Tickles

The group hastily ran under a nearby tree, desperate to get out of the rain. Luckily, the tree's branches were large and covered with thick leafs. Also, the ground below it was relatively dry compared to the rest of the mud beyond its perimeter.

The dinosaurs and humans all huddled together under the tree's protective branches, shivering from the cold raindrops that drenched them to the bone.

"I do not like it here," Ducky whimpered. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no."

Ken turned away and clenched.

"I never wanted to come back here," he painfully mumbled to himself.

Aylene, worried about Cera, glanced back at the cliff where the Triceratops had fallen down. By now, the rain had become so heavy that she could barely see it. This only made her even more anxious. She knew that Cera must be soaked and cold by now, much worse then they were right now.

"Cera," she whispered, shedding just a few tears.

Seeing his friend worried, Littlefoot moved closer to Aylene and gently wrapped his neck around her shoulders.

"We'll save her," the longneck said. "I promise."

Aylene looked at Littlefoot and gave a small nod. Right now, just believing in his words was the only thing keeping her calm. She had to believe that they would somehow rescue Cera.

Suddenly, above them in the branches of the trees, came bunch of little squeaking and chirping sounds.

"What's that?!" Littlefoot jumped slightly.

"It's coming from up there!" Ken pointed.

Everyone turned to look up in the tree. Since it was rather dark up in the branches, all they could make out were pairs of glowing dots looking down at them. One of the pairs seemed to be moving down closer to them. The group all huddled closer together, unsure of what was going to happen next.

Suddenly, the closet pair of dots shot down towards them. Now that it was out of the shadows, they could see that it was a pair of eyes, belonging to a creature that greatly resembled a rat.

The little mammal tumbled out of the tree and landed on Spike's snout. The moment it realized what had happened, and that it was staring straight into the eyes of a dinosaur, it gave a startled squeak and darted over Spike's back. As it did so, it knocked over Ducky, who let out a frightened scream.

The rodent continued on its path and leapt off of Spike's tail. The moment it was on the ground, it darted away from the group and into a thick bed of white and yellow flowers. Despite being startled by the mysterious creature, Spike's curiosity got the better of him and he soon found himself running over to the spot where the rodent had vanished.

"Spike!" Aylene cried. "C'mon back!"

The spiketail didn't respond to the human. Instead, he sniffed the flowers, trying to find the little creature.

At the same time, the rain gradually became less and less. Soon, almost as quickly as it had come, it stopped altogether. The dark clouds in the sky parted to reveal the sun.

Spike continued to search through the flowers, determined to find out what that creature was. As he got close to one flower, there was a small sneeze and the petals on the flower fell away. The little rodent emerged from the grass and looked up at the Stegosaurus. Now that the two were face-to-face, they could see each other much better now.

Spike wagged his tail in excitement. The little rodent seemed to mirror him and did the same thing. Spike then curiously cocked his head to one side. The rodent did the same thing again. Seeing this creature behave in a similar manner as him, Spike smiled and licked the little creature. The rodent replied with a happy and very squeaky laugh, tickled by the spiketail's tongue.

The rest of the group ran over to see what was going on. Ducky was the first to approach the little creature. When she saw him, she couldn't help but smile. He was the cutest and fluffiest thing she had ever seen.

"He does not look scary to me," she said.

The rodent looked at the young swimmer. Excited to see a new face, he got up and jumped into Ducky's arms, causing her to giggle.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no." Ducky smiled. "He is cute. He is. He has tickly fuzzies all over him."

When Aylene got close enough to Spike and Ducky, she knelt down on her knees and got a better look at the little rodent.

"He looks a rat," she said. "I'm not sure if that's what he really is, but he does have a close resemblance to one."

"Well," Ducky smiled, "I'm going to call him Tickles. I am."

As if excited to hear his new name, Tickles gave a happy chirp.

"Hey," Ali spook up, "do you think he can help us find Cera?"

