Author's note (just a quick one): Hello everyone! Sorry I meant to update this sooner, but with the holidays it's been a little crazy sometimes. Thank you all so much for your reviews, they mean a lot. I'm so glad you like the story (I've been working hard on it even though it wasn't updated as quickly as I would have liked). To anyone who has concerns about the characters names/genders I do apologize, and I do in fact know the correct names and so on...but it's a little late to change it now. I do plan on rewriting and updating the story at a later time, but for now it will have to do. I'm sorry if that bothers you. The reason I chose the names "Tim" and "Sheldon" is because I wanted to give a nod to Ice Age 3. ;)

Enjoy and thank you so much! More soon!

Chapter 10: Unexpected Connection

"Stars…

Are souls adrift,

Wandering the sky,

The night it tears them apart,

And yet it holds them near.

Woven, in a Heaven with no rift,

As our lives are too-yet we cry,

For sorrow, finds us from the start.

The cold wind whispers fear,

Always loss is near.

Forget not:

Hope…-"

Something cracked on loose ice.

"Oops…don't mind me. Please don't stop."

Shira whirled around, hackles stiff in surprise. She thought she had found solitude with the late hour. Her eyes squinted shut in what she hoped appeared as exasperation. None would see her tears.

"The last few lines escape me…"

A nervous chuckle displayed the sloth's own discomfort at finding the tigress awake…and singing. His eyes still lingered on an empty patch of sky, as if the lines from her song were hanging there. Still taking in the tune's simple beauty, the moving rise and fall of the notes, the pureness of the voice.

"Oh, I doubt that. You seem to have a good memory."

The sabers' eyes narrowed. Is that supposed to be a compliment? Why would he compliment me? I take that back-I bet he would compliment anyone.

"Why?"

"Well…you seem to remember disliking Diego well enough."

The sloth immediately realized he made a mistake as Shira stepped closer, her nose inches from his, her sabers glinting with moonlight, her eyes with threat.

"Don't push is sloth. There's nothing to remember." Her annoyance abruptly leapt inside to the threshold of fury. She wasn't sure where it came from, made no attempt to subdue it. "Why are we talking about me anyway? You're the one who lost someone!" The words came out menacingly, accusingly, as if it was somehow his fault…and as if she cared.

"I…I don't know. I've never felt so sad. Not even when my family abandoned me, and then Manny hated me, and Diego wanted to eat me…and when my family abandoned me again. I guess I shouldn't take it personally. Back then Manny didn't like anyone…and Diego wanted to eat everyone…and my family abandoned Granny too."

A connection. Not one she wanted to feel with the dense, fetid creature that had interrupted her glimpse at her own grief, but one that was present all the same. Abandoned. Actually, I was a bit more than just abandoned. Order? Choice? Abandoned? Choice is the official story, but the truth is a bit deeper, a bit harder to understand, a bit more painful. Today had given a sharp reminder of that.

An angry howl declared Gutt's return to the top decks.

"Is this how I'm repaid? I give you one rule. One! Stay out of my cabin!"

All eyes turned to the ape, all perplexed at the unwarned storm of his mood, all unable to predict his next move. Granny was shaking, withered in his grasp. Alternating prattling nonsense with demands for freedom as if her thoughts were running into each other to exit.

"He's crazy! Hey! Put me down! All traps and terrible words! That cabin could be a human cave! Don't squeeze me…no light! You could at least pick rocks that match your ugly table!"

"Let Granny go!" Sid raced forward, only to be toppled by a stray banana, which launched Sid backwards, and the fruit forwards. If it had been aimed it would not have hit Gutt more squarely in the nose, spattering his eyes with small slimy flecks. Automatically his free arm scratched to liberate his vision. His growls, first only aggravated, enraged as Maggy, still holding her staff, cracked it along his knuckles.

"Take that banana breath!"

Shock at the audacity dropped the old sloth, but wrath picked her up and hurled her with all the madness of the Captian's boiling rage. Maggy flew across the deck, crashing into the mast before becoming entrapped in loose netting. Her stick skidded far, but not far enough. Gutt pursued it with manic enthusiasm as if he prized punishing it more than its wielder.

Commotion below. It took Diego a moment to register the scene playing out beneath him. I have to get down there. Climbing will take too long to help. The cat's head twisted to take in all options. Jumping into the ropes will only cut them. He had to jump to the smaller mast at the stern, from there the ice of the boat itself was high enough that he could leap down. His muscles tensed for the leap.

"I don't think pussycats were meant for flying."

