=Part SixteenRuby turned the corner and stopped short as she almost ran into Chomper. She looked up to behold two very bony-looking Stealers. One dark and one light, staring back at them in bewilderment.
Ruby raised a brow as she turned from the Stealers back to Chomper, and then back to the Stealers. “Are they the ones you had looked for to find?” She whispered.
Chomper nodded, not losing his glare. “Yeah, they’re the ones.”
“It’s… it’s that
egg, Oz.” Strut quavered, disbelieving that he saw what he saw.
Ozzy nodded slowly, face twisted into some sort of angry astonishment, like he couldn’t quite understand what was going on, but it made him mad. “What are
you doing out here?” He hissed, composure regained. “You bring back those parents of yours to finish us off?”
“Well, right now I’m wondering how you two even escaped.” Chomper replied.
Ozzy guffawed. Strut really admired how carefree his brother was acting now, despite their actions of earlier. “You honestly think we couldn’t get away from two brutes like those? We’re
Struthiomimuses, my boy. Nothing catches us.” He sneered.
Chomper frowned. He was reminded of just how much he didn’t like these two. “How long have you two been out here?” He figured he should start from there.
Strut cleared his throat before Ozzy could answer with some stinging remark. After all, what happened when this sharptooth hatched was… in the past, right? There wasn’t any need to be aggressive… right? “Ahm, well uh, since then, I suppose. Wh-what d’you think, Oz?”
“ëOz’?” Ruby asked, curiously.
“Oh, uh right, you probably don’t even know our names.” Strut laughed nervously. “Look, I’m Strut, and this one’s Oz, I mean Ozzy. We’re brothers.” The darker Stealer tilted his head. “And-and might we know your names?”
Ruby smiled, oblivious to the Eggeaters’ and Chomper’s past dealings. “Sure, I’m Ruby because that’s my name.”
“Chomper,” the little sharptooth replied.
“Uhh, charmed.” Strut made a move forward, but Ozzy stuck out his foot to block. “Yes, yes we’re quite charmed,” the corners of his beak lowered in distaste. “So where are your little friends? Those buggers who were protecting you before? Are they around?”
Chomper paused to consider. Both of these Stealers were bigger than him and Ruby put together, and though they looked harmless and quite starved right now, the sharptooth remembered all too well how these two had treated his friends. Maybe they were looking for an easy meal right now. Anyway, he wouldn’t give them the truth.
“Yeah, actually. We’re exploring not too far ahead.” He smiled. “Wanna come along? I’m sure they’d be happy to see you.” He tried not to notice how shocked Ruby looked as he said this. Chomper almost never used sarcasm, anyway.
Ozzy raised a skeptical brow. “Really,” he said. Strut shivered.
“Yep, right over those rocks.” Chomper pointed. “Hey guys!” He called over, making both of the brothers jump. “Guess who I found back here?”
“Alright, alright!” Ozzy held his claws up. “Fine, we… we believe you.”
“You-you explore the Mysterious Beyond?” Strut asked, eyes widening. Chomper shrugged. His time, he could tell the truth.
“Yeah, sometimes.”
“
Why?”
Ruby nudged Chomper, but he ignored her. “I’m actually supposed to find out more about Red Claw, and how to stop him.”
The two Stealers glanced at one another, and then turned back to the children before them. Strut stifled a giggle. Ozzy wasn’t so courteous. His laugh boomed off the surrounding rocks. Chomper frowned as the brothers gave in to helpless mirth.
“What’s so funny?” He demanded.
“You… you c-can’t be serious!” Ozzy managed, holding his sides. Strut leaned onto the rock wall for support as he continued laughing.
“Why not?”
“A puny little thing like you is going to take on Red Claw?” The pale Stealer’s amber eyes narrowed with ridicule. “That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!”
“Hah, oh, that was brilliant!” Strut whooped, not quite recovered.
“It’s the truth!” Chomper insisted. “Ruby and I are going to get rid of him!”
“Sure you are,” Ozzy, composure retrieved, stared the little sharptooth down. “Chomper, is it? Well Chomper, let me enlighten you. You. Will. Not. Get. Far.” His neck stretched out with each syllable.
“We will so!” Chomper folded his arms, glaring right back. Ruby harrumphed, uncomfortably.
“Chomper,” she whispered. “We should leave because it’s dark.” She looked up with growing concern at the steadily darkening sky.
Strut broke off his hysterics with a rather strangled-sounding hiccup as he noticed the gathering dusk as well. “O-Oz, we should get back.”
“Very well,” Ozzy sighed dramatically as he straightened. “Wonderful to see you again, Egg,” he declared, absently. He turned on his heel and strode smartly off. Strut hesitated behind, biting his beak, looking at the two children. Hey were so vulnerable out here. But didn’t they say they knew the Mysterious Beyond? That was no excuse, they were only children, andó
“
Strut!” Ozzy snapped. The dark Stealer jumped.
“O-oh, right. But, um… Oz?”
Ozzy stopped, but didn’t turn. Strut saw this as a sign to continue. “Well, I mean, they’re alone out here, right now. M-maybe they should… come with us? I-I mean, the Beyond is really no place for chil-children, right?” he looked down at Chomper and Ruby, smiling awkwardly. “Do-do you need someplace to stay, tonight?”
Ruby and Chomper in the meantime had also turned to leave, but at this invitation, they turned back, surprised. Chomper frowned, warily.
“Ab-absolutely no tricks this time! Heh, don’t need to tangle with a sharptooth, thank you!” Strut put up his claws in surrender. “But, um, you can… come with us, if-if you want to.”
Chomper considered. One the one claw, these two had tried to eat him, and had almost succeeded in doing away with Littlefoot. He frowned. But on the other claw, it was night, and now that he saw these Stealers in a different light they seemed, well… far less threatening now that he had grown up some. And the dark one, Strut, seemed almost friendly.
The bright Circle had disappeared over the horizon. Chomper made his decision. “Okay.”
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Heh, not doing too shabby - definitely helps that I don't have to crunch time into four separate elements of the story: such as the Gang, Ruby and Chomper, Pterano and Taylen, and those Egg Buggers
Now why does Strut remind me so much of Portal 2's Wheatley?
Truly MachiavellianAnd of course, Ozzy
would be that much of a jerkweed...