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NIGHTS 3, 4, and 5: DEMONSTRATIONS OF LOVE
Chapter 13: A Leap of Faith
Petrie stood in silence as the meeting descended into complete pandemonium. The silence that had preceded Petrie's announcement was replaced by the uproar of confused and agitated voices. The flyer's news had been welcome news to all who had heard it, but it had also been utterly unexpected. Topps began to walk in front of the agitated meeting in an apparent attempt to call them back to order, but another voice beat him to that task.
"Everyone, be silent!"
Bron's booming voice shook the ground as the longneck rose and slammed the ground with his front feet. The resulting percussion caused the adults to fall silent immediately. It was only then that Petrie noticed Servine's advancing form.
"My son is alive?!"
Petrie took on an expressionless face upon hearing the father's tone. The sound of despair being invaded by hope was obvious for anyone to hear. It was enough for Petrie to contemplate what he would feel if any of his children were ever to be lost. How would he and his mate face such a horrible prospect? It had been one thing to imagine such horrible scenarios as a youngling, but to imagine them as a parent was another thing all together. His heart broke for the agitated threehorn.
Out of the corner of his eye, Petrie could see the three younglings perched beside their grandmother as they looked towards their father with a look of concern. Petrie had to will himself in order to complete the task that lay before him. They be safe, Spotter. Now me need to let Servine know his son safe.
"Yes, your son safe. Seeker's son, Biter, find them." Petrie nodded slightly as the elder threehorn closed his eyes in relief. The shuddering of the male's sides confirmed that he was struggling to hide his emotion from the other threehorns. Even in a time of grief or happiness appearances had to be maintained.
But then Petrie frowned. Should me tell him about Charger's injuries? As Petrie considered this an old saying from Cera's leaf-eater days popped into his mind. Something that she had said when Ducky attempted to hide information from her.
Spike bowed his head in shame at his mistake. His pile of tree sweets had been right next to Cera's and he had lost track of what he was doing until finally both piles disappeared into the bottomless pit that was his stomach. The gang had tried their best to distract the little threehorn, but she had been determined to eat her tree sweets first before they played any games. As a result, when she finally arrived at where the tree sweets were arranged, she was in for an unpleasant surprise.
Cera looked at the group with a betrayed look, "Why didn't you tell me about this?"
Ducky looked at the agitated threehorn with a confused expression, "We did not want you to be sad. Oh, no, no, no."
"We thought we tell you later," Petrie added, "We get more tree sweets to replace ones that Spike ate."
Spike bellowed an apologetic sound as he looked away. He had never intended to hurt anyone's feelings.
Littlefoot looked at the threehorn with concern, as if he expected her to explode at any moment. However the next words out of her mouth confused them all.
"My daddy always says that a rough truth is better than a weak lie."
Littlefoot tilted his head in confusion, "Cera?"
Cera groaned, "What it means, flathead, is that it is better to face the truth than to ignore it."
This caused her four friends to shift uncomfortably as they realized that their attempt to remedy the situation has in fact made it worse.
"Now," Cera smiled at them with an almost predatory smile, "We can play a new game. I call it 'Find New Tree Sweets or Cera Rams You', doesn't it sound fun?"
As he remembered Cera's words, Petrie sighed. He would give the threehorn the full truth before he could find out in person.
"But Charger be injured pretty bad," Petrie's heart nearly broke when he saw the look that the threehorn gave him, "He not have infection anymore, but he get hurt running from sharpteeth... he have scars and lose eye." Petrie bowed his head out of respect, "Me sorry to tell you that."
Servine closed his eyes for a moment as if to process all of that information. Petrie was expecting an emotional outburst or perhaps an angry response from the threehorn, but what he got instead surprised him.
"It is what it is, flyer. The important thing is that my son lives." His gravelly voice echoed across the clearing as Petrie could only look on. The threehorn seemed to collect himself emotionally for a moment before he concluded his words to the flyer, "His mother died protecting others and I shed blood to do the same. I would expect no less courage from my brave son."
