Chapter 45:

The two girls watched the grown-up Longneck leave. Only when she was out of hearing range, Cho spoke up. "Hello Ali." Her voice was weak but not nearly as croaky as it had been in the morning. "I didn't expect you to visit me again so soon..."

Cho's ability to form full sentences again greatly relieved Ali. This time, they would be able to have a longer chat.

"Well, I was spending most of the day with my friend Littlefoot but now he's talking to Bron so I thought I'd come over again," Ali explained.

"Littlefoot?" Cho asked. "Who is that? I don't remember any Longneck of this herd by that name. And why is he talking to our herd leader, Ali?"

"Oh, your memory doesn't fail you, Cho," Ali chuckled. "You see, Littlefoot is someone I met long ago when I was travelling to the Great Valley with my old herd. We had lots of fun and a really cool adventure, he's really nice!" Ali's gaze became very dreamy.

Cho couldn't help but chuckle despite the pain it caused her to do so. Even though she had absolutely no idea about these things, she just knew what Ali felt there.

"I'll introduce you two tomorrow when I visit you again, Cho. I'm sure you'll like him!"

Cho didn't particularly want to meet a dinosaur she didn't know but she knew that Ali would greatly appreciate it if she didn't act like the unsocial creep she usually was. Though in a strange way, she knew she would get along with Ali's friend when Ali was with her.

"Okay, I'm curious," Cho replied. "Though, what does he have to do with our herd leader? Why is he talking to him?"

"Oh right... You see, Cho... you probably know that Bron had a son he never found?" Ali started to explain.

Cho nodded slightly.

"Well... Littlefoot..."

"He is his son?" Cho suddenly piped up in excitement.

"Why yes, good guess!" Ali exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey, that totally makes sense..." Cho suddenly thought out aloud.

"What?" Ali wondered. She just hoped Cho wouldn't talk in riddles again like last time.

"Did Shorty oww..." Cho froze when her excitement got the better of her. She had moved her body around just slightly but was instantly greeted by a tsunami of pain.

"Oh no, are you okay?" Ali was quite worried about her friend now. She didn't want to imagine what pain she went through right now...

Cho took a while to respond. "I... think so..."

"Don't move yet," Ali advised. "I'm already glad you can talk. That's more than I hoped for. Just make sure you don't cause additional pain."

"Don't worry, Ali... I will not move... again," Cho replied.

"Oh I still don't get why Shorty hurt you like that!" Ali suddenly shouted at noone in particular. Seeing her friend suffer while trying to stay strong without whimpering enraged her. Cho didn't deserve that. Ali was amazed that the intense pain didn't make her cry. She would've cried when she was hurt at Cho's age...

"I think I do now," Cho whispered. All the talking slowly seemed to take on her voice. "Did... did Shorty see Littlefoot?"

"Huh?" Ali was confused for a moment. "Why yes, he was right there when Littlefoot found out that Bron was his dad. So was I by the way... why did you ask?"

"Then it makes sense..." Cho gave Ali a serious look.

"What makes sense, Cho?" Ali asked, confused.

"Don't you see it, Ali?" Cho wondered. When Ali shook her head, Cho sighed. "How did Shorty react then when he found out about Bron's real son?"

Ali considered for a moment. Then realisation finally hit her. "Oh, now I get what you mean, Cho..."

"It was my bad luck that I happened to cross his path," the girl explained. "He needed a vent – that was... me." Cho's expression went dark. "It could have been anyone smaller than him..."

"Then why you?!" Ali demanded in fury. "He always picks on you the most as it is!"

"As I said, it was bad luck that he ran into me," Cho repeated. "It is true that he hates me most."

"Why?! Why you, Cho?" Ali just didn't get it and she knew the next talk she'd be having with Shorty would be a very long interview...

"I'm the only one who doesn't submit to him, Ali," Cho answered. That wasn't the full truth but it was a valid reason. She was a dreamer, an individual. She had her own, sometimes stubborn, view of the world. She wanted to do what she wanted to do and not what others told her. Of course there were some rules she had to follow that actually made sense... like staying in a herd, not wandering too far from the others, being polite and so on... Shorty's rules didn't make sense to her so she didn't care about them... which earned her Shorty's loath.

Being the awkward girl she was, she also didn't want to reveal certain things to Ali. They had always been her very own secret she'd never give away. Unfortunately, one particular dinosaur knew them anyway...

