It was nearly dawn and finally Emma had run out of potential homes to show to Eddie.
"So which one did you like best?" She asked
Eddie yawned "I guess it has to be between numbers three and twenty seven"
"Not eighteen?"
"Uh that one was alright, but the neighbours"
"Those scrats?"
"Yeah they were just so obnoxious"
"I could move them" Emma said as if she would be moving a few leaves.
"Can we sleep on it? It's a really big decision this and one which I think we both need to take some time to think really hard over."
"But I need a decision now so I can take time to find the right furniture to match"
"Fine, I guess I liked twenty seven the best then"
"Really? More than eighteen"
"Yes more than eighteen. Eighteen was a bit too big, it just felt cold"
"All that extra space would come in handy by our third litter you know. I read just the other day that kids are staying with their parents for far longer than previous generations, we have got to consider that"
Third litter? He had only just scraped through his third date! "Eighteen then" Maybe if he could get rid of her even for five minutes, he could run away, mask his scent and hide till the herd moved on out of reach.
"You don't mean that, you're just agreeing"
"No, I really liked that one, with its moat and stuff. You just choose the furniture you like and I will be right over here... sleeping, OK?"
"Eighteen didn't have a moat, your confusing it with nineteen. We need to review eighteen so you can see why it is the best, come on!" She pulled him back to where hollow tree number eighteen stood, or had stood. Now there was just a hole where it had been yanked up out of the ground.
"Where did it go?" Emma asked mystified. It was a whole tree, and a big one at that, and now it was just gone.
"Wow I'm sure glad we weren't in it when that happened!" Eddie joked before he realised the potential 'gift horse' opportunity that this presented, he straightened up "Maybe living in trees is not as safe as it's cracked up to be" He cautioned with the most gravely serious voice that would ever leave his lips.
Emma stood looking hard at the hole in the ground, her fists were clenched tight and tears of frustrated rage boiled in her eyes, how dare someone snatch her dream away from her just moments from when she decided to set her heart on it.
Eddie saw the tears in her eyes and mistook them for tears of hopeless woe. Despite considering running out on her in a most cowardly fashion a moment ago he wiped the tears of joy from his own eyes to comfort her, as no one likes to see a pretty girl all upset.
"Maybe this just wasn't meant to be"
"Sixteen was good! Let's go see sixteen again!" But sixteen was gone and so was seventeen. These trees were not in a dense forest but dotted around in small groups, it would take all day to find out what was left now to choose from. "What could have done this!" Emma screamed.
Eddie noted the large, round and very familiar foot prints in the dirt around each stump and hole. "It could have been anything" He said and smiled as he thanked his lucky stars for what must be his sister's subtle intervention to prevent her favourite brother from being taken from the herd. This had to be it, they all missed him and his devilishly brilliant wit, and even now they were probably following, trying to get him back any way they could.
"Well there's plenty more homes where these came from! Come on Eddie!" Emma snapped and pulled him along behind her. Eddie dragged behind scanning the horizon for his herd who must be somewhere nearby, he saw nothing.
"We've been up all night Em can't we find somewhere later on, after some rest?"
"If you want something in life Eddie, one thing I've learned is that you have to seize it when you can, so no, no rest till I'm happy"
This could take a life time! He really didn't know that much about Emma "Uh, where did you learn that? And why would you learn that?"
"When you have had to fend for yourself for as long as I have you learn a lot"
"Fend for yourself against what?" Did she not have a wolf pack to defend her? Where was this pack? "Where is your, Fleets and your family?" Where were they to help stop her irrational behaviour?
"Our family?" Emma's slowed in her tracks as she thought hard. Eddie caught up enough to see her face. Thoughts and ideas flashed across her features, he recognised this second's hesitation to answer what was a straight forward question. He had seen it on Diego a few too many times, she was about to tell a whopper of a lie! She just hadn't formed it quite yet.
