Category: Land before Time
Rating: T
Couples in Series: Littlefoot/Ali, Cera/OC, Ducky/OC, Petri/OC, Spike/OC
Couples in this installment: Cera/OC
Warnings: AU
Chapter: 1
Copyright: © characters and places by United Pictures; © Plot and OC by me
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"How far is it exactly?" Cera asked, watching as her father plodded ahead. He was leading the small herd, since there were several Threehorns participating this year and they had decided to travel together.
"About a week of travel." Tria answered from beside her. Tricia had stayed behind in the Valley, still being too young to attend the Courtship. Not that she minded, since she thought romance was icky. Her father was very happy with that.
Cera groaned at that. "Really?"
"The Great Valley lies quite a bit away from the place where we court." Tria told her. "But don't worry, there isn't much climbing involved."
"Not much?" Cera echoed. "What is 'not much'?"
"Only the mountains around the Great Valley." Tria assured her. "Nothing more."
"Well, I guess it could be worse." Cera muttered under her breath.
Both of them fell silent, walking through the desolate landscape into the direction where the Bright Circle was at its' highest point and they only stopped when it had long set. The Night Circle was bright this particular night, casting its' light far across the field they slept upon.
Mr. Threehorn joined his daughter and mate somewhere in the middle of the night, having spent the first half of it on the lookout for Sharpteeth.
Most of the journey was uneventful, except for an incident about halfway to their destination where they were ambushed by a pack of Fast Biters. While they managed to hunt them off again, one of their herd-members was wounded and would be unable to make the rest of the journey. One of the older couples offered to help him back to the Valley, forsaking their chance to attend this year. This way the herd had lost almost a quarter of its' members and would lose even more when youngsters would leave with their mates rather than return to the Valley with their peers.
Cera glanced at the youngsters in her herd. Aside from her and the male that had been forced to return to the Valley to await the Courtship of next year, there had been three others that would attend for the first time. Then there was another older couple aside from Tria and her father and one old widower who wanted to see if he could find someone to spend his last few Cold Times with.
Tria had explained to her extensively what Threehorns looked for in a mate, so she passed the time by subtly judging the others. She and Tria would be among the most sought-after females from this group, because of their rare coloring and good descend (which basically meant that if your father could beat another threehorn up, your sons would most likely be able to do the same, hence the boys would like you more). She had snickered when Tria told her that piece of information. Her father really was perfect in that regard.
Her father had no reason to worry either – aside from the fact he already had a mate and was only going to reaffirm that relationship while escorting his daughter to her first Courtship – since he was amongst the most massive Threehorns Cera had ever met. He once uprooted several trees just because he didn't want to walk around them and then had had enough strength to topple a huge boulder.
The widower was similar enough in build to her father that she doubted he'd get any trouble, aside maybe from his age which had to have some negative effects on his stamina.
The other older couple was moderate. The female would not get fought over like she was the last Tree Star in a desert, but also not ignored completely. Cera of course could not say anything of her 'descend' since she doubted she'd meet the older female's father. Her mate, while certainly muscled and well-build, was suffering from an old Fast Biter wound which would act up after long use of the leg it was on. She doubted he would be able to fight many duels as she had been told were common at Courtship.
The other three participants were a bit harder to judge. One was a male who was not yet fully grown, being slower in that regard since he had suffered from lack of food when he was young. While smaller, he still was well-build and his horns were surprisingly thick for a Threehorn his size. She guessed he might not get one of the best females, but certainly get one of the better moderate females.
The second was another female. While her mud-brown color was not something that would entice many males to her, her descend could make up for that. Cera had seen the female's father briefly and to her own dislike had to admit that he was possibly better than her own father.
The third was another male, brother to the female. Sadly he had more of his mother than his father. He was a shade of pale-grey much like her father's belly color and was quite shy for a Threehorn. She doubted he'd have the guts needed to fight more than one or two duels if at all for a female.