CHAPTER FIVE: SHARPTOOTH PARADISE
Back in the Mysterious Beyond on that same night, Chomper was sound asleep - he'd never been more satiated since he was a young child. Dil, also asleep, floated atop a body of water in the cave, and Ichy roosted on her back.
Chomper dreamed that he was a child again and that he was with a younger Littlefoot. He was standing before an irate Doc who said "Why did you befriend a Sharptooth, Littlefoot?"
"I trust him. He's a nice Sharptooth." Littlefoot replied.
"Yes, I'm a nice Sharptooth! I'll always be good." Chomper said.
"Fine. I hope you keep your word!" Doc replied, walking off.
Then the scene changed and he was teenage Chomper again. He wandered around in the Great Valley, looking for something to hunt. He suddenly heard a loud pounding. Was it an Earthshake? As time went on, the huge shadow of a Longneck appeared. It was the Lone Dinosaur!
Chomper backed away in fright as an infuriated Doc came into sight. "I should have known better than to trust the word of a Sharptooth. Always be nice my tush! You've killed two Clubtails and a Shellback Swimmer and it's time I got rid of you!" Doc thundered.
"No wait, I can explain! I couldn't help it! I..." he pleaded.
"Darn tootin' you couldn't! You're a Sharptooth and all you're good fer is killin' Leaf Eaters!" the Lone Dinosaur replied.
"Please!" Chomper begged again.
"We have no use for Sharpteeth around here." Doc said. And with that, he flicked his tail like a bull-whip, hitting Chomper in the shoulder and knocking him off a cliff. He was falling, falling! He jumped up, screaming, waking up not only himself but also Dil and Ichy.
Startled, Ichy fell off of Dil's back and into the water. Dil was similarly alarmed; she looked around frantically, thrashing her head and tail. "What? Who's there? Show yourself!" she barked.
"It's me, Chomper. I had a very bad Sleep Story. It made me feel guilty about a promise that I had made, meaning to keep it, when I was younger, that I broke a few days ago. Also, I was attacked by a whiptail Longneck and knocked off a cliff."
"I get bad Sleep Stories too. Mostly about being stuck with Dil!" Ichy replied.
"Hey!" Dil snapped. "I had one awful one where you got cloned!"
"That would be amusing."
"No, it would be a terrible migrant."
"You mean migraine?"
"Yeah."
"Please stop arguing you two!" Chomper grumbled. The two instantly ceased their bickering.
"Why do you fight so much?" Chomper asked them.
"We don't quite get along." Dil replied.
"That's a pity. You'd think that if you relied on each other to get food that you'd get along better" Chomper sighed.
"We might need each other, but that doesn't make this belly-dragging bore any less-" Ichy said, crossing his wings, before the Deinosuchus cut him off.
"Able to bite you in half," Dil growled. The two companions - clearly not "friends" - put their foreheads together.
"Listen you two. I guess getting along together isn't easy for some dinosaurs. I happen to know of two dinosaurs, admittedly Flatteeth, that seemed that they would never get along together, till they were finally forced to work together to make it." he said. He told the long story of how Littlefoot and Cera had met and not gotten along until finally Cera had come back to rescue them from Sharptooth. "And since then, they argued quite a bit, and still do, but they became friends. Can't you two do the same?" Chomper asked them.
"You're right. Our feuding does seem petty." Ichy said.
"We should be friends. After all, we're going to stay together for a very long time. Only makes sense. We have helped each other before. No need to be each other's throats." Dil agreed.
"So what about you? After we help you learn to hunt and catch Flatteeth better, though I must say you're already not bad kid, are you going to set out on your own or stay with us?" Ichy asked.
Chomper thought on that one. They were different from his friends back in the Valley and their arguing was annoying, but, like Littlefoot and Cera, he could learn to live with it. Plus, being with them beat being alone and they were kind enough to him. "I'll stay." he replied.
By the next night, Chomper had digested the Shellback Swimmer and was beginning to feel hungry again. Dil and Ichy, though they still sometimes argued, had greatly mellowed out. The story of Littlefoot and Cera certainly had inspired them to work together.
"I'm hungry." Dil said.
"Quit your.." Ichy whined, but Chomper shook his head and he stopped before he had said the word 'bellyaching'. He instead said "I mean, we'll go get something then. What about you Chomper?"
