Chapter three.
"Are you going to consider waking up today?"
"Huh!" Cellie jolted awake, it was dark, an owl hooted above them.
Diego fixed his eyes on her, "I said, are you getting off me this week?" he asked sarcasticly.
"Oh! Sorry", Cellie slid off his back, (taking care not to land on her bad ankle).
Cellie looked up, and gasped in shock! Two mammoths, two possums and a rather dirty sloth were all staring at her.
The biggest mammoth trumpeted anxiously as he noticed Cellie's dagger.
Peaches, was weaving in and out of the smaller mammoths' legs.
Cellie guessed the mammoths were Peaches' parents.
The sloth stepped warily forwards, "uh Diego", he asked in a lispy voice,"uh…..not to panic anyone or anything, but there's a human there!" he glanced at Cellie.
Diego rolled his eyes, "well observed Sid!" he growled, "of course there is! I brought her!"
"Oh….Why?"
Before the sabre tooth could reply, the two possums bounded up, the first one spoke, "Hi, I'm Crash! And this is Eddie!" he motioned to his brother.
"Hi", Cellie slowly raised her hand.
"Whoa!" the possums fell backwards in shock, "dude!" exclaimed Eddie, "she can talk!"
Cellie nodded, "uh yeah, it's a gift I was born with", she explained.
"I'm Sid!" announced the sloth proudly; he picked a large bug off his greeny fur.
Cellie noticed that Sid was slightly smelly.
The male mammoth pointed to his wife, "this is Ellie, and I'm Manfred", he said.
"Manny for short!" cut in Sid quickly.
"Oh", said Cellie, not really sure what to say, "Um…I'm Cellie".
"That's a nice name", commented Ellie kindly.
Cellie smiled, "yeah, it's OK".
"I haven't seen many humans that look like you before", said Manny, glancing at the girl's pale, almost white skin and light brown hair.
"I was found when I was a baby", replied Cellie, "so I'm not actually from the tribe I live with".
Suddenly a large cloud passed in front of the large round moon, plunging the whole camp into darkness.
Ellie yawned, she fondled Peaches tenderly. "I think it's time for you to get to bed!" she said tiredly.
Peaches lay down with her parents, on the soft leafy ground.
"I think it's about time we all got some shuteye", murmured Diego, he lay down.
Crash and Eddie scampered up an overhanging tree and hung upside-down, hanging from their tails.
Sid climbed clumsily onto a large flat rock; he stretched about twenty times, until Manny yelled at him.
Cellie looked around, not sure where to sleep, she lay down beside Diego.
Cellie shivered, she took his paw and placed it over her waist.
Diego looked a little uncomfortable with this, but he didn't move his paw back all the same and let Cellie rest her head on his back.
Ellie watched them, "do you think there's something between them?" she asked Manny.
"That's stupid, she's a human and he's a tiger!" Manny muttered sleepily.
Ellie frowned to herself, and then she went to sleep.
"Ouch!" Cellie's head smacked into the ground, she sat up and looked around.
It was first thing in the morning; Manny, Ellie, the Possums and Sid were still sleeping.
Diego was gone; Cellie spied him, sneaking out of the campsite.
"Hey wait up!" called Cellie; she ran after him, jumping over a small tree root, her ankle seemed much better this morning.
Diego spun round; he looked surprised to see her up so early.
"Where are you going?" asked Cellie, catching up with him.
"Hunting", the tiger replied simply.
"Oh".
Diego started forwards, then had a thought, he turned back to Cellie, "hey, do you want to come, if you did you could carry some fish back from the river".
"That's actually quite a good idea", said Cellie thoughtfully, "then I could cook them for my breakfast!"
"Come on then", Diego trotted off, Cellie ran after him.
"Exactly how far is the river?" asked Cellie, after a while, bearing in mind she still had to get to the end of the valley as soon as possible.
"Not far", Diego replied, he cursed under his breath as he snagged his fur on a bramble.
In the distance, Cellie heard a faint roaring sound; it grew louder as they climbed a steep hill.
Cellie gasped out loud as they climbed over-top of the hill, a wide swirling river raged in front of them.
Diego looked surprised, "It wasn't like this a few days ago!" he said, looked at the fast-flowing water.
