Chapter 26: Dreaming
Part 1:
Cera awoke. She found herself lying amidst a barren landscape, no green food far and wide. She got up and noticed her terrible dry mouth and throat. She walked in circles just to note that there wasn't a single bit of water around. Desperately, she considered what she could possibly do.
"Ceeeeeeeraaaaaaaa..." a voice whispered all of a sudden from somewhere above the Threehorn.
"We come and get'cha!" another voice chuckled.
"You belong to meeeee!" the first voice shouted.
"You gonna die of thirst!" the other voice forecasted.
"W-w-who are ya?" Cera questioned anxiously.
"We are spirits."
"Baaaaaaaaad spirits!"
"W-w-what do ya want? Leave me in peace!"
"We want revenge!"
"And retribution!"
"But...what for?!" What did I do to you?" Cera got quite frightened.
"You're the one that caused us to leave the Great Circle of Life! 'Cause you abandoned us!"
"Abandoned?"
"Yeah, you abondoned us when we ran away from that Sharptooth, 'member?
"'Cause of you he feasted on our corpses!"
"'Cause you didn't protect us!"
"WHO.. ARE.. YA!"
"Your former friends!"
"Huh?!"
"Your time is expired!
"Get her!"
The transparent shadows that had hovered above Cera invisibly all the time moved down and decelerated just above the ground so Cera could see them.
"LITTLEFOOT! PETRIE! DUCKY! YOU THERE! It's you!" Cera now recognized her friends.
"Too late, Threehorn!"
"We accompany you to the Land of Sharpteeth located deeeeeeeep below the Smoking Mountains!"
"There you'll pay for your crimes!"
"Plus you will be under pain, under a loooooooooot of pain, actually!"
The four spirits grabbed Cera and flew away.
"RELEASE ME! RELEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAASE ME! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Just at this moment, Cera heard a loud bang when the spirits suddenly vanished.
Spike wandered through a swampy area, utterly alone. He was quite sad since his parents were dead. Not looking where he was walking, he bumped into a tree trunk. The Spiketail rubbed his head and continued his aimless journey. Some time later, he encountered an impenetrable swamp. Spike considered deeply how he could possibly cross the swamp but there was simply no way through. He wasn't a good swimmer. He plopped to the ground, desperately begging to his mother in hope of being supported. Unexpectedly, a strip of the mud just as wide as he was transformed into green food. A voice, his mother's to be exact, spoke:
"My son, you have to eat up all the food in order to get to the other side. If you however try to cheat, the swampy water will return. You'll drown."
Cowed, the little Spiketail just nodded peeking to the other shore that was hardly recognizable. He opened his mouth and began to eat. With every bite, his mouth grew bigger so that he could eat increasingly more food at once...
His tummy grew fatter, he soon looked more like a ball than like a Spiketail. As he feasted through half of the food, he got stuck. Again he begged to his mother. To his surprise, the strip grew wider indeed. He ate more and more food... and got fatter and fatter.
Suddenly, just when he recognized his whole deceased family at the other shore that was only a few more steps away, he burst with a deafening bang...
Littlefoot climbed through a landscape permeated by rifts and cracks. Water poured down, distant thunder mixed with the rippling of the rain. He was in search of his mother. "Mother! Mother, where are you?"
He almost dropped into a small crack as he tried to go across it. He suddenly saw a massive grey-ish body in the darkness. His mother!
"Mother..." the little Longneck whispered quietly and anxiously. He sprinted to her lying on a little ledge and unmoving.
His mother sighed.
"Mother, please get up," Littlefoot beseeched.
"I'm... not sure I can, Littlefoot..." she responded her voice weak.
"Yes you can. Get up," Littlefoot encouraged his mother.
The Longneck tried to get to her feet but she failed collapsing to the ground by which the ledge she lied on broke so that her head was just in front of Littlefoot.
"Dear, sweet Littlefoot..." she merely whispered. "Do you remember what I told you about the Great Circle of Life?"
"I guess so," Littlefoot sobbed, "But why do I have to remember? You gonna stay with me!"
"I'll always be with you even if you can't see me," she replied.
"What do you mean 'if you can't see me'?" Littlefoot questioned. "I can always see you!"
"Littlefoot! Let your heart guide you! It whispers, so listen closely..." Littlefoot's Mother whispered with her voice getting weaker.
"Mother! Mother?" Littlefoot screamed; he didn't get a response. Littlefoot stayed at his mother's side until he realized what must have happened. His mother would never talk to him again, never cuddle up with him again, never look into his eyes again... She wasn't around anymore to protect him from Sharptooth; he was all on his own. Crying, he stormed away, further and further until he tripped. Being exhausted, he remained lying on the ground and cried his heart out in the rain getting less intense. Thoughts made his brain go berserk. Sharptooth killed his mother, his mother had protected him. She was dead... because he, Littlefoot, was still alive.
An enormous bang pulled him out of his thoughts...
Ducky woke up. She was at a small, green place though she was all alone. Ducky checked the area and got uneasy. Where was her mother? Where were her siblings? She called after them restlessly and anxiously. Indeed, she received an answer though it neither was uttered by Ducky's Mommy nor by one of Ducky's eleven siblings...
