I think this was sort of brought up in another thread a while back; people wondered how Petrie got lost when his mother could have flown back to get him. It was suggested that Petrie's family had been up a tree during the Great Earthshake; Petrie's mother and siblings took flight, and Petrie himself fell to the ground and got obscured by something. After the Great Earthshake ended, Petrie's mother flew back and failed to find him, and thus continued on to the Great Valley. Later, Petrie ascended to the top of a tree in the hopes of being spotted, only for Littlefoot to inadvertently discover him.

As for the other parents, the fact that they moved on suggests they assumed their lost children were either dead, or weren't going to survive much longer. As a result, this also implies that the flyers didn't join with the other herds until after they'd started moving on, else they'd have been able to fly over and check.

On the other hand, it could be that they DID fly sweeps, but failed to see them for whatever reason; Petrie might have been obscured as mentioned above, Ducky may have been swimming, Littlefoot...might have been thought dead if they saw him sitting with his dead mother, Cera could have been sheltering somewhere rather than staying out in the open on an otherwise flat plain, and Spike hadn't been hatched and wasn't even a target - in addition to that, he's far enough away from the divide that his parents probably weren't involved in that, but died in some other disaster.

Anyone else on this message board read this series? There's six books in all; the first three are the coming of age stories of three dragon siblings of a single clutch who for various reasons, all end up separated and living vastly different lives, and the later three detail the events that take place upon meeting each other once more as adults.

The earlier books are the better; they're longer and have way more detail - plus many thought the last two books...lacked something. A lot of creative effort has gone into the stories to come up with reasons for why dragons act the way they do - for example, a dragon hoards precious metals because they need to eat the stuff to replenish their  scales - and the books end up feeling a bit like Watership Down because it's written from the perspective of the dragon characters, who don't always share...human values, shall we say?

While the first book is great, I think my favourite of the lot is the third book; Dragon Outcast. To say why would give away too much, so here's the short version; it's like "I, Claudius" but with dragons.

And here's an update at last!



http://amcalmaron.deviantart.com/#/d5q8g99

Grr...this one should have been finished a lot sooner. I'd become dissatisfied with my original pixelly Spyro pictures - the males were too fat and the females too thin, to name one problem - and I decided to revamp them late last year. I eventually managed to come up with a better design for the bodies, and was half finished when...some utter monsters broke into my house and stole my hard drive, meaning I lost this, all my files, and all my family photos.

Thankfully, I had my Ipod on my at the time, and it had low quality versions of more than 2/3rds of the lost images, so I managed to use that to replace the files. Anyway, all I had of the work I'd done on this was a blurred and shrunken image of the picture, which, as you can imagine, wouldn't be much help when drawing pixel art.

Nevertheless, I finally decided to confront the damn thing and eventually ended up with a design that looked good, so here's the first part; showing pixelly versions of Ignitus, Terrador, Volteer, Cyril, Spyro, Cynder, the Chronicler and Malefor. In addition to this, it shows all these characters as the opposite gender - to allow a person to picture what other dragons of a specific element may look like - and as a young dragon. As a bonus, I've also tossed in Ember and Flame, and Cynder with her colouring from Dawn Of The Dragon. At a later date, I'll do adult versions of both Ember and Flame, and I'll also do the Dragon Soldiers that appear in Dawn Of The Dragon, and perhaps Sparx - although he's pretty hard to detail that small!

I've also included five Elemental Sigils; based on the images shown in the first game - Spyro's one may seem odd, but it's shown briefly during the final battle with Cynder in A New Beginning, and represents Convexity.

Feel free to edit these and make your own pixel dragons!

This is something that flew into my head while flicking through one of the Third Pass books while writing up synopses for the Pern Wiki, which I wrote quickly one night. It's...an odd concept, but it deals with something that was never satisfyingly dealt with for my likings. Actually, that doesn't sound right. Basically, I just thought someone hadn't had their story properly resolved. Just read, and you'll hopefully understand by the end.

