CHAPTER 3
TRYING TO GET ALONG
The three females were bewildered by the fact that a human was actually talking to them. Ellie walked up to Cheril, who was smiling at them.
"Sweetheart, did you just talk to us?" Ellie asked.
"Yep," Cheril said, "My mommy told me that humans and animals can talk to each other. My daddy said that the whole tribe can understand them, too. I like talking to animals, though. That means they can be my friends."
"Wow," Shira said, "For a four year old, she really does know what she's talking about."
Ellie sighed, picking Cheril up with her trunk and walked over to Brooke. "Okay, Brooke, I'll help you take the kid back to her herd, but will you promise to leave me alone after that."
"Alright, I will," Brooke said, "My goodness, what is your problem?"
"I don't have a problem. I just want everything to go back to normal. Let the past stay in the past."
"I have a feeling that you're just stressed. It may be because you don't meditate as often as you should. Also, don't eat so much. Being on a vegan diet should not cause you to be fat."
"I'm not fat. Why does everybody say that? Especially to mammoths. Listen, it's because of all this fur. It makes me look big and poofy."
"Okay, you have big hair, but I don't see a reason for that to be an excuse for you to be the way you are now. Whenever you are ready to talk, I'm here. I'm good to talk to."
Shira sighed. "This is going to be a long trip." She walked up to see that Ellie and Brooke were standing next to the cliff.
Ellie had Brooke in her trunk while Brooke had Cheril in her paws. "What are you doing? Just put her on the ledge."
Brooke placed Cheril on the ledge. "Should we make sure that they found her?"
"Good idea." Ellie rose Brooke up high.
"No, no, no, wait. AHHH!" Brooke screamed in fright, holding her hands up in protection. "Please don't spear me! Spare my life. I was only bringing your child back."
Cheril giggled. "You're a funny sloth."
"What?" Brooke looked to see that nobody was there. "Um, Ellie, I think we have a problem."
"What are you talking about?" Ellie asked. She walked up to see that the entire village was empty. "Oh, that's perfect! Can't anything ever be easy?"
"What did I tell you?" Shira said, walking up behind Shira.
"Well, well, well, look who has decided to join us?" Brooke said, placing her hand on her hip.
"I figured you would go find some animal to eat," Ellie said.
"The humans shouldn't have gone too far," Shira said, sniffing the ground.
"I'm sure they either went left, right, or straight," Brooke said, picking up a stick.
"You're not good at tracking, are you?"
"I'm a sloth. What do you expect from me? I meditate in trees, I eat leaves. That's how I track. That's just the life of a hippie sloth."
"Looks like they went north about two hours ago, according to how fresh their tracks are."
"Look, I found a fish," Cheril said as she rocked a large berry bowl back and forth and caused the fish to land in Ellie's face. This made Cheril laugh.
Ellie scraped the fish off her face. "Ha, ha. Very funny."
"You don't need all this aggravation," Shira said, "By the way, can I have that fish?" Ellie handed Shira the fish. The saber turned around and started chowing down on it. It almost made Brooke want to hurl. Once Shira was finished, she three the fish skeleton on the ground. "That hit the spot. Thanks." Suddenly, Shira benched out loud, covering her mouth with her paw as she giggled a little. "Excuse me. Anyway, as I was saying. You don't need all this dead weight pulling you down. Give me the kid."
"Is there a reason why I should?" Ellie asked.
"Well, I'm the only one that knows where the humans are going. A place called Glacier Pass. The kid's tribe has another village over there. According to my calculations, they should be there either by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Also, there seems to be a snowstorm that will start happening by tomorrow. So you can go ahead and give that girl to me or you can get lost in a blizzard. Your choice, Ellie."
Ellie sighed. "Sweetheart, I think you're a sweet saber and all, but I don't fully trust you. That's just my personal opinion. Brooke, on the other hand, I can trust. As long as I'm keeping an eye on her." Ellie placed Cheril and Brooke's paws. "Here's you some company, Brooke. We're returning her to the other humans."
Brooke looked to see Shira with a pouty look on her face. "Oh, I'm sorry, Shira, darling. It's just like the old saying goes. You can't get everything you want."
