The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => LBT Fanfiction => Topic started by: somerandomfangirl on April 30, 2013, 06:21:44 PM
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EDIT: I'm going to make a list to different chapters. This might be a long fanfic... I'm not too sure yet though. I hope that it'll make it easier for everyone here. The links will take you to the post that has that chapter in it. The first one isn't a link because you'll find that in this post. :D
Chapter 1: First Meeting
Chapter 2: Learning (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22027082)
Chapter 3: Making New Friends (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22027758)
Chapter 4: A Change in the Wind (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22029970)
Chapter 5: A New Day (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22032101)
Chapter 6: Going on an Adventure (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22034703)
Chapter 7: The Taste of Danger (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22035342)
Chapter 8: The Dry Time (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22036765)
Chapter 9: Disaster (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22038756)
Chapter 10: Some Cold Times Later (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22040716)
Chapter 11: Shockers and Storytellers (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22041168)
Chapter 12: Reunions and Revelations (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=12090&view=findpost&p=22041935)
Chapter 13: Fate of Friends (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11753&view=findpost&p=22044157)
Chapter 14: The Fight for Family (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=11753&view=findpost&p=22077966)
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Oh boy... what am I doing...?
Seeing as Ducky showed us all a preview of his fic, I supposed I should show you guys what I've been up to. Not much, really. No artwork, only one chapter... and today, I shall show you that chapter.
So, my story... Since it's set waaay before Littlefoot and co. are born (well, they are in it but don't appear until near the end, sorry), and since it's about mostly longnecks (did you expect much else from me, really?), this is quite heavily OC-based, and there are characters you will know here just under different names.
Actually, this is the life story of two longnecks we all know and should love. Some of you probably already know, some of you probably would have guessed by the last sentence, or maybe not. Anyway, this fanfiction is about how two longnecks met and how they came to be the ones we know.
Keep in mind, this is going to be quite tragic in some parts, and this will contain character death... mostly in the middle. Hey, I like putting characters through tragedy, and I suppose it's a bit of juxtaposition or whatever it is to the title. Anyway, since I'm waffling as usual now, start Chapter 1! And be warned, it's over 2000 words long, so make sure you have time to read this. Sorry, I like writing long chapters... :lol
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Chapter 1: First Meeting
The herd looked over the valley, the leader and his mate at the front. The female was proudly carrying her youngest child, who beamed when she saw her new home. She was getting tired of living in the same herd since nobody else had nested their eggs. It was a dangerous time and most of the females had gone to the nesting grounds to leave their eggs to raise themselves, but this little girl had been lucky. Her mother had taken the risk to stay at home and wait until her eggs had hatched, but in the end only little Tosa made it. Their old home had been stripped of food by this longneck herd, and there was a drought going on, so hardly any food grew back. After the leader's daughter was born, they left immediately into the world of danger, but the child knew hardly anything about the negatives of the world. She had no grandparents, all having died from the drought, illness and sharpteeth that were seeking stragglers. However, Tosa had no idea about this, or death in particular. In her eyes, everything was perfect, and everything lived forever. Her grandparents had just left ahead of the herd, any dead dinosaur she saw on the trail was sleeping, and her missing older brother had joined her cousin's herd for a while.
The herd moved in, and Tosa was very excited, shaking with happiness and clutching the sides of her mother's face, who groaned at her but didn't do much else. The little one just hoped that she would meet someone new, someone she could be best friends with. She may have seen the world as perfect, but she wasn't completely stupid. She knew her parents and the other herd members were hiding something from her. They always got edgy whenever she asked about something which could be sensitive to some, such as why there was no food in their last home or what happened if someone got eaten by a sharptooth. The herd members had been told by the leading male that they were not allowed to tell Tosa any different to what he had told her, and they all agreed, not wanting to get on his bad side. Tosa squealed when they entered the land, and her eyes widened with amazement. It was a lush, green valley, with fresh pools of water everywhere and a great wall surrounding it, protecting the land from dangerous predators.
At the same time, another herd was entering the valley, along with another young child. However, he didn't seem all too thrilled with arriving. He had to leave his home after a severe food shortage due to a harsh cold time. Big sharpteeth took territory in the parts that did have food and everyone was forced to eat swamp sticks, but eventually all of those also ran out. There were many little ones within this herd, since the nesting grounds were at their home so all of the females nested and looked after their eggs, and so the herd was blooming with new life. This young one was lying on the back of his grandfather, who was fairly close to the front of the herd, and he was the exact opposite of Tosa. He knew all too well about death and illness, and didn't see much positive in the world at all. He was recovering from something that no child should have had to face. There were no parents there for him.
“Well, Thunderfoot,” his grandfather announced. “We're here.”
“Mmm,” was all he got in reply. Thunderfoot had been very depressed since the tragic event, not talking or playing much, and on some occasions even refusing to eat. His grandfather was the last dinosaur who could look after him in his family as far as he knew.
The two different herds came in two different directions, and settled in on different sides of the huge valley. Tosa slid down her mother's tail and ran between her legs, clearly excited and rearing to go and explore this new place.
“Can I go now?” she asked her parents. “Please? Please, please, please?”
“You need to eat first,” said her father, pulling some treestars from a nearby tree and dropping them next to his daughter. She just gobbled them up as quickly as possible, not taking in how good they tasted compared to her last meal.
“Now can I go?” she pleaded. Her mother chuckled.
“Of course you can, little one,” she said, nuzzling her child lovingly. “But be careful and don't talk to any strangers, okay?”
“Okay!” Tosa replied, running off into the bushes. Her mother giggled, but her father seemed worried. Tosa usually followed his rules without question, but most of the time she was with them, since they hadn't been in such a safe place before.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the valley, Thunderfoot was struggling to finish his meal. He had been thinking too much about that day again and had lost his appetite. His grandfather had to pretty much shove the food down his throat in panic; he didn't want his grandson to starve himself to death.
“Why don't you go and explore for a bit?” he finally suggested. Thunderfoot looked at him but didn't answer. “You never know, you might make some new friends... and it'll take your mind off things for a while, huh?” Thunderfoot just shrugged in reply. His grandpa pushed him to his feet. “Go on,” he said. “I heard another herd has also arrived... you need to go and make some new friends.” Thunderfoot nodded this time and walked off, his grandfather sighing as he did so. He didn't want to be harsh, but being too soft wouldn't help either. He had accepted what had happened as part of the circle of life, but Thunderfoot was still too young to understand that, and he thought that it was too unfair.
Thunderfoot walked on for a bit, before coming to a small pond. He slumped down on its banks, looking down at his reflection sadly. He fell into another of his daydreams, thinking about those he had lost.
Tosa ran through the valley, looking in wonder at all of the green around her. Soon enough, she spotted a flying buzzer, and chased it for a while, wandering very far from where her herd was resting. However, eventually the buzzer flew out of her reach, and she groaned in disappointment, before she heard someone sighing. She curiously poked her head through the tall grass where she had heard the sound, and was amazed at what she saw. There was another little longneck who seemed to be her exact age laying by a small pool. She examined him for a bit, and then she quickly ran up to the other little one.
“Hello!” she exclaimed, but the other longneck did little more than shift in reply. Tosa moved around and walked into the shallow pool in front of the other longneck to get a better look at it's face. She could tell now that it was a young male, and he seemed very depressed. “I said hello!” she said again, but he didn't even look up at her. Soon enough, her patience ran out. She pushed her face right up against his.
“Hellooooooo?”
The male looked up in shock at her. “H-h-hi...” he stammered. Tosa giggled; the male seemed a little bit scared of her, backing off slightly.
“What's your name?” she asked him, forgetting all about what her mother had said about not talking to strangers.
“Er... Thunderfoot,” the young male replied as Tosa trotted up next to him.
“Pleasure to meet you, Thunderfoot!” she exclaimed, circling him. “I'm Tosa.”
“Erm... nice to meet you too, Tosa,” he answered hesitantly. Tosa stopped and suddenly put her face right up to his again.
“Do you wanna play, Thunderfoot?” she asked excitedly, jumping up and down.
“Well... I'm not really a playing... dinosaur,” Thunderfoot sighed, feeling bad when he saw Tosa's face turn disappointed, so he decided to suggest something else. “Have you been here long?”
“No, we just got here,” Tosa explained.
“How about we go exploring together, then?” he suggested, smiling weakly when Tosa's face lit up again.
“Sure!” she exclaimed. “Let's go!”
The two young longnecks sprinted into the trees, Tosa laughing and giggling hysterically, while Thunderfoot smiled for the first time in ages. They found many wondrous places in this valley, and searched high and low. They tried many different delicious foods, such as treestars and a variety of treesweets. Neither of them realised how late it was getting; they were having too much fun. Soon enough, they stopped for a quick rest, and Tosa was eager to know more about this child.
“So, do you have any other friends?” she asked him hopefully.
“Well... not really,” Thunderfoot answered. “Everyone keeps to their own family in my herd.”
“But there are other kids?” Tosa asked, getting a nod in reply. “We haven't got any in mine. There are a few who aren't quite adults yet... but they're too old to play. I guess the only dinosaurs that would play with me are my parents.” She noticed that Thunderfoot flinched at the last word. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Thunderfoot answered bluntly, leaving the female confused.
“Is it... something about your parents?” she asked, noticing that his mood downgraded every time she mentioned that word.
“Yes... I can never see them again,” Thunderfoot explained.
“Why not?” Tosa questioned, not understanding what he meant.
“They... they're lost,” Thunderfoot told her.
“Can't you go and find them?”
“It's not like that,” the young male sighed, now realising that the girl had no idea what he was talking about. “Is it okay if we stop talking about this, please?”
Tosa gave him a confused look but nodded, understanding that whatever it was, it wasn't putting her new friend in a very good mood. She rolled onto her back and sighed, stuffed with the wondrous food that grew here. Thunderfoot looked over at her, having strange feelings for the female. She was the only longneck that had made him smile since that day when his parents left him behind. Her bright and bouncy personality had lifted Thunderfoot's mood quite dramatically. Even if he still seemed depressed now, he was at least walking around and smiling, and of course he was eating, too. He also rolled on his back and yawned as the two watched the sky turn orange together.
“Tosa!” came a male voice, looking for his daughter. Tosa got up immediately.
“That's my f-” She cut herself off, realising what the young male had said earlier. “I've gotta go,” she said, before giving him a gentle lick on his cheek. She giggled when he blushed and looked extremely awkward. “Goodbye!”
“B...Bye!” Thunderfoot called after her as she ran off, before making his own way back to his grandfather.
Tosa soon found both of her parents.
“You're late,” said the male.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Sorrel,” said Patrice, Tosa's mother. “She's been out exploring the place! Did you have fun, dear?”
“I sure did!” Tosa exclaimed, jumping onto her mother's head with excitement. “I met someone new, Mother!”
“Oh, that's nice,” said Patrice, smiling up at her daughter. Tosa however, sighed, thinking about what he had said earlier.
“Can I ask you something?” she finally asked.
“Of course, Tosa,” said Sorrel. “What is it?”
“Thunderfoot, the boy I met...” she started. Sorrel glanced at her when he realised it was a male, but let her carry on. “He said something about his parents being lost, and that he wasn't able to see them again. What did he mean?”
At this both of the adults stopped, glancing at each other with worry. Patrice gave Sorrel a concerned look, wondering if they should tell their daughter what they should have told her since she was a hatchling. The male nodded and his mate sighed.
“Tosa,” the male spoke up. “There's... something we need to tell you. Something that we should have told you a long time ago...”
“Perhaps we should wait until the morning, though,” his mate said. “It's.... You're not going to like it, dear...”
Thunderfoot walked quickly back to his grandpa, who was also starting to get worried about him.
“There you are,” he said as the little one strolled up to him. The old longneck was surprised to see his grandson in such a good mood. “I take it you had a good day?” he asked.
“It was great!” Thunderfoot answered, nuzzling his grandfather. “I made a new friend!”
“Well, that's great!” his grandpa answered. “Are you getting tired yet? I think it's time you got some rest.”
Thunderfoot yawned and went next to his grandpa's side. “Okay. Goodnight Grandpa,” he said.
“Goodnight, Thunderfoot,” said the old longneck, nuzzling him before quickly falling asleep. The little one stayed awake for a little while longer, before spotting a bright star in the sky.
“Thank you...” he whispered, before also closing his eyes and falling asleep.
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Well, there you go, I'm just going to clear up a few things here.
Names and why I chose them:
Tosa: A female name that I managed to derive straight from Apatosaurus.
Thunderfoot: From the meaning of Brontosaurus and also a reference to Littlefoot's production name.
Patrice: I dunno. The "Pat" start from Apatosaurus, besides that, I just like the name.
Sorrel: It means sour. It fits him, okay? :lol
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I love it! It's amazing!
Why did you say this was bad? It's epic!
I already figured out
Grandma=Tosa
Grandpa=Thunderfoot
Love it Rammy can't wait for more.
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Nahla you ruined my post :DD
Well, now that it already is clear who is who(wanted to make a sarcastic comment ^^ ), some feedback:
Firstly I think your fic will be a full success :yes I don't think that someone tried to write about the Grandparents' past before ;)
The whole chapter is good so far, your ideas are quite interesting :)
Now some thoughts about the main characters:
Thunderfoot aka. Grandpa: It's very sad that he has to deal with death, grief and sorrow that early in his life, that his parents are dead and that he's so depressed that he even doesn't want to interact and to play with the little Longneckgirl at first...
He seems to be very shy.
Tosa aka. Grandma: Tosa is in fact the only child of the herd. So she gained a lot of attention from the adults. That's the main reason for her self confident, happy character, if you ask me.
I think it's also important to mention that Thunderfoot and Tosa as well as their herds are completely different from each other...
Thunderfoot is very shy, while Tosa is very vivacious,
Thunderfoot has an old, probably very wise grandfather, while Tosa has her parents,
Thunderfoot's herd has a lot of children, while Tosa is the other herd's only child,
Thunderfoot knows everything about death and things like that, while Tosa isn't allowed to know those things,
and isn't it strange that the Grandparent's roles changed???It is always Grandpa, who tries to stop the arguments, who mainly fights against sharpteeth.. just to mention some aspects, while Grandma is the more shy one of them.
However I like the idea of Thunderfoot loosing his parents( so Grandpa could understand Littlefoot very good since he has a similar childhood like his grandson).
Well done, somerandomfangirl!
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Aw, thanks guys. I didn't think it would be that great, but hey, if you like it, that's cool!
Of course that was just a little preview for now, but I'll try and get the whole fanfic up and going in the next few weeks while I get a few more chapters written. :D
Yes, Ducky, there are quite a lot of differences not only between the two, but between their child and... older adults selves. This story is going to gradually show how they change as life goes by.
And I'm going to have to be really careful towards the end because that's when plotholes can happen. It's mostly Bron's story that I'm going to have to find my way around, and I think after that I should be in the all clear. :yes
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I love it!
I love how Tosa/Grandma and Thunderfoot/Grandpa are the opposite of their adult selves.
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Heheh... hi. :oops
It's been almost a month since the first chapter... that's quite poor, really. Sorry. I haven't even started Chapter 3 yet, either... so I'm making this up on the spot, really. :o
Anyway, let's just start this...
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Chapter 2: Learning
Thunderfoot woke up early that morning, and for the first time in a long time he ate the entirety of his breakfast that his grandfather gave to him, much to the old longneck's surprise. For the first time in a long time, he didn't have a horrifying sleep story about his parents. For the first time in a long time... he felt happy.
“Well, I'm going to go and find her!” Thunderfoot yelled behind him as he was already running away. “Bye, Grandpa!”
“Goodbye!” Grandpa called back, even though he knew Thunderfoot probably didn't hear him. The old longneck sighed, more with relief than anything else. He was glad his grandson had finally found someone who had lifted his spirits... and very quickly for that matter. It was a shame that hardly anybody else liked Thunderfoot, thanks to one other child who was quite mean to him and spread rumours around which kept the other young ones far away. The elderly male sighed again and helped himself to some treestars from a close branch.
Thunderfoot didn't actually know where he would meet Tosa, since she had just ran off without saying anything the day before. He decided that his best bet would be back at the small pond he was at yesterday, hoping that she would have the same thoughts. He wasn't expecting anyone to be there yet because it was so early, but to his surprise, the young female was laying down in front of him, in the exact same position he was in yesterday. She hardly budged at all, and was looking down at her reflection. Tears were streaming down her face, her eyes looking tired and bloodshot. Thunderfoot could tell that she had been there crying for a while.
“Hey,” he greeted quietly, walking forward. Tosa, however, didn't even seem to notice him, lost in her own thoughts. Thunderfoot seemed shocked; was this really what he was like yesterday? He suddenly had an idea. He walked into the shallow waters and suddenly pushes his face up against hers.
“Hellooooo?”
Tosa definitely noticed him this time; she sat up in shock as her new friend stared at her.
“Oh... hi,” she answered quietly.
“What's wrong?” the young male asked, plopping himself down next to her.
“Everything,” Tosa answered, staring at the water below her. “First, I owe you an apology.”
“What for?”
“About your...” Now, even Tosa didn't want to hear the word. “Sorry if I seemed a bit of a jerk about it yesterday...”
“Oh, that's not your f-” Thunderfoot started, before being interrupted.
“Secondly, my family finally told me about... you know...” she seemed unable to finish her sentence.
“Death?” Thunderfoot finished for her.
“Yeah, that.” Tosa sighed and buried her head into Thunderfoot's side. “And there I was thinking that everything lived forever. How dumb...”
“You're not dumb, Tosa,” Thunderfoot disagreed, shaking his head. There was an extended silence between the two for a while.
“They lied to me... about everything...” Tosa eventually whispered.
“Perhaps they thought it was for the best,” Thunderfoot assumed. “It is quite a painful thing sometimes.”
“It's just that...” Tosa sighed. “It just... doesn't seem normal...”
“Well, it won't be if you weren't raised to see it as normal,” the other young longneck agreed. “I've had to learn to live with it my whole life... especially since... well...”
“Yes, I know,” Tosa sighed. “My grandparents are all dead... I never even knew them, and then my older brother...”
“You have an older brother?” Thunderfoot questioned, quite surprised.
“Had,” Tosa corrected. “Apparently he went to live with my cousin's herd for a while because they're... different, but I think my parents are lying about that too.”
The two young ones sat in silence for a short while before Thunderfoot spoke up.
“You know... is it just me or have we swapped places since yesterday?” he asked. Tosa smiled at this and got up.
“You're right,” she said. “I'm just a bit... shocked about it, that's all.”
“It's all just part of the circle of life,” Thunderfoot explained. “You shouldn't worry about it for now, but it is just normal. Everything ends one day... I'm sure you'll learn to accept it soon enough.”
“I hope so,” Tosa sighed. She turned away from the small pond.
“Hey, you know how I was saying yesterday that I wasn't really a playing dinosaur?” Thunderfoot asked. Tosa nodded in reply. “Well, I feel more up for it today, if you want.”
“Hmm... no thanks,” the young female answered. “I... really should get back to my folks.”
“Oh... okay... That's fine,” said Thunderfoot, regretting asking about it now.
“Can you come with me? I'm almost too scared to go back to them on my own,” Tosa whispered timidly.
“Why are you scared?” Thunderfoot asked, confused. Tosa just sighed and turned away from him.
“The last thing I said to my parents is that I... hated them,” she said. “I have to go back and say sorry to them.”
“Ouch... how did they take that?” Thunderfoot questioned.
“I don't know,” Tosa admitted sadly. “I ran away before I could see how they reacted.”
“I see... you probably should go and apologise,” said Thunderfoot. “And don't worry, I'll come with you.”
Tosa gave him a faint smile. “Thank you,” she said quietly. Thunderfoot just nodded in reply and the two went off to find Tosa's parents.
On the way Thunderfoot started to feel more and more nervous. Usually he would ignore the other parents in his herd, but that was because he knew he wouldn't be interacting with them. Now, he seemed almost as scared as Tosa was about seeing her parents. The two walked on, slowly and silently, until they finally reached the herd. Some of the longnecks glanced at Tosa and a few smiled at her and Thunderfoot, but she kept her eyes fixed on the ground as she walked, and Thunderfoot just looked even more nervous. They searched in and around the area where Tosa's herd was staying, but there was no sign.
“Tosa, what do your parents look like?” Thunderfoot eventually asked, noticing that Tosa wasn't really looking anywhere except the ground, walking forwards slowly.
“My mother's mostly green and has the same markings as me, and she light blue eyes, and my father is the exact same colour as me, eyes and everything, only he has different markings. They should be together; they aren't often apart,” Tosa answered plainly. Thunderfoot looked around him, trying to spot anyone with the same description.
“Is that your mother there?” he soon asked, spotting a green longneck nearby, almost camouflaged amongst the foliage. Her expression was sorrowful as she slowly ate a small bunch of treestars.
Tosa walked up next to her friend and also spotted the green longneck. “Yeah... that's her,” she sighed before slowly walking towards the female. “I'm glad it's just her there...”
“Why is that?” Thunderfoot questioned.
“My dad can get quite scary when he's upset,” said Tosa. “But most of time he leaves and just knocks a couple of trees down. I think he will be especially upset about this, though.” Thunderfoot nodded, understanding what she meant, and trudged along next to his friend.
“Poor trees,” he muttered after a few moments, making Tosa smile.
Patrice spotted her daughter walking up to her and she took a deep breath. She regretted not telling Tosa about the whole circle of life thing, and she didn't blame her for what she had said earlier. She saw another child walking alongside Tosa, and she guessed that this was the 'new friend' Tosa was talking about, the little one with no parents.
Tosa soon reached her, but for a while the two said nothing. Patrice just looked at her daughter sadly as Tosa stared at the ground again, shaking. Thunderfoot kept his distance, still uncomfortable about even watching Tosa with her mother. The memory of his own parents still hurt, and seeing the two longnecks in front of him would only bring back more painful memories that he had tried to shut out.
“Mother, I...” Tosa started, only now daring to look at Patrice's face. “I... I'm so sorry about what I said earlier... I didn't mean it... I don't even know why I said it...” After she said it the young girl burst into tears and hugged her mother's face.
“Oh, my darling...” Patrice sighed. “I know you didn't mean it, but you had every right to say it. We weren't truthful with you, and we should have been. I'm sorry too, for not doing what was right...”
Thunderfoot could no longer bare it. He could feel the tears stinging in his own eyes as the memories came flooding back to him, and he turned tail and ran as fast as he could, as far away as he could. He ran into the bushes and through the trees, trying to get out of sight. Suddenly, he crashed into the leg of another adult longneck. Thunderfoot bounced back into the ground and looked up at who he had run into with fear in his eyes. The male bore the same colours as Tosa, and he looked like a longneck that was not to be messed with.
“I-I-I'm sorry!” Thunderfoot stammered.
The male frowned at him. “You'd better watch yourself, kid,” he grunted, before giving Thunderfoot a look of utter disapproval and walking off. The young male got up and sighed with relief. He immediately knew who that longneck was, and Tosa was right; her father was scary. Thunderfoot just looked back at the direction he went in, and took a deep breath before slowly walking back to his herd, watching where he was going this time.
Sorrel walked through the trees, still irked about that kid that had crashed into him. He was quite surprised when he saw Tosa back with Patrice, and he joined the two, his expression softening when he saw how upset the youngest longneck of his herd was.
“I was worried about you,” he said to his daughter.
“I'm really sorry, Father,” Tosa sobbed, backing away behind her mother's foreleg.
“I really am...”
“I know,” Sorrel answered. “I want you to stay here for the rest of the day, okay?” he added after a few moments. Tosa nodded silently.
“You look annoyed, dear,” Patrice noted, seeing Sorrel's famous grumpy face when he turned away again. She knew her mate as well as she knew which shade of treestar tasted the best.
“Yeah... some little runt from that other herd ran into me,” Sorrel sighed. Tosa frowned, knowing who the 'runt' was, but said nothing. “Anyway, shall we go to the watering hole together?” Sorrel asked after an awkward silence. “There are a few more things we need to discuss.”
The females nodded and the three made their way to a large watering hole nearby, the only sound coming from them being the thundering footsteps of the adults.
Thunderfoot eventually made his way back to his herd. He sneaked past a group of other children in his herd, who were playing tag, before making his way through the adults, searching for his grandfather. It wasn't too long before he found him; the old longneck was having his usual daytime nap at the resting place he had chosen. Not wanting to wake him, Thunderfoot lay down next to his grandpa's head and closed his eyes, ready for a little nap himself. Deep down, he knew he couldn't keep running from Tosa's parents whenever he saw them. She had parents; he didn't, and there was nothing he could do about that. He would just have to learn to live with it.
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Yeah, I'm getting more into Tosa's family life now. As you can see, her life isn't perfect after all. :smile
Thunderfoot, don't steal the "Helloooo?" That's Tosa's line! :lol
What else can I say? I hope you guys are enjoying it so far. It won't go day-to-day, I'll quicken the pace eventually. Especially after *spoilers* :lol
I'm such a tease. I've been teasing Ducky123 on Skype all day about this. I was almost too scared to upload this chapter, but he pushed me on, so shout out to Ducky123, and all of my other friends (which means pretty much everyone on the GoF :DD)!
I don't know if I'm entirely happy with this chapter, but I already re-wrote half of it once, and I don't really want to do it again...
Anyway, enough waffling again, enjoy!
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yay! chapter 2 :DD
Ah, I see Thunderfoot is happy now :)
So he changed positions with Tosa.. now he's happy and Tosa depressed..
I really like their dialogue, I can understand Tosa's sadness, anger and her fear to go to her parents to apologise for her quite logical behavior that morning.
