6:15 AM

A few minutes after she left Jeffrey and Littlefoot, Cera continued down the gorge. She soon found herself wandering into a cavern. Small specks of light broke through the cracks of the cieling, giving just enough light to see around the inside of the cave. Pretty soon, the threehorn saw that she was walking along a ledge that stuck out from the wall.

For a while, all she could think about was her bitterness towards Littlefoot. To Cera, Littlefoot was acting like was such a goody-goody that it was sickening. Sickening enough to make her walk away in a huff.

But then she remembered the (to her) unnamed human teenager who was with Littlefoot. Humans were the only species other than her own that she respected, as, for their small size, humans were brilliant minds, great leaders, and fearsome warriors. This human teenager was the only one so far who had gotten away with denting Cera's pride, but she begrudgingly decided to let it slide, as, though he was with Littlefoot, this human could act just as gruff as she could when he needed to, and be much snarkier, such as when he cut Cera off before she could talk about threehorns being superior to other dinosaurs, so he could beat her in a battle of wits. This human also had a big gun on his back, bigger than normal, so Cera knew that it would be a very bad idea to mess with him anyways. Cera decided that, even if this human was with Littlefoot, Cera would try going to the human if she needed to.

As she walked further down the cavern, she came to a dead end where the ledge simply dropped off. Looking to her left, she saw something dark and leapt onto it. It was somewhat stable, and that was good enough for her. She looked at her surroundings as the shafts of light cast frightening shadows on the walls and jagged rocks from the roof of the cavern.

Fear slowly began to creep in as she stepped back. She gasped as she misplaced her footing and tumbled down the steep platform. When she landed on a small pathway at the bottom, she looked up to see the light illuminate the thing that she had been walking on. And what she saw JUMP-SCARED her.

"SHARPTOOTH!"

Cera screamed and ran behind a large boulder, shivering as she waited for the behemoth to attack. But nothing happened, much to her surprise. Gathering all her courage, she cautiously peaked around the boulder. Sharptooth was laying flat on his back. His tail was draped over a fallen pillar of rocks. His small arms stuck out like sore thumbs. But most importantly, and much to the little threehorn's relief, he was moving and his eyes were closed. Perhaps he was dead?

Now, Cera was feeling bold, and she walked up to the monster's body. He still didn't move. Now being brash, she stuck out her tongue tauntingly. Then she started ramming into his head repeatedly.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Cera provoked.

Feeling far too confident, she ran a short ways back and got ready to charge, scraping her feet on the ground. She then rushed forward and was about to hit his head with full force. Then, she got a terrible shock.

Sharptooth's right eye snapped open!

Sharptooth heard a scream. But since it was on his right, he could not see what it was, as, just yesterday, Sharptooth had been blinded in that eye by a thorny vine. He felt a terrible sting as the screaming thing struck his eye. He heard it scramble away as he slowly got up. When he finally got up to his feet, he sniffed the air.

The scent was from the little threehorn he had encountered yesterday. However, by the time Sharptooth got up, the scent was distant. Now he would have a hard time catching up with the scent. Not just by the head start that the threehorn had, but also by the limited space that he had to deal with. It would take a few hours for him to get out of the cavern due to his size and the state of the cave.

Smelling that threehorn's scent brought up memories of what happened last night. Sharptooth snarled when he thought of that insolent little longneck hatchling. Right when he thought he had it and the threehorn in the reach of his jaws, the longneck's mother interfered! And when the longneck hatchling escaped, it sent that thorny vine into his eye.

Sharptooth did manage an evil grin when he thought of the runt's mother. He knew perfectly well that he had inflicted enough damage that the elder would've died of her injuries by now. Now the longneck hatchling was orphaned, alone, and unprotected. This was an easy meal.

Or so he thought. Unknown to him, that longneck hatchling was under the protection of a human teenager who was heavily armed and had deadly skill.


