"Okay, it's official," Cera declared with her nasally tone of voice, "we're lost." She looked around the unfamiliar woodland surrounding herself and Littlefoot, gulping nervously to herself. "It was bad enough that we all snuck out into the Mysterious Beyond to do that good deed," the three-horned gripped, keeping pace with her long-necked friend. "Our folks will kill us for staying up late thanks to you," she griped, trying to hide her anxieties under her brand of snarkiness.

"Well, I don't see how you being bossy is going to fix anything," Littlefoot volleyed back irritably with a more whiny voice. It was becoming tiresome dealing with Cera one on one without Ducky or Pterie to mediate. "Bossy?" his triceratops companion indignantly replied with real anger in her eyes, drawing up to the long-neck. "Oh, you did NOT just call me what I think you called me!" The young brontosaurus returned the mean look with one of his own, having reached his limits.

"And why not?" Littlefoot asked in his frustration, sternly looking Cera straight in the eye. "You're always trying to call the shots like you run the Great Valley." He had half a mind to tackle the girl and teach her a thing or two about manners. "With your attitude, I'm surprised you're not Sharptooth's sister." The three-horn let her mouth hang agape in utter offense of what she'd had just heard. "I'll take 'bossy' or being a sissy," she volleyed back, taking him aback this time.

"And just what do you mean by 'sissy'?" Littlefoot demanded to know, lowering his glare down at Cera. "I mean, that you're so whiny and sweet that you'll probably make Ducky barf one of these days." The three-horn rolled her eyes while sticking out her tongue with a, "Blech!" audibly. "Fine!" the longneck spat out. "If you think you can take on the Mysterious Beyond without help, try getting home without me." He lowered his head to glare his "friend" right in the eye.

"First smart thing you suggested all day," Cera retorted before swinging around and smacking Littlefoot's cheek with her tail. "See you 'round... sissy boy." The long-neck went red in the face from more than just the bruise to his left cheek. "Not if I see you first, you... big bossy butt." He turned away quickly before she could diss him for an admittedly lame comeback. A moment of hesitation came over him as he began to look back but shook his head and headed back his way.

---

"'Bossy,'" Cera grumbled as she stomped past tree after tree towards where she hoped was the Great Valley. "So I tell it like it is," she went on, caught up in her own ramblings. "How is it my fault that long-necks are so sensitive?" The words got her to think about Littlefoot again and his bright-eyed smile, giving her some pause. "I mean, he'd practically give Sharptooth real cavities." The three-horn suddenly found herself saying those words with some amount of affection.

Cera's eyes went wide while she blushed furiously. "As if I need him to make it out in one piece," she declared, trying to suppress her feeling the best she can. "In fact, I'd bet that sissy's in a tizzy without me to knock sense into him." The three-horn chuckled at the idea of Littlefoot crying out for her like the wimp he truly was. "Any minute now, he'll come charging in and screaming like a big hatchling-" However, an awfully audible hissing sounded behind her to her surprise.

Cera swung around quickly in anticipation of a new threat but found herself gasping in fright and her eyes going wide as coconuts. A large snake slithered right down from the nearby tree's branches with his tongue flickering out to taste her scent. The three-horn felt herself shaken by the size alone but it was the glare upon the Boa Constrictor's face that really hit home the trouble she was in. She tried stepping back but the serpent only followed her, his sights set on his prey.

"Oh, hey," Cera nervously uttered with a fake smile, barely trying to hide her fear. "I-I didn't know this was your turf." The Boa Constrictor's hissing and tongue flickering told her plenty that he had lunch on the mind, making her gulp audibly. "And here I was, just stomping around and rambling to myself." The terrified three-horn darted her eyes around for a quick escape even as the serpent's head came within inches of her own face. "I'll just show myself out if that's alright."

The Boa Constrictor gave Cera his answer in the form of a tackle.

---

Littlefoot stopped in his tracks and sighed deeply in resignation. "I can't left her behind," he wearily admitted before turning himself around. "I mean, she's a total pain in the tail and speaks her mind way too much but..." The long-neck unknowingly blushed slightly red with a slight smile. "...she can be pretty cute when she's all fussy and sassy." He soon realized what slipped out of his mouth and shook his head in denial. "AND even level-headed when things get wild."

Littlefoot groaned at the idea of crushing on Cera and didn't get why with how she could get all snippy. "Hey, Cera!" he called out, trying to distract himself from his own thoughts to no avail. "We'll find our way out better if we stick together." The way the three-horn was so uppity was somehow attractive no matter how he sliced it. "Are you here?" the long-neck called out, starting to sound concerned. There was no way that she would resist the chance for her snarky bantering.

Littlefoot soon found his answer as he rounded a bend in the worn-out forest path and gasped when the horrific sight came into view. A mere half a yard away was Cera suspended from a tree branch all coiled up in a scaly cocoon with her hind legs barely hanging out the bottom end. Up on top of the coils, her head was put on full display with a ghastly expression. Her eyes were drooping down wearily while her mouth was clamped shut... as if she were holding her breath.

Littlefoot's horror only grew when he realized why when the coils shifted ever so slightly around Cera. They were squeezing her so much that she couldn't breath properly. The three-horn's complexion had turned into a blueish-white while her eyes reflected the true terror she was experiencing despite being slightly closed. The Boa Constrictor himself came into view by lowering his head down from the tree branches, hissing so hostility at the long neck's intrusion.

