Welcome back to another chapter! Sorry for the long gaps in chapters, I've actually been very busy working on this fic, but have been stuck laying the groundwork for future chapters. I'm pleased though to finally have a chapter at the ready, and hope this one is worth the wait! At some point, I will also be posting rough pictures of the characters so you can get a good idea of what these characters' color combos etc. look like, as I know I have a fair number of OCs and will have plenty more for future chapters, so be on the lookout for that at DeviantArt. I know a picture says a thousand words, and know full well of the challenges of keeping track of OCs for readers, so I want to give you this for reference to make things easier. I've also modified the title of the fanfic as you probably noticed, as I think it showcases the story a little better. As always, I appreciate favs/follows/reviews, and Land Before Time and its universe belong to Universal.

Chapter 7 - The Mysterious Fires

He got into position, his eyes narrowing in on the little threehorn. It had wandered off several feet away from its mother and began to amble over toward the rose bushes. As its tantalizing scent drew nearer and nearer, he could not help but lick his lips. Camouflaging right in with the bushes, there was no way the threehorn could see him. Slowly seeing the roses getting nibbled, he felt his cover slowly getting whittled away. But he knew the time was coming as he stared into the threehorn's dumb, vacant eyes, which began to shut as its body blindly relaxed. His heart began racing with excitement. As his father told him so many times, when the prey had lost its guard was the time to strike it hard.

He sprang out of the bushes and landed right on the threehorn's back, feeling his foot claws dig in with a satisfying sink. Alarmed, the threehorn tried bucking him off, but his claws were firmly in the sides of the threehorn's hide, allowing him to cling on. Gripping for dear life, he then moved his jaw to the threehorn's little neck and began to bite down hard on it. He knew that so long as he held on, victory was in his grasp. All he had to do was cut off its air supply, and if he succeeded, he would make his first conquest …

Littlefoot woke up with a start, alone in his and Cera's sleeping spot. For a second, he had wondered what had happened to her, before remembering her poop duty punishment. Figuring she got dragged into that early, he relaxed a little. It had still been a very tense sleep story, and his mind was burning with questions. Why was he experiencing a sleep story from what had to have been a sharptooth's perspective? Who was this threehorn he attacked? He knew it couldn't have been Cera or her nestmates, for the threehorn was dark in color, just like her father. Was he experiencing something from his childhood perhaps?

Hoping to take his mind off things, he went to see his friends who were there apart from Cera and Chomper, who had left the Valley early that morning to return to his parents' place to eat. He indeed found them in the heart of the Valley, where most of the rest of the herds were, also eating. To his surprise however, none of them were saying anything to each other as they quietly ate together.

"Hi," he said. "How's everyone doing?"

"Um, okay," Ducky said.

"Yeah," Petrie added with a yawn as Spike nodded.

"Cera's gone?" Ruby asked as Littlefoot nodded. "I think she's off on punishment."

Littlefoot then remembered something. "You guys have any idea what the rainbow faces were talking about last night?"

Spike grunted in confusion.

"Well it was a bunch of riddles," Ruby said, "But what the riddles mean riddles me."

"How about you two?" Littlefoot asked Ducky and Petrie.

"We do not know either," Ducky said.

"Yeah, we enough to think about with strange sleep stories last night," Petrie agreed.

Littlefoot looked at Ducky and Petrie to his surprise, and stranger still, so did Ruby and Spike. "You mean you guys had strange sleep stories too?" Littlefoot asked in surprise.

"Yes," Ducky said, just as surprised as he was.

"Strange, so did I," Ruby said puzzledly as Spike grunted. "And even stranger, we had these sleep stories right after the rainbow faces appeared."

"I did lot of jumping in my sleep story … Along a nice riverbank, yes, yes, yes," Ducky said. "But I do not know … It was like I was really excited for something. Like I had this big rush of energy, this funny kind of drive in my heart. Only thing is, I do not know what for."

"Me fly really high in the air," Petrie said awkwardly. "Like me couldn't be more sure of meself. Me feel like me could handle anything and everything below was so small in comparison," he said. "Funny thing is, me never normally feel that."

"I was in a dark cave," Ruby said. "And somehow, I knew I needed to hide …. But I do not know what I had to hide from," Ruby said. "Other than for some reason, I was really mad ... How about you Littlefoot?"

