My apologizes for the delay in getting this out to you, Sovereign. I do hope that this is what you were looking for with your special prompt from last month.

Hello, everyone!  This is my (belated) special prompt response for Sovereign, the winner of the February 2017 prompt response challenge. His prize was to pick a prompt for Fyn and I.  The prompt in question was: "The endless, agonizing expanse of the deepest parts of the Mysterious Beyond hold many eerie and haunting locations. Ones that seem able to break anyone's spirit solely by their overall atmosphere or through threats that more often are imagined than real. However, there is always a fountain to wash your tears away in this land of decay and unseen grace..."

I hope that you all enjoy this offering.  And if you enjoy these prompt responses then please subscribe to the Gang of Five Prompt Challenge community page on fanfiction.net in order to ensure that you do not miss any new entries as they are posted.

The Foggy Bottoms

“Alright, children, remember what we told you about hunts.  Use your strengths to your advantage, and your prey’s disadvantages to your advantage.  Because whoever has an advantage in a hunt is the one who is less like to die.”

Biter could only reflect sardonically at his mother’s words as the impenetrable mists surrounded him on this darkest of nights.  It was supposed to have been the simplest of tasks: to track the young longneck that Spotter has seen and to bring him down.  The poor sod didn’t even have parents around!  But instead he and his young friends were here in the fog, lamenting the fact that their parents were certainly having better luck than they were at this moment.

“Find anything yet, oh Great Leader?”

Oh, and his sister’s attitude didn’t help matters either.

Biter resisted the urge to snap back at her.  This was supposed to be his shot at being a ëleader of the little ones’ as Path had put it, but thus far he was not off to a good start.  The fog had filled in the field almost as soon as they had lost sight of their parents, and now the wind was preventing a clear read on distant smells.  Even if he could smell longneck right now he would have no idea if it was coming from right behind him or the invisible horizon.

“I can’t smell anything either, besides all of us, that is.”

Biter raised his tail in a slight smile at Pouncer’s subdued tone.  He knew that his friend would mock him endlessly if they failed to find anything here, but he was not about to do it in front of the others.  Despite his questionable sense of humor, his friend was quick to follow the hierarchy and to respect his friends.

It reminded him of Pouncer’s father, now that Biter thought about it.  His friend was becoming more like Taunt every day.

“I would advise splitting up to see if we can find anything, but with this fog…” Biter began as he sniffed the air heavily, “Nibble? Are you still with us?”

A few seconds passed before he got an answer.

“Over here!  Where are you guys?”

If Biter could have visibly glared in the young biter’s direction he would have, but the dense cloud all around them would not permit that.

“Follow your ears, Nibbles-for-brains!  Our eyes and sniffers aren’t finding shit out here!”

Biter suppressed a chuckle, lest he again be the target of his sister’s ire.  Nibble couldn’t help himself, however.

“If we could find shit then that would at least be something!” He then growled as he collided with someone.  Running was not a good idea in a sea of haze.

“Does your mother know you talk like that, Swipe?” Pouncer’s voice taunted from somewhere unseen, “I think that knowing your mom that she might accidently ground you twice!”

Biter closed his eyes.  Just like his father, Pouncer knew how to lay out the bait. My sister being pissed in three… two… one…

“Well at least if I were grounded I wouldn’t be stuck in this shit, would I?  And what do you care about using naughty words, Pouncer?  Did your parents suddenly decide to get standards or something?”

It was then that Biter knew he had to intervene.  Not only, with insults thrown, would those two attempt to spar, but they would be liable to strike the others around them in the thick fog.

“That’s enough!  You two can fight when we get back!” Biter attempted to project his voice authoritatively in the style of a pack leader, but was still embarrassed a bit when his childlike squawking reached his ears.  “Right now we need to think about how to get out of this mess.  Because I have failed.”

