(This is the point in the story when the plot really starts picking up. Hope ya like it.)
Chapter 24: Inspector Cera Part 2
Ruby was looking all around the Great Valley, panicked. "It can't be gone!" she cried. "It just can't!" Chomper felt bad for his close friend. "Even though they are always in my memories, if Howler's tooth is gone, it's like another part of him is gone." A tear began to form in Ruby's eye. "Ruby…" Chomper said, not knowing any other words to say. Ruby managed to sniffle the tear. (At this point, she sang the Remembering song, but I just don't like retyping the songs, ok?) Chomper came up to his fast biter friend and gave her a hug. "It'll be ok," Chomper tried to comfort. He gave Ruby a hug, as did Sharptooth who had to lean down greatly, but he still attempted it. "Thanks guys," Ruby smiled. "Don't worry, we won't give up on finding that tooth," Sharptooth explained. "Ok, let's go," Ruby smiled, gaining confidence, and the two little sharpteeth and the one big one took off again.
Meanwhile, Cera caught up to Littlefoot and Spike. "You look mad Cera," Littlefoot said, noticing the mad look on his friend's face. "Something happen?" "Yeah, I met this really rude fast biter when I went to clean this mud off of me," Cera replied. "He wouldn't answer my question." Spike laughed a little. "Don't tell me you suspected some random dino of being the thief," Littlefoot said. "Good mystery-solvers don't jump to the conclusions." "I AM a good mystery-solver," Cera replied. "We just haven't had results yet." Spike made a noise that suggested, "Let's go." Cera and Littlefoot agreed with him there. "Maybe Chomper's parents and Petrie's mom have been more successful than we have been," Littlefoot suggested. "Couldn't hurt to find out," Cera smiled, and the trio took off. (Hey, two consecutive paragraphs ending in the same two words. Gets repetitive, doesn't it?)
The friends met up with Dein, Tera, and Terri back at Chomper's cave. "Nothing?" the grownups asked, forwing slightly. "Nothing," Littlefoot and Cera sighed. The two groups of mystery-solvers did decide to share the information each one found out. "So, there wass leafeater blood on Guido's foot claws and Hyp's claws were completely broken," Cera and Terri said in unison. Tera flew over to the weird print outside the cave. "This is odd," she soon deduced. "Look at this everybody." "What is it?" Cera asked. "This print came from something dragging across the surface." "You mean a belly dragger did this?" Cera asked, again jumping to conclusions. "No, too small to be from a belly dragger," Tera replied. "Looks like a foot print."
"Ah ha," Cera said confidentally. "We can just match the footprint size to the size of our suspects' feet and we have our answer." "Alight problem Cera," Litllefoot commented. "This print is too small to be from either the bullies or Guido." Cera frowned. Her investigation wasn't bringing any results. "Oh just great…" she started to complain. "My friends' stuff is missing, our suspects have both been proven innocent just now, and we have no leads whatsoev…..AGH!" This entire rant, Cera was walking around in angry circles, so she failed to notice the entrance to a hole hidden amongst the grass, so she quickly fell down it. "You OK Cera?" Littlefoot called, Petrie's mom flying down to check on her. "Yeah, don't worry," replied Cera. "Where'd this stupid hole come from anyway? " However, in the back of Cera, Spike, and Littlefoot's minds, this felt somewhat familiar…
Chomper, Ruby, and Sharptooth meanwhile, were continuing the hunt for Howler's tooth. "Who else knows that you live with Sharptooth Ruby?" Chomper asked. Sharptooth responded to this question. "Your friend Littlefoot's grandparents do," he explained. "But we know them, they'd never do something like this." Ruby thought about that comment, as it raised another question: Why would anyone swipe her brother's tooth in the first place? It didn't make sense at all. "Let's split up," Chomper suiggested, and Ruby and Sharptooth agreed with this idea.
MEANWHILE…..
A flash of insight hit Cera, Littlefoot, and Spike. "I think I know what happened," Cera laughed in a small bit of triumph. She looked up at Littlefoot. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" "Yeah," Littlefoot nodded and smiled in response. "Hey Petrie's mom," Cera said. "Could you do me a favor?" "What is it?" Tera asked, not figuring out what the children had figured out. Cera whispered something into Tera's ear (Mainly so I don't tell you the solution beforehand.) "Sure," Tera replied, and flew deeper into the underground caves. Terri lowered her big t-rex tail, and Cera climbed up it to get out of the hole. She and her friends had figured out who the thief was, and the proof would be arriving shortly. "So what's our next move, Mystery-solver Cera?" Terri asked as if it were a game. The young rex, fast biter, and belly dragger all shared a similar smile. "Our next move is catching the culprit," Cera laughed in silent victory.
A FEW MINUTES LATER…..
