THE LAND BEFORE TIME 1/2
Prologue
My fellow writers, you are free to use any of my characters in your own fanfics. I will not say anything as obvious as that I don't own Grandpa ("Mr. Longneck"), Grandma, etc. Oops, did I just say it?
Key to the dinosaurs:
flat-teeth--herbivores
sharpteeth--predators, particularly Tyrannosaurus
sickleclaws--Deinonychus and relatives
thicknose--Pachyrhinosaurus
rainbowface--Troodon
bigmouth swimmer--Saurolophus, like Ducky
hollowhorn swimmer--Parasaurolophus
widebeak swimmer--Edmontosaurus
cresthead swimmer--Corythosaurus
twocrest swimmer--Lambeosaurus
flathead longneck--Apatosaurus
longsnout longneck--Diplodocus
skyreacher longneck--Brachiosaurus
threehorn--Triceratops
spikefrill--Styracosaurus
clubtail--Ankylosaurus
shieldback--Nodosaurus
tallcrest flyer--Pteranodon
longtail flyer--Rhamphorhynchus
spiketail--Stegosaurus
spikethumb--Iguanodon
bignose--Muttaburrasaurus
crestback--Ouranosaurus
runner--Hypsilophodon
It has been a long-kept secret of the scientific community that dinosaurs (at least some of them) had intelligence like that of humans. The first proof of this ever found was a thick layer of Cretaceous rock with strange symbols engraved on it. Eventually the symbols were interpreted as a language, and the scientists, who can decipher any engraved symbols (perhaps with the exception of such symbols as "High Risk Area") given enough time and more than enough money, managed to interpret this language, revealing the following fascinating story.
Journey to the Great Valley
A history of the great farwalk
written from eyewitness accounts
written with flint on sandstone by:
Robert P. Thicknose
with:
Altair Rainbowface
Vega Rainbowface
In the year of the dying tree-stars, many herds of flat-teeth were gathered at a place called the Farwalkers' Corridor. There were also many lone dinosaurs. I, Robert P. Thicknose, was one of them.
Most of my kind live far in the north where the white ground-sparkles are common, but when I was young--too young to remember--my father was banished from the herd for the trifling offense of spending too much time talking with rainbowfaces instead of helping to defend the herd from sharpteeth. Or so my mother said. Anyway, he struck out towards the south in the company of my mother and me. My earliest personal memories are of the Great Valley, a land filled with treestars and fresh water, and protected from sharpteeth by a great rock wall.
I was very shy as a youngster, for there were no other thicknoses for me to play with, but I listened to my parents--and visiting farwalkers--telling tales of what lay beyond the Valley--and took in everything.
One day a sky-spark struck a tree in the Valley and set it on fire. My parents fled the Valley after the great--what do the farwalkers call it?--inferno that followed. But I stayed, used what wits I had to eke out a living, and stayed for many years until a very large flying rock struck so near the Valley that everything I could see was destroyed. I escaped towards the East, towards the Known Beyond, and lived as a farwalker for many years until finally a rainbowface--I have always been friendly to them--brought me news that the home of my youth was now an oasis of green in a world of brown. This particular rainbowface's name was Altair, and he is with me as I write. He always calls me a "Portly Pachyrhinosaur", whatever that means (I never cared to ask.) So I started my farwalk back to the Great Valley, and on the way ended up at this place, the Farwalkers' Corridor, which I knew very well.
The herds all paid attention only to their own kind, or, in rainbowface talk, "species." The most isolationist of all the species were the threehorns, and next to them the clubtails.
The herds had stopped at the Farwalkers' Corridor to hatch their eggs. All different kinds of swimming landwalkers: bigmouths, hollowhorns, widebeaks, crestheads, etc.; longnecks of different sorts, from flathead to longsnout to skyreacher; threehorns, flyers, and many other kinds of creature were gathered here.
The herds continued to travel down the Farwalkers' Corridor until one day the biggest earthshake I have ever experienced jolted the land. It pushed up towers of rock, removed cliffs, and created a huge ditch, laying the Big Underground open and killing many. A few brave dinosaurs ventured down there and never returned.
This earthshake separated many of the parents from their children, and once it became clear to them that there was no way to reach their families from across the gorge, the adults sadly went on their way. Some flyers tried to find their yet-unable-to-fly children by flying across to the other side of the gorge, yet for the most part they failed, and were forced to continue the journey with heavy hearts.
It is of this great journey that I, Robert P. Thicknose, will now write a history, and hopefully it will make interesting reading for those privileged few who learn how to read. I have striven to make it sound as much like a bedtime tale as possible, but my rainbowface assistants, Altair and Vega, want it to be a very accurate and detailed history: all facts and no story. That was not the way of my father, so I do not know how to do that. But anyway, whoever reads this, I hope that you will not think too poorly of my writing skills.