The Land Before Time: The Passage to the Future

by AllegroGiocoso

One thing is certain, nothing ever stays the same. For Littlefoot, this had never been truer, for the thing he had been dreading most had come to pass. But this in turn leads the whole Great Valley into chaos, and suddenly Littlefoot and his friends find everything they know and love has been thrust upon their shoulders. A sequel to my prior fanfic The Time of Great Growing.

46. Chapter 44 - Forging Alliances

Hello, and welcome back to another chapter! Special thanks to Zee Docking and Ryan6783 as always for helping me write the chapter and giving me ideas, really helping the chapter come to fruition! Ryan6783 worked with me a lot on the Ruby-Ali scene coming, and two of Zee Docking's characters will be showing up later in the chapter, one of them actually appeared in one of the LBT movies, so happy you'll get to see them! Also great thanks to RadiantLife2 and flurry for their reviews - always brightens my day when those come in!

There's going to be a lot of background characters in this chapter from the movies that I've given names to. The Spikethumb family are the mother (Juana) and two kids (Igg and Britt) from The Lonely Journey. Madge Bigmouth is the Mother Maiasaur from Movie 2, you'll be seeing her towards the end. And there'll be a group of flyers that were in Grandma's lullaby in Movie 4, a mom and three kids. You'll be meeting them later in the chapter too. Several other background characters are also present as the (adoptive) parents of Tricia's gang that will be in the mudpool.

Hope you enjoy! As always, the Land Before Time belongs to Universal.

Chapter 46 – Forging Alliances

As she wallowed in the comfy depths of the crater's mud pool, Tria was having the time of her life. It kind of reminded her of all those times when she, Topsy, Grandma and Grandpa Longneck, Mama Swimmer, and Mama Flyer when they had their friendly get-togethers over the cold times. They laughed a lot then, always telling each other stories, both about their own children and from their own lives when they were young. Yet as much as she loved those old memories, there were times when she couldn't help but feel like the odd one out. The others had all gotten to know each other long before she arrived, and as a result, she found that she could listen a lot more than she could contribute.

Now, however, felt completely different. It was a very disparate group that she assembled, most of whom she really wanted to get to know better. Albert and Ova Onehorn, Beverly Hollowhorn, and Kosh, Magnus, Laurel and Tana Clubtail were all dinosaurs she was cordial with, but their conversations rarely got deeper than passing greetings. The same could be said for Colby Twoped, who she didn't know nearly as well as her best friend Rythe, who was sitting on the side of her beloved Topsy. She was very glad how the tension between Topsy and Rythe in their youths had completely subsided. She and Marina Swimmer of course had long been close friends from parenting Cera and Ducky together, but even her presence felt different in this group. Finally getting to meet Ruby's parents Jasper and Coral after wondering about them for so long was a real treat, especially now that Tricia befriended their younger twins, giving them even more in common. And while they had only briefly met, she hadn't really gotten to know Doc and Dara Whiptail well and was curious to get to know them further, though she knew that like Topsy, Doc wasn't one for gabbing at these gatherings and knew to respect his privacy.

Though they all had different backgrounds and didn't intimately know most of the others present, they all had one big thing in common. Whether by birth or through adoption, each of them had ended up becoming parents or guardians of the Valley's most mischievous group of hatchlings since Cera and her friends were that age. But unlike with the prior group of parents, she was the birth mom of the gang's ringleader, and thus inevitably would end up as the center of attention. And she was ready to regale the others with all the stories they wanted.

"I knew Tricia would be special from the moment she hatched," she giggled playfully. "Not only did she walk right out of her egg, but she got Topsy here to do baby talk!"

"Oh yeah, I remember that!" snarked Kosh, eyeing Topps naughtily. "Go on, show us! Coochie-coo, coochie-coo!"

"Fine, you want baby talk?" Topps growled with a smirk. "You've gotta say you're a big baby first."

"But I'm not!" Kosh told him.

"Then no baby talk from me," Topps grinned smugly. "Though you eat like a baby, the way you carry on with those sweet bubbles."

"Hey, I'm the dad of eight for crying out loud!" Kosh said indignantly.

"One of their dads," Magnus teased his brother-in-law. "And out of us parents, you're certainly the least responsible."

"Even Oppy does more to help out sometimes," snickered Laurel.

"Some mate you are," Kosh snorted, giving Laurel a playful shove as they laughed.

"How did the four of you decide to share your kids together?" Dara asked the clubtails curiously.

"Well, since we weren't there to see our eggs hatch, we don't know whose kids are Laurel's and whose are mine," laughed Tana. "So rather than try and guess, the four of us just decided to co-parent all of them."

"And when Oplax came along, we decided to raise him together, just like the others," added Laurel. "And good thing we did too. While he's a great kid, it takes all four of us to keep up with him! It gets exhausting."

"Who are you to talk about exhausting?" chortled Albert. "Try raising two of the tykes!"

"Yeah, when we first saw them, we didn't think it could be so hard," Ova laughed. "They couldn't be as bad as newborns, right? Of course, we had no idea what we were getting into."

"It's something else raising adventurous kids," grinned Mama Fast Runner. "But at least you didn't have to go through the terrible twos with them!"

"There's nothing quite like twins in the terrible twos," Papa Fast Runner teased, shaking his head. "One hatchling that age is hard enough, but two really feed off each other. And whenever they heard something else their big sister has done, they get even more daring!"

"Tell me about it," snickered Mama Swimmer. "That's part of why my mate and I had to split up. Once our second clutch started getting that age, they started copying behavior from their older siblings. And of course, you can guess who I mean especially," Mama Swimmer sighed, shaking her head. "It was like one bad sleep story. They broke their bones, robbed eggs from their nests, and nearly drowned in deep mud. And whenever we asked them why they did whatever it was, it was always because Ducky and Spike did it. What can you say, they were toddlers," she said, shaking her head. "That and our family was getting too big for each kid to have the attention they needed. So their dad took our second clutch with him to a safe spot he knew growing up, while I took care of our first clutch back in the Valley. It was hard on everyone, Ducky for sure. I think that's probably why she lashed at Spike that one cold time. But it probably was for the best, all things considered, for all our kids could finally get the individualized parental love and attention they needed."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," pointed out Colby. "Those segregated herds have so many kids they don't know how to raise them all. No wonder so many of them came to us."

"Yeah, now they're gonna have real parents taking care of them," Topps said proudly. "My old herd is more than up for the challenge. Most of them haven't had kids in a long time, if ever. But they're giving all our newcomers the love they need and then some. And they made clear that any kid who wants to come to them can, not just the threehorns."

"Just don't turn them all into threehorns, friend," Doc said wryly.

"Hey, may I remind you that it was Shayle of my herd who rescued your daughter," Topps retorted.

"Still like arguing, I see," Doc sighed. "Some things just don't change."

"Hey, I do not …" Topps began, but stopped, not wanting to prove Doc's point further as the others snickered.

"Well, I'll tell you what has changed," snickered Beverly. "My understanding of adventurous children. When I first saw Perri, I thought she'd be all sweet and innocent. And she is, don't get me wrong. But she's got this feisty side that scares me sometimes. Now that I have her, I wouldn't trade her for the world. But I should've known what I was getting myself into. Especially since she and her friends migrated themselves all the way down here from your old home, Rythe."

"I know, right?" Rythe giggled. "Tria and I didn't think there'd be anyone quite like our girls. Then your kids come along and it's like they found their long-lost nestmates."

"I think they really helped Sam come out of his shell too," Mama Swimmer smiled. "He probably felt a little nervous when it was just Tricia and Cassia, especially since he's a lot littler than them and they're both girls. But I think all of them getting into trouble was too much for him to resist."

"I think we've passed down a lot of trouble genes between us," chuckled Papa Fast Runner. "I mean first Cera, Ducky and Ruby and now Tricia, Sam, and the twins? It's uncanny."

"Of course, it could be that the young'uns are just inspired by their big sisters," laughed Mama Fast Runner.

"You know Marina, I just realized something," Tria observed. "You never told me what Sam's hatching was like. Or any of the other siblings from that clutch."

"You never asked," Mama Swimmer teased.

"Well, you were there to see Tricia's hatching," Tria smirked. "And I was looking forward to seeing your kids hatch. Then one day I remember watching over Tricia and Cassia when I learned it already happened, and I was like, "Oh no, I should've asked you sooner!""

"Well the truth was, I wasn't there for it either," Mama Swimmer giggled. "I left Ducky and Spike in charge of watching over the eggs when it happened."

"You're kidding," Tria said in disbelief. "You actually missed your own kids' hatching?"

"I didn't mean to," laughed Mama Swimmer. "That was that cold time my old mate came back to spend time with me and the rest of the family."

"You mean, to have more eggs with you," Kosh chuckled.

"We're all adults here," Topps snorted. "It's not like you need to tell us the details."

"Like you're one to talk, the way you and Tria go on moaning," Kosh shot back, causing lots of awkward snickers and Tria to giggle embarrassedly.

"Anyway," Mama Swimmer said with a playful glare toward Kosh before Topps could retort, "It was getting to be the end of the cold time and we were talking about whether he wanted to stay in the Valley again. He considered it, but the kids liked the home they found together, and we both knew they were getting kinda homesick. Of course, I still worry about my other kids even to this day. But I trust my husband, and I'm sure they're having a good time together."

"You think maybe we'll run into them out here?" Papa Fast Runner asked curiously.

Mama Swimmer giggled. "I wouldn't imagine. They went north from the Valley, so the wrong way from us. But that was ages ago, so who knows, maybe they're off migrating right now."

"Maybe if you're available for some cave time he might show up," Kosh teased.

Magnus whapped his fellow clubtail on the head. "Seriously Kosh, get your head out of the tarpit."

"Yeah," Laurel said, glaring at her husband playfully. "You're getting embarrassing."

"I'm just glad the children aren't here to hear this," Beverly said, shaking her head exasperatedly.

"You're sure?" Ova raised her eyebrows. "Those biter kids seem to be able to hear everything. If they tell our kids what's been going on here, it's all over."

"And they seem to be hanging out a lot with our kids recently," observed Albert.

"I know," Tria said with a chuckle. "I don't know about any of you, but when I first found out we've got three biter kids, I thought I was going mad. Of course, I've never heard about that adventure since it must've been the only one Cera didn't go on. And of course, that was all my fault since I showed her the mud pools."

Turning to Mama Swimmer, Tria asked, "Ducky went on it, right? Did she talk to you about it?"

"No, but I did hear her talking to Spike about it that night, since he wasn't there either," Mama Swimmer answered. "She told him they tried to move the biter eggs and got chased by the mother biter. The mother even caught up to Ducky and almost killed her, but stopped because her eggs had begun to hatch."

Mama Swimmer smiled. "I know it seems kind of silly, but I'm kind of grateful to her. She could've killed Ducky right then and fed her to her babies. But once her eggs hatched, all she wanted to do was spend time with her babies, just like I did. I'd like to think maybe something inside of her realized just how young and helpless Ducky really was … And that she couldn't bring herself to kill someone else's child. It was the first time I really heard about a sharptooth loving their kids, and it changed the way I thought about them."

"Did Ducky say anything about the babies themselves?" asked Magnus curiously.

"Well, she did say that Hyp and his friends were there, and that Hyp wanted to smash the eggs, but Chomper stopped them. And since they hatched that day, they must've been able to hear Chomper defend them, especially with them picking up on our language from them. That'd explain why they've been waiting for him this whole time, and why they're so loyal to both him and us."

"I wonder if they've been missing their mother," Mama Fast Runner pondered. "Now that they're hanging out with our kids, they're probably reminded of her when they see how much we love our kids. I know Chomper's their alpha, but even though he's a lot bigger, he's only a little older than they are. He probably feels more like a big brother, especially since Tricia, Sam, Pearl and Garnet all look up to their big sisters in the same way. Which is great, but I imagine they could use some grownup support."

"Yeah," Tria said thoughtfully. "But I wonder if they would open up to any of us like a parent. I just saw them actually when I went to talk to our kids about the mud pool. Maybe it was my imagination, but they seemed a bit scared of me. I hope I didn't do anything to …"

"Of course not Tria," Topps cut her off soothingly. "You're just a big threehorn, that's all. And they're little biters. We can't help but be tough, even when we don't mean to, and no doubt their mom told them to watch out for threehorns."

"I guess you're right Topsy," Tria sighed. "Still, I hope … What is it Marina?" Tria suddenly trailed off, eyeing Mama Swimmer, who was staring in disbelief.

"Sorry," Mama Swimmer said tentatively. "But … I think Spike's bringing us a visitor."

Everyone looked around, and walking toward them was a very peculiar sight. Spike, looking quite exhausted but pleased with himself, was trudging in, carrying upon his plated back the draped form of what had to have been an olive green twoclaw.

"Is that …" Beverly began faintly.

"Shh," Mama Fast Runner said warningly, putting her finger on her mouth, knowing fully well that Mama Sharptooth could hear every word they would be saying. Nobody dared say another word as Spike and Mama Sharptooth continued to approach. Silently, and trying not to betray her own nerves, Mama Fast Runner got out of the mud and walked over. She may not have been the biggest dinosaur in the group, but she was the one who knew Mama Sharptooth best. The two of them even worked together alongside their mates to extract the sharptooth's teeth for their combat weapons, and Mama Fast Runner knew if she could trust her fellow mother not to bite her during a tooth removal, she could trust her with anything. Knowing Mama Sharptooth's grasp of leafeater was not strong, she knew she had to speak very slowly and clearly so she would understand, as well as ensure the others would be able to understand what they were saying.

"Hello Helena," she greeted the massive sharptooth.

"Haaaaarrrrrrrrararrrro," Mama Sharptooth greeted back, waving her tiny two-clawed finger as the others stared. It was one of the words Mama Fast Runner knew Mama Sharptooth was capable of saying, and she wanted to make sure she gave Mama Sharptooth the opportunity to show a friendly intent.

"What brings you here?" Mama Fast Runner asked.

Mama Sharptooth pondered, trying to think of how she could explain with her limited ability to speak flattooth. At last, she said, "Yourrrarrr."

Recognizing that she said "you all," the others stared in astonishment. Then doing her best to conceal the sharp edges of her teeth, Mama Sharptooth worked her cheeks to show a friendly smile on her face. All the while, she focused on keeping herself grounded. While familiar with Ruby's parents' scents and not aroused by Spike's particular odor, the aromas of fresh threehorn, swimmer, onehorn, hollowhorn, clubtail, and whiptail wafted around her head in a sickly-sweet way. She was afraid of having this sensation, but could understand where it was coming from, for these were all kinds that she had hunted in the past and knew exactly what they would taste like. Feeling very self-conscious, she wondered if her darkened eye sclera would betray her as a prolific flattooth hunter in those days. Perhaps she had even killed some of their friends or families long ago. But she knew she had to think past all that. This herd was all about new beginnings, and forging relationships with the most unlikely of dinosaurs. And to be able to really feel a part of it, she knew she had to develop a relationship with her fellow elders, who beyond the diet issue, were not as far apart as it seemed.

