Authors Note: I might slow my pace with the upcoming chapters, but I still hope to update regularly!
Chapter 21: Storms and Surprises
Littlefoot gasped as he saw that it was none other than his father Bron who was walking towards him. He had not seen Bron in many years, and though Bron had aged considerably since Littlefoot last saw him, Littlefoot could still recognize him in an instant.
"Hello, Littlefoot!" Bron exclaimed. "What a nice surprise to see you again!"
"Yeah...I've missed you Dad!" Littlefoot smiled, and he and Bron rubbed their necks together affectionately.
"You're just like Shorty… both of you are really growing into handsome young longnecks!" Bron told Littlefoot affectionately.
"Gee thanks Dad," Littlefoot smiled.
"You guys did a great job with the eggstealers," Bron told the kids happily. "You finished most of them off before we arrived, and Shorty has become really good at boulder ramming, so he finished the last one off. Oh," Bron laughed affectionately. "And speak of the devil!"
And at that moment, a green teenage longneck with a sassy grin came running down the beach path. Littlefoot smiled, for this longneck was his foster brother Shorty. Shorty was growing up very quickly, and despite his youth he was already taller than Bron. Shorty quickly noticed his foster brother and smiled. "Hi Littlefoot!" he exclaimed. "You saw that boulder roll off the cliff? Pretty cool, huh?"
"Yeah," Littlefoot told Shorty happily. "That was awesome!"
"I bet I can ram boulders better than you, threehorn!" Shorty told Cera teasingly.
"Oh yeah, longneck?" Cera dared him. "We're gonna have to see about that!"
"Now, now everyone, we'll have plenty of time for that later," Bron told them. Then he turned to the kids and asked them, "Why are all of you so far away from home, and without your parents?"
"We ran away," Cera explained straightforwardly. "We left to help…"
"Chomper!" Littlefoot gasped. Between following Cam and Mia, learning of the eggstealers' plot, and guarding the clubtail's eggs, the kids had been so preoccupied that they weren't able to think about Chomper's plight. But the thoughts came flooding back to them with each passing moment, and they looked at Bron urgently. "We've got to save him!"
"The sharptooth?" Bron asked.
"Yes, but…" Littlefoot began to tell him, but Shorty cut him off.
"Don't worry Littlefoot, Bron and I heard everything those longnecks and eggstealers said about their plot. We know that Chomper is innocent, so you can trust us…and we trust him," Shorty explained.
Bron nodded, and the kids sighed in relief. "Still, it would be nice if we knew a little more about him," Bron told them gently. "Could you tell us about him?"
The kids looked at each other and nodded, "Sure, Dad," Littlefoot told Bron.
"Let's keep moving though," Cera reminded them. "We've got a lot to do."
"Come on babies," Ducky called out, picking up three of the squirming clubtails as the other four watched curiously. "Follow Ducky to see mommy and daddy!"
The clubtails happily nodded. Ducky smiled, saying, "They say that they will follow us." So everyone began to walk back up the smoking mountain and Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike talked to Bron and Shorty about Chomper. They told them about how Chomper was their friend, how he was starving himself for their sakes, how he was framed for attacking Mia, and how the Great Valley adults all left the valley to hunt and find him.
"We need to get all the grownups back to the Great Valley now!" Littlefoot explained feverishly. "Most of them are busy chasing Chomper, and if they don't come back, not only would Chomper be in danger but so would the Great Valley!"
Bron nodded understandlngly, before saying, "I think we need a messenger. Somebody that could quickly get to the others and let them know about everything. Can you think of anyone who can help?"
Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike looked thoughtfully at Bron and then at each other and began to think. "I don't know if there's anyone who can help us," Cera said sadly.
"Well there is Mo," Ducky suggested. "But the search party might not be near the big water, and without the big water, Mo could not get there, no no no."
"We could try Guido," Petrie suggested.
"But Guido might not be able to go that far," Littlefoot replied. "It's pretty far for him to fly to us, and then fly all the way…"
"Fly!" Petrie gasped, his eyes lighting up with inspiration as he began to flap his wings in joy. "Littlefoot, you really smart! Petrie call Uncle Pterano!"
Everyone looked thoughtfully at Petrie, except Cera, who looked skeptical. "But Petrie," she gasped. "You can't trust him for sure! Remember that he kidnapped Ducky?"
"But," Ducky piped up. "He saved my life!"
"Yeah!" Petrie replied determinedly. "Uncle Pterano is trustworthy and good! He learn and he not with mean flyers anymore! Me find Pterano and bring him back!"
And in a few seconds, Petrie soared off into the air, determined to find his uncle.
"I'm not sure it's a good idea," Cera told Littlefoot concernedly. "How do we know Pterano changed? And besides, even if he has, who would believe him?"
