Dun-dun-dun. Here's the next chapter. Sorry once again for the long wait. I apologize for not being fast about updating my stories.
I do hope the cave people do not seem dumb to the point of being offensive (though Sid's intelligence isn't exactly shown as being exceptional in this chapter either to put it lightly.) These people are based off the dodos from Ice Age 1 quite a bit. Anyway, to the story! ^^
Sid woke to the sound of drums and eerie singing voices whose words he could not decipher.
"Ah? Huh?" Sid attempted to rub his eyes with his blunt clawed-paws. However, the newly conscious mammal's forelimbs felt like they were stuck together. He grunted and squirmed as he tried to free his arms but it did no use. At this point, the slow-thinking sloth's eyes traveled to a dark brown rope that tied his limbs together. 'That's why I couldn't move my arms.' Sid thought.
The next realization that came to mind was a slight pain in his head and tail. He had no idea what it was from but didn't ache or throb too badly. It felt no worse than a minor hit in the head from Diego which he was used to. Blinking further, he noticed it was night. However, a strange light illuminated the area. There must have been a fire someplace. But Sid didn't recall starting a fire and knew that he was the sole animal with fire-starting ability in his herd.
"Wha? Where am I?" the sloth asked randomly. Sid's vision was still not up to par. However, basic shapes were beginning to form. Sid's hearing and smell was quickly improving (as much as they could for a sloth.)
Still, the sloth had no idea that he was at a human camp, or that he waiting to be sacrificed to the cavemens' gods. Two women were supervising him.
"The sloth is awake!" one of them loudly announced.
All Sid heard was, "Ba chi chi waki!" from her.
Sid lifted his head. He could see he was currently positioned above a crowd of people dancing in a circle around him. Sid was on a hard wood surface held up by four humans yodeling something over and over again in their strange language.
The surprised sloth saw people with flowers on their heads, animal skins everywhere, an enormous bonfire, and mammoth skin huts. But what he noticed most of all was the numerous humans of all ages singing and dancing. They appeared to be in costumes. Smelly fur in shades of brown, green, yellow, and more covered their shoulders. However, Sid had no idea what kind of animal the pelts belonged to. They smelled strongly of sloth but oddly, that did not ring a bell in his head.
Sid turned his head to view the rest of the area. Several men and women locked arms, prancing about in a united rhythmic pattern around a flaming torch. Others chanted and beat drums with delicately carved pictures of sloths on their sides. The whole area was alive with the sounds of music and voices. It saw green and blue woven rug even larger and more stunning than the bonfire itself. It was draped over a tree branch and featured the picture of a brownish-green sloth with teeth and pear shaped belly remarkably similar to Sid's. As well, there were scents of stewed berries, turnips, spinach and broccoli that made Sid's mouth water.
Without much thought, Sid muttered thoughts out loud to himself. "Hmm. Another celebration for me? Gee, thank you! I thought the mini-sloths were the only ones. Do these humans know about the fire king too?" The sloth lay in silence for a few moments before talking to himself again.
"Well, it can't be really be that bad right? Especially if they don't sacrifice me like the mini-sloths." Sid answered himself. He wondered why celebrations about him always involved him being immobilized and/or tied in rope. Sid lacked common sense and didn't blurt out his thoughts on that too. After all, if he was tied up, who cared? What mattered is the tribe had a festival set up to honor him; an idea Manny and the others had probably never considered.
Manny and the others… 'Wait! Where is my herd?' Sid thought suddenly. He remembered being at Manny's playground, being hit with a stick of some sort, and then…. At this point the sloth's memory faded. Sid strained his mind to remember the details of what happened at the playground. After several pensive minutes of thought, he realized he didn't recall any other details. Had his herd brought him here? Had he sleep walked over to the village? Sighing, Sid set aside his worries and began to think again about the festival taking place.
The human-held event seemed somewhat like a fire-king celebration. After all, there was a fire larger and brighter than Sid had ever seen in a human camp. Still, it didn't hurt to be sure.
