Chapter 41: Cera's last words?
"Should we try to wake up Cera again?" Littlefoot eventually asked after everyone had rested to be at their optimum strength.
"Oh yes, yes, yes! Maybe she wants to join us?" Ducky chirped.
"Me no do it; Cera no like it!" Petrie said, remembering the last time he did wake her up.
"I'll do it, okay?" Littlefoot exclaimed and walked to the sleeping Threehorn. After they had tried shaking her, he sighed and opened Cera's eyelids. First, he talked to the Threehorn softly, then a little louder. Eventually, Ducky uttered a shrill scream as if just having noticed a Sharptooth approaching her. Cera stirred slightly in her sleep.
"Cera?" Littlefoot tested her level of consciousness.
"Hmm?" the Threehorn hummed back, not opening her eyes.
"How are you?" Littlefoot questioned. He didn't try to hide his concern.
"Stupid question..." Cera replied weakly. "I'm gonna die."
Ducky whispered something into Spike's ears who nodded at Ducky's words.
"You won't! We're gonna get you outta here... somehow!" Littlefoot promised, though he didn't have a particular idea on how to do that at present.
"Just... leave me behind. I don't deserve your attention..." Cera whispered.
"Everybody makes mistakes, Cera," Littlefoot explained. "It's never too late to admit one's fault."
"If that was meant to be an apology, I accept it, I do," Ducky said.
Spike stared at Cera for a while. He reconsidered how badly Cera treated him, and everybody else at that. His face looked forgiving, but not absolutely trusting.
Cera didn't answer. She had fallen unconscious again.
"I believe Cera will not join us, nope, nope, nope," Ducky admitted unhappily.
"Me think so too," Petrie agreed.
"Well, we won't achieve anything by waiting so let's go to the green food," Littlefoot suggested.
Seemingly, Spike appreciated that idea highly; he didn't feel well being in company of the dead-looking Threehorn lying in the corner of the small cave.
"But Littlefoot..." Ducky piped up. "We cannot leave Cera alone, oh no, no, no! What if something... bad happens?" Ducky didn't dare use the term death.
"I'm sorry Ducky; we can't do anything," Littlefoot explained.
"Unless we find leaves," Petrie reminded them.
"But you said... riiiiight..." Ducky was just about to retort to Littlefoot when Petrie came up with his constructive point.
"I doubt we will discover any leaves since Spike and I didn't find any so far, and we walked a fair bit that day we first found the food," Littlefoot stated.
"But you did not know what they look like," the Swimmer reasoned.
"Oh... right," Littlefoot cursed.
"So how they look?" Petrie questioned with his squeaky voice.
"Well, they are thick and very dark-green-ish coloured, they are, and they feel curious when you touch them, yep, yep, yep," Ducky explained in detail. "Oh, and they taste yucky, they do, they do."
"Okay, that should be enough to recognise them if there are growing any." Littlefoot stated.
"Me got it." Petrie squawked.
"Let's go then!" Littlefoot called.
"Yep, yep, yep!"
Petrie's Mother stood at the entrance of the cave that had the shiny stones in it. She was stunned, admiring the beauty in front of her eyes. Step by step, she slowly walked deeper into the cave. After some time, she had to admit that this cave was a dead end so she eventually turned around back to the branching of paths.