Changes

"Whoa! Whoa! WHAUGH!"

The moment Aylene stepped through the portal; she soon got a terrible shock when she found herself teetering on the edge of a cliff. She flailed her arms frantically about, trying to regain her balance. For a moment, she feared that she was going to fall forward and down in to the terrain of the Mysterious Beyond below. Luckily, however, she managed to shift her momentum backwards and fell on her rear end.

The human girl grimaced in pain and took in several deep breaths. She then let out a huge exhale and let herself deflate.

"I hate it when that happens," she moaned. "Oh well, at least I'm alive."

"Aylene?" a voice called from a small gap in the wall behind the girl. "Is that you?"

Aylene turned her head around and smiled when she saw one of her best friends emerge from the cave. He was a young light brown Apatosaurus with reddish brown eyes. He was about the same height as the human girl if they were standing side by side.

"Hey, Littlefoot!"

The said dinosaur walked out from the cave and over to his friend.

"You okay, Aylene?" he asked. "I heard a scream."

"I'm fine." Aylene shrugged as she stood up. "It's just that I opened the portal to get here and I kind of botched the landing. I'm just glad I fell backwards instead of forwards. Still, I wish there was a way for me to know where I'm going to end up when I walk out of those rifts. Last time, Derek and I walked in to a river. Now that was a wake up call."

"Well, at least you guys can swim." Littlefoot replied.

"All the same, I just wish I knew how to use this Time Stone more. But ranting aside, how are things going?"

"It's alright. Nothing much exciting going on."

"Well, that's good news for me."

"Oh, stressful time?"

"Yeah, everyone at my school keeps going on about Homecoming and romantic couples are causing pointless drama."

"What's "Homecoming?"" the longneck asked.

Although he had learned by now that Aylene had a tendency to use long words, and he often asked what those words meant, he also learned to just go with it. However, he was curious as to why Aylene was so upset about this particular subject.

"It's a dance of sorts." Aylene rolled her eyes. "Basically you get a bunch of humans together and the girls fight over the guys."

"That sounds rather violent." Littlefoot frowned.

"No, it's just annoying." Aylene shrugged. "But I'm not going. Why waste my time pointlessly arguing when I can go on an adventure with great friends like you and the others?"

"When you put that way I can't really argue with you. Mostly because I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sorry," Aylene rubbed the back of her neck. "C'mon, lets just find the others."

The two friends were about to walk back through the small cave when they heard the sound of distant thundering footsteps mixed with deep groaning noises. They both turned around with curiosity and saw that down below on a small path to the Great Valley was a large herd of Apatosauruses. Since they two friends were so high up, and there were so many sauropods clumped together, they couldn't really make out how many were in the herd.

"Who are they?" Littlefoot asked.

"Who's who, Littlefoot?" a voice came from behind.

The longneck and human looked behind them and saw the rest of their friends emerge from the cave: Cera the Triceratops, Ducky the Saurolophus, Petrie the Pteranodon, and Spike the Stegosaurus.

"Hey, guys." Aylene smiled.

"Hey, Aylene!" Ducky smiled when she saw the human. "What are you guys looking at?"

"Over there." Littlefoot said. "Look."

The Gang all looked down as the herd of Apatosauruses below began to travel down the pass that would lead into the Great Valley.

"Hey," Ducky said, "they're longnecks, just like you, Littlefoot."

"Yeah," the young Apatosaurus nodded, "I wonder where they came from."

"Well, I say that we find out." Aylene winked. "C'mon!"

With Aylene riding on his back, Littlefoot raced down the path that would lead the two friends to a large waterfall pouring into a lake. It had been at least four months since the time when Thundering Falls was blocked up and a huge forest fire nearly wiped out the Valley's vegetation. Since that time, though, the Valley was fully healed and filled with plenty of food for the dinosaurs again.

When the two friends reached the end of the trail, they found two grey elder Apatosauruses who were washing their heads and long necks underneath the rushing water of the falls.

"Grandma! Grandpa!" Littlefoot happily shouted, skidding to a stop.

The two adult longnecks turned around when they heard their grandson and smiled.

"Littlefoot," Grandma Longneck smiled, "Oh, hello Aylene."

"Hi Grandma and Grandpa Longneck." Aylene waved as she mounted off of Littlefoot. "It's good to see you all again."

"We're glad to see you, too, Aylene." Grandpa Longneck nodded. "But where's your brother."

"Derek? Oh, he couldn't make it this time. He wiped out on his skateboard this week and hurt his wrist."

"Oh, dear!" Grandma Longneck said with concern. "Is he alright?"

"Don't worry, he's fine. It was just a minor fracture. It's nothing serious but he didn't want to risk making it worse. He sends his greetings, though."

"Well, that's nice of him." Grandpa Longneck smiled. "Can you tell him that we return the greetings when you get back?"

"Absolutely." Aylene smirked and gave a salute.

"Oh," Littlefoot suddenly spoke up, "that reminds me, Grandma, Grandpa, we saw a herd of longnecks coming into the Valley."

"Yes," the male elder Apatosaurus nodded, "we saw them, too, Littlefoot."

The next thing that Littlefoot knew, his grandmother leaned her head down and began to lick him clean. Aylene giggled a little as she stepped aside, not wanting to get in the way.

"Grandma," Littlefoot groaned, "why are you washing my face? It's only going to get dirty again."

