Chapter XXVIIIAli prepared the right words. She would address Littlefoot now. Since they were up here on Chomper’s rock Littlefoot hadn’t said a single word and Ali hadn’t dared to speak with him while Littlefoot stood nearby the edge of the rock looking down on the flaming inferno that raged below, with a petrified mien. Only now and then, when he believed to recognize a motion he looked up and strained his eyes. But every time he had to see that his eyes had cheated him. Ali on the other hand had walked in circles from one end of the rock to the other incessantly the whole time. Now and then she had cast a look down and after a while she had noticed that the ice sheet had disappeared from the river. The river streamed past along the rock as it had certainly done in previous, warmer days. When she listened carefully she could hear the murmuring of the river in spite of the cracking and crackling of the fire.
Ali stepped aside Littlefoot, who still sat motionless at the edge of the rock. It weight heavily upon Ali’s mind to see Littlefoot as he was now. At the first sight his face seemed to be completely blank but if she looked carefully Ali could see the despair in his eyes and when she glimpsed shy at him she noted that tears formed in the corners of his eyes. There were nearly no spots in the forest below that were not aflame. A giant black column of smoke ascended over the valley and somewhere in the midst of the valley the volcano that had at least tripled its size meanwhile still spat glowing rocks up into the sky occasionally. It was very hot up here. In the morning Ali would have considered the heat a pleasure, but along with the stuffy, smoky air it was nearly unbearable. White and gray ashes fell from the sky like snow and covered the valley and Chomper’s rock. Even Littlefoot’s head and his back were covered by a layer of ashes and Littlefoot didn’t seem to bother to shake it away. Fortunately the wind drove at least the densest clouds of smoke away from them.
Ali didn’t have the courage to address him and was very surprised when Littlefoot himself suddenly turned his head to her and said with a husky voice: “Down there they are somewhere, Cera... Ducky... Spike... Petrie... and Chomper.”
Ali shook her head slowly it was difficult for her to speak. “No Littlefoot. I don’t believe that. Why do you think they didn’t make to get out of danger?”
“Where should they have gone?” Littlefoot asked with a suffocated voice and made a far-reaching gesture that enclosed the whole burning forest. “The fire has spread so quickly.
It was everywhere immediately”, Littlefoot continued.
Ali didn’t know why, but she felt that Littlefoot was wrong. “They are in safety Littlefoot. Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike... and Chomper.” Strangely Ali still felt a shudder when she thought of the sharptooth.
“How could they possibly escape?” asked Littlefoot with a hopeless mien. “Nobody can survive in this”, said Littlefoot and pointed at the burning treetops again.
Ali just wanted to reply something when they heard a loud cracking from the ramp.
They looked in the direction surprised. Where the rocky ramp disappeared into the primeval forest the treetops quivered as if something big made its way up the ramp. Ali’s face lightened up, her inspiration seemed to prove right, and Littlefoot too stood up and looked down at the ramp expectantly. A big silhouette that was not exactly recognizable in front of the dazzling fire and the flickering air broke out between the treetops and stormed up the ramp. Littlefoot and Ali strained their eyes, but when they could recognize the stooped figure it had almost reached the top of Chomper’s rock already. Littlefoot and Ali cried out in the same moment, for it was a sharptooth, a huge grownup sharptooth. Only because of their horrified yells the sharptooth noted Ali and Littlefoot. It looked up, spotted them and began to run faster.
Its eyes flashed.
Ali had the presence of mind to jerk around, while Littlefoot stood there paralyzed with fear and starred at the sharptooth. Ali pushed him fiercely and cried: “Come on Littlefoot!”
Then she ran off. It was as if Littlefoot would awake from a dream. Nearly another second passed before he followed Ali, but he caught up with her soon. “Where shall we go Ali?” called Littlefoot drowning out the roaring of the sharptooth behind them.