"Well," Littlefoot said worriedly, and he was very glad both Cera and Chomper were not here for the situation. "I must have been a little sharptooth … And I attacked a baby threehorn."

"I do not understand," Ducky said. "Why would you attack a baby threehorn?"

"I don't know," Littlefoot answered. "Other than I was a baby sharptooth. Maybe I was hungry or something … But it didn't feel like I was doing it for survival. It almost felt sorta fun…"

"Well me glad you sleep story nonsense too," Petrie said in relief. "You even less like you than me was. Me feel relief me sleep story mean nothing."

"Does it though?" Littlefoot said. "We all had these really memorable sleep stories where we acted weird … Was yours like you, Spike?" Littlefoot asked.

Spike looked puzzled before giving a noncommittal grunt.

"I do not think Spike fully understands his sleep story either," Ducky said. "How did you feel in your sleep story, Spike?"

Spike thought for a moment before putting a paw on his tummy and rubbing it.

"Well that sound like you, Spike," Petrie observed.

"So what could these sleep stories mean?" Littlefoot pondered.

"I don't know," Ruby said. "But I'll make sure to ask Chomper when he gets back," Ruby said. "If we all had weird sleep stories, then he and Cera might have had weird sleep stories too."

"What you think Cera's might be?" Petrie asked Littlefoot.

"Well knowing Cera, she's not gonna tell us," Littlefoot said. "You know what she's like about sleep stories."

"Yeah, she probably laugh at us," Petrie said.

"But maybe I can bring it up with her in private if I get an opportunity." Littlefoot said hopefully.

Suddenly, Ruby sniffed the air. "Do you guys smell something?" she asked.

Littlefoot took a sniff. "No," he said thoughtfully as the others too shook their heads.

However, their thoughts were interrupted as they heard a rampage of footsteps coming closer to them. This was followed soon by loud voices seeming to be screaming. As they got louder, more and more dinosaurs stopped eating and watched, looking for the source of the noise. It turned out it came from Ruby's parents and their herd, accompanied by Cera, Bron's and Ali's herds, and the spiketails, who all looked confused but nervous as the noteeth were shouting, trying to be heard over the hubbub. This started bringing in most of the other dinosaurs of the Valley closer as the uneasiness continued to spread.

Seeing the confusion, Mr. Thicknose stood up. "Everyone," he began, but his voice was too soft to be heard over the hullabaloo. Clearing his throat, he tried again. "Everyone, calm down!" he shouted as loud as he could as the noise finally subsided and everyone turned to look at him. Catching his breath, he asked, "Now what is going on?"

"Fire," Ruby's father said. "From outside the Valley!"

The leafeaters however, all looked confused. "I can't smell anything," Lambe, one of the elder swimmers in the valley said, lifting his head into the air. "Or see anything for that matter."

"Nor can I," agreed Lance, an elder bonehead who was Ceph's father.

"None of us have seen or smelled it either," said Peaches, an older longneck in Ali's herd said.

Mutters broke out with this peculiar information. "How come can you smell the fire if none of us can?" asked Topps.

"Well obviously you don't have very good fire sense, so that does not say much," Mr. Clubtail snarked.

"No one for asked your opinion, Magnus," Topps growled to Mr. Clubtail.

"Enough. No more arguing," Mr. Thicknose said curtly. "Flyers, investigate please. Soar above the Mysterious Beyond to see if you can find any fires."

So all of the Valley's flyers soared off to check the Mysterious Beyond.

"Me be back real soon," Petrie said as the others said goodbye to him.

Mr. Thicknose then turned to the crowd. "There may very well be a reason why the noteeth can smell things we cannot. Their noses may be more attuned than ours because their ancestors were sharpteeth more recently. And if there is fire, that is something we can only appreciate."

Many dinosaurs nodded and grunted thoughtfully, though some, like Mrs. Maia and her sister, Juana Spikethumb, Lance Bonehead and Ed Shieldback looked skeptically at one another as they waited for the flyers to return.

Soon enough some of the flyers started to arrive. The gang couldn't see Petrie, but could see Mama Flyer, who seemed to be leading the group. One look at their faces was enough to tell everyone the results of their search. Mama Flyer glided down to Mr. Thicknose and perched down in front of him. "There's fire all over the Mysterious Beyond," she told Mr. Thicknose grimly. "It's a ways from the Valley, but it is spreading at a quick rate."