8:00 AM

Jeffrey, Littlefoot, Ducky, and Petrie continued to march on through the mountainous desert as the sun continued to rise. Soon, the full force of the heat would start coming down on them. They had made it 15 miles, and now they had 15 miles to go.

"Come on, we can do this." Jeffrey thought encouragingly. "These kids aren't giving me too much trouble, and we're about halfway there. Maybe we won't have to deal with Sharptooth at all while we're getting back to the valley. Littlefoot DID say that he was dead, after all."

All of the sudden, as the group thought that they were safe, they heard a terrified scream. All four spun around to find a yellow object quickly approaching them. When Jeffrey squinted his eyes, he realized who it was.

"Cera?" Jeffrey spoke up. "But I thought that ya wanted to go on yer own." Then he noticed that something was off. "Hold on, hold on, ya look really pale."

The threehorn ran fast and hard, frequently looking over her shoulder. This behavior, along with how pale she was, made it obvious that she was very frightened. When she heard her name, she turned to look ahead and stopped. Seeing Littlefoot again was the last thing she wanted to see, and she was upset that there was now a flyer and a swimmer there as well, but her attention was focused on the human teenager, whose name she still did not know yet.

"Cera, it's you!" Littlefoot said, becoming quite concerned as to why she was so scared. "What happened? Why are you so frightened?"

Cera scowled, marched over, and got in Littlefoot's face.

"Frightened, ME?" Cera scoffed, suddenly sounding confident. She mockingly laughed as she pushed past Littlefoot. But she didn't expect Jeffrey to cut in so quickly.

"Cera, do NOT lie to me. Ya looked like ye were running from a ghost! Now then, tell me the TRUTH: WHAT happened?"

"It's something you should be scared of!" Cera snapped, terror slipping into her voice.

Then, almost immediately, her face changed to a mischievous look.

"I could be with the other threehorns, but I chose to come back to warn YOU." The threehorn grinned before she spoke with a dramatic tone. "I...met...the Sharptooth!"

"SHARPTOOTH!" Petrie screamed. He promptly jumped down from Jeffrey's shoulder back into Jeffrey's pocket, shivering.

Ducky gasped and ran under a slab of wood.

Littlefoot wasn't impressed, though.

"Come on, Cera!" Littlefoot countered. "Sharptooth is dead! He fell into the big underground!"

"HOLD!" Jeffrey loudly cut in before Littlefoot and Cera could get in an argument. "Now that I have everyone's attention, let me try working this out."

First, he turned to Littlefoot. "Littlefoot, I just figured out that Sharptooth is not dead. Yes, he fell into that cavern that you call "the big underground", but he's fallen from greater heights than that and survived. So we know he's alive. The only reason why I also thought he was dead was because I didn't know the exact circumstances of what happened to him."

Then, he turned to Cera. "Alright, Cera, before ya fabricate a tall tale on me, let me figure out what REALLY happened. Ya found Sharptooth in that cavern, and ya thought he was dead because he wasn't movin', so ya decided to use him as headbuttin' practice. However, he turned out to be sleepin', so ya ended up wakin' him up and severely angerin' him. And now he wants to hunt ya down as revenge. Is this correct?"

"Y-Y-Yes..." Cera answered.

"Brilliant job, Cera." Jeffrey said sarcastically, now glaring at Cera. "Thanks to yer "threehorn pride", now I'll have to deal with Sharptooth on the way to the valley!"

Cera looked away, her pride having taken a massive blow.

"Well, considerin' yer situation now," Jeffrey began, "it looks like ye have no choice but to come with me if ya want to live. Do ya?"

"Yeah, I do." Cera responded.

"Then ye must come with me. Ye have NO choice." Jeffrey replied.

"FINE!" Cera moaned. She did not want to have to travel with Littlefoot, but considering how this human was her only means of survival, she begrudgingly came along. Cera realized that now she would have to do something and she DIDN'T get her way.