The Mystery of the Blackweeds

[Allicloud]

Well, I said I'd do it, so here it is: Based off the own characters I designed, my first Land Before Time fanfic.

Chapter 1: Prelude to the mystery

Possibly the strangest part of the Mystery of the Blackweeds was the way it all began. Nothing to anticipate the turn of events. No signs, no premonitions. It all started like any other day in the Great Valley.

The sky was clear, the sky-puffies notably absent, the grass was green, the inhabitants, those proud, majestic creatures, the Dinosaurs, as blissfully unaware as always of the impending turn of events. The Flyers flew in the sky, the swimmers paddled playfully in the ponds, the Threehorns found more and more ways to argue with the Longnecks, and the children played blissfully and energetically, as always.

This morning in particular, Litlefoot and his friends had discovered a colossal melon at the base of a tree. How it came to be there was a mystery, since it was still hard and unripe. But they took the opportunity when they saw it, and soon a game of kicking the melon to eachother ensued.

"Over here Spike! To me!"

Spike obediently butted the melon with his forehead, towards Cera. She in turn, kicked it to Littlefoot. He skillfully manouevred the melon with his tail, in and out of the clumps of long grass. He would have made it towards the pair of trees serving as a goal, had he not been skilfully tackled from behind by Ruby.

"Heh, you have to be faster if you want to go faster than me!" she cried back as she turned the melon away from the goal, kicking it over to Chomper. And with a mighty boot, the melon was away from the goal and back into play!

The game went back and forth for hours, the playing field moving with them. Every time they scored a goal, they would allocate a new goal, farther away. The game was fully underway, and all were fully into it. So into it, in fact, that none seemed to notice how high up they had moved.

Until, that is, a well aimed push by Ducky sent the melon inbetween the two rocks which formed the goal, and down the other side of the mountain ridge. The very ridge that formed the wall betwen the Valley and what lay beyond.

"Oops..."

Littlefoot, Chomper and Cera peeked over the rocks to see where the melon had gone. The trees were too dense to see for sure.

"Great!" the young Threehorn muttered, "That was our last good fruitball, and now we've lost it!"

"I am sorry, I am, I am!" Ducky cried, "But I did not realise we were up so high."

"She right! Even me not notice, and me could see everything from up high" Petried added, hovering a few meters off the ground. A sudden gust of wind picked up, and he quickly returned to the ground.

"You only ever notice something like that when you see it. And I didn't see it at all." Ruby piped in.

"So now what do we do?" Chomper asked, sitting on a nearby rock.

Littlefoot paced back and forth a few times, trying to come up with some idea of where they could get a new fruitball. Most of the other ones on the ground were too squishy to play with, and the ones in the tree would be hard to get down.

"Why don't we just go get it back?"

Petrie looked at Cera as if she had just suggested murder. "Go down there?! Into Mysterious Beyond?! No way, too dangerous!"

But Cera was adamant "Look, it's not that far down, and since it's a valley, the fruit probably rolled really close to the wall anyway. We could go down there and get it back before anyone knows we're gone!"

The gang looked to Littlefoot. He looked back into the valley, and saw that most of the grownups were over by the Thundering falls, well away. Turning back to his friends, he nodded reluctantly.

"Alright, but who goes? We need to think this through."

Within a few minutes, it was decided. Ducky and Cera would keep a lookout in case the grownups approached, from atop the ridge. Littlefoot and Spike would wait halfway down the slope, ready to help if anything went awry. Petrie would fly above them all, keeping a lookout for where the fruitball may have gone, as well as whether any sharpteeth were around.

Chomper and Ruby, having once been residents of the Beyond themselves, were given the task of actually going into the Beyond to retrieve the fruit. The other leaf-eaters would look a bit conspicuous, but Chomper was a Sharptooth himself, and Ruby a Fast-Biter, so if they encountered any creatures, they might be able to talk their way out of it.

And so they went to work, scouring the rocky canyons and wastes just by the Great Wall, all the while keeping an eye out for any movement.

"Chomper, I'll look this way. You try over by the wall."

Chomper nodded, sniffing for any scent of the aromatic fruit. Suddenly, he stopped stock still. He knew that smell for sure; The fruitball was so close! He ran in the direction of the smell, which got stronger and stronger with every step. He rounded a corner, the smell was so strong he felt like he'd be sick!
Turning another corner, and there it was! Perched among a crop of boulders, just atop the shortest one, the fruitball rested, pierced slightly by a spike of rock.

Grinning with satisfaction, he looked up. There was Petrie, a tiny speck in the sky, flying steadily, which could only mean that there was no trouble abound. As he turned his head back to the ground, he noticed another, larger flyer in the sky. It flew slowly, gliding on an air current, not too far from Petrie, not really moving anywhere. However, Petrie did not seem to react, so it couldn't be a problem.
Shrugging, he scampered up towards the rocks where the fruitball lay. His feet trampled the shale and slate underfoot, causing him to slip momentarily. But he regained his balance and continued on. Looking for a better footing, he moved towards a flat piece of stone, larger than the others, and placed a foot on it. It wobbled a bit, then was still. he placed another foot on it.
The stone held his weight for only a moment, before it gave under him, burying him in slate and gravel.

Chomper screamed for help, but only recieved a mouthful of grit in reply. Spitting it out, his eyesight became blurred. Looking skyward, he saw Petrie suddenly stop in the sky and flutter about in a panic. Obviously he had seen it, Chomper thought to himself. However, his relief turned to exhaustion as he felt the weight of the rock crushing the air from his lungs.

