Chapter Two: Bambo Meets The Gang

Cera's friends stood at the top of Green Hill, eagerly awaiting her arrival, so that they could finally start playing the pointy seed game. They were expecting her any moment, but they certainly weren't expecting her to bring a guest. As they saw her coming up the hill, they could clearly see another Threehorn with her.

"My friends may seem a little odd at first," Cera told Bambo, thinking of Ducky and Ruby. "And sometimes a little annoying." she grumbled slightly, thinking of Petrie and Spike. "But they really are a great bunch, the best friends I could ever ask for. Only... don't tell them I said that. I wouldn't want them thinking I'm going soft on 'em."

"Don't worry," chuckled Bambo. "Your secret's safe with me."

In a matter of moments, the two young Threehorns had reached the hilltop.

"Hey, guys!" Cera called out to the gang. "I want you all to meet my new friend. This is Bambo. His herd just migrated here."

"Hi," said Bambo, slightly non-plussed at the wide variety of species that stood before him. "Nice to meet all of you."

"Hello, Bambo." said the Longneck. "I'm Littlefoot."

"I am Ducky." chirped the Swimmer. "It is very nice to meet you. Yep, yep, yep!" The Spiketail next to her grunted in a welcoming sort of way. "Spike thinks so, too!" chuckled Ducky.

"Me am Petrie." said the Flyer. "Any friend of Cera's is friend of mine."

"Hello, new friend, new friend, hello." said the Fast Runner. "My name is Ruby."

"Hi there, I'm Chomper." said the last of Cera's friends, a little fellow that looked oddly like a... No, it couldn't be! Bambo leaned forward for a closer look, scrutinising Chomper very carefully. "You're a Sharptooth." he said finally.

"Yeah..." said Chomper warily.

"You're friends with a Sharptooth?!" exclaimed Bambo, rounding on Cera.

"Well..." Cera replied uncertainly.

"Cool!" Bambo yelled. "I've always wondered what it would be like to be friends with a Sharptooth! Everyone always thought I was crazy, though!"

"It's really not that crazy." Cera reassured him. "Chomper's a great friend, even if he does eat gross stuff like Ground-Crawlers and Flying Buzzers."

"Hey!" said Chomper, slightly offended.

"It's nice to have you here, Bambo." said Littlefoot. "We were just about to play the pointy seed game. Do you wanna join in?"

"You bet!" said a gleeful Bambo.

The teams were set up four-on-four: Two-legged Dinosaurs against four-legged dinosaurs. Littlefoot, Cera, Spike and Bambo made up one side, and Petrie, Ducky, Ruby and Chomper made up the other. Bambo, being the newest player, had the honor of hitting the pointy seed first, setting up the mad scramble for victory.

"Come on, Bambo!" cheered Cera. "Let's show 'em all how it's done!"

"You got it!" Bambo cheered back.

However, the two young Threehorns had their eyes fixed on the pointy seed rather then on the terrain, and as a result they both tripped over a large stone. Tumbling across the grass, Bambo ended up sprawled on top of Cera, his snout touching hers.

"Whoops!" chuckled Bambo, getting back onto his feet. "Guess we just showed everyone how it's not done!"

"Uh, yeah..." mumbled Cera, who had experienced a strange hot prickly feeling when their snouts had touched. "Remind me to watch where I'm going next time." she said, still flustered.

"Come on, then." Bambo said confidently. "Let's get back into this!"

"Yeah!" smiled Cera, joining Bambo in a charge for the pointy seed.

The young dinosaur's games wore on throughout the rest of the day. And, as the great circle started to descend, they finally decided to call an end to the day's fun and return to their nests, bidding their new friend goodbye as they did. Cera, however, stayed with Bambo a little while longer, as their families' nests were quite near to each other.

"You were right about your friends." Bambo told Cera. "They may not be Threehorns, but they're still a great bunch."

"Yeah, they are." agreed Cera.

"Not as great as us, though!" Bambo said playfully, nudging Cera as he did.

"Got that right!" chuckled Cera, nudging him right back.

The two young Threehorns soon reached a divide in the path; One way led to Bambo's nest, the other to Cera's.

"Well, guess I'll see you tomorrow." said Bambo.

"Yeah," agreed Cera, a touch of glumness in her voice. "See ya."

As Bambo trotted off, Cera started to think about what had happened to her earlier. She thought she had figured out why she felt all fuzzy, but she was at a loss to explain the hot prickly feeling she had experienced earlier. As she headed for home, Cera resolved to ask her father and Tria about it, hoping they would be able to shed some light on the matter.

To be continued...

(The Land Before Time series, and it's characters, are the properties of Amblin Universal. Bambo is my creation, although I did take the name from what Cera was originally to be called, before the creators decided that she was to be a girl.)