Happy birthday!     I hope that you have a great day today, and a wonderful year ahead!

As I mentioned on the first of April, we will soon be splitting off the 'Fanart and Fanfiction' section of the forum into separate 'Fanart' and 'Fanfiction' sections.  It is our hope that by doing this it will be easier to keep the creative exploits of forum members better organized.

That being said, this process will take some time as there are 68 pages worth of entries that need to be organized, so I ask for your patience during this process.  My current plan is to begin the splitting within the next week by creating a new 'Fanart' section and proceeding to move fanart topics into that section.  Once the transfer is complete I will simply rename the existing 'Fanart and Fanfiction' as the 'Fanfiction' section.  Though this will take some time, I do hope to have all fanart topics from 2013 onward moved in the first day of the transfer process, so that no active topics are caught in limbo.

If you have any questions concerning this process then please let me know.

Well, this story kind of came out of nowhere.   This is my response to the February 2018 Gang of Five fanfiction prompt challenge, which entailed making a story about undying love.  In this case we shall explore the love of two of my characters from Mender's Tale, Arial (the sister of Ruby) and Nahoda (the unluckiest fastrunner in the Mysterious Beyond).  It is not my best work by any means, but I had fun writing it.  And, as always, I look forward to your thoughts.  

Nahoda’s Concern

“Sometimes in times of great adversity it is necessary to…”

“Um, Chronos…”

“... consider all of the possible variables in a situation…”

“Um…”

“What?  I am trying to do one of those profound quote thingies here!

“....”

“I’m trying to make a Seven Hunter’s quote in a one-shot fic, aren’t I?”

“...yep.”

“Well, I have to put something up here now.”

“No, really, you don’t.  We could just…”

“No, we have to finish what we started.  Ahem…”

“...”

“...”

“…”

“…”

“Can’t think of anything now?”

“Sigh … screw it.  Let’s just put something from Taunt up here and call it a day.”

“If you do not first chase your tail then how can you expect to catch it?”
~Taunt

The female fastrunner stared at her male counterpart with a bemused expression as he walked around the tree with his head bowed in concentration.  Beside the mighty pillar of wood, embedded in the ground, stood their new nest, a testament to the vows they had made to one another.  All around them stood the verdant fields of their benefactors, the great pack which included her sister.  Nonetheless running around like an absent-minded worrier would do neither of them any good.
 
“Will you stand still, dear?!”
 
Arial could only give an exasperated sigh at her mate’s antics.  They were forming a new life together in Seeker’s pack territory, it seemed like the Mysterious Beyond was descending into chaos, and both of them were feeling the drive to perpetuate the species, but yet he seemed contented on this night to pace around in circles.
 
She had fell in love with a fastrunner, darn it!  Not a fastpacer!
 
Well, okay, perhaps this side of him wasn’t exactly unknown to her.  He had nearly been killed by sharpteeth, her parents, by Mender, a threehorn, sharpteeth again… well a lot of things now that she thought about it.  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t get moody about it.
 
As if to comply with her command in the most minimal manner possible, Nahoda stopped his forward movement, merely allowing his tail to twitch with all of the ferocity of a dead belly-slider.  Each lurch of the tail collided with the tall grass
 
Arial closed her eyes as she took a deep breath.  Don’t make me strangle you, Nahoda.
 
“Do you think they are alright?”
 
The female did not speak immediately as the words echoed in her mind.  When the pacing had begun she had assumed that Nahoda was again concerned for the possibility of children and was trying to deduce how to convince her of the ënecessity’ of traps for any predators that escaped the notice of their benefactors.  However, the use of ëthey’ here indicated something else entirely.

You’re an idiot, Arial.  I know that my parents are alright, but what about Nahoda over there?  He is so nervous that he is practically… wait what?

“Nahoda, what are you doing?”

She could only stare at the male who was now wrapping a vine around the tree and proceeding to tie it on one end.  She did not need to see any more in order to know what she had to do.  With the stern determination that could only come from one’s mate, she stood between the male and the next part of his plan.

“What did I say about traps, dear?”

