Chapter IV: The Familiar Strangers and the Visited Valley

In which the two strangers are revealed, and the Great Valley receives some visitors.

"Making your move, are you?" the stranger asked.

"And I see you're doing the same," Dusk replied.

Dusk and the stranger locked eyes for a couple seconds, and then backed up.

"There are plenty of shadows around to veil mine, Dusk; we're surrounded by trees, and you're all alone. You don't stand a chance," the stranger declared as he backed against a tree. The shadow of the tree completely covered his own.

"I know I've lost a lot of weight," Dusk replied with a chuckle, "but only half of my strength has left me. These trees are nothing." Dusk raised his arms towards the tree that the stranger was leaning against. "Shadow Pull!" The tree gave a great lurch and began tumbling down towards the stranger, who leaped out of the way just in time, landing on his belly.

Quickly, before getting up, he tapped the tree and shouted, "Transport!" The fallen tree vanished, appeared over Dusk's head, then dropped, but Dusk leapt out of the way.

"We're both manipulators. I don't think this kind battle is going to end any time soon," Dusk said.

"Manipulators fight often. Victories aren't so rare as you may think," the stranger replied.

"You don't listen, do you? I said 'soon.' I know very well that such battles are determined by skill, and I don't have the time to fight someone with your experience."

"I'm flattered," the stranger replied.

"Don't be," Dusk retorted. "My victory would be certain. Again, I just don't have the time." Dusk suddenly stopped, looking up towards the sky, then quickly turned around, trying not to make it obvious that something caught his eye. Dusk began to walk away hurriedly, but the stranger saw the whole thing.

"Transport." And with that, he appeared on top of one the trees and looked in the direction that Dusk had turned to. There was nothing unusual to see. "Oh no," the stranger thought.

"Shadow Pull!" Dusk shouted, and the tree the stranger was on top of suddenly came crashing to the ground. Dusk hurried away, not even staying to see if the stranger survived.

xxxxx

"Whoa, whoa," the child interrupted. "Shadow Pull? What exactly does it do?"

"Good question. The Shadow Pull ability pulls an object's or dinosaur's highest point down towards its, his, or her shadow. The power is also dependent on the user's strength. One cannot yank something with a Shadow Pull that he or she couldn't pull down with bare hands."

"Wow, neat," came the boy's impressed remark. "Okay, that was all I wanted to ask. Continue. Uh, please."

xxxxx

Chomper was still getting farther away from Dusk and the stranger who had chased him.

"Please let Dusk be alright," he kept saying to himself. Then he screeched to a halt. "Wait a minute! I can't leave Dusk back there all alone! He's my friend and that mean whatever-he-was might hurt him." He clenched his fists. "I'm a Sharptooth, so I can't run away when there's danger." He turned around and ran back the way he came at full speed, despite his exhaustion from already running for so long. "Don't worry, Dusk. I'm coming."

xxxxx

"I haven't seen you for some time. Are you going to stay for a while again?" Littlefoot asked the female.

"I know, and hopefully not," she replied. "We're just here on business."

"Oh, your friend is around too?" Ducky asked her.

"Well, he isn't my-"

"Guys! We don't have time to be talking because we don't have any time. We have to find Chomper before something bad happens to him," Ruby exclaimed.

"Take a deep breath, Ruby. Everything's going to be fine," the female assured her.

"What do you mean! Chomper's out there all alone and- wait, how do you know my name?" Ruby asked her.

"I do have ears, you know," she replied flatly. "It's not like your friends never call you by it."

"Hey, have you been spying on us again?" Cera asked her angrily.

"Trust me; you'll be thankful for that later. As for now, let's go meet up with Chomper and my 'friend,'" she told them.

"You know where he is?" Tell me!" Ruby demanded.

"Sorry, but requests go both ways. You didn't take a deep breath when I asked you, so I have no obligation to respond to your question. Just follow me and everything will be fine."

"Excuse us for just a moment, please," Littlefoot said, and the gang huddled up a short distance away.

"I don't trust her," Cera said.

"Yes, and she certainly doesn't seem very nice at all," Ruby added.

"I say we go with her," Littlefoot said. "Chomper could be anywhere, and if she knows where he's at, it makes more sense to follow her than wonder around."

