Well it's been a while so this is going to be a bit slow and fluffy till I get back into it
It was a cold, dark night. Clouds heavy with snow blotted out any moonlight and a cruel northerly wind stole any warmth an unprotected body could muster; this is summer in the ice age.
Crash shivered hard and wished he was not so stubborn not to join Eddie asleep inside the shelter of tree trunk. He needed to keep moving if he didn't want to end up looking like a Popsicle so he began stripping off bark and leaves from the branches around him to make a thick winter coat for himself.
He was feeling much warmer and rather pleased with himself, when he noticed how new snow had already covered the branches that he had stripped of bark. This got him thinking, 'I could booby trap a few of these branches and no one would be able to tell -till too late!' He set to work nibbling through a few limbs enough so they would snap should someone, like Emma, try using them to sneak up on him while he slept.
Satisfied that he was now safe from both the elements and Emma, Crash hung from his tale and fell fast asleep.
Emma slept soundly for a few hours then woke quite suddenly; she had thought of a simple yet brilliant plan to get rid of Crash. She made sure Eddie was sleeping soundly then crept out, found a very sharp twig, snapped it off of the tree and started to creep over to where Crash was sleeping peacefully. "I will just tell Eddie that an owl got him" She thought, then she noticed how Crash was all wrapped up against the weather and cussed under her breath. Tossing her twig aside Emma quickly selected a much bigger one which would better penetrate all the extra layers of Crashes coat. Emma crept closer holding her sharp stick in both hangs and grinning wickedly at her own super stealthieness. Just then she heard a slight snapping sound as the branch which she was creeping along began to bow sharply downwards. Her smile vanished as she realised she was going quite literally to fall for one of the oldest tricks in the book. The branch creaked under her weight and began to splinter. Emma dropped her weapon and spun her arms wildly in an effort to keep her balance. She needed to jump ship and fast. With a deep creak the branch tilted further, it was now or never, she leapt forward and grabbed a hold of Crash just as the branch beneath her fell away.
Crash awoke with a start as he felt urgent arms wrapping around him. "AHHHHHH!" He screamed in disbelief, 'she couldn't have been as heavy as I guessed! But with curves like that how could that possibly be!'
Emma stuffed her foot over Crash's mouth to stop his scream; she so didn't need Eddie waking up and finding them like this. Crash struggled to shake Emma off, but only succeeded in losing his grip with his tail. Both possums plummeted to the ground kicking and punching all the way. They hit the snow fighting and rolled and tumbled unable to stop till they had gathered enough snow to turn them into a giant snowball thundering quickly downhill and away.
Eddie awoke to the sound of crashing in the distance, like trees being crushed and splintered. He saw that Emma was gone, quickly he got up and looked out; Crash was gone too!
The rumbling was quite distant now, he looked around, all he could see was a lot of snow and a single track that grew bigger and bigger as it led away from the tree he was sitting in. He followed the track for as far as he could see and glimpsed the top of a giant snowball disappearing over the horizon leaving broken trees and debris in its wake. Eddie quickly shook himself awake and raced after it.
Peaches was already awake and boiling hot, sleeping in a pile the night before had been fun. Sleeping in a pile with your dad, who was wearing the biggest and poofyist of woolly coats in the whole of the ice age however was like throwing yourself on top of a barbecue. She rolled over and stuck her feet in the air trying to get some of that cold wind to cool her down. She just knew she was going to have to get up but so didn't want to. She began thinking of ways to cool down without having to move. She didn't get long to ponder before a solution was found for her.
Manny woke up suddenly from a dream about molten lava flowing wildly all about him. He could not find Ellie or anyone else for that matter and stood up abruptly in a hot panic causing Peaches, the cubs and Sid to fall off his back and into the lovely cool snow below with a splat.
Relieved by the familiar sight of thick new snow all around him Manny let his nightmare go with a sigh. But why was he so hot? Manny checked his temperature, he felt normal enough and he was rapidly cooling off now he had woken up. Someone was playing tricks he suspected and looked around for a culprit. It wasn't Ellie she, after getting too hot, had shuffled off during the night and still slept soundly in the cool snow. Manny's brow furrowed as his eyes and suspicions fell on Sid and his cubs sitting in a heap where he had just jumped up from. "It was that stupid sloth" Manny growled as he wiped a stream of drawl from behind his ear. 'Thinks he can use me as a bunk bed on top of everything else does he? Well he can think again' Manny set a stern glare on Sid as he thought about how he was going to pay for this, 'pummelling? Na, too easy. Perhaps I should sit on him?'