There was silence for several moments as Biter looked away from the others.  Or at least looked away from where he thought they were based upon his sniffer.  This was his first shot to lead a group as a leader of sorts, but he had blown the opportunity.  Perhaps his sister or Pouncer would do better…

“Hey, it isn’t your fault that the weather decided to mess with us,” Pouncer began as he eventually found Biter’s tail when it hit him in the sniffer, “You will have another chance at this.”

There was a pause before his sister responded as well. “Remember what daddy says, Biter?  For every good hunt there are three that are missed.  A bad hunt is better to run away from than to start.”
Biter sighed.  His friends were right.

“Though we had better not run in this crap!  I can’t even see the tail sticking out of your butts!”

He chuckled.  And it seemed like Nibble was still with the group.

“Well… I guess you all are right.  But let’s vote.  Who all wants to continue the hunt?”

Not a single voice rose in response.  It was obvious what the consensus was.

“Alright then… let’s try to find our parents and the others.  This hunt was a bust, but there is always another day.”

As affirmative grunts echoed around him from his three companions and a supportive pat on the flank came from one of them, he reluctantly turned back in the direction he believed his parents were.  The decision having been made, a long wet journey awaited them.  A journey which would allow him to reflect upon his failure.

None of the four biters noticed the long neck of a sauropod peering over the mists…

--------

“Are you sure that you are going the right way, Biter?”

Never mind how hard she tried to not demean her brother during his turn at playing pack leader, sometimes she just couldn’t help but question his more questionable choices.

Darn it, I am thinking like mom again.

Swipe could feel a slight shift in the airflow in front of her, telling her that her brother had stopped.

“No I’m not, but do any of you have a better direction that you would like to try?”

Swipe forced herself to be silent.  Her brother did have a point.

“Well, we could try to roar and alert our parents,” Nibble suggested.

“And ruin their hunt?” Pounce questioned, “And who knows what else is out here?  If we give our locations away…”

Swipe groaned.  It was this conversation again.  But this time, she resolved, she would make her opinion known.

“Well if all of you had listened to me in the first place then this would never had happened.  Did I not warn you all about this problem before it became a problem?”

Swipe placed her hand in front of her chest as if she were making a point at the dullards around her, but sadly the fog prevented anyone from seeing her prideful gesture.  What the fog did allow them to detect, however, was a certain vocal tic.

“Well I am certainly corrected by your correct correction.”

“How can we learn from your spectacular learning, oh great learner…”

Swipe gritted her teeth.  “Shut up!”

The little fastbiter barely resisted the urge to slash blindly at the fog around her in the hope of smacking the insufferable males as they began to laugh at her vocal tic.  She had tried so very hard to fight against it, but every once in awhile it reared its ugly head.

Mercifully a sudden sound broke the moment.

“Shhh… what’s that?” Swipe tilted her ears in the direction of the mysterious sound as the cold wind continued to blow against her feathers.  It only took a moment for it to repeat.

The sound of rustling… almost like something moving through the grass.

“I hear it too!” Nibble hissed as he reared back in preparation for a potential charge.

Biter and Pounce did the same as the carefully identified everyone’s location through a series of nudges.  Within a few moments all four younglings were now side by side.  When Biter finally spoke there was no disagreement.

“Let’s finish what we started.  Follow the sounds of the longneck…”

---------

Rustle… rustle…

Biter flew into the fog blindly in pursuit of his prey, as the panting and calls of the others echoed all around him, keeping them alerted to their location at all times.  The poor longneck had given away his location, and no mistake in the Mysterious Beyond ever went unnoticed.

Perhaps his first group hunt would not be a failure after all?

As much as Biter hated to admit it he had feared since his first hunt with his parents that he simply did not have the skill or discipline to be like his father, a leader of a pack.  Despite his father’s assurances that there is more to being in a pack than leading, Biter couldn’t shake the thought that he would be letting his father down if he couldn’t even play the role.

But such thoughts were now distant as the prey ran in front of them, still unseen.  At the very least they would have a good chase to their name.

“Whoa, do you see that?”

