EPISODE 43: THE CROWNHEADS’S LAIR
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CHARACTERS
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Littlefoot
Cera
Ducky
Petrie
Spike
Chomper
Papa Sharptooth
Mama Sharptooth
Red Claw
Topps
Grandpa Longneck
Screech
Thud
Crownheads (OCs)
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SONGS
Rescuing Friends (New)
Me Wish Me No Here (New)
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‘"I wish that Ruby wasn’t sick," Chomper grumbled.
"I'm sure she'll get better soon. She said that there was no point in her coming or she'd just get us sick too," Littlefoot replied.
Chomper, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike headed out into the Mysterious Beyond to meet Chomper’s parents. Littlefoot and his friends were now enough used to being around Chomper's parents that they didn't freak out when they came across them.
Did you learn anything on how to beat Red Claw? Chomper's father asked him.
I am learning more on how the Great Valley works together. However, it's hard to get those out here to do that. I tried, once more, to get Sharpteeth to be friendly and work together. It didn't work so well. Ruby and I will keep trying, Chomper replied.
What about having the Great Valley help us? his mother asked.
Unfortunately, they don’t seem that eager to go out into the Mysterious Beyond and fight him. They care mostly only about what happens in the Great Valley.
That stinks, Chomper’s father sighed.
Still, Ruby and I are doing the best we can, Chomper replied.
Where is Ruby? asked Chomper's mother.
She got sick and couldn't come. She really wanted to, replied Chomper.
Hope she gets better, said his mother.
Hope you have better luck on finding how to beat Red Claw, said Chomper's father.
Chomper and his friends soon left his parents to head back to the Great Valley. A few minutes later, they encountered Red Claw, Screech, and Thud.
"Run!" yelled Littlefoot. The group ran for it, and Red Claw, Screech, and Thud chased after them. After an hour of running, they headed down a narrow passage. Red Claw, Screech, and Thud tried to follow them. However, the children were just out of reach. Red Claw and his Fast Biters tried to move their heads through the narrow passage. The good news was that they were unable to break their way through. The bad news was that their efforts began to cause rocks to fall toward the children.
The children ran out of the way. When the rocks had stopped falling and the children were safe, they saw that Red Claw, Screech, and Thud had gone, realizing that they couldn’t get to the children, but also that the path that they had come on was totally blocked.
“Looks like we’ll have to go another way back home,” Cera sighed.
“Where are we anyway?” Chomper asked.
Littlefoot and his friends looked around and gasped. Noticing the lava beds, tar pits, and harsh terrain, they had come to a place of nightmares, a place they had been to once before on their way to the Great Valley years earlier and hoped never to visit again. “We’re by the Mountains that Burn!” Littlefoot gasped.
(Theme song: All I see is the day in front of us. All I see is the day in front of us. Burning bright with a new-born sun. Burning bright with a new-born sun. Come follow me
Hills to climb and plains to roam
Oh, streams to follow all the way home
To the Land Before Time
Before time
)
"We are in the Mountains that Burn. We should not be here. Oh, no, no, no!” moaned Ducky.
"Oh, me remember last time we were here!" whimpered Petrie, starting to shake with fright.
"You've been here before?" asked Chomper, who didn't think this was the sort of place that he'd like to visit.
"Yes, Cera decided to go through here even though I thought we should go around it," said Littlefoot.
"It seemed a good idea at the time," said Cera defensively.
Nearby, some Crownheads spotted the children. "What are they doing here?" one asked another.
"They shouldn't be here. This is our home," said the other Crownhead.
"We don't let intruders come through here alive! Let's go deal with them!" cried a third Crownhead.
Littlefoot and his friends saw Crownheads approaching. They quickly realized that they weren't friendly. "Run!" yelled Littlefoot. The Crownheads chased after them.
Littlefoot and his friends came across a tar pit, which blocked their path ahead of them. Luckily, there was a log bridge across it. "Come on!" he cried. They crossed across it. The log was rotten and collapsed when Spike was almost across. Luckily, the group was able to pull Spike to safety. The Crownheads couldn't get to them, at least, for now.
"That close!" gasped Petrie.
"We've lost them," said Cera.
"We still have to get back home though," said Ducky.
"Which way do we go, though?" asked Chomper.
