Chapter Three
Ruby moved like an animal scalded, she was so quick. The minute her eyes met those huge, red eyes she scuttled back over the top of the heap of young dinosaurs, straight to the back. Peeking over the top, she ducked under again as she almost met those eyes again, and saw the creature tey were attached to. Poking Littlefoot lightly, she motioned over the top of Spike's back. He nodded and slowly, ever so slowly, moved his head up and over, until he had full view of the figures standing before them.
Littlefoot instantly felt a quiver of fear. From their size, he could tell hey were only a few cold-times older than them, but that did not make them any less creepy looking. Looming at the back, he saw a strange sort of belly-dragger, but with a face almost similar to a regular sharptooth, and a line of spkes running from his head, right down to his tail. Sitting atop this green and brown creature was a fast-biter, but alot more spindly and slender than Screech and Thud's kind of fast-biter, a light shade of green, with a yellow chest and red back. From it's eyes and general build, Littlefoot could tell it was a girl. Another figure loomed behind them, tall and thin, but it was cast in such shadow, he was usure what gender or even kind of creature it was.
But it was the creature at the front who frightened him the most, whose eyes had spooked Ruby so much. Clearly into its teenage years, it resembled a young version of the sharptooth he and his friends encountered when they followed Guido as he sleep-walked into the Mysterious Beyond, with the long snout and massive sail on its back. He had predominantly red skin, with black spikes of colour around the base of the yellow sail, and an orange underbelly. But what topped off their intimidating appearance was the strange black grass that was draped liberally over every one of them.
Littlefoot gulped and closed his eyes. Surrounded by three, maybe four sharpteeth. There was no way out of this one...
"Oh get up, will ya?! We ain't gonna eat you!"
He opened his eyes. Who said that? It was too deep to be any of his friends. He looked around, in case some unseen help had arrived, but there was nobody around, except for the sharpteeth before him and his friends, quivering underneath him. Looking up to the sailbacked sharptooth, he felt unease at its grin, especially at the one huge tooth it had on either side of its mouth. But who else could it be?
"W....Was that y-you, who..spoke?" he stammered, feeling both terrified and stupid for asking such a question.
"Well, who else could it've been, the rocks?!" The sailback replied. The belly-dragger and fast-biter behind him chuckled.
Littlefoot was gobsmacked. Apart from Chomper, sharpteeth couldn't speak the language of the Leaf-Eaters. Still stunned, he moved to the side, allowing his friends to get back up. If their lack of shaking was anything to go by, they were just as stunned.
The sailback's grin widened, revealing more massive teeth "Well, would ya look at this, eh guys? They dunno what to think."
The fast biter hopped down to the ground and skittered closer to Littlefoot. He was surprised at how small she was, only about a head taller than Ducky. She looked up at Littlefoot, and giggled
"Hee hee, I suppose yer wondering why we can talk like you, huh?"
Littlefoot nodded dumbly.
"Well, we owe it all to Tero here. Say hi, Tero!" She called back to the group.
The mysterious figure at the back moved out of the shadow, and all the gang were amazed to see it was a flyer, the same kind as Petrie, only older. He had dark brown skin, with a pale orange belly, and green eyes. The blankest, coldest eyes Littlefoot had ever seen. He nodded silently in acknowledgement, but said nothing.
The sailback turned back to Littlefoot and moved closer to him. He spoke with a odd elegance that contrasted massivly with the slight rasp in his voice."Yeah, he doesn't talk. But he used to! And he taught us how to speak after he joined us."
Ducky's voice rang out from behind Littlefoot "B-but, he is not a sharptooth like you. He is a flyer, like Petrie."
Petrie waved timidly to Tero, who didn't even look at him.
"Petrie, huh? Funny name." The sailback snorted. He turned to Littlefoot "And what's yer name, kid?"
"Erm...I'm Littlefoot." he replied, "A-and these are my friends. Cera, Petrie, Ducky, Spike, Ruby and... Well, there is one more of us, but we don’t know what happened to him...”
“I’m here, Littlefoot!”
He looked up and was amazed to see, perched on the tail of the sailbacked sharptooth, Chomper!
“This little guy with you?”
Chomper hopped down and ran back to Ruby’s side. She threw her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.
“Chomper! What happened?” she asked, slightly teary-eyed with relief.
Chomper grinned “I’m not sure. After I passed out in the pile of rocks, I woke up and I was by this weird swamp, filled with this black grass... Like the stuff you guys have!”
