Battle of the Sacred Essences

by Thunderblade

The dinosaur realm will never be the same! A strange creature has invaded the Great Valley that claims to be from the future with a disturbing past. Littlefoot is intrigued by it but he is have some bizarre dreams of his own. [Complete!]

3. Part 2: Time's Boundary Is Shattered

Chapter 6: A Shadow with a Glowing Heart

The sun had glided slowly over the sky and had just touched the side of the Smoking Mountain. The bright, blue sky had turned a beautiful, warm orange colour which glowed gently over the Great Valley as its inhabitants began to slow down in anticipation for the upcoming night. All except for the younger inhabitants who were playing down in the Green Meadows. The usual gang were joined by Cera's niece and nephew Dinah and Dana as they dodged Petrie's diving attacks in an attempt to tag them.

"You see us-ee no-wee no-no!" Dinah said happily in her native baby talk.

"Yeah, yeah!" Dana agreed, "Fly-ee no-wee bye-bye Dinee, Danee!"

Ducky leaped into a patch of long grass as Petrie dived down on her but was forced to come up again before he crash-landed into a pile of ferns that Spike had found to eat. Rising up again, Petrie eyed Littlefoot as he ran towards a large oak to hide behind. His giggling gave him away as Petrie flapped his way over to the very same tree silently. Littlefoot peered out from the tree in one direction when Petrie pecked him on the behind from the other.

"Tag! You It!" Petrie called triumphantly.

"Hey!" Littlefoot giggled as Petrie flapped hard to get away from him before he caught him again.

"Nyah nyah!" Cera taunted sticking her tongue out at Littlefoot as he came out from behind the tree failing to shake Petrie off his trail.

"Oh yeah?!" Littlefoot replied taking up Cera's challenge to catch her as she headed off in the direction of the Bubbling Mud. Littlefoot and the others gave chase.

The soft orange horizon slowly gave way to a misty blue as parents' voices could be heard bouncing off the Valley hills to fetch young ones for bedtime. Only Petrie's mother came over to them to retrieve her son from the group before they all said their "goodnights" to each other and headed for home.

Littlefoot did not head directly for his nest. Instead, he took a diversion back across the Green Meadows and through a small thicket. He knew his grandparents would be waiting for him there. Sure enough, on the other side, he saw his grandparents sitting on the grass staring up at the darkening sky as the night came to life with tiny, twinkling stars appearing one by one over the deep, navy background high above them. Littlefoot approached them quietly and stood just short of his grandmother's tail with a wicked thought in mind. Littlefoot smiled and tiptoed over to get closer. He took a silent, deep breath to roar out at them when he heard his grandmother say to him in mid breath,

"DON'T even THINK about it!" Littlefoot let out the pressurised air he built up inside him in a puff and then whined,

"How did you know I was there?"

"I'm your grandmother," she replied lowering her head down to his level to speak face to face with him, "I know everything!" She laughed through a smile and Littlefoot smiled back. "So, what have you been up to today then?" she then asked.

"Hee hee," Littlefoot giggled, "I thought you knew everything?" He raised one eyebrow to his grandmother realising she had just contradicted her own statement. His grandmother simply laughed.

"Hiya Grandpa," Littlefoot then said turning to his grandfather who sat on the other side.

"Hello Littlefoot," he replied with a smirk, "Ready to go home then?"

"Nah, I could stay up all night!" Littlefoot boasted bounding about like a playful newborn but all of a sudden, he let out a big yawn which disproved his last statement. Grandpa chuckled, and watched as Grandma stood up and headed for the nest.

"Come now little one. I think its bedtime for you."

"Okay…" Littlefoot moaned in defeat wishing he didn't yawn when he did. Grandma had already worked her way through the thicket when Grandpa stood up to start moving and Littlefoot walked beside him. As they began to make their trek home, Littlefoot suddenly remembered Ducky's suggestion to ask his grandfather about his dream he kept having. He had told him once already but he could never recall most of it. Until now, Littlefoot has felt the intensity of the dream taking a greater hold on him as he found himself thinking about it whenever his mind wasn't occupied with something else. Despite this, his Grandpa had only seen it as a bad dream and shrugged it off as nothing. Nevertheless, Littlefoot felt he should try again now that he could pick out more points that stood out to him more. He cleared his throat noisily but failed to get any attention.

"…Grandpa?" Littlefoot began a little nervous.

"Yes Littlefoot?" he acknowledged.

"Um…about my…um…" Littlefoot found it difficult to find the right words to say so his grandfather wouldn't kill the conversation as quickly as he did last time.

"Hmmm…Yes?" Grandpa hummed trying to help Littlefoot feel a little more comfortable with what he was trying to say. Littlefoot tried again.

"About my um… dream…" he said it at last, "it's becoming more and more 'stronger' every night. Every night, I see more and more…" Littlefoot now started to rush his words in excitement but an anxious essence was quivering in his voice at the same time. He wanted to get it all out before his Grandpa had a chance to change the subject again. Grandpa could see that this dream was troubling his grandson but despite reassuring him it was not real, the mentioning of destiny had him a little concerned. He remember how Littlefoot's mother has said in her dreams she was told that her destiny lied within her unborn child and that that child would lead its herd to a great victory. Victory over what she didn't say but that lead to the fatal sharptooth attack during their journey to the Great Valley some years back which cost Littlefoot a price that all the treestars in the world would never measure up to.

"And you say that this all started when you found your new lucky stone?" Grandpa asked in amongst Littlefoot's hurried sentences to explain everything in one breath.

"Well…yes. Ever since I found my lucky stone, this dream has come and keeps telling me all sorts of things to do with… my destiny."

"Where did you find your stone Littlefoot?" Grandpa asked. Littlefoot fidgeted uneasily as if to avoid the question, "Well…?" his grandfather continued awaiting an answer.

"In the…" Littlefoot was trying to delay the inevitable as he had now backed himself into a corner. He had gone somewhere where he knew was strictly out of bounds to children as it was home to some of the less civilised classes of dinosaurs; namely the egg-stealers. A dangerous place for wandering little ones to be easily snatched from the herd. Littlefoot knew he couldn't hold it back any longer as his grandfather was now looking right at him rather sternly and no matter how much he tried to dodged the look, he couldn't evade it.

Finally he said, "The Forest of Fear…"

"The Forest of FEAR?!" Grandpa reared up in deep concern but then realised that he was dealing with a very fragile topic. Still, he felt he had to stress the importance of Littlefoot staying out of such a hazardous place, "Littlefoot, you should know better than to go gallivanting off into that forest! You've heard the stories of how children have often wandered into that bewitched forest and gotten lost for days! Some have never returned! You've heard the stories about little Mighty haven't you?" Of course he had. The tale of little Mighty, a small, over confidant threehorn who entered the Forest of Fear and apparently never returned. His parents left the Great Valley after losing Mighty. Littlefoot bowed his head in shame as he received the lecture he had heard time and time again. Normally he would abide by such strict rules of the Valley, but for some reason, Littlefoot felt he was lured into that forest by something. He went alone but he swore he could sense something almost calling him into the forest that is supposed to be cursed. That's how he found his lucky blue stone just lying in the middle of the a pile of fallen leaves as if it were waiting for him to find it. Grandpa looked down on Littlefoot sorrowfully. He did not mean to raise his voice to Littlefoot, but being a parent he had to make his point clear that the Forest of Fear can instantly kidnap a child as if it were alive. He sighed and lowered his head down to Littlefoot.

"I'm sorry Littlefoot but I can't stress enough just how dangerous that place is. Please, make your old Grandpa happy and promise me you won't go back there."

Littlefoot looked up at his grandfather's kind and wise face which was wearing an expectant smile for a positive answer. He bravely smiled back and then said, "Okay Grandpa. I promise." After making his promise, neither Littlefoot nor his grandfather said anything for the rest of the journey back to their home ground. It wasn't until they were a few metres from home when Littlefoot realised that his Grandpa had managed to wriggle out of the conversation about his dream again without even intentionally doing it. With a sigh, he nestled into his little pit in the ground, spun around twice to pad it down and fell asleep.

Littlefoot's sleep that night was another restless one. He tossed and turned as his brain produced scenes from the endless abyss like last time and the number of near death experiences he had. Like a recording, the dream replayed itself exactly as he saw it the first time but every time he had the dream, something new would happen. At the point where he was swallowed by the black mist, Littlefoot found himself puffing and panting and still fighting with the vines. They had pinned him to the floor and were now crushing him. Littlefoot felt the vines digging into his abdomen where his skeleton offered no protection. Even where his skeleton was guarding his vital organs, Littlefoot could feel them wringing the life force out of him like a wet leaf. Littlefoot saw his vision becoming blurred as his body began to give up. At the point where Littlefoot was about to collapse unconscious, a tunnel opened up out of the black and a blinding white light burned in the darkness. The vines seemed momentarily subdued as their crushing action has stopped for a while. In the glistening doorway as the outline of a creature that held a long, shining pointed object. The silhouette had a strange pulsing, red light radiating from its chest, just about in the right place where its heart would be.

This red light was the last thing Littlefoot felt before the vines begin crushing him again. Littlefoot dropped the sapphire that he had in his mouth as he screamed in pain. He looked despairingly at the shadow for help, but it simply stood in the bright doorway motionless. It was as if the shadow creature didn't care if the vines crushed Littlefoot into dust. Then, the dark vines made a lunge for the Guardian's Tear Sapphire. In a split second reaction, the shadow charged at the vines and swinging its shiny, pointed stick dangerously close to Littlefoot's head, it sliced the vines into fragments quicker than Littlefoot could blink. The vines collapsed around him and disintegrated. Littlefoot lay choking for a brief moment when he looked up at the shadow. Its red light pulsating with smaller intervals as if its heart were beating faster. The shadow then picked up the sapphire at its feet and walked over to Littlefoot. In an outstretched limb, Littlefoot took the sapphire back and then looked at the shadow to try to make out any features. The only thing Littlefoot could pick up on was the pulsating red light which glows were getting larger as Littlefoot tried to approach him. Finally, Littlefoot spoke to it,

"Thank you." The shadow remained silent and this made Littlefoot feel uneasy. He tried again,

"Thank you for…saving my life."

The shadow looked at Littlefoot with its head tilted at a peculiar angle. Then, it reiterated what Littlefoot just said, "Thank you."

