A quick note to the readers:

Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy the beginning of the story so far. It just kind of came to me when I was rewatching the series the other day. I know the two characters I chose first have nothing to do with one another, but don't worry! There is no slash and these two characters will probably have little to no interaction. Littlefoot and the gang will show up later.

Just to be clear, I do not own any of the original Land Before Time characters (such as Hyp, his father, Littlefoot, Pterano, ect.), but all respects to the writers who do. Any of the new characters that come about (such as Lissie and Aaron) are the ones that I made up.

I am really hoping you enjoy the story and will let me know what you think throughout. I am interested in writing novels later in my life, and have recently begun taking Creative Writing classes. I just do this for practice and for fun on the side. Your input would help me a great deal, though. I would be so grateful to hear about favorite characters, feedback on the plot, characterization critiques, things that could be better, things that you liked, ect. Thanks and enjoy!

…..

Chapter 1: Star Bright

Hyp's Father

"Hyp! I can't believe you and your friends disobeyed me! I thought I told you to leave those kids alone!"

Hyp's father dragged his son into their home, a small cave near the main river, and slung him toward the back of the cave. The adolescent dinosaur stumbled forward a few steps before catching himself and turning to face his father.

The older dinosaur tried to keep his temper in check when dealing with his adolescent son. After their last encounter with some fast biters and some input from Mr. Threehorn in regards to Hyp's actions leading up to the encounter, he had worked with his son to find a way to communicate better. Hyp responded much better to reasoning, sometimes. And Hyp's father found that it helped them to understand one another better and keep their tempers in check, sometimes. But Hyp and his friends were edgy teenage boys. And adolescent boys just loved to show their superiority; the only problem with that was that Hyp and his friends, for whatever reason, thought that picking on smaller children was the best way. And Hyp's father, whether his son liked it or not, had no temper for it.

And right now his voice esculated along with his fury at what he had just witnessed. "You made that little clubtail cry! She was smaller than that Littlefoot kid you made Nod fall on some time ago! What's the purpose in that, Hyp? What are you and your friends, anyway? Cowards? Bullies!"

Hyp made no response; in fact, he wasn't even looking at his father anymore. He had already shut down completely: stooping so low to the ground his could be sitting, wringing his hands nervously, and familiar golden eyes staring sadly at the ground. He just looked miserable, not guilty.

This just agitated the older dinosaur even more. "Well!"

Hyp tried to come up with an explanation without meeting his eyes. "Dad, I…"

Hyp's father didn't care to hear his lies at this point. Instead of bothering to let the younger dinosaur finish, he pointed to the sobbing baby clubtail being led away by her mother. "That was just a baby, Hyp! How sorry is that? That I have to apologize to that mother because my teenage son and his friends were bullying her! Do you know how embarrassing that is for me, Hyp?"

Hyp's miserable expression gradually changed from hurt to saddened anger. Seeing his opportunity, he shuffled forward with a low, angered tone in his voice. "Well, I'm sorry I'm such an "embarrassment" to ya."

And with that, he ran past the older dinosaur and out of the cave.

Hyp's father ran a few steps after him, and stopped at the mouth of the cave, infuriated by his son's actions. "HYP! Don't you run out on me! I…."

There was no point. He punched the cave wall in frustration and let his hand slide down it was he watched his son run for the trees. He decided to let him go. Not because he couldn't catch him within moments, but because they both needed time to cool down. If he'd wanted to catch him, he could. But what would that do?

Hyp could run, no doubt about it. He ran with a graceful agility; unlike his father, who ran with pure speed and power. Living in the Great Valley gave Hyp the option to run for sport; there was no need to run as a strategy for defense. No need to tear away from the herd on purpose and put oneself in danger to protect the others. No need to live each day in fear of dying at the jaws of a sharptooth. He had that luxury without even knowing what it meant. It's what his mother had wanted.

He watched his son disappear into a grove of trees where Mutt and Nod were bound to be waiting. The light, gliding strides that had allowed him to make a clean jump into the leaves were that of his mother's. The very image of her faded his former frustration into longing. She would have known how to help their son. It should have been her…

He held back the tears that threatened to blur his vision and raised his gaze to setting Bright Circle, trying to think about what she would have done, but all that came were memories long shoved into the back of his mind….

….. "Give it back, Max! That belongs to Ace!" Young Nicolas made a grab for the leaf wrapped around the few blueberries he had worked all day to find for his younger brother.

