Chapter 5: Mountains of Courtship and a new argument
Two weeks later:
Me see Mountains of Courtship!
With joy, the adolescent flyer picked up speed as the destination of his journey - the Mountains of Courtship, a place for flyers to find a mate during the cold time, came into view. It was a small aggregation of cone-shaped mountains - volcanoes that hadn't been smoking for as long as flyer tales were remembered, surrounded by a lush forest rich in fruit-holding trees and bushes and a somewhat larger lake that was rich in wildlife as well, attracting carnivorous species of flyers as well. Although his kind was part of their diet, herbivorous flyers typically weren't targeted for food during the cold time. The sharptooth flyers were outnumbered badly, only getting to court on one of the mountains - the one overlooking the lake, while the flatteeth held the remaining peaks. In total the place consisted of eleven of them, varying in heigth, steepness and even vegetation.
Uncle right about this place... it just as he say.
The young flyer had been able to reconnect with his uncle after his banishment was finally over, however Pterano had grown used to his life of migration, the fact that he still wasn't quite welcome contributing to his decision. Still, Petrie had learned a lot from him during his stay, things he wouldn't have understood back when he was still a child.
First me need to figure out where flyers my age be, then me need to find mountain where males be...
Catching some of the updrafts, Petrie gained height as he approached.
"Morning guys..."
"Good morning, Ducky!"
As the weakening form of the Bright Circle slowly creeped along the walls of the Valley, still undecided whether to rise or proceed to hide, Ducky joined her friends at their usual meeting spot, looking groggy but otherwise alright. Spike soon emerged behind some bushes as well.
"How's your tail doing?" Littlefoot asked neutrally, not sure how his friend was feeling this morning. Luckily, the swimmer had recovered pretty well from severe hypothermia, however the frost burn that covered most of the skin and, in particular, the tip of her tail was causing her quite some pain, some days being worse than others. The blizzard had been kind to them. As fierce as it hit their home, as short-lived it had been, the storm having ceased completely by the time they had woken up in their cave. Ducky's body had still been limp and cold back then but their body warmth had heated her just enough to slowly regain a low but unproblematic core temperature, allowing Littlefoot to head back to the valley to inform their folks of the situation to return with Ducky's mother in toll, worried but happy to see her daughter alive.
It had taken two days for the swimmer to regain full consciousness and feeling in her extremities and another week for the frost burn to heal, allowing her to move again. However, things were still far from even okay.
"It hurts," Ducky responded rather bluntly, not even in the spirit to add her triple yep.
"Sorry 'bout that," the longneck replied, giving his friend a quick nuzzle. "You got any sleep tonight? You look terrible..."
"Hardly..." came her instant response. Unfortunately, akin to a bad sunburn, a frost burn, although healing much slower, caused pain when being touched which had the effect that Ducky frowned slightly while being nuzzled though she appreciated the gesture nonetheless. She had been sleeping terrible due to the fact that lying down was still painful, making it close to impossible to find sleep, especially in her current mind state.
"Well, it's your fault for all of this to have happened!" Cera shouted in annoyance, kicking some left-over snow in frustration. It hadn't been snowing ever since and temperature soon recovered significantly, however it took a long while for such masses of Ground Sparkles to melt completely. Wherever the storm had piled it up, some of it still remained.
"It's your fault that you went up there where the wind is freezing cold as it is! Forget the beakbrain!"
"Cera!" Littlefoot chimed in, sensing an argument in the bowel but it was already too late.
"Fine, talk to me again once you have had your heart broken!" the swimmer exclaimed in outrage, tears welling up in her eyes. "Nobody understands me!"
"Nobody understands you either, geez!"
"Cera, that's enough!" Littlefoot yelled fiercely, stepping inbetween, flanked by Spike whose glare at Cera was at least as grim as Littlefoot's. "Instead of yelling at her, how about trying to understand her feelings?!"
"Oh, don't you too! Leave me alone with that love crap!"
"For the record, Ducky didn't even talk about Pe.."
