Note: Hello! This is probably going to be my shortest story ever as I estimate that only one more chapter after this one is needed. And to Night Prowler, hopefully I don't disappoint at tugging at the heartstrings…
Cera nodded, her four legs steadily walking to the surprised Longneck.
"What…what are you doing up?" he asked, surprised yet also inwardly joyful that he had found at least one of the few he wished to see.
"I…I couldn't sleep." The Threehorn admitted. "You restless too?"
Littlefoot nodded, gazing out to the sky. "I…it seems that even though we made it…" he sighed, his eyes steadily becoming heavy, yet he was in NO mood to drift off. "We're all still afraid."
She at first decided to keep what played out in her mind's eye to herself, yet upon hearing the Apatosaurus's veiled confession of a similar incident, her barriers had been broken. She couldn't keep it to herself, she didn't have to anymore, and at least that was what she was hoping.
Taking a deep breath, she spoke. "You saw Sharptooth, didn't you?"
Littlefoot's sagging eyes shot open, he turning his stretched, species trait of an appendage towards her, shocked that apparently his night terror were not solitary.
"Y-yeah. I saw Sharptooth."
"Well, then…you go first." The Triceratops hurriedly blurted out, still working up the courage to even put her experience out in the open.
"Well…" Littlefoot started, swallowing hard as the pieces of memory he recovered were far more than he wished to remember. "It…it was when I found the Great Valley." He let a steady flow of oxygen travel through his long windpipe. "But instead of you and the others coming…he came instead. He…" his legs bucked, his head now hanging as he attempted to compose himself to the best of his ability, though the composure of a child his age was of limited amount. "He started killing everyone."
Cera made her way towards him, her headstrong, tough exterior gone for now as she began to look upward and the tearful Longneck.
"He…he wasn't even eating them! He was just killing them because he could! It was like it was a game! He heard me scream for my mother…and…and…" he began to choke on his developing tears, the Triceratops beside him beginning to reflect his growing distress as well, her own experiences flowing back into her mind. "He told me she couldn't help me, and then…I woke up."
His control had been stripped from him once again, his strains to keep his sobbing under control doing little to contain them, yet there was reassurance that Cera apparently had no comment nor remark on his display of his fragility. She had no right to do so…and truthfully, she also felt she had no right to be the one to comfort him.
"You…" Littlefoot sniffed, the tearful release he had when he had the nightmare having reduced his amount of tears greatly, along with how much contortion his facial muscles could take before it was becoming painful. "You want to tell me yours now?"
The Threehorn's eyes shot wide open, cursing and despising that her once perfectly constructed speech was falling apart before she even got started, her body trembling at the thought of what she experience in those moments of sleep. Yet she knew that she was unable to keep it contained if she was to ever sleep again.
"I…well, WE…" she mentally kicked herself, her tongue becoming twisted. "Do you remember when we were running away from Sharptooth on the cliff?"
The Apatosaurus bit his lip, his flat molars grinding on his skin until he felt it tear.
"We were running, and he caught you, I think. We…we fell." She halted her speech, closing her eyes for a few moments, the images plaguing her even in the waking world. "We fell…and I think I landed in a cave. Sharptooth found me and chased me…he…he got me up against a wall. I…I told him to back off. And I saw he…he…" she shut her eyes tight, feeling her eyeballs moisten and becoming wet. She despised this, this display of weakness! What would her father say? Threehorns don't cry! Threehorns shouldn't cry! Yet despite the repetitive mantra she recited again and again, she was losing that iron will her father declared her species possessed.
"He what, Cera?" Littlefoot prodded. Though he knew that she ultimately had to confess on her own accord, yet if only a few days had shown him anything, it was that the girl beside him was not one to lower her defenses.
Cera could contain it no longer. "HE HAD EATEN YOU!"
"He…he had eaten me?" he unsteadily asked, his small being gripped with terror yet relief that where they all were proof they had escaped such a fate.
"YES! HE ATE YOU AND HE SAID YOU COULDN'T HELP ME! THEN HE TRIED TO EAT ME!" she threw her forelegs around the neighboring reptile, he stumbling backwards at the force of her embrace, her tears wetting his shoulder as she let her tears freely fall.
"It's alright." He told her, wrapping on foreleg around her yellow body. "Grandma says its better to cry."