Oh, and sorry for the overall tone of the story, but it's necessary for the plot to work.

---

Rukbat rose across the Northern Continent of Pern, illumating the mountains that surrounded the vast structure of Telgar Weyr. Inside, on a ledge on the north side of the Weyr Bowl, K'dan paced outside his weyr, too anxious to enter. He could hear the cries from the inner quarters all too well from where he stood, as they echoed off the stone walls of the weyr. Lurenth lay beside him, his eyes whirling red as he picked up on his rider's distress for his mate.
   Footsteps behind him alerted K'dan to another's presence, and he turned to see the Weyrwoman ascending the steps to his weyr. Fiona had insisted that K'dan and Lorana be housed in a weyr near hers, which they had accepted, although K'dan had briefly protested when he had realised she intended for them to occupy one of the weyrs normally used by a junior queen. Fiona chuckled at him as she drew closer; seeing the look on his face. "Come now, K'dan," she began, patting his arm in a soothing way. "Be calm. This should be a joyous occasion for you."
   K'dan tried to force a smile, but couldn't hold it for long. He was too worried, although he kept telling himself things would be alright; he knew Lorana was under the watchful eye of Bekka, who had been delivering babies since she was a child, but he couldn't help but panic for Lorana's sake. She had seemed overly fragile over the past few sevendays, and K'dan knew she secretly feared losing a second child.
   "Listen!" Fiona suddenly said, breaking the silence, which K'dan suddenly realised had fallen over them. The cries from the inner chamber had ceased. K'dan stared at the door.
   "Do you think-"
Before he could finish, Bekka strode out of the room and towards the pair; a bundle in her arms. K'dan tried to speak, but was having trouble finding the words to say.
   "Is it...is she...should I-"
   "She's fine, K'dan," Bekka said, cutting him off. "She just needs to rest." She lifted her arms; raising the head of the newborn she held. "You have a beautiful son, wingleader."
   Stunned, K'dan reached out to take the baby from her arms. Without warning, Lurenth whimpered and scrabbled to his feet; startling them all. Before K'dan could ask his friend what was wrong, he arched back his head and began to keen loudly.
   Bekka's smile instantly vanished . She turned, and looked towards the door; the sound of the other dragons of the Weyr joining the keen echoing around them. Fiona staggered, as if she'd been hit. "It...she...no..." she began feebly.
   Bekka stared at the door in horror. "B-but she was-"
   K'dan didn't wait to hear her finish; he was already on his feet and running into the tiny quarters that made up his and Lorana's rooms; Fiona following after him. He rushed to the side of the bed which Lorana lay across; a serene expression on her face. From where she stood beside the head of the bed, Shaneese regarded him with sorrow. K'dan fell to his knees, and grabbed one of Lorana's outstretched hands.
   "Lorana?" he said, holding her hand tighter. There was no sign that she had heard him, or even that she had felt his grip. Tears welled up in his eyes, and a chill went down his back, causing him to shake. Beside him, Fiona had begun sobbing. Others began to enter the room; first Bekka, trembling even as she held the child - Lorana's child - next T'mar, who ran to Fiona's side and held her, before looking in K'dan's direction, a look of dismayed sadness on his face. K'dan looked back at Lorana's face, and then lost control; bowing his head and weeping over the bed.
   "Lorana...please, don't go..."

