Chapter 18: Who's the leader?/How to help Cera!

Everyone agreed one that. The Great Valley residents that had survived and some other residents of the oasis being in flames and flooded by lava as well as visitors like Oscar were from now on a herd.

The question was: Who'd be the leader?

"Well, so we're a temporary herd now but who'll lead us?" Oscar questioned.

"Well..." Pterano considered loudly.

"I'm gonna lead this herd!" Cera's Father proclaimed. "I'm the toughest dinosaur around!" Confident of victory, he looked into the gathered dinosaurs.

"I stated that we will deliberate things, no matter of the situation!"Grandpa reminded him. "We don't need a leader for this! Anyhow, you may fend off any Sharpteeth that dare to attack us alongside me! I don't think anybody will disagree on that we two are the strongest members!"

"Nope! I'm stronger than you, Longneck!" the Threehorn replied.

"This is of no significance, my friend!" Grandpa shed light upon the Threehorn yet he ranted furtherly.

"Oh yes! It quite is!"

"Now don't start out another argument!" Grandma sighed desperately. The Threehorn gradually drove her nuts.

"Yes, we need to find my little Ducky, remember!" Ducky's Mother confirmed.

"As well as the little Flyer, my nephew and your daughter, Threehorn!" Grandpa added.

Cera's Father grunted something along the lines of 'agreed'.

"Works!" Grandma muttered.

"Why, if you consider yourself so much better than me, don't you make a suggestion!" he provoked Grandpa who, in contrary to everyone, didn't roll his eyes throwing unappreciative glares at the singularly hot-headed Threehorn but stayed cool.

"We will have to find an entry into that cave to pick our children out of it!"

"But how do you imagine this to work?" Oscar questioned. "I mean, even, if I'm proven wrong that the fire outta the ground won't stop in the near future, we plainly can't climb up the ledge!"

"Yeah, good point though I thought of another, better possibility!" Grandpa replied.

"Shall I move to that cave and look out for potentual entries?" Pterano offered.

"Yeah! Make yourself useful!" Cera's Father shouted in an unfriendly way.

"That's the idea, Pterano! We will wait until you return!" Grandpa spoke up.

"Okay!" Pterano flew off.

The dinosaurs disperged into the nearby region. Littlefoot's Grandparents, Ducky's and Petrie's Mothers and Oscar gathered at the Big Water. The water and the chilly wind were exceedingly refreshing for the exhausted dinosaurs.

"How do you guys actually plan to get into the cave? I doubt that the paths can be passed!" Oscar asked.

"The smaller members of our herd will search through the cave, if Pterano spots another entry, that is!" Grandpa answered.

"I hope, that nothing bad occured to my Ducky!" Ducky's Mother sobbed hysterically.

"Calm down, my dear!" Grandma supported her. "They're probably doing well!"

"Yep! Be confident, my brother is going to find a way into this cave!" Petrie's Mother affirmed.

"Our children are not stupid after all!" Grandpa stated encuragingly. "They probably know what to do!"

"May I ask how old your children are?" Oscar questioned.

"They had hatched when the last Cold Time was almost over!" Grandma responded.

"Fairly young, if you ask me!" he hummed.

"That's right! Though they're quite smart considering their age! You should have heard my Littlefoot when the catastrophy at our former home was in its offing! He had realized that we adults were constantly worried. Hence, he had tried to convince us that the numerous earthshakes are funny!"

Everyone had to smirk due to Grandpa's short story.

"Now, that indeed shows that your children are mentally fit!" Oscar admitted.

"Might be the wealth of food that our home had offered us!" Petrie's Mother presumed.

"And the care and love of us parents of course!" Ducky's Mother added enthusingly.

"You forgot the most important point!" Grandma grinned. "They could play and grow up in harmony there!"

"How come? Ain't there any Sharpteeth or Eggnappers?" Oscar wondered.

"Lots of them!" Ducky's Mother shouted.

"Our valley was save from any Sharpteeth due to the huge wall that surrounded it!" Petrie's Mother responded. "And Eggstealers usually didn't dare to get close to our nests since a lot of dinosaurs used to live on a fairly little amount of space so the theft would have been noticed in time likely!"

"From the sounds of it, it must've been quite a paradise!" he wowed.

"The worser that we'll never be able to return!" Grandma said bitterly.

The others nodded in agreement.

"What do we do now?" Littlefoot wondered.

"Me no know!" Petrie responded, sighing.

"We need to do something, yep, yep, yep!" Ducky shouted in worry.

