Hi, welcome back! It feels great to be publishing again after all this time! Simply put, this chapter was a real tough one to write. So many things need to happen here, and it took a lot of writes and rewrites. At last, I've decided to split the arrival scenes up, hope you enjoy the result! Not everything will be getting done this time around, so if there's anything you're wondering about, feel free to PM if you've got any questions for what I've got planned or want to make sure that I've got something on my radar. Usual applies, please fav/follow/review/PM, special thanks to RedMageKnight and the guest reader for reviewing and to Ryan6783 and Zee Docking for helping me come up with ideas and scenes. As always, LBT belongs to Universal.
Chapter 40 – Safeguarding a New Home
Once the Bright Circle began to climb over the horizon the next morning, it wasn't long before its rays began to creep into the eyes of the little hatchlings. Groggily rubbing their eyes as they yawned and stretched, it didn't take long for the kids to recall what was about to happen. At last, they would be arriving at their new home, a lush place of plenty where they could be free to be whoever they wanted in the loving company of all their new family and friends. It was truly the start of a new life, and as each hatchling remembered, they found it impossible to go back to sleep.
This excitement was shared amongst all the kids, no matter where they came from. After all the regime's attempts to brainwash and militarize them, the Valleydweller hatchlings couldn't wait to go back to living their carefree lives, where love, safety and laughter would be assured and valued once again. The new kids in contrast were looking forward to finally settling down with the family they had made by choice and immerse themselves into their new lives. And the little biters, Cricket and the new runner kids were still amazed that they have been welcomed into to a body of kids that would truly accept them for who they were, no matter how different their diets were. As the big group of hatchlings looked at one another and found their happiness reflected on faces of each of their peers, they all felt cozy inside. It was almost like they were now all part of a gigantic youth gang themselves. But rather than in the negative way Leigh used that phrase, their kind of youth gang was an open, inclusive group of kindred spirits with an unspoken vow to always be there for each other, just like their heroes who made it all possible.
Before long, every single hatchling had woken up, and unable to control their enthusiasm any longer, they let it out through whoops, hollers, and rambunctious play. This in turn had awakened many of their elders. Like the children, they too eagerly awaited finally setting foot in their new home. But as they eyed several of their herdmates still contentedly sleeping, they knew that they had to wait for everyone's need for sleep to be satisfied, so that the entire group could press forward fully rejuvenated and ready to face whatever the new day would have in store for them.
Navigating between the conflicting needs of playtime and rest, the herd's deputies decided to round up the rambunctious hatchlings and corral them into a large, open space of flat land a little way away from the others. Before doing so, they asked the hatchlings to do a practice drill in case of emergency.
"All right kids," Gabriel told them kindly. "If there's a big sharptooth, you all huddle together, and take up as little space as possible."
"You don't wanna try running from sharpteeth," Newcomb warned. "Not with so many of you here, and when all of us can protect you."
"We will encircle you," explained Glenn, "And ward off attackers to keep you protected."
"Meanwhile, we will shout to alert the rest of the herd," Jada added. "So they'll be able to come help us out."
"So you guys wanna try it?" Nessie asked.
The kids nodded, and so huddling closely together, they were able to form a tight circle in which the teens were protectively be able to stand around.
"Great job guys," Light chuckled. "Now you can have some fun!"
So with that, the teens sat down to enclose a rectangular space, leaving the children plenty of room to play in. Having brought along plenty of tree stars as they chatted amongst themselves, they were eager to watch the kids' first real play session, for like the new kids, most of the teens with their rough and dangerous past lives did not have the opportunity to play the kinds of games that the Valleydweller kids had taken for granted.
"So teach us a game," little threehorn Everett said excitedly, eyeing the Valleydweller kids.
"What kind of game?" Ducky's little sister Lily asked.
"Maybe one we can all play together," suggested boxhead Savannah.
The Valleydweller kids thought, trying to come up with a game that could be played with over a hundred players.
"I know, how about sharpteeth-flatteeth!" suggested new runner Pyra. "We tried playing that with just the few of us in our old herd. But it'll be way more fun with so many of us!"
"Yeah, that's a good one!" agreed Valleydweller kid Stewie.
"How do you play?" asked hollowhorn kid Lacey.
"Well one of us," explained Sam, "Is the sharptooth. They try to tag the rest of us, who try to get to the other side without being tagged."
"You guys aren't always gonna be the sharpteeth," Perri reassured Deya, Nyko and Chuss. "The whole game is pretend."
"Yeah, you get to be flatteeth until you're tagged in this game, just like everyone else," Destiny added.
"Sounds great," chuckled Chuss. "We wanna be fratteeth for once."
"We don't have to bite our friends, do we?" asked little whiptail Faith.
Oplax chuckled warmly. "Nope, the sharptooth doesn't bite their victims, they paw or touch them to tag them," Oplax added, causing many of the new kids to look relieved.
"If you get tagged, you sit down where you get tagged. Once everyone's across, you stand back up and become a sharptooth and try to tag all the flatteeth left," giggled Pearl.
"The winner is the last one who hasn't gotten tagged," explained Garnet.
"Then they become the first sharptooth of the next game, and we start all over again," Mono laughed.
The new kids nodded eagerly, understanding the rules of the game.
"So who's gonna be the first sharptooth?" asked hollowhorn kid Aspen.
"I think we all know that's gonna be," chuckled threehorn kid Aura as everyone's eyes drifted toward a certain pink threehorn.
"What? Me?" Tricia laughed.
"Well, who else?" giggled Valleydweller kid River. "You guys are always causing trouble."
"Yeah, and you're our ringleader, Trish," Cassia nudged her best friend teasingly.
"Hey, you should be backing me up," Tricia retorted cheekily as Cassia giggled.
"You've got to be it Tricia," explained Leigh's ex-herdmate Sycamore. "Hiss Head hates you more than any other kid here. You should've heard him go off about the pink threehorn brat."
Everyone chortled loudly, before spiketail kid Kylan exclaimed, "Makes sense to me!"
Tricia, however, had other ideas. "What about my niece and nephew?" she asked naughtily.
The others stared in bewilderment. "What're you talking about?" asked onehorn kid Woody.
"Aren't you too young to be an aunt?" asked boxhead kid Birch.
"Well," Tricia smirked, her eyes twinkling. "My big sis is Dinah and Dana's Auntie Cera. And I'm Big Sis's sis, which means … These two are my niece and nephew!" Tricia guffawed toward the older threehorn kids, who looked flabbergasted.
"Hang on there," Dinah exclaimed. "We climbed Saurus Rock before you even existed! You can't be our aunt!"
"Oh yeah?" Tricia teased, blowing a raspberry. "Just ask Mr. Thicknose!"
"Well, aunties don't do that to their niece and nephew," Dana smirked.
"They do if they're it!" Tricia wheedled back.
"Fine, I'm it," Dinah said, before hurriedly swiping Tricia. "Ha! Sit down Trish, you're a sharptooth too!"
"Wait, what?" Tricia mock pouted, but laughing, all the other kids began making their way to one side.
"Tough luck Trish, maybe you'll do better next time," Dana snickered back.
"You guys ready?" Deya called out to Tricia and Dinah as the others all got into one side.
"Good luck, you're gonna need it now that I'm a sharptooth!" Tricia snickered.
And with that, the kids began to scamper together, beginning what would be the first of many wild rounds of sharpteeth-flatteeth.
While the kids happily played, the teens standing guard happily chatted with one another as they continued to eat.
"I guess the crater will kinda be what living in the Great Valley will feel like, huh?" asked Nessie.
"Yeah!" Aria smiled. "I liked the Hidden Canyon, but it got kinda cramped inside. I bet we'll have lots more space here!"
"I can't wait to start learning some games," grinned Dekker. "Kinda like what they're playing … But way more hardcore. Stuff that can toughen us up while we have a blast doing it!"
"I bet our leaders know all kinds of games," Phoenix agreed playfully. "Maybe we can even play battle of the sexes!"
"You should know better than to wanna play that game, Phoenix," Gara warned, smirking at her flyer teammate. "Haven't Chantal, Harmony and I shown you enough?"
"We would make balanced teams though," pointed out Audrey. "Thirteen boys and twelve girls. That's just perfect, because you boys need a little bit of an edge."
"Fighting words Aud," teased Seth.
"You think I don't know what I'm talking about, teamed up with four boys?" Audrey smirked as the other girls laughed. "We girls can more than handle you guys."
Naughtily, Seth smirked, "You sure?" he asked, lightly jabbing his clubtail teammate on the nose. "You've only been teamed with us, you don't know what it's like going up against us," he replied, causing the boys to laugh.
"Then it's settled," Eva laughed. "We're ready if you are!"
"Oh you bet we are," smirked back her teammate Gabriel playfully, and laughing, the entire group of teens playfully watched the younger kids going back and forth, while simultaneously brainstorming a game they could play thirteen-on-twelve.
Not far away, more and more of the elders were waking up, and soon they started talking with one another.
"We're not far away from the crater now," Bron soothed. "The terrain is much like that inside the crater. We'll most likely arrive well before the Bright Circle falls."
"That's a relief," Mr. Thicknose sighed. "For someone who's never been this far away from the Great Valley before and hauling along these old bones of mine, I could use some rest and relaxation."
"How much rest do you think you're gonna be getting?" Topps snarked. "You're still the kids' teacher, right? You've got a whole horde of kids to bring up to speed and reteach everything that those numskulls taught them."
"Oh right, I forgot," Mr. Thicknose chuckled sheepishly. "At least I don't have a threehorn after my job anymore."
"Since when have you been so cheeky?" Topps grumbled.
"You don't think hanging around with your daughter and her friends rubs off?" Mr. Thicknose countered.
"Just what we need, a teacher who gets taught by their students," Topps snarked back.
"Like a father always learning from his daughter is any different?" Mr. Thicknose playfully retorted to many laughs.
"Still, I think Thicknose is right," said Tippy's herdmate Jeff. "We can all just relax here, and not have to worry about getting pushed around by Hiss Head's regime."
"That's not to say we'll do nothing though," agreed Bron's herdmate Benton. "I think it's fair to say that all of us, even those of us with migratory lifestyles, could do with some improved conditioning. There's no point denying we aren't as strong as we were once."
"Too true," agreed Topps' herdmate Elda. "We need to pull our weight and get seriously tough, just like the young'uns."
"Those homewreckers probably think we're all past our prime," added fellow threehorn Dwayne. "Well, we can all use to our advantage," he smirked to many cheers.
"And just like them, we need to do our best to improve the camaraderie between all of us," added Mama Swimmer. "So we can become friends like they are … If that's even possible," she giggled.
"Too true," Topps smiled ruefully. "Let's just say that a lot of us have not been at our best toward those who should be our natural friends and allies. I know I can certainly speak for myself in this regard. So I say that we must put a stop to any lingering tensions we have between us, right here, right now."
"I totally agree," Bron nodded. "And I think I have an idea. Inside the crater, there is a big watering hole where we can drink together from. We can hold small gatherings to build up the relationships between us so that we can get to know each other on a personal level. We would not be going there to discuss contentious issues as elders, but rather to appreciate each other's presence as friends, so we can all learn on trusting each other and never letting internal divisions hurt us again."
"Well, I think I know who could really use this kind of reconciliation," Mama Flyer smiled.
Topps nodded and sighed understandingly. "Yes, I suppose Longneck and I could do with some more bonding time."
"I'm actually not talking about you two, you don't really need any more of that," she teased. "No, actually. I'm talking about each of your old herds."
Surprised, Bron and Topps' fellow longneck and threehorn elders looked at Mama Flyer, who explained, "Let's not forget that Leigh was able to exploit the divisions of the Valley, with Mr. Longneck and Mr. Threehorn's leadership bids proving exceptionally useful in this regard. And while the rest of you were not seeking to take power yourselves, apart from Tria, each of you were all in on your herd leader's ambitions, to the point where you all were suspicious of your herd leader's rival and their herds."
"Especially with that crazy speech Old Hornface gave," Kosh snorted loudly toward the threehorn clan. "You guys were cheering so loud I thought you were all on spiked flowers!"
"At least we don't belch and hog piles of sweet bubbles all the time," threehorn Trudy jabbed back to her herd's delight, instantly quieting down the cheeky clubtail.
"Well, he actually has a point this time," Topps teased before sighing. "What I said back then was a total disgrace, driven by a blind fear that proved to be extremely dangerous, and I for one am more than willing to pursue reconciliation with Longneck and his herd." Turning to his old herd, he asked, "You all want to meet with the longnecks?"
"Well, these guys are pretty cool for longnecks," Topps' herdmate Cole chortled.
"Once you get over that they abandoned the Great Valley," fellow threehorn Boze teased.
The longnecks, however, could tell that the threehorns were only joking.
"Oh haha," Bron's herdmate Genevieve snarked. "It wasn't even our home yet as you guys always reminded us."
"At least we found a way to escape without having to fight," longneck Decia added.
"In the Valley, that is," fellow longneck Dorian grinned naughtily. "Last time I checked, it wasn't you who had to take on those patrols in the Mysterious Beyond. "Who knows how you guys would've escaped had we not come to help."