"Hey guys! Is this a fire king celebration? And does my herd know I am here?" Sid asked. He tried to make his voice as loud as possible over sound of the festival.
"Booo mehhhaaah Booitthhhmeeooooh Agggaooohhmmm." was the sound the villagers heard. A few people exchanged confused glances at the sound coming from their captured animal. Still, they carried on.
Sid sighed deeply, feeling unimportant. It must have been too noisy for them to hear him with loud sound of the festival. Still, the humans should have been paying attention to him considering he was the creature of honor here.
Whatever was going on, Sid's immediate safety didn't seem to be in jeopardy either.
"They aren't hunting me. I guess leaving here can wait. After all, they're bound to start honoring me as the main guest sooner or later." Sid said happily. Still, he felt a tinge of uncertainty and rejection by the people that were honoring him yet paying no attention to his actual existence.
Glancing over, the shunned mammal spotted the itching man from earlier rolling on the ground to the rhythm the others danced. The sloth glanced at the man, hoping he was ok. But he wasn't making any sounds of distress, just randomly rolling on the ground.
"Must be a symbol of appreciation." Sid whispered to a woman near him.
"Uhhhh meeeggggiiiiss ilotooommmmaaaaa." was the low sound she heard directed toward her.
She gasped. This could only mean one thing. Her people had upset the gods!
The cavewoman took off, screaming and flailing her arms. "Oh my! The gods! The gods, the gods, the gods!"
She yelled on the same statement repeatedly without seeming to take a breath. She shambled right into a village elder whom she knocked over. The old man glanced up at her nervously. Even though she lacked bulk, the petite woman managed to knock people and objects twice her body weight over easily in her frantic state.
Next, she nearly sprinted into the bright bonfire people were dancing around. A young boy tried to pull her back. However, that just resulted in the lady changing direction and almost trampling him. After that, the woman ran into a hut and knocked the thick mammoth skin out its strong frame. Because this created quite a lot of noise and caused the hut to collapse (not to mention that the house would take ages to repair), others finally began to worry. The woman shrieked and pouted gibberish. In fact, even people in the tribe who spoke the same language as her couldn't understand a bit of it. A few thought she might be possessed by an angry spirit.
Sid watched her with wide eyes in silence. He had no idea what to make of this. Was it part of the ceremony? Or perhaps it the way they alerted others to danger from predators?
Two of the clan's best warriors sprinted after the crazed lady to stop her. One of them leaned over gently to grab her. But with one arm she accidently punched squarely in the groin. He doubled over on his knees in pain. Imagining that a strong bloke like himself could capture the small woman charging toward him, the other warrior stood right out in front of her. However, this man too was out-matched. He was knocked over and trampled by her heavy snowshoes. This left him with several bruises, a fractured finger, and bloody nose. The warriors lay on their sides groaning.
People frowned at the lady as she walked past them in her crazy state. Her gait was between a run, waddle, and limp. They parted for her to pass through. They didn't want to share the fate of their great warriors.
The itching man from earlier decided that he needed a new name after the poison ivy treatment he got for wounding a god earlier (really Diego from chapter 1). After all, the event had changed his life in his mind. 'If I was called by something different after I proved myself, I will no longer be considered the same cursed man.' he reasoned.
At that the man declared, "I am Cursed Poison Oak Man!" I will lift the curse from myself: the curse I laid on this entire village when I threw a spear at a saber toothed tiger god carrying an opossum! I'll save the village and this woman!" he shouted bravely.
Still, no one was moved by the speech. The villagers scowled and muttered words of uncertainty and distaste about the caveman in each other's ears.
But this didn't stop the man who was now known as 'Cursed Poison Oak Man.' He shuffled over to the maddened lady at an odd walk with his left knee continually held forward and his back stooped. "This is my tribal good luck shuffle." he said stupidly with a grin.
At this slow, clumsy gait he described, the caveman limped toward the speedily moving woman. For a while Cursed Poison Oak Man tried to catch up. He attempted to speed up his walk keeping the same posture. However, that just left the supposedly cursed man panting and his back aching.
