Chapter 2:

A Stranger's Task and a Secret in The Open

Littlefoot yelped and reared his head away from the branch that had just poked his eye. Despite the pain he took the opportunity to steal a glance at Cera standing a few yards away. He had never realized how beautiful she was to him, he even like the mosaic of yellow and grey that most considered an unfortunate side-effect of a three horn's teenaged years. He resisted the urge to walk over to her and nuzzle her again; it wouldn't be wise since they weren't alone.

The entire gang was there, the same five dinosaurs that had been through so much together. Petrie was munching on some treestars near Littlefoot's head. The flyer looked much the same as he always had but was growing noticeably larger as the years went by. Spike and Ducky were down by Cera, Ducky was also growing larger but it was spike that was going through the most dramatic changes. Large plates were growing on his back where little knobs of bone used to be and the razor sharp spikes that give spike tails their name where growing at an alarming rate. His formally green skin was slowly darkening to an earthy brown.

Littlefoot and Cera had met up early in the morning before finding their friends to talk about the night before. At first the meeting was very awkward, neither really knowing what to. Flashes of his cowardice with Ali ran through Littlefoot's head forcing him to make a move. He reached in and they affectionately rubbed heads, "Cera, can I…?" Littlefoot shyly asked. Cera giggled at Littlefoot's innocence "Of course you can, you don't have to ask!" Littlefoot leaned in and nuzzled Cera gently until he was forced to break away by the wide grin spreading across his face. Despite his incredible happiness Littlefoot felt something was wrong, he looked down at Cera's three milky white horns. He then rubbed the top of his head on Cera's frill in what would appear to be a sign of affection. In reality Littlefoot was just checking the obvious. He had no horns.

The smile quickly disappeared off Littlefoot's face and Cera took notice, asking what was wrong. "I'm a long neck, you are a three horn" Littlefoot said flatly. Cera's signs of joy evaporated and her face turned to despair. "Nobody is going to accept this" he finished, averting his eyes from Cera. She reached in and used her horns to turn Littlefoot's face back towards her and whispered "It doesn't matter".

They decided to keep their feelings a secret from everyone else for now. They would tell Ducky, Petrie and Spike soon enough, they would accept the long neck and three horn's decision. It would only be a matter of time until the relationship was completely out in the open, but they decided not to think about it now. For now they would just enjoy having each other.

* * *

There was an explosion of dust as the three horn's paw hit the stony ground. The dinosaur was large, very large; although it was still obvious he wasn't fully grown. His color scheme was unusual for a three horn, not only did he have a rare musty brown color instead of the usual flat grey but he had crimson stripes. These stripes, outlined in black, ran all along the three horn's back, from the tip of his tail up to his snout and on his right foreleg was the most puzzling detail of all, a semi-circle scar.

The three-horn was walking through a barren waste-land, nothing but a few weeds grew around him. He looked a few yards up ahead and saw his purple traveling partner. "How much further?" the three horn yelled, not giving any effort to hiding his irritation. "We're almost there, we should arrive before the bright circle is halfway through the sky" the other dinosaur responded. We better be, sharptooth the three horn thought to himself, and indeed his guide had the characteristic large, powerful legs, skimpy two-fingered arms and dagger sharp teeth of a sharptooth.

The three horn's unexpected companion was young though, and the three horn could easily take him down. This may not stay true forever, but for the time being the sharptooth had far more to fear than he did.

Suddenly the earth beneath them started to shake. A god dam earthshake the three horn thought to himself. He knew exactly how to act in volcanically active areas like the one he was travelling through. He stood perfectly still and listened intently, suddenly a large cracking sound came from behind him and the three horn leaped several yards forward. The ground behind exploded and lava came spewing into the air, the masses of glowing orange landing just inches from his tail.

"Luca, you ok?" The sharptooth called back. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, just fine" Luca grumbled.

"Luca?" the sharptooth called back again.

"Yeah, what?" Luca barked back.

"We're here".