Everyone began to mutter fiercely as Mr. Thicknose nodded. "Right then," he called out. "Now first of all, do not worry too much. These fires are probably only natural, and I imagine they will simply burn themselves out and never reach the Valley. Flyers, keep an eye out on the fires from above. Runners, get to every corner of the Valley to make sure everyone knows of the threat. Parents, make sure your children can be accounted for. Hopefully the Great Wall will keep all the fires out. But above all, remain on alert."

So everyone spread out through the Valley, watching out for the oncoming fires. As none of the gang were the guardians of anyone, they looked for any individuals they could think of without guardians. No sooner did they start however than Tria bustled in, looking restless.

"Cera," she said breathlessly. "Where's Tricia?"

"What?" Cera exclaimed. "I thought she was with you!"

"She was," Tria said. "But she and her friends disappeared! I talked to Mrs. Twoped and the others and they couldn't find them either!"

Littlefoot looked at Tria. "We'll go help look for them, promise!"

So while Tria went around asking if anyone had seen Tricia and her friends, the gang huddled together. At once they realized the disadvantage they were in, as with Chomper and Petrie both being gone, they had lost both their best sense of smell and their flyer's eye view.

"This would be much easier with Petrie and Chomper, it would," Ducky said.

"Does anyone have any ideas to find them?" Cera asked, annoyed.

"Well," Ruby said, looking at her parents' group. "Garnet and Pearl are not with my parents, so Garnet and Pearl must be with Tricia and the others," Ruby reasoned. "I may not be able to sniff out things like Chomper, but I think I can sniff out my family."

So Ruby darted in different directions, hoping to get a good scent of her family. Taking whiffs of the smoky air proved to be ineffective, so slightly discouraged but undeterred, Ruby put her nose to the ground, and after going in several directions, noticed some faint footprints in the dirt. She could smell both Garnet and Pearl and recognized their footprints, and also saw four sets of four-footer footprints and two other sets of two-footers, all of which were smaller than her own. Realizing this matched up with Tricia's gang perfectly, she excitedly ran back to the others. "Found their footprints!"

"Great!" Littlefoot exclaimed, and so they quickly followed Ruby to the footprints. They were able to go quite a ways before the path abruptly stopped as the dirt changed into grass.

"Can you still smell them Ruby?" Littlefoot asked hopefully.

Ruby shook her head.

Spike however, gave a sniff into the air, and excitedly swerved to the side, grunting for the others to follow.

"Spike found something, he did!" Ducky exclaimed.

So they followed Spike, hoping that he had found the hatchlings. To their surprise however, led them to a tree of purple fruit, which had been dropping fruit so that several of them were on the ground, but Tricia and her friends were nowhere to be seen. By now the scent of the smoke was getting stronger, seeming to even flow from Cera's nostrils as she shouted, "Spike! My sister is missing and all you can think about is food!"

Spike, who indeed couldn't help himself by eating a purple fruit, looked apologetically at he hung his head. Littlefoot however, stepped in. "Cera, Spike wouldn't lead us here without a reason … Hey, what if Tricia and her friends went to the fruit?"

"Oh, that makes sense, it does!" Ducky exclaimed as Spike nodded.

Ruby examined the ground where indeed she found more footprints. "Spike's right, that's them!" she said.

"Good going Spike!" Littlefoot said encouragingly. "And if they went to the fruit tree, they must have taken them somewhere … Spike, can you smell where they might have taken the fruit?"

Spike whiffed the air, and while the smoke had clouded his sense of smell, nothing could block out his special ability for locating food. Quickly, he nodded.

"All right Spike!" Cera cheered, paw-bumping him, and buoyed by what was in effect an apology from Cera, Spike charged forward through some taller grasses. To everyone's surprise however as they went, they realized that they were stepping on something squishy underneath. Ruby lifted her foot up, and indeed saw that there was scraps of purple fruit on her foot.

"I wonder why they left so much purple fruit behind?" Ducky asked as a squelch occurred from her latest step.

"Maybe Sis and her friends were having a food fight," Cera teased.