He noted two things before he blacked out. One, that Petrie finally seemed to notice the other flyer in the sky, as the larger of the two suddenly turned and flew towards the rest of the Mysterious Beyond. The second thing was that as well as the darkness of the rocks, he could see the sillhouette of strange figures, peering in through the gap in the rocks. Their eyes stood out in the darkness, one pair were red, one pair yellow, and the third pair a dark brownish-grey.

That was all he noted, before he blacked out.

[LBTDiclonius]

Suspense!!!! So far, I'm liking it, I do hope you continue, you're a pretty good author and you have a pretty interesting story there, so I say, update soon!

[Adder]

Suspense!!!! So far, I'm liking it, I do hope you continue, you're a pretty good author and you have a pretty interesting story there, so I say, update soon!

 

[vonboy]

I'm liking it so far. Pretty exciting.

I think having lookouts for the grownups is kinda funny actually .

[Allicloud]

Chapter 2

A great cloud of dust arose from the ridge as Littlefoot and Spike scrambled to the top of the ridge. As their forepaws finally reached the top of the ridge, they were relieved to see Ducky and Cera rush to meet him.

"Littlefoot! What's going on?" Cera asked, as she helped pull him atop the ridge. He tried his best to relate what Petrie had told him, but he was so out of breath, all he could manage was a hoarse "...Chomper!" before h collapsed, completely winded, along the equally exhausted Spike.

Ducky turned to Cera, a look of worry on her face "What do you think happened?"

Luckily, Petrie swooped down from the sky to land beside them "It Chomper! He in big trouble!"

Cera peered out across the Beyond "Where? What happened?"

"He look for fruitball near big pile of rocks, when it fall! Right ontop of him!!"

Ducky gasped "Oh, no no no! That is not good!"

"What about Ruby?"

As if on cue, Ruby's head peeked over the top of the ridge "Here I am! Petrie told me the news before he went to tell you the news!"

"We gotta get him back! C'mon!" Cera shouted, as she headed won the ridge herself. She would have gotten all the way, had Ducky and Ruby not accosted her half way.

"But Cera, Chomper is in the Mysterious Beyond! It is dangerous!" Ducky reasoned, as Ruby tried to hold Cera back

"And that's why we have to help him!" Came Littlefoot's voice from atop the ridge. He and Spike slid down the ridge to where the others were waiting, now fully recovered. "We can't leave Chomper out there alone! What if he runs into another Sharptooth, like Redclaw or something?"

Spike nodded, stomping his way past the others and down the slope. Ducky trusted her brother's instincts, they had steered them well before, and followed. Behind her, Littlefoot, Cera and Ruby hurried, with Petrie flying above.

"Me show you where it happened! But we gotta be quick before grownups find out we gone!"

Littlefoot inwardly agreed, and quickened his pace. As they reached the opening to the twisted rocky gorges and wastes of the Beyond, he kept a sharp eye out for any movement, ready to point it out, be it Chomper, or something less friendly.
He gazed up to the sky, where he could see Petrie soaring a few meters above their head, leading the way.

Within minutes, they had found the clearing, with the ledge, where the melon lay crushed by a boulder bigger than Spike. The landslide had been a big one, and Ruby wasted no time in digging away at the rock and shale that buried her friend.

Ducky and Cera were quickly at her side, the former pushing as much of the gravel as she could away, the latter pushing as many of the bigger rocks as she could down the hill. Spike joined the effort, working alongside Cera, and Littlefoot did his best to clear the rubble from the base, all the while calling out to Chomper

"Chomper! Chomper ,can you hear me? Say something if you can!"

"Oh, this is my fault!" Ruby moaned as she stubbed a finger on a particularly stubborn rock "He'd never have been trapped on his own if I was there with him!"

"Don't...Blame....Yourself..." Cera grunted between pushes, as she and Spike sent another boulder rolling to Littlefoot, who cleared it to the side "If you had been wit him, you would just be trapped too!"

"But at least then Chomper would not be alone." Ducky piped up, as she scrabbled away at a makeshift tunnel through the dirt and gravel.

Petrie watched from above, as his friends worked diligently away, knowing that any hesitation would spell instant doom for poor Chomper. Strange, Petrie thought to himself. he was certain that this was the pile of rocks that had buried him, and it didn't exactly fall right ontop of him, so he couldn't be that deep in the rock. Yet no matter how much they dug, no matter how much they reduced the heap, no sign of Chomper came up.
However, his musings were cut short as he saw a shadow coming round the bend towards the clearing. He cried out in shock and hurried towards the ground to warn the others.

"AAGH! Sharpteeth coming! Hurry!" he screamed as he swooped overhead, keeping his eye on the silhouetted mass coming ever nearer.

Littlefoot halted or a moment as he heard Petrie’s cry, then doubling his efforts at digging. He cried out in pain as his foot hit something far more solid than a boulder. He had dug straight through the pile of rocks, right to the foot of the cliff, and still no sign of Chomper.

"Guys! Chomper's not in here!" he shouted to the others, as he looked back to the shadowy form appearing round the bend. He lowered his head as Ducky climbed onto his back, and after looking back to check the others were on their way, he hurried towards the way they came, back to the Valley.

Inside, Littlefoot was seething with anger at himself. Here he was, fleeing from danger, when one of his friends might be in even greater danger! He just hoped Chomper would be able to forgive him.