"You? We had the real brutes to take care of, right here in the Valley," Topps's herdmate Lara scoffed. "Not to mention we were the ones who kept the Hidden Canyon safe!"
"And while you bums were busy renouncing yourselves, we were keeping little Destiny in our protection!" threehorn Shayle added.
"Okay, you took in a longneck kid. Well, we took your herd leader's twins in," countered Bron's herdmate Peaches. "Who knows what trouble they would've gotten into without us to protect them!"
Pterano sighed ruefully. "Well, so much for no arguing," he teased wryly.
"Oh don't you even start," Topps growled, before turning to his clan. "Listen up, threehorns! Pterano thinks we can't get along with our longneck brethren. Well, we're gonna prove him wrong right here and now. Let us vow that we shall always stand in solidarity with our longnecked friends and be there to protect them from all harm."
"Protect us?" longneck Roland teased. "You're gonna be the ones needing the protection."
"Well regardless," Bron smiled. "I think Mr. Threehorn is right. Considering the previous hostilities between our two groups, I think the time has come for us to promise that no matter how much we may argue, that we longnecks and threehorns shall promise to remain faithful to each other no matter what, just like my son and daughter-in-law are."
"Oh, don't you start claiming Cera as yours again," Topps grumbled.
"What was that about the night sky calling the tar pit black?" Bron shot back.
Chortling as he shook his head, Topps said, "So you want to officially mark the alliance between us?"
"I don't see why not," Bron chuckled.
So the longneck and threehorn herds lined up to face each other. Excluding Tria who had no part in the hostilities, there were thirteen longneck and thirteen threehorn elders in the two herds, so each of them could partner up with a counterpart. Then both groups reared on their hind legs and placed their front paw pads on those of their partner's, smiling with friendly respect as they looked into each other's eyes.
"From this day forth," Topps said smugly. "Our two herds shall never be in hostility with one another ever again and shall always be part of one shared alliance."
The entire cohort of longnecks and threehorns nodded to one another before pressing their paws into one another and giving each other a nod of deepest camaraderie before returning to their four paws.
"What about the rest of us?" called out Kosh teasingly. "Aren't you gonna do us too?"
Topps rolled his eyes, looking highly irritated. "I was aiming for a serious reconciliation, and you have to come along and try to turn it into a big fat joke. What nerve," he said crossly.
Kosh however wasn't done feeling naughty. "What if I betroth my son to your daughter?" Kosh pressed on as everyone began to snicker. "Then will you do it?"
Topps snorted. "You know very well we don't do that kind of thing here."
"Didn't stop you before," Kosh snorted back.
"Not in this herd," Topps snorted. "Besides, who are you to lecture me on judgment? After all, you actually thought Chomper ate your babies."
"I didn't hear you try to argue like you always do," Kosh retorted.
And the elders happily laughed as Topps volleyed his next comeback, eagerly awaiting their herd leaders to finish their final preparations as they prepared to embark on the final stretch of their big journey.
Meanwhile as they watched the rest of their herd happily enjoying each other's company, the gang sat together as they began to have one last talk.
"You're looking kind of pale Chomper," Littlefoot said concernedly. "You doing all right?"
"Yeah," Chomper sighed. "It's just … Well, I don't know."
"Maybe if you had something to eat, you would feel better," Ducky suggested.
"Just as long as it's not one of us," Cera teased.
Chomper grinned sheepishly before the grin quickly disappeared from his face. Soothingly, Ruby rested her hand on his knee and said, "Chomper, you did a great job introducing Lola to Ali and me last night."
"You met with Lola?" Ducky exclaimed. "How was she?"
"Well, she seems nice, and like she's trying really hard," Ruby explained thoughtfully. "But she can't really control her instincts yet. She liked the way Ali smelled and almost attacked her. She liked me too, but in another kind of way," she explained awkwardly to many giggles. "We've come up with a plan though. Since she's so driven by her sniffer, we're gonna have to wear pendants with the Hidden Canyon's tree sweets, kind of like how Light wears his tree star so we won't smell yummy anymore."
"Did she say it was all right?" Littlefoot asked.
Ruby nodded. "Yeah, she knows this will protect her from our scents as much as it protects us from her jaws."
Chomper then sighed again, still deep in thought as he asked, "You guys have any strange sleep stories lately? Besides that night we all had one?"
Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike looked at each other in uneasy surprise. Remembering that they swore to the Rainbow Faces that they would not speak of their experience in the afterlife, they weren't quite sure how to answer this question. Chomper, however, stared as he blurted out, "Oh my gosh … You have."
"We've been told that we can't talk about it with anyone," Littlefoot explained honestly as Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike all nodded in agreement.
Nodding in understanding, Chomper said, "That's okay … But if you guys all had sleep stories … And since I wasn't told that I couldn't share mine … Maybe you guys could help me understand it."
"Sure," Littlefoot smiled. "Though it's probably best if we keep this quiet," he suggested.
"Yeah," Chomper nodded in relief. "Everyone else would think that I'm crazy."
Everyone sat as Chomper sighed to explain. "Well … I got advice," he said awkwardly. "From Screech, Thud, and the biters' mom. I know Screech and Thud were our enemies … But they said they were only doing Red Claw's bidding because he was their alpha and their souls are now in limbo until they can do some good. I wouldn't have believed them either, except Mama Fast Biter was there with them, and their advice didn't sound evil … It actually made a lot of sense. More sense than I'd like."
Sighing, Chomper explained, "They gave me advice about raising a pack. Mama Fast Biter said I should help them reach their potential. Screech said I should act like a pack alpha, embrace my inner twoclaw, train my packmates and exert my power … He's not telling me to be evil, I don't think … And Thud was talking about our natural abilities and remembering what made us sharpteeth special. I had the sleep story just after escaping the Valley … But I don't know, it seems more real now that I'm actually trying to help sharpteeth learn how to be nice."
Clearing his throat, Chomper said, "I know a lot of what they were saying is that I should take charge of my pack and use the abilities of sharpteeth for good. It's just … How? I figured I could help teach them how to control their instincts, how to speak flattooth and maybe have them use their eyes, sniffers and ears to protect us. But well … I'd like to hear other ideas."
To Chomper's surprise, Cera smirked knowingly. "Well, you've got to teach your sharpteeth to become better fighters."
"But I don't want to make them more dangerous to you guys," Chomper quickly retorted.
"No, no," Cera shook her head. "Better defensive fighters. It's not like any of us want to fight, even me. But sometimes we have to with all the bad guys out there. Just like I said before, we've got to teach you how to fight like a flattooth."
"Yeah, but what does that mean?" Chomper asked blankly.
Cera sighed. "Look Chomper. Sharpteeth have weapons to kill, while flatteeth have theirs to protect themselves. I know it sounds harsh, but that's just the way it is. What we've got to do is teach you and the rest of you friendly sharpteeth to adapt your fighting style and use body parts you wouldn't normally think of."
"Like …" Chomper began, but Cera cut him off.
"Say you couldn't use your mouth anymore," Cera explained. "Or your claws on your toes."
"But those are my best weapons!" Chomper exclaimed.
"I know," Cera replied. "But those are offensive weapons. They're great at trying to defeat a target. But as strong as they are, they can't keep your whole body protected. Your head's only at one end of your body, and you can only land one bite at a time. That's why all those evil hatchlings beat you up so bad because they could attack wherever your head wasn't. So you've gotta have other ways that you can use to get out of trouble."
Chomper pondered. "Well … I'm still pretty fast … I guess I'm big enough to create a good-sized earthshake if I jump. And yeah, I guess I've got a pretty big tail."
Then Littlefoot glanced knowingly at Cera, who smirked back. "I don't think Cera's gonna be the one you'd want advice from there," he explained.
"Huh?" Chomper said, before looking at Littlefoot. "But I don't have a tail whip like you!"
"No, no," Littlefoot continued, shaking his head. "You have a big, powerful tail that you can use like a spiketail's to hit things."
"We can perhaps attach something sharp to your tail," Ruby explained. "That'll give you a defensive weapon right there."
"But your tail is big and long enough that you can also use it to send big rocks flying at targets," Littlefoot explained. "Longer than Cera's, Ducky's or Spike's, and while not as long as mine, it's thicker and more powerful. And someone here is a pro at sending rocks flying with that kind of tail."
"Who?" Chomper asked in surprise.
"Shorty," Littlefoot grinned. "He's been doing it ever since I first met him! He sent a rock that hit me right on the nose, and sent several at once to trip up a sharptooth! He doesn't have a whiptail either, but he can use his tail's strength to land a big impact!"
Chomper paused, incredulous with the implications here. Not only would this give him a way to fight defensively that he could also teach to his fellow sharpteeth, but it would be a way to dramatically increase Shorty's confidence and sense of self-worth in the process. Pausing, he stammered, "Whoa … Do you think it can work?"
"Well, we won't know until we try," Littlefoot beamed.
"Don't think you're out of coaching from me however," Cera smirked. "Shorty's good at tail swings, but he doesn't know a thing about conditioning. Once I get better from those stupid boneheads, I'm gonna work on improving your skills so you'll be able to fight flattooth style!"
"Hey Chomper," Petrie asked. "You think about sharpteeth you might have on team?"
Chomper pondered. "Well, I have to be really careful. I can't just go out and randomly recruit sharpteeth. They'd have to be really nice and actually want a new life for me to even think about teaching them. And they'd have to promise they'd never hurt another leafeater like Lola did. I can't have sharpteeth that have been hunting forever, it'll be too hard for them to change. So I'd imagine that any sharptooth I'd take on would probably be too young to have hunted themselves for long and a white-eye just like the rest of my pack. And I need to make sure to keep the pack small and intimate. For all our sakes, they need to actually be loyal to me, and I need to be there to take care of and really befriend each of them."
Pausing seriously, Chomper continued, "And I know I've gotta make sure I remain alpha and that the pack doesn't fall into dark claws. I can't have too many big sharpteeth for that reason, besides, big sharpteeth need a lot more to eat, and we can't hunt too many swimming sharpteeth without draining the big water. I know Lola will be a bigger sharptooth when she's fully grown. But her kind's still pretty lightweight, about a third my weight I think, so I'll still be able to keep her fed and overpower her if I have to. She's probably about as big as I know I can handle though. I'd imagine if I take in more packmates they'd mostly be smaller sharpteeth like the biters that I know I can keep happy and fed, yet they can still help us with their good speed and senses. Maybe a couple middle-sized sharpteeth too. Big enough to provide some bulk support, but not so big as to threaten you flatteeth. But I know there's only so much I can do, I'm just one sharptooth after all."
Littlefoot nodded understandingly, really appreciating how seriously Chomper was taking this task. "Hey Chomper, have you considered talking to Mr. Thicknose about this?" he asked thoughtfully.
Chomper shook his head. "No, why?"
"Well he knows a lot about the world," Littlefoot explained. "He probably knows about a lot of kinds of sharpteeth that we don't."
"Yes," Ruby said thoughtfully. "We only see the big sharpteeth all the time because the Great Valley is home to lots of big flatteeth. But there must be places with less to eat, and with less to eat, the sharpteeth would be less big."
"Hmm," Chomper pondered, liking Ruby's reasoning. These other sharpteeth may have lived far away from the Great Valley, but then again, they were pretty far away from the Great Valley themselves. Perhaps there would soon come a time for him to explore and discover more about the sharptooth world and maybe even meet some individuals who'd like to join him and his pack.
"Thanks guys," Chomper said. "You made me feel a lot better."
"You're welcome, what are friends for?" Ruby chuckled.
"I think I've done enough worrying now, especially since we've got such a big day ahead of us," Chomper said brightly. "So … What's the crater like inside?"
"That was one quick turnaround," Cera snarked.
"Hey, I could be thinking about more than one thing at once," Chomper explained with a smirk.
"You're saying I can't?" Cera retorted to snickers.
"Well," Littlefoot pondered. "It's like a big hole in the ground. There's a ton of trees inside …"
"There'd have to be, to keep all you longnecks fed," Cera playfully jabbed.
"Very funny Cera," Littlefoot rolled his eyes. "Anyway, there's a big watering hole in the middle. And it's really long from side to side, so it'll have plenty of drinking spots for us."
"I wonder what it will be like to swim in there," Ducky sighed dreamily. "I remember the water looked really clean, it did! Just like the water back home, yep yep yep! Too bad we never got to explore it."
"I actually went swimming in there a little," Littlefoot chuckled sheepishly.
"You did not tell us, oh no no no!" Ducky exclaimed. "How was it?"
"Well, there's a part by the edge that kids can just walk through. But there's also deeper parts. One time I dove in and almost hit the bottom. Good thing Dad was there to pull me out."
"Figures you'd need your Dad to get you out," Cera snarked.
"Like you wouldn't, log runner champ?" Littlefoot shot back.
"Hey! I'll get you for that!" Cera snarled as they broke into laughs.
"That's about all I can remember, really," Littlefoot explained. "Since I was so busy getting to know Dad the whole time I was there, I didn't really stop to explore like usual. Let's see if I can remember anything else … There's a lot of open space, enough to fit loads of longnecks inside. I'm sure we'll be able to come up with our own ways for using it."
