When Chomper had left the Great Valley, the Bright Circle was around 3/5 done with his travel across the sky. Since he found the Hollow, and started to follow it, the time had passed even more.

Chomper had a little trouble to follow the Hollow, as it was all the time waiting for him, but it was taking him into quite a troubled path. Chomper saw himself constantly having to move up and down hills, pass by enclosed openings into canyons, and he even had to cross some dangerous obstacles, like deep cliffs and pools of sinking sand.

Still, the Hollow seemed to be really interested into taking Chomper into the direction that he needed to go. It showed him the right path, demonstrated to him ways to cross or to avoid the dangers that were on the way, at some points the Hollow even picked him up and carried him over the obstacles before gently landing him into the ground.

Chomper was even finding it strange that the Hollow as actually being nice and helpful to him, since after all that the Order had said, it was to be expected that the thing would try to kill Chomper as soon as it saw him. However, he knew that he could worry about that later, now, what mattered was to arrive into the place he was supposed to go before the brightfall. What considering the position of the Bright Circle in the sky and the color that the sky itself was slowly acquiring, would not take very long…

Ruby continued sitting down in the place she had been left.

She had been brought into the tunnels inside that cave, and she was lost in there for Great-Circle-knows-how-long, and she, along with the others, were forced to stay into a circle, with four great Ground Shaker Hollows watching over their very move, and they seemed to be itching for the chance of attacking them.

"Oh, why don't they attack at once and end our misery?" One of them whispered to the others, and he added, "This tension is far worse than actually being eaten!"

"Oh, quit complaining. They will probably kill us soon anyway." Another said, "And all because of that little sharptooth."

Ruby heard that, and she immediately turned to him, giving him a glare that made him shut up almost immediately. She then turned back to sulk into the place she was sitting, and she returned to her own thoughts. She wasn't sure of where she was or of what was going to happen. However, she knew that, deep inside, she hoped that Chomper was safe.

"Looks like you all have already accepted your fate." Came the strong voice, and all the eyes turned to look, and they saw that it belonged to a horned sharptooth. He wasn't a Hollow, and that much was clear. He was just a regular sharptooth, but the way that he smiled at them gave them creeps.

"Well, it is good when food realizes that there is no point in resisting or fighting, it makes things so much easier." He spoke, talking in perfectly fluent leaf-eater idiom, "Still, I kind of like when they still have a little bit of fight left in them. Makes things more interesting."

They looked at him, and many of them cornered in fear of him. He chuckled, and he walked in their direction, and as he did, the Hollows opened space for him to walk in, and they almost seemed to respect him somehow. Ruby was the one who first noticed it, and she looked at him, and said, "You!"

The sharptooth looked down at her, and the other dinosaurs also stopped and looked at the fast runner. "You are the one who is making the Hollows and sending them to the Great Valley after making them!"

The sharptooth looked down at her, and he chuckled, as he lowered his head until he was on her eye-level, and he spoke. "And you are a smart little one, aren't you?" He asked, and the tone in his voice, and the look in his eyes, somehow it scared her even more than the Hollows themselves.

"Yes, I have made the Hollows, and yes, I have sent them into your precious Great Valley." He said, almost proudly, as he started to move his head, as if to look at the fast runner from all possible angles. All the while, ruby looked at him, and made sure to have him in her line of sight all the time. It was as if she didn't wanted to break eye-contact with him, as if he could make something in the moment they weren't looking at each other.

"It is amazing how you can turn your own emotions into something solid only by focusing hard enough, don't you agree?" the horned sharptooth said, and he looked down at the fast runner, and he said, "Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Carnage. What is yours?"

Ruby didn't answered, she only continued to look at him, and she asked, "What you want with Chomper?"

The bigger dinosaur looked down at her, and he only smirked, "This is between that little hatchling and me."

"If you hurt him-" Ruby started, and Carnage could immediately recognize the threat forming into her beak, as he quickly cut her off.

"What?" He asked, almost lunging at her, what made many of the dinosaurs around her yelp and fall to the ground, but the fast runner herself didn't really moved, even though the look in her eyes betrayed her fear. "What will you do if I get my claws and my teeth at that little thing? What will you do if I do what I am planning to do to him? Will you seek out for revenge? Will you hunt me down? Will you join that stupid Order and dedicate the rest of your life to destroy me and preventing me from fulfilling the noble destiny of all of sharpteeth everywhere?"

