Chapter XVI: Fighting, Dancing, and a New Leader

In which a fierce battle ensues, and the leaf-eaters come under new leadership.

Littlefoot pounced on Dusk and they rolled down a ravine. Agu raised his hand and two duplicates appeared. They all charged Cera, but a large tree lowered its branches and pulled up every one of them. Agu and his copies struggled.

"Let me go!" the real one shouted.

"As if," Cera replied.

"Ali, I need to be stronger!' he shouted, hopelessly struggling against the strong limbs.

"Strength," Ali said quietly Ali lifted her front foot and set it down. She tossed her head back then lifted her other front foot, just to set it down again. Her body swayed back and forth and she swished her tail around.

"Is she- dancing!" Cera thought to herself with a perplexed look. She quickly turned when she heard a loud snap behind her and the three Agus stood before her, grinning.

"They have a dancer, eh?" Rey said thoughtfully. "This will be challenging."

"Are you gonna help or what?" Cera asked, just as the Agus tackled her.

"Afraid not," Reina told her. "Rey is hurt and I'm exhausted from all the transports. Besides, you agreed to help us, not the other way around."

"What!" Cera shouted, but her attackers stole her focus.

They were pounding on her, and with their extra strength it was really painful. Chomper dived over her, knocking one of the copies to the ground. It vanished, then reappeared, grabbing Chomper from behind.

Cera kept trying to buck the other two Agus off, but to no avail. Then she had an idea. A tree bent over and Cera jumped on top. It straightened up, holding her high above the ground.

"What are you- ah!" Agu yelped. "I hate heights!"

Cera smiled. She shook herself and they lost their grip from fear. They quickly clutched a branch while Cera leapt off, only to be caught by a leafy branch from a neighboring tree, getting safely to the ground.

Chomper elbowed the copy in its stomach, knocking it down. He then gathered all his strength and threw it on top of the tree with the real one and other copy. Agu screamed and squirmed frantically. Chomper suddenly felt sorry for the terrified Sharptooth and asked Cera, "When are you going to let him down?"

She grinned evilly. "Who said anything about letting him down?"

xxxxx

Petrie was sending gust after gust at Ceit, but he side-stepped them with ease. This happened three times; Ceit's speed was just unreal "How…?" he cried in dismay. "Ooh!" He twirled his hands around above his head and a whirlwind formed. He thrust his hands toward Ceit, sending it hurdling towards him at an incredible speed, but Ceit avoided it entirely. Petrie landed, huffing loudly. "What- huff- going on…?"

Ceit grinned, and a shadow came up on Petrie from behind.

"Gotcha!" Petrie shouted. He turned to the Flying Sharptooth behind him, jutted his wing back, and a wall of wind knocked Ceit back into the trunk of a large tree. He quickly shook his head, trying to recover from the impact, but Petrie cupped his hands and threw a swirling ball of air at Ceit's head. It forced it back into the tree, knocking Ceit out.

"Heh, Petrie was ready for your surprise attack. Me knew that first you was illusion whooole time; it have no smell."

xxxxx

Reina rushed over to get the stone Ceit had dropped, but a female, black Sharptooth got to it first. Scooping it up, she said, "Sorry miss Rainbow Face, but Dusky wants this."

"Give me that!" Reina shouted. She tried swiping it from Coaley's hands, but she warped away. Reina was about to go through the warp hole she'd left behind, but Rey stopped her.

"Wait," he told her. "That could take you miles away. The stone is outside our reach yet again."

xxxxx

Ruby, Ducky, and Spike all stood before the white Sharptooth.

"Giving up is what you should do, so you should give up," Ruby told her.

Menta turned to Ali. "You know what to do," she said.

Ali nodded. "Power," she said quietly, and continued to dance.

Menta raised her hands and Ducky and Spike rose into the air.

"Huh!" Ducky and Spike said in unison, starting to struggle.

Ruby watched what Menta was doing. Menta quickly shifted her hands to the right and Ducky and Spike went hurdling through the air. Ruby lifted her hands and her two friends stopped, shortly before impact. The energy it took for Ruby to stop them was immense, as Ali was making Menta so much more powerful. Ruby started to pant.

"You're a psychic too?" Menta asked in surprise.

"I am whatever I want to be," Ruby replied. She pushed her hand forward and Menta shot backwards, but she quickly regained her footing. Branches started to break from their limbs, heading straight for Ruby. Ruby swished her arm from left to right and the branches flung backwards, onto the ground.

"She's a psychic alright, but thanks to Ali, I can pull a lot more weight than she can," Menta thought to herself. Her muscles tensed as she focused on two large trees. They broke free from the ground and went sailing towards Ruby. Ruby tried to knock them back, but they was moving with too much force for her to stop. The trees were about to crush her when Spike jumped between them.

"Spike, no!" Ruby yelled, but Spike merely grinned at her. His body suddenly hardened, and the trees crashed into him, breaking to splinters, leaving Spike unharmed.

Menta again lifted her arms, and two trees broke free from their bonds, coming towards Ruby from each side of her. Ruby closed her eyes and her body suddenly hardened, protecting her from the impact.