"Oh yes yes yes!" Ducky exclaimed. "We can grow more prickly plants, we can! That way we will always be able to heal ourselves!"
"Yeah, but we can't cover the whole place with prickly plants," Cera replied. "Just think! We can use all that open space to go on a real rampage! It'll be really fun."
"That no sound like fun to me," Petrie cheekily retorted.
"Spoilsport," Cera snorted, before blowing a raspberry.
"Well it sounds to me like we can do a lot more exploring," Chomper said brightly. "Especially with all you guys injured, it's not like you can do much else."
"You had to rub it in, didn't you?" Cera snorted as they all laughed.
"Before we do that though," Petrie said, "Me say we need to hatchling-proof place."
"Hatchling-proof?" Littlefoot asked in surprise.
Petrie nodded firmly. "You no need to hatchling-proof place when you go there because big longnecks already there to scare hatchling-eating monsters with big stomps. But now crater empty for so long, who knows what danger be living there now."
The others paused, not even considering this line of reasoning.
"Wow Petrie," Littlefoot chuckled. "That's really good thinking! You've probably saved a couple hatchlings' lives right there."
"Yeah, who knew panicking could be so useful?" Cera snarked in her usual sneer, but Petrie smiled as he could hear the complementary nature of the comment. "Tricia and her friends probably would've gotten themselves stuck in a big slitherer's hole."
"Me just doing me best," Petrie said modestly. "Me think maybe some grownups go in and make sure place safe first, while others stay back with kids and wait."
"Sounds good," Littlefoot agreed, casting his neck around to see that the rest of the herd had whom had now woken from their slumbers. "Let's go talk to everyone else."
So after everyone had gotten a chance to eat, Petrie's family returned from a quick check to confirm that they were going the right way, and explaining the need to hatchling-proof the crater, they set out for the final stretch of their long journey. The enthusiasm and celebratory fervor was palpable with every step that they took. Littlefoot meanwhile, felt quite contemplative. Returning to the crater felt almost like seeing an old friend again, for he felt a strong connection with the place from it being where he had first met his father. But upon discussing it with his friends, he realized how little he truly knew about their new dwelling. And the last time they were there, no one was intending to settle there, with everyone ready to return home as soon as the event happened. This time however, they would be moving in as semi-permanent residents, and thus would both have to get to really know their land and be able to use that knowledge into making it the best place possible for them.
It wasn't long before they entered a remarkably beautiful yet very familiar forest, with thick green bushes, trees covered with vines and leaves carrying with them a vast, intricate network of branches. And while the leafy canopy up high was thick, the Bright Circle was shining brightly enough for plenty of light to penetrate through it. The pathway seemed so much wider to Littlefoot back when he was a hatchling, but while seemingly tighter now, it was still big enough for the group to comfortably walk through.
Taking a moment to rest in the forest's shade and admire its beauty, Littlefoot heard a gentle voice call out, "Hey Tiff, Cedar, Birch, Pike, Heath, Topaz, Macon, Savannah? Uncle Shorty want to show you guys something."
"Uncle Shorty?" Cera snickered quietly, but Littlefoot beamed as the curious tall boxhead hatchlings approached their older and larger counterpart. Rather than stewing about Bron ruining his chance to welcome in the little boxheads, Shorty was now taking the initiative and seeking out his own opportunity to connect with them.
As the boxhead kids arrived, Shorty lowered his head so it was right next to theirs. "How do you guys think I got my name?" he asked warmly.
"It's to be funny, right?" guessed Topaz. "Because you're anything but short."
"I guess that's why I still use it," Shorty chuckled. "But no, actually, I got it because I was the littlest in my clutch," Shorty explained.
The other boxheads looked at each other and gasped. "Really? I'm the littlest too!" Macon exclaimed.
"I was little too!" added Birch to many nods. "My parents always told me I wasn't growing like my siblings."
"Yeah, I think all our folks liked our siblings better," said Cedar. "Our parents kept telling all of us we were too little or too soft. I guess we were all kind of laughingstocks in the herd."
"That's just what it was like when I was your age," Shorty smiled sagely.
The younger boxheads stared at him in disbelief. "Wow, really?" Tiff gasped in amazement. "You were bullied too?"
Shorty nodded. "I was as little as any of you back then," Shorty sighed as the little boxheads kept staring at him, transfixed. "My two brothers loved to bully me for being weak and soft, and my parents ended up dumping me after lying that they'd come back to me. Yet here I am, and I think I ended up growing all right."
"Are you saying," Heath asked tentatively, "That we're gonna grow as big as you someday?"
"Why not?" Shorty asked reassuringly. "You guys won't have to fear dying, because we never abandon anybody in this herd. Heck I had a death sentence on me, but even when I thought I was a goner, everyone here came to my rescue. We're all focused on keeping each other loved and protected. And not only that, but we'll help you grow too. We're gonna make sure that each of you will have enough to eat so that you'll never go hungry, and someday, each of you will grow into strong, healthy longnecks that won't feel any littler than I am short!"
The little boxheads looked at Shorty incredulously, so used to being constantly put down as weak or little that they hardly considered that they may really grow themselves someday. But Shorty could tell his words were leaving an impact as he saw glimmers of hope across their eyes, and he suddenly came up with a way to really leave an impact on the group. His attention shifting towards the youngest, littlest boxhead, he asked, "You're Pike, right?"
The five cold-time-old boxhead nodded shyly, surprised to be even acknowledged by his older counterpart. "Yes, Mr. Shorty," he mumbled.
Shorty smiled. "Well Pike, I'm gonna give you a sneak peek of what the world will look like every day as a grownup. Just climb up on my head, and I'll lift you up into the branches. Then you can climb the rest of the way up, and at the end, you'll be able to have the view a big longneck has over the world."
"Wow, really?" Pike exclaimed.
"Yep," Shorty nodded. "You'll feel on top of the world and be able to see everything from way up high, just like a flyer. Now climb on."
"But what if I fall?" Pike asked nervously.
"Well, we flyers would be there to catch you," Mama Flyer soothed, to the nods of the rest of Petrie's family.
"But you won't," Littlefoot reassured him. "I was able to reach the top when I was little, and I'm sure you'll be able to as well."
"You'll be fine, Pike," Sue soothed gently before cooing to Herbie, "It won't be that long before you'll be able to try this too, will it?" as Herbie happily giggled.
Nervously but resolutely, Pike nodded as he climbed aboard Shorty's head, who gently lifted his neck up to a sturdy, tall branch. Then with the flyers slightly below him and several twofooters spotting him from below, Pike began to make his way up to the top of the branches. Littlefoot felt his eyes melt as he watched, feeling a wave of nostalgia creep over as he remembered what it was like being the little longneck climbing the branches. Meanwhile, Herbie began to excitedly coo as Pike continued to make his way up.
"I don't know Shorty," Sue giggled. "Herbie's acting pretty restless. I think we're gonna have to show him the top the way he's acting. After all, once Ross and I are old and wrinkly, he'll probably be the tallest of anyone here!"
"Who knows, he may even be able to call you Shorty for real," Ross teased gently, causing Shorty to blow a raspberry back as everyone chuckled.
"How's it looking, Pike?" Shorty called out as the little longneck stuck his head through the top layer of leaves.
"It looks great! We must be here!" Pike exclaimed.
"Hey!" asked Mono excitedly. "Maybe we can climb up too!"
Cera looked down from Littlefoot's back and saw her sister's entire gang looking up at her with their big eyes and pleading smiles, the two-footers with their hands clasped. "Pretty please?" Perri begged.
"Oh no," Cera shook her head. "I don't fall for playing cute. Don't you rascals even think about causing trouble up …"
But she trailed off to see that not only her sister's gang was looking at her imploringly, but so were all the other kids.
"I wanna see the top!" exclaimed hollowhorn kid Galena.
"Me too!" agreed shieldback kid Linden.
"Can we please?" asked threehorn kid Elm.
Cera sighed, but she wasn't one to spoil all their fun.
"All right, fine," Cera sighed to raucous cheers from all the kids.
"But we do not want anyone getting hurt," Ducky quickly warned. "Prickly plants may stop bleeding, but they do not prevent broken bones or big falls."
"Why don't we split off here?" Littlefoot suggested. "Some of us stay behind and watch the kids, while the rest of us go and safety proof the crater?"
Everyone agreed, and with that, the herd split into groups. A sizable contingent of grownups, including Etta and the flyer family, the twofooter elders, and Doc, Dara, Sue, Ross and Saro would act as the group's spotters, posted throughout the forest and prepared to catch falling kids with their wings, feet, necks, teeth or hands. Nearby, Hyp and his friends, Mono and Rachelle's adoptive parents, and the clubtail parents decided to chill out on the ground, watching over any kids that were too young to traverse the branches such as Ann's babies, the clubtail kids, Thio and Herbie, as well as any kids who no longer felt like climbing. With all the spotters spreading out to leave the entire forest floor safeguarded and the flyers perched on the tree branches to act as aerial lifeguards, the five longnecks staying behind then stretched out their necks and allowed the little hatchlings to climb onto the branches. The kids eagerly climbed their way up the longnecks' necks into the branches, where they soon began to partake in curious play as they explored the world above, though they made sure to be slow enough to ensure one another's safety.
"Why don't we split off here?" Littlefoot suggested. "Some of us stay behind and watch the kids, while the rest of us go and safety proof the crater?"
Everyone agreed, and with that, the herd split into groups. A sizable contingent of grownups, including Etta and the flyer family, the twofooter elders, and Doc, Dara, Sue, Ross and Saro would act as the group's spotters, posted throughout the forest and prepared to catch falling kids with their wings, feet, necks, teeth or hands. Nearby, Hyp and his friends, Mono and Rachelle's adoptive parents, and the clubtail parents decided to chill out on the ground, watching over any kids that were too young to traverse the branches such as Ann's babies, the clubtail kids, Thio and Herbie, as well as any kids who grew tired or otherwise no longer felt like climbing. With all the spotters spreading out to leave the entire forest floor safeguarded and the flyers perched on the tree branches to act as aerial lifeguards, the five longnecks staying behind then stretched out their necks and allowed the little hatchlings to climb onto the branches. The kids eagerly climbed their way up the longnecks' necks into the branches, where they soon began to partake in curious play as they explored the world above, though they made sure to be slow enough to ensure one another's safety.
After watching the kids playfully climbing, jumping and otherwise navigating the sturdy branches for a little while and no kid getting into an accident, the others in the group said goodbye to the hatchling protectors and began making their way to the crater, still relishing the noise of all the happy kids coming from the leafy confines of the forest as they drew further and further away from it. Soon the grassy, flat forest land made way for a more barren, hillier landscape. As his foot the rocky, steep surface of what he knew must be the crater's protective boundary, a thought suddenly occurred to Chomper as he became aware of the significance of this moment. Turning to his parents, each slumped aboard a longneck, Chomper said, "Hey Mom, Dad … This is like you guys finding the Great Valley."
Chomper's mom snickered. "Son, we already found the Great Valley," she reminded him, eyeing her husband naughtily. "We went there to rescue you."
"Yes, how can we forget? That's where we first met some of our old friends, after all," Papa Sharptooth explained, as he and his mate eyed Mr. Threehorn toothily.
Chomper couldn't help but laugh, greatly relieved Mr. Threehorn was oblivious to the chatter in sharptooth directed his way.
"That's not what I mean though," Chomper explained. "I meant you guys are gonna have your first taste of being Valleydwellers. You're gonna be in what's basically our new Great Valley with equal rights with all the flatteeth. You're not gonna have to hide out in a cave in the Mysterious Beyond anymore."
"But we like caves," Papa Sharptooth quickly said.
"Don't you?" Mama Sharptooth asked.
"Oh yeah," Chomper chuckled. "But you don't have to hide in a cave from other sharpteeth anymore. You can sleep safely without being afraid you'll be attacked or that your food'll be stolen. Because trust me, apart from us friendly sharpteeth, the other Valleydwellers don't know what the good stuff is. And once you learn some more leafeater, you'll get to know all my friends' parents!"
"I think we know some of them enough," Papa Sharptooth teased as they all laughed.
"Know if there are some caves down there?" Mama Sharptooth asked hopefully.
"I don't know," Chomper said honestly. "Littlefoot didn't get much of a chance to explore, and the others had even less."
"Well we could certainly use one," Papa Sharptooth nodded. "It'll help us relax."
"I'll try looking for some," Chomper nodded, knowing that apart from his parents, Dil could really appreciate the seclusion of a cave, and the biters had grown up sleeping in caves. Even he and Ruby slept together in the Sleeping Caverns when young, and when not sleeping with his parents at their cave, he had taken up residence of his own cave in the Valley. "Perhaps it was a sharptooth thing," he pondered.
Chomper's thoughts were scattered however, when he heard a roar call out to him from the other side.
"Hey Alpha! Hope you're all safe … I mean all right. I've set up my sleeping spot. It's a little rocky … Whoops … But it's still nice! I'll get used to it. I'm keeping your place guarded, no one's coming from my side. I'll give you a shout if there's trouble. See you tonight for dinner! Maybe we can try again, show me another couple friends … That is, if I'm ready for it."
