Chapter 28: Final Preparations
Meanwhile, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Chomper, Ruby, Bron, Shorty and the baby clubtails were hurrying over to the Great Valley, following the eggstealer tracks that they knew would lead them there. Everyone was exhausted from running for what had seemed to be ages, but they knew they had to keep on going, for the survival of everyone in the Great Valley was at stake.
"How far are we?" Cera asked Ruby and Chomper, who had taken this path when they left the Great Valley.
"Not too far," Ruby replied. "If we keep going like this, we'll get there by the time the bright circle rises all the way to the top."
"Yeah," Chomper added. "My sniffer is telling me that we're pretty close."
Nodding with this encouraging piece of news, everyone kept on running to the Great Valley. Abruptly, however, they heard a little gurgle, and some happy little gasps. Turning, Ducky noticed that to her horror, one of the clubtails was walking curiously to a nearby cliff, and was excitedly saying, "Exploreeee!"
"No no no!" Ducky gasped, and she ran over to the baby clubtail, who was happily dancing and giggling near the very edge of the cliff. Suddenly, the rock began to crumble, and the baby clubtail began to lose his balance.
"I'm coming!" Ducky exclaimed frantically. She rushed over to the clubtail and arrived just when the cliff's edge began to crumble. With all her determination, Ducky reached over the cliff and was barely able to catch the squirming baby clubtail just as he began to fall. The clubtail, however didn't seem to be worried as Ducky held onto him tightly, trying to pull him and herself up. The other clubtails were still giggling excitedly, and inspired by the first clubtail's behavior, a second clubtail then ran toward another part of the cliff. Before anyone could react, the baby clubtail jumped off the cliff and made a loud giggle.
"Oh no!" Ducky gasped, still trying to pull up the first baby clubtail.
"Me coming, clubtail!" Petrie exclaimed determinedly. The clubtail smiled as she fell, tumbling nearer and nearer to the hard rocks on the ground. Petrie swooped down hurriedly, racing the clubtail to the bottom. Everyone hurried to the edge of the cliff and looked down in terror, knowing that if Petrie couldn't stop the clubtail on time, the clubtail would be in danger of death from hitting the rocks. But just as the clubtail was about to hit the rocks, Petrie reached the ground and stuck out his wing. The clubtail bounced off Petrie's wing and tumbled onto the soft grass below. Everyone cheered as the clubtail began to walk, but Petrie hurriedly scooped her up and flew her back, saying, "Me think you very naughty…" The clubtail giggled as Petrie carried her above.
"Thank you Petrie," Ducky told him, who was now fully on the cliff again and holding the first clubtail tightly. Petrie then gave the second clubtail to Ducky, who placed the two clubtails by the other four, who were still looking on with admiring amazement. Ducky bent down to them and said, "You babies should try to be safe…if you want to be with your mommies and daddies, you should not put yourselves in danger like that!"
"How many times has it been now that they've gotten themselves in trouble?" Cera asked impatiently. Everyone knew Cera had a point, since the clubtails had been up to all sorts of dangerous mischief, from trying to swim in very deep lakes to headbutting rocks that were much larger than themselves. "We'll never be able to help the grownups if the clubtails keep slowing us down!"
"You're right, Cera," Bron told her. "We might not get to the Great Valley in time if we keep on having to rescue them."
"But we cannot abandon the babies, they need us, they do!" Ducky cried out. "It would not be good if we leave them alone out here, oh no no no!"
"Calm down Ducky," Littlefoot told her gently. "No one's talking about abandoning them, and we'll make sure that they'll get to their parents safe and sound."
"Yeah, after all we've gone through to save them, we're not gonna just leave them here," Cera consolingly added.
"Well then what we do?" Petrie asked.
Bron sighed. "I think it would be best if Shorty and I take care of them. Since we don't live in the Great Valley, we don't have your advantage of knowing the battlefield. And since we are big enough to carry all the babies on our backs, we can lead them to the Great Valley while keeping them safe. You guys should keep going, because those eggstealers could already be there and your parents will need all the help they can get."
"Right," everyone replied. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Ruby and Chomper began to walk away, but abruptly, Shorty walked up to them.
"Dad, can I join them?" Shorty asked pleadingly. "I want to help Littlefoot out."
"Oh, all right Shorty. Don't worry, I'll be able to take care of the clubtails on my own. I'll see you all later in the Great Valley," Bron told everyone. Then he rubbed his neck against Littlefoot's and Shorty's and then he turned to face all of the kids and said, "Good luck everyone."
