Chapter 21
We're nearing the end of this epic tale! Not yet, but soon, my pretty, soon...
I don't own Ice Age!
That night, Tabitha cried and cried and cried, promising herself that after this she would never cry again, knowing in her heart that that promise would be broken. She refused the company of everyone but Melody, sobbing into her fur by her father's dying frame.
What annoyed her the most, though, was that she couldn't pinpoint exactly why she was crying. Maybe it was stress, maybe it was fear but whatever it was, Tabitha hated it. Tabitha hated this whole stupid world of dinosaurs and everything associated with it. She hated Peaches and her kidnappers and she hated Rudy and she hated Sid because if it weren't for them her father would be okay and they'd be home in the snow the way they used to be...And she kept crying and hating and recalling every last detail of the past couple of weeks, from the time she was watching Peaches and the mammoth and slipped and fallen through the ice to now, and after that she reduced her hate to only herself and Rudy and poisonous plants because if she'd watched Peaches more carefully then...then...
And so the tears streamed down her face, and Melody's face, and a few slipped from Dorothy's eyes and Peaches bawled long into the night and nobody knew why everyone was crying. Yet, everyone knew why they were wasn't until Matthias and Diego left in search of the Antidote that Tabitha's sobs subsided to hiccups and the drizzle that had been raining down from the underground clouds cleared up.
Finally, after long hours of Tabitha staring up at the cavern ceiling listening to Peaches wail, Tabitha fell asleep.
And Silas woke up, in another world entirely, one of snow and ice. Silas woke up and thought about the friend he'd lost, the Tabitha that was MIA, the girlfriend he'd never have. Silas got up, walked out of the den, and walked away with no purpose in mind.
Only to leave.
And he found that while leaving was hard, after you left, it was the easiest thing in the world. So he stayed out all night, and fell asleep under a tree far from home, and when he awoke began the journey back at a trot instead of a meandering walk. Silas was a thoughtful boy, which is probably why he thought so much, in particular about Tabitha. He thought about her and missed her, and the more the thought the more he missed, the more he missed the more he thought.
Silas slipped into his den and fell back asleep before his parents even found out.