Chomper

The five dinosaurs children sprinted away in a panic.

"SHARP-TOOTH!" Cera screamed as she bolted through the bush with the other four following.

"GUYS, WAIT!" Aylene cried as she rushed after them.

However, a small, lonely whimper made the human stop dead in her tracks.

She turned around and saw the little T-Rex looking at her with big, red eyes. Only there was nothing threatening in those eyes. To her surprise, the eyes of this T-Rex seemed to shine with innocence.

Aylene glanced in the direction where her friends ran off before looking back at the hatchling. The human then slowly turned back toward the hatching and walked back. When she reached him, she got down on her knees.

Now that she was closer, she could see his features much better.

His skin was a light tone of purple, with his underbelly being a much paler shade. His feet were rather big and each had three claws. Oddly enough, he had three claws on each hand instead of two. This hatchling was a T-Rex for sure, so why did he have three claws instead of two?

However, it was his eyes that caught Aylene's attention the most. They didn't look the eyes she saw when Sharptooth had attacked them. There was no rage, anger, or even hatred. Just like her friends, the eyes looked human. Only they were filled of innocence, just pure innocence.

The next thing Aylene knew, the little T-Rex happily chirped as it reached his small arms out to her, as if wanting her to pick him up.

Cera, Petrie, Ducky and Spike were in such a haste to get away they didn't notice Littlefoot skid to a halt.

Littlefoot looked back and with the horrible realization that Aylene wasn't with them. Without a moment of hesitation, he turned around and ran back to find his friend.

The thought of a sharp-tooth getting a hold of the little human was more than he could bear. He just had to help her.

However, when he reached the clearing, he immediately stopped in utter shock and confusion at the scene before him.

Aylene was holding the little sharp-tooth.

"Aylene?!" the longneck gasped.

"It's okay, Littlefoot." Aylene gently smiled. "He's not dangerous at all."

Littlefoot, still rather shell-shocked, looked at the baby sharp-tooth.

The hatchling had found a fascination with Aylene's hair and was playing with it. It chirped and cooed happily as he swatted and sniffed it. Aylene giggled as the tiny thing in her arms squirmed and made little squeaky noises.

Cautiously, Littlefoot walked forward and lowered his head to the little T-Rex's level. At first, the hatchling coiled against the human when he saw the strange, long-necked dinosaur.

"It's alright." Littlefoot replied tenderly. "I won't hurt you."

The T-Rex's big eyes lit up with trust and he affectionately licked Littlefoot on the cheek.

"You are friendly, aren't you?" the longneck laughed as the licked tickled him slightly.

The hatchling squeaked in delight and looked at Littlefoot with happiness and affection.

"Hey," Littlefoot said as looked up at Aylene, "I bet he thinks we're his parents."

"Well, we may not be his real parents," Aylene shrugged, "but we should still take care of him for the time being."

"Yeah." the longneck nodded. "And I'm sure the others will help, too. Once they see how nice he is."

The T-Rex chirped for a moment before squirming out of Aylene's arms, surprising her. Almost immediately, he began to clumsily walk toward Littlefoot's leg. However, he tripped and fell over on his snout.

"Oh!" Aylene exclaimed.

Littlefoot quickly backed away just enough to get his head down to the hatchling's level.

"Are you okay?" the longneck asked, concerned.

The baby T-Rex lifted his head up and looked at Littlefoot with sad eyes and miserably groaned.

The more Littlefoot saw emotions in this carnivorous hatchling's face, the more surprised he became. Whenever he saw a sharp-tooth, he always saw nothing but mindless anger and rage. A creature that seemed to only think with its stomach.

However, this sharp-tooth was different. The emotions he was showing were genuine and real. This hatchling wasn't mindless at all.

The baby T-Rex looked down for a moment as one tear fell from his eye.

"It's okay." Aylene said as she gently rubbed his back. "You just fell."

The hatchling turned and looked at Aylene with a weak smile, making his face all the more adorable.

"You know, Aylene." Littlefoot said. "He needs a name."

At that moment, a dragonfly few down at Aylene's level. She screamed in surprised and jolted a few feet away from the large, flying insect.

