Yes, another update in the same day :) Be happy!

DISCLAIMER: I only own Mariana. Please don't use her without my permission. Thank you.

*-KTKK-* ~Kitty~

"Hiya, Uncle Manny!" Mariana greeted as she nuzzled his leg. They were now at the valley, and it was turning out to be a wonderful place to live.

"Hey, Mari," Manny smiled, petting her with his trunk. Mariana was now nine, a year older than she was when she was kidnapped. She was starting to get a sarcastic side, but who wouldn't with Diego and Manny around? She was still sweet as caramel, though. Her appearance hadn't changed much; she was still a little cub, though she was slightly taller. She had grown bangs, and they threatened to cover her left eye.

"Daddy wants you," she said. "Something about 'evil children wanting to kill Sid.'"

Manny sighed. "Alright, let's go save Sid... again."

Mariana giggled and ran around Manny as they made their way to meet the tiger.

*-KTKK-* ~Kitty~

"What's happening this time?" Manny asked as they walked up to Diego. Mariana sat by him.

"Well, they just beat him with a stick, so I'd guess that the next step is trying to cut off his foot again."

"Nuh uh!" Mariana shouted. "They're gonna try and bury him again."

"Well, let's go find out, shall we?" Manny asked.

They all walked over to where Sid was, and they heard, "Let's bury him!" "Yeah!"

Mariana shot a glance at her father, who rolled his eyes.

"Hey, woah. Who said you kids could torture the sloth?" Manny asked.

"Manny, don't squash their creativity." Mariana giggled at her father's response.

"Hey! Manny, Diego, Mariana, my bad mammal-jammals!" Sid smiled, only his head visible. "Wanna give a sloth a hand?"

Manny rolled his eyes. He grabbed Sid's neck with his trunk and pulled Sid out of the ground.

"Look, I opened my camp! 'Campo del Sid'. It means Camp of Sid."

"We know Spanish, Sid," Mariana giggled.

"Congratulations. You're now an idiot in two languages," Diego said.

"Not in front of the k-i-d-z!" Sid scolded. "These little guys love me! Right, Billy?"

"Don't make me eat you!"

Sid laughed nervously. "They kid. That's why they're called kids."

"I told you, Sid. You're not qualified to run a camp," Manny said, glaring at the sloth.

"What do qualifications have to do with childcare? Besides, these kids look up to me! I'm a role model to them."

Two kids tripped Sid, earning laughs from all children present, including Mariana.

"I can see that."

"You guys never think I can do anything, but I'm an equal member of this herd! I made this herd, so you need to start treating me with some respect!"

"Uncle Sid!" Mariana pouted as he hopped away, still tied up.

"Come on, Sid!"

"Sid, we were just kidding!"

"Hey!" a kid shouted, earning their attention. "Let's play pin-the-tail-on-the-mammoth!"

"Yeah!"

Mariana grinned. Manny and Diego looked at each other then shouted together, "SID!"

*-KTKK-* ~Kitty~

"And so, in the end, the little burro reached his mommy. And they lived happily ever after," Manny concluded. To settle the children down, he decided to tell them a story.

"Good job," Diego praised, picking up a yawning Mariana. She snuggled in the warmth of her father, not wanting to wake up from her nap just yet.

"Question," one kid informed. "Why does the burro go home? Why doesn't he stay with the rabbits?"

"Because... because he wanted to be with his family," Manny said.

"He should go with the girl burro," another child said. "That's a better love story."

"Okay, well, when you tell your burro story, that's what he'll do."

"Burro is a demeaning name," a girl said. "Technically, it's called a wild ass."

"Fine. The wild ass boy came home to his wild ass mother." When they burst into laughter, Manny said, "See, that's why I called it a burro!"

Then they all started talking at once.

"Could the burro have a grazing problem? Then he'd be more relatable."

"Boring."

"It's not believable."

"Do burros eat their young?"

"It's not a good ending."

"Sometimes I throw up!"

Making a face, Manny snapped, "They lived happily ever after! You can't get more satisfying than that! One big, happy family! That's the way it's supposed to be!"

"Then where's your big, happy family?" a bird asked.

Manny's face fell. Mariana jumped off the rock, nuzzling Manny's leg. She tried to cheer him up. "We're your family, Uncle Manny."

