"...Are you kidding me?"
"No, I am not, Littlefoot!"
Littlefoot and Richard were arguing over whether to turn back and help Cera's group or not. Richard favored helping the others while Littlefoot opposed it as Cera had insulted his mother.
"Listen, we walked off on each other back there." Richard said. "I know Cera was an asshole but we should not have broke off like that!"
"But you heard what they said!" Littlefoot protested. "They'd rather go the easy way than the right way!"
Tension rose between the two as they continued to argue. Watching on from the sidelines, Blue quickly took command of the Deinonychus pack and ordered his brothers to act only on his command in case things go south.
"We are not a herd!" Littlefoot shouted. "None of us are the same species!"
"It's not about your species, Littlefoot." Richard explained. "And it isn't about your bloodline."
"Well what do you think it is about?"
"A herd is like a family." Richard answered. "It ain't about the bloodline, it's about the bond and trust you gain from each other. Like me and my four toothy sons, we aren't the same. But we became a pack because of our trust for each other. I am as much of a father to them as they are sons to me. The same applies for you and your friends." The fifteen year old placed his finger on Littlefoot's heart. "You are as much of a friend to them as they are to you. You be their true friend, they be yours."
Littlefoot looked down at the ground with a guilty expression on his face. Having heard the human's words, he felt bad about leaving his friends to their fate. "What should we do now?"
"It's still not too late." Richard raised his hands and signalled to the young Deinonychus. "On me, let's go."
With Richard leading the way, Littlefoot and the pack of four young Deinonychus headed back towards Cera's group.
In the meantime, Cera and the others continued their trek through the "Easy Way" Cera had claimed. That claim soon proved to be false as they find themselves walking through dangerous terrain surrounded by erupting volcanoes, flowing rivers of lava, and tar pits.
"I-I wish Littlefoot was here with us." Ducky spoke in a stuttering pattern.
"M-Me too." Petrie added.
"Don't worry, Richard is keeping him safe." Charlotte assured.
Cera snorted, still angry about the human who almost killed her. She continued walking, not even bothering to look back and check on the others while Petrie continued to sit on her frill.
Spike eyes a small vine and stops to yank it out of the ground, much to Ducky and Charlotte's dismay.
"Spike!" Charlotte groaned.
"Don't stop," Ducky tried to pull the vine out of Spike's mouth in an attempt to get him moving again. "We have to stick together."
Cera didn't seem to notice her comrades falling behind, not that she cared for them anyways. All Cera wanted was to be in the Great Valley to rejoin her family and be done with this trek. She continued walking while Petrie shivered in fear as he looked down.
Below them were tar pits and within the tar pits were bones from either Saurolophus or small Sauropods, evidence of the dangers posed by tar pits. Petrie suddenly lost his grip and fell but he managed to hang onto Cera's leg.
Then his luck ran out.
Walking over to a gap in the path, Cera jumped across and successfully made it to the other side but Petrie lost his grip in mid air and fell from the Triceratops' leg. He flapped his wings all over in a desperate attempt to fly before crashing into the tar pits below.
The young Pteranodon coughed and gasped for air as he struggled to stay afloat on the tar pit which was rapidly pulling him under.
Richard and Littlefoot arrived at the mountain range with the four Deinonychus in tow. Hearing the cries for help, Richard immediately starts giving orders and splitting the task.
"Blue, you're in charge of the pack. Go find Charlotte and the others with Littlefoot." Richard turned his attention on the young Apatosaurus. "Just follow Blue's orders."
"Okay." Littlefoot nodded.
"I'll move ahead to see if anyone else needs help." Richard gave the signal to move out. "Alright let's move!"
Richard raced towards the direction of Petrie's screams while Littlefoot and the young Deinonychus rushed over to Charlotte and the young dinosaurs, who were stuck on a rapidly sinking piece of rock over lava.
"Littlefoot!" Ducky yelled.
"Hang on!" Littlefoot pushed a jagged piece of rock with a flat surface out over the lava, allowing Charlotte and the young dinosaurs to cross over to the bank safely.
"Thank you, Littlefoot." Charlotte graciously thanked the young Apatosaurus.
"Follow me!" Blue shouted. "Richard went this way!"
Meanwhile, Richard spotted Petrie in the tar pits. Not wanting to get himself all stuck in goo or break gun safety rules by pointing the muzzle of his shotgun at the young Pteranodon, Richard grabbed his concealed ASP and extended it with a swift swinging motion.
