Chapter 4

I do not own 'Ice age'. I only own the characters you don't recognize from the movies.

"… The last time we saw him was leaving with his father back to their village." Manny finished. It had taken hours for Manny, Diego, and Sid to tell their story about how they met 'Pinky' and the journey that returned him to his father. The boy was still unconscious as he lay against Ellie's side with Peaches next to him and her trunk was draped over his lap. Now that the story was over, Diego stood as he stretched his stiff muscles.

"Well, now that everyone's on the same time line" Diego said, "I'm going to go hunt."

"Go get em', tiger! Hunt them down!" Sid joked and Diego turned and gave Sid a deathly look.

"If you ever say that again, I'll hunt you down!"

Sid gulped, "I'll uh… just go get some berries for breakfast." Sid said as he rushed out of the cave and Crash and Eddie followed him, laughing at Diego's small prank.

Manny chuckled, "that never gets old." he said as he stood, "I'm going to go get a drink from the river, are you going to be okay?"

"We'll be fine, Manny." Ellie replied and Peaches agreed with her. Manny nodded as he walked out of the cave towards the river for a drink. Diego followed suit as he walked out of the cave to go hunt for breakfast.

Peaches turned to her mother, "Mom?"

"Yes, sweetie." Ellie replied.

"How do we know if he'll even remember dad… or even Diego and Sid?"

"I don't know, baby. We'll just have to wait and see I guess."

Peaches nodded as Ellie looked down at the young teen and she reached out with her trunk to gently move a strand of hair from the boy's face. Diego soon returned from his hunt with Sid and the two possums following behind as they brought in a basket made of leaves that was filled with berries. Diego decided to take a 'cat nap' as he settled down not too far away from Ellie and Peaches while Sid and the two possums entertained themselves by throwing berries at each other as they dodged them and it was then that the boy began to wake.

Roshan's head hurt, that was the first thing he was aware of. The second thing he was then aware of was that he was leaning up against something really soft and warm but at the moment he couldn't exactly make out what it was. Roshan's eyes just barely opened as he brought his hand up to his head and quietly groaned.

"Mom, he's waking up!" a female voice said.

Roshan had to take a few moments to let his eyes adjust and his mind to completely wake up as he opened his eyes fully. Roshan then realized that he was in some sort of cave and he could see that it was now sunny outside. Roshan turned and froze when he suddenly saw a young mammoth's face as the mammoth sat beside him with its trunk draped over his lap. Roshan then looked in the other direction and saw another mammoth looking at him but this one was a full grown female adult and it was then that Roshan realized that he had been leaning up against a mammoth.

"It's about time you woke up." The adult female mammoth said making Roshan freeze. The mammoth actually spoke! Roshan leaped from his spot against the mammoth and staggered a few steps back and stopped as he stared at the two mammoths.

"Y-you just spoke" Roshan stuttered, "A m-mammoth just-"

Roshan then spotted a sloth and two possums as the two possums scurried up and sat on the adult mammoth's trunks and the sloth seemed to smile at him which creeped Roshan out even more.

"He's alive!" the sloth cheered, "Pinky's back!"

Roshan began shaking his head in disbelief as he breathed heavily, "N-no, no, no. This isn't right! Animals c-can't talk!"

"Please, just calm down." The adult Mammoth said as she began to stand and Roshan began stepping back again but was stopped when he suddenly tripped and fell backwards landing on the cave floor and Roshan heard an annoyed growl.

"Hey! Watch were you're going, will you?" a saber toothed tiger growled as it had been the tiger that Roshan had tripped over and Roshan scrambled to his feet and ran for the cave entrance. Unfortunately, Roshan didn't even make it out of the cave when another adult mammoth, a male, suddenly appeared as Roshan practically almost ran into him if the mammoth hadn't grabbed Roshan with his trunk.

"Whoa, slow down there, buddy." the male mammoth said, "What's going on?"

Roshan at first struggled to get away but soon gave up as the mammoth kept a strong hold on him as Roshan hung his head and squeezed his eyes shut.

"This can't be happening" Roshan said, "I have to be dreaming! Animals don't… can't talk."

"We're talking now aren't we?" Roshan heard the saber say.

"Diego" the adult female mammoth warned before softly saying to Roshan, "Honey, just calm down, take a few deep breaths. We're not going to hurt you."

Roshan was quiet as he did as the female mammoth said and took a few quiet deep breaths as the female mammoth calmly instructed the male mammoth to let Roshan go. Roshan felt the mammoth's trunk slowly release him as Roshan lowered himself down to his knees as he kept his head down but allowed himself to open his eyes again as he took all of this in. Roshan heard the heavy footsteps of the mammoth as he moved away from Roshan and the adult female mammoth walked up to him, placing her trunk under his chin as she tilted his head up to look at her.

