War Before Time I: Fall of the Valley

by The Mr E

"No one told me the world could crumble. No one told me stars can fall." From The Great Earthshake and Longneck Migration to The Stone of Cold Fire, a secret lurks beneath every adventure you thought you knew. Littlefoot and his friends trained to fight sharpteeth, but what could prepare them for the day everything changed? Sequel to 'Mentors of Yesteryears'. Low T for violence.

9. Chapter 9: Falling Together

Fall of The Valley Ch 9

Falling Together

---

Upsilon Nrrvss took a big step back, for all the good that would do. Little Valley's main entrance was crashing down before his eyes ... which wasn't something that just happened. Its structure was sound, as far as his pack could discern. More than a few earthshakes had failed to fell it, but it was clear that something else was responsible, or perhaps someone else. He gulped. No, they weren't ready to face a False Guardian! Only The Great Guardians and Black Claw could do such a thing!

Amid his trepidation and the clamour of collapsing stone, Nrrvss failed to notice the heavy footsteps racing up to him. However, he did notice the horns introducing themselves to his blindside. In the split second that it took to completely lose consciousness, he felt himself flying through the air.

"WOO!" Cera cheered as the peach threehorn trotted up to her side, bouncing in admiration for his hero as the biter returned to Earth head first with the grace of a log. "One hundred and one biters fall to the girls! Eat your heart out, Murfy!"

Speaking of which ...

"Guys! I'm gonna do a thing!"came Murfy's distant shout from the ruined entrance.

"HE'S GONNA DO A THING! RUN!" shrieked a faraway Dawn.

Cera frowned and looked around. "Run where, exactly?"

---

Littlefoot wasn't sure what to make of this. Sharpteeth were predictable enough, but Murfy? He could only hope 'A Thing' wouldn't backfire spectacularly, knowing the rockback longneck's luck.

He'd spared the new arrivals a mere glance before returning his attention to Arrtafiss and his underlings.

The alpha was gone.

Nonetheless, the biters pressed their attack with every bit the tactical prowess they'd show under Arrtafiss, maybe more. A new voice had taken command.

...

From the relative safety of the sidelines, Delta Shrrood orchestrated the attacks with mastery. He knew he may never make Alpha, Beta or even Gamma. He lacked the charisma, boldness and strength to hold such ranks for long. However, he could rival his brother, Arrtafiss', intelligence any day. It was an open secret that in a true battle of wits, Shrrood could crush the alpha any day. He epitomised the raw, deadly intelligence of The Clever Claws, and now the longneck was contending with him. Wielding the pack like the dreaded singers who reigned over lands afar, he would show this longneck the true power of The Clever Claws!

...

A curious Ducky tilted her head as she watched Murfy. His gaze had wandered Little Valley's wall before locking on a particular point. She almost giggled at the thought that if he stared any harder, it would reduce the cliff to ruins ... but then again, this was Murfy, after all. In any event, what purpose would it serve to collapse the cliff? She raised a thoughtful finger to her chin, only to feel no finger, no pawn ... no arm.

She pushed down the sickening sensation that curdled in her stomach. This was not the time to think about the injury, or whatever it meant for her future. She had to focus on the task at paw, whatever that would be.

"I'm going in!" Murfy announced.

Oh, covering Murfy. She could work with that, even if he was already bolting for the cliff at full speed. Ordinarily, she'd drop to all fours and easily outpace him. With only three legs? Well, at least Murfy wasn't that fast. She kept up well enough running upright. Unfortunately, the biters were a whole lot swifter on two legs than she was. That was why she'd thought ahead and picked up rock - small, by her standards, but easily big enough to knock out a biter if she threw it hard enough. Thinking of which ...

*Clonk!*

A would-be ambusher skidded to the ground at Murfy's side. Too bad fast biters seldom attacked alone, so Ducky wasn't surprised to find his buddies right behind him.

Pterano wasn't surprised either.

The experienced flyer had already swooped in and rewarded their sneakiness with a kick that sent its victim crashing into those behind him. The force of the blow flung Pterano's feet back beneath him where they briefly touched down and pushed him back up and forward. The fast biters choked on their startlement as he plowed into them, banking left and right with the force of his kicks as he tore a zigzagging path through their ranks. Two biters had the bright idea of flanking him simultaneously. It could have worked. Then down crashed his wings into the duo's heads in a ferocious flap that propelled him above the fray. He'd eluded their reach for but a moment before diving into their midst with a heart-stopping screech. The flyer was shattering their attack before Ducky could even think of how to help.

Pterano was a reckless, ravaging thing. He fought like one who had no fear of death or welcomed it with open wings, yet battle after impossible battle, he simply wouldn't die. It was no wonder sharpteeth feared The Daybreaker.

Ducky glimpsed Petrie diving to the opposite side of Murfy. He didn't say anything, gave no warning, because he knew she'd come running to his side. However, Ducky knew an attack dive when she saw one. Petrie was her friend, and he would wordlessly take on all the sharpteeth in the world if it meant keeping an injured Ducky from lifting a paw. She loved him for it, but it would take more than that to keep her on the sidelines.

He was her friend too.

"Excuse me!" Ducky chirped politely as she vaulted over Murfy. A light paw to his back was all it took to get the little extra air she needed. Without the other paw? Landing could be a tad rough. Thankfully, it was quite soft ... and fleshy. Not to mention the abruptly cut squawk.

Ducky frowned a glance at the fast biter beneath her. The eager little guy was within a breath's distance of Murfy. He was still breathing, but he'd be feeling that in the morning. Who could expect a swimmer to squish you out of the blue?

She looked up to see a fast biter frozen within pouncing distance, eyes wide as he contemplated the fate that could have befallen him had he been a little faster. A bit slower would have been just as big of a problem. It seemed these two were the only ones to slip past Petrie as he speed blitzed biters in the background.

"I feel bad for him," sighed Ducky.

The remaining biter shook off his shock and pounced at her. "Then why don't you DI-!"

"Nope!"

His threat squished between his jaws when she snatched him out of the air by the muzzle.

"Nope!"

Ducky flung him into another who'd slipped by Petrie.

"Aaand nope!"

That was the last thing her blindsider heard. He thought he'd found an opening to strike from the side of her injured arm. The swimmer was distracted with his packmates, wasn't she? The quick flick of her tail to his head said otherwise. On the other paw, it said nothing to the dozen or so biters who closed in on her. As astounding as Petrie was, he was no Pterano. It was only a matter of time before the sharpteeth bypassed him through sheer numbers.

They flanked her from every direction, but they'd be foolish not to focus on her injured side.

They were no fools.

Ducky turned her back and injury towards The Bright Circle. There was no way to see all her attackers at once, but the evening light created shadows that would give her an early warning of threats to her blind side.

One arm and a tail would not be enough. She needed something more, something different. She knew just the 'something'.

The shadows were close.

Ducky threw herself to the ground, away from the biters on her injured blindside. Breaking the fall with her good arm and tail curved against earth, she raised both legs into the air. The biters began to veer. It was too late. They were swept apart by the horizontal spread of her double kick.

...

Delta Hezza accelerated her charge. The swimmer had surprised those advancing on her injured side, but now her throat was close to the ground! It was a good thing Hezza attacked from the guarded side. Not for the subordinates who she'd thought would have an easier time going for the swimmer's injury, but at least their defeat would not be in vain. Hezza would end this, here and now!

With a mighty grunt, Ducky's tail uncurled, propelling her lower body skyward. Her good paw never left the ground as she pivoted atop it, legs swinging over the entirety of her body before they came down on the opposite side.

Hezza almost shrieked as she skidded to a stop. Ducky's foot wafted past her face and boomed to the ground.

The swimmer was not done.

Ducky never broke the momentum; whirled to her feet, her back facing Hezza when she sprang clean off the floor. Her crest almost skimmed soil as she rolled through the air.

Hezza panicked as she darted left. Once again, the swimmer nearly landed foot first on top of her! In her hurry, Hezza had forgotten Ducky's flailing tail. It had not forgotten her. The blow sent Hezza rolling.

The fast biter staggered to her feet, tottering like a startled hatchling. The worst part was that she'd been warned about this! It sounded like a joke. Hezza made up her mind that if Ducky ever tried this, she and her biters would simply wear the swimmer out with feints that kept them just out of range. Ducky's little trick was laughably inefficient. Impressive, but more like a dance than anything serious. it was seldom used in a real fight, and wisely so, yet here Hezza was, shaken out of her wits by this ... this ...

Hezza racked her memory, curved claw tapping anxiously. She watched Ducky obliterate more subordinates with tail-propelled, paw-pivoting kicks. Such a deceptive fighting style, designed to defend all sides with all available limbs at any moment: her poor biters thought they saw openings where there were none. Their feints weren't working. Ducky would only attack when they came into range. Her moves were unpredictable. It wasn't a dance. It was a fighting style disguised as a dance. Arrrgh, why had Hezza paid so little attention during that part of the briefing? Gamma Guerra had told her more about this! It was at the edge of her mind!

She finally remembered.

---

Years prior ...

---

"Ducky, why are you dancing?" asked Ca.

"What?" asked Ducky as she ceased swaying from side to side. "Oh, that. That was my ready position."

"For dancing," Ca insisted without amusement. "I've seen you dance like this before. It's ... impressive, but I'm not sure why you'd be doing it now."

"Yeah! I wanna tussle!" Nona enthused.

"And we will," Ducky assured. "I had to come up with a way to train with you after you broke my arm, and this is it."

Nona winced. "Yeah ... again, sorr-"

"We've apologised to her several times, Nona," Ca interrupted tersely before smirking at her non-twin sister. "So, Lucky Ducky, are you going to dance battle your way to victory?"

Ducky smirked back, before swaying back into the rhythm. "You should come and find out."

Ca raised an eyebrow and grinned. She charged, with Nona racing in from the opposite side. Broken arm or not, they wouldn't give Ducky an easy win. Sharpteeth wouldn't. It was their job to make sure Ducky was ready for anything, in any condition, but she doubted dances would be winning fights any time soon.

...

Six seconds later

...

Ca spat out dirt and grass. She was pretty sure she'd swallowed some. She'd almost eaten flying nibbler who'd been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, which would have been ... less than ideal. Sure, common sense dictated that one should close their mouth when sliding head first across the soil, but how was she supposed to know this would happen? She sat up, blinking in bemusement at the path of parted earth in her wake. Ca mentally revisited the last moments: Ducky had whirled to the ground sideways and landed on tail and paw. Her legs free, she caught Nona's chin with her heel before her tail shoved off the floor, launching Ducky into a twisting, half circle pivoting on her paw (apparently, that was possible - go figure). Now, her legs faced the other twin. Suddenly, Ca had second thoughts about charging her sister. Those thoughts were substantiated when a quick kick rebuffed Ca's charge as Ducky twirled to the ground, cushioning her fall with her tail.

Ducky stumbled to her feet. A close call. She had almost landed on her injured arm. It wasn't her most graceful recovery, but in light of Ca's new dirt diet? The twin was in no position to nitpick.

"Ducky, what ... *cough!* ... What was that?" gagged Ca.

"I'll tell you what it was. It ... was Awesome ..." Nona proclaimed in airy awe as she lay on her back, not bothering to get up.

