Author's Note: Here it is! The 3rd and final book in my Paradise saga. =) I hope you all enjoy it!

I do not own Ice Age or any of the characters. I only own the original characters. The dinosaurs in this chapter are the pterodactyl (ter-e-DAK-til) and the deinonychus (die-NON-i-kus).

Chapter 1

Paradise - a place of bliss, felicity, or delight. That is paradise. And I'm one of the lucky few who has found that place. That place is beside my mate. Buckminster is his name. Buck for short. And mine is Margaret. Or Mags. Or Maggie. Whichever one you feel like using.

I ran away from a world made up of ice to a world that is warm and vegetated - and inhabited with dinosaurs. We've had our share of adventures and mishaps. But when we are together, it seems like there is nothing we can't face.

Yes, we can face anything.

The Dino World echoes with the calls of the reptilian natives. Each roar distinct and specific. Calm reigned the jungles - until a pterodactyl flew over the tree tops with a light-brown weasel shouting in delight. Dinos lifted their heads at the laughter and war-woops emanating from the mammal's lips. Most just rolled their eyes.

The she-weasel slapped the vines in her hands against the pterodactyl's shoulders, urging it faster. The flying reptile obliged with a nod of its head. She grasped the reins in one paw - a paw covered in green leaves like a protective bandage - and twisted her back so she could look behind her.

Her hazel eyes lighted on another pterodactyl that was coming up on her. Lifting her free paw, she waved to the passenger, who was a male weasel with a leaf over his eye, on the other pterodactyl. "We still on for a game of Keep Away?" She shouted back to him.

"You know it, Mags!" The accented voice of the male weasel called ahead.

"Try to keep up, Buckminster!" Maggie laughed into the wind as she turned to face the air ahead of her. Her ears twitched at the sound of wings beating the air. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Buck and his pterodactyl coming up beside her.

"Keep up yourself, Margaret!" Buck gave her his famous crooked and crazed looking grin before he slapped the vines he held. "Hyah!"

"It's on!" Maggie shouted as she and her pterodactyl took on equally mischievous smiles. The two weasels cut through the air on their steeds, wheeling over and under each other.

The cool updrafts suddenly turned warm and oppressive. Maggie looked around her ride's head smiled eagerly. "Almost to Lava Falls!"

"Let the games begin!" Buck shouted to her. Maggie turned in surprise to look at her mate. A flock of pterodactyls - none of them looking very pleased - were diving toward them.

Maggie whirled back to facing ahead. Her pterodactyl sensed her sudden urgency and sped up. Buck was keeping pace beside her. She called over to him, "They started too soon!"

"Changin' up the rules ain't so bad." Buck replied with a chuckle. "Split up!" He veered off in one direction while Maggie took the other. The flock chasing them divided up as well just as Buck and Maggie had hoped they would.

Maggie chanced a glance over her shoulder and grinned at the number following her. "Okay, Dive." She turned around and leaned toward her pterodactyl's head so she could continue speaking to it. "Plan A, execution 22." Dive nodded eagerly, squinting his eyes in determination. Maggie grinned to herself as the wind made her fur ripple. She could feel the adrenaline building for the chase. She loved flying!

Turning her head to glance over her shoulder, Maggie counted at least 15 pterodactyls that were careening after her. Her grin grew before she turned back to facing the wind. "All right, Dive! Do your stuff!" Dive let out a screech as he closed his wings flat against his side. Maggie's claws gripped the vine in her hand as she and the dactyl she was riding began a spiraling nosedive. Her ears twitched flat against her skull to keep the wind from whistling in her ears.

Maggie tried to calm her racing heart and rolling stomach. She and Dive had practiced this maneuver so many times. She knew exactly what would happen. But the fact they were plummeting to the ground on purpose with pterodactyls following her that could do something to jeopardize the dive - that freaked her out. "Count down." she mumbled, her words being caught and thrown back into her face. "10. 9. 8. 7." Maggie had the urge to turn her head to look but shook her head mentally. "6. 5. 4." Flexing her grip on the reins, she felt herself focus on one spot in front of her hazel eyes. "3. 2. 1!" Jerking the vines hard, Maggie pulled Dive's head up. He squawked before unfurling his wings and leveling out a foot from the ground.

