Alright, it is very obvious that I can't meet the schedule I wanted to pull through. I've also put off uploading this one for about a week but from now on I'll try to upload one chapter a week. (have to catch up though)

Chapter 3: Littlefoot and his friends

Something inbetween a yelp and a panicked scream echoed through the Great Valley one starry night. The source of this disturbance was no less than a small child who had just leaped to his feet after experiencing the same peculiar sleepstory that had been haunting him for many days already.

"It was just a sleepstory…" Littlefoot, as the purple-brown-ish-coloured little longneck was called, uttered a deep sigh, taking a quick glance up at the sky where the Night Circle was full and the little lights on the sky plentiful. Trees were growing here and there, a few rocks scattered around on the green meadows, and high mountain in the distance fenced in little Littlefoot's home, the Great Valley, sheltering it from many hazards of the surrounding lands. Most of it were dry and hostile deserts and clearly terra incognita for most dinosaurs who lived in the valley hence it was commonly dubbed "The Mysterious Beyond".

The small boy's grandparents were snoozing next to each other behind Littlefoot, their bodies and necks snuggled against each other's, though their sleep seemed far from peaceful either.

"I should go back to sleep…" Littlefoot thought, a content, sleepy yawn assisting him in his decision. As disturbing and weird as his dream had been, the sleep he'd been missing each night due to these nightmares made him too tired to be stirred up much longer than necessary. He could always reflect on what he'd experienced in the morning after all.

As the little longneck slowly drifted back into his slumber, his grandparents were also shifting their necks around, their sleep just as troubled. Littlefoot hadn't noticed yet that his grandparents were also suffering from the same sleepstories and they hadn't even been woken up by his daily noisy rake-ups. However, he would soon learn about that. Neither had he told them about it nor had he let them on about his struggles. These scary dreams happened every so often, sometimes more often than others. He hadn't been concerned up until now but this most recent series was alarming to say the least, especially considering that it was always the same dream…

The following morning, Littlefoot had all forgotten about his dream. After a fulfilling breakfast, he was fully energized, sprinting off immediately to get in touch with his friends. Unless something particular came up, they would meet each day to play various games together or explore the outskirts of their valley. Though, on this day, a game of tag was being played.

"I'm going to get you, yep yep yep!"

"Oh no you're not!"

Laughing in a goofy way, Littlefoot raced up a small hill as he was being chased by a green swimmer who was laughing just as heartily as she desperately tried to catch up to her much taller friend.

Littlefoot loved these sort of games. They were a lot of fun and all the running helped a lot to stay in a good shape despite their relatively sheltered lives. Besides, it was one of those games perfect to get things off one's mind and just be silly. Wasn't that what games were about after all?

A tall tree was growing on the top of the hill he'd raced up, muscles burning a little but that was just about right, he thought. Tall roots were digging into the ground, forcing the longneck to jump. Despite the significant downslope behind them, he managed to make a safe landing, continuing to run. Not much of an obstacle for him, it was however quite difficult for his smaller friend to leap across the tree's root. The swimmer barely made it, however her butt and tail touched down on the wood, throwing her off balance, causing the girl to make a rough landing, sliding down the steep slope. However, she simply laughed off the slight fail and picked up her sprint merrily.

"Can't catch me, Ducky!" Littlefoot teased, allowing the cheerful swimmer to gain on him a little, knowing that she couldn't run as fast as he could, realistically. Ducky was a swimmer after all. He was built to walk long distances but the hadrosaur would outswim him in the blink of an eye if they ever decided to play catch in the water.

"I can, too! Yep yep yep!" Ducky exclaimed confidently, gathering all her speed and strength and putting it all into a powerful leap. Littlefoot's tail was awfully close, if only she could touch it with the tips of her fingers…

… but as she reached out in mid-air, her fingers did not grasp on anything but void and gravity did the rest. Ducky crashed belly-first onto the grass-padded floor.

"Hahaha!" Littlefoot, happy to have fooled Ducky by making her too confident, jogged away from the scene before his friend could decide to continue the chase.

"Oof…" Drowsily, the girl raised her head. The impact wasn't too heavy but it still temporarily knocked the senses out of her. With a sigh, she added. "...or maybe not." Maybe Littlefoot was a tad too fast for her to catch after all. Perhaps she should take a look for her other friends who were hanging around nearby. However, Ducky had hardly set her mind upon it when one of these friends made a pompous entry on the scene.

"Me know you no catch me neither!" Laughing goofily, a brown flyer came approaching fast from above, flapping low above the ground so that Ducky had a realistic chance to reach him.

The swimmer needed no prompting. Quickly, she took position in preparation to jump at the flyer hovering in front of her, hoping to catch him instead of Littlefoot. Narrowing her eyes in a grim but determined look, the swimmer leaped once again but the flyer was out of reach in no time so Ducky reluctantly gave up on the chase.

