All right everyone, we're back with a long chapter here!

Some special notes of thanks here, to Zee Docking for coming up with a great new insult, to The Mr E for a character behavior in their description that I expand upon here, and to RedMageKnight for checking in with me on Light. Also, Littlefoot and the others have some faulty intelligence - Because Avie and Guido could not get too close to the actual discussion of the terms of the trial, they missed Leigh's sneaky clause putting Ali, Ruby, Bron and Topps in danger, and believe that only Chomper and Shorty are in peril.

Please PM/fav/follow/review. Not much else to say except thanks for reading.

The Land Before Time and its universe belong to Universal.

Chapter 28 – Welcome to the Herd

Day 2 - Morning

Cera couldn't help but proudly grin at her promising class of young trainees. She had deliberately set them up to fail, not believing that a bunch of unruly and downright savage youths who had bloodied one another over a single tree could possibly muster the discipline necessary to resist eating a whole pile of treestars from right under their noses. Yet here she was, stuck teaching the whole lot of them, all watching her closely with wide, eager eyes.

"All right!" Cera called out determinedly. "Give me fifty push-ups!"

Following the interruption of Ducky's curative, Cera decided to restart the class. As Ducky and Spike excitedly watched, Ducky thought about the time when Cera once coached her on how to be mad as she instructed the class on their bodily technique. Ducky beamed, knowing just how much of a natural Cera was at this.

"Balance on your back toes! Front paws and hands down and under your shoulders, legs and arms up! Keep your hips in line with your heads! Now push!"

They had begun with a series of warmups including stretches, lunges, kicks, squats, jumps, and tail swings. When Cera tried this the first time around, the class's injuries made this difficult, but now that they were fully healed, she was surprised by just how fluidly they moved. As they followed her instructions without complaint, she couldn't believe how easy and even fun it was to train these guys. Before she knew it, every last one of them had completed their fifty push-ups without a sweat, grinning at her with determination.

Even though most of them were younger and smaller than she was, they were surprisingly tough, coming into training with considerable strength and agility. She supposed this had to have come from being toughened up as orphans living in the Mysterious Beyond, where every day was a form of training in itself. What's more, they were visibly grateful to her for teaching them, responding with energy, motivation, and respect at every turn, making them anything but the rude, difficult, and jaded class that she had expected. And indeed, their positive, daring attitudes kept spurring her to assign tougher and tougher drills.

"Good work guys, keep it up! Fifty mountain climbers!"

It wasn't normally in Cera's nature to like and trust new dinosaurs this easily, especially when she was under extreme stress and her patience was at its thinnest. But between their focus, commitment, enthusiasm, effort, positivity, and potential, her trainees were doing everything she could ask and then some. Besides, she knew Littlefoot was right that when considering their precarious situation, it was vitally important to remain on their good side. After all, any resentment brewing among even one of them could lead to betrayal and in turn the collapse of any hope to rescue the Valley altogether. Thus, she knew she had to keep her temper, snark, and biting comments in check. But even this wasn't proving to be hard, for she was liking what she was seeing from the class so much that she didn't have a complaint. As they continued to excel, finishing their mountain climbers with plenty of energy to spare, Cera knew it was time to take their training to the next level.

"Okay gang," she said as they all got their breath back. "We're gonna practice running … As one big herd!"

Cera, however, was not prepared for just how big of an impact these words would have on the class. At once, huge grins appeared on their faces as they erupted into massive cheers, looking at each other and her with wide, adoring, starry eyes. Shaking her head, she saw out of the corner of her eye Ducky beaming at them, hugging Spike in purest delight as he happily grunted. But after the prickly plant episode, she wasn't going to stand around and wait to be proven wrong by Ducky twice in one morning.

"Well?" she called out playfully to the class. "If you don't want any sharpteeth to catch you … You've gotta keep up!" And at once she broke into a lively, spirited trot.

The adrenaline coursing through her, Cera felt the wind rush past her face as she charged through the dusty, open landscape, her tongue even hanging out a little. It felt so good just to be able to run free, without any injuries or bad dinosaurs on her tail. But soon, she heard footsteps behind her, and turning, she saw in disbelief that every single member of the class was eagerly closing in on her, the flyers flapping their wings rapidly, the twofooters in hurried sprints, and the fourfooters in full-out gallops. Before she knew it, she found herself surrounded as they slowed to a jog, with big feisty smiles on their flushed faces. Incredulous and a little indignant for a moment as to how they could have possibly caught up with her so easily, she then realized how much practice running they would have had from having to escape sharpteeth just to survive. Smirking, she began to close her eyes as she remembered Littlefoot's words to her. "Six cohesives, Cera! And we've got everyone we need right in front of us!" And loath as she was to admit that she was wrong to her mate as well, his crazy idea had begun to look like it had some real potential …

"Cera," she heard Ducky's cheeky voice break through her reverie, with Spike knowingly grunting along. "You have a big smile on your face, you do."

Cera had been so lost in thought that she had just realized that she and the class had circled back to where they had started, just slowing down to a halt. Privately, she was feeling a little winded, but remarkably, the class still seemed to have energy to burn.

"I haven't felt this good since … Well, I don't know when!" beamed the male wide-mouthed longneck. "It's like my whole body has come to life!"

"We should do this again," suggested the male double-crested flyer. "And keep on doing it!"

"The way we flow together, it's starting to feel like we're a real herd!" exclaimed the male knobbed longneck.

"No sharpteeth are gonna have a chance against us if we keep it up like this!" agreed the female threehorn.

"We're gonna become the toughest, coolest, strongest herd ever!" cheered the female shieldback. "And we're gonna keep our herd leaders safe!"

But before Cera, Ducky or even Spike could interject, the female spikeside plowed on. "That's right! Whoever your enemies are, we're only gonna get tougher to help you take 'em on!"

"We may be young and small now, but just watch us!" exclaimed the male spikeless spikethumb. "We're gonna grow tough enough so that we can all stand by your side and truly call ourselves your herd, and we won't rest until the bad guys know not to mess with you again!"

"Yes, and once we stop them, we can go find a place to live!" exclaimed the male curved onehorn. "We'll be so tough that we can probably go anywhere together!"

"Maybe we can even go somewhere where we don't have to fight to survive!" beamed the female nesting bigmouth. "To find that place where we can live as one big herd and be together in peace and harmony!"

"We don't care what anyone says," said the male shieldback determinedly. "For in our hearts, we're all ready to do this! Does anyone have an idea of where we can go?"

"I think I do!" said the male hollowhorn brightly. "That is, if it exists … Have you guys heard of a place called the Great Valley?"

Jada, Gara, Keeter, Seth and Light looked at each other significantly, as did Cera, Ducky and Spike.

"I think so," said the male fourhorn tentatively. "But I didn't think it existed … It's that place where leafeaters are supposed to be safe from sharpteeth, right?"

"Yeah, but from what I've heard, it's even better than that. Apparently, everyone who lives there is part of a giant combined herd," explained the male hollowhorn.

"That's right!" added the female clubtailed longneck excitedly. "I remember now! I've even heard that the dinosaurs there refer to each other as their Great Valley family. I wasn't interested when I first heard about it, but now … I want to go find it!"

"Hey, since we're a combined herd now, just like they are … Maybe we can join them!" said the male crested flyer. "Become a part of their Great Valley herd!"

"Maybe they'll even accept our leaders' marriages!" exclaimed the male giant flyer. "Besides, once we grow tough enough, what combined herd could refuse us?"

"They probably have a lot of older dinosaurs, right? We could offer to serve as their guardians to protect them from bad guys in exchange for them welcoming us in!" exclaimed the female clubtail, to loud murmurs of excitement.

"And maybe we can meet the other dinosaurs our age there!" exclaimed the female tailed flyer. "Who are probably almost as cool as our herd leaders!"

"All right, who's in favor of going to look for the Great Valley?" said the female thicknose, and apart from the gang and the team leaders, the group all clamored to raise their paws and hands up. Expectantly turning to the others, their faces fell as they noticed their lack of excitement.

"Is there anything wrong with what we said?" the thicknose asked concernedly.

Jada, Seth, Keeter, Light and Gara then turned to Cera, Ducky and Spike, while Ducky turned pleadingly to Cera. "Can we please tell them?" she asked, causing the class to look intrigued.

"Well," Cera said hesitantly, but between the success of telling the team captains, how much she was beginning to like the class and how genuine and eager they seemed, she felt surprisingly comfortable with the prospect. Turning to the team leaders, she said, "You guys can do it, and we'll be there to answer any questions."

They nodded before Keeter turned to face the others. "All right guys. Our leaders just told us their secrets last night, and we'll share them with you. But you've got to promise to keep what we say only to the herd."

"That's right," Gara said firmly. "No exceptions. This is just between us and our leaders. So get down and promise us that you won't tell anyone, no matter what happens."

And to a dinosaur, the class immediately sunk to the ground, murmuring a wave of solemn promises. The team leaders then turned to look at Cera, Ducky and Spike, who all nodded.

"The truth is guys," Jada began. "Our leaders are from the Great Valley themselves. They are the kids of the Great Valley's Circle of Elders, their rightful herd leaders. But they've been exiled by a bunch of bad guys who just took over."

At once, the group gasped as Light continued. "They're a bunch of bigots who exiled our leaders because of their friendship and love for each other. They took over and decided to forcefully segregate the Valley because of their crazy beliefs about the circles. They even claimed the Night Circle wanted the five of them dead."

"But our leaders still have friends and family in the Valley, and so they're fighting to stop the bad guys," Seth said determinedly. "They've got a secret hideout right at the Great Valley's edge, with a bunch of food, water, and healing plants inside. And together, we can help them save their home and knock those bad guys out!"

At once, the class began to murmur in excitement. Concerned, Ducky hurriedly interrupted. "Guys, we are not your herd leaders. And none of you need to help us. We only want to teach you self-defense so you can learn how to be safe from sharpteeth, and all we want in return is for you not to tell on us …"

"Are you kidding?" interrupted the male fourhorn, his eyes sparkling. "This is like a sleep story come true! We can really do something to help you, after all you've done to help us!"

"We'd be honored to help you, your family and your friends out!" exclaimed the female spikeside. "For you all believe in love and harmony just like we do!"

"Knowing our training can actually help you guys," smiled the male spikeless spikethumb loyally. "That will only make us train even harder!"

"Yeah!" beamed the male crested flyer. "We're gonna really do our best to toughen up now!"

"You guys have a cause worth fighting for!" exclaimed the male wide-mouthed longneck. "And we're gonna be with you every step of the way!"

"We'll always be there to fight by your side," promised the female tailed flyer. "No matter how badly hurt we might get!" earning a determined battle cry from the group.

Gara, Light, Keeter, Jada and Seth knowingly looked at Cera, Ducky and Spike, before Ducky quickly interrupted. "But we do not want you to get hurt."

"We do not mind," explained the male giant flyer proudly. "We've all lived dangerous lives before, and to endure a dangerous fight for a peaceful future is something we could all happily get behind."

"We wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for you," reminded the female threehorn. "And we're used to our lives being on the line. We would gladly give our lives to you if …"

But Ducky cut her off. "But we would not be happy to see you do that. We like all of you guys too much, for you are our friends, and we do not want to see our friends get hurt, oh no no no. And we do not want a dangerous war on our paws that would put all of us, our family and friends in danger to rescue what should be a peaceful valley, where nobody has to endure any pain and suffering."

There was an awkward silence among the group. The female thicknose asked, "But how else are you going to save your Valley? The bad guys aren't just going to give up."

"Well, one way we can do this is to make our herd bigger!" Ducky smiled, and Cera and Spike were happy to see just how much Ducky warmed up to this prospect after discovering the curative. "So many of our family and friends in the Great Valley will want to stand with us, they will! We may not be that big or strong by ourselves. But the more of us that we can bring together, the safer we will all be! We can all work together to keep each other safe! And then no one will have to get hurt! And even if someone gets hurt, we now have our curative which will stop everyone's bleeding, yep yep yep!"

"Ducky, you left out the good part," Cera interrupted, smirking.

Ducky looked at Cera confusedly. "Nothing is better than making sure our friends are safe, Cera."

Cera laughed. "Okay, maybe for you. But I can think of one thing! Stopping bad guys! And we can start getting ready for that by practicing my cohesive! Longnecks, you stand by your twofooter's side, guard them, and keep the bad guys off balance with earthshakes and tail whaps! Frilleds, you're in front, ready to block any frontal assault! Taileds, you're behind, ready to stop any sneak attacks! Flyers, drop rocks on any bad guys you can get to! And twofooters, you hurl rocks at oncoming attackers to make sure they don't even get to us! The best offense is a good defense, and the best defense is a good offense! Now who's ready to start getting even tougher?"

And smugly grinning as she felt Ducky and Spike beaming, she watched as the class let out a holler of excitement, raising their hands and paws into the air, with the four-footers even rearing, as one big group in triumphant determination. Then as Ducky and Spike headed back to the Hidden Canyon to get some much-needed rest after having been up all night discovering the curative, Cera watched as the class began to mingle and start forming groups.

With their physical conditioning already being impressive, it was arguably more important that the class learn how to work efficiently together, both within their squads to start with and later with the others as one big team. Considering they had struggled to understand the cohesive the first time around, she had her doubts as to how well this would work. But to her surprise, even this was going well. Between their upbeat mood and increasing comfort with one another, their individual personalities had begun to shine through, and the other twenty recruits started gravitating toward squad leaders they felt at home with. Before she knew it, they had all happily settled into their squads, each of which was beginning to develop its own unique attitude and culture.

Jada's group consisted of softspoken, sensitive dinosaurs who were very nice and compassionate, yet also nervous and insecure. Greatly admiring Jada for being the only student to not partake in the initial fighting, they still approached her tentatively at first, not entirely sure if they could trust her, even eyeing her neck spikes with apprehension. But having felt uncertain and shy herself just a day before, Jada was very warmhearted and empathetic to her new teammates, and soon, they began to really start bonding with one another. The group practiced faithfully, taking great care to learn their individual positions, and working hard and efficiently as a team as well. Between Jada, the fourhorn and the spikeside on her team, the three defensive dinosaurs had a great amount of natural spikiness at their disposal, allowing for the hollowhorn on their team to be well-protected as he and the flyer threw and dropped rocks at their targets that they had dug into the dirt, and the group made sure to frequently and warmly congratulate each other on doing a good job.

