Chapter 3:
Consequence
The fast-bitter ran swiftly through the dark underground cavern in an obvious rush. This particular fast-bitter was known as a Deinonychus to those who fight Sharpteeth often enough that a distinction needs to be made. The Deinonychus, or D-chew as many called them when pronunciation skills broke down in battle, was fairly average in every way. It was a little under eleven feet long and extremely bird like in appearance, with long brown feathers covering most of its body. Its head was drastically different from a bird though, covered in pale scales and containing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.
“This can’t be good” he muttered to himself as he rounded corner after corner, running further into the cave. It was fairly dark, but the occasional hole in the cavern ceiling allowed enough light in for the D-chew to see. “Ugh, why do we have to go so deep into these caverns?” he asked himself.
Finally the D-chew came upon another dinosaur, one that caused a momentary wave of fear. Standing before him was a massive sharptooth, more specifically Tyrannosaurus. This Tyrannosaurus, also known as a T-Rex, was around forty-two feet long form snout to tail. Its massive head had teeth nearly a foot long that could easily rip the D-chew to pieces, it had small skimpy looking two-digit arms that were surprisingly powerful for their miniscule size. In contrast to its arms the T-Rex’s legs where absolutely massive, bulging with the muscle and raw power it took to propel the seven ton behemoth. The dinosaur’s muddy brown skin blended in with the cavern wall so well that anyone who just glanced at its location wouldn’t even notice that the giant monster was there.
“What do you want?” it said in borderline disgust as it looked down at the comparatively tiny creature before it. “He wanted to see me” the D-chew answered with a quiver in his voice, in reality he was that scared of the T-Rex, as intimidating as the dinosaur was, it had no reason to harm him. “We’ll see” the creature said as it slowly turned and walked into the massive cave behind it. The D-Chew followed in his wake, dodging the occasional stalactite that was shaken loose by the massive impacts of the T-Rex’s foot.
“You can leave us now” came a voice from the pitch black corner of the cave the moment the T-Rex and D-chew had entered. The T-Rex turned and left without a word and true fear began to seep into the D-chew. The dinosaur leaving the room may appear frightening but it was an idiot and would only attack when given orders to do so. The creature hiding in the shadows was another story; the D-chew knew what it looked like and was glad he couldn’t see him now.
“I have a task for you Stoneclaw” the voice said as Stoneclaw trembled in fear realizing that the booming voice before him probably came from lungs bigger than him. “Anything you say master” Stoneclaw obediently responded, trying his best to hide his fear. “You have been to the Great Valley before, correct?” the voice asked. Stoneclaw confirmed this and the voice continued. “The Animus Benevolentia have sent a three horn to the valley to find someone, I want you to go there and find out who their looking for and why, then I want you to get rid of them, understood?” “Yes master, I understand” Stoneclaw said. “Good, now go” the voice finished and Stoneclaw quickly left, glad to be free of the cave.
Littlefoot stepped from the trees into the large clearing he and his grandparent used as a home. Usually when Littlefoot returned home this late his grandparents were already asleep, but tonight was different and as expected they were still wide awake. When they saw Littlefoot walk into the clearing they glanced at each other and walked up to their grandchild, the ground softly rumbling under their massive weight. Littlefoot sat down and waited for his grandparents to talk, uncertain of what was to come.
“Littlefoot, do you know a certain three horn named Luca who came to visit us today?” his grandfather asked. Littlefoot sighed and responded, “He actually never gave us his name, but I’m pretty sure I know who you’re talking about”. “And is what he said true, about you and Cera?” Littlefoot’s grandmother added. “Yes” Littlefoot said flatly, looking down at his paws since he couldn’t bring himself to look up at his grandparents.
