"No!" Noah turned around and galloped towards the back of the herd.
Baylene continued to walk. Her legs were shaking badly, and her neck wasn't held as high as it usually was. And she looked plain exhausted.
Eema was laying on her side, gasping for breath. Url hurried over and sniffed her, groaning with worry.
"On your feet, Eema!" Aladar demanded. He began pushing against her side as Plio climbed to the top of her frill. "Can't let those things... eat you!"
Noah nudged Url away and stood on the other side of Eema. She shoved her shoulder under her and pushed up. "They're out there, waiting!" she added.
Finally, she was pushed back onto her feet. She sighed heavily. "Sorry about that," she said, her voice heavy with fatigue and embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it." Aladar answered. He did a double take at Noah as Eema began walking, with Url trailing close behind. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah." She nodded. "C'mon, let's catch up."
He tried to say something else, but she was already trotting ahead. She slowed down once she reached Baylene, Eema, and Url; she heard Aladar join her.
"Oh, my goodness!" Baylene exclaimed. "Are you all right, my dear?"
"You look like you're fit to fall asleep right on your feet," Eema remarked.
Noah cringed, but played it off by yawning loudly. She grunted in surprise as Aladar began to sniff her over. "Aladar, I'm fine!" she protested, trying to shoulder him away.
"Sweetheart, your eyes are dark and baggy," Plio said, still sitting on Eema's crest. "And you looked terrified when you came running over here."
Noah sighed heavily. It seemed she still couldn't hide anything from her mother.
But before she could say anything, Aladar asked, "Was it the Struthio?"
"H-how'd you know what it was called?"
"Eema told me. She told me all the names of the herd species. What about you?"
"I made a couple of Parasaur friends. But yeah... I saw it fall. I-I tried to help it up. But it was... it was too late." She couldn't even think about telling how Kron and Bruton reacted to her trying to push it up.
Aladar nudged his head under her chin. "It's gonna be okay."
"But what if it's not? What if more of us fall? They don't even care!" She tossed her head in the direction of the head of the herd.
"They care about somethin'. They stopped walkin'," Eema stated.
The twins looked forward. Sure enough, the herd had come to a stop. Everyone stood where they stopped, though several were on shaky legs.
"Let's go see what's going on." Aladar trotted ahead.
Noah opened her mouth to protest, but he was already disappearing in the crowd. She rolled her eyes and followed after him. Even though she wanted to be as far away from the leaders as possible, she was also curious about why they had stopped. It couldn't have been out of the goodness of their hearts; she doubted there was any in there.
By the time she caught up with Aladar, he was standing just behind a row of Iguanodons, which were between him and Kron and Bruton. Once she stood beside him, a few of the bulls glanced back at her, whispering among themselves. She couldn't hear what they were saying. But considering she had gone back to try and wake up the dead Struthiomimus, she wondered if that was what they were talking about.
In an attempt to ignore them, she stood up as tall as she could on her tiptoes to try and hear what the leaders were saying.
"... losing daylight as it is. We're one more day away from the lake, we can't afford to stop now."
"This area is flat enough for us to spread out, and we'll be able to see predators if they come over the dunes."
Noah couldn't believe what she was hearing. Was Bruton actually trying to talk Kron into taking a break? She rose up on her hind legs; not all the way, but just enough so she could peek over the Iguanodons' heads.
The two leaders were stood facing each other. She couldn't tell what their expressions were, but she could imagine Kron wasn't very happy about stopping.
"Besides," Bruton continued, "one of the new ones was sleepwalking last night. It'll do the whole herd good to rest, even for a little while. Even an hour won't delay us so badly."
Noah's eyes widened as Kron turned his head towards her. In that instant, she wished a star would fall right onto her. She fell back onto all four feet, but knew he already saw her. And it wouldn't be a stretch to assume he figured out who it was. Especially with how she reacted when he spotted her.
"We'll be resting for one hour!" he shouted. "After that one hour, we're off again!"
At that, the herd scattered into groups, just like how it did when she and her family first joined them. Through the chaos, she saw Kron give Bruton one last glance before walking away.
Bruton stared after him before turning his head. Noah could feel his eyes lock onto hers, even though she still didn't know what his expression was. Her face burned hot. She could feel her eyes beginning to sting and her legs begin to shake—though it wasn't from fatigue this time. Her chest was heaving. Her jaw was clenched. She wanted to scream, stomp her feet, and burst into tears all at once. She wanted him to stop looking at her. Was he looking at her with contempt? Ridicule? Pity? She didn't care. Stop looking at me!
Finally, she turned around sharply and stormed away.
"You fell asleep while walking?"
"I don't want to talk about it!" she snapped as Aladar tried to catch up to her.
"Well... at least he got us to stop for a while," he said softly.
She didn't respond. "Noah, are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine!" She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "I just... I just want to go to sleep."
"Okay." He nodded. "You want me to lay down with you?"
"... I just want to be alone for now."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aladar's face deflate before he nodded again, and walked back to the back of the herd. She felt awful for being so rude, but couldn't bare to call him back. She truly did want to be alone for now. She had never felt so embarrassed in her whole life. Especially because it was caused by someone she hated.
She turned around in the sand until there was a shallow hollow, and then curled up in it. Despite her swirling emotions, she fell asleep fast.
A/N Happy Easter :D
Kind of a short chapter, but it DOES give us quite a bit of the story. As with my explanation about Bruton in the previous chapter, I feel like it makes sense that he would suggest that Kron stop everyone for a break. Even if Kron's "survival of the fittest" does make sense, it's also putting the able-bodied dinos in danger. It's definitely a lot more complicated than the movie makes it out to be, and it's kind of a shame they portrayed Kron as 100% the bad guy, when he DOES have his reasonings; even if they're seen as bad.