Sid sat up after his rude awakening and rubbed his head while looking bewildered. There was nothing unusual about finding himself dumped in the snow first thing in the morning but for some strange reason nobody was laughing at him. Sid rubbed his eyes; it was really early and the snow was blindingly bright in its whiteness. A blurry tree like figure struggled to come into focus before him. Bits of it swayed gently in the breeze. Sid rubbed his eyes harder and looked again as he didn't remember any tree there last night "Ahh!" he gasped as he realised it was Manny glaring back at him! "AHHHHH" He screamed again pointing a claw at the ghastly apparition "Manny you're falling apart!"
Manny took a look at himself; his fur was all grey and tufted, and hung off of his body in random clumps "Stress" He said finally with a sigh, the strain of looking after this mishap herd was finally getting to him "I need a holiday" He sighed as self pity over took anger his anger with Sid.
Sid recovered himself enough to think straight "Are you sure that it isn't just moult?" he asked suspiciously "After all what is it that you actually do that's so stressful?"
"Ellie's fur isn't falling out" Manny pointed out
"And what're you implying there?" Ellie asked waking up in time to notice her contributions in the herd going unnoticed.
"Erm" Manny stumbled as he realised she was awake "It's just that over the last couple of days all you guys have done is play about while I have had to chase around after just about everyone, that's all" Manny said quickly in an attempt to explain himself.
"I think my 'playing about'" Ellie said using her trunk for air comma etherizes "caused much of my old fur to fall out gradually, while you have been standing around and worrying a lot, mostly over nothing, thus your old fur is coming out all at once" She then rolled her eyes and muttered 'stress?' under her breath.
Peaches wandered up and tugged at some of the fur hanging off of her dad. The long tassels were grey and dull and came away easily in her trunk. Underneath she noticed a rich brown short fur peeping through. "Look I found a new dad underneath!" She said excited and pulled some more of the old fur away. This she found to be quite addictive as she quickly cleared a big patch of Manny's leg.
Manny felt the cold air rushing in where the new fur was not insulated enough yet to keep the cold out "Don't pick holes in daddy Peaches, it's not nice" He said pushing her back out of reach.
"Well it needs to come off" Ellie giggled as she came over to ruffle and pull a bit off of his head "you look a hundred years old wearing all that" Ellie found she could not stop from pulling a bit more off. Then a bit more...
"Is he not a hundred years old then?" Sid asked with a cheeky smirk as everyone began to advance on Manny.
"Stop that!" Manny stepped back out of everyone's reach.
Peaches wasn't sure how old her dad was and paused to think. Ellie knew Manny was older than her, but not by how much "So how old are you anyway?" She asked embarrassed for not knowing.
"You must be pretty old because it must have taken years to find enough food in these icy conditions to make you that fat" Sid surmised going into detective mode with a claw tapping his chin as he totted up how many calories in a high fibre, low calorie diet it would take for a mammoth to get to Manny's size. He concluded it would take forever so one hundred was probably about right.
"Sid coming from you that is just ludicrous" Manny replied, "You're the same shape as a butternut squash, a really, really bottom heavy butternut squash"
"You should know Manny, I bet you've eaten hundreds over the many, many years you've been around" Sid said knowing that Ellie would save him from being sat on by his short tempered friend.
Manny lifted his trunk to pummel Sid with, he stopped however when he noticed Sid's cubs react raising their hackles and extending their small but horribly sharp claws. This sloth was going to make them very big and therefore very strong so they would protect him till all his secrets were revealed.
Peaches did not like the sudden change in the herd her eyes darted to her mum hoping she would fix it.
Ellie sighed disappointed that despite talking about it Manny never tried being diplomatic "Manny what have I, err we talked about?" She hinted hoping he could resolve this peacefully with only a few prods from her good self.
Manny thought hard "A lot of things" he replied testily still thinking of the dangers posed by Sid with the power of a pack of sabers behind him robbing every one far and wide of their berries.
"But one thing in particular which is quite appropriate here" Ellie urged him looking at Sid and back to Manny again for added emphasis.
"Uh..." Manny could not think of anything else. He tried to remember what he and Ellie had been doing lately in hope of finding a clue as to what she was referring to. All he could remember was that she had enjoyed playing with all the kids the other day so he made what he thought was a good guess "Having more kids?"
"Wo, wo, wo!" Sid near screamed "Hold it right there I do not need to hear this" Sid said as he scrabbled to get away, this was too much like watching parents kissing! Sure it happens but it is still wrong "Lots to do, kids to feed! See you later Manny, Ellie, Peaches" Sid ran off to look for breakfast, the cubs followed him always eager for more food.
