Surprise, Surprise
Shortly after the new herd of Apatosauruses moved on to find a nesting ground where they could rest, Littlefoot ran over to his grandfather with Aylene following close behind him.
"Grandpa," the little longneck asked, "we're not going to migrate, are we?"
"Of course not, Littlefoot." Grandpa Longneck replied, giving a reassuring smile. "The Great Valley is our home."
Relieved to hear that he and his family would remain in the Great Valley, Littlefoot let out a heavy sigh.
"Well, that's good." Aylene smiled. "Because where ever you go, I go with you."
"Really?" Littlefoot turned to his human friend.
"Yeah, remember the first promise we made? We'd always stay be each other's side no matter what."
Of course, that was their first promise.
After the night Sharptooth first attacked them, and Littlefoot's mother had died to save them, he and Aylene made a promise that they would stay by each other's side no matter what happened. And through all the trials and dangers they had faced, they still managed to keep that promise.
"I haven't forgotten that promise," the longneck smiled.
"Well," Ducky happily said as she ran over to Littlefoot and Aylene and hugged Littlefoot's foreleg, "I'm so glad that you guys aren't leaving. I am. I am. The Great Valley will never change. Oh, no, no, no, no."
Then Petrie swooped over and landed on Aylene's shoulder. The human girl flinched just a little when he hugged her face, mostly because she wasn't expecting him to do that.
"Me glad you guys not leaving, too," the Pteranodon said. "Me miss you whole bunch."
"We'd miss you, too, Petrie." Aylene gave a small giggle.
Spike then walked up to Littlefoot and began to lick his long neck. The young Apatosaurus couldn't help but laugh as the Stegosaurus's tongue tickled him. When he lowered his head a bit, Spike proceeded to give Littlefoot two more licks on the cheek.
"Does this mean you'd miss us, too, Spike?" Littlefoot asked.
The little spiketail simply replied with a smile and a small nod. Aylene knelt down to Spike's level and gently stroked his head. He returned the gesture by licking her cheek. She giggled a little and wiped some of the slobber off of her face with the back of her right hand.
Aylene then turned her attention over to Cera, who surprisingly was rather quiet.
"Um," the human girl said almost cautiously, "Cera, would you miss us?"
"Well…" the Triceratops hesitated, "I…"
Cera paused for a moment and looked at the ground with a frown on her face. Aylene smirked and raised an eyebrow. She knew exactly what that meant: Cera would miss them; she was just too shy to say it. And based on what the human girl knew about the threehorn, she was probably going to reply with some kind of evasive answer.
Which is exactly what happened.
"Oh!" Cera huffed before turning away. "Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't! I'm not telling!"
Instead of being insulted or even worried, Littlefoot and Aylene simply exchanged small grins. They knew Cera well enough to know when she was letting her pride get in the way of her true feelings. And usually when she acted this way, it usually meant she didn't want to get sentimental.
"Why are you not tell, Cera?" Ducky asked. "Is it a secret? Is it? Huh?"
"Well," Cera gave a little mischievous smile, "if you REALLY want to know, you have to catch me first!"
The Triceratops them bolted away and headed for the forest. Ducky, Petrie, and Spike immediately gave chase and Aylene began to follow them.
"C'mon, Littlefoot!" the human girl called back for her friend.
Littlefoot only hesitated for a moment before giving a smile and shaking his head. He then set out running after his friends. However, the moment they entered the forest, he lost sight of them. He could still hear them laughing and taunting to Cera that they would catch her.
As Littlefoot followed their voices to a place where there were some large old logs, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the bush on his left suddenly move. He turned his head sharply in that direction and saw that there was a pair of forest eyes looking straight back at him. Just seeing a bush with eyes made the longneck jump back in surprise.
"Who's there?!" Littlefoot said fearfully.
"Oh, sorry," a voice came from the bush.
The next thing Littlefoot knew; something stood up out of the bush. He drew in a sharp breath of air and his eyes grew wide when he saw that it was another human.
Only this one was a boy.
He wore a blue sleeveless with grey gym shorts and black sandals. Around his waist was a belt with a quiver full of arrows attached to it. On his back a green gym back and he carried a curious looking weapon. It reminded Littlefoot of a bow like Aylene had, but it was shaped differently. It looked almost like it was a bow attached to a long stick.
The human boy's dusky hair was short and slightly ruffled up. He was very tall and slightly muscular. His forest green eyes looked back at Littlefoot with a glint of honesty.
And around his neck was a blue stone.
"I didn't mean to scare you," the boy said in sincere voice, "I was just looking for my friend."
"Y-You're a human!" Littlefoot gasped in bewilderment.
"You're surprised," the human boy shook his head. "That's okay, I get that a lot. Anyway, my name's Ken. What's yours?"
"Littlefoot," the longneck replied.
"That's a nice name." Ken nodded. "So, do you live around here?"
"Yeah."
"Then do you think you can help me find my friend? I've been looking for her everywhere, but this place kind has gotten me turned around."
"Oh, sure," the longneck nodded. "And maybe my friends can help. I think they went this way. C'mon!"
Eventually, the others managed to catch up with Cera and corner her into a large bush. Once they had her trap, they started to playfully tickle torture her until she finally gave in.
"Alright, already!" she laughed. "I admit it, I would miss you and Littlefoot, Aylene!"
"Yeah, I know." Aylene grinned. "But you still have to tell Littlefoot."
"Then will you be happy?" the Triceratops smirked.
"Sure," the human said, "but first we gotta find him."
"Hey," Ducky suddenly piped up, "there he is now!"
