Hello everyone. Truth be told, I wasn't even anticipating releasing a chapter myself when the day started. I was originally planning on this being part of a much longer chapter. But honestly, I need to do something to give me momentum with writing because there's been days where I've been too overwhelmed to get done. I hope this will help give me the spark I need to get back into the swing of things! Plus I wanted to let everyone know that this story's not dead hahaha. Still a healthy length though, so I hope there's plenty to enjoy here. As always, the Land Before Time and its universe belongs to Universal.
Chapter 47 – Training Day (Part 1)
Upon finishing their last-minute preparations, the seven herd leaders announced that they would be holding a meeting to kick off their first full day at their new home. While attendance was voluntary, a huge crowd had nonetheless gathered, chattering restlessly. They all knew it would be the start of a journey upon which they would all emerge better able to handle the dangers of their world and become protectors of themselves and one another. Yet the moment Ducky stepped forward to address them, the crowd quickly fell into complete silence.
"Good morning, everyone!" Ducky called out brightly. "I hope everyone had a good night's sleep. Because today, we are going to start working on building ourselves up, yep yep yep! To the point where nobody will ever be able to hurt us ever again and we can all be happy together!"
Ducky's pronouncement was met with cheers and roars of hearty enthusiasm that took a while to die down. Once it finally did, Ducky continued, "But before we get started, we want to remind everyone that you should only be here if you want to be."
"Yeah," Littlefoot said kindly. "We may be herd leaders, but it's not up to us to force anyone to do anything. Everything you do here will be entirely your choice. Our job is just to help organize things so we can both work out all our muscles and have lots of fun. But we also know that fun's different for everybody, and if the rest of us are doing something you don't want to do, don't feel like you have to."
"You really mean that?" asked new bonehead kid Moor.
"Yep," Petrie smiled. "No pressure on anybody to do anything. If you no feel like working out or no like what we doing, we no make you. No hard feelings, no judgment."
"And there's always another way to work out any muscle in your body," Ruby pointed out. "If you need help coming up with something, we'd be happy to help. Or you could come up with your own ideas none of us could. That's part of why you're you you, after all."
"Yeah, don't be afraid to set your own path," Chomper said brightly. "I mean, look at me, I've had to do a lot of things unlike every other sharptooth to get where I am today. Try things out and you'd be surprised where they might take you!"
"Of course," Littlefoot added, "We're gonna do our best to make sure everything we do as a group will be fun and rewarding. We've got a lot of ideas we're gonna try out, but if you've got other ideas, we'd love to hear them! Even if you think they're crazy, it's often the craziest ideas that have been the ones that have gotten us out of trouble," he finished with a laugh.
"And after all, the crazier the ideas are, the likelier our enemies would never think of them," Ruby smirked. "Which would make whatever we learn from them impossible to counter."
"Think of everything we're gonna do as an opportunity to get tougher," Cera grinned smugly. "But we mean tough where it really matters. Not showing off and pushing everyone around to serve their big fat egos. There's enough of those creeps around. We mean building up real toughness, being able to protect yourself and everyone you care about from any rockhead who's stupid enough to try bringing you down!"
As the crowd murmured eagerly, Cera continued, "When I was little, my dad told me that threehorns can do anything. It wasn't till I got older though that I understood what that really means. It's not actually being a threehorn that matters, but it's having the willpower that we threehorns are known for."
"Or stubborn streak," Littlefoot playfully teased to snickers.
"Shut it," Cera nudged Littlefoot affectionately, before continuing, "The willpower to never back down from a challenge and go for what you want! And that's something I know everyone here has got a whole load of. Why? Because we're all a bunch of big freaking heroes! And we're never gonna let anyone stop us!"
"Yes," Topps heartily chimed in over the enthusiastic roaring. "Don't you think you've got the guts? Just think of what you had to do to get here. Whether by taking on dear old Hiss Head or starting a whole new life, you've all had more than your share of obstacles to join us. And through it all, you're still here, standing tough as one with our herd of proud outlaws, never doing what's easy when it goes against what's right. The strength of our hearts can never be broken, and I for one think it's high time that we back up our spirits with bodies that are truly worthy of them. And once we reach that point, our enemies are going to rue the day they ever chose to mess with us and all that our home and herd stands for!"
Whoops and hollers followed Topps's heated words as he basked in the crowd's glory. Petrie smiled at Topps thankfully. Knowing that everyone was at the peak of excitement, there was no better time than the present to kick off the conditioning. Flying up so as to be seen by everyone, Petrie did his best to call out over the hubbub, "So who ready to get started?"
The enormous roar of approval Petrie received in response almost sent him falling to the ground. Gathering his posture to ensure a soft landing, Petrie couldn't help but to nervously chuckle a little. The rapt attention upon him felt a little disconcerting, almost feeling like the time he ran into those crazy little diggers when he was a hatchling. Only now he was a real herd leader who had truly earned his title, and so it was up to him to give everyone the best workout that he could provide.
"All right!" Petrie called out cheerfully, doing his best to sound confident like Littlefoot always did. At once the crowd grew quiet, ready to listen to his instructions. "Everyone spread out," he began. "We, uh … Gonna start nice and easy with some stretches."
As everyone began to spread out, ten-year-old Lavender raised her hand upon settling in her new place. "Um, why are we doing this? Oops … Sorry Mr. Petrie," she said, remembering she was addressing a herd leader.
"No worry, you can ask us any question anytime," Petrie soothed the young spikethumb, who looked greatly relieved Petrie was not angry at her. Seeing that many of the other new kids looked uncertain as to what they were doing, Petrie asked, "You new kids never stretch with old herds?"
"No," sighed little boxhead Cedar, shuddering. "They just made us go straight to … You know, pounding each other."
"Yeah," Petrie said sympathetically, going to hug the eight-cold-time-old, who looked grateful for the gesture. "No worry Cedar. Me promise we never do that here."
"Thanks," Cedar quietly said, now feeling a bit self-conscious. To his relief however, no one said a word putting him down as he was still half-expecting. Petrie meanwhile returned to the front of the group.
