Chapter 10: Ali vs Mother
At the break of dusk, the young longneck couldn't hold it back any longer. No matter how much she hated to, she'd have to return to her nest. Of course her mother would be waiting, stern words, questioning, another fight approaching with the fierceness of a winter storm. Ali could already anticipate the outcome of this and it was frankly depressing. No matter what the girl appealed with, be it promises, an innocent look or her heartfelt and truest desires of her heart, her mother wouldn't have an open ear for her daughter's problems, all in the pretense of safety and those stuck up rules!
Ali kicked a tree angrily to make room for the anger which was gathering inside of her, ready to blow at any given point in time. It didn't really help but the short pain from the impact momentarily helped to keep her thoughts in line.
As she headed back, she tried to remember the good times she once had. The first day at the Great Valley had been the best she'd ever had. She had gotten to explore such a wonderful place with such a friendly and funny longneck, for the first time having someone to play with. Ali still remembered what kind of joy she had felt that day, how it literally overwhelmed her, almost made her explode in happiness and excitement. She still remembered how hard it had been to fall asleep that day and how downcast she was to hear about her new friend's grandfather falling sick. Though, in hindsight, their adventure following this event had strengthened their loose friendship. If anything forged and shaped friendships, it's going through a lot of hardship together and succeeding through the fruits of collaboration and teamwork.
"How nice it would be going on an adventure with Littlefoot again, no the whole gang! Cera, Ducky, Petrie… and Spike. They all have become my friends as well!" It was true. While at first it had been just the duo of them, Littlefoot's absence had called his bunch of unlikely friends to follow them and track them down, helping Littlefoot out of a tight situation with combined efforts (and Cera's hardheadedness, Ali mused). It had been an amazing adventure overall and Ali would give so much to have another one. She'd cross the Big Water or a whole desert if it meant seeing them again… seeing him again…
Finally, her nest came into sight and of course her mother was waiting for her there, pacing up and down and clearly looking angry. Ali knew what was about to come but she'd had a whole afternoon to prepare for the inevitable continuation of this mornings' quarrel…
"Here we go…" she thought gloomily, rolling her eyes one last time, taking another deep breath to calm her nerves… and then she stepped out of the foliage…
Ali's mother couldn't rest. Ali hadn't returned to the nest and a quick glimpse at the orange skies told her that it was already nest time for the girl. It wasn't unusual for Ali going off to who knows where for the whole day but rarely did she return this late. It was particularly frustrating having to wait for the girl, considering that there were a lot of unresolved matters left to address…
"I'm hooome!"
Ali didn't even attempt to sneak back into the nest. She knew that she was in big trouble and she had a lot on her mind; she knew that she had nothing to lose and a lot to win here; she definitely was going to get what she wanted tonight and there was no giving in, not tonight…. not tonight.
"First you skip an important meeting, then you return late at home!"
There wasn't even a greeting, her mother had gotten started right away, not giving her any space, but Ali knew how to proceed from here on.
"Welcome home, Ali…" she mumbled, rolling her eyes. Ali hated acting sassy but the current situation required unusual approaches… and, certainly, her mother had it coming after all she'd done to her. Tonight, she wouldn't hold back, not tonight. She would speak her most honest mind regardless of the trouble she would get herself into… because Ali knew that whatever happened from now on, one way or another she would be going to meet Littlefoot. With- or without the herd… with- or without her mother.
"Ali this is inexcusable!"
"Did you hear me excuse? I certainly didn't!" Ali's voice was bitter when she said that. "It's you who should apologize."
"For making sure you're growing up nice and safe? Don't you dare change the topic, you will listen to me right now!"
"Like I can go anywhere…" Ali muttered. "Looks like I have no choice." A bored look on her face, Ali grabbed some more treestars off a nearby tree regardless of how stuffed she already was and stoically endured the flood of words that were being shot at her though dodging them would be easy for the girl.
"Do you not know what a shame you are, Ali? It is your right and your duty to attend meetings! Don't give me that look, there are a number of reasons why you have to attend these and we've discussed them all plenty of times! Old One is going to give me a lesson for it for sure when it is entirely not my fault when you are acting like a stupid rock! And now returning late too, what has gotten into you?! I think I should put an end to your mysterious adventures lest they take you somewhere it isn't safe!"
Ali didn't look up from her meal.
"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!"