---

Lorana had felt something was wrong almost immediately after waking. Normally she was constantly aware of a voice of some sort in the back of her mind; the echoed thoughts of the dragons whom she made her home around, but now it was as if they had been silenced. In a panic she had tried to reach out to them - Lurenth, Talenth, any dragon - only to find herself blocked, as if a mental barrier was separating her from them. Before long, the silence had given way to a number of muffled voices; many sounded familiar, but none were strong enough for her to tell who they belonged two.
   After that unnatural silence, Lorana's next thought had been for her child, which she realised she was no longer carrying; her body was flat, and she was no longer in pain. Remembering with horror the emptiness she had felt after the loss of her first child, Lorana moved to pull herself up - strangely easily, she thought - only to see K'dan rushing towards her.
"K'dan!" she called, but he ignored her and collapsed to his knees beside their bed.
   "Lorana..." he called.
   "K'dan? Where's our child?" Lorana said, grabbing him by the shoulder. K'dan trembled, but otherwise made no sign he'd heard her. Before she could say anything else to him, she looked and saw Bekka enter, a small bundle in her arms. It was small, but Lorana could see it was moving; it was alive, their child was alive!
   The muffled voices grew louder, but Lorana ignored them, focusing on her mate; who had begun to cry. "K'dan? It's alright, it-" she began, but K'dan wasn't listening. Behind him, T'mar and Fiona stood; the Weyrwoman was sobbing against the Weyrleader, who was looking towards her, but not at her.
   At last, Lorana turned and saw; lying motionless on the bed was her own body. Lorana couldn't believe it, but it was her own body sprawled against the bed, her own face lying against the pillows, and her hand that K'dan was clutching; begging  her not to leave him. Lorana began to panic. She wasn't dead, she couldn't be dead, it must just be a horrible dream! Lorana began breathing heavily; the voices around her becoming louder and louder, but remaining incomprehensible. Abruptly, one voice cut through the noise; immediately clear amongst all the others voices, which promptly faded away.
   There you are! I've been waiting for you!
   Lorana gasped. The voice had been one of someone she'd never expected to see again, but who was always in her dreams.
   ...Arith? she tentatively thought towards the voice, which seemed to be coming from outside the weyr.
   Yes, she responded, sending waves of love her way. You didn't think I'd forget you? Arith's voice paused. You didn't forget about me, did you? she asked.
   No, of course not, said Lorana, torn between two emotions; overwhelming happiness at the thought of being reunited with her dragon, and unbearable sadness for K'dan's pain. He had seen more sadness than one man should have had to. Lorana watched as Bekka; still holding their child, came to his side and helped him to his feet, whereupon he turned and strode past Fiona, T'mar and the others; out of the weyr.
   Lorana? Arith called. I need you to come to me now; we have to go.
   Go? Lorana called back. She looked back at her body on the bed; which Shaneese was now covering up with the bed furs. She supposed she didn't really have a choice, and got to her feet. To her right, Bekka had gone over to Fiona and T'mar, who were now holding her child so that the junior weyrwoman could properly grieve. Her heart ached at the thought that she wouldn't be able to watch her child grow, but happiness bloomed with the knowledge that her child would not grow up alone; her dearest friends would ensure her child was the most-loved child in the Weyr.
   Lorana? Arith called again. Are you coming?
   I am, but I'm not sure where to go. Where are you? Can you show me where to go?
   I can't come to you, but you'll be able to come to me! There was a pause. Marco says to follow my voice.
   Marco? Lorana had no idea who that was, but she did as she was instructed; walking out of the small quarters and into Lurenth's weyr. K'dan was standing at the ledge, with his arms around his mount's neck; Lurenth gently crooning to him and supporting his weight. That sight reassured her. Lurenth would look after K'dan, they all would, just as the Weyrs had looked after her when she had first arrived. Beyond him, the light in the Weyrbowl was almost too bright to look at. Lorana blinked. Was it getting brighter?
   Nearly there, Arith called. Keep going!
Not entirely sure what her dragon meant, Lorana continued forwards; pausing only as she reached K'dan's side. Taking one last look at his face, Lorana leaned over and kissed his cheek. K'dan paused as she did; moving his hand up to touch his cheek.
   "I love you," she said, smiling, before turning back to the light, and continuing onwards.

