Disclaimer: I do not own The Land Before Time or any of
it's characters.
Waiting For A Friend by
megacharizard
"Looks like another perfect day in paradise." Thought
Littlefoot as he rose out of his nest. The Bright Circle
was barely peeping over the Great Wall. Littlefoot
glanced at the sleeping forms of his grandparents. "Guess
I've got some time to kill with the others before
breakfast" he thought and started off to try and find
Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike.
Soon enough, the group were all together. They
were only a little bit older and Spike still didn't talk.
While they played "Sharptooth Attack", they were unaware
of three very young Clubtails watching them. You can only
have so many adventures before you become famous.
Littlefoot and the others were like heroes to these
three. As children often say, they wanted to be just like
Littlefoot when they grew older.
Outside the Great Valley, Ali's herd drew ever
closer to it as they were coming back to visit. Ali was
excited, because the Old-one said this time, it may be
permanent. It was not long before they reached the wall.
"Well, we have reached the valley." Ali's
mother whispered, "Try to calm down dear. How will
Littlefoot be able to greet you if you're bouncing up and
down the entire time?" Ali did as her mother asked and
managed to hold still for a while.
As the herd walked into the valley, no one
came greeted them. Most dinosaurs were still asleep as it
was still barely light.
"Mother, where is everyone?" asked Ali.
"I, don't know dear. Maybe they're all still
asleep." She answered. Ali heard voices, not far off.
They were familiar too.
"Mother, I think I hear Littlefoot. May I go
look for him?" she asked.
"Of course you can." was the reply. So Ali set
off to find him and the others.
"Hey, Me think me hear someone!" said Petrie.
"Who?" asked Cera. The Clubtails were afraid
that it was them who Petrie had heard.
"Me no, no." he replied. They all listened and
soon they heard a faint voice.
"Littlefoot!" it called.
"There's somehing familiar about that voice,"
said Littlefoot, "But I'm not sure why."
"We should find out who it is, yep, yep, yep!"
said Ducky as Spike nodded in agreement. So the five of
them started to look for whomever it was that was calling
them.
"Where do you think they're going, Eric?"
Tanya asked her brother.
"I think they heard someone." Said Cathy.
Eric, Tanya and Cathy were the three baby Clubtail
triplets who had been watching Littlefoot and the others
talking.
"Maybe it's the start of a new adventure! If
we follow them, we might get to be a part of it!" said
Tanya. The other two agreed and they started to follow
Littlefoot and the others...
It wasn't long before they had found Ali. They
were all overjoyed to see her.
"Ali, you're back!" yelled Littlefoot with
happiness.
"I can't believe it!" shouted Cera as they ran
up to her.
"It great to see you again!" exclaimed Petrie.
"It is, it is!" agreed Ducky.
"Hi, guys!" Ali called to them.
"What are you doing back here?" asked
Littlefoot, once the excitement had died down a bit.
"Well, my herd is here for another visit. The
Old-One said that this stay might be permanent if all
goes well!" she said. Excited by the fact that Ali might
be staying in the Great Valley permanently, the group
started to tell her about all the adventures that they
had since they parted ways and played together happily.
"Who is that?" asked Tanya.
"I think it's that girl they met on that
island after the Swarming Leaf Gobblers destroyed the
valley." Said Eric.
"No no, they met her the time before when they
left to get that weird flower-thingy." Said Cathy.
"Oh, that's right. What was her name? Abbey,
Annie?"
"No, I think it was Ali." corrected Tanya.
"Oh yeah." Unfortunately for these three, it
didn't look like there was going to be any adventure for
them, so they headed back to their nest for breakfast.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully and soon
turned to night. The six friends departed, agreeing to
meet at the same place tomorrow.
That night though, a creature ran through the
valley, searching. It reached the nest of the baby
Clubtails. It looked over by the mother of the triplets.
Lying next to her, was a large white egg. The creature
stepped out of the shadows to reveal itself as an Egg-
snatcher! It reached down for the egg, picked it up and
ran swiftly toward the valley's exit...
The next morning, the mother woke up to find
her egg gone! She frantically began searching the nest
for it. She disturbed Eric while looking around.
"What's wrong, mama?" he asked.
"Have you seen the egg dear? I can't find it
anywhere." She said as she continued to look for it.
While she searched the nest, Eric saw some footprints in
the ground near them.
"Hey mama, whose foot prints are those?" he asked. She
came over to look, and screamed.
"Oh no! Egg-snatcher tracks!" she cried. She
wasted no time. She started to follow after the tracks,
hoping the egg was still in one piece. Unfortunately for
her, the tracks went right out of the East pass of the
valley. "I can't search for my egg out there. I have to
look after the kids. I know. I'll talk to the other
valley dinosaurs. Maybe one of them will go and look for
it." she thought.
After all the dinosaurs had gathered at the
meeting place, the mother Clubtail told them about her
situation.
"So you see, with my three kids, I can't go
out there because it wouldn't be right to take them there
and I can't leave them here alone. I need help." She
finished her story.
"I would offer to help, but does seem like a
big risk for an egg that is probably been eaten by now."
said Littleoot's Grandpa. The adults kept talking about
how to deal with this, but meanwhile, Littlefoot and the
others were up on a hill talking about this too. Eric,
Tanya, Cathy were watching them from a few feet away.
"I don't think we're ever going to see mama's
egg again." said Cathy, looking at the dinosaurs in the
meeting place."