"DON'T mention that name while I'm around!" The threehorn entered an aggressive pose, her horns aimed towards her friend.
"Hey, what's this fuzz all about now Cera?! Get a grip and stop being unreasonable! He'll always be our friend no matter what! Or did you forget about the vow we made so long ago?"
Cera didn't immediately respond, appearing to be pondering about her next words.
"I thought we're old enough to know nothing good ever comes out of the fights we have..." Disappointment rang in the longneck's voice as his gaze wandered over to Spike who had joined his side in mute support.
"Oh fine whatever!" Cera grunted, giving in this time for she wasn't angry at Littlefoot in particular nor did she want to. Although the sticky feeling of being misunderstood remained. "I'm just tired of her whining, okay? She's not a little hatchling anymore and she should know she alone is responsible for all of this! And as for the beakbrain, I just don't see why he needs to leave!"
Well, at least she did see reason...
"Well, I don't exactly know about him," Littlefoot begun, respecting the threehorn's request not to mention Petrie's name lest to fire up the tension again. "However, if I were to guess, he didn't fly to that place looking for a mate as he claimed but he might simply need some distance. Ducky doesn't really care about the issues that him being a flyer and her being a swimmer cause them but he was able to make a tough decision that caused Ducky much grief."
Because she couldn't make that decision…
"I think he simply needs some distance for the feelings to calm down so he can see her as a friend and not as a love interest again..." Littlefoot sighed. "My guess anyway. I'm correct on your part, am I not Ducky? Ducky?" Littlefoot turned around only to see that Ducky wasn't with them anymore, Spike merely gesturing to a spot behind them.
She left, oh great...
"Let's go after her, Spike..." the longneck sighed. "I think I know where she's headed to..."
The closer the flyer got, the bigger grew his anticipation but, even more so, anxiety and a distinct feeling of uneasiness. Pterano may have told him about how courtship worked and how to behave, however it was clear that he was, at most, a rookie in the community of the mountains and far from having the self-confidence to talk to another girl flyer, not to mention standing up to challengers. As he reached the first outskirts, he felt the judging looks of other males on his back penetrating him already and those were just feeding grounds he was trespassing, stopping here and there to feed on some treestars that were still on the trees there in the warmer weather. Most flyers seemed to be adult but he spotted the occasional adolescent too.
As he reached the first of the eleven peaks, his observation began.
This mountain full of old flyers, it no have plant life and it look pretty crooked. This not right.
As he passed over the pretty gloomy-looking mountain, soon another presented itself to the flyer, looking much more inviting with its rather smooth surface only consisting of smaller cascades, rocks and cliffs.
This be girl flyer only mountain.
Petrie quickly amended of course of flight upon that realization, receiving some odd looks from the females.
Yep, Petrie not s'pposed to be here...
Looking around himself, the brown flyer decided to aim for the tallest of all mountains to his right which also seemed to be the center of the whole place, soon realizing that this was not his place either.
"Grown-up males here, me move on…"
After trespassing the sharptooth flyer's mountain and two more mountains where both genders seemed to meet for courtship and chit-chat, he finally discovered the mountain where the young males gathered. Reluctantly, Petrie moved over there…
Well, what do you think? I don't think I'm particularly good at describing locations tbh
Also I seem to like writing arguments stirred by Cera lately, huh? Well, I think the next chapter is probably going to reveal what direction we're taking here. Hope you enjoyed it :)
TimeLordMaster108 chapter 5 . Aug 4
"Loving this story so far, the characters are captured perfectly and I love how you've managed to grip me from the start.
I really hope Ducky dosn't die since I'm not a massive fan of stories where one of the Gang dies, particularly Ducky given the disturbing reality subtext that can ensue."
Hey, I'm glad to hear that! :) We've just learned that Ducky survived although not unscathed. I'm not a big fan of stories killing off major characters, especially if it's just for the sake of slaughtering them. A meaningful death can be a great move but the author of the story really needs to know his stuff to pull it off in a good and believable way. Not sure I could do that haha. Anyway, thanks!