Author's note. This is my very first 'The Croods' fan fiction, hope everyone enjoys it.
The story Eep tells Guy is taken from a graphic novel of the Croods which features three different stories about them while they still lived in the cave.
If anyone has an idea for an animal like the Ratgull then feel free to suggest it, perhaps what they look like, if they can be eaten and what they themselves eat. I'll credit anyone who suggests something.
Enjoy and please review.
"Eep!" Guy called up to the girl currently scaling a cliff face.
"Yes?" she called down, hanging by one hand so she could grim down at him.
"What are you doing?" he said with a half laugh, still unable to believe some of the things she could do. Like shimmy up what appeared to him to be a sheer cliff without breaking a sweat.
"Getting some eggs," she called back to him, gesturing at the clusters of nests right above her.
These nests were occupied by Ratgulls, hairy winged birds which laid loads of brown eggs. They weren't terribly attractive creatures, apart from their beaks full of sharp teeth which they happily used on anyone who approached them, they also had mottled grey feathers which never seemed terribly clean. But their eggs were extremely tasty and the Ratgull didn't seem to have any trouble replacing the few they lost.
"Are you sure?" Guy said loudly in a worried tone. "They've got a nasty bite."
"I'll be fine," she said with a casual wave of her hand.
"Ehhh," Belt grunted from around Guy's waist.
"You said it," the skinny boy of nineteen summers agreed. Eep's sheer fearlessness still took him aback at times. Since he'd been on his own for so long, it had always been prudent to avoid bad situations as much as possible through various imaginative methods. Eep however preferred to jump right into trouble and tackle whatever was causing a problem. Which at times was surprising considering her dad's former motto of 'Never Not Be Afraid!'
"Just be careful," was all he could really advise, this was Eep's territory. Thankfully, she had taken a little sling in which to place the eggs so that her hands could be free for climbing back down.
She flashed him a brilliant white smile before scrambling further up. Guy took a few steps backwards in order to keep Eep in view and also make sure she was safe. He saw her sneaking up on the squalling Ratgulls who didn't seem to have noticed her presence yet. Squinting, he thought he could see her stretch a hand out and into a nest, deftly plucking out a couple of eggs before slipping them into her sling.
"Whoa," he murmured as she moved across to a new nest, still keeping out of sight of the Ratgulls.
She soon had a very full sling and he was sure she was finishing up. But just as she reached for one last nest, there was an angry squawk and he knew she'd been spotted.
"Eep!" he cried, wanting her to come down before the flock attacked her.
And then his heart seemed to stop as she dropped from the gnarled branch she'd been hanging from and plunged downwards with several angry Ratgulls flapping and crawling after her. Instead of webbed feet, they possessed clawed paws making it very easy for them to grip the cliff surface.
"Eep!" he yelled, dimly realising that her sudden action meant that only a few members of the flock where chasing her as opposed to the majority.
His heart almost stopped when she seized a tree branch sticking out form the cliff and used it to swing herself up. This seemed to really confuse her pursuers who paused, squawking furiously to each other. The next moment, Eep was plunging through them, sending them flying in all directions, shrieking with surprise and alarm. In a blur, she descended even faster than she'd ascended before landing smartly beside a startled Guy.
"Here, you carry some," she said, scooping up some of the eggs and pressing them into his hands before calming walking off and ignoring the furious calls above her. He stared for a moment before Belt poked him, shook himself and placed the eggs into his own sling before hurrying after her.
"I still can't believe you did that," he said dazedly as they headed for camp.
"That was nothing," she said airily, examining one of her eggs with pride. "So, what do you think these taste like with fire?"
"Pretty good I imagine," he said with a nod. "If we heat a flat stone over the fire, we can crack the eggs over it and they'll cook."
"Won't they spill?" she asked and he shook his head.
"If the stone is hot enough, the egg won't spread all over the place," he assured her. "I'll show you guys how to do it and you'll see what I mean."
"Great," she said enthusiastically, she loved learning more of Guy's little tricks.
He smiled back at her as his stomach rumbled a little, he was more than ready for breakfast. However, he would have to wait a bit longer, while there should be a fire going it would take some time to heat a suitable stone. But before that he would have to deal with…
"What took you so long?"
There was Grug, standing with fists on hips and with a slight scowl as they entered camp. Ugga shot them a smile as she carefully feed the fire while Sandy played with Douglas. Thunk didn't seem to be around and Gran was lounging in a sunchair, surrounded by the Liyotes pack.
"Getting breakfast," Eep said brightly, showing him her bundle of eggs. "Guy's gonna show me how to cook them."
"Cook them?" Grug repeated, he'd never had egg in any other state other than raw.
"They taste really great," Guy assured the large gruff caveman. "I just need to set something up."
Grug grumbled for a moment before grunting, indicating that they could go ahead. As he shuffled off to scratch Chunky's belly, Guy set to work, quickly finding a good flat stone, giving it a quick clean with some moss before setting it on top of the fire. Eep watched him with wide, interested eyes.
Guy glanced around as he worked, reassuring himself that everything was safe.
"You okay?" Eep questioned.
"Yeah, I always did this when I was alone," he explained and she nodded in understanding.
"We always had to stick together," she said, idly taking a few eggs out of her sling. "If we weren't out hunting or gathering, we were inside the cave."
She wrinkled her nose slightly at the mention of the dreaded cave, causing Guy to ask.
"What did you do inside the cave?"
"Not a lot," she admitted. "Dad would tell stories to pass the time but they usually ended with somebody dying because they didn't follow the rules."
"Didn't he ever tell something different?" he queried and was a little surprised when she smiled.
"There was this one time he told us about how he met mom," she said reminiscently. "Wanna hear it?"
"I'd love to," he said with a smile.
