Hey, Hey, Hey everybody! It's time for chapter four! First, of course, the pre-chapter notifications… first of all, thanks to the two people who reviewed to my story, it really made my day that you enjoyed the chapter, and also, thanks to your suggestions, I will, from now on, double check the spelling and grammar, and also have NO authors notes throughout the story. I did make a mistake in the last chapter however, the girl possum's name was Lily, NOT Topaz! Rose however, was correct. I apologize for any confusion. There will be 2 chapters next week, one of which will be a full Ellie chapter, simply because that will be when she and her brothers arrive at the valley. There will be 3 chapters posted on April 1st, which will be chapters 7-9… a normal chapter, a chapter in which Manny arrives at the valley, and an authors notice. For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, the days that Manny has left is a countdown to how many days until the movie premiers… (Ellie is 10 days ahead of him!) That means that as of right now, we have about 16.3 days left before the premier. I hope that you enjoy this chapter, for it was quite fun to write! Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age, meaning that Manny, Ellie, Sid, Diego, Millie, Wallace (Even though I made their names up) and Crash and Eddie unfortunately, do not belong to me… however, Sophie, Her family, Rose, Lily, Willa (Snow), Billy (Dirt), Stephanie, William and Ellie's lullaby DO belong to me, so HA!
Souls Connected Chapter 4;
Children Are the Future
Ellie;
It was late evening, and Ellie and her brothers were just preparing to stop for dinner and a quick nap before the nighttime hours of their voyage. Ellie was just happy to stop for a while and rest her legs. She was walking in the woods looking for food when she heard a sound…. It wasn't a threatening sound, it was the sound of crying… she quietly walked towards the sound and was surprised to find…. A pair of possum infants lying next to a tree obviously abandoned. One of the babies was an albino female, with beautiful bright pink eyes and snow-white fur. The other was a normal male with dirt-brown fur all over, and lime green eyes, like Ellie's own.
"Oooh!" she cooed, "Poor things, are you guys alone?" The babies replied by looking at her with sad looks in their faces… Ellie picked them up with her trunk and carried them over to the clearing where she had put the food that she had already found. Once there, the babies started to cry again. It took Ellie about 10 minutes to realize that they were hungry; she searched in the woods, with the infants on her back and after about 5 minutes found two small melons for them to eat. She then took the food to the clearing, put it on the ground, opened it with one of her tusks, and then put the babies down on the ground next to it. Once the babies saw the food, they looked up at Ellie and gave her a big smile as they made clapping motions with their hands. Ellie watched the two babies eat (and play) with their food as she ate… content to see that they were safe. Once they were finished the babies crawled over to her and hugged her trunk. Ellie smiled.
"Hmm," She said thoughtfully "What should I call you two? Crash, Eddie!" She called her brothers, who were at the time playing in a nearby dung heap, and trying to avoid any responsibilities that their older sister might give them with the infants. They came over grumbling as they stood in front of her. "Get yourselves cleaned up, then we can get on our way!" the boys grumbled even more as they dragged themselves over to the nearby pond and washed all the dung off of themselves. Ellie looked down at the babies, who were smiling up at her. "I'll call you Snow" She told the girl of the two, "and you will be Dirt" she told the boy, "You guys aren't too bad." She told them happily "I could get used to you!" she then gently picked them up and put them on her back, once her brothers came up to her all clean, they went on their way.
"Ellie," Eddie asked as they walked on, "Why are you watching those babies anyway?"
"Because," Ellie told him, "They were lost; they needed someone to watch over them. Their parents abandoned them, I don't want some other species to find them and raise them as their own, that'd be kind of weird, don't you agree?"
"Yeah, sure" Crash told his sister, "But don't you think that if the parents find you with their kids, they'd be upset?"
"No." Ellie replied, "No sane parent would leave their babies alone in the woods, it's just evil!"
"I guess you're right." Eddie agreed, "At least let us play with them some!" Ellie sighed,
"Ok, fine, you can play with them some tomorrow, but only with me watching, I don't want you hurting them, the girl's pretty weak!" Ellie told them exasperatingly as she looked over at the full moon, "It's getting late, and we should probably stop for the night."
They stopped in a nearby cave and Ellie laid down so that the babies could sleep in her curled up trunk, there was a problem however, Snow and Dirt did not want to go to sleep.
