The Land Before Time: The Passage to the Future

by AllegroGiocoso

One thing is certain, nothing ever stays the same. For Littlefoot, this had never been truer, for the thing he had been dreading most had come to pass. But this in turn leads the whole Great Valley into chaos, and suddenly Littlefoot and his friends find everything they know and love has been thrust upon their shoulders. A sequel to my prior fanfic The Time of Great Growing.

44. Chapter 42 - The Joys of Learning

Hi, so happy to finally be back! Not much to say this time other than the usual. Thanks to everyone again for reading this far, especially to Zee Docking and Ryan6783 for coming up with and working with me on so many scenes and ideas - you guys are awesome! And a big shout-out to everyone for their favorites, follows, and reviews, and of course, The Land Before Time belongs to Universal.

Chapter 42 – The Joys of Learning

As he sat in a circle with Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Ruby, Ali, and Shorty, Chomper felt a great deal of excitement yet also nervousness. Having been raised by both his parents before and after his hatching and by his friends in his hatching moments, Chomper's unique circumstances gave him the ability to comprehend both the sharptooth and flattooth languages from birth. He remembered how his parents had looked on with amusement whenever he babbled in leafeater, and while he otherwise seldom practiced his second tongue, his good hearing picked up on faraway flattooth conversations, allowing him to subconsciously learn more and more of their language. So much so by that the time he had been reunited with his friends on that island, he could speak their tongue just as well as they could.

He never really appreciated how useful his gift was however until he first translated for Ruby and her family so they could communicate with his parents, seeing how they really couldn't understand each other without his help. And then of course when the two of them first arrived at the Great Valley, he remembered how incredulous everyone besides his friends was that he could talk. He couldn't help but snicker as he remembered just how much Mr. Threehorn's jaw dropped, not able to believe what he was seeing and leaving him uncharacteristically speechless.

From these awkward introductions, he soon realized that flatteeth far too often believed that all sharpteeth were just savage killers incapable of any real feeling and could only communicate by shrieks and roars. Likewise, most sharpteeth couldn't care less that they could not speak the language of their prey, believing that they were unintelligent beings that could only speak in crude, barbaric grunts. He could see why both groups would view the other as primitive inferiors, for it made killing, whether out of a need to survive or a need to defend oneself, much less of a weighty moral consideration if they viewed their natural enemies as less than saurian.

But as someone who firmly believed that flatteeth and sharpteeth could coexist harmoniously, Chomper knew that a great part of the disconnect was that the two languages were so different and that it was very hard for a speaker of one tongue to grasp the other. He recalled struggling with teaching his parents even basic leafeater pronunciation, and while they both could speak a little leafeater now, they were both very far from being fluent. Yet he also knew that if any leafeaters could learn his language, it would be his friends, who had done the impossible so often before that this might just be yet another adventure for them.

Just then, Littlefoot and Cera finally arrived as Littlefoot looked around him reminiscently.

"Hey, I remember this place!" Littlefoot exclaimed, nodding to a little ledge. "That's where you guys sang that song for me, remember?"

"You mean when you almost came along with me?" Shorty teased. "Who knows what kind of mischief we would've gotten into at that age."

"But then you wouldn't have met me and Ruby when we came to the Valley!" Chomper snickered.

"Yeah," Ruby chuckled. "Glad things worked out the way they did, for at least we know that we know each other."

"Yeah, and you'd have missed out on the adventures of the gang of six, and guess who would've been leading her friends that whole time?" Cera boasted.

"Ruby?" Ducky giggled playfully.

"Me, duh!" Cera shot back, pointing at herself smugly.

"Maybe, if you no get us killed first," Petrie teased.

"Quiet you!" Cera glared as they all laughed.

"Still, I'd say you should've come," Shorty snickered. "You would've gotten homesick really fast and complained so much that Dad would've had no choice but to take the whole herd to live in the Great Valley."

"Gee, thanks," Littlefoot rolled his eyes.

Cera smirked. "You think my dad would've allow a whole herd of longnecks to stay when he had a problem with only Doc? When longnecks fly."

"Well maybe," Ducky said brightly, "If Littlefoot's dad and Cera's dad had known each other better before, they would have stopped fighting a lot earlier."

"Yeah, if they no fight, Valley no divided and no bad guys take over," Petrie snickered.

"Well I'm just glad we're all together now," Littlefoot chuckled. "It's fun thinking about what could've been, but I think it worked out pretty well in the end. Besides," he nodded toward the teens and the new kids. "Look at all the new friends we made on this adventure!"

"Well, I suppose it could've been a lot worse," Cera snorted. "At least you didn't have to grow up in a segregated herd. Trust me, you would've gone crazy with only longnecks around."

"Like you wouldn't have if I was gone?" Littlefoot retorted playfully back. "Remember how mad you were the time I first met Ali?"

"Me remember, Cera so jealous back then," Petrie snickered.

"Hey, I was just a kid!" Cera snorted.

"If Littlefoot was gone, you would have been so mad that our parents would keep us away from you, they would," Ducky giggled. "Which would leave you with your dad."

"And then he take you to join threehorn herd," Petrie teased. "You think that not make you go crazy?"

"Well if that happened, I'd run away, find Littlefoot, and we'd sneak back to the Valley together," Cera smirked. "Sooner or later, we'd get what we want."

"Me not wanna know more," Petrie said as Cera warningly huffed at his wings.

"Come on guys, it could've been a lot better too," Shorty guffawed. "Imagine if all nine of us were together as kids! We probably would've gotten into even more trouble back then and …"

Shorty trailed off awkwardly as Littlefoot covertly whacked him with his tail, for a bittersweet, far-off expression appeared on Ali's face. Evidently, Ali was imagining the same thing, only with Rhett added to the picture …

"So Chomper," Littlefoot asked, wanting to quickly move on from Shorty's blunder. "Ready to start?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Chomper grinned awkwardly. "So, uh … The biggest difference between flattooth and sharptooth is that flattooth uses a lot more sounds. That's why it's hard for sharpteeth to say anything in flattooth, we use a few sounds a lot which just comes off as roaring to you guys. But even though we don't have as many sounds, our language is just as complex as yours, which means you've got to pronounce things a lot more carefully. Like though rrrarawr and rrarrawr sound very similar, one means that something tastes yummy and the other means I've got a toothache."

"How could something that sounds so similar end up meaning something so different?" Ducky giggled in wonder.

"Well if you literally translate those two phrases, they come out to my teeth hunger and my teeth hurt," Chomper snickered. "But see what I mean? Since our language only uses a few sounds, it's really easy to end up saying something in sharptooth you don't mean to. Like I don't think you tried to tell me you had to go in sharptooth that time on that island, Spike."

"What?" Shorty snickered as Spike looked both confused and slightly embarrassed.

"I don't remember him doing that," Littlefoot observed.

"You wouldn't know," Chomper giggled. "But remember that time you tried roaring like my parents? You ended up saying you had to go in sharptooth. Just like Cera said that threehorns are yummy."

Spike just shook his head with amusement as Cera pouted, "Oh you had to bring that up again, didn't you?"

"Well yeah," Chomper snickered. "Apart from being really funny, it's just what I'm talking about. You must've heard that sound a lot from all the sharpteeth that would've been able to smell you."

"Oh great," Cera said sarcastically.

"No, it is," Chomper smiled. "Don't you see? You picked up on that sound from all the times it was repeated back to you without even trying to learn it. Which means maybe I can get you guys familiar with some other phrases, and you'll be able to pick up on them and be able to say them with enough practice, though you'll still probably have your accents. Oh yeah, it's really important to control your voice too. For instance," Chomper uttered two sounds, the first a sinister growl and the second a low purr. "It sounded like I said the same thing twice, the first time nice and the second time mean. But I actually said I love you when I sounded mean and I'll kill you when I sounded nice. So even if you end up saying the wrong thing, the right tone of voice can help make up for it."

"What you mean, accents?" Petrie asked curiously.

Chomper snickered knowingly. "You know how the biters would say ret's have runch instead of let's have lunch? They speak leafeater with sharptooth accents, too much of the rrr sound. You guys have the opposite problem with the lll sound. Like when you guys were saying threehorns are yummy, it actually came out as thllleeholllns alll yulllmmy. I mean any sharptooth would know what you're saying, but they'd also know you're flatteeth speaking their language."

"So how are we supposed to sound like actual sharpteeth?" Littlefoot asked thoughtfully.

"I don't know if you can for sure, but your best bet is lots of practice," replied Chomper. "Remember at first how the biters had much stronger accents than they do now? Even though they've learned flattooth in the egg like I did, they've only spoken in sharptooth with their mom and one another. It's only now that they're living with everyone here that they're starting to drop their accents through tons of exposure. So that's what I'd imagine you'd need. All of us friendly sharpteeth can give you practice talking in sharptooth when we get to that point. But we've got to get there first, that is, if we can. I know you guys are plenty smart, but I've never heard of any flattooth learning sharptooth before, especially since you wouldn't have learned any sharptooth in the egg like the biters."

"Well, nothing stops us!" Cera said determinedly. "If we can learn how to say threehorns are yummy, we can learn to say anything we want in sharptooth."

"We keep learning one phrase at time till we get it just right, then we move on to next phrase," Petrie added firmly. "We learn little by little."

"We might learn it slowly," giggled Ali. "But that won't discourage us!"

"And maybe once we know enough sharptooth, we will start getting really good at it, which will help make learning more sharptooth even easier," said Ducky optimistically.

"Yeah," Littlefoot said determinedly. "Besides, part of why flatteeth know you mean no harm is because you can talk to them, right? It's only fair that we too try treating meeting your kinds where they're at too. That way, we can be friendly flatteeth to other sharpteeth, flatteeth that can really prove to other sharpteeth that we're more than just food and so long as they don't try to hurt us and our herd, we won't have to hurt them. We know this will be a challenge, but that doesn't mean that we're not willing to give this our best shot!"

As everyone else excitedly agreed and nodded, Chomper beamed appreciatively at his friends, Littlefoot especially. They were actually willing to go through this, to really share in his vision to help build harmony and respect between sharptooth and flattooth kinds …

"Great!" Chomper exclaimed. "Now all I need to do is come up with a good first phrase to teach you. Something that'll be useful to know even if they know you're flatteeth."

Chomper thought for a little bit before finally saying, "Okay. I think I've got it. You ready?"

The others nodded anticipatorily, before Chomper said slowly, "Rraarawarraaraagh."

There was a brief pause as they tried taking the sound in. "What does that mean?" Ruby asked curiously.

"It means "let's make a deal" or "I've got an offer," Chomper explained. "Unless we're talking about a sharptooth who really is bad or evil, most sharpteeth don't want to attack anything that can hurt them. The only ones who'd try would probably be really hungry and just trying to stay alive. Say this to them, and even with leafeater accents, you'll catch their attention and tell them they've got another option."

"You mean you knew this all along and didn't try teaching it to us before?" Cera teased. "We could've gotten some of them to stop chasing us when we were kids!"

Chomper shook his head. "A big sharptooth would just laugh if a kid tried it. Unless they've got grownups protecting them, sharpteeth know that kids are easy meals that wouldn't be able to give them anything better than their bodies. It might backfire too, they might view it as an insult to their pride and make them want to take the kid out once and for all."

"I wouldn't have called us easy meals back then," Littlefoot chuckled.

"Yeah, a lot of sharpteeth found out the hard way," Chomper laughed. "But we survived by either escaping or tricking them. Which while great for us doesn't really help if the sharptooth ever comes back. If you really want to ensure that a sharptooth won't be a threat without killing them, you've gotta prove to them that they'll benefit from you being alive."

As the others looked curiously, Chomper explained, "The first step is to convince a sharptooth you'd be too powerful to attack. You couldn't really do that when you were kids. But now you guys all have that kind of power. Ali, Shorty, you're physically imposing enough that even the biggest sharpteeth would know that attacking you would be a challenge. Even if they think they can take you on, they also know you'd put up a really tough fight that could end up killing them too. Ducky, Petrie, Ruby, you guys have gotta be a lot more careful, since swimmers are often targeted by sharpteeth because they don't have armor and flyers and runners don't have much physical strength. But you're also herd leaders who can credibly command an entire herd to attack them, giving you another kind of power. And Littlefoot, Cera, Spike, you've got both kinds of power, so you're in really good shape. No sharptooth in their right mind would want to attack a longneck, threehorn, or spiketail who can command a big herd filled with healthy young dinos. Point is, you're all in a place where you can deter them, so if you tell them in sharptooth that you want to make a deal, a normal sharptooth would want to listen, especially if you've got some carcasses you can barter with."

"Do we have to take the carcasses with us?" Littlefoot asked thoughtfully. "How would the sharpteeth know we're herd leaders? How would we know they won't harm us in the future? And don't you make them promise they won't tell Goregie about us?"

"Wow, Mr. Thicknose is right, you do ask a lot of questions," Chomper giggled as Littlefoot grinned sheepishly. "They're all good ones though. So with the carcasses, you don't have to carry them as long as you have them nearby. If you say you want to make a deal with them, they'll probably sniff and realize there really are carcasses there. You'll know they'll understand if they sit down and wait, they'll expect you to go and retrieve their meal for them. Of course it'll be better if you tell them what you have so they'll know for sure what you're offering them. And don't promise anything you can't give. If you break a promise to a sharptooth, they won't forget it and might want revenge. But just to be safe, I'm going to tell my pack what to say if they hear an offering, so they can do most of the talking. You're gonna have to learn more sharptooth to tell them you're leaders, to not hurt anyone in the herd, what food you can give them, and to make them promise to keep you a secret. I'm gonna have all us sharpteeth say that stuff while you're still learning. But let's go slow for now, so you can say the offering just right and then learn how to say other things later. So you guys ready to get started?"

"You bet," Littlefoot said determinedly as everyone else nodded.

So very slowly, Chomper modeled the offering phrase for them, enunciating each rhythm and sound precisely in steady repetition so they'd become very familiar with it. At first they all tried speaking along with him, only for Chomper to warn them how important it was to internalize the correct sound. So they then sat silently and listened to Chomper speak, moving their tongues to match his as he repeated them the phrase over and over again. It was very difficult for the leafeaters to catch on, for it all sounded like sharptooth growling to them, but by developing the tongue memory for it, they soon began making progress. After a while, Chomper saw that their mouth motions were increasingly matching his, and so had them try saying the phrase in unison so they could develop a real memory for it.

"How are we doing?" Littlefoot asked curiously as they all paused to catch their breaths.

Chomper paused thoughtfully. "I can tell you're getting better, but since you guys aren't quite saying the same things, I can only hear a bunch of sharpteeth with leafeater accents talking. Maybe we should all go one by one and see how it goes."

Petrie giggled nervously. "We probably sound ridiculous."

"I'll go first," Shorty said, before clearing his throat …

"I'lll mlllake a falllt pointllly seellld."

"How did I do?" Shorty asked eagerly.

Chomper giggled uncomfortably. "You did say something in sharptooth! But … it didn't come out quite right."

"What did I say?" Shorty asked.

"Err … I don't know if you wanna know," Chomper giggled. "You got the make part right, so you're getting there."

"No, tell me!" Shorty insisted.

"You said …" Chomper paused, before saying, "You'll make a fat pointy seed."

"Hey!" Shorty roared as the others could barely control their giggles.

"Are you really telling us the truth with what we're saying?" Cera asked suspiciously. "I mean first threehorns are yummy and now this?"

"Yeah, well once you get past the flattooth accents," Chomper snickered. "I don't know what makes you guys say this stuff. But it's kind of like I said, it's really easy to say something in sharptooth you don't mean."

"Well there won't be anything funny in this," Cera said confidently, before clearing her throat and calling out, "Deallll willlth mylll hallld, dellld holllns, you blllig jelllk!"

Chomper paused thoughtfully. "Well you got the deal part right. And though you still have an accent, you kinda sound like a horned sharptooth."

"Hee," Cera smirked, before Chomper continued, "But you were too mean. It sounded like a threat and you called them a jerk. And you said your horns were dead."

"What?" Cera snapped incredulously to more giggles.

"Cera still be Cera, even in sharptooth," Petrie teased.

"All right wingbrain, if you think you're smart, you go next," Cera playfully snorted.

"Who, me?" Petrie asked, before saying, "Llet's mallke a fulln, hallppy deall thallt'll gellt youll highll ullp intoll the skllies!"

"You actually said it! And with a little less of an accent!" Chomper exclaimed excitedly, trying to hide a smirk. "Well … sort of."

"Me did?" Petrie asked in disbelief.

"What's the catch?" Cera snarked, seeing Chomper seemed a little too sincere.

"Well … You said the deal will get you high," Chomper said awkwardly. "And in this context, well … You sounded like you'd be getting them that kind of high."

"Uh-oh, me no mean that!" Petrie chuckled embarrassedly as everyone began feeling less bad about themselves, seeing that this lesson was turning into a comedy of errors for everyone.

"Illl bulllped. Plllease excllluse melll."

"Wait Spike, did you mean to talk?" Chomper told him as Spike shook his head.

"What did Spike say?" Ducky asked curiously.

"That he burped, even though he didn't," Chomper giggled. "Still, he was really polite about it. He also said please excuse me."

Spike shook his head incredulously, rarely ever saying this much in leafeater even in those rare times when he did choose to talk. The sharptooth language was really much more succinct than theirs, with more being said with less vocal effort. Which fit with how sharpteeth lived at such fast paces compared to flatteeth and even more so when compared with the green world …

"Oh I want to go next!" Ducky exclaimed, before saying, "Illl lulllove thillls dealull soulll, soulll mullllch. Illllt illlls alllll soullllft allllnd swulllleet allllnd cullllte!"