A thud from behind her caused Maggie to turn her attention from Dive's glide over the ground. "Yeah! We got one!" Her eyes laughed at the success of a pterodactyl lying stunned - face first in the grass. "All right! Time to bob and weave." There was no time now to glance back to see how many dactyls had forfeited their place chasing her. Maggie had to concentrate on helping Dive dodge out of the way of trees in the jungle they were flying through.

Somewhere above her she could hear the distinct sound of Buck's mad laughter. Her lips twitched up into a smile. She was glad he was enjoying this too. The she-weasel's eyes lit up when they broke free from the cover of the trees. Up ahead was a familiar sight - the Chasm of Death and above it was Razor Mountain. "I wonder how many of them remember this old trick?" she leaned forward to say to Dive.

Dive made a sound that resembled chuckling and he beat his wings harder in eagerness. He liked this trick just as much as Maggie. It had taken a lot of practice to get it right.

"Old 'abits die hard, eh, Mags?" Maggie looked up at the sound of a familiar voice.

Wrinkling her nose at Buck, the she-weasel said, "This is my trick, Buck! Find your own!"

"But it's so much fun! And Clive has been practicin' with Dive." Buck's grin turned into a puppy-dog pout that he knew would bring Maggie either to a giggling mess or a guilt ridden submission.

Unfortunately for him, the current circumstances did not help his cause. Maggie merely rolled her eyes and shouted up at him, "Try to keep up, Buckminster!"

"Is that a challenge, Margaret?" He shouts as she urges Dive to take the lead.

"What if it is?" Maggie inquires cheekily.

"Whoever wins - gets a reward." Buck decides with one of his smirks.

Maggie chuckles to herself. "Well then - may the best weasel and dactyl win."

"Oh," Buck assures her as he and Clive dart ahead, "we will!"

The race between weasels, rides, and pursuers was on. The group sailed up the side of Razor Mountain and into the swirling mists. Maggie watched as Buck and Clive soared higher into the fog. Opting for flying low, Maggie urged Dive to hug the ground. She had done this thousands of times. She knew exactly - well, almost exactly - where every pillar and jutting rock was. Buck could try to fly higher than the clouds but Maggie had tried that. There was no escaping the fog that reaches up to the very ice ceiling that covers the Dino World.

Maggie called out encouragements to Dive, only needing to tug on the reins to give directions. When rocks came up in their path, the pair effortlessly swerved around and between them. Satisfied smirks rose on rider and flyer whenever a pursuer thudded or crashed into the unseen obstacles. The growls and hisses of the deinonychus herds made the she-weasel's hair to stand up on end. Staying low to the ground was a bad idea if those dinos sounded so close.

"Time to fly higher, Dive." Maggie ordered as she coaxed the dactyl up. Before they could get into the air, something to their left screeched. Whipping her head to look in that direction, Maggie saw a deinonychus leaping toward her - claws outstretched and mouth gaping. Instinctively, Maggie jerked the vines in her paws and pulled Dive into a barrel roll to the side. The attacker missed its opportunity and landed hissing on the ground. "Get up high, Dive!" Maggie shouted.

The shaken dactyl didn't have to be told twice. Beating his wings forcefully, he pulled himself into the air. Maggie glanced over her shoulder to see three of her original pursuers were following suit. She off-handedly wondered where Buck and his group were. Dive cawed triumphantly as he broke through the fog, catching Maggie' attention. Looking around at the rocks and the jungle below her lit by daylight, she frowned. Where was Buck? "Hold on a minute, Dive." The female had her dactyl wheel around and circle beside the fog. The three chasers would be upon them any moment - but where was Buck? He would have waited until she came out if he got out first.

Did he get lost and turned around? Or caught? A determined frown creased her features. "We're going in after him! Hyah!" With a slap of the vines, Maggie urged Dive back into the mist. They flew straight into the three pursuing dactyls' formation, scattering them. Maggie bit back a chuckle. Dive flew higher since Maggie hoped to find Buck in the upper regions of the fog. "Buck? Buck where are you?" She called, ears twitching while she listened for his voice.