"Murrarrrarrd?" she asked politely.

Everyone looked apprehensive as they looked at one another. It was apparent just what Mama Sharptooth was asking. Still, the thought of sharing a mud pool with a sharptooth was highly disconcerting. The mud was a very relaxing place where they could let themselves go and at least for a moment, put all their worries behind them and melt into the slow, sticky ooze. The mere presence of a sharptooth was counter to all of that, for it required constant vigilance and awareness of one's movements to avoid being eaten. What's worse, if a sharptooth decided to attack, the mudpool would be a very bad place to be in, for its sticky depths made both running away and using one's body weapons very difficult. They had all heard the horror stories of opportunistic sharpteeth marauding relaxing flatteeth in these situations, and how letting one's guard down could lead to a premature and traumatic death, and in the past, the mere sight of a sharptooth anywhere near a mudpool would've been enough for all of them to run for their lives. Yet as scary as the gigantic twoclaw looked, Mama Sharptooth had only shown impeccable behavior around the herd. She had sacrificed many of her own teeth, kept a lookout for invaders, and never once tried to take a bite out of anyone, not even the longnecks that she and her husband had been riding upon. And being largely crippled, it was hard to see her even being capable of an attack. There was nothing beyond her species to suggest she would even want to hurt them, and as uncomfortable as it was, they all felt that she deserved a fair chance.

"Of course," Tria said friendlily, feeling many anxious eyes. "But why don't we shuffle around so we've all got room?"

Tria could immediately feel the relief with this suggestion, for it allowed them to arrange themselves where they could better defend themselves. Directly across from where Mama Sharptooth would sit, the four swimmers sat right at the edge, while the four clubtails sat in front of them, the swimmers ready to throw mud over the clubtails in case things went awry and the clubtails shielding the relatively vulnerable swimmers with their low, well-armored bodies. Tria, Topps, Doc and Dara meanwhile sat on the sides, with the whiptails ready to trip Mama Sharptooth in case she made a sudden lunge, and if she broke through that, the threehorns would be there to provide another line of defense.

While this mutually defensive arrangement eased the concerns of the flatteeth, Tria was a little worried her suggestion might make Mama Sharptooth feel hurt or offended. To her relief however, Mama Sharptooth looked as if a big weight had been lifted off her shoulders, understanding that this would dramatically reduce the chance of her having an accident. Seeing this, Papa Sharptooth got out of the mud and pulled out a couple of swamp stick, knowing that their mucky scent would dull any lingering predatory instincts.

"You want these?" Papa Fast Runner asked gently.

Mama Sharptooth gratefully nodded as Papa Fast Runner gave one of the swamp sticks to his mate and they each carefully inserted a swamp stick into one of Mama Sharptooth's nostrils. She looked a bit funny with two strange protrusions coming out of her nose, but also greatly relieved.

"Well, I think we're all ready," Mama Fast Runner laughed as the runner couple climbed onto Magnus and Kosh, ensuring that Mama Sharptooth would always be able to see two familiar faces. "You guys set?"

"Yep," Tria said to nods from the others.

Mama Sharptooth nodded gratefully before Spike lowered himself to the ground right at the mud pool's open edge, while Mama Sharptooth scooched herself down Spike's plated back and slowly slipped into the mud. When she finally finished, her whole belly was draped in the mud from head to tail. Looking around, she was amazed to find that not one of the flatteeth had left, and that they were really willing to share the mud pool with her.

"How does it feel?" Mama Swimmer asked gently.

Mama Sharptooth nodded very slightly, most of her jaw stuck in the mud. "Gooorrdd," she smiled.

"Well, you're not like Chomper," Tria snickered. "He's always been too much of a busybody to really enjoy it."

Mama Sharptooth shook her head in wry amusement. "Boyrrrrrrzz," she said simply.

The one-worded, cheeky response was enough to get everyone to snicker.

"Too true," Dara snickered. "They wander too much. I always tell Doc to really relax and let the mud overtake you."

"Be glad I don't," Doc smirked. "Otherwise, we'd both still be stuck."

"Touche," Dara giggled, remembering her incident in the Valley. "Of course, it was Chomper who really helped got me out."

"Yep," Doc said simply. "Can't say I liked any sharptooth before him. But he opened my eyes. He's a good kid."

"Yerrrrsssss," Mama Sharptooth said happily before mischievously adding, "Heeerrssayrrrnorrrfrrriendsfordinnerrr."

"Hang on there," Topps suggested in mock anger. "Are you saying that we smell good?"

"Yourrrrswwweearrrt," Mama Sharptooth said teasingly back.

"I don't know what your sniffer tells you, but rest assured I do not smell sweet. Or taste sweet for that matter," Topps huffed.

"No Topsy, she said you are sweet," Tria explained. "And I happen to agree. You're a real sweetheart underneath it all."

"Don't embarrass me," Topps playfully growled.

"Nah, she wasn't complementing you at all," Kosh snarked. "She didn't say you're sweet, she said you sweat. As in you've got massive body odor that stinks up this whole place."

"At least I don't burp," Topps glared back. "They don't call it clubtail breath for nothing."

"I know, it's embarrassing," sighed Magnus. "Considering none of us here do it but Kosh …"

"That's what happens when you get your own food," Kosh snarked back. "Rather than just stand around and take treestars from kids."

"Wait, what's this?" Rythe snickered.

"Oh, Magnus here had to eat a tree star that some kids were chasing after," Kosh snorted. "Little did he know they'd someday grow up to become his herd leaders."

"Hey, I didn't know they wanted it that bad!" Magnus shouted. "But at least I didn't yell at anyone for drinking water."

"Who'd yell at someone for drinking water?" Dara asked.

"Who do you think?" snickered Colby.

"Is that true Topsy?" Tria giggled.

"Oh yeah. It was a really old spiketail who lived in the Valley back then," Colby explained.

"What's this, dump on Mr. Threehorn day? I didn't even do anything to you!" Topps barked.

"You call sliding into my nose nothing?" Colby retorted. "That hurt for days with your big butt!"

"Can someone bring up someone else's dirt for once?" Topps asked exasperatedly.

"Hmm …" Rythe said. "Well I remember Albert and Ova were really after going the tiny longnecks when I was getting settled in," she teased the onehorn couple.

"Only because somebody else wanted to see them dead and whipped us into a panic about them," Ova snickered.

"Why does it always have to come back to me?" Topps asked.

"Maybe because someone can't keep their mouth shut," Albert chuckled. "You don't see all of us causing trouble."

"Because I've always been a member of the Circle of Elders, handling important issues while the rest of you just sit back and relax," Topps said pompously.

"So has Marina, and she doesn't make everyone mad at her," Beverly teased.

"Oh, I give up!" Topps said in annoyance.

"Yourrrrverrrrybrrraveo," Mama Sharptooth put in.

"What?" Topps asked blankly. In the midst of their banter, Topps didn't know what surprised him more, that Mama Sharptooth had spoken up, or that he actually got a compliment in the midst of all the teasing.

"Yourrrrorrrnrrrytoorrrrfirghtttus," Mama Sharptooth explained.

"You're only to fight … What?" Topps said, confused.

"She means that out of all of us here, you were the only one to fight her and her husband," Mama Swimmer snickered.

Mama Sharptooth nodded naughtily. "Heeehorrrnme. Yorurrrrtrrrryburrrtjurrrstarrrnddeeerre."

"He horned me. You try but just stand …" Mama Swimmer trailed off as Topps let out a guffaw.

"She's right though! I actually chased her off. While you just stood there with your hands on your hips, thinking that would do it," Topps boasted.

"What? You really expect me to just grow horns on my head to fight them off?" Mama Swimmer laughed.

"No, but I'd expect you to grow a backbone," Topps teased back.

"Arrrightho," Mama Sharptooth said. "Norrrronegorrrthurrrt. ArrrndddyourrrhorrrmeChorrrmperrr. Tharrrnkkyourrr."

"All right though," Mama Fast Runner translated. "No one got hurt, and you homed Chomper. Thank you."

"Oh, you're welcome," Tria said appreciatively. "We were happy to do it."

"Not all of us," Topps teased. "A lot of rockheads thought he'd kill them, even though he was just a little pipsqueak who I tricked into believing his teeth would fall out."

"Yourrrrbarrdddhorrrn," Mama Sharptooth growled. "Youurrrrrgooooorrnmerrrnnuu."

"You bad horn … You go on …" Topps paused before glaring. "Oh no, oh no you don't! I am NOT on the menu!"

And as everyone roared with laughter, Mama Sharptooth felt all warm inside. Apart from her own family, she hadn't been able to banter with anyone like that for cold times. It was impossible in a world where every day was a fight for survival and everything had to be taken seriously. But not only was this group of grownups more than pleasant and welcoming, they were downright fun to hang around with too. A feeling she'd never have expected from what she would've once thought to be a gigantic mucky buffet.

---

"Hey Rana?"

"Leave me alone."

"But …"

"I said, leave me alone!"

"Rana, I don't care who your ancestors are! It's who you are inside that counts! What I'm trying to say is …"

"Get away or I'll … I'll hurt myself! I've got thumb spikes, you know! Or did you forget that when you found about my no-good bigmouth parents?"

"But you're not …"

"For the last time, leave me alone!"

Reluctantly, Ceph moved away from the small cave that Rana had barricaded herself in. As tempted as he was to just head smash the boulder blocking the entrance, he knew it would only make things even worse. He hadn't ever seen Rana so enraged before, or so vulnerable. Usually, she was so self-assured and irreverent to any put-downs that she had no problem swatting them aside. If biting comebacks did not finish the job, her long gray tail would whap any would-be bullies. But the words from those puny little bullies cut deeply, for she had just started to open up about her deepest insecurity and they had seized on her unusually fragile confidence to bring her down. He seethed as he imagined throttling each of those little tykes one by one.

"How'd it go, Ceph?" a soothing voice asked.

Looking up, Ceph turned to see that Halle was approaching him. Ceph tried his best to smile at his girlfriend, but not even the sight of her could get him to smile.

"It's all those little brats' fault," Ceph growled, causing a couple kids nearby to back away nervously.

"He doesn't mean you," Halle quickly clarified to their relief.

"Those tykes seriously got under her skin," Ceph shook his head. "It's not fair, she's finally opening up about herself, and now she has to get bullied! If I get my hands on them, I'd …"

"Headbutt them to the Night Circle?" Halle asked teasingly.

Ceph weakly smiled before sighing, "Dad told me it'd be best to give her some space. But he doesn't really know her. She never hangs out in caves and quiet spaces like this, and I'm afraid all she's doing is just stewing and making it worse."

"I'm sure it will all work out," Halle soothed, before wrapping her arms around the neck of her fellow bonehead, the two then embracing in a pleasant, sustained kiss …

"I know you guys are an item, but seriously, everyone can see your mush around here," came an amused voice.

Turning, Ceph and Halle saw that Hyp had arrived, with the rest of their gang in tow, stifling their snickers.

"Oh, uh, hi," Ceph said awkwardly to Hyp. "Sorry about ..."

"Eh, doesn't matter to me," Hyp said indifferently. "Just thought you'd wanna know."

"Right, thanks," Ceph said gratefully to his friend.

Though Hyp had long been reluctant to show his own vulnerable emotions, being so well-versed concealing his feelings made him surprisingly adept at reading his own crew's faces. "What're you looking so put out for?" he asked bluntly. "It's bad enough Rana's in the dumps, we've been looking for her everywhere."

"Oh, well, uh, I found her," Ceph answered. "My dad let slip that she's in a cave. I tried talking to her, but she's not biting."

"Ugh," Hyp groaned. "Like she's gonna get any better sulking. I hate those rotten tykes! How dare they prey on Rana's spirit like stupid sharp … I mean, bad guys! When I get my hands on them, I'm gonna wring out their necks one by one till they grovel on their bellies and apologize. That'll teach 'em a lesson."

"But Hyp, then their grownups'll just come," Nod pointed out.

"Let 'em," Hyp sneered. Turning to Ceph, Hyp asked, "So what'd she say?"

"She told me to back off or else she'd hurt herself," Ceph answered. "So I did, I couldn't think of a better idea then. But I know we can't just give up."

"Yeah, we've gotta dig her out of this rut," Weald said determinedly. "She's not gonna like it, but I know the hard way that being trapped in dark thoughts is a vicious cycle. If she's at the point where she's talking about hurting herself, we've gotta help her and convince her to see the light."

"And make sure none of this crap eats her up," Hyp growled determinedly.

"Nothing's gonna really eat Rana up, right?" Mutt asked worriedly.

"Just a figure of speech, ol' bud," Nod reassured his friend.

"But how?" Ceph asked. "She won't even let me talk to her."

"Maybe she won't let you talk with her," Ann smirked. "But she might feel different about a girl talk."

"Scared to ask what that means," Dispo snorted playfully. "Not nice to leave us bad boys out, either."

"Rana and I go back before we even met you," Ann grinned naughtily. "You'd remember that if you had your head out of the spiked flowers."

"Don't start or I'll force-feed you spiked flowers," Dispo retorted back as they all laughed.

"Besides," Ann said more seriously. "I think I'm pretty familiar in knowing what it's like feeling shame about something that's not your fault or something that doesn't make you bad in the first place."

"You mean …" Nod said, trailing off as Ann nodded at once.

"I tried hiding my problems from everyone, even you guys," Ann explained. "But we all know how well that went. I'm not gonna sit back and let her go through all the self-abuse if I can put a stop to it."

"Hold on there," Hyp said, only for Ann to interrupt, flashing her eyes warningly. "I know what I'm doing, Hyp. So don't try and stop me."

"Like I, a puny little runner, could ever hold off a raging giant bigmouth," Hyp teased self-deprecatingly, causing everyone to chuckle a little bit. "But she needs my help too. She probably thinks she's all alone and that I'd want nothing more to do with her for being a crybaby, just like you did."

"How'd you know I needed help, anyway?" Ann asked. "I didn't say anything about my eggs."

Hyp snorted. "Just got a knack for knowing when you guys are in trouble. Of course, I don't make a big deal about it. Don't want anyone to think we've gone soft. But I'm big enough inside to know that real toughness is not running away from our problems but tackling them head-on so we end up that much stronger."

"Speaking of problems," Dispo smirked. "I think we're about to get ambushed."

"By sharpteeth?" Mutt asked fearfully.

"Worse, by the midget army," Nod replied, gesturing the others to look behind them.

Sure enough, everyone turned behind them and saw a large gaggle of kids all heading straight for them, fronted by a familiar group of rambunctious hatchlings.

"Hoo boy," Weald chuckled. "Where's Littlefoot's crew when you need them?"

"Maybe we shouldn't have dunked the tykes in the water," Dispo smirked.

"Ceph, Ann, Fearless Leader, you get to Rana," Nod said playfully.

"Hey," Hyp snorted, balling his fists, but Nod ignored him as he continued, "The rest of us will hold them off. Good luck!"

"I thought I'm the one who gave orders," Hyp teased Nod.