Eventually, the caveman lost patience and decided to make a "literal" blind leap of faith. He cleared his throat, cracked his knuckles, and tensed his muscles. Like a hero out of a bad comic strip, Cursed Poison Oak Man made a high, daredevil-like leap with closed eyes. He landed headfirst into the dirt directly in the still-frantic lady's path. Clearly, the try-to-be hero hadn't learned from the two injured warriors, nor was he doing a better job at stopping her.
The rest of the village didn't realize the terrible mistake until after Cursed Poison Oak Man completed his jump. "No! Stop! You'll die! She's possessed by angry gods!" the majority of people shouted while a few smarter individuals screamed, "You brainless idiot! Get out of the way!"
But he didn't hear them. The foolish caveman did nothing more to halt the lady than hold up his palm in a stop signal while he lay in the dirt.
However, it was too late. The woman half walked-half toddled over to him kicking up dirt and waving her arms in panic.
Cursed Poison Oak Man only realized when she began to trample him that his tactics were absolute rubbish. In desperation, he latched onto her waist and screamed.
But Cursed Poison Oak Man only let out a few cries before the crazed woman stopped doing her speedy shuffle-walk. Instead, she quickly took off in a full blown sprint. "Help me! Gaaa! Gaa! Tha Goooouuuds!" she cried.
The two neared a boiling tar pit. But that didn't stop the woman. She proceeded to run blindly to the pit. She let out a final cry of the, "Tha go-!", before she slipped in along with Cursed Poison Oak. A sudden "glop glop glop glump" noise was heard. They had fallen into the burning tar pit the humans had intended to cook Sid in. The villagers, bystanders to the scene, cringed. They closed their eyes and looked away in disgust.
Just after they had disappeared below the burning surface, a normal round bubble and an irregular shaped one rose out of the pit. Most of the villagers mistook the oddly shaped bubble for sacred image of a sloth rising to the heavens.
They looked on with looks of surprise and awe as the two bubbles ascended high into the night sky.
For Sid however, this was not a time he felt amazed like cavemen. He felt panicky. When the two people fell in, he swore he saw a dead sloth's front paw sticking out of the tar pit as if waving spookily. (A/N: I hope that is not too creepy.) It all made sense now. The humans were going to cook and consume him! The possible fate of his herd crossed his mind now that he realized what these people wanted him for. Manny, Ellie, the possums, and the rest could have been hurt, caught, or worse! Still, Sid didn't have time to wonder what had happened to them. He had to escape fast or risk being broiled in goo!
The sloth jumped up from the wooden platform where he lay, terrified. Still tied up, he rolled around shouting, "Help me! Help!"
Despite the being tied with rope, he managed to quickly prop himself up on his four imprisoned limbs. Sid clumsily hopped along this way as a means of escape. However, it was slower than the sloth's typical waddling gait and much more physically strenuous.
Somehow, the sloth succeeded in traveling twenty meters. Sid was intent on getting away from the cavemen that he did not even notice he was about to roll down the highest hill in the forest. Sid was barely even out of the camp when he got to the summit of the hill and received the shock of his life. Panic gave way to terror when as Sid's limbs buckled out from under him and the world spun around in circles out of control. The poor mammal rolled with great speed and force. His teeth chattered and whole body shook as he fell down the sharp, rocky incline. Sid let out a "glubbering" sound as everything flipped over again and again in his vision. The poor sloth was sure he would pass out or die when he got to the bottom of the hill. Still, Sid prayed something soft would halt him.
The sloth's wish did not come true. As he neared the bottom of the steep hill, he came to an extremely abrupt and painful stop. Sid hit something that felt like the hard, unbreakable wood of a birch tree. It completely knocked the wind out of him.
The half conscious mammal didn't have time to recover before a man with a spear abruptly picked him up and dropped him in a wooden cage. The cage happened to be the exact object Sid had collided with on the way down the hill.