His musings were, however, cut short as he was met with a wall of rock. He had taken a wrong turn! Worse still, he had led his friends the wrong way as well!

"Oh no,no, no!" came the terrified squeak from Ducky, on his back. They looked frantically for another way, even attempting to scrabble up the wall. But it was no use, as he slid down to earth.
Cera and Spike came cannoning round the bend into him and Ducky, and they collapsed into a heap at the base of the sheer cliff that lay before them, followed close behind by Ruby and Petrie.

"Ohh, we trapped!" Petrie groaned as he covered his eyes and buried his face in Spike's back.

The young dinosaurs huddled together in fear, their eyes closed, as the menacing sound approached. Ruby hazarded a peek, and saw that it was more than one figure. She could discern a group of several dinosaurs, of varying size, both bipedal and quadruped. Strange, she thought, that a group of Sharpteeth could be so varied. Or maybe they had just attracted all the solitary Sharpteeth from around. But it mattered little. They were trapped, they had no idea where Chomper was, and the group of creatures were getting closer every second. She closed her eyes, only hearing the sound of their stomping feet.

Then the stomping stopped. She felt the warmth of a paw touching her back, and heard a voice.

"Okay, you can relax now."

She slowly looked up, and found herself lstaring into a pair of big, red, bloodshot eyes.







[Also, if anybody is interested, I am looking for a talented writer to help with this project. I am considering including songs in this story, and I have a basic idea of what the songs will be about and where in the story they would come, but I have no talent in actually writing them. If you think you could do it, send me a message, and I'll fill you in on the details.]

[Allicloud]

OH, and just quick FYI, I only publish a new chapter when the previous chapter has been critiqued. Hint, hint... ;P

[Serris]

You ended on a nice cliffhanger and I like seeing the plot unfold.

Also, your pacing is quite good.

[Allicloud]

Chapter Three

Ruby moved like an animal scalded, she was so quick. The minute her eyes met those huge, red eyes she scuttled back over the top of the heap of young dinosaurs, straight to the back. Peeking over the top, she ducked under again as she almost met those eyes again, and saw the creature tey were attached to. Poking Littlefoot lightly, she motioned over the top of Spike's back. He nodded and slowly, ever so slowly, moved his head up and over, until he had full view of the figures standing before them.

Littlefoot instantly felt a quiver of fear. From their size, he could tell hey were only a few cold-times older than them, but that did not make them any less creepy looking. Looming at the back, he saw a strange sort of belly-dragger, but with a face almost similar to a regular sharptooth, and a line of spkes running from his head, right down to his tail. Sitting atop this green and brown creature was a fast-biter, but alot more spindly and slender than Screech and Thud's kind of fast-biter, a light shade of green, with a yellow chest and red back. From it's eyes and general build, Littlefoot could tell it was a girl. Another figure loomed behind them, tall and thin, but it was cast in such shadow, he was usure what gender or even kind of creature it was.

But it was the creature at the front who frightened him the most, whose eyes had spooked Ruby so much. Clearly into its teenage years, it resembled a young version of the sharptooth he and his friends encountered when they followed Guido as he sleep-walked into the Mysterious Beyond, with the long snout and massive sail on its back. He had predominantly red skin, with black spikes of colour around the base of the yellow sail, and an orange underbelly. But what topped off their intimidating appearance was the strange black grass that was draped liberally over every one of them.

Littlefoot gulped and closed his eyes. Surrounded by three, maybe four sharpteeth. There was no way out of this one...

"Oh get up, will ya?! We ain't gonna eat you!"

He opened his eyes. Who said that? It was too deep to be any of his friends. He looked around, in case some unseen help had arrived, but there was nobody around, except for the sharpteeth before him and his friends, quivering underneath him. Looking up to the sailbacked sharptooth, he felt unease at its grin, especially at the one huge tooth it had on either side of its mouth. But who else could it be?

"W....Was that y-you, who..spoke?" he stammered, feeling both terrified and stupid for asking such a question.

"Well, who else could it've been, the rocks?!" The sailback replied. The belly-dragger and fast-biter behind him chuckled.

Littlefoot was gobsmacked. Apart from Chomper, sharpteeth couldn't speak the language of the Leaf-Eaters. Still stunned, he moved to the side, allowing his friends to get back up. If their lack of shaking was anything to go by, they were just as stunned.

The sailback's grin widened, revealing more massive teeth "Well, would ya look at this, eh guys? They dunno what to think."

The fast biter hopped down to the ground and skittered closer to Littlefoot. He was surprised at how small she was, only about a head taller than Ducky. She looked up at Littlefoot, and giggled

"Hee hee, I suppose yer wondering why we can talk like you, huh?"

Littlefoot nodded dumbly.

"Well, we owe it all to Tero here. Say hi, Tero!" She called back to the group.

The mysterious figure at the back moved out of the shadow, and all the gang were amazed to see it was a flyer, the same kind as Petrie, only older. He had dark brown skin, with a pale orange belly, and green eyes. The blankest, coldest eyes Littlefoot had ever seen. He nodded silently in acknowledgement, but said nothing.

The sailback turned back to Littlefoot and moved closer to him. He spoke with a odd elegance that contrasted massivly with the slight rasp in his voice."Yeah, he doesn't talk. But he used to! And he taught us how to speak after he joined us."

Ducky's voice rang out from behind Littlefoot "B-but, he is not a sharptooth like you. He is a flyer, like Petrie."

Petrie waved timidly to Tero, who didn't even look at him.

