Alright, started this directly after posting 24, and can I just say that since I forgot to put this in 23 when Izzy actually sang it, the song was Safe and Sound and it was by Taylor Swift, so clearly I don't own it.
BTW, soz if any of the German that Gupta speaks is incorrect, I just used Google Translate.
Taz: Dex, Bronson and I belong to scoobs5601!
Rebecca: And I - along with another new person in this chapter - belong to Blumacaw13!
Shira curled around Silas, guarding her brother from any danger. Suddenly, she spotted a small wooden hut nearby. She took a little rock between her claws and threw it at the door of the hut. There was some rustling, and a weasel emerged.
"Alright, what's going on out-" the weasel cut herself off when she saw a sabre and a bird "Okay, what is happening? A sabre and a bird? Down here?"
Shira sat up, nudging Silas back to warn him in case she was danger.
"We could say the same about a weasel," pointed out Shira. The weasel rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. I actually live here. You have appeared out of nowhere. Why?" she asked, folding her arms and tapping her foot. Shira sighed.
"Ya really wanna know?"
The weasel nodded.
"Was tun wir? Was tun wir? Unsere Schwester fehlt, wir werden angegriffen, wir werden sterben, wir werden sterben!" babbled Gupta, panicking.
"What did he say?" asked Flynn. The pirates were hiding out in a small ditch, having lost their enemies a short while ago.
"I think he said 'What do we do? What do we do? Our sister is missing, we're being attacked, we're going to die, we're going to die!' in German," translated Squint "I think."
"Was tun wir? Was tun-" Gupta began again, but he cut himself off when Raz poked his sore leg "Ouch, vhat vas that for?"
"Ta getcha ta stop panickin'," Raz shrugged. Gupta scowled, picked a Lotus berry from a nearby bush, threatened to squirt some juice at Raz, then poured some on his stinging leg.
"Vell you didn't have to slap my leg..." mumbled Gupta sulkily.
"Yeah, it was kinda mean Raz," agreed Boris.
"Indeed," said Lauren, standing behind Squint.
"Yeah- wait, who said that?" asked Squint, before turning around and seeing Lauren "Gah!"
Kenzie and Ashling appeared at the top of the ditch, grinning hungrily. Alex waited behind them, as she didn't trust Soto so wouldn't wait with him and Oscar behind the pirates in the ditch.
The band of misfits attempted to run, but soon discovered that wasn't likely as Soto and Oscar were lurking behind them.
The herd thundered through the trees, their attackers close on their heels. Taz climbed onto Peaches' back, while Louis hopped onto Meghan's. The possum soon found out why Louis didn't want to ride on Peaches, as she took to the trees quickly when Gutt started to gain on her slightly.
"AAH!" screamed Taz, clinging to the mammoth's hair for dear life. Hearing another scream, Mikayla's ears pricked up and she huriedly slipped away from the herd, thankfully unnoticed.
She raced and raced through the bushes, unpursued for now, until she saw the pirates being cornered in a ditch.
"This way!" she yelled, dropping down into the ditch and gesturing for them to follow her. Deciding they had no other options, the pirates set off after the sabre they hated so bitterly, Raz now carrying Gupta and the cubs, as they were in her pouch.
"-and that's how we got here," Shira finally finished her explaination. The weasel's eyes grew wide, yet slightly doubtful.
"Okay, that sounds like a story someone would tell to their kid to get 'em to fall asleep."
Shira shrugged. "I warned you, but you wanted to know."
"Mademoiselles?" Silas spoke up "I hate to interrupt, but Shira, we need to get back to ze surface if we are going to help our siblings."
Shira nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Listen weasel, we gotta get outta here. Are you gonna help or not?"
"Eh, why not," the weasel shrugged.
"Okay, I'm Shira, this is my adoptive brother Silas, and you are?"
"Diesel," she answered calmly "Now c'mon before-"
A roar echoes through the trees. Diesel face-palmed.
"Too late."
"What was zat?" asked Silas.
Diesel answered with one word. "Rudy."
