Archie

"Whoa!" Cera exclaimed. "That was quite an earthquake!"

"Me glad me flying when it happened." Petrie smirked.

"Oh, knock it off, Petrie," the Triceratops gave an unenthused glare. "C'mon, let's keep going."

After finding those scribbles in the dirt, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike decided to try their luck at finding Littlefoot and Aylene back at Littlefoot's nesting place. It seemed to be the most logical place to look after all, and Cera was still kind of inwardly kicking herself for not thinking of it sooner. Regardless, she hid her embarrassment and the group proceeded to make their way through the forest.

However, as they approached the area, they stopped when they heard the sound Grandma Longneck calling, and she sounded worried.

"Littlefoot! Aylene! Littlefoot, where are you?!"

The Gang of four looked through the bushes and saw the elder female longneck walking back toward the nesting place. The distress on her face was unmistakable.

The groups' attention was soon drawn to Grandpa Longneck, who was lying on the ground in a position that wasn't natural for a sleeping longneck. He looked so weak, almost dead. The only indication they had that he was still alive was his body slowly rising and falling with every breath. Even then, his breathing was very shaky.

"What's wrong with Grandpa Longneck?" Ducky asked.

"I don't know." Cera shook her head. "And I don't see Littlefoot or Aylene anywhere."

"What do you think is going on?" Petrie asked, nervous.

Cera was about to reply when another female voice called out from the opposite direction of Grandma Longneck.

"Ali! Ken! Ali! Ken! Where are you?!

In a few seconds, a young female Apatosaurus from the migrating herd came into view. Her face was painted with worry and distress. When she saw the elder Great Valley longneck, she hastily approached her.

"Oh, Mrs. Longneck," she asked, "have you seen my daughter?!"

"No, I'm afraid not." Grandma Longneck replied. "Have seen Littlefoot?"

"No." the younger female Apatosaurus shook her head. "I didn't know he was missing."

"I woke up this morning and he and Aylene were gone." Grandma Longneck explained.

"Ali and Ken were gone as well."

The two longnecks then looked at each other. The worry in the their faces intensified as they began to piece together what was going on.

"I'm afraid they've gone to find the Night Flower." Grandma Longneck said fearfully.

"But Ali and Ken know they can't go back to that place!" the younger longneck protested. "And Ken wouldn't lead Ali anyone into danger!"

"I think Littlefoot and Aylene must've talked them into it," the Great Valley Apatosaurus looked away. "Littlefoot was so worried about his grandpa, and Aylene was determined to save him. And Ali and Ken know the way to the Land of Mists. I'm sure they're all searching for the Night Flower. Oh, I'm very sorry about this."

As the two longnecks continued their conversation, the young dinosaurs all looked at each other with surprise and concern. After a while, Cera nodded her head in such a way that it was a clear indicator for them to move away from the place so they could talk.

"Back to the clubhouse," the Triceratops whispered.

The others nodded. Without a moment of hesitation, they quickly made their way to the meeting place.

Once they got there, Cera, Ducky, and Spike all sat down, Petrie perched himself on a root jutting out from the dirt wall, and they all began to discuss what they had just overheard.

"So Grandpa Longneck's sick." Cera said. "Figures Littlefoot and Aylene would try to find a way to help him."

"But why didn't they ask us to go with them?" Ducky questioned.

"Well, Ali did say Land of Mists was full of dangerous monsters." Petrie pointed out.

"Ugh!" Cera groaned. "What is it with those two in getting into trouble all the time?! You know what happens after later: WE have to go and save them!"

"But Cera," Ducky frowned "we don't know how to get to the Land of Mists. No, no, no."

"That right." Petrie said. "And me no think grown-ups are going to tell us."

Spike responded to the Petrie's statement with a nod and a grunt.

Cera was about to say something when the grass outside of their hiding spot began to rustle. At the same time, two voices began calling the names of the young dinosaurs.

"Cera! Ducky!"

"Petrie! Spike!"

The Gang of four looked over just in time to see Ali and Ken emerge from the tall grass. Ali had some strands of grass clinging to her body and two long pieces were dangling off of her head. Ken was covered with sweat, giving him a shiny appearance like he had just come out of a lake. His bangs were stuck to his forehead and his cloths were soaked. Both of them were covered in dirt and were staggering, winded and fatigued. They were also panting hard, like that had just run a marathon, which wasn't really far from the truth.