Often however, Cera saw that the team would get together in an intimate circle, quietly talking in hushed, sympathetic, understanding tones as they looked consolingly at each other. She supposed that like Jada, the others probably had also endured difficult pasts. Though their talks often lasted a while, as a coach, Cera knew it would be counterproductive to harass them or tell them to get back to work like a stereotypically bossy threehorn. This was plainly a group that required a gentle paw, and so she knew that that approach would only backfire and lower their self-esteem. Besides, while not physical training, she saw that the talks really helped them in building trust with one another, and Cera could see that the others, less comfortable than Jada was now, really connected with and felt reassured with her words. And whenever she went to check on them, they always gave her their best effort, cohering very well as a group. Cera had no doubt that they would make a truly awesome team, especially once they started developing some more confidence.

Light's team was similarly kindhearted like Jada's, but they were more carefree, laid-back and relaxed. Cera found that they worked best in short bursts where they practiced their techniques, following which they took small breaks where they just chatted with each other, building their camaraderie. Their chats were good-natured and lighthearted, and they talked about all sorts of things. During one of these breaks, Cera had heard the bigmouth ask Light about the bad guys' views of the circles. Curiously, Cera listened in, wondering how he would explain Leigh's madness.

"Their ideas about how the Bright Circle wants to hurt everyone not like them are just crazy. Besides, who is to say that they're right? I think the Bright Circle is just an enormous ball of gas floating out there beyond the Mysterious Beyond," he said, shrugging. "Makes more sense than their nonsense."

"I haven't heard anything like that," said the armored longneck, intrigued with the theory.

"Wow, who told you that?" asked the thicknose curiously.

"It was a rainbow face who shared my name. We talked through a portal," explained Light casually.

"Wow, that's neat," exclaimed the flyer, unsure what to make of it, but smiling at him just the same.

"He also told me that flyers with big beaks like you have evolved to eat tiny little scaly swimmers," Light continued. "Your big teeth are meant to filter out the tiny swimmers from the water. That's why you are pale pink, because that is the color of the tiny little scaly swimmers that your kind eats."

"What? But I only can eat green food!" the flyer laughed.

"You never know until you try," Light smirked. "They say spikesides can only eat green food too. But I can eat snapping shells too if I swallow them real quick! Sometimes I even feel I get extra energy from them."

"Maybe we should try it … I'm getting kind of tired," smiled the bigmouth, and the whole group began to laugh.

Cera couldn't help but gain a new appreciation for Light. Here was a dinosaur with a truly free spirit who was unafraid to speak his mind, almost seeming to be part rainbow face himself. And like her father, he didn't have a problem sharing unconventional beliefs about the circles. She couldn't help but smirk about what it would be like if the two of them met. He'd probably think the spikeside was crazy, yet at the same time, he would love having a new ally in being skeptical of the circles. And his team had really learned the importance of tolerance well, for no matter what unusual idea Light had, they would nevertheless remain good friends. And despite their relaxed attitude, like Jada's team, they always performed well in practice. Yet they also had their own exercises too. While they did spend plenty of time practicing their positions, Light seemed especially energized when he could actually try his paw at playing the hero. Sensing this, his bigmouth and flyer teammates made sure to throw plenty of rocks at the longneck and thicknose, which Light tried to block from hitting them. Jumping and stabbing at them with a glimmer in his eye, he acted as if they were real barrages from enemies, and they all seemed to have a good time with this practice. Cera liked how carefree, friendly and cooperative they were with one another and knew they had great chemistry between them. She found it hard to believe that she had ever suspected Light of being involved with Leigh, and she had to fight off a chortle as she imagined how the self-righteous Leigh would react to the freethinking spikeside.

Like him, Keeter's team consisted of small but tough younger dinosaurs within the group, none of whom were older than fifteen. At first, they didn't chat much with one another as they worked, but they were dedicated, determined and hardworking students, wanting to master everything they learned just right. They practiced with near perfect precision, with Keeter making sure to get his frill perfectly aimed to hit every rock his team's flyer dropped for him, while the spikethumb in the group, despite being the smallest twofooter in the class, threw rocks that were almost as large as those thrown by most of the other twofooters apart from the exceptionally brawny Seth. The other two members of the team, a brass-colored clubtailed longneck and eggplant-colored shieldback, were the two Cera recognized as being the ones who called her the Amazing Threehorn Lady. But unlike most of the class, they looked frustrated and discouraged, despite clearly putting a lot of effort into their training. After the group finally took their first break and began to chat with each other, the three boys resumed training, where the spikethumb and flyer worked to precisely hurl rocks at Keeter's frill, who gritted his teeth as he concentrated, jumping at the rocks and hitting them with his horns, as if they were real fast biters, while the spikethumb and flyer began to open up and encourage him with cheers. The two girls meanwhile, looking glum, went to approach Cera.

"Um, Amaz …"

"You can just call me Cera," Cera said amusedly, still getting a kick out of every time they called her that.

"Right then, Coach Cera," said the shieldback. "Um, we mean no disrespect, but we think we should trade places."

"You have such a cool technique, so please don't be offended," agreed the longneck. "It's just … I know you said that longnecks go to the side so they can whip the ground. But I can't make a whip crack because I've got a club on my tail. I know this is not how you said how we should do things, but since my clubbed tail can ward off enemies from behind, I think I should be in the back."

"And I know you said tailed dinosaurs should be in the back, but I have a long tail that's not spiked or clubbed," said the shieldback. "Fast biters have always tried attacking me there because they don't want to get near my side spikes. I'm not much use in the back, but if I was on side defense, I can help Keeter and my twofooter teammate by using my side spikes to guard them! Sorry if we spoke out of turn, Amazing …"

"No, no," Cera interrupted. "You don't have to apologize for coming up with your own ideas! If this'll make you guys a better team, I'm all for it. Let's check it out."

Surprised, they returned to the group, getting into their new formation with the longneck and shieldback switching places, as Cera went to check it out. Circling them and looking for cracks, she saw indeed that the shieldback's spikes helped guard her front teammates, while the longneck's clubtail helped guard the team from the back.

"Yep, you guys have got it right. You'd be a better back defense and you a better side defense. Nice going, you two," she said as they beamed at her. Cera proudly watched Keeter's team continue to work hard, the longneck and shieldback looking much happier in their new places. They certainly had the physical ability and the desire to put in the work, plus they had just demonstrated they were capable of good thinking to get even tougher. All they needed was to relax a bit and develop some chemistry with one another as friends, not just allies, and then they could truly become one great team. But even this was getting better as the team slowly started to smile and occasionally laugh with one another.

Of all the teams, Seth's team, while probably training the most intensely, also looked to have the most fun in doing it. Cera supposed the muscular swimmer's buff physique immediately drew in likeminded individuals, for his teammates, even the lightweight flyer, were almost as well-toned as he was. The unusually brawny boxing swimmer took to rock throwing like most swimmers do to water, chucking the largest rocks of all the twofooters, and his strapping teammates were more than ready to train with him. While Seth put all the strength he had into throwing boulders at his teammates, the clubtail, longneck and onehorn all jumped at the chance to tackle whatever came their way, clubbing, whipping, and horning aside whatever they could reach with vigor, while the flyer seemed to have no difficulty in carrying rocks and dropping them next to Seth for him to lift and throw at the others.

While the group had a great physical relationship brewing between them, they were a little shy talking to one another at first, only stopping to rest when they were out of breath and thus unable to talk, and by the time they had gotten their breath back, they were already back at training. But soon, their breaktimes began to get a bit longer, and the teammates started to make friendly challenges to one another, breaking the hard water between them. Actually cohering with his team proved to be somewhat of a challenge for Seth as well, who had been so used to boxing sharpteeth on his own that he struggled at first with being surrounded by strong, burly teammates that constrained his movement. But eventually, he got the hang of it, and really started to appreciate their impenetrable wall of defense while he and the flyer chucked fast and accurate boulders at their targets, cheering with a shared sense of accomplishment with each one they hit. Still, they made time for their own freestyle training, in which the longneck and clubtail each swung their tails as hard as they could at whatever the flyer dropped for them, while the onehorn and Seth were at some cliffs, ramming and punching the rock respectively.

Cera smirked as she watched them admiringly. Just by seeing how much joy they had in working out and the sheer power of their movements, she knew that they would prove to be invaluable members to the team. Her main concern with them now was integrating them with the rest of the group, which while still athletic, was considerably less physically inclined. She even wondered how these guys with their intense workouts would adapt to life in the peaceful Great Valley. Perhaps they would find life too boring there? But then again, the Valley's sporting events had grown stale with the same few dinosaurs participating and placing over and over, and she knew that if Seth and his team wanted to participate, they, perhaps with other members of the class, would really help bring a real sense of competition back to the events and maybe even spur more dinosaurs to toughen up and join in.

Rounding the corner, Cera went to observe the last team and saw Gara and her teammates working steadily and efficiently together. Out of all the squad leaders, Cera was perhaps most proud of how far Gara had come. In contrast to how she lashed out at Jada for getting into her personal space when they first met, she had learned to trust her team enough to allow them to take their positions around her without any trouble. She had even overcome her initial dislike of threehorns to the point where she had welcomed the only threehorn in the class besides Keeter onto her team. Focused, determined and effortlessly tough yet flowing agilely, her group cohered well, with each defensive dinosaur sticking to their positions and the two large offensive dinosaurs on their team landing their rocks on their targets with skilled precision.

Still, they seemed to like to come up with their own tactics too. For instance, as well as whipping her tail on the ground, Gara was able to create another loud, distracting effect by sharpening her spikes against nearby cliffs and boulders, making a nasty screeching noise. Cera looked at Gara doing this curiously. Sharpening was a practice done primarily by threehorns, and she supposed Gara picked it up from growing up in a threehorn herd. But the resulting effect not only inspired the threehorn, but also the shieldback, flyer and hollowhorn on her team to try the same thing, leaving them all with noticeably sharpened claws and spikes after several rounds.

Cera couldn't help but grin excitedly upon seeing how much tougher the team looked just from adopting this simple threehorn custom. Much of their opposition, even the non-threehorns, had very sharpened bodily weapons after all, and sharpening themselves would be something they could easily implement if they wanted to quickly close the toughness gap. While fully sharpened bodily weapons were impractical and often frowned upon for being dangerous to hatchlings in the normally peaceful Great Valley, desperate times called for desperate measures, and besides, their weapons would soon dull back to normal once it was all over. As she thought about this, she was reminded of how important it was to get everyone on their side together so they could coordinate and implement things like this as a group before they made their move. And even if they wouldn't need to use sharpened claws, horns and spikes as actual weapons, they could still prove invaluable as powerful deterrents. Smirking, she could imagine how bad guys would even think twice about attacking Tricia's gang if they had sharp bodily defenses to back up their fighting spirits. Of course, everyone would need to learn how to control their weaponry first before even considering sharpening, given that their technique involved so much close contact. But perhaps this was something they could implement further on down the line …

Only one thing perturbed Cera with Gara's team. By fate, coincidence, or just dumb luck, the team happened to include both the pink threehorn and green hollowhorn. And while the pair seemed to hold no animosity toward one another, they looked strikingly like Bella and Leigh when seen together, for despite both being girls, they were both the same kinds and roughly the same colors. As the team worked on positioning, she couldn't help but half expect the hollowhorn, especially with her newly sharpened claws, to suddenly make a lunge at the threehorn in front of her. Heightening her suspicions even further, the hollowhorn was the only one out of all the recruits whom Cera had not yet heard utter a single word. Yet she did not want to baselessly question her, for apart from how easily it could ruin the morale of the whole class, it would also be unfairly speciesist, especially considering that many hollowhorns had a similar color scheme, and it could also cripple her self-confidence knowing just how much she looked like the face of their opposition. And despite not saying a word, the hollowhorn seemed to happily join in with the rest of the class in group cheers and activities, and she worked well both individually and within her team, looking to be a very dedicated trainee. Still, she couldn't help but wonder if they should have divulged their plans to her, and she made a mental note to check in with Gara to see if she had anything to say about her oddly silent teammate. It could just be as simple as she just didn't like to talk, like Spike.

But overall, she was very pleased with all five of her squads, and she felt incredulous with herself that she had not wanted to give them a chance earlier. Her trainees had proven themselves to be smart, goodhearted, hardworking, talented and loyal dinosaurs, and she had no doubt that despite their backgrounds, they would fit into the Great Valley just fine and would get along well with the other residents. She knew that she and her friends had to help accustom them to the Great Valley and its way of life a little. But on the other paw, they could teach the Great Valley so much from having had to have grown up themselves in the harsh Mysterious Beyond. The two groups getting to know each other would be something that would benefit everyone in the end.

Still, after a good while of training, the group seemed to regress, growing less precise with their movements, bumping into each other, and even causing some accidental injuries, causing Cera to rush around with prickly plants in order to halt all the bleeding. Thinking the class needed another reset, Cera suggested going on another jog. But as the group clumsily walked over to her, many of them began to trip over one another, eventually causing them all to fall into a helter-skelter pile. Only the squad leaders did not look tired, something to which Cera took notice.

"We're sorry," the male crested flyer said, letting out a big yawn.

"We're not usually this clumsy, really," added the male wide-mouthed longneck.

Taking a cue from Littlefoot, she tried to think from their perspective, and realized. "You guys need some water. You haven't had a drink since we first saw you."

Nodding, the class trudged along and soon found a lake where they could drink from. But after taking a big drink and being fully watered, she noticed that the group still didn't look quite right. Knowing it couldn't have been hunger, for they just ate that morning, she asked, "How much sleep did you guys out here get last night?"

The group looked at each other uneasily. "We didn't," said the female spikeside awkwardly.

"We wanted so badly to pass your test," sighed the female nesting bigmouth.

"Yeah, we didn't want to ruin everything by falling asleep. For if we let our impulses take over, we might have eaten the tree stars in our sleep," explained the female clubtailed longneck.

"We hoped we wouldn't fail you, so we made sure to keep ourselves awake all night," finished the male giant flyer. "Besides, we were too excited to go to sleep, for we were just getting to know each other as a herd."

"Right," Cera said understandingly. "Well, great effort everybody, but seriously, you guys need some sleep. No way you can be at full strength when you're this tired. You can come inside our hideout and then you can get some ..."

"No," said the female shieldback firmly, causing Cera to stare in bewilderment. "Sorry, but … We can't go inside until you induct us."

"What?" Cera asked, confused.

"If you don't want us …" began the male knobbed longneck, but Cera cut him off.

"No, it's not that. It's just … What do you mean, induct us?"

