(AN) Hello and welcome to my new Land Before Time fic; sort of.

This fic is a rewrite of an older fic I did known as The Forgotten Friend, which was written in 2018 as a tribute to the late Judith Barsi, who was the original voice actress for Ducky in the first film. I deleted that fic in 2020 as I wasn't satisfied with the original, but this will be my rewrite.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Land Before Time; all characters and locations are owned by Universal.

The Land Before Time: The Forgotten Friend

Prologue

The bright circle shone down on the Mysterious Beyond as the herds of migrating leaf eaters continued their long journey to the Great Valley, though they refused to mix as it was a long held belief that the different species of dinosaurs could never get along.

Among these herds were swimmers, but a dark cloud hung over them all. Just two days previously, the herd had experienced a horrific and upsetting tragedy. There had been a swimmer named Jole, who had a mate named Marsha and a daughter named Judy. However, Jole was physically abusive to both Marsha and Judy and was paranoid that they would leave. After learning that his mate and daughter were leaving with help from two other families, he murdered both of them in the night, then he killed himself. Two young swimmers: Ducky and Juno, who were friends with Judy, and who's families were the ones trying to help,, were the first to discover the bodies.

Ducky and Juno's families had stopped for a rest at a watering hole. Ducky and Juno's parents were sitting on the ground and watching their children play in the water, all except Ducky and Juno, who simply sat on the edge, looking at her reflection sadly.

Juno's mother Marina had tan skin, while her father Parsley had lilac skin. Juno was a darker shade of green than Ducky.

Mama and Papa Swimmer stared at their daughter with looks of sadness.

"She's still pretty shaken up, isn't she?" asked Papa Swimmer solemnly.

"Well, you can hardly blame her," commented Mama Swimmer, "Her and Juno were the ones that found Judy and her family dead."

Mama Swimmer then turned to face Marina, Juno's mother. "Have you had any luck trying to comfort Juno?"

"None whatsoever," replied Marina, "I think it's going to take a long time before they come to terms with what's happened; it will take time for all of us."

The four adult swimmers walked over to Ducky and Juno.

"Ducky, Juno, are you two alright?" asked Mama Swimmer gently.

"No," muttered Ducky sadly, "We still miss Judy.

"Yeah, a lot." sighed Juno.

"I know, dear," said Marina gently, "In time, your emotional scars will heal."

"Oh, I hope so, I do, I do," said Ducky, "And I hope these scary sleep stories stop as well."

"I'm sure they will, dear." assured Mama Swimmer.

Everybody suddenly looked up as they heard approaching footsteps. Ducky, Juno and their siblings looked on in astonishment as two adult threehorns, several young threehorns and two elderly longnecks entered the area.

"Well, this is unusual," remarked Marina as she and the other adults approached, "What do you want?"

"We were wondering if you've seen a young longneck and threehorn wandering around here?" asked the male longneck, "Our daughter has went to look for him, then we met Mr Threehorn and discovered that his daughter has also gone missing."

"Yeah, thanks to your grandson!" spat the male threehorn, "I caught him playing with my daughter yesterday; no good ever comes from getting involved with other types of leaf eaters, I can tell you that!"

"I don't quite care for your attitude, threehorn!" snapped Parsley angrily, "We haven't seen neither a longneck or a threehorn youngling."

"But we'll be sure to let you know if we see them," interjected Papa Swimmer.

Mr Threehorn was about to open his mouth when suddenly, there came a terrified shriek from above. Everybody looked up as a family of flyers flew overhead; a female one clutching one of her young in her beak.

"Quick, get out of here now!" cried the flyer's mate in alarm, "Sharptooth's been sighted nearby! RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

The threehorns and swimmers gathered their children together and quickly ran from the area. Ducky and Aqua, one of her siblings quickly sprang to their feet and dashed after their parents.

As they ran across the barren wasteland, Ducky saw other herds joining the band of fleeing dinosaurs. The young swimmer was astonished: she'd never seen so many different species together at once. Everybody stopped as the ground suddenly began vibrating and the whole world appeared to start shaking.

"EARTHSHAKE!" shouted Ducky in terror before screaming in fear.

Ducky and her family continued to run. Ducky and Aqua suddenly stopped as they saw a large crack zigzagging across the ground. Aqua gasped in shock as Ducky pushed her over the crack as it began to widen.

"DUCKY!" yelled Mama Swimmer in horror before trying to leap across the widening chasm, only to be grabbed by the elbows by Papa Swimmer and Marina.

"No, dear, it's too dangerous." warned Papa Swimmer.

Ducky yelped in alarm as the ground beneath her feet crumbled, causing her to fall into the chasm, screaming in fear. Suddenly, a flying sharptooth grabbed the young swimmer in its talons and flew off with her. Ducky struggled as the flying sharptooth continued to carry her away, she then opened her mouth and bit the flying sharptooth in the leg, causing it to release its grip on her while shrieking in pain.

Ducky screamed in fear as she fell back to Earth.

The young swimmer landed with a splash in a pond. After a few moments, Ducky poked her head out of the water and looked around. "H-hello," she called out in concern, "Is anybody t-there? I-I'm lost."

Ducky began to sob silently; wondering to herself whether she'd ever see her friends and family again.

(AN) And that was the prologue for The Forgotten Friend; hope you all enjoyed.

In the original, I had this fic connected to another fanfic written by DiddyKF1 called A Swim of Silence, but I decided to just have characters inspired by those original characters for this rewrite, since I feel like I want to be more original. Basically, the murdered swimmers mentioned in this prologue are my own take on DiddyKF1's concept.

The next chapter will begin the story properly and will establish exactly what happened to Juno and her family.

Until then, this is TimeLordMaster108 signing out.