Category: Land Before Time

Rating: T

Couples: canon ones of the adults

Warnings: AU

Chapter: 5

Copyright: Characters & places © By Appropriate Copyright-holder, Plot & OC´s © by me

Author's Note: this is a sequel to Future before Time

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"Well, I am not looking forward to that." Grandma took a deep breath. "Please tell me they are aware of how poorly it reflects on them to already ask for our return for things..."

"The President certainly does." To the eternal worry of her guards, Mary had settled on the back of the resting Longneck. The group had arrived in the Valley quickly so they had immediately gone to business. "But he is being outvoted by the others. To his eternal frustration… Don't tell anyone I said that."

"Do we all have to go?" Pterano was sitting on Tria, looking up at the human. "Some of us can't afford to leave already again..." The adults were pretty certain he was referring to the two Threehorns, but he gestured to Grandma Longneck for the sake of any children that might sneakily be listening in and who were currently still unaware of exactly how bad the situation in the Threehorn-family was. "Forgive me for assuming, but Grandpa Longneck does not look anywhere fully recovered yet. Will he be able to handle his wife leaving again already?"

"Oh, I am sure we can arrange something." Mary looked down. "Besides, if you say you'll come at some point, it doesn't need to be like… right now."

"This is really something we need to talk to our spouses about." Hadria softly said, looking to where the children were with said spouses. It had taken the females all of five seconds to tell how tense the present guests were making their husbands, so they had compromised by ensuring that at least the children were not 'under threat'. "Mary, we disappeared for changes of the Night Circle… they had had us back for mere days. Short of – no offence, Pterano – Pterano because he is single none of us will be able to leave for quite a while without risking the mental well-being of our mates."

"You perhaps can't tell, but they are tense as if they are expecting Red Claw to jump from behind the nearest tree." Tyra confirmed. "Which is really weird for Rec, but that aside..."

"Perhaps the compromise would be to have them come here." Tria suggested, despite knowing several of their mates would hardly react better to a large group of humans appearing. "Meet up outside the Valley for whatever they want from us. We don't have to leave to the future and they can still meet." She looked over at the two guards with something of a flat stare.

"I'll suggest it." The human carefully slid down the large grey back. "Can't make any promises though. It'll be a majority-thing."

"We know the problems of that." Hadria assured her with annoyance clearly audible. The rest knew she was thinking back to the first time Pterano had been at the Valley, where her daughter had been lost and all the grown-ups had been unable to assist because they were too busy arguing with the old Threehorn.

"See if you can arrange for it, though." Grandma's long neck turned to look at her own husband, who while somewhat stronger, was still disturbingly thin for an adult Longneck. In the end, it might well take him months to return to a healthy weight. It was far easier to lose weight than it was to regain it.

"Yes, ma'am." The human nodded lightly. "My grandfather will certainly help me."

"He better." Tyra muttered, rising to her feet gracefully. "So how long can you stay here?"

"The portal is back online in three hours." One of the soldiers answered.

"Which… means?" The Sharptooth dryly muttered. Even after all the time they had been there, the ways of telling time humans used were still strange and – most importantly – not feasible for dinosaurs.

"A good while, if the journey out is as quick as the journey in was." Mary translated.

"The children will love that. Littlefoot has been eager to show off his home just about since he got home."

"Spike as well… Mostly the food-parts, though." The rising of their wives seemed to relax the small group of dinosaurs in the distance. "Try not to eat them just as such."

Some early attempts had proven that what dinosaurs found edible did not exactly mesh with what humans thought was edible.