Oh sweet, tap dancing, Celestia, where has time gone? Heh heh, yes, in case you haven't gotten the memo, I am now a female Brony, or, more correctly, a Pegasister. And yes, I do like the show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. So, to all of mah bronies and Pegasisters, lemme give you all a big brohoof.

*Brohoofs*

Anyway, the long awaited chapter of my story!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Land Before Time or Elfen lied or any of their characters, settings, logos, etc... I DO NOT plan to make a profit of this story. It is only in existence for peoples' enjoyment.

Chapter twenty-seven: Reluctance

Shorty woke up slowly and uncomfortably; he felt like something was watching him closely with unsatisfied eyes. Shifting his body, he craned his neck up to find himself face-to-face with a small horn and an angry orange face. Instinctively, he jumped back into a nearby corner and brought his front paws up closer to his chest.

"Personal space, much?" he grumbled.

Cera took no notice and rolled her eyes. "And where might you have been last night?" she asked, throwing his retort right out the window.

Shorty froze the minute she said that last remark. "Heh…I have…no idea what you mean," he said sweetly, starting to sweat.

"Come on, we know you snuck out; Spike told us," Cera sighed.

"That…!" Shorty frowned at the realization that his cover had been blown. He thought he had made sure Spike was sworn to secrecy too…

"Okay, okay, I was out last night, but so what?" he hissed at her.

"SO, we wanna know WHERE you might've gone," she said just as sharply.

Shorty sighed and got up slowly and walked up to her with a look in his eyes. "Fine, fine. Where are the others?"

"Just outside, waiting for you, if I might add. And, we're also planning to find that female Fast Biter," Cera said, walking by Shorty.

"Fast Biter?" Shorty then thought about it for a moment. "Oh yeah!"

"I'm surprised you've forgotten," Cera sighed.

"A lot of things have been on my mind," Shorty defended himself, walking out of the cave quickly, narrowing his eyes. "Now where's Spike?" he wondered. Then, a realization hit him.

"Cera?" he asked absentmindedly.

"Yeah?" she replied, looking confused.

"How did Spike TELL you? He can't talk," Shorty frowned, looking at her skeptically.

"…uh…let's just say he has his ways and leave it at that," Cera said, her eyes darting around nervously.

Shorty raised his eyebrow skeptically. The young Longneck wasn't incredibly sure how the Spiketail did it, all he knew was that it just wasn't worth it.

"Do the others know that I went out?" he asked Cera, turning around to face her.

"Yup. Also, it was kind of obvious when you slept later than usual. Out of all of us, you're usually the first one to wake up. When you didn't we started getting a bit suspicious, so, we asked Spike. Again, I'm not going to tell you just how he was able to do it, though. In all honesty, I think it would just confuse you even more. What, with your small brain, Flathead," Cera teased, using the "Flathead" slur she would say to Littlefoot at times. She didn't use it to be mean though, and her friends knew it.

"Hey…my head's not flat, and I'm plenty smart! At least I'm smarter than you!"

"You know what would really be helpful? If you two stop arguing and actually help us accomplish something," a low, disapproving voice said from a few feet away.

They both turned to see Lucy standing there, her hands on her hips and a disapproving look on her face. She also looked pretty annoyed and tired.

"Heh…hey, Lucy. How long have you been standing there?" Shorty asked sheepishly.

"Long enough. And YOU shouldn't be talking. Sneaking out at night with HIM around. I have no idea what goes on in you Dinosaurs minds sometimes, and sometimes I don't think I ever want to. Come on, the others are already making their way to where Chomper and Ruby saw that Fast Biter," the Diclonius sighed, clearly not in the mood for arguing.

"Wait, so you didn't wait for us then?" Cera frowned, looking accusingly at Lucy.

"No. We don't even know is she's going to be there, and we don't want to take chances. In matters like these you just have to play things safe, and not do anything stupid," she answered. She turned her back on them and started walking away. The two little Dinosaurs looked incredulously at each other and started off after her, breaking into a fast trot as they walked alongside.

"When did they leave?" Cera asked, a bit ticked off that her friends would leave her, even if she was a bit late.

"About ten minutes ago, why?" Lucy asked the little Threehorn.

"…just…wondering…" Cera trailed off, her face starting to turn a bit red.


Alert, the lone Fast Biter jogged along, eyes fixed on a spot only she knew. She had set out maybe a few hours ago. Around two? Was that it? She had lost count. Sleep in her eyes, she pressed on. Her legs burned, begging her to stop, screaming at her to take a break. She ignored it. This was dangerous territory she was in, and she had to make she wasn't spotted. All she needed to be was a shadow. Just a shadow, and she would be fine, or at least she hoped.

When she last left, she took her bandages off, her wounds healing nicely. She had done the same with her companions, except the one on the young one's eye and leg, she didn't want to risk his healing process too badly.

Then sun battered her body with heat. Her scales were burning, but the thickness they bared kept her body temperature fairly low, making her able to keep herself cool, thus letting her press on without too much worry about how her body was reacting to non-stop running. Even Fast Biters get tired, just like every other living thing on this earth; everyone needs rest at some point in time.

That leads us to what she was doing now. Letting natural instinct take over her hell-bent, determined mind. She slowed down and stopped to take a breather. Still, it was a very short one. She wasted no time, and only took as much time as she needed to re-energize and refuel her energy level.

