Well everyone ... The chapter I'm sure you've all been waiting for, the climax of the third arc of this story! Special request from RedMageKnight spoken by his character Light, and special thanks to Zee Docking for giving me an idea about hollowhorns you'll see here. Thanks to all readers for getting to this point, especially for those who fav/follow/review/PM - I thrive on feedback no matter when, and always appreciate it for every chapter! And of course, Land Before Time belongs to Universal. All right, with that, let's get rolling to ...

Chapter 34 – Breaking the Bindings

While about half of the Great Valley's combined elders had managed to sneak out in the darkness of the early morning to join the big herd in the Mysterious Beyond, the others remained behind to keep the regime off the scent. The trees they had gathered before merging into a combined herd, as well as all the others within the integrated zone had all been safely delivered, leaving their space completely empty and bare apart from a few rocks and bushes. As they sat and anxiously waited, most of the group still couldn't believe just how successfully the herd had organized around them, and sat on tenterhooks, wondering how such a large group could possibly be able to wait out the day without getting caught by the marauding patrols. But as time passed and no unwelcome news was announced, it proved evident that they were sneakier than they imagined, causing all the adults remaining in the Valley to feel more hopeful.

Their hopes were further bolstered when many of the patrols started returning to the Valley, emptyhanded and discouraged. Rumors had begun to spread of a rapid increase in sharptooth activity just outside the Valley's walls, and sharpteeth were seen gnawing at the carcasses of a couple of patrol units. This convinced the others to hold off on the search for the criminals until later, and to instead ready themselves in defense of the Valley should the sharpteeth choose to invade. So all within the confines of segregated but large units, troopers marched around the Valley's entrances, ready to pummel any foolish sharptooth who dared to get one claw too close. Since the regime did not know about the Hidden Canyon however, they did not try posting any warriors within the combined herd's territory, and with no other exits in the immediate area, the segregated threehorns and onehorns were instead partaking in their usual savage dueling.

Still, the remaining elders knew they had to be very careful. For while they had their own zone now which would theoretically give them privacy, the Tuck incident had made them acutely aware of the possibility that they were being spied on. And while Tuck himself was no longer a threat thanks to Guido and Avie's intervention, they soon discovered that the segregated frilled herds had started sending their own kids over to hide to act as their spies.

The combined herd's twofooters soon took it upon themselves to detect any regime onehorn or threehorn children that were hiding in the bushes or behind the rocks and extract them from their hiding spots. In contrast to the frilled children who had vanished over the past night and freely defected from their families, the elders knew that these kids were far too dangerous to try rescuing. These kids were thoroughly indoctrinated, with most of them having been involved in chanting "race traitors" alongside their parents, and they knew fully well that if they tried to help these kids, there was a very high risk that these kids would turn around and betray them.

Though some had initially tried buttering the elders up with false sweetness, even pretending that they wanted to leave their parents, Tria and her fellow threehorns Boze, Marshall, Ric, Trudy and Wan, and the onehorn couple were able to quickly see that these kids were trying to trick them and act as double agents for their parents. So they did the only thing they could do and peaceably put them back on their side of the border. Indeed, no matter how sweetly they acted, these kids were rude, brutish and downright nasty upon either being turned away or getting caught spying, and tried horning whichever adults were responsible for foiling their schemes. But the elders knew they had to be gentle, for not only did they believe that hurting the much smaller kids was wrong, but also that the regime would react ferociously if there was even the slightest rumor that their kids had been attacked. Indeed, the segregated frilled herds looked disappointed every time one of their children had been returned to them safely, as if they were waiting for an excuse to attack the combined herd themselves.

In the day's waning light, Bron and Topps came to visit their fellow elders for a small break in the trial. Though they were first greeted by the segregated frilled dinosaurs, including many of the child spies, spitting and jeering at them, tarring Bron with racial slurs and accusing Topps of being a race traitor, they were soon warmly welcomed into their own grounds, more than insulating them from the hostility outside. Many of their closest friends and most dependable allies their age were still there - Tria, Mama Swimmer, Mrs. Spiketail, Mr. Thicknose, Mr. and Mrs. Twoped, Mr. and Mrs. Onehorn, the four clubtails, and Beverly Hollowhorn among them, along with about twenty others. Knowing anything that the two elders would say would be of utmost importance, the twofooters did a thorough perusal of the remaining bushes and hiding places to make sure no spies were around before the smaller but still large group got into one last huddle together.

"All right, everyone," muttered Topps. "This is the last time we're gonna see each other before it happens. You'll know when it's time, and once you do, go through that tunnel like the others. Longneck and I will be the last ones out, as we need to take Bonehead with us. No way the regime will let him live with the rulings he's been making, and so we must rescue him while we still can. Upon entering, Terese will briefly induct each of you as new herd members. You know the drill, on your bellies, paws out. Then you can get to work. Get the rocks ready to seal off the tunnel from inside the Hidden Canyon. Then we will close off the entrance to the Hidden Canyon from the Mysterious Beyond. If we don't get there soon, assume us dead and seal the wall without us, for it is vital to keep the Hidden Canyon protected in our absence."

"Until then, we have to go back to the trial," Bron explained. "Mr. Threehorn and I are going to remain on the floor, pretending to lay out arguments to prevent the jury from motioning to issue an early verdict. This will also make it easier to rescue Mr. Bonehead when the time comes, for he is completely unaware of the situation and as the legal expert, he will not let us approach him beforehand without the prosecution also being present."

"Well, we better be off," Topps said determinedly. "See you then."

And the two large elders lumbered back to the trial grounds, getting jeered at by the segregated herds as they did, while the combined herd of elders sat by anxiously, knowing the only thing they could do now was wait.


Looking down at the Great Valley from a rocky ledge outside, Petrie's seven siblings, two siblings-in-law, and Brara were sitting alongside the ten members of Tricia's gang. With ten flyers and ten kids, each of them was able to pair up with one another to form ten flyer-kid duos - Brara with Tricia, Storm with Rachelle, Curie with Garnet, Tilly with Mono, Skyler with Cassia, Perkins with Perri, Jett with Sam, Stern with Pearl, Windy with Oplax, and May with Destiny.

The kid and flyer teams had a simple but very important objective, to weaken to whatever extent possible the walls of guards and judges keeping the prisoners trapped inside the jail. To that end, the pairs had spent the whole day practicing the maneuver they were going to be performing - stone dropping. The little kids did not have much strength themselves, and knowing that they needed to take many stones with them, did not have the biggest stones either. However, they saw for themselves in practice that if dropped from a high enough altitude, even the smallest stone could land a significant impact, and if dropped right on the head, the impact would be enough to instantaneously knock an opponent out.

Throughout the day, the kids practiced dropping rocks in the Big Water, while the flyers practiced precision flying with the weight of a kid on their backs. By the time practice was over, the flyers all felt confident that they could easily carry the weight of one kid around. The little twofooters meanwhile, found stone dropping to be a lot easier than the little fourfooters. While the fourfooters could aim just fine by dropping the stones with their mouths rather than the twofooters' hands, albeit with slightly less precision, the big problem for them was keeping their stones in place, for they didn't have hands and laps that could help keep the stones still like the twofooters, so they had to sit on their stones like eggs in a nest. With practice however, the fourfooters were able to cradle more rocks aboard the flyers' backs to the point where they each had a sizable number of stones at their disposal. Still, while they knew that it would be up to Cassia, Perri, Garnet, Pearl, and Sam to do a disproportionate amount of the actual dropping, they all would be able to play a vital role in capturing the attention and wrath of their enemies. Tricia's gang knew just how much the regime's enforcers loathed them ever since the havoc they caused while protesting the segregation orders, and were ready to use that to their advantage to further distract more prison guards and judges.

"I can't believe it," smirked Mono excitedly. "We're actually gonna break up that stupid jail ourselves! And I reckon I'm actually getting pretty good at this rock dropping."

"Make sure you don't drop yours on the wrong head though, Mono," chuckled Tilly. "Perhaps you fourfooters should aim for the threehorns, they've got the biggest heads so it would be hardest to miss."

"Or the longnecks, they've got plenty of room on their necks where a falling stone would make a nice impact," added Storm.

"We twofooters should probably aim for the spiketails and clubtails," strategized Garnet.

His sister nodded in agreement. "With all that back armoring they're gonna be harder to take on, and the only place we can really get them is the head," Pearl explained.

"Hey Perri, what's wrong?" Perkins asked his rider, who he noticed had a worried frown growing across her face.

Oplax turned to Perri. "It'll be all right, Perri," he soothed. "We've been through much worse. If we can get all the way from our home to here, and if we can break free from the regime, we can do some stone dropping just fine."

"Yeah, we're just going to be knocking out some bad guys who won't be able to reach us," Mono said encouragingly.

"And you're really good at stone dropping!" agreed Rachelle.

"Besides, there's no way anyone can hurt us," Tricia added, beaming at her ride, who happily smirked back. "Thanks to Brara here, all the bad flyers can't fly!"

"It's not that," Perri sighed. "I was just thinking … Our friends are going to have to go through the twofooter zone to get to the Secret Spot, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Destiny asked.

"Well … They're gonna have to get past all those mean hollowhorn kids," Perri gulped, before turning to her fellow hollowhorn friend. "You know, Cass. The ones who bullied us in class. And even though they're little like us… They can make big noises that can be heard throughout the whole Valley."

Everyone stared at the little hollowhorn, realizing she had a point. The loud cries of hollowhorns, especially large clusters of them like at the segregated nests, could be easily heard throughout the entire Valley, and if the segregated hollowhorn kids all blasted a noise at once, it could redirect the entire force right over to the Secret Spot, forcing the battle that they had to avoid at all costs …

"You're a genius, Perri," Oplax said in amazement.

"You've always been good at catching dangers," Rachelle complemented her. "Good thing too, or else Mono here would have had us killed by now."

"You sure you wanna say that?" Mono teased his sisterly friend as the rest of the group laughed. Perri however, was still not smiling. "What's so funny?" she asked worriedly.

Cassia reassured her. "You're right, Perri. Their hollowhorn kids might be a big problem. But don't forget, you and I are hollowhorn kids too! And so are the others, River, Splash, Gipa, Spring …"

"Yeah, so?" Perri asked.

"My point is, if the bad hollowhorn kids want their herds to hurt our friends, we good hollowhorn kids can lead them in the wrong direction!" Cassia exclaimed, before she turned to Skyler and Perkins. "Can you take us back to the cave quickly so we can talk to the other hollowhorn kids and bring them here to help? Then we can meet back up with them once we're all out of stones."

So with that, the two flyers obliged. As they flew however, Skyler and Perkins thought about how to position the hollowhorn kids to both keep them safe and best nullify the sounds the regime's hollowhorn kids would make …


Walking as a big group, the eight members of Hyp's gang and Ducky's seven nestmates patrolled around the northern part of the eastern side of the Great Valley, looking for the best place to position themselves. Between the large size and strength of the swimmer siblings and the experience at rock throwing acquired by Hyp and his friends, their role in the rescue would cater to their strengths, for they would be the ones throwing rocks to knock out the twofooters standing nearby the Secret Spot, making the escape that much easier for the prisoners. All they had to do was to find the perfect hiding spot looking down upon the Valley from which to launch them.

As they searched for the perfect place, carrying lots of rocks, the group couldn't help but notice one of them was looking completely inattentive. While the others had been looking toward the Valley for a crevice in which to hide in, Ceph looked out to the east away from the Great Valley and into the Mysterious Beyond. Hyp and his friends all knew what this was about. With Ceph's girlfriend Halle having renounced herself from the Great Valley the prior day, she would be off wandering somewhere in the Mysterious Beyond. Ceph had been very quiet about his girlfriend during the big group's plans for the rescue, knowing that she did not actually need to be rescued, but upon not finding her yet, he was getting increasingly agitated and distracted.

As they turned a corner, Nod, who had been in the rear the whole way due to make sure the rocks tied to his back would not fall off, turned to see Ceph seem completely oblivious to the fact that they were turning a corner.

"Hey Ceph? This way," Nod said sympathetically.

"Great," Ceph said dourly as he followed.

Not wanting to disturb the rest of the party and figuring Ceph needed a one-on-one talk, Nod decided to stay back. "You guys keep going, we'll catch up," Nod told them.

The rest of the group obliged, and so Nod hung back with Ceph. He still wasn't entirely used to being a confidante figure, but with his talks with first Oplax and then Weald, he had become more accustomed to listening to friends with their emotional problems. "It's Halle, isn't it?" Nod asked.

Ceph nodded. "Yeah. How'd ya guess? She's not here. And now we're talking about leaving the whole area, going who knows where, before we even know she's safe! All this talk about being a herd, a family ... And I mean, hopefully my dad will come with us ... But what about my girlfriend? What if we don't find her?"

Nod looked uneasily at Ceph. Apart from being rebels who had already committed acts against the regime themselves, they would also hopefully be escorting some escaped prisoners to safety. Thus, being anywhere near the Great Valley was out of the question, especially with the regime's patrols lurking around. Yet at the same time, Ceph was right, the herd's very ethos was that its members would never leave one another behind. While Halle was not an officially inducted member yet, by virtue of being Ceph's girlfriend and presuming she wanted to join, she was just as much a member as the prisoners that also had yet to be inducted who they were rescuing.

"Ceph," Nod reassured him. "We've got a huge herd, right? All of us will be on the lookout for her. And if we still can't find her when we have to leave, then it's up to all of us to keep on searching."

"That's right," came a voice, and turning back, Nod saw that while Ducky's siblings continued to look for a crevice, Hyp, Mutt, Ann, Dispo, Rana and Weald had come back to comfort their old friend. "I hate to sound mushy … But we're a real herd now," Hyp said firmly. "And all of us herd members stand together no matter what. I promise, the others will never hear the end of it if they wanna leave Halle behind."

"Yeah, we're a big family," Mutt smiled. "Everyone's nice here."

"Besides, we're gonna get Chomper out, right?" Rana reassured him. "Chomper's great at tracking things down."

"He could even smell me on my eggs through a pile of muck!" Ann laughed. "He'd have no problem finding Halle once we rescue him."

"He probably can already smell her right now," Weald explained.

"Let's just hope he's not hungry, if you know what I mean," Dispo teased.

Ceph, however, didn't take the joke well. Swatting the smaller spikethumb with his tail, Weald told him reassuringly, "Ignore Dispo. We all know Chomper's a friendly sharptooth. He's not gonna eat any of us."

"But if he had to go for a leafeater, we know he'd go for the threehorns," Hyp teased. "He already ate threehorn in that prison, his kind loves eating threehorns, and we're all going to be saying threehorns are yummy. Knowing all that, I don't think he's gonna be interested in bonehead meat."

"Yeah, there's not enough fat on your bodies," joked Mutt.

Ceph, if anything, looked even more downcast as Hyp glared at Mutt. Hurriedly, Rana suggested, "If you don't want to ask Chomper, we can always ask the herd's flyers. They might be able to …"

But she trailed off, for it was clear that Ceph was no longer listening. Instead, he had run off, and at the top of his lungs, he shouted, "Halle, where are you?"

Hyp's gang looked at each other, terror-stricken as Hyp hurriedly ran over to the larger bonehead, Ducky's siblings looking back at them in concern. "Ceph, not here!" Hyp hissed. "Aren't you forgetting? We're outlaws! That means …"

"You're dead meat, brats."

Hyp and Ceph gulped, turning to see a small squad of the regime's round-crested hollowhorns approaching them, gloating smiles on their faces as their sharpened claws gleamed.

"We were wondering when some of you would show up," gloated one.

Hyp pondered. Despite not having armor, hollowhorns were especially dangerous for their carrying calls. He had to first make sure that these hollowhorns wouldn't call in reinforcements …

"I bet you creeps can't take us all on," jeered Hyp, sounding a lot more confident than he felt, as all around him, his friends aooeared at his side, rocks at the ready.

"You asked for it," growled a hollowhorn as the others bared their claws.

Then came the sound of running footsteps from behind the hollowhorns, and abruptly, the center one toppled belly-first onto the ground, revealing a dark gray bonehead just like Ceph in its place, lifting up her hard, bony head.

"Halle!" Ceph exclaimed as he ran over to his girlfriend who happily nodded back.

But before the other hollowhorns could round on the two boneheads, Hyp and his friends seized on the distraction and began throwing rocks at the hollowhorns' heads, soon joined by Ducky's siblings. With their opponents distracted and outnumbered, it wasn't long before the group managed to knock out the entire hollowhorn squad.

"Hi Ceph," Halle grinned wickedly. "Don't go calling me for like that next time, okay? I've got everything all under control. I've even found you guys a hideout from which you can launch your rocks at those idiots."