However, Littlefoot and Aylene were nowhere to be seen.

"Guys!" Ali gasped. "There you are!"

"Ken!" Ducky exclaimed. "Ali!"

"You back!" Petrie said.

"Where are Littlefoot and Aylene?!" Cera narrowed her eyes.

"That's just it!" Ken panted. "They need your help! They're trapped in a cave!"

"What?!" Petrie and Ducky shrieked.

"There was an earthquake and the cave fell down!" Ali franticly explained. "We managed to get out, but they're trapped on the other side! Please, you've got to come now!"

"Why should we?!" Cera snapped. "How do you we know you're telling the truth?!"

"Cera," Ken raised his voice, "we're not making this up! Littlefoot and Aylene are in serious trouble! You're their friend, aren't you?!"

"If I'm their friend, they why did they leave us behind?!" Cera gritted.

"That was my fault!" Ken harshly replied. "They were going to ask you to come, but I told them no! But it was for your own protection! Now please, they need your help!"

Cera glared at Ken for a moment. The others could only speculate what was going on in her mind at this point. She was obviously hurt about being left behind, and she didn't seem to happy that Ken just admitted that he didn't want her and the others to come with them, even if it was for their own protection.

However, her response to him was surprising.

"Okay, fine!" she grunted. "Let's just get going!"

Ken sharply nodded and ran back over to Ali. He leapt on his friend's back and the small group quickly made their way back to the path that would take them to the caves behind the waterfall.

Meanwhile, back in the caverns, Littlefoot and Aylene franticly tried to dig their way through what seemed to be and endless wall of rocks. Despite all of their efforts, they could barely make any significant progress. The rocks were either too big to budge, tightly wedged between more boulders, or in such a position that it would risk another rockslide if they were moved.

Eventually, after about an hour of pushing and shoving, the longneck and human sat down to rest, leaning up against the boulders at the base of the wall. Both of them panted heavily and groaned as a dull pain began to rack their shoulders and backs.

"Ugh," Aylene wiped the sweat from her forehead, "it's no good, Littlefoot. All this does is hurt our shoulders."

"What do we do now?" Littlefoot asked. "We can't dig through this."

Aylene thought for a moment.

"There's got to be another way through the caves," she said pensively. "Although I'm not too keen on just wandering around without a sense of direction. We can easily get lost in here."

"Well," Littlefoot said, "we could try setting up a trail or something."

The moment the Apatosaurus said that, the gears in Aylene mind began to turn.

"Say," she looked at her friend, "you have strong sense of smell, right?"

"Yeah." Littlefoot nodded.

"Would you be able find something with my scent on it?"

"I guess I could. Why?"

Aylene stood up and pulled out one arrow. She then turned around and carefully wedged it into a firm part of the wall, be cautious not to cause a rockslide.

"If I leave this here," the girl explained, "could you use it as a way to lead us back here?"

Littlefoot wandered over to the arrow and sniffed it, getting its scent.

"I think I can do that." Littlefoot nodded with a small amount of confidence.

"Okay," Aylene said, "let's see if we can find another way out."

The two friends walked side-by-side through the dark caves. The only light they had were slits of sunlight through the ceiling and the steadily fading glow of Aylene's Time Stone. It was only a matter of time before it would extinguish completely, and there was no way of knowing if the girl would be able to light it again immediately, of if she would have to wait.

Fortunately, but the time its light had gone out, they had come across a section of the cavern where there were huge holes in the ceiling, allowing plenty of sunlight to shine through.

"Well, at least it's not so dark anymore." Littlefoot said, trying to be optimistic.

"Yeah," Aylene shivered, " but this place still gives me the creeps. Plus, we have no idea what lives here."

"Well, we haven't seen anything yet," the longneck pointed out.

"True. Let's just keep moving."

Littlefoot and Aylene continued to wander through the caverns. For a short while the only sounds they could hear were the wind softly blowing above the openings in the ceiling and their own footsteps.

That soon changed when they heard a third noise. It sounded like a soft slapping kind of noise. Whatever it was, it sounded close, and behind them.

