It was around noon or so, that's all Vlad knew as he laid back in his cave blankly staring up at the cavern ceiling, the coldness of the deep cavern surrounding him as he thought about what he and his friends have planned for today. He always wanted to go hunting again; it's been months since he last went to one. Just like they discussed last night, to find and hunt down an old friend of Vlad's, the Alimon that has been haunting him ever since the days of youth.

"Are you sure, Blackpaw?"

Vlad turns his head toward the outside of the cavern, spotting two figures by the entrance; one of his father's and the other of Blackpaw, his father's childhood friend and basically the guardian of Crescent Valley.

"Yes," Blackpaw nods. "There was another Alimon roaming about the outskirts of the valley. Strangely enough around the same location the other Alimons from before were spotted."

Vlad hums to himself as he listens, those Alimons must've found one of the secret tunnels around the valley. Around the valley walls there are at least three known openings that lead both inside and outside of the valley while avoiding the actual entrance. These tunnels are too small for the adults to go through them, and for now only some of the children Dracovols know about them. It's kind of like a typical children secret, share with friends but keep from the grown ups.

"It's strange indeed," Zarek, Vlad's father, scratches his chin as he looks out to the valley from on top of the cliff they both stand. "Very troubling, just what are they up to…?"

Vlad ponders; their guess is as good as his. Other than Axel, why would Alimons have any business here? He shakes the question off; he has to meet up with Shino soon. He turns over and gets up on all four, shaking his head a bit to ruffle up his feathers on his head and back of his neck before walking deeper into his cave and through a narrow opening to his left. This serves as a second exit to Vlad since the little opening is a bit too narrow for his father to go through, and it serves as a great way to sneak out.

As he snuck out through the narrow opening and down a corridor to the second exit he began thinking about this hunt; Kedem wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea and he still isn't. He recalls how he went into a fit during their walk to their respective sleeping place, how dangerous and stupid this plan is.

Vlad narrows his eyes a bit as he walks out of the cave and onto a cliff, he wasn't going to back down now. He always wanted to get his revenge against the Alimon who killed his mother. Without fear the young Dracovol charged toward the cliff and jumped. He freefalls down the cliff before opening his wings and taking flight, his course set to the valley's lake where he and his friends usually hang out. He feels his heart pounding against his chest, nervous for the little adventure up ahead where his skills and abilities will be tested out. There's only one question in his mind as he reaches his destination and touches ground in front of the lake, slowly dropping on all four as he looks down at the green grass.

Is he ready for this?

"Just in time." Vlad lifts his head up and to his right, catching Shino walking out of the shadows of some trees and toward him, standing up on two legs. He stops and points to his left toward the mountain walls, indicating to the tunnel hidden in that direction. "Ready?"

Vlad stands up on his two legs and nods, it's now or never. "Yeah."

With a nod from Shino the two of them walk north to the mountain walls where they'll surely find their secret tunnel that leads them to the outside without being seen. "So you got any idea on where to look first?" Shino inquires as he takes the lead.

"I got a pretty good guess," Vlad answers. "Blackpaw keeps saying he keeps spotting Alimons around the outskirts of the valley. We can try to find footprints or fly high enough to spot anything from them."

"That's limited." Shino complains with a bit of a chuckle. As they get closer to the wall he looks both ways, wondering where Kedem is. He shrugs it off as he walks through some bushes and finds the little cave that'll take them outside, if Kedem wants to join them he'll know where to find them.

"Hey!! Wait up!" Or not, seems like Kedem is coming after all. The two Dracovols turn around to see their remaining friend running toward them.

"So you decided to come along, eh Kedem?" Shino comments with a slight smirk.

Kedem stops to catch his breath as he finally gets to them, panting as he stands there on all four, his tongue hanging out. He finally stops as he starts growling and lifts his head up to his friends, shooting a glare at them. "I'm not here to go with you guys, I'm here to talk you guys out of it!" He slowly gets up to his legs as he continues. "You guys are crazy doing this! Remember the stories, what our parents taught us, you two would get killed without them putting up an effort!" He takes a deep breath before continuing, calming himself down. "Look, all that I'm saying is for you guys to forget about this ridiculous idea and do something less suicidal. I mean, going after an Alimon is just plain dumb!"

Shino narrows his eyes a bit and takes one step toward Kedem, pointing a threatening claw at him. "Listen, I'm sick and tired of always eating green food and waiting for the grown ups to take us out hunting. Whatever we do is our business and not yours to tell us what to do. I'm going out there, one way or another. Alimon or no Alimon I will hunt." And with that the black Dracovol turns heel and walks into the little cavern.

Kedem sighs; Shino was never easy to try to talk him out of something crazy. He turns his head to Vlad and tries to convince him as well. "Vlad, please. You're only going to get yourself killed. Just forget about going after that Alimon, please."

Vlad stares at his friend as he just pleaded him to forget about going after the Alimon that has tormented him so. Normally Vlad would give such decisions a second thought, but he's been wanting to make that Alimon pay for years now. And now that he's older and capable of hunting and fighting, he feels that time is now. He slowly narrows his eyes as the memories come back to him, how that Alimon tormented and threatened him with death. But not anymore, that all stops now.

"Listen, Kedem," Vlad starts. "That Alimon has always been attacking me, trying to kill me, and I'm sick of it. But now, I have a chance to make her pay, to get my revenge for killing my mother. I made a promise to myself that when I had the skills I would hunt her down and get my revenge one way or another." He turns around to the cavern Shino went through, intending on following him in. "I'm not forcing you to come with us, but this is something I just have to do."

"But Vlad…" Kedem stops short as Vlad walks to the cavern while holding his paw up to him, not wanting to hear him any more. As he watches his friend going through the cave opening he felt his heart sink, a pressure in his stomach. He knows Vlad and Shino won't make it back alive. After hearing all the stories and things about Alimons, just about anyone would believe nothing can get away from them alive.

"I've got to stop them…" Kedem mutters to himself before turning around and running off. He can't do this alone.

But as he runs off both Vlad and Shino are just coming out of the other side of the little tunnel. As Vlad stumbles out of it he walks up to Shino, marveling the terrain of the Mysterious Beyond with wonder. Vast green plains and the far off desert as far as their eyes can be. Vlad smiles a bit, it's been ages since he last been out here, viewing the marvelous view of the area and beyond. The clear blue skies are overhead and the Bright Circle shining high above, the freedom of it all.

"Ah, the Mysterious Beyond as everyone calls it." Shino comments as he looks around the vast sight. "Much better than always seeing mountains surrounding us, huh?"

Vlads nods in response, admiring the view in front of them. The freedom, the view, it's all so embracing. He felt like flying high into those clear blue skies and fly as far as he could. He suddenly frowns, spotting something up ahead; too far to identify it right, but it's moving on four legs, moving away from them. It could be an Alimon, probably the one Blackpaw said he saw.

Shino looks at his friend, seeing him frown. "Hm? You see something?"

Vlad nods and points. "Yeah, over there. Look closely."

Shino turns his head to where Vlad is pointing at, trying to find what he found. Nothing but a green field…Wait, something's moving far ahead. "I think I see it." Shino narrows his eyes a bit and smirks before turning his head to Vlad. "Might be what we're looking for!"

Vlad nods, whatever it is it might be their first prey of the day. Without hesitation the two Dracovols started off, running on all four toward the distance to chase this figure they spotted.

A bush rustles. Something stirs inside its green leaves, making its way through it. With a sudden jerk the face of a Longneck peeks out, looking both ways scanning the area. With a smile the Longneck walks out of the bush, a group of his friends following close behind.

"This is it." Littlefoot declares as he walks into the opening. "This is where that second Longneck Biter saved me from the first one."

The gang looked around. There's nothing of interest here other than a few trees and the mountain wall close by. This area is deep into an area of the Great Valley anyone rarely visits, perfect for anyone to hide from the crowd just to be alone. But if that's the case, then how did this Longneck Biter came into the valley without being seen or causing a riot. In fact, where did this Longneck Biter run off to?

"So uhhh…" Cera starts as she arches an eyebrow while looking around. "Where did you say you saw the Longneck Biter run of to again?"

Littlefoot looks around as he tries to pinpoint the exact location he was standing. Quite hard to try to find a spot you were standing yesterday. He stands on the spot he estimates was the same as yesterday and looks around; trying to find the area he's looking for. "I think it was…" He mutters as he scans the area. "Ah!" He smiles and takes a few steps to his right before gesturing his head toward the mountain wall. "Over there! He jumped up using these rocks to get to that ledge."

As the others approach the area Petrie takes a head start and flies up to survey the place. He hovers over the ledge and takes a look around, nothing suspicious to be found except for a cave.

"Littlefoot right!" Petrie shouts as he turns around to face the others below. "Cave right up here!"

Littlefoot nods with a smile. "That must be where the Longneck Biter went into!"

Cera turns her head to Littlefoot and arches an eyebrow at him. "And you expect us to go in after him? That Sharptooth tried to eat you! If we go in there we'll just run into him and we'll turn into his breakfast."

"Cera, he's probably long gone by now!" Littlefoot replies in his defense. "Besides, the other Longneck Biter came from around here too. If anything it must be him who lives in there, not the bad guys."

Cera narrows her eyes and turns her head away a bit. Littlefoot might have a point, but what if he's wrong? What if the bad guy really is up there and is just waiting for them to walk right into his home and devour them all? Cera has a bad feeling about this…

"Do not worry, Cera." Ducky starts as she walks up to Cera, looking up at her face. "Littlefoot might be right; the good Longneck Biter probably lives in there."

"Well what if it's not the good guy?" Cera snorts out in response.

But Ducky just smiled and replied. "Well we always have you to protect us."

Cera looks at Ducky with an arched eyebrow before realizing what Ducky had just said. At that moment she couldn't help but to grin smugly by the comment, feeling her pride escalate as she stood up tall and straight. Of course she's right, Cera thought, I can take on anything. After all, she's a Threehorn. "Heh, you're right!"

Littlefoot couldn't help but giggle to himself. Typical Cera. "We'll c'mon, let's go!" With that Littlefoot runs up to the wall and jumps on a boulder, using it as stairs to hop up to the left.

