Worlds Collide

Littlefoot gasped in bewildered surprise.

"Mother, what is it!?"

"I don't know, Littlefoot," the female long-neck replied. She was just as shocked as her son was.

Littlefoot slipped off his mother's head as she bent down to get a closer look at the strange creature. He had never seen anything like it in his life.

Its skin appeared to be in several different colors, with some parts of it being baggy. It also looked like it had very thin brown reeds attached to its head that shined in the sunlight. Its arms were ridiculously long, and it had five dull claw-like things on each hand. In one hand there was a curved stick with a thin vine tying it together.

Its legs were long, too, and it had the oddest-looking feet Littlefoot had ever seen. On its back seemed to be a blue bulgy thing, and around its waist was something filled with what looked like sticks with weird stuff attacked to the ends.

"Is it alive?" Littlefoot asked.

Littlefoot's mother sniffed the creature. It had a very odd scent about it. It was defiantly something she had never smelled before.

However, she could see the creature was still breathing. It was still alive. She cautiously nudged it with the tip of her snout.

A small glint caught Littlefoot's attention. He saw that there was a green stone around the creature's neck. He blinked. It looked like it glowing.

Suddenly, the creature groaned and winced.


Aylene, dazed and disoriented, felt something nudge her shoulder. At the same time, she heard a voice that sounded like a young boy's.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I…I think so," she replied.

"Mother! It can talk!"

There was murmur of astonished voices.

Extremely confused, Aylene slowly raised herself up and struggled to open her eyes. It was so bright that she had to strain to bring her world into focus. She could just barely make out a brown shape in front of her. She shook her head slightly and her vision became clear.

What she saw made her eyes widen and her jaw drop.

Standing in front of her was a small brown Apatosaurus! His reddish-brown eyes locked right onto hers!

What came next was something Aylene did not expect, even in a dream. It was so shocking that she just about jumped out of her skin.

"You sure you're okay?" the dinosaur asked, in that same little boy voice that had spoken to her.


"AAUUGGHH!"

Littlefoot jumped back in alarm as the creature screamed and scrambled away from him. Her bright blue eyes were wide with near-terror, and Littlefoot was sure that he saw her face turn pale.

"D-D-D-Dinosaur!" the creature stuttered in absolute panic, pointing one of her dull claws at him. "D-D-Dinosaur's TALKING!"

"I-It's okay!" Littlefoot quickly said, trying to be reassuring. "We won't hurt you!"

Littlefoot's mother brought her head around to push him back.


Aylene fixed her attention on the large Apatosaurus. It didn't take her long to notice that there were two more Apatosauruses approaching.

Aylene swallowed hard. Her pulse pounded in her ears, she shivered uncontrollably, and she was on the verge of fainting.

Where did these dinosaurs come from?

These creatures were giants, and she felt like a shrimp compared to them.

She then looked around and saw she was no longer in her room. A cold wave rushed through her muscles.

Where did her room go? Where was she? How did she end up here? Did she travel through time? How could that be?!

Just what was going on?!

All of these questions raced through her mind at breakneck speed, making Aylene dizzy and numb.

The long-necked dinosaur that had pushed the younger one away from Aylene brought her face close to the human girl. Aylene coiled back.

"Who are you?" the female Apatosaurus asked, her voice sounding like a young woman's.

"Uh…I...um…I'm…" Aylene stumbled for words, too shocked to say any.

"It's alright," the Apatosaurus said gently. "There's no need to be frightened."

Aylene took several deep breathes before slowly getting to her feet, gripping her bow in both hands. She stared at the large and powerful beast before her, unable to speak.

Then, Aylene noticed something about the dinosaur's eyes. They seemed to be almost…human-like. Wonder merged with Aylene's fear as she looked at the mighty animals before her. She had always wanted to see dinosaurs ever since she was a little kid, but she thought it would never come true.

But here they were, standing right in front of her, as real as she was.

Aylene didn't know whether to run away or not anymore.

"What's your name?" the female long-neck asked calmly.

"A-Aylene," Aylene answered shakily. "My name's Aylene."

"That's a pretty name," the long-neck replied. "But I must ask, what are you? Are you some kind of swimmer?"

Aylene shook her head and replied, "No. I…I'm a human."

The moment she said that, the faces on the three large Apatosaurus's changed to surprised.

"Did you say you were a human?" one said in a voice that sounded like a wise, old man as he lowered his head to Aylene's level.

"Y-Yes," she answered, taking a step back.

"Well, as I live and breathe!" the second elder one with a voice of a wise, old woman said with astonishment. "A real human!"

Aylene blinked. Why were these sauropods were so interested in the fact that she was a human?

"I thought those stories of humans were just myths!" the one closest to Aylene said as she looked at the two elders.

Aylene was dumbfounded. How would an ancient creature know what a human was? If she had indeed traveled back in time, her species would've come after the dinosaurs. So how did they did they even know about humans?

Littlefoot, although confused as to what the grown-ups were talking about, was more focused on Aylene. She was stranger from anything he had ever seen before. He had so many questions about her.

Where did she come from? How did she get here? And why did she appear out of that light?

More to the point, why did she look so agitated?

"Hey!" Aylene suddenly yelled.

The three Apatosauruses turned to look back at the human girl. Aylene took a deep breath to regain control of herself.

"I'm sorry, I'm really confused here," she said. "First of all, how do you know what humans are? Secondly, where am I?"

"Well, at the moment, we're in the middle of nowhere," Littlefoot said. "But we're traveling to the Great Valley."

