So basically, I will hopefully write this throughout the entire Ice Age franchise depending on how many people view this or review it.
Warning: OC pairing, Don't like, DON'T READ!
Disclaimer: Don't own the Ice Age franchise or any of the characters in it; that all belongs to Blue Sky
The forest was bathed in the sunset glow; it looked like everything was glazed with orange. The chilly, grey-clouded scenery was swept away and replaced with a pink, marmalade sky and a bright red sun setting over the horizon. The trees tips pointed towards the sky like needles and down below, the forest floor was coated with a layer of decaying autumn leaves. It was the migration season, when all the herbivores...well, migrated.
Travel a few kilometers north from the center of the forest and you would find the leaf-coated floor would dip sharply to a rocky, jagged surface and into a valley. Inside, was where the humans made camp. If you stood on the top of the cliff, you would see a wide valley with various tents set up here and there; large chunks of burnt wood still smoking from last night would be found next to them and some trees would have a wolf tied to it for guarding their tents. To the east of the camp, there was a large waterfall that was connected to a running river that sleeked through the camp and up to the faraway mountains. To the north of the camp, was a large cliff side of another mountain, with various caves large enough for saber-toothed tigers to fit into. Coincidentally, that is exactly what the caves had in them, except two of the residents woke up for an early look out.
A pair of large sabers stood on a cliff overlooking the valley; one larger than the other. They were both looking out towards the camp were the humans were currently making preparations for a morning hunt and whatnot. A group of male humans were circling a campfire to get warm, when the chief left the circle to greet his wife who just exited the tent with a baby in her arms; it was an adorable child with black locks and chubby cheeks. The chief tickled the baby's cheeks and cooed over him while the child giggled and squirmed in his mothers arms. The mother gestured for her husband to move back as she set the baby on the floor, both parents watched the child as it awkwardly tried to walk towards its father. It nearly succeeded but clumsily fell over into his father's arms and was lifted up again.
"Aw, look at that cute, little baby Diego," Soto sneered with a deep rumbling voice (one of the larger sabers), "Isn't it nice that he'll be joining us for breakfast?"
"It wouldn't be breakfast without him," Diego said with a scowl, his claws scratching against the rocky surface in excitement, as if itching to rip the soft skin of the humans.
"Especially since his daddy wiped out half our pack," Soto agreed as his sneer formed into a disgusted glower at the memory, "And wears our skin to keep warm! An eye for an eye..." he turned his head towards his subordinate with an evil smirk, "Don't you think?"
Diego didn't reply but narrowed his eyes even further towards the camp "Let's show those humans what happens when they mess with sabers!"
Soto nodded his head and looked back towards the valley. "Alert the troops, we attack at dawn." Diego turned his back towards the valley and was about to head towards the caves. "And Diego," Diego paused in his steps and looked back towards his leader, "Bring me that baby...alive. If I'm going to enjoy my revenge, I want it to be fresh!" Soto said in a bone-chilling voice as he smirked evilly towards the couple who were too occupied with playing with their child to notice a large saber glaring at them.
Diego left Soto to his glaring and walked towards the caves where the last of the pack members were laying, awaiting orders. Soto was always like this, ever since the human invasion back at Half Peak. A lot of strong members were lost and it seemed that lady luck decided to mock them that day by coincidentally leaving the weak members of the pack to survive another day: the scrawny, meat-crazed Zeke; fat, lazy Lenny and stupid, arrogant Oscar. Technically, Oscar was one of the medium strength members of the pack, but he always went against everything that Diego did or said. That and the fact that he might be a little jealous of Diego being Soto' right hand man, so in Diego's eyes: weak. Well, maybe not ALL the survivors were idiots...
Before heading towards where the other guys were, Diego jumped onto a nearby ledge and entered a smaller, solitary cave. The surrounding walls were black and damp with condensation as the night air chill went in. There was crack in the ceiling which allowed small rays of sunlight to pour onto a feminine, feline face. There, lying in the center of the cave taking a nap, was a female Smilodon. Her coat was a dark brown while the underbelly was beige with brown patches. Her fur was also beige around her face and muzzle and a brown patch on her left eye. On the same eye, there was a long, ragged scar that ran from her eyebrow ridge down to her muzzle. If her eyes were open, you would see a single pool of molten amber. Emphasis on the SINGLE, because her left eye was always permanently shut. Well, at least that's what Diego always saw, since he wasn't sure if she was even able to open it or not. She also had two beige stripes that ran down from her shoulders to her short tail.