"I don't know how to shut out what I hear so… yes I heard everything. Loud and clear." Ali could see that her mother was slowly yelling herself into a mad rage while she herself forced herself to act cold and sassy. It was an act - much rather she'd yell back with everything she got but that wouldn't get her anywhere, that much she knew. She didn't like performing but an act was necessary to follow her dreams and get the information she wanted. Ali already knew that her mother wouldn't tell her straightaway what was being discussed on the meeting (albeit she had a terrific guess) and what had been decided but if she talked her into a rage, she would become careless and let it slip. Or so she had calculated on the way. Besides, she had another ace in store… before her mother had collected any words to reply, the girl slowly added.
"Soooo, what did I miss anyway?"
"I am not telling!" Her mother shouted with a strict face on. "It's not my fault that you didn't go!"
"It must have been about this stupid sleepstory thing, right?" The twitch in her mother's expression told her that she'd hit the mark. "So you've been discussing…"
"Don't change the topic Ali…"
"I didn't see any preparations to move out of here. Does that mean we're not…"
"NO WE ARE NOT GOING!" Ali's mother roared angrily. "And you are not going anywhere either until you learn to respect your mother and our herd's rules!"
"Oh, so I was right," Ali stated, shrugging. "I knew Old One wasn't gutsy but even I thought she'd give in to that sense of adventure we are all feeling all the time. Lame…"
"It is not lame, young lady, it's ensuring our safety... IT IS ENSURING YOUR SAFETY!"
"Whatever you say…" Ali had heard all of these arguments many times over and they had long since lost their power. Safety here, herd there, what really mattered was that she was suffering and that her mother was too blind to see that. But it wasn't the right moment yet to blow up, not yet…
"You're not trying to change my mind? Oh that's amusing! Did Miss Snarky finally regain her senses?!"
"Now!" Ali had waited for a provocation like this. It was finally time to reveal the full extend of what she was feeling deep down inside. Emotions had been seething and swirling inside her and now they had heated her enough for them to spray out like a geysir of ultra hot steam and water. There was nothing holding Ali back anymore.
"I'VE BEEN TRYING TO CHANGE YOUR MIND, MANY TIMES!" Ali screamed all of a sudden, making a perfect switch from calm and indifferent to uncontained anger. "HAVE YOU EVER. TRULY. LISTENED TO ME MUM? HAVE YOU?"
"Oh you mean all that nonsense about meeting that boy? Please spare me with such irrelevant childish stuff, it's about time you start to learn some maturity and learn to listen to your brain, your elders and your common sense and not what your gut is telling you!"
Ali panted. Tears, tears of rage, tears of disappointment were flowing from her blue eyes. How dare she insult her on such a level? Ali had never intended for the argument to become this personal but now there was no turning back. Ali would be fighting for what she believed to be right!
"You do not understand…" Ali said ever so quietly.
"Oh, I think I understand plenty young lady! Get that boy out of your bulky head right now!"
"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND!" A shower of leaves was raining down onto them as Ali raised her voice above that of her mother. "YOU! You don't know ANYTHING about me! NOTHING! You are blinded by Old One and her crappy nonsense!" Ali toned down her voice significantly for her next words as sobs were breaking through her screams of anger. "You have NO idea how I feel, are you too blind to see that I am suffering?!"
"Don't yell at me like that!"
"YOU YELLED AT ME FIRST!"
"ALI BEHAVE YOURSELF!"
"Oh forget about it, you're too stupid to understand what it means to be lonely…"
"E-EXCUSE ME?!"
"Don't you know how much it hurts t-to be all alone all day with n-n-no one to play with, to have FUN with? Don't you know how TERRIBLE I feel?!"
"Frankly Ali, you're well advised to stop complaining about every whimsical little thing you don't agree with! That's not how life works; life is never in your favor, remember that!"
"OH WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?" Ali couldn't decide whether to collapse in her misery or whether to keep up with the stupidity and blatant ignorance she was tasked to endure, however hard it was. There wasn't a single part of her face not covered in her thick tears and it was becoming harder and harder by the second to keep her anger fueled stronger than the abysmal disappointment which was growing like cancer inside of her, choking her like the thick smoke from a forest fire. Just how much more could she take? Maybe she should just run away! But to leave things unresolved? At least she wanted to try convincing her however unlikely it was.
"Just once would you listen to me?! Just once would you care about me!?"
"I do listen to your idiocy right now, is that not enough? I care enough to try and lecture you about it. You need to get the picture, young lady, that this is not how you achieve things in life! You don't survive with this attitude!"
"SEE!? SEE!?" Ali was boiling. "YOU ARE NOT LISTENING AT ALL! ALL YOU DO IS…"
"Hold it right there young lady or you'll regret it!"
Ali glared at the grown-up with tear-stained eyes. "All you d-do is r-r-ruin my l-l-life! You d-don't…. understand!"