"I think that path leads back the way we want," replied Littlefoot, pointing toward a narrow path that had tarpits on both sides of it.
"Ug, is there another way?" Cera asked, grimacing at the treacherous path.
"This way heads back home," Littlefoot said.
"Are you sure?" Cera asked.
"I think so," Littlefoot replied.
They traveled for several minutes, navigating the narrow path. Up ahead, they could see a path that led out of the Mountains that Burn area. However, much to their annoyance, they soon found that rivers of lava barred the way. "Guess we won't be getting out this way!" Chomper sighed.
And so they headed back to where they had been before. There were now two other paths from which to choose.
"Which way do we take now?" Ducky asked.
Littlefoot hesitated for a few seconds, wondering which way to go. Finally, he said, “This way.” and headed left.
After some time, Cera said “I don’t see the Great Valley anywhere.”
“At least we not being bothered by angry Crownheads,” Petrie said, trying to stay positive.
They turned around, hoping to go back the other way and, hopefully head toward the Great Valley. Before they could take more than a few steps, however, they saw several angry Crownheads coming their way. “Looks like they do not agree with you Petrie!” Ducky cried.
“Run!” Cera yelled.
They children ran and were eventually able to lose the Crownheads by hiding behind a pile of bones until the Crownheads gave up and left. Once the Crownheads were gone, Littlefoot said “I wonder why they’re so vicious.”
“I don’t know. The ones we met here last time were mean and the ones we met in the Land of Mists were vicious too. But some are in the Great Valley and, though they can be rude, they aren’t vicious like this,” Cera replied.
“You’ve came across them here before?” Chomper asked.
“On our way to the Great Valley for the first time,” Cera replied.
“Why did you come through here?” Chomper asked.
“It wasn’t my idea, it was Cera’s,” Littlefoot said.
“It seemed a good idea at the time.” Cera said, blushing with embarrassment.
“How did you guys make it out alive?” Chomper asked. This whole place seemed like a death trap to him.
“We outsmarted them.” Littlefoot said.
“How exactly?” Chomper asked.
“Why does it matter?” Cera said.
“Because…well….maybe we can do it again here.” Chomper suggested.
“We disguised ourselves as a tar monster.” Littlefoot said.
“You went into tar? Sounds uncomfortable.” Chomper remarked.
“We no do it on purpose.” Petrie said.
“We sort of falled in.” Ducky said.
“How’d you get out?”
“I was able to grab onto a rock and they all grabbed onto me and we were able to escape. But we had tar all over ourselves and that helped scare off the Crownheads as we had tar and a few bones stuck to us and that freaked them out. I think they thought that we were some dinosaurs that had been long dead returning from the grave.” Littlefoot said.
“We could try doing that again.” Chomper suggested.
“I don’t know, Chomper. We almost got buried in the tar the last time we tried it.” said Littlefoot.
“Do you have another plan then?” Chomper asked.
“Let me try and think of one.” he said. They sat there silently for a while. Before Littlefoot could formulate a plan, however, the Crownheads had again located them. “My new plan is…run!” he cried.
“Sound like best plan to me.” Petrie said.
“Why are these Crownheads so vicious?” Cera asked.
“Perhaps they want to eat us.” Chomper suggested.
“That’s crazy. The ones in the Great Valley aren’t mean like this and, what’s more, they eat plants, not us.”
“I know it sounds odd. I’d never heard of such a thing before.”
“Maybe we just in Sleep Story.” Petrie suggested. Cera poked him in the butt with her horn. “Ouch!” he cried. He shook his head. “Nope, not in Sleep Story. Petrie definitely awake.”
“Whatever they are, we need to make sure they don’t catch us and find a way out of here,” Littlefoot said.
“How did you guys get out last time? Maybe you can get out that way again.” Chomper suggested.
“It was so long ago, I’m not sure I can recall exactly where it was. It took a good while for us to find it last time. And I don’t even know where we are to try and guess where to go to find that exit even if I could recall where it was.” Littlefoot replied.
Ash began to fall from a nearby volcano. “It hard to breathe!” Petrie gagged. Hot embers began to fall from the air, released from the volcano.
“Ouch!” Cera cried, as one landed on her tail.
