Chapter 21: Departure

Littlefoot wandered through the Great Valley. All he could see were the bodies of the Great Valley dinosaurs strewn about. The entire valley was wreathed in an eerie and icy mist and a pale sun shone overhead in a stone-grey sky.

"Grandma? Grandpa? Cera? Ducky? Ali? Spike? Petrie? Deimos? Raptix? Where are you?" Littlefoot shouted.

He got no reply save for the echoes of his voice and the chill whistling of the wind. He bent his head as tears began to flow from his eyes.

"Damn it! Where is everyone!? Answer me!?" Littlefoot shouted, his voice racked with sobs.

This time he did get an answer: "Littlefoot, the Longneck who felled the unstoppable. I am back." A mysterious voice said. The voice was as cold as the mists that surrounded him and had a preternatural wispy quality.

Littlefoot gulped. "Who…who's there?"

"I am…your worst foe." The voice said.

"Who?" Littlefoot was now trembling with fear and cold.

"I am the Sharptooth."

Littlefoot gulped. "N…no. No. No! He's dead…I…I saw him. He…he died in a lake in the Mysterious Beyond."

"No. I am the Sharptooth and I am back." The mists then parted to reveal a colossal midnight black sharptooth with eyes that emitted a bright blue-white glow. The sharptooth had one other feature that set him apart from others: two thin crystalline blades projected from the bottom of his forearms.

The sharptooth then approached him, arm blades gleaming in the pale sun.

"Damn it! Get away from me!" Littlefoot shouted. He tail whipped a large rock at the sharptooth but he easily sliced the boulder in two with his arm blades, the halves falling aside with a mighty crash.

"Hmph. A poor try for the Longneck who once took down the mightiest sharptooth of all." The sharptooth spat.

Littlefoot swung his tail at the sharptooth in response. The sharptooth grinned and parried Littlefoot's tail with one of his arm blades.

Littlefoot screamed as the arm blade sheared off a large part of his tail. The severed end fell with a wet squish.

"A useless move." The sharptooth said.

Littlefoot then charged the sharptooth despite the intense pain he was in. The sharptooth slashed at Littlefoot's leg with his arm blade, cutting off Littlefoot's left foreleg at the knee.

"N…No! What are you?!" Littlefoot demanded in between ragged breaths and tears.

"That is not important." The sharptooth responded, severing Littlefoot's right foreleg with a quick slash.

Littlefoot then toppled over in a pool of blood and the sharptooth crossed his arm blades into an "x" formation with Littlefoot's head between the two blades.

Littlefoot gulped as the sharptooth slowly bought his blades together, cutting into his neck. He screamed as the blade cut deeper and blood began to ooze from the slash.

Then suddenly, Littlefoot found himself inside the stone cathedral where they first met Archie. All his friends were present and all were awake.

"Littlefoot? What happened?" Raptix asked.

"Um what?" Littlefoot asked. "Am I bleeding?"

"You're not bleeding. But you were talking in your sleep and you were moving around a lot too."

"Erm. I had a really scary sleep story where I met this weird sharptooth with crystals growing out of his arms and they were so sharp they cut stone. He…" Littlefoot shivered. "Killed me."

"It's a sleep story; it can't hurt you." Ali said nuzzling Littlefoot.

"Yeah. It's probably nothing."

Coatal just landed inside the cave. "The Bright Circle is rising; we need to move."

Strut, Raptix and Coatal broke camp and the group then exited the cave.

Far from the stone cathedral of the Mysterious Beyond; the golden rays of the late afternoon sun shone over the dense fogs of Cloud Island.

On Cloud Island's mountain, the pale light illuminated some dinosaurs near a cave.

Ms. Maia, Procella and some other dinosaurs were gathered around the cave.

"What do you mean you arrived when the Bright circle rose and you found the guards were missing?" Procella demanded.

"Exactly what I mean; when my partner and I arrived to replace the guards of the Swimmer and sharptooth taken from the Great Valley, we found that the cave was unguarded and the prisoners missing. They must have escaped." The golden sickleclaw replied flatly.

Ms. Maia walked up to the sickleclaw, grabbed him in a chokehold and pushed him near the cliff. He was so close to the cliff that some pebbles were knocked loose and fell several hundred feet through the thin mists into the forest below.

The sickleclaw struggled briefly before Ms. Maia's stone-hard grip threatened to break his wrist.

