Welcome back to another chapter! This one was fun to write, and writing it flowed together really nicely. Hope you appreciate this chapter as much as I did writing it!

I'm getting to the point where OC ideas are set in stone, as several will be introduced in the next chapter and I'm fully developing others behind the scenes. So I guess last chance for anyone's OC requests/ideas for a while now; though there may be a couple opportunities down the road for certain roles. PM if you have an account or review otherwise if you have anything you'd like to share on this front, although to clarify, any OC roles will be limited.

For clarification, longbody refers to mosasaurs and two-claw sharptooth refers to Tyrannosaurus.

As always, I always appreciate favs/follows/reviews, even though it may be a long time after I publish this, I look at my stories regularly and enjoy feedback. And of course, as always, The Land Before Time and its universe belongs to Universal.

Chapter 8 – Beach Retreat

"You mean … This is your other home?" Littlefoot asked.

"Uh-huh," Chomper said happily. "Come on, I'll show you!"

So everyone followed Chomper down the beach a little bit, where they could see the jagged cliffs leveling into a straight wall of rock that met the ground at a point off in the horizon. Alongside that was a narrow but long shoreline facing big water as far as the eye could see.

"It's not much," Chomper said modestly."But it's just right for me and my parents."

"Why do I smell … Dead stuff?" Cera said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

Chomper laughed. "Well, we've got to keep our catches somewhere, don't we?" he said, and he nodded toward a cozy cave nestled in the rocks facing the beach. "That's our sleeping spot, there's just enough room for me and my parents in there."

Then however, Chomper sniffed the air in concern, before turning to his friends and gasping. "Littlefoot! Cera! Ducky! Spike!"

"What?" Littlefoot asked confusedly.

"You guys have fire marks on you everywhere," Chomper observed

"Oh yeah," Littlefoot remembered, realizing that the four of them, having been in close proximity with the fires, must have been singed by the fires. Luckily, their thick skin prevented the small burns from hurting much or there to be any blood, but Chomper shook his head.

"You can't go back to the Valley without resting up!" Chomper said. "Other sharpteeth will smell you … I know! Why don't you stay here a bit with me and my parents?"

"Uh ..." Littlefoot said.

"Come on, it'll be no problem! We'd love to have you here … I think. Let me just ask Mom and Dad," Chomper said.

So Chomper lightly growled to his parents bringing up the rear of the group, and received a couple quick grunts of assent. "They say it's okay," Chomper said happily.

"Thanks Chomper," Littlefoot said. "But …" he began, but as if on cue, Spike's stomach loudly growled, and he looked at Chomper inquiringly.

"Spike is wondering where is the green food, he is," Ducky translated.

Chomper frowned slightly. "We don't have any around here," he explained. "See, green food attracts flatteeth, which then attracts sharpteeth. We couldn't keep our place private if there was green food around, and it wouldn't be safe for us."

"That makes sense," Littlefoot said.

"Hey, but me have idea!" Petrie said. "Me ask Ali and Shorty if they can bring lots of treestars for us! They big longnecks, they can carry all way here! And me ask Guido to pick some healing flowers for us."

"Wow Petrie, that is a really good idea, it is!" Ducky said, hugging Petrie gently and causing him to blush.

Chomper sniffed Petrie over. "And you don't seem hurt either," he pointed out. "So you can get to the Valley without anyone smelling you! The Great Valley's that way," Chomper said, pointing Petrie the right direction.

So Petrie flew off to the Great Valley to invite their other friends. Chomper's parents, exhausted from the exertion of putting out the fire, retreated to their cave, where they quickly fell asleep. Of the kids however, while Oplax was contentedly sunning himself in the bright circle's light and Pearl had given herself a sand bath, the other kids were much more restless. Garnet, Mono and Rachelle were playing tag, dashing across the beach, while Cassia was busy collecting waterweed and Perri watershells and admiring their treasures. Destiny meanwhile quietly sat as she eyed everyone uncertainly, and Sam looked at the big water, not sure what to do. Tricia meanwhile was very busy, trying to take part in all of her friends' different activities as she scattered to each of them in turn. As the gang lay down to relax, they could see all was not well with the kids. An angry sand creeper popped out of one of Perri's shells and jabbed a claw out menacingly at her, causing her to panic. Then as Mono chased after Rachelle, the two onehorns managed to both unearth Pearl's sand bath and trample over Cassia's waterweed, causing all four to start bickering with one another. Oplax, Garnet, Sam and Destiny all looked disconcerted from the new tension around them, and Tricia was frantically trying to get the others to calm down, but at the same time was panting with exhaustion.