And as the rest of the group quietly cheered, with Ceph being in much better spirits, Halle showed them a small passage leading to a hidden rocky ledge, perfectly overlooking the twofooter zone in the Great Valley, where they could see the grounds of the round-crests and tall-crests all around them.

"So you guys ready to cause a whole lot of pain?" Halle snickered quietly as Hyp and his friends smirked back at her, before going to collect more rocks for the big barrage.


Easing his way out of his steaming pool, Leigh could stretch out with contentment and relaxation. After his rousing orations throughout the prior day and early that morning as he sent a few search parties off to obtain the heads of some criminals, he knew that he deserved a good rest. So he dozed most of the day away, reflecting on how well things were going and how they could only get better from here.

In less than a day, hopefully even sooner, the verdict of his righteous judges would be issued. And with the verdict being assured, he would be able to kick back and watch how his opposition would choose to respond. It would be foolish not to anticipate their actions, and indeed, he had considered all the avenues they might choose to take following the inevitable verdict. But for each possible move his enemies might make, he had his own counterstrategy prepared, upon executing which he would be able to amass even more power after the trial than beforehand. This thought pleased him to no end as he felt a smug grin inch across his face. There really was no worst-case scenario in this situation.

Even the treason of his stupid, insignificant mook didn't get him down. What a fool he was, for he had only set himself up for his own death. At least that wastrel had managed to clean his pool up of that filthy stinkweed and who knows what else and repurify it with purple flowers before his own corruption. Then again, he should have seen it coming, for betrayal was so typical of that dirtbeak's treacherous kind, even if he had saved that worthless peon's life. No matter. For he had come up with a much better idea to fill the void that traitorous Tuck left behind. One that could be used to instill loyalty and devotion and preserve the strength of his vision long into the future …

Making sure he smelled both enticing and regally powerful, Leigh stepped outside of the cave to the setting Bright Circle. His guards gave him their customary warm, respectful greetings, informing him that while no criminals had been apprehended as of yet, there was also, in complete contrast to the prior day, hardly any disorder within the Great Valley, apart from a few inevitable skirmishes at the border where the purified frilled dinosaurs met the heretic threehorn's herd of enemies. A herd which, following the verdict and executions, would no longer have a leader and therefore cease to exist. They may be a nuisance, but their time was limited. All he had to do was to be patient. Just as he had been to get this far.

As he listened to his loyal guards recounting how well things were going, he couldn't help but also take in the idyllic scene before him. Bathed in the reddish glow of the Bright Circle's glorious descent, he saw his faithful tall-crested hollowhorn herd, their crests held majestically up high, spread out as far as the eye could see. The males were battling one another, headbutting, growling and roaring as they partook in intense, vigorous sparring. This was more than just mere fitness training, for rather than simply focusing on improving their own strength and conditioning, they were training for combat, practicing their powerful kicks, punches, and tail slaps upon each other, and digging their sharp claws into one another's skin.

Leigh couldn't be more pleased seeing this, for they were honing their abilities to inflict maximum injury upon their enemies. So much so that there was a great deal of bleeding and bruising even in practice. But he couldn't care less. These injuries would only make them more effective warriors in the long run by teaching them not to feel pain, and encouraging them to fight this hard amongst themselves reinforced how important it was to never hold back and to fight until death. Leigh smirked proudly at his fellow tall-crests, eyeing their sharpened claws and burly physiques. There was no way that any of his enemies, even the armored ones, would be able to take down these powerful, devoted warriors, fighting for their herd's power and glory. He only wished he had more time to take part in combat practice. Then again, he would have plenty of time for that soon enough once there were less heretics to get in his way.

While many of the females were also participating in this same violent training if allowed to do so by their husbands, some of them were also commanding the myriads of children in their vigorous activities. It was important that the children be partaking in activities just as intense as those done by the adults. Discipline instilled character after all, and it was vital that his future warriors and egglayers be immunized from the meek sentimentality so pervasive among his opponents which could only weaken their collective strength. He was most pleased to see that the kids were delightfully eager to prove themselves, violently battling and roaring at one another just like the adults, unafraid to beat each other up or of feeling pain to improve their capabilities. Other kids were getting coached in brutal workouts, the sound of their gasping, exhausted breaths also thoroughly pleasing him. No pain, no gain, after all.

But perhaps most pleasing of all was the sight of little hollowhorn kids hunting tickly fuzzies and hoppers in the grasses by the watering hole. Desensitizing his future warriors and egglayers to kill was essential, and by practicing on lesser, weak lifeforms, they would have no qualms in killing a dinosaur, whether a sharptooth, dirtbeak, or impure leafeater, when the time came for it. And he was not surprised to see just which kids were taking part, for these were the herd's prized pupils, who despite their youth had strong hearts worthy of any pure leafeater. He couldn't be prouder of these precocious youngsters, who he knew would soon grow to become valuable herd members and enforcers of the new order. The only thing standing in the way was that their immature bodies had yet to catch up with the strength of their hearts. But just like everything else, that would come along with time.

Altogether, he couldn't help but beam at the paradise he had created. He had transformed the Great Valley from being a cesspool of sentimental, fainthearted, insolent race traitors, squandering the beautiful, fertile land for their blasphemous social experiments, to a stronghold for worthy leafeaters who held time-honored values of purity, strength, and obedience. This was how real leafeaters should act and carry themselves, all within the confines of their own individual herds, without any central leadership body forcing cooperation among the naturally dissimilar kinds. And as he stared at the idyllic scene before him, he vowed to make his Great Valley an even more powerful stronghold for those who shared those same values in the cold times to come, and permanently cleanse this precious land of immorality …

Excusing himself past his guards, Leigh approached the kids hunting tickling fuzzies and hoppers he eyed earlier. There were two cliques, one of young boys, the other of young girls, demonstrating perfectly the ideal of gender separation as they hunted fastidiously, and using any spare time efficiently by sparring with one another. Bending down to approach his prized pupils, Leigh purred, "Good afternoon, my lovely tree sweets."

The kids whirled around and gaped to see Leigh addressing them, before the boys and girls all rushed over to him, sinking into rigid bows and curtsies before frantically prostrating themselves and groveling at his feet.

"Master Leigh!"

"You came for us!"

"That I did, boys and girls … Or I should say, my fine young warriors and egglayers," Leigh continued silkily.

The kids looked up at Leigh adoringly and gave him a rigid salute.

"We love you Master Leigh! You're the greatest herd leader ever!"

"Our parents always hoped someone like you would come along! You took our Valley back! And we're gonna fight to keep our Valley pure forever!"

"Oh, I'm sure you will," Leigh smiled. "I am very impressed with all of you, and I know the circles are too."

"We're sorry some of those so-called brothers and sisters we have betrayed you, Master. That they had the nerve to up and leave this place!"

"We want you to know that we're ashamed, and as far as we're concerned, they're no longer our siblings! You're our hero, and we'll never betray you!"

"We're all gonna have lots of eggs and carry on your bloodline! And the first thing we're gonna tell our kids is how you saved this Valley!"

"When we grow up, we wanna be just like you!"

"Thank you, my little warriors and egglayers," Leigh beamed as they cooed with delight upon being referred to as such. "But do not worry yourselves. I can already tell that your worth far exceeds that of the weak, cowardly traitors who left us. None of them had been given much potential from the circles I'm afraid, and as you can see from their betrayal, none of them are worthy of this Valley. But I see real potential in all of you, so much so that I will give you the honor of serving me as my personal attendants and heirs to my throne."

The kids quivered with excitement. "Really Master?"

Leigh nodded, giving them a prideful smile. "Oh yes. You can all do the honor of cleaning out my water, massaging my skin, and feeding me sweet bubbles if you wish."

"Can we kiss your feet too?"

"Of course," Leigh purred. "After all, you are my rightful heirs …"

"Oh, thank you Master Leigh! You're the greatest!"

"Oh, I am nothing," Leigh smiled modestly. "I'm just a humble messenger. You should really be thanking the circles, they willed for this all to happen."

"Yeah, but you're still awesome! None of this would happen if it wasn't for you!"

"Well, you do have a point," Leigh grinned sweetly. "Very well children, I'd best be off. I commend your fine hard work, and if you keep on proving yourselves, I might consider giving you all a lesson on courtship duels personally."

The kids looked at each other in awe and excitement, amazed about the prospect of being mentored about such an important topic by their master personally, before hurriedly saluting Leigh, sinking back into rigid bows and curtsies as he departed, and then getting back to sparring with one another and searching for smaller creatures to kill. Leigh smiled smugly. There may have been fewer kids now with the departure of the weaklings. But all the better kids had remained, and they were more eager to prove themselves than ever.

As he wandered through the twofooter zone, pleased to see that spikethumb, round-crested and long-crested hollowhorn, swimmer and bigmouth herds alike were working just as vigorously and ruthlessly as his own kind, he came upon Cryaz, who was just leaving the Rock Circle. Eager to check in with the twofooter teacher, he greeted, "Lovely day, isn't it?"

Cryaz turned to look at him, also in a very good mood. "It sure is. I can't tell you how enjoyable my class was today. It feels so refreshing lecturing all about appropriate values after putting up with the Circle of Elders' nonsense."

"I know exactly what you mean," Leigh smiled sweetly at her. "No trouble today, I presume?"

"Oh no, not at all. I covered valuable lessons about twofooter superiority and basic combat techniques to which the whole class was inspired. My own round-crests just adore me," Cryaz boasted. "Best of all, I got through my whole lecture without any problems. None of those gang brats were there to ruin my class."

"Tch, what a pity. With you being adored by your fellow round-crests, I thought you might have persuaded that Cassia kid to come around … She's a round-crest too, after all," Leigh sneered mockingly.

Cryaz tensed up, balling her fists. "How dare you even compare me to that puny little gang brat!"

"Tut tut, life is not fair, after all. Not everyone has my persuasive acumen," Leigh smirked lazily.

"Yeah, yeah," Cryaz growled. "But you must have noticed how many kids seem to have disappeared, right?"

"Yeah," shrugged Leigh. "But it was just the weak, soft kids who have gone missing from my kind. The ones who had absolutely no real value."

"Same here, along with all those wretches who stuck up for the gang brats. The same kids who have traitorous parents who are taking part in that foolish rebellion … Which may I remind you includes some of your own kind," Cryaz shot back.

Shaking his head, Leigh sighed in mock pity. "Oh Cryaz, Cryaz … It will take a lot more than that to phase me. I know my bloodline well, and know that I am no more related to any of them than you are to the Cassia brat. Besides, I am the one who came up with this brilliant …"

"Yeah, yeah, we all know," Cryaz snapped. "But aren't you wondering why those rotten eggs didn't go with their parents to that rebellion? And why have those gang brats gone missing themselves? I think those insolent pests must have found another way to escape that we don't know about."

Leigh smirked. "Ah well. One step into the Mysterious Beyond for weak kids like them, and they're sharptooth food, if our patrols don't find them first. Now I best be on my way and make sure the trial went smoothly. No problems there that you know of, I presume?"

"The judges are getting restless," Cryaz pointed out. "They want to just get this trial over with so they can move on to more heretics. But watch out for Bonehead. He seems to be getting increasingly difficult."

"Yes, I am aware … But you do not need to tell me that, for naturally, I already know. You're just trying to make yourself feel important since you know deep down you wish you had a crest like mine," Leigh said mockingly.

Cryaz balled her fists. "Hey, my kind is the Bright Circle's favorite!"

"How delusional," Leigh purred. "But do not worry yourself. Resistance is fading, and soon we will be able to segregate the Valley even further, and you will only have to teach your own round-crested children, while I can groom my lovely tall-crested pupils. Who knows, once all the heretics are eliminated, we may even be able to have a beautiful brawl between our own kinds to determine which kind of hollowhorn is really the circles' favorite."

"I look forward to it," Cryaz smirked, and the two made their separate ways.

By the time Leigh reached the central prison, while the sky was not dark, the Bright Circle could no longer be seen over the Valley's walls. He was hoping for the trial to have concluded so he could go and gloat to the prisoners about their impending fate. To his dismay and irritation however, the trial was still going on, with no signs of finishing, despite how bored the judges looked. Even the jail guards were getting bored just standing there. But as the five young defendants just stood there, the elder longneck and threehorn were standing in front of them, seeming willing to argue the case indefinitely. And as he got closer, he heard that indeed, Mr. Threehorn was not even arguing the case anymore.

"Do you know what I think?" Topps roared at the judges, his eyes blazing with cold fury. "I think you are all disgraces to this Valley, a corrupted, illegitimate hopper court of reactionary extremists who should be …"

"Ashamed of yourselves," Bron hurriedly finished, cutting Topps off. Leigh swore to himself. The stupid threehorn almost threatened the judges' lives, which would have given them grounds to issue him an immediate death sentence, but the longneck had managed to wiggle him out of that one. Bron continued, "You claim to carry out the will of the circles and speak on behalf of all leafeaters. But your obsolete ideas would only reverse the progress that has been made toward peaceful cooperation among all leafeaters that many of us hold so dear. And your appetite for violence disgusts me. You're acting no less savagely than the sharptooth that killed my wife. Actually, you may be even worse, for at least that brute had to kill to survive."

"Well, at least that sharptooth did something productive," smirked Judge Gassar. "It's a good thing the two of you never got the chance to create more traitorous spawn. One spoiled brat was bad enough."

Bron seized up, glaring at the longneck judge with deepest loathing as he felt a cold, wrathful chill all the way down his neck and into his stomach. "How … dare you say such things about my wife and son …"

This time, Topps had to hold him back, looking at Bron warningly before he too growled, "You watch your tone. Your behavior is simply deplorable to say the least."

"Order," Mr. Bonehead ordered flatly. "This is getting out of hand."

"I agree," said Judge Tobias pompously. "Which is why we should end this trial right now and issue a verdict."

"No," Bron said firmly. "A trial cannot end until defendants have made all their arguments."

"Mr. Bonehead, end this nonsense," growled Tobias.

Mr. Bonehead shook his head. "I'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Longneck here. Even under the timeline of an expedited trial, defendants still have until the next day to present whatever arguments they see fit."

Leigh seethed. The bonehead legal expert was indeed proving entirely uncooperative. Such a disappointment. He seemed so promising at first, being a relative traditionalist amongst the myriads of impure herd elders, and agreeing to keep using him as the legal expert seemed like a wonderful way to appear conciliatory yet at the same time not thwart any of his objectives. Indeed, he was cooperative in the naming of his carefully vetted, firmly traditionalist judges, unwavering in their commitment to his vision. Threatening his son's life if he failed to comply had worked wonders. But Mr. Bonehead had increasingly been issuing unfavorable procedural decisions as of late, and rather than help him gain legitimacy and goodwill as he had hoped, Mr. Bonehead had begun to undermine him, especially since the reports that his son had managed to escape, removing his source of leverage. And despite his reputation, he was proving to be no less of a social activist than any of the other fools on the Circle of Elders … The old bonehead had to go. But he couldn't do anything while the stupid legal session was in progress without tarnishing his perfectly cultivated image …

Unfortunately, Mr. Bonehead had noticed him standing and scowling. "Mr. Hollowhorn? What are you doing here?" he barked suspiciously.

Taken aback, Leigh answered sweetly, "Just passing through, esteemed Sir."

Mr. Bonehead stared at him, unaffected by his attempted flattery. "Well then, move along. Otherwise, I could charge you with trying to exert undue influence upon the judges."

"But we've already made a decision!" shouted Snotsps, to which Tobias hurriedly interrupted, "No we haven't. Stupid spiketail's butt brain is speaking again."

Mr. Bonehead eyed Snotsps suspiciously. "You cannot issue a verdict until the case has closed. If I can determine that you are already prejudiced against the defendants, I will be forced to declare a mistrial and install a new group of judges myself. One which will have none of you or anyone from your herds on it. Do I make myself clear?"

"You fraud!" screeched Phuru. "You're no legal expert, you're just an overgrown gang member like your brat of a son! Just like the rest of you corrupted elders! I propose disbarring this impure activist …"

"You cannot disbar a legal expert in the middle of a case," Mr. Bonehead sighed exasperatedly. "I was agreed upon as legal expert to start this case, and I shall be legal expert when it finishes." Turning back to Leigh, Mr. Bonehead growled, "Last warning. Step aside, Mr. Hollowhorn."

Leigh reluctantly obliged before he glided off. There was no way around it. Bonehead was getting out of control, and he needed to find an appropriate successor … Hopefully he could overstep his bounds and give him a readymade excuse to dispatch him … Or perhaps one of his minions could do the necessary work and make it seem like an accident. Regardless, this buffoon, this remnant of the old order, could not be interfering with his purified court again.

