Part I:

The wind blew like a soft summer breeze as a younger Sky panned the distant horizon with his eyes. By nature's standards his sight was far better then most, but the object he held over his left eye guaranteed there was little that would escape his vision. Intently, as if searching, Sky tilted the Occular to get a better look at a nearby rock formation. Finding nothing of note, he rotated to view another distant feature of the landscape. The rocky desert he had come to call the Desolates was about as monotonous as watching a river dry out.

"Are you still looking at that weird pebble? I would think you had seen enough of it by now…" called down the male longneck, who had generously allowed Sky to ride on his back.

Sky sighed and put the lens back into his wing. The two things he hated most in the world are racism and ignorance… and this herd of longnecks certainly had an ample supply of both.

"Not to be rude… but how would you like to end up like him a lot sooner than you're supposed to?" Sky pointed to a wretched pile of bones that the herd was walking around.

"Is that a threat?" shot the longneck, who ground his teeth.

"Oh no… I'm just telling you what's going to happen if I lead you all in the wrong direction because you keep pestering me with your stupid questions!" Sky shot back, a little bit meaner then he intended to. He would have to work on making his point in a nicer manner.

"Hey quit pestering the guide!" insisted a middle aged female longneck.

"Yeah… I don't want us to be out here any longer then we have to, it's so hot I think my skin is boiling," replied another male, before adding, "The sooner we get to the Great Valley the better." The offending longneck simply grumbled and let Sky get back to his duties.

Longnecks, Sky had found, were a very unaccepting lot. Their size seemed to give them great intelligence, but only a limited few possessed any form of wisdom. The leader of this particular herd was one such case and had noticed Sky when he taught one of their young ones, Ali, how to recognize where they were by the position of the great circle in the sky. Ali had taken a liking to him immediately and even the headstrong longneck who she hung out with, Rhett, often asked him for pointers on how to deal with sharpteeth if they met any. Sky admired his courage, but chided his ignorance. Sharpteeth were best avoided at all times – especially by young children.

"Hey Sky…Sky!" called the young longneck Ali as she came up beside the one he was perched on, "I don't want to be annoying or anything… but are we there yet?" Sky chuckled at the comment.

"Oh I'm sure we are a lot closer than you think…" Sky replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the male longneck had turned around again to take another shot at him… it must be his method of expressing his displeasure at being 'volunteered' for the duty of carrying the guide.

Rather then argue with him, Sky simply gave a sly smile and pointed into the distance. Ali, the male longneck and even the surrounding longnecks who had been impolitely listening in all looked to the horizon where he had motioned. A female to their left spotted it first.

"Hey… it's Saurus Rock!" she exclaimed.

"We're here, we're here!" repeated another young female at the other side of the herd.

At once the whole herd turned to the famous landmark and proceeded towards it, invigorated by the prospect of green food and fresh, clean water. Later as they passed the enormous bulk of Saurus Rock and looked out over the Great Valley, the elder longneck that led the herd and had asked Sky to guide for them came over to express his thanks.

"You have our sincerest gratitude, Sky. We could not have made it this quickly, or indeed made it at all without you." The elder spoke to him respectfully, before turning and nodding his appreciation to the grumpy longneck that carried him. The unwanting carrier's mood seemed to lighten.

"I guess you're not so bad after all…" the longneck muttered to Sky.

Sky just beamed his satisfaction to both longnecks. He hadn't told them that he had seen Saurus Rock a few days earlier using the Occular. Sometimes it was nice to keep secrets.

"Now can you please get off my back?" the longneck demanded.

Sky frowned… he had actually enjoyed the ride.

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The herd of longnecks paraded into the valley and dispersed among the trees, eager to get their first meal in days. Unlike the others, Ali wasn't hungry. She only half ate the tree-stars as her mom pulled them off the tree, and her mother could see that something was wrong. Her little Ali had something resting on her mind from their previous visit to the valley.

"Mom… you mind if I go off on my own for a while?" asked Ali timidly, "There is someone I have to see." As she finished her mother stopped munching and brought her giant head down to eye level with her daughter.

"What is it Ali?" her mother asked. Ali turned away to hide her emotions. Seeing this, her mother decided to respect her right to privacy. "Make sure to be back before the Great Circle sets dear."

"I will!" replied Ali excitedly as she ran off to find Littlefoot.

…

As the morning circle was approaching high noon Petrie flew around the Great Valley, searching out one of his friends. Today was a somewhat dull day as Cera was assigned by Tria to watch Tricia, Ducky and Spike were spending the morning with their siblings, and Ruby and Chomper had run off doing who knows what. Littlefoot was eating with his grandparents, and Petrie had found out how long longnecks actually take to eat the hard way. After waiting for well over an hour, he decided to go see what his best friend Guido was doing. He finally found him rummaging around an old log in the north end of the valley for his favourite food – creepy crawlies. Oddly he wasn't eating them… instead he was gathering them in his other hand while he picked them off with his mouth.

