Hello everyone! I'm back to publishing another chapter. This and the next one were originally going to be one chapter to finish out the exposition before the story starts its next arc, but I decided that it would be best to split the chapter because it was getting to be too large and would introduce too many plot points at once. Depending on how writing that goes, I might still judge it too large and split it yet again, hahaha.
Anyway, thanks for reading this far, especially to DesertLily32 for the really detailed review! I really appreciate all the feedback, as it shows me what I'm doing well, what especially you're enjoying and want to see more of, and what I could do to become a better writer. Detailed, thoughtful, encouraging feedback really spurs my energy to keep writing!
Yes, my DeviantArt name is also AllegroGiocoso, and while I haven't put up many pictures now, I plan to put up simple pictures of characters following the exposition chapters, which will include the last bunch of OCs (excluding background Valley residents) for quite a while. I'll also put up a glossary after that chapter, with species terms and characters of that species all on one page.
Please favorite/follow/review if you haven't already, and enjoy! Hope the gap between Chapter 9 and 10 won't be too long.
Chapter 9 – The Story of the Four Kinds
After a quick goodbye to Chomper's parents, everyone headed back to the Great Valley early the next morning. The journey back was much easier than it was there, for the fires that had been ravaging the Mysterious Beyond had completely died down. But the damage left behind was unmistakable. Charred, logs and tree stumps were scattered where small forests were in the past, burnt flowers littered the landscape, and scorch marks were visible in just about every place they looked. No one looked more disturbed than Chomper, who frowned as he kept on alert.
"I've never seen this place so quiet," Chomper said as he took a step which caused the ground to crackle slightly. "I always smell other dinosaurs on my way here. But I don't smell anyone around."
"Me look above," Petrie said as he swooped up high, only to shake his head. "Nobody here."
"Well, at least no one is going to attack us," Littlefoot said quietly.
The kids, so rambunctious and full of energy at the beach, were also oddly subdued. All of them hardly said anything as they could only look at each other and the gang in discomfort. The gang tried their best to say something, anything, to soothe the eerie silence, but nothing they said could break through the dark atmosphere.
The worst moment came when they stumbled upon a giant bigmouth's body laying sprawled out on the ground, the scorch marks on its body confirming the fire was the culprit.
Chomper sniffed it to investigate. "It's been dead for a while, but no one has found it," he noted, for indeed, the signs of predation on it were clearly absent.
"And look at the way it's facing," Ruby observed. "It was going to the Great Valley just as we are going there."
Her theory was borne out as for a small stretch, they saw more and more dark, rotting, crisp lumps which they could only assume were highly disfigured dead dinosaurs. The kids, especially Tricia, Cassia and Sam, who grew up in the Valley and were not used to the darkness of the Mysterious Beyond, were beginning to look very traumatized, so they did their best to pass through as fast as they could.
All the while, the gang looked at each other knowingly. Too many strange things had been happening for them all to be coincidences, and they knew that they had to talk about it. But knowing that the kids would ask them incessant questions, they knew they had to make sure they reached the Valley first before they had a chance to talk.
Fortunately it did not take too long before they arrived at a nearby canyon that led to the Great Valley. The rocky ledges in the Valley's surroundings prevented the fires from getting too close, so the stony floor here was a welcoming shade of brown rather than charred gray. Pleased to see this, they were further encouraged and relieved that upon entering the Valley, they saw that the land inside was still lush and green.
Just as they had hoped, Tricia and her friends bounded straight into the Valley as they eagerly looked for their guardians, while the gang sat back, waiting for them to be out of sight.
"Okay Petrie, you see anyone?" Littlefoot asked quietly as Petrie did a quick scan above. "Nobody," he said.
"Good," Littlefoot smiled, before muttering, "Let's go over all the strange things that happened."
"We saw a flying rock that nobody else did, I do not think," Ducky pondered.
"Those pesky prickly plants ruined the yellow flower celebration," Cera grumbled.
"My parents' herd and Bron's herd have both been attacked," Ruby said darkly.
"Big fires occurring in Mysterious Beyond," Petrie added with a shiver in his voice. "And that bad flyer attacked us."
"And those Rainbow Faces keep showing up," Shorty said confusedly.
"And always when the ten of us are together," Ali added.
"When no one else can hear us," Guido added.
"That's a lot to come down to coincidence," Chomper said, shaking his head.
"Maybe it is bad luck," Ducky said reasonably. "A whole lot of it."
"Or maybe it's those Rainbow Faces," Cera said.
"What you mean?" Petrie asked confusedly.