She beamed at him before launching into the story, describing how Gran had declared that it was time for Ugga to be dragged off to another cave to start a family but that she only wanted the best caveman for her daughter. So she set the local cavemen a task, to present her with the feather from a Bearowl. Her father at the time was rather shy and spent a lot of time in his cave, only coming out when he needed to. Not to mention, he was actually smaller than a lot of the less careful, beefy cavemen.
Guy had a hard time imagining Grug being small and shy but he didn't comment.
All the cavemen wanting a mate went to a local Bearowl's lair and attacked on mass. However, instead of working together like Grug tried to suggest, the others just rushed in screaming and this not only resulted in the largest caveman getting eaten, no one managed to grab a feather. Gran had been furious and had told the remaining cavemen just what she thought about their abilities. She now set them a new task, to steal a bone from a local Liyote pack. However, the Liyotes ran rings around them and they returned empty handed.
Just as furiously, Gran berated them again, declaring that she would dumb down the task even more for them. This third task involved fetching some Girelephants fur which shouldn't have been that hard but several cavemen ended up being sat on by the large, fuzzy plant eater. They once more returned empty handed.
But as Gran had ranted at them, the Bearowl from before had charged causing Gran to declare the new task was to save them. However, nearly all the cavemen fled in terror except for one. That caveman was Grug who declared that he would not run and threw himself between the rapidly approaching predator and Ugga and her mother. He did the most impressive threat display that he could muster, roaring, screaming and beating the ground while also waving his hands in the air.
The unimpressed Bearowl still advanced on him but it had at least been slowed down in its initial surprise at his actions. Not to mention the fact that all the shouting and thrashing about had loosened a boulder from above Gran's cave, causing it to tumble down and hit the Bearowl who repeated with a yowl and shower of feathers.
Grug caught one of the feathers and humbly presented it to Ugga who was delighted that the one she'd secretly been hoping to win had succeeded. And Gran reluctantly agreed that Grug had won her daughter fair and square.
"Whoa," Guy said, very impressed. "So even though he was cautious, he still protected your mom and gran."
"Yeah," Eep said with a happy sigh as Guy quickly checked the stone, it was pretty hot now and ready for the eggs. "I told him that the story showed you could go outside the cave and something good could happen. He just said that we only should go out to survive but without mum, he couldn't survive."
"And it was one of the most romantic things he ever said to me," came Ugga's voice as she came over to sit near the fire. "Is that breakfast?"
"Yep," he said, carefully cracking an egg and allowing the insides to fall onto the hot stone with a slight splat. The whole family watched in awe as it sizzled and writhed, turning from a clear liquid into a more solid white with an orange centre.
Guy smiled and cracked a few more onto the stone.
"Eep got these," he told them. "So she can't eat first but I'll make some for you and Gran straight away."
"Thank you," Ugga said with a grateful smile as Grug shuffled over.
"What were you telling Guy?" he asked, squatting down beside his mate.
"The story of how you bravely faced off against that Bearowl to win mom," Eep said with a grin causing him to smile lopsided.
"That was a good story," he admitted as Eep said teasingly.
"And the point of the story was you could leave the cave."
Everyone laughed and Grug frowned.
"The point of that story," he said loudly. "Is that a good mate will always put his family before himself."
"That sounds like a good point," Guy agreed earnestly causing Grug to relax.
"Good," he said gruffly. "Glad you got that."
He squinted at the eggs which Guy was scraping up onto a leaf, handing them to Eep before cracking some more.
"You know," Guy said thoughtfully. "I might take a look later and see if there's any nuts, you can cook them to make oil, they'll make the eggs cook better."
"You can do that when Ugga and me get back," Grug declared and as Guy looked up at him, Ugga said gently.
"It's our anniversary, Grug is going to take me out."
"Really?" Guy said with interest and Ugga smiled.
"Uh huh, we'll do our own hunting together and feed each other."
"Yeah and speaking of that," Grug interjected as Ugga had a dreamy look on her face. "You and Eep will be in charge, don't stray too far and blow the shells if there's trouble."
"Dad, we'll be fine," Eep exclaimed, half exasperated.
"I'll look after them," Guy promised solemnly. He could tell that Grug had become a lot more relaxed in Tomorrow, he didn't insist that the family always remain together but he still worried when he wasn't around to protect everyone.
"Good man," Grug said with a nod. "Where's Thunk?"
"Here dad," Thunk gasped, stumbling from a bush. "I've been picking these berries."
"Are they safe ones?" Guy asked and the young boy nodded eagerly.
"Yeah, they're the ones you found the other day, I found a bigger bush of them."
"Well done," Guy complimented, he'd noticed that Eep was a more enthusiastic hunter than her brother. "Here some more eggs."
Once breakfast was over, Guy managed to lift the hot stone out with some sticks, he'd let it cool down and then clean it. He learned over the years that if he wanted to reuse something, it was always best to clean it otherwise it would attract things. Grug appeared to be checking everything was in order before he finally offered Ugga his hand and pulled her up.
Heading over to Chunky who looked eager for a run, Grug called.
"Everyone okay?"
"Yeah, we're good dad," Thunk assured him, sitting happily on the sandy ground.
Grug nodded, helping his mate onto the big cat before swinging himself up.
"We'll be back before sunset," he called as Chunky took off, easily galloping away.
"Bye dad," Eep yelled back before sitting back with a sigh.
"I hope they enjoy themselves," Guy said as Gran snorted.
"Oh they'll enjoy themselves alright," she stated before grabbing one of Grug's shades and placing it over her eyes, ready for a nap.
Guy and Eep glanced at each before shrugging. After all, it didn't matter what Grug and Ugga were up to, the rest of the day was theirs.
Author's note. Eep talks about her life as a cavie and Grug and Ugga enjoy their day out. Find out how that goes next time, until then.