Buck: Allo there! Th' two others ah still chasin' those giant bu'erflies, but they ask'd me ta open it up here. 'Till they realize th' intro has started, I'll be providing entertainment.
Faithers: LIAR! *tackles him* We caught the butterflies. You just wanted to steal the spotlight!
Buck: Eh, s'wot I do.
Amethyst: *tosses Buck a meatball* We're back! =D
Faithers: And because we're back, you know what that means?
Buck: Mo' food? *eating the meatball*
Amethyst: Well, that, and another chapter! And more randomness. You can never have enough randomness. A good dose of insanity is a perfect way to start the day, eh?
Faithers: Aye.
Amethyst: Eye?
Faithers and Buck: AYE-AYE! *high five*
Amethyst: XD nice. Open the door, get on the floor, everybody walk the Dinosaur...*has been playing that song non-stop*
Faithers: It was a night like this, forty million years ago!
Buck: ...Righ'... I sense they'll be ent'rtained by tha'... so here's th' chapta'.
Scrat didn't like this. He did not like this at ALL.
Shortly after he and Scratte had called a truce, a new squirrel had shown up. Skrit had brown fur and big green eyes that, after a while, Scrat noticed that Scratte seemed to get lost in.
Scrat was left in the background, brooding. He had gone through a lot to get part of his acorn back (and get on Scratte's good side again), but this was ridiculous! Scratte seemed infatuated with Skrit, just as Scrat had been infatuated with her.
He sat with his back against a tree, fiddling with the stick in his paws, sighing dejectedly. Maybe "had been" was the wrong tense...
He heard giggling, and looked around the tree to see Skrit talking to Scratte. The female squirrel seemed to be enjoying herself, batting her long eyelashes at Skrit seductively. Scrat tightened his grip on the stick until it broke, growling.
He was going to have to do something about this. It would probably kill him, but he would get Scratte back. Skrit could go find some other squirrel.
As her eyes adjusted, Peaches looked around the damp cave with interest. The only time she had ever really been in a cave before was the one they went through to get here. She could just see Buck's silhouette in front of her, and tried to "stay close" while simultaneously looking around their dark surroundings.
Crash and Eddie were clinging to her fur, and she could feel them shifting as they turned their heads this way and that. She realized with a start they could see everything around them. She whispered up to them, "What's it look like?"
"Nothing particularly amazing," Eddie replied, "just a bunch of rocks."
"But some of them are shaped really cool," Crash added. "The one to our left kinda looks like a face."
"What kind of face?" Peaches asked curiously, staring off to the left and trying to make herself see what her uncles obviously could.
"Like, a stubby snout and closed eyes, small nostrils, and long, sharp teeth." Crash described it, making Eddie swing his head around to look at it.
"Kinda looks like a snake." He commented.
"Cool." Peaches said. "What's on the ceiling?"
"Uhh..." Eddie looked up. "It looks like...I dunno, lots of cracks or something?"
"Tha's called Box Work. I's a natural but rare formation." Buck informed them, looking up at the rock above them.
Peaches looked around again, her foot hitting something. "Ow!"
"Oh, watch it Princess! That was a stalagmite!" Crash said.
"What are you talking about? CLEARLY that's a stalactite!" Eddie confronted his brother.
"It's coming out of the GROUND, Eddie! Stalagmite!"
"But it connects to the CEILING! Stalactite!"
"Wou' you both be quiet?" Buck snapped at them, "'S a Stalagmite, now stop arguin'!"
"Told ya so." Crash stuck his tongue out at Eddie.
Peaches rolled her eyes as Eddie hmphed. Then she spotted something. "Hey, how're we gonna get down there?"
They were standing at the edge of a high-up precipice overlooking the rest of the – rather large – cave. There was no way they could jump down and not get skewered by the stalagmites sticking up from the bottom.
"That stone slide over there would work." Eddie pointed out, sticking out his tongue at Crash who had just opened his mouth. Crash frowned at him and blew a raspberry back.
"Good eyes, lad. Le's do i'." Buck said, walking over to it. It looked slippery, and when he felt it, it was smooth. Perfect.
Peaches walked up behind him, "You're sure it's safe?"
"Wasn't sure th' cave was safe, why'd I think this is?" Buck pointed out.
As he jumped and slid down, she felt like banging her head on something. Instead, she mumbled exasperatedly and copied his move, closely followed by Crash and Eddie.
Once they reached the bottom, they found Buck leaning casually on his knife. "Ready ta go?"
Just as they were getting ready to start moving again, Crash noticed something. "Uhh...do...rocks usually...move?"
Buck frowned in confusion, "No, why?"
"Wasn't...that formation..." Eddie muttered, staring to the right, "...up there?"
Peaches turned her gaze to the right, still having trouble seeing but finding it a bit easier now. She could see the outline of the formation that Crash and Eddie had described up on the ledge above.
