Hello, everyone! :D

After nearly a month, here is the second chapter of "Ice Age: Human Overkill", I hope you like it!

Just one thing, something I forgot while writing the previous chapter is that female sloths in the franchise have human-like hair, so I edited it and added information about Vivian and her mother's hair. If you are too lazy to go there and check, XD the former has a short black scalp, similar to Rose's, (the female sloth that made a cameo in Ice Age: The Meltdown) but of equal length and straight, and the latter had wavy, purple hair. I also changed the mother's fur from white to lilac, and Luken and Belinda's species from dire wolves to megafaunal wolves, as the second ones even hunted mammoths, unlike the first ones.

"Can we stop now, please?" Sid complained, panting and trying to keep up with his herd while they were walking through a forest.

"Really?" Diego snorted at his friend's comment "Last time I checked, I'm the decrepit one, not you."

"But sloths like me have a low migration ability." The smelly mammal affirmed, trying to sound wise.

"Do you want a lift, sweetheart?" Ellie asked kindly.

"Nah, thanks." Sid declined, continuing "I wouldn't want fungus to start growing on you too."

"You're so thoughtful." The cow smiled, making the sloth blush, obviously with no one noticing because of the fur covering his cheeks and… everything else.

"How about you being "so thoughtful" when I carried you?" Manny hissed, and, shivering in disgust, added "Now I know why my back always itched after that."

"This happened to me too!" The old saber exclaimed, and after a few seconds retched.

"Hey, I thought you knew fur fungus was contagious." The sloth defended himself.

"Well, I didn't, you dumbass!" The bull snapped, scaring Sid and surprising the other three.

"Manny!" Ellie and Diego scolded him in one voice.

"What's wrong with you?!" Shira questioned.

The male mammoth quickly realized what he did, and confused just like them by his own reaction, muttered "I'm s-sorry, Sid…I d-don't know what came over me."

"Oh, no problem, buddy." The biped replied with a shoulder shrug.

Manny was glad the sloth never got mad, no matter how much he, Diego, or anyone else in the herd mocked and made fun of him.

"Ah, you know me, I'm too lazy to hold a grudge."

"He'll bounce back, it's one of the advantages of being Sid."

And the pachyderm was incredibly grateful for this. Nothing would have prevented the small mammal from leaving the moody, melancholy mammoth alone at their first met. But he didn't, and dragged the mammoth into a series of adventures that improved his life.

"That's his herd right up the hill. We should return him."

And Manny became happy again, with two new friends.

"Manny wants me to ask you if you'd like to escape the flood with us."

And Manny was able to completely put his past behind him, starting a new family.

"Diego, what are you doing here?

"Looking for Sid, same as you!"

And Manny didn't lost a friend that was as important as the sloth for him. Okay, maybe all of them, especially his wife and his soon-to-be-born daughter, risked their lives in the process, but it was worth it.

"Come on, Granny! Here, Granny, Granny!"

"Oh, no."

"Well... I wish you weren't my father."

"Whoa. Excuse me."

"I don't think that was you."

And Manny went from being involved in a old lady hunt to realize that his daughter had grown up, and even to find a new home after the continental drift.

"Now how the devil are we going to launch these crystals?"

"You can't. It's impossible."

"That wall was the one thing keeping us young!"

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Llama."

"Sorry. Sorry? Sorry doesn't fix the wall now, does it, you little..."

And Manny, when the plan to save the world had finally been put into practice, found himself on the top of a volcano with his almost son-in-law and the two finally resolved their conflicts.

It was amazing to think how that clumsy, annoying sloth changed the mammoth's, or rather, the herd's life. Surely each of the other members had had a key role at least in one of their adventures, but not as much as Sid.

When the other members made their way in Manny's mind, he immediately realized that his fungus-covered friend wasn't the only one who witnessed his weird reaction. His eyes fell on the three mammals' glances, a combination of confusion, anger and concern.

"Honey, would you mind telling me what's going on?" Ellie asked worried.

The truth was that even he himself didn't know.

Among the five mammals, Manny was, in his own opinion, the only one who had no reason to act weird. He neither suffered direct losses, nor shocks.

Well, his daughter had left, but this didn't have anything to do with it, she would have done that even without the… tragedy of two months before.

It was fine when he just treated random animals badly, to let some steam out… well, a bit unfair to them, but helpful; even the sabers did that, in a kind of different way. However, now he acted like that towards one of his best friends. Why?

Perhaps if he talked with the others, they would have helped him find out what caused him to snap. But Manny would have never done that. Confessing non-sense and petty feelings to those who got their lives ruined and/or had to go on without some of the most important people in their lives?

No, he couldn't.

"Er, I-I just need to be alone for a while. K-Keep going, I'll catch up." The bull muttered, and walked away.

"Manny, wait!" Ellie called, but his husband didn't stop.

Diego shook his head. It reminded him a lot of when Manny thought he was the last of his kind…he even almost used the same words as that day. But at least at the time they knew what was wrong with him; now no one of them was able to figure it out.

