Chapter 19: The Egg Stealing Plot

Breathing raggedly, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike hurried up the path that led to the top of the smoking mountain. Unlike the sandy beach below, the mountain path was not easy to walk on at all. It was covered with many rough, loose stones, which combined with the spiraling of the path that made everyone feel dizzy, made balance very difficult.

"We are going the right way, " Ducky told the others as everyone huffed up the path, pointing at some shallow, round markings on the mountain path. "Look at those foot marks in the ground! Cam and Mia must have walked past here already."

"You're right," Littlefoot told Ducky breathlessly. Unable to talk much thanks to the exhausting path, everyone quickly hurried up, going around the smoking mountain many times as they slowly began to ascend towards the top.

"When…are we going to reach the top?" Cera asked, huffing.

"I hope we get there in time," Ducky exclaimed. "Poor, poor eggs…I hope they do not get hurt."

At that moment however, everyone froze, for they heard some loud, ear-splitting booming sounds coming from the smoking mountain.

"Maybe we should wait for longnecks to come down," Petrie said nervously. "Maybe they no go to top because they scared of smoking mountain…and me scared too!"

"Are you kidding? Who knows what'll happen to the eggs if we do that! I'm sure that those longnecks went up there, and if they can get up there, so can we," Cera responded determinedly.

Littlefoot nodded and said, "I think we have to find out what they're up to. They must have taken those eggs for a reason…and if you ask me, a reason that they don't want anyone to know about."

Just then, everyone felt the path shake beneath them, and then to their horror they saw that some larger rocks from above were rolling down the hill toward them.

"Me terrified!" Petrie gasped, fluttering madly as everyone quickly jumped out of the way of the passing rocks. "The smoking mountain is rumbling!"

"Don't be such a scaredy egg, Petrie," Cera told him. "We need to get to the top! Just try not to think that we're on a...smoke…" then Cera's voice trailed off. She had just looked off the side of the path and noticed the huge drop below her. Cera gulped, for she always had a fear of heights.

"That not easy to do," Petrie gasped.

"No," Cera admitted, sighing nervously. "Even I'm a bit scared."

"Try not to be scared guys. We can't be too far away," Littlefoot said consolingly, smiling encouragingly to the others as they kept on going. "Listen…"

Everyone stopped talking, and the only sound that they made was their footsteps hurrying up the path. As they turned yet another corner, everyone gasped they had suddenly realized that they were looking at the top of the smoking mountain. Smoke was billowing out of the volcano's center, accompanied with a foul, suffocating scent. They saw from a distance that Cam and Mia were standing alone, and were staring away from them at a spot on the other side of the smoking mountain. They also noticed that Mia was holding onto three eggs, while Cam was holding onto four, and that Mia's neck was back to being pure white once again. Crouching at the top of the path so no one would notice them, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike sat still to watch the longnecks. The longnecks were silent for a little bit at first, but it wasn't long before they began to talk.

"Do I have to step in your footprints on the way back?" Cam asked angrily. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike looked at each other, realizing that they were right about their theory.

"Yes, you dimwit!" Mia snapped. We're only supposed to look like one longneck! That way, nobody would suspect us! And I bet you blundered on the way here, didn't you?"

"I'm trying, Mia, honest," Cam told her nervously. "But I just can't do it!"

"Well, try harder then," Mia told Cam. "Or else! If anyone sees us…"

"Right Mia," Cam told her. "But don't worry. No one will see us."

"You better be right," Mia growled. The two longnecks continued to stare out at the same spot they were staring at ever since Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike first caught sight of them.

"They're late," Mia complained after a while.

"Maybe they haven't come!" Cam told her hopefully.

"Shut your mouth," Mia told her disdainfully. "Of course they'll come."

"Mia, I don't like this! I still think we should take them back!" Cam argued.

"For the last time Cam, it's the deal. They helped get the sharptooth in trouble, so we have to return the favor," Mia told her firmly.

But just then, another voice rang out, "Well? Mia, Cam, are you two finally here? It's about time that you two showed up."

And coming from the spot where Mia and Cam were looking at was a mob of two-footers, walking up from what seemed to be a mountain path on the other side. As the kids got a closer look at the two-footers, they noticed that they all had long, slender legs with sharp claws on their toes, long dangling arms that also had very long claws, and long necks with narrow heads. They were all looking excitedly at Mia and Cam and hungrily licking their lips.