Ruby then approached the group of hatchlings. "You know, I think you would be happier if you stopped being unhappy with each other."

Mono, Rachelle, Cassia and Pearl stopped arguing at once, and Rachelle looked at Cassia and Pearl. "Sorry about what we did … Right Mono?" she asked gently.

"Yeah," Mono agreed. "I guess we got a little carried away."

"Oh it's all right," Cassia smiled as she hugged both of her friends in turn.

"We shouldn't have been so upset with you when you were just playing," Pearl reasoned.

Happily, Tricia approached her friends. "Oh, don't worry guys! Sis and her friends fight all the time, right?"

"We sure do," Cera snorted. "And we don't always make up as quickly as you did!"

"We may all be different, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends," Littlefoot smiled. "In fact, it's often the differences that make our friendships stronger!"

"Yeah, you said it!" Chomper exclaimed. "You can say we're all unlikely friends, me especially … I can't even eat green food and I'm a sharptooth! But that doesn't matter, for we're all great friends, and nothing'll ever change that."

"And you know what great friends do with each other?" Ducky asked. "They have fun, right Spike?" Ducky asked her brother, who happily nodded. "And I think we could all have fun in the big water, yep yep yep!"

"Oh yeah!" Tricia exclaimed.

While the three little swimmers, Destiny and Ruby's siblings seemed to like the idea and were comfortable with the big water, the two onehorns and Oplax were not. "Uh … I'm not sure if we can swim in big water," Oplax said. "My armor's kinda heavy."

"Yeah, and our whole bodies are kind of heavy," Rachelle observed.

"Muscle, not fat," Mono quickly clarified, stretching out one of his very solid legs.

Tricia was undeterred. "They say threehorns can't swim either. "Big Sis didn't think I could," she added cheekily.

"Only because you were a baby," Cera said.

"But I learned how to swim, and maybe you can too!" Tricia encouraged. "Come on guys, you'd be no worse than Big Sis!"

"Hey! I can swim!" Cera protested, and with gusto, she took a few steps back and took a running leap into the water. She landed with a big splash, however couldn't hold herself afloat. As she thrashed in the waves, Ducky effortlessly swam over to her. "Use your back feet to kick, Cera, yep yep yep!" Ducky reminded, as Tricia and her friends snickered.

"Oh yeah, I knew that!" Cera said as she began to paddle in place. Ruby and Spike swam out to join Cera and Ducky, along with all the hatchlings but Tricia, Oplax, Mono and Rachelle. Then a thought occurred to Littlefoot, remembering how poorly Sharptooth was able to swim when he fell to his sure his friend wasn't left out, Littlefoot looked at Chomper's scrawny arms before gently asking, "You can swim, right Chomper?"

Chomper smiled. "Sure can! Watch!"

And to Littlefoot's surprise, Chomper strode out several paces comfortably before he was fully submerged, using his tail to keep him balanced while using his legs to propel himself forward. Cera, Spike and Ducky all noticed this and gasped in astonishment.

"Wow Chomper," Ducky marveled. "I did not know you could swim like that!"

"I've had to practice, in case I got dragged out to deep water," Chomper explained. "But while my arms are useless, my long tail keeps me afloat and my legs can do all the kicking."

"Yeah, and you don't have the lard that that mean old Sharptooth had," Cera snorted. "One second and boom! He's history," she said, earning looks of awe from the hatchlings.

Tricia looked at Littlefoot imploringly, and Littlefoot could see in her eyes that Tricia wanted to get her last three friends in the water too. Littlefoot nodded understandingly as he glanced towards Oplax, who he figured would need a very different way of encouragement than Mono to get into the water. Tricia looked confusedly at Littlefoot for a second before Littlefoot repeated the gesture, causing her to finally understand. Tailoring her approach to the daring onehorn, Tricia said, "Well Mono, if Big Sis can swim, if Chomper can swim, and if I can swim," she said, paddling out as she looked at the onehorn. "I bet you can swim too, right?"