Nahoda could only groan as he rubbed his beak in embarrassment at his forgetfulness.  Before he could react further or make an excuse, however, he found his mate with the vine in her hands.

It only took her a moment to wrap the vine around him and to secure the vine to the tree.

The resulting look of annoyed exasperation in the form of a glare was enough to tell Arial that she had succeeded.  At least now he was no longer focused on his nervousness.

Nahoda sighed. “Really, dear?”

To which she nodded. “Really.  Now if you are done trying to dig a hole in the ground with your pacing, or make a trap to trap yourself again…”

“Now you are beginning to sound like…” but Nahoda didn’t get a chance before the vine was placed around his beak.

“Like I was saying before you interrupted what I was saying,” Arial continued with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “I know that you are concerned about them, but we just have to wait.  I’m sure if they are willing to be found then that flyer will find them.”

It only took a moment for Nahoda to remove his temporary muzzle. “And what if they don’t want to be found?  What if they got attacked?  I barely made it over here, and they…”

“...are still in the good territory they had before,” Arial finished with a sympathetic look despite her hands still being firmly planted on her hips,  “And no disrespect, dear, but I think if your parents have lived as long as they have lived then they have better luck than you.”

Nahoda couldn’t help himself.  “Your sister will be glad to know that her sister still has her way of talking.”

--------

The flyer landed loudly upon the ground as the exhaustion finally hit him.  He had been traveling the entirety of the day in search of the elusive fastrunners.  In fact, had this been any other request he would have cut his losses and told them that they could not be found.  But this was Seeker’s pack he was talking about… and a flyer had to keep in mind opportunities to make themselves known.  Letting such a client down was not an option.

These things have better have my promised fish ready!  Allies of Seeker or not, Rexas does not work for free!

That was when he bothered to take a look at his surroundings.  This was the right tree.  There was the same odd imprint of a fastbiter claw in the bark, the remnants of vines and who knows what in the branches, and the signs of a nest in the making.  So where could his benefactors be?

“Are they alright?”

The flyer hesitated as the voice came from the other side of the tree.  Tilting his head to the side as he walked forward on his quadrupedal wings it only took him a moment to discover his patron’s fate.

The purple male stared at the flyer with all of the anticipation one would expect from a youngling despite his adult years.  And also despite the minor inconvenience of being firmly secured to the tree with what appeared to be an entire layer of vines.

“Uh…” Rexas could only blink.  His mother had not told him anything about what to do when confronted with someone who was tied to a tree.  Especially not if they seemed perfectly nonchalant about the situation.

The male fastrunner’s excitement seemed to turn into fear, however, as a noticeable tremor appeared in his beak.

“No… please don’t tell me that…”

This finally made the flyer snap out of it.  “Your parents give you their greetings.  They are quite well and were delighted to hear that you are doing well and are with a mate.”

That was when he noticed the pink female reclining in the nest with a satisfied, if evil, look plastered on her face.  It was enough to make the flyer shiver.

“Uh… you still have a mate, right?”

Arial merely smirked at the flyer.  “Oh, I have him, alright.”

Rexas fled the scene as fast as his wings would carry him.

--------

“That was odd.  He left in such a hurry that he forgot to take the fish.”

Despite the intense nervousness that he had felt on this day, and the fear of what might have been, the immense weight of his agony had been lifted in an instant at the flyer’s affirmation.  His parents were alive and well.  His loving mother and stern father.  And now both of them could rest easier knowing that they had not sentenced their son to death when they chased him from the nest.  If he could have embraced the flyer he would have.

But the flyer was in a hurry, he supposed.  To Nahoda it was an immense relief, but to this flyer it was probably just a normal day.  He still wish he could have given him his due, though.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sensation of another beak rubbing up against his own.

“See, dear?  They are alright.  Now how long have you been holding this in?”

Nahoda shifted awkwardly at that.  Well, ëshift’ might not have been the right word.  He more or less rubbed up against the tree to which he was fastened.

“Um… since I nearly died from that sharptooth attack.  I considered going back just to make sure that they were there to chase me off again.”

