This is ToroTyrannus15, bringing you my very first Croods fanfic! But before we get started, I should mention beforehand that this story will NOT be including the title characters. I'm sorry, but this is my fanfiction, and it will only focus on the animals of the Croods universe. And FYI, every creature featured in this fic is from The Croods franchise, both the movie and concept art and early versions of the story in development. I'm not making anything up!

And pretty much every character is an OC, just so you know.

A/N: the events of this story take place before/during The End.

It was late morning in the desert, and as the sun shined on the sandy ground, a large but lanky creature dashed out from a large cave surrounded by cliffs, and basked in the morning light. The creature was an adolescent male Hippocheetah, a Croodacious mammal native to the desert with the slim body and spotted pelt of a cheetah with the bulky head of a hippopotamus, as well as a mane of hair that stuck straight up on its neck and shoulders. This male was bright yellow with dark stripes on his tail and a light copper mane, and was named Runtar. Runtar then dropped onto his back and started rolling around in the dust, glad to be out and about.

"Oh, yeah. It's a great morning for a dust bath!" Runtar said as he rolled in the dirt with pleasure. Not a minute later, Runtar's family came out of the cave; Yarr, his father and patriarch of the family, was the largest and had a black mane and gold fur with brown stripes on his legs. Mawlla, his mother, was smaller with a strawberry blonde man and amber-colored fur. There was also Torrik, his safron-colored older brother, Doorah and Koorah, his cream-colored younger twin sisters who were always fooling around, and lastly, Runtar's grandfather, whom he and his siblings called Gramps. Gramps was Yarr's father, and he had a mostly gray pelt, was blind in one eye with part of his tail missing, and hardly ever spoke.

As Runtar got up and shook some of the dust off, Doorah and Koorah started running around and yelping happily. They seemed to be glad to see the sun too.

"Morning, son." Yarr said to Runtar with a yawn.

"Morning, Dad." Runtar replied. "You sleep well?"

"Nope. All night those pesky Jackrobats kept nippin' at me. Sometimes I really think we should cover up our cave at night."

"I can sure agree with that." Mawlla jumped in as she was giving the twins a tongue bath. "I heard that a swarm of Jackrobats once caused an entire herd of Zebra Ostriches to die of blood loss!"

"That's impossible!" Torrik interrupted. "Jackrobats never attack in numbers THAT big."

"Oh yeah? Tell that to the Hippocheetah who was huntin' that same herd of Zebra Ostriches that night!" It was Gramps who had said this, and everyone stared at him afterwards.

"What're y'all lookin' at?"

"Nothing, Dad." Yarr began. "It's just that that's the first thing you've said in three weeks!" Gramps just snorted and didn't say anything else. Yarr then saw that the sun was just above the highest cliff, meaning it was time to hunt.

"Alright, everone! The sun's high, and you all know what that means!" The others all looked up at the sun and got excited, especially Runtar. Without hesitating, Yarr charged through the canyon with Runtar, Torrik, Mawlla, the twins, and Gramps racing behind.

The seven Hippocheetahs soon found themselves out in the open desert and dashed behind a cluster of large rocks. Yarr spied out across the desert with his binoculor vision and spied a female Ramu eating from a shrub by her nest. Runtar saw that there was an egg in the nest, as well as the pack of Liyotes that were eyeing said egg from not far off.

"Alright everyone, here's how we'll get that egg:" Yarr then explained the strategy they would use to snatch the egg and make off with it without any trouble. When he was finished, the family all scurried off all around the target: the nest.

Runtar slinked close towards the nest behind a cluster of large stones to hide himself. The Ramu was still preoccupied with eating, so she had no idea that a spotted theif was planning to make off with her brood. As Runtar was approaching the nest, his brother was hiding across from him, edging towards the Ramu, silent as a mouse. Suddenly, Torrick revealed himself and growled, startling the Ramu, who squawked at him and bared her sturdy horns. Torrick snarled and refused to back away, distracting the bird so that Runtar could go for the nest, which he did. But before Runtar could so much as leap onto the nest, one of the Liyotes zipped past him and grabbed the egg in its arms and leaped off the nest and ran. Runtar roared and ran after it at almost 70 miles per hour, but his cry had alerted the Ramu, who turned to see her egg gone. Enraged, the Ramu screeched and took off after the two mammals with Torrik following.