The team leaders looked at each other knowingly. "Guys," Jada suggested. "Why don't you wait outside their hideout while we explain what you mean to them?"

The others agreed, and so together, they made their way over to the Hidden Canyon. When the entrance was in sight, the others sat a good distance away to wait, while Cera and the team leaders went inside.

With Guido, Avie and Cricket still being on their mission in the Great Valley and Ducky, Spike, Etta and Ann's babies being asleep, only Littlefoot and Petrie were there to see them come in. Petrie briefly flew over to make sure the babies were still sleeping before joining the others.

"Hi guys," said Littlefoot welcomingly.

"Ducky tell us you tell them everything, right?" Petrie asked as Cera and the team leaders nodded.

"And just like we thought, they're all in and more determined than ever," Gara said with a smirk.

"Great," Littlefoot smiled, before turning to Cera. "So how's training going?"

"Well, these guys and their teams are awesome," Cera said as the five team leaders beamed with pride. "You should see the way they move! But then the others all started getting tired. Turns out they stayed up all night because they didn't want to fail my test."

Littlefoot nodded admiringly. "Wow, they're really devoted. I think we can trust them to come in here Cera, especially if they just need to sleep."

"Yeah, you no need to keep them outside," Petrie agreed.

"I offered," Cera replied, shaking her head. "But they won't come inside until they've been inducted, whatever that means."

Littlefoot and Petrie looked at each other puzzledly, then at the team leaders.

"We'll explain everything," Seth said, before eyeing Ducky and Spike's sleeping bodies. "But can you wake Ducky and Spike up? All five of you need to hear this."

"Okay, me go get them," Petrie volunteered, and so after awakening them, the two groups of five stood facing one another as they began to talk.

"So, what's this all about?" Littlefoot asked as Ducky and Spike stretched and yawned themselves awake.

"Do you guys know what an induction ceremony is?" Jada asked, to which Littlefoot and his friends shook their heads.

"It's like the loyalty oaths we made to you, but more formal," she explained. "The new herd members get into position like we did and promise their loyalty to the herd, before you officially welcome them in."

Ducky shook her head. "Really guys, we are not your herd leaders, and you do not need to swear your loyalty to us," she said kindly. "We just want to be your friends and to know that we can trust each other … To which we already know we can."

"Yeah, you guys even have me impressed," Cera said respectfully, before smirking at Gara. "Even you," she teased.

"Glad to see it, hornface," Gara jabbed back, causing everyone to laugh.

"But this isn't you forcing them to swear their loyalty to you," Light explained as he finally stopped laughing. "It's that they want to do it, just like we did. That's the difference. They know they're joining a secret society and are eager to show that you can put your full trust in them."

"We already swore our loyalty to you, which is why we didn't ask for a ceremony," Keeter explained. "Besides, these ceremonies are also where new herd members sometimes get their names, and our teammates all told us that they want you to name them."

The gang looked confusedly at one another. "But … They already have names, right?" Petrie asked, looking at Ducky.

"Um … I cannot think of any of them," Ducky answered sadly, before turning to Cera.

"Don't look at me," Cera replied, before turning to Keeter.

Keeter just shook his head. "Maybe they had names, maybe they didn't. We'll never know. You got to know us by our names, but that was before we were ready to swear our loyalty to you. But these guys kept any names they might have had to themselves, hoping that you would only get to know them by their new names which you would give them to go along with their new lives."

"But we shouldn't name them!" Cera said indignantly. "They're their own dinosaurs, not our slaves! Besides, it's not like they're too young to come up with their own names!"

"I asked them if they wanted to come up with their own names," Jada replied. "But they kept on saying they wanted you to name them."

"These guys just really want to move on," Gara said knowingly. "They want new names so they can have a fresh start, just like how I shortened my name. You saw how we acted when you first met us. We were real jerks and bullies to you … Well maybe not perfect Jada or Seth here," she teased, causing them both to chuckle. "But the rest of us? We're all ashamed of how we treated you at first. Not to mention before we met you, we've probably all done all sorts of nasty things that we'd like to put behind us. Not that we liked doing it, it's more that we literally had to do everything we could to survive, no matter how many other leafeaters we hurt. But now that we're together as a herd, especially if your folks let us live in the Great Valley … We won't ever have to be making choices like that again."

"And apart from the bad things we did, there are all the bad things that have happened to us. My group talked about everything they endured today," Jada explained with a shudder. "They said that sometimes, they still relive their traumas in their sleep stories, and they have had days where all they could do is lay down and cry. They told me that if you give them new names, it will finally allow them to let go of their pasts, for their old names would always bring them bad memories."

"They also said giving them new names is like giving them a new chance in life," Seth added. "They said it would make them feel like you're embracing them as individuals, that you really forgive them for how they may have treated you, and that you're really welcoming them in. Plus, they say it will help make them feel like a better team. They'd like to get their new names at the same time as they get to know everyone else's, so they could all feel like they're coming from the same place as they bond together as a new herd."

"Which can only help with team cohesion," Keeter said knowingly to Cera, barely concealing a dry smirk.

"Think about it this way, Thunderfoot," Light said casually.

Littlefoot looked confused. "My name is Littlefoot."

"Why? When you are hardly a Littlefoot anymore?" Light asked in that same inquisitive tone he heard from the rainbow faces. "It's not like your name makes sense, like handsome Spike over here," he said in a frisky tone as he leaned a little bit closer, as Spike looked at Light in bewilderment.

Stifling a small chuckle, Littlefoot said thoughtfully, "Well, I guess it's just because I've always been Littlefoot. All my friends and everyone who cares about me know me as Littlefoot, so it just wouldn't feel right to change my name. Besides, I just like being named Littlefoot."

"And these guys just don't like their old names," said Light sagely. "When they had their old names, these guys didn't have any friends or anyone who cared about them. They don't feel right with their old names, and they don't make them happy. But whenever they will hear their new names, they will always think back to the time when they got them, the moment when you officially welcomed them to their forever herd, when they finally found their true friends and when their lives had really changed for the better."

The gang looked at each other. As uncomfortable as they were with the prospect of giving their new friends names, they could see how important it was to them and could see why they would want them. Briefly going into a huddle to whisper to each other, Littlefoot then addressed the team leaders.

"All right," said Littlefoot thoughtfully. "If we help name the others, will they feel they can enter the Hidden Canyon?"

The team leaders nodded.

"Wait, Gara," Cera said quickly, remembering. "Can you keep an eye on the hollowhorn on your team and tell me if you see anything funny about her? Don't say anything to her, she hasn't done anything wrong, just … She looks a lot like Leigh, and we can't be too careful."

Gara nodded understandingly, before Littlefoot smiled, "Okay. We're ready for whoever feels ready."

"Since when do you talk like Ruby?" Cera snorted.

"Well, if she can't be here herself, someone's got to talk for her," Littlefoot playfully replied, and the gang shared a laugh as the team leaders went off to speak with the others.

To their surprise however, the team leaders took a while to come back, and when they finally did, only Jada, Light and Keeter returned, with their teams following closely behind them. As they reached the Hidden Canyon's entrance, the twelve new recruits stopped just short of it and immediately went into the same fully prostrated position that the team leaders and Cricket went into when they made their vows, with their bellies lying flat on the ground and exposing all four paw pads, forming three rows, with Jada's team in the front row, Light's in the second and Keeter's in the third.

"Uh, where Seth and Gara teams?" Petrie asked.

"They decided not to come yet," Jada explained. "They know somebody must keep watch to make sure no sharpteeth or bad leafeaters come by. And since the others all know they're a big group, they figured you'd have a hard time keeping an eye on all of them, so they figured it'd be best if the inductions get split up."

"Yeah, and their teams decided they wanted to get some extra rest to prepare for training tomorrow," Keeter added. "Seth and Gara are keeping watch over them right now while their teams are going to sleep, while the rest of their teams will take over once the two of them get tired. Plus, they figured they'd rather be inducted at two separate times, so you won't have to do everyone at once. Then two of our teams will keep watch when they get inducted."

"That's really nice of them," said Littlefoot appreciatively.

"Knowing them, they'll be tougher than ever when they wake up," smirked Cera.

"At least I can give them some painkiller plants to help them go to sleep," Ducky said thoughtfully, before heading back to collect some and bringing them over to the teens staying outside.

Soon, Ducky came back and joined the others as they turned to face the group of inductees, still prostrated next to their teammates in three rows of four.

"All right guys," smiled Littlefoot encouragingly. "You want us to help name you?"

Slowly and wearily, the group nodded. "Before you do so though," the male spikeless spikethumb said earnestly, "We will give our vows to our new herd. Since we know you probably don't have vows for us to agree to, we'll make them up as we go if that's okay."

"But you don't have to …" Littlefoot began.

The spikeless spikethumb, however quickly interrupted. "We know, but we're doing this because we want to, right guys?" he asked, to which the others all fervently nodded. Then he cleared his throat and began. "Okay, so, uh … Each of us here will swear our loyalty to our new herd. This is to our herd leaders, and to each other, our fellow herdmates, as well as to any herdmates we might later gain. We vow that we will love and care for each other as a herd, and that we will never betray our fellow herdmates in any way."

"We want the five of you to know that we can be completely trusted," agreed the female thicknose. "And that we in turn can have complete trust in our fellow herdmates as friends, partners and companions."

"This is a promise we are making to both the five of you as well as to each other," smiled the male crested flyer. "We want you to know that this isn't a life debt, and we aren't doing this just because we feel we have to. This is a choice we are all making as individuals because you showed us all a new way of life, in which we can all mutually benefit. And so starting now, we would all like to share in the experience of being part of a loving, caring herd."

"This promise may seem hasty," admitted the female shieldback. "But ever since you've saved us, we have all constantly been thinking about this. We had our first talk together as a herd last night, when we all realized how much we like each other, how much we have in common, and that we have the same feelings about wanting to start a fellowship together."

"We all feel this way to our core, and we are ready to start our new lives and embrace everyone here as our new herdmates," warmly added the male knobbed longneck. "We are aware of what danger the five of you are in. But that will not stop us from doing our best to help you. For as a herd, we will not hesitate to stand up to protect you, your friends and family, and your homeland."

"Which means we will also all stand together to protect one another," nodded the female spikeside. "And we will not rest until we know our fellow herdmates are happy and healthy, upon which we can all flourish in love and harmony together."

"No matter what we may have done once, we promise that we will now take inspiration from you and really care for each other," beamed the female nesting bigmouth. "It doesn't matter that we all look different. For no matter what happens, we will always be part of one big team who can count on and look out for one another, just as a true herd should."

"We know the five of you will not truly understand, but these vows are truly the start of a new journey for us," smiled the male hollowhorn as the others nodded in agreement. "They will allow us to finally let go of our dark pasts, so we can feel truly free to go forward with our lives and venture into the light together."

"We all feel this way in our hearts," said the male fourhorn to agreeing murmurs from the others. "So now, we will each go ahead and individually agree to the promises that we as a group have made, after which we will be ready for naming and induction."

And one by one, each young dinosaur closed their eyes, nodded and placed a paw on their heart as they solemnly declared, "I promise," and as they did, a proud, tearful smile appeared on each one of their faces. When they had all finished, they put their paws down and nodded together, before looking up at the gang eagerly, waiting for them to speak.

"Okay, we will agree to help name you," said Littlefoot, with a warm, affectionate smile. "But first, we want you to understand that we are not your masters, nor should you feel like we are. We do not want you to feel beholden to us, or that you must continue to follow us if you don't want to. We only ask that you do not betray us to our enemies. But so long as you would like to be our friends and stay with us, we'll be happy to have you."

"Yeah, once we save the Great Valley, we'll tell our folks all about you guys and how awesome you are," Cera said confidently. "And if anyone doesn't like you guys, then they're just gonna have to deal with me," she said, lifting up her frill defiantly.

"Home look bad now, but me know it get better once bad guys gone," Petrie smiled. "It truly a fun, happy place, where you meet whole Great Valley family of friendly dinosaurs!"

"So if you want new Great Valley names for your new Great Valley family to start your new lives with, we can help you come up with them, we can," explained Ducky. "But we do not want to just tell you what your names are, oh no no. We want each of you to have a say in what your new name will be. For each of you are special individuals inside, and we want you to be happy with your new names because you like them, not just because we do."

"And if you don't like the name we come up with, just tell us," Cera assured firmly. "The last thing we want is for you to be stuck with a name that you think is stupid. Like my folks who thought it would be a good idea to make me and my sisters' names all rhyme."

"So we were thinking," Littlefoot said gently. "That if you can each tell us something about yourself or something that you would like for your new life, we can help pick out a name for you that'll be just right."

"We no know what to name you," Petrie admitted with a chuckle. "But if we listen to you, our hearts, and maybe even Bright Circle, we try to come up with names for each of you."

"Does that sound good to everyone?" Littlefoot asked. "This way, we can help name you, but you will be the ones choosing what you want out of your names."

The group nodded appreciatively. "We like your idea very much, Mr. Littlefoot," the male knobbed longneck smiled, bowing humbly.

The female nesting bigmouth turned to Spike. "Do you want to help name us, Mr. Spike?"

Spike shook his head and grunted as Ducky explained, "Spike says he would rather have us do the naming."

The female spikeside nodded. "Then the four of you will each help name three of us, Mrs. Ducky. For we respect you all and don't want any of you to feel left out."

"Now you promise you'll all get some rest when we're done?" Cera asked. "Because trust me, you guys need sleep really bad."

"We will, Mrs. Cera," smiled the male spikeless spikethumb courteously. "Once we learn our names and the names of our new herdmates."

"Don't worry about titles, guys. Just Cera's fine," Cera said reassuringly.

"Yeah, you can call all of us by just our first names," Littlefoot smiled. "We're all friends, and that's what friends do."

Nodding in happy understanding, the group then lowered their heads, staring humbly at the ground as they smiled in anticipation. "I think everyone's ready," Jada happily said, looking at her four friends earnestly waiting in the front row.

The male fourhorn on the far left nodded. He was light chocolatey brown with a slight honey-colored tinge, with a lighter belly, darker horns, and rich blue eyes. He looked up in gratitude as he softly asked, "Littlefoot, would you help name me, please?"

Littlefoot nodded as he walked over to him as the fourhorn beamed up at him hopefully. "Okay, so what would you like out of your name?"