"So why stretch?" Petrie asked. "We do it to loosen body, so muscles not get stiff and you move better. Otherwise you get muscle cramps after workout that really hurt and make it hard to move."
"That reminds me to mention something we haven't mentioned yet," Ruby chuckled. "While exercise is great, hurting yourself while you exercise is not. Your body needs time to recover or else it could get sore from too much use, and you could end up straining a muscle rather than building it. So for that reason, we're not going to be holding a workout as a big group every day, since we want to encourage rest if you need it and don't want anyone to feel like they're missing out. But if you're still feeling good and want to keep going on your own, that's great, so long as you're listening to what your body's telling you."
"Wow," said shieldback kid Barrow in wonder. "Our old herd just told us no pain, no gain and to work right through it. No wonder I didn't feel better."
"Yeah, we no want anybody hurt to get worser," Petrie said sympathetically. "The point to grow, not to hurt yourself. If you hurting at all, stop. Then rest till you feel better, and that different for everybody." Seeing nobody else had any questions, Petrie asked, "So everyone ready to spread out?"
Before long, everyone had distanced themselves so they were at least a stance apart from one another, taking up most of the crater's space. Knowing he couldn't fly up while modeling exercises, Petrie knew he had to speak loudly and clearly so everyone could hear him, and so he worked on warming up his voice while everyone got settled. Once everyone was in position, he called out, "Er, great! Okay, first stretch we do called mountain-valley. Twofooters, hands on ground like this so you just like fourfooters," he demonstrated.
"Like this?" asked little swimmer Serena uncertainly.
"Yeah, that good," Petrie said encouragingly. "Now try lifting middle of back up as high as you can, while keeping head and butt down," he instructed, modeling to everyone. "See how back up high like this? That the mountain. You hold it there for a couple breaths … Great! Then you bring it down, even lower than head and butt, like this," he explained, positioning his body in a U-shape. "That the valley. You hold that too … Like this … Then you go back to mountain again."
With that, everyone worked on doing more mountain-valleys, stretching their spines as they alternatively raised and lowered them.
"I can feel it already," laughed little boxhead Thyme as he lifted his back up.
"Then it working!" Petrie said brightly. "Back go up and down and up down so you get it nice and stretched. Maybe a few more, then we stop."
When finishing, Petrie decided to give everyone a breather before moving on to the next exercise. "Okay, next one called log hold. This one gets parts all over body. You wanna make bridge with body like log over canyon. Everyone down on bellies to start. Now outstretch back legs as far as they go and stand on toes."
Soon everyone had gotten their back legs into position. "Looking good! Now for fronts, you put elbows on ground."
"What are our elbows?" asked five-cold-time-old longneck Sage.
"They joint between upper and lower front legs or arms," Petrie explained. "You bend so lowers on ground while uppers upright."
Upon everyone getting their elbows positioned, Petrie added brightly, "Now you lift those bellies up like this," he demonstrated. "See? Me only balance on back toes and front elbows, and me back straight across, just like a log bridge."
Everyone got into position, doing a log hold as Petrie counted for several breaths.
"Wow, this is actually kinda hard!" laughed little hollowhorn Toyo.
"Yeah, it seems like we're doing nothing, but I'm really feeling it!" agreed little threehorn Elm.
After everyone had completed a short but substantial log hold, Petrie called it off. "Great job everybody! Now last stretch today called belly dragger arch. This kind of like mountain-valley, but rather than backs, we stretch butts."
There was some uncontrolled giggling to this, and even Petrie couldn't help but struggle not to laugh. "You start off … by, er, get down on ground like belly draggers," Petrie coughed awkwardly. "Bellies barely not touching."
Much snickering occurred as everyone did their best to imitate a belly dragger's sprawl.
"You see if Dil's watching us?" Monty playfully murmured to Len.
Len cranked his neck toward Dil's cave, which was right behind them. "Nope. But I bet she can hear us."
"Of course I can hear you guys," came a loud, grumpy voice as the young threehorn and longneck naughtily grinned at each other. "I'm not really a sharptooth, but I'm still a hunter, so I've got sharptooth hearing. And I don't take kindly to mocking. But lucky for you, I've got your eggstealer friend to watch over. I'm gonna pretend this isn't happening."
"What if we start posing in front of you?" teen flyer Nessie asked mischievously.
"Then I'd think you're crazy," Dil snorted back.
Nudging her friend Candy, longneck teen Anndi giggled, "You better hope that we're crazy."
"Why?" Dil asked.
"Because if we weren't crazy, we wouldn't be feeding you, right?" Candy snickered back.
"In that case … Be as crazy as you want," Dil snorted. "Maybe it'll rub off on my friend here and he'll try to escape. I can't wait to eat him then," she snickered darkly as Strut let out a scream of terror.
"Don't count your hatchlings before they hatch Dil," Ruby snickered, though secretly grateful that Dil had tried to deter Strut from any reckless behaviors.
"Okay!" Petrie called out. "Me see everyone in good belly dragger position. Now next step is to lift butt in air as high as you can."
"Wait a second," Hyp said, barely able to control his naughty delight, his gang around him quavering with mirth. "We're supposed to stick our butts up to the Bright Circle?"
"Seems really disrespectful," Weald snorted.
"Me no think Bright Circle mind, it understand we need to stretch butts," Petrie chuckled sheepishly.
"The rump muscles do tend to be under-exercised," Mr. Thicknose said embarrassedly. "For self-explanatory reasons."
"So yeah," Petrie said, struggling to hold back laughs. "Lift butt up in air as high as you can, hold it, then go back down to belly dragger again."
Many of the new kids looked amazed and delighted. "Our parents would have our heads for this!" little onehorn Esme laughed.
"These guys are the funniest herd leaders ever!" blurted little threehorn Calla.
As silly as this exercise seemed however, everyone could soon feel just what Mr. Thicknose was talking about, for they were stretching some muscles that they realized they tended to neglect.
"Really good," Petrie said brightly after a little while. "Me think we done enough …"
But then a loud, strange noise rang out, and along with it a nasty smell.