"You're on!" Mono cried out, and with the jolt of encouragement, the young onehorn followed Tricia into the big water's waves, and after a little coaching from Tricia, quickly got the hang of swimming and joined the others. Littlefoot saw that Rachelle looked a lot less apprehensive seeing Mono take a swim, but Oplax still looked very reluctant.

"Hey Oplax," Rachelle told her clubtailed friend. "If you swim, I'll swim with you."

"Thanks," Oplax said. "But I don't think I can. All my armor will make me sink."

"Well, you'll never know until you'll try," Littlefoot said encouragingly. "Tricia's right though. Everyone else who thought they couldn't swim realized later they can!"

"Well …" Oplax said. "My friends look like they're having fun out there," he admitted, looking at them getting into a splash fight. "But how will you know I won't sink?"

Littlefoot smiled, before gently biting onto the little clubtail's armor and slowly lifting him up in the air, to as high a height as Littlefoot could reach.

"Whoa," Oplax said. "It's high up here!"

"Yep," Littlefoot smiled. "And I promise, if you do sink, I'll be right by you and will be able to reach you all that way down and get you out just like that. And if somehow I can't reach, Ducky will be able to rescue you in no time, for she's a better swimmer than any of us. So no matter what Oplax, you're safe with us."

Oplax paused to consider, but at that point, Tricia called ashore, "The water's great! You should try it!"

Oplax sighed. "Well okay."

So Littlefoot walked out with the last two hatchlings, and eagerly, Tricia swam over to them. "Thanks guys!" Tricia exclaimed. "Now come on, I'll teach you everything I know!"

So just as she did with Mono, Tricia taught Rachelle and Oplax some basic strokes, and eventually, the two of them began to feel comfortable with the water.

"I think I might be getting the hang of this," Oplax said. "Do you think we can join our friends?"

"Well, there's one way to find out," Littlefoot smiled, and he walked slowly along the water's floor as he watched Rachelle and Oplax paddle over to the other hatchlings. As soon as they arrived, the other hatchlings moved in to cheer them as they gathered in a big circle, all able to paddle afloat with ease.

"Now we're all together!' Tricia exclaimed. "So what do you guys wanna do?"

"How 'bout a game, kids versus grownups!" Mono suggested at once.

Littlefoot and his friends looked at each other amusedly, not used to being referred to as grownups themselves.

"All right, you're on!" Littlefoot exclaimed, and they sat back as they let the kids pick out a game.

"We can play melonball!" Rachelle suggested. "You know, try to hit the melon on the water of the other teams' side. Trouble is, we don't have a melon or a way to mark the sides."

"Yes we do!" Cassia pointed out. "That waterweed I collected can form a line in the big water between us!"

"And I can get one of my shells for the melon!" Perri agreed.

"But don't you two want your treasures?" Mono asked concernedly as he remembered his incident.

"Thanks Mono," Cassia said. "But as pretty as this seaweed is, I like my flowers back home better."

"And though I like watershells, I think the sand creepers would get mad if we took them away," Perri said. "Besides, I also really like shiny stones ..."

"You do?" Tricia exclaimed. "Mom has lots of shiny stones. You should come see them! And I know just the place to get more!"

"You're not thinking of going to the Canyon of Shiny Stones, are you Sis?" Cera glared at her half-sister, who snickered mischievously.

"You don't need to go there," Sam chirped up. "I know of a secret cave I found adventuring. I'll show it to you!

"You did not tell me you found a shiny stone cave, Sam," Ducky told her little brother.

"Like I said, it's a secret," Sam smirked. "Besides, you'd be too big to fit in. It's just for kids!" he said, before clarifying, "It's safe of course."

"Oh, then I am glad Sam, I am," Ducky said in relief.

"Ooh! Can you show me?" Perri asked as Sam nodded as Destiny looked on curiously.

"Well let's get playing!" Mono said, so Cassia and Perri went to get their items.

"W … Where do you live, anyway?" Destiny asked.