“I don’t know!” Ali cried back after she had made sure with a hasty look around that here was no shelter, nor any safe place. Suddenly Ali skidded to a halt with an outcry. Littlefoot jumped aside not to run into Ali’s back. In the very last moment he too came to a standstill. In front of them was the abyss and far down the river meandered along. They both cast a look back over their shoulders. For a short moment Littlefoot’s look met the sharptooth’s. The sharptooth seemed to be surprised, but the next moment it continued to ran towards them with far reaching steps. Littlefoot and Ali exchanged a short look. And it was as if they would speak. They could see what the other one thought. They couldn’t run away anymore and they both had the same idea.
They jumped down the cliff in the very same instant yelling as loud as they could. The sharptooth was only few steps behind them. When it saw the two longnecks jump it uttered a short roar that didn’t sound threateningly at all for some reason. The sharptooth slowed down, stepped to the edge of the rock, bent forward and looked into the deepness that was dizzying even for the sharptooth. It saw how the two longnecks were swallowed by the water of the river. The sharptooth turned round just when a second sharptooth reached the top of the rock. The two sharpteeth ran to meet uttering relieved snarls and growls. But finally the first sharptooth led the second to the edge of the rock uttering a bloodcurdling roar and pointed with one of its thin claw armed arms into the deep. The second sharptooth looked at it very surprised.
Chapter XXIXLittlefoot cried during the whole fall from the rock. Everything whirled around him. One moment he saw the river racing towards him the next he saw the rocky cliff getting farther and farther away. The last thing he saw was the silhouette of the sharptooth standing out against the smoky sky. “Hope it doesn’t jump after us”, Littlefoot thought and then he fell still crying into the icy cold water. The impacted on the water surface was so hard that his whole body seemed to burn and the next moment his far opened mouth filled with water. Littlefoot stopped crying, but he had already swallowed water and felt he had to cough. At the same time he felt he was sinking deeper and deeper while the water pressed stronger and stronger on him from every side. For a moment, just for a very short moment, the icy coldness was almost pleasant after the stuffy heat on the rock. Littlefoot felt how the stream tore him away. He was out of air.
He had to breath immediately! But he didn’t know which direction was above and which was below. He kicked fiercely, but didn’t find the water surface. He didn’t move for a moment and felt how he was carried into one certain direction by the water and somehow Littlefoot knew, that this direction had to be above. The water pressure diminished and he opened his eyes. In front he saw a bright gleaming. He did another stroke with all his legs and then he broke through the surface. Littlefoot sucked in the air and some spatters of water which made him cough convulsively.
He was sure he wouldn’t have endured it any longer. While he paddled fiercely and craned his neck to keep his head above the water he looked around for Ali. She was nowhere in sight.
A sudden undertow pulled him into the deep again, but this time he reemerged faster.
The very same moment Ali broke through the water surface, just a short distance away, and gasped for air. “Ali! Ali I’m he...”, again a wave dipped Littlefoot, but Ali had seen him and made her way towards him as good as she could. When Littlefoot emerged again she wasn’t far away from him anymore; the stream had floated her directly towards him. Ali seemed to have less problems than Littlefoot to keep herself at the surface. During the migrations with her herd she had crossed many rivers. Certainly none had been as wild and torrential as this one though. Littlefoot and Ali tried with all their might to swim over to the other bank, but the current made it almost impossible to swim into that direction.
Everywhere carbonized boughs and tree trunks drifted in the water.
“Littlefoot we must try to get on one of these trunks!” shouted Ali and pointed with a jerky movement of her head at a couple of carbonized trunks that drifted downstream close behind them.
“Okay”, Littlefoot choked out along with a mouthful of water and he began to struggle against the stream with all his might, very much intended not to be floated too far away from Ali.