* * *

"Earthshake!" the gang yelled in unison, still fearful of the relatively common occurrence. Instead of panicking and running in circles though, they ran straight for the main entrance to the Great Valley. About a year ago a series of large earthshakes had rocked the Great Valley. During the shakes a large hole in the great wall developed, leaving the valley vulnerable to the dangers of the mysterious beyond. It took nearly a month, and every resident of the valley, to block up the hole again.

During the fix a small passageway was left in the wall, creating a main entrance to the valley and allowing the other entrances to be blocked up. The passageway is constantly manned by a guard who has the ability to seal the entrance should any sharpteeth come too close. Unfortunately when the ground starts shaking and rocks start falling even the best systems go horribly wrong.

When they arrived at the entrance their fears were realized, the dark brown club-tail that was standing guard now lay on his belly, several streaks of blood running along his face. Ducky ran up to the club-tail and put her ear to its nostrils. "He's alive, he's going to have quite the headache, but he should be fine, yup, yup" she concluded. "Ok" Littlefoot said, "We'll keep up his pos-". He stopped, standing in front of him was Luca, but to Littlefoot, Luca was just a stranger.

The long neck stared at Luca with a puzzled look on his face. "Are you Littlefoot?" Luca asked. "Who are you?" the long neck responded, acting as if he hadn't heard what Luca had said. "Are you Littlefoot?" Luca repeated in a stronger tone. The long neck considered the question, glanced at his friends, turned back to Luca and said "Ya, but who are you?" Luca ignored the question "Excellent, I've been looking for you for a year now".

"How did you find me?"

A smirk grew across Luca's face. Any normal dinosaur would have asked why, but Littlefoot was obviously not a normal dinosaur, he had realized that if Luca won't give away his own name, the odds that he was going to give up his purpose were slim. "An old friend of yours showed me the way" he finally answered. Luca prides himself on his powers of observation, and he took note of the slight changes on Littlefoot's face. Littlefoot's eyes widened slightly, the pupils growing large, but suddenly a small frown grew on his face and he took a quick glance at the three horn next to him. Luca had his theory, but that had to wait.

"Who?" the three horn asked with a hint of irritation that only added more evidence to Luca's suspicion. Luca stepped aside and the gang gasped and instinctively took fighting stances as they saw a young sharptooth standing nervously right behind the spot Luca was standing. "Relax, you know him" Luca said, trying to calm the dinosaurs. "Chomper?" Littlefoot asked, not really believing the sharptooth standing before him was that loveable baby he once knew.

Chomper looked shyly up at Littlefoot and nodded, still visibly nervous. Luca was a little uneasy too, he didn't know how the dinosaurs standing in front of him would react to the sharptooth in their presence.

After a pause a smile grew across Littlefoot's face and Chomper was greeted by his friends. "I'm sorry to cut your little reunion short but I need to talk to Littlefoot, alone" Luca interrupted. "What you can say to Littlefoot, you can say to all of us" Cera shot back angrily as she stepped between Luca and Littlefoot. Well, someone's pretty defensive Luca thought, his theory all but confirmed, I'm going to have to end this.

"Fine, its Cera right?"

"Yes" Cera snorted back.

"You can come along, but no one else". Littlefoot and Cera looked at each other than turned to their friends. After a series of nodding Littlefoot said "Fine, follow me, I know where we can talk". Luca followed Littlefoot and Cera to a small rocky outcropping about a ten minute walk north of the main entrance. The outcropping jutted out into the valley, but a ring of large boulders around the rim and a sixty-foot drop to the valley floor the spot was very private. During the walk Luca pretended to be distracted by the Great Valley's beauty but in reality he was paying close attention to the dinosaurs in front of him. They held a whispered conversation the entire time, keeping Luca out of earshot. Luca could tell they were talking about him from the quick glances in his direction, but the conversation soon turned. Cera's demeanor changed completely, and Luca could hear the occasional giggle float back to him. They make me sick Luca thought in disgust.