"Oh, Brooke, I forgot to mention something," Ellie said, "Shira's leading the way."
"Oh, my goodness. Now that just made me uncomfortable." Brooke ran over to Ellie. "Ellie, dear, can we discuss this issue for just a second?"
"No. The sooner we get..." Ellie paused for a moment. After everything that just happened, she had forgotten to ask Cheril something. "What's your name, sweetheart?"
"My name is Cheril," Cheril said.
"Okay, that is one cure name. I will just go ahead and say that." Ellie turned her attention back to Brooke. "As I was saying before, the sooner we find Cheril's tribe, the sooner I can get you and Miss Kitty Cat over there out of my hair."
"What does that make me?" Brooke asked.
"Miss Hippie Sloth."
"Well, what does that make you?"
Shira scoffed. "Miss Chubby Mammoth.'
"Excuse me?" Ellie said.
"Hey, just be glad I didn't call you fat. Just move it along." After Ellie moved away, Shira moved over to Brooke. "Listen, hippie, you won't have Miss Chubby Mammoth over there protecting you for long. My suggestion is for you to watch your back before I end up chewing all over it."
"Miss Kitty Cat," Ellie shouted, "Get up front so I can keep an eye on you."
The three females and Cheril started the beginning of their journey. Everything turned out fine for the first couple of hours, but when Cheril began to get restless, she started becoming fussy. That's when she spent about fifteen minutes of the time crying and whining about not getting to do anything or have any fun. The female mammals started getting irritated with it, too.
"Oh, Cheril, you really need to stop crying," Ellie said, "I can't take it anymore."
"I've eaten things that didn't complain this much," Shira said.
"Oh, Cheril, dear," Brooke said, "Please calm down, darling."
"Okay, I've had enough of this noise," Ellie said.
"Come on," Shira said, "Just put her down and see what's wrong."
"Okay," Brooke said, "Let's just calm down for a minute. Now, Cheril, will you stop crying and tell us what's wrong."
Cheril didn't answer as she continued crying. Shira walked up to the crying girl. "What's wrong? Is your nose dry? Do you need a toliet break?" The only answer Cheril gave the saber was shaking her head. Shira sighed. "Well, I tried."
"Let me try," Ellie said, walking up to Cheril, "Honey, can you tell Ellie what's wrong?" Cheril just kept on crying.
"You're not helping matters, Ellie," Brooke said.
Ellie knocked Brooke in the head. "Would you just shut up?" Knocking Brooke in the head made Cheril laugh. When Brooke shook her head, Cheril started crying again.
"Hey, do that again," Shira said, "She thinks it's funny."
Ellie did it again, smiling as she did so. "It's starting to make me feel better, too."
Cheril cried again as Brooke took her over to Shira. "Here, hold her for me." Shira knocked Brooke in the head this time, making Cheril laugh. Cheril tried bonking Brooke in the head, but the sloth held her hand back, making her get again.
Shira sighed. "Here. Let me handle this." Shira stood in front of Cheril, covering her eyes. "Where's Cheril?...There she is!" Cheril just stared at the saber in confusion as Shira did it again. "Where's Cheril?...There she is!" Yelling just made Cheril cry harder.
Ellie pushed Shira away. "Stop it! You're only making it worse!"
They all heard Cheril crying for down as her stomach growled. "I'm hungry."
Brooke giggled. "Is that why you were so upset? Well, why don't we just find you something, dear. Do we have any milk?"
"Don't look at me," Ellie said.
"Well, I certainly don't have any."
They both looked at Shira. "Sorry, girls. Females only produce milk after bringing in babies to the world."
"Well, what are we gonna do?" Ellie asked.
They looked to see an apple drop on the ground. When Ellie went to go pick it up, a dodo came out of the bushes and grabbed the apple as quickly as it appeared out of nowhere. The three females went to see what was going on.
WELL, THEY TRIED TO ACT LIKE FRIENDS. IT'S GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME TO HAVE THESE THREE GET ALONG.
WELL, SEE YOU FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER.
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