"You got any better ideas?" Nod asked just as Oplax called out, "Heya Nod!"

Seeing how quickly the kids were closing in on them, Ceph, Ann and Hyp hurried off just in the nick of time.

"Hi squirt, what's up?" Nod teased as he looked into Oplax's excitable emerald eyes.

"Well, we tried telling everyone how cool you guys are," Mono smirked. "But they wanna see you prove it yourselves."

"Okay," Dispo snorted, playing along. "What d'you want from us?"

Tricia smirked evilly. "You're gonna be monsters when it gets dark."

"You made great bad guys during kidnapping practice," Garnet snickered.

"So we want you to do it again! Give us a real scare tonight!" Perri giggled excitedly.

"And don't hold back!" Sam exclaimed.

Hyp shook his head. "Those hatchlings have got way too much spunk for their own good."

"Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm not gonna be the one watching over hatchlings for once," Ann snickered.

"So who's watching your babies then?" Ceph snorted. "Wait, don't tell me. You left them alone."

"Shut up, Ducky's aunt Phora's watching them," Ann snorted back.

"Sure she is," Ceph smirked, giving Ann a playful headbutt, making her wobble off balance.

"Oh, you're gonna regret that," Ann grinned as she pushed Ceph aside, her larger weight causing him to topple to the ground and Hyp to loudly chortle. He immediately wished he hadn't though, for Ceph's eyes narrowed naughtily.

"You think that's funny? I'll show you what funny is," Ceph snorted. And before Hyp knew it, the much bigger bonehead was able to grab him by the ribs and loft him up into the air. He fell like a rock, but not before Ceph leaned over to flatten his body out, causing Hyp to land smack on Ceph's back, before Ceph stood fully erect again and sent Hyp rolling down his back and onto the ground. "Isn't that funny?"

"No, but I know what is," Hyp smirked deviously. "Telling your dad that you're picking on little guys."

"Well, you asked for it, big boy," Ceph teased as Hyp bopped him on the nose, grinning naughtily. As much as he was getting along better with everyone else, Hyp still loved roughhousing with his ragtag gang of buddies. And now it was up to him, Ceph and Ann to get them all back together.

Ceph soon pointed Rana's cave to Hyp and Ann. The three approached quietly, not wanting Rana to overhear them and preempt their visit. They thought about coming up with a strategy, but figured Rana would see right through it, and that whatever they had to say would best come out naturally.

"Hey Rana?" Ceph asked as he got outside the cave.

"Ugh!" Rana roared at once. "Like I told …"

"Oh, come on Rana, stop being an idiot and listen!" Hyp growled.

Rana paused, evidently not expecting Hyp to come. "Oh great, just what I need, you to insult me and tell me how weak I am," Rana ranted.

"I know you're not an idiot, that's why I said you were being one," Hyp smirked, before shifting to a gentle but firm and reassuring tone. "And you're not weak. Not at all. You finally coming out with your biggest secret? That takes loads of guts, no matter what anyone else thinks. If they can't see that, then they're not worth your time."

"But those whiptails said …" Rana began, only for Hyp to cut her off.

"Who cares? They're a bunch of useless babies," Hyp snorted. "Talk about weak. Those creeps don't know a thing about standing up for each other and just care about their bruised egos. No wonder they all end up as sharptooth food and resort to kidnapping to keep their numbers up. Most of them probably don't even think for themselves and just do what the others do. And you let yourself get hurt by such crud? I know it's hard to ignore bullies, especially a lot of them … But when you're hurt by them, so am I! And so are the rest of us! You choosing to let it get to you hurts all of us!"

Rana paused, shocked by Hyp's rant, before more calmly saying, "Believe me, you're worth far more than any junk that comes out of their snively little mouths. You've got loads of guts, raising yourself and finding the Great Valley without any help from your lousy parents. You've got your friends, not to mention we're all part of this crazy awesome herd that won't let anything stop us! Besides, your blood only makes you cooler. You can swim great, but you've also got those big thumb spikes! Not to mention that sail of yours. Between you and me, sometimes I wish I had something as cool as that on my back. There, I said it."

"I knew you've always been jealous of it," Ceph snickered.

"Yeah, well, don't you dare rub it in," Hyp growled. "Otherwise, you're gonna be the one who's getting headbutted, and you don't wanna find out what I can do when I get a running start."

"Eh, your head's probably still nowhere near as thick as mine," Ceph teased.

"So you're the idiot, right," Hyp smirked mischievously.

"You two should get into a headbutting contest," Ann smirked. "That'll settle it."

"Ann, you're here too?" Rana asked.

"Well, yeah," Ann chuckled. "Of course I am! We've always been there for each other."

"That's what I thought," Rana snorted darkly. "Until you left me in the dark. Not even telling me about your eggs or your Secret Spot. I was worried about you, for crying out loud! And it turns out you've been sneaking behind my back, telling everyone else about it but me."

"That's not true," Ann explained. "I … I didn't wanna tell anyone what happened to me. I even set up a whole stupid plan to make it look like the halfteeth stole the eggs from somewhere in the Mysterious Beyond. Only Chomper's sniffer found me out and he and his friends caught me in the act."

"And I could tell something was going on with her, so I knew I had to get to the bottom of it," Hyp added. "Of course, Mutt and Nod followed me, and rather than have them asking questions, I figured I'd best let them tag along if they'd promise to keep their mouths shut. When we found Ann, Littlefoot's friends had already gotten to her, and after telling them not to tell anybody, we agreed to keep Ann's eggs a secret until she decided what she wanted."

"I … I was scared, okay?" Ann asked. "I didn't want anyone to know what happened to me, and it was humiliating enough that they all knew about it. When they found that Secret Spot, all I could think about was that I could finally take care of my eggs without anyone knowing. I shouldn't have kept you in the dark like that. But I was still getting through my own feelings, and the only ones who found out the truth were those who stumbled into it. I didn't freely tell anybody."

"Yeah, it's not like you were the only one who didn't know," Ceph observed. "Weald and I didn't find out until you did."

"Dispo only knew because he got on those stupid flowers again and needed a place to rehab, so they both needed a place to hide their secrets," Hyp shook his head. "We only got Ali, Shorty, Tippy, and Sophie involved to help move the stupid boulder around, you know that thing, it needed some serious muscle power. And as for the tykes, they only got in by snooping around. It's not like I wanted them poking their noses into everything."

They all shared a moment of laughter before Ann sighed.

"We were gonna tell you guys too," Ann said truthfully. "We agreed to it as a big group. But I … I still wasn't ready, especially with you. I was so afraid of what you might think of me that I didn't even stop to think how you'd be feeling. Which is my fault. I should've been a better friend to you and let you in on everything. But while I can't change the past, I'm here for you now. You'll always be my friend, and nothing anyone'll say will change that."

"Come back into the light, Rana," Hyp said gently. "Nobody's gonna force you to do anything if you don't want to. That's never the way we rolled and that's not gonna change now. But if you come out, I promise, you'll feel a lot better about it, and we'll feel a lot better about having you back too."

There was a pause, before Rana said, "It's just you three, right? It's just … I don't want anyone making a big fuss over me. That'd make me look like a big dork."

"Like any of us would want that?" Hyp snorted. "But don't worry, you're not getting another hugathon. One's more than enough for all of us."

Rana couldn't help but chuckle, and began to push aside the boulder. Despite the fact that the Bright Circle was rapidly setting, being trapped in the cave for so long made the little light still present seem blinding. Then after scanning to make sure no one else was watching, she slowly made her way out of the cave.

"You guys are right," Rana said quietly. "I shouldn't let what those jerks say get to me. I can't believe I've been so stupid."

"We've all been stupid," Hyp laughed. "But at the same time, we don't let it get us down. Right?"

"Right, big guy," Rana teased sarcastically.

"Geez, I just help you out, and you respond like that?" Hyp said in annoyance.

"What're friends for?" Rana snickered as Ann gave her a playful swat.

"Hey!" Rana exclaimed.

"That was for scaring us," Ann teased.

"Okay, I kinda deserved it," Rana laughed.

"I think we better keep it down," Ceph chuckled knowingly. "The wave of hatchlings is still coming for us."

Sure enough, Mutt, Nod, Weald, Dispo and Halle were getting backed up toward them as the surge of kids continued to advance, babbling with excitement.

"What do they want from us?" Rana whispered as the others snickered.

"They want us to scare them," Hyp smirked. "You're up for it?"

"You bet I am," Rana snorted, relieved that her voice had gone completely back to normal as her gorgeous sail thankfully soaked in the last of the Bright Circle's rays. She wasn't going to let ignorant taunts from bratty kids hurt her any longer, and if they didn't like who she was, they wouldn't be worth her attention.

---

While it was getting late in the day, Littlefoot and Cera still had plenty of energy to burn. With their friends pursuing other activities, the two of them were free to practice some boulder hitting. They had found the perfect-sized boulder, relatively small in shape but so dense that it probably weighed about a whole swimmer. This needless to say was too large for most dinosaurs, including most of their friends, to practice with and could easily squish many of the kids or smaller dinos. But with Littlefoot being a longneck and Cera a very large and burly threehorn, this was just the right size to give them a real challenge. Going out to a clearing far away from the hatchlings, they made sure nobody little was around before getting into position.

"All right Cera, ready for it?" Littlefoot called out.

"You bet," Cera grinned mischievously.

Littlefoot wrapped his tail around the boulder, and lifted it up. One of the skills he always was in awe of Doc with was his ability to do fancy tricks with his tail. Littlefoot knew that he couldn't quite achieve that level of precision, but he made up for it by his tail being a lot bulkier, allowing him to comfortably lift up the boulder without using his neck to help support it. He couldn't help but want to play with it, throwing it up a few times before promptly catching it, or trying to have it roll down his tail without it falling.

"Stop showing off," Cera said impatiently. "That's my job."

"Hey, I'm just getting warmed up," Littlefoot chuckled defensively. "Besides, you can't know when I'm gonna throw it. Gotta keep you on your toes." Then he suddenly tossed the boulder up.

Cera frantically ran to catch it. The goal for Cera was to get the boulder to fall on her frill between her horns so she could improve her accuracy. However, Cera overshot a bit, causing the boulder to slam right onto the hump of her back, just like a falling rock from the sky.

"You okay Cera?" Littlefoot asked.

Cera smirked cheekily. "I wouldn't have been," she explained. "But lucky for you, I've got my back armor now which protects me from falling rocks."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Littlefoot chuckled. Indeed, Cera's plating on her back had grown subtly over the cold times from being the little ridge it once was to now giving her back a solid defensive covering.

"I bet it could even withstand a sharptooth bite," Cera boasted playfully.

"Pity your belly's so soft," Littlefoot teased.

"I'll get you for that!" Cera roared, as she punted the boulder right at Littlefoot's flank. Littlefoot however just braced his stance, and felt the boulder bounce off his side.

"Not hard enough Cera," Littlefoot said. "I've got a lot of weight to throw around."

With a playful charge, Cera lunged toward Littlefoot, but Littlefoot was more than ready for her. Craning his neck around, he managed to bite onto Cera's frill, and with a great heave, lifted her upon his back.

"When you're big you can lift all the little ones … " Littlefoot sang teasingly. "Aargh!"

For Cera had just taken a little at the base of his neck, causing him to let go at once.

"That's what you get when you mess with me," Cera snorted as she returned to the ground.

"It's a good thing we're really on the same side," Littlefoot said as they both laughed.

"Hi, bighorn and bigneck! Looks like you guys are all healed up, huh?"

Looking down, Littlefoot and Cera saw that shieldback teen Dekker was grinning up at them.

"You bet we are," Cera smirked.

"So what's up?" Littlefoot asked.

"Well, we were gonna have a relay, smallnecks versus smallhorns," Dekker grinned.

"What's this bighorn and smallhorn stuff?" Cera asked.

Dekker laughed. "Well, you're bigger than Felix, Glenn, Kendall, Chantal and Keeter will ever be," he explained. "That makes them smallhorns and you the bighorn. Same thing with Littlefoot and the longnecks, they're smallnecks and he's the bigneck."

"So what does that make Ducky, Petrie and Spike?" Littlefoot snickered.

"Well it doesn't really work with Ducky and Petrie since Harmony's already bigger than Ducky and Phoenix is bigger than Petrie," Dekker laughed. "But I guess us tailed teens are smaller than Spike, at least for now, so he gets to be the bigtail too. But right now, us smalltails are the ground refs. And since we go smallest to biggest, the smallnecks and smallhorns want you to finish off the race."

"Seriously guys, you don't need to make the longneck-threehorn rivalry worse than it already is," Littlefoot laughed.

"Don't worry, it's all good fun," Dekker laughed, shaking his head. "My team was practicing our formations when Gara and Chantal decided to get into a paw-wrestling match, and soon, the others wanted in."

Littlefoot chuckled. "Well, I don't think we can refuse a direct request, right Cera?"

Cera grinned. "It … is on!"

"Great, follow me!" Dekker exclaimed as the three of them headed off.

They arrived in a nearby open space, where Littlefoot saw that the five longnecked and five horned teens were lined up expectantly, each group lined up from littlest to biggest.

"They're in, guys!" Dekker exclaimed as the others all cheered. Smirking, Littlefoot filed in behind Sheldon and Cera behind Kendall.

"So here's how the game works," Dekker explained to Littlefoot and Cera, nodding out into the distance where Light, Eva, Audrey and Candy were sitting. "Each player has to carry their team's bone out to where they're sitting, then run back with the bone still in their mouth and give it to the next teammate in line, who does the same thing," he explained, nodding to Anndi and Felix, who Littlefoot and Cera saw each had a long bone in their mouth. "Anndi and Felix are the smallest of each team, so they get to go first. While they go all the way to the other side and back, Gara and Chantal, who are next in line, have to get ready for the mouth-off and take off running the moment they get the bone. You two have to wait until the end for Sheldon and Kendall to come back. Then whichever of you gets to the finish line first wins for their team. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded before backing up to allow Anndi and Felix to get into position. "All right, three, two, one … Start!" Dekker shouted.

Anndi and Felix took off like they were being chased by sharpteeth as Gara and Chantal hurriedly stepped into their place, grinning determinedly. While both runners ran quick, Felix had the slightest edge, for he was not carrying a clubbed tail around. Chantal however was so excited to take the bone that she accidentally let it slip out of her mouth, hurriedly picking it up but not before Gara obtained her bone and the two galloped off at breakneck speed. The race continued nip and tuck, but over time the race started to tilt in the longnecks' favor with their increasingly long legs and the horned team getting bulkier and bulkier. Once Sheldon started turning back, Littlefoot held out his neck to take the bone from him.

"Hey!" Cera growled. "Your neck's going across the starting line!"

"How can I get the bone otherwise?" Littlefoot laughed. "But to be fair I'll give you ten extra seconds."

