Chapter 5: The Healer
Today, Littlefoot was feeling much better. He was up on his feet, and his chest didn't hurt quite as much. He'd been surprised not to see Fyn when he woke up. Now, he was wandering around his friend's nest, searching.
"Fyn!" he called out, for the fourth time, "Fyn, where are you?" Again, he was met with silence.
"Oh well," Littlefoot thought, "he's probably already out enjoying the day. Might as well wait for Taria to come back."
He settled back down into a comfortable position when he spotted a streak of orange moving towards him. It was Fyn. Relieved, he stood and ran to him.
"Where have you been? I've been calling for you all morning!"
"Around," Fyn grumbled. Littlefoot could see that he looked tired, and certainly not in the best of moods.
"Well, I'm feeling better, now. You won't have to share your nest anymore after today!"
Fyn shrugged.
"Fyn, What's wrong? Did you sleep at all?"
"No."
Littlefoot frowned. His friend usually wasn't like this in the morning.
"Come on, Fyn, cheer up a bit. Taria's going to be back today."
"Well, that's just great for you, isn't it?"
Now Littlefoot knew something was wrong. He decided to ask a more personal question.
"Was it Shael? Did something happen?"
Fyn sighed. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." Before he could speak again, Taria appeared, walking towards Littlefoot.
"Hello," she said, pleasantly.
"Hi," Littlefoot responded. Fyn said nothing.
"You're here early today," Littlefoot said.
"Well, we have a bit of a walk ahead of us. I see you're back on your feet, so this'll work out perfectly. Your friend is welcome to come along, too, if he wants. Afterwards, I can probably show you a thing or two about healing."
Fyn was surprised, temporarily forgetting his sorrow. "Healing? I didn't know you had an interest in healing," he said to Littlefoot.
"I never really spoke about it much," Littlefoot replied, "I just never thought any of you would be interested."
"A new surprise every day," Fyn said, shaking his head in amazement as they began to walk, following Taria.
The tan Longneck led them deep into the Great Valley, towards the Smoking Mountain. Littlefoot was intrigued; he'd never been in this part of the Valley before.
"Where are we going?" he asked. Even Fyn seemed confused.
"You'll see," Taria answered simply.
"You mean you've never been here before?" Fyn asked.
"Never. The others and I tended to stay away from the Smoking Mountain, for obvious reasons."
Fyn nodded. Littlefoot was happy to see that their current situation seemed to be distracting him from his troubles. This little outing would be good for him. Up ahead, Taria ducked into a wide, tall cave. Fyn and Littlefoot followed her in. They were greeted by an awe-inspiring sight: the cave was huge on the inside, even bigger than the Cave of Many Voices, a cavern that Littlefoot and his friends found when they were kids. A few large holes in the ceiling let in light from outside, and the walls were studded with Shiny Stones, which reflected the light wonderfully. In the middle of all of this was a small pool. The water within was clear, and bubbled. Taria stopped by it.
"Well," she said, "climb in."
"Into that?" Littlefoot asked, "is it safe?"
"Perfectly," she reassured him.
Littlefoot stepped forward and into the water. Instantly, he was engulfed in warm, bubbling water.
"Wow," he said, "that's comfortable. What does it do?"
"It relaxes you, and takes the tightness and pain out of your body. It helps you heal faster."
"Wow," Littlefoot said again.
"I'm going to get a few things, but I'll be right back. Your friend can look after you." She paused, looking at the Fin Neck next to Littlefoot. "I almost forgot, what's your name?"
"Fyn," he said, quietly.
"Neat." She ducked out of the cave. "I'll be right back."
"Take your time," Littlefoot said, settling into his comfortable bath.
"We really should have come down here more often," he added, talking to Fyn.
"Hm," was Fyn's response.
"Alright, we're alone, now. What's the matter?"
Fyn walked over to Littlefoot and sat down next to the pool. "It's pretty complicated."
"Try me."
"Last night, Shael and I had a disagreement."
Littlefoot winced. "What about?"
