nodded in acknowledgment at their son's wish. That was one thing that he always wanted to do. And the understood that, since they would have liked to do it as well.
Suddenly, though, the time stone around Tormod's neck began glowing brightly.
And before he could say anything, there was a flash of blinding light.
Then, nothing.
Meanwhile, Louis and Caitriona finally opened their eyes again when the light went away. And their son wasn't there.
"Louis," Caitriona asked her husband in surprise and a little bit of panic, "...was that just the time stone?"
"Yes, Caitriona, just the stone." Louis answered. "There's a pretty good chance of him ending up in the Great Valley, and if that happens, as long as he does it right, he'll be fine."
Kosh looked at the ground and sighed again. He would likely never see Charles again, and likely no other human again.
Or so he thought.
Suddenly, there was an unexpected, blinding flash of golden light right in front of him. It was so bright that in order to prevent himself from losing his eyesight for a short time, Kosh had to cover his eyes with his forepaws. But that wasn't the main thing that would be occupying his mind for long.
When the light dissipated, and Kosh uncovered his eyes, he was shocked by the sight of what he saw in front of him. Lying in front of him was an odd looking creature with weird-looking skin, strange stuff coming out of its head, and no tail. But what shocked him was not how weird the creature was.
It was that this type of creature looked...familiar. Also familiar was the creature randomly appearing in front of him in a blinding flash of light.
"Deja vu." Kosh said to himself. That was one "French" phrase that Charles taught him that he always remembered. Then, he asked himself one thing that was VERY possible.
"Is that a...HUMAN?"
I know, I know, this fanfic is very similar to Elise Lowing's fanfic, in case you haven't read the top yet. And also in case you haven't read the top yet, I am doing this fanfic with her permission, so don't tell me that I'm stealing, because I'm not.
And before you ask, yes, Tormod and his family are speaking English and French in the same sentence. This is also a first for TLBT: a foreign-language-speaking character who speaks something other than "Sharptooth".
Also, I know that I'm still working on another fanfic, Shaka The Unshakable. I'll likely finish that one soon at some point.