As Cera follows him Ducky realizes they're one head short, Spike. "Spike?" Ducky looks around and finds her big brother eating away at some bushes. Same ol' Spike. She runs up to him and tries to push him away from the bush. "Spike! Come on! We are being left behind!"

Spike struggles to keep his mouth within range of the bush, trying to continue eating. He grunts as he struggles, "Hungry!" Spike complains.

Ducky grunts and shakes her head. "How can you be hungry? You ate on the way here!"

As Ducky tried to get Spike to move Littlefoot hops from boulder to boulder and reaches the ledge. Cautiously he moves closer to the mouth of the cave and looks inside, not much to see inside other than darkness overpowering the long tunnel that stretches deep inside. He narrows his eyes a bit to try to see deeper inside through the darkness, but no luck.

"Ooh, very dark…" Petrie complains as he hovers over Littlefoot's head, also staring into the darkness of the cave.

"Yeah, I know…" Littlefoot comments in reply. In that kind of darkness anything can just jump out and take you by surprise. Courageously the young Longneck steps in, slowly making his way deeper into the cavern with Petrie extremely close to him. In fact he simply lands on Littlefoot's back and goes along for the ride, attempting to use his long neck as a barrier to hide his face in case something scares him.

As she was about to go in Cera looks over her shoulder and rolls her eyes as the usual attempt from Ducky to get Spike away from the bushes. "Hey!" She yells in her usual loud voice. "Are you two coming or what?!"

This caught Spike's attention. He dropped everything that he was doing and started in a run to catch up with the others with Ducky close behind.

While they caught up with Cera to get into the cave Littlefoot is struggling to watch where he's going in the cavern's deep darkness. With the tunnel's mouth furthering and furthering away behind him the illuminating light grows dimmer and dimmer. How deep this cave goes, he wondered. As he walks he feels Petrie's grasp around his neck tightening, the little guy must be getting more scared and jumpy the deeper they go.

As he gets deeper inside Littlefoot wonders what they'll find in the deep reaches of the tunnel. Maybe the Longneck Biter like he expects. Maybe nothing at all. Either way he couldn't stop himself from going deeper into the tunnel. The story of the Longneck Biters and their tunnels fascinated Littlefoot, and he wanted to see if the stories are true.

But this darkness isn't letting him see anything. "Gee, it's so dark…"

From behind Littlefoot could hear Cera snort. "Well what do you expect? It's a stupid cave! I can barely see my nose right in front of me…"

"Ow! Cera!"

"What?"

"You just bumped into me!"

"That wasn't me."

"Too dark! Too dark!"

"Oof! Spike?!"

"Wait, how did he get in front of me?"

"It is too dark! We cannot see where we are going. No no no…"

"Ow! I think I just stepped on a prickly thing…"

"This is so stupid! I can't believe I let you talk me into this, Littlefoot!"

"Hey, don't blame for thi-Whoa! Aaaaaah!!" During their whole bickering the gang of five didn't spot the hill up ahead of them and, thanks to the darkness, Littlefoot walked right into it. Losing his footing Littlefoot drops and falls, rolling down the hill and bumping into whatever rocks and pebbles are in the way. The darkness was too much that even Littlefoot's scream didn't warn the others in time to stop and down they all went with him.

In a few seconds it was all over as the gang landed hard below on their stomachs, dazed and hurt. With a groan Littlefoot slowly opens his eyes, seeing a well illuminated area. He slowly looks up at the hill they all rolled down from before looking up at the cave's roof, spotting a hole up high which illuminates the room with the Bright Circle.

Littlefoot slowly gets up with a grunt. "Ow…Is everyone all right?"

Cera slowly sits up with a bit of dirt on her face. She spits out some dirt and shakes her head. "Yeah…I like eating dirt after rolling downhill…"

As the gang get up on their feet they look around their surroundings. The area looks like a big circular room with two tunnels to go through. The hill they rolled down from is too steep to be able to climb back up, so they have no choice but to choose one of two directions. Either way, both roads lead to darkness once again and it's anyone's guess as to how deep they go.

"Which way, Littlefoot?" Petrie asks as he flaps over next to Littlefoot.

Littlefoot bobbles his head back and forth the two directions, wondering which to take. They both look the same, which makes it even harder to choose. "Ummm…" Littlefoot bites his lower lip, debating on the direction. "Thi-This way." He walks down the tunnel closest to him. Cera looks at Spike who returns the gaze before following the Longneck.

Vlad and Shino now stand at the edge of a plateau not too far off from Crescent Valley. They tried following a shadowy figure that they spotted from afar, but as quickly as it was spotted it disappeared somewhere in this region. Where though…That's the question.

"Bah, we lost it." Shino comments as he surveys the area. "This isn't as easy as I thought."

Vlad absently looks around, his mind not seem to be set on the hunt. He's still worried about Kedem, wondering if maybe he should've listened to him and stayed behind. The way Kedem tried to get him to stay, usually when that happens it's for a good reason. Kedem has a strong sense when something bad is about to happen and he's usually right. A worrier or coward, call him whatever you wish, but Kedem definitely knows when it's time to back off or stay away.

"Hey," Shino calls to Vlad, breaking him off from his train of thought. Vlad turns to Shino to see him point ahead. "You see what I see?"

Vlad looks over the direction he's pointing. There, far off and barely visible what seems to be a chain of mountains. Shino scratches the back of his head and wonders. "That can't be the Crescent Valley, right? I mean, I don't think we turned around or anything."

Vlad shrugs. "I don't know, probably just a random set of mountains. I mean, it's gotta be. What else could it be?"

A thought crosses Shino's mind, a thought which he couldn't help but smirk at. "Hey, maybe your Alimon is over there!"

Vlad shoots a glance toward Shino's direction, a comment which he couldn't help but nod at. It does sound plausible. Alimons seem like the kind of dinosaurs that would live in those kind terrains.

"Let's go check it out!" Shino suggests rather excitedly.

However, Vlad just crosses his arms. "I don't know. Isn't it kind of far from the valley? I mean, we could get lost."

"That's the fun of going on a hunt! The risk of getting lost and fighting for survival! C'mon Vlad, I thought you wanted to find and teach that Alimon who's boss!"

Vlad brings his gaze up to the sky, pondering on what to do. His mind is still with Kedem's attempt to get him to stay, but his desire is to find the Alimon and make her pay. He thinks of Kedem, his warning and guts to actually come up to their faces and tell them off. Then he thinks about the Alimon, how she stalked him, how she tried to kill him, how she taunted him…His anger increases, his eyes narrow dangerously. That Alimon…

"Okay." Vlad responds with a nod as he turns to Shino. "Let's go!"

Shino smirks at his friend's attitude. "All right! C'mon!" And with that Shino turns to the mountains and starts off in a run with Vlad close behind. Finally, the hunt he always wanted to go in.

But are they biting off more than they could chew?

Kedem seemed to think so as he raced up a mountain side hill on all four trying to find somebody. He still couldn't believe those two are actually doing such a stunt. To find an Alimon and actually try to hunt it? Kedem believes wholeheartedly the Alimon stories he's heard during his years of growing up in the valley.

"Hahh…hahh…Almost there…" Kedem panted as he neared the top, his heart racing as it tries to pump enough blood and heat through his body to keep him moving. He finally reached the top and finds a cavern entrance nearby, to which he ran up to and looked inside. This is supposed to be Vlad's sleeping place, but there's nobody home at the moment. Kedem felt a pressure to his stomach upon seeing it empty and dropped flat on his stomach, still breathing heavily from his race up the hill. What horrible luck, it'll take him forever to at least find the others. By then Vlad and Shino could be…

"Kedem?"

Upon hearing his name Kedem turned his head to his right, seeing a Dracovol has landed on the edge of the ledge and walking up to him. It's Blackpaw, the Guardian.

"Are you all right? I was watching out for the area and I saw you-" Seeing his troubled face Blackpaw couldn't help but frown. "What's with the long face? Is something wrong?"

Kedem slowly got up as he still pants from his run up the mountain side hill. "Hahh…Hahh…Blackpaw…Vlad…Shino…They…Hahh…Hahh…"

Blackpaw arched an eyebrow, this made him worry. "They what?"

Cera was getting restless. They've been walking for what felt like forever and they still haven't found anything. She began to think that this was just a waste of time. Longneck Biters…That's a good one, she thought with annoyance.

"At least these tunnels aren't too dark." Littlefoot comments as he's taking the lead and stopping in a wider area of the tunnel where it splits into three directions. The path has taken them up in an upward hill and a few turns, probably taking them to higher levels within the mountain walls.

Riding on his back Ducky looks down at her brother, seeing him growing weary with every step he takes. She lifts her head and looks at Littlefoot, "We have been walking forever and ever, going up and up and yet we have not seen any Longneck Biters."

"Maybe they're hiding from us…" Littlefoot coos as he looks down each tunnel, wondering which one to take.

Cera, always the impatient one, couldn't take it anymore and throws her head up shouting. "Come on out you Longneck Biters!!"

Everyone flinches at the sound of Cera's shout echoing. Petrie screams and hides behind Littlefoot's neck, anticipating something to jump out from the shadows due to Cera's shouting. Littlefoot jerks his head toward Cera with a glare. "Cera! What are you doing?!"

Cera returns the glare with one of her owns. "What does it look like I'm doing?! At this rate we'll find a way out of here before we even see anything!"

"That's no excuse to just shout like that! You could've scared them!"

"Oh and us just popping in like this wouldn't?!"

Petrie slowly opens his eyes as the two once again engage in an argument. He's startled when he spots some slight movement in the darkness of one of the tunnels. Is it a Longneck Biter?

"But what if the bad Longneck Biter lives down here! You could've given us away and put us in danger!"

"Well maybe you should've considered that before we've gotten in here!"

Ducky slightly turns her head away from the two arguing kids. She gasps when she saw something moving in the dark. They're not alone…

"At least we had a chance of getting away without being seen if it was one of the bad guys!" Littlefoot spits out in defense, still arguing with the Threehorn. "Now you already given us away and they could be looking for us!"

