Flight and Love
#24 of Out of the Shadows: AnthroLover's Version
Part 24, read, enjoy and review.
Petrie stood his ground as Ichy swooped, his mouth open. Petrie shuddered as he looked at all those small sharply hooked teeth that filled Ichy's mouth. Ichy's beak was sharp as well, so even if he couldn't bite Petrie, he could still slash him with the hooked part of his beak.
"You asked for it, kid." Ichy laughed as he lunged faster, aiming the blow at Petrie's neck. The flyer immediately evaded it by flying upwards. Ichy slammed into the ground where the flyer once was.
Petrie knew he couldn't face Ichy with his own beak. Petrie didn't have a sharp beak, and it wouldn't injure the sharpbeak much at all. He didn't have claws either. His only chance to defeat Ichy was to outmaneuver him and outwit him.
Ichy quickly got up, and brushed off the dirth that had collected in between his long wing feathers. He looked up and could see Petrie flying away. The flyer was heading towards the mountain walls that surrounded the valley.
"You trying to escape, are you?" Ichy was about to take off when he could feel himself being gently pulled down by a large mouth. He turned around. "What is it Dil?" He was amazed Dil could catch him even though she was completely blind now.
Dil's eyes were wide and almost sad looking. The pale blue pupils, once bold black, stared into blank space. "Don't fly away, Ichy. You know I can't see anymore."
Ichy rolled his eyes. "Don't you have a good sense of smell and hearing?"
"I can't hear so good, or smell so good..." She murmured.
"Geeze..." Ichy slapped himself in the face. "No wonder you rely on me so much!"
Dil snarled, but she didn't reply. She refused to let Ichy go, though. She didn't want to be left alone, especiall in war when she had a great disadvantage. Ichy struggled to get his tail feathers out of her mouth, but her jaws were clamped too tightly. And if he removed his tail feathers, he wouldn't be able to fly at all.
"Come on, Dil...Let go!"
"No!"
Petrie stopped abruptly as he realized he wasn't being followed. He looked down where Ichy and Dil were. He noticed the bellydragger was hanging onto the sharpbeak, preventing him from leaving. Petrie did soon realize that Dil could not see, so if Ichy left, she would be vulnerable.
"Me should attack, but maybe me should wait see what happen next." Petrie debated with himself. Moving in for a sudden attack could save his life. But it could also end it as well. He whimpered. The decision was difficult to make. Part of him didn't want to do it. The other half told him to do it. But he finally made up his mind.
He was going to flee.
Petrie didn't waste anytime in flying in the direction he was originally going. He wasn't safe staying there very long anyway. Even if Ichy didn't chase him, he had to worry about the other sharptooth flyers. He couldn't see any in the mean time, but that didn't mean that they weren't there.
The flyer glided cautiously through the cracks in the wall. He knew he couldn't look around for very long in this place. If he looked away for too long, he'd slam into a wall. He shuddered. That must've been what did his uncle in...
"Poor Pterano..." He sniffled. Tears streamed down his face.
Suddenly a new anger started to grow inside him. It started out as a minor dislike. But it rapidly grew into almost hatred. Hatred towards several persons whom he believed responsible for his uncle's death. Dil, Ichy, Chomper, and...Littlefoot. Petrie's eyes narrowed.
"If Littlefoot only listen to Pterano...this never would have happened... If only he listen!" He screamed.
He gasped and shut his beak tightly. Taking a risk, he scanned his area nervously, and quickly turned attention back to flying. He didn't spy any evil flyers nearby, but he refused to let his guard down.
But he still couldn't shake the anger eating away at his heart. He knew he couldn't turn against Littlefoot, for doing so could result in his own demise. But he also knew he couldn't fully trust Littlefoot again. Littlefoot didn't take Pterano's advice, and it led to this invasion.
"What to do...what to do...?" He moped.
As Petrie was pondering this, down below somewhere, Littlefoot and Ali were standing in a small cave in the wall. They didn't know where the others were, and they knew that this was the safest place for them to be.
"Littlefoot...what's going to happen?" Ali looked in horror at what had become of the Great Valley. Blood was everywhere. Bodies of both sharpteeth and leaf-eater lay on the ground. Many of them were locked in combat. She shed a tear for them, and lowered her head. "Why? Why did it have to come down to this?"
Littlefoot looked at her sadly. He, too, was appalled by what had happened. "There was nothing we could do about it."
Ali glared at him. "We should've acted faster! We...we shouldn't have trusted Sierra. You shouldn't trusted him..." She took a step back, not taking her eyes off his.
The male longneck lowered his head. "I know...I know..." He let out a sigh. "I-I don't know why I trusted him, Ali... I guess that..." Ali tilted an eyebrow. "I guess with my anger towards Chomper's betrayal..I..." He struggled to get the words out. "I was willing...to believe anything...that could allow me...to...make Chomper pay...for the pain he's caused here..."
His body started shaking. "But you are right... I shouldn't have trusted Sierra. It's my fault this happened. All my fault..." He could feel his salty tears stain his face.
Ali was stunned. She'd never seen Littlefoot like this before. She cautiously approached his trembling form. "Littlefoot...I..." But she couldn't get any words to come out.
Littlefoot looked at her. "I've been mistakes before, Ali. This isn't the first time...I...I got everyone in danger. But this...this is the...worst thing I've...done..."
"You didn't cause this." Ali tried to comfort him.
"Don't lie." He shook his head. "If I didn't trust Sierra..."
