Hey, I'm back! Before anything else, warning: this is probably going to seem a little sad and depressing for a Christmas story. Don't worry. It gets happier. Eventually. I'm just not sure * when… review please!

I don't own Ice Age

Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier. Dedicated to laughs4life, whose story gave me the inspiration for this. Hope you like it!

"The naughty list? Really?" Jake asked his twin. "Was that the best you could do?"

"Oh chill out." Lily said, lounging lazily on a branch. "And it wasn't even my idea. Some mammoth came up with it ta scare his daughter inta bein good. 'Parently, it worked."

"Seriously?"

"Yup."

He was quiet for a few moments. "Ya think the squirts'll believe it?"

She burst out laughing. "You kidding? Not a chance! Little kids are foolable, but not like that. Even they wouldn't believe something that dumb."

He had to agree, the idea sounded pretty silly. He'd played along, having heard vague rumors. And besides, like anyone around here knew Santa. Ridiculous. While they cackled between themselves, they failed to notice the angry stomping footsteps approaching them… until something slammed viciously into their perch, nearly knocking them down. "What the-?!" Lily exclaimed, reclaiming her balance and saving herself from a nasty plummet that would've no doubt left her bruised.

They both looked down to meet the faces of their little brothers friends older siblings. "Hey." They both greeted.

"Hey?!" Aadien, lowering himself back to his feet from kicking the tree, spat. "Thas it? Jus 'hey'?"

"Do have any idea what you did?" Crystal, a midnight black rabbit with big green eyes asked. "Our little brother just came home bawling his eyes out! Something about not getting Christmas…?" they all gave them pointed, accusatory looks. "Anything you'd like to admit?"

"Well…" they shared looks. They were going to get caught eventually; the kids were no doubt tattling already, so why bother denying? "Yeah. But come on. You've gotta admit that was funny!"

"Thas no' wha were mad bout Sheila." Rajay answered.

Now they were confused. "Huh?"

He suddenly grinned. "How couldja come up with some'n so brill'ant and no' tell us?!" so… they weren't mad? "Ah mean, this is perf'ct. We can get 'er back fer gett'n us in troub'l this morning." His brothers nodded in agreement.

Sabrina, who was sister of Crystal, white and speckled with black, silver, and caramel spots, with rich golden-brown eyes, nodded her agreement. "And he got us busted for tasting moms cake. It needed way more sugar!"

"Wait…" Jake glanced around at them. "You're serious?"

"Heck yeah we are!"

"Great…" he smiled mischievously. "Here's what we'll do."

-Meanwhile-

Elsewhere, in an underground cave-burrow in the side of a large hill, a rabbit mother desperately tried to calm her eightieth child. The poor boy was heartbroken, crying his eyes out, shaking with sobs as he clung to his mother. Squint was so shaken up he couldn't talk; hence not being able to tell who had done what to upset him so.

Julie, brown furred and blue eyes, gently rocked her one and only son. What could have him so sad? He was crying worse than she'd ever seen; arms squeezing her limply, trembling, face buried in her now soaked fur. "Oh sweetie, shh…" she tried for the millionth time to sooth him. "Honey please tell me what's wrong." No answer. Just more sobs and a slight hiccupping noise from crying so hard. She rubbed her precious child's back and tried to console him, but he would have none of it. He was too upset. If anything, the telling him it would all be ok, whatever he was sad over, seemed to make him cry more.

Because he knew it wouldn't happen. Being on the naughty list meant no Christmas. No Christmas, no holiday. And no holiday, no happiness. No happiness, and nothing would ever get better. He really saw no reason not to be upset, or stop crying. He didn't even care that he probably looked like a wimp, blubbering and carrying on in despair.

No Christmas… the words haunted him over and over, each time a thousand times worse. No Christmas. No Christmas. No Christmas…

"Oh baby… please." She couldn't bear seeing her precious, treasured son in such a depressed state. "Please stop crying." Her voice cracked, making him finally look up. Through watery, burning eyes, he managed to make out tears in his mothers eyes as well.

"Wh…" he choked on a sob but still managed to speak. "Wh-Why're you cryin mama?" surely she wasn't on the naughty list too! She was always so gentle, and sweet, and nice to everybody! What could she be upset about?

"I can't stand seeing you like this." She murmured. "Baby, please tell mommy what's wrong." He looked hesitant. "Then maybe I can help fix it."

He sniffled. "W-Well-" he was cut off by many of his sisters bursting into their burrow.

"Hey mom! What's he so upset about? Can we burrow Squint for a second? Kay thanks!" Mikayla, more commonly known as Mickey, said it all so fast, it sounded like one big word, snatching her little brother off her mothers lap and rushing out before another word could be said.

"Hey! Put-" she clamped a paw over his mouth, and nothing more was said.

He found himself plopped down, rather harshly, on a patch of rough, dead-ish grass, the cold snow biting through his fur like a sabers fangs. His friends all sat around him, looking up at their older siblings, faces tear stained, eyes red and bloodshot. They'd obviously been crying pretty hard too.

"Wha" Raz's words were choked. "Whas th' big Ah'dea? Whatch we doin 'ere?" they didn't like the way they were looking at them and forming a circle, baring over them threateningly, grinning madly, eyeing them like vultures did a fresh kill. Menacing and with a secret, sick desire.

