Chapter 36

10 minutes later:

"He sure is taking a while..." Ali pointed out while waiting in her tree.

Simultaneously, Littlefoot standing some Longneck-lengths away started to get annoyed by his misfortune thus far. "Where is she? She can't hide forever!" he complained. For the last five minutes already he had considered calling out for his friend to make a certain sound which he could locate. Ultimately, his pride got defeated by his urge to discover Ali. Seeking for an eternity wasn't any fun after all...

"Aaaaaaaliiiiiii! Where are you?" he called into the forest loudly, sharpening his ears and ready to receive any sound his friend might make if she had heard him calling.

"Ali, where are you?" The pink Longneck heard it loud and clearly. She had just been called out by Littlefoot to give a hint concerning her rough location. This was part of the game, although it wasn't used very often since it was considered less skillful to find the hider only after a hint. For a moment, a thought popped up in her mind. "I could act as if I didn't hear him... but then again that would be very mean. At least it would make me mad if I found out about it... and I don't want Littlefoot to be mad at me. I want him to like me after all..." Ali quickly abandoned her thought and did as she was told, uttering a sound to give her friend a hint regarding her location.

"Meep!"Littlefoot heart a distinct sound not too far away from his current location, recognising the voice as Ali's. "Now I'm gonna find you, Ali!" Littlefoot thought in determination in order to push up his spirits and excitement. With a grim smile on his face, he jogged towards Ali's hideout...

"Oh, he's coming..." Ali spotted Littlefoot approaching her rapidly. "I need to move further in or he might see me." Now the Longneck girl squatted in the main trunk again, peeking around the corner every now and then to get an idea of what Littlefoot was doing meanwhile.

"She gotta be somewhere..." Littlefoot mumbled to himself. He had observed his surroundings very carefully yet he didn't spot anything out of order. Slowly, he walked around a little, peeking into bushes and any other suspicious place.

Ali, much to her entertainment, observed her friend who was struggling to find her with no success so far. The girl knew that she had to be on alert since she had to move into the tree trunk very quickly in case Littlefoot happened to look up. As long as she was observing, she was also in constant danger of being discovered. Likewise, she had to be careful not to make any sounds. Though, there were sounds she had no control of.

*gurgle*

"What was that?" Littlefoot stopped where he was, listening to the sounds around him excitedly.

"Dammit!" Ali cursed, instantly retreating deeper into the log. "The tree sweets are bubbling around in my belly. I HATE it when that happens. Oh please, hopefully I won't have to..." Ali felt a suspicious feeling in her belly."Uh oh..."

*gurgle*

A sound like bubbles of air rising up out of a pond originated from Littlefoot's belly. "Gee, these tree sweets are sure causing some trouble..." he mused. He knew what this would eventually result in. "Poor grandparents..." he thought in anticipation of what was going to come in the next few hours. Suddenly...

*fart*

"Crap!" Ali cursed when the gas noisily sought a way to escape her stomach... successfully. "Stupid tree sweets!" Ali cowered in her hideout, hoping that the fart didn't give her position away... and that she wouldn't have to abandon her hideout due to the gas.

"Huh?!" Littlefoot wondered, stunned. At first he thought he had released some wind but it clearly came from a tree in front of him. "Guess I'm not the only one with a bubbling tummy 'round here..." he thought in satisfaction. Now he knew he was very close to his victory.

"Eugh, that's torture!" Ali was almost snapping for fresh air. The tree trunk was filled with a bestial stench emanating from her. "Blast it, I can't stand it in here! I. Need. Fresh. AIR!" Ali robbed towards the opening in the trunk again, holding her breath at her best. When she finally peeked out of the hole, she noticed that Littlefoot was standing right beneath her. "He isn't looking up right now so I can get myself some fresh air!"The girl moved forward, sticking her head out of the opening just a tad so she could breath fresh air again. Littlefoot was just peeking behind the big tree the fallen tree she was in leaned against. However...

*Crack*

Before Littlefoot could locate the origin of the crack, he heard Ali screaming right above him and...

*Crash*

...and felt a heavy body crashing down onto him, pushing him into the ground.

"Holy s...!" Ali couldn't finish her curse since she found herself plummeting to the ground. Her level of adrenaline rose to an extreme level when her body realised that there was immediate danger. Ali was being prepared either to fight or run away. This situation, however, couldn't be fought or run away. The only thing that she could choose was which part of her would take the impact and the probable injuries that were bound to result in a drop of a few metres.

There wasn't any time for the young Longneck to realise what yet another injury could do to her – she had just recently recovered from almost dying of dehydration, overheating, extreme starvation and some severe sunburn.

The ground approached rapidly - Littlefoot approached very rapidly. The impact with her friend that neither of them could prevent still hurt but Littlefoot, if intentionally or not, possibly spared his dear friend a severe injury...

Littlefoot was in pain. His legs hurt because they had been moved in a very unfortunate way very fast when a weight that nearly matched his own, in addition to quite a momentum, multiplicated the force they were exposed to drastically; his back hurt due to the impact itself on the one hand and the bend that his spine had to withstand on the other hand. He groaned.

The realisation that Littlefoot had saved her hit Ali only seconds after the abrupt stop of her plummeting fall. "He has saved me!" The thought repeated itself a couple times in her head until the retreat of adrenaline reactivated her full brain capacity part of which they had blocked in order to allow instinctive programs to be run. Ali was kind of shocked and immobilised but she knew that she couldn't just rest on top of Littlefoot who had likely taken a bigger share of the impact than she had. Some childish voice in her head kept telling her to enjoy the body contact but Ali knew better than to listen to it, rolling over to remove her weight from Littlefoot. Ali got to her feet. Her belly and parts of her legs hurt but there weren't any injuries apart from some bruises to be seen.

"Littlefoot? Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.

A groan emanated from the boy.

Shorty knew where the talk between Bron and him had left off but he wasn't so sure whether he wanted to continue the intense interrogation. Despite Bron's sudden friendliness, Shorty didn't trust the truce that seemed to have developed between father and son. He had originally swore not to drop his shell more than necessary but Bron's lack of anger gave him a hard time staying hard on his demeanor. "I've already been too slacky!" the green Longneck thought grimly. He had just decided that it might prove to be favourable cooperating at his best lest Bron had a reason to be mad at him again when his foster parent answered his own question.

"Right, I remember now," Bron spoke up. "I was gonna ask you another question..."

"What question?" Shorty piped up. The young one was trying to sound bored while not sounding naughty. He had just figured that Bron's slackiness in staying hard on him outmatched his own struggle to stay mad by far, therefore he had made up his mind. "I'll try to redeem myself... for the time being; for Ali!" Shorty didn't know whether he could succeed at leaving the hatchlings in peace, Cho in particular, but he would try at his best. "For the time being..." Shorty smirked a little. Bron seemed to be willing to forgive him so he could easily convince him of his change for the better. Maybe he overreacted a little bit after all...

"I'd like to know how you've found Cho and the other hatchlings and when," Bron said calmly.

Shorty was painfully reminded of that event long, long ago...