Chapter 8
I do not own 'Ice Age'. I only own the characters you don't recognize from the movies.
As everyone slept soundly, Diego woke in the middle of the night to the sound of wolves barking and howling far in the distance but it was enough to wake Diego as he raised his head and listened carefully to the sounds outside of the cave. The barking and howling began to get slightly louder as they neared and Diego sprung from his spot as he began to wake the others.
"Manny, Ellie! Wake up!" Diego said and the two mammoths slowly began to wake.
"Diego" Manny managed to say as he was still very sleepy, "I don't care if you are a saber, I'll pummel you if you don't let us sleep!"
"Sure, you can do that after we get out of here!"
"What are you talking about?" Ellie asked, "It's the middle of the night."
"Doesn't matter, unless you prefer to get attacked by a pack of wolves. I may be a saber but I can't take on a whole pack of wolves by myself"
That jolted the two mammoths fully awake as Ellie stood, rousing Crash and Eddie from their sleep. At first the two possums began to argue but as soon as Ellie quickly filled them in, they kept their mouths shut. Manny headed over to Peaches and Roshan as he began lightly shaking Peaches awake and her eyes fluttered open.
"Dad" Peaches complained, "What are you doing?"
"Get up" Manny instructed, "A pack of wolves is nearing, we need to leave. Now."
That made Peaches fully awake as she looked down at Roshan and she began to wake him up and Roshan groaned in protest but Peaches wouldn't have that as she fully woke Roshan and he sat up. "Hey, what's going on?" Roshan asked and Manny quickly filled him in making him fully awake as he stood and moved to gather his things. Diego headed over to Sid who was still asleep and snoring on his tree stump and Diego growled in annoyance as he shoved Sid off of the tree stump waking the sloth.
"Argh!" Sid complained, "You have a bad habit off doing that don't you?" Diego silenced him as he quickly filled Sid in on the situation and Sid quickly stood as he made his way to the cave entrance. "I don't know about you guys but I'm outta here!"
The others soon followed as Roshan slung his shoulder bag over his shoulder and strapped his bow and arrows to his back. But they didn't even make it outside when Sid suddenly screamed as he ran back into the cave and latched onto Manny's leg in fear.
"You didn't tell me they were right outside!" Sid cried, "I am not going to be wolf chow!"
"Oh no" Diego said and he turned to Manny, "Manny, take the others to a safer distance I'll distract them."
Manny reluctantly nodded knowing that Diego was taking a huge risk as he shook Sid off of his leg and Peaches picked him up as she placed him on her back and Manny wrapped his trunk around Roshan, lifting the boy up and placing him on his back. Diego dashed out of the cave to create the distraction as Manny quickly led everyone out of the cave as they all ran in the opposite direction and Roshan held onto a few clumps of Manny's fur to hang on. Roshan could hear the barking and howling coming from the wolves and he suddenly heard Diego's fierce roar and he looked back just in time to see Diego swat away one wolf as another prepared to pounce on him. From where Roshan could see, he spotted seven wolves in total and he knew Diego couldn't handle all of them on his own. Gathering all of his bravery and strength together, Roshan turned as he slid off of Manny's back and prepared his bow and arrow as he ran back towards Diego.
"Roshan!" Manny called as he stopped and began to catch on to what Roshan was about to do. "Don't do it! It's too dangerous!"
"Diego needs help!" Roshan called back, "I won't leave him!"
Roshan continued to run towards the Diego and he only stopped a short distance away as he loaded his bow with his sharpest arrow and aimed at the wolf closest to Diego as it prepared to take a bite out of the saber. Roshan let the arrow go as it soared straight at the wolf and the arrow scratched its shoulder and the wolf yelped in pain making Diego look up and spot Roshan as the boy loaded another arrow into his bow.
"Diego, look out!" Roshan cried making Diego turn as another wolf charged at him and Diego growled as he tackled the wolf.
Roshan shot the arrow at another wolf preparing to finish Diego off but the arrow missed as the wolf turned and growled at Roshan. The wolf began to charge at Roshan as the boy quickly tried to prepare his bow with another arrow but he wasn't fast enough as the wolf charged and pushed him to the ground making the boy yelp as his body made harsh contact with the ground. The wolf moved to pounce on Roshan to finish him off but a blur of orange slammed into the wolf knocking it over as Diego slashed at the wolf finishing it off instead and Diego quickly turned to Roshan.
"What are you doing here?" Diego demanded and Roshan quickly stood as he grabbed his bow and loaded it with another arrow.
"What do you think?" Roshan answered, "I'm helping you."
"Roshan, you have to get out of here. These aren't ordinary wolves."
Just after he said that, the two suddenly heard faint war cries being called out not too far in the distance and Roshan's heart almost stopped in his chest.
"Oh no, not them." Roshan said and Diego growled as the five remaining wolves began to corner the two of them and Roshan held his bow at the ready.