"Those are eggstealers!" Ducky whispered in horror.

"Petrie worried," Petrie gasped. "Look at those claws! They really fierce! And that lead eggstealer look familiar!"

"You're right, Petrie," Littlefoot whispered as he got a good look at the front eggstealer, who was waring a familiar, devilish smirk. "That's Ozzy!"

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike looked at each other and gasped. They haven't seen Ozzy in a long time, not since he and his brother Strut had try to steal the egg that had contained Chomper a long time ago, but they remembered that despite his small size, he could be very ruthless. Looking anxiously, they watched on as Ozzy took a few steps toward Mia and Cam.

"So, my sweets…" Ozzy sneered with a tone of malice. "The time has come for payback. We helped you with the sharptooth…and so what has happened since?"

"Well, I'll get the bad over with," Mia told them in a businesslike way. "The bad news is that the original plan didn't work out. The sharptooth is still alive and escaped from the Great Valley...so to fulfill the deal you guys will have to go out and help kill it."

The eggstealers gasped and grumbled to each other. Suddenly, another one ran out from the crowd. "No! Not the sharptooth! It'll be after us for sure Ozzy, and we won't be ready…"

"Silence," Ozzy growled, before turning back to Mia. "How did you nitwits let that happen? After all we did…" Ozzy roared.

"It wasn't our fault," Mia nervously replied. "Some meddling kids our age interfered with the plan and helped the sharptooth escape. But don't worry, everything else is going according to plan...actually, even better than what you wanted. Most of the Great Valley dinosaurs left to hunt down that sharptooth. Their defenses are now very weak, with only children and a few parents staying behind, and of course those meddling kids. So can you help kill the sharptooth for us now?"

"Let me guess," Ozzy told Mia disdainfully, ignoring her last question. "I'll bet that those meddling kids you keep talking about are a group of five, a longneck, a threehorn, a swimmer, a flier, and a spiketail."

"How did you know that?" Mia asked incredulously.

"Because these kids have been pests before," Ozzy growled angrily. "They stopped me and my traitor of a brother Strut when we tried stealing eggs way back… I should've known you grass guzzlers were too soft for the job. Is it that hard for you to just kill them?"

Cam and Mia looked at each other uncomfortably. "We're not murderers! If we were, we would've done the sharptooth in ourselves! And we didn't want to be suspected in this," Cam told the eggstealers nervously. "And besides, the longneck is cute!"

"I wouldn't have minded a go at that threehorn though," Mia said with a smirk. "It would've been fun to beat up her ugly, pointy face."

Cera then stood up angrily. She leered at Mia's tauntingly smug face, growled fiercely and snarled, "We'll see how much fun that flathead'll have once I..."

Littlefoot however, held out his front foot and held Cera back, shaking his head. "Shh…wait Cera, we've got to listen," he told her, though he too felt furious at Mia for talking about Cera like that. Reluctantly, Cera nodded and sat back down, still gnashing her teeth and glaring at Mia venomously.

"You fools!" Ozzy shouted. Then he growled, "If those overgrown eggs try to interfere again…."

"Don't worry about them, they're being grounded by their parents so they can't do anything. So while most of the Great Valley dinosaurs will be out hunting the sharptooth, you guys can break into the vulnerable Great Valley and our part of the deal will be fulfilled. It shouldn't be too hard, since the adults are separated from each other by enforcing the kids' punishment," Mia explained. "Then assuming the search party doesn't succeed, you can fulfill your part of the deal and kill the sharptooth for us."

"Excellent…" Ozzy declared in triumph, ignoring Mia's last sentence. "Only a few disorganized grownups will be no match against our full pack…this is even better than what we had planned!" And with that, all of the eggstealers smirked, extending their claws and licking their lips. "Now, a deal's a deal, grass guzzlers. We got the sharptooth out of the Great Valley. Now you hand over those delightful little eggs of yours."

"Okay, here you are," Mia said indifferently, walking over to the egg thieves. "These belonged to the clubtail nests in the Great Valley."