Littlefoot however noticed something else. "Cera, I think you're right!" The other stared as he reached into in a small clearing and picked up a purple fruit split in half, hanging together by a thread. Its juices were splattered all over the place, and surrounding it were all eight of the little dinosaurs' footprints. Looking at the skin of the fruit, it was punctured by a dinosaur's hand, larger than any of the children's, and considering its condition, it had to have been thrown from a considerable distance. Seeing all this, the gang quickly realized what was going on.

"Someone is throwing fruit at the hatchlings! I do not like that, no no no," Ducky said.

"That's just straight-up bullying," Cera growled. "I'm gonna give whoever bullied my sister a piece of my mind!"

And before they knew it, Cera angrily charged forward. The others quickly followed, still on the trail of the purple fruit that had been thrown around. At last, the trail stopped at the edge of the Great Valley, right by an entrance to the Secret Caverns. Two domeheads, a few years older than the gang, one purple and one grey, were sitting down, gorging upon a stash of purple fruit. Ducky recognized these domeheads as being Kirt and Naz, the pair that stole her tree stars from her because she was little all those years ago.

"I can't believe those kids just gave up like that," said the grey domehead, Kirt, to the purple one.

"Eh, they're like the other group, you know, the threehorn's big sister and her friends," said Naz. "Off on some stupid adventure, I suppose."

"Oh well, more purple fruit for us I guess," laughed Kirt as the two continued to eat.

At once, Cera charged at them, pinning them down with one leap and causing both to drop their fruits in panic. "How dare you bully my sister, you rockheads! I ..."

"Cera," Ducky interrupted. "Let me talk to them."

Bewildered, Cera stopped as Ducky stood over them. "You really should not be bullying smaller dinosaurs, you should not," she scolded. The two domeheads, who once had no problem bullying Ducky, had barely grown since Ducky was a hatchling, and now that Ducky was reaching her full size, it was she who was now the bigger one. "You bullied me once when I was little. But now I am bigger than you, I am. So would you like it if I bullied you now?"

The domeheads looked uneasily at each other. "I do not want to bully you. But no one has to bully each other, they do not," Ducky said gently.

Kirt and Naz looked at each other and mumbled, "Sorry."

"Good," Ducky said. "Now will you apologize to Tricia and her friends?"

The pair nodded and Cera, sighing, reluctantly let them go.

"Speaking of Tricia and her friends, we heard you say they might be off on some adventure," Littlefoot asked. "Where did you last see them?"

Kirt and Naz looked uncomfortably at each other before Kirt said, "They went in the Secret Caverns."

"What?" Cera gasped in alarm.

Then they saw a familiar shape as Petrie frantically flapped towards them. As he landed, he had to catch his breath to try and get his words in place. "Tricia and friends in big trouble! They out in Mysterious Beyond! And fire coming!"

"They what?" Cera shouted.

"Come on," Littlefoot said. "We've got to save them!"

"Wait!" Naz said. "You won't tell the others we saw them last, will you?"

"Well, as long as you keep your promise," Littlefoot said fairly.

"We will!" they both called out, and Littlefoot gave them a nod of understanding before they rushed along the rocky ledges to the Secret Caverns.

"You know where to go, Petrie?" Littlefoot asked.

"Me think so," Petrie said nervously. "Past Secret Caverns and …"

His voice trailed off as they reached the nearest entrance to the Secret Caverns. While it was a comfortable fit for them as kids, none of them have been through this spot in years, and only Ruby could fit through now.

"Great. Now what!" Cera practically screamed in frustration.

"Me no able to carry everyone home meself!" Petrie said.

Littlefoot however, noticed something. "Hey ... We can climb over the caverns!"

"What?" Cera asked.

"No listen," Littlefoot said. "See that spot? I can make a bridge to it with my neck for Ruby and Ducky to climb up. Then they and Petrie can pull Spike up, and then they'll be able to pull you up. Then all five of you can pull me up."

"You sure this work?" Petrie asked concernedly.

"No ... But we've got to try something, don't we?" Littlefoot asked reasonably.

"We should try it, yep yep yep," Ducky agreed.