Ellie smiled, sure that was not what she had expected from Manny but she was pleased with the results "Well there you go diplomacy works" She said quite satisfied with her efforts to teach him to be a calmer mammoth.
"I guess you're right" Manny replied baffled at the ease in which he had gotten Sid off of his case and pleased Ellie had forgotten his remark earlier, and pleased that Peaches had stopped tugging his fur. "Don't go too far Sid!" He called to the fast disappearing sloth
"I'm staying way out of ear shot Manny!" Sid called back.
"Good" Manny smiled, this was like having a whole new power with limitless possibilities.
"When have we ever talked about that?" Ellie asked interrupting Manny's happy train of thought –keeping Sid permanently away...
"Uh, I don't know, didn't we?"
"No we didn't"
"Well it's going to be that time of year again and we don't want to be outnumbered by sabers or even possums do we?"
"Or sloths" Ellie added casually
"No chance of that" Manny snorted
"You never know"
"I guess not, but I can hope"
"You don't mean that, you would love more kids in the herd"
"Mammoth kids, to help me with all the other kids I seem to accumulate. Speaking of which maybe I could bring that up casually over breakfast? That reminds me I'm famished"
"Well let's go find some food then" Ellie said playfully punching Manny softly on the shoulder and resisting with all her might not pulling a bit more old fur off. They had not spoken about more kids since Ellie had hated being pregnant with Peaches, she felt that she had missed out on a whole lot of fun during that last adventure. But like most women after giving birth all the misery and horror is soon forgotten.
Peaches trotted over and linked trunks with Ellie, she was curious about all this. "Where do babies come from anyway mum?"
"Heaven honey, I will tell you how they land on earth when you're older"
"So were we angels then?"
"You still are my angel, you forget all that when you land"
"That's sweet where did you learn stuff like that" Manny asked as they walked. Ellie baffled him a bit with how naturally she took to being a parent, he envied her confidence.
"It's what my mother would say to stop us asking about the birds and the bees" Ellie explained. Then added" She always said Crash and Eddie were probably the worst angels around and got kicked out rather than carried down by the stork"
Manny and Peaches exchanged looks "The stork? Where does that fit in?" Manny had to ask...
"Oh she added that bit to explain why I was a bit different from everyone else, the stork you see carries us down from heaven and we grow to the best person and size to suite the journey life takes us on from there. In my case a great big journey"
"Big is beautiful. You can never..."
"Just drop it before you spoil it dear"
"Okay."
They ventured out to some open ground and shovelled through the freshly fallen snow to find food underneath. A lot of the smaller animals had already moved on as summer storms around such high ground could prove treacherous.
"Everyone's moving on, I think it would be a good idea to go too" Manny said as they surveyed what was left of the sweet spring grass under last night's snow storm.
"When Crash and Eddie sort this growing up thing out and come back" Ellie replied with real concern in her tone, she missed them.
"The sooner the better" Manny said remembering the trouble he was in with the local mammoths on top of the diminishing food. He really didn't want to go seeking revenge on the human tribe with them. He hated retaliation and the possibility of Pinkie's tribe being around had began to nag since Sid had mentioned it yesterday.
"How about we lose the winter coat before then" Ellie said spying a good spot for washing in. Up a head there was a good patch of dry dirt sheltered by trees from the snow. Manny walked over and began rolling around in it to lose some of his excess fur.
"You'll never shake it off like that" Ellie giggled "Put some enthusiasm into it!" She rolled around energetically covering herself with snow and dirt. Manny was not going to be out done by Ellie today (plus no one was watching, or so he thought) so started rolling around vigorously, getting right onto his back and even rolling right over. Peaches giggled at how silly her parents looked and joined in the fun. It wasn't often that they just hung out together like this so they took a long and relaxing mud bath, after which Manny looked far worse than when he'd started out. Ellie giggled as she noticed how his excess fur had formed long matted dreadlocks.
"What?" Manny asked
"Ah nothing"
Peaches could not help giggling "tropical daddy"
"What?"
"Rasta' mammoth" Ellie laughed as Manny whipped around to look at himself causing his locks to fly.
"Oh ha ha. So help me pull them off, I guess I'll just be cold"
"But it looks cool dad"
"The ice age is far, far too cool to pull off a look like that. Dread locks and icicles? No it would never work. Maybe if I was younger ..." Manny mused
"So how old are you then" Ellie asked cautiously as curiosity got the better of her.
"Fifteen" Manny replied sheepishly, though he was not sure why. (An equivalent of twenty five in human years. My guess and interoperation only! Even mammoth to human years is made up)
"Not that old then" Ellie said thought fully "When you got grouchy earlier I thought you were forty or something, not that it matters of course"
"I didn't get grouchy, I like hitting Sid you should try. He reacts so dramatically it's funny, and kind of soothing like worry beads or a punch bag or something."
