A bit rushed so expect mistakes, sorry but I had to up date before I popped!
Most oc's are throw away characters so don't worry about who's who too much... I really can't remember either and I don't own anything! –at least anything worth owning.
Sid and Ellie walked to a pretty playground where mums and kids of all species, shapes, sizes and ages sat drinking, snaking and playing. They picked a quiet spot and sat down.
Having swum all morning the cubs stretched out and sat quietly talking.
"I wonder what it is going to be like when my teeth are as long as tusks" Tala pondered out loud.
"I just can't wait to be as big as Manny" said her sister Isla "I wonder if I will be able to throw sea monsters around too"
"Of course we will" Aden said with some confidence "We will be big and strong enough to rule the world"
"I just want a longer tail" said Zan, "and may be warmer fur, even if it does look poofy"
"You're lucky that you get all these things anyway" Isla said to Peaches "Because eating all this super food is kind'a hard work"
"Lucky?" Steve said "She IS food, she needs all these things just to survive us"
"So what is she going to do when we have all these powers too?"
"Don't talk like that!" Breezy snapped "Peaches is our friend, not food"
"Strength is not just about size and strength" Peaches said "It's about smarts too you know!"
"Shame you've not them either then isn't it" Steve sneered at her
"Actually..." Peaches began, but hesitated, she was about to boast of her triumph over a pack of full grown sabers when she remembered that they were her friends parents and she had forgotten to tell anyone like her dad about the predicament that she had left them in... She felt more than a little uneasy at this.
"It's about having big teeth and other cool weapons too" Tala said not noticing Peaches tremble slightly beside her "And so long as Peaches is our friend we will work together so we can all have fun"
Steve didn't miss a beat, he saw how Peaches was feeling very uneasy about something, 'so she might not be so perfect after all' he thought 'I will have to find out what her secret is, maybe it will be a weakness I can use'
"Good" Breezy said satisfied "In this pack we should look out for each other and be friends forever"
"And we will because we are going to be the biggest, baddest pack in the world ever and no one is going to be able to defeat us" Said Ari striking a macho pose
"Defeat us?" Zan asked looking for foes
"Well stop us then" Ari said to put his little half brother at ease
"Who wants stop us? And why?" Zan asked still confused.
"Well..." Ari hadn't thought this far "Stop us from having fun I suppose" he finished lamely
"Cool" Zan said satisfied "When we are all powerful then we will play all day" He yawned
"Yeah, all day" Tala said stretching and noticing that quite a few of her siblings were already napping. She yawned, stretched again and curled up to join them in wonderful dreams of hugeness.
Peaches felt too uneasy to sleep, she noticed Steve was only pretending to sleep while watching her intently. She felt even more uncomfortable at this and wandered over to her mum and Sid. She thought about telling them about the sabers trapped in the pit but they were already so engrossed in their own conversation that she decided maybe not. Maybe she would tell them later when Steve wasn't watching. She curled up between Ellie's fore legs and wished that both Steve and this horrible predicament would just go away.
A couple of aardvarks commented as they passed how well behaved Sid and Ellie's kids were. Sid glowed with pride, he was just so good at this parenting thing, Ellie smiled modestly at the compliment and Peaches cowered further from view.
"Still" One of the aardvarks continued to the other "odd couple wouldn't you say?"
"Oh I thought they were both female!" The other replied.
Ellie let tried not to giggle, but remembering Manny's comment earlier she found she couldn't help herself; Sid really did look like a butternut squash.
"Ahem!" Sid said as his already deflated pride took a further knock at seeing Ellie looking at his somewhat curvy or, heavy hips. "That is where I store my winter fat actually!"
"Well it's funny how it all bunches up in one place like that" Ellie said trying to pry her eyes from his bottom, "Oh no my mistake it stores on your arms too..."
"That's muscle!"
"?..." Ellie changed subject fast "anyway what I was going to say was... remember those eggs you found? Well before they hatched and they were just, well, eggs..."
