Chapter 2: Sleepstories

The longneck girl rose from her sleep in a quick movement, looking frantically around as heavy gasps for air shook her little body.

Only to realize she'd been having one of these weird dreams again.

"Calm down, Ali, it was just a sleepstory… just… a sleepstory…" With a heavy sigh, little Ali got to her feet, adrenaline slowly retreating from her body, pulse and breathing getting back to healthier levels. Sleep was an unthinkable thing now, her blood still stirring, her mind still coping with the nightmare so she walked over to a nearby pond of water to take a drink. She wasn't exactly thirsty but a cool sip of water might just be what she needed at the moment to help her calm down as images of flying longnecks and the Bright Circle falling on her head swarmed about in her head.

The water was cool and fresh as expected and Ali immediately felt a little better. Just then, the Night Circle found an opening in the rather thick blanket of harmless clouds obscuring most of the blinking lights that would often be visible at night, illuminating her reflection on the calm water surface, only a little disturbed by the small ripples that her little sip of water had caused. Strange how much it reminded her of the Bright Circle from her dream. Come to think about it, it was just as big and round, only that it wouldn't show itself unless it got dark and wouldn't shine as brightly. And then again, sometimes only some of it was there or it couldn't be seen at all, coming in regular circles of a little more than two dozen days. That night was one of the few rare nights where it was fully there, watching over all dinosaurs as they slept.

Or, in her case, tried to.

"It sure must be boring to watch everyone sleep just like that… at least the Bright Circle gets to watch over us when we're awake…" Ali's pondering brought her attention back to her reflection in the water which had completely cleared by now, the girl staring at her perfect counterpart whose blue eyes were staring back at her just as thoughtfully as she was. Although it was hard to see during the gloomy dark at night, her body's colour had a pink-ish tint to it.

"I wonder what he's doing right now? Is he sleeping too?"

Two cold times ago, her herd had been driven out of their former home by extreme, persisting rain which had turned their homeland into a murky, foggy paradise for any predators. It had no longer been safe to roam these lands so they had been migrating around ever since, looking for a similar place to call their home. It hadn't even taken them that long to find such a place - the Great Valley, but her herd leader apparently didn't like it enough to settle down. It was one of quite a few decisions that Ali had never understood and likely never would. Right now they were residing in a forest that was growing at the base of a larger mountainous area which they had crossed a few weeks ago only to discover it. There was a fair amount of food and a few smaller rivers and ponds provided water for the plants to grow. However, it was too small to sustain a herd of such size forever.

And frankly speaking, Ali didn't like it there. Even more frankly speaking, she didn't like anywhere her herd had been to ever since that one time visiting at the Great Valley…

"If only I could be with you there in the Valley… Littlefoot…"

Her herd was a bit of an unusual sort. It largely consisted of females, many of which were rather old. And one of them, the Old One as she was called, was their leader. As a result, few children were born to this herd and those who were didn't like Ali for some reason. As such, she didn't have any friends in her herd, leaving her mother as the only friendly face to interact with. But even her mother was harder and harder to be around with lately. Ali clearly wasn't happy with the current situation she found herself in. With noone to goof around with, she was often bored and, as of late, snappy.

"If only we had stayed at the Great Valley with Littlefoot and the others…"

A yawn escaped her mouth quickly. The influence of her nightmare was finally wearing off and, although a little stirred up from her thoughts, the warm feeling that often accompanied sleepiness spread through her body making her feel all relaxed and cozy.

While walking back to where they were sleeping, Ali could hear someone else waking up from a bad dream. She didn't know why but everyone had been having these weird nightmares as of late and nobody knew the cause. But Ali was too tired now to ponder about it. Another yawn slipping from her lips, she curled up next to her mother. For a moment, it seemed as if she'd be able to drift back to sleep but just then her mother started to groan in her sleep.

"Oh great, not you too…" Ali rolled her eyes in annoyance. As frustrating as it was waking up at least once every night from a weird sleep story, not being able to because others were making noises in their sleep was even worse.

Suddenly, a rumble went through the body of her mother as she began rapidly moving in her sleep, throwing her massive weight sideways…

"Aaaaaaahhh!" Ali managed to leap out of the way just in time before her mother rolled over in her sleep, not even waking in the process and continuing her uneasy slumber while trying to find a more comfortable sleeping pose again. Ali however, was once again wide awake with a dangerous amount of adrenaline flooding her veins once more, fueling her rising anger until it turned into wrath.

"Mom, wake up!"

The grown-up stirred slightly. Then, her eyes opened, confused for a moment until she realized that she was back in the real world.

"Huh? What's with that face dear?" Ali had a rather mad expression on her face, panting from anger.

"You! You almost rolled all over me while you were sleeping!"

"Oh? Did I?" her mother replied drowsily, getting to her feet.

"Yes you did!" Ali yelled, not caring a single bit that everyone in close proximity had probably just woken up from the ruckus she was making. "You've rolled all over me just at the end of the previous circle of the Night Circle! I for once don't feel like being flattened in my sleep again! That really hurt!"

"Ali, please keep it down…"

"No!" The young longneck was really pissed off and she wouldn't let her mother escape with a lame statement… not this time.