The fourhorn thought. "So, for my name … Well, my parents were wanderers, but I lost them when I was five. I was left alone, but nobody wanted to be my friend. Everyone was afraid of my curved horns and said I brought bad luck. I even felt my destiny was just bad luck … Until I met you guys," he smiled before sighing. "So I guess I want a name that will say that my bad luck is over, now that I've found a home in your herd."

Littlefoot pondered as he looked into the fourhorn's eager blue eyes. "Hmm … I know, I'll call you Felix! How does that sound?"

The fourhorn nodded happily. "I like it!" he said as he looked at Littlefoot expectantly, who looked blankly back.

"Oh, sorry," Felix said, noticing Littlefoot's puzzlement. "Just put your paw on my shoulder."

"Like this?" Littlefoot asked as he backed his paw right up against Felix's frill as he nodded.

"And say welcome to the herd," he explained.

Littlefoot was just about to do so, but then a thought occurred to him. "Guys, if it's all right with you, we'd like to do this part our way, Great Valley style."

"Oh yes yes yes!" Ducky exclaimed, getting to her feet with excitement. "You know what the five of us did when we first came to the Great Valley? We had a group hug, yep yep yep!"

"Ducky, Littlefoot's way too fat to hug these guys without squishing them!" Cera teased.

Petrie snickered, "Me no think you one to talk! You same body length as Spike, but you whole shieldback heavier!"

"Hey! I'm longer than Spike!" Cera insisted.

"Not that much," Ducky tittered as Spike grunted in agreement.

"Well, me lighter than all of you!" Petrie said proudly.

"Yeah, which means you're absolutely useless at pushing things," Cera retorted back, and playfully, the gang began to laugh as the group could only stare at them in befuddlement.

"You're treating each other with such disrespect," marveled the female tailed flyer.

"And you're still smiling … You're not mad at each other?" asked the male crested flyer.

"Oh no no no," Ducky giggled.

"This is called banter," Cera laughed. "This is just a way of having fun."

"We may be teasing each other, but it's just because we like each other so much," Littlefoot explained as the class marveled.

"Wow, you really are close," observed the male spikeless spikethumb.

"Trust me, you'll get the hang of it soon enough," he smiled reassuringly.

"Well Littlefoot, you better take your foot off Felix's back, I don't know how long you can hold it there without squishing him," Cera smirked.

"It's okay Cera, I don't always put my weight into everything, unlike you," Littlefoot shot back.

"I'll get you for that!" growled Cera.

After some more laughter, Littlefoot suggested, "So after we welcome you in, why don't you go and hug each of us one by one?"

"Oh yes yes yes!" Ducky exclaimed, as Petrie smirked at Cera. "That a lot of hugs, Cera. You sure you can do this?"

"I suppose," Cera sighed, as the inductees began to snicker.

"So yeah," Littlefoot said, his paw still on Felix's shoulder, as he warmly smiled, "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Felix."

Felix's eyes watered with the added touch before Petrie exclaimed, "Wait, me have idea too! You know first song we sing to Chomper? The one about how we a family and you one of us now? We should sing it to all these guys!"

"I knew you were gonna say that," Cera smirked disdainfully, but as Felix stared curiously, the five of them happily sang a chorus as Felix began to sniffle, overcome with gratitude. Then when they finished, the gang invited him over to hug each of them individually before he happily crossed over into the Hidden Canyon, now standing by the gang and team leaders, facing the others as the group began to cheer quietly so as not to alert anyone of their presence, but still with lots of sincere happiness and excitement, as Felix grinned upon having been officially inducted into the herd.

Then as the cheering finally subsided, the next dinosaur nodded to be named. He was a male hollowhorn with a snapping shell-shaped crest, a turquoise blue color, beige belly, darker blue crest and back, and light brown eyes that looked just as excited as Felix's. "You can help name me too, Littlefoot," he said hopefully.

Littlefoot nodded as he listened to the hollowhorn's story. "I came from a place that had long cold times with big winds, where I lost my parents. I finally found my way out, but ever since then, I've never felt like I've had a place in the world. Can you give me a name that will help me have faith in you guys, and remind me that I truly belong here?"

Littlefoot thought as he stared at the hopeful hollowhorn. "How about Gabriel?" he suggested.

The hollowhorn smiled thankfully and nodded, before Littlefoot put his paw on Gabriel's shoulder and said, "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Gabriel." Then they sang to and hugged Gabriel and as everyone cheered, he took his place by Felix, having been welcomed into the herd.

The female tailed flyer nodded next. Petrie still couldn't help but notice how much she resembled Rinkus, with the same watermelon pink coloring, gold-colored beak, and dark eyes, which made him all the more surprised when she turned toward him. "Petrie, can you help name me?" she asked shyly, revealing a little fear in her voice.

Petrie too felt a little fearful as he approached, but as he looked at her and saw her warm, humble expression, he could tell that her heart was gentle and pure, nothing like his uncle's scheming associate. "Okay," Petrie said tentatively, waddling over to stand right in front of her. "What you like for your name?"

"Well, before they were killed, my parents were always a little scared of me," she shuddered. "They said I reminded them of my uncle, who they told me was very cruel and ruthless, even trying to steal a Stone of Cold Fire for himself. You know him, don't you?" she asked. "That's why you're scared of me."

Petrie sadly nodded. "Me do. He bad friend of me uncle before he changed."

"Well, I promise I'll be nothing like him," she told him firmly. "I'll be a good, loyal and true friend. Please give me a nice, soothing sounding name so you'll never feel you have to mistrust or be afraid of me again."

Petrie thought, trying to come up with a name that would both be easy on the ear and also sound completely different from her uncle's, before he said, "Me call you Welbie if you like."

"Thank you, Petrie," Welbie smiled, looking at him appreciatively. Then he patted her on the wing and warmly said, "Welcome to Great Valley family, Welbie."

And as Welbie flapped over, receiving a chorus and a hug from each of the gang to another round of cheers, only one member of Jada's team was left to initiate. She was a spikeside, but unlike Light, her plates ran all the way down to her tail, and she had a mellow chartreuse coloring, with dark green plates and hazel eyes. "Ducky, can you help name me?" she smiled hopefully.

Ducky happily went over and bent down by the prostrated spikeside, looking so excited it was almost as if she was the one being initiated. "You guys have given me so much hope," the spikeside beamed. "Especially you, Ducky. You had faith in us when we didn't even have faith in ourselves … I certainly didn't have faith in me," she sighed, shaking her head. "I believed I was fated to meet my end in a sharptooth attack like my parents, and that there was no point in living other than to wait for my death. But now I have new faith, both in you and in myself, and I want you to give me a name to always remind me to appreciate the life that I have."

Ducky thought as she looked into the spikeside's gleaming eyes. "I know, how about Eva?"

The spikeside happily nodded before Ducky placed her hand on her shoulder, right above Eva's shoulder spike. "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Eva … Yep yep yep!"

And with another chorus, round of hugs and cheers, Eva too walked into the Hidden Canyon, joining Jada, Felix, Gabriel and Welbie. All five of them had now been welcomed into the herd, and overcome with emotion, they happily partook in a team hug amongst themselves. Tears streaming down their eyes, they now knew they could finally put their difficult pasts behind them, now that they belonged to a new family, with new names, a new home, and a new life together.

Light's team was next, just as eager to get their names as Jada's team was. The male knobbed longneck furthest to the left nodded first. He was a shade of light tealish green, with darker scutes, a lighter belly, and bluish grey eyes. "You can help name me, Cera," he said humbly as she walked over to the class's largest student, longer than she was but just over half her weight.

"I'd like a name that'll make me think of being sturdy," he explained. "Not buff necessarily, but strong and protective. Both to keep myself, my team, and my herd all around me safe. For if I feel that way inside, I can do more to help everyone else be."

Cera thought for a second, before realizing how his coloring and armor made him vaguely resemble a shellback. "How about Sheldon?" she suggested.

The longneck contentedly nodded. "Thank you, Cera! Can you welcome me in now?"

Cera reached up to place her paw on top of Sheldon's high, armored shoulder. "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Sheldon."

And after receiving the same welcome as the others, Sheldon happily walked into the Hidden Canyon, where he joined Light and Jada's team.

The female thicknose was next. "You can help name me, Littlefoot," she said.

Littlefoot walked over. Much like Mr. Thicknose, she was a shade of dull goldish gray, but she had lighter brown eyes. He couldn't help but wonder if the older thicknose had once been in a similar situation when he was her age, before the combined herds had settled in the Valley.

"I would like a peaceful name," she smiled thoughtfully. "One that will make me think of everything being green, and I can hear the gentle water flowing. I want a name that I can truly feel like I'm at home with."

Littlefoot pondered, "Hmm … You want to be called Kendall?"

She nodded brightly. "That's just the kind of name I want. Thank you, Littlefoot."

Littlefoot smiled as he placed his paw on Kendall's shoulder and warmly told her, "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Kendall."

As everyone began to celebrate Kendall's induction, it had just occurred to Littlefoot that he was now done with his three namings. Smiling happily to himself, he knew that Felix, Gabriel, Kendall and the others would make great friends and Valley residents just by seeing how genuinely happy they were to see one another being welcomed in.

Upon Kendall crossing over to join Light and Sheldon, the female nesting bigmouth nodded. "You get to help name me, Ducky."

Ducky happily went over to approach her. She was golden brown in color, with a reddish beige belly, light sepia colored back that went from her nose to her tail, and dark bluish grey eyes. Just seeing her smile made Ducky feel warm inside.

"I just feel so happy to be here," the bigmouth beamed. "Like I could sing with the breeze. Maybe you can come up with a name that shows just how I feel?"

Ducky thought, and with a smile, she suggested, "I know, you can be Aria, yep yep yep!"

"I love it! Thank you so much!" she exclaimed, before Ducky bent down and put her paw on Aria's shoulder. "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Aria."

Then after they sang and Aria happily hugged each of them, taking her place in the Hidden Canyon with her teammates Light, Sheldon and Kendall as well as Jada's team, only one dinosaur from Light's group remained. She was a female pale pink flyer with a darker pink back, and a melon-colored beak with an especially deep jaw. "You can help name me too, Ducky," she said eagerly.

Ducky walked over to the flyer, who looked at her. "I'm not asking much for a name. I just want one to show I am pure-hearted and sweet."

"Hmm, maybe you can be Vanessa?" Ducky asked.

The flyer shook her head. "It's nice, but something a little shorter, maybe."

"Well, then you can be Nessie," Ducky suggested.

The flyer nodded brightly. "I really like it … Thanks Ducky!"

Ducky beamed as she placed her hand gently upon Nessie's shoulder. "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Nessie!"

And after receiving her song and hugs, Nessie flew into the Hidden Canyon to cheers, joining Light, Sheldon, Kendall, and Aria as a complete team, the five of them happily grinning at one another, having all been welcomed into their Great Valley family. This left Keeter's team as the only dinosaurs left to be named, and while they were still patiently prostrated, they began to look at the gang in anticipation.

"Aww, I guess Littlefoot and I are both done now," Ducky said, nodding to Eva, Aria and Nessie, who smiled gratefully back at Ducky. "But it was fun to help come up with names for you, it was!"

"So Cera, me guess that mean we each name two on Keeter team?" Petrie asked.

"Yeah," Cera smirked, eyeing the female clubtailed longneck and shieldback pair, watching her hopefully. "Let me guess," she said knowingly. "You two want the Amazing Threehorn Lady to help name you, right?"

They snickered. "Yes," said the longneck simply. "But Petrie, you name our teammates first."

"Can I go? Oh … Sorry," the male spikeless spikethumb said, before he eagerly nodded.

Petrie chuckled with his enthusiasm, knowing how long he had been waiting. "Sure," he said happily. The littlest twofooter of the class, he was also perhaps the youngest, in a shade of granny smith green with a darker back, beige-green belly, and olive-green eyes, with a very long tail.

"Okay Petrie," he said excitedly. "Back at my old home, my kind always got hunted. Other leafeaters thought of us as fast biter food, and biters always chased me. But I want to work hard so that doesn't happen again! But I also want a name to tell me I can be brave, and one that makes me think of loving you guys and being at home here. I know it's a lot, but … Can you come up with something?"

"Wow, you right, that a lot! But me try to come up with something," Petrie said as he felt the spikethumb watching him eagerly. "Me have idea! You like the name Emery?"

The spikeless spikethumb brightly nodded. "Oh awesome! That's just what I wanted, Petrie! You're really smart!"

"You welcome," Petrie chuckled, blushing from the compliment. Then he smiled as he placed his paw on Emery's shoulder. "Welcome to Great Valley family, Emery!"

After Emery received his song, hugs, and excitedly hurried into the Hidden Canyon to join Keeter and Jada's and Light's teams, the male crested flyer nodded hopefully. Petrie approached him with a degree of curiosity, admiring the large, ornate royal blue and dark red crest on his head. He also had a handsome dark gray back and dark orange-yellow beak. Unlike the excitable Emery however, he seemed much calmer and more collected.

"Just give me something that sounds nice," the flyer smiled. "Maybe something with a tuh and a luh sound. I'd like that."

Petrie thought, thinking about his sister Tilly's name. "Me know! How about Tilden?" he asked.

"Sounds good," the flyer nodded.

So Petrie reached down to touch Tilden's wing as he greeted, "Welcome to Great Valley family, Tilden." And with another round of singing, hugging and cheering, Tilden crossed over to join the others, leaving Cera to help name her little fan club, the last recruits remaining.

"Okay you two," Cera said, unable to control a smirk. "Which one of you wants to go first?"

The two of them whispered to each other for a moment as Cera saw a flicker of mischief emerge in their eyes.

"Well, I want a short, tomboyish name," said the clubtailed longneck.

"Okay," Cera said, but the shieldback interrupted. "Sorry Cera, I know you won't like this, but … I want a name that rhymes with hers," she snickered.

Cera shook her head. "Get out," she snorted.

"No Cera, we're serious," smirked the longneck. "Since we've switched places, we've worked so well together that we want to always remember that by having names that rhyme."

Cera had to fight hard to not roll her eyes, but these were their names after all. And perhaps, they might just work for the clever, witty duo. Sighing, she looked at the longneck.

"Fine … You wanna be Anndi?" Cera asked.

"Love it!" the longneck happily exclaimed, as Cera went to put a paw on her shoulder. "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Anndi," she said, before Anndi happily received her song, hugs and cheers before walking over to join the rest of Keeter's team as everyone waited for Cera to name the shieldback, staring at her with pleading eyes.

"And you can be Candace," Cera told the shieldback, but before she could react, Cera sighed, and added, "But you can go by Candy."

