Chapter 4

The Journey Begins

As he walked into the clearing, illuminated by the orange mid-afternoon sun shining through the skeletal forms of the bare trees that surrounded it, the first thing Mikey noticed about Diego, Crash and Eddie's herd was how just how bizarre the bunch were.

He noticed the two mammoths first, towering mounds of thick fur, more than a thousand times his size. The larger one, whose hair was a dark, red-brown, was currently trying to comfort the other, slightly smaller, but definitely fatter, orange furred, female, who seemed very distressed and definitely on the verge of tears.

"No need to worry Ellie, they're alright, I found them!" Diego called quickly to the female mammoth, "All in one piece, well sort of."

Crash, immediately upon entering the clearing, leapt onto all fours, sprinted over to the female mammoth, embraced one of her fore-legs and began to comfort her as well, acting as if she were family; his sister almost.

"Diego you found em, thank goodness. See Ellie I told you he didn't eat them," Mikey now saw a medium sized sloth, whose pelt was a strange yellow with a hint of green, except for his front which was a kind of creamy white. He had just walked around from behind the larger male mammoth, Mikey assumed he had been assisting in comforting the female, whose name was apparently Ellie.

"See Diego, they thought you'd eaten them and run off but I'm still on your side and I was right wasn't I," the sloth continued, talking in a light but still masculine tone with a fairly prominent lisp.

"Thanks Sid," Diego complimented the sloth on his apparently friendly gesture, though he sounded as if he didn't exactly like having to thank him for anything.

"Eddie!" began the female mammoth, now noticing the possum, who, although he had woken up on the way there, had remained very punch-drunk and unable to stand up for more than three seconds, a fact made abundantly clear as he slipped from Diego's back and landed in a heap on the yellowing grass.

"What happened Diego, did he actually do something this time?" continued Ellie with immense concern in her voice, also layered with surprise at this apparently absurd thought.

Diego remained silent and looked away in an attempt to avoid eye contact with Ellie, not even taking the chance that his they could give away the answer but he needn't have bothered, almost immediately after Ellie had finished the question, Crash walked right over to him and answered it immediately himself.

"He did it, Diego hit him really hard for no reason," Crash yelled at Ellie, pointing an accusing finger right at Diego, who glared at him and narrowed his eyes, beginning to growl.

Ellie looked at Diego clearly shocked but definitely not disbelieving and began yelling at Diego, who, in turn, began arguing back at her, equally as loud, in a desperate attempt to defend his position. Crash retreated behind Ellie's front, right leg and began yelling extremely crude insults at Diego, in an attempt to support her.

For the first time since Mikey had arrived, the male mammoth finally spoke, yelling at the top of his voice, which was surprisingly not as deep as Mikey had imagined it would be, "Everyone be quiet, please!" he called out, before giving a loud trumpeting with his trunk, causing silence to fall immediately, but Diego, Crash and Ellie did continued to glare silently at each other.

"Ellie I know you care about your brothers, and yes Diego may have over reacted, but you have to remember they have a knack for saying things that are deeply offensive, especially Crash," the Male mammoth began to lecture both parties of the argument, although he didn't sound particularly angry, "He or his brother, probably said something to Diego that made him lash out, since I doubt he would ever do that for no reason."

Ellie looked at Crash, who gave a momentary look of guilt before attempting to hide behind her leg.

"Your right Manny," answered Ellie, before she grabbed Crash with her trunk and dropped him right between herself and Diego, "Spill Crash, did you or Eddie say something to Diego to make him angry enough to hurt you."

Crash merely stood looking from Diego to Ellie utterly terrified and keeping his mouth shut tight. It only then occurred to Mikey, just how small Crash was as he stood between these two much bigger animals, he wasn't even fully grown yet, and, noticing this, Mikey couldn't really blame Crash for his silence. Either way he was going to be punished by something many times his size, it was just a matter of deciding which was worse.

"Crash told Diego to go and take a swim, or something like that," Mikey began, unsure whether what he was doing would help Crash or make it worse, either way, he wanted to get it all over with, "Then Diego seemed to snap and he took a swipe at him with his claws out and everything too, but he missed and hit Eddie. So, yeah, Diego did something wrong as well."

Mikey added the last part quickly after noticing the terrified look Crash gave him, upon giving his testimony to the accusations Crash now faced. Mikey also noticed that everyone in the clearing was now staring right at him, except for Eddie, who had given up trying to walk himself, for the time-being and now lay on his back moaning, most likely waiting for someone to get the message and try to help him up.

"Who the heck are you?" asked Sid, always the first one to speak.

It was not Mikey who answered but the deep authoritative voice of Marlon, apparently from one of the leafless trees above, "That would be Michael, Son of the Sky King and he is not to be addressed in such a way by common groundlings like yourselves."

(CRASH!)

Mikey stood, immensely surprised, now finding himself staring at an overturned mound of orange fur, which was Ellie, apparently playing dead.

"Ellie, we worked on this," moaned the Mammoth, apparently named Manny, "It's not going to carry you away, you're not a possum, remember."

Marlon was laughing hysterically unable to help himself, finding Ellie's reaction to his presence unbelievably hilarious.

"Sorry," exclaimed Ellie, as Manny helped her up, by locking trunks with her, and pulling her to her feet, "Force of habit."

