Another fine ramble on something I don't own.
Eddie woke up alone in the woods. Very slowly and very quietly he scanned the surrounding area for Emma. He couldn't believe his luck, he seemed to be alone. He covered his mouth with his paws to keep from shouting with excitement and pulled himself up to quietly tip toe away.
Suddenly there came a deafening scream from behind. Eddie dropped to the floor instinctively playing dead; she wasn't far off, not far enough anyway. He risked taking a peek; there was still no sign of her, he picked himself up and ran like he had never run before. Sure she looked nice, sure she could kiss but there was no excusing that mad domineering, obsessive behaviour! He had to get away and never look back lest she catch him again with that whole 'fem fatale' thing she had going for her.
Eddie ran flat out for a whole ten minutes, jogged for a further two, walked for five more and then crawled as far as he could before climbing a tree and collapsing with exhaustion. (That's what you get for getting others to carry you everywhere, very unfit) Panting hard and eyes blurry with blood rushing to his head; Eddie scanned the forest floor to see if he was being followed. The coast was still mercifully clear, he was safe, for now. He relaxed against the tree trunk to let himself recover for the next mad dash. This was going to get harder, the open valley floor stretched out before him now with his herd and safety far away on the other side. He took a few deep breaths to prepare himself when he spotted a possum on a wolf coming this way.
'Ahh!' he thought and ducked into some leaves until they had passed. 'Of course she has that wolf to track me, I will never out run that'. Then he remembered all the litters of children she had planned for them, the years of entrapment 'I will run twice as far, at twice the speed and use every bit of cunning I have! I will get away!'
Eddie risked another glimpse to make sure she had indeed passed him by and scampered off zigzagging all over the place to confuse his tracks. He eventually made it back to his sister and his herd by morning.
Fleet lay down, she was tired out. "This is where we have been staying for a few days now, Emma's scent is still strong so she can't be too far off"
"You rest up" Crash replied "I'm going to scout the area for Eddie. If Emma asks tell her I'm not here, OK"
"Sure" Fleet let him get on with it she really didn't understand possum games.
Crash had not gone far when he found evidence of possum tracks. He followed them carefully. There were two sets, one was very strong and the other confused like the owner was being pulled, or maybe dragged along. Then there was a lot of disturbance and an Eddie shaped indentation in some snow. His outline was very clear like a 'CSI' chalk line where he had fallen flat into the snow and stayed still for a while melting the snow out from under him. Crash scratched his chin and thought hard. This was a mystery, where was Eddie? If she had hit him hard to create this 'splat' effect then where was he now? He crouched down to further examine the evidence, but being no good at tracking could pick out nothing more. He looked around for more clues and found lots of Eddie's tracks leading everywhere: back and forth, left, right up and down they went on endlessly, 'Emma must have sent him mad', "she'll pay for this!" Crash swore, shaking his fists to the heavens in a most dramatic way.
Fleet slept soundly as Crash carried out his useless investigations. Crash followed some more of Eddie's tracks up into a tree. From here he could see out over the valley, he observed no Eddie there, and all the way back to where Fleet slept. He spotted Emma, she was walking toward Fleet, her hands were balled into fists, her teeth gritted and a mini storm cloud hovered angrily above her head. He crept a little closer to see what he could find out.
Emma stomped over to Fleet and shook her awake "Fleet I lost Eddie; I need you to help me find him"
"Right now?"
"Yes I'm worried something bad has happened to him, I left him right here, then when I got back he was gone"
"But all of your friends tend to disappear"
"I don't mean that kind of gone, I mean the' got away' kind, and just when I was thinking about a new game to play too. Well no one ever gets away, not from me. We have to find him, make him grow up or else..."
Crash could take no more; he swung down on a vine under a hail of bombs going off all around. One of these sounded like a fire work which sent Fleet scampering.
"So it is you who is making my brother grow up, well forget about it, it is never going to happen not while I'm around to stop you" Eddie brought forth his slingshot and shot Emma squire in the chest with a puff ball mushroom. She coughed and spluttered as the spores cleared.
"Idiot!" She drew forth her musketeer type sword, very long and pointy, and ran straight for Crash "No one has ever dared challenge me"
Eddie avoided her charge
"I am going to get your brother and live happily ever after"
"I will never let that happen"
"Then I will have to dispose of you first!"