"Don't give me that, 'they must have escaped' junk. You know damn well that they were bound to rocks! You were just careless! And I should throw you off this cliff for that!" Ms. Maia hissed.

"Ms. Maia! Focus your anger on the prisoners not the guards! Killing the guard will not help!" Procella commanded.

Ms. Maia dragged the guard back from the edge and literally tossed him to his partner, a light green male sickleclaw who caught him and gently helped him get back to his feet.

"Why did we let this one here? She's evil and outright crazy!" a green and gold sickleclaw said.

His companion, a female green and blue sickleclaw nodded. "She threw a fast-biter off a cliff for failing to get information out of a prisoner. A search party, with me as the leader, found his body in a tree, impaled through the chest on a large branch. And the worst part was… he was found alive and he had been alive for a few nights. We couldn't do anything for him and he was in so much pain that Procella snapped his neck." She shuddered at the memory.

"Ugh."

Procella sighed as she listened to the two sickleclaws. "Could you not bring that incident up?"

"Sorry." The green and blue sickleclaw said.

"It's okay. We'll continue searching."

In the meantime, Chomper, Vio, Ed, Rytho and a weak, emaciated Ducky had travelled deep into the forest. The mists that veiled the forests had thinned with the rising of the sun and the forest was rich with a mélange of odors: leaf litter, dirt, rain and vegetation.

"Well, I guess we're good. This island's so big they'll never find us." Vio said. Both he and Ed were supporting Ducky.

"Don't get too cocky." Rytho replied.

"I'm getting dizzy." Ducky began.

"It's okay, we're almost there."

"I need to…" Ducky then collapsed to the ground, nearly taking Vio down with her. They put their weapons down quickly before Vio and Ed gently turned her onto her back.

"Ducky! Are you okay?!" Vio called out as he crouched down next to her.

"I'm not going to make it," she whispered. She was terribly pale and gaunt. Vio rested a hand on her forehead.

"You'll make it, Ducky. We're gonna get out of here. Ed! Rytho! Find some green food quickly!"

Ed and Rytho, who had also crouched next to Ducky, jumped up and went to find the most succulent green food they could find. Chomper came up to Vio and Ducky.

"Will she be all right?" Chomper asked out of concern for his friend. Vio nodded.

"Yeah, as long as we get some food in her soon. Bastards! I can't believe they did this to you, Ducky. They'll pay with their lives for sure!" said Vio.

Upon hearing that, Ducky thought about her brother, Saurolo, who had been murdered in cold blood. She suddenly began to cry harshly.

"Ducky, what's the matter?" Vio asked. Ducky said nothing for a few moments before she began.

"My…my brother…Saurolo. He…was killed. He was…he was." she sobbed.

"What?!" Vio gasped.

"Yes," Ducky choked. "They could not get me to talk, so they killed him…right in front of me. He… was gutted then decapitated. This is mostly his blood on me." She was crying harder by that point.

"Shh," Chomper soothed as he rested a hand on Ducky's shoulder. "Don't cry so hard, Ducky. You haven't much strength."

"Let her grieve," Vio said compassionately. "Don't worry, Ducky. We'll get those damn bastards for this. Your brother's death will be avenged." Just then, Ed and Rytho returned with an abundance of succulent green food.

"Look what we've brought, Ducky," Rytho said. He and Ed then noticed Ducky's harsh crying, along with Vio and Chomper comforting her.

"What's wrong?" Ed asked.

"Her brother was killed right in front of her in those assholes' attempts to get her to talk. That's why she's bloody," Vio explained.

"Aw, we're sorry, Ducky. We'll get 'em back, but for now, try to eat something," Rytho soothed.

"I don't know if I can. Poor Saurolo," Ducky sniffled.

"C'mon, Ducky. This is life or death," Ed said. Ducky looked even more pitiful than before. He and Rytho brought the food over and sat down next to Ducky.

"Here, let me help you," Vio soothed as he carefully lifted Ducky to a sitting position and held her. He could care less if she was bloody or not. She needed support more than ever, and he knew she was on the brink of death. Ducky tried to lift her hand to pick up some green food but to no avail.

"I can't do it," she whispered. "I'm done for."

"Oh, no you're not. Stop thinking like that. Ed, give me some of that green food," Vio ordered. Ed did as told.

"C'mon, Ducky. This green food is very luscious. You'll enjoy it," said Vio just before he fed Ducky a mouthful of green food. She slowly chewed before it went down.

