Anyway, about time I responded to you at last, Ducky.
I agree, and I wish I hadn't left it on such a... uninteresting chapter for such a long time. Chapter 9's been done for ages (as has Chapter 10 and Chapter 11's halfway done), and I should have updated days ago, if not last week. Well, just goes to show how much of a crappy mood I've been all week if I haven't had a smidge of motivation to upload it.
Nonetheless, I can't say I had many other ideas as opposed to the transition between the disasters of the fast biter attack and... spoiler. Yeah, Sorrel's going to have problems with that injury for the rest of his life, unfortunately.
I'd say it's more of brother/sister relationship as opposed to romance at the moment.
Okay, so here it is! School's back soon, and since that means routine and actually making my brain do stuff, so hopefully that'll get me back into a 'regular updates' mindset... hopefully...
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Chapter 9: DisasterEveryone woke up to a cloudy morning that day, and they were actually relieved when they saw the dark clouds heading their way.
“Finally,” said Sorrel with a smile on his face.
Tosa and Thunderfoot both cheered; they had never been so happy to have sky water in their lives.
“It might take a while before it actually gets here, though,” Eldridge pointed out. The darker clouds were quite distant yet, and would still take a fair amount of the day to reach the valley.
Camara and Bracken came for their usual daily business in the herd, and the children were allowed to go and play on the condition that they came back as soon as the sky water started falling from the sky. The other two longnecks would have to get back to their herd, as their elders had not come with them that day. Camara had told Eldridge that there was a meeting going on, and they wanted him there, not only because he was usually the voice of wisdom, but they wanted to know what Sorrel's herd was doing. He agreed, leaving Sorrel's herd for the first time since the fast biter attack.
The four longneck children played as usual that day, only stopping to chat about to approaching sky water.
“I'm so glad it's coming at last.” Camara sighed as she lay down to rest for a few minutes. “All this water rationing is getting on my nerves, and don't even get me started on the dried out leaves.”
“Agreed,” said Tosa, watching the dark clouds as they slowly approached. “I just wish it would get here already...”
“It will, soon enough,” Thunderfoot assured her.
Bracken, however, seemed uneasy. “Is it just me or is something flashing over there?” he asked. The others looked closely at the clouds, and indeed noticed an occasional white flash in the distance.
“Sky fire,” Thunderfoot concluded calmly. Camara stood up, watching the flashing intently.
“We should go,” she said finally. “Come on, Bracken.”
“Okay,” he answered. He turned to Tosa and Thunderfoot. “Goodbye, then.”
“See you later,” Tosa answered. She was surprised at how solemn Bracken looked. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just have a bad feeling,” he answered. Thunderfoot stared at him.
“Strange. I had a bad feeling last night,” he muttered.
“Anyway...” Camara decided to end the conversation before her brother got too paranoid. “We'll be off. Goodbye you two!”
“Bye!”
Tosa and Thunderfoot decided to stay for a while, concluding that the storm wouldn't reach them for a while yet. Eventually they went for a walk, and for the first time in a while, they went out of sight of the herd. By the time they noticed that the dark cloud had almost reached them, they were in between both herds.
“I think we should probably head back,” Tosa said quietly as she heard the loud booming of the thunder in the distance.
“Perhaps we should,” Thunderfoot agreed. “I wonder if the other herd is closer...”
“I don't care,” said Tosa. “I want to get back to my parents.”
Thunderfoot sighed. He would rather be with his grandfather throughout the storm, but he knew that Tosa would be really on edge if she wasn't with her family, so he decided that they should probably head back to Tosa's herd.
It only took a split second.
The flash was only there for a brief moment, but it brought something terrible with it. After a few minutes, the two longnecks could smell the distinct aroma of smoke, and it wasn't long before they spotted some floating through the air.
“We've gotta go!” Tosa cried, starting to run back to her herd. Thunderfoot followed her, though hesitantly. He knew Tosa had the right idea. Her herd was closer to the fire exits than the other one was, but thoughts of his grandfather kept coming back to him.
Thunderfoot's life flashed before his eyes. His dearest mother and father who had left the world too soon... the grandmother and siblings he had barely gotten a chance to know... and his grandfather, his last living relative. Would this be his last day, leaving Thunderfoot alone far too early in his life?
“Thunderfoot, what are you doing?!” Tosa exclaimed when she noticed that her friend had turned around and was heading in the opposite direction. He stopped abruptly, but turned his head to look at her ever so slowly, a solemn look on his face.
“Tosa...” he started as the female rushed to his side. “I have to make sure my grandpa's okay...”