Aylene looked at the little long-neck as he slowly walked up to her. Now that he was directly in front of her, she could see that he was about eye-level with her.

"You want to come along with us?" he asked eagerly.

"I…I don't know." Aylene answered unsteadily. "I should really find a way back home. My family will be worried about me."

"Please come with us!" Littlefoot pleaded. "It'll be fun!"

"Well…"

"Mother, can she come with us?" he said, turning to his mother.

Littlefoot's mother looked at Aylene for a moment. She knew perfectly well that different herds never did anything together. However, this human didn't have a herd. She was all alone.

It just didn't feel right to leave this lost human all alone like this.

"I suppose she can," she said. "But only if you want to, Aylene."

Aylene thought for a moment. She knew she had to find a way home. There was no question about that. But she didn't even know how she ended up here in the first place. She also had no idea what was out there. She immediately realized that going off on her own was the most foolish thing she could do. The last thing she wanted was to run into a predator in a world like this.

Besides, this herd of sauropods at least knew where they were going. Aylene didn't. She would just be wondering aimlessly if she didn't stay with them.

"I guess I could tag along for a while." she replied softly.

"Alright!" Littlefoot exclaimed happily. "By the way, my name's Littlefoot."

Aylene couldn't help but smile at Littlefoot's enthusiastic nature.

"Nice to meet you, Littlefoot," she said, nodding.

With that, the small group set out on their journey.

"Hey, what's with that stick in your hand?" Littlefoot asked Aylene.

"You mean this?" she asked, showing him her bow.

"Yeah, what's it for?"

Aylene grinned with confidence. She couldn't pass up the opportunity to show off her archery skills to a dinosaur.

"Watch and learn."

Aylene took an arrow out of her quiver. She stung the bow, aimed at a tree about ten yards away, and released the arrow.

It zipped quickly through the air like a missile. In less than a second, hit the trunk of the tree.

"Wow!" Littlefoot gasped, amazed by the display.

"Amazing!" one of the elder long-neck's exclaimed.

As they passed the tree, Aylene retrieved the arrow and stuck it back in her quiver.

"So that's like a stick launcher?" Littlefoot asked excitedly.

"It's called archery," Aylene explained. "This is called a bow, and these are my arrows. I've been practicing archery ever since I was a little girl. In fact, my grandpa gave this bow to me as a birthday present. He made it himself."

"Really?"

As the herd moved towards the setting sun, Littlefoot practically bombarded Aylene with questions. She had to explain to him that the brown "reeds" on her head was her hair, why she had blue bag on her back, that her "several skin colors" were actually clothes, and that her skin color was really a peachy beige.

After about three hours, Aylene found herself struggling to keep up with the rest the herd. By now, she was practically gasping for air. While Aylene had always been an active person, she had never walked so far in her life, especially in such intense heat. She just didn't have the physical endurance that these dinosaurs had. On top of that, she was hungry, thirsty, and sweaty.

She put her bow over her shoulder, but the weight of her bag and quiver were starting to get heavy. Soon, she wasn't really walking anymore, but merely struggling to just drag her feet.

Littlefoot noticed her slowing down and ran back to her.

"You okay, Aylene?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm just tired," Aylene panted. "Sorry, but I just don't have your stamina."

Littlefoot then turned his side towards her.

"You can ride on my back," he offered with a friendly smile.

Aylene's eyes widened, darting back and forth from Littlefoot's face to his back.

"What about your leaf?" she pointed to the tree-star.

Littlefoot looked at it. He immediately got the notion that Aylene didn't want to ruin it by sitting on it. He grabbed it with his mouth, making his back free for Aylene to ride on.

With some effort, the human girl managed to climb onto the dinosaur.

She smiled as excitement struck her like lightning. She was actually on the back of a sauropod dinosaur.

She was REALLY riding a dinosaur! Something she never even dreamed of doing!

This was more than she could've ever wished for!

As thrilling as that was, however, Aylene quickly realized that riding on the sauropod was more difficult than she had imagined. Especially since she was riding bareback. It took her a while to stay balanced as he walked along. Once or twice, she nearly slipped off.

Eventually, even if it wasn't perfect, she managed to find a way to stay somewhat stable.

"Is everything okay?" the young female long-neck asked when she noticed their struggle.

"We're fine, mother," Littlefoot said. "Aylene's just tired."

"Well, the Bright Circle is setting anyway," the older female stated. "We should probably rest for the night."

"Bright Circle?" Aylene asked.

"You know, that glowing circle in the sky," Littlefoot motioned with his head toward the bright orb.

"Oh, you mean the sun." Aylene said.

The herd turned and looked at Aylene with confusion.

"What?" she shrunk a bit, nervously.

"You call the Bright Circle something else?" Littlefoot asked.

"I…guess so," Aylene responded.

"Interesting," Grandpa Longneck said. "Well, seeing as we are settling down, why don't you tell us your story, Aylene."

Aylene smiled at the idea.

"Okay," she nodded, "but first, let's get something to eat, because I'm hungry."


Several miles behind the herd, a dinosaur feared by leaf eaters and biters alike, sniffed the air. His blood-red eyes glinted with an eagerness for hunting. Eventually, he caught the scent of four long-necks. Three of them were grown-ups, and one was a child.

He slowly opened his mouth, letting the saliva from his teeth drip onto the ground. Long-neck flesh was his favorite meat, and a herd of four was certainly no match for him.

He would feast on their flesh tonight.