Sure enough after Sheldon gave Littlefoot the bone, he counted to ten before starting to run again. By that point Cera had already ripped her bone out of Kendall's mouth and started sprinting toward the other end. But Littlefoot was going at full throttle, using his height advantage over Cera to cover larger distances with every bound. It would be really close in the end, possibly determined by whether or not his outstretched head would count …

Suddenly Littlefoot felt the ground gave way and before he knew it, he realized that he had fallen into a pit trap, shallow enough for him to stick his whole neck out but preventing him from moving any further. Glancing to his right, he saw that Cera too had landed in the pit trap, looking bewildered.

"What … Just happened?" Cera asked blankly.

But no sooner than Littlefoot realize what happened than he felt a small torrent of something sticky splatter right across his back. Judging by Cera's groans, he knew that she too must be getting hit. Then looking up, Littlefoot chuckled as he saw that Petrie and the five flyer teens flew up front, grinning mischievously.

"You mean this was all … A PRANK?" Cera roared furiously.

"And Petrie … You can fly again?" Littlefoot asked, pretending to be surprised.

"Oh yeah," Petrie laughed, swooping around triumphantly. "Me bite all better now."

"And I bet this was YOUR idea, right?" Cera snapped at Petrie.

"Me guilty," Petrie snickered proudly.

"Petrie knew the one way to trick you into doing anything was to set up a competition," Candy laughed. "And it worked just as he said."

"Hey … Your guys' hands, feet and tails are all dirty," Littlefoot laughed, suddenly realizing why the twofooters were absent for the race and the tailed group was standing on the other side.

"Well, we dug the trap," Dekker laughed. "You just didn't notice it on me since I'm brown too. We made it just sturdy enough to support our weight, but not yours."

"Meanwhile, we prepared the tree sweets," laughed Welbie, as Littlefoot looked at his back, seeing that he had been pelted with tree sweet fruit.

"Well, you got us real good, Petrie," Littlefoot laughed.

"Yeah," Cera snarled. "Real nice, Petrie, pulling a mean-spirited prank like that."

"Prank no mean-spirited," Petrie grinned mischievously. "Prank help you guys."

"Oh yeah? How?" Cera asked.

"You now have sticky tree sweet juice on backs, right?" Petrie explained. "So you now smell bad to sharpteeth!"

"You mean …" Littlefoot said, before realizing the simple brilliance of Petrie's plan. "Wow Petrie. That's a great idea. Ready to go and find Chomper, Cera?"

"Well, I suppose there's not much else I can do being wet and sticky," Cera said, pretending to sound begrudging but secretly very pleased.

"Need help getting out?" Petrie asked.

"I think we're good," Littlefoot smiled, having no problem lifting himself out of the small trench.

"Yeah, I can do it myself," Cera said, pulling herself out with a heave.

"Well good luck guys," Petrie grinned, before grinning sheepishly at the big empty hole. "Guess we better clean it all up, huh?"

"You think?" Cera snorted as everyone laughed.

---

With the kids all having left their dinner, Ruby stayed behind to clean up the remains. She found it surprisingly enjoyable completing such a mundane task, for not only did her small size make her one of the few able to do it efficiently, but with Mr. Thicknose and Saro having taken a nap to be awake for storytelling later, Ruby was free to engage with her own thoughts. Hidden Runner. She couldn't believe she had forgotten about him completely, especially being the one who told her friends about him in the first place. Just seeing him back then was amazing enough as a kid. But when she thought about him now, she realized how little she really knew …

"You okay, Ruby?" came a voice.

Ruby looked up to find that Ali was also lounging nearby. She had been so absorbed in her own thoughts that she had almost forgotten Ali was there.

"Yeah," Ruby answered sheepishly. "Just lost in thought, I guess."

Ali giggled. "I know what that's like."

"You do?" Ruby said in surprise.

Ali nodded. "When you migrate as often as I did, your thoughts start keeping you company. Especially when you're the only kid around."

Ruby chuckled. "And sometimes, you need your own place to think, like I had my thinking place."

Ali giggled. "You mean you guys didn't have time to think when going off on your adventures?"

"How'd you guess?" Ruby said dryly as they both laughed. "You can imagine how it went. Littlefoot thought with his heart, Spike thought to himself, and the others talked when they thought."

"I think I got a good taste of that," Ali snickered. "But we wouldn't love them any other way, right?"

"Right," Ruby giggled as they both laughed.

"Thanks for helping out with the dinner," Ruby told Ali when she got her breath back. "Your story really connected with the new kids!"

"Oh, you're welcome," Ali smiled. "I just thought I had an idea where they're coming from, growing up in a segregated, migrating herd, and wanted to help them feel they're not alone."

"Thankfully your old herd's a lot nicer though," Ruby chuckled.

"Yeah," Ali sighed. "Seeing these kids made me realize how lucky I was to have a herd that loved me. But one thing these guys had that I did not was company their age. Sure, I imagine most of the kids there were bullies, but we've got at least a few defectors from each of their herds, so they weren't completely alone. But before Rhett came and between when he passed and Cam and Mia came, there weren't any other kids in the herd, and I felt like the odd one out. I only had one friend before Littlefoot, I can remember playing with her for a day and then I never heard from her again."

"What did she look like?" Ruby asked curiously. "Maybe we can help you two meet again."

"She was a longneck like me," Ali answered, "But the funny thing is, I can't remember actually seeing her. I think she was in a log the whole time. She's probably long gone now."

Sighing, she continued, "I suppose that's why I was kind of possessive and manipulative towards Littlefoot when we first met. I didn't want him to leave me too, you know? And be all alone again."

"Yeah," Ruby sighed. "I was pretty lonely too before meeting Chomper. That might've been part of why my parents had the twins. Of course, while they love me, the two of them are inseparable from each other."

"Sounds just like Cam and Mia," Ali chuckled knowingly, amazed with how much she and Ruby seemed to have in common. "Did you have any friends before then?"

Ruby pondered. "I guess … But it was difficult. Because so many flatteeth think all our kind are eggstealers, I had to be really careful to hide myself when playing with other kids and not let them or their herds see me."

"You mean you played with other kids, not just fast runners?" Ali asked in surprise.

"Yep," Ruby chuckled. "Actually, none of them were fast runners. Our kind's gotta be careful with one another. Some, like my family, are basically leafeaters who eat a little non-dino red food. But others eat more red food, they could be eggstealers or hatchling hunters, even towards other halfteeth. And our kind's always also on the run too. So many scared flatteeth and hungry sharpteeth would kill us if they could find us. My parents understood I'd get lonely though, so they let me play with anyone I could find as long as I could hide myself. That way, whoever I'd meet just think they're another of their kind and me and my family would be safe."

"Wow," Ali said thoughtfully. "So the only friends you made before Chomper never actually saw you?"

"They must not have, since I've never been chased off by angry herd elders," Ruby smirked as she and Ali both laughed.

"Yeah, considering how my herd acted with Chomper, I'm glad you never found me," Ali snickered.

"That was our fault though," Ruby laughed. "Well mostly Cera's. She was the one who really wanted you to know the truth. Even Littlefoot only went along with it after her persuasion."

"Wow, I didn't think Cera cared about me so much," Ali giggled.

"Cera really likes you, even if she doesn't always show it," Ruby explained as they both laughed.

"You make any longneck friends when you were little?" Ali asked curiously.

Ruby pondered. "A couple, I think. But I can't remember much else. It's hard to remember something too long ago to remember. They were really little I think, my parents warned me not to approach anyone too big."

"Yeah," Ali sighed. "That makes sense."

Then as she adjusted her neck, she caught sight of someone else. "Oh, hello Ducky," Ali said in surprise.

Ruby turned around and saw that indeed Ducky was crouched down a short distance away from them.

"Oh, hi," Ducky grinned sheepishly. "Sorry for not saying anything. I just came to help, but once I saw you two talking, I did not want to interrupt, and I liked hearing your stories."

"That's all right," Ruby smiled. "Just sharing old memories."

"Oh yes yes yes," Ducky grinned, with a slight twinkle in her eyes. Ruby immediately noticed this and asked, "Is something the matter, Ducky?"

"Um … Not really," Ducky said hesitantly. "But um … Ruby, can you tell me the story about meeting one of your longneck friends?"

"Well, let's see …" Ruby pondered. "It was rainy that day. Very wet, I remember my feet were all mucky. But I didn't feel like resting like my parents, I wanted to have some fun. The twins weren't born yet, so I just went off on my own to explore. It was hard to see, there was so much fog. But I could make out the shape of a tiny longneck. Knowing that longnecks were big, I knew that it had to be a kid. I think it was a girl, hard to tell since she seemed even younger than me. Anyway, I hid myself inside a big log, using my hands and claws to keep me suspended and we started playing guessing games. Like one of us came up with an answer, and the other would have to ask the right questions to guess what it is."

"I think I know that game," Ali chuckled. "Like is it red?"

"Oh … Nope," Ruby grinned.

"How about purple?" Ali said.

"Yeah," Ruby said simply.

"Does it taste good?" Ali asked.

"Yep," Ruby answered.

"Is it sweet bubbles?" Ali giggled.

"You guessed really quickly!" Ruby snickered.

"My mom and I played that game so we wouldn't get bored on our migrations," Ali laughed.

"So that's what we did," Ruby explained. "Until it got dark. I had to get back home somehow, so I warned her a belly dragger was coming. That got her to go back to her herd, and allowed me to get out of the log without showing her I was a halftooth. Later that night, we were chased away by angry boneheads. And when I went to look for her the next day, her herd had gone."

"Hmm … Ali, you are nineteen, right?" Ducky asked.

"Yeah," Ali said slowly, not knowing where this was going.

"Well, I have been thinking," Ducky explained. "Since Ruby said it was very wet, there was lots of fog, and there were belly draggers and angry boneheads, she might have been in the Land of Mists."

"Hmm, maybe," Ruby continued. "We did run to a lot of places when on the run."

Thoughtfully, Ducky continued, "Ruby, you are twenty, so you are a cold time older than Ali and me. But since this happened before the twins were born, you would be no older than nine. And Ali, we were six when we had our journey, so it would have had to be before then too. But at that age, even one cold time feels like a lot, it does."

"What are you getting at?" Ruby asked confusedly. "Are you saying that Ali might have been the longneck I met back then?"

"Yep yep yep," Ducky giggled.

"No way," Ali smirked.

"Think about it," Ducky pointed out. "You both say you were lonely. You would both be in the Land of Mists. You both say you only knew your friend for only a day. Ruby, you talked to your friend through a log, and Ali, your friend was talking to you in a log. You both knew how to play that guessing game! Ali, you just assumed she was a longneck because you did not think it could be someone of another kind! And Ruby, it is hard to see in the mists and Ali would have been really little then, so you would not have recognized her. She would sound a lot different at ten than four, she would!"

"I didn't tell you I was playing that game too," Ali marveled. "But … I think I was. And … My friend did tell me a belly dragger was coming."

Ali and Ruby stared at each other blankly as Ducky grinned excitedly. "I knew it, yep yep yep!"

There was a pause. "No wonder you guessed right away," Ruby chuckled. "I definitely remember giving one about sweet bubbles."

"Yeah, I remember I had a much harder time with that one back then," Ali smiled. "That was the first one you gave me, right?"

"I think it was, and you did have a hard time with it," snickered Ruby. "Well, what do you know … I guess you must've been my mysterious friend for a day!"

"And you my missing longneck friend, only you're not really a longneck!" Ali laughed, shaking he head. "You should've shown me what you are, then I wouldn't have been scared of Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike and we'd all be friends from the start!"

"Not sure it would've been that easy," Ruby snickered knowingly to Ducky.

"Well with me, Petrie and Spike it would," Ducky giggled. "But Cera got jealous of everyone who came between her and Littlefoot. It was not just you, nope nope nope! You should have seen what happened when she first met Mo. He did not try to take Littlefoot away from her, but the idea of Littlefoot having a new best friend made her very, very mad, it did!"

"Ah well," Ali snickered. "I guess I'd have to earn her trust the hard way anyways. Though it may have been safer if I just let you guys come from the start."

"But then we might have never met Dilly," Ducky laughed. "And she is the only reason why Goregie's sharpbeaks got caught, she is!"

"Oh, I didn't think about that," Ali giggled. "All's well that's ends well, I guess."

"Yep yep yep," Ducky smiled as they all giggled.

Then turning to Ruby, Ali asked, "So what do you think about an old friend hug?"

"Only if you don't squish me," Ruby teased and both laughing, Ali and Ruby beamed as they embraced, finally figuring out the mysterious entity from each of their long-ago memories.

"So new old friend," Ali snickered, "Is this why you were lost in thought before?"

"Funnily enough, no," Ruby chuckled. "But it was someone else who might have been lonely too."

Turning to Ducky, she asked, "You remember Hidden Runner?"

"Oh, now that you say it, yes yes yes!" Ducky answered brightly. "But I had forgotten about him for a long time. What made you think about him?"

"Mr. Thicknose mentioned him," Ruby explained. "Only I've realized there's a lot more that we don't know about him."

"Like what?" Ducky asked.

"Well, Mr. Thicknose said that he saw Hidden Runner as a hatchling, right?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah," Ducky said. "So?"

"So if he saw Hidden Runner as a hatchling and we saw Hidden Runner as hatchlings, it would mean that he would've been at the Great Valley when he'd be very young and very old. Which doesn't make sense with Mr. Thicknose saying Hidden Runner doesn't stay in one place for long."

"Maybe it was just coincidence," Ducky mused.

"I thought about that," said Ruby. "But why were we able to find him right when we started talking about him? It doesn't seem like he'd come for that reason, especially since he seemed scared of us. And Mr. Thicknose did not know everything about Hidden Runner. He told us that Hidden Runner was invisible, but he really just blends in so well it only appears that way. If Mr. Thicknose was wrong about him being invisible, why wouldn't he be wrong about not staying in one place for very long?"

"So are you saying that Hidden Runner might have lived in the Great Valley the whole time?" Ali asked thoughtfully.

"I think it's possible," Ruby said. "But we can only guess, we can't know what we don't know."

"But why would we have never saw him before or since?" Ducky asked curiously.

Ruby pondered. "Well, we never looked for him any other time. And I don't think he'd want to show himself. After we saw him, he'd make extra sure no one would ever see him again."

"But we would not have hurt him," Ducky said sadly.

"Yeah, but how would he know that?" Ruby pointed out. "I think he'd think the rest of the Valley would think he was dangerous because he's a halftooth. And he might have been right. We know how some flatteeth treat us halfteeth, especially when they think we are eggnappers. Me, the twins, my parents and their herd have all faced our share of fear and mistrust, and the segregated herds took all that to pure hatred of us. I wouldn't blame him for just wanting to stay hidden."

"Do you think he might still be in the Valley now?" Ducky asked concernedly. "It would be very bad if they found him now."

"Yeah," Ruby sighed with worry. "If he is, and since so much time has passed, he would have to be very old … Assuming of course, that Hidden Runner was just one dinosaur."

"What do you mean?" Ducky asked.

"Saro told us that he knew a whole herd of hidden runners," Ruby explained. "Making me realize that hidden runner is an entire kind. Which got me thinking, what if the hidden runner we saw and the one he saw long ago were actually different dinos? Yet though they are different, they're still connected?"