"Psst … You," hissed a voice. Leigh turned and saw the young spikebacked longneck leave the prosecutor's box and approach Leigh.

"Mr. Spikeback, you are not authorized to leave," Mr. Bonehead ordered, but Gus ignored him as he bolted straight to Leigh. "So now you decide to show up. Where were you earlier when I was looking for you?"

"Oh, I was just resting myself and communicating with the circles," Leigh said nonchalantly. "I see you're all bothered."

"Well yeah, you almost blew the whole case by coming to the trial, Hiss Head," Gus growled. "Can't you tell Bonehead is against us?"

"Of course I know that," Leigh drawled condescendingly. "But you know as well as I do that there is no opportunity to remove him until the case is over without suffering enormous blowback."

"Who cares?" Gus shouted. "This is the only case you need to worry about."

"Oh Gloomy Gus, I have enough to deal with without your bellyaching," Leigh said coolly.

Gus snorted, but changed tack. "Okay, here's something for you, genius. Where's Len?"

"How should I know?" Leigh asked. "He's your friend, and a longneck like you. He's not of my concern."

"The guards told me they had apprehended him before those whiptails attacked them," Gus continued. "Don't tell me you haven't caught him yet?"

"I've got better things to worry about," said Leigh indifferently. "I have a whole Valley to manage here. I'll leave you to worry about this piddle."

Gus glowered. "Just make sure you know what you're doing," he warned sternly. "I want this trial to go without a hitch and won't rest until I can stick my spikes into his skin and make him beg for mercy. That means stay back, no more drop-ins from you. All right?"

"Like you have any right to tell me what to do," sighed Leigh mockingly. "Just relax, all right? Everything's under complete and total control."

"You better be right," Gus warned before storming back to the trial.

Leigh sighed. What a stupid flathead, too fixated on his own desire for revenge to fully appreciate his grand vision. One death was hardly important in the grand scheme of things. Ah well.

With nothing better to do, Leigh strolled back to the twofooter zone to wait. After battling with a few of his fellow hollowhorns to keep him sharp and remind them he was still the strongest among them, he strolled off to a stream, where he eyed a hopper catching a buzzer on a lily pad. He shook his head in disgust. The act of carnivory performed by the slimy, hideous creature was truly repulsive, a blemish on the pure lands he strived to create. And somehow, this one managed to escape the clutches of his faithful pupils. But he could easily rectify this abomination.

Strolling into the stream himself, Leigh grabbed the hopper by the legs and then held onto its neck relentlessly until it gave up the nerve to draw breath. Then he stomped on the disgusting carcass with his foot and scattered the remains so that they couldn't feed any other wicked creature. One less carnivorous vermin in the world, making it that much more of a pure, righteous place.


The trial continued well past twilight and even into the darkness. By now, the guards were getting restless, infuriated with having to spend a long day in court as the judges exasperatedly waited for an opportunity to try to move to end the trial. But whenever the elder longneck stopped talking, the elder threehorn took over, and vice versa. The two of them even began meandering into other topics, with the two of them both telling each other and Mr. Bonehead their personal anecdotes, Bron questioning Topps and Mr. Bonehead about the history of the Great Valley, and Topps asking Bron and Mr. Bonehead about complex precedents of basic saurian rights, boring the disinterested guards and judges to tears. Yet every time someone tried to motion to end the trial, Mr. Bonehead shot the interjection down.

"The issues here are relevant to establishing basic rights for all defendants," Mr. Bonehead said flatly after Brucad tried interrupting Bron mid-sentence to demand to end the trial. "Proceed, Mr. Longneck."

Mr. Bonehead of course had seen enough cases to know that rather than trying to convince the reactionary, biased judges, the two defense representatives were merely performing a stalling tactic and that their statements were at best only tangentially related to the case at hand. Normally, he would at least consider ending arguments in such a situation. But this whole trial was a farce, and now that his son had escaped the clutches of the regime's bonehead guards, the regime had no more leverage over him.

Still, he knew that by standing up for what was right with his unfavorable procedural decisions, he was endangering himself to the regime. It would be all too easy for the regime's guards assigned to watch over him to feed him poisonous berries in his sleep and make it look like an accident. If he wanted to live, he knew he had to get out of the Valley somehow. But being constrained within the confines of the trial made it impossible for him to try to make a break for it himself. As he eyed the two defense representatives stoically, he knew that he would have to watch them carefully. Knowing Topps well for cold times, it was obvious that this stalling was part of a larger objective, and that he would have to go with them whenever they made their escape …

"Hey Lancey!" called out Brucad disrespectfully. "Are we done yet?"

Mr. Bonehead, hating to be referred to by his first name under legal proceedings, glared at him. "No," he said simply.

"Well, why not?" whined Gassar. "I'm getting hungry!"

"Yeah, me too!" agreed a clubtail guard.

Mr. Bonehead sighed exasperatedly. "Do I have to explain myself yet again? Defendants are still making their arguments …"

"Oh, I've had it!" shouted Phuru. "Who needs the word of some stupid legal expert? Let's just get on with it, charge him with obstructing justice, say he's guilty and kill him. It's our court, we can do whatever we like, right?"

"RRRAAARRRRARAARRR! RRRAAARRRRARAARRR! RRRAAARRRRARAARRR!"


"RRRAAARRRRARAARRR! RRRAAARRRRARAARRR! RRRAAARRRRARAARRR!"

The deafening sound talk-backed across the entire Great Valley, bouncing off the walls as it continued repeatedly. Before long, chaos had erupted everywhere, with screams and shouts being heard from every corner. Knowing just what was going on, the remaining elders of the combined herd had been waiting for this moment and they likewise knew just what they had to do. Beginning to scream and shout just like everyone else, the elders ran around aimlessly in their zone, pretending to panic about the sharptooth attack. Meanwhile in all the commotion, Stu Spiketail slipped through the Hidden Canyon's entryway, closely followed by Martha Hollowhorn, Stan Spiketail, and Wan Threehorn. The plan was in motion.

In response to the sharptooth noises outside, the segregated frilled herds started to perform their Circular Cohesives, with all their many children coming in to get surrounded by the outward facing adults. With the segregated adults making sure their children had all been gathered and the remaining integrated elders continuing to pretend to be frightened, Trudy Threehorn, Kimberley Swimmer, Ric Threehorn, Sadie Swimmer, Laurel Clubtail, Beverly Hollowhorn, Shelley Hollowhorn, and Albert and Ova Onehorn had all slipped into the passage and made their getaway. They were down to nineteen left in the Valley.

The segregated adults had begun to count all their kids. While they had done this many times in the past, the sheer amount of kids they had always made this difficult, and now they had to think over their revised number since so many of their kids had left them. Through the counting, Rythe Hollowhorn, Boze Threehorn, Phora Swimmer, Cabot Spiketail, Maura Spiketail, Lyle Hollowhorn, Tana Clubtail, and Ana Hollowhorn had all made their escapes. Down to eleven now.

The segregated adults started backing up into their circles. Making sure they would not horn one another while doing this always required a lot of precision and careful concentration. As they got into position, the remaining integrated elders continued to run around, and through the muddle, Magnus Clubtail, Colby Hollowhorn, Lulu Hollowhorn, and Matis Spiketail were all able to slip through. They were down to just seven now.

"All right ya ravaging monsters! Show yourselves!" screeched a threehorn to the sharpteeth outside.

Cyrto Hollowhorn escaped. Down to six.

"We know you're nearby!"

"Do you have any idea who you're dealing with? We're warriors who have no problem in sending depraved carnivores back into the smoking mountains, where you corrupted beings belong!"

"And we're gonna beat your sorry fat bellies up first!"

Marshall Threehorn escaped. Just Mr. Thicknose, Kosh, Mama Swimmer, Tria, and Tippy's mother were remaining.

"Just try and get us!"

"We've been purified by the circles and have their protection from all danger!"

"Yeah! Especially from you impure demons!"

Tippy's mother escaped. Four to go as Mr. Thicknose began to cautiously amble toward the exit.

"You're gonna be so sorry you ever dared messing with us! We're gonna rip you apart until all that's left are your sorry bones!"

"How dare you use your foul language around this place! This is where only the purest of leafeaters live! A place cleansed of all traces of carnivory!"

Kosh Clubtail escaped. The roars meanwhile, still continued, unphased by the threats from the segregated herds. This made them even more incensed.

"We're gonna make sure you all pay for making those evil noises! Ready everyone?"

And at the top of their lungs, the threehorn herd began chanting, "Down with all sharpteeth! Down with all sharpteeth!" Soon afterward, the onehorn herd began chanting the war cry along with them, leaving Mama Swimmer and Tria to look at each other.

"You think we should go?" Mama Swimmer asked tentatively.

"Yeah, now's as good a time as any," agreed Tria, and so very carefully, the two of them made their way through the tunnel.

When they got to the other side, they found that the rest of their group of elders had been collecting piles of large rock to block off both the pathway from the Great Valley to the Hidden Canyon as well as the entrance to the Hidden Canyon from the Mysterious Beyond. Before Tria and Mama Swimmer could join them however, three blurs came to fly down in front of them, and there were Mama Flyer, Pterano, and Etta coming to greet them. As promised, Tria received her brief induction from Mama Flyer, Mama Swimmer having already received hers, before they all began to mutter together.

"Well done," Mama Flyer congratulated them. "You managed to escape without attracting their attention."

"The ploy worked out perfectly I see," smirked Pterano. "I wonder if those ruffians will ever realize that it's not actually sharpteeth who are making those noises."

Mama Swimmer chuckled. "I presume it's everyone else?"

"You got it," Etta chortled. "They're all having quite a hootenanny out there."

"I have to say, they sound really good," commented Tria. "They actually sound like they're speaking in sharptooth."

"That's because they are," Mama Flyer explained with a mischievous look. "I suppose Cera didn't tell you about the time she tried speaking in sharptooth?"

"No," Tria shook her head, chuckling. "It must have gone real badly, right?"

"Well, she tried to prove she could speak sharptooth, but all she ended up saying was threehorns are yummy," Mama Flyer smirked, shaking her head. "But it gave her the idea that if she could say a phrase in sharptooth, so could the entire herd, and that we could all use it together to give the illusion that there are a bunch of sharpteeth preparing to attack the Valley."

"Like this," Etta demonstrated, and curving her fingers to imitate a sharptooth's claws, she growled, "RRRAAARRRRARAARRR!" causing Tria and Mama Swimmer to stare at each other in disbelief before bursting out laughing.

"So we all spent some time learning it," Pterano chuckled. "Chomper's parents modeled the phrase for us, and those little fast biter kids went around to make sure everyone was saying it correctly so we could sound like real sharpteeth."

"But they said they saw sharpteeth!" said Tria incredulously. "The patrols who retreated!"

"Indeed, they did," explained Pterano. "There are real sharpteeth outside the Great Valley just as we speak. But they are of no threat. What really happened was some patrols tried attacking the longneck herd once they joined up with Dinah and Dana."

"Topsy's grandkids?" Tria asked in surprise as Pterano said, "The very same. Anyway, they were forced to fight back and knock out the patrols. The fighting attracted the attention of nearby sharpteeth, who then proceeded to kill the dark leafeaters who had been knocked out. So while there are sharpteeth present, they are eating their fill and should be satiated to the point where they would not be interested in us."

"Is the longneck herd okay?" Mama Swimmer asked anxiously.

"Oh, they're having a good ol' time," chuckled Etta. "They've now joined up with us and are taking part in the sharptooth roars along with everyone else. They'll be coming with us to the crater as part of our herd."

"That's great," Tria smiled, before chuckling, "Even Topsy would say we could use some more longnecks on our side."

"Well, we better get back to watchin' over things," said Etta, nodding to Tria. "Gotta make sure that hubby of yours is all right."

"Now that you're all safe, all we have to do is wait for Bron, Topps, and hopefully Mr. Bonehead," explained Mama Flyer. "To make sure they get in okay."

"It's the least we can do, especially considering how much trouble I've given the both of them," chuckled Pterano naughtily. "You go on and help everyone else here, while we will make sure they get to safety."

So with a friendly parting, Tria and Mama Swimmer went to join the other adults in collecting rocks to seal off the entrances, while the three flyers went back to the Hidden Canyon, waiting for Bron and Topps to make their move.


Standing patiently alongside the other defendants while the evening trial session continued, Chomper tried to keep his face expressionless as his heart continued to hammer inside. Even though the questioning was off him now, he still felt very alert, knowing the time for action was almost upon them in a way that the others could not. For he had a sharptooth's sniffer at his disposal, and while Bron and Topps continued to stall to keep the trial going, Chomper could mentally map out his friends getting into position all around him.

Inside the Secret Spot were Ruby's parents' herd, waiting to tie him and his fellow prisoners up, while on the ledge above it stood his six best friends, along with the twenty-five teens, some of the friendly threehorns and spiketails, as well as Doc, Dara, Len, Sue and Ross, all ready to lift him and his fellow prisoners out. He also noticed that his tiny packmates had later crept into the area, seemingly trying to hide from the others. No doubt they wanted to do something to help him, but considering their small size, he knew that their efforts to help him could easily put them in great danger. He had to make sure that they remained safe while also focusing on getting to safety himself.

Not far away from the Secret Spot along the northern part of the eastern side overlooking the Valley were Hyp's gang and Ducky's siblings, now joined by Ceph's girlfriend Halle, probably there to help knock out the myriads of twofooters at the edge. Closer to the Hidden Canyon, he could smell Petrie's siblings, Tricia's gang and the longneck herd, while stationed along the western, eastern and southern walls were many others, including most of the escaped twofooter elders, two little threehorns whose smell was reminiscent of Topps, as well as Wild Arms, the domehead pair, Veno, Monty, Sophie, and Tippy. Though he could smell traces of his parents, indicating that his friends had most likely been to see them, perhaps even inducting them into the herd, he was relieved that he couldn't actually smell them. There was much too great a risk of them getting mortally wounded, for their preexisting injuries and their being sharpteeth would undoubtedly make them favorite targets of the segregated herds.

Sniffing for enemies, he could tell that most of the few remaining segregated patrols outside had been killed, the smell of death wafting to his nose along with the presence of sharpteeth, who were feasting at their flesh at that very moment. While Chomper didn't like seeing anyone die, even his enemies, the timing of these deaths couldn't have been more fortunate. Presuming these sharpteeth weren't sadists or looking to burnish their own glory, they should prefer finishing off knocked out leafeaters over trying to attack even the slowest, smallest, or weakest member of a large herd, who could call on their herdmates to create more of a defense than any rational sharptooth would bargain for. So long as the supply of bodies did not get used up, the sharpteeth present would not be an issue. The only real obstacle they would be facing therefore was to get past the regime's supporters within the Great Valley.

Chomper thought. Presuming their escape would happen too quickly for the segregation order to be lifted, the only dinosaurs he and the other prisoners would actually have to get past, apart from the jail guards, border patrols, judges, prosecutors, and any lingering patrols outside the Valley would be the regime's twofooters. On one hand, twofooters would be the easiest individual dinosaurs to deal with, considering they were poorly armored unlike the frilled and tailed dinosaurs, and they did not have the colossal size of the longnecks. Indeed, they were a popular food choice among sharpteeth looking for an easy meal for that very reason.

On the other hand, the twofooter zone was more crowded than any of the others, probably consisting of half the Valley's dinosaurs, including Leigh himself, as well as his formidable guards and his personal herd. Twofooters were also probably the fastest group of leafeaters as well, and while he wouldn't have a problem outrunning twofooters himself, his fellow prisoners would, all of whom were large, bulky longnecks. And with their zone already playing the part to so many escapes, including those of Ruby, Hyp's gang, Tricia's gang, Ducky's siblings, Petrie's siblings, and Ruby's parents' herd, the regime's twofooters would naturally be on the lookout for another escape attempt and would do anything to foil it. Chomper knew that hollowhorns were especially dangerous in this regard, for the call of a hollowhorn could alert the rest of the Valley to their escape, potentially leading to the entire mass of segregated herds to gang up against them, creating the war he knew they couldn't win. Fortunately, he had also sensed a good-sized group of friendly hollowhorn kids gathered along the northwest wall, along with a couple of elders to watch over them. Most likely this was an attempt to lead the regime off the scent in case the regime's hollowhorn kids tried to squeal.

As he tried making eye contact with his fellow prisoners to inform them to get ready, he didn't dare say a word. Nor could he, with his heart beating so rapidly. He had to be ready at a moment's notice, yet also to choose his moment carefully. He sensed all the hateful eyes fixated in his direction. There was simply no way he could try to break out of the jail just yet and live to tell the tale. He needed the jail guard to weaken first before he dared make a move. Otherwise, the large army of guards would just kill him on the spot. He couldn't help but chuckle inside, for his sharptooth instincts of sensing weakness in opponents, so often a liability in the peaceful Great Valley, would actually help him by determining just the right moment in which to act.