Ducky was starting to get nervous as she noticed some more movement in the darkness. Even Spike was getting unnerving as he too notices. "Uh, guys…"

Cera's eyes narrow even more, now giving a very deadly glare. "So what? It's not like we haven't been chased by Sharpteeth before!"

"Guys…" Petrie was next to try to get their attention, he too seeing and hearing things.

But they just kept arguing. "That doesn't even apply here! These things are different! We don't even know how smart they are!"

"Do you even hear yourself, Littlefoot?! Even if Longneck Biters exists they are Sharptooth! Sharptooth aren't smart!"

"Guys!" Petrie and Ducky shout at the same time.

To which Littlefoot and Cera responds by throwing their heads toward Ducky and Petrie. "What?!"

"We are not alone…" Ducky whispers to her friends in a very scared manner.

Cera arches an eyebrow. "What are you-" She stops cold on her words when she heard what sounded like a rock hitting against the cavern walls. Not able to figure out from which direction the sound came from the gang huddle up close to each other, their eyes set on each of the tunnels, waiting for something to show up. For a moment nobody spoke, their breathing the only sound they could hear. Littlefoot gulps as his throat went dry, his heart thumping fast and hard against his chest as it heaves.

Petrie landed on Spike's back and huddled close to Ducky as the two of them embrace in a hug, terrified of what could happen next. But as they waited, nothing happened. Was it just a random rock sound? Are their imaginations getting the best of them?

Cera snorts, she seems to think so. "OK. Sharptooth or not I'm getting out of here one way or another!" As she was about to get into the tunnel she chose something jumps out from the shadows and stands right in front of her, completely startling her as she screams and steps back.

The others looked over at Cera and screamed upon seeing the creature. Just like Littlefoot said, this creature vaguely resembles a Longneck. But this has got to be the most colorful Longneck they have ever seen, especially with the feathers from the back of their head down to the back of their neck. And seeing the claws and the teeth this one has, it's a Longneck Biter!

As soon as that Longneck Biter came two more of them jumped out from the other tunnels, now completely surrounding the gang; different colors and sizes, but with the same dangerous claws and teeth.

"What do we have here…?" One of them spoke, which obviously surprised the others.

"Looks like we got ourselves a group of intruders, bro." The second one adds.

Littlefoot gulps as the Longneck Biters are glaring at them. Not good, they have them cornered; they're easy pickings for them. He's now starting to regret on going into these caverns.

"Shall we dispose of them?" One of them asks with a slight smirk, which in return frightens the children even more.

"Not a claw on them." The one that cut Cera off commands. "Stone will have your head if you even so much as hurt them."

"So what do you expect us to do? We can't let them leave now that they know of our presence here and the caverns."

The one who cut Cera off, which is presumed to be the one in charge at the moment, eyes the children before looking back at his partners. "I'll let Stone know about this. You two know where to take these children."

The gang gulps as they huddle together; they are now in loads of trouble. As one of them leaves the other two Longneck Biters walk toward the children, leaving them with only one tunnel to go down to. "All right you kids, down this tunnel and no tricks."

With no other option for them to take, the gang couldn't do anything else but to follow orders and, with fear still controlling them, obey them and walk down the tunnel with the two Sharptooth following them from behind.

It is now late in the afternoon, but it felt like a whole day has passed since they were in the rocky region of the base of Threehorn Peak; dodging Fast Biters and other kinds of predators in the area. But they managed to survive. And now, as they take a bit of a break, they face their newest challenge.

"Here we are." Tanner announces as he takes a few steps forward, facing a chain of low mountains where smoke emits. "The place where mountains spit fire, the Fire Region as my pack calls it."

Rex gets up from his sitting position and walks to Tanner's side to look at the area. He could see a lot of mountains, some of them in an active state as smoke are rising from their craters. Rex wipes his forehead and pants a bit; from here he can feel the heat from those mountains.

Tanner pops his neck before going on his way forward. "Well, we better get moving if we want to get through this area before the Bright Circle goes down."

Terrel pants as he walks past Rex and falls down on a sitting position. "But I'm tired…Let me rest for a little more…"

Yu sighs as he walks up to Terrel and nudges him up with his snout. "C'mon Terrel, up on your feet. I'm not gonna leave you behind."

Terrel yelps from being nudged up to his feet, his feet are aching and his cousin isn't gonna hear another word from him. "Aww c'mon, Yu! I'm tired…"

"We have to keep moving." Yu looks down at his little cousin with a stern look. Terrel wanted to come along so now he's gotta keep up with them like an adult if he wants to be treated like a big guy now. But then Yu sighs as he rolls his eyes at the way Terrel was looking at him. "Reeex…!" Yu calls out in a whiny tone to his Dracovol friend for help.

Rex just smirks and looks back at Chomper who's currently giggling to himself and giving a shrug. "Don't drag me into it." Rex replies after turning his head back to Yu with a slight grin.

Yu frowns. Great, he's stuck in a corner. He turns to Terrel with a sigh. "Fine…" He lowers his head and gently clamps his jaws around Terrel and lifts him up, carrying him. "But this is the last time." He informs his little cousin before following Tanner, but with the little raplet in his mouth his statement was rather unintelligible.

As Rex watches the two Fast Biters moving off with Tanner he took notice of Chomper taking a few steps forwards, his eyes set on the volcano region in front of them as he looks at the area with deep thought.

"You okay?" Rex asks as he's concerned about the way Chomper is looking at the place.

Chomper looks back at Rex to respond. "Hm? Oh, yeah. Just thinking."

"About what?"

Chomper motions his head to the volcano region as he turns his head to look at them. "That place…"

"What about it?"

"Well, I know it." Chomper lowers his gaze to the ground as he continues. "You see, I told you how I hatched in the Great Valley and how I met Littlefoot and the others. Well, I remember how I accidentally bit Cera's tail, how I got scolded for doing so. It made me realize how different I was from them, and…Well, I kind of ran away…"

Rex stayed quiet. He could relate what Chomper was telling him. He remembers how a year ago he got into his Sharptooth side, how he wounded some innocent dinosaurs of the Great Valley. He felt isolated after learning what he could do. He recalls how he subconsciously ran away, going as far as to the Big Water southwest from the Great Valley, across a vast desert, quite a trip he did.

"I see…" Rex finally makes a sound. "And you ran away to this place?"

Chomper nods. "Yeah. I kept walking and walking until I found myself here. I didn't think Littlefoot and the others would follow me all the way here, but they did. They actually did…"

Rex smiled warmly. That sounds like Littlefoot all right, going after his friends to give them a helping paw. Back then Rex didn't believe it either how Littlefoot and the others went after him too when he ran away. It almost cost both Littlefoot and Cera's lives, but they didn't cared. All they wanted was their friend back.

"Anyway," Chomper turns to Rex with a smile, motioning his head to the mountains. "We better catch up to the others before they leave us behind!"

Rex smirks and nods. "Yeah, I can barely catch a whiff of Tanner's scent as it is!"

Before they moved they heard a faint shout of "I heard that!" from Tanner, which obviously made their blood run cold. "…That's so scary…" Chomper comments with his eyes wide.

Rex's eyes were pretty wide as well, completely baffled. "How did he…I mean…Is that even…?" After exchanging glances both of them shook off their shock and ran after their friends without saying anything else.

Fire Region

"Let us go!"

"Sorry, no can do, Threehorn."

"Please let us go. We are sorry we found your home without permission."

"Plead as much as you want, but I got orders to keep you in there."

Ducky sighs disappointedly as she gives up and walks back to Littlefoot and Spike. The two Longneck Biters took them extremely far into the tunnels and into other caverns before being shoved into this cave with no exits whatsoever. The only exit is being guarded by one Longneck Biter.

"Great…" Cera grumbles as she walks to the back of the cave where the others are. "How long until they decide to have us for dinner…"

Littlefoot was huddled in the back of the cave, his head down low in a sad manner. "This is all my fault…" He mutters to the others with his head down.

Ducky scoots over to Littlefoot and places a paw on his shoulder. "Aw, do not be sad, Littlefoot. You did not make us come here."

Littlefoot slowly opens his eyes with a sad look on his face. "Yeah but it was my idea to come here. Now look at us…"

Cera just rolls her eyes. "Aw pull it together, Littlefoot. We've been through worse situations before and we always pull through."

The Longneck Biter in guard grits his teeth from having to hear the kid's complaints. He despises having to hear little kids complaining about everything. "Hey! Would you kids keep it down in there?!" He shouts back at them in an attempt to keep them quiet.

Cera growls and turns to face the Longneck Biter who's guarding their only exit. "Hey! We can talk as loud as we want! Why don't you make us shut up?!"

The Longneck Biter growls and turns around to face the Threehorn. "Are you picking a fight, twerp?!"

With a smirk Cera snorts through his nose as she kicks up dirt with one of her forelegs. "What if I am?"

"Cera!" Littlefoot jumps up to his feet and runs in front of Cera to stop her. "Stop it!"

"No fighting! Please!" Petrie hollers as he circles around the Threehorn.

"C'mon! Let me at him! He started it!"

The Longneck Biter just smirks, a bit amused how the Threehorn's friends try to keep her at bay. If it was up to him he would've let the Threehorn fight him if she wished just to see her face when she's easily defeated, just for kicks.

"Are you bullying others again? Man, no wonder nobody likes you."

The Longneck Biter, apparently named Echo, turns around rather suddenly on hearing that statement and now faces another Longneck Biter. "Ke-Ken'ichi!"

The second Longneck Biter enters the chamber, a tall and strong looking one at that. Black skin with a white underbelly, his feathers all white along with white stripes from the back of his neck down to his tail. He walks up to the guard with a stern look. "Sometimes I wonder what's worse. Being kept away from any kinds of food for days or having you as a guard."

The Longneck Biter lowers his head with a bit of a growl, showing respect for his higher up. "These are the Leaf-Eaters?" Ken'ichi inquires as he steps closer to the chamber.

The guard Longneck Biter nods. "Yeah; we caught them wandering the tunnels in the outer perimeters."

The newcomer caught the interest of the gang as they turned their heads to him, all of them forgetting about Cera's desire to pick a fight with the Longneck Biter guard. Cera herself was a bit annoyed with this new one's attitude, probably thinking he's all tall and mighty.