"Petrie, huh? Funny name." The sailback snorted. He turned to Littlefoot "And what's yer name, kid?"

"Erm...I'm Littlefoot." he replied, "A-and these are my friends. Cera, Petrie, Ducky, Spike, Ruby and... Well, there is one more of us, but we don’t know what happened to him...”

“I’m here, Littlefoot!”

He looked up and was amazed to see, perched on the tail of the sailbacked sharptooth, Chomper!

“This little guy with you?”

Chomper hopped down and ran back to Ruby’s side. She threw her arms around him and pulled him into a hug.
“Chomper! What happened?” she asked, slightly teary-eyed with relief.
Chomper grinned “I’m not sure. After I passed out in the pile of rocks, I woke up and I was by this weird swamp, filled with this black grass... Like the stuff you guys have!”
He pointed to the tendrils of grass hanging from the strangers. The sailback spoke up again “Yeah, we were the ones who got him outta that pile of rocks. Not right to leave a fellow sharptooth buried like that, is it?”

Chomper nodded, “So, when they came back, I asked them if they had seen my friends. They said they had heard someone moving around nearby, and took me with them to check it out. And then we found you!”

The belly-dragger stepped forwards "Bit of a weird group! What are sharpteeth like you doing hanging around with a bunch of grass-guzzlers?!"

Cera growled quietly, pawing the earth as if preparing to charge, but the Sailback beat her to it as he promptly bonked the belly-dragger on the head with a claw "Now now, Rheddo. Mind yer manners around guests!"

He turned back to Littlefoot and bowed his head "My apologies...Littlefoot, was it? His manners have never been amazing. But anywho, my name is Redback."

He outstretched an arm to Littlefoot, who recoiled slightly.

"It's alright, I understand. Why trust a sharptooth, right?" Redback said, chuckling to himself. Littlefoot shuddered a little. The laugh was a little unnerving.
“I-it’s just.... how can you guys..talk?” Littlefoot asked nervously.
“Kinda a long story, that.” The fast-biter piped up. “Why don’t we find somewhere a bit less open? Y’never know what might be out and about round here.”
“Where’d you lot come from, anyway?” Redback asked, leaning closer down to the huddled group of dinosaurs.
“We came from the Great Valley,” Ducky said, stepping forwards.” Where do you live?”

“Nowhere and everywhere, little lady. We live where we like and we like where we live. When we don’t, we go somewhere else.... Oh, by the way, lemme introduce the gang.” Redback added, “That big fella is Rheddo.”
The belly dragger nodded and grinned a toothy grin, his black-grass adornment rustling as he moved.
“This pretty li’l lady down here is Celya.” He continued, pointing to the minute fast-biter, who snapped at his outstretched claw

“Red! I told you not to talk about me like that!”

The sharptooth just grinned back. “And that tall flyer guy in the back is Tero. Don’t be offended if he doesn’t talk to you, he doesn’t talk to anyone.”
Tero sniffed and looked wistfully skywards.
Redback continued his introductions “Poor fool lost his voice to another fast-biter, just days after he finished teaching us lot to talk. Same with his leg too. Never been the same since.”
Littlefoot looked down at Tero’s legs, and noticed that one was gruesomely scarred and twisted, giving the flyer a strange stance and an awkward walk.
“Gee... Did you help him get away?”

Redback’s grin widened even further, revealing masses more teeth “Not exactly. But we did...ahem, deal with the fast-biter. Look, it’s a long story, maybe some other time? Like Celya said, we should get into cover."

 Littlefoot thought about this for a moment, but was interrupted by Ruby’s hand tapping his shoulder.

“Littlefoot, I think that whatever we do, we better do something to get closer to home.” She said nervously, as she looked around.

“Hey, I know, we could hide in the caves! We can get to them from outside the Valley, and nobody would know they were there!”

The others nodded at Littlefoot’s idea, though Cera was notably hesitant. She was busy eyeing the strange dinosaurs up and down suspiciously.

“’Tis settled then! Lead on, Littlefoot!” Redback quipped, as he followed at his side.

The combined group of the Great Valley residents and the strange outsiders set off, mingling slightly, but mostly keeping to their own friends. Ducky, Petrie and Spike huddled together, flanked by Celya who strutted nimbly at Spike’s right eye-level, and Tero, who silently limped at his left.
Rheddo and Celya walked alongside eachother, each looking straight at the other, watching.
Redback walked at the front, at Littlefoot’s side. Littlefoot’s snout twitched every time one of the black tendrils hanging from Redback’s neck and arms brushed over his head.

“Hey, R-redback?” Littlefoot stammered “Why do you have those...things hanging all over you?”
Redback held up an arm, looking at the strands of grass, either tied tightly or hanging loosely over his limb. He turned his head to face Littlefoot’s, his eyes meeting the longneck’s.

“Cos that’s who we are. We’re the Blackweed Brotherhood.”

Littlefoot looked away, as he turned the mysterious phrase over in his mind.

The Blackweed Brotherhood.



[Oh, and by the way, that request for any songwriters, or even just any people who can write dialogue in verse; It still stands. PM me and I'll explain what I need.]

[vonboy]

That was a great chapter. The Blackweed Brotherhood is a very interesting bunch, I must say. So this is your first fanfiction? Have you written a story for the brotherhood yet? I would like to hear more about their story, if it's going to be revealed in this fan fiction or whatever.

I'll look forward to the next chapter.

[LBTDiclonius]

Blackweed Brotherhood, eh? Sound like an...interesting little bunch of Sharpteeth.