The moments seemed to snail forever between when Chomper first noticed all of his friends and allies getting into position and when they would initiate the plan, much longer than the time he knew it was actually taking. He did his best to look impassive so that the regime wouldn't have any idea something unusual was about to happen as he forced his attention back to the trial, where the swimmer judge had just started abrasively complaining about Mr. Bonehead …

"Threehorns are yummy! Threehorns are yummy! Threehorns are yummy!"

Having to stifle guffaws as he fought hard not to show any response, Chomper knew right away what this was. It was the only phrase in sharptooth that his friends knew, thanks to Cera's blundering attempt to speak sharptooth. But as the noise continued, deafeningly and repeatedly, he knew that to the leafeaters, it would only sound like roars and growls in the dreaded sharptooth tongue. Sure enough, he began to hear screams and shouts from all corners of the Valley as the leafeaters began searching for the source of the noise. Indeed, even Bron and Topps stopped talking to look, as did the judges, as all around them, the guards began to fidget restlessly, wanting to run back to their zones and stand against the sharpteeth with their herds, but being unable to do so due to their duties and the confines of the trial.

"That's sharptooth talk!" roared a clubtail guard at last.

"He's doing it!" exclaimed a threehorn guard, raising a paw at Chomper. "The sharptooth! He's trying to intimidate us! Just like before! He …"

Topps shook his head and hurriedly interrupted, "Mr. Bonehead, look at my client and ask yourself, is he the one making that noise right now?"

Mr. Bonehead eyed Chomper's unmoving mouth. "No, he plainly is not," he said impassively, shaking his head. "Whatever creature is making that racket, it is not Mr. Sharptooth here."

"Well then, what's doing it?" roared Brucad angrily.

"And what's it saying?" Tobias demanded, before narrowing his eyes and glaring at Chomper. "All right Sharptooth. You speak the filthy tongue. Now translate."

Chomper looked at the threehorn judge uneasily. "Uh … You don't want to know, Sir. Trust me."

Tobias snorted. "Tell me!" he roared. "Or I'll hold you in contempt of court!"

Chomper turned to Mr. Bonehead, who nodded warily. "This is a vital security question, Mr. Sharptooth."

Chomper sighed, knowing there was no way around this one. "It says … Threehorns are yummy," Chomper said truthfully, trying his hardest not to show any nervousness or excitement.

"Did you just hear that?" Chomper's prosecutor Trenton, who was also Tobias' son, screamed indignantly. "He just threatened my father! I mean, the head judge! Nobody threatens …"

"Order," Mr. Bonehead interrupted, turning to Trenton. "Mr. Threehorn, unless you can prove you know any of the sharptooth tongue yourself ..."

"I can speak it!" Trenton interrupted. "Roar roar roar. Grr grr grr. That's all those savage creatures can say anyway."

Mr. Bonehead shook his head, fighting his hardest not to roll his eyes, as Chomper worked to hide any trace of fury on his face. "Anyway, as I was saying, we have no choice but to presume that the defendant was giving an accurate translation as requested …"

"I know, it's his goons!" growled Snotsps. "The ones he was talking to earlier!"

"Mr. Bonehead, my client does not have goons," Topps growled. "Tell me, Mr. Bonehead, is there any evidence for this charge? Or is this yet another baseless accusation from the prosecution?"

"No, there is no evidence Mr. Sharptooth has anything …" began Mr. Bonehead, but this time, Gus interrupted.

"Oh please, Bonehead! You know he's just as guilty as the boxhead is! Because we all know full well that even before hatching, sharpteeth are natural enemies to leafeaters! Bloodthirsty monsters who'd stop at nothing to …"

"You're out of order," snapped Mr. Bonehead. "This is a prejudicial comment …"

"That's it, Bonehead!" Trenton interrupted. "We had hope you'd be different. But you're just like all those other corrupted elders, a bunch of impure, radical social activists standing up for carnivores and trying to destroy the leafeater way of life! And now rather than try to enforce order in this Valley when it's under siege, you're concerned about prejudice toward sharpteeth? Well, I'm sick and tired of your attitude … And of you!"

And without warning, the young threehorn prosecutor rammed right into the lighter-weight, elderly bonehead legal expert, causing him to topple onto the floor, falling on his back. The guards and judges began to jeer and laugh as Trenton put a paw on Mr. Bonehead's tail, pinning him to the ground, before putting another paw on his belly.

"What are you doing?" Mr. Bonehead asked indignantly.

"What somebody should have long ago," sniggered Trenton, his eyes flashing with malice, as he lowered a paw toward Mr. Bonehead's neck …

THUNK

From out of nowhere, a pebble falling with incredible force struck the young threehorn's back, giving him a sharp burst of pain as he slumped to the ground. While it was only a small stone, it had been dropped from such a height that it created a big impact, causing Trenton to ache all over. "All right, who threw that?" Trenton asked angrily.

But Chomper knew exactly who was dropping stones, for high above them, he could smell ten familiar little kids, riding aboard the backs of ten young flyers. And as he did, more stones began falling from the sky, raining down upon them. As everyone else stared in confusion, some rocks began to hit some of the jail guards right on the head, causing them to collapse unconscious. Chomper on the other hand had nothing to fear from the falling stones, for none of the guards wanted to get too close to the friendly sharptooth, and none of the falling stones were aimed anywhere close to him.

Mr. Bonehead, however, seemed determinedly oblivious to the falling stones. "Order," he said firmly. "Now then …"

"Just shut it, Bonehead," Snotsps interrupted.

This time, however, Mr. Bonehead's nostrils flared. Balling his clawed hand into a fist, he exclaimed, "No, you are going to hear me say this! It seems like I must remind everyone here about legal misconduct. What a disgrace … You do not, under any circumstances, attack the legal expert in the middle of a trial! I know trials are sensitive matters and emotions get heated. But behavior like this …"

"Be quiet …" Phuru tried interrupting.

"No, I will not!" Mr. Bonehead roared, continuing to ignore the guards falling unconscious as Bron and Topps tried their hardest not to smirk at one another. Catching his breath, Mr. Bonehead continued. "I don't know what's causing these falling rocks. But things like this do happen every now and then. And until we are sure that this really is an emergency, this trial will continue unabated."

"May I suggest Sir, that if the circles do have special powers like has been suggested, that the rocks might be coming from them, raining their rage down upon the real heretics?" Topps sneered mockingly, knowing how much it would infuriate the guards and judges, as another pair of guards collapsed to the ground unconscious after getting plunked on the head.

Topps felt a savage smile grow on his face as he saw how enraged he had made the guards and judges, especially fellow threehorn Head Judge Tobias. "You abominable, traitorous, heretical disgrace of a so-called threehorn!" Tobias roared. "You are a blight upon our proud race and are not worthy of the horns on your head!"

"Glad to hear that, coming from you," Topps snorted proudly. "Because I am proud to say that along with the rest of my herd, I have learned the hard way how a true threehorn should act … Which you, needless to say, have not."

Tobias seethed before he pawed the ground, letting out a loud roar as he began to charge right at Topps, his horns ready to strike …

Then a well-placed stone hurled from above struck his back, forcing him down onto his belly mid-lunge. "What the …"

Then the remaining jury and guards began to look up in the sky and saw something that made each of their faces contort with rage and their bodies seize up with hot anger. Swooping down upon them were ten familiar flyers, grinning daringly at them. And riding upon each of them was a brightly colored, all-too-familiar kid, each with a huge, mischievous, wicked grin stretched across their round, flushed faces, their eyes sparkling naughtily. The very kids that the regime's enforcers hated more than any other …

"Hi guys, missed us?" jeered Tricia to the guards, who instantly began growling and baring their teeth in fury, the air thick with all the guards' fury.

"Here, catch!" Perri giggled as she lobbed a stone at a spiketail guard, hitting him right on the head, knocking him out.

"Great job, Perri!" Oplax cheered as Perri modestly chuckled.

"GET THE BRATS!" screamed Phuru angrily, her arm shaking as she pointed her finger at them, before hurriedly picking up one of the fallen rocks herself and lobbing it right at Oplax's ride Windy. Windy however, was too adept at flying to be hit by a stone from a ground-dweller, and she had no problem veering herself and Oplax out of the way.

Meanwhile, the other guards were more than happy to follow Phuru's command, but this was easier said than done. Not only were the regime's flyers still too injured to assist them, but the guards stationed around the central prison, chosen for their physical strength to stop a ground escape, consisted entirely of longnecks, threehorns, spiketails and clubtails. With these kinds all being fourfooters however, all of them had great difficulty at hurling the rocks upward, leaving only four of the judges, Brucad, Phuru, a spikethumb and a long-crested hollowhorn able to actually throw the rocks at them.

This didn't stop the others from trying though, for through their constant disobedience, relentless pranking, and vocal disruption and defiance in their classes, encouraging many of their own kids to desert them, Tricia's gang had earned the intense loathing of all the regime's followers, and each of them wanted to be personally involved in slaughtering a terrible tyke themselves, especially with the kids hanging low, grinning at them from tantalizing sight. But the flyers worked well with the junior gang, and being nimble and agile in the skies, they had no trouble dodging the rocks that were brutally thrown at them.

With each failed attempt to sink a flyer and kid duo, the regime's enforcers only became more incensed. Knowing they had captured the bulk of their foes' attention, the pairs began to drift away from the trial, the kids grinning daringly as they blew raspberries and jeered. Many of the guards and judges, as well as the border patrol, indeed began to follow them, the flyers feeling like they were being chased by leaf-eating sharpteeth as they heard the huffing, racing and growling from below. Phuru in particular, still smarting from her failure to capture Oplax from earlier, chased after the little clubtail and his flyer with a vengeance. But she was so focused on catching Oplax that she failed to notice Sam and Jett closing in on her from behind. Before she even realized what was going on, Sam plunked the much larger swimmer on the head causing her to topple down to the ground unconscious.

Nearby, Pearl and Garnet worked together on their flyers to knock out Brucad, who finally went down after repeatedly calling them dirtbeaks and tarring them with countless other insults, before the twins and their flyers drifted to the northwest, taking with them some of the spiketail and clubtail guards. Destiny, Mono and Rachelle meanwhile, apart from dropping stones on opponents, continued to blow raspberries at the guards and danced provocatively on their flyers' backs, as they drifted to the southeast, taking many of the longneck and threehorn guards with them. Meanwhile, Cassia and Perri took care of the two remaining twofooter judges along with several guards and border patrol agents before running out of stones. Then they rode Skyler and Perkins over to greet Tricia and Brara, who were just joined by Sam, Oplax and their flyers.

"We're gonna go join the other hollowhorn kids now," Cassia whispered to Tricia.

"Right," Tricia said back, looking at the ground strewn with unconscious guards. "Looks like we got most of them. Oplax, Sam and I can handle things from here. Good luck!"

So at once, Skyler and Perkins flew the two little hollowhorns over to the northwest corner, where they could see on a ledge, guarded by a few elders, a whole group of little hollowhorns standing by, waiting for them. Among them were old friends - Cassia's fellow round-crests River, Toyo, Hyra, Splash, Caty, Spring, and Karyn, Perri's fellow long-crests Gipa, Lima, Stewie, Peggy, Percy, and Cen, and tall-crests Lak, Bea, Lora, and Dero – the other children of the Valley's rebellious hollowhorns and the kids who stood up for them against Cryaz and the bullies during their harrowing lecture. But just as numerous in their party were the new hollowhorn kids who had left the segregated herds, and they were no less enthusiastic in giving Cassia and Perri a rousing welcome.

"Can we really help you guys?" Splash asked eagerly almost as soon as the two kids stepped off their flyers, to excited murmurs and nods from the other hollowhorn kids.

"Yep!" Cassia smiled. "And it was all Perri's idea," she beamed, as Perri giggled modestly, before facing the others excitedly.

"We may be little," Perri exclaimed, "But we can make a big noise!"

"We just have to wait for the right time," Cassia explained.

"And that's what we're here for, right Skyler?" Perkins asked. "We'll keep watch and wait for just the right moment!"

"Then you hollowhorn kids will do your stuff!" Skyler laughed.

"Well guys?" asked Cassia. "Ready to start warming up?"

And the hollowhorn kids made a silent cheer as they mentally readied themselves and practiced their breathing for their part in the plan.


Back at the trial, Chomper watched keenly as the effect of the flyer and kid teams' aerial barrage was becoming apparent. Over time, the number of guards and judges had been dramatically reduced, with a third having been knocked out and another third abandoning their posts to chase Mono, Rachelle, Garnet, Pearl and Destiny into the longneck and tailed zones. Oplax, Sam, and Tricia meanwhile had continued to drop occasional stones at the guards and judges who remained behind, hovering above to keep the guards distracted like giant stinging buzzers, while slowly continuing to dwindle their number.

Chomper did a quick count. There were now fourteen guards remaining, four longnecks, four threehorns, three clubtails, and three spiketails. While prosecutors Gus and Trenton hadn't left their posts, only Tobias and a onehorn named Raxor remained among the judges, bringing the total to eighteen enemies still watching him. Eighteen was still plenty. But he didn't know how much lower the number could get without the remaining guards calling for reinforcements, especially with Tricia, Oplax and Sam seeming to run low on stones. And with him, his four fellow prisoners and the two legal representatives, there were seven of them, all of whom were large powerful dinosaurs. Trying to escape with the prison guard at full strength was impossible. But with their size advantage and the element of surprise pitted against the increasingly reduced prison guard, the possibility of escape was becoming steadily more plausible …

Tricia managed to knock out another longneck guard. Down to seventeen.

Through the ordeal however, Mr. Bonehead was still conscious, and conducting the trial as if nothing unusual was happening. Bron and Topps meanwhile did their part to keep the trial going and continued to hold the floor, making defense arguments as one of Oplax's stones brought down one of the threehorns …

"All right Bonehead," Tobias interrupted, eyeing the legal expert as he cut Bron off. "This trial's gone on long enough. Those little thugs are attacking our Valley as we speak! So let's get this stupid trial over with and announce our verdict."

Mr. Bonehead, however, shook his head. "The jury cannot announce its verdict without all its members being present. And even if you all were present, defense counsel still has not finished making their arguments, am I correct?"

"Yes, you are, Mr. Bonehead," Bron said in a respectful yet nonchalant tone.

"Oh, come on!" howled Raxor. "It's obvious what this is. It's all a conspiracy that the prisoners assembled with the brats to destroy the Great Valley and turn it over to the sharpteeth! In the name of the circles, I propose immediate execution of all these traitors and heretics right here, right now!"

"Mr. Bonehead," Bron sighed exasperatedly. "I request that you please dismiss such wild accusations. There is no evidence of any treachery or plot to destroy the Great Valley."

"Especially because in case some of you haven't noticed, we're leafeaters ourselves," Topps pointed out snarkily.

"Motion dismissed," Mr. Bonehead agreed, before turning to Raxor. "I would suggest not making accusations that are blatantly and grossly without any …"

"Oh fine, you wanna play that way, you bigheaded bureaucrat?" roared Tobias as he nodded to his son as they shared a smirk. "I think it's time to try again, son."

"Right!" Trenton agreed, and together, the two threehorns took a running lunge at Mr. Bonehead …

The purple tail whooshed out, tripping the two threehorns up as their bellies hit the ground with a loud thud, growling angrily as they saw their target scamper out of the way. Before they realized who had thwarted their attack however, Ali had managed to jump out of the defendant box and rain her tail down upon their backs, whipping them repeatedly and keeping them pinned to the ground.

"TREASON!" Tobias bellowed. "DEATH TO …"

But he never got to finish his sentence, for with one mighty leap, the giant green boxhead jumped out of the defendant box to join his fellow prisoner, creating a small earthshake as he landed. Unphased, Shorty readied his smaller but bulkier tail to aim for the place on the threehorns' heads between their frills and their horns where the cranium sat. With a few quick shots, he managed to hit both threehorns in the sweet spot, promptly knocking them out both. Looking at Ali concernedly, his heart flooded with relief to see that she had not been injured.

Now only Raxor remained of the judges, and he was seething furiously, glaring at Mr. Bonehead with ferocious anger. "Did you just see that?" he screeched. "They just murdered a judge and a prosecutor, before your very eyes, Bonehead! I propose we cut the niceties and issue a gruesome and immediate death …"

Mr. Bonehead again shook his head. "First, this was only a reaction to defend the enforcer of the trial's rules from a credible, life-endangering threat, thus an act to defend the law itself. Second, you can plainly see that the two insurrectionists are not killed, but merely knocked out, making these murder charges blatantly false. The charge is therefore … Get back here this instant!"

