Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike gathered in one of the several secluded spots in the Great Valley. The trees around them had some of the leaves on the trees yellow and patches of dead or faintly yellow grass. There were two boulders to sit on, each big enough for Spike, the biggest one, to sit on. Yet, he did not. The teenaged Cera took one, lying on the flat rock plate. Petrie and Ducky shared the other. Petrie perched on it as Ducky sat straight up with her feet and some of her tail dangling off the rock. Ducky sighed.
"This is going nowhere."
"Me knows," agreed Petrie, the adult-sized brown Pteranodon with black eyes. "When are the parents gonna agree on something?"
"It better be soon," commented Cera, the yellow Triceratops with green eyes. Her three horns were almost completely grown.
"Yeah," said Spike, the forest green Stegosaurus with violet eyes. The plates on his back were growing, but they hadn't reached their full growth potential.
"This is annoying," said Ducky, the green Parasaurolophus with blue eyes. "Why don't we do something about it."
"We can't fix it, Ducky," said Cera. "Besides, we don't know where to start. If we did, then we would've fixed the problem. It happened before, but when we checked in the spots around the Great Valley, the water seemed further-backed up."
"But we could easily follow the waterway," stated Spike. "It can't be that far. We can fix it."
"Yeah…but I sense it to be different."
Ducky, Petrie, and Spike faced each other briefly and then turned at Cera.
"Sense different?" questioned Petrie. "How?"
"I…I can't explain it, but you know when you get the feeling of your gut when something is bad."
"Woah, Cera," Spike said. "I never suspected you to have an open-minded approach on things…not to be mean or anything."
Cera gave him an annoyed look and shook her head.
"Yeah, well, it's part of growing up. You become wiser and approach things carefully. That's why I asked Petrie to get Littlefoot. He usually knows what to do when things like this happens. For a small brain, he's very open-minded."
"In all my years, I never thought I would hear those words come out of your mouth."
"Whatever Spike. To be honest, I thought you were never going to say a word ever in your life."
Spike narrowed his eyes.
"So, Petrie," said Ducky, changing the topic. "When did you talk to Littlefoot?"
"Me think three bright circles ago. Hopefully, he will be here soon."
"Alright," said Cera. "We should go over the plan again: we tell Littlefoot about the problem, we follow the waterway, Littlefoot tells how to fix it, we fix it, and then we return home."
"You forgot two things," brought up Spike. "When we come back, we get attacked by sharpteeth and then we win and then we come back."
"Oh, right," said Cera. "We can't forget the damn sharpteeth."
"I wish Littlefoot we here now," said Ducky.
"Me go check," said Petrie.
He flapped his wings and took off into the clear blue sky. His friends watched him leave. Moments after he disappeared from their sights, Cera stood up.
"Well, might as well check too."
Ducky and Cera got off the rocks they were on as Spike stood up from the soft dirt. The three started walking towards the entrance of the valley.
Ali continued to walk along the path Littlefoot journeyed through. Tall trees with thin trunks stood along the path, scattered from a straight row. The ground had some grassy patches decorating the path in front of Ali. She exhaled loudly.
"This is nice," she breathed.
She looked around and realized everything was alive. She decided to investigate the area further. From experience, green food equals water. She deterred from the path and walked through the thin trees. After walking a short distance, she made it to a clearing. In the center of the clearing was a big body of water. She smiled in relief and eagerly jogged to it. She looked down at her reflection in the water and smiled.
"Water," she muttered.
She lowered her head and took a long-deserved drink. She did not care if it was unladylike to slurp the water. If you were close to death, the last thing you would care about was how you drank or ate something. Ali lifted her head as water fell from her mouth. She looked back at her reflection in the water. She saw that her face didn't look as before. This was most likely due to the sleepless night.
"It's horrible how one night can mess up your look. Good thing it's only slightly."
She looked at the sides of her face using the water like a mirror.
"But he shouldn't care if he truly loves me… Still, I want to look my best."
She thought about what to do before reaching a verdict. She dunked her head into the water for a few seconds and then lifted her head up. She shook off the water running down the scales of her head. Her eyes widened. She turned around and pressed onward to her goal.
The residents of the Great Valley gathered at the entrance of the valley. A gray flyer who served as a lookout had spotted a longneck near the Great Valley. Mr. Threehorn, an old, gray Triceratops, was in front of the gathered crowd of dinosaurs with his mate Tricia, a dark pinkish Triceratops about Mr. Threehorn's name. Mr. Threehorn, or Topps, was the father of Cera. He stood stiff, ready for an attack.
They had to be on their feet. The Great Valley, their home, was slowly dying. The area around them had some green, but it was mostly yellow around them. Rooted logs of dead trees dominated the barely living trees of the valley. Only few sections of the valley stood green. This was probably due to underground springs. The grass patches under some of the feet of the residents were prickly instead of being soft. This did not make them move. They were focusing their eyes on the two dinosaurs that were walking towards them through the entrance of the Great Valley, which was just a narrow pathway in-between two red-brownish valley walls. Well, it was two dinosaurs, but it appeared to be one under the shadows. The sunlight soon revealed that the figure in the shadows proved to be two dinosaurs. One was a longneck, and the other was a flyer, who was on top of the longneck. The residents watched as the two approached them. The duo was lost in conversation.
"It's real bad, Littlefoot."
"So, you have no water."
Petrie nodded. Littlefoot sighed.
"This is déjà vu all over again."
Littlefoot came to a stop in front of Topps. Petrie flew off his head and landed next to Ducky, who was the front part of the crowd. Littlefoot looked down to face the two Triceratopses, who were looking up at him.
"Hi."
"Littlefoot?" questioned Tricia.
Littlefoot smiled.
"What are you doing here?" asked Topps in a stern, but wondering voice.
"Well, Petrie said you guys have a problem."
Before Tricia responded, the prideful Topps spoke first.
"We can handle it. We have been managing through this crisis."
"A crisis?" wondered Littlefoot.
"A crisis? I mean a little problem. Nothing to be concerned about."
Tricia faced her mate and narrowed her eyes. She then looked back at Littlefoot.
"When he says little, he means big."
Topps turned towards Tricia with a slightly maddened expression. Tricia felt his stare and looked at him sternly. After a short communication with the eyes, they faced Littlefoot. Topps spoke.
"Well…it's just that the water dried up and…"
"I know Mr. Threehorn. Petrie already informed me about it a little bit more clearly know. The water had stopped, and you have checked around the Great Valley to fix it, but you came up empty."
"… Yeah. That's pretty much it."
"Alright. Well, I was thinking it through, and I remembered something."
"Remembered what?" questioned Tricia.
"As I was walking, I found a place that can serve as a temporary home."
"… What do you mean by temporary home?" asked Topps. "Are you…"
Littlefoot smiled.
"I tell you when I fix the problem."