So quickly they got to work. It was not hard for Ruby and Ducky to climb up Littlefoot's tail, onto his body, then up his neck to reach the lower-hanging bit of cavern ceiling. Littlefoot lifted Spike up enough for the two of them and Petrie to pull him over, then with four of them at the top, they did the same with Cera. Finally, with all five of the others on top, they grabbed onto Littlefoot's head and heaved him over the cliffs.

"Good job everyone," Littlefoot said encouragingly, but as he did, the rock beneath Littlefoot's began to crumble and before he knew it, his back right foot became sunk through the surface rock.

"Littlefoot! The caverns cannot support your weight, they cannot!" Ducky exclaimed.

"Ruby, Petrie, go on ahead and see what you can do!" Cera barked. "Ducky, Spike, we've gotta get Littlefoot out."

"What if he gets stuck again?" Ducky said.

"We're gonna have to carry him across," Cera said. "That way his weight won't be on the caverns."

"Well, we see you soon," said Petrie, putting on a brave face, and he and Ruby headed onward. Though the fire was still off in the distance, it did not show any sign of abating.

"They're not too far from here, are they?" Ruby asked Petrie as they both went as fast as they could.

"Me no think … They headed this way," Petrie said.

"I just hope not very far away this way," Ruby said.

Their answer came much sooner than they expected. "Hey, me remember this place," Petrie said as another nasty stench came to him. "We went here when there no water and …"

But then both of them stopped talking as they heard a familiar voice call out, "Pull! Pull! Pull!"

"That Tricia!" Petrie exclaimed. Flying higher to take a look, he caught sight of something that made his heart stand still.

"Me see them!" Petrie exclaimed. "They up on cliff here! And they need help!"

"Can you fly me there?" Ruby asked.

"Me try," Petrie said bravely.

So Petrie let Ruby climb aboard him as he struggled to fly the relatively heavy Ruby upwards. However, he was able to glide her up just enough so that she was able to get able to climb onto the cliff. Then she and Petrie hurried over to see what was going on.

Tricia and her friends were all lined up, each biting onto the other's tail to form a chain as in front of them stood a familiar tarpit. Ruby and Petrie looked inside the tarpit and saw what they were pulling and their hearts churned even further. Completely submerged in the tar was one of Ducky's little brothers, who Tricia and her friends were trying to pull out, while even further in the tar was a little light grey whiptailed longneck, who was lying splayed out in the middle.

"Garnet! Pearl!" Ruby cried out.

Ruby's siblings, who were in the back of the line, turned to face her as Garnet continued to yank on Perri's tail. "Sis! It's you who's here, you it's!" Pearl exclaimed.

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

"We followed Sam to the Mysterious Beyond," Pearl said. "He was trying to rescue that little longneck in there and once we saw him go to the Mysterious Beyond ... Well, we knew we had to rescue him!"

Ruby nodded in understanding as Petrie said, "I see. Well the good news is the others are coming," she said, perking up the exhausted looking band of youngsters.

"But bad news is there big fire out here," Petrie said warningly. "Look!"

The kids, so busy on trying to rescue the dinos in the tar, were not even aware of the incoming fires. But upon looking up, they saw the wave of fires was approaching as far as the eye could see straight in front of them. Panicked, the band of hatchlings broke their chain. Luckily however, none of them were in the tar, though Tricia's feet at the front of the line were very close to the edge.

"Tar can catch fire, so we better get out of here fast!" Ruby warned as the kids nodded.

"Me pull little longneck out," Petrie said, and he swooped down to just over the tar's surface. Being very careful to avoid submerging any part of his body in the tar, he felt the longneck's back before grabbing her with his back feet. Heaving her as hard as he could, the longneck stuck steadfastly in the tar. Petrie sighed, knowing he had to pry each of the longneck's legs free of the tar in order to pull her out. With enough wiggling, Petrie used his beak to carefully extract the longneck's front legs out of the tar, before moving on her to back legs. Bracing himself, with a big heave, he finally was able to lift the little longneck out of the tar.

Ruby meanwhile got behind Pearl and grabbed onto her tail. "Okay everyone," she called out. "Sam, hold still, all right?"

"Okay," Sam said, happy to see Petrie rescuing the little longneck.

"Tricia, you got Sam's tail?" Ruby asked.

"Yep!" Tricia exclaimed as she fixed her grip on it. "Ready everyone!"

