Title: Lost and Found
Disclaimer: I don't own Manny, Sid, or Diego and/or any other characters associated with them. I do own Nana though and her storyline.
Pairing:Diego/OC
Summary: Sid wasn't the only one left behind that day...
Manny nodded his head in the direction of a small scraggly looking squirrel, who was scratching in the ever increasing amounts of snow looking for a good place to put his acorn. "Ask him for directions."
"I don't need directions," insisted Diego.
Nana rolled her eyes. "What is it about men and asking for directions?" She asked incredulously. "Manny just ask, 'cos we all know Mr Stubborn here won't."
"Hey, buddy. You see any humans go by here?"
The squirrel looked up at them nervously and shook his head. He paused and then nodded, holding up a claw. Eagerly, Sid walked forward holding the baby.
"Oh! I love this game! Ok, let's see...three words...first word...stomp!" The squirrel jumped up and down in frustration.
"Here, let me try," said Manny, pushing Sid out of the way. The squirrel tried again and the group watched as the creature picked up his acorn and carried it on his back.
"Sack, bag, pack…Pack!" he shouted triumphantly as the squirrel nodded encouragingly.
"Oooh, good one, Manny," said Sid. "Pack of...long teeth...and claws!"
Nana's ears pricked up. 'Long teeth and claws?'
The other started throwing ideas off each other.
"Pack of wolves?"
"Pack of bears? No, that's not it."
"Ok, wait, I've got it. Pack of..."
Manny turned but the squirrel was gone. He glanced around confused and then shrugged.
"Come on, this way!" shouted Diego, who had started off already.
Of course it didn't take long for another argument to begin.
Diego scowled at Manny. "I mean, faster than the long way around," he said sarcastically.
"I know what a shortcut is!" snapped Manny, struggling to keep the wriggling baby under control.
Nana ignored the pair as she lay on the ground chewing on some sort of rabbit for was about the size of a large cat and its entrails were now splayed across the snow, red puddles marring the crystal white ground.
Sid screwed his nose up in disgust and headed off as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Urgh, carnivores!"
Nana rolled her eyes and carried on with her meal whilst Diego and Manny continued to argue.
"Look, either we slip through there and beat the humans to Glacier Pass, or we take the long way and miss them!"
"Through there?" Manny pointed with his trunk at the narrow opening, sharp icicles hanging above it, which shook when the wind blew. He raised an eyebrow sceptically. "What do you take me for?"
"This time tomorrow, you could be a free mammoth… or a nanny. Personally I never get tired of peek-a-boo."
Manny wavered, but his gut instinct told him to avoid the cavern. Just then Sid came back holding two pieces of a long icicle in his paws.
"Hey guys! Check this out." Sid staggered past holding the icicle to the sides of his neck as though it was speared through him.
Nana rolled her eyes.
"Sid, the tiger found a shortcut." Manny gestured to the dark, forbidding entrance into the sheer rock face. Looking at the entrance Sid hurriedly dropped the halved icicle and started backing away.
"No thanks. I choose life."
Diego was on him in one bound, his snarling face within inches of Sid's."Then I suggest you take the shortcut."
Sid looked at Diego and waggled a claw in his face accusingly. "Are you threatening me?"
"Move, sloth!" Roared Diego.
There was a loud rumbling noise and the group looked up as snow, ice and rocks started to hurtle down from the top of the cliff . They stood immobile for a moment, staring as the snow slide headed towards them, rapidly gaining speed.
"Waaaay to go, tiger." Sid patted Diego on the head condescendingly.
"Quick! Inside!" yelled Manny.
No one was prepared to stick around to argue the point and they all dashed inside, Nana parting regretfully with her meal. They slid to a halt inside the entrance, watching as the icicles danced and tinkled unsteadily on top of the roof as the avalanche continued. Deciding to take their chances outside they whirled around to head back out only to find large rocks and boulders blocked their way. Glancing uncertainly upwards towards the icicles they watched as gradually they stopped shaking and stood still again.
There was no way they could go backwards so now their only option was to carry on through the cave.
"Ok, I vote shortcut."
It was freezing inside the cave, their breaths coming in icy puffs. The baby was kept warm curled up by Nana, who was lying on top of Manny.
Diego shifted uneasily."Stick together, guys. It's easy to get lost in here."
"And the prize for stating the obvious this year goes to..." muttered Nana as she eyed the tall caverns within the cave.
The path split into three and then three again, and it would only take one of them to make the wrong turn to be completely lost and be split from the group. It was strangely quiet inside, except for the constant dripping caused by melting stalactites.
"Will you keep up, please?" Manny snapped at Sid who was lagging behind. "It's hard enough to keep track of one baby." The four of them then watched bewildered, as somehow Junior slid past on the ice and disappeared down an ice tunnel, waving and gurgling happily.
"How the...?"
