I was really wondering if this was worth continuing, considering the vast differences between this and most other stories on here. but then I thought "you know what? It's already on there, might as well stick to it!" so yeah, that's what I'm gonna do! here is the next chapter!
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Chapter 1
15 years later…
Only a few mere candles kept a dim light within the quiet tent. The serene silence was slightly broken when a brown longneck, about the size of a fisherman’s ship, walked through the thick curtains. This was Littlefoot, he had grown at an average speed over the short fifteen years of his life but had not come to the full size of his race. Strapped around his back was a large blanket made from the pelts of several cattle, Robeth would ride atop him whenever they left the village. The two had grown up together like the brothers they were made to be, through harsh winters and warm summers, the two times the village caught fire, and even the attack on the village by a monster, the day he had come here to remember. Littlefoot bowed his head at the shrine and closed his eyes. He remembered the one day that had haunted him for the last ten years of his life and, in his mind, would haunt him forever. The screams of the village people still rung out in his head, as did the roars of Sharptooth.
He desperately tried to hold back his tears as he thought about cries of pain as his grandfather made as the beast pounced upon him with the type of youth that he no longer had. He always thought the last words of his grandmother would be “I love you, sweet Littlefoot.” but instead they were “Protect the younglings! Don't let sharptooth get to th-” before she could say anything else there was only the sound bone snapping. He could practically see the memory playing in the darkness of his closed eyes of him and Robeth running into the gates of the village as several warriors led by Tyler charged out to defend their home. He thought about how the few minutes they spent in the elder's chamber felt like hours as they listened to the battle rage outside. The sound of loud crashing drove the both of them to simply peak outside to see what was happening, and that was when he saw it, the sight of Sharptooth tearing into the flesh of his prone mother. Tyler was able to drive the beast away by digging his axe into its eye, but that could not save his mother. Everyone watched as the young longneck shared its mother’s last moments together with her. He would never forget her last words, “let your heart guide you… it whispers...so listen closely.”. Tears streamed down Littlefoot’s face as he finished his memory “Allfather, please, take good care of them.” he begged Odin as he prayed. He switched his prayers to his family “are you all happy there? I hope so. I know you won't be really happy until the Gods call me home.”. “Call me home.” those words rung out in his head repeatedly, in the back of his head he always begged for that moment to come soon. A few more quiet, contemplative minutes went by before the tears finally stopped, “Until the gods call to me…” he whispered. Littlefoot coming to the shrine to pray was a common occurrence, he’d usually go on the anniversary of his family’s demise but he also went there whenever he felt sentimental, lonely, or sometimes just spiritual. He took one last look at the shrine to say goodbye when he heard a voice. “Littlefoot?” the soft yet mature tone called out, Littlefoot looked behind him to see his brother and ally, Robeth. The small white coyote/wolf pup had grown into great warrior, standing at least a full head above most of the other warriors, he had an above average muscle mass which his light wool clothes did little to hide. “What are you doing here?” Robeth asked with a look of concerned confusion on his face. Littlefoot looked at his ally with embarrassed surprise, he always preferred to be alone at times like this and on top of that he hated having others see him so glum like like he was. He looked for an excuse “”Robeth! I..uh...I was just...uh.” his face faded back into its solemn look, Robeth was smart enough to see through any lie and he also had a natural instinct to tell the truth. It didn't matter anyway, Robeth gave a knowing nod indicating he already knew why he had come to the shrine of the fallen, there was only ever one reason anyone would come here. Littlefoot turned his head to the shrine and took another look at it as Robeth walked next to him. “I...I just miss them….so much.” Littlefoot whispered as he felt the tears well up again. Robeth put a hand on his shoulder “you know you don't have to come here to feel their presence with you, that's why we had that rune carved into your shoulder” he told Littlefoot as he lifted part of the blanket, revealing a large and intriket scar on his shoulder. When deciphered from the ancient language of the first Vikings it read “may the fallen watch over their familiar from their seat in Asgard” a common phrase used in runic scars. Littlefoot frowned “yes, I know, but.. their presence just feels stronger here.” He explained. Robeth gave a nod “I understand…but I don't think your family would want you to be consumed by grief like this.” Robeth answered, much to Littlefoot’s embarrassment, THIS was what he hated when Robeth caught him like this. “They’d want you to remember all the good times you had together and live the rest of your life happily..” Robeth continued “besides, you still have a family, us” he finished. Robeth gave a gentle smile to his