I really need to stop promising deadlines I can't make.
Nonetheless, here's Chapter 4. I had this done for ages, then I got into a drawing phase, and when I get into a drawing phase I forget about writing.
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Chapter 4: A Change in the Wind“Watch where you're going, clumsy!” Rye growled before he turned around to see who had bumped into him in the first place. He stared at Thunderfoot for a few moments, before his frown turned into an evil smile. “Well, well, well...”
“Sorry,” Thunderfoot said calmly. “I didn't see you.”
“Yeah, of course not,” said Rye, before turning around again and smacking Thunderfoot in the face with his tail. “Whoops. Didn't see your face there.”
“Thunderfoot!” came a voice. Tosa came out from behind a tree with Camara. “Are you okay?” she asked, noticing a fresh red mark on his left cheek.
“Fine,” he answered. “I'm fine.”
“D'aww, look at that,” Rye taunted. “Thundie's got himself a girlfriend!”
“She's not my girlfriend!” Thunderfoot argued. “She's just a friend.”
Rye scoffed at this. “Why would anyone want to be friends with you?” he snarled. He looked over at Camara. “Huh, that's two dumb females you've got now.”
“I beg your pardon?” said Tosa, walking right up to Rye. “Say that again, I dare you!”
“I said you're dumb,” Rye answered bluntly. “Dumb enough to be hanging around with that sorry excuse of a longneck, that's for sure.”
“Excuse me?” came a much deeper and angrier voice. Rye turned around, shocked to a much larger longneck right behind him. How he hadn't heard the adult approaching was beyond him.
“Um... I-I.. uh...” He hadn't felt so scared about an adult catching him being mean to others. Usually he would just answer back at them, but the one in front of him looked like he would crush him if he said anything of the sort.
“You had better watch what you say to my daughter,” Sorrel growled as other children arrived at the scene, shocked by what they were seeing.
“I-I-I'm sorry,” Rye stammered.
“You'd better be,” Sorrel answered sternly. “Now get out of here!”
“Y-y-yes s-s-sir!” Rye whimpered before shooting a look at Thunderfoot and Tosa and running off. The other children just stared in disbelief before backing off themselves, scared of the adult. Tosa, Thunderfoot and Camara were the only three who stayed.
Patrice walked up to the side of her mate, and sighed.
“Did you honestly have to be so rough?” she asked.
“Did you hear the things he was saying about Tosa?!” Sorrel countered angrily. “Honestly, it was despicable. He deserved it.”
Tosa turned to Thunderfoot, frowning. “Is he always like that to you?” she asked.
“Yep,” Thunderfoot answered. “That's why I try my best to avoid him at all costs. He always says mean things about my parents...”
Patrice frowned at this. “That's quite mean,” she said.
“That's disgusting,” said Sorrel. “Why should anybody have the right to pick on someone who has it hard enough as it is?”
Tosa sighed and lay down next to Thunderfoot. “I suppose there are just some bad dinosaurs out there,” she said before turning to her father. “But you sure showed him!”
Sorrel chuckled to himself. “I sure did,” he said. “Anything for my special little girl,” he added as he walked up to Tosa and nuzzled her. Patrice cleared her throat to draw her mate's attention; he hadn't realised that Thunderfoot looked a bit uncomfortable. He immediately drew back when he saw the look the female give him, and his gaze drifted over to the child next to Tosa.
“Sorry,” he said softly, “about my behaviour earlier.”
“Oh... that's okay,” Thunderfoot answered. “Thank you for chasing that bully off.”
“He's far too good at scaring children,” said Patrice, chuckling to herself. “You must be Thunderfoot, yes?”
“Yes, that's me,” said Thunderfoot. “And you two are Tosa's mother and father?” Patrice nodded.
“Speaking of parents,” Camara interrupted from a short distance away. “I should go back to my folks. See you later!”
“Bye!” Tosa and Thunderfoot called after her as she ran off, leaving the four alone in the small clearing they were in.
“I should also be getting back to my grandpa,” said Thunderfoot, getting up. He turned back to face Tosa and smiled at her. “Maybe I'll see you later?”
“Actually, we would like to come with you,” Sorrel spoke up. “I would like to have a word with your grandfather... if he's up to it, of course.”
“Um... sure,” Thunderfoot answered. “He's, er... this way.”
