Chapter 9

Roaring Sky

The wind tore past Petrie's face as he dove after Pterano, his uncle's unconscious body unceremoniously plummeting down the cliff side. At least, Petrie hoped he was 'unconscious'. It was the better of two grave scenarios, but what difference would it make if the flyer struck the jagged wall sloping closer as he fell?

Catching up to his uncle, Petrie threw forward his feet, grabbed and yanked him away from a nasty collision. His grip slipped. Once again, gravity claimed Pterano. The ground was closing in fast.

"UNCLE!" Petrie shouted at the top of his lungs.

That word hit Pterano like a jolt of sky fire.

His eyes flashed open. He cast his wings, catching the wind. Not a moment from impact, Pterano skimmed above the ground with a cloud of dust in his wake. With a mighty flap, he blasted back up the cliff with ravenous speed Petrie could not hope to match.

Spike got to work shoving the rocks off a dazed Cera while Ducky frantically shook Chomper.

"You need to wake up, Chomper! You do, you do!" Ducky urged.

Maybe he'd received one shake too many, or maybe it was the thunderous din in the background. Maybe both. Either way, something set off the young sharptooth's attack instinct. He roared to life, nearly biting off Ducky's head in his panic.

"S-SORRY! I overreacted! Sorry ..." Chomper petered out as he shook his head, only to make the mind-spinning headache courtesy of Red Claw even worse.

"It's ... okay," assured a stunned Ducky, who was pretty sure her heart stopped beating for the shortest of moments.

Chomper briefly frowned at the ground before changing the subject. "We should ... we should find cover, before that storm catches us."

Ducky shook her head. "That's not a storm."

Chomper glanced at the tame, white clouds in the sky. "Huh? But the thunder ...?"

"That's Littlefoot," she explained.

The sharptooth hardly had a moment to digest that before a massive form hurtled towards him.

"LOOK OUT!" he shouted.

Comper grabbed Ducky with his tail and yanked her out of the giant's shadow as it came crashing down in their place. The creature was familiar, but the fury on his face? The snarl on his lips? Those were as alien as they came. Raging to his feet, the dinosaur practically threw himself into Red Claw.

"L ... Littlefoot?" Chomper asked in astonishment.

The longneck swept a wave of dust into Red Claw's face. The tyrant jumped back. Littlefoot emerged from the cloud tail first. Never had his friends seen him lash out with such ferocity. Never had Red Claw faced such a coordinated explosion of rage.

Littlefoot's mind worked like lightning. Now, he understood Red Claw's move set, reading possibilities splashing out of the monsters body before collapsing into single likelihoods as he preempted Read Claw's actions with shocking accuracy. Such was the power of Second Thought at its ferocious extreme.

"... 'Roaring Sky' ..." muttered Chomper.

"What?" Ducky asked.

"It's 'Roaring Sky'!" Chomper repeated with escalating excitement. "Doc says it's when a longneck goes all out! It's like they become a storm: thunder, sky fire, everything! It's like they turn into a roaring sky!"

Ducky creased her brow. "But ... longnecks are not 'stormy'. I've never seen one get that angry."

Chomper nodded enthusiastically. "I know! Roaring Sky is The Lone Dinosaur's thing! He's never seen another longneck do it. Maybe no one has, until now!"

Ducky slowly nodded as she watched Littlefoot unleash his wrath. "We should ... probably stay out of his way for now."

Chomper laughed. "Yeah, probably. Let's dig out Cera in the meantime."

Red Claw fought back, lunging and pounding with his tail. Littlefoot moved like the wind, evading bites, absorbing body blows and parrying Red Claw tail against tail. As frustrating as it was, Red Claw reminded himself that the longneck was merely flesh and bone, and much more fragile flesh and bone than the sharptooth. Red Claw could weather the storm as long as he needed to. Littlefoot was pushing way past his limit. By the time his adrenaline dwindled to nothing, he would be broken. It wasn't a fact so much as a challenge Red Claw imposed upon himself. Before the longneck's muscles turned to pulp, he wanted the pleasure of crushing his bones to dust.

Their tails collided head on. The resultant shockwave left everyone wincing or squeezing their paws to their ears.

Red Claw was actually impressed. The longneck had poured every ounce of his strength into that attack, stopping Red Claw's more powerful tail cold. However, over-committing to such an effort had left him unbalanced. It was the perfect opportunity to surge past his defences.

The tyrant batted the longneck's tail to the ground and pinned it with a foot. Littlefoot's fury flared when Red Claw's jaws reached the base of his neck and he threw himself about in an attempt to break free.

Noticing Littlefoot's plight, Chomper rushed in with a snarl.