Arial chuckled before patting him on the beak.  “And you didn’t tell me about this until today, because…?”

Nahoda shrugged to the fullest extend his captivity would allow.  “I didn’t want to worry you.  I mean… there is enough to worry about.  With the possibility of our own young ones soon, and the nest, and the…”

“...and the nervous mate who I love but who needs to slow down,” Arial finished before giving him the lightest of beak rubs.

The resulting response would have been comical to any onlookers who would have witnessed it, as Nahoda somehow managed to make a boisterous strutting motion despite his confinement against the tree’s mighty bulk. “I’m a fastrunner, not a slowrunner!”

Arial sat down with a satisfied smirk on her beak as she began to preen her feathers.  The silence was permitted to drag on for a few moments.

“And until someone apologies for what they should be apologizing, they will be a no-runner.”

Nahoda froze.  “Now come on, Arial.  I was merely joking about… well…”

“You were merely joking about something that you shouldn’t have been joking?” Arial retorted back before sticking out her tongue at her mate playfully.  Her sit had now turned into a lounging recline.  “Do you remember what my mom said about love, Nahoda?”

“That sometimes you know it at first sight?” Nahoda answered after a pause.

Arial’s smile deepened.  “And what else?”

Nahoda thought for a moment, trying to rack his brain for whatever life lesson Arial was trying to make so that his lovely, yet sometimes insufferable, mate would let him go.  “That there is give and take in a relationship?”

Arial nodded as she closed her eyes.  “And sometimes mates have to learn the other’s limits.  So what have we learned about my limits?”

Nahoda groaned reluctantly.  “You do not like me making fun of the way you sometimes talk.”

He was answered by an affectionate touch of her beak against his.  “Mmm hmm… but do you know something else?”

Nahoda leaned in to the beak rub but did not answer his mate directly.  He certainly had some ideas if she would let him off of this tree.

Arial grinned.  “I accepted your nonsense long ago, such is undying love.  Sometimes I just like you to feel how you make other people feel.”

Nahoda rolled his eyes.  “Annoyed?”

Arial again rubbed his beak with her own, “Mmm Hmm..”

“And your intentionally doing the thing right now, aren’t you?” Nahoda prompted.

“Mmm hmm…” came the muffled reply before she mockingly replicated,  “Hmm mmm…”

The two fastrunners maintained that position for several moments before he felt the vines loosen around his body.  When he finally did land on the ground it was quite a relief.  Now he could finally put an idea into action that had been budding in his mind.

It was when her beak again reached his, however, that she realized that the vines were now around both of their necks.

“Nahoda, what are you doing?”

He finished tying the vine with an exaggerated flourish and a smirk. “So we are stuck with one another, hmm?”

Arial rolled her eyes before quickly removing the offending vine, “Now, let’s stop this before someone sees, and we look silly…”

Nahoda’s eyes flashed with amusement.  “You mean like your parents’ usual flyer telling them that you tied up your mate to a tree?  I look forward to hearing what kind of parental response Rexas relays back to us.”

The look of abject horror that his mate gave in response was the stuff of legend.  In response Arial could only open her beak awkwardly as the words failed to come.  Finally deciding that his mate had worried enough, he allowed his beak to touch hers again, allowing them to resume where they left off.  He was sure that they would find some kind of excuse in the coming day, but as far as he was concerned there was no need to worry about it..

After all, if he was used to his mate’s nonsense then he was sure her parents were used to it as well.

A few days ago Sneak proposed an awesome idea: a Land Before Time caption game.  The idea is simple - each round the previous winner will pick a suitable image concerning the land before time and specify if they want short captions in response or mini-stories.  Then, after everyone has had three days to come up with no more than two captions, all of those who posted captions will have the chance to vote for the best.  The winner becomes the new game master.  

The complete rules are as follows:

1) The game master (previous winner) will post a caption-worthy image related to the Land Before Time.

2) The game master will announce (in the same post) if he wants captions that are:
..........a) Short;
..........b) A mini-story; or
..........c) Either

3) Competitors will have the ability to post caption responses for three days from the post.  There shall be a limit of two captions per competitor.