It was moving.
"Um...I think we just found out why no one has returned..." She said, looking up at the giant head that was now towering above them. Whatever it was, it didn't look happy.
Buck let out an appreciative gasp, "Thou' I'd neva see one..."
"See what?" Peaches asked hysterically, looking at the insane weasel before returning her gaze to the thing that was probably going to eat them.
"Titanoboa Cerrejonensis." Buck murmured, his blue eye wide in excitement.
"What?!" Peaches asked in confusion.
"Comm'nly referred ta...as th' Giant Snake."
Giant snake?! They were going to be eaten for sure! 'This must be the face that we saw earlier...' she thought.
"Why's it angry with us?!" Eddie squeaked.
"Looks like we jus' slid down 'is back."
It made a hissing noise, and Peaches, Crash and Eddie backed up into the wall.
Buck gave a manic grin, "Looks like you'll be my nex' opponen' then. When'ja move in? 'twoz after I came froo here." He hefted his dagger up and looked at the glowing gold eyes of the snake, "Course, that leaves qui' a few yea's fo' ya. Since I came froo here back in th' beg'nin'."
It hissed in reply, baring its long, dripping fangs at him moving its head closer to him. It had very sharp teeth lining both its upper and lower jaws, visible in the dim light showing through the tiny cracks in the ceiling.
Buck smirked, "I c'n handle ya." he lifted his dagger, baring his own sharp teeth, and continued. "'fter all, I face Rudy ev'ry day."
"Rudy isn't a giant snake..." Peaches mumbled to herself. "Rudy eats fish, not weasels."
"Don't worry, Princess," Eddie said, "Buck can handle himself."
"Yeah," Crash added, "he's faced T-Rexes before."
"T-Rexes aren't nearly as flexible." Peaches deadpanned, ever-pessimistic.
Eddie scoffed, "He's Buck! He can take it!"
Buck dodged a strike of the snake, landing a few feet away and moving again when the snake looked up, his eye narrowed in concentration.
"Look, you might think he's incredible and he can't be beaten," Peaches started, watching Buck dodge, "but he's not immortal. This thing could kill him." Especially since it was dark in there. And he didn't have unlimited room, either. All of the stalagmites and other rocks surrounding them made quick movements more difficult that if they were out in the open.
Crash and Eddie seemed skeptical until a pained grunt came from the 'amazing weasel', as he was slammed by the snake's snout into a stalagmite. Buck fell to the ground, wincing as he dodged the next strike, nowhere near as fluidly as he had been.
Crash and Eddie shared afraid looks.
"We've gotta help!" Crash decided.
"Yeah!" Eddie agreed.
As the twins started to distract the snake, Peaches resisted the urge to say "Told ya so". Now was definitely NOT the time to be a smart-alec. She grabbed some rocks and, using her trunk, threw them at the snake's head whenever it got too close to eating one of them.
Buck dodged another strike and made his way over to the wall where she was, limping with a pained look on his face, while the twins moved around and popped out from behind rocks, keeping the snake occupied. He leaned against the wall with a cringe, letting out a hiss of pain as he started prodding his ankle.
"Are you okay?" Peaches asked worriedly, trying to examine his injured foot.
"Prolly jus' a sprained ankle," he said, setting his foot down carefully, testing it, letting out another pained hiss. Then he seemed to get an idea. "'Ey, mind if I ride ya?"
"...Huh?"
"Ride ya, ya kno', like th' twins were."
"How will that help in this situation?" Peaches asked, raising an eyebrow, "It's not like we can just ride out of here with THAT THING!"
"Run aroun' th' stalagmites, we migh' jus' tie 'im up." Buck explained.
Peaches considered it. While it was dangerous, it was the only plan they had, and seeing as how Crash and Eddie couldn't keep up their game of "Whac-O-Possum" much longer without getting killed, it seemed to be the best option. "Alright, I guess that could work."
Buck climbed onto her back and called out to the snake after murmuring, "Jus' run. I'll direct ya." Peaches wasn't sure if it was a good idea to just run, but she didn't know what else to do, so she started running. The snake turned its attention on them.
"What are they doing?" Crash panted as he sat next to Eddie behind a rock, "They're gonna get themselves killed!"
"Buck must have a plan."
"I hope so..."
Peaches ran around and between stalagmites, going wherever Buck told her to, trusting him not to get her killed. She pushed all thoughts of doubt behind her because, as she really had no control over the situation, she couldn't really do anything anyway.
She just hoped that Buck knew what he was doing.
Diego paused as he moved to enter the cave, which Manny had finally cleared away. He glanced around at the others before taking a few steps in.
"Are you sure this is safe, guys?" Sid asked, looking around the cave nervously.
"We have to get them, Sid." Ellie said, looking down at the sloth.
"I know, but..." he paused, trying to find a way to word it. "...I have a very bad feeling about this..."