Biter didn’t have much time to consider Pouncer’s words as his head broke through the fog, momentarily catching a glimpse at what was in front of them.

Even in the clearing the fog still hung to the ground like a blood-sucker on flesh, but above the coating of white and between the tall clouds, he could see the telltale shape of a longneck in the mist.  A neck that appeared to be growing by the moment.

Everyone stopped, staring at the white longneck in terror.  They could see no details on him, nor detect any scent.  It was as if the longneck could have been merely a figment of their imaginations.

But such figments did not laugh.

“Shit, run!”

Biter could barely feel his face as the thick air rushed against his body, pressing his already dew-drenched feathers against his flesh.  Nothing in his short life had prepared him for something like this.  A cloud longneck chasing him and his friends.  Why had his parents not warned him about this?

That was when something registered in the little biter’s mind.  What if this wasn’t a cloud?  What if this was one of the pack’s kills coming back to seek revenge?

Just like in Momma’s scary story song!  Maybe it wasn’t just a story?

As if to confirm his fears he could hear the stomping of a large foot right behind him and his friends.  It was getting closer…

That was when another break in the fog could be seen.  In the distance, barely visible, the tops of trees were peeking through the mists.  If they could reach those trees then the now larger longneck would be unable to pursue them.

“To the trees!” Biter screamed as he felt the breaths of the others, or maybe his pursuer, right behind him.  “He can’t follow us in there!”

Biter fought his instincts to keep his eyes forward.  He knew that he could not afford to look back at whatever was behind them.  Any mistake… any slip… and his parents would only have one child.  What he thought had been a great break in the hunt now looked like something out of a bad sleep story.

“Almost there!”

Hearing Swipe’s voice he redoubled his efforts, and continued to pump his legs.  The barest hint of trees in the distance now exposed what was obviously the beginnings of a forest.  A solid canopy of trees that no longneck could transverse.

But a small fastbiter could.

Biter gasped for air, “This is worse… gasp… than dad’s training…”

As the trees grew larger in his vision he saw the fog suddenly disappear.  What lay in front of him filled him with pause, the cloud-like outline of a young longneck.  A longneck who was running from them.  A longneck, who despite having no visible features, was terrified for his life.

Just like him.

Making a conscious effort to avoid the longneck, Biter swerved around him and continued his advance towards the trees.  It was only when he was safely in the forest that he allowed himself to stop and catch his breath.

“What in the heck was that?”

Biter shook his head at Pouncer’s words, “I have no clue!  Longnecks don’t grow!  Longnecks don’t come from clouds!”

Swipe sighed, “Well at least it is out there and not here.  Maybe the cloudneck will take its kid and leave?”

It was then that the sound of a pained gasp could be heard.  That was when Biter realized what was wrong.  Nibble was not with them!

Without thinking the three fastbiters sprinted in the direction of the anguished sounds.  Regardless of the danger, he was pack.  And packmates did not abandon their own if there was any chance of survival.

They just hoped that they weren’t too late.

---------

Swipe tried to keep her fears under control as she swerved through the trees in order to find their stricken friend.  It only took a few seconds to reach the edge of the treeline, but it might as well had been an eternity.

Then she saw him.  Leaning against a tree.

“Nibble!”

The three younglings were at his side in an instant as they quickly sniffed him and checked for any injuries.  It was only after a few seconds of not finding any problems that he spoke, pointing at something in the distance.

That was when she heard the pained gasp again, and it was not coming from Nibble.

She turned towards the terrible sound, only to see a confusing spasm of movement against the base of the fog.  It took several seconds for what looked like a long neck to appear against the white background.  It was obvious that the youngling had been mortally injured.

“Did… either of you do that?”

Swipe blinked as she turned towards Nibble, “No, you didn’t do this?”

Nibble shook his head before backing away in fear.  Pouncer shook his head as well as he watched the scene.  The poor thing appeared to be in terrible pain, despite barely having any form.  Had they not known what this cloud was capable of then they would assume that their eyes were playing tricks on them.

