Chapter 2: Arrival of the Swimmers

Something that was treasured by the leaf-eater residents of the Great Valley was how routine everything was.

Now, that might not be something that seemed like it would be taken for granted, but the many farwalkers who roamed the Mysterious Beyond felt otherwise. Unlike the unpredictable and unforgiving Mysterious Beyond, the dinosaurs who resided in the valley were sheltered from their natural predators and thus could afford to let themselves lapse into a constant—if predictable—routine style of life.

But to the valley inhabitants, life being predictable was a good thing. Sure, it was boring, but the monotony that they faced was an acceptable compensation to most of them, who would greatly prefer a stable life to one of excitement and high risks.

…yes, most of the valley. Not all of them. Because as it went with every group, there were always a few outliers whenever one tried to generalize them. In this case, the blatant exceptions to the norm were the young children who were enjoying a game of hide-and-seek on this afternoon.

"Ready or not… here me come!"

The flyer who'd made the announcement, an eccentric Pteranodon who went by the name of Petrie, darted his eyes all around as he flew high into the air and scouted for his hiding friends. Petrie was a young flyer, the runt of the litter in a family that consisted of five flyer children. He was hence the meekest of his brothers and sisters as a result, something which did bother Petrie quite a bit, as it had resulted in the flyer becoming something of a joke between his siblings.

But unlike his more judgmental siblings, his friends were much more accepting and kind towards him. They held no gripes with his personality or flight patterns. And thus, they were much more fun to have around when it came to playing games and letting Petrie enjoy himself.

Without feeling the tiniest shred of shame, Petrie had to admit that hide-and-seek was one of his favorite games. As a flyer, he had an intrinsic advantage over his other friends when it came to this specific activity — whether his role was designated as hider or seeker.

"Hm… me think me spot Littlefoot!" Petrie declared as he spotted a flash of brown trying to remain still behind a tree.

That would undoubtedly be Littlefoot, a brown-colored longneck with a cream underbelly who was the undisputed leader of the group. While Cera would sometimes claim otherwise, no one usually bought her protests for long when the group found themselves caught up in the heat of the moment.

Those situations always forced Littlefoot to take charge. And take charge he did, usually in a most magnificent fashion. Always perpetually optimistic, the gang could count on Littlefoot to make a rational decision and helm the front whenever things got rough. His encouraging, vigor-filled words often motivated the others in their many misadventures.

Making a note as to where Littlefoot had made himself scarce, Petrie then swerved away, rapidly changing directions to look for the others. It was better to let Littlefoot think that he hadn't been spotted yet — as the others would seek out better hiding spots the instant the first hider was found, after all. With a cheeky grin, Petrie sought to find all of the gang before they even realized that he was on to them.

A slight shaking of a treestar bush caught Petrie's eye. Further analysis revealed a sharp horn trying to remain hidden under the cover of the shrub. No doubt that the owner of the horn was Cera, a threehorn who was cautious, easily angered, and always ready to dish out a sarcastic insult at a moment's notice.

But Petrie had to admit that she'd definitely mellowed out compared to the first time they met. Back during their initial trip to the valley, she had been actively malicious towards him and the others. These days, Cera had changed quite a bit, turning from the antagonistic jerk she once was into a stubborn, albeit loyal friend who Petrie could always count on giving her friends a healthy dose of reality whenever she was agitated, something which happened rather often considering Cera's species and uptight personality.

Petrie lifted his left wing up to drift to his right, the flyer quickly spotting a very obvious dark green spot among the sweet bubble bush as he performed the maneuver. It wasn't really a surprise to see the gang's most voracious eater, Spike the spiketail, choosing to hide in a place where he could simultaneously partake in his favorite hobby at the same time — gobbling down food. Which in this case, said food constituted his hiding place, the very treestars around the sweet bubble bush that he was supposed to be using as cover to hide.

He cocked his head in confusion as Spike tried to inconspicuously munch on a treestar snack. If Petrie's hadn't already spotted Spike before this, then he would have most certainly been able to catch the spiketail out by simply listening to the sound of Spike's teeth gnashing against the fibrous texture of his afternoon snack. A cavity in the vegetation was slowly forming from the amount of treestars that Spike was shredding with his teeth, making his hiding place obvious.

In the end, Petrie shrugged before rolling to the left, leaving the lunching Spike behind. Food was always on Spike's mind first and foremost… the spiketail's utmost priority, despite how little sense it made at times.

Now, there was only one member that Petrie had left to locate — Ducky, his bubbly swimmer friend.

Now, where would Ducky be hiding, Petrie asked to himself while scanning his eyes around the area. The problem was that Ducky happened to be significantly smaller than the other three—the swimmer about Petrie's own size—which made spotting her a lot tougher since she was able to camouflage herself much more easily as compared to her larger-sized friends.

