Little Persuasion

Littlefoot and Aylene carefully crept past the sleeping herds of the Great Valley. Both of them felt the urgency of their mission and took great caution to not get caught. If they were, then they would most certainly not get another chance to try and get the Night Flower. They couldn't let that happen. This was their only chance and they couldn't waste it.

The two friends didn't dare utter a single word as they approached the slumbering migrating longnecks. Hardly daring to breathe, they slowly walked among the sauropods taking great care not to accidently wake any of them.

Things started to get a little more intense as they made their way around one of the larger Apatosauruses. When they walked into a position where they could see its face, they both froze when they realized that it was the Old One. Although she was asleep, her snoring and closed eyes being the evidence of that, the two friends became even more wary when passing her. She was defiantly the last dinosaur they wanted to get caught by at this point.

Once they got past the Old One, they were relieved to find they had arrived at the very place they wanted to be.

Just a few feet away from them were Ali and Ken sleeping beside Ali's mother. Ironically, Aylene saw that Ken was sleep up against Ali's side, almost exactly like how the human girl slept against Littlefoot's side. However, she didn't have time to think about this detail too much. There were more important things at hand.

Littlefoot and Aylene slowly approached the sleeping longneck and human and Aylene knelt down, gently shaking Ken's shoulder.

"Ken," she whispered, "wake up."

The human boy winced and groaned for a moment before opening his eyes. When Ali felt Ken move suddenly, that forced her to awake as well. They both looked over and were surprised to see Littlefoot and Aylene standing right in front of them.

"Aylene?" Ken said.

"Shh!" Aylene quickly shushed.

"What are guys doing here?" Ali asked in a hushed voice.

"We've got to find the Night Flower." Littlefoot replied in the same tone.

"What?!" Ken exclaimed.

"SHH!" Aylene shushed again. "Keep it down!"

"You guys can't be serious!" Ken said in a lower voice.

"C'mon," Littlefoot said, "let's find some place to talk."

"C'mon, Ken." Ali pleaded.

Ken glanced back and forth between his best friend and the two Great Valley residences. He then slowly stood up and gathered up his crossbow, quiver, and gym bag.

"Okay," he whispered, "but just to talk."

Feeling just slightly relieved, Littlefoot and Aylene quickly guided Ali and Ken away from the migrating herd to a safe place to talk. In about ten minutes, they came to a small trench deep in the forest. It was hidden behind large tree roots, making it hard to see anything inside it. They quickly gathered inside the trench and settled down for a moment.

"Can you guys tell us how to get the Land of Mists?" Aylene asked.

"No way, Aylene." Ken shook his head. "I'm sorry, but that place is too dangerous. You guys can't go there."

"But Ken," Littlefoot protested, "my grandpa is sick and the Night Flower is the only cure for him! We have to do something! Please, you have to help us!"

"I'm sorry, Littlefoot." Ken frowned. "I really am. But I can't do that. You guys have no idea what's there. You'll be sitting ducks if you go there."

"We've got to at least try!" Aylene said firmly.

"Aylene," Ken raised his voice, "you guys are just going to get yourselves killed! I can't let you guys go alone and that's final!"

"Dangerous situations had never stopped us before and they won't stop us now!" Aylene snapped. "I ain't no pushover and Littlefoot is not going to give up on saving his grandpa! We'll go to ends of the earth to get those flowers if we have to! And whether you help us or not, we're going!"

"Aylene…!"

"Ken, please!" Ali suddenly spoke up.

The moment the female Apatosaurus spoke, everyone's attention turned to her. The look on her face was one of sympathy and tears were starting to form in her eyes.

"We have to help them!" Ali continued. "Remember how we felt when my father died?! We can't just sit here and do nothing! I'm afraid to go back to that place, too, but we have to do something! Please, Ken! We have to help them! We just have to!"

When Ali had finished her speech, Ken's expression softened significantly. And if Aylene didn't know any better, she would've sworn that she saw a glint of guilt in his eyes.

Ken then looked back and forth between Littlefoot, Aylene, and Ali. He then turned away and grimaced. He inhaled deeply and held his breath for a few seconds before letting out a gruff exhale.

"Okay, fine," he said, "we'll show you the way."

"Thank you." Aylene nodded. "Now we just need to get the others."

"No." Ken said firmly.

"But Ken…!" Littlefoot began to protest.