Emma looked back into Eddies eyes; he was not as naive as she had thought. She needed to distract him. She took hold of his face and pulled him closer to herself and kissed him. She kissed him like she really meant it, long and slow. Eddie forgot his questions, his herd and his internal disputes and doubts from before. That was nice. Emma grinned, she had him again. She let go of him and bounded off in search of a more stable house. Eddie followed. If he had looked harder at the scenery around them he would have seen her pack, or at least what was left of them. Four wolf skulls left exposed by the melting snow stared with hollow eyes where the two possums kissed, unnoticed by all.
Ellie took a long hard look at the craftsmanship of the ice chute sculpted earlier that day by the younger mammoths of the herd. They were at that difficult stage in life when hormones and energy levels peek and a satisfying non destructive outlet is needed. They had been driving themselves as well as their elders to distraction before Ellie had given them some creative focus. Sports and the idea of competitive events that didn't need a foe to bash, as the elders hogged those competitions, was the ideal pastime.
Their efforts were good, but a splash or two more water here or there would be needed to keep the cart from leaving the track in places. Ellie was a bit of an expert at this kind of fun, but even she was impressed at the tree cart idea, this was going to be very fast!
"A few test runs with an empty cart and we are nearly there!" She announced. They blew a collective sigh of relief, it had looked kind of dangerous, fun but dangerous, and they had met the approval of their new sports mentor!
Ellie chose a good tree trunk from the pile that had been gathered from all around earlier by the teenagers especially for today's events. This one was particularly heavy and very solid; she struggled to lift it so Jeremy rushed in to help.
"You carried all these up from the valley?"
"Yeah. We don't get up to much around here, not much fun stuff anyway. I think that this is going to change now you've started this competitive sports idea"
"You can thank possums for that, just don't venture to far into competitive pranks, it's all downhill from there"
Unfortunately the 'downhill', 'competitive' and 'pranks' all set in young Jeremy's mind where like seeds they waited for a ripe opportunity to germinate.
Together they lay the log down and after correcting its angle several times launched it down the ice chute. Clumsily it rocked and rolled its way down, bashing the sides rather than flowing with them as it needed a passenger to steer it correctly. Finally it made it to the bottom as a pile of dry splinters and nothing more. Several teens positioned at various points along the chute reported its finished state as successful, but not successful. This information was relayed back to Ellie and Jeremy at the top.
"Right, it's time for a real test run!" Ellie said. That was the most precaution she had ever taken, being a mother now she had to be responsible after all, she couldn't just rush in like she once would have done. She picked out another suitable log from the twenty or so gathered in a pile. She examined all its sides and chose a top and bottom, then smashed her foot into it to create a seat area. She smashed quite a lot out before she could crouch down into it sufficiently to get fully aerodynamic. As she looked in to see if any more of the rotten dry interior could come out she found and held aloft a small dolls house table with chair set. Strange? She thought, then threw them to one side as she did not need the extra weight. She then pulled it over ready for her maiden voyage.
"Wait!" Jeremy said unsure that his natural instincts to preserve life, especially mammoth life fully agreed with this, "What if..."
Ellie placed a very mothering trunk on the young bulls shoulder and said very sagely, "If we don't try, we will never know what we are missing. Now I couldn't live with that" Then leaving him very bewildered went all out for a running launch jumping in at the very last moment to set the first toboggan speed record and fastest mammoth land speed record with a "whooo hoooo!"
Sid sat in his designated spot, with his back up against the cliff wall and a beautiful view of open pastures before him. He waited as patently as a sloth of his nature could for anything at all to happen. Eight mammoths hid strategically some distance away watching him from behind trees rocks and gullies. He had been told five minutes ago not to communicate with any of them thus giving away their positions so Sid found himself very, very bored indeed.
He was only here at all as a childish stunt for his herd's attentions, and to make Diego sorry for putting him through all those stupid boring hunts. That guy was so selfish with what they did with their time together. Sid would have had them 'enjoying the moment' at every given opportunity not sitting around waiting for nothing to happen because that is exactly what big cats call fun! He was so unfair!
