THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER CONTAINS SCENES OF VIOLENCE

SOME OF THESE EVENTS MAY APPEAR UNLIKELY, BUT THAT'S HOW IT GOES

The Land Before Time

Revenge

Chapter 9

Ali, Shorty, and Chomper rushed down the cliff as fast as they could. They couldn't believe that Sierra actually threw the rock that caused Ducky and Petrie to fall, and they were praying that they weren't dead. "We're almost there!" Shorty yelled.

"Please be ok," Ali said.

"I'm sure Ducky might be ok," Chomper said. "If they did fall into water, then she'll be able to swim out. Then again, Petrie isn't a swimmer." The thoughts unfortunately didn't help, but it forced them to run even faster. Eventually, they reached the bottom of the cliff and saw the small lake.

"There's the lake, but where are they?" Shorty asked. "They have to be here!" Ali then began to fear the worst.

"You don't think…" she started, but couldn't finish the thought. She began to cry a little. "It's not fair!" Shorty then walked over to Ali and nuzzled her.

"Don't worry. They aren't big enough to sink to the bottom. I bet they got out and are looking for us right now." Ali looked up at Shorty.

"Shorty, I-" but before she could finish, they heard something in the water. They all turned and faced the lake. "Chomper, did you see that?"

"I did, and I smell something!" He ran to the edge and lowered his nose close to the surface. He sniffed, and then smiled widely. "Guys, get over here!" Just then, something rose out of the water, splashing a little on Chomper. "Ducky!" The little swimmer was carrying an unconscious Petrie on her back. Shorty and Ali rushed over towards Chomper and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness you're alive!" Ali exclaimed.

"I am ok, but I am afraid that Petrie is not. We hit the water hard, and he is not a swimmer. No no no."

"Well come on. Let's get you out and dried off," Shorty suggested. He lowered his head, and Ducky climbed on. She might have pulled a little too hard on his ear, because he flinched a little and said, "Be careful up there!" Ducky laughed a little, realizing what she had done.

"We should probably find some shelter," Ali commented. Those flyers might come back after us, and in our current state we won't stand a chance."

"Let's head for under those trees," Chomper pointed towards the woods nearby. "They won't be able to find us there, and its going to get dark out so it'll be harder for them to see."

"Good idea," Shorty said. "We can rest up there, and then we'll head out tomorrow to find our way back home."

"Oh I am sure Littlefoot and the others are looking for us. Yep yep yep!" Ducky said as the group headed for the tree."

Back in the cave, Sierra was still trying to understand how children were able to defeat a group of flyers and Rinkus. "What the hell do you mean he's dead!?" The flyer who told him the news stepped forward a little and spoke up.

"Well, we were about to kill the longneck, but then Pterano appeared and grabbed hold of Rinkus. The kids then broke free and attacked us! The longneck, he's much tougher than he looks. MUCH tougher. We lost maybe half our group to him." The flyer continued to recall the events that occurred, and every detail only angered Sierra even more. He stood there as the fight played back in his mind…

"Kill them!" Rinkus yelled.

"Not a chance!" Cera yelled. She then drove her hind foot into the stomach of the flyer that was holding her, and Spike smashed the other flyer's foot with his own. The two let go and backed away, and both Cera and Spike charged them. The flyers were both knocked down, never standing a chance. At that moment, numerous flyers appeared and surrounded Littlefoot. "Littlefoot! Get out of there!" Cera screamed, and Spike yelled out.

"Time to die little longneck," one flyer hissed.

"You boys caught me on at a very bad time!" Littlefoot yelled. Suddenly, the flyer lunged towards Littlefoot, but he nimbly dodged it and kicked it with his feet. Two more flyers charged him, but Littlefoot spun around and whipped his tail at there faces. The two flyers went sprawling towards the ground, and Littlefoot looked at the rest. "Anybody else?" Then one flyer approached him, but was body slammed by Spike. Cera than head but another flyer to a tree and impaled it with her horns. The flyer screamed out in pain and then died. Cera could feel lines of blood flowing down her horn and on to her face, but she didn't even concern herself with it. It only fueled her even more. Spike kept slamming into countless flyers, not even bothering to stop.

Rinkus was horrified. What first seemed like a simple execution plan turned into a full scale battle, and he was losing!. "How can this be possible?" He screamed out and broke free from Pterano's grasp. "It's time to get rid of you once and for all!"

"You couldn't when we went after the Stone of Cold Fire," Pterano said, "and you most certainly can't now!" The two lunged at each other and began to wrestle around, punching, slashing, kicking, and biting any chance they could. After a few minutes, Pterano clawed at Rinkus's left wing, leaving a huge cut. Rinkus cried out in pain and rolled away. Pterano slowly stood up and walked over Rinkus. Rinkus tried to stand up, but unfortunately for him Pterano was waiting. He grabbed Rinkus's head and whispered into his ear. "This is for Petrie…" He then breathed out, and snapped Rinkus's head to the side. Rinkus then fell over, alive no more.

Meanwhile, Littlefoot grabbed hold of a long stick in his mouthed and began to use it as a club. Whipping his neck from side to side, he hit countless more flyers in various parts of their bodies, brutally disabling or killing them. Cera continued to impale others with her horns, and Spike began to smash the heads of flyers with his feet. Finally, after a long fight., only four flyers remained, and the group was becoming exceedingly tired. Somehow though, Littlefoot, Cera, and Spike didn't even seem like they were breaking a sweat. Pumped with rage and eyes of hatred, Littlefoot glared at the last flyers. "Run. Run back to Sierra and tell him this! Wherever he is, we will find him! When we do, he will regret ever taking from us!" The flyers looked at him with a terrified look. Even Cera was pretty impressed. There was no way this was the Littlefoot she was used to. This was an out of control being that always seems to be hidden under his normal gentle and innocent nature. The flyers then turned around and began to fly away, but Pterano stopped them.