"Yeah, but what was it?" pressed Ca. "What kind of dance makes you fight better when you break your arm?"

Ducky put a finger to her chin, thinking. "I do not know. I never named it."

"Well I have," Nona announced. "It's called 'Break Dancing'!"

---

A savage grin split Hezza's jaws as the memory clicked. This 'Break Dancing' was something the swimmer did when she was injured and desperate. Ducky was pretty agile, but she was still a big, weighty swimmer. She had to maximise everything she had just to pull this off for a few heartbeats. She would tire very, very soon. Already, Hezza could see her getting sloppy!

Finally, Ducky slipped.

The Delta surged forward. It was time to finish what Ssavi start- ... wait, why was there a shadow keeping pace with her? Uh oh.

Hezza looked up.

Petrie came down. "Hi!"

He snatched her from the ground and hurled her. "Bye! DUCKY, DUCK!"

Ducky complied and felt that biter sail over her, right into a sharptooth pouncing from behind. Hezza landed hard. Fortunately, her subordinate was there to cushion her fall. Unfortunately, he was out cold.

Hezza gave an incensed snarl. Her hunting party had dwindled. The best hope she saw was to attack all at once. A last stand! She barked the command.

The biters surrounded their 'prey'. They closed in quickly.

Ducky looked at Petrie.

Petrie looked at Ducky.

They smiled in unison. Words were unnecessary when friends thought as one.

Ducky whirled into her semi-circular Break Dance. Petrie swooped and blazed a curving path along her blindside. Together, they had no blindside. They were like a whirlwind. Biters flew in all directions with the force of their kicks, but this wasn't enough.

The swimmer spun to her feet and leapt. Petrie winged skywards and grabbed her on the way up. He was by no means strong enough to carry her, but once she was already jumping? It was just a matter of flowing with her momentum to give the little extra air that made all the difference.

Hezza and her biters collided where Ducky once stood.

"CaNon Baaaall!" Ducky and Petrie yelled in unison.

'CaNon Ball'? Had Hezza been briefed on this? Oh ... right ... a nightmare concocted by those twin terrors. From the looks of things, it would be even more painful than it sounded. A resigned sigh escaped her lungs as Ducky's shadow fell over her.

Well, she tried. That was Hezza's last thought for the time being.

The impact was tremendous and final.

Ducky climbed off the heap of biters, eyes locking with Petrie as he landed beside her.

"You okay?" asked the flyer.

Ducky broke into a smile brighter than The Circle in the sky. He glimpsed tears of gratitude as she bounced into him, embracing him with her good arm. Petrie beamed back and tried to hug her in return. It didn't work, what with his wings pinned beneath her limb. Breathing didn't work either at the moment. Oh, who cared? This was Ducky, after all. Breathing could wait.

A smallish fast biter burst onto the scene.

They stared at him.

He glanced at his unconscious comrades. Apparently, he was too late. Then his eyes fell on the delta.

Omega Syymp wailed: NOOOO! Hezza was his sixteenth choice in a life partner! Now, she'd lose her rank for sure! Such horrible, horrid, horrendous leafeaters! Why did The Valley Guard keep doing this to the best females? Oh, they would pay for this! Kappa Kyttyn was near! He could smell her! Once he found her, the two of them would make The Valley Guard pay!

Off he ran, bawling like a biter fresh out of the nest.

Ducky and Petrie exchanged glances, thoroughly confused.

"This is unbecoming, Ma'am!" Murfy exclaimed.

The duo gasped. They'd neglected Murfy, who was now up to his neck in biters. With sharptooth jaws clenched all over him, his steps were sluggish. It was a good thing the rockback longneck had reinforced his natural armour with stone scales. On the downside, awkwardness was armour-piercing.

"Ma'am, I know you're following orders, but the manner in which you're biting is making me EXTREMELY uncomfortable!" Murfy protested.

The biter hanging from his bottom lip tightened her jaws all the more as she tried to kick at his flailing neck with her deadliest claws. "GOOD!"

Without another word, Murfy tumbled down a hill.

Ducky and Petrie raced to his aid. By the time they managed to peer down the incline, the scene was ... well, quite different - pure chaos and nonsense. It appeared Murfy had tumbled into every single boulder on the way down, leaving biters strewn against their cracked surfaces. Murfy eased himself off of a couple sharpteeth squished senseless and looked around. Some were unlucky enough to be conscious of their predicaments. One dangled from a forked branch by his toe, thrashing for freedom to no avail. Two managed to embed their heads in the same hollow of a trunk. It didn't look keen on releasing them, no matter how much they yanked and scratched. Three were simply too traumatised to react, with the middle biter's legs jammed down the others' throats up to his calves and ... was that the obnoxious biter stuck up a tree?The tree was tall - very tall, actually. She could have climbed down, had not the trunk been bedecked with thorns. In theory, she could jump, but the thorns were quite selective in their placement. They petered out near the top where she found herself, while growing in length and number the lower one looked down the branches and leaves that were likely to grab her mid-jump. Yes, leaves, happily laden with a quaint infestation of thorns thinner than needles - the kind that itched like nothing else under The Bright Circle. Best case scenario? A jump would be extremely unpleasant.

Kappa Kyttyn gulped and forced a smile. "Um ... y-you seem nice. Could you help me?"

"Uhhhhhhhh ..." Murfy hesitated.

"Please?" she pressed, eyes large and pitiful.

Apparently fast biters could be quite adorable when they wanted to be.

"Look, I'm really sorry. It's just that-" Murfy began to blurt before catching himself. "Wait ... no I'm not! You're just using my innocence to stall so your buddies would have a chance to show up and jump me!"

Kyttyn flinched back. She was always taken by surprise when some food folk turned out to be clever.

He wasn't finished: "Maybe next time you won't bite someone like that when you try to kill them! You know the worst part? You didn't even apologise!"

"AND I'D DO IT AGAIN, TOO! ... Wait, wut?" He had her in the first half, she was not gonna lie.

An outraged shriek made Murfy flinch.

He turned to see a somewhat undersized fast biter staring him down.

Omega Syymp was furious: The Mighty Kappa Kyttyn, trapped up a tree like a tickly fuzzy who made poor life decisions! She was his twenty third choice! He would make the insolent food folk SUFFER for this!

Amid his rant, Syymp didn't hear the footfalls storming up to him. Then he felt the upwards swinging horns.

Kyttyn watched as the omega flew high into the air ... closer and closer ... no ... there was no way that threehorn had been aiming in this specific direction! Aimed or not, the omega crashed into the leaves just shy of her of all places! Why HER? Well, at least he was unconscious.

Cera shook her head up at the treetop now holding the male captive. "Wow, he was noisy."

"Eyy, Cera! And Threehorn-Kid-Whose-Name-I-Don't-Know-so-I'm-Gonna-Call-Him-Pinky!" Murfy enthused.

The little threehorn's eyes were wide and wary when he first spotted Murfy. Now, he frowned upon hearing his new 'name'.

Cera appraised the kid. "I'd say he's more peach than pink."

The youngster smiled and tipped his head to Cera in an appreciative nod.

Her brow knitted. "He's part of your herd. How can you not know his name?"

"He hasn't told us what it is," Murfy explained. "Speaking of telling, didn't Dawn tell you guys to run?"

"She didn't say where, so I ran towards you," Cera smirked. "Pretty sure that wasn't what she meant, but if you're gonna do 'A Thing', I figured we'd be safest near the one who does it."

"That's actually a brilliant conclusion that is so completely wrong." Murfy shook his head in pity.

Cera glanced about awkwardly. "Okay ... then where is safe?"

"I don't think there's an answer to that," Murfy shrugged. "But, since you're here, onwaaard!"

An eager Murfy reared, forelegs flailing in an odd display of excitement before he dashed off.

With nothing better to do, Cera and the kid joined Ducky, Petrie and Pterano in tailing him.

Meanwhile in Kyttyn's tree, Symmp came to his senses.

She cried out: Oh, Great Guardians, SERIOUSLY? How was he so quick to recover from a hit like THAT?

Symmp massaged the fuzziness from his head with the sides of his paws, throttling a reply: What could he say? He was a lucky guy. An oily grin slithered across his face as he slowly turned to her. A very lucky guy.

Kyttyn jumped.

---

A fast runner's ears couldn't strain.

At least, it shouldn't be possible. They had no muscles, no outer structure to swivel, no means of increasing their yield. They either heard, or they didn't, but Amethyst's? For the first time in her life, she felt her ears strain against the silence, desperate to capture some sign of the living shadow. Her anxious eyes flit about the pit: the ferns, rocks, trees and shadows. Not a hint. Not a sound, save the heartbeat pounding in her ears.

Amethyst stepped forward. ~I need to find the swimmer.~

Her eyes popped as she felt jaws around her tail gently drag her back to where she stood. She looked back.

No jaws, not a thing to be seen.

~Where could he be hiding to hide so quickly?~ she wondered. ~He could have bitten off a bit of my tail. Does he just want me to stand where I'm standing? Is that the rule of these twenty heartbeats? Will there come a twenty heartbeats when he decides to ... eat ...?~

Amethyst took a deep, steadying breath. She couldn't think like this. If she were to save the swimmer, and overcome Ω-ל̴̢̚ח̶̥͠ק ו̶̱̽ת̶̻͐, he could not be the hunter.

She was the hunter.

~What would a hunter do?~ thought Amethyst. ~If a hunter can't find her food, she'd find a way to make food come to her. That biter seemed curious, playful in a twisted way. How do I twist that in a way that's in my favour? Think like how a hunter thinks ...~

Amethyst faked a tiny yawn. "I thought you wanted to play a game, but the game you're playing is soooo boring. Are you scared of a little fast runner, so scared you run so fast to hide?" ~3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Next twenty heartbeats begins.~

"Here I am ..." giggled 'her' voice.

It sounded as though mere scales from her ears. She even felt and smelt the breath, imagined the scent of rotting meat between his teeth only to realise: his breath had no scent. Her paws twitched to strike. She repressed the reflex.

~Forget claws. Forget kicks. Too slow for a foe so close yet too fast. I am a HUNTER!~

Her head lunged towards him, beak first. She snapped. Caught air. He'd drawn back too quickly, but he looked surprised. Amethyst had to admit: even she had surprised herself with such a bold and sharptooth-like move. However, he never stopped talking.

"... trying to think like a hunter ..."

Amethyst wasn't listening. She was far from done surprising him!

The fast runner side-leapt after him, spiralling through the air. Her kick came down hard and struck nothing but dirt. She repeated the maneuver, never breaking the momentum. Three, spectacular springing kicks sideways and he'd dodged it all with quick, backtracking steps.

"... when the hunter wants ..." he continued.

Amethyst almost fell as she retreated in a hurry. Spring, twirl, kick. Spring, twirl, kick. He was using her very attack against her! On the third spring, Amethyst had gathered her wits enough to launch a spiralling kick of her own. He was coming down. She was springing up. Their identical attacks collided, but she'd managed to land a kick where he failed. The biter fell. It was a good kick, the kind that ended battles. Still, the black biter smoothly pushed to a stand with his tail before circling her.

"... to think like me!" he finished.

Amethyst was swinging a pawful of claws. She froze a feather from his face.

He did not flinch.