"That is good, it is, it is. Can I have some more?" she asked weakly.

"As much as you can eat, Ducky," Vio soothed as Ed gave him more green food. It took a while, but Ducky managed to eat most of the green food. Vio, Ed, Rytho and Chomper all smiled in a pleased fashion.

"Feel better?" Vio asked as he gently rubbed Ducky's abdomen.

"Food wise," Ducky replied, this time with more strength in her voice. "But I could use a bath right now."

"Hey, Ed and I found a stream nearby when we were getting green food," said Rytho.

"Outstanding. Help me get her up," Vio ordered. Ed and Rytho did as told. Once Vio managed to walk Ducky over to the stream and help her sit down in the water, she began to scrub herself off. As she did that, Saurolo's blood and her own blood drifted down the stream. She began to cry again. She had been very close to her brother, and even blamed herself for his murder. She loved him, along with her other siblings, very much. Her heart wrenched as she thought of him. "I'm sorry, Saurolo. Please forgive me," she sniffled as she finished bathing. Meanwhile, a short distance downstream, the others were silent as they frequently glanced over at Ducky.

"I feel so bad for her," said Rytho.

"I know."

"This is a sad time for her, but she's tough. She'll get over this quickly," added Ed.

"No, Ed," replied Chomper. "I've known Ducky since we were very young. She's the most sensitive dinosaur I have ever known, and family means so much to her. It will take her many cold times to get over her brother's death. We have to be strong for her." Chomper looked over at Ducky again and noticed she was trying to get up but was having difficulty.

"Hey, she's done. Let's go help her," Chomper said as he began to walk over to Ducky. The others followed. Ducky looked up as they came over to her. As they helped her up, they noticed she was crying again.

"It's okay, Ducky," Chomper whispered as he embraced her. She returned the gesture. The others could not help but notice the markings she had received as a result of being tortured.

"Those bastards are really asking for an ass kicking!" growled Rytho, smashing his right fist into his left hand.

"Count me in!" agreed Ed.

Chomper growled under his breath. "I don't like killing but this time I'll make an exception."

"There is a time for everything and now's not the time for vengeance. Let's allow her to rest up," Vio said. They then walked Ducky a few feet away from the stream before lowering her down.

"Sleep well, Ducky. We'll keep watch," Chomper soothed just before he nuzzled Ducky's head.

"Yeah, we will," Vio added, gently rubbing Ducky's back. "If those bastards come anywhere near you, we'll take care of them."

"Thank you," Ducky whispered.

"Don't worry, Ducky," Rytho said as he gave Ducky's hand a light squeeze.

"Be not afraid, for we'll protect you," Ed added as he patted Ducky's shoulder.

"Thanks again, guys," Ducky whispered nearly inaudibly as she fell asleep.

"You're quite welcome," Vio said. "C'mon, guys. Hold your weapons and keep your eyes peeled." As they sat, their backs turned to Ducky as they kept her surrounded, could not help but glance at her now and then. The thought of what those evil monsters had put her through only made their hunger for vengeance intensify.

Rytho looked over at the sleeping form of Ducky. His heart wrenched as various emotions churned inside: anger, hatred, sadness and grief. He sighed and turned to the other members of the group. "When I helped Ducky into the stream; I noticed that a lot of her injuries were untreated. We need to get her some herbs."

"We're on a hostile island." Chomper said.

"We'll have to steal some herbs from the enemy. Ed, you come with me and see if we can find an encampment. Don't take any spears." Rytho replied.

Ed's mouth dropped. "No weapons?"

Rytho nodded. "Yes. We'll need something smaller like a knife or a vine." His eyes fell on a vine dangling from a tree. He gently tugged it and it fell to the ground. He then bit the vine in half and handed one half to Ed.

"Ready?" Rytho asked, slinging the vine over his shoulder.

Ed nodded. "Let's go!"

Ed and Rytho headed off into the forest, the mists soon swallowed them.

"Be safe." Chomper whispered.

After several minutes of journeying through the mists, Ed and Rytho spotted the light of a campfire. They hid behind some convenient trees.

"Nice." Rytho whispered.

Ed and Rytho then crept closer to the campfire and noticed that there was a sickleclaw and a fast-biter. The sickleclaw looked at Rytho but didn't notice him.

"I'll go first." Rytho whispered. Ed nodded in response.

