Standing in front of Cera and Ducky was Topps. He looked extremely angry. The reddish tint the setting bright circle gave his body added a lot to the appearance.

"I said you could go see your friends, NOT LEAVE THE VALLEY!" Topps said.

"But dad, I-" Cera started.

"NO BUTS! I don't care about your past 'adventures.' The Great Valley already has a missing child today. It doesn't need more! You are coming back to the nest right this instant! Same for you, Ducky!"

"Aww..." Ducky whined.

"But the redbelly! He-"

"Stop making excuses!" Topps told his daughter, "There are no such things as redbellies, only yellowbellies."

"But I saw-"

"Zip it, no excuses!"

Knowing she probably wouldn't win this fight, Cera gave in. She started walking back to the Great Valley with her father, with Ducky right behind them. After dropping Ducky at her home, the two threehorns returned to their nest, where both Tria and Tricia were waiting.

"Cera back!" said Tricia as she leapt up and down.

"Thank the Great Beyond Cera's alright, Topsy!" Tria said.

"Yeah," Topps said, "When that clubtail told me she and her friend ran into the Mysterious Beyond, I was expecting the worst."

"Me and Ducky did save that pair of hollowhorns from the redbelly," said Cera, "can I at least get credit for that?"

"I told you to stop making excuses."

"It's not an excuse! We heard their panic whistle and found a redbelly threatening them while they were coming to the Great Valley. We dealt with it and probably saved their lives!"

"Don't make me-"

"Topsy, I happened to hear a hollowhorn panic whistle moments before the clubtail came to us," said Tria, "Did you see a pair of hollowhorns on your way to Cera?"

"Um, I did, actually."

"Sometimes it's best to not jump to conclusions. Maybe there's some truth to what Cera is saying. Perhaps we can ask the hollowhorns tomorrow morning if they saw what Cera saw."

"Even if this 'redbelly' is real, It won't change the fact that Cera will be grounded for the whole day tomorrow."

"Oh, come on!" Cera griped.

"I know you survived being in the Mysterious Beyond countless times, but I don't want you to grow up thinking you're invincible to everything," Topps said, "There are countless tales of threehorns who died foolishly thinking nothing could ever harm them. Do you want to be the subject of such a tale?"

"No."

"Then you will do what I say. Now go to bed."

Cera groaned as she went back to her nest. She begrudgingly laid down and went to sleep.

...

Cera tossed and turned in her sleep.

Cera found herself in the middle of what appeared to be a cave filled with dense white fog.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Cera shouted. There was no immediate response.

"Anyone?!" she shouted again. This time, she can hear a faint voice coming from behind her.

"C-Cera..." the voice said.

The threehorn instantly recognized the voice as Littlefoot. She turned to see him standing behind her.

But something was wrong. Littlefoot appeared very frail, like there was no muscle at all between his skin and bones. He also appeared to have trouble standing. Plus, the emaciated longneck had a vine wrapped tightly around his chest.

"Littlefoot! What happened to you?!" Cera said.

"You could have saved me..." he said weakly.

"What are you talking about? If this is about the comment I made about you, I'm REALLY sorry!"

"You could have saved me, Cera." Littlefoot repeated, "I waited for you... but you took too long. I wanted to continue living into adulthood, Now I have lost that chance, as well as my heart."

"Wait, are you telling me-?"

"Why didn't you come for me, Cera?" Littlefoot reared up and undid the vine. As it fell, Cera could see a gaping hole in his chest, filled with darkness. It was if he literally lost his heart.

"Why did you let this happen, Cera?" He croaked.

Before Cera could answer, the darkness within Littlefoot's chest expanded and enveloped her. Now she could see nothing.

Frightened, Cera looked around. Then another voice spoke.

"Three hearts of will and another on the way," the voice said, "Roojah only needs one more. One more heart filled with will! Only then will he be free from these vines of mortality!"

In front of Cera, the head of the redbelly she encountered appeared. It was staring at her, with a huge smirk on its face.

"W-what did you do to Littlefoot?!" Cera sputtered.