"This is what will happen to Sierra if he doesn't release my nephew and his friends." He then dragged Rinkus's lifeless body over to a large lake and threw him in. The body began to float out towards the middle and then sat still. Suddenly, the water around the body began to bubble, and all of a sudden the mouth of a large swimming sharptooth opened wide and emerged from the water. It grabbed hold of the body and pulled it underneath the water surface. The water then began to turn dark red, and the flyers were even more horrified than before. They took off as fast as they could, never looking back…

"We never stood a chance," the flyer finished. Sierra didn't bother saying anything. He stared right into the flyer's eyes without emotion. He then walked over to the flyer and placed his hands on its shoulders.

"Don't worry," he began. "I understand. You couldn't win," as he was saying this, he grabbed hold of a rock with the hand behind him, "because you are weak." Suddenly, Sierra threw the flyer down to the ground, took the rock, and began to smash the flyer's head. He hit it numerous times, showing blood on the rock until it finally cracked and shattered. The flyer lied dead in a pool of his own blood, and Sierra looked at the flyers. "This is the price you pay for failure! Go out and find them! This time, make sure you don't ever come back until they are dead or else you meet the same fate as him!"

Meanwhile, later that night, Littlefoot, Cera, Spike, and Pterano took refuge inside a small cave. It had started to rain heavily, and they were exhausted from fighting the flyers. Spike found a bunch of bushes before the storm hit and gathered them in the cave so they could have something to eat, and Pterano had gone out to scout for any possible location of their friends. Of course, then Spike began to eat the leaves before the others got inside, and Cera got a little annoyed. "Spike cut it out! That green food is for ALL of us!" Spike lowered his head, but he couldn't help but laugh. He then walked over to the nearby wall and rolled up to go to sleep. Cera sighed and shook her head. Always hungry… She then looked over to Littlefoot who hadn't even touched his share of the food. "Not hungry?"

"I just can't swallow it for some reason," he replied. "I guess I just don't feel good."

"Well, don't tell Spike," Cera added, looking at the now sleeping spiketail, "or he'll just eat all of your food himself." The two of them began to laugh a little, enjoying the brief moment of peace they had together. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes, and then Littlefoot spoke up.

"I wish I knew what to do. I wish I knew how to save my friends, confront Ali, and now confront your dad, because he will never approve of this."

"Don't worry about it," Cera said. "This whole crisis will be over very soon. I mean, we already killed Rinkus. Sierra won't be much of a problem, we'll get our friends back, and then we'll all head home together. It'll turn out ok." Littlefoot looked into her eyes and smiled.

"Thanks Cera." He then turned around because there was a brief pause in the storm. "Well, the rain stopped. Wanna take a walk outside a little before it starts again?" Cera nodded, and the two left Spike in the cave to sleep. The clouds had not parted yet, so they couldn't see the stars yet. A cool breeze floated in the air past the two of them as they came to a clearing. They stopped for a sec and looked around. It was kind of dark out, so they couldn't really see much. Littlefoot then turned towards Cera and began to sing,

"I thought that dreams belonged to other men, 'Cuz each time I got close, they'd fall apart again."

"I feared my heart would beat in secrecy, I faced the nights alone, Oh how could I have known." Cera replied, and then the two began to sing together,

"That all my life I only needed you. Whoa-oa, Almost Paradise. We're knocking on heaven's door, Almost Paradise. How could we ask for more? I swear that I can see forever in your eyes, Paradise." Cera then hesitated a little, walked to the side.

"You know, back there, you were different. You were so angry. More angry than I could ever be. It was like you were a completely different Littlefoot, like a dark side." Littlefoot walked over to her.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't contain myself. I just had to make them pay." Cera looked up at him and smiled.

"I liked it a lot," Littlefoot laughed, and then all of a sudden it began to rain again. They looked up and laughed and then headed back to their cave.

Meanwhile, Ali and Shorty had walked off a little from their rest stop. Ducky was staying with Petrie, who was now resting, and Chomper was keeping watch. The area they were at was experiencing rain as well, but it didn't fall through the tree branches. After a few seconds, Ali looked at Shorty. "Shorty, I'm confused. I've been with you for only a little bit, but I feel like I've been with you forever. I'm starting to feel things I never thought I would."

"Why?" Shorty asked. "Because of Littlefoot? I understand if you'd prefer not to think about it," but then Ali turned back to him.

"Shorty, I love you." Shorty was extremely surprised at this comment.

"Really? Well, that works out great, because I love you too." They stared at into each other's eyes, and Ali began to sing,

"It seems like perfect love's so hard to find, I'd almost given up, You must've read my mind."

"And all these dreams I saved for a rainy day" Shorty sang, "They're finally comin' true, I'll share them all with you, 'Now we hold the future in our paws." They both then began to sing,

"Whoa-oa, Almost Paradise. We're knocking on heaven's door, Almost Paradise. How could we ask for more? I swear that I can see forever in your eyes, Paradise." The two looked at each other, and then leaned in and kissed. This kiss seemed to erase all the troubles they were facing, and to them it felt like nothing else mattered.