The only sounds that Maggie could hear were the calls of her own voice, the dactyls behind her, and Dive's wings beating the air. Where was Buck? "Buck! Answer me!" Maggie was almost frantic. She should have stayed closer to him!

"Look out Mags!" Peering below, Maggie stared in wide-eyed shock as Buck and Clive soared up toward her. Dive pulled up short, allowing the other two to shoot in front of him - narrowly missing Dive's beak. Maggie urged her dactyl to follow after them.

"Buck! This way!" She waved her bandaged arm, knowing that her one-eyed mate would see her. Maggie and Dive turned back the way they came. Her ears twisted back so she could make sure she heard Clive's wings beating behind her. "Where are your pterodactyls?" she asked worriedly.

"Should be -" he paused as five pterodactyls appeared behind the group. "the'ah." A pout caused his jaw to shift. "Whe'ah's your leftovers?"

"Um." Maggie's hazel eyes met Dive's worried brown eyes. "In front of us."

Buck, who had been looking up, inhaled sharply as he saw the three other pterodactyl shapes growing larger in the mist. They were on a collision course! "Dive, Mags!"

Not questioning whether he was saying her dactyls name or the maneuver, Maggie urged Dive to point straight down. As her dactyl and Buck's zoomed earthward, the she-weasel turned her head to watch as two of her pursuers and two of Buck's collided with each other. The other four closed their wings and free-falled after the weasels.

Dive and Clive leveled out. Dive took the lead. Maggie didn't have to worry about Buck. She glanced every once in a while at the four dactyls that were still chasing them. "We have to lose them!" She shouted.

"We'll lose 'em in the trees like always, Mags." Buck grinned as he too glanced back at them. Maggie didn't voice her opinion to that idea. They broke through the fog and as soon as they did, Buck and Clive took the lead. Maggie did not protest - Buck knew the jungles better than any creature alive.

The chase weaved between, through, and over the jungle's density. The four pursuing dactyls whittled down to two. Maggie grinned at Buck, who had turned to look back. They were going to win this round! The male weasel returned his attention to the path ahead of him and with a quick jerk up, he and Clive missed a branch by a few seconds. However, Maggie and Dive had no such luck.

"Woah!" Dive ducked down but not enough for Maggie to clear the branch. It caught her in the midsection and she found herself winded and holding on for dear life. Blinking the stars away, Maggie could feel herself slipping and losing her grip. With a gasping shout, she fell to the ground. She landed on top of a large, leafy plant which cushioned her fall. Staring dazedly up at the ice ceiling far above her, Maggie tried to regain her thoughts and movements.

Both of the dactyls that had been chasing the weasels veered off of their path in the sky and clumsily landed on either side of Maggie. She struggled to sit up - struggled to gasp in enough air to shout for Buck. These pterodactyls weren't tame like Dive and Clive. They had no remorse of attacking her as she lay helplessly on her back.

The bigger of the two hopped towards her and screeched - showing off rows and rows of sharp, pointed teeth. "Nice to see you too, fish-breath." Maggie wheezed out in a weak voice, still struggling to get away.

Before the flying dino could attack, Dive came in a blur of grayish-red and knocked the larger dactyl over. In a mass of flapping, clawing, and biting dinos, they tumbled and fought. The second dactyl ignored the scuffle and hopped over to Maggie. Her hazel eyes stared stubbornly up at her new menace.

"Look out below!" A smirk crossed Maggie's face at the familiar battle cry. Clive swooped down, allowing Buck to leap off with his knife clutched threateningly in his claw. Clive continued toward the tussle and joined Dive. "Get away from my mate, mate." Buck growled at the dactyl. When the dactyl refused to budge, the weasel charged.

Maggie rolled off of the leaves she was on and managed to hide beneath the large leaves. She grumbled over her lack of energy to help but watched as her mate dealt enough blows to scare off one attacker. Eventually, the dactyl that was receiving a double portion of punishment from Clive and Dive managed to break free. The fight and the chase was over.

