Chapter 6

Facing Red Claw, Ready or Not

Year 4

Day 33

Chomper almost yawned. Cera was charging him head-on. Again. Doc and Mr. Thicknose's input hadn't done much, apparently. Oh well. He couldn't expect her to recreate her entire fighting style overnight.

Targeting her horn, his predatory mind quickly calculated the perfect timing, the perfect motion.

*CHOMP!*

He'd missed! How could he miss? It was a perfect bite! No. He hadn't simply 'missed'. She was coming at him, but then she'd stopped, pulling her head back and leaving him to snap air. He'd scarcely registered that before Cera gave her head a sharp swing, striking his jaw with her horn.

The sharptooth froze, eyes wide as he processed the turn of events.

Cera wondered if she'd broken him. "C'mon! I didn't hit you that hard, did I?"

A big smile lit up the sharptooth's face. "That. Was. AWESOME, Cera!"

She blinked in surprise before raising her chin in pride. "Thanks."

Cera had to admit: Chomper's genuine praise and enthusiasm was a pretty good pick-me-up.

"That might be enough to take down a sharptooth!" Chomper stated excitedly. "Of course, you'll need more tricks than that, and you'll need to hit as hard as you can without losing balance. Sharpteeth try to end a fight as quickly as possible, so you should too."

"Oh, I'll hit harder, alright," Cera assured with a smirk. "If it doesn't work, we've got plenty of time to work on some more tricks."

Chomper slowly nodded. His thoughts seemed to wander after the 'plenty of time' part.

"Uh, hey, you okay?" asked Cera.

Chomper grinned with unexpected confidence. "Absolutely! When we're done, Red Claw himself will be at your mercy!"

Year 4

Day 247

Cera accelerated as Red Claw stood there in a stupor, still stunned by her horrendous insult in the sharptooth tongue. She was almost fully grown, but he was nearly twice her size. Nonetheless, she was ready.

Red Claw's shock turned to outrage. He didn't roar. He didn't growl. He simply gestured Screech and Thud to attack the longneck before standing there in silent fury. Did he expect her to run into his jaws? He had another thing coming.

Cera was at the edge of pouncing range when Red Claw lunged. She stopped abruptly, drawing back. His mighty jaws crashed together like a thunderclap, jarring her ears as they fell just short of her. Cera screamed a battle cry as she smashed her horns into his chin. The impact sent a shockwave through her skull. It felt good! Bafflement rippled across his face as his head lurched from the blow. Time seemed to slow as Cera etched the moment into her memory. She bet no threehorn had taken him down in one hit! Red Claw seemed to flash her a glare as he continued to reel. Wait ... he wasn't falling. He was no longer reeling either. He was turning. While his head pivoted away with the momentum, his tail blazed towards her. She almost didn't see it. There was no time to dodge. No time to counter. Cera could only crouch low, bracing herself.

Half the breath blasted from her lungs as Red Claw's tail met her side. The strike arced upwards, like a golfer's swing, specifically intended to hook beneath and overturn her. Trepidation spiked through her as she found herself toppling. This wasn't supposed to happen! Once she lowered her center of gravity, no one had knocked her down in one stroke! Not Chomper, not even Littlefoot! Maybe that was the problem. Littlefoot and Chomper fought her as friends.

Red Claw fought her as a killer.

Cera skillfully rolled with the blow, ending up on her feet. She could scarcely stand before Red Claw's teeth were around her horn. He was fast. So was she. The threehorn hammered his muzzle with her forepaw. The horn slipped free. Cera knocked his head skywards with a headbutt and rammed his stomach. He slid back, but didn't drop. Why wouldn't this brute go down?! Then came realisation. She recognised the feel of the hide against her horns.

Red Claw had stone scales.