"Guido, I find you!" Petrie exclaimed as he perched himself on the log to observe his friend.

"Yeah… it's not too hard to find me these days is it?" Guido said half-heartedly as he briefly looked up from his work.

"What the matter?" replied Petrie.

"Lots of things…" mumbled Guido as he pulled a worm out of a rotten hole in the log, "but mostly it's caused by–"

"Guido! What's taking you so long?" called down a voice from the tree above. It was Guido's mate, Syndra. The two of them had settled down together once the storm tide became less of a threat to the valley following the unexpected hurricane a few months ago. Hearing her call, Guido griped Petrie's shoulders dropping all the bugs he had been carrying.

"You gotta help me… this is unbearable!" Guido begged. Petrie just looked at him in a confused manner, like he had no idea what he was talking about. Embarrassed at jumping so suddenly Guido sighed and let go, and turned back to picking up the bugs he had released.

"Everyday it's something different with her… it's either 'go get food' or 'it's too hard bring me some leaves for shade' or 'get some grass for the nest'. I just can't take it anymore!" Guido paused his rant for a moment to make sure Syndra hadn't heard, then continued, "Since she laid those eggs I haven't had a moment to just do what I wanna do."

"Guido get up here!" Syndra bursts out from the leaves and lands on a branch. Guido promptly hides behind Petrie.

"Oh hi Mrs. Treewing we are going to the lake to… umm…. Get a drink!" Petrie smiled politely as he gulped nervously.

"Treewing?" inquired Guido by whisper while Syndra just rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Fine… just make it quick. If these eggs hatch and your not here Guido I'll rip your head off." Syndra threatened as he cowered behind Petrie. It was an empty threat, but Syndra could make life pretty difficult for him if he didn't do what he was told. Satisfied, she flew back into the tree to tend her nest. The two fliers departed after she left without a word.

…

Guido was finally able to relax as the cool wind blew off the lake and into his dirty feathers. He hadn't had time to clean them with all the running around he had been doing… but it was still nice to get out with his friends once in a while. Petrie respected him the most out of everyone in the valley so naturally they hung out together when they could. They had found a nice tree without any leaves on an island close to shore in the Great Valley's one big lake, and perched there to rest. Next to Guido, Petrie was also enjoying the breeze.

"Hey thanks Petrie, I needed this." Guido casually said as he set about cleaning his wings with his beak.

"Oh, it nothing." Petrie replied. He was just glad to have Guido's company… ever since the storm tide he had felt somewhat distant from the rest of his friends. They had left on an adventure without telling him, so with no one else around naturally him and Guido did a lot more things together even though the treewing (as Petrie called them) was much older then he was. Out of the corner of his eye Petrie noticed an odd flier land in a tree across the lake. His motions were fluid and purposeful and he was one of the largest of his kind he had ever seen.

"Who that?" asked Petrie. Guido stopped licking his wings and squinted to look at what Petrie had seen. He blocked out the sun by putting his hand over his eyes.

"…what is that?" Guido corrected.

"Maybe we go see?" Petrie suggested as he spread out his wings and took off. Hesitating slightly, Guido followed.

…

Sky couldn't help but take in the beauty of their current rest stop. "The Great Valley" was what the locals called it – a fitting name, but Sky had seen far greater. Coming to a landing in a tree near the edge of a lake, Sky decided to observe the habits of the native fish species. His kind could eat almost any type of food, but fish was his personal favourite and he was hungry. It was handy that the Occular could filter out the surface glare on the lake so he could see them moving around underwater. Whoever made it must have been a genius.

Sky put the Occular away in his wing and went through a set stretches so he would be in order to go fishing. About halfway through he noticed two fliers approaching him from across the water. Curiously, they landed on the branch across from him in the same tree.

"You know it's not polite to stare," chided Sky as he waved his finger in a friendly manner as they intently watched his every movement.

"Oh sorry," laughed Guido, "it's just that we have never seen anyone like you before."

"Not many have," replied Sky.

"But what are you?" Petrie asked politely. At this Sky suddenly bolted off the tree and into the air.

"Hey wait!" Petrie called after the stranger.

Sky twisted and twirled through the air and suddenly descended towards the water. At the last moment he pulled up and skirted the surface, ensnaring an unfortunate fish in his jaws. All the while Petrie and Guido watched this aerobic display with awe and wonder. When Sky finally landed again it was in a meadow just to the south of the lake. There was a herd of clubtails making their way through it and a longneck who was eating a particularly pleasing bush, but none of them noticed. Satisfied he was alone, Sky picked up the fish he had caught and shook it slightly to make sure it was dead. One last time he glanced about to see if anyone could see him, and then he opened his mouth to swallow it.