"What?" Littlefoot weared down his head.

Petrie had an idea: "Me climb up there! Then me can see what grown-ups do!"

"That's a good idea, Petrie!" Littlefoot exclaimed.

"Yep,yep, yep!" Ducky gabbled and jumped from one leg to the other.

Petrie climbed the 'stairway' built of the incaved ceiling. Luckily, the boulders had broken into small pieces so the Flyer, since incapable of flying, climbed up the stairs without big difficulties.

While Petrie climbed, Ducky and Littlefoot were having a talk.

"What was wrong with you last night by the way, Ducky?"

"I do not know that, nope, nope, nope! I was having scary sleep-stories!"

"Well, right before the earthshake had started you cried out very very heavy! Then you collapsed!"

"I do not know why that has happened, no, no, no! I have dreamed that my Mommy..." She broke off her eyes watering.

"It's alright, Ducky! I'm with you!" Littlefoot comforted the little Swimmer girl and nestled against her. "T-thank you!" she sobbed, "We are friends, right?"

"Sure! You're funny, Ducky!"

"Yaaay! You are funny, too, Littlefoot! Yep, yep, yep!" The tears disappeared, Ducky was happy again.

"Hmm, I wish we could help Cera now!" Littlefoot sighed.

"I wish that, too!"

"The wound's pretty nasty! It must hurt heftily!"

"Ohh yes! My sister once has stepped on a stone in the water that had plenty of spiky, stinging thorns. She had them stuck in her foot and everywhere was blood. My Mommy had sucked on her foot. Because she said we always have to do that if someone steps on a spiked-stone because they are poinonous!"

"Uhm.. but why do we have to suck the poison?"

"I do not know! But my Mama is always right, she is, she is!"

"Mine is..." Littlefoot swallowed hard, "was always right, too!"

This time Ducky comforted Littlefoot by hugging his foot.

"It's alright... keep on with your story!"

"Okay! After that she had licked the injury and then she had bandaged it with special leaves. She said that we must do that because the injury must be clean and dirt must not have contact to the wound!"

"Why's that?"

"I guess we must do it because the wound will heal faster, yep, yep, yep!"

"Right, that means we should lick Cera's injury clean and cover it with leaves!?"

"I think so!"

"Okay, call Petrie and tell him to bring some leaves if possible!"

"Will do!"

"I clean her injury!"

Ducky called out for Petrie who nearly had reached the top imparting him the new task.

"You help Petrie?" Petrie squeaked from above.

"I will ask Littlefoot, I will, I will!"

"Okay!"

Littlefoot licked Cera's wound clean. Although Cera's blood tasted terrible, Littlefoot did it not moaning at all since he knew that this low service could make a difference whether Cera would survive or die.

Then Ducky hopped to him.

"Littlefooooooot?"

"What is it, Ducky?"

"Can I help Petrie? He asked-ed me, he did!"

"Sure! But hurry, please!"

"Okay!"

Ducky hopped back to Petrie while Littlefoot continued licking Cera's wound clean.

"Petrie, Petrie!"

"So? You allowed to help Petrie?"

"Yep, yep, yep! Though we should hurry!"

"Okay! Me know about it!"

Ducky climbed up to where Petrie who had arrived at the top in the meantime was quickly.

"Can you see our parents, Petrie?"

"No! Me only see fire everywhere, ohohohhhhhhh!"

"Me too!"

Both were frustrated that their parents where nowhere to be seen.

"Me wanna cuddle with me Mama!" Petrie whined.

"Yeah, I miss my Mommy very much!" Ducky agreed.

The two youngsters fell silent for a few moments. They moved closer together to send comfort to each other and listened to their thoughts whereby they spectated the eruption of the fire pit.

"It looks so beautiful!" Ducky eventually whispered.

"Yeah, it nice but it also spooooooooky!" Petrie replied.

"Yep, yep, yep!"

They were silent for some time again.

"Oh no!"

"What it, Ducky?"

"We totally forgot to look for leaves, oh no, no, no, no, no!"

"Me no see any green stuff, anywhere!"

"I neither see anything! Cera really needs these leaves!"

"But how you gonna do that?"

"I do not know!"

"Hmm, then we go to Littlefoot?"

"You better stay up here, Petrie, because if we have to climb to the top again you don't have to climb the whole thing again!"

"You right, Ducky! Then Petrie wait here!"

"Yep, yep, yep!"

Ducky climbed down to where Littlefoot was who had removed all the dirt from Cera's injury meanwhile to announce the bad news...