He was so close to her now that his snout and her beak were almost touching. Ruby continued to look at him, and she maintained a firm façade. However, Carnage could see the truth in her eyes. They were the eyes of someone who was scared and who felt impotent. The look of someone who knew that had no options and no resources, and that knew that couldn't do anything about the current situation. He had already saw that look many times in his prey, and he knew that when he saw that look, the prey would not even bother to fight back, because they knew that there was absolutely nothing to be done.

That was very much the same case. The fast runner knew that there was nothing she could do, and yet, she wanted to be brave, she doesn't wanted to give him the satisfaction of seeing that he had got her and left her completely cornered. Still, just one look in her eyes was enough for Carnage, and that kind of sensation was just one of the best things in the world for him.

He chuckled, and he raised his head, to look at the rest of the dinosaurs, who all whimpered and shrunk in fear. "Don't worry." He said, "I'm not going to kill you all… yet." He said, and he added, "I'm still waiting for the honored guest. The little Chomper."

Ruby tensed, and she would have raised her voice, if it wasn't for a sound that filled the cave. It was sharp and it was something that easily called attention. It made all of the dinosaurs in there, including Carnage, stop and look around, and as they did, Carnage was able to open an even bigger smirk on his face.

"Talking about that… it seems that he has just arrived."

True to Carnage's words, as they were talking, Chomper was approaching the very entrance of the cave, with the flying Hollow guiding him in direction to it.

It was a great formation of rocks, which looked somehow like five heads; each one resembled the head of a certain kind of sharptooth. There was a fast biter, a bonecrusher sharptooth, a horned sharptooth, a bellydragger, and a swimmer sharptooth.

Chomper felt a sense of dread as he approached that place, each one of his instincts telling him to turn around and run as fast as he could. However, he knew that he couldn't, not when Ruby and others were in danger. Even if he knew fully well that his life was in danger for being in there. Even after all the Order told about Carnage. Even if each one of his most basic instincts told him not to go in there. Chomper knew that he would never be able to turn his back on his friends like that.

So, the young blue sharptooth continued to walk forward, and as he did, he soon could spot other Hollows around. These ones looked a lot like two-crested sharpteeth, still, one good look at them was enough to know that they weren't.

They were completely black in color, with eyes that were even blacker. They had blood-crimson claws in their feet and hands, and they looked around as Chomper passed, with the young sharptooth being able to notice that they had a bulbous space in their throats, as if there was something in there that made the thing bulge like that.

Chomper didn't had much time to look at them, for he suddenly had his attention called by two of them. They were right in front of him, and for a moment, Chomper thought they were going to attack. However, instead, they only moved to his sides, and they looked at him, almost as if expectantly.

They were there to receive him, much like the Winged Creep.

Chomper sighed, and he started to walk forward, with the Hollows walking by his side, almost as if they were his scouts. They guided him to the base of the rock formation, in direction to the cave that was located in the base of it, and they guided him inside.

The inside of the cave was like a maze of tunnels and passages, and it would be very easy to get lost in there if you didn't knew exactly the place. Luckily (or maybe not really) for Chomper, he was being guided by two Hollows who seemed like they truly knew the place they were taking him into. Enough to allow him to follow them across the tunnels and intersections of the place, and guide him deeper and deeper in direction to somewhere where Chomper knew they had been ordered to take him. As the time passed and they continued to take him deeper and deeper into the caves, Chomper felt the sense of dread in his heart growing more and more, as if he was walking to his own demise. However, he knew that right now he had no chance of turning around and running, even if he wanted.

The Hollows continued to guide Chomper deeper into the cave system, after a while, they started to arrive into a wider area of the caves, and soon, they arrived into a big area that was so big that Grandpa Longneck would easily fit in there without any problem.

The place was dark, but that was no problem for Chomper, once most sharpteeth could see fairly well in the darkness. He continued to walk in there as the Hollows continued to guide him into that big cave, and as they walked, Chomper could hear something bubbling.

They approached what seemed to be a pool, and Chomper thought that it would be some bubbling mud, or maybe bubbling goo. However, once he approached, he could see that the thing that was bubbling was pitch-black in color, and it seemed to move and contort on its own, creating small tendrils above the surface and even forming shapes, almost as if it was alive. Not only that, but the bubbling thing also emitted strange sounds, that sounded more like sounds made by dinosaurs. They seemed to be cries, whimpers, whines, and even sounds of anger.

Chomper had no idea of what that could be, but it gave him creeps.

"Interesting, ain't it?" A strong voice speaking in sharptooth snapped Chomper from his thoughts, as he immediately turned to the source of it, which as an approaching shape that was covered into the darkness. However, as the figure approached, it became easier for Chomper to see it, and he could make out all of the features of the creature that was coming to him, and which that he had no doubt that was no other than Carnage.