Littlefoot didn't know what to say next, "Yeah…Thank you for saving me." After a slight pause, the shadow then said,

"You're welcome!" Littlefoot was astounded. Did the shadow just say what he thought it had just said? Before Littlefoot could say another word, the shadow placed its two fore limbs on its body and then said, "I am the Warrior."

"The warrior?" Littlefoot looked confused, "What's a warrior?" He then glanced down at the shiny stick it had cut the vines with. It was glistening in the light and it was made of a substance Littlefoot had never seen before. It looked like stone but it appeared to be sharp and made a distinct ringing sound when the shadow creature used it to save him. "What is that?" Littlefoot asked nodding at the strange instrument.

"It is my sacred blade. I use it to fight and I fight to protect you," the shadow then added. Littlefoot snapped his head round to look at the shadow.

"You are here to protect…me?"

"Yes! I am the warrior chosen by destiny to fight with you." Littlefoot was now utterly flabbergasted. This warrior creature shows up in Littlefoot's more desperate moment and rescues him and now he says he is a chosen one to fight with him. Perhaps it was true. Maybe this creature was a chosen one like him. Excited he began asking questions about him but the shadow hushed him and pointed to the red light on him. Littlefoot looked closer at it without moving from his position and watched it pulse.

"What is that light, Warrior?" Littlefoot asked. The shadow paused for a moment and simply said,

"Heart."

Littlefoot jerked his head back a little bewildered.

"Heart? You mean that is your heart?" The shadow didn't speak; he simply put his two strange fore limbs on the light and said, "Listen here."

Littlefoot looked at the figure a little taken aback. Still, he edged slowly forward towards the shadow and turned his head sideways to placed his ear on the shadow's light. Littlefoot was amazed to hear the sound of a rhythmic heartbeat emitting from the light. It was strangely warm but it sounded like a normal heart beating as if the shadow were alive. Littlefoot listened closer and thought he then hear a voice within the heartbeat. It seemed to be saying something. Littlefoot then discovered it was talking in time with the shadow's pulsating light and it was whispering a name. After a few attempts, Littlefoot then reiterated what it said,

"Warrior's…Heart…Ruby? Warrior's Heart Ruby? Is that what this is?" Littlefoot lifted his head up to find that his ear was no longer resting on the chest of the shadowy creature but he was now staring at the red pulsing light hovering in front of him. Littlefoot gasped in surprise as it then fell to the floor and the light died. A red stone remained were the light had gone out.

"Hey Warrior!" Littlefoot called out without taking his eyes off the stone, "your light suddenly turned into a…" His sentence was cut short as he looked up to see the shadow walking back into the white doorway from whence it came, "Hey wait!" he called after it but the shadow simply continued walking until a bright flash lit up the room. Littlefoot tried to shield his eyes as the white light filled the room. In a hurry, Littlefoot snatched up the two stones and ran in the general direction of the shadow. He felt himself become consumed by the white light when he suddenly lost his footing. In a panic, Littlefoot plummeted down the brilliant white room and hit what felt like an invisible barrier. Instantly, he snapped his eyes open in a cold sweat.

Out of breath, Littlefoot had realised he had just shocked himself so much that he disturbed his own sleep. Littlefoot reared his head up still desperately trying to recover from the nasty jump he gave himself. He looked around his home but found that it was not even dawn yet. The sun still was nowhere to be seen as he tried to get back to sleep. After a few brief moments of recalling what had just happened, Littlefoot yawned, tucked his head into his chest and fell asleep again.

Chapter 7: Answers to Unsolved Riddles

The journey to the supermarket had always been a joyous occasion for Jason because it was as if he owned the place. He would ride in the shopping trolleys tearing down the aisles and doing exactly as he pleased. Although everything was there for the taking, Jason knew to steer clear of anything that didn't have wrapping on in or wasn't packed in some kind of container. Although the viral outbreak was several years ago, it was still quite possible that it could be living in the flesh of the rotting fruits and vegetables that lay by the entrance. One bite or even a lick of it would probably transfer enough of the virus into you to kill you five times over. Despite this, Jason never touched the fresh food that laid out on display as it was bad anyway and it did nothing but attract flies. The smell was bad enough that Jason couldn't even go near them as they were suffocating to approach. Wandering down each of the aisles, Jason picked out packaged meat and various other goods for him to feast on for probably the next three days. He also took enough sweets and chocolate to be sick but it was all free so why leave them to waste? The next three aisles were inaccessible thanks to the collapsed ceiling that blocked the way. Skipping the next two aisles, Jason turned and raided the beers and wines area, the majority of the bottle were smashed and broken but a few remained untouched on the shelves. Since there were no police or age restrictions, Jason happily helped himself.

Once he finished his little shopping spree, Jason headed down through the checkouts and stopped by one of the tills. He slapped his hand on the counter and said to the imagery person at the checkout, "Put it on my tab. I'll pay next week." With that, he walked off sniggering at himself at his little joke he always made as he exited. Just as Jason turned out of the checkouts, Jason heard a loud thump. He froze and turned around to see what had caused the noise. Nothing moved. He shrugged his shoulders and carried on walking until he heard the noise again, but this time a lot louder. Jason spun around in shock as the sound echoed through the deserted supermarket. Still nothing. He slowly stood upright and was about to turn back to his trolley when a large section of the ceiling crashed to the floor inches from Jason's face. Jason jumped back and tripped at the same time and landed awkwardly on his backside. As the dust settled, Jason looked to see a concrete support pillar from the floor above fall through the ceiling. Startled, Jason suddenly heard more rumbling above him. He leapt to his feet and dashed for the trolley. Almost as a response to Jason's flee, the ceiling began to give way and the entire upper floor started to fall down as the building's integrity began to fail. Hurrying for the exit, Jason raced with his trolley as the ceiling continued to fall after him like a white, tiled wave of water. With one last leap, Jason threw himself and the trolley through the doors just in time to see the entire building crash down and cave in behind him.

Amazed at his lucky escape, Jason stood up and brushed himself off.

"Phew, that was a close call," he said to himself as he picked up the sprawled cans and countless chocolate bars from the cracked pavement that he dived on. With his close shave over, Jason walked back to his hideout to deposit his goods. On the way back, Jason past a number of fallen building and others looked as if they could fall at the next breath of wind. One building stood out in particular which had a symbol of a red bird stretching out of what appeared to be yellow flames. The words "Red Phoenix Laboratories" was fanned out and curved under the symbol. Jason frowned at the sign as short flash backs of that day, seven years ago, flickered in Jason's head. He remembered his vow he made to his mother not to trust anyone from Red Phoenix Labs and never to allow them to take his mother's pendent from him. He held the pendent for a moment as he remembered his sworn promise. Although this calmed the raging thoughts he was thinking, Jason couldn't help but wonder what had become of the mighty Red Phoenix now the world was practically at an end. With that thought in mind, Jason quickly jogged the rest of the way home, packed a rucksack with food, his medical kit and various other things he might find useful including his mother's pocket books on chemicals and medicine and a wooden piccolo he had carved himself out of scrap wood one day whilst bored.

Returning to the entrance of Red Phoenix Labs, Jason stood and stared up at the towering building that looked like it should be condemned and torn down what was left of it. The top ten floors or so laid to Jason's left in massive fragments scattered over the street. Jason swallowed hard and holding the stone in his pendent in his right hand, he slowly stepped towards the building. The glass doors in the front were smashed and the crunching noise of them underfoot was almost piercing Jason's eardrums. Out of the eight possible entrances, six of the doors furthest to the left were blocked by building debris but Jason managed to crawl through the broken window of the seventh door and climbed over the rocks. From his pocket, Jason took out a torch which ran on the solar charged cells he stocked up on before the bomb raids. The foyer area of the building was in shambles. The beautifully decorated gold statue of the same phoenix on the sign outside lay toppled from the fountain where it was based with one wing completely broken off. Jason walked over to the lifts and pressed the button. Then, he slapped his head disgusted with himself. Since the virus outbreak, no electric generators were operating so clearly the building was not being supplied with any power. He glanced to the right of the lifts and saw a staircase. Up to the twenty-second floor Jason had climbed but could go no further as the rest of the upper floors had collapsed onto the staircase making the levels above impossible to reach. He looked to the fire door and barged it open. The rusty hinges creaked deafeningly as the door swung into the next room. This used to be the floor his mother worked on with that doctor he used to know but couldn't remember his name for the life of him.

Jason flicked his torch left and then right to check for any signs of life. He slowly advanced into the darkened corridors that forked left and right alternately as pathways to the many laboratories the building housed. Jason walked down the corridor, his footsteps clapped on the marble floor that laid sprinkled with broken glass as he approached each of the labs' viewing windows. Then, Jason stopped and turned his torch onto the metallic plaque on the wall. It read "Lab No. 2291". Jason knew that this was the laboratory that his mother worked in. He couldn't help but peek into the lab one last time to see what remained. The room was exactly as he remembered it with its work surface stretching all the way around. The expensive equipment that was in the room was all broken and damaged beyond repair. Jason ducked under a low beam that had collapsed from the ceiling above and looked at the workstations that were in the far corner. His mother's workstation was tucked right against the wall. A fallen picture frame of Jason hugging his mother sat next to the destroyed computer monitor on her desk. As Jason picked up the picture and remember that moment when the photo was taken by one of his mother's workmates, a small key dropped from out of the back. Jason put the picture back down and picked up the key. It was his mother's desk drawer key. He slipped the key into the lock and turned it. The drawer slid open on wheels and stopped inches from Jason's waist. Rummaging through the items in there, Jason smiled mischievously at a small packet of multicoloured, pill-like capsules.

"My flash-bang capsules," Jason thought out loud, "so that's where mum hid them." Putting the packet of capsules in a side pocket, Jason suddenly paused and picked up a blue book. He opened the book and began reading the entries. Most of them were about work and new discoveries but a few contained details of some strange references about Jason. Jason began to read some of them out loud.

