"Can I help you, young lady?" asked a voice. For a large creature, whatever it was, it had a gentle, kindly manner of talking.
"Uh... yeah. Yes, I think help would be good," I replied shakily, turning around to get a better look at whoever I had bumped into and nearly having a heart attack. It was none other than Ellie the Mammoth!
She smiled in a friendly way and allowed me to step up onto her trunk, so we were on eye level with each other. "Uh – I'm, uh – I - " I stuttered from the pure shock of it.
"It's okay, I don't bite." She chuckled. "Now, who are you?"
It sounded like a simple question, I know, but I thought carefully about my answer. I mean, you can't tell a mammoth that you've been transported back in time from 2012 where you led life as a human teenager. She'd think I was nuts! Besides, I had a feeling that bearing a typically boyish name like Charlie was going to cause confusion.
An old black and white film flickered through my head of names I had always had a fondness to be called by. One particular title seemed to fit my new persona.
"I'm Tasmin," I said, "but call me Taz."
Ellie nodded.
"Okay. So, Taz," she continued, "You don't seem very familiar to here, are you?"
"Uh, I guess not. You could say I lived a world away," I murmured, tittering at my own inside joke. Ellie didn't pursue the subject, thankfully.
"You don't need to worry about it, girl. I'm part possum, you know. We help each other." I pretended this was all news to me. "You're part possum?" I used a fake expression of surprise. She nodded.
"Mhm. I was raised by possums since I was a calf. My brothers are normal possums, though, Crash and – EDDIE! GET DOWN FROM THERE!"
So much for normal, I mentally smirked. Above us, two greyish figures similar to me were giggling mischievously, accompanied by a rather ruffled looking Diego who wished he had not been talked into this. "Ready?" Eddie asked, clambering in amongst the leaves of a very flexible pine tree. "Ready." Confirmed Crash, signalling to saber. "Aim, and... fire!" The tree sprung forwards as Eddie was hurtled through the air, whooping joyfully. Ellie reached her trunk out (with me clinging on wildly) and grabbed him as he began a descent.
"You know, you'll probably get yourself KILLED doing that kind of crazy stunt!" she told him reproachfully. He held up his hands in a gesture for her to stop lecturing him. "It's all in the adrenalin, sis. Hey, who's the newbie?" he walked up to me as I got to my feet.
"Hi, I'm Tasmin," I blurtled, shocked stiff once again that I was talking to one half of the possum twins. From a few hundred metres away, Diego leapt down with great agility from his previous rocky environment to take a closer look at what was going on, casting a dark look at Crash, who had decided to hitch-hike on his back. It was then that those large teeth started to unnerve me.
"Um, hello?!" I squeaked at him. It could have sounded for all the world like "Please don't eat me." The tiger grinned.
"My roar is worse than my bite. I won't lay a finger on you at the moment." He held out a paw for me to shake, which I accepted briefly.
"So, do you want to come and meet everyone else?"Ellie questioned me. I nodded.
As if on cue, Manny trundled through the trees towards us. "Ellie, have you seen Peaches? She's been acting up a little lately – hey, who are you?" He looked more than suspicious as I waved innocently. Of course, I should have expected nothing less from the most wary of the Sub-Zero Heroes. Thankfully, somebody came to my rescue.
"Easy there, Manny. She's new around these parts." Diego fended for me, to my utter surprise. So he's softer than he looks, is he?
"My name's Tasmin, sir. I just came here, but my parents - " I looked down and gulped, wondering how to word it – "They're not exactly here at the moment, so - "
"They abandoned you?" Manny said, evidently reminded of Sid's family. If this was enough to give him a change of heart, I would just go with it. "That's one way you could put it." I replied.
"Oh, you poor thing," Ellie sympathised with me, before turning to her husband. "We can't just leave Tasmin here on her own. Who knows what might happen?"
Manny considered for a minute, before nodding slowly. "Okay. As an outcast, you can stay under our roof until you find your own feet. You're pretty lucky, kid," he reminded me, as I grinned, "I don't do this for everyone. But I guess you could try and exercise some control over Ellie's brothers. It's about time they acted responsibly."
I looked over at the twins. They cracked a smile. "Us, responsible? Never."