The sharptooth was clearly a horned sharptooth, and that was obvious by the two horns on his head, both black as the night without stars or Night Circle. He was all red, and for a moment, Chomper thought that he had blood on his claws and teeth, but he realized that they were only darker, splash-like markings on his scales. His talons were as black as his horns, and his eyes were yellow colored with slit-like black pupils. These kinds of pupils were sometimes saw on sharpteeth, but they usually only appeared in a sharptooth who was too focus in the hunt or battle. For a sharpteeth to have it when they were not hunting or fighting hard, they would have to be particularly vicious and cruel, if you believed into the night time scary stories that your parents told you.

All Chomper knew was, as that sharptooth approached him, and looked down at him, the smaller sharptooth could not help but feel a sense of fear and dread that rivalled the one caused by the Hollows themselves. There was just something about the look of that sharptooth, the way he looked at him, about his very semblance, which just screamed "danger". Not even Red Claw gave him a feeling like that, and it was enough for Chomper to start to realize just how dangerous Carnage could actually be.

The sharptooth approached the smaller one, and he looked at him. He looked to be scared.

Good.

Carnage only looked at him for a few moments, before shifting his gaze to the pool of black goop.

"Years ago, before I was hatch, a group of leaf eaters got stuck in this cave trying to escape their hunters." Carnage spoke, and Chomper looked at him, "They were able to escape by sealing themselves into this cave, but later on, they discovered that they had trapped themselves in here. They could no longer find the way out and neither could they break the block that they had made themselves."

"Well, what could you expect from leaf eaters? They basically only keep all of their time grazing; of course they wouldn't learn to ratiocinate." Carnage said that with a prepotency that made Chomper want to say something back at him, but the sharptooth continued talking. "Anyway, there was some green food in here at the time, but it was not enough for all of them. So, in just a few days, they started to turn on each other."

"They killed each other out of hunger and anger, and each one that died only added to the anger they felt. Overtime, only two of them were left, and even then, the green stuff was only enough for both of them for a while. They too turned on each other, and soon, there was only one left behind."

"He survived for a while eating the green stuff, but eventually, it all ended. He was left alone and hungry with all of the dead, and soon, when he realized what he had done, what they all had done, he was filled with guilty and grief. The deaths of every single one of his own herd was heavy in his mind and in his heart, and so, he ended up being drive into complete madness. He died in here, screaming loudly for the rest of his herd."

Chomper felt a shiver as he heard that story, which seemed the kind of one that you would tell your hatchlings at night to make them behave. Carnage on the other hand, seemed to be completely unmoved by the story. "Leaf eaters are such wussies. They freak out by looking at blood and get feeling guilty for taking another life."

Chomper looked up at him, and Carnage continued, "Anyway, they left this world, all of them, but what they felt impregnated the place. Their anger. Their sadness. Their despair. Their grief. It all cumulated in here all the time that the last leaf eater continued to live in here, and when he finally died, all of this leaked down straight at him." Carnage gestured at the pool of black goop with his small arm. "Right in here, where he died, all of the emotions left behind cumulated, and formed this."

Chomper looked back at the pool, bubbling and twisting, which seemed to be even scarier now that he had just heard the story behind it.

"It is amazing what the misfortune of others can produce, ain't it?" He asked, a smirk in his face as he looked down at the scared hatchling. "I have long learned how to control these things by using my own emotions. I just have to leak a little of my own hatred into there and let it mold the rest into something that will follow my orders. And to think that it all one day was a bunch of leaf eaters who made the stupid decision of trapping themselves into a place that they could not get out… well, their loss, my gain."

The indifference… no, the amusement in Carnage's voice just made it clear how much consideration he had for the lives of others, and it gave Chomper a much better idea of how dangerous he actually was.

However, Chomper didn't had time for his fear now. He came there for a reason:

"Where is Ruby?" The young sharptooth demanded in leaf eater language, causing Carnage to look at him with a raised eyebrow. Chomper stopped for a moment, and wondered if the sharptooth understood what he said, but he didn't had time for this.

"I came here because of my friend!" Chomper said again, this time in sharptooth, "Where is she and the others!?"

In fact, Carnage could understand very well the leaf eater language, but he found it strange that the young sharptooth used it instead of their own nature language. However, hearing him speak in their own language had only caused the bigger sharptooth to cringe.