"I'd like to see you try! I have annoyed every type of mammal on this earth, and a few under it, and no one has ever made me come close to even apologizing yet alone stopping me."
"I will, mark my words this is war!" Emma sneered and ran at Crash again.
Crash leapt out of the way and pelted her with yet more bombs.
Emma threw down her sword and grabbed a long bow, she fired at Crash. Crash played dead letting the arrows whizz by over his fallen body. Emma cussed, she needed time to prepare for such a well armed, agile foe attacking with such hostility. She pulled a vine rope tied to a tree and revealed a trap door. "You may have caught me off guard this time, but when we next meet you won't be so lucky" she disappeared down her secret tunnel.
Crash tried to follow but tripped on a hidden wire, which released a tree branch suspended above his head. He ran out of the way as it fell but it rolled after him. He ran and ran till it eventually crashed into a tree and stopped. He stood there puffing hard, he would get his revenge later when Eddie was safe.
Eddie found Ellie, Manny and Peaches asleep under the nose of the whale shaped rock where they said they would be a night ago. 'They must be waiting for me' he thought and a sentimental tear welled up in his eye.
Peaches, of course, was already awake and wriggled out from her parents embrace to greet him with an over enthusiastic squeal of "Eddie!"
"Have I ever missed you!" Eddie squealed back and wrapped his arms around her as she wrapped her trunk around him.
Ellie woke up and also squealed "Eddieee!" before running over and hugging both him and Peaches with a mighty trunk, lifting them off of the ground.
Manny looked annoyed at being disturbed so early and huffed as cold air invaded the spot beside him after Ellie had rushed off.
Diego made quick note of the vacated warm spot and jumped down from his elevated den to sit discreetly beside Manny and absorb as much of that warmth as possible. Manny eyed him suspiciously, but was glad to not be the only one not gushing with love over Eddie and his momentary absence.
Eddie's tear over spilled at the family reunion "I'm never going to leave you guys, you're my family, you know that don't you?"
"Like you got a choice" said Ellie a bit over dramatically "We would never let you go"
"We might" Manny muttered to Diego, who chuckled. (Brothers in grump)
Ellie put Eddie and Peaches carefully down, and Peaches unwrapped herself from around Eddie so he could breathe again.
Eddie took a deep breath and wiped his nose across his sleeve.
"So tell us all about it then" Ellie said "How's it going?"
Eddie looked hard at Ellie, didn't she already know? Wasn't she the one stealing all the possum tree homes to stop this relationship in its tracks? Ellie's face was a picture of innocence; she was doing a good job of disguising the fact if she was. Maybe it was Manny. Eddie looked over to the big moody hairball still lying behind Ellie. Sure he acted all tough but he was quietly very sentimental. If he had done it then he wouldn't say a thing, so as not to let on that he in fact loved the possums awesomeness just as much as Ellie. That had to be it! Eddie stared at Manny looking for a clue to confirm this.
Manny wondered why Eddie was staring at him so hard and looked away uncomfortably. That stupid possum was going to be waiting a long time if he thought he was going to get a hug from this mammoth. As Manny glanced around for anything to distract him he couldn't help but notice Diego's disapproving glare.
"You dare get all slushy and I will have to slap some sense back into you" Diego whispered. After all it was meant to be them, the men, vs. the cuteness of the girls and the evil of the little misfits (Sid, Eddie and Crash).
"I would never!" Manny could not believe Diego thought he might be getting unduly mushy and countered his accusation by glancing down to a cub that had fallen free from the den and now sat companionably close to Diego. She was followed by another and soon another as they all wanted a piece of the lovely warmth left by Ellie. To Manny it appeared to be proof of Diego going soft, the end of their 'grumpy old men' club.
Diego saw Manny's point and dropped his disapproving look, "Touché, for now" He muttered and shuffled a bit to put some distance between himself and the kids. Maybe given the circumstances these things happened unintentionally. No matter they were still, the men, in the herd and they shuffled in unison to more macho positions.