The little T-Rex, on the other hand, saw the dragonfly and his eyes seemed to turn to mischief. As the dragonfly flew down to his level, he snapped at it with his jaws, making a "chomping" sound. His eyes stayed on the dragonfly as it landed on a blade of grass.

"I know," Littlefoot smiled, "We'll call him Chomper."

As if a response to Littlefoot's idea, Chomper's jaws snapped down on the dragonfly, breaking its wings and making some kind of yellow fluid spew out all over the T-Rex's mouth.

Littlefoot stepped back for a moment and gulped as the action reminded him of this little creature's diet.

Aylene glanced back and forth between Chomper and Littlefoot. While eating an insect was no big deal to her, she wasn't sure about how the Apatosaurus would take it.

"I guess you're hungry, huh?" the longneck nervously said, addressing Chomper.

The little T-Rex innocently looked up at Littlefoot as he swallowed the chewed-up dragon fly and licked his chops clean. Once again, the honesty in Chomper's eyes made it impossible for Littlefoot to stay disturbed.

"Gee," Littlefoot cautiously stuttered, "I…I know what sharp-teeth like but…"

"Well, to be specific, he's a Tyrannosaurus Rex." Aylene compulsively stated as she got up and walked over to the two dinosaurs.

"Tyrannosaurus Rex?" Littlefoot sharply turned toward Aylene with a mildly worried face as the word struck up a memory. "Isn't that what you said…Sharptooth was?"

"Yeah," Aylene casually answered, "but that doesn't mean Chomper is like him. Sharptooth was just a mindless monster. Chomper appears to be just the opposite."

"I…guess you're right." Littlefoot glanced away for a moment before suggesting: "But maybe we can teach to eat leafs."

"Littlefoot!" Aylene smirked, trying to hold back a laugh. "He's a carnivore. He can't eat vegetation like herbivores or even omnivores."

"Well, there's no harm in trying." Littlefoot shrugged.

The longneck then reached up with his long neck, grabbed a branch with a few leafs with his mouth, and yanked it off the tree.

"Here," he said as he dropped the branch in front of Chomper, "these leafs are really tasty. Try some."

Chomper looked at he leafs for a moment before snatching the twig up in his mouth and began to munch.

Knowing that this wasn't going to work, Aylene counted down from three. The moment she hit "one", Chomper spat out the contents and made a disgusted noise that sounded like "blech!". The human couldn't help but snicker a little at the sight.

"This is going to be harder than I thought." Littlefoot sighed, discouraged.

"I told you: he can't eat leafs." Aylene simply repeated.

"Well then, what do we do?" Littlefoot asked.

Aylene thought for a moment. She knew that theropods could digest real meat, even at a young age. However, they're main diet would most likely consist of insects since they would be easier to break down.

Then an idea came to her. There was another kind of meat that he might like.

"Maybe he'd like some fish." the human suggested.

"That could work." Littlefoot nodded. "But I think we're going to need some more advice. I'll see if I can get some from my grandparents."

"Okay." Aylene hesitantly replied. "Just don't bring Chomper up. I'm not so sure how they would react if they knew a carnivore was in the Valley."

Littlefoot nodded in agreement. Right now, it would probably be best if they kept Chomper a secret.

"In the meantime, I'll see if can catch some fish for our hungry guest." Aylene said as she adjusted her bow that was slung over her shoulder.

"Right." Littlefoot said before lowering his head and nuzzling Chomper, who squeaked in delight.

"Now you stay with Aylene, Chomper." the longneck smiled. "She'll keep you safe."

Chomper nodded with a small chirp.

With that, Littlefoot set off down through the grove and down to a grassy meadow.

"Well, come on, Chomper." Aylene bent down and petted his head. "Let's get you some lunch."

Chomper happily squeaked and got to his feet.

Aylene walked slowly next to the little hatchling, who had seemed to master walking in just a matter of seconds.

"Well, you certainly learned how to walk quicker than I did." Aylene playfully said. "Took me three years to just stand up."

While Chomper didn't quite understand what Aylene meant by the statement, he seemed to laugh at the joke anyway, only it came out as a jumble of squeaks and clicks. That in turned caused Aylene to smile in cheerful amusement.

Pretty soon, the two exited the forest and found a river just a few feet away. In the stream was a school of fish, carelessly swimming through the water.