(Here's chapter 24, and now we're at the one-year anniversary of the original Sharptooth Valley!)

Chapter 24: A Universal Meeting Place

Ruby went over to check to see how Rory and Littlefoot were recovering. "I miss walking," Littlefoot sighed.

"Rita told me you guys will be better soon, so don't you fret," the fast biter said. "But have you guys seen Chomper lately?"

"What do you mean by that?" Rory asked, puzzled. "Chomper has seemed excited about something, something has excited Chomper," Ruby explained.

"When did he start acting like that?" Littlefoot asked.

"When we were talking about how we could help the flatteeth," Ruby responded.

"Maybe he had a idea," Rory suggested. "Maybe," nodded Ruby in agreement.

MEANWHILE……..

Chomper had the, to him at least, the perfect idea. But he was going to need Mage's assistance to pull it off. He figured the rainbow face spirit would be out in a secluded portion of the Great Valley, doing small magic tricks to pass the time.

And indeed he was. Mage had marked the side of one of the GV's walls with some smashed sweet bubbles, and he was magically throwing stones, trying to aim for a flier's eye. (Bullseye.)

Taking several steps back, he picked up some pebbles and closed one of his eyes. "Perfect concentration….." he whispered to himself, "I can't let anything distract me right now….."

"Hi Mage!" Chomper called suddenly, talking him by surprise. "Good evening Chomper," he waved. "I take it you want my help?"

The purple sharptooth nodded. "But….." he started to say, as this might pose a problem, "This will probably take a lot of magic."

"What exactly do you have in mind?" the rainbow face asked. "Well…." Chomper began slowly, "I was thinking of getting my friends and the grownups from the old reality to help us out here."

Mage was indeed surprised by this request.

ELSEWHERE………

Rita and Mr. Belly Dragger were removing some thorns from Nod's leg after he got into an accident while hunting when Rita suddenly froze.

"Something wrong?" Mr. Belly Dragger asked his apprentice.

"You ever get the feeling that a friend of yours is about to do something that will have potentially disastrous results?" the ocean blue longneck asked.

"What makes you think that?" Mr. Belly Dragger asked with a surprised chuckle. "No reason," Rita replied.

But there was a reason. Rita's sixth sense was acting up again. She was feeling that somewhere not too far off, bad events would soon transpire. She wanted to ignore these feelings, but they remained implanted in her mind.

BACK WITH CHOMPER AND MAGE………

"Are you sure you should reveal the truth that there are two realities?" Mage asked, concerned for his friend.

"I don't know is there's any other way to save Flattooth Valley and stop the bad dinosaurs," Chomper explained in reply.

"But do you think you'll be able to find where your old friends from the old Great Valley are?" the rainbow face spirit questioned.

"Oh don't worry about that," the sharptooth assured, "I remember where the Great Valley is, and knowing my friends, they'll be out in the Mysterious Beyond, putting themselves in danger every 3 days or so."

"I can see there won't be any changing of your mind," Mage determined, "But I'll need time to come op with a way to use my magic for this."

"Thanks Mage," Chomper said, running back to join up with his friends.

Back at Chomper's family's cave, Dein and Terri were having a discussion. "I miss the days when he was even younger," Terri said with a sigh and a smile.

"When we had to get all his food, when all he could catch by himself was bugs," Dein continued.

"And I've noticed," Terri added, "All of Chomper's friends have at least one sibling."

Dein was catching on to his mate's lingo. "You don't mean…" he smiled, realizing what Terri was getting at.

"Would you want to have another egg?" Terri smiled.

"Another what?" Chomper asked, suddenly arriving at his home.

"Uh…another egg stealer for dinner dear?" Terri quickly said, altering her words. The parents felt that since they hadn't done anything yet, it would have been odd to talk about having another egg in front of their son.

"Certainly," Dein nodded, going along with the pantomime, "I'll go chase one down."

AT CIRA AND VELI'S NEST………..

"Lig-neck is nummy," Tricia smiled, eating her dinner. For a little while now, Tricia had been able to say easy sentences, making her parents beaming with pride.

"Learning young, like a real fast biter!" Veli bragged to anyone who had been happening to walk past them at the time.

