Xion the Author: Update! Oh wow… lol, I forgot to mention that Eli had already grown into a teenager on the day he left (which I'll specify in a later chapter I assure you), and the herd had only been there for a certain amount of time, maybe three-four days. Maybe its because the characters seemed to have changed dramatically as the story progressed... One more thing to always remember T.T Though I have gotten a little better at writing… I think. And that's all because of your honest reviews! I love you guys! I'd never be able to write like this without fanfiction in my life ^^

ICE AGE JOURNEYS: RAISING A CUB

Chapter XIV: Resolves

"Can we take five guys?" Ellie asked, trying to catch her breath after their sprint. The massive red barren landscape spanned far and wide as if the all the plants had disappeared. The ground had finally stopped cracking and breaking, letting them rest in relief.

Buck climbed up unto Manny's right tusk and scoped through his left good eye. His paws acting like a telescope, and twisting them around as if zooming in.

"Doesn't look like Rudy is nearby," said Buck "But tha' doesn't mean we 'ave much time left. Let's get that sloth friend of yours and move fast"

"There's a cave up ahead," spotted Diego.

"And it doesn't look like the tracks lie eithah," said Buck, seeing the three pairs of dinosaur tracks barely seen on the ground.

"That must mean Sid's over there," said Manny. "Let's move"

The herd followed the tracks towards the cave as fast as they could. Time was of the essence.

"I don't believe we've introduced properly yet" said the white adult wolf sitting above the platform. "My name is Matthias. I am pack alpha. And I suppose you are the one responsible for keeping my daughter so long?"

Eli trembled nervously. "Ummm-" as if he on a large stone fitted in his throat, Eli swallowed to try and take the words out. Eddie was just as nervous, and even though he was the elder, he seemed more lost at words than him. "Your… majesty-"

"Please, call me Matthias. Any good friend of my daughter has that right" he said. "Well, though she is friends with almost everyone I know of – but anyhow – I would like to hear of where you come from"

Eli explained to him everything. Absolutely everything. From the time his first pack died in the fire, the time he got adopted, and up to the time he ran away to find wolves like him. After telling him his story, Eli expected some sort of philosophical quote from him, but all Matthias did was stretch his legs and popped his head to the left.

"My, that was a very long story," said the less-great looking wolf. He was a lot more footloose than he thought. Or maybe it was just special treatment. He didn't know why, but went along with it either way. "I feel like taking a walk, would you like to walk with me?" he asked. Eli nodded, and the two stepped out of the cave to realize it was already sunset.

"My, we stayed there for quite a longer time than I thought," Matthias said.

"I guess," said Eddie. Eli could catch a glimpse of Leah and Nathan from the corner of his eye, both of them watching them from afar.

"You've come a long way to get here Eli," Matthias said as he nodded to a few elder looking wolves that passed by. "And our family would gladly accept you". Eli was about to jump happily in excitement with Eddie until he raised his paw. "However," he said, "There is one more thing you must realize before I let you in"

"What other thing?" Eli asked, his left eyebrow raised while the other stayed down.

Matthias was about to speak when suddenly a loud squawk echoed across the plateau. The wolves looked up to where it came from to see two gigantic birds in the sky accompanied by two smaller crows.

"There he is!" one crow said. Eli remembered him. It was Butch, and the one with him was Russel.

"Get him! Don't let him escape!" shouted the other crow. Seth and Dan charged in, lunging towards him.

"Not them again!" shouted Eddie. The other wolves started scrambling around. Matthias growled fiercely at them. Eli knew they were after him and him only. Eli leaped towards the left and sprinted out of the way. The two black giant birds lunging in left and right. Eli reached the edge of the plateau when the birds had finally cornered him. Before he was about to be grabbed by its talons, a brown wolf jumped in the way.

"Leah!" cried Matthias. As the large bird carried her away, Eli tried to grab on to her paw. But the other large bird grabbed him from behind. The two wolves helplessly cried out for help as they were taken away in the air. Eddie lost his grip and bounced off of Eli and landed safely on the ground before he was taken too high away, only to see his nephew be carried away.