"'I am whatever I want to be…'" Menta replayed in her head. "Of course! She can copy the power of others!" She growled with frustration, then concentrated very hard. Getting the information she wanted, she then focused back on her opponents. "So, the Spike Tail can just harden his body, the Swimmer can control water, and the Fast Runner can use any ability she sees, but only for a short time before having to see it again. This'll be tough."

Ducky twitched her hand, and the dew from some of the grass began to collect into one spot. It lifted off the ground, and flew towards Menta. What seemed like a harmless puddle quickly froze into a chunk of ice, but Menta ducked more than quickly enough.

"You are fast, yep yep yep, but we'll beat you," Ducky declared.

"Hee hee," Menta thought to herself. "I'm not very fast. I read her thoughts before her attack even began. I just wish mind reading wasn't so tiring." Menta held out both hands, and her body tensed. With one hand, she forced Ruby's eyes closed.

"Hey!" she shouted.

With her other hand, she caused several trees to collapse, falling towards the three leaf-eaters.

"You can't protect them all, Spike Tail!" Menta shouted.

Spike instinctively went for his sister, standing over her while hardening. The trees came crashing down, and then there was silence. Menta released her hold on Ruby's eyes and Ruby looked up in horror to see Rey beside her under a large tree.

Reina quickly appeared beside him, tears in her eyes. "You- you fool! Why can you never resist helping others!" she said between sobs. "Don't leave me now…"

Ruby got to her feet and pressed her head against his chest. "Wait! He's still breathing!"

Ducky used the distraction and shot more water at Menta. Ducky did it suddenly and without thinking, so Menta wasn't expecting it. It knocked her back into a tree, then hardened into ice, holding her in place.

"Ugh!" she exclaimed as she struggled, but she could not break loose. "Ali, strength!" but Ducky was ready. Though she didn't understand what Ali was doing, she knew it was helping her, so she covered Ali's legs in water, then froze them.

"I am sorry, Ali, I am, I am,. I hope that doesn't hurt you," Ducky said as Ali fell to her side.

"I need to get him home right now. He needs medical attention," Reina told them. "Elect a leader, then continue searching for the stone. We'll return as soon as we can. Good-bye," and with that, Reina closed her eyes. A light shone down from above, and the two of them were gone.

There was a crunching of leaves as footsteps made their way up the hill. The leaf-eaters looked over hopefully, but were terror-stricken to see Dusk come into view. He was limping and torn, but was breathing calmly. A tree limb scooped him and clutched him tightly.

"What happened, to Littlefoot!" Cera demanded.

"He's-" but he began to gasp for breath from the pressure.

"Cera, lighten up a little," Ruby said.

Cera loosened the hold on Dusk, and he said, "He's alive. Some cuts and bruises, but otherwise fine."

"You expect me to believe that you won then just let him be?" Cera asked, starting to tighten the limb again.

"I-" he coughed, "Didn't win."

Cera dropped him from surprise. "Then why-"

Getting to his feet, Dusk replied, "His power was overwhelming. If he hadn't passed out from exhaustion, I wouldn't be standing here at all."

"You didn't- eat him afterwards, did you?" Chomper asked nervously.

"I couldn't risk trying anything that might wake him. Just look at the bottom of this hill and you'll see him," then Dusk started to walk towards Menta.

"Oh no you do-" but Chomper put her hand out to stop her.

"It's over," Chomper said. "Let's not fight when we don't have to."

"Fine," Cera replied in a low tone. The she exclaimed in a loud voice, "We're going to keep coming for the stone, and if you fight us again, get ready to have your butts kicked- again."

"Noted," was all Dusk said in reply, and began slashing away the ice holding Menta. After she was free, he did the same to Ali. Ceit finally came to, and flew over to Dusk, and Menta telepathically lowered Agu to the ground.

"Hold on!" Cera commanded. "Ali stays with us."

Coaley suddenly emerged from behind a tree, and ran to Dusk and the others. "Sorry Mrs. Three Horn, but Dusky wants Ali to come with us. Warp!" The entire group vanished, leaving what looked like a hole floating in midair.

"No, Ali!" Petrie shouted, but she was far beyond hearing distance.

Ducky had begun walking to the edge of the hill, but Littlefoot's head suddenly popped up and she fell back in surprise.

"Did we win?" was his first remark, then he added, "Where are Rey and Reina?"

"Yeah, we beat 'em" Cera replied.

"And Rey was hurt keeping me from getting hurt, so Reina took him home to get him help," Ruby finished, downcast.

Chomper came to her side, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault," he told her.

"But it is!" she cried. "If I'd only been more careful, he wouldn't've needed to save me."

"Ruby, Rey was proud of you, he was, he was" Ducky said.

"H-how can you know that?" she asked her.

"Before Reina took him away, I saw that he was smiling. He was proud of how well we did."

"That Rey is something else…" Ruby said quietly.

"What should we do now?" Littlefoot asked.

"Reina told us to pick a leader and continue trying to get the stone back," Ducky answered. "And I can think of no one better than you, Littlefoot."

"Me? Why?"

"It was you who led us to the Great Valley safe and sound, so I believe you can lead us to the stone as well."

"Are you guys all okay with me doing that?"

They all nodded, except Cera. They all turned to her, then she rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, fine. We follow Littlefoot. Just don't go getting all bossy."

Littlefoot chuckled. "Deal."