Land Before Time: The Mysterious Island Retold

Prologue

The Gang is Back!

After a locust invasion, Littlefoot, Aylene, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike are forced to leave the Great Valley in search for food. Together, they will have to face the dangers of the Mysterious Beyond, both on land and sea. Luckily for them, they will soon discover they have some unexpected friends and allies.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Land Before Time; I am merely exploring an alternate story.

Many years ago…

On top of a large plateau that overlooked a wonderful stretch of land, a large adult male biter stood tall with pride and looked down at his son, who was just a little older than a newborn hatchling. The younger biter looked out at the field with wonder as he watched all the leaf-eaters, both large and small, roam around.

"So you see, Strongfang," he said in a strong, wise voice, "this world exists in a delicate balance. We biters cannot live without the leaf-eaters, and they cannot live without us. We hunt them only in order to survive. And in doing so, we also prevent them from a horrible fate of starvation. Do you understand?"

Young Strongfang looked down at the ground for a moment before gazing up at his father.

"I think so," he replied, "or…at least a little bit. But…leaf-eaters still see us as enemies, right? Is that how the world is supposed to be?"

Strongfang's father chuckled a little. He then looked back up at the field and watched the leaf-eaters below wander around aimlessly. Or at least, they looked liked they were wondering around aimlessly from his point of view. For all he knew, they probably knew exactly where they were going and he just couldn't understand their language.

"I thought the same thing when I was your age," he said to his son. "But I believe that someday, both species will come to understand each other. I can't say when, I can't say how, but I do believe that one day they will come to an understanding."

Present day…

The memory of that day with his father was the very thing Strongfang was thinking about as he gazed up at the great Night Circle. That day was over a hundred years ago, but he could still clearly remember every word that his father had spoken to him. For years, he carried those words in his heart, repeating them over and over to himself whenever he would go on a hunt, or when he just wanted to remember his father.

Strongfang then looked to his mate, Rena, who was sleeping right beside him. He gave a humble smile as he watched her steadily breathe in and out. She was indeed the most beautiful female biter of his kind that he had ever met, both in appearance and in her nature. The male biter was indeed glad that she chose him during courtship.

Then, Strongfang heard a light groan and felt something small move against his side. He looked over at the little hatchling that was curled up beside him, sleeping peacefully.

Chomper.

That was his son's name. However, his mother or father didn't give that name to him.

One night, just before the little biter had hatched, Red Claw, a prideful and vengeful biter, attacked Strongfang and his mate, Rena. The reason was to get back at Strongfang for calling him a coward by destroying the egg that contained his unborn son. However, during the scuffle, the egg fell over a ledge.

At first, Strongfang thought that the egg had shattered and the future hatchling inside of it had died. However, when he and Rena went down to investigate, they discovered that it had survived the fall. While they were joyful that they could still have a hatchling, they fearfully realized that plant-eaters from the Great Valley had somehow discovered it and brought it back to their home.

And to make matters worse, Strongfang picked up another scent. Only this one wasn't of any dinosaur from this world. It was something else entirely. He had heard rumors that a human had been seen in this world again.

Was it possible that it was the human that the scent belonged to?

Fearing for the life of their hatchling, Strongfang and Rena boldly entered the Great Valley. Not long after their search had begun, they stumbled onto a group of children that consisted of a longneck, threehorn, swimmer, flyer, spiketail, and a creature that the male biter recognized to be a female human.

For a moment, he thought that she was the same human he had seen many years ago. The human's name he remembered to be Elaine. Indeed, the young girl in the Great Valley had the same light brown hair, bright blue eyes , and the stone on a chain around her neck was just like the one Elaine wore. However, when he had managed to corner the girl, he discovered that she was not Elaine. She was her granddaughter.

Her name…was Aylene.

However, as shocking as that was, that wasn't the biggest shock of Strongfang's life. The greatest surprise he could ever hope to expect was that the egg he and Rena thought had been lost or destroyed was saved by that same group of children. And even better, it had hatched into a healthy baby male biter.

Strongfang was sure that the children would've killed his son once he had hatched, or at the very least abandoned him the moment he was born. However, it was the exact opposite. They stayed with him. They took care of him. They even went as far as to protect him. In return, he protected them. It was almost as if they somehow acknowledge him as one of them, and he acknowledged them as his family.