Diego's question was left unanswered as Sid leapt in after the vanishing baby, swiftly followed by Manny. He looked at Nana, who gestured towards the hole with a paw.
"Ladies first."
Diego didn't have chance to retort as he was roughly pushed down the hole. Nana smirked and jumped in after him.
She immediately regretted her actions, as she went sliding wildly after the others, rapidly gaining speed. She couldn't see them, (they had ended up sliding down separate tunnels), but she could hear their yells of fear plainly coming from other areas in the maze of ice. The ice floor curved upwards unexpectedly and Nana shot off the end, briefly flying through the air. She spotted Diego, Sid and Manny just ahead, as the many winding tunnels converged into one.
She landed on the hard ice, the air knocked out of her lungs. She continued to slide, flat on her stomach downhill. It was only then that she realised that her path stopped a little way ahead, ending in a sheer drop. She tried to dig her claws in but she had built up too much momentum, so instead she shut her eyes tightly and waited for the inevitable to happen as she flew off the end …
To her surprise she didn't hit the cold ice, but instead something large and warm. She opened her eyes confused and found herself to be back on Manny, along with Sid and Diego, on whom she was currently lying. She blushed and would have gotton up, but at that moment Manny slid wildly and she had to grip onto Diego to avoid falling off. Their eyes locked but before anything could happen, Sid made a mad grab for Manny's trunk breaking the pair up as he yelled.
"Captain! Iceberg ahead!"
Before anyone could figure out what Sid was talking about, they smashed into an enormous piece of ice. They slid upwards before coming to a stop before they could go over the precipice. Manny sighed in relief, and they all relaxed.
CRACK!
The ice gave way under their combined weight and they plummeted downwards, screaming. Somehow they managed to maintain their upright position as they hit the bottom and started to slide all over again.
Out of the blue Junior appeared infront of them and Diego reached out to grab him but missed. Diego and Sid leapt off Manny to see if they could catch the slithering baby. Crouching down to decrease air resistance Diego sped ahead of Sid and Manny. But the mammoth wasn't about to allow the carnivore get to the baby first and so following Diego's lead he ducked his head down to, trying to minimise his body size.
Seeing what he was trying to do Nana leapt off to the right allowing him to try and achieve this. He turned around as the baby suddenly flew upwards in the air, getting ready to catch him. He deftly caught him with his trunk, but there was no time for celebration as the next thing they knew they had ploughed straight into a wall of snow.
Manny's head popped out of the snow and with his trunk he fished around for the baby, who came out laughing and shaking his podgy little fists in the air happily. Manny rolled his eyes at him and then looked around for Sid who appeared next to him shaking snow off his fur, along with a spluttering Nana. They stared irritated at the baby, who blew raspberries back at them. Diego eventually popped out of the snow to Manny's right, laughing and shouting, almost as happy as Junior.
"Wow! Whoo, yeah! Who's up for round two?"
The other three glared at him. He took one look at them and then coughed and lowered his eyes to the floor embarrassed.
"Oh. Ahem. Tell the kid to be more careful."
The ice turned to dirt beneath their feet and it was a welcome change.
Nana stretched her claws; glad she wouldn't be sliding around any longer. She avoided looking at Diego, and concentrated on staring at the floor as she walked.
Sid nudged her in the side, bringing her out of her thoughts and he pointed at the paintings, which adorned the walls.
"Look, look! Tigers!"
Nana stopped interested, and the baby also stopped fussing and stared wide-eyed at the pictures. He gave a whimper. Tired of having to deal with the infant Manny put him on the ground and started to walk off ahead. Junior clung onto Nana's right front leg, sniffling. She crouched down and licked the baby's cheek trying to make him stop. She'd grown attached to him, she mused.
"Oh, it's ok, it's ok, look, the tigers are just playing tag with the antelope..." murmured Sid, trying to comfort Junior. He trailed off uncertainly and stared at it again. "With their teeth."
Diego circled him, baring his teeth, as he smirked.
"Come on, Sid. Let's play tag. You're it!" Sid eyed him warily and laughed nervously.
"Sure…" he glanced up at the walls again and quickly changed the subject.
"Ok, ok, ok. Where are the sloths? You know, you never see any sloths in these things, have you ever noticed?" He paused and then let out a gasp of excitement.
"Oh, look, Manny! A mammoth!" He cocked his head to one side and inspected it carefully. "Hey, hey this fat one looks just like you." Manny stopped and came back to where the others were looking and glared at Sid.
"Aaw, and he's got a family!" Manny's look of annoyance started to rapidly fade and Diego swore he grew a shade paler. Sid carried on unknowing.
