Childhood is Over

Littlefoot sobbed. It was too much to take, the death of his grandmother by the same sharptooth that murdered his mother right before his eyes. That night was a sleepless and horrible night for the young longneck. He and his grandfather hardly spoke at all that night. And that night, Littlefoot went back to the nest crying.

Halfway through the night, Littlefoot got up and started to move away from the nest. He looked back at his sleeping grandpa and a tear dropped from his eye. "I'm sorry I have to do this," he whispered, then started running. Littlefoot ran as fast as he could, moving across the valley and towards the Great Wall. He knew he could no longer stay in the Great Valley. The longer he stayed the more he would put everyone else in danger. Sharptooth was after him, not them. It was his fault, he thought, it was his fault that Cera's father and his grandmother were killed. If he hadn't been there, Sharptooth wouldn't have killed them.

Littlefoot ran until he was at the foot of the Great Wall before he started to climb. He made his way up the mountain, sometimes struggling to get a foothold until he was at the top of the mountain peak. He looked back down over the valley in regret and sorrow. He silently apologized to his friends and to his grandpa.

Just before he started down the other side, he was startled by the sound of approaching footsteps. He jumped to his feet and began frantically looking around in all directions. His pulse raced, his heart pounding. He saw a dark shape near by towering over him. Sharptooth had come for him, he must have. Littlefoot was scared stiff, he couldn't move aside from shivering.

"Hello, kid." The dark shape said. The voice was dry and old sounding. Doc.

Littlefoot nearly fainted upon hearing Doc's voice. As it was, his legs gave out underneath him and he folded up collapsing to the ground. "Doc, you scared me. I thought you were Sharptooth."

"If I was, you'd be dead. What are you doing out here so late, kid? It's dark and Sharptooth is about. You could get killed." Doc said.

"I…I have to…" Littlefoot stuttered.

"You think that by leaving you can save everyone here. Since Sharptooth is after you, by leaving you can lead him away from the Valley and insure everyone's safety. That's only a short term plan." Doc said.

"Short term?"

"Sharptooth is after you, that's correct. And he will follow you to get his revenge, that's also true. But that doesn't mean he won't come back for your friends. From what I can gather, it was the five of you that nearly killed him before. You may be the current target, but after he kills you he will return to kill them. And after that he will kill every other longneck in the Great Valley. And after that he will continue on with his attempted Genocide and kill every longneck in the world."

"He wants to kill every longneck in the world? Why?" Littlefoot asked.

"He hates all longnecks, I guess I'm the reason behind that. A long time ago, over 100 years ago Sharptooth wasn't a monster like he is now. In fact back then he was much like your friend, Chomper. Back then sharpteeth were not called 'sharpteeth', they were called 'big bitters.'" Doc explained.

"'Big Bitters?'" Littlefoot asked.

"Stupid, wasn't it? At that time, big bitters were not considered as dangerous as they are now. A mere traveling inconvenience. Sharptooth is a product of a much earlier time, a long, long time ago all longnecks were as strong as me and all sharpteeth were as strong as Sharptooth.

"But as time went on the stronger dinosaurs didn't breed as fast or as much as the weaker ones. As such, the more powerful dinosaurs began to be replaced my the less powerful. The less powerful ones are now the normal dinosaurs we see everyday. Sharptooth is the last of his kind.

"When I was hatched, and as I grew up, Sharptooth was my best friend. We hung out all the time and played together, not caring what everyone else thought. Even from an early age, out parents could tell that both Sharptooth and I were more powerful than other normal dinosaurs our age. Our parents advised us against any sort of friendship, knowing that eventually the two of us would end up fighting. To escape, we ran away. We thought that our friendship could be strong enough to overcome any sort of prejudice.

"Sharptooth even called me his Gralnuk." Doc said.

"What's a Gralnuk?" Littlefoot asked.

"It's a sharptooth word. It means 'best friend' but is literally translated as 'jaws.' It means, I could but my jaws to his throat and he would not be afraid. This my seem ridiculous since I'm a longneck and he wouldn't be in danger if I put my jaws to his neck, but meaning is the same. He could trust me with his life.

"He even swore never to kill a longneck as long as he lived. This was a promise he eventually was unable to keep. One day, while we were off in the wild after running away I saw him eating from the body of a longneck. A girl longneck that I had been seeing at the time. He killed her. I confronted him and he claimed that it was an accident, but I knew better. I attacked him and after the fight we parted ways. After that I decided to become a wanderer without a herd and I didn't see Sharptooth again until we had both grown up and I first came to the Great Valley. I found him attacking the dinosaurs of the Valley and I stepped in to stop him. Again I managed to defeat him, but he gave me this scar on my eye.

"After I defeated him in the Valley he started attacking longnecks everywhere, killing entire herds at a time, not sparing anyone. Women, children, elderly, it didn't matter to him. Ever since, whenever a big bitter was spotted the dinosaurs would fear that it was Sharptooth. As such the name big bitter fell out of use and was replaced by 'sharptooth,' which is considerable scarier and more threatening.

"Sharptooth hates all longnecks because of me. He will continue on his rampage until either he is dead or all longnecks are dead." Doc concluded.

Littlefoot stood in shock. "That…that's just horrible. We have to stop him! Doc, can't you stop him like you did before?"

Doc shook his head. "Not anymore. The last time I fought him was 100 years ago, when I was in my prime, and even then I was barely able to defeat him. I'm too old now; you saw how easily he got to me today. If I tried to fight him one-on-one again I'd lose. Somehow, Sharptooth hasn't gotten much weaker in these hundred years."

"But what if you didn't fight one-on-one? What if more that you fought him? Others of the valley joined together and attacked at once?" Littlefoot asked.

"Conceivably, yes. But that would take at least half of the Great Valley and even then a majority of them would still die before Sharptooth could be brought down." Doc said.

"Then what can we do?" Littlefoot asked.

"Kid, it may be too much to ask of you, but I think you can possibly defeat him." Doc said.

"Me? What can I do? Look at me, I'm short, a runt. I can fight anything, there's no way I could take on Sharptooth."

"Not as you are. Believe it or not, all of those more powerful dinosaurs I spoke of hatched as runts, which is why most of them did not survive past the first year. You are on the verge of your growth spurt. And I can see potential in you, especially considering you almost killed Sharptooth once. You are still going to run from the valley, right? Well then, I'll go with you and make you my pupil."

"Your pupil?" Littlefoot asked.

"Yes, I will train you and teach you everything I know. I'm too old to fight Sharptooth again, but you, …you can stop him. In fact, I think that only you can. Are you up to it?"

"Well, I don't know. What if I can't? What if I fail?" Littlefoot asked.

Doc straitened up and looked up over the Mysterious Beyond. "Now, we have no choice. Sharptooth must be stopped, or else everything you hold dear will be destroyed."

Littlefoot cried, tears rolled down his face. He then looked up at Doc and gave a stern look and a sharp nod. "Alright. I'll do it. Teach e how to fight."

Doc looked down at the little longneck and smiled. "Okay then, kid. Let us go." Together the old and the young longneck started down the mountains and into the Mysterious Beyond. Littlefoot didn't know how long he would be gone, hopefully not to long, but he could guess that this would be the last time he would see the Great Valley in a long time. "Good-bye." He whispered.