The four walked back to the Thunderfoot's resting place where his grandpa was waiting. The old one was surprised to see four longnecks heading towards him, and he stood up to greet them.
“Hi, Grandpa,” said Thunderfoot, happily walking to his side. “Tosa's parents said they wanted to talk to you.”
“Ah, I see,” his grandfather answered. He smiled at the newcomers. “Hello, there.”
“Well, we meet at last,” said Sorrel. “You must be Thunderfoot's grandpa.” Grandpa just nodded in reply. “I'm Sorrel, and this is my mate, Patrice. I don't suppose you mind if we have a word, do you?”
“Of course not,” the old longneck answered.
“Tosa, do want to go off and play with Thunderfoot for a while?” said Patrice. “Just don't go too far, okay?”
“Sure, Mother,” Tosa answered happily. “Come on, Thunderfoot!”
The two children soon ran off to play with each other, and decided to play a different game to toss the treesweet.
Patrice smiled as she watched the two, and then turned back to face Thunderfoot's grandpa.
“What was your name? she asked him. “You never said.”
“Well, most around here just call me Grandpa since I'm the herd's... oldest resident, but my real name is Eldridge,” he answered.
“It's a pleasure, Eldridge,” said Sorrel. “I prefer to use someone's actual name myself, rather than nicknames.”
“I suppose it does cause less confusion,” Eldridge agreed.
“So, what it is you wanted to speak about?” he asked after a few moments.
“The children, mostly,” said Patrice. “It's such a shame about what both you and Thunderfoot have been through.”
“Yes, he has had it harder than he deserves,” Eldridge sighed.
“As do you, I suppose,” said Sorrel. “I mean, raising a child on your own surely can't be easy.”
“No, I'll admit that it isn't, but there's also no way that I'm going to leave him,” Eldridge answered.
“Doesn't he have any other family at all?” Patrice asked.
“I do have a few other children, but most of them have left the nest and gone to other places to start their own families,” the elderly longneck answered. “I haven't heard from most of them for years now.”
“I'm sorry,” said Patrice.
“Life goes on, I'm afraid,” said Eldridge. “We all lose someone close to us one day, but that's the circle of life. We'll have to move on eventually.”
“You sound like quite the wise one,” Sorrel commented.
“It all comes with experience.” Eldridge chuckled. “I suppose I have quite a bit of it at my old age.”
“Indeed,” said Sorrel.
Meanwhile, Tosa and Thunderfoot had both found a fairly large meadow for them to play in. On the way they saw Rye, but he didn't do anything except give them a dirty look, mostly out of fear of Tosa's father showing up again. Very few of the other children were with him, most having gone back to their families. When they got there, the pair played hide and seek for a while, but they eventually got too tired and just talked instead.
“If you don't mind me asking,” Tosa said as she lay down next to Thunderfoot, “what's it like living with your grandpa?”
“It's... all right, actually,” he answered. “He may be the oldest in our herd, but his age honestly doesn't make a difference. He's wise, understanding, and quite fun, too.”
“Fun, huh?” said Tosa. “What kind of fun?”
“Well, he doesn't really just sit there doing nothing with me all day, and I don't really think he's your stereotypical grandparent, either.”
“Stereo-what?” Tosa questioned with a confused face.
“Stereotypical,” Thunderfoot repeated. “Basically, a lot of others tend to see old dinosaurs as slow and boring, but my grandpa's nothing like that at all. He'll always offer to play some kind of game with me to keep me entertained.”
“Gee, even my parents don't do that,” said Tosa. “He must be doing well to keep up with you... hey, I thought you said you weren't really a playing dinosaur, anyway?”
“Oh, we don't play those kinds of games,” Thunderfoot explained. “We play games that use imagination, such as making shapes out of sky puffies or stars.”
“That sounds quite interesting, actually,” said Tosa as she looked up at the sky. “Too bad there aren't any sky puffies around right now.”
“Yes, but I suppose it'll be dark soon, though,” said Thunderfoot, as he noticed that the bright circle was just about to fall below the high hills surrounding the valley. “Actually, today was the first time I had played that game in a very long time,” he added after a short while.
“How come?” Tosa questioned.