Diego's eyes suddenly burned as the blue feet of a gull swooped in and gouged at them. The tiger swatted blindly, roaring with pain. His head ducked to parry further blows. Pricks in his left side and accented chuckles told him that Gupta had joined in-and was having fun apparently.

"Maybe the Captain will let me have you for a piñata! My birthday is coming up! Haha! What?"

For a half-second Spi's rasping cries and pale feet paused in their bombardment. He was probably rolling his eyes in response to his egocentric companion. Diego didn't care what it was. There was no running start. No cool calculation of the jump. Simply the need to see it through, get to his friends. He knew he could make it. He also knew that "could" is no guarantee, his senses were unsurprised when he began to fall. His target moved as the entire ship creaked, rocking with an unexpected force.

Manny's trunk was secured by a rope that had been frozen into an ice block, enough reign to work, enough weight to hold him back. His air supply cut off as he strained against it, determined to get to Sid and his grandmother. She was struggling with the net as Sid got to her.

"Granny! Granny calm down! I'm here-I'll get you out. Stop moving!"

"No! No! I'll get myself out! Sidney it's dark in here! Like that monkey cave…all nasty. Smelly. Fits 'im perfect!"

"Oh does it? Thank you for the quite flattering review of my modest abode."

Sid held the squirming mass of old net and sloth tight as the ape stood over them. He gulped as he offered an olive branch.

"She…could give your whole ship a glowing review I'm sure…hehe."

"Hmm…tempting offer. I have a counter proposition. I'll review this fabulous stick of hers."

"Precious! Precious! Get your filthy mitts off my fashion sense!" Maggy's wriggling became more frenzied. Eyes narrow and feisty. "Let me at 'im!"

"Fashion sense?" Gutt slapped his knee as he chortled. "Do you think the plank will make a good runway? I only have one word to say about your…twig. Broken." The wood was smashed in from the ends, splintering with a final crack. The powerful hands let it fall as easily as they had destroyed it. Without hesitation the ape shuffled over to his supplies, seeming to loose interest in the elderly sloth and her stick. Maggy fell forward as Sid let her go to the contorted remains of her only possession. She was silent. Huddled with it like a child in the cold. Shivering. Defeated. Her grandson slid down to join her, putting his arms around her shoulders and cooing comforting words. She had always been there to comfort him when he was small, but he felt useless in his attempts to return that consoling feeling, to make it all better. He couldn't. He began to sob as Maggy mumbled "Precious, Precious," without shedding a tear for her timber friend. Slowly her words were coming back to her. Whatever soothing things Sid had said she passed on to the stick, eventually crowning it with the necklace she had stolen from the dank cavern beneath them.

"There now Precious, you look so pretty. Much more stylish now."

She didn't pay any heed when the shadow of Gutt loomed over once more. He picked her up again, almost cradled her.

"Put her down!" Manny cried over the din of Sid's wails, the pirates on deck, and noise from the rigging. Diego was being attacked overhead.

"Shhh…" Gutt held a finger to his expressive lips, a façade of innocence, and a touch of annoyance. "You'll frighten the poor old girl." He gently carried her to the boat's side. An icy coracle waited, ropes ready to lower it into the sea. The ape placed her in the middle. "Let it not be said that Captain Gutt put undue stress on any wenches. Madame, you are relived from service here." Granny seemed unaware of the event unfolding around her. She was reunited with her stick. She was happy. What a nice monkey. Gutt began tumbling various fruits around her.

"Here now, we wouldn't want you to get hungry would we?" He stroked her thinning, purple fur. "There, there. Now, does Granny want a little vacation? Haha."

"Ooo…would I!" Maggy danced around with trusting delight. "Precious is coming too!"

"Oh yes."

Sid had ceased crying.

"Aww can we all go? I'm coming Granny!" He whipped his nose with a paw and dashed towards her before tripping on Gutt's outstretched foot.

"Sorry, only room for one."

Sid removed his face from the ice, stuck to his moist nose.

"No! Granny! Come to Sid!"

"No way! This is my first real vacation decades!"

The parting Manny knew he was about to witness cut to his foundations. Fortune wanted to tear them all apart. Not again. Not Granny. This horrible boat was better than the open ocean. It was dry, had food, water, shelter. Just to survive with the status quo until landfall could be made. Sid's grandmother was being set afloat on an ice slab with none of those things, save enough food to only prolong death, make his coming harder to bear. Maggy's blissful shock would fade to hunger, thirst, and burning. It would almost be better for her to wander off the ice and drown in her ignorance, never to meet the real enemies of a body at sea, the ones that make you beg to die. The cruelty of it all was her childish acceptance. Something in her mind broke with her staff. Gutt's meticulous nature saw this, changed tactics in a blink to capitalize this, gain all the entertainment he could. A sardonically gentle and doting method of sending an aged, mentally crippled lady to find her demise in the unforgiving waters. The mammoth felt his heart deaden. No! He strained against the rope, couldn't breath. He told himself it didn't matter. His trunk curled around the knot and pulled.