Unforgiving jaws clamped her back: easily the most painful, terrifying thing she'd ever felt. Chomper's bites didn't come close. If not for her stone scales, the battle might have ended there and then. Instead, Red Claw flipped her onto her back with a jerk of the jaws. He went for the underbelly, stumbling back when her hindpaws found his face, half by practise, half by panic.

She hurried to her feet.

The sharptooth shook off the blow and exploded towards the leafeater.

He stopped.

Cera had perfectly poised her three-foot horn to meet his mouth in the most damaging way possible. A few inches later and he would have made a grave mistake.

Red Claw backed away, tilting his head as he gave the three horned conundrum a calm, contemplative stare.

"Aww, what's wrong?" Cera asked in her most patronising voice. "Is the big, bad Red Claw scared of me? Booo hooo!"

The sharptooth didn't react. His silence was mildly unnerving. Much to her surprise, his posture seemed to relax as he yawned. It almost looked as though he were losing interest!

Cera subconsciously slackened her muscles as she stifled a yawn of her own. Oh, great. It was contagious.

He blinked almost lazily, giving the sky a semi-wary glance.

She blinked as well.

The moment she opened her eyes, Red Claw was silently, ravenously, surging towards her. The moment she snapped to attention, he launched into a confusing zigzag. Instead of colliding, they converged in what looked like an intricate dance. Back and forth, left and right, neither landed a blow as Red Claw strained her reflexes with incessant attempts to get by her horns.

...

Thud leapt before Littlefoot's tail snapped beneath him, the thundercrack jolting his bones and knocking out his hearing for a split moment. He wasn't expecting the longneck to sharply lift his tail, smacking the fast biter high into the air.

Screech pounced from behind, only to find himself frozen inches from contact when Littlefoot's tail snatched him out of the air.

Lifting the nonplussed fast biter so that they were face to face, Littlefoot gave the predator a flat smile.

Thud slumped. Yet again, the longneck had him. He supposed he could see the sardonic humour. This time, he was sure he'd be squished.

To the fast biter's utter confusion, Littlefoot set him down with a pat to the head for good measure. Thud blinked blankly, having no frame of reference for what was happening. The longneck wasn't being friendly. He simply gave a deadpan stare, as though waiting for something to happen. Hold on a minute, where was that shadow coming from?

Thud was beginning to look up when Screech came crashing down on top of him.

Littlefoot examined his handiwork. The fast biters seemed down for the count. His job done, he rushed to Cera's aid. Scarcely had he left before Screech cut the act and climbed off of Thud. The fall might not have knocked them out, but they couldn't help but groan from the soreness. Thud quietly snarled after Littlefoot.

Screech chittered, telling Thud that they should go after the others while the longneck still thought they were incapacitated.

Thud argued that he wasn't done with the longneck: not after the smart-talking mound of meat made a fool of him twice!

Screech hissed, insisting that Thud needed no help to make a fool of himself. If they really wanted to spite the longneck, they had to go for his weak spot: his friends! Red Claw could take care of himself.

Thud sneered at their alpha, being sure to not be seen. It would be a hollow victory. The longneck wouldn't be alive long enough to see what happened to his friends.

With a malicious purr, Screech assured Thud that the longneck didn't have to see it. They could state the grisly details of their intentions at a distance.

Perking up somewhat, Thud bobbed his head in agreement. After pausing to scan the sky, the two fast biters rushed after the departed dinosaurs.

They would have to act fast, Thud warned, before The Daybreaker found them.

Petrie felt horrible.

Soaring above Ducky, Spike and Skip as they scrambled for their lives, he was in no danger whatsoever. That made him feel all the worse. He could hear the fight from there. Littlefoot and Cera were risking their necks in a battle just short of suicide. What was he doing? Fleeing through the skies like a coward.

Like Uncle Pterano.

"Keep going! I'll be back!" Petrie called down to the others, making a U turn.

Ducky and Spike exchanged uncertain glances.