His grandparents looked at each other and sighed, “We’re not angry at you Littlefoot, this is your decision, it’s just that inter-species relationships are nearly unheard of, and many view them very poorly” Littlefoot’s grandfather said, trying to cheer up his grandson. “I know, but I still don’t want to end it.” Littlefoot replied, almost pleadingly. “Well as long as you know that it isn’t the most popular thing then we are not going to stop it. It is your decision Littlefoot and we will respect that, Cera’s father on the other hand” Grandpa Longneck trailed off. “I know, it’s not going to be pretty, but Cera wanted to handle it on her own.”
At the same time that Littlefoot was talking to his grandparents, Cera entered her own clearing. She looked around quickly and saw her father sitting in the middle of the field, but both Tria and Tricia were missing. Not a good sign. Cera obediently walked up to her father and sat down next to his unusually calm form. An observer would think that Topsy wasn’t all that angry, but Cera knew her father and had to stop herself from shaking in fear. She looked up at Topsy, a very formidable sight for her to behold. At least three times her size, a mixture of dark grey and a light grey belly and skull, with three massive horns protruding from his triangular face, Topsy caused fear even in Sharpteeth.
“Is it true” he said quietly and evenly. Cera was growing increasingly fearful as the seconds went by, the longer it took for Topsy to explode, the worse the explosion would be. “Yes” Cera answered without explanation, she knew answering a yes or no question when her father was like this with anything other than yes or no was deadly. “Why Cera, why are you doing this to me?” Topsy asked, his voice filled with what sounded like defeat. Ugh Cera thought to herself, he’s trying to guilt trip me. “But-” Cera never got to finish her sentence, for the volcano that was her father blew.
“What is wrong with you Cera! This is just plain disgusting! What kind of example are you setting for your sister? You know she looks up to you, and yet you go ahead and do this! And of all the creatures in the world you choose a flathead, you might as well have fallen in love with a sharptooth! And then, as if it weren’t enough that you get into a relationship with a long neck, you choose Littlefoot, that good for nothing flathead!” Topsy finished.
Cera was shocked, her father had never exploded so loudly in her presence before. Fear overwhelmed her, freezing her to the spot. But it soon disappeared as Cera turned from a frightened little girl to a very pissed off three horn. “I don’t give about what you think” she finally said, saying each word individually and with great force. Topsy of stunned, even Cera was surprised at herself, “What did you say?” was all that he could manage to utter.
“I said that I don’t give. I have had enough of you bossing me around and forcing prejudice on me. You can’t control me, this is my life and I will live it the way I want to! And if you don’t like it than you can go fuck yourself!” Cera continued to yell, not believing it was actually her saying the words. Meanwhile Topsy just stood in place, mouth open, unable to comprehend what he was hearing.
Finally he managed to compose himself “Cera, I am you father and you will not talk to me in such a way”. “You’re not my father, not anymore!” Cera yelled right into Topsy’s face before turning and running. Topsy took a few bounds after her but then stopped at the edge of the clearing. “Fine! Run! See how much I care, go to the mysterious beyond while you’re at it, hopefully you’ll die there and save me any more humiliation!” he bellowed after her.
For Cera it was like a boulder fell on top of her. Her own father had just wished she would die; the words were still ringing in her ears, stinging worse than anything she had ever experienced. She had managed to stop herself from crying during the whole argument, but now tears flowed freely and sobs came croaking from her throat. She walked towards the mysterious beyond, considering making her father’s wish come true.
The next morning Littlefoot started with his regular routine, walking over to the secret watering hole where he and friends have eaten breakfast together for years. This time though things were a little different. Besides the obvious absence of Cera, something that wasn’t overly unusual, Spike, Petrie and Ducky weren’t eating, they were just staring at Littlefoot, anger in their faces.
“Uhhh… Hey guys” Littlefoot cautiously said, unsure of what was wrong. “You and Cera were in a relationship and neither of you told us!” Ducky finally blurted out, obviously annoyed. “Why didn’t you trust us?” Petrie added, demonstrating the increase in maturity his speaking skills have experience in the past few years. Spike’s contribution to the conversation was just a strange grumbling sound, which actually relived Littlefoot. Spike was speaking with increasing frequency as time went on but he still waited until he had something incredibly important to say before he opened his mouth. The fact that this situation did not register with Spike as important enough to gift his raspy voice onto his friends was a good sign for Littlefoot.
