Xion the Author: OMG…
Sid: What happened?
Xion the Author: I forgot to add a really important scene! Oh no! Hmmm… I think I'll just think of another way of putting it in…
Diego: What scene was it?
Xion the Author: It was where Eli and Peaches saw the "aiujkhfdnaiunewicu" hehe no way am I spoiling. In any case, you can all go on reading the new chapter!
ICE AGE JOURNEYS: RAISING A CUB
Chapter X: Lost Along the Way
"Aaaaaaahhh!" Peaches and Crash screamed their hearts out as they were carried across the air by a pair of giant birds. It was over 3m long from wing to wing. One carried Peaches on one side while one in the other.
Flik watched and flew along behind them. Behind him were the two birdbrain followers namely Russel and Butch, who were watching him in case he might do anything suspicious.
Not long after a few minutes of flight, Peaches could see a tall dark mountain that loomed over the entire forest. It was surrounded with tall dark caverns at the top, and Peaches wouldn't be surprised that it would be their headquarters.
It had been a long time since Flik had been there. It was filled with thoughts of old dreams and memories he tried to forget.
Peaches were thrown down on a clear landing spot a few meters away. The giant birds continued flying towards the dark cavern. Flik flew to them instantly to check up on them.
"Are you all okay?" worried Flik.
"I'm fine" said Peaches, getting up almost as if nothing happened. "I'm tougher than I look"
"The Don is this way. Follow us" said Butch. The two crows flew slowly as the group followed them into the dark corridor.
The moonlight shone through tiny holes, and seldom reflected on the eyes of birds that were watching them. Crash fainted instead of simply pretending to be dead. Peaches tried to avert her eyes from their glare. Suddenly, one particular bird flew right past her swiftly, which made her gasp in surprise. The evil crows and vultures that watched laughed at them.
Finally, they reached a corner where huge pillars of rocks were set beside each other. On top of the highest pillar was what Peaches thought might be the highest in rank in all of the birds. She could see their giant captors and the crows that led them bowed down before him.
The vulture flew down swiftly in front of them. Though Crash and Peaches blocked their eyes from the sudden gust, Flik remained staring at him. The vulture had a scar across his beak, the darkest of black feathers, and eyes that seemed to glow red when reflected in the light.
"Welcome back, Flik" the voice said in a low yet menacing voice that chilled them to the spine before revealing itself from the bright moonlight that peered through a hole in the ceiling.
"Leave my friends alone, Ricardo" Flik said boldly.
"Your, friends?" said Ricardo as he walked around them. Crash shivered on top of Peaches while she acted brave in front of them. "How may I ask did you end up meeting them?"
"That's none of your business" Flik replied.
"Still stubborn as usual, I see. I suppose you're still not going to tell me what I want, won't you." said Ricardo as he finished circling around and once the two met each other's glance. "Now, I believe that there were others with you?" he continued, now glaring at his subordinates.
"Errr, the wolf and the other possum wasn't there when we saw them, godfather" Russel replied, shivering from the Don's glare.
"Hmph. No matter. As long as Flik is here" said Ricardo as he tried to still his anger.
"What do you want, Ricardo? I thought we've settled our business already" demanded Flik.
"That we have" replied Ricardo before turning around facing them. "But that was before I wanted you to suffer for your betrayal."
"I left because you betrayed me."
"Silence, you impudent fool!" angered Ricardo as he slapped Flik with his large wing. Though Flik was small and force like that would send him flying, he barely even flinched.
"Flik!" worried Peaches, and Ricardo turned his eyes on the wooly mammoth.
"Ahhh, and let's not forget our little hostage here" said Ricardo as he neared Peaches. "Though I may have treated you harshly since now, I can still prove to be quite the gentlemen.
"Russel. Butch. Take our guests to their holding cells." Ricardo commanded. The two crows smirked at each other.