"I will not tolerate this any longer, Cho," Ali shouted, determination in her voice. "Shorty will be up against me if he ever harms you again!"

"No Ali, that doesn't seem right..." Cho retorted weakly.

"So it feels right that he's almost killed you?!" Ali couldn't help mocking Cho for her naivety.

"No..." Cho's answer was simple but Ali wasn't any wiser.

"Then what is right in your eyes, Cho?" she inquired, sighing.

Cho sighed as well. "Nothing, Ali... nothing is."

Ali felt some anger rise in her stomach. Why couldn't Cho just say what she was supposed to say for once?!

"Again, I don't get what you mean, Cho. Sorry..." Ali admitted, swallowing her anger. "If only you were more direct sometimes, not talking in riddles all the time..."

"I'm afraid that is a part of me, Ali... I have always been like that and I don't think I can change; I don't think I want to," Cho admitted. "Let me try to explain, okay?"

Ali nodded.

"For some reason I... I just can't blame him for what he did to me... I know I should hate him, fear him, feel the desire to pay it back... but, frankly, I just feel sorry for him."

"You feel sorry for him?" Ali couldn't believe what Cho told her.

"Yes, I do," the smaller girl replied almost defiantly.

"You'll have to explain that, Cho..." Ali sighed.

"If you knew Shorty for as long as I do, then you would see what I mean," Cho explained. "You know his backstory... you know the violence and wrong views he was confronted with in his early childhood... you know how he was never formally adopted and therefore feeling unwanted sometimes, especially now that Littlefoot is more important to Bron than he ever was... you know how all the other kids in the herd didn't want anything to do with him..."

"Well, they also don't want to play with you..." Ali remarked carefully.

"Yes, but that is because I chose not to play with them," Cho explained. "I am who I am; I am different, I am weird and odd. You try to understand me, Ali. You didn't judge me because of my skin, you didn't mind that I'm a loner with no friends, you didn't mind me being much younger than you... You are what every other dinosaur I have met so far wasn't... You are a true friend, Ali."

Ali brushed all reservations she had aside. Giving Cho a look of gratitude, she gently nuzzled her cheek which the girl returned, smiling.

"Strange, isn't it? I understand how others are thinking but nobody understands how I am..." Cho mused. A particularly nasty wave of pain delayed her next words. "I can somewhat relate to Shorty, Ali. He's an orphan just like me. If he has known his mother, he will miss her." With a lot of sadness in her voice, she added. "I miss my mother too – my real mother..."

"He won't miss his dad for sure..." Ali murmured.

"At least he knew him..." Cho mentioned, her mood becoming a bit darker again.

Ali realised that Cho had probably just told her something no other dinosaur had ever got out of the Longneck with the black skin. According to Bron, she had never said a word about her family. Hinting at the situation in her family already was more than she had ever expected. Already in the morning, she had mentioned her mother, now she was mentioning her dad. Ali felt that Cho was on a good way.

"But true, he won't miss him I think," Cho admitted. "Anyway, I can also relate to Shorty because he knows what it means to be lonely. I believe it is why he became such a jerk. He wasn't important to anyone..."

"While you became the victim of the jerk even though you were in a similar situation?" Ali remarked. "Come on, could've also become like him but you became the very opposite!"

"Shorty isn't like me, Ali," Cho argued quietly. "That's why he became what he became and I became what I became. However, I believe Shorty can change if only he has someone to whom he really matters – someone who really matters to him."

"I don't doubt he can, Cho," Ali replied. "However, he will have a very hard time redeeming himself and I'm not sure if the constant negative reactions he'll obviously still receive for a while won't make him doubt his decision..."

"We will see, Ali," Cho spoke optimistically.

"Yeah, we will..." Ali replied, not as optimistically.

"That day I learned how important teamwork can be," Littlefoot concluded, looking up at Bron, who had just learned about his son's efforts to reach the food that the herd of Longnecks miraculously left for his group through teamwork, waiting for a reaction.

"That's true, son," Bron replied. "It's the reason, why dinosaurs form herds. Even though it takes multiple amounts of food to keep everybody fed, the mutual support and protection outweigths that by far. Moreover, four eyes see more than two."

"Exactly," Littlefoot replied.

"It was a smart idea to stack up, good thinking there, son," Bron mentioned casually, a mild smile on his face.