"I'm going." Chomper replied. Though he probably could have gotten Dil and Ichy to bring him back something, he wanted to contribute his part, and after all, he had asked them for help in hunting Flatteeth. He worked up the nerve to go hunting once more and set out with them.
The trio walked into the Land of Mists. Chomper had never been this way before, as they had spent the last few days chatting and he'd thoroughly explored the cave. If any Flatteeth (or other creatures) walked through, he'd know how to cut them off and be ready for them. He was amazed at the beautiful scene that spread before him. The gorgeous waterfall, not unlike the one the Great Valley had at the entrance. However, as he looked over the place, his heart fell somewhat. It wasn't the same as the Great Valley. That was clear at once. It was covered with mist and the land appeared somewhat rougher. He could see why Ali's herd didn't like the place. It was not the sort of place that would be ideal for a Longneck herd, yet, as he sniffed the air, he could smell some. They were braver than Ali's herd had been. And, as he thought, perhaps more foolish. Didn't they realize that they were vulnerable to Sharpteeth in this mist?
But then he realized, this was what his new self wanted. The old Chomper would have warned that they were foolish to stay. The new Chomper, however, knew that every Flatttooth he helped meant at least one less meal and too few meals meant a slow painful death.
After descending down into the Valley of MIsts, he found it harder to follow Dil and Ichy by sight. However, unlike when Littlefoot and his friends had journeyed through here years earlier, the trio had a special ability to find each other: their smell. He followed the other two and they followed him, as though they were Jedi and their noses were the Force that helped them "see" through this mist to each other. He knew their smells by now and they knew his.
"So, where are we going? Who is the unlucky victim tonight?" Chomper asked.
"Where would you expect to find Flatteeth at this time of day?" Ichy asked.
"Probably at home. Unless they're my friends. Then they'd be wandering about after dark." Chomper replied.
"Think kid! Where would Flatteeth have to be if they were someplace this time of night?" Ichy asked again.
"Can I have a hint?" Chomper asked.
"Absolutely not!" Ichy replied sternly.
"Come on Ichy, at least give him a hint!" Dil urged him.
"No! We had to learn all of this on our own. We didn't have our parents teach us this." Ichy retorted.
"What was your childhood like? Were you once friendly Sharpteeth? Is that why you're together as equals, unlke Red Claw, who only takes Fast Biters as servants?" Chomper asked.
"I don't remember my real parents. I fell from the nest as a hatchling and was rescued by kindly Spiketails. They took care of me for years. Eventually, I began to eat bigger and bigger prey and they grew wary of me and chased me off. I grew bitter and so carried off one of their hatchlings to eat ouf of spite. Since that day, I have always fed myself like a normal Sharptooth would, not going easy on Flatteeth. As for Dil, she was raised normal, or normal enough for her kind. I personally think she's a bit odd. She was nearsighted though and was eventually left behind by her pack. As you know, I'm small and so needed help fending off bigger Sharpteeth and also bringing down larger prey. So I helped her navigate and also learn Leaf Eater, which we both have used to lure prey to their doom, and she kept me safe from bigger predators and also helped me catch bigger food."
"You used your Leaf Eater-speaking ability to lure prey into a trap? Seems a bit unfair"
"Listen kid, you need to get it through your head. There is no fair in hunting. You do what you need to get food or you die!"
"In the Great Valley, there is lots of green food everywhere, and even in the water, that Leaf Eaters get. I guess I keep forgetting that my food walks and fights back ." Chomper replied.
"Green food in the water?" Ichy asked.
"Yep. Found that out from my friends. Water greens. Spike liked them a lot. Spiketails probably would go for it. And perhaps Swimmers too."
"I'll have to make a mental note of that." Ichy said to himself.
"Wait a minute. Green food and water. That's where you'd find Flatteeth. They'd need it. And you want us to go there where none are and hide and wait for them to come. Then when they plan to eat, we eat." Chomper said.
"Very good kid." Ichy said, clapping his wings with applause.
Chomper surveyed the foliage surrounding him and his new hunting partners. The bulk of the trees around him - adapted for a foothold in tropical swamp environments - were familiar to him. He recalled his friends' and their elders' thoughts on the them.
