I honestly hope the wait was worth it.

Chapters will be submitted whenever I finish another chapter before them.

Brothers Under the Bright Circle

Chapter 3

Inner Instinct

Pushing amongst the thick brown grass, Littlefoot struggled to contain his excitement at the possibly meeting another dinosaur, and his curiosity only grew the louder the laughter became. He was getting closer to the sound now and he pushed onward until he came to the edge of the trees. He wriggled his head through and blinked with wide eyes at the sight before him.

There, laughing and giggling was a yellow female dinosaur unlike anything he had seen before. She did not have the long neck that he and his family had, but a small sharp horn between her nostrils, and a wide frill that covered the top of her head. She charged into the beak of a larger grey form of herself, only this one had a longer pair of horns on top of his eyebrows. The small female laughed as she fell flat on her back and picked herself up on all four feet. She squatted down slightly, pawing at the ground in preparation for another charge, only to stop when something caught the corner of her eye.

It was a flying, blue shelled creature with six legs and a long horn on its face that Littlefoot had seen on the journey. He had tried to catch one of them before but had never succeeded. Smiling, he watched as the strange dinosaur let off a bellowing scream and chased after the bug, running until she smacked into a rock the bug had landed on, only for it to fly onto another one. She sniffed with annoyance and charged at the other rock, only for the bug to repeat the process. She bounded after it again, only for the new rock to not break from her strength.

Shaking her head to clear some of the dizziness, she slowly snuck her way up toward the bug that had turned its back on her.

"Hey!" Littlefoot called eagerly, hoping to get her attention, but she ignored him and prepared to take chomp out of the little critter. Only to her surprise that she found her open mouth suddenly filled with a disgusting foul taste. She spat the horrible stuff out and shook herself to clear her vision of the blue liquid the creature had sprayed her with.

Then she heard the laughter and gritted her teeth, now aware of her audience, she squinted her eyes.

"What are you laughing at?" she sneered.

Littlefoot gasped and expected the new dinosaur to be quite mad over his laughing, only it was not of disdain or annoyance, but rather she showed some mirth and playfulness. She was pawing at the ground like before in preparation to charge. Finally, someone his age he could play with! He leapt out from behind the brown grass and copied her movement, his stance at the ready.

She let off a challenging roar and charged toward him, while Littlefoot ran with just as much eagerness to play. But all of it was cut short when a deeper, louder sound of warning cut the game in half. The ground began to shake, rocks scattering beneath their feet as an enormous foot stood between them, hiding the girl dinosaur from view. Littlefoot bit back a desire to cry out for help, petrified by the larger horned dinosaur leering over him like a shadow.

The three-horned dinosaur leered down on him, growling in warning. Terrified, he backed away, his legs shaking with fear. There was another bellow, but this one was less deeper and more threatening. Littlefoot had recalled in the past Whiplash bellowing a warning about a nearby threat, but this one was very different. This one was more threatening and more determined that he ever thought. The ground shook louder and all three turned their heads at the sight of the large galloping longneck. In mere seconds, Whiplash had covered the ground and placed a foot down between the adult threehorn and his little brother.

Whiplash leaned his long neck down and glared venomously at the other dinosaur, his lips were pulled back to reveal his teeth, even though it didn't appear very threatening, but the curling of his long tail and his stance signalled a warning to not try anything rash. Never had Littlefoot seen Whiplash so angry since he had known him.

For a very long and intensive moment, the two large dinosaurs stared at each other while Littlefoot and the girl threehorn watched with wonder and fear. Then, the large threehorn shook his horns and rattled his frill in a threatening display, hoping to scare Whiplash away, but the large longneck did not back down and continued to make his stance, his tail raising higher as though to warn the threehorn he would strike at any moment if he chose to. He growled, only it was louder and more threatening than before. His tail lashed out, but did not strike, and a booming crack echoed through the plains.

This was a final warning to not bring harm to his fellow herd member, his little brother.