Tricia smiled. "Only the best place for leafeaters there is!" she said. "Called the Great Valley!"

Destiny gasped. "Wow, really? My parents were going there too!"

"So that means you're gonna live with us!" Tricia told her. "Everyone else but me, Sam and Cassia is new too. I'm so glad we have more kids our age to play with!" she exclaimed.

"That's great," Littlefoot exclaimed excitedly. "Perfect to play a better game with!"

"Yeah, it'll give us more of a challenge," Cera smirked.

"But we will still win, we will," Ducky said playfully.

"Let's see what you've got!" Chomper laughed.

And with rollicking gusto, the game commenced. The teams were well evenly matched, for while the hatchlings outnumbered the gang ten to six and could cover more space, they didn't have the agility and strength of their older counterparts and on average couldn't swim quite as well. They had different techniques to send the shell across too, Chomper and the horned dinosaurs used their heads, the fastrunners and swimmers used their arms, and the longnecks, Spike and Oplax used their tails. After quite a few rounds, with each team winning roughly half of the games, everyone grew too tired and instead got into a circle for a pass the shell game instead. However, just as they were getting settled, Chomper sniffed the water. "You guys get back … There's a couple swimming sharpteeth coming! I've got this, promise."

So Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike and Ruby quickly escorted the hatchlings to shore while Chomper stared at the water. He could sense the two predators coming. Luckily the waves were very light, so it was easy to make out their movement. They were relatively small swimming longbodies, only about a third of his body length, but they could still easily wound the bigger dinosaurs and kill the hatchlings, which is what they most likely came for. Backing up, Chomper knew that the closer he got the longbodies to shore, the more easily he could limit their motions. Luckily, with the kids going to shore too, that's just where the longbodies were headed. Once he was only a body length away from the shore and a few feet deep in the water, Chomper knew it was the time to strike. With a hurried lunge, he grabbed one longbody with his teeth, turned and threw the longbody out to shore. At the same time, the other longbody tried to make a lunge for Chomper's leg, but Chomper saw it coming through the shallow water and hurriedly stepped on it with his dagger-like claws digging into it. In a quick whirl, he threw the other longbody onto shore too, where it too lay stranded and losing blood on the beach.

The only traces left of the swimming sharpteeth were the large ripples from the struggle and the large pool of blood left behind, but Chomper knew full well what was to come, and sure enough, he could smell new scents getting closer.

"You better stay far away from the water," Chomper warned. "The smell of blood is attracting more swimming sharpteeth. I'm gonna get my parents to help out." So Chomper roared to his parents, who promptly woke up and assisted their son with the harvest. The three sharpteeth adeptly stood on the shoreline and threw the swimming sharpteeth onto dry land, where they piled on one another to form a large heap. What had to be hundreds of both finned and longbody swimming sharpteeth soon scattered the beach in a massive display of carnage and knowing they had enough to last them a while, Chomper's parents moved the pile of bodies away from the water, while Chomper threw some carcasses further out into the big water to get the mob of swimming sharpteeth that had surged toward the shoreline back out to the deep.

The bloody scene caused Destiny, Sam and Perri to shiver in fear while Oplax comforted them, Rachelle, Cassia, Garnet, Tricia, Opal and Garnet talked to each other and made sure not to focus too heavily on the scene as did Mono, though he could not help but take a look every now and again. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky and Spike however were curious about how their sharptooth friend was able to sustain himself and were incredulous about the sheer productivity of Chomper's hunts.

"Wow, I did not know Chomper ate so much," Ducky marveled as Spike grunted in agreement.

"No wonder Chomper never gets hungry back home," Cera smirked.

"Yeah," Littlefoot smiled. "And as long as the Big Water is around, he will never go hungry again." He turned to Ruby. "Did you see Chomper's parents water hunt before?"

Ruby nodded. "I think they were just starting when we met. But they've gotten a lot better at this now!"

Spike's stomach rumbled loudly. "You are ready for green food, Spike, you are," Ducky observed as Spike determinedly nodded. In truth, everyone was getting a bit hungry, though the sickening smell of Chomper's hunts helped keep the leafeaters' appetite at bay a bit.