"Great job Lola, can't wait. Talk to you then," Chomper answered brightly, before translating for everyone else, "Lola's arrived. She says it's all clear."
"The sharptooth? Where? Where? Where?" Wild Arms gasped, looking around frantically.
"On the other side," Chomper said, shaking his head with a slightly exasperated smile. But apart from Wild Arms, who was always extremely panicky, no one else seemed to be uneasy about the fact that a new sharptooth had set up so nearby. It was a testament to both how openminded his new herd had become and their trust in him as a herd leader. "She's took up guard duties there."
"Speaking of which," longarm Ced said, "We better start guarding our side of the place. How about us longarms, clawhands and rainbow faces take up the posts first? Then you runners can pick up for us later."
"Sounds good," Ruby's mom said, before the rest of the herd said goodbye to the group of halfteeth as took their battle bones and started their patrol duty.
No sooner did the group continue walking than they heard the sound of earthshaking footsteps coming from behind them.
"What that?" Petrie asked.
Chomper sniffed the air and sighed. "It's a pair of rockheaded longnecks. Males your age and kind, Littlefoot."
"How do you know they're rockheads?" Littlefoot asked in surprise, with it being rare for Chomper to be this quick to judge.
But before Chomper could answer, Littlefoot got his first glance of the two longnecks himself. They were ambling in with cocky struts, their eyes fixated on Ali as they loudly wolf-whistled at her. Littlefoot groaned exasperatedly. The last thing they needed to deal with was a couple of playboys.
"Great, more flirts," Shorty growled angrily, pawing the ground.
Ali sensed that they were coming for her too as Cam and Mia giggled nervously.
"Leave them to me," Cera smirked reassuringly to Ali. "I'll give them a piece of my mind."
"Hey little girl," one of them called out obnoxiously.
"You've got a fine neck," added the other.
Cera winked at her friends daringly before bounding out to approach the longneck.
"Ohh, look, an ugly hornface," jeered the first one.
"Morning to you too, flathead," Cera snarked back. "You must have rocks in those small heads of yours."
The longneck smirked at his companion. "Is she challenging us?"
Littlefoot ran over to take his place by Cera's side. "Leave her alone," he growled.
"Oh, morning dude, she a friend of yours?" one of them asked.
"You've got poor taste to hang around this hornface," the other put in.
Littlefoot nodded proudly. "For one rockheads, she has a name, and for another, she's also my best friend and mate, so you better leave her alone."
"That's just sick," growled the first longneck.
"We challenge you and your hornface friend for rights to the hot chick," agreed the second.
"Nope, I don't own her and she's free to do as she pleases," Littlefoot said coldly.
"You big sissy," the first longneck growled. "Real guys know girls don't have rights."
Littlefoot was about to vigorously retort back but Cera preempted him.
"Littlefoot," Cera grinned cheekily.
"Yes Cera?" Littlefoot replied, ignoring the rogues' cackling at his name.
"Can I knock these guys into the next cold time?" Cera asked deviously.
Littlefoot chuckled ruefully. "Hate to say it Cera, but have fun!"
"All right!" Cera grinned, before turning to the teens. "Who wants to help show a couple jerks who's boss?"
As the teens laughed and followed Cera in the chase, Ducky asked, "Who are you and what have you done with Littlefoot?"
"I don't know, probably what you've done to Ducky, belly dragger stomper," Littlefoot teased back.
"Can I help too?" Chomper said eagerly amidst all the laughter, eyeing the rogue longnecks, who didn't look quite so cocky now that they had to dodge a volley of spikes, horns, claws and tails.
"Sure, go right ahead," Littlefoot teased.
"You sound like Uncle Pterano," Petrie said cheekily.
"Who says I haven't got that streak in me?" Littlefoot giggled, as Chomper ran out, bellowing at the rogues in sharptooth, causing them to scream their heads off as they tore off into the distance.
"Great work guys!" Cera beamed to the teens. "That'll teach them not to mess with us!"
"Maybe I should've tried really going for them," Chomper joked. "Maybe Dil would want them for lunch."
"I know you guys still don't trust me, but that's just mean," Dil said, shaking her head.
"Why Dilly?" Ducky asked.
"They'd give me gas," Dill giggled. "Nuff said."
With that, the rest of the group began to make the rest of the way up the crater's edge before finally being able to stare down into the inviting big hole beneath. As everyone began to whoop and cheerfully chatter in their enthusiasm, a honeyed, sentimental smile crossed Littlefoot's face. The crater looked just perfect, almost exactly the way they had left it, covered with earthy lushness, succulent foliage, and sparkling pools. The long journey to get there had been completely worth it, for they now had a worthy substitute for the Great Valley that they could truly call their temporary home.
Filtering off to one of the gently sloping pathways, everyone began to marvel and observe their new home around them.
"Look at all those tall trees," Welbie exclaimed in amazement.
"I've never seen any this tall!" exclaimed Felix in wonder.
"How are we supposed to get them?" Emery asked.
"Do we use the cranio-impactus method?" asked Chantal, before taking a big breath before trying to ram the nearest tree, only for very few tree stars to fall down. "Nope, I don't think that's gonna work," she said, extracting her horns from the thick bark. "The bark's just too tough!"
"And look how high the tree stars are!" Jada pointed out, going to stand underneath one of the pointy seed trees as she tried rearing. "I can't even reach some of them!"
"Ah," said Mr. Thicknose. "That's because we are presently in a landscape where some of the trees are quite different from home. Many of these trees grow very tall, do not have any branches within eating height, and have very strong bark. Thus giving this area its name of Longneck Plains. Its floral life has in turn impacted the faunal life you can find here. Four big kinds of longneck are common here, those of Littlefoot's, Shorty's, Doc's, and Cam's kinds. In their haste to eat, these longnecks often rip branches off the trees without eating them, providing plenty of food supply for the young, the spiketails and small spikethumbs that clean up."
"You mean … We're supposed to eat chewed up longneck food?" Tippy asked, half-amazed, half-disgusted as everyone else looked nauseated.
"If nothing else is available," Mr. Thicknose said evenly. "Their culture can be quite different from ours."
"Then what about threehorns?" Cera asked. "Where do we fit in here?"
"Quite simply, you don't," Mr. Thicknose observed. "Notice how we haven't seen too many frilled or large twofooter dinosaurs as we've got farther from home? It is because the supply of food that these dinosaurs can eat is greatly diminished. I believe some threehorns of your kind have been seen, Monty, and you too, Keeter. But by in large, this area is called Longneck Plains for a reason, for longnecks have the natural advantage in this environment. Not to worry however. We have plenty of longnecks here that can carefully rip out the trees' branches or step on their trunks."
"So is that why the Great Valley is so famous?" Littlefoot wondered. "It's because nobody has that kind of disadvantage? And anyone can live there?"
Mr. Thicknose nodded. "Very perceptive. The climate is a little cooler there, making it perfect for all kinds of plants to grow there, and in turn, fit the comfort level of all leafeaters. When combined with its fertile soils and natural wonders, you can see where the Valley got its reputation, and along with the unusual fires around it, can explain why the segregated herds have captured it. But as long as we rely on each other's strengths here and find ways to get creative, there is no reason why we cannot live anywhere else, even if it is less convenient."
"Can we stop with the lectures now, Thicknose?" Topps asked impatiently. "Let's get on with checking out the place."
"Oh right, yes," Mr. Thicknose chuckled.
Fortunately, they found that as they went to check out the long, meandering waterhole, there was plenty of tall, edible grass along the way, and nearby the water were some reeds, swamp sticks, ferns, and much less solid trees. Evidently, the lushness of the crater and its surrounding environment prevented the hostile conditions Mr. Thicknose described from fully taking root.
Once everyone was able to get a quick drink, they set out in various directions to hatchling-proof their new domain. To investigate the dense woods, Guido, Avie, and the five flyer teens began swooping amongst the upper branches, making sure no creature had built a nest way up high, while down below, Ruby and the runners in her parents' herd teamed up with a tiny longneck or two to look for threats on the ground. Ruby partnered up with Skitter, and while Skitter investigated the ground for threats, Ruby used her acute senses to make sure nothing would attack him. If push came to shove, she also had Chomper's tooth at the ready to protect him. Soon, the two of them passed through a leafy thicket before emerging in a deep pash of forest, with gaps between the trees so narrow that Ruby could barely even fit through.
"Well, I don't think many hatchlings can get through here," she chuckled as she squeezed herself through a pair of very thick trees.
A small tickly fuzzy, only about as big as her toe and even no bigger than one of Skitter's feet, then scurried through the leaf litter on the floor. As it ran by, it suddenly vanished. Looking closely, Ruby saw that it was being constricted by a small slitherer about as long as Skitter from head to tail, which slowly devoured the tickly fuzzy.
"These things are okay," Skitter told Ruby reassuringly. "Big Daddy told us all about them. They may have sharp teeth, but they only go after really little things, like tiny tickly fuzzies and hoppers. Even we're too big for them. And their bites don't kill, they kill by squeezing things to death. As long as we don't have any eggs, that is. Big Daddy did say we have to be careful about protecting eggs from them."
"Right," Ruby said in relief, really appreciating Skitter's perspective of the world. If these slitherers were too little to hurt the tiny longnecks, they would also be too little to hurt hatchlings, and the fact that their bites were not serious meant that these things could potentially coexist with them. But then she heard another rustling sound from the distance, getting louder and louder …
"Skitter, look out!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Huh?" Skitter asked in confusion, but Ruby hurriedly picked up Skitter with her free hand. She had reacted in the nick of time, for at that moment, another slitherer with circle-shaped markings emerged, this one much larger, probably about her length. Lunging right at the spot where Skitter was, it paused before slowly investigating Ruby's feet as she readied Chomper's tooth, preparing to aim for its neck. Before she could react however, the slitherer abruptly stopped and instead slithered toward the smaller slitherer, promptly gobbling it up.
"Are you all right?" Ruby asked Skitter.
Skitter nodded. "Gosh … Those things are huge!"
"Yeah," Ruby said before calling out, "Everyone get out! There's big slitherers in these woods!"
With that, the whole group of runners and tiny longnecks evacuated and regrouped at the forest's edge, as well as Avie, Guido and the flyer teens. As they were taking a headcount to make sure that everyone got out safely, they were joined by the new runners, who had been planting prickly plants but came to help upon hearing the commotion.
"What's wrong?" asked new runner Ginger.
"Big slitherers are in the woods," explained Ruby's father. "The kind big enough to hurt hatchlings."
"You guys better stay out of here until we take care of this," Ruby warned the tiny longnecks, who didn't need telling twice as they nodded understandingly.
"How about you take over for us with the healing plants," new runner Saffron suggested. "While we help the other runners with the slitherers."
The tiny longnecks agreed as new runner Cullen showed them the way to the prickly plant patch. After briefly instructing the tiny longnecks a little bit about how to set in the prickly plant seeds, the runners, flyers and gliders went into a huddle to deal with this situation together.
"What kind of slitherers are we dealing with?" Cullen asked.
"Well, they're about as long as any of us and as tall as the tiny longnecks, with circle markings on their back," Ruby explained. "One tried to go for Skitter before I picked him up, before it went on to eat a smaller slitherer."
"You know, Rocky and I saw plenty of strange holes," Ruby's parents' friend Kitty observed. "You think they were dug by these slitherers?"
New runner Sienna nodded. "Yeah, I think they're what we call burrowing slitherers. We've seen plenty of those around."
"How dangerous are they?" asked Ruby's parents' friend Gov.
"Harmless to anyone big enough, they spend most of their time resting and their bites don't really hurt," explained Cullen. "We grownups can certainly overpower them. But they can squeeze hatchlings to death."
"We try to just stay out of their way," explained Ginger. "Nothing against them, they've got to eat just like everyone else. But we've had no choice but to kill some of them when they get too interested in our eggs or hatchlings."
"Yeah," Ruby sighed understandingly, knowing that these slitherers were far too dangerous to have living amongst them, especially with them being diggers that could ambush at any given moment. At the same time though, she felt uncomfortable with massacring all these creatures, especially considering that they had just intruded on their land and their light weight meant that they would not be very filling to their sharpteeth.
"How about," her dad suggested. "We look for these slitherers, and give them a good whack to the head with a bone. That should knock them out, and then we can fly them off somewhere far away."
"Does that sound good to everyone?" Ruby asked and everyone nodded, relieved that they wouldn't have to go on an extermination.
So with that, the big team of runners each wielded a bone before returning to the forest to scout out all the slitherers.
"Slitherers react to movement," informed new runner Clemence, promptly running by one of the slitherers' burrows. At once, one of the big slitherers popped up, curious, before Clemence used her bone to hurriedly give it a blow to the head. With the slitherer knocked out, Tilden swooped to the ground and picked the dazed slitherer up.
"Be right back," he said as he took the slitherer with him, flying at a very quick speed and disappearing out of sight.
"I guess we can go looking for others, right?" asked Ruby's parents' friend Chapp.
"You guys ready to fly them out?" Ruby asked Phoenix, Welbie, Nessie and Newcomb, who all nodded.