"I'm having a déjà vu." The male saber said to his best friend, who was looking at the mammoth in the distance.

"Me too." Sid agreed "Two words, anger management."

"Not that!" Diego punched the sloth in the head, causing him to be unconscious, but still upright, for a few moments.

"Perhaps one of you should talk with him." Shira suggested worried.

"You're definitely right," Ellie replied "it's just that…I've never seen Manny acting that way. I don't know what to do."

This was exactly the situation the cow didn't want to face. Sid and she were the only ones who, even if heartbroken by what happened, kept smiles on their faces and never looked for rude ways to blow off steam.

And Ellie knew that was essential.

Unfortunately, unlike her, the others used not to pay much attention to the sloth, thinking of him as dumb and not fully able to understand situations. Obviously, they loved him anyway, but his good mood would have never affected them, despite he was directly influenced by the tragedy.

Rather, if someone who not only suffered losses, but was appreciated in every way by them, like Ellie, showed them that it was possible to recover from it, then maybe they would have tried to be back to their old selves, becoming happy again.

The cow had been tempted to give in to sadness several times, but she never let that happen. She had to stay strong, otherwise the herd would have been doomed.

Not that it could go back the way it was before, nothing could fill the void left by the missing members, but Ellie would have done anything to see his remaining family smile again.

"We saw him do that more than once, Ellie." Diego spoke.

"But he never wanted to talk about it." Sid continued.

Ellie sighed. "At least I'll try to get him back here, then."

She walked towards the direction her husband headed, deep in thoughts.

The two males looked at each other sadly, speechless. After a few seconds, the saber turned to his left, where his wife should have been, only to find out that she wasn't there.

He looked around and noticed Shira walking tiptoe towards a part of the forest that was particularly dense.

"Babe, where're you going?" He asked in confusion.

"Dang it." She whispered, and turned "I, uh, just wanted to eat, wim-, I mean, Diego."

"Without me?" He questioned "There must be something I can still chase, or maybe we could scavenge on the migrants who didn't make it, or-"

"N-No, I want to do it alone, j-just stay there, safe." She stuttered and ran away.

"Shi-" Diego's voice was quickly replaced by coughing. Shouting, another ability he lost that he took for granted until two months before.

"You all right, pal?" Sid asked with concern.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He answered quickly, not wanting to show weakness, and added "I need to get to her."

The sloth didn't say anything, and watched his friend walking between the trees with difficulty.

"Well, what do we do now?" Sid asked, but immediately realized he was alone "Oh, right, there's nobody here."

Suddenly, several moths and flies came out of his fur and started hitting his eyes "Ow! Wait! Ow! I didn't mean to offend you! Ow!"

Sid tried to swat them off, and then exclaimed "Okay! There's nobody here but my swarm friends! Happy now?"

Immediately, the moths went back to the brown fur, while the flies continued flying around Sid, but without hurting him.

"It's easy to migrate if you can just rest on someone's hair, isn't it?" The sloth snorted.

After a few seconds, his stomach growled.

"Well, see, this is what happens to the actual migrants! Starving!" One of the flies hit his eye "Ow! All right, I'll stop…I'd better find some food."

He walked towards a part of the forest that was less dense and had some bushes in.

Vivian was clever enough to understand there was something wrong. If the wolves were just two, why then did they kill four sloths? It would have made sense if they killed one, two, or even three of them to take the opportunity to get more food.

But going even more into the forest to find and murder every sloth in there? It definitely was not normal.

These smart thoughts alternated with despair and sadness, something she couldn't stand. Vivian knew she had an above-average intelligence, and had always wanted to be treated as a grown-up.

But, for some reason, childish emotions and interests often overtook her and made her family treat her like a kid.

Just like that morning, she thought her family had left and her mother witnessed all her fear and worry.

Why couldn't she keep her inner child inside? As long as it came out, everyone would have seen her as a little girl, while she was sure she was an adult trapped in a child's body.

The young sloth simply had to act like the other members of her family, so that they would have finally understood what she really was. But it was a lot harder than she thought.

Not that it mattered anymore, the wolves killed them all.

Now, Vivian was just a confused, terrified and lonely little sloth girl, with the awareness that she wouldn't have survived long in that state.

Confused.

Terrified.

Lonely.

And there she started crying. But was it really wrong, given what happened to her? Or was it fine? How did adults react when they lost the ones they cared about?

Vivian didn't know. In her short life, she never came across someone in that situation.

All she knew was that it had been too much for her. As much as she wanted to stop tears from falling, they kept coming out of her eyes.

She only stopped sobbing when she heard disquieting sounds of chewing and licking lips not far away.

Did the wolves come back for her? Was it another predator? A bear? A saber? A cougar?

Vivian tried to remain silent while the shadow of the noisy creature came out of the trees, that, however, made it impossible to recognize the species.

She just hoped it wouldn't have smelled her. The kid tried to stay still, but nothing could have prevented her from shivering, scared to death.

She even held her breath while the animal gradually made his way between the trunks.

Vivian instantly relieved.