"Bye," the kids told Bron in response, and they began to hurry off to the Great Valley's edge. Hurrying at breakneck speed, they followed the eggstealer path that they knew would lead them right to the Great Valley, worrying about everything that might be happening there.
"You can let me at the eggstealers right away! They'll be fun to stop!" Chomper explained confidently as he ran, licking his lips.
"But these eggstealers really tough!" Petrie exclaimed. "Me don't know if we can stop them…and me scared!"
"Come on Petrie," Cera told him. "Now's not the time to be afraid! We'll show those egg thieves that we're not babies!"
Littlefoot nodded and added, "Even though these eggstealers will be tough, I know we can find a way to stop them! We've got to, for everyone in the Great Valley depends on us!"
But then as everyone kept running, they couldn't help but to pause, for they heard a sound that made them look at each other in horror. Listening intently, they heard loud shrieks emanating from the distance, along with the sound of furious growls and hisses.
"Me think we near home!" Petrie called out, and they continued to move on.
"Oh no no no! The fight must have already started!" Ducky gasped worriedly.
Then suddenly, Chomper sniffed the air and gave the others a horrified expression.
"What's wrong, Chomper?" Littlefoot asked him concernedly.
"Guys, hurry on without me!" he exclaimed. "There's a big sharptooth coming this way! He must be heading to the Great Valley too! I'll hold him off while you guys go in…"
"Chomper, you can't be serious!" Littlefoot shouted.
"The sharptooth could kill you!" Cera cried.
"I have to do this, guys. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll just speak sharptooth and maybe that'll lure him away… I'll be back soon, promise!" Chomper replied.
Everyone looked at each other nervously, before the sharptooth made a loud roar from nearby. "Hurry!" Chomper exclaimed. "I'll take care of him! If you wait any longer, everyone else would be in big trouble!"
The others nodded nervously, but they realized that they had no choice but to keep going. They hurriedly scampered down the eggstealer footprint trail as Chomper began issuing roars to the other sharptooth, with their minds racing as they worried about the prospect of Chomper fighting with the other sharptooth. But then they were distracted when Petrie made a loud, abrupt gasp. "Guys! Me see Great Valley now!" he exclaimed.
Everyone looked down, and they saw that below the cliffs they were on stood the Great Valley. Below they could see some movement, though they quickly realized that this was not where the main battle was taking place. Upon closer inspection, they saw that Mama Swimmer was standing alone by a cave, standing in front of it defensively as she scanned the area, looking very nervous.
"Poor Mama!" Ducky gasped. "She must be guarding all of the eggs, she must… it must be hard for her to do it all alone…"
"Looks like the grownups have split up," Littlefoot muttered. "I think we have to split up in order to help everyone out."
"Good idea," Ducky exclaimed. "I wanna help Mama protect the babies!"
"Me come too," Petrie gasped, and then Spike walked forward.
"You want to help Mama too, right Spike?" Ducky asked. Spike nodded determinedly.
Ducky then turned to Petrie and asked, "Ready to save everyone's babies, Petrie?"
"Me ready, Ducky!" Petrie exclaimed happily, and the two of them hugged each other. "Want to ride me down?"
Ducky nodded excitedly and replied, "Oh yes yes yes!" and she climbed aboard Petrie's back. Then she looked at Spike and concernedly asked him, "But what about you, Spike? How will you get down?"
But before she could finish asking, Spike had jumped off the cliff and landed in the Great Valley. "Spike is ready too, yep yep yep," Ducky laughed.
Then Ducky and Petrie turned to face Littlefoot, Cera, Ruby and Shorty. "See you soon!" Ducky exclaimed.
Littlefoot smiled gently at them. "Good luck!" he exclaimed.
"Show 'em for us!" Cera added determinedly, and Ducky waved affectionately back at them.
"Hold on tight, Ducky!" Petrie gasped, and he launched himself off the cliff and flew down to the ground with Ducky clutching onto him.
"I guess let's get going," Ruby said, and so she, Littlefoot, Cera, and Shorty ran along the edge of the Great Valley, looking for the eggstealers and the other grownups.
The group continued to hurry on, but they couldn't see anyone below them. All they noticed below them were vast forested areas. It was only then when they realized just how many trees there were in the Great Valley. Ruby abruptly stopped, and then she told them, "Guys…I think I'm too little to be of much use in direct combat."
Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty nodded understandingly, knowing that she was probably right. Ruby then said, "But since I'm little, I'm gonna use my size to my advantage. I'll be in the forests down here, launching sneak attacks on them. I think somebody needs to give them a nasty midfight surprise, and my small size makes me really good at giving them surprises. I'll come up with something…but I don't know how to get down…"
"I have an idea," Cera told Ruby, and she briefly hurried into the nearby forest. She came back, carrying a long, wide vine off some trees. "Use this to get down safely."
