Disclaimer: I don't own Ice Age movies or any of their characters.

"Wake up. Scaley..." Ellie prompted, gently nudging the reptile. It was time to go and everyone was already awake, but not Scaley. Apparently, it saw it as its right to sleep in today. It looked so peaceful with its dream-filled smile that the female mammoth almost didn't want to ruin it. But they had to get moving if they were to get to the ocean on schedule. She gave it another nudge and it curled up tighter in response, still asleep.

Manny waited, no less impatient as usual. If this predator wanted to go to the ocean, it better not test him. After all, they didn't HAVE to help. Only thought that made Manny agree in the first place was the fact that taking Scaley home meant getting rid of it. And after all he's been through, that was his most singular wish right now. Then after that, maybe he can go back to getting rid of Sid...Nah, Sid may be annoying beyond belief, but he's still a good guy.

Crash and Eddie climbed on top of the creature's head and pulled an eyelid open.

"Hello." Crash muttered with a grin. The eye turned to look at him and Scaley jerked its head up, throwing the possums into the air, where they landed on Diego's face. Crash had an almost instant response, blue eyes wide in excitement as he scurried over the growling tiger. "That was so cool!"

Scaley didn't make a sound as it curled up again, quickly falling back to sleep. Obviously, this wasn't working.

Giving up, Ellie sighed and looked at Manny. The male mammoth looked back at her and she nodded her head towards the reptile. Manny understood and shook his head vigorously. In response, Ellie narrowed her eyes and stomped her foot. Manny glared, not at all amused by this silent argument, mostly because he was losing (Manny can never win!). Sighing in defeat, he approached Scaley and bent down. Careful not to wake the sleeping animal, he scooped it up in his tusks and Scaley's claws automatically locked on tight to one of them.

"Alright, let's go..." he grunted almost inaudibly. Everyone followed and Sid waddled underneath the reptile, looking up at the gashed belly.

"Ouch. No wonder Scaley's got issues." the sloth muttered, wincing as if he's the one in pain. "I mean, I'd have issues too if I had that."

"Really?" Diego said as he walked alongside, the possums on his back. Sid never understood why the cat carried the possums willingly, but yet refused to give him a ride when asked. But it was something Sid never thought about too much. The tiger continued with a playful grin. "Maybe we should test that out."

"Funny..." Sid muttered as he stepped out from under Manny, not knowing if Diego truly meant it. Of course the tiger didn't, but it was still fun to act like he did. Diego was even considering making a living out of playing with Sid in this manner.

Cretaceous felt that he was being moved even in his sleep, but he didn't pay it much mind. He was too busy trying to interpret a now rather troublesome dream he was having:

Like most of his dreams, this one took place in the ocean. He was swimming rather quickly, too quickly in his opinion. Was it even possible for him to travel at such speeds? He didn't think so. It was almost like he was retreating from something, but who in the ocean could possibly make him do that? He was one of the top predators in the past and he was determined to make himself so in this time as well. He forced himself to stop in his dream. He wanted to see the source of his imaginary fear.

He looked behind himself and saw nothing. Glancing around suspiciously, he spotted a deep shadow below him and glowing red eyes. He cried out as the much larger creature opened jaws that looked much like his own, but on a bigger scale, and he could see the teeth shining unnaturally. The thing charged with a roar and the dream ended abruptly only to be replaced by another one.

In this one, he was swimming with a familiar partner. Maelstrom! Cretaceous had to convince himself that this was a dream, but he still felt bounding happiness that was quite a contrast to the fear he was experiencing earlier. The duo was swimming together when the fur balls appeared in the water, struggling towards the surface for air. He heard Maelstrom mutter a suggestion to eat them and Cretaceous hesitated. Should he? They were helping him...

Suddenly, he felt his body act on its own and he lunged at the group with his companion at his side. The shadowy creature from the previous dream reappeared and swallowed their targets whole...all at the same time! It then turned to the reptiles ominously and Cretaceous got a good underwater sniff of it. He drew water into his mouth and shot it out his nose to pick up the scent. It smelled familiar, almost like him...but not.

