A/N: Good gawd, you people have clearly never even seen Dinosaur! I don't want to write about Axel and Hope visiting a world from a movie you've never seen, but it's a bit late to turn back. As for the world, lets just call it the Dinosaur World! Ok, so…enjoy!
Night turned into morning quicker than Axel and Hope could even imagine, both of them getting up and yawning like the rest of the herd did, standing up and stretching. "How lovely…we wake up when the sun wakes up now." Axel mumbled, frowning slightly, giving Hope the idea that he was probably going to be cranky. "Hope, can't we just go to another world?"
Hope shook her head. "No, not until we help them."
Axel sighed. "But why us?"
"Because…we ended up in this world, and I think this is the reason why. We have to help them. Who knows what kind of Heartless would be around here if there were any here…."
Axel winced at the very idea, deciding that he didn't want to have to fight something so big. "Isn't having that Kron guy leading us enough?"
Hope laughed quietly. "It's more than enough…"
"If this is your first crossing, listen up! There is no water till we reach the other side. And you'd better keep up, cause if a predator catches you, you're on your own. Move out!" Bruton yelled, nodding his head forward.
"Oh my goodness!" Baylene exclaimed as she stared ahead. "It looks like a very long walk."
"And hot!" Eema added in, looking over at Aladar, Hope and Axel. "If you smell something sizzling, it could be me!"
Hope giggled slightly. "Don't worry, Eema. I'm sure that we'll reach the water before you can manage to bake all the way."
"How long do you think it'll take us to get there?" Suri asked as she leaped over onto Hope's head, the question directed to Hope.
"I'm not sure, but hopefully, not too long."
By mid noon, the sun was high in the sky, shining down on the group. Plio Zini, Yar, and Suri had taken refuge from the heat by sitting on Eema's back, resting under the crest of her head. Everyone panted heavily as they trudged through the desert, the heat unbearable, the only one unaffected being Axel, seeing as his element was fire. "Not too long, huh?" Aladar asked Hope.
"Well…it's not like…I can tell…when we can get somewhere…" Hope panted, looking back at Eema. "How're you holding up, Eema?"
"Honey, I feel like I'm already cooking…"
Hope gave the old dinosaur a small smile before she glanced up at Baylene. "How are you doing, Baylene?"
"My dear, the heat is absolutely outrageous!"
Hope nodded in agreement, looking up at the sun. Of course they would still be traveling head on without any rest when the sun was at it's highest point in the sky with Kron leading them. They thought that things couldn't get any worse, until Bruton gave the call that they were all moving too slow. So they picked up the pace, making it ten times worse.
By nighttime, it was cooler, but the herd was still moving. Hope and Axel had moved into the center of the herd, both of them tired, but still able to stay awake and walk. Hope was startled slightly when one of the juvenile iguanodons gave a squeal, falling to the ground. The herd moved around it, of course, and Hope moved over to it, bending her neck down and gently nuzzling the little dinosaur. "I know you're tired, baby, but you have to keep on moving forward, or you won't be able to get any water when we reach it."
"Waaah!" The juvenile cried, not wanting to get up.
"Hey, hey!" Axel exclaimed, "Don't get all upset about it. You can do it. Go on and try to get up."
The little juvenile looked between Axel and Hope and cried softly, standing back up, looking up at Hope and moving under her, as if a way to stay cool. Hope smiled softly, continuing on with Axel, the little juvenile sticking with them, until morning came and the juvenile found it's way back to Neera, Kron's sister, and the younger dinosaurs caretaker.
"On your feet, Eema. Can't let those things eat you!" Aladar exclaimed, nudging Eema up. "They're out there waiting!"
The words were enough to get her up and moving again, despite how tired she was.
By mid afternoon, they had stopped, and Eema seemed to recognize where they were. "The lake!"
"We made it?" Hope and Yar asked at the same time.
"It's just over that-that hill, baby!"
"Oh, thank goodness!" Baylene exclaimed in relief.
Aladar ran forward excitedly. "C'mon Eema! Water! Remember water?"
"Oh, it's time to refresh my memory!" Eema exclaimed, all of them moving up the hill excitedly, Hope and Axel at the very front, all moving to stand around the edge of the lake. Only…it was more of a barren hole than a lake, skeletons sticking out from the earth.
"Some water…." Axel mumbled.