Good for her. Not good for Petrie though, especially as he happened to be in it to win the game since he'd already found everyone else… with the exception of the swimmer.

Petrie spent quite some time looking all over the area to no avail, still being unable to spot Ducky. By now he found himself nervously wondering if the others will lose patience should he take too long to find Ducky, since his current strategy was to catch them all in a single pass so that he could keep their guards down. But on the flip side, if he couldn't find Ducky soon he would end up losing the whole game as his friends would call a time-out and claim that Petrie hadn't been able to spot a single one of them.

He could prevent this by simply locating one of the others first, but that would put Ducky on alert, and she was already hard enough to find at the moment. Eventually, Petrie decided to chance it, opting to soar higher into the sky to give himself wider coverage. While this made Ducky harder to spot as the swimmer was already small enough as it is, at the very least Petrie would be able to track her down to an approximate location, his eyes being able to cover a larger range compared to when he hung low.

Still, try as he might, Petrie wasn't able to find the hiding swimmer as easily as all his other friends. He strained his eyes, looking carefully all over the general vicinity, and yet Ducky continued to elude him. But Petrie remained unperturbed by this turn of events. He had a determined expression on his face, his beak widening slightly out of frustration as he made up his mind to take this setback as a challenge that he would undertake.

He firmly resolved to himself that he would absolutely catch out Ducky, even though the task at hand was surprisingly challenging. In all seriousness, Petrie found himself racking his brains as to where Ducky could've possibly kept herself hidden.

A brief flash of green submerged among aqua blue finally gave him the answer that he was seeking. Aha! Nice try… but me gotcha, Ducky! Petrie chuckled with glee as he finally managed to locate the well-hidden swimmer. But me have to say, that good hiding place…

And with that, all four of them had been caught out by his watchful eye. Yes, only four. Normally Petrie would have to scout out two more dinosaurs to conclusively win the game of hide-and-seek between them, but he'd gotten lucky today and managed to get away with the win due to the absence of the additional two.

One was a friendly purple Sharptooth named Chomper that the leaf-eaters of the gang had helped hatched about four Cold Times ago, which had resulting in him becoming a fierce and loyal friend despite having a very different diet from them. The other was a quick-witted fast runner with an outstanding pink coloration known as Ruby, who'd come down to the valley with Chomper in hand less than a few Night Circle cycles ago from a place in the Mysterious Beyond known as Hanging Rock.

Together they formed up the titular Gang of Seven — a group of seven dinosaur children of various species who banded together through thick and thin.

Petrie hummed a merry tune as he swooped down, relishing the rare opportunity of coming out on top, something which rarely ever happened thanks to his siblings. Despite everything, Littlefoot had been completely right about his earlier protests with regards to having him be the seeker. A flyer truly did have an unfair advantage in searching for others when it came to this game.

He made sure to pick out a very disgruntled Cera first — spotting her hiding place first was deliberate on Petrie's end. After flying away from a very mad threehorn, he flew over to a large tree and landed atop of the sauropod hiding behind it, causing Littlefoot to sigh when Petrie chuckled from the top of his head.

Spike was next. Amusingly, the spiketail didn't care at being found, and showed no visible reaction even as Petrie landed next to him. Instead, the spiketail lunged forward and munched on his next mouthful of treestars.

Petrie could only shrug at Spike's indifference and complete the game. Last but not least was his good friend Ducky.

Oh, he had definitely saved the best for last! It was certainly the most creative hiding spot of the lot… he'd give her that much!

He veered towards the river stream, cooing down at the water below. "Nice try, Ducky!" Petrie called out to the still water with a triumphant smile. "But me saw you hiding in there, around those water greens!"

Now that was a hiding place that had been incredibly hard to spot. Truth be told, if Ducky wasn't of such a bright green coloration that even the deep blue of the water wasn't able to mask her, Petrie might have missed her altogether.

With a giggle, Ducky jumped out of the water and landed on the riverbank, shaking off drops of water clinging to her body as Petrie landed next to her. "Oh, you got-ed me. You did, Petrie, you did!" she commended her friend as the others began to make their way towards the two.

"Yeah." Littlefoot added on to Ducky's statement, the disappointment of losing the game forgotten as he smiled at Petrie. "Congrats on winning, Petrie. You've earned it!"

Petrie beamed at the heap of praises that his friends bestowed on him. "Hooray! Me win game!" he said with a wide smile, the flyer whooping for joy as he leapt up into the air, joyously spinning around in a loop-de-loop that went a full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees. "Me so glad that me flyer. Make it real easy for Petrie to win hide-and-seek game," Petrie admitted, gleefully chuckling at his victory.

"Hmph!" Cera raised her head high and brandished her horn at Petrie, quickly shutting the flyer down from making any further disparaging comments out of an innate fear of retaliation from Cera. "Don't count this win as yours just because of your species!" she grumbled with a haughty voice. "I bet that if I was the seeker, I'd be able to find all of you as well!"