"Don't worry," said Tanya, "it won't be long
before Littlefoot or one of the others suggests going to
look for it themselves." All three of them turned their
concentration to the gang. They were in fact, talking
about the egg.
"I don't think the herds down there are going to come up
with a plan. They'll just argue and argue. Then they will
send someone out and they will find the smashed remains
of the egg." Said Cera.
"I would suggest us going to find it, but like
my Grandpa said, it's a big risk to take for an egg."
Said Littlefoot.
"And look what happen last time we chase Egg-
snatcher." said Petrie. They all remembered how bringing
Chomper's egg to the valley had also lured Sharpteeth.
"Also, if one more thing goes wrong, Old-One
won't want her herd to stay in the valley. She won't."
said Ducky.
"Yeah, she's already certain that the valley
isn't a safe nesting ground." said Ali.
"So we're all agreed then. This time we have
to let the adults deal with this one." said Littlefoot.
One by one, they all agreed. The Clubtails couldn't
believe what they heard! Eric jumped out of the bushes to
speak to the kids.
"You're not going to do anything? You're
actually not going to do anything!" he yelled.
"Who are you?" asked Ali.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that my
mama's egg is out there and after all the adventures
you've had, helping other people, you turn your backs on
us." he said. The group was shocked at the outburst from
this tiny dinosaur.
"Look, it's not that we don't want to help.
It's just that it's a very big and very stupid risk to go
out into the Mysterious Beyond to catch an Egg-snatcher,
a day after it left, which means it's probably already
eaten the egg." Said Littlefoot.
"Well if you won't do anything about, we
will." He said as he and his sisters ran off.
"I hope they don't do anything stupid." said
Ali. None of them knew what to do now so they decided to
go down to the meeting place and see how the adults were
doing.
Meanwhile, Eric had led the others back to
their nest.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" asked Tanya.
"We find the 'snatcher's foot prints and
follow them." he replied, they soon found the tracks and
followed them up to the pass. But they didn't stop. They
followed the tracks right out of the valley...
A day later, the adults were at the meeting
place again, still trying to figure out what to do about
the egg. The Clubtail's mother arrived crying her eyes
out as she explained to everyone that her children were
now also gone. Littlefoot and the others felt bad about
this.
"They must have gone into the Mysterious
Beyond to the egg. They must." realised Ducky.
"So what we do?" asked Petrie.
"Yeah, In a way, this is kind of our fault."
said Ali.
"What do you mean? What did we do?" asked
Cera.
"It's not what we did do, it's what we didn't
do. They're mad at us because we've helped so many people
but we aren't gonna help them." said Littlefoot.
"So what do we do about?" asked Cera.
Littlefoot hesitated.
"I guess we have to go and look for them." he
said. The others knew he was right. Even though it wasn't
really their job to help people, the Clubtails had left
because the group wouldn't help them...
The gang was at the Clubtail's nest. They were
searching for anything that could give them a hint as to
where the Clubtails went. After four minutes of
searching, Ducky found the Egg-snatcher's footprints.
"Look! These footprints are Egg-stealer's.
They are!" she told them.
"Well we'll follow them." said Littlefoot.
"Hopefully those kids were smart enough to
follow these tracks too." said Ali.
"And if we can't find them, we might at least
find the egg!" said Cera. The group started to follow
the tracks and soon headed out of the valley...
Almost a whole day's travelling proved to be
uneventful for the gang. It was already dark as they
followed the tracks through a small canyon. A storm was
building in the clouds. Although there was a rumbling
in the sky, no-one thought much of it. No-one that is
until a lightning bolt struck down, almost frying
Petrie and Spike!
"What do we do?" yelled Cera. No-one could
hear her as the thunder rumbled too loud! Then, the
rain started to pour, heavily, making it impossible for
them too see eachother! Each knowing that they couldn't
help the others like this, they all tried to look for
shelter. After groping around a bit , Littlefoot
managed to find Ali and they both looked for somewhere
to stay away from the lightning. Ali spotted a cave.
She tapped Littlefoot on the shoulder with her tail, as
he wouldn't have been able to hear her over the
lightning, and pointed toward the cave. Littlefoot
caught on quick and they made their way over to it.
Once inside, they saw three different ways they coud
take. Left, right and straight on.
"Let's go this way." they both said,
simultaneously. Ali was pointing to the right and
Littlefoot was pointing to the left.
"Okay, now what?" asked Ali.
"UhhhI guess we compromise. Let's go straight
on." So off they went down the dark passage...
Meanwhile outside, Spike had found Petrie and
they too had made it into the cave. Completely
oblivious to the fact the Littlefoot and Ali were also
in the cave, They chose the left tunnel...
Ducky and Cera entered the just a few seconds
after Spike and Petrie had gone down the tunnel so they
picked the right-hand tunnel...
Littlefoot and Ali had been walking for a
while. They couldn't tell it was night time from where
they were, but they did remember that it was dark when
they entered the cave.
"Okay, I think it's time to stop for the
night." said Littlefoot
"I was just about to say that." said Ali. They
looked around for a suitable place and found the skeleton
of aThreehorn. The two Longnecks looked at eachother.
"Wanna keep moving?" asked Littlefoot.