The threehorn, obviously choked up at this information, returned to his place at the front of the threehorn herd. No other member of the herd formally greeted him or offered comfort as that would imply weakness. Instead, they increased their distance around him, but made an almost protective circle. Even when their loved ones were in a moment of weakness, the threehorns could only respond with an outward show of strength.
"What about Sauria?!"
"Datum! What about our son?!"
Petrie smiled at the advancing longnecks and the rainbowfaces which almost seemed to be running circles around him. "They be fine. In fact, it be Datum's speaking sharptooth that saved them all."
Chronos gave an audible sigh of relief, as Logos began to cry happily beside him. Axiom, on the other hand, could be seen running towards several other children who had broken away from their parents.
Petrie smiled. Happy swimmer... happy flyer... happy rainbowface... and Tricia... He knew at that moment that he was seeing the new 'gang' that had formed in the valley. Despite its differing composition Petrie could feel the same kind of comradery radiating off of them that he felt with his pack. It seemed that Tricia and the others were maintaining the legacy of the Gang of Seven.
As the four friends celebrated the welcome news with uncontrollable excitement, Topps made himself known by clearing his throat. Petrie could see a momentary odd look from the threehorn before his face took on a more neutral expression.
"This is very welcome news, but now the question is: how do we bring them home?"
Petrie frowned. That was the question, wasn't it?
"Pack have idea... if you want to hear it."
Cera watched the threehorn from the bushes. His scars stood out under the noon sun as his friends ate some distance away. Their absence clearly indicated to the fastbiter what was going on.
They know when to give a threehorn some space.
Cera frowned at this, but remained silent from her vantage point. She had sent her children with Taunt for a while with the pretext of them needing another hunting lesson from their father. Her children, being quite enthusiastic about the idea of their father helping them find ground fuzzies, had erupted with approval almost immediately. Taunt's expression towards her had clearly communicated 'I will get you for this!' but his demeanor indicated that he actually didn't mind watching the kids for a while.
Besides, she knew that Taunt would not understand what she had to do here.
A small flyer, one of the feathered kinds, landed on Charger's back as the threehorn shuddered at the sudden intrusion. This only deterred the flyer for a moment as it landed along with several others. As they began to peck at the threehorn's back his actions became more indignant as he rose to his back legs and bucked several times. It was only then that the flyers flew away for good.
I guess he never heard of how useful buzzer-eater flyers can be, Cera observed.
His rebellion against the flyers seemed to have irritated Charger as he paced anxiously, shaking his head in an annoyed way. This agitated behavior soon intensified as an audible groan left his lips. This was followed by rather violent scratching at his shoulder, which caused a bit of blood to fall from one of the scars. Finally, he again laid down on his belly and proceeded to stare blankly at the grass. The smell of melancholy radiated from him.
"Those flyers can help you, you know?"
The threehorn rose in surprise as Cera broke her silence and appeared from the bushes.
"They eat blood-suckers, and you have a lot of those on your back."
The threehorn's expression shifted in a few seconds from one of surprise to one of annoyance. However, by the time the threehorn finally responded, it had shifted to one of faux indifference. An expression that Cera had often seen and used during her threehorn days.
"I survived a sharptooth; I don't think that a few blood-suckers are going to kill me."
Cera kept her face neutral despite the urge to smile at Charger's bravado. His reaction brought back many memories.
"Maybe so, but I think your friends would not be pleased if you got an infection again," she gestured at Charger's reopened scar, "based upon what your longneck friend said it was a very close thing."
Charger growled in annoyance, "Her name is Sauria, you damn fastbiter! She is your leader's sister; shouldn't you know her name?"
Cera now allowed herself a smile. She had just the opening that she wanted.
"Ah... so the prideful threehorn is willing to defend a flathead?"