"You got the deal part right," Chomper grinned. "And while you've got a really big flattooth accent, you're sounding friendly and approachable. But you're speaking about the deal like you love it, like it's your egg or something."

"Oh," Ducky giggled embarrassedly. "They probably would not trust me if I spoke of a deal like that, nope nope nope!"

"That's why you've gotta make sure the barter's nearby so they can smell it themselves," Chomper reminded her, before letting out a little laugh.

"What's so funny?" Cera asked.

"Well, it's kinda like part of you guys is coming out with how you're speaking sharptooth," Chomper chuckled. "I didn't really think about that before. But considering our language is so much about saying a lot in a little, I guess it makes sense."

"You don't sound like yourself when you're speaking sharptooth though," Littlefoot giggled.

"Yeah, you actually sound pretty mean, no offense," Cera ribbed.

Chomper chuckled. "I'd guess that's because I've been warning a lot of other sharpteeth to leave you alone and telling my pack what to do when I'm speaking sharptooth. I bet if you guys were in my place, you'd end up sounding like that. Hey, that's it! Ducky, close your eyes."

"Why?" Ducky asked.

"Imagine a sharptooth's chasing Sam, and you've got to make a deal with them before it's too late," Chomper explained.

Ducky nodded, closing her eyes as she tried imagining the scene happening before her. As she did, Chomper saw that her fists clenched and a frown appeared. "Now?" Ducky asked.

"Yeah, go for it," Chomper said encouragingly.

Ducky took a deep breath, before saying, "Deallll willlth mellll olllr youllll willll llllegllllet illllt, yellllp yellllp yelllp."

"Yep, you sounded like Cera," Chomper chuckled. "That came out as a threat."

"Me say, you pretty scary," Petrie giggled.

"Do not start that again," Ducky snickered. "But really, I did not mean to be. I just did not want the sharptooth to hurt my little brother, so it just came out."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Chomper said. "We probably need to work on controlling our tone another time. Wanna keep on going?"

"Sure, I'll go," Ali volunteered. "Hmmllll … Woullld youlll lllike tolll malllke thillls filllne, pllleasing, dealll thalllt willl malllke alll olllf youlll molllst halllppy?"

"Well, you asked the question," Chomper smiled. "But you sounded unsure at first, and then you sounded a bit too formal and overly friendly. Kind of like Hiss Head, actually. Falsely pleasant."

"Oh no," Ali giggled. "What did I say word for word?"

"Hmm … Would you like to …" Chomper began.

"Like to go ou …" Shorty murmured, before catching himself. "Whoops … Ugh, never mind!"

"You okay Shorty?" Littlefoot asked concernedly.

"Yeah, move on!" Shorty said in embarrassment. "You go, Ruby."

Shorty felt Cera eyeing him keenly, but tried to ignore her as Ruby nodded, pretending not to notice anything as she said, "Llet's malke a deall thalt we caln malke."

Chomper smiled in amazement. "Whoa Ruby, that was really good!" he exclaimed.

"How did it come out?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Literally, you said let's make a deal that we can make, so you added the way that you repeat things sometimes," Chomper chuckled. "But you've only got a slight accent, kinda like what the biters sound like now."

"It must be because I'm a halftooth," Ruby pondered. "I'd be less removed from any sharptooth ancestry than any of you guys would."

"Yeah, that makes a lot of sense," Chomper said thoughtfully. "And why you'd have a little less of an accent too Petrie, with there being sharptooth flyers."

"No remind me," Petrie shuddered. "Brara scary enough, me not ready to meet real sharptooth flyers!"

"Well Littlefoot, you're up," Chomper snickered. Truth be told, while he was excited to hear all of his friends dabbling in sharptooth, he was most eager to hear Littlefoot out of anyone make a go at speaking it …

"Llllet's make oulllselves a nest, lllovellly lllittle lllipps, and gelllt nilllcee alllnd collzy."

"How was that?" Littlefoot asked earnestly.

But no sooner did he ask than he heard Chomper's parents guffawing from inside the crater, the three little biters giggling uncontrollably, and a voice he presumed was Lola's letting out big hearty, cackles from outside, and further out in the distance, even the voices of faraway sharpteeth shrieking with incredulous mirth. Through it all, Chomper could hear bits of the conversation from the sharpteeth in the Mysterious Beyond.

"You heard that?"

"Some leafeater's trying to flirt with us."

"Eew, what a perv."

"You wanna go see who it is?"

"Nah, you kidding? Don't want to get whatever he's got."

"Yeah, good point. Let's make sure not to go that way for a while."

"Maybe he's just trying to speak our tongue."

"Good luck with that."

"Did I make them mad?" Littlefoot asked worriedly, hearing the cacophony of roars around him as everyone else also looked tense.

"No," Chomper said reassuringly. "You just ended up saying something really funny," he explained awkwardly.

"It was that bad, huh?" Littlefoot asked as many of the others struggled to stifle giggles, Cera and Shorty especially.

"No, really, you got the let's make part perfect," Chomper said, trying to straighten his face. "And you did a good job trying to be nice to them. But you were a bit too nice. So nice that … You started flirting. And not in a good way."

"What did he say?" Shorty asked eagerly as Littlefoot grinned sheepishly.

"Let's just say that if you tried saying that to Cera in flattooth, she'd probably horn you for being a creep, and I wouldn't blame her," Chomper giggled.

"Oh now I'm really curious," Cera smiled darkly.

"Well, I'll just say it was kind of like what Earl said to you, Ali, and leave it at that," Chomper explained awkwardly. Wanting to relieve Littlefoot of any more embarrassment, Chomper continued, "But you're doing great for a first try. You're all getting at least one right word in there, and with some more practice, I know you'll be able to say the whole thing. I know, next time I'm gonna get the biters to help. There's eight of you and there'll be four of us, so each of us can take on two of you. But I think you're gonna learn this one soon!"

"Oh no! It's terrible, it's terrible! Herd leaders, help!"

They hurriedly looked at each other.

"Don't worry guys, it's only Wild Arms," Shorty said reassuringly. "Once you've lived with him as long as I have, you'll know he panics about everything."

"Still, we better make sure this time isn't different," Littlefoot said, but no sooner did he say that than Wild Arms arrived, looking thoroughly flustered. "There you guys are! Thank goodness! It's one of the little Hiss Heads! He's got scale rot!"

Ruby pondered. "Do you mean one of the new hollowhorn kids who left Leigh's herd?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Wild Arms cried out.

"You really shouldn't be calling …" Ruby began, but Wild Arms interrupted. "Hey, we've got a crisis upon us! That scale rot will spread to each of us until we're all turned to bones!"

Ducky instantly stood up. "Take me to him," she told him determinedly.

Wild Arms' jaw dropped. "What? But that'll just give you scale rot faster!"

"Not if I help him get better first," Ducky grinned. Then she remembered that as this ailment did not involve bleeding or a broken bone, she most likely would need to learn a different healing technique than prickly plants or hanging sleeping spots. "But I think we should go find Mr. Thicknose."

"Come on, let's be sensible!" Wild Arms protested. "We don't have a moment to lose! If we don't stop it now, this place will be covered with scale rot! Maybe we should throw the kid out and …"

"No one in our herd gets left behind, Wild Arms," Ducky gently scolded him.

"Ducky's right," Littlefoot added. "Remember how my dad came back for you at the Fire Mountain? We don't give up on anybody here either."

This pointed comment instantly quieted Wild Arms for a moment, before he asked, "You sure he didn't get this on purpose to make us all sick? I mean no doubt he used to grovel at Hiss Head's feet for crying out loud!"

"Yeah, and I used to say that flatheads have small brains," Cera retorted. "Dinos change, especially kids who learn the wrong things from their folks and don't know better."

"And he can't help what herd he came from," Chomper added. "Just like I can't help needing red food to survive, or you can't help other dinos from thinking you're a sharptooth."

"Even me not worried the kid try to hurt us," Petrie told Wild Arms brightly. "And if me no worried, you no need to either because me worry about everything."

"Mr. Thicknose helped me a lot with the hanging sleeping spots, and I do not know how to treat scale rot yet," Ducky explained. "He can help us figure out how to treat the poor kid and get him all better."

Chomper used his sniffer to quickly locate both Mr. Thicknose and the infected hollowhorn kid. "Mr. Thicknose is with him now, it's Almond I think," he explained. "They're over by Ius's sleeping spot."

"Okay, thanks Chomper," Ducky said brightly, and with determination, she headed off.

"Hey wait for me!" Wild Arms exclaimed as he followed after Ducky.

Ducky turned back, surprised. "You want to help too, Wild Arms?"

Wild Arms nodded. "I want to make sure you guys have sense and don't make things worse!"

"Okay, but do not say anything about his old herd to Almond," Ducky warned him. "He is feeling bad enough right now and does not need to feel any worse."

"Anything else I shouldn't say?" Wild Arms asked frantically.

"Just try to be calm, all right?" Ducky asked. "Because we are going to heal him, yep yep yep!"

"How can you be so sure?" Wild Arms asked, panicking.

"I just am hopeful, I am," Ducky smiled. "And know that only worrying about a problem will not solve it."

Wild Arms looked at Ducky thoughtfully, for his instinct toward any problem was always to worry about it. These youngsters, barely not kids themselves, seemed so willing to dive into anything …

"Ah, Ducky," Mr. Thicknose said warmly. "I was just thinking about calling you over, only for you to show up here instead."

"Wild Arms told me about Almond's scale rot," Ducky explained. "And I want to do whatever I can to help him, I do."

"Excellent," Mr. Thicknose beamed, before turning to Wild Arms. "Funnily enough, I think you've got perfect timing, Wild Arms."

"Timing? What do you mean?" Wild Arms asked frantically.

"Well, the technique I am going to teach Ducky today requires the assistance of something a little bit sharp, but also very pliable," Mr. Thicknose explained. "And those claw tips of yours would be just perfect."

"Wait, what?" Wild Arms asked, bewilderedly. "Do I have to?"

"No," Mr. Thicknose said fairly. "But a longarm's claw would come in useful, and with Ius injured and Ced and Yelli exhausted from their log running, that leaves you as the most reasonable option. That is of course, unless you want to take one of Ced or Yelli's next turns on patrol. You think that would be fair, Ducky?"

"Oh, um, yep yep yep," Ducky said, feeling a little bad for Wild Arms but also hoping it would get him to cooperate with the healing lesson.

Wild Arms shuddered. "Patrolling's too dangerous … Okay, fine, I'll do it."

"Excellent," Mr. Thicknose said. "Now follow me."

The three of them then approached a small clearing, where they found little Almond, his back slumped on a tree as he looked down, trying to hide his face. Sam, Oplax and Pearl, however were all nearby, and Ducky felt a surge of pride for her brother and his friends as they saw them trying to reassure him. They were really taking their roles as junior herd leaders to heart, doing the best to ensure the well-being of their fellow kids in the herd.

"Sorry guys …" Almond sniffed. "I didn't mean to get scale rot."

"Nobody means to get scale rot," Oplax soothed. "It just happens sometimes."

"The good thing is, we caught it early, so Thicknose says we'll be able to treat it," Pearl said.

"But … You can't treat scale rot," Almond cried. "Once you've become contam-a-mated, you're stuck with it until you've been reclaimed by the circles."

"Where'd you learn that from?" Sam asked.

"From … from my old herd," Almond paused incredulously, realizing. "You mean … That's a lie?"

Mr. Thicknose strode over to Almond, whose eyes were wide with amazed horror. "Has your herd cared for anyone who was sick before?" he asked gently.

Almond paused thoughtfully, before shaking his head. "No … They …" Almond gulped, before finishing, "Kick whoever it is out to ensure the rest of us would have purified bodies."

Mr. Thicknose nodded understandably as Almond sighed, "Maybe my old herd was right. Maybe this is just my comeuppance for joining you guys."

"Excuse me?" Mr. Thicknose asked, taken aback.

"Well, we get scale rot when we do something wrong, right? Or is that … Just more lies from my old herd?" Almond asked.

Mr. Thicknose nodded. "They might not have been lying to you, it's entirely possible even likely that they really believe personal wrongs are responsible for illness. But all the same, this is simply not correct. You don't have to do anything wrong to get scale rot, or any other illness for that matter. What really happened is you've become infected with a tiny bug that could attack anyone's body who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Your old herd was right about one thing, left untreated, scale rot can be very dangerous, both potentially killing you if it gets into your bloodstream and very contagious to other dinosaurs. Luckily however, there is a simple treatment method that can fully cure you in these early stages, and I think this is an excellent opportunity for our healer-in-training to try her hand at curing infections."

"Healer-in-training?" Ducky asked. "You mean me?"

"Why yes, I dare say you've earned that title," Mr. Thicknose smiled. "After all, I was very impressed with your work with Ius. And let's not forget that had it not been for your discovery of the usage of prickly plants, I'd dare say a lot of us, including all our young deputies, could've easily died from bloodborne infections. And while this is not a bloodborne infection, you will find that there is a similar cure for early-stage scale rot that will completely free the patient of their illness. Now why don't we get started?"

Excitedly, Ducky got onto her knees right in front of Almond. "Would you show your foot for us, Almond?" Mr. Thicknose asked.

Almond nervously nodded, and the little hollowhorn stretched out his left foot, exposing his fleshy pad, where a big, swollen reddish abscess was near his left toe.

"It looks like it really hurts," Ducky gasped, looking at it sadly.

Almond nodded. "Please don't touch it, okay? It really hurts when I step on it."

Mr. Thicknose, however, shook his head. "I'm afraid we can't do that, Almond. This is where all the germs are. To prevent the infection from spreading to the rest of your body, we have no choice but to cut the infection off."

"Cut it off? But that's gonna really hurt, right?" Almond said.

"Not with this," before he nodded over to Pearl. "Pearl, mind running over to the storage cave to see if Cassia found any flowers in there?"

"Not at all," Pearl nodded as the little fast runner sprinted off toward the storage cave.

Mr. Thicknose turned to Ducky. "One of the kinds of flowers we brought with us from the Valley is called a sleeping stalk. It is primarily used to put dinosaurs into a deep sleep so they can undergo treatment without feeling the accompanying pain. You must be very careful however, for too strong of a dosage can put the patient into a sleep that they might not be able to get out of."

"You mean it can kill me?" Almond asked in alarm.

"If you have too much of it, yes," Mr. Thicknose explained. "But not to worry. I know the right amount to give a hatchling of your size." He then turned to Ducky. "Just a little bit will merely put a dinosaur to sleep, following which, you can heal them without any fear of giving them pain."

"Oh, that is good," Ducky said in relief, secretly fearing hurting Almond in the process of healing him.

"I don't know," Almond trembled. "I mean … If it can help me, great, but … What if it backfires?"

"Hey," came a voice from the trees. "Maybe I can help."

Surprised, everyone looked to see that Guido was up in the trees, eating a few crawlers. Gliding down, he said awkwardly, "Err … Sorry guys. I wasn't trying to spy on you or anything, I just happened to be eating when I heard you guys talking. But to make Almond feel better, how about I take the sleeping stalk with him?"

"You don't have to Guido," Mr. Thicknose kindly told him, but Guido shook his head. "I'm just as small as he is, right? But I've eaten this stuff before, remember?"

"Really?" Almond asked, surprised.

Guido nodded. "One time, I got stuck in the mouth of a big sailback. If it hadn't been for Petrie, I would've been a goner. But while I didn't die then, I got all covered in sharptooth drool, and a little while later I found out I had an infection just like yours."

"I did not know that," Ducky marveled.

Guido chuckled sheepishly. "I went to Grandma Longneck, she kept it quiet. Anyway, she showed me this plant, had me take a tiny bite, and then I keeled off right to sleep. Next thing I know, I'm awake in the tiny longnecks' burrows. They treated me by cutting off my abscess, and well, I'm here now, and didn't feel a thing. So yeah, I can take a little just to prove it's safe even for little guys like us."

Almond sighed nervously. "Well, maybe."

"You will feel all better soon, you will," Ducky reassured Almond, who nodded toward the older swimmer gratefully.

Soon enough, Pearl came back, with a sleeping stalk in her hands. Like the prickly plant, the sleeping stalk was a stem with lots of tiny little white flowers. However, the stems lacked the heavy coating of leaves on the stem like the prickly plants, were a lot longer and thinner, and the flowers had a much simpler five-pointed shape. What's more, they had a sharp scent that while pleasant still put Ducky a little on edge, as if to signal its potency. Though she tried her hardest to keep her fears to herself, she was still apprehensive on how an overdose of this plant could be lethal.

"All right, we have our stalk," Mr. Thicknose smiled. "Guido, why don't you try ripping off a couple pieces and check with me to make sure they're of a good size."

Guido nodded, before clawing off two tiny pieces of sleeping stalk, showing them to Mr. Thicknose in his tiny hand. Mr. Thicknose leaned in closely to inspect the miniscule amounts.

"Yes, I think that should do it," Mr. Thicknose commented as Ducky bent down to observe. "Wow, there really is not much sleeping stalk, no no no."

"No, because we are putting two very small dinosaurs to sleep," explained Mr. Thicknose. "A bigger dinosaur like you or I would need a larger helping to account for our body size." He then turned to Guido. "You ready to try, Guido?"

Guido nodded, before putting down one of the portions and putting the other into his mouth. Laying down on the dirt, it wasn't long before Guido drifted off, but while unresponsive, he was still clearly breathing deeply.

"There," soothed Mr. Thicknose. "See? Guido is sleeping peacefully, he will probably come to within a day's time. And though you're about Guido's height, you're a leafeater so you weigh more than he does, so it should probably impact you even less. I can assure you that this treatment will be completely safe."

