"AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

Littlefoot's head shot up faster than anyone could remember, and his expression was frozen in terror. However, as soon as he started to look around in desperation, he realized that his surroundings had changed. The Great Valley was quiet and peaceful, the Great Circle was beginning to set beyond the towering mountains of the Great Wall, and a flock of Flyers was soaring across the orange sky, returning to their nest. He could hear someone dozing beside him; one glance told him it was Chomper, already in the throes of deep slumber while he lay right beside him.

Then, as he released a breath of immense relief, the Longneck hatchling felt a looming shadow envelop him in its familiar coolness. He looked up and saw who had just approached him.

"What is it, Littlefoot?" Grandma Longneck asked. "What's wrong?"

Another exhale of relief accompanied Littlefoot's response. "Oh, it's nothing, Grandma. Just another Sleep Story."

Grandma smiled and softly chuckled. "Well, I hope this Sleep Story wasn't bad enough to keep you awake for the rest of the night. You need to well-rested for tomorrow." She began to nuzzle his tiny head with her massive snout, earning a coo of contentment from him. "You don't want to fall asleep on your friends in the middle of some very important playtime, now do you?"

"Heh heh heh. No, Grandma. No, I don't."

"Good. Now..." The elderly female withdrew her snout, and her head towered high over her grandson. "Close your eyes, Littlefoot. Everything is going to be alright. Good night."

Drowsiness started to creep back into Littlefoot's body and mind. His head and eyelids felt heavy, and he was ready to lower his entire body back down to the soft, lush, green ground so he could allow sleep to embrace him once again.

But then, memories of the Sleep Story returned to him with the force of falling boulders, memories that were vague yet palpable at the same time. With some hesitation, Littlefoot forced himself out of the lull of slumber and watched his grandmother while she slowly walked away from him, soft but giant and resonant thuds punctuating every footstep that she left on the earth.

"Hey, Grandma?" he called. His voice was tiny, but Grandma heard it, nonetheless.

She craned her elongated neck towards him with a warm, motherly smile. "Yes, my little one?"

"Just one little question?"

Grandma smiled, and she turned her full body in his direction. "No question is too big or small for you, Littlefoot. So, what is it?"

"Do...Do things always have to change...?"

She blinked at him in surprise. Then, after a brief moment of awkward silence, she chuckled again and walked up to him, taking only a couple of steps to reach him again.

"My dear," she replied serenely, "things always have to change. Every day is filled with changes. Even as we speak, you are changing. It's all a part of life, little one. And for you, it's a part of growing up into the adult you were always meant to be. Most changes you don't see every day. They're little and insignificant. But the littlest of changes can all pile up into one big change, one that'll change everything."

At that moment, Grandma saw the hesitation filling Littlefoot's reaction. Even so, she continued to smile warmly at him, and she leaned her head closer to her tiny grandson so their eyes could meet. Sagacity met livelihood.

"Life and change are one and the same, Littlefoot. Why..." She raised her head and glanced towards the disappearing, gigantic sphere of reddish-orange. "You can't stop things from changing more than you can stop the Great Circle from setting. But, as I said, most changes are little and insignificant. One day, you'll see what they lead to, what they become. But not tomorrow, and most certainly not tonight. So..."

Grandma drew her face in again and nuzzled her grandson with her snout again. This time, the coo that came from him was more uncertain than the last one, but the contentment was evident, even so.

"Go to sleep, Littlefoot. Go to sleep. And I'll be there in the morning."

Littlefoot felt a growing urge to not close his eyes, to not let his grandmother out of sight for a while longer. However, sleep was already beginning to drag him back, and he began to succumb already.

"Alright..." He yawned, just as his vision became blurry. "Night, Grandma..."

"Good night, my sweet Littlefoot."

Littlefoot blinked slowly, with each blink lasting longer than the last. Grandma and her dark-green eyes were becoming nothing more than a giant, shapeless blur.

"Good night."

Finally, the hatchling lowered his head to the soft ground. He could feel the blades of Green Food brushing against his skin.

"Sleep tight."

He closed his eyes and didn't open them again.

"And don't let the Sharpteeth bite."

The horrible, bestial voice yanked Littlefoot's eyelids open. Grandma was longer standing in front of him. Instead, it was a dark-green Sharptooth, tall, predatory, and menacing. Its right eye was closed, while its left eye shone redder than the evening skies. Littlefoot shot up on his four feet, but any impulse that he had to run away as fast as he could was drained away and replaced with overwhelming, debilitating terror. The Sharptooth continued to tower higher and higher over him; its teeth shone from the evening sunlight, and viscous drool started to dangle from the gaps between its teeth.

"C-C-C-Ch-Ch-Cho-Chomper!" Littlefoot stammered. "W-We-We gotta g-g-go!"

He heard nothing but the Sharptooth's ferocious growling.

"Ch-Chomper?"

Littlefoot looked down to his side, but he saw that Chomper was no longer there. He felt his entire body run cold.

"Chomper?!"

He looked up again, and this time, the Sharptooth was no longer dark-green as it was illuminated by the sunlight. Instead, it was purple.

"I'm hungry, Littlefoot," it said.