The head of the redbelly did not answer. Instead, it bellowed a fearsome roar as it quickly charged at Cera.

"AAAAAAAGGGHHHHHH!" Cera yelled as she awoke. She quickly looked around. It was morning. Tria immediately came to her.

"Cera? are you alright?" her stepmother asked.

"I'm fine, just a night terror." Cera lifted herself up and looked back at the nest she slept in. Thankful she didn't wet the nest after such a scare (not that she usually does, anyway,) she turned back to Tria.

"Do you want to talk about it?" said Tria.

"No thanks," Cera said.

The young threehorn looked around. "Where's dad?"

"Oh, he went to track down those hollowhorns you saved yesterday."

Suddenly, as if on cue, Topps stomped in.

"Topsy, what did-"

"I couldn't find them," Topps growled.

"They left the valley already? Crud." Cera said, "Can this week get any worse?"

Topps looked up at the rising sun. "The bright circle is pretty powerful this morning," he said, "I could really be at the Thundering Falls."

"I wouldn't mind if we went there for a bit," Tria said, "We had a lot to deal with yesterday; a break would be nice."

After some discussion, the threehorn family decided to go to the pools of the Thundering Falls to cool off, both from the heat of the bright circle, as well as the events of yesterday. Even though they were not at home, Cera was still technically grounded, which was why her father asked her to stay in a place where he could keep an eye on her.

Cera sat in the water near the shore, feeling her upper body being washed by the mist of the powerful waterfall. She tried to lock away her fears of Littlefoot's wellbeing for the moment, but she found it impossible, due to the mist of the waterfall reminding her of the foggy cave setting of last night's sleep terror. It was like Littlefoot's emaciated body kept popping out of the mist and disappearing again within her mind.

Cera turned her head to see an arc of a rainbow produced from the rising bright circle hitting the mist. She felt a bit calmer looking at this, as no sky colors ever appeared in her nightmare. Though, as she continued to stare at it, she couldn't help but feel she was being stared at. Not by the partial circle of sky colors, but by... something else.

She turned her head to her father. Most of the time, he was looking towards the falls, occasionally glancing towards Cera once every thirty seconds or so to obviously see if she was still present.

Whatever is causing this sensation, her father wasn't it. She turned her head and scanned her surroundings on the other side. She gasped. Within a bush she could see a pair of bloodshot eyes looking at her.

And she recognized them as the same bloodshot eyes of the redbelly she fought yesterday.

Cera quickly turned to her father. "DAD!" she hollered.

"Is something wrong?!" Topps answered.

"Someone is staring at me through that bush!" Cera exclaimed.

Topps walked over to where his daughter was. Cera pointed to the bush, only to realize she could no longer see the eyes within.

"What-? I swear..."

"You must be seeing things, Cera," her father said.

"I know I saw someone in there!"

"It was probably a ground fuzzy or something. And ground fuzzies don't hurt threehorns, so there's nothing to be afraid about."

"I know that already, but-"

Cera was interrupted by Tricia, who ran in from the shoreline and splashed right in front of her father.

"Hungry!" Tricia said after surfacing.

"You want breakfast?" Topps asked.

Tricia nodded eagerly.

After Tria joined up with them, Cera's family headed out to get tree stars for a rather late breakfast. However, as she started moving, Cera heard a voice.

"Roojah doesn't wait for breakfast."

Cera quickly stopped and looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. But she couldn't find anything.

I know I heard that... Cera thought to herself. Though not wanting to keep her family waiting, she caught back up to them.

Cera never actually bothered to look in the trees above her, as seated in the branches of one tree, was the redbelly himself.

He balanced himself with his feet, as his hands were occupied. In one hand he had a plant with bunches of pink and white flowers, and in the other, three sharpened sticks.

"Roojah doesn't wait for anything," the redbelly said as he crushed the plant in his one hand, "Roojah has no time to wait. The last heart of will is right there."

The redbelly had crunched the plant he held into a goop, which he then spread over the sharp ends of the sticks in his other hand.

"Nothing will stop me from taking that heart today."

To be continued...