---

Standing in silent embrace with Lurenth, K'dan tensed. His cheek tingled, as if something cold had touched him. He reached up to feel his face, and in doing so, looked forwards. He choked, unable to believe what he was seeing; the faint figure of a person standing before him; Lorana. Before he could react or say anything, she smiled at him and turned away, vanishing into the morning light.
   K'dan stood there; tears momentarily halted by the spectacle of what he'd seen.
   Lurenth? he thought to his dragon. Did...did you see...?
   I...did? Lurenth's confused voice echoed back. What did I see?
   K'dan had no answer for him, and the pair simply stared ahead, as dragons appeared out of the sky; their riders come to pay their respects to the dead.

---

As Lorana had taken more steps forwards, the Weyr had gradually faded away from her; brighter light taking its place. Looking back, Lorana found that Telgar Weyr was nothing more than a faint series of shapes behind her. Lorana slowly became aware of another shape moving towards her; separate of the Weyr, and before she realised it, Arith was beneath her; thrumming with happiness, and the two of them were flying forwards; Lorana sitting astride the young queen's neck, her feet brushing against the very riding straps she had tied on her queen the day she'd gone between.
   Arith stopped thrumming. I am sorry I had to go.
   It wasn't your fault, Lorana thought to the young queen, looking down at her side, which was still splotchy and marred from the fateful mixture Lorana had tried to save her with.
   It was not yours either, Arith suddenly said, picking up on her rider's thoughts. You could not have known.
   But I...Lorana struggled to think of an answer, but was silenced by Arith's chiding mental tone. Lorana looked back down at Arith's side, which had begun to glow amidst the light that surrounded them both. Without warning, Lorana suddenly saw that Arith's hide was changing; healing.
   It doesn't matter now, the young queen said calmly; her hide returning to its healthy gold shine. You did all you could.
   Torn between awe and a lingering sense of guilt, Lorana tried to respond; to apologise in some way, but Arith rumbled with displeasure, and Lorana gave up; gradually leaning forwards and stretching herself across Arith's neck so that she could better hold her, as the young queen carried them both onwards to whatever awaited them in the distance.
   I missed you.
   I did too.

---

As the sun began to set over Telgar Weyr, the various dragonriders from other Weyrs who had arrived to pay their condolences at last dispersed, leaving the Weyr quiet once more. Lurenth had left his ledge and returned to his weyr, and K'dan now sat on his forearm; staring out at the darkening sky. K'dan had not moved since then; not even when they came to take Lorana's body away to be interred between.
   A noise to one side alerted him to someone's presence; Bekka, climbing the steps to the weyr and walking towards him with something in her arms; his child, K'dan realised. "K'dan?" she said as she neared him; her eyes reddened. "I...I just thought you'd..." she began, but then broke off, unable to find the proper words to say, and then sat down beside Lurenth's forearm. K'dan turned to look at the child she held, and gradually got up from his perch to be closer to his son; in response, Bekka carefully handed his child to him.
   In silence they waited; K'dan cradling his child in his arms. Bekka looked at his expression, and was reminded of her own father; his incredible sorrow at the loss of Serth, and his gradual semi-recovery over time, surrounded by the love of those around him. K'dan was already faintly smiling at the child he held; it was early days yet, but Bekka knew he would recover one day. They all would in time, although they would never forget Lorana. Her son might never meet her, but he would know from an early age all that his mother had done for Pern.
   "Did you have a name planned?" Bekka asked; breaking the silence. She wasn't sure if K'dan had heard her, but after a while, he responded with "Danoran". Bekka nodded, and got to her feet. K'dan slowly responded, and allowed Bekka to lead him out of the weyr, and down the steps to the Weyr Bowl; towards the warmth of the Dining Caverns, where the others were waiting for him.
   
FIN

---

http://amcalmaron.deviantart.com/art/The-B...10%3A1353276812

And that's that story; written not for Lorana, but for Arith - although it sort of ended up becoming a lot bigger than I originally planned. I don't abide with horrible things happening to dragons; especially not when they're only being cute, so I gave Arith the happy ending she didn't get - or at least the closest one she could get with the story being what it was (and I ended up killing off Lorana, so I guess that's a bonus to those who couldn't stand her).