Her smile turned slowly predatory, causing Petrie to gulp nervously as he took solace in the fact that he was now high atop a tree and thus out of Cera's reach. "Hee! I'd simply bash down every hiding spot in sight until you're all forced to come out! Now that's an idea!" Cera laughed, jerking her head—and horn—forward, her mind vicariously enjoying the mental images of smashing various things down. "Alright, now I demand an immediate rematch! I'm gonna kick all of your butts!"

"But I think that is enough hide-and-seek for today, Cera. I do, I do."

Petrie heaved a sigh as Ducky managed to alleviate the tension, something which he in particular found especially hard to pull off with Cera, especially when she felt like being a sore loser. "Me agree with Ducky!" he hastily seized the opportunity to give his agreement with the consensus to hopefully outvote Cera's proposal.

Luckily, with the exception of Cera, the rest quickly caught on to the ruse. "I agree with Ducky and Petrie as well," Littlefoot added as Spike slowly nodded.

"Littlefoot…" Cera muttered dangerously.

Sensing that Cera was about to blow her top, Littlefoot quickly tried to justify his stand. "Besides, it won't be much fun to have a game without Chomper and Ruby joining in. Look at how quickly Petrie managed to catch us. Maybe we can wait until another day?" the longneck counter-suggested.

Seeing that she was completely trounced four-against-one, Cera decided to call it quits and cut her losses while she could still maintain some degree of pride. "Hmph! Fine then!" she relented with a haughty huff, making it clear that this conversation wasn't over. "Fine, I'll wait for Chomper and Ruby! But the next time we play hide-and-seek, I'm definitely gonna beat all of you!"

"Hahaha! Now that's my girl! Defiant to the end just like a true threehorn!"

Petrie almost flinched back and fell from the tree branch at the booming voice that'd just popped up from behind the gang. "Eeep! Cera dad here!" he cried, nervously letting out a chuckle and praying that Topps hadn't heard the vitriolic banter between him and Cera.

Fortunately for Petrie, Littlefoot cut in and saved the flyer from being the center of attention should Cera decide to tell on him. The longneck bowed his head respectfully, greeting Topps amiably. "Hello there, Mr. Threehorn."

Unlike Littlefoot, Cera had a much more different reaction to the surprise entrance of her father. "Daddy?" she acknowledged her father while casting a suspicious gaze at him. She knew him well enough by now to know that he wouldn't interrupt their games for petty affairs. "Alright, what is it you need from me this time?" she quipped, the young threehorn getting straight to the point.

Topps nodded his head with the barest flicker of a smile, knowing that his intelligent daughter had figured out that he wasn't here to strike up a mere chat. "Come now, Cera. The time for games with your friends is up. Right now we've got a meeting to get to." His eyes briefly hovered to Littlefoot, the elder threehorn narrowing them ever so slightly before breaking eye contact with the longneck. "And if you want someone to blame for this meeting, then aim your horns at Littlefoot's grandparents on my behalf, why don'tcha?"

"Great…" Although Cera's words signified her concurrence with her father's demands, the accompanying eye-roll told a very different story. "Another meeting…"

Topps turned his head back, not one to miss the sarcasm in his daughter's reply. "You and me both, Cera. You and me both…"

Cera actually stopped in her tracks as her father's words reached her ears. She was genuinely surprised to hear her father hiss at the thought of joining a valley meeting, as he was normally one of the most active participants when it came to them.

To actively show disdain in attending this specific one… now that was intriguing.

She wasn't the only one to notice this unusual behavior, though. As Cera recovered from the shock and marched away in tow with her father, Ducky beckoned Petrie downwards from his perch. The small flyer made haste, landing on the ground without any worries since he knew that there was no longer a need to hide from Cera now that she was gone.

"There must be something interesting about this meeting if Mr. Threehorn is unhappy with it," Ducky whispered into Petrie's ear. "There must, there must."

Petrie concurred with a hushed voice. "Me agree! Cera's dad always like to yell during meeting. Why he no like this one then?"

"Want to listen in on the meeting to find out, guys?" Both Petrie and Ducky nearly jumped when Littlefoot lowered his head to join their not-so-secret conversation, the eager longneck having the same desire to quench his thirst of burning curiosity.

"Sure thing, Littlefoot! I like this idea… oh, yes, yes, yes!"

"Me second that!"

"Mmm-humph!"

Unlike Cera's prior proposal to continue the game, Littlefoot's current plan to join the meeting was unanimous among them all. Not that it was much of a surprise, given that butting in when they weren't welcome was something which they were quite infamous for.


And thus, with the various dinosaurs this time gathering in front of the valley's largest tree sweet tree, the Great Valley commenced yet another meeting…

…with four additional participants sneakily listening in from the top of a hill surrounding the area.