So the runners used their sniffers, eyes and ears to patrol the area for more burrowing slitherers. While they were able to turn up multiple of the smaller kind of slitherer, who showed absolutely no interest in trying to attack them, they only managed to recover three more big slitherers.
"It would make sense that there aren't many of them, as top predators," said Ruby's mother thoughtfully.
"Not to mention they don't like each other," chuckled the young new runner Citron.
"Yeah, they're not really social creatures," agreed Ruby's father. "That's probably all of them in the woods here. We should probably check every now and then to make sure more of them don't show up."
"Well, the slitherers have to come here because there's food for them to eat," Ruby said thoughtfully. "Maybe if everyone who can eats some of the smaller creatures, that'll give less reason for the burrowers to come back."
Everyone liked this suggestion, allowing the biters to have some snacks and giving all the runners the chance to have some red food while also making their home safer in the process.
Meanwhile in the open areas, many of the bigger fourfooters were issuing stomps to coax whatever kind of life there was out of hiding. Upon getting the warning about the burrowing slitherers, they made special effort to search for them, only to uncover two from their holes which Phoenix and Tilden quickly flew out of the crater. Evidently, these reclusive creatures did not like the wide nature of the plains. Chomper even went around and did a scan with his sniffer, squatting down to carefully sniff the ground, but even he couldn't find any more burrowing slitherers in their environment.
That was not to say that other life forms were absent. While there were some more of the smaller slitherers and the little tickly fuzzies from the woods, what really showed up in the open plains were lots of tiny crawlers, and along with them, crawler-eating lizards. Everyone was used to these kinds of lizards, for they were common in the Great Valley and not considered a threat to anything bigger than a crawler. Besides, they made good snacks for the friendly sharpteeth to eat, and even a whole meal for the little biters. Small shellbacks also were about, often near the waterways, while some larger kinds not equipped for swimming were peacefully bathing in the Bright Circle's rays as they ate clumps of grass. The small shellbacks were another harmless familiar species from the Valley that ate a mixture of green food, crawlers and buzzers, while the larger shellbacks were exclusively green food eaters according to Mr. Thicknose, and so everyone agreed that these were benign beings that they could cohabitate with safely.
Leading the collection effort were Bron's longneck herd, Topps' threehorn herd, and Tippy's mom's spiketail herd, and they all had great fun doing it. The three herds of elders decided to have a friendly contest, in which the teams would pick up as many creatures as they could find and place them into makeshift enclosures, with Mr. Thicknose standing in the middle to act as the referee.
Mr. Threehorn of course was taking the game entirely too seriously. As he almost dropped a slitherer into the lizard enclosure, he asked Mr. Thicknose, "Hey Thicknose, how's the count looking?"
"It looks like you're gonna have some catching up to do," Mr. Thicknose chuckled. "The longnecks have a bit of an edge."
"A bit of an edge? Well that'll change soon enough," Topps smirked.
And he bounded over to the edge of the forest, an evil grin plastered over his face, causing Tria to eye him suspiciously. "What are you up to?" she asked.
"I'm gonna win the game for our team," Mr. Threehorn smirked. "Longneck thinks he's winning. But I'll have the last laugh once I score a whole bunch of creatures for us!"
"Topsy, what …" Tria began, but she was unable to finish. Without warning, Topps charged straight at a tree containing an enormous stinging buzzer hive.
Grinning daringly, Topps caught the hive with his mouth and then began to race off toward the enclosures. Furious, the stinging buzzers did their best to sting the elder threehorn, but though they got several jabs in, Mr. Threehorn's thick skin prevented most of the venom from actually seeping into his veins enough to slow him down. By the time he reached the enclosures, he huffed out of exhaustion as the buzzers continued to sting him.
"Game over," Mr. Threehorn chortled triumphantly. "We win."
"I see," Mr. Thicknose frowned as some of the stinging buzzers started to attack him. "Now what are you going to do with their nest that you so kindly knocked down?"
"Uh …" Mr. Threehorn began, not really thinking this through. Fortunately however, Chomper's parents had seen what was going on and were slowly limping over to investigate, grins on their faces.
"Buzzerrrsourrrs," Mama Sharptooth answered brightly.
"Yum," Papa Sharptooth crooned. "Weeat."
"Er … Right," said Topps, dropping the hive from his mouth and kicking it over to the elder sharpteeth, who immediately bent down and shared the hive, taking one bite of hive before their lips met together in a kiss.
"Just like old times," Mama Sharptooth said soothingly as the honey trickled down her chin.
"I know," Papa Sharptooth smirked as they pecked at each other again.
Mr. Threehorn stared in bewilderment. "I don't believe it, I'm watching a sharptooth date …. OWW!"
For the venom had finally penetrated through Topps' skin enough to where he began to feel it himself. Luckily, Tria had already been collecting prickly plants for him, knowing that the stings would eventually catch up to him.
"Here Topsy, eat these," Tria said soothingly.
Topps shook his head. "No way. Those things taste like fire pits."
"Fine, I suppose you would rather be in pain then," Tria teased.
"What? Threehorns don't feel pain," Topps countered. "You should know that considering you are one."
"Then why did you say ow?" Tria countered.
"I did not! I said wow …. Uggghhhhh …." Topps retorted.
Mr. Thicknose examined Topps' butt, where an angry red welt was plainly visible. "Even I can see that that would hurt real bad."
"Nothing hurts me-owwwww!" Topps groaned loudly.
Tria shook her head. "Topsy, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you eat the prickly plants, or I horn you in the butt."
"What? You would never," Topps countered.
"Really? Try me, I dare you. You really think all of Tricia's stubbornness came from you?" Tria snorted, as she stood up, preparing to sharpen her horns on a rock.
"Okay, fine," Topps quickly said. "I'll do it to humor you. Just give me some tree sweets to get that foul taste out.
"Of course," Tria chortled before heading off to collect some tree sweets.
"Threehorn dates," smirked Mama Sharptooth. "He's almost as much of a pushover as you."
"Watch it," warned Papa Sharptooth as they both laughed.
So Tria retrieved the tree sweets, and as promised, Topps agreed to eat the prickly plants and the tree sweets.
"Not a word to the others. That goes for you, Thicknose," Topps said curtly.
"Of course," Tria nodded. "But I wonder if it was really worth going through all that just to win a game."
"Yep," Topps smirked as Tria just sighed.
As she eyed the rolling, fresh stream in front of her, Ducky couldn't help but smile softly at it, mesmerized by its tranquil beauty. It looked just as perfect as she remembered it, with the Bright Circle's light dancing across the gentle ripples. Cool, clean water was truly the lifeblood of a herd. Not only would it ensure that none of them would ever go thirsty in its presence, but it also provided a great source of fun. Ducky beamed as she pondered. This pool was big enough for everyone to wade inside at once, and the space beyond the meandering riverbanks could support large swimming groups to the point where open swims, team games and swim classes could be held without inconveniencing others.
Ducky thought about the opportunity that that this aquatic hub provided. When she was little, she had always accepted that she was the best swimmer among her friends, with her kind even being called swimmers after all. But thanks to Cera's insistence that she teach Tricia how to swim, she realized that with the possible exception of flyers, any dinosaur could greatly improve their swimming abilities with just a little practice. And there was no denying that knowing how to swim really helped the little threehorn. It was in the water where Tricia first met Cassia and where she and the water-loving hollowhorn really became best of friends. Her ease in the water also coaxed the other fourfooters in her gang to give swimming a try as well, and that ability to swim had been absolutely essential in Tricia, Mono, Rachelle and Destiny's escape from the Valley. She knew that the new hatchlings could also really benefit from learning to swim. None of them, not even the swimmers thanks to their old herds deeming it frivolous, had learned how to swim in their old herds, and by teaching them something they couldn't do before, not only would they receive a nice boost of confidence, but they would also be able to become effective water lifesavers, both of themselves and of their fellow herd members.
She had high hopes that she and the other swimmers could help teach the older herd members how to swim too. In this regard, she thought about her friends' swimming abilities. Apart from her, Chomper and Ruby were the two best swimmers among her fellow herd leaders, with Chomper getting plenty of practice from all his swimming sharptooth hunts, his long tail and kicking legs making up for his scrawny arms at propelling him forward, and Ruby's nimble arm and leg muscles and aerobic capabilities making her very proficient. Most of the other sharpteeth and halfteeth would likely make good swimmers as well, and their knowing how to swim would make hunting red food in the water that much easier.
Littlefoot, Cera and Spike weren't exactly stellar swimmers, with their bulk precluding them from ever becoming naturals, but from all their adventuring and games, they at least had some practice, able to paddle out to deeper waters and back without fear of drowning. Likewise, she knew that the other longnecks, threehorns, spiketails, along with the other kinds of fourfooters would similarly never be graceful swimmers to the extent she, Chomper and Ruby were. But they could still use their natural strength to power through the water, so that what while they may lack in grace, they wouldn't have to in functionality.
Only Petrie really couldn't swim well, with his ability to fly over bodies of water making this skill largely unnecessary. But this did not deter her determination in the slightest. Between the incidents of the flyer teens almost getting eaten by the belly dragger and Petrie losing his ability to fly from the sharpbeak bites, Ducky had become acutely aware of how much danger flyers faced over water, really understanding now Petrie's father's fear to even dare crossing it. She needed to at least help them develop a competency to allow them to navigate water when their wings were unable to help them, or else leave them unprepared against a glaring weakness. Petrie in particular, for even without his wing injury, his worrying tendencies and being a herd leader would make him a likely target of a water-based attack … She couldn't let anything happen to him.
First things were first however, before they could even think about using the water for any kind of swimming, they needed to make sure that it was completely safe. While seemingly pristine on the surface, as the song she liked to sing constantly reminded her, one could never be too sure about what might be hiding in the water's depths. The whole pool had to be thoroughly explored by the herd's most capable swimmers before they could let anyone else in. Fortunately, she had a good-sized crew of helpers along with her for the task. While her mother and the other swimmer elders were spotting the kids playing on the vines, as were Ann and Rana, her seven nestmates were all just as eager to check out the sparkling water as she was, along with swimmer teens Aria, Gabriel and Harmony. And then of course, they had their most unconventional aquatic teammate, who while unable to see much, more than made up for it with her great sense of smell.
"Fresh, cool, water," Dil sighed lustily as she stuck a claw in the water's edge. "You know how to make an old belly dragger happy. I can't wait to see the look on old Ichy's face when he finds out I've been in here living the good life. He's gonna be so jealous!"
"Good lives for good belly draggers, yep yep yep," Ducky giggled, before asking, "You miss him at all?"
"Wha? Nah. We fell out, and that's that," Dil said, waving a claw impatiently. "Now let me go look out for threats."
"Okay Dil, and good luck," Ducky smiled, as she and the other swimmers sat back as Dil waded into the water. Now that she was no longer an enemy, Ducky could now fully appreciate how smoothly Dil moved, watching her tail hypnotically wave side to side as she glided through the water. And she wasn't the only one with this observation.
"She's like a whole nother belly dragger in there," Loph said admiringly.
"For all the belly draggers I've had to hide from, I've never got to just watch one," said Gabriel, impressed.
"She didn't look this good in the swamp," giggled Delphine.
"Maybe it's because she's been resting," suggested Lena. "Giving her more energy to swim."
"Or that she's now being fed," smirked Clive.
"I'm just glad she's on our side," Aria smiled as they all vigorously expressed agreement.
Just then, Dil turned her head and shouted. "Everyone, we've got a little belly dragger problem."
"What kind of problem?" asked Day.
"I just said, a little belly dragger one," Dil said irritably as she nodded downstream. Everyone else followed her gaze until the point where the stream became covered with overhanging foliage, where they saw that three little belly draggers were resting in the shade.
"Good job Dil," Ducky said brightly.
"So now what?" Dil asked. "Do I just go and snap their necks?"
"See if you can talk with them first," Ducky advised. "This is their home, and we should not kill them if we do not have to, oh no no no."
"Argh, you're so soft," Dil said, but she smirked. Ducky may be her herd leader now, but she still couldn't understand belly dragger. Meaning that the diplomacy would be conducted entirely on her terms, and that she could have as much fun with them as she wanted.
"Heya chums," Dil growled in belly dragger to the three little belly draggers, who stared back at her in disbelief. While they were fully grown, they were truly tiny, only about the length of her snout from head to tail. They probably couldn't even eat a hatchling without getting a bellyache.
"We're not afraid of you," one of the little belly draggers called out as Dil approached.
Dil laughed. "Lucky for you I'm not hungry … Yet. But you better listen up if you don't want me to change my mind."
Amazed they were not being attacked, the little belly draggers nodded as Dil began.
"See that land sharptooth?" Dil nodded over toward Chomper. "He keeps me fed. And as long as I don't attack any of the dinosaurs here, he'll keep right on serving me. And I've never been hungry since hooking up with them."
"So?" asked one of the other belly draggers. Dil snorted impatiently. These guys really were stupid.
"They've also got hatchlings coming," Dil informed them. "And if you know what's good for you, you won't attack any of them. You attack any dinosaur in this crater, hatchlings or adults, and it's my job to rip off your necks to make sure you'll never eat again."