"Eli!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. He turned around to face Nathan and Matthias, knowing what he was supposed to do.

Flik dived into a hole in a volcano. Crash covered his eyes as he thought he was about to be melted on entrance. After a few seconds of not being lifeless, he peeped through his fingers to see a bright orange light at the end of the hole. Flik flapped his wings hard at the end of the small crevice they were in. The hole led them to a rather larger hole, with a motif that appeared to look like a bird on fire, lava emphasizing the symbol.

Crash gazed at it in awe. He followed it from its large red head, and spanned down to what it looked like its wings that covered its body. At the bottom of the large lava flowing figure shined a spectacular brightness the shimmered different lights at the same time.

The opossum got off his mount and approached it cautiously. It was a feather just as big as him, the entire vane spanning different colors in each barb. A soft white afterfeather glowed as bright as the individual colors, colors that reminded him of a rainbow. Each barb seemed to change colors and tone. Even colors he thought never existed. As if calling it "rainbow" seemed like an insult.

"The Rainbow Feather," said Flik humbly as if honored by its presence.

Crash picked up the feather lightly in his hand. He found it quite lighter than what he thought. Suddenly, a large rumbling occurred. The two looked around, noticing small stones shaking, small stalagmites shaking.

"We gotta go" gulped Crash nervously. He ran with the feather in hand and immediately rode on top of Flik. A large red flared in the eyes of the phoenix motif, and the rumbling went louder. Flik flew of as fast as he could. They could feel the lava suddenly flowing from behind them.

"Faster!" shouted Crash as he could barely feel his tail set on fire from the nearing lava. Flik flapped his wings as hard as he could and avoided sudden debris falling from above them. Crash was about to scream as he could see the fiery liquid almost touch them when the osprey had reached the exit just in time.

The view of the two of them escaping their doom was more exciting from their small India Jones world until they arrived outside where the world was huge and belonged to much larger creatures.

"Why was there a booby trap?" asked Crash. "Why does it have to have a booby trap? I mean, how did it even know it was gone for pete's sake?" Flik shrugged as far as his wing allowed him. He had no idea either.

Flik flew more relaxingly and slower to a pace he was more comfortable with. He simply glided along the air rather than flap his wings. Crash could also feel less tension and tried to relax as he enjoyed the nice cool ride. Crash inspected the feather, still awed by its magnificence.

"So, is it really true about this thing?" Crash asked. "Can it really control the will of the birds as you say?"

"Yes, at least, that's what the fable tells us," said Flik. Crash gave an endearing look at the mystical relic. Right now, he could, maybe, use it instead for his own personal gain. He could make Flik fly back home for him, make other birds do his bidding for him, have an easy carefree life just the way he would want.

But that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted joy and excitement, and suspense at every turn, no matter what had scared him before, he stayed brave or foolish, with his brother. His twin brother. His wingman of danger. Crash had never imagined to be all by himself without him. They were through almost everything in their lives. Every prank, every dare, every joke. That was what he wanted. Though it was hard to admit it, he would never be complete without his mischievous twin brother Eddie.

And to be honest, he thought his sister would just kill him if he went home now without his brother, nephew and niece. If only the feather could control the will of mammoths as well, and tigers.

"What exactly are we going to do now?" Crash asked. Flik flew silently for a while, before grinning at an idea he cracked up as he flew back to the surface world.

"Now now, play nice" said Sid, as he threw a bone away and the three dinosaurs raced each other to get it. He found the bone a few meters away from their dead mother, so maybe it was okay to play with it. He didn't know how else he would from now on, but right now he had as if a commitment to the kids. Even though they were there for only a day in his life before, they still meant a lot to him, as if they were his own.

Sid tried to throw it as far as he could, but it always ended up just a few meters away. He didn't have a good arm for throwing. He never had a good arm for anything.

Yoko had retrieved the bone for him. Sid gave him a good pat on the head, and the three started to race as he threw the bone once again into the air. Unfortunately, the bone landed into a hole of lava. The bone sunk slowly in, and the three dinosaurs whined as it inched down until it was completely engulfed by the magma.