"Look! There's Grandpa and Grandma!" Littlefoot gestured to the others with his neck, a broad smile on his face as he looked down at the towering figures that were his grandparents.

"Ohhhh, me see Mom!" Petrie excitedly hopped, unintentionally kicking the top of Littlefoot's head with the gesture, much to the longneck's displeasure.

Littlefoot winced from the glancing blow. "Petrie!" he scowled.

"Me sorry, Littlefoot!" The flyer flashed an apologetic look upon looking down and seeing Littlefoot's upset expression, mentally making a note that he shouldn't make any sudden movements while perched atop his friend's head.

"I can see my mama too! Yep, yep, yep!" Ducky turned towards Spike, gently moving his head with her head so that the spiketail could spot his adoptive mother as well. "Do you see our mama, Spike?"

Spike nodded his head in confirmation to Ducky's query, happy to catch a glimpse of the swimmer who he called his mother.

Before any of them could make any further comments from their vantage point, a sudden cough abruptly came from behind the four, signifying that someone was behind the four children. This "someone" immediately followed up with a gruff, dry voice.

"Hey! Just what do y'all think you're doing here?"

The four eavesdropping dinosaurs jumped at the sudden intrusion. As they turned around, sheepish at being caught out, they all quickly made up excuses as to why they were here. Said excuses were about to leave the tip of their tongues—except for the ever-silent Spike, of course—until they actually laid their eyes on the one who had just spoken…

…a giggling yellowish-orange threehorn.

Their indignant cries were made in unison. "C-Cera!?"

"Hahahahaha!" Cera hollered, the threehorn switching back to her normal voice as she resumed her laughter at her partly-awestruck, partly-annoyed friends. "You all should have seen the looks on your faces when you thought that I was one of the grownups!" She had to take a moment to catch her breath before adding a final remark, "It was priceless, I tell you! Hehehehe!"

There was a moment of silence after Cera finished where the only thing that could be heard was the sound of her resounding laughter. Littlefoot eventually broke the ensuing silence, looking at the threehorn with a disgruntled face. "That prank wasn't very nice, Cera…"

Cera ignored Littlefoot's glare, strolling towards the longneck with a mischievous smirk decorating her own visage. "Ah, whatever. Just relax, Littlefoot. Can you blame me for wanting a little payback after what Petrie did to me earlier?"

"B-but you sound-ed so different, Cera!" Ducky pointed out, her beak dropping in amazement. "You did, you did! You almost sounded like Mr. Clubtail, actually…"

Cera appeared quite proud of herself as she heard that comment. "Well, it took me quite a bit of practice to learn that impression, let me tell you." For a brief moment, she dropped her usual arrogant face and shot her swimmer friend a genuine smile. "But I'm glad that unlike Littlefoot here—" she ignored the frown on Littlefoot's face, "—at least you liked it, Ducky."

Ducky cheerfully flashed her teeth. "Oh, that is no problem at all, Cera. Nope, nope, nope!"

"But some of us no like it!" Petrie complained atop of Littlefoot's head, the flyer still shivering from the scare he'd received when he honestly thought that he would be getting into trouble.

"Ah, be quiet…" Cera huffed, retorting to the flyer in jest.

Petrie sighed, knowing that responding to a statement like that would get them both nowhere. Thus, he wisely changed the subject. "But why you here, Cera?" the flyer asked out of curiosity, tilting his head slightly as he glanced between Cera and Topps. "Me thought your dad come earlier so that you listen to valley meeting? So why you up here?"

Cera stepped closer to the edge of the cliff, looking down to gaze squarely at her father, together with her adoptive mother Tria down below. "Well…" she started, "my daddy happened to see the four of you hiding up here." She stopped momentarily so that the remainder of the gang had a few moments to futilely feign ignorance at their blatant attempts to listen into the meeting. Snorting as they did so, Cera continued on, "Daddy pretty much just gave up and let me go so that I could join all of you."

"Well, that was very nice of your daddy. Yep, yep, yep."

Grandpa Longneck's composed voice then broke through the clearing, shutting down any further chatter from both above and below. "Everybody, please quiet down. The valley meeting is about to commence."

Littlefoot enthusiastically smiled at his grandfather. "Guys," he hushed at the rest of the group, "It's starting!"

Grandpa continued on when the ambient noise around him reached an acceptable level. "Firstly, we would like to announce to all members of the valley some very important news." There were excited murmurs from both the crowd situated below and the children looking down from above, their combined voices slowly rising in amplitude as Grandpa Longneck's proclamation hyped them up for the news.

He raised his neck high before speaking, "Today, there is a large swimmer herd looking to take up residence, here in our Great Valley."

"Swimmers?" Littlefoot quipped, the longneck tilting his head and craning his neck forward to get a better view.