“Look out...”, gasped Ali when they approached the tree trunks, “...that none of them hits you!” Littlefoot nodded as the thought, that the force of a collision with one of these trunks in this stream had to be more than painful, had just struck him too. Finally they had edged near to one of the trunks. “Go on!” called Ali and seized the trunk with her forelegs. Littlefoot did the same and tried instinctively to push off from the ground to get on the trunk, but of course there was no ground below his hind legs. They both tried to pull themselves onto the carbonized trunk, but this inclined far to the side. Suddenly the trunk lost its balance and rolled over towards Ali and Littlefoot.
They took distance from it hasty not to be submersed by it. A wave dipped Littlefoot shortly. When he emerged again Ali was by him and grasped one of his forelegs as if she was afraid that he could anew sub- but not emerge again. “We try again”, she gasped. “We take a broader trunk and you climb up first. When you’ve made it I’ll follow you.”
Littlefoot wanted to protest, but he realized that Ali’s words hadn’t been a suggestion, but an order. Ali seemed to notice his reluctance, for she explained hasty: “If we try it one by one the trunk maybe won’t roll over so easily.”
Littlefoot nodded. A relatively broad tree trunk drifted past so close to them they could get to it nearly without an effort. They grasped it and Ali gave Littlefoot an encouraging nod. Littlefoot began to pull himself up onto the trunk.
It inclined to the side, but not as far as the other one had done during their first attempt. Climbing up on the trunk Littlefoot besmeared himself all over with soot, but above all he had the unpleasant impression that the porous wood crumbled under his grip. He cast a hopeless look at Ali, and was being paralyzed with fright. Directly behind Ali a tree trunk drifted along at high speed. She hadn’t noticed it of course because her look was turned on him. The trunk would collide with the one he clung to, but above all it would hit Ali!
“Look out!” Littlefoot screamed and pushed off from the trunk. The moment he fell into the water he heard the nasty grating noise of the colliding trunks. He sank down in the water, but fought back to the surface immediately. The two trunks floated abreast now, but Ali was nowhere to be seen.
“Ali! Ali can you hear me?” Littlefoot cried and he looked desperately in every direction. “Everything alright. Could get away in time.”
Littlefoot uttered a sigh of relief and closed his eyes for a few split seconds when he heard Ali’s voice over the din of the water from behind the two tree trunks. A moment later Ali emerged from behind the trunks and headed towards Littlefoot. When she arrived by him she mumbled: “My goodness, that was narrow. It was a piece of luck you saw it in time. I guess we should forget about that idea about getting onto a trunk.”
Littlefoot nodded. “We better try to get to the other bank again”, he suggested before a vortex pulled him down again. Ali grasped at him and pulled him up again. Littlefoot felt a bit embarrassed about how poor a swimmer he was compared to Ali, but the lasting strain exhausted his legs. “We try”, Ali agreed and again they fought against the strong current that pushed them away from the bank.
Ali did her best to help Littlefoot swimming, but she had to trouble herself to stay at the surface of the fierce masses of water. A little vortex pulled her down for a moment. The last thing she saw before the water clapped together above her was a tiny figure that flapped high up in the air. “Petrie!” cried Littlefoot, who had seen the tiny flyer too, a moment before he was dipped again. When Ali and Littlefoot came to the surface again snorting and gasping for air the flyer was not to be seen anymore.