"Sorry," Mutt grinned sheepishly as he hastily lowered his butt to many uncomfortable giggles.
"Oh yeah," Petrie chuckled awkwardly. "Me forgot to mention, there real danger of that happening if you not careful."
"Could come in handy if a bad guy's got you cornered though," Dispo smirked to Mutt.
"That'd so serve them right," Hyp smirked. "But don't even think about using me for practice."
"Pity," Dispo sighed dryly as Hyp gave the bigger twofooter a hard slap.
"Aren't you gonna say something Mr. Thicknose?" Nod teased to the giggles of many of the kids.
Mr. Thicknose shook his head with a pained smile. "Normally I wouldn't encourage this type of behavior. But these are unprecedented circumstances we're dealing with. Whatever it takes to get out of trouble is fine by me. Within reason, of course. After all, you wouldn't want to be teaching them to act like the yellow bellies."
"What are the yellow bellies?" asked Gem.
"Don't ask," Cera shook her head as she eyed the little threehorn. "Trust me, you don't want to know."
"Let's just say, the ones we met … Well, we never knew anyone quite like them!" Littlefoot laughed.
"Then how will we know if we see one?" asked little whiptail Cliff. "Except … Hey, are they your kind, Mr. Wild Arms?"
"Why'd you ask that?" Wild Arms asked bewilderedly.
"Because you've got a yellow belly yourself," Cliff replied.
"Well, they do kind of look like you," Ducky giggled playfully. "They are both twofooters with long arms and feathers."
Wild Arms looked embarrassed. "Oh no, if they are cousins, they are very distant cousins," he said, casting his eyes around until they landed on the two longarms. "They look more like Yelli and Ced though. Maybe they can tell you all about them."
Yelli and Ced however, looked at each other naughtily. "Oh no, they're much more your shape, and you're the one with their bright colors," Yelli pointed out.
"Yeah, our arms aren't quite as long as yours or theirs," Ced said knowingly.
"You're right about that, my arms … Hey!" Wild Arms, said, flustered, before pouting, "Oh fine. Think roughly my shape, but really fat bellies, no feathers on their arms, but like a ground plant of feathers on their head and butt feathers. Happy?"
"Wow," said little hollowhorn Terra. "Let's go looking for them!"
"Trust me, they're nowhere nearby," Chomper giggled. "Otherwise, my sniffer will know about it," he said as many of the kids giggled. "Spike could probably smell them too, they smell really strong and he's got a little bit of tracking practice."
Spike nodded with a grunt of agreement before he suddenly began to wag his tail around.
"You saying you want to lead the herd with tail practice, Spike?" Chomper asked brightly.
Spike nodded, before loudly grunting to get everyone's attention. With everyone already safely distanced from Petrie's stretches, Spike was able to get right into modeling for the crowd. First, he braced his feet firmly upon the ground, reminding everyone of the importance of positioning oneself. Once seeing everyone had done that, Spike moved into the next step, of fully extending one's tail out so it would be like a long stick braced for impact. Then with a quick lash, he swung his tail spikes out to meet an invisible enemy on his left side before repeating on his right, switching off from side to side. It really helped stimulate his tail muscles, which felt stiff after so little use living in the Valley.
Before long, he had everyone following his tail motions in unison. The wind almost seemed to sing along with them as their tails whipped out from one side to the other. He felt really encouraged as he watched everyone partake in the tail work. While tailed dinosaurs like himself and whiptails regularly used their tails for defensive combat, tails weren't conventionally used by many of the other kinds, who tended to use other ways to defend themselves.
He thought of his swimmer family in particular as he watched Ducky, his mom, his brothers and sisters and his other relatives flexing their tails. While the fully-grown swimmers' tails were neither particularly long nor spiked like his, they were nonetheless surprisingly strong tails and could perhaps be used as bludgeons in the way longnecks or threehorns occasionally used them. Of course, this subject seldom came up among his normally peaceable family, who preferred to take to the water in case of an attack or use their legs or arms as a last resort. The most probable reason they didn't was their tails were relatively slow and bulky and easy for a more agile predator to latch onto. But if they could perhaps boost the agility of their tail swings, they could gain an extra line of defense, as would everyone else not accustomed to using their tails.
He then suddenly came up with an idea as he remembered something, a way to potentially bring down bad sharpteeth using their tails without having to engage in direct combat with them. Without being able to speak much however, he realized now was not the time to try and explain, and that he should wait for a time when he could get Chomper alone. Besides, it was not a good time to put it into action anyway, since they had to conserve their limited supply of tree sweets …
As he pondered all this, Spike continued to lead them in further tail exercises. Following the basic tail swings, he led them in high and low variations. While high tail swings were especially useful in downing flyers and landing an impact on a taller enemy, low tail swings were better for sneak attacks and hitting enemies that would otherwise be too short to reach. Then he had them work on tail curls and tail tucks. Tail curls were bringing the tail up to one's back to defend oneself from enemies who chose the rear as a place of attack, sweeping them off with a push to send them flying to the ground. Tail tucks in contrast were a maneuver to tuck the tail under one's belly, both to ward off enemies attacking from underneath and to protect one's tail from attack. Following that, Spike nodded, signaling to everyone that it was time to catch their breath.
"Does anyone have anything they want to do?" Littlefoot asked encouragingly.
There was a pause before bigmouth teen Aria asked, "Hey Petrie, maybe you can show us some of your dance moves!"
"Oh sure," Petrie chuckled. He couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious about doing it for everyone rather than just the kids, but being asked for it really gave him encouragement. "Me start everybody with side dance. You put left foot out, then lean rest of body that way. Then you do right foot, same thing. That stretch you out real good!"
"What about us fourfooters?" asked Glenn.
"You guys move both your front and back lefts at once, then your rights," Petrie replied to the onehorn teen. "Shift weight from side to side!"
