Chapter three of LBT Special; Enter the Prehistoric Dragon.
Story[]
The next morning the three sauropods all wake to find their new addition looking adorable in his sleep, at least until he woke up "what are you looking at?" Draco asks, "sorry it's just you looked so cute a few seconds ago" Grandma-L admits. They later went to the river to get a drink and the two youngsters left to be with their friends who were also gathering in there little get-together area.
"Hey Draco would you like to join our little game?" Littlefoot ask, earning some stares from everyone else, "ah what the heck, sure" he concedes and they once again got into their little soccer-game. At one point their rock went bouncing to the Tinysaurus's cave, Spike was the first to catch it, but their game gets interrupted by an ominous hissing-sound from inside the cave, "what was that?" Petrie asks, Littlefoot cautiously peaked his head in, hoping it was just one of the Mussaurus playing a trick or something, but he was getting a bad feeling about this as he was now hearing what sounded like screaming, in fear, and they were getting closer, "guys, I think the Tinysauruses are in trouble" he deciphers and all of a sudden the miniature prosauropods rush out of the cave into the gang, Big Daddy himself crashes into Chomper, "whoa what's wrong" he asks, "giant snake" Lizzie answers, and sure enough a head with a forked-tongue creeps out of the same cave where after emerging fully shows it was a Sanajeh, "aw crud, that is a giant snake" Cera remarks as all back up a little, the serpent eyes the bigger juvenile reptiles and lashes its tail at them to split them up, all scatter to dodge but the snake was satisfied enough as it caught sight of Skitter who tripped in the attempt to avoid the snake's tail-whip and coils himself around him, "Skitter" Ruby gasps and in an act of pure bravery she charges at the serpent who has Skitter in its grasp; since she and the rest of them were adolescent now they could afford to stand and fight, though when the snake saw her coming it released Skitter to dodge her, Skitter fled to the others the second he was free, where the rest of the gang (including Draco) decide to join in the fight, when the snake sees it is outnumbered it took off into some bushes, Draco gave chase but loses sight of it, "where'd it go?" Ducky wonders looking through the foliage for any sign of the Sanajeh, "we'd better tell the grown-ups" Littlefoot suggested and all agreed.
So the gang plus the tinysaurs notified just about everybody: Littlefoot's grandparents also called a meeting, "it was huge and had these sinister looking eyes" Big daddy explains slightly exaggerating it, "calm down, now what kind of snake did you say it was?" Grandpa-L asks "a Sanajeh" Dusty answers, "oh I've heard of that species, they're egg-nappers known to raid nests, and every dinosaur who has a clutch fears them" Mr. Thicknose informs, "kinda reminds me of those ornithomimosaurs" Cera whispers to her friends, "what's all the hubba?" a new yet familiar voice asked and when all turned to its source they see it was Doc and Dara, the former being the one who spoke, "Doc, Dara" Littlefoot greets happily, "wow you sure have grown a lot since the last time we met" Doc remarks on Littlefoot's current size, much to Littlefoot's embarrassment, he then noticed Draco behind the rest of the gang, "who's that?" he asks pointing to Draco, "oh this Draco, he's from a species called flamebreaths, or more specifically Megadracosaurus" Mrs. Swimmer answers, "well, then it's nice to meet you Draco, I'm assuming you're another friendly carnivore like Chomper aren't ya?" Doc greets and guesses, he was already on good-ground with Chomper so befriending Draco doesn't feel any different, "I guess you could say that" Draco jokes much to Doc's pleasure, "uh I don't mean to ruin the reunion but you've come on a bad time, a killer giant snake is on the loose in the valley" Tops interrupts bringing everyone back on track, "giant snake?" Dara asks, "a Sanajeh to be exact, a kind of egg-stealer" Lizzie informs, she and the tinysaurs introduced themselves too, "really" Doc wondered, "oh yes really, if you like you can help us weed it out" Grandpa-L offers, "sure" Doc accepts and with that everybody dispersed to alert the rest of the valley and if lucky catch the Sanajeh.
