Finally! Its here, next chapter of VV. Sorry I haven't been as active recently - not just with writing this, but with spending much time on here at all...I just really wanted to get this done! Tell me what you think - the last parts are probably a bit rushed, as I wanted to get it finished quickly...
Chapter Four: How to get things doneSeizon stepped out of the cave and gazed up at the darkened sky, adorned with stars twinkling innocently down at his snout. He sniffed the air enthusiastically.
It was nigh time to hunt.
With this merry thought in mind, the rest of his pack filed out of the cave. Saureen, his, as always, right-hand woman first, followed by Lini and then Nycha. Pyron and Al sauntered out more slowly, with Chomper bringing up the rear. He stumbled slightly as he crept out the cave. Seizon felt like cringing.
“Alright, listen up everyone,” Seizon called, and they all immediately stood to attention.
“I know this is the first time we’ve made a proper kill in weeks. But still, perhaps our rustiness on this skill will be a better pace for our rookie.” He spared Chomper a bemused look, which he didn’t return.
“Question, if I may, Seizon…” Pyron queried, raising his arm. “Why are we hunting in the dead of night? We won’t be able to see a thing.”
“And nor will they,” Seizon replied. “Anyway, skilled hunters like us don’t need night-vision. We have our sense of smell. Something that they barely have…”
Chomper could sense impending doom befalling upon his person. This was it, end of the line. Tonight he would be forced to kill a fellow dinosaur, one who’s language and emotions he understood perfectly. After he had done that, he told himself, he could never return to the Great Valley.
Seizon began to pace in front of the group, and Chomper could tell the young bladeback was deliberately avoiding his gaze. Maybe he was concerned about what he may see in it? Saureen gently placed her claw on Chomper’s skinny arm, but he shrugged her off. He wasn’t going to be mollycoddled.
Not yet.
“This is how it will work,” Seizon continued. “The usual way – some of us will chase the animal into the rest of us, so we’ve got it trapped and exhausted. Then we’ll move in…” He pounded his fist into his palm.
“…for the kill.”
Feeling slightly nauseous, Chomper spoke up.
“So, err…who’s going in which group then?”
“Well, the one’s giving the chase will be the one’s quicker on their feet,” Seizon replied, still not looking directly at him.
“Pyron and Nycha, that’ll be you two. And Al too. And Saureen…” he turned to look at her.
“I’d like you to be with them as well. Lini and Chomper, you’ll be with me, making the kill.”
Chomper’s insides disappeared. His whole body became rigid.
“N-no,” he managed to stutter. “You don’t want me in that group Seizon…I’m more the athletic type, I’ll be better in the chase group…”
“You have immensely powerful jaws,” Seizon said, now staring directly at him. His expression however, was unreadable. “They’ll come in handy.”
As though to emphasized the point, Lini grabbed Chomper playfully on the arm.
“Come on, Chomper,” she coaxed, her eyes shining. “Taking down a leaf-eater is great fun!”
Chomper wasn’t convinced. His insides had returned, only they felt like they had been filled with rocks in their absence.
“Right…” he mumbled.
Nycha stepped forward.
“Seizon, let him and me swap places. He’s too puny to be on the killing team. He could be better in my place, and me better in his.”
Chomper didn’t care that she had called him puny. If he were able to get out this one…?
“No, Nycha,” Seizon said firmly.
Oh.
“Why not???” Nycha asked intently, staring at Seizon with shining eyes to rival Lini’s.
“Because I said so,” Seizon replied calmly.
Nycha looked distraught, but relented anyway.
“There’s still one more issue,” Saureen stated. “What prey are we even chasing?”
Seizon smiled.
“Sniff around,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll find something suitable.”
As it turned out, there was only one suitable prey (in Seizon’s eyes anyway) in the area. Pyron had managed to follow the trail of a lone Spikethumb (Iguanodon) that was grazing dolefully in an abandoned dark canyon.
“Looks like we struck lucky,” Seizon grinned. “OK, Chomper, Lini, come with me over to this small cavern.” He gestured to a conveniently placed gap in the canyon wall.
“Saureen and the rest of ya, make sure you chase him over here.”
Saureen and the others all gave affirmative nods before sprinting, hunched over to avoid being spotted by the herbivore to a place in which hemming it into the hole in the wall would be easy.
“It’s all very simple, my friend,” Seizon demonstrated, drawing a diagram in the earth just outside the mouth of the hole.