"You seemed upset then" Ellie said thoughtfully "by the subject maybe"
Manny sighed "I eloped when I was far too young, so it is a bit of a touchy subject. I wasn't old or experienced enough to protect my family and my herd told me so constantly. I didn't listen and they were right, sometimes I think I sound like them when I lecture Sid on another one of his stupid plans, I guess I see a lot of myself in him and want to protect him from some of the mistakes I made. Still I have a lot more time to make many more mistakes in though"
"You do just fine relax; both of us share responsibility you know"
"I guess"
"And I am here to take care of both of you" Peaches added, well she was tired of not being the centre of her parents attention and so tactfully waited to put amends to that.
"So you are Honey" Ellie cooed "Let's not forget that and have some fun before headed back"
"So long as that fun involves food" Manny added while brushing off the last of his old coat.
"Wow" Ellie exclaimed as she took in the new buff Manny "Looking hot Manny"
"Thanks, but feeling cold let's get moving already. And I always look hot"
"Yeah? You know now that you mention it I see a lot of Sid in you, funny that I never noticed"
They headed out to search for food under the snow.
Elsewhere Sid and his team of helpers searched for wild oats amongst the snow covered grasses, herbs and weeds. Sid heard a distant laughing and looked up to see his mammoth friends in the distance rolling about in the dirt and snow. "Ahhhh!" He gasped and quickly averted his eyes in case he witnessed any lovey dovey fluff. "Come on kids I heard that theirs better fare over there, way over there" They scurried off out of earshot of the frolicking herd members.
Manny, Ellie and Peaches ventured over to where Sid had been foraging earlier.
"Gosh" Ellie exclaimed as she surveyed the desolated grasses "food really is getting a bit thin on the ground"
"We will start gathering the herd and think of moving on, I'm sure your brothers are not far off" Manny said, then mumbled "I'm just not that lucky"
Being lower to the ground Peaches noticed that only the grains on the grasses were missing, the tasty bits "We can still eat the stalks"She said as her tummy rumbled
"Enough for now but that won't last us long, with great size comes great appetites, and I got a coat to replace" Manny said
"Sounding like Sid now" Ellie mumbled.
"Anyway, my point being we need to move on"
"Hopefully my brothers won't be much longer" Ellie sighed
Eddie finally caught up to the giant snowball. It had crashed into a rock wall and spilt open to reveal, as he had suspected, his brother in the middle of all the chaos. "That Crash, it's always fun, fun, fun with that guy" His jaw however dropped when he saw Emma also sitting amongst the debris. Eddie proceeded with due hast to get to the bottom of this"
"Dude what exactly is going down here?" Eddie demanded.
Crash shook the giddy disorientated feeling from his head and tried to remember how he had come to be here. "She attacked me!" He snapped pointing to Emma
"I was taking a stroll to see the sun rise" Emma slowly explained while shaking some snow from out her ear and thinking of a likely scenario "When pow! He booby trapped the branch! I grabbed him, hoping not to fall, but he was too weak and we both fell, then this" She pointed to all the snow around them.
"Oh well sorry then I guess" Eddie said, "Only it looked like you guys were zorbing and you know how I love zorbing. I thought for a minute there..."
Crash cut in "I would never zorb with her bro! Only you, Ellie and peaches you know that!"
"Isn't your sister a mammoth?" Emma asked "Wouldn't she like, squash you?"
Both Eddie and Crash reacted spontaneously "what are you saying about our sis?"
Emma considered her next line carefully; clearly they were very protective of their family "I never got a chance to play with my family" She said with dramatic woe. "Even before they got eaten we were always too poor and anyway I promised my dying father that I would only enjoy fun with my future husband"
Eddie felt bad for insinuating they were having fun without him and paused to drop his ears and tail for a reflective silence. Crash had no time for sad feelings in his life or maybe no real concept of 'sad', or perhaps he had hit his head once too often.
"How can you be too poor to play? And wasn't it your dying mother before? And that is a strange promise to make let alone keep, I mean, I promised my Mum I would be good when I left home. I doubt I have done that even once. Maybe your family just didn't want to have fun with you"
"Crash" Eddie snapped giving his brother a shake for admitting he didn't even try when he had promised mum "This is one of those quiet contemplative moments where you at least shut up for a minute"
"But I'm just not buying it dude, she doesn't even look sad, she just looks angry, as per usual"
Eddie looked over, Emma was still glaring at Crash, it was only him that was being reflective, that made him mad, sad was boring.