"Yeah!" said Ali, very quickly. They moved
around the corner where there was nothing to disturb them
from sleep. It was cold in the cave so they snuggled
together for warmth. Littlefoot drifted off almost right
away. But Ali couldn't sleep. She was beginning to
develop a strange attraction to Littlefoot, it started
when they were dealing with the Clubtail's outburst about
them not helping, but she didn't know what it ment.
Already she had seen him as smart and kind and now she
was beginning to find him kind of attractive,
psychically. She didn't know what to do with these
feelings. She was sure it wasn't love. At most, it was
just a crush probably. So she decided that maybe a good
night's sleep would clear her head and she lay down and
drifted off...
The nxt morning, Cera and Ducky had woken up
really early and continued down the passage. After a
while, they found the exit.
"Look! It is the exit! It is!" exclaimed
Ducky.
"And the Clubtail footprints have started up
again! We're on the right track!" yelled Cera, pointing
at the ground.
"What do we do about the the others? They
don't know that we're here. No, no, no." said Ducky,
sadly.
"We'll wait until the Bright Circle comes
over those mountains. Hopefully the others saw this cave
last night too." Cera said...
Littlefoot and Ali were continuing through
their tunnel. They hadn't seen anything that grabbed
their attention since the skeleton they saw last night.
However, after they rounded another corner, they came
face to face with a dead end!
"Oh no. Looks like we picked the wrong tunnel
after all." said Littlefoot.
"Oh great, we're gonna have to go back down
this tunnel and then come up another one." Ali said.
Littlefoot hit the right side wall in frustration and
then yelled in surprise as the whole thing gave way! When
he picked himself up out of the rubble, he looked around
to see a very shocked Ali as well as Cera and Ducky! He
had actually made a hole in the wall which led from one
tunnel to the other!
"What the heck happened?" asked Cera.
Littlefoot went over to the wall and looked at it. It was
made of very weak sandstone. A weak rock plus a
dinosaur's strength (which probably quite a bit more than
a human's) was enough to bring it down. After they all
got over the shock, Cera and Ducy told them that this was
the correct tunnel and that the Clubtails had definitely
come this way.
"Ha! I told you we should've gone right!" Ali
taunted Littlefoot, playfully.
"Alright fine. You were right." Littlefoot
said, grudgingly.
"So have you guys seen Spike or Petrie around
here?" asked Cera.
"No, maybe they took the left tunnel."
Littlefoot said, "Wait here, I'll be right back!" as he
jumped through the hole and ran back down the tunnel.
"I guess he's gonna go into the left tunnel to
try and find them." Ali said.
"Well in the mean time, we can go and look
around for the Clubtails a bit while staying near the
cave. Yup, yup, yup!" Ducky said. So they went off to
look around the valley...
Littlefoot had reached the other entrance to
the cave where the tunnel split into three. He turned
right and headed down the new tunnel. As he was running,
it didn't take long for him to find them.
"Petrie! Spike! You're going the wrong way!"
he called to them.
"Littlefoot! Me glad to see you!" etrie yelled
back. It was true because as nice as Spike was, lacking
thepower of speech didn't make him much of a traveling
companion to Petrie.
"Come on! I know which way to go! It's also
the way the Clubtails went. The girls are already there
waiting." Littlefoot told them. So they started back the
way they came and it wasn't long before they reached the
the hole in the wall. But, the girls were no where in
sight...
Ali, Cera and Ducky were checking out part of
the valley. They had no intention of scouring the hole
thing, just the part nearest the cave.
"What is that?" asked Ducky, stopping for a
second.
"Whats what?" asked Cera, confused.
"I hear something. I do, I do. Listen." Ducky
replied. All three of them stopped to listen.
"ALI, CERA, DUCKY, WHERE ARE YOU!" a faint
voice called for far off.
"That's Littlefoot." Ali said.
"Ooops. We forgot to tell him that we were
going to start the search." Cera realised.
"We should go back. We should. We should."
said Ducky. The three of them started their way back
toward the cave...
They made it back to find Littlefoot, Petrie
and Spike standing just outside the cave.
"There you are! What do the words: 'stay here,
I'll be right back'
mean to you people?" asked Littlefoot.
"Sorry. We decided to start a small, quick
search for the Clubtails." Ali said.
"Okay. Now, we have to work out a plan to find
them. We'll split up to cover more ground, but it will be
two groups of three in case we meet any Sharpteeth. One
group will search staying close to the right wall and the
other shall stay close to the left wall. We'll search
until dark. If we haven't found them by then, we all head
back to the cave, meet up, spend the night there and come
up with another plan the next day." Littlefoot said.
Everyone agreed to the plan. Littlefoot, Spike and Petrie
took the path that travelled along the left wall while
Cera, Ducky and Ali went right. Ali was slghtly
disappointed that she couldn't have gone with Littlefoot.
The boys spent the entire day searching but
found nothing so by the time it started to get dark, they
headed back to the cave.
It was not so easy for the girls though. They
had been walking for a while and were attacked by a pack
of Sharpteeth! Luckily, they managed to lure the
Sharpteeth into a nearby tar-pit so everything was okay.
But they didn't find anything either and they arrived
back at the cave hurt, tired and hungry.
"Woah! What happened you three?" asked
Littlefoot.
"Sharpeeth attacked us. Didn't any attack
you?" asked Ali.
"No, they probably thought that there was no
way they could win against boys, but girls would be a
different story." Littlefoot joked. He was lucky that
they were too tired to get him back for saying that!