Buck lifted a leaf up to gaze worriedly at Maggie. "You alright, Mags?"

"Winded. I'm more worried about Dive." She crawled out from her hiding place and forced herself to her feet. Maggie was about to walk over to her pterodactyl to check on him but weaved slightly to the side. Buck caught her and quickly lifted her in his arms.

"You're a bit more than winded, Maggie." He chided. "Let's get ya home. I'll check over Dive and Clive as soon as I'm satisfied yer okay."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Buck -"

"Margaret." He warned, his blue eye giving her a glare she knew all too well. She would sigh if she could. Whenever he used her full name like that - he always got his way. No matter what the activity. Giving up entirely, Maggie tucked her head beneath his chin and circled her arms around his neck. Buck's chuckle rumbled from his chest. "Bettah." He mounted Clive and ordered the dactyls to fly them home.

Getting home didn't take long. The pterodactyls landed in front of Buck's large tree gently. Buck hurried up the slope of the tree trunk with Maggie still in his arms. With some effort, he got them both up into the flat crook of the tree - what he and Maggie called the main room.

Buck walked as carefully as he could - not wanting to jostle Maggie too much - toward the center of the main room to a hollowed out hole with crackling embers smoldering and smoking. A pile of leaves, fur, and feathers sat beside the hollowed out fire pit and it was there that Buck finally set Maggie down.

"I'm feeling much better now, Buck." She stated irritably. "Can't I go check on Dive? He probably feels horrible about my falling off."

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Buck stepped back. "Nope. I'll check on 'im. Then I'm going to prepare suppa. How's fish sound?"

Maggie wanted to be frustrated with him but he was acting so concerned and gentle. She loved seeing this side of him. She was so happy to know she was the one to bring that side out. "All right. That sounds wonderful." She smiled lovingly up at her mate. "Make sure you let Dive know I'm fine though. It wasn't his fault at all. We just need to practice clearing branches some more."

Buck kissed her on the lips this time. "Whatevah you say, Mags. I'll be back with that fish in a jiffy."

Maggie watched as he left with a smile on her face. She stood up and ignored the chiding voice inside her head. Buck had never said she had to stay seated. Maggie busied herself by starting up the fire again then she went over to a shelf Buck had built that stored fruits and jars of whatever Maggie had made. Satisfied with her attempts at getting some extra tidbits for dinner together, Maggie then walked over to one of the large pillar-like branches and peered around it.

Buck was just finishing up with Clive and Dive. Both dactyls looked content and none the worse for wear. She watched as the sibling dinos took to the skies and soared off toward their roosts. Maggie felt a familiar ache in her chest as she watched the pterodactyls fly away. She and Buck had found the two eggs - abandoned after a storm. Maggie insisted they take the eggs and hatch them. Buck had been amused by the idea but he agreed.

When they hatched, Maggie and Buck - mainly Buck - came up with the idea of training the dactyls to accept riders. No more hitchhiking on dactyls that would prefer eating the riders. Maggie smiled at the memories of teaching Clive and Dive how to fly when their surrogate parents hadn't a clue to do so themselves.

With a sigh, Maggie walked back to the pile of soft things that served as the weasels' bed. "Parents." she mumbled to herself. Maggie wanted kits of her own. She wanted to be a mother. They had been trying. How long would they have to wait?

"Mags! I got us a bunch of fish!" Buck's excitement bubbled over as he came back up the tree trunk.

Maggie smiled at her mate as she reached for the two sticks they used to hold their fish over the fire. "You certainly do." She pushed her thoughts back. She had Buck and they had a paradise together. What more could she ask for?

Buck ran his claws over and through Maggie's fur. He smiled in satisfaction when she cuddled closer to him in her sleep. Night creatures chirped or roared off in the distance of the jungles. He loved evenings on the plateau, especially when they involved him and his mate.

The male weasel's paw wandered over Maggie's shoulder, down her arm, and came to a rest on her abdomen. His thumb traced lazy circles there. Buck let his one eye close. "G'night, Mags."

Author's Note: Review! =D