Almond paused to consider. "You promise?"

"Promise," Mr. Thicknose said soothingly as Sam picked up the piece of sleeping stalk on the ground and held it out to Almond to take. The little hollowhorn reluctantly did so, before he too let out a big yawn as his eyes dozily closed and he too fell into a deep sleep.

"Wow," Ducky said in amazement. "It works really quickly, it does."

"Yes," Mr. Thicknose smiled. "Now Ducky, as you've got bigger hands and we are dealing with a very small patient, I'm just going to have you hold Almond steady and observe. This part of the process is highly delicate, and while you should be able to perform this technique on bigger dinosaurs, it's best to let a smaller twofooter handle it in this case."

"I understand," Ducky said as she bent down to pick Almond up, holding him out belly-up.

Then Mr. Thicknose turned to Wild Arms. "Now you, Wild Arms, would you kindly bite a little bit off one of your claws?"

"Why again?" Wild Arms asked squeamishly.

"To puncture the abscess," Mr. Thicknose explained calmly. "It is very dangerous for a dinosaur to stick their own claw into it, for the contamination could easily seep into their own bodies. However, a fragment of claw that's been bitten off can be used as a tool to puncture the abscess safely."

Wild Arms nodded, before biting a good chunk of one of his very long claws off, where it fell to the ground.

"Pearl, if it's all right with you, I'd like you to pick up the claw and perform the operation. I know it's a lot to ask, but you've got remarkable dexterity and can probably do the best job out of any of us."

"Okay," Pearl said as she picked up the claw fragment.

"Now Ducky, can you make sure to hold Almond very steadily?" Mr. Thicknose asked. "It's very important that you don't move him by accident."

"I will keep him nice and still," Ducky promised resolutely as she focused her entire willpower in keeping Almond perfectly in place.

"All right Pearl," Mr. Thicknose instructed. "What you're going to do is cut the abscess off. This is why we put Almond to sleep, because you're literally going to be cutting into his skin and giving him another injury. This will however, remove the source of the infection from the body. Are you ready?"

Pearl nodded before using Wild Arms' claw to scalp the outer layer of skin off Almond's toe. While Almond continued to sleep peacefully, Wild Arms had to stop himself from screaming just in the nick of time, for that could possibly wake Almond up. However, as Ducky kept Almond's body in place, Pearl did not have a hard time cutting, and before any of them knew it, the infected abscess was safely removed from the body, leaving a clean wound on the foot.

"Right then," Mr. Thicknose instructed. "Pearl, you're going to dispose of the abscess and claw fragment. Pick up a tree star to cover it with, dig a hole, bury it and cover it up. That way the germs cannot affect any more dinosaurs."

"Got it," Pearl said as she went to work on cleaning the mess. Then Mr. Thicknose turned to the little clubtail. "Oplax, you're sure there's no more buzzers left?"

"The biters ate them all," Oplax snickered as Ducky looked bewildered.

"Oh yes, I should explain," Mr. Thicknose turned to Ducky, realizing her confusion. "We are now going to prevent further infection from entering."

"Do we not use a bandage?" Ducky asked.

"Yes, but first, we apply a disinfectant on the wound," Mr. Thicknose explained. "One of the best disinfectants in our world is normally dangerous for leafeaters to come by, for it can be found in the nests of stinging buzzers, who will not hesitate to defend their home if provoked. However, the fact that we once again have stinging buzzer eaters in our midst allows us to have access to the sticky substance that they leave behind. Oplax, you can bring it in."

Oplax nodded, before dragging in a stinging buzzer nest that had been thoroughly ripped apart by the biters. Nevertheless, plenty of the sticky stuff was glopped together on the substance.

"This stuff, apart from tasting quite good, has powerful anti-germ properties," explained Mr. Thicknose. "It can kill off the remaining infection still on Almond's foot and ensure he has a safe recovery. And as this step requires far less precision than the removal, you can do it yourself if you wish."

"Do I just apply it to the spot?" Ducky asked curiously.

Mr. Thicknose shook his head. "I would opt to apply it to a bandage first that you can then wrap around his foot. This will prevent you from actually having to touch the site of injury, as well as help keep the substance on his foot."

"Oh, I will, yep yep yep!" Ducky said happily. Gently placing Almond on the ground, she crouched beside the stinging buzzer nest with a large tree star in hand, collected a healthy amount of sticky stuff, and wrapped the gloppy tree star around the still sleeping Almond's foot.

"Excellent, all of you," Mr. Thicknose beamed. "I think he'll recover nicely. Kids, thanks so much for helping get the supplies and calming our patient down. It seems I'm going to have to talk with all the new kids about injuries and healing cures so they know an injury is not their fault nor is it a death sentence. Ducky, thanks so much for coming over here and being such a bright student. I can really tell you're putting in a lot of effort, and I'm so glad I can impart to you all the knowledge about healing cures that I have."

"Oh, I am very happy to learn, yep yep yep!" Ducky said happily.

Mr. Thicknose beamed at her before turning to Wild Arms. "As for you Wild Arms, excellent at spotting Almond's injury, and bringing it to Ducky's attention before I could even get to her. That was good thinking on your part."

"It was?" Wild Arms asked in surprise.

Mr. Thicknose nodded. "Your quick action gave the injury less time to fester, making a good outcome for Almond all the more probable. Not to mention your claw really came in useful for getting through the abscess."

"Yeah Wild Arms," Ducky beamed at him. "I could tell you were a little scared and did not really want to help. But you actually did a great job helping Almond out. Maybe you can help me as a healer too!"

"Wait, what?" Wild Arms asked, bewildered. "Oh yeah, that's right, uh … I've got to, uh … Go. That's it! See you!"

And Wild Arms hurriedly waddled off, while Mr. Thicknose smiled exasperatedly. "You're right Ducky, his skills could really complement yours."

"Oh, I have not given up on him," Ducky said cheerfully. "If he wants to come and help again, I will be happy to help him, yep yep yep!"

Just then, they could hear more footsteps, and Mr. Thicknose looked down to see that Mono was hurrying in, out of breath with excitement.

"Hi Mr. Thicknose," the young onehorn said breathlessly. "You still need Oplax, Sam and Pearl?"

Mr. Thicknose shook his head. "No, I was just finished with them."

"Great," Mono beamed. "Follow me, guys."

And eagerly, Oplax, Sam and Pearl followed Mono out, leaving Ducky with Mr. Thicknose.

"Gifted students," Mr. Thicknose sighed wryly as he eyed Ducky. "That very brilliance always gets them into trouble. Of course, you'd know all about that."

Ducky snickered. "Were we that bad?"

"Well, you could say that teaching you was much more dangerous than I anticipated. After all, none of my previous students had ever led me into the Mysterious Beyond," Mr. Thicknose smirked as Ducky guiltily giggled. Playfully sighing, Mr. Thicknose continued, "I had thought once you guys came of age that I would finally be getting a rest … Instead I end up getting your second coming."

"Oh, you have not seen anything yet, nope nope nope," Ducky giggled naughtily. "The other kids made them their junior leaders, right? Who is to say they will not also be role models?"

"I was afraid you'd say that," Mr. Thicknose wryly smiled as they both laughed.

---

Once they ran a good distance, Mono finally slowed down, for the athletic onehorn wanted to make sure his friends were keeping up with him. While Pearl being a fast runner was more than able to keep pace, Sam and Oplax were struggling as they panted exhaustedly. Seeing this, Mono took a few calming breaths to control his excitement and let his friends catch up. The four of them then set off in an easy stroll as the others regained their ability to talk from not having to breathe so hard.

"So what's this about Mono?" Pearl asked as Oplax and Sam keenly listened in.

Mono grinned at them excitedly. "Tricia's big sis is gonna be giving us some training."

Oplax shuddered as he laughed nervously. "Uh-oh, I don't know if I wanna to go through that."

Mono laughed. "Don't worry guys, I know it's Cera, but I don't think it's a workout. Trish told me Cera said she's gonna be teaching us protective strategy."

Now the others looked curiously at Mono. "You mean that move she taught the big kids?" Sam asked.

"That trick that allowed them to save the prisoners and escape unharmed?" Oplax asked.

"I think so," Mono said brightly.

"Sounds good to me," Oplax said brightly.

As they rounded a grassy knoll, they saw that Cera was standing expectantly, accompanied by the rest of their gang. Their friends were busily chatting amongst themselves until they saw them coming, at which point, they eagerly waved and the group happily came together.

"All right guys, get over here," Cera said gruffly, but unable to mask a large helping of pride. This however, didn't go unnoticed by her little sis.

"Is Sis actually proud of us?" Tricia sniggered cheekily.

"Her new junior herd leaders who're all grown up?" Perri teased.

"Don't get any ideas, you may have big attitudes, but you're all still tykes," Cera snorted playfully back. "You wanna know the real reason why I'm doing this? Because you guys just can't keep yourselves out of trouble."

"We're not always bad," Cassia said innocently.

Cera snorted. "Oh please, I know you guys too well. You don't think anything's too big for you and run to whatever it is at every chance you get. And even if your folks make rules to try to keep you safe, you're gonna go right on ignoring them."

"And that's a good thing, right?" Sam giggled.

"Just like you guys when you were our age," Mono snickered.

Cera had to work very hard to fight off a proud grin as she continued, "So it's obvious you guys are gonna continue running into trouble. Between the lot of you, you've somehow gotten Hiss Head, Goregie, all their goons, and those longnecked creeps to want to throw you into the smoking mountains as much as they want to get rid of any of us herd leaders. Not that I don't admire your guts, of course," Cera smirked knowingly, causing her sister's gang to grin naughtily back. "But it's a sure bet you're gonna run into more danger. Especially now that the other kids chose you guys to lead them, so you've got real responsibility now just like we do. And I'd bet all the tree stars in the world that you're gonna keep on leading dangerous rescues rather than let the grownups take care of it, right?" she asked playfully to more guilty grins. "It all means you guys have gotta learn some defensive moves with some serious … Ugh, what is it Garnet?"

"Sorry," the little fast runner said, lowering his hand. "But we weren't alone in that rescue."

"Yeah, I know Hyp and his friends …" Cera began, but Garnet cut her off again.

"No, I mean, we had help from friends our age," Garnet explained knowingly, nodding behind them.

Looking up, Cera squinted out and saw Chomper approaching them. Wondering why he was coming to see them, she soon saw he was not alone. At his feet were the three little biters, eagerly sprinting toward them as they took multiple steps for every one of Chomper's. At once, Tricia's gang looked excitedly at each other.

"Hey guys!" Tricia called out to them excitedly. "Come join us!"

The biters nodded, leaving Chomper behind as they eagerly rushed in to greet their friends their own age.

"We've practiced hugging so we don't hurt you guys," Deya told them happily. "Can we try?"

"Sure!" Perri said delightedly, and the biters exchanged warm hugs with the other kids, their hands slightly balled so their sharp claws wouldn't dig into the little flatteeth and halfteeth's skin.

"Can we train with them please?" exclaimed Destiny to eager murmuring from the others.

Cera bit her lip, knowing it was best to first hear what they and Chomper had to say as Chomper caught up to them.

"Hey Cera," Chomper said, slightly sheepish but in an admiring tone as well. "Sorry to interrupt your class, but well … The kids heard you guys talking."

"Yes," Nyko said politely. "We want to train with them, prease."

"We were on their team with the rongnecks," reminded Deya.

"And we wanna team up in the future," finished Chuss.

"You do?" Oplax said delightedly.

"You bet," grinned Nyko as the kids all grinned excitedly at each other.

The three little sharpteeth stood, their little clawed hands held out beggingly, and Tricia's gang looked at Cera too with their well-practiced big eyes. Chomper was caught thoroughly off-guard, for the biters had impulsively decided to run over and join them, and had no idea as to how Cera would react. Still however, he was not prepared for what Cera would say next.

"Well … I know you guys have got a ton of nerve, and I won't deny I've thought of a way where you can really team up with your friends," Cera said, her eyes flickering. "But you three have gotta promise to keep yourselves safe and do everything I say."

The biters nodded seriously to Cera, but couldn't help but reveal their big, toothy grins. Tricia's gang meanwhile, whooped and hollered with delight.

"You're sure it'll be safe, Cera?" Chomper asked. "They're little biters, so they've got lighter bones than the leafeaters."

Cera laughed heartily. "Don't worry Chomper, of course I know that. But in my moves, everyone plays to their own strengths so they can all come together as one tough dino."

As all the kids awed with amazement while Cera soaked in every bit of their admiration, Chomper said uneasily, "Well, I better be off getting the food ready for my parents and Lola. Should we wait for you guys before dinner?"

"Sure, thanks," said Chuss appreciatively, not wanting to miss out on meeting their new pack member.

"Okay, see you later," Chomper said before heading back.

No sooner had he left than Tricia spat out, "You really mean what you said, Sis?"

"Well yeah, otherwise I wouldn't have said it," Cera said smugly as the kids grinned back. "All right, pipsqueaks. Line up so I can see you guys side by side."

The kids did promptly, even putting their paws and hands to their heads in cheeky salutes.

"We'll do everything you say," Perri giggled, repeating Cera's words back to her to snickers.

"Right, well for starters, put those paws down," Cera said brusquely, eyeing them in amusement.

"Yeah, but then we wouldn't be making you feel uncomfortable," Tricia joked as the kids broke out in laughter. Even the little biters joined in, but as they eyed Cera, they quickly did so and looked at her with respect. They really seemed to want to make a good impression on Cera and prove to her they could be just as helpful as they promised.

"Haha," Cera replied dryly. "Anyway, I've got you guys all sized up, so let's get started. The point of my Cross-Strength Cohesive is so that you guys can all become …"

"One tough dino," Tricia's gang said in unison before she could get the words out.

Cera shook her head in amusement. "Huh, maybe you guys have been listening. But we're gonna have to change things to make it work for you guys. I designed this move for me and my first four friends, so there's a frilled on front defense, a tailed on back defense, a longneck on side defense, a flyer on sky offense and a swimmer on ground offense. That's also how I split our deputies up, there's five frilled, tailed, longnecked, flying, and twofooters among them, so they could form five teams of five. But the point is not to have one dino of each kind, it's to have dinos who can complement each other's skills and cover their weak points so they'll be unstoppable. And I'm gonna help you guys be like that too. It's just I'm gonna have to structure you differently."

She paused, before saying, "Tricia, come over and face me."

Tricia obliged, as she naughtily grinned, "What do you wish from me, my favorite big Sis?"

"Don't even try that on me," Cera rolled her eyes as the other kids snickered. "You're gonna have my job, that of front defense. You keep your friends safe from any head-on attackers. When you're older, you're gonna have three horns that can stab any attacker who tries to mess with you guys. You've only got a little horn now, so don't try doing anything stupid. But when you're older, with your horns and the weight you're gonna get, you'll be like a big wall that can guard your friends. Since you're gonna be facing your foes head-on, occasionally you can run ahead and charge an attacker. But don't get too far away, for your main job is to guard your friends from the front. Got it?"

Tricia nodded, before Cera called, "Mono, Rachelle, go and cover Tricia on each side."

The two onehorns did, with Mono taking Tricia's right, Rachelle her left.

"You guys know the Circular Cohesive from your folks, right?" Cera asked them as they nodded. "Same principle here in that you should position yourselves at a bit of an angle. You two help back Tricia up in the front, but in case the attacker makes a move to the side, you'll be there to cut them off. So you can switch between my job at front defense and Littlefoot's at side defense, whatever area needs more coverage."

"You mean like this?" Rachelle asked as the two onehorns changed their stance angles so that Mono faced out a bit to the left, Rachelle the right.

"Yep," Cera beamed at them. "The three of you make a protective curve in front that'll guard your friends behind you but can also run a little ahead and cover the sides."

The three horned kids nodded back as they grinned excitedly, before Cera instructed, "Destiny, Oplax, you two get behind them."

Surprised, the two of them looked at each other before lining up behind Tricia.

"Um, Cera, why are you calling us both up here? Don't we have different positions?" Destiny asked.

"Yeah," Oplax agreed. "I mean I'm a tailed dino like Spike, so I should be on back defense, and Destiny is a longneck like Littlefoot, so she should be on side defense, right?"

"Well," Cera explained. "For a group of five, yeah. But you're a big group, and Oplax, your tail's not gonna be enough to cover all of you from behind. So Destiny's gonna join you in the back."

"Then who's gonna do side defense?" asked Destiny curiously. "The five of us are the only fourfooters here."

"You guys aren't gonna have one," Cera explained. "In our teams, the frilled, tailed and longneck teammates guarded the lone twofooter on the ground. But since a lot more of you guys are twofooters, there's not enough defense to go around for that. So instead, you get to be in three rows rather than a big cluster like us, and the five of you fourfooters make up the front and back defensive walls. Covering the sides will be more of a team effort rather than having one dino assigned to it."

"So which of us covers the left and which the right?" Oplax asked.

"I've actually got something else in mind," Cera explained. "You two both stay near the middle, but you've got different defensive roles. Oplax, your best weapon is your clubbed tail, right?"

"Yep," Oplax nodded, waving it brightly.

"Which means you're in charge of close-range defense. You can deal with attackers who creep up behind you and whack them right on their feet, causing them to trip or break their bones. While Destiny, you're on long-range defense. Your tail can't hit with the blunt force or close-range accuracy that Oplax's can. But what you've got is a long tail that can hit attackers from further away, and one that can whip attackers higher up on their bodies. So you two complement each other, with Destiny reaching the further attackers while Oplax gets the closer ones. And since you've got flexibility with your weapon Destiny, you can also help cover the sides like Mono and Rachelle can. But yeah, with you two in the back and Mono, Tricia and Rachelle in front, you've got protective walls flanking your twofooters on either side, as well as anyone you rescue."