Cretaceous opened his eyes hurriedly, not wanting to face the unknown monster. He never had a dream like that before and he lingered on it for a few seconds. For some strange reason, he could still smell it. He exhaled sharply, but it was still there. He'll try his best to ignore it. Looking around, he saw that he was being carried by Long-Nose again and sighed, trying to relax. He was having a lot of stress in his mind and that's what caused the dream. Nothing else.

"Hey, Scaley. You're awake now." Sid said with a smile. The reptile glanced at him and he couldn't help but notice a subtle change. Scaley looked rather tense and on alert. Was something bad about to happen? Scaley grunted and shook its head as if trying to get rid of something. The purple sea creature glanced at him again and sniffed in his direction. He was rather confused by this as Scaley sniffed Diego's direction in turn.

Cretaceous couldn't ignore the smell no matter how hard he tried. He started to pick up the scents of the group members to make sure it wasn't them he was smelling. He even went as far as to look up at the Flier and sniff. None of them matched the smell still lodged in his nose. Where was it coming from? They were looking at him in concern, but thankfully, they didn't stop progress. Last thing he needed was for the travel to be longer than necessary.

The Stubby-Tail said something in an awed tone, looking at something in the distance. Curious, Creatceous looked as well and he saw a huge ice block, somehow still unmelted. Maybe its large size slowed down the process. Personally, he never liked ice...for obvious reasons. He would like not to put too much thought into it, except for one thing: The unknown smell was coming from that block. A growl emerged from his throat instinctively. He didn't know how it was that the ice could smell like this and he definitely did not want to find out.

"What's wrong?" Ellie asked, watching as Scaley threatened the giant block of ice they were now passing. Why was it doing that? Ice never did much harm to anybody. She looked at Manny, who shrugged as best as he could with his load. She turned to Diego, wondering if this strange reaction was a predator thing. The feline had an equally confused expression, but he decided to follow Scaley's lead and growl at the ice as well, just in case something dangerous was lurking there.

The herd sped up, not wanting to stress the situation. If this block was so bothering, it was best to move along fast.

Cretaceous was glad that they were walking quicker. He watched as the ice disappeared from view, leaning outward to look past Long-Nose's side. There was truly something very ominous about this situation. He couldn't help but look up at the Flier, who tilted its head at him before changing course and flying back towards the block, no doubt to check things out. Cretaceous vaguely hoped the Flier will take care of the problem of whether the unknown threat was real or not...

--

(Here's something I'll rarely do in this story...)

The Lone Gunslinger flapped his way towards this ice block that was causing such confusion. He wanted to know what's the big deal about it and he always goes out of his way to satisfy his curiosity. An example of this is when he risked attacking that reptile while it was still alive. Vultures rarely do such a thing, as it's too dangerous, but he wanted to know what live flesh from this foreign water creature would taste like. He found that he liked it a lot, enough to follow the herd everywhere for another chance to try it.

Arriving at his destination, he circled at a wide perimeter, looking for something unusual. Nothing so far...Nothing...He was starting to think it was a fluke, but he wasn't done with the circle yet. Maybe if he just...and he found it. On the other side of the block, a large crocodilian tail projected. And large was an understatement. It was huge! The creature it belonged to had to be four times the size of a mammoth! After getting over his surprise, the vulture licked his beak. Imagine how much flesh this thing has. Hopefully, it'll taste as good as that purple creature. He angled his wings to swoop and he landed on the ground beside it. The tail towered over him in a wall of scales.

The Gunslinger examined it up and down. This truely was an enormous creature! But that's not important. What was is that he's hungry and curious at the same time. He stepped closer, knowing that the scales at the underside was softest. That was the case for this 'Scaley' character and no doubt the same principle applied here. Opening his razor sharp beak, the large bird bit into the tail.

Almost immediately, the limb swished to the side. The vulture took off just before he could be struck. Circling high out of range, he stared as the tail jerked a few more times before settling. And if he listened carefully, he could hear a deep growl from the ice. Whatever was in there was alive and angry.

The Gunslinger looked in the direction of the herd and could just pick out their silhouette in the distance. Glancing back at the motionless creature, he smiled and turned to catch up with the others. And he couldn't help but mutter to himself:

"This outta be interestin'."

Sorry it took long. I was busy with other stuffs (intentional error), like school and other stories. But I haven't given up on this one yet. So I hope you guys are still waiting out there and will enjoy this!