Anyways, great chapter, I look forward to more.

[Allicloud]

That was a great chapter. The Blackweed Brotherhood is a very interesting bunch, I must say. So this is your first fanfiction? Have you written a story for the brotherhood yet? I would like to hear more about their story, if it's going to be revealed in this fan fiction or whatever.

I'll look forward to the next chapter.

1. Yes, believe it or not, this is my first LBT fanfiction. I have written other fanfics, so I have some story-writing practice, but this is my first LBT one.

2. There is a backstory to the Blackweeds. It'll be revealed in due course, but for now, I guess I can give the backstory to the whole fic.
Back when I was first uploading LBT fanart on here, one comment I got on a picture of LIttlefoot was tha he looked a little bit like a fan-character. But they said that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and that some fan-characters would be a good idea. So, one day I was looking round on DA at other LBT fanrt, and I saw this little picture of a young Spinosaurus character. It just worked so well, I had tomake a Spinoaurs character of my own, using that picture as a referece for build and shape. Then I gave him his colour scheme, and came up with the idea of draping blackened grass over his head, like long hair. This led on with the other characters I designed, Tero the Pteranodon, Celya the Coelophysus, and Rheddo the Rhedosaurus (which, by the way, are not real dinosars, but were made up for the film "The Beast From 10000 Fathoms". But the desgn looked so neat, yet to realistic, I had to use it.). Each one had the blackweeds draped on them. I sorta looked at these 4 little characters, and I had one of those little moments where your mind goes at a mile a minute, and you think of all these little scenarios you can put the characters in. Thus I decided, they have to be in a fanfic.

And if you want a good look at how they look, here are links to them in my DA:

The first designs for them

Tero's character sheet
Tero's character sheet

Redback's Character Sheet
Redback's Character Sheet

Celya's Character Sheet (I'll probably re-do this)
Celya's Character Sheet (I'll probably re-do this)

Littlefoot being Confronted by Redback

I'll upload my character sheet for Rheddo, as soon as I get acccess to a scanner.

[Allicloud]

Chapter Four

[Note: When reading this, the parts in italics are in song. For an idea of how the melody sounds, listen to "The Nomad" by Iron Maiden.]

Redback looked up towards the sky, as he heard a distant rumble. With a grim nod he nudged Littlefoot.

"We better hurry up a bit. Looks like the skywater is on its way. You don't want to be caught in the sky-water out here."

Littlefoot nodded, but ased "Really? Why? Is there more skywater out here?"

"No, not really." Redback replied " But sometimes out here the skywater stings. Usually seems to happen when the Smoking Mountains go off."

Littlefoot turned his head towads the Smoking Mountains. He noticed with unnerve a pillar of smoke emanating from the peak.  Pickng up his pace to a trot, he turned the bend and there was the cave. He felt the steady thud of Redback's jogging, and hard the panting of the rest of the gang, running behind them.

He made it to the cave, just as he felt a drop fo skywater hit the tip of his tail. He gasped as he felt a stinging pain, like the bite of a ground-crawler, and shouted back to the others
"Hurry! Skywater's starting to fall, and it hurts!"

He swiftly moved to the side as Cera and Rheddo barged through, followed by Spike, Tero, Ducky and Petrie. Bringing up the rear were Ruby, Chomper and Redback, who filled the entrance.

It was thankfully a spacious cave, that broke off into a series of tunnels. The small crowd spread out a bit, sitting or lying down on the rocky ledges and boulders that littered the cave.

"I have never seen stinging skywater before, no no no!" Ducky said, as she rubbed her legs and arms where the skywater had struck. It did not seem to leave any mark, but it still stung.

"Redback told me it was something to do with the Smoking Mountains, right?" Littlefoot asked, calling to the large Sharptooth.

Redback looked up from inspecting his sail for any marks from the water "Sure have. You get it out in the Beyond alot. I'm not sure why it happens, but it's something to do with the smoke from the mountains."

"We think that something in the smoke makes the water change, and become all sharp like that." Celya added "But frankly, it's still a bit of a mystery."

Petrie was suddenly struck by a worrying thought "What about families in the Great Valley?! What if they get stinging skywater too?"

"Don't worry about it." Redback replied "The stinging skywater only happens where the smoke from the Smoking Mountains goes. And the smoke only ever goes away from the Valley."

Littlfoot sighed with relief. "That's good to know."

The group sat in silence for a while. Cera, Spike, Ducky and Petrie huddled together, still suspicious of these mysterious Blackweed dinosaurs. But most uneasy of all was Petrie. He noted that throughout the whole time they were in the cave, Tero had not taken his eyes off him for a second. Those blank, green eyes just stared straight at him. He shuddered momentarly and moved to the other side of Spike, where Tero couldn't see him.

"Regular weirdo, that Tero." Came Rheddo's voice as he approached the group. Lying down beside them, he turned to face Petrie.

"He gettin' to ya?"

Petrie nodded "Why....Why he stare like that?"

"Who knows?" Redback shrugged "He's a mystery, aren't ya Tero?"

Tero glared straigh back at Rheddo, who simply chuckled. "Funny, cos when we first met him, he was normal."

"How did you meet him?" Chomper asked as he and Ruby joined the huddled group.

Redback smiled, and related the story.

"Well, a long, long time ago, Tero was just another flyer living it rough out in the Beyond. He wasn't a Brother back then. Y'see, one day, me, Celya and Redback were in the middle of a fight with some other fast-biters. Must have been hundreds of them!"