Oplax and Destiny nodded in understanding, before Cera sighed. "All right, so the rest of you guys are gonna be in the middle. So defense, kinda form a circle and let everyone else get in between you."

So Cassia, Perri, Garnet, Pearl, Sam, Deya, Nyko and Chuss filtered in between the five defenders. "So I've got you guys all on ground offense, but you guys have got different things to do, so listen carefully. Ready?"

The twofooters all nodded, so Cera began. "All right, Cassia, Perri, Sam, you're all heavier twofooters like Ducky, and you're basically going to do what she does."

"You mean throwing rocks?" Sam asked mischievously as Cassia and Perri looked naughtily at each other.

"Yep," Cera grinned back. "Though you're all gonna be about the same height when you're grown up, you're not now, so where you stand matters. Sam, you're the shortest, so you've gotta get on top of others if you don't want to plonk your friends by mistake. So you stand behind Mono."

"And I'm gonna jump on him, right?" Sam giggled.

Cera nodded. "Of the front defense, he's your best bet to stand on since he's not as tall as Tricia and doesn't have spikes on the back of his head like Rachelle does. For the back, you should go for Oplax as his back is super sturdy and he's shorter and gonna be moving less than Destiny will be."

"Don't think about it when you get older though," Mono teased Sam.

"Enjoy being littler than us while you can," Oplax playfully agreed as Sam snickered.

Cera then turned to the smaller hollowhorn. "Perri, don't even try giving me the cute act. I sized you up and you don't need to stand on anyone."

"Aww darn," Perri sighed playfully to snickers.

"You're a little short to reach over Tricia but tall enough to reach over Rachelle, so you stand behind her and throw your rocks over her head. Cassia, you're tall enough to reach over Tricia, so you stand behind her and throw over her head out at front. You're also the biggest twofooter, so you can be a last resort guard in case bad guys break through the others. Even though your tail's not clubbed or whipped, it can still whap pretty powerfully, so use that to your advantage."

"Wow, I've never thought about using my tail like that before," Cassia giggled.

"You and Perri have also got those hollowhorn screams," Cera advised. "Use those if you need to create a distraction. You too Destiny with your tail crack, I'm sure your dad's given you plenty of practice with that."

"How'd you guess?" Destiny snickered as Cera rolled her eyes.

Then Cera turned to Ruby's little siblings. "All right, you guys are gonna be interesting."

"Goodie," Pearl grinned as Cera sighed.

"For now, you two are as tall as Cassia, so even though you're not quite as strong as her, you can back her up as tall rock throwers," Cera explained. "When you get older, Sam and Perri can take care of that. But compared to you guys the fourfooters are gonna grow a lot, so you're gonna have to jump on top of them to get your rocks out, so be sure get some jumping practice in by then."

"So does that mean we can start jumping on them now?" Garnet asked playfully.

"There's no practice like knowing our targets," Pearl snickered.

"Seriously guys," Cera grinned. "You won't be teasing me once you hear what else I've thought of for you."

This at once piqued the twins' interest.

"What do you mean?" Garnet asked curiously.

"Well, say you guys are on another kidnapping rescue," Cera explained. "While the others stand their ground, you two can run out of the circle, save the kid, and bring them back before the bad guys even know what happened."

The two paused in wonder. "I get it," Pearl said admiringly. "So basically we use our speed to do whatever it is that needs doing."

"Yep," Cera grinned. "Of course, use your common sense to stay safe and get back to the circle when you can. You guys aren't built like defenders, so don't try that kind of work. But you're fast enough that you can sneak out of the circle, make your move, and then retreat back to safety."

The fast runner twins grinned at each other. "What do you think Garnet, think we can pull off some sneaky teamwork?" Pearl asked.

"Oh I know we can," Garnet smirked as the kids became even more restless.

Then Cera turned to the little biters. "As for you three, Chomper's right. You guys have fragile bones, so you've gotta be very careful and focus on what you're good at. But I don't think you guys need any telling on what that is."

The biters paused thoughtfully. "We've got our eyes and sniffers," Deya pointed out. "To find missing friends."

"And get wherever we need to go," added Nyko.

"And rook out for danger," finished Chuss.

"You got it," Cera smirked. "That's how you can help … Most of the time."

"What do you mean?" Chuss asked.

"Well I was thinking," Cera grinned daringly. "That you can act as your friends' secret weapons. You're little enough now and will be as grownups so you can hide behind the others for cover. But you've also great jumping skills, and with that the ability to land right on a bad guy's head and claw them in a sneak attack!"

"But aren't we supposed to be friendry sharpteeth?" Nyko asked.

"Yeah, our pack says no hurting fratteeth," Deya said firmly.

"No no no," Cera hurriedly shook her head. "The goal would be to shock them, not actually hurt them. Even if you guys wanted to, you couldn't really hurt big leafeaters without risking yourselves. And our herd's all about not risking anyone if we can help it. No, what I'm talking about is a surprise attack where you jump out, stun your enemy for a moment, complete your objective, and then get back to your friends who'll keep you protected as you use your sniffers to lead them to safety."

"Rike?" Chuss asked.

"Let's say some jerk's got a hostage," Cera explained. "While the rest of your team distracts them, you come out of hiding and jump right for their head. To them, it'll be like sharpteeth came out of nowhere and no matter how much bigger they are, they're gonna get a nasty shock. That shock should be enough to get them to drop the hostage, allowing the twins to catch them and run with them back to safety. Then before they even realized what happened, you jump off their heads and get back to the safety of your team. You won't have time to really hurt them, but in that one moment, you'll break their concentration enough to save a friend!"

The fast biters looked at each other incredulously. They knew they had a knack for speed and jumping, but didn't expect that they would be able to put their hunting skills to use while teamed up with flatteeth. As they felt their young friends eye them in admiration, they began feeling really excited, eager to really join their fellow kids in helping out their herd …

"And that," Cera smirked proudly, "Is how you bunch of tykes can join forces to become real protectors of your fellow hatchlings and one seriously tough dino that even a grownup won't wanna mess with."

The kids oohed in amazement before Cera said, "All right guys. Now let's get you practicing your positions."

So Cera began to coach them to walk back and forth several times as one big team. As the three horned kids kept lookout on front, the twofooters practiced walking with rocks, and the fast biters practiced walking concealed among their bigger friends. Soon, they moved on to a light jog. This was difficult for the fast runners and biters, who were used to running so quickly it was hard to run alongside their heavier flattooth friends, but they quickly got better control of their pacing.

After a few rounds of going back and forth, Cera called them over. "Well, not surprised to see you guys make a good team. I would try to take you on myself to give you more practice, but my foot still hurts, we're gonna have to do that later. So yeah, keep practicing if you want, but that's all I'm gonna teach for now, don't want to overwork you guys like I heard those creeps back in the Valley did."

"See guys? Cera's a big softie, not like her would-be hubby," Tricia snickered cheekily.

Cera's nostrils flared. "Haha, like Troy would've lasted long with me. Now run along before I tell Dad you've been making jokes at my expense."

Cera watched as her sister's crew of little rascals ran off into the distance. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she even felt her wounded leg grow better as a result. Regardless, she felt much better, knowing that if they were going to throw themselves in danger as much as she expected, at least they now had a working strategy to help keep them safe.

---

As the kids began to head over to the watering hole for a drink, they soon saw that Tria was approaching them. One look on her face showed the kids that she was just bursting with excitement.

"Hi kids," Tria called out friendlily. Most of the kids chattered curiously, but the biter triplets couldn't help but still feel a little bit intimidated by the mother threehorn towering over them. Their own mother had always warned them about how protective leafeater mothers were of their children, they suddenly felt acutely aware that they were accompanying that very threehorn's only birth daughter. So instinctively, they tried to lay low in the company of their larger friends, who had no such apprehension.

"Hi Mom!" Tricia greeted enthusiastically.

"Not getting into too much trouble, I presume?" Tria asked teasingly.

Tricia giggled cheekily. "No, we did everything Big Sis told us."

"She taught us to be one tough dino," snickered Rachelle.

"Right," Tria smirked back. "Well, sounds like you kids could probably use a rest, huh?"

"We sure can!" Oplax exclaimed. "Now that you mention it … Dad Kosh seemed like he was gonna tell me something. Only Dad Magnus made him be quiet."

"Ooh, is it a surprise?" Perri asked playfully.

"It was, but now it's time to let that egg hatch," Tria grinned. "I found another mud pool here! But I decided rather than just explore it myself, why not arrange a soiree for you kids and your guardians? I figured with you all being so close, we parents ought to get closer to one another too."

"You grownups not like each other?" Perri asked.

Tria laughed. "No, not like that at all. It's just while Cassia's mom was my best friend growing up and I know Sam's mom so well from raising your big sisters, the rest of us, while friendly toward one another, don't know each other the same way. But now we all have something in common, for we're the guardians of you kids. So I figured we could all have a nice get-together."

"Cera's not coming, is she?" teased Mono.

Tria chuckled. "Heavens no, she'd rather be with her own friends. No, this is just for you guys and us parents."

"Hey Tria," Destiny asked as she and Tricia smirked at each other. "Is it true that Tricia's dad said my dad brought bad luck?"

Tria snorted out loud. "Well I wasn't there myself to know for sure," she said evasively. "But not to worry, your dads respect each other now. And even though neither one's exactly a party animal, they both see the point in getting to know each other. So are you guys coming? We've got plenty of treestars ready for all of us."

The kids eagerly nodded and cheered, but as they started to move, Tria finally noticed the three little fast biters.

"Oh, uh … Hi you three," Tria greeted friendlily, yet unable to conceal her surprise at them being there.

"Herro," Nyko greeted back. There was an awkward silence, for by not having parental figures and not being able to eat treestars, the biters were plainly not considered when Tria had planned her party. Feeling awful for blabbering so insensitively with them standing right there, Tria tried to rectify it as she kindly asked, "You kids will be all right?"

"We're good," said Deya simply.

But as they parted ways with Tria and the other kids, the little fast biters felt oddly alone. Being part of this strange herd gave them a new community, exposing them to a world of friendship and kindness that they didn't think possible. But through it all, they still missed their mother, the one dinosaur who raised them from the egg and helped mold them to think beyond survival and become the biters they were today.

"You thinking about her too?" Chuss asked quietly in sharptooth as they crept along together.

"Yeah," sighed Deya. "She would be so happy for us. But it's not the same without her."

"If that stupid twoclaw didn't exist, we'd still have her," said Nyko in frustration.

"If I ever see that killer claw again, I wanna shred her throat," hissed Chuss.

"Too bad we're only little biters," hissed Deya darkly.

"Hey guys," came a voice.

The little biters whirled around to find that Chomper had been walking over to them from behind. Usually they would've smelled or heard him coming, but with them being so preoccupied by their thoughts, they had missed him completely. Taken aback, the three little biters bowed dutifully in front of Chomper, just as they had done when he first met them, immediately signaling to him that they were feeling just as tense as they were then.

"What's wrong guys?" Chomper hissed quietly.

"Nothing," Deya lied.

Chomper raised his eyebrows. "Come on guys. I'm not a good liar myself, but even I can see you're not telling me something."

There was a brief silence as the biters looked at each other, knowing that Chomper wouldn't stop worrying about them until they had a talk.

"Can we talk in sharptooth?" whispered Nyko. "Don't want anyone else to hear."

"Sure," Chomper agreed, as he crouched down besides them. They were now in a place where nobody else could hear them and they could be free to express themselves entirely.

"It's not fair!" Nyko hissed. "Our friends are all going to a party with their folks, and we don't have any!"

"That stupid twoclaw killed our mom," Chuss growled. "We want revenge!"

"And to teach her never to mess with us!" Deya added fierily, at which point the three sharptooth kids let out faint hisses.

Chomper eyed them uneasily, before responding. "Guys, I only saw your mom once, but even then I could tell she'd do anything to help you guys. She literally didn't rest until she knew you were safe in her claws. And that's why she sacrificed herself, so you could live without being forced into Goregie's pack. And the last thing she'd want is for you three to get yourselves killed by seeking revenge. It would mean her sacrifice would be in vain, that you'd give in to hatred, and leave Goregie as the only winner in the end."

The little biters paused, reluctantly realizing that Chomper was probably right. "Besides," Chomper said quietly. "I know she's still looking out for you … Because I met her spirit in my sleep story."

"You … did?" Deya asked quietly.

Chomper nodded. "She told me to raise you guys with love and help you reach your potential. And I'm sure she's proud of how far you've come now. I bet in fact," Chomper chuckled. "She made some friends herself."

"What do you mean?" Nyko asked.

"Well, no one has a body to feed in the Mysterious Above, so you don't need to eat anything there," explained Chomper. "So she can make all sorts of new friends up there, even friends she could never make down here. Friends like Littlefoot's mom, Cera's mom, Spike's parents, and Petrie's dad."

The biters paused, before Chuss asked, "You mean … They're all spirits too?"

Chomper nodded solemnly. "It's a sensitive topic, we don't talk about it much. But they all died before I was born. Littlefoot's grandparents too, they were like his parents after his mom died, until they died just recently," he explained. "And apart from Ruby, they were the closest things I had to parents in the Valley."

The biters paused, stunned with this revelation. "But they … Seem so strong," said Nyko, amazed. "How could they have gone through all that?"

"They're strong because they've been through everything together," Chomper explained. "They rely on each other to bring them up when they feel down and don't give into hatred and despair. There's a reason why they've survived so many adventures that would have gotten others killed, and why nothing will ever bring them down."

The biters nodded understandingly. "But if you guys would like," Chomper offered with a gentle grin, "I can become your guardian, be kinda like a really young dad."

The biters looked surprised. "But you're our pack alpha, our commander, not our parent!" gasped Deya.

"Maybe that's how it works in some sharptooth packs," Chomper explained. "But here, we're a big family, connected by love and loyalty to one another. I may not have ever been a parent before. Funnily, it's always been the opposite. I'm even the baby of my friends, even hatched by them. But … if you guys need a parent, well … I can be there if you want."

"But … Would we be betraying Mom's memory?" Chuss aked hesitantly.

Chomper shook his head. "You'll always have her in your hearts. And she wouldn't want you guys to be sad, so I'm sure she'd be happy if that's what you wanted."

The little biters ogled Chomper in amazement, but Chomper laughed, "But don't worry, you're not missing out on anything with the mud pools. The mud would just get stuck in your claws, clog up your senses and make it harder to run. I never liked them even as a kid."

"You didn't?" asked Chuss.

"Nah," Chomper snorted. "Even though we're best friends, we didn't always do everything together. That was Cera, Spike and Ruby's thing."

"Cera's?" Deya giggled in amazement.

Chomper grinned naughtily. "You wouldn't think, the way she goes about being a tough threehorn. But that's just one more example of her soft side."

As they all snickered, Chomper said, "I was gonna tell you that Shorty's got the red food on his back and we're gonna eat with Lola. You guys coming?"

The biters looked delighted, having forgotten about their new packmate completely.

"Sure!" Deya said, returning the conversation back to leafeater, and they followed Chomper to find Shorty. It didn't take long to find his imposing form, standing near the rocky wall with two bellydragger carcasses draped upon his back, along with a big tree.

"Wow Shorty, that's a lot of green food," Chomper giggled as they arrived.

"Well whad'ya expect, I'm like two Littlefoots and I've been working out with you today so I've burned off some energy," Shorty laughed, before he eyed the biter triplets. "Hey, I bet you guys have never seen things from up high before, right?"

"We just crimbed trees," Chuss snickered.

"Yeah, but it's not the same as climbing onto someone's head," Shorty said smugly, lowering his neck to the ground and inviting the biters to jump on. "See? Now you can see everything."

The biters grinned, for while playing on the trees was one thing, the view from atop Shorty's head was something else. "Wow, this is awesome," said Nyko.

"You've been on someone's head when you young?" Deya asked.

Shorty nodded. "Sue's, actually. Believe it or not, I could even fit on with Littlefoot's big butt," he joked as they snickered. "Now you guys ready for a ride?"

"Sure, but don't dump us off," giggled Deya.

"Heyy," Shorty growled. "You guys have been hanging around with Tricia's gang too much, you're getting way too cheeky."

"Cera taught them all defensive moves today," Chomper snickered.

"We rearning to be one tough dino," smirked Nyko.

Shorty snickered. "Oh great, now we've got a tyke squad."

And playfully laughing, they made their way out of the crater toward the far side where Lola was resting. Though they knew Lola could probably smell them coming, Chomper wanted not to surprise her, so he called out, "Hey Lola, friends for dinner coming!"

"Oh yeah, I'm hungry!" Lola loudly cheered from the distance.

"What's she saying?" Shorty asked.

"She's hungry," Chomper laughed. "Which reminds me, you better sit back from her, being hungry makes it hard for a sharptooth to control their instincts. Don't worry though, you might just be too big to attack. If there's a problem though, make a big stomp, that should snap her out of it. That is … Oh no …"

For Chomper's face fell as his expression suddenly darkened.

"What's wrong?" Shorty asked as Chomper sniffed the air nervously.

Solemnly, Chomper gulped. "Guys, I think dinner might be canceled. Stay there, I'll be back."

