Okay, so Mariana is eight years old. Just clarifying that.

And, if you haven't noticed yet, I'm only focusing on Mariana. One, she's the whole reason this story even exists. And two, I'm too lazy to write the extra scenes, like Manny and Ellie's conversation-turned-argument when they're alone. And as far as I'm concerned, Mariana doesn't know what was said :P

Let's get on with the show :)

P.S. I'm soon introducing a new OC :) I'm so excited! She only appears in one chapter, but she's important!

DISCLAIMER: I hate doing these. Okay, I own Mariana. Not any other characters. Just her.

~Kitty~

"Boy, Manny sure took a big leap with Ellie today," Sid commented as he collected rocks for his fire. He paused, glancing at the rustling bushes. He shook his head, watching as Diego walked past him, a yawning Mariana by his side.

"Sure did," Diego said, laying down and allowing his daughter to curl up beside him.

"He stood on the shore of uncertainty and dove right in! Splash!" Sid said as he slid down next to Diego. He got up. "Kind of brave, huh? The way he faced his fear."

"I wouldn't know. Sabres don't feel fear." Diego said, getting up. He brought Mariana's curled form closer to him, licking her head.

"Come on, all animals feel fear. It's what separates us from, say, rocks," Sid started, holding up his rock. "Rocks have no fear." He tossed it. They watched as it sunk in a puddle of water. "And they sink."

"What are you getting at, Sid?" Diego deadpanned.

"It may surprise you to know that I, too, have experienced fear."

"No. You?" Mariana asked with a yawn.

"Yeah. Yes, as impossible as it seems, the sloth has natural enemies that would like to harm or otherwise kill us."

"I wonder why?" Diego asked with no amount of uncertainty, glancing at his amused daughter.

"Jealousy, mostly. But the point is that fear is natural."

Diego got in his face, glaring as Sid backed up. "Fear is for prey." He turned to walk away, Mariana by his side.

"Well, then, you're letting the water make you its prey!" Diego stopped, looking back. Sid scurried over to a tree trunk sticking out, perching himself on it as he resumed to speak.

"Just jump in and trust your instincts!" He dove into the bushes and began "swimming" through them. "You know, most animals can swim as babies."

He dove deeper into them and out of sight, appearing on another- further away- log. "And for a tiger, it's like crawling on your belly to stalk helpless prey." He did this.

He dove off. Diego rolled his eyes and turned to walk in the other direction, but Sid fell in front of him with vines holding his limbs. "But faster, okay? Now, claw, kick, claw, kick. I'm stalking the prey. Claw, kick." Diego kept looking ahead while Mariana smiled in amusement.

"I look back over my shoulder to see if I'm being followed. And I'm breathing. And I'm stalking and I'm stalking and I'm-"

Diego snapped a vine without looking at it, hearing Sid land with a thud in front of him. Mariana burst out laughing.

"I'm falling," Sid finished.

Diego looked down at him. "Correction. You're sinking." Diego walked over him.

Mariana looked at Sid, giggling from her controlled laughter. "Kind of like a rock." She followed her father, leaving a dazed Sid behind in the dust.

~Later~

Diego sat by the fire, Mariana curled up at his paws as he gently lulled her to sleep by licking her head. Sid warmed his claws, looking up as Manny approached.

Diego smiled. "So, how'd it go?" he asked.

"Not bad," Manny said breezily.

Suddenly, Ellie came storming by, Crash and Eddie perched on her back. She stomped into a puddle, thoroughly putting out Sid's fire. "Okay, let's go. We traveled with you all day, now you're coming with us at night."

"But we can't see at night," Manny said.

"Then enjoy the flood!"

"I can't even look at him!" Eddie said, scowling and looking straight ahead.

"Pervert!" Crash called back. Manny looked taken aback. Crash did the "I'm-watching-you" sign with his clawed fingers.

"Making friends everywhere you go. Just making friends," Sid said, smiling obliviously.

~Later~

Sid walked along happily, looking around in the heavy mist that covered the ground. Diego walked beside him, carrying a half-awake Mariana in his jaws. Suddenly, Sid lurched as a log hit a very sensitive spot.

"Watch out, there's a stump," Crash said.

"Not anymore," Sid strained.

"I thought we could walk together," Manny said as he caught up with Ellie.

She didn't spare him a glance. "Crash, ask the mammoth why he thinks that."

"She said she thinks you're a jerk and to go away!" Crash shouted, jumping onto Manny's tusks.

"She didn't say-" Manny cried out in pain as his forehead hit the rock over his head. Crash jumped away.

"Look, maybe if we spend more time-" He cried out in pain again as he hit his leg on something.

"Tell him that I need a little personal space right now," Ellie said.

"She said go jump in a lake."

"And possums rule," Eddie finished for his brother. The bumped fists.

"I can hear her, you know."

"What do you want? A medal?" Crash asked.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them tore into sections. Crash and Eddie fell beneath the mist, appearing later to be alright on a different layer of stone. Manny and Ellie lurched as the stone they were on wavered. Diego barely caught the edge, a now alert Mariana safe in his mouth. Sid, not wanting to be left behind, jumped and clung to Diego's dangling back legs.

Diego quickly noticed that the more they moved, the more unstable the rock became. "Stop moving!" he commanded, letting go of Mariana. She stayed okay on- remotely- stable ground. "Thank you," he breathed in relief as the stone stopping moving.

