Note: The total lunar eclipse, or "Fire Circle" as Clarice (the Old One) called it, plays a central part in her tale and even her fate, hence the image. LBT X had a solar eclipse, this tale has a lunar one.)
Note: The sort of ending of this one ties into another fanfic I'm going to write too. All of them tie into my Land Before Time two-part movie finale idea.
"Auntie", Ali asked her great-great aunt, "what was it like when you were little?". Clarice sighed. The young longneck could have no idea of the tragic past she had lived. Clarice told her somewhat, though the whole tale would certainly be too much for her great-great niece to bear, Clarice thought.
90 years before Ali was born, the Great Valley had been inhabited by Sharpteeth. The valley had such great food and water, but nobody dared go there. However, one day, her herd had decided to go there. "Are you nuts?" Clarice had asked her parents. "There are Sharpteeth there!" "Don't question the wisdom of the elders Clarice." her parents had said. "We need to ensure that you have a better life and don't have to endure the hard life of living in the Mysterious Beyond." said her father.
They sent in a scouting party. As one might have expected, none of them came back. The herd, however, determined to live a better life, decided to attack in the middle of the night.
She and her great friend Viktor, whom she hoped to marry someday and he her, were together on this occasion. Their parents had wisely moved them further away from the attack. They watched as the herd killed the Sharpteeth in their sleep. As much as she knew the Sharpteeth were their natural predators and that they seemed unlikely to ever coexist, she felt that this was wrong. However, what happened next would change her views on that and her life forever.
The Night Circle turned dark red. It became a Fire Circle. Then, she saw it, the reds of their eyes. The Sharpteeth came. They chased her and Viktor. She and him kept running. Then something terrible happened. They got Viktor and devoured him. She was filled with anguish, but she knew Viktor would have wanted her to save herself. So she hid in a crevice. She watched as Sharpteeth attacked others. "Get away from them you monsters!" she yelled.
After a long fight, the Sharpteeth were driven out. When she came out, the Great Valley was theirs. However, the price they paid was high. Many were dead, including both of Clarice's parents. She was an orphan.
"Poor Auntie. That's why you never married, after Viktor's death." Ali said. "Yes dear." said Clarice. As Clarice well knew, that wasn't the end of it. The Sharpteeth had fled to a place known as the Valley of Sharpteeth. They later sent the Meanest Ever Sharptooth to try and take the Valley back. Had Doc the Lone Dinosuar not saved them, many would have died. The Valley of Sharpteeth hadn't tried anything after that. However, Clarice still feared an attack.
Having had too many bad memories in the Great Valley, she left when she came of age, sometime before Doc had come to the rescue of the Great Valley.
She went with other longnecks, for she stayed with her own kind. The other kinds hadn't helped the longnecks when they heard them dying. They had just walked on.
Many many cold times went by. She watched as her sister married and had kids. She really wished she could, but her true love was gone, killed by the evil Sharpteeth.
In time, they settled in a peaceful valley. It seemed perfect to raise kids in and didn't have the dark memories of the Great Valley. As time went by, eventually her sister's kids had children of their own. Things still seemed great. She thought that perhaps the dark memories were a thing of the past.
After many more cold times, she became the leader of her herd. The mantle of responsibility was heavy upon her. She had to make sure that nobody died in a tragedy like the one she had seen in the Great Valley.
When she was 90 years old, her great, great-niece Ali was born. Ali seemed quite the young lady and Clarice was glad to tell her all she had known, though she knew the young longneck couldn't possibly bear all she knew. She did, however, intend to tell Ali someday. Ali would someday be a leader herself.
When Ali was a few years old, Clarice saw what she had hoped never to see again: the Fire Circle. One night, she saw it again appear in the sky. "No, this can't be!" she said in horror. "Not now. Not after all these years of peace!" "What is it Auntie?" said Ali, frightened.
The Fire Circle stayed in the sky. Then, the clouds came. The storms came after that. The dreadful rain began. It rained and rained and rained. Soon, the landscape was altered. Strange creatures came. The Belly Draggers and others started killing the members of her herd. She fought them off, but there were too many. She knew they'd have to leave. She had once more failed to protect those she loved when the Fire Circle had appeared.