"I guess it's to do with all the rain we had yesterday", replied Cellie.
Diego slid down the other side of the steep slope.
"There's a sheet of ice across!" he called up to Cellie.
Cellie ran down the slope, she gazed at the thin bridge of ice that hadn't been washed away yet.
The ice looked quite flimsy, Cellie wasn't sure it would hold.
"We'll have to go across", said Diego, reading her thoughts, "the fish tend to gather on the other side".
"Um….Ok, shall I go first?" asked Cellie, "as I'm the lightest".
"Yeah, don't worry", replied Diego, seeing her worried face, "the ice will hold easily!"
Cellie put a boot gingerly onto the ice, it groaned but held. Slowly Cellie inched her way across, she jumped off the other side, landing in the soft snow.
Diego followed, Cellie watched nervously, the ice creaked under him.
Suddenly Cellie noticed hair thin fractures appearing under Diego's paws.
Cellie gasped, she waved her arms franticly, "Diego, get off there!" she yelled.
"Huh?" Diego looked at her, he paused, one paw hanging in mid-air.
"Get off there!" Cellie called, "the ice won't hold!"
SMASH! With that, the ice splintered, Diego cried out and plunged into the freezing cold water.
"Diego!" screamed Cellie; she scrambled over to the edge.
Diego burst through the surface, gasping and coughing, he tried to swim, but the raging waters pulled him downriver.
Cellie raced along the shore, she leapt over a fallen log and carried on.
Diego kept disappearing under the surface; he swallowed mouthfuls of water and came up choking and spluttering.
Cellie tripped over a bramble and went sprawling on the ground; she climbed to her feet and screamed in horror. Diego was headed right for a huge waterfall!
Diego fought to keep his head above the water, but the swirling river dragged him under.
Cellie looked around desperately; suddenly she spied a large rock, sticking out of the water.
"Diego!" she yelled, "try and get onto that rock!"
Diego saw the rock, he summoned all his strength and leapt for it, he slammed into it.
Cellie gasped, Diego scrambled up onto the rock, he lay gasping for air.
"Can you jump to the shore?" Cellie called.
Diego stood up, he crouched to spring, suddenly his back leg slipped and he fell back into the water!
Cellie shrieked.
Diego dug his claws into the rock, they screeched across the top, leaving deep white scratches in it.
"Hang on!" yelled Cellie, "I'll get a stick or something!"
Diego slipped further into the river, "I…can't!" he whispered, then his claws came free and he disappeared over the waterfall.
"Nooooooooooooooooo!" screamed Cellie, she half ran; half fell down the bank to the bottom of the falls.
The foaming water was silent, Cellie felt sick.
Suddenly a lifeless tawny body floated to the surface.
Cellie waded into the water and dragged Diego out, he was limp and his back leg was bleeding.
Cellie was shocked how freezing cold the tiger was; she laid him on the snowy ground.
"Please wake up!" Cellie pleaded, fearing the worst. She stroked Diego's drenched head, his soaked fur was plastered to his body.
Suddenly Diego burst out coughing and spluttering, he spat out mouthfuls of water.
Cellie pulled her hand back.
Diego lay shivering in the snow; Cellie took off her coat and laid it over his trembling shoulders.
Diego gave her a small smile, "T…..thanks", he said in shaky voice.
Cellie sat down beside him and rubbed his paw with her hands, Diego looked like a drowned kitten.
Diego sat up, he didn't bother to shake himself, Cellie wiped water off his coat, "are you OK?" she said in a small voice.
Diego nodded, he pulled himself to his paws and stood unsteadily.
Cellie stood up, she frowned, "are you sure you're OK?" she asked, "don't you want to rest for a moment?"
Diego turned to face her, something wasn't right with him, Cellie felt it strongly.
"I'm fine!" he snapped, digging his claws into the ground.
Cellie was taken aback; she glowered at him, "fine! Be a jerk!" she snapped back, "I won't bother to save you next time!"
Diego growled at her, he flounced forwards a few steps, then he staggered and collapsed.
Bsjashowjumper. Hi, sorry for the wait, I was ill yesterday.
Thanks for the reviws. Will keep updated, R&R please.