Manny eyed the two water-dwellers floating eerily on the surface of the water warily and he stepped onto the stable sheet of ice. He turned and headed toward the safety of land, glancing back to see the creatures sink below the surface of the water. Finding the almost relieving sanctuary of solid ground, he joined Diego, Sid, Ellie and the possums. "What in the animal kingdom was that?" Sid exclaimed, eyes wide as he glanced around at the herd. "I don't know, but from now on, playing safe. Land, safe! Water? Not safe!" Diego sniffed suddenly and noticed the thick smell of blood in the air. "Manny is she-" He was interrupted by Ellie who was looking at Manny with an unreadable emotion. "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen," The shemmoth said and Manny averted his gaze, almost bashfully, "It was nothing really, I-" Ellie's eyes suddenly widened as she shook her head.
"Oh, it's not a compliment. To a possum, bravery is just dumb." The shemmoth turned and began walking the path, her brothers trailing behind her. "Yeah! We're spineless, lily-livered." Manny narrowed his eyes, repeating the words of the female mammoth in a girlish manner as they stumbled into a small clearing. It looked safe enough for the time being and so, with extra care, he lowered a still unconscious Akira onto the ground. Sid almost immediately stopped his teasing, gasping loudly. The sloth began muttering, running off into the bushes with the sabre and mammoth to glance at him worryingly before looking back at the sabress. "How do you think she's doing?" Manny asked quietly, glancing at Diego. He wouldn't openly admit it because even though he wasn't too fond of people outside Diego and Sid(as annoying as the sloth could be) Akira was starting to grow on him.
Occasionally, she'd strike a conversation or make idle jokes that he'd even crack a smile at. "She'll live," The sabre said stiffly. His words weren't reassuring in the slightest. Sid noisily re-entered the clearing and the resident mammals looked at the numerous sticks he held and the tangle of vines, a dipping leaf filled with water balancing on his head precariously, the liquid sloshing with the slightest movements. "Sid, what are you-" The sloth shushed the questioning sabre, carelessly dropping the vines and stick before he removed the bowl of water from his head. "We can't just leave her cut open like this, it'll get infected." While they had to agree with him, they were rightfully concerned about Akira's well-being with Sid taking charge of it. "And what makes you think you can patch it up?" Sid looked up at them, putting his thumbs in his mouth before pulling them out with a 'pop', "Opposable thumbs, my friends." Manny eyed how careful the sloth poured the water on the wound and washed away the blood.
Diego sat down beside him. "How do you know what you're doing?" "I call it sloth-stinct. Like instinct, only for sloths," Sid said and Manny and Diego glanced at each other uneasily. It wasn't like they could do anything more than Sid could-for once. The only others with opposable thumbs were the brothers and they weren't exactly reliable. The sloth then placed two long twigs on either side of the sabress' injured leg and wrapped the vine around it snugly. Manny and Diego were silently impressed at the work done by the usually clumsy and uncoordinated sloth. Diego padded forward and sniffed the wound, nuzzling it softly. "Good job, Sid. You've managed to not screw it up further." The sloth grinned, hearing the compliment behind the supposed insult. Manny nodded at the other herbivore and once again returned Akira to his back, turning to catch up with Ellie and the possums. Sid resumed his teasing as Diego glanced continuously at the still heap of gray fur on Manny's back.
When Akira stirred, it was to joyous yells and whoops. Groggily, she raised her head from the soft downy surface of where she lay and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as the ground was way farther down than she'd thought it should be. She took in her surroundings of forestry and realized she was on the back of a mammoth, Manny to be specific. There was muffled talk all around her but before anything could register, her ride was suddenly moving quickly and she lowered her head again as her world lurched and spun violently. A nauseous feeling settled in her stomach as they came to an abrupt stop. The talking grew louder and more frantic before the yells quieted or grew farther away it seemed. That's when it hit her like a truck. The pain surged through her body, the agony emanating from her mangled leg. She glanced down at it, whimpering weakly as she saw it had been wrapped.
Not only had the beast that had attacked her nearly ripped it to shreds, but it had also snapped a bone out of place. She could only guess the decently-wrapped twigs in the vine was to help reset the bone and help her walk. "Akira?" She raised her head gingerly at her name, looking down at a blurry Sid and Diego. "How you doing, Tiger?" Manny's voice reached her ears and she glanced at the head of the mammoth. "The pain's bearable. I can walk, Manny." The mammoth shook his head as Diego glanced up at her. "Hey, it's not often he's willing to do something like this; take some advantage." Akira smiled, amused by the sabre's words as she laid her head down on her forepaws, complying. She murmured a soft thank you, purring loudly though briefly to show Manny how thankful she was. The mammoth cracked a smile feeling the tiger purr above him. He like the feeling of importance he felt being able to care for Akira.
Of course, he always had to take care of Sid and look out for Diego occasionally but with the sabress it was different. It reminded him of the protective feelings he'd had when he'd had a family. His eyes suddenly darkened and the mammoth closed his eyes briefly, breathing deeply as he started off into a direction, Diego and Sid hurrying after him. The group travelled for a while more, arriving at more rocky terrain only this time their path was obscured by fallen trees. There was an easier path to take, the possums had discovered but it would hinder their arrival by a few hours. Crash, Eddie and Ellie were playing around in the mess of dead trees, scrambling up and through gaps. Manny paved a way, refusing to force his body through the small gaps; partially to avoid hurting Akira and because he was a mammoth, not a possum.
Said sabre was still awake but she was drifting in and out of sleep as she had been for the past couple hours. The pain in her leg had dulled to a throb but it flared up with the slightest movements, limiting her greatly. "She's not half bad, crazy and confused, but, sweet," Diego' s voice floated up to her. She glanced down at him and Sid, wincing sympathetically as the sloth wasn't knowledgeable to duck when Manny turned to look at Diego, tree trunk in, well, his trunk. "So?" The mammoth tossed the timber behind him, taking another from their path. "So what's holding you back?" The sabre questioned softly, Akira herself curious. Sid was nice enough to fill her in Manny's little crush on Ellie much to the mammoth's annoyance. "My family," Manny said, almost pointedly, a tinge of sadness detected in his voice. Sid scrambled through a log Manny was holding and poked his head out the top.
"You can have that again, you know," The sloth said and the mammoth scowled. "No, Sid. I can't!" He went to throw the log away but the desperate cries of Sid made him pause. "Okay, okay. But. . . but-but, think about it! I mean if you let this chance go, you're just letting your whole species go! And that's just-that's just. . . selfish!" Akira figured there was a better way to put it as she watched the log with Sid sail through the air, landing far away with a loud thud. The sabress looked at the mammoth as Diego left to check on Sid. The mammoth turned his gaze to Ellie who was playing with her brothers and Akira was quiet, looking down at him. "He is right, Manny." The mammoth didn't move to look back at her though his trunk twitched, "You don't know anything." The words were lacking the bite Manny had attempted to put into them and he scowled.
"I don't but Sid is right. You had a family before and with Ellie, you can have it again. I don't know you as well as I'd be lucky to but I know you deserve to be happy, knowledge of your past or not. Let the past go, because your future," She looked at Ellie who was stuck between a gap in the logs. The sabress chuckled softly, "Is right there. Bright and bold. You just have to go get it." He seemed to hesitate, still looking at Ellie. Akira gathered all her strength and raised her forepaws and pulled herself up onto a log, digging her claws into the tree with a quiet hiss of pain. Manny instantly looked up at her with narrowed eyes, concerned but she waved him off with a paw. "Stop stalling. I'll be fine. Go get her."