"They had names" Sid commented.
"Yes"
"And faces"
"I think you drew them on..."
"And feelings when you got to know them"
"So anyway what was it about those eggs that you loved so much?"
"Wow, finally someone wants to know" Sid sighed "Usually it's me who's the sensitive one in the herd when it comes to unsaid feelings and such"
"Really?" Ellie said more than a bit surprised "I kind of got the idea it was Diego"
"Hardly! He was the mushy one, now he's just emo. I think he misses his scheming and stuff, then again..."
"The eggs Sid, one thing at a time"
"Oh yeah, well I could project my own feelings on them, you know make them the perfect family that would never get tired of my jokes and want to have a girlfriend, move on and stuff; and probably abandon me like my first family, then Manny..."
"So you thought that I was going to take your herd away" Ellie mused as the pieces finally fell into place, Sid did not want to be alone again and with Manny spending more and more time with her then he must have dreaded being left out completely; thus he found an inanimate object which would never leave him to be his family "you must have hated me" She said imagining how low Sid must have felt to be pushed to such extremes.
"Na" Sid said waving a claw dismissively "Your too cute to hate what with being mad an' all; and Manny deserved to be happy. It's just, well, me and Diego didn't really see how we were going to fit in with Manny's new life; so I did the decent thing and got my own family so Manny could feel better about moving on from ours"
"Only you couldn't have done it in anymore a dramatic way" Ellie said remembering Sid's 'lone lonely loner' speech.
"Not the sharpest tool in the old box our Manny, I had to you know, over emphasize a bit to make sure he understood that it was alright to move on, to grow, to be happy! Evolve!"
"So you knew that they were just eggs then?"
"Yeah, I'm not crazy! I haven't seen my imaginary friends or anything for ages now. Those eggs, they were just a um, coping tool. I never expected them to actually hatch into dinos and take us all on death defying adventure through a hidden underground world" Sid said remembering how exhausting all that had been. "That turned out to be one cool weekend"
"It was" Ellie smiled "Are you ok now? You know with me and Manny, now that you know we're not going to abandon you "
"Sure" Sid lied as he could never be centre enough of everyone's attention really "Your way better than Manny ever was and now that I am finally getting a chance to prove to everyone how superior my parenting skills are I couldn't be happier. Wow this is just like being a real parent talking about emotional stuff like this"
"Yeah I guess, sorry to be so boring, shall we do something a bit more fun?"
"Uh my lazy kids are still too tired from swimming" Sid moaned
"I have the perfect remedy" Ellie reached up into a tree and pulled down a large nut, she bashed it on the ground to open it up and reveal its contents –coffee beans.(I presume they grow on trees) "We just grind these up like so and sprinkle them with sugar in hot water..." She explained to Sid while smashing the beans into a fine grit like consistency under her foot.
"Oh I knew my cooking set would come in handy!" Sid whipped out his pot and made a fire to make hot drinks with. "So how's things going between you and Manny? Married life all you hopped it would be? Cause I could help if it's not I am quite a skilled relationship doctor" Sid said casually while pouring out a few strong espresso's.
"Oh things are just fine" Ellie said taking a sip "... He does worry a bit tough. Like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders or something"
"Tell me about it!" Sid chuckled "He never stopped! Like back when..."
"And it's not just now and then; it's all the time!" Ellie continued while sipping some more coffee "I wish he would learn to relax a bit"
"Uh huh, like when I first met him, he didn't even know me and still..."
"And the macho man hero thing! Protecting us from everything! Everything!"
"I like that about him..."
"Even twigs pose some sort of threat! I mean can he not just sometimes give it a rest already?"
"Ok your making me jealous now" Sid snatched Ellie's cup away "Come on kids life's too short for sleeping have some wake up juice before Ellie drinks it all and chews my ear off!"
"Sorry, that's a good pot" Ellie said sheepishly noticing how much of the bottom of it she could now see .