Only after Sid was captured did he become aware of what happened. This and that his whole body aching miserably. Sid's legs, feet, head hurt more than he thought possible. He was pretty sure he was shouting out in pain. But in his current state, he couldn't be sure. Sid saw multiples of everything. The traumatized sloth was horribly dizzy and too woozy even to form a slurred word on his tongue.
The next time Sid was aware (which could have been minutes or even hours later if he had been unconscious), he heard a spine-tingling hiss and growl came from the cage. The traumatized mammal blinked but could not make out what was in front of him. All he could make out is t it had very large eyebrows, long eyelashes, and buck teeth. It growled again. This time the sound it made sounded more frightening and deadly to his ears than the roar of Rudy from the dinosaur world or the bone-crunching sound of a cave lion sinking its jaws into the backbone of a living animal. There could have been a call huge carnivore in the cage but in reality Sid was hallucinating from trauma.
At this point Sid must have fainted because when consciousness returned to the sloth, he was back at the top of the hill from the looks of it. Of course he could barely tell in his condition. He was oblivious that the people from the festival near him and other humans here that were not there before.
The dim-witted people that had held the ceremony for his were known as the Slothni tribe. They were having a meeting with the five humans that had put Sid in the crate.
Sid himself had no idea he was being carried in the wooden crate by the five new humans until it was dropped abruptly with a loud thud. It fell to the ground with such a loud noise that even the dead would have heard. It rattled up the poor sloth further.
"You said you wanted a sloth didn't you? People of the Slothni tribe? Well I got caught you one plus the extra stinky one you pitifully lost." a booming voice declared out of nowhere. Sid's eyes traveled to the owner of the voice. He could barely tell in his condition whom or what was speaking. But, if Sid could have been more aware, he would have seen a man talking to the tribe that had wanted to cook him. The male human was tall, muscular, had a crooked smile, and wore a bear skin.
The brawny caveman spoke in an authoritative, yet playful sarcastic tone. "The sloth we found of yours was unconscious and bruised. What'd you do, sacrifice your sloth this year by throwing the biggest hill in the forest? Or is that your idea of catch and release?" the large man teased. He furrowed his eyebrows as part of the act to appear angry though he was laughing inside.
The people of the Slothni tribe were speechless. They couldn't believe they had sinfully let Sid get injured accidently before he was meant to be sacrificed. Also, the fact that the man speaking with them was from a much more intelligent enemy tribe that had caused them great losses in the past made them freeze in fear. No one ran or tried to fight the man for the simple reason that no one else in their village was trying to. They acted as one. Even though there were about forty of them versus five people they could easily kill, no one thought to do anything but stand there as the others were doing.
The man knew full well they wouldn't attack him. The Slothni tribe were too wrapped up in the sin they had committed than do anything violent. He knew that anything he mentioned something sinful the Slothni people had done, they wouldn't hurt even their worst enemy out of guilt for their gods.
A prime example of their blind loyalty to the gods, he recalled, is when had mentioned that the Slothni Tribe had insulted the beetle god by killing a deer several years back. The tribe didn't even have a beetle god. However, it still let the villagers decide not to ever hunt deer again. And even though a third of the clan starved one winter because no one hunted numerous deer in the area, the belief persisted.
In addition, the leader knew from experience that the tribe acted as a single unit when a number of them were together. This meant that if most of the villagers were not attacking a person insulting them (such as in his case), no one villager would try to break the peace. They acted more like a robotic mob than anything. The Slothni tribe acted like a herd of antelope. When a predator hunts them, no antelope ever starts running unless they see the rest run. These primitive people acted in the same way as if by instinct.
The man continued conversing with after that moment of thought. "Oh, and the legend that you are descended from sloths! Gotta admit, that's absolute bogus. You are the long lost cousins of dodo birds with your lack of brains." he said, taunting them.
After giving the people a moment more for what his last statement sink in, the large man went on talking to, and belittling the tribe further.