Ali intervened. "But we don't even know if Sierra actually told Chomper anything." But she knew she was wrong. And Littlefoot was quick to point it out.
"Then how come the sharptooth attack came earlier than expected? And in much larger numbers?"
"I..." She knew she was so very wrong. "I know I'm wrong...I'll admit that." She looked at him directly in the eyes. "But another thing I know is if you make a mistake, you should try and fix it."
"Fix it!" Littlefoot snapped, almost angrily. He gestured his head towards the bloody battlefield outside. "How am I going to fix that!"
Ali walked towards him and gently nuzzled him with her snout. "You will find a way. You just have to believe in yourself." She backed away. "Littlefoot, my mother taught me, no matter how bad things get, there is always hope."
Littlefoot gave a small smile. "Thanks, Ali. That means a lot."
Ali smiled back. "No problem."
Littlefoot looked back out there for a few seconds, then back at Ali. "You think we'll live through this? Together?"
(A/N The reason why I have Ali act the way she does here is due to what's going on around her.)
The female longneck was a little confused by this statement. "What do you mean? I'm sure we'll make it." Then another thought crossed her mind. Before Littlefoot could say anything else, she interrupted him before he began to talk.
Ali walked closer to him. "I know this is a little sudden...but...I...I love you."
The longneck felt the shock spread to all corners of his mind. "You...love me?" He started to feel his heart racing.
"And...there's something...I always wanted to do..." She gave him 'the look' and grinned slightly.
Littlefoot gulped. "Oh boy..."
"I hope it is."
Littlefoot's eyes went wide. He couldn't say anything. All he could do was watch as Ali approached him slowly with that eerie smile on her face.
Meanwhile, Petrie had a little run-in with a dark flyer. He glared at the fanged flying animal. It was male. He was black with streaks of red on his wing membrane and a red collar. He looked like Petrie's kind but he didn't have an impressive crest like Pterano and he had sharp teeth.
"Where do you think you're going, punk?" He mocked. His name was Gorjak.
"Me going to find Littlefoot!"
"And how...are you gonna do that..?" He sneered.
Petrie snapped. "By getting past you!"
He suddenly dove forward. Gorjak reacted as well. Petrie was trying to make a clean break underneath the dark flyer. Gorjak realized this and dove down to intercept Petrie. He missed.
"Bye bye!" Petrie cried out as he flew around to locate Littlefoot and maybe Ali or Rex.
But the dark flyer wasn't going down without a fight. "Oh no...no you don't..." He hissed. He chased after Petrie at his top speed. He was incredibly fast, faster than any normal flyer.
Petrie wasn't surveying his area. His entire mind was focused on finding Littlefoot. He didn't see the dark flyer behind him. He didn't see Gorjak open his jaws. And he certainly didn't see him swooping down for the kill at almost 200 miles per hour...
Meanwhile, in a far place, a clearing, 60 feet wide with some flowers around, rested a dark-brown longneck, he just sat there staring at the sky, he had yellow dark eyes, and in his neck was necklace with a symbol made of silver material of a treestar with an sharptooth's tooth carved in it.
This longneck in particular was angry. Angry because they just were standing there, letting all those horrible things to happen. The wind, that was calm, suddenly started to blow strong, as it had become angry along with the longneck.
"Wow, what an angry wind we have today!" said a voice next to the longneck, startling him and making him look down. He faced a crimson fast biter with yellow eyes and a scar over his neck, he was wearing a ring on his right hand that had a symbol identical to the longneck necklace. Once he saw him he calmed down "Hi Doro."
"Delan." the fast biter replied. They both keep a silence for a few moments, none knowing what to do or say, even Doro, who was normally happy, playful and jovial was felling the weight of the current situation.
"I just wish we could act soon." Doro said to Delan, the longneck. "I'm getting already tired of this."
"Then why don't we act?" the both longneck and fast biter turned to the source of the new voice, and saw another fast biter approaching, one that was almost identical to Doro, but had a scar over his right eye and used a ring in his left hand, with the same symbol. "Of course that cowards of the council will not do anything" He said. "We must ignore them and act now!"
"But Toro-" intermissed another fast biter that were right beside the first, this too looked very similar to Doro, except that he had no scar, and used a bracelet on his right arm, his voice denoted fear "We received orders, and with we try to fight them all of them without help we would probably be killed."
"Them we would die doing something Loro." the fast biter screamed in the face of the other, making him jump and yelp. That was when another fas biter intervened.
This was very similar to the others, but he had a scar over his chest and used a bracelet on his left arm. "Well, this is one of the rare occasions I agree with Toro. We must act now." He said with a determined tone.
"Thank you Soro." Toro said.
"Loro is right." said another voice. it was to a similar sharptooth, but this one had a "x" scar over his left cheek, and used a necklace with the same symbol. "Act now would be foolishness. We need to think before we actually act."
"Zoro!" Toro screamed.
"Why you keep fighting about a lost cause?" intermitted another last fast biter, very similar to the others, but this one had one leg limp due to an old wound and used a belt with the same symbol of the others.
"Oh, great."
"If the council is not willing to help, them is because there is nothing to be done." Noro said with a dark, sorrowful voice "It is indeed a lost cause."
"Yeah, yeah. There's nothing to be done, everything is going to end bad, blah, blah, blah..." mocked Doro. Delan could only look at the six fast biters as they debated. It was almost impossible to believe that they're all brothers, all come from the same clutch.
Delan could only let them alone and look again at the sky, thinking that maybe some of them were right. Maybe the council really tought of this being a lost cause. Why else would they want the order to keep omit?