"I know," Littlefoot sighed sadly. "But he might be the only plan we have. And besides, any plan is better than no plan."
"Well, I guess you're right," Cera sighed begrudgingly
"You guys keep on going," Bron said. "Shorty and I will stay back for a bit to make sure that no sharpteeth are on our trail."
Littlefoot nodded, before turning to his friends and sighing. "Guys…I'm not sure if we should continue following Chomper's footprints or whether we should go back to the Great Valley to warn the grownups that the eggstealers are coming."
Ducky and Spike looked conflicted as well, but Cera gave Littlefoot a confident look. Littlefoot could tell that Cera had already decided, but he couldn't understand how she could so fast. She looked at Littlefoot and replied, "How exactly do we know that we were following Chomper's footprints?"
Littlefoot looked thoughtfully at Cera before saying. "I don't know… I guess we just assumed it."
"Exactly!" Cera told him excitedly. "We don't! I just realized that…we weren't following Chomper's footprints at all! I bet they were just eggstealer footprints. An eggstealer probably helped Cam and Mia with their plan, and then showed them to the smoking mountain. Since Chomper's still a kid, his footprints are still pretty small, so we could've easily confused their footprints with his."
Littlefoot, Ducky and Spike looked at Cera hopefully as she confidently continued, "And we've all been assuming that Ruby and Chomper have split up… but how do we know that? If Ruby and Chomper are still together, then those footprints couldn't be Chomper's since there's only one trail, and I doubt they would do Cam and Mia's footprint thing."
"Good point," Ducky added hopefully. "Do not worry so much about Chomper, Littlefoot. Pterano will come and get the grownups to stop chasing Chomper and go back to the Great Valley. Besides, we need to bring the little clubtails back and help protect all of the other eggs. And the babies cannot stay out for long in the Mysterious Beyond, oh no no no."
"Littlefoot, we don't have a clue where Chomper is, and it'll take a long time to find him," Cera told him. "But we'll know how to get home from here…the eggstealers would've left footprints behind that would lead us straight to the Great Valley. And besides, we're needed there too. Only our parents and siblings are left there now, and they'll need our help, otherwise all of the eggs will die!"
"I agree," Bron told Littlefoot as he and Shorty caught up with them. "We'd be most effective if we all worked to defeat the eggstealers. Besides, Petrie's uncle is a flyer, so he'd be able to find the search party quicker than we can. And it's crucial for the search party to be found quickly, for both Chomper's life and the Great Valley could depend upon it."
"Well…okay, I guess," Littlefoot sighed sadly. "But I wish that there's something we could do to help Chomper too."
Cera gently nuzzled Littlefoot. "Littlefoot…I know how important Chomper is to you, and believe me, he is to me too. I'm sure that Chomper won't be caught anytime soon…besides..."
But then Cera stopped talking as Littlefoot gasped, for a new thought just came to his head. "We know something about Chomper that they don't!" he exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Cera asked curiously.
"We were the only ones who knew that Chomper was depressed," Littlefoot explained breathlessly. "He spent all this time in that cave, and while we knew that, nobody else did! Since the others think he's a bad sharptooth, they'd just look for him wherever the herds are and won't even bother to check the caves!"
Cera, Ducky, and Spike looked at Littlefoot, impressed with his conclusion, and happy that Littlefoot had begun to think hopefully again. "He then cleared his throat and declared, "I think we should go back now too. Does everyone else agree?"
Everyone nodded firmly. Littlefoot smiled, and exclaimed, "Well, let's get going!"
Just then, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, Bron, Shorty reached the summit of the smoking mountain, and they quickly noticed that the rim was completely deserted. The baby clubtails gasped and screamed when they saw the smoke rising from the mountain.
"Stick close to me kids, and you will be safe," Ducky told them gently. "And do not walk by the edge!"
"I wonder where Mia and Cam went," Littlefoot asked. "They seemed to be kind of hesitant about the plan…"
"Oh please Littlefoot," Cera told him. "Don't be so naïve about them. I bet that they're still out there, causing trouble somewhere," Cera growled.
Littlefoot said, "Maybe, but I don't know… they sure didn't seem very happy to be working with the eggstealers. Don't you think were pretty reluctant to hand over those eggs?"
"They were just scared," Cera explained. "They wouldn't want anyone to know what they're up to."
"Maybe..." Littlefoot replied unconvincedly. "But they didn't join in on the attack against us…and they kept talking about this deal."
"Well, we have more important things to worry about now," Cera told Littlefoot, and just then, they reached the other side of the smoking mountain and the path that led to the bottom of it.
"Clubtails, come! Follow Ducky to mommy and daddy!" Ducky called out as the clubtails gurgled excitedly to follow Ducky. Littlefoot and Cera smiled at each other, knowing Ducky was really getting attached to the babies. Then the group began to walk down the path on the other side of the smoking mountain. Unlike the path they took to get up, this path was a straight slope, with no twists and turns anywhere.