Spike got some tree-stars for the girls while Littlefoot
and Petrie began working on a plan for tomorrow.
"So, we split up, the girls were attacked by
Sharpteeth and barely got through alive. Tomorrow, we
stay together as one big group." Littlefoot said. Petrie
nodded In agreement.
"We already check left and right paths so me
say we go along the middle path next day." proposed
Petrie.
"I agree. We'll cut straight down the middle
of this valley." Littlefoot said. They walked over to the
others and explained the plan to them. Everyone thought
it was a good idea so they decided to settle down for
sleep...
Ali woke up early the next morning. She
couldn't sleep easy ever since she came back to the
valley. She glanced over at Littlefoot's sleeping form.
She was still sure that she wasn't in love with him, but
she also wasn't sure if it was still just a crush. One by
one, the others were starting to wake up as well. After
breakfast, the six of them prepared and headed for the
middle pathway...
They hadn't been walking long when the came up
to a gorge. Petire looked down into it.
"The Clubtails down there with egg and Egg-
snatcher. Me see them!" he yelled. Everyone looked down.
Thy were all there. The Clubtails were lying on the
ground, apparently hurt. The egg was also there in one
piece.
"I can't belive the egg is okay." Ali said.
"It won't be for much longer if we don't
hurry!" Littlefoot exclaimed as he started down the path
into the gorge. Ali could see what he ment. The Egg-
snatcher was about to crack the egg on a rock! Everyone
lse started to follow Littlefoot downwards. They could
see that they wouldn't be able to reach him in time and
thy were to high up to jump! Ducky picked up a small rock
and threw it at him. It struck him In the eye, causing
himself to drop the egg! Luckily, Littlefoot had contiued
runnig down while Ducky took on the Egg-snatcher and was
able to jump the last few feet just in time to get the
egg.! The others were soon beside him.
"Release that egg. It belongs to me now."
hissed the Egg-snatcher.
"Not any more it doesn't!" yelled Cera.
"What did yu do to these kids?" asked Ali.
"I didn't do anything. I was about to crack
the egg shell when they appeared at the top and tried to
climb down. Unfortunetly for them, they slipped and fell.
That is why they are hurt. It is a perfect way of
teaching them not to meddle in situations that do not
concern them." he said. Spike was starting to creep up
behind him. Littlefoot tdecided to keep him talking so
Spike wouldn't be discovered.
"This does concern them. That egg belongs to
their mother and no-one else can get that egg back." he
said. That was all he needed to say because Spike
headbutted him in the back! The egg went fying, but Ali
managed to stp it hitting the ground too hard. Spike and
Cera managed to get the Egg-snatcher into a nearby tar-
pit when he almost instantly drowned! With he fight over,
the kids went to inspect the Clubtails.
"They will be alright, but I don't think that
the are going to be able towalk for a while." said Ali.
"We'll have to carry them back. But I don't
how we're gonn get the egg back." Littlefoot said. Just
as he finished speaking, the egg shell started to crack!
"It's hatching! It is!" shouted Ducky.
"Quick! Get a tree-star and drape it over the
baby's face!" Ali told Littlefoot.
"What for?" he asked.
"When a dinosaur hatches, it thinks that the
first animal it sees is it's mother. We can't let it see
us before we get it bak to the valley!" Ali replied.
Littlefoot knew she was right. He remembered how that had
happened with Chomper. He quickly plucked a tree-star
from a tree and covered the newborn with it. They used
some tar to secure it around the baby's head like a
blinfold.
"Okay, this baby will balance on someone's
back a lot easier than the egg so it's a good thing it
hatched." Littlefoot said. With Petrie and Ducky's help,
the bigger kids were able to get a Clubtail on there
backs. Ali carried Tanya, Cera carried Cathy, Spike
carried Eric and Littlefoot took the baby. Walking home
to the valley would take about the same amount of time as
before. While the Clubtails slowed them down, they did
know exactly where to go. Luckily, they made it back with
no interruptions from Sharpteeth.
It was already dark when the six of them
reached the meeting place. All of the adults were staring
down at them. They walked over to the Clubtail's mother
and put the children down in front of her.
"We found the egg but it hatched so we
blindfolded it so it wouldn't see us before it saw you."
Littlefoot told her. The mother was grateful but the
other adults remained silent. They had been worried about
the kids as they had been away for so long. Aftera while
though, the adults fogt their anger and were just happy
to see their children again.
The next evening, Ali took Littlefoot to a
secluded part of the valley. She realised that she was
now fully in love with him and had to tell him.
Meanwhile, Littlefoot did have feelings for her which
kind of stronger than friendship, but he was not sure.
"Littlefoot, ever since we started this
adventure, I've been experiancing strange feelings. I
kept trying to push them away but I couldn't stop them."
she said.
"What are you sayinig?" Littlefoot asked.
"I'm saying that I-I think I'm f-f-falling in
love with you." she stammered.
"Oh no." he sighed, "Ali I wish I could say I
felt the same but, I'm not sure."
"Not sure?" she echoed, "What is that supposed
to mean?"
"It means that. I might be in love with you
but I don't know for sure if I am or not..I'm sorry but I
need time to figure it out." he said this without looking
directly into her eyes. Ali nodded slowly and walked away
leaving Littlefoot standing there, hating himself...
To Be Continued...
Don't worry Littlefoot+Ali fans, I promise things will be
better in chapther 2. But it will take a while for it to
be written.
it's characters.