"Geez, I was sleeping, Ali. You can't blame me for things I do while I'm all out cold, can you?"

"I can if it keeps me from sleeping in the first place," Ali retorted, lowering her voice a little but not turning down her anger at all. "I was just about to go back to sleep after the sleep story woke me up when this happened… now how do you expect me to calm down again? This is outrageous!"

"It is indeed!"

Both mother and daughter turned to their right as an elderly female longneck walked in on the scene.

"What is this ruckus all about? It is plenty enough that these sleepstories are keeping me up each night…"

"Old One…" As it turned out, Ali had woken up their leader of all dinosaurs and she didn't look too pleased. Ali's mother gulped. "My apologies for Ali's behavior. I-it seems the sleepstories are causing us some trouble ourselves…"

"Such as?" the old dinosaur inquired.

"Mother almost rolled all over me in her sleep!" Ali blurted out, again raising her voice dangerously high.

"Would you keep it down?! There is no reason to wake up the whole forest!" Old One reprimanded but Ali merely glared back at her and then at her mother.

"Listen to our leader, will you Ali?" her mother spoke with a slightly agitated voice. "I still don't really know why you're so upset about this but I'm sorry sweetheart. Now if you could please…"

"Do I still look like a hatchling?! I'm not your 'sweetheart' anymore, geez!" Ali shouted, clearly offended.

"Well, you clearly are acting like one right now!" Now even her mother had had enough, beginning to retort but not before sending an apologetic glance towards the Old One. "Don't make me remind you of last night! You were crying after me in your sleep during your sleepstory! Still blaming me for things that happen while we sleep?"

Ali looked at her feet in shame and subdued rage. It was below the belt as she felt but making any further ruckus in front of Old One might very well result in unpleasant punishment so she simply swallowed it for the time being.

"Very well, now that is one less thing to worry about…" the Old One spoke with relief as the child lost her fight. Now a little calmer, the old dinosaur began to speak to Ali's mother. "Don't you think it is a little strange that all of a sudden all longnecks of this herd are experiencing these sleepstories? It is not dangerous per se but surely very unnerving…"

"I have to agree with that statement," the younger female replied. With regret, she added. "Sadly, I don't know why this is happening either."

"Neither do I, I am afraid," their leader admitted, Ali listening while pouting. "I've sent flyers to gather information regarding this matter and their findings are not exactly helpful to determine the cause of this problem. Certainly, it seems like only longnecks are seeing this increase in nightmares and an awful lot of us are apparently on the move… I will have to call a meeting tomorrow."

"Does that mean that all longnecks are having them?" Ali suddenly piped up, perking up. If this was true, the implications were too wonderful to believe…

"I cannot answer your question with certainty," the leader shrugged her off harshly. "However, I also cannot rule it out. Not yet."

"Ah okay. Maybe Littlefoot is having them as well…"

"Who is that?!"

"A friend of mine," Ali promptly responded. Old One tilted her head at an odd angle.

"He must not be a member of this herd, I conclude?"

"Littlefoot," Ali's mother butted in," is that longneck from the Great Valley Ali ran off with to save his grandfather from disease with the Night Flowers from our old home."

"Ah, oh that. Yes, now I remember," Old One spoke, her glance hovering above Ali's head. "And I do hope that gave you a good lesson young lady..."

"I'm sure it did," her mother affirmed, giving her daughter another stern look. Ali merely stared back angrily. The argument still wasn't over.

"Well, I shall not keep you up any longer than necessary. I shall see you during the meeting tomorrow, good night." With that, the Old One walked away from the scene. Both Ali and her mother waited patiently until she was out of hearing range.

"You just got us reprimanded, good job Ali!"

"I'll be sleeping over there, night…" Ali ignored her mother's attempt at scolding her, still fuming over being embarrassed in front of their leader and being considered a hatchling, and began walking a good distance until she was once again at the pond. It was a place her mother could still see her but far enough to get some space after the heated argument. Ali glanced up at the sky one more time before she put her young body to rest with a deep sigh. Just how much longer would she be able to bear this?

Alright, here is Ali's introduction!

Same as with the first chapter, I decided to break it up into two chapters, considering how lengthy her introduction has become. A few sentences turned into some 2-3 pages on my doc, call that some improvement :P

Same as Bron, Ali is also mentioning Littlefoot in this chapter already although we barely know anything about him yet but both will refer to our favourite goofy flathead a little more whenever their next chapters come up.

I also feel inclined to menntion Ali's behavior here a little. Surely, it seems a little out-of-character for her to flip out like this, seeing as she is usually portraited as a calm, shy and passionate character. Aggression such as seen in this chapter is rather unheard of but let me just say that her circumstances (which aren't aligning much with the situation in LBT 4 - as you can see I added my very own interpretation of her herd here. Always thought Old One was weird ) are to blame for this outburst. Surely the next chapter in which Ali appears should explain everything. :)

Considering the general positive feedback of bringing Littlefoot's early story in I got on the Gang of Five and also from friends, I guess it's time for me to rewatch LBT 10 for the next chapter (and rearranging chapters! Oh what joy! ) :P

Again, it mightn't take me long to make it happen.