Just then, Littlefoot suddenly thought of something else to ask Cera. Looking behind to make sure that Bron was out of earshot, Littlefoot began to whisper to her, "Cera…what if your dad tries to take you from me again?"
"He won't be able to," Cera quietly replied, careful to make sure that Bron could not hear them. "Once we drive out the eggstealers, we'll sneak out and live on our own just like we planned."
Littlefoot smiled and nodded understandingly, feeling better. Then as they walked down the path, everyone noticed an array of countless footprints that looked familiar.
"Well, those must be the eggstealers'," Littlefoot exclaimed.
Ducky smiled. "These do look just like the sharptooth tracks at the beach! And now I think about it, Chomper's footprints look a little different, they do!"
Energized with this hopeful sentiment, the group happily continued to follow the eggstealer footprints that they knew would lead toward the Great Valley. Luckily, the eggstealers chose to walk on areas where the group could easily follow their footprints, and they followed the footprints from a sandy beach at the base of the mountain, to a muddy forested path where they stopped for dinner, to a desolate desert that was cooled by the twilight sky. Everyone cheerfully talked about everything under the sun, from reminiscing to Bron and Shorty about their adventures, to coming up with stories and jokes to entertain themselves, to trying to entertain the baby clubtails by making funny faces at them.
However, they abruptly stopped talking as they saw a couple of figures kneeling on the ground. Upon a closer look, the group saw that the figures were a couple of rainbow faces, one male and one female, scooping sand in their hands and reaching down into an empty crater.
The group walked up to the rainbow faces, passing many empty craters on the way to them. The two rainbow faces were murmuring to themselves in a sort of ritual, and they began to stroke some leaves that were in the craters. "Hello," Littlefoot told the rainbow faces friendlily.
The rainbow faces looked up from the crater and looked at the group indifferently. "Greetings," they replied dourly.
"Aww, what's wrong?" Ducky asked the rainbow faces kindly.
"That would be telling, wouldn't it?" the female rainbow face growled.
"She was just trying to help, you know," Cera told the rainbow faces angrily. "You don't have to act so secretive with us."
"None of this is your concern," the male rainbow face told them. "You should keep on going and leave us in peace."
"Sorry, we just want to see if there is anything we can do to help," Littlefoot told the rainbow faces.
The rainbow faces sighed, and then the male rainbow face told them, "Oh fine. We are just mourning the loss of our babies. It was a few days ago now… we were waiting for our babies to hatch, but then we were attacked by a huge pack of egg thieves."
Everyone gasped to each other as the female rainbow face nodded. "Our whole colony was just sitting in this desert, taking care of our eggs in our nests," the female rainbow face explained, pointing to the craters. "We were all looking forward to the day when our eggs would finally hatch. But then this huge pack of eggstealers came and raided our nests!"
"Many of us were able to escape with our eggs on time," the male rainbow face sighed. "But we were one of the couples who weren't so lucky. The eggstealers managed to get all of our eggs, and…" Then to everyone's shock, the male rainbow face broke down and began to cry.
"Well, you probably can figure out what happened next," the female rainbow face finished sadly.
"Poor, poor babies," Ducky cried, hugging the clubtail babies she was holding, all of whom were blissfully unaware of the conversation.
"I'm so sorry," Littlefoot told them sadly, knowing exactly how it felt to lose members of his family. "Those egg thieves are terrible! How could they be so… bloodthirsty?"
"If only I was there, then I'd really let them have it!" Cera growled fiercely.
The rainbow faces sighed sadly, but then they looked up, and stared at Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike in an odd way. The two of them whispered to each other hurriedly, and the kids looked at each other confusedly. Then the eggstealers stared at the kids and the female rainbow face said, "We might have seen you kids before. What are your names?"
"I'm Littlefoot," Littlefoot said.
"Cera," Cera introduced herself.
"Ducky, and this is Spike," Ducky cheerily said.
"And this is my father Bron and my brother Shorty," Littlefoot explained.
The rainbow faces looked curiously at each other before the male rainbow face asked, "Where's Petrie?"
"He should be back soon… but how do you know about him?" Ducky asked curiously.
"We remember the five of you…we were there when you went after the Stone of Cold Fire…we always knew you kids were special," the male rainbow face answered. But before he could say another word, a huge clasp of thunder came down, followed by a blinding flash of lightning. Looking into the sky, everyone noticed that it suddenly turned a violent shade of grey and noticed that a huge cyclone of wind was approaching them from the distance. "Oh no! It's the swirling wind!"
"Oh…I hate storms," Cera groaned.
"Poor Petrie!" Ducky gasped. "Out there in the storm like this, this is not good, no no no!"