The Liyote could see Runtar rapidly catching up, so he tossed the egg to the left where it was caught by another Liyote who ran off with it. Runtar tried to stop, but slipped on the sand and careened into a tree. The Ramu, however, easily changed direction and went after the second Liyote, ingnoring Runtar who by this time was trying to get up.

"C'mon, little brother! Get up!" Torrik yelled as he heaved his younger brother to his feet and raced off, with Runtar following soon after. By now, the Liyotes had all congregated together into a pack and were running back to their lair with their bounty. It seemed that they were going to get away with the egg, but not if Yarr had a say in it. One of the Liyotes howled a warning, causing the others to look over and see a very large, angry-looking Hippocheetah charging right towards them. The reptomammals barked in fear just before they were crashed into. Yarr stepped on the egg-carrying Liyote's tail, prompting it to yelp and lose its grip on the egg, which Gramps snapped up and ran off with.

"Great catch, Dad!" Yarr yelled. Some of the Liyotes went after Gramps, but he stayed steadily ahead of them. Gramps may have been old, but he was still fast. Suddenly, he was rammed over by the Ramu! The egg rolled away, but was quickly picked up by Doorah who scurried away alongside Toorah. The Ramu squawked and started to chase them, but tripped and fell when Gramps caught her foot in his jaws. The twins were still carrying the egg with Liyotes behind them, but Mawlla rushed in and took the egg in her mouth while the twins ran off towards the cave obediantly. Runtar ran up towards his mother with the Ramu gaining on him.

"Mom! Over here!" He called. Mawlla threw the egg to her son who caught it and manuvered away from the angry momma bird. The Liyotes saw this and followed them. Runtar dashed by a tree and swerved 90 degrees, and was soon flanked by Torrik.

"Gimme the egg!" Torrik yelled over the noise.

"No way! I'm bringing this home!" Runtar spat back with difficulty due to the large egg in his mouth.

"Just hand it to me!"

"Get your own!"

"Just let me bring it back!"

"Quit being such a Jackrobat!" The brothers continued to bicker, paying no attention to what lay ahead. Torrik was about to retort, when the both of them tripped over something, dropping the egg. Unfortunatly, they happened to trip over a sleeping Bear Owl's tail, thus waking it up. Torrik quickly got up, grabbed the egg and ran, leaving Runtar behind. The Ramu and Liyotes suddenly saw the angered Bear Owl and ran off, preffering to live another day. Runtar saw them flee in terror.

"What's got them so spooked?" His question was answered immediatly when the Bear Owl screeched.

"Woah!" Runtar charged away with the predator hot on his tail, and joined up with the rest of his family.

"Alright, who woke up the Bear Owl?!" Yarr yelled angrily.

"Yeah, I guess that's on me." Runtar confessed. His father just groaned as the Bear Owl roared again.

"Alright everyone, full speed ahead!" At Yarr's command, the entire family pumped their legs even faster and sped away from the huge carnivore.

"Daddy? Can we eat now?" Toorah asked sweetly.

"Can you PLEASE just wait until we get home?"

"Sowwy, Daddy."

"Yarr, you really shouldn't yell at them like that!" Mawlla piped up.

"Can you really blame me, Mawlla? There's a Bear Owl behind us!" Yarr shouted. The Hippocheetahs were approaching the cliffs, with the Bear Owl still after them. Yarr looked ahead, saw a large rock, and got an idea.

"Split up!" Yarr yelled and the family all charged in different directions, confusing the Bear Owl, who looked ahead at just as it was too late. Unable to turn in time, the Bear Owl slammed into the boulder at over 50 miles per hour, giving it quite the headache. By now the Hippocheetahs had come back together and were laughing at the Bear Owl's expense.

"Heh heh. Well, c'mon everybody! Soup's on!" Yarr said as he led the family back to their cave. There, they cracked open the egg and feasted on the tasty yolk, and also helped themselves to a Liyote that Gramps had caught and killed during the chase. There wasn't much meat on it, but no-one complained. After all the food was gone, Yarr noticed that the sun was beginning to go down.

"Did it really take us all day just to get breakfast?" He inquired.

"I guess so." Mawlla replied.

"Well, we've had more difficulty getting food before." Runtar stated. "Remember that time the twins stole those Vulture Gorilla eggs?"

"Heh Heh! I remember that!" Gramps cut in. "We ended up having to avoid a Giralephant stampede!"