And shaking his head, Chomper felt his blood churn as he rushed forward. As much as he wanted to give Lola the benefit of the doubt, the smell of longneck blood was unmistakable right where she was. It had barely been a day since he took her on. Had she really gone back on her promise already? He cast his mind around for other possibilities. Perhaps it was a carcass that was already there that he hadn't smelled before. Or perhaps it was one that she had found while patrolling, realizing that an unclaimed carcass would attract other sharpteeth. But if she had killed a leafeater … He sniffed again now that he was closer. He could tell the longneck was a knobbed longneck. Knowing there was only one knobbed longneck in the herd, he looked around for Sheldon restlessly. To his great relief, he saw that the young knobbed longneck was sitting with the other teens who were talking with Littlefoot. At least it wasn't a member of the herd. But if she had killed this longneck, it would leave him little choice …

Walking up the crater's slopes, he looked around for the young browridge and no sooner did he see her than he instantly felt a chill rush through him. Standing on the hilly slopes, Lola was draped over the slumped form of a longneck, a foot on her body, her mouth a foot above the flesh with a smug grin on her face. What a fool he had been. This sharptooth had deliberately taken advantage of his kindly nature, and she had thrown the goodwill he had shown her right back in his face. Far from being his usually cheerful self, and the anger inside him was now thoroughly something to behold inside …

"Lola!" Chomper bellowed as he charged forth, his teeth gritted with barely controlled rage as his clawed hands were balled into tiny fists. "I asked of you one thing, just one thing, that you don't kill flatteeth and you just go ahead and …"

But Chomper came to an abrupt halt, almost tripping, for Lola had taken her foot off the longneck and fell onto her back, writhing on the ground as she exploded with raucous laughter. But then the laughter seemed to have multiplied, and turning in disbelief, Chomper saw that the longneck, while bleeding and wounded, was very much alive, and laughing just as heartily as Lola was.

"We got you real good!" Lola laughed. "You really thought I'd fail you that easily, Alpha?"

"But …" Chomper began, but the longneck explained, "It's okay, Mr. Sharptooth. Lola and I are friends. And we decided to prank you together."

"And you totally fell for it," Lola chortled triumphantly.

Chomper froze, his heart having been so petrified by fear that it took him a long time to process what he was hearing. But then as the reality slowly dawned on him, he didn't know what was more miraculous, that Lola had somehow managed to resist her instincts when hungry, that she already made a flattooth friend all on her own, or that this longneck could speak fluent sharptooth without any hint of an accent …

"My name's Staralla, but I go by Star for short," Star introduced herself brightly. "I was hiding out in a cave here because I was injured, but then Lola found me with her sniffer. She agreed to guard my cave until I got better and well … We became friends!"

Chomper nodded in understanding, before turning to Lola. "But how did you resist her scent standing over her like that? You could've easily slipped even if you didn't mean to! And to top it, she's even bleeding!"

Lola laughed. "With these!" she explained, and Chomper realized she had stuffed smelly herbs up her nose to prevent the longneck's smell from getting to her. "Can you get the food though? I'm still really hungry."

Bewildered, Chomper called out in flattooth, "It's okay Shorty, Lola only pranked me. Bring the food with you."

"What'd he say?" Lola asked Star.

"He was talking to someone named Shorty, to bring the food and that you pranked him," Star giggled.

"Hey, it was your idea as much as mine!" Lola teased.

"But we don't want this Shorty to know about me yet, do we?" Star replied. "One question Mr. Sharptooth, how can this Shorty be able to bring the food if he's short? Is he a belly dragger or something?"

"Because he's anything but short," Chomper giggled. "You'll see. And just Chomper's fine. For you too Lola. We're all friends here. Oh, that'll be them now."

Lola and Star looked up to find the enormous dark green boxhead stroll toward them, with carcasses and treestars on his back.

"Whoa," Lola said at once, intimidated yet also amazed by the longneck's massive presence. "I couldn't hurt him if I tried."

"That's why I brought him here," Chomper snickered.

"What're they saying?" Shorty asked the biters on his head.

"Rora says you're too big to eat," laughed Chuss.

"Huh, I like her already," Shorty said smugly, before eyeing the new longneck curiously. "You guys smelled her before?"

"Nope," Chuss answered, but he was looking excited.

"We can hear her though," exclaimed Nyko in barely controlled glee. "She can speak sharptooth!"

"What, really?" Shorty asked incredulously as he hurried in. After dumping the food off his back, he sat in between Chomper and the newcomer, eyeing her curiously.

"Hi," Shorty said to the much smaller longneck.

"Hi," greeted Star. "You're Shorty, right?"

"Sure am," Shorty grinned, slightly embarrassed by his name. "You?"

"I'm Star," she smiled. "You're anything but short! Sorry to ask, but … I'm wondering about something they say about your kind … Can you really carry me on your back?"

"You bet," Shorty smirked, and without hesitation, he gently picked Star up and placed her on his back as she eyed him in amazement.

"Wow," Star said simply.

"I was wondering something too," Shorty blurted. "Can you really speak sharptooth?"

Star demonstrated, roaring an utterance that was incomprehensible to Shorty, but saying something that caused Chomper, Lola and the biters to all snicker heartily.

"Uh … I don't think I want to know what that means," Shorty said sheepishly. Then he felt some of her blood trickle down his foot. "Oh yeah Chomper, we've got to give her prickly plants!"

"Hey, don't forget about us," Chuss teased from up high.

"Oh yeah, right," Shorty chuckled, lowering his head to let the biters onto the ground. "Be right back."

"Prickly plants?" Star asked in surprise.

"Yeah, believe it or not, they can stop bleeding," Chomper explained as Shorty headed back.

"Wow," Star said in amazement. "I thought they were just weeds."

"Everyone did before our friend Ducky found out," Chomper giggled. "But they still taste the worst thing ever, even for flatteeth."

"Is Ducky a sharptooth too?" Star asked.

"No," Chomper smiled. "She's a swimmer. But one of my first friends who raised me from an egg. I'll explain more," he said, "But now that Shorty's gone for a little bit, let's speak in sharptooth so everyone can understand each other."

"Okay," Star said, remembering that Lola could not understand any flattooth. The biters too seemed happy about using their primary tongue, and at once went over to greet Lola. Bowing to the bigger sharptooth to show their loyalty and respect to their new packmate, Lola crouched down in front of them too, relieved that the stench of the smelly greens still lingered in her nostrils.

"You three are my new packmates, right?" Lola asked brightly.

Eagerly, the little biters nodded. "It's so awesome finally meeting you," Chuss hissed with a polite nod to the much taller browridge. "We're Deya, Nyko and Chuss."

"Alpha and his friends saved us when we were eggs," explained Nyko. "We didn't grow up together, as we had our mom and he had his friends. But when he issued a pack calling for us, we were more than ready to join him."

"I was just singing along with my friends, really," Chomper giggled. "I didn't even know you existed!"

"Of course we exist, you saved us as eggs!" laughed Deya.

"Well yeah, but I thought you wouldn't have remembered me," Chomper laughed. "But I should've known, considering I remembered my friends who hatched me."

"They hatched you?" Lola asked in amazement.

Chomper nodded. "But let's start eating first before Shorty gets back. He hasn't eaten at a sharptooth dinner before."

"All right," Lola said excitedly as she took a humongous bite out of one of the bellydragger carcasses, ripping a huge fragment out as she chomped noisily, streams of blood dripping from her mouth as she grinned, revealing her sharp, blood-red teeth. Chomper grinned uneasily, realizing that while it made perfect sense for Lola to be eating so gruesomely having never lived among leafeaters, that this kind of behavior would undoubtedly put the leafeaters in the herd on edge. He was very glad Shorty was not here at this particular moment and by the time he would return, her appetite would calm down considerably. To his surprise however, Star seemed completely at ease as she ate some of the treestars and giggled, "You really are hungry Lola?"

"Oh yeah!" Lola exclaimed as she belched loudly. "Whoops … Sorry, I forgot what it's like to eat with others. I'm used to speed-eating, you never know when some jerk might want to rob your food."

"Or when someone catches you nicking theirs," Star added slyly.

"Hey, uh, if you're not gonna kill, yeah, finders keepers!" Lola giggled defensively.

Star laughed out loud. "Hey, that's just what Mom would say!"

Now it was Chomper's turn to be curious. "You mean your mom's a friendly sharptooth?" he asked excitedly.

Star nodded. "My birth mom and her were friends, but I never got to know her, so I call my sharptooth mom Mom. She was actually a big twoclaw just like you …" She giggled before saying, "And I forgot just how big your kind's heads got! She liked to joke with me how tiny flatteeth's heads were sometimes. I thought she was messing with me, but one day she took me scavenging and I saw a flattooth's brain for myself."

"What kind?" Lola asked curiously.

"Umm, I think it was a twofooter, a bigmouth I think," Star said, shaking her head. "Mom just burst out laughing when she saw how shocked I was."

"I would've laughed too," giggled Lola. "My parents always told me that flatteeth had little brains. But I mean it's obvious you flatteeth aren't stupid, I mean you can speak two languages fluently!"

"Yeah," Chomper giggled. "Even though I've got a bigger brain than my friends, I wouldn't say I'm any smarter than they are."

"I think that the extra brain you guys have is related to your sensory skills," Star theorized. "That though we all have the same basic thinking skills, you guys need larger brains to take in the sights, smells and sounds that help you hunt. Kind of like how we flatteeth have better body defenses."

"Speaking of extra brains, I heard a tale growing up that spiketails had a second brain at their butt," Lola snickered. "I wanted to see if that was really true. So I dug through one carcass to see if I could find it. Instead, I broke a tooth on the bones," she grinned sheepishly. "But hey, at least they've got their spikes, just like threehorns have their horns, whiptails can make tail cracks, and you've got your body knobs. All we've got is our tails, teeth, and small arms."

"Your small arms make up for our small brains," Star teased.

"We could call ourselves the small arm gang," Lola snickered heartily.

"We don't have small arms like you though," Chuss chuckled.

"We can actually reach things with them," Deya smirked naughtily.

"Yeah, but you guys are little sharpteeth, so even when you'll be all grown up, so you'll still have little arms," Lola snickered back.

"What do you think Star?" Chomper asked.

"Leave me out of this, I'm a flattooth," Star giggled as they all laughed. Chomper however, couldn't help but feel delighted. It felt like they were their own little sharptooth family now, with Star and Lola eagerly chattering back and forth, the biters sharing some banter with Lola, and all of them getting along nicely. He knew he had to be careful with his parents' lack of mobility in case Lola lost control of her instincts, but he couldn't wait to introduce his own parents to her and Star. Along with the biters, this would finally give them a real taste of Great Valley life that they could hear for themselves in their language, that they could actually be involved in rather than be mere spectators …

Just then Shorty returned, with some prickly plants in his mouth. "Here ya go," he said to Star.

Star hesitantly ate the prickly plants as a grimace of disgust appeared on her face. However, her injuries soon began to vanish, and she was looking delighted. "Wow, they really work! But they taste like sharptooth dirt."

"Careful," Chomper said teasingly as Star giggled.

"Don't worry," Shorty soothed. "Eat some treestars, it'll really help, especially since you'd be nauseated from all this sharptooth food."

"Not you too," Chomper giggled.

"You think we should turn him into sharptooth food?" Chuss joked in leafeater.

"You even think about it and I'll squish you three biters in one stomp," Shorty snorted as they all laughed.

While Shorty finally sat down to eat and Star finally felt like eating upon her recovery, Lola had long finished eating and Chomper could tell she was burning with questions.

"So Alpha, uh, I mean Chomper," she asked excitedly. "You said you were hatched by your friends, right? Tell us how it all happened!"

"Well, it all began when my parents laid me in a creepy place," Chomper giggled, eager to tell this story. The biters too were very eager to listen, for they hadn't listened to the story from Chomper's point of view before, though they took turns translating to Shorty too. "I later asked my parents why they laid me there. They explained that since they can't actually move my egg with their tiny hands or risk damaging me with their teeth, they decided to keep me safe by laying me in a place where no one would want to go. So yeah, my egg wasn't bothered by any eggstealers. But then on the day before I hatched, everything changed. My parents had just gone out hunting, but I heard a great rockslide, and right after that, I started hearing new voices. Voices in a tongue I'd never heard before. But though I didn't realize what was happening, that's when I was being gifted with the flattooth tongue."

"We learned the same way," Nyko added. "Alpha and his friends were speaking leafeater around us while we were still in our eggs, and that's allowed us to pick up on their language from birth."

"So that's why we can speak perfect leafeater, we were born with it," Chomper explained.

"Uh-oh, I really am that far behind," Lola jokingly pouted.

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it, just like my friends will get the hang of speaking sharptooth," Chomper reassured her.

"Yeah, that was a total hoot," Lola laughed.

"They'll get a lot better, just like you will," Chomper snickered. "Anyway, they didn't find me on purpose. They were looking for Ducky's little sibling's egg. Ducky's one of my friends. She's really friendly and positive, she always has a big smile on her face."

"She's a swimmer, right?" Lola asked.

"How do you know?" Chomper asked in amazement.

"I saw her today with some other swimmers checking out the water," Lola explained. "She didn't seem afraid of me at all, she just waved at me instead and was even talking to me in her tongue. She seems really sweet."

Chomper chuckled. "Yeah, that's Ducky all right. She's the reason my friends even got together in the first place."

"You don't mean sweet in that kind of way, right Lola?" Star teased.

"Hey, I know she's off-limits," Lola snickered. "Besides, I can think nice things about leafeaters without thinking about food."

"Only because you just ate," Star grinned back.

Lola laughed naughtily. "I'm gonna have some longneck soup tonight."

Star however, was evidently used to sharptooth humor enough not to take it seriously. "In your sleep stories," Star snorted. "I'm all healed up now, and if you try taking a bite out of one of my knobs, you're just gonna break your teeth again."

"Heyy," Lola growled before letting out another laugh.

Chomper beamed at the two of them. "You two are as bad as my friends," he giggled.

Shorty meanwhile couldn't help but shake his head with amazement. He was seeing something that hardly any flattooth, not even his adventurous adoptive brother, would have seen before, a friendly, playful conversation a sharptooth and a longneck in the sharptooth language. He had been so used to associating the sharptooth tongue with danger that watching a conversation while contentedly munching on tree stars felt almost surreal to him.

"I've got a question though," Star asked. "Wouldn't your egg be bigger than a swimmer's?"

"Oh yeah, his would be," Lola said. "Probably a bit smaller than most longnecks though, except for little longnecks like you. Your eggs were probably about the same size."

Star rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna ask how you know that."

"You wouldn't want to know," Lola giggled naughtily.

"So how come they didn't notice the size and weight?" Star asked.

"They were really little then," explained Chomper. "Younger than you guys," he added to the biters. "And they wouldn't exactly be used to carrying eggs. Anyway, they brought me to their home and made a nest for me. They found out I wasn't Ducky's sibling, and just decided to watch over me until I hatched. Only thing is, they didn't know I was a sharptooth."

"Uh-oh, I can imagine how that went," Lola snickered darkly.

"Yeah," Chomper snickered. "They ran away as fast as they could. Except for Littlefoot. He tried, but he fell backward. And well …"

"Who's Littlefoot?" Lola interrupted.

Chomper beamed. "He's my very first friend, like a brother to me," he explained, and wanting to impress upon her just how serious his friendship with Littlefoot was, he touched his skin. "See that spot? That is where I put his blood into my veins. And he has my blood in his paw pad. So that even though he's a longneck and I'm a sharptooth, we share each other's blood, a promise that we'll always be loyal to one another."

"Wow," Lola said impressed. "But there's a lot of longnecks around. How can I tell which one's Littlefoot?"

"Well, you'll probably be able to smell him on me a lot," Chomper giggled. "But just like Shorty, he's anything but his name. He's a flatheaded longneck, a little small for his kind though that's not saying much. He's a little older than me, with light brown skin and soft brown eyes. But you can just feel when it's him. He just gives off so much warmth and love that you can't help but smile when you're with him. When I hatched, he was like my very first parent, he's even the one named me Chomper…"

Lola giggled. "Of course a flattooth would name you that. They think all we sharpteeth do is eat … Oops," Lola halted abruptly, realizing that she was sounding insensitive.

"It's okay," Chomper smiled reminiscently. "I'm sure he did think that at the time, especially since his mom was killed by a sharptooth. But he could tell I was just a baby, so I wasn't dangerous. He even helped me learn to walk and tried giving me green food."

Star snickered. "I dared Mom to do eat green food once! You should've seen the look on her face!"

"Yeah," Chomper laughed. "Littlefoot really thought I'd be able to eat it. Still, his heart was always in the right place. He introduced me to his other friends and told them that I was a nice sharptooth, and then protected me after I bit my friend Cera …"

"Wait, you bit your friend?" Lola asked incredulously.

"I didn't mean to," Chomper explained. "But since Littlefoot couldn't exactly hunt for me, I could only eat what I could catch, which was just one buzzer," he grinned sheepishly. "So you can imagine I was pretty hungry, especially since I had been moving pretty much all the time. I guess I kinda lost control … They were dancing in a circle, and I was right behind Cera's tail and it just happened. I guess it was just instinct."

"That makes sense," Lola snickered. "When we're hatchlings, we tend to chase things, especially when we're moving."

"Mom said things that move really get her going," Star agreed. "The end of her tail probably looked like a really good target."

"That's part of the problem though, I didn't just bite the end of her tail," Chomper grinned in embarrassment. "I got further up, where her tail meets her body. Littlefoot knew I didn't mean it. But Cera had her evil eye on me for a long time."

"You two are friends now though, right?" Lola asked.

"Oh yeah," Chomper laughed. "Even though she's really stubborn, can seem mean if you don't know her, and gets really mad, she's really loyal and is a great friend. She's a really big threehorn …"

"Oh, now I get it," Lola chuckled darkly. "Your kinds have been fighting for ages."

