Category: Land before Time

Rating: T

Couples: Tria/Threehorn

Warnings: AU, Hints of Character Death and Blood

Chapter: 12

Copyright: © characters and places by United Pictures; © Plot and OC by me

Author's Note: I will give writing fanfics for LBT another go, but if Vondon Wiles alone keeps reviewing, without anyone one else doing so, I will stop altogether. His/Her many useless, irritating reviews have completely sapped my will to write. Especially because they are the only ones I get and I can't even block them because s/he is too cowardly to use a profile and Anonymous can no longer be turned off. I normally know better than to demand reviews, but right now it's either him/her shutting up or others reviewing regularly as well if you guys do not want the stories to end. Sorry for being such a bitch about it, but I really want to write these stories, but I just can't if I can't enjoy it.

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"What?" Tria whispered. "How?"

"Cowardice at the wrong moment." Her grandfather whispered. "It happened when I was still young, barely an adult. The land was still green back then."

He sighed softly. "The herd I belonged to had taken a rest near a fast water. So had theirs." He nodded in the general direction of the elder Longneck.

"There was a lower section at the water's edge." Grandpa mused as he remembered that time. "It was sheltered with thorny bushes and steep sides. It was unlikely that Sharpteeth would be able to get down it or try to cross the water."

"Both herds let their children play there." The old Threehorn added. "It was safe for them. Then came a day when I strayed from my herd. I was attacked by a pack of Fast Biters. In a blind panic I fled: there were simply too many for me to take on. I intended to get to the herd, have their numbers offer me protection."

He fell silent briefly. "I went the wrong way. In my panic, they had managed to cut me off. So I took a second option: the river. It was such a wild one, I knew they would not be able to cross it after me. I was not even certain I could cross it, for that matter. But anything was better than to be eaten. Or so I thought. But the edges near where we were, were steep and high, save for that one spot where we let the children play."

He turned his blind face to Grandpa. "I thought none would be there, I hoped it. I barrelled straight through it and managed to cross the river. It was only when I reached the other side I realized something: there had been children."

He shuddered. "They were trapped with the Fast Biters. Having lost me, they attacked the next best thing: the hatchlings they found. The youngsters screamed for help, but I was frozen in fear and horror."

"But Grandma did hear." Grandpa whispered. "She told me she heard the children cry for help and rushed there."

"I saw her. She was quick…" His remaining eye pressed closed. "She could do nothing. She was too big to fit down into the lowered part. She could only watch helplessly as the Sharpteeth killed them all… and then she noticed me. I will never forget her eyes when she realized I had been there the entire time, in fact had been the reason that sanctuary had turned into a dead-trap and had done nothing."

He turned his blind eyes to Ater. "Only one child managed to by-pass the Sharpteeth and reach safety, though badly wounded. The others were slaughtered."

Ater nodded sadly while looking at his many scars. "Mother was devastated. Three complete clutches, reduced to one survivor barely clinging to his life. She feared I would succumb to my wounds, but despite that she left me with her sister. Only later did I realize she had gone to kill the ones responsible. Including the Threehorn that had caused the tragedy."

"Yes…" He lifted his front-leg, resting it briefly against the horrible wound on the side of his face. "I barely escaped her and for weeks, I was followed by a pack of Fast Biters who were just waiting for me to succumb to my wounds. But I survived. By then I was completely lost. I joined another herd, but never saw my own family again…"

"It took her Cold Times before she dared try have another nest." Grandpa looked away, towards where his wife was standing. "For a long time, she was hostile against any Threehorn we encountered. For many changes of the Night Circle, I feared I would lose her to grief."

"You weren't there when it happened?" Littlefoot hesitantly asked his grandfather.

"No." He shook his head. "The route we used to take back then got treacherous shortly after the stop at that Fast Water. We always send a couple of males ahead to check its' safety. I had been one of the males send out that year. I only found out what had happened when I returned several days later."