"Because we are going to greet our visitors, Littlefoot," the female elder longneck replied.

She the young Apatosaurus two more licks on the face before pulling. Littlefoot blinked in confusion for a moment before shaking his head.

"You want to look nice, don't you?" his grandmother asked.

"Well, I guess." Littlefoot shrugged. "But who are they? And where do they come from?"

"They're our cousins, Littlefoot." Grandpa Longneck explained. "They're a migrating herd."

"So they basically move around instead of living on one place all the time." Aylene said.

"That's right." Grandma Longneck nodded.

"I wouldn't like that." Littlefoot shook his head. "I like living in the Great Valley."

"Yes," the male elder Apatosaurus chuckled. "We do, too, Littlefoot. Now come. Let's go welcome our cousins."

"Okay!" Aylene nodded.

The human girl mounted onto her longneck friend as the small herd began to set out toward the meeting place.

"I didn't know you had cousins, Littlefoot." Aylene said.

"Neither did I," the young longneck replied.

"Well," Grandma Longneck said, "the leader of the herd is my cousin. The rest of herd is what you would call an extended family."

"So they are of they same species and travel together, and maybe distantly related?" Aylene asked.

"That's right."

Suddenly, the group heard a small "THUMP" from behind and immediately turned around. They all became concerned when they saw Grandpa Longneck was leaning against a wall of rock. He also looked a little dazed and disoriented.

"Grandpa!" Littlefoot exclaimed.

"Are you alright?!" the female Apatosaurus asked, concerned.

The male elder longneck blinked for a moment before slowly lifting himself off of the rock.

"Strange," he mumbled, "I suddenly felt so tired."

"Perhaps we better stay here." Grandma Longneck suggested.

"Oh, nonsense." Grandpa Longneck smiled reassuringly. "I feel better already."

There was a moment of silence as the two elder Apatosaurus looked at each other, one with great concern and the other trying to show that he was okay. Eventually, Grandpa Longneck cleared his throat and looked down at the two younger creatures.

"Littlefoot, Aylene," he said, "why don't you two lead the way."

"Alright!" Littlefoot smiled.

With Littlefoot and Aylene leading the way, the herd made its way across the Valley toward the spot where they were to meet the herd of Apatosaurus. As they walked however, Grandma Longneck continued to look at her husband with concern. When he noticed her expression, he gently turned to her and said.

"I'm fine, Grandma. Really."

A few minutes later, Littlefoot and Aylene stood next to the two elder Apatosauruses as the new herd of longnecks approached them. Their presence also attracted the attention of the rest of the Valley and pretty soon there was a huge gathering of the various herds such as Triceratopses, Iguanodons, Pteranodons, and Saurolophuses. Pretty soon, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike came running up to stand beside Littlefoot and Aylene as leader of the herd of longnecks approached Littlefoot's grandparents.

This longneck was an old female with light tannish skin and faded aquamarine eyes. Behind her right eye was a series of what appeared to be swollen skin, as if she had an injury there a long time ago that had healed and left a scar.

"Welcome to our Valley, Old One." Grandma Longneck bowed her head respectfully as the matriarch of the herd approached.

"Yes," the Old One said in a low, almost gravelly voice. "Now tell me, how is your climate?"

"Our climate? Well, it's fine."

"And your land, has it changed?"

"Why, no." Grandpa Longneck shook his head. "It hasn't."

"Good," the Old One.

For a moment, the two Great Valley longneck elders looked at each other with confusion while the other herds began to mutter curiously among themselves. The Old One then walked forward before stopping and gazing over the magnificent landscape before her. Only, she didn't seem to be enjoying it. If anything, she seemed rather dismal.

"Of course," she sighed, "who knows how long that will last."

"What's that stuffy old longneck mean by "who knows how long that will last"?" Cera asked, rather loudly and just a little bit rude.

"Cera!" Aylene harshly nudged her friend. "Show some respect, will you?!"

The little Triceratops simply shot an irritated look at her human friend before letting out a huff and walking away. The Old One, however, didn't seem to take offence at Cera's blatant remark and simply answered the question.

"My herd has roamed far and wide, and everywhere things are changing."

At that moment, there was a simultaneous gasp among the dinosaurs. Immediately after that, there was a wave of worried mutters. Parents then huddled close to their children, as if protecting them from an unknown force. Littlefoot and Aylene both looked at each other with bewilderment and concern. What kind of changes was the Old One talking about?

"Old One," Grandma Longneck asked calmly, "Are you saying changes will happen here, too?"

"I don't know," the tannish longneck solemnly replied, gazing back out over the Great Valley. "All I do know is that once, our land was just like yours. Then water fell from the sky for weeks on end. Our land grew wet and soggy. Strange creatures began to make their home on what was once dry land. Other creatures moved into the trees that were our source of food. The once green land we had migrated across for years had become…the Land of Mists."

For some reason, Aylene felt a shiver run down her spine when the Old One said those words. By the sound of that story, she got this strange sense that there was something sinister in that land this elder longneck was speaking of. In a way, it sounded like something of a scary story. Only it wasn't just a story; it was real.

"We had no choice but to leave," the Old One concluded.

"Does this mean that you and your herd will be staying with us, Old One?" Grandma Longneck asked, hiding her fear after hearing this news.

"We stay in no place very long," the leader of the Apatosaurus herd replied. "You and the other Great Valley longnecks may join us when we leave. After all, there is safety in numbers."