Chapter 7: Trapped in darkness
Due to the shock wave, all flying dinosaurs were brought down and numbed for some time. Even the Flyers who had already made a big distance crashed down. Many were knocked unconscious, none of the dinosaurs could continue their flight. A few of them had their bones broken.
The ground moved in waves, no one had ever experienced such a heavy Earthshake. Fiery ash soared up from the whole Valley.
Then the earthshake tailed off. Littlefoot and his family attepted to regain their footing and get to their feet. After several unsuccessful attempts, Grandma, who limped a bit, made it too so they continued their escape. The sky above them was covered by the enormous cloud of ash that increased in size in an unbelievingly little perio of time whereby it became darker and darker. Littlefoot was scared.
"Mother?" he asked his mother shily.
His mother, who was still carrying him, answered.
"Yes, what do you want to ask, sweetheart?"
"What is up there in the cloud?"
All looked at Grandpa since he more often than not knew an advice when all the others were clueless. He cleared his throat since his neck had become dry due to the effort.
"This is ash. It consists of tiny stones - tinier than sand corns - thus they can reach enormous heights."
"But can the ash fall down at all?" Littlefoot asked and digged deeper.
"Yes! And I hope that it doesn't happen right now because we're located under the ash, so it would bury us!"
"So let's hurry up because I heard that dinosaurs can smother from ash like it happened to Mr. Thicknose who was smothered due to the bad smelling vapors," Littlefoot's Father added.
"Sweetheart, how's your leg?" Grandpa asked.
"It's okay I think!" Grandma replied defiantly. "I'll lead us again so you can walk my pace. In case I'm too slow, leave me behind."
"We don't leave anyone behind!" Littlefoot's Father repeated. "Now come on and hurry up!"
The Longnecks hurried more than they ever did before, but the cloud of ash was way faster. It was getting darker already.
After a while, Grandpa questioned Littlefoot if he could look back. So he turned around and looked back, marvelling. The Great Valley couldn't be seen; instead he could see a lot of ash which fell to the ground. Frightened, he stared to the sky. He had to notice that the cloud above him didn't have a clear shape anymore - both behind and above as well as in front of them.
"Mother, Mother, I think the ash is going to fall to the ground soon!" he shouted, panicked.
The Longnecks stopped looking into the sky.
"NOOOO!" Littlefoot's Mother screamed.
"There's no chance of escaping the ash anymore," Grandma stated objectively.
"No! We can make it! Hurry up!" Littlefoot's Father screamed.
"Be reasonable, Bron! We're better off if we stay together and sit out the danger," Grandpa argued, but Littlefoot's Father was guided by his fear.
"NEVER! I wanna live, I don't wanna suffocate!"
"Stay, please!" Littlefoot's Mother begged, without any success. Bron began to run.
"I'll search for you as soon as it's over! Good Luck!" he called before leaving.
Littlefoot's Mother watched his senseless departure, stunned, as well as her parents, until they, and some moments later Bron, got swallowed by the masses of ash...
Unstoppably, the grey ash fell onto the Longnecks. The three remaining grown-ups protected
Littlefoot by placing him in the middle of them, and they tried to breathe in a minimum amount of ash. They waited for hours since it would have been suicid to continue their journey. The danger of inhaling the ash was simply too great. On top of that, they wouldn't escape the cloud of ash at all.
Here and there some mainly little stones fell from the sky, which were so small that even Littlefoot hardly noticed them at all. In the meantime, he got covered by the ash completely.
As time flew, it became darker and darker, provided it could become even darker under a cloud of ash.
Littlefoot and his Mother were already asleep, only Grandma and Grandpa talked about Bron's unexpected flight dimly. Then their eyes shut closed as well and they fell asleep.