RJW82835: Thank you!
Stubborn Saber: Thanks! I'ma glad! And wow. That's gonna be...interesting huh? X3
A/N: Okay, some of this might not be acurate, so sorry 'bout that. But hey, what about Ice Age is acurate anyways? XD
WARNING: Conatins sad material. Read at your own risk.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ice Age. 20th Century Fox does, however.
Shira's POV
"Shira! Come on! We're gonna miss it!"
I treked up a steep slope, following my brother to the top. I rolled my eyes. "Oh be quiet Bramble. We'll get there in time."
"But what if we don't." He whined, pacing around a tree stump a few feet ahead of me. "The lights only come once every ten years!"
I finally reached him at the top. We were on the top of a slope, that has a large, flat rock on the top that sticks out over a deep gorge. It was safe, though. The rock was crammed under two larger rocks and packed in with hardened dirt and such. When you were on the edge, you could see our pack's entire territory. The perfect place to watch the lights. And that wasn't even the best part. In the gorge, were several large waterfalls that ran down the side, fed by a river that lead to the ocean. A good source of food, but a better source of entertainment.
I looked at the moonlit sky, watching the stars twinkle well we waited patiently for a sight you might only see once in your life, if at all. Bramble walked to the edge and laid there, hanging his paws over the edge. I walked over to join him.
He was oddly silent. He just stared down into the water below, tracing it every once in awhile with his claws. After awhile, he spoke.
"I sure wish Solstice was here to see this with us..." He whispered. I put a paw around him, feeling the same way. "Me too, big bro." I whispered. We were silent after that, just watching the sky and water.
After awhile, I saw the water start to light up different colors. I looked at the sky and saw them. The lights.
I nudged Bramble, who'd fallen asleep on me. "Bramble. Bramble wake up! It's the lights! There here!"
"Wha?" He asked groggily.
"Oh get up you lazybutt." I said impatiently and knocked him off me.
That woke him up. "Hey. What was-"
"Look!" I cut him off and pointed to the sky. Bramble looked up and smiled. "The lights!" He exclaimed and ran back towords the edge and sat next to me. We watched the lights in silenct, occasionally 'oooooh' or 'ahhhhh'ing. They lasted for about an hour before the last one died from the sky, leaving just the usual shade of midnight blue. "That. Was. AWESOME!" Bramble yelped and lept up. "I hope we get to see it again." I nodded and listened to him go on about how amazing it was for awhile. We were so busy that we never noticed when the ground started to shake...
"I mean seriously! The sky lit up different colors! How. Is that even possible? I mean-"
"Bramble!" I cut him off again. He stopped bouncing on his paws and raised an eyebrow at me. "What?"
I put my ear on the ground, trying to pick up any vibrations. "What?" He asked again, starting to get worried. After awhile I stood up. "D-do you feel that?" I asked quietly. The ground started shaking more violently then before. So much that we were thrown off our paws. Bramble fell and landed on his face. "Does this answer your question?" He asked sarcasticly as he struggled to gain his footing again.
"Not the time Bramble!" I hissed. "Come on. We gotta get out of here!" He nodded and we started to walk away from the edge. But we weren't quick enough. The boulder that was holding the flat rock down was knocked over from the force of the earthquake. It landed barely a saber-length infront of us. It was too heavy for the rock and broke a crack right down the center. And we weren't on the sturdy side.
Bramble looked over at me, his eyes wide with fear. "Shira! What'do we do!" He cried, trying to dig his claws into the rock, and failing.
I looked around frantically, trying to find a way to escape. "Come on! The only way out is over the rock!"
"But it's so big!" He whimpered. "We'll never make it across!"
"Would you rather face the falls?" I snarled. "Come on! Move it!" I growled, giving him a shove to get him going. He scrambled up the side of the rock, only managing a few feet before sliding down again. "It's too slipery! We'll never make it!"