"I do understand what sadness and loneliness feels like, Ali…" suddenly the voice of the adult became strangely distant and almost soft. "Do you not think it makes me lonely everyday to raise you all alone? Without your father who died so tragically because we weren't safe? Would that perhaps change your mindset a little bit? I couldn't bear losing you too so I took every measure to ensure that you are always well protected."
"Liar." Ali's composure steadied somewhat. "You're just stubborn, trying to get your point across and you're trying to ruin my life!"
"That. Is. Not. True!" the grown-up panted. "I am trying to teach you the mindset you need to survive, you stupid girl! What good does it do if you live nicely and then a sharptooth eats you!?"
"AT LEAST I WOULD HAVE HAD A GOOD LIFE THEN!" Ali screamed, her rage refueled to the max, words flowing without much of a thought. "I'D RATHER DIE TRYING TO FOLLOW THE SLEEPSTORIES THAN TO CONTINUE LIVING HERE!" A little quieter but still screaming, she continued to elaborate. "Living here is like being a scaly swimmer in a small pond that's slowly drying up! It SUCKS! It sucks all life out of me and that's not how I want to live my life okay?!"
"This just proves that your thinking is still that of a little child, Ali. I just cannot take that idiotic thinking serious."
"ARE YOU STUPID?!"
"I'D RATHER NOT BE DEAD JUST BECAUSE I'VE GOT A RANDOM FEELING INSIDE OF ME! DON'T you realize how SILLY that even is!?"
"YOU'RE FEELING IT TOO! You and Old One… No, EVERYONE in this stinking herd, you are all just stinking cowards, THAT'S what you are!"
"Leave Old One out of this or you will regret this, young lady!"
"You KNOW what this feeling means! EVERYONE is feeling it and EVERYONE has to go to that place from our sleepstories!"
"YOU only want to go because of your childish fantasies! Thinking that you'll meet that Littlefoot boy… DO YOU NOT REALIZE HOW RIDICULOUS THAT IS!?"
Ali's eyes twitched. Her mother had just ventured on another level of personal attack entirely, one that's hurting like the stab of a knife.
"Do you not know how ridiculous you all are?" Ali's voice was suddenly calm but deep inside she was falling apart. "He had the answer, the answer how to be safe! There is only so much safety the herd can give me, we still lose members to sharpteeth despite our numbers no matter how hard everyone is trying! The Valley has high numbers as well but it has other defenses which keep sharpteeth from attacking!"
"Oh, you don't say?" There was an obvious mocking undertone to her voice now; Ali wanted to kick her mother but she knew it would achieve nothing.
"The Great Valley has walls that protect them but even more so the reputation it has! There, dinosaurs of all kinds are living together in harmony! No sharptooth has managed to kill inside the Valley for as long as we remember because they are working together, because they don't have a freak as leader and plenty of dumb idiots who don't see the forest behind all those trees!"
"Ali that's enough, one more insult and I will…"
"Call Old One? Go ahead, it won't change anything."
"ALI!"
"You can't keep me locked up while we're not moving around and you know it," Ali said quietly, trying to calm down in the hope that it'd help convincing her mother just a little bit. "As I said, the Valley is where it is safe for me. This herd doesn't give me a future, nor a childhood I can enjoy. During the brief time we were there, for the first time ever I was happy, I had friends! Why are you trying so hard to take all of that away from me!?"
"Girl, do you honestly believe we would share this Valley with those disgusting non-longnecks? Do you honestly believe some walls keep a sharptooth away? Do you honestly think we'd allow you to play with someone who lured you on an adventure to the Land of Mists which should have killed you if it weren't for blatant luck?! How stupid do you think I am?!"
"Very." Ali said that out loud.
"ALI, YOU BAD-MANNERED GIRL!"
"You know nothing about them, you don't know what they're even like and yet you judge them badly? How idiotic!"
"They're different and dangerous!"
"Dangerous? They're eating leaves too! Just because they look different and have other traditions doesn't mean they'll kill you on sight!"
"It's pointless to change my mind, you're biased and too young to understand this!"
"And you're too old to understand me!" Rage was slowing mingling with her words again.
"This Littlefoot boy has been a terrible influence on you, I wish we'd never set foot on that stupid Great V…"
Something inside Ali snapped at that moment. She didn't know whether she was crying harder than she was yelling but either way her mother had crossed a line she should have never crossed and at that moment Ali gave up.
"SHUT UP! YOU KNOW NOTHING! NOTHING!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
"NO!"
"YOU ARE NOT TO LEAVE THE NEST ANYMORE, YOU HEAR ME?!"
"I DON'T STINKING CARE!"
"FINE!"
Both mother and daughter were facing each other and the tension between them was more than tangible; one could literally see the air around them glimmer from their emotions.
