CHAPTER 6

LAND

Back out on sea the next morning, the herd members were all sitting on top of the small ice float that has been taking them to who knows where. Diego and Shira were relaxing near the edge of the float, Manny and Ellie were keeping a lookout, Cheril was on top of Manny as she was sleeping on him the entire time, Sid and Granny were keeping their distance, and Brooke and Pappy were sitting together on another edge of the float.

Pappy was trying to bite into a clam, thinking it was edible. When he couldn't do it because he didn't have his teeth, he handed it over to Brooke."Hey, chew this sandwich for me."

Brooke sighed. "Pappy, is the hippie tradition true, or is it all made up? I keep asking myself all these questions. Why didn't our family want us? What's wrong with us? Did they not care about us?"

"I'm sure they did. They think we're screw-ups and we can't do anything right. Don't let that go through your head, though." Brooke had finally opened up the clam, but inside it were Scrat and Scratte, making out with each other. "Rats!" Pappy started smacking them with his cane. The clam closed on Sid's tail, who screamed in pain and started slamming the clam until it got off him.

"No! No!" Brooke shouted.

"If you think that granddaughter of yours is a screw up, baldy, wait until you get to know my grandson," Granny said.

"Oh, Sid!" Shira shouted.

"We'll never make it home on this thing," Brooke said, "At least if we die, we die together."

"Can we stop talking about death?" Cheril said, "It's bad enough I'm stuck here with you guys."

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you capsized our berg, genius," Sid said.

"We were trying to escape," Brooke said.

"You're nothing but a wimp!"

"Whiner!"

"Crybaby!"

"Dummy!"

"Well, that makes me the ventriloquist and you the dummy!"

Brooke gasped and slapped Sid in the face. "You're a-"

"Land!" Ellie and Shira shouted.

"Yeah, land!" Brooke shouted, "Wait, what?" "Not him," Manny said, "There! Land!"

"Everyone paddle," Diego said, "Paddle!"

They all started paddling toward the large island. When they finally made it, the girls collapse on the ground.

Cheril walked over to a bush that looked like yellow berries. "Food! I missed you so much!" She took a yellow berry off the bush, but she started hearing a buzzing sound. She looked to see it was the berry, but it actually turned out to be a bee. It flew out of her hand and stung her cheek. "Ow!" It flew away. Cheril felt the bee sting on her face. "Look at me, my skin has wasted away. Good thing I'm not allergic to bees."

"Okay, snack time is over," Manny said, gathering up wood.

"We got to build a raft," Diego said.

"Boys," the girls said.

"Sid must hate building rafts," Cheril said.

Everyone saw Sid running off from the herd. Manny gasped. "Go get him. He can help us get back."

"Sid!" Shira shouted, going after Sid. Diego ran after her in pursuit of catching the young male sloth. Brooke somebody wanted Sid to stay with them, so she started swinging on vines.

"Brooke, wait!" Ellie called out.

Shira and Diego were getting closer to catching Sid, but he was faster than they thought. Somehow, Sid started slowing down, giving the sabers an advantage to catch him.

"Gotcha!" Shira said. They saw Sid starting to climb up the cliff that was too steep for even the sabers to climb.

"Whoa!" Diego said as he and his wife stopped.

Sid looked to see that they had stopped chasing him and started walking away, but not before Brooke slammed into him, causing him to fall flat on his face. "Ow! Let go of me."

And just where do you think you're going, sir?" Brooke asked. She placed her eyes out at the view and saw something surprising. She gasped. "Whoa!" She looked to see a river current that was able to turn a ship around to return back to the ocean."Switchback Cove. It's the way home." She heard noises from below and was not pleased to see Gutt and his crew were on the island as well. "Oh, no."

Over at the current, Gutt was barking orders at a bunch of sweet, innocent hyraxes, making them clean the new ship that he planned to send out to sea. "You call this a ship you miserable runts?"

Even Squint was barking out orders. "Yeah, you little runts. Get to work."

"Faster, you worthless, wormy sons of sorry excuses... for shark bait weevils!" Gutt shouted.

"What did he say?" Flynn asked Raz.

"I don't know," Raz said.

