Photographer: Guys, I said HAPPY faces...
All: It's been a loooong day

"Me gonna do beak massage, like mama gives Petrie."
"Petrie, I don't HAVE a beak,"

"Wait me no can go swimming! Me just eat! Me gotta wait at least 20 minutes!"

It is 11:20 and I should be getting ready for my first day of work XD

Ducky: I'm only pretending to be nice, I'm really planning on ruling the world!!

...unless that's accurate... hmm

Banned for banning breaking out of eggs!
*crack*

Can't argue with that title

Keeping with this mythological theme, I transform the next poster into a sprite

Whew, after what feels like forever, I'm finally getting back on track with this story! Thank you, summer!
Anyways, this next part is short... Cuz this is filler... fillin' up the ti-ime... lawlz

=Part Twenty-Eight

“It hadn’t been too long after we found the Valley,” Cera resumed. “Well, maybe it had. A lot of new eggs were hatching.”

“I was getting new baby brothers and sisters!” Ducky grinned at the memory. Spike nodded in agreement and chuckled.

“Anyways,” Cera harrumphed at the interruption. “We’d been getting into trouble lately, and it was really unfair because all we wanted to do was have fun, and we were being treated like hatchings!”

Littlefoot thought having Cera tell the story might not have been the best idea.

The threehorn seemed oblivious, however. “So one night, we had a secret meeting up on top of a tall rock, to decide what to do.”

“Me no like be treated like baby,” Petrie mumbled.

Ducky sighed. “No, no, no, it was no fun.”

“Any-ways,” Cera’s snort was pretty evident that she didn’t appreciate all the second-hand comments. “We look down and see a couple Eggstealers,” she made a fairly obvious eye-roll in the direction of Taylen’s sleeping brothers. Taylen couldn’t help but be glad they were asleep and miss such a scathing glance. The little Stealer was finding out fairly quickly that this was one dinosaur he did not want to push. “And they’re stealing an egg from Ducky’s nest! So, obviously, we run after them, because once we saved the egg, and the grownups found out we saved it, then they wouldn’t see us as babies!”

Pterano, unusually silent all this time, nodded slightly. He’d gone through the same thing as a youngster. In fact, there were times when he still went through phases of feeling inadequate or useless or just downright not wanted. His talons were folded against his middle. His throbbing back wasn’t paining him as much as before.

“So we chase them, and we end up in the Mysterious Beyond, and then there was a rockslide. We lost the Stealers but found the egg. Or at least, we thought it was the egg.”

Chomper giggled. “They found me!”

Ducky clapped her little claws. “Yep, yep! And we carried him back to the Valley in his own carrying nest!”

“A carrying nest?” Pterano’s voice was quiet.

“Mostly just long sticks we picked up,” Littlefoot clarified. “It worked pretty well. Petrie was our counterweight.”

Petrie straightened up on his uncle’s shoulder, proudly. “Me keep egg in place! It so big, but Petrie did it!”

Pterano smiled gently. “Continue.”

“Well, it wasn’t really hard to find out that we’d grabbed the wrong egg,” Cera explained. “It was bigger for one thing, so we kind of just let it be and it hatched on its own.”

“We were really scared-ed, we were!” Ducky emphasized, waving her arms. “Chomper was a Sharptooth, so we ran away!”

Chomper giggled at the memory. “Yeah, I remember. You guys were screaming! Guess I was pretty scary when I was a baby.”

Ducky leaned over to give him a hug. “And then you became cute, you did, you did!”

Chomper protested mid-hug. “No, I’m not! I’m a scary Sharptooth!” That earned a good chuckle from around the assembly.

Cera huffed. “Hello? Still have a story to finish.” She shifted, impatiently.

===

Pterano wasn’t sure how much time had passed, only that it was extremely late by the time the stories had ended. He’s been left feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him; rather lightheaded. He was amazed and confused. All those adventures, and only five children? He knew he didn’t know a lot about children in the first place, but he was quite certain that that much adventuring was an anomaly.

Remarkable. He thought to himself. Truly remarkable. He was impressed, and maybe a little envious. All the stories he knew practically paled in comparison. He gazed over the small group assembled before him – all asleep by now and softly snoring. He grinned slightly at the small weight of Petrie lying sprawled over his shoulder.

For some reason it felt… good to be back. Like it was meant to be and not totally forbidden. Well, not technically forbidden yet, as the flyer was still outside the Great Valley’s borders. But he still couldn’t shake that feeling, that foreboding deep within his chest. Pterano sighed. All this work, and now what? Everyone was together, right? So what was to stop him from taking off and leaving? Besides an injured back and foot, of course.

He couldn’t just… leave now, could he?

Could he?

Pterano exhaled in disgust. All these mind games were driving him crazy! He needed some fresh air and fast. Moving slowly so as not to upset his nephew, the bigger flyer carefully slipped Petrie’s small body onto the floor of the cave, close by Ducky and Chomper. The next part was slightly more difficult: moving without causing an eruption of pain.

This proved easier said than done as Pterano rose to his feet, a soft groan escaping his beak. Using the rock he’d previously been lying against for support, he raised himself to his feet and out towards the cave entrance. The Night Circle shone brightly, like it had the night before during his and Taylen’s travels.

Pterano leaned heavily against the opening, and fixated his light blues on the beacon overhead. “What am I doing here?” He asked, softly. As if the Night Circle would answer. “I… I am so lost. All I… ever wanted was a… a chance. Just one chance.” His chest tightened and he inhaled suddenly to prevent what felt like oncoming tears. “Why didn’t I get it? And what, now?”

It was at this point that Littlefoot awoke, just for a moment, but once his eyes adjusted to see that one member of their circle was missing, he became alert. It didn’t take long to pinpoint Pterano’s location, but the longneck was confused. What was he doing?

Wiggling away from Cera and Spike, Littlefoot tiptoed over to the big flyer. He seemed to be talking to himself. Littlefoot frowned, slightly.

“Um, Pterano?”

======

Gaaaaah I know, comebacks are not my thing, but I wanted to get this down. And hey, look on the bright side, we're nearing the end of this venture^^

But wait there's moar!!



Kosh as the Valley Doc cuz reasons?? I'm sure I have some good reasons XDD



Shnikes!! Redclaw's actually a stone-cold criminal instead of a wimpy bully! O_o
He plays a rather big part in what I hope to be an upcoming Humanized LBT fic, we'll see how far I get with that idea



Screech an' Thud, not much to say

Oh hey! Who remembers this show, Loonatics Unleashed? Rev Runner is my bae!



And he's humanized, too!



The colors were a pain
Both done in paint.net