"Wait a minute! My protest seems to be involving me sitting around waiting for nothing to happen! This idea of Peaches is seriously floored! I might as well have been out hunting! I might even have learnt something by now! Sid thought to himself. "Right enough's enough chaps!" Sid got up and addressed the air in general "I am bored and hungry and your trap is stupid, so I'm off, see ya!"
Mick silently threw some peanuts at the sloth to make him stay put; he was prepared to have to bribe the bait for this task.
"Oh thanks!" Sid scoffed the snack. "But I'm still going! A sloth needs quality time in its life to appreciate the finer things, so..." Sid found himself gagged and bound with a bit of vine and plonked back down against the rocky wall. Mick was determined to catch a predator today whether the bait was willing or not.
Well from the top Peach's path had looked straight forward enough, but in reality it was proving to be anything but. What she couldn't see from her vantage point was just how steep and treacherous this way down was. She had had to skirt around several obstacles which had unknown to her changed her course a little each time. Also she had gotten stuck once or twice which cost her a bit of time. Overall however she made her way down the perilous cliff face safely and began her search for her uncle.
She did not know where she was but rememberd that her mum was definitely up, so she wandered alongside the steep cliff edge looking for a sign as to where her uncle was before committing to wandering out too far. Soon she came across a familiar scent, her other uncle Sid was nearby. She walked on some more and noticed her surroundings had become eerily suspious. She felt very uncomfortable, as if she was being watched. So she gathered some long grass and made a disguise for herself. She continued on, stopping, watching and checking often, before shuffling on again.
She soon spotted Sid. He was tied up and sat on a rock. This was not an unusual situation to find Sid in. Following the shadows and holding an extra tuft of grass for camouflage she snuck over. Unable to untie him there and then she slung him onto her back and carried him off before anyone noticed. After all they were looking for a group of large predators to come in from the open pastures, not a large tuft of grass quietly sneaking in under their feet.
After she felt they were safe she stopped and put Sid down and untied him. She did not need to know the details of why he was in that situation so Peaches ignored the obvious questions and got on the more practical ones. "What shall we do now?"
"We need to go back to the herd, we can still get some playtime in if we're lucky" Sid said rubbing his fur back into some kind of order.
"Which herd?"
"The one where I'm loved and appreciated!" Peach's looked blank. "The mammoth one!" He exploded, and then on a lighter note he said "Oh and I like this grass skirt disguise of yours! Both light and effective!" He quickly knocked himself up one in the interests of not drawing attention to oneself, and they walked on up a long gentle slope to deliver Sid back to the safety of the kid's crash.
All the way Sid insisted on extreme secrecy so they missed Manny walking down hill looking for Sid to rescue.
"Where's the sloth?" Manny asked as he found the ambush site complete with badly hidden mammoths and a gapping great hole where Sid once sat.
Mick woke up from his doze "What's happening? What's happened to the bait? Who lost the bait?"
"Where's my sloth?" Manny asked again.
"Did anyone see what happened to the sloth?" Mick called getting up from his hiding place and abandoning the trap for today, it was a good time to break for lunch anyway.
"Manny we will get you another one I promise, I'm sure you won't even notice the difference" Mick said apologetically, he had not meant to be so callous with Manny's pet without some kind of dead predator to show for it.
"Oh no! Not another one! Really I promised myself I would not replace him!" Manny said rather too quickly "I can't believe anyone would eat him, he must have wandered off." Manny scanned the ground for a clue. "let's see he won't have gone that way for fear of getting clean in the river, nor up for fear of hard work, he must have gone this way" Manny walked out onto the flat valley plains to look for Sid.
"Optimistic to a fault that one" Mick said to no one in particular. "Lets head back boys!"
"Should we go after him after all there could be predators out there" Asked a random mammoth in Mick's group.