"That's just it Littlefoot! She won't tell us if she knows, so we may end up wandering around anyway if we follow her," Cera pointed out.

"Guys, we're wasting time. If we don't go with her, we'll be lost for sure. If we do, we have a chance." Littlefoot paused. "You know what? Whether you guys come or not, I'm going. Sometimes you just have to take a chance when it comes along." With that, he left the circle, and walked back to her. "Let's go."

"Just like before, you always did seem to have a sharper mind. Alright. Come with me." And with that, they began to walk off.

"Wait!" Ruby called. "Chomper is worth taking any chance when it comes along," she said, smiling at Littlefoot.

"No go without us!" Petrie called, as he came over as well, riding Spike along with Ducky.

The six of them turned to Cera. "Humph!" she exclaimed, and sat down facing the opposite direction. Littlefoot sighed, and they left without her. After about a minute, she slightly turned in their direction.

xxxxx

"This looks like the place. Yay!" Coaley exclaimed, as she and the others stood atop part of the wall surrounding the Great Valley.

"We didn't even need to retrace to Dusk's steps," Agu said. "Ceit easily found it from the air. I bet he wanted us to do it the hard way to be mean."

"Shut it!" the Long Neck ordered. "Lord Dusk is not perfect. I'm sure retracing his steps was the best idea he could come up with. With all that's going on, surely he can't think of everything."

"Ooh, someone has a temper," Agu provoked.

"You've not yet begun to see my temper!" she replied with a growl, bearing her teeth.

"That's quite enough you two. Stay focused on the mission," Menta ordered. "Ceit, you'd best get started. We're not going to find out much looking like this."

"Aye," he replied. The Sharpteeth gathered in a circle while the Long Neck stood back.

The land Sharpteeth were engulfed in black smoke. When the smoke lifted, they no longer looked like Sharpteeth.

"As for me," Ceit began.

The same dark smoke appeared around Ceit, and he emerged looking like a leaf-eating Flyer.

"Alrighty!" Coaley exclaimed. "Don't I just look so cute as a Long Neck?"

"Sure, Coaley. And excellent work, Ceit. Now, let's see if we can find where those children are," Menta instructed, and they all trudged down a narrow decline into the Great Valley.

xxxxx

"Hey, daddy. I have a question," the child interrupted.

"Sure, go right ahead," his father replied.

"So, this Ceit guy has the power to change a dinosaur into another kind?"

"Not exactly. He uses magic to make others seem different to the eye, but they are really still the same species. The neat thing is, the magic adapts to their bodies to remove the physical differences. Therefore, even though Sharpteeth stand on two legs, the illusion made it look like they were really walking on four legs. And that was a good question."

"Thanks. You can keep reading now. Err, please,"

"Alright," his father replied with a chuckle.

xxxxx

The group of "Long Necks" and the "Flyer" went through the valley slowly, taking in the sights.

"Hey guys, I think this place had a brain-washing power cast on it," Agu said. "We'd better not be here too long."

"What are you talking about?" the Long Neck asked. "You really need to stop being weird."

"No, I'm serious! Have you guys taken a close at the grown-ups here?" he asked the others.

They looked around, observing the adults in the valley very closely. "I'm sorry, Agu, but would you please explain yourself?" Menta finally asked him.

"Sure. From what I've seen here, the grown-ups have forgotten how to do everything besides eat. That's all they've been doing since we've arrived. 'Tis the work of black magic!" Then he burst out laughing at his joke.

"Agu…" Menta trailed off, while shaking her head.

"You little pest! You are so not funny!" the Long Neck shouted.

"What's with all the racket?" a gruff voice bellowed from behind them. All of them jumped besides air-born Ceit, who instead simply jerked. They turned around to see a very angry-looking, full-grown Three Horn.

"I should ask you the same question," Agu retorted. "You're ten times louder than all of us combi-"

Menta, who was standing directly beside Agu, quickly covered his mouth. "We are sorry for disturbing you ,sir. We will try to be more quiet."

"Humph! You'd better do more than just 'try.'" Looking right at Agu, he added, "And if I were you, I'd watch that mouth of yours, boy."

Agu tried to say something back, but Menta's grip was too firm. "Understood sir. We will be more quiet," she told him.

"Good!" And with that, he tromped away.

