I am sorry about the author's note, I really hate to break the flow of the story, but I chose to give the vulture a name since he doesn't appear to have one (check the IMDB page if you don't believe me) and I thought he needed one for the story, and Chase sounded pretty fitting (it means "hunter"). I would like to make it very clear that this does not qualify as taking the character as my own, for he is not, he belongs to the writers of Ice Age: The Meltdown, and if anyone knows his actual name I would be really happy to change the story accordingly.

Chapter 8

The Sky King

With a soft, rustling the falcon landed lightly on the bare ground, and Eddie immediately felt the pressure on his body being relieved, as the bird opened its right talon, releasing the possum it had previously held in an unbreakably tight grip. He continued to lie limp and seemingly lifeless, even thought he was sure it was useless right now, playing dead was the only thing he could do.

"My king, I have retrieved it for you, but I'm afraid I was unable catch sight of you're son while in flight," the falcon, who, Eddie now recognised form its voice, as Marlon, was obviously speaking to the giant Hawk, "Shall I join Mallory and Raoul in the search?"

"No, there's no need to help them," answered the Hawk, his accent making it obvious that it was indeed him to whom Marlon was speaking, "I want to widen the search. You will investigate the fields further south, and please be thorough; you know how well he can hide when he's frightened. Galloway, go with him."

Eddie could here the sounds of the two birds taking off to search for their target, who had apparently disappeared; all the while trying to remain as still as possible, taking the shallow breaths to avoid being given away and wondering who it was the birds were searching for.

"Corbin, you tell me these possums may have met my son recently, am I right?" the Hawk, who must have been the Sky King that Mikey had been talking about, now appeared to be talking to Corbin, who was still in the tree, apparently.

"May, is a possibility, great king, and it has no place here, for the raven speaks of certainty, Michael did dwell in the presence of these groundlings. Do you seek their council to find what you have lost? Know them not, does the raven, but he does not doubt their use," Corbin answerd in his usual emotionless voice.

'They!' thought Eddie, maintaining complete silence, 'Someone else is here? Oh no, did they get Sarah, wait, she's with Ellie, there's no way they could get her, could they? Wait, Crash! They must have Crash too. Oh man, I hope he's alright.'

The silence around him, broken only by the chattering birds, could only mean that if Crash was the other possum that they were talking about then he was either playing dead just like Eddie or they could have done something terrible to him.

"Chase," spoke the voice of the Sky King, to who he was referring, Eddie could only guess.

"What, Marcus," he now heard the unmistakable voice of that creepy vulture, apparently Chase was his actual name, "Don't look at me like that, you're no king to me."

"As you have already made abundantly clear," responded the Sky King, whose name was apparently Marcus, sounding curiously amused by the vulture's incredible lack of respect, "I actually appreciate that you appear to be considerate enough to at least remember my name after what I did, again you were right."

The vulture let out a small sigh of disappointment; he had apparently been hoping for a more aggressive response, "What do you want?"

"Well as I have no royal power over you, might I ask, as an ally, that you attempt to find out anything that you can from this crowd," something in Marcus' voice at the word royal, told Eddie that, even if it wasn't royal power, the Sky King clearly had something to give Chase, a reason to obey him, "Feel free to use whatever methods you deem necessary, and take Corbin as well, he will be able to tell you who to, interrogate."

Again Eddie heard the sound of a pair of birds taking off on their given errands, although the Chase's growl clearly showed his reluctance to follow through with this. It had to be about the blackmail Marcus' had just used on him, since he really couldn't see a vulture saying no to a chance for trouble.

'Mikey's the Sky King's kid and he's gone! What's gonna happen now, I don't know anything about where he is. What do I do! What happened to Crash, did they already beat him up. Is he alright,' all of these thoughts and more came rushing into Eddie's head, as he lay face-down on the ground.

Suddenly he felt the, three clawed, talon of some bird of prey wrap itself around him and spin, rolling him onto his back, before it was place gently over his body.

"Give it up, possum, I can feel you're breathing and besides you're body is far too warm to be dead, given how long you have been here," for the first time, Eddie heard the voice of the female falcon, coming from right above him, and now realising that he had completely forgotten about her.