"Petrie! Grab on to my baton!" Richard reached out with his baton. "Grab on to it and I'll pull you out."
Petrie spotted the baton and attempted to reach for it. Though the tar made it difficult for him to move around, he pushed on and eventually got ahold of the baton, and was safely pulled out of the goo.
The young Pteranodon took a few moments to catch his breath while Richard wiped the tar off him.
"What happened?" the human asked.
"Cera jumped over pit and I fall off." Petrie answered. "But why you doing back here?"
"Tying up loose ends."
A few moments later, Blue walked over with his pack and the others. Richard breathed a sigh of relief, everyone was okay and there was no scratches. Well, everyone except for Cera.
"Where is Cera?" Charlotte asked.
"She went that way," Richard grinned as an evil and funny idea came to his mind. "And I've got just the perfect thing."
Cera panted and ran as a group Pachycephalosaurus actively hunted her down. Weaving and dodging her way through a cave, the young Triceratops desperately tried to get away but was soon cornered.
"Help!" she yelled.
The group of Pachycephalosaurus closed in on Cera and prepared to kill her when a weird tar black creature emerged with four Deinonychus accompanying it. The Pachycephalosaurus all took off running while Cera cowered behind her front legs, unable to move.
Reaching down with its "limb" the creature got ahold of Cera and lifted her up in the air, causing her to scream and plead for help.
"Help!" Cera screamed and closed her eyes in horror. "Ducky, Spike, Petrie, Charlotte help!"
"Cera," a voice resembling Ducky's voice responded. "It is US."
Slowly opening her eyes, Cera could barely make out the faces of Littlefoot, Ducky and Petrie. A frown happened upon her face as they all burst out laughing.
Richard emerged from behind the "tar monster" and took command of the Deinonychus pack once again. "Rally on me!"
"You sure do know how to make others laugh." Charlotte emerged from behind a boulder.
"Yeah…" Littlefoot chuckled. "This was great!"
"Told ya that Tar could be useful." Richard smugly replied.
Cera, still hung in mid air by the tail, jerked herself out of the grip of Littlefoot's tail and fell into a tar puddle.
Richard facepalmed and chuckled. "Looks like somebody wants to be the tar monster too."
"I knew it was you guys all along!" Cera tried her best to defend her ego. "I did."
Nobody paid any attention to the young Triceratops' statement. Even the young Deinonychus began laughing in amusement at what just happened. Everyone felt a grim satisfaction, Cera the "brave" Triceratops was more of a scaredy cat than a brave fighter and the way she reacted to the whole thing amused everyone greatly.
"Should've seen that look on her face." Richard intentionally made a very poor attempt to imitate Cera's reaction. He used his funny accent for comedy purposes. "Ahh, Harp!"
"Oh get out of my way!" Cera grunted. As she wasn't looking where she was going, the young Triceratops slipped on a second tar puddle.
The others all snickered once again at the sight of Cera falling. Trying her best to hide her emotion, Cera held her nose up high and continued walking, only to slam hard against a stalagmite.
"That's gotta hurt." Richard impishly remarked before sharing a chuckle with the others.
Already broken at this point, Cera gave her usual snobbish remark and walked towards a waterfall.
The others continued to laugh while Littlefoot climbed off Spike.
"Hey dad, can you do another Cera impression?" Blue asked with a grin on his face.
Richard flailed his arms around and did a really bad impression on purpose, mostly for comedy reasons. "Harp! Ducky, Spike, Petrie, Charlotte HARP! I'm abart to Jeez mahself."
Everyone giggled at Richard's impression. He really was quite the comedy guy, doing bad impressions of other dinosaurs amongst other things.
Slowly, the laughter died down. Charlotte looked around for Cera but couldn't find the young Triceratops anywhere.
"Cera?" she called out. "Cera!"
"I… think we might've been a bit too harsh on her." Richard said in a guilty tone.
"What do you mean by harsh." Blue asked his adoptive father. "She had it coming, like you said."
"Yeah, but I think we went too far." Richard explained. "I think we hurt more than just her ego. I think we hurt her feelings."
At that moment everyone turned towards the fifteen year old human. The same individual that gave Cera the vicious pummeling was now sympathizing with her.
"Well, what should we do?" Ducky asked.
"Someone represent all of us and go apologize." Richard answered. "And that representative is me."
"Richard are you out of your mind?" Charlotte stopped her 21st century counterpart. "After that beating back there? I think you're the last person she wants to see."