“Well, I guess that after my parents... I was just never in the mood,” Thunderfoot answered as he looked at the ground. “That's why I said I didn't want to play when we first met.”
“I see...” Tosa sighed. “Did you also starve yourself or something?”
“What?” Thunderfoot asked, confused.
“Well, I didn't want to say anything at first because it might have been rude, but...” The young girl still hesitated to say the next sentence. “You do look quite thin to me.”
Thunderfoot just lay there, shocked at what she had said to him.
“You... you think so?” he questioned. Tosa merely nodded at him. “Well, I suppose a lot of the time I just didn't feel hungry, and on some occasions Grandpa had to... I must have made him so worried...”
“I wouldn't be surprised if you did,” said Tosa. “To be honest, I didn't really notice until my dad said you looked quite frail.”
“When did he say that?” Thunderfoot asked.
“After you bumped into him this morning,” Tosa answered before chuckling to herself. “He sure was complaining about that for a while.”
“Oh...”
“I wouldn't worry, though,” Tosa assured him. “My father is the biggest moaner in the world. He complains about anything and everything. I can bet you that he'll be complaining about that Rye kid later tonight.”
“I'd like to join in with that one!” Thunderfoot joked. “...Or I could listen to some of my grandpa's stories to calm me down.”
“...your grandpa tells stories?” Tosa asked, intrigued.
“He sure does,” Thunderfoot answered. “He used to be a story speaker back in his day.” He was surprised when he saw the girl's face light up.
“Really?!” she exclaimed with nothing short of delight. “Can he... can I perhaps listen to one of his stories some day? Please?”
Thunderfoot chuckled. “I don't see why not,” he said. “I can get him to tell you one today... maybe.”
“That'd be great!” Tosa squealed. “My father told me about story speakers, and since then I've always wanted to meet one and hear some of the great longneck stories. Well, I heard a couple of stories from him, since he had heard some of the stories from when he was younger, but I would like to hear more.”
“Well, perhaps we should go back,” Thunderfoot suggested. “It's getting late, anyway.”
“Yes, perhaps we should,” Tosa agreed. The two young longnecks got up and walked off, back towards their families. Surprisingly enough, Sorrel and Patrice were still talking with Eldridge, only stopping when they saw the children approaching.
“My, is it that late?” Sorrel asked himself when he noticed that the sky had turned dark orange. “We should go back and join our herd. Come along, Tosa. You can play again tomorrow.”
“Oh... okay,” said Tosa, glancing at Thunderfoot with disappointment.
“Don't worry, I'll get him to tell us a whole bunch of stories tomorrow,” Thunderfoot promised. Tosa smiled and walked over to her father before jumping onto his head.
“I'll try moving the herd tomorrow,” said Sorrel. “The two herds are resting at opposite sides of this place, and it's fairly large at that. Hopefully it'll make the journey easier, especially for the children. We'll move to a place closer to here but not too close to the centre, just in case something like a fire starts. Then again, that's quite unlikely, seeing how moist the place is at the moment.”
“But the dry time will be upon us soon,” Eldridge warned. “Perhaps it would be best to settle your herd as close to the outskirts as possible without attracting those fast biters, and figure out your nearest fire escape routes.”
“Yes, of course,” Sorrel agreed. “Anyway, we should be going now. It's quite a walk back.”
The longnecks said their goodbyes and Tosa's family went back to their herd.
“Grandpa? Tosa said she wants to hear some of the longneck stories,” said Thunderfoot. “Would you be okay with telling her some?”
“Of course, Thunderfoot!” his grandfather answered. “I'll be more than happy to.”
“Thanks,” said Thunderfoot, before starting to settle down. He yawned and his eyelids started to feel heavy. “Goodnight, Grandpa.”
“Goodnight,” said Eldridge, nuzzling his grandson before settling down himself. After a short while, soft snoring could be heard from the resting place as the two fell into a deep sleep.
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And there you go. Chapter 5's progress kinda died, so I don't know when that'll be up. Hopefully it'll be before I go on holiday in two weeks' time. I've done a drawing that I'll also upload.
Eldridge, it means old/wise one, which is why I chose it. Most of the time I'll use floral names, but sometimes I'll use names when the meaning reflects the character.
RYE, LEAVE MY THUNDIE ALONE!!
That's all I'm going to say now. I'm too lazy to complain about it.