Waiting For A Friend by
megacharizard
"Looks like another perfect day in paradise." Thought
Littlefoot as he rose out of his nest. The Bright Circle
was barely peeping over the Great Wall. Littlefoot
glanced at the sleeping forms of his grandparents. "Guess
I've got some time to kill with the others before
breakfast" he thought and started off to try and find
Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike.
Soon enough, the group were all together. They
were only a little bit older and Spike still didn't talk.
While they played "Sharptooth Attack", they were unaware
of three very young Clubtails watching them. You can only
have so many adventures before you become famous.
Littlefoot and the others were like heroes to these
three. As children often say, they wanted to be just like
Littlefoot when they grew older.
Outside the Great Valley, Ali's herd drew ever
closer to it as they were coming back to visit. Ali was
excited, because the Old-one said this time, it may be
permanent. It was not long before they reached the wall.
"Well, we have reached the valley." Ali's
mother whispered, "Try to calm down dear. How will
Littlefoot be able to greet you if you're bouncing up and
down the entire time?" Ali did as her mother asked and
managed to hold still for a while.
As the herd walked into the valley, no one
came greeted them. Most dinosaurs were still asleep as it
was still barely light.
"Mother, where is everyone?" asked Ali.
"I, don't know dear. Maybe they're all still
asleep." She answered. Ali heard voices, not far off.
They were familiar too.
"Mother, I think I hear Littlefoot. May I go
look for him?" she asked.
"Of course you can." was the reply. So Ali set
off to find him and the others.
"Hey, Me think me hear someone!" said Petrie.
"Who?" asked Cera. The Clubtails were afraid
that it was them who Petrie had heard.
"Me no, no." he replied. They all listened and
soon they heard a faint voice.
"Littlefoot!" it called.
"There's somehing familiar about that voice,"
said Littlefoot, "But I'm not sure why."
"We should find out who it is, yep, yep, yep!"
said Ducky as Spike nodded in agreement. So the five of
them started to look for whomever it was that was calling
them.
"Where do you think they're going, Eric?"
Tanya asked her brother.
"I think they heard someone." Said Cathy.
Eric, Tanya and Cathy were the three baby Clubtail
triplets who had been watching Littlefoot and the others
talking.
"Maybe it's the start of a new adventure! If
we follow them, we might get to be a part of it!" said
Tanya. The other two agreed and they started to follow
Littlefoot and the others...
It wasn't long before they had found Ali. They
were all overjoyed to see her.
"Ali, you're back!" yelled Littlefoot with
happiness.
"I can't believe it!" shouted Cera as they ran
up to her.
"It great to see you again!" exclaimed Petrie.
"It is, it is!" agreed Ducky.
"Hi, guys!" Ali called to them.
"What are you doing back here?" asked
Littlefoot, once the excitement had died down a bit.
"Well, my herd is here for another visit. The
Old-One said that this stay might be permanent if all
goes well!" she said. Excited by the fact that Ali might
be staying in the Great Valley permanently, the group
started to tell her about all the adventures that they
had since they parted ways and played together happily.
"Who is that?" asked Tanya.
"I think it's that girl they met on that
island after the Swarming Leaf Gobblers destroyed the
valley." Said Eric.
"No no, they met her the time before when they
left to get that weird flower-thingy." Said Cathy.
"Oh, that's right. What was her name? Abbey,
Annie?"
"No, I think it was Ali." corrected Tanya.
"Oh yeah." Unfortunately for these three, it
didn't look like there was going to be any adventure for
them, so they headed back to their nest for breakfast.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully and soon
turned to night. The six friends departed, agreeing to
meet at the same place tomorrow.
That night though, a creature ran through the
valley, searching. It reached the nest of the baby
Clubtails. It looked over by the mother of the triplets.
Lying next to her, was a large white egg. The creature
stepped out of the shadows to reveal itself as an Egg-
snatcher! It reached down for the egg, picked it up and
ran swiftly toward the valley's exit...
The next morning, the mother woke up to find
her egg gone! She frantically began searching the nest
for it. She disturbed Eric while looking around.
"What's wrong, mama?" he asked.
"Have you seen the egg dear? I can't find it
anywhere." She said as she continued to look for it.
While she searched the nest, Eric saw some footprints in
the ground near them.
"Hey mama, whose foot prints are those?" he asked. She
came over to look, and screamed.
"Oh no! Egg-snatcher tracks!" she cried. She
wasted no time. She started to follow after the tracks,
hoping the egg was still in one piece. Unfortunately for
her, the tracks went right out of the East pass of the
valley. "I can't search for my egg out there. I have to
look after the kids. I know. I'll talk to the other
valley dinosaurs. Maybe one of them will go and look for
it." she thought.
After all the dinosaurs had gathered at the
meeting place, the mother Clubtail told them about her
situation.
"So you see, with my three kids, I can't go
out there because it wouldn't be right to take them there
and I can't leave them here alone. I need help." She
finished her story.
"I would offer to help, but does seem like a
big risk for an egg that is probably been eaten by now."
said Littleoot's Grandpa. The adults kept talking about
how to deal with this, but meanwhile, Littlefoot and the
others were up on a hill talking about this too. Eric,
Tanya, Cathy were watching them from a few feet away.
"I don't think we're ever going to see mama's
egg again." said Cathy, looking at the dinosaurs in the
meeting place."