Cera saw the shieldback's momentary pout flash instantly into a look of delight. "Oh thanks Amazing Threehorn Lady, and yes, Candy, please!" she said as Cera placed her paw on her. "Welcome to our Great Valley family, Candy."

And everyone cheered as the group sang for and hugged Candy as she went over to join her teammates Keeter, Emery, Tilden, and Anndi, all of them cheerfully greeting one another with smiles and low-fives, their seriousness with one another having been finally broken.

With that, the younger dinosaurs looked at their older counterparts excitedly. "All right guys," Littlefoot said happily, as he reminisced back to the time when he was in their place. "You guys are going to take your first steps into the Great Valley, just like we did once. So why don't we make this first walk into the Valley together really special? We'll lead you in, and if you follow us, you can all take your first look at a part of the Valley together."

Their new friends nodded, and so Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Jada, Light and Keeter led the way, the other twelve following behind as they looked down at the ground, their hearts hardly able to control all their excitement. Then as the ground turned from brown to green, they couldn't stand waiting any longer and lifted their heads up.

They gasped as all around them, they could see green ground everywhere, sparkling streams, a big patch of trees covered with yummy tree sweets, a whole patch of prickly plants and clumps of pink flowers. Their mouths wide open in awe and their eyes filled with sparkles as they marveled at the canyon's hidden delights, each of them could only stare in disbelief. Then as it began to dawn on them that this was their new home, their open mouths turned to joyous smiles as they suddenly hurried off to explore, as if they had suddenly lost half of their cold times.

"This water is so … clear!" Gabriel said as he submerged himself in it, feeling the cool water rejuvenate his entire body.

"And it tastes so good!" Nessie gasped as she filled her big bottom beak with water before guzzling it down.

"Look at these gorgeous tree sweets!" Eva exclaimed as she went to investigate the tree sweet patch.

"Here Eva, catch!" Emery beamed as he climbed onto the Hidden Canyon's big rock and threw a tree sweet at her, which she happily caught and began to moan with delight as she started to eat.

"The leaves on top taste great too!" laughed Sheldon as he dropped some down to Aria, who gratefully ate them. "Mmm, you're right!"

"I'm going to fly up to taste one of the really tall leaves," said Tilden, as he took a nibble. "These are also good!"

"And these flowers are so soft and pretty," Kendall said admiringly, before Candy suddenly poked her head out of them and shouted, "Boo!" And the two of them both laughed together.

"You guys are our heroes," Felix sighed as he looked up at the gang admiringly.

"And we're not joking," Anndi nodded.

"Thank you so much for all of this!" Welbie agreed.

"You've truly changed our lives," Jada exclaimed. "All of us!"

"You're welcome," Littlefoot smiled. Then he and his friends sat and relaxed, watching the twelve new inductees, with Jada, Light and Keeter accompanying them, scamper around their new home like a bunch of hatchlings.

Soon, they began to settle down by the far western wall, where after their exploring, the whole group of young dinosaurs began to rub against, hug, and embrace their fellow new herdmates, the team leaders, and the gang, practicing using their own and learning each other's new names. As all this warmth and love began to overwhelm the newcomers, they couldn't stop the tears from streaming down their ebullient faces. They even tried to do some big group hugs together with the team leaders and the gang, despite their wildly different sizes. All the while, they were steadily getting to know each other by sight, scent and touch, and soon, the group began to feel warm just by feeling the presence of their fellow Great Valley family members, new and old alike. It wasn't until Ducky saw the painkiller plants out of the corner of her eye that she finally remembered that the teens needed rest.

"We feel so happy we don't know what to say!" beamed Gabriel as Ducky went to collect some plants.

"Well, me know song you can all sing before you go to sleep," Petrie smiled, and after teaching them the words, the younger dinosaurs took a deep breath and began to sing, some of them for the first time ever, breaking into a performance of just what Gabriel was talking about. Then all fifteen teens began to munch on the painkiller plants before curling up to sleep. Short on sleep themselves from their misadventure the prior night, Ducky and Spike joined in in taking them, and Cera, worn out from coaching the class, took some as well, leaving only Littlefoot and Petrie to remain awake.

The two of them sat happily besides each other and their eyes could only melt as they beheld the scene before them. Even though the Bright Circle was only getting higher in the sky, Cera, Ducky and Spike were able to sleep soundly, surrounded by the other members of their herd. Paws were lovingly draped over each other's bodies, and everyone's smiles were warm and wide as they sleep rumbled contentedly, piled together in an adorable hodgepodge of shapes, colors, and sizes.

"Me never see anything so beautiful," Petrie told Littlefoot affectionately. "Look how adorable Ducky, Cera and Spike are! And our new friends! They look so happy! To think they mean bullies just yesterday."

"Yeah," Littlefoot beamed, smiling affectionately as he looked at each of their sleeping bodies. "Don't you just love knowing that this is what they're really like inside? I'm so glad we took them in. They really are beginning to feel like our Great Valley family now … And they'll get along with everyone else just fine." He chuckled gently, before saying, "This has gotta be the first time they've been able to go to sleep without having to worry about sharpteeth on their tails."

"You right," Petrie smiled, though Littlefoot saw that he also looked nervous.

"What's the matter Petrie?" Littlefoot asked his friend gently.

Petrie sighed, before saying, "It just … Now that me start really caring about new friends, me start worrying we lose them to bad guys."

"Yeah," sighed Littlefoot understandingly. "Come on. Let's go somewhere so we won't disrupt their sleep stories."

So they moved to a spot alongside the wall where the Hidden Canyon met the rest of the Valley. They had no reason to fear anyone in the Valley hearing them, since they were going to be speaking in hushed voices. Still, they were reassured to hear that they couldn't hear anything on the other side of the wall anyway.

"Sorry me bother you about this Littlefoot," Petrie said, looking at him apologetically. "When you probably just as worried about new friends as me."

"That's all right, Petrie," Littlefoot soothed. "But you're right, I'm worried about our new friends too. I just hope that we can get through this without losing any of them."

Petrie shuddered before he asked, "If bad guys find us now, what you think happen?"

Littlefoot considered thoughtfully. There was no doubt that they were a lot safer and stronger now with all their new friends at their side. They were far from a small group anymore for one, and there truly was safety in numbers. And even he had seriously underestimated their mental fortitude, not really thinking that every single teenager in the group could possibly resist the tree stars, let alone want to help them save the Valley. They had demonstrated incredible loyalty, enthusiasm, and willpower with their vows, and while he hadn't seen any of the training yet, he knew it had to be going well if Cera had warmed up to them already, and considering just how excited she was, they must have proven themselves to have great physical conditioning. With Cera teaching them the cohesive, and the group increasingly looking like a big mixed-up family the more time they spent together, they now had an undeniably solid foundation from which to build upon.

But as much as they had been strengthened by their new friends, Littlefoot knew that if their enemies had found them now, it would still be an uphill battle. Talented, swift, and tough as they were, this was still a group where Littlefoot was the heaviest, Cera second, and Spike third. Against an onslaught of attacking merciless herds of fully grown dinosaurs who were obviously very tough and hardened themselves, including such large species as longnecks, threehorns and spiketails, he knew that it would be such a physical mismatch that no ingenuity on their part could compensate. They just couldn't compete with their enemies' sheer power at this point, and to try to pretend otherwise would be incredibly dangerous and foolish, no doubt leading to a heavy loss of life. And even if they somehow were able to win the battle, those still surviving would be weakened enough to be easy pickings for ravenous sharpteeth ...

"We'd have to run for it," Littlefoot answered honestly. "We're just not there yet. Even if we had the perfect plan, our enemies are so strong that they'd overpower us before we'd even have a chance to put it into motion. And it's better to retreat than get beaten up for nothing."

"We defeat Sharptooth when we just five though," Petrie pointed out. "And he most dangerous sharptooth of all."

"Yeah," said Littlefoot. "But he was still just one dinosaur. This is a whole mob. Even all of us combined couldn't take on all the segregated herds! We'd probably lose a whole lot of our friends even before we could all get our feet on the ground. It's just not a risk we'd want to take, especially if we want all our friends to come out all right."

"Yeah, you probably right," Petrie sighed crestfallenly.

"Yeah," Littlefoot commiserated. "Which is why it's so important that we don't get discovered just yet."

Then receiving a sudden idea, Littlefoot suggested, "We probably should know what's on the other side of the wall. You think maybe you can sneak up to the top and peek over without being seen?"

"Me try," Petrie said cautiously, and very carefully, he flapped up to the rocks where the Hidden Canyon met the rest of the Great Valley. Sliding on his belly across the top's surface, he peered over to take a quick look at the other side. Then Petrie slid back, and he could instantly tell that what Petrie discovered was good news. Once lowered to the ground, he explained, "Me no see mob. Just Cera dad herd around Hidden Canyon rock."

Littlefoot smiled with pride at his father-in-law's good thinking. "Great, at least we've got friends on the other side," he beamed. "Cera's dad knows about the Hidden Canyon, so maybe he suspects something's up. At least now if the mob tries to break in, he and his herd will be able to delay them and give us time to escape."

"And if bad guys try attack at night, they wake Cera's dad up, and he be so mad he wake all of us up in time to escape," Petrie added, causing them both to chuckle, before Petrie more seriously asked, "You think we can trust Cera dad herd?"

Without hesitation, Littlefoot nodded. "Yeah," he smiled. "Cera's dad's herd is very loyal to him and the rest of the Valley, and they've actually become pretty open just like he has. They call me an honorary threehorn now if you can believe it, and they've invited Cassia and me to a herd event. So I really don't think they'd betray us. And if one of them even thought about trying, Cera's dad would probably kill them first."

They both laughed before Petrie asked, "So what can we do to get safer and stronger, so we can help get Valley back without friends be killed?"

"Well, let's look at what we've accomplished already," Littlefoot smiled. "When we started, it was just us and Etta running for our lives in the Mysterious Beyond. But now, we have a hideout where we can stay and rest, as well as be close to the Valley. We've got a fighting trick with Cera's cohesive that can take on a whole pack of sharpteeth. We've got Ducky's curative to help heal our injuries. And assuming the other newcomers become part of the herd like these guys, we'll have …" He paused as he counted them up. "34, not counting Ann's babies. We're a lot better off than when we started, and things can only get better from here."

"How?" Petrie asked hopefully.

"Well, by continuing what we've been doing, but bigger and better," Littlefoot explained, looking to the Hidden Canyon's northern edge. "Remember what Grandpa said? We can push those rocks to make the Hidden Canyon bigger, which will give us more food, water, and space. There's enough of us here now that we're probably strong enough to do it. Maybe there's more curative in there too we can use. And that's one thing the bad guys probably don't know about. We can also make ourselves safer by practicing the cohesive, and maybe we can do some other training too. Ducky said Cera did a great job training these guys, and since we're all in this together now, maybe we can train with the class and get tougher ourselves."

Petrie shuddered. "Me no think me cut out for threehorn training."

Littlefoot laughed. "Not even Cera likes threehorn training. Besides, the class only has two threehorns in it. Ducky said the class looked happy doing it too, so it can't be that bad. It's certainly something we can at least try. And who knows, maybe we can help Cera come up with other ideas for training."

Petrie shook his head frantically. "Me no think it good idea if you give Cera any more ideas, Littlefoot. Training probably harsh and painful as it is."

Littlefoot couldn't help but chuckle again. "Who says training has to be harsh and painful? Training doesn't have to be that way at all. It's all about having the right attitude. And we can help Cera make training an even better experience for the class."

"What you mean?" Petrie asked, dumbfounded.

Littlefoot smiled. "You like playing games, right?"

"Well, yeah," Petrie said confusedly. "So?"

"Well, whenever we move our bodies and use our reflexes, that's training, which means games are a type of training too!" Littlefoot explained brightly. "Stop the seed and tag stretch our legs and get our hearts going. Hopper-hop allows us to practice jumping. You can't play swimmer-splasher, but you can play sky catch with Etta, Welbie, Nessie and Tilden and the other two flyers, while the rest of us swim through the water, which will give everyone a workout. We can even create new games that will help get our whole bodies in shape! Or play games we couldn't in the Great Valley because we didn't have the space for it! We can play games that we couldn't play before because they need more players! And how will we find where to play them? By adventuring, of course! See? We can do training in the same way that we always have had fun!"

"Wow," Petrie said, surprised. "That not sound bad. But you sure that would work?"

"We might not get as tough as the bad guys, but we don't need to. If we close the gap, that will help us a lot, and then we'd have a chance of defeating them in other ways! The stronger our bodies get, the better we'll be able to help keep ourselves and our friends safe. But that's just one way of getting stronger."

Then, Petrie noticed Littlefoot's eyes began to twinkle as his smile began to broaden into a wide smirk. Perplexed, Petrie asked, "Um, Littlefoot, why you so happy?"

"Well … I'm just thinking about how else we can get safer," he said thoughtfully. "And apart from strengthening ourselves, one of the best ways we can do that is to grow our numbers."

"But how we do that if we no able to get in Great Valley?" Petrie asked confusedly.

"We don't need to," Littlefoot said, remembering that Petrie had been asleep while he and Cera had talked to Avie and Guido and he had not gotten a chance to talk about what was going on in the Valley to Petrie yet. "Cera didn't tell you where Avie, Guido and Cricket are?"

Petrie shook his head as Littlefoot explained. "They're out telling some friends who can get the word out about us," Littlefoot smiled. "They're seeing Doc and Dara, who can let Dad and his herd know and maybe all of them can help us. They're gonna tell Mr. Thicknose, who can tell Cera's parents' herd and the Onehorns. Or maybe since they're right by us, Guido and Avie already got to Cera's parents themselves. They went to tell Sophie, and she's so quiet she can probably get the word out among her herd and the clubtails without anyone knowing. And we've got a lot of friends among the twofooters, so they're telling Ducky's mom and your mom, who can reach out to everyone. Once they know about us, they'll be able to find a way to sneak out of the Valley, and then we can lead them to the Hidden Canyon."

Suddenly, Petrie gasped. "Littlefoot! If me mom know about this place … That mean she and whole family can just fly over here and join us! Me know mom, Pterano and siblings be big help to us! Maybe they come flying over at any moment!"

"Yeah," Littlefoot smiled. "Still, they've got to be careful. There's bound to be bad flyers in the Valley. And your family can't just fly over the Valley and be seen landing here, otherwise they could blow our whole secret. So they've got to find another way in. But I bet your mom and Pterano can come up with something between them."

