Chapter 22: May Spike stay?

Spike and Ducky, who was already able to understand parts of Spike's unique gibberish being able to understand languages very well due to her eleven siblings' toddler languages being quite diverse, were just talking when they heard Littlefoot calling.

Spike shook, startled. He wanted to flee being frightened but Ducky calmed him down.

"You do not need to be scared, Spike, oh no, no, no! It is just Littlefoot," she taught him.

Spike untightened. Ducky had already told him about her friends though she hadn't told him how they had become friends yet.

"I am here, Littlefoot," Ducky called in response.

Spike continued trotting.

"You alright?" Littlefoot asked, worried.

"Yep, yep, yep, I am alright," Ducky answered. "I find-ed a new friend, I did," she chuckled merrily.

"New friend?" Petrie wondered, baffeled, "We all thought you in danger!"

Spike glanced up to where Ducky sat on him uneasily.

"Do not worry, Spike! It is just Petrie. He is extra friendly, you will see, yep, yep, yep," she said and eased the Spiketail's worries.

"Who did you just talk to, Ducky?" Littlefoot questioned.

"I talked to Spike, silly," she giggled.

"Who or what the hell is 'Spike', eh?!" Cera shouted through the cave from a distance.

Everyone was frightened for a moment, especially Spike.

"That was ehm... Cera," Ducky told the Spiketail silently.

"Ducky him found!" Petrie squawked back.

Ducky and Littlefoot finally made visual contact, provided any of them could see each other in the darkness at all.

"He is a Spiketail and he cannot talk, nope, nope, nope, and he lost his parents," Ducky told them.

"Just like we did," Littlefoot commented.

"So? Are ya absolutely certain ya wanna take him along, Ducky?!" Cera asked frowning.

"Of course I want to take him along, Cera. Why would I not?" Ducky shrugged.

"Spiketails eat pretty much food and they sleep a lot and they're slower than we are!" Cera argued.

"So what? He is all alone. He needs me," Ducky replied.

Cera caught up with everyone.

"But WE don't need him!" she shouted madly.

"Cera!" Ducky cried indignantly, her eyes getting wet.

"I don't care what'cha think! I don't want him to join us!" Cera continued to argue.

"That not nice!" Petrie piped up.

"Nope, nope, nope," Ducky sobbed.

Spike licked her with his tongue.

Ducky suddenly felt that nobody would be able to separate her from Spike. As a last result, she would search for her mommy and her siblings just with Spike. Her mother had always been warm-hearted and tolerant so Ducky hoped she would adopt Spike. Though they had to find her first.

"Why are you so straight against him, Cera?!" Littlefoot joined the argument.

"Yeah, he not did bad thing!" Petrie replied supporting Littlefoot.

"Humpff! He's only a disadvantage for all of us! He eats our rare food, if we find anything at all, and he slows us down!" Cera reasoned.

"SO WHAT!?" Ducky cried, "He is my friend and he will stay with me, yes, yes, yes!"

Ducky's words earned her another licking from Spike. The little Swimmer returned the favor by hugging Spike's right front leg.

"If ya wanna survive, ya gotta be tough!" Cera roared raging. "And if ya have less food, ya gonna be weaker! Ya chance of surviving is lower!"

"Cera, you're overreacting," Littlefoot tried to settle the argument.

"Yeah, he maybe help us find food," Petrie added.

"You know nothing... My father always s..."

"Your father is a pugnacious, old fool, Cera!" Littlefoot shouted. "And so are you... Another pugnacious, stupid Threehorn!"

"You better take that back!" Cera threated.

"I won't!"

"TAKE IT BACK!" Cera roared in fury.

"NEVER!"

Cera uttered a war cry and charged at Littlefoot who, in return, charged at Cera blindly.

Petrie jumped from Littlefoot back to avoid getting hurt in the fight and darted to Ducky and Spike.

Then the two fighting cocks collided with each other with a terrible sound. Both cringed in pain. Cera took on Littlefoot ramming her massive head into the Longneck trying to hit as much of him as possible. Ducky and Petrie couldn't watch it and they didn't want to either though they didn't see much due to the devouring darkness.

"Petrie no can watch!" Petrie whined.

"We need to stop the fight, we do, we do!" Ducky said desperately.

"But how?" Petrie questioned.

All of a sudden, Spike stormed towards the fighting and rammed his massive body right into Cera's. The Threehorn howled in pain, Spike had caused damage to her injury. Uttering a lot of taboo words, she limped away.