4) At the end of the three-day period (two days after the time the caption was posted) the game master will announce that it is time to vote and the competitors shall then have three days to vote on the winner; provided:
..........a) No one can vote for themselves;
..........b) the game master can only vote to break a tie; and
..........c) The game master cannot compete in the round he/she presides over.

5) The winner of the round will then become the new game master.


Now, as Sneak proposed this great idea I think he should have the right to be the first game master and to submit the first image.  Have fun, everyone!  

Happy birthday!   I hope that you have a wonderful day!

I didn't even realize that it was your big day until you mentioned it in your response to my review.  I hope that you have a wonderful day and a great year ahead!  

Good evening and happy New Year, everyone.  

After discussing the matter with the other admins it has been decided that action needs to be taken to resolve the lingering glut of Photobucket ransom icons in the Caption topics of the forum.  To assist in this effort we have given special editing rights for the Caption Me sections to Ducky123, DarkHououmon, Fyn16, and Littlefoot505.  They will be tasked with retrieving images from Photobucket wherever possible and, where that isn't possible, to move dormant caption topics to the Old Captions archive.  Though they will have some limited moderator powers over those sections they will not be moderators, and should not be asked to deal with spam or other moderator-related tasks.

With that in mind, we certainly wish our new "Photobucket Obliterator" team all the best as they take on the Herculean task of removing Photobucket's ransom from much of our forum.   We admins are certainly grateful for the efforts they are willing to take on behalf of the forum.

Update: Edited to note Littlefoot505's addition to the group.

Regardless of which holiday or festival you are celebrating this time of year, I hope that you all have a wonderful time that is filled with holiday cheer.  

My apologies for the delays, everyone, but the 2017 fanfiction awards have finally come to an end.  Here are the results:





We will be following the previous protocol for fanfiction awards this year. This means that if you would like a banner for your fanfiction then please let me know by PM. You can only pick one of your stories to receive a banner this year, so if you had multiple entries then you will need to specify which story I should prepare a banner for. Each banner will include your story name, the overall average rating it received, and the number of votes. The draft banners that we will be using this year are as follows:







I would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of you who participated in the fanfiction awards this year. Participation in the fanfiction awards reached a high this year that has not been seen since 2011, which truly makes me hopeful for the Land Before Time fanfiction community.   I look forward to seeing what you all come up with in the year to come!

This is a response to the Land Before Time prompt challenge.  The prompt I am responding to tonight was from one of the co-winners of the June and July prompt, LBTLover247.  His prompt was: One of the gang realizes they have a crush on someone and they try to deal with it (seek advice, tell that someone, etc)

This story is also a prequel/continuation of the previous one-shot story of mine, Reunions.  It also is an experimental attempt at writing a short story in a single 3-hour sitting.  As always, I eagerly look forward to your thoughts. (:

First Impressions

“So… you’re telling me that you like him?”

Littlefoot had been prepared for many things when Cera had called him over on this bright spring day.  He had been prepared for the usual chewing out for some perceived slight at his friend’s ego.  He had been prepared for being roped into another adventure.  He had been prepared to be futilely told to not recognize her Star Day.  He had been prepared for many things.

But giving relationship advice to a threehorn?  Specifically this threehorn?  Littlefoot was beginning to think that he would have rather been chewed out.

Her horns were in his face in an instant.  Looks like I might get my wish.

“Don’t you dare, flathead!  I’m just saying…”

The longneck was quick to take the safe route, “...you want to be his friend?”

“Right!  Uh-huh exactly.” Cera confirmed a bit too quickly to fool anyone.

Littlefoot suppressed a sigh for the sake of his bodily integrity.  

“Have you tried inviting him to our games?”

Cera sputtered.  “What?  Are you nuts?  Do you honestly think he wants to play the pinecone game with a flathead, beak-face, big mouth, and spiketail?”

“Well, you play with us…” Littlefoot answered.

“Just… look this has to be different,” Cera clarified.

Littlefoot rolled his eyes.  “Let me guess: his parents think that we are all bad influences.”