"Hey what's up guys?" Guido asked, as Littlefoot, Spike, Cera, Dein, and Terri gathered around him. "We know it was you Guido," Littlefoot said. "Who? Me?" Guido laughed. "I don't know what you're talking about." "You might want to change your story boy," Dein laughed in a stern way. "But how could I have taken the shiny stone and Petrie's snuggling stick without anyone noticing?" Guido retorted. "Someone would've seen me since I can't fly right now." "Simple," Cera replied. "You used the underground caverns to navigate without being seen or sniffed." "It was such a simple trick," Littlefoot went on. "And you planted the treesweets to cover your tracks." Guido clapped his hands. "Nice mystery-solver work, but two more things: Where's your proof and how did I cover my footprints?" Soon, they heard a voice coming from underground. "That's coming right up kid," Terri laughed.
"Hey! Lemme go!" a voice said. Tera flew up from the underground caverns…..holding a little t-rex. "You had our friend Lizzie help you." "You stood on her back when you got out of the caverns, and she put her feet together and dragged them across the ground to confuse us with that footprint." Guido looked nervous at this point. "But where's your proof?" Spike made a noise suggesting "Right here," and the belly dragger pointed to Lizzie's shoulder. There was a little cut on it. "Mrs. Chomper's mom, please sniff and compare." Terri put her sniffer next to Guido's foot, than the cut on Lizzie's shoulder. "A match," she confirmed. Guido sighed. He walked over and pulled off some leaves that were covering a hole. He took out Petrie's stick and Terri's shiny stone, and threw them to the gang. "Here ya go," he gave up simply. "But why did you do it?" "Because of Petrie," Guido replied. "Huh?" went everyone.
"A few days ago, I was in the waterhole when Ducky came up to me. She told me that Petrie considered giving up stunt flying, and she wanted me to help him convince him not to." "I don't get it," replied Littlefoot. "Even if you didn't find me out, I was going to tell him that he wouldn't get his snuggling stick back unless he could do something really impressive. It wasn't that mean." "But why did you take my shiny stone also?" Terri asked. "Just so it wouldn't be obvious." Guido replied. Soon afterwards, Guido was given a punishment by the leader of the feathered flyers, and Cera began jumping up and down happily. "All right! I AM a great mystery solver. I'm the smartest fast biter there is!" Dein was about to make a comment, but Littlefoot said. "Eh…let her brag. She deserves it." Cera ran off, still bragging over-cheerfully.
Meanwhile, Chomper, Sharptooth, and Ruby were slowly losing faith in their efforts. "It's no use," Ruby sighed, looking up in the sky watching the flying sharpteeth herd return from the daily hunting trip. "I'll never find…huh?" she looked inside Sharptooth's cave. Howler's tooth was there! "Oh my goodness," Ruby said, running over to it and giving the little fang a hug, even. Chomper and Sharptooth smiled. "Glad whoever took it was gracious enough to return it," Sharptooth smiled, but he still didn't know who took it.
Cera meanwhile was still laughing in victory. The Bright Circle had gone down, so she decided it was time to return home. "This has just been the most perf…..AGH!" Suddenly, a big tail swooped out of nowhere from one of the exits to the Mysterious Beyond and slammed Cera against the stone wall! "What the?" Cera said, in pain and shock, looking up and seeing a big longneck! She screamed in terror as she just managed to roll out of the way of a stomp. Chomper and Ruby, now glad about finding her brother's tooth, were having a nice csual stroll, when Cera, getting a scrape on her stomach recognized their scents. "CHOMPER! RUBY! HELP!" she wailed. Chomper and Ruby heard their friend's scream and came running. When the longneck realized that reinforcements were one the way, it gave one final tail swipe, slamming Cera into the wall, and then it quickly retreated into the Mysterious Beyond.
Chomper and Ruby arrived just in time. "Cera?!" they both screamed, and ran over to her. Ruby checked her breathing. Cera was still alive, bleeding from the head and stomach a little. "Some….psycho longneck attacked…..me," she huffed, still conscious. "And I…..don't even…get why." Cera then passed out. "We gotta get her help!" Chomper panicked. Sharptooth soon arrived, and they high tailed cera over to Mr. and Mrs. Belly Dragger. Littlefoot, Spike, Ducky, Petrie, Veli, and Cira soon arrived. Veli was horrified at the news. "If I find that longneck…" Veli vowed angrily. "I am gonna kill him so painfully for what he did to my innocent daughter!" Mr. belly Dragger looked at Cera's parents. "She's going to be OK Veli," he assured. "The herbs I've collected will heal her wounds, and she'll just need more rest." That comment helped with the pain, but it didn't take Cira and Veli's anger away.
MEANWHILE, IN THE MYSTERIOUS BEYOND……
The longneck that attacked Cera walked over to a shadowy spot. "There…I took care of it," he panted. A mysterious figure in the darkness laughed, in a "yeah right," tone of voice. "You'll let my family free now?" the longneck asked. "Pitiful fool," the figure responded. "Not only is that girl fast biter still alive, but you didn't even attack the right one, I guess I can't trust your type for simple plans….or my overall goal." "NO!" yelled the longneck "You can't!" "Oh, but I can…" the figure replied, and before the longneck could do anything, the figure attacked it.
(By now you're wondering: What the heck's going on? Well, just keep Reading and Reviewing and you'll eventually find out….)
Next time, on The Land Before time: Sharptooth Valley: Petrie and Guido finally recover, and it a multi-chapter story arc, Redfoot puts his master plan to eliminate all the sharpteeth into action….