"Don't worry," said Tanya, "it won't be long
before Littlefoot or one of the others suggests going to
look for it themselves." All three of them turned their
concentration to the gang. They were in fact, talking
about the egg.
"I don't think the herds down there are going to come up
with a plan. They'll just argue and argue. Then they will
send someone out and they will find the smashed remains
of the egg." Said Cera.
"I would suggest us going to find it, but like
my Grandpa said, it's a big risk to take for an egg."
Said Littlefoot.
"And look what happen last time we chase Egg-
snatcher." said Petrie. They all remembered how bringing
Chomper's egg to the valley had also lured Sharpteeth.
"Also, if one more thing goes wrong, Old-One
won't want her herd to stay in the valley. She won't."
said Ducky.
"Yeah, she's already certain that the valley
isn't a safe nesting ground." said Ali.
"So we're all agreed then. This time we have
to let the adults deal with this one." said Littlefoot.
One by one, they all agreed. The Clubtails couldn't
believe what they heard! Eric jumped out of the bushes to
speak to the kids.
"You're not going to do anything? You're
actually not going to do anything!" he yelled.
"Who are you?" asked Ali.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that my
mama's egg is out there and after all the adventures
you've had, helping other people, you turn your backs on
us." he said. The group was shocked at the outburst from
this tiny dinosaur.
"Look, it's not that we don't want to help.
It's just that it's a very big and very stupid risk to go
out into the Mysterious Beyond to catch an Egg-snatcher,
a day after it left, which means it's probably already
eaten the egg." Said Littlefoot.
"Well if you won't do anything about, we
will." He said as he and his sisters ran off.
"I hope they don't do anything stupid." said
Ali. None of them knew what to do now so they decided to
go down to the meeting place and see how the adults were
doing.
Meanwhile, Eric had led the others back to
their nest.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" asked Tanya.
"We find the 'snatcher's foot prints and
follow them." he replied, they soon found the tracks and
followed them up to the pass. But they didn't stop. They
followed the tracks right out of the valley...
A day later, the adults were at the meeting
place again, still trying to figure out what to do about
the egg. The Clubtail's mother arrived crying her eyes
out as she explained to everyone that her children were
now also gone. Littlefoot and the others felt bad about
this.
"They must have gone into the Mysterious
Beyond to the egg. They must." realised Ducky.
"So what we do?" asked Petrie.
"Yeah, In a way, this is kind of our fault."
said Ali.
"What do you mean? What did we do?" asked
Cera.
"It's not what we did do, it's what we didn't
do. They're mad at us because we've helped so many people
but we aren't gonna help them." said Littlefoot.
"So what do we do about?" asked Cera.
Littlefoot hesitated.
"I guess we have to go and look for them." he
said. The others knew he was right. Even though it wasn't
really their job to help people, the Clubtails had left
because the group wouldn't help them...
The gang was at the Clubtail's nest. They were
searching for anything that could give them a hint as to
where the Clubtails went. After four minutes of
searching, Ducky found the Egg-snatcher's footprints.
"Look! These footprints are Egg-stealer's.
They are!" she told them.
"Well we'll follow them." said Littlefoot.
"Hopefully those kids were smart enough to
follow these tracks too." said Ali.
"And if we can't find them, we might at least
find the egg!" said Cera. The group started to follow
the tracks and soon headed out of the valley...
Almost a whole day's travelling proved to be
uneventful for the gang. It was already dark as they
followed the tracks through a small canyon. A storm was
building in the clouds. Although there was a rumbling
in the sky, no-one thought much of it. No-one that is
until a lightning bolt struck down, almost frying
Petrie and Spike!
"What do we do?" yelled Cera. No-one could
hear her as the thunder rumbled too loud! Then, the
rain started to pour, heavily, making it impossible for
them too see eachother! Each knowing that they couldn't
help the others like this, they all tried to look for
shelter. After groping around a bit , Littlefoot
managed to find Ali and they both looked for somewhere
to stay away from the lightning. Ali spotted a cave.
She tapped Littlefoot on the shoulder with her tail, as
he wouldn't have been able to hear her over the
lightning, and pointed toward the cave. Littlefoot
caught on quick and they made their way over to it.
Once inside, they saw three different ways they coud
take. Left, right and straight on.
"Let's go this way." they both said,
simultaneously. Ali was pointing to the right and
Littlefoot was pointing to the left.
"Okay, now what?" asked Ali.
"UhhhI guess we compromise. Let's go straight
on." So off they went down the dark passage...
Meanwhile outside, Spike had found Petrie and
they too had made it into the cave. Completely
oblivious to the fact the Littlefoot and Ali were also
in the cave, They chose the left tunnel...
Ducky and Cera entered the just a few seconds
after Spike and Petrie had gone down the tunnel so they
picked the right-hand tunnel...
Littlefoot and Ali had been walking for a
while. They couldn't tell it was night time from where
they were, but they did remember that it was dark when
they entered the cave.
"Okay, I think it's time to stop for the
night." said Littlefoot
"I was just about to say that." said Ali. They
looked around for a suitable place and found the skeleton
of aThreehorn. The two Longnecks looked at eachother.
"Wanna keep moving?" asked Littlefoot.