"January 3rd 2105, Jason and myself have again being called to undergo more of those strange tests up on the thirty-fifth floor. I can't understand why we are constantly asked to do these seemingly pointless tests as they don't prove anything but to be a waste of time. I dare not ask as I fear they will become suspicious and may cost me my job and I'm not prepared to lose my hard-working efforts over something as trivial as a few medical examinations. I couldn't face telling Jason I did something as reckless as that. I think they feel that my close bond to my eldest son has some relationship to the energy frequency reading we managed to obtain purely by accident the other day. Apparently, the life force readings from our exams have proven to be a match with the energy readings required to obtain generate the perpetual energy source me and my colleagues have been researching for the past three years. It also seems to be much stronger in Jason than myself. This may be true but the people higher up are becoming obsessed with our life force patterns that I'm beginning to fear for my son's safety. Perhaps Jason holds the key to unlocking the energy source or something he has laying dormant inside him. Until further notice, we have been told the experiments with the perpetual energy source have been terminated but I sense something may be stirring amongst the higher ranks."

Jason scratched his head. He knew about the perpetual energy source and the ancient manuscripts his mother's archaeologist team found in the Andes but what did all that have to do with him? What could possible lay dormant inside him? Before he had a chance to come up with a logical explanation, Jason heard a loud banging sound from down the corridor. Spinning round be looked through the broken glass viewing window but saw nothing. Feeling a little edgy, Jason put the diary in his bag and decided to head back. Just as he reached the door of his mother's old lab, Jason felt a tremendous rumbling. The floor shook violently as he was thrown off his feet. He scrambled back up and ran for the stairwell door he had entered through. As he approached the door, the tremors got worse as a thundering crashing sound could be heard in front of him. Jason found himself on the floor again as the rumbling strength increased and the crashing sound became louder. A few seconds later, everything stopped and a deathly silence was all that remained. Jason stood up carefully and slowly put his hand on the door handle and opened it. Jason was about to take a step out the door when he froze suddenly. He found his foot dangling over a drop that was at least a twenty-five story plummet to an evitable doom. The building's integrity must have been worse than he first thought as he peered over the edge to see the staircase lying as rubble on the street below. A menacing wind whistled from the height as Jason gulped and pulled his foot away from the edge of the crumbling platform.

"Oh great!" Jason mumbled to himself with his only access point back down to the ground floor stolen from him. "Well. Nowhere else to go but straight ahead."

Passing to the other side of the corridor, Jason came to another stairwell. Excited he ran down the flights of stairs only to skid to a halt on the eighteenth floor as the staircase had collapsed from there down to the bottom. Jason cursed his luck and walked back up. With nowhere else to go, he climbed up before becoming stuck at the thirty-seventh floor. Floor thirty-seven. Something was vaguely familiar about this particular floor but he couldn't remember what. Since the stairs didn't go up anymore, he decided to have a browse around on this floor. Just as Jason approached the door, he stopped at the sound of what appeared to be voices. Before opening the door, he pressed his ear softly against the door and sure enough he heard human voices coming from inside. The door was too thick to understand exactly what was being said so Jason, as lightly as possible, pushed down on the door handle which clicked rather loudly and the heavy creaking of the door's rusted hinges was just as deafening. Opening the door just a crack, Jason peeked into the hall which was carpeted and segmented into cubicles. This was obviously office areas for those who were higher up the hierarchy than the researchers lower down. As silently as he could manage, Jason crept into the hall and tried to follow the sounds of the voices. He slipped round two cubicles and stopped under the third cubicle's window where he thought he could hear the voices. There sounded like there were at least five people in the room as Jason eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Power's still offline. How long till we have enough to power the transporter unit?" one bold voice asked.

"A few more minutes captain, we must be patience. Underestimating the exact amount of energy required will cause an automatic system shutdown," another croaky voice answered.

"The sooner we get this machine operational the better," a shrewd businessman's voice butted in, "we can fix the problems that we underestimated about the project earlier."

"I wouldn't be too hasty sir," a female voice just as strong as the first interrupted, "this prototype hasn't been properly tested, has it?"

"Afraid not my dear but there will be no way of knowing whether our hypothesises have been accurate enough to generate reliable results." Jason began to guess that this croaky old voice must be one of the surviving researchers. On that thought, Jason began to think how these people had survived at all. He was lucky enough, even though it was a complete mystery to him, to have survived once the bomb squad nuked every square inch of London and its surrounding counties and districts. He listened in some more.

"How far now?" a new, younger voice called from the momentary silence.

"Ninety-eight percent complete sergeant. Power restoration in twenty seconds."

"C'mon," one of the people called anxiously, "it's gotta work so we can fix everything that went wrong back then." Jason was counting down the twenty seconds with nods of his head. Whilst he was counting and nodding, he accidentally bumped his head on the wall of the cubicle. The noise was discreet but loud enough to draw attention. There was a shuffle.

"What is it boy?" the younger voice asked something. Jason felt his heart give a horrible lurch as he held his breath as well as wondering who that man was talking to. Jason began to hear a sniffing noise approach him from the other side of the wall. Jason pushed himself closer to the wall as footsteps approached the wall he was up against.

"Zephyr! Here fella…C'mon." A dog barked loudly in response and its footsteps could be heard moving away from the wall. Jason sighed as he slid down off the wall. In a flash, the building's lights flickered on.

"Building's lighting system has been restored and holding," the businessman's voice stated.

"We have power again. Yippee!" the younger man began dancing around.

"Sergeant!" the woman snapped, "don't talk so soon or you'll…" The lights flickered and died before the woman had a chance to finish her sentence. "Jinks it. Great…"

"Arrrggghh! Piece of junk!" the strong voice sounded agitated kicking the machine.

"Dammit!" the businessman joined in the cursing of the machine, "not even long enough to power the bloody lights! Complete waste of time and energy."

"Yeah, energy we don't have!"

"Oh shut it sergeant! It was your big mouth that made it pack in in the first place!"

"Oh, getting picky now lieutenant?" the sergeant taunted.

"Knock it off you two! What went wrong professor?"

"Energy source wasn't strong enough. Maybe if we increase the charge to…" He paused in mid speech as a loud blipping sound echoed in the room.

"What's up?" the woman called.

"The energy sensors have picked up a life reading very close by," he replied picking up a pocket-sized console.

"How close?" asked the captain picking up his rifle.

"It's…" he paused for a moment, "it's directly outside?!" Jason gasped in horror as he realised they were talking about him. He scrambled from his position and bumped the wall as he tried to sneak out sight. Without seeing him, the captain called out,

"Who goes there?" he slapped the side of his rifle loading a bullet into its chamber. Jason hid behind another cubicle further down. The fear of being discovered made his breathing difficult to control.

"Fan out!" the captain barked, "investigate all areas, beta formation! Flush 'im out!"

"Sir!" the other man and woman barked back as they began searching the area. The man with his dog walked away from Jason off to the right but the woman was heading directly for him. Panic flooded Jason's mind as he looked around hopelessly for an exit. He turned and looked at the door he came through. It was his only choice but he had to get the timing right. Too soon and they'd finish him, but too late and they'd capture him and do who-knows-what to him. The woman was closing in on his left and the man with the dog were now heading his way on the right. Jason nervously fumbled with his trainers in desperation when he felt a stone in the sole of his shoe wedged in between the grips. An idea suddenly clicked. Taking the stone, Jason peered round the corner and down the central corridor. He then threw the stone down the corridor so it bounced noisily off the glass of one of the cubicles at the other end. The search team flinched and ran down to the opposite end to investigate. As soon as they got far enough, Jason sprung up from his position and sprinted for the door. The search team reached the other end and looked up to see the back of Jason heading for the stairs.

"Halt or we'll open fire!" the captain shouted. Jason didn't care what they decided as he pulled open the door.

"FIRE!" the captain shouted followed instantaneously by a loud clattering of bullets. Jason slammed the door behind him as bullets ripped through the wood. Jason fell to the ground as splinters flew over his head. All of a sudden, the gunfire stopped and he heard a radio transmission as well as footsteps heading towards him.

"Red Phoenix Squad! We have a possible hostile on the thirty-seventh floor heading down the west wing staircase. Backup is to cut him off from below. Orders are 'shoot to kill'! Repeat. 'shoot to kill'!"

Jason began to take off down the stairs as the people above kicked down the door. Gunfire sprayed over his head as one of them shot from above down onto him. Jason panicked but kept running for freedom. He stopped on the twenty-fifth floor to hear more patrol persons coming up and the search squad from above. They were trying to box him in. He swirled around and kicked open the door and fled down the marble corridor. The squadron burst through the same door seconds later as Jason turned a corner narrowly escaping more bullets that chipped and destroyed the marble slabs that tiled the walls. Without even knowing where he was going, Jason turned into a lab to shake the squadron off his trail but they opened fire on him through the viewing windows of about three labs that separated him from them. As he sprinted through the darken room, Jason heard one of the men shout after the charging squad,

"He's heading for the lab with the doorway! We can head him off!"

The captain nodded, "You four head that way with the professor. The rest come with me."

Jason charged on not daring to look back. He burst through a door into a room that contained a large machine that looked like it had been gathering dust for years. Jason was about to barge through the door in front of him when he heard the loud clapping of some of the squad member coming from the front and the other closing in from behind. Fear paralysed him as he backed against the base of the large machine. He clasped his pendent and began begging that he'd make it out of this mess alive. No sooner had he started, the squadron burst through both doors simultaneously and held their weapons directly at Jason. Jason backed away slowly with his pendent still in his hand.

"FREEZE!" one squad member yelled threatening to pull the trigger. Jason stood still as if they wouldn't notice him.

"It's a kid captain?! Do you think he's infected?" one of the other men called in surprise.

"Hold your positions!" he barked at them. He then turned to Jason whose eyes were wide open with fear. "You there! What are you doing here?" Jason remained silent still holding his pendent. "Answer me, boy!" He then noticed his hand on his pendent. He then shouted at him, "Hands where we can see them!" Jason ignored him but kept his eyes on them at all times. He slowly backed up the ramp that lay at the base of the dusty, old machine. "STAND STILL!" the captain ordered. Jason froze solid. The woman looked sympathetically at Jason and then turned to her captain.

"Captain. Do you really think this type of force is necessary?" she questioned, "he's just a kid and he's scared stiff. He's obviously not infected or he would have done something irrational by now."

"Silence lieutenant! Return to your position!" the captain snarled in disgusted with her attitude. He then turned back to Jason who was now leaning with one hand on a console and his other hand still on his pendent.

"Now," he said slowly, "I'm going to give your to the count of three to get on your knees with your hands on your head." Jason's eyes opened even wider as he suddenly realised his life was now on a knife-edge. He began begging again and his hand on the pendent felt warm.