Before Petrie knew it, everyone was taking part in his side dance. He couldn't help feeling all bright and happy inside. Dancing had come to him at an early age. In those early cold times when he could not fly, he often spent time learning what his mom called "ground flying" to build up to it, such as light-footedness, jumping and landing safely, flexibility and balance. And while his siblings graduated to actual flying practice, he continued to hone his ground flying skills. What's more, without anyone around to potentially bully him, his moves grew more and more elaborate, often with his imaginary friend for company, becoming the genesis of what would become his dance moves.
Even after learning how to fly, he found that he still liked doing it, and continued to do it for fun when in private. He long felt sheepish about it, but eventually he felt comfortable enough to reveal his skill to his real friends, by which point he had become quite adept. To his delight, they seemed to like it almost as much as he did, even Cera despite her skepticism about having an imaginary friend, and since then, he had become a lot more open about it.
Now he watched in sheer joy as everyone else seemed to have a good time taking part in his dance moves, just like his friends when they first tried. He was feeling so giddy that he had to work on stifling some giggles. Though his siblings seldom teased him anymore beyond friendly banter, Petrie couldn't help but feel a little amused to see them finally learning what he had as a flightless hatchling. Perhaps even more amusing was Hyp and his friends grinning sheepishly at one another, perhaps realizing how not very different this was from many of their own moves. And many of the more austere elders, such as Mr. Threehorn or Mr. Bonehead, had probably never moved with such silliness in their life.
Still, all of their willingness to partake in his lighthearted dances without complaint was testament to the tremendous practical benefits it entailed. As much fun as it was, dancing like this really helped improve everyone's skills. And the utilization of these muscles to move like grounded flyers could provide many of the bulkier dinosaurs with unusual nimbility for their kinds. As he looked at many of the pudgier kids, he imagined them utterly bewildering their attackers by abruptly sliding out of the way or speedily zooming right through their legs. And many of the heavier adults, locked in combat with counterparts accustomed to straightforward, bruising battle styles, would be able to make a sudden swerve to avoid an attack, or to launch a sneak move that the enemy couldn't have anticipated a dinosaur of their kind could make … It was truly amazing to imagine such lighthearted fun could possibly end up being so helpful down the line.
"You get at all tired doing this?" asked hollowhorn kid Marsh.
"Oh sure," Petrie answered. "Me feel good now though, since we flyers all rest during tail exercise."
"Not all of us," teen flyer Welbie snickered, cheekily showing Petrie her long pink tail.
"Oh yeah, me forgot," Petrie chuckled, happy to see the young deputy feeling confident enough in herself to tease him. "Who want me to show you one more dance?"
Petrie's suggestion was greeted with much enthusiasm.
"Great!" Petrie beamed. "It a walking dance around crater. Everyone get in line, and me show you."
Everyone rushed to get into a single-file line, wrapping around much of the crater's perimeter. "Okay," Petrie called out once he saw everyone was lined up. "We gonna do what me call the three-step kick. You take three steps like normal. But then when you take fourth step, you kick back instead! Then we go and do it again. Me gonna get us started."
So everyone followed as Petrie called out in rhythm, "One, two, three, kick! One, two, three, kick!"
The sound of footsteps in unison, along with the swooshing simultaneous kick, soon made Petrie's calling unnecessary, as everyone began to move to a steady beat.
"Wow, this actually feels really good!" laughed clubtail teen Audrey. "I haven't stretched walked like this in ages!"
Harmony, the mostly silent hollowhorn teen, suddenly sang out a few cheerful notes.
"Harmony's right, we should have a song here," laughed longneck teen Vail.
"You right about that!" Petrie laughed. "When me and friends first do this, we sing song about imaginary friends."
"Yeah, but that's NOT what we're gonna do now!" Cera shouted to many snickers. "Not if we wanna become a truly unstoppable herd!"
"Cera never liked that song," Ducky explained, before giggling naughtily, Or at least, she pretended not to. She was singing along with the rest of us by the end, she was!"
"That's because I felt like stretching and raising my voice," Cera smirked, fighting back laughs as they continued to walk.
"Speaking of that time," Littlefoot laughed. "We also did neck stretches while we were walking. We took a step, brought our heads out one way, took another step, then brought them the other. Why don't we add those in too?"
"Sure, that sound good," Petrie said happily.
So they did that for several paces, Spike leading them in an improvised and easy to learn call-and-response melody to keep the beat going and everyone entertained. Many of the herd deputies in particular had a great time doing this, for it was a such a contrast from their old lives as lone wanders, when every step was potentially dangerous and they couldn't afford to use their precious energy on moving without purpose.
"This is really fun!" laughed Jada, waving her head from side to side.
"Yeah, it's kind of like what you guys were doing, right Hyp?" asked Light cheekily.
Hyp shook his head in mock offense. "No, it's not!"
"Oh yeah?" Keeter smirked. "Looks a lot like it to me."
"Down to the side lunges," Gara grinned.
"And the walking in line," Seth chuckled.
Hyp snorted. "Oh please. These dance moves warm up some muscles, but they're nothing like what my crew can do."
"Well then prove it," spikethumb teen Emery grinned.
"If they really are that different," threehorn teen Chantal dared.
Hyp knew he was getting baited, yet at the same time knew the real potential his moves could have for their current situation. "All right, you asked for it," Hyp snorted. Then he called out, "Hey, stop!"
The line abruptly stopped before Petrie flew over to talk to him. "What up?" he asked.
"I'll tell you, hatchling," Hyp said teasingly. "Your fellow babies are going around thinking my crew's moves are just like yours. We've gotta set them straight."
"Oh, okay," Petrie snickered, before saying, "Great job everyone. Me done now, and let little guy take over."
"Wait, what?" Hyp said bewilderedly.
"You in charge of leading workout now," Petrie explained to many snickers. "We no know how to do your moves. After all, we just babies."
Tough as he liked to act, Hyp felt a little unnerved about teaching an entire class of much bigger dinosaurs. Mentoring hatchlings to protect themselves was one thing, but mentoring other adults, many of whom had once disciplined him, was another entirely, especially since it involved the very moves he had often used in intimidating younger kids. But he knew that his moves were too good to pass up, and the thought of that malevolent hollowhorn snickering his head off gave him the spark he needed …
"All right," Hyp called out in mock sternness. "No more child's play."
