A/N

It's been a little bit as writing has been a slog for me at the moment, and editing more so. I will try to get the next update up soon but no promises, fight scenes are hard oof. 0.o

Hope you enjoy, and drop a comment/review if you're so inclined.

Several Years Later…

…

"Mother, is this all there is to eat?" Littletooth asked, "Why can't I have what you eat?"

His attempts at chewing this horribly hard twig halted under His Mother's horrified expression, he regretted asking that.

His Mother's face softened as she explained, "It's because you're a longneck my dear. Longnecks can become quite sick if they ate what I ate. You don't want to get sick, do you my dear Littletooth?"

He shook his head, "Nuh-uh."

She sighed, "I'm sorry, my dear. The land has been changing. That is why we must walk as far as we can each day, until we reach the Great Valley.

Littletooth when back to chewing on the twig only to be interrupted once again, not that he wanted to eat this thing anyway.

"Littletooth, quickly, come here!"

Doing as he was told, he followed the sound of her voice coming up to a clearing of dead trees.

"Look, up there!" His Mother reached up, his eyes following her movements, something green and luscious at the top of the trees meet his sight, "A treestar. It is very special."

She bit one of the branches and pulled it down with her weight, until it was low enough for her to pluck the treestar with her claws. She let it fall from her grasp, only to glide softly down to Littletooth who was giggling.

"A treestar…" He said in awe, nuzzing against it.

His mother chuckled, "It is very special. And it will help you grow strong."

Littletooth kicked it into the air, watching as it slowly floated back down to earth.

"Where we are going there are so many of these leaves."

The treestar fell onto his head, and he gave a big sniff of it before he blew it off and took a lick of the moist leaf.

"Come along."

Littletooth grabbed his treestar and caught up to his mother who was starting to move forward.

"The Great Valley is filled with green food like this, more than you could ever eat and more fresh cool water then you could ever drink.

It is a wonderful, beautiful place, where you could live happily with many more of your own kind."

"Gee," Littletooth said, "When will we get there?"

"The bright circle must pass over us many times, and we must follow it each day to where it touches the ground"

A worry overcame him and after he threw his treestar onto his back he asked. "Have you ever seen the Great Valley?"

His mother paused, a silence filled the air as she slowly turned to face him, her face held sincerity yet dismay all the same. "No…"

"Well," Littletooth walked up to her, "How do you know it's really there?"

Her gaze softened. "Some things you see with your eyes, others you see with your heart."

Littletooth sighed, "I don't understand, Mother…"

She chuckled, then nuzzled him, "You will my son, you will."

After she pulled away, he took another big whiff of his treestar and prepared to eat it as he licked his lips. He went to take a bite but froze when he heard laughter in the distance, he decided to investigate.

"Littletooth, don't you wander too far," His mother warned.

I won't, he thought as he peeked his head through the grass. The second he did however, a sickly sweet smell made him wince and scrunch his nose up in disgust. The smell was rotten, similar to spoiled food Mother had to eat sometimes, and very much unlike the pungent smell of fresh blood.

He gazed around curious to its source. There were two Threehorns not too far away from his location. One was small and orange, the other was grey and big. Clear parent and child duo. She headbutted into her dad with her little frill and horns accomplishing nothing but confusion for him.

Littletooth squinted, studying Mr Threehorn, on his right back leg was a wound. He couldn't inspect it very well from this far away but the wound looked very angry and painful, it didn't seem like he wanted to put any weight on it either.

Littletooth felt sorry for him, it must be hard to keep himself up, he wondered if it was broken?

Though there was nothing he could really do to help him, so he looked to the smaller one. She had her eyes on a small blue crawler sitting on a rock in front of her. She kicked at the ground ready to charge at it.

Littletooth watched in wonder as she charged at the crawler with a battle cry, only for it to fly away, she bashed through a small boulder with ease, and finally crashed into another one which didn't not crumble despite the heavy impact. The crawler landed on another rock, and it flew off yet again as she crashed into that rock. Then she bashed into a very hard rock which stopped her in her tracks, the crawler landing on it right in front of her.

She breathed, baring her teeth in a grin as the crawler buzzed and turned around, clearly annoyed at her attempts to hunt it. She licked her lips, opened her maw wide and suddenly the crawler sprayed her with some stinky fluid and flew off.

Littletooth broke into laughter.

"What are you laughing at!"

Littletooth gasped. The horned girl kicked the ground ready to charge. Accepting the challenge, he jumped out of the grass and mimicked her kicks kneeling down into a pre pounce position.

Then they both charged with a battle cry.

Over their cries he could barely hear some other roars and snarls, followed by heavy footsteps, and the next thing he knew he was firmly pressed against the ground, pinned underneath a large grey foot. The ground was rough and painful and if he was pressed any tighter he would not be able to breathe.