Cera couldn't help but unconsciously follow, her face buried in the Apatosaurus's shoulder to silence her sobbing. That was one element she could control. After a few moments of this, she felt the streams of salty tears ending, her voice coming back to her. "You-your Grandma's smart…"
"I like to think so. She and Grandpa are the oldest ones I know, so I know they're smarter than me."
"…She's not stupid. She never was."
Littlefoot's support was stabbed by a pang of curiosity. Who wasn't stupid? Thinking more on her statement, memories began to flash before his eyes…the comment the Threehorn made of his mother… which led to the both of them, engaging in a scuffle with each other before he found himself being reunited with the rest of group engulfed in tar.
"I'm sorry I ever said that about her." She told him, her face contorted in the purest form of regret and guilt Littlefoot saw. "And I beat you up too…you…" she sighed, turning her head from him. "You don't have to be my friend. I…I don't blame you."
She expected him to leave her there, to take her suggestion and never make contact with her again. She expected it, yet what she felt was the complete opposite. She felt the Longneck's head lay on her head, the area behind her crown providing and area for him to gently nuzzle the Triceratops.
"Cera, I'm not mad at you about that anymore. I forgave you for that a long time ago." He whispered, she still in shock at his display. "And if it wasn't for you…Sharptooth probably WOULD'VE eaten me. Eaten all of us."
"Littlefoot…I…I don't understand."
"Because, I'll admit it, you ARE stubborn, hard-headed and, well, MORE than a little proud. But you're not bad because of that. If anything, I guess that's what makes Threehorns strong."
"Y-yeah, I…I guess so." She leaned in closer, rubbing her dome against the crook of his elongated neck. Undeserving as she felt, she couldn't deny that she needed it. She needed him, more then ever now since she had made it with him to the Valley.
"I'm glad that you ARE my friend…because…if you weren't, then…" she sighed, her mind wandering to her relative in the Valley with her, her lone relative. "Then I'd be alone."
"What do you mean-"
"Littlefoot? Cera?"
The Longneck's question was put on halt upon both of them hearing a young, usually chipper voice ridden with sadness address them. Both Cera and Littlefoot turned to see a downcast Ducky approaching them, her aqua blue eyes shifting around as if she was searching for something.
"What are you doing up?" she asked. "It is late. Yep, yep, yep."
"Couldn't sleep." Cera replied, both she and Littlefoot sensing something was plaguing the swimmer as well.
"Me neither. No, no, no." she came closer, her eyes still looking and searching. "Have you seen Petrie?"
"Who say my name?"
Ducky shot up, turning around to see the fledgling Pteranodon flapping towards them, he instantly being tackled upon landing on the grassy bed below by the swimmer.
"Petrie, you are alright!" she exclaimed, her embrace tight and constricting.
"Me glad…to see you too Ducky." He stammered, her grip becoming a little straining on his lungs. "But…you…you hugging too hard."
Ducky released the flyer, the cool night air being taken in by his now less tightened chest, yet he soon felt her throw herself around him again, though her hold was far less in force. He at first began to question her actions, yet he couldn't get one word out upon feeling her burry her face into his chest, he then swearing he felt his beak turning red. As odd of an emotion as the green dinosaur was emitting and transmitting to him, he was finding that he was actually enjoying it.
"You are okay." She muttered, continuing her rubbing and nuzzling. "I was worried you were…" she felt beads of tears begin to form in her eyes. "That you were…"
He was unsure of what was the best option to comfort her, yet if his mere presence was beneficial, then perhaps…
"Me okay, Ducky." He replied, embracing the swimmer in the same fashion, his wings veiling her backside in an almost protective shield. "Don't cry. Me hate to see you cry."
"Did…" Littlefoot started, his eyes shifting at whether or not he felt it right to pry. "Did you guys dream about something too?"
The moment his statement left his tongue, both flyer and swimmer turned their heads to the Longneck, dread and terror etched into their features. He immediately regretted his decision, yet upon seeing the two release each other and come forward, their horror steadily softened into general unease, reminding themselves of where they were and whom exactly they were with.