"You can use that for stopping the eggstealers too!" Littlefoot exclaimed. "Tie the vine around the trees, then way you can trip the eggstealers and slow them down. "And I bet there's more vines in the Great Valley too, so you can make many traps!"
"You can also try stopping them with rocks," Shorty suggested. "Those eggstealers may look tough, but falling rocks are powerful, and one hit will knock 'em out easily!"
Ruby nodded, and said, "Thanks for the advice guys!"
Everyone smiled back at her, before Cera set the vine on the ground, and Shorty stood on the vine while Ruby grabbed onto it. Taking a deep breath, Ruby exclaimed, "Here goes!" With that, she hurriedly slid down the vine, dropping further and further down until she was only a small blip from above. "Good luck guys!" Ruby shouted, waving at them as she reeled in the vine. Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty smiled down at her, before she ran into the forest with her vine and began to tie vine traps up. Then, Littlefoot, Cera, and Shorty turned to look at each other for one last time.
"Well?" Littlefoot asked Cera and Shorty. "Are you ready for this?"
"Ready?" Cera laughed. "You bet I am! I can't wait to have a go at them!"
"Yeah!" Shorty added confidently. "I'm sure we can handle this!"
Littlefoot happily nodded in determination, and together, the three young dinosaurs quickly walked along the Great Valley's edge, looking down to see if they could find the eggstealers and the other grownups, but all they could see was the expanses of trees where they dropped Ruby off.
But just then, Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty heard some loud, threatening roars. Turning, their hearts plummeted as they saw that a large pack of fast biters was hurrying toward them, hungrily licking their lips and preparing their claws.
"Of all the rotten luck," Cera growled.
"Get out of our way, rockheads!" Shorty snapped.
The sharpteeth, not being able to understand him, continued to race towards them, preparing for the attack. Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty stood determinedly and prepared their whiptails and horns to repel the oncoming invasion.
"What a good time for a sharptooth attack," Cera growled as she stabbed a sharptooth.
"Ouch!" Shorty gasped, for a fast biter had just delivered a small bite to him. Littlefoot hurriedly whipped the fast biter away, but then another one lunged right at him.
"Urgh!" Cera shouted, and she yelled, "I've had enough of you, rockheads!" With that, she managed to stab the sharptooth just before it could bite Littlefoot's ankle.
Littlefoot growled, "Get out of the way now, sharpteeth!"
The eggstealers ignored them, and they continued to attack. Another one then lunged at Cera, but Littlefoot managed to flatten it quickly. The fast biters kept on landing attack after attack, but apart from a couple of small bites on each of Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty, their attacks were not successful, and they began to lose steam. Littlefoot, Cera, and Shorty took advantage of their momentum and hurriedly landed several blows on the mob, but like with the eggstealers that they fought before, these fast biters seemed to keep on recovering and getting back up.
"I know we can beat them," Littlefoot muttered.
"But they're sure slowing us down," Cera growled.
"If only the others were here, then we could be able to stop them faster," Shorty sighed.
But just as Shorty said that, a familiar voice called out, "Need help?"
Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty turned, and gasped as they saw that a boxy-headed and white longneck were running towards them. As Littlefoot, Cera, and Shorty continued to land blow after blow upon the sharpteeth, the two longnecks used their whiptails to slam the already weakened fast biters on the ground, landing the final blow on each one they hit. The arrival of the two longnecks in the battle helped break the stalemate, and soon afterward most of the weakened pack was killed and the rest of the pack, recognizing defeat, began to scatter off. Then Littlefoot, Cera, and Shorty gasped as they looked at the two longnecks that were standing by them.
"Mia…Cam…" Littlefoot muttered, hardly daring to believe his eyes.
"You…you helped us?" Cera asked, with a very stunned expression in her eyes.
"Yeah," Mia answered. "Come on…let's get going."
Still in disbelief that Mia and Cam had suddenly helped them out, Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty allowed Mia and Cam to join them as they followed the eggstealer footprints.
"We're sorry for everything we did," Cam explained, crying softly. "You guys were right all along. Those eggstealers tricked us. We didn't want to steal the eggs…"
Mia continued, "Cam, it wasn't your fault. It was mine. If only I hadn't believed that stupid, rotten Ozzy. But I swear we didn't want this to happen. Our intentions were good, we only did this because we wanted to save the Great Valley. We were scared of the sharptooth, see, and that's what caused us to do this, because the eggstealers promised to help us out. We had no idea that these eggstealers would want to kill everyone like this…can you forgive us?"