"Don't worry Ducky, Petrie will be all right. He's probably far away from the storm right now," Littlefoot told her consolingly.
"But you won't be," the female rainbow face warned them. "If you don't take shelter now, you'll be at risk of the swirling winds! Follow us to our caves, we have room for you to settle in."
"But the eggstealers might be invading the Great Valley right now!" Littlefoot cried out.
"Eggstealers may be stupid, but even they won't try to attack in a storm this bad," the male rainbow face explained. "There's nothing you can do now without being blown away yourselves…trust us, we've been through these storms before. Besides…you four need to come to our cave for another reason."
Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike looked bewilderedly at each other. "Why?" Cera asked.
"You'll see," the female rainbow face told them mysteriously. "But I promise that you won't regret it."
"Ooh! I am really curious!" Ducky exclaimed excitedly, and everyone nodded in agreement.
Hurriedly, the rainbow faces led the group through the desert as the wind howled and moaned. "We're not too far away," the male rainbow face gasped. "We just have to go to those cliffs over there."
Everyone nodded hurriedly and without a word, they charged through the storm and followed the rainbow faces to the caves. They soon noticed that they were running to an entrance of a very large cavern, while entrances to smaller caverns stood nearby.
"Here's the place," the male rainbow face said. "I don't think you'd all be able to all fit in our main cave since our whole colony lives there already, but no one else lives in the other caves so some of you can take shelter there."
Then the female rainbow face turned to Bron and Shorty. "Would you mind if you two and the babies went in one of the other caves?"
"Okay," Bron answered.
"But Dad, I want to see Littlefoot!" Shorty protested.
"You'll have plenty of time to see him and his friends later," Bron told Shorty, who reluctantly nodded.
Then the female rainbow face turned to Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike and said, "You four should come in with us. Oh, and the flyer too, once he comes back."
The kids nodded, and then Ducky put the little clubtails she was holding down and gave a little whistle to get their attention. "Okay little guys, follow Shorty and Bron into their cave," Ducky told them. Shorty and Bron waited for the clubtails to waddle over to them, and then they lifted them onto their backs and carred them into the cave next door. Then, the rainbow faces walked up to their entrance and beckoned Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike inside their cave.
"Welcome in," the rainbow faces politely said. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike found themselves in a narrow entrance path that was brightly lit up with several shiny stones.
"Thanks for the shelter," Littlefoot told the rainbow faces as everyone else nodded.
"No problem," the male rainbow face told them. "We want to see you anyways… after you," They passed through the entrance passage, and soon came to a long, rectangular chamber. This room was also brightly lit up with shiny stones, but nothing was able to mask the sullen atmosphere in the room. Everywhere the kids looked, they saw miserable-looking rainbow faces. A few of them were anxiously sitting on top of what appeared to be eggs, others were making makeshift nests on the hard cave floor, while others just laid down on the floor, seemingly too dejected to do anything else.
"We've all been hit hard by the eggstealers," the male rainbow face explained. "We're not from this planet…"
"Not from this planet?" Cera asked skeptically.
The female rainbow face gave her husband a glare before sighing, "Yes…we are from another planet and we have come to investigate the Earth. Normally we would stop and try to enlighten the minds of you earthlings, but…we're not in the mood right now."
"We weren't prepared for the mob of eggstealers," the male rainbow face sighed. "We purposely chose a place near the Great Valley because it's a place that sharpteeth usually avoid. When we saw the eggstealers, we were naturally curious. We thought that since they looked similar to us, they might have been our friendly cousins, or perhaps some of our long-forgotten ancestors who already migrated to Earth. But they're not…"
"We have to tell them now, remember?" the female rainbow face told the male abruptly.
"Oh yes, that's right," the male rainbow face said. They both smiled at the kids, who looked bewilderedly at them.
"We've been waiting for you for a few days now," the male rainbow face told them.
"Hold on," the female rainbow face called out as the two of them began to walk off. "You'll understand why soon."
"They still act so…mysterious," Cera told Littlefoot exasperatedly.
"Yeah… I wonder why they've been waiting for us," Littlefoot added.
"Maybe they missed us and wanted to see us again," Ducky suggested.
"Then how come they just walked off like that?" Cera asked.
"I do not know…they are very hard to understand, they are," Ducky sighed, and Littlefoot, Cera and Spike nodded with her.
But then, through the depressive atmosphere of the cave, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike distinctly heard a light, cheerful trot. They looked curiously at each other, wondering what could possibly be making such a happy sound. But as they turned to look, their hearts instantly leapt as they saw that a familiar small, pink fast runner was happily running towards them. She stopped by Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike and smiled at them, and then she hugged them each in turn.
"Hello everyone, everyone hello!" Ruby exclaimed. "I'm so happy to see you guys again!"