The fast runner backed away as a nauseatingly horrible revelation seized her. Those were all her moves, right down to the recovery. She invented that tail recovery style, a technique made for a clumsy fighter, but his words? When they clicked together in her mind, they struck harder than any sharptooth.

~H-how could he ... say what he said unless he heard what I said in my head?~

"What I said in my head he heard!" cheered the creature.

Amethyst screamed as she lashed out, kicks, claws and all. Nothing connected. It was like fighting a shadow. He moved when she moved. He moved like her! Even in the midst of the onslaught, he spoke seamlessly.

"The hunter isn't here to eat my body!" Ω-ל̴̢̚ח̶̥͠ק ו̶̱̽ת̶̻͐'s chipper tone dropped to an unnatural extreme. "̷͙̎H̵̝̋͗e's̴̠͒̍ he̴͖̾͜r̷̗͛e to ē̷͔͖at̴̙͒ my m̴̖͗͐in̴̳͗̊d̶̰̆͗!̷̧͔̈́"̸̹͔̐

Her scream enraged to a screech as her hits launched faster and sloppier. She didn't want to hear it! She didn't want to see it! This was not a biter. It was something from her darkest sleep stories. She was alone down here with this monster!

Contrary to Amethyst's hysterical thoughts, she was not alone. The captive swimmer's pink eyes watched from the nook of a tree. Merely witnessing the battle, her white form nearly shivered off the leaf tied around her shoulders. Now, that fast runner had begun to understand what she was dealing with. Now, she felt the same icy fear that crippled the swimmer's muscles and choked her screams, but that fast runner?

That fast runner was still fighting.

---

Arrtafiss did a double take. On his war path towards Ssavi's swimmer and that rockback longneck with the potential to ruin everything, there were few things that could give him pause.

This was definitely one of them.

The rockback was here. He didn't need the scent trail to know that. Even with that longneck's bizarre reputation for destruction, he never expected to see his subordinates in such an absurdly sorry state. All the more reason to press on and stop that longneck before he could do 'A Thing'. Wait ... why was Kappa Kyttyn protruding from a bush? From the looks of things, she had knocked herself out jumping from an itchy thorn tree. As capable as she was, she had a strange habit of getting stuck up trees, which was not a good look for her rank. Why had she jumped without hesitation?

Up in the tree, a forlorn Omega Syymp squawked something about being 'lonely' before noticing the alpha and mewling for help.

Arrtafiss snarled and stomped away. That explained Kyttyn's situation to a point. What a waste of his time! The whole scene was an embarrassment to the pack! The entire sharptooth world was watching!

Another biter whined for help, hanging from a forked branch by his toe.

The alpha gave a dismissive growl.

Then came the 'help me' mewls of a pair whose heads were stuck in a trunk's nook. They appeared to be choking. One cried out on behalf of biters who were definitely choking on his ... his calves? What on Earth had happened here?

Arrtafiss' feathers twitched. He vented his irritation with a heavy sigh. The rockback could wait. His pack needed him ... except for Syymp. That guy could stew in the tree a little longer. Syymp was an omega, but seriously, why couldn't the guy be a little more like the sigma males?

---

"So, what kind of 'A Thing' are you gonna do, Murfy?" asked Cera.

"You'll know A Thing when you see A Thing!" he explained without explaining.

"Do you know what kind of thing A Thing will be?"

"A Thing is gonna change everything, my dear Cera."

"So you don't know anything about A Thing!"

"No, but I feel good things about A Thing!"

"Do good things ever happen when you do A Thing?"

"Well, bad things happen, but bad things can be good things if you aim them at the right things."

"Are you confident you can aim A Thing at the right things?"

"Here's the thing: A Thing is a big thing, but it hasn't killed me or anyone I care about yet so ... yesn't?"

Cera would have massaged her forehead had she been able to reach it. She might have asked a friend to do so, but that would be too embarrassing for her tastes. Apparently, this conversation served no purpose but to addle her mind until she spoke like a fast runner.

"We're here!" announced Murfy.

Cera, Petrie, Ducky and Pterano stared up at Little Valley's cliff wall before them. It was a far cry from The Great Wall, but quite imposing nonetheless.

"Great. What now?" asked Cera.

*Thmp! Thmp! Thmp!*

She blinked at the sound. Footfalls?

*Thmpety-thmp, thmmp!*

Cera slowly turned to the rockback longneck. She'd glimpsed it at the side of her eye, but she wouldn't believe it until she got a good, long look.

"Is ... is Murfy dancing?" asked Ducky.

Cera groaned loudly. "Could someone please facepalm me?"

---

"Why are we doing this?" asked Zircon.

"Because the triangle is the strongest shape in the world," Dawn explained unhelpfully. "That's it, a liiiitle to the right. Perfect!"

Zircon and Arwin released the small tree against its wooden companions. They stepped back and examined the branches and trunks configured in interlocking triangles.

"It looks like some kind of upside down nest, but it can't be a nest, 'cause it's upside down," Zircon commented.

"Ooh! I know!" enthused Arwin. "We can't just stay in the open when Murfy does A Thing, 'cause the biters will see us, so we're building a nest-type-hiding place to protect us from falling and flying objects! If that fails, we'll just run into the open anyway."

"'Falling and flying objects'?" quoted a puzzled Zircon.

"That's it, Arwin!" Dawn complemented as she herded them into the structure. "Don't feel slow, Zircon. She's had a head start in understanding how I use nest-building techniques ... and understanding Murfy in general."

"So you think we'll be safe from 'A Thing' inside this thing?" asked Zircon.

"There's no such thing as 'safe' when Murfy does A Thing, but this should increase our odds of survival. Now, huddle under my wings like a buncha hatchlings who don't wanna get caught in hard water rain. It'll add an extra layer of safety."

"... Does there happen to be a chance of something like that happening?" Zircon slowly asked as Dawn bundled him beneath her wing.

"I'd almost be surprised if it didn't rain something," Arwin added, attempting to find a comfortable spot under Dawn's protective covering.

Zircon stared at the ground. "I think I don't like thinking about this."

"Aww, then let's play a little game to pass the time," Dawn offered. "How 'bout 'Try to Spot the Sharpteeth before They can Catch Us in this Vulnerable Position'!"

---

The swimmer tried to spot it, squinting hard as though to squeeze every hint from the scene before her. She didn't know what she was looking for, but the black biter had to have some hiding place, some trick, something. If she could find it, maybe she could tell her fast runner hero. Maybe then that runner could defeat this horrible creature.

She couldn't spot the monster's secret. She could scarcely even spot the creature itself!

Even as it fought, her eyes seemed to slip off the monster's midnight scales. It was as if there were missing moments in his movements: times when there was there, and others when he wasn't. She could have blamed it on its speed. It was easily the fastest biter she had ever seen, but runner was nearly as fast, and she didn't disappear like that.

Hero and monster were ablur in a deadly dance. The runner advanced. It retreated. It advanced. She ... attempted retreat. Most of her strikes fell on thin air. When they didn't, that monster matched her blow for blow. As a shadow cleaved to its caster, the creature maintained an uncomfortably close, invariable distance between them.

The swimmer wondered when the next twenty seconds would begin.

Right on cue, that monster vanished, leaving the fast runner perplexed, panting and utterly petrified if not for sheer force of will. Her legs quavered, eyes feral with fear and fury. She was growing weaker, and weakness was a thing that made sharptooth mouths water. One way or another, this had to end soon. It could end at any moment, should the monster choose, but the fast runner would go down fighting. That much was certain.

A surge of inspiration spurred the swimmer to action. She had to help, but what could she do? As much as the fast runner had started to grasp what she was dealing with, she didn't know the full story. The swimmer had a broader idea, just enough to connect a pawful of dots that told her how hapless they were.

This wasn't the first time she had encountered such a creature.

---

One year prior ...

---

The swimmer was cornered, rapid breaths coming and going so quickly that her chest hurt. Slavering jaws loomed closer as their fast biter owner eclipsed the cave's exit. She thought that maybe, just maybe, the cave would provide some kind of refuge. All she found was a dead end, quite literally.

His harsh, husky huffs sounded like a malicious laugh - something she didn't think sharpteeth were capable of. Was he ... gloating? Oh, why couldn't he just get it over with?

As though heeding her wish, the fast biter lunged.

The swimmer shielded her face, eyes squeezed shut. Those jaws were not the last things she wanted to see!

A wet splat echoed through the cave.

She squealed, felt nothing, then patted herself down to be sure. Strange. She cracked an eyelid to see the biter shake his head as though slapped across the face. Both their eyes fell upon the culprit: a massive waterbreather lying between them. Where in the world did that come from?

Briefly forgetting their roles in The Circle of Life, they looked left, then right. There wasn't a drop of water in sight.

The fast biter glowered down at the waterbreather with a growl. He licked the tasty residue off his face and that growl turned to a purr. A little swimmer and a hefty waterbreather from out of nowhere! The Great Guardians must have favoured him!

She was inching away when the biter stopped her with a snarl: Oh, no, no, did she really think this changed anything?

The swimmer went back to squeezing her eyes shut, kicking herself for hoping he'd spare her.

Another splat ... and another ... and another.

She didn't know what she expected, but of all the absurdities, this was not one of them. She looked up to see a green, slenderthroat fast runner slapping the biter across the face with the waterbreather.

"Y̵̦̅o̵̡͗ṳ̴̊! S̷̡̛h̴̼͒o̵͔͗uld!̴͙̏ Bě̸̜! A̷͊-s̵͑h̴͕͒a̴̙͗me̵̼͝d!̴̠̾ Of̴̢́! you̷̖̎r-̴s̴̟̚elf!̴" the fast runner rebuked between slaps.

The sharptooth jumped back as though bitten. Those words hit far harder than the waterbreather. He didn't understand the tongue of food folk. He didn't want to understand, because he was a good sharptooth. Good sharpteeth never spoke to food folk, otherwise they might start seeing them as just ... folk. That made The Circle of Life far harder than it already was. He was proud to say he barely knew a word of their tongue, but this time?

He understood everything.

The fast biter mustered a snarl, but he was hesitant. There was no way he suddenly understood food folk, just like that. It had to be the slenderthroat's doing. Who knew what other tricks the accursed thing could unleash?

"This̴̼͛ f̵̘͌i̵̭͋s̷̛̗h̴͎̓ ̴iš̶ ̴͙͘mo̵͈̽re than̴̠̉ eno̵̯͆uĝ̷̞h fo̷̮̎r yo̴͔͊û̵̪r daily̵͓̾ di̷etary req̵̟͂ui̶reme̵͙̎ń̵̰ts̴̒!" the slenderthroat declared, offering it to the biter. "It's even more pal̵̳̊ata̵̖͝bl̶͔̄e̵̫̐ than that s̷̡͐wimm̸̦̓ĕ̴̢r̴̦̅!̴̟̓ Do you hone̵̛̻s̴̹̆tly thį̴̊nḵ̴͆ she would have sa̵̤͑tȩ̵̃d̵̨̒ yo̴̜͋ur hung̶̗̑eŕ̷̯? Come now, you're an inté̵̤lli̴͓̐g̴̤̐e̵̾͜n̴̢͂t s̴̠̒ha̵̠̾rpto̴̼͂oth and she's a m̵͇̒ere ̴̺̽c̴͖͆hil̵̻̑d with her who̶̥̊l̷̦͠e l̴̡͘ife aheạ̴̔d̴͔̓ of ̴͕͝h̴̓er̸͉͑! Your mo̴̬̅th̶̫͠e̵r rais̷̤̎e̴͚͌d ȳ̴͇o̷͍͝ü̴͈ bettẽ̴̥r t̵̯̀h̴͇͘á̴͔n t̴̼͐his, R̵̙͂r̴̤̈́o̵̱͘rrar!̷̮̇"

The fast biter's snarl squeaked to a stop. How did this food folk know his name? And his mother-? No, snarled Rrorrar!This food folk didn't know him, or his mother!

