Okay. Here is the fourteenth and final chapter of Ice Age: Modern Life. So anyways, read and enjoy!
Everyone in Icetropolis returned to the city and were now in front of Icetropolis City Hall. News reporters and newspaper editors were outside, ready to hear the mayor's speech. He was standing in front of his speech podium and the herd, along with their new friends, were standing next to him. Security was tight in case someone tried to take the herd. This speech the mayor's about to give will make all the difference.
"Citizens of Icetropolis, Tennessee," the mayor said, "We have fought a great protest today to keep the history of our fair prehistoric mammals alive. And it is with great pleasure that I, Mayor Robert Frozen, will do my part into keeping these animals safe. They are safe and sound today thanks to each and every one of you. I thank all of you, the citizens of our city, for doing your part," he walks over to the herd, "From this day forward, I call these prehistoric mammals citizens of Icetropolis. They are allowed to live in our fair city as long as they like. In my opinion, I hope they live here forever."
Everyone in the crowd started cheering. People were taking photos of the mammals to keep them as memories while some plan to place them in tomorrow's daily newspaper.
All the families and friends of the herd came up to them.
"I'm so happy to see you all safe and sound," Lucille said.
"We really wanna thank you guys for saving us," Manny said, "We owe you one."
"Don't worry about it," Richard said, "That's what friends are for. We did it because we believed it was the right thing to do. And I'm sure you and your family would do the same for us."
Over with the Tiger family, Coach Tony and Tammy were introducing their children to Diego and Shira.
"Kids, I'd like for you to meet some new friends of ours," Coach Tony said, "These are the sabers, Diego and Shira."
"What's up?", Matt asked.
"Nice to meet you," Sophie said.
"You two have the cutest kids," Shira said.
"We hope to have cute kids one day, too," Diego said.
Meanwhile, Louis and Scrat are meeting Laura's family. They met all five of her sisters and all five of her brothers, including her parents, Marge and Stew.
"Louis, I'd like to introduce you to my family," Laura said, "These are my parents, Marge and Stew. These are my siblings: Lindsey, Margaret, Stephen, Robert, Nathan, John, James, Ella, Bella and Carl. Everyone, this is my friend Louis and this is his pet squirrel, Scrat."
"It's nice to meet you, everyone," Louis said.
"Same here," Scrat said.
"Oh, it's so wonderful to meet you, Louis," Marge said, "I can't believe I'm actually meeting a molehog from the past. It seems as though we haven't changed at all."
"Good to meet you, young man," Stew said, shaking paws with Louis.
"Hi there," Lindsey said.
"Hello," Margaret said.
"What's up?", Stephen asked.
"Hey, man," Robert said.
"Hey, dude," Nathan said.
Louis was having a blast meeting Laura's family. Perhaps he found some friends that would truly care about him. Same with Scrat. As long as the little ones weren't using him as a toy.
Back over at the front of the crowd, Mayor Frozen was leading Chief Randall over to Nizhoni, who was talking to Stephen and Lucas.
Mayor Frozen cleared his throat, "Excuse me, Miss Maka. The chief and I would like to have a word with you for a moment."
Chief Randall looked at Stephen and Lucas, "Do you boys mind excusing us for a moment?"
"Whatever you have to say to Nizhoni, you can say to us," Stephen said.
"You tell him," Lucas said.
"What do you think, Mayor Frozen?", Chief Randall asked.
"Hey, I bet she's gonna tell them, anyway," Mayor Frozen said, "You might as well tell her."
"Well, first of all, I would like to let you know that I knew the whole time you snuck out of jail with the help of your friends, but I wasn't gonna come after you. The truth is that my orders were given to me by Dr. Tim. He had arrest you and your grandmother so that you wouldn't go back to the herd. We had also planned to go after the rest of your friends as well. Dr. Tim's orders, not mine. Either way, I do want to apologize for everything that has happened. Plus, we were digging around in the museum for the last few days and found video footage inside the security room. We saw that it was the herd that broke themselves out, so the case is closed."
"The mystery is now history," Mayor Frozen said.
"Yes, thank you, Mayor Frozen," Chief Randall said, "Also, we brought back someone that's glad you're safe," he moves out of the way to reveal Kimi.
Nizhoni hugged her grandmother tight, "Grandmother! I'm so glad you're alright!"
"The same to you as well, my granddaughter," Kimi said.
While everyone is chatting with one another, a sound is heard on stage. Everyone saw Dr. Morris standing in front of the podium.