"And what she's saying is accurate too," Cira chuckled with a smile; a longneck is what she and Veli had caught for dinner.

Cera's former jealously of her baby sister had all but dissipated away by now. After the sisters got swept away into the Underground Caverns, the young fast biters formed a close bond.

Meanwhile, Tera and her children caught dinner together as a family. "Glider, I can't believe that move you made!" Petrie said, complimenting his sister. "Nothing to it," Glider responded. "Ever since I learned where exactly a longneck's throat is, I can take one down with one swipe."

Since the gang was getting older and their hunting skills were improving, near and more tricky-to-perfect techniques were being taught, such as the spot on a longneck's neck that you could kill one with if you got a good swipe at it. But they only used this in hunts, and not often at that.

It's not like there'd be another situation where they'd need this knowledge….

Myra, Greg, and Rita gathered around Rory, whose leg now allowed some movement. They decided to tell each other scary stories, mostly ones they learned while back in their old home. Littlefoot was nearby, listening to the stories.

"And then, the mysterious dark sharptooth cornered the teenage longneck, then…..CHOMP!" Myra acted.

Rory, Rita, and Greg shivered slightly, a tad afraid. "Great story!" complimented Littlefoot. "Especially the end when it ate everybody! I love a happy ending."

"Oh right, sharpteeth find different things scary than what we do," Myra remembered. Stories about sharpteeth that would terrify young flatteeth are stories that would delight young sharpteeth.

BACK TO THE PLOT……..

Nighttime had arrived and the Bright Circle had gone down. After his parents had gone to sleep, Chomper set out to catch up with Mage and see if he had come up with anything.

Luckily for the sharptooth, Mage had. When Chomper found the rainbow face, Mage was holding 7 stones.

"More magic stones?" Chomper figured. Mage nodded. "Indeed, and I've even added a few tricks to them, to."

"Like what?" Chomper asked curiously.

"Well, for starters," Mage replied, "If you're holding claws with someone else, both of you can teleport with just one of these rocks." "Cool, what else?" Chomper questioned.

"I'm not exactly sure if this'll prove to be helpful," Mage continued," But use one of those rocks right now."

Chomper shrugged and did so. Picking up one of the rocks, he thought about the previous reality, and then the warp came once again.

However, what occurred this time was….something different. Instead of landing in the old reality, Chomper eneded up in a place he had never seen before. It was the inside of a small, circular cave, with a small, warm fire flickering in the center.

"Where am I?" Chomper asked puzzled.

"Someplace I created," Mage's voice was heard as he suddenly appeared right beside Chomper.

"So what is this place?" Chomper questioned again. "It's a place….that is not part of either reality," Mage explained.

Chomper didn't quite understand that. "By that, I mean, it's basically a detour you have to take before you can go into the next reality." Chomper began to nod in understanding.

Mage pointed upwards at the two exits to the cave. "That tunnel takes you back to the sharptooth reality," he revealed, pointing to the tunnel with an image of a sharptooth next to it, "And that tunnel returns you to the old reality," he said, pointing to a tunnel that had an image of a longneck next to it.

"And I think I know what I'll do first," the dark purple sharptooth commented. "And that is?" questioned Mage.

"One night, when I can get everyone together, I'll take one of the rocks and head back to the old reality," Chomper strategized, "Since time stops when I'm not in this reality, I'll have plenty of time to find the old versions of my friends, then I'll have both sides meet each other."

This plan had a few elements Mage had to question: "But what are you going to tell the sharptooth versions of your friends?" he asked, "It'd be very confusing to them, and it would almost sound like you're telling them they didn't exist always."

"I won't do this immediately," responded Chomper, "I'll take some time to come up with a way to explain this to the others."

"Ok, I just hope you know what you're doing," Mage replied. "Don't worry," assured Chomper. "Let's head back now."

The carnivore and the herbivore returned to the sharptooth version of the Great Valley and went their separate ways.

Chomper ran over rather confidently, thinking his plan would work for sure.

If he only knew that it would end up going terribly, terribly, wrong……..

(Read and review! One year ago today, the prologue of Sharptooth Valley 1 was posted, and now I'm halfway through the sequel! Time flies, doesn't it?)