Littlefoot felt his breath get trapped inside his throat. "Chomper...?"

"You...You wouldn't let your friend starve...would you...?"

Then, the Sharptooth lunged at him with a deafening roar-

---

"AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

The adult Longneck woke up in a cold sweat.

---

---

---

---

"It's been a long time, Littlefoot."

"It sure has..."

A lone Flyer of reddish-brown soared over the vast, dry, sunbaked wilderness, barely discernible in the sea of light sand-yellow. Beneath it was a herd of Longnecks migrating together in a thick line. The behemoths were leaving a thick cloud of dust in their wake. Above them, dark storm-clouds billowed and brewed, their presence punctuated by the rumbling of thunder.

"You look so different."

As the Flyer and the Longneck herd continued onward in the lifeless flatland, the mountain range and the clear blue sky became clearer beyond the distant sandstorm.

"But...this place hasn't changed at all. It's..."

---

The reddish-brown Flyer landed atop what turned out to be the head of a smiling, brown Longneck. He was surrounded by a tan Threehorn, a yellowish-green Swimmer, a green Spiketail, and a pink Fast Runner. The grownups stood in the middle of a lush, green savanna encircled by mountains.

"It's just like how I remember it. Like I'm young again."

"Heh heh heh."

---

"Trust me, Ali," Littlefoot said, staring at the female Longneck, "no matter how things may look, things always change."

---

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Ruby, and Ali stood with thousands of other Great Valley residents in the Hidden Canyon, all enveloped in deafening silence. They watched nervously as an older, grayish-brown Longneck broke away from them and placably approached two adult Sharpteeth, one of them young and purple, the other older and light-brown with various scars.

Behind those two Sharpteeth were hundreds of others, boasting different colors, shapes, and sizes.

The older, light-brown Sharptooth bestially growled something at the younger, purple one. The younger Sharptooth growled something back and then faced the Longneck elder.

"Our main food supply is running out," the purple Sharptooth translated. "My fellow Sharpteeth are beginning to starve."

---

"I don't understand..."

The purple Sharptooth stood at the peak of one of the mountains in the Great Wall, looking back and forth between the Great Valley and the Mysterious Beyond. Dozens upon dozens of Sharpteeth were peacefully sleeping at the foot of the Great Wall in the Mysterious Beyond.

"Why's Chomper hanging out with the Sharpteeth more than with us?"

---

Chomper was sprinting in the Mysterious Beyond, with two Sharpteeth flanking him, a third, minuscule Sharptooth perched atop his head, and a massive Swimming Sharptooth swimming in the roaring river beside them.

---

Chomper's snout intimately met with that of a female Sharptooth as gray as bones.

---

"I think it's good that Chomper's being friendly with more of his own kind," Littlefoot replied calmly.

"Hmph!" Cera stopped walking circles around in the savanna. "Famous last words."

The Longneck blinked in surprise. "Don't say that, Cera. No matter what, Chomper will always be our friend, and he'll never forget that."

---

"CCCCCHHHHHAAAAARRRRROOOOOAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!"

Chomper furiously attacked two other Sharpteeth while a group of hatchlings, led by a pink Threehorn, were helplessly cornered against the steep face of a mountain. Drool and dust flew everywhere in the increasingly violent melee.

"Never."

---

Chomper gazed admiringly at the scarred, light-brown Sharptooth elder.

"Your closeness with the Flatteeth is unique," the elder said.

---

Chomper lay atop a grassy hill with Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, and Ruby while a breeze blew across the orange-painted Valley.

"Useful."

The purple Sharptooth smiled as he watched the Great Circle set.

---

"But they fear us," the Sharptooth elder said. "And sooner or later, they'll fear you."

Chomper ambivalently lowered his head.

---

Cera backed up slightly while Kosh the Clubtail angrily stomped up to her father and another Threehorn, causing the barren ground to shake beneath them. Behind Kosh was a small gang of other Flatteeth.

"Don't tell me you don't think about it every day!" the Clubtail snapped.

---

Ducky desperately threw herself between a wounded Spike and a pair of crested Sharpteeth. Several hatchlings cowered in fear behind the Spiketail.

"Of the day when those Sharpteeth are too hungry to be held off for any longer!"

---

Rinkus, Sierra, Kosh, and other Flatteeth watched as fire spread across the surface of a body of water. Their eyes were alight with malicious realization.

"We need to protect our Valley at all costs!"

---

"And what about Chomper?!" Littlefoot cried in horror.

"He's one of them!" Cera spat furiously. "He's a dumb, lumbering Sharptooth like the rest of 'em!"

"TAKE IT BACK!"

---

A Longneck's gargantuan body collided with the earth, triggering a thunderous boom that reverberated throughout the Mysterious Beyond.

---

Two hatchlings, a bluish-gray Longneck and a pink Threehorn, scrambled up the face of a mountain while Ali fended off a pack of Sharpteeth.

---

Littlefoot stood on his rear legs while a Sharptooth pounced at him with its toothy jaws wide open.

---

The Flatteeth of the Great Valley collided with the great pack of Sharpteeth, setting off a massive battle in the middle of the burning Valley while bolts of lightning flashed all around them.