Mikayla and the pirates reunited with the herd pretty soon, but they were almost at the waterfall. This meant that all the attackers were reunited again, except for Jasper, Izzy, Kate and Bronson, who weren't invovled in the attack. Yet.
"Quick! Into the water!" ordered Manny.
"But, we can't swim!" protested Squint, to which the other pirates, Mikayla, and Taz all nodded.
"Well learn fast!" snapped Manny, charging up to the water's edge. But suddenly, a narwal with a chipped horn appeared in front of him.
"Nope, not happening," the narwal smirked.
"Nice work, Jasper," praised Hollie, fluttering above them. Gutt, Soto and the others gathered behind the herd, Jasper the narwal blocking their water escape.
Gutt smirked evilly, then began to casually inspect his claws before saying "Attack."
Everyone leapt into action. Hollie flew towards Manny, pecking at his face cruelly with her beak. Squint rushed in to help, zipping around the mammoth like he did to tie him up back when he worked with Gutt, but quickly learned it's very hard to catch a hummingbird.
"Dang, she's fast!" he complained.
"Duh!" Taz rolled her eyes "Do you have any idea how fast hummingbirds can fly?"
"No, how fast?"
"Uhm... I dunno, very!"
"Y'know Taz, you're not kinda like Izzy after all," commented Squint.
"I'm not?"
"Nope. You're exactly like her!"
Taz smiled at Squint, and he smiled back, until they remembered Hollie.
"Ha, can't catch me, can't catch me!" she bragged childishly. What she didn't notice was Rhianne getting a run-up. "Ha, can't catch me, can't catch me!"
The young snow wolf cub ran fast, using a rock as a launchpad, and flew through the air towards the bird. Hollie noticed at the last possible second, but even she couldn't get away fast enough as Rhianne's claws grazed one of her wings, injuring it. This allowed the cub to effectively pin the bird in the sky, but they were still hurtling to the ground from mammoth height.
Rhianne screamed, catching the attention of Flynn and Meghan. The elephant seal wobbled forwards, just catching the young cub in his flippers, hugging her close to calm her down. Hollie, meanwhile, started frantically flapping her unharmed wing in an attempt to lessen the impact of the fall. It had an effect similar to that of a parachute, so she wasn't badly hurt.
Meghan skillfully placed a hollowed-out rock over the hummingbird, ensuring she didn't escape. Ashling then advanced on the mammoth teen, but was sent flying into a rockface by Peaches, who had swung from a nearby tree using a vine to save her friend.
Taz, Crash and Eddie soon found themselves challenged by Zeke.
"Alright possums, let's go!" Zeke bared his teeth. Trying to hopefully get them out of fighting the sabre, whose teeth were much sharper and larger up close, Taz spoke up, imagining an air of confidence to help her.
"Right, you're too chicken to fight someone your own size, so you fight possums. Oh wait, possums are your size!" she taunted. The sabre twitched, then readied to attack. In a last second resort, Crash and Eddie started whipping the tiger with their tails. Taking their advice for once, Taz copied, and soon the sabre found himself strangely out-numbered.
While they were distracting them, Buck swung down on a vine and began to tie Zeke up.
"Hey, back off rat!" snapped Zeke.
Buck responded merely with a cry of "Yeeha!" before finishing his work with a neat bow. Zeke was now completely immobilised, and quite frankly very humiliated as he was wrapped up in vines with a bow on his head.
Alex and Kenzie teamed up, as usual, but when Diego and Mikayla came at them, Alex panicked and retreated fearfully, to promptly knock herself out on a sturdy tree branch. Kenzie sighed, but still protected her friend from the carnivores who might eat her. Crash and Eddie, having recovered from Zeke, hung down from a branch and fired their rock spitballs at Kenzie, distracting her long enough for Diego to pack a serious pounce, leaving her barely concious.
She took a moment to recover, but when she did, she came at the sabres with new fury. This fiery fury was soon extinguished when Peaches swung into her too, slamming her against the tree trunk, rendering her unconcious for real this time.