The look of surprise from Cera would have made him laugh at any other time. “How did you know?”

Littlefoot snorted. “Lucky guess.”

-----------

“Dalmar, I want you to stay away from those other children.  They are a bad influence!”

The little threehorn nodded in acknowledgement, but was still confused.  “What’s a bad influence?

Despite the serious subject matter his mother laughed.  “An influence is someone who makes you do things you might not otherwise do.”

Dalmar jumped up with excitement at comprehending a new concept. “Like you?”

His mother sputtered.  “No.. yes.  But I am a good influence.  Just like your father… most of the time.  But it is the bad influences you’ve got to watch.  Making friends with a sharptooth?  What insane rubbish!  Especially don’t hang out with that longneck - why Topps lets his daughter hang with that lot I will never know.”

“Now where could that longneck be?”

The threehorn’s head popped through a bush, giving him the halo of verdant green to compliment the light brown coloration of his face.  As far as his mother knew he was simply going to settle a score with a friend of his.

“Remember never to back down, Dalmar!”

“I won’t mom!”

But roughhousing was not on Dalmar’s mind at the moment.  There was no way that he could deal with Cera with the other males around, lest he be drawn into keeping up appearances.  But yet he could not seek her out alone due to her constant entourage of assorted bad influences.  The ones that the other threehorn kids avoided out of overt arrogance, but there was always the hint of something else under the surface.

Fear.

As much as he did not want to dwell on it there was a bit of fear under the surface with that gang of seven dinosaurs.  Five of them had supposedly killed a full-grown sharptooth!  And even though the threehorn kids mocked that claim… none of them seemed as willing to bully the seven as they did with others.  Their indirect show of respect was noticeable.  Even in Dalmar’s ten years of life he was old enough to recognize an unspoken truth when he saw one.

Many of the others kids feared them.  And feared Cera by extension.  But yet… that only made Cera all the more enticing to him.

Dalmar frowned as he looked above another bush.  How could something with a neck that long be so hard to find?

“Looking for something!”

In a scene utterly undignified for a threehorn, Dalmar quickly turned and ran from the purple blob in the periphery of his vision.  Thankfully for the sake of the conversation there was a tree to stop his forward progress.

“Darn it!  Not again!”

As much as Dalmar tried his horns remained stuck in their prison of roots.  It was every threehorn’s worst nightmare: ramming themselves into a spot they couldn’t get out of.

“Uh… sorry!”

With trepidation Dalmar waited for the source of the voice to step around to the forefront of his vision.  As soon as it did he held his breath.  It was the purple sharptooth.  The vicious threat that would one day cause terror in the valley, so his parents’ claimed, due to the Council’s horrible decision.  In a frenzy Dalmar shook his crest from side to side, desperate to get free.

The purple sharprooth seemed completely unaware of the threehorn’s distrust as he waved politely in front of Dalmar, dropping several handfuls of sweet bubbles in the process.  “Hello!  I’m Chomper!  What’s your name?”

The threehorn stopped.  He knew that the sharptooth could talk… but to actually hear it…

“I’m… I’m Dalmar.” The threehorn answered with as much confidence as he could muster.  His parents had told him to never show weakness.  He would face the sharptooth with eyes open and show the bravery that his dignity demanded of him.

He just wished that his legs would stop shaking.  And getting his head out of the roots would be nice as well.

Well at least it was only the sharptooth seeing him in this state.  No one would believe him.

“There you are Chomper.  I was looking for you everywhere, but you were nowhere to be found!”

As if to mock the threehorn’s thoughts the pink Oviraptor emerged through the bushes, her beaked head tilting at an angle as if to ponder the scene that lay before her as she dropped several sweet bubbles to the ground.

“Umm…” Dalmar muttered incoherently as he was now surrounded by an omnivore and carnivore with no easy mode of escape.  The only thing that he had now was his confidence and bravado.  As his father had often told him ëBoast until you are worth of the boasts you give!’  With that in mind he was going to give these two fiends a piece of his mind.

“I kind of got stuck.”