"So what are you saying?" Ali pondered.

"Well, I don't know any of this, I'm just guessing," Ruby said slowly. "But now I'm thinking they might both be members of the same hidden runner herd. A hidden runner herd that has been living at the edge of the Valley since before any of us were born. Who live in secret, away from sharpteeth and flatteeth. But they would have to get food somehow, green food doesn't grow in the dark. So they send scouts into the Valley to collect food to feed their herd and make sure no one knows of their herd's existence."

"You mean like with the tiny longnecks?" Ducky marveled. "Like we shared the Valley with them the whole time, only we did not know that they existed?"

"Kind of," Ruby explained. "But I'm thinking their hiding place would have to be outside the Great Valley. A colony of tiny longnecks could hide underground, but I imagine a herd of them would need someplace bigger. Not to mention they're big enough that they could make a long journey."

"Would they know what happened in the Valley?" Ali asked thoughtfully.

Ruby pondered. "They might not. If they were just there to collect food, they would want to stay as far away from anyone as possible. And it's not like Leigh needed to burn down the Valley to take over. If you just looked at the land, it would look just as beautiful as ever. So chances are they wouldn't know anything bad has happened. But with the segregated herds being so territorial, getting back into the Valley would be very dangerous. With Mr. Bonehead gone, if they were caught, I think we'd all know what would happen to them," she gulped. "Of course, I could be totally wrong. Maybe Hidden Runner was just a lone runner or two and there is no herd. But if I'm right …" she trailed off.

"Do you think we could do anything about it?" Ali asked.

Ruby wondered. "I don't know. We could send someone in to warn them. But with the runners not wanting to be found, how would they find the runners before the segregated herds find them? But if somehow we can find them, I was thinking we could help them. If they want, we could give them a place in the herd, so they could finally live somewhere without fear of being seen. And in turn, they might be able to help us by spying on the regime."

"Hmm, makes sense," Ali observed. "Maybe we should speak to the elders. Saro and Mr. Thicknose might have ideas."

"Yeah, we could arrange a meeting with them tonight," Ducky explained. "They would want to help us any way they can, they would."

Just then, Ruby heard the sound of loud footsteps approaching, and looking up, she saw three familiar longnecks walking toward them.

"Hey Ali, I think your old herdmates need you," Ruby playfully smirked.

Ali turned to see Cam and Mia approaching, along with Cam's boyfriend Len. All three of them, but especially Cam and Mia, looked excited yet also a bit nervous.

"Hi guys," Ali greeted them warmly. "You wanted to see me?"

"Actually, no," Cam giggled. "That is, we're happy to see you, but … but …"

"But it's Ruby we came to see," Mia finished.

Surprised, Ruby stood up and walked over to them as they lowered their necks to greet her. "I'd be happy to help whatever you need help with," Ruby said warmly.

"Well, uh … We were thinking, uh … It was all Mia's idea," Cam said, twitching hesitantly.

"Yeah, uh, how do I put it?" Mia asked awkwardly. "Well … We're still really sorry for trying to frame Chomper like that."

"Don't worry you two," Ruby reassured them. "That's water under the land pass. Chomper's long forgiven you, and so has everyone else. Besides, you more than made up for it when you fed Chomper that carcass. Who knows, you might've saved Chomper's life by preventing him from going hungry in that prison. If he lost control on a guard, he would've been killed on the spot, and it's thanks to you he never got hungry."

"Yeah, but we're not done making things up," Mia said determinedly. "I was just thinking … Chomper's gonna have to tell Lola his whole story about living among flatteeth and being a friendly sharptooth. And at some point, my incident with him's gonna have to come out."

"It doesn't have to," Ruby reassured Mia.

But Mia shook her head. "How can Chomper explain his journey without mentioning the time someone actually planned to have him murdered, and tried using his hunger to bring him down? Bad things make his story real, and if his journey seems too easy, the others will have a hard time believing him or thinking they can do it themselves. And even if somehow he gets around it, it's gonna come out eventually. I mean, I led the whole Great Valley on a stupid rampage and left it vulnerable to an eggstealer mob! How's it not gonna slip? And what'll happen then? Lola won't be able to trust us if we keep hushing it up. She'd feel betrayed, and Goregie might prey on her feelings to get her to betray all of us!"

Much as she didn't want to say it aloud, Ruby knew Mia had a point. "So, what do you want to do about it?" she asked carefuly.

Mia paused, knowing it was her last chance to back out, before plunging in. "I wanna make things right," she explained. "He's socializing Lola with flatteeth to get her used to us, right? That's where Shorty's been, I saw them go out together. I know Shorty's the biggest of us young adults and the one who'd get hurt least from a bite. But I'm right up there! I'm a big longneck too, bigger than any sharptooth! And I need to do it! To introduce myself to them the right way. To let them know that while I tried killing Chomper once, I'm now his friend and willing to put my neck out there to help any sharptooth who wants to follow him!"

Ruby considered. True, Mia was one of the largest young dinosaurs of the herd, certainly able to hold off most sharptooth attacks. And her motivation seemed very sincere and compelling. Still, she was concerned about Mia's judgment. After all this was the same longneck who got tricked by eggstealers into eggnapping for them. A wrong call or misreading of intent here could dramatically backfire on them. She needed to give Mia the right guidance.

"Okay, look," Ruby said slowly. "Sometimes when sharpteeth attack, they don't mean to. They just literally cannot control their bodily urges to resist available food. It is like putting you in a forest and asking you not to eat the tree stars."

"I know," Mia said. "That's why Chomper got lured out, because he was so hungry he couldn't resist the meat."

"Yes, but that's only one kind of urge," Ruby said cautiously. "You don't need to be hungry to think that tree sweets smell good. If the smell is good enough or the fruit looks tasty enough, your body still wants to eat, even if you are full. This is a really big problem for sharpteeth since their senses are so good, so the temptation is that much stronger. And to sharpteeth, the smell of flatteeth smells just as good as the smell of tree sweets does to us. What's more, sharpteeth also have a sense for movement. When a flattooth runs like prey, the sharptooth's instincts grow really strong and become very hard to resist. I had to work with Chomper on this for a long time before he could present himself to the Valley. All of this is why most sharpteeth don't even try fighting their temptations. It takes a lot of willpower, and it is a lot easier for them to embrace their instincts and hunt whatever comes their way."

Mia nodded, before Ruby continued, "So if you want to help Chomper teach his pack to resist their instincts, you must be prepared for them to attack, yet also understand that their bodily actions are mistakes and not conscious choices. Thus, you need a way to protect yourself that at the same time will not hurt them but merely keep them at bay until they snap out of it. For me, it was that I could outrun Chomper, but what worked for me won't work for you. You're big enough to where a big stomp or a tail whip on the ground might do the job."

"Actually, I think I've got my own idea," Mia giggled. "Wanna see?"

"Sure," Ruby answered.

"All right," Mia said excitedly. "Pretend that you're a sharptooth and I'll show you."

Intrigued, Ruby obliged. Knowing that to pretend to be a sharptooth, she had to pretend to have all the weapons that made them so lethal – a toothy jaw, sharp hand and foot claws, and a tail that could lash out at opponents. Then she fixated on Mia's leg, imagining it to taste immeasurably good, and that she couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Okay, I'm as ready as I can be," Ruby said. "But remember, if I touch you, you have to react like you've been slashed by a sharptooth's claws. And at the same time, you can't hurt me since I don't mean to be hurting you, I'm just not in control of myself."

"Got it," Mia said, not seeming to be at all phased.

Ruby nodded, and contorting her face to look as fierce as possible, she began to sprint toward Mia's leg, her beak and claws at the ready to make a hurried strike. She had only gone a few paces however before she felt something grab onto her tail, and before she knew it, she felt herself getting heaved up into the air. Despite her attempts to struggle, she continued to get lifted upward, and soon she was far above the ground, her body dangling dangerously, only held up by the grip of the tall longneck's teeth. Trying to kick, scratch, or bite at Mia's neck, she found that it was out of reach, and no matter what she tried, she continued to remain suspended.

"Give up?" Mia giggled after several unproductive attempts to break free.

Ruby nodded. "By now Chomper would be able to snap me out of it. Okay, you can put me down."

So Mia gracefully lowered Ruby to the ground before Ruby got up and faced her. "That was really good," Ruby said as Mia beamed. "You managed to stop me without hurting me, just as you said."

Mia grinned. "You couldn't reach me because my kind's neck is even longer than other longnecks," she explained. "That allows me to hold a sharptooth out farther away from the rest of my body, and I'm heavy enough to keep them hanging there until they can return to normal."

Ruby nodded. "Sounds good. Though I've got a couple ideas that can help you, if you want."

"Sure," Mia said gratefully.

"All right," Ruby said. "For a little sharptooth, you can probably hold them like that for a long time. But a bigger sharptooth like Lola would be much harder. Holding that weight up will tire you out much more easily. And a bigger sharptooth can reach out much further than I could. If you grab them by the tail, they might be able to swing their body toward your chest, reach out to claw at it or bite it, and force you to let them go. So considering that most big sharpteeth have long bodies, big skulls and small arms, what is one place where you can disable them?"

"Uhh …" Mia said uncomfortably. "I give up."

"The neck," Ruby explained. "It is a dangerous spot to get considering the sharptooth might be able to swivel around and snap at your face if you're not quick enough. And you can't have too hard of a grip or you might cut off my air intake. But pick me up by the neck and I'll show you what I mean."

Mia obliged, gently grabbing Ruby by the neck and holding her off the ground.

"Now that you have my neck, my head cannot turn," Ruby explained. "It is stuck facing away from you, so you have disabled it. I might be able to reach you with my longer arms. But big sharpteeth usually have little arms that cannot reach all the way up to their necks. Their foot claws would also not be able to reach you so long as you keep your neck out, and while their tail could potentially whip around, at least it is not equipped with sharp teeth."

"Ah, I see," Mia said appreciatively as she released Ruby.

"I'll let Chomper know you want to help and will help you get ready in the meantime," Ruby said. "To give you more practice with your holds. But you're off to a really great start, and you should be ready soon."

"Great," Mia grinned.

Ruby then turned her attention to Cam and Len. "Do you want to help too?"

"Well, we were kinda here to give Mia moral support," Cam confessed.

"And our necks aren't as long as Mia's," Len pointed out. "But I guess we're still pretty big."

"If you can think of a way we can help, we can," Cam said. "To be Mia's bodyguards, if nothing else."

"Well, more help might come in handy," Ruby said appreciatively. "I'll talk to Chomper and see what he feels like is best. After all, he knows his sharpteeth better than we do."

"Yep yep yep … But not for long, for we will know them too, we will!" Ducky said cheekily as they all laughed.

---

Since the wild series of events in which they were forcibly taken from their mother, escaped from their attempted kidnappers, discovered the true nature of the Valley's oppressive new order, and found an underground tunnel in which to escape, little Igg and Britt Spikethumb's lives had been refreshingly uneventful. The tunnel had led to a large, enclosed space, one that while stripped clean of larger trees and flowers, seemed remarkably free of anyone else. Something to which the twins couldn't have been more grateful for.

"I still can't believe this place is real," Igg murmured as he ate a mouthful of grasses.

"I know, right? It's like our own little Great Valley all to ourselves," Britt smiled.

However, they knew they had to be quiet. On the other side of the rock walls, they could hear the bellicose sounds of what had to be the Valley's segregated round-crested hollowhorn herd. The twins didn't have to see anything to know what was going on there, for right nearby them, they could hear gaggles of dark round-crest kids engaging in ferocious, brutal brawls. Through the stomping, screaming, roaring, and pummeling sounds was a constant stream of jeering, biting dialogue. And try as they might, they found it impossible to ignore.

"Bring it on, loser! Or are you gonna start bawling like your sister Galena?"

"How dare you compare me to that traitor! She's no sister of mine!"

"How can I not? You're just as whiny as she is."

"She's as much my sister as Kodi's your brother!"

"Don't you dare mention that half-pint! He's got nothing to do with me, I'd choke him off if I could!"

"I'm just glad their sorry sniveling faces are out of our way."

"Yeah, they're a disgrace to our herd and our bloodlines! They must've been eggs that just rolled into our nests. And to think of all the food that went to waste feeding them! It still burns me up."

"To think they betrayed us to save a smelly sharptooth!"

"I hope the Bright Circle burns them all to a crisp!"

"Yeah, and then they're really gonna be in for it!"

Not one friendly voice broke through all the venomous spewing. Evidently, all the remaining kids were those who were either thoroughly indoctrinated or too scared to voice their indignation. This was such a contrast from the joint lecture that the twofooter kids all had, where a whole bunch of kids revolted against their teacher Cryaz's ravings, including several of Cryaz's fellow round-crests. Having paid more attention to their peers than their instructor, Igg and Britt could still see the glares of a whole contingent of round-crest kids, not having any of what Cryaz was saying. Tricia's friend Cassia was of course the loudest and most visibly defiant, but fellow round-crest kids Toyo, Splash, Spring, River, Hyra, Caty and Karyn backed her up the entire time, shielding her from the nearby round-crest bullies, raucously cheering her and her friends on during their protest performance, and joining up with a bunch of other kids, including many from the segregated herds, to defy their lecturer and walk out afterwards. Igg and Britt were sorely tempted to join their peers in the revolt. But their mother had warned them to keep their heads down to remain safe, and so the twins reluctantly stayed quiet, sat through the entire lecture, and went back home. A decision that now they had lost their mother anyway, they had come to regret. Without saying a word, both of them knew the other was also thinking about what had happened to those kids brave enough to take part in their open rebellion.

"All right children, listen up!"

Cryaz's voice sternly wheezed as she stomped authoritatively in, upon which, Igg and Britt could hear the round-crest kids stop their sparring and line up into orderly rows.

"We've got a score to settle with those lousy long-crests," Cryaz said with grim determination. "They said the circles like their calls more than ours."

As the kids loudly booed, Cryaz said, "Well, we're not gonna just sit there and sacrifice our honor. We must seize the opportunity, and I've arranged a way for each of you prove to the circles that our kind is worthy of their favor as the better hollowhorn."

Pausing to let the kids let out war cries, Cryaz continued, "Our herd has challenged theirs to a duel, our younglings against theirs. Your mission is to thoroughly pulverize your opponents. Our elders will arm each of you with a big fruit. Prepare to chuck it as hard as you can at their measly heads, while not succumbing to their weaker power. Go for the jugular when they're down, tackle and pin them to the ground and bite and slash at them until those weaklings bleed and cry out for mercy. And while you're at it, ring out your mighty voices and let the circles know that us round-crests are truly worthy of their favor! So assemble as a unit, grab your weapons, troops, and let's go kick some worthless long-crest tail!"

The round-crest kids roared, pounding their fists against their bellies, before making loud war cries, uninterrupted by any kind of protest as they began to march off. The twins looked at each other in horror, realizing that if it hadn't been for their last-minute escape, they too would most likely be forced into these pointless, hateful hatchling duels.