"How come all this starts happening the moment they show up? Maybe they're giving us all this lousy luck to get us to think beyond the Mysterious Beyond or some crap like that."
Chomper shook his head. "Yeah, but I don't think they'd want to give us any trouble … Remember how I helped them from those eggstealers?"
"Yeah, Chomper sure did a good job with that," Ruby said admiringly. "I could tell they were grateful."
"I think the Rainbow Faces would only come to help us," Littlefoot said. "Remember how much they helped us, with the green food and the clue about the shaft? And plus they're giving us these new riddles …. Which reminds me, you guys remember their first clue?"
The others, so preoccupied with everything that has been going on, shook their heads before Littlefoot repeated, "The stream of changes has only begun …"
"Which if unabated might force your world to split into more than one," joined in many of the others.
"Ugh, I hate those dumb, vague rhymes," Shorty groaned.
"You can say that again," Cera agreed.
"Well we know one thing. They sure were right about the changes. And since they said that, the fires happened."
"And by the sounds of it," Ruby added thoughtfully. "More things will keep happening … Until …"
She paused at the end, not wanting to say the next words aloud. "The Valley will split up?" Petrie suggested tentatively a bit later, to which the others nodded.
Cera snorted. "Why would the Valley break up?"
Ali pondered for a second. "Well, they did say something about division."
"Threads may snap and the web may break. But to keep it together …" Littlefoot quoted aloud, saying, "It sounds like they're saying the Valley will divide among itself."
"Huh?" Shorty asked confusedly.
"It's a metaphor," Littlefoot explained. "You know, like the sticky web those ground crawlers make. The threads are the relationships everyone has with one another in the Valley. And the web is all of them combined, which help keep us in the Great Valley, together. And if the individual relationships start breaking up, the whole Valley will fall apart."
"The Great Valley will fall apart?" came a fluttery, relaxed voice from above. "My, aren't you the worrier!"
Then a flyer swooped down from a branch behind them and creeped over to them. Much smaller than most of the gang, including Petrie, she also did not look like other flyers, for instead of the thin coating on most of their wings, she had a thick plumage of scarlet feathers, contrasting with her cream-colored extremities. She looked at the gang expectantly.
Chomper, Ruby, Ali and Shorty all looked at this unusual flyer in interest. "Wow, you've got very pretty feathers," Ali remarked.
"I've never seen a dinosaur like you before," Chomper said excitedly. "Or even smelled one!"
"Well, to tell you the truth, nor have I. Though if memory serves me right, I might have met some of you before," she said teasingly.
Chomper, Ruby, Ali and Shorty turned to the original gang of five, who looked at each other significantly. They were so much smaller back then, so she didn't look so small then … But there was no mistaking who she was.
"Avie?" Littlefoot asked tentatively.
"My, dear Littlefoot, you actually remember me," Avie said.
"Pfft … How can we not," Cera snorted. "We've never seen anyone else like you around when you came."
"Wait … How do you know someone who looks like that?" Shorty asked dumbfoundedly, before saying, "No offense."
"None taken," Avie yawned.
"Well, it happened just after the big drought we had but before you first came, Ali," Littlefoot explained. "She flew in after being chased in here by a sharptooth and an earthquake. She wanted to be friends … But she, uh … Didn't really have much practice."
"You could say that again," Cera snickered. "Badmouthing the way Littlefoot and I treated our friends, then you didn't even try to help when the sharptooth that followed you in attacked us."
"That's true," Avie said. "But I didn't really know what friendship was. I grew up, all alone, the only one of my kind in the Mysterious Beyond and didn't find anybody I could see a friend. It took Littlefoot to get me to see my mistakes, and with his advice, I did what I should have done in the first place and helped out, and then we became true friends before I had to leave. And to show you how much of a friend I have become, I will confess that while I heard every word of your conversation, just trying to find the right time to fly in, I promise that I will tell no one what I heard."
"Thanks Avie," Littlefoot smiled at her. "But why did you leave the Great Valley?
Ducky asked. "We were just becoming friends, yep yep yep."
"My dear Ducky, why do you think? This is supposed to be a leafeater paradise, and I'm not exactly a leafeater. I eat crawlers, remember? I've always assumed that if I was caught eating crawlers, I would be banished, and that would be much too tiresome," she said lazily.
"You don't get banished by eating crawlers!" Chomper laughed. "I spent my whole time here eating crawlers until I got too big for them."
"Yeah, and Guido still eat crawlers all the time!" Petrie pointed out.
Avie looked intrigued. "Really? Another crawler eater …Where is this Guido?"