And I can really understand why Thunderfoot ran off
Well, I dunno what to say so I'll just say two words:
That's nice!
seriously, this chapter is well written! I like your style and the action is very understandable and it keeps the reader exited(at least me :P:)
I can't wait for the next one :exactly
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Yay! Well, Chapter 3 is going quite well now. :D
Spoilers: It's going to do the opposite of what this chapter did. :lol
I'm glad you liked it, Ducky! I really hope there will be more to come soon. I'm in a writing phase at the moment, so hopefully I can get the next chapter done fairly quickly. :yes
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Finally, I have the motivation to post Chapter 3! This was completed just a day after I uploaded Chapter 2, but decided to wait a while before uploading this one. Chapter 4 is mostly done too, but that probably won't be uploaded until next week, either.
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Chapter 3: Making New Friends
When he woke up, Thunderfoot's grandpa was surprised to his grandson back so early. The little one was curled up into a small ball and was sleeping peacefully. The old one smiled faintly at him before getting up to get a drink from the nearby watering hole. He was happy he had found this place; it was almost the perfect home to live in. Besides a few irksome fast biters here and there on the outskirts, nothing seemed to come as a threat to the herd. He helped himself to some of the fresh water before looking around, thinking. In his childhood, the old longneck was told many stories about a place called the Great Valley, and while he was convinced that it was a myth, Grandpa was surprised at how close this new home was compared to how he had imagined the Great Valley to be like in his younger days. However, deep down he knew it wasn't the real place; he had gone searching for the famous landmarks from the stories he was told earlier that day when Thunderfoot had left, but had found nothing. He chuckled to himself as he thought about this. He couldn't help being like a big kid when it came to stories. The elderly longneck had a passion for them, much like his father before him, and he had spent most of his life as a story speaker. Although his own children had never shown much interest, Thunderfoot seemed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, and wanted to learn every story he could from him.
“Hi Grandpa,” came a voice, snapping the old longneck out of his thoughts.
“Oh, hello Thunderfoot,” his grandpa greeted as his grandson walked up to the bank of the watering hole and got a drink. “You came back earlier than I expected today.”
“Yeah... Tosa had to go back to her parents,” Thunderfoot sighed. “Grandpa?”
“Yes?”
“I... I seem to be struggling a bit with this,” Thunderfoot admitted hesitantly. “I can't seem to go near Tosa's parents without thinking about... you know...”
“Ah... I understand,” Grandpa answered calmly, gently nuzzling the young longneck. He knew what it felt like to lose family members too well, and sadly, Thunderfoot was almost on his own. His grandpa's mate had passed away soon after Thunderfoot had hatched due to an unknown illness, and of course, there was the tragic incident with Thunderfoot's parents. Thunderfoot was not an only child, either. A sharptooth came into their old home once, and it soon found a feast. The adults had left the children unguarded for just a few moments, and it cost many lives. Thunderfoot was just lucky that he had wandered from the nest that day...
“Grandpa?” The old longneck was snapped away from his thoughts again.
“Yes, Thunderfoot?” he answered.
“Is there anything I can do?” Thunderfoot asked. “I don't want Tosa thinking that I'm rude because I keep running away whenever I see her parents. I mean... she's the only friend I've got right now, and I don't want to lose her as one.”
“Well...” his grandpa paused to think for a few moments. “I understand that you're still grieving for your own parents, Thunderfoot, but I think that one day you'll have to let go.”
“I know...” Thunderfoot said half-heartedly. “I am getting used to them not being here. I think I'm... jealous, more than anything.”
“Jealousy is not a good thing,” said Grandpa. “I'm sure Tosa's life isn't perfect either, Thunderfoot.”
“No, it isn't,” his grandson agreed. “She seemed almost terrified of going back to her parents today. Saying that, she did say she hated them...”
“Why so?” Grandpa asked, puzzled at the girl's behaviour.
“They... they only just told her about the circle of life,” Thunderfoot answered sadly. “Until today she thought that everything lived forever.”
“I see, so she was probably angry and upset that they hadn't been truthful to her, then,” Grandpa assumed. “But does that sound like a perfect family to you?”
“No,” Thunderfoot admitted.
“Then you shouldn't be jealous of her,” said Grandpa. “She has her own problems too.”
“Yes... I guess so...” the young one sighed.
Thunderfoot lay down for a while, and he and his grandpa watched the sky puffies for a bit, trying to see different shapes among them. The two would play this game all of the time when Thunderfoot was younger, mostly when his parents had to go off to do something. The herd had no leader, but instead had a council where everyone got to have their say, and Thunderfoot's parents were both part of that council. When the food shortage and sharptooth problem got out of hand, they had apparently offered to go and find another home with a small group of other longnecks, thinking that they wouldn't be too long and were doing it for the good of their son. However, only one of the group came back in the end. Grandpa had been told some time later that the group had gone towards what was thought to be a normal mountain, but had actually turned out to be a smoking mountain. They were too close to get away in time when it suddenly exploded, and the ash had probably buried them all. It had broken the old one's heart to see Thunderfoot's face that evening when he told him what had happened. He had lost his daughter and son-in-law, and Thunderfoot had lost almost everything. Things had never been the same for them since then.
“I'm going to go for a walk,” Thunderfoot said plainly. “See you later, Grandpa.”
“Bye,” Grandpa answered as Thunderfoot walked off. The words of his grandfather had helped him, and Thunderfoot had finally decided that it was time to let go. He walked into the bushes where he knew he would probably be alone, and thought about Tosa. She had probably stayed with her parents after going back to them, but he didn't mind. Slowly but surely, he was starting to accept his own parents' passing as part of the circle of life, and he realised that he had others supporting him, like his grandpa and Tosa, and other adults in his herd had tried to help, too, even though he had pretty much shrugged them off.
Unfortunately, he was thinking so much that he walked out of the bushes and into a game of tag that most of the other children in his herd were playing. When he realised this, he tried to sneak his way around, but someone soon spotted him.
“Well, well, well, look who it is,” an older male sneered, approaching Thunderfoot. “If it isn't the creep with no parents.” He laughed as the other children walked up to the two. Most of them just stared at Thunderfoot, surprised to see him away from his grandpa.
The bully walked right up to Thunderfoot. “Listen closely, Thunderfoot. If you think you can walk in my game and think you can join in, you have another thing coming,” he snarled viciously. “Why don't you just go home to your parents? Oh, right, you have none!” He laughed again, and this time a young girl stepped forward, too disgusted with the child's behaviour to hold back now.
“Don't be so mean,” she said sternly. “It's not his fault he doesn't have any parents.”
“Yeah, he's so useless and pathetic that his parents just ditched him with his grandpa and went far, far away,” the other child answered.
“My parents didn't ditch me!” Thunderfoot suddenly yelled. “They are dead!”
“Yeah, dead bored of you,” the bully answered before laughing again. The female that had spoken gave him a look of disgust.
“You know what, Rye?” she started. “You think you're so big, making those around you feel miserable. And I for one, am sick of it. I'm not going to join in with your games any more, and you can't make me. I'm outta here.”
The young longneck who had spoken up turned tail and walked up to Thunderfoot. “Are you coming?” she asked.
“Oh... okay,” Thunderfoot stammered, surprised that someone had stood up for him. The two longnecks quickly walked away from the scene. Rye scoffed as he watched them.
“Well, she's not welcome to play any more,” he muttered angrily. He glared at the other longnecks, who were staring at him. “What are you looking at? Scram!” The children immediately scattered in fear.
“Why did you do that?” Thunderfoot asked when the two got a fair distance away from the other children.
“I hate seeing someone get bullied,” the girl sighed. “I decided I should finally stand up and say something.”
“Well... thank you,” said Thunderfoot, smiling at her. “What's your name?”
“Camara,” she answered. “You're Thunderfoot, I take it?”
“Yeah, that's me,” said Thunderfoot. “I don't want to sound rude, but I don't recall seeing you before...”
Camara chuckled. “Yes, my family and I joined this herd quite recently.”
“Ah... I see.”
“Have you... got any other friends?” Camara asked with concern, noticing that he was alone when Rye seemed to have the whole herd with him.
“Not in this herd,” Thunderfoot admitted, “but I recently made a new friend who's in that new herd that settled in on the other side of the valley.”
“Oh, that's nice,” said Camara. “It's a shame about the others, though. I think they're probably forced into it by that Rye kid. I know I didn't get much choice.”
“Yeah, he's pretty mean,” said Thunderfoot. “He turned almost everyone against me.”
“I'm sorry...” Camara said quietly, feeling quite guilty that she hadn't even spoken to Thunderfoot before.
“No worries,” Thunderfoot assured her. “I got used to it. Besides, until we got here I didn't really talk to anyone or do much other than lay around pitying myself.”
Camara gave him a puzzled look. “Is... that about your parents?” she asked.
“Yeah, but I'm starting to get over it now,” said Thunderfoot.
“Wow... I don't know what I'd do if I lost my parents...” Camara said, looking at
Thunderfoot with sympathy.
Suddenly, something crashed into Thunderfoot, making him topple over. He yelled in surprise, but was even more shocked to see who was on top of him, grinning at him.
“Tosa?!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“Hi!” Tosa greeted enthusiastically. It took her a few moments before she noticed that someone else was there. “Who are you?” she asked the smaller longneck.
“I'm Camara,” she said.
“Oh... nice to meet you,” said Tosa, smiling at her.
“Same here,” Camara said happily. She turned to Thunderfoot. “Is this the friend from the other herd you were talking about?” Thunderfoot nodded in reply.
“Yeah, that's me,” said Tosa. “My father kept on talking about... stuff, but I got bored and snook off.”
“Naughty,” Thunderfoot commented jokingly. “Could you get off me now, please?”
“Oh, sorry!” said Tosa, immediately getting off.
“I'm sorry too,” Thunderfoot said after a few moments. “For... running off earlier.”
“Oh, that's okay,” said Tosa. “I... think I can understand why you did.”
“Yes, well... I've finally decided that I can't keep holding onto it,” Thunderfoot sighed. “I just have to accept the fact that my parents aren't here, and never will be.”
The two young girls exchanged sad glances before Camara approached Thunderfoot.
“You know,” she started, “my parents always say that those who have passed on live within you, and that... in a way, you'll never be apart from them.”
“My parents were saying this morning that they're always watching from the stars during the night, and from the bright circle during the day,” said Tosa, looking up to the sky. “So if you want to talk to them, they're always there, watching and listening...”
“I guess we'll never know, huh?” Thunderfoot said almost absent-mindedly.
“I suppose not,” Camara agreed. “Don't completely forget about your parents, Thunderfoot. That'll only make things worse.”
“I think that may have been what I was doing,” Thunderfoot admitted sadly. “I was trying to block it all out, but when I saw Tosa with her mother, it all came back to me, and I almost couldn't bare it...”
“Sorry,” Tosa said quietly. “I shouldn't have made you come with me.”
“You didn't know,” Thunderfoot answered with a smile. “Besides, I thought I could handle it.”
“Shall we play something?” Camara suggested after a few moments.
“Sure!” Tosa exclaimed happily. “What shall we play?”
“I don't mind,” said Thunderfoot.
“How about toss the tree sweet? I'm bored of playing tag all of the time with Rye,” Camara said before sticking out her tongue.
“Who's Rye?” Tosa asked.
“This herd's bully,” Thunderfoot quickly explained. “Anyway, toss the tree sweet sounds good to me. I'll go and find a few tree sweets for us to play with.”
Thunderfoot walked away, towards a place where he knew he would find a lot of good tree sweets to play with. He looked around, searching for a bush that would have good few on it that would be suitable for tossing around, but he accidentally bumped into another young longneck.
“Oh, great...” he muttered sarcastically under his breath when he saw who it was.
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Yes... I gave Thunderfoot a new friend in his herd too, and I also went a bit more into his grandpa. I did give the old guy a name, but he'll reveal that himself in Chapter 4. :yes
And now... introducing the antagonist! Trust me, by the end of this you guys are all going to hate Rye with a passion. I already do. :lol
I'm not too sure about this chapter since it's got another friend in there, but I was thinking of introducing a fourth and making it a guy to make it more even. Anyway, since Camara the Camarasaurus (very original naming there :lol) is obviously not the same species, I would think that Thunderfoot feels differently towards her than he does towards Tosa. Also, I don't plan to make this girl completely interfere; she'll be just a playing partner with these two/possibly three.
Oh, seems like Thunderfoot's finally starting to accept his parents' deaths. He's getting over this quite quickly now, huh?
Okay, enough of that. Enjoy! :D
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awww, nice one :D
Camara sounds good, I like the name :yes
Can't wait to read Chapter 4 :DD
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^^
Thanks Ducky. :D
Chapter 4 is done, but I just need to proof read it a few times and I want to start Chapter 5 before I upload it. I also need to carry on with correcting your fic. :yes
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I really need to stop promising deadlines I can't make. :p Nonetheless, here's Chapter 4. I had this done for ages, then I got into a drawing phase, and when I get into a drawing phase I forget about writing.
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Chapter 4: A Change in the Wind
“Watch where you're going, clumsy!” Rye growled before he turned around to see who had bumped into him in the first place. He stared at Thunderfoot for a few moments, before his frown turned into an evil smile. “Well, well, well...”
“Sorry,” Thunderfoot said calmly. “I didn't see you.”
“Yeah, of course not,” said Rye, before turning around again and smacking Thunderfoot in the face with his tail. “Whoops. Didn't see your face there.”
“Thunderfoot!” came a voice. Tosa came out from behind a tree with Camara. “Are you okay?” she asked, noticing a fresh red mark on his left cheek.
“Fine,” he answered. “I'm fine.”
“D'aww, look at that,” Rye taunted. “Thundie's got himself a girlfriend!”
“She's not my girlfriend!” Thunderfoot argued. “She's just a friend.”
Rye scoffed at this. “Why would anyone want to be friends with you?” he snarled. He looked over at Camara. “Huh, that's two dumb females you've got now.”
“I beg your pardon?” said Tosa, walking right up to Rye. “Say that again, I dare you!”
“I said you're dumb,” Rye answered bluntly. “Dumb enough to be hanging around with that sorry excuse of a longneck, that's for sure.”
“Excuse me?” came a much deeper and angrier voice. Rye turned around, shocked to a much larger longneck right behind him. How he hadn't heard the adult approaching was beyond him.
“Um... I-I.. uh...” He hadn't felt so scared about an adult catching him being mean to others. Usually he would just answer back at them, but the one in front of him looked like he would crush him if he said anything of the sort.
“You had better watch what you say to my daughter,” Sorrel growled as other children arrived at the scene, shocked by what they were seeing.
“I-I-I'm sorry,” Rye stammered.
“You'd better be,” Sorrel answered sternly. “Now get out of here!”
“Y-y-yes s-s-sir!” Rye whimpered before shooting a look at Thunderfoot and Tosa and running off. The other children just stared in disbelief before backing off themselves, scared of the adult. Tosa, Thunderfoot and Camara were the only three who stayed.
Patrice walked up to the side of her mate, and sighed.
“Did you honestly have to be so rough?” she asked.
“Did you hear the things he was saying about Tosa?!” Sorrel countered angrily. “Honestly, it was despicable. He deserved it.”
Tosa turned to Thunderfoot, frowning. “Is he always like that to you?” she asked.
“Yep,” Thunderfoot answered. “That's why I try my best to avoid him at all costs. He always says mean things about my parents...”
Patrice frowned at this. “That's quite mean,” she said.
“That's disgusting,” said Sorrel. “Why should anybody have the right to pick on someone who has it hard enough as it is?”
Tosa sighed and lay down next to Thunderfoot. “I suppose there are just some bad dinosaurs out there,” she said before turning to her father. “But you sure showed him!”
Sorrel chuckled to himself. “I sure did,” he said. “Anything for my special little girl,” he added as he walked up to Tosa and nuzzled her. Patrice cleared her throat to draw her mate's attention; he hadn't realised that Thunderfoot looked a bit uncomfortable. He immediately drew back when he saw the look the female give him, and his gaze drifted over to the child next to Tosa.
“Sorry,” he said softly, “about my behaviour earlier.”
“Oh... that's okay,” Thunderfoot answered. “Thank you for chasing that bully off.”
“He's far too good at scaring children,” said Patrice, chuckling to herself. “You must be Thunderfoot, yes?”
“Yes, that's me,” said Thunderfoot. “And you two are Tosa's mother and father?” Patrice nodded.
“Speaking of parents,” Camara interrupted from a short distance away. “I should go back to my folks. See you later!”
“Bye!” Tosa and Thunderfoot called after her as she ran off, leaving the four alone in the small clearing they were in.
“I should also be getting back to my grandpa,” said Thunderfoot, getting up. He turned back to face Tosa and smiled at her. “Maybe I'll see you later?”
“Actually, we would like to come with you,” Sorrel spoke up. “I would like to have a word with your grandfather... if he's up to it, of course.”
“Um... sure,” Thunderfoot answered. “He's, er... this way.”
The four walked back to the Thunderfoot's resting place where his grandpa was waiting. The old one was surprised to see four longnecks heading towards him, and he stood up to greet them.
“Hi, Grandpa,” said Thunderfoot, happily walking to his side. “Tosa's parents said they wanted to talk to you.”
“Ah, I see,” his grandfather answered. He smiled at the newcomers. “Hello, there.”
“Well, we meet at last,” said Sorrel. “You must be Thunderfoot's grandpa.” Grandpa just nodded in reply. “I'm Sorrel, and this is my mate, Patrice. I don't suppose you mind if we have a word, do you?”
“Of course not,” the old longneck answered.
“Tosa, do want to go off and play with Thunderfoot for a while?” said Patrice. “Just don't go too far, okay?”
“Sure, Mother,” Tosa answered happily. “Come on, Thunderfoot!”
The two children soon ran off to play with each other, and decided to play a different game to toss the treesweet.
Patrice smiled as she watched the two, and then turned back to face Thunderfoot's grandpa.
“What was your name? she asked him. “You never said.”
“Well, most around here just call me Grandpa since I'm the herd's... oldest resident, but my real name is Eldridge,” he answered.
“It's a pleasure, Eldridge,” said Sorrel. “I prefer to use someone's actual name myself, rather than nicknames.”
“I suppose it does cause less confusion,” Eldridge agreed.
“So, what it is you wanted to speak about?” he asked after a few moments.
“The children, mostly,” said Patrice. “It's such a shame about what both you and Thunderfoot have been through.”
“Yes, he has had it harder than he deserves,” Eldridge sighed.
“As do you, I suppose,” said Sorrel. “I mean, raising a child on your own surely can't be easy.”
“No, I'll admit that it isn't, but there's also no way that I'm going to leave him,” Eldridge answered.
“Doesn't he have any other family at all?” Patrice asked.
“I do have a few other children, but most of them have left the nest and gone to other places to start their own families,” the elderly longneck answered. “I haven't heard from most of them for years now.”
“I'm sorry,” said Patrice.
“Life goes on, I'm afraid,” said Eldridge. “We all lose someone close to us one day, but that's the circle of life. We'll have to move on eventually.”
“You sound like quite the wise one,” Sorrel commented.
“It all comes with experience.” Eldridge chuckled. “I suppose I have quite a bit of it at my old age.”
“Indeed,” said Sorrel.
Meanwhile, Tosa and Thunderfoot had both found a fairly large meadow for them to play in. On the way they saw Rye, but he didn't do anything except give them a dirty look, mostly out of fear of Tosa's father showing up again. Very few of the other children were with him, most having gone back to their families. When they got there, the pair played hide and seek for a while, but they eventually got too tired and just talked instead.
“If you don't mind me asking,” Tosa said as she lay down next to Thunderfoot, “what's it like living with your grandpa?”
“It's... all right, actually,” he answered. “He may be the oldest in our herd, but his age honestly doesn't make a difference. He's wise, understanding, and quite fun, too.”
“Fun, huh?” said Tosa. “What kind of fun?”
“Well, he doesn't really just sit there doing nothing with me all day, and I don't really think he's your stereotypical grandparent, either.”
“Stereo-what?” Tosa questioned with a confused face.
“Stereotypical,” Thunderfoot repeated. “Basically, a lot of others tend to see old dinosaurs as slow and boring, but my grandpa's nothing like that at all. He'll always offer to play some kind of game with me to keep me entertained.”
“Gee, even my parents don't do that,” said Tosa. “He must be doing well to keep up with you... hey, I thought you said you weren't really a playing dinosaur, anyway?”
“Oh, we don't play those kinds of games,” Thunderfoot explained. “We play games that use imagination, such as making shapes out of sky puffies or stars.”
“That sounds quite interesting, actually,” said Tosa as she looked up at the sky. “Too bad there aren't any sky puffies around right now.”
“Yes, but I suppose it'll be dark soon, though,” said Thunderfoot, as he noticed that the bright circle was just about to fall below the high hills surrounding the valley. “Actually, today was the first time I had played that game in a very long time,” he added after a short while.
“How come?” Tosa questioned.
“Well, I guess that after my parents... I was just never in the mood,” Thunderfoot answered as he looked at the ground. “That's why I said I didn't want to play when we first met.”
“I see...” Tosa sighed. “Did you also starve yourself or something?”
“What?” Thunderfoot asked, confused.
“Well, I didn't want to say anything at first because it might have been rude, but...” The young girl still hesitated to say the next sentence. “You do look quite thin to me.”
Thunderfoot just lay there, shocked at what she had said to him.
“You... you think so?” he questioned. Tosa merely nodded at him. “Well, I suppose a lot of the time I just didn't feel hungry, and on some occasions Grandpa had to... I must have made him so worried...”
“I wouldn't be surprised if you did,” said Tosa. “To be honest, I didn't really notice until my dad said you looked quite frail.”
“When did he say that?” Thunderfoot asked.
“After you bumped into him this morning,” Tosa answered before chuckling to herself. “He sure was complaining about that for a while.”
“Oh...”
“I wouldn't worry, though,” Tosa assured him. “My father is the biggest moaner in the world. He complains about anything and everything. I can bet you that he'll be complaining about that Rye kid later tonight.”
“I'd like to join in with that one!” Thunderfoot joked. “...Or I could listen to some of my grandpa's stories to calm me down.”
“...your grandpa tells stories?” Tosa asked, intrigued.
“He sure does,” Thunderfoot answered. “He used to be a story speaker back in his day.” He was surprised when he saw the girl's face light up.
“Really?!” she exclaimed with nothing short of delight. “Can he... can I perhaps listen to one of his stories some day? Please?”
Thunderfoot chuckled. “I don't see why not,” he said. “I can get him to tell you one today... maybe.”
“That'd be great!” Tosa squealed. “My father told me about story speakers, and since then I've always wanted to meet one and hear some of the great longneck stories. Well, I heard a couple of stories from him, since he had heard some of the stories from when he was younger, but I would like to hear more.”
“Well, perhaps we should go back,” Thunderfoot suggested. “It's getting late, anyway.”
“Yes, perhaps we should,” Tosa agreed. The two young longnecks got up and walked off, back towards their families. Surprisingly enough, Sorrel and Patrice were still talking with Eldridge, only stopping when they saw the children approaching.
“My, is it that late?” Sorrel asked himself when he noticed that the sky had turned dark orange. “We should go back and join our herd. Come along, Tosa. You can play again tomorrow.”
“Oh... okay,” said Tosa, glancing at Thunderfoot with disappointment.
“Don't worry, I'll get him to tell us a whole bunch of stories tomorrow,” Thunderfoot promised. Tosa smiled and walked over to her father before jumping onto his head.
“I'll try moving the herd tomorrow,” said Sorrel. “The two herds are resting at opposite sides of this place, and it's fairly large at that. Hopefully it'll make the journey easier, especially for the children. We'll move to a place closer to here but not too close to the centre, just in case something like a fire starts. Then again, that's quite unlikely, seeing how moist the place is at the moment.”
“But the dry time will be upon us soon,” Eldridge warned. “Perhaps it would be best to settle your herd as close to the outskirts as possible without attracting those fast biters, and figure out your nearest fire escape routes.”
“Yes, of course,” Sorrel agreed. “Anyway, we should be going now. It's quite a walk back.”
The longnecks said their goodbyes and Tosa's family went back to their herd.
“Grandpa? Tosa said she wants to hear some of the longneck stories,” said Thunderfoot. “Would you be okay with telling her some?”
“Of course, Thunderfoot!” his grandfather answered. “I'll be more than happy to.”
“Thanks,” said Thunderfoot, before starting to settle down. He yawned and his eyelids started to feel heavy. “Goodnight, Grandpa.”
“Goodnight,” said Eldridge, nuzzling his grandson before settling down himself. After a short while, soft snoring could be heard from the resting place as the two fell into a deep sleep.
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And there you go. Chapter 5's progress kinda died, so I don't know when that'll be up. Hopefully it'll be before I go on holiday in two weeks' time. I've done a drawing that I'll also upload.
Eldridge, it means old/wise one, which is why I chose it. Most of the time I'll use floral names, but sometimes I'll use names when the meaning reflects the character.
RYE, LEAVE MY THUNDIE ALONE!! :anger
That's all I'm going to say now. I'm too lazy to complain about it.
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Elbridge sure sounds like a name for someone pretty old ;)
YES SORREL! SHOW THIS BULLY WHO RULEZ THE VALLEY!!! :lol :smile
Ah, I knew Grandpa is a storyteller...
The only thing I'd have liked to see is what Grandpa and Tosa's parents were talking about :)
Again an enjoyable, well-done chapter :yes
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SORREL! SORREL!! SORREL!! :lol
Once I heard that Grandpa Longneck had learned his stories from his grandpa, I thought, "Yeah, that guy was a story speaker for sure."
They were mostly talking about Thunderfoot and Tosa's friendship as well as the herd's differences and the incident involving Thunderfoot's parents. It wasn't really anything that hasn't been mentioned before. :p
Thanks again, Ducky! You really do keep me going. :yes
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I just read this yesterday. Good job! :yes
By the way, I noticed this:
“Hello!” she exclaimed, but the other longneck did little more than shift in reply. Tosa moved around and walked into the shallow pool in front of the other longneck to get a better look at it's face. She could tell now that it was a young male, and he seemed very depressed. “I said hello!” she said again, but he didn't even look up at her.