"Or back before Runtar was born, when Torrik tried to attack a baby Sandsnake!" Yarr added with a hearty chuckle.

"Real funny, Dad." Torrik said sarcastically. "Remember WHEN Runtar was born?" This immediatly stopped all the laughing. Runtar was confused. Torrik was grinning smugly. Yarr was glaring at his son. A few moments of silence went by, and then Mawlla said:

"Well, it's been a long day, and the sun's starting to go down. We should probably get some sleep."

"Good idea, Mom." Torrik said, still grinning at his brother. The rest of the family went inside the cave to sleep, but Runtar decided to stay out for the night.

"You guys stay in the cave. I'll sleep on the cliff." He told them.

"Alright, just be careful, son!" Yarr reminded him. "And watch out for cavemen!"

"C'mon, Yarr. You know the cavemen never come out at night." Mawlla said as she laid down with the twins.

"Hey! I'm just trying to keep my son safe. Is that a problem?"

Mawlla yawned and said:

"It is if you warn them about unreal dangers."

By now the sun was very low in the sky, but Runtar was still leaping about. Using his superior agility, he gracefully leaped from rock to ledge to canyon wall on his way up to the highest cliff. When he got there, he laid down on his stomach and saw an amazing view of the desert, illuminated by the light of the moon and stars. It was utterly breathtaking. Runtar was about to fall asleep, when a flicker of light caught his eye. He looked over to his right and saw an eerie- yet intoxicating- orange glow not far away. He slowly stood up and crawled towards it, but it suddenly started moving away. Not wanting to lose it, Runtar sped after the light down the escarpment. Soon, the light stopped moving and Runtar skidded to a halt by an outcropping. He slowly peeked out at the light, and saw that it was coming from a torch with what looked like a miniature sun on it. Runtar crept closer and sniffed. He smelled burning wood, but he also picked up the distinctive smell of human. However, this wasn't the reeking scent of cavemen like his family had dealt with once or twice, this human smelled a lot cleaner and scrawny. Suddenly, one of the ashes from the fire blew up towards Runtar. He was mesmerized by the little glowing thing, and began chasing it around. Then, he heard voices. He silently crept back up the hill and peered over the edge, and immediately skidded back out of sight. Humans. Both the scrawny-smelling human and the savage Tiger-girl whom he had faced off against several times. Runtar stayed absolutely still, for if he was seen, he would likely have been killed. As he laid there in fear, he cold hear the two humans talking about something called "The End Dun Dun Daaaah!". Runtar had no idea of what this could possibly mean, but from the male's description it sounded bad. Runtar stayed still until he was sure the humans were gone, and then turned to head back to the cave. He had a lot on his mind right now. What was going to happen to their desert home? Would they survive? Would anything survive? As Runtar neared his home, he saw the sun starting to peek above the horizon. He would have to talk to his family about this.

Runtar got back to the cave just as his family was awaking. Yarr was the first to come out.

"Morning, son." He said with a yawn. "How'd you sleep?"

"Not well, but there's something I need to tell all of you ASAP." Yarr looked at his son a bit awkwardly for a moment, but then went to wake the others. Once they were all awake and alert, Runtar began to explain.

"So you see, last night while I was up on the cliff, I saw this weird, glowing light and followed it. When I caught up to it, I could smell cavemen."

"Cavemen?!" Mawlla yelped. "But they never come out at night?" Runtar continued.

"Well, this time they did. It was that girl wearing the tiger skin, whom I've come across once or twice, and some scrawny, less dirty-smelling male, and I could also smell sloth. Anyway, they had this thing that they called 'fire' with them. It was such a beutiful glow, like a tiny sun. But back to the point. I overheard the male talking about something he calls "The End". I don't know what it means, but from his description, I think I can safely say that it's going to be really bad." The others thought over this for a moment, and then Yarr said;

"Alright, son. We believe you. Just one question: When is this, "The End" supposedly suppose to begin?" However, to everyone's shock, the ground below them began to rumble, and a crack suddenly snaked through the ground right beneath Runtar's feet.

"I guess, RIGHT NOW!" Rocks and chunks of canyon wall were shaken loose and rained down around the Hippocheetahs, and the crack in the ground widened, and the shaking grew stronger.

"We have to get out of here!" Yarr shouted as the cave was shaken apart. The family quickly ran towards the path to the open desert, but were stopped when a huge boulder crashed to the ground in front of them, blocking their only way of escape. The twins squealed in terror and hid beneath their mother.