Guido froze out slightly of panic. He had been hiding behind the others the whole time to peer at the newcomer. He couldn't help but to ogle in incredulity, especially after mentioning she was an orphan and a ground crawler eater. A thousand questions were burning in his mind, but he wasn't sure if he was ready yet.
Petrie looked down and saw Guido's nervousness. "Hold on," Petrie said, before approaching him. "You no have to talk to Avie if you no want to," Petrie said reassuringly. "I can tell her you someplace else."
"No, I think I'm ready," Guido gulped as Petrie whispered, "All right, good luck!" before flying back up. "He right here!"
And Guido climbed through the gap between Littlefoot and Cera's feet as he approached the feathered flyer. As they stood facing each other, they were a near perfect match in height as they stared at each other, she just as interested in him as he was of her.
"Wow, you are a sight. Did you know that you're the only one of your kind I've ever met?" Avie asked.
"Yeah, I don't know anyone else like me either," Guido sighed. "The thing is … Well, I can't remember my past. And you said, uh, you were an orphan, right? That got me thinking, uh, have you wondered what you are?"
Avie smiled. "Dear Guido, I've been wondering that for my whole life … Until recently. Care to hear how I found out?"
Guido couldn't believe his ears. "Yes, please!"
"Very well," Avie said. "As I went twenty cold times without finding any of my kind, I knew the only thing I could do was to find out myself. Well obviously, I could not go into this blindly. So I had to get a sense of the world's directions."
"Directions?" Petrie asked curiously. "What do you mean, world's directions?"
"You can always tell where you're going, dear Petrie," Avie said matter-of-factly, "By the direction the bright circle rises and falls. It always rises in one way and falls in the other. They call the direction it rises in east, and the way it falls west. See how the day has started and the bright circle is just a little in front of us and hasn't reached its highest point yet? That means we are facing east right now. And as the day goes on, the bright circle will fall behind us, or the direction known as west. You can always keep track of where you're going by the way the bright circle moves."
Clearing her throat, Avie continued. "So I decided to fly towards the bright circle, or east, early one day and see if I could find my kind myself," she said, shuddering a bit. "Not a trip I would recommend, mind you. Much too tiresome. What you call the Mysterious Beyond stretches for several days of flying over flat land with giant herds and sparse trees. Then comes a stretch of big water, followed by a landmass dominated by shieldbacks, bigmouths, and sharpteeth. Past that however is the largest area of big water I have ever seen. Filled with swimming sharpteeth, sharpbeaks, and finned swimmers of all kinds. It was there for days, and my, I was so tired. But just when I thought I couldn't fly anymore, I reached what turned out to be where my kind came from."
"Ooh, what was it like?" Ducky asked curiously.
"Well, my kind's home was across all kinds of tiny islands. Some were so small a longneck couldn't even fit on them. But for my kind, it was perfect. Little forests were on each of them, and there were so many nice little beaches, the tide of the big water making the islands bigger or smaller on any given day."
"So was it just your kind on the island?" Ali asked, trying to picture it.
"We shared the island with other small species," Avie explained. "While our kind hunted for crawlers on the trees, a kind of tiny sharptooth hunted them on the ground. Don't worry, they weren't the danger. That was the belly draggers and swimming sharpteeth that popped out of the big water. But not to worry, they couldn't reach the trees if they tried. Then there were flyers closer to your kind Petrie, only they were about my size and many of them had tails had the tops of the trees to themselves."
"Did you meet … Your family there?" Guido wondered.
"Well, no one could know, could they?" Avie said. "Many of their eggs rolled out to sea. Mine must have simply gone farther than most of the eggs had. But it was nice to spend some time with my own kind there, and I was glad to see where I came from. In the end though, I just didn't fit in. Everyone knew everybody, and I began to get homesick. The crawlers there are different from the crawlers back home! Not to mention all the swimming sharpteeth," she shuddered before saying, "Much too tiresome. So I returned for home on good terms, but with the full knowledge of who exactly I was and where I came from."
Everyone was intrigued with the story, but Guido was transfixed. "A place for tiny dinosaurs … You sure you didn't see any of my kind?"
"No, afraid not," Avie said.
"Maybe my kind is too dangerous to live there," Guido mumbled.
Avie laughed. "Dear Guido, you are a worrier! What kind of kook would think that?"
"Well that rainbow face did," Guido said uncomfortably, as Ruby explained to Avie the situation.
"You know, that's one thing I didn't get," Chomper wondered. "Roy's a notooth just like Guido. Why would he be scared of Guido and not feel sorry for him instead?"