Eddie wanted to be in the 'big boys' gang', but knew he would be mocked mercilessly for asking. Whatever Manny and Diego had, it was more than just height. It was a kind of sullenness that he could never posses, he sighed in resignation, it was probably a good thing that. But now he had to confess to his lack of girl friend and cowardly retreat and struggled to think of a butch way of phrasing it. "It was horrible!" He gushed in a childish whine, "She wanted us to live together in a house Ellie and have kids and be married and it was all so, so... awful"
Ellie had to wonder what Eddie had suspected from a relationship if he was so opposed to marriage, kids and togetherness "So, ah, is it all over then?"
"I'd say, Ellie she was sooo boring" Eddie whined on mercilessly That's all she is interested in stupid homes and families with loads and loads of babies. Eddie stood there awkwardly when he had finally finished. He was well aware that he was the only singleton in-between two (Mammoth and Saber) happy families and felt he might have to justify his decision a bit more if he wanted everyone to be on his side with this. "And she is bossy and way too rough and she is always dragging me around, look I think she even pulled my arm out of joint" He held up his arm which was a little bit bruised, but not much.
"Well you tried I guess" Ellie said trying to be sympathetic and not to patronising. "I'm sure when you meet the right girl you will want all that too. But for now I'm glad you're back, that was the most time away and we all missed you"
"Humph" Manny muttered, he was about to give his speech on 'If a girl likes you, you should really be grateful', but remembered how far he got with Sid on that and left it to Ellie to handle this. It was probably a lucky escape for the girl anyway considering what Eddie was like.
"Well that's it for me and growing up, I never want to leave you guy's ever. We have everything here fun, adventure, good times... Wait, talking of Crash where is he?"
"Oh he has been so lost without you; I have never seen him so distracted. He was all 'she is so not good enough for my brother!' and marched off with his new friend Fleet to find you"
"He did? I must have uh, just missed him" Eddie cursed how a like Crash looked to Emma. "I guess I better go get him"
"But you only just got back, can't we play first?" Peaches pleaded
"Not without Crash Peaches, I really have to go get him, but then we can play all you like OK? Anyway you have lots of new friends to chill with for now and I will be back soon"
Peaches looked a bit upset at not getting what she wanted.
"Come on Peaches" Ellie cooed "Why don't you show me your new friends? We will see Eddie and Crash later" Ellie lead Peaches back over to Manny and made to resume her favourite spot sitting beside him but found Diego had taken her place. They stared at each other a while, neither wanting to back down till Diego reluctantly gave in.
"Wait up Ed I've got to go get Sid, seeing as no one else seems remotely capable of being responsible around here anymore" He shot another look in Manny's direction." I'll walk with you some of the way" He stalked off after the possum.
"I can go" Manny offered half-hearted as Ellie sat back down beside him. It was still very early and he had had a very late night he still needed to recover from.
"Yeah right, with your track record, No. You two just stay here and play with the kids, this has gone on long enough already" Diego said as he went to leave, "Don't lose any of my kids while I'm gone" He said looking back at Manny, "Or break any of them" He glanced at Ellie.
"We won't" Ellie replied dryly, and decided against any of her more physical games to entertain the kids with.
Diego walked a few more steps then looked back again. No one had moved an inch; they just stared after him and Eddie, hoping they would leave already.
"Come on Diego today already" Eddie said impatiently, Diego was meant to be saving him time and energy with a lift, not holding him up.
Diego tried again, but could not let the cubs that he had now fought so hard for out of his sight "Wait" He called to Eddie to stop," I will get Sid then Crash if you will look after the kids and Manny, especially Manny, while I'm gone"
"If you get Crash then Sid we have a deal"
"Sid is far more hopeless on his own, he has to come first"
"No you don't understand this girl is crazy, Crash needs to be got safe first"
"Fine, you look after the cubs and..."
"Wait, I know that look, you're going to get Sid first hoping I will never know"
"But then Sid can help you here, while I concentrate all my efforts on saving Crash. If she is as crazy as you then it might take a while and Manny is hard work lately, so it's a good plan"
"Crash first or I go myself, just give me lift for some of the way"
"Fine then I'm taking the kids with me and we are going to be that much slower, probably slower than me doing it all my way"
"So be it, but I'm not walking all that way and Sid is not coming before Crash ever"
They glared at each other determined not to back down.
Diego called back to the cubs "Everyone with me! Now! Including you!" He motioned to Peaches who excited at the prospect of adventure tripped over her own feet to catch up.
"Oh come on we can be trusted with our own kid" Manny shouted.