But Mr. Bonehead's command was ignored, for Raxor as well as the longneck and spiketail guards, tired of the legal expert getting in their way, charged right at Ali and Shorty, horns, spikes, whiptails, and claws bared with hateful venom in each of their eyes. The two longnecks, unprepared for the sudden onslaught, screamed as they felt a relentless barrage of well-honed leafeater weaponry puncture their skin as their attackers continued to gang up on them …

"STOP!" Mr. Bonehead cried out, but it was no use, for no one would listen to the relatively small bonehead anymore …

Then Ali and Shorty felt the ground shake as two more large forms charged on either side of them, the force of their arrival knocking several of their attackers down and pushing the others a few steps back. Turning, they saw that on Ali's left and Shorty's right stood Cam and Mia, glaring at the prison guard furiously.

"How dare you hurt our friends! Well guess what? We're not gonna stand for it!" Cam shouted defiantly.

"So if you don't want to see what us Valley girls are made of, you better get back!" Mia warned.

While Ali beamed pridefully at how far her old herdmates had come from would-be murderers to defenders of justice, the guards just laughed. "Fine!" snarled a spiketail guard. "We'll just kill all of you now, just like we always wanted!"

"I said stop!" Mr. Bonehead ordered, but Raxor and the guards just ignored him as they began to use their sharp weaponry against the four young longnecks, who used their tails and front paws to ward off attacks and knock their opposition out, aided by Tricia, Oplax, Sam and their flyers above.

And just like that, Chomper found himself the only prisoner who had not revolted yet against his captors. Much as he wanted to help his friends however, Chomper knew the inherent dangers of him taking part in the action. Apart from undoubtedly being the regime's top target just by being a sharptooth, he also knew that unlike the leafeaters, he was not built for defensive combat, with his claws and teeth made to kill his opposition, not wound them, and that he could easily end up killing an opponent by accident. A possibility which could only lead to a full-out war in which every segregated dinosaur would be clamoring to attack them, destroying any chance they had to escape …

"Get the sharptooth!" came a voice, and looking up, Chomper saw that the threehorn and clubtail guards were charging right at him.

"Halt, please!" Mr. Bonehead desperately cried out, but they ignored him without a second thought. With them having no fears about escalating the conflict, they did not hesitate to charge right at Chomper, all their offensive weaponry at the ready …

They were halted however, for hurriedly rushing over to block their way were Bron and Topps, glaring at them lividly.

"Don't you dare try laying a claw on Chomper, you bloodthirsty savages!" Topps roared warningly.

"Because Chomper is part of our Great Valley family, whether you like it or not!" Bron added sternly.

Undeterred, the guards began to fight with Bron and Topps, while Chomper watched the two battles going on, trying to see where he could be of most help. While Topps and Bron were outnumbered, none of their opponents were longnecks, leaving the two of them with a considerable size advantage, bolstered by Topps' expertise in threehorn battle styles and Bron's whiptail capabilities allowing him to strike multiple smaller opponents at once. Ali, Shorty, Cam and Mia meanwhile seemed to have more difficulties. While they were big longnecks, so were three of their opponents as their whiptails clashed in the air against one another, while down below them, the spiketails aimed several blows to their legs. It was clear that they were more in need of help.

But just when Chomper had made up his mind, he saw Mr. Bonehead staring right at him, his mouth agape in horror. Confused, he then felt a sudden searing pain all over his right side, as if he had been attacked by a whole mob of aggressors at once. Roaring in pain as he staggered to maintain balance, he looked down to see that rather than a whole group of attackers, it was just one spikebacked longneck, who had just extracted a whole side of blood-coated ivory-colored spikes free from his skin, his eyes narrowed as his lips curled into a triumphant smirk.

"Trying to help your friends, are you, Sharptooth?" Gus sneered gleefully. "Trying to help that murderous boxhead, just like the rest of your murderous kind? Well guess what? I'm ready for you, Sharptooth. Just try and have a go at me."

Chomper stared into the spikeback's spitefully sparkling eyes, his eyes deep brown like Littlefoot's, but holding none of his friend's warmth as he sneered hungrily. "What's the matter, weakling? Too scared?"

As Gus eyed him expectantly, Chomper looked at the young longneck piteously, incredulous as to the flashing malice in his eyes. What could possibly make him so coldhearted, just as coldhearted as so many leafeaters believed all sharpteeth were? But he had no time to dwell on that now, all that mattered now was getting past him. Yet all the same, he yearned to prove the spikeback wrong, to prove that sharpteeth weren't just blind killers and that they too had a conscience. Especially if he wanted to set an example for little Deya, Nyko and Chuss, who would undoubtedly be listening to and smelling his response from wherever they were hiding …

"Fine, if you're not gonna fight, then I will," Gus said mockingly, as Chomper hurriedly jumped out of the way, examining Gus's body carefully to see if there was a way he could dispatch him without killing him. But this would be difficult, for Gus's back was thoroughly covered with a dense row of spikes on either side, leaving only his vulnerable neck and tail areas relatively unarmored … Areas where if he attacked, he could accidentally murder the spikeback, or alternatively, Gus could easily turn and stab him from that position ...

"Trying to run from a leafeater, Sharptooth?" goaded Gus. "That's pathetic. But this time, I'm not gonna let ya!" and at once, Gus made another leap at Chomper, his time, with his wall of spikes aimed right at Chomper's head …

With a quick movement, Chomper lifted his foot up, and being careful not to dig his toe claws into Gus's skin, he kicked the spikeback on the side, pushing him back to the ground, where he landed belly-side up, glaring at Chomper loathingly.

"Oh yeah?" Gus snarled. "I'm not that easy to stop, Sharptooth …"

But as Gus tried getting back up, he realized that his spikes had become entrenched, trapping him in the dusty ground. As he tried extracting his spikes, Chomper seized his chance, and backing up to Gus, he used his tail to repeatedly slam the spikeback on the belly.

"I may be a sharptooth, but I'm not a killer," Chomper said coldly to the spikeback as he continued to hit the spikeback's belly, feeling Gus's hot, angry breath on his tail. "I can't help what I am. But it doesn't mean that I'm bad inside. It doesn't mean that I'm a monster who kills every leafeater in sight. Just like how Shorty can't help that he's so big. That's just who we are. Try seeing what everyone's really like before you want to hurt them."

Then the breath ceased, and Chomper turned to see that the spikeback had finally been knocked out. Looking up, Chomper saw that though hobbling from their injuries, Ali, Shorty, Cam and Mia had just managed to knock out the last of their guards, with Tricia, Oplax, Sam and their flyers flying off. So had Bron and Topps, their legs coated in blood from horn stabbings and bruising from club whacks, who limped over to approach Mr. Bonehead, who was eyeing them all with incredulity.

"That was the most blatant display of lawlessness I've ever seen," Mr. Bonehead said faintly.

Bron and Topps looked at each other, before Bron welcomingly threw out his tail for the elder bonehead to climb onto. "Come with us," he invited. "It's your only chance."

"You either get to be an outlaw with us, or you're dead," warned Topps.

Mr. Bonehead sighed. "Well, considering how badly this regime has been abusing the law, there's nothing wrong in becoming an outlaw to their version of it," before gratefully climbing aboard.

They all then briefly eyed the scene around them. The guards and judges were all knocked out and absent, and no other dinosaurs were in the area. It was now or never.

"Well then," said Topps. "See you later."

"Yeah," Bron added. "Good luck!"

And with that, the two elders ran toward the Hidden Canyon, while the five prisoners hurtled toward the Secret Spot. They were finally on their mad dash to freedom.


Without daring to catch their breaths, Bron and Topps tried to battle their injuries as they rushed through the threehorn zone over to the integrated herd's grounds, with Mr. Bonehead doing his best to remain clinging onto Bron's back. Luckily, the journey there was remarkably uneventful. The segregated threehorn and onehorn herds didn't seem to hear the troubles in the legal zone, as they continued to stand in their cohesives and shout back at the supposed sharpteeth roaring at them from the outside. Topps knew fully well that the one downside to the Circular Cohesive was its lack of mobility, so there was no way they could give chase without breaking up the circle which protected their future warriors. Their noise also made them easy to pinpoint, so Bron and Topps made sure not to get too close to either the onehorn or threehorn herds or to look at any of their faces as they hurriedly snuck by. Fortunately, though they knew they would surely be seen by at least some of the segregated herd members, they were going in the direction of their own territory, allowing them to attract hardly any interest.

Making sure none of the segregated herds were watching the now empty integrated zone, Topps had no problem darting through the tunnel connecting the Great Valley to the Hidden Canyon, while Bron squeezed through more slowly, and quietly, the two elders had arrived in the Hidden Canyon, where they found the other elders who had been there that morning waiting for them. Quietly but warmly, they greeted the last elders to join them. Bron looked at the now bare place in wonder, grateful how it was able to protect his son and friends in the past few treacherous days, while Mr. Bonehead ogled the place incredulously. "What is this place?" he asked.

"This," Topps said proudly, "Is our combined herd's secret hideout, and our means to reenter the Great Valley."

"Which we now have to seal off while we are away," Bron continued. "Our herd has no choice but to move if we want to build up our strength before we liberate our Valley from the regime. Oh yes, Mr. Bonehead, now that you're a part of us, you need an induction."

"Everyone here has had to do it," Topps explained. "To make sure we have no backstabbers in our midst."

Mr. Bonehead, who knew all about inductions, prostrated himself and was speedily inducted by Bron and Topps. Then with the other elders having already gathered the rocks they would need to block off the tunnel connecting the Great Valley and the Hidden Canyon, they all set to work. The frilled dinosaurs worked to push as many large rocks as they could into the tunnel to close it off, while the twofooters went in to pack mud-covered rocks to fill up the gaps, until at last, they had managed to largely seal the tunnel off, providing enough of a barrier so that only dinosaurs who knew that a connection existed would be able to use it.

While the twofooters and frilled dinosaurs worked and Etta, Pterano and Mama Flyer continued to keep watch over in the Great Valley, Bron made his way to join the spiketails and clubtails guarding the entrance from any wandering sharpteeth or regime patrols. They had already prepared the rocks needed to conceal the outside entrance of the Hidden Canyon, and all they had to do now was to push them into place once the frilled dinosaurs and twofooters sealed off the inner path and had joined them in the Mysterious Beyond.

"Everything going well?" Bron asked Stella Spiketail cordially.

His fellow herd leader and parent nodded. "All good so far. I've gotta say, that sharptooth trick really seems to have worked. I think …"

But she trailed off, for they could all hear the sound of heavy footsteps approaching from the distance. Hurriedly craning his neck around the Hidden Canyon's outer wall, Bron frowned as the others watched expectantly.

"What is it?" Stella asked breathlessly.

"A patrol of boxheads," Bron replied. "Heading our way. Come on. I must hold them off so they don't find the Hidden Canyon."

"But Bron," Magnus Clubtail pointed out. "You're hurt. Stay there and rest, we'll take care of them."

"No," Bron said simply. "Boxheads are enormous, trust me, I'm the one who adopted one. You need someone my size for it to be a fair fight."

"Then we'll be there to protect you," Tana Clubtail said determinedly.

"But …" Bron began, but this time, Kosh Clubtail chuckled. "We're a herd, bud."

"Right," Stella Spiketail added. "And herd members help each other."

Bron sighed, but he knew they were right. "All right then. Let's try to hold them off until more help comes," he sighed.

So accompanied by the four clubtails and six spiketails in the Hidden Canyon, Bron went to approach the boxheads. Yet he still had his misgivings. While there were only six of them, the bulky boxheads probably outweighed their larger group and easily had enough strength to potentially squash the much lighter clubtails and spiketails, which could paralyze them or worse. He would have to keep the boxheads distracted while the clubtails and spiketails would do their best to spike and club them down.

As soon as the boxheads saw Bron, they immediately dropped their patrolling and rushed toward him, causing the ground to violently shake, as the spiketails and clubtails took their positions to protectively surround him. "Well whad'ya know, it's the know-it-all legal rep, bailing out on that embarrassment to our bloodline," one sneered as Bron felt a hot flare of anger.

"Trying to escape from your fate, all alone?" sneered another.

"He's not alone!" insisted Stella, waving her tail warningly, along with the rest of the spiketails and clubtails. "We're his herd, and we're not gonna leave him!"

"I should make it plainer. Alone as in he's the only longneck, the rest of you creepy crawlers don't count," the boxhead replied dismissively.

As the spiketails and clubtails seethed and prepared to attack, Bron tried to calmly say, "Last warning. Get back."

"Aww, what's the fun in that?" leered a patrol agent, and without hesitation, the group started charging toward the mixed party as Bron braced himself, feeling the ground vibrate below him.

Then he felt another vibration getting closer, and whirling behind him, Bron's heart soared as he saw twelve familiar longnecks come galloping their way, leering at his opponents with cold fury. The boxhead patrol couldn't help but slow down as they were taken aback, while joining him and the tailed dinosaurs was his old herd, standing protectively beside them with their whiptails at the ready.

"We've come back for our herd leader!" proclaimed Decia proudly. "We may have left him once. But we've seen the error of our ways, and we'll never leave him again!"

"Yeah, we broke our vows to you," said Benton mockingly. "But so what? We're ready to face death if you can handle us."

"But you'd best be careful," warned Genevieve. "We don't kill leafeaters ourselves, but if you attack us, we will knock you out and leave you to the sharpteeth!"

"Just like all those other patrols!" put in Roland. "So you best retreat if you know what's good for you."

"We're loyal to Bron because he shares our vision for a peaceful saurian society, where all dinosaurs can live as friends, not enemies!" put in Peaches.

"And we're not gonna let you hurt our spiketail and clubtail friends either," added Linda. "We may be different, but inside, we're all loyal to each other."

"As we are to our young herdmates, whom you have so cruelly trapped inside for nothing!" shouted Harland.

"So don't you lay one claw on us!" cried out Brent.

Bron beamed at his herd defending him, their herd, and their beliefs so fervently, no longer wandering off on the wrong path. The boxheads however, merely chortled.

"Ah, flatheads like you are weaklings. I could push one of you into all the others, and you'll all go falling."

"We'll just see about that!" exclaimed Kelsey, waving her whiptail as the others followed suit.

"There are twenty-two of us and six of you," Dorian warned. "You best not get cocky and back off."

"Or else you wish you would have when the time comes!" James declared.

"Well guys, is that a threat?" sneered one of the boxheads, and maliciously, the patrol smirked at each other, before running in for the attack.

But though the boxheads did have the size advantage, the skirmish turned out to be a mismatch. Though Bron's herd was a lot smaller than the gigantic boxhead patrol, they outnumbered them two to one and were also considerably more agile, and had little trouble whipping the bigger boxheads down. The spiketails and clubtails meanwhile, managed to puncture and bruise the boxheads' legs respectively, before once they were finally immobilized, the longnecks bonked the boxheads on the head with their whiptails, knocking them all out.

Huffing, the group gathered together.

"Everyone," Bron said thankfully, turning to his apologetic herd. "You've come back."

His herd nodded. "We're sorry … We've been so foolish," said James.

"But like Cam and Mia, we've learned from our mistakes," added Kelsey.

"We will never leave you again," agreed Decia.

"Or our Great Valley family," put in Peaches.

"Which is why we have become official members of the combined herd," declared Brent.

"And decided to put our old ways behind us and settle down with your community," agreed Dorian.

"You know Stella," Genevieve asked the spiketail leader, who looked just as surprised to see her talking to her freely as Bron was. Usually only the herd leaders talked to each other in the Mysterious Beyond, and having another herd member speak to another herd's leader was a breach of decorum. But here, it looked like individual longnecks wanted to establish a rapport with the other elders. Which would make sense, now that they were no longer dinosaurs from different herds, but herdmates under the same, great big herd. Bron smiled at this, for it showed how interested his herd was in joining the rest of their community. "Has Bron been inducted yet?"

"You know, I don't think he has," smiled Tippy's mother.

"Right, well, I better get that fixed up," Bron said, before he prostrated himself before them and all twelve of his old herdmates happily placed their paws on Bron's side as they welcomed him into their Great Valley family.

Just then, the flyers, twofooters, threehorns, onehorns, and Mr. Thicknose arrived to greet them.

"Well, whad'ya know," said Topps, smirking at the downed boxheads and then at Bron's herd. "If I had known about how tough entire herds working together as one big herd would be, I would've suggested it long ago. Us threehorns, you longnecks, you spiketails, not to mention everyone else … We're going to be unstoppable. Ready to take on anyone who dares mess with us."

