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4096

O?

Human

E?

Chapter 5

“Well, I am not looking forward to that.” Grandma took a deep breath. “Please tell me they are aware of how poorly it reflects on them to already ask for our return for things...”
“The President certainly does.” To the eternal worry of her guards, Mary had settled on the back of the resting Longneck. The group had arrived in the Valley quickly so they had immediately gone to business. “But he is being outvoted by the others. To his eternal frustration… Don’t tell anyone I said that.”
“Do we all have to go?” Pterano was sitting on Tria, looking up at the human. “Some of us can’t afford to leave already again...” The adults were pretty certain he was referring to the two Threehorns, but he gestured to Grandma Longneck for the sake of any children that might sneakily be listening in and who were currently still unaware of exactly how bad the situation in the Threehorn-family was. “Forgive me for assuming, but Grandpa Longneck does not look anywhere fully recovered yet. Will he be able to handle his wife leaving again already?”
“Oh, I am sure we can arrange something.” Mary looked down. “Besides, if you say you’ll come at some point, it doesn’t need to be like… right now.”
“This is really something we need to talk to our spouses about.” Hadria softly said, looking to where the children were with said spouses. It had taken the females all of five seconds to tell how tense the present guests were making their husbands, so they had compromised by ensuring that at least the children were not ‘under threat’. “Mary, we disappeared for changes of the Night Circle… they had had us back for mere days. Short of – no offence, Pterano – Pterano because he is single none of us will be able to leave for quite a while without risking the mental well-being of our mates.”
“You perhaps can’t tell, but they are tense as if they are expecting Red Claw to jump from behind the nearest tree.” Tyra confirmed. “Which is really weird for Rec, but that aside...”
“Perhaps the compromise would be to have them come here.” Tria suggested, despite knowing several of their mates would hardly react better to a large group of humans appearing. “Meet up outside the Valley for whatever they want from us. We don’t have to leave to the future and they can still meet.” She looked over at the two guards with something of a flat stare.
“I’ll suggest it.” The human carefully slid down the large grey back. “Can’t make any promises though. It’ll be a majority-thing.”
“We know the problems of that.” Hadria assured her with annoyance clearly audible. The rest knew she was thinking back to the first time Pterano had been at the Valley, where her daughter had been lost and all the grown-ups had been unable to assist because they were too busy arguing with the old Threehorn.
“See if you can arrange for it, though.” Grandma’s long neck turned to look at her own husband, who while somewhat stronger, was still disturbingly thin for an adult Longneck. In the end, it might well take him months to return to a healthy weight. It was far easier to lose weight than it was to regain it.
“Yes, ma’am.” The human nodded lightly. “My grandfather will certainly help me.”
“He better.” Tyra muttered, rising to her feet gracefully. “So how long can you stay here?”
“The portal is back online in three hours.” One of the soldiers answered.
“Which… means?” The Sharptooth dryly muttered. Even after all the time they had been there, the ways of telling time humans used were still strange and – most importantly – not feasible for dinosaurs.
“A good while, if the journey out is as quick as the journey in was.” Mary translated.
“The children will love that. Littlefoot has been eager to show off his home just about since he got home.”
“Spike as well… Mostly the food-parts, though.” The rising of their wives seemed to relax the small group of dinosaurs in the distance. “Try not to eat them just as such.”
Some early attempts had proven that what dinosaurs found edible did not exactly mesh with what humans thought was edible.

D?

They had heard his words, carried in their direction by the wind. Grandma came to a sudden stop and then turned around to leave once more. She walked just a touch too fast to hide that she was fleeing the scene. Grandpa watched her go even as the rest gathered around his son.

"Ater, is this necessary?" He demanded when he joined the group. "It'll only worsen things."

"And this silence is not?" The younger male counter-asked, his visage softening. "There is so much hate here, father. It hurts me to see mother like this. This is not her."

"Her hate will not lessen with more knowing." It was Tria's grandfather that spoke up. "We both know my sins, Longneck. She will not forgive."

"Perhaps not." Ater sighed softly. "But she might be more bearable."