“Survival instincts dictate that whatever presents the most immediate danger is something worth running in the opposite direction to, even though you have no idea what might be waiting for you there…”
Seizon gave Chomper a trademark grin, displaying his shining white sharp teeth.
Chomper didn’t respond. He simply stared perplexedly into space, hardly believing what was happening. This morning, he had woken up without a care in the world, in the impeccable shelter of the Great Valley. Now, he was crouching at the mouth of a cave with fellow sharpteeth, both of whom were considerably stronger than him, waiting to take down a fellow dinosaur…
That went without mentioning whatever was up with Xal, Screech and Thud, and this mysterious spiked longneck. If the worst came to worst, their actions would result in war, spread across the entire dinosaur world…
“Hey.”
Chomper jumped at the sound of the whispered voice. Lini had just tapped him on the shoulder, more gently than Chomper thought was capable for her.
“You OK?” she whispered.
Chomper wasn’t entirely sure how to respond. He opened his mouth, scrabbled around at a few words that were staggering around in his head before realising that they wouldn’t construct a particularly relevant sentence, and closed his mouth again.
Lini gave him a warm, comforting smile, which was strange, as Chomper had never associated those sort of smiles with her either.
“It’ll be OK,” she assured him, tapping him kindly on the shoulder. “I know this whole experience is a bit intense for you, growing up the way you have. But it’ll improve. We’ll all support you through this, don’t worry!”
And then, far beyond what Chomper was expecting, Lini leaned forward and hugged him tightly, her chin resting on top of his head.
It wasn’t as if Chomper had never been hugged before, but there were a lot more awkward physics being hugged by a leaf-eater. Chomper had no memory of being wrapped in a peer’s embrace like this, as though by an older sister. It felt wonderful, and yet at the same time, Chomper felt a horrible yearning from the experience…
As Lini released him, Chomper heard a loud roar in the distance, in a voice he recognised as Pyron’s. The hunt had begun.
Chomper could distinctly see the sillouhette of the spikethumb galloping towards them, emitting loud bellows of fear…
Seizon made the first move. Springing out from the hole, he clapsed his jaws around the neck of the unsuspecting victim, who desperately tried to swing him off. Lini soon joined in, biting with her powerful jaws on the animals flank, causing it to stagger and fall over. Saureen, Pyron, Nycha and Al all leapt on too, biting and clawing and the screaming, trashing creature…
Chomper was frozen in his spot, watching the massacre wide-eyed and fearful. There was nothing he could do as Seizon snapped the animal’s neck quickly and announced,
“It’s going to be a hell of job getting it back to our cave. Chomper, give us a hand.”
Chomper knew it would do no good for him to resist. Still numb with shock, he slowly clambered out of the hole in the canyon wall and walked towards the corpse.
“Atta boy!” Seizon praised, thumping him on the back. Chomper still didn’t respond. Silently, he helped the pack carry the massive body all the way back to their cave. Chomper hung back at the entrance. He felt that the sight of them all eating from the dead leaf-eater might just make him throw up.
He wasn’t waiting outside long before Seizon came out to join him.
“I didn’t expect you to participate in the killing the first time,” Seizon informed him. “In fact, I would have been astounded if you did. You’ve done nothing to be ashamed of.” He smiled to himself.
“In time, it’ll get better…”
“Are these supposed to be words of comfort?” Chomper demanded.
Seizon scowled.
“Look, I’m doing my best for you here, mate,” he snapped. “But if you can’t see that then it’s your own problem.” With that, he strode back into the cave, without another word.
Chomper remained outside, gathering his thoughts as a chilly wind whipped around him and dark, spidery sky puffies blocked the stars from view. Hardly a night you’d want to be caught out in in the mysterious beyond…he still couldn’t believe this was happening. He wondered what Littlefoot and the others were doing now…did they even care he was gone? It was no mystery, he felt, that they still held some amount of mistrust and fear about him. It was only natural. He had no business, as a Sharptooth, interfering with the peaceful flow of their lives – maybe it was time he moved on…
“Chomper?”
An uncertain voice had caught him unawares. Chomper turned to see the young Sharptooth cautiously emerge from the cave. This time it wasn’t Seizon, but Saureen. Feeling he could realistically get on with her better, Chomper tried to force his face into a weak smile.
“Yes?”
“Are you…umm…going to eat?” Saureen asked tentatively. The smile slid from Chomper’s face faster than a rockslide and he turned away from her.