Several embers landed on Spike’s back, causing him to bolt. Ducky, who had been riding on his back, was unable to hang on and was sent flying through the air. She landed in a pile of bones on the other side of a river of tar.
“Ducky!’ Littlefoot cried.
“Don’t worry, me get her,” Petrie said. However, as Petrie began to fly toward her, a nearby volcano began to spew out rocks. Some of these hit the tar, which splashed it onto Petrie. With the tar on his wings, he couldn’t fly that well and crash-landed next to Ducky. “Great, now me stuck too!” he grumbled.
“How are we going to get to them?” Cera asked Littlefoot.
“I’ll think of something, eventually.”
“Eventually? That does not sound comforting at all,” Ducky sighed.
“Come on, have I ever let you guys down before?”
“Not that me can think of,” Petrie said.
“Our friends are stuck and we’re not sure what to do,” Cera began to sing a jazzy tune.
“But like always, we’ll find a way to pull through,” Littlefoot sang.
“Me no like being covered in tar and stuck over here,” Petrie sang.
“No need to worry Petrie when your friends are near,” Chomper sang.
“Oh, that is easy for you to say,” Ducky said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t worry guys, things will be ok,” Littlefoot sang.
Cera found some old gnarly vines. “Maybe these are what we need,” she sang hopefully.
However, as she and the others tossed them over toward Ducky and Petrie, some embers from a nearby volcano landed on them, igniting them and causing the children to have to drop them. “Me guess that plan no going to succeed,” Petrie sighed.
“Maybe we could get you across with these,” Littlefoot sang, trying to knock down a pile of rocks and make a bridge.
“Oh yes, please, please, please!” Ducky cried.
Chomper tried to push the rocks by himself but soon gave up, worn down. “I can’t do it. My effort is not enough. These boulders are just too tough,” he sang.
Not to be deterred, however, Spike, Littlefoot, and Cera pushed against the rocks and this time were able to knock them down, forming a bridge. “The effort of us three…..” Cera began to sing.
“Is enough to finally set you free,” Littlefoot finished for her, also ending the song. Ducky and Petrie quickly ran across.
Spike, glad that Petrie and Ducky had been rescued, tried to lick Petrie. However, due to the tar on his body, his tongue got stuck. “Ugggh!” he groaned. After much tugging and pulling, he was able to free it. “Uhhhhh!” he moaned, his tongue feeling sore.
“Are you ok Spike?” Ducky asked in concern.
“Uffff Unnngghh Mmmmm!” Spike babbled, his tongue still sore.
“I’m guessing that’s a yes,” Ducky said.
Chomper suddenly began sniffing the air. “Guys, we’ve got company! Crownheads are coming!”
“We need to find some place to hide before they find us,” Littlefoot said.
“Where? Everything is out in the open!” Cera cried in a panic.
“Why don’t we have Cera and Chomper fight them? Chomper a Sharptooth and Cera have horns,” Petrie suggested.
“I don’t know if I can handle that many,” Chomper said nervously.
“Me neither,” Cera said.
“Could you try? Me not have any other ideas.”
Eight Crownheads came into view. Both Chomper and Cera knew that they couldn’t defeat all of them as they were all adults and the two of them were only children. Nevertheless, as they approached, Cera rammed one of them in the foot with her horn while Chomper bit another one of them in the tail. The two injured Crownheads cried out in pain. The others, however, continued to advance toward the children. Petrie began to fly around a third Crownhead, distracting her. Still, there were five Crownheads that weren't distracted or hurt that kept advancing toward the children. Spike slammed one in the shin with his tail, making him cry out in pain. Littlefoot swatted another in the leg with his tail. One of the remaining three seized ahold of Ducky.
“Let go!” Ducky snapped. The Crownhead snarled at her, bearing her teeth. Ducky bit the Crownhead in the hand, trying to break free. Though she didn’t have fangs, the bite still hurt the Crownhead who let go of her in surprise. However, when the Crownhead let go of her, this caused her to fall to the ground and crumple in a heap. “Ouch!” Ducky moaned.
The two other Crownheads jumped at her from opposite directions, trying to bite into her. She moved out of the way just in time and they bit each other instead. While the Crownheads were briefly distracted, the children used the opportunity to bolt. The eight Crownheads were right behind them, snarling more loudly and ferociously than ever.