Ken'ichi nods. "I see. You can go now." Ken'ichi waits until the Longneck Biter takes his leave before entering into the chamber where the gang is kept, though they're not welcoming the newcomer as they back away from him. "All right, I get the hint. Listen, we're not going to eat you. Far from it."

"Yeah right." Cera mutters with a roll of her eyes.

Littlefoot eyes the Longneck Biter and takes a step forward. "What are you going to do to us then?"

Ken'ichi eyes down at the Longneck. He remembers him from the times he used to patrol around the mountaintops of the valley. He recalls how he always spots him playing with his friends, who are all present in this very cave. "That's all up to our leader to decide, kid."

"Your leader?" Ducky echoes as she's standing close to her big brother with an arm around one of his forelegs.

Ken'ichi nods. "Yeah, I'm supposed to take you all to him for a little meeting."

"Don't you mean early dinner?" Cera remarks with a bit of a glare, which did nothing but welcomed a light elbow from Littlefoot. "Cera…!"

Ken'ichi just rolls his eyes; he was never good with children, especially with teenagers such as these kids. "Look, I was told to get you kids to the meeting chamber. I assure you nobody is going to harm you or your friends."

The gang looks at each other. Should they trust a Sharptooth? They're well aware of how many dangers and situations they've gotten through because of Sharpteeth, but on the other paw they have gotten through some good times with some Sharptooth as well. After all, not all Sharptooth are bad, right? Littlefoot looks at Spike who is just sporting his usual happy-go-lucky smile and carefree face. This made Littlefoot smile a bit; if anything, Spike always knew when to spot good or bad situations first before anyone, so the look on his face at the moment is a welcomed sight.

Littlefoot looks at Cera. The Threehorn fumbles with a pebble with her paw, trying to avoid any eye contact. But it was in vain, she knew all eyes were on her. "What?!" She cries as she sees her friends looking at her. "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" She looks back and forth between Ken'ichi and her friends, juggling between her two choices. In the end she sighs, giving in. "Oh all right…What other choice do I have."

Littlefoot turns his head to Ken'ichi, apparently starting to get impatient. "Um, okay then. I guess we'll see your leader then."

As if they had a choice, Ken'ichi thought to himself. "All right then, you guys are to follow me. And no separating from me; I don't want to have to search the entire area looking for you all."

The gang just nodded; even if they did get away from him they wouldn't find their way out anyway. As Ken'ichi lead the way the gang of Leaf-Eaters followed him through the cool and damp paths of this surprisingly hidden cave system. At first there was nothing much to see, just a long pathway down the tunnel Ken'ichi is leading them, a few forks in the way, not much to see.

But then, just as they got deeper and deeper into the tunnels, they have gotten closer and closer to the main area of this complex cavern system. The gang was surprised and amazed when they basically reached the 'heart' of the place. A huge chamber riddled with tunnels, different kinds of Longneck Biters were everywhere; young and old, big and small, colorful and bland, males and females; they were numerous!

"Wow…" Littlefoot was amazed, the stories were true! There are Longneck Biters living within the numerous caves in the Great Valley's mountains.

"There're so many…" Cera commented as she too was amazed at the numbers of them. She didn't want to admit it, but she was impressed and intrigued.

Ducky's head bobbled this way and back as she takes in the sight. "Big and small, cute and ugly; a lot of Longneck Biters! Yup yup yup!"

Littlefoot starts to frown upon noticing most of the Longneck Biters were looking at them, as if they were complete strangers and new to the world. With them living so close to the Great Valley you'd expect them to behave like they were nothing special to look at.

"Why are they looking at us funny?" Cera was the one to ask about the Longneck Biters looking at them strangely.

Ken'ichi looks around, taking note of his comrades' faces. He stops walking for a moment and gives them all a look which gave them the hint, making them all return to what they were doing. "Hmph…We never get any visitors from the Great Valley…We're not even supposed to let the inhabitants know or see about us unless it's an extreme emergency." He turns his head and looks down at Littlefoot, "Like in your case, what happened yesterday."

Littlefoot blinks, looking quite surprised to hear that this Longneck Biter knows what happened yesterday. "How did you know?"

Ken'ichi chuckles as he turns around and continues leading the children to the meeting chamber. "Like I said, this is my pack. We work together to survive and find our food. Everything we do we must make sure the others know."

"That is a good idea. It is it is."

Littlefoot couldn't help but smile as they continue to follow Ken'ichi. Despite being surrounded by a numerous amount of Meat Eaters, he felt safe here, he felt that he could trust them and they wouldn't allow any harm come to them. It wasn't long after that they reached the chamber Ken'ichi mentioned earlier, the biggest one the gang have seen yet!

It was pretty big for a lot of Longneck Biters to get into, and up ahead they could see an elevated part of the ground, good enough to use as an altar of sorts where you can stand on and look over at the huge group in front.

"Wow…" Littlefoot mutters in awe at the look of the place. The gang looks up at the same time to spot a hole on the roof where you can see the great big sky as sunshine showers down. "It's kind of hard to believe all of this is inside the protective walls of the Great Valley…" Littlefoot comments.

"You can say that again." Cera adds.

"So these children are the ones who were found wandering about."

The children move their attention to the altar in front of them. Sitting there is a grey Longneck Biter with red claws and grey feathers. The Longneck Biter looks at the children with a smile; "Come forth, children. You're safe here."

The gang slowly approached to the altar, wondering what's about to happen. As they approach the Longneck Biter they notice another one by his side, a black one with a blue underbelly and feathers along with blue stripes from the back of his neck down to his tail. This one looked intimidating compared to the grey one.

"Uhh…Hello." Littlefoot speaks out as he slowly approaches with his friends. "I'm uhhh…I'm Littlefoot, and these are-"

"Cera, Ducky, Spike and Petrie." The grey one interrupts Littlefoot with a sincere smile. "Yes, I am familiar with you all."

The gang gasps in shock. This Longneck Biter knows their names! Even knew who to look at in corresponding to the names. This has now officially gotten extremely scary.

"He know our names!" Petrie comments as he now hovers close to Spike and Ducky.

"How do you know our names?!" Cera spits out, demanding to know. "You even knew who to look at!"

Stone just laughs. "I wasn't surprised upon hearing you five found and entered our chambers." He stands up and takes a few steps toward the right while still facing the gang. "Of course, I wasn't expecting it to be this easy, especially the climb you all must've done to get in here."

Littlefoot blinks; he doesn't recall the five of them making a climb to get into the caves. It was just a hop and a jump away, literally. "Actually, we just jumped over a few boulders and found the cave."

Stone stops in his tracks and abruptly turns to face the gang again. "You want to run that by me one more time?"

The sudden turn startled him, but Littlefoot bravely repeated himself. "We found the cave by jumping up to it by a couple of boulders. It wasn't that hard at all."

"Oh yes, it was rather easy to get to it." Ducky adds.

"And for being this good at hiding, you may want to do something about that entrance." Cera adds in with a smirk just to smite them.

The comment from Cera didn't go too well with the gang as they all shot a glance at her. This also didn't go too well with the black and blue Longneck Biter as he took a step forward and stretched his neck out to get closer to the Threehorn, glaring at her right in the eye. "Excuse me, little bigmouth! But around here we have a little rule where we pay the leader of the pack with some respect! Am I making myself clear here?!"

Normally this would be the point where Cera would make a comeback, but in this case it just didn't come to her. She just stood there looking at the Longneck Biter in the face with not a glare but with a face that clearly expresses that she has just been intimidated. "C-Crystal…"

As the black and blue Longneck Biter leans back and backs up the grey Longneck Biter motions him to come with him for a moment. "Excuse us for a moment." The grey one declares to the gang before turning to his comrade to talk about something.

"Talk about scary…" Littlefoot comments about the black and blue Longneck Biter before turning to Cera, who's still standing there as if paralyzed. "He shut you up pretty fast."

Cera breaks out from his paralyzed state and gives off a bit of a glare. "Hmph, I let him off easy." She turns her head away from the altar with a smug look on her face, her cockiness returning. "I just didn't want to see the look on his face if I talked back, that's all."

Petrie giggled as he began to fly around Cera. "Admit it. Cera got beaten. Cera got beaten." He began to chant in an annoying manner, seeing it as gold that Cera got shut up by the Longneck Biter, something that you rarely see.

Cera began to grit her teeth and suddenly lashed out at Petrie with her paw to stop him from circling around her head. "Quit it!" Her swats missed but Petrie took the hint and stopped his teasing and flew back to Ducky and Spike.

While the gang is up to their usual teasing and talks the two Longneck Biters are discussing something important about what Littlefoot told them.

"It must be them…"

"But, sir. Are they wise enough to even think about such a plot?"

"Donovan, we all made sure our caverns exit at the highest points of the mountains they could be to avoid anyone to find our home. Now, as far as I know we are capable of climbing that far up."

"Well yes, that's true but…"

"I have a feeling they managed to dig up such a tunnel on our blind spots to access the Great Valley. Gather your best warriors and investigate this area. Seal it if you must."

"Understood. But what about the Leaf Eaters?"

The grey Longneck Biter looks back at the children before answering. "Leave that to me."

The black and blue Longneck Biter, Donovan, nods and leaves after stopping by along side Ken'ichi. "I trust you'll be by Stone's side while I am away."

Ken'ichi tenses up at the order and nods. "Yes, of course."

After Donovan takes his leave, the grey Longneck Biter, Stone, walks back to the gang to continue his meeting with them. He looks down at them as his return caught their attention; he knows they have a lot of questions in their minds. But first, he must set some words on them. "Now, I'm quite positive you all have questions on your mind."

"Yeah, we do." Littlefoot takes a step forward. "We heard stories about you guys and…Well, how long have you been here, how have you managed to stay a secret to the entire valley, how…How…" He was kidding himself; he knows the most important question he has in his mind. "Who and what are you guys?!"

