Chapter 3: Welcoming Party

Like the previous day had been, today was hot and dry. Fyn liked the climate, it reminded him of home. He was pretty sure Terra wasn't enjoying it, though. He could hear her breathing heavily occasionally.

"Probably not used to weather like this," he thought.

He caught himself wondering what kind of a dinosaur she might be. He'd come close to discovering when they both woke up that morning. He'd woken up early, and sat in his place, waiting for Terra to announce she was ready. Terra, however, didn't wake up for a while, and Fyn began to worry that they'd lose Littlefoot and the others if they didn't start moving. To that end, he forgot about his deal not to look at Terra and stood up saying "Wake up, Terra. Time to go!"

Fyn caught a glimpse of a brown tail before he remembered his promise and ducked back down. Terra screeched, and hid behind a rock.

"Sorry!" Fyn called, "I didn't mean to look."

He turned his head around, then, and after a while, Terra came back out. Fyn apologized sincerely, and the two left their hiding place. Now, here they were, but the tail he'd seen still intrigued Fyn. Just what sort of dinosaur was Terra? As Fyn looked ahead, he could see some large, ominous shapes reaching up into the sky.

"Looks like we've found the Highmountains," he called back.

From her position, Terra looked ahead. The Highmountains were most impressive. Because of the clouds that hung low over them, she couldn't even see the peaks. To think that anyone could live up there was impressive. Close to the mountains, she could see that the land became green again, and trees were growing.

"Good," she thought, "a welcome change in scenery."

"Ready to climb today?" Fyn asked.

"Yeah," Terra said, "it looks fun." Up ahead, they could see a small blot that appeared to be moving across the landscape. Fyn squinted. It almost looked like the gang.

"Terra," he said, "see that shape ahead?" Fyn nodded in the direction of the mysterious shape.

"Yep," Terra said.

"Does that look like dinosaurs to you?"

Terra squinted harder. "Yeah, I'd say they are dinosaurs. That must be Littlefoot and the others."

"Then they're almost at the trees," Fyn said. "When they move under the trees' cover, we need to run over there, to close the gap, or we'll lose them."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Terra said.

Up ahead were some large boulders, and small trees. Finally, the flat ground was changing. As they walked on, Fyn could feel a slight, rhythmic tremor in the ground.

"Do you feel that?" Terra asked, indicating that she, too, sensed the tremors.

"Yeah," Fyn said, "probably a small earthshake."

"Earthshake," Terra said, nodding, "right." She was not entirely convinced. Earthshakes weren't rhythmic. This felt more like footsteps. She glanced behind. No one was following them. Strange.

"Yuck," Fyn said, walking past a large rock, "something stinks."

"I smell it, too," Terra confided, "but at least the rumbling's stopped."

Fyn looked around. The rumbling had stopped. Suddenly he began to feel very uneasy.

"Uh, Terra..." he said, slowly and quietly, "I think we should get out of here."

Terra didn't answer him. Instead, she was frozen to the spot, staring, petrified in Fyn's direction.

"Terra, are you listening?" Fyn asked, not seeing her expression.

"Fyn," Terra said, "don't move."

Fyn stopped short and looked to his side. Peering over the rock next to him was a massive Sharptooth head. It was short, but powerful, and its skin seemed almost rocky in texture, but the details that caught Fyn's attention were the two large horns above the small eyes. Luckily, it hadn't seen him yet. Fyn ducked, still keeping his eyes away from Terra. Terra winced.

"I said, don't move!"

The Sharptooth let out a terrible roar, and the pounding began again. Terra had been right, it was footsteps.

"Run!" Fyn yelled, "and head for the trees!" he began to bolt in the direction of the sparse trees leading up to the mountains ahead. The Sharptooth, meanwhile, was making its way around the rock. Terra was right behind Fyn, looking back at the Sharptooth. It leaped out from behind the rock and began to give chase.

"Run side-to-side!" Terra said, breathing hard, "if it catches us out here in the open, we're done!"

Fyn complied, running from the left to the right. The Sharptooth became confused, and stumbled. It was just the opportunity Terra wanted.

"Go for the trees!" she yelled, "straight ahead as fast as you can!"

Fyn put all of his strength into a sprint for the foliage. He ducked inside, and heard Terra do the same, just as the Sharptooth's massive jaws close right behind him. He ducked under a log as the Sharptooth pushed into the trees, looking for its meal. Fyn lay silent, scarcely daring to breathe. Finally, the Sharptooth gave up and wandered back to the rocks.