Chapter XXX“Quick! You hurry!” cried Petrie as soon as Cera, Ducky, Spike and Chomper came in sight again. Quick as a greased lightning he shot through the air to reach them as soon as possible. He had flown off a short while ago to search for Littlefoot and Ali, but he hadn’t had much hope. He had flown aimless to and fro above the burning forest for a while and had tried to recognize anything through the dense smoke, flaring flames and the tree’s tops, which proved completely impossible of course. All he had obtained was that he was almost suffocated in the dense smoke and, shaken thorough by the turbulences of the burning hot air, had nearly precipitated down into the fire several times. But everything was better than the inactivity his friends at the other bank were condemned to. Nevertheless Petrie had found it stupid after a while to risk his life for absolutely nothing and he had been about to fly back to his friends, when suddenly a thought had come to his mind. Littlefoot and Ali were not stupid and he took it for very unlikely that they had wandered aimlessly through the burning forest during their flight. It was more likely that the two had tried to reach the other bank too. So he had decided to search there, as the other bank was probably more promising, but certainly safer than to continue flapping above the fire. While he was still flying along the river another thought had come to his mind. The direction Littlefoot and Ali had taken during their flight from the volcano was roughly the one in which Chomper’s rock was located. Perhaps the two longnecks had tried to make for safety there. Petrie hadn’t discovered them at the other bank so far, and so it was the last hope he could cling to. He had looked over to Chomper’s rock that towered high up above the sea of flames, but he had been unable to recognize if somebody was on top of the rock through smoke and flaring air. So he had been heading for the rock and suddenly he had spotted a movement in the water of the river during his flight. He had descended a bit to take a closer look and had recognized Littlefoot and Ali who were swept along by the water’s current. Petrie hadn’t hesitated for a second but had flown straight back to the others immediately. They had to rescue Littlefoot and Ali!
“What’s on Petrie?” asked Cera alarmed by Petrie’s call while she jumped up.
Chomper, Spike and Ducky prepared to hurry too, as Petrie had said, without knowing what they should hurry to do at all. Petrie had reached the others now and gasped with his last force: “Littlefoot! Ali! Are in the river! We must get them out!”
That was all Cera, Spike, Ducky and Chomper had to know. They ran to the bank as fast as they could and Petrie followed them after a few deep breathes. Cera looked around hasty to all directions sides when they had reached the bank. Littlefoot and Ali weren’t in sight yet, but the torrential river would float them past soon. The river was pretty broad here and its bed was very steep. It had been pure luck for Cera that she had been floated to a rare shallow spot after she had slipped of her ice floe a short while ago. The chances to rescue Ali and Littlefoot out of the water right here were very poor. But not far downstream the river made a sharp bend around a small peninsula and not far behind the peninsula it ran into the canyon that led out of the valley. At this bend the river narrowed and at the top of the peninsula grew a copse of trees from which some low boughs and roots hang far over the water; at this spot there would be the best chances to seize Littlefoot and Ali when they drifted past.
“Over there! Come on quick!” Cera shouted and ran off.
The others hesitated. The peninsula Cera was heading for seemed to be too near to the canyon. If the stream floated Ali and Littlefoot into the canyon, everything would be lost, as they would be unable to follow them in there. There was no bank in the canyon they could walk on.
“Come on!” Cera shouted impatiently back over her shoulder without slowing down.
It was Chomper who followed her first. Then Ducky ran off; on her own legs she was faster than on Spike’s back although her “little brother” was hard at her heels her. Petrie flew, as fast as he still could after the others with his tongue hanging out. When Cera had arrived at the tip of the peninsula she noted with some satisfaction, that the spot was even better than she had expected. The river had washed very much sand ashore at the end of the peninsula so the water was comparatively shallow even several steps far from the waterline. But for her discomfort she also had to notice, that the current here in the bend would drive Littlefoot and Ali over to the opposite bank. Impatiently Cera looked back for the others and was relieved to see that Chomper just arrived by her and the others were close behind him. When she saw Petrie she called to him already from a distance: “Petrie! Fly to meet Ali and Littlefoot!
Tell them we are waiting for them here. But return immediately and give us word when they are coming!”
The little flyer moaned, but flew off immediately. Cera pointed at the river with her head and waded into the cold water as the first. In the shelter of the peninsula the water was quite calm, but with every step Cera progressed farther into the water the undertow around her legs grew stronger. Cera felt how the sand below her feet gave way. There was no safe foothold provided by this ground. Cera heard a loud splashing from behind. When she looked back Spike stood behind her. Ducky had climbed on a bough of a big tree, that hung low above the water a few steps downstream. She clambered to its end carefully. Chomper didn’t seem to be completely sure whether he should follow Cera and Spike or Ducky, but finally he climbed after the little swimmer. The bough inclined deep down towards the water below their weight, but it seemed strong enough to bear their weight. Spike uttered an impatient mumbling and nudged Cera with his head. She went on some steps hasty and felt the ground lay deeper below the water surface, which reached up to her chin meanwhile, with every step she advanced further.
