1

"Hawk!" Crash cried. He and Eddie began to play dead, and Ellie joined them, shaking the ground from her fall.

"What are you doing?" Manny asked her.

"Playing dead," Ellie hissed. Manny looked up to me, motioning for me to come down. He knew it was me, because I was pitch black. No other hawk was as black as me, "Is he gone?"

I landed on Manny's tusk, "Excuse me? He? I'm a female!" I cried indignantly.

"Um, Ellie, this is Alice. Don't ever call her a male, or she'll probably kill you," Manny said, "Alice, meet Ellie, Crash, and Eddie."

"Hello" I said brightly, with no trace of killing in my eyes. The three 'possums' had stopped playing dead, but were still eyeing me warily, "Oh, this may be uncomfortable. I know what to do!"

"Don't freak them out too much," Manny told me.

"Manny, what's the point of telling people my secret if I don't freak them out? They'll like me. I know it. Well, at least Crash and Eddie will right off the bat."

I've become so numb

I can't here you speak

I've become so tired-

The song reaped the desired effect. I shrank into a possum. Manny, Sid, and Diego had become accustomed to me doing that over the past few months. The other's expressions were of utter shock and disbelief. Eddie actually fainted for a few seconds.

I laughed.

"Um...hi." Ellie said.

Diego turned to me, "So, where have you been for the past couple of days?"

"Ah, you know me. I've been here and there. Heard about the flood, saw you guys go down the Eviserator, so on, so forth."

"You saw that?" I'm sure that if you removed Diego's fur, he would be blushing like mad.

I nipped Diego's ear after crawling on his back, "'Course I did. Woulda stepped in, but I knew what would happen."

"As per usual," Diego chuckled.

"As per usual," I agreed. I ran over to Eddie, who was just stirring, "Come on, Eddie. If we're going to out run this water, we better get going. And you better not faint every time I change, or we'll get absolutely nowhere."

"Every time you change?" Crash asked, "You mean you do this regularly?"

"Of course. If you had shape-shifting powers, you'd want to use them, too, wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would! You're awesome!"

I smirked at Manny, "See? I told you they'd like me." I mouthed at him.

A few days ago I had found the mammoth song. Thinking of that, I became the biggest creature on earth at the time.

Every generation gets a chance to change the world

Pity the nation that won't listen to your boys and girls

Cause the sweetest melody is the one we haven't heard

I approached the female mammoth, forgetting that she still thought herself a possum.

"Ellie," I said cautiously, "How are you?"

Ellie was starring at me incredulously.

"Come on, Alice, Ellie!" Diego called. I hadn't realized the others had started walking again, "You can get to know each other later. Right now, we've gotta flood to escape!"

"Sorry, Di!" I cried.

I changed into the black saber form I new best and sprinted ahead of Ellie. Crash and Eddie had decided to trust me, and they were riding on my back.

"Hey, Alice!" Crash cried, "Did you know that one time Eddie and I fell into a mountain? It had really hot red stuff in it! We got out safe, though."

"Well, if you didn't get out safe, you wouldn't be here, would you? And you fell into a volcano. The red stuff was lava."

"Wow! A pretty, awesome, genius! We really nabbed the right girl this time, Eddie!"

"Hey! Enough of that or I'll change into a dinosaur and fall on you!"

"Can you really change into a dinosaur?" Eddie asked.

"Of course she can!" Sid said, "I have seen it."

"Sid, get your foot out of your mouth. I don't need this right now. Actually, I don't need this ever."

Sid hastily changed the subject, "Oh, look! My fur is starting to turn brown! The fungus-"

"Sid, do you remember what I told you about not finishing that sentence?" I trudged ahead. Fast Tony, the local con man, was trying for an easy meal again. I growled at him, "Tony, if you don't get your head out of your shell, you'll become my easy meal."

"Relax, girly. Just trying to make a living here."

Hissing again, I said, "Well, I'd suggest you use the ways the rest of us do."

"Yah, Tony!" Crash said from my back.

"Use your head. It seems to me you have a death wish," I was really fed up with this armadillo scamming people.

Manny turned around, "Alice, leave it. Tony's not going to change. Threatening to kill him won't help your cause." he grabbed me and put me on his back.

"I know, Manny. He reminds me of the man who-" I stopped, casting my gaze downwards. Manny knew exactly what I was talking about, "He was a con man, too. They never actually found him, but they realized that he got into our house by pretending to be the cable guy."

"Cable guy?"

"Oh, it's really interesting. Moving pictures on a screen-"

"Manny! Alice! Get moving!"

I sighed and jumped off of Manny, trotting ahead. Sometimes Diego could be such a drill sergeant.

Manny soon caught up with me. "So? What did I miss in the past few days?" I asked.

"The usual. We're all going to die, and Sid's singing about mammoths going extinct. Doesn't help that Ellie thinks she's a possum."

"You like her."

"What? No, I-"

"Manny, don't lie to me. I see all. I know all."

"This another one of your 'I know what's going to happen but I can't tell you what's going to happen' is it not?"

"Of course it is! It wouldn't be an adventure without my all-seeing eye!"