"Uh, excuse me," Mayor Frozen said, "Excuse me, sir. The only person allowed to stand in front of that podium is the man in charge of the city. And that happens to be me."
Dr. Morris chuckled like a crazy man, "I do apologize, Mayor Frozen, but I have an announcement to make. I would like to let the herd know that the time machine is ready. I just finished it this morning before the awakening of the sun. Please come to my home as soon as you can."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a second. I just stated to the herd that we, the citizens of Icetropolis, have given them a home in our time period."
"Oh, I apologize, Mayor Frozen. I suppose you weren't given the updates of their time here."
"What's going on, anyway?"
"Mayor Frozen, my friends and I took the herd to meet Dr. Morris and he agreed to create a time machine that would send them back home," Lucas told.
Mayor Frozen looked at the herd, "Is this true?"
Manny nodded his head with the rest of the herd, "It's true."
"Oh, I see," Mayor Frozen said, "Well, it's your choice. I won't force you to choose."
Manny looked at the herd, "Come on, everyone. Let's go."
The herd, along with their new future friends, started following Dr. Morris to his laboratory home.
Inside the lab, the herd, their new future friends, and even Mayor Frozen was inside Dr. Morris' home. Inside his lab was a brand new invention known as the time machine of the future. The scientist started getting it prepared.
"Now building this took a lot of time, if you know what I mean," Dr. Morris told, "Using it is a piece of cake. All I have to do is place in the time period of where you all came from and you'll be returned back to the Ice Age in no time flat. Once you go through, there's no turning back. You won't be able to ever visit the future again. Not unless you were able to build your own time machine, but I doubt you have the technology to do that. Also, I will make sure to cancel out the moment when that harsh wind hit so you'll actually be going ahead three minutes and will continue on with what you were doing before. So while I'm getting everything ready, I suggest you start saying your goodbyes."
Manny looks at their new friends of the future, "Well, I suppose this is goodbye forever."
Richard walks up to Manny and Ellie along with the rest of his family, "Well, I enjoyed getting to know you, Manny. I'm happy that you were able to learn about football."
"I'll miss you, Ellie," Lucille said, "Don't forget those tips I gave you on cooking."
"I won't," Ellie said.
Lucille looks at her kids, "Billy, Susie, say goodbye to our mammoth friends."
"Goodbye," Billy and Susie said.
"You two stay out of trouble, okay," Ellie told them.
"We will," Susie said.
Meanwhile, Brooke and Sid were saying goodbye to the Sloth family.
"I wish we had told you about this sooner," Brooke said.
"No need to apologize," Angela said, "We're just glad to have gotten to know our kind from the past."
"Thanks for visiting us," Peter said, "We wish we could have friends like you."
"I still place you under the category of acquaintances since you have no offspring of your own," Danny said.
"I still didn't understand a word he said," Sid said.
Over with the sabers, Diego and Shira were with the Tiger family saying goodbye as well.
"I wish we could stay, but you'll have to blame Manny and his overprotective side," Diego said.
"I don't think we'll have him any other way, though," Shira said.
"Well, we're glad our kind has evolved into you guys," Coach Tony said, "It was an honor getting to know you."
"I know in your time period, the humans always tell their stories and their passed down from one person to another," Tammy said, "When you get back, would you mind making up some stories so that animals will be able to pass them down?"
"I don't see why not," Shira said.
"Oh, when you get back, are you guys gonna have kids of your own?", Sophie asked, "And if you do, will you name your daughter Annabella?"
"If you guys have a son, will you name him Claws?", Matt asked.
Diego chuckled, "We'll see."
The others were giving goodbyes as well. Buck was going around giving out goodbyes to everyone. Crash and Eddie were playing small pranks on Jenny and Betty to remember them by. Gladys and Teddy were saying goodbye to Lucas, Stephen, Nizhoni and Kimi. Peaches and Julian were giving their goodbyes to Jessica, Melody and Rob.
"We really wanna thank you guys for everything," Peaches said, "And for teaching us the latest fads here."
"No problem," Jessica said, "It's the least we could do."
"Do you still wanna keep the outfit we bought you?", Melody asked.
"I'd love to, but I'm sorry to say that our time period hasn't learned the ways of fashion yet," Peaches told, "We still think flowers and pearls are the best way to accessorize."
"Well, we'll keep it so that we'll always remember our best friend from the Ice Age," Jessica said.