"Yeah, especially with all the suspicion the others have toward your parents' herd," Littlefoot told Ruby. "I thought they'd be very sensitive to being discriminated against."
"Yeah, and the grownups here had no problem with Guido," Cera observed. "Not even my dad."
"You eat crawlers in front of me family and they no mind," Petrie pointed out to Guido.
"I was wondering that too," Ruby said puzzledly. "I've met Roy before and he's usually nice. I'm sure no one in my parents' herd has a problem with other species, or they wouldn't be mixed-species herd."
"If you ask me," Avie said. "You should ask this Roy yourself."
"What?" Guido said, aghast. "But he thinks I'm a sharptooth!"
"You want to find out more about who you are, don't you?" Avie asked. "It sounds to me he knows something about your kind, or else he wouldn't have reacted the way he did."
"But … I don't want to find out something … Well, bad," Guido said nervously.
"Maybe I should go see my parents' herd," Ruby said comfortingly. "See if they are still scared about you and tell them there is nothing to be scared about."
Meanwhile, Garnet and Pearl were hurrying home, where they were immediately greeted with relief from their parents.
"Oh Garnet, Pearl!" their mother said as the two arrived. "I'm so relieved … You're safe. When we found out you were out there with no adults …"
"Mom, you're such a worrier," Garnet teased.
"We were just concerned for your safety, that's all," their father said gently. "Especially with all those fires."
"We had a great time!" Pearl chimed in. "With our friends, they're so much fun! And don't worry. Big Sis and her friends watched over us!"
"They're pretty cool for being grownups and let us have lots of fun," Garnet added.
"Want to hear about it?" Pearl asked eagerly.
Their parents agreed, so Garnet and Pearl launched into recounting their adventure. Their perky, upbeat voices caught the attention of the rest of the herd, who moved in to listen as they breezily talked.
"You two are starting to sound like your big sister," their father chuckled.
Then the rest of the herd started to speak up. "Your kids surprise me," Stevie said to their parents. "First Ruby, now these two being able to be friends with flatteeth."
"Yeah," Chapp agreed. "It makes me less nervous around leafeaters hearing your kids' perspectives."
Garnet and Pearl then looked at each other excitedly, the same idea brewing in both of their heads. "Mom, Dad," Garnet said, his eyes gleaming. "Can we stay in the Great Valley … Forever?"
"We want to always be with our new friends, just like Big Sis!" Pearl said.
"Well," their mother said, "We have already asked a lot to be welcomed in as it is. You know how some of the others feel about our kind."
"But Mom!" Garnet protested. "Our friends don't feel like that!"
"Yes, and they would be so sad if we had to leave!" Pearl said.
Their parents looked at each other. "Well, maybe we can talk with Mr. Thicknose. It might not be too much to ask, considering how well your sister has done and you still being kids," their father said, before turning to the rest of the herd. "How about everyone else? If the residents let us, do you want to stay here forever?"
"Well I guess so," Gov said. "If they let us … And it's a lot safer here than outside."
"Yes, considering how your kids have been able to befriend valley residents, maybe Thio will too when he gets older," Jennifer agreed.
The others also murmured in assent. "Good. For the sake of the herd, we must be together on this. If one of us wants to leave, best to come out with it now. Nobody's had any problem with the stool monitors?"
Again, everyone confirmed this. "I know all this scrutiny and prejudice is hard," Ruby's mother said. "And if anybody has had enough and wants to leave the herd, we'll have no hard feelings. But if all goes smoothly, hopefully we'll no longer face all this prejudice."
"You know," Ced suggested, remembering something. "Hearing you talk about prejudice makes me think we should properly apologize to that glider, Guido."
"Yes," Wiley agreed. "We overreacted, that's for sure."
"We've been prejudiced against and been accused of being sharpteeth and eggstealers so many times ourselves," Chapp put in. "I can't believe we let fear control us like that."
"I feel awful for what we did," Ovie agreed. "I can't imagine how he might be feeling."
All eyes of the herd then turned on Roy, who looked defensive. "What? Don't you feel he might be … Of that kind in the legend of our kinds, don't you?"
Kitty rolled her eyes. "Please Roy, that happened who knows how long ago!"
"It's not like he's gonna transform right before our eyes!" Stevie snorted.
"Well," Roy said. "You never know what could happen."
"What could happen is one thing," Ruby's father argued. "But Guido has known Ruby for years, and he's never shown any sign of harming her."
"I think we should take a step further," Ruby's mother said. "I think we should make sure to be there to help him out in case anyone else gives him a hard time."