"I know I'm just too good at everything I put my hand to, can't help it..." Sid said modestly
"And sorry, I shouldn't moan, Manny's great an all but sheesh! he does get a bit much"
"Yep that's our Manny, probably worrying about something back at camp right now, -like not taking a bath so long as he lives" Sid muttered.
Manny wandered along looking for signs of humans. He could find nothing. He did however find a few female mammoths out grazing. He remembered seeing them in Big Mick's herd and decided to ask if they could point him in the right direction for trouble.
"Uh hello" He said as he approached the little group interrupting their conversation
"Why hello" The she-moths said enthusiastically eyeing up the rather fit looking polite male "Manny isn't it?"
"Not 'mad Manny, who lives with his enemy' Manny?" Said a pudgy purple female suspiciously
"Yep" Manny sighed "that's the one"
"So how's that work?" The purple she-moth asked with much interest
"Err... great actually. For a predator Diego's a really nice guy"
"Oh" Ms Purple she-moth said surprised "Well who'd have guessed?"
"How about that?" her roan friend said "and here's our husbands a bunch of stubborn, big headed, wilful, arrogant, not to mention..." She ranted continuing on from their previous conversation before Manny had arrived.
"honestly" Ms purple said apologetically for her friend before explaining their gripe to a bewildered Manny "We want to move on as the pasture in the next valley is said to be twice as lush as it is here but will those men listen? They are only concerned with stamping out every predator, human and probable mythical beasty that moves. They can be imposable sometimes"
"We will no doubt starve before they see sense and leave be" Ms Roan wailed
"Maybe we should swap them for cats instead" an orange hued she-moth suggested reducing her girl friends to giggles.
"At least we would get a better conversation!" Ms Purple cackled.
"He is great to talk to actually" Manny said amidst the girls laughter "He's always there, quietly concerned about how I'm feeling"
"Ooooo" The girls said in awed unison
"But isn't 'it' dangerous?" Ms Purple asked still suspicious.
"Diego? Dangerous?"Manny scoffed "No he's a real softy, even Sid the Sloth can push him over and give him noogies"
"Is that right?" The girls looked at each other
"follows me loyally" Manny continued "Even across a field full of active geysers without complaining, go figure huh"
"Oooo" the girls swooned
"crys a bit though"
"sigh!" The she-moths chattered to one another "Nothing wrong with being in touch with ones feminine side", "Shows great understanding that's all"
"Even a sad picture can set him off" Manny added "And again when my daughter was born" It dawned on Manny how much Diego openly cared for the herd while still coming across as quite macho. Manny decided that maybe he would take Ellie's advise and try show a bit more of his caring side without fearing that he looked like a sissy, after all such displays of emotion were highly appreciated by these females who had now changed their tune completely about sabers.
"Girls we need a cat" Ms Purple said decidedly
"Can't think of the last time we saw one though" Ms roan sighed, "Those flaming husbands of ours keep chasing them off"
"Honestly good for nothing those men!"
"Especially that big old good for nothing Mick" Ms Purple said spitefully "Got it in his head to start another crusade, it's against the humans this time and all the others are so quick to follow him, hooligans!"
"Anyway" Manny said quickly "I was looking to find the human herd do you know which way they are camped?"
"Oh not you too!" Ms Purple sighed "and here I thought you were different!"
"I have a young friend who might be in the humans herd" Manny explained "I have to warn him if I can before it's too late"
"That is so noble" Ms Roan gasped
"and brave!" Said another she-moth
"and darn sweet!" Ms Purple said pleased, "why you're nothing like our mean mammoths! The humans tribes that way" She pointed the wrong way (never ask a woman directions) "but do be careful! Humans are very dangerous creatures"
The she-moths watched as Manny left."Does he have a mate?" Ms Roan asked.
"Yeah that mad girl who likes speed and crazy sports" Ms Purple answered."Not good enough for a gentle soul like him I dare say"
"No one is" Ms Roan sighed
The possums wandered around lost.
