Here's the second chapter, hope you enjoy! :D
Review response
StoogeMan: Thank you! Yeah, all this realism made the story a little confusing. By the way, I don't want to give too many details, but I think the baby will have the same importance he had in the first movie.
ShiraxDiego: Thank you!
Dinofelis: Well, I used the short-faced bear because it was the closest to the ground sloth in appearence , and plus recent studies suggest that it was omnivorous, like modern bears. About the scimitar cats, I assumed they had the same social structure as lions after learning that the remains of 32 scimitar cats (19 adults, including elders, and 13 cubs) have been found in a cave in Texas. Between the modern big cats, lions are the only ones with groups that can reach that number (but I know it is possible that the social structure of scimitar cats wasn't similar to the one of modern big cats at all).
Two male woolly rhinoceroses were circling around each other, ready to fight at any moment.
"That's enough, Frank." The shorter, brawnier and with darker hair one said "It's the third time in two months you enter my territory. If you want it, you have to fight."
"Don't you realize just by seeing me that you've no chance, Carl?" The taller, thinner and with lighter fur replied haughtily "I just wanted to talk this thing down, but I apparently need to get my horns dirty to make you get the hint."
"I'm shaking." Carl said ironically "I'd like to see what you're capable of."
A few feet away, Sidney was walking, taking Scrat by the scruff of his neck. The squirrel was irritated, he understood that the "carnivore" wasn't a threat, but he clearly didn't want to stay with him.
As soon as the bear noticed the rhinos, his jaw dropped, and the rodent fell to the ground. Groaning, he stood up, and his face lit up when he saw some flowers he could store for the winter.
All he stored before was lost, as his "savior" didn't notice Scrat had food with him, leaving it where the badger attacked him.
The squirrel ran towards them, but when he was just few inches away from them, Sidney grabbed him by his tail and put him on his back. Scrat sighed.
"There's no time to eat!" The bear exclaimed excited "Look at those two! I've never seen rhinos before!"
He ran to them, stopping right between Carl and Frank, just a few moments before they started fighting. They opened their eyes wide as soon as they saw him.
"Hello, I'm very glad to meet you! I'm Sid, short for Sidney, and let me say, you're even more awesome than I thought!"
Both the herbivores stared at him with an eyebrow raised, dismayed.
"I didn't think rhinos could come this far east! I've heard all about you. For example, I know you're not smart at all, and despite you're so big, you make ridiculous sounds!" Sid laughed.
They turned from confused to irritated, wanting to get back at the bear that didn't just interrupt them, but even made fun of their species.
Scrat noticed that Carl and Frank were all but happy, and started pinching up the skin of his back, trying to get his attention.
"Not now, Scrat, I have to remember another embarrassing thing about rhinos someone told me." The bear said, looking away from them.
Carl approached Frank "The one who kills him gets the territory, are you in?"
"Of course."
Sid stopped, having heard those words. He turned to them and started walking backwards, laughing nervously. However, the rhinos started walking, too, towards him.
"Well, we've clearly gotten off the wrong foot, didn't we? But I'm sure we can resolve this situation peacefully."
He stopped when he hit a rock face, realizing he was trapped.
"Uh-oh."
Carl and Frank, a few feet away from him, grinned.
"It was fun while it lasted." Sid sighed "Scrat, run before it's too late!"
The squirrel didn't do anything, he was frozen in fear.
Both closed their eyes, hoping that their end would have been as quick and painless as possible.
"Charge!" Carl and Frank screamed in unison, but before they could run towards them, they were interrupted by a loud trumpeting.
All four turned to see a huge female woolly mammoth.
"Stay away from the bear!" She exclaimed angrily.
"How about you mind your own business?" Frank asked, annoyed.
"Yeah, lady, what's your problem?" Carl continued.
"I don't like animals that kill for sport." The mammoth growled.
"Oh, please, we're just doing you a favor." The taller rhino replied.
"What if those bears start hunting in packs? Even you'd be in danger." The shorter one added.
"This ain't gonna happen." She said.
"Actually, I'd really like bears to be social." Sid explained.
"You're not helping." She scolded him.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Frank whispered to Carl.
"The one who knocks her down takes the territory." He answered.
"Exactly."
Then, both ran away, leaving the three mammals confused.
"Well, thank you so much." Sid smiled.
"You're welcome" The mammoth said.
All of a sudden, though, Scrat made a loud warning call. The other two turned to the direction in which the rhinos went, only to see that they were now running to them. They just got a running start.
Sid screamed and ran behind the pachyderm, still with the squirrel on his back.
The mammoth looked at Carl and Frank, preparing to face them.
When they reached her, she was able to block them with her tusks. With a quick motion, she moved her tusks under the rhinos' heads and then under their chest, lifting the front half of their bodies and pushing them a few feet away.
But they weren't going to give up so easily. Frank was the first one to get up and ran towards the mammoth, but she avoided the impact, and then hit his side, sending him against the rock face.