Roy looked around disconcertedly as the others seemed to agree, finally turning to his mate Pet. "You're not concerned?"
"Roy, I know how you've heard all the old legends ... But while he's not a flattooth, neither are any of us. And that's why we're together as a herd, right? To protect each other who aren't flat or sharpteeth?"
"All right then," Roy sighed. "If you all think he's safe … Then I guess I'll give him the benefit of the doubt."
Soon, Ruby arrived, the others slightly trailing her, Guido still cautiously hiding.
"Hello my family, my family hello," Ruby greeted her parents and siblings, who greeted her back, the rest of the herd watching nearby.
"Hello Ruby dear," said her mother.
"We were just wondering when you'd drop in to see us," her father said. "But most of all, we're glad to see you're safe from the fires."
"Glad things are going well with you?" Ruby said. "Your tests going well?"
"As far as we know," said her mother.
Avie however grew impatient with the niceties. Dragging Guido with her, she said, "Which one of you happens to be Roy?"
"Uh," Roy said uncomfortably as Avie flew in front of his face.
"Now who are you to call Guido a sharptooth when he obviously has no teeth like you, me, and the rest of your herd?" Avie asked brashly.
Roy was unable to say anything, but the rest of the herd, fresh off their discussion, took over.
"None of us really think you're a sharptooth," Sander said. "Not even a friendly one, no offense."
"None taken," Chomper said evenly.
"We were so shocked by Roy's accusation we couldn't think straight." Jennifer said. "It was downright stupid of us to react like that."
"But all of us have agreed," Ruby's mother said. "To be there for you if you face further bigotry from anyone."
"We might not be of that much help, considering we are still kind of outcasts ourselves," Ruby's father said. "But we'll still do all we can."
Guido smiled, his heart warming considerably with their thoughtful, heartfelt apologies. "Thanks," he said sheepishly, before saying to his accuser. "But Roy … Um, well. There must have been some reason why you said I was a sharptooth."
"A mere mistake on my part," Roy said dismissively, but Guido persisted.
"If you thought I was a sharptooth, well, you must know something about me … The truth is I don't know anything about myself. I don't know my parents, where I come from … Just that I've always been the only one of my kind. I just … If you know anything, well … I'd like to know it too."
The elder rainbow face frowned, before saying, "Well, it all comes down to an ancient legend passed among generations of noteeth for years which … Well, made me fear you. It is known as the story of the four kinds."
Ruby looked quite surprised. "My parents told me that story when I was little," she said. "But how does it relate to Guido?"
"Most of us know it to some extent. But my father was what we call a story keeper … Similar to the story speakers I've heard longnecks have," he said. "And his job was to preserve entire stories, complete with their darkest elements, that were otherwise tamed down so as not to scare children. Indeed, no one in my herd knew the full story until I told them recently. But it is that version that you need to understand for this case." He turned to Ruby. "Why don't you start off telling your friends the story you grew up hearing, and I will finish telling the rest?"
"Okay," Ruby said, surprised, and she thought for a bit before starting. "A long, long time ago, the ancestors to all noteeth were one kind of little dinosaur, no bigger grown up than I was as a hatchling. They lived in a dangerous world, for they were in danger from both much bigger flatteeth stepping on them and from being attacked by sharpteeth, with no real ways to defend themselves.
"There was one place however that they could call safe, or as safe as one could call a place. It was known as the Tiny Forest. It was a small but thriving place, with healthy soil nourishing both the tightly packed in trees and the sweet bubble vines that grew alongside them. Only crawlers shared the green food with them, which were eaten by our ancestors. It was the perfect place for them, for it was far away from the forests where the big flatteeth ate, and in turn, the sharpteeth. Its only downside was that it could grow cold, causing many of our ancestors to grow feathers to adapt," Ruby said. "How am I doing?"
With a curt nod from Roy, Ruby continued. "Then a new kind of sharptooth moved in, and the herd had to turn what was upside down right-side up. So among them formed a group of scouts to lure the sharpteeth away from the forest. They needed to run quickly to get away from their predators, but also, they needed to keep running to get the predators far away. It was a lonely task, so soon, many of them began to partner up. For some pairs, their partnership grew into true love, which led to nests of hatchlings that could run fast and far. This happened again and again, and evolved traits that helped them with their purpose. They became very thin, with long tails and necks and small heads to streamline their bodies, and they developed powerful hearts to allow them to keep on running. And eventually, their descendants split into two kinds, who became today's rainbow faces and clawhands."