That was when she looked at her brother.  With a noticeable lowering of his crested head, he sighed.  It was obvious what he was about to do.

“No, Biter, this has got to be a trick!”

“I agree!” Pouncer readily agreed with her for once, “Remember how that thing grew?  How it looked like an adult and a little one at the same time?  Let’s leave it be and stay here for the night.”

Nibble was on his feet, now in agreement as well.  “If none of us slashed him, then who did?”

The four children could only look at the confusing jumble of clouds, as it continued its writhing.  What was the right thing to do?

“I have to do this…”

Swipe advanced to get in her brother’s way, but he was simply too fast.  As she fell in her attempt to block him she screamed out her warning.

“It’s a trap!”

But her brother did not appear to hear her as he continued forward.  Briefly looking at the others and resolving to not let him face this alone, all three advanced towards Biter’s now cloud-shrouded form.  It was only when they were within a few body lengths away that they could see him raising his clawed appendage to bring a swift end to the apparent suffering of the cloud…

Only to have it blow away as if it were never there.

--------

As the cloud soared into the sky, Biter gritted his teeth in determination.  He did not know what this thing was, or what it wanted with him or his friends, but he was not going to let this go without finding out what they were dealing with.

Because if the suffering longneck was never there then the massive longneck was never there either.

He glared at the others, his voice brokering no disagreement.  “Follow.”

He could hear the beginnings of protest from the others, but they swiftly dissipated as the others struggled to keep up with Biter’s pace.  He didn’t have time to explain.  If this was something new and it had tricked Spotter then his parents had to know what it was.  He was no longer afraid of this illusion, but an illusion at the wrong time…

He may no longer be hunting a longneck, but as far as Biter was concerned he was still in a hunt.  A hunt for the truth.

The cloud descended to the ground once more, just barely visible in the distance through the fog.  As soon as the little longneck appeared again, Biter wasted no time in resuming the chase.  That was when he heard it.

Laughter.  The not-longneck was taunting him!

Biter growled.  This thing, whatever it was, was almost as annoying as his sister.

“Follow it!” Biter commanded.

“I see him!” Swipe confirmed, “Not that that does us any good!”

It was then that Biter could see Nibble and Pouncer to his left.  With a quick not to them and to his sister, he conveyed the obvious orders: I will chase him and you three will attack from the sides.  It won’t escape this time!

Now that his makeshift pack was on the same level, they functioned like a seamless bringer of death.  Though death was not what they had in mind at the moment.  Though his companions were now barely visible in the mist to his left and right Biter had no doubt that they were still on track for the insufferable thing that they were chasing.

But the main chase was up to him.

Being careful to not speed up too much, lest the cloud-neck rise to the sky again, he carefully positioned himself to advance on his target.  The longneck-shaped cloud appeared to be running at something less than what was possible.  Maybe the cloud was tired?  Maybe it was toying with them again?  Biter had no idea, and at this moment he did not care.

It was time.

Growl…

Giving his signal to the others he quickened his pace to the limits of what was possible in his small body as the three other hunters swung towards the location of the cloud-neck.  It would all be over now… just a few more seconds…

Four…

Biter could feel his sickle claws clink against the top of his toes as he they tensed in preparation for a strike.

Three…

He could see his breath condense in front of him into clouds much like the one he was chasing.

Two…

Subconsciously his nictitating membranes covered his eyes in a horizontal swipe over his eyes, protecting them for whatever debris they would soon encounter.

One…

Biter leapt.  Now it was the time.

“Children!  There they are!”

Biter barely had time to land carefully as he aborted his leap, with Nibble and Pouncer diving under Swipe’s attack on the now disappeared cloud.  It was only when his claws struck damp ground that his mind lamented one fact.

He got away again.

“Oh, thank goodness!  We thought that you all got lost!”

Biter shook his head in order to regain his focus.  Those voices… those were…

“Mom!  Dad!”