"Ohhh! That mean they just like Ducky!" Petrie commented with a gleeful smile, only for Cera to shoot the flyer an unimpressed glower.

"Yeah. Swimmers… just like Ducky. It's not as if that's really obvious." The exaggerated eye-roll that she made out of exasperation—in what was pretty much known as a Cera trademark to the Gang—immediately after her words had left her mouth only served to further emphasize her frustration with Petrie's antics.

"A herd full of swimmers just like me and my brothers and sisters will be joining the Great Valley?" Ducky put a finger to her beak, tapping against it in contemplation. "Hmm, this sounds very exciting to me! Yes, yes, yes!" she nodded with a smile.

The buzzing finally quietened down when the crowd saw a well-built dark green swimmer wander forward with a confident strut. All eyes were on him as he walked underneath the pink tree sweet tree, bending his head forward with a small bow as he proceeded to take center stage.

"Greetings, oh wondrous and glorious Great Valley!" he addressed the curious onlookers, beginning his announcement with a stern and booming voice. "I must say, what a joyous occasion this is. I've heard many tales of this wonderful leaf-eater paradise, but this is the first time I've actually stepped foot in it." He puffed his chest out, slowly sweeping his lime green eyes around his surroundings. "And I must say… this place certainly lives up to its legend!"

"Well, I'm glad that you've have that impression." Grandpa Longneck leaned his neck down, a gentle smile adjourning the aging longneck. "After all, it is the reason we have so many farwalkers coming here."

The swimmer concurred with Grandpa Longneck by flashing the longneck a smile, absentmindedly wagging his tail about. "Same to you, longneck! I can certainly see why any leaf-eater would want to visit this place. But enough small talk, heh heh!" he chuckled to himself. "I don't think I've properly introduced myself to you folks yet."

Holding a hand to his chest, he closed his eyes and flashed a jovial smile to the crowd. "The members of the herd call me Geoffrey! Yours truly is the head of the migratory swimmer herd you see before you today! Very pleased to make your acquaintances, everyone!"

"Bah, just what we needed…" Topps muttered with a disgruntled scowl as the bipedal dinosaurs all around the threehorn began to applaud at Geoffrey's speech. "More darn swimmers…"

"Excuse me? That comment was uncalled for, Mr. Threehorn!" Ducky's mother, a dark green swimmer named Shoal, folded her arms and stared at Topps indignantly at his impertinent remark.

Topps shot a passing glance over to Shoal before driving his front foot into the ground, his annoyed expression shifting to an indifferent one where he tried to hide his irritation. "Bah, forget it! It's nothing, swimmer. Just me and my usual ramblings…" he mumbled under his breath.

"Now, Topsy… we've been through this before. You need to be nicer to others. You don't want to be a bad influence to Tricia, do you?"

Topps groaned when Tria called him out for his behavior. "Well, I… ah, forget it." He stumbled on his words before simply giving up when the pink threehorn gave him a condescending look that basically told him to relent.

"Now, now, Mr. Geoffrey," Grandpa Longneck wisely chose to take this opportunity to redirect the conversation before Topps could make any additional unsavory statements towards the swimmer. "I have a few questions for you. For starters, how long do you think you and your herd would be staying in the valley?"

Geoffrey placed a finger to his temple, tapping it against his head as he hovered his eyes downcast in thought. "That's a good one…" he murmured before letting his shoulders go slack, shrugging at his audience. "I don't really know myself, I must confess."

Before the dinosaurs around him could begin to gossip, he raised a finger into the air, hastily appending onto the end of his statement. "That being said, I think we'll stay until at least the Cold Time. That's about a few Night Circle cycles, I believe?"

"Absolutely right!" Skylar, who was better known around the valley as the gentle mother of a multitude of flyer younglings — Petrie included, confirmed Geoffrey's claim before anyone else could beat her to it.

Topps grunted, mumbling a curt remark as the dinosaurs around began to chatter excitedly among themselves. "I, uh, knew that… from the very start!" he ascertained in an uncertain voice.

That apprehensive tone was the sole reason why not one dinosaur bought into Topps' claim. "Right…" Skylar folded her wings, shaking her head with a knowing smile. "You actually knew that, Mr. Threehorn?" she questioned him skeptically.

"Bah, shut it." Topps fired back at the flyer, his displeasure slowly beginning to become obvious to the valley residents by this point.

…inclusive of the gang.

"I do not think that your daddy is happy right now, Cera." Ducky moved over to Cera's side out of concern as the tense threehorn silently watched her father seethe from above. "Oh, no, no, no…" the swimmer lamented when she saw herd leader Geoffrey appear confused as to why his apparent audience was more interested in the affairs of the elder threehorn as compared to him.

