By the time they finally reached the cave, it was late afternoon; not enough to where the sun was beginning to dip, but it was still bright and high in the sky. Some of the herd-members paused to gape at the cave, but continued on with pushing from the rest of the herd or Aladar's coaxing.
Noah explained to Chastain how they found the cave, slept until the Carnotaurs attacked, and she and Bruton caused a cave-in to try and kill them. "Obviously, we only succeeded in killing one." She sighed. Maybe if both had been buried, Kron would still be alive.
Chastain didn't seem to notice as her neck twisted around to take eyefuls of the cave. "It must have been so cozy and dry in here!" she remarked.
"And dark," Noah added with a chuckle. "But yeah, it was nice and dry."
The herd had to slow down to a near-still once they reached the cave-in—or what was left of it. It wasn't completely gone, as there were a couple of piles of rocks off to the sides. But it was enough for several herd-members to get through, rather than them crawling through one at a time.
Bruton had walked around one of the huge piles while Aladar stood at the head, directing everyone to go through. Some of the members were so big, only two at a time could go through, which caused a couple of pile-ups. "Take it easy!" he exclaimed at one point. "The valley's not going anywhere."
Noah nudged Chastain to go before her. "Are you sure? You're probably just as eager to get home as I am."
Home. It seemed like it had been so long since she used that word. But they finally had one. "It's okay. Paka's probably anxious to see you."
"Well, if you're sure, I'll see you in the valley!" With a smile, Chastain shuffled through the crowd, crying out "Excuse me!" and "Pardon me!"
Noah shook her head with a smile. "I didn't mean try to cut ahead," she muttered. But she took the opportunity to hunker back and let the rest of the herd trickle ahead. Why? She had no idea. Maybe it was to let the older and more tired members get through faster. Maybe it was because she didn't want to see that Carnotaur again, even if this was the last time.
Or maybe it was because she wanted to extend her wait as long as she could until she faced Bruton again.
It wasn't like she didn't want to interact with him again. Just thinking about him gave her flutters in her stomach and chest. But it also made her wonder how he felt about her. He obviously cared about her, she wasn't so blind that she couldn't see that. But was it the same amount of care he felt for Aladar, his new leader? That he had for Kron? Or was his care for her deeper?
She almost didn't want to know, as she would be either correct or disappointed. And one sounded just as scary as the next.
It was so odd, she spent the past year of her life wishing for somebody to love, to have what the lemurs during the courtship had, and what Aladar now had. But now that it was potentially on the horizon, the idea scared her. She had no idea how her future would proceed, whether Bruton returned her feelings or not. Why would he? I'm not a true Iguanodon. I'm more lemur than Iguanodon. He deserves a real Iguanodon, not some lame raised-by-another-species-entirely girl.
She didn't realize she was the last one until Aladar broke her from her self-deprecating stupor. "Are you okay?" he asked, tilting his head in concern.
"Y-yeah." She nodded. "I'm... I'm just tired, I guess."
He didn't look convinced, but didn't push it further. "Well, after you get scolded by Yar and Plio, you can finally rest easy."
She cringed at their mention, completely forgetting that she had ran away completely under their noses. "That'll be fun," she muttered.
He shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn't ask you to come with. I told you to stay here and dig."
She rolled her eyes as he walked on. "'I told you to stay here and dig'," she mocked. "You're not our mom."
As she walked through, her head automatically turned to look for the Carnotaur head. But it wasn't there. At least, it wasn't in view.
"It's buried," Bruton said.
Her head snapped up to look at him. "Did Paka..."
He shook his head as she trailed off. "I did. Even though it's dead, it would still scare the herd."
She slowly smiled. She wandered to where she knew it lay, and nudged some more rocks onto the pile. "So that in case some younglings wander in, they won't accidentally uncover it," she explained.
He snorted softly. "Hopefully by then, it'll be nothing but bones. Good riddance." But he helped move the rocks; or at least as much as he could, since he could still only stand on three legs.
Once they both determined the pile was big enough, they turned their heads to watch the rest of the herd practically stampede out of the cave. Noah had heard them all cheering, but kept her mind to her task.
Bruton turned to look at Noah. "Well, after you," he said, gesturing with his head.
She smiled shyly as she finally approached the cave's mouth. She blinked hard at the harsh light before letting her eyes scan over the Nesting Grounds. She took a deep breath, and let it out with a content sigh. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of this sight."
"Neither will I."
Noah glanced at Bruton, only to see him limping away. Shrugging, she walked further into the valley until she saw Aladar and Neera by the lake, talking to the lemurs.
She forgot about her impending scolding, and let her smile turn wicked. She snuck up on her twin until she was right next to him, perpendicular to his body. Neera looked at her with a confused face.
With a sudden burst of energy, Noah shoved her shoulder against the side of Aladar's torso. He barely had time to yell before he fell into the lake with a splash. He immediately sat up and shook the water from his face.
"I told you I'd do that if you left me behind again!" Noah snapped.