"Yeah!" said Ali, very quickly. They moved
around the corner where there was nothing to disturb them
from sleep. It was cold in the cave so they snuggled
together for warmth. Littlefoot drifted off almost right
away. But Ali couldn't sleep. She was beginning to
develop a strange attraction to Littlefoot, it started
when they were dealing with the Clubtail's outburst about
them not helping, but she didn't know what it ment.
Already she had seen him as smart and kind and now she
was beginning to find him kind of attractive,
psychically. She didn't know what to do with these
feelings. She was sure it wasn't love. At most, it was
just a crush probably. So she decided that maybe a good
night's sleep would clear her head and she lay down and
drifted off...
The nxt morning, Cera and Ducky had woken up
really early and continued down the passage. After a
while, they found the exit.
"Look! It is the exit! It is!" exclaimed
Ducky.
"And the Clubtail footprints have started up
again! We're on the right track!" yelled Cera, pointing
at the ground.
"What do we do about the the others? They
don't know that we're here. No, no, no." said Ducky,
sadly.
"We'll wait until the Bright Circle comes
over those mountains. Hopefully the others saw this cave
last night too." Cera said...
Littlefoot and Ali were continuing through
their tunnel. They hadn't seen anything that grabbed
their attention since the skeleton they saw last night.
However, after they rounded another corner, they came
face to face with a dead end!
"Oh no. Looks like we picked the wrong tunnel
after all." said Littlefoot.
"Oh great, we're gonna have to go back down
this tunnel and then come up another one." Ali said.
Littlefoot hit the right side wall in frustration and
then yelled in surprise as the whole thing gave way! When
he picked himself up out of the rubble, he looked around
to see a very shocked Ali as well as Cera and Ducky! He
had actually made a hole in the wall which led from one
tunnel to the other!
"What the heck happened?" asked Cera.
Littlefoot went over to the wall and looked at it. It was
made of very weak sandstone. A weak rock plus a
dinosaur's strength (which probably quite a bit more than
a human's) was enough to bring it down. After they all
got over the shock, Cera and Ducy told them that this was
the correct tunnel and that the Clubtails had definitely
come this way.
"Ha! I told you we should've gone right!" Ali
taunted Littlefoot, playfully.
"Alright fine. You were right." Littlefoot
said, grudgingly.
"So have you guys seen Spike or Petrie around
here?" asked Cera.
"No, maybe they took the left tunnel."
Littlefoot said, "Wait here, I'll be right back!" as he
jumped through the hole and ran back down the tunnel.
"I guess he's gonna go into the left tunnel to
try and find them." Ali said.
"Well in the mean time, we can go and look
around for the Clubtails a bit while staying near the
cave. Yup, yup, yup!" Ducky said. So they went off to
look around the valley...
Littlefoot had reached the other entrance to
the cave where the tunnel split into three. He turned
right and headed down the new tunnel. As he was running,
it didn't take long for him to find them.
"Petrie! Spike! You're going the wrong way!"
he called to them.
"Littlefoot! Me glad to see you!" etrie yelled
back. It was true because as nice as Spike was, lacking
thepower of speech didn't make him much of a traveling
companion to Petrie.
"Come on! I know which way to go! It's also
the way the Clubtails went. The girls are already there
waiting." Littlefoot told them. So they started back the
way they came and it wasn't long before they reached the
the hole in the wall. But, the girls were no where in
sight...
Ali, Cera and Ducky were checking out part of
the valley. They had no intention of scouring the hole
thing, just the part nearest the cave.
"What is that?" asked Ducky, stopping for a
second.
"Whats what?" asked Cera, confused.
"I hear something. I do, I do. Listen." Ducky
replied. All three of them stopped to listen.
"ALI, CERA, DUCKY, WHERE ARE YOU!" a faint
voice called for far off.
"That's Littlefoot." Ali said.
"Ooops. We forgot to tell him that we were
going to start the search." Cera realised.
"We should go back. We should. We should."
said Ducky. The three of them started their way back
toward the cave...
They made it back to find Littlefoot, Petrie
and Spike standing just outside the cave.
"There you are! What do the words: 'stay here,
I'll be right back'
mean to you people?" asked Littlefoot.
"Sorry. We decided to start a small, quick
search for the Clubtails." Ali said.
"Okay. Now, we have to work out a plan to find
them. We'll split up to cover more ground, but it will be
two groups of three in case we meet any Sharpteeth. One
group will search staying close to the right wall and the
other shall stay close to the left wall. We'll search
until dark. If we haven't found them by then, we all head
back to the cave, meet up, spend the night there and come
up with another plan the next day." Littlefoot said.
Everyone agreed to the plan. Littlefoot, Spike and Petrie
took the path that travelled along the left wall while
Cera, Ducky and Ali went right. Ali was slghtly
disappointed that she couldn't have gone with Littlefoot.
The boys spent the entire day searching but
found nothing so by the time it started to get dark, they
headed back to the cave.
It was not so easy for the girls though. They
had been walking for a while and were attacked by a pack
of Sharpteeth! Luckily, they managed to lure the
Sharpteeth into a nearby tar-pit so everything was okay.
But they didn't find anything either and they arrived
back at the cave hurt, tired and hungry.
"Woah! What happened you three?" asked
Littlefoot.
"Sharpeeth attacked us. Didn't any attack
you?" asked Ali.
"No, they probably thought that there was no
way they could win against boys, but girls would be a
different story." Littlefoot joked. He was lucky that
they were too tired to get him back for saying that!