Suddenly, Igg and Britt felt their shoulders being tapped, and whirling around, the twins felt their hearts grow cold. Four flyers, three teenage boys in subdued shades of red, blue, and green, and their mother, who was light brown with darker underwings and a golden beak, were standing behind them, carrying a pair of makeshift leaf gags and blindfolds. Warningly, the mother pressed her finger to her lips.

"You two are in great danger," she said softly. "We're gonna have to get you out of here."

Terrified, the twins stared at her.

"But … This place seems safe, Madam Flyer," Igg began. "Right?"

"Just call me Zephyra," the flyer said, nodding. "You know Ms. Flyer from the Circle of Elders? I'm one of her flyer friends. And these are my three boys, Cirrus, Cumulus, and Nimbus."

The three teen flyers all smiled and waved friendlily as Zephyra continued to explain.

"This is a safe place for now," warned Zephyra. "But you two are surrounded by danger. I'm sure you must've heard the dark hollowhorn herd on the other side of these walls. Yet at the same time, Leigh is looking to expand the Valley's territory, so he has posted the dark swimmer herd on the cliffs overlooking this spot. If they look down and find you, they will show you no mercy. In addition to that, the dark flyers will soon be getting their flight back and will be scouring the territory nearby. And needless to say, all of these herds will gladly report you to the dark jury if they find you. Who, without Mr. Bonehead to stop them, will not hesitate to give you an instant sentence."

"How do you know all this?" Britt asked.

"Not here," said the blue flyer, Nimbus. "We'll explain when it's safe. But we can't be overheard."

"That's why we're gonna have to gag and blindfold you," said the red flyer, Cirrus.

"What?" Igg said.

"It's for your own safety," reassured the green flyer, Cumulus. "If you see bad guys, can you really trust yourselves not to scream?"

Having lived in the Valley their entire lives and not being very adventurous, Igg and Britt knew that Cumulus had a fair point.

"We must leave in complete silence," Zephyra told them. "You will be riding us, so you do not need to do anything except remain completely still. We will carry you off to a place of safety, far from the Valley's walls, where we've set up camp."

"You promise you'll keep us safe?" Britt asked worriedly.

"We promise," Zephyra said as her sons nodded.

"Okay, we'll do it," Igg whispered.

"Great," Zephyra said, before turning to her sons. "Cirrus, go make sure the bigmouths aren't around to see us leave."

Cirrus quietly glided up to the edge of the cliff, where he scanned for the dark swimmer herd.

"Nimbus, Cumulus, each of you take care of one of the kids. Kids, if the bindings are at all uncomfortable, let us know and we will fix them."

Igg and Britt meekly nodded as Nimbus and Cumulus worked to carefully blindfold and gag the twins.

"It'll all be over in no time," Nimbus said gently.

"Just think of nice things, and we'll take care of the rest," Cumulus added.

The two kids nodded, getting used to not being able to see or say anything.

"Coast's as clear as it can be," said Cirrus. "They're at their watering hole, only a couple patrols around."

"Great," said Zephyra. "I think Igg and Britt are just little enough that we can take them both at once. Cirrus, Nimbus, you take Igg. Cumulus, we'll take Britt. Okay?"

"Yep," they replied.

So silently, they worked to get into position. Quietly, Cirrus and Cumulus each lifted a twin up, gripping onto them with their hind feet as they struggled to remain airborne. Moments later, Nimbus and Zephyra went underneath the kids to support them from below, allowing each to have a flyer they could stand on and a flyer who was holding onto them. Then they set off through the swimmers' territory, and not a moment too soon, for out of the corner of their eye, they could see a patrol in the distance that had been going away from them start heading back. Knowing they'd be easier to spot if they flew higher in the sky, they took the chance and glided low to the ground.

Soon, as they came upon a charred forest in the distance, a group of four fast biters emerged from behind the tree, shrieking loudly. While they were still a good distance away, they had no doubt the fast biters were coming for them, especially given their good senses. If they could notice the sharpteeth, the sharpteeth could certainly notice them.

"Mom, you keep the kids safe," said Cirrus. "We'll try to rock bomb them."

Very glad that Igg and Britt couldn't scream and alert the swimmer patrol, Zephyra nodded as the flyers disassembled their flight formation, Zephyra standing guard over the kids as her sons picked up some large stones and flew over the biters. With the biters going at top speed, the flyers hoped that they would be unable to halt their momentum and fall victim to quick shots in the head. Flinging the rocks right in their path, the triplets gasped in horror as the fast biters easily swerved out of the way of all three drops and charged onward. Hurriedly, they tried again, retrieving their rocks and pelting them at the fast biters. But as well-aimed as these shots were too, the biters had no problem dodging them, getting closer and closer to Zephyra, Igg and Britt.

"It's no good!" called out Zephyra desperately. "We're gonna have to fly them up to the top of the trees. They can't reach us there."

Hurriedly, the teen flyers returned and haphazardly secured Igg and Britt to take liftoff just as the biters got to where they were standing. Enraged, the biters whirled around and followed them from the ground, but being airborne kept the flyers safe from the predators. They then settled upon the branches from the very forest that the biters had come from.

"I think we lost them," Cumulus said hopefully as the biters returned to the forest, glaring up at them intently.

"You think we should stay here until they give up?" Nimbus asked.

But as he asked, the tree branch they were perched on began to crack under the twins' weight. Moments later, two of the biters, rather than retreat, plunged their claws into the trees' bark. In disbelief, the flyers stared. Not only were these fast biters nimble enough to avoid rock throws, but they also had the ability to climb trees.

"Go!" Zephyra shouted hurriedly just as the branch gave way.

As Igg and Britt began to fall, one of the climbing fast biters swiveled its neck around and chomped onto the falling Igg's tail. Britt had it no better, as she fell straight to the ground, right at the feet of the two grounded fast biters. Feeling terrified, the flyers knew the kids had trusted them with their lives, and they had to do something to stop the biters' attack. Zephyra and Cirrus each grabbed onto one of Igg's front paws, yanking him out of the fast biter's grip. At the same time, Nimbus dove down to pull up the fallen Britt, while Cumulus worked to pull both of them up. Furiously, the fast biters tried to snap back, but the flyers managed to get into the air, thoroughly exhausted but out of harm's way.

"Where … do we go now?" Nimbus asked his mother.

As if to answer his question, one of the fast biters let out a ferocious shriek at the top of its lungs.

"Do you think they're calling for their pack?" asked Cirrus, flapping frantically.

But then they heard a voice shout from behind them.

"Fast biters! We must purge them from our lands!"

"Shoot, it's the bad swimmers!" said Cumulus.

Zephyra looked around, seeing only one place that could securely hold all six of them up above the reach of oncoming attackers.

''To Saurus Rock, quickly!" she instructed.

The flyers, hauling their passengers along with them, pushed themselves with one last burst to reach the towering heights of Saurus Rock. Then, exhausted from carrying the twins' weight and from the frantic, quick flying, the flyers finally put the kids down on the top of Saurus Rock, where they all sat and rested.

"You think we can give Igg and Britt a break?" asked Cumulus, panting.

"I think so," Zephyra answered, and so the flyers removed their gags and blindfolds.

"We better stay on the middle," said Igg. "We don't want Saurus Rock to crumble."

"Yeah," Britt said worriedly. "Mom would be furious if it did."

The flyers nodded understandingly. Looking around, they could see the small forms of the swimmer patrols off in the distance, but it seemed they were looking on the ground rather than the skies.

"They must be after the fast biters," whispered Cumulus.

"Strange the fast biters called for halfteeth to come who wanna kill them," said Cirrus.

"Yeah, and they can dodge rock throws and climb trees," Nimbus sighed.

"Do you think they tried to get the swimmers to chase us?" asked Igg.

Zephyra pondered. "You might be onto something," she observed. "Since these aren't the first unusually smart sharpteeth. They remind me of that group that attacked the Valley."

"So you think there's more of them?" Britt asked.

Zephyra nodded. "Fortunately, we've got you out of the way."

"Yeah, we're farther away from the Valley than we've ever been," marveled Igg.

"But where's Mom?" asked Britt

Zephyra pondered. "We don't know," she said honestly. "Knowing your mom though, the one thing she'd want above all else is for you two to remain safe. And that's exactly where we're taking you."

"Where's that?" asked Britt.

Cirrus looked at the twins seriously. "You promise not to repeat anything we say to anyone? Because this is top-secret."

The twins agreed, so Cirrus explained. "Once the Valley began to fall into darkness and the dark flyers' wings were attacked, a lot of us good flyers fled the Valley while we still could and came together to work undercover to rescue the Great Valley. We're looking to collect any information we can, that's how we found out you guys were in trouble and why we came to rescue you."

"Because one of our goals is to provide sanctuary for kids in danger," Cumulus said. "We airlift any kids we can rescue out of the Valley and provide them with a refuge."

"Wow, thanks so much," Igg said gratefully.

"Our pleasure," Zephyra said. "We've got several groups of kids hidden in quiet places, each of which is watched over by some older flyers, who are responsible for feeding, taking care of, and protecting the group."

"Is this where all the kids who tried fighting back went?" asked Britt.

Cirrus shook his head. "Most of them went with the older rebels. Who you'll be with are kids that we discovered after they left, the ones who managed to avoid trouble until now. We rescue anyone who needs it, but we've got a rule, and it's a big one. No one's allowed to sneak out. We can't afford to let any kid who knows about us tell the regime, or else we'll all be dead. So if anyone tries sneaking back to the Valley, we'll have no choice but to silence them. Do you understand?"

Not being very argumentative with their mother in the first place, Igg and Britt nodded in understanding. "We won't tell," they said at once.

"Good," said Cumulus. "Of course, you don't have to stay here if you don't want. If you want to join the other kids …"

"Shh," warned Cirrus. "We've got company."

Looking down from on top of Saurus Rock, the flyers peered down at a strange sight. A young dark brown whiptail boy just entering his great growing was running toward them, with a mint-green colored threehorn girl just his age following behind, biting onto his tail as she ran with him.

"Is she attacking him?" asked Cumulus quietly.

"No, look!" exclaimed Nimbus, pointing further out.

Sure enough, a squad of six male threehorn teens was in hot pursuit. One look at them made it obvious that they were undoubtedly part of the segregated threehorn herd. What was worse, the longneck and threehorn were tiring losing speed as they approached Saurus Rock. The brutal threehorns in contrast were holding steady, rapidly gaining on them, and by the time the pair reached Saurus Rock, the threehorns spread out to have them surrounded, steadily closing in on them.

"Leave us alone," the whiptail said, trying his best to sound brave. "We just want to be on our way and find the Great Valley."

"Well, what do you know, you're almost there!" smirked one of the threehorns. "Now split up."

"What?" exclaimed the threehorn girl. "I want to stay with Leo!"

"Sorry girly …"

"The name's Cristie!"

"Whatever. We are threehorns of the Great Valley, a place for purified flatteeth living the way the circles intended. Threehorns with threehorns, flatheads with flatheads."

"That's not how it goes! When I hatched, I was with five bigger hatchlings …"

"Eh, whatever," the threehorn interrupted Leo indifferently. "You guys are lucky. Normally we'd try to get rid of you freaks. But we threehorns could use some more egglayers. We lost five of our prospective mothers to dark forces, no doubt contaminated by that pink filth. And I'm sure the numskulls of his kind won't say no to another able body."

"You mean … Leave my friend and become a forced mom?" Cristie shouted.

"I don't think moron here made you get the situation," said another threehorn to the first's annoyance. "You either live in the Great Valley, joining a powerful herd of true threehorns … Or you die."

Cristie braced herself, eyeing the threehorns angrily. "When the Bright Circle freezes over!"

The flyers and twins looked at each other in horror, wanting to help Leo and Cristie out but knowing they couldn't be seen without compromising their undercover work.

"YOU BLASPHEMED THE CIRCLES!" roared one of the threehorns. "THAT MEANS DEATH! CHARGE!"

Looking at each other though, Leo and Cristie were ready. As the threehorns charged toward them, the two hurriedly jumped over them just before the threehorns made impact before hurrying for their lives. The threehorns however, meanwhile, only managed to batter each other, as well as …

"Oh now you've done it!" shouted one of the threehorns. "Which one of you ran into Saurus Rock?"

"It wasn't me."

"Well one of you did it! Why else did that rock fall onto my head?"

"Wait, that's the rock that means bad luck's gonna happen if anything hits it?"

"It wasn't our fault! It was those two freaks who made us hit it!"

"What should we do now?"

"Best keep quiet."

"No, we should tell Hiss Head about it!"

"It's Leigh you numskull, remember!"

"Besides, are you out of your mind?"

"No listen! If we blame them and the bad luck comes, then we won't be in trouble!"

"Ohh … Yes!"

And chortling, they started marching back.

Once they were a good distance away, Cumulus turned to the others. "I'm gonna warn those two, be right back."

The others nodded in understanding as Cumulus took off, gliding low to the ground to avoid detection. He quickly caught up with Leo and Cristie, but saw that not too far away, a boxhead patrol was on the move in their direction. Knowing he had only a little time and had to redirect them, he hurriedly dived in front of them.

"Hey," Cumulus warned. "Get as far away from here as possible, another patrol's headed your way."

"But …"

"Once you're safe, go south and look for a big herd. That's who you're really looking for. Good luck!"

And not wanting to draw attention to himself or the two lost travelers, he hurriedly flew off. Looking back, he saw Leo and Cristie change direction and breathed a sigh of relief. The further they were from the Valley, the better.

When Cumulus got to the top, he found that the others had bound and gagged Igg and Britt once again. "They're okay," Cumulus said. "I told them to go south. Who knows where they'll be by now, but anywhere is gonna be safer than here."

"That's good," Zephyra said happily. "Is everyone ready to continue the flight?"

Igg and Britt nodded, and so hurriedly, they took off once again. This time, the flight proceeded without issue. Closing their eyes, the twins tried to imagine nice things, imagining themselves eating soft green leaves with their mother standing beside them once again. Before long, they heard their flyers make contact with some kind of rocky surface.

"We're here," Zephyra said happily.

"Can we unbind the kids now?" Cumulus asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I think," said Zephyra.

"I'll get Quetzar. He's probably sick of babysitting," laughed Cirrus.

So as Igg and Britt were released of their blinds and gags, they looked to see where they were taken. They were standing on some kind of rock ledge, with a slanted slab of rock shielding them from above. Cirrus had just strolled into what looked to be a small cave between the two layers of rock, and when looking around them, they saw that they were surrounded by rocky mountains in the distance, dimly lit up by the strangely green sky, without a tree in sight. Yet despite the foreboding and unfamiliar atmosphere, the spikethumb twins still felt hopeful. At least here there were no enemies around, and the whole area felt remarkably peaceful.

Cirrus then came out with a larger tan flyer, eyeing Igg and Britt in surprise. The twins figured this must be the Quetzar who Cirrus just mentioned.

"You've got Juana's kids," Quetzar said in surprise. "You didn't take them away from her, did you Zephyra?"