Like with my story about Larth, I based this off the logic used in the short "Beyond Between", so something like this could very well have happened when Lorana shuffled off the mortal coil - which seems to have happened fairly early on in the Third Pass, if you'll recall the mentions in Dragonheart and Dragon's Time...

Pern and all the characters, locations, etc in this story copyright Anne and Todd McCaffrey.

Can't believe I missed this post! I'm an olde fan - although it occurs to me "fan" might not be the right word - of the Titanic; have plenty of books, films and video games about it!

Can't think of much more to say at the minute - too tired - but before I go I shall give you this link to the most accurate plans of the R.M.S. Titanic out there; on the Discovery Channel website!

Titanic Deck Plans

Just remembered; a few years back I toyed with the idea of writing an "end" to the Land Before Time. It would have taken place thousands of years after the events of the original film - Littlefoot and the others would be the subject of folk tales; hence explaining the number of films, episodes and songs; these were all tales passed down and told to younger generations.

The main characters would have been:
Kylo - a male Clubtail (Ankylosaurus); the main character.
Alta - a female Longneck (Saltasaurus); Kylo's best friend.
Parry - a male Hollowhorn (Parasaurolophus); too smart for his own good.
Bambo - a male Threehorn (Triceratops); pompous and bombastic (Bambo was Cera's name in an older draft for LBT).
Zal - a male Flyer (Quetzalcoatlus); confident in his flying skills.

Only problem was I had too many ideas for the story. I had been vaguely inspired by a paragraph I'd read on the WMG of TvTropes which was building on the debunked theory that the Great Valley was the afterlife; in their version; each character had died some time after the Great Earthshake; but was bound to the earth for some reason; with Sharptooth being a physical manifestation of what was holding them back. Only when they got rid of him - or faced their fears, or accepted what had happened, etc - did they reach "The Great Valley". Anyway, I thought a similar idea would be interesting, but I couldn't think of where to go with it (plus it was way too dark)!

Originally, it was going to have the main character's home - something like three valleys divided by ravines - destroyed when a meteorite hits, and the survivors would then attempt to make their way to safety. The adults would meet their fate not long afterwards - from shock or something - leaving the children, who would decide their best hope is to search for the Great Valley of their stories. One by one, their numbers would shrink; Zal's wings would freeze as he attempted to fly over a mountain range, Bambo would try to take a different route and cause a landslide, Parry would freak out and run off a cliff in panic, and then...well, I hadn't quite figured it out yet. The ending would have had something like either Kylo or Alta (by this point the last one left) arriving at their home again, and realising it was the Great Valley - years of earthshakes had changed its shape - only to pass away and find themselves - and everyone else who had fallen along the way - in an afterlife Great Valley.

So here's where it got confusing. I couldn't decide whether to go with this storyline, or whether to go with an idea that was based more off of the TvTropes one; each character died in the meteorite, but failed to cross over until they let go of something that was holding them back. Along the way, each one would be tested in some way; and each would fail - Zal, Bambo and Parry's fates would be such tests. At one point, a character - like Rooter, but actually one of the GOF - would appear and give cryptic advice to help them before vanishing.
   Only problem with this treatment is that I couldn't decide how Kylo or Alta overcoming their mistakes would save the others. So it changed again; with scenes where there were ghosts haunting them (their friends, trying to get them to make the right choices) or Kylo noticing his reflection gone when he went to drink water and realising he was a spectre, or the main characters dying, but rescuing a small mammal before they did - the future ancestor of the mammals of the Ice Age.

So, having come up with a tangled mess of ideas, I gave up on the whole thing. I would like to revisit it at some point - I think there's some good stuff in there!

Umm...this question has already been answered several times already on this forum and in this thread (and I'm pretty sure I sent you the link a long time ago)! If you want to know, have a read through the pages in this thread, or use the search option! Otherwise this thread just gets longer and longer as people ask the same questions.