"You must remember the way back Eddie" Crash whined "You only came this way the other day!"
"But it's snowed since then and I wasn't paying attention to where we were going because Diego's kids were fighting, so sorry but I don't know where Ellie is!" Eddie whined exhausted "Maybe if you had just stayed put so I didn't have to come looking for you we wouldn't be here lost in the first place" He said to Crash with more than a smidge of bitter accusation.
"And maybe if you hadn't lost my Sister, my only friend and family" Emma snapped adding to the blame already building up on Crash's shoulders "We could have used her to track down your herd and be there already"
"Wah, wah, wah! cry me a river babe" Crash replied, "If your sister was that good at tracking she would have tracked you down by now, unless of course if she'd rather not find you! I might just have liberated her from a fate worse than insufferable boredom i.e. you!"
"And perhaps that is why we can't find your sister!" Emma snapped back, "Maybe she took her opportunity to get shot of you, you whining, ungrateful, stupid little boy!"
"Shut up all of you!" Eddie cried out "Possums rule! And no one lucky enough to somehow have possums in there extended family would ever even think about doing a runner on them. The reason we can't find anyone is because we have been walking around in circles, look I have found our own tracks and some wolf ones so your sister is all right Emma; but we are still miles away from Ellie so tomorrow we will find everyone and everything will be cool!"
"Tomorrow? Why wait till then when we can walk all night" Crash said
"No way!" Emma whined "We have been walking all day and I'm tired and hungry... and tired" Emma said wishing her sister was here to carry her
"And cold!" Eddie said wishing his sister was here with her lovely thick warm coat to carry him "I wonder what everyone's doing right now?"
"Pinning for us of course" Crash said imagining how dull life in the herd without their practical jokes probably was.
"Doubt it" Emma muttered as the three of them stumbled on.
Sid and Ellie with the kids in tow wandered over to a frozen stream where parents and kids were ice skating.
"Let's skate" Sid said
"But isn't that deep water under there?" Breezy asked suspiciously, she was unsure how well her claws were going to go down on the ice.
"Yeah wasn't there a rule about deep water?" Tala murmured
"You can swim now so all those rules no longer apply" Sid said high on coffee and enthusiasm
"Let's make this really fun and race!" Ellie said still high on caffeine too "Come on! Last one to the other..."
"No enough racing already!" Sid said holding up a stone that he had just found "We should play a proper game, like ice hockey!"
"Oh a real family bonding game! I like the sound of that, lets pick teams! Peaches is with me!" Ellie snatched a gloomy feeling Peaches over to her side.
"Snowball's with me!" Sid said snatching the cub over
"Who shall we pick next Peaches?" Ellie asked trying to get Peaches interest up
"Uh, Breezy?" Peaches answered in a quiet voice
"Steve who shall we have?" Sid said as he realised he still didn't know all the names yet.
"I think we should have girls vs. boys" Steve replied with an evil grin 'Then we will defiantly win' he thought
"Good idea!" Sid said patting the cub on the head "Let's get some goal posts and huddle"
The two sides huddled up at opposite sides of the pitch
"Right" said Sid "We need a captain, that will be me, a defence and an attack team. We need to each take a separate area of the pitch to work so nothing is left open, kids we have to win this"
"I don't understand?" Ari whined "It's just a dumb stone what's the point?"
"The point?" Sid said "The point is to win, imagine this stone is an antelope, a really wylie, slidey, antelope, the other team is another pack who also want this tasty treat and the goals are um, safe territories which you can ambush and eat your prey in. Now as a pack you have to chase the prey away from your enemies grasp and into your own trap"
The cubs nodded as they understood that this was hunting practice.
Over at team Ellie, "Okay girls the aim of this game is to score as many goals as we can by shooting that stone into their goal, I will be defending our goal to stop them from doing the same to us. Remember the aim is to have fun! So pass the stone to each other so everyone gets a fair turn and let's enjoy this!"