For the first time since he had been dropped in this place, Eddie opened his eye, but was sorely tempted to close them again upon seeing the face of the falcon, whose name he did not know, standing over him with one, taloned, foot placed directly on his chest.

Most likely to put him at ease, the falcon immediately removed her talon from his chest and took a few steps backwards, away from him.

Now free of the momentary restriction of the falcon's talon, Eddie slowly pushed pulled himself into sitting position, carefully avoiding any sudden movements so as to prevent looking as if he was about to run away again, and this was definitely something he wanted to avoid, given what had happened when he had attempted it the first time.

Gazing around to take in his surroundings, he first he believed himself to have been dropped somewhere in the mud plain, but at a second glance he realised that his surrounding were rocky, not dry mud, there were plenty of shrubs around and looking to his right he noticed that the ground seemed to fall away, to a vast brown expanse dotted with green patches. It was obvious to him now, that he had been brought to the top of the cliff, apparently his captors hadn't wanted to do whatever they had planned for him, in front of the other animals and this was definitely not a comforting thought.

He noticed that the Sky King, Marcus, was perched atop a large boulder that seemed to spear up into the air from the surrounding rocks, which were spreading a dark shadow over the cliff top, spread by the late-afternoon sun.

He looked to the, slightly smaller, falcon and noticed that she wasn't gazing at him like Marcus was; but instead, she had entered a large crevice in the rock and was now rummaging around in the darkness for some unseen object.

From inside, Eddie heard someone give out a yawn, mumble incoherently to the falcon and then a thud of something very soft being hit hard by something which accompanied by a yelp of pain and surprise.

The falcon soon emerged from the crevice, looking slightly agitated and talking back to the person who was now emerging from the hole behind her, "If I ever here something so vulgar from you again, I'm going to rip something off, understand?"

"('Groan') sure, just please don't kick me there again, it's already been tenderised you know," came the voice of the other figure, which Eddie recognised immediately.

"Crash!" he cried in surprise, a little louder than he had intended.

"Eddie!" Crash returned, equally as loud, walking around the falcon to get a view of his brother.

It had been almost a week since the two had been together, thanks largely to Ellie, and Eddie couldn't be happier to be reunited with his, thankfully uninjured, brother and, although Crash attempted avoid it by sidestepping to his right, his brother once again, gripped him in a tight hug.

"Eddie, get off!" Crash yelled, as he pulled himself from Eddie's grip, causing his brother to over balance and fall backwards.

Looking toward a clearly unamused, Marcus and, remembering Mikey's first impression of them, Crash acted quickly to explain, "We're, we're not, ahh, well, you know. He's my brother, you see, but he can get kind of, umm, emotional."

"I really don't care about your preferences, just answer my questions honestly and I will ensure that you are returned to your friends, unharmed," Marcus began, clearly eager to get to the point, "Marlon, tells me that you happened upon my son about a week ago. Is this true?"

Eddie pulled himself into sitting position, next to his brother, who answered instantly, "Yeah we did, what's it to you?"

The hawk narrowed his eyes in a malevolent glare toward Crash, clearly unimpressed with the immense disrespect he was being shown by such a puny animal.

Eddie felt himself shrinking under the furious stare, even though it wasn't directed at him and longing for somewhere to hide, but, surprisingly, Crash stood fast and returned the hawk's glare, staring directly back into his eyes.

"Oooh, scary," Crash commented, mockingly, thoroughly unintimidated by the hawk's attempt to frighten him.

Marcus, drew himself to full height, without ever once breaking the eye contact he had, but returning to a more passive demeanour before he asked the next question, "Very well, a yes, then. I would also like to know if it is true that he has been travelling with you and this herd, Corbin tells me he was leading you, is this true as well?"

The hawk continued to gaze at the two possums, unthreateningly this time, acting almost as if Crash hadn't said anything at all except the answer to his question.

"Yeah, he did, but I don't know where he is. First he asks to see Manny and Diego in private, for some reason, leaving me with Sid and that bunch of short-noses. Next thing I know, one of your guys dives at me, and I can't remember anything after that, you can thank her for that one," Crash answered, pointing toward the falcon, who had been quietly standing on one of the nearby rocks and looking out over the herd as some kind of sentry.