Emma saw her opportunity to grab Eddie, family and lying obviously meant a lot to him. "Well I did promise and I meant it, nothing means more to me than family!" She said crossing her fingers
"I didn't lie, in a roundabout kind of way" Crash blurted out in an attempt to dispel Eddie's anger at him "I'm good at practical jokes, I'm good at having fun too, mum should have been more specific when she was asking too much of me"
Eddie giggled despite himself "How about you and me zorb then if Em' here can't play"
Crash, glad that Ed was back on side went for a dramatic kill showing Emma that no one plays his brother like him "I would hate to be the one to explain to little Peaches when she asks where her favourite uncles are that we were too busy playing" he dropped his ears for concerned effect "I had better get back and make sure she is safe and stuff" He said marching off.
"Wait up Crash" Eddie bounced after him leaving an angry Emma to follow.
Diego finally woke up after a marathon sleep 'must have needed it' he concluded as he realised how long he was out for. He stretched himself out and thought about what to expect; hungry dirty kids; Sid begging forgiveness as he struggled to feed and entertain them and Manny in some unnecessary fix. Well it could all wait till he was ready; he refused to go running to the rescue till he had had a really good wash.
After an hour or so of preening he felt a million dollars again. His cuts and bruises were gone, (after all this is a cartoon) and he had all but forgotten the chaos of the last couple of days. He marched out to find everyone.
Everything was quiet, peaceful even. Sid sat with the cubs around his usual fire with a bucket of slop simmering away; it was all very homely, nice even. If you liked that kind of family thing of course and Diego quickly reminded himself that he didn't, besides both the mammoths and the possums were missing so all was not entirely well in the herd. He ventured over.
"Hey Diego long time no see" Sid said looking over and inviting his friend to join his happy group "Come on I've saved you some" using conveniently shaped leaves for bowls Sid slopped out some hot porridge for his friend and set it down beside him ushering everyone to shove up and make room.
Diego eyed the space suspiciously. Then he eyed the bowl of scentless wallpaper paste set in front of him. He then eyed the cubs sitting down quietly and eating their slop without protest and finally finished by eyeing Sid and how seemingly unstressed he was. Something fishy was going on here and he didn't like it.
"Gathered these wild oats this morning" Sid explained with a full mouth "Took ages to Roll and cook them. There might be a bit of hair in it thanks to Manny but I've picked the most of it out, oh I almost forgot" Sid threw in a few berries and stirred them in "Cranberries; good for everything you know. One day these babies will be hailed as a super food and I plan to have soul rights to them"
As the berries warmed in the hot porridge they began to emit a sweet, rich scent. Diego had to admit it actually smelt (almost) nice, but something was really wrong. 'The porridge smells nice, yet Sid is sitting right beside me; still the porridge smells nice, but Sid is right beside me' "Sid why can't I smell you? What happened?" Diego demanded.
"First Manny dumps me in the snow now there you go with the insults, really Diego I would have expected that kind of behaviour from the possums! It would have been nice to have a civil morning for once, but I guess that that is just too much to ask from this herd" Sid tutted and paused to sip delicately from a (cup shaped leaf complete with floral print) cup of tea before explaining "We bathed last night before bed if you must know, I am teaching the kids etiquette"
"You, washed?" Diego said shocked. He didn't believe it but Sid was clean, and the cubs were spotless well their spots and blotches were spotless. "That's got to be a first" Diego started wondering if this really was Sid...
"Second actually, I took a bath with soap when I had my last family so there I do wash"
"Evidently, just not nearly as often as you need to"
Manny approached the happy scene glad he hadn't missed an opportunity to pick on Sid and proud to show off his new spring coat "Yep that's it for Sid and soap till next year, probably just needed to water his fungus garden"
Everyone turned to see the new improved Manny who couldn't help striking a pose to show-off his lack of waist line.
Well I was going to say 'Looking smooth' Manfred but you can forget it now" Sid muttered unimpressed "Shame you can't brush up your people skills as easily. Just goes to show no shiny new hair cut can sugar coat a mean personality like yours"
"It's Like an alternative lean and clean herd" Diego said looking from Manny to Sid and back again, "So where'd the poof go?"
"When I said it was the fur, I meant it was the fur" Manny stated.