"Then the hungry tiger ate the pesky little kids!" Diego roared, pouncing off of the rock. The kids scattered, screaming.

"Are you okay, Uncle Manny?" Mariana asked.

"Sure. Why not?" Manny snapped.

Her ears lowered at his harsh tone. "I just thought...-"

"Story time's over. The end."

Manny instantly regretted saying that when Mariana got tears in her eyes. Before he could apologize, two kids ran by screaming. "Run for your lives!"

"Where's everybody going?" Manny asked.

"The world's coming to an end!"

"What are you talking about?" Diego asked.

"Fast Tony- he says the world's gonna flood!"

"That idiot?" Mariana asked.

"Folks, I hold in my hand a device so powerful, it can actually pull air right out of the sky!" Fast Tony shouted.

"Yeah, right," a passer-by said sarcastically.

"Gather round, gather round! Pardon me, do you have gills, ma'am?" he asked an animal that clearly didn't have gills. She shook her head.

"So you can't breathe underwater?"

Again, she shook her head.

"My assistant here will demonstrate!" He shoved a reed into the turtle's nose.

"Hey, I can smell the ocean!"

"What are you doing? I can't sell that now!" He took it and put it in the turtle's mouth. "You suck air through your mouth, you moron!

"Through its design and sturdy construction," he continued, "you'll have plenty of air for eons to come!"

When his assistant started having trouble breathing, he chuckled nervously. "Of course, results may vary."

The three approached him. "Why are you scaring everybody with this doomsday stuff?" Manny asked.

"I'm trying to make a living here, pal," Fast Tony replied.

"But you don't need to spread lies," Mariana said.

"Listen kid," Tony said slowly. "Grown ups can do whatever we want."

Mariana snarled. She hated it when people added age into the conversation and thought she couldn't comprehend anything. "So can kids. Hey Dad? What do armadillos taste like?"

Tony backed away from the glaring cub, glancing at the proud Diego and laughing nervously. "Cute kid." Clearing his throat, he smiled and looked at the crowd. "It's my weather forecast! The five-day outlook calls for intense flooding, followed by the end of the world." He paused. "And a slight chance of patchy sunshine later in the week."

"He should be a weather man," Mariana said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She earned a laugh out of everyone in earshot.

"Come on, don't listen to him," Manny ordered. "Fast Tony would sell his own mother for a grape."

"Are you making an offer?" Glancing at the crowd, he pretended to be insulted. "I mean, no, I would not!"

"Haven't you heard? The ice is melting."

"You see this ground?" Manny asked rhetorically. "It's covered in ice. A thousand years ago, it was covered in ice. A thousand years from now, it will still be ice."

"Say, buddy, not to cast aspersions on your survival instincts or nothing," said an animal, "but haven't mammoths pretty much gone extinct?"

"What are you talking about?"

"About you being the last of your kind."

"Ah... Your breath smells like ants."

The anteater smelled his breath, flinching. "Be that as it may, when's the last time you saw another mammoth?"

"Don't pay any attention to him," Diego said.

"Yeah, he doesn't know what he's talking about!" Mariana shouted and stuck her tongue out at the anteater.

"Mammoths can't go extinct," Manny reasoned. "They're the biggest things on Earth."

"What about the dinosaurs?" another animal asked.

"The dinosaurs got cocky and made enemies."

"Look!" someone shouted, pointing at a large waterfall. "Some idiot's going down the Eviscerator!"

"Please tell me that's not our idiot," Manny pleaded. No luck.

"Okay, I'm gonna jump on the count of three! One...! Two...!"

"Sid, don't move a muscle! We're coming up!" Manny shouted.

"Jump! Jump! Jump!" the crowd cheered.

"Jump! Jump! Jump!" Diego joined in.

At the glares Manny and Mariana sent him, he stopped. "Sorry."

"Two and three one-thousandths, two and four one-thousandths..." Sid said, trying to work up the nerve to take the leap.

"Sid, what are you doing?" Mariana cried, her and the other two now at the top. "Get down from there!"

"No! I'm gonna be the first to jump off the Eviscerator, and then you guys are gonna have to show me some respect!"

"The only respect you'll get is respect for the dead!" Manny shouted.

"Come on, Manny, he's not that stupid," Diego stated, completely calm. But when Sid started to jump, his calm exterior faultered. "But I've been wrong before."