Before Aladar or Neera could protest, a voice shouted, "Noah! Get down here, young lady!"
Noah immediately fell onto her stomach, only to see an angry Yar and Plio standing directly in front of her, hands on their hips. Her heart dropped, and her eyes widened. But she stayed where she lay.
"Do you know how worried sick we were when Paka came out without you?" Yar exclaimed, pointing his finger at her.
"You were told to stay here, where it was safe!" Plio added. "What were you thinking?"
Noah nearly opened her mouth to retort, but felt it wiser to keep it shut. She would have time to plead her case later, when her mother and grandfather were less likely to further scold her for interrupting.
"I don't care how big you are, you are never to do that ever again! Or, so help me, I will tie you to a tree! Do you understand?"
"Yes, Grandpa," she answered meekly.
He shook his head with a heavy sigh, and laid a hand on the side of her snout. He nuzzled his head against her. "We're sorry for yelling at you like that. Please... don't ever scare us like that again."
"That Carnotaur was still out there," Plio added as she hugged Noah's head. "We couldn't bear the thought of losing you, or Aladar."
Now Noah's stomach felt heavy and sick with guilt, thinking of the rest of the clan they had lost to the sunrock. "I'm sorry." She felt hot tears begin to run down her face. She nuzzled them in turn. "I just... I didn't want to wait until they either came home or never came home."
"I know," Plio whispered. "You were never far from Aladar, and you two always knew each other was safe on the island. But things are different out here."
"But the traveling is over. This place is safe from predators."
"We still have to migrate when winter comes," Neera awkwardly interjected.
And there will be hungry predators abound. Noah could hear the hidden half of her statement, unspoken so as to not cause further stress to the lemurs. Plio was right, things were different. She had to learn new ways of life.
Proper Iguanodon ways.
As Noah stood back up, and Aladar reached dry land and shook the rest of the water off of his body, she rose up on her hind legs to look around. She could see Baylene and Eema were sitting together on the other side of the lake, no doubt talking about what the valley had to offer. Paka and Chastain were resting at the nest that he, indeed, had crafted for her return. Url was playing chase with Suri, Zini, and the two Iguanodon calves. Bruton was relaxing on a large flat rock, letting his front feet hang over the edge. Several herd-members were either mingling with each other, or had collapsed where they stopped, no doubt exhausted from the long trek.
They were all exhausted. She wouldn't be surprised if some of them slept until the next afternoon, even if they fell asleep now.
As she let herself fall back on all fours, she heard scuffling. When she looked behind her, she rolled her eyes with a groan. It was the two bulls that had been fighting for her attention before they reached the desert lake. They were swinging and bellowing at each other, while a few cows watched from the side. At least they haven't noticed me.
Unfortunately, one of them did notice her. He shoved his opponent away and strutted to Noah, bobbing his head back and forth. His opponent tried to push him aside once he realized what was going on, while strutting and bobbing himself. The cows were muttering among themselves, sending glares at Noah for daring to distract the bulls.
She barely heard Aladar ask if those were the ones who had been harassing her, or Plio telling Yar he couldn't possible take them both on himself. She was tired of her denials being ignored, and for being made uncomfortable. She stood on her hind legs again and let out a loud, angry bellow straight at the pair.
Once the bucks were startled frozen, she began to charge. Her eyebrows were deeply furrowed, and her breath snorted from her nostrils. Even with her limp, she looked a force to be reckoned with.
Taken completely by surprise, the bulls both turned to sprint away. But once they realized she wasn't stopping, they picked up the pace. Somehow, they didn't think to scatter. The rest of the herd was watching with astonished expressions and amused laughter.
"I'm gonna make you wish that Carnotaur caught you instead!" she roared.
If this was the Iguanodon way, she was perfectly fine with her strange lemur ways, Bruton or no Bruton.
A/N After two years, this story is finally drawing to a close. Honestly, as much as I've enjoyed writing this story, I'm ready for it to be over. I'm REALLY itching to start writing for One Piece; specifically, an OC for the anime that I'm excited to properly introduce. I've worked on her for a long time, and am really proud of how much time and effort I've put into her. I'll talk more about it in the final chapter. Speaking of, I'll be posting these within the next few days; since there's only four left, including this one, Sunday should be the day of the final chapter's posting. I'm able to schedule chapter postings on here, but I don't know about .
I can't really explain my processes with this and the next couple of chapters, since it's been a long time since I wrote them XD But at the very least, I had a bit of fun writing Noah's scolding by Yar and Plio. I think we've all been there, full-grown adults still brought back down to Earth by our parents' scoldings. But Noah definitely deserved it, seeing as she DID disappear without mentioning ANYTHING to them about where she was going.
It was also fun having her finally snapping against the flirty bulls. It kinda reminds me of how funny it is, seeing Noah be insecure about her love life-not to mention being traumatized to the point lightning, among other things, scares her. You'll see why I think this is both funny and ironic in the author's notes in the final chapter...