With simultaneous gasps, Littlefoot and Aylene sharply turned around. There was nothing behind them, and the sound had stopped. They both exchanged wary looks before turning around and continuing on the way. The moment they turned their backs and walked away, the sound returned. They looked over their shoulders again, still nothing. However, when they turned around and walked a few paces, they both stopped for a moment. Before, the sound synchronized with their footsteps. This time, however, it gave a few more beats, even after they stopped.

"Okay," Aylene whisper, "I KNOW I heard something that time!"

Suddenly, something roughly bumped Littlefoot from behind. The longneck quickly lowered his head and looked underneath his body.

A strange face growled at him.

Startled, the longneck and human let out involuntarily screams and sprinted away. However, both of them were in such a panic that they didn't see a rock on the ground in front of them. As a result, Littlefoot, being ahead of Aylene, tripped over the rock and practically summersaulted onto his back. Before Aylene realized what had happened, she couldn't stop in time. She tripped over Littlefoot's head and fell over onto his belly, knocking the wind out of him.

"What are you doing in my cave?!" a gruff, angry voice boomed from behind them.

After getting her senses together, Aylene hastily got up off of Littlefoot and got ready to defend him from whatever threat was behind them. However, the moment she turned around and got a look of what scared them, she became more surprised than scared.

Approaching them was a large turtle-like creature, known as an Archelon. He had greyish tan skin and a dark brown shell. However, given the little light in the cave, it was all tinted with a bluish color.

He was scowling and growling at both Littlefoot and Aylene. However, Aylene couldn't help but smile. There was something he was missing that was making him not as threatening as he was trying to be.

"Wait a minute," the girl said, "you don't have any teeth."

The Archelon gave a weak growl before trailing off. He knew he was caught.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he mumbled. "I couldn't scare anybody if my life depended on it. But you can't blame a guy for trying. This cave's a dangerous place, you know?"

"Yeah, we kind of gathered that." Littlefoot said, rolling over onto his front.

"Oh, listen, I'm really sorry about that," the prehistoric turtle said. "It's just that ever since some hostile intruders entered the cave, I've been rather on edge."

"Hostile intruders?" Aylene asked, nervous.

"Yeah, a giant bellydragger and a sharpbeak. They've been prowling around here since last night. I take it you haven't seen them."

"No." Littlefoot shook his head, getting to his feet. "We didn't even know they were here. You're the only other creature we've seen here."

"I see, maybe they've moved on." the Archelon mumbled before shaking his head. "Oh, where are my manners? We haven't been introduced; the name's Archie. Who are you two?"

"I'm Littlefoot," the Apatosaurus said. "And this is my friend, Aylene."

"Hmm," Archie glanced back and forth between the two. "I know you're a longneck," he turned to Aylene, "but what are you?"

"I'm a human." Aylene replied.

"A human, huh?" Archie looked mildly surprised. "Well, I'll be. I never thought I'd live to see one."

Aylene bashfully stepped back. She knew she should've been used to dinosaurs in this world being surprised, and maybe to a lesser extent, honored, to meet her, but she was still shy about it. She didn't really think there was anything special about meeting her. She was just a human girl after all.

"So tell me, Littlefoot and Aylene," Archie gave a friendly smile, "what are you two doing here all alone?"

"Well, we're not alone." Littlefoot said. "We're with our friends Ali and Ken. I mean, if they're alright that is."

"You see," Aylene added, "there was a cave-in near the place where we entered here. Ali and Ken are on the other side of a large wall. C'mon, we'll show you."

Archie followed Littlefoot and Aylene back towards the wall of rocks. With Littlefoot tracking the scent of the arrow Aylene, left behind, they managed to find the place in just a few minutes.

"Ali and Ken are on the other side of this wall." Littlefoot explained, leaping up the rock piles.

"Who-e!" Archie exclaimed. "This was some cave-in. You two were lucky you weren't hurt. I hope your friends were as lucky."

"Do you think you can help us dig out?" Aylene graciously asked.

"Sure," Archie nodded. "I'll give it a try. Where there's a will there's a way, you know."

The Archelon crawled over to a large boulder near the base of the rock wall and began to pull on it with his large fore-flippers. However, when he strained to budge it, he winced in pain and released his grip on the rock.

"Or a pulled muscle," he groaned.

"Just don't kill yourself, okay?" Aylene giggled. "Well, we better get to work. Hopefully, we'll be able to get through now."