Two humans from the enemy tribe appeared out of the woods some distance away as one pointed at Roshan and shouted at the other one. A third human appeared with a fire lit arrow in his bow as he aimed and shot the arrow towards Roshan. But Roshan was quick as he ducked making the arrow miss and instead hit a tree as the tree began to burn.
"Roshan, run!" Diego frantically instructed.
Roshan reluctantly did as he was told and as he ran he quickly glanced over his shoulder and spotted Diego running not too far behind him as the fire began to spread to more trees. The wolves barked and howled as they attempted to go after the boy and the saber but the fire prevented them from getting anywhere near them. Roshan began to cough from the smoke that the fire was creating and he began to feel slightly dizzy but he forced himself to keep going as he covered his nose and mouth with his shirt. Roshan began to slightly slow as he attempted to continue running and he almost didn't spot Diego run up beside him as the boy coughed.
"C'mon kid, stay with me" Diego urged as the smoke didn't get to him as much as it did to Roshan, "We have to get out of here!"
"I-I'm… coming" Roshan managed to gasp out but the smoke began to be too much for him.
Diego finally managed to get Roshan to hold onto a handful of Diego's fur as Diego quickly began leading Roshan out of the chaos. Diego rushed through the burning trees dodging the fire as he tried to find a clear path to escape. They finally made it to the others who were anxiously waiting at the edge of the forest when Diego appeared with Roshan in tow.
"Roshan! Diego!" Ellie cried, "Thank goodness you're alright!"
Roshan couldn't answer as he coughed once more and almost fell over if Diego hadn't been there to hold him up.
"Quick, somebody take him before he passes out." Diego said and Manny quickly stepped forward as he wrapped his trunk around Roshan and lifted him up as Roshan coughed again.
"Let's get out of here." Manny said as he placed Roshan on his back and the boy lay on Manny's back exhausted as the group began heading away from the woods and the fire began to slowly die down.
After some time, the group was finally far enough away that they could just barely see the smoke that rose from the burning woods. Now that they were out of the woods, they were mostly in the open with a few mountains and cliffs in the area. A few patches of snow were visible on the mountain tops and it was slowly working its way down as the winter months were approaching. The group soon stopped near a cliff's edge which would block any wind that would blow and a small stream flowed nearby as everyone stopped to rest. Ellie came to stand beside Manny as she turned to Roshan still lying on the mammoth's back.
"Are you alright, Roshan?" Ellie asked and Roshan just managed to nod.
"I-I'm fine" Roshan replied a little weakly, "Just… inhaled a little smoke is all, I can handle it."
"Let's get you some water and then we can all rest for the night."
Roshan didn't bother to argue as he was lifted off of Manny's back by Ellie and carefully placed on the ground as Ellie sat down and Roshan leaned back against her weakly. Sid and the possums managed to find a small wood container in Roshan's bag as they headed to the creek to gather some water and Diego headed over to Roshan as he stood next to him.
"Why did you come back for me?" Diego asked, "You could have been killed."
"You would have too" Roshan answered, "But neither of us died because two fighting together is better than one alone."
"Those are true words, kid… thanks."
"You were very brave, Roshan." Ellie said as she reached out with her trunk and smoothed back a few strands of Roshan's hair and he lightly smiled. Sid and the two possums soon returned with the small container of water as Sid handed the water to Roshan and Roshan thanked him as he took a few sips of water.
"Better now?" Ellie asked and Roshan nodded as he set down the container of water.
With that taken care of, Sid, Crash, and Eddie began gathering some sticks and pieces of wood for a fire as everyone sat somewhat in a circle and they piled the wood up in the center of the group. After a few (hundred) failed attempts at lighting the fire, Sid finally managed to get it lit and they soon had a small fire burning as Sid did a small victory dance. As soon as Sid quieted and sat down, everyone sat in silence for a few moments before Peaches spoke.
"I wonder why those wolves were up at this time of night" she said, "It's not like them to do that."
"That's because they weren't ordinary wolves" Diego answered, "They seemed to be trained to do something. Something that required them to do it at night."
"They were looking for me" Roshan suddenly said making everyone look at him. "They were trained to find me and maybe even kill me."
"What makes you think that?" Sid asked.
"Think about it, guys. I told you about the enemy tribe attacking our village, they trained those wolves to help them find me and make sure I was dead."
"How can you be so sure it was the enemy?" Manny asked.
"Because Diego and I saw three of them in the woods and one of them shot an arrow lighted with fire at me and that's what caused the fire in the woods. They wanted to make sure I was dead."
"But why would they attack at night?" Ellie asked.
"To give them the advantage" Diego answered, "they figured they would have the chance to attack while we slept but they didn't know that Roshan had us with him."
The group fell silent again for a short moment before Sid spoke, "I guess we embarked on this journey a lot earlier than we thought." he said and everyone agreed.