"Finders keepers, Nicolas! Bet you didn't know I liked blueberries, did you?" Max dangled the leaf full of blueberries above his head with an evil grin. Max was the closest Nicolas had to an arch enemy. They had never liked one another. Everyone else in the herd, besides Max, seemed to like him. He guessed. When you spent most of your time foraging and the rest of it caring for your younger brother, you didn't really have much time to waste on finding out.

Their father had died leading sharpteeth away from them when Ace was just a hatchling, and their mother had died of illness by the time Nicolas was an adolescent. After that, they went to stay with their Aunt. Nicolas only spent a short time there before deciding to find a home of his own nearby, something the majority of the young adults in their herd still hadn't done. Since Ace was barely a teenager, Nicolas found it fitting that he remain in the care of their aunt and her family. But that didn't stop Ace from being at his home the majority of the time.

Nicolas didn't mind; he liked the company, for the most part. But on more than one occasion, he was reassured that letting his aunt raise Ace was the light think. Especially when the red berry bushes bloomed. The whole herd was at the berry bushes now, celebrating and enjoying the feast while he foraged to Ace. If it were up to him, he would be the right now, resting and enjoying a time when they didn't have to gather food. But Ace didn't like the red berries.

This time, Nicolas had found him sitting with a group of his friends, watching hungrily as the rest of them devoured the berries.

Nicolas just sighed tiredly. "Can't you at least try to eat the red berries?"

Ace hadn't said anything. He just looked down at the ground sadly under Nicolas' stare.

Nicolas sighed. "I'll be right back," he said softly.

As he walked toward the trees, Ace had tried to object, saying that he wasn't hungry. But Nicolas knew better, and kept going.

It had taken a long time to scrounge for what few blueberries were left, and now they were in the hands of Max.

Of all dinosaurs. Nicolas wouldn't deal with his nonsense. Not today. He flung his fist into Max's belly with a quick thrust and caught the leaf full of berries when they fell from the other dinosaur's grasp.

Max retaliated quicker than he had expected, and socked him under the chin. Nicolas was so caught off guard, he fell to the ground. Through a dizzy haze, he spotted Max holding up the berries on the hill, slightly ahead of his two laughing lackeys. "You'll never see these again, Nicolas!"

And with that, he and his friends disappeared over the top of the hill. Still in a world of furious dizziness, Nicholas stood and ran after them at full speed. He hardly ever wasted time on getting even with Max, but those berries were for his brother.

Within moments, Nicolas had caught up to Max. By the time he was close enough to tackle his enemy to the ground, he hadn't noticed that they had run straight through their herd and were fast approaching the berry bushes, where some of their herd was still eating.

Right when he leapt into the air to pounce on Max, the other dinosaur jumped aside with a triumphant smile. The last thing Nicolas saw before the crash was the most beautiful golden eyes he had ever seen widen in horror.

Berry juice splattered everywhere: on himself, on some of the nearby herd members, but worst of all on Lissie. She was more red than the lovely grey everyone was used to seeing when she passed by.

Nicolas was horrified; the berries Max still held in his hand were nothing now. He could only watch in shame as her friends all gasped and rushed to help her stand. When she turned those eyes on him again, she looked as if she were about to cry.

The stab of pain he felt when she looked at him that way gave him the sense to pull himself from the ground and start toward her. Every step felt heavy. He didn't know what to say. "Lissie… I…"

Within seconds, the humiliation in those golden eyes turned to ice. She flung the smashed berry she was just about to pass to her sister before he tackled her to the side and turned on him with a furious glare. Her voice, usually soft and carried when she spoke, rose to a degree that made him freeze in shock.

"YOU KNOCKED ME INTO A BERRY BUSH?!"

She just stood there a moment, shaking in anger as they exchanged glances. Nicolas could swear an eternity passed before he could force any words from his mouth.

"Lissie, I'm sorry. Let me…."

"Save it." She spun around and started to walk away then. Just as Nicolas was about to go after her, Max's voice called out in the silence.

"You'd better get on that apology, Nicolas!"

Nicolas just felt his hands clench into fists when Lissie spun around and approached Max in quick, angry strides. "And why should he be the only one to "apologize", Max?!"

Alarm was written on the other dinosaur's face as he backed away from the raging beauty. He took refuge among his group of lackeys, but they cleared a path like blades of grass as Lissie advanced on Max, who was hiding his fear by pretending to snicker at her. Lissie got so close they were nearly touching noses. Nicolas didn't want to see what vicious stare stopped Max in his tracks.