"Well good news there!" came a familiar voice, and in flew Petrie, looking cheerful. "Dinner ready for everybody!" Though Petrie whispered to Littlefoot, "You better get there fast … Guido may not be able to steer long!"

"Right," Littlefoot said quietly back, having a faint suspicion of what exactly this was, before looking over his shoulder to see the forms of the two longnecks a good ways ahead. "Green food that way!" he exclaimed as the hatchlings cheered.

Ali and Shorty indeed were carrying several enormous trees' worth of treestars, while Guido sat on top with a collection of healing flowers, looking quite nauseous as Ali and Shorty ambled unsteadily in.

"Are they hurt?" Ducky asked worriedly.

"No, they fine," Petrie said.

"Well, then Shorty's acting clumsier than usual," Cera snarked as he took a step slightly toward Ali Ali, only to jolt back afterwards, his foot veering off target, and nearly tipping the trees over. Looking highly embarrassed, Shorty tried to regain his composure and plow steadily onward as he shouted, "Ugh! Rotten logs!"

Littlefoot however noticed that apart from the highly irritated Shorty and Guido who was clutching on his stomach and retching, the third member of their party also seemed out of sorts. In contrast to them however, Ali's neck was drooping quite low, seeming to pay rapt attention to the sand and shells. Remembering how Ali was reacting similarly before, Littlefoot felt he knew exactly what was going on, though he knew better than to speak of it with others around.

Fortunately, everyone apart from Chomper and his parents, who were laying out their meal for the day, quickly came to the rescue and all worked together to haul the trees and healing flowers over to nearby Chomper and his parents. Chomper's parents looked at each other and made a grunt of amusement. Chomper explained, "Uh, they're saying they've never ate with leafeaters before."

"I'm sure they haven't!" Littlefoot chuckled. "Nor any of us with grown-up sharptooth food."

So the bizarre dinner began in earnest. Chomper and his parents, aware of their guests' sensitivity to their diet, took great care to eat subtly and quietly, knowing full well they could always eat more later. All the while, they had several fun conversations together while they ate. The most entertaining came from Chomper, who decided to share something.

"I've been trying to teach my parents leafeater," Chomper said excitedly. "It's hard, but I think we're making a little progress."

Interested, everyone looked at each other as Chomper muttered to his parents. They both looked at him in a kind of loving exacerbation. At last, Chomper's father and mother took turns, saying "Rrbrr, Rirrrffrrr, Rrrara, Rrkrrr, Rrrtrrr, Rrrrk."

The gang looked confusedly as Chomper explained, "They're saying your names."

"Oh," they all said in comprehension. "Me hear it now," Petrie smiled.

"Hey, I wonder if we can speak any sharptooth!" Littlefoot asked curiously.

"I'll try it," Cera said at once, and tried echoing a sound she had heard from the Mysterious Beyond, "Rrraaarrrraraarrr."

Chomper couldn't help but snicker as he looked at his parents sheepishly, who looked amused themselves. "Well? What did I say?"

Chomper hesitated, trying not to laugh, before saying, "You said threehorns are yummy."

"You made that up!" Cera spat out.

"No I didn't," Chomper insisted. "Seriously. I hear that a lot too. There's a long rivalry between our kinds. Mom and Dad heard stories about their twoclaw sharptooth ancestors growing up, and were told that's how it always was. They told me that their biggest fights when they ate other dinosaurs were with threehorns, and they were very surprised when they saw we were friends," Chomper explained.

"Funny," Cera said. "My dad always told me about how our ancestors faced the biggest kind of sharptooth, I guess that would be twoclaws like you," she smirked. "Of course we threehorns always won in the end."

"I don't think that's how the ending went in their stories," Chomper pointed out.

"Oh yeah? Well, how about you and me show everyone how the stories went with a little spar, mmm?" Cera asked playfully.

"Well, I'd love to have a friend for dinner," Chomper replied cheekily back, and laughing, Cera and Chomper staged a mock fight for everyone's entertainment, Cera bellowing and charging like she was on a full rampage, while Chomper lowered his head, ran and roared, though of course both took great care to avoid any actual contact.