"No you can't" Diego corrected and turned again to go feeling much better with this decision. Eddie hopped up onto his shoulder relived for the rest and to finally get going.
"Should we not go too?" Ellie wondered out loud.
"What, and miss this opportunity to be alone?" Manny said having found a good side to this situation. "It has been ages since we've been in a total kid free situation, let's make the most of it"
"Well, you do make that sound very tempting"
Breezy walked beside Diego with Peaches."Where are we going?" she began, when there was an almighty "Oomph" as Peaches fell on her chin beside her. Diego looked around at Steve giggling, that trip trick worked every time! There was another "bumph" As Ari tripped Steve and a lot more giggling was heard. Diego tried to ignore the whacks, thumps and crashes that followed as revenge attacks and all manner of fights broke out in the train of kids behind.
"Manny won't be too happy with your kids playing so rough with Peaches" Eddie said.
"Every one stop fighting and walk quietly, the stupid possum does not like any play" Diego shouted back. Everything fell silent, "wow, that was easy"
"No" Eddie replied looking back "They are just fighting so hard that they have fallen way behind and you can't hear them anymore"
Diego looked back, even Breezy was fighting. This wasn't ever going to work. "Fine I'll leave them with Manny" They all headed back.
Manny and Ellie were enjoying a little hug when Peaches came bouncing back with her friends and they were forced to quickly pretend nothing was going on.
"Change of plan" Diego announced oblivious to the mammoths "Peaches is in charge. I will go get Sid with Steve, so there is no fighting and we will all be back soon. See ya"
"And me?" Breezy called
"No you can stay here and talk to Manny, he is actually better at the pointless moodiness thing than me so you will like him. Also he needs someone reminding him of how wrong he is all the time so knock yourself out."
Steve poked his tongue out at Peaches for being out of the mission. Peaches glared back determined not to be out for long.
Breezy also looked a bit put out at being left behind but brightened up when she saw how angry Manny was. He looked like he needed her company, so she sat beside him and began her line of constant questioning "So what is it like being food?"
Five seconds later Manny almost threw her after Diego.
"The food said I really should stick with you"
"Fine just stay quiet"
"Good he's gone" Manny said when he was sure Diego was beyond turning back again.
"Can't we go and help dad?" Peaches pleaded, she couldn't believe she was being excluded from another outing
"Not not this time, they have issues that go way deeper than we really need to know" Manny replied.
"And we have so much of our own fun to get through" Ellie chimed delighted. "Let's play 'Mr. Wolf'! It has been for ever since I last played that one"
"Mr. what" the kids all responded at the out dated game.
"What? None of you know that one? Well I will have to teach you then"
Manny listened to the rules and as always found something to worry about "How about a nice quiet game? Like tidily-winks or sleeping lions? Something that doesn't involve everyone running around and getting lost"
"Boring" said Ellie and Peaches together.
"You're in charge Hon, so what would you and your friends like to do?" Ellie asked.
"Follow the leader and I'm first" Peaches said and begun a complicated routine of line dance manoeuvres hoping to bore her parents into going to save Sid "Dad you have to play as well"
"No Dad will just watch and make sure we don't lose anyone" Everyone glared at him "Fine I guess I can play a bit. But we are to stay here so stop side stepping out after Diego!"
Peaches cussed, she was figured out already. She stopped drifting off after Diego with everyone following lead and thought hard for a new plan.
"Well this is my stop" Eddie announced. "Good luck with Sid, he is pretty upset with you you know"
"Yeah well, good luck with your brother and too bad with that girl thing"
"Well I'm not really that bothered; I mean I was never going to fall for the first girl I met on a desperate whim. I am going to wait for the right girl to come along and then make my move"
"Yeah like me...and Sid I guess"
"Ah, like you guy's?... Maybe I'm being a bit hasty, I mean she can kiss and she don't look half bad and now that I concider the alternatives" Eddie scampered off putting as much distance between himself and Diego as possible.
Peaches thought of a plan, it wasn't complicated, she whispered to Isla "I need you guys to distract my parents"
"Why?"
"Because I need to help rescue my uncle Sid. I've done it before and know that he can be a handful lately"
"Sounds dangerous this Sid, what can we do to help?"