"Thanks, dad!" Littlefoot replied happily.

"I'm amazed how you were able to stand that Threehorn though, she makes me angry just hearing about her," Bron admitted. "Moreover, I'm amazed you're still friends nowadays."

"She changed a lot since then," Littlefoot explained. "I mean, she can still be an ass sometimes but she did learn the lesson of teamwork and, over time, grew a bit softer. You'll hear about that soon, dad."

"Right, let's continue then, Littlefoot," Bron spoke, continuing to listen to his son's stories.

Now that they had finished their discussion about Shorty's motives for attacking Cho, they had nothing to talk about anymore... or did they? After a short break, their conversation picked up again.

Cho stared into Ali's warm,blueish eyes. She still didn't know how she was able to endure the pain in her small body. It was always there, like something was slowly feasting on her from her inside. Yet, when Ali was around, she had something else than the terrible pain to focus on. Right now, it were her eyes fascinating her. They were exactly the colour of her mother' s eyes – those loving eyes she'd first looked into on the day of her birth... those eyes so full of pain when she saw her mother fall victim to him...

"No, I mustn't think about that right now!" Cho tried to force her thoughts in another direction. Luckily, Ali spoke up just at the right time.

"You know, Cho... there's something I didn't get when I visited you in the morning..."

Cho, happy to have something else then her physical and mental pain to focus on ,replied eagerly. "Yes, what would that be, Ali? I'm not sure if I was thinking straight earlier..."

"You're now at least," Ali chuckled. "Remember when you mentioned that we two have a lot more in common than I could imagine?"

Cho commissioned her brain but it refused to deliver what she needed to know. Eventually, she resigned. "I'm afraid I can't remember, Ali," Cho answered, smiling apologetically. "Did I say that before I snoozed off?"

"Oh yes..." Ali laughed. "You were half asleep already!"

"That explains it..." Cho would've joined Ali's laughter but she suppressed it to avoid the eruption of pain that would follow inevidently.

"Do you think you can remember what you may have meant when you said this?" Ali requested. "I'm sure that's one of your riddles again, isn't it?" The pink girl giggled.

"Ah yes, I think I know what I meant but I will not tell you, Ali," Cho answered after some more thinking. "This is something I had to figure out myself when I met you so you should also figure it out yourself."

"Aww, any hints?" Ali begged.

"I shall grant you one hint but no more, okay?" Cho grinned at Ali.

"Alright, what is the hint?" Ali was very curious.

Cho grinned even wider until the point where it started hurting. She knew Ali wouldn't approve of the answer. "The answer is hidden in your eyes... happy puzzling."

"That fool…" Ricky grinned maliciously as he retrospected his encounter with his long-lost brother. It was pure coincidence that his outer appearance had altered over time but it was what made all of this possible. Shorty hadn't recognised him at all - it was a great relief. Things would have turned dangerous and his mission not to stir up trouble and stay unnoticed would have horribly failed.

Ricky had also altered his voice a little bit during his encounter and he had been using a speaking pattern unlike his but he doubted he'd have to keep doing that for much longer. It'd have to be a slow transition to his actual self - slow enough not to make his naive brother suspicious at least.

"Well, it's still not quite dark…" Ricky noted as he took a short glimpse towards the sky. His mission had not been to say hello to his brother after all. He was supposed to look for those damn leaves Hart wanted and he wasn't supposed to be back before darkness spread across the lands.

"The Bright Circle is still up on the sky but it's not too far from disappearing either. I'll have to do some scouting but not for very long…"

Ricky decided to give it a try even if it was seemingly pointless to do so. During his own lifetime, Ricky hadn't seen the mysterious plant. With the drought that started to haunt the land a few years before his birth also came the disappearance of the plant, the consumption of which was more important to Hart than anything else in the world. He knew exactly how it looked like - Hart had explained him in greatest accuracy every little detail about its appearance, but he doubted he'd ever get to see it. Nevertheless, he took off, combing through the undergrowth - he owed it to his creator.

"Say Littlefoot…" Bron interrupted his son's story. "I notice that you often describe the feelings of not only you but also of your friends. How do you know what they were feeling back then?"

Littlefoot chuckled slightly.

"Oh, you see we've had many talks about our journey since then. It's one of the favourite things to talk about on one of these days when the Sky Water just won't stop falling and you can't go playing anywhere so we either stay at home or meet up somewhere we won't get wet and talk about things or play mind games…" Littlefoot elaborated. "But… anyway, that's why I know how they felt back then."