"No Quetzar, Juana renounced herself," the mother flyer, Zephyra, answered. "She tried to take her kids with her, but the bad spikethumb herd forced her away from them. They tried kidnapping the kids for their own herd. They got away though, and then somehow, they managed to find that spot that Terese and Pterano told us about. They were all alone when we found them, and no one's been able to find Juana yet."

Amazed with how she knew about their predicament and wondering what else they were talking about, they heard Quetzar say, "Well in that case, you're sure you'll be ready for them? Babysitting your group's already been a challenge. I can arrange for one of the other flyers to take them."

"Don't worry Sir, we can handle it," answered Cirrus confidently.

"I think we can," said Cumulus more cautiously.

"See? If Cumulus thinks we can, we definitely can," Nimbus pointed out. "Besides, four's better than one."

"Five, actually," Quetzar chuckled. "You've gotten a new assistant. Skip?"

A little grey tickly fuzzy came darting out of the cave, stopping as he got to the little kids.

"Hi kids," Skip waved friendlily. "I'm gonna help take care of you."

Igg and Britt looked at Skip curiously. "Have we seen you somewhere before?" Igg asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm a Valleydweller," Skip chuckled. "You've probably seen me from time to time. But before then, I used to live around these parts."

"Skip had a run-in with the bad spiketail kids," explained Quetzar. "Loni found him hiding and took him to her camp, but he knows yours better, so that's why he's here now."

"Well, we could use some help, since we don't know much about the area ourselves," Zephyra grinned.

Quetzar chuckled. "Well, I better be off checking in with the other camps. Take care guys," he said before flying off.

Skip then turned to the flyers. "Why don't you guys rest up a bit while I take our new friends inside?" he bubbled.

"Sounds good," Zephyra said, so Igg and Britt followed the excitable tickly fuzzy toward the cave.

"What is this place?" asked Britt.

Skip chuckled. "We call it Hanging Rock," he said. "You know those two fast runners Garnet and Pearl? Well, they used to hide here from sharpteeth with their parents. Now we're using it as a camp for kids who can't take the Valley anymore. Come on, let's take you to your bunk."

Igg and Britt went into the cave with Skip. It was so dark it felt like they had their blinders slipped on again. But it didn't take too long before they could see their new home. Far from the spacious expanses of the Valley, the cave was small and very cramped, with several other little hatchlings packed into nearly every nook and cranny of the space. Some of them were familiar faces to the twins, some were not, and some were so bloodied they couldn't tell if they knew them or not. But none of the others seemed to even acknowledge them as they walked in. The twins could understand, for each of them would've experienced just as much trauma as they had, and judging by the looks of them some of them came out a lot worse. Every single kid looked lifeless and despondent as they sat slumped in their corners, with sweet bubble vines and tree sweet branches littering the whole cave floor.

"Here, make yourselves at home," Skip said reassuringly.

The twins nodded. "Can you try to help find our mom?" Igg asked.

Skip nodded. "We're gonna do our best. But in the meantime, stay safe, and sooner or later, this'll all pass over."

So Igg and Britt curled up into their spots and began to eat off some fresh sweet bubble vines that Skip had gotten for them. Seeing they were settling in well, Skip turned his attention to the food pile, which was getting low once again. He had to go out and forage for more grub for the kids to eat.

As he made his way out, he went to talk to the flyers. "They're doing okay, but they're still worried about their mom," Skip said sadly. "And I've gotta say, it's getting a bit tight in there, and food's running out all the time. I don't know how many more kids we can take in."

"Yeah," sighed Zephyra. "I hope Terese and Pterano check in with us soon. Maybe they can take some of the children out to wherever they've settled."

"We've gotta be careful about which kids though," said Nimbus. "We can't send them a backstabber or one who could ruin herd morale. They've got enough to deal with."

"Yeah, good point," said Cirrus, before turning to Skip. "The kids aren't perking up yet?"

Skip shook his head. "It's hardly cheerful in there, and most of them either miss their families or don't know what a real family is."

"Right, I'll go tell Quetzar we've got a full house," said Nimbus. "Then we've gotta work on getting these kids' spirits up."

"How are you gonna do that?" Skip asked.

"I dunno, get them out of their spots for a start," said Cumulus. "Some of them probably haven't moved since they came. Maybe some therapy to get them through their traumas."

"Just so long as you remember to be careful," Zephyra said. "The bad flyers should be getting their flight back, and we can't afford to be spotted."

"Relax Mom, we'll be okay," said Cirrus cheerfully. "Ready to get started?"

The four flyers agreed, and Skip hurried off to find as many sweet bubbles as he could, wanting to get back to Hanging Rock as soon as possible to help these kids flourish into becoming the hatchlings he hoped they could be.

---

"Dear lovely circles … We do not wish to defy your naturally created order. There is nothing we would like more than to stay in purity amongst our own, innately separate kinds. Which is why all but one from each herd shall remain in blissful isolation, and those of us who come out to the ravaged world so full of corruption do so as sacrificial ambassadors. We do not wish to come together, but to achieve the power and glory that you so desire, we must coordinate to condemn the wicked heretics of the world to their fate and truly go about setting your truly righteous vision."

And falling dramatically to his knees and speaking with hurried, urgent noises, Leigh let the others talk around him. His lovely panel of loyal judges, while an integrated body of herd leaders like the perverted Circle of Elders, were true believers who would never be susceptible to corruption, and by coming together, they were well-positioned to relay orders to their respective herds. And of course, bringing them all together was spurring them to do better just as he had hoped, judging by the satisfying conversation he was hearing.

"Well well," smirked threehorn Tobias pompously. "I'm surprised you showed your face here, Gonn. After the big oafs crashed right through your grounds. Pathetic that your herd couldn't fight them off."

"Who're you to talk?" spikethumb Gonn snarled back. "Your threehorns let that Topps freak set up an open revolt! And you let that Mr. Bonehead run all over you, ignoring that there's far greater powers than him!"

"Like either of you have anything to talk about," boasted longneck Sulser. "Now my herd wouldn't have messed things up like yours did."

"But you let those longnecks out," chortled spiketail Duff.

"You rockhead, you can't even get your longnecks straight, those were whiptails," jeered Sulser. "No wonder they say your kind has no brains."

"But don't you dare start with me, I already gave those lazy oafs a strict tail lashing," growled whiptail Rumble. "They're not gonna mess up again if they know what's good for them."

"Anyway, like you're anyone to talk Sulser, you share the same blood as that pesky ringleader Littleneck," sneered swimmer Phuru.

"No one asked you to speak, egglayer," bigmouth Brucad jeered.

"You know as well as I do we need a token egglayer to be seen as legitimate, and that I only speak on behalf of my deceased mate devoured by sharptooth scum. And frankly, you're one to talk, still not having a single offspring at your age," Phuru shot back.

Brucad snarled. "For your information, I did mate an egglayer. It's not on me if she killed my bloodline. But when I see her again …"

"Enough," Leigh said gently as he stood up, quieting the arguing at once. "I see each of you has plenty of righteous motivation to cleanse this disgusting, corrupting blight from our world. But we must be patient. I have already undertaken the first steps on behalf of all of us, consulting with the circles on high, and am anxiously awaiting their feedback as to where our enemies are located."

"Argh, I've already sent some patrols out. I should send them …" Trenton began.

"You will do nothing of the sort," Leigh said sardonically. "Not without proper insight. Or else your patrols will end up just like those killed by those savage sharpteeth."

"Which reminds me," growled Duff. "When are we gonna kill that sharptooth pack?"

"Yeah, how can we live pure if we have such gross things near us?" onehorn Raxor added.

"Believe me, I want those foul creatures eliminated just as much as you do," explained Leigh. "But remember, ever since the Valley has been freed from its malevolent corruption, the circles have ensured it remains protected from sharptooth attacks, and they will continue to do so while our righteousness remains supreme. The time will soon be upon us for a beautiful cleansing of carnivorous filth. But for now, we must restrain those desires. We are fighting a valiant war against darkness on two fronts, but while one enemy lusts for our mere bodies, the other seeks to corrupt our souls and our very way of life. Therefore, our next steps are compellingly clear. We shall first eliminate the threat to our beloved kingdom and permanently establish the Great Valley as a stronghold for the worthy. Then with the Valley firmly secured, we shall set about conquering more territory and broadening our horizons to exterminate all of the dreaded sharpteeth and any other foul beings from the Mysterious Beyond."

Pausing impressively, Leigh continued, "Of course, that is not to stay we are not already taking steps in furtherance of both aims. As you all know, our herds have begun to settle the space beyond the Valley's borders to protect the Valley from impure flatteeth and sharpteeth alike. While the surrounding land is barren, you must realize that it has been deeply corrupted from generations of vile behavior and the circles will come to reward it with continued righteousness when they see fit. Until then, food distribution to those herds settled on the outskirts shall continue unabated."

"I still don't like it," Tobias growled. "Why should we give our grub to the weaker kinds? I mean, obviously the circles created threehorns to be better than onehorns."

"Let me remind you," Leigh purred as Raxor glared and snarled at Tobias. "That all of us are aligned against dastardly enemies that want nothing more than to contaminate our paradise. Let us not forget that they did so with abandon over the cold times, and only when we all came together were we able to free our Valley from its contaminants. Much as we do not like it, the circles are understanding bodies and allow limited cooperation in pursuit of a glorious vision. And in the face of common enemies, it is in the interest of all of us for each of our herds to be as strong as possible, which means that they get adequately fed and watered. Besides, there shouldn't be any shortage of food. The circles have prophesied that more food shall soon come to our righteous Valley. And let us not forget that now that the heretic militia occupying our land has departed, no more resources will be wasted to feed their worthless bellies. Besides, I understand that the trials are going smoothly without that lousy bonehead meddling, am I right? With each righteous verdict you make or wastrel that renounces themselves, the amount of food for all of us who are worthy will correspondingly increase."

"They're getting smarter though," growled Brucad. "More and more of them are renouncing themselves. There are even rumors going around that the jury is rigged."

"How could they think that? You are only carrying out what the circles desire," Leigh sighed with a bemused grin. "Ah well. Regardless, whether by death or expulsion, those impure beings no longer have any claim to the Valley's riches."

"Yeah, but what if they decide to overthrow us … I mean the circles?" asked Sulser.

Leigh smiled sweetly. "You honestly think that the circles will allow for that to happen? Let's just say if those who betray the Valley think they can just waltz back inside, they will be dearly disappointed. Our patrols shall remain vigorous to block them of any entry, and without any nourishment, their fate will be one of starvation, dehydration and exhaustion … If they are so fortunate. The circles work in mysterious ways, and they may deliver a fate that would be far more appropriate."

As the others began to mutter excitedly, Leigh smiled. "Anyway, the path forward for each of you is simple, but of utmost importance. Once the circles reveal to me the heretics' location, you shall try to eliminate them in whatever way you see fit. I do not expect any of you to reveal your plans to me, for I am just a humble messenger, not a commander trying to force unnatural kinship among the different kinds. Besides, to deliver a real mandate for purity, we must practice what we preach. There could be nothing more honorable than our segregated units landing blow after blow upon the mixed-up mess until they crumble and cease to exist. With a multipronged assault, they would never anticipate the next move any of us might make or where it might be coming from. A continuous undermining of their unnatural order …"

"Yeah, yeah, we get the point," interrupted Tobias as he eyed Sulser hungrily. "Bet you your territory that we threehorns will kill more blood-traitors than your flatheads."

"In your sleep stories," Sulser sneered back.

"That reminds me," Leigh smiled. "The more successful each of your individual herds are in undermining them, the more territory the circles shall will for each of you. So let that spur each of you onto greater heights into eliminating this menace to society, and let our purity reign across the land! You may all be dismissed."

Leigh watched with a satisfied smirk as each of them started heading back. Sooner or later those filthy heathens, already driven out of the Valley's comforts, will start feeling their righteous wrath and wish they hadn't been born …

"Nice speech, Hiss Head."

With the others all gone, Leigh turned to see that annoying, oh-so-exhausting spikeneck glaring at him again. He wanted something, no doubt. But Leigh wanted to make sure that he knew his place.

"Oh … My, my, I must have forgotten you were present," Leigh sighed mockingly. "But then again, you really are not all that important in the grand scheme of things. After all, you're just a miserably ugly, deformed, shrunken flathead."

Gus rolled his eyes. "You're insufferable, you know that?"

"Ah, on the contrary, you don't know how much I suffer so. Trying to relay the circles' righteous messages …" Leigh began.

"Will you shut up?" Gus snapped, cutting Leigh off.

There was a brief pause. "Oh dear, someone's in a temper today," Leigh sighed wheedlingly.

"Yeah, wanna know why?" Gus growled.

"Not really," Leigh smirked carelessly, waving his hand.

"Because I have to get a certain hollowhorn's fat butt over to Hatzem," Gus coldly replied.

Leigh let out a bemused, exasperated sigh. "I don't have time for that wingbrain. You can just tell him I need to rejuvenate my skin once again. After all, being out in the filthy Mysterious Beyond is so aggravating."

"Yeah, I don't think so," Gus interrupted, and without any warning, the bulky spikeneck bit onto one of Leigh's arms and began dragging him along.

"What do you think you are doing?" Leigh asked indignantly.

Gus snorted. "Come on, let's go."

"But I don't want to," Leigh shook his head.

Gus's nostrils flared. "You're going, so you can either follow me out with dignity or risk being seen kicking and screaming. Your choice."

"And if I don't come?" Leigh asked pleasantly.

"Then," Gus growled warningly. "I'll just tell Hatzem to give Goregie the okay to invade your beloved Valley. What will everyone say when they find out they don't really have the circles' protection from sharpteeth?"

Leigh made a pouting face. "I suppose I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"Yeah, you got that right," Gus snarled. "Now let's move!"

"Okay, okay," Leigh sighed disdainfully. "But I don't want to see that wingbrain any longer than necessary."

Gus huffed as Leigh reluctantly followed him out into the deeper depths of the Mysterious Beyond.

---

Trundling through the Mysterious Beyond, Mama Spikethumb still had a hard time taking it all in as she stared bleakly out at her dull surroundings. She had been exiled from her home, separated from her old herd and even her beloved twins, left to wander an empty land where no food or water in lay sight. How could things possibly get worse?

A loud series of snarls rang out, causing Mama Spikethumb to whirl around frantically. But just as she did, six large fast biters emerged, their sickle-like claws at the ready. Mama Spikethumb paused, wondering which fast biter she should attack first. But that moment of hesitation proved to be her downfall, for at once, a fast biter latched onto her legs, her arms, her tail, and even her neck. She squirmed frantically, but the more she squirmed, the harder they held on as she continued losing copious amounts of blood. Feeling dizzy and faint, she heaved a heavy sigh. She was already exhausted, and with little hope that the future could ever get better, she felt resigned to accept her fate. Like so many other flatteeth, she was going to be the victim of a sharptooth attack. All because she had foolishly decided to venture out on her own into the Mysterious Beyond after living in the plush Valley for so long …

She stopped fighting, expecting to lose consciousness at any moment. But to her astonishment, the pain didn't fade away. Nor did her thoughts get any fuzzier. Instead, it felt like she was being carried. Opening her eyes once again, she saw to her astonishment that that was exactly what was happening. Each of the fast biters had maintained a firm grip on each of her extremities and began carrying her off with remarkable strength. Knowing that trying to resist would only bring her more pain, Mama Spikethumb pretended to be unconscious as the fast biters continued to cart her across the empty wasteland.