ally, Littlefoot closed his eyes and thought about what he said, it was all true, so why did he still feel bad? he didn't know why, all he knew was that he wanted to stop feeling bad, so he accepted what his brother had said. “Your right, I'm sorry Robeth, I just wanted to remember them.” Littlefoot answered “don't feel bad, Littlefoot, it's okay grieve.” Robeth returned “to be honest I thought you would come here, givin what today is.” He explained as Littlefoot nodded, feeling a little better. It was the Clan reunion, Robeth’s uncle Wadren’s part of the Clan from across the sea had come for the annual meeting of the Clan sects. “Come on, brother we’ve stalled this meeting for long enough.” Robeth chuckled sarcastically, Littlefoot knew exactly what he was talking about, Bjorn and his ally, Cera. Robeth walked out of the tent first, Littlefoot could hear him speaking “all right, here he is! The final piece of our puzzle!” He announced dramatically, Littlefoot decided to play along and stuck his head out of the tent “ta-d-” he attempted to say only to be caught off guard by what he saw. Bjorn and Cera looked a little different than when he last saw them, which was a long time ago. Bjorn always stood on the small size, the light brown wolf came up to just below Robeth’s chest but made up for his small size with a muscle mass of an average sized warrior, he had only grown slightly in size but caught Littlefoot off guard the most was Cera. the orange three horn was only about half his size but now she was almost fully grown and the stubs of horns on her head originally had grown one and a half feet in length. They both stared at him smugly “what’s the matter longneck, ya miss me?” Cera said in that odd “Scottish” dialect that Bjorn’s tribe speaks in. Littlefoot snapped out of his trance of surprise and tried to think of something “uh, hi Cera..you look a little-”. “Different, I know, right?” Robeth finished his sentence, chuckling “I always thought Cera’s face would be a representation of a threehorn’s imagination, flat and uninteresting!” he continued, much to the laughter of of his ally and annoyance looks of the others. “Now ye watch that mouth ya mountain’a crap! Cera’s herd is somana toughest threehorns north of the frankish coastline!” Bjorn yelled at his cousin, attempting to take a swing at him but being held away at arms length. Robeth chuckled at his cousin’s attempt to attack him and the ease with which he could defend himself, Bjorn made up for his size with sheer will power as he continued for around a full minute before he finally gave up. “Come on, let's walk and talk.” Robeth suggested and the others agreed. They walked down one of the paths that branched away from the main village path, they could see the sheer hustle and bustle of the village center as the more rowdy members of Wadren’s scottish elite warriors already boozing themselves silly. “So, last I heard your father has found himself a mistress?” Robeth asked curiously, all he had heard in the message was that Wadren had finally married which made him think his crazy uncle might finally be settling down. “That’s right, me father finally found the woman of his dreams.” Bjorn answered pridefully “Yep, and she’s a total queen of sass, I plow the fields better’en any of me herd, yet she STILL thinks i'm lazy!” Cera complained. That answered Robeth’s question of WHO it was, that silvery fox Stenya was the kind of woman Wadren needed. “Speaken’a which..” Bjorn said with a devilish smile spreading across his face “Oh boy, here we go, your gonna tell one of your bawdy tales again aren't you?” Littlefoot asked with annoyance, this was something he hated about the Scots, Vikings could be crude, but he guessed because Wadren’s clan was so far away from the others they never got news of more chivalrous behaviour becoming popular. “Ya dang right!” Bjorn answered
“a couple moons before we set sail I was huntin’ me a mighty fat boar, took me me a couple’a hours to track him down but I found him.” Bjorn explained already showing massive amount of pride. “So I was just pulling me bowstring back to take’em down when I hear a nasty growl to me right and what do I see? A BLOODY WOLF! Givin’ me hungry eyes!” he continued, trying his best to sound dramatic and scare Littlefoot. “I had no choice, I swung me bow around and fired right into the gullet of the beast as it charged me, but the boar heard everything and ran off! But I wasn't goin’ ta lose me a catch like this’n no way, so I leaped at the pig with all my might and gave it a good stabbin’ in the neck!” Bjorn continued still much to the annoyance of the viking allies. He gave another devilish smile as he looked at Robeth “So naturally if a warrior like me- self comes back with both a boar AND a wolf you just KNOW there’s gonna be plenty’a women invitin’ me int’a their tents and-” “Alright that's more than enough!” Robeth Interrupted, he always hated it when someone told a bawdy tale of explicitly detailed love making. Bjorn laughed and Cera smirked, both knowing full well of Robeth and Littlefoot’s sensitivity around such subjects “you know one of these days one of those women you’ve been with is gonna show up to your tent and give you a baby and you’ll be like “what’s this?” and she’ll say “it's your bastard son”, then what are you going to do?” Robeth jokingly said, he watched all of Bjorn’s prideful arrogance leave him much to the laughter of the two other companions in their little group. Once they got to the village center Bjorn simply looked Robeth with stern, angry eyes, still