"Oh, of course," Bron replied. "That makes a lot of sense, apologies for the interruption, son."

"No problem," Littlefoot smiled and picked up the story again. After all, they were getting closer to the most important parts of it...

Soon after Cho had told Ali about the riddle she had to solve, the girl had another wave of intense pain to endure. It lasted for several minutes and Cho actually did whimper a little. To Ali it was clear that she wasn't allowing herself to show how weak she truly was. The girl supposed that Cho just didn't like her to worry about her.

"You don't need to stay strong, Cho…" Ali sighed sadly as she watched the bundle of misery that was Cho lying in front of her, her face uglified by the pain she was enduring silently. "I'm so sorry, Cho…"

Once the pain attack had eased down a little, the heavily breathing, small Longneck replied.

"Do… not feel sorry for me…" she whispered, hardly noticeable. "I… will be fine… probably."

Ali gave her a sad look.

"You better be, Cho, you better be…"

Cho donated her a forced smile.

"Okay, I will… for you, Ali… when I'm doing better, we will go swimming, okay?" It was a totally random thing but Cho simply wanted to do just that. It was part of being her, wanting to do things spontaneously without an apparent reason.

Ali couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sure, we will!" she replied, determined.

"Great... " Cho mumbled dreamily. Ali could tell that it was time for her to leave soon - and time for a long nap for Cho.

"Well, I guess I'll let you have some more rest so your injuries can heal and your strength returns soon, Cho," Ali spoke up after a short break. "Littlefoot might be finished talking to his dad by now too…"

"I'm looking forward to meeting him…" Cho spoke… and she really meant it that way this time even though she wasn't comfortable around dinosaurs she didn't know.

"Before I go, Cho… is there anything I can do for you?" Ali wondered.

"Please inform Yuyun that I'm a little hungry… and thirsty too," Cho answered weakly.

"I can do that," Ali offered but Cho shook her head ever so slightly.

"You… don't have to…" Cho whispered, smiling nonetheless. "You don't want to be late when you meet him, do you?"

"Just bring you the water?" Ali negotiated. She didn't fail to notice that Cho's words had a subtle amount of wit in them.

"Okay then…"

"Be right back!" Ali tweeted, darting off to find a big treestar she could use to get the water to Cho, mentioning to Yuyun that she could start preparing a dinner for the little girl on the way as she was instructed to. Soon, Cho's thirst had been treated.

"Thank you…" Cho whispered.

"See you tomorrow, sweaty," Ali chuckled, nuzzling her friend warmly. "And good night!"

Cho simply smiled as she watched Ali leave. She couldn't tell why but the pain was suddenly not nearly as excruciating as it had been before. After she got fed by her foster mother Yuyun, Cho drifted off into slumber - and she was happy!

"Holy Treestar…" Bron was sweating in excitement. "How did you not get eaten there?"

Littlefoot and his friends had been caught off-guard by Sharptooth when he attacked them very early in the morning when they were still sleeping. Their escape had been about as narrow as it could have been - they had almost been swallowed by the beast who got stuck in a tunnel while Littlefoot and his gang escaped through it!

"None of us knows… it was like we all suddenly got a push so we'd enter the tunnel before Sharptooth got us. I can't explain it either," Littlefoot responded truthfully. For a moment, it had seemed like Sharptooth had caught them but then they were suddenly in the tunnel while Sharptooth missed them, getting himself stuck in the process. Littlefoot had a suspicion of course how this could have happened but that one was way too absurd to even consider it with seriousness.

"You lot are so lucky it's almost scary!" Bron laughed. More seriously, he added. "You made the right decisions though as far as I can tell,"

"Thanks dad," Littlefoot smiled at the praise.

"What happened to Sharptooth? Did he die there?"

"Of course not!" Littlefoot replied.

"You said you killed him…" Bron noted meekly.

"We did but… that was another encounter with him…"

"Another one?!" Bron couldn't believe it. "That guy must have yearned to have his revenge for the eye you hurt."

"He truly was chasing us…" Littlefoot sighed. "He was the meanest and worst Sharptooth ever to exist. He could jump ridiculously high and survived falling into the Big Underground during the earthshake that changed the land… it was much deeper than the walls of this valley are high."