Stone couldn't help but laugh; the curiosity of a child, always the most important and best questions. He stops his laughing and looks at the gang with a firm look, indicating that he is now about to enter in a serious discussion. "All good questions, young ones…But, I'm afraid I cannot give you the answers just like that…"

"What?!" Cera takes two steps forward, a bit peeved after hearing what this Longneck Biter just said. "We've been caught and made us walk all the way over here and you're saying you-"

A bit tired of this Littlefoot turns his head to Cera with a glare, interrupting her. "Cera, that's enough!" Cera returned the glare but cooperated and stayed quiet.

"But why can you not tell us?" Ducky was the one to ask politely.

Stone looks at each one of the gang as he expresses his reasons. "Our reasons are quite simple. We must be wary with the inhabitants of the Great Valley. If they were to learn of our existence they would not understand and chase us away."

Littlefoot frowns. "Oh, that's why." Understandable reason, they all recall how Mr. Threehorn, Cera's father, have done so before in trying to get rid of Sharpteeth from the valley. If he finds out about these Sharpteeth living so close to the valley he would try to get rid of them for sure.

"But you can tell us." Ducky declares with one of her smiles. "We won't tell anybody." She smiles and looks down at her brother. "Right, Spike?" Spike smiles and nods in agreement.

Stone chuckles. "Such honest words, little one. But with you all already well aware of us, the damage is already done." He takes one good look at each of them once again before continuing. "Can I trust each and every one of you to keep all of this in secrecy? To lock all that you have learned here with us deep in your hearts and not go any further than you five?"

"Sir," Ken'ichi approaches to Stone and stands by his side, just like how Donovan trusted him to. "With all due respect, is it wise to allow them to know more than they already know?"

Stone nods at the young Longneck Biter. "I am aware of the consequences if we are to be discovered by the inhabitants, but I'm sure these children will keep their word." He turns back to the gang once again. "Are you five capable of such secrecy?"

"Of course we are." Ducky responds for them all. "We are capable of such secrecy. We are we are!"

Petrie nods repeatedly as he hovers over in front of Stone. "Me too! Petrie keep secret good!"

Littlefoot nods in agreement with a smile. "Of course we are."

"I won't tell if they won't." Cera comments with her usual look as she motions her head to her friends.

Stone chuckles, happy to hear such words. "Well said, children. As of now, you are now honorary guests to the Rock Rangers." He then turns his head to the black Longneck Biter standing next to him. "Ken'ichi my boy, show them around. If they are to stay for a while then at least familiarize them to our home."

Ken'ichi nods. "Of course."

"Argh, I'm not going to make it…" Chomper collapses, his tongue hanging out as he pants, out of breath and seemingly dehydrated. "Go on without me…I'm finished…!"

Rex stops and turns around, arching an eyebrow as he takes notice of the drama show behind him with Chomper. "Um…Chomper? We're not even that deep into the place."

"We're not even halfway through the place." Tanner informs the little T-Rex Sharptooth. And he's right, they have only been walking for about ten or twenty minutes and they have just begun to feel the increased heat wave of the place. "So get up and keep walking before we leave you behind."

Chomper gets up to his feet with a grumble. "Well sorry, but I haven't gotten a drink of water since yesterday and I'm thirsty!" He starts walking to keep up with the others, his tongue hanging out as he's not dehydrated but thirsty. "I really hope we find water around here…"

Rex looks at his surroundings as they keep on walking, seeing nothing but dirt, rocks, and mountains that are at the moment spitting out nothing but smoke. If anything, the last thing they'll find here is water. "I wouldn't get my hopes up anytime soon."

As they keep on walking the ground under them suddenly begins to rumble, nearly making them all lose their footing. A second rumble soon comes after the first one, much stronger than the last. This one trips Yu to the ground, dropping Terrel from his mouth and having the little raplet roll forward and ending on his stomach.

"Ow…" Yu shakes his head and looks around after the rumble has stopped. "What was that?"

Upon regaining his footing Tanner stands tall and looks around, his eyes set on every mountain's smoke as if looking for some sign, any sign that could indicate an eruption. "Probably might've been a hiccup from the mountains."

Rex also looks around, nervous about what might happen next if another earthshake starts up. "Maybe we should just hurry up and get past here before anything else happen."

"Sounds good to me…" Chomper catches up to the others, his tongue still hanging out of his mouth and panting. "The faster we get past here the better."

Tanner nods in agreement and keeps on moving with the others close behind. As they get deeper and deeper into the area the heat around them increases, smoke begins to become a challenge to their visibility and the level of oxygen begins to slightly decrease the deeper they go in. Chomper said he knows this place, but around this section of the region he is unfamiliar with.

As the heat was slowly beginning to take their tolls on the gang they began to hear the faint sounds of roars and grunts, the sounds of a struggle up ahead. This caught the attention of Rex as the sounds began growing louder and louder as they kept on moving. "Hey, do you guys hear that?"

Tanner remains unfazed as he keeps on moving. "Yeah, what about it?"

Rex looks up as he keeps hearing the sounds, recognizing one roar as a cry of pain. "Sounds like someone's in trouble."

Yu turns to his Dracovol friend. "Um, Rex? No offense, but this is the Mysterious Beyond. You're bound to find these kinds of things every now and then. Remember?"

In a second a sudden cry for help breaks the momentary silence, startling everyone but Tanner. "Ah! See! Someone is in trouble!" Rex spits out.

"And you want us to do something about it?" Tanner arches an eyebrow at the thought and shakes his head. "I hope you haven't forgotten all that you went through in the Mysterious Beyond, but this is how life out here is; to hunt others for food."

"Is there a rule anywhere that says you can't help those that are being hunted in the Mysterious Beyond?"

"Well…No but…" But before Tanner could even finish Rex runs past him. "Hey! Wait a minute! You just can't…!" He's then caught off guard as Chomper runs past him to follow Rex. "Huh?! Not you too! I thought you were thirsty!"

Chomper grins as he looks back at Tanner as he runs. "Well all this sudden excitement chased it away!"

Tanner was about to say something but then he nearly fell to the ground in disbelief as Yu too runs after them. "Hey you guys! Wait up! I'm helping too!"

Tanner stands there unable to believe these three would just up and go and ruin another Sharptooth's hunt. He knows those three are just too good for their own good and will help just about anyone, but this is just absurd in a Sharptooth's book. He hears something and looks down to spot Terrel standing next to him, and by the look on his face he seems to be considering in going after them. "Aw man…Not you too…"

"Huh?" Terrel looks up and notices Tanner looking at him. "Oh, no. I'm just here because Yu told me to stay with you."

Tanner flinches. He's going to babysit…?

They were in trouble. They knew they were in trouble. The moment they heard those screeches and the sudden running footsteps they knew they were in trouble.

They were just two Meat Eaters trying to pass this region without any trouble; to get to the area they decided to go, to be together for a while to rest before heading out again. But now, as they are stuck with an enemy cornering them wanting to make a meal out of them, it seems that this would be their permanent resting place.

"Help!!"

"Silence, get back!"

A grey dinosaur with two little horns and grey stripes from the back of his head down to his thighs stands in a defense stance, protecting a yellow raptor with grey stripes on her back. The grey dinosaur flinches a bit as he's struggling not to collapse, cuts and wounds riddling his legs and shoulders. He snarls and snaps at their attacker, trying to keep it at bay and away from the raptor.

Their predator is what in modern times is called an Afrovenator, an eight foot tall and fifteen foot long Sharptooth. It screeches as it tries to make food out of these two Sharpteeth, but with the angry Sharptooth in the way it can't even get near the yellow raptor.

"Silence! You have to get out of here!" The grey Meat Eater commands to his raptor partner. "I'll hold him off!"

The raptor, Silence, just shook her head. "No! I won't leave you behind!"

"Darn it, girl! You gotta get out of here, now!"

"Not without you!"

The Sharptooth growls and curses Silence's persistence on about not leaving him behind. This is no time for her to be hanging onto him…

The predator snarls and rears back, about to attack the two Meat Eaters head on. But what looked like the end for them the predator stops and sniffs the air, something got his attention. It hears something behind it and turns around, spotting three Sharpteeth running toward him and stopping a few feet away from them looking as if wanting to pick a fight.

"Wha-What the…?" The grey Sharptooth was flabbergasted. What are those three Sharptooth think they're doing? A Fast Biter, a T-Rex Sharptooth, and a third light-blue one he's unfamiliar with.

"Hey! You two okay?!" The Fast Biter shouts at the two cornered Sharptooth.

"We'll hold him off! You two get away!" The light-blue one shouts at them.

The Afrovenator screeches and turns around to face the newcomers. It snarls and exposes its teeth as it drools and flexes its claws, ready to shred them apart. Yu takes a step back a bit intimidated, and to be truthful he has never seen this kind of Sharptooth before. "Okay…This guy's too scary…"

"Just grab at his tail." Rex and Yu turn their heads to Chomper who's facing at this Sharptooth with deep courage, not a hint of fear in his face. "I heard from my mom and dad that these Sharptooth hate getting their tails grabbed. Just bite into it and see them chase their own tail."

"Worth a shot," Rex comments. He moves his gaze to the Sharptooth and gasps as it's charging for them. "Look out!"

The Sharptooth jumps to bite onto them but the three of them scatter away, making the Sharptooth land on nothing but on the ground and snapping its teeth together. Chomper looks up and notices his luck as the Sharptooth's tail is right there in front of him. With a devilish grin Chomper jumps and chomps his razor sharp teeth down into the tail, causing the Sharptooth to roar out in pain as the little one applies pressure into his bite.

Rex gets up and sees how the Sharptooth doesn't seem to like having its tail bitten. It moves its tail wildly and tries to bite at the little Sharptooth biting into his tail. Humorously, the Sharptooth is chasing its tail like how a modern dog chases its own. And Rex would be laughing at the sight of this if his friend wasn't in danger of getting bitten and torn off of the tail. Rex sees an opening to the Sharptooth's neck and goes for it, running close to it and jumps for it. He manages to latch onto the Sharptooth's neck and sink his teeth into it, making the Sharptooth roar in even more agony.

The Sharptooth trashes its head trying to get Rex off who's struggling to keep latched onto the Sharptooth's neck, his feet barely dragging along the ground as the Sharptooth is just a couple of feet taller than him.