"S̴͚͌h̵̳̓e̷̗̾ was a w̴̹͐on̴͕̈́derf̵̥͑ul p̴̪͆er̴̘̚son̴," the slenderthroat declared, his voice softening: "Ever cu̴͈̎rio̴̥͛us, ever thinking,̴̎ yet she heeded the whi̵̡̚ṡ̴̺p̵̹͘͝er̴̗̿s̵ o̵̪̊f he̴̤̎̃r he̴̛̖̱aṟ̵͙͒t. She didn't like 'Thé̵͍ G̵̨̽rea̴̝̋t Guar̵̳͐d̵̠̓ians'̴̭̊ wa̴͖͐ys. Though sharptooth kind tur̴̲͝nẹ̴͒d a̴̳͌g̴͓͠ain̴̛͜st her for it, y̵͓̏ou lo̴̤͂v̵̺̇e̴̽ͅ hẻ̷̞r ̴̱̀to ̵͍̀this d̵̻̓ay.̴̟̈́"

STOP TALKING, Rrorrar raged! Hackles raised, he stomped and ran a killing claw along the stone. The sound was enough to make scales crawl.

The slenderthroat put his hands on his hips with a harrumph. "Thȓ̵͍eã̴̠t di̴̼͂s̷̩͠pl̴̤̎ays? Verẏ̴̪̺̚ ̵̯̞͒̾̾ͅw̴͇̾̍ell,̴̭̹̈́͜ we will do it y̵͇̓ó̴͚ṵ̷̀r̵̭͝ way:

{̴̲̏{̸̧̄{̵̩̀{̸͚̉{̵̧͛{̵̧̌{̵͈̅-̵̤̈-̵̢͂-̵͓͒-̴̦̇-̷̳̅-̶̧̛-̴͓̇-̴̛̜-̷̥̓-̵̱̑}̵̫̓}̶̝͊}̵̞̃}̷̳̃}̷̖̔}̸̞̐

̷͙̍"̶̪͝(̶͉͑ ̵͍̌(̷̣͘ ̷̡̚B̶̖̈́É̷̖G̴͙̑O̶͍͗N̴͕̔E̸̞͝!̸̻͝ ̷̢͊)̵̳̒ ̸͎̇)̴̜̂"̶̟̎

̶̕ͅ{̶̤͗{̵̢̾{̶̰̃{̴̯̓{̸̰͗-̴̬͋-̶̳͆-̶̯̓-̷̼́-̵̩̅-̸͙̔-̴̰̾-̷̐ͅ-̵̢͐-̵̺̽-̷̛̬}̸̼̈́}̸̮͝}̷̗̈́}̸͚̆}̸̭̅}̷̋ͅ

A shockwave of pure, palpable terror filled the cave. The swimmer felt it like ice in her bones, worms in her skin. She had heard many terrifying things, but his voice? It wasn't scary. It was the essence of horror.

Rrorrar fell, mouth agape, breaths ragged. After his flailing legs finally got beneath him, he fled in a blind panic.

The slenderthroat turned to her, revealing a rainbow-faced snout adorned with a smile.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She opened her mouth to answer. It shuddered, but nothing came out. Terror had robbed her ability to breathe.

His eyes widened. "Oh no! Rel̴̰͆a̵̳̿x,̵̲̔ t̵̻̑h̵̝̊er̵̘̈e̶͕̍ i̴̦̽s n̶̟͐ō̵͙t̴̙̿hiṅ̵̯g t̶̜͝o f̵͉̾eaȓ̵̘.̵̛̝"̸̻́

She coughed as her breath returned in a rush. Her muscles went limp and she slid to the ground. What was happening? She couldn't move. The swimmer should have been unnerved, but she wasn't. Maybe nothing was wrong. She wasn't stunned, but relaxed to the point of immobility. How was that even possible?

"I overdid it on the infrasound. My apologies," The Rainbow Face atoned.

"N-no need to apologise. You saved me ... somehow ... so, thank you." The swimmer stared up at him. ~He can terrify a fast biter with his nothing but his voice, but he apologises to me? What does he want? Powerful strangers never help others just because they care.~

"You'd be surprised," he countered. "I know a powerful gang of five that helps because they care."

She blinked in incomprehension before startling with realisation. "I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did. Up here." He pointed at his head.

... Impossible ... Her mind spun with shock. She attempted to shake away the sensation, literally. When that didn't work, she asked a question to jumpstart her thoughts.

"S-so ... where did that waterbreather come from? I did not see you throw it," she shakily noted.

"Yes, I threw it," he chuckled before pointing. "I was standing right there."

"I saw 'right there', but I did not see you."

"There was nothing to see."

She squinted at him.

"No one ever 'sees' anyone," he explained. "They only see the light that bounces off of them. If you change the light, you change what they see, or don't see."

The swimmer grabbed her head. This reeaaaally wasn't helping.

"Alright, let me ask you a question for a change," he began: "Why did you let him catch you?"

She stared in bemusement as though he'd asked if the sky were blue. "There was nowhere to run."

"Hm," he grunted before gesturing a small plant growing in the corner.

She stared at it blankly. "Why would I think of green food at a time like this? That is not even green food. It's just ... green. It just tastes terrible."

"Does it make you sick?"

"No. It can help you heal if you can get past the taste, but you might lose your lunch if you can't."

"What would happen if you were to cover yourself in it?"

She tilted her head at him before her face lit up. "I would taste terrible to a sharptooth!"

"Correct!" he enthused.

She eagerly plucked a leaf from the plant. "Maybe if I carry one with me, sharpteeth would be less eager to bite!"

"Excellent idea!" he approved.

The swimmer's tail dropped as she frowned. "What is to stop them from chewing me too fast, though, before they realise that the leaf tastes bad?"

He paused as though waiting for her to continue. "Well?"

"Well, what?" she asked.

"Well, find a solution!" he urged.

"I do not think there is one."

"Rubbing against the leaf will make you smell less appetising. It will also help mask your scent so that they never find you in the first place."

"Will that stop them from hurting me out of spite?"

His smile fell.

"Oh ..." she looked away and sighed. "This green is hard to find anyway. It is not like I will have another opportunity."

"Don't talk like that," the Rainbow Face chastised. "Opportunity presents itself to those who seek it. You're smart. Had you kept your mind open, you would have noticed the bush, and considered the chance that it could protect you."

The swimmer looked him in the eye. "Clearly, you are smarter. Be honest: I am alone and small. What are my chances in The Circle of Life?"

His brow furrowed. She looked ... tired ... far too tired for one so young. He shook his head. This simply would not do.

The swimmer blinked in curiosity. She may not have been able to do ... whatever it was he did to hear her thoughts, but she had glimpsed a silent debate behind his eyes. That debate had subtly vanished. She might have thought he had zoned out, but he looked focused, somehow, even if it lasted for a fraction of a moment.

[Accessing EnviroNet Closed Beta]

[Welcome, Apogee]

[Creating account on behalf of ...]

"What is your name?" the Rainbow Face suddenly asked.

"Cygnet," she answered.

His eyes lingered on her for a moment, noting her white scales.

~An albino, how appropriate,~ he thought. ~Their grasp of grammar has grown in leaps and bounds. One or two more generations and they'll be up to speed, more or less. To think she has no idea what it means. It's all subconscious.~

[Name: 'Cygnet']

[Access Level: Hatchling]

[Imprinting biometrics ...]

[Imprint complete]

[M.I.S.T. enabled]

[Please enable green screen (G.S.) leaflet]

"May I have that leaflet for a moment?" asked Apogee.

She passed it to him. "You can keep it. It will dry up soon anyway."

"No. It won't. Brace yourself. There will be a slight, tingling sensation."

"What do you mean?"

Cygnet felt a change in the air, as though buzzers had pitched on every inch of her skin.

*zweeeeee-BZZZZZZP!*

The 'buzzers' bit her, just a little, but a quick pat down revealed there to be none.

[G.S. leaflet enabled]

"There!" he chirped, returning the leaf to its owner and looking rather pleased with himself.

"What did you do?" she asked, examining it.

"Your chances of survival just jumped off the scale!"

"What's a scale?"

He waved a paw. "Never mind. Say hello to your new best friend!"

She looked about for the aforementioned 'friend' before her eyes slowly settled on the leaflet. They widened at the unthinkable implication.

"U-um ... hello?" Cygnet ventured.

It twitched.

"GYAAAH!" she yelped, dropped the leaf, fell and crawled backwards.

Liberated from her paws, the leaf caught in the wind and flittered towards her. Cygnet clambered away from it. Again, it tumbled at her. Again, she withdrew. When the wind pushed it after her a third time, she realised:

There was no wind.

"AAAEEEEEE!" Cygnet shrieked as she bolted behind the Rainbow Face's leg. "Why is it FOLLOWING me?"

"Because it is yours," the Rainbow Face stated simply.

She inched around his ankle as it leisurely fluttered after her. "Can all leaves move like that?"

"They have the potential."

A horrified squeak escaped Cygnet's quavering jaw as she shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. "No ... no-no-NO! I've EATEN so many! If it can FOLLOW me, that means it is ALIVE, just like us, and nothing like us should be eaten!"

His eyes grew tender. "You have a good heart, but don't worry. All greens are alive, but not like us. They are not people. This one can only move because of something we put inside it."

"How can you be sure?" she pressed.

He laughed. "You are refreshingly skeptical! Let's just say this kind of thing is not unusual where I come from. We made it, just as you would build a nest, but we are much better at making things. One of my people set it up here without permission, but it was useful, so we made some changes but otherwise allowed it."

The swimmer froze before slowly turning to stare at him, long and hard. It made sense that this Rainbow Face was from another land, but something visceral told her there was more to it.

"Do remember, though I have given you a new tool of survival, always think for yourself. Knowledge is your greatest ally: sharper than any tooth or claw, mightier than the greatest beings to walk the lands or swim the seas. By its power, worlds can rise and fall."

Now, her eyes were bulging. "... Worlds? ... Where do you come from?"

An enigmatic smile lifted his beak. He pointed upwards.

She followed the gesture, eyes meeting the rock above her. "What does that mean ...?"

Her voice trailed off as she returned her eyes to the Rainbow Face ... or lack thereof. She waved her paws through the space once occupying his ankle, while trying to ignore the leaf tickling her own ankle. If he was there, he was doing an excellent job of mimicking air. Either that, or he was gone. She had a hunch it was the latter.

Once again, Cygnet looked upwards. He couldn't have come from the ceiling. What in the world did he ...?

Another hunch hit like a landslide.