"Yes, godfather" they replied before leading the group further into the dark cavern. Don Ricardo watched them leave before going further into his plan.
"Dan. Seth" Ricardo called and the two giant birds appeared. "Find and retrieve his other friends. I want to make sure he'll tell me what I want."
The giant birds squawked loudly before heading into flight out of the cavern.
"Sid!"
"Sid!"
"Sid!"
The herd called out the sloth's name as they searched for him. It was daybreak, and they all woke up to find him missing.
"Sid! Where are you?" shouted Diego.
"Maybe he got taken by a dinosaur" worried Ellie.
"On my watch? Negative" answered Buck who was simply watching them from a branch.
"Then what happened to him?" asked Manny.
Buck flipped down to the ground as valiant as he always did. "He left"
"But Sid wouldn't just leave like that" said Diego.
"Quite the contrareh" said Buck. "Actually saw him leave mahself"
"You what?" shouted everyone in disbelief.
"Why didn't you stop him?" angered Ellie.
"Why should I?" said Buck. "If 'e wants to leave then so be it. He's not mah responsibility"
Manny went into a fit. "You know Sid won't last a minute here, and you just let him walk out? What's the matter with you?"
"Oi! I already told ya'! If he didn't wanna travel as a group anymoah, then I let him!" argued Buck. "It's completely his choice!"
"Then you could've changed his mind!" Manny argued back frustrated.
"I said he's not my responsibility!" argued Buck.
"Then how am I supposed to trust you as a friend then?" Manny shouted
The two remained glaring into each other's eyes. After a while, Manny calmed down and took a deep breath. "We're looking for Sid, whether with or without you.
"Manny-" said Diego before being interrupted.
"I know we're trying to get our kids back Diego, but Sid is part of our herd too" said Manny. "He's the reason we were a herd and-"
"Actually, I was gonna ask if you were okay with all that" said Diego. "But seeing as you just took the words right out of my mouth, never mind." Diego smiled at Manny, and he smiled back. They both knew that Sid was just as important to both of them.
"Alright then, let's get Sid back ASAP. Hopefully we can still get Peaches and Eli" said Ellie.
"They'll be fine. Eli is actually pretty tough for a kid" said Diego proudly.
"You obviously haven't gotten to know Peaches enough" said Manny proudly as well. As both of them boasted about their children as they walked towards the direction Sid left, Buck stood behind watching them leave.
Buck sighed and rubbed his palm on down his face. Buck thought about why they insisted in getting back Sid. Was it because he knew how to make fire? Was it because he made them laugh all the time? Buck couldn't figure out why they wanted to get back an almost useless sloth.
Then he thought about why they tried getting him back the first time. He never really saw how important he was to them, even after seeing him for the first time when he saved him. But then Buck remembered a single word he never thought about for the past couple of years.
Family.
"Wait up!" he shouted as he picked up his knife and ran towards them.
The three paused as they let him catch up. Manny turned around and looked at him. "What?" he said in a rather rash voice.
"I… uh- I was wonderin' if I could still be… ya know… yer tour guide" he said as he smiled about it.
Manny glanced towards Ellie and Diego. The look on their faces gave away what they wanted to answer.
"Fine"
The gentle rays of light shone on their faces and woke them up from their slumber. Eli stretched his legs up before taking a look around the scenery half-asleep. When all he saw was the river bank and Eddie still sleeping, he finally woke up entirely and remembered everything that happened.
"Uncle Eddie!" he shouted. "Uncle Eddie, wake up!" He shook his paw against Eddie's body until he began to wake up.
"Huh? What?" he said, still half-asleep before looking around and experiencing the same feeling Eli did a moment ago. "Oh, right."
"We have to look for Peaches and the others" said Eli.
Eddie got up and shook the dirt off his fur. "Where should we start looking for them?"
"Uhhh…" Eli was speechless. He had no idea. "You're the elder, you tell me"
"How should I know? I usually think these kind of things with- with…" said Eddie before distressing about the absence of his twin brother.
