Reply To: The Land Before Time XVIII: Journey Under the Great Valley
CHAPTER TEN: TRICIA’S HATCH DAY
“So, where were you?” asked Cera grumpily.
“Nunya!” snapped Littlefoot.
“There is no need to be rude Littlefoot. Oh no, no, no.” said Ducky, shaking her head. She came toward Littlefoot. “You were with Liam against, weren’t you?” asked Ducky.
“So what if I was?” snarled Littlefoot.
“Well, you should know that you’ve made us late for Tricia’s Hatch Day celebration!” grumbled Cera.
“Holy Tree Stars! I forgot!” gasped Littlefoot.
It was Tricia’s fifth Hatch Day. She was about as old as Cera was when she had first met Littlefoot. They quickly ran to the others for the party. Topps was annoyed that they were late.
“Teenagers!” he grumbled. Littlefoot, who had picked up the habit of disrespect for authority from Liam, stuck his tongue out at Topps, who luckily hadn’t noticed him. Cera, however, had.
“You’ll pay for that.” she snarled softly. The two got into a tussle, but it didn’t last long.
“Act your age! I’d have expected this behavior of a Longneck, but you should know better Cera!” Topps chided.
“A Longneck?!” snapped Grandma Longneck, who didn’t like Topps’s insult about Longnecks.
“Settle down everyone!” said Grandpa Longneck, trying to keep the peace.
“Glad you could all make it.” said Tricia.
“Yeah, sorry I was late.” Littlefoot apologized, blushing.
“It’s ok Littlefoot.” said Tria gently.
“Now, we are here to celebrate the fifth cold time to the day that our Tricia hatched.” said Topps in an important sounding voice. Tricia, who was already very pink already due to her coloration, turned even pinker as her father talked.
The celebration went on for the rest of the day. They ate Tree Sweets and congratulated Tricia. The others were worn out and went off to bed.
“Thanks for coming everyone.” said Tricia.
“No problem.” said Ducky.
The others left. Littlefoot was the last to leave. He pretended to be leaving but then doubled back, thinking everyone was gone. However, not everyone was.
“Littlefoot, where are you going?” came a voice. It was Tricia.
“I….er….hafta pee!” Littlefoot invented wildly.
“Thanks for sharing.” groaned Tricia, embarrassed. She went off to go to bed. Littlefoot felt bad about lying to Tricia like that. But he had plans. He wanted to go after the Fire Rock. He met with Liam and the others, for they had agreed to meet after dark.
“Got the Glowing Buzzers?” asked Littlefoot. Liam and the others nodded, showing the fireflies that they had gotten for light. They spent a lot of the night searching deeper for the Fire Rock. Luckily, they didn’t run into any Sharpteeth. They had halted for the night upon coming upon a point where several paths forked off, many going downward and a few going upward. They weren’t sure which way to go and didn’t want to get caught by the grownups so they snuck back to bed three hours before dawn.