"Geronimo!" Sid shouted just as Manny yanked him out of the air. He was caught on an icy slope, and he fell to his knees, starting to slide backward.

"Hey, watch it!" Diego shouted before he and Mariana were bumped out onto some thin ice. Diego shakily got up, but froze when he heard ice cracking. Looking down, he saw the ice beneath his paws breaking. "Run!" he shouted to Mariana, and they both jumped to safety. Mariana jumped in Sid's arms while Diego clutched Manny's trunk, both panting from fear.

"Diego, retract the claws, please," Manny said, patting Diego's back with the rest of his trunk.

Diego cleared his throat. "Uh, right. Sorry." Getting off, he approached Sid and Mariana. "You okay, Mari?"

"Fine," she admitted, glancing back at the water uneasily.

"If I didn't know you better, Diego," Sid said as he set Mariana down, "I'd think you were afraid of the water." After Diego's paw closed around his throat, Sid struggled out, "Okay, okay. Good thing I know you better."

"Guys." They all walked toward Manny, who was looking out at a large body of water. "Fast Tony was right... Everything's melting. It's all gonna flood. Come on, we gotta warn them."

"Maybe we can rapidly evolve into water creatures!" Sid shouted.

"That's genius, Sid," Diego said blankly.

"Call me Squid!"

"Call me Squid," Mariana teased, rollling her eyes.

"This whole thing's a piece of junk," Sid said as they walked over a small bridge across the Eviscerator, stomping on it. "I can't believe I live here." It suddenly shook uneasily. Diego and Mariana's ears both perked, and they all looked back at Sid.

"What?"

It suddenly broke. They all flew down the water, screaming, before finally skidding to a stop by Fast Tony.

Fast Tony jumped from surprise and stopped talking about whatever his latest scheme was.

"See? This is exactly what I'm talking about!" he shouted. "Giants balls of furry lava the size of mammoths raining from the sky!"

"Go suck air through a reed."

Mariana giggled.

"Listen to him," Manny said, standing up. "He's right about the flood."

"I am?" Fast Tony asked, then stood up straighter and smiled. "I mean, yes, I am."

"Wait," an animal said. "You said there wasn't going to be a flood. Why should we listen to you?"

"Because we saw what's up there. The dam's gonna break!" He paused, looking at their reactions. "The entire valley's gonna flood."

"Flood's real, alright," a vulture said suddenly from a branch, earning everyone's attention. "And it's coming fast. Look around. You're in a bowl. Bowl's gonna fill up. Ain't no way out."

"What are we gonna do?" an animal asked him.

"Unless you make it to the end of the valley. There's a boat. It can save you."

"I don't see anything!"

"But y'all better hurry," he continued. "Ground's melting, walls tumbling, rocks crumbling. Survive that and you'll be racing the water, cause in three days' time, it's gonna hit the geyser fields.

"Boom!" They all jumped.

"There is some good news, though."

All the animals smiled, waiting go hear the news.

"The more of you die, the better I eat."

All the animals backed away from him. Sid hid behind Manny, and Mariana crouched under Diego, her ears pinning back.

"I didn't say it was good news for you." he said and flew away.

"He must have been a real pleasure to have in class," Sid said as he came out from behind Manny. Mariana stayed under Diego, still disturbed by the words of the vulture.

Suddenly, a large piece of ice fell down from the top of the dam. It tumbled through the air, and once it got close to the ground, it threatened to crush a young beaver. His father got him in time. They all stared up at the dam with wide eyes.

"Dam."

"Alright, you heard the scary vulture!" Manny called. "Let's move out!"

"Manny, you really think there's a boat?" Diego asked as Mariana and Sid walked ahead. He really doubted it; he was taught not to listen to random vultures threatening to eat him.

"I don't know, but in a few days, this place is gonna be underwater," Manny replied, looking at the deserted pools of water. "If there's any hope, it's that way."

Diego nodded, walking ahead. Manny turned to go, but paused. He could have swore he just saw a flash of unnatural purple. He squinted, trying to see it, but Diego called him away before he could see what was in the ice.

"Manny, let's go!"

Manny turned away, still suspicious.

*-KTKK-* ~Kitty~

Anyone else liking the lengths of these? Cause I am :) I hope you all are satisfied!

Stars and Boulevards,

*-KTKK-* ~Kitty~