"I need you to keep distracting my parents so I can disappear a while unnoticed, it won't be easy"
"We can handle it" Isla said confidently, after all food was dumb. "We can play tag, with all these boulders to hide behind they won't know where you are"
"Yeah leave this to us" Ari added eager to lead this mission, "We will have them running around confused for ages, they will never know you're gone"
Manny noticed Peaches latest game, "Now I can't count how many cubs there are" He moaned as a few too many dashed after Peaches between some boulders and out of sight "That's not the same as saying they look the same" He quickly pointed out to Ellie, "So it's not spiciest. I just like to know we have them all that's all"
"I think you're worrying too much" Ellie sighed
"Believe me I'm not, now help me count!"
"If it will make you feel better. You count that way and I will count these"
"I have three, how about you?"
"I have two, wait there's another, now how many is that?"
"Not enough"
"Well how many should we have?"
"A lot more. Do you think Diego's going to be much longer?" Manny said looking desperately to Ellie.
"Honestly?" Ellie sighed again, "Oh come on just try to relax and enjoy yourself for once, all this worried concern all of the time isn't good for you"
"You're right" Manny took on a commanding voice to sort this out once and for all "Now stand still all of you, is there anyone missing?"
"Relax" Ellie said again "I just counted twelve"
"So, did we gain two? No Diego took Two so we would have gained four!"
"Manny we have more than enough! So loosen up already"
"It's working!" Ari confirmed, now it was time for stage two "Peaches tag your Mum, we need to get them separated, then you can disappear while we will do the rest"
Peaches snuck up behind Ellie, 'tag' you're 'it' mum!" She giggled and raced away.
"Oh I'm so not! Come here!" Ellie ran in after Peaches
"You are it and you can't take it!" Ellie was taunted by horrible little voices from all around.
"You guys are so in for it now, I'm going to tag all of you, I own this game!"
"Ellie! No! Don't get separated from me!" Manny called desperately after her.
I Have to tag someone first! It's bad juju otherwise!
"No Ellie, you're falling into their trap"
"They're just kids Manny! And I never lose!"
"Peaches make them and your mum stop! Where are you Peaches? Ellie? Where is anyone?" Manny stood alone talking to himself
"Now while your Dad's looking away!" Ari said.
Peaches disappeared after Diego, sure her last adventure took a bit longer than expected but she had done this before and knew what she was doing so this was different. She would be back before anyone noticed she was gone, self assured she tiptoed off, in the wrong direction.
Soon enough Diego found Sid's smell and followed it to the source. Sid was being used as bate in the most obvious trap Diego had ever seen. He couldn't be sure how many mammoths were guarding him, but was sure that they had to be quite simple as Sid smelt less appetising than most carrion.
"Steve I'm going to need you to go over there and get Sid"
Steve looked over at Sid; he was sat ten meters away at the back of an enclosure made up of rocks and trees. It seemed easy enough to walk over to him but why were they all crouched down and whispering? He felt sure Diego would brief him fully on everything he needed to know; maybe they were just being extra cautious. "OK"
"You're going to have to use all your powers of cute like before to convince him to come back, don't take it personally, he's just stubborn like that"
"I know" 'So this is the hard part', he thought 'Sid doesn't want to come back'
Diego looked hard at Steve, could he pull this off? Was he still cute? He was a bit dirty. "Now understand I never wanted to have to do this, but I'm going to have to clean you up" They both grimaced. "Hold still"
Once done, Steve looked very white and his nose extra pink.
"Now curl your paw when you talk" Diego advised the cub "Do the big sparkly eyes thing and if he still won't come, lick him right on the nose, or cheek, or both, that will win him over for sure"
"Got it"
"Off you go then"
Steve marched out in a straight line over to Sid. He was fine while he walked over the snowy patches, but stood out like a walking snowball on the green otherwise. Diego watched for any movement.
"Why have you made him go? That looks like a trap to me" Breezy asked unsure if she would do or order that herself.
"He is scouting it out" Diego said, he could tell she was not at all happy with this "I will get him if anything happens" he added in a childish tone, as if he would be that mean.
Sid watched his cub approach, frantically he tried to wriggle to tell him it was a trap, to shoo him away. All this looked like he was having a fit.