"One!" Jason begged even harder as the warmth got stronger.

"TWO!" Jason suddenly felt a surge of energy shoot through him from his feet up to his head. He gasped at the shock and felt the surge pass from the hand on his pendent to his other hand that lay on the console.

"THREE!!!" Jason shut his eyes awaiting his death when a large blast of wind came from behind him. A bright, blue, circular light emerged from the machine as the wind knocked the entire squad off their feet. Jason opened his eyes and looked around at the blue light that looked almost like a doorway. He then turned to the squad who lay scattered on the floor. Jason didn't know whether to trust the light as his mother had said never to trust anyone from Red Phoenix Labs but this wasn't exactly a person; it was a machine and a machine that might just save him. As he hesitated, Jason suddenly heard the captain scramble to his feet finally and then yelled, "GET HIM!" Without giving it a second thought, Jason leapt into the blue light as gunfire erupted just mere split seconds after. As he passed through the light, Jason suddenly felt himself falling into the deep blue light that had now consumed him. Squad member tried to dive into the light to follow him but as soon as Jason was out of sight, the bright, blue doorway disappeared as the men dived and landed heavily on top of one another. The old professor stood up, adjusted his glasses and stared in awe at the event that just happened.

"The Chronos Doorway? It works!" he laughed with glee at the successful test run of his strange portal.

"Damn!" the captain punched the wall demoralised at how a simple kid had evaded him and his squad. The female soldier stood and gaped in as much astonishment as the old professor. She then turned to him. "Sir. Where will that portal take that kid?"

"I'm afraid I won't know until I read the computer's log system. Amazing how he managed to activate it without using the main power source. Incredible."

"Do you think he'll make it?"

The businessman snorted as he brushed the dirt off his clothes, "He won't survive. This piece of trash as never been tested and it's still got loads of bugs to work out of it. He's as good as dead." The lieutenant looked at the giant machine and sighed in pity.

"Poor kid. Where ever you may be, may you rest peacefully."

Chapter 8: When Worlds Collide

Early morning dew sparkled on the leaves of every plant as the sun's rays warmed the Great Valley as the morning slowly crept up from behind the hills and mountains. Littlefoot had had another bad night of stirring nightmares so he was up just as the hazy, red sun peeped over the Smoking Mountain as it did every sunrise. He paced up and down wondering what all of these dreams could possibly mean. Of all the dinosaurs in the world, why would something like this only happen to him? It hasn't happened to any of his friends and his grandparents have never complained of any strange nightmares about their destinies. Why him? Who did he upset or what did he do for all this to start? Suddenly it hit him like a falling rock. His lucky stone. The stone he found in the Forest of Fear a few days ago; that's when the nightmares started. Littlefoot then paused for a moment to think since it could have just easily been coincidence that the bad dreams have occurred since he picked up that blue stone. The judgements seemed to contradict themselves as it was on the night of that exact day he found the stone that the dreams began. Littlefoot stood in confusion.

"Are these dreams really meant to proclaiming something?" Littlefoot asked himself, "Or could Grandpa be right and they could be just bad dreams that don't mean anything?" He turned and glanced at his sleeping grandparents. They'd be waking up soon as more and more of the sun appeared over the Smoking Mountain.

"Well…" Littlefoot said finally, "I guess there's only one way to find out what's going on here and that's to go back to the Forest of Fear. I'll be breaking my promise to Grandpa though but I have to find out what this is all about." With that determination in mind, Littlefoot took one last quick glimpse at the position of the sun which was still three-quarters of the way hidden behind the mountains. Without a second glance, Littlefoot took off west to the cursed forest that lay on the far edge of the Great Valley border.

By the time Littlefoot reached the Forest of Fear, the sun was now half way over the mountains. He had to be quick if he didn't want to be caught by anyone because if his grandfather found out he had broken his promise, he would be in worse trouble than before no matter what his excuse. He turned to look at the woodland ahead of him. Despite the light shining throughout the Valley, strangely this forest remained dark and creepy as if the sunlight didn't want to go in. Littlefoot stood on the edge hesitantly as he suddenly remembered the story of Mighty who got lost in there. Littlefoot began to worry about entering; perhaps he was lucky not to have been caught by egg-stealers last time. Maybe this time he won't be as fortunate. Littlefoot then shook his head hard trying to shake all the negative thoughts he had just created out of his mind. He wanted to find out why his dreams have been so disturbing recently and he was determined to find out what answers he could discover from the supposedly bewitched forest. If he found any at all. Against his better judgement, Littlefoot took his first few apprehensive steps into the Forest of Fear with nothing but his burning ambition to find out why the past few nights have been so troublesome.

The forest was so dark, despite the light radiating from outside, that Littlefoot had a little difficulty weaving in and out of the trees without bumping into a few of them. The trees were also positioned very close together so tightly that Littlefoot had to squeeze through the small gaps they provided. The thick canopies of the tall, spindly trees shook as Littlefoot brushed past them. As some of the leaves fell down in front of him, Littlefoot felt his stomach tying itself in knots as hunger started to settle into him. The leaves on the ground were all brown and crunchy underfoot so they didn't seem good enough to eat. Littlefoot looked up and nudged a tree with the side of his head to get some leaves to fall. Small, arrow-headed leaves dropped and flipped over in their descent and Littlefoot tried his best to snap at them and catch a few in his mouth. After clumsily snatching half a mouthful of leaves he began to chew them cautiously. In disgust, he suddenly spat them out again.

"Yuck!" he gagged as the acidic taste of the leaves burned his tongue, "uck…they were horrible!" Obviously, the leaves were specifically adapted for the lack of light the forest received which gave the leaves their nasty taste. After failing to obtain some means of sustenance from the arrow shaped leaves, Littlefoot plodded onwards deeper into the dark, natural maze of the forest.

About an hour had passed when Littlefoot began to become discouraged. He hadn't found anything and he knew the sun would be nearly up. As a matter of fact, Littlefoot did manage to notice that the forest had lit up a tiny bit as rays of sunlight pierced through the thick overhead canopy in thin beams but it was still dark enough to present a problem. It wasn't long before Littlefoot realised that he was lost. He looked around him and saw nothing but thin tree trunks suspended in darkness. Now he was feeling regretful. He should have heeded his grandfather's warning and not returned because now he was lost in an infinite labyrinth of trees whose leaves are not even good enough to lick. He stopped and sighed at the thought of becoming the next Mighty to become swallowed up the Forest of Fear crept into his mind. In his mourning for his own loss, a rustling was audible from behind him. Littlefoot's ears pricked up on the sound making his heart skip a beat. The rustling seemed to be circling him as he stood poised. The noise stopped abruptly and a tense silence lingered in the still air. Littlefoot felt his body lose control as he began to tremble nervously. He turned gradually around at the area where the rustling had stopped. For a brief few seconds, Littlefoot saw nothing and thought that perhaps a small lizard had run through the undergrowth. He was about to start walking again when he heard a fearsome growl from the area behind him where the noise had stopped. In a freaked panic, Littlefoot charged straight into the forest in the hope of losing the creature in his flight without looking back to see what it was. As he took off, a strange, lanky dinosaur jumped out from behind a bush and gave chase. It stood on two legs with well-adapted, streamline body for running unlike Littlefoot's bulky body in direct comparison. Littlefoot heard the dinosaur catching up with him as he tried to dodge in and out of trees to shake it off but the dinosaur's agility was much greater than his as it mirrored his exact movements. Littlefoot rushed through tight spaces in a frantic attempt to get away but his predator was hot on his heels. Once it got close enough, the slim dinosaur tried to pounce on Littlefoot as it leapt up high to land on his back. Littlefoot turned a sharp corner around a tree as the chaser's failed attempt left him in a heap. Littlefoot anxiously ran on into a clearing and hopped over a large tree-stump but then skidded to an abrupt standstill as he found the woodland up ahead far too tightly packed in to squeeze through. In frustration, Littlefoot tried to force his way in between the trees but they threw him back and didn't budge.

Littlefoot crazily searched high and low for a path to escape as he heard the long-limbed dinosaur coming closer all the time. Before he had time to think, the dinosaur jumped into the clearing where Littlefoot was still looking for some means of refuge. Littlefoot heard the dinosaur land a few yards from him as he jumped and whirled around to find himself staring directly at it. The dinosaur licked its thin beak as he raised its arms above its head in a menacing position ready to pounce as it slowly crept up to him. Littlefoot backed up as far as he could hoping for a miracle. The dinosaur hopped onto the tree stump and roared loudly at him as if he wasn't scared enough. Just as the dinosaur was about to spring onto Littlefoot, a bright blue light emerged from behind Littlefoot's back. Littlefoot jumped and turned in shock as the blue light crackled with stray lightning and blew out a strong wind that was hard to fight against. As both Littlefoot and his captor glared at the blue circular light, a black, wailing object suddenly shot from out of the blue light at supersonic speed. It tackled the lanky dinosaur wiping it clean off its feet and landing in a heap in amongst the brown leaves on the forest floor. The predatory dinosaur squealed in pain as it ran off into the darkness.

Littlefoot stood in amazement as the blue light suddenly shrank and disappeared from sight as instantly as it had appeared. Bewildered by the event that just took place, Littlefoot then turned and looked at the object that shot out of the light. It lay painfully, facedown and partially covered in leaves. Littlefoot wandered up to it carefully tried to make out what it was. It had an unusual hump on its back but it lay sprawled out over the ground making distinguishable features difficult to make out. Littlefoot then tapped its side with his nose. To his amazement, the object groaned and shuffled a bit. Littlefoot leapt backwards in surprise; what ever it was, it was alive. The creature rose up onto its knees and gingerly shook what looked like its head but it appeared to be covered in short, black hair. Littlefoot arched backwards to distance himself from the creature as it sat up on its heels.

Chapter 9: A New Breed of Dinosaur?

The creature looked disorientated as its head turned one way and then the other trying to get its bearings. Littlefoot stood paralysed at the sight of the creature as he could have sworn he heard it say something. It groaned and held its head in pain as it slowly turned over on its heels. It stared and blinked at Littlefoot for a split second.

"Wwwwaaaaa!" it yelled leaping backwards landing on its backside in shock.