"Blue, take command of the pack." Richard once again said to his adoptive Deinonychus son. It was obvious he was ignoring Charlotte's words. "I was the one who orchestrated the entire thing. That means I should be the one to apologize."
"What if she kills you?" Delta asked.
"Then Blue will be in command of this whole operation." Richard reached into his back pocket and grabbed his secondary compass before handing it over to Blue. "Take this, if things go south you lead them to the valley. Understood?"
"Yes daddy." Blue replied.
Without further ado or words, Richard leaped over the ledge and walked towards the waterfall to reconcile with Cera. Guilt stabbed his heart like a sharpened dagger as he noticed that the young Triceratops was actually sobbing with tears flowing from her eyes.
Slowly, the fifteen year old male human approached Cera. She whipped around and though her expression didn't change much, Richard could tell she wasn't very happy to see him.
"What do you want?" she scoffed, trying to hold back her emotions.
"Just checkin to make sure you were okay." Richard answered.
"I'm fine!" Cera replied.
"No you're not." Richard sat down beside the Triceratops. "You're emotionally hurt."
Cera buried her face behind her front paws, too ashamed to even look at the human. Seeing this, Richard comforted the young Triceratops. Looking over at her sides, he could still see the bruises left by him during the confrontation earlier.
"Sorry about that beating earlier." Richard placed his hand on Cera's back. "That bruise there still hurts?"
"Three-horns never get hurt." Cera bitterly answered.
"Cera, everyone gets hurt." Richard pulled up the sleeves of his shirt to reveal the long scar running the length of his hand. "Even I do."
Cera looked up at Richard and noticed that his eyes were watery and tears were flowing down from his eyes. Seeing no response from the Triceratops, Richard sighed.
"I get it." Richard wiped away his tears. "You hate me because of that beating."
"I don't hate you." Cera replied.
"You don't?"
The young Triceratops shook her head in response.
"Then why are you treating me as if I were your enemy?" Richard asked.
"I saw you handle four Sharpteeth like nothing." Cera looked up at the fifteen year old. "I'm just jealous at the fact you can control them."
Richard chuckled and patted Cera on the back. "It's not about control. It's a relationship."
"What do you mean?"
"You don't just go around controlling predatory dinosaurs. It just doesn't happen that way." Richard explained. "You need to earn their trust, gain their respect. These four young ones trust me because I took them in after their parents died. I treated them like sons of my own, never once did I leave them out on anything. Similarly, you should learn to respect others. Remember you insulted Littlefoot's Mother back there? Ya know why he was so worked up about it?"
"No." Cera answered.
"His mother died in the Earthquake." Richard replied.
Cera lowered her head, feeling ashamed for her actions. At this moment, she realized that her foolish mistakes were the main reason the group was constantly having strained relationships.
"It's okay though." Richard smiled. "All it takes is a word of apology."
"My dad told me different herds never did anything together." Cera said. "Is it appropriate?"
"There are some old taboos we should drop and being a speciesist is one of them" The human male got back up onto his feet. "Come on now, all it takes is an apology."
Slowly, the Triceratops got back onto her feet and followed Richard back towards the herd.
"Sorry for calling you an asshole." Richard apologized. "I can let my mouth run wild at times…"
"It's okay…" Cera glared at Richard's shotgun, she still remembered him saying something about ammunition supply. "Were you joking when you say you were out of extra shells?"
"No, I was not." Richard sighed, he wished he'd brought along a rifle instead of a shotgun. "Only seven rounds left, then I'm down to my pistol."
"Let's just hope Sharptooth isn't around."
After a few minutes of walking, the two find the other members of the herd enjoying themselves in a pond of sorts. The tar on their body had been washed away and they were just enjoying the cool water. As usual, the four young Deinonychus were playing around with each other.
Cera walked over to Littlefoot with a guilty look on her face. "Sorry for insulting your mother and hurting you. I take back what I said before."
"It's okay." Littlefoot replied.
In the meantime, Richard walked over to the four young Deinonychus, who were enjoying themselves in the water.
"Enjoying yourselves?"
"Dad!" they all shouted at once.
"Sharptooth!" Petrie suddenly shouted.
Quickly scanning the area with his shotgun at the ready, Richard spots the massive behemoth searching for them on top of a cliff. And this time, he had two henchmen.
"Looks like he's got reinforcement." Since he has yet to chamber a round into his Benelli M3 Tactical Shotgun, Richard switched the fire mode to pump action and pumped the weapon with a menacing look on his face. "Let's go get this sonofabitch and end his reign of terror once… and for all."