Biter advanced towards his parents, quickly forgetting the decorum expected of a ëpack leader of the little ones’.  As he and his sister landed on his mother’s back with a soft thud, their father was quick to nuzzle them.  The happy chirps of Nibble, Pouncer, and their respective families all confirmed that the pack was whole once more.  In the end that was all that mattered.

---------

Littlefoot watched his son’s chest rise and fall as the younglings now firmly chased prey in the land of sleep stories.  While they chased prey to help Dein and Terri on their journey to their new territory, they had thought nothing of having the four successful little hunters in the pack try out their first joint hunt together against easy prey.  The coming of the mist out of nowhere and the disappearance of the children had filled them with fear.  In response the parents had quickly abandoned their newly killed prey in order to protect what was most precious.

“So… a cloud-neck?”

Littlefoot rolled his eyes as Taunt’s words came in an amused whisper from behind him.  He could only assume that Pouncer had told him the same story his children had told him and Ruby.

“So it would seem.  Do you doubt the tale of our little ones, Taunt?”

Littlefoot turned around in order to gaze at the orange fastbiter.  It seemed that only a few of the pack were awake at the moment, but the sound of snapping jaws confirmed that Dein, Terri, and Chomper will still enjoying the pack’s labors on this night.  Though he would not admit it to their faces, Littlefoot was looking forward to going back to his territory.  Dealing with one two-footer sharptooth was more than enough.  An entire family was insufferable.

“He believed all of it.  A small sky-neck that turned big… a small sky-neck that acted like he was in pain… and then it flying in our direction.” Taunt shook his head, “Are we sure that they didn’t eat some bad Rot Plants or something?  Those make you see things.”

“You know this from experience, do you?” Littlefoot teased.

Taunt rolled his eyes, “Stern Claw gave some to me to treat a headache one day.  I thought that the sky was melting.”

“Well, based upon the fog tonight, I think I know where it melted to,” Littlefoot teased.

“Ha.  Ha.  Ha.” Taunt laughed without enthusiasm.  “But seriously, what could they have seen?  There are no tales about something like this… what could have given them this idea?”

Littlefoot was silent for several moments.  Taunt could not tell if he were ignoring him, or merely did not have an answer.  However, after Taunt had begun to turn away, he spoke.

“Where are we, Taunt?”

Taunt blinked.  Turning around, he shrugged.  “Nowhere special.  I mean… nothing important that I can think of.”

Littlefoot continued to look at something in the distance.  “My first hunt was here.  And… the first hunt of us first seven.”

Taunt was silent for several moments as he processed this information.  It only took a moment for him to put them together.  “Seeker, surely you don’t think…”

“I am not sure what to think.  But Taunt?”

Taunt was a bit perturbed that his pack leader did not turn around to address him, but bowed in acknowledgement nonetheless, “Yes, Seeker?”

“I do think that we have a song to sing in the morning.  Regardless of how much it pisses off our hungry guests.”

The orange fastbiter smiled, “Well, you will not hear any complaining from me.  There is never a bad day to piss off Purple Ass and his family.”

Littlefoot could only roll his eyes, “Have a good night, Taunt.”

A polite growl indicating the same came from the orange fastbiter has he walked back to where his mate and younglings were nestled into a makeshift nest.  This left Littlefoot to his own thoughts and observations.

“Well, you always were one to make a grand entrance.  But you did what we could not, and led our children back home.  Don’t worry, my friend, I will make sure to remind the little ones of what you sacrificed for us back then.”

Littlefoot turned away from his makeshift perch as he went to join his family, leaving the thick mist to its own devices as the light of the Night Circle gleamed against it like starlight against the firmament.  Had he turned his head at that moment he would have seen a cloud looking suspiciously like a smiling longneck.

The mist would still be barely hanging on against the coming of the Bright Circle when the pack completed their song the next morning.  As expected the two-footers were annoyed with the racket, and Chomper pretended to be for appearances sake, but at least the song could be enjoyed by its intended audience.

The distant cloud in the sky.  An audience of one.