As for Yu he picks his spot wisely and attacks, jumping on the Sharptooth's back and sinking his teeth into the back of the Sharptooth's neck, his usual target when hunting. The Sharptooth's eyes widen as it's now choking, blood starting to accumulate in its throat and threatening to suffocate it. It needs to get them off.

It trashes its head much more wildly now to which for Rex was too much and his grip slips. He falls hard onto the ground, hurting his back. The Sharptooth snarls in pain as its neck is now free of the extra pain, but now it growls and turns its attention to Chomper, who's still on his tail. It snarls and swings its tail this way and that, making Chomper's grip on the tail all the more painful but on its way to give out. The trashing was too much and Chomper goes flying, landing hard on the ground and skidding across it.

Yu slowly opens one eye upon feeling the Sharptooth has stopped its trashing. Is it dead? He lets go of his grip and looks and finds out to his dismay that the Sharptooth is very much alive as it turned its head and it's now staring at him. "Uh-oh…"

The Sharptooth snarls and opens its mouth, ready to snag the Fast Biter and tear him to shreds. But then a red dinosaur runs in and jumps for the Sharptooth's neck, slashing it wide open with its razor sharp claws. The Sharptooth couldn't even roar out in agony as its wind pipe was slashed deeply, immediately cutting off its breathing capabilities. As it buckled and wobbled Yu took this chance to get off of the thing and run away before it collapsed, its last view of the living world was the sight of the red dinosaur that dealt the finishing blow.

"Are you guys okay?" Tanner asks to his friends after making sure the Sharptooth was dead.

Rex groaned as he rubbed his back. "Yeah, sure…Nothing broken…"

Chomper slowly walked to the others before collapsing on a sitting position, a little drop of blood from his nose when he landed on his face from being thrown off. He spits out a bit of soil and dirt, his face expressing deep disgust. "Yeah…I enjoy the taste of dirt around here…"

"Well I'm fine." Yu simply states. Of course he's fine; he didn't get thrown off or anything.

"Heh," Tanner smiles a bit; these three kids aren't bad at all. He looks around and spots two Sharptooth, a grey and a yellow one. "Ah, so you two were the ones in need of help."

The yellow raptor slowly approaches her saviors, a smile of gratitude on her face. "Thank you so much for coming to our rescue."

"Silence, get away from them!" The grey dinosaur scolds as he limps over to Silence, his eyes dead set on the group. "This could be a trick they're pulling."

"That's a mean way to say thanks to the ones who saved your life!" Terrel shouts as he shows up to the scene, apparently he witnessed everything. "If it wasn't for Yu you two would've been dead by now!" He continues as he runs up to his cousin.

The grey one gives Terrel a look. "And who do you think you are to tell me that? My father? You don't even fit the role for a little brother!"

"Hey!" Terrel growls at the grey Sharptooth. "Don't call me little!!"

"Oh yeah? Then how do you think of yourself?" The grey one smirks with a glare. "I mean look at you down there! You're like Smally McSmall." He then narrows his eyes with a grin. "That's your name."

"Dice!" The grey dinosaur flinches from being scolded by Silence. "How can you treat a little raplet like that! That's no way to treat them after they saved us!"

The grey dinosaur, Dice, practically melted with how Silence was scolding him. He lowers his head in shame at her. "All right all right…Sorry about that, raplet…"

Silence turns to the group with an apologetic smile. "You have to forgive Dice; he kind of has an attitude problem."

Rex scratches his chin after seeing such an event unfold in front of him. "So we noticed."

Terrel keeps on glaring at Dice as he tries to hide from him by getting behind Yu's leg. "Don't give me that look, raplet." Dice speaks out as he sees Terrel glaring at him. "I told you I was sorry!"

Terrel moves his glare away from Dice and looks up at his cousin. "I don't like him…"

Another one to the list, Dice thought to himself as he rolled his eyes. He looks to his side and notices Silence giving him a look to which he sighs and looks at the group. "Thanks for saving us…But, why?"

Rex grinned as he rubbed his nose. "Do we need a reason to help others?"

Tanner could only chuckle at Rex's comment. He was right; helping others is something you feel in your heart, what your gut tells you to do. Sure it's rare for someone to spontaneously help others without much of a reason, but it's an action that makes everyone a better person and a better place for everyone. It surprised him at first how Rex would help anyone who wishes so in the Mysterious Beyond, a place where it's basically every dinosaur for themselves. But as he got to know him, he learned that this trait is something he was born with, he just can't help seeing others who ask for help in trouble.

"Well we can't thank you enough for the help." Silence admits with a smile. Dice tried his best but it seemed like smiling wasn't much of his forte.

"So where were you two going?" Yu asks.

"What's it to you?" Dice spits out in response. Silence nudges him a bit in an attempt to get him to behave better than this, to which Dice gives in almost immediately. "We're following an old way we both know to an old place I used to go every once in a while. Thought of showing Silence the place where I used to drop in every now and then."

"But then that Sharptooth cornered us and then you all came to help." Silence looks at each one of them before continuing. "And especially the little blue one. He was brave to bite into the tail like he did." She tried to find the one she means, but he's nowhere to be seen. "Say, where is the little one?"

The group looks at each other and realizes that Chomper is missing. "Chomper?" Rex calls out to him. They soon hear chomping sounds behind them to which they turn around to check. As they figured out the source of the sound they all react in disgust. Chomper is activately feasting on the Sharptooth they just fought.

"Aw yuck!" Rex exclaims in disgust.

"Chomper!" Yu gags as little Terrel is covering his face behind Yu's leg.

"Where are your manners?!" Tanner exclaims as he shakes his head at the way Chomper is ferociously eating.

"I can't help it!" Chomper says between chomps and gulps. "I've never eaten this kind of meat before and it tastes so good!"

"Goodness…" Silence mutters as she shakes her head and turns her head away in disgust.

Dice however was grinning as if he's watching a friend devouring in an all-you-can-eat buffet. "Wow, you got some stomach! That's it! Bite into that thing! Tear it to shreds!"

"At least it won't go to waste…" Rex says in a sarcastic tone. He looks up to the sky, barely able to see the blue through all the smoke and ash.

It's been a bit of a walk since they finished their little talk with Stone, but that bit of a walk turned out to be a tiring and tedious one for the gang of five. Not completely used to these kinds of terrains, the gang had to put up against a few tunnels leading upward and some dark and rocky ones.

"Really, how do you guys live in all this?" Cera inquired; annoyed with all the pebbles she's stepping on and all the darkness in these cavers.

"You get used to it," Ken'ichi simply replied with. "It's not that bad, really."

Littlefoot remained quiet as he followed the black Longneck Biter with the rest of his friends. He has a lot of questions he wants to ask; so much he wants to learn from these creatures. Like how do they live, what do they eat, how long have they been living in these caverns.

"All right, speak up." Littlefoot blinked and looked at the Longneck Biter leading them down the tunnel. "C'mon, Longneck. I know you're itching to throw some questions at me."

Littlefoot slowly nods. "Well yeah, I do…"

Ducky nods the same. "Oh yes, we do have a lot of questions!" She looked down at Spike. "Right, Spike?"

"Yup!" Spike blurted out; one of those very rare times he mutters a word.

Ken'ichi couldn't help but chuckle. "All right," He stops his walking as they entered a rather big chamber with two exits, one of them being from where they came from. "I guess this is as good a place as any. Make yourselves at home."

The gang walked after Ken'ichi into the chamber and spread out a bit, looking around. A few slash marks here and there on the walls and ground, not much to look at. "Where are we?" Cera inquires.

"Look like sleeping place to me." Petrie comments as he hovers around the place.

"That's because it is," Ken'ichi speaks out as he walks to a specific spot of the chamber and sits. "In short, my sleeping place."

Ducky jumped down from Spike's back and walks up into the other exit in the chamber, just wondering where this one goes. She was slightly surprised to find that after a quick corner she saw light at the end of the tunnel, meaning the surface is not too far ahead. "Oh!" She exclaimed as she turned around and returned to the others. "You sleep close to the outside! You do! You do!"

Ken'ichi chuckled. "Of course I do. Most of the time I'm rather busy with some things so I have to be close to the outside in case I'm needed in a pinch." He took notice of Littlefoot sitting in front of him, his eyes on him. "All right, go ahead. I know what you want."

"Well…" Littlefoot starts but holds back, he just doesn't feel comfortable about just blurting out his questions like that. To him it's rude, being treated well and even being shown around the place and just going to a Longneck Biter's face and asking a number of questions just like that.

"Don't hesitate kid, you're within friends here." Ken'ichi assured with a friendly smile.

Littlefoot saw Ken'ichi's smile and smiled back, seeing the Longneck Biter's smile made him feel more at ease, not to mention it reminded him of his Sharptooth friends. "Okay. Well, I want to know everything about you and your kind, how you got here, how long have you been here. Everything."

"Heh," Ken'ichi couldn't help but smirk at the Longneck's list of what he wants to learn. Wow, that's a lot of history and tours. He suddenly felt like a teacher getting ready to pull out the books and begin the school day with the whole gang sitting in front of him waiting for the history.

"All right. Well, I guess I'll start with how long we have been here." He scratches his head as he tries to recall the lessons and stories he was told when he was little. So much backtracking through time, this might be tough.

Okay, it all started a long time ago, way before I was born, even before our oldest pack members were born. Back then the Sharpteeth were dominant, destroying and eating any Leaf-Eater that came in their way, you could say it was a Leaf-Eater's worst nightmare. They couldn't take a few steps without being attacked and eaten.

Back then the Great Valley was just any other valley; Sharpteeth would go in and take down anything inside. Openings and craters would just invite the Meat-Eaters in for an easy snack when the Leaf-Eaters never expect it. Not even the Leaf-Eater paradise was safe.

But then, one day, a sole Sharptooth showed up, placed her eyes on the valley and made a choice. She was known as Shakti, the very first of our kind. As the numbers of her kind grew she banded them together and helped create what would today be known as the Great Valley. She, along with the rest of her kind, made a pact, a law, that they would protect the inhabitants of the Great Valley from any kind of invaders. They would only hunt outside of the valley for their food and protect the ones inside it.

