GODDAMNIT WHY DO I KEEP MISSING MY DEADLINES?! Okay my excuses this time: I knew EXACTLY what I was going to write about but I got so caught up with school. I had four projects to do, state testing, and a lot of other stuff involving clubs, not to mention I've started to brainstorm for more fanfics outside of Ice Age and I've got my SAT's coming up in May and my parents and I are looking for a tutor for me. :/ Yeah the next month and a half is going to be crazy. From now on, I'm updating on Saturdays and it's ONLY if I have free time on my hands so if I do miss an update, then that means I was busy with other stuff. Without further ado, read on what you've missed!

"He's not dead is he?" Sandy asked frantically, her eyes never leaving the unconscious woodchuck. If the poor fellow was then she would never forgive herself for not letting anyone know what Crash and Eddie are plotting.

"No, no." Cash reassured his girlfriend. "He's just knocked out."

"Why did I let those two use that stupid slingshot?" muttered Sandy.

"It's not your fault. Even if you didn't let them, they would have gone anyway."

"I hope he's okay."

"He'll be fine. Let's find Ellie, she'll know what to do."

As if on cue, the female mammoth walked in on them from behind eying the two sabers and her brothers.

"Cash, Sandy, what happened here?" asked Ellie. She gasped at the motionless woodchuck on her nephew's back. "Oh my."

"He got knocked out auntie." explained Cash. Ellie didn't have to ask Crash and Eddie what had happened.

"We'll talk about this later." Ellie glared at her brothers. She turned to examine the woodchuck.

"Yep, he's out cold. He's got a big bump on his head, but he'll be fine." a sigh of relief came out of the group.

"We got to let him rest somewhere, he'll wake up any minute."

…

"Sh-sh-sh, he's waking up." Ellie shushed as the entire herd circled their patient. "Give him some space."

A groan escaped the woodchuck. "What happened, where am I?" he glanced at the animals around him. "Hey, I know you guys. You live around on the island."

"That's right." said Manny. "We're neighbors."

"How did I get here?"

"You got knocked out." replied Sandy.

"By who?" the woodchuck turned to Crash and Eddie. "YOU TWO?!" the woodchuck growled at them. "You had something to do with it didn't you!"

"Let's not do anything hasty now." whimpered Eddie as Cash cowered behind him.

The woodchuck launched himself, intending to tackle Crash and Eddie only to be restrained by Ellie.

"Sir I will deal with my brothers for what they did myself, in the meantime trying to beat up someone is not the best thing to do after just waking up from a coma. Now, lay down." Ellie commanded firmly.

Frowning at the request but cooperating, the woodchuck lay back down on his leaf bed.

"Okay, you didn't answer my last question. Where am I?"

"This is where we live." gestured Manny.

"You all live together."

"Well we all sleep in separate areas but we're all one big happy family." Sid proudly announced wrapping each arm around Diego and Shira only to have both of them push him off them simultaneously.

"All of you, one family?" asked the woodchuck.

"Yeah." answered Diego coldly. "You got a problem with that bud?"

"No, no! It's just that I've had an experience similar to… never mind." the woodchuck shook his head. "Who are you?"

"My name is Ellie." Ellie introduced herself. "This is my mate Manny and our daughter Peaches and right here is Louis."

"Diego." Diego announced his name with Shira doing the same. They then introduced the woodchuck to the teens and their significant others.

"You, uh, probably know who we are." Cash chuckled nervously and he and Eddie ran to hide behind Ellie."

"The name's Sid the sloth." Sid announced himself. "And this is-GRANNY!" Sid gasped in shock as he saw Granny picking and eating fungus covered mushrooms. "Granny, don't eat those, who know how old those are?"

"You never let me do anything Sidney!" grumbled Granny through a mouthful of fungi. "Let a woman live her life!"

"Enough of that Granny," Sid wiped his grandmother's drooling face with his arm, causing the others to look at him in disgust. "Say hi to our guest."

"Hello." Granny grinned a toothless smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." the woodchuck forced a smile.

"Sidney, help me find my dang teeth!" Granny grabbed Sid by the arm and dragged him.

"So I'll be seeing you around!" Sid called out to the woodchuck while being hauled by the elderly she-sloth.

"Okay, I think I remember everyone." said the woodchuck. "My name is Franco."

Cash stifled a chuckle at the strange name resulting in a slap in the forepaw by Sandy.

"And uh, thanks for taking me in."

"It's no trouble at all." smiled Ellie. "Now I know how you much you must be wanting to go back to your hole but it's better to rest a few more days here after that impact."

Instead of the disappointment that was expected, the woodchuck merely nodded. "Fine I can deal with it. But I have a question to ask you."

"Sure, anything."

"So how exactly did you guys become a herd?"

"You know what?" asked Manny. "We're about to have a campfire, we'll tell you as soon as we get it set up."

…

After giving a full detailed description of how the herd came to be, the impressed look on Franco's face was readable.

"So humans, killer sabers, world's end, floods, hook-ups, dinosaurs, world's end, one eyed weasels, births, world's end, pirates, hook-ups, pirates' revenge, births, sabers' revenge, and even more hook-ups, huh?" asked Franco. "Quite a twist of fate there."

"You can say that again." chuckled Shira. "But that twist of fate really lead us to find out who we really are and where we belong." she emphasized that last sentence by nuzzling Diego in the shoulder with her nose with Diego returning the gesture.

"Mr. Franco sir?" Flora spoke up. "You said that you had an experience similar to ours once. What exactly happened?"

"Well." Franco began hesitantly. "I, uhm, what happened was, it's-" he could not tell. Not after what seemed to be the worst day of his life. "Business I shouldn't be sharing with you." he huffed defensively.

"Okay." Flora nodded. "I'm sorry if I offended you somehow."

"No I'm sorry." apologized Franco. "I shouldn't flip out on you like that, it's just something that-"

Franco was interrupted by a rustling in the bushes. The herd all had a mutual look of confusion. What could possibly be so loud in the middle of the night?

Suddenly, a mysterious little creature with a rather high-pitched voice jumped out of the bushes and cried out four simple words that caused suspicion and alarm.

"THE END IS NEAR!"

Okay so the herd opened up to Franco with his life story and Franco opened up with, well, his name. And they just received a supposed open. What could it mean?