"I had a nightmare, I did…" the green skinned reptile started, battling with her already high-pitched voice to not begin to quiver. She looked over to Petrie, taking his fore-claw in her hand. Though he was right beside her, she needed more evidence, literal 'physical' evidence that he was still with them. "Sharptooth took Petrie down with him in the water…" the flyer shuddered, she then gazing upon him with guilt-ridden eyes. He shook his head and urged her on. "But this time, I dove in to save him…"
"And…you not save me?"
"No, I did!" she exclaimed, taking the Pteranodon by the shoulders, her tears forming once again. "I saved you! We both swam up and we were okay but…" she was steadily losing control, droplets clouding her vision the longer she started at him. "But you…you…" she could contain herself no longer, once again throwing herself onto Petrie and encasing him in a tight hold. "You would not wake up! I tried and tried, but you would not wake up! Sharptooth said you could not help me! And…and he…oh Petrie!" she saw no point to try and restrain her flooding emotions, her throat expelling pained wails and screams of anguish, the subject of her ordeal being one of the few comforts she was graced with a the moment.
Whatever words to ease her current state had promptly been ripped from Petrie's throat. He had expected her recounting of the terrible vision to be unnerving, yes, but such startling similarities between what she was forced to endure and his own experience…it more than unnerved him: it petrified him to his very soul.
"Ducky…"
"I…I do not want to let you go right now. No, no, no." she softly whimpered, he not daring to ask such a thing of her.
"No, Ducky. Me mean…me see things you see too."
Through the little swimmer's twisting agony and tsunami of emotions constantly hitting her wave upon wave, a small glimmer of curiosity shined through the depths, coming to the surface as she softened her embrace, repositioning to her hands resting on the flyer's shoulders and she gazing intently in his large, spherical eyes. Petrie looked towards the Longneck and Threehorn who had been silent the entire time, their stares wide and silently beckoning him to speak.
"Well…" he began his once silent, unmoving tongue now swerving up and down as he found words slowly, yet surely exiting his beak. "Do you remember when we all split up and…and me fall in black sinking sands?"
Cera bit her lip, nodding, and her head downcast in shame. She hadn't heard his cries, she could be honest about that, yet what took place beforehand, she still couldn't comprehend why she was even allowed in the company of the three dinosaurs present. Littlefoot rubbed against her cheek, reassuring her once again of his forgiveness, of which she seemed to slightly intake before the fledgling continued.
"Well, it hot and it burn bad but…"
"But what, Petrie?" Littlefoot asked, he looking as if he was confused.
"Sh-Sharptooth pull me under."
"But Sharpteeth do not swim." Ducky replied.
"I know! That why it so scary!" Petrie cried out, feeling his own eyes becoming moist once again. "He say no one would help me…and he drag me down in the dark…down, down, down, down!"
"Petrie, it is alright!"
Ducky was aiming to merely offer him a hand on the shoulder yet she found the flyer wrapping his wings around her, his small, almost akin in size to hers body shivering and trembling in fear.
"Me…me so scared. Me never been so scared."
"We're all scared, Petrie." Littlefoot sighed, Cera walking forward and gently rubbing the Pteranodon's back with her one horn, he rather surprised at such an affectionate display from her.
"Yeah. I…" she swallowed hard, her pride being an ever driving force even now. "I'm scared too."
"Me three." Ducky interjected, joining in the soothing, repetitive strokes Cera was performing on his back, his trembling having been severely reduced.
"Mmm fmm."
All four instantly turned away from each other, heads swiftly turning in apprehension to then mentally begin kicking themselves at whom had been the one to startle them. Spike had managed to come and find them all, none of them even detecting his presence, something of a remarkable fear for a Spiketail of his…girth. Upon seeing his 'sister' present, he happily licked her cheek, she unable to contain the giggles at the sensation he was causing.
"Hee hee! Hello, Spike!" Ducky greeted, her optimism not lasting long upon a strong possibility entering her mind as to why he was here. "Did YOU have a scary sleep story too?"