Everyone turned in the direction the little swimmer was pointing and saw a young Apatosaurus walking through the woods just a few yards away from them, looking around at the trees in curiosity. Aylene stared at the long-necked dinosaur for a moment. It was an Apatosaurus like Littlefoot, but its skin color was different. This one had more of a light violet hide. It also seemed to be a little smaller than Littlefoot. Not to mention, its eyes were of a light blue color instead of reddish brown.
"I don't think that's Littlefoot." Aylene said. "Still, we should probably find out who it is. C'mon."
The others hesitated for a moment just as Aylene got up from her spot and lightly jogged over to the Apatosaurus.
The longneck sharply looked over when she heard the sound of footsteps quickly approaching her. She stepped back when she saw a human girl approaching her. The moment she saw the creature, her eyes widened and she gasped in surprise.
Seeing the longneck's skittish reaction, Aylene stopped just a few feet away from her and gently smiled.
"It's okay," the human girl said, "we're friends. My name's Aylene. What's yours?"
"Ali," the longneck shyly replied in a voice that sounded like a little girl.
"That's a pretty name." Aylene complimented.
"See," Cera said to the others as the rest of the group approached the human girl, "she's not Littlefoot, she's a girl."
"Yep, yep," Ducky nodded, "she is a girl."
Seeing the others, Ali slightly back away and curled up slightly. She almost looked afraid to see so many different dinosaurs and human in one place.
"Did you come here with the herd of Apatosauruses?" Aylene gently asked.
"Yes," Ali replied in a small voice.
"Is everything okay?" the human asked as she started to notice that the female longneck was nervous.
"It's just…" the Apatosaurus looked away, "It's been a while since I've met new faces."
"I see," Aylene simply smiled. "It's okay. But maybe we should introduce ourselves."
"Good idea." Ducky happily stepped forward. "I'm Ducky, and this is my brother, Spike."
The swimmer motioned to the spiketail, who stepped forward and greeted Ali with a nod and a smile.
"He cannot talk like us." Ducky explained. "Oh, no. But he still says hello."
"And my name Petrie," the little Pteranodon said as he landed on Spike's back.
"And I'm Cera," the Triceratops nodded, "a threehorn, of course."
"Ali!" a voice suddenly shouted from the forest. "Ali, where are you?!"
At the sound of the voice, Ali looked up and a small smile streaked across her face, as if she recognized it and was happy to hear it. She turned her head in the direction the voice was coming from and replied:
"I'm over here!"
Seconds later, Littlefoot emerged from the thicket and began to run over to the others with another creature following him.
"Oh, there you are, Ali!" Ken exclaimed in relief as he raced toward his friend. "I've been looking all over for you! The Old One and your mother…!"
"KEN?!"
At the sound of his name, Ken stopped dead in his tracks and looked to see a surprise of sorts.
Standing as still as a statue with a shell-shocked look on her face was the same girl he bumped into earlier at school.
"Aylene?!" the boy exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"
"What are YOU doing here?!" Aylene replied in a near flabbergasted tone.
"Wait," Littlefoot looked back and forth between the two humans, "you guys know each other?"
"I guess you could say that." Ken replied.
"But you…" Aylene started to stutter, "I…this world…HOW?!"
"I've got a Time Stone," the boy held up the blue stone around his neck, "just like you."
"YOU have a Time Stone?!" Aylene shrieked and grabbed the charm on her necklace. "But I thought…!"
"There was only one." Ken finished the girl's sentence for her. "I thought the same thing, too. That is until I saw that you at school today. But I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to run into you here."
"I wasn't expecting to run into you at all." Aylene replied, trying to calm herself down.
"Well, this is rather awkward," the human boy rubbed the back of his neck.
"You said it," the human girl nodded.
"Well, anyway," Ken cleared his throat and changed the subject, "Ali and I came just came with the herd of longnecks."
"You mean you're part of the migrating herd?" Ducky asked.
Ken then turned to the other dinosaur children.
"Oh, hey there." He nodded. "My name's Ken."
"We kind of gathered that." Cera replied. "My name's Cera."
"And I'm Ducky," the little swimmer waved before patting Spike's neck. "And this is my brother, Spike."
The young Stegosaurus simply nodded.
"And my name Petrie," the young Pteranodon said.
"It's nice to meet you all." Ken smiled.
Ali then moved from her spot and walked over to stand next to Ken. The human boy looked at his Apatosaurus friend and gently rubbed her neck.
"It's okay, Ali," he said, "you don't need to be shy."
"I'm sorry," Ali lowered her head, almost shamefully.
"What's the matter?" Littlefoot asked, concerned.
"Oh, Ali just gets nervous when meeting new faces." Ken explained. "And it's been a while since anyone new has come to the herd."
"Well, why don't we show you guys around the Valley?" Littlefoot suggested. "We can show you guys were we like to play and hang out."
"That sounds like a great idea." Ken nodded. "What do you say, Ali."
"Um, okay," the shy female longneck replied.
"Well, c'mon!" Cera motioned with her head. "Follow us!"
While the others immediately set out to explore the Valley, Littlefoot walked over to Aylene, who still looked shell-shocked.
"Aylene, are you okay?" the longneck asked.
It took a moment for Aylene to regain her composure before she could answer.
"I think so," she exhaled deeply. "But I gotta say, that was quite a shock."
"I was surprised to see another human in this world, too." Littlefoot replied. "I thought you were the only one who had a Time Stone."
"So did I." Aylene said as she looked down as the green stone around her neck. "But…how did Ken get one?"
"Well, we won't know unless we ask him."
"I guess you're right," the girl hesitated for a moment before turning to her friend. "Well, c'mon, let's catch up with the others."
As soon as Aylene leapt onto Littlefoot's back, the two of them raced through the forest to catch up with their friends.