Suddenly, the tiny bit of rock holding the top layer burst, making everything lurch. Sid flew from Diego, barely being able to hang on to another layer of rock that swung beneath him. Mariana was swung off balance, and she barely managed to catch the edge of the rock- just far enough away to wear Diego could only watch as his daughter swung. Ellie's half of the top rock soon started to split. Before it could completely, Diego ordered, "Manny, Ellie! Lock trunks!" Sensing Ellie's disgust, he shouted, "Now!"

He looked down to where Crash and Eddie were swinging. Noticing that they were approaching a ledge that could save them all, he shouted, "Crash, Eddie! Grab on to that ledge!"

They looked down at the ground, which seemed so far away. They couldn't see a definite end because of mist, but the did see sharp rocks poking out. "Funny. Now what's your real plan?" Eddie asked sarcastically.

"Just do it!"

Crash latched on to Eddie in a hug. "Bye, Eddie."

Eddie hugged back. "Bye, Crash."

"Bye, Ellie!" Crash waved.

"Go! Now!" Diego shouted.

Eddie closed the distance between the rock tower and stable ground, with Crash holding on to his tail so he could catch his brother if he fell.

Manny looked into Ellie's eyes, still locking trunks. "I'm sorry if what I said before offended you."

"What do you mean if it offended me?" she asked, jerking away from him. The rock tower lurched.

"That it offended her! That it offended her!" Eddie shouted, dangling from his tail now that he had no grip on solid ground.

"I mean that! That it offended you!" Manny shouted. Satisfied, Ellie locked trunks with him again. Everything stilled. Then- "You just overreacted, that's all."

"What?" Ellie screeched.

"Take it back!" Eddie shouted. "There are other lives at stake here!"

"Wait a minute, he's got a point," Sid said.

"He's got nothing!" Crash shouted.

"It was a misunderstanding!" Mariana shouted.

"It was insensitive!" Eddie shouted back.

"Apologize!" Diego shouted.

"Why me?" asked Manny. "She overreacted!"

"Just apologize!"

"No!"

"Do it!"

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Ellie shouted.

"What?" said everyone else. Everything stilled.

"He's right. I overreacted," she admitted.

"You mean-"

"Not another word or I'll come down there and push you over myself!" Diego snarled.

Sid crawled over toward the solid ground, hoping to get off of the rock. "I got it. I got it." He stumbled off, letting out a sigh of relief. "I got it." A rumbling sound met his ears. Looking back, his eyes widened in horror. The rock tower was turning over.

The rock holding Manny and Ellie together separated. Manny kept Ellie and the rock up.

"Manny, Ellie, run! Run!" Diego shouted.

Manny pulled Ellie up and over, running along the rocks with Crash and Eddie to safety. At the same time, Diego grabbed Mariana, jumping and weaving through the collapsing stone. He reached the end of the stone. He leaped. Mariana squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the fall that would end her and her father's life.

It never came. Opening her brown eyes, she gazed at Manny and Ellie. Their trunks successfully grabbed on to her father's paws, keeping them from falling.

"I guess we finally did something right together," Ellie said, gazing at Manny. He smiled.

"Hey, don't mind us," Mariana said. "Just hanging off the edge of a cliff here." Looking down, she shuddered. They pulled her and Diego up. He let her out of his mouth, nuzzling her.

~Later~

Sid nursed his flames, a smile on his goofy face. He noticed Manny and Ellie walking toward the fire. Hoping to avoid what happened earlier, he guarded his precious fire as they walked by, happy when nothing was splashed to extinguish the flames.

Diego lay with Mariana curled up by his side, finally asleep after the long night. His ear twitched and he opened his eyes to Sid, who was moving a piece of tree bark up beside him.

"Remember the good old days?" Sid asked.

"Which good old days?" Diego asked.

"You know. Yesterday, last week. Back when the trees went up and down and the ground stayed under our feet." He dusted off the bark with his tail.

"Yep. Those were the good days," Diego said, keeping his voice down. He didn't want to wake up Mariana. She was an angel, but if her sleep was interupted one more time... It wouldn't be pretty. He knew from experience. "Possums were possums and mammoths were mammoths." Glancing at Mariana, he said "We should get some sleep."

"Yeah. Tomorrow's the day the vulture said we're all going to die," Sid said, laying down. He promptly fell asleep.

Diego rolled his eyes at the snoring Sid. He lay back down, licking Mariana's head. "Goodnight, angel."

They all soon fell asleep, all under the watchful eye of the vulture...

~Later (Dawn)~

Mariana's ear twitched. She groggily opened her eyes, which hardened. She jumped up with a snarl. "Who interupted my sleep," she snarled.

"Relax, kid."

She glared up at the vulture. He ruffled his feathers. "What do you want?"

"Well, I was hopin for a snack..." At her snarl, he continued. "But then I thought, 'Wow, I haven't done a good deed in a while!'"

"Why am I not surprised?" she deadpanned.

He glowered. "I'm trying to help you and your... ahem... Is it a herd?"

She rolled her eyes, but sat down. "Okay, what is it?"

"Flood waters are coming up fast."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"Now why do you expect that?"

"I'm eight. Daddy taught me to never trust strangers."

"Good father."

"Leave. Now. Before I make you."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Stay here and drown." He flew off.

She curled back up to her dad, muttering, "'Stay here and drown.' Pfft, yeah right. There ain't no flood waters. The dam hasn't burst yet." She fell back asleep, but a part of her kept nagging that the vulture wasn't lying.

~Kitty~

Anyone else notice that as they're sleeping, the camera zooms out and a vulture is sitting on a branch? I did. *shrugs* I thought I would put him in the story. Plus there needed to be more Mariana. She's more background and not very important in this chapter.

Let me know what you think :)

~Kitty~