I glanced around again, looking for another way to escape. But Bramble obiously beat me to it. The next thing I knew, he'd snatched me up by my scruff and was racing towords a small tree that sat near the back of the cliff. Usually, I'd have scratched him for picking me up like this, but right now I didn't really care.
The tree was small and slender, probably only sturdy enough to hold one of us. Oh no...
Wit a great leap, he launched us off the ground and grabbed the lowest branch with his claws. He made his way to the top swiftly and surely. His eyes foucused on the top branch like it was the juciest peice of prey. Geez, I've never seen Bramble this detirmined in my life.
When we finally made it to the top, he set me down on the branch, it nearly snapped with our combined weights. He was panting, but made sure that his words were clear.
"Listen Shira. When I say now, you jump. Jump strait forward. Got it?"
At a loss for words, I simply nodded.
He jumped out of the tree and landed on his paws and looked up at me, his expression unreadable.
The rocks were starting to crumble from being shaken so much. Causing a mini avalanche. I looked down for Bramble, but couldn't see him through all the dust. Suddenly, I heard his voice shout up from the ground somewhere.
"JUMP!"
Getting numb with shock, I ran to the edge of the branch and launched off it, soaring for a second before falling and hitting the ground, tumbling down the slope head-over-tail. It hurt, but wasn't as painful as hitting the roxk or falling off the cliff.
When I rolled all the way to the bottom, I scrambled to my paws and raced over to a rock, climbing up it and looking out at the cliff. You had a pretty good view of the top from here, but you still couldn;t see everything.
The small avalanched was tumbling down the rocks and heading towords the cliff, taking whatever was in it's path with it. I looked desperately for Bramble, but couldn't spot him through the cloud of dust and debris. I finally saw him after a moment, standing at the edge, backing away as the rocks sealed his fate, bowling him over and sending him down the three hundred foot drop. Down, down, down into the water below. The last thing I heard was his scream of terror echoing in my ears, getting fainter and fainter as he plummeted towords his death. Then all was silent.
It took me a minute to proccess what was going on. My brother. My own, bee-brained, hot headed, jerk of a brother, had given his life to save mine.
I just sat there for awhile, crying silently in shock as I heard his screams replaying over and over in my head. It was too much...
Overcome with greif and despair, I whipped back my head and let out a scream. A scream of pain and lonliness.
I realized that it was no use trying to find his body. The falls and the river stretched on for miles, eventually dumping into the ocean. The best I could do was make a grave to honor is memory.
I slowly gathered up some moss and flowers, even taking the deer fawn's bones that he'd killed awhile back. After I'd gotton everything, I carried them all to the base of the cliff. There was a small cave there with an opening just big enough for me to squeese through. A perfect place for a his grave, also where my sister's grave was to.
I found a large rock floating in the river from the earthquake and carried it here to use as his gravestone. I arranged the things on it and laid there silently, feeling the familliar greif for Solstice as well as new greif for Bramble.
Are you up there now? I thought. Are you with Solstice? Aloud, I said, "I hope your happy. Where ever you are. And thank you. You saved my life."
Even though I knew he wasn't here, I hoped he could hear me. But even if he couldn't, I still could. And I guess that's all that matters...
Solstice hugged my paw, tears flowing from her icy eyes. My story had gotten the others crying too, even Diego.
"T-t-t-that was so sad!" Crash exclaimed, and grabbed Eddie, sobbing into his fur. Eddie patted his back. I let out a sigh. It had felt good to finally share my story, but it hurt as muc as it had releived me. Solstice looked up at me.
"S-so Bramble...died...to save you?" I nodded. "Yes. He did..." I didn't know what else to say. Solstice took a deep breath and said. "Well, that can't be it. That's only what happaned when Bramble died. Nothing else. I wanna know the rest." She said, curling back up beside me. I nodded.
"Okay. Here's the next story..."
A/N: Wow. This wasn't very fun to write. Oh well. Anywho. Hoped you liked it!
Sianii out!
Peace!