Charger looked surprised for a moment but quickly tried to avoid being outmaneuvered in the conversation.
"Uh... well she helped me out... so it is the least that I can do..."
Cera restrained the size of her smile to avoid freaking out the threehorn, which caused her tail to rise in an equivalent gesture of levity.
"Now, Charger, you and I both know that isn't true. You defended Sauria because you care about her. Just like how you also care for Datum," his frown did not dissuade her from continuing, "there is no harm in admitting that, Charger."
Charger began to walk away in a dismissive fashion, "Phtt.. why do you even care, fastbiter?"
Cera quickly and silently sprinted and surprised Charger by suddenly appearing in front of him, "I care, Mr. Cheerful, because you remind me of a certain someone I used to know long ago. And I don't want you to make the same mistakes that she did."
Charger stared down the fastbiter for several moments, with his smell of annoyance rising to high levels. However, within several moments a rather calm response came from him.
"What mistakes did you make, Cera?"
It was Cera's turn to be surprised. He picked up on my meaning quite fast. This is not a dumb one! The fastbiter hid her reaction, however, and quickly responded to the threehorn's query.
"Too many to count, though I only wanted to talk to you about one."
Upon saying this Cera laid down upon her haunches and turned towards the rainbowface and longneck in the background. The longneck was devouring the lower offerings of a tree while Datum seemed to be examining the tree's bark with all of the careful attention that Cera would expect from Chronos or Logos.
"He is always like that," Charger sighed in a good-natured way, "we once were playing the pinecone game and he demanded that we let him have the pinecone afterwards."
Cera tilted her heard as an invitation for the threehorn to continue his explanation.
"We had no idea what he was doing. He said something about learning how trees made tree younglings. Some crazy rainbow-ass nonsense."
Cera laughed out loud upon hearing the insult 'rainbow-ass', which caused the threehorn to look at her oddly. However, he soon chuckled as well despite his obvious misgivings towards the fastbiter who had interrupted his alone time.
"That was something that Finder told us about as well. Back when he was a spiketail he focused on little else but green food and his friends. If he could have told us back then that the hard parts of tree sweets made more tree sweet trees then we would have been saving those up.."
Charger looked surprised, "Datum was right about the trees?!"
Cera laughed, "Yes, young one, your friend wasn't pulling your tail on that one."
Charger looked towards Datum in the distance with a shake of the head, "You can never tell with Mr. Rainbow-ass. He will tell you some crazy stuff just to pull your tail, but then he will talk about crazy stuff that is actually true." He sighed at that admission as he laid down again, "I wish that I knew as much crap as he did."
Cera looked intrigued at the prospect of the threehorn admitting to a stranger that another dinosaur had an advantage over him, but merely allowed herself to ask a less incendiary question, "Have you ever asked him to teach you?"
Charger merely shook his head.
Cera could smell a confusing mix of scents from the threehorn. She was obviously hitting at something here so she decided to give the conversation a nudge.
"You could always ask him for a trade."
Charger's head rose at that suggestion, "Huh?"
"You could teach Datum some things about threehorns," upon seeing Charger begin to shake his head, she continued, "not the sacred stuff, but the other stuff. The stuff he would learn as an adult being around them anyway. In exchange you could ask him to teach you about other things... like healing plants, for example."
Charger seemed to consider this for a moment, but he remained silent.
"I know that it would be improper to submit to a rainbowface but that's the great thing about friends: asking them for help is not a sign of weakness."
Charger looked suspicious at this, "I am sure my dad would disagree."
Cera shrugged, "Maybe so, but I doubt that he has given you any lessons about how herds battle sharpteeth yet, has he?"
Charger could only shake his head at that. He obviously had no idea where Cera was going with her line of conversation.
"It is only when we shed our blood that we know who are true friends are. It is only in a time of weakness that we know where our allies lie. A friend will not challenge a fallen comrade."