So is it possible it originally did show things like the gang escaping from the tar, Littlefoot and his mother being seperated in the earthshake, and Ducky and Spike nearly falling into the lava?

For the reasons I stated above, I consider it highly unlikely that they were scenes.

Compare Littlefoot's birth; his egg gets scattered some distance from his nest, and yet his mother and herd are able to catch up with him (admittedly, they are insanely huge, so the egg wouldn't be too far away for them). We don't see them going after him in the film, but we assume they did (and there's no place for an extra scene in the music at all; Track 1 is the only track which is the exact same in film and soundtrack), and that's enough information.

This sort of thing is likely what's going on with the scenes you mention. We don't see Littlefoot and his mother get separated, but we see throughout the whole scene the land shifting constantly, so we can assume they were affected by that (or it could be like Bambi, where the kid keeps running and doesn't realise the parent isn't following). We don't see Ducky and Spike getting trapped, we just see them trapped, and assume it happened offscreen during the last scene. We don't see the Gang escaping from the tar, but we see them covered in tar and awkwardly stuck together when they rescue Cera; so we can guess they eventually managed to free themselves.

I want to know what went on in the grass Why did they have to shoot it from outside for the 7 seconds before he came out? Obviously something important happened in those 7 seconds!!

Again, I think you're looking too deeply into things. Spike's size change must be a mistake by the animators and not the leftover of some cut scene; how could they work such a change into the story on such short notice? For him to grow that fast realistically, he'd need to eat lots of food for several weeks, and to do this inbetween the hatching of his egg and his emerging from the clearing, there'd have to be several scenes where Ducky left and foraged for him; at the same time the others looking for her. Such a scene would be far too long, too much of a deviation from the plot, and unnecessary.

Is there a gap for when Ducky and Spike fell into the lava? We never saw how that happened either?

No gap; Track 6 (The Rescue/The Discovery of the Great Valley) opens with Cera leading the others, then after Ducky's line "Spike, we must stick together!" cuts to Littlefoot being led by his mother's spirit to the Great Valley, before there's a different track of music (Littlefoot turning back for them; a cut scene), and then it goes back to Cera, and Petrie falling into the tar.

It would seem then that we didn't get to see Ducky and Spike get stranded; in both the original and final versions of the film, we're simply supposed to figure that they both got stranded at some point.

On the other hand...didn't one person suggest (or have a line from the storybook suggesting) that Ducky and Spike became surrounded by lava after stopping?

Your explanation of why Spike is suddenly so big is just odd. What's wrong with him being a baby when Ducky and Petrie are that size?

It is odd, but there's no evidence of another scene there; Spike's birth appears to be the same in the storybook, except afterwards Littlefoot and the others find Ducky, and she introduces Spike to them, only for Cera to suggest they leave him behind as he'll eat a lot; the others ignore this, and they wake him and lure him with berries on a stick, which then fades into the "There had never been such a herd before" scene. Annoyingly, the music from this scene (and quite a few scenes from this one to Littlefoot and Cera's fight) is not on the soundtrack, so we can't use that as a guide.

Perhaps the animators just got the scale wrong, or they drew Spike smaller than normal for the hatching so that Ducky would fit in the scene, and then hoped people wouldn't notice the size change (or perhaps they hoped people would assume he got bigger from eating all the food around his nest; which is what I always assumed). Either way, there's not really any scene that would fit between the hatching and the eating to explain the size differences, so it's either a goof or an intentional error.

And Petrie being drawn a black flyer was intentional?

Yup. Either a goof or an intentional error, or a stylish colouration. Characters do change colour throughout the film; Littlefoot is orange for parts of the film, Mr. Threehorn is pink at the end, etc. I still think it was done so that the audience wouldn't know what Petrie was at first.

There's a whole list of B.L.A.M.s on this page...

Of course, it's on TvTropes, which everyone knows can be "hazardous to your health"...