Is this a shout out to the original movie? :!
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Thanks!
Yep, it sure is. :DD
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Hi everyone! I actually had Chapter 5 done since Thursday or Friday, but kinda forgot to upload it, so here it is.
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Chapter 5: A New Day
The next day, Tosa met Thunderfoot at his resting place after her father had successfully moved his herd so that both herds were closer to each other. As promised, Eldridge told Tosa some of the longneck stories, and it managed to last the whole day. The day was calm in Thunderfoot's herd; the children had stayed with their own families, none wanting to play with Rye today after he was proven to not be as brave as he had originally made out to be. Surprisingly, many of them went to Thunderfoot's resting place to apologise to him before going back to spend the day with their families, most of them too guilt-ridden to play. Thunderfoot was not expecting that, but he decided to forgive them, thinking that they were probably dragged into it like Camara was.
“See, I really don't understand why Rye is so mean to me about my parents,” he said to Tosa while his grandfather was away getting them both something to eat for dinner. “I mean, he only has his father to look after him.”
“What happened to his mother? ...If you don't mind me asking,” Tosa added, not wanting to sound as insensitive about the missing parent situation as she had done just two days before.
“She left,” Thunderfoot answered. “She and Rye's father had a big argument and soon she had had enough. Apparently there was...”
“What?” Tosa asked, intrigued.
“…Never mind,” Thunderfoot answered hesitantly. The incident with Rye’s mother was a very touchy subject to talk about, and if he was caught explaining it to Tosa, Thunderfoot knew that he would get into big trouble.
“So, how come you don’t just get back at him and say things about his mother?” Tosa asked, earning her a strange look from her friend.
“Because I’m not him,” he answered. “I’d never say or do anything to hurt someone else on purpose, even if I hated them more than anything else.”
“Yeah… I probably wouldn’t, either,” Tosa said quietly after a short silence. “I don’t understand why there are some like Rye out there.”
“Rye was just a bad egg, and he’s being raised by the longneck everyone in this herd tries to avoid,” Thunderfoot explained.
“What? Is Rye’s father scary?” Tosa questioned.
“Yeah, you could say that,” Thunderfoot answered. “It’s just… he has that look in his eyes… like he wants to do something horrible to you. My grandpa always says to never cross paths with him.”
“Why?”
“I honestly don’t know,” he said. “Apparently he did something terrible to another hatchling of this herd. It was a young female, but I wasn’t told anything besides that.”
A shiver ran down Tosa’s spine as she unintentionally came up with a number of different scenarios of what could have happened to that hatchling.
“I guess I can understand why,” she said finally, before resting her head on Thunderfoot’s neck. After a long day of story-telling, and a not so good sleep the night before, she was starting to feel tired.
“Er… what are you doing?” Thunderfoot asked when he turned his head around to see who or what had rested something on his neck.
“You’re more comfortable than the ground,” she answered as she smiled back at his shocked face.
“Oh… well-” Thunderfoot was interrupted when he heard loud footsteps coming closer. Eldridge had arrived back with a variety of food for the two youngsters.
Thunderfoot frowned when he saw the sheer amount his grandfather was carrying.
“You didn’t need to bring so much…” he said as the plant food was dropped in front of him.
“You’ll be surprised,” Eldridge answered as Tosa immediately lifted her head and tucked into the food, easily finishing around half of it. “I believe that’s how much a healthy longneck should be eating,” the old longneck commented.
“I really don’t eat much, do I?” Thunderfoot asked, blankly staring at the food.
“Well, depressed young dinosaurs don’t usually eat much.” Eldridge sighed as his grandson stared at the ground. “We’ll take it slowly for now. Just eat what you can.” Thunderfoot just nodded and ate as much as he could, but he could only manage just over half of what Tosa had eaten before he had had enough. He groaned quietly, unable to take another bite.
“I’m sorry, Grandpa…” he moaned. “I shouldn’t have to make you worry like this…”
“Now, you have nothing to be sorry about,” Eldridge disagreed, gently nuzzling his grandson. “I know you couldn’t help it.”
Thunderfoot turned to Tosa, who gave him a sweet smile.
“Thanks,” he said. Tosa’s smile turned into a confused look.
“What did I do?” she asked.
“Much more than you know,” Thunderfoot answered with a smile. Eldridge chuckled as he watched the two young ones.
“My, you two are cute together,” he said, which immediately grabbed their attention. “Why, it’s as if I’m looking into the future here.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Grandpa?” Thunderfoot questioned.
“Well, I can just imagine you two being mates someday,” said Eldridge.
The two looked at each other for a brief moment before pulling disgusted faces, making the old longneck laugh.
“That’s gross!” Thunderfoot exclaimed.
“Yeah, that would be so weird. I mean, we’re just friends,” said Tosa.
“That’s exactly what Thunderfoot’s grandmother said when we were kids,” Eldridge countered. “And, well, you can probably guess what happened.”
“I’ve only heard THAT so many times,” Thunderfoot complained. “You and Grandma were childhood sweethearts. Me and Tosa aren’t… are we?”
“Nope,” Tosa immediately agreed.
“Well, I know many longneck couples who were also childhood sweethearts,” said Eldridge. “There are even a couple of stories on the subject.”
“Well then, the soppy romance stories will be out of the valley straight away when I become a story speaker,” Thunderfoot mumbled. Eldridge rolled his eyes sarcastically.
“You’ll change your mind about that when you’re older,” he said. “Anyway, shall I take you home, Tosa?”
“Okay,” she answered, jumping onto his head when he lowered it, with Thunderfoot following her lead.
“Also, don’t tell your father about the suggestion I made,” said Eldridge as he was walking towards Tosa’s herd. “I don’t want him exploding in my face.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Tosa promised with a chuckle.
“I still can’t believe you said that,” said Thunderfoot, shaking his head in shame and disbelief.
“Oh, Thunderfoot. It’s a fact of life, deal with it,” Eldridge lightly scolded. “I’d be more than happy for you both if such a thing ever happened.”
“It won’t,” said Thunderfoot.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Tosa.
“What?”
“Well, it could happen,” she teased, gently stroking the side of Thunderfoot’s face with her tail. “You never know.”
“Oh, come on!” Thunderfoot yelled, pulling his head away. Tosa and Eldridge laughed as he muttered something under his breath.
Much to Thunderfoot’s annoyance, the two carried on teasing him about the subject until they finally found Tosa’s parents. He had actually never been so glad when the sight of Sorrel finally shut the other two longnecks up. The two older males got caught up in conversation again while Tosa joined her mother, leaving Thunderfoot alone with his thoughts. Sure, he liked Tosa. In the span of just a couple of days she had made his life happy again, and he just wished there was a way to repay her. He had feared he had almost ruined her life when he mentioned the death of his parents when she knew about no such thing, but considering she had grown up thus far without being told, she had taken it fairly well. Her father had scared off the one longneck that had made Thunderfoot’s life a complete misery, and now with the support of his grandfather and his new friend, he was finally getting his life back on track. He could see himself and Tosa being good friends and growing up together as such, and maybe his grandpa was right, though he tried not to think about that one for now.
Thunderfoot was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t realise when he was back at his resting place. It was still fairly early, so he decided to take a short walk by himself. The bright circle was just above the peak of one of the mountains that surrounded his new home. He soon found himself at the small pond where he first met Tosa, and took a look at his reflection. It didn’t surprise him to see a much happier longneck looking back at him, and he soon turned away, realising that he didn’t need this place any more. He calmly walked on, the only sounds being the gentle breeze swaying the trees and his own footsteps.
“Hi, Thunderfoot!” came a voice, disturbing the quiet atmosphere that Thunderfoot was starting to enjoy. He quickly turned around to see a young longneck behind him.
“Hi, Camara,” he greeted. “What are you doing?”
“Out for a walk, just like you,” Camara answered. “It was really quiet today, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was,” Thunderfoot agreed.
“I saw Rye earlier with his dad,” the younger longneck continued. “He looked ready to smack someone, and his dad looked even angrier.”
“I dread to think,” said Thunderfoot. “Apparently he can be a right nasty piece of work sometimes.”
“So my mother was telling me,” said Camara. “I know my brother got quite scared when he heard.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“Yeah… he’s really shy, though. He’s the complete opposite of me.” Camara sighed as she carried on walking. “I really hope he comes out of his shell soon, though. I’m sure that once he makes a couple of friends he’ll be just fine.”
“Well, it helped me,” said Thunderfoot as he followed her.
Camara didn’t say anything to that, instead thinking about what this other longneck must have gone through. His parents were gone, he had no friends to help him until recently, and only his grandfather was there to look after him. He had gone through so much, but only now was he getting the help he truly needed. Camara couldn’t even begin to imagine the emotional turmoil that Thunderfoot must have been through, and she felt terrible for him.
“I suppose I’ll try and introduce him to you tomorrow, then,” she said after drifting away from her thoughts. “And Tosa, if she comes along.”
“I’m sure she will,” Thunderfoot answered. “It’s hard to keep her away right now.”
“I’m not surprised.” Camara grinned at the young male. “She seems to really like you.”
Thunderfoot said nothing to that. He really hoped Camara wouldn’t start about him and Tosa being a bit more than friends when they grow up.
“Can’t say I blame her, though,” the other longneck continued, not acknowledging the fact that Thunderfoot no longer seemed to be listening. “I mean, you were her first friend around her age, right?”
“Yep,” Thunderfoot answered absent-mindedly. “Well, I guess.”
“Yeah... well, I suppose I should go home. The bright circle’s almost gone down,” said Camara. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sure,” Thunderfoot answered, watching as his other new friend ran off back to her family.
He started to walk back to his grandpa, and quickly made his way through a maze of other longnecks from his herd who were settling down for the night. A lot of the children stared at him as he bounded past them, but he took no notice of them for now. He would usually go around the herd on most nights, but with Rye’s father obviously not very happy, it was safer to stay within the herd until he reached his resting place.
Although nobody had confirmed it for him, Thunderfoot had heard many rumours of children going missing every now and then. Most of the time it was blamed on sharpteeth, but there were some who came up with the conspiracy that the danger was actually within the herd. Rye’s father never seemed to show his face much when the herd wasn’t travelling, and even then he would stray off behind. Thunderfoot had not seen the longneck since the herd had arrived in the valley, and that was something he was grateful for. The forceful footsteps that threatened to crush any hatchling that got in the way, the tail that would constantly swing back and forth ready to smack anything without mercy, and those cold, cruel eyes that would send shivers up anyone’s spine, made every child petrified of him. Even a few of the adults, including Eldridge, who stayed very calm in pretty much every bad situation, seemed uneasy around him.
Thunderfoot had heard that when Rye’s father was angry, something bad happened in the herd, and although he wasn’t sure whether or not it was actually true, it scared him. Why Rye had chosen to stay with him instead of going with his mother all that time ago, Thunderfoot would never know.
He finally reached his resting place, where his grandfather was patiently waiting to put him to sleep.
“You know I was only joking earlier when I said that about you and Tosa, right?” Eldridge asked.
“I know,” Thunderfoot assured him. He snuggled up close to his grandpa, who curled around him, as if protecting him. However, instead of falling asleep straight away, the two stayed awake and talked until it got quite late, which was something they hadn’t done together for quite a long time. The conversation was actually quite serious, as most of it was about Thunderfoot’s depression, and what they needed to do to make him completely well again. Despite that, Thunderfoot felt better after the pep talk, and easily drifted off into the world of sleep once more.
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Fun fact: Most of this was written in school when I was actually meant to be doing work that I didn't understand. Yes, I am a rebel. :lol
Pfft, Eldridge can predict the future. Thunderfoot doesn't seem too impressed with the idea, though. I dunno what else to say about this chapter. I thought I'd add Camara in again, cause we all just love Camara, don't we?
I was debating whether to make Saro the fourth guy of the gang, but I'm going to leave him out for now. I have my reasons. :p
Anyway, I think we'll be nearing the end of Tosa and Thunderfoot's childhood soon. Well, maybe in the next month, since I'm going for two weeks without being able to write anything. I'm just glad I got this chapter done before I go on holiday on Tuesday. :yes
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You are rebel but your my rebel
Very good,Rye's Dad must be the Hades of your fics..and everyone loves a Hades :lol.
Can't wait for some Tosa/Thunderfoot romance later on
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Yeah, you can't have a fic without some mysterious evil dude lurking in your herd, can you? :lol
Don't worry, I'll be getting to that soon. :P:
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Well, aren't you SLOW over at DA xD
He's far too good at scaring children,”
And we have a rolling Writer-cookie on the floor :lol Good Lord, Tosa, your parents are hilarious xD
And I LOVE the fifth chapter :p Thunderfoot is like 'NEVER EVER GONNA HAPPEN!' but fate is gonna be like 'You wish, boy, prepare for love forever :nyah '
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Yeah, just a bit. Well, lucky you for coming over here. You get to read three chapters ahead of those on dA! :D
Well, she has a right ol' grump of a father and nice mother who has a bit of a stubborn streak. That's why Tosa didn't bore herself to death when she was still the only child in her herd.
Thanks! Yep, he changes his mind... eventually.
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Dang, it's been a while. This is what happens when I go on holiday. Throughout the whole thing I get loads of plot ideas and want to write them all down but can't because I don't have a proper computer to type on, and then when I get back, I have no motivation to type anything. Grr.... :anger
Whelp, I finally got Chapter 6 done. So, here you go now, and I'll share a bit more at the bottom.
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Chapter 6: Going on an Adventure
Tosa and Thunderfoot were ushered to Camara’s resting place by said longneck as soon as Tosa arrived, and they were introduced to her brother, Bracken. As Camara had said, he was extremely shy and hid behind his mother for a long time before he finally got used to the new visitors and gradually came out to sit in front of his mother as he watched the others play for a bit. Camara asked Tosa and Thunderfoot if they could come to her resting place for a few days to see if Bracken would finally trust them enough to play, and eventually, he did. However, he refused to go anywhere that was out of sight of his mother, but nobody minded. They were all just happy playing with each other all day.
At first a few of the other longneck children came over to play, but after a load of threats from Rye about what his father would do, they all went back to him in the end, and things seemed to have gone back to normal in the herd, besides the fact that Thunderfoot was happy and actually had some friends now. During the day the children just played, and in the evenings, Tosa and Thunderfoot would go back to Eldridge, hear a story from him, and have something to eat. Thunderfoot’s appetite soon grew, and to everyone’s surprise, he was soon eating more than Tosa could manage. Eldridge was so glad to see his grandson become happy and healthy again, although it did worry him when Thunderfoot started arriving late when he got too carried away with playing around with everyone.
All throughout the time of growth, which was when the herds arrived at the new valley, all was well. Eventually, some adults found their way to Sorrel’s herd and requested to join him as some of his members went off to the other herd. It was fairly common for longnecks to switch herds when two or more were staying at the same place for an extended period of time. When it was nearing the end of the time of growth, and going into the dry season, other dinosaurs started to move into the new paradise, and soon the longnecks found that if things carried on, there wouldn’t be enough water to last through the dry time. The valley’s many watering holes did not have water that came from an outside source; instead, the water supply depended on what fell from the sky. As it turned out, the dinosaurs were just migrators, and soon the longnecks, fast biters, and a few other residents, were left alone again.
For quite a few days now, it had been raining non-stop, leaving the children to go and find shelter rather than play. All of them had decided to stay at their resting places for now, safe under the shelter of their respective guardians. Although they had all been told about the importance of sky water, the children were starting to get bored since it stopped them from playing; the grown-ups didn’t want them going out until the sky water was over for some reason.
Finally, after five days of continuous rain, the water stopped falling from the sky. The watering holes were overflowing; the treestars were deliciously moist, and some parts of the valley were even flooded.
After having breakfast with her parents on the morning after the sky water stopped, Tosa had almost forgotten to tell them where she was going because she was so excited. It wasn’t like they didn’t know though; every day was the same. She would always go to Thunderfoot’s resting place. He was elated to see her after what had felt like such a long time, and the two immediately rushed off to Camara’s place, only to find that neither she nor her family were there.
“Oh no…” Tosa whispered when she saw what was in its place. Eldridge had warned the kids about flooding in lower parts of the valley, which luckily neither of them were near to at the time of the extensive sky water, but where Camara’s resting place had been was a new watering hole, and a large one at that.
“I think we have to go and explore around for a while to find them, then,” Thunderfoot suggested. He turned back and headed towards where the main herd was. They looked around for a while, before they eventually asked one of the herd members if they had seen Camara’s family. As it turned out, they had sheltered in a cavern with a few others near the outskirts, and although advised not to go there without a grown-up due to fast biters, Tosa and Thunderfoot went there alone anyway.
Camara and Bracken were both sat near the entrance of the cavern they had been directed to, and were extremely happy to see the other two again after what had felt like an eternity.
“Hey guys!” Camara yelled happily, sprinting towards the two. “It's been a while, hasn't it?”
“It has,” Thunderfoot agreed. “Silly sky water.”
Bracken decided to go and join the group, though he was a little slower than his sister. “Hello, everyone,” he greeted. “How are you two today?”
Tosa smiled at the young dinosaur. He had such good manners towards them. Camara was nice enough, too, but she was a lot more carefree than her twin, and had a tendency to become a little sarcastic at times, which the two soon found out after spending a couple of days with her and her family.
“I'm good thanks, Bracken,” Thunderfoot answered. “How about yourself?”
“Not too bad,” the other young male replied. “I'm glad the sky water finally stopped.”
“Me too,” Camara said. “Hey, I got it! Shall we go and look around? I'm sure the valley's going to look a lot different after all that sky water!”
“But... isn't that a bit dangerous?” Bracken asked shyly. “I heard that there was water being brought in from the Mysterious Beyond.”
“Even more reason to check it out,” said Camara, smiling sweetly at her not-so-calm brother. “Besides, I've been wanting you to leave the nest for a bit. You're getting older now, and need some time away from adults! Even these two think so.”
“You... you do?” Bracken turned to the two grey longnecks in front of him.
Tosa glared at Camara. “Now hold on just a-”
“Of course they do!” Camara interrupted. “They're just too nice to say it, aren't you?”
“Er...”
“See what I mean? Now, come on before Mother thinks we're up to no good.” Camara pushed Bracken along.
“But... we are up to no good,” he said.
“Actually, I think it'll be fun,” said Thunderfoot. “Who knows? We might find something new and exciting!”
“Or something dangerous.”
“Oh, stop it, Bracken. We're in a safe heaven. Our parents said we can go and wander wherever as long as we don't go near the outskirts.”
“She has a point, Bracken.”
Bracken just sighed in defeat and stayed close to the other longnecks. His sister was right in saying that he needed to get out on his own more, but he was too much of a coward for that, and he knew it. Perhaps it would do him some good to get out more. Besides, he was with a bunch of longnecks who were there for him, so it wasn't like he was completely alone. Going on adventures might be something he'd get a taste for. He'd never know unless he tried it, and if he didn't like it, nobody would force him into doing it again.
He followed them through thick foliage, where heavy drops of water were still falling from the leaves that had caught them. The leaves were so thick that they blocked out most light trying to get through, so they were caught in a dark space for a while. Soon enough they emerged into the blinding light of the bright circle again and carried on, where Thunderfoot spotted a large watering hole that he knew wasn't there before. The water rushed down the valley wall from the Mysterious Beyond, nobody knowing what it brought with it.
Tosa rushed to the water's edge, feeling the tingle of excitement inside her as she ran. Thunderfoot and the others joined her, looking out at the mysterious new water. It wasn't long before they spotted new creatures; some water-footed swimmers were gracefully jumping out of the water and landed back in it with barely a splash. Their scales shone in the light of the bright circle, and each one reflected the light with a natural brilliance.
“They're beautiful,” Tosa whispered, resting her head on top of Thunderfoot's. Much to her amusement, he let out an annoyed groan at her, so she kept her head where it was, just to annoy him further. Camara and Bracken couldn't help but giggle at the two.
For the time they were standing there, watching the swimmers, Thunderfoot said nothing about what Tosa was doing. First of all she was resting her head on top of his, then she entwined her tail with his, and finally she rubbed the side of her face against his. He decided to ignore her for now and let her tease him, but at that moment he didn't feel all too uncomfortable with it.
Eventually Tosa withdrew when she realised she was no longer getting any attention off him from doing it.
“Fine,” she said sarcastically. “You win.”
Thunderfoot flashed her a grin in reply. “Shame,” he said. “I was starting to not mind that.”
Tosa was surprised to hear that after all of the moaning he was doing the last time, and she wasn't completely satisfied with the fact that she couldn't annoy him that way any more.
“Ah, young love,” Camara commented, earning herself a glare from both Thunderfoot and Tosa. “Tosa, I might have to steal some of your moves one day.”
“Well don't practice them on me,” Bracken said irritably. Camara just smiled innocently at him.
“I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing,” she said, playfully lifting his head with her tail before walking away. He poked his tongue out at her in return as she giggled.
Tosa just snorted and started to walk away from the water's edge. Thunderfoot stayed there for a few moments, but backed away when he saw a dark spot in the water, which was heading his way. He moved out of the way just in time. A huge pair of jaws snapped at the spot he had just stood at.
The children screamed. “RUN!” Tosa cried, but it didn't need saying. The four longnecks sprinted away from the sharptooth, into the bushes.
“Oh great. It's a belly dragger,” said Camara, when she finally stopped and turned around to get a better look at the predator. Unlike swimming sharpteeth, which were restricted to the water alone, belly draggers could climb out and give chase on foot.
The belly dragger got out of the water and sniffed around for a while before it stared at the bush it knew the children were hiding behind.
“Gee, it's huge,” Tosa whispered, shuddering.
“Actually, that might give us an advantage,” said Thunderfoot, as he felt Tosa's shaky body next to his. He looked behind him, where he saw a thick mass of tall trees. “Through there!” he ordered, taking off. “He won't be able to fit through those gaps in the trees!”
Tosa and Camara immediately followed him, but Bracken was frozen to the spot. Camara didn't notice that he wasn't there until she knew she was safe.
“BRACKEN!” she screamed when she saw him. The belly dragger quickly approached as the others kept shouting at Bracken to get him to run.
“It's no use...” Camara could feel the tears falling down her face. She knew she shouldn't have brought him with her. He was a home boy, not an adventurous one.
Both of the girls looked away when they saw the belly dragger coming through the bush, approaching its meal. The horrendous snapping of its jaws was heard. It was over...
Camara turned completely away, unable to bare it. “Oh the poor thing,” she sobbed. “He was so young... he had his whole life to look forward to. I never even got to tell him how much I loved him...” Suddenly, something crashed into her, and almost caused her to fall over. She turned her head to see who exactly it was, and her eyes widened to near impossible sizes.
“Hi.”
She screamed, running away and crashing into a tree. Camara soon bounced off it, looking up at the face she just thought had been eaten.
“Nice little speech there,” said Bracken, giving her a faint smile. “Thunderfoot pushed me out of the way just in time.”
“So he died for you?!” Camara questioned, confused. She got her answer when Thunderfoot walked up alongside her brother with Tosa, chuckling.
“Not quite,” he answered.
Camara immediately perked up. “Well, thanks for saving my idiot brother then,” she said.
“Hey! What happened to 'poor thing'?!” Bracken asked.
“That was when you supposedly died,” said Camara, poking her tongue out at him.
“Oh, thanks,” the young male said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Behind them they could hear the terrifying roar of the belly dragger, but Thunderfoot had been right; it was too big to get through the gap in the trees. Nonetheless, the others would definitely have felt more comfortable being as far away from it as possible, so they kept moving, with Thunderfoot leading the group.
“Thunderfoot? Do you know where we're going?”
“Well...”
“Oh great. We're lost!”
“No we're not... look! I see an exit there.”
Thunderfoot poked his head out of the gap, having finally found a way out of the thick forest that he and the others had wandered into after the belly dragger encounter. He didn't recognise the area at all. He had gotten used to parts of his home he frequently went to, as well as the areas around them, but he hadn't wandered this far before. How he was going to get himself and the other back to their resting places, he didn't know yet.
“What is this place?” Tosa asked as she looked around. In front of them was a rocky wall with winding paths going up it, with hardly any green food growing there.
Thunderfoot looked at the base of the rocky hill, his gaze drifting upwards as he examined it. “This must be part of the wall that protects us from the larger sharpteeth,” he concluded. “This is the outskirts of the valley.”
“B-but, don't fast biters live here?” Bracken stammered.
“They sure do,” his sister answered. “We should get out of here, before they find us.”
“Too late,” came Tosa's voice. The other three longnecks quickly turned to face the same direction as her, all tensing up in fear as they faced a pack of several fast biters.
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Dun dun DUUUUUUN!
Okay, fine. I was actually planning on making Chapter 7 the end of the childhood, but after I got a great idea for a really intense event to happen instead, I decided that it will probably be Chapter 8 or even 9 when the crap happens. :o
*Le gasp!* Sharptooth attack, RUN! Oh noes, more sharpteeth attacking!
Oh yeah, say hi to Bracken, guys. *picks random floral name off list* He's the fourth member. I thought it might be nice to not make EVERYONE a lone child here. :lol
So, I managed to finish Chapter 7... over 2500 words... in less than 24 hours. :blink: It will be an intense one... hopefully. I just don't know whether I should upload it on Sunday before I go to my grandparent's house, or on the Thursday when I come back. It's up to you guys, really. :)
For some reason, staying at my dad's really gets me writing loads. I'm not as lazy here as I am at my mum's. :lol
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Lovely chapter (gonna murder you if anyone dies), now can you upload stuff on DA too!?!?!?
*cough* anyway, since you have your laptop again, what about the request I made a while ago in PM?