"This is truly beyond all the legends I've heard of," Mr. Thicknose said thoughtfully. "A true alliance between different herds with a shared vision to merge into one giant herd regardless of species, where every herd member truly thinks of each other as family. This is what I imagine Grandma and Grandpa Longneck always wanted. But I honestly never thought we'd get to that point in my lifetime," he said admiringly.

"Grandma and Grandpa Longneck would be so proud," Mama Swimmer agreed. "But I think it's fair to say that none of us would have gotten here without the help of our children."

"You can say that again!" Topps laughed.

"I think it's entirely appropriate that they've become leaders of this combined herd," beamed Bron.

"Oh yes," Pterano purred. "They've done a much better job than we ever did."

"Speaking of which, we better finish off sealing off that wall," Bron said.

And so they did, before some of the longnecks turned to Bron. "It's probably about time now," said Hilda. "We should probably go collect our supplies and everyone still at Chomper's parents' place, before we start to migrate."

"We've done a lot of migrations, but nothing like this before," said Harland, shaking his head as the group of longnecks laughed. Then with a cheerful goodbye, most of the longnecks went to prepare for the move-out, apart from Bron, and of course, Ali's mother Linda.

"I want to see my daughter the moment she gets into freedom," she told Bron passionately. "To apologize for what I've done and to tell her that I'm with her all the way."

"Of course," Bron smiled, and so with that, the big group of elders, having successfully sealed off the Secret Spot and escaped from the Valley, began to head over to join everyone else.


Chomper's heart raced as he and his fellow prisoners began to make their way to the Secret Spot. It felt surreal to finally be making their escape after having been confined to the boundaries of the prison for so long. But he knew it was going to be an extremely dangerous journey out, and while their enemies would not know what exactly they were up to, they would still seize the jailbreak as an excuse to finally attack them with all their ferocious strength and brutality.

The four longnecks were each on a side of him, with Mia and her very long neck out in front to make out a path, Ali and Cam on either side of Chomper looking for dangers from either direction, and Shorty in the rear, his bulk being there to protect the others' vulnerable backsides. Chomper hated that his other friends would all be exposed to danger while he would be shielded by their bodies, but he knew that the four longnecks were a lot bulkier than he was and more skilled at defensive combat, both from being longnecks and having grown up in the Mysterious Beyond. Besides, he too had a vital role. He was the one with the sniffer, the one who could best navigate them through the heavily populated twofooter zone, where swarms of segregated twofooters would undoubtedly be waiting for them.

"Okay Mia," Chomper told her. "Go a little bit east, then head off to the north. We're gonna go straight through the spikethumbs."

"North's that way, right?" Mia asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," Chomper answered, feeling nervous inside. "But make sure you turn once you can see the boneheads."

"Where's the border patrol?" Cam asked, eyeing the border between the tailed and twofooter zone and noticing that the usual marching lines of enforcers were absent.

"Off chasing the kids and flyers," Chomper explained to much relief. Tricia and her gang were to thank for this lucky break. With them being so hated by the border patrol for all their pranks and attempts to defy them, their sudden reappearance caused most of the border patrol to crave personal vengeance, promptly abandoning their posts to join the chase to catch Mono, Rachelle, Destiny, Pearl and Destiny and their flyers throughout the tailed and longneck zones. Even the swimmer and hollowhorn patrols defied their own segregation orders to take part in the hunt, for they knew that with better throwing abilities, they had a better chance of shooting the flyer and kid duos down than the fourfooters did, and they didn't want to miss the chance of killing such high-profile trophies. With all those enforcers pursuing the kids, the border patrol between the tailed and twofooter zone had been reduced to two clubtail agents currently patrolling to the far north, allowing getting into the twofooter zone from the south to be surprisingly easy.

"We owe those guys bigtime," Shorty smirked as everyone else chuckled, noticing Stern and Curie, carrying Pearl and Garnet, swooping around with all kinds of aerial maneuvers, effortlessly dodging the rocks thrown their way as three units of spiketails, clubtails and swimmers continued to pursue them deeper into the tailed zone, completely oblivious to the parade of escapees behind them.

As good as their start was going though, Chomper knew that things were bound to get more difficult. Following the friendly twofooters' departure from the twofooter zone, the segregated twofooters had taken over the entire zone, forcing the bystander twofooters into zones of their own individual kinds and completely redrawing the zone's boundaries. Throughout the day, Chomper had been plotting the best way forward in his head. There were eight segregated twofooter herds – swimmers, long-crests, round-crests, tall-crests, nesting bigmouths, giant bigmouths, spikethumbs, and boneheads, and Chomper knew that their best chance to face the smallest amount of opposition possible was to avoid as many herds' grounds as they could. Which is why they were taking this route forward, for it would have them only going through the grounds of three herds, the spikethumbs for most of the western edge, veering northeast to get through the long-crests, before reaching the round-crests in the far northeast, where the Secret Spot's entrance was.

While the path did avoid five of the segregated herds, among them the tall-crested herd that included Leigh and his guards, it was still an extremely dangerous route, especially with two kinds of hollowhorn who could use their honking calls to call for assistance. Thankfully, his friends outside were still making their sharptooth noises, and the segregated herds were still shouting threats back to the imaginary sharpteeth. He wished he still had Ruby with him at this moment, for she was great at this kind of thinking and would have been able to check over his ideas. But knowing that they would be dealing with the spikethumbs at the start and the round-crested hollowhorns at the end regardless, this seemed like the best solution.

Sure enough, it wasn't long after entering the confines of the twofooter zone than he could hear the hurried rush of footsteps, growls and snorts of hostility drawing nearer, along with the smell of grimy, bloodied regime spikethumbs. "They're coming for us!" Chomper warned, as Mia craned her neck out and gasped. "Yikes! There's a whole fleet of them!"

"Eek!" Cam shouted.

"Brace yourselves, guys!" Ali cried out, and before Chomper knew it, a horde of spikethumbs was hurling themselves at them. The spikethumbs, though large and well-muscled for their kind, were still a lot smaller than the four longnecks, and quite a bit smaller than Chomper. They seemed oblivious to their size disadvantage however, for they viciously roared, howled, snarled, and growled, relentlessly driving their sharp claws into the longnecks' legs, with their namesake thumb spike being the source of their most painful blows.

Ali, Shorty, Cam, and Mia tried their best to ignore their pain and think only about getting to the Secret Spot, and being much bigger than the spikethumbs, they were able to plow forward, taking at least two steps forward for every one step they were held back. Helping matters too was Ali using her whiptail, which could strike many spikethumbs at once, and while Cam and Shorty had shorter tails since they were boxheads, their hits were more powerful, especially Shorty's given his bulk. But the spikethumb horde wouldn't go down easily, often requiring a direct blow to the head to knock them out, and while progress was steady, it was nonetheless grueling as the longnecks felt continuous flares of pain at their legs, sending hot flashes and cold chills down their backs from the repeated stings.

As Chomper could smell them wandering toward the boneheads to the north, meaning they would soon have to turn northeast to get to the long-crests, he wondered how he could best help his friends deal with the spikethumb attacks on the outside while fenced in by their four bodies. But just as he started to consider this, he started feeling sharp stings of pain at his own feet. Confused as he had not seen any of the spikethumbs getting under the massive bodies of the longnecks, he looked down and saw something that made his heart churn. A whole gaggle of spikethumb kids were at his feet, relentlessly jabbing at him with their tiny little thumb spikes as they roared, shrieked and growled with their tiny voices, laced with just as much venom as their vicious parents. Chomper shook his head in indignant disbelief. The regime had really stooped so low as to send in their children to try and kill him …

Feeling a hard lump in his throat, Chomper hated being forced into the position of having to attack younger kids. But these kids were hardly innocent, and he had to do something to defend himself from their merciless onslaught. So taking powerful, high steps, Chomper hurriedly brought the full weight of his foot down with each step, causing him to squish many of the little spikethumbs. Undeterred however, the spikethumb kids kept on attacking him, often trying to spike the sole of his foot as he stepped, even if it meant they'd get knocked out or worse themselves.

Then Chomper saw something that if possible, made his blood grow even colder. One of the spikethumb kids had extracted one of their thumb spikes out of his skin and reached higher, plunging it up into his thigh, and climbing up as another spikethumb kid took its place down below. With a gasp of horror as he stared at all the wounds the little spikethumbs had been inflicting, Chomper realized that the spikethumb kids must have been instructed by the adults to climb up his body until he was entirely covered with little spikethumbs, continuing to stab at him until he perished.

And he realized too how poorly he was equipped to deal with this highly unusual threat. His tiny arms were way too little to reach down and rip the kids off. He could try shaking them off, but these kids had penetrated their thumb spikes deep into his skin and would be hard to remove, especially in the narrow confines he was in being surrounded by four large longnecks. And while he could try using his mouth as a last resort to rip the spikethumb kids off, that would force him to lower his head, allowing the spikethumb kids to then be able to reach his face, puncturing his eyes or plunging their thumb spikes right through his windpipe … The best of many bad options seemed to be to wait for help. But with his fellow prisoners all busy fighting off the adult spikethumbs and his other friends standing outside the Valley, completely unaware of the situation, would that help come in time?

Thankfully, Chomper realized as he continued to steer Mia that the amount of adult spikethumbs attacking the longnecks had been reduced to only about a third of the starting amount. But reinforcements had come in the form of the regime's long-crested hollowhorns. While they lacked the dangerous thumb spikes of the spikethumbs, the long-crested hollowhorns proved to be just as dangerous themselves. As the remaining spikethumbs continued to spike at their lower legs, the hollowhorns reached up to attack the longnecks' upper legs, using their sharpened claws to rip and slash at the longnecks' skin, causing them to shout with pain as they staggered forward. The only good thing about this was that the hollowhorns were so busy attacking the longnecks themselves that they didn't bother calling for reinforcements. Perhaps each of the segregated herds wanted to be the ones to bring them down themselves so that their kind would get all the glory, or that they didn't want to work with other, lesser species. Which made Chomper incredibly grateful, for if the poorly armored hollowhorn and spikethumb herds could be this vicious, he shuddered to imagine what the segregated longneck, tailed and frilled herds would be like.

Then Chomper heard a cry of pain just as they reached the northern wall, as Cam, the smallest of the four longnecks, felt her legs give out on her as she slumped to the ground, with heavy amounts of blood streaming down her legs and pooling at her feet. At once, Chomper jumped over her fallen body, shaking off several of the spikethumb kids with the intensity of his motion, and he immediately roared at the aggressive hollowhorns, taking them aback. Seizing the moment, Chomper placed a well-aimed kick right at one of the hollowhorns' bellies, causing them to fall backwards and knock down several of the other hollowhorns ripping at Cam's side. With her back end now free as Chomper no longer behind her, Mia seized on the chance to defend her closest friend, and she started whipping at the remaining spikethumbs and hollowhorns with Ali and Shorty. Chomper meanwhile went around, using his agility to tail swat, kick, and claw at the tiring spikethumbs and hollowhorns, whatever it took to halt their attacking the fastest. He had also managed to keep on shaking off the spikethumb kids, knocking them out as they landed on the ground with harsh thuds. Eventually, they were finally free of aggressors, Chomper and the four longnecks turned to face each other, exhausted and out of breath as they saw bleeding all over their legs and sides.

"Cam, are you all right?" Mia rushed to her best friend as Ali took her other side.

"Uh-huh," Cam nodded as she tried her hardest to stand back up.

"Just a little more now," Chomper encouraged, doing his best to sound optimistic, sniffing the air. "But we've got some good news."

The others looked hopeful. "Well what?" Shorty blurted out excitedly.

"The round-crests are all knocked out. I smell Hyp and his friends, as well as Ducky and her siblings standing on an overlook in the Mysterious Beyond right above the Great Valley. They must have thrown down rocks to knock them all out. All we have to do now …" he huffed, "Is to make sure no one's watching us. Then … we can go inside the Secret Spot."

As the group quietly cheered, heartened that the round-crests wouldn't be there to try and stop them, Chomper still felt a little uneasy. Perhaps it was just a reflection on all the difficulties that they had faced so far, but he still couldn't help the nagging feeling that the regime might still have one last trick in store for them.


Standing outside the Secret Spot, their voices hoarse from all the sharptooth roaring, the rescue party continued to stand anxiously. As they continued to pour their hearts out to keep the noise going, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, and Ruby looked at each other. The trick seemed to be working perfectly, for the Valley had been engulfed in chaos, fear and panic, the herds inside continued to bellow threats at back at the imaginary sharpteeth, and news of the jailbreak itself had not seemed to spread. Yet the prisoners had still not managed to arrive yet. Nor for that matter had anyone else, friend or foe …

Then Littlefoot looked over and saw something that made his heart soar. A large group of friendly elders was making their way over to them, and among them were elders that Littlefoot would know anywhere, including Mr. Thicknose, Mama Flyer, Mama Swimmer, Tria, Mr. Threehorn, and of course, his own father.

Littlefoot had to struggle to hold back his own enthusiasm, and he could tell many others had noticed the incoming arrivals and had to hold back as well. Still, they had all managed to keep quiet apart from their continuous roaring, and looking very pleased, the elders were able to join up with them without issue.

With Littlefoot being the only one of the six who had not yet gotten a chance to speak to a parental figure, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike and Ruby nodded to reassure Littlefoot they could keep things going while he and his father could reunite in peace. The two longnecks rubbed heads with one another when Bron arrived, before they put their heads together to enjoy a quiet talk.

"How've you been?" Bron asked Littlefoot soothingly.

"Well Dad," Littlefoot chuckled. "It's been kinda crazy. I missed you a lot. But I love being part of this herd, and once we get everyone out, we're gonna be migrating, just like your herd had! Or as we call it, adventuring."

"And to the very place where we first met, from what I've heard," Bron smirked back. "I guess you've chosen to come migrating with me after all."

The two exchanged a laugh before Bron beamed at his son, "You and your friends have done the incredible with this herd," he said proudly, eyeing the huge herd around them. "You've amassed a group of kindred spirits with pure hearts and a common purpose. You may not have the brute strength of all the segregated herds, but you've got unlimited potential. You'll be able to go anywhere and do anything you commit yourselves to, and I'm confident that you all will be able to handle life at the crater just fine."

"Thanks Dad," Littlefoot smiled, before getting a little playful snicker in his eyes. "But the way you're talking, it's like you're forgetting you're part of us too!"

Bron heartily laughed. "True … I guess I'm still not used to actually accompanying you on your adventures."

And after they both laughed for a while, Bron said, "The rest of the grownups and I were able to seal off both of the Hidden Canyon's entrances, and my herd has gone to collect everyone at Chomper's parents' place and all our supplies. Is it true that prickly plants really heal injuries?"

"They stop bleeding, yeah," explained Littlefoot. "Ducky discovered their healing powers."

Bron shook his head. "And to think I've been leading a herd without knowing that all this time … Ah well. Anyway, they should be arriving very soon and be ready to leave with us. What about everyone with you?"

"We're nearly all here," Littlefoot beamed. "Most of Tricia's gang and the flyers have come back, and Ducky's siblings and Hyp and his friends are getting everyone who was posted along the sides. Hyp even said they knocked the bad round-crests out, so the prisoners won't have to deal with them. That's everyone but the hollowhorn kids and their parents, who are still waiting in case of trouble, and the prisoners …"

But Littlefoot trailed off, for he saw something far on the ground that had made his heart drop with a thud. Rather than remaining at Chomper's parents' place like they were instructed to, little Deya, Nyko and Chuss had just jumped out of a bush, and sprinting determinedly, the three fast biters hurried alongside the edge of the Secret Spot before nimbly jumping down onto its western wall.

Through the roaring, Ducky and Ruby had noticed this too. "Wait!" Ducky cried out. "Come back!"

"Please kids!" Ruby cried out, the others starting to gasp as they noticed the little fast biters too. "Chomp … I mean Alpha wouldn't want you to get hurt!"

But the little fast biters even ignored Ruby as they determinedly snarled, readying their claws and gnashing their teeth. Knowing fully well that the fast biters with their good hearing could still hear them, they knew that they were being purposefully ignored. As the gang looked at each other, as did the teens looking at the gang, they knew that there could be only one explanation for the sudden lack of compliance among the little sharpteeth …

"Chomper must be in danger!" Petrie cried out.

Then Spike grunted fearfully, as without any hesitation, the fast biters jumped off the southern wall of the Secret Spot, right onto the grassy floor of the Great Valley.

"They're gonna get themselves killed down there!" Cera shouted concernedly. "And worse still, we're way too big to jump into the Secret Spot without causing an earthshake that'll cave the walls in!"