Her newly acquired 'brother's smile faded in an instant, his maw trembling and his eyelids lowering, only able to nod in response to her question. In truth, he had arrived far earlier than they all had suspected. He had arrived around the time Cera had found Littlefoot; he just opted to remain hidden until he could work up the courage to come forward. As Ducky and Petrie then joined them, all four sharing their unwanted, fearful nightmares with each other was both relieving, yet also slightly disheartening. He was gaining knowledge on the inner workings of the four individuals that he had traveled with to the Great Valley, Littlefoot his unwavering composure and resolve, Cera, her vulnerability, Ducky displaying a heroism he found most admirable, even if it was just in her sleep, and Petrie his utter helplessness and fear. Yet he found himself saddened by one factor: they told of their experiences to each other, they could speak of them. He could not. He could not put into words how he found himself suddenly to be deathly thin, how he had found all of them reduced to bones, and how Sharptooth taunted him with the current state of his friends before finishing them off…
The Stegosaurus lowered his head, a few stray tears escaping his ducts and casually running down his olive green skin. He briefly opened his eyes upon feeling a small form nuzzle against his face, Ducky holding him and caressing his cheek.
"It is alright, Spike. We know it was scary for you too."
"Me know how Spike feel." Petrie added. "Me not like what happen either."
"It's okay." Cera stated, her forehead meeting the tearful Spiketail. "I guess…even Threehorns need to cry sometimes…"
Sensing he was also needed, Littlefoot stepped forward, he too now comforting the last of the five, his head resting on Spike's underdeveloped back.
"We're here, Spike." He cooed. "We're all here…"
"You don't think he went too far, do you?" Grandma questioned, her husband shaking his head in response.
"He's probably just strolling around. Besides, he and the other little ones just made it here. If anything, it's good for him to get knowledge of the territory."
She pondered his words, her aged eyes closing and her elongated throat exhaling. "Perhaps your right. I…I just can't help but be a little…I guess anxious is the best word."
Grandpa nodded in agreement. "Me too, dear. It's a miracle that he and those four other children had even survived the Earth Shake at all, let alone travel here on their own."
His wife turned her gaze towards the night sky, the Lesser Circle and its many lights stretching out over the entire Valley as far as her eyes could see. Even as a hatchling, she had always pondered as to what those thousands of lights actually were. Her mother told her once that some thought they were balls of fire burning in the sky, some thought that they were the eyes of flyers that had been caught in the dark abyss above, their eyes having attained an unnatural glow and the only thing to be able to peer outward and see what they left behind, yet she remembered what her mother told her, and what she told her daughter. She told her that from behind those lights, the eyes of those who came before them stared down on them, the lights actually holes in the expansive sky so that they could see their loved ones from wherever they were. She couldn't help but wonder now…what 'she' thought as she peered down from her resting place…
"Cera!" she was broken from her state of calm, both she and her husband now directed towards a loud, gruff voice piercing through the still, gentle air. "Cera, where are you!?"
Grandma and Grandpa peered down to be met with the image of a grey and rather frantic Triceratops nearly tearing through some thick greenery with his namesake, his eyes wide in concern and unease.
"Mr. Threehorn?"
Upon hearing the elderly Apatosaurus's voice, Topsy ceased his sprinting through the bush, he turning to see both of them gazing down at him, undoubtedly curious as to what had him in such a state. "What do you want Flathe-, eh, Longneck?"
"Well…" Grandpa started, reminding himself of WHOM he was dealing with at the moment. "You seem to be running around rather…well, erratically. Is something wrong?"
"No, everything's just peachy. My daughter wakes up screaming bloody murder and runs off, now I have NO idea where she's gone! Nope! Everything's just fine!" Topsy bit his lip, sighing upon realizing his anger, though still present, was being directed at the wrong individuals. "I…she just took off. What has she got to do that she can't come to me for?"
"You too?"
All three heads turned to view two Swimmers casually walking towards them; both having their curiosity peaked at this new piece of information.
"You mean your little ones have gone off too?" Grandpa questioned, Ducky's mother nodding in response.
"Spike of course didn't say anything, but I don't think I've EVER seen someone so young have a face like that…" her husband interjected, she following suit.
"Ducky woke up screaming for one of her friends, I think it was the flyer…"
"Petrie? My Petrie?"
Longnecks, Threehorn, and Swimmers all looked upwards to witness a blue, female Flyer coming in to land, she settling on a small area in front of the four.
"Why yes, I think it was one of yours." Mrs. Swimmer confirmed, Petrie's mother clasping her claws together, a worried expression crossing her features.