After what seemed like an eternity, Mama Spikethumb could see in the distance what seemed to be a horde of masses. She first supposed that they were other fast biters, all waiting to take part in a great feast over her body. Then as she got closer, she could see that they were of differing sizes. This had to be a mixed pack no doubt, with both fast biters and bigger sharpteeth. Sooner or later, it would all be over with. Soon though, she realized that though both small and large sharpteeth were present, many of the forms were not sharpteeth at all, but rather flatteeth. Unlike the sharpteeth, none of them were moving, so she supposed they were dead. With a pang, she recognized a good many flatteeth from the Valley. Like her, most of them were not rabblerousers like the Circle of Elders and their children, but at the same time, did not seem especially fond of the new regime.

As the fast biters carried her past several bodies, they finally lowered her right by a green nesting bigmouth. She could see at once that it was Madge Bigmouth, who had been in the Great Valley almost as long as she had and was also a very protective mother of her kids. With a shock, she soon realized that Madge was still breathing, though she was very bloodied from what looked to be repeated bites. Sure enough, once she was lowered, the fast biters began to chew on her arms and legs, ripping out good helpings of flesh. Juana could see at once that they were trying to disable any means for combat she had.

Suddenly, Madge looked over at her. "It's no use Juana," sighed Madge heavily as Juana observed her profusely bleeding extremities. "Anyone who tries running away gets killed. Your best bet is to just stay here and take it."

"I don't understand," said Juana fearfully.

"These aren't normal sharpteeth," explained Madge. "They're not trying to hunt us. They're even giving us rations. But everyone who has tried escaping or fighting back got killed. So the only thing you can do if you want your kids to still have a mom is lie low."

Juana gulped. "You mean … This is like a flattooth prison?"

Madge nodded darkly.

"Why are they keeping us here?" Juana asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Madge sighed.

"But if they're not gonna eat us … How do they get food?" Juana asked.

Madge looked at Juana seriously. "This isn't their whole pack. Far from it. Their hunting party's gathering food as we speak. Just don't try talking when they come back. You don't want to give her any excuses."

"Her?" Juana asked.

"The pack leader," Madge explained. "A smaller red twoclaw with a smile that makes your blood curdle. Once you see her, you'll know what I mean. And the worst part is, not only has she got sharptooth senses, but she can understand everything we're saying. So we can't even talk freely."

"You mean …" Juana asked as Madge nodded. "No point thanking me. We're all at her mercy now, and there's nothing any of us can do about it."

And knowing Madge was right, Juana looked helplessly out at the large number of injured flatteeth and the even larger number of sharptooth patrol guards. As hopeless as it seemed, Madge was right, for staying quiet was the only way to avoid what would be certain death. She just hoped that somehow, they would be able to escape this life of constant pain and potential peril so she could be with Igg and Britt once again.

---

Squinting through both a thick, blinding coating of sand clouds and his own jaded, weary eyes, the elder longneck sighed heavily. His stomach growled as he trudged forward, bleakly looking around to see if this time he could find any sustenance. But yet again, it seemed they would be going hungry. It seemed like forever since he and his herd had anything more than fragmented, trampled upon scraps to eat.

He could feel that his herdmates were also just barely getting by as they traipsed through the suffocating dust and sweltering heat. It shouldn't be this way. This was the same route they had gone countless times. But with green spot after green spot falling upon hard times, was it really the best way for them to go? Or come to think of it, should he really be the one in charge of them?

He shook his head as he thought back. Someone had to stand up to their old leader. Ever since he had first been reunited with his long-lost son, he had been growing increasingly reckless, from trying to take on that bad-mouthed, resentful orphan as a replacement to trying to socially experiment with vastly different kinds to initiating a crazy halftooth who if not a threat to their nests would be due to his extreme cowardice and horrible survival instincts. All of which, when combined with the sentimental and idealistic nature of their herd leader, would result in enough of a catastrophe to get them all killed. No doubt that in the cold times since those who haven't broken off had been killed long ago. But was he really doing any better of a job now? Sure, they were surviving, but only just …

A low, ominous hissing noise suddenly rang out. The longnecks came to a halt, desperately trying to see one another through the thick sand clouds. But even though he was so wearied, the old herd leader's instincts were sharp and he had no trouble recognizing that sound.

"Sharptooth alert! Everyone, brace yourselves!" he called out warningly.

The herd didn't need telling twice. Hurriedly, they closed ranks, readying their thick tails for battle and craning their necks around to try and locate the unseen scourge. They stood without even blinking as they felt the adrenaline pumping through, knowing that they could not even give an instant to the marauding menace. But as they kept on squinting through the thick dust, all they could see were the blurred forms of their fellow longnecks, each of whom had the same frightened and confused looks that were on their own faces.

Time passed and nothing happened. The old herd leader pondered. Perhaps the sheer size of the herd had successfully scared away the sharpteeth. After all, as his old herd leader said, sharpteeth were cowards who only hunted in twos or threes. An intimidating display of rugged longnecks would be more than enough to send them on their way. Or perhaps it was all a ruse, designed to trick them into wasting all their adrenaline stores before the real attack even started. But sharpteeth couldn't be that smart …

Stabbing, searing pain suddenly began to take hold of his right front leg. Hurriedly looking down, he saw that five fast biters were clinging onto it, their foot and hand claws trying to tear into his thick skin as their mouths worked to cut through his flesh. He shook his head in disbelief. Yes, fast biters worked in larger packs than bigger sharpteeth. But he hadn't had to worry about fast biters for ages. Even a single longneck would be able to easily overpower them, let alone an entire herd. Yet they were in a difficult spot to reach, and judging by the fact that he could hear screams of pain from his herdmates, they were obviously under attack as well. This had to be some sort of giant colony out in the middle of the desert just as starved as they were, thus making them all the more reckless. Shaking his head, he knew he had to end this battle quickly as he prepared to aim his tail at the attackers. He lashed it out as hard as it would go, but with blinding speed, the fast biters managed to unhook themselves, jump backwards, and dart out of the way, causing his tail to careen right into his leg where it landed with a stinging sensation.

As he tried to shake off the pain, the biters launched into a second attack on his leg. But as he tried readying his tail again, he felt more surges of pain on his other three legs. Staring down in disbelief, he saw that another pack of five fast biters had taken hold of his front left leg, while on each of his back legs was a pair of giant fast biters. These fast biters were about twice the size of their more common cousins but no less swift and speedy, and his heart felt a further pang as he felt the great pillars rapidly go numb on him as streams of blood seeped out. He shook his head with incredulity. So much for cowards who only hunted in twos or threes. Considering the rest of the herd was under attack as well, this pack had to number far beyond that. And with two completely different kinds of fast biters working together, this was clearly no ordinary pack. The herd was not prepared for this and needed to discuss strategy thoroughly at their next herd meeting. For now, he just had to hope that his herdmates, many of whom were younger and stronger than he was, would be able to get away from their attackers …

"Run! Get out of here! We'll regroup later!" he coughed through the sand clouds.

He heard the clatter of footsteps, relieved that at least some of the herd wasn't totally immobilized like he was. But just when he thought about which leg to try to free first, he suddenly felt new stabbing pains on his neck. His jaw dropping in disbelief, he wondered how the fast biters could have possibly gotten all the way up there. As he looked behind him though, his heart plummeted as he saw that the source of the pain came from several sharptooth flyers, their claws dug into his neck as they used their beaks to bore into him. Shaking his head as he frantically began waving his tail around, he began to wonder how he could possibly defeat all these attackers.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to jump through his bloodied legs in an effort to create an earthshake that could finally shake off all his opponents. But to his horror, not even this worked, for the biters and flyers' grips were so tight that not even one of them fell off. Instead, his numbed legs finally gave way from the impact of hitting the ground, causing him to plummet onto his belly under the force of his own earthshake.

Then he saw something that made his heart churn. Through the dust clouds stalked in several bigger sharpteeth, horneds, browridges, sailbacks and twoclaws among them. Gasping in horror, he now understood. This was no group of nomadic hunters trying to find enough food to eat, but instead some kind of super pack whose strength came from their sheer numbers, a shared fearlessness, and a daringness to take down any leafeater standing in their way.

As the bigger sharpteeth started to tear into his fallen body, he desperately tried waving his tail around, but in his heart he was beginning to realize it was all futile. This pack was just too strong, and it would not stop at anything until he was gone for good. Feeling his energy continuing to deplete, his only hope now was that he had issued his command on time so that some of the herd would be able to save themselves …

Then one of the sharpteeth moved over to stand face to face with him. He was a well-muscled, bulky light brown threeclawed sharptooth with yellow sclera, cold dark eyes and a dark ridge down his back, who stared at him with savage triumph.

"This wirr be your rrrast fight everrr, boxhead," he licked his lips ravenously, uttering that last word with a chill that sent a shiver down the old longneck's spine.

He stared out in disbelief. Was he losing it completely, or did he just hear a sharptooth speak to him in, though heavily accented, fluent leafeater? But before he could respond, the sharptooth issued an unmistakable summoning call.

The sharpteeth stopped attacking at once, but with his body being upon the verge of collapse, he couldn't try standing up or even moving a leg. Nonetheless, his blood ran cold as he blearily stared out at the sight in front of him. A lithe, slender twoclaw was hungrily approaching, eyeing him with an icy smirk filled with vindictive pleasure. Though far from the biggest sharptooth of the pack, she nonetheless commanded total fear and respect as she approached, and he could see why. Her chillingly blue sclera accentuated her hard facial features, extremely serrated teeth, and a sadistic joy that burned brightly in her eyes. The other sharpteeth hurriedly put their feet upon his already gravely maimed neck, ensuring he would stare right at her as she bent down to face him.

"Well done, pack," she called out in sharptooth before turning to face him, her eyes flickering with excitement. "Hello there, longneck," she grinned in remarkably perfect leafeater.

Speechless, the old herd leader could only stare back as she chuckled, "Nothing personal, you understand. It's just part of the great circle of life. You know, that the sole purpose of all of you leafeaters is to be food for us sharpteeth. You thought you might be able to cheat your fate with your big herd and body size. Unfortunately for you," she snickered darkly. "That just makes you all the more appealing … To my unbeatable pack of big game hunters."

The old longneck just gaped as the scarlet sharptooth grinned maliciously. "You might've wondered why I learned your boorish tongue. Well, that's simple. To play with and hear the last words … Of my victims."

"You … heartless … creature …" the old longneck rasped weakly.

Goregie smirked. "I don't think I'm gonna be the one who's heartless."

And with a blinding motion, the sharptooth alpha rushed right at the longneck's chest, tore into it, and brutally ripped his heart out before he could even crumple to his death. Goregie grinned as she held the longneck's heart in her mouth and roared with vicious triumph, relishing in the echoes of her victory call from her confederates. This always made even the most difficult hunt so worth it.

"This was just too easy, Alpha," Canthor smirked to her. "Those boxheads totally deserved it."

"I know, right?" Goregie smiled cunningly. "We can bring down any herd we want to."

"Even them?" Canthor asked hopefully.

Goregie smirked. "Oh yes, even them. This fight was great practice. But we've got to be patient. We can't repeat that leafeating fool's constantly underestimating them. Have you done an inspection of our hatchlings by the smoking mountain?"

"Oh yes, gorgeous," Canthor bowed. "They're hunting small prey, even leafeater hatchlings, and their eyes are darkening as we speak. Some will be ready to join the pack in no time."

"Excellent," Goregie grinned with excitement. "I can't wait to welcome in fresh blood thirsting to prove themselves. Only one thing … Have you heard back from my sharpbeak patrol yet? It's not like them to fail to report on time."

"Er, no," Canthor mumbled nervously. "They probably just got lost."

"Hmm …" Goregie paused thoughtfully, before sniffing the air. "Canthor, do you smell Hatzem coming?"

"Er, yeah, I think," Canthor replied.

"Right, you deal with that wingbrain. I've gotta collect our haul with the rest of the pack. Don't let him interrupt me," Goregie ordered.

"Right," Canthor bowed.

High up in the sky, an enormous dark brown flyer with near-black eyes, peach-colored wings, a tall crest, long, pointed beak and relatively thick neck watched with amusement. This vainglorious idiot was no better than the other one. Nonetheless, they were both charismatic leaders who could whip their followers up in a frenzy. And both wanted the brats gone as much as he did. But they needed someone with a flyer's eye view to get them past their earthly delusions. If they wanted to beat the brats, they had to stop with the incompetence and work together, just as their enemies did. And somehow, he had to get it through their thick, impervious skulls …

"What do you want, Hatzem?" called out a familiar gruff voice.

He just shook his head. Of course she'd send her mook out to try to distract him. But he was not going to let himself get held back by a mere subordinate. So coolly, he pretended not to hear the ridge-backed threeclaw and focused in on his real target.

"Don't you dare approach her, I mean it," Canthor called out.

Empty threats, for he was much too important for them to even try hurting him. Chuckling to himself, he swooped down to approach the sharptooth pack who had just started gnawing on a longneck carcass. The sharpteeth just stared as he arrived, looking sorely tempted to bite at his wings but knowing better than to actually take any action. "Greetings, friends," he suavely purred, "I was hoping to speak to your beloved pack alpha."

Goregie glared at him, blood dripping down her chin from her last bite. "Canthor!" she shrieked. "I thought I told you to take care of him!"

"He won't cut it, you're the only one I really want," Hatzem smirked. "Well, you and your hollowhorned friend."

Goregie's nostrils flared as she began to quiver threateningly. "Don't you dare call him my friend! I hate that insufferable bigheaded flattooth!"

"Pretty rich, considering you're just as charming to deal with," Hatzem chuckled darkly as Goregie seethed. "Anyway, I need to talk to the both of you. Bring Canthor along if you need a bodyguard. You will meet us outside of your smoking mountain."

"I don't think so," Goregie sneered. "You and him will just have to meet by yourselves."

"Fine then, I'll just tell him everything I've learned without you, leaving you in the dust just like your sharpbeaks," Hatzem chuckled darkly.

Goregie stared at Hatzem in furious disbelief as the rest of the pack looked up, growling. "What? You know what happened to my sharpbeaks?"

"You're not getting anything unless you and him meet face to face," Hatzem sneered. "Stay by your smoking mountain and wait for him to arrive. Then we will discuss things like rational beings."

Goregie swore loudly. "Fine. Now get lost before I change my mind."

"With pleasure," Hatzem sneered before taking off into the sky.

"Don't blame me if I rip his crest off! He'll be asking for it!" Goregie called out.

Hatzem just laughed. At last, the two of them would be getting together. Which would make the pain of getting them there all worth it.

The night's events will be in the next chapter, which will wrap up the first day at the crater. See you then!