Petrie smiled appreciatively, before sighing. "It feel so weird that we not able to just go in Valley and save everyone like usual. Especially with Chomper and Shorty in big trouble."

"I know," Littlefoot agreed. "But Dad's got that trial up, so they still have nine days. During which time, we can only get more prepared. Others will sneak out of the Valley and join us, and the more of us there are, the better of a team we can be. If we can find a way where we can all work together … Maybe we don't necessarily need to fight harder if we can fight smarter. And maybe by the tenth day, we'll be at that point where there's enough of us, we're strong enough, and we're smart enough where we can save the Valley without losing any lives at all."

Petrie looked hopefully at Littlefoot for a moment, before his abruptly face fell as an uncomfortable idea came to him. "Um … Littlefoot … Oh, never mind. Me no want to ask this."

"You can ask Petrie, I'm your friend, remember?" Littlefoot teased gently.

Petrie nodded. "Well … What if Leigh and bad guys not play fair? What if he find excuse to kill Chomper and Shorty before 10 days?"

Littlefoot swallowed, not exactly sure how to answer. The thought had indeed occurred to him that though the deal may have managed to halt an instant death sentence, Leigh was an untrustworthy adversary who would gladly back out of a deal should the opportunity arise. The desire for peace and public opinion within the Valley were safeguards which prevented Leigh from getting too out of hand, forcing him to make the deal in the first place. But with Leigh already having proven to have been a master deceiver and manipulator, Littlefoot knew that he may very well be scheming to find a way to justify scuttling the deal altogether.

"We'll think of some way, Petrie," Littlefoot said uncertainly as he frowned, deep in thought. There were just too many things they didn't know. While the trial was clearly a farce, was Leigh going to let the entire ten days run out to establish a pretense of fairness, or was he going to find an excuse to shut the trial down early? If the former, their chances of success would be much higher with the full 10 days to prepare, but if the latter, they needed to come up with an emergency rescue operation.

He thought about this latter possibility. Considering Chomper and Shorty were held in the center of the Great Valley, a simple rescue attempt would almost certainly fail and cost countless lives due to the sheer strength of the mob and the undoubtedly huge amount of prison guards, who would not hesitate to use the attempt as an excuse to kill Chomper and Shorty at that very moment. No, if they were going to try to arrange a jailbreak, they would have to do it stealthily. They would need a well thought-out, coordinated, unpredictable strategy, in which everyone knew where to go and what to do to keep the bad guys guessing so they could sneak Chomper and Shorty out ...

Sighing, Littlefoot shook his head. They just didn't know enough about the scene of the prison to actually make this kind of a plan. Yet how were they going to figure that out? He couldn't ask Avie and Guido to go there, for he knew that with so many guards and with so few trees, it would be extremely dangerous for either one to even get close. Nor could he ask any of the flyers, who would certainly be noticed due to their larger sizes.

And then like a bolt of sky fire, it hit him. There was one dinosaur who not only would have a lot of knowledge on the way the trial was going and know the prison area well, but who also had the ability to be remarkably sly and perceptive, who could often see things that others could not. He could really use this someone at his side, a true partner with whom he could lay out a cunning strategy with. The only problem was reaching them, for they were undoubtedly being heavily watched …


Hatcher. Dwayne. Shayle. Marshall. Scott. Trudy. Ric. Elda. Lara. Wan. Boze. Cole. Calem. Karla. Gaven.

Topps observed his faithful herdmates bowing before him with pride and appreciation. Some of them had stuck with him ever since he had been exiled from his first herd. Others had joined up over the cold times since, whether through wandering with them in the Mysterious Beyond or by joining them in the Great Valley. And young Calem, Karla and Gaven, between Cera and Tricia in age, were promising proteges who were just growing into herd life. Regardless of how he met them, just like his wife and daughters, they had all proven themselves to be strong, courageous, and loyal threehorns, and like them, they could all prove to be remarkably fearless warriors when the situation required.

While Topps had been deeply humbled by his catastrophic bid to take charge of the Great Valley, he still took great pride in how he had led his own threehorn clan. Starting off as a small aimless herd in the Mysterious Beyond, they had followed him into joining the newly formed combined herds, without which they might have never even found the Great Valley. And just as he had followed his older daughter's example over the cold times, they had followed him into slowly integrating with the other dinosaurs of the Great Valley. Though they were still a tight-knit group and very loyal to him and each other, they quickly came to respect the rest of the Circle of Elders just as he did, and just like his wife and daughters, they eventually started to form friendships with the Valley's other dinosaurs. They had even come just as far towards full species tolerance as he had, embracing Littlefoot as an honorary threehorn and welcoming him and Cassia to come along with them on their heretofore exclusive tradition of Flower Day.

Yet as proud as he was of leading his herd to becoming staunch believers in the Great Valley way of life, he was just as proud that they had not lost any of their special threehorn culture in the process. They were as tough, determined, and disciplined as any herd in the Mysterious Beyond, and they still spent plenty of time together partaking in traditional threehorn customs – sparring, maneuvers, strength training, headbutting, horn ramming, and when far away from the eyes of concerned twofooter parents, even a little sharpening. Rather than losing what it meant to be a threehorn, they had begun to spread threehorn practices among their other friends, to the point where it was not uncommon for Topps to see a clubtail headbutting, a hollowhorn lifting rocks, or even a mixed group partake in a friendly spar, helping to bring threehorn culture to everyone in the Great Valley. All his herd needed was a leader, and while he knew now that he was not meant to lead the whole Valley, he was a perfect fit to lead his tough, strong-willed, but always goodhearted herd. And even in this moment of crisis, they all nonetheless loyally stood, gathered in a circle as they waited for him to talk.

"Thank you for coming here," Topps quietly said in a low voice, with a thankful nod to his herd, very proud in that they all had come. While not his preferred blunt, open dialogue, Topps was more than capable of speaking in an undertone when needed. "I appreciate how so many of you have asked questions about how we can best stand tough against this crackpot regime. I too want to do everything in my power to fight them. But considering how my rash actions as of late have helped lead to this situation in the first place, I understand that if we hope to succeed, as Old Longneck once said, we must not act too rashly."

Perplexed, Topps' herd turned to look at one another. It was not like their herd leader to preach restraint. Yet they saw that there was both a fire in his eyes and a smug smile on his face that weren't there last night when he returned from the trial so visibly exhausted and discouraged. But they knew better than to ask further questions, for if he wasn't going to tell them, there had to be a very good reason for it.

"Before we get started however, I would like to acknowledge young Calem, Karla and Gaven here," Topps said proudly. "I must confess to having been so busy in my foolish endeavors that I have failed to pay enough attention to my own herd. While I have been pursuing power, these fine young, brave threehorns have continued to grow to the point where they can rightfully be called full members of our herd. But it is not too late for me to still right that wrong. So with that, I would like to officially celebrate their coming of age and formally welcome them into our herd."

The rest of the herd quietly showered their praise on them as the three young teenage threehorns proudly smiled, nodding thankfully.

Then he nodded to a large, slate-blue threehorn with a muscular body and a long, rounded frill who was also in the circle.

"I must also officially welcome young Monty into the herd. He may be a different kind of threehorn than the rest of us, but that hardly matters. He has a brave heart worthy of any threehorn, and he has agreed to take on a vital mission for us, to prepare our youngest members for their role of our grand plan."

This however, attracted some muttering from the herd, especially from Ric and Elda, who were parents of Karla and Gaven respectively. Monty was a little upset, but he knew that considering his vagueness and the rise of his diabolical ward, he knew he fully deserved this skepticism.

"Excuse me Mr. Topps," said Ric, politely but still with a questioning tone to his voice. "I know you can say we can trust Mr. Monty, but … He was supposed to be the caretaker of that evil maniac. Are you sure he can really be trusted?"

Elda nodded as she asked, "How do we know he's not allied with his charge? He was kicked out of his herd after all, and we still do not know why. If we are going to entrust our children to him, we need extra assurance to know that he is fully loyal to us."

Topps sighed. "I have every reason to believe …" he began, but Monty interrupted. "No Mr. Topps, they're right. The herd deserves to know the truth."

"Monty, you don't …" Topps began, but Monty cut him off again. "If they're going to really trust me, they need more than your word for it. They need to know why I was kicked out and why I'd never side with that deceiver."

Topps nodded, before turning to his herd seriously. "Before Monty says anything, I want to hear your word that you won't treat him any differently because of what he is about to say. This is just part of who he is and always has been. This does not make him perverse or any less saurian than the rest of us. This does not mean he will treat any of us in an untoward, disrespectful way. He is a fearless, stronghearted threehorn, someone who will stand tough for good, and he has consistently shown true loyalty to our Valley and our herd. This is also part of why I didn't press Leigh harder when he first arrived, in order not to bring further attention upon his caregiver. I want you treat him with respect, and when you see why he has nothing to do with Leigh and the mob, you will understand. All right?"

The herd nodded and agreed, before Monty sighed, holding his head to the ground, "I was kicked out of my herd because … I made eyes at … And asked … Nothing happened, just … Yeah," he finished awkwardly. "That was enough."

As the herd looked at each other in solemn understanding. Topps sighed. "Having been prejudiced myself once, even having shamefully tried to prevent my daughter from becoming friends with and later marrying young Littlefoot, I feel a tremendous amount of regret for my past actions and have resolved to try to make it up in some way. As I'm sure you are aware, bigotry exists in many forms, and dinosaurs who are like Monty have often been scorned. Especially by the types of speciesist, circle-obsessed, chauvinistic, savage herds that now run rampant in this Valley. Monty through no fault of his own would no doubt be made an outcast and potentially killed should his secret get out, and this is why there is no chance that he is involved with these zealots."

With another heavy sigh, Topps continued, "And this is why as soon as I heard his story, I vowed to keep him protected, for it was a way that I could atone for my behavior in the past."

Monty nodded. "I made Mr. Topps promise to keep my secret from everyone … And no one else knows … Until now," he sighed. "And because Mr. Topps took me in, and the openness your Valley has … Just know that I have deep loyalty to your herd and your Valley, and I will never do anything to hurt any of you."

The herd nodded understandingly. "Well, we welcome you to the herd, Mr. Monty," said Ric, as the threehorns went around the circle to formally welcome Monty in.

"Are you three … Still all right with me helping you?" he asked Calem, Karla and Gaven.

The three younger threehorns bowed. "We still respect you, Mr. Monty," promised Calem, as Karla and Gaven nodded. "Actually, we respect you even more now that you showed us how brave you are."

"It makes no difference to us," Karla agreed. "You're still the same tough threehorn we can look up to."

"We're just happy to know that you're definitely on our side," Gaven added, making Monty feel much better. "And we will do whatever you ask if it helps our Great Valley."

"I have a question though, Mr. Monty," asked Scott, a middle-aged adult. "How did you know Leigh? And how did he manage to trick you?"

Monty shook his head. "The truth is Scott, I really didn't know him. It's a long story … After I was exiled by my herd, I was a lone wanderer for a long time, just trying to survive in the world. But then I met a young threehorn one day, sitting by herself and crying. She was a different kind of threehorn than me, but that didn't matter. She was alone, and I could help her. She told me she had been kicked out of her herd because she had been caught having a secret relationship with a male hollowhorn and that she had nowhere else to go. Knowing what it was like to be kicked out of a herd, I took her in, and I promised that I would help her find this hollowhorn. If I couldn't enjoy love, at least I could help her find it. We looked far and wide, and though we saw many hollowhorns, she couldn't find her old friend. But just recently, she found him, but she was too scared to approach their herd, for they too would not approve of their relationship. So I went over to sneak him out of his old herd and bring him to Bella. When they reunited, they both looked so happy, and I pretty much gave them privacy to let them be a young couple. I then heard of this place where interspecies marriages were welcome called the Great Valley, and so I took them there, thinking they would finally find real happiness …"

Shaking his head, Monty said, "I trusted Leigh because Bella said she trusted him. And there was no reason for me to think otherwise. He seemed to be a very nice, loving boyfriend to her. It is only now that I've seen the true Leigh that I realize that he was merely putting on an act, just as he always does. I think Bella found out the truth too, which is why she was killed … But that's all I know. I must admit, I was so determined to help Mr. Topps with his leadership bid that I was not watching my charges as closely as I should have. It's my fault that Leigh is in the Valley, and that Bella is dead. And that's why I want to do everything in my power to help you rescue the Valley ... So I could at least help put a stop to what I started."

The herd nodded, as their attention turned back to Topps. "Now that you all know Monty is trustworthy, let me inform you about our plan. While we are going to start slow, we are going to start nonetheless. As you may know, that monster has called for a herd meeting. I know how tempted you all are to just boycott it. Believe me, I too don't want to listen to such nonsense. But we are threehorns, who are strong enough to make our presence known without being forced to back down. So I thought of a way where we can show solidarity with our allies, protest the regime, help my youngest, and further our training, all at the same time."

Intrigued, the group began to murmur to one another. "Now, a couple of you will be on your own missions. Tria will be looking to reach out to some of our allies while some of the guards are distracted with the herd meeting. Monty, you keep watch on Tria and distract the guards remaining, and once Tria is back safely, hash out plans for Calem, Karla and Gaven. Shayle, you know what you need to do. The rest of us will be going to the Rock Circle. Stay here for a moment while I gather the others."

So Monty, Shayle and Topps left the circle, leaving the others to whisper restlessly to one another. Topps then came back, first with Tricia, who looked confused, and took her to the middle of the circle. Then he left, upon which the others immediately moved in to protect her. A little while later, he arrived with four other frilled dinosaurs, instantly piquing his herd's interest.

"Everyone, while we will be going to the herd meeting, we will not be going … compliantly," Topps said, with a defiant, proud smirk on his face, to which the others began murmuring excitedly. "The hollowhead has specifically requested a beautiful display of segregated purity. But we will be there to ruin it for him. For to show our opposition to this lunatic … We will be attending the meeting in solidarity with our friends Mr. and Mrs. Onehorn, along with young Mono and Rachelle in our midst."

Chattering eagerly, the herd began to talk as they moved over to make room for Mono and Rachelle's adoptive parents, while Mono and Rachelle scampered to the center of the circle, greeting Tricia with happy hugs, all three of them with wide, gleaming eyes.

"I thought this was a joke," Mono laughed as he greeted Tricia.

"But they're really going through with it!" Rachelle said admiringly.

"Well, that's my Daddy for you," Tricia smirked. "He can have a big head, but he's not afraid of anything! Right Daddy?"