"See?" the adult female mammoth said, "We just want to help."

Roshan finally calmed as the female mammoth's trunk moved from under his chin and stroked his hair 'caring mother-like' briefly before letting it drop back down in front of her.

"I… still don't understand how you can all talk." Roshan said as he stood.

The sloth shrugged, "humans don't usually understand us… but I could get used to this."

The adult female mammoth rolled her eyes, "Maybe we should start with names first" she turned to Roshan and pointed out the others as she named them, "My name is Ellie, my husband is Manny, and our daughter Peaches."

"Nice to meet you." Peaches said as she slightly waved.

"Uh, hi" Roshan replied, "My name is Roshan."

"Roshan?" the sloth said, "I like 'Pinky' better."

"Huh?"

"We'll explain later" Manny said, "It's a long story."

The two possums scurried up to Roshan as they stood in front of him.

"I'm Crash and he's Eddie." Crash said.

"And I'm Eddie and he's Crash" Eddie repeated.

"Um… okay." Roshan said and the two possums high fived and returned to sitting on Ellie's tusks and the saber snickered.

"Name's Diego" the saber said, "Bet you don't remember me, do you?"

"… No… I don't."

"Figured."

Roshan was once again confused as he looked at Ellie and Manny but they both just gave him a look indicating not to worry about it. The sloth was the last to introduce himself as he walked up towards Roshan.

"Sid the sloth, at your service!" the sloth said as he attempted to salute but accidentally poked himself in the eye instead and he slightly yelped as Roshan stifled a laugh.

"Right" Ellie said, "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

"What business?" Roshan asked.

"You need to tell us why you were unconscious in the woods." Peaches answered, "It was me and Diego who found you in the first place."

"I'm sure you don't want to hear it."

"Uh, yeah we do… well I do anyways."

"We do too!" Crash and Eddie said at the same time.

"I think we are all a little interested" Manny said, "You were found unconscious in the middle of the woods, something happened and we want to know what it was."

Roshan sighed, "Okay… our village was attacked by another tribe and they were dangerous. Many of us younger members of our tribe, including me, tried to escape into the mountains but I got turned around trying to rescue one of our elders and ended up going into the woods instead. I couldn't go back because the enemy was after me so I kept running until I didn't hear their war cries anymore. By that time, I was so deep into the woods I had no idea which way to go back so I just kept going. The last thing I remember is tripping on a tree root and falling down the hill."

Everyone was silent for a few moments as Roshan finished telling his story and then Peaches spoke.

"Sorry, Roshan" she said, "It must have been hard."

"It's okay."

Manny walked up to Roshan, "You can stay with us if you want." he offered.

"That's very kind of you but I don't want to get in your way-"

"Nonsense" Ellie, "If you need a place to stay, then you can stay with us."

"But I really should get back to-"

"Honey, look at yourself, you just escaped from your village attack, was found unconscious in the woods not too long ago, have no idea where you're going and you're incredibly filthy from your fall. I bet you haven't even taken the time to eat anything yet, have you?"

Roshan thought about what Ellie had said and she was right. It was then that Roshan realized how hungry he was, the last time he ate was yesterday after he got back from his failed hunt. Peaches headed over to Sid and the possums' leaf basket and she pulled out an apple.

"Sid and the possums thought that you would be hungry so they found a few apples for you." Peaches said as she tossed the apple to Roshan and he caught it in his hands.

"Um, thanks" Roshan replied, "So, I guess now that I'm going to be staying here for awhile, I have one last question."

"Ask away, Pinky!" Sid said.

"First of all, stop calling me 'Pinky', my name is Roshan. Second, I feel like I know a few of you but that can't be possible."

"So you do remember." Diego said and Roshan looked at him.

"I didn't say I remembered anything, I said that I felt like I knew you but that's impossible because I've never known any animals in my life except for the dogs in our village. I mean, I used to have dreams about a few animals and they talked to me but those were just dreams, nothing real… Right?"

Manny, Diego, and Sid all glanced at each other before Manny spoke, "What exactly did you see in your dreams?" Manny asked.

"Well… I remember there was a mammoth, a sloth, and a tiger… just like the three of you."

"What did you do in those dreams, Roshan?"

"I don't know, um… I think there was something with these birds and the three animals were trying to get a watermelon or something. There was some other stuff too but I don't remember much of it anymore."

Manny, Diego, and Sid glanced at each other again as if they were trying to decide on what to do and Roshan looked at each of them trying to decipher what was going on.

It was Diego who spoke first, "Listen kid, those dreams of yours weren't dreams. Those were memories."

"But then, that would mean…" Roshan began but he just couldn't continue.

"It means that the three animals you saw in your 'dreams' was us."