"He's been real mad ever since he first heard about this," Cera admitted. "I wonder what's bothering my daddy so much." She lowered her voice before looking at Topps again, "I mean, they're just swimmers…"

"Ah, pardon me for the interruption, ma'am."

Cera found herself about to shoot a snark-filled reply at being interrupted, her words only stopping right before they left the tip of her tongue when she suddenly realized that she didn't recognize the voice. The threehorn hobbled around at the realization, the others following suit, the meeting below quickly forgotten as they came face-to-face with a swimmer around Ducky's size.

He had a light green coloration, a similar shade of green to the color of pale and faded treestars that have fallen to the ground. But with the exception of that, his outward appearance wasn't really all that remarkable.

The most visually striking thing about him, however, was the body posture that he was currently adopting. The swimmer had his entire body weight supported on his front leg, causing him to lean forward as he tiptoed on the balls of his back foot so that he could retain his balance. His eyes glinted with mischief as he slowly started to grin, both of his arms firmly planted by his hips. Long story short, he was standing in a proud manner that was more befitting of a threehorn, the swimmer acting like he owned the place from the sheer outlandishness of his staunch posture alone.

There was dead silence as the group of leaf-eaters simply stared at the swimmer's sudden entrance. Eventually, Ducky broke the awkwardness by speaking up. "What is your name?" she asked with a curious tilt of her head.

"Glad you asked that!" he replied in a refined manner, the swimmer's style of speaking and tone of voice quickly grating on the gang. "I'm called Ferris!" he said, introducing himself with a palm to his chest.

"Ferris?" Littlefoot repeated after the swimmer.

"That unique name!" said Petrie.

"Why, thank you!" Ferris chirped. "I'm new to this valley, of course. Came over here with the herd, in fact," the swimmer said, shooting a glance over to Geoffrey standing by the tree down below. "And what about you?" he asked, quickly returning with a question of his own which was directed to the swimmer who'd first posed him a query.

"Well, I am Ducky!" she answered Ferris with a wide smile, adding on her usual trademark triple affirmation while nodding her head, "Yep, yep, yep!"

"Ducky? Now that's a sweet name," he complimented, breaking his pose from earlier to step towards Ducky. "Please to make your acquaintance, my pretty."

Ducky didn't miss the flirtatious remark, her cheeks tinting pink as she stuttered back an uncomfortable response. "U-um… okay?"

"You heard me!" Ferris' smile only grew wider, a sudden aura of confidence creeping onto his face as he continued to walk towards Ducky, stopping only approximately five paces in front of her. His face took on a contemplative expression as he mused out loud. "If I were to be honest with you, I was so enchanted by your beauty from the very instant I saw you…"

"What?" Ducky coughed, an onset of awkwardness rapidly surrounding the swimmer as quickly as the rushing torrents of the fast water. She nervously glanced towards Littlefoot and Petrie, who could only give a clueless look back to her in return. Still, it was starting to get apparent from the way Ducky was fidgeting that she felt uncomfortable by the sudden shift of focus on her.

But unfortunately for Ducky, she didn't realize that Ferris wasn't finished talking. With a flourish, he took a bow and completed his sentence.

"…that I simply must propose to you!"

The gang's reaction to that request was pretty much instantaneous.

"WHAT!?"

So much for having a perfectly normal day, it would seem. Because right now, it seemed that the status quo that the gang had been enjoying up till now looked to be pretty much dead, floating like a corpse along the flowing fast water.


Showdown time.

The yellow flyer licked his lips as he touched his talons down on the grassy plains of the Great Valley, feeling the soft blades of grass tickle his feet as he apprehensively eyed the place.

He took in a deep breath, momentarily letting himself relax after his long flight. It helped that the Great Valley itself was quite deserted, no doubt because of the meeting that was currently being conducted at this very moment halfway across the valley.

The flyer couldn't resist a snort at the very idea of a meeting. Did they really have to go to such lengths just to welcome a swimmer herd? In his opinion, the valley was so tasteless, so… gaudy. Did the dinosaurs who lived here really think that they were safe from sharpteeth just because they were members of a herd with large numbers?

Those spineless fools! That line of thinking couldn't be further from the truth… being in a herd was useless! Completely pointless!

And he was going to prove that, once and for all. The flyer cackled, lifting his head back as he reached for the tiny objects that were dangling around his neck like lucky charms. He held them up to his eye with a wing, admiring them both with genuine glee.

Two small shiny stones lay in his grip, the stones threaded through a vine that was fastened into a circular loop so that they could hang freely around his neck, which allowed him to carry them with him even in flight. He chuckled as he let go of them, feeling the loop of the makeshift necklace vines go taut as they returned to their original position.

The one drawback to wearing them like this was that the objects themselves were glaring — no doubt standing out from his body. If anyone in the know was able to see him now, they would quickly notice that he was wearing what appeared to be small pendants around his neck.