The girls stumbled out onto the slippery cold ice to play feeling a bit uninspired, the boys met them half way between the goals looking seriously determined in their expressions despite the fact that that were struggling to even stand for more than two steps on the ice. Sid had put the smallest cub Zan in goal and set the bigger ones in attack positions up front with himself as main shooter as well as ref.
"Sid you can't play it all for them" Ellie protested
"Fine let them lose it then" Sid sulked his way to the back "I'll just manage from the goal for a bit"
A slow, clumsy game in sued with the boys playing rough and dirty shoving the girls out of the way but failing to get the stone passed Ellie. Peaches, despite not really playing got shoved hard by Steve as he and his team dominated the pitch. She slipped out on the ice away from the pitch on her chin with a frown like her father would wear. As Ellie watched her slide away Steve got a goal in passed her
"That stupid boy!" Peaches thought feeling riled.
"Half time!" Ellie called to give Peaches a chance to get back to the pitch
"Good going kids we've got this in the bag!" Sid said congratulating his team on the only goal
"We are losing?" The girl cubs looked at each other bemused
"Yeah our packs way better than yours!" Steve jeered
"What about when we said we were a team forever?" Aida asked her brother Ari who looked sad that his sister wasn't winning too.
"Things change losers!" Steve laughed.
Peaches stopped moping. Skating over to where the stone sat behind Ellie, she hit the little rock so hard it flew across the pitch and scored a goal while Sid sat scratching his rump
"Ahh!" Sid screamed "You can't shoot from the back of the pitch! And it's still half time!"
"We were practicing!" Ellie said apologetically, "Peaches not so hard remember this is a game"
"No it's not" Ari said wobbling over to the girls side to sit with his sister "its hunting practice to learn pack skills"
"So it's important we win then" Aida said "As traditionally we girls do all the hunting so we need to be the best"
"In our pack we will all hunt" Ari reassured her "The ice is so slippery, maybe this is a stupid practice anyway"
"You guys just need to learn to skate" Peaches said "Stop trying to grip the ice with those claws and just balance as you slide" She demonstrated by skating gracefully around in a circle. The girl cubs and Ari watched and learned
"We can do that" Aida said "We are good at balancing"
"That's the spirit girls" Ellie smiled "Now let's have fun!"
The kids reassembled into their teams to play only this time the girls skated around the boys to get at the stone.
"How did they get good so quick?" Steve moaned as the game suddenly got hard
"By tucking their claws in and skating" Ari explained
Steve watched as without claws Ari could glide along quite fast while his own claws gripped the ice erratically making small scratches and deterring him from moving forward. 'Hmmm' He thought as he pushed hard with one claw to cut through the ice completely "Let's see them skate around this then" He said as he began cutting a hole to make a trap.
"No" Ari said standing up to the bigger cub "It's just practice!"
Steve took no notice till he heard a crack "Uh- oh" He said as he saw lines branching out from his trap and going all around his goal and further out over the lake.
Everything went quiet till the cracking finally stopped.
Sid was now free floating on his own little island bobbing around. Behind him other parents with kids were in the same predicament. Luckily no one had fallen in but many were grumbling that the rink was now ruined.
"I'd like to see her score now" Steve said sheepishly like he had meant for that to happen.
Peaches was always up for a challenge and chipped the rock so that it skimmed across the water went through Sid's goal posts, bounced up off of a tortoise looking animals shell, flew back towards them while gaining height and finally came hurtling down hard enough to crack what ice had remained in tacked.
Again silence fell till all became stable again and everyone sighed with relief as they all found themselves safe on ice floats and not in the drink.
"I think that that's enough for today guys" Ellie said grabbing a few of the kids and making for a strategic exit "let's call it a draw and go home"
"Okay" Sid said as he paddled his way back to land as quick as he could well aware that the park was now full of angry parents looking their way. "Come on kids, last one back to camps a rotten banana"
Diego sat waiting for prey under cover of an outcrop of rocks. Nothing came by; it was like everyone had migrated already. So he prowled around a bit looking for prey. He chased a few antelope but caught nothing. He needed to ambush something, but nothing presented itself. He thought about trying to take down a really big bad looking fella, but with no one to impress he decided why risk it? After what seemed like ages Diego headed back to camp hungry, at least there was company there, out here he was getting lonely.