"No, he needs time alone to get over his grief for the lost critter, we need to concentrate our efforts on finding another bait, I think that we came close to sorting this problem of ours today and I for one am determined to finish what I've started, after some lunch of course"
Soon enough Diego found a spot with a good view of the grazing herds a safe distance away and sat down. It was time to play 'name that food!'; guess 'the best way to take that food!' and generally just watch and study. But cubs being cubs that lesson did not last long and fighting competitions broke out left right and centre. It really boiled down to who could take down Snowball the undefeated champion, a title won not through skill, just size.
Diego gave up talking over them and decided to doze while they amused themselves, if they were anything like him and Oskar they would go on for hours. He did peek from time to time just to make sure there wasn't a fatality that he should be preventing, but mostly he was distracted by a cub that chose to ignore the games and stare at him instead. This was a bit unnerving to say the least. Maybe she wasn't all there in the head.
"Why you not fighting kid its important rank building skills you're missing out on" He said it but his heart wasn't in it anymore, who honestly cared about who was best or strongest when there was fun to be had, with close friends. Where ever they were.
"I can do that later when there've worn themselves silly"
No!A thinker! She was also the one who went against the crowd yesterday with her food option preferring taste over size and skill level required to catch that prey. This one was trouble. This was the one, and there is always one in every pack who questions their leader, who doubts, and ultimately stabs in the back at the very last minute, always secretly and always out of the blue. She was small and dark with brown spots all over like freckles, stood to reason she would be a thinker. Diego narrowed his eyes at her, just when he thought these kids were hard enough, he would now have to be extra wary. "So, what's on your mind"
"Where is your family?"
"Out of town" This wasn't a total lie; both his natural and adopted family was out of town. One was a bit further out than the other, with no hope of coming back.
"They have been gone a very long time now"
"What's your name kid" He asked.' Keep your enemies close', that was the first rule of cunning. Know them and try to guess their next move, he was meant to be teaching them this in regards to the prey.
"Breezy"
"Breezy my pack was weak and were bested by humans"
"Was?"
"The good half are now coats and the rest were boring"
"Hmm, that is sad." She thought some more, "Why do you not revenge them?"
"Don't ever..." Diego paused he heard someone approach. He growled menacingly for the cubs to stop and prepare for possible trouble.
Manny had found no trace of Sid, but he did find Diego sitting with his pint sized pack out on the valley.
"Diego, have you seen Sid?"
"No"
"Do you think they... could have...?" Manny trailed off. They were the cubs parents and what they might have done did not bear describing too much in case he upset the kids, or was that so not to upset himself. It was all like walking on eggshells around here lately.
"No chance of... 'that" Diego replied to set Manny at ease. If he hadn't of been quite so tetchy with all the unannounced visitors today asking questions he might have enjoyed teasing Manny on his screamisness on the food subject, but as it was he would just have to hope that the situation would present its self again later."I'm the only one here, did you tell Sid to come back here? Like I asked last night, remember? You said you would tell him to come back"
"I was going to... but," Manny struggled to remember why he didn't "He seemed real upset..."
"I'm real upset look my furs really falling out with all the untold pressure these are putting me under, what's he have to be upset about?"
"That's just moult you're exaggerating! Their just kids Diego and I didn't ask what was up with Sid it was late when I got back and then today... I lost him"
"So you didn't give him my message, you didn't ask him what was wrong, losing him has been the only practical thing you've done since I last saw you" Diego snapped unduly offended at Manny's thoughtless remark 'Their just kids' he mimed with a stupid voice in his head, Don't see you jumping in to help...
"While you've done what?" Manny cut in to Diego's snippy train of thought.
"Notice how clean and fed these guys..." Breezy narrowed her eyes at Diego. Was she invisible? "And girls are?" Diego corrected himself, that cub was really putting him off "What haven't I done today? If it's all so damn easy then where's Peaches?"