"Aaaarrrggghhhh!" Littlefoot replied in a scream as he too hopped backwards in utter surprise. More surprised at the fact that the creature talks.

"Where am I?" the creature asked in a daze. Littlefoot didn't answer. The shock had still left him immobilised. The creature looked around trying to take in its surroundings. "What is this place? It's not England that's for sure." It then turned and looked hard at Littlefoot.

"What?! A Brontosaurus?!" it exclaimed in disbelieve as if its eyes weren't functioning properly. It began muttering to itself, "this isn't real! What happened? Jason, pal, you really need to lay off the chocolate bars for a while!" Littlefoot's expression then turned from paralytic with fear to dumbstruck. What was this creature saying? It seems to be talking his language but it was saying things he'd never heard of before.

Jason jumped up from his seat and dusted himself off. He had to find a way out. He looked at Littlefoot who was now back in his fearful state. Jason held out his hand and asked Littlefoot softly,

"Do you know where we are?" Littlefoot just looked at him still stunned. Jason could sense that this dinosaur was afraid of him so he knelt down to talk to him on the same eye level and in the softest tone of voice he could manage, he slowly spoke out to Littlefoot for help.

"Can you help me? I'm lost." Jason stretched out his hand to Littlefoot and tried to make contact with him. Littlefoot felt very nervous at first but something inside was telling him that this strange creature was not a threat to him. Before he could decide on whether to trust the creature or not, Littlefoot felt its hand brush softly on the side of his face. His first instincts were to flinch and run away, but as it stroked his cheek, it felt strangely relaxing and non-offensive. It was the same feeling as when his grandmother rubbed her head gently against him to comfort him when he felt upset about something. It was so soothing that Littlefoot found himself rolling his head in its hand to increase its effectiveness. He smiled and felt a well of trust spring up inside him. This creature was not a threat to him as the head stroking proved. Littlefoot felt the creature pull its hand away as he adjusted his head and looked warmly into its brown eyes. Jason felt that the head rubbing had obviously worked in gaining the dinosaur's trust so he asked him again.

"Do you know a way out of here little guy?"

"Not really. I'm lost too." the dinosaur replied. Jason leapt up to standing with amazement and slowly backed away. He had been expecting a response, but not like that. The dinosaur actually spoke back to him. Littlefoot looked at him puzzled as if he had done something wrong. It was suddenly scared of him now.

"What's wrong?" Littlefoot asked Jason.

"Y-yyy-yyou can talk?!" Jason gasped with his mouth hanging open in disbelieve.

"Yeah, and so can you I take it."

"Bbbb-bbut dinosaurs don't talk!" Jason stammered.

Littlefoot looked confused. "Of course I can talk! Why wouldn't we talk? How would we understand each other if we didn't talk?" Littlefoot could now see that the creature was now the one who was in shock, "What's the matter? Are you scared of me?" Jason found he couldn't answer. He wasn't scared of Littlefoot, he was just speechless that he was having a conversation with an animal other than another human being. He swallowed hard and then said in a trembling voice,

"No, it's not that. It's just that I thought dinosaurs didn't talk."

"Well, we do," Littlefoot reassured him, "are you okay? You look a little sick." Jason had turned a little pale from astonishment but he slowly found his voice and started to talk to him civilly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare. It's just that you startled me that's all."

"Why?"

"I never knew that's dinosaurs could talk."

Littlefoot giggled. "Dinosaurs do talk as you do…" he suddenly paused, "uuurrrmmm….Are you a dinosaur too?"

"Me? A dinosaur?" Jason didn't know what to say. If he told him he was a dinosaur maybe he could gain a little more trust from him. If he said no, maybe he'd run away and leave him. He had to make a choice quickly.

"Yyyeess," he lied, "I am a dinosaur. A new type of dinosaur." Littlefoot stood and stared at Jason dumbfounded.

"You are? You don't look like a longneck or a threehorn. Are you a swimmer of some sort?"

"Uuurrrr…Yeah! That's exactly what I am. I'm a 'swimmer' type dinosaur." Littlefoot looked at him peculiarly. He looked nothing remotely like Ducky. Littlefoot began circling him and sniffed him a bit. He stopped just behind Jason.

"Hey. You don't even have a tail!" Littlefoot announced as he walked back in front of him like a four-legged interrogator, "are you sure you're a dinosaur? You don't look anything like a dinosaur in the least."

Jason paused nervously. "Ah! I take it you saw right through me…" he then finally admitted.

Littlefoot sniggered, "Well…you'd be the strangest looking dinosaur I've ever seen." He smiled and Jason smiled back.

"What's your name? You do have a name don't you?" Jason then asked.

"Yeah. It's Littlefoot," Littlefoot introduced himself, "who and WHAT are you?"

"My name's Jason. I'm a human being." Littlefoot frowned in confusion.

"What's one of those? Is it a new type of dinosaur?"

"No, no. I'm a creature of a race that lives in the future long after the reign of the dinosaurs."

"You're from the future? Like tomorrow? Or the day after?"

"Ah…a little bit further than just a day's difference. It's more like sixty-five million YEARS in the future!"

"WOW! That's amazing!"

"Where are we anyway?"

"This is the Forest of Fear. I was searching for something when I got lost."

"How do we get out?"

Littlefoot dropped his head in shame. "I don't know…"

"It's alright. We can find a way out all we have to do is backtrack the way you came right?"

"But how? I don't know what way I came from."

"Look there," Jason said pointing at the leaves that were about ankle deep, "I can see a trail through the leaves. Don't you dinosaurs ever pick up your feet when you walk?"

Littlefoot gave a blank expression but was pleased at the same time that his new friend had managed to figure a way out.

"C'mon, let's get going," Jason said waving his arm over his head.

The trail wasn't too difficult to follow but the intense darkness of the forest made it hard to make out exactly where the trail was.

"It's pretty dark in here ain't it?" Jason said to Littlefoot.

"Yeah, I can't even see the trail anymore." Sure enough, the forest was so dark that the trail began to disappear from beneath them. Littlefoot sighed.

"What are we going to do now?"

"Don't worry. I gotta torch we can use." Littlefoot looked at Jason with his confused mien again, wondering what it was he was talking about.

"What's a…a torch?" Littlefoot asked as Jason rummaged around in his bag for his torch. He turned to Littlefoot in a slight disgust that he didn't know what a torch was. Then, he promptly remembered that dinosaurs have no technology and popped his grey and black torch out from his bag.

"This is a torch."

Littlefoot eyed it with intrigued curiosity. "What does it do?"

"Watch…" Jason replied as he flicked on the torch and a golden beam of light shot out from the little device. Littlefoot was astounded.

"It's like a tiny Bright Circle!" Littlefoot cried in awe.

"A what now?!" It was Littlefoot's turn to explain what he meant as Jason now looked at him confused.

"The Bright Circle. Don't you know what that is?" Jason looked at him blank.

"The big, bright light in the sky that looks like a circle."

"Oooohhh!" Jason said suddenly catching on, "I get ya! You mean the sun. You guys call it 'the Bright Circle'?"

"Yeah." Jason laughed at the simple yet clever logic in Littlefoot's thinking. Then it dawned on Jason that Littlefoot would not know even half of the things he would know as humans have surpassed dinosaurs in terms of intelligence and complex understand. Still, he couldn't help but laugh at logic that Littlefoot's understanding of the sun had just made him say.

Suddenly, Jason's laughter was cut short by a rustling noise in front of them. Littlefoot backed under Jason's backpack as they both stood still to see what had created the noise. Jason then quickly realised that his torch would be a give away of their location and he clicked it off. They stood in pitch black for a tense moment as their eyes readjusted to the darkness. The rustling noise multiplied and separated into two, and then four. Four separate rustling sound surrounded Jason and Littlefoot as they stood nervously waiting for the creatures to show themselves. A faint squeal noise came from one bush as four slim dinosaurs leapt from their hiding places and stood trapping Jason and Littlefoot in a tight circle. Escape was impossible as Littlefoot noticed the lanky dinosaur that had chased him before.

"Egg-stealers!" Littlefoot whispered to Jason in terror. Jason peered at Littlefoot hiding under his bag as he whispered back,

"Is this where they live?" Littlefoot nodded as he saw the four dinosaurs slowly close in on the two of them.

"What are we going to do Jason?" Littlefoot cried quietly in panic. Jason remained silent but he suddenly leapt forward and shouted,

"Right you creeps! You're not taking us without a fight!" Littlefoot glared at Jason as if he had lost his mind. The slim egg-stealers looked at each other slightly bewildered at the strange creature's little speech but then resumed their slow, menacing approach.

"They're not listening Jason," Littlefoot said nervously as he began to quake with fear thinking his boastful bluff had been called. Just as the egg-stealers were in pouncing range, Jason flicked on his torch and shined it in their eyes. The egg-stealers wriggled and writhed at the attack as their eyes stung from the flash.

"Come on! Now's our chance!" Jason yelled pulling Littlefoot up by his neck. Jason pointed his torch at the ground as he tried as hard as he could to distinguish Littlefoot's path with the rest of the fallen leaves. Littlefoot was right behind him. They then came to a fork where two trails had now formed. One path was Littlefoot's but the other must have been made by something else.

"Which way?!" Jason shouted in a panic. Littlefoot eyed both paths scanning them for clues to which one he had come down.

"That one!" he suddenly cried recognising the brown fungus that was growing at the base of the tree on the right hand side.

"You sure?" Jason double-checked.

"Positive! That fuzzy stuff was on my left when I came through so it would be on our right when we return shouldn't it?" Impressed with Littlefoot's thinking, they both charged down the left path as the thundering footsteps of angry egg-stealers could he heard in the darkness behind them. Littlefoot and Jason sprinted headlong into the forest as a crack of light could be seen through the trees ahead.

"There!" Littlefoot cried, "We're nearly out!"

"But those creepy lizards are still on our tail!" Jason wailed looking back to see their menacing faces appearing out of the darkness. Jason noticed the two behind him but lost sight of the other two. Jason then glanced to his right at the sound of heavy footsteps as he saw one of the other dinosaurs running along side him a few metres away. Similarly, the fourth one was on the opposite side mimicking the other on the other side.