Cera didn't even see it coming: a blow to the temple that felt as though it went straight to her brain. Her world was spinning. Her thoughts fell to shambles. Her senses muddied as the moment seemed to smudge. When the threehorn's awareness returned in a blur, she felt Red Claw's jaws on her horn, his foot on her side. She could barely move. Pushing with his foot, yanking with his teeth, he was attempting to break her. A shove of the paw did nothing to budge the jaws fixed to her horn. Maybe there wasn't anything she could do.

Maybe this was it.

Cera felt Red Claw's body jolt. At the side of her eye, she saw a rock shatter against his side. He released her, snarling at a massive shadow raging towards him.

In spite of her prone position, the threehorn grinned. "Good luck, Pink Eye. You're gonna need it."

Littlefoot spun into a palm tree, tearing it from the soil and smashing it into Red Claw's head in one, whirling motion. Cera guffawed almost goofily. The look on the sharptooth's face!

Being clobbered by a tree? That was a first. It was a learning experience. Red Claw learnt that he did not like it.

The longneck took another swing. Red Claw instinctively caught the tree with his jaws, disarming Littlefoot with a yank. The sharptooth made to toss it aside, but it remained fixed between his chops. His teeth were lodged deep in the wood, and the muscles responsible for opening his jaws weren't nearly as strong as his bite.

The longneck's blows landed like thunder and lightning. He wasn't quite as big as Red Claw, but large enough to stagger the giant.

Though he tottered and stumbled, Red Claw never lost his footing. He almost seemed to ignore the blows as he furiously attempted to remove the tree from his mouth.

Cera shook off her soreness as she rose to a stand. The way Littlefoot's flexible tail rained melee on Red Claw's ankles, knees, neck, skull and any opportune spot that presented itself, she was almost jealous of the longneck. Almost. She wouldn't trade her horns for anything!

Cera charged the sharptooth, ducking a flail of his tail. The tree went flying from Red Claw's jaws when Littlefoot unleashed a titanic blow. Red Claw's head swung high as he stumbled into Cera. She bellowed, throwing up her horns and slamming him in the opposite direction.

He wobbled on his feet.

Cera smirked. Any moment and he'd go down with a mighty thud. Much to her astonishment, Red Claw steadied himself, shook his head and regarded them with nonchalant annoyance.

He snorted at their surprise. These naive children took the occasional dip into The Mysterious Beyond, and they thought they knew anything about a real fight? He'd been through battles that would haunt their callow little sleep stories till the day they died. This was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The leafeaters charged from opposite directions. Red Claw waited for the perfect moment. Then he whirled, slamming aside the incoming Cera with his tail while launching his jaws at Littlefoot's throat. The longneck felt spittle as the chomp rang in his ears. It fell just short as he deflected Red Claw's bite with a tail to the chin. Littlefoot grunted as Red Claw powered through the raised tail. All those years, all that training, and Littlefoot's strength felt like nothing under Red Claw's might. He drew back from another bite. This time, the jaws glanced off his throat. He looped his tail around Red Claw's neck and redirected the sharptooth's weight. The third bite missed not by much. They were too close. He could barely manoeuvre. He needed space. Littlefoot yelled as he shoved the sharptooth with his shoulder.

Red Claw budged, but barely. He spotted Cera rushing in with a bellow and sneered. The foolish child, giving away her position.

Feeling teeth, a sharp gasp was all Littlefoot could manage before his breath was cut off. With savage strength, the sharptooth hurled him into an alarmed Cera.

The leafeaters tumbled to a stop.

Cera scrambled to her feet.

Littlefoot did not stir.

"LITTLEFOOT!" she wailed.

Red Claw purred in satisfaction. The longneck wouldn't get up. Not after that. Now to deal with that odious threehorn. He'd be sure to make her end much slower. To his mild surprise, Littlefoot calmly dragged his feet beneath him. Eyes blazing, the longneck rose to a stand, rumbling a deep purr that escalated into venomous snarl before accentuating the threat with a crack of his tail.