Manny walked for ages without finding a single trace of human activity. Then out of the blue he came across some quail eggs in a nest under a bunch of tulip flowers. He decided to do something nice for his friends and picked up the eggs and flowers to bring back, if Diego wasn't afraid to show his caring side than neither would he be. He headed back looking forward to seeing his friends faces light up with these gifts. He was pleased to find Ellie and Sid already back and sitting around a fire with the kids preparing food.
"Nice day?" He asked as he nuzzled up to his wife
"Yes, you missed some fun" Ellie said pleased Manny was back safe
"I bet, there's never a dull moment with Sid"
"Yep king of fun that is me, unless you were being sarcastic! I bet you were, in that case you are so wrong!" Sid said.
"Me? No. look I know I'm a bit hard on you Sid" Manny said smiling "So I got you this" he gave Sid the tiny eggs that he had found
"For me?" Sid took them carefully "Thanks why that's so nice"
"You know" Manny explained "for when Diego's kids have to go back, I know how you like family so I thought you could draw some little faces on them and... and... Sid what are you doing?"
Sid had wandered back to his cooking pot and broken the eggs into the boiling water "Why poaching them of course"
"But I thought you liked eggs" Manny said confused "Why are those egg different from the others?
"Well those eggs had names and faces these ones didn't"
"But you just drew them on!"
"Did I now?"
Ellie and Manny exchanged glances 'he is crazy?' Manny wondered , 'Worse' Ellie implied.
"Anyway" Manny said moving on quickly "I brought these back for my favourite girls" he pulled out a gigantic bunch of tulips
"Wow you shouldn't have" Ellie said while munching through them with speed.
"It's nothing, well now it's nothing" Manny said as they were now gone.
"So what you been up to?" Ellie asked with her mouth full
"Nothing much talked to Diego walked a bit, how about you?"
"Fun, you know" She tried but failed to talk any more while eating
"Nothing too dangerous I hope" Manny muttered
"Now would I?" Ellie grinned
Diego returned to find everyone happily chatting and eating which instantly upset him as he had spent the day bored and lonely
"Hey Diego" Sid called "watch'a been up to?"
"Can't be the only one not having fun around here" Diego grumbled
"Fun doing what" Sid asked as he stirred his cooking pot
"Whatever sabers enjoy doing" Diego replied a bit grumpier than intended
"And what's that ?" Sid asked without heeding his friends mood
"Why do you need to know? What's it to you anyway? I wasn't in your face when you were out with those dumb mammoths"
"Touchy!" Sid said a bit abashed "Just wondered if you had eaten as we have some food here just cooked that's all" Sid dished up a bowl of wild rice salad with tofu and mushrooms "And a poached quail egg on the top thanks to Manny!"
Diego grimaced at the leaves, rice and mushrooms "Can you eat eggs?" He asked Sid
"Veggie not vegan and we all need protein"
"But don't they have babies in them like dino babies?"
"Not you as well" Sid shot him a look "These ones didn't have names and faces so no harm done so shut your wise mouth! And what's wrong with your food? We all took such effort preparing it and you're just pushing it around"
"Well the egg was nice but I'm full now, here kids" Diego pushed it over to the ravenous cubs who's expectant faces were practically already in it anyway
"But you can't be" Sid whined "the kids ate five times as much as that and they're tiny compared to you"
"Well, Diego sighed as he thought of an excuse so not to eat the terrible stuff "the older you get the less you need to eat when you're a predator"
"That only works for vampires pal and one quail egg that's very energy efficient even by those standards"
"That's because I don't waste my energy spouting rubbish like you"
"Well don't go snacking" Sid said testily "cause there's plenty more in the pot"
The cubs heads whipped around as they darted for the cooking pot and it's contents
"Great" Diego grinned "I'll bear that in mind for later"
"What is it with you kids!" Sid screamed trying to pull them off of the food "It's not that good! Stop eating already are you bottomless or something?"