“We do trust you! We were going to tell you everything but then Luca showed up and we didn’t get the chance. I promise we were going to tell you guys.” Littlefoot pleaded with his friends. He needed to have somebody on his side. Ducky sighed, “I guess”. “Thanks guy-” Littlefoot couldn’t finish his sentence because the wind was knocked right out of his lungs.
Cera’s eyes opened and she saw the light of the bright circle illuminating everything around her. Than the pain came, the most excruciating pain she had ever experienced. Cera screamed at the top of her lungs, just wanting to escape her world of agony. Unfortunately the only result of the scream was a fresh wave of pain, one that forced her to slip back into unconsciousness.
Littlefoot was flying through the air, confused as to how he got there. He realized something had hit him, hard, but he had no idea what. Suddenly Littlefoot’s new found flight skills came to a sickening stop as he slammed into a tree. Littlefoot heard the large crack of a broken rib and then the searing pain of something stabbing him in the side. He fell to the ground and his long neck slung his head into the dirt, threatening to knock him out. Littlefoot shook his head, fighting the darkness that entered his vision. He slowly got up to his feet, ignoring the broken rib that was slicing the flesh in his chest cavity, and turned to face his attacker.
Standing on the spot where Littlefoot had taken off on his rib-cracking flight was Topsy, and he did not seem happy. Cera’s father was set up for a charge. He held his body low to the ground, knees bent, storing energy, the front of his paws dug more into the ground than the back so that most of the normal force would propel him forward instead of up. His head was lowered, aiming his three razor sharp horns right at Littlefoot. If any of those horns were to pierce the long neck in his belly, chest or side, Littlefoot would be done.
Littlefoot knew it would be pointless to fight back. As much as he hated to admit it he couldn’t even win a fight against Cera, and her father was considerably larger. “Please, sir, don’t do this.” Littlefoot pleaded, unsure of what to do. “You have poisoned my daughter’s mind and tarnished my family’s name, and now you will pay” Topsy yelled, shaking with anger. He started to bound forward, picking up speed as he went. Spike, Ducky and Petrie stood frozen in fear, unable to help their friend. Littlefoot shut his eyes and braced for the impact, waiting for the end to come, but it didn’t.
“Stop!” Littlefoot heard a small feminine voice call out in front of him. He opened his eyes and saw Tricia standing between him and her father. The young three horn looked much like a miniature version of her sister. She had the same body shape and form, but her eyebrow horns were not yet visible, and she was roughly half Cera’s size. She was a dark pink with a pale belly and was still far from her teenaged graying. Then again her mother, Cera’s stepmother, was one of the few three horns who never end up graying out, so Tricia could stay pink for the rest of her life.
Despite her small size and innocent color patterns she was surprisingly forceful when she had yelled stop. At the sight of his youngest daughter yelling at him, Topsy firmly planted his heals into the soft dirt, bleeding off the massive amount of momentum his enormous size had provided. He eventually skidded to a halt a few feet in front of Littlefoot and Tricia and stared down at his daughter, his face still clearly showing his anger. Usually just the sight of his youngest was enough to put Topsy out of any foul mood, but the three horn had never been this pissed off in his life.
“Get out of the way Tricia” Topsy said firmly to his daughter. “No daddy! What is wrong with you?” Tricia yelled back, tears now flowing from her eyes. Topsy’s face softened slightly, but the anger was still there. “Tricia, please.” He pleaded with his daughter.
“Topsy Three Horn, what do you think you are doing?” came a familiar voice from behind Topsy. Walking from the woods was Cera’s stepmother, Tria. Tria was a fully mature three horn, a little smaller than Topsy, who had a dark pink color very similar to her daughters. Her belly was paler than the rest of her body, as with most dinosaurs.