"Green food like this grows back in the Great Valley, I don't remember any of the leaf-eaters there eating them. They said something about the leaves being wet and tasting bitter," he said. "I think they smell worse than most green food myself."
A Parasaurolophus was relaxing in the water half submerged and half of the beach of the swamp, enjoying the evening. Chomper looked at the Swimmer and thought uneasily of Ducky. The creature, who appeared to be only slightly older than himself was oblivious to the three predators watching him. Chomper wondered how to approach. If he ran out, the creature would take off and the area was wide open. He could take off and summon a herd, and that would bring trouble, a fact he knew all too well from his fake attack on Rhett years earlier.
An idea crossed Chomper's mind. He seized a rock and, when she had turned slightly, threw it the opposite direction of the bush, behind her. She didn't see where the rock came from but turned around and stared in the direction of the rock, expecting possible trouble. Chomper saw his chance and ran at her.
Unfortunately for him, she saw him in time and avoided his attack. However, his ruse hadn't been totally useless for Ichy had gotten the chance to bit her in the leg, drawing blood. She kicked Ichy aside and fled.
Chomper sighed. "Guess I screwed up."
"Not quite kid. I got in a bite." Ichy replied.
"A lot of good that will do. She's taken off and probably headed for her herd. We'd better leave." Chomper sighed.
"Notice that on the ground?" Ichy said, pointing at a blood trail that Chomper had not noticed earlier.
Chomper now knew what Ichy meant. "You want us to follow it and ambush her from three different directions?" Chomper asked, to see if he had understood correctly.
"Precisely." Ichy replied.
The Swimmer ran off toward her herd. She had never seen a Sharpbeak and a Rex work together before. Were Sharptteeth getting smarter? She heard a rustling in the bushes up ahead.
"Who's there? I've been attacked by Sharpteeth. Don't go the way I came as they are back there." she said.
"Come over here. We can help." came a voice.
She moved toward the sound of the voice, trusting that since it was speaking Leaf Eater that it was harmless. As she came nearer, however, she saw Dil and turned the other way and ran.
However, out of sight and behind a rock, Chomper and Ichy were waiting for her as she ran back the other way and the two tackled her.
"Well done Dil." Ichy said.
"You can talk?!" the Swimmer gasped.
"Yes." the three Sharpteeth replied.
"I think you've got Sharpbeaks confused with Gliders, though the Glider I know, Guido, doesn't eat Tickly Fuzzies." Chomper replied.
"You know a Glider? There aren't too many around here. And I cannot believe that one would come to trust a Sharptooth!" the Swimmer scoffed.
"I'm different." Chomper replied.
Ichy and Dil, who were hungry, grew impatient. "Hey Chomper, didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with your food? Enough chatting with your dinner!" Ichy grumbled.
"Yes, she did once." Chomper replied, thinking of the time she had told him not to play with his food when he was around Littlefoot, though the memory hurt now, as his mother was dead and he might well never see Littlefoot again, and he shed a tear.
His sorrow was not lost on the Swimmer. "I didn't know Sharpteeth could cry." she gasped.
"Oh for the love of...!" Ichy snapped. Too impatient to keep waiting, he bit the Swimmer as hard as he could on the throat. She staggered and fell, dripping blood. Though the bite had done a lot of damage, it hadn't killed her. However, it did greatly weaken her and Chomper, feeling sorry for her, used his claws on his feet to penetrate into her heart and kill her.
"Next time, let me do the killing." Chomper said as Ichy began to eat the now dead Swimmer.
"She would have died soon anyway." Ichy said between mouthfuls.
"Yes, but I could have taken her down at once." Chomper replied. He tried the Swimmer and found that he liked it immensely. There wasn't as much to go around this time as there had been with Archie, but it helped quite a bit with his hunger. He noticed that his stomach was now fleshed out more due to being fed well for a change.
As they finished with the Swimmer, however, her herd came upon them. "Ut oh." Dil said.
The leader of the herd tilted his head so his forehead was facing the predators, and he dropped down onto four legs.
"Explain yourselves," he snorted, violently blowing dust out of his nostrils. The Hollowhorns behind him were also upset; the victim's mother, especially.
"You know they can't talk." said another Swimmer.