"Go to sleep you two." She told them admiringly as she watched them play with each other, after a while she saw them yawn, but then they started to cry again. 'What is wrong now?' Ellie thought to herself, then noticed them yawning once again, 'oh, they are tired, no wonder, poor things, they can not get to sleep! Hmmm, what did mom do when I couldn't get to sleep? Oh yeah! She sang me a lullaby! Hmm, how did it go again? Ah! Now I remember! Ok, you two, get ready for bed!' she looked down at the babies with a motherly look on her face and started to sing to them,
"Go to sleep,
Do not be afraid,
Your mama is here,
To save all your days.
Your mama does love you,
And gives you her care,
Without you, my babies,
I am hardly there.
You are all that I live for,
You're all that I have,
I am so proud of you,
You make me so glad.
Nighttime is approaching,
Darkness is near,
But when your mama's with you,
You've got nothing to fear.
Dream sweetly darling,
Dream of true love,
And then it will come to you,
My sweet turtledove.
Go to sleep,
Do not be afraid,
Your mama is here,
To save all your days."
When she finished, Ellie looked down to find that the babies had, amazingly, fallen asleep! She smiled; her mother had sung that to her as a lullaby when she was an infant, and she had purposely memorized it so that whenever she had any children, she could use it on them. Ellie smiled as the babies snuggled up closer to her fur and she then fell asleep.
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The next morning when she woke up, the babies were still sleeping, "Wake up guys." She told them happily, proud that they treated her as if she was their mother. 'I could REALLY get used to this!' she told herself, 'I definitely wouldn't mind if their parent's never showed up.' Once the babies were up and ready, Ellie washed them off in a nearby pond (Which led to a whole lot of splashing on the babies' part, making Ellie's face completely soaked to the bone) fed them, rounded up Crash and Eddie, then started off on her way to Acorn Valley, happy that she only had 6 days until she would get there. It was around noontime when Ellie decided to stop for lunch, the boys ran off, probably to roll around in another dung heap, when she heard the sound of a possum talking to his mate.
"Don't worry Stephanie, I'm sure we'll find them!" he was saying to his mate, who was crying about something.
"But William!" his mate exclaimed, "They're only one week old! They can't survive without their mom!" Ellie looked down at Snow and Dirt, they were sitting on the ground next to her, playing and rolling around. 'Wait' she told herself, 'those parents are looking for their babies… what if…no, it can not be these two… can it?' She reluctantly picked the babies up and walked over to the couple.
"Excuse me." She told them "I couldn't help but overhear that you were looking for your children," She then held the babies out to them "Are these, by any chance yours?" When they saw the babies, the couples' eyes widened.
"OH!" the mother said happily, and then grabbed the excited children from Ellie's trunk, "My babies! Willa, Billy! You're all right! Oh thank you ma'am, thank you!" she then walked off, holding the babies, cooing at them. The father smiled at Ellie.
"Thank you miss, you have helped us extremely, is there anything we can do for you to express our thanks?" he asked her.
"No" Ellie said smiling, "Just seeing the looks on their faces when they saw you two was enough for me."
"Well, thank you, we will never forget this." William then walked over to his mate, picked up Billy, and started to play with him. Crash and Eddie walked up to Ellie, having seen the entire thing.
"That was SO COOOL!" Eddie said, "Did you see how happy we made those guys?" Ellie smiled.
"I sure did Eddie, I sure did." She then picked the two up, put them on her back and continued on her way, sure she was sad about losing the babies, but then again, they were home. 'Who knows?' Ellie thought to herself, 'Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll find a guy and then we can have children of our own... Maybe' with this thought in mind, Ellie kept on going, knowing she had done something good.
Manny;
Manny sat down in the field, exhausted from hearing Sid sing all morning long, and to make matters worse, he still had 16 long days until they got to the valley! Manny had convinced Diego to take Sid to a nearby dandelion field so that he could eat to his hearts content. (Both Manny and Diego knew, that if Sid ate enough, he would get VERY tired!) He was just about to start to doze off, when he felt something run into one of his rear legs, when he turned around to see what it was, he saw a little girl Start, probably no older than 10 months staring at his immense body, scared stiff. Manny was irritated, but when he saw the look of this young girl, he had to sympathize.
"Hey there" He told her in the nicest voice he could, "What's your name?"
"S-S-Sophie." The girl stuttered.
"Sophie, that's a very pretty name. Tell me Sophie, Why were you running like that?" Manny asked her, noticing that the girl was starting to calm down. Manny was, surprisingly, extremely good with children and loved spending time with the innocent little bundles of joy. Sophie looked up at him, noticing that he had a kindly look on his face and calmed down enough to speak clearly.