“Did you know Tricia overheard your argument with Cera last night?” Tria continued, obviously annoyed. Shock crossed Topsy’s face, “I didn’t know-” “What you don’t know is how to handle this situation correctly. Who cares if Cera is in a relationship with a long neck? I know where you come from, where we come from, and it was a place of prejudice where killing for this sort of thing was the norm. But we have come a long way since then, we don’t wake up every morning wondering if we’re seeing our last sunrise. These children live peacefully in a valley filled with dinosaurs of other species their age. It is understandable that some could fall in love with each other, and no, it’s not the most popular thing, but you’re the only one taking it to such an extreme. You have hurt this poor little long neck and you have hurt your own daughter’s feelings and now you’re going to come with me and find her so you can apologize.” Tria finally finished.
Topsy’s face melted, the anger completely gone. The transition actually amazed Littlefoot. He was awed at the fact that Tria could get Topsy to calm down so easily, it was an amazing accomplishment. But instead of guilt and embarrassment, horror now stretched across Topsy’s face. “You mean she didn’t come to you last night?” he said slowly, his voice full of fear. “No, but she’s ran away before, why are you so concerned this time?” Tria responded obviously concerned by Topy’s fear. “Well… I may have said… that I wish she would go the mysterious beyond…and die…” Topsy responded like a little child that has done something wrong.
A collective gasp came from the dinosaurs in the clearing. Littlefoot couldn’t believe what Topsy had done to his daughter, it was just wrong on so many levels. Tria was starting to shake with anger, an emotion Littlefoot had never seen the three horn go through before. “Ok, I am so mad right now I can’t even think straight. I will deal with you later, but please tell me why you are so worried because of this.” Tria said in a seemingly calm voice, in reality though it was thinly veiled anger; Littlefoot concluded that Tria was trying to spare Tricia from having to see her parents fight anymore. “I’m afraid she might try and fulfill my wish” Topsy responded quietly.
“No”
Littlefoot was running full speed to keep up with the rest of them, ignoring the sharp pain in the side. He had already told Topsy and Tria about the secret entrance to the Great Valley and they had decided Cera left through there and not the main entrance where the on duty guard would have seen her. Littlefoot couldn’t think straight, he didn’t want to think straight, the implications were too big. An outsider would think that Cera hated her father but in reality the exact opposite was true. She strived for her father’s acceptance, his love, but Topsy was not an easy three horn to please.
The pain in Littlefoot’s side began to subside. At first it seemed like a blessing but Littlefoot knew the truth, the adrenaline pumping through his veins was blocking the pain, damage was still being done and Littlefoot would feel it later. He didn’t care though, Cera could be hurt, or worse, and he had to get to her.
Petrie was in the lead and he burst through a bush that seemed to be sitting in front of a solid rock wall. This bush was actually the entrance to the secret passageway in and out of the valley that Littlefoot and his friends had found a couple years ago. Littlefoot already knew what to expect. The small cave that ran through the ridge surrounding the valley lead out to tiny plateau with a shear drop directly opposite of the valley, in order to get down the gang always had to take a gently sloping ramp to the right.
Petrie had turned right immediately after exiting the cave out of habit, and the rest followed him, except for Littlefoot. He ran straight to the edge a couple yards away and looked down, praying not to see what he knew was there. His heart sank.
Several yards below him was the sprawled form of a three horn. “Cera!” Littlefoot yelled out in desperation, but the dinosaur lying on the floor below him didn’t move. Littlefoot looked back at the others who were running down the ramp at full speed. He then looked to his left, there was a spot that wasn’t a shear drop, it was still dangerously steep but Littlefoot felt he could make it.
He shifted his weight down and back, storing the energy in his knees as if they were springs. He then straightened his legs unleashing the stored force and sending him into the air. Littlefoot landed on the sloping edge and felt a jolt of pain as the shock ran up his body and caused his broken rib to stab further into his gut. The moment of fresh pain made Littlefoot lose focus, slip, and begin tumbling down the steep slope.