Everyone was, and with Ruby's help, the group was finally able to remove Sam from the tar. But just as they all celebrated getting Sam out, they saw that the fires had rapidly drawn closer to them.

"Are we gonna get out of this?" Perri whispered.

"I sure hope so Perri," Oplax told his friend.

"We all had lots of adventures in our lives," Rachelle said.

"But how can we outrun a fire?" Garnet said cautiously.

"Even us fast runners can't," Pearl added.

"I … I don't think we can," Cassia sighed, looking to Tricia, who nodded.

"Hey, my sis and her friends never give up, and we shouldn't either," she said, looking up at Ruby and Petrie hopefully. "Right?"

Ruby and Petrie nodded, looking at each other. "Right," they said encouragingly.

"Well how?" Mono said frustratedly.

Their answer appeared just as Mono asked it, for Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike arrived, panting as they hurried over. The kids cheered, but Petrie and Ruby could tell something was wrong.

"You guys okay?" Petrie asked concernedly.

"Yeah," Littlefoot huffed, attempting to sound as reassuring as he could. "We just … Can't come back the way we came."

Tricia and her friends looked confused, but Petrie and Ruby nodded to confirm their understanding. They knew Littlefoot must have meant that the fires had blocked the way behind them, but wanted to express it in such a way that he wouldn't terrify the hatchlings. Sure enough, Ruby could smell the flames were a good several hundred feet away in that direction as well, but like with the other fires, were quickly heading in their direction.

"Come on everybody, hop on one of us grownups, yep yep yep," Ducky said encouragingly as the kids climbed aboard.

"Now let's move!" Cera urged.

Secretly, none of the gang really knew where they were going. But with the fires boxing them in on two sides and the Great Valley's tall walls blocking off the third, there was only one way they could take.

"You guys are truly amazing," Rachelle marveled.

"I can't believe you found us," Oplax added.

"Well it wasn't easy," Littlefoot said. "But I'm sure glad we did."

"Still, you've got some explaining to do sis," Cera said. "You can't expect us to bail you out all the time."

"We weren't!" Tricia piped up. "But we had to save Sam."

"Sam, why did you go to the Mysterious Beyond? It is a dangerous place, it is!" Ducky asked her little brother.

"I … I …" Sam muttered, "I heard her cry out for help," he said, nodding toward the little whiptail.

"He was the only one who found me," the little whiptail finally piped up, and despite her voice and small size, she seemed to be a cold time or two older than the other kids. "Mommy and Daddy thought I was lost …"

Ducky turned to Sam. "Oh wow Sam, that is really brave, yep yep yep!"

"Yeah," Littlefoot said admiringly. "But next time, make sure you get help, all right?"

"Yeah, you nearly gave us all a heart attack!" Cera added.

"Your parents were worried sick, they were!" Ducky exclaimed.

"It dangerous out there!" Petrie added.

"Pfft … Look who's talking," Tricia snorted, causing her friends to chortle and even Littlefoot and his friends couldn't help but join in.

"Okay, that's a good point," Littlefoot laughed. "But still, we're proud of what you did, and I'm glad to see … Uh, what's your name?" he asked the little whiptail riding on his back.

"Destiny," she said.

"Nice to meet you, Destiny," Littlefoot smiled at her. "I'm glad to see Destiny is all right."

As they continued to run, the scenery changed. The rocky surface gradually softened and eventually turned into sand, which fortunately was not as hot under their toes.

"Where are we going?" Mono asked impatiently.

However at that point, a flaming log suddenly fell right in front of their path. With a screeching halt, Littlefoot and his friends paused as the kids screamed.

"Where the bloody sharptooth dirt did that come from?" Cera snapped in fear.

"Yeah, there are no trees nearby, nope nope nope!" Ducky agreed.

"Come on, we've gotta get over it," Littlefoot said, so Ruby climbed aboard Spike and the four bigger dinosaurs hurriedly leaped over the flaming log in turn.

"We're almost there," Littlefoot huffed, seeing that indeed, most of the fires were a long ways behind them, and there were no tar or logs anywhere in sight.

"Yes, but how did that log … Aak!" Petrie gasped as another flaming log dropped in front of them.