But the threehorn was not so easily deterred and he stepped forward, thrusting his horns forward. Again, Whiplash continued to stand his ground, his desire to protect Littlefoot was stronger than ever. However, Littlefoot felt that as long as he was between Whiplash and the threehorn, Whiplash would not budge.

Finally, with his eyes still on the threehorn, Whiplash spoke, but his voice was focused and hard, "Littlefoot, get back to your mother… now!"

Littlefoot blinked, surprised, but he watched as the male threehorn kept his eyes on Whiplash but was speaking from the corner of his mouth, dust puffing out from his nostrils as he snorted, "Cera, return to your mother. Threehorns never play with Longnecks. Let that be a lesson for you today."

"Hmph!" Cera huffed and she spat her tongue at Littlefoot, only for it to be cut short when Whiplash growled even louder with warning. She jumped and ran back to her waiting mother, while Littlefoot carefully backed away, but he didn't back up fast enough as something strong yanked him up by the tail and into the air.

To his surprise, it was Whiplash who had him, but his eyes were still focused on the threehorn. Slowly, Whiplash began to step back, and his eyes silently communicated to the threehorn to not do anything irrational. The threehorn seemed to be doing the same thing, and a mutual understanding came between the two large dinosaurs. They were only protecting their loved ones from the harshness of the world, and if it had to involve a fight between another leaf eater, then it would. They simply nodded at each other and Whiplash turned away to make his way back to the worried family that was waiting for them.

"Hey, Whiplash, what's a longneck, and what is a threehorn?" Littlefoot suddenly asked, jolting Whiplash from his thoughts.

Whiplash sighed. "It's what me, you, your mother and your grandparents are, Littlefoot," he explained softly, though his voice was not very gentle. "We are the longnecks. The threehorns are what those dinosaurs you encountered are."

Quite roughly, he dropped Littlefoot on his mother's back where his tree star was waiting for him.

"What happened out there?" Littlefoot's mother demanded once they were safely back near the trees. His grandparents came over too, just as worried as their daughter. "You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No, no, I'm fine!" Littlefoot protested as his grandmother gave him a quick lick on the cheek.

A snort caught his ear and he saw Whiplash glaring down at him with disappointment in his eyes. He slumped dejectedly, he knew what was coming. "Littlefoot was attempting to play with a child threehorn," Whiplash explained. "Her father jumped in to prevent them from playing, so I too stepped in to make sure that Littlefoot was not going to be harmed by him. Of course, we were both trying to protect our little ones, so we supposedly came to an understanding. No one was hurt."

That was the first time Littlefoot had heard Whiplash speak so much. It was not often that he spoke, but when he did it was usually pretty serious, and this was quite serious. He hung his head down as his mother scorned him for wandering off and leaving the protection of the herd. He understood her worry, and that he could have gotten hurt and she would not have been there to protect him. Thank the stars Whiplash had been watching him when he had ran off to follow the noise.

"But mother," Littlefoot said suddenly, getting her attention, "I just wanted someone my age to play with. Why couldn't it be Cera?"

His mother looked at his grandparents and then at Whiplash, and she sighed softly. "We must keep to our own kinds," she explained. "It's always been that way since I was a hatchling."

"You mean even you don't know and yet you keep away from others that aren't longnecks?" Littlefoot asked, sounding horrified.

She was silent, but his grandfather lowered his neck slightly until he was at eye level with his grandson. "It has always been that way, little one, even when me and your grandma were really small," he told him. "But now is not the time to dwell on what has been known for generations."

His mother and Whiplash nodded in agreement, and they resumed their journey. As punishment for his misbehaviour, Littlefoot was to ride on his mother's back for the rest of the day and tomorrow. He could not help but feel he didn't deserve such a punishment for wanting to play with someone. There wasn't anyone in his herd nor his own kind around, and it would be a long time before they even saw another longneck, let alone the Great Valley. His mother reassured him that when they reached their destination, there would be many of kind his age to play with, for now, he would have to settle with now.