"You are no fair Petrie, oh no no no…" she quietly complained in a downcast expression, watching the flyer take to the skies while laughing with a triumphant grin on his beakface, however that didn't last long as a new target presented itself to her immediately.

"Spike…" Not far from her current position, a dark green coloured spiketail was munching on some vegetation contently, not paying much heed to the ongoing game. He was the perfect target; surely the girl would be able to take advantage of the situation? Ducky knew Spike too well. He was her adopted little brother after all, though he was by far not little and could run fast if he wanted to. She would have to be sneaky unless she wanted to catch him in another head-over-heels chase through half of the Great Valley. Quietly, Ducky got back on her feet, a little smirk appearing on her face as she got in position for a short sprint on silent toes.

"Then I will get Spike!" she thought out loud. However, she couldn't contain her excitement and ended up giggling a lot as she ran towards the spiketail.

Spike was just enjoying some ground stars - a whole field of them was growing just there on the ground instead of the usual patch of grassy green, when he heard his sister's cheerful laughter approaching fast. At the back of his mind, he recalled that they decided to play tag but he couldn't really care much about such a game when such a delicious delicatesse was bewitching his stomach like that. He could tell that the swimmer was trying to use the rock he was sitting next to in order to jump onto him, thus tagging him. All Spike had to do was to duck for more food at the right moment and, as expected, Ducky sailed past him, landing in the middle of the ground stars behind him with a notable thud. Grinning, pleased with himself, Spike tucked into more food.

"Ouwww…" Ducky had taken a rather unpleasant landing on her back which now hurt a little. However, that led her to the next opportunity.

"Cera is also eating at the moment, maybe she will not notice me?" Quietly, Ducky got back to her feet, tiptoeing closer to the orange threehorn, however the girl had noticed her.

"Don't even think about it, Ducky…" the threehorn warned with her mouth stuffed as she, too, fed on some ground stars.

Slightly, disappointed, Ducky retreated from her friend. If nobody wanted to be caught and she wasn't able to catch those who would, then how was she supposed to ever rid herself of the chaser role?

"Ducky…" The teasing voice of Littlefoot who was wagging his tail in anticipation sounded from a field of tall grass a little distance away, prompting her to give chase yet again.

"This time I will get him, yes I will!" Ducky thought with grim determination, once more entering a mad sprint to chase after the longneck who fled into the cover of the tall grass which was growing even taller than his long neck. Uttering lots of "can't catch me's" and "I'm right behind you's", they darted through the wide field of green grass, a few grazing dinosaurs looking up from their meal in confusion as the camouflaged children raced past them laughing and yelling.

After some moments, Littlefoot had found an exit, unable to lose his pursuer. Taking a sharp turn, he ran out into the open only to stop very suddenly as a sudden flashback made him completely oblivious to the game.

Clouds were appearing everywhere on the sky, huge, grey thunderclouds giving an apocalyptic impression. The Bright Circle was being approached by them from all sides, the landscape becoming darker and darker as its light faded. Then, the clouds blocked the Bright Circle completely and suddenly it was pitch-black. Screams could be heard everywhere and Littlefoot found himself joining in, the lack of sight frightening him. After a few moments, a small ray of light returned to the sky. It was the Bright Circle breaking through the thick clouds, however, it suddenly got so much brighter, so much bigger… and all so fast. Before Littlefoot knew, there was a boom and then… nothing…

Abruptly, Littlefoot stopped dead in his tracks. His attention was no longer on Ducky whose legs had reached their limits as she stumbled out of the tall grass, exhausted. The Bright Circle was shining from the sky as always, no Sky Puffies obscuring his view. Littlefoot was squinting his eyes as he stared into the bright ball above him intensely. How bright it was, blinding his eyes, memories from the dream returning to him, the view ensnaring him.

Meanwhile, Ducky was slowly walking up to the longneck in a slumped manner, gasping for air from the intense running. She reached her tiny hand out and ultimately touched Littlefoot's leg.

"Tag… you are it… yep yep… yeeeeeeuuup…"

Littlefoot was completely oblivious to that, Ducky sinking into the grass as he walked a few steps towards the bright yellow fireball above him. Climbing onto a tree root sticking out of the ground, he continued to stare while his other friends also emerged from the tall grass. When Littlefoot wouldn't react, Petrie took it upon himself to remind the longneck of the ongoing game, hovering in front of his face to gain his attention.

"Did you no hear? You it… "

"Huh?!" Littlefoot shook his head as he slipped out of his trance.

"What part of 'it' don't you understand?" Cera questioned with a slight mocking undertone.

"Uh, I-I'm sorry, it's just…" Littlefoot gave a heavy sigh as his gaze returned to the Bright Circle.