The young dinosaurs sat in awed silence as they heard the story. Celya loomed out of the darkness to continue the story "Oh, at the very least! But long story short, there were lots! Well, there we were, holding our own against the oncoming swarm, when Tero suddenly appeared at the top of a nearby mountain. He started pushing whole boulders down at the fast-biters. Squish! Crunch! Splat!"

"Soon, through our combined strength, we sent those scuttling creeps running!" Rheddo continued "In return for helping us, we let Tero join the Brotherhood. Of course, back then none of us could even talk leaf-eater language! But he started teaching us to talk, and soon enough, we could understand every word he said!"

"A bit of a shame then," Celya concluded "That just a few days after he taught us to speak, he himself lost his voice."

"He lost his voice? How?!" Ruby asked.

"Well, turns out one of those fast-biters had held some sort of grudge against us. He'd tracked us down and ambushed us! Old Tero got hit pretty bad, and that's what messed up his leg. We all managed to finish that fast-biter off, but after that, something changed in him. He went mute and cold, and he's never been the same since."

He looked to where Tero was leaning against the wall, watching, but apparently not caring tat they were talking about him. He sniffed and moved to a darker, more secluded part of the cave.

Meanwhile, Littlefoot worked up the courage to ask the strange sharptooth, Redback, about his friends.

"Erm....Redback?" He said, approaching the rock that the sailback sat upon.

He turned his head to face Littlefoot "Yeah?"

Littlefoot stood beside him, stll nervous about going too near him. "What exactly...is the Blackweed Brotherhood? Who are you?"

Redback grinned that gigantic grin of his once more. Shifting round a bit, he spoke in a low voice, dripping with pride.

"Ah, curious are we? Well, the Blackweeds have been around for ages, roaming the Mysterious Beyond, striking fear into all who come near."

"You mean, other sharpteeth are scared of you?!" Littlefoot asked in awe.

"Oh yes. And they're right to be." He replied, as he stood up tall.

"Why?"

Redback did not reply instantly, but instead nodded silently to Tero. The silent flyer rolled his eyes and sighed quietly. Standing up, he began beating his hands on the rock wall and tapping his feet in rhythm. Redback strode throught the cave, joined by his Brothers, as he sang:

"Legend tells of creatures from so far away
Creatures born of fire and wind, that’s what they say.
They hold the secrets of the farthest, oldest lands
They are the keepers of the mystery in their hands."

Blaaackweeeeeds!
Feared by creatures, small and strong
Broootherhoooood!
Those who don’t fear us are wrong!
Blaaaaackweeeeds!
Where we come from, no one knows.
Brooootherhoooood!
Where we go to no one says!

"Rheddo walks the plains, and sharpteeth flee in fright!"
"Celya’s run as fast as wind, and silent as the night!" Rheddo sang in reply.
Celya added "Redback’s mighty claws have cut through solid stone!"
"And Tero’s origin’s a mystery in it’s own!"

"Blaaackweeeeeds!"

"Sounds quite dangerous to me." Commented Ducky.

"Broootherhoooood!"

"It’s lots of fun as well, you’ll see" Came Celya's response.

"Blaaaaackweeeeds!"

Cera snorted; "You don’t look that brave or strong"

"Brooootherhoooood!

"Well, we soon will prove you wrong." sang Rheddo.

Chomper was enthralled by this mysterious gang  "What’s the biggest sharptooth you’ve ever met?"

"We once saw one that towered clear above the mountains, black as the night, spewing blue-coloured fire from it’s mouth!" Said Rheddo, rearing on his hind legs in imitation.

Ducky gasped "What did you do?! Huh?"

Redback grinned "Well, he might have been able to beat us if we were on our own, but he had to face us together!"

A cheer rose from the Brotherhood as the song resumed.

"Few will dare to even look or glance our way,
Our reputation goes before us, day by day."

Littlefoot joined in the song "No one in our valley knows the Blackweed name..."

"Yes for now, but soon they’ll know it, just the same."

"The Blaaackweeeeeds!
 Hear our chant and know our tale.
Broootherhoooood!
See our spines and wings and sail.
Blaaaaackweeeeds!
Where we’ve come from, no one knows.
Brooootherhoooood!
And where we go to, no one says.
The Blackweed Brotherhoooooooood!"

[vonboy]

Nice

I'm liking this Blackweed Brotherhood more and more. The song was pretty good, too.

More, please

[LBTDiclonius]

Nice chapter AND song, lol,  

Anyways, these Blackweed dudes are kinda growing on me, update soon!

[Serris]

I really like this story and I hope to see it continued.

I think you want to remove this:

s an ominous, ambient song began

as it breaks the immersion of the reader.

----------------------

And I am getting the impression that the Blackweed Brotherhood is some kind of warrior fraternity.

[Allicloud]

I think you want to remove this:

s an ominous, ambient song began

 

I kinda see what you mean. I had a bit of a hard time writing that bit.

-Removed-

[Allicloud]

Chapter Five

A shaft of sunlight creating pools of light on the ground, heralded the end of the storm. The light broke through the sky-puffies and the quiet returned to the Mysterious Beyond.

Celya's head poked round the opening of the cave. Looking about for a moment, she nodded in satisfaction and returned to her fellow Blackweeds inside the cave.

"Looks like everything's clear."

"Splendid," said Redback, getting up from his rock, "C'mon everyone!"