They gathered in a circle and Luca began his story. "I come from a forest on the foothills of Animus Mountain, about a two week walk east of this valley. When I was young we were always protected by an ancient order of three horns, called the Animus Benevolentia, until a few years ago." "What happened?" Littlefoot asked curiously. Luca sighed "The Animus Benevolentia are lead by the Cornu Valde, they have to follow his every order. A few years ago the current Cornu Valde started to grow old and senile and began to make strange tactical decisions, even the eldest members of the Animus Benevolentia began to question his leadership. Sharpteeth were constantly finding their way into the forest, killing, eating." Luca trailed off, sorrow in his eyes.

"About a year ago the Cornu Valde became deathly ill and passed on. An egg appeared at the entrance to the throne cave, as has always happened in the past, and we waited for the solar eclipse, for it would tell us when to bring the egg to the birthing cave. Months passed without an eclipse and the inefficient leadership that we revert to after the death of a Cornu Valde couldn't hold the Sharpteeth at bay. They killed, they ate, and they eventually stole the egg. The Animus Benevolentia elders went to the mountain seer, desperate to find a way to retrieve the egg before the eclipse came.

"The seer told them that there were only two dinosaurs that could retrieve the egg, Luca the three horn of my own home, that's me, and Littlefoot the long neck of the Great valley, that's you." Luca finished. "So some seer said that we're supposed to rescue the egg of the future leader of your protectors from Sharpteeth." Littlefoot summarized. "Yes, a highly organized group of Sharpteeth that plans to hatch the new Cornu Valde and use him to unlock the secrets of the Animus Benevolentia, very powerful secrets." Luca answered.

Littlefoot looked down and shook his head. He must have the wrong Littlefoot, there is no way I'm supposed to do this, he thought to himself, but he said Littlefoot of the Great Valley. He looked at Cera next to him and wished he could be as brave as her. He could ignore this task, it didn't affect him, but he couldn't bring himself to leave all those three horns to die, he would do it. "Ok, I'll go with you." He finally decided. "Excellent, we have to wait though. We have no idea where the egg is but once the solar eclipse occurs the Sharpteeth will have to bring the egg to the birthing cave where they will have to wait on another eclipse that will finally hatch the egg. So we leave at the next eclipse, until than we have a rather large problem to sort out." Luca said, "We have to stop this unholy relationship between the two of you".

Littlefoot was shocked, "How did you know?" "You two don't hide it very well, it was simple to figure out, but it must end, not only will it be a distraction but I will not let one of my own kind mate with someone outside of our species" Luca answered curtly. "WE'RE NOT MATING!" Littlefoot and Cera yelled simultaneously, "And if you do anything to try and end this relationship I not going to help you!" Littlefoot screamed, burning with anger. "I find it funny that you think you actually have a choice, the number of Sharpteeth in the mysterious beyond pales in comparison to the number just east of Animus, if my people fall this valley will be next." Luca said defensively.

Littlefoot knew Luca was right, by the sound of his story Animus sounded full of Sharpteeth that would probably end up finding the Great Valley in the future, he still didn't want the relationship to end though, he loved Cera. "Can't we deal with this afterward?" Littlefoot pleaded. "Fine, you are obviously not willing to end this, but I'm sure your parents will" Luca said as he turned and started to walk off. "Wait!" Littlefoot yelled and ran up to Luca, "We'll end it, we'll end it" Littlefoot said in defeat. "No" Cera said defiantly from behind. "If you want to tell our parents go ahead, but I love Littlefoot and I'm not ending this relationship because of racism." "Very well." Luca said and walked off.

"This is going to be a disaster." Littlefoot said and began to walk away. "Wait" Cera called after him. Littlefoot stopped and looked back towards her. "I'm not looking forward to returning home tonight so I was wondering if you would spend the hours till than with me." Cera quietly asked. Littlefoot walked back and to Cera and they embraced.

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"Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, pain of love lasts a lifetime."

-Bette Davis

I had a hard time finding a quote for this one, and yes, I am going to add a quote to each chapter from now on.