Forgetting the threat of sharpbeaks snatching her from the air, she slowly stepped out of the cave until the stone gave way to sky. A smattering of stars still spangled the twilight blue of morning. Was the Rainbow Face among them, staring down at her right now?

"EEEK!" she squealed as the leaflet smacked into her back like an overly affectionate hatchling. "Do NOT do that! If something pounces me from behind, I IMMEDIATELY assume I am going to die!"

The leaflet silently floated to the ground at her feet. She remembered the Rainbow Face's words. He'd called it her 'new best friend'. Only people could be friends, right? He'd also said it was not a person, even if it seemed to wither under her glare, just like a person. Better to err on the safe side.

She sighed a weary laugh, which felt ... good. Laughter was a delight in which she seldom indulged. It was too loud, attracting unwanted attention. Besides, she didn't usually feel inclined to laugh.

"I am sorry," apologised Cygnet.

It fluttered at her face. This time, she caught it.

"Nope, nope, nope!" giggled Cygnet. "My face is not a place for you to be!"

She tilted the leaf. Many leaves could be seen through, to some degree, but now that she really looked at it ...

"You are more see-through than I expected," commented Cygnet.

She lifted the leaf above her head, examining its intricacies.

The breath hitched in her throat.

Through the leaf, she saw stars. Too. Many. Stars, peppering the vast expanse of sky, more than even the moonless nights could boast. She'd been under the impression that The Bright Circle somehow began to banish the stars at daybreak. How wrong she was. Day or night, they were always there. Even when she couldn't see them, maybe, just maybe, they could see her. For the first time, those twinkling specks seemed to blink back at her like a billion eyes.

She shuddered.

Cygnet lost track of time. Finally, the immensity of the sky bore down on her to the point where her shuddering grew unbearable. Well, maybe the cold had something to do with that.

She wrapped the leaf around herself. It became warm, which startled her, not that she would complain. Cygnet snuggled into it - good to know she had a new way of weathering the chilly nights. This thing would be quite useful in the cold times.

The Bright Circle had begun to rise, so she wouldn't need the leaflet's strange warmth for long. After a few more moments of enjoying it, she wanted to take another look at the stars. In doing so, she had unintentionally passed it over The Bright Circle. Something was off about the way its light filtered through the leaflet. She lowered it in front of the great giver of light.

Again, her breath was stolen.

Though only The Bright Circle's upper edge was visible, she could already see details that eluded her eyes until then. It wasn't just a ball of light, was it? She touched The Circle on the leaf in wonder, fingers parting slightly for no particular reason. It grew a little bigger. Did ... her touch do that? She pulled her fingers apart some more. Its size increased dramatically, making her flinch. Fire. The Bright Circle was like a ball of fire, yet something else, something more, casting off great arcs of blazing power into the skies around it. She repeated the finger-parting touch. Once again, it grew bigger. It was like a SEA of fire, churning, raging with unimaginable ferocity! Just how big was The Bright Circle? The Rainbow Face had mentioned worlds. Was it ... a world? Could things live up there? If so, what kinds of things? Cygnet realised she was breathing much harder than was strictly necessary, racked with wonder and terror of The Unnown.

It was too much to take in.

The Bright Circle shrank on the leaf as she averted it from the sky to the land. A series of dots popped up on the transparent surface. They glowed, like tiny fireflies. She raised an eyebrow as she wrestled for control of her breathing. What did they mean? Some were red, some were yellow, others bright green, and everything in between. A pawful were making their way through the sky.

She tapped a red one in the sky. A tinge of fear rippled through her as it expanded into the silhouette of a sharpbeak. She tapped a yellow dot. It expanded into the form of a domehead - dangerous, but mostly to those who trespassed into their territory ... or got in their way ... or looked at them funny ... or were threehorns. They sure hated threehorns. She tapped a greenish yellow dot, which morphed into a longneck. Was it identifying creatures at a distance? Dozens of taps later, she concluded that red represented things that would hurt her; yellow, things that might her hurt her, and green, things that were friendly.

There weren't that many green dots.

She turned the leaflet every which way, scanning for any infamous red dots nearby. The nearest she'd found was the fast biter that Rainbow Face had scared away, who was apparently still running. He wasn't a dot, but rather a faraway form she could barely make out. Maybe all the dots were forms, just too distant for her to see properly until she tapped them and they grew bigger.

Finally, she relaxed, sitting and setting the leaflet on her lap as she released a serene sigh. Knowing where all of her enemies were was a comfort she wasn't aware could exist. Then again, how could she be sure the leaflet knew where they all were? How did it know anything in the first place? If the Rainbow Face's people made whatever was inside it, they could probably hide from it.

What if they were not all friendly?

Cygnet knew she was getting ahead of herself. She'd never met a ... whatever it was the Rainbow Face was. Unthinkable as it seemed, they probably weren't part of The Circle of Life. Chances were she'd never meet another, and if she did, they'd be friendly. Therefore, she could rest easy in that regard.

"You really are amazing," the swimmer told the leaf with a sigh. "Can you ... understand me?"

It buzzed pleasantly, somehow. Curiously, she did not flinch. In light of the mind-bending events she'd experienced prior? A buzzing leaf was no big deal.

"Is that a 'yes'?" Cygnet asked.

It buzzed again.

"If that's a 'yes', then what is a 'no'?"

The leaflet buzzed a bit more unpleasantly.

"Okay, I hear you loud and clear," Cygnet chuckled. "I don't know why that Rainbow Face helped me, but I owe him more thanks than I can ever give. Life is going to be much easier with you around, but I do not want just to live. I want a home, a nice one, where no one cares about my pale scales; somewhere with less red and yellow dots. Maybe a family, if that is not too much to ask. You know a lot. Do you know if such a place exists?"

The leaflet gave a positive buzz before flitting into her paws.

She gazed through it. At its edge was a large, white triangle, its right-most tip angled at the edge of the surface. It almost looked as though it were pointing in a certain direction. Cygnet moved the leaf to bring the triangle to its centre. Stubbornly, that shape refused leave the edge, although it rose and fell to remain at the same height regardless of her movements. Finally, the triangle changed shape as her motions brought it to the centre of the leaf. Her tail lightly pattered the ground as she pondered the shape for a moment: triangles, more irregular than the last, pointing into the air, connected to each other. They looked like mountains, in a simplified way, higher at the sides than the middle. Perhaps ... a valley?

She touched it. The shape spread across the leaf, morphing into complex forms the likes of which it had never shown her. She glanced past the leaflet a few times to confirm that what she saw was not there. Through the leaf were visions of green food aplenty; herds, grazing; kids, frolicking; families, emanating love so warm and palpable that she could almost feel it. Something seemed wrong with these scenes: everyone looked too happy, too calm, passive to the point of complacency, as though they'd forgotten that sharpteeth existed. Come to think of it, where were all the sharpteeth? Sure, leafeaters outnumbered sharpteeth in general, but she expected to see at least some sharptooth-related disturbance afflicting the herds. Come to think of it, those herds were a little strange too. Sometimes, it was difficult to identify individual groups. There was so much mixing and mingling among kinds, as if everyone were friends or at least acquaintances. She even spotted a threehorn chatting with a pair of clubtails!

Cygnet cynically squinted at the leaf before exhaling the skepticism. ~Come on, Cygnet. This is not the weirdest thing you have seen all day ... assuming this is not a sleep story, or maybe stress has finally made my mind is sick.~ She shook away the horrifying thought. ~I do not think my mind is creative enough to come up with delusions like this.~

Her skepticism gave way to tentative hope. "This place looks wonderful. How far is it?"

The scene within the leaflet grew distant, as though she were moving away from it at a staggering pace. Past the valley's great walls, it zoomed. Forests, fields, mountains, lakes, even a desert rushed by before it settled behind a swimmer at the edge of a cave, overlooking the landscape as she stared into a leaflet.

The eerie sense of being watched sent a chill ran down Cygnet's spine.

She looked back. Nothing, except the bitter green from which the leaflet was plucked. It was in the perfect position to see the swimmer the way the leaflet showed her. Of course, though, greens did not have eyes, and yet the leaflet could clearly see better than she could. What was to say the bitter green couldn't see her too. Be that is it may, it wasn't like it could tell the leaflet what to show her based on what it saw, right ...?

...

... Her head hurt. Moving on.

"That valley looks farther than I have ever travelled," Cygnet commented. "What is the fastest, but safest way to get there?"

Another white triangle appeared. She held the leaf towards it and it took the simple forms of a swimmer, longneck and spiketail. A herd? With a tap, the forms expanded into a plethora of leafeaters of every kind.

Definitely a herd.

She beamed. "Safety in numbers: clever. I hope they like me ... anyway, time to get moving! I cannot carry you in my paws all the time, so maybe you could follow me like you did bef-"

Cygnet froze as the leaflet slipped from her paws to her back and wrapped itself around her shoulders. With an experimental tug, she realised it was firmly attached. Somehow, the tip and the stem had intertwined beneath her neck and didn't seem to be planning on letting go anytime soon.

"... Oookaaaay ..." Cygnet decided. "I suppose this works. Well, off we go!"

---

The Present ...

---

Cygnet undid the leaflet from her shoulders and raised it in front of her. Through the surface, the fast runner's form was clearly outlined. It almost glowed with friendly green. She moved the leaf about, searching for the red outline of an enemy. Nothing. Even when the black biter was right in front of her, the all-knowing leaf acted as if the creature were not there.

The swimmer returned the leaflet to her back. For months, it had been her best friend as the Rainbow Face assured, telling her where to go, what to do, showing her sharpteeth long before her masked scent even reached them. She was ashamed to admit that she'd delegated much of her thinking to the leaflet, yet it wasn't even a person! At least, so the Rainbow Face claimed, but that wasn't the only thing he said.

'Knowledge is your greatest ally: sharper than any tooth or claw, mightier than the greatest beings to walk the lands or swim the seas. By its power, worlds can rise and fall.'

Cygnet didn't need to bring about the rise or fall of a world. All she needed was the critical tidbit of knowledge to turn the odds in their favour. That wasn't too much to ask, was it?

So, what did she know? She knew the monster could hide without hiding, just like the Rainbow Face. She knew it left a slight path of disturbance when it vanished. She knew she hadn't noticed the disturbance during its latest disappearance. Recently, it seemed especially obsessed with staying close to the runner.

Cygnet gasped at a hunch.

It was a crazy thought, but what if ... it didn't move this time? That would mean that it was ...

"I ... i ..." The swimmer swallowed her fear. "IN FRONT OF YO-!"

The fast runner didn't need her to finish.

A cracking blow cut off the end of Cygnet's shout. She expected a kick. Maybe a jab. She did not expect the fast runner to throw her head beak-first into the monster's muzzle. Faster and farther than a paw-strike could travel, it was savagely effective and unthinkably risky. Clearly, the monster didn't expect it either, even after the attempted bite. He staggered back, more surprised than injured. The runner intended to fix that. Riding her momentum, she took to the air and surged a double-footed kick into the biter's face. Her feet scarcely touched the ground before Cygnet almost lost track of her forepaws as they blazed blow after blow into the biter. She felt herself begin to smile. There was no coming back from this. The monster was finished!

The fast runner's paw came to a halt between its teeth.

Cygnet's heart could have stopped.