Young ones always had the more problem to speak the language, once they were unable to roar properly and resorted more to clicks and squeaks, still, they all were able to speak clearly in sharptooth as good as any sharptooth could. However, the way that the little one was talking, using his throat instead of the right areas, and the way that he was using inflexion, it made him sound less like a sharptooth, and more like a leaf eater trying to speak sharptooth language.

It was as if he lived with the leaf eaters so long that he actually started to forget how to speak the language of his own people. It made Carnage disgusted with the little sharptooth.

"Tell me where my friend is!" The small sharptooth demanded to the bigger one. "I'm not kidding!"

Carnage scowled. "This is the worse example I ever heard from the sharptooth language from another sharptooth! You sound like the grass munchers! It hurts me ears to hear it." He spoke to Chomper, with an air annoyed and clearly superior. However, the little sharptooth didn't had time for this, and neither he had the time to feel offended by what the bigger sharptooth said to him clearly with this purpose. What had brought him there was much more important than that.

"WHERE. IS. RUBY!?" Chomper demanded loudly, his voice echoing into the cave and into each tunnel and wall around him. Carnage only looked down at him, seeing the look of fierce determination on his face; it looked like the boy was ready to go into a fight with him if it was any need.

Of course, this was not enough to make Carnage have any form of respect for him, but it seemed to be enough for him to consider that maybe, just maybe, that little pipsqueak was not a complete disgrace to the sharpteeth.

"Follow me." Carnage said to Chomper, as he gave him his back, and started to walk away, in direction to another cave into the opposite corner of the room. Chomper just looked at him walking, the bigger sharptooth stopped and looked over his shoulder, at the smaller dinosaur, and he growled. "Do you want to see your fast runner babysitter or not?"

Chomper took a while to move, but soon, he was walking behind Carnage, struggling to keep pace with him. All the while, Carnage continued to walk ahead, as if he didn't even bothered if Chomper would be able to follow him or not.

All the while, they passed by other caves, and other tunnels, and more than once, Chomper caught himself looking over his own shoulder, as he had the strange but very insistent feeling that he was being followed.

Carnage continued to guide him through the tunnel, in direction to another part of that maze, and soon, Chomper saw himself arriving into another open area inside the maze, much like the one with the black bubbling pool, but this one had a group of dinosaurs surrounded by many Hollows. All of the Hollows were circling the group, and they were snarling and snapping their jaws as if they were inviting them to do anything that would give them the excuse to rip them apart.

Chomper looked at the group of leaf eaters, and between them, he saw a familiar face.

"RUBY!" The young sharptooth called out, making the whole group raise their heads and look at him, as he was immediately running in direction to the fast runner.

"Chomper!?" Ruby let out the exclamation, and as Chomper was running, some of the group expected the Hollows to get on his way or even to attack him. However, the Hollows instead stepped aside, as if they were opening way to the small sharptooth, and let him run into the arms of his fast runner friend.

"Ruby! I'm so glad to see you again!" Chomper said, barely able to contain the tears of happiness and relief that he had for being able to see and hug Ruby once more. The fast runner was crying too, however, these were not tears of happiness.

"Chomper…" She said to him, as she hugged him hard. "Why did you came?" She asked, and as they both hugged, Carnage walked into their direction.

"What a touching scene." Carnage said, "Two dear friends meeting each other again, and being able to feel each other's touch and kindness one more time before both of them met their inevitable end." He spoke, making the other dinosaurs all look at him. They all looked scared, but only Chomper was able to understand what Carnage said, so he was more scared than the others. "So touching, it almost makes me feel sorry for you… almost."

"Hey!" Chomper cried out, and then he started to snarl at him in sharptooth. "You said you would let us go!"

"And why would I keep a promise like that?" Carnage asked, matter-of-factly, to the smaller sharptooth.

Chomper felt fear rising from his gut into his throat, and right then, right there, he could kick himself for being so stupid as if to feel for that and to believe into the world of a sharptooth like that.

"Why are you doing this?" Chomper demanded of him "WHY!?" and Carnage just chuckled.

"Why not?" He asked to the smaller sharptooth. "Why not assume the place that would be rightfully ours? Why not put these stupid creatures in their right place, that is beneath us to serve as our food? Why not assume our rightful place as the true rulers of this world? After all, we are the strongest and fiercest creatures that have ever lived, and all of the leaf eaters are afraid of us. So, it is only natural that we would be the ones who should be in control, right?"

The way that Carnage talked; the coldness in his voice, the sureness in his eyes, and the expression in his face. All of these things would tell anyone that he truly did believed, with every fiber of his being, that the words that he was speaking were true. As if they were some undeniable truth that the only way of not perceiving was if you were the most stupid individual in the world.