Menta let go, and Agu made a very dramatic gasping noise.

"I wasn't holding you that tightly," Menta said flatly. "Anyway, if we're going to find out where those children are, we'd best not be stirring up trouble. Do you want them to drive us out? Even with powers, we would be overwhelmed if all the residents attacked us."

"I know that," he replied.

"Do you kids need any help?" another loud voice came from behind them.

This time, only Agu jumped. "Will you dinosaurs stop doing that!" He turned around to see an elderly Long Neck with a friendly expression.

"Heh heh. Sorry about that. I see that you've already met Mr. Three Horn."

"If you're talking about that obnoxious creature that yelled at us earlier, you have made an accurate observation," Agu replied curtly.

The Long Neck nudged him sharply. "Please excuse him," she said.

The old Long Neck chuckled again. "That's alright. So back to my question. Is there anything I can help you kids with?" he offered.

"Yeah, we're here to find The Sev-" Menta stepped on Agu's foot, causing him to stop talking as he clenched his teeth.

"Yes, some help would be nice, sir," Menta began. "Would you happen to know of a Long Neck named Littlefoot?" She had memorized the list of names that Dusk had given her, and had chosen a name at random to ask about. "You see, one of Littlefoot's friends had told one of our friends about him, who in turn told us. I must say, he certainly sounds like someone we'd like to meet," she said, being completely honest the whole time.

"Well now," the old Long Neck replied with a big grin, "I think I can be of some help with that. I'm sure he'd love some new playmates too."

"So you know him?" Menta asked.

"Why yes. Actually, I'm his grandfather," he answered.

"Excellent," she said, then closed her eyes and concentrated.

"I see," she thought.

"Well, what would you like to know about him?" he asked them.

"Thank you for the offer, sir, but that is quite alright. Since you're his grandfather, he must live here too. We explore a lot, so we'll just look around until we find him. Thanks again!" she called, and then she turned and walked off with the others following.

"She certainly is polite," Littlefoot's grandfather thought to himself. "She should get to know old Mr. Three Horn's daughter." He chuckled to himself, and then went back to his eating.

"That was a waste of time," Agu complained.

Menta sighed. "I have to admit, I was rather disappointed that his own grandfather doesn't know where he is. It turns out that he just lets his grandson roam about without supervision. Still, it wasn't a complete waste of time. At least I know what The Seven look like now."

"I don't get it. Why didn't you just read his mind right away?" Agu asked.

"I didn't want to waste any energy if he didn't know anything about them. We'll just have to span out and start looking. Gather around, everyone. This is what they look like," she said, after projecting the old Long Neck's mental image of the gang into their heads.

"Ooh, Chomper is a cutie," Coaley pointed out.

"It would seem that the group I saw a while back is indeed them," Ceit thought to himself.

"Alright guys, let's head out. We'll meet back at this waterfall in an hour, but feel free to contact me if any of you find them sooner," Menta told the group, and they split up to find the gang.

xxxxx

"How much longer till we find Chomper?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," came the reply.

"Don't you know where he is?" Ruby questioned.

"In a way."

"How do you intend to find him?" Littlefoot asked her.

"I don't." The gang members stopped and looked at each other. "Relax. My partner went to find him and is going to meet me at a certain place. Don't stop now." She suddenly heard some noise, and then glanced up. "I take that back. You can stop now."

Now too far off in the distance, a familiar face was approaching. She waved him down, and he came over to the group and stopped, huffing loudly. He was clutching his left arm with his right, and she glared at him. "Well, where's Chomper?" She seemed completely uninterested in his injury.

"Dusk," was all he said in reply.

"Are you alright?" Littlefoot asked him. "What happened to your arm?"

"Don't worry," he replied. "I just- fell."

"You good-for-nothing, totally idiotic, complete failure of a partner! How do you let one guy make the best of you? And now of all times!" the female exclaimed.

"Are you quite finished? I did my best and could have easily been killed, and all you can do is insult me?"

"Perhaps if you weren't a fool, I wouldn't have anything to insult you for!"

"Are they always like this when they're together?" Ruby whispered to Littlefoot.

"I'm afraid so," he replied. "I haven't seen those two Rainbow Faces get along since I met them a while back, though I've never seen them this bad before."