Littlefoot finally came to a stop. He lifted his head with a groan and looked at Cera lying next to him. He felt a wave of nausea and quickly turned away forcing himself to swallow the bile rising in his throat. He didn’t want anyone to know sickly he felt from the site of Cera’s body.
She was lying on her left side in a small pool of her own blood; the dirt was stained with it. Her right hind leg was bent at an unnatural angle and Littlefoot could see the bone sticking out from under the skin. Other than the leg, and what must be some gash underneath her that was the source of the blood, she actually didn’t look too bad. That was until Littlefoot noticed that her chest wasn’t moving.
The long neck scrambled to his feet and nearly fell again from a new jolt of pain. He looked down at his side and saw his milky white rib just starting to poke out from underneath the skin. He ignored it and hobbled over to Cera’s head, leaning in listening to see if she was breathing. She wasn’t.
Tears began to fill Littlefoot’s eyes, but instead of grief Littlefoot felt himself become overcome with anger, anger at Cera. Littlefoot started beating the three horn’s chest in frustration. Topsy, Tria, Spike, Ducky and Petrie arrived and stood in silence watching the pathetic scene in front of them. But the punishment Littlefoot was dealing to Cera’s body was a blessing in disguise. The repeated concussion on the three horn’s chest triggered a coughing reflex. Cera let out a cough and a large glob of congealed blood came out with it. After a large, gasping breath Cera began to breathe again.
The three horn looked up at Littlefoot, “Hey” she managed to croak. Littlefoot couldn’t help but smile from the relief he was feeling. “You’re an idiot, you know that right?” he replied back to her. “Ha, ya, I know” Cera said before closing her eyes and slipping back into unconsciousness.
“She’s alive” Littlefoot said to the others as they gathered around Cera. “Let’s get her to The Healer” He added. “I think we need to get you The Healer, we do, we do” Ducky said. “What? I’m fine” Littlefoot responded, trying to shrug off Ducky’s concern. “Littlefoot, look down” Petrie added to the conversation. Littlefoot did look down and saw the pool of his own blood that was slowly growing in size. I completely forgot about my rib was the last thing Littlefoot thought before his world turned black.
Littlefoot groaned and slowly opened his eyes. For a few seconds he lay on the ground in relative comfort, some sort of moss acting as a cushion beneath him, but the pain soon came. He tried to hold it back, but a gasp escaped his mouth alerting the large big mouth in front of him.
The big mouth was only known by her title, The Healer. She had shown up at the Great Valley a couple years ago with an amazing knowledge of dinosaur biology and the healing powers of various plants. She was quite and kept to herself, completely ignoring any non medical questions or conversation. But if someone was hurt she would do her best to help them without asking for anything in return.
“It may have felt like the rib had broken off completely and made a fairly large mess in your chest but it wasn’t nearly that bad. It only partially cracked and moved just enough to stick out from the skin. I’ve pushed it back into place and you should be fine in a couple weeks” was all The Healer had to say before turning away. “Wait! What about Cera?” Littlefoot called back to her. “She’s alive” The Healer responded before walking behind a boulder and out of sight.
Littlefoot examined his surrounding and recognized where he was. The Healer made her nest in a small clearing surrounded by six spaces enclosed by boulders and dense vegetation. The enclosed spaces were used as patient rooms and gave the sick some privacy while they recuperated. Littlefoot recognized this space in particular; he was treated in the same patient clearing when he had received his semi-circle scar a little more than a year ago.
The long neck turned to look at the damage on his own person but realizes the wound isn’t visible. The Healer had rapped Littlefoot’s body with several enormous leaves, held in place by vines, that was pasted in a thick sticky resin. The resin was hard and made the leaves rigid. This prevented Littlefoot’s chest from moving too much when breathed or walked around so the broken rib would stay in place and heal. The long neck gingerly rose to his feet and began to walk around, to his relief he no longer experienced the sensation of a knife moving through his chest. He slowly walked over to the next patient clearing, the one The Healer had walked over to, and gazed at the scene before him.