"Go!" Rytho whispered as the sickleclaw turned his back to them.

Rytho and Ed burst into the encampment, much to the surprise of the two dinosaurs.

The sickleclaw tried to run but Rytho immediately looped the vine around his neck and pulled tightly. The sickleclaw struggled and kicked at Rytho at an attempted to get free but Rytho pulled the vine even tighter. Eventually the sickleclaw stopped struggling and Rytho tossed the dead sickleclaw aside.

Ed grabbed the fast-biter and strangled him with the vine. As soon as the fast-biter died, he wedged the body inside a stump.

"Nice work." Rytho said. "Now, let's start searching."

Ed nodded and looked inside another hollow stump. He retrieved several leaf packets. He opened one and sniffed it. "This is sickleclaw paste."

"Good." Rytho then looked near the campfire and found several darts on a stone slab. "Hey Ed! I found some darts but they're not treated yet."

"Don't bother. Unless we can find a hollow reed and some poison, they're useless." Ed replied.

Rytho shrugged and almost tossed the darts into the campfire until he spotted a reed leaning against a tree. "And we found one." He then grabbed the reed.

Ed in the mean time looked inside a tree hollow and found a leaf packet of a revolting smelling orange paste. "What is this stuff?" Ed asked, making a face as the fumes struck his nose.

Rytho sniffed it and also grimaced in response. "I think this is It's made from orangis fruit peel and the juice from the leaves of the penthium tree."

"So what's it for?" Ed asked.

Rytho wrinkled his brow in thought. "According to Mr. Bigmouth, it can be used in small doses as a truth juice or as a dart poison that can quickly knock out targets or kill them, depending on how many times you shoot your target."

"That'll work." Ed then took the sickleclaw paste and the penthium.

"We're done here." Rytho said.

Ed and Rytho then returned to where Ducky was still sleeping.

"So find anything?" Vio asked.

Ed and Rytho placed their goods by Vio's feet.

"Sickleclaw paste, dart poison made from orangis fruit peel and the juice from the leaves of the penthium tree, some darts and a hollow reed." Rytho replied.

Chomper looked at the hollow reed. "I am fairly proficient with this weapon. May I take it?"

Rytho nodded. "Sure, we need some way to attack targets at range. But be careful; we don't have many darts and we only have one packet of the dart poison."

Chomper nodded and picked up the reed.

Rytho and Ed picked up their spears. "Well, I guess we wait until Ducky wakes up." Ed said.

Rytho nodded. "Yes. The sickleclaw paste should help Ducky's wounds heal but there is nothing we can do for her memories of this place. Not even the juice of the penthium tree will help."

As the sun also set in the Land of the Mists, the Claw Valley search squad was setting up camp in an open clearing inside a forest. A small river dividing the clearing in half

Ozzie, Sierra, Utah and Umbra were removing their equipment from Theta.

As Theta built a fire ring and piled tinder in it; Manhattan struck several sparks from flint into it. After several sparks landed in the tinder pile, the smoke began to appear.

"I've got this." Manhattan said. Theta nodded and stepped back from the fire ring.

Manhattan blew on the smoldering tinder until it burst into flame; he then tossed broken pieces of twigs into the fire and watched as it flared up.

"We need to hunt." Saber said. His stone war hammer was with the other weapons.

"I'll go." Theta said. He grabbed his pouch of stone throwing knives. He then turned to the gathered dinosaurs. "Who wants to join me on a hunting trip?"

Utah, Sierra and Umbra, who by now had finished removing the equipment from Hasta, stepped up.

Theta grinned. "All right then. Grab your weapons and go!"

Umbra grabbed a stone tipped lance, Sierra grabbed a stone knife and Utah grabbed Saber's war hammer.

"Utah! Put my war hammer back!" Saber shouted.

Utah put the hammer back and grabbed a large tree branch that was lying near the pile of weapons.

The group then met back with Theta and headed off into the forest.

"Well, our mission is totally screwed. We didn't find them." Hasta said.

"Don't be such a pessimist." Rinkus replied, "We'll find them and then we'll kill them,"

Sierra had caught a fish from the river and was eating it. Next to him, Ozzie tied was swinging a vine with a rock tied to the end of it over his head.

Sierra then looked at Ozzie. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to replicate a weapon we found in Altus's encampment. Sadly, it was destroyed in the battle." Ozzie replied.