"Yeah," Chomper snickered. "But you really want to be careful around her Dad. He's in a pretty good mood now, but trust me, you don't want to get on his bad side. Anyway, she's a bright orange threehorn with bright green eyes and a ton of attitude. Trust me, you'll be able to recognize her at once, especially since she and Littlefoot are mates and are often together."

"This might sound silly," Star asked thoughtfully, "But what's a threehorn?"

"You mean to tell me your mom's a twoclaw and you've never seen a threehorn before?" Lola asked.

Star shook her head. "She mostly scavenged longnecks and twofooters."

"Well, threehorns are big frilled dinosaurs," Chomper explained. "With three horns on their heads, and they're very bulky. They're only about as long as spiketails, but they're like twice the weight I think from all that muscle, probably right about your weight."

"Wow, sounds cool," Star said.

Chomper chuckled. "Don't tell Cera that or you'll never hear the end of it. Her dad and his herd were wanderers once, they'd be even worse."

"And they're your friends who help you lead the whole pack, right?" Lola asked.

"Yep," Chomper grinned. "It's me, Littlefoot, Cera, and Ducky, plus three more friends. You met Ruby last night, so that just leaves Spike and Petrie. Spike's a dark green spiketail, but you don't have to worry about using a lot of leafeater with him since he doesn't like to talk much. He's still really responsive though, he just communicates a lot more through actions and emotions."

"Oh that's a relief," Lola smirked.

"He's really laidback and loves to eat, you probably won't scare him," Chomper explained. "Be more careful with Petrie though. He's a brown and grey flyer and he gets nervous a lot. But he's really brave when it really matters and you can always count on him. You can find them both with Ducky a lot, for Spike's Ducky's brother and Petrie's her mate."

"Wow, you guys really don't have any prejudice," Lola said admiringly as she turned to Star. "Are all leafeaters like that?"

Star sadly shook her head. "No … You guys sound really special."

"Yeah," Chomper said, smiling. "It wasn't always like that. Before I was born, they kept to their own kinds. That was, before the great earthshake happened and they all went on their way to …" He suddenly trailed off. Though very open about his own life, he had been very careful to avoid explicitly referring to the Great Valley by name. He knew that while the Great Valley was famed for being a place of refuge and unlimited resources for leafeaters, it would perhaps have a very different reputation among his fellow sharpteeth …

"Don't you see, Chomper? You can't be a sharptooth. Sharpteeth aren't allowed in this valley."

Feeling despondent as he remembered even Littlefoot saying those unintentionally hurtful words, he wondered how exactly he was going to deal with this thorny problem. Sooner or later, Lola would have to know what exactly their old home was, their herd was seeking to recover it after all. But how could he go about explaining this complicated situation without either clouding her hopes or overpromising anything?

"Our home," Chomper finished awkwardly.

"Where's that?" Star asked curiously. "Wait, where are you going Lola?"

But Lola did not answer, for she had abruptly turned around and began to dash down the crater's hillside. For a second, Chomper thought that Lola had somehow read his mind and decided to leave. Then he squinted out and saw that Lola's eyes had coldly narrowed. She was hunting for something, Chomper could recognize that predatory drive.

"What's wrong with her?" Shorty asked concernedly.

"She's hunting something," Chomper paused hesitantly. "But why would she? She just ate dinner, unless …"

And the realization hit Chomper at the same time he heard Lola roar angrily.

"You think I wasn't gonna notice, you sneaky, hiding creep!" she bellowed as she finished her descent and made it onto flat land.

From underneath the canopy of a tree on the plains below, a smaller form suddenly stood up, looking desperately for a chance to turn away. But Lola was sprinting at top speed, and before Chomper knew it, Lola had opened her mouth and firmly grasped the newcomer's neck in her jaws, his head weakly dangling on one side, the rest of his body on the other.

"I mean … No harm …" the newcomer croaked weakly in sharptooth.

"Likely story," Lola growled. "But you've messed with the wrong pack."

Frantically, Chomper considered. Even though he had just saved her life, Lola had acted very hostile and suspicious when first meeting him. It would make sense that she would likewise be suspicious to other sharpteeth too, especially that he had put her on guard duty and told her they had sharptooth enemies. He was amazed with how quickly she could snap from being cheerful and friendly to being ferocious when the time called for it. But he needed to quickly intercede before Lola would sever this sharptooth's head off …

"Lola, bring him here unharmed," Chomper called out.

"But Alpha, this guy's probably one of the enemies you told me about!" Lola shouted back. "He was sitting there, spying on us the whole time!"

"I can … Explain," the newcomer hissed.

"If he's an enemy, we'll do what we have to," Chomper said cautiously. "But we should at least give him the chance to talk."

Reluctantly, Lola sighed, before growling to the newcomer, "One move toward any of us and you'll wish you've never been born. Got it?"

"Quite … Clearly," he choked.

"Including the kids and the longnecks," Lola warned.

"Yes … Them too," the newcomer spluttered.

"And any other flattooth you see around here," Lola added.

"I figured … Okay," he wheezed.

As Lola began to return with her victim, Chomper got the chance to eye him more closely. He was a fern-green horned sharptooth, who looked to be very slender, almost emaciated, and about fifteen cold times old, with a sandy colored belly and dark green spikes on his back, high eye ridges and a large nose horn. What's more, like him, Lola and the biters, he had shockingly white sclera, with his lime-green irises contrasting sharply against the white.

"Guys, hide under Shorty and stay safe," Chomper told the biters.

The biters nodded without thinking twice, knowing that he could easily kill them in one lunge. But while much bigger than even a fully grown biter, he was only about half Lola's size and she had no trouble carrying him up the hill. He wasn't even putting up a struggle, hanging limply in the browridge's jaws as she walked steadily toward him, hissing angrily. Then as they got closer, Chomper realized something was familiar about this newcomer's scent. Not placing it at first, he suddenly understood just as Lola arrived.

"Hey … You were one of those sharpteeth I gave some swimming sharptooth to on the way here," Chomper marveled.

Slowly, the onehorn nodded. "I kept my promise," he choked. "I never told any other sharpteeth about you. And I've not eaten since the meal you gave me."

Chomper paused hesitantly, wondering why the onehorn was telling him this, and why he had followed them all this way, and why he wasn't even trying to free himself from Lola's grip, and realized there could only be one possible explanation. "Are you saying you want to join my pack?"

Slowly, the onehorn nodded, as the little biters looked. at each other in amazement. Reluctantly, Lola put the onehorn down, before he staggered forward and looked up at Chomper humbly.

"Sniff me," he said respectfully.

Cautiously, Chomper did so, carefully eyeing his mouth so there would be no sudden attack as he could see that the others also had a good eye on him. Not smelling any sign of Goregie, or even any other sharpteeth, he passed this initial scan flawlessly.

"I don't smell anyone on you," Chomper observed.

"That's because I've always been a loner," said the onehorn softly, as if he had seldom spoken. "But it's not easy being alone. Especially when you're my size. You're too big to survive on hoppers, you're too little to attack flatteeth."

"Hey, no one attacks flatteeth here," Lola snarled warningly.

Chomper smiled at Lola, pleased to see she was able to take over much of the warning he had to do with her. The onehorn nodded to show his understanding before turning back to Chomper.

"You fed me," the onehorn continued as he stared into Chomper's eyes. "Even though you hang around with leafeaters … You're the only one who's ever done that. And for that, you've earned my respect. But when I finished eating … I realized I was back to where I started. Who knows where my next meal would be. Or if I would even be able to eat without my meal getting stolen. You made me realize I had another choice. So after thinking it over … I decided to tail you. It was hard, but I finally got here in the end."

Chomper stood silently as the onehorn shook his head. "I know that I cannot beg or thieve off you forever. So I place my stomach before my pride and hereby give you a conditional offer."

"Okay," Chomper said slowly, slightly uncomfortable from the onehorn's submissive formality.

"I understand your pack does not hunt flatteeth," said the onehorn. "That is perfectly fine with me, if you can prove that you have a sustainable method of obtaining food. I would like to see this for myself. If I am not impressed, we can part on respectful terms. But if I am … Then so long as you are able to provide for me as well … I will faithfully devote myself to you as my new alpha."

Chomper stood thoughtfully. Unlike the biters, who had personal loyalty to him since hatching, and Lola, who ethically didn't like hunting leafeaters, this sharptooth's reasoning for wanting to join him seemed to be entirely practical and out of a desire for self-preservation. And while not hostile, he didn't seem to be very friendly either in contrast to Lola or the biters, who seemed to speak a lot more freely than he did. He wondered if this sharptooth would negatively affect the pack's morale by coming across as too stiff or cold.

Yet his other packmates were no longer dependent on the pack as their only source of connection, for Lola had befriended Star while the biters had been increasingly hanging out with Tricia's gang. A second sharptooth herd guard would take a lot of the pressure off Lola, who could share the duties of guarding the far side with him and would have a lot more free time to hang out with Star, and thus give her even more practice at resisting her instincts. He was just the perfect size for a pack member too, large enough to be able to help him and Lola in situations requiring big, able-bodied sharpteeth, yet small enough that he wouldn't need that much to eat and could easily be restrained by him or Lola should his instincts get out of hand or worse. And then of course, there was the fact that he was a white-eye, meaning that he either was not a skilled hunter or was not really a hunter at heart. Perhaps he was just socially stiff from never having a real friend, and that his heart could melt through exposure to real love and kindness …

"Okay, I'll show you," Chomper decided. "You guys coming?"

And so the party set off with the newcomer in tow as Chomper wondered just he was getting himself into.

---

"Keep asking the questions, it sharpens the mind."

The words from the rainbow face echoed in Littlefoot's head as he assembled the chattering group of teenagers together in a large grassy clearing near the center of the crater. It would make a perfect meeting place for the entire herd, with no trees getting in the way, easily accessible to everyone, and would feel nice, cozy and relaxed. But he had gathered their former students turned herd deputies for a very specific reason. True, he knew many of the elders like Mr. Thicknose and his own father would have a great deal of knowledge about their world. But from his own adventures, he knew there was nothing quite like personal experience. And with each of the teens having their own individual past lives, many of them being the only one of their kind in the herd, he had the opportunity to gather their collective knowledge about their personal experience of the world around them.

"Hi guys, thanks for coming here," Littlefoot said brightly.

As they nodded, a sudden breeze trickled by.

"It must be the start of the time of changing tree stars," Welbie observed. "That's when the winds start to feel like this."

"Brr, it's really cold on my wings," shivered Tilden.

"Mine too," Nessie sighed.

"What're you talking about?" giggled Kendall. "That felt nice and good."

"You mean you liked that?" Gara asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah," Kendall smiled. "It gives me gusto."

"Me too," said Gabriel. "When the water gets nice and chilly, you really feel alive."

"Not me," giggled Jada. "Besides, tall trees don't grow where it's really cold."

"The needly ones do," Kendall laughed. "And when the other trees are bare, it's easier to see sharpteeth coming."

"But those don't taste as good," Keeter snickered. "It's worth dealing with sharpteeth to have better food."

"Not if you don't have horns," Kendall shook her head. "Besides, the other trees come back during the warm times."

"I'd rather have a lot of trees all the time," Sheldon chuckled.

"That's kind of actually why I wanted to talk with you guys," Littlefoot laughed.

"What do you mean?" Glenn asked curiously.

"Well, I wanted to talk about where you came from," Littlefoot explained.

"But … I thought you've forgiven us for whatever we've done in our past lives," Aria said uncomfortably.

"I don't want to think about back then again," Jada mumbled.

"Don't worry, that's not it," Littlefoot explained soothingly. "It's just … All of you must have come from different places. That's probably why you're reacting to that wind differently. What's cold for some of you is just fine for others, because you'd all be used to different climates."

He paused to let them consider. "But that's why I'm keeping it to just you guys, since I know you've all had traumatic pasts and don't want to talk about your old lives in front of everyone. But if we can piece our knowledge together, we can get a better idea of the world around us, where everything is, and how we can get wherever we need to go. I know I could just ask Mr. Thicknose … But it's not the same as talking to dinosaurs who've actually lived in those places."

"That's for sure," Light agreed. "Some dinos think they know everything, only they don't know how wrong they are. Like someone in my old herd claimed that all horned dinos are sharpteeth. And we know that's not true."

"So I was thinking," Littlefoot said. "If you guys can start thinking about how either the Great Valley or this place is different from where you were hatched, we can start to develop a better picture of the world."

"But I've never been much of anywhere before," said Audrey. "This is the longest migration I've taken in my life."

"Actually, that would make sense," Littlefoot smiled. "There's a lot of your kind near the Great Valley, and apart from Oplax, all the clubtail family is of your kind. But …" he said, looking at the rest of them one by one. "Apart from you, only Seth, Kendall, Harmony and Aria have someone else of their kinds in the herd."

"Not quite," Seth explained. "My kind's very closely related to Ducky's. But we come from the other side of a great land bridge far to the north. Legends of our kind told us that we were once Ducky's kind and several of us tried to cross the land bridge to escape the sharpteeth. But it was a long journey, and a lot of us died. Those who made it were bigger as they had more fat stored up, and when they started having families, their children got bigger too. I'm pretty small for my kind so I fit right in with the swimmers here, but a lot of my kind can get an extra half bigger than me. And we need that size too, they were wrong about there being no sharpteeth up there. That's part of why I made the journey back down here."

"Yeah, I'm familiar with you guys," Gabriel observed. "Your herds were everywhere when I was a little kid. That's part of why I learned to go out into deeper water, less competition from you guys."

"And since you didn't mind that breeze, it must be cold up there compared to here," Littlefoot observed.

"Oh yeah," Gabriel laughed. "Sometimes, I feel like the Bright Circle never goes down. That's part of why I like the water so much, to cool me off."

"What about you Kendall?" Littlefoot asked, remembering the thicknose also came from a cold place. "Did you have to cross any land bridge?"

"Oh no," Kendall laughed. "It was a pretty long journey, but not that long to get down here. Probably like from the Valley to here. It's just I'm used to a little cooler warm times and long cold times with the ground covered with ground sparkles for long periods of time. Just one cold time it got too cold even for me, so I migrated south and ended living around here. It's a little hot for me, but still comfy."

"Has anyone else taken that land bridge?" Littlefoot asked curiously.

Only Anndi nodded. "Yep, and I hated it. It was so darn cold! My kind lived in a place a lot like this, so I'm just fine with the climate here. It's just far away on the other side of the big water, I think. We had spiketails and longnecks there too, but the only dino in the herd who comes from a kind back home is Mia. And since she's the only one of her kind here too, she's probably migrated far away like me or came from a smaller colony of her kind around here."

"Great," Littlefoot beamed, amazed with how much they were already learning. "Anyone else migrated south?"

There was a pause before to Littlefoot's surprise, a lot of uncertain nods happened.

"I think so," Chantal observed cautiously. "I was really little, so I don't know for sure. But it's a bit warmer down here than up there, so that makes sense. There weren't many longnecks either, just twofooters, tailed and frilled dinos."

"Yeah, I remember seeing your kind of threehorn when I was little, yours too, Harmony," Dekker said thoughtfully. "I remember growing up, there weren't that many big trees like here, but there were a lot of smaller trees, bushes and colorful flowers. And come to think of it," he smirked, "Pink threehorns, red onehorns, orange spiked onehorns, blue long-crests, yellow round-crests, and green clubtails."

"You mean Tricia's gang, right?" laughed Glenn.

"Yep! Their exact kinds too. Who knows, maybe we were neighbors once," Dekker snickered. "If only my herd wasn't segregated."

"Well, Mono, Rachelle, Oplax and Perri did migrate from the north, and from the same place as Tricia and Cassia's moms," Littlefoot remembered. "I bet you did all come from the same general area."

"As did Goregie, and considering Harmony's the same kind as him, possibly Hiss Head," observed Dekker.

"I wonder if they knew each other?" smirked Chantal. "They're both young grownups like us."

"Maybe they both drove each other crazy," Dekker chuckled to many snickers.

"Well at least we definitely know a lot about the forest to the north," Littlefoot smiled. "And considering so many of us are from there, we probably won't have too much trouble finding it."

"I think I came from just south of that forest," Aria said. "We nesting bigmouths do a lot of migrating in order to lay our eggs. That's what my old herd was like, anyway. It was a lot of flat, dry land. But my herd did warn us to avoid those woods, they said that's where lots of predators lived, and our kind's not great at defending ourselves."

"Don't let Cera hear you say that," Littlefoot giggled.

Aria laughed. "If my old herd could see me now, they'd never recognize me. Coach made sure of that with all that rock throwing practice."

"Hey, only we call Cera Coach," Anndi blew a raspberry teasingly as Candy nodded along with her.

"Well, she's a coach to all of us, right?" Aria grinned naughtily back.

"I think Aria and I must've crossed paths at some point," Glenn laughed. "Huge herds of her kind always passed and built their nests everywhere I went. Whereas we curved horns kept to ourselves or small groups. But yeah, just as Aria said, it's flat and dry out there. My kind likes it because we have good fat stores and don't need much water. Plus the sharpteeth would rather have you nesting bigmouths than us," he grinned cheekily.

"Oh you're asking for it," Aria snickered, whapping Glenn's frill with her tail to many snickers. Unfortunately for her however, she had forgotten about the way Glenn's horn curved outward, and ended up whapping a big chunk of her tail on solid horn bone."

"Ow, that hurt," Aria said teasingly, grabbing her tail.

"Like your tail whap didn't?" Glenn countered.

"Just be glad you two aren't real enemies," Littlefoot giggled as Aria and Glenn both laughed.

"Maybe Leigh and Goregie can beat each up other like that," snickered Sheldon.

"I like your thinking," Gara said naughtily as they couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.