"They're trying to close us in!" Jason cried catching onto their attack plan. The dinosaurs on either side of them began to move in closer as the light at the other end got larger as they approached. With a couple more metres to go, the egg-stealing dinosaurs were in attacking range as they chased Littlefoot and Jason to the edge of the forest. They all pounced at the same time; two from behind, one from the left and one from the right. Jason looked up as one was about to land on him. The end of the forest was just in front of them.

"JUMP!" Jason screamed as he and Littlefoot made one last dive for the light. They tore through the trees and rolled uncontrollable on the ground as the four egg-stealers all caught each other in mid air and slammed into the base of the last thick tree on the forest's border.

Jason and Littlefoot groaned in pain and gently found their feet as they looked back into the forest to see their predators limping back scowling at each other. They both breathed a sigh of relief as Jason looked around at the green, flourishing, fertile land that stood before him. Littlefoot saw the amazed look on Jason's face and smiled proudly.

"Whoa!" Jason gaped with his eyes almost bugging out his head, "this place is incredible!"

"Yeah, I know," Littlefoot agreed shyly.

"What is this place?"

"This is my home. The Great Valley." Jason stood in awe at the beautiful landscape. He had never seen such greenery in his life. His grandmother had a little place in the country with a small meadow but that was as green as he had seen but never like this. Life in the year 2113 was practically a bigger concrete jungle than ever so plant life was a rarity but here it all grew naturally and without restriction and tampering. The sight was so overwhelming that he almost passed out from giddiness.

"I can't believe this place! It's so beautiful. I've never seen anything like this before." Littlefoot's proud smile remained firmly fixed on his face as he was so pleased Jason admired his homeland so much. As his pride swelled up more and more, Littlefoot then heard a familiar voice calling his name. Jason heard it too.

"Is someone calling you Littlefoot?"

"Yeah. That's my Grandpa. He's probably been looking for me all morning. I'd better go see him to let him know I'm alright." Littlefoot was about to take off when Jason stopped him in mid pace.

"Errm…What about me?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Well… you could just stay here while I talk to Grandpa for a second."

Jason began to feel nervous and out of place.

"But what if someone sees me?" Littlefoot paused and thought. He could tell Jason wasn't feeling too comfortable about being by himself but he was also thinking about what his grandpa would say if he saw Jason. He had no other choice.

"I guess you'll have to come with me then." Jason looked at him a little stunned.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?"

"Yeah…It shouldn't be a problem. Come on." Littlefoot then ran down the hill which the Forest of Fear sat on. Jason called after him and ran down the hill almost tripping over his own feet in his scramble.

Chapter 10: Meet the 'Four-Legged' Parents

A five-minute run down through the meadows led Littlefoot and Jason past late sleeping herds and down to a small clearing bordered by trees. Jason could see two adult dinosaurs ahead and automatically thought these were his family due their uncanny resemblance to his newfound friend. Littlefoot stopped on the edge of the clearing and Jason bumped into him failing to respond to his sudden halt. Littlefoot turned to Jason and whispered to him,

"You stay here… I'll be back in a minute…"

"Okay," Jason whispered back as Littlefoot ran on into the clearing. Jason perched himself behind a bush bearing some strange berries that looked remarkably like blueberries. Jason they turned his attention to Littlefoot as he spoke to the male dinosaur. The female dinosaur had wandered out of sight.

"Hiya Grandpa!" Littlefoot chirped trying to hide any signs of mischief in his speech.

"Good morning Littlefoot. Where did you go so early?" Littlefoot jerked awkwardly as his grandfather had just asked the one question he was hoping he wouldn't.

"I…I just went over to the watering hole for a quick drink that's all."

His grandfather looked puzzled. "But how long does it take to get a drink? Your sleeping spot was cold when I woke up this morning." Littlefoot realized that his grandfather was slowly trapping him into telling the truth but strangely he was managing to do it without meaning to. Littlefoot stammered as he rushed his mind to think of another plausible excuse for his absence so early because normally when he gets up, his sleeping place remained warm for the best part of the morning. His grandfather was starting to become suspicious as he found Littlefoot could not look directly at him.

"Littlefoot?" he asked coaxingly but sternly at the same time, "Where did you go this morning because I'm certain it wasn't the watering hole." Littlefoot knew he was cornered now and that hiding anymore would put him in deeper trouble. Even so, he didn't want to admit that he had re-entered the Forest of Fear and broken his promise but his grandfather's stern look was too penetrating to evade.

"Did you go back to that forest that I told you not to?" his grandfather picked up from his inability to look him in the eye and tell him. Littlefoot couldn't say anything but lower his head and nod.

"Littlefoot. How many times must I tell you to stay away from that wretched place?! It is dangerous and you could be hurt in there!"

"But I had to. I wanted to find out what my dreams are about so I wanted to go to the place were I found my stone."

"That's not the point Littlefoot. You promised me you wouldn't return to that forest and you went back on your word!" Now Littlefoot was beginning to feel guilty. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have gone back to the Forest of Fear but he couldn't fight the urge that had driven him to find out answers that he thought would dwelled within the forest. Littlefoot felt defeated as he awaited his scolding but his grandfather just sighed.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with you. I want you to remain safe at any cost but I also want you to realise that I do care for you even when you think I'm being unfair. I understand that your dreams have been troubling you Littlefoot but you must realise the dangers that are present." His grandfather's expression then turned from stern to intrigued.

"Just how did you manage to escape from there Littlefoot?"

Littlefoot looked up at him. Now he had to decide whether he should mention about Jason's rescue or whether to simply say he didn't know. Before he could answer, his grandfather promptly added, "and don't lie to me this time!"

Littlefoot gulped as that last statement hit his conscience so hard he could never have the heart to lie to his grandfather now otherwise he'd feel so lower than dirt and dishonest.

"I…" he began.

"Yes? Carry on…" his grandfather insisted.

"I had a little help from a friend…" His grandfather suddenly jumped to an immediate conclusion.

"You didn't take one of your friends into that forest as well did you?!"

"NO, no! Nothing like that Grandpa!" Littlefoot reassured him, "I…met someone in there…"

"You met someone in the Forest of Fear? Who?" Littlefoot was now feeling a little sickly. He had now roped Jason into the problem without thinking and how was he going to explain that Jason was not a dinosaur? His grandfather would never believe him. Nevertheless, he had to tell him.

"His name is…" he suddenly stopped and looked over at the bush were Jason was hiding. With a guilty conscience already, he decided that showing his grandfather Jason would be much better than telling him. He turned back to his grandfather.

"Would you excuse me for a second Grandpa? I need to get something…"

"Alright… but be quick." Littlefoot ran over to the spot were Jason lay in hiding. He nudged the bush to bring Jason out. He then led a very apprehensive Jason over to his grandfather. His grandfather was flabbergasted at the strange two-legged creature, with a great lump on its back his grandson was leading over to him. Stopping at his feet, Littlefoot then said to him,

"Grandpa. This is Jason…" Jason felt really nervous but he wanted to make a good impression.

"Hello sir," Jason said in a quivering voice and bowing in respect to Littlefoot's grandfather but also fearing that he would crush him into the ground with his mighty foot.

"Hello there," he replied once his voice had returned, "you must be Littlefoot's new friend."

"Yes. I met Littlefoot in that strange forest."

"He rescued me from a pack of egg-stealers Grandpa!" Littlefoot butted in hoping that that would boost Jason's credentials a little. Then he felt worried that mentioning the egg-stealers and wondered if it was the right thing to say.

"You saved Littlefoot?" Jason looked at Littlefoot for a clue on what to say next but he answered for him.

"Jason appeared and helped me escape the forest and those egg-stealers when they chased us." Littlefoot's grandfather signalled for Littlefoot to remain silence by merely raising his eyebrows. Littlefoot stopped with half the sentences he wanted to say stuck in his throat.

"Well…" he said finally, "who ever you are, I thank you for helping my grandson escape that horrible forest."

Jason looked stunned. "Erm…You're welcome."

"But please tell me a few things?" Jason now felt uneasy from the gaze and the last question Littlefoot's grandfather had just asked, "I don't wish to be rude but…what, exactly are you? And where did you come from?"

"I'm a creature that lives sixty-five million years in the future. I'm no dinosaur or a weird type of dinosaur either," Jason replied rather bluntly but sniggered at his little joke.

"Then what are you?" Littlefoot's grandfather asked still a bit confused.

"I'm a human. My race, uh or 'herd' if you will, exist millions of years after the reign of the dinosaurs." As Jason began explaining all he could about his kind, Littlefoot prayed silently that his grandfather would believe everything Jason was saying. He had a strange feeling of trust and loyalty in Jason for some reason having only known him for a few hours. He also listened to how Jason's kind were very intelligent and changed their way of life from that of the natural life that Littlefoot and the dinosaurs had. It was a very difficult concept to grasp but at the end of it all, Littlefoot had learned a great deal about Jason and his lifestyle and found it amazing that his kind exists so far in the future. There were a few other things that Littlefoot didn't quite understand but he felt he could ask these questions at a later stage.

About half an hour had passed before Jason finished explaining about the human race and his lifestyle in his time of the year 2113. Littlefoot and his grandfather were greatly intrigued by how Jason's kind had come about after the ruling of their own. Even Littlefoot's grandmother was first shocked at Jason's presence but was then enlightened by the stories he had to tell. Jason did not mention anything about how scientists believed that the dinosaurs died out as he felt it was not his place to tell about their fateful demise a few million years ahead from now; whatever the time period may have been at that moment.

"Well…" Littlefoot's grandfather said after a lengthy chat on the passage of time between the dinosaurs' and Jason's time, "that was quite a tale. I cannot believe that we are currently standing in front of a creature that will rule the world long after us. Simply amazing." Jason shrugged shyly and would have blushed if it weren't for his tanned skin tone making the red colour indistinguishable. Jason had also learned a little about how herbivorous dinosaurs lived in harmony together in their homeland.

"Your Great Valley is absolutely stunning!" Jason stated as he surveyed the area, "its all so incredibly beautiful and peaceful."

Just as Jason had finished his sentence, both he and Littlefoot heard someone calling Littlefoot's name from a distance.

"Who's that calling you Littlefoot?" Jason asked expecting him to mention another relative. Littlefoot pushed his head high into the air to get a better listen. The sound travelled on the wind's breath as he instantly recognised it on hearing it a second time.

"That's Cera and the others. They must be looking for me. I should have met up with them ages ago." He then turned to his grandfather.