Diego felt his lips curve into a soft smile at the very rare sight. Ever since the incident with the humans, it seemed like Taura hadn't been sleeping well since the past weeks. She always either stayed up all night or woke up from a horrible nightmare of the incident. What else would you expect from someone who had their brother killed right in front of their eyes? It was also where she got her scar from. Ever since then, Soto left her in his charge since he was too busy being hell-bent on his revenge on the humans to be bothered with her. It wasn't like Diego had a choice; it was either that or let the others have their way with her and he sure as hell wasn't going to let them do that. At first, she was kind of an annoying pain in the butt.
Back then when the pack was bigger in number, Taura was one of the members of the infiltration teams which usually consisted of small, sleek females who were not strong enough to join in hunting expeditions. Instead, they would be assigned to patrol territory borders, spy on enemy packs or infiltrate their bases before letting the other pack members attack the other sabers. Since Taura wasn't big or strong enough to join the hunting party (which consisted of all members), she wasn't really much use in the beginning, which kind of made Diego look like her babysitter. Hence the name: pain in the butt. But Diego then found her to be good company after a while since she didn't yap too much like Zeke, or whine about how hungry they were like Lenny, or brag how superior she thought herself to be like Oscar. Actually, she didn't speak at all. Ever since the death of her brother, Taura didn't speak a word. They just left it with the theory that she suffered from shock or that she was always mute. Later on, they managed to use her as a spy for the humans, since she was small enough to pass for a wolf whenever she moved in the shadows.
Diego gently touched her shoulder to try and wake her up.
"Taura? Come on, wake up," Diego called out softly, the soft smile that was previously on his face now gone and replaced with his usual stoic face. Taura's right eye started to flutter open and was greeted with Diego's glowing hazel eyes. She smiled sleepily before stretching out her front legs and releasing a roaring yawn. She sat back on her haunches while smacking her lips tiredly and trying to keep her eye open. She waited for Diego to tell her the VERY good reason for waking her up from her first decent catnap in a month, but he just stood there with his usual stoic expression.
'Well?' She said telepathically with a grumpy pout. Even though she couldn't (or rather wouldn't) speak to anyone, Diego was the only person she trusted to telepathically communicates with. Even though by now he can tell whatever she's saying just by the look of her eyes (eye?), it was much more convenient this way.
"New orders from Soto: we're attacking the humans at dawn so make sure you get plenty of rest tonight," Diego said, while trying to hold off an amused smile at her grumpy pout.
Taura rolled her eyes and instantly flopped back to the ground (literally!), "Yes thank you, but y'know you could've just told me that at dawn? Now go away, I wanna go back to sleep!" She whined telepathically as she rolled over trying to get back to the position she was originally sleeping in. But before she could even go back to sleep, Diego pulled back her eyelid with one of his fingers while smirking at her looking amused.
"And you know that if I did do that, you would just whine about waking you up five more minutes later. Plus, you need to eat before you go back to sleep," He said, letting go of her eyelid painfully when he finally finished his sentence. Taura felt her eyebrow twitch in annoyance and tried to swipe at him from her awkward position for what he did to her eye, but Diego simply dodged swiftly by moving backwards and walking towards the exit of the cave, smirking smugly.
Taura rolled her eyes again and reluctantly got up and hurried to catch up to him. "Fine mother hen, I'm coming," she said as she smiled mischievously at successfully wiping the smug smirk from his face and replacing it with an annoyed scowl as he growled at her threateningly. She simply bumped her shoulder with his and smiled even wider with a look from her eyes that said 'Calm down, I'm just messing with ya'.
Diego tried to ignore her giant grin as he walked with her towards the cave where the leftovers from yesterday's bison were. Oh, and also where the other three idiots were. What a great day this will turn out to be...