The Bright Circle eventually began to dip behind the mountains ahead of them, letting the cloak of darkness envelop them and allowing the Night Circle to take its place. The small herd came to a set of old trees near a bubbling pool of water, and they settled down for the night. Littlefoot was very grateful for a chance to stop and rest, and his mother allowed him to return to the ground to stretch his legs and shake whatever was troubling his youthful energy.

Despite the time to rest and drink, Littlefoot still felt some intensity coming from Whiplash. Then again, he had been moments away from striking out at Cera's father and possibly causing a future blood feud between the two families. It was great that no one had been hurt, but it still left Littlefoot feeling puzzled by Whiplash's unusual behaviour, it was though he hardly knew him at all.

As the family settled down to sleep, with his mother and grandparents leaning against the trees for some form of support, Whiplash did not join them like he usually did every night. Instead, he moved a short distance from them and curled up in the open plains with his back turned to them, the Night Circle seemed to cast a silver glow on his greyish brown body, making him appear like a boulder if a passing predator had bad eyesight.

Worry gripped Littlefoot's heart, but he stayed where he was on his mother's back until she fell asleep. Slowly, he picked himself up and slid down her tail, hoping that she would not notice. He quietly tiptoed over to Whiplash's supposedly sleeping form. He peeked over his neck, but was startled to see him still awake, but his eyes were focused on the Night Circle itself. But what made it even stranger was the sad far away look in his usually stoic yellow eyes. Unfortunately, it wasn't what else that caught his attention, but rather the wet streaks that were left at the corner of his eyes.

Whiplash had been crying.

But before Littlefoot could point this out and ask what was troubling him, Whiplash immediately spotted him and used a forepaw to wipe away the wetness. Gone was the saddening emotion, replaced by his usual calm and stoic demeaner.

"Littlefoot," he gasped through a huff to try and hide a choking sound at the back of his throat, "shouldn't you be asleep with your mother?"

Littlefoot paused for a moment, wondering if he should speak about what he saw, but thought against it and replied, "I was just worried about you. I couldn't sleep after what happened today, so…" Carefully he climbed over Whiplash's forelegs and underneath his neck. "I thought I'd sleep here tonight, to make sure you were okay."

Something flashed across Whiplash's face, but it was gone before he acknowledged it, but he was pretty sure it was surprise. The elder longneck didn't reply to his request, but Littlefoot took it as an invitation to curl up into a ball. Whiplash watched hesitantly, but he didn't protest nor push Littlefoot away, but eventually he slowly lowered his neck and curled his tail around to provide some warmth and comfort to them both, and also to shield Littlefoot from a potential predator's sights.

Slowly, he began to drift off to sleep, almost completely unaware of the movement near his feet.

Stomping through the darkness of the night, a large dark green and black carnivorous dinosaur sniffed the air with anticipation and hunger. For several days and nights, he had been following a small herd of longnecks, hoping for a chance to prey on at least one of them. But the largest member of the family had forced him to keep a relatively safe distance. Ever since he had smelt them, his stomach had grown emptier and he was determined to fill it up with a bellyful of longneck flesh. Unfortunately, he hadn't exactly been able to see them with his sharp red eyes and lay out a cunning plan to ambush.

As far as Sharptooth was aware, the small herd seemed to be constantly on the move, looking for that green stuff they ate? Whatever the reason was, he was becoming more and more hungrier by the day. If he did not eat soon, he would surely starve to death and his quest to hunt would have all been for nothing. But as he kept on with his pursuit, the moment of truth eventually presented itself to him.

His keen sense of smell had picked up the hatchling moving away from the safety of the herd, following by what appeared to be a threehorn hatchling as well. It was not what he was expecting, but it was no matter. Meat was meat, and he could not pass up an opportunity like this. With his tongue snaking out to lick his teeth in preparation for the hunt, Sharptooth began to silently make his way over to the swamp where he knew the hatchlings would be playing.

Very soon he would be feasting upon their flesh and he would have a full stomach by the time the Bright Circle rose in the sky.