He pointed to the tendrils of grass hanging from the strangers. The sailback spoke up again “Yeah, we were the ones who got him outta that pile of rocks. Not right to leave a fellow sharptooth buried like that, is it?”
Chomper nodded, “So, when they came back, I asked them if they had seen my friends. They said they had heard someone moving around nearby, and took me with them to check it out. And then we found you!”
The belly-dragger stepped forwards "Bit of a weird group! What are sharpteeth like you doing hanging around with a bunch of grass-guzzlers?!"
Cera growled quietly, pawing the earth as if preparing to charge, but the Sailback beat her to it as he promptly bonked the belly-dragger on the head with a claw "Now now, Rheddo. Mind yer manners around guests!"
He turned back to Littlefoot and bowed his head "My apologies...Littlefoot, was it? His manners have never been amazing. But anywho, my name is Redback."
He outstretched an arm to Littlefoot, who recoiled slightly.
"It's alright, I understand. Why trust a sharptooth, right?" Redback said, chuckling to himself. Littlefoot shuddered a little. The laugh was a little unnerving.
“I-it’s just.... how can you guys..talk?” Littlefoot asked nervously.
“Kinda a long story, that.” The fast-biter piped up. “Why don’t we find somewhere a bit less open? Y’never know what might be out and about round here.”
“Where’d you lot come from, anyway?” Redback asked, leaning closer down to the huddled group of dinosaurs.
“We came from the Great Valley,” Ducky said, stepping forwards.” Where do you live?”
“Nowhere and everywhere, little lady. We live where we like and we like where we live. When we don’t, we go somewhere else.... Oh, by the way, lemme introduce the gang.” Redback added, “That big fella is Rheddo.”
The belly dragger nodded and grinned a toothy grin, his black-grass adornment rustling as he moved.
“This pretty li’l lady down here is Celya.” He continued, pointing to the minute fast-biter, who snapped at his outstretched claw
“Red! I told you not to talk about me like that!”
The sharptooth just grinned back. “And that tall flyer guy in the back is Tero. Don’t be offended if he doesn’t talk to you, he doesn’t talk to anyone.”
Tero sniffed and looked wistfully skywards.
Redback continued his introductions “Poor fool lost his voice to another fast-biter, just days after he finished teaching us lot to talk. Same with his leg too. Never been the same since.”
Littlefoot looked down at Tero’s legs, and noticed that one was gruesomely scarred and twisted, giving the flyer a strange stance and an awkward walk.
“Gee... Did you help him get away?”
Redback’s grin widened even further, revealing masses more teeth “Not exactly. But we did...ahem, deal with the fast-biter. Look, it’s a long story, maybe some other time? Like Celya said, we should get into cover."
Littlefoot thought about this for a moment, but was interrupted by Ruby’s hand tapping his shoulder.
“Littlefoot, I think that whatever we do, we better do something to get closer to home.” She said nervously, as she looked around.
“Hey, I know, we could hide in the caves! We can get to them from outside the Valley, and nobody would know they were there!”
The others nodded at Littlefoot’s idea, though Cera was notably hesitant. She was busy eyeing the strange dinosaurs up and down suspiciously.
“’Tis settled then! Lead on, Littlefoot!” Redback quipped, as he followed at his side.
The combined group of the Great Valley residents and the strange outsiders set off, mingling slightly, but mostly keeping to their own friends. Ducky, Petrie and Spike huddled together, flanked by Celya who strutted nimbly at Spike’s right eye-level, and Tero, who silently limped at his left.
Rheddo and Celya walked alongside eachother, each looking straight at the other, watching.
Redback walked at the front, at Littlefoot’s side. Littlefoot’s snout twitched every time one of the black tendrils hanging from Redback’s neck and arms brushed over his head.
“Hey, R-redback?” Littlefoot stammered “Why do you have those...things hanging all over you?”
Redback held up an arm, looking at the strands of grass, either tied tightly or hanging loosely over his limb. He turned his head to face Littlefoot’s, his eyes meeting the longneck’s.
“Cos that’s who we are. We’re the Blackweed Brotherhood.”
Littlefoot looked away, as he turned the mysterious phrase over in his mind.
The Blackweed Brotherhood.
[Oh, and by the way, that request for any songwriters, or even just any people who can write dialogue in verse; It still stands. PM me and I'll explain what I need.]