Rheddo lumbered to his side, as Celya perched atop his back, followed closely by Tero, who strode along behind Rheddo.
Chomper made to follow them, but he felt a nudge from Littlefoot.

"Littlefoot? What's up?" He asked.

Littlefoot leaned in close to him, and whispered "I think it might be best that we get back into the Valley."

"He's right" Cera added "Our folks are probably wondering where we are."

"Something wrong, Littlefoot?" Came Redback's voice from the cave entrance.

Littlefoot looked up and saw the Blackweeds waiting, expectantly at the entrance. Gulping, he approached Redback

"Erm...Redback? I'm sorry, but I don't think my friends and I can go back out into the Beyond..."

Redback simply grinned, and held his claws to the sides of his head "Now don't tell me..... Either you think your parents might be getting worried, or you're just nervous about going into the Beyond, right?"

Littlefoot nodded "Yeah, a bit of both, really."

Redback leaned on the side of the cave, thinking for a moment. Soon enough, he spoke up "Well, me and the Brotherhood can stick around for a while, I guess... We've actually been lookin' for a place to stay quite a while."

"He's right." Rheddo said "Not much luck out in the Beyond. Too many other sharpteeth."

"Wait a minute!" Cera called, as she stepped forwards "If you're feared by everybody out there, then why do you need to worry about other sharpteeth?"

Rheddo sighed "Kid, how much experience do you have with sharpteeth?"

"More than you'd think." she replied, with a grin.

"Well, do you know anything about how their minds work?"

Cera shook her head. Thinking to herself, she had always thought that Sharpteeth never really think.

"Well, we'll tell ya." Celya added, leaning back from her perch on Rheddo's back. "Y'see, leaf-eaters and sharpteeth think differently. When leaf eaters like you get scared by some other creature, what do you usually do?"

Cera was bout to say that she never got scared, before Petrie cut her off "We hide and wait 'till scary thing goes away."

Celya nodded knowingly. "Yep, that's the truth. But sharpteeth are different. When they get scared by something, they try to get rid of it. Some other creature spooks them, they'll attack it. Their biggest fear is what they don't know about."

"So, y'see..." Redback finished "If they're all scared of us, we're public enemy number one out there. We need to find somewhere safe from that." He closed his eyes and rested his head in his claws.

Littlefoot nodded silently. He understood where they were coming from, but he had to admit. he was slightly sceptical about a group of teenage sharpteeth being feared worldwide...

"Hey, I got an idea!" Chomper piped up, "How about you stay here?"

Redback opened his eyes "Come again?"

"I think what he means to say," Ruby replied "Is that he's saying that you could stay in the caverns. He and I already live in here, and we like it well enough."

Littlefoot, however, was hesitant "I dunno..."

"C'mon Littlefoot, think about it." Chomper retorted "Me and Ruby lived in the Caverns for ages before the grownups knew we were here! And there's loads of space ever since the Little Longnecks moved to the other side of the Valley."

He was not quite convinced, but Littlefoot was against the majority here. Plus, Chomper did have a solid argument. He and Ruby had lived here since the last Cold Time, and only a few months ago did the grownups find out. And even then, they saw that they weren't going to cause trouble.
But then again, Chomper was obviously a friendly sharptooth. He lived off creepy-crawlers, he could speak Leaf-Eater, and Littlefoot even vouched for him by telling the grownups how he helped raise him when he first hatched.
Suddenly, Littlefoot was struck by an idea. If The Blackweed Brotherhood could somehow prove that they were trustworthy, maybe the grownups would see, and let them live in the Caverns. As he mused on this idea for a moment, he nodded to Chomper and the others in agreement.
“Alright, we can try the Caverns.”

Redback and Rheddo looked to eachother and grinned. Motioning with a claw, Redback gathered his Brothers and Sister into a huddle. After a quick whispered debate, they broke and Redback gave their decision.

"Sounds like a plan to me! Like you said, there's plenty of room for us here, and plus... I kinda like the atmosphere in here. It's got a real creepy feel to it. I-I like that."

"Yeah, it suits us, y'know." added Celya.

Chomper grinned "Great! Here, I'll show you around!"

He headed towards one of the many tunnels of the caverns, but stopped as he heard Celya’s voice.

"Hold up, little guy. We've got a better idea."

Rheddo grinned excitedly "You mean? Do we get to...?"

"Heheh, yeah, sounds good to me!" Redback chuckled.
Petrie scratched his beak in confusion “What sound good?”
Redback didn’t answer at first, but instead, pulled a strand of blackened grass from the top of his sail. Holding it inbetween his claws, he licked his hand and squeezed the grass firmly in his grip. Then, with a whiplike movement, his arm stretched out and struck the wall of the cave with an echoing SMACK!
Drawing his hand away, he revealed a large, black handprint on the wall. Twiddling his dripping black claws, he grinned at Littlefoot with a grin that screamed of glee, with a hint of malice.
“Blackhand tag. Trust me, it’s alot of fun.”

[vonboy]

I'll tell you, I'm kind of uneasy about the Brotherhood living in the Great Valley myself. I mean, what will they eat?

Anyway, great chapter. The Brotherhood saying they're getting attacked so much because they're feared is interesting. It does kind of make me wonder how feared this bunch really is, and how much they might be stretching the truth. Your kinda making me dread what will happen next, but that's a good thing.

Can't wait till the next chapter!

[Allicloud]

Sorry for the long delay in a new chapter. Blame a combination of looming exams and writer's block. You know that weird block you get where you know what you want to happen in a chapter, but you can't seem to put it in words? Yeah, I've had that for a long time now. Anyways:

Chapter Six

"Blackhand Tag?!"