She thought of a place to go. As much as she dreaded going back, it seemed the best idea, but she vowed she wouldn't stay there permanently. She would go back to the Great Valley.
They left the Land of Mists behind them and soon came to the Great Valley. Ali met her third cousin, Littlefoot. Clarice thought that they seemed to get along great and was reminded, painfully, of herself and Viktor. She had told the others in the Great Valley about her misfortunes in the Land of Mists. They were all horrified.
When she suggested that the Great Valley itself might someday be changed, they seemed alarmed, but not alarmed enough, she thought. The Great Valley had had tragedy before. If Leaf Eaters could overwhelm and kick out Sharpteeth, the reverse could also happen, or other dreaded things. Litltefoot's grandfather was gravely ill. She knew there was only one cure to what he had. The Night Flower of the Land of Mists. However, she couldn't bring her herd back there. When Littlefoot heard her decision, he said that "I don't think the Old One is very smart."
The Old One, that was her title, for she was now up in years. She was affronted at the young longneck, yet, she thought back to a younger version of herself, challenging the elders who had so foolishly decided to go into the Great Valley and had paid dearly for it. She decided to refrain from commenting.
However, she was shocked to find that Litltefoot and Ali had left. And, worse, later, the other children Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike, had also left. She feared she'd never see them again. She tried to comfort Littlefoot's grandmother, telling her she could come with them when her mate died, as he seemed surely to do, and now that her grandson may be lost.
However, she was shocked beyond all measure to see the kids all come back, and with the Nightflower too. She had no idea how they pulled it off. Littlefoot's grandpa got well again. Clarice at least had to respect Littlefoot. He had nerve.
She and her herd soon left the Great Valley again. She couldn't bear to stay there permanently again. And she couldn't go back to the Land of Mists either. So they became a migratory herd.
After some years, they joined up with another herd and Ali met Rhett. He seemed a decent enough fellow. Having passed so near the Great Valley, Ali insisted that they go and pay a visit. Clarice was seriously considering rejecting young Ali's proposal, but, many in her herd wanted the food in the Great Valley, which was more than what they were used to. She relented.
She was with the other longnecks when Rhett came running to her, saying he and the others had been attacked by a Sharptooth. Dread filled her. Not here, not in the Great Valley. Not again!
She went toward the danger and found Chomper. He was a young purple Sharptooth. He didn't seem very vicious and ran from her and her herd. Eventually, they had him cornered. They were going to end him. She certainly wouldn't pity a Sharptooth.
However, Chomper started to talk and pleaded for them not to harm him. She was taken aback. Sharpteeth weren't supposed to talk! They weren't supposed to have feeling! They were supposed to be evil and bad!
However, as strange as this was, Chomper was still a Sharptooth. She was on the verge of giving them the order to kill him when the kids, plus an Oviraptor named Ruby came. They begged her not to harm him and that he was their friend. It turned out that the whole thing had been to expose Rhett as a liar, as he had been lying to Ali, saying he'd fought off tons of Sharpteeth.
Clarice was greatly affronted, as Rhett should know better. She herself had fought off many Sharpteeth, and she told Rhett that lying like that would NOT be tolerated. She also told off the kids, for she, certainly more than many many others, knew that a Sharptooth attack was no joking matter. She had decided that Chomper was nice. She had met her first non-evil Sharptooth. Still, he was only a kid. She wondered what would happen when they got older.
Eventually, she and her herd left the Great Valley again. They continued to travel from place to place as the years went by. Ali and Rhett started dating as they approached their 25th Star Day, when they would come of age.
Clarice was 115 years old and in the twilight of her life when things started to go for the worse again. There had been several attacks in the Mysterious Beyond. Nobody could say how it was happening. While it was certain that Sharpteeth were involved, the fact that no leaf eater had spotted it coming suggested something more than just your usual Sharptooth attack, something far more sinister. Also, even Sharpteeth, who had been involved in some of the attacks, had turned up dead, despite clearly having not been killed by any leaf eater. Whatever it was, it was a danger to both Leaf Eaters and Sharpteeth alike.