Not daring to argue with Dil's colossal size, the belly draggers nodded understandingly. "It's so nice here … Do we have to move?" one asked.
Dil considered before shaking her head. "Not if you obey me. Do that and I'll keep you fed. I can speak flattooth and so can the sharptooth, so I can tell the others to leave you alone too. Deal?"
The three belly draggers considered. "Fine, on one condition," one said. "You've got to kill off those snapping shellbacks. We can't even swim to the other side without our tails getting snapped at."
Dil crudely laughed. "Can't you just eat them?"
"Try imagining one your size. Think that's so funny?" one snapped back.
"Right. I'll eat the shellbacks and tell the dinosaurs to leave you alone, you'll obey me and leave them alone. Deal?" Dil said authoritatively.
The little belly draggers nodded, before Dil went back to explain the terms of the deal to the others, who nodded as Dil set out to work. As she used her sniffer, she managed to locate eight snapping shellbacks inside. Still, she was utterly unconcerned. Tough as snapping shellbacks were, these were just as puny as the little belly draggers, making them no match for a belly dragger her size. Before the snapping shellbacks could even process what was happening, Dil had completely overwhelmed them, ending their existence with a few sickening crunches. The swimmers looked at each other uneasily as Dil chomped down on the snapping shellbacks, coating the water with ripples of red.
"I guess we will have to try swimming another time," Kiri giggled nervously.
"At least she took care of the snapping shellbacks," Aria pointed out. "Those could have really hurt the hatchlings."
"Nice work Dil," Ducky complemented her. "You made the hatchlings safe from the belly draggers and snapping shellbacks, you did."
"Ah, no problem," Dil said, even smiling a little. "I'm gonna tell the other belly draggers to make sure the water's hatchling-proofed. Not that they'd mind, they'd love to have more to eat."
"All right, see you," Ducky waved as she and the other swimmers left, with one more area of the crater completely safe for them to live.
While all this was going on, Littlefoot, Cera, Petrie and Spike sat together along with a good many of their fellow young herdmates. Technically, they had a very important job, for they were responsible both for guarding their supplies from thieves and for responding to any emergency. In practice however, with no thieves or attackers coming their way, all they ended up doing was lazing around on the crater's inner hillside, watching the others going about doing their work.
"It's peaceful here," Sophie sighed dreamily. "I could fall asleep."
"You can say that again," Cera groaned. "These stupid legs! I just wanna do something."
"Relax Cera, it's not like we can't use some down time," Littlefoot laughed.
"Yeah, me happy nothing attack us for once!" Petrie agreed.
"Hornface does actually have a point though," Gara teased as Cera gave a warning snort. "It's not like we're doing everything we could to help."
"Yeah," Monty chuckled. "We don't have to be stuck here guarding the stuff, we can take it with us."
"You know, that reminds me," Vail said thoughtfully. "How are we gonna divvy up who's gonna be our food guards?"
"Maybe we don't need to," Littlefoot pondered. "If we can find a place to keep our food hidden instead."
"And red food smell really bad when under Bright Circle too long," Petrie added, to which everyone nodded understandingly, for some of the older swimming sharptooth carcasses were beginning to reek of decay.
"Some of my kind stash tree stars in caves so they could stay hidden from biters," Emery suggested. "Since they're not growing anymore, they don't need the Bright Circle's light."
"Don't biters like to hide in caves too though?" Dekker asked in surprise, with a bit of a smirk.
"Well yeah," Emery said, slightly embarrassed. "Didn't say it was a good idea."
"But the only biters we have here are friendly ones," Audrey said confidently. "No reason it won't work for us."
"Hey Shorty, do you remember if there were any caves here?" Littlefoot asked.
Shorty shook his head. "Dunno. But I know just how to block off one. We can just find a big boulder, like the one guarding the Secret Spot. I'd like to see anyone to try sneaking in if they have to move that."
"That would work," Len laughed brightly. "It'd probably keep the Bright Circle out too. Should make the red food last longer."
"Me think you right," Petrie observed. "Chomper parents have cave where they keep food. It cool and dark in there, so it no go bad."
"Hey, you guys know if Chomper and the biters had caves too?" Light asked.
"Yeah, Chomper has another cave in the Valley that he sleeps in," Littlefoot answered. "And the biters stayed in a cave where they lived before Chomper found them."
"Chomper and Ruby have cave even before that back when Chomper little," Petrie explained.
"Ooh, have they?" Cam giggled.
Cera sighed exasperatedly. "Yeah, but not like that."
Mia, however, grinned naughtily at Cera. "I think we better have caves ready for anyone who gets too horny."
"And you should reel that long neck of yours back in and stop snooping around," Cera retorted dryly, with much giggling in response to the playful exchange.
"You're saying Littlefoot and Cera need a cave?" asked Tippy curiously as Littlefoot and Cera blushed in embarrassment.
"I don't know about them, but Cera's dad definitely needs one," Topps' young herdmate Calem snickered. "Trust me, you don't want to find out the hard way."
"Thanks for the warning, I better keep my distance," Keeter replied to many laughs.
"She must have taken plenty of heart plants," giggled Candy uncomfortably. "Or else they'd have hatchlings all over the place!"
"You sure all the kids are gone?" Felix chuckled nervously. "The last thing we need is for them to hear us talking about this."
"I'll get Chomper just to make sure," Littlefoot laughed. "Besides, he wouldn't wanna miss cave exploring."
Sure enough, as soon as Littlefoot broached the subject with Chomper, he could barely contain his enthusiasm.
"Wow, I was just thinking about caves too!" Chomper exclaimed. My parents asked if they could have one, and I imagine the biters would miss having one too. I'd love to go exploring one!"
"You can even go first Chomper," Cera chortled.
"You sure you don't want to be trapped in a cave with me?" Chomper giggled.
"Get out," Cera playfully retorted to many laughs.
"Dil lived in a cave too, remember Littlefoot?" Ali giggled as Littlefoot smiled reminiscently. "Hopefully she'll be less cranky in this one."
"Yeah, me think quiet help keep her in good mood," Petrie grinned.
"I think everyone can use some quiet space from time to time," Littlefoot smiled. "I imagine it will be getting pretty loud here with all the kids running around. Let's see how many caves we can find."
"Yeah, for all our sanity we could use them," Cera snarked. "Especially if all the other kids start taking after Sis."
So to much laughter, the big group began hauling their supplies around the crater's perimeter in search of a big cave to store everything. It quickly became apparent however that Littlefoot and Shorty's memories were not failing them about not recalling any caves in the crater. Unlike the Valley with its many little caverns and hideaways, the crater's rocky walls were remarkably smooth.
"Falling rock must have fallen just recently," Petrie speculated. "No time for big holes to form in walls. At least that good in keeping bad guys out."
"Maybe we're gonna have to make the caves ourselves," Jada suggested. "Use our horns, spikes and tails to carve a space in the walls."
"Yeah, and we twofooters could go in and clear out the tunnels," Seth added. "Make the spaces nice and smooth, without fear of falling rocks."
"That'll give us plenty of rocks to use!" chuckled young threehorn Gaven.
"Maybe we can even make some small tunnels for the hatchlings in case of emergency," Chantal suggested. "Give them a place to hide in case bad guys invade."
"As long as they don't connect to the grownup caves," Veno chortled, shaking his head. "How would we get any quiet then?"
"Hey," Shorty called out. "Look at that big boulder."
"What boulder?" Littlefoot asked as he looked at everyone else, who looked just as quizzically back. A few seconds later though, Littlefoot could make out a roughly formed boulder in the distance. Remembering that Shorty's towering height would give him a head start at seeing things, Littlefoot exclaimed, "Now I see it! But I don't remember it from last time."
"Me neither," Shorty smirked. "You know what that means, right? Someone put it there."
"Me still no see any boulder," Petrie said, craning around as he rode on Littlefoot's back.
"Climb up my neck," Littlefoot explained. "Then you'll see it."
Petrie obliged, and as he did, many of the others in the group, starting out with the tallest dinosaurs but eventually reaching the shorter ones, started to see the boulder too.
"Wow," Petrie exclaimed, seeing it as he finally reached Littlefoot's head. "Me see it now!"
"Do you reckon someone else had the same idea we did?" Glenn asked tentatively.
"You mean, that there's already a cave here?" Eva pondered as Glenn nodded. "That someone else is using?"
"Only one way to find out," said Light brightly.
When they came upon the boulder, they got a better sense of just what they were dealing with. Though a pretty big boulder, it was quite a bit shorter than the behemoth guarding the Secret Spot, and judging by the way it slightly rattled as they approached it, it would be much easier to move. Brightly bounding over to the big rock, Shorty got into position to prepare to move it. Tapping it lightly with his toe, it nudged easily under the little bit of weight applied.
"Careful Shorty," Ali said cautiously. "You never know what might be inside. Whoever put this here might have tried to seal off some terrible monsters inside."
"Thanks for the warning," Shorty said back, but rather than sound irritated, Littlefoot was relieved to hear his brother sounded really appreciative for the concern. Once everyone else got into position in a semicircle to give him room to push and keep any threat that might come out of the cave contained, Shorty began to roll aside the boulder. It moved easily under his massive weight, before he backed into the semicircle, revealing a rounded hole where the boulder had been. There was a long pause as everyone waited with bated breath, readying themselves to react to any possible cave monster. However, as the seconds passed, it soon became clear that nothing was going to be popping out.
Chomper then slowly walked over to the entrance, which was perhaps too tight for a really big longneck, but perfectly navigable for anyone else one at a time. Taking a whiff inside, Chomper frowned thoughtfully.
"What is it Chomper?" Littlefoot asked.
"There's some bad smelling plant," Chomper muttered confusedly. "I think it's stinkweed, but I can't tell for sure."
"How can you not be sure if it's stinkweed?" Cera asked incredulously.
"Well, I can only barely smell it," Chomper explained. "I can't even tell if it's in the cave. And there's other stuff muddying the scent, like some rock fuzz. And a lot of the plants you really like smell almost as bad to us sharpteeth."
"No creatures though, right?" Petrie asked.
Chomper shook his head. "Nope. Just cave things."
"Still," Littlefoot said. "If it is stinkweed, we don't want it in the place where we're keeping our food."
"Yeah, good point," Chomper nodded.
"Let me try," Mia volunteered. "I've got the longest neck of anybody, so maybe I can smell it from here."
So Chomper backed away to allow Mia to stick her slitherer-like neck through the long, narrow entrance. "Nope!" she called out. "Can't smell it from here."
"I guess I'll go check it out," Chomper volunteered. "See if there's any stinkweed actually growing in there, or if it's just something else farther away. If all's clear and there's enough space, it'll probably be a great food safe. It's probably nice and cool inside, which will keep the red food from going bad."
"Okay, good luck," Littlefoot said as Chomper slowly walked into the tunnel, while everyone else waited.
"Hey guys," Petrie said suddenly. "Where Spike?"
They looked at their group to see that Spike was conspicuously absent.
"Over there," Sophie drawled lazily, lifting a paw to point out Spike, who was walking over to a faraway corner, his head buried in the grasses.
"Guess Spike wanted a snack," Littlefoot chuckled.
"Does he ever not think about food?" Cera asked, shaking her head.
Hunger.
The very word gave Spike the shivers. It never felt good to be hungry. But the perils of hunger had now become real to him, in a way they hadn't been since before he first found refuge in the Great Valley. Sure, he wasn't hungry himself. The herd had been doing a great job at gathering enough trees to ensure that everyone would be well-fed despite their huge membership. And with so many trees in and around the crater, it wasn't an immediate concern.
No, it was more the impact that hunger had and would have that concerned him. After all, hunger played a large role in driving them into the present situation in the first place. If it hadn't been for the strange fires that ravaged the Mysterious Beyond, the segregated herds would have gone about their lives in the Mysterious Beyond, continuing their migratory lifestyles and leaving the Great Valley alone. Instead, the fires had uprooted the lives of these herds, forcing them to congregate in the only place in the area where green food still grew. They were all truly ruled by the tree star, and if the tree stars dictated that they live somewhere, so it shall be.
Spike paused to consider their point of view. To him, life in the Great Valley had always been overall nearly perfect, because for anything that needed to be changed, they had always adapted, from early on lessons like learning how to share and to stick together in crisis through the most recent reforms they had undertaken in the herd. But this was not how these traditionalist herds would have approached the world. Sticking to their old ways for generations, they refused to adapt to the uncertainty of new ways of thinking and instead survived through their high birthrates, willingness to weather tough times by sacrificing their weakest members, and aggressively training each of their worthy members for brutal warfare. By being forced into the Great Valley, they would have encountered a world that would feel alien from the one they were accustomed to, one that embraced community over self-sufficiency, diversity of heritage and thought over conformity, and individuality and personal growth over survival. True, the Valley did not force its ethos on the segregated herd members the same way that they tried to do on the Valleydwellers. But the Valley's whole society was nonetheless organized around its values, forcing the segregated herds to either adapt or become outcasts, breeding the resentment that Leigh ultimately exploited to take over the Valley.