Hope and Aladar exchanged glances before turning their attention to Eema, her happiness slowly fading away as she saw that there was no more water, giving a dejected sigh. "No one is gonna be able to last much longer if there's not any water to drink." Hope stated, looking down at the two juvenile iguanodons, both of them squeaking sadly as they stared down at the empty lake.
"Enough!" Kron yelled at the two, causing them to crouch down in fright as they stared up at him, "You have to be strong now. The nesting grounds are only a few days away. Keep moving!"
"What?" Hope exclaimed, watching as Kron began to move forward once again, giving the call that it was time to go now.
"What, they're moving already? Oh, we'll never keep up!" Baylene said sadly, turning around to glance at Eema like everyone else was doing.
"There was always water here before…" Eema mumbled sadly.
Hope moved forward towards Eema, Aladar and Plio following after her, watching as she fell, mentioning something about mud along the way, crying softly. Baylene glanced down at her sadly. "Oh, Eema, please! The herd won't wait. We must carry on."
"Baylene's right, Eema. You have to get up." Hope encouraged, watching as Aladar tried to push the old Styracosaur up.
"You gotta get up!" Aladar grunted.
"There was always water here…" Eema stated.
"There is no water, dear." Baylene said as she walked towards them, the earth cracking beneath her feet, gaining Hope's attention, along with Aladar's and Axel's, Zini stopping and looking down at the ground as the sound of sloshing could be heard under ground, glancing back at Aladar as he heard it.
"Baylene, don't move!" Hope ordered, moving forward and towards her, Aladar and Axel following her.
"Oh, w-what is it? What's wrong?" Baylene asked as the three iguanodons stopped at her feet, all of them bending down and staring at it, the sound of sloshing even louder than before.
"You hear that?" Zini asked the three.
"We sure do." Axel said.
"Lift your foot, Baylene!" Aladar exclaimed, beginning to dig in the footprint that had been left, Hope helping him out, and helping Zini out of the hole as he fell in. Once they had dug a big enough hole, Aladar looked back up at Baylene. "Now press down."
Baylene did as she was asked and pressed her foot down, water instantly coming up from the ground, Zini cheering. "WHOO-HOO! I always did like big girls!"
"Water…" Aladar mumbled.
"Oh my goodness!" Baylene exclaimed, while Aladar gave a loud call, causing everyone to stop and turn and look back at them.
"Water!" Hope shouted excitedly, watching as Plio leaped alongside Eema, helping her over to the small hole of water.
"That's it, Eema. Come drink." Baylene encouraged, while everyone bent down to take a well needed sip.
After having a good amount of water, Hope moved away from the water, turning around to see Kron running over to them. Aladar pulled away from the small water hole as well, looking back at Kron. "Kron, all we had to do was dig, and-"
Kron snorted, cutting Hope off. "Good, now get out of the way!" Kron ordered, causing Hope and Aladar to move back, watching as Kron roared at the rest of the group, stepping into the water before bending down and taking a greedy sip. Hope whipped around as the sound of heavy footsteps and roaring could be herd, her eyes widening as she saw the entire herd running towards them.
"Wait! WAIT! There's enough for everyone!" Aladar exclaimed as he ran forward, in hopes to calm everyone, only to have them ignore him and push him around and out of the way. The lemurs climbed up onto Baylene's back, and Eema was knocked over.
"Eema!" Hope exclaimed, running over to help her, getting bumped around as well. "Oof! Yeah, just go and keep pushing and shoving! Like it doesn't help enough!"
Because it really didn't…
0o0o0o0o0o
The night went by fast, everyone finally having a good amount of sleep after traveling for days without any sleep at all. Hope awoke to find Axel right next to her, smiling softly as she nuzzled into his neck before standing up and stretching, moving off a ways and standing by herself, enjoying the morning peace.
"You're up early." Plio stated as she hopped over to Hope stopping and standing next to her.
Hope smiled down at Plio. "Well, I thought I'd enjoy some quiet time before everyone else woke up."
They were both silent for a minute, until Plio spoke up. "You and Axel are from another world, aren't you?"
Hope's lilac orbs widened for a moment, before she turned to look at Plio. "How'd you-"
Plio chuckled for a moment. "You two act like you don't know what you're doing half the time. I also heard Axel mention something about 'going to a different world.'"
