@Sovereign:
It's nice to see another writer here. 
This story was rather well-written and your descriptions of the Gang's antics certainly were nicely thought out. I liked the banter about their journey and the slow build-up to the main drama of the story certainly paid out. Cera most likely has many misgivings about her role in that journey and the way she tried to hide her real problems seemed rather in-character.
Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked it!
It's more than probable that more than just few of the main characters had severe nightmares of the last days and that the tensions between Littlefoot and Cera wouldn't solve themselves instantly upon their arrival into the Valley.
On one hand, I liked Cera's innocent question about Littlefoot's mother and his reaction to that but I have to wonder if she truly didn't know about her death (in canon that is). Se referred to her in a past tense in the lead-up to the duo's fight after all but your version worked just as well.
Oh, that's right, I forgot to post the supplemental information. Yeah, on the one hand, she did use the past tense, and she really ought to have realized that Littlefoot's mother was on the same side of the divide as them. On the other hand, the "was" could have meant "she was a stupid longneck when she told you that." It's not really grammatically correct, but I've definitely heard and used phrases along the lines of "Well, whoever told you that was an idiot" without making any assumptions about their status. And, well, "ought to have known" isn't a standard that works very well with Cera. She has a tendency to tunnel-vision and not notice things she hasn't thought about the possibility of, and memory is often imperfect in a situation as terrifying as Sharptooth's attack anyway. The evidence in favor of her not knowing is that, well, Littlefoot's mom being on the same side of the divide was her
only way of knowing. Rewatching the movie, I realized that not only does Littlefoot not mention her death to any of the others, but she wasn't actually present for any of the scenes like Littlefoot getting annoyed at Petrie for tearing the treestar. The last time Cera saw Littlefoot's mother, she was alive enough to be walking around, and even in our modern society I think someone bleeding to death from an injury that doesn't look like it would be fatal is something that would be on most little kids' radar.
My thoughts on the later part of the story are a bit mixed as I did enjoy the mutual reconciliation but I'm a bit skeptical about Cera's mental breakdown. Yes, her mother's loss was probably a terrible blow but I'm not sure this is the kind of reaction she'd have. The ending was nice though, as it's clear the Gang needed to get over the worst trauma of their losses.
Yeah, I was kind of unsure how far to take her breakdown. Characterization in situations that go far beyond what they've experienced in canon is hard, especially with characters who are so rarely honest about their emotions! But the limited material I had to work with, both from the original and the sequels, points to Cera being able to keep her emotions concealed up to a certain limit, but when things go far enough that she can't keep up the "tough girl" facade, it goes down
hard. E.g. her reactions to Sharptooth and the Domeheads weren't any different from Littlefoot's. I'll admit I'm also working from personal experience that if your only way of dealing with negative emotions is repressing them, you won't "fail gracefully" as it were.
Cera taking out her feelings on inanimate objects is something I
know she does. Early in Mysterious Island, when the herd finds the skeleton of a swimmer, Cera looks very uncomfortable, then she immediately goes and uproots a tree stump - which worked out a bit better that time. Her anger management advice to Ducky in The Big Freeze also involves kicking rocks - albeit safely. Would she keep doing it to the point of injury? It's hard to say, but I've definitely heard plenty of stories of people seriously hurting themselves while punching a wall or door. Running off to sulk alone is also something she's done.
While the premise of the Gang trying to get over a parent's death isn't exactly a new theme, your take on this issue was certainly a good one. The dialogue, situation building and the rather emotional drive in this fic were certainly nice even if I think there were some issues with characterization. Still, it's a solid first LBT fic and I hope we'll see more from you in the future!
Thank you so much! I'm not sure if I'll do another story for LBT, at least not for a while. I don't really have any other well-developed ideas, especially not ones that other writers haven't done well. I'd sort of like to try adapting the plots of some of the sequels to fit a more adult tone like that of the original, but that would be a huge project, and I have way too many half-written stories for other fandoms lying around at the moment. I'll be sticking around here for other writers' stories and for the discussion stuff, though.
@Sneak:
Only thing - maybe there were extremely small gap between original movie and this story. And when each of character beside Littlefoot lost their relatives - I think some time should be passed before they gather and start to try to play like they did at the beginning of the story. I dunno, Cera and Petrie could be more depressed.
Well, part of the goal of this story was to show the transition period between when they get to the Great Valley and the start of the sequels. They're definitely not as happy and carefree as they were by the start of Great Valley Adventure, but I don't think they'd just be sitting around moping. They're dealing with loss, but at the the same time they had the HUGE stress of being in
constant danger on their journey lifted off their shoulders. And even during the journey, Littlefoot and the others were still joking around a little bit. Distraction and humor are very common and effective coping mechanisms.
Cera definitely
was depressed, although she tried to hide it. At the start, she was the first one to try to open up to the others, although that ended up going sideways due to various communication problems. The others were as well, to a lesser extent. Everybody wanted to talk about what happened, but they didn't know how to bring it up, and they saw all the others acting normal, so they didn't want to be the first one to "ruin the mood." Ducky and Petrie also had it much easier than Cera because they still had the support of their parents and other siblings. Cera lost nearly her entire family, and couldn't really turn to her dad for support because he's not open with his emotions either.