None of the young dinosaurs had ever heard of Blackhand Tag.

"And just how do you play that?" Cera asked skeptically.

Rheddo crawled forward "Well, I assume you've all played tag before, right?"

They all nodded.

"Well, this is basicallly the same game, but with some new rules."

"First off, instead of one person being It, a group, say, us Blackweeds, are It." Celya continued "And the game is over when they've tagged everyone else."

"And to make sure we know whose been tagged, we use this goo we get from our blackweeds, so anybody whose been tagged will have a big black mark on them." Redback finished.

Littlefoot thought to himself. It did sound like good fun, but not exactly like a very fair game. "What about the person being tagged. How do they win?"

Redback made as if to answer, but paused "...Hmm, dunno. Never really thought about that part."

He sat down again, pondering the problem.  he looked about the caves, as if for an idea, but halted as he looked outside upon the Valley, and his eyes met the Bright Circle above.


"I know! When the Bright Circle touches the mountains, if we haven't tagged all of you, then you win. But if we have tagged all of you, we win. Oh, and you're not allowed to go outside the caves either."

"Fair enough." Littlefoot nodded "So, you guys will be It, and me and my friends will run."

Redback nodded, and Littlefoot turned to head down a nearby tunnel. But he halted as Redback's voice rang out behind him

"Oh, and how about we make it a bit more interesting?"

Littlefoot turned to look at the sharptooth, and asked "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how about we raise the stakes a bit? Make some sort of prize for the winners."

"Like what?" Ducky asked.

"Well, how about this" Celya repled, stepping into the light "If you guys win, we'll bring you some sort of prize, like food or something. Some exotic food from outside your valley, as much as we can find! It'll be like nothing you've ever tasted!"

Littlefoot nodded silently, as Cera asked "And what if you guys win?"

Redback grinned as an idea dawned on him "Well, if we win, we...we get to stay in the Great Valley for a while. You show us what it's like living there. Sound like a plan?"

The young dinosaurs were less than at ease with this idea. Huddling together, they talked the idea over.

“What do you think, Cera?”
“I don’t like this idea. You know what the grownups are like when new dinosaurs get into the Valley.”
“Yeah, even if they leaf-eaters!”

“I don’t think it should be that bad.” Chomper piped up “They were alright when me and Ruby came to live here!”

“But they knew that we were friendly.” Ruby countered “The grownups wouldn’t know that these Blackweed guys are friendly unless they know. And even I’m not so sure.”
Littlefoot suddenly had an idea “Hey, how about this. If they win, and we have to show them around in the Valley, we pair each one of them up with one of us, and they show each one around the Valley, and take care of them. That way, if they’re up to something, they’ll be separated and less dangerous.”

The youngsters nodded in agreement, but Petrie was still unsure “But, who go with which Blackweed?”
“And what will they eat? Three of them are sharpteeth, and we all know what kind of food sharpteeth eat, we do.” Ducky added.

“Well, actually, we can eat greenfood too. Another little thing Tero taught us.”

The group collectively jumped, having failed to notice Celya standing a matter of feet away, having heard their entire conversation.

“And as for who goes with who,” She continued “Maybe you should worry about that if we actually win the game.”

Littlefoot nodded sheepishly “Er, yeah, okay. Well, let’s get started.”

Redback nodded, smiling again. “You have to the count of 5 to run.”
The young dinosaurs scattered, as the Blackweed Brothers and Sister each took a strand of their trademark grass, spat on it and squeezed out the resulting ink onto their hands.

“….5! Ready or not, here we come!” Rheddo’s voice rang out. The chase was on!

The seven young dinosaurs scattered through the caves, Chomper and Ruby heading down one tunnel, Cera down another, Ducky Petrie and Spike down a third, and Littlefoot down a fourth. He panted as the adrenaline kicked in, and he pumped his legs. He could hear the distant shouts of the Blackweeds, and of his friends, and the pattering of nearby feet.

In a separate cave, Petrie, Ducky and Spike hurried through the tunnel, Rheddo hot on their tails. They rounded a bend, and skidded to a halt as they spotted Celya sprinting towards them. Petrie promptly took off back the way they came, while Ducky scrabbled into a small hole in the side of the cave. But poor Spike had nowhere to go. Too big and slow to try dodging the oncoming fast-runner, and Rheddo coming up at his back, he saw only one way out. Scuffing the ground, eh took off full pelt towards Celya, hoping to barge her out of the way before she could tag him.
Celya came to a halt as she saw the bulky spiketail galumphing towards her. He braced for impact, her hands out in front, as Spike bowled full pelt into her.

Both dinosaurs tumbled in a heap, sending up a cloud of dust. Opening his eyes, an upside-down Spike moaned aloud in disappointment as he felt the dripping of black ink on his face. As he had collided with Celya, she had planted two precise handprints on his snout.
He could only look on as Rheddo came around the corner. Grinning, the spiked belly-dragger leisurely crawled towards Spike, then raised up an inky paw, with a malicious cackle.

“Heheheh, one down, six to go.”

He then firmly planted his front paw on Spike’s forehead, leaving a black pawprint on a bruised and dazed Spike, before clambering over him, picking up a dazed Celya, and moving on into the caves.

[Mumbling]

This fanfiction has been nominated by its author to be rated for the fanfiction awards 2011. To all the readers and fans of this fanfiction, please rate and review it!