Chapter 10: Hole Traps

The group had just got up the cliff, and the river had completely dried up again. Clouds covered over half the blue sky, and there were more noises coming from the wind, the trees, and especially the birds that were on them. A thick haze grew from the horizon, but not too much to be mistaken for mist, and the trees that were around the group were that of cork bark fir trees. The land they were walking on was rocky, becoming redder and redder as they moved along. As the morning became the afternoon, the sudden heat from the new environment was like nothing they had experienced, and to make things worse, the ground had changed in hardness, from a very rocky surface to a very weak, crumbly type rock.

Fortunately, the hilly terrain had stopped. Unfortunately, it revealed a vast desert plain, with the exception of a sudden wall of sandstone that looked to be carved only by the wind, and unfortunately, a recent landslide had blocked the river that would of normally cut through this wall of sandstone. However, the wall was actually quite a long, long way away form where they were, so there was no need to worry about it... for now.

"Well at least we're making progress, isn't that our motive right now?" Chris asked, to which everyone nodded. After taking a look, it was decided that there was no other way than to go through that point. They stopped looking and started walking across the desert sand. The wind was swaying much faster in these areas, and the sand was already starting to pick up so much that their bodies were starting to get covered in sand. Out in the distance, a couple of strong dust devils roamed around with no orderly movement, and a large, ominous dust storm lingered a few miles away.

Arlie and Henry both saw this and said "Move!" at the same time. The kids got onto Arlie so that they wouldn't slow the group down, and ran as fast as they could for the wall; the only safe place against a dust storm. As they ran, they could only see the dust storm get closer and closer, with the sand beneath them moving by the wind. By the time they were about a hundred feet from the wall, the amount of sand that was on them almost made them blend in with the surroundings. The dust storm was accelerating in speed, and was just about to go over their heads by the time they made it.

Looking back, the sky was completely blocked, and they had just missed the real sand storm. However, their next challenge was to get over the pile of rubble; a stack of jagged rocks that did not fit together like a puzzle what-so-ever. They agreed that they would wait out the storm before continuing any further, as there could be things on the other side that would make things only more worse.

"So now that we're not sand-covered anymore, how about a game of-" Ben stopped mid-sentence as he saw their faces. "Never mind, I was just trying to lighten up the mood. So, when we do get to meet Henry's family, what are we going to say? Like, a simple greeting sounds boring, and we'll have to let them have space for celebrating Henry's second return. Like, what are we going to say?" Ben asked.

"I don't think it's that simple Ben, almost none of us know how they'll react to us, and Henry. So there's possibly no real way to plan a greeting like this. Now, about that pile of rocks, we can see definitely that Chris, Jess and Mike can't go up those. But we do know that Henry can certainly do it. I think me and Ben can get over, then you Henry will have to help the others get over that thing, before crossing yourself. However there is a chance the rock is much weaker than we can see, and may not be able to support your weight- uh, no offence Henry." Arlie quickly added. Henry smirked before relying with "None taken Arlie, none taken."

The storm raged on for about half an hour, until finally it died down. The wave of dust and sand fell back onto the heated ground, and things were much, much clearer. The pile looked bigger than first thought, and their plan was adjusted to that Henry would have to help everyone get across the mound of rock. For the kids, Henry could just use his neck as a sort of bridge to the other side, to which the kids did manage to get to. Before he could lift his head up, Ben hoped across before jumping over to where Chris, Mike and Jess were.

Looking back at a rather annoyed Henry, Ben said aloud "Sorry Henry, couldn't resist trying." For Arlie however, it was agreed that she would have to climb half way up, before getting on Henry's back, and then walking on his neck/head to the other side. The process was pretty painful for Henry, especially since having a 6-tonne Ankylosaur walk on top of your neck and head isn't a normal thing for an Apatosaurus, especially Henry. After Arlie managed to get to the other side, it was Henry's turn to walk across, but as soon as he took his second step, the rocks started to shift slightly. They soon stopped, meaning that the rocks were probably adjusting to the new pressure.

Arlie soon found a gap in between a couple of rocks, and decided to look to see how big the gap was. However, when looking closer, a sound of rocks falling and hitting other rocks was heard, a sign that there might just be a hole underneath the pile of rocks that Henry was now directly on top of. "Henry, do not move any further" Arlie advised, everyone was quiet enough to hear the same sound, which only kept getting louder. All of a sudden the entire pile fell downwards by a couple of feet, causing a sudden shock to everyone. Henry stepped forward in hopes that he could make it, but just before he did, the sound grew intense, and the rocks beneath him gave way. The pile, along with Henry, fell down about 40 feet, before hitting ground.