Then, she noticed by the corner of her eye that Carl got up too and was now about to spear her belly with his horn. But she did something really unexpected, standing on two legs. When the rhino realized it, he tried to stop, but ended up just under her, who pushed him against the rock face with her front legs.
The mammoth looked at them to ensure that they were unconscious, and started walking away.
"Hey, wait a minute." Sid told her, noticing that she was leaving "That was amazing! You saved my life, and I couldn't even thank you properly. "
"That's not necessary, just go before they wake up." She replied coldly.
"Come on, what's with all the grumpiness?" He asked, and then realized "Oh, right, mammoth cows live in herds, and I saw them migrating a few hours ago…are you an outcast?"
The mammoth started acting like she did when the horses mentioned "the other mammoths", so she picked up the pace. However, it wasn't hard for the bear to keep up with her.
"All right, I get it, you don't wanna talk about it, no prob. Let's change the subject…my name's Sidney, but you can call me Sid, and my friend here is Scrat." The squirrel waved "What's your name?"
"Mildred." She sighed "Now that I've told you, beat it."
"Well, Milly, I-" The bear stopped talking and recoiled, scared, when the mammoth approached him menacingly.
"Don't call me that." She ordered angrily.
"By the way, I see you're not migrating, how do you expect to survive?" Sid asked, curious, not seeing that Scrat was stealthily walking away.
"With my tusks, I can scrape the snow, even very deep, and find all the food I want." Mildred explained.
"Great!" Sid exclaimed "Guess that means I can spend the winter here too, you know, I'm a vegetarian."
She rolled her eyes and groaned, but her "new friend" didn't notice it.
When the squirrel heard it, he smiled, realizing that staying with those two would have allowed him to find food and at the same time to be safe from the predators. He quickly reached Sid and jumped back on him.
They just kept walking, while the sun was going down.
Not far away, Carl and Frank woke and got back up. They screamed when their eyes fell on their snouts.
"My horn!" They rhinos yelled in unison. Both had lost a very large part of their bigger horn because of the impact with the rock, but the smaller one was luckily intact.
"It'll take years for it to grow back!" Frank cried.
"If it'll grow back." Carl added angrily, and after a few seconds, he added "She has to pay."
"You're thinking about getting revenge, aren't you?" The taller rhino asked interested.
"Yes, I don't know how, or when, but she's gonna regret this." The shorter one growled.
"Whatever you're planning, you can count on me." Frank smirked.
Soto growled as he gazed upon the human's camp in the distance. He could see smoke rising from the fires built in the scimitar-hide teepees they used as houses.
"Unbelievable." Soto snarled.
"I know," Diego stated angrily "how can they possibly think they could get away with killing our females?"
"You know, I'm still here." Keke smiled, brushing Diego and Soto's shoulders gently. "We can repopulate."
"No!" Jenny shouted. "They don't want a runt like you with cubs. They want me."
"Really?" The thin cat hissed. "That fat must really be getting to your brain!"
"Ungrateful yapper!" Jenny exclaimed.
"Stop!" Soto ordered.
Keke and Jenny stopped, fluttering their eyes in surprise.
"We're going to the humans, got it?" Soto scowled at the female cats.
"Right now?" The fat cat sighed. "But it's not even lunch time."
"Yeah, my paws hurt." The runt of the pack added.
"Not right now!" Their alpha roared. "Soon, though."
"Can we not attack them?" Keke suggested hopefully.
"I agree. What's the point?" Jenny questioned.
"You see, Diego is the cat I trust the most." Soto glanced at Keke and Jenny, disgusted. "Clearly. Anyway, we'll create a distraction, like stealing their supplies, and knowing these pesky humans, they'll notice right away. We can't risk our lives with attacking. Diego will sneak in the chief's teepee, and steal chief's cub."
"Why would the chief care?" Jenny asked.
"Well, humans are attached to their young, like almost any species." Soto stared back at the camp. "However, strangely enough, both the males and females care an unbelievable amount, which is pretty rare. They'd go great lengths for one cub."
"That sounds perfect! Can we live there?" Keke nudged Jenny away from Diego.
"Numb skull." Soto whispered.
"Are you prepared?" Diego asked them.
"I think so." Jenny replied "However, Keke might need more information. Usually smaller animals are less intelligent."
"How dare you-" The other female started.
"Enough of your pointless bickering." Soto demanded. "We'll attack tomorrow, at dawn."
Author's note
There is something I should say about Carl and Frank. The woolly rhino never reached Alaska, Yukon, or the North America in general, but it, during the end of the ice age, reached parts of the Russian Far East that are about less than 2,000 kilometers (a bit more than 1,000 miles) far away from Alaska. Since, at that time, Asia and North America were linked by a land bridge, it is possible that rhinos crossed it and reached Alaska and Yukon (like humans, mammoths, scimitar cats and several other species did), also because the climate, the vegetation and the predators were basically the same, and that the fossils just haven't been found yet.
Anyway, I made them cooperating enemies and not friends because rhinos are solitary.
Review! I'm open to any constructive criticism or suggestion.