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Yes, I will. Tomorrow. I keep neglecting poor DA. :(
Don't worry. People get injured, but nobody will die... yet. :lol
Sure, I'll PM you back about it. :)
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Don't worry. People get injured, but nobody will die... yet. :lol
My name is Sleepy, you killed my Dinosaurs, prepare to die! :anger
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I wouldn't mind to focus more on their childhood because they're truly awesome as kids :lol
Your dialogues seem so naturally flowing and you certainly know how to keep 'em guessin' :DD
Whatever you have in mind, consider that little kids might read this :blink: kidding :p
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Okie dokey. I'll take it as a good decision to extend it by about 5000 words then. :p
In that case, I'll put a warning. It does get a little graphic. :o And I originally thought giving Thunderfoot no parents was depressing enough.
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Well, I couldn't upload Chapter 7 on Sunday since I went to my grandparents' house then (I was expecting to go on Monday), and didn't have time, so here, have it now. Better late than never, right?
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Chapter 7: The Taste of Danger
The fast biters snarled at them, slowly approaching the group of small dinosaurs. Under normal circumstances, the fast biters would never dare to go further into the valley, since they were no match for the longneck herds that lived there, but now it seemed that a feast had come to them, and they were not about to lose it.
“Right,” Thunderfoot whispered, just loud enough for the others to hear. “When I say run, run as fast as you can into that forest again. We'll have to try and lose them.” Everyone else just nodded in understanding, not taking their eyes of the small yet deadly sharpteeth. “RUN!”
The longnecks darted into the thick forest, the fast biters in hot pursuit. They were not going to let their easy meal get away. Despite them losing sight of their prey every now and then, the keen sniffers of the fast biters didn't lead them astray, and they chased the children out into the open. The children kept screaming as loud as they could, hoping that someone would hear them. Fortunately, Tosa recognised the open space they were in.
“We're near my herd!” she yelled urgently to the others. “This way!”
There didn't seem to be any need to get to the herd, though, as two much larger figures came into view.
“Get to those two!” Thunderfoot ordered. Although Camara and Bracken weren't too familiar with the approaching longnecks, Tosa and Thunderfoot knew immediately who they were, and ran as fast as they could to get to them.
The fast biters seemed hesitant when they saw the adult longnecks, but they weren't wasting their energy for nothing, and shrugged off their doubts. They also sped up, trying to reach just one of the young ones before the adults got there.
One was so close to grabbing the smaller male, and jumped to pounce on him, only to be slapped back by a large grey tail.
“Kids, get out of here!” Sorrel shouted, not taking his eyes off the small predators. After hearing the screaming and snarling, more fast biters joined the group. All of them glared at Sorrel, but he didn't seem unnerved about the amount of them that were there. Patrice walked up next to him, glaring at the predators that had just threatened her daughter's life.
She was the first to attack after that, her tail going as fast as lightning as she aimed at a clutch of them together, and it worked. Two of the three of them were flung high into the air, with the other just barely managing to dodge. The other fast biters were furious, and many of them tried to pounce on Patrice in one go. She managed to evade them, counter-attacking by lifting herself onto her hind legs. Her mate used the distraction well, using his own tail as a merciless weapon as he sent more fast biters flying, and he even managed to kill a few. Another was crushed under Patrice's feet when her forelegs crashed into the ground again.
This still didn't discourage the remaining fast biters, who were now becoming even more daring. The longnecks were turned with their sides facing them so that they were able to use their tails to attack, but this also left them as a much bigger target. Some tried to jump on the two adults, but most of the time they were easily shaken off again.
What the longnecks didn't notice was that one of the younger ones had managed to sneak around them, and was now heading for the children. They all scattered, hoping that his choice would take long enough for them to lose him. However, the fast biter soon decided which one he wanted; the plumpest one. He looked at the two larger grey longnecks, and decided that the female was a little bigger than the male was, so he gave chase. Thunderfoot noticed and shouted to Tosa as a warning, while he tried to get closer to her. Tosa looked behind her. The fast biter behind her was indeed a fast one, and the fact that she was tired from the first escape didn't help.
It was a split second decision. The fast biter was indeed quite young, and on two legs Tosa would be a fair bit taller than him. She turned around and stood on her hind legs, in the hope that she would be able to pin him down. However, the small sharptooth was more daring than she thought, and grabbed her right foreleg, sinking his teeth into it.
Their daughter's piercing scream distracted Sorrel and Patrice, and in the second that they looked away, the fast biters managed to take advantage. Most of them went for Sorrel, as he seemed to be proving the stronger fighter over his mate. Several pounced on his side and back, digging their teeth and claws into his skin. One of them took hold of his hind leg, and another grabbed his tail.
His roar of pain was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire valley. Patrice screamed his name and tried to reach him, but even more fast biters appeared and drove her back. She managed to glance over to her daughter for a split second, and was horrified to see that the fast biter had brought her down. The only good thing was that she hadn't been killed yet. Her ongoing cries confirmed that.
Tosa hadn't been in so much pain in her life before. She had tried to stay up, but eventually the fast biter was stronger than her and brought her down to the ground. Her father had told her that when facing sharpteeth, she must never let them think she was afraid, but right now she couldn't hide it. She was terrified. The immense pain that shot up her leg as the predator bit down harder only caused her cry louder. She finally decided to look at her attacker in the eye, and was horrified when the fast biter gave her a twisted grin with his teeth still etched in her flesh. His mouth was covered in her blood, and soon the longneck had to break the gaze.
The one mistake that fast biter made was letting go.
As soon as he decided that his victim was ready to die, he let go of Tosa's leg and looked at her neck. However, before he could even lurch forward, another body crashed into him. Thunderfoot had pounced on top of him, pinning the carnivore to the ground. Camara and Bracken, having found an ounce of bravery, joined him, putting as much force on the fast biter as possible. He snarled at them in reply and tried to struggle, but it was proving useless. He was stuck there.
Sorrel tried to shake off the fast biters that had latched themselves onto him, but some of them were really stubborn and refused to let go. One of the fast biters on top of him had managed to rip out a large chunk of flesh from the longneck's back, and it was going for more. It was another quick decision. Sorrel knew full well that this was a risky move, but if he didn't want to get eaten alive, this was one of his only options.
He quickly shared a look with his wife, who knew just from the look on his face what he was planning to do. She yelled at him to stop, but she wouldn't be able to do anything. Sorrel let himself crash on the side the majority of fast biters were on, killing them instantly. The few that were on his back and other side were thrown off, and the ones that either hadn't attacked or where driving Patrice back were unstable on their feet from the violent shaking of the ground from the heavy impact.
Patrice herself was more stable on all fours and had to take advantage of the chance her mate had given her. She wiped out the distracted sharpteeth in front of her with one swipe of her tail. She looked over to Sorrel, but he was motionless and was stuck on the ground for now. She was on her own.
The remaining fast biters began to back off. They were too weak and no longer a match for the longneck. They were no longer willing to get whipped by her tail with a force strong enough to break their bones.
What they didn't know was that another danger was lurking behind the trees. The fast biter in the way didn't have time to react before a huge pair of jaws closed around it. Patrice cringed when she heard the sound of bones crushing. The belly dragger had reached the scene, still hungry and more than ready for a meal. A fast biter would do just fine for a small snack. What it feasted its eyes on next would be a much more rewarding meal. It headed towards the downed longneck as the fast biters fled, not wanting to lose anyone else. They had decided that getting a meal wasn't worth becoming one themselves.
Patrice was horrified. She had to protect her mate. She rushed forward, standing her ground in front of the collapsed longneck. What she didn't realise was that the belly dragger was desperate for a feast, and would try and get whatever came to it. The female longneck barely had time to react when it rushed forward and sank its teeth into her foreleg. She screamed, but still tried to free herself from its jaws.
“MOTHER!” Tosa screamed, watching in terror at her downed father and now stricken mother. The other children were still keeping the fast biter from going anywhere, though it was trying to struggle. Thunderfoot was the only other one who watched the fight, hoping for Tosa's sake that it would all end well. From the distance they were at, they couldn't see if Sorrel was still breathing or not, and that scared them both to no end.
She managed to press her other foreleg behind its skull, and it worked, causing it to let go. Patrice had a hard time standing on her stricken leg, and limped as far from it as possible, until she was right in front of her mate. She could feel the warmth of the blood dripping down from the wound, but she took no notice of it for now, only glaring at the giant belly dragger with an intense hate burning in her eyes.
Help came just when she needed it. Patrice lifted onto her hind legs again, just as the belly dragger went for her neck. If it went under her, she might just be able to crush and kill it. However, she knew that it wasn't the best of ideas; landing on her injured leg might cause it even more harm. If an adult longneck got a broken leg, it probably would not be getting back up again.
Fortunately for her, the belly dragger wasn't fooled into going under her, rather waiting until she was back on all fours.
The decision it made had probably just saved Patrice's life.
Instead of being crushed by just the one female, several other pairs of feet landed on it, killing it instantly. The rest of the herd had heard them and had come to her aid. Patrice gently landed on her front feet again, barely making the earth shake at all. She immediately limped over to check on Sorrel. Thankfully, he was breathing normally, but was knocked out, either by the fall or the loss of blood he suffered. The female looked over his body, seeing many still bleeding injuries that would leave some heavy scarring.
Forgetting about her own injury, Patrice immediately started tending to Sorrel. It was better to do what she could while he was still unconscious; no doubt he would be complaining a lot about her cleaning the tender wounds, but she didn't have much choice. If they became infected, they could kill him.
“Where's Tosa?” she asked one of the herd members who had come to check on her.
“Another member is tending to her,” the female answered. “She has a fairly nasty bite on her leg too, but she should be fine. The fast biter broke the skin and caused some heavy bleeding, but it's not deep enough to scar over. Thankfully the other children managed to pin that one down.”
“Thank goodness,” Patrice whispered.
“This could have ended up being a lot worse, Patrice,” the female said to her. “How's Sorrel doing?”
“He's a strong guy. I'm sure he'll be fine,” Patrice answered. “Could you go and get some treestars? I need to stop the bleeding...”
The female nodded and hurried off, getting the treestars as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, a male was tending to Tosa's wound. The fast biter had been taken care of, so the other children could finally settle down and see how Tosa was doing. She kept flinching and complaining whenever the injury was touched, but she knew the job had to be done. Thunderfoot huddled close to her as she kept crying.
“I could... I could have... lost them,” she said in between sobs. She had heard that her father was alive and would recover, and if it wasn't for his bravery, more lives probably would have been lost that day.
“But you didn't,” Thunderfoot assured her. He was relieved that Tosa's parents had both made it. In the time that he had lived in the valley and been friends with Tosa, he had connected with Patrice and Sorrel. They were almost like his adopted parents now.
The bodies of the dead fast biters and the belly dragger were moved away from the scene. They were taken to the outskirts; the remaining fast biters would get their meal, even if it wasn't what they truly wanted. Hopefully it would keep them at bay for a while.
Sorrel eventually woke up, and wasn't too happy when he found out that he had missed a fair amount of the battle. He was also disgruntled with the amount of injury he had sustained, but in the end he was just grateful that he and his family had survived. Tosa rushed over to him as soon as the other male had finished with her leg, and she and Patrice both huddled very close to him when he woke up again, as both were still fearing for his life. He decided that he couldn't get up for now; his side was aching far too much from the fall, and his leg was still very painful from the fast biter bite.
“Thunderfoot, I must thank you for taking on that fast biter. You saved my daughter's life,” he said when he noticed the other children. He turned to the other two. “And I owe you both my thanks as well.”
“No problem, sir,” Camara answered. Sorrel smiled at her and summoned a herd member he knew had joined him from Thunderfoot's herd.
“Take these two and Thunderfoot home, okay?” he asked.
“Can't I stay?” Thunderfoot pleaded.
Sorrel sighed. “I suppose you can,” he said. He turned to the other longneck. “Scratch that plan. Take these two home and tell Eldridge what has happened, okay?”
The longneck nodded, and after they had said their goodbyes, Camara and Bracken left with him.
Eldridge rushed to the other herd when he had heard what had happened.
“It's just a good thing you're all okay,” he said when the others had finished telling him the story.
“Speak for yourself,” Sorrel said grumpily, flinching and groaning when Patrice started cleaning the wounds on his side when he finally decided to roll over.
“I'll rephrase that.” Eldridge couldn't help but chuckle at the fuss Sorrel was making. “It's just a good thing you're all alive.”
“You'll have to excuse him,” said Patrice. “He can be a sissy girl sometimes.”
Sorrel put on his unamused face when everyone laughed at him. “Hey, how about some of you try and get some of your back bitten off? It's constant pain here!”
“Well, I thought you were very brave,” said Tosa, snuggling up next to her father while Thunderfoot had gone over to his grandfather.
“Well, it wouldn't do me any good if I lost you now, would it?” Sorrel nuzzled her gently, taking care not to touch her own injury.
Eldridge and Thunderfoot stayed with them that night as extra company. Sorrel was afraid that the females would break down after the terrifying day, but with their friends with them, supporting them, they had managed to even make light of the situation.
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Yes, I'm an amateur at fight scenes, so excuse the bad-ness of this one. I think this is actually the first battle scene I've ever written out. Eh, I'll have to get used to it with this fanfic, since there'll be more violence to come!
Anyway, thought I'd give Sorrel and Patrice a bit more of the spotlight, because I have grown to love these two, especially Sorrel.
Wait, if I love them so much now, why did I get them so injured again?! :crazy
Well, at least everybody is safe now. :)
*Is stuck in a BIG dilemma but can't say anything due to spoilers* :anger
I've just gotta make some changes to Chapter 8 and I'll upload that when I can, and then I really need to finish Chapter 9, but that one's really depressing me right now, and I'm kinda depressed enough already. :(
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*wails her ass off*
...
Personally I don't think the scene was bad, you know :p
also: *poke*
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There there, Sleepy. *pat pat*
I suppose it could be worse, for a first. But that's me; I always seem to make my stuff sound worse than it probably really is.
Poke received. :yes
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Hey! I don't get why you're that nit-picky, the chapter's great!
Hmm.. I'd like to say something better than 'that's nice' but nothing else comes to my mind...
Let's just say you succeeded writing that fight-scene imo. It's also the first time I read leafeater kids fighting kid-carnivores in a fic :D
No diseases, whew!
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Heh, well... you know me, always nit-picking. :p
Hooray for succession! Well, they couldn't just leave Tosa there in pain and about to get killed, could they now? :smile
Nope, thank goodness for that.
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I'm trying to do weekly updates here, and it's been over 10 days since my last update. This bloomin' chapter's been done for that length of time. Heck, I've even started on Chapter 10 in that time! :bang
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Chapter 8: The Dry Time
It took quite a few weeks for everyone to recover from the carnivore attack. Sorrel especially had a hard time. The pain that constantly shot up from the back injury for many days had caused loss of sleep, constant bad moods, and made him a longneck nobody really wanted to be around for a while. Despite this, Patrice, Tosa, Eldridge and Thunderfoot all stayed by his side in the recovery process. Both of the females stopped limping from their injuries after a while, though it took longer for Patrice to recover than it did for Tosa.
Ever since the battle, no fast biters were spotted anywhere closer than the outskirts. Neither sides wanted a repeat of that day, especially not the fast biters, considering the sheer loss they suffered.
Camara and Bracken, as well as their family, visited Tosa and Thunderfoot often, although it was a while before Tosa was ready to start playing games again. Although the two other longnecks didn't seem to notice, Thunderfoot knew full well that the battle had emotionally disturbed Tosa. On many occasions she would wake up screaming from a sleep scare she had, mostly about what could have happened.
However, she only told Thunderfoot this. He knew what it felt like to have actually lost his parents, and he supported her every step of the way. How he had gone from being the depressed one to being the counsellor, he'd never know, but his words helped Tosa to finally recover.
It was going into the dry time when it seemed that everyone in Tosa's family had completely recovered. Sorrel's injuries had left heavy scarring, as was expected, and Patrice's wound also left a mark, but Tosa was left without any scars. The fast biter was too young to penetrate too deeply. Eventually her bite marks scabbed over as new skin grew underneath. When the scabbing was gone, her leg looked like it hadn't been bitten in the first place. She was luckier than her parents in that respect.
The events of that day seemed to have changed Tosa dramatically. She had now become a lot more like Bracken. She was shyer, a lot less carefree than she was, she was always reluctant to leave her parents' side, and she blatantly refused to go out of sight of the herd. She also found herself wanting to spend a lot more time alone with Thunderfoot. How he had managed to get through his parent's death when she was traumatised at the mere thought of it... She felt like Thunderfoot must have thought she was pathetic.
In fact, he felt quite the opposite way. Thunderfoot fortunately didn't have to watch his parents die, and blocked out any thought of it as best as he could. Tosa had to watch the sheer pain her parents went through that day, and although it was a good thing that they were alive, he could fully understand why she was feeling the way she was. For many nights after the battle, Tosa couldn't sleep without him by her side, fearing the dreaded sleep stories.
Eventually, after a lot of support from both her friends and family, Tosa started to return to normal, though she was still uncomfortable with going off on adventures. Eldridge had decided to make the move to the herd permanent. Should the herds have to go their separate ways one day, he would rather be in this one, and Sorrel was more than happy to welcome him in.
The dry time had started, which changed the valley for the worse. It hadn't rained for weeks and the dinosaurs were beginning to notice that the water level was decreasing dramatically. Thankfully there were many watering holes throughout the valley to drink from, but if things carried on the way they were, they would all run out eventually. Sorrel had to gather his herd to tell them of the dangers that could strike them. Patrice and a few others gathered everyone to a meeting spot, and took their places. Patrice and Eldridge stood on either side of Sorrel – Eldridge's experience would come in handy, Sorrel knew that – while Tosa and Thunderfoot stood in between his front legs.
“Right, then,” he started when he was sure everyone had arrived. “As you all know, we are all currently stuck in the middle of quite a harsh dry time, and we don't know how long it's going to last. I'll warn you now; the watering holes here are not going to last forever. We need to be really careful with what we drink. From now on, in other to preserve the water, we must only drink what is needed to survive, and absolutely no more.”
“What about the children?”
“If they are thirsty, they may have a drink, as long as you make sure they don't over do it,” Sorrel answered. “And although I know everyone likes to do this, myself included, I'm afraid we can't have any baths for a while. The children will have to be cleaned by the adults, and us adults will just have to go without until we get some sky water.”
There was a murmur in the crowd, before someone decided to speak up again.
“What about the other herd?”
It was Eldridge who spoke up this time. “I'm sure they will have a council meeting about the same thing, and hopefully they will have the same idea. If not, then I'll go and see to them about it.”
“What if someone is sick and needs more water than the rest of us?”
“That is fine,” said Sorrel. “As I said, we must drink what we need to survive, and if someone needs more water to survive because they are ill, then so be it. But I want nobody pretending so that they can have more, understand?”
He spoke in an extremely serious tone, as he did when he was doing these meetings with his herd, so everybody nodded in agreement. They were warned of what could happen if they broke the rules, so nobody dared to go against Sorrel. He answered a few questioned that members of the herd asked him, and then he moved onto the other risks that the water shortage brought with it.
“Well, as you should know with the dry time, it's not just the water that dries out. Soon enough, the leaves will turn dry and brown rather than the sweet moist stuff we're used to. And if none of you have tasted dried out treestars before, be warned. They taste worse than the dirt in the ground.”
Tosa poked her tongue out in disgust when she heard this.
“And seeing as the dry treestars don't have as much good stuff in them,” Sorrel continued, “the children will have first priority to the greenest treestars that are found. They're still growing, after all.”
Most members of the herd nodded in agreement as some muttered to each other about what Sorrel had just said.
“Also, we'll have to be really careful on extremely hot days,” Sorrel warned. “If the valley's too dried out, then it will be easier for fires to start and spread. Everyone needs to make sure that they know the fire escape paths. However, if there's no fire, then the worst thing that'll happen will be that the water will run out entirely, in which case... we'll have to leave.”
The conversation carried on for quite some time, until everyone knew exactly what the plan was. The bright circle was beginning to set when everyone finally dispersed. Tosa and Thunderfoot went back to the resting place with their parents.
“Gee, I'm shattered,” Sorrel complained, immediately lying down for the night as soon as he reached his spot. “Leading a herd can sure tire you out.”
“But Father, you were only standing there and talking all day.” Tosa giggled as Sorrel collapsed on his side.
“How about you try doing it, then?” he said. He suddenly cringed in pain, shocking everyone. Despite that the part of Sorrel's back where the flesh had been torn out had healed as much as it could, it still sent sharp, shocking pains up his back, causing to male to completely stop and even collapse on the spot on some occasions. Eldridge and Patrice came to the conclusion that the fast biter had hit a sensitive spot, and although it would lessen over time, it could still be there for the rest of his life.
“Are you all right, dear?” Patrice asked when her mate finally relaxed again.
“Damn fast biters,” he replied.
Tosa hastily walked up to him and wrapped her forelegs around his face, rubbing her head against his. She always got worried when her father was in pain like this.
“Hey Tosa,” Sorrel said calmly. “I'm fine, really.”
“I think we should probably go to sleep,” Patrice finally suggested.
“That's actually not a bad idea... for once.” Sorrel chuckled as his mate glared at him and lightly whacked him with her tail.
By the time everyone settled down again, Tosa had perked up a little bit. She lay next to her father that night, and had peaceful sleep.
The next morning, the group of five wandered into a forest, looking for greener treestars. Many had already begun to turn brown and crisp due to the water shortage, and Sorrel was right. The kids hated the taste of them, as did the adults, but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make.
“There are some green ones,” Eldridge announced, spotting some still fairly green treestars on a few branches of an otherwise brown tree. He grabbed those few branches and dropped them in front of the children, who immediately tucked in.
“Thanks, Grandpa,” Thunderfoot said with a full mouth. Tosa watched as the adults tucked into the horrible brown treestars. Her father did pull the odd face but tried to hide it.
“Are you sure you don't want some?” she asked them. Patrice smiled sweetly at her daughter.
“Don't worry about us, Tosa,” she answered. “We all agreed that the children would get first priority on the greener treestars. Though soon enough there might not even be any of those left...”
“Yeah, the water level is getting lower every day,” said Sorrel. He tensed up as another pain shot up his back, but fortunately the children didn't notice this time. When he relaxed again, he carried on. “This place is hardly the lush haven we first found it to be.”
“Well, we've lived through a harsh dry time before,” said Patrice, gently rubbing her head against her mate's. He smiled at her, and the two shared a tender moment.
“Oh, cut it out!” Tosa complained when she noticed her parents having a moment. The two pulled away immediately, looking slightly awkward.
“Well, excuse us for being mates,” Sorrel said sarcastically. “Besides, I've seen what you with Thunderfoot sometimes, and personally I don't think it's much different.” He and Tosa had a playful bicker before they decided they had all had enough food for the time being.
Camara and Bracken came along to play for a while, and their day together was probably the most fun since the fast biter attack. Tosa had perked up and had even gone a little hyper, so she was probably the happiest of them all. She made the most of that day, little knowing that it would be her last truly happy day for a long time to come.
When the time came, she said goodbye to her friends, expecting to see them for many days to come, though that was not to be...
“Today was fun, huh?” Tosa asked happily as she walked alongside Thunderfoot.
“It sure was.” He chuckled. “You went crazy.”
“I suppose I did,” Tosa answered. “Must have been those treestars.”
“I doubt it,” said Thunderfoot. “I think you just had to let it all out in one go.”
“Your guess is probably better than mine,” Tosa admitted. “Hey, Thunderfoot?”
“Yes?”
“If our herds should ever leave this place... will you come with me?”
“Oh, Tosa... Of course I will!” The two young longnecks grinned at each other.
“That way, we'll always be together, right?”
“Right.”
That night, Thunderfoot curled himself around Tosa, instead of it being the other way around. While she felt quite positive about the future, he felt uneasy about something. He didn't often get bad feelings, but right now he just felt like something truly devastating was about to happen, and he would be right.
The family said their good-nights and fell asleep, none of them aware of the disaster that would strike the very next day.
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Tosa, you jinxed it. :p
I dunno why, but I'm really not all that happy with this one. I guess the reason it took so long for me to upload it was because I was a little reluctant. I suppose it just feels a bit... weak compared to Chapter 7, and it's in between two very action packed and emotional chapters I guess. So here, have the boring one while I revamp Chapter 9 a bit and you guys can cry a bit more when that's up. :lol
It's been decided; Chapter 9 will be the end of the childhood part of the story, and it is probably the shortest part. Yeah... Grandma and Grandpa's childhood together summed up in 21199 words. Yes, I got it counted, and yes, that also includes Chapter 9. :P:
You may have to wait a bit for that though. Y'know, revamping and stuff, and I've got a bunch of other things I want to do. *sigh* Another busy week...
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I agree that it's not as interesting as the previous chapter. However, that doesn't mean it's poor written ;) I think you did your best and the outcome is nice.
Plot-wise, I think it's always a good idea to tell the readers the aftermath of disasters like that Fastbiter attack :) It's quite good that you made Tosa distraught and that Sorrel still has some problems with his injuries.
Uhm... not sure if I missed something but are T & T I.N L.O.V.E ??? The way they sleep together is cute btw :wub Fanart? :p
So no. 9's the sad one that ends their young years... I'll hate it for what happens in it (I have a good guess what.. but shhhhhhh :angel) and probably love it because of its greatness nonetheless (I assume it'll be great ;) )
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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. :bang
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. :p
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: Disaster
Everyone 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!!!! :wow
What? I've made him a good-ish guy now. :DD
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... :lol
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. :p
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...
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Well, you told me on Skype that you don't like how this chapter is written but I, personally, can't agree with that.
You almost succeeded in making me cry at the end, and that doesn't happen very often... :wow
While you with no doubt cutted down the actual action you were more than successful with the emotional scenes. Tosa's pain felt so... real that I felt her pain, somewhat..
Of course Thunderfoot IS alive! Otherwise... he's not Grandpa and that would be weird :blink:
Too sad their childhood's over now :cry I was getting used to them being innocent kids.
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Wow, really? I guess I'm in one of those phases where I hate everything I do, and it's seriously gotten in the way of both my writing and my drawing. I had a pretty bad first day at school, with the bus skipping my stop, that huge blister on my foot, and other things that I won't go on about here.