This law was kept and passed down for generations. And to this day, Shakti and her pack are still remembered and honored as we all continue to withhold this law she established years ago as she now watches over us all from the stars above…

As Ken'ichi finished Ducky giggled. "That is a good story! It is! It is"

"Wait just a minute!" Cera spoke out, sounding as if she just heard something odd about the story. "Are you telling me you have been living here since the Great Valley existed?"

"More or less," Ken'ichi responds with a shrug. "That's what I was taught when I was a kid."

Cera arches an eyebrow; to her this doesn't make much sense. "If that's true, then how come we haven't seen tail or hide from your kind when we first got here into the Great Valley? In fact, we have been in and out of the Great Valley lots of times and we've never seen you around!"

"Cera," Littlefoot whispered to his Threehorn friend. "Don't you remember what the leader of the pack said? They have to hide otherwise they could be driven out by us."

"Well yeah but they can't be that good at hiding."

"What if they are?"

Cera stays quiet, Littlefoot does have a point. What if they are this good at hiding? To never even notice them being watched over by this pack and not even seeing them around when they hunt in the Mysterious Beyond. No doubt about it, these Sharpteeth are smart, completely different from the ones they always find in the Mysterious Beyond.

"Okay, so you guys are good at what you're doing." Cera comments after turning her head to Ken'ichi. "I'll give you that. But what about that Longneck Biter that Littlefoot said attacked him? Not exactly easy to resist hunting the valley, now is it?"

"Cera!" Littlefoot scolded as he shot a glare at Cera.

Cera turned her head to Littlefoot with a glare of her own. "Aw c'mon, Littlefoot! These Longneck Biters are the only ones here! I'm telling you one of these guys were the ones that tried to eat you yesterday!"

Ken'ichi sighs. "Well technically, the Threehorn is right."

The gang pretty much gasped after hearing that. Cera on the other hand gave a triumphant grin. "Ah-ha! See?! He admits it! I bet your pack is getting tired of following the rules, huh?"

Ken'ichi lowered his head with a glare, snarling lightly at Cera. "You better hold your tongue, girl. We keep the laws and the story close to our hearts and giving that attitude to the wrong person could cost you dearly."

Cera brings her head back a bit as Ken'ichi gives such a dangerous look at her, it almost seems like he'll lunge for her at any second. She better stay quiet, after all she has made a few smart comments and she's pretty much on hot water if she goes on.

Ducky was getting worried from Ken'ichi's last comment. She takes a few steps toward Ken'ichi to ask. "Um, mister Longneck Biter? What did you mean when you said Cera was right?"

Ken'ichi looked down at Ducky as she spoke. He couldn't help but frown a bit; perhaps he slipped his tongue by telling them that. But maybe they do have a right to know, since they made it this far and are now practically, in a way, a part of the pack.

"All right, what I mean is…" He nods to the gang, getting ready to speak. "The one that attacked your friend here was not on our side." He sees the confused look on the gang before continuing. "We are not the only pack of our kind that exists. Outside, out there in the Mysterious Beyond there are a number of us, just roaming about. One pack in particular is out there, probably planning as we speak."

You see, this pack is called the Darkarians. They are a pack of evil Longneck Biters as you call us. Their beliefs are that we are nothing more but a perfect killing machine with the right to slaughter anything and everything we want.

Their goal is to get rid of us and infiltrate the Great Valley, to turn it into the perfect hunting grounds for food, fun, and pleasure.

Ken'ichi gives a sight as he slightly lowers his head. "Most of them were Longneck Biters from our pack. Some of them are just new members from the Mysterious Beyond who shares the same beliefs." He stops as he takes notice of the gang starting to get afraid of what he just said. He forgets that he's talking to Leaf-Eaters who live in the Great Valley, safely away from predators and any other dangers. Sure they've come up against a lot of dangers before, but this is completely different. He's talking about an entire pack of predators infiltrating the valley and taking them down in no time.

Ken'ichi gave a little chuckle and smiled. "Nothing to worry about though, we've been through this before and they never did make it through."

Littlefoot saw Ken'ichi's smile and felt more at ease as he smiled himself. Indeed hearing about a second pack of evil Longneck Biters plotting to take over the valley and devour them all is terrifying and all, it does bring a heart at ease to hear that this pack is protecting them with their lives.

"So when you really come down to it we're just like any other pack trying to survive." Ken'ichi continues as he gets up, stretching his legs out to rid of them of their numbness.

"It just sounds so fascinating." Littlefoot comments. "To live in these mountains for so long and none of us have noticed even once…"

"It make Great Valley sound more safe and impenetrable!" Petrie adds as he flaps over to Littlefoot.

"Oh yes! I am glad you all are here to protect us!" Ducky comments next with a smile. "It makes me feel much safer at night!"

"I still find this all too hard to believe." Cera mutters with a slight glare.

"So who was that grey Longneck Biter we saw back there?" Littlefoot asked with curiosity. "Was that the leader of your pack?"

Ken'ichi nods with a smile. "Yup, that's Stone, the leader of the Rock Rangers. He may not look much and he likes to joke and mess around a lot, but he's quite a powerful hunter!"

"And that black one with blue stripes?" Littlefoot asks again with curiosity, his speech running fast with the eagerness to learn.

Ken'ichi chuckled. "Whoa, slow down, kid! That guy is none other than Donovan, the one in charge of the soldiers and elite hunters of the pack. He's like the role model of all the little ones who want to grow up to become strong and capable. He's kind of looked up to as a legend."

"Wow…" Littlefoot coos in awe. "A legend…" The thought of the Longneck Biters seeing Donovan as a legend reminded him of Doc, the Lone Dinosaur. He recalls how inspired he was when he heard that legend that is connected to Saurus Rock, it even looked like Doc.

"I didn't see what was so great about him." Cera comments after hearing about Donovan. "He didn't even look tough."

Littlefoot rolled his eyes. "So I guess him shutting you up with just a shout was just a fluke?"

"What?!" Cera jumped up to her feet. He did not just say that. "Why I'd have you know…" She suddenly stopped, trying to think of a come back, but it just did not come to her.

Ducky couldn't help but giggle at Cera's expense. "Oh yes, he did stopped you with just a shout. And only your daddy could do that to you."

"Well…I uhhh…" Cera was backed into a corner, she just couldn't think of a way out of this one.

Ken'ichi just laughed, getting a kicked out of this. "Don't feel bad, kid. Donovan just knows how to make everybody shut up with just a shout."

"Hmph…" Cera just narrowed her eyes as the gang laughed at Cera's expense. I'll get back at them later, she thought.

Silence couldn't help but giggle as she sat down with little Terrel being all playful with her. It was a rather cute sight seeing the two of them talking and every now and then the little Fast Biter would roll around and jump as the playful raplet that he is just to have a little fun.

"And then, I pushed that rock and everything came crumbling down! There were boulders everywhere!" Terrel was narrating when he actually took down a Sharptooth with the rock slide from before, making up surprises and suspense by jumping around and crouching at the most scary parts. "I knew the Sharptooth was begging for me not to but he deserved it! He wanted to eat my friends and I wasn't going to have any of that!"

Dice was peacefully sitting next to Silence, trying to recover some lost sleep. He couldn't get a decent sleep these past few days, and with this gang of strangers and this little runt annoying him with his stories, he wasn't going to get any sleep this time either.

"My, aren't you a brave one." Silence commented with a giggle.

"Oh brother…" Dice muttered to himself with a roll of his eyes. At least the others were quiet, plotting away their next step as they were huddled together a few steps away from them, probably keeping them from hearing anything that they're talking about. As if I was interested, Dice thought to himself.

"All right, so we're here." Tanner muttered to Rex, Chomper and Yu as he points with his claw a poorly drawn map of the place they're in. "We're making good time if we're here in the middle of it all. The Bright Circle is close to go down, so if we want out of here before the Night Circle shows up we gotta hurry."

"It could've been much easier if Terrel stayed home…" Yu comments to no one in particular.

"Well beggars can't be choosers." Tanner replies. "It would save time if he wasn't here with us but that's not the problem. Now, this is the path we're supposed to take to get out of here." With his claw on the dirt he traces a path from their supposed location to in between a poorly drawn mountain range and onward. "If I remember right from when I was here last time we should find no trouble going down here."

"Sounds easy." Chomper adds.

"But!" Tanner's voice suddenly grew louder and angrier as he brought his claw back a bit on the road he drew. "Under no circumstances, and I can't stress this enough, can you go down here!" He veered his claw to the right and practically draws a path over his poorly drawn mountain range.

Rex frowned. "Um…Why? What's over there?"

Tanner shakes his head with a mild glare. "I've had so many headaches whenever we go there. It's dangerous, suicidal, and you'll see so many flowing fires than you'll see in your entire life! Plus, it's hot. Very hot."

"If it's hotter than here, you don't have to worry about me going there." Chomper comments as he stuck out his tongue again, panting.

Tanner just couldn't help but to sigh as he stood up. "Just follow my tail, just in case." He turned to the other three as he's set to move out. "Hey! We're moving out! C'mon, let's go!"

"Awwww! Already?!" Terrel complained as he took off to Tanner and the others. "But we just got here!"

"C'mon Terrel, no complaining." Yu told his little cousin as they moved out.

Silence slowly rose up to her feet, ready to go as well. She looks at Dice as he got up, nodding to her to continue on their way. Since this group seems to be going the same direction, might as well tag along at least until they get out of the place.

At this place the team would reach the outskirts of this volcano region by nightfall, which it's just a few hours away. Tanner was mildly impressed, they were making great time, more than he expected. He thought they would be stuck in this region at least until tomorrow, but at this pace they'll be out in no time. He has underestimated these guys, he expected them to drop and request a break every now and then, but they have complained little. Well, excluding little Terrel.

He looked at Rex; the calm Dracovol was silently walking on all fours, his wings folded tight against his back as they strolled along. He always heard stories and such about Dracovols, and excluding Phantom he hasn't met any Dracovols personally.

Yu was like another Fast Biter in the area, but to him his color scheme was a bit rare. Most Fast Biters are either brown or black, but it's a rarity seeing a Fast Biter like him. Little Terrel was basically their handicap; he's the top priority if they get into trouble. The little guy is easy target for predators and their enemies, so they gotta keep an eye out for him.