Chomper saw all of that, even though he was still just a child, and he could finally realize how crazy Carnage was. Of course, maybe the way that he saw the world was not so different from sharpteeth like Red Claw and some other sharptooth around. Still, that didn't change at all the meaning of what was being said in that, and he saw that surely there was no way of being able to reason with that sharptooth, and there was no way that he would have kept his promise of letting them all go.

Chomper now felt like a rock head for not having predicted that this would happen, and that was the reason why the Order warned him not to go in there. He should have listened to them…

"Now, enough of this talking. I hope you have had enough time to say goodbye to your friend." Carnage said, his eyes shining in a predatory and murderous way, and with that, he raised a tiny arm, and snapped his tiny claws.

Immediately, the Hollows around them started to snarl and to snap their jaws. The dinosaurs around all gasped as they started to huddle together. Even Chomper shared their reaction, and he started to back away to the middle of the group, stopping very close to Ruby.

The fast runner immediately crouched and put her arms around him, as the Hollows were approaching more and more, looking vicious and thirsty for blood. Of course, their mindless and savage appearance was nothing compared to the look of sadistic glee that Carnage had in his face, as he saw that little pipsqueak and the rest of the dinosaurs in there in fear. He seemed to be eager to see them being jump into and teared into pieces; in fact, he was nearly salivating as he was looking forward to seeing their blood.

Chomper looked around him fear, as he clung into the arms of Ruby, who was protecting him with her own body, even though she knew that it would be ultimately useless.

"Ruby…"

"Chomper… don't look…" Ruby said, unable to hold back the few tears that were coming out of her eyes due to fear and sadness. She held Chomper closer to her body, to have even the slightest illusion that she could protect him against these monsters.

The Hollows continued to snarl, and after a few moments, they all jumped into the group that was being held captive. Immediately, all of the ones in that group closed their eyes and got ready to feel the claws on their bodies.

However…

"Fire Breath!"

"Light Roar!"

Immediately, a stream of fire and a beam of light sailed through the air. The flame burned the Hollows into a crisp into the air. The beam moved across the air like a laser, and sliced through the Hollows like a hot knife cutting through butter, and the pieces decomposed into black dust and vanished before they had even touched the ground.

"WHAT!?" Carnage roared in surprise, the dinosaurs of the group, once realizing that the Hollows had not attacked them, opened their eyes, and they saw that the creatures had been attack and reduced to dust. The ones that were left were looking away from them, and as soon as the others followed their gaze…

"Littlefoot!?" Chomper and Ruby both said, as their Longneck friend was now standing there, with Swift right by his side. Both of them were with their respective amulets glowing, and their faces had determined expressions on their faces.

ERLIER

"What are we going to do!? What are we going to do!?" Petrie said as he flew around, very desperate, and the others actually were not much better.

Chomper had just vanished, and he was going, surely to meet Carnage and, as the Order well knew, his own demise.

"Oh, I don't want Chomper to die! No, no, no!" Ducky said, and Nettle agreed with her.

"That can't happen! This is all my fault! I should have watched him better!"

"Yeah, that much is truth." Swift said, causing Uri to give him a glare, which Swift ignored. "But this does not matter now. I think we all know what he need to do."

The other dinosaurs shared looks, and looked back at Swift. None of them said a single word as they did that. Swift fought the urge to slap his own forehead with his hand.

"I believe that what Swift means is that we need to proceed with the plan." Terry finally said, and the others looked at him.

"Thank you."

"What plan is that?" Cera asked, and who answered was that new dinosaur, the big fast biter was the one to answer.

"Well, I guess that the plan is to use this." He said, showing the bag filled with white sand.

"How sand is going to help?"

"Like I said, this is no ordinary sand." Swift said, he picked the bag from Ripto's hand, and he turned to Littlefoot. "So, Chomper is already gone, but I can still track him. We gotta go now or we might lose his trail for good."

Littlefoot just nodded, and all of his friends of the Great Valley looked at him. Littlefoot noticed that, and he assured them. "I'm going to save Chomper. Don't worry." He spoke, and turned to Terry and the others, "Make sure to reach us in time." Then he turned to Swift. "Let's go!"

Swift nodded, and immediately, Swift and Littlefoot dashed, leaving the others behind.

"Be careful!" Petrie said.

"Keep an eye open for the Hollows!" Uri said.

"We will reach you in time! We'll be right behind you!" Ripto called out with a potent voice.