Eli sighed before picking him up and putting him on his head. "Come on, unc. Let's go into the forest and see what we can find."
They walked away from the river bank and into the forest. Eli looked around the forest to see leaves high atop the trees and on the ground. His paws would make a crunching sound in every step he made. And the sunlight would peer through the tiny holes in the ceiling of leaves above them. Eli spotted a rabbit a few meters away picking up a carrot from the ground. The rabbit turned around and caught him staring at him. The rabbit screamed and dropped his carrot before running off to a nearby tree burrow.
Eli tilted his head a bit wondering why he ran off. He went towards the burrow to see it was just a few inches hollow, smaller than he himself could fit in. In the small corner he saw the rabbit that ran off cowering. The rabbit looked through his hands covering his eyes and saw Eli looking at him and screamed. "Ahhhh! Don't eat me!"
"Wait, calm down, I just-"
"Help! Don Ricardo! Help me!-"
"I'm not gonna eat you! Now just calm down!" Eli snapped. The rabbit calmed down and walked cautiously towards him. Eli backed up a bit to let him out of the burrow.
"Phew! For a second there I thought you were gonna eat me!" said the rabbit. Now that he was out of the burrow, Eli could finally take a good look at him. He had rough puffy hair on his head and tail, his left eye was yellowish and seemed to be bigger than the other, and his right bucktooth was longer than the other. He seemed old and jumpy.
"I'm not. Now just relax, I just wanted to ask a few questions" said Eli.
"Oh, well, ask ahead" he said. "By the way, my name is Humphrey.
"Nice to meet'cha Humphrey. Now could you tell me, did you just mention Don Ricardo?"
"Funny you asking that! Everybody knows him!" said Humphrey. "He's the big man! He protects everyone!"
"Sounds fishy, don't you think?" said Eddie.
"I'm more worried I might get his fleas" said Eli as Humphrey scratched himself to get rid bugs biting on him. "Know anything about other wolves around this part?" asked Eli.
"Wolves? Where?" shouted Humphrey.
"Dude, there's one in front of you" mentioned Eddie and got Humphrey in a state of panic.
"Ahhh! Don't eat me!" Humphrey screamed as he ran back into his burrow.
"I'm starting to think this guy is crazy" said Eli before shouting again into the burrow, "I'm not gonna eat you!"
Slowly, Humphrey got out again and remained jumpy and panicky. Eli sighed, "Look, can you tell where I can find them?"
"There's a whole pack of them over there" said Humphrey as he pointed the direction past his tree.
"Okay, got it" said Eli as he started walking towards that direction. "I'm gonna leave now"
"Crazy rabbit" murmured Eddie.
Sid woke up the next morning feeling better than before. He rubbed his blurry eyesight before he yawned and stretched his arms wide at the same time. After a few seconds did he only fid out that he was being dangled around by his tail. Someone or something was carrying him around. Sid yelped in surprise.
He looked and turned his head around to see what was carrying him until his head hit a nearby branch and knocked him right back to sleep.
The humongous dinosaur spotted a couple of footprints. Footprints that looked similar to the ones he saw before.
Remembering what their mother did, he slammed his foot right on their footprints and roared out to the heavens, scaring any unsuspecting dinosaur into hiding.
Xion the Author: Wahoo! Cliffhangers! Sorry about them, I tried not to make the chapter too long so I had to cut it short for now. And incidentally, it was then too short in my standards, so I included the cliffhangers.
Manny: Seriously, what scene were you talking about a while ago?
Xion the Author: I'll tell you all next time, when I manage to insert it into another chapter. After all, it's near completion… I think. Well… by the way things are going I predict that there will be no more than five chapters. That means maybe five weeks from I'll continue finishing that other story and then go on with my next fic. But now is not the time to talk about it. Right now is the best time to say "Please Review!"