After a few minutes, the children reached a cliff with the only way back behind them. They all halted, standing one in front of the other. Spike, who was at the rear and was still running from the Crownheads right behind him, couldn’t stop in time, collided with the children, and created a domino effect that knocked all of them, plus himself, into the canyon below. Luckily the fall wasn’t that far and there were no sharp rocks at the bottom.
“At least we’ve lost the Crownheads,” said Chomper optimistically.
“How are we going to get out of here?” Cera asked.
“Me could just fly out,” Petrie said.
“I meant the rest of us.”
“Oh. Me not sure.”
“Speaking of flying out, that gives me an idea, something we should have tried from the beginning,” Littlefoot said.
“No way me can fly all of you out!” Petrie said.
“Not fly us out. You can go find a way out since you can fly.”
“Right, me should have thought of that before now.” He flew off and returned about twenty minutes later. “We have long ways to go unfortunately,” he sighed.
“What do you mean?” Littlefoot asked.
“Well, we have long ways to go in canyon and that take us way away from Great Valley and then we have to go back other way across Mountains that Burn. It will take past dark.”
The others groaned. “It’s bad enough that we have to be here at all, let alone after dark!” Cera moaned.
The children traveled through the canyon for several hours without incident. However, it was near dark when they finally reached a path that led out of the canyon. “I think we’ll have to spend the night in here,” Littlefoot said.
“Spend night in here?!” Petrie gasped. Though free of hostiles, the canyon had many bones of various dinosaurs and pterosaurs lying about, not exactly an ideal place to sleep at night.
“I’m afraid so Petrie. If we go up there, those Crownheads could catch us in the dark.”
“It going to be long night!”
“At least we will be together Petrie,” Ducky tried to reassure him.
“We should have been back home way before now. My dad is going to freak out!” Cera moaned.
In the Great Valley, Mr. Threehorn grumbled to Grandpa Longneck “Cera’s not back yet. She was supposed to be back by dark!”
“I’m afraid that something has delayed them. This isn’t the first time this has happened and they’ve managed to make it back in the past, “Grandpa Longneck replied, recalling the time that the children had been chased by Stinging Buzzers into the Mysterious Beyond, Ruby had gotten her ankle sprained, they had been chased by Screech and Thud, and had been forced to spend the night in the Mysterious Beyond.
“Well, I hope they’re all right.”
“Me too.”
Petrie’s friends were all asleep, but he was wide awake. He had never gone to sleep in such a scary place, and he had gone to sleep in some scary places before! Some embers from a volcano fell into a nearby dinosaur skeleton, making the eyes appear like they were glowing orange. “Oooooh, me really wish me no here right now!” the pterosaur moaned.
Petrie wondered why he had to be so scared. Sure, the others were scared too, but they, unlike him, were able to fall asleep. “Come on Petrie, stop being such a Scardey Egg and go to sleep!” he said to himself. However, he couldn’t fall asleep. Despite the others believing that the Crownheads were unaware that they were there, he had the eerie feeling that he was being watched. It almost seemed like one of the pair in the glowing eyes in the dark was flickering, almost like they were blinking.
He rubbed his eyes, checking to see if he was imagining things. However, when he looked again, the two glowing things weren’t there at all. That seemed odd to him. If they were just embers, they both shouldn’t have gone out so quickly. That meant that whatever it was had moved. And if it had moved, that meant that those eyes he had seen were real!
“Guys, wake up!” he cried out, shaking his friends awake one by one.
“What’s up Petrie?” Cera asked irritably.
“There something here watching us and now it gone!”
“You must have just been having bad Sleep Stories.”
“No, me saw what me saw!” Petrie adamantly insisted.
“Are you sure Petrie? It would be crazy to leave here and head out into the open in the middle of the night unless we really were in danger” Ducky said.
“Yes, me sure me sure.”
“Chomper, can you smell any Crownheads near here?” Littlefoot asked.
Chomper sniffed the air. “I don’t smell any,” he said.
“See, it was just a Sleep Story,” said Cera.
Chomper sniffed the air again and his eyes widened. “I smell several of them!” he cried out.
“Petrie was right,” Littlefoot said.
