CHAPTER 13

CELEBRATION AND VOYAGE HOME

It was indeed a grand celebration. There was lots of singing and dancing that went on throughout the night. Huge stockpiles of meat were brought out for the multitude of sharptooth gathered. Servants brought large leaf trays filled with many berries, nuts, grasses, flowers... and an abundance of tree stars, surprisingly enough, for the green eaters; and they ate beyond their fill.

Chomper allowed himself a little bit of red meat, on this occasion, but he mostly ate fresh fish. Roary tried some of the fish for the first time, and thought it was quite good. V'Leck stuck to her rather generous servings of red long neck meat.

The sharptooth taught some of their traditional songs to the green eaters. In exchange, the green eaters tought the traditional songs from their childhood. Teek offered his own rough translations. The sharptooth thought some of the songs were funny, and everybody laughed heartily.

There was plenty of dancing as well to the melody of some sharptooth musicians who made remarkable sounds with a mixture of sharptooth and green eater bones. Some were hollowed out to make haunting melodies once blowed into, or rapped against each to produce strange rhythmic sounds. Some rhythmic stomping made the ambience complete.

The green eaters danced with several sharptooth all night long. The bone necklaces they were wearing made clanking noises as they moved all up and down their necks. Roary strutted his stuff with all of the green eaters. The green eaters demonstrated their traditional dances. The sharptooth showed them theirs. Chomper and V'Leck did one such dance that reminded Alaina of a duckbilled swimmer stamping out and brushing off ticklish ants all over one's body. They even allowed themselves to do a rather risque dance normally done by a young male and female sharptooth as a courtship ritual. Chomper boasted that that was how he won V'Leck's heart. V'Leck said he was right, as that was what prompted her to take him as a mate a short time later. The green eaters' thought the courtship dance demonstration was quite provocative.

Cera even danced with Chomper for a spell! Though she didn't dare do with him any of the traditional threehorn courtship dances she had seen done before. She only allowed herself to an exagerated rhythmic bobbing of her head, which was usually a precursor to those dances.

The green eaters noticed that Chief Berserker himself partook in the dancing with several of the female servants. As far as they knew, he was not mated to any female sharptooth; and as Sharptooth Council Leader, he must have plenty of eager females to pick from to be his potential mate. It wouldn't surprise me if he chose more than one female, all of the green eaters thought.

Eventually, Lesik convinced his companions to retire for the night, as he wanted to get an early start tomorrow. They all bade farewell to all of the sharptooth surrounding them, and thanked them individually for the wonderful feasting and celebrating. A lot of the sharptooth waved goodbye to them in an enthusiastic fashion. The party continued for a short time after; but eventually, all of the partygoers disbanded to retire to their dwellings for the rest of the night. I think a lot of them will be sleeping in tomorrow, Chomper thought to himself.

The next day, the bright circle had already risen when the green eaters gathered to leave for home.

Petrie was walking around with his head in his hand.

"You okay, Petrie?" Alaina asked.

"Just got berry hangover..." Petrie said in a shaky voice.

"AWWW... Poor Petrie!" Alaina said as she stroked one of his wings.

"NOT SO LOUD, pleeease!"

Alaina placed a hand over her mouth as she giggled.

"I've been thinking." Lesik began. "When we get home, I plan to make a change in the way the Council does things."

"What do you mean?" Cera asked.

"I mean: Why should we have to have a unanimous agreement from all of the Council members before something gets done, when a simple majority would be enough? If your father had stuck fast to his opposition in us coming here, we NEVER would've been able to help save Chomper's kind."

After a few moments, Cera nodded. "Sounds like it might work."

Lesik chuckled.

"What?" Cera asked the big long neck.

"You've changed, Cera. Just a few days ago, you would've said that the way the Council does things works for everybody in The Great Valley; and that making any kind of change to the way it works would be foolish..."

Cera shrugged. "Maybe this whole 'Bloody Tummy' crisis has made me realize a few things..."

It was here that Chomper and his family finally appeared. "Sorry we're late. But it took a while to get Roary out of bed this morning." Teek said as he patted his son on the shoulder. Roary yawned as he staggered around seemingly in a daze.

Chief Berserker and the twelve Councilors stopped by to see them all off. He even assigned some guards to protect them while they travelled throughout the sharptooth provinces. After saying their final goodbyes to Chief Berserker and the Councilors, they set off.

They reached the border of the Sharptooth Countries by evening. After saying that they could go no further, the guards said their final goodbyes to the green eaters, Chomper and his family before they turned around and headed back home. From there, they were on their own. They stopped to rest for the night a short time after.

It took them three full days to finally reach the Green Eater Countries, and they reached the ravine leading to The Great Valley entrance by mid morning. It took them a bit longer this time, as Chomper was not pushing them hard, and they felt there was no great rush to get back home. Although they set their own pace, they were really glad to reach their final destination.

Cera sighed happily. "Home sweet home!"

"There no place like it!" Petrie said with a smile.

"Yup, yup, YUP!" Alaina allowed herself to say with her own grin.

"We're almost there!" Lesik announced as he caught sight of the valley entrance and the two threehorn guards at the vigil.