The Longneck looked at the old Threehorn then, studying him with a gaze of grief and anger. Grandpa too looked at him. "Did you ever regret it?"

"Every day." Came the answer. "There was not a day that I regretted what had happened, not a day where I wished I could have changed it all."

"Tell them if you wish." Grandpa murmured. "But I have a wife to console."

"What happened?" It was Cera that asked the inevitable question for the umpteenth time.

"I cost them their first nest." The old male whispered. "I killed their first-born save for Ater here."

"What?" Tria whispered. "How?"

"Cowardice at the wrong moment." Her grandfather whispered. "It happened when I was still young, barely an adult. The land was still green back then."

He sighed softly. "The herd I belonged to had taken a rest near a fast water. So had theirs." He nodded in the general direction of the elder Longneck.

"There was a lower section at the water's edge." Grandpa mused as he remembered that time. "It was sheltered with thorny bushes and steep sides. It was unlikely that Sharpteeth would be able to get down it or try to cross the water."

"Both herds let their children play there." The old Threehorn added. "It was safe for them. Then came a day when I strayed from my herd. I was attacked by a pack of Fast Biters. In a blind panic I fled: there were simply too many for me to take on. I intended to get to the herd, have their numbers offer me protection."

He fell silent briefly. "I went the wrong way. In my panic, they had managed to cut me off. So I took a second option: the river. It was such a wild one, I knew they would not be able to cross it after me. I was not even certain I could cross it, for that matter. But anything was better than to be eaten. Or so I thought. But the edges near where we were, were steep and high, save for that one spot where we let the children play."

He turned his blind face to Grandpa. "I thought none would be there, I hoped it. I barrelled straight through it and managed to cross the river. It was only when I reached the other side I realized something: there had been children."

He shuddered. "They were trapped with the Fast Biters. Having lost me, they attacked the next best thing: the hatchlings they found. The youngsters screamed for help, but I was frozen in fear and horror."

"But Grandma did hear." Grandpa whispered. "She told me she heard the children cry for help and rushed there."

"I saw her. She was quick…" His remaining eye pressed closed. "She could do nothing. She was too big to fit down into the lowered part. She could only watch helplessly as the Sharpteeth killed them all… and then she noticed me. I will never forget her eyes when she realized I had been there the entire time, in fact had been the reason that sanctuary had turned into a dead-trap and had done nothing."

He turned his blind eyes to Ater. "Only one child managed to by-pass the Sharpteeth and reach safety, though badly wounded. The others were slaughtered."

Ater nodded sadly while looking at his many scars. "Mother was devastated. Three complete clutches, reduced to one survivor barely clinging to his life. She feared I would succumb to my wounds, but despite that she left me with her sister. Only later did I realize she had gone to kill the ones responsible. Including the Threehorn that had caused the tragedy."

"Yes…" He lifted his front-leg, resting it briefly against the horrible wound on the side of his face. "I barely escaped her and for weeks, I was followed by a pack of Fast Biters who were just waiting for me to succumb to my wounds. But I survived. By then I was completely lost. I joined another herd, but never saw my own family again…"

"It took her Cold Times before she dared try have another nest." Grandpa looked away, towards where his wife was standing. "For a long time, she was hostile against any Threehorn we encountered. For many changes of the Night Circle, I feared I would lose her to grief."

"You weren't there when it happened?" Littlefoot hesitantly asked his grandfather.

"No." He shook his head. "The route we used to take back then got treacherous shortly after the stop at that Fast Water. We always send a couple of males ahead to check its' safety. I had been one of the males send out that year. I only found out what had happened when I returned several days later."

N?