Yeah. To be honest, I've found that there isn't really much action you can do with leafeaters like you can with sharpteeth, which is another reason why this story is so hard to write while keeping people interested, so I try more with emotional scenes than I do with action (and to be honest, emotional's easier for me, since these days it's a lot like how I feel. :p)
It would indeed.
Well, say goodbye to innocent Tosa, then. You're going to either hate her or feel really sorry for her in the next few chapters... if I ever decide to update again.
Speaking of which, I want to announce to any readers that this fanfic is going on a hiatus, unless something like school can motivate me to write again. I need to get out of this phase I'm going through and get up some more ideas, and I'll admit, I'm going through a slight depression episode right now, which is getting in the way of anything productive right now. I apologise for letting anyone down. :(
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It's probably the best decision you can make to take a break of writing. I think the quality will suffer of your depression if you continue the writing while being in a depressive state.
I love emotional scenes (and I finally learned that it is 'emotional', not 'emotial' :p)
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Just so you guys know, I'm not completely off the hiatus yet. This chapter was written before I announced before the hiatus, so it doesn't count. :p
I did do a little bit of writing, but I haven't really done enough to finish a whole chapter yet. I would've done, but I was playing on Simpsons Hit & Run... and I sorta became a teeny weeny bit obsessed with it. :lol
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Chapter 10: Some Cold Times Later...
The two lone longnecks walked on, trying to get through the forest. It offered them cover and food, sure, but now that they were almost fully grown, they could easily get stuck in thick growth, and if that happened when there was a bunch of sharpteeth around, they would be screwed.
They finally found a way out, and came across a small flowing stream that would quench their thirst. The longnecks were two males, one a bluish grey, the other a brownish grey. They had both left their home fairly recently, after deciding that they wanted to travel the land, telling the longneck stories.
The bluish grey longneck had originally left with his last living relative, telling those stories, but soon that old longneck had passed away peacefully, and for a while, the youngster was left to tell the stories on his own. That was, until he met Saro.
He looked over to his new friend who was standing next to him, taking a drink. He was ever so enthusiastic about learning all of the longneck stories. Good for him, the other longneck, who had managed to keep his childhood dream alive, thought.
The bluish grey male looked around. Besides the forest behind them, the area was desolate. Ahead of them, past the stream, was rocky ground with hardly any food growing on it. Thankfully the climate in this particular area wasn't too hot and dry, so they would hopefully come across more water and possibly some rock fuzz to keep them going.
The journey took them to a cave embedded in a high rock wall that no dinosaur would dare climb over. Unfortunately for the two longnecks, the only place they knew of that had plenty of food was on the other side, and nobody had told them of any entrances. Apparently, a longneck herd lived there, which was the reason for these two going in the first place.
They decided to rest within that cave for the night, luckily finding some green rock fuzz to sustain them for the time being.
One of the males was looking out while the other was trying to get an early night. The bright circle was setting, creating beautiful shades of deep orange and red in the sky. The world could be a beautiful yet deadly place. Some could live amazing lives while others could live devastating ones, and sometimes he wondered why.
He was so lost in thought that it took him a while to notice a lone longneck heading across the distance.
“Hey, Thunderfoot,” Saro said quietly, lightly tapping his friend's back to get his attention.
Thunderfoot just groaned in reply, before opening his eyes and glaring at Saro. Saro glanced at him briefly before he looked over to the other longneck in the distance, his eyes narrowed.
“Thinking about your grandpa again?” Saro guessed, all but getting a nod in reply. Unlike Thunderfoot, he had no idea what it was like to have a proper family, having been a child of the nesting grounds, and one of the lucky ones to make it to adulthood.
“He passed away peacefully, and I should be grateful that he lived to such a great age, but I do miss him greatly,” Thunderfoot replied.
Saro stood there in silence for a while. Sometimes he did feel quite jealous of Thunderfoot for having a family, but he knew about his past as well, and it wasn't always a particularly happy one. He had lost his parents, and his grandfather was the only one there to look after him since his childhood.
Then, there was Tosa. The miracle girl who made it all better. They were best friends for ages, until the fire struck. It was the day Thunderfoot chose family over friends, and while he didn't regret finding his grandfather and making sure he was safe, he still missed her dearly. He had never found another friend like her since. He was lucky; he was almost caught in the middle of the fire, until Camara's mother found him and took him out of the fire escape path to be reunited with his grandpa, who had made it out safely. However, they couldn't persuade the herd to go around to meet Sorrel's, so they had no choice but to keep going. Thunderfoot hadn't seen her since.
“I think you should take a look at this.” Saro finally spoke up, and Thunderfoot got himself up and walked to the other longneck's side.
At first his expression was confused, then his eyes narrowed, then his expression changed to one of realization, and finally, shock. Surely that wasn't him...
Saro watched Thunderfoot with faint amusement. He wasn't expecting that kind of reaction from him.
“Know him?” he finally asked when Thunderfoot's jaw dropped.
“That can't be possible... that's impossible...”
“You didn't answer the question.”
Thunderfoot shot another glare at Saro, who grinned at him in reply.
“I think I know him,” Thunderfoot said, narrowing his eyes. “But is it him?”
The longneck was a bluish grey, like Thunderfoot, but it seemed that his colours had dulled with age. There were scars on his back, where it seemed predators had ripped out his flesh. He was too far away to see many other details.
“Sorrel...” Thunderfoot whispered. “Could it be?”
“Who?” Saro questioned.
“Tosa's father,” Thunderfoot quickly explained. He soon shook his head. “It can't be. He wouldn't be alone.”
The longneck looked over at them, seeming to give them the same examination Thunderfoot had just given him, but he soon looked away and carried on walking towards the direction of the forest they had come out of earlier.
“Could've been the Lone Dinosaur,” Saro suddenly suggested.
“I doubt it,” Thunderfoot replied. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and get some sleep.”
“Yes, sir,” said Saro as Thunderfoot lay down again with a gentle thud.
Unknowingly to him, though, Thunderfoot wasn't actually thinking about sleeping just yet. What he had just seen still bothered him greatly, and he kept thinking about it. Indeed, he looked scarily similar to Sorrel, even having the same scars he remembered, but was there really any way that he would be alone? Surely he had a herd to lead, and if not, then surely he would have his family with him at least? There was a sense of dread in Thunderfoot's heart. Had something bad happened to Patrice and Tosa?
“If I see that longneck again tomorrow, I need to talk to him,” he suddenly blurted out.
“Are you crazy?” Saro questioned. “He's alone, covered with scars, and if I'm honest with you, he just freaks me out. Doesn't that seem a little bit... suspicious to you?”
“It does,” Thunderfoot replied calmly. “I need to ask him why he's alone, and see if I can get any information out of him.”
“You've gone treesweets,” said Saro, shaking his head.
“Have I now?”
“Look, we're here on a job,” Saro told him. “We'll find a way in, ask that herd if they know anything about that old longneck and if he turns out to be... that guy, then we'll go talk to him after, okay?”
Thunderfoot sighed. He wasn't willing to get into an argument with Saro right now, so he just agreed and settled down again for the night. He tried to shrug off the worry he was feeling, but failed. He had to find out what was going on, one way or another.
~
Meanwhile, on the other side of the rocky mountain, a young female was lying at her usual spot by a small pond, watching a child who was trying to amuse herself. She chased some flying bugs for a short while before finding a way to have fun using a treestar by putting it over her head and walking around blind.
She wasn't allowed out of the female's sight. She was the child of a monster, and everyone knew it. Many had tried to get rid of her, but it wasn't her fault. Linnaea couldn't help being born, and only two longnecks in the whole herd would bother caring for her, one of which was the young adult female lying by the pond.
Every now and then she would look at her reflection, and would see a tired, depressed face looking back at her. Life had been cruel to this longneck ever since that disaster many years ago. She wondered if her face now was like the one that old friend of hers wore all the time before they met.
There wasn't a day when she didn't think about him. She believed him to be dead, having not seen him for what felt like an eternity. He didn't keep his promise about meeting her afterwards...
Linnaea rushed over to her when the little one heard loud footsteps approaching. Both of them tensed up, the larger, grey female wrapping her tail around the tiny, brown hatchling protectively. When the warm, kind face of an older female emerged, they relaxed.
“You two need to learn to calm down,” she said, settling herself next to the grey longneck.
“Please tell me how I can do that when the whole herd is out for her?” the other female retaliated.
“No one's attacked her for ages,” said the older, green female. She was showing the first signs of old age; her skin colours were beginning to dull and deeper wrinkles were showing on her face. She looked at the youthful face of her daughter, whose eyes were still terrified. They didn't show happiness any more. That emotion hadn't presented itself in her for years now.
“That doesn't mean someone won't,” her daughter finally answered. Linnaea went back to playing with the treestar again, not listening to the conversation.
“I understand you're scared for her, Tosa...” Patrice started, but she struggled to carry on. In the end she lifted her tail and whacked it on the ground again before growling to herself in frustration. “This is a mess...”
“You can say that again,” Tosa said blankly.
The two lay in silence for a long time as they watched the bright circle sink behind the mountains that surrounded their home... even though a prison would be a better name for it. The only sounds they could hear was the child's laughter as she played and the crickets chirping in the bushes.
“If only your father was here...” Patrice whispered after the silence. Tosa said nothing, but instead rubbed her head against her mother's as both of them began to cry.
“If Father was with us, we wouldn't be here,” Tosa answered. “We would be out living happy lives like we should be... but we just had to get stuck here...”
Linnaea stopped playing when she saw the two adults together. It wasn't an uncommon sight for her, and she had already gotten used to it in her short life. It still made her feel sad when she saw them like this, though.
“We don't even know whether or not he's still alive,” Patrice said sadly. “But if he was sent out there in that wasteland on his own...”
“He probably didn't make it.” Tosa was quick to come to such conclusions these days. Her mother just sighed as she became more upset.
Linnaea slowly approached them, and snuggled against Tosa's foreleg for a few moments before looking up at her sadly. Tosa gave her a sad smile in return and gently nuzzled the child.
“Sorry,” she whispered. Linnaea kept gazing at her, not saying a word. She was always a timid girl, never saying very much at all. She just smiled at the adult, nothing coming out of her mouth.
Tosa wrapped her forelegs around Linnaea and cuddled the young one. She knew that she had to stay strong for the hatchling, but deep down, she could feel her spirit shattering. How much more she could take, she didn't know, but if she didn't get out soon, she would probably die.
“I heard there are story speakers arriving soon.” Patrice spoke up, trying to break the silence.
“Unless I can go with them, that doesn't really mean much to me. I won't be going to listen to that. I don't believe in such stuff any more,” Tosa answered bluntly.
“Linnaea might want to go,” Patrice said softly.
“She won't.”
“Why not?”
“Have you seen how even the other children treat her, Mother? There's a reason she stays with me all day, you know.”
“People are too quick to judge these days...” Patrice sighed in exasperation.
“I swear, they're like bunch of little Rye's,” said Tosa. “You know she can be clumsy sometimes. She accidentally bumped into one of them and now she refuses to play with them. She won't tell me exactly what happened.”
Linnaea was listening closely to the conversation. She still wouldn't tell Tosa what happened, and she wasn't sure if she ever would. Needless to say, she could make her own decisions, and she thought that story speakers arriving would be interesting. She could sneak away tomorrow if Tosa took a nap while Patrice was away. She didn't do it often, but it would be an adventure. The kid would just have to very careful...
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I swear my ideas are getting worse. Here we introduce Linnaea, and hopefully she's still a bit of a mystery right now. I'll elaborate on this now: Linnaea is in Tosa and Patrice's care. Don't be jumping to conclusions. :p
And Saro has finally been introduced. The reason why I didn't want him in the childhood is because I didn't really want him to actually know Tosa before now, so Thunderfoot could go on about how much she meant to him. That, and if I remember the flashback in that TV episode correctly, (during the song's line "Friends are made by saying hi!"), that scene showed Saro first turning up at one of Thunderfoot's speaking sessions as what looked like an adolescent, or that's what it looked like to me. The thing is, he's here now, but it seemed you guys weren't waiting on him too much, anyways.
So... it's not too much of an interesting chapter, like Chapter 8, but I gotta have an introductory chapter for adulthood, and this is what I came up with. As you can see, Thunderfoot's living his dream and his life's going quite swell. Tosa, on the other hand... well, it's going a bit crap (<--- understatement of the Mesozoic era :lol).
OMG SORREL'S BEEN CLONED!! I'm still going to leave it up to you's who you think that guy is, though I guess I ruined it with the second part of this chapter. :p
I think the chapters may start becoming a bit longer now, but that depends on the content of each chapter. 11, for example, has a bit more stuff going on, so we'll see.
If I can get my lazy fingers to type and do something productive other than playing video games, then Chapter 11 should be finished fairly soon. I really should stop playing the games anyway: they make me turn into a huge green rage monster. :lol
I need to start using better words. Thesaurus, help me out next time. I just realised it's a very handy tool. :p
Anyways, hope you enjoy! It'll get better (I hope) in later chapters.
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Finally had the time to catch back up.
It best to not write when depressed..I do and look what happens
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Great story Rammy,I know I haven't commented before but I been following this from the start,sorry that your a bit depressed,but thats teen life for you-it sucks.
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^^
I do recall you commenting on the first chapter. :lol
Yeah... teen years and depression both suck big time, but I got through it. I managed to finish Chapter 11 last night (when I was supposed to be doing homework :p), and it's at least 50% longer than the average of the other chapters, so... make sure you have a little bit more time to read. :o
I'll see how I feel and if I'm happy I'll upload it later this week. Some really shocking stuff happens, but I won't spoil anything else. :P:
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Nice one, Molly! :)
I like how you described how both Thunderfoot's and Tosa's lives had been since they had been separated from each other. I haven't seen the ep with Saro in it yet but from what I've just read he seems alright :yes. Who else would this mysterious Longneck be but Sorrel? :p I wouldn't mind being surprised though :lol
So Sorrel's gone and the herd Tosa and Patrice are in seems to be a terrible one. Linnaea (who is not Tosa's child, right?) seems like a little cutie and adventurer, but for whatever reasons (we'll probably see in the next chp) Linnaea's treated badly by the herd. She doesn't seem to bother though :lol:
Like I said before, not every chapter's as good and exiting as others but that's only natural. Your upper quality chapters ARE pretty well-written so not so exiting ones are still good and enjoyable :yes
Besides, you should look at the whole thing instead of single chapters :)
Looking forward to the next one (but take your time to upload it if you need some :yes)!
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I haven't seen the ep with Saro in it yet but from what I've just read he seems alright :yes.
Saro's a whiny little tantrum toddler in the TV episode. I've given him a different personality here though, just to make him a little more likable. He's a bit of a goofball. :lol
(who is not Tosa's child, right?)
Of course she isn't! Tosa's still a bit too young to be having her own kids yet.
but for whatever reasons (we'll probably see in the next chp) Linnaea's treated badly by the herd.
It's to do with her parentage... and the fact that everyone in the herd's just naturally against what she's 'destined' to do. :nyah
You'll see more about it next chapter. Actually, I'll probably upload that within the next few days. :DD I'm in a happy chappy mood.
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Right-o. Next chapter, since I've already started the 13th one now and I have absolutely nothing else to do with my life right now. No, really. I'm just sat here at my dad's... not being talked to. Thanks again, stepmother! Love you too! :rolleyes
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Chapter 11: Shockers and Storytellers
Thunderfoot awoke early that morning to the sound of water dripping from the top of the cave they were sleeping in and Saro's loud snoring. He looked out of the entrance, but saw no sign of the longneck that he had seen the day before. He had probably taken cover for the night and would probably still be there now.
Saro soon woke up and joined his side again.
“Shall we go?” he suggested, obviously not willing to see to that longneck like Thunderfoot was.
“Sure.” Thunderfoot didn't move for a few moments, though, as he still looked over the horizon, trying to spot that longneck.
“Well, come on then!” Saro gently pushed his friend to get him moving.
The two carried on walking alongside the rocky mountain, trying to find a way in. They didn't talk too much on the way, mostly because Thunderfoot was still thinking about what he had seen the previous day.
“Um... Thunderfoot?”
“Yes, Saro?”
“How about this tunnel?” Saro was behind Thunderfoot, and next to him was a large tunnel that Thunderfoot had just walked straight past.
“Oh... right...”
“What would you do without me, huh?” Saro asked, playfully hitting Thunderfoot's head with his tail.
“I suppose I wasn't really paying attention,” Thunderfoot answered. “We could have a look and see if it leads to a way in.”
The tunnel was a squeeze in some areas, and would've been impossible for Thunderfoot and Saro if they were fully grown, which fortunately, they weren't just yet.
When they finally got out, the atmosphere was... eerie. It was as silent as it was in the wasteland on the other side, and they were looking out over a huge open field. Not a single creature was there.
Suddenly, Thunderfoot heard a noise behind him, and was confused to see Saro pushing a huge boulder over the tunnel exit.
“What are you doing?”
“I have a bad feeling...” Saro grunted as he used the side of his body to push the rock that was almost as big as him. “I could use some help.”
Thunderfoot didn't object; he decided that he would question Saro further once the job was done. It didn't take too long before that could happen.
“Care to tell me why you're acting so weird?”
“I'm trusting my instincts, Thunderfoot,” Saro replied as he eyed the lifeless area. “I've done so my whole life and they've never failed me, and right now they're telling me to seal off that entrance.”
Thunderfoot just rolled his eyes as if he was mad, and started to walk further into this strange place.
“The herd's probably just on the other side,” he said calmly. “Come on.”
He hadn't seen Saro so nervous before, and he could feel the unnerving atmosphere himself, but he tried to shrug it off as much as he could. Along the way, there were no dinosaurs at all, and there was a strange silence in a place that should be buzzing with life, however small that life would be.
“I don't like this,” Saro said eventually. “Not one bit.”
Thunderfoot chose to ignore his comment. He was coming out with a lot of similar ones since they had gotten in.
“Well, well... it seems our story speakers are here.”
Both of the young males quickly turned towards where the voice had come from, and Thunderfoot was especially surprised by the face that greeted him. He would have been a fool not to recognise him...
It appeared like said longneck was thinking the same thing. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he inspected the bluish-grey longneck. “It's Thunderfoot, if I'm not mistaken?”
“Rye,” Thunderfoot answered quietly. “It's been a while.”
Rye smiled warmly at him, surprising the younger longneck. “It sure has been. Back then, I was a silly little kid who liked to bully... certain others. Looks like you survived that fire that struck our old home, then?”
“Just about,” Thunderfoot replied. “How come you didn't come out of the fire escape path by our herd? I thought you were dead.”
“My father and I were at a different part of the valley at the time,” Rye explained. “We got out a different way, and-”
“Did you join Tosa's herd?” Thunderfoot asked hopefully. Rye swallowed hard, and took a few moments to think of an answer.
“For a short while, yes,” he answered.
“Did she think I was dead?”
“Yes. She was... quite devastated,” Rye answered, a false sadness in his voice which Saro detected immediately. “But I'm sure she moved on.”
Thunderfoot stood in silence for a few moments, biting his bottom lip as he thought of another question. “Do you know where she is now?”
“No.” Rye's answer was quick and sharp. Thunderfoot decided not to ask anything else for the time being, so the older, brown longneck spoke up again. “The children are waiting for you both in a clearing. You'll find it if you head that way.” He gestured towards a gap in the trees.
“Oh. Well, the adults are welcome to join us, too,” said Saro, feeling even more nervous around the larger longneck.
“Yes,” Rye answered, seemingly uninterested. “Unfortunately, most of us adults are busy. You'll have to excuse me; I have to gather the council.”
“O-okay,” Thunderfoot answered. Rye gave him a nod and a smile, before turning tail and heading away.
Saro frowned. “That was Rye?” he asked apprehensively. Of course, he had heard all about the little brat from Thunderfoot.
“Indeed. Seems he's... changed.” Thunderfoot was looking at the area where Rye had disappeared into suspiciously. “Less bratty, at least.” A thought suddenly struck him. “He also didn't apologise for his behaviour in our childhood.”
“Were you expecting him to?” Saro questioned, raising an eyebrow at his friend.
Thunderfoot sighed in exasperation. “I suppose not,” he admitted, before continuing on towards the gap Rye had directed him to. “Come on.”
Saro reluctantly followed. This place was giving him the creeps, and he wanted to get out as soon as possible. Thunderfoot, too, was feeling tense, but tried his best to not show it at all. It wasn't long before they could hear the chattering of young voices, and soon the two larger longnecks found themselves in the clearing amongst the youngsters.
Time to start telling stories.
~
Meanwhile, Rye had gathered his council, but none of them were longnecks. Instead, fast biters, both large and small, had crowded around his huge body. Among them, was a particularly small, scrawny, yet useful carnivore. His name was Alvarez, and because of his small size and limited threat, he had lived among the leaf eaters, and had picked up the language. He was a fairly new addition to the group, and Rye had ordered respect to him, since beforehand many of the larger biters would pick on him. He was a good translator; by far the best among all carnivores in that crater, in fact.
Rye had formed an alliance with these fast biters since he had taken over the herd, mostly to keep an eye on other herd members and prevent anyone from escaping. However, there were some translating errors at first, which almost proved disastrous. That was, until Alvarez came along. He could speak both the leaf-eater language and Sharptooth fluently, and proved to be a handy translator for Rye. In exchange for his usefulness, Rye offered the small sharptooth sanctuary in 'his crater'.
It was a fair enough exchange, and Rye trusted Alvarez completely. However, he couldn't have ever known whose side he was truly on...
He had explained his encounter with Thunderfoot and Saro. “Whatever you do,” he muttered to the small sharptooth, “don't let him know she's here! I won't have him try to get her to go with him!”
“Yes, sir,” Alvarez said, before translating to the others in a high-pitched roar, in contrast to his deep leaf-eater speaking voice. They all nodded in agreement and scattered back to the places by the entrances and exits of the crater. All had ignored the cave. They knew the main person who tried to escape would not leave without their entire family, and at least one member was too big too fit through that way.
~
Good, she's asleep.
Patrice had gone out to do her usual daily business, and Tosa was having her usual nap, after yet another bad night's sleep. Linnaea saw her chance. She very quietly tip-toed towards the thick foliage, where she knew she would be protected from the larger beings. She instantaneously stood still when she heard a yawn coming from behind her, but luckily, the larger female had not woken up just yet.
She scattered into the bushes, feeling a tingle of excitement. She hadn't felt so rebellious in her life! Linnaea had not wandered off many times on her own, but being the curious hatchling she was, she felt like she had to have the odd adventure, even if it made her two guardians worried sick. Seriously: Tosa had actually made herself weak and disorientated because she was so worried when Linnaea ran off the first time.
“And where might you be off to?” Linnaea's excitement soon turned to sheer dread. If it wasn't a voice she knew well, it probably belonged to something dangerous. She stopped dead in her tracks, but didn't dare look in the direction the voice had come from.
Alvarez calmly walked towards her. “So, you must be Linnaea. Am I correct?” He noticed the young longneck shaking as she watched him, her eyes full of terror. She only nodded in reply.
Alvarez ran one of his clawed fingers down her spine, feeling the young scales. It only alarmed the longneck even more, but she was so petrified, she couldn't move. “I can see the resemblance with your father very much. Your mother, on the other hand... I can't say you look very much like her, besides the eye colour.”
Linnaea finally found the courage to speak up. “I-I don't h-have a f-f-father...” she whispered.
“Yes you do,” Alvarez said with a low growl in his voice that was almost covered by the leaf-eater sounds he was making. He circled her, keeping a keen eye on the instinctively frightened being. “You may not have been told it, but you do.”
Linnaea said nothing to his. Whenever she had asked about a father – either to Tosa or Patrice – she would get the answer that she didn't have one. Did that mean they had been lying to her?
“One day, he will take you away from those longnecks you currently live with,” Alvarez explained, now looking at the longneck's feet. The bottom quarter of her legs, including her feet, were lighter than her main body colour. Instead, they were the same colour as the young one's light brown underbelly. Tosa must have hated living with the hatchling when she was the image of her father.
“N-no...” Linnaea stammered. “I like living with them... they keep me safe.”
“They may not be able to keep you safe forever,” Alvarez warned, a ferocity in his voice. He did not want the hatchling to forget any of his words, and scaring them into her head was one of the best ways he knew how to do it.
“Yes, they will,” Linnaea said quietly, still shivering from this first encounter with a talking sharptooth.
“They won't. One day, he will come for you, and he'll do the same to you what his father did to him...”
“Which was what?”
“That, I am forbidden to say.” Alvarez sighed. He still kept a very keen eye on the longneck, who gulped as she stared at him.
“Who is he?” Linnaea asked.
Alvarez grimaced. He knew she would tell Tosa the second she found out, which would prove disastrous.
“I can't say, child. All I can say is that he'll turn you into the monster you are destined to be.”
Fear suddenly turned to anger. Linnaea's toes dug into the ground in frustration. She hated that word. She HATED it!
Alvarez yelped in surprise when two front feet pinned him down. He was even more shocked when he heard the young snarls coming from the longneck child. She was furious. Perhaps he had gone a little too far with his words...
“Don't you dare call me that...” she growled, putting more pressure onto the sharptooth's chest and neck, starving him of air.
To her anger, the fast biter just gave her a twisted grin, despite that he was going to die if she carried on with what she was doing, even though she didn't realise it.
“You carry on, missy, and others will definitely see your father in you,” he managed to choke out before he completely ran out of air.
What was she doing? Linnaea looked into the fast biter's eyes, and saw that although he was still patronizing her, he was terrified of what she was doing. She immediately backed off, releasing the sharptooth and allowing him to breathe again. He coughed and spluttered for a while, but it took longer for him to actually get back up.
