Petrie trembled with coldness in his coverage behind the rocks above the cave. To go into the cave itself he didn’t dare anymore. He wasn’t here for very long, for the slight snowfall, that had stopped meanwhile had hindered him. On his way he had seen nothing of Littlefoot or Ducky and he had already given up the hope that they could have escaped. The eggeater who had just returned into the cave carrying some boughs of conifers and some frozen grasses had dispelled even his last doubts concerning that. But at least he knew now that Littlefoot and Ducky were still alive; for whom else should the eggeater have fetched the green food?
Petrie knew actually what he had wanted to find out, but he stayed there nevertheless.
Before he would fly back to the others he wanted to wait in the, as he had to confess to himself, probably vainly hope to set his eyes upon Ducky and Littlefoot yet.
He waited vainly for a while and became colder and colder. He was already nearly about to fly back to report the others what he had seen when he was startled by the sound of steps.
The next instant the eggeater with the scratched nose came out of the cave closely followed by Littlefoot. First at the second sight Petrie recognized that the eggeater had tied one end of a liana around Littlefoot’s neck. The eggeater held the other end firmly in one hand.
On Littlefoot’s head flaunted an ugly bump, but apart from that he seemed to be well according to the circumstances. Now also the second eggeater came out of the cave and he clinched Ducky in one hand. It appeared as if the eggeaters wanted to go a long distance. Petrie was surprised that they let Littlefoot and Ducky out of the cave at all. Littlefoot and Ducky should know that he and the others were nearby thought Petrie. It would surely encourage them a bit. He loosed from the shadow of the rocky wall and let himself drop. Immediately he spread his wings and set on to a glide above the heads of the eggeaters.
Not only Ducky and Littlefoot but also the eggeaters would see him surely, but what should they do? They couldn’t fly. Ducky in Strut’s fist saw Petrie first. She uttered a surprised yell that directed the attention of Littlefoot and the eggeaters on Petrie too. Ozzy reacted quickly as lightning. He bent down and snatched up some stones with his free hand. Littlefoot recognized immediately what Ozzy intended and that he wanted to hit Petrie with a stone in the air. And that he was able to hit him was out of question for Littlefoot. He had experienced Ozzy’s accurateness by himself. “Look out Petrie! Fly away!” Petrie hadn’t recognized the danger himself, but he reacted at once. He began to climb steep upwards. That way he gained highness, but he became slower and was an easy target. A stone whizzed closely past his beak. If he would have started to climb only fractions of a second later, then the stone would have hit him and he would have precipitated surely. Petrie flapped quicker with his wings to come out of range. Ozzy had already lifted his arm for the next fling and he simply couldn’t miss Petrie who hung seemingly motionless in the air. Littlefoot threw himself to the side violently and felt how the noose around his neck tightened smarting and tied off his breath, but Littlefoot had gained the wished success. Ozzy stumbled. Only very slightly, but the stone he had hurled in that moment whizzed past Petrie’s wing. A stone thrown by Strut couldn’t have missed further and then Petrie was too high to hit him. “Petrie! We go where the bright circle stands the highest!” cried Littlefoot as loud as he could before Ozzy silenced him by pulling violently at the liana. Petrie saw this with apprehension, but he knew that he alone couldn’t do anything for Littlefoot and Ducky at the moment. He nodded at Littlefoot, as a sign that he had understood, and disappeared in a wide bow behind the next mountain’s ridge. Ducky and Littlefoot looked after him as long as he was recognizable without paying attention to the eggeaters. Littlefoot didn’t listen to Ozzy’s now following tirades and he nearly didn’t notice how he pulled violently at the liana several times. He smiled slightly at Ducky. They had played a trick on the eggeaters and they hadn’t caught Petrie. That was everything that counted.