Terry didn't said words aloud to the departing dinosaurs, instead preferring to make a small silence prayer for them, asking the spirits to look out for them, and give them the strength and courage needed to be able to fulfill their mission.

Littlefoot was running in front, guiding him into the Secret caves were Chomper and Ruby sleep.

Once they arrived, Swift immediately started to sniff the place, aiming to capture Chomper's scent. That was a good point on being a sharptooth, once you had a naturally keen sense of smell that server for you to search for and find prey in the wild, and it was useful to find your friends and your herd.

Right now, it would be useful for them to be able to find Chomper before it was too late. Good thing that Chomper had left not too long ago, and the trail he left was still fresh. That maximized Swift's capacity to track him down in time.

Swift snorted, and he looked ahead, his pupils becoming vertical slits as he allowed his instincts to take control. "This way." He said, his voice sounding more like a snarl than actual words, and he dashed forward. Littlefoot immediately went to run after him.

Swift dashed across the secret caves, letting the scent and his own predatory instincts guide him across that maze of tunnels. He seemed much like a sharptooth of the wild chasing a prey, and that was pretty much the principle of what he was doing, since that was what his own instincts were based. He was barely even thinking now. He was only responding to the trail that was guiding him in direction to his goal.

Turn left. Turn right. Move straight ahead. The trail is gone. Stop. Sniff. Here is the trail. Follow it. Run faster. Stop a moment. Sniff to be sure. Follow the trail. Turn left. Turn right. Turn right again. Keep moving forward. Do not lose the trail.

As Swift moved, Littlefoot had to make a little effort to be able to keep up with his speed. He almost had to resort to using the power of his Bright Power to be able to follow the bladeback, who was moving ahead in full "predator mode". It was something that all sharpteeth seemed to have naturally written in their instincts, as part of the way that they developed to hunt, something that seemingly came from the transformation of the seventh brother into the first sharptooth.

When they were like that, they were program not to think and only doing what their most primitive instincts told them. That was something impressive to see, and it could be somewhat terrifying, if you were fighting one of them in battle.

They moved for a while and, after sometime, they were able to reach the outside of these caves. Swift was the first one to emerge into the Mysterious Beyond, and Littlefoot came right behind. However, the longneck still had to run to keep up with him, once the bladeback was not giving him much attention.

Here is the trail. Is fresh. Sniff it. Be sure. It is the trail. Follow it. Run. Go after. Chase!

Swift dashed into the place much like a missile, still holding the bag of leaves filled with white sand on his arms. Littlefoot needed to use much of his strength and natural skills to be able to follow him. This time, he had to resort to his magic. He didn't summon his Bright Power, but he needed to call the power of his amulet to drop some magic in him, which would allow his body to work better than normal. That was a natural function that all of the amulets had, and using it was one of the first things that the members of the Order learned how to do. This allowed them to call forth the power of the amulets to be able to fulfill better some duties that they would normally be unable to fulfill. Of course, the amount of power that was granted by this functions was not nearly as much power as the strengthening techniques, like Littlefoot's Bright Power and Swift's Heat Booster, but it was enough to be able to work better in certain situations, and it didn't consume as much energy as these techniques.

For Littlefoot, it was enough for now. He just needed to keep up with Swift, and he needed to save his energy for the moment when they would have to clash with Carnage and his Hollows. Littlefoot knew that the moment was going to come, and that they would need all of their power to be able to face it.

Swift continued to dash across the landscapes. He jumped over rocks. Circled great formations. Jumped down cliffs. Climbed up hills. All the while with Littlefoot right behind him, being able to follow the bladeback surprisingly well, considering the clear difference between the two of them.

They continued going, as the bright circle moved across the sky. They continued on their quest, and Littlefoot was just hoping that they would be able to find Chomper before it was too late…

And he was answered.

After a while, Swift stopped just behind a boulder, and he was looking over the corner of the boulder. Littlefoot finally could approach him, and as he came closer, he saw that the bladeback was panting as he looked around the corner, and he seemed like a predator sneaking on the prey after a long chase.

Littlefoot looked up to him, and he could see his face as he panted. The sharptooth was nearly snarling as he took deep and feral breaths, and as he recovered his breath, he was calming down, and after a while, he took a final, silent breath, closing his eyes. He let out the final breath and opened his eyes. Those had changed back from their vertical slits into the regular round pupils that you mostly saw when sharpteeth when they were not in their predator mode.

Littlefoot continued to look up, and Swift sighed as he looked over the corner.