But at that moment, they heard a voice say, "You guys may be too big … But maybe we can jump inside!"

The gang looked down, staring at Audrey, their teenage clubtail protégé, as she determinedly stared back at them, while all around her, her fellow teenage proteges began to murmur excitedly.

"Yeah!" Sheldon agreed. "I'm the heaviest of us, but even I'm lighter than Littlefoot, Cera and Spike!"

"But we're all bigger than Ruby and the kids," agreed Kendall. "Meaning we can withstand attacks better!"

"Not to mention unlike you, we're not supposed to be dead," added Vail sagely.

"And we have our armor," nodded Dekker.

"And our technique!" cheered Anndi.

"And teamwork!" added Welbie.

"We're protectors of our herd," beamed Emery.

"And we're never gonna leave our herdmates behind!" agreed Gabriel.

"That means Deya, Nyko and Chuss too, even if they are sharpteeth!" said Nessie. "They're still part of our herd, our family!"

"Hey guys, maybe we should go help make sure the prisoners are okay too!" asked Felix, to intense murmurs of excitement from the group.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Tilden. "Who knows what kind of help they might need!"

"So who's ready to move that boulder and bring our friends back with us!" called out Glenn.

And boisterously, the teens began to cheer in raucous agreement, and before the gang knew it, they began jumping into the Secret Spot. Seeing that even Sheldon, while shaking the ground, did not cause a cave-in, the gang knew that the teens were right in that they were light enough to jump down into the Secret Spot. Yet they still had their concerns.

"But guys," Ducky asked worriedly. "We do not want to see you getting hurt."

The teens however, were not deterred.

"Thanks Ducky, but this is the moment we've all been waiting for!" Eva said enthusiastically as she jumped in.

"To really prove ourselves as members of your herd!" Phoenix added.

"Yeah," Candy said. "Besides, we wanna meet our new friends!"

"And stand by them so they know we can be trusted!" agreed Chantal.

"And show them just how loyal we are inside!" added Aria.

And before they knew it, twenty of the teens were now pushing at the boulder, leaving only the five team leaders still outside of the Secret Spot with the gang. They however, while regarding the gang with respect, looked just as determined as their fellow teens to help with the rescue.

"You guys have taught all of us so much," Jada complimented them. "About what it really means to be in friendship and harmony together. "But now, it's up to us to put what we learned to practice and save our friends!"

"We're all ready to do this," Light smiled determinedly. "To jump in there and help get Chomper and the others out of any trouble and with us where they belong!"

"Yeah!" Seth said eagerly. "It's time to put our skills to the test and do some real good for our herd!"

"I may have faced plenty of danger before, but I've never felt this alive!" Keeter declared determinedly. "For this time, I'm not fighting for myself, and we all get to take part in actually saving our friends' lives!"

"This is what we've all been waiting for," Gara said passionately. "None of us would've ever imagined feeling like this … But the fires are burning inside us, and we're more than ready to rescue our friends and start our next adventure!"

Seeing how dead set the teens were to help rescue their friends, the gang began to fully appreciate just how much they had grown, each of them having become true defenders of good in their own right. It felt bittersweet, seeing how far their former pupils had come, yet at the same time not being able to help them as they put themselves in danger. But they weren't going to let their friends say goodbye without a few parting words.

"Well," Littlefoot smiled. "Good luck, all of you. We may be too big to go in with you. But we'll all be right here, ready to pull you out when you get back."

"You guys will be awesome!" Cera exclaimed. "Just do what you've been doing and bam! They won't know what hit them."

"Me have faith in you!" Petrie said warmly. "You guys real special, and me know you be able to help friends escape!"

"We will be cheering for you all the way!" Ducky exclaimed. "And then we will all be together as one great big happy Great Valley family, yep yep yep!"

"Our hearts are all beating for you inside," Ruby promised. "For inside our hearts, you'll always be our friends!"

"Good … luck, friends!" Spike called out, and with thankful, appreciative, yet determined nods and smiles, the teens looked at the gang before they all worked to push at the boulder together. At last, they finally had enough strength to move the boulder, and after collecting some rocks and getting into their cohesives, the gang watched them stream out into the Great Valley. The only thing they could do now was wait.


Hobbling through their injuries, Chomper, Ali, Shorty, Cam and Mia continued to draw closer to the Secret Spot. With the spikethumb and long-crested hollowhorn attacks having at last ceased, Chomper could tell by his sniffer that they were now in the round-crested hollowhorn zone. The round-crests however, were still knocked out by Hyp and his friends and Ducky's siblings' rock throwing, their bodies clustered by the overlook, undoubtedly coming to investigate what was causing the sudden disappearance of their herdmates. To that, Chomper was very grateful. Round-crested hollowhorns, apart from the shape of their crests, were very similar to their long-crested counterparts, and while generally poorly equipped for combat, these aggressive, bellicose warrior herds would undoubtedly be equipped with sharpened sharptooth-like claws on their toes and hands, just like the long-crests they dealt with earlier, never mind their hollowhorn abilities potentially being able to rally the herds now that the sharptooth roars outside were finally beginning to falter. Chomper wasn't sure if they could survive another onslaught, but hopefully they wouldn't have to, now that they were so close to the Secret Spot …

Then another smell caught his sniffer. It was one he had paid little notice, considering that they had mostly been off to the edges, staying far away from the heart of the Great Valley. But upon sniffing it, he realized at once what it was and couldn't believe that he failed to anticipate it coming.

The flyers.

And before he could say anything, he felt an ominous jabbing at his feet. So did the longnecks around him as they stared down in horror, discovering the same thing that occurred to him a split second earlier. The regime's flyers may have been unable to fly due to Brara having maimed them. But they were still the same dark dinosaurs at heart, ready to attack them in other ways. A few of them were gripping onto each of their legs, pecking at them with their sharp beaks and scratching into them with their sharpened hand claws with all the force they could muster, sending bolts of pain down each of their legs as they struggled not to scream, knowing that would only attract more of the regime's supporters.

"Hang on guys, I'm coming!" Chomper said to himself. Trying his best to ignore his own suffering, Chomper used his mouth to forcibly rip off the flyers attacking the longnecks' legs before throwing them onto the ground. Flyer wings and bodies were delicate, and most of their wings broke under the pressure of his sharp teeth as their blood flowed through his mouth, and he could tell that he immediately killed or fatally wounded at least some of them without even meaning to. Grading his attacks was a lot harder when he was under such exhaustion and pain. But he had no time to consider that now, all that mattered was freeing his friends from their merciless aggressors, relentlessly continuing to grip onto and draw blood from his friends. Once he finally finished dislodging the flyers, either too injured to move, unconscious, or killed, Ali used her whiptail to knock the flyers off his legs. With the flyer brigade defeated, the group caught their breath for a moment, before trudging onward, knowing that it wasn't far now …

"There can't be any more of them, can there?" Shorty asked frustratedly as they continued progressing forth …

"CHARGE!"

Looking for the sound of the voices, the five of them then saw sprinting on the grass toward them were packs of regime kids, in segregated units of long-crests, tall-crests, round-crests, swimmers, and nesting bigmouths, with one unit charging at each one of them, the swimmers at Chomper, the tall-crests at Ali, the bigmouths at Shorty, the round-crests at Cam, and the long-crests at Mia. Leaping at them and climbing onto their bloodied legs, the dark kids roared and slashed at their legs, slowing their momentum as they doggedly attacked. Worse still, they had managed to crawl onto Chomper's, Ali's, Shorty's, Mia's, and Cam's tails, climbing them all the way up to their backs, where they began slashing at them from up there. They knew they would be able to dislodge these kids, but it would take a lot of time to knock them all out, time in which the remaining adults of the regime can join in the attack …

Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched blast of noise could be heard, coming from the far northwest of the tailed zone. The longnecks looked confusedly at one another, uncertain as to what the sound was. Chomper however, smirked in delight, for he knew it was Cassia, Perri, and their party of little hollowhorns, determined to lead the regime in the wrong direction with their loud, youthful calls.

"Sharptooth! Sharptooth! Sharptooth!" they kept on loudly screaming, in a firm, consistent rhythm.

Some of the regime's hollowhorn kids, realizing in their rush to attack that they had failed to alert the adults of the intruders as they should have, jumped off Cam, Mia and Ali as they tried to right their mistake.

"No!"

"The sharptooth's this way!"

"So are all the longnecks!"

"This is the right way!"

But unlike the herd's hollowhorn kids, they were saying different things and speaking over one another so that it came out all garbled, in contrast to the clear message sent by the herd's kids. What was more, between all the long-crests being knocked out by the five escapees and the round and tall-crests knocked out by Hyp's gang and Ducky's siblings throwing rocks from above, the parents of most of these hollowhorn kids were incapacitated, the only exception being the fathers who were Leigh's personal guards, who were much too busy safeguarding his chambers. And with the segregated herds not knowing one another well, none of the other herds were able to tell the difference between the regime's hollowhorn kids and the herd's hollowhorn kids, and so all who chose to respond to the calls followed the more discernible instructions, leading them entirely in the wrong direction.

Enraged with the lack of assistance they were getting from the grown-ups, the dark twofooter kids knew they had to take things into their own hands. While most of them stayed behind to stall and attack the escaped prisoners, some of the hollowhorn kids started darting to the tailed, frilled and longneck zones to try and explain what was really happening, obstructed ironically enough by the regime's own segregation policies and the segregated herds' mistrust in one another. Most dangerous for the prisoners however were the bigmouth and swimmer kids, whose parents were still conscious further off to the south and out of throwing range from the eastern wall. If they were able to summon their parents, the prisoners would immediately have to deal with the segregated swimmer and bigmouth herds, never mind the possibility of alerting the even more dangerous herds in the rest of the Valley. And sure enough, two small groups of swimmer and bigmouth kids were darting south, undoubtedly trying to alert their parents of the escaped prisoners.

The loud, echoing roar of a sharptooth stopped the regime's kids at once. Looking at each other briefly, these kids knew they could not show any further trace of fear. As their parents constantly reminded them, they were the special leafeaters favored by the circles, and they would succeed in their mission or die trying. And if the worst happened, it was really just the circles calling them upward, where they would immediately be rewarded with an endless supply of scrumptious tree stars for standing up for leafeater purity …

"Show yerself, filthy sharptooth!" squealed a swimmer kid.

"If you dare!" shouted another.

There was a pause, before coming out of a hollow log were three little fast biters, their teeth gnashing and readying their claws as they leered at the regime's kids menacingly.

As he watched, Chomper's heart dropped dramatically. His little pack was truly fearless, and were really displaying their incredible loyalty to him. But they were putting themselves in grave danger, outnumbered and outsized by the dark leafeater kids, who were just as hungry and determined to fight as they were. Yet he couldn't do anything to stop them, for all those swimmer kids latched onto him were preventing him from going anywhere …

"Yourrrr wirrr norrrt hurrrt Alpharrr," Deya warned menacingly, as the regime's kids ogled the talking sharpteeth.

"Alpharrr norrrt hurrrt yourrr," growled Nyko. "Burrrt werrr wirrr irrrff yourrr hurrrt hirrrm."

"Gerrrt barrrck, orrr werrr fighrrrt," warned Chuss, and the three fast biter kids let out a low growl as they continued to stare determinedly at the twofooter kids.

The twofooter kids however, began to break out in mirth.

"You, impure sharptooth brats threaten us?" laughed one of the bigmouths. "We're the ones favored by the circles!"

"So bring it on, dirty sharpteeth!" added another as the kids began to ready their arms and ball their fists.

WHACK

A large rock came flying from the air, landing right on top of one of the bigmouth kids and knocking them out.

"Who did that?" called another.

"Over here!" came an eager voice, and as he continued fighting his swimmer kids off, Chomper followed the glance of the regime's kids over to a large band of young dinosaurs, where a small, light green spikeless spikethumb was waving at them daringly. Chomper beamed, for he recognized the smell and voice of the young dinosaur to be that of Emery, one of his friends' personally trained students-turned-herdmates. Recognizing the scents of all the others as he saw the four longnecks gasping at their group of new allies, Chomper beamed at them affectionately. He could finally put faces to all their scents, and he had no problem identifying each of the twenty dinosaurs, the five twofooters, carrying several rocks each, being protected by a frilled teen in front, a tailed teen in back, and a longneck to their side, apart from Anndi and Candy who had switched places. It felt surreal to finally see these guys in-person, and he couldn't help but grin madly as he eyed each one of them. The only ones who were missing were the five flyers, but he could smell them nearby, dropping rocks onto the fleeing hollowhorn kids attempting to squeal to the regime's other adults.

"Get back here, kids!" ordered the light-blue curve-crested hollowhorn Gabriel, and Deya, Nyko and Chuss, seeing how much bigger and stronger their herdmates were, did not hesitate to comply this time as they beamed at them gratefully, amazed with the teens' bravery to come in and help them rescue their Alpha, while green tall-crested hollowhorn Harmony stood protectively over them to keep them safe from any harm.

The regime's kids were stunned speechless at these new arrivals, towering over them in size and brazenly daring to show up in their purified zone as a messy integrated group and try to help the prisoners escape. The bigmouth and swimmer kids were especially enraged to see fellow bigmouth Aria and fellow swimmer Seth in this rebel group, blights on their own kind's purity.

"What are you doing, with all those inferior kinds and saving sharpteeth?" a bigmouth kid asked, pointing at Aria angrily.

"None of us are inferiors," Aria replied passionately. "We're all special in our own ways. And Deya, Nyko and Chuss are part of our herd, just like everyone else here."

"You can't have a herd if you're different kinds!" cried out a swimmer kid incredulously, pointing at Seth. "You're a swimmer, you should know better!"

"Oh yeah? Well guess what, we're a herd and we're proud of it!" Seth declared.

The five frilled dinosaurs then glared out at the dark-hearted kids.

"We're here to rescue our friends!" shouted tan thicknose Kendall.

"So you better stay back if you know what's good for you!" threatened pink threehorn Chantal.

By now, the new arrivals attracted the attention of several more of the kids, who promptly halted their attacks on the prisoners to deal with this new threat.

"You can't take us purified leafeaters on!" cried out a round-crest.

"You bunch of heretic weaklings!" insisted a long-crest.

"Oh yeah? Just watch us," the dark blue threehorn Keeter smirked back at them.

"We're gonna save our friends, no matter what it takes!" agreed brown fourhorn Felix.

And with that, Gabriel, Aria, Emery, Seth and Harmony began throwing stones at the kids, their strength creating enough force to effortlessly knock out each kid they hit as they started drawing closer to the prisoners. Kids soon began to charge at the group from all directions, but Felix, Kendall, Keeter, Glenn and Chantal used their thick frills to block attacks, their beaks to pick up attackers by the tails and throw them onto the ground, while any kid who asked for it found themselves at the mercy of Felix's, Keeter's, Glenn's and Chantal's horns. Some of the kids tried ambushing from the side, but Jada, Sheldon, Vail and Gara all used their whiptails to block attacks, Jada and Gara using their neck spikes to further foil attacks, while Candy used her protruding side spikes to stab more ambushing attackers. Any kid who tried to backstab the group however found themselves up against Eva's and Light's tail spikes, Anndi's and Audrey's tail clubs, and Dekker's impenetrable armor all over, while circling the skies, Welbie, Nessie, Tilden, Newcomb and Phoenix continued to drop stones on kids attempting to bring in the parents. Chomper beamed at them as they steadily drew nearer, all the while keeping Deya, Nyko and Chuss safe, who beamed at their young herdmates with increasing affection.

It wasn't long before the large gang of teens got to the prisoners, and they split up into their teams of five to rescue each of them. Light's team was the one who came to rescue Chomper, and all around him, Chomper could see Aria ripping little swimmers off his upper legs and tossing them onto the ground, Kendall using her beak to forcibly remove each swimmer from his lower legs before hitting them on the head with her paw, Nessie ripping the swimmers off the top of his back before dropping them onto the ground, while Sheldon used his whiptail to force swimmer kids off his back and throw them onto the floor. Meanwhile, Light himself jumped along Chomper's side, grabbing any bad swimmer kids missed by his teammates by their tails and throwing them to the ground. As his team finished dispatching the other swimmer kids, remarkably avoiding killing any of them, Light went over to approach Chomper.

"Chomper," Light said beaming at him. "My rainbow face friend told me to tell you if I had a tree star for every time my grandparents and dad almost died like Littlefoot's mother and that you almost died the same way as the Sharptooth, I would have three tree stars for the first and two tree stars for the second. It's not a lot, but it's weird it happened at least once!"

Chomper chuckled. "It's more tree stars than I would like to eat, that's for sure," as they both laughed.