The species-changing stone.

It was a definite shame that he had to make such a huge detour, leaving the valley and making a seemingly unnecessary to-and-fro trip just to retrieve the stones and return back to the valley.

But the flyer had his reasons. He was extremely cautious when it came to this, not wanting to be seen with the shiny stones by anyone who didn't need to know. In fact, he had chosen not to take a calculated risk and forgone wearing a visible stone that he'd intended to bring to the valley after his meeting with Pterano, even if it meant that he had to take an extra return trip after scouting out the children just so that he could collect them from his stronghold.

And besides, his whole precaution had been well worth it in the end, since Pterano had managed to figure out the ruse even without the shiny stone hanging from his neck. The flyer narrowed his eyes warily at the memory. Truthfully, he really didn't need Pterano to get visual confirmation that the stones of legend were at the tip of his wings.

He tapped his talons against the ground impatiently. For now, he would just have to remain hidden until nightfall. When the Night Circle took the place of the Bright Circle in the sky — or more accurately, when he saw the stars above begin to shine, he would make his move.

Strolling towards the nearby stream, the flyer peered forward at the riverbank so as to look into his reflection on the surface of the water.

Or perhaps, he might be able to accelerate things by—

"Hey there!"

Panic momentarily flashed across the flyer's eyes when his thoughts were interrupted by the purple sharptooth who'd waved at him from behind. "Hello!" he greeted with a genuinely merry grin, one which seemed very out of place on a sharptooth's face. "I'm Chomper! Are you new to the valley?"

So those crazy rumors were true after all… The flyer took in a deep breath, feeling himself calm down as the oxygen reached his lungs. But before he could fire an annoyed retort back, someone else beat him to it.

"Chomper!"

The flyer watched in amusement as the sharptooth instinctively hung his head down upon hearing the unhappy cry from afar, one which came from a cross-looking fast runner that was sprinting towards the scene.

"You shouldn't sneak up on a poor unsuspecting dinosaur like that. Look at what you've done now, Chomper." She pointed a finger right at the remorseful sharptooth, never taking her stern eyes off of the sharptooth as she gently reprimanded him. "Oh dear! This flyer looks scared to death, scared to death he looks!"

The fast runner then held her hands to her hips, squarely focusing on the sharptooth. As a result, she missed the look of utter rage that the flyer himself showed towards her words.

How dare you…! Yo-you actually think a damn sharptooth child scares me? He seethed, glaring daggers at the duo. Don't you dare underestimate me! What do you know!? I've endured much worse horrors than this!

He couldn't prevent a vicious chuckle from escaping his beak. He had been forced to survive for many lonely Cold Times out in the Mysterious Beyond. Whatever "friendships" that he'd made were always out of necessity, and with the exception of one—and he'd hesitate to even call that one a friendship, more so a partnership—every other bond that he'd made was always torn asunder for one reason or another.

Just the way he wanted it. The advantage of having no close emotional bonds was that no one in the Mysterious Beyond would be able to have any influence over his actions. No one.

And after he'd suffered alone for almost ten Cold Times, what would a mere ground-dweller sharptooth—not to mention one that he could simply fly out of range to avoid, no less—end up being worth to him?

Nothing… nothing!

"Hello…? Are you still there?"

The flyer blinked as he heard the sound of the fast runner snapping her fingers, quickly swirling his body towards his left at the fast runner's curious greeting.

She stopped snapping her fingers when she saw that she had managed to get his attention. "Oh, I'm so sorry! You kind of spaced out there, kinda spaced out there, you did," she said apologetically, finally noticing the annoyed look that he had plastered onto his face.

Instead of the nice reply that the fast runner must have been expecting from him after her humble apology, the flyer chose to react in a manner contrary to what she'd expected. "Thanks for the compliment, pal." He didn't dial down the sarcasm in his own response, instead cranking it up to eleven as he proceeded to shoot both the half-tooth and sharptooth a sour face.

Her expression immediately turned from that of a modest apologist to a somewhat annoyed look in the span of a single second. "Come on, there's no need to be so mean about it…" she groaned, crossly folding her arms in response.

The flyer sharply inhaled, taking in a deep breath of air as he debated on whether to escalate the argument. To be fair, he had been trying to keep his anger in check and kept under wraps, so if the fast runner had been able to tell from body language alone that he wasn't of the soundest state of mind, then that was very bad.

As a result, he retreated by verbally dialing back, defusing the situation instead of exacerbating it. "I guess you're right…" he conceded, shaking his head with a sigh. "I hope we meet again. You two… are an interesting bunch."

Before the two could reply to his statement, he swiveled around and strutted away from the two dinosaurs, walking on foot along the direction of the flowing river and leaving his ominous promise lingering in the air around them like an unpleasant stench.