Ruby looked at Roy, who looked like he wanted to interject, but gave Ruby another nod. "With the scouts gone, the others realized that they had things they had to do in the forest. One was to clear the forest of big branches, which both blocked the paths for us to reach the green food and blocked the bright circle from reaching the sweet bubbles and the younger trees. Not to mention the denseness of the brush made it easy to fires to start. And so a group of caretakers became responsible for tending to the forest, removing the big branches of dying trees and allowing the forest to grow. These caretakers soon began to fall in love amongst themselves, and in time, future generations of caretakers lost their ability to eat red food and their slim physique, instead gaining a bigger body, better strength, and long arms, some with claws at the end to reach and slice through the deepest branches in the forest. They now make the kinds that we call longarms."
"Wait," Shorty asked, interrupted, looking at Ced, Yelli and Ius. "How come the three of you look so different than Wild Arms in my Dad's herd?"
"We evolved later," Ced answered simply. "Our species branched off further down the line."
As Shorty nodded in understanding, Roy still looked like he wanted to say something, but he nodded to Ruby one more time to continue.
"With the scouts and the caretakers being so stretched for time with their activities, they didn't always have time to tend to their eggs. And so more belly draggers, tickly fuzzies, and even tiny sharpteeth started attacking them," Ruby explained. "Not only that, but the parents were struggling to always keep an eye on their children and thus couldn't always get them out of trouble. So the last group of our ancestors decided to watch over everyone's eggs and kids. Like the others, these guardians fell in love and passed their traits through the generations. While they couldn't run far like the scouts, their long legs and arms allowed them to quickly run to help an egg or hatchling. They developed duller claws to help protect the hatchlings, but gained a short, hooked beak that could both save the hatchlings from attackers and to open up snapping shells, which are filled with nutrients to help hatchlings grow," Ruby said, slightly licking her lips. "Guess you can figure out who they turned into," she chuckled. "So how that's how I thought the story of the four kinds goes, how rainbow faces, clawhands, longarms and fast runners came to be … For if it didn't, we would've never came, right? But I still don't understand … This has a lot to do with our kinds, but what does this have to do with Guido?"
"Your parents told you well," Roy said, nodding to them. "Or at least, of what is usually told. Indeed, there were four kinds, scouts, caretakers and guardians among them. But the ancestors of both rainbow faces and clawhands are of one kind, scouts. Which means that there were only three kinds have been mentioned … And another kind still has to be discussed," he said grimly.
Guido's heart sank with that news. Not one of the other kinds mentioned in the story seemed to describe him, which he knew could only mean one thing. Bracing himself, Guido asked. "Do you think … I evolved from the last kind?"
Roy did not answer, instead heaving a heavy sigh. "The last group was formed to deal with the problem of crawler swarms."
"Like swarming leaf gobblers?" Petrie asked.
"Yes, swarming leaf gobbles are a good example of this, as they can quickly ravage days' worth of walking as quickly as we can eat our dinner. But they also include other pests, ones that can quickly consume all the fruits from a sweet bubble vine or kill a tree from the inside. So naturally, with the three groups already being very busy, a fourth group, the controllers, was formed to limit the number of crawlers in the area. At first, controllers were just like the rest of us, albeit a bit more agile and sharp of sight. But as they too began to breed among one another, they underwent physical changes. They developed especially strong leg muscles to jump … Eventually, often even gaining wings that while not powerful enough to go long distances, were enough to glide to the tops of trees and reach the crawlers in those high places."
The specificity in Roy's voice stabbed at Guido inside. Not only was he describing Guido's wing power, he also used the word glide. Subconsciously, Guido jumped in place, and was acutely aware of both how well he jumped without effort and how naturally his wings eased his landing. "However," Roy said darkly. "With their gains in talent, the controllers began to change. The more they hunted, the more they enjoyed it. And because they enjoyed it, they became obsessed with their role, forgoing sleep to hunt crawlers deep into the night. And a deep sense of hubris began to fall on them. They became convinced that their role was the most important, that only they kept the forest alive, while the others were inferior and lazy compared to them. And similarly, their taste buds began to change. Since they ate so many crawlers, they lost their taste for any green food, which in turn further separated the herd."
Roy paused dramatically before continuing, "Oh yes. For now that they couldn't eat green food, the controllers had no need to attend the green food gatherings with every fall of the bright circle. They were too busy, in the middle of the chase, pursuing crawlers … Until they completely hunted them to extinction."