The threehorn’s confidence fell as soon as the words exited his mouth.  How could he try to garner favor with Cera if he couldn’t stand tough when his wits demanded it.  As the pink Oviraptor and purple sharptooth edged closer to him he knew the error of his ways.  He had showed weakness before a stronger enemy and now he would pay the price.

Suddenly the roots loosened.

“There we go.  Just turn your head to the left and then you can go right out of the roots!”

Dalmar blinked at the Oviraptor’s words, taking a moment to comprehend her sing-song voice.  Once he did so he found his horned head back in open air.  He was free.

“Cera does that sometimes.  I guess horns and roots don’t get along.”

“Chomper… remember what we said about threehorn pride?  Would Cera like it that you mentioned that about her?”

Dalmar blinked as he watched the conversation before him.

“Right… sorry, Ruby.”

“It’s alright, but first let’s make sure he is alright.”

The threehorn raised his head arrogantly.  Trying desperately to regain the dignity that had failed him while he was imprisoned in the roots.  

“I am fine.”

The fastrunner and sharptooth did not appear to be convinced, but they wisely said nothing.  For the first time in several moments Dalmar had a flicker of confidence.  But that was when reality hit him: this egg-stealer and sharptooth had treated him with nothing but support.

And if this ëChomper’ knew Cera enough to know she got trapped in roots too…

“Do you think his head got broke?”

“Shhh… I think that he is just thinking.  Like I do in my thinking place.”

Dalmar groaned.  I really need to stop spacing out like that.

“My head is not broken, but thank you for your concern,” Dalmar muttered before remembering the sharptooth’s initial question before the mishap, “I am indeed looking for someone.  Do either of you know where um...”

Why wait for the longneck?  These two seem to know her well enough.

“...I am kind of looking for Cera.”

-----------

“So you decided that you liked this guy when you saw him beat up another guy?”

Cera groaned at her friend’s lack of understanding.  Of course a longneck wouldn’t understand the threehorn ways.

“No, Littlefoot.  He beat up another guy because he was a jerk to me,” she shifted a bit as she stomped the ground, “He was a jerk to Dalmar too, but still…”

Littlefoot smiled. “So Dalmar isn’t a jerk then?”

Cera snorted.  “All guys are jerks!  Especially threehorn guys!”

“But you don’t mind this jerk being around you?”

Cera glared at the longneck and his annoying little smile, which grew wider upon seeing her reaction.  But she didn’t say a word.

Littlefoot wasn’t wrong.

-----------

“So you guys are getting her sweet bubbles for her Star Day?  I didn’t even know it was her Star Day!”

The sound of shushing was almost deafening as both the Oviraptor and Tyrannosaurus tried to quiet the threehorn.  It won’t be a surprise if he ruins the surprise!

Ruby leaned in as they walked in the direction where Cera had been last seen.  If he could distract her with conversation then that would give them enough time to get the pile of sweet bubbles ready.  “Yes, it is her Star Day.  But that also means she will be on alert.”

Dalmar looked confused.  “Why’s that?”

“Because she knows that we are going to try to surprise her,” the fastrunner said matter-of-factly.

This did not improve the confusion any.  “So… why surprise her then?”

“Because forgetting her Star Day is even worse!” Chomper whispered with a laugh.  “You know how threehorn are…”

All three of them stopped as both Ruby and Dalmar looked at Chomper.  Ruby with both hands on her hips and Dalmar with a dumbfounded expression.  Ruby was about to caution her young friend on manners again when Dalmar did something unexpected.

He laughed.

“Yes… I guess I would know, wouldn’t I?”

Unfortunately for the trio the laughter carried far enough for a certain threehorn to hear.

-----------

“Darn it, Littlefoot!  What have I told all of you about Star Days!”

Littlefoot tried to move his legs as fast as he could in order to delay his rampaging friend.  He had to give the others at least a fighting chance to prepare the surprise despite Cera’s interference.

“Oh come on, Cera… what makes you think that we are going to surprise you again?”

The longneck barely had time to skid to a stop as his friend’s horns appeared in his face as if to point at him for emphasis.