"Maybe," Ken rubbed his chin. "The fog has diminished a bit. Besides, he probably knows this area better than we do right now."

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Aylene turned her attention to Tickles.

"Tickles," she said, "can you help us find our friend, Cera. She's a Triceratops."

The little rat tilted his head and looked at the human with confusion. He understood what she was saying to him, but he didn't understood what the word "Triceratops" meant.

Littlefoot immediately sensed the reason for Tickles' hesitation and quickly added:

"She means that Cera is a threehorn."

Now that he understood the message completely, Tickles sharply nodded and darted over to the nearest tree. He climbed up onto the highest branch in just a matter of seconds. When he reached the top, he turned back to the others below and began to squeak with excitement.

"Petrie take look," the flyer said as he took off.

Petrie flew up to Tickles level and saw that the mist was had thinned out. He looked over in the direction where Cera had fallen and saw now that there was a small, yellow dot on a ledge just above a river.

"Me see her!" he shouted. "Follow Petrie!"

As soon as Tickles had rushed back down the tree and leapt onto Spike's back, the group raced after Petrie back to the cliff. When they got there, Aylene immediately got down on all fours and leaned over the edge. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Cera curled up on ledge just below them. She was soaking wet and shivering, but unharmed.

"CERA!" Aylene cried.

At the sound of her name, the Triceratops jolted and looked up. A huge smile spread across her face when she saw her friends just above her.

"Aylene!" she shouted.

"Are you okay, Cera?!" Littlefoot asked.

"For now!" the threehorn replied. "But I want to get off of this ledge!"

"Just hang on!" Ken answered. "We'll throw you down a vine!"

"Okay, just hurry! I don't know how long this ledge will…!"

The next thing everyone knew, the platform Cera was standing on gave way and she plummeted into the river below!

"CERA!" they all shouted.

The little Triceratops struggled to keep her head above water as the powerful currents swept her away from her friends. Unlike Ducky, Cera was used to walking on land and wasn't that experienced at swimming. Not to mention, will all this water throwing her about, she was having a difficult time getting air.

"HELP!" the Triceratops screamed.

The group ran along the side of the ridge, trying to keep Cera within their range of vision. Ken looked up and saw that there was a huge log standing up in the river.

"Cera!" he shouted. "Go for the log and use that to keep yourself from drifting any farther!"

Although she was in a state of panic, Cera managed to hear Ken's instructions and began to steer herself toward the log. When she bumped into it, she immediately clung to it with her fore arms. However, as she clung onto it, she felt it begin to dislodge from the ground under the water.

Meanwhile, Ken darted over to a nearby tree and grabbed a long vine. He jerked on it as hard as he could until it snapped off and fell to the ground. He then ran back over to the others. Ali, Spike, and Littlefoot grabbed the end of it with their mouths while Aylene grabbed the middle with both hands. Ken than began to swing it around like a lasso.

"Cera!" the boy shouted. "Catch this!"

Ken then threw the vine directly at Cera. The moment she saw her means of rescue coming, she reached for it and managed to grab it with her mouth.

"I got it!" she said through her teeth.

"Okay!" Ken turned to the others. "Pull, you guys!"

Following the human's orders, everyone began to pull as hard as they could. Fortunately, with the strength of two longnecks, one spiketail, and two humans, the task proved to have very little difficulty. In a matter of seconds, Cera was almost to the cliff. Just a few more minutes and they would have to safety.

However, their lives were about to be in jeopardy again.

As Aylene tugged, she spotted something moving out of the corner of her eye. She glanced over and gave a horrified gasp.

"Ken, look!" she cried.

Ken glanced over his shoulder and saw Aylene was pointing to something in the water. He looked and his eyes widened and horror.

"No!" he said.

Slowly floating on the surface of the water, like a lion stalking its prey, was Dil with Ichy on her back. Both them had a look of vengeance and hunger in their faces.

To make matters worse, they were heading straight for Cera!