It grinned around the runner's wrist.

She forced a glare that spoke louder than the fear in her eyes.

The monster's smile disappeared. It released her.

She hastily withdrew her wrist and backed into a stance poised for battle.

The monster tilted its head, a curved claw slowly tapping the soil beneath its feet as it appraised her with eyes anew. Finally, it bowed its head.

Cygnet's jaw dropped. Did ... did that monster just show the runner respect?

Her amazement gave way to horror as the creature turned its gaze upon her. It stepped closer and vanished.

Cygnet collapsed back into her nook, racked with panic. This was the one. After all The Mysterious Beyond's perils she'd survived, this was the one to end them all. Cygnet mentally scolded herself. No. That was no way to think. Solutions presented themselves to those who sought them. Were there any ways out of this? She looked around.

White teeth burst through the woody walls around her, missing her necky a scale. She dove to the ground and lay as flat as possible. With a chorus of cracks, black jaws twisted and tore the trunk. A scale-crawling creak filled the air. She stared in shock as the tree tilted above her. Soon, the pit trembled with the sound of its long, lean mass crashing to the ground.

Above her loomed the monster, its serrated grin breaking the dark silhouette of its face.

"Youu cheeaated," it declared in a voice part purr, part runner and altogether otherworldly.

The monster's jaws parted towards her. Then they departed, grin fading as Cygnet heard and felt a pair of feet meet what remained of the trunk. Purple forelimbs had wrapped around the monster's torso as powerful legs pushed off what remained of the trunk, yanking away the creature on a curving path, backwards, downwards.

Cygnet winced at the sickening thud of bone against stone.

Morbid curiosity drew to peak over the edge of the tree stump. There lay the monster and the runner. The latter huffed away her exhaustion and rolled onto her feet. The monster did not stir. His skull was at rest upon a flat rock cracked by the head-first body slam dealt by the runner. However, his pitch-black scales showed no sign of injury.

The runner rushed to the tree stump, coming eye to eye with Cygnet. "Are you okay?"

Cygnet's eyes were watery as she beamed. The next thing the runner knew, she had leapt onto her face in a tight, little hug.

"Okay you are," chuckled the runner. "What's your name?"

Cygnet flinched. Social anxiety had caught up with her. She stepped back onto the stump and bashfully wrung her paws.

"I am Cygnet."

"I'm Amethyst. It's nice to finally meet you – well, nice as it can be considering the circumstances. Let's get out of here."

---

Cera squeezed her eyes shut. "Murfy, to be honest, my patience is juuust about gone. Could you please explain why this little dance is so important?"

Murfy's fancy footwork never skipped a beat. "Ever wondered if a flutterer's flap could cause a storm?"

"Ehmm ..." Petrie pondered.

"I admit that I have not wondered that," confessed Ducky.

"Fascinating question," Pterano mused, "but is it releva-?"

"HOW DOES THIS MATTER IN ANY WAY?" Cera interrupted explosively.

"Then think about this," began the longneck: "The snap of a branch can make a herd stampede; a single trip could bring them all crashing down; a yell can make ground sparkles thunder down the mountainside and a simple misunderstanding can end friendships. My point is, little things can cause big things, and just the right dance in juuust the right spot? ... Well, we'll see what it does now, won't we?"

The peach threehorn's frantic movements drew Cera's attention. She looked just in time to see him finish etching simple figures into a stone slab. It looked like a dancing longneck being rammed by a threehorn. Once done, the kid gestured her towards Murfy with his horn, eyes full of worry.

"Hey Murfy," Cera asked tentatively, "do the threehorns attack you when you do A Thing?"

"Whaaaat? Noooooo!" he chuckled uneasily. "Why would you- heh, why would you think that? It's more of a whole-heard decision ..."

He tapped the floor with a toe.

Cera tackled him to the ground in an instant.

"Wow! You are really fast!" Murfy praised. "You even took me down without using your horns, which wouldn't have hurt too much 'cause, y'know, I'm a rockback used to punishment, but still! It was nice of you."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Yup. Sorry. I know you were trying to help, but A Thing might be more than we can handle right now, or ever, for that matter."

"In that case, I'm sorry too," Murfy murmured.

"... Why?" Cera asked suspiciously.

"Can you feel it?" Murfy whispered.

Cera's follow-up question died in her throat as she looked down at her feet. She could feel it. As a seasoned earth whisperer, she could practically hear it with her paws: like the growl of a sharptooth buried in the heart of the land. Soon, it reached her ears as it grew ever louder ... louder ... louder.

---

A pang of dread quickened Amethyst's heart. It felt like an earthshake, but earthshakes did not growl. Whatever it was, this pit was THE worst place to be.

She snatched up Cygnet and took off, a blur among the ferns. Her mind and body screeched to a stop when she reached the pit's edge. Descending into the pit was one thing. It was hard. With the swimmer in paw, time and weight against her, how would she make it up? Should she climb the way she came? Should she wait it out and plot a safer path? This pit must have endured earthshakes. Surely it would survive this, right?

The cascade of cracks ripping across the walls said otherwise.

Cygnet was quivering ball of whimpers. Frankly, Amethyst was one step from joining her, but that was not the luxury of heroes. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then exhaled. The din quelled. Her dread stilled. The throb of her heart punctuated the passage of time as it dwindled to a dawdle in her mind.

She remembered it like it was yesterday: the day when Ruby visited and was ... different. It was in her movements, a subtle but undeniable smoothness. Naturally, their parents inquired about her health, well-aware of a head illness that compromised movement or even caused death. She claimed that she woke up like this, something about a dream all but faded from her memory. Out of the blue, she asked to race them. With some convincing, they complied. Amethyst was stunned to find that neither parent could keep up with her sister. Her movements were not 'compromised'. They were refined beyond belief. From then on, she never stumbled through the dense underbrush, or clambered up the perilous cliffs. She simply ran, jumped, flew across it all. Nothing could hamper her fleet-footed freedom. This feat came to be known as 'speedrunning', and she taught her siblings everything.

Now, Amethyst was a speedrunner, and speedrunners always found a way.

She opened her eyes, transferred the swimmer to one paw and surged into the air. A massive boulder thundered down where she'd stood. Between rocky wall and mossy trunk, she ascended in zigzagging bounds. A shadow closed in on her. She clung to the wall as another boulder crushed the tree against which she had been ricocheting. Amethyst planned another path. She pushed off the rock in a massive, backwards leap, slightly skidding to a stop atop a long, hefty branch. Three-pawed landings were supposed to look awesome, but hers? It wasn't graceful, yet she was grateful. The damp surfaces were unforgiving, but Amethyst didn't need their charity. Soon, she fell into a rhythm.

Cygnet had decided that if they were going to ascend the pit as it fell apart on top of them, she was absolutely not looking. However, it didn't feel like they were climbing ... or dying, which was strange. She cracked an eyelid. The world whirled, branches blazed by. It was hard to make heads or tails of the dizzying movements, but she did know that Amethyst was running ... in the trees, sparing the tiniest pauses to plot her next looked up at her purple rescuer as best she could. Though the runner introduced herself otherwise, she could swear she was looking at the near-legendary Ruby. Who else could move like this? However, Ruby was pinker, and somewhat more intimidating. Perhaps this was her sister?

Amethyst halted.

Cygnet had to ask: "Why did we-?"

The answer came when a boulder smashed the tree before them.

"... Oh ..." she reacted.

Their tree lurched. Amethyst slipped. Her free paw caught the branch, claws skimming deep into moss and wood. By the time they hitched enough to stop her fall, she was dangling. Don't look down: the number one rule of such predicaments. Her rebellious eyes had other ideas. Beneath a rain of stone, the once peaceful fern garden was being devoured by a sinkhole. Trees leaned above its ravenous throat as though contemplating their fate in dread while it dragged them ever closer to the centre. She looked to the pit's mouth. So close, yet so far. Her rapid mind drew a blank. With the swimmer in paw, there was no way up there ... unless ...

Cygnet never thought of herself as brave. She squealed a tad more than was socially acceptable among Mysterious Beyonders whose lives were rife with terror. However, when the runner dropped her? That was worth a good squeal. Her little lungs were way ahead of her. They even kept going when Amethyst's tail hooked and caught her, those diligent little things. That tail began to swing her back and forth, building speed. Cygnet realised what she was doing.

"Wait! You might fall!" Cygnet blurted.

back. forth.

Amethyst forced a chuckle as she secured a two-pawed grip on the branch. "It's okay. Try to hold still ..."

Back. Forth.

"... and if you see my brother up there ..."

Back. Forth.

"... give him a big ol' hug ..."

Baaack. Fooorth.

"Tell him don't be mad, or sad ..."

Baaaaaaaack ...

"... but make wonderful, lifelong friends and live a long, wonderful life!"

FORTH!

Amethyst's tail sent Cygnet sailing towards the surface. The sheer force dislodged her claws. She plummeted, but that didn't matter so long as ... NO! Cygnet was falling short!

A black blur shot past her and plucked Cygnet from the air. It kicked off the wall and speedran up the canopy with ease she could not hope to match.

It reached the top.

She hit the bottom.

Coughing, Amethyst nursed her ribs as she struggled to her feet on the sinking soil.

The black biter peered from the edge of the pit, amusement glinting in his eyes. He raised the petrified swimmer's arm between two claws and waved it at her before casually turning to leave.

Amethyst fumed. Wrath blazed behind her eyes. Things would NOT end this way.

Even as the pit's collapse crescendoed to chaos, she threw herself back into the air.

---

The spiketail kid eyed an old tree that tilted suspiciously towards him. It validated his suspicions when it began to fall. He validated its fall when he began to scream.

Spike's sweeping tail casually shattered it. He gave the youngster a reassuring smile.

"W-wow!" the kid trembled. "I almost feel bad for eating the whole, entire sweet bubble bush right off your tail!"

Spike's smile faded.

---

Throughout the rumbling valley, frightened fast biter cries could be heard amid what Zircon could only assume was the sound of falling trees. One semi-frantic sharptooth darted by them, before backing up and staring at the injured flyer, runner and longneck holed up in a convenient package of sticks. He made a questioning sound, part grunt, part squeak. It might have been cute if they didn't know what he was thinking.

"Hey! Heeey. Keep moving, bub," Dawn warned. "This ain't the time for shenanigans."

He simply raised his curved toe claws and trotted towards them. A tree crashed into his path, missing him by a tooth. The biter took off, yelping all the way.

Zircon and Arwin chuckled. That is, until they got their own taste of tree. Their refuge held, but that didn't stop Arwin's shriek. Zircon did not shriek. He never shrieked, ever. That second high-pitched scream had to have come from someone else.

"This isn't so bad!" Dawn commented peppily.

Zircon joined Arwin in giving Dawn the appropriate stare. Nonetheless, they drew deeper into her wings as the Earth split not too far from their refuge, spewing an underground river's contents into the air.

"Oh, would you look at that! It rained something after all!" noted Dawn.

---

Cera slowly shook her head as she witnessed the valley-wide chaos. The untiring, unkillable Dawn was one thing, but Murfy? Where were these Mysterious Beyonders even coming from?

Murfy's tail thoughtfully tapped the ground, frowning at the mayhem. "This is weird."