“Are you nuts?” Tosa demanded. “We have to get out of here!”
“Just get to your parents,” Thunderfoot instructed. “Get back to your herd.”
“Not without you,” she answered sternly.
“Tosa... he's the only family I've got left,” the young male said quietly. “I can't lose him now.”
“But you'll be heading downwind!” Tosa told him. “The fire will spread that way. Please Thunderfoot... don't go.”
“I have to.”
“Please!” The young girl was screaming at him now, tears of frustration rolling down her face. “You're going to get yourself killed!”
“And if we keep standing here arguing, we'll both get killed!” he argued. The two stared at each other for a few moments, before Thunderfoot calmed down and sighed. “I'm sorry.”
“Me too,” Tosa said quietly. “Your grandpa means a lot to you.”
“The world,” Thunderfoot confirmed. “Tosa... if this is it for me-”
“Don't say that.”
“But if it is... I just want you to know that you're the best friend a longneck like me could ever ask for.” Thunderfoot gave Tosa a sad smile as she broke down into tears. “However, if I make it... I'll come back to you.”
“I'll wait,” Tosa promised. “You know which fire escape path I'll be at.”
Thunderfoot just nodded, not even saying goodbye before he darted away into the distance. For both of them, goodbye would be just too much.
It was then when Tosa heard the screams and shouts of the panicked dinosaurs in the valley. She decided to run as fast as her legs would allow her. She wouldn't want her parents worrying too much about her. However, on the way, she couldn't stop thinking about Thunderfoot. The things he did for her... the friend she could only wish for... and she let him run away into grave danger... something that could take his life away.
Her face was wet with tears, her vision blurry from all of the crying, but she had to get a hold of herself. She wasn't safe yet, either. The ever-thickening smoke burned her throat, causing her to cough and splutter and making it hard to breathe. Thankfully, there was no sign of any fire yet. She, unlike Thunderfoot, was heading upwind of the fire, where it was less likely to spread.
“Tosa!” Her father's voice was full of relief when he saw her at the top of the escape path. Both him and Patrice were there, thankfully unscathed. Many other longnecks were there, too, but Tosa didn't pay attention to who was who. She just ran to her parents, wrapped her forelegs around one of her mother's and buried her head into it, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably.
“Oh love, you're all shaken up,” Patrice said softly, rubbing her head gently against her daughter's smaller body.
However, they soon realised that it wasn't the shock of the sudden disaster that had caused her to be so upset. Sorrel and Patrice exchanged worried glances when they realised Thunderfoot wasn't with her.
Tosa explained everything when she finally calmed down. Much to her dismay, she found out that Rye and his father had escaped through the same fire path as many in her herd had done, having been around that side of the valley together at the time the fire struck.
Although Sorrel and Patrice tried their best to comfort her, Tosa still cried, though it had toned down to silent tears.
Soon, as the dark clouds still rolled over their heads, the first drop of sky water fell.
“Oh, NOW it decides to fall,” Sorrel said grumpily. “It's a bit late.”
Tosa looked up, staring at the falling water. Why couldn't it come sooner?
“We'll have to go,” Sorrel said finally. “Everyone, follow me!”
“Who made you boss?” came a gruff voice. Everyone turned to stare at the owner of the voice, who just so happened to be Rye's father.
Sorrel gave him a cold stare in reply. “Seeing as the majority of longnecks here are from my herd, and seeing as I'm their leader, I believe that makes me the boss,” he answered. “If you don't like it, you and your son can go and get eaten by sharpteeth for all I care.”
The dark-skinned longneck just grunted and muttered something under his breath, but he didn't do much else. Meanwhile, the rest of the herd got ready to leave. All of them... except Tosa.
“Come on, dear.” Patrice gently nudged her daughter, who was staring blankly as more smoke billowed out from their home.
“I'm not going,” she answered plainly. “Thunderfoot said he'd be coming, and I promised to wait for him.”
Sorrel sighed and exchanged a sad glance with his mate before biting his lip and thinking intently about what he should say to the young longneck. Either way, it was going to be a hard blow.
“Tosa...” Sorrel took a deep breath, knowing what would probably happen once he said those next words. “Dear... look, we can't stay. I've got an entire herd to get to a new place that has enough food, and if Thunderfoot went back to the other herd – going downwind, too, for that matter – then... I'm sorry, but... chances are... he probably didn't make it.”
He was expecting her to wail and scream, but instead... silence. Patrice and Sorrel didn't know which was worse. They watched as their daughter sat there, overlooking the valley, as tears streamed down her face.