“We need to find some way to avoid them. We barely got away last time when we fought them,” Cera said.
“There’s no way to avoid them if we turn around and go back the way we came. We’ll have to go ahead and hope we can find some way to avoid them,” Littlefoot said.
They moved forward, as silently and quickly as they could. They lucked out in that Chomper found a path up ahead that did not have the scent of Crownheads heading down it toward them, meaning that it was their best path to safety. After they had gone some ways down this path, they could see Crownheads walking by at the end of the path, heading down the way they had just come from.
“That was close. I hope we don’t meet any more Crownheads,” Cera said.
“We probably will. I can smell them all over the place,” Chomper sighed.
“Maybe Petrie here can fly ahead and find paths to avoid them,” Cera suggested.
“Why Petrie have to do it?” Petrie protested.
“Because you can fly,” Cera said.
“Me not like fly around in dark in creep place.”
“Petrie, please,” Littlefoot said.
“Ok, me do it.” He flew off into the night.
Though he could fly and was the least endangered by the vicious Crownheads, he still didn’t like flying around in such an unfamiliar and awful place in the dead of night. “So far so good. No Crownheads here,” he said to himself. He flew toward the path he had found earlier that led out of the Mountains that Burn. To his dismay, he found that the path was guarded by alert Crownheads, who seemed to be lying in wait for the children, expecting them to come that way.
He quickly flew back to his friends and informed them of what he had seen. “And so we need to find other way out,” he concluded.
“But we don’t know another way out,” Cera sighed.
“We can find one,” Littlefoot said.
“Let’s hope so. Or else we will be Crownhead food for sure,” Ducky said.
“We know that there is more than one entrance to this place as when we first came to the Great Valley, we came from the other side,” Littlefoot said.
“Yes, the way you were going to take last time,” Cera said.
“Yes, but that way steep. We have hard time going up it last time. Crownheads easily able to catch us if we go up that way,” Petrie said.
“We almost felled in flowing fire and got nearly sank into tar when we went that way too,” Ducky said.
“Well, maybe we can find another way out,” Littlefoot said.
“Petrie, did you see any other paths we can take ahead where we won’t run into those Crownheads?” Cera asked.
“Me did see few paths that split off from one ahead, but most of them have Crownheads too. Me only see one that seem not to.”
“Where does it go?” Chomper asked.
“Me not follow it all way, but me know it not have Crownheads on it at moment.”
“I guess we have no choice but to take the path and hope it can take us to a way out of here,” Littlefoot said.
They traveled on the path that Petrie had found and though, as he had said, they didn’t encounter any Crownheads, they could tell that the path was taking them further away from the Great Valley.
“It’s going to take forever to get back to the Great Valley by going this way!” Cera grumbled.
“Be quiet Cera! We’re doing the best we can!” Littlefoot snapped.
They suddenly heard a large amount of movement behind them. Chomper hadn’t smelled any Crownheads coming and was worried they had managed to outwit his top-notch sense of smell. The others were also worried about Crownheads and turned around to stare behind them. The good news was that it wasn’t Crownheads that had made the news; the bad news was that tremors in the earth behind them had loosened several rocks from a nearby cliff and blocked the path behind them.
“Now what we do?” Petrie asked.
“Well, we can’t go back that way now so we’ll just have to go forward and hope we don’t meet any Crownheads,” Littlefoot said.
“Me hate this place! We should never have left Great Valley!” Petrie moaned.
“Me wish me no here.
Me wish me no where near,” Petrie began to sing.
“I wish we could leave somehow.
I wish I were back in the Great Valley right now,” Ducky sang.
“The Mountains that Burn is a terrible place.
I can’t wait to get out of this space,” Littlefoot sang.
“We’ll get out of here no matter what it takes.
Running from Red Claw this way was a big mistake,” Chomper sang.
“I just hope we get out of here to tell the tale,” Cera sang.
“Don’t worry guys, we will prevail,” Littlefoot sang.
“We need to work together and overcome our fear,” Chomper sang.
“O me wish me nowhere near here,” Petrie sang, finishing the song.
A group of Crownheads ran toward them. Hey Sharptooth, what are you doing with these Flatteeth? one of them asked Chomper.
You speak Sharptooth! Chomper gasped.