Lauren tunneled up to Louis, but instead of aggressively confronting him, she popped up right in front of his face, scaring him.
"Oh, I'm sorry baby, did I scare you?" she cooed, attempting to cuddle him. Taz saw this, and her vision became tinted red. As Lauren leaned in to kiss Louis on the cheek, she was met with a rock to the head, causing her to topple to the ground under her own weight, completely knocked out. Louis looked up, to see a very angry Taz juggling several rocks, before she realised he was looking at her. When she noticed, she blushed crimson and tossed the rocks away, standing there sheepishly.
Boris and Raz teamed up against Lenny and Dex. Raz twirled her spear around effortlessly, purposely but subtly holding it over her pouch, so that the cubs were safe. She'd previously stuffed Kendall deeper into her pouch, so he couldn't be seen anymore. Boris readied himself to fight, and quickly dodged an attack from Dex before charging at the wolverine.
Lenny made a run for Raz, but soon discovered that taking the shaft of a wooden spear to the chest hurts badly. He was sent skidding across the battlefield, as Raz ran to help her brother. Dex put up more of a fight than Lenny, but a kick in the stomach from Raz's hind feet left him winded and only semi-concious.
"Ouch, they'll have some bruises tomorrow," predicted Boris, to which Raz nodded and bowed.
Sid accidentally stumbled backwards into the water, only to be met with Jasper's horn.
"Ow!" he whined, catching the attention of several hyraxes, who flew over with their leaf paragliders and started to beat up Jasper. He almost punctured the leader fatally with his chipped horn, so Sid grabbed a sharp stick, leapt into the water bravely, and poked and prodded the narwal for all he was worth.
Jasper eventually gave up, diving under the water to rid himself of the sloth and hyraxes, and speeding away.
"Yeah! Victory!" cheered Sid, high-fiving the hyraxes.
Just as Raz and Boris were celebrating their triumph, a frantic Diego ran up, Mikayla at his side.
"Raz, where's Shira?" he asked, or rather, demanded.
"She fell down some 'ole in the ground back there with Silas, we don't know where Sheila is aneh'more..." sighed Raz.
"WHAT?!" exclaimed both sabres. Before anyone could stop him, Diego raced off in the direction of the hole. Quickly, Gutt grabbed him, hiding him in the bushes and covering his mouth so he couldn't yell.
"Easy tiger, I'm just stopping you wasting your time. Shira's dead," Gutt lied. Diego growled.
"I don't believe you."
"Can this convince you?" Gutt held up a silver pelt, complete with beautiful black stripes. Diego's eyes widened.
"H-how..."
"I found her in the ground, bleeding and beaten. So, I put her out of her misery," Gutt wrapped the pelt around Diego "Here, have a feel. Soft and silky, isn't it?"
Diego could only nod, and bury his head in what he thought was his beloved's fur. A single tear fell from his eye and soaked into the pretend pelt. "Shira," he murmured "I'm so sorry."
Meanwhile, down in the Dinoland, Shira, Silas and Diesel were hastily running from Rudy.
"What're we gonna do?" asked Shira, terrified. Diesel shrugged.
"For now, keep running!"
"Until?" prompted Silas.
"Until we come up with a better plan!" snapped Diesel irritably, her muscles burning from all the running. Shira's eyes widened; she had a plan.
"Guys, we need to get Rudy to follow us to the surface!" she blurted out randomly.
"What?!" cried Diesel and Silas at once.
"You heard me, he can take down Gutt!" explained Shira.
"Gutt's alive?!" gasped Silas, who didn't know. Shira nodded, before running in the direction of a slanted slope leading upwards that she had spotted not too far in the distance. It led up into a small cavern, so Rudy wouldn't rip the earth apart coming up.
The baryonx followed the sabre, bird and weasel up above ground, not realising it was a trick. Shira led the dinosaur to the battle scene, following the trail of destruction as a took a swipe at the air, almost shredding Silas into thirds.