It took a few moments for the news to kick in. At first, Tosa didn't want to believe him, but then she realised that her father had a point. The rain had now put out the fire, and the destruction it had left behind – especially in the area where the other herd been staying – was immense. Her thoughts then trailed to her other friends, Camara and Bracken. They were both in that herd, too. What if she was the only one who had survived out of her group of friends?
Calming her down when she started was a huge struggle for Patrice and Sorrel. Her mother kept her close, gently nuzzling the child constantly, as her father tried to calm her with his gentle and soothing voice, which many in his herd would agree was not heard often. However, even when the herd left at the setting of the bright circle, Tosa did not stop crying.
She accidentally exchanged looks with Rye, who actually looked at her sympathetically. It seemed she had assumed that he would be happy about Thunderfoot's death, but he also knew how it felt to lose someone close to him. When his mother was still with them, neither Rye nor his father were too bad, although his father was still seen as a fearful longneck. However, he had pushed his mate to her limits, resulting in huge arguments that resulted in many scary fights, and eventually, her departure from the herd.
Rye was too frightened to go with his mother that day, after seeing how scary she could become. Unfortunately, he didn't know how scary his father was without a mate. A huge hole had been left in Rye's heart when his mother left, and his father had filled it with hate. More than anything, Rye was extremely jealous of Thunderfoot because he still had someone who loved him, while Rye just had an angry, cold-hearted, vicious longneck there for him who was changing him for the worse.
What Rye didn't know was how much worse he would soon grow to be. His father would have a much bigger influence on him than he thought possible. At the moment, he was still an innocent child, but he would grow into a copy of his father, doing horrible things to innocent dinosaurs.
Tosa was even more surprised when she noticed that Rye had also started letting silent tears fall, but he dared not let his father see him.
Part of her wanted to go to him and talk to him, but the other part said he wasn't trustworthy and might say something bad that would make her feel worse. In the end, the latter prevailed. She stayed on her mother's back as she walked on, her mind never drifting from Thunderfoot. He was gone, she would never see him again. Eldridge, too, the wise old longneck that had taught her many things and never failed to entertain her with his many stories.
She felt like her life was over. Without her best friend, someone she considered to be like a brother, by her side, she felt like she had nothing to live for any more. She wanted to end it all.
Tosa didn't get any sleep that night, knowing that she would get sleep scares about Thunderfoot if she did let herself fall asleep. From then on, she feared going to sleep, and always got into a panic when it started getting dark. It was hard for her parents too, as she would start crying randomly for almost no reason and say she wanted to end her life. Hearing her say those words broke their hearts, and although they tried as hard as they could to get her thinking straight, it was a struggle to get her to stop.
Even when she did stop, she was never herself again. She had lost more than one friend that day, and it left a massive hole in her heart that would take an eternity to heal. There was no more playing, no more happiness, no more good things in her life.
It was the last day she was truly happy for a long time. Her depression would last throughout her time of becoming an adult, and it seemed that life would throw even more tragedies at her just so it had something to laugh at.
Life would bring so many challenges, throw unexpected turns in her face, and each time, she would have to get through it, and every time she would, she would do it for her parent's sake. They needed her as much as she needed them, and she knew that one day, they would help heal her broken soul. To say she had nothing would be a lie, because she still had them, supporting her. If they hadn't been there, she wouldn't be in the world long enough to experience some of the best times in her life that were still to come.
One day, it would get better. Deep down, Tosa knew that. But right now, she was torn apart.
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HEY GUYS! THUNDERFOOT ISN'T REALLY GRANDPA! It's actually... RYE!!!!
What? I've made him a good-ish guy now.
I was seriously considering discontinuing this fanfic to make way for another fic I'm planning (it's sequel, actually), but it wouldn't make sense since there's going to be characters in it that appear later in this fic and I want people to know their backstories as well as these guys'. It's kinda hard to tell a whole life story, since you've gotta have a few big tragedies and mid-life crises, as well as some calm and happy sutff, whereas with one story you just have to focus on one particular event (as well as sub-plots and the like).
And don't worry, I'm not going to discontinue the fic. I'm getting to the really good stuff after this... but then I just don't know what to do after that...
Anyway, so that it is for the kiddie bit! Yes, I know I followed LBT 3 for this. I will do some shout out to the films and perhaps some other franchises with hidden quotes and some plot elements... mostly because I can't think of my own ideas.
Chapter 10 onwards will be a bit more interesting... hopefully. I have to start getting a bit more into... adult matters, I guess. We'll have to see how that turns out...