Red Claw growled through his teeth, warning the younger sharptooth to calm down. He meant what he said. He wasn't ready to finish the leafeater. This was merely a 'sleeper bite'. The longneck would wake up in his cave by nightfall. Then the feast would begin, but if the youngster dared interfere, he would snap the longneck like a tree.

Chomper reluctantly backed off.

Littlefoot thrashed all the harder.

Red Claw grunted a chuckle. Now, now, this wasn't getting them anywhere, he stated. Would it help if he sang the longneck a sharptooth lullaby? That was worth a shot, right? Which one, which one ...? Ah! This was a lovely choice! His mother had sung it to him when he was a hatchling. It had been passed down from generation to generation within The Hunter's Bond ... oh, the longneck didn't know about 'The Hunter's Bond', did he? Perhaps Red Claw would tell him all about it when they'd reached his cave. It was quite fascinating, a jewel of a secret among sharpteeth. Could he trust the young longneck to keep it between them? Of course he could! The deceased never told secrets!

"SHUT U-!" Littlefoot's voice broke when Red Claw squeezed a little harder.

The sharptooth throbbed, commenting that he understood the longneck was under pressure. That made it easy to slip back into his primitive language. Red Claw reminded him that the leafeater tongue was pure gibberish to a sharptooth. Besides, the sharptooth language was much faster in a pinch. On second thought, the longneck didn't need to talk at all. He could simply relax and listen.

A chill rippled down Littlefoot's spine as Red Claw launched into the lullaby. The sharptooth language wasn't merely faster. It was more descriptive and soul-piercingly emotive. The lullaby featured a predator's delight, which equated to the opposite from the perspective of prey. For a young sharptooth, it might have been palpably beautiful. For Littlefoot, it was palpable, but beautiful? Anything but. It was the very essence of a nightmare.

The longneck managed to yank his tail from Red Claw's foot, whipping it towards the tyrant. Red Claw jerked evasively and the tip narrowly missed his eye. He'd sacrificed a good grip in favour of that move. Before he could reestablish a firm bite, Littlefoot had twisted his neck nigh it's limits of flexibility and clamped his jaws around Red Claw in much the same manner.

The sharptooth's eyes fluttered in surprise before he rumbled a chuckle. This youngster was attempting to bring him down with a bite? His flat teeth were nothing against stone scales! His jaws weren't even strong enough for a 'sleeper bite'!

Red Claw's new position made leveraging another tail strike difficult, but Littlefoot had other plans. He wrapped his tail around the sharptooth and constricted like a slithering sharptooth. Red Claw's instincts shrieked danger. Tail and jaws working in tandem, the longneck had created a sleeper grip of his own. Red Claw had to end this, now. Try as he may, he couldn't get in position for a better bite. His vision blurred as asphyxiation began to set in. Fear flashed through his psyche.

With every ounce of strength he could muster, Red Claw kicked off the leafeater and both fighters collapsed, gulping air.

Chomper smiled. Littlefoot was something else.

Stumbling to his feet, Red Claw rumbled a ragged growl. This longneck had humiliated him for the last time! No more games, no more sleeper bites! He had to finish this there and then!

Littlefoot was slower to rise than the sharptooth. Roaring Sky had all but obliterated his stamina, leaving sore muscles like he'd never had in his life. He wasn't halfway to his feet when he felt Red Claw surging towards him as much as he saw it. The wrath of a fire mountain was in the monster's eyes, in his every movement, propelling him forth with unmistakable intent to end Littlefoot in one fell swoop.

The moment seemed to dilate as the longneck's brain grappled for an escape. He glanced at his friends. Ducky and Spike watched, mouths agape with aghast gasps. Chomper charged to his rescue, with a freshly recovered Cera on his heels.

They were too far.

"RED CLAAAAW!"screeched an incensed voice.

Pterano had shot up from the cliff's edge, eyes blazing as he streaked in like lightning.

The tyrant didn't blink, every iota of his being fixed on Littlefoot. Fast as the flyer was, intuition told Littlefoot that he was too slow. Just a tad too slow. Icy terror crashed against his fiery will, waging war for the domination of his imagination.

This was it.

No.

He would never grow old. He would never see his friends again.

No.

Red Claw would finish him, then end his friends. There was no stopping Red Claw. They never stood a-

NO!

The terror shattered as Littlefoot's fighting spirit returned with a vengeance. A new scenario broke into his Advanced Imagination, opening up possibilities where he initially saw none. He found himself cracking a grin.

This wasn't the end.

Not yet. Everything was riding on the moments that followed.

Then would be the end, but not the end Red Claw envisioned.

It was all falling into place. Littlefoot and his friends would fight as one: One more push, one more synergistic explosion.

One.

More.

Stand.

You heard the man ... err, teenager ... creature ... the multi-chapter battle thunders to a titanic end. I hope I managed to keep up the hype. What do you think?

Thanks for reading.