"Hey!" the flyer could hear the sharptooth call after him. But instead of acknowledging Chomper, he simply grunted a noncommittal reply and continued walking along the river, not even sparing a single glance behind.

"Just ignore him, Chomper."

"But, Ruby! I think—"

Ruby interrupted Chomper, finishing the sharptooth's sentence for him. "…I think we've made him upset, made him upset we did!"

A reluctant pang of acceptance from Chomper could be clearly discerned after he heard Ruby's advice to dismiss the matter. "I guess you're right…"

Once the flyer heard the subsequent sigh that emanated from Chomper after Ruby had dissuaded the sharptooth from going after him, he could only resolutely continue his forward pace, inwardly glad that they had decided to leave him alone.

As it should be. It wasn't their time yet… not yet, at least.

He coyly grinned as he thought back to the two dinosaurs who he'd just interacted with. So these were the last two of the special seven dinosaurs who'd broken the species barrier. He hadn't expected to run right into them, but it wasn't going to be a drawback in the long run. This so-called Chomper and Ruby having knowledge of him would certainly be useful in the future, but as of now he wasn't going to jump the sky puffy.

He wished to focus on the immediate future, and he certainly wasn't going to let anyone or anything deviate his plans before he put them into motion. The flyer stopped walking at a bend in the river, a malicious smirk etched onto his face as he clutched onto the stones around his neck with a wing, hanging onto them like they were his lifeline.

Whoever would have thought that such a tiny stone could be such a life-changer? He for one certainly didn't, not even when he had first managed to acquire a whole cache of them with the help of an unusual acquaintance seven Cold Times prior. The reason for that was simple, of course — he'd initially been after the ability to switch species for a completely different reason.

As a result, he knew for a fact that the Great Valley wouldn't anticipate the true allure of the shiny stones either. So then, how would they react when he bestowed one of them to a hapless valley resident?

How would they behave? Would they change or still be the same dinosaur they once were?

The flyer had a sneaky suspicion that he already knew the answer to the question that he had just posed. For the record, his question was so rhetorical that even a dazed yellowbelly could respond with the right answer. It was as black and white as the world he could see around him.

And yet, despite all that, he still wished to execute the experiment just to prove his point. Yes, if one looked at it in a certain way, all of this was just a little experiment… a test for his poor unsuspecting victim.

Or if he wanted to be more precise, victims. In plural.

He clasped one of the two shiny stones in his hand, flipping the tiny object back-and-forth using the digits of his fingers in an almost flippant manner. If giving up two of these precious stones so he could observe the unfolding chaos was the price to pay so that he could be proven unequivocally right, with no way for anyone to ever debate him ever again, then he was perfectly willing to write them off as a loss.

After all, what was of much more importance to him was the end result. The flyer wanted his hypothesis proven right beyond any measure of reasonable doubt, substantiating that his personal view of how this miserable world worked was irrefutable, once and for all.

That was all this whole gamble meant to him. Nothing more, nothing less.

And if he was forced to play with the lives of others just to make his point… then well, he'd most gladly oblige.


Author's Note:

The story begins in earnest with this chapter, as the previous chapter was more of a prologue — a preview of sorts for things to come. And what a preview it was! I wish to take this time to thank everyone for the reviews in the last chapter, especially as the consensus was everyone generally liked the concept.

So in this chapter, we have a couple of new faces, in addition to a cast of familiar ones. Like with other authors before me, I'll be giving Ducky and Petrie's mothers my own unique names so as to personify them more than in the sequel films. In this story, Mama Swimmer is named Shoal, the exact same name that I'd given her in Five Stages of Grief, while Mama Flyer will be going by Skylar… even though I still firmly stand by the opinion that Rhombus' name for her—Volant—is still the coolest sounding name ever. :p

DiddyKF1: Thanks for your encouragement! And if it's any consolation, I enjoyed reading through Secret Love when it debuted last year! It's one of the few stories with this specific pairing that partially inspired the creation of this fic!

Keijo6: I'm glad you enjoyed Pterano. It was tricky to balance his characterization, since I want him to change somewhat, yet still be close to the same flyer as he was at the end of LBT7, if a bit nicer. And yeah, I don't expect you to magically like this pairing. Even at times I flip-flop on whether I prefer to see Ducky and Petrie together (unlikely in canon as it stands) or with members of their own species.

Rhombus: I'm glad you like my foray into the species-change genre! So here's to another fic of the species-change plot point which ended up being somewhat inspired by you, I guess, haha! Anyway, I especially liked how you inferred in your review that our oh-so-mysterious flyer has the desire to "get what he wants at all costs", because that's basically the gist of his inner monologue in this chapter!

So, will poor Ducky manage to escape from her very unusual plight? Furthermore, just what plan (the gist of it is obvious, but still) does this vicious flyer have concocted for our beloved dinosaurs? Well, you'll have to find out next time!