Fyn sighed, and stood up. "Terra, you there?"

"Yep," a voice called to his left.

"Great!" he said, then added, "I still kept my promise."

"Promise? What promise?"

"I never looked back. Not once."

Fyn heard a laugh from Terra. "Awesome!"

Fyn went back to the trail the gang had made. "Let's keep going," he said, "the gang can't be far ahead. I hope they're having better luck than we are."

He had no idea.

…

Littlefoot was slowly proceeding through the trees, with the rest of the gang following closely behind. This was it. If they could get through the forest, they'd reach the base of the mountains, and hopefully find a way up. The tracks from the Fastrunners were getting harder to see with the steadily increasing amounts of vegetation, but Chomper's nose led them back when they strayed off the trail. Littlefoot was glad to have him along. He was certainly useful.

"Hey guys," Chomper called from the back, "I smell dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs?" Cera asked. "Where?"

"I don't know," Chomper said, still sniffing, "the scent's coming from all over the place."

Ruby looked worried. "Maybe we'd better move on," she said.

Petrie nodded, "me no like this place. It spooky."

"You can say that again," Cera said.

Petrie opened his mouth to repeat what he'd just said.

"Don't," Cera said. Petrie quickly shut his mouth.

Ducky, meanwhile, was in the front of the herd with Littlefoot, now, and she was having fun leaping over logs and vines that covered the path.

"This is fun," she said to Littlefoot, "you should try it!"

Littlefoot looked at the little Swimmer's game. "No thanks," he said, "and I think you might want to stop that."

"Why?" Ducky asked, jumping over the root of a tree.

"Because the leaves are so thick here, you can't see where you're going. You might trip or something!"

"Do not be silly," Ducky said, preparing to vault over a big log, "what could possibly- yipe!" Ducky bounded over the log and disappeared from view.

"Ducky!" Littlefoot called, racing forward. As he came closer to the log, he saw the reason for Ducky's sudden disappearance. On the other side of the log was a short, steep slope leading into a little depression. Ducky had fallen in.

"Well this is just great," Cera said, "now we've got to go rescue her."

"Ducky?" Littlefoot called, "we're coming for you. Stay where you are."

"Littlefoot, I have found a new friend, I have, come and see!" Ducky's voice piped up from below.

"New friend?" Littlefoot said to himself, sliding down into the depression. Everyone else followed. "Ducky, what new friend are-"

As Littlefoot rounded a corner, he saw Ducky's new "friend." It was a small dinosaur, with a thin, delicate neck that formed a graceful arch. It walked on two legs, and had three claws on each hand. It was green, with blue markings. Littlefoot couldn't tell whether it was a Sharptooth or a Leaf Eater, however.

"Hey," he said slowly to the dinosaur, "can you understand me?"

The little dinosaur eyed him, and took a step closer to Ducky.

"It's so cute," Ducky said, stretching out her hand to pet the dinosaur, "can it come with us?"

Suddenly, the dinosaur's head darted forward and bit Ducky on the finger. Ducky yelped and jumped back.

"Stay away," Littlefoot said, "It's a Sharptooth!"

They began to slowly edge back in the direction they had come from, when the Sharptooth let out a shrill chirp. Suddenly, more appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere, and surrounded the gang. They began to move in, making chirping noises and hopping occasionally.

"We are so dead," Cera breathed.

"Uh huh," Littlefoot said, quietly.

"I think we've got one option," Ruby said, eyeing the approaching Sharpteeth.

"Oh?" Cera snapped, "then please share it with us."

"Run!"Ruby shrieked, and the gang took off, plowing through a few of the advancing dinosaurs. They began to run at breakneck speed through the trees, but the sounds of chirping behind them indicated that the Sharpteeth were in hot pursuit. And they knew this area better. It wouldn't be long before they caught up, Littlefoot knew. Ahead of him, the mountain loomed. If they could just reach it...

Littlefoot felt a sudden sting. One of the Sharpteeth had jumped and latched onto his back with its small, sharp claws. Littlefoot shook it off and kept running, breathing hard, muscles feeling as if they were on fire. The forest around them had turned into a nightmarish cacophony of chirps and squeaks, and everywhere Littlefoot looked, another Sharptooth appeared. He put his focus back on making it to the mountains' base. Suddenly, he was there, scrambling up the steep slope. When he was fairly certain he'd gone far enough, he stopped and turned back. The sight very nearly made his jaw drop. His friends had made it up onto the mountain just in time. Below, the little Sharpteeth had gathered in a swarm outside the trees. The leader was standing in the front. They were screeching, and bobbing their little heads in frustration.