Part 2:
Ducky's ears perceived a loud roar and whoever made that sound - she didn't expect to get some flowers - was fairly nearby. Terrified, Ducky turned around just in time to see a Fastbiter leaping out of the undergrowth. The Swimmer screamed, very high-pitched at that, which made the attacker even angrier. Although Ducky was easily frightened, she overbeared her fears in many cases. However, to encounter a fully grown, living, teeth-gritting and beastly Sharptooth was a reason to be terrified.
Ducky panicked, adrenaline shot through her little body that was so little in fact that it would have needed a few of her siblings to cover the huge foot-prints of the raptor. Speaking of which, the Fastbiter growled deafeningly loud preparing of the jump.
Ducky's eyes became wider, she opened her mouth widely. Firing screams and cries, she shook off the shock and ran for it. She speeded up covering too big distances per step so that Ducky soon slipped due to the wet, muddy ground and crashed onto the ground hitting her nose. Dazed and out of breath, she remained where she was for a short moment until the roaring of the Fastbiter cleared her mind. Quick as lightling, Ducky leapt to her feet and continued her desperate getaway. She sprinted further and further, passing thick vegetation, more or less thick woods and eventually she reached open grassland.
The raptor approached with every step, Ducky was out of strength. Her legs felt like tree-trunks, she gasped for air of which only insufficent quantities filled her little lungs only to get breached out again to offer space for new, fresh air, and her little heart hammered in her chest as if it wanted to jump out of it.
The vibration of the ground behind Ducky increased which made it even harder to continue running away. It was almost enough to trip her.
Suddenly, there was a particularly strong tremor that made Ducky stumble. The next one didn't happen though. Ducky looked up high. At the sight of the Fastbiter sailing through the air, Ducky's heart skipped a few beats. The touchdown of the raptor brought her down finally causing her to lurch into the dirt.
The beast leaned over its victim, smirked evilly as far as a Fastbiter was capable of using its muscles to produce a smirk and leapt down for the deathly bite. In the last moment, Ducky rolled off to the side so that the carnivore got a proper mouth full of dirt instead of a snack into his greedy mouth.
Labourously, Ducky got to her feet and sprinted away without bringing much distance between the Fastbiter, who spit out all the dirt in fury, and her.
Doing a few leaps, he soon caught up with Ducky, opened his big mouth widely, shot down and snapped shut. It had caught Ducky but it hadn't killed her yet. Without munching on his prey, it simply swallowed Ducky down. Ducky screamed from the top of her lungs unceasingly, thunder mixed with her screams...
Petrie opened his eyes. Pterano just entered the cave that was the home of the Flyers making a graceful touchdown and making eye contact with Petrie.
"Wanna go on an adventure, my tall little one?" Pterano asked with a smile.
"Of course, me always wanna go adventuring!"
"Great! Hop on! I gonna show you an exciting and thrilling place."
"Where we flapping?"
"You'll see..."
They raised up. Above the mountains however, the Bright Circle disappeared behind a dangerous looking wall of clouds.
"I bet you don't mind a little Sky Water?" Pterano called.
"Me may be big adventurer but me no like Sky Water!"
"Well, you don't have a choice if you wanna have an adventure anyway, my little one."
"Me know."
Sky Fire struck, the upcoming storm strained Pterano's wings. Petrie clinged on Pterano with all his might, he surely felt uneasy under his skin.
"You believe you can fly in bad waeather?"
"Why of course! Looks like nature's gonna examine our skills and our will."
"Me guess so."
Another Sky Fire struck, this time perceptively closer; the thunder got louder intensely.
"Spooooky!" Petrie commented.
Then water began to pour down heavily. Pterano was laborously trying to keep to their route which was quite impossible during this strong storm; the two adventurers were thrown to and fro.
The next Sky Fire shed light on the jet black sky above them striking a mountain to their left side followed by a deafening thunder. As the noise subsided, Petrie suddenly noticed an utterly unknown sound. It sounded as if a big amount of huge boulders had crashed to the ground.
"Uncle?"
"Yes, Petrie?"
"You hear that sound, too?"
"Now that you mention it... I do."
"What it?"
"See, I don't know..."
Petrie's question was answered sooner than he liked as only seconds later something big fell from the sky, and not only one thing... Uncountable white stones whizzed towards the ground in front of them wildly.
"That not good, we better go back, Uncle!" Petrie shouted terrified.
"I believe you're right! We gonna have an adventure another t.. Doh!"
Pterano just had been hit by one of the stones. Uttering curses, he turned around and flew back to where they came from. However, more and more of these curious stones hit the two adventurers the impacts being pretty painful.
All of a sudden, Pterano headed towards the ground steeply. Petrie didn't know why but they were going to crash. With an awful sound, Pterano impacted on the ground being covered by the white stones and water. Petrie saw a lot of blood oozing out of an injury on Pterano's head; his instincts told him it would likely mean death for his uncle.
"Uncle!? UNCLE! Wake up, uncle! Wake up!"
No matter how much Petrie tried, Pterano's eyes remained closed.
Sky Fire streaked into the rocks not far from him. The bang echoed for an eternity in his ears, as it seemed. Petrie was at a completely different place, suddenly, it was even dry...