Chapter 3

Tria gasped at that, rushing over to the children herself. Ducky’s mother quickly made way for the horned dinosaur, her face being a touch too close to stabbing-height of a mother who had different priorities to aiming now.
“Why would you do that?” Grandma Longneck demanded sharply as Chomper’s mother readjusted herself, clearly intending to stay in an attack-ready position.
“Give me one good reason why I ought to let her keep it!” The dark-grey male countered angrily, having shaken off the discomfort of Littlefoot near-blinding him. “You are back, there’s no need for it.”
“I thought you objected to causing death.” Pterano landed on the female Longneck. “These stones can’t just be removed like that.”
“Which is why I tried to stop you!” Littlefoot called out, even as his grandmother headed over to him more calmly than Tria had. The older Longneck reached down, pressing her head against her grandchild’s to calm him down.
The tall Sharptooth towered over them all, red eyes narrowed. “Perhaps we should have taken the offer to remove these for the children before resettling here...”
“Hindsight is usually annoying.” The male flyer looked down on the children in question. “We should do some explaining however, Grandma. What would have happened had Littlefoot not had his own abilities to slow him down?”
“It certainly seems so.”
“Dear?” Grandpa looked between the Sharptooth and his wife, feeling somewhat confused as to how exactly they understood each other. After all, they had not been alone together for that long.
“Let’s move this to the stone circle.” Mrs. Swimmer gently lifted Tricia on her mother’s snout. “This will be a long story, depending on how elaborate we’re going to make it.” She led her son away from the scene, her family following hesitantly.
Old Threehorn almost looked like he would refuse, but the fact that his family did follow her meant he had little choice.
“I wonder if we’d ever have a calm Cold Time?” Littlefoot couldn’t help asking when his grandmother lifted him onto her back as Pterano flew up to make space for the youngster.
“Never.” Grandpa chuckled softly, walking between the two elder females. “I only hope that this will all be worth the trouble.”
“We’ll see about that.” His mate muttered, eyes narrowed a touch as she looked at the dark-grey form ahead of them. “At least we’re all back again?”
The talking took the better part of the rest of the day, old Threehorn being as accepting and accommodating as usual. Tellingly, Tria was surprisingly quiet as that all went down.
“Out of curiosity, are things alright?” Tyra had semi-ambushed the pink female.
“He tried to tear out his daughter’s stone… of course they are not.” Tria looked up at the light-green female standing nearby.
“Threehorn, I might not be the most social dinosaur, simply because Sharpteeth are not social, but even I can tell it’s more than that.” Chomper’s mother snarled. “Don’t make me get Hadria or the old Longneck.”
“Things are not that bad, I assure you.” The Threehorn settled down on the grassy hill. Confirming the other’s suspicions, the rest of the family was nowhere near. For the time-being, Tricia would stay away from her father until he calmed down about things. Cera had promptly declared she’d stay with her sister. Tria meanwhile had almost retreated to her mud-pools, staying with neither of them.
“Pull the other one, please.” Tyra’s eyes narrowed. “If there’s one thing I am good at, it’s catching fear and all those other emotions that would make for good prey-targets. You are afraid of your mate, Tria and I’m pretty certain it wasn’t just because he nearly killed your daughter. Why?”
“You are not going to leave until I talk to you, are you?” Blue eyes met blood-red.
“Of course. You lot do so appreciate talking. I was in the circle as well, even if I didn’t understand half of it myself.” The Sharptooth settled down beside her, shifting a bit to get comfortable on the hilly bit of the grassy field. “Talk to me, Threehorn. I will get one of the others if you won’t. Or worse, my husband will come over demanding I get back to him.”
“He’s just being himself.” Tria mused. “Which everyone can tell you means he’s distrustful of anything strange and which he is simply unused to. Heavily traditionalist and stubborn.” She looked up into a nearby tree, where Pterano had been sitting ever since the Sharptooth had come upon her. It was a given that he’d probably inform the Longnecks the moment talks here ended. She had felt their gazes on her during the entire debacle at the Stone Circle… “Which means this entire thing is beyond what he knows how to deal with. He is distrustful of me… of all of us, I guess, but me in particular.”
“Which is why he wanted to bring your daughter back to her… original state?” The other female supplied.
“Yes. He… doubts we are who we were before this entire mess.” Tria sighed in defeat. “It’s… painful to have him state that to my face. I’m just happy the girls had fallen asleep before that went down.”
“He has serious issues, I swear.” Pterano’s voice floated over, carried on a gentle breeze. Tria seemed not to hear, though he could tell that Tyra with her predatory hearing had caught it.