"Clubtails, what a delicacy!" one of the eggstealers cheered out, and the others grinned and sniffed ravenously, trying to catch the odor of the eggs through the sulfuric smell of the smoking mountain.

"But…no Mia!" Cam began as she saw the eggstealers' wolfish expressions. "There are babies inside!"

"We promised them, Cam," Mia told her firmly. "And they'll never stop the sharptooth if we don't cooperate and hand over the eggs." And with that, the two longnecks looked at each other, nodded in agreement, and prepared to hand over their eggs. The eggstealers watched hungrily, and licked their lips as Mia extended her neck out to grab the first egg from her tail…

But before Mia could make another move, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike nodded and at once, they leaped out of their corner and began to charge toward Cam and Mia. With gusto, Petrie flew over to Cam and before she realized what was happening, he got a hold of one of her eggs.

"Give it back!" Cam shouted, trying but failing to bite Petrie's wing.

"Ducky, me got it! Catch!" Petrie gasped. Ducky nodded, and Petrie dropped it from right above her, and a second later, Ducky caught it and then held it carefully. Meanwhile, Cera circled behind Mia, and with vigor she rammed right into the back of Mia's leg.

Instantly, Mia squealed and her four eggs flew up into the air. The eggs began to fall, but Cera hurried quickly and managed to catch all of the eggs in her frill.

When Mia saw what had happened, she growled at Cera viciously. "You!" she growled as Cera smirked. "Give those eggs back, pointy-face!" she screamed.

"Hee!" Cera laughed, smiling at Mia with relish. "You said you wanted a go at me? Well here's your chance."

Mia growled as she bit at Cera's frill to try and get her eggs back, but Cera was too quick for her. Knowing that she couldn't hold all of her eggs, Cera put her frill down and let the eggs roll down the hill and toward Littlefoot.

"Littlefoot, catch!" Cera gasped. Littlefoot nodded, and he stuck his tail out to try and stop the rolling eggs. The eggstealers, meanwhile, stared hungrily at the rolling eggs, but before they could make a move, Spike hurled himself in front of the ravenous eggstealer mob, growling and lashing out his spiked tail threateningly. The eggstealers hesitated, and in that crucial second, Littlefoot had managed to stop all of the eggs that Cera sent him. He wrapped the eggs securely in his tail before he saw that Petrie and Cam were fighting over the last two eggs that the longnecks were still holding.

Quickly, Littlefoot ran over and bit Cam's tail. Cam shrieked as she let go of her two eggs, hurling them off into the air. "Catch the eggs!" Littlefoot exclaimed. And within a couple seconds, Petrie flew over and caught one of the eggs with his feet, while Cera managed to jump up and catch the other egg with her horns. Triumphantly, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike smiled at each other, their hearts excitedly beating now that they had recovered all seven eggs. Cam and Mia, meanwhile, were complaining to each other about how badly they were hurt, not seeming to even care that they had just lost all of their eggs. This caused Ozzy to glare at the eggstealer next to him and slap him on the face.

"Those overgrown, rotten eggs!" Ozzy growled venomously. "Whose brilliant idea was it to get those grass guzzlers involved?"

"Yours?" the eggstealer nervously asked.

Ozzy slapped the eggstealer again, this time causing the eggstealer to fall to the ground, and then he shouted, "Enough!" Then he turned and faced Mia and Cam, who were still busy complaining. "You…stinking double-crossers!" Ozzy screamed as the other eggstealers growled at them. Mia and Cam looked confusedly at each other before nervously gasping. Ozzy rambled, "You didn't tell us that those kids were coming! You said they were grounded!"

Mia and Cam uncomfortably looked at each other again, before Mia protested, "We have nothing to do with this!" Then she growled, "Why did you stupid kids have to come here and ruin everything? This is our business!"

"Yeah sure," Cera spat at them sarcastically, waving her egg at them. "Except that these are not your babies!"

"You cannot take away the clubtails' eggs, no no no!" Ducky shouted. "These eggs are part of their family!"

"Mia, Cam, for your incompetence, we're through!" Ozzy shouted. Then he turned to the legion of eggstealers and told them, "It's time to finish off these sapsuckers once and for all!" And with a devilish smirk, he began to make battle plans with the other eggstealers.