"Uh with Ellie back with the herd" Manny said sheepishly, he had really offended Diego with that one hadn't he.
"I bet they are easy when you have a partner to dump them on" Diego growled in a low mumble. He didn't sound like his dad anymore, now he sounded in everything but tone like his mother, how had he come to this?
"Sorry. Look I've got to find Sid I'm worried about him" Manny paused he was also worried about Diego with those mammoth bulls nearby. Now he was torn between protecting his friend with his borrowed family and finding Sid, who deserved all the trouble he found today.
"Your still here" Diego said seeing the indecision on Manny's face. "When you find Sid tell him I need him. If you ever get around to looking that is" That was as good as he could muster to get the mammoth on his way and out of his fur for now.
Manny was still reluctant to go, he wanted everyone back together, it would be a good start if they stayed together now "Can't you help? After all you're the one who's good at tracking?
"You lost him, and I'm kind of tied right now, and anyone can smell that sloth a mile off. Just go get him before he hurts himself"
"I guess, look just be careful, those other mammoths are not like me"
"I know mammoths are all stupid and stubborn headed. Except you of course"
"They are. But these are obsessed with ridding the world of evil"
"I've heard that before, don't worry I've seen it all before" Diego said dismissively.
"Ok" Manny sighed reluctantly and with one backward glance at the cubs play fighting while Diego sat guard over them, left to find that stupid sloth. The sooner he went the sooner he would be done and the herd safe back together.
"So why do you talk to food?" Breezy said to Diego as the mammoth headed off.
"Because...Well why wouldn't you?" Diego replied determined now to shut her up.
"Isn't that a form of madness?"
"Perhaps. But who's to say what's mad and what's not?"
Breezy stopped to think. She liked having an adult's attention all to herself being one of so many this was seldom achievable, but she was not prepared for a philosical debate. How was she going to keep his attention and divert the conversation back to question time? "I don't know. Do you?"
Diego took a long breath and counted to ten "No, it was a rhetorical question"
"What does that mean?"
"That you should shut up and think about it some in silence over there" Diego ushered her off, but was not surprised to find that her legs were not going to respond to being moved.
Breezy got the hint at least and sat quietly just an arm's length away from Diego for as long as she could.
Sid and Peaches returned to the safety of the mammoth herd still wearing their grassy disguises and shuffling along like super stealth ninjas of the plant world. This was a great game to both of them and they had to stop frequently to giggle as they crept sneakily past the unsuspecting mammoths. They even managed to sneak past Ellie unnoticed, despite Sid stopping right by her ankle and poking her several times. Ellie looked bemused at the large smelly clump of unsuspecting grass by her foot. She was sure that someone was poking her, but then she was also sure that that strange weed was following her. Maybe that high speed toboggan ride had knocked something loose in her head. Well it was far too much fun to stop now, so she ignored the weed for the fifth time in ten minutes as the mammoth teens hurried her along to finish perfecting her toboggan car.
Sid and Peaches shuffled on until they reached the cresh of baby mammoths then jumped up to reveal themselves to a whoop of surprise and fascination from all the kids. Ellie looked over at the sound of the kids to see what the fuss was about. In the middle was Sid and Peaches obviously having fun. With Sid found Manny would want to head back soon! She rushed to sand her toboggan to perfection hopefully she would have enough time for one last perfect run blowing the mammoth land speed record to smithereens!
Ten minutes later as many as eight clumps of grass was shuffling about among the mammoth herd throwing pebbles at their unsuspecting parents and giggling helplessly at their own cleverness.
One clump however wandered a bit further off than the rest. Peaches remembered her uncle Diego was still down in the valley and still wanted to know if there was any fun to be had down there. Sid would be occupied now for hours with the other calves and she was ready for a new game. She snuck off leaving the herd and wandered again down the treacherous cliff into the valley below.
Breezy still sat an arm's length away from Diego. She had stayed quiet for a while now and thought it was safe to begin asking a new line of questions, ones which would require less involved answers. "So what is that?" She pointed to a distant herd and hoped she had Diego's attention.