It was just a sloth. A middle-aged, brown, fungus-covered sloth, who was eating noisily some of the last berries in the forest.

What the kid didn't realize was that, without the fear of being eaten, she wouldn't have been able to hold her emotions now.

As soon as she thought back to what had just happened to her family, tears started coming out of her eyes again, and her sobs didn't go unnoticed to the male sloth down there.

He looked around for a while before spotting Vivian on the top of the tree. His eyes opened wide at the sight of the terrified and heartbroken little girl.

"Hey! Sweetie, y-you all right?" Sid asked. He knew the reply would have been negative, but he had to find a way to start the conversation.

Vivian simply shook her head. At that moment, she didn't even dare to hide her emotions, she needed comfort and she felt like he could have given it to her.

"Er," Sid scratched his head, trying to figure out what to do "H-How about you… come down from the tree, please?"

She shook her head again. On the ground, the wolves could have caught her at any moment, and the thought of sharing her relatives' fate terrorized the little girl.

"Okay… and what if I come up there and get you?" The goofy mammal proposed.

After a few moments, Vivian nodded.

It was very strange for her. Why would it be safer to stay with him? No sloth would have stood a chance against a wolf, much less a sloth… like him.

But, for some reason, his presence reassured her. Vivian watched him climbing the tree, until the male sloth put both his feet on a branch that was definitely too thin to support his weight.

So, it gave way and Sid tumbled to the ground. This surprisingly made the kid chuckle.

"I knew it would have worked!" Sid lied, hoping to convince her that he did it on purpose just to make her laugh.

Vivian knew it wasn't the truth, but she didn't say anything.

Sid climbed the tree again, more carefully and slowly this time, and was able to get to Vivian.

He reached his hand towards her, with a reassuring smile, and she held it.

The two came down easily, and she looked around for any sign of the wolves. Luckily, there was none.

"Would you mind tell me what happened?" He asked, perhaps a bit bluntly.

"W-Wolves… m-my family." She stuttered in answer, feeling a new wave of sadness washing over her.

Before Vivian could even realize it, she was crying again.

Sid didn't need to know something else. "I-I'm sorry, kid, I know how you feel."

Before he could continue, she suddenly hugged him, holding him tight. He smiled, and hugged her back.

He briefly considered to tell her about how he lost the only member of his first family who cared about him, and how he lost someone who didn't even get the proper chance to become part of his second family.

However, he changed his mind almost immediately. This is not what a grieving little girl should have heard, she needed to be cheered up, wherever possible.

Vivian spent a lot of time sobbing, pressed on her conspecific's fur. Sid wondered how it was possible that she didn't pass out for the bad smell.

When she, slowly, let him go, Sid decided it was the right time to talk.

"So, what's your name?"

"Vivian." She said, sniffling.

"That's a nice name!" The adult sloth smiled.

"Thanks." The little girl replied shyly, looking at the ground. He saw her blushing because of her very light fur.

"I'm Sid, by the way." He continued, not to embarrass her "Well, my actual name is Sidney, but… almost no one calls me that way."

She didn't spoke. It was normal, after all they had just met and she was really shocked.

"Hey, would you like to know my herd?" He asked, in an attempt not to let the conversation end.

"You have a herd?" Vivian inquired with curiosity.

"Yeah, it's me, my best friends, their- " Sid interrupted when he heard rustling in the bushes.

The kid instinctively hid behind him, and he just hoped that the wolves she mentioned weren't the authors of those sounds.

When the creatures revealed themselves, his jaw dropped. And he regretted wishing they weren't wolves.

In front of the two sloths there were two young human women. One of them had dark brown hair and broader features, while the other one had black hair and narrower features. Both were skinny and wore animal fur.

Sid screamed loudly, taking several steps back, along with Vivian.

"Please, calm down." The brown-haired one said kindly, slowly walking towards them "We won't hurt you."

"You can talk?!" He yelled, even more terrified.

"Yes, but there's no time for this." She replied quickly.

"Just listen to her, if we wanted to kill you two, we'd have done it by now." The black-haired one rolled her eyes, and then crossed her arms.

The first woman nudged her, irritated.

"Look at us, we have no weapons, we're here to warn your herd about a threat involving you all." She added.

"Why should I trust you?" Sid questioned, gaining courage from the responsibility to protect the little girl, but taking another step back.

She lingered, but, upon reflection, found the right words. "Because we're your only chance."

He got surprised.

Where did he hear that before?

"You have to trust me."

"Trust you? Why in the world would we trust you?"

"Because I'm your only chance."

Oh, right.

Before Sid could even open his mouth to formulate his reply, the group heard loud footsteps closing in.

The two humans gulped and turned, only to see a big mammoth bull looking at them menacingly.

Manny growled, shocking the women so much they weren't able to move or say anything. They only felt pain on their heads as everything went black.

With over 3,000 words, this is the longest chapter I have ever posted!

As you may have noticed, I tried to be much more descriptive here, instead of making the story basically a movie script. But I am interested in your opinion, so tell me what you prefer, "movie script" or "description"?

Stay tuned for the next update! :)