Chapter VI: The Messengers
I had not seen either of my rainbowface friends since the beginning of the journey, so imagine my surprise when I saw Vega talking with no less than the herd's leaders!
She had brought news of the children, she said. Littlefoot, together with Cera, Petrie, Ducky, and a hatchling spiketail, was fine and making his own way to the Great Valley. This news cheered the herd's leaders immensely.
"Why trust a landwalker to bring news of someone on the other side of the gorge?" snorted Pterano. "Neither I nor any of the flyers have seen these children!"
"Yeah!" said about twenty voices in unison.
"How do you know?" asked Grandpa. (Threehorn was absent, having decided to spend the day with his mate and children.)
"That would be telling, wouldn't it?" said Vega. "But I speak the truth, and I think that the possibility that you will see the children again alive is very high."
A runner went to tell Threehorn the news, but he refused to believe it. However, his family did.
Of course, I, Robert P. Thicknose, was happy to see my mysterious friend, though Altair met me before she did, and we all started an interesting discussion on the strange healing properties of plants like the night flower and lifeleaf.
Sequoyah's death was a hot topic at the council that night, and only one vote saved Pterano from banishment. The reason, I believe, was that one of his followers, when bringing his rock to the vote, sneakily split it in two by slamming it onto the pile against a particularly sharp stone, thereby splitting it in two and causing two votes, not one, to be registered for Pterano's cause. Altair warned that if he was not banished immediately, Pterano would cause much trouble at a date far in the future, but it seemed that many dared not vote against Pterano lest they should find his dagger-beak in their necks.
The next morning Altair and Vega were gone. Some herd members who stayed up late said that there had been two especially bright shooting stars that night.
I was granted permission to speak in front of the herd, and warned them that they were coming to sharptooth-infested territory, telling them to be on their guard.