"Hey, Julian, would you mind creating your own skateboard when you get home?", Rob asked, "I think the animals in your time would love to do cool stuff like that."
"I'll keep that in mind," Julian said.
Next to the mammoths and elephant teenagers, Louis was saying his farewells to Laura.
"Hey, I wanna say thank you for helping us save our friends," Louis said, "There pretty much all the family I have."
"Anytime, Louis," Laura said.
"I also wanna apologize for not telling you that I was from the past. I figured if I fit in around here with everybody else, you would be my friend."
"Louis, don't ever pretend to be somebody you're not. Just be who you are. And always be truthful."
"Okay, I will. Thanks, Laura. I'll always remember you as my best friend."
Laura hugged Louis, "Same here."
With the dino birds, Gavin, Gertie and Roger were saying thank you to Amber for helping them, but Amber was upset to see that Roger was leaving.
"I'm gonna miss you guys so much," Amber said, "I had a blast being your friend."
"I bet you're gonna miss Roger a bunch, though," Gertie said.
"Oh, I'm gonna miss my feathery boo boo!", Amber started to cry as she grabs Roger and hugs him tightly.
"Somebody help me!," Roger said.
"Hey, take it all in, Roger," Gavin told him, "Once we get home, you're gonna miss this."
Dr. Morris walked up to everyone, "Time to go, prehistoric mammals!", he walks back over to the controls, "Let me just turn on the machine," he turns the machine on, "Now we're ready."
The herd made their way over to the time machine. They took one last look at all the friends they made. These guys did what it took to save them. They all looked like a real herd for the future.
Manny was hit the hardest with saying goodbye. He was just like everyone else. He wanted to stay, but was afraid for the safety of his family. But he finally realized that the future was no different than the past. They were both the same.
So just when Dr. Morris was about to type in the year the herd came from, Manny placed his trunk down before the scientist could touch it.
"Stop," Manny said, "Wait a second, Dr. Morris."
"What's going on?", Dr. Morris asked, "I thought you wanted to go back home."
"Manny, what's the matter?", Ellie asked, "Isn't this what you wanted? To go back home and protect your family?"
"Yeah, but I don't think that's what everybody else wants," Manny said.
"No, Manny," Sid told, "For once in your whole life, you were right."
"This place is not safe," Diego said, "I think it would be better if we went back to our time period."
"Don't pretend to change your minds, you guys," Manny told them, "I know you all wanna stay. Besides, if Dr. Morris sends us back and cancels out the moment where we all became frozen, the future would be different. Something terrible could happen. Just think about it. If we never came here, something else could've happened. The animals wouldn't be walking and talking with humans and living with each other in peace and harmony. They could be forced to fight with one another. Or maybe something else could happen. That was just a suggestion."
"Manny, what are you trying to say?", Ellie asked.
Manny sighed, "What I'm trying to say is… I don't want the future to be unsafe for all our new friends. Plus, the future is pretty much like the past. It's filled with its own kind of dangers and we've seen what it's like. No matter where we go, we'll always stick together. And I believe there was a purpose for us being here. I haven't found out that purpose yet, but I will sooner or later."
"So are you guys staying or going?", Stephen asked.
"Which would you suggest?"
"Well, I'll admit you guys do bring a lot of excitement. It pays off having to stare at my phone all the time. I don't see why you shouldn't stay."
"Well, that settles it. We're staying here," Manny looks at Dr. Morris, "Sorry for wasting your time, Dr. Morris."
"No time was wasted at all," Dr. Morris said, "I'm just glad to be doing what I love."
"Just don't play around with that time machine," Coach Tony said.
Dr. Morris gasped, "I would never do such a thing. I'm not that crazy."
"We'll see about that," Diego said.
"Glad to hear that you all have decided to stay," Mayor Frozen said, "I think all of Icetropolis would like to hear that."
Everyone went outside. Mayor Frozen stood in front of the entire city that were waiting outside Dr. Morris' home.
"Citizens of Icetropolis. Our new prehistoric friends have something they would like to say."
Manny walked up to the front of the crowd, "We've decided to stay!"
This brought on massive cheering from the crowd. The friends from the future started hugging their friends from the past. Nizhoni even took the time to kiss Stephen on the cheek. Lucas took a photo of it, but promised himself that he would never tell them. There was too much excitement to do so.
The entire town was happy. The herd was happy. In the end, everything is happy.
End of Chapter 14. Tomorrow will come the epilogue. Reply below on what you think of this whole story.