"Those are deer" He answered plainly she was not in his good books. They were always empty.
"Why do they all bunch together like that?"
"They are friends and there is safety in numbers"
Breezy edged a bit closer "Why?"
"Many eyes make watching in all directions all the time easy. When hunting if you ever see a stray animal that is the one you go for, easier to sneak up on one than it is to sneak up on many"
"But you didn't, with the boar the other day"
"I made a mistake"
"Why?"
"Why what exactly?"
"Why did you make the mistake, why did you not just wait till another one came along?"
"I wanted to get you guys fed and quick it is dangerous to be out among prey at the best of times. So I took what I thought was a calculated risk that turned out to be a dumb idea"
"Why is it dangerous to be around prey?"
"All prey is armed one way or another. Horns, tusks, hooves all weaponry and all can really hurt if not kill you"
"So why are you friends with prey with tusks?"
Diego shot Breezy a glare, she moved like a snake in the grass sitting back beside him, she worked her way around conversations like a snake too. He didn't have to justify himself to a cub! Well he did if he ever wanted her to shut up on the subject "There are exceptions to every rule kid"
"Wh..." Breezy stopped mid question as a clump of grass shuffled up and a baby mammoth popped out.
All fighting stopped as Snowball zeroed in on Peaches. He whacked all the sabers to quiet them while he listened and formed his first plan.
"Uncle Diego can I spend some time with you?" Peaches asked.
"Where are your parents?"
"Up there, they can all see me (If they cared to look)so it's ok" They were all busy anyway so Peaches guessed that they would not mind if she spent some time with Diego.
"Up there huh?" Diego looked up to see if he could see them. Surly the great comedians that they were they would be laughing right now as he was saddled with yet another stupid kid!
"Uh huh" Peaches hoped that he would not guess that they were not watching so send her back to that boring bunch of mammoths again.
"And he knows your here and is watching" Diego asked again to verify that they were indeed the butt of this particularly bad joke.
"Yes"
"Then let's move that's just creepy"
"Then can I stay?" Peaches asked hopefully
"Sure" what's another kid! Easy right! Diego thought as he led them back to where the herd had planned days ago now to meet. "We just need somewhere better to sit, come on kids" Diego got up and led the way with Breezy close behind, he presumed the rest would follow. They couldn't as Snowball had them pinned one way or another.
Peaches paused a moment to wonder if Diego meant that she could come or whether he was being sarcastic. She had a feeling he was not to keen on her. She looked around to see if the other kids minded her being there and met snowball's cold hard glare.
"So we meet again" Snowball growled.
This time she had no parents in her corner.
This time he had a pack. Snowball smiled wickedly, then released the better half of his pack from multiple death grip hold scenarios.
Peaches steeled herself, well she had wanted some excitement, just more on a one to one level "Give it your best shot Snowflake and it had better be good, for your sake"
"Sounds like fighting talk big nose"
"That's because it is fur ball breath, now quit stalling and bring it on already!"
Snowball started to stalk, the saber cubs liked this game and followed suit behind him. Peaches gritted her jaw; she had seen her dad face dinosaurs on the first day she was born. She could face this.
Realising that the stalk was not scaring her Snowball charged and leapt at her. He was a little bigger, three meals heavier and more coordinated than the last time they had fought, and so this time managed to topple her. Together they rolled head over heels, legs kicking furiously at each other. When she could Peaches broke free and ran to put some distance between them both, she needed more swing for her longer legs to be effective weapons where as Snowballs claws worked well in such short range.
She had managed to get a foot or two away when she felt her foot being tripped out from under her and crashed on her chin. As she skidded to a stop she felt Snowball pounce on her back, he had learnt a lot since last they fought, she was caught but she was not giving up!
He had not thought his next move through quick enough and she was too strong for him to hold down alone, now he needed his pack, who were sat down watching.