Emery and Candy meanwhile had been talking to each other. "We probably were neighbors too at some point," Candy laughed. "My kind of shieldback and his kind of little spikethumb lived in this rocky cliff area where biters were everywhere around us. Just like our biters, but not one of them were nice."

"Along with our kinds, there were also big longnecks of Ross's kind. They were attacked by those high-ridged sharpteeth like that one who was helping Goregie. But the biters went after us," explained Emery.

"You mean they went after you," Candy teased. "I had my side spikes to keep me safe."

"Which is why I practiced running," Emery smirked back. "And don't pretend like they didn't get after you. You were bleeding just as bad as the rest of us."

"Oh, boo," Candy play-pouted, unable to come up with a good counter.

"So," Littlefoot asked playfully. "Who here had to go west like me and my friends?"

Newcomb at once raised his hand. "I grew up with mostly just flyers," he explained. Not much trees around since we were right by the Big Water, but enough to keep us fed. Nowhere I think we'd wanna go."

"No," laughed Littlefoot. "Me and my friends can tell you all about what it was like that way. Barren trees, fire pits, smoking mountains … Even though it's where the five of us were born and met each other, I don't think any of us want to repeat that journey again!"

"I came from the east too, but much farther," Welbie explained. "I flew over from a small bunch of islands and went over the big water, I just wanted to get away. Little did I know I was apparently going the same way as my creepy uncle," the pink-tailed flyer grinned embarrassedly. "But I saw a lot of your kind growing up, Eva. Small spikesides whose plates went all the way down to their tails rather than became spikes halfway down like Light's."

"Yep, I came from some small islands too, and saw plenty of your kind, Welbie," Eva laughed. "It's nice where I lived, the land sharpteeth weren't too bad, but there were lots of swimming sharpteeth that even attacked land ones. And there weren't that many trees, that's probably why my kind's a lot smaller than Spike's. But trust me, you don't want to migrate over all that big water. That's probably where Hyp and his father came from too, I saw a lot of their kind growing up. That migration could make anyone grumpy, especially coming all the way here."

"I had to come a long way too, I think it was from the southeast," observed Vail. "It was a nasty desert where I came from, everything was always hot and dry. There wasn't much leafeater diversity, just a few longneck kinds and Rana's kind. But there were quite a lot of sharpteeth, often eating each other with nothing else to eat. I'm just glad I'm out of there."

"Well I might've had the longest journey of anyone," Light snickered. "I came northwest too and passed through your desert, Vail. It was hot and humid down there but nice. Tons of trees grew there. Apart from some small twofooters and my kind, every other dinosaur was a longneck or a sharptooth. And we're talking about really big longnecks and scary sharpteeth. We lived by a lot of water growing up, but it wasn't islands, rather just one big landmass. That's kind of how I gained my ability to eat scaly swimmers, it was fun watching them pop out of the water and I heard somewhere they tasted good."

"Uh-oh, don't ask me to try them again!" Nessie snickered.

"How do we know you might not have some sharptooth in you?" Light teased, looking at her filter-shaped bottom beak. "After all, if Brara does, who's to say you don't too? Your beak looks perfect for catching scaly swimmers."

"I'm gonna pretend like I didn't hear that," Nessie giggled to her spikeside teammate.

"So did anyone come from the west?" Littlefoot asked curiously.

Only Felix nodded. "Yeah, my old home should be directly west a bit," Felix said casually. "It's pretty nice, lots of green food and open spaces, and doesn't get too hot or cold. But seriously, watch out for the fast biters. There aren't as many big sharpteeth, but these fast biters are enormous, like two of the normal kind. They get to be as long as my kind all grown up. And they're just as fast and agile as the little ones."

"Good to know," Littlefoot said, trying his hardest to take everything in, before looking to the rest of the group.

"My kind goes everywhere around here," Phoenix explained. "We're big flyers, so we just go where the food takes us. So we don't really have a homeland. Sometimes other dinosaurs are scared of us, believing some crazy rumors that we like to eat baby longnecks, but they must be getting confused with some big sharptooth flyer."

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about," Keeter explained. "They look a lot like you, but the way they move, they're obviously sharptooth flyers. I had to hide from them when I was young." Keeter paused before explaining, "I think my kind's supposed to come a bit to the south of here. They say that we're like the southernmost threehorns out there, the ones best equipped to deal with dry, hot lands. Legend among our kind says that there's some kind of Threehorn Valley in the desert down there where lots of beautiful flowers go. That's where my parents were headed before they … Yeah," he finished awkwardly. "But yeah, that's where we come from."

Littlefoot then counted, realizing that only Jada, Gara, Sheldon, Nessie and Tilden were left.

"Well since you guys all seem to like warmer weather, I guess you came from the south?" Littlefoot asked.

They all nodded. "I came from rocky cliffs by the big water like Newcomb," sighed Nessie. "It's so nice and warm thinking about it and the smell of the air down there."

"But I bet you had bickering colonies of your kind too, right?" Tilden snickered.

"Yeah," Nessie laughed. "I guess even though we're different kinds of flyers, some things don't change."

"Our flocks were crazy huge," Tilden snickered. "Like the hundreds. There was barely enough space to sit."

"And you don't want to be around when the males get testy," Nessie teased. "Seriously."

"Our kinds live further on land," Gara explained. There's a few shieldbacks and twofooters around, but it's mostly longnecks. Jada's and my kind of spikeneck both live there, for instance."

"We're probably cousins, we're almost the same size and only our neck spike direction is different," Jada giggled.

"We kinda fill the role of spiketails and threehorns, the medium-large flatteeth who go for the trees that the bigger longnecks don't," Gara explained. "Big guys like Sheldon take care of the tall stuff."

"You think I'm big?" Sheldon rolled his eyes.

"Well, you've got the bod to prove it," Gara teased.

"Haha," Sheldon snickered. "But believe me, I'm nothing compared to the really big longnecks down there. There's not much of a cold time down there and it's always pretty wet, so the trees get really big. Which means that the longnecks down there get just as big. Way bigger than me, or even you, Littlefoot. Even bigger than Shorty, and I think even bigger than Sue or Ross."

"Wow," Littlefoot said in amazement. "Grandpa told me something like that … But you've actually seen them?"

"Yeah, well from a distance anyway," Sheldon explained cautiously. "Trust me, you don't want to get too close to them. Not because of them, I have no idea what they're like. But because everywhere they go, these really dangerous sharpteeth called plated sharpteeth follow them. They're threeclaws kinda like browridges except for the plates on their back, but they're even bigger than Chomper's kind. The really big longnecks can fight them off, but to us smaller longnecks, trying to take one on is a death wish. It's one of the reasons why I hightailed it out of there."

"Yeah," Littlefoot said, thinking back to his own encounter with what had to be one of those very same plated sharpteeth, but not opting to relay that story just yet for he didn't want to sound like he was bragging. "Well, thanks guys. This really helped a lot. I'm gonna talk about this with my friends, and …"

"Me hear it already," came a voice.

Littlefoot stared in disbelief, and then looked to find Petrie on the ground, smiling mischievously at him.

"Petrie," Littlefoot chuckled. "Where'd you come from?"

"Oh, me here whole time," Petrie laughed. "Me learn everything just as much as you do."

"Gee, I must have been so busy listening I didn't even notice," Littlefoot laughed. "Maybe we can create a diagram of everything we learned, just like Ruby and I did for the jailbreak."

"Maybe later," Petrie laughed. "But with everyone here already, me think it good time for us to be doing some dance moves. You must be getting hungry, right?"

"Oh, all right then," Littlefoot said, trying to conceal his amusement, but he figured that Petrie was up to something. Not wishing to deny Petrie both the chance to have some fun and connect with the teens on his own, Littlefoot strolled off in search of whichever of his friends was available.

No sooner did Littlefoot disappear than Petrie giggled. "Thanks for covering for me, guys."

"You bet," snickered Jada. "But why couldn't we see you either?"

Petrie grinned naughtily. "Can you guys keep a secret?"

"Okay," said Keeter, lifting a back leg behind his back. This did not go unnoticed by Petrie, who snickered playfully.

"What?" Keeter asked in surprise.

"You not gonna keep promise," Petrie giggled.

"I am too," Keeter said in surprise. "Why'd you say that?"

"Cera and Spike do that one time when we promise Littlefoot's grandmother we not gonna rescue Littlefoot," Petrie said cheekily. "Of course, we do opposite instead."

"Well," Keeter said, "It'd help if we know what we've gotta keep secret."

"Okay, me trust you," Petrie said in a hushed voice as Petrie motioned them all to bring their heads together. "What me really doing back there is practice me wing stretches on the ground … And me know me can fly now. Me all better from sharpbeak attack."

The teens quietly cheered, wanting to cheer louder but Petrie put a finger up to his beak.

"So why do you want to keep this a secret?" asked Nessie curiously.

"Because," Petrie whispered quietly. "Now Cera think me grounded. Me try pranking her before since she tease me lots, but every time me creep up, she catches me at it. But now …"

"She'd think you're still injured and not in shape to pull off any pranks," Dekker finished mischievously.

"Right," Petrie giggles. "What you think? Wanna help me prank Cera together?"

"Well," Candy giggled, "We all know how much Coach likes pulling pranks."

"I think we should give her a taste of her own tree stars," Anndi snickered as they all huddled together to come up with a plan.

Looking back, Littlefoot eyed Petrie and the teens chortling mischievously. Somehow, he knew that he wasn't supposed to know what was going on and it would be better that way. Still though, he was so busy looking back that he didn't realize what was in front of him until he heard a voice say, "Hey Littlefoot."

"Wha?" Littlefoot jumped in surprise, before realizing that he was literally only a couple paces from his father. "Oh hi Dad. Sorry I didn't see you, I guess I'm kind of spacing out today. Must be the long journey here."

"That'd make sense," Bron said thoughtfully. "Your tail's feeling better?"

Littlefoot nodded. "Yeah, it's almost all better again."

"That's great," Bron nodded. "I was just wondering if you'd seen Shorty. I don't mean to intrude, but I haven't really seen him since we've arrived and want to make sure nothing … You know, happened with him."

"Don't worry Dad," Littlefoot soothed. "I saw him earlier today, and the rest of the time, he's been out with Chomper. They've been practicing Chomper's tail swings. You know how good Shorty is at that move."

"He sure is," Bron laughed. "Chomper'll be learning from the best."

"So long as he doesn't teach Chomper to plonk me on the nose," Littlefoot said sarcastically as the two of them both laughed. "They've been up on the cliffs, kinda like when we were battling those sharpteeth. It's getting close to dinnertime though, so Chomper probably would be taking Shorty to see his new friend."

"You mean the browridge?" Bron asked pointedly.

"Yeah," Littlefoot answered, but trailed off as he saw Bron's face struggle not to darken. "Dad? What's wrong?"

"Well, I hate to intrude," Bron said uncomfortably. "But … Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Dad, you can trust Chomper, he …" Littlefoot began, but Bron cut him off.

"It's not Chomper I'm worried about. Not directly. I know he's a good kid at heart. It's just … Well, browridges are especially capable hunters. I know I once said that sharpteeth only hunt in twos or threes … But that was before my much of my herd was killed by a large pack of, as it so happens, browridges."

Littlefoot gulped uncomfortably as Bron explained, "I know Shorty is bigger than either of us and can ward off most predators by himself. But I don't know if even he can survive an onslaught of browridges. And we must consider all possibilities. How do we know for sure she's not part of another pack herself? What if she's just trying to manipulate him into bringing prey over to them?"

"Dad, Chomper will never do that," Littlefoot replied. "He'll never betray us."

"I know Chomper's a good friend and would never mean to hurt anyone," Bron said gently. "But he's also very young and naïve. He spent his life growing up in the Great Valley sheltered from other sharpteeth, and I worry he'd be so excited trying to bring sharpteeth into our world that he won't have his wits about him and consider the danger of him possibly being dragged into the sharptooth world instead. Can you be absolutely sure that Chomper won't be, um … corrupted?" he paused awkwardly. "That being around other sharpteeth … Might make him more like other sharpteeth? I know this is you and your friends' decision, as this is your herd. But I just want to make sure you've considered even the darkest possibilities."

Littlefoot paused, a little hurt that Bron would even ask this, but he could understand where Bron was coming from. After all, Bron and his herd had been fighting aggressive sharpteeth on their perilous migrations while he and his friends grew up in the peaceful confines of the Great Valley. And with Chomper being there for neither the first trip to the crater nor most of the Fire Mountain rescue, Bron wouldn't have seen the full extent of his friendship with him to the extent he had seen it with his first four friends. He could tell too that Bron was only asking out of genuine concern and caution rather than any hurtful intent. So he tried his hardest to avoid raising his voice and answer as calmly as possible.

"Well Dad, I can't say I know much about Lola yet," Littlefoot said cautiously. "It's hard to know without getting to know her. But what I can say is that if Chomper trusts her, then I feel like I can trust her too. And if she does end up betraying us, I know he'll do everything in his power to try and make things right and stay by our side."

"So you don't think … That if Chomper starts getting drawn into the world of his fellow sharpteeth … That he might choose them over us, even you?" Bron asked seriously.

"No, not at all," Littlefoot said so firmly that Bron was taken aback.

"How can you say that for sure?" Bron asked.

Littlefoot sighed, knowing that Bron was not there growing up with Chomper, and so needed a thorough explanation as to how deep Chomper's loyalty lay …

He suddenly heard footsteps, and looking over, he saw his father-in-law approaching them.

"Let me say a few words, Littlefoot," Topps said simply.

Littlefoot obliged, as Topps faced his father confidently.

"As you would know, I take all threats very seriously, especially when they involve my daughter's safety," Topps growled. "So naturally, the first time I heard them talking about their sharptooth friend, I was furious. I questioned Cera over and over again, asking why she dared to put herself in danger like that. She told me though that despite her own suspicions, Chomper had always been their friend, even putting himself in harm's way like biting the tail of a plated sharptooth."

Topps paused before snorting, "Of course I didn't believe her at first. But when he and Ruby arrived at the Valley … I couldn't believe it. It was as if they knew each other all their lives. And I figured, "Ah, he's just a puny biter. He'd be no threat for a few cold times at least." I knew it would make Cera happy, so I went along with it. That didn't stop me from messing with him of course. I liked to tease him, seeing if I could get a rise out of that famed twoclaw temper. But the only time he really got mad was when his friends were in danger. And though I kept on doubting him, culminating with his foolish attempt to starve himself, it's obvious that he's got as much chance of turning tail on his friends as I do of suddenly sprouting a long neck. And that's why I put my life on the line to represent him at that stupid trial, because he will be loyal to my daughter and her friends until the end and would rather die than betray them. Especially Littlefoot. Apart from maybe Ruby, he's always been Chomper's closest friend."

"Thanks Mr. Threehorn, or I should say Topps," Bron said slowly. "That was very helpful."

"Right," Topps nodded. "Well, I better show up for Tria's party, or else I'm gonna be on my own for a few nights," he chuckled before lumbering away. Littlefoot felt so grateful for his father-in-law, being able to provide a straightforward, skeptical and parental perspective to the matter that he couldn't give no matter how hard he tried.

"Chomper's been with us ever since he came back," Littlefoot added, before chuckling, "Since they came, he and Ruby have been on all our crazy adventures. But there was one adventure he went on himself. He was feeling lonely because he was the only sharptooth in the Valley, so he tried going out to teach other sharpteeth to be nice. Let's just say it didn't go very well."

"I can imagine," Bron said, shaking his head.

"But it's a lot different now," Littlefoot smiled. "Now that Chomper's grown up and knows how to water hunt, he can actually take care of other sharpteeth just like he does his parents. He's big enough to overpower most other sharpteeth too in case any of them do try to attack us. And he's spent more time in the Great Valley than anywhere else, even than with his parents. He was hatched there and it's home just as much as it's any of ours, and his loyalty will always lie with his friends there, especially us. He's not going to be alone on this journey either. Even apart from the biters and his parents, we're gonna be along with him, for Chomper is teaching us his language so we can all go into the sharptooth world together."

"You're … learning sharptooth?" Bron asked incredulously.

Littlefoot nodded. "Keep it quiet, since it's really hard to learn and Chomper can only teach so much of us at once. But yeah, we are. And Dad … You aren't the only one worried that Chomper might lose himself in this … Chomper is too. Actually, that's his biggest fear of all, that he'll somehow become an evil sharptooth, and it's the one thing that he'll always fight to prevent from happening to him. So much so that he felt he needed some extra insurance, so that he'll always carry a part of me with him wherever he goes."

And Littlefoot extended out his paw to reveal his paw pad, where a faint scar could be plainly seen against his light-colored flesh.

"We shared a blood oath so we'll always have a bit of each other wherever we go," Littlefoot told Bron softly. "So the small part of me that's inside of him will protect him from any darkness he might face."

There was a tense pause. "Littlefoot … You mean to tell me that you have sharptooth blood inside of you?" Bron said uncomfortably. And while Bron didn't say it, Littlefoot knew that Bron was probably horrified that he had taken in blood from the very kind of sharptooth that had once claimed his wife …

Littlefoot shook his head. "No Dad, not just any sharptooth's blood. Chomper's blood. Just like my blood is inside him. Because even though we weren't born in the same nest or even the same kind, the two of us are like blood brothers. Brothers whose spirits will never be apart no matter what. So though he may be a sharptooth and I a flattooth, our hearts can beat as one together."

Bron paused thoughtfully. After a long silence, he finally spoke.