The fiend had been known as the Terror of the Mysterious Beyond and seemed to be able to move very fast, for nobody got a glimpse of him. Also, in addition to this evil fiend, Red Claw, whom everyone had thought to have fallen to his death, had reappeared and was on the rampage, with more Fast Biters serving him than ever.
Faced with these dangers, Clarice decided there was nothing for it but to go back to the place of her childhood nightmares, the Great Valley, the only place that now seemed to be unharmed by Red Claw or the Terror of the Mysterious Beyond.
She and they met Littlefoot and his family and friends again. This time she met Littlefoot's father Bron. He seemed nice enough. Bron's wife Arianna had died years ago, the victim of a Sharptooth attack.
She saw Littlefoot look at Ali and knew it as the same look that Viktor often gave her. Littlefoot was smitten with Ali. However, would Ali choose him or Rhett?
She related the story of the Terror of the Mysterious Beyond and Red Claw's return to the residents of the Great Valley. They were visibly shaken. She also told young Littlefoot and Ali and the others about her experience with the Valley of Sharpteeth, for Ali had finally asked her and she felt that, as they were older now, they could handle more. They greatly pitied her.
After some days, the kids went missing. Rhett was worried about Ali. He wasn't the only one. They all were.
However, Ali came back with the other kids, though some of the kids were now adults and Littlefoot was so close to adulthood and Petrie not too far off either.
However, they weren't alone. A full grown green Sharptooth was with them. At first, Clarice and her herd, as well as the Combined Herd of the Great Valley, panicked. They were going to attack him, but Littlefoot had said that it was Chomper.
Chomper still seemed nice and Clarice thought that perhaps Littlefoot had found the first truly friendly Sharptooth in the whole wide world. Still, who knew what he did when they weren't looking? Was he a hunter in secret?
Chomper wasn't the only new arrival, for Ruby had come back too. She and Chomper had left home, having come of age (for a Sharptooth came of age at age 20, and as Star Days were when you were born, not when you hatched, Chomper has come of age recently.) Also, Chomper's friends Ruby had come of age a while ago too, as Botheeth came of age at age 22. Though an adult, she was still single. Clarice knew she'd find someone, in time.
Also, a Gallimimus named Gallim had come. He had come with some Gallimimus friends named Odul, Ela, Finley, and Liz. The kids seemed to like them. Indeed, Gallim seemed really bright, not to mention fast and athletic.
Things went on, with Littlefoot and Ali drawing closer. Unknown to her and known only to the kids, and, though the kids didn't know it, Gallim and his group, Chomper had a girlfriend who had helped him and Ruby out of a pinch with Red Claw, Screech, Thud, and the Fast Biters. Her name was Andromeda. She was from the Valley of Sharpteeth the place Clarice hated with a passion.
Andromeda at first didn't think fondly of residents of the Great Valley, for they had killed her ancestors and also, quite frankly, she viewed them as food. However, Chomper's influence over her was making her nicer. They were in agreement to eat hoppers and fish and the like. It wouldn't be as filling as a leaf eater, but, on the other hand, she was falling for Chomper and he for her. She was changing.
Meanwhile, Gallim, who had been saying he was a Leaf Eater, had been spotted by Chomper eating a bird, exposing himself as a Bothtooth.
Having just expressed to Ruby that he feared the Terror of the Mysterious Beyond would be a Bothtooth and also a very fast Fast Runner, Chomper was suspicious of him and asked why, unlike Ruby, he had never revealed that he ate meat and not just leaves. Gallim had shrugged him off and Chomper had left, not sure if Gallim was the Terror of the Mysterious Beyond or not, and vowed to keep an eye on him.
Gallim had tried to harm residents of the Great Valley, but luckily his plots had failed. However, he knew Chomper was dangerously close to exposing him and that Chomper had a girlfriend, Andromeda, whom he might have told what he suspected about Gallim and he also knew that Andromeda was learning Leaf Eater and could soon talk to them too.
One night, fearing he had to act, Gallim had woken up Clarice. Gallim had caught wind that they were going to sneak Andromeda in at night, through a secret entrance to the Great Valley that the residents of the Valley of Sharpteeth knew, but that the Great Valley residents did not. He didn't know about the secret entrance, but knew she was coming and where she had lived her whole life.