Yes. You and your friends are trespassing! a Crownhead said.
We’re looking for a way out. If you can show us, we won’t trespass again, Chomper said.
I don’t think so! We don’t let trespassers live! a Crownhead declared.
“What did they say Chomper?” Cera asked.
“They said they’re going to kill us!” Chomper cried.
“Run!” Cera cried.
They ran as fast as they could, the Crownheads only 30 yards behind them. They reached the spot that they had entered the Mountains that Burn years earlier. Littlefoot began to climb up the steep path that he had years earlier.
“Where are you going?” Cera asked.
“It’s the way my mother told me about, the one you guys wouldn’t take.”
“We’ll never get up that hill in time before they catch us,” Chomper said. “Maybe I can hold them off while you guys get away.”
“I have an idea!” Littlefoot exclaimed.
“Me hope it good one,” Petrie said.
“It involves you.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Because you can fly.”
“Me no think that work this time. Fly around head and distract trick may work on Sharptooth because Sharpteeth all stupid but Crownheads too smart.”
“Hey!” Chomper snapped, feeling offended.
“Oops, me mean Sharptooth in general, not you,” Petrie quickly corrected himself.
“You don’t need to fly around their heads. You need to fly up and push rocks at them,” Littlefoot said.
“Me not think me strong enough to push big enough rocks to stop them all.”
“You don’t need to.”
“Then what me do it for then?”
“To distract them long enough for some of us to get up there and push bigger boulders at them.”
“Why me not just distract them by flying around heads then?”
“As you said, they’re too smart. They’d ignore you and keep going for us.”
“Ok, me do it.” He flew up to the top of the hill and began to push rocks down at the Crownheads. This distracted them long enough for Ducky to reach the rocks and begin to push them at the Crownheads as well. This delayed the Crownheads long enough for the others, one by one, to get up there and push rocks downhill. By the time Spike, the last up, reached the top and began to send rocks cascading downhill, most of the Crownheads had retreated. Two, which were nearing the group, soon came under such fire that they too were forced to retreat.
“We did it!” Chomper cried.
“We defeated the Crownheads!” Ducky said.
They took the path that Littlefoot had intended to take to the Great Valley years earlier. They found that this path led them back to the Great Valley much quicker than they had gone after going down Cera’s wrong path. “See, I was right all the time. This way was much quicker. My mother was right,” Littlefoot said.
“Way to rub it in after all of these cold times,” Cera sighed.
“You miss your mother, don’t you?” Chomper said. Littlefoot nodded. “I’m sorry she died in the Great Earthshake.”
Littlefoot nodded. Chomper alone of his best friends Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, and Ruby didn’t really know how his mother had died. He didn’t want Chomper to feel guilty about being what he was. “I think she would have liked you,” Littlefoot said. He hoped so. Him being brave enough to befriend Chomper when he had first seen him, instead of continuing to run, had been due to a promise that he had made to her shortly before she had died.
As they neared the entrance to the Great Valley, they found Red Claw, Screech, and Thud barring their path.
“Not them again!” Petrie moaned.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get past them,” Littlefoot said confidently.
“How are we going to do that?” Ducky asked.
“Simple, have Petrie fly around their heads and distract them.”
“Not this again!” Petrie moaned.
“Come on Petrie,” Chomper said.
“Ok, but you guys owe me,” he said.
He flew around the three Sharpteeth, distracting them. While they were preoccupied, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, and Chomper ran between their legs. Petrie led them away from the Great Valley then, once they were far enough away that they couldn’t catch his friends, he changed course, crying “Hee hee! Petrie trick you!” Though they couldn’t understand Leaf Eater, they realized that he was mocking them and had tricked them and they snarled in frustration.
Petrie joined his friends some distance into the Great Valley. “Where were you kids?” Mr. Threehorn snapped.
“We ran from Red Claw earlier and accidentally ended up by the Mountains that Burn,” Cera said.
“Mountains that Burn? What in blazes were you doing there?” he thundered.
“Now Mr. Threehorn, I’m sure they didn’t do it on purpose. Let’s just be glad that they’re all right now,” said Grandpa Longneck, who was nearby.
And so Littlefoot and his friends headed back into the Great Valley. This would not be the last of their encounters with Crownheads, however.