"Aww," teased little spiketail Agate to many loud chortles.
Hyp glared, trying his hardest not to laugh at the hatchling's cheek. "Sheesh, you kids are acting like Tricia and friends even when they're not around."
"Well they are our junior herd leaders, right?" asked little boxhead Tiff.
"Yeah, well, don't count on me to be there to rescue you from waking up sharpteeth. Besides, I'm in charge now," Hyp boasted. Petrie couldn't help but beam at him. Though keeping his signature attitude, Hyp now had a good humor to go along with it, showing both an improved self-confidence and an open compassion for others. He also felt really good about handing the hot rock off of leadership off. He didn't like feeling like he and his friends had power over everyone else, and letting Hyp take the lead made their herd feel like a more fair, equitable place. Plus, he knew that Hyp knew things that he and his friends never could.
"Okay everyone," Hyp smirked. "I'm gonna be putting you through the ringer." Seeing his tone caused many of the hatchlings to look apprehensive, Hyp said, "Don't worry, no one's gonna get hurt. Well, none of us, anyway. But our enemies? They're gonna wish they've never been born. So uh, we're gonna form lines. Hatchlings, you can practice with us, but don't even think about taking on anything dangerous till you get older. Form lines amongst yourselves so none of us big grownups will step on you. Anyone with horns? You're in front. Don't want those horns going to waste. Spiketails, clubtails? You're in back. The rest of you? You're in the middle. No limits to a team, but the smaller the line, the easier it is."
There was a scramble as everyone went to form a line. As he and the rest of the herd leaders filed behind Cera, Littlefoot looked out curiously to see how everyone would team up. Knowing this exercise required physical coordination, everyone self-sorted roughly by age and physical type. Hyp's gang stood off to the side, undoubtedly to model their moves. Among the younger crowd, Felix, Keeter, Chantal and Glenn all formed their own lines, along with Monty and Topps' three young herd members. Ducky's seven same-age siblings, Sophie and Halle filtered between Topps' proteges, with Ali, Cam and Mia backing them up, so each of them had lines of five. Shorty followed Len and Veno to form a line with Monty, which made sense with all four of them being bulky young males. Petrie's siblings and Brara in contrast were all extremely lightweight, and thus formed a team amongst themselves so they could practice on the ground without having to worry about getting stepped on. Kirt, Naz, Tuck, Avie and Guido also formed their own small-scale team, as did the tiny longnecks who came to participate.
The herd deputies, feeling a special bond with one another since they joined up, largely formed lines amongst themselves. But with Kendall not having horns unlike the rest of the frilled teens, they took the opportunity to swap teams. The five flyer teens practiced with one another for the same reason as Petrie's siblings, wanting to learn the technique without fear of getting stepped on. Apart from Newcomb, Seth's squad remained unchanged, with his three teammates all sharing his muscular build. Keeter's squad of lightweight young teens was also mostly unchanged, but with young runner Citron replacing Tilden as a fifth lightweight. Light's, Jada's and Gara's teams, all being of more varied builds, split up into boys and girls, with Felix's line consisting of Dekker, Gabriel and Sheldon with Light bringing up the rear, while Chantal's line included Kendall, Eva, Aria, Harmony, and in a twist, Jada and Gara in the back. The two spikeneck squad leaders, opposites in temperament who had clashed so badly when they first met, were now chatting with each other brightly, showing just how far their friendship had come.
Meanwhile, the grownups had been cast around helter-skelter into all kinds of different groups. Bron and Topps teamed up with Mr. Thicknose, Doc and Mr. Clubtail to create a bulky line, while Tria, Mama Swimmer, Mama Spiketail, Dara and Cassia's mom made another team besides them. Mama Flyer and Pterano teamed up with Ruby's parents, Etta and Wild Arms for a lightweight grownup team fronted by Mono and Rachelle's adoptive mom, while her mate fronted a team that included Hyp's and Mutt's dad, Mr. Spikethumb and Mr. Bonehead, all of whom looked utterly bemused at the prospect of their sons teaching them.
Perhaps what made Littlefoot happiest however, was how this arrangement brought dinos who in some cases never talked together. Topps' old herdmates, most of them used to being with each other since before he was born, now had to front their own lines. Most of them had a member of his dad's herd in their line, with longnecks and threehorns both being heavily built and having slower moving gaits. Tippy's old herd and the four clubtail elders also spread out among the groups to back them up, with the hollowhorns filtering between them. Perhaps the funniest line of all had Topps' old friend Ric getting into a playful argument with Kosh and Tippy's old herdmate Maura about who wasted the most food between their kinds stemming from the spiketails' cold time visits. Meanwhile, Sue whispered something to Ducky's aunt Phora and tall-crested hollowhorn Lambe, who struggled to hide their snickers before Sue reached over with her longneck to pick up the three arguers and place them back into a straight line.
"Whad'ja do that for?" Kosh asked, annoyed.
"Well, someone had to straighten you out," Sue giggled.
"You could've just asked," Maura said, annoyed.
"And not see your reactions of surprise?" Phora smirked.
"Besides," Lambe said naughtily. "You wouldn't want another tall-crest bossing you around, right?"
They all just burst out laughing, drawing the attention of everyone else, curious to what they were talking about. Meanwhile, the hatchlings who wanted to formed lines of their own, and soon everyone had their eyes on Hyp and his gang, who had gotten into the same line that they did demonstrating for Chomper and Trace.
"Okay," Hyp called out. "I want everyone to remember what order they are in the line. I'm gonna be calling out odds and evens, so get that straight. This takes time to learn, so we're gonna go slow. Otherwise, you'd all just crash into each other. For today, we're just gonna be practicing the rhythm and moves in place. All right, so repeat after me. We are big, we are strong, we are tough, we are invincible. We are big, we are strong, we are tough, we are unstoppable …"
"We are big, we are strong, we are tough, we are unstoppable …" everyone began repeating. Hyp, however, looked irritated. "No, no! You're all saying it all differently. For this to work, it needs to be altogether," he growled.