Light looked at Chomper excitedly. "I can't believe I'm finally getting to talk to you! A real friendly sharptooth!"

"You don't mind, do you?" Chomper asked hopefully.

Light chuckled. "Not at all! Personally, I think it's awesome that you're a sharptooth!"

"Yeah!" Aria beamed enthusiastically as the rest of Light's team finished dispatching their kids and went over to greet him. "We'd love to have you on our team! And since you've been on so many adventures with our herd leaders, you're one of our herd leaders too!"

"Yeah!" Sheldon exclaimed. "The moment we found about you, we knew that you were just as amazing as they are."

And beaming affectionately, Chomper bent down as his five new herdmates began to hug him. Looking around, he saw that Jada's team had rescued Ali, Keeter's team Cam, Seth's team Mia, and Gara's team Shorty. His fellow prisoners and the teens who rescued them were all safe and sound, as were the little fast biters. Chomper could smell too that everyone else had gathered right outside of the Secret Spot.

"Come on," Jada said happily. "Let's take you to meet the rest of us!"

So helped along by the uninjured teens, acting as a protective guard around them, they hurried toward the Secret Spot before any of the regime's enforcers could discover what was really happening. Upon reaching the inside, Chomper's heart soared as he looked up at all the friendly faces beaming at them, wanting to loudly celebrate their arrival, but forced to keep quiet due to the danger of their situation. Still, Chomper could feel the enthusiasm from all of them. The large bunch of friendly kids happily cheering and jumping up and down with excitement, from friendly parents and defectors from the regime alike, Hyp's gang, Tricia's gang, Ducky and Petrie's siblings, old friends like Tippy and Sophie, and new friends like Monty, Veno, Len, Tuck and Brara, little Avie, Guido and Cricket and the tiny longnecks, the notooth herd, all the friendly grown-ups, even his parents slumped on the backs of a couple of the longnecks from Ali's herd.

But thrilling him most of all were the expressions of his six closest friends. The ones who had grown up with in the Great Valley, who had been with him through all those fun times and adventures. Their eyes, wide, jubilant, and enthusiastic, followed every motion he made as they took his arrival in with just as much delight as he felt, their overjoyed grins warming his heart with each passing moment. His closest, oldest, most precious friends … The ones who were always there to give him such personal warmth and support which he happily shared in return. The ones who orchestrated organizing the herd and made this whole rescue possible, achieving the unbelievable just as they had done on so many of their adventures … He never felt so pleased and grateful to be with such wonderful friends. And he resolved to himself that under no circumstances would he ever be apart from them again.

"Guys," Chomper whispered, only for Ruby to put her finger warningly to her lips. There would be a time for reuniting and getting to know each other later. But for now, they still had to complete the final steps of the rescue and get as far away from the Great Valley and the regime as possible.

As the other elders kept watch for enemies or ensuring the safety of the children, the longnecks gripped onto one end of a vine with their mouths, throwing the other end down for the smaller dinosaurs to grab onto, easily lifting the twenty-five teens as well as Deya, Nyko and Chuss out. Meanwhile, Ruby's parents' herd began tying up Chomper, Ali, Shorty, Cam, and Mia's legs up with vines, while from above, Ducky threw gobs of a strange but all-too-familiar white plant at them.

"Eat up!" Ducky told them brightly. "Prickly plants have healing powers that will stop your bleeding so the bad guys will not be able to follow us!"

Without complaint, the group began hurriedly eating the prickly plants. Even Chomper took part, though his insides protested ferociously from the moment the bitter prickly plant first touched his tongue. He wondered if the prickly plants would even work on him being a sharptooth as the foul taste spread in his mouth, like he was drinking from the tar pits, and he struggled to keep from throwing up. Still, the pain he felt from his injuries was excruciating, and he also knew that for the good of the herd, he couldn't be left untreated. If there was even a chance the prickly plants could clot his blood, it would be worth it, for not only would the smell of blood attract sharpteeth to the herd, but the trail of blood left behind would not be difficult for the regime to follow. Fortunately, Chomper did see that as Ruby's parents' herd was cleaning his legs off from the blood on them that the flow of fresh blood had ceased. His legs, while still tender and needing rest, just like the rest of his body, would get better, but he could certainly use a ride for a while.

When they had all finished eating the prickly plants, Chomper noticed that the bleeding on the longnecks was also getting much better, and soon enough, his tail, arms and legs had all been tied up by vines, as his fellow prisoners were also tied up. Following this, Ruby's parents' herd climbed out of the Secret Spot, before the combined herd split up, biting onto each other's tails as they formed several long chains, each holding the other end of every vine that was connected to the prisoners' near side extremities. The flyers flapped to the other side, all of them combined being enough to help lift one of the prisoner's far side extremities enough so that they could lift a prisoner high above the Secret Spot to avoid a cave-in.

Then the herd got to work, starting with Cam first. Despite being relatively short from head to tail and not overly tall for a longneck, she was a boxhead like Shorty and thus was surprisingly bulky, and thus weighed in at ten shieldbacks, even more than Littlefoot. But the combined line pulling her, consisting of longnecks, threehorns, spiketails, twofooters and many others alike, was more than enough to lift her up to safely. At once, Len was there to greet her, and after they shared a brief nuzzle, Len and a couple of the other longnecks supported Cam on their backs with her paws outstretched, her belly sinking in the middle.

Mia went next. With extra vines attached to her super long neck and being lighter than Cam, pulling her out went easily as three more of her herd went to help support her. The flyers moved onto Ali next, and with the help of the dinosaurs lined up to pull her, Ali was lifted out, and after lovingly nuzzling and exchanging some words with her mother, she was placed on the very bulky Sue's back, being only about half her weight. Shorty then was pulled out. Though he was the biggest of the group, coming in at a whopping twelve and a half shieldbacks, the team of dinosaurs pulling at him was still able to get him out with no trouble. After Shorty hurriedly rubbed against his father, he was placed onto Ross's back. The biggest member of the herd, the gigantic longneck, coming in at an unbelievable twenty-five shieldbacks, was easily able to carry Shorty's massive but lesser weight.

At last it was Chomper's turn. He still couldn't hear or smell the regime coming, and being a relatively measly three shieldbacks himself, the herd had no problem extracting him free from danger. Overcome with gratitude as he staggered onto the free surface of the rocky ledge above, Chomper was immediately greeted by the jubilant Deya, Nyko and Chuss, and he happily rubbed his cheek against the little fast biters, finally getting the chance to properly meet his little pack. He staggered over to rub his cheeks against those of his parents laying down on some of the longnecks, delighted to see that he had escaped to safety. Then he briefly rubbed cheeks with each of good friends. Spike grunted happily as he bent down to greet her, while Petrie flew up to tightly hug his massive skull, saying how much he missed her. Ducky lovingly threw her arms around him, while Cera smirked as she surprised Chomper with a ginger hug to his still wounded legs. Ruby affectionately stroked his face as he lowered his face down to hers, getting uncomfortably hot as he did. Then he looked up at his first, oldest friend, lovingly smiling him as he invitingly lowered his tail.

"Climb on, old buddy," Littlefoot said gently. "You need to rest … And you truly deserve it."

And feeling Deya, Nyko and Chuss climbing up his tail to get on his own head, Chomper nodded gratefully as he got aboard Littlefoot, making sure not to stab his brotherly friend with his toe claws. Littlefoot however didn't flinch at all as Chomper lay down, his belly slumped on Littlefoot's back, his legs dangling, as his head was resting right beside Littlefoot's neck. Chomper smiled. He couldn't think of a single other longneck, or even another leafeater, who would let a sharptooth ride them with such little hesitation. But that was what made his bond with Littlefoot so special, for Littlefoot always had trusted him completely, no matter what.

"Well everyone," Littlefoot said quietly. "I think we better move on."

And quietly, the herd slowly began to move forward, Chomper feeling the little fast biters curling up to slumber on his head. Only now that he was not fighting for his life did he really begin to take in all they had accomplished. He and his friends in prison had really done it, they had really beaten the regime and escaped from prison. He had really been reunited with his closest friends and his parents, and he even got the chance to finally meet his little packmates and some of the many members of his new herd. Though the sky was as dark as can be, his heart was anything but. When the Bright Circle would dawn upon him, it truly would be a new day, as he would help lead their herd as well as his pack onto their next adventure. But until then, it was time to rest, and as the scent of the Great Valley drew further away from them and with no signs of being followed by any of the regime's agents, Chomper felt himself effortlessly drift off to sleep.


The spikebacked longneck opened his eyes, the world seemingly upside down all around him. What had happened to make everything seem like this? Then he remembered as he felt his spikes were still entrenched in the ground. The sharptooth that had dared to mess with him. He remembered getting whapped by his tail … Then what?

Extracting his spikes free, he looked around restlessly. It looked to be he was in the prison. But except for a few unconscious bodies, he was all alone. The prison guards and the judges had vanished, as had the prisoners. Where could they have gone? Could the prison have been relocated? Or, the prison have been destroyed, and the wretched prisoners inside actually have … escaped? Could the justice he had long hungered for really have been foiled?

Feeling his mouth go into a snarl, he knew exactly where he needed to go to get to the bottom of this. Or rather, who he needed to see. As he blindly charged past disoriented dinosaurs and those just regaining consciousness, he idly heard all sorts of crazy bits of conversation coming from their mouths.

"They just disappeared."

"They escaped!"

"Those older swimmer brats and that older gang threw rocks at me!"

"Oh yeah! That's why I was knocked out."

"The little brats came flying around, I remember now."

"My kids told me that they saw a new youth gang."

"Yeah, a whole bunch of new heretics, these ones adolescents. Just what this world is coming to?"

"The circles are deeply ashamed."

"At least they're all gone now."

"Yeah, that's good. Good riddance to all of them."

"Yeah, the circles will take care of everything."

His mouth twisted into a snarl as he took it all in. Apparently, there was a coordinated jailbreak involving the older and younger gangs, siblings of the exiled flyer and swimmer, and a new group of young interferers among many others that was responsible for the prisoners' disappearance. After all the assurances, after all the supposed confidence … They had been foiled by a group of crazy youngsters ganging up on them. Fuming, he knew someone had to have organized this. Perhaps the assumption that the original five exiles were dead was just more overconfidence and false assurance, just like everything else …

As he charged through the dark cave's passage, his eyes darted restlessly, searching for the object of his wrath. He knew this was the cave all right, smelling that stupid flowery scent, along with the sulfur of the hot spring, and he could feel the steam reflecting the anger in his heart as he kept drawing closer. He didn't care how many stupid guards he had to pass to get inside. All that mattered was to give that pompous, conceited moron a piece of his mind.

Then he saw him. Bathing in that stupid, hot steaming pool as always, surrounded by those purple flowers as he just lazed there, his eyes closed as his body looked entirely relaxed. He didn't seem to show one sign of anger, or even disappointment. No, the idiot just lay there, looking utterly serene and without a care in the world. Seeing that stupid smile enraged every fiber of his being, and the smoking mountain that had been churning inside him finally began to erupt …

"I hope you're happy, Hiss Head!" he roared.

The hollowhorn sat up in the water, splashing a little, and stared at him, still with that annoyingly irritating smile. "Ah, my little gloomy guzzler. It's such a delight to see you too … But what a shame, you could have picked your time more carefully. You interrupted my bath," he simpered.

Seeing the hollowhorn react with such indifference to the fiasco made his blood boil even further, and he raged onward. "Do you even realize? You failed, you rockhead! Can't you see that? He escaped! Out of your own clutches! With the help of a whole herd of rebels! I bet even the five brats are alive, ringleading the whole thing! Gathering together and ruining things right under your nose! While you were oh so busy, lazing about in your stupid pool …"

"I thought you didn't want me around?" the hollowhorn smiled gently.

"Ugh! It was your responsibility to make sure everything went right! Your stupid trial, your stupid judges, your stupid … You're stupid! You blew it!"

"Tch, what a pity, but that's the way the rock rolls sometimes. You may be a little disappointed. But I have everything I want. Everything."

"WHAT! But I thought you wanted them dead?"

"Well, that would have been nice," the hollowhorn smiled, as though he had just lost a round of the pointy seed game. "But the circles will take care of pests like them in the end. Just be patient. They have a plan for heretics like them. Meanwhile, the real objective has been executed to absolute perfection."

"The real … OBJECTIVE?" Gus cried out in disbelief, glaring at Leigh with purest venom.

"Yes, dear Gus-Gus," Leigh said mockingly. "You really thought that all I cared about was eliminating some heretics? That there was nothing more to the picture? I should've known you were too asinine to understand my glorious vision."

As Gus seethed, Leigh smirked. "In case you have failed to notice, my chum of a tree sweet, so many of my would-be enemies have purged themselves out of the Great Valley without me even having to lift a finger. They do not have the honor to face me, the circles, and all of us sufficiently pure leafeaters themselves. The mere strength of our kingdom has convinced them to retreat, for they know fully well that they would have been righteously annihilated. So like all weak, dirty, impure heretics, they have chosen to be cowards and surrender. Which means they are no longer in the way … They so graciously did all the lovely work of their elimination for me," he purred. "So, my dear Gloomy Gus, who do you think is left to oppose me now? Madge and Maia Bigmouth? Juana Spikethumb? Ed Shieldback?" Leigh asked, cackling more hysterically upon saying each name.

Gus glowered as Leigh exclaimed, "With all the heretics gone, think about all we can accomplish! Full species purity, so each species would finally have its exclusive space! Compulsory warrior and egglayer training for all hatchlings! A complete purge of any heretical thought, with no more Mr. Bonehead to stop us from issuing death sentences to heretics! The cleansing of this precious land of all creatures who practice carnivory! All in the most fertile land of all, as the circles proudly shine down upon us! You are seeing before you the birth of a new kingdom, one where the strongest of all leafeaters will exert their dominance over the land that they deserve, all under the complete purity of their own kinds! The circles will righteously shine down upon us with their glory, and we will not disappoint them, for we will only grow bigger, conquering more and more land as we begin to establish our very own vast, completely purified kingdom, free of all carnivores, dirtbeaks, and heretics! Eternal purity which the circles will shine down on forever!"

"Yeah, sounds really impressive," Gus smirked. "But you know what, Hiss Head? You're gonna fail."

Leigh laughed so hard upon Gus's pronouncement that he almost choked. "Me? Fail? In case you haven't noticed, simpleton, but I have already succeeded far beyond anything you could ever come up with!"

"Yeah, and then it will all come falling down on you," Gus warned. "And then you'll come crawling back to me, begging for mercy."

Leigh laughed. "Oh please. I have nothing to do with all that. You are merely delusional if you think I even care."

"Oh yeah? Well, like it or not ..."

"Tut, tut … Life's not fair for peons like you," Leigh sighed. "I know you're just jealous. I would be too if I was stuck in your sad, limited state. But fortunately, the circles have chosen me to be their personal messenger to impose their will on the Great Valley. I am blessed and all-powerful, while you, dear Gus-Gus, are a mere minion, albeit a very disobedient one."

"We'll see who's right in the end," Gus growled. "But remember what really matters, that you remain alive."

Leigh yawned. "Do you even know who you're speaking to? Of course I'll be alive. And I have no use for you or any of your other riffraff friends. While you have accomplished nothing, I've accomplished the takeover of this Valley … easily. And I will do everything I can to fortify the power of our glorious kingdom."

"You wouldn't have done it if …"

"Oh please, I have far better things to do than listen to your delusions," Leigh laughed loftily. "If you're really that worried about the heretics, you can go after them if you want. Risk your neck for all I care. But in case you haven't noticed, they'd be out somewhere in the Mysterious Beyond. I'd just let the sharpteeth get them. That way, they can kill some sharpteeth as they fight for their lives. Impure creature against impure creature … Wonderful, isn't it? A battle that could only end in massive carnage. And rest assured, the circles will ensure such glorious battles take place."

Gus just shook his head. "I can't wait to see the look that will be on your face when you lose bigtime," he sneered, "Hiss Head."

Leigh sighed. "Oh Gus-Gus … I really do have nothing more to say to you." Then he waved his hand. "Guards?" he called out. "Kindly remove this pest from my sight."

"Okay, okay, I'm going," Gus snarled disdainfully as Leigh's personal guards entered the cave, growling at the spikebacked longneck, before making sure that Gus had been gone.

"He won't bother you again, Master," one of the guards told him as Gus finally disappeared. "We'll make sure of that."

"To the contrary, feel free to let him in, whenever he decides to show his ugly face," Leigh smirked. "Once he realizes just how wrong he is."

And smiling smugly, Leigh curled back up into his hot pool. What did the foolish, vengeful spikeback know, anyway? The Great Valley was all his, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.