"Shira!"

"Yes Captain?"

"You've been sneaking around all day. Well now I've got a job for you-lucky girl! Come here."

"Yes, Captain."

"Bite this rope."

Shira glanced sidelong at Sid, now entrapped between Tim's flippers and making unidentifiable blubbering sounds. Tim was sobbing right along with him, using Sid's arm to clean his face, even as Sid used Tim as a living nose wipe. Through all the snot and tears she could see the sloth's eyes. The eyes of a creature who knows they are about to lose someone, someone they love-even if that love was never altogether understood or appreciated. The universal language that is seen through those tiny windows of us all.

"Shira! Bite it!"

A crashing sound was driven out of the mast, forcing the ship into an unplanned angle. The mammoth had hurled the block of ice meant to control him, fracturing the mast. A second disruption came from upper skeleton of the ship. Rigging was slithering down from the heights-cut?

Manny wasn't thoroughly proud of his throw, but there was little way to control it. It sent a message. All he could really take in at the moment was breath. Gutt stood to full height, choosing to ignore the chaos around though it greatly disturbed him. He glowered at the hesitance of the tiger before him. He mouthed his order a final time. She glanced overboard, conflicted, scared, then steeled. She bit the cord. An instant before Manny caught Maggy's giddy grin and the jingling of his charm necklace around the battered shaft of "Precious." An instant later Gutt's interest had turned to him.

The other pirates were simply laughing. Well, most of them. Sheldon was hiding in the food, and Tim was still crying. Spi and Gupta had now joined the rest of the crew on deck, were standing over a recumbent Diego. Gutt's laugh was angry and menacing as he strolled towards Manny. Shira dared a look down to the sea. The sloth was being swept away even faster than she had expected. Please be in the right current. She felt like wrenching. Never had she been a part of so monstrous a deed, even if she had tried to fix it. She was cold, no feeling other than nausea at the sickening sweetness of the execution Gutt had concocted on a whim. She had been part of it. Whatever his aim was with these animals, it was driving a newfound creativity that burned in the darkest part of his being. Shira reeled at the horror of what it might ask of her, the horror of what she might become. Why did it take this shock to see from the outside in? She was always in the small comfort of her heart, seeing herself and others from its safety. Now it was slipping away in the numbness of the truth, the deadness overrunning her spirit-her survival of all the bitterness, all the sorrow she carried, much of it not even hers. Maybe it is the only way to survive it all. Maybe this is what it felt like to be…no!

"How do I know she's alive? How do I know she's ok? I can't, I can't!" More screams in the night echoed in the cave. Sobs. Shira didn't like to hear them.

"Soto?"

"Mmmff…yeah?" Her brother rolled over to face her.

"Can I sleep closer to you?"

"Sure kitty."

She crawled to his side, snuggled into his longer fur. The calmness of his heartbeat slowed hers. Her mother's heartbeat was never soft anymore. Always racing, frantic. Another wail sent a strange sensation through Shira's body and she tried not to cry.

"Will she ever be better?"

"Of course she will…don't let father know that you heard. It would make him sad. He only has room to worry for one."

Perhaps Soto was right, but he had a way of always making things out to be better than they actually were. Maybe he would have been more comforting if he was fully awake. His eleven seasons made him seem mature to Shira's five. That and the trust of a sort only siblings can have. Built on reassurances in the dark. Still, she didn't like the way her mother looked at her now. Her eyes now possessed a hollow madness, devoid of the love she once knew, or that she thought she knew.

"Your name is Sid, right?"

He sighed in the affirmative. Shira wanted to tell him how sorry she was. She wanted to tell him that she had delayed severing the fatal cord until the ship had drifted over a current, a current that would just give his grandmother a chance. Something in her couldn't. Not yet. So she listened as he listed his favorite things about his thrice lost family member, which bled into tales of his other adventures, some of them actually impressive if they were true. The sabress didn't want to talk to this strange creature she had so hurt today, who seemed to be forgiving her through his conversation. Yet she would not forgive herself. So she listened to him. It was a step in the right direction, an unexpected connection.