A/N: I loved the Ice Age movies so much, i just had to write this. I see a movie, then get in the mood to write a story about it! > it happens a lot. well enjoy!
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"Safira!" growled a dark sabre-toothed tiger. "Hurry up. Are you coming…or not?"
A smaller tiger looked around her. The snow was falling faster and the herd was moving on. She knew there was little food, but she also knew that with her pride, there wasn't much of a chance of her eating enough anyway. "No," she said, surprising the others as well as herself.
"What?" hissed the dark leader.
"I said no!" Safira repeated louder, her voice echoing around the canyon. With one last look at them, she bounded off in the other direction. What am I doing? She thought. I must be crazy! At least with them I could get something to eat…I don't know how to hunt!
Safira kept running as the sky darkened above her. Maybe I should eat something, she thought as her stomach made a noise. Or at least try…
She sniffed the air around her; there didn't appear to be many animals nearby. At least none that were alive. There was a pungent smell in the air that could only be from one already deceased. Suddenly, the snow-covered bushes shook in front of Safira and she readied herself to pounce. She clawed the ground and then leaped into the bushes.
"Ahhh!" screamed the animal she had pinned on the ground. It was a sloth.
"Ugh, so you're the thing that mammals on another continent can smell!" hissed Safira.
"Don't eat me!" cried the sloth. "Please! I have a family!"
Safira raised her paw, when out of nowhere, a brownish blur tackled the tigress. It was another sabre tooth. Safira growled and wrestled out of the sabre's grip.
"Diego, buddy, you saved me!" exclaimed the sloth, hugging the tiger. "You saved me!"
"Get off me!" Diego said.
Safira's eyes softened for a moment. "Diego?" she said.
Diego pushed the sloth off him and looked at her. "And you are…?"
"My name is Safira," she said. "I've heard stories about you. The rebel tiger. Rejecting his own herd to join another?"
"Ah, and come to follow in my footsteps, have you?"
Safira laughed. "Hardly. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way."
"Wait a minute!" cried the sloth. "I was about to be eaten, and you're just letting her go!"
"Shut up, Sid," Diego replied. He turned back around to where Safira was, but she had already began walking away. "Hey! Where are you going?"
"Anywhere," she replied. "Anywhere I want to. I'm free now. I'm not bound by other sabres."
"Well, do you know anything about hunting or tracking?"
She stopped and looked back at him. "Yeah…"
Now Diego laughed. "Right."
Safira ran at him and pounced, but felt herself being stopped by another force. She twisted around to look into the menacing eyes of a large brown, mammoth. Safira tried to swipe at him, but the mammoth's trunk held her back.
"Safira, don't attack him!" Diego shouted. "And Manny, put her down."
"What?" the tiger and the mammoth exclaimed at the same time, looking at each other and back at Diego.
"Trust me," said Diego. "Put her down."
Manny the mammoth released his grip on Safira, but let her fall to the ground. She growled up at him but didn't move. "Well, Diego?" he said. "Explain."
"Don't you have a kid to look after?" Diego replied.
"He sure does," said a possum, jumping on the mammoth's back.
"He's got three!" added another, joining the first possum.
"Well, do you want the short or the long version?" Diego asked.
"The short, please," said Manny.
"Basically, Safira wanted to leave her pride to have freedom, she saw Sid as a possible side dish, attacked him, I stopped her, and that's about where you came in."
"I wonder what the long version of that story would have consisted of," Sid said.
"Not much different," informed Diego.
"You did leave out one important thing, though," Safira said. "And that is that I don't want to be in a herd! Ever! I'm fine by myself. Please just leave me alone."
"But you're too inexperienced!" Diego argued.
"How would you know? You've known me ten minutes and you think you can decide what I can and can't do?"
Diego opened his mouth, but Safira interjected.
"No! Listen to me: I'm fine. I don't need any of you. Let me go." Safira bounded off and the others watched her go.
"I guess it's true what they say," said Sid.
"What is?" Diego said.
"If you love something, let it go."
"You know, Sid, you aren't always the sharpest icicle on the mountain…but today you're really off."
"Oh, am I? Wasn't I right about Manny and Ellie?"
"And that was your five minutes of fame. Now get out of my face."
"Touchy, touchy."
Stupid Diego, Safira fumed. He thinks he can rule my life. Who does he think he is? She ran off, and soon came to a large patch of ice. Blinded by her anger, Safira travelled across it. The thin ice began to crack beneath her and the sabre finally came to her senses. She crouched down lower, but the sheet she was on soon broke apart and she was left floating in the middle of freezing water. Safira tried to jump off, but her hind legs did not make it to the other side. She scraped her claws against the ice, only managing to break off another piece. Safira had released her grip on it and sank in the water. Suddenly, a paw reached into the icy water and grabbed Safira's. She was pulled out, panting and coughing. Safira looked up to see Diego standing above her. "Oh," she said. "It's you."
"Uh, a 'thanks' would be nice," Diego replied in disbelief. "I just saved your life."
"I was doing fine without you."
"Sure…"
Safira shook herself off, not caring that some of the stray droplets of water hit Diego in the face. "Well, um, goodbye," she said.
"You're not still leaving, are you?"
"Yes, I am. Now if you would just – " Safira tried to move past Diego, but he blocked her. She turned the other way, but he obstructed her path again, grinning. "Move!" she exclaimed.
"Make me!" he challenged.
Safira jumped at Diego, who moved backwards. She pounced on him and he tackled her to the ground. Getting up again and straightening herself out, Safira made to go left, but ran right; Diego was close at her tail. Safira kept running and looking behind her to see Diego gaining speed. The next time she looked forward, she saw two mammoths, two possums, and a sloth.
"So," Manny said, looking at Safira. "Are you in?"
Safira thought about it for a moment. "Fine. But I can still hunt on my own, alright? No helping!"
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A/N: Well, i hope that was good...ish :P be nice on reviews perdy please. thanks!