Epilogue

A clutch of eggs in the middle of a small nest in the ground.

It was what the female threehorn was waiting on. Today was the day they should hatch. Hard to believe this spot, once her sleeping spot, was now where her first clutch of eggs would be hatching. But Cera had to try and not let her father's recent passing bother her too much. She missed him, but this was supposed to be a happy day.

Cera had woke up just to be sure she didn't miss her eggs hatching. Thorn was still asleep not too far away from the nest. She hoped he and her friends wouldn't miss the hatching. Ducky's clutch of eggs had hatched a few days earlier, giving her a nest full of at least eight little swimmers to watch over with her husband. Petrie had also gotten lucky, but his and his wife's nest of eggs hadn't hatched yet. They lived in the cave where Petrie had lived with his mother and siblings had once lived together before they left the nest to start families of their own. Like Mr. Threehorn, old age had gotten to Petrie's mother. Tria and Ducky's mother were still around though, as was Bron. Littlefoot's grandparents had also passed away, a few months after his sacrifice for Cera.

It'd been over a year since Littlefoot gave his life for Cera, and not a day had passed where Cera didn't think about her best friend. Her grief had gone away, but that didn't stop Cera from missing Littlefoot. Ducky, Petrie, Spike, and her countless other friends (including Guido and the tinysauruses) greatly missed Littlefoot too. Ducky had said there wasn't a night she didn't dream about him coming back to them. The first time she had dreamt that, Ducky had woke with a start just to see if it were real. It was just a dream, Ducky had sadly realized.

Cera gasped. She thought one of the eggs had just stirred as she kept a keen eye on them. Cera watched even more closely, but none of the eggs moved again.

I may have been seeing things, she thought. Maybe it wasn't my best decision to wake up so early. Everyone else in the valley is still sleeping.

Cera yawned. "A few minutes won't hurt…" She closed her eyes, then was asleep before she knew it.

"Cera, wake up!" someone said. It wasn't Thorn. Cera opened her eyes slowly to see it was Ducky.

"Huh?"

"Your eggs, they are hatching!" Ducky exclaimed.

"They are?" Cera gasped. She jumped up, and nearly knocked the swimmer over.

Turning to her nest, the threehorn saw all eight of her eggs shifting at once. Cera gasped again. She looked about to see all of her friends here, even Sari. The tiny sharptooth had, through what had to have been a miracle, regained most of her eyesight over the duration of the past year. Her vision wasn't perfect, but at least Sari could see again. And what she saw touched her once tough heart. One-by-one, the eggs split open, and a threehorn hatchling spilled out of it, crying. They were blind and dripping with the fluids from the egg, but neither of these things stopped the other dinosaurs from commenting about how beautiful the hatchlings were.

"That one looks just like you, Cera" Ducky said. "She does, she does. Yep, yep, yep." Ducky and Petrie may have grown up, but they hadn't outgrown their speech patterns all together. "Some things never changed," Cera had said. "But that's not always a bad thing." Cera wouldn't want Ducky and Petrie's speech patterns to change. She'd gotten too used to them talking they way they did.

"That one look like Thorn," Petrie said.

"I think more of them will look like Cera," Tricia said.

"I won't mind," Thorn said, "if our kids look like this beautiful threehorn."

"Oh, Thorn," Cera giggled. Her face immediately turned red.

But Tria only rolled her eyes. She wondered if her parents had acted like this when she and Cera were kids. (She was glad they had each other though, but Tricia had never been fond of hearing couples talk to each other like this.) If it were anyone else, Tricia probably would have told them to get a room. Tricia would never talk to her older sister and her husband like that, though. Cera had saved her life once, and she'd never be mean to someone who did that for her.

Before anyone knew it, all eight eggs had hatched, and the baby threehorns were crying. Cera was too, but in joy. A year ago, she never would have thought about being a mother. There hadn't been any male threehorns in The Great Valley she loved. Littlefoot had been the closest thing to true love Cera had before she met Thorn.

Cera wanted to nuzzle her children, but she suppressed the urge, knowing that the newborns' bodies were sensitive to touch. Instead, she brushed her head against Thorn's. The only thing Cera would change about this wonderful moment in her life was have Littlefoot here to witness it. But Cera was sure he knew she was a mother now, since he said he'd always be watching over her.

The threehorn looked away from her nest, out across The Great Valley. The Bright Circle was shining brighter than ever, it seemed, and it made the valley appear more beautiful than it already was. The light made bodies of water in the valley shimmer, and there was not a cloud in the sky to ruin this perfect spring day.

"This is the most beautiful spring day I've ever seen," Cera remarked suddenly.

"I agree," Ducky said. "Yep, yep, yep."

"Me too," Petrie said.

"I've never seen a spring day like this before," Thorn said. "The Mysterious Beyond never changed. It was always desert everywhere you want. But that's all behind me now."

Thorn knew he'd never see The Mysterious Beyond again. He had a wife and children now, and they had no reason to leave The Great Valley. He believed life would be perfect from here on out. Red Claw was gone and the two fast biters who used to follow his orders redeemed themselves. Things couldn't be better in The Great Valley or The Mysterious Beyond. Sharpteeth and leaf-eaters alike had no one to live in fear of, and some believed there would never be another sharptooth like Red Claw. Red Claw had no spouse or offspring before he died. His cruelty would not be passed onto anyone's children, and died with him.

Cera snapped out of her thoughts when Ducky, Spike, Petrie, Tricia, and Sari came up beside her on either side. It was this action that made Cera realize everything wasn't as perfect as she'd thought it was. It wasn't Littlefoot and Ruby not being here that brought her to this realization. It was Chomper's absence that did. He was still on good terms with everyone in the valley, but the day had come when Chomper decided he should leave The Great Valley. Everyone had begged him not to leave, still believing he'd never hurt anyone, but Chomper had grown up just like the rest of his friends. Chomper said he'd never want to hurt somewhere when the day came instinct got the better of him, and he'd do something he regretted. Chomper didn't want to hurt those he cared about. Everyone missed him about as much as they missed Littlefoot, Ruby, Mr. Threehorn, and Littlefoot's grandparents, even though he was still living.

"Is something the matter?" Ducky asked. She'd always been able to tell when someone had something on their mind, especially Cera.

"No," Cera said. "I just thought about Chomper. I miss him."

"Me too," Ducky said. "I do not think he would ever hurt us, even if he is grown-up now. Chomper has known everyone here too long to hurt anyone, even if it would become instinct for him to hunt other dinosaurs."

"I think that is why Chomper left," Sari said. "He wouldn't hurt us, yes, but at the same time, he didn't want to be the only resident in The Great Valley who ate other dinosaurs. A part of me can understand where he's coming from, even if I mostly eat ground crawlers and berries."

"I don't miss him any less, though," Cera said. "Chomper and I were close, regardless of anything I said about him when we were younger."

Tricia would say something that would surprise everyone with how true it was. "I don't think you should brood over the past right now," she said. "Your eggs just hatched. This is a joyous time, not a time to think about things that make you sad."

Cera blinked. Since when had her little sister learned to talk like that? "You know what," she said. "Tricia's right. Thorn and I just became parents, we shouldn't be anything other than happy right now. It's an especially beautiful day, and I shouldn't let anything get me down on a day like this."

Author's note: I was going to go beyond this last thing Cera said, but I thought it would actually just be better to end it here after giving it some thought. So here's the end of this story.