Charger's eyes went wide, "Is... is that some kind of threehorn wisdom?"
Cera smiled and nodded, "Indeed it is. My daddy told me that after he told me about what happened to my mother and sisters. After he lost them he nearly fell into despair but his deputies did not take the opportunity to challenge him for the leadership. They had seen what he was willing to sacrifice for the herd and put their own personal ambition aside."
She gestured towards the two leaf-eaters that lay ahead of them as she remembered her father's words on that day, "Your friends are not threehorns, Charger, so they do not understand your ways. My friends never did back in our leaf-eater days either. However, they don't need to. All that they need to know is that although you may not always be able to show it you trust them with everything," she smiled down at him, "and before you say it, yes I am sure that they already know. But they nearly lost you, Charger. In the event that fate takes you or one of them to the Great Beyond one day, you should make sure that there are no unsaid words between you. Life is too short for regrets." Thoughts of Skytail echoed in her mind as she concluded her words. That was a lesson that she did not truly learn until she was a sharptooth.
Charger looked towards the Bright Circle as silence descended upon the two dinosaurs. It was several minutes before he spoke again.
"I suppose you are right, Cera. I guess if all sharpteeth knew the threehorn lessons then they would be much better off."
Cera rolled her eyes at Charger's praise of his own kind, but she was pleased with his acceptance nonetheless. However, he suddenly changed in demeanor as a sad smile appeared on his face.
"Though I suppose they won't do me much good. A half-blind threehorn would be a burden on the herd."
Cera wanted to challenge Charger's words, but she knew that they carried some truth in them. Threehorn herds were based upon the strength and reputation of the herd members. A half-blinded fighter could be given an honored position due to his deeds prior to the injury, but a child on the other hand...
"But a threehorn that knows about healing plants wouldn't be a burden!"
Cera jumped into the air as the rainbowface appeared right behind them. When she again touched the ground she could see that the rainbowface had positioned himself next to his threehorn friend.
"Do you think so?" Charger inquired hopefully, "A threehorn healer isn't exactly a common thing..."
Datum scoffed, "Fighters have to be healed somehow or they will die, right? If one good fighter is useful to the herd then how useful would the healer be that saved ten fighters? Trust the words of this 'rainbow-ass', there is hope for you yet!"
"Yeah!" Sauria's higher-pitched voice suddenly made itself known, "So as soon as you drop the 'high and mighty threehorn act' like Cera suggested then we can get started!"
Cera tried but failed to suppress her laughter as Charger turned towards the fastbiter with a helpless look. They had obviously listened in on a good portion of the 'private' conversation between the threehorn and former threehorn. In response she could only nod in a good-natured way as she began to walk away.
"I said that your friends could be trusted, Charger, I never said that they weren't devious," an audible protest from Sauria and 'thank you' from Datum could be heard as Charger rolled his eyes, "We will let you kids know when Spotter comes back."
As Cera walked away the awkward hushed tones of the threehorn could be heard in-between the supportive words of the two friends. It seemed that some encouragement from a former threehorn was just what Charger had needed in order to put aside the past and look towards the future. It would be a changed future, but then again fate often had a way of changing destinies. She and her friends could attest to that more than most.
Before she turned to track down her mate and children, she looked back in the direction of the bones of Charger's mother. The glorious rays of the Bright Circle greeted her gaze.
You're welcome.
"This is an amazing place, Daddy. You grew up here?"
Petrie smiled upon hearing his son's words. He and his three children were perched on one of the ridges overlooking the valley as they waited for the adults to finalize their decisions. The general idea of the pack and some of the valley residents meeting halfway was agreed upon without much hassle, but the details were another story.
"Yes, son, me and friends grow up here. It good place for leaf-eaters; much better than where me and others grow up in Mysterious Beyond." He shuddered at the memories of his friends' initial journey to the valley. It had been that great struggle that had forged their friendship.
"And much better than where I was during my exile."