Grandma saw it as her time to interject. "Our Littlefoot's gone off too. He said he needed to-"
"Take a walk?" Mr. Swimmer interrupted, the aged dinosaur nodding in response.
"Why yes. I…" she gazed at each parent, their stunned faces saying it all. "I suppose whatever's happened isn't an isolated incident."
"You tired?" The Triceratops asked, though she more or less slurred her question out, her tongue even feeling too exhausted to form words.
"No." Littlefoot responded, though he was now sitting on the grassy, soft bed of green underneath him, the blades bent over and laying flat to cushion his resting place. He actually began to want to go out and search for some more sturdy, sharper grass at the moment.
"I…" Ducky started, though she was interrupted by a yawn deciding then to escape her throat. "I am not tired at all. Oh no, no, no, no."
Petrie was closer to defeat than his companions, his body being reduced to laying on his stomach, head cocked to the side and eyelids nearly closed. "Me no sleepy either."
Spike was concentrating on the few blades of grass he had in his mouth, his teeth monotonously and rhythmically grinding and chewing on the strips of the abundant flora surrounding them, his admittedly favorite activity not doing anything to fight his growing drowsiness. Though if his friends weren't going to allow themselves to succumb to their exhaustion, then neither would he!
Yet all five inwardly knew that their resolve to not sleep wasn't derived from a competitive contest they set for each other, nor was it a declaration of them being older and more mature then they actually were. No, they all knew it wasn't just one another that kept them up, yet it was indeed ironic that they all shared the same sentiment.
The Apatosaurus's falling eyes and slumped neck turned to see that they were clearing fighting an unwinnable battle, yet he too did not wish to go out without a fight. Yet he couldn't deny that the tightly packed bunch they had formed did looked rather warm against the cool, night air. Sensing he was close, Cera immediately pulled him close, her crown rubbing against his elongated neck, the smoothness of the dome actually proving to be surprisingly relaxing and soothing.
"Wh-what are you doing?" he asked, her motions only making him more tired.
"Need something to do. Spike's already out."
He looked over to see she was indeed correct: the Stegosaurus had indeed succumbed to sleep, his maw open and his tongue hanging out slightly to the left side. Littlefoot chuckled slightly at this, gazing over to Ducky and Petrie, one of who was fiddling with a small twig, ranging from lightly beating it on the ground to then settling for holding it to his chest as his wing lost strength to keep toying with it. Cera had then eased on her 'massage' on his throat, the movements becoming smaller and less active, thus indicating she too was close to drifting off as well.
"Maybe…maybe it will not be bad at all." Ducky yawned. "Maybe Sharptooth will not come again…"
"But he could." Petrie replied, though still as fearful, his lack of sleep was driving logic from his brain as well. "But…me SOOOOOO tired."
"I wonder…" the swimmer began again, Petrie already taking roost on Cera's head, the area behind her crown a good place to rest his head, she too exhausted to protest or even care. "What if there is a way to make a monster in your dream go away?"
Littlefoot's drooping eyelids shot wide open for a moment upon hearing that. That was…a surprisingly revolutionary, but reasonable idea. It was possible, perhaps, yet…how would they even go about doing such a thing, should they come across 'him' again in their dreams?
"Well…" Cera started, she feeling the world around her slipping away, knowing she had to talk fast. "My father said to me…and my sisters…" she paused, Littlefoot taking notice that her eyes began to water at the mention of her siblings, the growing moisture slipping back into her ducts however. "That if you see a monster in your dreams…you can't be scared of it. Being scared gives it power." Littlefoot, though he too was growing closer and closer to sleep, was mentally noting everything she was saying. "You have to look it in the eye…and say that you take back…any power you gave it. Then…you tell it to go away…"
"Cera? Cera?" she didn't respond, the Longneck beside her seeing her eyes had finally shut themselves, her breathing steady yet slow.
Ducky made her way onto the Threehorn as well, nestling beside the slumbering Flyer and wrapping her arms around him, a visible smile curling on his beak upon sensing her presence, stick still tightly clutched however.
"Goodnight…Littlefoot…" the Swimmer softly moaned, she soon joining her winged companion in the realm of dreams.