"Very impressive," Bron remarked. "Most sharpteeth are pretty dumb and easy to outwit but that one was different. Yet you kids escaped him."

"Yeah… somehow," Littlefoot said with a mixed expression.

"What happened next?"

Littlefoot cleared his throat.

"Well, Sharptooth had got himself stuck in the tunnel…but we all knew he would get himself out eventually...

As Ali slowly wandered back to the meeting point she and Littlefoot had agreed on, she puzzled about Cho's riddle.

"What did she mean when she said that the answer lies in my eyes? That makes no sense!" If anything, the hint she had granted her only made the riddle more complicated. If Ali didn't know the little Longneck so well, she would have thought she was talking nonsense after taking a hit to her head but Ali knew Cho was totally serious. She was a smart Longneck and was very good at observing and understanding things. Ali knew that since Cho understood Shorty much better than her - she even noticed her crush on Littlefoot just by observing her during their meeting earlier.

"Okay, maybe I should start without considering the hint yet," Ali thought since it was only causing her confusion.

"What is it that we have in common…" Ali puzzled for a few moments.

"Well, we're both girls… though that's nothing special, she must have meant something more specific that possibly only applies to us two…"

No matter how long Ali was thinking about it - even after she tried to take the hint into account, she couldn't find a solution. There simply wasn't anything about her and Cho's eyes that they had in common… as far as she could tell. Sighing, she eventually plopped to the ground by the berry bushes, observing the going-ons around her until Littlefoot whom she could see talking to Bron, who appeared to be listening almost as if he was hearing a story Littlefoot told, would be back…

"... so yeah, we were all hurt and mentally distraught… but we were alive and we were there for each other… that counts."

"Wow, you were going through a lot," Bron remarked. Littlefoot had just described the after-effects that the attack of Sharptooth had had on them, turning Ducky and Petrie into mental wrecks until he had managed to calm down Ducky who then took care of Petrie, making Spike fall asleep on the spot and Cera throw up, moreover exhausting all of them to the bone and the tumble down the other end of the tunnel Sharptooth got stuck in - bruising them significantly.

"And yet you found the strength to be there for your friends. That's quite outstanding, Littlefoot. I'm beginning to understand why these dinosaurs mean so much to you." Of course that didn't change his opinion much but Bron knew better than to upset Littlefoot at this point.

"Well, I needed them to overcome my grief and focus on my goal again and now they needed me so I was there for them." Littlefoot explained.

"It was similar with my herd… they helped me to come over the grief of losing your mother… and you."

"Yeah…" Littlefoot sighed. "Well, there was a good thing about meeting Sharptooth… since he chased us to one of the landmarks that marked the way to the Great Valley…"

"Just out of curiosity, how much longer is the story going to be?" Bron wondered. He could see Ali waiting for Littlefoot to return to her some distance away and he felt like his presence was needed in the herd again soon.. After all, he had spent most of the day away from them. And who knew what Shorty might have been up to while he wasn't watching. From experience, he knew that his herd members usually didn't feel too happy about keeping an eye on him, therefore often neglecting that duty.

"Well, there is still quite a lot to tell…" Littlefoot answered. "Would you rather hear the rest tomorrow, dad?"

"That's probably for the best, it's getting late… also," Bron added with some mirth in his voice. "Ali is waiting for you."

Littlefoot rolled his eyes.

"Well, I'm very, very happy that you told me the story, Littlefoot, and I'm looking forward to hear about the rest tomorrow," Bron spoke, smiling.

"Alright, then I'll meet Ali again now," Littlefoot announced happily. "See you tomorrow, dad!"

"See you, my son," Bron replied, smiling. He watched him and Ali for a few more minutes before he eventually trotted back to the area of the valley that his herd was residing in, mentally preparing to hear the worst stories about things Shorty might have done while he had been away...

So here's the second updated chapter, already containing a few new scenes towards the end. The next chapter will be completely new (and since I've managed to finish writing that one already, you'll get to read that one rather soon ;))

Since I couldn't fit all of the storytelling into the scenes I already had, I decided to split it up and have Littlefoot tell Bron the rest of it tomorrow, haha :smile

What do you think about this one? :)

PS: Here's a teaser for chapter 46:

"Both understood the message. Without another word uttered, only mysterious glances exchanged, they slowly walked into a sparsely populated area of the valley, only the wind knowing what happened thereafter…"

Make of that what you will :D