Chapter 22: The Rainbow Faces' Guardian
"Ruby! It's great to see you again!" Littlefoot exclaimed.
"Yeah," Cera smiled. "It hasn't been the same without you!"
"I missed you so much!" Ducky told Ruby happily, bending down on her knees to hug her.
"I remember when I could do that to you," Ruby grinned as she and Ducky laughed and embraced. Ruby smiled at Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike and said, "I missed you guys too... but, where's Petrie?"
"He should be finding his Uncle Pterano, I hope…" Ducky told Ruby worriedly, sighing as she looked at the ground.
"You really miss him, don't you Ducky?" Ruby asked her gently.
Ducky nodded, and sighed, "I am sorry Ruby…I should have faith and tell myself that he will be okay…and he will be, yep yep yep," Ducky finished with a note of determination.
Then Ducky continued, "Once Petrie finds Pterano and we talk to him, Pterano will go tell the other grownups that Chomper did not bite…" and her voice trailed off again. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike's hearts all sunk, remembering that Chomper was supposed to be with Ruby. They felt a wave of gloom sweep over them as they took it to be a bad sign that Ruby had not mentioned Chomper at all.
"Is anything wrong?" Ruby asked gently, looking at the others concernedly. "You all look so sad."
"Well…where's Chomper?" Littlefoot asked worriedly, double-checking the cave.
"Is he… is he…" Ducky stuttered, terrified.
"Gone?" Cera finished, gulping a tear.
"He's…" Ruby began to answer.
But before Ruby could say another word, everyone heard some loud footsteps coming from the entryway. At once, many of the rainbow faces froze, and some of them stood up, turning and looking excitedly at each other. Then many of them began to whisper to each other rapidly. The kids heard one eggstealer nearby whisper, "It's the guardian! He made it out of the storm!"
"The guardian?" Cera asked confusedly.
Ruby smiled, whispered, and said, "You'll see."
A moment later, a tall shadowy figure entered the cave. Upon looking at it closely, the kids could see that the figure was pretty tall, dark, and two-footed, with large, bright red eyes at the top of its tall head, and it had a bunch of strange objects dangling from what seemed to be its mouth.
"It's getting really nasty outside…but I managed to get of a few of them," a familiar voice said happily. Then the shadowy figure opened its mouth, and at once, six eggstealers fell onto the ground, all of which looked to be dead and were wearing the same expression of utmost terror. "Your eggs should be safe now!" the voice exclaimed.
"You have our highest appreciation, oh guardian!" a rainbow face called out while many others murmured in agreement. The shadowy figure happily replied, "Oh…it was nothing…" But then, the figure turned its head and abruptly gasped, "Littlefoot! Cera! Ducky! Spike!"
Then, the shadowy figure crouched down, and Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike gasped as they saw that a familiar young sharptooth's face was right by them, and was grinning and looking at them with eyes sparkling in excitement.
"Chomper?" Littlefoot gasped.
"Yep, it's me!" Chomper exclaimed, smiling brightly.
Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike all looked at each other in shock, hardly daring to believe their eyes. They felt their hearts rise, for after all their effort of trying to find him, they finally found him just when they least expected it. Then they happily began to cheer and run over to Chomper before affectionately rubbing against him.
"Chomper! You are all right, you are!" Ducky gasped excitedly.
"Great to see you, Chomper!" Cera told him happily.
"Chomper… I… I'm so happy you're alive!" Littlefoot exclaimed.
"Alive?" Chomper asked confusedly. "Why wouldn't I be alive?"
"We were afraid you might've died… the grownups have gone out hunting for you," Cera told him. "Of course, I knew all along that you'd be fine." Everyone snickered with Cera's obvious attempt to pretend that she wasn't worried.
"So you must've not ran into them!" Littlefoot gasped excitedly.
"No, we didn't really run into anyone," Ruby explained. "When we left the Great Valley, Chomper didn't have enough energy to go very far. So while we walked from time to time, we rested formost of the night. I tried to help Chomper feel better, and I begged him to eat, but he kept on refusing."
It was then when Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike noticed that Chomper looked much healthier than when they last saw him, and then they remembered how depressed he was compared to how happy he looked now.
Chomper nodded, saying, "I was really hungry, but I was determined to keep on ignoring my rumbling stomach. I was afraid that if I ate, I would wake my sniffer up and maybe even hurt Ruby by accident. So I kept on saying no… until we arrived here."
"We heard some screams, and so we decided to see if we could help. We hurried over and saw some rainbow faces who had laid their eggs in the nests out here. They were fighting this pack of egg thieves," Ruby explained. "It looked hopeless…the rainbow faces were losing eggs left and right. These eggstealers can be amazingly tough for their size."
"And I was really mad!" Chomper exclaimed. "Those eggstealers really seemed to like killing. And then it occurred to me that if they found any of our eggs, we could've been lunch just like those eggs! But then I remembered that since I'm a sharptooth, I could put a stop to it. So… I went all out at them! It was really fun! I could eat my fill and do something good while I'm at it! I managed to eat tons and tons of eggstealers, and before you know it, the rest of the pack became scaredy eggs and ran away, and so the remaining eggs were safe," Chomper told them brightly, reminiscing. "And to top it all off, the eggstealers tasted delicious!"
Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, and Spike exchanged covert looks of disgust at each other, and Ruby explained, "Well, the rainbow faces were really grateful for Chomper's help, and we explained everything to them about who we are and why we're out here."
Chomper nodded, before saying brightly, "I felt better after eating. Not only am I full, but now I know that as long as I can eat the eggstealers, I can be safe with you guys! I'd much rather be eating eggstealers anyway, since they would've eaten me if they got the chance. And better yet, they don't taste a thing like leafeaters! They have a fresh, savory taste that you guys don't. And now that I'm not starving anymore, I know that as long as I have the eggstealers, I can control my sniffer and we can be together again!"
Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike happily smiled at Chomper, delighted that Chomper had found a solution for his food problem. Ruby told them, "Chomper's so effective at hunting the eggstealers that the rainbow faces gave us shelter in return for Chomper's help. So that's where we've been all this time. I've been out finding treestars for the rainbow faces while they take care of their cave and watch their remaining eggs, while Chomper's been protecting everyone from eggstealer attacks, becoming the colony's guardian."
"Some of those eggstealers aren't very bright," Chomper laughed. "Even though I ate every eggstealer that came by, more just keep coming back. It's probably the smell of eggs that lures them here. Usually, I catch at least three a day," Chomper smiled, licking his lips. "Today was a good haul though. I got six."
Everyone laughed, and then the kids heard someone clear their throat. Looking up, Chomper saw that some of the rainbow faces had come over to talk to him. "You have our sincerest gratitude, oh guardian," one of the rainbow faces told him, while many of the others bowed. "We believe that our surviving eggs might have a fighting chance now thanks to your service!"
The other rainbow faces murmured in agreement, as Chomper blushed, "Thanks! I'm happy to help! And I'm always ready to hunt for more!"
Everyone, even the rainbow faces, laughed with Chomper's enthusiasm, before a pause swept over the cave. Turning, everyone noticed that Bron had stuck his head inside. "Excuse me, sorry to interrupt," Bron said.
"No problem. How may we help you, Mr. Longneck?" a rainbow face asked.
"I would like to see my son," Bron replied. "Littlefoot, can we talk?"
"Sure," Littlefoot answered.
"Make sure to be careful in the storm!" a rainbow face called out.
"Littlefoot and I will be fine," Bron replied. "We just need to talk about something important."