She tried to erect on her hind legs a bit to be able to advance further. But it was very difficult not to be swept along by the water in this posture. Cera felt Spike seizing her as firm as he could, and did another careful step. They wouldn’t be able to go any further; otherwise they would lose the ground below their feet and be swept along by the river. She cast and anxious look over to the canyon and implored Spike: “Hold me firmly! Please!”
Spike nodded; with his teeth he held Cera’s tail and made efforts to conjure a calming smile on his face, but he didn’t really succeeded while he felt how the sand below his feed was being washed away.
Cera felt the heat of the fire from the other bank that was fortunately driven away from them by the slight breeze. Cera saw big carbonized tree trunks drifting in the stream. “Look out that none of them hits us!” shouted Cera to Spike when an extraordinary big trunk drifted past right in front of them. “They come! They come!” shrieked Petrie out of breath long before he arrived by the others. “Do they know that we are here?” called Cera back over the rushing and gurgling noise of the water. “Me thinks so. But maybe they no understood what Petrie said”, Petrie replied. “Me had no more time no more.”
Cera nodded and called to the others: “Look out carefully! We must catch them!”
The next moment Littlefoot and Ali were there. They could barely keep themselves at the surface. “Come over here! Over here!” cried Cera at them nervously when she recognized they would drift past far off along the other bank. Ali and Littlefoot tried with all their might to crawl over to Cera and Spike.
A big trunk at the other bank, so carbonized already, that only a few flames still licked up on it suddenly inclined to the water with a loud creaking and fell into the river close to Littlefoot and Ali whereby even the last flames and sparks extinguished with a sizzling. The trunk lashed up waves that rolled away from it in every direction. Maybe it had been those waves that had given Littlefoot and Ali the decisive push; maybe the current had been diminished for a short moment for some reason; maybe it had been blocked by any obstacle below the water surface for a moment at the spot where they swam. Certain was only that it was incredible luck that Littlefoot reached Cera. Ali was close behind him; she had shoved him on as good as she could and in the water they had tried to hold on to each other as firm as they could not to be separated. When Ali saw that Littlefoot had reached Cera and that she, Spike and Petrie, who had landed on Cera’s head nearby her horn had seized him, she clung to Littlefoot and let herself be pulled along towards the bank by the others. Spike and Cera who at first had feared that the sand below them would be washed away, and they along with it, were already on safe ground in shallow water, Ducky and Chomper were about to climb down from their bough, Littlefoot too just reached the deposited sand and Ali was the only who was still in dangerously deep water when Petrie suddenly uttered a terrified warning cry.
He had seen something big drifting around the peninsula, but it was already too late.
The trunk grazed Ali’s head and tore her away from Littlefoot. She was floated towards the overhanging bough to which Chomper and Ducky clung paralyzed with the fright.
“Ali!” cried Littlefoot and Cera could only just keep him from jumping after Ali in a thoughtless rescue attempt. “Let me go!” raged Littlefoot, “You shall let me go!”
He kicked around fiercely and hit Cera in the face. “Ah!” she cried, but she didn’t let go. “You be calm Littlefoot”, croaked Petrie frightened, “Me hold Ali!” He flapped after her. Cera felt that Littlefoot didn’t struggle against her clutch anymore and finally she let go. “Come along!” she shouted and ran as fast as possible downstream along the bank.
Spike had a lead already and Littlefoot followed them. Ducky and Chomper climbed hasty as far as possible back to the end of their bought where Ali would drift past. The bought inclined deep down and gave an ominous crack. Petrie had reached Ali and tried, flapping fiercely with his wings to keep her head above the surface, he did it for the moment.