"So no more fat jokes then" Diego said, "shame"
"Ah and no more threatening to sit on me" Sid cried
"So are we are going to have to reinvent ourselves or what?" Diego said before thinking "What am I saying, you guy's will never keep this up. Sid you've already spilled slop down your front"
"No surprise there" Manny added
"Hey I'm just as clean as everyone else here!" Sid took in the stifled sniggers from his herd mates. Suddenly a rare and unusual sense of pride welled up inside of him, so he got on his soap box and began a scathing rant "After six weeks your fur becomes self cleaning I'll have you know; so although I don't wash all through the depths of freezing winter I still see more bath water per year than either of you two smart mouths! Covering one's self in spit Diego hardly counts as good hygiene and Manny rolling around in the mud is actually dirty! Yep I saw you pal! Sometimes I feel a bit disgusted hanging with you dirt bags, but do I make fun of your lack of cleanliness? No because I am so much bigger than that"
"Tongue, cleanest part of the body" Diego stated dryly
"And everyone knows that a mud bath is good for the skin"
"Maybe Manny but the difference your one dirt bath has made causing you to be near unrecognisable, till you open your mouth of course, leads me to believe that your poof was actually dirt lost in all that fur"
"Well Sid you don't see me scratching with flees all day long so I'm cleaner than you fungus fur. In fact your fleas are cleaner than you"
"Hardly" Sid sniffed, "Fleas and lice are only attracted to clean fur,that is why you don't itch. I suggest you both partake in the Sid's school of basic hygiene as this herds standards are clearly going to the dogs. If you guys ever want to get with a girl you are both going to have to brush up and start washing properly"
"I already got Ellie Sid, it's you who is still desperately single"
"Never too late for divorce my friend all it takes is for a better and less muddy guy to walk by"
Manny looked at Ellie who was hiding from Sid in the background. Ellie shrugged, well that blue mammoth that appeared after the melt down wasn't half bad, wasn't half as muddy... "Oh Manny" She snapped back to the moment "Personality, no one could uh... be as thought full and brave as you are"
"You guys are only together thanks to me so it doesn't even count anyway" Sid mumbled turning his attention to Diego
"Why would I want to get with a girl, I've got everything I need right here and I am not stupid enough to not see that" Diego said a bit annoyed.
"That's sweet Diego, but I am not going to be here forever for you so some day you will need a new best friend"
"I meant freedom Sid, I don't need any ball and chain holding me back, but even if you were the sole reason for my existence, which you're not I like Manny way more, where are you going to go? Realistically?"
"The sloth mating dance starts soon actually; and I feel like I'm really in there with a chance this year"
"I would look worried but my lying skills aren't up to it, so this look of whatever will have to suffice" Diego turned to leave
"You're not partaking again then I take it"
"Nope, and nor should you. You really haven't got time to muck up a relationship as well as all these kids lives; and the deal was you do all the work from now on"
"Oh yeah my kids, I almost forgot I promised we would learn to swim today"
"In water?" Diego stopped dead in his tracks.
"Duh, what else?" Sid said while leading his kids off. "Come on guys let's leave these stinkers and go have some fun already"
Peaches ears perked up at the word fun "Mum can we go with them? Pleeeaaase"
"In a moment hon" Ellie said more concerned with the other herd members.
Diego watched the cubs bounce off after Sid without protest. Something had changed in Sid maybe this year he would find love, get very dull and settle down. Then this sitting and eating and family rubbish would be the normal everyday routine with no room or need for adventure... Well he would not become domesticated; he would leave before that happened.
Ellie noticed the glum tiger flick over his bowl of food without having touched it
"You feeling ok?" She asked tentatively.
'No' Diego thought, "yep" he growled in reply
Ellie could not understand why Diego had to be so brooding all the time. Peaches looked at her mother understanding now that a tense situation had occurred. Ellie looked at Manny "Do something" she mouthed silently.
"Uh why don't you two catch up with Sid and I'll see you later tonight?" Many said to Ellie as he saw this as a golden opportunity to go looking into this human tribe without putting her or Peaches in danger.
"What are you not coming?" Ellie asked disappointed. Peaches face fell too.
"I need to talk to Diego about a few things if you don't mind"
Ellie nodded and left with Peaches to catch up with Sid.
"So..." Manny began awkwardly; well he had to be concerned now so Diego wouldn't guess that he had been used to get rid of Ellie "Things alright between you and Sid?" Manny so hoped Diego wouldn't feel like talking. He held his breath and closed his eyes in case he actually did as there was no getting away now.
Diego was a bit miffed before, but now he was totally peeved that Manny had taken advantage of his sulk to get rid of Ellie. Still he wasn't so angry to actually talk about his fears of Sid getting totally boring, like Manny. "Don't know what you're talking about" he replied dismissively. "Things alright with you and Ellie only you seemed to want to get away from her" He added with a smirk knowing Manny would hate him for that.
Manny cringed "Yeah, sure things are good..."
"Good" Diego added quickly not wanting to hear anymore.