"Grandpa? Can me and Jason go play?"

"Certainly Littlefoot. Take care of Jason won't you?"

"I will. C'mon Jason, let's go!" Jason looked a bit apprehensive.

"Are you sure? I mean, I don't know if your friends will like me."

"Don't worry they will!" Littlefoot boasted without a care, "Cera may turn her nose up at you at first but she did that with all of us when she first met us."

"Okay…" Jason slurred still a little unsure, "if you say so then I'll go."

"Alright, let's go!" Littlefoot yelled as he leaped and bounded towards his friends' voices and Jason hurried after him.

Chapter 11: The Great Valley Gang's New Recruit

Littlefoot found his friends in a shady spot of the Tall Trees region of the Great Valley. This area was laid thick with towering trees that seemed to touch the sky and thick trunks that no axe could cut through using man-power. Spike and Cera were chasing each other round in a circle separated by a rock. They were going around so fast it was difficult to tell who was supposed to be catching whom. Ducky was sat on the rock between Cera and Spike and Petrie was sat on a low branch of a young tree, both of which were laughing so hard their stomachs ached. Littlefoot stopped on the edge of the spot where they were playing and waited for Jason to catch up. They both peered through the trees and Jason then turned to Littlefoot somewhat perplexed. He was at least expecting them to all be a similar breed of dinosaur to Littlefoot but what he saw were four completely randomly selected dinosaur children playing together. Littlefoot caught the bewildered look on Jason's face.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"No, no. It's just that I never expected your friends to be completely different breeds of dinosaur. I would have thought that you would be hanging around with dinosaurs a little more…similar?" Littlefoot looked at Jason a little offended but understood what he meant. Before any of them arrived in the Great Valley, they all thought the same way. Like dinosaurs travelled with like dinosaurs with no exceptions but Littlefoot remembered how each of them had helped each other to survive the hardships of what they now call the 'Mysterious Beyond' and the world outside of the Great Valley.

"I know it seems a little weird but I can assure you these are my best friends!" Jason looked at Littlefoot still a bit worried about mingling amongst dinosaurs. He could never even make friends with humans in school let alone with dinosaurs. He sighed deeply and nodded at Littlefoot agreeing to meet up with his friends. He felt nervous but Littlefoot had trusted him before so Jason felt it was his turn to return the favour.

Littlefoot jumped into the play scene and Jason cautiously followed.

"Hey guys!" Littlefoot chirped happily as he always did.

"Hi Littlefoot!" they all replied in unison except Spike who answered with his usual sighing sound as a greeting.

"Where did you go this morning?" Cera leapt in with the first question.

"Promise not to tell anyone?" Littlefoot whispered as a guarantee that she wouldn't spread the word.

"Yeah okay," Cera nodded eager to listen to his secret.

"Remember where I said I got my lucky, blue stone?"

"The Forest of Fear was it not?" Ducky responded now standing up.

"Yeah. I went back there early this morning to see if I could find anything."

"And…did you?" Cera asked in anticipation.

"Well…yes and no."

"Yes and no? What that mean?" Petrie asked baffled as he flew down from his perch to where Ducky was sat.

"Well, I didn't find anything about my dreams or the stone but…" Littlefoot then turned to see were Jason was, ready to introduce him. He wasn't behind him; in fact he had disappeared completely. Littlefoot was stunned. He walked around in a small circle trying to see if he had come from a different direction.

"Where did he go?" Littlefoot asked out loud to himself.

"Where did who go?" Cera was now swishing her head from side to side trying to find what Littlefoot was looking for, not knowing what "IT" was. Littlefoot started to think that Jason had gotten so nervous that he ran away. Just then, the group heard Spike yelp and leap rather clumsily over the boulder that Ducky and Petrie were sitting on. He tripped and rolled into Cera who crashed into a tree rattling it violently. In the panic, Petrie took off without knowing what had happened to hide up in the tree and Ducky screamed and ran to hide under Spike who was standing on his head on top of Cera. Once the four of them re-composed themselves, Cera yelled,

"What was that about Spike?" Spike stood shivering with his front feet over his eyes. They all turned to look where Spike had fled from to find something sticking out of the bush Spike obviously had been eating from. The group gasped as the bush rattled and shook as whatever it was tried to free itself. Suddenly, the thing moved and popped out from the shrub and waddled awkwardly as it tried to regain its balance. It then stood upright and turned to them with bits of shrubbery sticking out of its head.

"Jason!" Littlefoot exclaimed. Jason smiled uneasily having failed to befriend everyone in his first meeting and by the expressions on their faces, he had frightened them half to death. Littlefoot stood up proudly and announced,

"Everyone, this is Jason." Jason sniggered through his uneasy smile and raised his right hand and said with a nervous laugh,

"Err…hi?" The group was dumbstruck. They were looking at some bizarre creature that they had never seen that looked even more weird than that 'belly-dragger' and 'sharp-beak' in the Land of Mists when they travelled there with another friend, Ali, on one of their many adventures. Most astonishing of all was that it could talk. No one knew what to say and the silence was making Jason more and more nervous. His entry obviously was not a friendly one despite how friendly he meant for it to be. Littlefoot felt he had better step in to ease Jason's nerves.

"Guys! This is Jason. He's a…" Before Littlefoot could finish, Cera had made up her mind about Jason already and charged at him shouting,

"SHARPTOOTH!"

"WHAT?!" Jason yelled as he saw Cera rampaging towards him.

"Cera, NO!" Littlefoot pleaded, "he's not a…" It was too late. Cera was already close enough to ram into Jason. Littlefoot shut his eyes tight as he pictured Cera smashing Jason over and killing him instantly. Suddenly, Cera let out a scream. It sounded like a response to pain. There was also a heavy shuffling noise. Littlefoot opened his eyes again to find Cera knelt down in front of a wavering tree. Jason had leap-frogged her and passed over her as she hit the tree in her skid. Now Cera felt the rage of a threehorn surge through her. That creature had now made a fool of her in front of her friends and it was not going to get away with it. She pawed the ground and grunted as she prepared for another attack. She ignored Littlefoot's cries to stop and charged at Jason again. Petrie, Ducky and Spike could do nothing but watch in wonder at the amazing agility of the creature as it leapt around the area managing to lose Cera and throw her off. Cera showed no remorse as she gave chase. Jason ran round the rock in the centre of the clearing just inches from Cera's nose horn which flicked just behind him. Cera managed to run Jason into a corner where he stood with his back against a number of large trees with no way through. Cera's eyes burned with anger as she scratched the ground again ready to launch herself at him. Littlefoot and the others appeared around the corner as Cera leapt forward growling. Jason looked around desperately for an escape route as Cera closed in. He looked up and saw an overhanging branch. Just as Cera got close enough, Jason jumped up and caught the thin branch. Pulling his legs up, Cera could do nothing but fly into the tree and crash her head into it. Jason swung on the branch and landed awkwardly a few feet from Cera.

"Jason! LOOK OUT!" Littlefoot suddenly screamed.

Unaware, Jason suddenly whipped round to see Cera had quickly recovered and was charging at him again. Before Jason could respond to the attack, Cera's horn caught Jason in the side. The force behind Cera's attack knocked Jason flailing as he crashed to the ground and lay in a heap. Littlefoot gasped in horror but Cera was not finished. She continued her attack and hit Jason again picking him up from the floor. Jason flinched horribly in pain as he felt his body being tossed into the air. He flew for quite a while before crashing sideways into the trunk of a thick tree. After collapsing from rebounding off the tree, Jason tried to push himself from the ground but he was too weak. His arms buckled from under him and he lay unconscious on the ground. Cera snorted triumphantly and held her head up high.

"That'll teach that dumb sharptooth to mess with me!" Littlefoot was horrified to see Jason's body lying lifeless under the tree as leaves fell on him softly from the tremendous impact. He ran over to him to check if he was all right. Cera was confused why Littlefoot was so upset that she mangled the sharptooth so badly. She felt quite proud that she took on that sharptooth all by herself and beat him so harshly. Littlefoot scanned Jason over of some kind of lifeline hoping that Cera hadn't beaten him up too severely. He walked around to Jason's face and nudged his neck with his nose. Jason twitched a bit and shuffled as his consciousness returned gradually. Littlefoot beamed as Jason rose up to his heels and then sat down groaning in pain clutching the right side of his ribcage. The others looked at each other stunned at Littlefoot's behaviour as they watched him help the strange sharptooth to its feet and even propped him up to help it walk.

"Are you okay Jason?" Littlefoot asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, I'm just a little bruised up that's all," Jason smiled and looked at Littlefoot with one eye.

"I'm so sorry Cera attacked you like that. She's can be a bit…"

"Unpredictable," Jason said finishing Littlefoot's sentence.

"I was going to say stubborn but your word's a lot better." They smiled at each other as they slowly approached the rest of the gang.

Once Littlefoot helped Jason hobble to a spot were he could sit down, Littlefoot turned angrily to Cera.

"Why did you do that?! That was so out of order and unnecessary!"

"I thought he was a sharptooth! It did scare Spike didn't it!"

"Stop calling him 'it'! He's not a sharptooth! His name is…" Littlefoot was about to call Jason's name when Jason stood up and did it for him.

"Jason." All eyes turned and looked at the injured boy as he stood awkwardly clutching his right side just under his arm.

"My name is Jason. Nice to meet you all." The group was silence again. Despite his polite and more direct introduction, no one could greet him back. Littlefoot felt betrayed by his friends. They are not usually this defensive when someone new came to greet them. Jason could sense that he was not gaining any trust from them so he sighed finally and said,

"Well, it was nice seeing you all but I think I should take my leave…" With that, Jason turned and began to walk out of the woodland. Despite a heartfelt attempt to befriend Littlefoot's fellow companions, Jason felt that he would never be able to get them to have faith in him. As Jason reached the edge of the wood, he felt something wet his dangling hand. He turned around to find that the stegosaurus he had scared in the first place was licking his hand. It sighed and rubbed its head against him. Jason was amazed and quickly looked back at Littlefoot who was smiling. Littlefoot ran up to Jason and introduced the first of his friends.

"Jason, this is Spike."

"Hello Spike," Jason replied stroking his head gingerly with his unharmed left hand. Spike then leapt up and placed his feet on Jason's shoulders to lick his face. Jason stumbled and laughed as Spike's tongue slimily passed over him.