As the hatchlings watched the reenactment with baited breath, and his friends watched with amusement, Littlefoot couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions. This twoclaw-threehorn dynamic even seemed to play out in the dynamics he saw, considering Cera's prolonged and vocal mistrust of Chomper was even more pronounced than usual throughout their first two meetings, and that it was Cera whose tail that Chomper bit onto when he was just a baby …

Then he remembered his sleep story, wherein he attacked a baby threehorn. Considering what Cera and Chomper had described, maybe he was a baby twoclaw just like Chomper. Perhaps he was experiencing Chomper's point of view as a hatchling. Considering how bloodthirsty he felt in his dream, he could only marvel at how well Chomper was able to control his hunger. But wait a minute … Littlefoot thought back to how was feeling. Funnily enough, despite the tension and excitement he felt in the attack, he didn't recall actually feeling hungry … So Chomper's perspective couldn't have been what he was experiencing …

His thoughts were interrupted as Petrie flew in front of his face. "Yoo hoo! Earth to Littlefoot!"

"Huh?" Littlefoot asked, all of a sudden realizing how dark it was outside. He was so lost in thoughts that he missed the end of Cera and Chomper's playfight as well as Chomper's parents and Tricia's gang all go into the cave for the nightto sleep.

"Oh sorry," Littlefoot said. "I must have just dozed off."

"That okay Littlefoot," Petrie said kindly. "At least you not have weird sleep story, right?"

At once, Chomper, Ali, Shorty and Guido turned to look at him. "You mean … You have weird sleep story too last night?" Guido asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Littlefoot said before saying, "I was a sharptooth."

"No kidding," Shorty stared. "I think I was a sharptooth in my sleep story too. I mean, I never felt so mad before, and that's saying something considering all the crap I've had to put up with."

"For someone, I remember looking up to someone for some reason in my sleep story," Ali said. "Like really, really admiring them. Even more than Rhett. The only thing is, I don't know who or why …. Just feeling like I idolize them," she said as Shorty seemed to shift uncomfortably.

"Me? Well to tell you the truth, I forgot most of it," Guido said. "But I do remember saying somewhere in there life is not fair."

"Mine … I don't like to talk about," Chomper said sadly. "I basically felt emotions I try not to have … Rage, anger, a lust for power. And a desire for something … Something that would make me more feared than any other sharptooth," he said awkwardly. Frantically turning to his friends, he said, "I'm not acting like that, am I?" to which they all shook their heads.

Ducky, Petrie, Spike and Ruby then repeated their sleep stories from earlier, before all eyes turned on Cera. "What?" she asked, annoyed.

"You gonna tell us your sleep story too?" Petrie asked.

"Sleep stories are just nonsense," Cera said dismissively, but Littlefoot could tell that someone was hitting on a nerve.

"I know they can be," Littlefoot said. "A lot of ours seemed to be … But don't you think it's kind of weird that we all have memorable sleep stories? On the same night? Where some of us don't even act like ourselves?"

"Very perceptive again, Longneck," came a couple of voices.

With a quick turn, they all moved to face the big water, where the rainbow faces Neo and Megte stood calmly, as if they've just been listening in the whole time.

"Oh no … Not you guys again!" Guido exclaimed.

"indeed, it is," Neo said. "And I must say I'm impressed with your recall. Quite advanced for your species."

"It is just the twelve of us," Megte said simply. "No one else can see or hear us."

"We've come to give you, uh … Fair warning without telling," Neo said. "Obviously we're grateful for your services from before Chomper … And obviously you would be at a major disadvantage without a little help."

"What kind of help?" Cera asked, annoyed.

"As he said, a warning," Megte answered curtly. "And a clue."

"Uh … Can we make it two clues? Just to give them a chance," Neo said.

"Oh, all right," Megte said reluctantly.

"First," Neo said. "You won't be having those sleep stories again … But you'll find you need to remember them."

"And second," he continued as Megte looked sternly at him. "The fires brought in new dinosaurs to the Valley. Many of them are just your age. And many of them will affect your goals, for good or for ill."

"Yes, but what does that mean?" Littlefoot asked, but the rainbow faces simply said nothing and disappeared.

"Not again!" Cera moaned. "What did we got out of this nonsense?"

"We'll have to see, I guess," Littlefoot said, knowing that a long night of pondering faced them ahead.