"Calm down Hyp, it's not like everyone's done this before," Nod told Hyp.
"Yeah, and it's not like everyone else knows the chant like we do," Mutt added.
Hyp sighed reluctantly. "I guess you guys are right."
Many of the elders looked at each other in surprise, not expecting Hyp to admit his mistake so readily. "Okay, since you're all new to this, we'll go slower. As long as it takes for everyone to get the pace. Ready? We … Are … Big …. We … Are … Strong …"
Everyone had joined in by that point, and while getting the next five syllables right, "unstoppable" started tripping everyone up, causing the rhythm to be lost afterwards.
"Okay, we'll get rid of the last part for now," sighed Hyp. "So just we are big, we are strong, we are tough."
"Why those words?" asked little hollowhorn Fennel.
"Well it could be anything," Hyp said. "But if we're gonna bother saying something, we might as well flex our egos while we're at it."
Following this modification, the chant went a lot smoother, to where everyone was accurately repeating the correct word at each moment. Encouraged, Hyp said, "That's loads better. Okay, let's change it up. Instead of saying are, we pause. So we … … big … we … … strong."
"So you mean everyone speak like Petrie?" Petrie snickered.
Hyp rolled his eyes before sighing, "Yes."
After making time for everyone to stop laughing, Hyp led them in the modified exercise. Thinking about both the rhythm and dropping the are made this quite a bit more difficult than the original exercise, but it wasn't too long until everyone started getting the hang of it. Pleased, Hyp said, "Okay, now you've got the timing, we're gonna do side lunges. Now remember if you're odd or even. Got it? Right, so odds, you move along with me. Move your right foot or feet out to the side as far as you can. Then put all your weight on it and lift up your left or left front like this. Evens, you do the opposite, watch what Nod's doing. Let's get some balance practice by holding those feet up … Then bring them back down. And switch off to the other side, and keep on doing it."
"But how do we know we're doing it right?" asked little clubtail Horizon.
"Because I'm gonna be calling out to you to keep time," Hyp explained. "We …" he said, as he and the rest of his gang did a side lunge. "Are," he continued as they lifted up their inner legs. "Big," he finished as they brought their legs back in, standing in a straight line again, before repeating the cycle over and over again.
Hyp had to resist the temptation to go faster, for the pace was painfully slow and would be totally ineffective in any real situation. But learning the footwork and keeping rhythm was key, as he knew so well from endless repetitions with Mutt and Nod. It was a good thing Nod's back was so hard and Mutt's build was so sturdy, for he lost count of all the times he hit them in frustration. But they were patient with him and eventually learned to the point where they could put on just the display he wanted. It was time for him to have their patience and understand that while it might not come quickly, they would eventually master these drills to the point where they could layer additional techniques on top of them.
"Good job everybody," Hyp finally said. "You've done enough today. Our moves may look silly now, but don't worry, they'll get more awesome when you speed them up and do more things with them. In fact, why don't we show you now?"
Glad to take a break, everyone stretched out and watched as Hyp gathered his friends over to whisper ideas. Then they started slow, doing the footwork in perfect rhythm, before speeding up as a big line, letting out big stomps, punching and kicking at imaginary opponents, jumping up and down together, before abruptly getting out of line to get into the same tower and long row formations that they did for Chomper and Trace earlier. By the time they had finished, many of the herd, especially the kids, were cheering loudly, while many of the elders looked impressed.
While watching however, the gang took the opportunity with the others' eyes off them to discuss preparations.
"I think I want to fit in some running practice before lunch," Ruby explained. "Everyone will work up an appetite, and lunch can serve as a break so everyone will have a chance to rest before the game in the afternoon."
"Sounds good," Littlefoot smiled. "It'll also give everyone who wants to a chance to be done for the day."
"Who'd not want to play our toss the seed game?" Cera snorted playfully.
"Well, some of the elders might not run out of energy, and many of the kids would get squished," Ducky giggled. "Of course, we can always have regular toss the seed games for them."
"Besides, some of us might not want to play toss the seed with you," Littlefoot teased.
"What do you mean?" Cera snorted, sensing a wisecrack coming.
"We all know that you'll stop at nothing to win, right?" Littlefoot smirked.
"Yes, and?" Cera asked with a straight face.
"Well, some of us aren't so competitive," Littlefoot explained.
"Don't worry," Cera smirked. "It's boys versus girls, right? The game won't be so competitive because we girls are gonna roll all over you guys."
"Actually, it's the girls I'm more concerned about," Littlefoot laughed.
Cera snorted disdainfully. "Don't tell me Hiss Head's brainwashed you with his warriors and egglayers crap!"
"No, that's not it at all, though I still think we'll win," Littlefoot smirked naughtily. "What I really meant was they might not want to play if you're bossing them around."
"Ha ha," Cera said dryly as the others chortled. "You just made me all the more determined to beat you, you know that?"
"I know," Littlefoot smiled. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."
Chomper meanwhile, looked oddly concerned, as if he was deeply contemplating something. "What is it, Chomper?" Ducky asked.
Chomper sighed hesitantly before asking, "You don't think there's any chance Lola and Trace could be bad, right?"
"What are you getting at?" Cera asked, annoyed. "You were okay with them meeting us before, and now you're saying you don't know if you can trust them? Besides, how could we know any better than you, since we can't even talk to them?"
"I know, but … Well, this is different," Chomper said cryptically.
Sensing Chomper was probably several steps ahead of them in his thought process, Ruby suggested, "Why don't you share with us everything you're thinking, for we can't think with you if we're not all at the same thinking place."
Chomper nodded. "Well, if you guys are gonna start running, I wanna get Lola and Trace started on their instinct training," he explained. "After all, there's nothing that triggers a sharptooth's prey drive more than running flatteeth."
"You sure that's a good idea?" Littlefoot asked cautiously. "I know you've got Star to help you, but it's still gonna be a really big challenge. What'll happen if they lose control and hurt someone before you're able to stop them?"
Chomper nodded gravely. "I know … That's why I wanna get Dad to help."