All this was very entertaining but they were undecided which one was the best to route for. After all they were both different species that were apparently accepted by their current guardian. Best to just watch and wait in these strange situations.
Peaches got up onto her feet, Snowball was a heavy passenger but she was strong, she ran a short distance to get momentum then jumped, somersaulted and landed neatly on her back with Snowball cushioning the fall. There was a great "oomph!" as the air left his lungs and he was squashed beneath her.
"That I believe makes me leader!" she announced when she was sure she had him pinned.
Snowball seethed, "you can't lead you're a stupid girl! And a stupid calf as well! Your nothing but food!"
She pulled herself up, he was right she waited to see what the rest of the pack would do. Could she defeat them all? She would have to. She stood tall and confident while they decided.
Four cubs edged behind her, they were girls, "Girls can lead" said one.
"She did win" Said a boy cub
Peaches noted the lack of concern for gender and species among the majority "I think you're the only one to have a problem with that!" She said to Snowball and turned casually to catch Diego up. The saber cubs followed as that was the logical thing to do, leaving Snowball to wallow in another defeat. He wallowed for a few seconds before he ran to catch up too, if Sid had taught him anything it was that there is no point in wallowing without an audience.
Diego sat down not far from the whale rock meet spot, well he was within ear shot should anyone return, (chance would be a fine thing!) yet out of sight and far enough so to feel independent and busy. Breezy sat beside him and to his surprise and annoyance so did Snowball. What the hell had he done to deserve this?
"I don't like Peaches!" Snowball moaned.
"I don't like kids!" Diego moaned back.
"But why does she have to be here? Send her back!"
"I'd send the lot of you back"
"I like you" Breezy said to Diego but was ignored. Together they watched Peaches re-enact the five second battle and teach the others some defensive moves to keep Snowball from sitting on them.
"It's not fair!" Snowball continued to moan "she can't lead she is a stupid girl and a stupid mammoth, why don't we just eat her?" He looked imploringly at Diego.
Diego now got the gist of the problem, Peaches had challenged Snowball's position and won so now out ranked him, important pack behaviour that she was prepared to embrace to fit in with them. Diego felt a bit touched that she had made such an effort, he kind of missed the respect his rank demanded in his pack. Any respect in the herd was just unheard of and seeing as he made such an effort with every day subjects so to fit in with them he was sad that this etiquette was not returned. At least from time to time, he would have appreciated it. So he sided unexpectedly with Peaches.
"She knows that she is a girl and that she is a mammoth. She also knows that she was alone when she fought you and still bravely stood up for herself. She is also the only one I'm not embraced by, so stop snivelling like some rejected puppy and get over it. When I was young...
"Oh gods!" Wailed Snowball in a tone so very close to Sid's signature whine "that must have been like a century ago and so UN relevant to this! She is food! This is insulting!"
Diego restrained himself from whacking them, he wanted out, now.
Breezy saw an opportunity to help "Why don't you convince her to go away?"
"How?"
"Well it can't be that hard to gross her out, your boy after all. Just play some stupid ball games that will bore her to death in no time at all" Breezy said. She hoped that her advice would get rid of Snowball who she liked because he beat on her three brothers who would usually beat on her, but hated now for needing attention from what was her source.
"Right," Snowball took in this advice, suddenly girls were not so dumb. "Distract her with something boring then strike when she least expects it! That would make me the smartest, strongest and most cunning! I will just wait till I find her weakness. She must have some kind of weak spot under all that hair"
Diego could see nothing good coming from this, did he interrupt it now, or leave them be? After all kids will be kids, this could teach everyone not to dump them on him like this. Then again Manny was prone to over react....he was cut off from finishing that debate as he heard a noise from amoung the boulders.
Diego stood up alert to who was there; another visit no doubt from a herd member come to see him suffer and report back to that immature bunch of...he caught the smell of pigs!
"Run! Now!" He ordered