"There he is." Swift said, and Littlefoot thought that he maybe knew what the bladeback meant by that.

Approaching, Littlefoot looked over the corner of the rock, and after a few seconds of scanning, he was able to see a familiar blue shape. It was Chomper, and he was struggling a little to be able to climb into a small cliff.

By seeing his sharptooth friend, Littlefoot felt a rush of relief and happiness wash over him. He could hardly put in words how happy he felt for seeing that Chomper was okay and that he had not gotten hurt in his own particular quest. In fact, Littlefoot was about to rush to him to talk to him, but Swift stopped him by blocking his path with one of his legs.

Littlefoot looked up at the bladeback, who looked back at him, and then made a gesture with his head, indicating the longneck to look up.

Littlefoot did just that, and he was able to sight a black form in the sky right above Chomper.

A Winged Creep.

Littlefoot felt a knot tying in his stomach as he saw that thing, flying around like a dark messenger, and he immediately felt a wish to shoot it down on the spot. However, he knew that it would be a bad idea. He had soon came to the same conclusion as Swift: that the thing was in there to scout Chomper to the place where he was expected to go and to make sure that he was not being followed, just like Carnage had demanded of him.

If they struck it down, or if the thing sighted them, it would probably just let Carnage know that they had tried to defend him, and that would spell certain doom for Ruby and the other prisoners. Not that Carnage actually planned to let them go back home, anyways, as he probably didn't.

Anyways, now it was too late to follow with their original plan of following Chomper since the beginning.

"What do we do now?" Littlefoot asked.

"We go along with the plan." Swift said, and he showed the lead bag to the longneck by his side. "We use this to follow him without anyone knowing that we are there."

Littlefoot looked at him, and he looked back at Chomper, who was still going ahead, with the Hollow above him watching intently his every move. Littlefoot knew that he could not let Chomper deliver himself to Carnage like that, for the results would be terrible. He knew that he had to protect Chomper and save everyone, and he was willing to do it on the best way he could. Right then, right there, the best way was to follow his own plan.

Littlefoot looked back at Swift, and he nodded.

Soon, both longneck and bladeback were coming closer to each other, and Swift soon was opening the back, unraveling it until it was just a leaf with sand cupped inside of it.

Right after, he made a move upwards, sending the sand in the air, and letting it cascade down on him and Littlefoot.

The sand sparkled in the air, as it seemed to vanish, leaving behind only sparkling dots that covered both longneck and bladeback. The dots covered them as they kept sparkling, and after a second or two, it seemed like they were making the shapes of the longneck and bladeback become more indistinct and less material, as they became translucent, and soon, they both had vanished.

They vanished, but they were still there.

That sand that they just used was no regular sand. It was a very special thing that was call "Disappearing Sand".

This was a special kind of sand that you couldn't find in just anywhere, and which had a special kind of magic to that. If the sands were sprawled over something, it would drain away the color and image of the thing, covering it into a layer that would prevent it from being perceive by regular sight.

In other words, it made things turn invisible. As it just had done for the two dinosaurs of the Order.

Littlefoot and Swift were still side-by-side, and they looked at each other. Due to both being under the effect of the sand, they could see it other as being translucent, however, everyone else would not be able to see them at all. They both knew that, and they both were intending to use that to their maximum advantage.

"Let's go now." Swift said to the longneck in a whisper "Remember not to make any sound, do you hear?"

Littlefoot nodded at him, and soon, they both were using their newly acquired invisibility to follow Chomper.

Since they vanished from sight, they were able to walk in the open without being see by the Winged Creep that was flying just above Chomper. However, they could still be heard, so they had to remain silent as they moved and make sure not letting any other sign of their presence to be noticed. For instance, the footprints they could make in soft earth or mud, and small pebbles kicked away by their paws.

Not to mention that the layer of invisibility was not very strong, what meant that any strong action or any impact could shatter it, causing the effects of the disappearing sand to end and making them appear once more. Therefore, they had to be careful while they moved.

Luckily, they had both been train in this thing of approaching without being notice, and they were both particularly good at it. The fact that they could still perceive each other helped him, for they could remain close and didn't risked bumping or tripping on each other on their way. They could as well each help the other to approach without being notice.

So, they were able to follow without anyone realizing that they were following. Neither the Winged Creep. Nor Chomper.

They continued for a while, the Bright Circle was still moving across the sky, and this was now starting to change colors, indicating the passage of time. After a while, both Littlefoot and Swift were starting to get worried about taking so long to find the right path.