Meanwhile, Sid thought he heard the creaky sound of cage door opening. The next thing he knew, a strange furless appendage was prying his mouth open. The confused sloth thought he heard someone say, "Crazy sloth. Hope the humans kill you with that plant they're feeding you. You're such a waste of fur!" The voice was harsh and feminine. It came to Sid's mind that the voice may have belonged to the creature that was making such threatening, horrible sounds earlier.
Just then, the furless object, (which he figured out was a human hand), stuffed some foul tasting herbs down his throat. Sid could have sworn that he coughed the putrid stuff up. However, instead of becoming poisoned, unconscious again, or at worst dead, he was feeling unbelievably better minutes later. The pain that had engulfed his whole body was now numbed to a dull ache and the awful wooziness was almost completely gone. Sid found the strength to lift his head. But the animal he saw near him in the cage was someone he wished he didn't know. The menacing and revengeful the infamous face of the creature could identify her any where. It was Sheba, better known for being the only sloth of all time capable of beating up saber toothed tigers. A feeling of despair and dread filled Sid. She looked as foul-tempered as ever. He knew how strong and unpredictable she was.
As Sid became lost in thought, Sheba sat in the cage with her paws on her hips. She glared mercilessly at anyone who dared to peer in her direction. Sid was shocked she wasn't trying to attack him or the humans. She was certainly the type to want to fight when captured. Was there some sort of collaboration between the humans and her? He had to know.
"Uhh. Shoba. Whoy are youmm not attack-….attacking the cava…. the cave people." Sid found that his words were still slurred. Even though the herb the human had just given Sid had helped him greatly, he had still not fully recovered from the near-death hill experience earlier. Speaking left Sid out of breath. His strength, though almost negligible compared to any other animal's, was not fully back either.
"BECAUSE!" came the delayed, yet ferocious response of the she-sloth to Sid's question. Sheba's savage voice reverberated through the cage. "If I attack now, they will spear me? Do I look stupid to you? I'll wait until they let me out to cook or skin me. Then they'll be caught off-guard and have no chance to escape. It makes their consequences of capturing me against my will that much greater." she explained irritably. "Understand sloth?" she demanded.
"Yesmm… Ugjj miss…-"
"I'm Miss SHEBA!" she bellowed.
Any further conversation was cut off because the racket had attracted the attention of the people nearby. One of them earlier kneeled down to inspect the two animals. She cast both of them harsh suspicious glares in the process.
Meanwhile, the large man and the Slothni tribe were almost done with their lengthy talk. The caveman leader from the enemy tribe decided to end the discussion with an extremely harsh act stating that the two tribes were not friends.
"Oh yeah. One more thing." he said casually. "We have a gift for you. It's the vicious sloth my hunters caught. You can have it for free. Enjoy your celebration." he said with faked enthusiasm.
He tried not to smile at the cruel joke. The caveman may have had a nasty sense of humor but the man still thought they deserved some dignity.
As soon as the evil-doer finished speaking, the cage door opened and Sheba sprinted out. She was ready to maul anything in her path.
Sid observed this pessimistically and Sid bit his lip. Now that Sheba was fee, all the humans around him would likely be injured or killed. The sloth turned back to look at the broad featured man as he spoke again.
"And about the sloth you caught," the menacing man drawled as people screamed and Sheba charged after the terrified villagers. "it is so dirty, it's not even fit for the dogs to eat. We're going to release it. Enjoy the famine this winter! Let's see whose tribe survives the next 20,000 years! Hahahha!" At that, the four other people from the enemy tribe burst out laughing with their leader.
Sid blinked. Though he didn't understand a word of what his captors said, he knew their laughter had something to do with letting Sheba hurt the Slothni Tribe. The sloth furrowed his eye brows and stared at the four humans who had just let Sheba out to kill a whole village of people.
But, before Sid could do anything, all five of the humans picked up the crate and took off running.
