CHAPTER 3
SMALL GATHERING
That evening, there were a few Great Valley residents who came to the celebration; but a large number of residents were conspicuous by their absence. Little Foot figured that the day's events were a lot to take in for a lot of them. He had to make two controvertial decisions that not everybody agreed on, and he had to render the deciding vote in each case to award Council approval. He figured they just needed more time to adjust to the changes he instigated today.
Most everybody who came were there to greet the newly arrived longnecks from The Land of Mists, and completely ignored Cera, yet she did receive a few congratulations from those who've known her for awhile and who bothered to show up. They wished her good luck in her newly assigned duties and responsibilities. She gained comfort from the fact that her closest friends and her family-by-mating were there with her. Change takes time, she thought to herself as she sighed inwardly.
While the flattooth had their usual fare, Chomper and his family had a mixture of fish, worms, grubs and leftover threehorn meat from Councilor Reejak's body that V'Leck had saved. While all of the flattooth sat away from the sharptooth, Little Foot and his friends sat in a circle around Chomper's family. Little Foot encouraged Ali to come sit with him and his friends. Though she happily obliged, Little Foot saw she was visibly nervous around the sharptooth. He also noticed that while he and his friends had all gotten used to the sharptooths' eating habits, Ali had a little bit of difficulty swallowing her own green food as she watched them tear into their "meat salad".
Roary demonstrated his flattooth speaking to everyone assembled, who congratulated and/or applauded him whenever he got a complicated word, phrase or sentence down right. He now understood flattooth perfectly well, and didn't need Chomper, his father, to translate for him. V'Leck, however, still struggled with the language. Though she was able to understand most of it now, she still had to ask Chomper, her mate, for a sharptooth translation every once in a while. And whenever she spoke, Chomper had to translate in flattooth. He had tried to teach her the language, but she still had difficulty in learning to speak it. About all she could say was "hello", and it came out sounding like "Ahllo", or sometimes "ello".
During the meal, Chomper told Ali his story of how he was found by the young Little Foot when he was an egg, and how he was hatched by him in The Great Valley. Because if this, he was able to learn the flattooth language; and learn of their ways and behaviours. He also told Ali how had to leave The Great Valley after his parents came to get him; but that he unexpectedly met up with him and his friends a few seasons later when they became trapped on what was then his family's island home. He also told her how he was able to look after them while they were trapped and convince his parents that they were actually his friends; and that they, in turn, saved their lives from another sharptooth who was also on the island.
All this was confirmed by Little Foot when she asked him if was true. Ali was quite amazed by the story, and finally understood at how Chomper was a really unique sharptooth.
After the meal, there was some more storytelling and singing from the lot of them. Though Chomper enjoyed himself, he often noticed how the longneck Vernonk, lying not far from he and his group, was always watching him. He always glared at Chomper whenever he caught him looking his way. He's probably the kind of longneck who would not let my kid play with HIS kids, assuming he has any. He would also constantly look down upon me, no matter how much I try to convince him that I'm not a threat to his family! Chomper thought to himself as he sighed inwardly.
Eventually, everybody decided that it was late enough to head home, parted and went their own ways.