Sid scratched his head as he looked for another bone or stick he could use to play fetch with. He looked left to right to see a group of animals standing at the entrance.

"Sid!" the herd shouted as they saw him.

"Guys!" he bellowed back. He ran towards them to give a big hug to Manny's trunk. "It's good to see you!"

Manny could think of a million things to say about how happy he was, but right now what came out something more spontaneous. "What were you thinking running off like that? You could've gotten yourself killed!"

Sid stepped back a little, flinching from the sudden scolding. "I-uh-"

"Don't run off like that, it's dangerous!" shouted Manny. "Now we're delayed from getting back Peaches and Eli, and it's all because of you!" Ellie wanted to stop him, and so did Diego. Diego, he was wondering why Manny acting like a big jerk. "Wasn't he the one that said all those things about how important he was?" he thought. Buck was watching silently, gazing around the cave he had never stepped into before.

Sid looked like he was about to cry. He swallowed something caught up in his throat, and his welled-up eyes cleared.

"Manny!-" said Diego before Sid cut him off.

"No! I-it's okay," said Sid as he sniveled and wiped his nose. "I-it's my fault. I'm sorry about holding you all back all the time, but it's all gonna be fine now"

"Sid, what are you talking ab-" Manny stopped as he saw the three dinosaurs come into view behind him.

"I have a new family now and I can't abandon them," said Sid as he pointed towards a large skeleton at the end of the cave. "I can't leave these guys"

"Sid, we've been through this before, you can't raise dinosaurs, all the more by yourself in this world" said Ellie.

"But I can't leave them!" he cried. "They need me… this… this is where I belong…"

Manny was speechless. Suddenly he wanted to take back all the things he had said. He had always taken him for a fool, and never really sympathized with how he felt. Manny couldn't say anything at all. As much as family he was, he couldn't even persuade the sloth to go back with them now. He felt ashamed. He felt as if he wasn't entitled to be called his friend.

"You don't belong he-ah sloth" said Buck, walking in to save the day. The sloth turned towards him.

"B-but I-"

"You won't last a day around he-ah, and neither will these three with you around," he said. "You're not realleh a dino-trainin' type. You do realize that these three latch on to you, really latch on. You're gonna have tah feed 'em, take care of 'em, and raise 'em"

"I- I can"

"Nope, ya can't" said Buck. "These three need someone to teach them how tah survive. Not just play time or some such. They're gonna be dependin' on yah more than yah think. And if you can't feed 'em, well, let's just say some other person'll be on the menu"

"I can perfectly take care of 'em!" Sid cried. "I want to stay here! I don't want to be a burden; I don't want to be this useless person that can't do anything right for the herd"

"Sid, you're not a burden" said Diego. "You're the entire reason we even have a herd. If it wasn't for you, I'd never a real family. You proved the fact that even a tiger can belong to a herd"

"If it wasn't for you, I never would've been able to live again" said Manny. The shadows of his past reflecting back to him.

"If it wasn't for you, I never would have learned I was a mammoth" said Ellie, twisting trunks with Manny.

"You're the reason why the best of things has happened to us," grinned Diego "If it wasn't for you… I'd never have met Eli…" The tiger was still worried about his adopted son. After all these years, he had treated him as his own.

Sid looked again like he was about to cry. Only this time, tears of joy welled-up. However, he still had Egbert, Shelly, and Yoko to worry about. The three whimpered, and Sid felt like he couldn't leave them. He couldn't bring them with him, that's for sure. As his thoughts echoed in his mind, the roof had begun to lift above them.

A white big creature threw the giant slab of stone away as if one big play toy and roared loudly into the air.

Xion the Author: I've forgotten how much I enjoyed writing these. And I've forgotten to highlight more on the real characters of the movie. It's been circling too much on Eli that I need to highlight more on the others, even Crash.

Crash: Wahoo!

Xion the Author: *ahem* so… hopefully this doesn't looked rushed. I really took my time with it. Maybe a bit short on details… but with school and all, I hardly find any time to work on this. Next chapter, I promise, I'll mention Peaches. I want to keep an average amount of words per chapter, so I'll cut one scene short for now. Please review! :D