"Why do you not trust them?!"

---

"They're just trying to survive!" cried a defiant Chomper. "Just like you!"

"They're Sharpteeth, Chomper!" a desperate Littlefoot yelled back.

Chomper recoiled, affronted. "I'm a Sharptooth, Littlefoot!"

---

A teary-eyed Chomper tenderly nuzzled his snout with Grandma Longneck's.

"I know, but you're different."

---

Chomper pinned Rhett's neck to the ground with his theropod feet, and he flashed the trembling Longneck his teeth.

"DIFFERENT?!"

---

Petrie and Sierra collided in midair and began slashing at each other with their feet.

---

"We have to do something!" Littlefoot cried as the greenery around him burned.

"But what can we do, Littlefoot?" Ruby asked hopelessly.

---

A group of Flatteeth pushed boulders out of the way, unleashing a massive torrent of liquid.

---

Shorty peered through the thick canopy with pursed lips.

---

Chomper and a half-dozen other Sharpteeth determinedly rode the back of a Swimming Sharptooth as it swam into the Valley through a river.

"We have to try!"

---

A group of hatchlings embraced each other at the top of a grassy hill. One of them, a bluish-gray Longneck, wrapped his neck around that of a Rainbow Face, while the Flyer atop the former's head embraced them both.

---

In the midst of fire and chaos in the Valley, Littlefoot and Ali wrapped their necks around each other and united their snouts in an intimate embrace.

---

A titanic but emaciated Sharptooth roared as they plummeted to their doom, with a body of fire-covered water waiting below.

---

At the foot of the Great Wall, the great pack of Sharpteeth submissively lowered their heads before the presence of one sunlit Sharptooth, one by one, without a single sign of resistance.

---

"You're my FRIEND, Chomper!" Littlefoot loudly, tearfully wailed on trembling legs. "How could you DO THAT?! TO ME?!"

An equally tearful Chomper just winced, while his Sharptooth allies stood a few feet behind him.

---

"The Great Circle demands so much from us, and yet so little."

Chomper roared at the top of his lungs while standing protectively over Cera and another Threehorn.

---

"We can't break the circle of life."

Ducky lifted a severely wounded Petrie up with her head.

---

"But..."

Littlefoot slept beside Grandpa Longneck, with both of them smiling in contentment.

---

"Maybe, just maybe..."

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Chomper, and Ruby stood atop the Great Wall, admiring the Valley below as the Great Circle rose above the mountains.

"We could redefine it."

"Now we'll always be together!"

---

A/N: Hey, everyone! Dr. Rex here, also going by the handle of TheCartoonFanatic01 over at FanFiction.Net (FF) and Archive Of Our Own (AO3). I've mentioned once or twice in the past that I've had an LBT-related project in the works for quite a while, and now, as you all can see, it's finally about to come to fruition! This has been a passion project of mine for years, and I spent that time worldbuilding and brainstorming on-and-off on the story I want to tell. And finally, I'm jotting it down in words! You have no idea how excited I am to do this!

Now, I'm still working on writing out the first few chapters so I could get a base going, hence why the story will officially be coming out next year. However, I thought I'd give my fellow LBT fans on here an exclusive sneak peek as to what kind of story we'll be dealing with. I will be posting the story on here in addition to FF and AO3, so hopefully you'll know where to find it (and me) in case any one of these sites go down.

As for when exactly the story is coming out next year, I'm still not entirely sure. I'm juggling between a full-time job at a government office, my fanfiction writing hobbies, and generally just seeing the world like Littlefoot would. My schedule is always on a TBD status. I'll keep you all posted on here (if that's allowed), but in the meantime, keep your fingers crossed!

And, of course, please let me know what you think of what you've seen so far! Feedback is very much appreciated!

I frankly did not (and still do not) notice a difference between Petrie in the original and the sequels. It's always been a case of Depending on the Writer for me.

There's something about the way The Great Day of the Flyers looks that I really like.

Agreed. I always did think that they did a lot of elaborate stuff with the animation here (and I mean that in a good way). Some of the sequences at the end, like the log scene, the Sharptooth encounter, and the Day of the Flyers celebration, looked really good.

Make it 2D animation, first and foremost. That would be nonnegotiable.

As for the plot, it would obviously be a coming-of-age story where Chomper questions his place as a Sharptooth living in the Great Valley while Littlefoot starts to struggle again with lingering trauma over his mother's death. Something dramatic like that.

Wait, was there supposed to be a poll? Judging by the comments, I'm inclined to think there was one, but I don't see it.

Seems very random of a film to look over. Maybe they just forgot?

You're welcome.

Who said LBT 10 was underrated? I haven't seen anyone actually complaining about it.

From what I remember, that's supposed to be an older version of the cover image. They've since updated it to remove Ichy and Dil, binoculars and all, and it's very likely because they realized the anachronism there. I know this because I have a VHS case of the movie with the newer cover.

Uhhhhh...I don't see how that confirms or implies Ichy killed anyone. I've always interpreted it as Ichy insulting Dil because she's going on a spiel that sounds like a mother lecturing her child on proper eating habits.