"I'm willing to help you guys," Ken said as he shot his hand up to silence the longneck, "but I'm not willing to risk their lives, too. The Land of Mists is filled with monsters and they would just be several more people to keep track of. I know you two are going to go no matter what, and I will help you, but I won't put their lives at risk. The fewer of us that go, the better off we'll be."

"I don't know, Ken." Aylene narrowed her eyes.

"Look," the boy got up, "are we going to go or not? If we are, we have to leave now. We'll have to put some distance between us and the adults to prevent anyone from stopping us."

Aylene gave a suspicious glare at Ken. Just something about the way he was behaving felt off. Although he said would help Littlefoot and her find the Night Flower, he didn't seem too keen on the idea a few moments ago, and he still didn't seem too keen on it now. There was defiantly something about the Land of Mists he wasn't telling them about. Whatever it was, it was most likely the reason why he didn't want to go back in the first place, and it was probably the reason why he didn't want the rest of the Gang to come along either.

But what was it?

"Aylene?" Littlefoot asked when he saw her expression.

The human girl shook her head as the Apatosaurus' voice broke her trance.

"Sorry," she said. "Let's get going. But first, I need to do something."

After grabbing a nearby stick, Aylene knelt down and began to write a message in the dirt.

The next day, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike began searching the Valley for the rest of their friends.

They had been waiting for Littlefoot and Aylene down by the usual meeting place at Thundering Falls ever since morning came. Now sun was steadily drawing closer to the middle of the sky. They knew something was defiantly afoot when the longneck and human didn't show up. They were never this late.

After searching the Valley in all of the possible place that their friends could be, they regrouped at the small trench that they had designated as their little "clubhouse" during the time when Thundering Falls had been blocked up and they needed a secret meeting place to discuss what they could do to find more water.

"I could not find them anywhere." Ducky reported, discouraged.

"I no find them either." Petrie groaned.

"This isn't like them." Cera said suspiciously. "I bet they're just hiding from us so they could spend some time alone with Ali and Ken."

"They wouldn't do that, Cera." Ducky said. "You know they would talk to us first. They would."

"Besides," Petrie shrugged, "we haven't seen Ali and Ken either. Surely we would've found them by now."

Cera gave a pensive look. She didn't want to admit it out loud, but the swimmer and flyer had good points. She knew Littlefoot and Aylene wouldn't just go off and play on their own unless they had already talked with the rest of the Gang first. And if they had really gone off to play with Ali and Ken, they would've found them by now.

However, that still left the question of where they could've possibly gone.

As Cera glanced around, pondering the question, something in the dirt caught her attention.

"Hey, look!"

The Triceratops pointed with her paw at the scribbles in the ground. The Gang gathered around it and immediately became confused as to what it meant. The lines looked to precise and clear to just be haphazard markings or footprints. Some were straight, connecting, swirly, and some looked like circles with lines.

"What's this?" Petrie asked.

"You got me." Cera shrugged.

"I can't believe I forgot you guys can't read!" Aylene slapped her forehead.

"I was wondering what you were doing when you were making those lines with that stick." Littlefoot said, trying not to make his friend even more embarrassed.

Aylene simply let out a frustrated groan. She was so used to her friends having human-like qualities that it never dawned on her until now that they couldn't read. They probably didn't even know the concept of reading and writing either. The message Aylene left was suppose to tell Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike that they had gone to the Land of Mists for the Night Flower and would be back shortly.

Now the girl was greatly regretting writing it in the first place since they wouldn't understand it.

"You can worry about that later." Ken simply said. "We're almost to the canyon. It should take us to the waterfall. From there, we have to pass through a cave that will take us to the Land of Mists. We should arrive there a little bit past noon."

"Well, I'm glad you're the one with a good memory, Ken." Ali looked at the boy riding on her back. "I totally forgot the path we took."

"Don't worry about it," the teenaged boy nodded, "let's just keep going."

"Are you sure we're almost there?" Aylene asked. "We've been walking through this wasteland since before dawn."

"It's not the far now." Ken replied. "Just trust me."

The group of four continued to walk across the sandy plan toward the northeastern horizon. After sleeping in a small, secluded cave on the outskirts of the Great Valley, the two longnecks and two humans immediately set out toward the Land of Mists with Aylene riding on Littlefoot and Ken riding on Ali. With Ken being their pathfinder, they quickly got on the correct route and were heading toward their destination.

With every step they took, they were getting closer: closer to finding the Night Flower, closer to saving Grandpa Longneck, and closer to a potential danger lurking in the veil of the mists.