Spike got some tree-stars for the girls while Littlefoot
and Petrie began working on a plan for tomorrow.
"So, we split up, the girls were attacked by
Sharpteeth and barely got through alive. Tomorrow, we
stay together as one big group." Littlefoot said. Petrie
nodded In agreement.
"We already check left and right paths so me
say we go along the middle path next day." proposed
Petrie.
"I agree. We'll cut straight down the middle
of this valley." Littlefoot said. They walked over to the
others and explained the plan to them. Everyone thought
it was a good idea so they decided to settle down for
sleep...
Ali woke up early the next morning. She
couldn't sleep easy ever since she came back to the
valley. She glanced over at Littlefoot's sleeping form.
She was still sure that she wasn't in love with him, but
she also wasn't sure if it was still just a crush. One by
one, the others were starting to wake up as well. After
breakfast, the six of them prepared and headed for the
middle pathway...
They hadn't been walking long when the came up
to a gorge. Petire looked down into it.
"The Clubtails down there with egg and Egg-
snatcher. Me see them!" he yelled. Everyone looked down.
Thy were all there. The Clubtails were lying on the
ground, apparently hurt. The egg was also there in one
piece.
"I can't belive the egg is okay." Ali said.
"It won't be for much longer if we don't
hurry!" Littlefoot exclaimed as he started down the path
into the gorge. Ali could see what he ment. The Egg-
snatcher was about to crack the egg on a rock! Everyone
lse started to follow Littlefoot downwards. They could
see that they wouldn't be able to reach him in time and
thy were to high up to jump! Ducky picked up a small rock
and threw it at him. It struck him In the eye, causing
himself to drop the egg! Luckily, Littlefoot had contiued
runnig down while Ducky took on the Egg-snatcher and was
able to jump the last few feet just in time to get the
egg.! The others were soon beside him.
"Release that egg. It belongs to me now."
hissed the Egg-snatcher.
"Not any more it doesn't!" yelled Cera.
"What did yu do to these kids?" asked Ali.
"I didn't do anything. I was about to crack
the egg shell when they appeared at the top and tried to
climb down. Unfortunetly for them, they slipped and fell.
That is why they are hurt. It is a perfect way of
teaching them not to meddle in situations that do not
concern them." he said. Spike was starting to creep up
behind him. Littlefoot tdecided to keep him talking so
Spike wouldn't be discovered.
"This does concern them. That egg belongs to
their mother and no-one else can get that egg back." he
said. That was all he needed to say because Spike
headbutted him in the back! The egg went fying, but Ali
managed to stp it hitting the ground too hard. Spike and
Cera managed to get the Egg-snatcher into a nearby tar-
pit when he almost instantly drowned! With he fight over,
the kids went to inspect the Clubtails.
"They will be alright, but I don't think that
the are going to be able towalk for a while." said Ali.
"We'll have to carry them back. But I don't
how we're gonn get the egg back." Littlefoot said. Just
as he finished speaking, the egg shell started to crack!
"It's hatching! It is!" shouted Ducky.
"Quick! Get a tree-star and drape it over the
baby's face!" Ali told Littlefoot.
"What for?" he asked.
"When a dinosaur hatches, it thinks that the
first animal it sees is it's mother. We can't let it see
us before we get it bak to the valley!" Ali replied.
Littlefoot knew she was right. He remembered how that had
happened with Chomper. He quickly plucked a tree-star
from a tree and covered the newborn with it. They used
some tar to secure it around the baby's head like a
blinfold.
"Okay, this baby will balance on someone's
back a lot easier than the egg so it's a good thing it
hatched." Littlefoot said. With Petrie and Ducky's help,
the bigger kids were able to get a Clubtail on there
backs. Ali carried Tanya, Cera carried Cathy, Spike
carried Eric and Littlefoot took the baby. Walking home
to the valley would take about the same amount of time as
before. While the Clubtails slowed them down, they did
know exactly where to go. Luckily, they made it back with
no interruptions from Sharpteeth.
It was already dark when the six of them
reached the meeting place. All of the adults were staring
down at them. They walked over to the Clubtail's mother
and put the children down in front of her.
"We found the egg but it hatched so we
blindfolded it so it wouldn't see us before it saw you."
Littlefoot told her. The mother was grateful but the
other adults remained silent. They had been worried about
the kids as they had been away for so long. Aftera while
though, the adults fogt their anger and were just happy
to see their children again.
The next evening, Ali took Littlefoot to a
secluded part of the valley. She realised that she was
now fully in love with him and had to tell him.
Meanwhile, Littlefoot did have feelings for her which
kind of stronger than friendship, but he was not sure.
"Littlefoot, ever since we started this
adventure, I've been experiancing strange feelings. I
kept trying to push them away but I couldn't stop them."
she said.
"What are you sayinig?" Littlefoot asked.
"I'm saying that I-I think I'm f-f-falling in
love with you." she stammered.
"Oh no." he sighed, "Ali I wish I could say I
felt the same but, I'm not sure."
"Not sure?" she echoed, "What is that supposed
to mean?"
"It means that. I might be in love with you
but I don't know for sure if I am or not..I'm sorry but I
need time to figure it out." he said this without looking
directly into her eyes. Ali nodded slowly and walked away
leaving Littlefoot standing there, hating himself...
To Be Continued...
Don't worry Littlefoot+Ali fans, I promise things will be
better in chapther 2. But it will take a while for it to
be written.