Ali hadn’t been knocked out senseless by the drifting tree trunk, but she was too dazed to swim all by herself.
“Help Petrie!” moaned the little flyer at Ducky and Chomper for he couldn’t hold Ali alone anymore. Worse even he was sopping wet himself already which made flying harder and harder for him. “Hold on to me!” called Ducky at Chomper just in the moment when Petrie and Ali floated past below the bough and she jumped so suddenly that Chomper barely managed to catch her feed when he bowed forward hasty. Ducky saw Petrie and snatched at him. Petrie himself still held Ali with the claws of his feet as firm as he could. The current pulled at all of them. Petrie felt weaker with every second, Ducky felt like she was elongated between the stream, that threatened to tear Ali and Petrie away, and Chomper’s hold; breathing was quite difficult for her. Chomper tried desperately not to loose his balance while at the same time he had to bent forward to hold, Ducky’s, Petrie’s and Ali’s weight. He and clawed firmly to the bough with the claws of his feet not to be dragged down from it.
But despite of all these toils it was none of them who gave in, but the bough on which Chomper stood. “Look out!” cried Littlefoot and Cera, who stood at the bank beside the trunk of the tree. For right there, the wood had begun to splinter. The bough was almost broken by the lasting heavy load. It inclined deeper and deeper and it seemed to be only a matter of seconds until it would snap in two completely. “Ducky the bough is breaking!”
called Chomper. “Let go! Maybe it’ll hold then. I’ll swim! We make it!”
“That will never do! I’ll come along!” “No Chomper! You’re no swimmer! You will drown!” Much as it displeased him, Chomper had to admit that Ducky was right. With his thin arms he would hardly be able to keep himself at the water surface, even for a short time and in this strong current he would have even less of a chance. But Chomper had no choice anymore, for there was no time left to climb back to the bank, although Littlefoot, Spike and Cera did everything possible to delay the breaking of the bough. “Come Chomper!” shouted Littlefoot, but he only shook his head for he had noted something. “Try to get us out further downstream!” he called back, let Ducky go and jumped with a wide leap over onto a broad carbonized trunk that floated past a short distance away. The bought broke when he jumped. Chomper landed sprawling on the shaky trunk. Carefully he stood up and had to lean to one side immediately to prevent the trunk from rolling over and throwing him off. Chomper sat down again to bring the trunk into a more stable position and let his legs dangling on both sides of the trunk. He clawed firmly into the sooty wood and doing so he realized that he was besmeared with soot all over his body. He cast a hasty look around. Cera, Spike and Littlefoot ran along the bank, but they had fallen far back; the current was much faster than they were. Chomper saw Ducky, Petrie and Ali emerging with the crest of a wave; they were a respectable distance behind him too. It was probably because Ducky, Petrie and the slowly recovering Ali fought against the stream to the best of their ability and also because the trunk drifted away with very high speed offering less resistance to the water than the swimmers did. The entrance of the canyon was not far away anymore; he had to hurry with whatever he was going to do, but he didn’t have a clue about what to do at all. Finally he tried to drive the trunk over to the bank.