'He is just being stubborn, he still loves me', Steve remembered, so continued on. 'What if he has forgotten who I am?' Steve suddenly thought. 'He must be real scared cos I look like a real lion now, I will lick him, then he will remember'
What do we do now? Stampede the little cub? A random mammoth I shall call Giles asked Mick. The mammoths had been waiting for hours for anything to investigate their cunning trap, so although disapointing, this cub was at least something of a result.
Mick replied,"Hold your ground lads, I'm sure the big game is yet to come"
Steve stood right beside Sid, he held his paw neatly curled round up and looked at Sid with big wet twinkly eyes.
Sid stared side to side, thank goodness no one was attacking but his Snowball was in danger! Why was Diego not taking better care of him? Sid tried to motion to shoo him away again and mumbled some more indistinguishable nonsense through the gag.
Steve, ignoring Sid's nonsence, stood up using Sid's shoulder for support and licked him right on the nose. He then waited for his foster parent to hopefully remember him.
"Nu ot to et owto ere" Sid mumbled
This sounded nothing like 'wow did I miss you'. Steve was not sure what to do next he looked back to Diego in hope that he might shout another suggestion. Could they not just drag Sid back and make him want them again? after all what was the point of having all these teeth and claws if you couldn't use them to make people do what you wanted? ~after the cute act had been tried of course.
Diego cussed a bit, why was Steve not breaking the ropes? He thought seriously about sending Breezy in, she could up the cute factor and she was smart enough to untie Sid. He felt too guilty.
"Wait here. If anything goes wrong, like me getting trampled to a pulp then I want you to run back and tell Manny..."
"Manny is the big food we don't eat right, do they all have names? Only there is a lot of them" She rushed in after having been silent for so long.
"Enough already, Manny is the big fat one. Just tell him I died doing his job. Make sure he feels really bad then he will take care of you lot till your parents return"
"Are you really going to get trampled?"
"I doubt it, but you never know" Diego casually walked over into the trap.
"There I told you the rest would appear, patience lads their might be the rest of the pack yet to come" Mick whispered confidently.
"What if those two eat the bait?" Giles asked
"We can hope lads, we can hope"
Diego walked slowly waiting for anything to happen. There was nothing, only some rustling and maybe a whisper. He relaxed, the mammoths were holding their ground for now, so long as he didn't make any sudden moves they would wait poised. He sat down pretending to be unaware of them and snapped Sid's gag with a claw. Still nothing happened. It was just as he suspected, mammoths were greedy beggars and would always hope for more to come.
Sid gasped "IT'S A TRAP!" his voice echoed around the valley.
"No it's not" Diego said very calmly when it had all quietened down again.
"Yes it is" Sid said very matter of fact and hysterically loud
"No it's not" Diego said in a low firm growl. "Now you're scaring Steve"
"Oh sorry Snow...Steve? I'm gone five minutes and you rename my Snowball!"
"Steve" Diego corrected "That's his name, I don't like it either but at least I don't feel so stupid saying it"
"You hate my choice in names! Well despite the lack of nasty traps around here maybe you guy's wouldn't mind moving along anyway, I'm kind 'a busy you know"
"What are you doing Sid? Your all tied up..." Steve started before Diego shushed him.
"We need to talk Sid and then we will go"
"Now's a bad time, because of being in the middle of a trap, as well as personal stuff"
Diego continued to talk calm "Personal stuff? Like what?"
"You know respect issues, stolen family grief, not being needed by anyone yet again, that kind of stuff"
"And you get respect and all that over there with your new friends?"
"I might do"
"Really" Diego looked at Sid's vine ropes; they were tied by someone who was clearly very angry at the time.
"Uh..." Sid looked at the tight knots too "I guess things could be better, but isn't that the case where ever these days" He threw his head back looking away dramatically.
"Oh" Diego realised he was going to have to work a bit harder than he had expected. "Well things haven't been the same since, you know, you..."
"Haven't been the same how?"
"Things haven't been so... great... since..."
"Haven't they? Really? You never said"
"Never got the chance, I've been kind of busy"
"Yeah I heard about that. I heard you had expanded 'your' family and stuff and were having a great time, I heard things were going really well for you without me"
"No, you know I hate kids. It's been hell"
"Explains why you look like hell, you could have tried brushing your hair this week"
"Really? After what I've been though that is the last thing on my mind, anyway look at you..."