"I will report this inexcusable behavior of yours, don't even think you are getting away with this crap, Ali."
"DO WHAT YOU WANT, I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOUR NONSENSE ANYMORE!"
"ALIIIII!"
"BLA BLA BLA!"
"QUIT THIS ATTITUDE OF YOURS RIGHT HERE!"
"NO!" Ali wasn't thinking anymore, she had never been this angry in her life. Her mind was full of hate and before she knew it, words slipped from her mouth, words she should have never said.
"I WILL NO LONGER LISTEN TO YOU! YOU ARE CONTROLLING ME; THE HERD IS CONTROLLING ME; I'M NOT YOUR STINKING PUPPET, YOU HEAR THAT?! I'M DONE WITH YOU! FROM NOW ON I'LL DO WHAT I WANT!"
"YOU WON'T! YOU ARE STAYING RIGHT HERE!"
Ali made attempts to walk away but her mother blocked her path.
"I'M NOT! TRY MAKING ME!"
"ALI YOU INSUFFERABLE GIRL!"
"WHY SHOULD I STAY?! YOU DON'T LOVE ME LIKE A MOTHER WOULD! YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER, I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU SO MUCH! YOU HEAR THAT, I HAAAAAAAAATTEEEEEEEEE YOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU!"
Suddenly, Ali's mother stopped resisting. The girl swiftly passed under her mother's legs and ran for the forest.
"I DO NOT EVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, NEVER EVER!" she cried and no sooner than she had said these words, Ali had disappeared in the darkness...
Take a deep breath, this was intense after all :D
So... snap. That argument completely escalated huh? If you think Ali is out of character here, just try to get into her mindset and take the circumstances in this story into consideration. What Ali is facing may not seem too bad to an outsider but the girl is breaking apart from loneliness and the stiff and rigid herd she lives with which also influences her mother to a point where she cares more about the herd than her own daughter, a mistake she is going to regret very soon. I hope you enjoyed the intense fight :)
Oh and one more thing before I forget. I deliberately didn't break up the dialogue more than absolutely necessary since it is rather obvious who is speaking at all times here. Also, feelings during this fight needn't any further explanation I think, their words speak loud enough :)
The Rhombus chapter 10 . Mar 1
I actually think the omission of the song worked rather well here. The interactions between the gang were handled effectively and I think their concerns about Littlefoot's upcoming journey were well-conveyed. One part in particular made me laugh out loud though:
-snip-
"So let me get this straight…" Cera, who had been silent thus far, perching on a rock, finally spoke up. "You've been having sleepstories so you're going on an adventure but you don't know when and you don't know where and you don't know why but you just sorta feel when it's time to leave and then you and your grandparents will just sorta wander off." The words came in such quick succession that Littlefoot had a hard time keeping up with them. "Is that it?"
-snip-
This is classic Cera and, to be honest from a rational point of view, she has a very good point. Most of us in the modern world would not consider wandering off to a place unknown due to a dream would be a good idea. :p I do like how she does, in her own way, wishes him well however. I don't really have much else to say about this chapter but I think it treated the source material quite well considering the necessity of either working in or removing a song. Keep up the good work!
Thank you! :D
That quote you mentioned is actually taken straight from the movie, maybe that is why it feels so Cera-esque? Either way, I'm really glad you liked my version if this scene, yep yep yep!
Guest chapter 10 . Feb 27
You already know my thoughts on the chapter, and I'm glad we were able to find a solution to the song problem, but to reiterate here's a quick review. I find it interesting that while Littlefoot mentioned having recurring dreams, he neglected to mention the cave or his visions of Ali. In standard continuity this makes sense, since the dream sequences you've written are infinitely better than those shown on screen, but I'm still curious why he didn't mention the more personal elements of his dreams. As for the following day, it was nice to see leaving the valley treated with more trepidation. After all, while they've survived their encounters with predators, there's still an element of danger to the mysterious beyond and it shouldn't be treated lightly. I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here and appreciate being able to work with you.
Thank you very much again, the pleasure of working with you is all mine :)
I don't think you mentioned this to me yet. The dream in chapter 6 was different from Littlefoot's every-night sleep terror, maybe there exists a misunderstanding. Still, the dream is arguably related to those and that's quite supposed to be that way. Its main purpose of course was to do some foreshadowing both for the adventure (the talk with his grandfather about going on an adventure triggered the dream) and for Ali :)
You re completely right there, I was a bit dissatisfied with how the movie treated the scene, largely because it seemed a bit rushed. The next Littlefoot-centered chapter (should be 12) is going to give the departure the depth the movie has been lacking in my opinion.