He could deny it no longer: they all had lost the battle to stay awake, the fear of encountering Sharptooth again not even being a strong enough deterrent to keep their eyes open. Yet Cera's words intrigued him. He didn't need to question it, he KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Tyrannosaurus Rex was lying in wait for them, his hunting ground now their very minds, yet his true self, his physical self was rendered useless courtesy of them. If his assumption was correct, and he DID merely have to wait for them to fall asleep in order to torment them as before, only now the field of acts he could commit and atrocities they could be exposed to even greater than before…
Littlefoot knew what he had to do. Looking towards the expansive, light filled sky, he closed his eyes, hoping she would hear him from beyond the blanket of stars hanging overhead, or wherever she was.
'Please…if this is the only way…then please, show me how.'
He could fight it no longer, the moment he closed his eyes, he knew he was sealing his fate. The Longneck's senses steadily began to dull and he felt the sensations surrounding him becoming near unnoticeable, his unconscious mind pulling him in further and further until everything linking him to the waking world had been severed, Littlefoot finding himself being drawn back into a immersed, still slumber.
"And that's how Littlefoot and…" Grandpa lowered his head as they walked, everyone quiet. "Our daughter was taken from us. Though, we are more than thankful he is here and with us now."
Everyone was left awestruck, Topsy keeping his head low to the ground and away from view whilst every other parent gazed outward in the direction they kept going.
"Where was his father? Oh, if you don't mind me asking." Mrs. Swimmer inquired, she fearing that she stepped into territory she shouldn't have treaded into.
Grandpa angled his head down, eyelids sinking low. "He…" he sighed. "Bron said he was going to look for a safer place for us to dwell, until we could surely make our trek to the Great Valley. But…we haven't heard from him since. Truth be told, neither of us even knows if he's…still 'with us', so to speak."
"Oh, I see." She responded, she drawing nearer to her husband walking alongside her. "I remember that…all Ducky asked for was just a few more minutes in a small spring we found. They…they were all having some much fun. I remember Webby kept complaining about Aqua dunking her under." She giggled, her face growing sullen at reminiscing of what came afterward. "Then…everything just started to shake."
Her husband interjected. "I tried to get to you all, but I just remember being tossed around on my back. You yelling something about how Ducky shouldn't get too close to the waves…and then she started being pulled down the current. By the time we both got in there…she was gone."
Petrie's mother let a slightly pained groan escape her beak, Grandma motioning to use her back as a resting place, of which she quickly obliged, her wings lazily lying flat as she too roost. "I'm sorry. I suppose it's just the worry that's getting to me."
The elderly Longneck shook her head. "No apologies needed. You're not the only one."
"I'm…so proud of my little Petrie." She started, clasping her claws together. "I remember when he fist hatched…the first thing he tried to do was fly! Everyday, he went out to practice. Climbing trees higher and higher until his siblings and I had to snatch him up if he fell." She halted for a moment, wondering if it was wise to bring someone else into her tale. Yet, he DID play a pivotal role in her hatchling's early life. "Pterano even said-"
"Pterano!?" The grey Triceratops bellowed. "Why are you even speaking his name?!"
"Because we're all being honest with ourselves! If our children can do it, so can we!"
"You can't be serious. Do you even KNOW what he caused?! Why half of us didn't even make it here?!"
"I should hope so because he's my brother! I'm more aware than ANYONE here of what's happened! This has NOTHING to do with what happened, so if we may be so kind as to shut our mouths and let those who are talking finish!"
Topsy went silent, everyone else taken aback by the fury the Flyer echoed in her statement. The Threehorn begrudgingly accepted defeat, settling with grumbling to himself.
"As I was saying, Pterano even said that he'd grow up to take after his 'skills' as he said. If anything…I suppose it's something of an odd blessing he was around…" she lowered her head, wings wrapping around her as if to shield herself from the rest of the group. "After my husband…never came back, he stepped in and saw the children on and off again. I remember he told me that a rockslide caused by the Earth Shake crushed the nest. He said that he got my babies out in time. But…Petrie was nowhere to be found."
He hated it, outright despised it, yet Topsy found guilt seeping in through the cracks of his hardened, thick-skinned conscience. The mentioning of how she had lost her husband, her significant other…even if her children were still with her…he couldn't deny that he felt, of all things, kinship with her. He, one who STILL held somewhat firmly to the 'separation' of species that he had to compromise both when the Shake happened and now…he couldn't stop himself.