"He's rightcha know." Avery said, ears down. "This isn't exactly safe."
Manny frowned, "Well, safe or not, I'm going in." He walked after Diego who had wandered a few more steps into the cave.
Avery hesitated a moment before following them in, staying alert for anything that seemed particularly dangerous. "I s'pose I migh' as well ge' it ovah with..." He mumbled to himself.
Ellie looked down at him questioningly, but he didn't see it. Just what exactly had happened to him, anyway?
Diego let out an appreciative exhalation, looking around, "By the smell of this place, I'd say there are more than a hundred caves connected with tunnels in here. And there's a draft, one that isn't coming from the front entrance, either."
"Which means this leads out somewhere else." Manny concluded.
"And that must be where they ended up." Ellie added.
"Hopefully alive." Avery commented, reassuring himself. If they got through there alive, then maybe...
Diego went back to tracking mode, managing to find some small possum tracks and the larger mammoth tracks. He called to the rest of them, "I got them!"
Manny smiled in relief, "Think you can follow them?"
"I know I can follow them."
Unnoticed by everyone save for Avery, there were very old Weasel tracks off to the side, bigger tracks of something that appeared to be chasing the Weasel that ran through there. Whatever was chasing the poor thing was considerably larger.
Avery frowned at the sight, the memory of said Weasel very vivid in his mind.
Diego followed the tracks, coming to the same dead ends that the three had come to, while the others followed along. At some point, however, the draft seemed to have erased the tracks, because soon enough they were left with smooth ground and no indication of where the others may have gone.
At Ellie's suggestion, they moved down the tunnel to their right. Manny frowned again when he noticed the dark turning into a sort of gray.
"Is it just me or is it getting lighter?"
"There's an openin' down there." Avery pointed out, looking down the tunnel.
"I see it!" Ellie said, squinting. "They must have gone through there."
Diego walked ahead through the opening, letting out a laugh, "Hey Ellie, you remember the 'with our luck' comment you made? You were right."
"Do I want to know?" She asked.
Avery hopped ahead, looking out the entrance. "It's...beautiful."
Manny sighed, "Back here again," he shook his head, "Only this time without three of our herd..."
Diego rolled his eyes, "Don't worry, Manny. We'll find them."
"How're we gonna do that? We don't have Buck with us, and just look at this place! We'll get lost in no time." Ellie said in dismay. There was no way they'd find them.
Manny frowned, "Well, we might just have to take that chance. We're not going to find them if we just stand here."
Panting, Peaches skidded to a stop on Buck's command.
Crash and Eddie were watching them a few rocks away, and she made her way over to them while Buck surveyed his work from atop her back. "Did good wi' this one." he muttered, smirking.
The snake, which had followed them relentlessly as they weaved through the stalagmites, was tied into a knot. It hissed at them in anger, and was promptly ignored as Crash and Eddie jumped up onto Peaches back with Buck, and Peaches walked out of the cave, still out of breath.
"Bet tha's gonna put a damper on 'is pride, eh?" Buck chuckled as Crash and Eddie clambered onto Peaches and sat on either side of him.
"Dude! You tied him into a bow?" Crash asked as he looked back at the snake.
"That's awesome!" Eddie exclaimed.
Peaches rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to mutter about how she had done all the work.
Buck went back to checking his ankle, biting his lip and wincing as he prodded it. "Jus' sprained, thankf'ly," he murmured, setting it down again as he leaned back into the warmth of Peaches's fur.
"So, you're okay then?" Eddie asked hopefully, looking up at his idol with slight concern.
"Yup, I'll be fine, don' worry." Buck reassured them, expression nonchalant, as if it happened all the time.
Peaches sighed. If this little encounter was any indication of what Buck did every day, she didn't doubt that it did happen all the time. She let out a quiet groan of exhaustion as she realized they probably hadn't even faced the worst of it yet.
Faithers: THAT'S what I call an encounter. AND I STILL WANT THE BUCK PLUSHIE!
Amethyst: Apparently 'IceAgeLover' has one. D=
Faithers: DX Lucky.
Buck: -.-'
Amethyst: BTW: The reason I know what Box Work is, is 'cause I've been to Wind Cave. BE JEALOUS. BE VERY JEALOUS. =D
Faithers: *dramatic sigh* Don't you just hate people who brag? =P
Amethyst: *innocent* ^^
Buck: Why'd I sprain my ankle?
Faithers: For the sake of Dramatic Irony. (Yes I know that's not the actual definition of Dramatic Irony. -.-')
Amethyst: And I keep getting distracted by the TV. Animal Planet is very mesmerizing.
Faithers: xD Well, I guess that wraps up this chapter quite nicely. Do you agree, cohort in crime?
Amethyst: Aye, my amazing cohort in crime.
Faithers: *ignores the aye* And you, our captive?
Buck: Captive?!
Faithers: Anyway! Bye everyone! See you next time!