"I wouldn't want you making him apologize! You of all dinosaurs! Picking on others because you can. Pushing others around because you think it makes you look stronger. You make me sick!"

With that, she flung herself around and whipped her tail to that the sticky red juice splattered all over him. She didn't even look at Nicolas when she brushed past him, but the anger radiating from her stopped him from saying anything more.

"Lissie!" Her mother's warm, warning tone sounded from the crowd. Other members of the herd made a path for the wife of the leader to come through.

"Please, don't!" Lissie's voice now shook like someone about to cry as she tore off in the direction of the river.

Her mother started to go after her, but the two friends that had helped Lissie stand stopped her in a respectful way. "Let us," one of them said.

Lissie's mother nodded because it was best. Three young dinosaurs were more likely to escape than one young dinosaur and an older one if a sharptooth were to attack.

Nicolas looked around at his fellow herd members staring at him in shock, most of them really annoyed that their lunch had been cut in half. His head hung when he spotted his aunt standing with his brother at the far edge of the crowd.

Max, recovered from his confrontation with Lissie, crossed his arms. "Nice going, Nicolas."

That was it. If the herd hadn't gathered the true story by now they were about to.

Max was the next one to go flying into the berry bush. He lay in the red juice, recovering from the punch Nicolas had planted between his eyes. Nicolas massaged the pain out of his hand as he knelt to gather the blueberries back in the leaf.

Just then, he felt an arm wrap around his shoulders. Just as he clenched his free fist to deal with the lackeys, he heard a familiar voice in his right ear. "Nice punch."

The tightness in his body relaxed as he cast a surprised glance at the closest one to a best friend he had, Aaron.

He had expected receive a good punch himself from Lissie's older brother and the soon to be leader of the herd, which would be his title when his father resigned. But Aaron just led him a few steps from the baffled herd and helped Heather, his soon to be mate and the best friend of Lissie, wipe the sticky red juice off of him.

Nicolas liked Heather alright. She and Lissie weren't like most of the other young girls in their herd. They were beautiful and intelligent, and easy to talk to. He knew any female of the herd longed for Aaron, but everyone knew he had eyes for Heather only. Aaron had hinted in one of their brief conversations that many of the females would have him within seconds as well. But he knew that both Aaron and Heather knew that the only one he saw was the very one he had knocked into the bushes.

Not that he bothered. He stayed away from her, assuming she would find someone better to mate with. He and Lissie had barely spoken since his parents had passed away. Only a few casual exchanges that he played over and over in his mind. And here Aaron and Heather were urging him to go after her.

"Go apologize!" Heather hissed as she pushed him in the direction Lissie had gone.

Nicolas backed away as far as she had pushed him. "I…don't think that's such a good idea… She's so angry."

"She didn't mean it! Go. I'll go with you. I need to check on her, anyway." When he didn't budge, Heather's blue eyes flashed when she used her nose to urge him forward.

Nicolas planted his feet to the earth. Eventually, Aaron urged him forward. "You got to admit somebody owes her an apology. What's she going to do, anyway? Splash you?"

Now feeling like a coward, Nicholas urged his feet to go forward. Aaron put a hand on his shoulder before he got too far. "And by the way," he whispered, "I'll set things right here and take care of Max. Most of the herd probably know what went on."

At the feeling of the herd's eye boring into his back, Nicolas lowered his head in regret. "Their lunch is ruined because of me."

"Because of Max." Aaron corrected him like a leader would. "And we can move to another one. Don't worry."

He nodded his head in the other direction. "Your brother is coming."

Nicolas sighed and began to follow Heather into the trees. He pressed the leaf still full of blueberries into his brother's hand inconspicuously as he passed and went after Lissie…

…Much time had passed as he watched the Bright Circle disappear behind the trees and give way to the faded stars that lit up the night sky. Every night, the brightest star reminded him of Lissie.

He checked the beautiful valley, now shadowed in shades of blue and black, for signs of Hyp. It was no use. He knew Hyp wouldn't come home until much later. The young dinosaur would probably try to sneak in without being noticed while he was asleep. "Oh, son…"

He decided that he would let him. Neither father nor son had the strength to address the issue further tonight.

Nicolas glanced once more at the bright star, barely noticing the tears glistening in his eyes due to the pain in his chest. "Oh, Lissie. What would you have done?"