Roy paused again as he continued. "The controllers waited for the crawlers to return. But they never did, and so the controllers were forced to sit by and starve while the rest of the herd survived off the green food they could no longer eat. Tempers flared as the controllers demanded for their herd to leave the forest, while the others, fearing the perils of a journey to the unknown, simply refused. And then … It happened," he said simply. "One controller, so desperate for food, attacked a guardian's nest and ate the contents of every egg inside. In response, the others banished all of the controllers and declared them enemies of the herd.
With a blinding crack of sky fire, the controllers suddenly began to change. Gone were their wings, for they lost any interest in hunting crawlers. In their place grew a gigantic, curved claw on each foot and a mouth filled with pointed, cutting teeth, while maintaining their impressive speed and agility … And thus, the controllers became the forerunners of today's fast biters."
Guido trembled with this revelation, "You mean, I might … I might …"
Once again, Roy did not answer, only continuing. "From that day forward, the Tiny Forest was never the same. The newly transformed fast biters slaughtered the other kinds mercilessly, driving a particularly gullible kind of yellow-bellied caretaker to their deaths within only a few passings of the Bright Circle. The survivors were driven away from their homelands, forced to find new places to live. The journeys were long and arduous, causing the descendants of the forest dwellers to reach the present-day sizes of our kinds. Most fled to the north, where predators were scarcest. But as the environment was very cold, so also was the green food that they could always depend on in the Tiny Forest. So like the controllers in their desperation, many of the refugees turned to egg eating as a means to survive. And while eating eggs kept them alive, their kinds' reputations were forever tarnished among the native leaf-eating populations, who quickly branded their entire kinds as eggstealers and reacted accordingly, becoming just as dangerous to the refugees as were the sharpteeth. Some saw no choice but to embrace the label they were given, so much so that a large portion of clawhands split off to become eggstealers and began eating a diet of only eggs, only further destroying the rest of our reputations. The rest of us found ourselves stuck in the middle, trying to survive while being hunted by sharpteeth and hated by flatteeth, all the while being chased by fast biters, our friends turned enemies from long ago, where we all remain to this day."
Roy looked at Guido. "When I first saw you, I noticed how similar you were to controllers of past, and thought that in a crack of sky fire, you would show your true colors as a fast biter. But the more I think about it, the more absurd it was."
"But … But …" Guido stuttered. "I glide too …. And I have wings, I eat crawlers, I can't eat green food, and I don't have any teeth."
"Nonsense," Roy said dismissively, shaking his head. "The change from controller to fast biter happened a long, long time ago. No controller of the old kind has been seen since then. I don't know you are, but make no mistake. Logically speaking, you cannot be of a kind that hasn't been seen well beyond anyone living's memory."
Littlefoot then remembered something. "Just like that yellow-bellied caretaker kind, right?"
"Correct," Roy said. "They died out not long after the great transformation. No way any of them could remain alive."
"Right," Littlefoot said evenly, as he looked at Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike knowingly.
"Can you describe what they look like, please?" Ducky asked innocently.
Roy looked at her suspiciously. "Now don't go looking for these yellow-bellied caretakers. They're long gone, you know"
"We not," Petrie said truthfully.
"We just … Want to know," Littlefoot added.
"Well," Roy said, as the longarms of the group looked slightly embarrassed. "They're a large kind of long arm that had big yellow bellies as their name suggests. They had feathers on the back of their head and on their tails. Dare I say it, they're quite fat and not so smart, laughing at everything, and they love berries."
"Okay, thanks," Littlefoot said, trying to keep the glimmer out of his eye.
As the herd began making plans for lunch, the gang and Avie slipped off towards the nearest place where they knew no one would be present, the corner of Ruby's parents' herd's area where Hyp and his friends had gathered all of the waste they inspected. By now, the pile of waste was quite significant, and reeked strongly enough that everyone indeed was out of the way. Seeing that no one in Hyp's gang was around, Guido quickly launched the questions burning in his mind.
"Do you guys think he was talking about … My ancestors? Does that mean … Am I really a fast biter?" before adding, "And why were you asking about yellow bellies?"
"Well, it sure sounded like your kind he was describing," Littlefoot said slowly. "But obviously you're not a fast biter."
"Yeah, you're just supposed to turn into a fast biter when the sky fire hits?" Cera snorted. "Sounds like something Petrie's uncle makes up."
"No go there," Petrie said warningly. "But you see sky fire before, and you no transform! So legend wrong there!"
"Since the rest of our kinds evolved, I'm guessing yours must have as well," Ruby said thoughtfully. "But just like we're not the kind of our ancestors, fast biters are not the kind of their ancestors."