"Ah, getting off subject there, if you want to convince me to come back anytime soon then you better get right back to the begging and pleeding"
"Right... Sid I'm... sorry I helped. I ruined your whole parent adventure thing"
"I know and how did you ruin it?"
"Made it my nightmare"
"Right again. You came barging in with your strict rules and rigorous lessons and took over, stomped all over my...
"Yeah OK I get it, so I'm not even going to try to help anymore I will just leave you too..."
"You were worse than Manny..."
"Alright already I said I quit, stop going on about it. I'm sorry now come back and look after these stupid kids"
"Well... I guess things weren't so bad" Sid contemplated his options and decided he still didn't feel appreciated enough "But they could have been a lot better, so no"
"No? I said sorry now come back"
"No"
"Why not?"
"There is no way you will ever let me do things my way. You still think that you know best and will keep interfering"
"I won't"
"How do I know that? My methods are pretty unique to the untrained eye"
"I can stay, fifty miles away"
"Not good enough, you have to change"
"No"
"There you see"
"OK then, how?"
"You have to be fully supportive of all my decisions on how I want to bring them up"
"OK"
"I want to bring them up vegetarian like me"
Diego grimaced, but thought "It should be only one more day that that I have Sara's kids for and handing them back hungry would be great, so it's just Steve here who is really going to suffer with this and I can live with that'
Sid waited patiently for an answer knowing Diego was thinking of a way around this somehow, he would have to demand a bit more to keep him in line if he agreed, after all it was about time he made life challenging for him again.
"Fine, but..."
"And you have to be vegetarian too, like me"
"Ah, I can't"
"Can't or wont?"
"Both, I mean it's physically impossable"
"Then I will just stay put then thanks, it's all or nothing in this relationship and life with my mammoth vegetarian kids is just great right now"
"Haven't you been banned for interfering yet?" Diego sighed deeply irritated that this was going on so long.
"There you go, doubting my parenting skills, again"
"Yes he has!" Giles the random Mammoth said from his random hiding place.
Both Sid and Diego ignored him.
"Then can't the just the kids suffer?"
"No. I have to know that you're going to support me properly this time. You're going to have to prove to me that you mean it"
"..."
Sid saw that he needed a little room for compromise on this, after all he did want his herd back. "Look, I will look after your kids..."
"They are not..."
"Whatever, I am doing you a big favour here"
"But you like kids!"
"Sure I do, but I would still be helping you"
"I have only got them at all because of you. Where do you think all that milk came from? So they are your kids, all of them, so go and look after them, now!"
"The saber is getting angry at the bait" Giles cautioned Mick who he felt was waiting too long. "So there is only one sabre, it is still the dangerous one with the ginger stripe. Shall we close in and get him?" Giles suggested trying to egg Mick on.
"Let's see what happens" Mick said captivated by the whole scenario. "These predators don't behave at all like I expected. Perhaps there's a lot we need to learn"
Diego was fed up arguing. Steve had fallen asleep. It wasn't as if Sid could watch him day and night anyway, so he would do like he has always done and sneak off at night to eat, big deal. He would have the last laugh ultimately when Sid saw he was wrong and Steve got sick on a diet of love and leaves.
"OK fine, I will do it, so long as I don't have anything more to do with any kids what so ever as long as I live"
Now Sid thought hard, he would have to keep watch and make sure, but now he could at last be the parent he always wanted to be "OK, I will come back with you guys"
Diego snapped a vine holding Sid tied with a claw and Sid wiggled out of his ties and brushing his fur out again "Ah look, the little guys fallen asleep, must be all the excitement of me coming back" he knelt to pick Steve up "Oh boy has he grown" Sid gasped as he struggled to pick Steve up, he heard his back crunch, and stumbled as he carried him.
Diego really wanted to get back today so stopped to let Sid jump up for a ride back. Sid did not need to be asked he just climbed aboard automatically
"Is that the way they usually carry their prey off?" Giles asked confused
"I'm not at all sure; maybe he wants to keep it fresh" Mick replied.
"Fresh? They don't come any fresher than that stinker! Why are we letting them go?"
"Because we are too bewildered to do anything but let them go!" Mick snapped. He needed a plan, so quickly devised a very cunning one "We will follow him back to the lair! That's it! Then we will get him and the rest! Come on lads, real sneaky like!" They all prepared to follow the saber.