"Geez…I'm talking to myself again. Seems like I'm doing that a lot now," Cira sighed, referencing the loneliness she had. It was probably the worst feeling ever, absolutely no doubt about that. In fact, it was actually about the only type of feeling she was having. Well, that was, other than sheer boredom.

"If they're not there I'm going to scream. Then I'm going to destroy something. Then I'm going to get something to eat. Man, I have the whole afternoon planned out, don't I?" she spoke to herself, almost giddy to hear something other than the wind whistling menacingly in the air, revealing with no mercy just how alone she was out here in this mysterious wasteland.

"Finally, Shorty!" a voice growled out with an annoyed tone in her voice.

Cira turned her gaze curiously to the place where the sound was coming from. She found a mix of all kinds of Dinosaurs. The weird thing was, they were all different, and they were all children.

Giving out a little squeak, she hopped over to a nearby rock and hid behind it. It gave her time to think without being seen at the very least. All different kinds of Dinosaurs… children… with two, what looked like, adult two-leggeds… That settled it. These were definitely Littlefoot's friends. Her mind raced around with all kinds of questions. What were they all doing out here? Looking for Littlefoot? Well, duh. Of course that was what they were looking for. Why else would they be out here?

Her mind then made its way to how she should make her approach. She knew Chomper and Ruby would be fine, maybe even happy, to see her, but the rest…? She wasn't all that sure. Not to mention that there were two Dicloniuses' with them. They were a dangerous species those Diclonius, that they were. Also, the queen was there, and she knew just how dangerous she was. How dangerous she could be, if she had pushed that crazy side of hers back enough.

Should she just go for it? Just get up, reveal herself, and hope for the best? No, that would just add on to the stereo-type of "All Sharpteeth are stupid" and that was literally the last thing she wanted to do. She knew she had to act, and soon, or else it would be too late. Even with that, what could she do? She really just had one option. Just walk out and try to get them to talk to her without being all defensive, as Leaf-eaters usually tended to get.

Muttering a quick something to whoever might' have been listening, she stood up and walked out in front of the Rock.

As she did this, the chattering that the children were doing was suddenly stopped. In its place was a look of pure fear.

"Here we go…" Cira thought to herself joylessly, rolling her eyes already.

"Sh-sh-SHARPTOOTH!" the Flyer screamed, jumping a foot in the air without flapping his wings. The rest stood in fear, except Chomper and Ruby, who had a look of happy surprise on their faces. At least someone was happy to see her.

"It's okay, guys," Chomper assured his friends. "This is that Fast biter we told you about."

As Chomper said this, Cira let out the baited breath she had been holding in and walked up to them cautiously, painfully aware of how nervous and frightened they were around her.

"Ms. Fast Biter?" said a tiny voice nervously. Cira turned her head to see the little Swimmer looking up at her with a look of hope and fear in her eyes. "You will not hurt us, will you?"

Cira smiled. "No, I won't."

She seemed to relax a little bit when Cira assured her that she wouldn't hurt anyone.

"That is good to hear, it is, it is," Ducky sighed in relief.

Cira gave a half-hearted smile.

"Okay, now that we've found you, we wanted to ask you some questions," Lucy said in somewhat of a demanding tone.

Cira nodded, almost knowing what was coming. "Well, what do you want to know?

"Have you seen a Longneck anywhere?" Ali chirped up. "He's my age, and looks like me," she explained with a pleading look in her eyes.

She knew immediately that she was talking about Littlefoot. Putting her head down, she shuffled anxiously in place, unsure of what to do. Should she tell them? Just get it over with and let this whole thing be over and done with?

No, that wasn't who she was.

If that wasn't, then what was she?

That was a pretty good question. One she'd have to look into when she got time. She figured she might as well give it a shot. So many other Dinosaurs were able to do it, so why couldn't she?

"Hello? You gonna answer us, or what?" a voice broke her train of thought right off its tracks. Her mind raced for an answer.

"I've seen many Longneck, and frankly, you all look the same to me." Okay, now she was just lying through her teeth.

"No we don't!" Ali, Shorty, and Rhett's voices chorused. Now that was the complete truth.

"Well…even if you don't, I wouldn't know what their names were. I'm just worrying about surviving the day," she said. In truth, she was a bit uncomfortable with what she was saying. Was she really like this, or just like this when she was trying to protect someone? She figured she'd go with the second option.

"Are you going to answer us or not?" The stares were burning into her flesh sharper than any claw or tooth could ever be. She HAD to say something that would keep them from getting suspicious. Think, think, think, think, think…

Just then, she knew she couldn't lie. It would break Littlefoot's heart to know that he had the chance of reuniting with his friends and family and she kept it from him. She couldn't do that to a kid, much less a friend.

She took a deep breath. Now was the defining moment of truth for her. All she had to do was tell them that Littlefoot was alive and she would lead them to him.

Did she really want that though?

And could she even do it?

End of Chapter Twenty- Seven

WEEEEEE! What was that, I don't even...anyway, I just want to give a big thank you to all my reviewers and a shoutout to JudgementDragon25! You know I love ya, dude!

Will Cira be able to find the strength to tell the truth, or will a lie be easier for her in the end? Find out in...the next chapter! Review please!