However, they soon saw the place where they would have to arrive. The great rock that looked like heads of sharpteeth. It was the place where Carnage was hiding.

The invisible longneck and bladeback shared a look, and swift nodded. He touched his own amulet, which started to emit a very soft glow. Soon, they both continued to follow Chomper, as the young sharptooth, unaware he had bodyguards with him, was entering the cave.

On their way inside, they passed by these hollows.

Spitters.

These were a particular kind of Hollow that was usually created with the goal of watching over a single place and attacking anything or anyone that came way too close. These Hollows had the ability to spit out a black water that was a liquid version of the black material that usually formed all of the Hollows. The thing that they spit was highly poisonous, and it was able to bring down big dinosaurs in a matter of time. They usually aimed for the eyes, so they could blind and poison the targets all at once. After that, if the victim was still alive, they attacked all at once.

Swift bared his teeth into a silent snarl at these creatures as he passed by them, but he was still careful not to make a single sound, and so was Littlefoot. Luckily, these creatures relied more on sight and hearing to detect their victims, and as a result, they didn't trust in other senses to be able to find threats.

As they moved, they could still see Chomper ahead. One spitter was guiding him, and they both let them move ahead of them. Still, they followed close enough to be able to keep Chomper on their sight, so they could quickly reach out for him in the moment that he was in danger.

They followed him across the maze of tunnels that was Carnage's lair. They followed the best they could, making sure to be silent and to avoid breaking their layer of invisibility, and after a while, they finally were able to see the end of that tunnel. It was the place where Chomper had was lead to, and left to wait by the sharptooth who was behind that.

They remained at a certain distance as Chomper approached that pool, and they both could feel the evil that emanated from it. Littlefoot had an urge to rush to Chomper and pull him away from that. However, that urge soon was replace by the urge to attack in the moment that he noticed Carnage's presence in that place, and saw him approaching Chomper.

They were present during the speech that Carnage made for Chomper. Swift could understand every single word of what he said. Littlefoot was not so fluent in the sharptooth language, but he learned it as part of his lessons in the Order, and while he had not dominated it completely, he had learned enough to be able to pick up the general idea of what Carnage was saying.

They watched nervous as that big dinosaur was too close to Chomper for their own taste, and they both were just itching to go into action.

"Should we attack now?" Littlefoot whispered, trying to avoid letting Carnage hear them, and hoping that the big sharptooth would not be able to pick up their scent either.

"Not yet." Swift said to him, as he flexed his claws on his hands. "If he escapes, or if he has time to order his Hollows, they will kill the hostages before we can find them. We need to know where the others are first."

Littlefoot knew that he was right, and that they had to save everyone else as well as Chomper. This meant that they had to lay low for now. However, he knew that he was going to jump into action in the moment he believed that Chomper was in danger. He also knew that Swift was thinking about the same thing too.

They continued to watch, and they saw when Chomper decided to stand up for him, not showing any fear of the big sharptooth. Swift could not help but be admired by the great bravery that the young sharptooth was showing in the moment when he needed to be brave.

Chomper was a shy dinosaur. He was very gentle and kind of goofy. Qualities that were hard to find in most sharpteeth nowadays, even the young ones. This also made him quite sacredly at sometimes, as he was not inclined to combats and to the bloodshed that usually was part of the lives of the sharpteeth who grew up in places like the Mysterious Beyond.

Still, in this moment, when someone he truly cared about was in danger, he was able to stand his ground against someone much bigger than himself and terribly dangerous, as if his own fear was nothing when compared to the desire to save the person who he cared so much about.

This made Swift admire that young sharptooth and, on his own eyes, made Chomper all the much more worth of being called the sharptooth of the prophecy.

They saw what happened right after, with Carnage telling Chomper to follow him, and the two hidden members of the Order shared a look among themselves. Soon, Chomper was following Carnage, and the two members of the Order were going right behind.

They saw the ones who were being keep as prisoners by Carnage. They saw Chomper reuniting with Ruby. They heard the speech that Carnage made to Chomper, Swift was grinding his teeth hard in anger for hearing that thing. They saw when the Hollows jumped at the others. They immediately went into action.

"Bright Roar!"

"Fire Breath!"

With their magical attacks, the layer of invisibility was disrupt, and both dinosaurs became visible again, making it seem like they had magically materialized into place, both into fighting position, what surprised everyone who was around.

"What is this!? How you entered- That's impossible!" Carnage said, not having expected this at all. Meanwhile, the two dinosaurs only looked back at him, and Littlefoot stepped forward, as he seemed ready to pounce.

"No one attacks my friends!"