Diego paused where he had left Breezy "Oi, we're going"
Breezy had also started to doze while waiting for the rescue to ever finish and wobbled sleepily out.
"Is that it?" Sid reached down and scooped her up. "You know" Sid said as Diego walked them back "The way Manny was going on I thought you had hundreds"
"I do, I left the rest with Manny"
"I really wouldn't want to trust Manny with my kids..."
"I know. I didn't, Peaches is in charge"
Oh, that's ok then. Now I'm not saying that he is a bad parent or anything!
"I know"
"I just wouldn't leave him with any kid of mine"
"Ditto" (Ghost fluff)
No one noticed the line of mammoths tiptoeing behind.
Mean while the cubs were losing to Ellie, even their ability to look identical and cheat was failing against her skill. They needed a new course of action and fast if they were going to cover for Peaches as promised. Ari got a plan, it wasn't subtle, "We will handle the big one while you girls get the other"
The cubs separated into teams.
"Ellie help they've got me surrounded" Manny yelped as a gang of serious looking tykes approached him in a very non-playful, nor cute kind of way.
"You're exaggerating!" Ellie called back "They're kids Manny, just try and have fun with them" She reached to tag a cub but missed for the umpteenth time and cussed beneath her breath. This was so hard what with them being so short!
"I'm scared, can't you help?" Manny's frightened voice called back.
In a minute! Right after I tag... Ellie tripped over a well concealed cub and fell, other cubs leapt on top of her carrying vines in their mouths. Soon she was tied tight.
Mean while the boy cubs surrounded Manny and advanced prowling forwards on him, Manny had said that he wouldn't hurt or break them but they were acting very professionally, they were not being fair. He was soon up against a wall "Nice kids, now go back over there and play hide and seek, I will shut my eyes and count to ten..."
The girl cubs having secured Ellie jumped (Thanks to Peaches showing them how to get up) from a boulder onto Manny's back trailing vines trailing behind them. They threw the vines down to the boys who whizzed around Manny's legs tangling him up completely.
"We win!" Ari said triumphantly as he sat on top of the fallen Manny .The other cubs were dragging Ellie, the lighter one, over to where he sat.
"We were playing tag" Ellie stated.
"Were we?" Ari said in a tone that matched his father's (Or Soto's) sly manner.
"Who's paranoid now?" Manny asked Ellie, to empathises how right he was "See I told you not to get separated, but no"
"Alright already" Ellie sighed "where is Peaches?"
She went to help save Sid Cai stated to a hail of 'tutts' from the other cubs
Don't tell them that it was meant to be a secret Isla scolded him.
"No it wasn't"
"Yes it was, we were meant to distract them while she went"
We did! Now they can't stop her, we win! No one ever said that we had to keep the plan secret Cai said adamantly.
"That's right" Cai's brother Zan agreed. "Still it sounds a bit cheesy giving away our mission like that"
"Who cares when we won?"
"Yeah we are soooo good!" Aida sung as she twirled around excited at winning "Mission accomplished with loads of time to spare! we are the best!"
"So what shall we do now?" Tala asked
"We could play Bouncy castles again" Lars suggested, that had been fun last time Manny visited.
Manny winced at the memory.
"Let's make them tell us stories!" Tala suggested
"No let's bury them!" Cai counter suggested
"Why?"
"Why not?"
"It would take all week is why not you stupid boy. Let's make them tell us stories"
"While we dig"
"And we bounce!" Lars said
"No, we have got to stop Peaches you don't understand" Manny begged.
"We promised and she is sort of like the leader" Ari said from his seat on Manny's back."Sorry"
"She is with Diego and he will look after her I'm sure" Ellie said to reassure Manny yet again.
Manny struggled against his bonds but he was going nowhere. "I guess, but who will look after us?"
Peaches didn't know where she was. She was scared. There was a strange scent around her and the ground felt funny under her feet. She wiped away the snow a bit. It wasn't ground at all but wispy branches and twigs covering over a very deep chasm. (A man made pit trap) She was too small to fall through but tiptoed carefully back to terra firma to be safe. This was not the right way. She would have to double back to where her dad was and start again when she got her sense of direction back. There was a rustle from some foliage beside her. She waited, then wished she hadn't. Four big saber toothed tigers stepped out towards her.
to be continued...
Sorry for a few errors but my pc is still mucking me around.