Littlefoot, Cera, and Shorty looked at each other, before Littlefoot sighed, "Okay...and thanks for helping us."
"It was the least we could do," Cam answered sweetly. Then she and Mia turned to Cera and Mia said, "We're sorry for our rough previous meetings and for everything that we said that we shouldn't have…can you forgive…"
"Well, maybe I will, and maybe I won't," Cera playfully teased, but upon seeing their sad, serious expressions, she quickly said, "Okay fine. I forgive you."
Shorty then asked, "So what's going on now?"
"It's not looking very good," Mia explained. "The eggstealers formed an alliance with the fast biters and they seem to be on a killing spree," Mia explained. "They're amazingly stubborn and tough for their size. Don't worry about other sharpteeth coming, more will come, but we'll stand back and repel them. Just make sure you three get to the Great Valley quickly!"
"Right," Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty told Mia and Cam. Just then, they saw another wave of fast biters coming, and while Mia and Cam nodded and hurried back to fight the sharpteeth, Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty proceeded onward to the Great Valley.
"I'm glad they're good inside," Littlefoot told Cera and Shorty in relief, who nodded in agreement. They couldn't see anything as they kept running, but then Shorty paused and lifted his head up high in the air.
"I see them! They're over at the edge!" Shorty declared, and he began to race forward.
Hurriedly, Littlefoot and Cera followed Shorty as they ran along the Great Valley rim. But then as they reached the corner, they stopped and gasped. A large battlefield lay below them, and the first thing that they saw that many fast biters had come to join in the fight. Littlefoot and Cera instantly recognized the two largest fast biters as Screech and Thud, Redclaw's old minions, who seemed to be leading the rest of the fast biters.
The sight of the fast biters made Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty even madder as they looked on in closer inspection and they saw some sights that made their hearts pang. Grandpa Longneck and Tria were both lying on the ground, and Grandma Longneck and Mr. Threehorn stood determinedly over their fallen spouses. Meanwhile, Ali was trapped in a corner by a small pack of eggstealers and fast biters, determinedly whipping them away with all her might, but her persistent opponents managed to get back up after every hit. They also saw that Mama Flyer was being held down by a couple of eggstealers, and they saw that Tricia was putting up a vigorous struggle against an eggstealer, but the eggstealer plainly had the upper hand, for Tricia's little horn was no match for the battleworn eggstealer.
The eggstealers and fast biters were all smirking in triumph, and Ozzy walked up to Grandma Longneck and Mr. Threehorn.
"The battle's over, sapsuckers," Ozzy drawled menacingly. "You tried to resist us…but your efforts proved to be in vain. Now, why don't you two minimize your damage and spare yourselves? Your spouses are going to die to our fast biters anyway, but if you two get out of our way, we'll spare your lives. Now just make it easy and surrender your mates and your eggs to us."
"We're not giving in, eggstealers!" Grandma Longneck shouted. "I may be old, but I'm going to fight to make sure that you won't have the chance to murder my husband!"
"You eggstealers should know not to mess with a threehorn, particularly one, whose, uh, well… close one has just been injured!" Topps roared angrily.
"Tut tut…well, I guess it's just time to attack…" Ozzy began calmly, but then, high above, Littlefoot shouted, "Hold on a second!"
Everyone in the Great Valley looked up, and gasped as they saw Littlefoot, Cera and Shorty standing at the edge of the cliff. Grandma Longneck and Mr. Threehorn exchanged delighted looks with each other, thrilled to see their kids again, and Ali and Tricia let out delighted cheers. "You eggstealers and rockheads aren't gonna hurt anyone anymore! Now get out, for this is our home where our families can live in peace and happiness together!"
"Yeah, and besides, you haven't even fought us yet!" Cera declared heatedly. "If you think you've won, you've got another thought coming!"
"You tell 'em guys!" Tricia excitedly shouted from below before one of the eggstealers grabbed Tricia's mouth, shut it, and held her tightly as she fiercely began to kick the eggstealer.
"So we're warning you," Shorty shouted. "Get out of here…or you'll be sorry!"
The eggstealers looked above at the kids and laughed. "Go on and try to stop us, you overgrown eggs. I'm sure our fast biters would find you all to be delicious entrees…"
"Don't say we didn't warn you then!" Littlefoot growled, and he, Cera, and Shorty took one last look at each other, nodded determinedly, and without another word, the three of them jumped down and prepared to defend the ones that they loved.