Petrie looked over at Pterano, who was perched along with the children. The presence of Pterano was not an odd occurrence as the old flyer would fly over and exchange news several times during each cycle of the Night Circle, but his presence in this location was certainly a rarity.
"Oh, the canyon not that bad," Petrie retorted, "You still within screeching distance of valley."
Pterano nodded, "Yes, but I was referring to where I was before the terms of my exile were changed. Before you and the others had your little change."
Petrie hesitated as he considered this and then nodded. His uncle had told him about that before. It must have been horrible to be left alone in the Mysterious Beyond with only your remorseful thoughts to keep you company.
"But your exile ends soon, doesn't it, Pterano?"
Pterano smiled at Lift's question, "Yes, little one. Topps says that I have five days to go, but they made an exception for this meeting."
Valaria rolled her eyes, "Why doesn't the threehorn just let you in? Haven't you proven yourself?"
Pterano paused for a moment as he interpreted the young flyer's words. Despite having learned the language during his journeys to visit the pack, he was still a bit rusty.
"Mr. Threehorn is nothing but dedicated, young one." Petrie smiled at that as Pterano paused to look down at the adults debating below. A rather impassioned discussion seemed to be taking place between some of the longnecks. Finally, however, Pterano finished his thought, "Besides punishments mean little unless they are carried out."
Valaria seemed to be satisfied by that answer. A pack's entire routine was regulated by expectations of discipline and order. Even the little flyers understood the necessity of such things.
"You can't be serious, Bron! I nearly lost you once; you can't put me and the kids through that again!"
Petrie frowned as he observed the longnecks below. Bron was asserting his case to go with the departing dinosaurs with a rather unhappy mate and worried children.
"I understand how you feel, dear, but one of us needs to go for Sauria... and you need to be here for the kids."
Utu was adamant, "We both need to be here for the kids."
Bron sighed and gave her a brave smile, "All the more reason for me to make sure I get Sauria back safely. Don't worry, dear. I will be back in a few days and the entire family will be united again."
Elsewhere, the rainbowfaces could also be heard making arrangements.
"Axiom, we will need to go just in case they need healers. You be a good girl and stay with Mrs. Swimmer."
The little rainbowface put her hands at her sides as she scowled at her mother, "I am a big girl, mom. I can handle the Mysterious Beyond."
Chronos rolled his eyes, "That maybe so, dear, but you shouldn't have to. We will feel a lot better knowing that at least one of our children is safe while we are gone."
The little rainbowface pouted, but said nothing more.
"This is a trying time for all of them."
Pterano's words brought Petrie back from his observations. He could only nod in response.
"Me wonder if pack realize how hard this be. Me had no idea until me see it."
Pterano looked at his nephew with a curious expression before shaking his head slightly, "You really have changed so much, Spotter." Pterano was careful to use his sharptooth name when addressing him in his language, "Of course we leaf-eaters are especially concerned. The number of sharpteeth in the surroundings of the valley have increased over the years."
Petrie shrugged, "More food means more eaters."
Pterano snorted and shook his head, "That may be true, nephew, but it looks very different when you are not one of the eaters."
As Petrie considered his uncle's words, the discussions below could still be heard.
"You will need to stay here, Tricia."
The pink threehorn was not pleased with Tria's command, but her edict was further confirmed by Topps.
"You can see your friends when we bring them back. There is no need to have you children go into danger."
Tricia growled at this, "But you will be going into danger, Daddy!" As the elder threehorn looked ready to retort she continued, "Not only are they my friends, but Cera will be there. Did you not think that I would like to see her again?"
This caught the threehorns off guard. Topps could only look at his mate with the same dumbfounded expression that she was using to greet him. The entire situation just got even more complicated.
Petrie sighed as Bron, Topps, Servine, and several other threehorns gathered into a circle. They were joined by a few flyers. It seemed that the valley had selected their heroes for this task. Several upset mates and unhappy children observed the scene. Chief among them were Tricia's gang of friends.