"Did you just ask a Sharptooth to explain itself?" laughed another.
"There's this thing called hunger. I don't like it, but it is what it is." Chomper replied.
The Swimmer herd advanced toward them. "Ok guys, we've had our fill." Chomper said.
"But we could use a bit more." Dil interjected.
Chomper sighed. "As i was saying, we've killed enough for now. Please don't attack us like fools and force us to kill more of you. I don't like having to shed unnecessary blood."
"Yeah, so go away." Ichy scolded them.
"They can talk!" the herd gasped.
"Yes, we can." the three replied.
The hadrosaurs briefly conversed with each other; eventually they reached an agreement.
"Don't expect us to be so forgiving if you take another from our herd," the parasaur leader said. He turned to his herd and trumpets, signalling them to leave Chomper and co. to their meal. As they left, the trio heard the leaf-eaters continue to poke fun at their leader for approaching them as if he expected them to actually respond to his prompt to explain themselves.
"Maybe we should avoid them in the future." Chomper suggested.
"Nah, what would they do to us? They don't have horn or long tails or any of that. Easy targets." Ichy replied.
"Pity they didn't fight. I could have had some more." Dil sighed.
"Dil and I don't advertise it. The only ones that really know it, other than your Longneck friend and his buddies, have ended up in our stomachs." Ichy replied.
"I wonder if they know me then." Chomper said.
"Doubt it." Dil said. "Probably just upset."
"Hey Dil, check this out." Chomper said. He bit hard into a bone, splintering it open and revealing the marrow inside.
"There's meat in there?" she gasped.
"Yes. Realized it one day some cold times ago when I was gnawing on a Tickly Fuzzy bone and my jaw split it open. You should be able to get it too, though Ichy's jaw probably isn't strong enough to handle this kind of bone."
"No fair!" Ichy whined.
"I can get you some though."
"Thanks."
After they were done with the Swimmer, all that remained of her was some broken bones. "Poor, poor, dear, to be left in such a state." he said, shaking his head as he walked away "But I didn't ask to be only able to eat meat and not vegetables like you. You know which life I would have preferred." Chomper sighed.
"The Bright Circle made ya a Sharptooth for a reason Chomper." Ichy said.
"Don't beat yourself up." Dil added.
"Was it a good reason though? Why did my kind get made to kill Flatteeth and others to survive? It's not like Flatteeth kill each other for food." the Rex sighed.
"Not really," Ichy said. "They don't kill each other over food in the sense of them wanting to eat each other, but I have seen leaf-eaters kill leaf-eaters in order to defend their food or take others' food a couple of times."
Chomper's red eyes bulged in shock. "What?!" he gasped.
"Dil and I once got a couple of them at once because they were so busy fighting over a few Tree Sweets on a Tree Sweet tree. Some of them were clearly hurt from the fighting and may have even been killed had we not come and done that for them." Ichy replied.
"Perhaps they were starving." Chomper suggested.
"Nope. Not fully fed but definitely not that ragged either." Dil replied.
Chomper recalled what Littlefoot had said about Leaf Eaters being bigoted toward each other out in the Beyond, but he'd hoped that Littlefoot was mistaken or exaggerating. It made him angry, not at Littlefoot of course, but at the many Flatteeth who had thought him evil. "Stinking hypocrites! So you can kill each other for your Tree Sweets that you wanted from your neighbor but I'm supposedly the evil one for killing you to keep from turning into a skeleton? That's the last time I let Flatteeth guilt me about what I do to get food!" he grumbled.
Over the next three weeks, he and his two friends hunted many more Flatteeth. He wasn't willing to kill hatchlings, but any creature his age or older he felt was fair game. This land was great for him. He could hide in the mist and easily ambush unsuspecting prey. There were plenty of fish in the various rivers and lakes to eat, and he didn't have to any longer feel guilty about eating them in public as he had in the Great Valley. There were also Egg Stealers and Domeheads here to eat. Plenty of those. And he, Dil, and Ichy worked together to hunt, an advantage they had over their prey, which only stuck with their own kind.
Littlefoot and his friends may have called the land they lived in with its endless green the Great Valley, but here, in the Land of Mists, with its plenteous food supply and great camouflage, it was his Great Valley. He was at home.