Linnaea stared at him, wide-eyed. She was trembling now, her anger turning back into dread, but this time it wasn't because of the carnivore standing in front of her, who was now equally as scared. She was terrified of herself. She was unaware of what she was capable of. How could have done that? Why would she have done that? Was she just about to kill another dinosaur?
It felt like an eternity. The carnivore and the herbivore... staring at each other, both trembling from the experience.
“I-Is that what he's like?” Linnaea finally blurted out. “Does he do stuff like that?”
“And worse,” Alvarez answered. “He would actually go through with it.”
“I... I... I'm sorry,” she whispered, tears falling down her face. “I didn't mean to...”
“Maybe I was wrong about you.” Alvarez approached, pondering over the situation. “You managed to stop yourself. You certainly have the self-control your mother must have possessed. I suppose that although you may not seem much like her on the outside, you definitely have her kind heart on the inside. Thank you, Linnaea, for sparing me.”
Linnaea said nothing, surprised by this sudden change of attitude. She watched the fast biter's face soften and become more friendly, which only confused her further. He gently placed a claw on her head and stroked her, and she started to become edgy again.
Alvarez suddenly stiffened and sniffed the air. There were other fast biters nearby.
“Okay, I'll do an exchange,” he said, suddenly turning to the hatchling. “Follow me, and hurry!”
She wasn't sure whether to trust him, but he seemed agitated by something, and deep down, Linnaea could sense other danger nearby. She ran after him for a good few minutes, and was well out of breath by the time they stopped.
“Go through there,” Alvarez instructed, pointing a claw through a gap where Linnaea could hear voices. “There's a group of kids and two newcomers there. They're telling stories and I'm sure they'll offer you help if you ask them nicely.”
He didn't notice her flinch when he told her about the other kids, and just gave her a gentle push as she seemed hesitant to go through.
“Oh, and one more thing,” he said quietly. “Don't mention this meeting to anybody, okay? I won't tell anyone, either.”
“Okay,” Linnaea answered. “Thank you.”
“Hold on. Final thing.” Alvarez wished he didn't have the ability to remember important stuff at the last second. “You and your family are going to get out of here. I promise.”
Linnaea didn't respond to this. She just gave him a quick nod and headed into the clearing, trying to make sure everyone else was oblivious to her presence. She kept to the low-lying bushes, and luckily everyone else's attention was drawn to the two older longnecks, one of which was talking in a loud, clear voice. It seemed to be a voice full of power and emotion. A voice that could draw anybody's attention.
Linnaea looked at the male with awe as he told the story. It was the story of the Lone Dinosaur, who had rid a paradise called the Great Valley of the biggest, meanest, sharptooth ever.
All of the children cheered at the end, and Linnaea couldn't help herself.
She wished she hadn't done that. All of the kids she knew hated her now knew she was there, and the stares and glares made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
“Well, hello there,” came a friendly voice. Linnaea gazed up at the largest longneck there; the bluish-grey male who had been telling the story. “Where did you come from?”
“Er...” She wasn't used to talking to strangers, and curiously enough, she had felt less terrified around the sharptooth than the male longneck.
Saro raised an eyebrow as he watched the other kids' behaviour. It looked like they despised the brown hatchling. He whispered his doubts into Thunderfoot's ear, and he could tell his friend had listened, as he was now thinking intently as he watched the young girl slowly back off.
“Care to join us, kid?” Saro asked with a friendly smile on his face. “You can sit with us if you feel a bit shy.”
Linnaea just nodded, and cautiously walked towards the adults.
She found herself lying by Thunderfoot's foreleg as he told more stories. She hardly listened to any of them, as she kept thinking of what Alvarez had told her. She had almost killed him, and that, according to him, is something her father would do. Then she also thought about the last thing he had said about getting her out of this place. Was that even possible? What was the outside world like? Was it paradise, or was it worse than this?
I'm sure they'll offer you help if you ask them nicely.
Wait, that was it! Linnaea could ask these storytellers to help her, Tosa and Patrice escape! She closed her eyes and smiled to herself as she imagined life away from the place she currently resided in. Perhaps she would make new friends. Perhaps there would be somebody out there besides her carers who would actually like her!
“What are you thinking about, weirdo?”
Linnaea's eyes snapped open as she was drawn back into the real world. She saw a few angry looking faces glaring at her.
“Nothing,” she answered quietly.
“All right, children,” said Thunderfoot. He turned to Linnaea. “What was your name again, little one?”
“That's Linnaea,” one of the children answered for her. “But Monster's probably a better name for her.”
Suddenly, the calm story session became chaotic. The other children instantly turned on Linnaea, calling her that name over and over again, until finally, she could take it any more.
“Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!” she cried. She buried her head into Thunderfoot's side and bawled, which horrified the older longnecks.
“Uh... okay. Story time's over, kids. Go back to your parents,” Saro said sternly, but they hardly budged.
Then things got even stranger when a fast biter emerged from the bushes.
“I'll add an ending onto the story of yours,” he said. “A hungry fast biter then came along and ate all of the pesky little kids.” He let out a roar which sent the children running for their lives.
Alvarez looked behind him to Linnaea, who was heavily sobbing. She looked at him for a few moments before he broke the gaze and calmly walked off.
“That was... strange,” Saro commented. Thunderfoot barely acknowledged what he said, as he was trying to comfort the crying hatchling, but it was proving to be useless.
“Why...? Why does... everyone... hate me...?” she said in between sobs.
“Hush. I don't hate you,” Thunderfoot said calmly.
“Everyone else does, though,” Linnaea answered. “Especially those other kids. They did this to me when I accidentally bumped into one of them.”
Saro and Thunderfoot gasped in horror when Linnaea turned onto her back, revealing a few scars on her stomach.
“I told them that I tripped over by mistake,” Linnaea said, but now the two males didn't know who she was talking about. “But I didn't... they got a sharp rock and tried to... tried to...”
She let out a scream and buried her head into Thunderfoot's leg.
“I told you something was wrong here!” Saro yelled over the child's screams. “Why would those kids do such a thing?!”
Thunderfoot didn't answer as he desperately tried to calm Linnaea down.
“Linnaea! What's going on?!” came a voice. The ageing female rushed forward and pulled Linnaea towards her, before turning angrily to Thunderfoot.
“You!” she snarled. “What in the name of all the great and good do you think you were-”
She cut herself off as she closely inspected the longneck in front of her. Both pairs of eyes widened as the realisation came to them.
For a few moments, the only sound was the continuing sobs coming from Linnaea as she cuddled up against the female. The two longnecks stared at each other in disbelief.
“Patrice?”
“...Thunderfoot...”
----------
Dun, dun, DUUUUUUNN!
I'm sure you all know what at least part of the next chapter is going to be. Cue bittersweet music, anyone? :smile
Oh, and if I didn't make it clear in the chapter, Linnaea didn't know she was suffocating Alvarez, otherwise she wouldn't have done it. She's not a psycho; it was just a simple mistake. That and she hates that particular word, as you can probably tell from her reaction from both times she was called it. :o
Alvarez is a bit strange, huh? You'll soon see the real reason why he's actually there. I won't spoil anything yet, though.
The kids in this herd are completely demented! Gawd guys, she's just a kid! Then again, they had been influenced by the rest of the herd. Good job Thunderfoot and Saro were there to stop it this time... along with Alvarez.
See Tosa? Don't fall asleep if you think that kid's going to wander off. Then again, she didn't know, and she seemed to be flippin' tired! Okay, I blame Patrice. :p
Uh, dunno what else to say unless it's self-criticism, which I won't be doing. I've already started on Chapter 13 since I'm on a roll this week. :P: I'll try to remember to upload that over the next week if I can. :yes
Other than that, enjoy this... unusually large chapter. For me, anyway. :lol
Oh, and slight warning. Be prepared for a LOT of dialogue in the next couple of chapters. They explain everything.
-
Great as always Rammykins :D.
Since Nahla gone on her horse thingy I'm taking her place for the week wahaha (Well she left me behind).
Poor Linnaea,she reminds me of Nahla with how she being called monster. It sad the other kids tired to kill her :cry :cry :cry :cry.
-
Long chapter so long review :smile
There are quite some similarities to other fics, I noticed, mainly to HDYSL from Nahla :DD First there's be Rye who has a pack of Fastbiters (like Hades) and he seems to be the leader plus he's an a** as it seems. Second there is Linnaea (love her name) who is hated by almost everyone (like Nahla) and being called a monster (how mean :anger ). Besides, she's being bullied like Thunderfoot in his childhood.
I particularly like the talk and the fight between our sweet Longneck Girl and Alvarez (though you spelled him Alverez sometimes :P:). I knew what was going to happen since you spoiled it :lol but what happened after the fight really surprised me in a good way. This guy's willing to help Linnaea, eh what? :wow I like the fact you created him with the ability to speak Leafeater.
Thunderfoot did a good job encouraging Linnaea to stay but those darn kids bullied her in a disgusting way... I feel so sorry for her, plus some lines make me believe you based Linnaea a little bit on yourself (Greetings to SRFG's step-mum :wave).
But what happened then sent me smiling widely :smile
Oh... gotta love these next few chapters :D Keep writing!
-
@Zimmy: Thanks! I know. I must have been in a fairly dark mood when I wrote this. I'm just noticing myself how much this part of the story is like Nahla's HDISL... besides the fact that Linnaea doesn't end up with a childhood sweetheart and *Geez spoilers*.
@Ducky123: Yeah. Rye is quite a bit like Hades, especially with something he's done to *flippin' spoiler*. He just uses to pack to mostly guard the exits and they usually stay clear of the herd since they're all... quite huge. :p
Indeed. Linnaea does seem to go through torture sometimes with those damn kids, but I'm sure her future will be brighter. :DD
I've fixed those spelling mistakes. Thank you for pointing them out. I'd had them all spelt as Avlerez before I found out that it was actually Alvarez(saurus), so I'm not surprised I missed a few changes out. That guy is a going to be a mystery for a while, but you'll eventually find out what the crack is with him. I thought it would be nice to add a few more sharptooth characters to make the story more interesting. It would be a bit hard for them to communicate if he didn't speak leaf-eater now, wouldn't it? :P:
Well, Linnaea isn't really based on me. I know my stepmother hates me and ignores me... okay, that is what the herd does a lot to Linnaea. :o It was unintentional though!
As I said, be prepared for a lot of explaining...
-
Me back again. Sorry it took over a week, but I had a bit of an 'off' phase for writing in the middle of the week, and I really had to make some changes to some parts.
----------
Chapter 12: Reunions and Revelations
Saro was beginning to think that this was a staring competition. Thunderfoot and Patrice just stared at each, wide-eyed, with their mouths hanging wide open.
“You two carry on, and you'll both get a bunch of buzzers on those tongues of yours,” he finally said.
Thunderfoot finally gazed at him, looking utterly shocked. Patrice also looked over to him, only now realising that the other young male was there. Linnaea finally calmed down, and was now looking from one longneck to another in confusion. How did these two even know each other?
“The filthy liar...” Thunderfoot muttered in frustration.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Rye,” he explained. “He told me you and Tosa weren't here.”
Patrice rolled her eyes and tutted. “Yes, well he would say that,” she said in a sarcastic tone. She carefully picked up Linnaea and placed the young one on her back. The ageing female then gestured for the two males to follow her through some thin foliage.
“Now, my head if buzzing with questions,” she started,” but number one is this: what in the heck are you still doing walking around the world? We all thought you had gotten yourself killed in that fire years ago!”
“Lucky break,” Thunderfoot answered. “Unfortunately we couldn't go back to your herd. We weren't too sure if you would wait.”
“Oh, we waited for a while,” said Patrice. “If only for Tosa's sake, but it may not have been time enough for you and your grandfather to get back to us, anyway. It was probably a good decision to stay in that herd.”
Thunderfoot frowned at this. “I suppose that was the day I had to choose my last living relative over my best friend. Looks like the consequences weren't... too... great...”
“Well, you look like you're doing quite well. Going around places, telling those stories. Sounds like a dream we can't live, Tosa and I.”
Thunderfoot was surprised by the last few words. Was Sorrel not with them? If that was the case, it would definitely explain the Sorrel look-alike hanging around outside the crater. He took a deep breath and mustered up his courage before he asked the next question.
“What do you mean, just you and Tosa?”
Patrice bit her lip as the painful memories came back to her. “He... he gave up his role as the leader of this herd. Rye seemed to have become quite a well brought-up and polite longneck, and seemed like a good choice, but he was hiding his true colours.”
She walked on for a fairly long time before carrying on.
“Sorrel was the only barrier between Rye and Tosa and after he learned about what Rye's real plans were, he fought for his position back. Unfortunately, he took things so far that... Rye banished him to the outside. We haven't heard a word of him since... He... he's probably...”
Patrice refused to carry on, and just shook her head. “Sorry.”
“You needn't apologise to me,” said Thunderfoot. “It sounds like you've had it real rough since Rye took over...”
“You haven't heard the start of it yet.” Patrice sighed and kicked a rock in agitation. “Rye's taken things to a whole new level of deranged, and we're the ones paying for it.”
Thunderfoot and Saro kept silent, unsure of what to say to her.
“We should be reaching Tosa soon,” Patrice said after a few moments of the awkward silence. “I think I know how she's going to be feeling...”
“Extremely worried?” Linnaea suggested, still looking upset from the earlier events.
“No thanks to you,” Patrice said with a smile. Linnaea just gave her an innocent looking grin in reply.
“Sorry.”
“I should tell you to not do it again, but you never listen, therefore I won't bother,” said Patrice, rolling her eyes sarcastically.
“I won't this time...” Linnaea said quietly, looking down as tears formed in her eyes again. “Promise... I'll never sneak off again...”
Patrice looked to Thunderfoot questionably, but he just said that he would explain later, when Linnaea was out of earshot.
He couldn't wait to see her again, but Thunderfoot felt like this walk was taking an eternity, and during it, he became more nervous. It seemed like the circle of life hadn't been very kind to Tosa and her family for the past few years. Also, what was the story with Linnaea? Why did everyone hate her? Why was she even living with Patrice and Tosa? How come it seemed that the world was trying to get rid of her like she was some sort of abomination? Just where had she come from?
The forest litter crunched with every step they took, along with the shaking that came with their massive weight. Finally, they came to a gap which led to a clearing with a small watering hole located within it.
Patrice went through first, but Thunderfoot and Saro stayed behind for a few moments. They exchanged looks of worry and anxiousness. So this would be it... Tosa's and Thunderfoot's reunion at last...
They soon heard a younger, more panicked voice.
“I thought I'd already told you about wandering off!” Tosa cried as she nuzzled the young one. “You'll end up being the death of me if you carry on!”
Linnaea said nothing as she cuddled her face. Thunderfoot watched sadly from behind the trees. Tosa looked nothing short of awful. She looked older than she was, she seemed immensely tired and stressed out, and just didn't seem like the happy, carefree longneck Thunderfoot had known her to be.
He gradually and quietly stepped through the gap in the trees, and waited patiently. Tosa had her back turned to him as she gently scolded Linnaea. Patrice looked up at him and just gave him the nod of approval to come forward.
“She was with those story speakers,” Patrice explained. “I told you she might have wanted to go.”
“Where are they now?” Tosa asked.
“Well, let's just say that one of them has been waiting to see you for a long time now,” Patrice said. She nudged her head in Thunderfoot's direction when Tosa gave her a confused look.
She nearly screamed in surprise when she saw that face. She had to look him up and down a few times before she could actually believe that this was who she knew it was.
“Hello, Tosa.”
She collapsed to her knees, her head feeling dizzy after seeing him. Thunderfoot rushed forward in panic.
“Are you all right?” he asked worriedly. She just looked into those reddish-brown eyes of his, still as warm and friendly-looking as ever. Tosa had not seen that look of kindness in anyone's eyes – besides her parents' – since Rye had taken over the herd and that... horrific event happened...
“I... I mean, you... you're...” She was unable to find the right words to say, and felt like she was just spluttering out gibberish.
Thunderfoot just gave her a warm smile in reply. “It's good to see you again,” he whispered. “But... this isn't quite what I was expecting.”
Still, the female said nothing, even as Saro emerged and joined Thunderfoot's side. He was taken aback when she suddenly started crying, though thankfully it didn't get to the extremes that Linnaea had gone to.
He looked over to Patrice and the hatchling, the looks on their faces telling him that this was quite common.
“Can I talk to you alone?” he finally asked. She just nodded in reply, and Patrice picked up Linnaea and prepared to leave.
“Uh... Saro?”
“Yes?”
“Private business. Get lost,” said Thunderfoot.
“Charming one, you are,” Saro commented. “And where is it I should be getting lost?”
“Here's a clever suggestion: how about you go with Patrice and get to know each other?” He turned to Patrice. “If that's okay with you, of course.”
“Oh, sure,” Patrice answered, and so Saro joined her and left Tosa and Thunderfoot in peace.
Instead of demanding answers out of her right away, Thunderfoot waited patiently for Tosa to calm down before saying anything. He lay down opposite to her, ready to talk when she was.
“You shouldn't even be alive,” she said when she finally finished crying. She was still looking at him in disbelief.
“I got lucky. Unfortunately I... couldn't convince anyone to go around to meet you, and... well, there were too many fast biters around for my grandfather and I to go alone.”
“I see. I wasn't really given enough time to wait for you, anyway...” Tosa sighed. “So... how have you been?”
“Uh... well...” Thunderfoot felt awkward that she had asked that of all questions. “Not too bad, I suppose. I had to grow up in the old herd and that was okay. I learned all of the stories from my grandfather before he finally... passed away...”
“I'm sorry,” said Tosa.
“It's okay,” Thunderfoot answered. “It wasn't too long ago, actually, so he lived a long life, and died peacefully in his sleep. I couldn't ask for much else to happen.”
Tosa just nodded in acknowledgement. Even after all these years, Thunderfoot was easy to talk to, and he was someone else she could vent to, but she decided to wait until he had finished his side of the story.
“So, since then I met Saro, and we started travelling together. Then... we ended up here.”
“Seems you've been doing quite well, then...” Tosa didn't smile. She wasn't even looking at him. Her eyes seemed distant, like she was stuck in a daydream.
“I heard things haven't been going so well for you,” Thunderfoot said.
The corners of Tosa's mouth twitched in very faint amusement. He had not idea how not-so-well things were...
“You could say that,” she answered. “I suppose Mother has already told you about...”
“Sorrel?” Thunderfoot finished for her, and she just merely nodded in reply. “I heard. I'm sorry...”
“Yes... well, we have no idea what's happened to him since then, but deep down I know he's probably...”
“He's not.” Tosa looked up at him in surprise.
“What?”
“I saw him yesterday. And if it wasn't him, then it sure looked pretty darn close.”
“You spoke to him?”
“No... he was too far away. I should have, though. Then I would've known what was going on in here.”
Tosa just shook her head, but now she had a smile showing on her face. “Even he doesn't know the full extent of what's going on here. Most of this was after he left,” she said.
“Oh? Such as what?” Thunderfoot asked curiously.
“Well, I highly doubt he knows about Linnaea. She came along after he was banished,” Tosa explained. Why was it so easy to talk to him? After all that had happened, she felt like she couldn't trust anyone but family, and Thunderfoot wasn't family. He was her friend, sure, but even friends had turned against her. All because of one small little thing she had to keep out of Rye's clutches, no matter what.
“Oh... That was going to be my next question. I don't get what the deal is with the child. Why does it seem to me like everyone's out for her?” Thunderfoot questioned.
“Because everyone is,” Tosa answered simply. “Do you not think she looks a little bit too much like someone else you might know?”
Thunderfoot thought about this for a while. Yes, he had noticed a few similarities between Linnaea and... that guy, but surely she couldn't be...
“I was going to say Rye, but...”
“But you wouldn't be wrong.” Tosa had confirmed his fears. Linnaea was Rye's offspring. “She doesn't know about him. I won't allow her to think that she's destined to become a copy of him, even though everyone else is convinced.”
“The outer layer of someone does not reflect the true beauty that lies underneath, as some people may quickly think,” said Thunderfoot.
“I can tell you've been hanging around your grandfather a lot.” Tosa actually briefly chucked for the first time in years. “Wise words.”
Well, that one of Thunderfoot's missions achieved: getting Tosa to smile again.
“Yeah, well...”
“If everyone in the herd thought the same way you did, then perhaps we wouldn't have this problem... or, we wouldn't have it as harsh, at least.” Tosa sighed.
“It's a shame that those type of dinosaurs can be a rarity.” Thunderfoot frowned at her, before looking around that place of cruelty.
“Anyway, about Linnaea... Well, you've probably figured out that she's... Rye's daughter.” She had whispered the last two words, just in case Linnaea had come back, and knowing Linnaea, it could happen. “Anyway, since he's just too stuck up and mental, I seemed to be the only other option for her. Everyone else just judged too quickly and immediately though of her as a monster, too. Rye did accept my mother and I as her carers, and it seemed that, although it resulted in a lot of fallouts with longnecks I now dislike, everyone had moved on. That doesn't seem to be the case, though. Recently, Rye appointed a new fast biter into his 'council' and that guy's been keeping a real close eye on us lately.”
“Fast biters in a council?”
“Oh, yes. Rye has his army of little carnivores that guard each entrance into this crater, otherwise I would have run away many, many years ago. Anyway, Rye came along a few days ago and started making threats about taking his 'heir' away from us soon.”
“That heir being, Linnaea, right?”
“Right. I'm really scared, Thunderfoot,” Tosa said as tears started to form in her eyes again. “I don't want him to take Linnaea away... I don't want him to turn her into what he has become. If that happens, then...” She was unable to find anything else to say, and thus was unable to finish her sentence.
She silenced herself for a few moments to pull herself together before carrying on. “The others in the herd knew this was going to happen, and some of them believe that it already is happening, which is why they tell their children to dislike her, get rid of her if they must. They see her as a plague.”
“So... it appears that just her very existence is causing problems, then,” Thunderfoot concluded. “But I can't blame a child for that.”
“Neither can I,” Tosa admitted. “Of course, it hasn't really helped much, but that's more Rye's fault than anything. He decided he wanted heirs, and since the only survivor from that nest was a female, he was too lazy and selfish to even help look after her.”
“What's the problem with females?” Thunderfoot asked, confused by the last statement.
“He believes them to be inferior,” Tosa said bluntly. “I believe his father probably planted that into his head. He's still around, unfortunately.”
“Oh, great,” Thunderfoot said sarcastically. “What's that guy been up to?”
“Well, let's just say that he has tried to kill both myself and Linnaea on multiple occasions,” Tosa answered, shocking the male in front her.
“What?!”
“Fortunately, mine and my mother's protective instincts managed to keep him at bay. Last time I believe we broke a couple of ribs and caused quite a few cuts and bruises, so he hasn't come crawling back since,” said Tosa.
“So, it's a fight for your family's survival, then...”
“Yes, and he's not the only one,” Tosa affirmed. “A few others have tried, but no one has prevailed... yet.”
Thunderfoot was at loss at what to say to her. So, in all of the time he had been living his life happily, she was suffering in worse ways than he could of ever imagined.
“How come it had to be you?” he finally asked. “Why did nobody else have the heart to take her in?”
“If it were anyone else's child, then they probably would have done so,” said Tosa. “But I had no choice. The guilt of leaving her would have killed me much sooner. It wouldn't be good for her if even her very own mother didn't like her...”
----------
Wait, whut?!
I lied to you, Ducky. Linnaea is indeed Tosa's daughter, and you'll find out why that's the case in the next chapter. ;)
I gotta say, I don't really know what else to say on this chapter. It sucks is a shorter one again, but I want to warn you now that Chapter 13 is the longest chapter so far, being over twice the amount of an average chapter in this fic, so don't say I didn't warn ya!
I'll upload Chapter 13 at the end of this week, probably. I made so many cuts/edits/changes to it, it's unbelievable, but if you ask me, the original one was far too dark for GoF standards, mostly because it deals with a really sensitive issue. Now, it's still does go through that issue, but not in a way that it would emotionally scar anyone. I'm serious. It was that bad. Note to self: do not write at dad's house again. :|
Anyway, I hope that explains a few things to you guys. Next chappie will have a lot more info again, including Rye and his father, more about Alvarez, just what happened to Tosa, and an unexpected friendship. :p
Edit: Just to let you know, the list with the links to the chapters on it in the first post has been changed slightly. I have now put up the chapter name as well as the number so that someone can be refreshed on which chapter's about what if they can't remember. I thought it might be helpful to whoever the hell uses it (probably not many yet, since the thread's only three pages long :lol).
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You evil thing! You lied to me :lol
I may have been right in the first place but I haven't known who the father is.
Things are getting more exciting I see. Tosa has changed majorly :unsure: Nice joke of Thunderfoot btw :smile Poor Saro!
Dunno what else to say... I liked the chapter, really :yes Looking forward to what happens next :)
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I'm still reading this; I just suck at giving constructive criticism or comments other than 'good job' on written works. :confused
It is getting interesting. . . and complex. Keep it up! :^.^:
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@Ducky123: Yes... I think Zimmy's rubbing off on me. :lol
Thunderfoot and Saro are those kind of guys who are only together to annoy each other or just jokingly be rude all the time to each other. :p And thanks!
@FreckledOne: That's okay. :yes Glad you're enjoying it! :D
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For some reason I keep reading Saro as Taro and I'm like "Wat"
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:lol Confusing, I know, and it'll be especially so when Taro's actually born. :o I'll have to be really careful with my spelling when that happens.
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I said end of the week... and nearly a month later...
Sorry, but I had to re-write this chapter for a second time. I'm still not completely happy with it to be honest, but I couldn't come up with much else.
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Chapter 13: Fate of Friends
Whoops.
Alvarez was looking through the bushes, straight at Thunderfoot and Tosa. Rye's orders were that Tosa and Thunderfoot were not allowed to find each other, but there was also another order that had been given to Alvarez directly.
Keep them safe. Tell me if he ever attacks them again. I need the heir.