So hurriedly, the gang made it over that log too, the hatchlings continuing to shriek in terror. Much as the gang tried to think of something to say to reassure them, the flaming logs mysteriously landing right in front of them was inexplicable to them too.

"Me look to see where flaming logs coming from," Petrie said, echoing everyone's thoughts as he climbed aboard Littlefoot's head and looked into the sky as they continued down the sandy path.

They continued their dash along the sand, which was becoming increasingly less gravely, and soon the scent of sea air also began to tingle their noses.

"Big water!" Ducky exclaimed excitedly. "Fire cannot get to water! We are almost safe, we are!"

The kids cheered for a second, but then from up on Littlefoot's head, Petrie felt a strange gust of wind. He looked up just in time. In the midst of the bright circle's light, he could see a large flyer's silhouette, and dangling from its long, hooked claws was what looked to be a very long, leafy vine, only coated with thick, fiery flames. "Look out!" Petrie shouted, but it was too late. The flyer swooped high over their heads and with startling accuracy, laid out the long vine like a lasso all around them. Looking for a way out, Littlefoot knew that these fires would be too high to jump and that there was no visible way out … But there was one experience in their past adventures that proved instructive.

"Everybody," Littlefoot said, trying to keep the bravery in his voice, remembering what happened that one Bright Circle celebration. "We've got to kick some sand!"

"What?" Perri said in confusion.

"Like this!" Cera said, catching on, and at once, started kicking sand toward the fires to cover them up and halt their momentum.

Encouraged, the whole gang tried it. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike kicked sand at the flames in front. At the same time, Tricia and her friends turned and did the same with the flames from behind, and while not able to put them out, provided enough resistance to stop them from approaching.

"Me no see bad flyer anywhere," Petrie said to Ruby, who was looking at the ground level for further fires ahead.

"That is good, yep yep yep!" Ducky said as they plowed forward. They could smell the scent of the big water getting stronger, and sure enough, before too long, they could hear the sound of crashing waves in the distance.

"Yay!" the hatchlings all cheered.

But their moment of triumph was short-lived. In the distance, Littlefoot could make out that a strange trench was dug out, where inside lay it was a thick coating of tar. "Uh guys?" he asked uncertainly.

"Look!" Petrie screeched, and then above, they could see the silhouette of the mysterious flyer was back, too high in the sky to make out, with another flame coated vine. In a matter of seconds, the flyer dropped the vine right in the dug tar trench. The result was instantaneous. With a crackle and a boom, a thick wall of fire emerged in front of them, drawing closer to them as though it was alive, its scorching heat reaching out to get them. Out of the corner of their eye, they could see the mysterious flyer fly off through the smoky mists. Turning around, they could see that another wave of fires was coming from behind them

"Now what?" Cera shouted.

"We could try kicking at this fire too," Littlefoot said hopefully.

So the whole group all tried doing battle with this particularly invigorated line of fire, but it was of little use, for the fire kept advancing towards them. The hatchlings, seeing that the bigger dinosaurs were not able to stop the fire, were starting to cling to one another in panic as they shivered frantically, desperately screaming. Littlefoot and his friends were not sure what they could do to stop this powerfully charged wall of destruction, other than to keep on kicking ….

A low, ferocious roar rang out, and a powerful, wind-like breath rushed past, finally stopping the flow of the flames. Turning, they all looked and saw through the burning haze the silhouettes of three sharpteeth standing on a low cliff. Tricia and her friends screamed with this new sight, but the older dinosaurs, knowing all three of these sharpteeth, had just felt a flare of hope.

"Chomper!" Ruby gasped as a surge of warmth rushed over her. "You found us!"

"Yep!" said Chomper as he jumped off to join them. "And I brought Mom and Dad too! I'll help attack the fires ahead, and Mom and Dad can take care of the ones behind."

Encouraged with the development, everyone readied themselves for one last effort. As Papa and Mama Sharptooth made short order of the lesser flames behind them, the gang and hatchlings did everything they could to fight the fires in front. The sheer power of everyone's combined efforts, with the addition of the sharpteeth into the fray, was enough to finally quell the flames, and eventually, the fires lowered and lowered until they completely disappeared, leaving behind streaky stretches of black sand where the flames once stood.

"Well, I never expected it to be like this," Chomper said sheepishly. "But welcome to my parents' place!"