Hope sighed, giving Plio a small smile. "I guess there's no need to hide it now."
"You two…you both seem like you've been through an awful lot."
"We have….we're here because of everything that we've been through. Everything…that we've done."
Plio placed a hand on Hope's side, giving her a gentle smile. "You don't need to explain, Hope. But if there's anything that I can do, or the rest of us can do- Just tell us, ok?"
"I will. Thank you, Plio."
Plio hopped back over to the sleeping group, leaving Hope alone for a few more minutes, until Axel came up from behind her and surprised her. The two talked for a moment, both laughing together quietly, until it was interrupted by an alert call, from both Kron and Bruton. Confused and surprised, they watched as everyone got up and began to move quickly.
"What's going on?"
"Why don't we go and find out?" Axel suggested, he and Hope running forward, meeting Aladar and Neera along the way, all four of them reaching Kron.
"Kron!" Neera shouted, earning her older brothers attention. "What's going on?"
"Carnotaurs. If we don't keep moving, they'll catch up to us." Kron explained hurriedly.
"But, the others in the back! They'll never make it!" Hope exclaimed.
"They'll slow down the predators." Kron stated, his tone cold and the expression on his face bitter.
Hope gasped, while Aladar grew more angry. "You can't sacrifice them like this!" Aladar surprised everyone by running up to the top of the hill where Kron stood, beginning to call out several dinosaurs. "Hold it! That could be you back there, or you!" He was cut off by Kron, who knocked him down and towered over him.
"Aladar!" Hope exclaimed worriedly.
"If you ever interfere again, I'll kill you." He began to move away, only to stop and find Neera trying to help Aladar. "Stay away from him!" Kron ordered, roaring at Aladar and leading Neera away from him, but not before slapping Aladar with his tail, Neera reassuring him that she'd be fine.
Aladar, Axel, and Hope ran back to the others. "Let's go! Let's go! Carnotaurs!"
"Carna-what?" Yar asked no one in particular.
"Carnotaur! A mouth full of teeth with a bad attitude! Let's go!" Eema exclaimed, getting up to her feet quickly and beginning to move.
"C'mon you guys, get on, get on! We're gonna get left behind!" Aladar exclaimed to the lemurs, all of them quickly climbing up before Aladar took off, Axel running beside him. "Let's go, hurry up! We're losing them!"
"Aladar, Axel, slow down!" Hope called as she stood waiting for Eema, Baylene, and Url to catch up.
The two stopped and watched as they older ones did their best to catch up, before turning and watched the herd, until they were gone, sighing and waiting for the others to catch up.
It looked like they were on their own now.
We walked until it was night again. Walking in the dark made me somewhat uneasy, and to make it even worse, it started thundering and lightning, giving us some light as we walked through a large and very empty canyon, making it all the more eerie.
"Oh, joy. Blisters!" Baylene exclaimed, the sarcasm of her tone echoing through the canyon.
"I got blisters ON my blisters!" Eema said.
"You don't wanna know where "I" got blisters." Yar stated, all of us staring at him, until a distant roar caught our attention, causing all of us to gasp and stop where we were.
"What was that?" Eema asked, glancing all around.
"It came from up ahead." Baylene said.
"Ok, what's the worst thing it could be?" Zini asked, Suri popping up from behind him.
"A Carnotaur!"
"Ok, what's the second worst thing it could be?"
"Two Carnotaurs!" Baylene exclaimed.
"Ok, that's it! I'm gone!" Eema said, turning around and beginning to walk off.
"Everybody, we don't know for sure! It could be the herd." Aladar said, causing all of us to calm down a bit.
"Let's check it out." Axel said in agreement, all of us following after them, Baylene trying to hide behind Aladar, only to fail, for she was way to tall. Slowly, Axel, Aladar, and I peeked around the corner, seeing a figure moving around that was apparently wounded.
"Hey, isn't that…" I began, trailing off for a moment.
"Oh, it's Bruton!" Eema exclaimed, all of us now quite surprised to find Bruton on the same pathway as us.
"Guess we weren't the only ones left behind." I stated, frowning slightly as I watched Bruton struggle to stand up before moving forward and over to him. He was wounded pretty badly, his side pretty chewed up from what I could see in the dark.
"What happened?" Aladar asked no one in particular as he walked up and stopped beside me.
"Carnotaurs. We should keep moving." Eema said.