Deciding that a fight would get Andromeda either killed or to kill, either way getting Chomper in trouble, Gallim told Clarice that there was a resident of the Valley of Sharpteeth in the Great Valley.
Clarice couldn't believe it, but then....she saw it. It was back. The Fire Circle! She followed Gallim and came to Andromeda. Gallim had snuck off.
Andromeda saw Clarice and begged her not to tell. She said that she had hoped to stay the night and reveal herself in the morning, thus showing that she wasn't bad. Clarice asked Andromeda where she was from and Andromeda replied that she was from the Valley of Sharpteeth.
Clarice knew that she had to act. Nobody would die this time, nobody but a Sharptooth. She flew into a rage and attacked Andromeda. Andromeda tried to protest.
Eventually, Andromeda decided that she had nothing for it but to defend herself. However, Clarice knocked her down. She was going to finish Andromeda and stop the death from coming.
Clarice saw Litltefoot on a hill watching the fight. He looked shocked and horrified. Also, someone else came up to the two combatants: Chomper.
"Stop this. Don't hurt her!" he protested angrily. "I"m sorry Chomper, but I cannot trust anyone from the Valley of Sharpteeth. They took so many from me." said Clarice. She moved to finish off Andromeda.
It happened so fast. Chomper leapt forward, his claws outstretched, trying to push her away. However, his aim was poor and his claws were positioned wrong. Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, and Ali came over the hill and looked up the scene.
WHAAAAAMMM! Blood flew into the air as he made contact. Clarice felt a sharp pain and fell over. Her stomach had been sliced open.
Chomper, not realizing what had happened yet, turned down to glare at her "Stay away from her! Don't hurt her!" he said angrily. Then, he turned and saw the blood on his claws. He looked shocked. But then, she noticed a change. Something darker, something sinister. A change in his eyes. A hungry look.
He had gotten leaf eater blood on his claws. This triggered his appetite. He moved down and was close to biting into her. She figured she was going to die like Viktor, a meal for a Sharptooth.
However, both Andromeda and Littlefoot yelled "Chomper, no!" and Chomper paused, his teeth inches from her, and snapped them shut. He backed away, horrified. "What have I done?!" he said in horror.
Clarice was taken aback. A Sharptooth with regret. How could there be such a thing. The kids, minus Littlefoot, all yelled their anger at Chomper. Topps sent a mob of leaf eaters after Chomper and Andromeda, who promptly ran for dear life.
Ali stayed with Clarice. Clarice knew that she wouldn't make it. She thought things over. Andromeda had been nice and she, in her anger, had almost stooped to murder. Chomper had stopped her, and, despite her believing that Sharpteeth were evil, killing machines without remorse or pity, yet Chomper had shown the greatest regret and had fought off his carnivorous nature. Also, he had gone to protect Andromeda, and she saw now that Sharpteeth were capable of love.
She realized that she had been wrong about a lot of things in her life. She wouldn't have much time to tell what she had learned to others now, for she knew that her wound was mortal. The Chain of Life was breaking for her. The Great Circle of Life was spinning to a stop for her. Her time, quite long on the earth, was nearly over. The Fire Circle wasn't the death omen of others this time, it was hers!
"Auntie, you'll get better!" said Ali, crying. "No, Ali It's my time. I've been such a fool. I need you to be strong. Learn from my mistakes." she said. She was breathing slower, her blood continuing to come out of her.
Eventually, Littlefoot returned. He had come back after talking to Chomper and Andromeda. He appeared to be in shock from whatever the two Sharpteeth had told him. They had gotten away. Littlefoot turned to Ali. "Is she going to be alright?" he asked, concerned. "I don't think she's going to make it!" said Ali, crying.
Littlefoot would be so good for Ali. Hopefully he could help her so that she wouldn't make the mistakes and go through the pain that she had gone through. He could be what Viktor would have been to her. She would be back with Viktor soon, at last! Her time on earth was almost up.
She used her remaining energy to try and offer her blessing on the two longnecks and, what she hoped, would be a happy life together for them. She uttered two final words "Littlefoot! Ali!".
Then blackness descended upon her. When she opened her eyes, she was back with Viktor and those she cared about. Her time of suffering was over. She was free.
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