"Ha!" Cera called down, "can't catch us now!"

Suddenly, the leader's head snapped up and looked back into the forest. It let out a shrill "caw" and dashed back into the forest.

"That's right," Cera called after the Sharpteeth, "run away!"

"Cera," Ducky said, "I do not think that is why they are leaving."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Chomper said, "it looks to me like they either smelled something up here that scared them or they picked up the scent of something easier to catch."

Littlefoot hoped beyond hope that the latter was not true. He would not get his wish, however.

…

"Oh no," Fyn breathed. He'd been crouched in some bushes, observing the Sharpteeth as they chased his friends up the mountain base. When he and Terra had stumbled upon the action, they'd made the decision to stay out of it. As bad as it seemed, their presence would only make the situation worse. There were simply too many to fight. Fyn elected instead to follow them. When the Sharpteeth stopped their pursuit, he'd been pleased that his friends were safe, but perplexed as well. Why had they stopped? They could easily have climbed up after the friends. Then the leader's head had turned around, staring straight at Fyn.

"Not good," Terra agreed from behind. Everything went wrong, then.

The Sharpteeth darted into the forest. There was no question, now. They had picked up Fyn's scent and were headed straight for him. Fyn tried to duck lower, but he knew it was no use. In moments, the Sharpteeth were all over him. He tried shaking them off, hitting them with his tail, and bashing them with his front feet, but no matter how hard he tried, another Sharptooth was always there to replace a fallen one. Terra watched from her hiding spot in horror as they began to overwhelm Fyn. She had to do something soon or Fyn would be the little horrors' next meal. If she revealed herself now, she knew, Fyn would see her for who she truly was, but that consequence was far from her mind. Her friend was dying. She had to act.

Fyn was under a mound of Sharpteeth, all snapping at him. He lashed out again and again, but one managed to sink its small teeth into his front leg. The pain was white-hot, and Fyn's vision blurred and refocused as his nervous system tried to deal with the sudden attack. He could feel himself growing weaker, too. His movements became sluggish; whatever the Sharptooth had done to him with its bite was bringing him down. Slowly, Fyn was falling into sleep. The pain was going away as well, he noticed. Suddenly, the outcome of the attack didn't seem to matter anymore. As Fyn sank to the forest floor, his vision began to darken. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a brown streak suddenly launching itself at his attackers.

He squinted at the shape. The form looked familiar. "Sharptooth?" he wondered as his vision went dark. Then Fyn felt nothing more.

…

Night was falling. Littlefoot and the gang had been climbing the mountain for a while, now, and Chomper was having a hard time keeping up. Having small arms didn't do much for balance, he knew. He could see now why this range was called the Highmountains. They were insanely high. Still, they were over halfway to the top. Below, the forest was silent. Chomper wondered if the Sharpteeth that had attacked them had run away or simply found another meal. Either way, they were no longer his concern. For a while, now, Chomper had been picking up the scent of the Fastrunners, much stronger than anywhere else; they were getting close.

Up ahead, Littlefoot came to a relatively flat ledge. Above was a small peak.

"We'll stay here tonight, but let's have a look over this mountain," Littlefoot said, nodding towards the peak. "It won't take long to climb up there, and we can get a pretty good idea of where we are."

The others agreed, and began to make the short, steep climb. It was positively grueling. Littlefoot was using all of his strength just to keep from sliding back into Cera, who was right behind him. Finally, when he wasn't sure he could go on, he managed to reach the top. He threw his front legs over and pulled himself up. When he caught his breath, he looked down, amazed, at the sight below him. If the Great Valley was the most beautiful place in the world, then this was a close second. Littlefoot was staring into a completely enclosed paradise, hidden in the top of the Highmountains.

"Wow," he heard Ducky say, scarcely above a whisper.

Littlefoot nodded. This must be where the Fastrunners lived.

"Right," he said to everyone gathered around him, "tomorrow, we're going down there."

Littlefoot couldn't help but feel apprehension, however. Something about the place below him seemed wrong. A little too quiet, perhaps. One way or another, he and his friends would get to the bottom of this. He only hoped they hadn't come too late to help.

Yay! I'm on track so far. I've been having a lot of fun writing this. Read on and enjoy, and thanks for the reviews!