"Playful aren't you?" Jason suggested as Spike bobbed his head up and down in verification. He looked at Littlefoot, "doesn't he talk?"

"Nah. He's never been able to talk."

"He has said my name before, he has."

"Oh, and who are you?" Jason asked turning to a new face.

"I am Ducky. That is who I am yep, yep, yep!" Jason laughed and then noticed her hop onto Spike's back,

"You two seem pretty close."

"Oh yes! Spike is my little brother. We found him all alone but he came with us, he did! He is not a swimmer like me, oh no. But he is still a very good little brother."

"Well, I'm very glad to meet you Ducky and you too Spike!" As Jason finished his speech, Petrie flew in for his turn.

"Hi Jason. Me Petrie. Me flyer!" he croaked spreading his wings out to Jason to get a closer look. Jason gave an impressed nod so not to let Petrie's spirit become suppressed. He also couldn't help but notice Petrie's constant breaks in his sentence construction which gave him a distinct voice and method of expression but he still preferred Ducky's 'yep, yep, yep' and constant use of proper English without the use of slang or colloquial shortcuts. Finally, Jason turned to Cera who remained sulking at the back of the group.

"So who's the raging steam train!" Jason asked pointing at Cera with a headshake forgetting that none of them would know what a stream train is. Littlefoot answered his query seeing that Cera was not going to volunteer herself.

"That's Cera. She's a threehorn so she can be a bit moody now and again."

"I heard that!" Cera bellowed from the other side of the clearing as she slowly wandered into the crowd. Jason smiled happily to have finally been accepted into Littlefoot's little gang. He thanked them all and took a step back to view them all.

"Wow! Get a load of you guys! A brontosaurus, a triceratops, a saurolophus, a pteranodon and a stegosaurus all together. What a mix! You all look made for each other despite your great differences in appearance." The group all looked at each other perplexed. They were sure Jason had just complimented them all but the names he used sounded completely alien to them. Jason picked up on the peculiar looks he had just got and began to think that maybe he had offended them. Littlefoot then spoke out.

"Erm…what did you call us?" Jason then realised his mistake. He never thought that explaining everything a human would understand to a dinosaur would be so hard but he had to remember that they would not understand everything he would say even if it seemed so natural to him. Jason then pointed to them one at a time saying their scientific names to each of them.

"Brontosaurus…Triceratops…Saurolophus…Stegosaurus…Pteranodon. That's what my kind call you all. Those are your scientific names."

"Really?" Littlefoot exclaimed in amazement at his scientific name, "we all have different names for our type of dinosaur?"

"Of course." The group began to chatter with excitement. Jason then added, "So what do you all call your types normally then?"

"I'm a longneck, Cera's a threehorn…"

"Me a flyer!" said Petrie as he took off in the air.

"I am a swimmer and Spike is a spiketail!"

"Oh! I see," Jason giggled at their clever logic, "well, that makes sense."

"So just what exactly are you?" asked Cera as if she were interviewing him.

"I'm a human being. My kind exist millions of years after the reign of the dinosaurs."

"He's from the future!" Littlefoot added as the others 'wooed' in astonishment.

"You really from the future Jason?" Jason nodded as Petrie gasped in even more amazement.

"How did you get here?" Ducky asked a new question.

"I'm not entirely sure but I think it had something to do with a blue time-door I must have passed through from my time period and ended up in yours." Jason replied to the best of his knowledge and soon found himself explaining about how he was chased by men with weapons and how he stumbled into the time door from his time. Their expressions twisted in confusion and wonder, as Jason then had to explain about the world of the humans and how they did not rely on claws or teeth for defence. Instead, using their intelligence and ability to construct complex tools and items, humans defend themselves using weapons they created. The explanation was lengthy but the gang seems to catch on.

For the rest of the afternoon, Jason spent his time answering questions about the human race and life in the future. It was like a fantasy story becoming real to the young dinosaurs as this mysterious creature told them all about his life and how humans lived sixty-five million years in the future. As evening drew close, the loud rumbling of stomachs embarrassingly broke the conversation as Jason and his new friends went off in search of food. Once Littlefoot and the others had stopped to pull leaves of the trees to eat, Jason slipped his bag off and began rummaging for the supplies he had packed. Littlefoot looked curiously at what Jason was eating. He was chewing on a brown, sticky substance wrapped in a crackling sheath.

"What's that stuff you're eating?" Littlefoot asked almost disgusted as he swallowed a mouthful of leaves.

"This is man-made food. It's called chocolate. Humans make it and sell it to…" he then stopped realising that dinosaurs would not understand the concept of money and buying things. He just nodded and held his chocolate bar up to Littlefoot from his seat on the rock Ducky and Petrie had been on before. Littlefoot sniffed it cautiously as the sweet smell flowed up his nostrils but also confused his brain as he had never smelled such a scent before.

"Go ahead. You can have it. I have plenty more," Jason encouraged as he peeled more of the wrapping back. Littlefoot licked the brown substance warily. Its sweet, sticky texture spread onto his tongue and tingled strangely. Extraordinarily enough, Littlefoot found the taste extremely satisfying as well as intriguing. Jason pushed the bar closer to Littlefoot's mouth persuading him to take a bigger sample. Littlefoot placed his teeth gingerly on the bar and snapped a small chunk off. He chewed it and found it clinging to every surface of his mouth. He washed the inside of his mouth with his tongue and swallowed. Littlefoot was delighted with the taste and was happy to take the rest of the bar from Jason's hand.

"Do you like it?" Jason asked despite knowing the answer to his own question. Littlefoot hummed happily as he devoured the rest of the chocolate bar and the wrapper too. Jason had to leap forward and pull the wrapper out of Littlefoot's mouth before he swallowed it and choked.

Jason laughed, "You're not supposed to eat the wrapper as well!"

"Why not?" Littlefoot asked as he licked his lips to remove the melted chocolate from around them and the end of his nose.

"This stuff is not edible. It's there to protect the chocolate bar inside so it doesn't get damaged. I take it you enjoyed it though." Littlefoot nodded gleefully.

"Well. I suppose I could let you have one more but you can't have too many or they'll make you sick." Littlefoot nodded paying only partial attention to Jason's warning. Jason took another chocolate bar from his bag and peeled the wrapper off completely so Littlefoot didn't swallow it again. He gave the bar to Littlefoot who then put it back on his lap.

"Do you think you could share it out amongst me and my friends?"

"Sure," Jason agreed highly impressed with Littlefoot's kindness and unselfishness. He broke the bar into five similarly sized blocks and Littlefoot called his friends over to try it. It was an instant success. All five dinosaurs thoroughly enjoyed their little trial of human chocolate and even asked for more. Jason wanted to refuse but he was still desperate to make a good impression so he gave them all another one each.

As the evening sky gradually grew darker and the sun slowly disappeared behind the mountainous region behind the Great Valley, Littlefoot, Jason, Cera, Petrie, Ducky and Spike played in the nearby fields and also learned more about Jason's lifestyle as a human. Jason also learned a few terminologies used by dinosaurs to describe what was around them. Jason quickly learned about the Bright Circle being the sun, the Great Night Circle was the moon, the Great Wall that protects the Valley from carnivorous dinosaurs, which were called sharpteeth, and were feared by all leaf-eaters. These facts then led Littlefoot and his friends to talk about some of their past adventures such as meeting Chomper the friendly sharptooth, Ali the migrating longneck and Doc the legendary lone dinosaur. Night quickly crept up on the six of them as they got so involved in telling each other stories of their adventures and close shaves with potential deaths. As the gang were getting more and more excited, they all groaned on hearing their folks calling them one by one to get ready for bed. The group slowly dispersed as Littlefoot and Jason found themselves alone in the darkened field. Littlefoot then heard his grandfather calling his name from a distance. He was about to leave when he turned to Jason who sat quietly by himself in the field. Jason smiled at Littlefoot sweetly and simply said,

"Goodnight Littlefoot. Sleep well."

Littlefoot felt something twitch inside. He couldn't leave Jason alone in the field, it wouldn't be fair. He looked sorrowfully at Jason so sat in the grass gazing up at the stars in the night sky that twinkled like rare crystals on a rich, deep blue blanket. Littlefoot felt he should take him home with him but he didn't know if his grandparents would want Jason sleeping with them. Littlefoot heard his grandfather call him again. He had no choice but to leave Jason where he was. He smiled at Jason and headed for home.

Jason laid down on his back still staring up at the stars. What an incredible day. Jason had never had so much happen to him in just a day. His new found friends had really been impressed with him and they had even left an impression on him; literally in the case of Cera. His ribs ached as he put pressure on them as he remembered how Cera had barged him and tossed him like a limp rag doll into that sturdy tree. A few minutes had passed before Jason heard the sound of soft footsteps heading towards him. He sat up and looked across the field to see the shadow of a small quadruped coming his way. Its feet drummed on the ground as it ran which sounded distinctly familiar to Jason for some reason. As the quadruped came into view, Jason's face lit up to find that it was Littlefoot.

"C'mon. This way," Littlefoot pointed with his head to where he had just ran from.

Littlefoot and Jason walked back across through the wavering grass of the field together as the night began to buzz with nocturnal life.

"Why did you come back for me?" Jason asked.

"I couldn't leave you out in that field. You'll be all alone and that's unfair." Jason smiled warmly at Littlefoot's kind offer. His generosity was incomparable to any other person Jason had ever met besides his own mother. As they slowly wandered back to Littlefoot's home ground, Jason found Littlefoot's grandfather waiting for them. Jason could not thank him enough for allowing him to stay with them for the night. Littlefoot yawned robbing the air in front of Jason of oxygen which made him yawn too. Littlefoot crawled and circled his little sleeping spot and tucked himself in. He looked up at Jason who had decided to sleep in a small, sturdy tree that seemed to be petrified as it did not bear any leaves or buds. Its branches forked out from the centre and made a cosy, natural enclosure for Jason to rest in. Littlefoot looked up as his grandfather bent down to wish him a good night's sleep. Brushing their heads together, Littlefoot wished the same to his grandfather. Once he had settled down, Littlefoot then turned back to Jason to wish him a good night. Jason stretched over his tree that stood overhanging Littlefoot's little pit and wished him a similarly peaceful night's rest before they both tucked their heads into their bodies and fell fast asleep.