"My sisters and I were playing tag." She told him, "I didn't see ya there, sorry!"
"It's perfectly ok!" Manny told her as she smiled at him.
"OOOH!" Sophie said, noticing the necklace that Runar (Roshan's father) had given to Manny on his tusk. "Pretty Necklace!"
"You like it?" Manny asked her, he liked the necklace, sure, but he'd been thinking recently and decided that he would like to continue the tradition of handing it over to another individual.
"Yeah!" Sophie said, still eyeing the necklace, "It's got funny shapes and animals on it! Manny smiled,
"Do you want it?" He asked her kindly.
"Can I?" She asked him excitedly.
"Of course," He said as he held it out towards her, then pulled it back and looked at her with a stern look on his face, "But you have to promise me something." She looked up at him.
"What?" She asked, nervously. Manny looked down at her and gave her a smile that said that he was just teasing her with the stern look.
"You need to give it to someone else if they ever take interest in it, the only rule is that they cannot be able to see you again, they can't be in your family and they have to be a stranger except for that one moment, understood?" He told her.
"I understand!" She told him and squealed with excitement when Manny put the necklace around her neck.
"You look so pretty!" He told her, "Why don't you go show your mom?"
"OK!" She said happily, and then ran to show her mother. Manny smiled at her, and started to remember different things about his old child and mate, he remembered how Millie would always sing a lullaby to Wallace every night before he went to bed, and how beautiful he thought her singing voice was. He thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world when a mother sang her child to sleep. He noticed Sophie and her mother coming up to him.
"Thanks mister!" Sophie said happily.
"You're very welcome" He told her smiling, she ran off to play with her siblings, and her mother walked up to him.
"Thank you very much sir." She told him, smiling, "My little Sophie needs something like this to cheer herself up, she hasn't been much herself since she lost her twin." She said this last sentence with sadness in her eyes and voice.
"Yes, Well" Manny told her, "I understand your pain, I lost a child too, and a mate at the same time. The only advice I can give you is to keep going, pay extra attention to your other children, and you will be better, you'll never really get over the pain, but you'll be able to put it aside for some moments of happiness." The mama Start smiled at him, thanked him, and then walked off to her family.
Manny smiled at them… he was getting better and better as time went on, he didn't know if it was the fact that he had friends to talk to, or that he was starting to get used to life without a true family again, or whatever, but he was, slowly and surely, getting better.
Manny wouldn't mind having another child someday, he wasn't ready for one right then, but maybe… within the next 5 years. Of course, he didn't know where ANY mammoths were, he didn't even know for sure if there WERE any others…. In Sid's head, he was the only one left. Manny wasn't sure, but he opted to forget the idea and live the rest of his life to the fullest, even if it was going to be alone… he'd find a way to be satisfied…. And happy at the same time…. he saw Diego coming up to him, and laughed in spite of himself when he noticed that Sid was fast asleep on his back. The three friends continued on their journey, 16 days until they would get to the Valley, they were getting closer every day.
Whew! I think that may be the longest chapter yet! (I'm pretty sure that Ellie's section is actually the longest this time, that's a first, ALL RIGHT!) Some of you are telling me that these stories are making you like Ellie more and more… and that makes me happy, because that is my goal with this story! My goal with this story is to create at least 5 Manny/Ellie fans before the 2nd movie comes out, by only sharing stories that hint how well they would work together… I know in the movie that they argue frequently, but at the end… its true love! The lullaby that Ellie sang was written and composed by me, I unfortunately am not able to post the tune up here (ooh, an interactive story! You get to make up your own tune!) But, oh well! My 2nd goal with this story is to introduce you to Ellie and her brothers before they make their worldwide first appearance on March 31st in theaters near you…. I'm also trying to reintroduce you to Manny and his pals as well. Thank you, once again for reading this story, and I compliment you if you actually are reading this sentence! Please Reply, for that helps me decide what to change in my stories, and what works and what doesn't work! Also, I am thinking of creating a Manny/Ellie C2 community, if there are at least 5 Manny/Ellie fics (OTHER THAN ANY OF MINE!) Posted a month after the movie's release (May 1st) then I will create it! Thanks again for reading, and have a nice week! Remember, stay away from the geysers please, you don't want to die a boiling hot death!
Taffyabc (A.K.A. Funkywatermelon's assistant)