mad from Robeth’s comment. Robeth rolled his eyes “alright, maybe I went a little too far on that last one, I’m sorry.” he said as he rubbed the back of his embarringlessly, sometimes they did go a little too far in their jokes, especially ones about family, on account of what happened to bjorn's mother, lucia. Bjorn sighed “I guess I’m sorry too, sometimes I poke the beast in ye a little TOO hard, am I right?” he said with an embarrassing look of his own. “I forgive you.” Robeth said to bjorn holding out his hand “And I forgive ye, too, cousin.” Bjorn said as he humbly shook he elder cousin’s hand. As the two shook hands they rapped one another into a hug with their other arms, a known sign of respect among the tribes of the Wenver Clan. As they broke from their embrace Robeth jolted as he heard the sound of wild yelling, he turned to see the drunken elite warriors of Wadren’s clan motining at Bjorn to come and join them in their apparent beer guzzling tournament and howling at a moon that wasn't even there. “Alright, I guess I’ll be seeing you at the feast tonight?” Bjorn asked Robeth. “You know it.” Robeth said as he turned to Littlefoot as Bjorn ran over to the warriors to meet them for what they wanted to talk to him about. A large black bear warrior wobbled over to him, clearly only partially mentally functioning, and put a paw on his shoulder. Between hiccups the warrior was able to ask a question “di-did you...tell Robeth...tha-that story about...th-th-the boar and the wolf?” he giggled after asking the question. Bjorn, looked over at Robeth and the two allies and looked back at the bear “yeah, I told’em.” he said much to the laughter of the drunken warriors. A ram smirked at him “even the part where that fox shot you down faster than a master archer?” he asked as the others snickered. Robeth and Littlefoot raised their eyebrows at the comment, they knew Bjorn had been denied nights together with females before however it was a immensely rare sight giving his charisma. Littlefoot looked over at Cera and saw a look of pure rage on her face, she, like Littlefoot, had a deep connection to her ally and would never stand for such insult against her best friend. As the group of various warriors bellowed with drunken laughter they barely noticed Bjorn tackling the ram into the mud of the road.
“Do you think funny now you thick-skulled bum?!” Bjorn shouted as he wailed on the ram as he flailed to get his arms above his face to block the flurry of incoming blows. The black bear attempted step in to pull off Bjorn from his fellow warrior, however Cera stepped between him and the street fight, shooting him a bitter glare. “Do you really want to test me?” she asked, the bear simply readied himself, too drunk to realize the disadvantage he was at. Soon after that Cera charged into the warrior, not a very uncommon sight due to her headstrong nature. Robeth had to chuckle at the street brawl happening before him, he had seen plenty of them before however whenever Bjorn got into the thick of it it was bound to end badly for everyone involved. He noticed Littlefoot awkwardly looking away, he never liked meaningless violence, to him violence was for the battlefield, not as a means for defending prideful arrogance. Robeth could tell by the look in Littlefoot’s eyes that he was still thinking about his family, but decided against calling him out on it, for while he might try to convince Littlefoot to let go of the pains of the past he couldn't help but admit he too missed the old longneck family. He lost himself in thought about how kind Littlefoot’s family was, when he was learning to ride Littlefoot, his mother would use her tail to help balance him and Grandpa and Grandma longneck always seemed to have another story or piece of advice or knowledge within their wise minds to give whenever times of need would arise. Even though they weren't related by either blood or spirit they, like Littlefoot, felt like family. “Family..” Robeth said under his breath as he came out of his memories, the word reminded him of something but he couldn't figure out what at first, then it hit him as hard as a falling tree. “Littlefoot!” he called out to his brother, snapping him out of his thoughts. Littlefoot looked down at Robeth “what is it?” he asked, he had forgotten too. “We were supposed to meet Mika today!” Robeth said as he quickly climbed up Littlefoot, the name immediately made Littlefoot remember. Robeth got to his riding position just behind Littlefoot’s front shoulders, he gave him a light slap on the back that told him to start moving, which he did. As Littlefoot started to the main gate Robeth looked behind him, Bjorn and Cera were still fighting like cornered wolves, Cera looked momentarily at the leaving pair. “See ya Littlefoot!” she called out before slamming her side into one of the other warriors attempting to stop her from defending Bjorn. Littlefoot smiled back at Cera momentarily before continuing toward the village gate “it’s nice to see her again..” Littlefoot said, Robeth nodded, it had been quite a while since he had last seen his cousin, it made him happy to see he had changed very little. However it was never like Robeth had anyone to be with when Bjorn wasn't there, there was obviously Littlefoot...and then there was Mika, his betrothed.
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alright, so there it is! sorry it didn't really involve the dino characters to much, that's actually what kept me from continuing this. but I promise to include them more in the next one!