There was a pause before Ruby realized the full implication of what Chomper was saying. "You haven't introduced Lola and Trace to your parents yet, have you?"
Chomper shook his head. "I want to … But how can I? My folks are crippled thanks to Red Claw. They can barely move without help, and since their legs don't hold them up well, they must be on their bellies all the time. I could introduce Lola and Trace to you guys because if they tried to attack, you could defend yourselves or run to get away. But not only can't my parents do that, they're stuck in the perfect position to be killed! One bite to the neck and it'd be all over for them!"
Shaking his head, Chomper sighed, "But I can't keep my folks hidden from Lola and Trace forever. Nor do I want to. They can teach them things that I can't. I mean, I don't know a thing about being a sharptooth in the Mysterious Beyond! But my parents do. Not only that, they must've learned to control themselves out here. I mean, Mom even nuzzled you that one time on that island, Littlefoot!"
"Yeah, and?" Littlefoot asked.
"Without trying to take a snap at you! You know what that means, right? They must've been able to control their instincts, even all the way back then!" Chomper said excitedly, before his face fell again. "But … I don't know if I can ask them to risk themselves like that. The instincts won't be a problem since my folks can speak sharptooth and snap them out of it."
"Well then, that mean everything okay, right?" Petrie asked. "Since instinct what caused problems before."
Chomper shook his head. "Yeah, but what if it's all an act? What if one or both of them is just pretending to be nice, like Leigh was? What if they were sent in by Goregie to kill my parents? It would be all my fault, all because I'm a gullible fool who wants to believe the best in everyone …"
"Chomper, calm down," Littlefoot interrupted in a firm but gentle voice, causing Chomper to abruptly stop. "This is like the time you lost your first tooth, remember? You kept worrying about losing everything, but in the end, everything turned out just fine. And you're not a fool, you've already done everything you can to make sure you can trust them. You sniffed them to make sure they didn't have Goregie's scent, you told them everything about what being a friendly sharptooth means, you even warned them what would happen if they'd betray you."
"Yeah, I'm surprised you had the guts to pull that threat off," Cera smirked. "Guess I should think twice before teasing you about your scrawny arms again," she said, grinning naughtily as everyone, even Chomper, laughed a little.
"The reason Lola and Trace are still with you isn't because you're being tricked," Littlefoot soothed. "It's because they really look up to you! And they've already had plenty of chances to turn their backs on us if they wanted to. Like Trace could have killed Hyp when they were in the woods all by themselves."
"And Lola had a lot of opportunities to bite me when we were swimming," Ducky laughed. "But she only bit me once, and that was not really her, it was just her sharptooth instincts. And unlike Cera, I do not hold a grudge about a little bite."
"Heyyy," Cera snorted as the others naughtily laughed.
"Not to mention Lola could've killed Star in that cave since they were alone the whole night," Littlefoot said. "Every chance you've given them, they've done their best to prove themselves because they believe in you so much. And the only times they've messed up have involved their instincts, but like you said, that shouldn't be an issue with your folks."
"Still," Ruby pondered. "We can always prevent risk by doing some risk prevention. Like you and Star can sit between Lola and Trace and your parents. That way, they can't lean over and land a bite."
"Me got an idea," Petrie chuckled. "You can say codeword if you think Lola and Trace gonna attack. That way, you, Star and your folks can warn each other if you think they bite."
"Like what?" Chomper asked.
Petrie pondered. "You can say Rinkus to mean Lola danger and Sierra to say Trace danger," he snickered.
Chomper couldn't help but laugh. "Petrie, Lola and Trace don't deserve those names! It's way too insulting!"
"Well, it not be if Lola or Trace turn traitor, right?" Petrie asked. "Of course, that no happen and you never have to say words. But it good to have code just in case."
"Well, since friends for dinner worked," Chomper began before they all laughed.
Spike suddenly grunted, bringing attention to him.
"You want to come with me too, Spike?" Chomper asked hopefully.
Spike nodded firmly, causing Chomper to smile. "Thanks Spike," he grinned, as they exchanged a cheek rub.
"Spike do well with Trace this morning," Petrie agreed. "And he plenty big to stop Lola or Trace."
Spike then let out a few playful, mischievous grunts, eyeing Ducky knowingly as Ducky laughed. "Spike is saying he would rather sit with sharptooth friends than run with us anyways."
"Oh Spike," Littlefoot laughed, before turning his attention back to Chomper. "Chomper, I know you're worried about your folks, but it's not just you. You were wondering how we felt about Lola and Trace? Well, once you get past their instincts, they seem completely trustworthy to me. How about everyone else?"
"Yeah, even I can't say I have any doubts about them, other than their horrible taste in food," Cera said with a teasing smirk.
"Yeah, and you think herd deputies Leigh's spies once," Petrie teased.
"Don't even go there," Cera warned, blowing at his wings in response.
Petrie landed to the ground before getting up and saying, "Me agree, me no think they bad at all."
"Yes," Ruby said. "They've both been open with you about everything you've asked from them. It doesn't seem like they're trying to hide anything. Though if you're going to have them watch us run, we better make sure the kids stay far away from you guys."
"Then we all think that we can trust them, right Spike?" Ducky asked brightly, and Spike nodded.
Chomper couldn't help but grin broadly. "Thanks guys … Spike, wanna go with me to get Dad?" he asked.
Spike nodded brightly before he and Chomper went away from the others. Chomper used his sniffer to pinpoint the location of his dad, lying in a secluded spot near the crater's edge surrounded by several large rocks. As Chomper approached, he saw his dad was peacefully lounging, taking in the Bright Circle's midday rays. Chomper almost hated to interrupt him, but his excitement allowed him to bend down and gently tap his father on the head.
Papa Sharptooth drowsily opened his eyes. "Morning Chomper …" he said dozily. "Come to join me and snooze?"
"No Dad," Chomper laughed. "I've got another idea."
Papa Sharptooth shook his head with a smirk. "Should've known, you're always way too busy to relax," he said exasperatedly, causing him and Chomper to laugh. "When I smelled Spike with you, I had reason to hope, but …"
"Maybe we can rest later," Chomper snickered. "But now I need your help."