"What was that weapon?"

"It looked like something used to throw a rock farther and harder."

Sierra chuckled. "Altus might have been a total asshole but at least he's useful for something."

Ozzie then stood up and whirled the vine around his head. He let go of the vine after several revolutions and watched as the rock flew through the air and out of sight, narrowly missing Hasta in the process.

"Damn it! Watch what you're doing!" Hasta shouted. He was relaxing by the fire.

"Sorry!" Ozzie replied.

Sierra slapped his forehead. "Sorry. Not that great. Yes, the rock flew further but it takes too long to tie the vines to the rocks."

"So we could prepare them like we do poison darts."

"Yes but we need something that can throw rocks harder and farther in battle and can be used more than once."

Ozzie got up and grabbed several pieces of vine and braided them together, forming a crude sling. He then showed it to Sierra.

"Well, will this do?" he asked.

"Try it." Sierra replied.

Ozzie placed a rock in the middle of the sling, where the two vines formed a small pouch. He whirled the sling over his head and sent a rock flying into a tree. The rock knocked off a large tree branch as it struck.

"Nice." Sierra said. "What shall we call it?"

Ozzie thought a moment. "I have heard Altus's dinosaurs call it 'sling'. And that's what we'll call it."

"Sounds good."

Just then the hunting party returned with no carcasses. Saber greeted the group at the front of the encampment.

"Get anything?" Saber asked.

Theta shook his head. "No. But we found our targets. They have set up camp a short distance away."

"So what do we do?" Utah asked.

"Simple. Kill them." Theta replied. He then turned to the group. "Okay everyone, we've found the targets and we're going to kill them."

As Theta was speaking, Ozzie looked at his sling. "I guess now is good time to test my sling."

Sierra grinned. "Yes, now let's go!"

Ozzie and Sierra then headed over to the entrance where Theta was standing.

The dinosaurs rushed to arm themselves grabbed their weapons. Some of them grabbed torches as well.

After several minutes, the dinosaurs were armed and they headed out, with Theta as the leader. Only Hasta remained behind to guard the encampment.

Several hundred meters away, Littlefoot's group has set up camp inside a similar clearing, except there were two rivers flowing into a small pond in the middle. A small campfire that had been lit by Strut was on the shores of the pond.

Coda, Strut, Cera, Spike and Coatal were resting near the leftmost river.

Ali and Littlefoot were warming themselves by the campfire. At the same time they were gazing into each other's eyes.

"Littlefoot, did I ever tell you that your eyes are beautiful?" Ali said.

Littlefoot giggled. "Yes. But your eyes are like the cool waters of the Thundering Falls…" He spotted a pair of emerald green eyes on the other side of the campfire. "Raptix! Give us some privacy!" he shouted.

"Yeah! Don't you have someone else, like Cera to bother?!" Ali shouted.

Raptix quickly scurried away from the campfire to where the others were.

"So what did you find out?" Cera asked.

Raptix grinned. "It looks like Ali and Littlefoot love each other."

"They'll make a fine couple." Coda said.

Cera giggled. "Yep. I knew that. Ever since I first saw Ali and Littlefoot; I could see them as a couple."

Strut was intently listening to the whole conversation. "It's kind of shocking, it's like this war brings everyone closer together. Flatteeth, sharpteeth and even Egg-Stealers, all joined together to defeat one common enemy."

"And to conquer." Raptix added darkly.

"Well, we should get rested." Coda said.

Just as Coda spoke, a stone hurtled out of seemingly nowhere, narrowly missing Strut.

"Scatter!" Coda shouted.

Littlefoot and Ali ran up to the group. "What happened?" Ali asked.

"We're under attack! Prepare for defense!" Coatal said.

Meanwhile outside the clearing, Theta's squad rallied to attack.

"Ozzie, use your poison darts to attack from a distance. Once you run out of darts, use your sling. Manhattan, protect Ozzie. The rest of you will join me in attacking."

The gathered dinosaurs nodded.

"Okay then. Charge!" Theta shouted. He and the rest of the group, except Ozzie and Manhattan, charged into the clearing.

Inside the clearing, the group had fallen into formation. Strut was airborne on Coatal's back.

The sounds of shouting could be heard.

"They're here!" Strut shouted, spotting the torches that Theta's group carried.

"Prepare for battle!" Littlefoot bellowed. His powerful voice resonated around the encampment.