"Oh, and he's happy. Look, he's playing with his kid! See, Manny, That's your problem! That's what mammoths are supposed to do! Find a She-mammoth, have baby mammoths…"
Sid trailed off sharply as Nana dug her claws into his side. Manny had a glazed look upon his face, as reverently he pressed his trunk upon the drawing of the family on the wall. The trio looked down at the ground, suddenly realizing that this was a private and obviously painful moment between Manny and his past. They stayed like that for what seemed an age, until he came out of his trance as his trunk brushed against something soft. Glancing down he saw that what he'd touched was the baby. He tottered towards him, uncertainly and Manny caught him before he fell.
It was in that moment that Nana realised that although Manny was seemingly hard on the outside, he was soft and gentle on the inside, and by the way he was holding the baby, coming to terms with the fact that he couldn't, or rather, wouldn't abandon them. Any of them.
Half Peak soon appeared in the distance and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well, would you look at that. The tiger actually did it! There's Half Peak, next stop, Glacier Pass." Manny turned to Diego with a smile. "How could I ever have doubted you?"
Sid smiled at the baby. "Did you hear that, little fella? You're almost home..." He suddenly fell silent again, shifting from foot to foot. "My feet are sweating."
Diego rolled his eyes. "Do we need to get a newsflash every time your body does something?"
"He's doing it for attention, just ignore him," said Manny sagely.
"Seriously, my feet are really hot - ow!"
The trio continued to ignore him and Sid started to dance around wildly yelping, as his feet grew hotter and hotter. There was a sudden ominous rumbling, and the group stopped in their tracks as the ground began to shake.
Manny glanced around worriedly and clutched the baby tighter.
"Tell me that was your stomach..." he muttered. Sid finally caught up with the rest of them and tried to reason the rumbling away, failing miserably.
"I'm sure it was just thunder. From...under...ground?"
The noise grew louder until all of a sudden the snow behind them erupted, a geyser of lava shooting straight into the air. For a moment there was a collective silence then…
"AAAAH!"
As one they turned and ran, racing as fast as they could to escape the place and it's lethal underground fountains. More snow erupted behind them, but there was no time to stop and look back.
"Come on, keep up with me!" yelled Sid as he tried to run over a particularly icy patch of snow. It would have been funny if the situation hadn't been so deadly.
"I would if you were moving!" Manny bellowed back behind him.
Sid slipped and fell flat on his face. Meanwhile the rock and snow were giving way and slipping to fall into the river of lava, which now flowed, metres below them. Diego launched himself across a steadily increasing gap behind them, shortly followed by Nana who only faltered slightly and then regained her balance.
"Wow, I wish I could jump like that," marvelled Sid as he gazed at the two tigers behind Manny.
"Wish granted!" shouted Manny as he impatiently kicked the sloth hard, causing him to fly over the ice and land on solid ground a little way ahead. Nana was growing panicky and she started to pace behind Diego.
"Come on, move faster!" she snapped.
Manny raised an eyebrow and sarcastically pointed at the fiery flow below them. "Have you noticed the river of lava?"
The baby whimpered as the ice faded before their eyes. It would never support Manny's weight. Frowning in concentration he crouched down before leaping, barely making it to solid rock. He sighed in relief, but turned at Nana's sharp bark of alarm.
She'd leapt after Manny, but the gap between the melting ice and solid ground was increasing and when Diego had leapt he had only just made it, hanging onto the edge of the ice with his claws. Nana wasn't long enough, and the ice was too fragile for anybody to walk right over to him. Springing into action Manny shoved the baby into Sid's arms.
"Hold Pinky!"
He carefully inched himself out, using his trunk as a rope with which to reach Diego. There was a horrible cracking sound and Manny paused as the ice below him shuddered and readjusted itself. Diego let go with one paw desperately struggling to reach the outstretched trunk. Suddenly with a loud sickening crack the ice gave and he started to fall but Manny leaned forward and snatched him quickly before he could, causing them both to sway precariously.
Diego glanced at the boiling river below him and flinched as a jet of steam suddenly gushed upwards next to him. Turning to Manny with desperate eyes he dug his claws into the mammoth's trunk trying to get a better grip. Wincing in pain, Manny turned and flung him back over his head towards Sid, Nana and the baby. The baby gurgled happily as Sid breathed a sigh of relief.
Nana anxiously hurried over to Diego who was lying slumped on the ice. She licked his face fretfully, as he remained motionless.
"Diego, Diego!" She nudged him with her head. "Damn it, wake up!"
Diego cracked open one eye and grinned at her. "Maybe I ought to be 'unconscious' more often if this is the welcome I get."
Nana hurriedly backed away from him and glared. "Dream on tiger. I thought you were dead, after all you do look kinda pathetic…"
A loud crack interrupted Diego's reply.
Everyone turned at the noise to see Manny (who had been walking over to the others), staring as the ice below his feet fractured. As if in slow motion they saw the ice give way and begin to slide away from the cliff edge.
Manny gave one loud, panicked bellow and then he was gone, tumbling down towards a fiery end…
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