Even Rye could see that his father was more demented than he was. Unfortunately, both of those orders had clashed with each other. While keeping an eye on Linnaea and warning her about things were soon to come, he had gotten her into danger of other fast biters. They could easily feast on the child and pretend it was a horrific accident. Alvarez would never do that. His diet consisted mostly of ground crawlers, buzzers, and the like.
In order to keep Linnaea safe, he had to hand her over to the story speakers to provide protection that he couldn't give her. He just wondered what Rye would say to that...
Eventually, Alvarez backed off when he realised that Linnaea wasn't with them. He soon smelled her out, and found her with Patrice and the other storyteller. She had been telling him pretty much what Tosa had told Thunderfoot.
“Ouch... I know what it's like to live in a harsh world, but that was a different kind of harsh,” said Saro. “I had to grow up being well aware of sharpteeth and sticking to my kind. I was naÔve to think that all herds stuck together, when this one's so broken...”
“Sometimes, that's just life,” said Patrice. “I try to see harsh things as a test to see if you can get through it. Usually it's just something small but stressful, and when it's all over, you can be happy again, but this... I know this is going to have long term effect even if it somehow finishes... especially on Tosa. She's had it harder than most of us. Bad stuff happened, and that caused a bunch of misunderstandings, which then lead to everyone disliking... well, I still have a few friends, who I visit every now and then, but Tosa... she can't trust them. She can't trust anyone these days.”
Linnaea had tried not to listen to the conversation; she wasn't interested. Instead she was stuck in a daydream, thinking about the outside world again. She then thought about Tosa and Patrice, and how she would love to see a true smile on their faces. Was it because of her that they never did that? Would they be better off if she didn't exist?
No, surely not. Linnaea hadn't really been shown much love from many, but there was the unconditional love of her mother and grandmother. They both meant the world to her, and she hoped she meant the same to them.
“I see. I'm sorry,” said Saro. He didn't know these longnecks well at all, yet he already felt so terrible for them. He just wondered how Thunderfoot must have been feeling, since these longnecks were like family to him.
“Don't dwell on it too much,” Patrice warned. “We don't mean to spread our grief around to every visitor. We were... much livelier before that fire... then, of course, things changed for the worse.”
“There's one thing I don't understand, though. There's obviously something else to it that you're not telling me, and I know it's something to do with the kid. Why does everyone else dislike her so much?”
“...That's not for me to tell you, I'm afraid,” Patrice said sadly. “If my daughter knew I had told you, she'd probably throw a rage fit.”
“Right. I won't ask any more questions in that case,” Saro said quickly, suddenly unnerved again. If there was one thing he didn't like, it was female longnecks throwing rage fits at him.
“Grandma, what's Mother doing?” Linnaea asked dreamily.
“Uh, she's, well...” Patrice swallowed hard and looked very uncertain. “She's with the other storyteller, dear.”
Saro stared at Patrice, who was obviously trying to avoid eye contact with him.
“Hold on... is Tosa her mother?”
~
“You're her mother?!”
Tosa had turned away, not wanting to see the look on her old friend's face. That was it. She had ruined it.
“You mean, her actual mother?” Thunderfoot was still in disbelief. He and Tosa were still quite a way away from being fully grown longnecks, and were considered to be too young to be thinking about having children just yet.
“Yes...” she answered finally. “I lay her egg, I nested her, she's my own flesh and blood.”
Thunderfoot needed a few moments to think, so Linnaea was Tosa's biological daughter, not adopted like he had thought she would be. Which also meant that there needed to be a father, and that was...
“Rye...” he whispered. “You mated with him?”
“Other way around,” Tosa corrected. “He mated with me.”
“...but...”
“There's no 'buts' to it, Thunderfoot,” Tosa said irritably. She sighed after a few moments and pressed her eyelids shut. “Well, it's my fault as much as it is his. I let him do what he did to me.”
Thunderfoot stared at her in surprise. “Sorry?”
“He guilt-tripped me into it.” Tosa swallowed hard as the painful memories came back to her.
“How?” Thunderfoot asked.
It took Tosa a few more minutes to think about what she was going to say. “Well, he... he told me that his father had threatened to kill him if he didn't produce heirs. I told him that it wasn't my concern and that he was being selfish by using me, but he was pretty much begging me to...”
She looked up at the sky, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I still didn't want it to happen, but Rye, well... I didn't want him to be killed.”
Thunderfoot said nothing to this. If he were Tosa, he wouldn't care about Rye at all. If he was going to be killed, then let him be killed.
“There's more to it,” Tosa said. “If he was killed, his father would have taken over the herd, and we'd probably all be dead. His father doesn't see females as anything but a tool to produce the 'heirs' as he likes to call them. It's infuriating how hateful he is...”
“I see... A herd lead by Rye's father sounds like it would be better to live in a fire mountain,” Thunderfoot said thoughtfully. “But you still didn't want this to happen.”
“No, I certainly didn't.”
“So technically, Rye forced you into it through guilt-tripping.”
“Yes, though most of the others believe that I wanted it to happen, thanks to rumours spreading around,” she admitted.
“What?!”
“It just... happened. I'll admit that I had become quite distant from the herd since we were separated, and I actually found myself spending quite some time with Rye.”
“You did?” Thunderfoot was confused now. Why would Tosa hang around with someone who had bullied them both in childhood?
“I won't lie to you,” Tosa said calmly. “He was a different person back then. After that fire, he actually came and spoke to me once, and apologised for everything. Then he told me what had happened with his mother... and that... he was terrified of what his father would do to him. We were friends at the time, and both of my parents had accepted that, even though my father was still a little dubious. The reason he bullied you was because he was jealous of you and your grandfather's relationship. He didn't have anyone who truly loved him. I just told him that nothing could be changed and if he could change his attitude towards others, then maybe he would get some love in return. So that's what he did. We played with each other, made some other friends, and life wasn't all that bad.”
“Wow... I never would have expected Rye to change like that,” said Thunderfoot. “So... why did he do this now, if he was your friend?”
“Everything changed once we reached the Time of Great Growing,” Tosa explained. “For a few days he didn't come to join me, because at that time we mostly just hung out with each other for good company. Then one day, he found me and told me that he couldn't see me any more.”
“And then I suppose he stopped seeing you and was changed by his father,” Thunderfoot guessed.
“Indeed.”
“And then one day...”
Tosa said nothing, but just gave the male a slight nod to confirm it.
At this, Thunderfoot muttered several profanities under his breath, which earned him a look of disapproval from the female.
“You'd better watch that mouth of yours around Linnaea,” she warned,” or else Rye will be the least of the your problems.”
“Sorry... it's just that...”
“You're angry about Rye's actions and want to go and kill him right now?” Tosa guessed. Thunderfoot nodded to confirm her guess. “Trust me, I know the feeling...”
Thunderfoot kept silent for while. “Do you want to carry on?” he finally.
“I suppose it wouldn't hurt to let it all out,” Tosa said. “After that... incident.... my mother and I went to Rye's father and demanded answers from him. The thing about Rye's father is that he's very up-front about everything, and is proud to admit his wrongdoings. He claimed that he hadn't spoken to Rye in weeks, let alone threatened to kill him.”
“Who did you believe?” Thunderfoot asked, getting confused himself.
“I don't know,” Tosa answered. “I still don't know what to believe. Rye's father is very truthful most of the time, but I can't imagine Rye himself making that kind of thing up...”
“I can,” said Thunderfoot. “I know how much of jerk he can be.”
“That was before he had his change in his childhood,” said Tosa. “He may be rotten to the core now, but he claims that everything he does is under the influence of his father. I don't know if I'll ever know the truth between them. Both of them tell many lies, but Rye more so than his father. Even with that fact, I can't trust either of them.”
“I don't blame you,” said Thunderfoot. “Did anything happen after that?”
“Indeed,” said Tosa. “I soon found out that I was indeed carrying Rye's offspring, and that just left me feeling disgusted, worthless, terrified, and the list goes on. Laying the eggs was... difficult. There were around ten of those, I believe.”
Thunderfoot didn't know how much more he wanted to listen to, now that he knew where Linnaea had come from. He dreaded to think what had happened to her siblings.
“Fast biters took most of the eggs when I let my guard down, and I had to leave them for just a few moments, which was when they hatched. All three of the ones that hatched were females. When I came back, only Linnaea had survived. I found Rye at the nest, and... oh, Thunderfoot, he had...”
She couldn't bare to carry on, and burst into tears. Thunderfoot, still in shock, comfortingly nuzzled her as he too, felt tears falling down his face.
“Oh, Tosa,” he whispered. “I'm so sorry... if I had known...”
“There was no way for you to know,” she sobbed. “What matters is that it's done now, and there's nothing we can do about the past. We can only look forward to see if the future brings anything better.”
“Of course,” said Thunderfoot. “You're right.”
She half-smiled at him, before continuing on with the final part of her story.
“Of course, Linnaea is not exactly the most loved child in the herd,” she said sadly. “We've had many visitors who came along, had a go at me, tried to get rid of Linnaea because she looks almost like a double of Rye... One of the most frequent visitors we had was Rye's father himself.”
“Oh, dear...”
“It wasn't fun, but he came again not too long ago, and my mother and I did give him quite a beating. I think we may have broken a few minor bones and left him with many whip cuts... I think his physical injuries will keep him at bay for a while.”
“Not to mention how much of his pride you must have completely destroyed,” Thunderfoot chuckled.
“Indeed,” Tosa replied. “I've heard he's been quite ill lately, though. My mother's been told that some of his wounds got infected and now he's got... um, some illness... basically it's spread all over his body now.”
“Oh,” Thunderfoot said awkwardly. “Well, good riddance if you ask me.”
“Oh, come on,” said Tosa. “Would you seriously wish death upon another dinosaur? I didn't think you were that cold-hearted, Thunderfoot.”
“I'm not!” Thunderfoot argued. “It's just that... I think Rye's going to get what's coming to him eventually.”
“Perhaps,” Tosa replied. “Anyway, in case I forgot to mention... it's nice to see you again.”
Thunderfoot smiled at her. “It's great to see you again, too.”
~
Alvarez hesitantly approached the longneck, who was lying down, and obviously pondering over something.
“Sir?”
“Ah, Alvarez,” Rye greeted him with a smile. “Just the guy I was looking for. If you don't mind, I could use some good news for once.”
Alvarez had already opened his mouth to say something, but quickly cut himself off when the last sentence reached his head.
“Um... is it okay if I start with the good news and then go onto the not-so-good news?” he asked.
“Sure,” Rye answered bluntly.
“Firstly, the kid snook off, but she was okay. The bad news is, in order for her to be safe from the others, I had to lead her to the story speakers.”
For a while, there was nothing but silence, and Alvarez was left standing there awkwardly for a long time.
“I suppose that means Tosa and Thunderfoot have found each other, then,” the longneck said at last. “Keep a sharp eye on them, Alvarez. I expect to be told if you hear anything of plans of escape.”
“Of course, sir.”
“I know what he's going to plan to do, and I won't have any of it. Tosa belongs here, and so does the child.”
“Her name is Linnaea, sir. She's your daughter, too; you might as well try to at least remember her name,” Alvarez said impatiently.
Rye raised an eyebrow at him. “Fine, but don't get your hopes up.”
Alvarez sighed. He didn't exactly like having these kinds of conversations with Rye due his strong opinion on females. Everything a female did besides produce offspring, Rye hated, much like his father did. When he had heard that Tosa's cousin was to be a leader of a herd, he was disgusted.
“If you don't mind me asking, how is your father now?”
“Still ill,” Rye answered. “I don't think those injuries of his are healing too smoothly. Darn Tosa and her stupid mother.”
“To be fair, sir... they were only protecting Tosa's child. Any loyal parent would do that,” said Alvarez. “I don't understand why your father keeps attacking them, anyway. Wasn't Tosa an old friend of yours?”
“Back when I was still a delusional child,” Rye growled. “But now, I've grown up, and my vision had become clearer.”
“More like you're blinder,” Alvarez muttered under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“I fear he may die soon,” Rye said after a few moments of silence.
“Thank goodness for that,” Alvarez muttered under his breath again.
“What?”
“Nothing, sir. Let's just hope things don't come that far.”
“Indeed. Besides, there is still another problem at foot.”
“Which would be...?”
“Thunderfoot. I know what he wants to do. He wants to escape with Tosa so that he can have her all to himself. Well, I won't allow it. Tosa belongs here! She is MY mate! I have to make sure she stays... so that would mean having to get rid of the competition. Thunderfoot must either leave, or die.”
“Is it that necessary, sir?” Alvarez asked uncertainly.
Rye looked at him as if he was mad. “Completely necessary,” he answered coldly. “Go back to work, Alvarez. Keep a close eye on all of them.”
Alvarez just nodded and sprinted away. He was hungry, but he decided to skip lunch for now. He had to warn the longnecks of Rye's cruel plan.
~
“I'm getting you all out of here.”
“That's impossible,” Tosa whispered, tears still falling from her eyes. “Rye has fast biters guarding every entrance. If we go there, they'll try to kill us! I know... I've tried many times...”
“I know a way,” said Thunderfoot. “I came through a way where there were no fast biters.”
“That wouldn't happen to be that cavern, would it?”
“Actually, yes,” said Thunderfoot. Tosa just shook her head.
“I'm not going without my whole family, and my mother is too big to fit through there.”
Thunderfoot gritted his teeth. She had a good point there. “Maybe we should join the others again,” he suggested. “I need to think of a plan.”
They did just that, and Patrice was surprised to see Tosa looking tearful but somewhat... happier. It was hard for anyone but her mother to see, but Tosa seemed to be looking a lot better than she had done in a while.
The longnecks all lay in a circle as they brainstormed ideas of what they could do to get out.
“I think I've got something,” Thunderfoot said at last. “Saro, you can take Tosa and Linnaea through the cavern, while Patrice and I go to an exit with less fast biters.
“They'll be less of them in places longnecks would find hard to reach,” came another voice. The group was surprised to see a fast biter in between Patrice and Thunderfoot. He calmly walked into the centre of the circle, and flashed Linnaea a quick smile. “I thought I'd give you a few extra ideas, given what Rye's planning to do...”
“Rye?!” Tosa exclaimed. “What's he up to now?”
“He knows Thunderfoot is here,” Alvarez explained. “He has to get rid of the competition.” He turned to Thunderfoot. “That means he wants to kill you.”
“Kill me? Why?” Thunderfoot demanded. He hadn't exactly seen a 'talking' sharptooth before, but right now he was already in enough shock, so he could just shrug this small thing off for now.
“He believes you want to take Tosa with you, and my guess is that he would be right to think that. Am I right?”
“What makes you think we should talk to you?” Tosa snarled. “You're on Rye's side.”
“Am I, now?” Alvarez countered coolly. “Okay, then. Linnaea, how did you discover these two story speakers?”
“You took me there,” Linnaea answered, shocking Tosa and Patrice. Alvarez looked back up at the grey female.
“There you go,” he said. “If I had not led them to those two, would she have actually found them? And if she hadn't found them, would you two have found each other? I doubt it.”
“I still don't trust you,” Tosa said stubbornly.
“Fair enough,” said Alvarez. “I'll leave you lot to it, then. I'm just saying: find an entrance that's hard to get to. Rye sends less fast biters to those spots.”
With that said, Alvarez turned away and walked off, back into the forest.
When they were sure he was gone, the longnecks resumed their escape plans. Before the day was done, they had come up with their final plan.
“So, we start before the first light of the bright circle,” said Thunderfoot. “They'll be less alert then. Saro will take Tosa and Linnaea through the cavern route while Patrice and I find a difficult place to get out of.” He had taken heed of Alvarez's advice.
“Agreed,” said Tosa. “I suggest you two go and find somewhere to sleep where Rye won't find you. We'll stay here, just in case he gets suspicious. We'll meet you at that cavern before the bright circle starts to rise.”
Thunderfoot just nodded before he and Saro got up and left. The three females sat in silence for a few moments, and then, for the first time in years, Patrice and Tosa laughed.
“I can't believe it! Finally, we're getting out!” Tosa cuddled Linnaea with a huge grin on her face. “Finally...”
“Mother?” Linnaea asked. “What's it like out there? Is it dangerous?”
“It can't be more dangerous than here,” Patrice muttered. Tosa gave her a look of slight disapproval before turning to her own daughter.
“No, dear,” she answered. “It's beautiful out there. I think we'll find a place where you can grow up with all of your friends and be happy, just like you deserve to be.”
“You deserve to be happy too, Mother,” said Linnaea. “Won't you have friends?”
“Hopefully,” Tosa answered. “But even if I don't, I'll still have you.”
Linnaea smiled at that and cuddled her mother's face before letting out a long yawn.
“It's been a long day, hasn't it?” Tosa asked.
Linnaea just nodded in reply and climbed onto Tosa's head, ready to go to their resting place and settle down for the night.
“Hey, Mother?”
“Yes?”
“Do I... make you happy?” Linnaea asked hesitantly. “It's just that... you seem sad a lot of the time, and... and I feel like it's my fault.”
By the time she had finished talking, Tosa and Patrice had reached the resting place and had lay down. The older females exchanged glances that almost seemed like horror at the hatchling's statement.
Tosa let Linnaea slide off her head before answering.
“Linnaea... listen to me,” she said quietly. “You have made me happier than I have felt I could ever be in this time. If it weren't for you... I'll be honest... I wouldn't be here today.”
The child just looked up at her with a confused expression on her face, but Tosa just smiled and walked off the get a drink for the young hatchling. Patrice decided to carry on explaining to her granddaughter.
“You see, Linnaea, something terrible happened to your mother before she hatched you,” she said quietly. “And the only reason she seems sad a lot of the time is because she has something called depression.”
“Depression?” Linnaea questioned. “What's that?”
“It's something you can't escape,” Patrice explained. “It's constant feelings of self-worthlessness, constant unhappiness, losing interest in everything you once enjoyed, feeling guilt-ridden a lot of the time, loss of appetite, and the list goes on...”
“Oh... so I didn't cause Mother to have depression... or did I?” Linnaea asked, getting more worried.
Patrice hesitated for a moment. It was a difficult question to answer.
“It... does involve you, but no, it's not your fault at all,” she finally said.
“I don't understand, Grandma.”
“Well, it takes two to make a child,” Patrice admitted sadly. “The truth, little one, is that you do have a father. We didn't want you to know because... well, let's just say that he was the cause of the depression. He's a horrible longneck, Linnaea. You must know that.”
“O-okay...”
Tosa had returned, precariously carrying a treestar full of water. She gently set it down next to Linnaea as her mother continued to explain to the child.
“He forced your mother to have children... and she was far too young for it,” Patrice explained. “And we need you to understand that it isn't your fault at all. You can't help being born, after all.”
Linnaea nodded again, and turned to her woeful mother. “So... he made you really sad.”
Tosa give her a mere nod. Linnaea swallowed hard.
“Then... I'm glad you didn't tell me about him. I don't like him.”
“Not many people do,” said Patrice.
“So, that explains why a lot of longnecks in this herd hate me, then... they think I'm like him, don't they?”
Tosa and Patrice exchanged an awkward glance, before Tosa gently nuzzled her child. “We know you're not,” she whispered. “We know why he is the way he is: he was raised without any love. Remember, my little one, your grandmother and I will always love you, no matter what.”
The hatchling rubbed her head against Tosa's. “I love you too...”
“I'm sorry if it seemed I didn't act like that,” Tosa said regretfully. “But we're getting out of here. We can start our lives afresh, and I promise that I'll try to be happy again for you.”
“I think we should get some sleep for now, though,” Patrice suggested.
“Of course, Mother,” said Tosa. Linnaea snuggled up next to her as she nuzzled the kid again. “I'm so proud of you...”
Linnaea just smiled, yawned, and closed her eyes. Tosa and Patrice exchanged a few words of encouragement and comfort before falling asleep themselves.
~
Close to the cavern, Thunderfoot watched the night circle cast its light across the crater. The atmosphere was eerily peaceful, and he felt somewhat content. He had found his best friend again, and desperately wanted her to have a better life again. He refused to leave until she was out.
He was also concerned. If what that fast biter had said was true, then Rye was going to be out for his blood if he found him. Fortunately, he and Saro had found a large cave near the cavern where they felt safer than if they were out in the open.
The pure light of the full night circle flooded the area, casting playful shadows everywhere. In a way, it felt like they were given a peaceful night in order to prepare. Still, something didn't seem right. It felt... too peaceful. Usually there was be the sound of night-time crawlers chirping in the bushes, but tonight, there was complete silence. There was no wind to make the trees dance, and the nearby watering hole looked more solid than liquid because it was so still. It was a perfect night.
Saro joined his friend's side.
“Looking forward to tomorrow?” he asked quietly, not wanting to completely disturb the tranquil night.
“Not particularly,” Thunderfoot answered. “It will be difficult, but I do look forward to end result if we succeed.”
“We will,” Saro said determinedly. “My instincts are telling me so.”
“I know us longnecks are known for good instincts, but I doubt they can tell the future,” Thunderfoot joked.
“Mine are special,” Saro answered pridefully.
“Yeah, right,” said Thunderfoot. He looked out over the horizon, then up to the stars. “Either way, I hope you're right.”
“I'm sure I am,” said Saro. “Come on. We should rest up for tomorrow.”
Thunderfoot agreed and the two settled down for the night, having a quiet chat before completely falling asleep.
~
The peace... the peace was mocking him.
Rye watched as he made the fast biters try and try again to revive him, but it was no use. He was gone, and was never coming back.
Alvarez was there, feeling both grief and relief.
“It appears that one of the wounds Tosa gave him got infected. Sometimes when that happens the infection spreads around the body and it can be fatal. I'm afraid that this is the case here.”
“But can't you cure it?!” Rye demanded rashly. “This can't just happen now! I need him!”
“Sorry, sir, but the healer has tried everything,” Alvarez said remorsefully. “There's no way to bring him back. I'm sorry...”
Rye was silent for a few moments, before the quiet atmosphere was disturbed by the sounds of splintering wood and load roars from the longneck. Many of the fast biters backed off until he had calmed down, which took a very long time.
“Dammit, Tosa,” Rye snarled. “How could she do this?”
“She was being protective, I suppose,” Alvarez said thoughtfully.
“It was a rhetorical question!” Rye snapped back at him. The small fast biter kept his mouth shut for the time being, not wanting to anger the giant creature in front of him even more.
The longneck took a deep breath. “Forget about Thunderfoot,” he muttered. “Tosa has to pay for this...”
Alvarez took a step back as he realised what Rye was thinking.
“Should I... leave you be, sir?”
“If you must,” Rye answered, not even looking at him.
Alvarez ran off in terror. It was as though Rye's father had immediately possessed him when he died. Most of the fast biters were with him now, which meant that a good amount of the entrances would now be a lot easier to get through. He sprinted as quickly as possible to where Patrice, Tosa and Linnaea were sleeping. With Rye in mourning, they would be able to get out more easily now.
----------
Long chapter is long. :o
I realised there was no easy way of saying about the 'forced mating' thing, and I had trouble which scenario to look into. I researched a fair bit into this, and I also have an experience. No, not me, thank goodness, but the older sister of an old friend of mine unfortunately went through it. :( She looked awful the only time I saw her after it happened, and not long after that, the family moved away and I heard from none of them again. It was sad. :cry
So yeah, Tosa is sort of based of her here. Sorry if you don't like the idea, but that's the only time this'll be brought up in any of my fanfics, so don't worry about it becoming a habit...
Anyway, hope the rest of the chapter's all right, at least. Alvarez, don't be so mean about Rye and his father. :lol Well, at least you know whose side he is on, now. But, why is that?
Speaking of, the old dude died. Thank you, Tosa and Patrice. The world is now at peace. I'll be hosting a celebration at my local airport tomorrow night at 7:00pm. What? Don't think an airport is an appropriate venue? Well, excuse me if I'm going plane-spotting tomorrow (it's because my mum and I are picking up our Irish relatives, NOT because I'm too obsessed for my own good and have no life :lol ). Wait... tomorrow's Halloween... his ghost might come back. Yeah, forget the party. :nyah
I think I'll just go and post this. I'm already too hyper for my own good. Dunno when Chapter 14 will be up. *shrugs*
...why do I keep doing alliterated chapter titles? :confused
-
It isn't bad, trust me :yes
I admit it is a serious matter but the way you wrote it is appropriate and not disturbing :)
I actually quite like the story, and there's hope after all...
The whole chapter seems like a climax to me eventually resulting in an event in the next chapter that just oughtta be exciting, dramatic and great :DD :)
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OMG guys, look, LOOK! A dead topic! :wow
Yeah... Sorry it took an eternity (literally) to update again, but I suppose, along with my year-long break from the GoF, I kinda lost interest in writing this for a while. I was especially unhappy with how Chapter 13 turned out in the end (I kinda wish I stuck to the darker version now, but I suppose that can still be amended) and that really put me off continuing this, but I guess you gotta just take what you have and carry on. So anyway, enough random rambling and reflecting on regrets (if that's not good enough alliteration for ya, I don't know what is :lol), let's just get going on this.
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Chapter 14: The Fight for Family
“Thunderfoot! Thunderfoot!”
He opened his eyes, surprised to hear that voice.
“Tosa? What are you doing? It's not time yet.”
“Change of plan,” said Tosa. “We're going now.”
“...we are?” Saro grunted as he hoisted himself onto his feet. “But it's still kinda early...”
“Doesn't matter,” said Patrice. “Rye's father has died and he has withdrawn most of his forces. I'd still stick with the plan of Tosa and Linnaea going with you, Saro, and myself going a different way with Thunderfoot.”
The males nodded.
“But, how did you know that Rye's father died?” Thunderfoot questioned. “You look like you've just woken up yourself.”
“That would be me.” A small being came from underneath Tosa. “I swear, it's best that if you're going to escape, you'd better do it now. Rye has something even more despicable planned.”
“Oh, yes,” said Tosa. “You never told us what that was.”