“No…” he murmured. “I can’t eat a fellow dinosaur…just imagining eating one of my friends…what happened to him was brutal and barbaric…”
Saureen approached him as his voice faltered. Gingerly, the placed a hand upon his shoulder, and slowly caressed it, creating a sense of comfort that Chomper needed all too well.
“Well, starving yourself isn’t going to bring him back,” Saureen reasoned. “Come on Chomper, you’ve got to eat! Your friends wouldn’t want you to starve yourself either, even for the sake of another leaf-eater…”
Chomper paused. How could she know that? For all she knew, they could secretly despise him…then again, she had watched him at play with them…and an outsider can often see the non-biased truth before them…and…her words were strangely soothing. They sounded like you could trust them…
Slowly, Chomper went with her back to the cave.
*
Dawn.
Littlefoot yawned, his eyes bleary. He had managed to convince his grandparents to let him set out early, although now his groggy demeanour was telling him it wasn’t such a good idea. Still, he had to know…
Around him, his five other friends were also sitting and waiting, in a circle amongst the tall grass. None of them said a word. Well, not until Spike helped himself to a mouthful of said grass, that is.
“Spike!” Ducky protested accusingly. “How can you be eating at a time like this???”
“He’s just trying to continue as normal…” Cera replied. And, Littlefoot noticed, that was exactly what she was trying to do. Although quieter than normal, Cera was certainly not the emotional wreck they had been introduced to yesterday. This heartened Littlefoot greatly – Cera, he could see, was having a worse time of it than any of them, so if she could take a stiff-upper lip approach to this, so could the rest of them!
As if responding to his change of heart, a group of flyers, including Petrie’s mother, all swooped down from the sky into their midst.
“Well?” Ruby asked nervously.
Mama Flyer shook her head sadly.
“There’s no sign of him. We’ve searched every area of the valley and much of the immediate mysterious beyond. Nothing…”
Ruby swallowed hard.
“But at the same time,” Mama Flyer continued. “That probably means he’s not dead from some weird accident or something, otherwise we would have found his body…”
“Kidnap…?” Littlefoot suggested uncertainly.
Mama Flyer shrugged.
“I guess we can’t rule out that possibility,” she replied, as her companions took flight. “I can’t see why anyone would kidnap Chomper, much less within our own valley, and then take him out, but don’t lose faith. Remember, the fact that we’ve found no body makes it very unlikely he’s dead.”
She also took off. As she hovered a few feet above them, she turned to look at her son.
“Petrie, are you coming?” she asked.
“Err, no…me stay here,” he replied.
“Sure.”
After she had left, the six young dinosaurs all exchanged looks.
“Well,” Cera sighed. “That doesn’t leave us any the wiser…”
“No…” Littlefoot admitted. “I still can’t work out-”
“Work out what?” a voice behind them interjected.
Littlefoot turned to see Kai, the spiked wandering longneck from last night stride towards them.
“Oh, hello Kai,” Littlefoot greeted him offhandedly.
“Hey kid,” Kai smiled down at him, and Littlefoot couldn’t help but notice how he virtually ignored his companions.
“I’ve just spoke to your grandparents,” he said warmly. “They seem proud of you…”
“Umm…well, they would be…” Littlefoot replied, still quite confused. He could tell his friends were wondering what on earth this longneck wanted…
“Anyway, work out what?” Kai repeated, his voice becoming business-like. He stripped the nearby branch of a tree of leaves as he said this.
“I can’t work out where my friend is,” Littlefoot replied.
“Yeah,” Ruby added, speaking to Kai for the first time. “And we-”
“Well, I’m afraid I couldn’t find him, son,” Kai said, gazing down at Littlefoot, his voice heavy with sadness. But now Littlefoot was quite annoyed. It wasn’t often that he felt such irritation for an adult – only Petrie’s uncle Pterano had given this impression to him. But this time he knew why – Kai had completely ignored Ruby, not to mention interrupted her!
“Well,” Littlefoot continued, a bite of coldness in his voice. “Neither have a group of flyers who volunteered to look for him, and they say-”
But Littlefoot broke off, as, to his surprise, Kai chuckled.
“Think they could do a better job than us though?” he asked, amused.
Littlefoot didn’t quite know how to respond to this, so he just let the awkward silence hang in the air.
Eventually, Kai cleared his throat.
“Umm…anyway, I’ll see you around,” he muttered, wandering off.
“What a weirdo…” Cera muttered in an awed voice. “Where on earth did you find that guy?”
