Chapter 55: The true meaning of friendship

"Hey Spike?" Littlefoot asked the Spiketail as they were feasting upon some green food.

Spike gave a grunt that was supposed to mean yes? as Littlefoot concluded. Language barriers could be annoying but Littlefoot was confident that he would get his point across and so would Spike.

"Do you think Cera will appreciate the fact that we - you saved her life?" the Longneck questioned. Littlefoot had always wondered what Spike had actually in his mind as he couldn't express his thoughts with words and gestures didn't work half as good as words did. He tried to interpret Spike's unintelligably babbling but he wasn't successful at that.

"Uhm... I'm afraid I'm not so good at understanding you as Ducky seems to be..." Littlefoot muttered, ashamed.

Spike moved his warm tongue across Littlefoot's face which made him giggle for it tickled him a little.

"You forgive me?" Littlefoot asked despite knowing the answer already.

Spike's nod assured his guess.

"Well, how about talking about this with Ducky and Petrie?" the Longneck proposed. "Ducky could translate what we can't yet understand; maybe we will one day." He was pretty sure they would one day or that Spike would learn how to speak, somehow.

Spike seemed to be agreeing so they soon finished their meal, gathered enough food to keep them fed for at least the next two days, and headed back to their friends...

Ducky kept telling her mind to cease crying but it only made things worse. She was very relieved when she saw Petrie approaching, probably to console her like a good friend would. The Swimmer considered the self-conscious Flyer her best friend. Her relation to Spike was probably even closer, rather considering him a brother than a friend.

"Y-you alright?" the Flyer stammered.

Ducky didn't answer right away. She wiped some tears from her eyes - a move making little sense as there was a very fast influx of new ones. When she tried to answer, only choked sounds would come out of her mouth.

"You missing your family?" Petrie said sentimentally, thinking about how much he actually missed HIS family.

Ducky's answer was a soft cry that quickly grew louder and more mournful.

"Sometimes me wonder how me can stand all this..." he mumbled quietly before tearing up as well.

Ducky had got up to walk to the wall of the cave, covering her eyes with her hands. She then leaned against it and slowly slided down until she ended up in a sitting position. Pulling her legs close to her body, she hugged her knees and hid her head between her arms. At that moment, she gave up the resistance to cry and openly did so.

Petrie followed the girl - a scene he knew too well in front of his eyes... His best friend's sadness and grief didn't help him to deal with his own. He could only keep the desire to openly admit his depression back until he reached Ducky. Leaning against each other, they cried for they missed their families very deeply - especially those who weren't among the living anymore...

As Cera was approaching the small group of Threehorns who were grazing on a hill, she noticed more and more details. The Threehorns were mostly grey and orange and there were a lot of children running around. One grey Threehorn looked familiar for some reason... as did the two young ones she was cuddling with.

When Cera had finally got close enough to hear what they were saying, she couldn't help but overhear two certain names that made her chest explode in a bulge of emotions.

"You're such lovely girls, Candy, Cara," said the female adult.

Cera was at a loss as for what to say or think.

"They're dead, aren't they?!" Cera thought, trying to understand what her eyes were receiving. "They just CAN'T be alive... so am I dead or WHAT?!"

The orange Threehorn walked closer to ask the dinosaur she supposed to be her mother a few questions...

The fact that Ducky was weeping into Petrie's chest for the thousandth time in like what felt only a few days deeply annoyed the Swimmer. Petrie had calmed down to the level of soft sobbing while she was still crying after her mommy - and quite noisily at that. She wondered how the other members of the group took her constant outbursts of sadness. While she wasn't afraid of Spike's view onto this as he was the most peaceful dinosaur she had ever met, she was particularly afraid that Petrie and Littlefoot considered her too much of a hatchling. Cera would bully her for that anyway if she could. She knew that both of them told her the very opposite of what she was fearing but she just couldn't take it for granted that they were speaking up their true opinion.

Hopelessness - a feeling she thought to have banished from her mind - returned, making things just worse. Ducky was well aware of the fact that there was hope and she knew that she wasn't allowed to lose hope again. Nevertheless, she didn't succeed. Despite having ceased to cry after her mother, she was still wailing very mournfully, hiding in Petrie's chest and desperately clinging to her friend.

"Help me, Petrie!" she cried, getting shaken by a strong sob.

"Me no know how!" Petrie whined. He was already stroking the Swimmer's back for a fair while but it didn't seem to work at all.

"I-I d-do not w-w-want to cry, no, no, no..." the girl managed to whisper before the sobs became too violent for speaking in a way anybody would understand.

"Me know, Ducky, me know..." Petrie said softly, nursing the unfortunate girl. "You being sensitive and you and me know that."

It needed Ducky a couple minutes to reply.

"I know... so y-you are not m-m-mad at me?"

"Why should me be mad at you?" the Flyer boy questioned.

"Because I am a h-hatchl-ling, y-yes I am..." Ducky replied, whimpering.

"You feeling lonely right now?" Petrie then asked.

Ducky nodded in response.

"V-v-v-very lonely!"

"But me here, Ducky. You not alone..."

"B-but I feel alone, I do, I do!"

"Why Ducky? You never alone, not really... My mum told me when she brought food. Loved ones never go, not really. They still in your heart, guiding you."

"I know, Petrie. I miss BEING with them and I am scared-ed."

"Scared of what? Being alone?"

"Yep, yep, yep!" Ducky finally found the strength to remove her head from Petrie's chest that was totally soaked in her tears. She kneeled down, her tears now hitting her own legs. "I am also feared because I do not want to be eat-ed by a Sharptooth or starve," she mumbled.

"Well, me fear me never be able to fly like a Flyer," Petrie said with unexpected depression.

"Why are you not able to fly, Petrie?" Ducky asked. The shift towards problems that weren't her own seemed to calm her troubled mind.

"Me no know! Me always do things wrong," Petrie complained. "Me bullied by brothers and sisters for that."

"I am sorry Petrie, I did not want to make you sad, oh no," Ducky said, the production of tears having ceased completely.

"You no make me sad, you make me happy. Me happy to have such nice friend like you!" Petrie told his friend.

The two children gazed at each other.

"Hugs?" Ducky asked, opening her arms.

Petrie didn't need to think about this twice. He willingly accepted the comfort Ducky was offering him, just like he was always offering her his frugal console whenever she needed it. That was what true friendship meant, right?