"Too right you are," said Topps deviously. "Now then. There will no doubt be goons who'll have a problem with us and try to break us apart. But they won't be able to. You know why? Because we are tough threehorns, that's why. And we are going to stand together in the Circular Cohesive. Now let's practice our positions. Onehorns, teens, kids, stay inside the circle."

And so the other eleven adult threehorns got into a circle, their bodies arranged with their tails pointing inward and horns pointing outward. Topps examined his herdmates smugly as he paced around the circle before taking his place in it. "Excellent," he smirked. "Everyone's horns are out, so they won't dare to even think about moving us. And if they don't like it? Tough."

And the herd began to snicker as they listened to Topps in delight. Tricia gleefully hugged Mono and Rachelle with each front paw.

Smirking broadly, Topps continued. "This may prove to be great practice for … Later. But today, we will be making our technique even stronger. For Calem, Karla, Gaven … You and Mr. and Mrs. Onehorn are going to make your own Circular Cohesive inside of ours, in which young Tricia, Mono and Rachelle will be kept safe."

The group murmured approvingly as Calem, Karla and Gaven happily looked at each other, delighted to have their own special role in the herd. Then they and the Onehorns got into position, forming two perfect circles to protect the three younger kids. With that, the formation disassembled, and the group turned back again to facing one another.

"As you all know," Topps chuckled. "Along with their gang of friends, these three have caused an unbelievable amount of trouble, to which I am very proud. And I think I can be safe in assuming that once again, they will represent us well and undoubtedly make their voices heard. Obviously Leigh would like to prevent the children from speaking up. But our cohesives will block anyone from reaching them, which means they can say whatever they want. Besides Tricia, I believe you have to tell your friends something?"

"Oh yeah!" Tricia exclaimed, her eyes bright as Mono and Rachelle looked at her eagerly.

Topps smirked at his herd. "Right then. With two cohesives surrounding you, the three of you will also be able to freely talk amongst yourselves. The rest of you, just pretend you didn't hear anything they said if anyone asks."

So chortling, the combined frilled herd soon made their way over to the Rock Circle. Surrounded by the adults as they walked, Mono immediately turned to face Tricia as they began their hushed conversation. "So, what's going on?" Mono asked eagerly.

Tricia grinned broadly as she whispered to him. "Dess escaped! She's at my place!"

His eyes gleaming, Mono hurriedly passed the message to Rachelle on his other side, who looked just as euphoric as the three of them skipped their way to the Rock Circle. They had soon arrived, and just as planned, the onehorns and teenage threehorns positioned themselves directly around the kids, while the adult threehorns formed an outer circle around them. As they heard the sound of frustrated enforcers trying but failing to split the tight cohesive up, Tricia, Mono and Rachelle then began to whisper to each other.

"You ready to start causing trouble?" Mono asked.

"Sure am," Tricia smirked. "I've come up with some new chants we can use."


The first formal herd meeting held by the Valley's new leader, as expected, was a raucous affair before it had even started. Opinions on the young hollowhorn were sharply divided, with the only consensus being that nearly everybody had something to say about him.

To many in the segregated, traditionalistic herds, he was a rare ray of hope and looked upon with great admiration. He was a charming, humble youth of the highest character, free from corruption by the Great Valley's morally decadent Circle of Elders, who had overcome his own personal wrongdoing to establish a paradise for those who still believed in tried and true values like insular leadership, racial separation, gender hierarchies, firm discipline, courtship duels and the passing of good genes, survival of the fittest, and of course, a belief that the circles would reward the pure and punish the wicked. He had even sacrificed his own cleanliness to take it upon himself to communicate between the herds, so that apart from speaking with him, they wouldn't have to besmirch themselves. And by overthrowing the meddling Circle of Elders that insisted on permissiveness and contamination, they were now able to live amongst only those of their own superior kind while still enjoying the most fertile land of all.

Yet to many others, those who had come to appreciate the Valley's welcoming, tolerant and interdependent way of life, the new regime stood in direct opposition to the spirit of the home that they knew and loved. These dinosaurs still believed in the Circle of Elders' shared values of promoting cooperation, racial diversity, gender equality, relationships based on love and friendship, caring for one another, and freedom and tolerance of thought. They were disgusted with how the new order restored segregation, put up walls, tore apart friends, imposed its regressive beliefs, and systematically tried to root out opposition, all supposedly in the name of the circles. To them, the Great Valley had lost its compassionate, peaceful, and harmonious nature that had made it more than a place but a culture, especially since the five young, exiled dinosaurs that they still loved and admired first showed them how friendship could happen among anyone who opened their hearts up to one another.

These conflicting visions of saurian society could easily be seen among the crowd just by their contrasting reactions as they waited for the new herd leader to speak. While many of the segregated herds, tightly clustered together and making sure to keep a good distance from the other kinds, were chatting optimistically amongst themselves, talking about how the good old days had finally returned, unrest had broken out among the regime's dissenters as they kept on defying the segregation orders, forcing the enforcers to have to deal with the same repetitive herds, families, and individuals - the spiketail herd, three clubtail adults, threehorn herd, swimmer family, hollowhorn parents, two gangs of youths, and the young longneck's father especially prominent among them - who responded with shouts, stomps, jeers, snarls, and protests, while the flyer and notooth herds, too lightweight to be able to protest without getting hurt, simply responded by boycotting the event. The battle lines had clearly been drawn among alliances of dinosaurs who wanted two completely different societies, and it was apparent that both groups would not back down from what they believed in.

It was then that with the reactions began to escalate, with a cacophony of cheers and whoops being countered by a barrage of shouts, hisses, and boos, with each side's noise trying to drown out the other. The enforcers hurriedly went into the crowd, ordering the dissidents to quiet down as the Valley's leader, limping from the prior day's experience, was escorted to the middle of the Rock Circle by a private guard. At last, the enforcers had managed to mostly segregate and quiet the unruly crowd down before a loud, resonant call rang out from the young hollowhorn, and a wide, eerily friendly grin appeared on his face.

"Good morning," Leigh genially beamed to the crowd, in a gentle but surprisingly loud voice, basking in the cheers but averting the eyes of loathing fixed upon him, as well as the boos, shouts and stomps that had continued to ring out. "How lovely it is to see all of your smiling saurian faces, gathered here in a delightful celebration of purity, just waiting to hear what the circles have to say."

Ignoring the sound of Tricia's gang loudly retching and the loud snickers of the other dissidents, Leigh continued earnestly, "And just look at how high the Bright Circle is rising in the sky! It is rising for good reason, for it is the rise of a new …"

"The Bright Circle always rises in the sky at this time of day, you rockhead," Topps snorted, drawing scandalized murmurs but also turning the snickers into guffaws.

"Heretics never change," Leigh sighed sadly. "Especially ones with such dirty daughters."

"You take that right back, Hollowhead," Topps shouted furiously as his eyes narrowed, for he was almost about to charge out of the circle. Luckily his herdmates stuck their paws out just in time to prevent him from running into what would have been an instant death trap.

"Wise decision," Leigh smirked.

"Mr. Threehorn is an esteemed member of our Great Valley, the father-in-law of my son, and the father of my daughter-in-law," Bron scolded coldly as Topps looked at his former rival back him up in thankful appreciation. "The way you are treating him and his family, Mr. Hollowhorn, is shameful and absolutely disgusting. Do you understand?"

"Ooh, lah-de-dah, says the father of the depraved and the murderer, who couldn't even keep his own herd in order," Leigh simpered to guffaws from the mob, and before anyone else could interrupt, he pranced on. "Not to worry everyone, for while the remnant may bluster, a new era of righteousness is coming to the Great Valley, which will bring an end to all the bad luck and can only bring good news to all who are pure are heart. I would like to dedicate this moment to the circles for the glory they have given us, and to commemorate this wondrous occasion, I would like … I mean the circles would like you all to bow before your mas … uh, their messenger."

While many fell to their knees at once, some out of genuine respect, some out of fear of the mob, many of the enforcers had to literally push the lightweight dinosaurs onto the ground, pinning them down as they were forced into compliance, ignoring their disgusted glares and shouts of protest. The larger dinosaurs, too heavy to pin down, simply stood there defiantly and looked at Leigh scornfully. "Well," Leigh sighed. "I see we have some who are obedient and faithful and that we still also have some heretics. No matter. The cleansing has only just begun. You may stand up."

At once, those bowing stood up before Leigh once again put on that sickeningly sweet innocent smile. "As you may be aware, I am a mere humble servant of the circles seeking to communicate their will. And throughout the night, I have been in deepest meditation, watching their every movement as I have been faithfully communicating with them, seeing their shining forms …"

"A fat lot of good that would do, since you spent all night in a cave," Hyp loudly shot back.

The effect was immediate. Growls of outrage could be heard, as could gasps of worry. But Mutt, Ann, Dispo and Rana backed him up by loudly bursting into laughter, along with many of the other dissidents. As the enforcers of the regime tried to hurriedly bring back order, Tricia's gang, eyeing Hyp and his friends with increasing respect and admiration, seized the moment, and fighting off laughs, they began to chant, "Loony Leigh! Loony Leigh! Loony Leigh!"

Leigh sighed piteously. "Tut tut … Poor circles, having their message being so disrespected. But what else is to be expected …"

But the protesters ignored him, with more having joined in with Tricia's gang, calling out "Hiss head! Hiss head! Hiss head!"

"When we have such an epidemic of moral decay around us? Oh well, I …"

Then Leigh moaned and fell to his knees again, his eyes going blank as he started muttering gibberish and clicking his tongue. He had hoped that this display would once again gain everyone's attention. But to his fury, the protesters just ignored him as they continued to jeer and chant. He had to try a new trick ...

Then Leigh stood up, his eyes closed, and a loud, low, deep voice came out of his mouth, without him moving it. "It is I, the Bright Circle, talking! I command all of you to hereby follow my will. Anyone who shall try to interrupt my dearest messenger Leigh I command to be killed by my followers. Defy my orders and you shall be thrown into in the smoking mountains. This is your last warning."

And the enforcers began to smirk, flexing their muscles and breaking out their weapons as reluctantly, the protesters quieted down. As much noise as they wanted to make, they knew that the mob, now supposedly commanded to do so by the Bright Circle, would gleefully take the chance to kill them at any opportunity. Smirking to himself, Leigh immediately fell down and then stood up, his eyes open and expression back to normal. "Oh dear, where am I? Must have dozed off … I am so sorry everyone. Oh yes. Now to get back to very important matters."

It took every ounce of effort for the dissidents not to react, but with the enforcers now having been given powers to kill, they knew it was their only choice. Leigh paused, before a big smile broke across his face.

"Can I just say one thing?" Leigh asked earnestly. "I just adore children."

The air was so thick with tension trying to hold in so much laughter at this awkward statement that it almost seemed like it was about to explode. As if he didn't say anything unusual, he continued, "Oh yes. True, I am only barely of age myself. But the purity of fresh, young souls, newly created by the circles, is just so lovely. It is the job of parents to keep that purity alive in their children so that they will go back to the circles just as untarnished as when they left. But unfortunately, because of the moral decadence of the corrupt Circle of Elders and their permissive parenting, so many of our normally pure youth have grown disobedient, disrespectful, and even lack decent values."

Pausing, Leigh shook his head and sighed. "It hurts my heart to say this. But ever since the original five spawn of the Circle of Elders arrived in this Valley and the misguided integration of the herds, youth gangs have flourished. These bands of corrupted youths have lost all of their purity and rather than be disciplined, they have been allowed to fester in the Valley, where they have continuously flouted basic rules and behaviors. They challenge their parents' orders and repeatedly try to defy the circles' will on who lives and who dies, rescuing the pathetic and helpless. Like their morally deficient parents before them, they fail to adhere to their given gender roles, where males grow strong and virile and females stay subservient and have many strong babies. Worst of all, they disregard the principle of species loyalty, shamelessly intermingling with other kinds. These gangs set a terrible example for all of our children, who desperately need to be saved, and thus, a firm course of emergency re-education is necessary to teach them proper values and prevent future criminal gangs from forming."

As many, especially the parents of said "criminal gangs", silently seethed with fury at the so-called values, character assassination and incredible distortion Leigh was weaving, Leigh continued as though he was stating mere fact. "We have three of these large youth gangs, who as we've seen today, have long terrorized the Valley with their constant rule breaking. They are impure in terms of not just species, but also mix genders and violate gender roles, contain heretics, immoral so-called marriages, and even diet differences. And so it is no surprise that these gangs, corrupted to their core, have corrupted the entire Great Valley with their criminal misdeeds, the results of this can be seen with the current crimewave before us."

Leigh shook his head. "Let's start with the flyers, shall we? Let's talk to Mr. Raton, who leads his herd of purified flyers. Mr. Raton, tell us what has happened to your herd last night."

The enforcers brought forth a dark orange flyer, with long talon-like claws, sunken eyes, and a pronounced scowl. "Our wings have been bitten!" Raton said angrily. "As a result, we cannot fly! And we deserve justice! It must have been those rotten brats who did it!"

Murmuring broke out, and Tricia's gang looked confusedly at one another. For all the trouble they had caused, this was something they had not even known about. But before anyone could say anything, Lance Bonehead emerged. The smaller bonehead didn't have anywhere near the commanding physical presence of Leigh and his guards, but he was nonetheless resolute and stern. "Mr. Hollowhorn, may I remind you that we are now getting into legal charges. You cannot plow forward with legal charges without an adequate defense being offered."

Concealing his frustration, Leigh had hoped that Mr. Bonehead would prove more cooperative, especially after what they had talked about. But while too many dinosaurs would agree with Mr. Bonehead here, he could still use this moment to his advantage …

"Very well," sighed Leigh. "I am very conciliatory and generous after all. Someone may besmirch themselves to speak on behalf of the corrupted shall they wish."

Topps was about to speak up on behalf of his daughter, but before he could do so, Bron stepped forward. "Mr. Bonehead," he said courteously. "No children have the capability of breaking flyer wings with their bites. I propose that these outrageous charges be dismissed."

"What?" Leigh asked, but Mr. Bonehead nodded. "Mr. Longneck is quite right. I have seen enough in my time to know that there is no logical way that a group of kids could have performed this action. Charges dismissed."

Seething inside, Leigh had hoped he could have gotten rid of the gang of brats right then and there. But it was a losing battle … And he had bigger scaly swimmers to fry. He might as well build some more goodwill instead …

Leigh sighed. "Very well Mr. Bonehead. I respect your decision. I see that the youth gang, as corrupted as they are, couldn't have been behind this crime. But the perpetrator shall be punished and dealt with severely when their identity is discovered."