"I thought you'd be used to this by now," Cera deadpanned numbly.

Murfy's frown deepened. "Usually, A Thing is a little more ..."

Monstrous cracks tore across the landscape. The fast biters' cries escalated to sheer horror. Titanic slabs of cliff thundered down. Steam roared from between fractured Earth that lurched about as though debris on an ornery ocean. Virtually every crawler mound in sight was shaken to dust.

Ducky and Petrie held each other for dear life. Pterano stared in stunned silence. Cera's jaw would have hit the ground if it could. The threehorn was beginning to regret failing to tackle Murfy early when she had a chance.

"Okaaaay, that is horrifying, but satisfactory!" Murfy laughed awkwardly, his voice nearly lost in the din. "Before you ask, we should be safe here, more so than I expected, at least ..."

---

Dawn was starting to think they were not safe there. Sure, they probably weren't particularly safe anywhere, but the titanic crack writhing towards them suggested their little haven had outlived its usefullness.

She hustled her charges out of the structure, heaved Arwin onto Zircon's back with her beak and nipped his tail ("Yeowch!"). It wasn't very nice, but but at least it got him running faster than words. That left her with only herself to save - easier said than done. For a flyer, Dawn's crawling speed was exceptional, but it had no hope of matching a speedy runner like Zircon. Fortunately, she didn't have to keep up with him. She just needed to stay ahead of the crack, which proved a lot more difficult when her chunk of footing inclined towards it. Her claws grasped at soil in vain as she slid into the crack. Dawn held her tongue, refusing to scream. That would only distract Zircon and Arwin from a clean getaway. She would have gotten away with it if he didn't have the pesky conscientiousness to look back.

"DAWN!" called a panicked Zircon.

...

Over the clamour, that cry scarcely reached Petrie's ears, but it did reach them. His eyes alit. He rushed into the skies.

Pterano reflexively opened his wings, only to opt against joining Petrie. It wouldn't do to leave Ducky in this state, guarded only by Cera and that walking disaster. At any rate, The Daybreaker's protégé' was not to be underestimated.

...

Dawn's tattered wings haphazardly beat air. She couldn't fly, but she could at least slow her fall. This was no mere crack, not anymore. It was expanding into a rift, like the passage to a realm of darkness. Maybe she could find a way out of the rift upon reaching the bottom, assuming the shifting earth and falling stones didn't crush her. She looked down to gauge the distance.

What she saw almost stunned her.

Sparks crackled in the abysmal dark like the earthbound offspring of sky fire. She'd heard them from the start, but they'd melded too well with the clacking cacophony of a crumbling valley. Though far beneath her, distance was no issue for the eyes of a flyer. She made out vague details alit by the sparks: long, wormy things that spewed them as they snapped apart; things that that glinted under the luminous bursts; things that were definitely not just 'shifting earth'. Okay. Forget climbing out. If there were ever any doubt, Dawn now knew she had no desire to go down there.

The stone that struck her wing had different ideas.

Dawn fell. This time, she allowed herself to scream. Down there was The Unknown, and The Unknown had consumed the better part of her life. She couldn't let it take her again!

A silhouette sped down towards her, spreading its wings at the last second. It snatched her out of free fall, dragging her up, up, up with the pumps of powerful wings. The darkness fell behind them and her saviour, Petrie, was bathed in the light of day. Her beak loosened at the sight. Dawn was not in the habit of being saved. It was surreal, but ... dare she think, wonderful. Perhaps she didn't always have to be the one to save herself, and maybe ... maybe that was okay.

Her gaze wandered worrisomely to the hole in his wing, the hole she'd put there, yet here he was, bearing almost double his weight!

Petrie bit back a pained grunt.

Dawn's fears came to life as she watched the hole rapidly expand. The wind was rending his wing in half!

...

Ducky gasped, paws clapped to her face. Petrie was falling! Why? He'd been carrying Dawn just fine a moment ago, unless ... oh no ... his wing! It was too far for her eyes to confirm, but she had a horrible hunch.

She shielded her eyes as Pterano flew forth with a mighty gust of wind and dust.

...

"Dawn! You okay?" Petrie gushed.

Her eyes fluttered open. "Wha-what happened?"

"You broke my fall, with your body!" he quavered, tears in his eyes. "You didn't have to do that! I would have landed just fine!"

"I ... I'm sorry," Dawn stuttered sincerely, her mind mildly muddled.

Petrie's eyes widened as he guessed her predicament. "Head fuzzy? You really hit it this time?"

"I think so ..." she admitted.

"I'm checking for injuries, if you don't mind," informed Petrie.

Dawn nodded.

His actions were quick and gentle as he inspected her head for bruising.

Dawn couldn't take her eyes off him. She'd ruined his wing. She'd forcibly sidelined him. He could have hated her. She wouldn't blame him, but hate was the last thing on his mind. Dawn's heart practically melted out of her chest.

Petrie froze upon noticing the way she was staring at him. Before he had the chance to fidget, Dawn's wings had wrapped around her sweet, wonderful, Petrie. Well, he technically wasn't hers yet, but give her some time to work the charm and she'd fix that. Dawn blanched at the realisation: She owed him a huge apology, with no right to even think of pursuing him unless he accepted it.

"Petrie, I'm ... I'm so sorry," Dawn almost sobbed. "I was so insensitive, and your wing-!"

It was her turn to startle when he hugged her back. The gesture was sheepish, but genuine. She could feel it.

"The wing wasn't your fault," consoled Petrie, "and the 'putting me to sleep' thing? You were trying to help, but ... you wouldn't do that again, would you?"

Dawn hastily shook her head. "No! Never!"

"Good," Petrie nodded. "In any case, I forgive you."

She did a mental double-take. Just like that? What was left of her heart turned to mush. Could she ever truly deserve him?

Petrie tensed.

Dawn released him and followed his gaze to a biter stalking to flank them.

"Go away," Dawn shooed. "We're having a moment."

The biter broke into cackles, joined by a myriad of others they hadn't seen. These sharpteeth had surrounded them, but now they'd relinquished the element of surprised. She thought they were supposed to be clever. Did they think their numbers promised victory? If so, it was time to break that 'promise'.

Dawn cracked her neck and flexed her wings. Clearly, they hadn't heard what she'd done to the other hunting party. It was time to give them a lesson in pain.

The Daybreaker beat her to it.

Backlight by The Bright Circle, his great silhouette descended though the gap in the canopy. Several biters flew back as he swooped an arcing kick along their frontlines. His speed was nothing short of staggering.

The biters withdrew, but their malicious eyes gleamed in the bushes as they mustered their courage and plotted the next move.

Pterano touched down before the youngsters and tossed back his head in a disdain.

"You have dwelt beneath the wings of my mercy for too long," he hissed.

The sheer venom in his voice gave the biters pause. Some stepped back.

"Since its inception, I have honoured The Valley Guard's value of sharptooth lives," Pterano continued. "Tarnishing their innocence would be a pity, but know this: I love my nephew with every fibre of my being. His injury is not your advantage. It is your detriment. So, come! Brandish your claws, unsheath your teeth, and I shall ravage you as never before! You may hope to overpower us with numbers, but know this: First to come, first to ANGUISH."

A biter pounced from overhanging greenery.

Pterano's beak tore him from the air to the ground, rapidfire pecks racking his body. The biter's screech reached a new pitch as his two, deadliest claws flew through the air, plucked from his toes amid the onslaught. A final peck to the head and he was silenced. Pterano's savage assault began and ended in moment's passing. That was all the time needed for the biters to converge on them, but all the intimidation it took to rattle their nerves and addle their actions. A few biters lost the bravery to attack just yet - the perfect opportunity for two earthbound flyers and a Daybreaker to seize the odds.

Pterano stormed into combat.

Dawn went berserk, relying on her death-defying gift to power through what injuries she would not avoid. She never let her battle frenzy stray far from Petrie, but he wasn't as vulnerable as she expected. Clearly, he'd been trained in the art of one-winged combat: spiralling leaps and pivoting his moves with lopsided flaps. 'One-winged' proved a bit of a misnomer, though. While a single wing was flight-worthy and the other was no doubt in pain, Petrie whirled about in a high-precision dance that targeted weak spots with the tips and claws of his wings. She could only imagine the years he'd spent toughening the fragile limbs for such a feat. Even so, it looked to be a dangerously delicate dance. One bad move would mean a broken wing, yet he kept going strong.

Dawn almost laughed. Petrie was amazing!

---

Littlefoot panted. His attackers had withdrawn the moment things got truly chaotic. That new biter in command might have rebuked them, had he not panicked himself. The longneck's body ached and tingled from fatigue mingled with their lingering attacks on his pressure points. Exhaustion had forced him to his knees, but that taught the biters a hard lesson that his fast, flexible tail could unleash Roaring Sky from any position ... at heavy cost. It ached more than any other part of his body. He would have started making fatal slips if not for the breather Murfy's curse-like gift had given him.

His break would end soon. The rumbling faded and the biters were rallying, but he had just enough time to send his allies a message.

As usefully subtle as earth whispers were, they had obvious limits in contacting flyers. However, the pinciple could apply to anything, from clicks of the tongue to cracks of the tail. Thus, the 'thunder voice' had been born.

---

Finally, A Thing was over!

Cera's earth whisper coincided with the pattern of Littlefoot's thundering tail.

Cera and Littlefoot: ( ( Is everyone okay? ) )

( ( Ducky here: I am okay. ) )

( ( Spike and kid, okay. ) )

"Ooh! Are you guys earth whispering?" Murfy enthused. "Can I try?"

"NO!" Cera barked in panic.

Cera: ( ( Murfy is okay. ) )

Petrie: ( ( ... ) )

Pterano: ( ( ... ) )

Dawn: ( ( ... ) )

Zircon: ( ( ... ) )

Amethyst: ( ( ... ) )

Cera frowned. The fast runners weren't really in on the whole earth whisper / thunder voice thing. The flyers weren't heavy enough for it, but they could respond with long distance screeches. Perhaps they were busy.

She spotted Littlefoot from her slightly elevated position. He seemed to be catching his breath. From the looks of things, Murfy just might have saved his life.

Cera stared up at the rockback. "Murf ... I have no idea what you are ... but that was awesome. Just promise me you'll never try to earth whisper."

Murfy tilted his head at her with a smirk. "Have we reached the point where nicknames are cool?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Cera smiled.

He beamed back. "I wuv you too!"

Her smile fell. "Wut?"

"Hear me, sharpteeth!" Murfy boomed, leaving the threehorn glancing about as if searching for an answer that would never come. "Within my paws is the power to bring down this valley in its entirity! Relinquish the herd and let us depart, or we all fall together!"

The sharpteeth remained silent, until one voice rose up: "You're bluffing!"

Murfy narrowed his eyes and stomped once.

A collective scream filled the valley as everyone felt their weight vanish before being yanked to the ground. Some were thrown off their feet.

Cera struggled to grasp what had happened. "Did ... the whole valley just FALL a little into the ground?"

Murfy quirked a smirk. "Yes. Yes it did."

Stunned silence fell over the biters until that one guy spoke up: "... I bet you can't do that agai-!"

*Thwack!* *Thud ...*

If Cera had to guess, she'd assume some wise biter had knocked him out.