"Shira, ze dinosaur almost tore me apart, again!" he complained. Shira chewed her lip. She could see that Diesel was tiring immensely, so she grabbed the weasel and threw her to Silas, who caught her on his back.
"Fly off and warn the herd about Rudy!" called Shira. Silas nodded, and flew off with Diesel clinging to his feathers.
Diego sobbed bitterly into the freezing pelt he thought was Shira's, finally releasing the tears he had kept inside recently. Gutt just scoffed at the pathetic sabre; he always enjoyed watching loved ones grieve, especially when the one they were greiving wasn't dead for real.
"My poor Shira," he whimpered, cuddling into the pelt, still wrapped around his body like a blanket.
"What a wimp of a sabre..." muttered Gutt. Diego heard, but didn't react, he was too busy missing his mate.
Silas flapped into the clearing, still with Diesel on his back. Suddenly, he swerved, causing Diesel to drop off his back.
"Wow, maybe I should just stop carrying people on my back..." mused Silas, before swooping down to catch the falling weasel.
As he was swinging around on vines, Buck suddenly crashed into a female weasel. Literally, she was falling and he swung into her.
"Woah, sorry mate," he chuckled, hanging onto her so she would stop falling "Didn't mean to crash into ya there!"
"No problem," she replied, straightening herself as best she could and clinging to the still swinging vine herself. "So, who're you?"
"The name's Buck, short for Buckminster, long for Buh," he greeted, tightening his grip on the vine with one paw and offering the other for a handshake "You?"
"Diesel," she answered simply, shaking his paw quickly before grabbing onto the vine again. The two weasels swung the vine back and forth for a bit, occasionally grabbing supplies and delivering them to those in need. Seeing that Diesel was okay, Silas flew straight to Raz.
"Raz!" he called to get her attention "Shira is coming, but she is bringing, uhm... a new ally, I suppose..."
Raz was about to ask, until a roar rang through the island.
"Rudy?!" exclaimed Buck, in disbelief and shock. "I thought he was dead?!"
"Why'd you think that?" asked Diesel, throwing a sharp shard of rock down to one of the hyraxes, who was working as part of a team to take down Oscar.
"Well, a few months ago, I saw him down in the dinoworld, lying on his back, not moving, with his eyes closed!"
"Oh yeah, I accidentally knocked him unconcious a while back, but he's okay now," explained Diesel casually. Buck looked confused, yet somewhat impressed. He had to admit, this Diesel girl was pretty interesting...
A vicious roar, yet not from Rudy, broke Buck out of his thoughts. Soto sprang at Raz, aiming for her pouch. Knowing she could never get away in time, Raz bravely snatched all seven cubs from her pouch and threw them to various members of the herd. Taz and Louis caught Tina between them, Mikayla grabbed Hope, Manny caught Kendall, Lightning ended up with Crash and Eddie, Ranger steadied himself, before being picked up by Sid, Casper got cuddled by Peaches, and somehow Buck and Diesel wound up holding Jade together.
Soto, unable to stop the momentum of the pounce, continued forward. His claws and teeth sank into Raz's stomach, drawing blood almost immediately upon contact. The kangaroo fell back, forcing her tears inside, knowing she could never cry in public. Carelessly, Soto retracted his claws, and pulled out his teeth. He licked himself clean, acting like he had all the time in the world.
Mikayla's eyes filled with tears as she watched blood pour from the kangaroo's wounds into her fur. Gupta, twisted ankle or not, staggered towards his sister, clasping her paw in both of his.
"Razzy?" he whispered. She smiled.
"G'bye, mate..." she whispered "Say hey ta Sheila fer meh..."
Raz gently grew limp, her eyes drifting shut, her chest becoming motionless. The last thing she heard was the united cry of all her siblings echoing inside her head.
"Razzy!"
Crud, short chapter again _
Sorry, I bet all you pirate fans are sharping the pitchforks and lighting the torches for the angry mob, right? Please review, and thanks for reading! Will try to update as soon as possible. Almost didn't post this at all until I'd finished Chap 26, but I decided that would be cruel.