Not far away in a grove in some corner of the valley, a female Shunosaurus (nicknamed "Clubtailed-longneck) was tending a nest of eggs, unaware that they were being watched, the Sanajeh had found the sauropod's nest and was having some predatory ambitions, eventually it slithers out of the bushes where the Shunosaurus who upon noticing roars out in alarm and stands her ground, waving her club defensively. Her roar was also heard throughout the rest of the valley and Mrs. Flyer who was on patrol for the snake heads in its direction where she finds the brawl: the sauropod stood directly over her nest to keep the serpent from reaching in and snacking on her young, Mrs. Flyer flew back to the meeting area and calls out "I found the snake I found the snake", when everyone got the message some of them fallow her to where she found it, including the youngsters.
As for the mother Shunosaurus she was holding up pretty well, but was beginning to tire and the snake, seeing this, body slams itself into the sauropod, knocking her off her feet and her nest exposed, the Sanajeh grins in triumphant at the nest as the mother lay helpless in defeat, but before it could even lick an egg, reinforcements arrive and the snake disappointingly abandons its meal to save itself, but Littlefoot and his friends weren't letting it get away this time as they all pursue it, in the air Petrie saw it heading for the Sheltering-Grass island, "it heading to the Sinking Sand" he informs and continues to fallow it, all the while his friends were fallowing him on foot. The snake comes to the Sinking-Sand and stops right the edge, now knowing it was trapped and it only got worse when the gang arrive, "we got you now" Cera taunts brandishing her newly developed brow-horns, but the snake wasn't going down without a fight; it lunges at them mouth open in the hopes to scare them away and began thrashing about to keep them away, Spike and Littlefoot each swung their tails but the snake sinuously evades them. Petrie unleashed some aerial hit-and-run attacks until the serpent whacked him out of the air and into some bushes, "Petrie" Chomper cried and the gang decide to retreat, Draco conjuring up a small smokescreen to keep the snake from fallowing as they gather where Petrie was, finding him in a mud-puddle, "man for an animal with no limbs he's pretty athletic and tough" Cera guessed, Draco surveyed the tar-pit nearby and the mud they were in and suddenly got an idea, "wait guys I got an idea" he says and suddenly submerges himself in the muck: covering all but his face, "uh this is hardly the time for a mud-bath, oh no no no" Ducky reminded, "it's not for bathing, snakes need to sense body-temperature to identify their prey, if we can mask our own, we'll be hiding in plain sight to him" Draco plots, "where'd you hear that?" Ruby wondered "my mother told it to me" Draco answers and when the snake passed by they all roll around in the mud, and not a moment to soon as the snake finds them, but thanks to the mud the only thing the snake could distinguish was their faces, which wasn't enough for it to identify them, "he can't tell it is us?" Littlefoot whispered, "nope, thanks to the mud we're practically invisible" Draco answers and the snake leaves to continue it's search for a meal, but it wasn't over yet, "okay now for the tricky part: I'm going to expose myself to him in the hopes to draw him into the Sinking-Sand, give me a vine" Draco requests and surprisingly Spike lends him one (and without eating it) where Draco ties it around his belly and goes after the snake, once finding it he roars to get its attention and then wipes off the mud from his neck and chest so the snake could see him, which was stunned to see that it was Draco but nevertheless chases him into the Sinking-Sand, Littlefoot and the others remained on the shore with Draco's literal lifeline, even when the snake was right next to them he still didn't know it was them as he was focused on the dragon. When Draco was about a foot into the tar-pit the snake slithers in, realizing too late that it was trapped. With the plan successful the others yank Draco out of the tar and all watch the Sanajeh struggle to escape, the grown-ups and tinysaurs also arrive and were unable to believe what they were seeing. They all continued to watch it thrash until it couldn't be seen no more.
Stay tuned for LBT Special; Enter the Prehistoric Dragon, chapter four
Trivia[]
Sanajeh is an actual genus of prehistoric snake from the late-cretaceous Lameta Formation in India, first found in a titanosaur nest about to eat a newborn.