Okay, here is Chapter 8. Read and enjoy!

The video had horrified the herd. Manny's overprotective side came back up. Everyone else couldn't believe it. They were in the city and getting to know others in a new time period for one day and now people were after them to place them back inside the museum where they escaped from. None of them had hoped anyone would come looking for them, but they were and weren't going to quit until the herd was frozen solid in a block of ice.

Sid had regained consciousness when Manny stepped up in front of everyone.

"Okay, I know we've been having a great time here and all, but now that we have a problem on our hands, we don't have much time to leave," Manny told everybody, "We need to see that crazy scientist guy first thing in the morning and have him send us home."

"Manny, he won't have it ready for a couple of days," Ellie told him, "We don't have a choice but to wait."

"You know what happens when we wait. Bad things always happen. Well, not this time. First thing in the morning, we're returning to our time period."

"And what happens if that scientist man isn't finished with the creation of the time machine?", Brooke asked.

"Then we tell him to hurry up and finish it."

"Whoa, big guy," Stephen told Manny, "Don't rush science. Bad things always happen."

"Besides, you guys are safe with us," Nizhoni said, "Native Americans always protect the land and the creatures that live upon it."

"It's true," Kimi said.

"Guys, there's nothing to worry about," Lucas said, "These guys have been around other people and animals all day."

"What? You've exposed them to others?", Stephen asked, beyond horrified.

"Don't yell at me, dude. You were there only half the time, but your mind was on a bunch of technology that you really need to take a rest on. That's all you do."

"Well, everything you do is always a sign of stupidity."

"That doesn't offend me at all."

"Stephen, it's okay," Nizhoni said, "We'll protect them."

"Protect them? Protect them?", Stephen asked, angrily, "How are we supposed to protect a bunch of tiny brained mammals from the past? That's just beyond insane!"

"Sometimes I think you're insane."

"She's got a point there, mate," Buck said, "But let me tell you both this. We've survived many things in the past. Floods, cold weather, dinosaurs, moving continents and even meteors. If we can survive all that, we can survive anything here."

"Can you survive laser guns?", Lucas asked.

"Yes."

"How about tasers?"

"Of course."

"Bombs?"

"Absolutely."

"Grenades? Dynamite? Wildfires? Tornadoes? Basketball-sized hail?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes and definitely yes."

"I don't even know what half of that stuff is," Diego said.

"Nevertheless, no matter what kind of danger here that anyone throws at us, we can make it through anything," Buck said.

"That's the spirit!", Lucas said.

"Buck may have that bravery in him, but I'm not gonna let the rest of us get capture by anyone," Manny said, "Once that crazy science man gets that time machine finished, we're out of here."

"Manny, today was such a wonderful day," Ellie said, "Why ruin it for everybody?"

"I'm just trying to keep our family safe. That's all I wanna do."

"You know, every time you try to do that, we end up getting into danger, anyway," Shira told.

"She's got a point," Diego said.

"Wait a second. I just thought of something," Stephen said, "If Dr. Morris creates a time machine and cancels out the moment when the cold wind passes that froze you all, wouldn't that change the future?"

"I didn't think of that," Lucas said.

"You never think."

"If the past ends up getting changed in order to send the herd home, we could end up altering the future," Nizhoni said.

"Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?", Lucas asked.

"I don't even wanna think about it," Stephen said.

"You know, there's an old saying to this," Kimi said, "'If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.' Stated by the great Chief Dan George."

"Okay, what is that supposed to mean?"

"That is something you will have to figure out for yourselves. Now I need to finish up dinner," Kimi walks back inside the hut.

Stephen looks at Nizhoni, "Do you have any idea what your grandmother just said?"

"I didn't understand most of the sayings at all," Nizhoni admitted, "I just nod and pretend I know them whenever she tells me one."

He groaned, "Forget it. I don't know anything anymore."

"The only thing to do is to keep an eye out," Manny said, "If you see somebody suspicious, don't go anywhere near them. If they come near you, run away and come straight back to the hut."

"You got it, Manny," Sid said.

"We'll keep an eye out on things from the skies," Gavin said.