"Now then," Leigh continued. "I am a very benevolent lead … I mean messenger. And the circles are greatly upset that the criminal young clubtail, those innocent babies on the verge of being corrupted, and the criminal shieldback have slipped past the border patrol and crossed into the twofooter zone. To that, they shall offer a reward. If anyone shall discover the location of these brats, the circles have commanded that I should designate a tree that only they can eat from as a bounty. Strong punishments shall be offered to these violators of course, especially the young clubtail, for the circles are not happy that he attacked their messenger."

Leigh's followers, especially the twofooters, began to nod eagerly. Hyp and his friends worriedly looked at each other, as did Tricia and her frilled friends. But as Tricia looked at Cassia, Perri, Pearl, Garnet, and who she thought was Sam, they all looked surprisingly calm. Knowing they must have found a way to keep Oplax safe, she nudged Mono and Rachelle to look at them, and as they did, the two of them felt better as well.

Continuing onward, Leigh said, "Even worse, we have had a case of assault on a judge here. Judge Phuru, please come forward."

Phuru was walked in, limping as two of the segregated swimmers helped her in. "I tried to stop the shieldback and clubtail brat from escaping, but I was attacked by a rogue clubtail last night."

Being escorted away, Leigh shook his head. "Attacking a judge, a faithful servant of the circles who carries out their will, is a serious offense. Luckily, the culprit has been caught. Mr. Bonehead has already agreed to a 10-day trial for him, as we have for other criminals, and I'm sure the esteemed panel of jurors we have, all with sufficiently purified hearts, will decide on a suitable sentence for him. And to prevent any future incidents, the circles have commanded that all judges, as well as Mr. Bonehead, and their families will now constantly be protected by security guards to prevent any more attacks on the rule of law here."

Icily, Leigh continued onward. It was time to put on a lenient façade before coming to the main event. "I hear we have two longnecks who have crossed the border and resisted arrest. These too are serious offenses, but since I am such a nice guy, I will not charge them with anything beyond confinement. But the circles have asked me to give a warning that further actions to cross the border may be met with increased hostility."

Leigh paused dramatically, before a wide, triumphant grin appeared on his face. "And now … We shall bring everyone's attention to the dastardliest crime of all … And what the circles plan to do about it."

There was a long pause as everyone began to murmur to one another. Then at last, a giant troop of prison guards arrived, marching into the Rock Circle, escorting with them six young dinosaurs. All six of them had perplexed, fearful looks on their faces, wondering exactly what they had been called for, as the crowd too eyed them confusedly. As the guards settled in and the six young dinosaurs eyed him nervously, a twisted, salivating, smug leer began to contort itself across Leigh's excited face.

"Hello, my friends," Leigh sneered icily. "Do you know what you might have done to have attracted the circles' attention?"

Confusedly, Cam, Mia, Ali, Shorty, Chomper and Ruby all shook their heads, looking at each other, wondering if they dare make a break for it. But with the Rock Circle being a very tight space and a large swath of formidable prison guards surrounding them, they knew they'd have no chance of escape.

"Pretending to be innocent, are we?" Leigh crooned. "Unfortunately for you, the circles know better … Let me explain the depths of their treachery."

An enormous wave of muttering occurred as Leigh triumphantly stared at the crowd. "I would like to call Mr. Scratter forth, please."

A threehorn guard stepped forward, bowing before Leigh who eyed him breathlessly. "You promise to report to the Valley everything you have seen?"

"Yes, Sir Leigh," said Scratter, with a devilish twinkle in his eyes.

Leigh nodded, before starting off. "These six wrongdoers," he smirked, his jadeite-green eyes flashing menacingly. "Have taken part in the most despicable scheme of perverted collaboration I have ever seen in my life. Tell me Mr. Scratter, have you lost a faithful border guard on your patrol last night?"

"Yes, sir," Scratter growled angrily. "It was Mr. Hordus, sir. A true member of our herd. And I saw with my own eyes how all six of them were involved in it." Turning to the audience, he explained, "I told Mr. Leigh about the incident, and now he will relay it to you."

Confused, Chomper said, "But we didn't …" but stopped as the guards growled warningly at him.

"Tut tut, trying to get out of trouble, are we?" Leigh simpered. "Unfortunately, in my talks with the circles, they have corroborated Mr. Scratter's story. Let me explain. This loyal border guard was murdered as an initiation effort into one of our youth gangs and intimidate the border patrol. It was an impressively elaborate scheme, I must admit. So typical for those with dark minds to come up with such twisted methods. But the circles' light has prevailed, and we have pieced together everything to uncover their wrongdoing."

As everyone watched with bated breath, Leigh smiled calmly. "It all begins with young Misses Cam and Mia here," he sighed, turning to them as they gulped. "Whom as we already know have disgusting characters, having been found guilty of eggstealing. But their stay in the Great Valley has only corrupted them further, to the point that they have decided to join a youth gang. And what better youth gang to join than the foulest, first youth gang of all?"

Turning to Chomper and Ruby, Leigh continued, "Obviously, with the circles having rightfully sent the first five members of this treacherous gang to their deaths, the last two survivors are now in need of reinforcements. And what better reinforcements could there be than other fellow criminals? So these two criminals, wanting to pervert the course of justice, offered an initiation, kill a member of the border patrol, and they could rightly call themselves Great Valley gangsters, as proven by numerous eyewitness testimonies of the longnecks now calling themselves Valley girls."

Shouts of protest and outrage came filtering through as the six young dinosaurs looked horrified at each other with these crazy accusations. They were wondering what kind of lies Leigh was probably spewing this time, but unfortunately, he had thought of a clearly thought-out narrative. Much as the protesters tried to voice their outrage however, the enforcers had gotten better at maintaining control, and quieted the crowd down quickly.

"The circles told me it all began when Ms. Cam, with her brute strength, knocked Mr. Hordus unconscious," Leigh said loftily. "After which, she was seen carrying him on her back. She then gave Mr. Hordus to Ms. Mia here, who after staging a despicable display of perversion toward fellow members of the threehorn guard, carried him off to his final destination. No less than the entire central prison guard witnessed Ms. Mia cast out her neck and throw Mr. Hordus into the prison. Before the guards could rescue Mr. Hordus however, Mr. Shorty and Ms. Ali blocked their way. After the incident, Ms. Ruby did say to them, "Welcome to the gang." So, we can reasonably conclude it was also their initiation into this foul criminal gang."

"But …" Ruby tried to say, but Leigh interrupted breezily. "With Mr. Shorty and Ms. Ali preventing the guards from rescuing Mr. Hordus, the filthy bites from the sharptooth and notooth were free to do Mr. Hordus in. And that, everyone, is how the six of them committed the greatest crime of all … A murder against the rule of law itself, and making the circles look down upon all of them in deepest loathing."

Mr. Bonehead then stepped forward. "Is that an accusation, Mr. Hollowhorn?"

Leigh nodded. "The circles tell me that …"

"But we didn't kill him!" Chomper insisted. "The threehorn carcass was dead when I ate out of it! I'm a sharptooth, I can tell when a body is already dead!"

"Yes! When Cam gave it to me, it was dead!" Mia agreed.

"And when I found it, it was dead!" Cam added.

"We would never have killed a dinosaur that could be killed!" Ruby insisted.

"Ah, guilty pleas," said Leigh, smirking triumphantly, before turning to Chomper and Ruby, his eyes flashing in purest ecstasy. "So nice to see you have confessed to your crimes."

His eyes twinkling darkly, Leigh explained, "Now in order for you to have established residency in the Great Valley with your depraved diets, I understand that you must have made some oaths," he said, his eyes gleaming. Repeat to me those oaths you made."

Chomper and Ruby looked at each other, knowing nothing good could happen from repeating to Leigh those words. However, Leigh's smirk only widened as he sighed, "Tut tut … Unfortunately for you, my friends, I do know them. The vows go, and I quote, "That you would agree to be in peace with every other dinosaur and promise to not eat a dinosaur or egg under any circumstance.""

As the crowd rumbled in various noises of delight, horror, surprise, fear, and everything in between, Chomper and Ruby looked at each other, their hearts dropping in shock as they realized the full implication of those words.

"Order," growled Mr. Bonehead. "Defense, please come forward."

At once, Bron hurriedly rushed forward. "You are disgraceful for even putting forth these charges, and you know it," Bron said scornfully, looking at Leigh with purest revulsion. "These accusations are baseless. I can testify with my own eyes that I saw Mr. Hordus' body on the pile of dead bodies last night. He was not killed by Mr. Chomper and Ms. Ruby, nor Mr. Shorty, Ms. Ali, Ms. Cam, or Ms. Mia. His body was already dead when Ms. Cam found him, and she and Ms. Mia only gave the body to Mr. Chomper to provide food for him while he was incarcerated and otherwise couldn't eat anything."

Much of the crowd cheered Bron as others booed. But Leigh loftily waved his hand. "I would like to call Mr. Topps forward, please."

Very reluctantly, Topps obliged, looking at Leigh with just the same utter loathing as Bron had. "What do you want?" Topps demanded aggressively.

"I would like to know the exact punishment described for violating these oaths," Leigh said, not able to fully control a gleeful, sadistic snicker.

Topps shook his head. "No," he said simply.

"Tut-tut … The heretic is uncooperative, what a pity," Leigh sighed. "Ah well. I too know your exact words, Mr. Topps. You said, and I quote, "A violation of our trust shall result in their instant and brutal deaths." Isn't that correct?"

As the crowd gasped and the mob moved in, Bron and Topps hurriedly moved to stand in front of Chomper and Ruby. "No!" Topps roared. "You are taking these oaths completely out of context. This only was meant to cover live dinosaurs, for there is no reason to protect a dinosaur that is already dead."

"Ah, of course the impure heretic would say that," Leigh smiled. "But even under your assumption that Hordus was not murdered, the oath did not say that the dinosaur had to be alive, did it? You have to take the law word for word, after all ... There was a reason it did not specify it had to be a dead dinosaur. For it is a crime of impurity for dinosaur meat to even touch the accused's lips."

Desperate, Chomper and Ruby turned to face the Valley. "I only ate the dead body for everyone here, to prevent me from starving and keep everyone in the Valley safe! The jailers wouldn't give me any other food!"

"And I only ate so Chomper wouldn't have to be the only one to eat," Ruby said firmly.

"Confessions, confessions, shamelessly not even trying to deny it," Leigh smirked.

Shaking his head, Mr. Bonehead stepped forward. "Considering that Mr. Chomper is already accused of murder, these charges are very serious. Yet at the same time, I will not allow vigilante justice in this Great Valley so long as I live. Please wait, and I will set the terms of trial for the six accused."

Mr. Bonehead paused for a while before he looked back up. "I have come up with a fair compromise on the terms of the trial that should be acceptable to everyone. The accused shall have different terms of trial, which I will elaborate."

Taking a deep breath in, Mr. Bonehead turned first to Cam, Mia and Ali. "The three of you have been accused by Mr. Hollowhorn as accomplices to murder. As you have not been accused of anything else, your trial time will be 10 days, starting now."

"Hold on Mr. Bonehead," Leigh interrupted smoothly. "Don't you remember that Ms. Ali is the personal representative of Mr. Shorty? Which means that she gets whatever punishment he does."

Mr. Bonehead sighed. "Much as I find that law distasteful, you are right. I shall reluctantly enforce it." Turning to the two of them, he sighed. "As for you Mr. Shorty, and by extension you Ms. Ali, you have already been accused of murder. A double crime is a very serious offense. So as a result, your trial time has been cut down to five days, starting from the date of first accusation. This means you have four days left before a verdict will be reached in your case."

Then he turned to Chomper and Ruby. "For you two, having been already accused of murder and now being accused of both a second murder and an oath violation, your charges are particularly serious. However, the meaning of the oath is unclear and needs to be legally determined. And there will be no instantaneous murders under the name of justice in this Great Valley. So I propose a compromise, with an expedited trial, where the verdict can be reached two days from now when the Bright Circle reaches its highest point. This is an agreement that should make nobody happy, and is the best I can do to make sure that all sides are accounted for. For above all, I want this Great Valley to remain in peace and not attract the aggression of any sharptooth."

Leigh glared at Mr. Bonehead. "But the oath said …"

"No," Mr. Bonehead replied back. "There will be no vigilante justice in the Great Valley. And if any of you guards try hurting any defendant before the time to reach a verdict can be reached, you will immediately be exiled, and Mr. Leigh will be investigated of murder himself by a jury named without his involvement. Understand?"

Leigh tried to protest, but he could see that even apart from the dissidents, the bystanders appeared to back Mr. Bonehead up on this. Rejecting these terms would damage his image immensely, and besides, the deaths of the sixth and seventh gang members were coming soon enough …

"Very well," Leigh sighed. "I am a gentle and humble messenger of the circles, and they tell me that they will wait. But they also tell me how concerned they are of events in this Valley. Mr. Bonehead himself may even be corrupted, considering his own son is in one of these youth gangs himself …" he tutted, before continuing, "Besides, who is to say we can trust anyone who is not a flattooth? Halfteeth, of the bothtooth and notooth variety, are just like sharpteeth in that they are corrupted beings, only meant to exist in doing the circles' work of taking the weak down and are meant to be killed by the strong to survive. What are they doing in a place specifically dedicated by the circles to leafeaters? Unlike the rest of us, they are cold-blooded creatures, incapable of feeling and emotion, and do not hesitate to rob nests of eggs and eat dinosaur meat. They have no place in civilized dinosaur society, and unlike the rest of us, even the strongest among them do not deserve to live. Rest assured, the circles have not had their last say in this regard, and they will convey more to me later. In the meantime, the Great Valley will remain strong against evil, and I urge our educators to prepare our children to save leafeater kind once and for all as we march onward to further greatness and purity."

And with an enormous sendoff of noise, the young herd leader was whisked away by his personal guard, leaving the Valley's defenders stunned as to what had just happened, with no idea as to how to react next.

From here on out the character lineup in the Hidden Canyon is going to be pretty dynamic and frequently changing, so be sure to go to my DeviantArt and check out who's in the Hidden Canyon at any given moment, and also to see the characters' appearances, sizes, and ages so you get a sense of who we've got with Littlefoot and the gang. Most current DeviantArt picture is:

The Passage to the Future - Chapter 28 (SPOILERS) by AllegroGiocoso on DeviantArt