"I've been thinking about moving on soon" Manny said changing the subject to a more comfortable topic. "That ok with you?"
"Yeah it's about time" Diego said thinking that this would get everyone back focussed on adventure again, after all that is what this herd was meant to be all about. "Ah" he tutted as he remembered his own commitments "I have to get rid of the kids first. Honestly she said three days forever ago, I don't know what's happened"
"Shame," Manny mused "Sid seems so happy"
"They are still going back" Diego replied with venom, gosh Manny sounded as soft as Ellie there.
"I was just saying as I think we will need to prepare for an upset sloth soon" Manny said in a more manly voice.
"He'll get over it, or find some other poor animal to replace them with"
"We need to wait for the possums anyway, so no rush" Manny said as he thought about looking for some small inoffensive animal which he could use to replace Sid's cubs with, maybe ants?
As Manny thought Diego started to stalk off.
"Hey where are you going?" Manny called concerned that he was going to have to wait for Diego as well as the possums before he could find more food.
"Uh" Diego was about to say hunting but remembered himself in time "To look for Sara so she can have her dumb kids back of course" He lied and disappeared off on his own to hunt for the first time in ages.
Manny waited till Diego was out of sight and set out to find the humans, he would have liked the tigers company but worried too much that he might fall off a cliff or something again so didn't ask.
Sid marched with the cubs in tow down to the lake nearby. Suddenly Peaches came bounding up behind them. As she over took the cubs she shouted "last one in is a banana!" and stuck her tongue out at Steve for good measure.
"I'm going to get her" Steve growled and ran after her.
The other cubs felt the thrill of the chase and ran too leaving Sid behind calling after them "No running! Wait!"
Once started the chase became obsessive, all that mattered was the hunt. Being bigger and with a longer stride Steve led the cubs, closing the Gap between himself and Peaches with each stride. Peaches was sure that she would make it to the water in time and even slowed down a bit to tease him.
"Come on Sid!" Ellie said running up and scooping Sid up for a lift as she raced by "We'll get left behind!"
"You have to stop her!" Sid wailed "Rule number one when swimming you don't run by the pool!"
"Relax, what could happen?" Ellie said
"They will all slip and... well the rest doesn't even bear thinking about"
"Hold on Sid we're nearly there, look your little Snowball is going to win!"
Steve nearly had her, Peaches gasped and sped up when she realised how close he was but the water was so close she could see it now, all frozen and snow covered! She began to lose her nerve. Steve smiled with delight "So who's a banana now?" he jeered knowing that she had no where now to hide.
"Eek!" squeaked Peaches and speed up all that she could.
Ellie over took the saber cubs "No running!" Sid shouted at them as he passed.
"But you are!" Isla shouted back
"And you're going way too fast you will hit the ice and slip breaking your head right open!" Breezy added
Sid looked at the frozen lake fast approaching "Ellie stop! Kids stop!"
Ellie laughed as she neared Steve and Peaches "We are going to win this!"
Steve was now running beside Peaches he was ready to make his move. Peaches swerved out of his way so he couldn't trip her.
Steve pounced instead.
Peaches leapt.
Ellie jumped to overtake.
Sid slid off Ellie's back caught Steve mid pounce and landed safely on the shore.
Peaches gasped as she realised she had nothing but hard cold ice to land on
Ellie shouted "Dive bomb!" and smashed through the ice with a mighty splash
Peaches landed with a soft splash in the water, both mammoths surfaced giggling.
Sid sat Steve down and spread his arms as the slower smaller cubs caught up "Okay that's close enough" he said catching them before they fell into the water
"Ellie! No dive bombing! This is a serious lesson, and Snowball what were you thinking?" Sid scolded.
"She started it" Steve whined
"I thought we were all having fun Sid" Ellie said feeling a bit like another one of Sid's charges.
"No we are learning to swim" Sid corrected her "Now come on kids this way" He led the cubs off to a dry spot by the shore. "Okay this looks like a good spot for our first lesson" Sid said while clearing away the snow from a flat boulder which he would use as a board.
"But there's no water" Tala said confused
"Everything starts in the class room" Sid explained "Once we have mastered the 'theory' of swimming in the 'safety' of the class room then we will undertake the 'practical' side of our lessons out there in the real world, but only when we are all ready" Sid said -quite sternly.