"It's the Bright Circle; you see it everyday! Why is it suddenly so interesting?" the threehorn continued, puzzled.

"I dunno," Littlefoot replied. "It looks like something I saw in my sleepstory last night…"

"Sleepstory?!"

"Yup yup yup! I have sleepstories all of the time!" Ducky chimed in, having recovered from the exertion enough, explaining as she gestured expressively. "I love them! I am seeing myself floating down wide waters with good-smelling flowers… ahhhhhh…" While Ducky was spacing out, Petrie took over.

"Me have sleepy stories about flying up high hills and tall trees," he declared dreamily as he took a short flight to underline his point. As he saw Spike munching on more ground stars again, his flew over to the Spiketail. "Me wonder what Spike have sleepstories about." It was a rather obvious question, really. Spike was always eating something when he could so most of his dreams must have been about food in one way or another.

"What about you, Cera? Don't you ever have sleepstories?" Littlefoot pondered, looking back to the threehorn who was mustering him sceptically.

"Threehorns NEVER have any sleepstories; they're for babies! They're all just full of dumb stuff that could NEVER happen!" The threehorn walked away, clearly disgusted by the sheer thought of having sleepstories.

"Hmm, I guess you're right…" Littlefoot admitted though he didn't agree with the threehorn girl at all. Every once in a while there were dreams Littlefoot would rather keep dreaming forever and never wake up but reality wasn't the utopia he'd sometimes find himself in. Though, then again, their home was the closest to utopia one could find in their world…

Soon a smug grin appeared on Littlefoot's face as he came up with a good counter.

"In my sleepstory last night, I saw you butt your head against this tall rock and it split right in half!"

"Really?" Cera turned back to him, curiosity joining with the pride she was wearing. "Did I really do that?"

"Yeah… but like you said, sleepstories are dumb," Littlefoot mentioned, using her own words against the threehorn. "Stuff like that could never really happen."

"Oh wait!" Now Cera got a tad nervous. "I didn't say everything in a sleepstory is dumb…"

"Sure you did," Littlefoot grinned smugly, supported by his other three friends who were wearing the same emotions and expressions.

"I did not! I said some things!" Cera retorted fiercely. "But this headbutting thing, I could do that."

If anything, that announcement only caused them to mock her even more.

"Suuure you could," Littlefoot teased as Ducky broke into a hearty chuckle.

"Yeah right," Petrie added, both he and Spike giving Cera an encouraging glance to try her luck while Littlefoot also joined the laughter.

"I could too!" Now Cera was angry. For a quick moment, she charged towards her friends. "There's not a single rock in the Great Valley I couldn't crack!"

"Yea?" Littlefoot took this as an invitation to make this challenge official. "Hmm, let's see… how about that one?"

Cera turned around to see where her friend was pointing to, only to see a rock several times her size, made of compact granite, showing no weak spots to take advantage of. It was also positioned next to a very strong tree.

"Yeah, that one!" Petrie cheered, flapping over to perch on it.

Fright found its way into Cera's emotions, clear to see for everyone present.

"Well? Littlefoot stated, waiting for the confirmation.

"S-sure, I could do that, no problem…" Cera spoke though she sounded far from determined and confident about this. Her friends' eyes were all on her. She took a few steps back, took a deep breath before the fight returned to her all at once. With a loud scream, she charged madly at the rock, running faster and faster until…

*crash*

Everyone closed their eyes upon the heavy collision of horn and rock. Who would be the winner? A quick glance was enough to tell. While the rock was still standing as unscathed as ever, Cera had bounced back onto her back, drowsily getting back to her feet.

"I'm going home, my head hurts…" Everybody could tell immediately, that the pain wasn't fake but still they knew Cera a little too long already.

"I didn't mean to make her hurt her head…" Littlefoot spoke hesitantly - there was no doubt that he was regretting his actions but Cera more often than not teased them quite badly so he had thought to take his chance while he had one. But that backfired quite badly. Though, Petrie knew how to cheer the longneck up.

"Me think you mainly hurt her bragbone…" Littlefoot contemplated about that as he watched the threehorn slowly trot away. Cera held a lot of pride for being a threehorn, strong, tough, good at everything and seeing things as the were while not believing in ridiculous things like sleepstories. When she couldn't crack the rock, being made a fool by all of her friends, surely that might have hurt her on an emotional level as well. Littlefoot would make sure to apologize the other day although Cera would probably just deny something like this had ever happened. She tended to be that kind of character after all. From the corner of his eye, Littlefoot saw Ducky offering a small smile.

"Do not worry, she will be alright, yep yep yep."

It was most natural of Ducky to be caring and supportive like that and it brought a smile to Littlefoot's face.