And later, when the family of biters was leaving the Great Valley, Red Claw and his fast biter lackeys ambushed them. Chomper was about to become the vengeful biter's next victim, if it hadn't been for the little human girl. Hiding somewhere nearby, she used her arrows to distract the group of assassins long enough for Strongfang and Rena to counterattack. Although the male biter couldn't see where the girl was shooting from, he felt an odd sense of gratefulness to know that she was close by, and was helping his family to escape.

It was the strangest thing Strongfang had ever seen in his life. Even though the events took place many Bright Circles ago, he could still remember them clearly to this day.

The large biter looked at his son again and smiled. Thanks to those five dinosaurs and one human, little Chomper was given the chance to grow up. Indeed, he had definitely grown since that day, both in size and maturity. He was now about the size of a child of his age should be, his snout was just a little bit longer, and he was starting to show more noticeable muscles in his legs and chest.

However, his greatest trait was his communication skills. In just a matter of days, Chomper was speaking his native language with great fluency. He abandoned his tendency to speak in a broken biter language, and began to use a proper way of speaking and forming sentences.

On top of that, Chomper was also able to speak in the tongue of a leaf-eater.

At first, Strongfang didn't take much notice of this. For a while, whenever Chomper would make strange, grunting sounds, he just assumed it was because the little biter was just being goofy. However, as time went on, he started to notice more and more that Chomper only made those noises whenever the family was getting close to a herd of leaf-eaters.

The day he finally realized that his son was able to speak the language of plant-eaters was when Chomper had wandered off in search of some insects to eat. When Strongfang went to find him, he was surprised to see that he was speaking to a female fast runner. For a while, the male biter just watched from a distance as Chomper and the fast runner carried out a conversation that he couldn't understand. The only way he could tell that they were conversing was by how they were responding to each other. The action weren't random and mindless. They definitely were like how Strongfang would expect from another biter if he were communicating with one.

Even to this day, that revelation of his son's unique gift still amazed him and his mate, Rena.

However, despite the endless pride he felt toward his son, Strongfang also felt a horrible feeling guilt. It wasn't towards Chomper by any means; it was towards himself. There was something very important that he hadn't told the little biter yet. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to tell Chomper about his unfortunate lineage.

The truth was that Strongfang was the brother of the most dangerous biter that ever walked this world: Sharptooth. Also known as "The Walking Terror". Or at least he was until a Gang of Six defeated him. Ironically, that same group of six also turned out to be the ones who saved his son's life.

The reason that Strongfang considered it to be ironic was because they unknowingly save the life of Sharptooth's nephew. If they had known from the start that Chomper was related to the same biter who tried to assassinate them, then they probably wouldn't have saved him. The probably would've left him to die.

Unfortunately, while they didn't know about his lineage, all the other biters in the world did.

As a result, Strongfang and his family had been on the run for days. Everywhere they went, many biters, both big and small, targeted Chomper for the sole reason of killing him, all because he was the nephew of the last "Walking Terror".

The worst part of the situation was that poor Chomper had no idea why he was being hunted. He was still too young to comprehend the reasons behind the biters' attitudes toward him and his family. And it hurt Strongfang every time to see his son so helpless. The last thing he wanted was to see his family hurt. However, ever since Rena chose him to be his mate, and ever since Chomper was born, their lives were altered all because of Strongfang's connection to Sharptooth.

A life of danger was one they were destined to have. Although, while Rena did had a choice in the matter back during the courting season, Chomper was not so lucky. This was a burden he would have to live with for the rest of his life.

Fortunately, Strongfang and his family managed to find refuge on a secluded island in the middle of the Big Water. It rested just a few miles out from the mainland, and was connected by two land paths, each on different sides of the island. The best part of it all was that it had no large predators that could snatch up Chomper at any given moment. During the day, Rena would stay with Chomper while Strongfang would travel back to the mainland to hunt, and bring back whatever he could for the rest of his family.

While he knew they wouldn't be able to stay on the island forever, Strongfang at least planned to live there until Chomper reached his Time of Great Growing. With the island being one of the last places any biter would think to look for them, Chomper would be able to become strong enough to defend himself.

After reflecting on these many things, Strongfang let out a deep breath and looked up at the sky once again.

"Don't worry, son," he whispered. "I'll always be there for you. I promise."

With that solemn promise spoken into the night air, Strongfang wrapped his tail around the slumbering Chomper, as if to create a shield for the hatching. He then lowered his head down and drifted off to sleep.