"Okay, everyone," Ellie said, "Let's settle in for the night."

The herd made themselves comfortable under the starry night sky. After a couple of hours of chatting about the day they had, they all fell fast asleep.

The next morning, the herd gathered around for breakfast, which was plates of pancakes topped with various fruit toppings. After that, Louis decided to walk over to Lucas' house to learn how to use a telephone. Manny had warned everyone at breakfast to watch their surroundings and to be careful. Scrat had decided to stay at the hut where he'd be safe. Louis was out on his own with the slip of paper that had Laura's number. He wanted to learn how to use a phone so he could call her and that's what he planned to do.

He will admit that the future is nothing like the past. He's not really sure why the past and future would be different from one another. They both had their own set of dangers. The Ice Age was more of a place for natural catastrophes. The future was basically filled with danger that humans and anthropomorphic animals have created over the years. He couldn't even travel underground in most places he went. Everywhere he walked to was pretty much concrete. And most of the grass was owned by different people. So much for thinking the future was safer.

He was soon knocked out of his thoughts as he bumped into someone. He fell to the ground. When he shook the dizziness from his head, he looked to see, you guessed it, Laura on the ground. Louis got up and extended his paw out.

"We really need to stop bumping into each other like this," he said.

Laura looked up to see Louis with his paw out, "Oh, Louis," she takes his hand and stands back up, "That's a sense of deja vu right there. The same thing happened yesterday between the two of us."

"Yeah. Sorry about that. I got lost in my own thoughts."

"You're not the only one. I got distracted by a text message on my phone and I just got some bad news."

"What happened?"

"Well, I used to live in California and I went to this school that had a bunch of people and animals there who were really big bullies. Especially this one girl. She didn't like me because I was smarter than her. Anyway, I found out that the same girl who was mean to me will be the new senior class president at my old school. She won second place and I won for having the most votes. Now that I'm no longer there, the senior class and all my friends are going to suffer under the wrath of popularity."

"Is that what you were trying to avoid?"

"Most definitely. None of them can stand her, either. To be honest, I'm glad to be going to a different school. I need a new start and what better way than to start in the coldest city in the south."

"Sounds cool. Where are you going to school at?"

"Icetropolis High School. Do you go there?"

"Well, to be honest, I… don't go to school."

"So you're homeschooled?"

"Uh, I suppose I am, but I am eighteen. So I guess that would consider me a senior, too."

"I guess it would. Have you ever thought about going to public school?"

"Uh…. yes, I have, but I don't think it would be the best thing for me."

"You never know unless you give it a try. Maybe you could convince your parents to go. I know it would only be for a year, but you might enjoy yourself more than you think."

"Okay, I'll think about it. By the way, where are you off to?"

"I'm going out to see if I can ask my older sister to give me a spot at a fashion boutique she works at. She's the manager there so maybe she can make some room for me. I just found out that senior year isn't cheap."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. So where are you heading off to?"

"I'm actually going over to a friend's place. I'm gonna ask him if he knows how to write a good paper."

"Oh. Are you wanting to write an essay for a scholarship to college? A lot of people who are homeschooled do tend to give college a try."

"That's the plan."

"Well, I hope that works out for you. You still have my number, right?"

"Yeah, I still have it," Louis continues keeping his right paw behind his back so Laura won't see the slip of paper.

"Okay. Call me whenever. Or text, but I would rather you call. See you later," Laura rushes off down the sidewalk.

"See ya," Louis waved.

Louis continued on his way to Lucas' house. He was just on his way to learn how to use a phone so he could try calling her, but now he was wondering what texting was. Lucas might probably know. He started running over to Lucas' house, not noticing a red blinking light on a rearview mirror connected to the power pole. But nothing like that bothered the male molehog. As he was running, he was smiling. All Louis was happy about was making a new friend.

Over at the park, Crash and Eddie were sitting up in a tree with Jenny and Betty. The male possums are about to learn new modern pranks from the possum sisters. They were all waiting for Betty to finally finish writing down her list so they could get started.

