CHAPTER 6

VALLEY OF THE SICK

As they were walking, Petrie spoke up. "OOOH! I not like way those sharptooth look at me!" He was visibly shaking.

"Me, neither! No! No! NOOOOOOO!" Alaina also said.

"Relax, guys! They have orders to ensure your protection."

"Yeah! Well... orders can be broken, you know!" Cera stated.

"NO!" Chomper screamed as he shot her a look. "Not these orders! There is too much at stake."

Cera was taken aback. She wanted to argue her point of view with Chomper, but knew that he could only become angrier at this. So, she decided to keep quiet.

Eventually, they reached a clearing that seemed to dissapear into a valley, with mountain ranges on either side. There were three sharptooth standing at the top of the hill leading down into the valley. They appeared to be conversing. One of them caught sight of Chomper and his party, and motioned for the larger sharptooth to follow his gaze.

"TEEKUL!" the big sharptooth roared.

Chomper stepped forward. "My leader!"

Both sharptooths exchanged bows with their arms outstretched.

"We are grateful for your return!" the big sharptooth eyed the green eaters. "I see they have answered our plea. I am glad!"

Chomper nodded, then turned his attention to the green eaters. "My friends, this is Chief Berserker the Fearless, head of our Grand Council."

The big sharptooth bowed with his hands outstretched. "Welcome to our lands."

They were all amazed at the massive size of this sharptooth standing before them. He had to be at least 15 feet tall with sharp teeth at least 3 inches long. It was no small wonder that he was head of the sharptooth council! His sheer size along is probably enough to have everyone do as he says! All of the green eaters thought it curious that he was wearing a necklace of small sharptooth bones around his neck, as well as a headdress made up of other small sharptooth bones and long blades of grass; and holding a staff of wood with the likeness of a sharptooth's head carved on top. They'd have to remember to ask Chomper about their significance. His colour was most unusual as well, for a sharptooth! He was a deep black, with purplish pink horizontal stripes all up and down his back and down his lengthy tail. His eyes appeared to be almost as red as Chomper's.

Chomper translated the Chief's welcoming phrase for his friends, then introduced them all in turn, and they returned his bow when their names were called. After Lesik was introduced, he stepped forward and bowed before the Chief. "It's an honour to meet the fellow leader of the sharptooth who reside in this land. I am the Council Leader of The Great Valley of Peace, where a lot of my fellow green eaters now reside. I am known as 'Little Foot' to my closest friends. I do not mind if you were to call me that yourself, as well."

When Chief Berserker heard the translation, he broke out into throaty laughter and said something to Chomper, who then translated for Lesik. He could barely contain his laughter. "He thinks your youngling name is funny. He also says that there are no more 'little foots' on you."

Lesik broke out into laughter himself. Chomper couldn't contain himself, either. Chief Berserker joined in the merriment.

The happy moment was interrupted by several sharptooth arriving at the valley entrance with two more of the sick. They were so weak, they had to be carried by two sharptooth each, who had a hold of each of their arms. After Chief Berserker eyed them for a moment, he motioned them down into the valley saying "All right. Put them with the others."

As soon as they left, he turned to face Chomper. He had a sad look on his facial features as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Teek, things have gotten worse while you were away."

"How bad is it?" Chomper asked in a worried tone.

"Bad enough. See for yourself." Chief Berserker motioned Chomper forward so that he can look down into the valley.

As he stepped forward to look into the valley, his eyes grew wide and he gasped.

"Guys?" he mouthed. "Brace youselves! You're in for quite a shock!"

All of the green eaters stepped forward to see what Chomper was looking at. Everyone of them had a look of surprise on their facial features. Everywhere they looked, they saw sharptooth lying on the ground. Many were too weak to even move. Others looked to have been dead for some time, based on the flies buzzing around them. If anybody was in charge of removing the corpses, it looks like they have not gotten around to removing the ones that were lying there dead. But a few sharptooth were strong enough to stagger around. They were clutching their bellies, and looked to be in a great amount of pain. Everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before they would become so weak and just collapse to the ground and wait for death to claim them. They could smell the scent of death emanating from the valley. Those that were still alive to smell it were no doubt wishing for a quick end to their suffering. There were many cries ringing out throughout the valley. The green eaters didn't need to hear a translation from Chomper to know that they were crying out for help, and probably begging to see their families one last time before they died. They saw healers running around every which way trying as best they can to tend to everybody who called for help, but they were already too overwhelmed as it is. They saw one healer suddenly clutch his belly and fall to his knees as he coughed up blood. He was quickly picked up by two of his colleagues and dragged off to join the others who are sick.

Cera was the first to speak. "By the Primal Egg! There must be hundreds of them! THOUSANDS of them! How are we ever gonna help all of these sharptooth!"

Lesik sighed. "We have to try, Cera!"

"NO! IT'S USELESS! Don't you see! These sharptooth are beyond all hope! THERE'S NO WAY WE COULD BE ABLE TO SAVE THEM!"

Meanwhile, Chomper had leaned a hand on Lesik's massive forelimb to keep from collapsing. Tears rolled down his facial features as he sniffed. When Cera said her last sentence about not being able to save anybody, he spoke up. "We HAVE to! They're my brethren! We MUST save them! WE MUST..." Chomper pounded on Lesik's forelimb so hard with the side of his fist that it made him say "Ow!" Finally, his sorrow became so overwhelming that he fell to his knees sobbing, sniffing and heaving.

Lesik bent his head down to comfort his younghood friend. "It's okay, Chomper. We're gonna do everything we can to help save them. That's what we came here for."

Eventually, Chomper's sadness subsided and he was able to get back to his feet. Chief Berserker came up beside him, looking very sad. He placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and just walked away. Although he said nothing, Teek knew what he meant through his silence. "I know you and your green eater friends will do whatever you can to help us. But if you fail, I will not hold it against you or them."

When Lesik saw that Chomper was fully recovered from his sadness episode, he told the others "All right! Let's get started! We have a lot of work to do." and he led the rest of them down into the valley to offer their aid where ever aid was needed, which was pretty much everywhere at the moment.