Littletooth squirmed in panic as Mr Threehorn's snarling face came close to him. Too close.

"What do you think you're doing…?" Mr Threehorn boomed into his ear, any wrong answer would spell a crushing death for the young longneck.

"I-I," He stuttered, fear making it hard to speak, "We- We were only playing! I-I-I just W-Wanted a friend…"

Mr Threehorn gave a low growl, Littletooth shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Let go of my son now!"

"Mother!?" Littletooth squeaked.

Mr Threehorn's expression shifted into confusion then into frightful concern as he looked up, his face paling slightly. His daughter screamed, scrambling to hide under him as a large blue sharptooth thundered towards them.

"The longneck," Littletooth's Mother demanded, "Release him. Now…"

There was a pause as it seemed Mr Threehorn was completely shocked at this turn of events.

"I don't know how your both smart enough to speak leaf eater and dumb enough to think this flathead is your son, but what I do know is that I don't barter with sharpteeth!" He said lowly.

His Mother snarled, "Look threehorn, I've nothing to do with you or your offspring, only mine. Don't make this personal."

Mr Threehorn said nothing, and it only infuriated her further as she took a step closer.

"If you kill him, I have no reason not to retaliate, even if it means we'll both die, and you're wounded," She stated calmly, nudging her head towards his injured leg.

Mr Threehorn took a sharp inhale of breath.

"Let him go and I won't bother either of you, or your herd."

"Yeah, right," He muttered under his breath.

Littletooth's Mother stared at him, as if she was staring into his soul. "I sware on my life. I sware on a blood promise."

Mr Threehorn grumbled to himself, and did not answer her.

She huffed, entirely tired of his nonsense. "Y'know there is a fine line between bravery and foolishness, what side are you on, threehorn?"

Another pause before finally, finally Mr Threehorn conceded, after realising everything was not in his favor at all. He begrudgingly compiled and lifted his foot off of Littletooth. Littletooth's relief at being free was short-lived as he felt the large impact of Mr Threehorn kicking him.

Littletooth yelped as he tumbled head over heels, eventually rolling to a stop. He laid on his back in a daze. He was more disoriented and scared then hurt however.

"Come, Cera," he heard Mr Threehorn say to his daughter, "Threehorns never play with Sharpteeth!"

"Threehorns never play with Sharpteeth!" Cera repeated from under her dad, too afraid to get any closer.

Littletooth got to his feet, running towards his mother, throwing himself onto her snout as it came down to him and climbed up like his life depended on it.

Both parents backed away slowly with their kids, both eyes never leaving each other till they were way out of either's sights.

…

Her breaths came in pants, nerves a mess as she shook as her adrenaline slowly wore off. As her mind came back to normal, worried anger flashed in her mind, a deep sigh left her as it took everything she had not to snap at her child.

"Littletooth, you can't just mess with others like that. I... might not be able to rescue you next time."

Her son only responded in sobs.

Instantly concern filled her, kicking anger out of her mind completely, is he hurt worse than she thought?! "Are you alright, Littletooth?"

"Why is he being so mean?" He choked out, sniffing, "We were only playing...I wasn't gonna hurt her…"

Serene sighed. "He didn't know that, Littletooth. The herds can be quite aggressive with each other, especially concerning their own children. They never get along with others."

"But you're a sharptooth...and I'm a longneck...and we get along great."

Serene paused, surprised at the insight her son had. On second thought, he did have a point. It took her a while to find her answer."...Some individuals will never get along, and sometimes you can't change that, in that case you can only keep your distance from them."

"I will, Mother," He sniffed, "I'm sorry."

Serene sighed again and frowned.

"It's alright, my son, I just want you to be more careful out here."

Littletooth hummed in agreement, wiping his eyes with his foreleg.

Serene stared at the rows of dead and decaying trees that stretched out for miles, they still had a long way ahead of them.

"Hey, Mother?"

"Yes, Littletooth?"

"What's a blood promise?"

Serene stopped in her tracks.

"Is it like a normal promise?" Littletooth asked.

"Yes, but a stronger one. One you should not take lightly, my dear. A sharptooth will never break a blood promise, if they make one they will keep their word... even at the cost of their own life."

"Oh," Littletooth said, "So this means you can't eat threehorn, even if you're starving?"

Serene almost stumbled at the question. "Oh, I- Yes." Then she muttered under her breath "I never really liked the taste of threehorn anyway."

Littletooth chuckled at that, and Serene only felt like a bad influence.

"I just wish we were at the Great Valley now, though. There has to be some other longnecks I can play with…"

"Well, it's a long way yet," She began walking down a trail that led through the trees, "Pass The Great Rock That Looks Like A Longneck and pass The Mountains That Burn...Still a long way.

But we'll get there…"