Suddenly, Papa Sharptooth's eyes shot open and he frantically sniffed the air. Tensely, he asked, "Did you smell any enemies coming?"
Chomper shook his head. "It's nothing bad. I just … Well, you and Mom must have learned to control your instincts when you were younger, right?"
Papa Sharptooth nodded. "Yes. I learned when I was right about your age. I don't know about your mom, but she could control hers by the time we became a couple."
"Great," Chomper said brightly. "Because I was thinking … Maybe you could help me teach Lola and Trace to control their instincts!"
"Maybe," Papa Sharptooth said hesitantly. "But … Well … Our way of doing it was completely different."
"What do you mean?" Chomper asked.
Papa Sharptooth sighed. "I mean we learned it as a hunting technique. I'm sure you've noticed how some sharpteeth don't seem to hunt with much strategy and just seem to chase everything that moves? Well, those are sharpteeth who don't have a good control of their impulses. Others, however, learn impulse control to become tactical hunters, to strategically pick a target and determine if and when we could hunt the prey down without getting killed ourselves."
Seeing Chomper looked uncomfortable, Papa Sharptooth shook his head and sighed. "This is why your mother and I left Ruby in charge of your instinct training. The kind of impulse control we learned required you to look at the prey with cold, impersonal logic and to scour it for any weakness. Using this part of the brain well keeps you grounded in reality and prevents your body from taking over. But it can also numb you from your emotions. This is useful if you're trying to hunt, for a moment's hesitation could be the difference between life and death. And it is also useful if you must rely on eating flatteeth, otherwise you'd be overwhelmed with guilt. Taking this to heart, however, encourages one to believe that all flatteeth are impersonal bodies of flesh, and the only difference between any two flatteeth is how easy they are to kill."
Papa Sharptooth sighed. "Most sharpteeth who learn impulse control use it just like your mother and I did, as a tool to safely hunt flatteeth. They don't take any pleasure out of hunting flatteeth, but accept it as something they must do in order to survive. But some, like Sharptooth, Red Claw, and now Goregie view difficult prey as something to be challenged. They view it their life's mission to pull off truly impressive kills, whether to prove sharptooth superiority, gain power over their surroundings, establish some kind of feared legacy, or some combination. So they play the long game, mastering their impulse control before using it to only target easy prey at first. But with each kill, they gain vital hunting skills and experience, slowly but steadily working their way up to take on more and more difficult prey until they start gaining a real reputation. It's no accident that the most feared sharpteeth are often the ones with the best control of their impulses, for that impulse control is a foundation that a reign of terror can be built upon."
"Right," Chomper said uncomfortably, before realizing something. "Hey … How come you're saying impulse control rather than instinct?"
"Because unlike you, we were not trying to suppress our instincts toward flatteeth completely," Papa Sharptooth explained. "Rather we were trying to hold back our drive until picking a target to hunt. We could hold back our drive for a long time, passing herds by if there wasn't any opportunity. But once we found them a target and got them alone, we would channel that energy into a controlled burst to ensure that the prey would be killed, after which we calmed down again."
Seeing Chomper still looked a little queasy, Papa Sharptooth said, "Of course, all of this is long in the past for us. Being on that island so long really quelled our taste for flatteeth, and though there's always things we miss about the past, your mother and I feel glad that we will never need to do this again."
"Yeah," Chomper smiled. "One more question Dad. When you and Mom went to the Valley when you first met me, were you hunting there?"
Papa Sharptooth considered. "Yes," he finally said, with a light smirk. "But it was you we were hunting for. The night before you hatched, your mother and I went hunting for food. The place we had your egg in had lots of dead bodies, but unfortunately we had just run out and needed to go find food that wasn't in the place where sharpteeth go to die." He let out a macabre laugh. "Imagine our horror when your egg disappeared. We thought an eggstealer ate you at first, but we couldn't smell anything except for traces of five naughty hatchlings who didn't come in time for dinner."
Chomper couldn't help but laugh at that little crack before Papa Sharptooth continued, "So we found you eventually, you know the rest. While we're at it, you're probably wondering why we chased you and your friends. Well, just as they thought the worst of sharpteeth, we thought the worst of flatteeth. To us, we didn't even consider that you could be friends. We thought they were dangers that were most likely tasked by their elders to kill you ... Especially Littlefoot, since he had your scent all over him. Your mom was even more terrified and furious than I was. That's why she went after Littlefoot's grandpa. She was so enraged at the longneck who she thought okayed your killing that she wanted to kill him all by herself, and kept on going, despite getting tripped, thrown at, horned, and hit on the head with a giant rock. Having gone through that all by herself, I can't fault her for biting me on the snout."
As they both laughed, Papa Sharptooth said, "Once we could see you were safe though, we realized we misunderstood and left the Valley and your friends alone from then on. Even though we pretended to want to eat them on that island."
"Wait, you were messing with me the whole time?" Chomper cracked up.
Papa Sharptooth snorted. "Well yeah, we could smell them in those bushes and could tell you were fibbing. It was fun to watch you trying to hide them from us … Although I must admit I was a little worried about your taste in friends."
"What do you mean, taste?" Chomper ribbed as they exchanged more laughs.
"Of course, once we saw that you and Littlefoot were close enough that he'd jump into the water for you, we finally understood, and that's when we started to really understand that the world we grew up in was not where you really belonged," Papa Sharptooth sighed.
"Yeah," Chomper said understandingly. "But it's a new start for you and Mom too, Dad. You even get to come into the Valley now that you've proven you won't hunt anybody."
"I'd love to see the looks on some of their faces," Papa Sharptooth snorted playfully before they both laughed. Seeing Spike was still waiting for them, Papa Sharptooth asked, "Well, why don't we get over to Lola and Trace?"
"You sure you feel comfortable?" Chomper asked. "I mean if …"
But Papa Sharptooth shook his head. "Relax. They'll be fine with me."
He said it so confidently that Chomper could just stare in amazement, before grinning, "Right, um … Let's go!"