"But if we're to get real big like mammoths we need to eat way more of this stuff" Ari protested
"What do you mean?" Sid asked
"If we eat like mammoths then we will get big and strong just like mammoths" the cub explained
"And get big teeth like tusks!" Tala added
"And big tails for bows"
"And bigger and better snow coats"
"But not big noses"
"Or tummies"
"Or feet"
"Well I'm impressed Sid" Diego said after listening to the cubs strange theories, "We don't usally start teaching kids the art of lying till their much older"
"It was just an innocent remark, if you eat well then you will grow up to be big and strong that's all I said. I never said you would look like mammoths" Sid wailed
Faces and hopes dropped
"There I told ya so you stupid cubs" Steve said grinning
"Well done on the lesson on reality Sid" Diego said smirking "Harsh huh kids"
"It's more than you ever taught them" Sid muttered "thanks to me at least they can prowl and claw and swim and skate now, as well as play team sports... to a certain degree, even I might need more time with that"
Diego remembered how much this all meant to his friend, and how young and useless these kids actually were "Alright your actually not bad at this parenting thing, there I said it happy?"
Sid instantly perked up "Really do you think. In your face Manny"
"What? I never said a thing"
"But you were thinking it"
"Sid your paranoid, your're the last thing on my mind at any given moment"
"Oh" Sid looked genuinely put out for five sec's till he remembered his new family obbsession to help get over Manny not loving him so much anymore "So I guess it's bed time kids, who wants a story?"
Diego groaned and stalked off.
"Can you tell it while you relight the fire?" Manny asked Sid as he found he could not stop shivering.
"Nope" Sid smirked at the thought of Manny now needing him "I can't I have no more wood"
"You gathered loads I saw a huge pile of it!" Manny said through chattering teeth
"Yeah and I used it to cook with"
"Go find some more then I'm freezing!"
"It's too dark and I'm tired, it's been nonstop all day" Sid said annoyed that Manny was ordering him around
"So cold" Came Manny's weak voice
Sid felt sorry for his big friend now "We could snuggle!" he suggested
"..." Said Manny (sounded like a weak whimper)
Sid took that as definitely not a no "Come on kids bunk beds ready!"
Diego watched as the extended herd all piled on top of Manny and shook his head at how his friend could have gone so soft so quick. Ellie smiled as she thought Manny was finally showing his sensitive, careing side. Manny ignored them all as all he cared about was the fact that he was starting to regain feeling in his frozen ears and nose at last.
Sid, having just finished throwing himself around into a comfortable position, noticed Diego was curled up alone "Hey there's room for one more, come on we're all family nothing to get shy about!" he called to his best pal
"Nope I'd rather freeze" Diego replied as dry as ever.
"Suite yourself" Sid said unsurprised "How about you Peaches are you not joining us?"
Peaches felt like sleeping alone too, especially now that she could not talk to her dad without the whole herd hearing about her guilty secret.
Ellie who was beside Manny but not under Sid and co, beckoned her daughter over with her trunk "Come on honey"
Peaches hesitated a moment then went over to her mother whose reassuring hug made her feel a lot better, one more night in that pit wouldn't hurt those sabers would it? she wondered. After all Diego had said earlier that predators didn't need that much food as they grew up and they had each other for warmth and company. She would get a chance to tell her dad tomorrow and then he would sort it all out and everything would be better. She drifted off feeling a little better.
The saber pack sat watching the clouded skies from the bottom of their pit. Soon it would snow again and they only needed a little more height after last night's snow fall before they could get out and revenge themselves on that pesky calf.
P.S. This is leading somewhere... just very slowly.