Chapter III: First Clues
"Okay, now what?" asked Cera.
"We go to the scene," replied Littlefoot. So they did.
"Here are the tracks Grandpa was talking about," said Littlefoot. "But what's this?"
"What is what, Littlefoot?" asked Ducky.
"Sharptooth claw marks on a tree. Not very deep, so probably accidental," came a familiar voice.
"Mr. Thicknose?" The gang said this in unison.
"What are you doing here, young ones? It could be dangerous."
"We trying to solve mystery," said Petrie.
"I would be delighted to be of assistance."
"You want to join our detective agency?" asked Cera.
"Absolutely."
"Well then, let us start searching for more clues," said Mr. Thicknose.
"Looky! I found a hole in the trunk of the tree," said Ducky.
"So?" said Cera.
"Ah...fascinating," said Mr. Thicknose. "It appears to have been created by the facial protuberance of a spikefrill."
"Fa-cial pro-tu-ber-ance?" said Ducky slowly, while Spike said, "Eeh?"
"Horn," explained Mr. Thicknose.
"Oh," said everybody.
"You don't really think that a flat-tooth would help a sharptooth tear down the Great Wall, do you?" said Littlefoot.
"Huh?" said everybody.
"It's a possibility. But we must find a motive," said Mr. Thicknose.
"Look," said Petrie. "There more scratched-out tracks." He pointed to the base of the tree.
Later that day, Littlefoot's grandparents informed him that the body of a spikefrill had been found. Its horn had been broken off. They also informed him that two egg-stealers had been spotted in the valley.
"Where was the spikefrill?" asked Littlefoot.
"By Two Boulder Pass. Why?" replied Grandma.
Littlefoot was already gone.
Littlefoot gave the information to his fellow detectives, and they set off. Once they arrived at Two Boulder Pass, they looked around, but found nothing other than the carcass itself and sharptooth tracks.
"Hmmm," said Mr. Thicknose. "There's an unusually deep bite in the tail. But it doesn't look like the sharptooth ate anything from there. Well, at least we know that if this was the flat-tooth who helped the sharptooth, he got his reward."
Spike had spotted a branch lying under the spikefrill carcass with tasty-looking leaves. After consuming all those in sight, he decided to try and push the carcass away to see if there were more. Mr. Thicknose decided to help, and together they pushed the carcass over. They both ended up coughing from the stench of rotting meat.
"Wow," said Littlefoot. "There are more scratched-out flat-tooth tracks under here!"
"The carcass must have been dragged to hide the tracks from view," said Mr. Thicknose.
"That explains the bite in the tail," said Littlefoot.
"What kind are the tracks?" asked Cera.
"Hmmm. Judging from their distance from each other, I'd say definitely from a four-footed creature. But they're too scratched out to tell the exact kind," said Littlefoot.
"Very perceptive," said Mr. Thicknose. He put his head closer to the tracks to examine them more closely. Then he heard a yell. When he turned around, the children were gone, and there were fresh tracks. Thicknose knew what kind they were.
They were struthiomimus footprints.