"The Sky King? I've never heard of one," exclaimed Sid, speaking to Marlon, sounding just as confused as he always did in these situations, "Are you the Sky King?"

Marlon let out a short chuckle before answering Sid's seemingly ridiculous question, "No, heavens, no, the Sky King is the unquestioned lord and ruler of the sky's everywhere, to which all birds; predators, scavengers and even the plant eater's answer to. I am but one of his closest servants, my name is Marlon and I am his friend and loyal subject. Only the highest level tasks am I charged with."

Marlon was puffing up with pride as he spoke, facing the sky and staring into it, trying his best to seem of great importance and valour, an impression Mikey was only too happy to deflate as quickly as possibly.

"By that, of course, he means he's my babysitter," Mikey cut in, smiling maliciously at him.

"Shut up Michael," snapped Marlon, but it was too late and he quickly began to shrink, realising his moment was gone.

"Yes, I'm the son the Sky King and yes I know I'm not a bird, I'm a possum and proud of it," Mikey continued, now impatient to get going before the sun set and thoroughly sick of people having this reaction whenever he was formally introduced.

Diego was the first to speak again, most likely feeling just the same as Mikey, minus the dramas of being of royalty of course, and also eager to get going.

"If you'd all like to listen for a moment," he began, "Mikey here says that he knows a place where the herds can go, now that the valley's been destroyed. I'm sure you'd all be pretty happy to make a start to somewhere after being stuck here for the past week with very little to eat, I know I am."

He turned to Mikey and looked him straight in the eye before questioning him one last time, "You definitely know a place, right, because a lot of lives depend on this, including my own, and if you're lying, I don't care if you are the son some overrated bird king," Marlon let out a gasp, horrified by the highly treasonous comment the tiger had just made, but Diego ignored him and continued, "I will kill you myself."

Mikey swallowed nervously, suddenly beginning to consider backing out while in the face of the tiger's searching stare. He only knew the direction in which to travel, he didn't actually have a clue as to what lay on the path ahead, not even Marlon knew that, only his father had ever had the knowledge of the way to the Green Lands.

Mikey knew he had to answer, but if he lied and said he could take them there, they'd surely find out at the first crossroad; unless, and it was a very risky thought, they met his father. Then, knowing the Sky King, he would be obligated by the Law of the Talon to help the groundlings regardless, because by being with Mikey, they would be classed as friends of the Sky Royalty and had to be protected at all costs.

"Well?" came Diego's voice, pulling Mikey from his thoughts.

It was a long-shot and it was made even harder by the expectant stares of all the herd members but nonetheless, he took a deep breath, looked Diego straight in the eyes and answered, "Yes, I know the way to the Green Lands, you will find what you're looking for there."

"Great! Ellie did you hear that, a place we can finally stay, probably without a giant melting ice-dam this time. Go tell them Diego, we have to move out as soon as possible, I can't stand being here a minute longer," Manny spoke to Diego, who immediately broke his stare with Mikey and headed out of the clearing.

"Wait where are you going?" asked Mikey, curious as to why Diego would leave, when he was the one the tiger needed to follow.

"To tell the others," Diego answered, stopping momentarily to leap over a fallen log, before continuing.

'Wait others, what other's, isn't this his herd," Mikey thought momentarily before, scampering on all fours after Diego to find out what the heck he was talking about.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that met his eyes as he pushed his way through and out of a thicket of small bushes, over which, Diego had leapt with ease. In front of him was a massive gathering of animals, survivors of the flood and those whose only source of food had been destroyed when the valley was cracked open, releasing the water into the plains beyond the glacial walls.

Mikey's mouth fell open, his arms falling to his side, leaving him gaping stupidly at the hundreds, possibly thousands of animals, that were gathered here on the large, flat, muddy, plain in front of him, all chattering excitedly or wandering amongst the different herds.

Diego jumped up onto a large fallen tree, in order to get a higher viewpoint and to ensure as many animals as possible could hear him before he let out an incredibly loud roar that echoed into the crowd, causing the swell of animals to fall silent in seconds.

"Everyone, can I have you're attention," Diego bellowed into the crowd as loud as he could, "We have found someone to lead us to a place, a place they claim will cater to our needs for ages to come."

Many of the animals in the crowd began to chatter excitedly and let out loud calls of joy, further demonstrating how long they must have been waiting here for just this moment and causing Mikey a lot more guilt at what could happen to all of them if he were to fail, or the Sky king failed to show up.

Diego let out another loud roar to silence the renewed excited chatter and noise, before continuing, "I know we've been waiting for a while and I'm quite sure we'd like to leave as soon as possible. Manfred want's us to have made some progress before sundown tonight which gives us about five hours to get as far as we can and find a good spot to rest for the night. You have one of those hours to gather you're herds, families and anything you feel you need to bring. Remember you only have one hour, get ready, fast."

Looking out at the thousands of animals, Mikey realised just how many lives were now depending on him and his extremely risky decision. Now he knew exactly what Diego had meant, finding himself unable to fathom what he would do to himself if he failed, let alone what they would do to him and although thousands of much more intelligent terms were now flowing into his mind, only four came together to make any real sense, 'Now i'm royally stuffed.'