Right next to him were two small piles of a dense sponge-like moss used as bandaging in larger gashes. One pile contained fresh unused moss, while the other was soaked in blood. In the middle of the clearing was Cera, lying on a bed of moss similar to the one Littlefoot woke up on. She was unconscious, but breathing. A short but thick piece of wood was tied to her broken leg, keeping it immobile. A leaf and resin setup, similar to Littlefoot’s, was wrapped around her body, stopping the bleeding from the large gash Littlefoot knew she had.
There were two other dinosaurs in the clearing. The Healer stood on the far side by a tree, her body obscuring whatever she was working on. Cera’s only other visitor at the moment was her sister Tricia. The little three horn was curled up next to her older sister sleeping gently. As Littlefoot slowly moved closer Tricia woke up. She looked up at the long neck and her tail began to wag energetically.
Tricia expressed herself through her tail. It wagged when she was happy, stood at attention when she was scared, and drooped when she was sad. If she was an artist, her tail was her brush. It moved in beat with her voice when she talked or sang, and she sang quite often. It was as important as any facial expression when determining her emotions, and right now it was telling Littlefoot that she was happy to see him.
“Hey Littlefoot!” she said with no evidence of her sister’s dire condition in her voice. “Hey” Littlefoot responded with a slightly somber tone after watching Tricia’s tail make a unique movement for each syllable either dinosaur uttered. “The Healer said Cera going to be okay” Tricia happily announced while looking down upon her older sister. “She will be fine in a few weeks, if she wakes up” The Healer interrupted from the background. “If she wakes up?” Littlefoot inquired. “They sometimes don’t” The Healer finished before walking out of the clearing.
Tricia seemed to ignore the comment and continue staring at her sister. “Clumsy Cera, I can’t believe she fell off a cliff like that” she said. Littlefoot’s heart sank a little. Obviously nobody had told her the truth. It was actually expected, she was too young to understand suicide, plus the shock that her sister wanted to kill herself would have been too much for the young three horn.
Littlefoot looked at Cera’s sleeping form. The love he had felt just the day before wasn’t there anymore. Instead all Littlefoot could feel was disgust. She had acted like a coward, taking the easy way out of her problems. But Littlefoot didn’t like feeling this way. He wanted to love her again, so he pointed his anger at someone else. “Luca” Littlefoot muttered, his teeth clenched in anger.
Littlefoot found Luca munching on some treestars by the river. He wanted to make a dramatic entrance, pushing Luca around, but unfortunately for Littlefoot the three horn had several hundred pounds of extra mass on him. “You see what you’ve done? She tried to kill herself!” he yelled at Luca from a safe distance. “Yes, pathetic isn’t it?” Luca responded without so much as pausing during his feeding. “No, it-” but Littlefoot was interrupted, “Yes, would be the correct answer. You came to me because you want to blame me, but it’s not my fault. What I did may have been a little wrong, it’s debatable, but her reaction, and the reaction of her father, was completely out of my control” Luca finished, his attention now fully focused on Littlefoot.
Littlefoot knew it was the truth, and it stung. As much as hated himself for feeling this way, he wanted nothing to do with Cera or her father. He just wanted to get away. “When do we leave again?” he asked. Luca smiled, “Look up”. Littlefoot followed Luca’s order and saw a black circle slowly covering up the sun.
“We go now” Luca said. “But my ribs” Littlefoot responded. “We’ll go slowly, you’ll heal in time” the three horn responded, shrugging off the long neck’s concern. “I have one question before we leave, why did we wait for the bright circle to turn black before going? We could have left earlier and given ourselves more time” Littlefoot asked his new travelling partner. The three horn stopped for a second, than continued walking. I guess he’s not going to answer that question either.
Author's note:
" 'I lose my temper, but it's all over in a minute,' said the student. 'So is the Hydrogen bomb,' I replied. 'But think of the damage it produces!' "
-George Sweeting