"Me hope they not do something stupid," Petrie muttered to himself before turning towards his uncle and the children, "Let's go talk to Mr. Threehorn and see when they plan to leave. Then we go back to pack."
As Petrie flew down into the clearing he could feel an unpleasant feeling in his stomach. He had no doubt of the abilities of his friends or the valley, but were they equal to the task that they now faced?
For the first time in a long while he feared for the future.
That evening, outside of Hanging Rock:
Orchid stared at the gorge with an intense glare.
This feels so wrong...
"We have to do this, brother. Unless you plan on breaking our family's oath."
Orchid turned to look at his sister. With her pinkish-red crest of feathers and soft pink skin she almost looked like a copy of Ruby right before her change. Her face was fixed with an annoyed expression, while her hands were fixed at her hips. The overall gesture would have been much more effective if it wasn't for the fact that he was her brother.
"Oh, come on, sis! I have seen you give me better glares than that," He mocked.
This earned him a face-full of dust as Arial kicked the ground in a frustrated manner.
"I don't enjoy this either, brother, but it is our duty. Even if we were the sort of fastrunners to break a promise I know that neither of us would want to risk mom or dad. We are young and fast, but they are not as fast anymore."
Orchid wiped the dust from his eyes and nodded in agreement despite his annoyance at his sister, "Yeah... but that doesn't mean that I can't be angry about the damn situation!"
Arial nodded grimly, "I think we are in agreement on that, brother."
As the two walked further into the gorge, they descended into silence. The only thing they had going for them was a superior ability to track smaller prey and better knowledge of the area. It would be up to the tyrannosauruses to make the kill...
"Sis? Aren't these domehead tracks?"
Arial leaned towards the ground as she examined the small indentations carefully. They were obviously made by a juvenile over a day ago, but they were certainly domehead tracks. Her face went from annoyance to grim acceptance. She had never been responsible for the death of another dinosaur until today, but now she knew that her innocence was over.
"Orchid, go tell mom and dad what we have found... I need to tell Dein and Terri that we found them a meal."
The pack's territory:
"Alright, everyone! We have all heard what Spotter had to say. Tomorrow we go to Hanging Rock and send you kids back home where you belong."
Murmurs of agreement echoed amongst the pack as they began to stretch in preparation for sleep. Petrie's report had been brief and to the point, but the questions that he had received had far exceeded him in verbosity. All of his packmates wanted to know about the whereabouts of their families in the valley. It was one thing to hear reports from a distance from Pterano, but it was quite another to hear the descriptions come from Petrie. It was these little moments that continued to echo in Ducky's mind.
"How is Shorty doing, Spotter?" Littlefoot asked curiously, "Pterano said that he had been growing..."
The flyer laughed at his friend's question. It seemed that with Littlefoot reaching his maximum size as a fastbiter he was becoming a bit more self-conscious about his size relative to his former kind.
"Shorty huge, Seeker! He be about as big as Doc was!"
Littlefoot's mouth went agape as he considered this information. The last time that he had seen his brother was after the battle in the valley. It was hard to believe that Shorty was already a giant by longneck standards.
"What about mommy?" Ducky asked, "...and what about new brothers and sisters?"
Petrie smiled, "They be fine. Your momma seem to have hand full with kids."
"With Malka around how am I not surprised?" Sauria rolled her eyes. Upon seeing Ducky's confused gaze Sauria continued, "She has to be quick witted to put up with Tricia and Flip."
Petrie laughed, "Yeah, me meet him. He and Tricia argue a lot."
Cera puffed up her chest a bit as some of her kids tried to imitate her arrogant pose, "That sounds like my sister. Somebody has to keep the flyers in line."
Laughter echoed from several of the other fastbiters as Petrie and his kids could only roll their eyes. It seemed that some things never changed.
"Do we have to go to bed now, Mommy? I am not tired."
