Category: Land Before Time
Rating: T
Couples: canon ones of the adults
Warnings: AU
Chapter: 10
Copyright: Characters & places © By Appropriate Copyright-holder, Plot & OC´s © by me
Author's Note: this is a sequel to Future before Time
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
However, the three Threehorn-females had forgotten to check their surroundings before settling down at the water's edge and there were enough small hills and reeds to hide anyone smaller than a Longneck.
In fact, resting in a cluster of reeds, having been looking out over the water, was the male they had been talking about. Mr. Threehorn had been just staring out of his little spot when he had heard the voices of his second-youngest and - dubiously - his second wife.
He also heard the words said voices spoke and flinched when they started talking about him. He probably would have been feeling better if a Sharptooth was killing him now. The reminder of his late wife hurt, more than he ever thought it would. He flinched when hearing Tria rise to her feet and if he leaned just right, he could make out her form between the plants.
Did she know him that well? Was it even true? That was an even more important question... and clearly, this was not something he could trust his own mind over. That, he had to admit, was certainly true. Waiting some more until he saw Cera across the water, he slipped into the plants and started walking off himself.
But who could he ask? He was not going to go to some random Valley-resident... almost in answer, he spotted a grey form in the distance, still holding a tinge of blue from its' youth.
The old Longneck looked like he had been napping, or was about to go nap.
"Mr. Threehorn?" The older male noted his arrival easily, there being no reeds here to obscure him.
"Do you have time?" The Threehorn looked around, but the rest of the Longnecks was really all elsewhere.
"If you do not tell Grandma I am not taking my nap..." The taller form chuckled, lowering his head a touch. "She does still have opinions about my health."
"You two are really still in some kind of fresh-love-kind-of-stage." Settling down on the ground, Topps snorted a bit. "How do you do it?"
"Being extremely lucky." Littlefoot's grandfather mused. "Not that we do not have trouble at times still..." That the Threehorn could agree with; everyone had noted their long, yet quiet argument after the human-visit. "But I doubt you came here for relationship-advice."
He sighed at that.
"Ah..." The Longneck mused. "What does bring you here, old friend?"
"I overheard... things... just now." He scuffed the plants in front of him. "Am I a coward, Longneck?"
"Pardon?" The other blinked, falling silent. Clearly chosing the road of safety, he finally asked. "What makes you think that?"
"I... overheard... Tria and the girls. I guess they asked her why we were not together again while everyone else was."
"And her answer made you think that you were a coward?"
"She... she said I was afraid of another heartbreak."
They both lapsed into silence after that statement as the old Longneck thought it over.
"I will be honest... I can see why Tria might say that, particularly if she had to think up something on the spot if she was surprised by your daughters' questions." Grandpa Longneck softly stated. "Cera is not stupid. She saw how you were when Tria was gone. She saw how I was when Grandma is gone... I have no doubt she can very much imagine the pain we felt, she just needs to make her own pain worse. Tricia is also smart, though still quite young, but she'll know how much it hurt. Grandma told me she fared little better than I did under our seperation, only doing slightly better because she had Littlefoot to consider."
His gaze swung over to the group of Longnecks visible on the other side of the water. "It is a reasonable explanation for your actions, Threehorn. But only you can decide if it is true."
He had been afraid of that answer, but did appreciate that the Longneck had not minced words and just gotten right to the point.
"I see."