Sid gazed back as the village as he was taken away. He thought the laughing would lead Sheba to the five humans. But it didn't. Sid's vision was clearing up even further. From what he could see, the raging female sloth was completely distracted by the villagers she was attacking. The five cavemen would have an easy escape. The sloth felt disgusted and upset by their behavior.
"What are you guys doing?! Sure those people tried to kill me but why do they have to die? It's not their fault that two of them that fell into the tar pit last night couldn't be rescued!" Sid shouted out to no one in particular. Of course, Sid didn't look very angry even when he tried to be. The people continued on without giving Sid a hint they had heard anything from him.
The sloth tried a few more retorts and come-backs at them, at first to stop Sheba and then to let him go. However, neither worked. Sid slumped down in the crate in defeat, admitting to himself that they didn't understand him and that he would most likely be their next meal.
Sid was carried for a long time. The people took him across streams, over a cliff, and through valleys. The five humans seemed to be trying to get away from Sheba as fast as possible. If this was the case, they well understood her potential to hurt them if she were to catch sight of them again.
Somewhere along the journey, Sid had fallen asleep because the next thing he knew, he was woken by the hard clang of a spear against the cage.
The startled sloth jumped back with a shout. The man who had thrown a spear at Sid was standing in front of him. The sloth eyed the person cautiously and leaned back slightly in fear. However, the time of day did not escape the sloth's senses. The sun was out and fresh dew could be smelled on the grass and trees. Several of bird calls could also be heard in the tall trees. From the appearance of his surrounds, Sid could tell it was definitely morning.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sid could also see there was a dying fire and animal fur lay on the hard Earth where the humans must have set camp during the night. Still, Sid hadn't forgotten the man staring at him. The sloth once again glued his eyes to the caveman, dreading his possible next move.
Instead of grabbing his spear again like Sid was expecting, the man suddenly exclaimed, "Gosh! That critter's snoring was so loud."
Sid leapt back with a shout of surprise at the unexpected outburst.
"I'm sure glad it's awake now!" the spear thrower continued. "I didn't get a wink of sleep once we made camp late last night with the sound of that sloth."
He took a few steps away from Sid and toward the other humans. "If we didn't try to respect animals, even the dirtiest ones, I would have woken it and slew it with my spear on the spot! Not that we've treated this one so kindly." he muttered.
Sid's other captors nodded their heads in agreement with the spear thrower. The man speaking shook his head as he rubbed his forehead. Never had a sleeping animal given him such a migraine.
"Ditto!" one of the women shouted in response. "Good thing we finally get to get rid of it now!" she exclaimed. The rest nodded.
They immediately opened the heavy cage, untied Sid, and dropped him on the ground.
Sid couldn't believe his luck. He was free? "Wait... I- I am free?" Sid stuttered, examining his untied claws. He felt the soft Earth beneath his feet and the fresh breeze. At that moment, the mammal felt a wave and extreme happiness and relief come over him.
A person turned back from the group and shouted over his shoulder to Sid. "Hope you die sloth. That or don't make any more that smell like you. Good grief." She waved her hand to emphasize Sid's odor problem.
Sid scratched his head and stood up, alertly staring at the woman.
"Nice that it can't understand me." the woman admitted to her comrades jovially. At that, they ran off into the woods. They left a dazed, confused Sid lost in the early morning far away from his herd.
Sid waddled over to a log feeling absolutely wiped out. He hadn't forgotten that he had just slept all night and the thrilling happiness he had experienced only a moment ago about being released. However, Sid was genuinely tired. With the effects of the herb wearing off, the pain from yesterday's incident was coming back with vengeance. He made due by curling up inside the log he had found before it got worse. The sloth hoped his herd would be able to find him soon. At that thought, his head fell back against the log as he suddenly drifted into a deep sleep, snoring loudly.
So, how was it? I spent more time on this than any other chapter so far for this story. I checked extremely hard for grammatical errors but there might still be a few in there due to the vast amount of editing I did.
I am also open to constructive critism as long you explain what I did wrong so I can improve my story for the future.
Anyway, R & R. Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.