Fyn took a deep breath. "When I escaped from the grove with my family, we'd all thought everyone else was either out of danger, with us, or dead at the claws of the Sharpteeth when we made the decision to leave our home. Shael, as it turns out, was part of my herd."
"And you've never met her before now?" Littlefoot asked. "How?" Then the answer hit him.
"Oh."
"Yeah, we left while Shael was still trapped in the forest by the Sail Teeth."
He shook his head in disgust, and suddenly brought his foot crashing into the ground with a tremendous smash.
"We never even found out if her parents survived!"
"Hold on, Fyn," Littlefoot said, "you can't blame yourself for this."
"Then why do I feel like it was my fault? I could have told my parents that more dinosaurs were in the grove."
"Did you know that there were more dinosaurs alive?"
"Well, no," Fyn said, "but-"
"Then why do you insist this was your fault?"
"I don't know. I just have no idea what to do right now. She hates me."
Taria walked in at that moment, with more plants for Littlefoot. She placed them in front of him, ground them up, as usual, and offered them to him. Littlefoot ate quickly.
"Pardon me for listening in," Taria said to Fyn, "but I couldn't help noticing you're in a bit of trouble."
"A bit?" Fyn snorted, "if that was all..."
"Well, they don't call me a healer for nothing. Maybe I can help."
"I'm not so sure," Fyn said.
"There's no harm in trying," Littlefoot said through a mouthful of plant matter, "just tell her what you told me."
Fyn told his story to Taria, leaving out nothing. When he was finished, Taria thought for a moment.
"Well, I honestly don't think she's angry at you."
Fyn looked up, "really?"
Taria nodded. "Really. I think she needs a friend, someone to comfort her right now."
"But she already told me that she doesn't want me as a friend right now."
"She may have said that, but I don't think that's what she meant. Deep down, I think what's really got her upset is that you are the evidence that her parents aren't alive anymore. She needs you to help her leave the past behind."
"Are you sure?" Fyn asked.
"To the best of my ability."
Fyn turned and headed for the exit. "Thank you so much. Sorry I'm leaving so early, but I have a lot to think about."
"No problem," Taria said. Then, before Fyn was completely out of earshot, she added "by the way, the Day of Mates is in two days. That might be your best chance."
"Thanks!" Fyn said, from outside the cave, "I need to remember that."
Taria turned back to Littlefoot. "You have good friends."
Littlefoot nodded. "I do, and you are an excellent healer."
Taria smiled, confused. "What brought that compliment out?"
Littlefoot shrugged, "one good comment deserves another in return."
Taria laughed. "So are you planning on going to the Day of Mates?"
"Well, I'm not sure, yet."
"Not sure? How could you not be sure about something like this? I'm going."
Littlefoot climbed out of his pool. "You see, there's someone who's going to be there, but I don't think she really cares if I'm there or not."
"Oh? Funny, I'm in the same predicament, but I've still decided to go, anyway."
"Well, that's two of us, then."
"You're going after all?"
"Yeah, I'm just thinking about something my dad told me: this whole situation might be challenging, but it's something I need to work at, not something that happens overnight."
"Your dad's smart," Taria said, "he always has been."
"True enough," Littlefoot said. Then, seeing an opportunity, he added, "well, if we'll be going separate ways on the Day of Mates, perhaps you wouldn't mind my treating you to a Treestar feast tonight."
Taria smiled faintly, "I'd like that."
"Great," Littlefoot said, staring into her eyes. He thought he saw something in her expression. Hopefulness? Regret? He really couldn't tell; females were too hard to read.
"I'll meet you back here when the Bright Circle sets," Littlefoot said, "and we'll go from there."
"Sounds fine to me," Taria said. Suddenly the cave shook slightly.
"What was that?" Littlefoot asked.
Taria looked worried. "Probably nothing," she said, "just an Earthshake."
Her face told another story, however. She seemed worried.
"Listen, Littlefoot," Taria said, "if we meet here later, I want to check out something."
"Sure," Littlefoot said, "it'd make dinner a whole lot more interesting."