"Oh nothing." Rosalynn, Flynn's big sister, who was sharper than a cactus quill, surprisingly, said. "Just wanted to let you little pups know… we just talked to Santa!"

"You did?!" they all asked excitedly, sitting up straight, looking overjoyed. "Whaddid he say?!" her brother asked.

"That he doesn't agree with us." Anjali, Gupta's oldest sister, said, tapping her claws together in a sinister way with a slightly maniacal grin. "You're not bad kids."

"We're not?!" maybe it was all just a mean prank after all! Wow… it wasn't like any of them to actually admit they did something like that. Or make them feel better about it either.

"What's the catch?" Gunner asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. He didn't trust his troublesome older siblings. Or any of the other bullying teenagers for that matter.

"Catch? No catch." Crystal said all too sweetly. "You're not bad kids… you're the worst kids he's ever seen!" they all burst out laughing as they each got glassy eyes again.

"You're the meanest-" Gupta's voice caught as he forced back a sob. "Meanest big sister… ever!" Anjali looked taken aback. He'd never said anything like that to her before.

"Yeah." Raz sniffed and rubbed one eye. "Why're ya always s' mean ta us?" her ears drooped and her head lowered. "Yer theh wors' big brother's eva."

Before they could get up to go home, however, Jemal put his foot out in front of her. "Oh, an one m're thing Sheila. Ye tell any'n bout this lit'l conversation, yer all gonna ge'it." He held up a threatening fist. "Ya got it?" they all nodded hurriedly, terrified, huddling together. "Good." And they all backed away, going off to do who knows what.

Once they cleared off, the kids didn't bother getting up to head to their homes. "Ah hate them guys." Raz grumbled to herself, reaching up to rub her sore eyes. They were burning and stinging, far beyond agitated from crying so much.

"Come now soeur." Silas said. "You can't possibly mean that."

"Yeah, well, Ah do. Th've been noth'n bu' big bullies since Ah firs' got 'ere. They hate mah guts."

Before more could be said on the 'sibling hating' matter, although some secretly agreed with her; their older siblings had picked on them since before they could walk; Flynn spoke up. "Too bad we can' go see mista' Santa. Then maybe he wouldn't think we're so bad."

They all giggled, sighing wistfully. "Yeah. Too bad…"

After a little while of staring up at peaceful clouds… "Wait a minute!" Gunner spoke up. "That's actually a pretty good idea!"

They all pivoted to look at him incredulously. "Huh?"

"Well why don't we? It can't be that hard!"

"No' tha hard?!" Raz repeated with disbelief. "He lives-"

"A few miles north! Think about it! You guys came, what, a few thousand miles to come here, right?" he asked the marsupial. She had to nod, agreeing. She and her family had hopped a few thousand miles to get to America, her parents having decided that the hot, dusty Australian Outback, which had been suffering a severe drought, wasn't a proper place for Raz to grow up. So they'd moved north, where it was wetter, with more vegetation for food.

"And you guys swam, what, a few hundred thousand?" Flynn shrugged. He didn't really know, only that it had been months worth of swimming. And he appreciated the warm waters south of his arctic birthplace; he liked having the feeling in all his body, not being numb from icy water.

"Compared with that, it's like… I dunno, easy! Like flying for Silas!" well when he put it like that… Silas was an excellent flyer.

"And it's our only shot at getting Christmas."

"He makes many good points, mon amis."

They looked around at each other, and slowly started to grin. "But wait…" Squint's smile dropped off his face. "Mom'll never let me go!"

"Oh…" they hadn't thought of that, but all had to agree. No sane parents would ever let their children go on a journey like that, and certainly not alone. And their parents were extra protective of them, all being the 'baby's of their families.

"Then we'll just have to sneak out!"

"When?" Silas demanded. "The only time they do not have us under constant super vision is when we sleep!"

"Then that's when we'll have to go!"

"Aren' ye fergett'n somethin?" the only girl asked the rabbit.

"What?" what could he be missing?

"We can' see in theh dark! How're weh supposed to get round?"

"Um… oh!" Silas remembered something his mother had once shown him. Something beautiful and magical… and bright. "The Aurores Boreales! The Northern Lights! We can follow those!"

"…I thought you can only see those in Alaska."

"Alright… then we'll catch some fireflies and follow the Northern Star!"

Nobody could find a fault in the plan, once it was all explained. They managed to bribe the fireflies that frolicked in the meadows after dark, whom they sometimes managed to glimpse if they could keep their eyes open past bedtime. Those little light up bugs were suckers for nectar berries.

So the plan was set out. Get the fireflies to wake them up, silently, of course, then lead them for a while, until the sun came up. Then they could just keep going in that direction. After all, how hard could it be to walk in a straight line? And if it, somehow, turned out to be difficult, well, Silas wouldn't tell them what he knew. But he did have a backup plan. He knew the Northern Lights could be seen almost anywhere, but didn't want to raise any more questions.

"So that's what we'll do. Grab some food. We leave at midnight."

So did you like it? If you're going to ask, I purposefully made their older brothers and sisters mean and maybe a little over-cruel, I know. Don't worry, it'll get better. Eventually. Please review.