"Henry!" Everyone exclaimed in panic as they looked over the edge to see if he was okay. However the dust and sand had yet to settle, when it did, it revealed Henry laying on his left side. Coughing, he tried to get up, but both the falling and the landing on such rocks left him almost paralyzed form shock and injury. The hole was too deep for Henry to get out of, and the night was fast approaching; not a good time to be trapped in a hole. Arlie and the other's weren't nearly strong enough to somehow pull Henry out, the surrounding rock was too hard to break, and what made it worse was that the wind was drifting sand into the hole. If enough time had passed then the entire hole, along with Henry, could be filled in by sand.

Arlie asked "Henry, do you think you can at least stand up?" For the second time, he tried, and almost succeeded. However, he learnt the hard way that he sprained his front right ankle, this time falling over on his right side. By the time he had gotten up, more sand had poured in. "Well, I can stand at least, but there looks to be no way for me to get out. Perhaps there might be others that could help maybe, what do you think?" Henry asked, Ben looked behind to see the edge of the desert, which gave way to a forest full of fern leaves.

"I'll go find food and see if there's help. Arlie, you look after Henry and the others. I'll be right ba-" He was interrupted by Arlie, who said "You can't do that on your own. Jess, Mike, Chris, you three look after Henry. I'll look for help while you get food." And before anyone could argue, the two went off, leaving Henry with the three kids. All four of them just stood in their places rather awkwardly. Meanwhile, Ben had gone into the forest in search for anything that was edible. Arlie went around the left corner of the wall to find two gigantic dinosaurs, they were that of the species "Sauroposeidon", the tallest dinosaurs to roam in these areas. And they were definitely much taller than Henry.

Arlie went up to them, who had not seen her yet. "Excuse me, uh, you two. Down here." She called out, the two looked down as if they were searching for the voice, eventually finding her. "There we go. Now, I need your help, a friend of ours is trapped over there in a giant hol-"

"First off young lady, we're on a tight schedule to a mountain range. So unfortunately we can't help you there." The slightly larger one said, with a very masculine voice.

Arlie was confused at what they said, due to their current speed. "Um, then why are you walking so slo-" Arlie was once interrupted, but by the other sauroposeidon.

"Secondly, this 'friend' of yours has no importance to us. Unless you can tell us more about this friend and we might help." Arlie thought for a moment, before replying with "Okay then, his name is Henry, a large, green Apatosaurus. He's on his way to Clawtooth Mountain, it has uh, three peaks. And h-" She was interrupted a third time by them, who said "Where is he?", to which Arlie led them to the hole. Ben had already came back with a few branches of berries, and was currently given them to Henry and the others.

When they saw the larger dinosaurs, Arlie could see a rush of excitement in all of them. The sauroposeidons lowered their necks so that Henry could get a hold of their heads. Using each of their necks for his left and right feet, he climbed out of the hole and got onto the ground; his foot still sprained. Arlie took a close look before saying "It'll heal after a couple of days, unless you put it into cold water. There's none of that here so you'll just have to bear with it for now." "Thanks Arlie, and thanks to you two, uh, what are your names again?" Henry asked.

"My name is Ethan, and this here is my partner: Fifi"Ethan replied, the others smiled before Ben said "Well you've already met Arlie here, and helped Henry over there. My name is Benjamin, or Ben. And these are Chris, Mike, and Jess. We're all helping Henry get his way back to Clawtooth Mountain by following this dried up river here. Want to come join us? If we're going to the same place that is." Ben asked, the two looked at each other, before nodding at the others. The river led into the forest, so they had no choice but to go through to have the river in sight.

A/N: Well then, I'm probably not going to introduce any more characters, for now at least, and the next chapter may or may not be about Arlo again. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter, or even enjoying the story so far! To the new people here, I'll be uploading a chapter every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (Unless I'm busy), and if a review/PM is helpful enough, I'll send a PM of 5 lines of the next chapter. I'll see you next chapter!

Disclaimer: Arlie, Ben, Chris, Jess, Mike, Sandra, Rick, Jake, Ethan and Fifi are the only characters owned by me. Every other character is owned by Disney(Pixar) and its film 'The Good Dinosaur'.

Next Chapter title: Statue Making