Then there was the matter of sustainability to consider. Unlike their old herds who accepted individual mortality as part of the circle of life, the new kids were now promised a world where each hatchling would be helped along and protected by their bigger herdmates and be allowed to grow into their true selves without fear of rejection and abandonment. While this was fully aligned with his morals, Spike was aware of the practical disadvantages it entailed, most prominently regarding food shortages, whether from long cold times or leaf gobbler invasions. With their willingness to dump the weak, the segregated herds had a morally unacceptable but effective way to ensure that they would have enough to eat. They had to come up with an alternative way to weather the lean times. Especially with the inevitable consumption boom they would soon be facing. With only a few exceptions, all the little hatchlings they had rescued would grow into large flatteeth, many of whom would have appetites even bigger than his. He didn't know whether even the Valley could possibly provide the amount of foliage needed to sustain that kind of influx.
Which is why he knew he needed to take action now. He had plenty of time to think about all this on the long journey there. But thinking about it was not enough. Just like Ducky's development of healing cures, Cera's implementation of defensive strategies and conditioning, and Chomper's vision of creating a friendly sharptooth pack, hunger management felt like his true calling. It would be up to him to make sure that green food would not just grow, but also flourish, blossoming at unseen paces and leaving yields that could even satiate his appetite. Pulling this off would have huge implications. Not only would this ensure that their herd would always remain well-fed, no matter how big everyone got or how many members they might have, but replenishing the Mysterious Beyond could also make their battle to reclaim the Great Valley a lot easier. Even Cera was a lot less cranky on a full stomach, and Spike supposed that if fresh, green food was available in the Mysterious Beyond once again, it would weaken the anger and hatred in their hearts and make them that much less susceptible to Leigh's demagoguery …
And then of course, he knew he had a special ability at his disposal. Too many who didn't really know him had written him off as stupid just because talking had always been difficult for him. When in truth, he supposed that what he lacked in vocal strength he made up for with this special skill. He seldom even tried conveying it to his friends, for even they wouldn't really understand. Nonetheless, he always had the ability to get in touch with the tree stars. Even as a kid, he could hear their songs, and his ability in this regard had only strengthened as he grew up. And now that he was a herd leader, he knew he was going to use this ability to help him achieve this seemingly impossible goal and help the herd in his own way. So while everyone else went on their way to look for caves, Spike hung back and went the other way to fine-tune his senses. Much as he loved his friends, they spoke on an entirely different wavelength from the floral life around him. He needed to clear his mind from the commotion and upheaval of herd life and bring it back to a purer, more simple state …
Standing in one spot as he took a deep breath, Spike closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Without anyone talking to him or anything he had to keep an eye on, Spike allowed himself to mentally adjust. As he basked in the solitude, the quiet sounds of the green life began to be heard, distant and fuzzy at first, but they steadily grew louder and clearer into their soothing, beautiful, melodies. Only they were new melodies now, for he was in a new place and thus new plants would be singing to him.
Once the new sounds became perfectly audible, Spike opened his eyes and felt a soft smile creep onto his face. The world, rather than being its usual plethora of wild colors, was now entirely in subdued shades of violet, just like his eyes. He had succeeded in transitioning into his plant perspective, where apart from a few important names and words, the coarse sounds of his fellow dinosaurs would come out sounding like gibberish, while the finely tuned sounds of the green world would make themselves perfectly clear to him.
"Hello, seed carrier …" sang a voice nearby. Turning, Spike looked down to find a lone yellow tree sweet lying on the ground. Realizing it must have fallen off one of the trees they had carried with them from the Hidden Canyon, Spike's heart began to race. Was it about to tell him just what he wanted?
"I've come a long way from my homeland," the tree sweet sang resonantly. "I do miss it very much. But I sense that there's a very special spot around here. Help me find it, please."
Confused, Spike stared as the tree sweet spoke back. "I'm not messing with you, seed carrier. Take me around this place and I will tell you where to stop and plant my seeds."
Shaking his head, Spike knew that while he couldn't speak plant himself, he still wanted to ask the tree sweet questions, for through all the tree sweets' songs he heard over the cold times, they had never actually spoken to him before. But then again, his friends always had crazy ideas he never understood why they went through with. Following the advice of this tree sweet, no matter how strange it was, at least didn't seem dangerous.
Taking a deep breath, Spike picked up the tree sweet with his mouth and began to stroll around the crater.
"Wrong way," the tree sweet sang casually.
Shaking his head, Spike turned around. "That's better. Keep listening to my directions."
So Spike did, watching the world go by as he traveled. The tiny longnecks were busy spreading prickly plants around a small patch of dirt, aided by Avie and Guido keeping watch. Nearby, the longnecks, threehorns and spiketails who had been clearing the open land had all gathered together at the watering hole. He was happy to see that they seemed to be chatting friendlily with one another, but though he could hear them perfectly, everything came out as gibberish grunts except for a few certain words. Shaking his head, Spike wondered if that's what most sharpteeth heard whenever they heard flatteeth talking. If so, it was remarkable how much flattooth Chomper's parents could now understand, even if they still weren't able to speak very well. Then he remembered that hopefully he too would become fluent in sharptooth through Chomper's planned lessons. Even if he wouldn't be able to speak very much, just understanding Chomper's parents in their native tongue would be a real treat.
As he walked away from the stream, continuing to follow the tree sweet's directions, he peered over at a small clearing between two large rocks to find Ruby coaching her fellow runners in what appeared to be bone-throwing practice, with the other runners facing each other in two parallel lines as they threw their bones back and forth to one another. He could only guess what they were saying though, for their conversations all came out as higher pitched clicks and shrieks, apart from the word "Ruby". It made sense that different kinds of dinosaurs would sound different to sharpteeth, for that would help them know what prey they might be dealing with. Amused, he wondered what his friends would think if they knew could hear how they sounded from this perspective. Cera would throw a fit, probably. Which a sharptooth should be able to understand just from affect.
At last, the tree sweet said, "Stop here, please."
Spike obliged and looked around. It was a brightly lit spot of green space without any other trees around. Spike could immediately understand why the tree sweet would pick this spot, with lots of nutrients around and little competition from other large plants.
"Now take a bite, but don't eat me yet," the tree sweet instructed.
While Spike liked swallowing big helpings of food at once, he exercised his self-control and obediently took a nibble out of the tree sweet's skin. At once, he noticed why he was told to do this, for at the core of the fruit were six small seeds sitting invitingly, waiting to be planted.
"Now plant me," the tree sweet instructed.
Spike however shook his head. His mouth was a blunt instrument made for consuming, not separating, and as a hefty fourfooter, the rest of his fine motor capabilities would be even worse. He needed help to take care of this part of the job.
"Where are you going?" the tree sweet wailed angrily, but Spike ignored it as he headed back to the prickly plant patch where the tiny dinosaurs were still working. As he bounded over, Guido caught sight of him and glided over to greet him.
"Ra-uh-ee-kee-ra-rugh-ugh-ee-oh, Spike?"
"Oh right," Spike remembered. "I can't tell what he's saying. Better fix that up."
So Spike closed his eyes and tried to tune out the sounds of all the plants around him. The world grew more and more quiet, and upon reaching total silence, Guido's voice started coming back to him, starting off as a muffled whisper, but eventually sounding just like normal.
"Hey, Spike? Are you okay? Can you hear me?"
Relieved to be able to understand Guido once again, Spike nodded vigorously as he opened his eyes, seeing that the world had reverted back to its usual full spectrum of colors once again.
"Good," Guido said, sounding just as relieved as he did. "Now what's happening?"
Spike lowered his tail and using his limited vocal energies, he croaked, "Come …"
Spike always wished he could talk better in situations like this, but he supposed this was a side effect of his ability to tune into the plant world. And he always needed to keep some vocal power in store, in case a true emergency were about to arise …
"Did you say come?" Guido asked as Spike nodded.
"Okay," Guido said as Spike led him back to the half-chewed tree sweet. It was a good thing he was able to nod, grunt, and shake his head without expending precious vocal energy, that made communication so much easier. And he needed to communicate with Guido here, for he had the little hands and long fingers which made for great fine motor skills.
When they arrived, Guido eyed the half-eaten tree sweet curiously. "Is something wrong with it?"
Spike shook his head, knowing that now he was back in the faunal world, the tree sweet would no longer be able to sing to him. From all his practice with communicating through gestures though, Spike remained hopeful that Guido would figure out what he was trying to tell him.
Moving over to the tree sweet, he tried to put his toenail on the very middle of the fruit, right where all the seeds were. Then he moved his toe back to the dirt, before making a digging motion as he kicked his foot back.
"Oh I get it, you want me to plant the seeds," Guido told Spike as Spike nodded happily.
"Okay, I'll do that," Guido exclaimed, relieved to figure out Spike's meaning as he began digging shallow holes for the tree sweet seeds, putting the seeds inside, and covering them back up with dirt.
"Hey, you know what the kids have been getting up to?" Guido asked as Spike grunted in the negative. In truth, he too was getting curious as to the hatchlings, and hoped that they were doing well in their time waiting.
As she slid belly-first down a sloping branch, little whiptail Hazel couldn't be happier. It still felt like a sleep story to her. In her twelve cold times, she had always been taught to submit to the will of her elders and eventually the male that would win her, that life was a constant struggle that she alone must always fight to preserve, and depending on her acquiescence to the old ways, she would be either rewarded with endless treestars from the circles or to burn like a crisp in the smoking mountains. But these teachings never sat well with her, for she always felt that the circles would want her to be a goodhearted longneck and that she should always follow her own heart in life rather than the demands set by her brutal parents and other rigid herd elders.
Now along with perhaps the five friendliest of all her younger herdmates, Hazel had defected from her old herd and joined a group who felt much more like her true family in spirit. It had been less than a week, but already, her whole world had been completely changed. Far from the hierarchical, cold, restrictive ways of her old herd, she couldn't believe how much she had already learned. Different dinosaurs could get along with dinosaurs of different heritages, herd leaders didn't have to be cruel, overbearing figures, individual thought did not have to be suppressed but could be freely expressed, and that cooperation was a viable alternative to competition were just a few of the countless lessons that her new herd demonstrated to her through example, and she embraced everything she learned like a tree star tree soaked in the Bright Circle's light.
She couldn't help but feel a great admiration for so many of her fellow herdmates too. She really looked up to the longneck herd leader, who despite his youth served as a great example of what she might grow up to be like someday, brave, kind, loyal, selfless, smart. But she also loved the threehorn's sass, the swimmer's perkiness, the flyer's quirkiness, the spiketail's composure, the friendly sharptooth's enthusiasm, and the runner's wisdom. They were all herd leaders who led through respect and compassion, and ones she actually felt like she could talk to if she needed anything. Then there were the herd deputies, who despite just being a few cold times older and were almost as new to the herd as she was, emerged as responsible, caring backup leaders who helped take care of the younger kids, who all the while maintained the same sense of fun that the herd leaders had. And all the elders rounding out the group was like an extended network of surrogate parents, ready to come to their aid and share any wisdom that they had.
Then were all the other kids. So many of them had come from situations just like hers, and she was proud of all of them for making the difficult jump that she made herself. Though it felt a little awkward being around all these strange kids at first with only a few familiar faces, the hard water quickly thawed with everyone's mutual warmth and kindness toward one another, and already, they already began to feel like their own junior herd. Even the three little biters, who she had previously thought weren't even capable of friendship, had really become a part of their big group, and her heart felt content just by watching by all her new friends traversing the trees with her.
And of course, it went without saying that she, along with every other kid in the herd, really looked up to the spunky band of juniors always tagging right along the herd leaders' sides. The amazing stories of the herd leaders in their childhoods might have been hard to believe had it not been for the ten kids their own age who radiated so much perky attitude right before their eyes. She chuckled as she remembered first hearing about them from the rants of her old herdmates.
"What happened to you?"
"Brats, a whole gang of blood traitors. They attacked me with stinging buzzer nests!"
"Yeah, and they did their business on me and tripped me up with vine traps!"
"Not to mention the rude language coming out of their mouths! I swear these are the worst-behaved kids in the entire world."
"Any whiptails among them?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. The kid of that weird loner couple."
"How embarrassing. I thought our kind would be better than that. We better make sure we raise our kids right and keep them far away from her."
"Right. We can't let them become corrupted filth like that."
Hazel chuckled. Even then, she secretly admired their guts to do what was right no matter the consequences, an admiration that grew once she heard about their border crossings, defiance of their teachers, refusal to betray their friends, and of course, the plan they cooked up with the tiny longnecks that led to their own rescue. Seeing them in the flesh only confirmed to her how amazing they were. Out of all the kids in the herd, they embodied the spirit of their herd leaders the most of any of them, and it was plainly apparent that they both idolized and were extremely close to their older counterparts leading the herd. It was incredible to think that they were all younger than she was.
"Hey," came a voice.
Looking down, Hazel saw another longneck her age that she had never seen before. "Hi," Hazel greeted the newcomer. "What's your name?"
"I'll tell you … If you can catch me!" she laughed as she began to turn tail.
Hazel paused, not seeing any elder available who could safely lower her to the ground. This however, didn't deter the longneck.
"Come on," she said carelessly. "Just jump off. Anyone can make that jump."