"Now get this chunk of ice seaworthy by sundown... or I will keelhaul the lot of you!" Gutt continued whipping the hyraxes with a vine, making them work harder than ever before.

The herd looked down at Gutt and his crew. Manny looked around at everyone. "So what do you think?"

"Two words, anger management," Cheril said.

Ellie tapped the teenage human girl I'm the shoulder. "He's talking about the current. Brooke's right. We found the way home."

"Yeah, that's great," Shira said, "Too bad we don't have a ship."

Sure we do," Manny said, "It's right there." He pointed his trunk down at Gutt's new ship.

"Well, that's a flawless plan." They all looked to see Sid speaking out inside a hollow tree. "You want to pirate a pirate ship from pirates."

"Can somebody tell me why I'm trapped in here with my grandson?" Granny shouted, "I hate being locked up."

"It pains me to say this, but... our prisoner has a point," Shira said, "Well, except Granny's statement."

"Yeah, well…" Ellie started to say before Brooke shushed her.

"Guys?" Brooke said, "The trees have ears."

Everyone looked to see tiny ears sticking out from behind the trees. Scurrying from behind, a bunch of cute little hyraxes walked up to the herd members, giving the big mammals adorable smiles.

"Awww, they're adorable," Brooke said.

"I thought Gutt took all the hyraxes and made them his personal workers," Cheril said.

"Wait a minute," Ellie said, "Maybe we can help each other." She walked over to the hyraxes, including the one that was a bit bigger than the rest of them. He must be the alpha, Ellie thought. "Hey, little fellas." They all became a bit scared at first and hid behind the tree. "Hey, come on out. No, no, it's okay. We're not going to hurt you." They all came out from hiding and once again smiled up at the herd. "How about you and us against the pirates, huh?" They were still standing there smiling.

"You got no idea what she's saying, do you?" Manny asked.

Ellie sighed. "Okay, ship, me want." The hyrax leader started speaking a language the herd didn't understand. He even started hugging Ellie.

"Yeah, nice try Jungle Jim," Sid told Ellie.

"Hey, if you're gonna make fun of somebody, you better go ahead and make fun of me," Manny said sternly, his anger boiling at Sid.

"Go ahead and make fun of me," Ellie said, "He'll get it." The little hyrax gave her a flower. "Thank you."

"May I try?" Brooke asked.

"Yeah, knock yourself out," Shira said.

"Okay, watch this." Brooke stood in front of the hyraxes and started saying a bunch of random gibberish words. "Sick sloths sip broth, sick sloths sip broth." At that moment, she was doing raspberries and making noises with tongue. She even did hand motions. The shocking part was that the hyraxes understood what Brooke told them. "Ta-da!"

"What the heck?" Sid said.

"That, they got?" Cheril asked.

The hyraxes whispered among themselves. The leader hyrax jumped out of the midst of the group with warrior face paint and a small stick used as a spear. This proves they were ready to fight. "Yup, they're in."

"Great," Manny said, "We'll free your buddies and we can all work together to kick a little pirate booty." The hyraxes began cheering at the wonderful news they just heard.

That night, Sid was resting in his prison cell, wandering on how he was going to escape the herd and find a way to return to the crew. Since Cheril was watching over him, there was no way he could sneak away. He couldn't even sneak Granny out and she wanders all over the place. Suddenly, he heard someone coming. He got out a stick he sharpened earlier. Soon the pirate sloth saw Brooke with a bowl of fruit and water for the sloth.

"Relax sweetie, it's only me," Brooke sweetly greeted.

"Oh...you again," Sid grunted.

"I brought you and your Granny something to eat. No one should go out on an empty stomach. That's something my father once said," Brooke giggled.

"I don't need your cheerful charity," Sid scoffed and turned away from Brooke.

Granny smacked Sid over the head. "Respect the ladies, Sidney!" She went back to eat the fruit that was given to them.

"Aww come on. Please have something to eat for me," Brooke pouted and holds an apple through the trunks of the tree to Sid and sweetly add, "Pleeeeeease."

"I wonder how begging is going to work," Cheril said.