He rowed with his legs, fidgeted to and fro, leaned to all sides and more than once he almost fell into the water. It was probably a vortex that seized the tree trunk suddenly and let it spin around like a top, so Chomper became really dizzy and closed his eyes firmly. Then suddenly a violent jolt ran through the trunk like it had hit on something solid. This jerk again almost hurled Chomper down from the trunk, but he managed to hold on and when he opened his eyes again the carbonized trunk lay motionless, laterally in the water so the stream of the water surface broke at one side of the trunk. It took Chomper a few seconds to recover from his surprise. The trunk had apparently been wedged in between any rocks below the water surface so firmly the stream didn’t sweep it along anymore. But Chomper heard the porous burned wood creaking from the strain. It wouldn’t stand the pressure for long. But for the moment the position of the trunk could mean the rescue, for its one end lay close to the bank, close enough to reach it from there. But Chomper stayed where he was. If there was a chance anywhere to catch Ducky, Petrie and Ali out of the water, then it was here. The three were just floated along. Ali swam mainly by herself now, but without Ducky’s support she would have probably foundered for she hadn’t yet recovered from the bump of the trunk against her head. Ducky as a swimmer got along with the water much better than any of the others, but she certainly had no chance to struggle against this current either. Though Petrie still pulled at Ali’s head to keep it at the water surface, it looked much more like he was sitting on the head rather than flying above it. Chomper saw Spike, Cera and Littlefoot running along the bank, but they were far behind and wouldn’t be here in time to help them. Ducky had seen the tree trunk and Chomper and had recognized the chance.
“There we must go!” snorted Ducky to Ali and Petrie. But they didn’t even have to struggle to reach the trunk, for they were floated straight towards it anyway. “Look out!” called Chomper and made ready to grasp at them as soon as they would hit upon the trunk. Ali held out her forelegs shielding to soften the collision with the trunk, for the current would throw her against it with quite a force. The wood creaked ominously when Ali bumped into it, but it stood the impact. Chomper bent forward and clutched Ali, who uttered a frightened outcry, at her long neck.
“Don’t worry! It’s just me”, called Chomper over the gargling and splashing of the water.
“Oh I see, this calms me”, shouted Ali who seemed to have recovered her senses completely from the fright. Chomper was not sure if Ali was being sarcastically, but at the moment it was really all the same to him. He erected and tried to drag Ali upon the tree trunk. But she was to heavy for him and gasped fiercely for breath when he tried it. “Let go! You’re choking me!” cried Ali. Chomper bent forward again, but he didn’t let her go.
“Come along this way Chomper!” shouted Ducky and began to pull Ali along the tree trunk over towards the bank. Again and again jolts ran through the trunk when drifting boughs hit into it, but they were too small to break it. Chomper cast a worried look at some big trunks drifting closely past his own. He pulled and Ducky pulled Ali over towards the bank.
Cera, Spike and Littlefoot just arrived there and waded carefully into the shallow close to the bank. They had almost reached the end of the trunk that pointed at the bank, when Ali shouted suddenly: “I’ve ground below my feet! I can stand here!” and a bit quieter she said to Chomper and Ducky: “Thanks! You can let me go now. I can get the last steps to the bank myself. Make for safety yourselves!”
Ali uttered a nearly inaudible sigh of relief when Chomper let go her neck. Having the sharp claws of the sharptooth clutched around it had been a quite unpleasant experience.
Petrie wanted to flap up into the air from her head, but he staggered with his sopping wet wings to and fro for only a few seconds and clapped into the water. Chomper jumped down from the trunk hasty and grasped the coughing and snorting flyer in the very last moment. Ducky reached the bank with some breaststrokes; Ali waded behind her and last in line came Chomper who held the completely exhausted Petrie in his arms. They heard the wood of the trunk breaking with and ugly grating. Littlefoot, Spike and Cera welcomed them exulting. When the first cheerfulness had faded away Ali mumbled:
“Oh dear! I’m completely worn out!”
She withdrew some more steps from the bank and then she lay down below a tree to rest for a moment. The strains since the flight from the volcano had taken their toll from the others too. Spike went in circles a few times, lay down then and fell asleep instantly. Ducky lumbered near, snuggled to her “little brother” and began to doze too. Petrie, who had almost fallen asleep in Chomper’s arms already, joined them after he had “wrung out” his wings scantily. Chomper let himself drop to the ground with far outstretched arms. And Cera too lay down where she was standing. They enjoyed it, for here, on the safe side of the river, the heat of the fire could be felt as a pleasant warmth that had even melted away the snow that had been laying close to the bank.