“I assure you, I will only say once you are all safe,” Alvarez answered.
“Hold on just a moment,” said Saro, glaring at the fast biter. “How exactly can we trust his words? He could easily be lying to us.”
At this everyone just stared at Alvarez, waiting for his answer. In turn, he stared back at Tosa. It seemed that, like her daughter, she had taken most of her father's looks.
“I was asked to come here,” he finally said.
“By who?” Thunderfoot demanded. “Your pack leader?”
“I wasn't in a pack before I came here,” Alvarez calmly explained. “No, I was asked to come here by some else. Someone most of you should know.”
Everyone glanced at each other, confused, before they turned back to face Alvarez again.
“What was their name?” Patrice asked.
Alvarez grinned, his teeth gleaming in the moonlight.
“Sorrel.”
The two older females gasped in shock. Not only was Sorrel still alive, but had he actually sent them help in the form of Alvarez?
“He wouldn't leave you two completely without help and protection, y'know,” Alvarez continued, a look of amusement on his face as he watched the longnecks' looks of utter disbelief. “I did relay information to him from time to time, but one of the other fast biters noticed me sneaking out and threatened to tell Rye, since he was one of those who could speak Leaf-Eater. So, I had to stop. However, he knows most of the important stuff, such as what Rye did to Tosa and Linnaea's existence.”
Tosa suddenly looked uneasy. “H-how did he react to that?” she stammered.
“He was furious with Rye, of course,” Alvarez said quietly. “He actually wanted me to help him break in so that he could attack, but I politely refused. He could've easily gotten himself killed and I was doing a good enough job as a spy, and spies don't blow their cover.”
“So you were just pretending to be on Rye's side, then...” Thunderfoot said thoughtfully.
Alvarez nodded. “That I was.” He turned to Tosa and Patrice. “He's worried about you three. And no, he's not going to hate Linnaea when he sees her, if that's what you're thinking.”
Tosa turned her head to look over to her daughter, who was still fast asleep and seemingly undisturbed on her back. She decided not to wake her until they got into the cavern.
“Anyway...” Saro started. “What are we still doing here chatting? We need to be getting out of here while Rye's distracted.”
“You're right,” said Alvarez. “Thunderfoot and Patrice, I'll be going with you. That way I'll be able to show you the best exit to use.”
Thunderfoot just nodded and turned to Tosa. “Good luck,” he said.
“You too,” she answered, giving him a faint smile.
“We'll meet up outside the exit of the cavern,” said Saro, and everyone nodded in agreement.
“And after that we find Sorrel,” said Patrice.
“Yes,” Thunderfoot agreed. “We should get moving. Good luck everyone.”
They said their goodbyes before heading off in different directions. Saro and Tosa didn't hesitate to get to the cavern as soon as possible.
“I don't remember that being there,” Tosa said as Saro started to push to boulder away from the entrance.
“Yeah, well,” Saro grunted as he pushed with all his might. “I thought it was undiscovered, and I felt uneasy when I first got in, so I-”
“Covered it up,” Tosa finished for him. “Need some help there?”
“It's okay, I've got it,” Saro answered. He finally managed to get the boulder completely out of the way so that they could both get through. “I'll go first,” he said when he had finished panting. “It'll be dark in there, so hold onto my tail. If anyone crashes into anything, it'll be me.”
“Okay,” said Tosa. “Just be careful.” She carefully nudged Linnaea to wake her up, just in case she needed to hold onto something. The hatchling was both surprised and elated to hear that they were leaving early.
Finally, they entered the cavern. The night circle dimly lit it for a short part of the way into it, but it wasn't long before they were in complete darkness. Saro did indeed keep bumping into things, but warned Tosa about any large dips or steps in the ground and when to lower her head. After what felt like hours of stumbling around, they finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
“There!” Saro cried out with relief. “At last.”
Suddenly, they felt a small tremor in the ground, and then shouting and roaring could be heard. Tosa let out a petrified gasp as she became more and more terrified.
“Rye? He knows?” she whispered fearfully. She could feel Linnaea's grip tighten on her skin; clearly the hatchling was also terrified.
Saro, too, looked scared. “Right, then we're getting out of here as soon as possible!” He quickened his pace now that he could see the direction he needed to go in, with Tosa following swiftly behind him.
~
Thunderfoot hoisted his large body onto another ledge.
“Need a tail?” he offered, watching sympathetically as an out-of-breath Patrice followed him. The female looked exhausted from all of the climbing.
“Thanks.” She panted as she grabbed his tail with her blunt teeth and hoisted her larger body up with his help. “Any chance... we can stop... for a quick rest?”
“Of course,” Thunderfoot answered softly. He was feeling quite tired himself.
Alvarez had held on to Patrice's tail on the way up, trying not to dig his claws into her skin too much. Patrice had been interrogating him about Sorrel for most of the journey, and only stopped a few moments ago. Whether it was because she now trusted his word or she was too tired to ask anything else, Alvarez didn't know.
He and Thunderfoot checked the view from the ledge to make sure nobody was following them. Thankfully, it seemed that Rye and the other fast biters hadn't noticed their departure just yet.
“I hope they're still there,” Thunderfoot said quietly. “I'm worried that they've all gone after Tosa, Saro and Linnaea.”
“No...” Alvarez answered. “I believe they'd be more likely to come after us. They can probably see where we are and we're an easier target than they are.”
Thunderfoot just nodded, before asking another question. “Why exactly did you follow Sorrel's orders, anyway?”
“I... well, I just came across him... and to be honest, I felt sorry for him,” Alvarez explained. “I know what it feels like to have lost one's family. He was... really depressed. He felt like an idiot for getting protective of his family and getting himself banished. Of course, he was even worse when he found out the price Tosa had paid for it. He said he'll never forgive himself. I wanted to help get his family back to him so that he could be happier again, but... I fear that every time he even looks at Patrice, Tosa or Linnaea, he'll just feel more guilty.”
Thunderfoot said nothing as he thought about Alvarez's words.
“He had lost some serious weight when I last saw him,” Alvarez continued. “To be honest, I'm not sure if he's even around any more... but I dare not say anything to the girls, especially his mate.”
“I'm sure he is,” Thunderfoot answered as he continued to keep watch, still thinking about the figure he had seen before entering the crater. Suddenly, a shadow came into view, followed by another, and another...
“They're coming,” Alvarez growled. “Let's go!”
The two went back to Patrice and warned her, and thankfully, she was able to get up and dash off with them. Luckily, they weren't too far from the exit, but now they had to go downhill.
“Be careful not to trip!” Thunderfoot warned as they stormed down the other side. None of them cared how tired they were; the adrenaline kept them going for now.
The longnecks gasped for air when they finally reached the bottom, their huge bodies not made for running. Patrice collapsed on the ground with exhaustion, but was terrified into getting up again when they saw the shadows approaching, including the shadow of a longneck.
“Rye!” Thunderfoot snarled. “How did he get up there so fast?”
“Let's not dwindle on that!” Patrice answered. “We should get out of here and find the others!”
“Yeah!” Alvarez agreed, and they all sped off towards to exit of the tunnel Saro and Thunderfoot used to get in.
~
When Tosa, Saro and Linnaea finally got out, they were relived to see that the other three were already there.
“Where in the world have you been?!” Thunderfoot exclaimed. “We need to get moving, now!”
“Yes we do!” Tosa agreed. “Rye's after us! He was chasing us through the cavern.”
Alvarez gave her a confused look. “But Rye was chasing us,” he said. “He can't be in two places at the same time. Perhaps he sent some of his fast biters after you.”
“Either way, we'd better shift ourselves,” Patrice suggested. “They'll be on our tails soon. Let's get to that forest over there.”
They hurried towards the area of green as quickly as they could, hoping to lose Rye and the fast biters in the foliage.
Alvarez kept behind them, and flinched when he turned his head around. “I really don't recommend turning around right now.”
“Are they gaining on us?” Thunderfoot asked frantically.
“Well, yes... and quite quickly, too,” Alvarez answered. “Just keep going!”
They quickened their pace as much as they could, despite them already being so exhausted and out of breath. Finally, they crossed over the small stream and found themselves at the border of the forest, but they were too late.
Most of the fast biters pounced on Alvarez, who was furthest behind, pinning him to the ground, whilst avoiding the furious tails of Patrice and the males, who now saw that Tosa and Linnaea were in need of the most protection. Their distraction gave Rye enough time to reach them, and he looked enraged.
“Let him go,” he snarled to the other fast biters. One of them understood and translated to the others, who immediately unpinned Alvarez.
Rye just stared sharp rocks at him. “So, you helped them out?”
Alvarez she gave him an arrogant grin in reply. “Sorrel's orders. Sorry if I forgot to mention that, sir.”
The longnecks used Alvarez's distraction wisely, and cautiously backed off towards the foliage that was close behind them.
Rye let out a horrifyingly load roar out of pure rage, which could have easily been heard for miles around. It would prove to be another mistake, as another being would also hear him, and head in that direction.
“You were helping SORREL?!” Rye yelled, extremely agitated by what he had just heard. The longnecks backed off a bit more, until Tosa was safely among the green.
“Must've slipped my mind when I was taking the job,” Alvarez said mockingly.
Rye just snarled and snapped his head towards the other longnecks, who froze on the spot.
“Tosa.”
She didn't come out from her little hiding spot, instead grabbing Linnaea and placing her gently onto the ground, near some thick bushes.
“Listen to me, little one,” she whispered. “Stay here. If anything breaks out, just run... run as fast as you can.”
“TOSA!”
Linnaea just answered her mother with a terrified nod, before she watched her turn and exit back into the open land.
The two stared at each other, Tosa with intense hatred.
“What do you want, Rye?”
“You're coming back with me.”
Tosa just rolled her eyes. “Tough, because I won't. I don't remember you being my boss or either of my parents.”
“I'm your mate, that makes me your boss,” Rye growled at her. “Get back to the crater.”
“No,” Tosa answered sternly.
“Fine.” Everyone was quite surprised to hear Rye say that. “I'll let you and your mother go on one condition: give me the child.”
Tosa laughed as if it were a joke. “You must be kidding me. Hand Linnaea over to YOU?!”
“It's either that, come back to the crater, or I'll make sure all five of you just die.”
“You're demented,” said Patrice.
“Am I now?”
“Yes!” everyone answered simultaneously.
“...This is dragging,” he muttered. One of the fast biters was standing next to him, and the longneck whispered something.
“No!” Alvarez cried when he heard the fast biter translate the order. “Linnaea, run!”
He had just confirmed that the hatchling was close by, and though they desperately tried to fight them off, some of the little carnivores escaped the wrath of the adult longnecks.
She didn't hesitate. Linnaea ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, though that wasn't fast enough. They were gaining on her... closer and closer...
It seemed like things only got worse when she crashed into something large and grey, sending her flying backwards. The carnivores reached her. That was it...
Meanwhile, the others fought with both Rye and the fast biters in a battle of anger, sorrow, and revenge. Thunderfoot took it upon himself to take on the larger longneck on his own, and his size was not in his favour at all. Furthermore, he hadn't had to fight any longnecks before, and it was proving difficult. Rye managed several strong blows on him, including on his left hind leg and his face, resulting in deep cuts that were dripping blood.
Despite Thunderfoot's pure rage giving him strength, he was still no match against the brown longneck in front of him.
He could taste the blood in his mouth, and after a while he was beginning to feel woozy from the blood loss, but he wasn't going to give up. He wouldn't give up as long as he breathed...
“THUNDERFOOT!” He could hear the screams of his female friend, but right now he wasn't sure if it was real or if he was just imagining it. Either way, he wasn't distracted, and answered with a strong blow against Rye's side with his tail. The other male roared in pain, and answered by giving Thunderfoot another bleeding wound.
Then, a fast biter came to his aid, further injuring the grey longneck by sinking his teeth into Thunderfoot's flesh.
~
Linnaea could only glance at the giant in front of her before she heard the snapping of the fast biters' jaws, and she ran behind what she realised was another adult longneck, bearing the same colours as her mother.
He knew who that young girl was, of course he did. But how she had gotten here, he had no idea, considering how secure her home was. Knowing not to focus on that for now, he quickly managed to dispose of the fast biters that were trying to attack her with a few swift swipes of his tail which sent them flying. Even though they weren't defeated, the look on the male's face told them that if they tried to be brave and attack, they would sorely regret it, so they began to back off.
Linnaea, too, was unnerved by the longneck in front of her, but when his eyes met hers, they softened and showed much kindness, allowing her to relax a little around him. He reminded her much of her mother, as he shared a strong resemblance with her.
“Linnaea?”
The short-lived comfort turned to complete distrust again as the little one's eyes widened in shock.
“H-how do you know my name?” she asked fearfully, not calmed one bit by the concerned look of the other longneck in front of her.
“I know much about you, little one.” The male chuckled briefly, before he suddenly looked even more concerned. “Don't you have your mother and grandmother with you?”
Linnaea nodded, but she too, looked distressed.
“Where are they?” he demanded.
“...I-In trouble,” Linnaea stuttered. Horrified, the male quickly picked her up by the tail and headed back in the direction she came from, the direction he had heard a threatening roar coming from just a few moments earlier. Just when he could see what was happening with his own eyes, he carefully placed Linnaea on a high branch that was covered with leaves so that the fast biters wouldn't reach her and most of the others wouldn't see her. That, and most of the battle was also shielded from her eyes.
“Stay there,” he instructed, before briefly looking back at the battle taking place in front of them. Linnaea just wondered how she would be able to move from the branch, anyway.
His reddish-brown eyes widened in astonishment, disbelief and anger when he saw what was in front of him. Indeed, his wife and daughter had both managed to escape, but Rye was there too, looking ready to kill. Someone else was fighting him, and while the Sorrel couldn't make out exactly who it was, he guessed that it was someone whom he had firmly believed to be dead, and the same person he had seen a couple of days earlier. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard the other male – who was unknown to him – scream out his name.
Suddenly, things turned even worse. The fast biters that had been trying to attack Tosa, Patrice and the other male scattered everywhere, and then suddenly headed straight for Thunderfoot. Tosa could only watch in despair as some of them distracted Saro and Patrice, stopping them from reaching the longneck in peril, while the others went straight for her already injured friend. Alvarez tried to get in their way, but he was too small to do much damage, and he ended up with only more injuries. When he tried to stop one of the larger biters, he got a shocking bite in return. He collapsed on the spot in pain, knowing that it was one he probably would never recover from...
Sorrel could no longer hide in the trees. He had to act. Even though he had lost a considerable amount of weight, he had still kept most of his physical strength over the period of time in which he was banished. He did have the occasional sharptooth to deal with, after all.
They downed him, their razor sharp teeth digging into his body. Thunderfoot cried out in pain, but nobody could help him. Tosa, Saro and Patrice were too far away to do anything effective, and had several fast biters in his way. It seemed like this was it...
“You know, Thunderfoot... it's a shame, this,” Rye said calmly as he watched the longneck being torn apart by his lackeys. “Really, it should be Tosa in this position.”
“Shut up,” Thunderfoot growled, fighting the excruciating pain in his left side as he felt many sharp teeth digging in. “I'm glad to be in her place, then.”
Rye chuckled, then ordered the fast biters to stop digging in for now; they could kill Thunderfoot before he got his say. “Your death will be in vain. Tosa will be coming back with me, and I'll make sure she never sees Linnaea again.”
Suddenly, he was pushed into by someone. Hardly anybody had noticed a long lost loved one quickly emerging from the trees. Sorrel had used Rye's distraction to make his way over to Rye and Thunderfoot, and right now, he was furious. Rye's eyes widened in dread when he saw who was in front of him, but soon his twisted smile returned.
“Well, well, well...” he said mockingly, taking a good look at Sorrel as Tosa and Patrice stared at him with their mouths hanging open. “If it isn't the deadbeat dad of the family.”
“I think that award goes to you, does it not?” Sorrel tried to sound calm, but his anger at Rye was overwhelming. It took all of his willpower not to slam him to the ground and snap his neck.
Soon enough, the battle between the longnecks and fast biters re-commenced, but Tosa abandoned her mother and Saro in order to make her way towards her father and Rye, with a look in her eyes that had not been seen before. She was going to end this once and for all.
“I'm surprised that you're still alive, considering the grief that the little traitor must have told you about,” Rye admitted, looking frustratingly smug. “But no matter. Looks like you know you have a granddaughter, then? Too bad you'll never see her, though. She's coming back with me and I'm going to make sure that if you are ever killed, it is by her tail! And I'll make her do the same to your mate and your pathetic daughter!”
Abruptly, something else crashed into Rye, this time making him completely topple to the ground. Tosa had reached them, enraged by what she had heard coming from Rye's mouth. Even Sorrel, who was usually the most infuriated by such threats, seemed calm in comparison to his outraged daughter, and even he was disturbed by the livid look in her usually kind eyes. He hoped that Linnaea was seeing none of this.
“Don't you dare make threats about my child or my family,” she said coldly. Though not many of the carnivores that were close to Thunderfoot could understand what she was saying, the ice in her voice sent shivers up their spine.
They were even more shocked when she used all of her weight to pin him onto the ground, and she placed her foot precariously over his neck. Her snarling continued as her temper was ready to explode in his face. Rye could do whatever he wanted to her, but there was no way she would ever let him hurt her family or friends.
“Tosa!” She ignored her father's voice and she glared down at the male in front of her, fire in her eyes. For the first time, she looked ready to kill.
The fast biters backed off from Thunderfoot, only to be struck by a deadly tail. Saro had reached them, after managing to fight off most of the fast biters that were distracted by what was happening to their leader, leaving Patrice to deal with the last couple left.
For the first time in years, something flashed in Rye's eyes. He was fearful. There were only two things he was ever scared of: his father, and death. Was Tosa really going to kill him right here, right now? He had never seen such a trait in her, and never thought that he would. Nobody did.
Even though he had wanted to do this himself, Tosa's rage calmed Sorrel's own, and he had to stop his daughter from doing what she was about to do.
“Tosa,” Sorrel spoke softly, despite his own anger. “Tosa... let him go.”
She didn't answer, still growling at the downed longneck in front of her. Sorrel calmly walked up next to her. Rye had pressed his eyes shut, his breath shaky.
“Linnaea is safe. She's in a tree at the edge, and while I did try to put her in a covered spot, she still could be seeing this. Don't let Linnaea see you like this, dear,” said the older male. “Don't let her see her mother get out of control.”
At this, Tosa looked up at him, the fire slowly fading as she took a good look at her father after such a long time. She may have looked awful but he looked much worse. It was as if he had starved himself out here, and he looked tired, like he had not gotten a good night's sleep for ages. Finally, she lifted her foot away from Rye's neck and walked towards her father as Rye rolled onto his belly, breathing a sigh of relief.
When she reached him, she just wrapped her neck over his and buried her head into his skin, sobbing heavily.
Neither exchanged any words as they embraced each other, and it felt like they were in the embrace for many long minutes. Eventually, they whispered words of encouragement to each other as if they had never been separated at all. Tosa looked devastated when she eventually pulled away: firstly because her father looked so much worse since she had last saw him, and also because of what she had nearly done.
She looked at Thunderfoot briefly, who was covered in blood and was collapsed on his side. He gave her a weak smile and looked towards a tree where he could see a brown blob moving. Patrice, having fought off the remaining fast biters with relative ease, had already gone there and was retrieving Linnaea from her hiding spot.
“Go to her,” he whispered. Blood may have been dripping out from the numerous wounds on his body and he was feeling weaker and weaker as time went by, but he no longer cared. He watched her as she rushed over to her daughter and pulled her close, tears rushing down her face. Thunderfoot could only watch for a few seconds before his injuries started to get the better of him...
Saro soon dealt with any remaining fast biters and rushed to his friend's side. By then, Thunderfoot had already passed out, but his heavy breathing confirmed that he was still alive... for now.
Rye got up, relieved that he was spared, but that didn't mean he was let off. Sorrel pushed him down to the ground again, and pinned him down.
“I may have stopped Tosa,” he growled. “But I'm telling you now; you don't leave us alone, and I'll make sure your death is slow and painful. I'm not as easy to stop as she is. The only reason I didn't let her kill you is because there was an innocent child who got caught up into this who may have been watching, so you're extremely lucky. You got that?”
Rye merely nodded, and quickly headed back to the crater when Sorrel finally let him go, but that didn't stop him glaring at him as he left.
The females quickly rushed to Thunderfoot's side, only now seeing just how bad of a state he was in.
“Thunderfoot...” Gone was the pure anger and hatred Tosa had felt earlier, now replaced with guilt and grief. “Thunderfoot!” She kept crying out his name as if she were expecting him to answer, but he didn't shift a muscle.
Patrice decided that the only thing she could do was try to help Thunderfoot as much as she could. She licked his many wounds clean, despite the terrible taste of the huge amount of blood still oozing out of some of the fast biter bites and tail-whip cuts Rye had given him. Saro eventually decided to help her, and Sorrel re-joined the group and helped, too, after a brief reunion with his mate. Tosa was the only one who did nothing as she collapsed with grief. No amount of comfort from any of her family members could calm her down once she started crying.
“I only... just found him...” she sobbed at one point. “I can't... lose him... now... not again...”
Linnaea watched helplessly as her mother cried desperately. She eventually just hugged her mother's face as silent tears also fell down her face. She didn't want this tragedy after seeing such a bright future ahead of her.
“Where's Alvarez?” Sorrel finally asked, only now noticing that the little carnivore was not there. Patrice had told him about how he helped them to escape, fulfilling his promise to Sorrel.
Saro and Patrice exchanged questionable looks, but weren't sure how to answer him. Sorrel, knowing that most of Thunderfoot's injuries had been dealt with for now, left to find him, and it didn't take long. Among other downed fast biters, in a small pool of blood, Alvarez lay, his feathers tattered, his eyes barely open, and his breathing slow and heavy.
“Hiya,” he greeted with a weak grin, surprising Sorrel. “Good fight, huh?”
Sorrel didn't answer, instead looking at a heavily bleeding spot on Alvarez's chest. The longneck knew – as would any creature – that an injury such as that on a small being would probably be impossible to survive.
“Alvarez... I'm sorry,” he said quietly, feeling even more guilty for sending the fast biter in to do such dangerous work. “This shouldn't have happened.”
“I'm just glad to have been of help,” Alvarez whispered.
“Thank you,” said Sorrel. “I mean it... thank you...”
“It was my pleasure,” Alvarez answered. “It's not all bad, y'know. I'll be with my own family soon... you just go and enjoy yours.”
Sorrel just stood in silence as the fast biter's eyes slowly closed, and the smile faded from his face. The longneck stood in silence for a few moments in remembrance, then turned away from the lifeless body, feeling even worse than ever before. Never before would he have asked a fast biter of all things to help, especially not after the attack that had left him with many old scars, some of which still hurt. But Alvarez was very willing to help, and he had not let Sorrel down. He left the body there for the time being and headed back to Thunderfoot. Patrice had now found some leaves and was covering the wounds to stop any bad stuff getting in.
“We've done all we can,” Patrice admitted when her mate came back. “All we can do now is wait and hope for the best. I'd say the wounds that Rye gave to him were the worst. The fast biters luckily didn't manage to rip much flesh away, but he does have some pretty bad teeth marks.”
“Damn him,” Sorrel growled, his anger boiling up inside him again when he saw what Rye had done to his daughter's best friend. His mate could see him tensing up.
“All right, dear,” Patrice said calmly, nuzzling him. “I'm actually surprised you didn't end up killing him.”
“I honestly don't know why now,” Sorrel answered with a frown.
“For Linnaea's sake?” his mate suggested. Sorrel just nodded in reply, before looking over to his granddaughter. She had left her weeping mother alone, knowing she needed time to herself, and she was sitting silently by a small stream, looking at her reflection intently. The male's expression softened as he felt his heart beginning to break.
“Go and talk to her,” said Patrice. “I'll talk to Tosa and try and get her to calm down. Saro, will you be okay watching Thunderfoot for the time being?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure,” Saro answered, lying down next to his best friend, who was still unconscious.
Sorrel and Patrice just exchanged concerned glances before they went over to the girls, both ready for a lengthy chat.
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So there you have it! That was... intense. :blink:
Well, you guys won't be seeing Rye again in this fanfic (yay!), but that's not to say you've seen the last of him just yet... :lol
Well, lots happening here. The girls got out, fast biters were killed, Alvarez was also unfortunately killed (RIP little guy), Linnaea found Sorrel, Sorrel RETURNZ, Thunderfoot almost dies and- OH S*** ANGRY MOTHER ALERT, RUN AND HIDE! :bolt Damn, Tosa's pretty darn scary when she's mad. :o
Rye didn't get all that was coming to him, but he got a shock. Bye, you little... something! :wave
Aww... poor Thundie. Lucky he's got Patrice there to pamper him, though. I'm sure he'll be okay (if he isn't then there's absolutely no point of me writing this fic up to this point :p ).
There you go, until next chapter (don't ask me when that'll be uploaded)! It's done but I've gotta still make a good few amendments to it.
Fun fact: Sorrel was originally meant to be dead by this point, but I thought, 'Tosa's been through enough crap as it is, and I also really like this guy.' So he's staying around for a while. :DD
Fun Fact #2: Rye was going to have a change of heart in this chapter (yes, I'm serious). He was going to just let them go when Tosa shouted in his face about the importance of family, but I decided to make things more exciting by having the fight scene instead. That, and he might have a role in another story...
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Am I seeing things?
No..you're back and updating again!
By the way this is going to be the worst review ever..I'm too tired right now to go into detail
I'm glad Tosa and Thunderfoot found each other again.
Can I say, Linnaea is the cutest little thing ever? To bad she has Rye as a father, she does remind me of 'Nahla' the old version of her anyway, Rye reminds me of 'Hades'. Not sure if you meant for that to happen, but sure brings back memories of the olden days xD.
And yay the creepy old dude is dead, I didn't like him..he was a douchnozzle. To bad his son is still around.