"Perfect," Taria said, "See you later, Littlefoot." As she and Littlefoot went their separate ways, Littlefoot had a lot on his mind, but at the forefront of his thoughts was a single question: what had spooked Taria so much about the Earthshake? He went back to his nest, troubling over the question all the way. Something wasn't right, here, and tonight, he and Taria would find out together.
…
They met in the fading light of the day, back at the cave. Littlefoot was full of questions.
"Okay," he said to Taria, "what's got you so worried?"
She looked up at the Smoking Mountain, worriedly. "Right now, nothing I can prove, but we need to get closer to the Smoking Mountain to find out." She began to walk toward the ominous, dark mountain.
"Wait up," Littlefoot said, "how about food first?"
"We'll eat afterwards. This might be serious, if I'm right." There was another tremor, and the two fought for balance.
"Is it the Smoking Mountain?" Littlefoot asked.
"Yes, I think it is, and if we don't act soon, something bad might happen."
As they came closer to the mountain, plants became more sparse, and the ground underfoot became hotter. Steam erupted from cracks, sometimes violently. All of this was taken into consideration by Taria. Finally, she stopped at a large crack in the ground which was venting steam loudly, and at a rapid rate.
"This is bad," she said.
"What's bad?" Littlefoot asked.
She nodded toward the crack, still venting. "The Smoking Mountain's going to erupt soon, violently."
"How can you be sure?"
"I've seen signs like this before, and they've never lied. At this rate, it could erupt as soon as two days from now."
"Two days?" Littlefoot said, horror dawning on him, "but that's-"
"The Day of Mates, right. Everyone will be out in the open when it happens."
"Why do these things always happen in the most inconvenient times?" Littlefoot asked himself.
"What do you mean?"
Littlefoot groaned, "it just seems like every time something bad happens to the Valley, it happens at the worst possible moment."
"Hm," Taria said, "well if the Smoking Mountain erupts the way it's going to now, there may not even be a Great Valley left."
Littlefoot thought back to something Fyn had once said. Labon had told him that, a long time ago, the Smoking Mountain had erupted and drastically changed the terrain of the Great Valley. If it were to happen again, it made sense to assume the same thing could happen.
"Is there any way to stop it?" he asked.
"As a matter of fact, there is, but we'll need help."
Littlefoot was relieved. "My friends will help us."
"Tomorrow, then, we need to get their help. I'll be back up here, checking things out."
Littlefoot nodded as the two started back to the Valley. "You hungry?" Taria shook her head. "Me neither," Littlefoot said. "Kind of an interesting dat- uh, dinner."
Taria laughed and nodded. "That it was." They stopped, under the light of the Night Circle. It was time for them to get back to their nests, but Taria had something to say first.
"You know, you're not like a lot of Longnecks I've met."
"Oh?" Littlefoot asked, "how so?"
"Well, you're actually interested in things like healing and how the Smoking Mountain works. Most males don't find that stuff interesting."
"I guess I'm not most males, then," Littlefoot said.
Taria smiled, and looked away, shyly, then looked back to Littlefoot.
"Thanks for the night," she said, "one way or another, I'll always remember it."
"No problem," Littlefoot said, "I enjoyed it. Well, apart from the doom and destruction part."
Taria laughed, then, without warning, touched her muzzle to Littlefoot's, a dinosaur's kiss. "Remember me after the Day of Mates is done, okay? Regardless of what happens."
Littlefoot was almost speechless. Finally, he spoke. "I will."
Taria slipped away into the night, her bright smile fading into the trees. Littlefoot stood still as a stone. She had touched him again, this time on her own accord! He nearly flew back to his nest. She'd given him hope, hope that there was still a chance for him at the Day of Mates. Tomorrow, he knew, would be the last day he'd have to prove himself to her before that fateful day arrived. He found his nest, and collapsed on the ground, next to his grandparents. Surrounded by the comfort of finally being home and the joy of knowing all was not lost, he slept well.
So now, I've established Taria as a bit of a "scientist." Perhaps not a bad match for inquisitive Littlefoot? We'll see...