Eddie noticed that Marcus was now staring at him expectantly, apparently wanting confirmation of Crash's answer from him, but although he wanted to say more, Eddie could only manage to force out three words.

"What he said," Eddie answered quickly, tilting his head toward Crash.

"I assume you mean to agree that Michael was travelling with you, because I happen to know that you were no where near you're brother, when Stacey found him. I believe we were half-way through questioning the sloth when you appeared, at which point your brother had been in our custody for quite some time," Marcus continued to speak calmly as he addressed Eddie, "However I really don't wish to get into details about such trivial issues, I just want to know one more thing and I beseech you, please answer truthfully because I need to know this. Both Corbin and Marlon have informed me of matter of great concern, to everyone. I refer; of course, to the apparent re-appearance of the creature that we have been attempting to elude for some time now, known only as the Night Stalker and I have been told that it attacked and nearly killed my son, in your presence. Is this true?"

Crash and Eddie both shared a curious glance at one another, equally confused by this latest question. Both of them thought back to that day, now truly recognising the significance of the state of Mikey's tail when they had first met him, and wondering, was this, Night Stalker, the thing that had done that to him.

"I didn't think you would know, Marlon was correct, neither of you saw it happen. I believe Corbin, was leading you to your brother here," Marcus answered for them, apparently having asked the question in the hope that they would know more, looking first to Eddie and then to Crash, "And you, I believe you were unconscious. I don't deny that I do bear some responsibility for the events, but it would appear that it was necessary to bring the real situation to light. True or not, I must believe my subjects' word until someone can prove to me otherwise."

Marcus turned to the falcon, who was still continuing her sentry duty on the nearby rocks, and in light of the Sky King's latest statement, Eddie now had an unpleasant idea of what she may have been looking for, now noticing that the sun had completely set and night was setting in once again.

"Stacey, go out and find the other's it's getting too dark and tell them to cease the search. For now I want them to make sure no one strays from the main herd, it will only hunt those who find themselves alone, Corbin has made that very clear," as Marcus finished giving the order, Stacey immediately flew off into the gathering darkness and Marcus turned to Crash and Eddie, "You will remain here, until tomorrow. You may not realise this but The Night Stalker holds grudges in a very serious manner and if it saw you anywhere near my son when he fought it off, then I am sure it will seek you for the same reasons that I have, but I assure you that, if it finds you, you will not survive its version of questioning."

Eddie shivered at the thought of what The Night Stalker probably looked like, let alone what it would do to anyone it caught and, although his brother tried to hide it, he could tell Crash was thinking the same thing. Eddie was sure that it had to be be slightly harder for his brother since, unlike him, Crash had most likely never had nor wanted to face his own mortality, a thought which, at the moment, was completely unavoidable.

'So this, thing's, coming after us now, what the heck do I do? What if it finds us, I don't want to die. Wait, what if it finds Ellie, will it know to question her, what if it kills her? Is it powerful enough to that?' Eddie's head was once again spinning with tragic thoughts, just as it had when he had been in Marlon's talons.

"I would advise you to get some sleep. I know the ground doesn't seem that appealing to your kind, but you are above ground anyway and I believe you found some comfort in the cave over there," Marcus spoke to them, now sounding a lot more personable then before, almost as if the whole 'mean guy' thing had just been to get the truth out of them while they were questioned, but he was quick to assert his unloving indifference to them as he added, "I assure you that my help in this matter is purely a long owed favour to an old friend, I do not feel fond of either of you, but he did."

Whoever Marcus was talking about was a mystery that had to wait, neither Eddie nor Crash felt like asking the Sky King anymore, afraid that to do so would only bring more ominous revelations.

The two walked into the small cave, that Crash had previously been residing in, which turned out to be surprisingly large on the inside, and both sat down inside.

"Well such is life, night Ed," Crash said, lying back and shifting around a little, trying to get comfortable with the fact that he wasn't hanging upside-down.

Eddie slid to the side a little, making some room between himself and his brother, before he to, lay back and attempted to sleep, trying to take comfort in the fact that they were under the personal protection of the Sky King for now, and even the slight possibility that the Stalker may not even exist.

Although even with these thoughts in mind, it was still some time before he was able to completely fall asleep.