"But yesterday we were already doing it" Tala whined as the mammoths started to play with small bobbing icebergs created from smashing into the lake
"Can't we just skip this boring bit and get onto the fun part already?" Her sister Isla added
"Patience!" Sid told them, "You need patience! Anything else would be to jump in at the deep end and well, let me show you what would happen" Sid found a bit of chalk and drew a Two dimensional swimming pool which started shallow then got deeper and deeper, and deeper still as it went on. "So this shallow end we will label 'good' and the deep end over here we will label 'bad'. Now this little guy can be any one of you fella's" Sid drew a cub to give the whole diagram a sense of scale. "And he is here at the 'good' end of the pool"
Everyone's eyes went over to the mammoths as Peaches giggles were imposable to ignore; Ellie had just sculpted a shark out of ice and was using it to chase Peaches with. Peaches screamed with hysterics as Ellie's shark came up from under her scooping her up out of the water and bobbed around freely with the waves they had both created. "
"Try and hold on!" Ellie said as she pushed the floating ice and Peaches around chasing small fish pretending to eat them "Dun-dum, dun-dum, dun–dum, munch!"
"Ellie do you think you could keep it down? Your very distracting" Sid called
"Sorry Sid, Dun-dum, dun-dum, dun-dum, munch!" Ellie whispered. Peaches giggled quietly.
"Now" Sid said tapping of his claw on the diagram like a pointer "Why is the shallow end the 'good' end do you think?" He looked around to find his class was still watching the mammoths "Look here kids! Ignore those two"
"But that looks like fun" Breezy whined
"Is it because that end is totally boring?" Zan huffed impatient that they should move this lesson on.
"Look" Sid shouted to get everyone facing him again "It is because you can safely reach the bottom! Very important unless you can swim, if you can't see the bottom never go in" Sid could see that he was losing what little attention he had so added some drama to his diagram "because if you can't see the bottom then it maybe that too many monsters are lurking down there" Sid drew in some big ugly shapes with many eyes and sharp teeth "Or perhaps it might be so deep it might not have a bottom at all!" Sid smirked as the sharp gasps confirmed that he had everyone's attention at last.
Peaches glanced over at Sid's monsters with big teeth and gasped too looking down at the innocent little fish below her feet and wondered what else was down in those murky depths.
"Sid you're scaring everyone" Ellie said as her game with Peaches was ruined
"Ellie they have to learn and this is safer than exposing them to the real thing"
"Mum can we get out of the water now?" Peaches whined
Steve smirked pleased that Peaches game was now spoilt "These monsters don't look so tough to me, do you think we can eat them?
The other kids stared in awe at his bravery before deciding that they were not scared of wobbly drawings either.
"Yeah they Look like sushi to me" Ari joked
"Sure you can defeat them" Sid explained "Manny knows all too well how to outsmart monsters, so long as you can swim! Now let's start with the basics, once you are sure the waters not too deep, you can step in" Sid pretended to step into a pool "now slowly venture out deeper always keeping an eye on the shore and safe shallows, cause once you're in and swimming all you can see is water so remember where safety is at all times kids. Now you're stepping out and you want to walk like you are hunting prey like this, but breathe like this! and stalk like this, and claw the water like this and now I am swimming and breathing and remembering and looking!"
The cubs began to giggle at how daft Sid looked.
"I'd rather look stupid here in the safety of the class room than out there in the real world" Sid scolded them. A solemn silence followed. "Now it's your turn kids come on, it's easy like your stalking prey"
"But we can't stalk" Zan confessed as the only time he had ever tried with Diego he had fallen over more often than not.
"Then claw!" Sid commanded still miming his swimming actions
"Can't claw either" Lars said while inspecting this new action
"Hunt?" Sid tried
"Nope, not really" Breezy said
"We did kind of" Aden said remembering their various attempts with Manny "Not like that though, more like with ropes and stuff"
"What has Diego been doing with you all this time? Right, from the top then!" Sid commanded "Everyone copy me!" They made a line and copied Sid not caring that they looked stupid till they all got it right.
Finally Sid felt confident that they were ready and took them into the water and real swimming slowly got mastered by each one.
Ellie was still up on the shore convincing Peaches that there were no monsters in the water because her daddy had thrown them all far out to sea and they were far too scared to ever return. She looked over to see Sid with his swimming kids "Very professional work there Sid"
"Yep I always wanted a swim school you know, 'Squids kids!' I never got time what with one thing and another"
"Well you're a natural"
"I know, I just wish Manny was here so I could tell him I told you so" Sid sighed
"So anyway, do you want to come have a proper yummy mummy afternoon?" Ellie asked.
"Huh?" Sid asked
"You know lunch and chat while this lot plays in the park" Ellie explained
"Oooo sounds fun! Cool I could do with a break" Sid said excited
"Let's go then" Ellie led them off for what was shaping up to be the best day of Sid's parenting life.
Thanx for reading, hopefully my next update won't take so long but I am the king of bad luck lately!