"You still have them."
Petrie's mother unshielded herself, wiping away the fallen tears from her ducts. "Wh-what?"
"Your children. I'm…" he bit hard on his lip, the intensity of his inner struggle increasing; yet he continued to stand. "I'm sorry about your husband…but your children are still with you. Be grateful for that."
She was caught completely off guard by such a display, especially from him of all dinosaurs, she taking a few moments to contemplate whether or not what she just heard had actually happened. Yet his comment wasn't overlaid with his characteristic gruffness or harsh tone. He sounded…empathetic to her situation. Then she remembered his daughter, and how before…she had observed he had three, along with a female beside him.
She didn't dare ask. No one did, everyone making a silent agreement with one another to keep their questions, however burning and prodding, to himself or herself. All they needed to know was that he began with a wife and three girls, only to end up with just one.
"She's still like Alberta."
Everyone turned towards the Triceratops, all caught in complete shock that even after their agreement to not speak of it, here he was doing it for them!
"Tribi was something of a chatterbox, and Ava wanted to know anything about everything. Rhina…little Rhina was the oldest but she was so shy and scared of everything." They all continued to listen, sensing he was steadily breaking. "Cera was the last…I told Alberta that each of them had a piece of her in them. Tribi could attract others like a butterfly to flowers, she was a talker too…Ava had such an expansive, intelligent mind, just like her…Rhina was so mild and gentle, not even willing to step on a bug. She was always so…easy with the girls. She knew EXACTLY what to do." He stopped for a moment to breathe, his intake of oxygen rattled and trembling, yet he pushed on. "Cera…Cera is strong. Alberta would take nothing from anyone, and I remember she making her mark on more than a handful of Sharpteeth in her younger days, as she's told me."
Grandpa granted him a warm grin. "She sounds wonderful."
Topsy nodded. "Oh she was. She was beautiful. So beautiful in fact…she decided to take the girls to a watering hole that I found." He stopped for a moment, feeling the moisture begin to develop more, yet he still fought to keep it contained. "We all went…even a pack of Fastbiters."
No one could contain the gasps emitting from their throats.
Still, he continued. "Me and her…we fended them off at first…but we hadn't eaten in so long, we weren't at our best…I heard a scream and saw Tribi was the first to be snatched up." He cursed himself repeatedly, his speech now suffering and his words being reduced to stutters. "Alberta went after them…then Ava was carried off. Rhina hid under me. But…one of them saw her hiding place and it dragged her out." He was stammering now, one lone tear escaping. "I chased it and knocked her out of it's grip but…but Rhina didn't move." He took in a strained breath. "I heard Alberta scream, all of them were on top of her. I ran to her but…she sounded so weak. I saw Ava and Tribi lying not too far from her, not too different from Rhina. I ran to her but she said…" his legs bucked, finding himself falling to the ground, burying his head in the dirt as he couldn't contain his tears anymore. "She said…'You need to go. Who…who'll be there to greet Cera when she gets there?' It…it's so funny. I…I had thought Cera was the first to be lost. She…she had more faith in her than I did…"
The pair of Longnecks, Swimmers, and Flyer ceased their journey for the time being, all going to surround the fallen Threehorn, his emotions finally breaking through his exterior and embracing the freedom that they had so desperately needed. Grandpa couldn't help but join him in his tearful display, visions of his own child flooding his mind.
"She's…she's all I have left!" Topsy croaked, throwing aside his pride and letting his wails of anguish pierce the silence around them. "There's no one else but her!"
"I know." Grandpa softly replied. "He…he is all we have left as well…"
He was weightless, floating amidst the black, endless abyss, his senses reduced to only what his mind could allow in his soon to be entered subconscious. Even with his impaired connection to general awareness…Littlefoot sensed that he wasn't alone.
'Littlefoot…'
His vision of his mind's eye hadn't yet returned to him, yet he instantly recognized the voice piercing through the ambient darkness.
'Dear…sweet Littlefoot…'
"M-Mother?"
The Apatosaurus began to grow frantic, his eyes not allowing him to see what was in front of him, yet he knew she was near him!
'I told you before…I'm with you even if you can't see me…'
Of course, how could he have forgotten? Yet even still, he couldn't deny that he hungered desperately to see her once more. "Mother…I made it. We made it, to the Great Valley."