"Cera!" Littlefoot cried out in horror. "There's a giant Boa Constrictor all over you." Cera's mouth popped open to respond with a barely audible wheeze. What should've been a snarky, "Gee, you don't say?" was a plea for help. "R-right, you probably already knew that," the long-neck admitted sheepishly when the snake himself hissed harshly and moved his head closer. "Not to worry," he lied boldly, backing away from the scaly scoundrel, "I'll find something... hopefully..."

Under normal circumstances, Cera would've proudly proclaim that she didn't need help from a sissy long-neck but this was far from normal. The Boa Constrictor lived up to his kind's name in enveloping her from head to toe in crushing coils that make it next to impossible to breath in air. The fact that he didn't loop one around her next like a noose wasn't out of mercy. The three-horn could tell in her helpless despair that he wanted to prolong her suffering out of bemusement.

That last fact was what wounded Cera's pride most of all. She considered herself as tough as her dad and a girl of action rather than some damsel in distress. Now? A overgrown worm got the drop on her and started crushing her like flowers under her feet. That wasn't even getting into the fact that it would swallow her alive, reducing her to an afternoon snack. The three-horn hated to beg but found herself looking at Littlefoot pleadingly. He had to save her. He just had to.

Littlefoot's eyes darted around for something, anything, to help save Cera but came up dry. The Boa Constrictor's warning hisses weren't helping either. He knew that the snake saw him as a nuisance at best and sensed his fear but also that he'd be first down his throat if he got too bold. Perhaps the most anxious part was the sound out Cera straining to hang in there. The long-neck knew that she was practically knocking on death's door could expire at any moment now.

Littlefoot began to fear that he had led his own best friend to her demise... just as he had caused his mother's. However, he felt his right foot step on a flower in backing away from the snake and looked down at the red plant. Almost immediately, the long-neck remembered what it was and grinned with that bright shimmer in his eyes. Cera could see this even in her choked up state and recognized it as something good. Something she could not help but adore about him.

Littlefoot suddenly shifted his demeanor from happy to angry with a frown he seen a million times of Cera. "Alright, you overgrown worm!" he declared defiantly just like Cera would. "If you want a real meal, take me on for size." The Boa Constrictor hissed in high offense before lunging forth to strike the long-neck. Cera was initially scared that her friend lost her marbles only to find him ducking just in time. She didn't know how but that girly boy of her's was planning something.

"Too slow!" Littlefoot taunted as the Boa Constrictor recoiled for another strike. "What's the matter?" He had to admit that pretending to be Cera was quite fun for a change. "Too fat from your last meal?" However, the long-neck told himself in the back of his head to keep focused or lose his best friend forever. "Might I suggest a Tree Star diet?" This seemed to tick off the serpent as he lunged straight back at his insolent interruption, opening his mouth wide to swallow him up.

Littlefoot waited for the Boa Constrictor to come in close enough to lift his upper body and bring down his fore-legs down upon the scaly scoundral's legs. It was enough force to send the snake down towards the flowers and close his mouth on one of them by reflex. The long-neck jumped back while the serpent rose back up to spit out the plant indignantly. He gulped in fear that his plan failed until the snake's head visibly began to wobble in fatigue and sink to the dirt.

Cera felt the coils quickly loosening their grip miraculously and took in precious oxygen with a desperate gasp. She didn't have time to enjoy her air before falling on her bottom unpleasantly and finding herself fatigued from her near death experience. "You..." the three-horn panted out as Littlefoot came over, "you... saved me." She tried to stand back up on her own only to find her body aching all over and nearly stumbled. "Even... after I... was being... such a... a..."

Cera soon heard Littlefoot giggle and looked up to find him already reaching him. "...a big bossy butt?" he snarked playfully, lowering his head more to her level. "You know I could never leave a friend to suffer like that." The long-neck made a U-turn around her and came up to her right side, smiling so warmly as usual. "Even if they are a bit of pain in the long neck too." The three-horn blushed while allowing her weary body to lean upon his and sighed with a remorseful frown.

"How did those flowers do the trick anyways?" Cera asked slowly, her breathing becoming normal again. "My Grandpa often takes them when he feels sick and always said that they make him feel more relaxed," Littlefoot earnestly answered while slowly stepping forward. "I figured that snake was looking a little tense and needed to chill." He made sure that his three-horn friend was keeping pace with him as she leaned on him. "The hard part was making sure he ate his fill."

Cera smirked in bemusement more at Littlefoot's attempt at quips. "I don't know what was worse," she began to snark, "being crushed within an inch of my life or your attempt at trash talk back there." Her expression became more solemn as she reflected on that harrowing experience. "Though I probably deserved far worse for calling you a sissy." The three-horn gazed up at her crush with an affectionate twinkle in her eye. "To tell the truth, that... just what I like about you."

Littlefoot smiled back affectionately down at Cera. "And you being a big bossy butt is charming in a weird way," he said, earning a blushing experience of surprise from her. "You can be a jerk but that tough attitude of your's can help me when I'm too much of a sissy." The long-neck blushed bashfully himself when he realized how sappy that sounded. "Besides, you being very girly like Ducky would never feel right." The offended look on the three-horn's face was priceless.