"We can't just leave him here!" Plio objected, reading my mind.
"We can if we move fast enough." Eema said, continuing to walk away.
"Hey, you don't look so good." Aladar said to Bruton.
"Let us help you." I said quietly, hopeful that he would let us.
Bruton snorted at my words. "Save your pity. I just need some rest. Now get away from me." Bruton said, nudging me away, while Aladar simply backed up.
"Suit yourself." Aladar said, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling across the sky. "If you change your mind, we'll be in those caves."
They began to leave, except for me. I frowned sadly, feeling a bit bad about not being able to do anything to help Bruton. I couldn't cast cure on him to heal him. Axel gently nudged me forward. "Let's hurry before it starts to rain."
"It's dark, but at least it's dry." Aladar said as we all made our way inside the cave.
"I like dry. It's the dark part I'm having trouble with." Eema said as she moved into the cave, stepping on Url and earning a small yelp from him. "Sorry, Url." She looked back at us, a smile on her face. "Sturdy little thing, ain't he?"
"Ahem," Baylene coughed, earning our attention. "We appear to have a visitor."
We all looked outside the cave, not seeing anything, until lightning flashed, revealing Bruton, limping along in the rain, glancing at us before looking away and moving forward once again, only to stop and groan in pain before falling onto his stomach. Without a thought, I found my feet moving and stepped out into the rain, finding that it felt good on my skin. I made my way over to Bruton, giving him a small smile as he looked up at me. "There's plenty of room for one more."
He frowned. "What is it with you?"
I felt my smile widen slightly. "At least we know when to get out of the rain. Now, c'mon. On your feet." I ordered, helping him stand up. Carefully, I walked by him, helping him regain his balance when he almost fell over again, only to have him push me away. It didn't bother me though, and together we walked into the cave, getting out of the rain. "Your welcome to lie down with us. It's actually a lot warmer." The only response I got from him was a snort before he moved off to go lie down by himself and away from us.
"May I remind you that he's one of them." Baylene stated.
"Well…looks like he's one of us now." Aladar replied as we all watched Bruton climb up onto a rock and lay down on it.
"After all….why would we just push him away when he needs help?" I asked no one in particular. "You should always put those in need before yourself." I said, moving over to Axel, who was already laying down, getting down next to him. He smiled at me, and I snuggled into him, welcoming the warmth his body had to offer.
Eema sighed as she laid down. "Who booked this trip anyway?"
"Ah, you'll be at the nesting grounds soon enough." Aladar said as he lied down as well.
"Well, when I get there, I'm gonna give Kron a piece of my mind."
Axel, Aladar, and I all chuckled at her statement. "You tell 'em, Eema." Aladar said, earning a smile from her.
We all turned our attention to Url, who was already fast asleep, Zini and Suri laughing at him. "If I could sleep that deep, I'd be in paradise." Yar stated.
"If you could sleep that deep, honey, you'd be dead." Eema said, earning laughter from all of us.
0o0o0o
Plio moved over to Bruton, who was watching the group as they all talked amongst themselves, some of them already asleep. In her hand, Plio held some type of green plant. "This plant grew on our island." Plio explained, looking up at Bruton. "It'll make you feel better." With that said, she dipped her hand into it and began to lather the ointment onto Bruton's wounded side, earning a hiss of pain from him, before he sighed in relief as the pain began to dissipate. Plio set the plant down and began to move back to the group, only to stop as Bruton spoke.
"Why are they doing this? Pushing them on with false hope?" Bruton asked.
"It's hope that's gotten us this far, and Hope herself, along with Axel and Aladar." Plio stated.
"But why don't they just let them accept their fate? I've accepted mine…"
"And what is your fate?" Plio asked.
"To die here…It's the way things are."
"Only if you give up, Bruton. It's your choice. Not your fate." Plio explained, giving him a small smile. "The plant will help." She moved off, Bruton watching her as she went back down to the sleeping group below.
And as the thunder rumbled through the sky, Bruton gently pulled the little plant to him.
Perhaps having some bit of hope wasn't such a bad idea after all. Or maybe having the real person wasn't either. Because both the word and the person gave anyone hope.
A/N: This was really long to type up, and since I don't know if you guys like it, I wasn't all too sure of it, but hopefully, someone does. The final part will be the next chapter, and then we move to another world. LATER TATERS!