"Thanks," he mumbled, grinning sheepishly. "Well, let's play something else, I guess…"

And so they spent the rest of the day playing Hide and Seek until lunch and then frolicking in several water activities until the Bright Circle began her journey beyond the horizon, their parents calling them home one by one.

On the way home, Littlefoot remembered many things; his mind was a mess. However, by the time he arrived at home, he was simply too tired to engage his grandparents in any discussions about it so he fell asleep with lots of things on his mind...

Alright, here you finally have it. Littlefoot's entry into this story (and the gang's, obviously). As I said before, after some consideration I decided to add Littlefoot's story too, considering that the gang will get their part as well later on.

Not much different from the movie here except for the introduction and the extended ending. I feel like that scene from the movies serves rather well to introduce these characters (I tried giving everyone some screentime but the characterizations will come in one of the next chapters (writing the story as if introducing characters not formerly known to the reader which is a nice practise for me as a writer and also easier for readers who may not be too familiar with The Land Before Time (who knows who reads this story... xD)

The ending may seem a little sudden and lame but trust me I had something in mind there which just didn't fit into this chapter and will make up the next Littlefoot-centered one (Chapter 6 aka. the chapter supposed to be released this weekend _)

So yeah, enough babbling, next chapter will develop Bron's and Shorty's relationship and shows how the initial distrust of Shorty slowly turns into something completely else. Also... backstories :)

Hope you liked this chapter and again apologies for the super late update, I was so busy, still am :(

The Rhombus chapter 2 . Aug 23

"It has been awhile since I read the first few chapters of Shorty's Dark Past, but from what I remember this current incarnation is establishing the personalities, backstories, and situations much more effectively than in the first incarnation. In chapter 1 we get to see a rather desperate Shorty, hotheaded as usual, but still concerned for his own safety and that of the hatchlings that are following him. Shorty's "WTF" response to an adult looking at him desperately, only to turn away with disinterest is a very understandable reaction that I think anyone would have in that circumstance. Likewise, Bron's single-minded search to the exclusion of all else does establish both his love for his (as of yet) unseen son and also a character weakness in him that he often shows such empathy for one person but can ignore those who are not kin. It will be interesting to see how this dynamic develops."

Thanks rhombus, you bring up thoughts about Bron I haven't been considering so far. I'll have to keep that in mind to make use of it later in the story :)

The Rhombus chapter 3 . Aug 23

"In this chapter we get to see a very different Ali than in LBT 4, but one that is understandably annoyed with the regimentation of her herd and the lack of understanding from the fellow herdmates. The obvious panic when she saw her mother rolling over in her sleep is certainly an understandable one. Though this does make me wonder what are the statistics on longneck children being accidentally stepped on or rolled over on by parents. :p I think we might need to have flyers give Public Information Addresses to protect these vulnerable kids before their heads get any flatter. :p All joking aside, this was a lovely addition to the story and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here. :)"

Heh, gee I wonder ;)

Thank you very much, glad you liked these two chapters so far! :)

Guest chapter 3 . Aug 21

"I've been looking forward to the introduction of the Land Before Time's best girl into this iteration of your story. Greatly appreciate your use of her original pink, violet, and tan color scheme, rather than the show's pointless redesign. While I definitely agree that seeing her this angry is definitely unorthodox given her normally shy and compassionate demeanor, I wouldn't go as far to say this is necessarily out of character.

For comparison I'll use her imitation from the TV series. in the show she was portrayed as gullible to the point of stupidity. A genuine out of character portrayal since it directly goes against what Journey Through the Mists established about her. However here her anger is unexpected but still aligns with her characterization. We don't know anything about her mother or life in the herd other than she's sheltered from interacting with other species and Old One chooses to continue to migrating across the treacherous Mysterious Beyond even when presented with a better option.

Ali was happy in the valley. She had friends, possibly for the first time, and even a crush. Having that glimpse of a better life taken away from you just because your leader is paranoid with no evidence to support her beliefs would upset anyone. Everyone has a breaking point and I can't imagine the addition of nightmares helped an already stressful situation for Ali.

In short, I don't think her being angry breaks character. Much like how she can overcome her shyness when her friends need her, this just shows that she has limits. That being said, by no means should this become a default for her. If she were to become like Cera and completely forgo being her calm, shy, and compassionate self then it would be a problem. However I know you're a far better writer than that.

P.S. I never trusted the Old One. Littlefoot's grandparents consider her wise, despite her rude treatment of them, but she's always come off as cold and dismissive to say the least. I'm glad I am not the only one who sees this. I look forward to reading more about Ali and her struggles in the next chapter."

Thank you very much for your thorough thoughts on Ali's characterization. It fills me with delight that you understand and support my take on her character here. Hopefully, I shall not dissappoint in Ali's next chapter either :)

Since chapter 4 is almost done already, I may upload it fairly soon.