"Anyone else is STUPID?!" Murfy roared.

No response.

"Surely, you have heard of my feats!" he continued. "I may well destroy the valley by merely standing here, whether or not I desire it! Every second you resist could be your last!"

Utter silence.

"You see THIS?" Murfy gestured himself with his tail, making his most grotesque grimace to those close enough to take a gander. "This is the face of a longneck with nothing to lose! If my herd's going down anyway, what difference would it make? Satisfy my demands without question! NOW!"

Murfy could practically hear the sharpteeth blinking as they stared.

He frowned, leaned close to Cera and whispered: "Am I doing something wrong? Because I thought I did good. Why aren't they responding? Didn't I make it clear that my demands cannot be questioned?"

"Even if they believe you're bluffing, they know you could probably bring down the valley," Cera reasoned. "I think they're waiting for something to pan out in their favour."

"Like what?" asked Murfy.

The flying kick to his skull answered that question, but Murfy was a bit too unconscious to appreciate it.

"ARTIE? Where did YOU come from?" Cera exclaimed as she charged. "That's it! The girls have been waiting far too long to- HEY!"

He hurdled her, narrowly avoiding 'the girls' before springing off her back and heading for Ducky.

"NO!" Cera shrieked.

He'd reached the swimmer before Cera could begin another charge, leaping Ducky's tail attack, crashing into her side and tearing the leafy binding from her arm. Then he bit, yanked, twisted. Ducky couldn't feel the teeth, but she definitely felt the pulling.

And then, she didn't.

The swimmer stumbled as the biter fell away from her, with ... something that didn't belong to him ...

Beak agape, she reached a trembling paw to her shoulder, knowing what she would find, or wouldn't find. Ducky collapsed to her knees, teary eyes wide and glassy.

Cera's livid cry was like nothing under The Bight Circle. She rushed the alpha. He disappeared into the treeline. It offered no refuge or resistance when Cera raged through it.

---

Zircon's feathers stood on end. He looked around. It felt as though he were being watched.

Amethyst noticed, but said nothing. As a fellow Mysterious Beyonder, she knew that speaking up when someone was trying to pinpoint what spooked them was usually a bad idea. First of all, distractions were fatal. Second, it could tip off whatever had triggered it. She feigned a casual air as she joined him in scanning the area.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you! Glad to see you, I am!" came Amethyst's relieved cry.

He whipped around to face her, almost losing his passenger. Amethyst was closer than he would have expected. Zircon took note of the tiny swimmer in her paws, who looked petrified beyond all reason.

"You won't believe that what happened had happened!" Amethyst gushed, stepping towards him. "There was this monster biter and-!"

Zircon stepped back.

Amethyst stared quizically before looking back to see if anything behind her had him on edge. "Is there something I should know something about?"

"Who's this?" asked Arwin.

"She's my ..." Zircon trailed off.

"Sister," Amethyst finished as her brow wrinkled with concern. "What's wrong? You're scaring me with how scary this is."

That was the last thing Zircon wanted. He wished he could tell her everything was okay, but his father always encouraged them to follow their guts.

His gut was screaming.

Zircon's eyes wandered down to the swimmer. "What's wrong with her?"

Amethyst sighed, comfortingly petting the swimmer. "She's been through a lot."

"What kind of 'lot' she has been through?" pressed Zircon.

The trembling swimmer glanced at Amethyst as though barely brave enough to look at her.

Amethyst's paw froze and hovered over the swimmer, who seemed to scream but nothing came out of her beak. Something changed in Amethyst's eyes. A subtle smile crept across her beak. Her amusement vanished, turning to amazement as she stared past Zircon.

He turned to see another Amethyst burst from the bushes, bruised and battered.

She stared.

He stared.

His mind swam with confusion, but his gut spoke one certainty: This wasn't 'another' Amethyst.

This was Amethyst.

Her eyes went wild with fear as purple turned to black at the edge of his vision. Faster than thought, he felt teeth around his neck. Zircon fell. His paws should have moved to break the fall. Striking the ground should have hurt more than his cheek, but below the neck he felt nothing. Why couldn't he move? Vision blurring, he saw his sister rush towards him. The black form was faster. It reached her in an instant. The figure's fuzzy head melded with her throat as darkness enveloped his vision.

"Zirco-!" she croaked, and could say nothing more.

---

Cera didn't think about the way Arrtafiss never escaped despite greater speed and hiding places. She didn't think about how he led her into a dry river bed with walls too tall for her to climb. Threehorns were no strangers to rage, but Cera wouldn't call this 'rage'. 'Anger' was the lowest form of threehorn intensity. 'Rage', by some, was considered the highest. There were no words for what she felt.

Only roars.

At the top of the river stood a boulder. It began to roll towards them, revealing a large biter who had no doubt pushed it. Arrtafiss kept going so Cera followed suit. She saw the trap, but it didn't matter. All she had to do was get to him before the boulder reached them.

Once it was practically on top of the alpha, he leapt over it.

Cera only accelerated.

The boulder ended her charge with a deafening impact, cracks branching across its surface.

Gamma Guerra's massive frame doubled over in a hearty, throbbing laugh. Just like old times! It turned out 'Cera the Accursed' was no better than any of the big, dumb threehorns who fell for that trick! It was especially ironic, considering the way they took out Sharptooth! Red Claw would favour them for this, not that they needed the oaf's approval!

Arrtafiss did not laugh. He merely stared at the boulder, stone-still and serious.

Guerra's laughter died down as he tilted his head. What was wrong?

The boulder shattered, its fragments heaved skywards with a roar Guerra had never heard from sharptooth or leafeater. Yet, behind it was indeed the threehorn, eyes mad with ferocity as chunks of rubble rained about her. One horn had snapped in half. The other was almost missing entirely, but that was hardly a comfort. Her aura of doom was all-consuming.

She took a step forward, then another. It was like watching an oncoming storm: slow in its march from the horizon, yet inescapable. Her eyes rolled back. Her steps ceased. She wobbled. A heavy thud and she was out.

Guerra hadn't realised he was holding his breath. It came as a surprise when he felt himself gasping. The Valley Guard was on a whole different level. One monster down, at least. How many more to go?

---

The flyers had blazed a trail through two hunting parties. Their third was becoming a problem. Fear of The Daybreaker had waned as the biters learnt from the mistakes of those who came before them. How many more could they handle, Dawn wondered?

She got her answer when Petrie's wing buckled with a strike. He stifled a yell.

~Did he just break it?~ Dawn worried.

Enticed by his new injury, the biters swarmed him.

Pterano plowed into their midst and dragged Petrie to the air, but he was not alone. Three biters stubbornly clung to the young flyer, and weight was on their side. Pterano could neither get high nor far before a fourth pounced from a tree and brought him down. His formidable wings heaved for air, but a myriad of teeth tethered them to the ground.

A similarly toothy legion was latching onto Dawn's wings, but to less effect. Currently, her wings were not for flight. At least, not her flight. Their flings sent those who dared bite her flying. She thrashed, struck and pecked one excruciating step at a time towards her fellow flyers. The flood of biters bore down on her with fear and fury for the flyer who just wouldn't stay down. One constantly tried to kick her head. Then Dawn broke into sardonic laughter upon identifying that sharptooth.

"STOP LAUGHING!" snarled the biter as she kicked all the harder.

"To think, I listened to your sister! SPARED you!" Dawn continued to laugh.

"SHUT UP! WE OWE YOU NOTHING!" Qyvrr roared. "You HURT my sister! You MESSED with her head! You thought you could EAT m-!"

A peck to the neck sent her rolling. She coughed to a stand.

"Y ... you think you're greater than The Circle, just because you're tough!" Qyvrr choked out. "You don't matter ... Ssavi mattered! We matter! We are sharpteeth!" She charged. "And you are NOTHING!"

Finally, Qyvrr landed the perfect kick.

---

(~Arrival in 5 minutes~)

---

Littlefoot dragged himself to a stand. The burn of worn muscles made him feel slow and heavy, but he couldn't afford to accept that. At the best of times, five holding breaths was hardly enough to do anything, but this wasn't the first time The Voice had given them that amount of time. Maybe it was wrong. Maybe they were in the clear, but something didn't feel right, ever since Cera's roaring had stopped.

He earth whispered: ( ( Littlefoot speaking. Is everyone okay? ) )

Cera: ( ( ... ) )

Petrie: ( ( ... ) )

Pterano: ( ( ... ) )

Dawn: ( ( ... ) )

Zircon: ( ( ... ) )

Amethyst: ( ( ... ) )

Ducky: ( ( ... ) )

Spike: ( ( ... Ducky? Are you okay? ) )

Ducky: ( ( ... ) )

Spike: ( ( DUCKY? ) )

Ducky: ( ( ... ) )

"You know what's funny?" came a voice dripping with malice.

Littlefoot spun to see Arrtafiss pacing up to him, a plethora of biters behind him.

"You and I know you'll never be The Lone Dinosaur. You're just too obsessed with friendship, and yet today, you will die alone. Isn't that hilarious?"

Littlefoot's glare grew sharper than claws.

The alpha didn't give him the satisfaction of a flinch. "Don't look at me like that. Their demise was inevitable, and yet you insisted on coming alone. For the valley's greatest thinker, you are piteous. What were you planning to do?"

"You sure know a lot about me," Littlefoot declared before leaning forward, glowering from the shadow below his brow. "Wanna find out what you don't?"

Arrtafiss' expression froze. In the midst of a serious battle, there was one thing he despised and dreaded above all. It was The Unknown.

Littlefoot casually reached his tail deep into the powdered crawler mounds coating the floor, drew out some and watched it slide off his tail. "My friends are ... incredible. We combine our might and minds to do amazing things. You'd think we're all stronger together than apart. It's a beautiful idea ... but it's not true."

Arrtafiss scoffed a huff, chest puffed in false confidence.

Littlefoot ignored him. "The Lone Dinosaur taught me to fight like him, to always come out on top when there's no one there to have my back. You can't fight like that in a team. It's not safe, but that's not enough for you guys, is it? Did you assume I didn't have a Secret Way?"

Arrtafiss roared: STOP HIM!

Littlefoot did not attack. At least, not in any discernible way. Instead, he broke into whirling movements. It looked like a dance. Ducky had danced. It heralded the defeat of Delta Hezza's hunting party. Murfy danced. All of Little Valley suffered for it. Petrie danced. Only a broken wing could stop him. If Littlefoot, brilliant alpha of The Valley Guard, thought it befitting to dance, Arrtafiss had every reason to assume the worst. How right he was, but there was nothing that could prepare him for what Littlefoot wrought upon them.

---

A special thanks to AllegroGiocoso, who has left so many wonderful reviews!

Well, that got kind of dark, but don't worry - this is by no means the end. Still, maybe the writer should stick to decaf ... oh wait, he doesn't drink coffee. Okay then, someone tranquilise the guy and pop a chill pill into his mouth.

If anyone's curious, Ducky's 'dance' fighting style is similar to capoeira, limited acrobatics and, you guessed it, a less developed version of break dancing. Due to her size, she can't keep it up for as long as a fit human would, and it's not as complex as what is humanly possible. It stretches her full-body movement to its limit, so it's truly a last-ditch effort, but even so the girl's lucky to be under a different set of universal laws.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this