"I knew you two were close, but I had no idea your relationship went this deep," Bron conceded. "Far be it for me to question it. The only thing I would say is this … Perhaps more than anyone else here, we longneck elders have suffered an enormous number of losses through sharptooth attacks. My once great herd and the Old One's have been reduced to this small group of longnecks you see before you, and while some of the deaths have been natural, the majority have not. I would therefore advise extreme caution when trying to get them and any new sharptooth friends Chomper makes together, especially if they do not have complete control of their instincts or the ability to speak our language. I know how important it is to unite every member of the herd. But I want to alert you as to this particular challenge, for you're going to have to get through cold times of loss, resentment and hard feelings to establish the kind of trust you need for them to truly become herdmates. I'll try my best to help, but this is an uphill fight you've got going. I just want you and Chomper to understand."

Littlefoot nodded slowly. "We'll be sure to take it very slowly," he said seriously. "Thanks Dad for your advice."

"Glad to be of help, and good luck to both of you," Bron smiled as he and his son lovingly rubbed their heads against one another before going their separate ways.

---

"You feeling all right my dear?" the great green sharptooth asked his wife as they laid on their bellies side by side, dining on the last remnants of the bellydragger carcass.

"Oh yeah," Mama Sharptooth sighed contentedly. "I've never seen Chomper so happy. Not since finding out about the swimming sharpteeth by the Valley."

"Which wasn't really that long ago," Papa Sharptooth snickered.

"Yeah, but so much has happened since then," chuckled Mama Sharptooth. "We've been on our biggest migration for cold times, we've started living with flatteeth, and we've even started speaking a little of their language. And with Chomper forming a pack of his own now, it's almost like we've become sharpteeth elders."

"All without our legs and most of our teeth," teased Papa Sharptooth as Mama Sharptooth laughed. "You smelled that new onehorn, right?"

"Yep, and heard that new longneck speaking sharptooth," laughed Mama Sharptooth. "By the sound of it, they're going out on their own adventure."

"Let's hope they'll have enough to eat," snickered Papa Sharptooth.

"Don't worry, we taught Chomper the skills to get all the food he'll need," Mama Sharptooth said contentedly.

They looked out to find large gaggles of kids were congregating toward a rock where Mr. Thicknose, Saro and Ruby were stationed.

"It's so nice to see all these kids without having to think about whether we've got to eat any of them," sighed Mama Sharptooth.

"You're getting soft," Papa Sharptooth teased. "You really don't miss the thrill of the chase?"

Mama Sharptooth whapped him with her tail. "What do you think Chomper would say?" she smirked.

Papa Sharptooth grinned. "Well, he and the other white-eyes are gone, right? And the flatteeth can't understand sharptooth. So we old red-eyes are free to think whatever naughty thoughts we want."

"You're insufferable, you know that?" snorted Mama Sharptooth, but she knew that he was only teasing, and had wisely chosen to joke at a time when Chomper and his young packmates were not present.

Just then, three of the new kids, a longneck, threehorn and swimmer, scurried past them. While not knowing any of the kids by name, they could recognize them as being among the kids that had been rescued from the segregated herds. The three seemed to be chatting friendlily, still a little shy due to not being around kids outside their kinds growing up, but regarding each other warmly, as if they were beginning to truly understand that they were now herdmates.

"Haaaaarrrrrrrrararrrro," Mama Sharptooth called out in broken leafeater.

The three of them spun around, Mama Sharptooth forgetting just how much her deep, ragged, heavily accented voice would startle the tiny flattooth children, who panicked for a moment, jumping off the ground at once, the swimmer clinging onto the longneck's leg.

"Oh … hi," the threehorn said uneasily as the longneck and swimmer kids followed suit before hurriedly making their way to the gathering of kids.

"We're just not naturals at speaking their tongue," Papa Sharptooth soothed his mate. "We weren't born with it like Chomper and the biters. Everything comes off as scary even if we don't mean it to be."

"Yeah," Mama Sharptooth sighed. "Shame really. I'm beginning to wish that I had learned flattooth in the egg."

"Still, that we can speak any is more than I thought possible," Papa Sharptooth pointed out. "And it's not like Chomper's friends are having it easier than us. I almost died when Littlefoot ended up saying … That. It's like threehorns are yummy all over again."

Mama Sharptooth had to laugh for a moment, but her face fell as she continued, "I know, but I was just thinking … If we could speak better flattooth … We could maybe fit in with the others."

"You really think so?" Papa Sharptooth asked doubtfully.

"Why not?" Mama Sharptooth asked. "Even the new kids aren't scared of Chomper and the biters anymore, because they actually sound like flatteeth. I know we're big and red-eyed … But we're also largely immobile, and have had a lot of our teeth taken out. Not to mention we have a lot in common with others here."

"Who do you mean?" Papa Sharptooth asked.

"Our fellow parents," Mama Sharptooth explained. "You've seen how Chomper's friends' parents talk to each other all the time? Well … I'd like to get to know them better. And to talk with them too. Mr. and Mrs. Threehorn, Ms. Swimmer, and Ms. Flyer … They've all been there for Chomper's childhood. They'd know all sorts of stories about him that he never told us about. And even for those he did, they'd be able to tell those stories from a parental perspective. It'd be like getting to know our son in a whole new way."

As Papa Sharptooth pondered, Mama Sharptooth continued, "Besides, I'm curious about them too. Who they are, what they're really like to talk to. It'll help us understand Chomper's friends better too. And truly, we're not very different once you get past our diet. We're all loving parents who'd do anything for our kids, but not only that, they're the only ones who'd understand what it's like having a kid who's also in charge of a herd."

"True," Papa Sharptooth considered. "Not to mention we could help them."

"What do you mean?" asked Mama Sharptooth.

"Well, we're the only ones who know it's like to actually hunt other dinosaurs to survive," Papa Sharptooth explained. "No white-eye used to small game or water-hunting, scavenging or stealing knows the mindset of an effective herd stalker. We can give them advice on how to keep safe and familiarize them with aggressor strategies. Rather than have to rely on Chomper to translate for us all the time."

"Hmm, you have a good point," Mama Sharptooth sighed, before asking. "How good do you think our instinct control really is?"

"Pretty good, I think," Papa Sharptooth chuckled. "We've been mostly weaned off dinosaur meat on that island. Not to mention we managed to ride on longnecks the whole way here without taking a bite. Of course, we'd be deader than rotten corpses if we did."

"Right," Mama Sharptooth said as she saw Spike ambling toward them. To her surprise, Spike smelled particularly good, a fact not lost on her mate.

"Since when he did get so enticing?" Papa Sharptooth teased as Mama Sharptooth warningly whapped him again.

They soon found out why however, for Spike had arrived with two small scaly swimmers in his mouth. It was a paltry helping for sure, most likely they had just jumped out of the stream somewhere and Spike had already found them dead. Nevertheless, it was clear that Spike was offering it to them as a gift, not because he wanted anything, but because he was genuinely concerned for their well-being. The gesture warmed Mama Sharptooth's heart, and after placing the tiny portion in front of them, he beamed as he saw the two sharpteeth carefully pick a carcass up and gulp it down.

"Thank you Spike, that was really sweet," Mama Sharptooth smiled.

"Yeah, perfect way to cap our meal off," Papa Sharptooth agreed.

Spike just grunted and nodded appreciatively before resting by Mama Sharptooth's side. He didn't say anything, or really try to engage with them further. But that was just the way Mama Sharptooth liked it. Spike was easier to be around than any of Chomper's flattooth friends, simply because with him so seldomly speaking anyway, there wasn't the expectation to try and say something with him around. The quiet was natural with him, for he relished it, always seeming to take in the natural world and its beauty in a way his more talkative friends didn't. All the same, his presence was really soothing, for it showed Mama Sharptooth both that he cared for them and trusted them, since no flattooth would ordinarily sit so close to a sharptooth. It was his way of showing that she was included, and for that, she felt really grateful. Her good feelings were further bolstered by the fact that her mate was right, her impulse control had gotten really good, for she had no desire to eat Spike whatsoever.

After a while of resting and hearing the deep rumbles of her mate sound asleep, Mama Sharptooth couldn't help but listen to the slow flow of squelching mud. She could smell a bunch of elders resting inside, including Cera and Ruby's parental figures and Ducky's mom, along with several other grownups who were the guardians of the younger group of rascals. They themselves had been there too, only to evidently get bored of hanging out in the mud for so long, leaving the elders to wallow and soak.

A sudden idea hit her. Now that she was well-fed, her mate was asleep, the kids had left, and the elders were deep in a relaxed state … She could potentially invite herself to the party. Besides, a mud bath would feel really good on her stiff joints …

"Sparrrrrrarararrrarrark," Mama Sharptooth hissed quietly, making up her mind before she could reconsider.

Spike looked at her in surprise, before she said, "Tarrraakkemerrrmuuurrararrrdd."

Spike looked at her quizzically for a moment as she cursed to herself, wishing that her request to take her to the mud was understood. But then Spike nodded in understanding, before he squatted down to offer his back to her. Carefully getting up so as not to awaken her husband, Mama Sharptooth clumsily wobbled over to Spike. Short distances were fine, but she knew she needed a ride to get all the way over to the mud pool. Spike however, was very still, patiently standing as she tried to gently slide herself up his plated back. Before she knew it and with several cuts from his jagged plates, she was slumped on top of his back, and Spike set off. She knew she may have to be at a respectful distance, after all, no prey would want to be wading in the same pools as their predators. On the other claw, in contrast to her ferocious past as a big game hunter, she had been on excellent behavior in the herd, even helping out on numerous occasions. It may be difficult to gain the trust of the elders, but as her son had earned it from each one of them, she knew it wouldn't be impossible so long as just as she showed the same kindly spirit as he did.

---

"So after we came out of the murky ooze, we all got thicker skin and the ability to stand upright rather than just squat. For a while, we all walked on two legs. Then we started to change. Some of us took to the skies and became flyers. Some of us grew long necks or armor on their backs. They grew front legs because they were getting so big and strong their bodies couldn't hold their weight. The longnecks started growing even bigger while the armor transformed into plates, spikes and clubs. But others of us stayed little. Some of us used that to our advantage, relying on speed to get out of trouble. But as smaller plants abounded, some of them started growing bigger too. Some of them became bigger and bigger while still remaining on their two feet, growing spiked thumbs, swimming skills, bony heads, and hollow horns to defend themselves. Others lost their front feet as their heads grew and big frills and horns developed. So over time we've all become different. But we all share a common history too, that makes us all dinosaurs, and ties us all together."

Ruby had decided to help Mr. Thicknose put on this special dinner for the children, going around to serve them piles of tree stars and in the case of Cricket and the runners, crawlers. While Ruby went around, she watched Mr. Thicknose lead this session, first explaining them that sickness could be cured after the Almond incident, before taking questions and answers from kids. Because one of the kids asked where they really came from, he had been giving a lecture of the history of dinosaur-kind. He had given this lecture countless times to succeeding groups of children in the Valley, usually boring them to tears especially after numerous repetitions. But even the Valleydweller kids were attentive upon seeing the response of the new kids, looking at Mr. Thicknose in shock and wonder.

"We were always told that we were all created by the circles the way we are now, and that we don't share any blood with anyone who's not our kind," said twelve-cold-time-old bonehead Rhine in wonder.

"If we questioned our old herds, they'd whap us until we said what they wanted," sighed eight-cold-time-old swimmer Serena. "But this makes so much sense now … I mean, we're all dinosaurs!"

"Right," Mr. Thicknose nodded. "Your old herds believed in a dangerous concept of racial purity, that you were created to be the dominant kind on the planet even at the expense of others who don't carry your noble bloodline. When in truth, all of us are connected, and where it really matters, there is a lot more that unites us than divides us. We can all talk, feel, reason, play, sing …"

"Sing!" seven-cold-time-old hollowhorn Galena exclaimed, looking over at Tricia's gang. "Hey, can we do that song? That song you did at the crazy talk!"

Mr. Thicknose chuckled. "I thought you already did that song with Petrie?"

"Yeah, but we wanna do it again," insisted eight-cold-time-old boxhead Cedar.

"Please? We could never sing with our old herds," begged six-cold-time-old threehorn Blair.

Mr. Thicknose shook his head with amusement. "Oh, very well then," he grinned. Ruby couldn't help but smile, for the song perfectly fit the theme of the discussion and it was a joy to see all the kids singing it. The new runner kids in particular, for they'd never been with so many friendly leafeaters before.

"Very nice kids," Mr. Thicknose chuckled.

"Excuse me guys," came a voice, and turning, Ruby saw that Ali was approaching them. "Sorry to interrupt … But I couldn't help but hear you guys singing my song."

The kids looked at Ali in amazement.

"That was your song?" seven-cold-time-old onehorn Esme asked.

"We thought the herd leaders did it!" eight-cold-time-old Barrow laughed.

"It was the only song I sung with them back then," Ali giggled. "But I was the first to start singing."

Impressed, the kids oohed at Ali in amazement, making her blush a little.

"How did you come up with that, at our age?" marveled seven-cold-time old spikethumb Velda.

"Well, because I just understood it myself," Ali explained. "Like a lot of you kids, I grew up in a segregated herd."

"But your mom's nice!" pointed out seven-cold-time-old clubtail Buck.

"She was then too, but we still kept to only our kind," Ali explained. "I … I thought dinos of other kinds were scary, and thought I could only be friends with my own kind. Until then, I only ever had two friends. One I never actually saw myself. I only heard her voice, we played a game of vocal tag, I hid as she tried to guess where I was and vice versa. And then I met Littlefoot. I thought everything was perfect … Until I met his other friends," she said embarrassedly. "I didn't understand how he could possibly like kids of other kinds and that he just was friends with them because he didn't have another longneck to play with. So I tried manipulating him away from them. We went off on an adventure … Until he got trapped, and I knew we needed help. It was then that I saw for myself how good his friends truly were to him, and once I made friends with them too, well, that's when I made up that song."

The kids chattered in amazement before Mr. Thicknose said, "So does anyone have something they want to talk about?"

The Bright Circle had started to set, so some of the kids were getting a little tired. However, little Gem put up his paw uncertainly.

"Yes Gem?" Mr. Thicknose asked.

"Well," Gem said hesitantly. "Can you guys promise not to laugh at me?"

"Of course," Mr. Thicknose replied to nods from his peers.

"Okay, uh …" Gem muttered. "My nestmates bullied me by saying I was so weak that I'd be gobbled up by the boogietooth. It's all lies, right?"

"Well, I haven't heard of such a story," Mr. Thicknose reassured him, before turning to Saro beside him. "How about you, Saro?"

"Me neither," said Saro, "But often such stories have a basis in truth. Can you describe more of this boogietooth to me so we can figure out what's fact and fiction?"

Gem nodded. "It's a sharptooth that blends in with its surroundings and waits for weak hatchlings to come by. Then it grabs them and gobbles them all up," he shuddered.

Mr. Thicknose nodded. "I think you are really talking about a Hidden Runner," Mr. Thicknose explained. "Something that I went looking for with the herd leaders when they were your age."

"Yes," Ruby chuckled. "We all thought that the Hidden Runner was scary, but he was as scared of us as we were scared of it."

"I actually happen to know a great deal about hidden runners," Saro said. "And not from any story mind you, but from sharing stories to a group of them on my travels. For starters, hidden runners are not sharpteeth. They are halfteeth, closely related to rainbow faces or clawhands, and while some may eat an unsupervised egg, they are far too small to eat a hatchling. The hidden runners I met however, ate a mostly green diet. They were a very timid group, always on the move due to fear of attack from bigger dinosaurs, both flatteeth and sharpteeth. The only reason I got to talk with them for as long as I did was that their herd leader's leg was broken and I agreed to protect them while he recovered if I could share my stories. The only thing true about that story is that the coloring of hidden runners allow them to conceal themselves in bushes, but they do this to protect themselves rather than stalk hatchlings. Is this consistent with what you've found, Mr. Thicknose?"

"Yes, I would say so," Mr. Thicknose smiled. "The hidden runner is nothing to worry about, and rest assured, you children will all be safe."

"Thanks Mr. Thicknose," Gem said appreciatively, before Mr. Thicknose moved on to the next question.

Ruby however, considered thoughtfully. Hidden Runner. It had been ages since she had thought about him, not since the time they had been out looking for him. But new questions popped in her head. What was that hidden runner doing back home, anyway? Was he perhaps a nomad looking for a peaceful home, but afraid to reveal himself due to all the prejudice and suspicion that halfteeth faced? Or perhaps was he a herd scout, investigating the Great Valley as a possible place for an entire herd of hidden runners to reside? She hoped no runners would try to be investigating it now, for without the protections of basic rights from Mr. Bonehead, the fanatics in charge of the Valley now would surely kill any runner they could spot. Then it occurred to her. Perhaps many flatteeth would be hostile to hidden runners. But for this herd, which had already welcomed in other halfteeth and friendly sharpteeth and had her and Chomper as herd leaders, prejudice would certainly not be an issue …

Suddenly, her heart began to race. Not only could they give some hidden runners happier lives, but the hidden runners could really give back to the herd as well. Combining a clawhand or rainbow face's natural speed and sharp senses with an ability to blend in with floral surroundings, a hidden runner would make an ideal herd guard. Recruiting a group of them as herd guards would not only ease the burden on the existing herd guards considerably, but their concealment abilities allowed them to spy on enemies with minimal risk to themselves. They could easily guard the forests surrounding the crater for outside threats, looking out for danger while safely concealed in their leafy hideaways. Or they could perhaps sneak into the Great Valley, and team up with the flyers on their spy work … Helping to put aside any prejudice towards halfteeth once and for all …

"We've got to reach out to some of these hidden runners!" Ruby thought to herself as she clenched her fists with gleeful triumph. "Thanks Gem, you just gave me the best idea I could possibly get!"