Hazel looked down and considered. She probably could make that jump safely, but it was a little higher than she was comfortable with. Not wanting to disappoint a potential friend however, Hazel obliged and landed neatly on her four paws.
"There," the newcomer said brightly. "That wasn't so bad, was it? Now try to catch me!"
And without another moment, she tore off, giving Hazel a split second to decide between following her or watching her disappear into the forest. Her desire to play won out, and so she chased after the other longneck, who scrambled out of the forest and into the nearby open spaces. Breathing determinedly, Hazel saw that she was slowly gaining on the little longneck as she raced after her, before at last, she could feel the whip of her tail in front. With one hurried leap, Hazel jumped up and tackled the newcomer to the ground, causing them both to laugh brightly.
"Okay, you win," the other longneck said. "Now where are your parents?"
"Well, I left them," Hazel explained awkwardly.
"Sounds like they were a bunch of losers," the other longneck sneered, shaking her head. "You really need to meet better longnecks."
Hazel stared as a frown crossed her face. She didn't really like this girl's attitude. It reminded her so much of the herd she had left behind, and nothing like the open, kindhearted nature of her new herd …
"It was nice meeting you, but I better be going," Hazel said, preparing to head back into the forest. However, to her surprise, she was blocked by five other young whiptails, grinning at her menacingly as they encircled her.
"I don't think so," said one of them. "Not until you've seen our herd."
"Your herd?" Hazel asked, surprised.
"Only the coolest herd of whiptails there is," boasted another. "Don't believe us? We'll show you ourselves."
"No, really, I'm not interested," Hazel insisted.
"Well, in that case," the first longneck sneered, before the small group of little longnecks bellowed loudly.
Hazel gasped as an enormous whiptail strolled in, surrounded by several more sneering hatchlings at his feet. Worst of all however, was the sight coming from the big longneck's mouth, where held in his firm grip were the tails of her fellow whiptails in the herd Faith, Cliff, Cypress, Nigella and Drake. The five little whiptails were all squirming to get out of his grip, but the fully grown whiptail's mouth refused to budge.
"This one's not cooperating either," a little whiptail informed the grownup.
"Round her up," he growled through the tails in his mouth. "I can't hold onto any more of them."
"Hold it right there!" came a loud chatter of voices.
Hazel turned, and her heart soared as charging out of the woods came a bunch of refreshingly familiar but downright furious faces. Standing in a threatening row, she saw Tricia, Mono and Rachelle with their frills lowered and horns exposed, Cassia, Perri and Sam armed with rocks, and Destiny and Oplax waving their tails threateningly. Meanwhile behind them, she could also see Garnet and Pearl in hurried whispers with the three little biters. It seemed that the little leafeaters were trying to stall their kidnappers while the fast runners and biters were coming up with a plan.
"Oh, another new herdmate!" shouted one of the whiptails, eyeing Destiny. "Wanna join the cool herd? You don't have to hang around these losers."
"When swimmers fly, rustlers!" Destiny glared at them with disgust.
"Give us back our friends!" Tricia shouted angrily.
"Or we'll fight you for them," Mono warned, pawing the ground.
The band of little whiptails exploded with laughter. "Look guys, it's a bunch of ugly colored runts!"
"I thought your kinds went extinct long ago," another jeered.
"We're not egg-stinct, we're right here!" Perri mispronounced, leading to even more laughter from the little bullies.
"You said it, and we're not giving up on our friends!" Oplax shouted, nodding to Perri reassuringly.
"What do you want with them, anyway?" Cassia demanded.
"We need them to continue the circle of life," said one of the hatchlings. "Something you freaks would know nothing about."
"Let me guess, you guys are all expected to have as many kids as possible when you grow up, without a care of how they'll turn out?" Rachelle smirked. "No wonder you guys are such jerks, your parents don't actually try to raise you."
"How about instead of trying to steal hatchlings from us, you tell your folks to focus on keeping all of you alive," Tricia added brazenly.
"You would know a lot about stealing," a hatchling replied. "Considering you freaks don't reproduce, you recruit."
"Every kid who's come to us has chosen to come here on their own free will," Destiny glowered. "Because we treat them the way they want to be treated!"
"Hey, you guys see the eggstealers and sharpteeth behind them?" one whiptail said, craning his head at them.
"Yeah, let's go kill 'em!" agreed another.
"You can't do that," Tricia glared as she and her fellow leafeaters backed up to protect the runners and biters. "They're our friends!"
The bullies' laughter rang out through the air, but Tricia's gang stood defiantly and glared back. They knew that while they were putting on this show, the others were coming up with a plan.
Sure enough, Garnet, Pearl, Deya, Nyko, Chuss were bent down in a huddle as they whispered to each other, doing their best to ignore the vigorous taunts hurled in their direction.
"What're we gonna do?" Deya growled. "I hate those fratteeth aready."
"We need to get help," Pearl replied. "No way we can beat a full-grown longneck on our own."
"Good idea," nodded Garnet. "I'll get Hyp and his friends. They're good at fighting dirty."
"I'll warn the other kids, and get whatever grownups I can find," Pearl said.
The two runners hurriedly ran into the forest, while the three biters muttered with one another.
"Alpha's in a cave so he can't hear us, and his parents can't fight a longneck," hissed Chuss.
"But we do have a new pack member," Deya reminded, with a big smirk on her face. "Shall we call her?"
"Why not?" Nyko smirked, realizing that Lola, while probably able to hear everything, would not be able to understand flattooth and thus needed a translation to know what was going on. "Hey Lola!" he called out. "I'm Chomper's packmate Nyko, and me and my sibs need help. Some big longneck has got a bunch of our little longneck friends. You think you can lend a claw and scare him off?"
"Right, I'm on it!" Lola called out brightly from far away.
"You don't need to attack," Chuss quickly clarified. "Just scare him and his bully kids."
"All right, this will be fun!" Lola exclaimed. "See you!"
And the three little biter kids began to giggle just as Garnet returned with Hyp's gang in tow, armed with armfuls of much heavier rocks that could actually do some serious damage. The little longneck kids, still arguing with Tricia's gang, eyed the bigger newcomers with contempt.
"Well what do you know, the wannabe family called their big sibs in," one of the longneck kids said, to howls of laughter from the others.
Hyp and his friends however, were not going to take crap from anyone.
"Let go of our hatchlings," Hyp demanded. "Or else you'll be really, really sorry."
"You're supposed to be leader of your goons?" shot back a kid. "You teeny weeny pipsqueak?"
"Hey, you're even littler than he is!" Mutt tried coming back.
"But not for much longer," said a little longneck.
"Hey kids, you wanna come back home with us, right?" Nod asked the captive kids.
"You bet!" shouted little longneck Cliff, to the agreement of the other captives.
"Well too bad, we need them," shouted a hatchling.
"So just give up!" added another.
Hyp smirked at his friends naughtily. "Well guys, I think they're asking for a beatdown."
"Bring it on, tar pit blood," one of the longneck kids shouted.
Suddenly, the air grew tense as Hyp's gang subconsciously looked to Rana, who seemed to be frozen in shock, while the kids grinned back maliciously.
"You're gonna pay for this," Weald growled, baring his spikethumb out as the other twofooters began to clench their fists.
"Haha, you admit it, you sailbacked freak!" shouted one of the kids as the others began to roll with laughter. "Mommy and Daddy must have ditched …"
But they stopped laughing as Hyp's gang roared in a hard, cold fury and began to charge. Nod went around, stabbing kids with his side spikes, his hard back making him immune to their feeble tail whips. Hyp had both hands locked in fists, punching hatchlings left and right, Dispo used his tail to deliver repeated lashings to the smaller hatchlings, and Ceph headbutted every hatchling he could find. All the while, Tricia's gang tried to get to the whiptail kids guarding Hazel, dealing with anyone who tried to stop them along the way.
"You blood traitor brat!" one of them shouted to Destiny. "You should be on our side!"
"Yeah, no way," Destiny said, knocking him out with a whip to the head while Mono and Rachelle rammed his sides.
It wasn't long before Tricia's gang arrived at the kids guarding Hazel. Knowing that these kids would fight tooth and nail to keep Hazel captive and that they couldn't gang up on a whole group like they could the individuals that had previously attacked them, they knew it would be best to attack indirectly and so came up with a hurried plan. Bracing themselves for horn and club attacks, the longnecks stared in bewilderment as the fourfooters abruptly turned mid-charge and started kicking dust in their eyes, while Cassia, Perri and Sam started pelting rocks at the kid guards. The plan worked, for while they tried to shield their eyes amidst coughing fits and being plonked by flying rocks, Garnet ran back and using his relatively strong sniffer, was able to sniff out Hazel through the sand clouds.
"Psst … Hazel, grab my tail, and do your best to run," Garnet told her. "Ready?"
Hazel didn't need telling twice, and so she bit onto Garnet's tail before the fast runner began to take off. While the longneck's weight was slowing him down, she still gave it her all and her combined energy with Garnet's was enough for the two of them to be able to get out of there.
The longneck who originally lured Hazel away saw her quarry getting away. "You filthy brats!" she shouted, but the moment she tried chasing after them, Deya, Nyko and Chuss emerged, springing out of nowhere and sinking their claws on their hands and feet into her skin.
"Eek, sharpteeth!" she screamed, but slipped out of consciousness as the biters glared at her furiously.
"Come on," nodded Tricia to the others. "Let's force that longneck to let go of our friends."
With the smaller members of Hyp's gang pounding the remaining kids, the big longneck was being relentlessly challenged by Mutt, Ann, Weald and Rana. The three spikethumbs drilled their thumb spikes into the longneck's legs, while Ann used her bulk to punch the big longneck, with all four of them using their tails to try to beat up the big longneck. Through a mouthful of little longneck tails, the big longneck tried to fight back, doing his best to squish the large but relatively nimble twofooters. Still, his grip of the little longneck tails did not falter as the gang of kids ran up the whiptail's back.
"Let's weigh his neck down," Oplax suggested. "And work up to his head."
"Right," said Rachelle, turning to the fast biters. "You guys, get to his head. Maybe that'll finally get him to give up."
"You got it," Chuss hissed determinedly.
"Let's try jumping up and down," Cassia whispered.
"Yep, and make sure someone's there to hold every part of his neck down," said Mono.
"You guys ready?" Tricia whispered as they all nodded determinedly.
So while the smaller members of Hyp's gang finished defeating all the hatchlings and helped their friends immobilize the longnecks' legs, Tricia's gang got to work. Jumping on the whiptail's neck vigorously, they slowly forced it down, with one of the kids staying put to hold down a downed section of neck firmly in place. Before they knew it, they had worked all the way up to his head, and Deya, Nyko and Chuss, smirking at each other, simultaneously gave deep growls right in the whiptail's ears. Predictably, the longneck freaked for a split second, and with the captives watching the steady progress of the rescue train, they promptly bolted.
Hurriedly, they jumped off the longneck's neck and ran for it, with Hyp's gang moving over to shield all the hatchlings from any attack. But then Pearl arrived, accompanied by Mama Swimmer and a contingent of elders, all of whom looked faint with disgust.
"Are you seriously trying to kidnap our children?" Mama Swimmer asked in disgust to the nods of her companions.
"At least we're of their kind," the whiptail growled. "I'd say you're the kidnappers, brainwashing them to live in your crazy cult and violating the circle of life."
"They are here on their own free will," said Mama Swimmer warningly. "Just like the rest of us," she exclaimed, to the firm nods of the others."
All the while, Deya, Nyko and Chuss put their claws to their mouths as they heard a new sound, doing their best to suppress giggles. The sound of a big sharp-clawed, three-toed foot …
"He thinks we're scary," Chuss whispered.
"Wait till he meets her," Deya snickered.
"You all will be very sorry," the longneck threatened, to the nods of the battered kids backing him up. "When I …"
But he never got a chance to finish his sentence, for a loud roar rang out, startling all the knocked out kids awake and getting them on their four feet at once.
"Bite … Rip … Bloody … Yummy …"
The little biters were the only ones actually able to understand the words, but the effect was nevertheless immediate. "Herd, retreat!" the elder exclaimed to the mob of kids, who took off screaming, not daring to look back.
Everyone else looked scared too, that was, except for the little fast biters. "It's okay," giggled Nyko soothingly. "We asked her to come."
"Huh?" Mama Swimmer exclaimed in surprise, but then the bushes rustled and slowly walking out of it came a gangly turquoise young browridge. Not wanting to get too close to the flatteeth due to her active hunting instinct, she stood back a respectful distance, but bowed politely toward them to show she meant no harm.
"Wow!" exclaimed Tricia. "Thanks Lola! You scared them bad!"
Though not able to understand what was being said, Lola nodded appreciatively before hurriedly back from the direction she came.
"Well I'll be," observed Sue. "She's really sweet."
"Who'd ever think that of a sharptooth?" said Hyp's father, shaking his head in amazement.
"Well, I think we've had more than enough excitement out here," Mama Swimmer said. "I'll go check in with everyone else and see if the crater's safe yet."
And with high spirits, the group returned back to the forest, ready to finally explore the crater that they would call their new home.