"And the yellow bellies?" Guido asked.
"Well, we have met yellow bellies for ourselves, yep yep yep," Ducky explained.
Chomper, Ruby, Ali and Shorty stared. "You never told us!" Chomper exclaimed eagerly.
"Well, that adventure was … " Cera paused before simply saying, "Let's just say we don't talk about it much."
"But we did go on an adventure with three of them, we did!" Ducky exclaimed. "Their names are Loofah, Doofah and Foobie."
"And they're just like that old rainbow face described," Cera said wryly. "Seriously."
Shorty couldn't help but to snicker. "I don't see how they could survive in the Mysterious Beyond, no offense," he said. "No wonder the fast biters hunted them first."
"I've never seen them either, in all my migrations," Ali said. "Where did you see them?"
"They going to place called Berry Valley," Petrie said. "As far as we know, they still there now, and we never see them again. So maybe," Petrie paused before saying, "Your family survive like the yellow bellies, and have a place of your own."
"That makes sense," Avie said. "My kind lives in a place like that too."
"And like Avie, maybe your egg got lost … From where?" Ali asked.
Guido said, "Maybe my family still lives in the Tiny Forest," he said aloud.
The others pondered. "But that must be long way off!" Petrie said.
"Well, no one around here seems to know where I've come from," Guido said thoughtfully. "Maybe Ali is right, maybe my story did happen like Avie's … Perhaps my egg got caught by Big Water and carried over here … Maybe the Big Water made my head hit the egg so much that …" Guido trailed off before muttering, "I can't remember anything," he stopped, realizing the full impact of his words.
"Um … Guys?" Chomper suddenly asked. "Do you smell anything …. Well, good in the poop?"
The others stared at him and sniffed. "You must be crazy," Cera said at last.
"No really!" Chomper said. "You guys probably don't smell it because you're not sharpteeth, but …" he said, with more confidence. "I know there's something in there."
"Should we get one of the longarms in your parents' herd to check it out?" Littlefoot asked Ruby.
"There shouldn't be anything in there," Ruby said worriedly. "I don't think we should scare my parents' herd. They don't need that to worry about when they have enough to worry about as it is."
"Well I suppose it wouldn't be tiresome for me to do it," Avie said breezily, and she flew around the pile, sniffing it. Then however, she prodded a spot in the mound, before revealing something hard and white in the poop.
Everybody froze as Avie stared. "Is that …" she asked. "What I think it is?"
Getting a firm hold of the object, she gently pulled it out of the mound of waste, splashing a thick coating of waste on her wings.
"It's an egg!" Petrie said. "What that doing here?"
"You don't think … Someone in your herd did it?" Shorty wondered as Ruby shook her head.
Chomper meanwhile was still smelling the poop. "There's two more in here!" he said in disbelief.
Avie sighed. "I suppose since I'm already dirty I might as well get them out," she said, and prodding around the waste, she pulled two more eggs out of the mound. "The least a friend could do," she said. "But I simply must clean myself off." And the red flyer flew desperately off to find a spot where she could do just that.
The gang stared at the three eggs, looking at the ground. "No one in my parents' herd has ever stolen an egg," Ruby said with strong conviction in her voice.
"Then someone must have set them up," Cera snapped. "Like those two longnecks did Chomper."
"Hey Chomper," Littlefoot wondered, "Can you smell anyone on those eggs?"
Chomper sniffed the eggs and frowned. "Yep, I smell someone all right. It's Ann, that bigmouth from Hyp's gang? Her scent is all over those eggs."
Cera said. "Ha! She wants to try to frame your parents' herd? Not if we have something to say about this. Let's go tell Thicknose!"
Ali however, interjected. "Um Cera? Well Cam and Mia were wrong about Chomper … But they only meant to save everyone."
"So?" Cera asked.
"So what if Ann did this for some other reason besides trying to frame Ruby's parents' herd?" Ali asked. "Maybe we should talk to Ann first before going to Mr. Thicknose."
Shorty looked thoughtfully at Ali, his eyes intrigued, before saying, "Well, I think she's got a point."
"What?" Cera asked, surprised.
"What do you think, Ruby?" Littlefoot asked.
"Well," she said, being careful to mask the fury in her voice, "I think we can do both. I don't see how it could hurt to talk to Ann first before taking her to Thicknose."
"Right," Littlefoot said. "But we've all got to make sure she doesn't make a run for it."
So Ducky cradled the eggs in a big leaf, keeping them warm, cleaning them of waste, and concealing them from the others, and they set off to find Ann.