Cera's eyes grew wide. She'd never heard Littlefoot make a noise like that.

"That sounded ... dark. What'd you say?" she asked.

Littlefoot tilted his head towards her slightly, keeping his intense gaze fixed on Red Claw. "I told him I didn't want to fight. We could all walk away, but if he kept this up, someone wasn't going home today, and the identity of that 'someone' might surprise him."

"Yiiikess!" Cera mouthed.

After their journey to The Great Valley, Cera viewed Littlefoot as family. As he grew into an earth-shaking warrior, she inwardly thought he was the coolest guy she knew, but this? Seeing him in action, threatening Red Claw with a sound straight out of a nightmare? She had to come up with a new category for him.

He was beyond cool!

The balefully gleeful cries of Screech and Thud met their ears. Dismay tainted Littlefoot's glare. In gruesome detail, the fast biters were announcing what they would do when they found the other leafeaters, and they were too far for Littlefoot and Cera to stop them.

Red Claw's lip curled in delight at the sight of Littlefoot's face. He gave a reassuring croon poisoned with malice, telling Littlefoot not to worry. He promised to keep them just alive enough to see what became of their friends. His sneer grew all the bigger as panic touched the longneck's features. Would the leafeater beg? He welcomed him to do so. It was such little pleasures that Red Claw relished so much.

Littlefoot blinked in stupefaction before asking the simple question:

Why?

Red Claw creased his brow.

When the predator only stared, Littlefoot went on: Why would a sharptooth go out of his way to do that? Needing food was one thing. Enjoying suffering was a whole different story. Even when they were young, barely even a snack, Red Claw would go out of his way to hunt them. Why would he do something like that?

The sharptooth gave a deep, contemplative hum. Now this was interesting. He had half a mind not to answer, but intriguing conversations like this were seldom. This conversation could even prove cathartic. He checked the sky. No trouble in sight. Maybe 'trouble' was otherwise occupied that day. Fine. He would indulge the longneck.

Red Claw stated that, long story short, he hated Littlefoot and his friends.

But why, asked littlefoot?

The sharptooth tapped his claw. Where to begin? For starters, he posed the question: What if sharpteeth had a neutral opinion of leafeaters? They would empathise with them, even spare them. Foolish sharpteeth had done so before, and even at present such fools existed. What if leafeaters didn't hate sharpteeth? They would reach out to them. Make friends with them, and the so-called 'friendly sharpteeth' would sooner starve than turn on those close to them. The Circle of Life would be broken. Hatred was a driving force of life. It was wise to hate.

Littlefoot's jaw loosened. Was that the sharptooth philosophy? It went against everything he believed in ... yet Littlefoot could see the twisted logic.

The longneck acknowledged that he understood Red Claw's point, but hatred ate out the heart from the inside, spoiling the life of its bearers and those around them. He knew what it felt like, and he'd almost missed wonderful friendships because of it. It was wiser to love. He glanced down at Cera and stated that threehorns and longnecks once hated each other, but she was his closest friend. It was only through the wisdom of friendship that they made it to The Great Valley, a herd of very dissimilar leafeaters who got over their differences. The loved each other like family, and that love had carried them through countless adventures. It was the only reason why The Great Valley worked, as opposed to descending into turf war when various herds with different needs and desires settled in it. In a strange way, they were all like family. They had even made friends with a sharptooth!

Red Claw growled, stating that he knew the sharptooth, the one who was always with them, until that day. Where was that sharptooth now?

Littlefoot glanced about as though searching for an answer.

Red Claw took a step towards them. Enough of this nonsense, he snapped! The longneck could talk till the stars fell and The Great Guardians ruled the Earth, but the fact was simple: The longneck hated the sharptooth, and vice versa.

"'Great Guardians'?" Littlefoot mumbled.

"Huh?" asked Cera.