“It was either a surprise being planned by all of you, or one of them listening in to our little conversation.” She dragged her front foot against the ground in a charging gesture, “You had better hope for their sakes it was the surprise.”

Littlefoot allowed himself a smile.  “Don’t want Dalmar to know you like him, hmmm?”

Cera growled.  “Don’t you start, longneck!  I can still make your head a bit flatter!”

-----------

Ruby clung to the small branch as if her life depended on it as Chomper dangled in one of the vines hanging off of the tree like an overripe sweet bubble.  The accumulated sweet bubbles, meanwhile, had been placed on the ground in a hastily prepared pile.  Only Dalmar remained on the ground, standing in front of the pile in question.

“Cera and Dalmar sitting on a hill…”

“You’re pushing it, longneck!”

“Just buying some of our friends time…”

“Darn it!  I knew it!  I knew it!  You can never trust other kinds to keep their word!”

“Sure you can!  We all said that we would never surprise you again.  We kept that promise.  Now that you know about it, it won’t be a surprise!”

The sound of a scream was followed by the sound of thunderous footsteps.  The slightly louder footsteps of another followed shortly thereafter.

“Here she comes, guys!”

Dalmar could only stare transfixed in the direction that the sounds were coming.  

“Oh is the surprise already happening?  I think we got enough, I do, I do!”

From the same direction as the oncoming chaos came the form of a young spiketail, his back overflowing with sweet bubbles and a small swimmer.  They did not see Dalmar until it was too late.

Dalmar only had time for one final thought as he was sent tumbling backwards.

At least the sweet bubbles are here to break my fall.

-----------

Ten years later:

“Me have message from everyone!”

Cera groaned.  Petrie was a good friend and a valuable asset to the combined herds.  But she wished that somewhere along the sands of time he could have learned normal grammar.  Keeping the herds organized into something organized was hard enough as it was.

“And what is that?” She asked neutrally.  The herd leader had granted her mate a leave of absence from normal duties today and, much to her annoyance, he refused to reveal why.

“Well by everyone me mean everyone.  Me check on where we come from and where we going, and Ruby and Chomper still far away from the herd.  They doing well.”

Cera could only mutter a pleased snort in response to that.  After all if Chomper was doing well then that meant some poor leaf-eaters obviously weren’t.

“And they want to send you the same message as Dalmar and the rest of us.”

Cera blinked.  Something was off about this.  “What?”

Petrie smirked.  “You ready for your non-surprise?”

The threehorn quickly rose to attention as she nodded for the third-in-command to take her spot.  She suddenly realized what was going on as she glared at her herd leader who merely smirked back.

Petrie paused for dramatic effect as he opened his wings triumphantly.  “Happy Star Day!”

“Oh no he doesn’t!”

Several longnecks turned their heads as the threehorn sprinted past them, her horns aimed in an attack position.  In something between bemusement and respect the longneck herd parted in order to allow her to go through.

Only a certain green longneck had the nerve to say anything.

“Don’t think you’re fast enough, Cera!”

“Bite me, Shorty!”

Cera ignored the laughter from the impossibly tall longneck as she passed the hadrosaur herds and the amused squawks of the flyers.  She should have known something like this would have happened if her band of friends ever got back together.

And with Dalmar in the picture it became an absolute certainty.

She sped past the last of the swimmers as her target became visible in front of her.  The brown longneck’s bulk stood out against the blue sky like a tree in the barrens, as the tell-tale sight of Ducky and Spike appeared on either side,  The sudden sensation of weight on her back only confirmed that the stage was set.

“You too late!”

Cera growled as she pushed herself faster.  The scents of the massive beasts in front of her filled her nostrils as she prepared to strike.  Only the slight slowing of her body at the last moment confirmed it was for show.

That was when the dinosaurs parted to reveal their surprise.

An adult male threehorn completely covered in sweet bubbles.  She barely had time to react when Dalmar nuzzled her, causing sticky sweet bubble juice to cover her face.

“Just like old times, huh?”

As Cera proceeded to chase her mate back to the threehorn herd against the backdrop of her friends’ laughter, she couldn’t help but laugh.

It was good to have everyone back again.