"Yarr! What do we do?!" Mawlla screamed. Runtar then looked back and saw a pathway up the cliff. It would be risky, but it was a chance they had to take.

"Everyone, follow me!" Runtar ran towards the cliff and began to climb, but the others lingered. Runtar looked back and saw them hesitating.

"C'mon! It's the only way out! Do you want to survive, or be crushed by an earthquake?!"

"You heard him! Move it!" Yarr commanded, and everyone listened and began climbing the cliff face behind Runtar. They all made it to the top and ran for their lives just as the cliffs collapsed and destroyed their home. Runtar looked out across the desert, and saw it quite literally falling into the earth. He roared to his family to run faster. Suddenly, the clifftop split in two right in front of them! They all leaped across the ledge as the wall behind crumbled to the ground, but suddenly, the rock that Toorah was standing on fell into the chasm, taking her with it! Toorah screamed as she fell and landed on a crumbling rock pillar. Without thinking, Runtar leaped over the edge and grabbed his little sister by the scruff of her neck and jumped back onto the cliff face and scaled it to the top, still gripping Toorah, terrified but unharmed. The whole family then rushed across the plateau, the cracking and crumbling rock just behind them. Suddenly, the cliff ahead of them crashed down like a stack of cards, but the Hippocheetahs had too much momentum, and before they could stop were sent careening over the side of the cliff! The canyon then completely collapsed to the ground, clouding the whole area in dust and ash.

Runtar groaned as he struggled to push himself up. He was covered in dust and there was debris all around him, and no sign of his family.

"Hello?" He called out. "Dad? Mom? Doorah? Toorah? Everyone okay?" He was then met with a groan from behind. He turned around and saw his parents and siblings emerging from the rubble, also covered in dust.

"Mom! Dad!" At his call, Mawlla ran over to him.

"Thank goodness you're alright!" She said as she licked him behind the ears. Torrik then noticed something.

"Wait. Where's Gramps?" Everyone looked around, trying to make out the form of the aged Hippocheetah through the dust.

"Gramps? Gramps, are you there?" Runtar called out.

"Dad? Dad, where are you? Dad?" Yarr yelled into the dust cloud, but was left unanswered. Everyone looked at eachother, sharing looks of realization and sadness. However, Doorah and Toorah didn't seem to understand.

"Mommy? Where's Grampa?" Doorah asked innocently. Mawlla just didn't have the heart to tell her daughter the truth, so Torrik tried to.

"*sigh*. Doorah, I'm afraid that Gramps is-" But he was suddenly interrupted when they heard the sound of rocks being shoved aside.

"Ha ha! I'm not dead yet and I ain't gonna die today! Take that, rockslide!" A familiar voice shouted in triumph. The family was shocked to see Gramps jump down to them, completely unharmed.

"What'cha all lookin' at?"

"Nothing. Just please don't scare us like that again, Dad." Yarr said. As the dust cleared, Runtar noticed something past the cliff edge. He went up to it, and stared out in wonder.

"You really need to see this!" He called back. Confused, Runtar's family followed him over the rocks, and were met with the sight of vast, lush jungle with a huge 2-peaked mountain rising in the distance. They all had but one thing to say:

"Woah."

"We should totally go there!" Runtar excitedly announced.

"Wait just a minute!" Yarr interrupted. "We can't just rush into an unknown area! It's a jungle out there, literally! We're Hippocheetahs! We belong in the desert!"

"Face it, Dad." Torrik cut in. "The desert's gone. This is what lies ahead. And even though I hate to say it, Runtar's usually right about these kinds of things." After some thought, and seeing his family's eager faces, Yarr eventually gave in.

"Alright, fine. We'll go there." The others cheered when he said this. "But you all have to be careful. We're entering unknown terrian, so just follow me and watch your tails." Eager to begin this new adventure, Runtar, Torrik, Mawlla, the twins, and Gramps filed behind Yarr as they descended down a narrow pathway towards the jungle with the twins riding on their mother's back.

When they found themselves beneath the canopy and surrounded by trees and underbrush, Runtar boldly stated:

"I have a feeling this is going to be fun!"

How's that for the first chapter? And no, the Hippocheetahs will not be returning in the next chapter, but they WILL come up again soon! As for the next chap, we will see how the other animals of the desert handled the mass earthquake, as well as a few heartwarming scenes. Stay tuned, readers!