Chomper, well, he's unfamiliar with him. All he knows about him is that he was found as an egg in the Great Valley thanks to two Egg Stealers. Other than he knows so little about him, but it's been known that he has been with Rex and Yu before. He recalls a report from one of his fellow Alimon partners how he along with the others were attacked by a black Fast Biter before an avalanche of rocks crushed the Fast Biter to death.

"So," Silence began in an attempt to get to know them better. "How long have you all been traveling together?"

"Well, Rex and I have been traveling together with my pack for a long time now." Yu was the one to respond. "Chomper joins us from time to time, and with Tanner since from today."

"They always leave me behind!" Terrel adds in an attempt to just get on Yu's nerves.

Which worked like a charm; much to Yu's dismay. "Terrel! You know that's not true!" Yu barked at his little cousin, a bit peeved at what he just said.

Silence laughed a bit, those two seem like they're always getting into each other's skin. She smiled, during the short time they've been with them it's been entertaining and fun, and she'll miss them when they'll go their separate ways after getting out of this volcanic region.

"What about you two?" Rex asked to both Silence and Dice. "It seems kind of odd seeing different dinosaurs traveling together."

"You're one to talk." Dice remarks to the Dracovol. Rex winced and mentally kicked himself, that didn't come out right. "If you want to know," Dice continues. "We've been together for a very long time."

"Just the two of you?" Chomper inquires, sounding like if he's teasing them about it.

"Why are you asking them that way?" Tanner suddenly comments at the Sharptooth. "You're making it sound like if they're mates or something."

Chomper giggled and was about to apologize when he noticed the silence that swept them up. Normally when teased about such a thing someone would snap at either denying it or just saying something to their defense; but this time, nobody said a thing. The group slowly came to a stop, slowly all eyes moved to Dice and Silence, where the two of them just stood there. Dice moved his eyes away with a bit of annoyance while Silence just blushed a bit.

The gang was a bit surprised. A Fast Biter was in love with another from a different species? They were about to confess their shock when something ran up to them and through them, knocking everyone with a surprised yell. This creature, as fast as it showed up, ran through them and away from them, but not without a little something to go.

"Aaaah!!" Chomper shouts in pain and fear as this creature clamped its mouth around his body and lifted him up, taking him with him.

Rex, who's flat on his stomach as he rubs his head, quickly opens his eyes upon hearing the scream. "Chomper!!" He shouts as he quickly sits up and spots the creature running away with him!

"Heeelp!!" Chomper pleads as the creature, another Afrovenator, carries him off with him.

"Argh! No!" Tanner quickly jumps to his feet and takes off after the hunter.

"Hang on, Chomper!!" Yu shouts as he runs off after the Sharptooth.

Dice groaned as he slowly got up, shaking his head to rid of the daze of the fall. He took note of the abduction and the others running after the Sharptooth and his eyes widen a little bit. While his attitude shadows it, Dice was never one to let the dinosaurs he knows get hurt or killed. "Silence!" Dice nudged her as she lay on the ground, her too dazed from the sudden attack. "C'mon, get up."

Silence slowly opened her eyes with a groan. "Dice? What…Just happened?"

Dice couldn't help but growl a bit. "Some Sharptooth knocked us down and took the blue kid." He looked to his right where the others ran off to. "And the others just went off after him."

Silence gasped in horror upon hearing that. She turned her head to see that the others have already left, leaving them behind to go after their friend. They have to help, they owe it to them! "Dice!" Silence began as she turned her head to him. "We must go help them!"

Dice just shrugged. "The kid's probably dead the moment that Sharptooth grabbed him. No point."

Silence gave a glare to him. "What are you saying? We must help them! We owe it to them for saving our lives!" She kept looking at Dice; the Sharptooth wasn't showing any interest in going after them, and that just angers her. "Oooh! You're impossible!" Se scolds before turning tail and running after the others to help them rescue Chomper.

Dice just watches her go with a scoff…

To the south of the volcanic region lie vast green plains and an impressive chain of mountains. There two figures are approaching this chain of mountains, a light-blue figure and a black figure.

"Whoa…" Vlad mutters as he looks up at the mountains. "They're so high…Higher than the ones in Crescent Valley…!"

"And take a look at that!" Shino exclaims as he points to some footprints on the ground. "No mistake about it, Alimon tracks!" Shino follows the tracks with his eyes and finds an opening in the mountain wall, a cavern. "Well well, guess we found its home."

Vlad looks at the footprints and takes a whiff of the scent around here. No mistake about it, the scent is familiar, not too far ahead either. Shino notices the look on Vlad's face and now what's going on. "She's here, isn't she?"

Vlad narrows his eyes and nods. "Yeah, I can never forget that scent…"

Shino gives a smug grin to his friend. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's do it!" And with that Shino follows the tracks to the little cavern. He slowly steps inside and scans the little path before going any further; the path is lightly illuminated from cracks up above, and it's going to be a tight squeeze walking through this little pathway with the boulders and spikes making the path even narrower than it already is. An Alimon can easily squeeze through, but a Dracovol on the other paw…

"All right then…" Shino mutters, already not liking the idea of squeezing through. He may not be pudgy like Kedem, but it's still going to be a tight squeeze to get through. "No turning back now…"

The two Dracovols squeeze into the crevice and follow down the path, carefully moving and slowly marching as to avoid making any noise during their trek through this area. They don't want to give themselves away to whoever is here. Vlad winces as a felt the sting of a sharp rock brushing up against his arm, this place seems to be filled with these kinds of rocks, not exactly an ideal place to live.

The little pathway lead them to an opening within the wall, a dead end. The two of them scan around the area, trying to find a place where the Alimons could've went. It was Shino who spotted a few rocks that by jumping on them leads upward, probably to a ledge above them. Motioning to Vlad about the rocks the two young Dracovols climbed up, the area was too narrow for them to fly up with their wings.

Vlad grunted as he pulled himself up on the third rock. "No wonder Alimons are tough, this is too hard…!"

"You're just out of shape," Shino teases with his usual cocky smirk. "I'm not having any trouble."

Vlad looks up to look at Shino, already a few steps above him. "You're just a big show-off…"

"Hahah! Sticks and stones, Vlad!"

Vlad grumbled to himself, Shino can be a bit of an annoyance at times, especially when it comes to his attitude. They kept on climbing higher and higher with every rock they jump up to, getting some good work out in the process, feeling their muscles tense as they jump and pull themselves higher up from rock to rock, their tongues hanging out as they pant for breath.

They soon reach the end, a ledge and a path leading them deeper through a cave. "Man, do these guys like caves or what." Shino comments sarcastically. He looks over at Vlad who pants a bit as he rests from the climb. "Tired already?"

Vlad looks at Shino with a bit of a glare. "You're annoying, you know that?"

Shino laughed at Vlad's remark. "Right. Anyway, let's go!"

Vlad watches as Shino fearlessly runs down the cave, not giving a second thought at what he could find in there. He probably believes he can take on anything just like that without any problem to run like that into the darkness, reckless little kid. But on second thought, Vlad has been reckless so far, taking huge risks to get this far following Alimons around.

Vlad shakes off his thoughts and runs after Shino into the cavern, he's going to get left behind if he doesn't catch up. If Shino does bump into something alone, it could be trouble.

Vlad continues running until he finds a fork in the way and stops at the crossroads. Now where did Shino go? Did he go forward into more darkness or to the left where Vlad can barely see sunlight? He takes a whiff of the air and immediately he's overwhelmed by the strong scent of what he believes are Alimons. Vlad curses; Shino's scent is washed over by these strong scents, making it impossible to guess where Shino went now.

Just when things couldn't get any worse a sudden sound came from Vlad's left, startling him into backing away from the left path. He gulped as he saw the figure of someone walking toward him, someone on all four. No doubt, an Alimon!

Vlad slowly narrowed his eyes as his heartbeat began to race, is this the one he's looking for?

"Hello? Is someone there?" According to the sound of that voice, it's not. It's female no doubt, but will she hurt him?

Vlad wasn't taking any chances though. He slowly dropped on all fours and kept close to the wall, ready to defend himself as he growled lowly. As the Alimon came closer and closer he could make out her coloring: Yellow skin with a red underbelly and red forepaws, and her sclera were light blue.

The yellow Alimon was easily intimidated by Vlad's growl, but then she gasped silently when she recognized the Dracovol. "You're…You're Vlad. Aren't you?"

Vlad's eyes widen in shock, how did she know his name? He tilted his head a bit, confused. "How…Did you know my name?"

The Alimon looked behind her and then to the sides as if checking that no one was watching. "Never mind that…" She took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. "You really shouldn't be here…Go back from where you came from and leave this place…"

Vlad growled at her. "I asked you, how did you know my name?!"

The Alimon shook her head. "That doesn't matter. Please, you must leave before you're found. If Axel finds you, she'll-"

"So she is here!" Vlad suddenly interrupted her in a rage. He bared his teeth and swung his paw at the air. "Where? Tell me, where is she?!"

The Alimon gave a worrisome look before taking a step forward. "I mustn't! I don't wish for you to lose your life! She'll kill you…"

Vlad's growl increases in volume, his eyes narrow even more dangerously. "Listen, Alimon! I came here for a reason! Now tell me where she is or I'll-"

"Or you'll what, my little friend?"

Vlad freezes in his spot. Just by seeing the Alimon's expression and from the sound of that voice was enough for him to figure out what's coming. Slowly the two of them looked down the path that leads to sunlight, seeing a figure blocking that illuminated path.

"What a pleasant surprise." The figure walked forward to them both with a sadistic grin, the figure's details and colorings coming to light as she nears the both of them. Axel!

"What a delicious treat you found for me, Tana!" Axel comments with her grin and glare. "And just when I was about to go out on a little mission too! You sure know how to keep your sister happy!"

"Sister?!" Vlad inquires in shock. The hunter has just become the hunted.

Finally, this sucker is done. Phew.

All right, the characters Dice and Silence are guest characters who belong to Dragonborn. I hope I got their personalities right.

Also as a bonus, somewhere in this chapter there's a quote as an easter egg from a well-known parody series on the net. Can you find this quote? Break a leg!