"Nothing, never mind," Littlefoot dismissed, shaking away the curiosity. He couldn't afford to go off topic.

With a step of his own towards Red Claw, Littlefoot stated that he didn't hate him. He actually thought they could be friends, if they let themselves.

The sharptooth snorted, asking how exactly that would work?

Littlefoot thought for a moment before shaking his head. He admitted that he wasn't sure, but they could figure it out. His friend, Chomper, had figured it out. It was somewhat uncharted territory, but some paths only appeared to those who looked for them. He knew Red Claw grew up without a family. Didn't he get tired of hating? Wasn't there a part of him that yearned for friends and family?

Red Claw's battle-hardened face twitched.

Much to Cera's surprise, he broke away from Littlefoot's imploring gaze. Okay ... She couldn't make heads or tails of most of the conversation, but whatever Littlefoot said, it almost looked like it was working!

The sharptooth's expression snapped back to severity as he shot the longneck a glare.

Cera frowned. Never mind.

Yes, Red Claw admitted, as he stalked towards the leafeaters. He had considered family, but Littlefoot and his friends had taken that away from him.

"What?" gasped Littlefoot, before asking Red Claw to explain.

With a sadistic grin, Red Claw stated that he might tell the longneck, but only after he'd brought him down. He was on a bit of a schedule.

"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" came a squawk from above.

The sharptooth exhaled. Another young one giving away his position before attacking? It wasn't even amusing. How had they ever slipped through his claws in the past? Foolish children.

Petrie darted in. He didn't have to fight. All he had to do was flap around Red Claw's face a bit. Close enough to draw attention, but not too close. That would buy his friends some time, right?

"Ooowff!" he exclaimed as a swift tail swatted him out of the air.

"PETRIE!" Littlefoot shouted.

Red Claw purred. They could watch this one go first!

As the sharptooth's shadow fell over the flyer, Petrie opened his mouth to give a warning he had no hope of backing up. Instead of a shaky threat, everyone froze as a piercing screech seemed to come out instead.

Red Claw's eyes snapped to the skies as he roared for an unseen foe to stay away.

"... 'The Daybreaker' ...?" Littlefoot muttered, tilting his head in curiosity.

"What did you say?" asked Cera.

"Red Claw roared at something he called 'the one who interrupts the flow of a sharptooth's day, and literally breaks the light of The Bright Circle': 'The Daybreaker'."

Rapt with wonder, Cera attempted to follow the sharptooth's gaze. "What could do something like that?"

The answer came pouncing from the heavens like sky fire. Everyone squinted at the silhouette framed by The Bright Circle. It was some kind of flyer. They could scarcely make out the details, scarcely even look at him. The Sun was on his heels, straining their eyes. Littlefoot was forced to turn away, noticing that even Red Claw's eyes watered as he glared up at the flyer.

"That ... that flyers' using The Bright Circle as a weapon! To blind Red Claw!" Littlefoot exclaimed in amazement.

Petrie's thoughts raced. Another flyer ... was attacking Red Claw? He'd never heard a flyer screech like that. It was honed to the chilling ferocity of a sharptooth's roar, with a touch of rasp that only heightened the effect. However, it sounded vaguely familiar. When the flyer gave another screech, ear-splittingly closer than the first one, it clicked.

No! It couldn't be, but it was!

"U-Uncle Pterano?" Petrie gawked.

Yep, yep, yep, Pterano's been up to some interesting things during his banishment from The Great Valley. I really enjoyed reinventing the character into something you'd never expect ... unless of course you did XD.

If you follow Jurassic Park: The Unseen Element, the next chapter should be out soon. To be honest, I was having a little trouble keeping my groove with that story ... as you can plainly see. I'm still interested in it. Just a tad daunted. Sorry.

A special thinks to 'Eris' and 'Guest', who were so kind as to review this story. Would anyone else like to share what they think? Don't make me beg. The tumbleweeds in the review section are getting a little lonely, heh heh.