Chapter XII: Belly-draggers

Spike saw the huge belly-dragger coming toward him and tried to drive his head into the ground, eyes closed. Then he remembered that he was in the water. He opened his eyes and saw teeth. He pulled his head out of the water and ran. The belly-dragger turned and made for Littlefoot.

Littlefoot waited, then jumped just as the hunter struck. He came down on its back. A cry and a splash told him that Petrie had fallen off. Ducky jumped in after him. There was the sound of a mighty tail-lashing and more blood appeared in the water.

Threehorn kicked at the belly-draggers attacking him, but the first attack had created quite a wound, and the shock of it soon sent him into unconsciousness. Cera flopped into the water next to him, and soon reappeared on the back of one of the predators.

Strut had already run to dry land with Hyp and his dad, and was gesturing frantically for the others to do likewise. Bigmouth placed Cera on Thicknose's back, and they both pushed Threehorn, walking backward as they did so, but the belly-draggers were moving quite fast and soon caught up. Bigmouth slapped at them, and Thicknose rammed them, but it seemed clear that they were doomed.

Clubtail was in a relatively deep area of water.

"Clubtail! Come to land!" called Bigmouth.

Clubtail only lifted his club and smacked the water with it.

"Don't do that!" called Thicknose. "It will attract the belly-draggers!"

"Let them come," replied Clubtail. A roar of pain from a belly-dragger near Clubtail proved that he had whacked it well.

"Where's Ducky?" cried Bigmouth as the realization hit him. Spike and Littlefoot had already made it to land, having jumped across several rocks.

As if on cue, Ducky surfaced holding Petrie. She had found Petrie underwater, grabbed onto him, and used his sharp beak as a weapon, bloodying the noses of several belly-draggers.

As soon as Petrie realized he was above water, he cried, "It so good to breathe!" and struggled to fly upward, still in Ducky's hold.

Suddenly an alien voice sounded, apparently coming from a very large belly-dragger who had just arrived. "Halt, you brutes!" he cried, whacking the nearest one with his tail for emphasis. "Don't you recognize that fellow?" He gestured with his tail toward Bigmouth. "He's the one who saved me from that water longneck!"

At this the belly-draggers stopped their attack.

"Formation!" roared the big belly-dragger.

All the others swam into a circle around their leader. After a roll call, it was found that two were missing. Clubtail quickly explained that he had killed them because "they were foolish enough to attack me."

In the meantime, Ducky swam quickly to her father and Petrie flew to Littlefoot. "Belly-dragger noses yucky," he commented. The comment was met with a confused look from Littlefoot.

The big belly-dragger swam toward Bigmouth. "Welcome back, Bigmouth. Are these your friends?"

"Yes," replied Bigmouth.

"That clubtail has neutralized my soldiers. It was an act of war!"

"He did it in self-defense."

"Maybe. But I am the commander of the Army of the Source of Green River, and he will be neutralized!"

"If you will not spare him because he did it in self-defense, spare him because he is my friend."

The big belly-dragger thought for a while and finally said, "Fine. He is pardoned. But if he kills one more of my soldiers, all of you will be terminated."

"Who are you, Sir?" asked Littlefoot.

"I am General Cody Suchus, Supreme Commander of the Army of the Source of Green River. Bigmouth, I will provide an escort for you. You five, go with them as far as the edge of the Thick Water, and protect them with your lives, except for the clubtail whom you may leave to his own devices. Do not take one bite from them or you will be turned into rotting meat."

"Sir, yes, Sir!" replied the five belly-draggers, lashing their tails in salute.

You already know that Ozzy was plotting in the big rotten tree. But he wasn't plotting alone.

"The nerve of those leaf-eaters," snapped his fellow plotter after hearing Ozzy recount all his adventures involving Strut and the children. "And that Strut! I always knew something was wrong with him."

"So how do we set up these booby traps, Theo?"

"Mother would have known. But don't worry, little brother. It'll be as easy as cracking an egg."