Sid just sighed and took the bowls as he grumbled, "If it gets you to stop talking to me, I'll take it." He looked at Brooke and softly said, "Thank you."

"At least you didn't tell her to drop dead."

Brooke rolls her eyes and sits beside the prison cell with Sid and said, "I should introduce myself. I'm Brooke."

"So?" Sid shrugged.

"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" Brooke polity asked.

"I'm Sidney...but everyone calls me Sid," Sid quietly greeted back, "Wait a second. You already know my name."

"Sidney? That's a nice name. Do you mind if I call you Sid for short?" Brooke questioned the sloth pirate.

I just said that." Sid was knocked in the head with Granny's cane. He rubbed his head. "I guess." Sid slowly nodded.

Brooke then takes Sid's face by the paws much to his confusion as she happily squealed, "Ooh, such exquisite bone structure. Such a strong jaw. I'm getting butterflies."

"I'm getting nauseous," Sid said.

"Brooke?" Shira then walks up to Brooke in confusion and questions her, "What are you doing?"

"I'm keeping Sidney company," Brooke replied.

"Sidney?" Shira tilted her head a bit.

"Sidney is his full name, but I call him Sid for short," Brooke said.

"Brooke, don't forget that he is our enemy," Shira sternly pointed out.

"Charmed to be noticed by the past first mate," Sid sarcastically smirked at Shira who just scoffed and rolls her eyes at Sid. The male sloth chuckles. "Wow, Squint was right about you. You are pretty soft for a sabre."

The sabre then growls and manages to grab Sid by the throat and snarled, "Listen here you! I'm not soft. I happen to be a remorseless assassin."

"Shira, stop! Let him go!" Brooke cried and grabs Shira's arm. The female sabre looks at her concern frightened friend for a moment until she lets go of Sid.

"Consider yourself lucky, otherwise you'd be dead by now," Shira growled.

"You don't scare me, traitor," Sid growled at Shira.

"Who are you calling a traitor?"

"You. That's who."

"I can see why nobody likes you."

"I can see why you're not in a pack."

"Listen, buddy, I chose to leave my pack."

"Well, congratulations. I chose to leave my family and joined a crew that actually cares."

Brooke gasped. "Oh, you poor thing."

"What?" Sid asked.

"Well, I know how hard it is to leave everything you once knew behind."

"Oh, what are we gonna do? Braid each others hair now?"

"I don't know how that's gonna work for you," Cheril said.

"You know, Sid, you and I can relate to what's going on," Shira said.

"I wouldn't be hanging around a bunch of idiots," Sid said.

"No. Look, We may have both been wanted out of a place where we knew we didn't belong, but at least I didn't trade in one pack for another. I have something better, and so does Brooke."

"Oh, yeah?" Sid walked up to the hole in the tree. "What's that?"

"A herd," Brooke said.

"What's the difference?" Sid asked.

"We look out for each other. We have each others backs."

"Gutt has my back. I'm his first mate."

"Oh, really?" Shira said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sid asked.

"If Gutt really has your back, he would've sent a search party out here by now. You got anything to say against that?"

Sid sighed. "You won't beat him. Your big furry friends over there have no idea what their getting themselves into."

"Yeah, well...neither does Gutt." Shira started walking away, making her way back to her husband and mammoth friends. Hopefully things will go as planned.


HEY, GUYS. DON'T MEAN TO BE POSTING ON SATURDAYS. WON'T HAPPEN ALL THE TIME. I TRY TO UPDATE AS MUCH AS I CAN. GRADUATION IS COMING UP ON THURSDAY SO THIS WEEK'S GONNA BE PRETTY BUSY FOR ME. PLUS, I'VE BEEN APPLYING FOR JOBS AS WELL. I'VE DECIDED TO TAKE A SHORT BREAK FROM EDUCATION, BUT I WILL RETURN TO IT BY STARTING OFF AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE. EVEN IF I HAVE TO TAKE ONLINE CLASSES.

WELL, THAT'S IT FOR ME. SO EXCITED TO GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL, BUT SO SAD TO BE LEAVING ALL MY FRIENDS. WELL, SEE YOU GUYS FOR THE NEXT UPDATE.

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