Ducky looked down at her son, Fisher. His eyes were innocent, but despite his words the elder fastbiter could see some fatigue in them. Perhaps she could help that along so the kids could have a good night's sleep before their journey?
Ducky rose and cleared her throat, which caused the others to turn towards her direction. Everyone was still here except for Littlefoot, Chomper, and Thud's pack who had begun to take a tour of the territory and the areas to defend. It was a rare thing for another pack to be called upon to defend a pack's territory in its absence, and everyone wanted to be as prepared as possible.
"Fisher here tells me that some of you aren't sleepy."
A chorus of agreeing voices came from the children, both sharptooth and leaf-eater.
"Yeah!" One of Cera's children called out.
"I can stay up a bit longer," Charger grunted.
"It's barely dark out!" Biter affirmed, despite the fact that it was several hours after nightfall.
Ducky smiled as she gestured towards the clearing and gave her mate a nudge in that direction. Within moments the other pack members were surrounding Ducky and a very confused Leap.
"What are we doing, dear?" he whispered in confusion.
"We are going to sing a story," she smiled, "and I think that we know just the perfect one to sing for this occasion."
Ducky rose as she took a deep breath, "You children have heard the stories of our leaf-eater days. You have heard the story of the Stone of Destiny. You have heard about how we came to our lands. But there is one story that you have not yet heard... how all of you children came to be in the first place."
Taunt interrupted, "Aren't they all a bit young to learn about the flyers and the buzzers?"
A soft yelp could be heard as Cera nipped at her mate's tail. Ducky rolled her eyes, she was obviously not going to focus on those parts of the story.
"Speaking of which, I think Taunt would be a good place to start the story," Leap mentioned with some amusement, "After all, if it wasn't for his pranks we might have not come together."
Ducky smiled, "Yep, yep, yep! I think that is a good idea, dear."
Spike coughed, which caused Ducky to look towards her brother, "Not to be rude, sis, but it will take us quite a while to tell the children about how all of them came to be. Those are too many songs for one night."
Ducky smiled at her brother's comment, "Very true, Finder, but luckily for us we have several days of travelling ahead of us."
Ruby nodded, "Several days of travel will give us several days to sing. Now the only question is: which one of you will start this song, so that the singing can start?"
Taking Ruby's question as an invitation to begin Leap rose to his feet and gave a nod to Ducky, which was reciprocated. He would start off this song and Ducky could sing along.
"Alright, children, let us tell you about how Haven and I became companions."
And now the songs are about to resume (it only took us about five chapters of an interlude to get there (-;). Work has been keeping me quite busy, but I still plan on posting the next chapter on Friday.
More Dakka: Lol! Well, hopefully things don't get as dark as Game of Thrones for our protagonists. Though only time will tell...
gordhanx: Yep, in the last chapter everyone finally had some respite from their recent hardships. I am also glad that you enjoyed the character interactions with Littlefoot/Chomper and Soar/Petrie scenes. It is the character interactions that I most enjoy writing in these stories. Occasionally the characters do things that surprise me when I am writing those scenes. As for the cliffhanger, it will be curious to see how that situation develops. It seems that the fastrunners have been drafted into being scouts for Dein and Terri's hunt.
FlyingButter: Yep, Chomper's parents have returned to complicate the story as only they could. I hope that you enjoy the latest installment.
bryan mccloud: Those are some interesting ideas about how the Dein and Terri situation might resolve itself. All I can say at this time is that Petrie's decision to go straight to the pack might not have been the best option. Now he, the pack, and the valley dinosaurs might be heading into a very dangerous situation.
SuperCyclone1987: No problem about the late review. I am just glad that you are continuing to enjoy the story. I hope that you like the latest chapter.
Baron Harkness: Sorry about the delay in getting this to you. I hope that you enjoy the latest installment.
Thanks for the reviews, everyone! I hope that you all have a wonderful week.