'Yes…I am so…proud of you…'
As he felt himself slipping further and further, he found that his sight had returned to him, he once again stationed atop the rocky cliff overseeing the legendary paradise he could now call home. Yet a pang of familiarity shot through him. His dream…his nightmare…it started in this exact spot, in the exact same way.
"Mother? Is…" he looked back towards the cave he had exited from to come to the Valley. "Is he still here?"
'Yes…he is here.'
Littlefoot hung his head low, his ears now listening intently for the thunderous tremors to signal the predator's presence.
'But now you know what to do.'
"What do you mean, Mother?"
THUMP…THUMP…
The Longneck froze, backing away from the mouth of the cavern, the footsteps distant, but undeniably belonging to him.
"Mother, why?! We killed him! Why is he still after us?!"
'Because you gave him the power to do so…you gave him your fear…'
He was running out of space to retreat to, his deep brown irises catching glimpse of a dark, large shadow beginning to grace itself on the stone walls.
"What am I supposed to do, Mother?! If he didn't leave us alone before, then he won't ever stop now!"
'Yes…he won't stop. But you're not alone, Littlefoot."
"What do you mean?"
'You have them…do you remember what your friend said?'
His friend…his mind counted and surveyed each of them…yet it was not an image, but a voice that came to his mind.
'If you see a monster in your dreams…you can't be scared of it. Being scared gives it power.' Of course! How could he have forgotten so quickly? Cera's voice continued to ring through his memories. 'You have to look it in the eye…and say that you take back…any power you gave it. Then…you tell it to go away…'
Her voice stopped, he now feeling his own body bounce and reverberate at the carnivore drawing ever closer.
'Gather them all with you. Stand together and banish him…'
"But I don't know where they are, Mother!"
No reply.
"Mother? Mother! Don't go!"
ROAR!
Littlefoot turned to see Sharptooth had torn through the rock passage, he leering down at the young dinosaur with sickening glee. He leapt forward and what had tormented the Longneck before happened once again before his eyes, he losing his footing and tumbling downward. Sharptooth slaughtered the residents of the Great Valley without a care or thought, his jaws tearing through flesh and ending whatever life had been unfortunate enough to become ensnared by them. Then, as before, he turned to him. Littlefoot backed up against the cliff, having been stuck where he had been before.
"Mother! Help me!"
Sharptooth narrowed his eyes, the one the Longneck unintentionally damaged seemingly gaining a bright, unnatural glow to it. "I thought I told you before…" he growled, his voice having not lost the ability to send chills up his prey's spine. "She cannot help you now."
"I…" Littlefoot started, replaying his mother and Cera's words in his mind. "I…I'm n-not afraid of you."
"No?" he snarled, opening his mouth to display the trait of his species.
Littlefoot cowered before the towering predator, yet he then noticed something…off. As Sharptooth bore his fangs and open maw at him, he saw someone in the back of his throat. Studying it closer, he then saw it was as if the throat was a window of sorts to somewhere else. He saw Cera, backed up against a cave wall, warning someone to stay away or else…
He then had a hunch. He at first completely dismissed it, but then he remembered…this wasn't exactly 'reality' as he knew it. Sharptooth was ready to thrust his fangs down on his prey, yet he found him attempting something he did not intend: Littlefoot leapt into his mouth. The Longneck jumped forward and into the predator's jaws, he feeling the hot, wet saliva of his tongue quickly take him further down into the throat…yet closer and closer to the scene displaying Cera.
"Littlefoot?!" he heard her exclaim, he now apparently inside a large, cavern of sorts, the Threehorn immediately gripping onto him. He looked back and Sharptooth bore the same expression of bewilderment as Cera. From his calculations…Littlefoot had jumped into the throat of the Tyrannosaurus Rex to only then come out of the same throat, only in the opposite direction.
He looked to the Triceratops beside him, the behemoth tormenting them snarling and growling, ready to pounce upon them both. It was then that he then remembered his mother's words.
'Gather them all with you…'
Note: Another cliffhanger! Sorry, but 13-15 pages is the limit for me. I don't want these running on for too long. Please read and review, and give feedback on what you like/didn't like, whatever!