"Ugh! Can you hurry up, sis?", Jenny asked, becoming impatient, "You know I don't like sitting around and doing nothing."

"I'm almost done," Betty told her, "Things like this have to be planned out carefully," she continues writing ideas.

"Is she always like this?", Crash asked.

"Don't you know it," Jenny told, "She's always making sure everything's just right. Pranks don't have to be planned out."

"You're right about that," Eddie said, "Back in the Ice Age, Crash and I just went for it."

"It didn't matter if we pass or fail. We just enjoy doing it," Crash said.

"Okay, we're all set," Betty said.

"Finally. Give me that list," Jenny takes the list from Betty and looks at it, "Okay, guys. The first modern prank that we'll be teaching you is the whoopie cushion."

"What's the whoopie cushion?", Crash asked.

"I'm glad you asked. Allow me to show you."

Jenny climbed down from the tree and scurried over to the park bench right across it. She sat the whoopie cushion down in the midst of the seat and hurriedly scurried back up the tree, shushing everyone. They waited a moment until a human woman with a poodle came up and sat down. The woman sat right in the middle of the bench, her bottom squeezing the whoopie cushion. She jumped up and looked at what she sat on. The four possums up in the tree started laughing. The woman and the poodle went "hmph" and walked away.

"That was awesome!", Crash said.

"I wish we had stuff like that back in the Ice Age," Eddie said.

"If you thought that was funny, wait until you see another cool prank," Jenny said, "Betty, what's next?"

Betty looks at the list, "Next on the list is the kick me sign on somebody's back prank."

"This one's even funnier. I'll show you."

Jenny takes a blank sheet of paper and writes "Kick Me" in big letters. She once again scurries down the tree and spots a male hippo watering the hedges. She sneaks up to him carefully and tapes the sign on his back. She tries to hold in her giggles as she climbed back up the tree. They watched for a moment before a teenage human boy came up and kicked the hippo on his bottom. The male hippo became angry when he saw what the boy had done and started chasing after him, spraying himself and the boy with the hose in the process. The possums laughed.

"That was even funnier than the whoopie cushion!", Crash said.

"Modern pranks are so awesome!", Eddie said.

"They're the greatest," Jenny said, "And there are plenty more pranks for you two to learn."

"Shouldn't we let them try those two out first?", Betty asked.

"They can do that on their own any day. They have more to learn."

"But-", Betty's lips are covered by Jenny's paw.

"Less talking about the impossible and more telling me what's next on the list."

Betty sighed, "Next up is the water bucket on top of the door."

"Let's head over to the park restrooms."

"This is gonna be so cool!", Crash said.

The four possums started making their way over to the side of the park to play more pranks, oblivious to a small red blinking dot following them from a tree.

Going inside the red blinking light was a video of Crash and Eddie following Jenny and Betty to their next destination. A shadow finger pressed a button and started playing back videos on the large computer from yesterday. Throughout the events, he recorded Manny watching football with Richard, Ellie spending time with Lucille and baby Stanley, Sid watching Friends with Peter and discussing about the episodes with him, Brooke talking with Angela and Danny in the kitchen, Diego working out with Tony and Shira helping Tammy with the dinner. He also recorded Peaches and Julian at the mall with Melody, Jessica and Rob, and also got footage of Buck who was exploring the modern city. He also got footage of Louis and Scrat at the park, and also recorded footage of them meeting Laura, and also got footage of Crash and Eddie with Jenny and Betty, footage of Gladys skateboarding with Teddy and Lucas following her and footage of the dino birds.

He's watching their every move. Every step they took in Icetropolis the day before had been recorded by a mysterious man in the dark watching everything. So is the mysterious person following the mammals everywhere and they're none the wiser? Yes. Yes, he is.

A low evil chuckle is heard at the end. Trouble is about to brew soon.

End of Chapter 8. We find out the herd is being watched. Who is this mysterious man? We'll find out another time.

Voice actress ideas:

Jenny - Jennette McCurdy

Betty - Daniella Monet

Amber - Kate Micucci

Give me reviews on what you think of this chapter and the previous chapters that came before this. Next chapter will come soon. But as of now, reply below.