"Wow your fast… I couldn't keep up!" wheezed Guido as he came to a rough landing a metre away. Sky was in the middle of eating, and gagged as he spat it out the whole fish.

"Are you okay?" asked Guido, only to have a venomous glare shot at him by Sky.

"Could you just leave me to my own… please?" Sky returned. He was annoyed that this persistent local kept following him, not to mention spoiling his lunch. Never before had he encountered someone so impolite in his life.

"Sorry…" apologized Guido. Something suddenly occurred to Sky, so he had to mention it.

"You are a four-wing yes? What is one of your kind doing so far below the Black Mountain?" Sky eyed his fish on the ground, which had started hopping slightly. He was hungry.

"I'm a four-wing?" returned Guido, "… is that what I am?"

"Of course," Sky lifted his wing to show him, "three rows of feathers on each side with the fourth on the back end." He swirled his tail to reveal a diamond-like formation on the end. Guido looked back at his tail, which looked more like a flower. While he did this Sky picked up his fish and opened his mouth again to swallow it.

"So then what are you?" inquired Guido. Sky lowered the fish and was hit by another edge of annoyance. He decided to respond first before eating.

"Knowledge is a gift that is earned through experience," imparted Sky. He was just trying to blow off Guido so he could eat. Not waiting for the four-wing's response Sky stuck the fish in his mouth and clamped down on it. He pulled with his hand and stripped the soft meat off, leaving him with just a fish skeleton. Guido just looked at him in confusion.

"I'll tell you what… why don't we play a little game." Sky smiled cleverly. "I will tell you the colour of an object I see and if you can guess what it is in three guesses… I'll tell you what I am."

"Okay," Guido said nervously, he didn't like the way this was going.

"And if you're wrong, you have to leave me alone." Sky was certain the small flier wouldn't guess right.

"I spy with my eye something that is red," stated Sky. Guido looked around, and put his hand to his chin in thought. Sky smiled and did the same to pretend he was thinking too.

(on a side note the art is a picture of the two of them here)

"Is it those berries over there in that tree?" suggested Guido. Sky's eyes widened slightly… that tree was so far away he could barely see them himself… without the Occular of course. Guido must have good eyesight.

"Very well," sighed Sky, "in my far away home my kind are known as creators." Guido raised an eyebrow at the name, but Sky didn't proceed to explain it. He would like to keep some mystery about him, not to mention that he had told way too much already. There were some in the world that would very much like to know that he was a creator… so he preferred not to reveal it.

As Sky talked with Guido out of the bushes came Ali and another longneck she was with. He knew it couldn't be Rhett as this one had an expression of nobility and kindness as opposed to ignorance. Sparing him from explaining himself Ali and her friend dashed across the fields to greet him.

"Hi Sky… this is Littlefoot, my friend from a long time ago!" Ali told him excitedly, "we get to see each other every time the herd comes back to the Great Valley."

"Nice to meet you Sky," Littlefoot said as he passed a greeting to him.

"A pleasure it is." Sky replied with a slight bow of his head.

Suddenly there was an odd ringing sound in Sky's ears. He cleared them with his finger but it was still there. Worse, it just kept getting louder and louder. The others heard it too and even Guido was covering his ears.

"Ugh…what's that?" Asked Littlefoot as he grinded his teeth and covered his ears. Ali did the same.

"I don't–" started Sky, but then he found out what it was. He withdrew the Occular from his wing and held it up. It was vibrating ever more vigorously every second.

"What's going on Sky?" Ali said in fright. All of a sudden the ringing stopped, and the two longnecks with Guido sighed with relief. Meanwhile Sky's mind was racing… the Occular was perfection but it was still a normal piece of glass. If it was vibrating then there was a sound of outstanding frequency in the air, and the frequency was rising by the second. Doing some quick calculations Sky reasoned that if the sound was low enough to vibrate glass… then next below that level would be to vibrate rock.

The ground began to shake in a manner none of the Great Valley dinosaurs had ever felt before. It crunched and buckled as trees came crashing down and the valley floor rumbled. Like the end of time had come upon them there was absolute chaos everywhere in the valley beyond a normal earth shake. A thunderous wave of sound cascaded through the ground and cracked the ground beneath it as if it had turned to ice. It came from the Mysterious Beyond and as Sky watched Saurus rock was split asunder and came crashing down in the distance. The same wave of force in the earth came barrelling towards them splitting rivers, lakes, trees, and even tossing dinosaurs off their feet with its mighty energy.

Littlefoot and Ali saw the wave of force in the earth coming towards them and their eyes filled with fright at such a sight. In a panic Ali turned to the most senior of them all, Sky.

"Sky…what do we do!?!" she shouted. Sky watched the wave move towards them at the speed of sound with a mix of recognition and wonder. There were some things you would never see twice. He turned to the longnecks.

"Run." He whispered. They needed no further urging.

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