“He was just a far-walker that I met last night,” Littlefoot replied. “He doesn’t travel with a herd apparentley…” he shook his head.
“But never mind him. We still have a problem here – Chomper…”
“Well,” Ruby said slowly. “I was thinking we could go and ask Mr Thicknose if he has any idea what this is all about…”
Mr Thicknose didn’t seem in the least surprise to see them.
“I had a feeling you’d come along eventually…” he murmured.
“Yeah…” Littlefoot replied. “I was just wondering…do you have any idea what happened to Chomper?”
Thicknose shook his head.
“No……………but I have come up with a theory. It may be completely off, but if you came to hear my opinions…”
“Oh yes, yes, yes – we have!” Ducky insisted.
“Very well then,” Thicknose said briskly, and he began to pace back and forth.
“I suppose,” he said. “To start at the very beginning, you have to understand what it’s like for those who live outside the Great Valley. Particularly sharpteeth – I mean, they have to struggle every time they want to eat. It is surely a difficult life, and therefore, sometimes, community cohesion is required.”
“Community cohesion?” Cera repeated.
“Exactly. That basically means a lot of dinosaurs, often from different species, in the same sort of area coming together to work together, generally in harmony.” He smiled slightly. “One example, of course, would be our valley. It is one of the best places for community cohesion I’ve ever seen. But here we live in peace. We do not tend to be hostile to outsiders. That’s very different with Sharptooth communities. They will essentially, from what I’ve heard, form gangs or sects, and they will almost always be in a state of warfare with another sect. And when you’ve got those sort of problems, every individual you can lay your hands on counts.”
Thicknose took a deep breath.
“Imagine Chomper’s parents were to begin their own sect to combat Redclaw’s, for example. They would most definitely want their son to be part of it, and so they would then get hold of him by any means possible.”
He smiled at them.
“I may be wrong, but I think that is what happened. So, in that case, he is, most likely, absolutely fine.”
*
These words did provide comfort to Littlefoot, but he was still quite concerned. If Chomper’s parents had taken him, surely they would have let Chomper explain to the rest of them where he was going? And in any case, did him being with his parents make him any safer? He could tell they were extremely protective and caring for him, but being out in the mysterious beyond undoubtedly constantly put him at risk from Redclaw’s wrath. As far as he was concerned, they had to find him.
“I can’t stand around any longer,” Littlefoot declared.
“Maybe you sit down?” Petrie suggested.
“No, Petrie. I mean…I can’t just stay here whilst Chomper’s doing who knows what…I’ve…I’ve gotta go and find him.”
As he turned to go, he expected some form of resistance from his friends, most likely from Cera. But it seemed that Cera felt she wanted to stay as far from home as possible, and so, she trotted along beside him, nodding.
“Yeah. I know what you mean. Let’s go and find him.”
“I’m coming too,” Ruby added. Spike made a decisive noise and also went to follow Littlefoot. Convinced that Spike’s opinion was legible, Ducky and Petrie also declared their intentions to come along.
“Great,” Littlefoot said. “Then let’s go.”
However, just as they reached the passage leading to the mysterious beyond in the Great Wall, a voice behind them said,
“Children!”
They all recognised that voice. But as they turned to face Kai, Littlefoot couldn’t help but notice…he had addressed them
all…
“Yes?” he asked tentatively.
Kai shook his head sadly.
“I can’t believe you’re all planning to go into the mysterious beyond alone,” he said sagely. “It’s dangerous out there – it’s what I came here to escape!”
Littlefoot just hung his head awkwardly, but Cera spoke up.
“We’re going out there to help our friend. Perhaps you could wait until you knew the full story before to reprimanded us?”
Kai fixed her with a steely glare, which soon shut her up. Eventually, however, his face relaxed.
“Fair enough,” he said. “However – I shall be accompanying you.”
His words were greeted with silence. He took no notice of this, and just ploughed forward.
Littlefoot exchanged a look with his friends and they mutually decided it was best not to comment.
~0~
And there it is!!! Thanks for reading, and...what did you like about this chapter? Quite a bit of stuff happened... :blink: Not to mention, I'd like to hear your thoughts both about how I portrayed the main characters, and what you think of my OCs. Which of my sharptooth OCs is your favourite?
Also, if anyone's interested to draw some fanart for this? There already is some, but I'm quite greedy...
: How about a cover art concept? I dunno...anyway, enjoy!
