Okay so, believe it or not, I started this the same night I posted Chapter 16, so hope you like! Oh, and I apologise in advance that the emotions kinda run thick in this chapter, I couldn't help it, it was just how it went.
You all know who Taz belongs to by now, right? Well it's scoobs5601 if you didn't, and she's from Inside A Red Notebook, blah, blah, blah, you know all this by now. :)
I really love this fanfic, but I feel so bad for not updating my others... ah well, at least I'm making one set of fans happy by updating this... right? Remember, I need new OC's, suggestions far more than welcome! I could rewrite all the details, but they're at the start of Chapter 16 so just go back and read that again if you want to have a character in this.
Squint sat on the edge of a huge rock out in the forest, just thinking, when he heard a sound behind him. He whipped around, but soon discovered it was just Taz.
"Oh, hey Taz..."
"Hi Squint," she replied "Mind if I sit down?"
He shook his head, and patted the space next to him. "Nah, course I don't."
"Sweet," Taz sat down beside him, waited a moment, and sighed "Hey, what's up with you recently? You seem so... distant."
This time Squint sighed. "It's nothing..."
"No, it's not!" replied Taz, starting to lose her temper a little now "Now, what has been bothering you?"
"Okay, okay," Squint held up his paws in defeat "Back when I was a kid my Mom was the healer of our valley. She taught me a bit, but as I joined Gutt's crew when I was pretty young I couldn't learn much. Some years later, we came across a lost rabbit kit. Turns out it was Izabella-" he had to pause before he could carry on "-my little sister. Mom had taught her practically everything about healing, and she taught me. Actually came in handy during our years at sea."
"I can imagine," Taz grinned.
"Yeah... anyway, it was pretty good having her around on the ship, and it gave me a bit of pride that I was the only one with a blood relative on board. Raz and Shira liked her, well, actually everyone liked her, I think even Gutt did a little. Then," he sighed.
"Then..." prompted Taz, motioning for him to continue.
"Then, one day we found another ice ship in the water. It had a mammoth as the captain, and several other animals, including a wolverine and a musk-ox, on board. Their crew was larger than ours, but Gutt assured us it wouldn't matter. We were only about Peaches' age at the time, but we'd been training for years so we knew what to do. Me, Izzy and Raz took on the mammoth, while Shira nearby fought the wolverine. He sratched her, and Izzy ran to help. I told her not to, because it wasn't a fatal wound and Shira would've been fine, but Izzy ignored me and tried to tend to Shira's cut anyway. When she wasn't looking, the mamoth captain snuck up behind her, and he grabbed her with his trunk. Dodging me and Raz, he walked to the edge of the ship and..." Squint trailed off, but Taz knew what he meant: That had been Izzy's final battle.
"Oh, Squint..." she wrapped her arms around him in a friendly hug "You poor thing, I had no idea-"
"Of course you didn't," interrupted Squint "No-one's spoke of her since that day. That was why I hated Manny so much, he reminded me of that mammoth."
Taz chewed her lip. "You don't think he could..."
"No, I'm sure it wasn't Manny," Squint assured her "His fur was a lot darker than Manny's, and he was more... evil-looking, kinda like Gutt."
"Ugh, must've been ugly then," muttered Taz before she could stop herself "I mean, uhm..."
"No, no, it's alright, Gutt never was easy on the eyeballs," Squint smirked slightly.
"You know, I think I used to have a few brothers once..." Taz muttered, stroking her fringe out of her eye. Squint was confused.
"Once?"
Taz sighed. "Yeah, my family abandoned me as a child."
"What? Why?" asked Squint, just as curious as Taz had been about Izabella. She sighed again.
"My parents wanted boys, not a girl. Seriously, I think my grandma actually said when I was born "Oh, it's a girl. Never mind, you can try again", so I guess I was a bit of a disappointment to the family," she shrugged.
"Oh, Taz..." Squint patted her shoulder reassuringly, as hugs weren't exactly his thing "Do you remember anything else about your past?"
"Uhm..." Taz strained to think of something "Oh, well I think I had about five brothers, and I'm fairly sure I was the middle kid. I was sort of an emo child when I was younger, so that combined with my gender pretty much put my parents off me completely. I also had some, erm - anger problems, shall we say, as a kid."
Squint raised an eyebrow. "Anger problems?"
"Yeah, like once this gazelle was teasing me because my hair had gone all poofy like it does when it dries, so I bit the gazelle on the foreleg," admitted Taz sheepishly. Ignoring Squint's shocked expression, she continued "Anyway, one day, I woke up and I thought my parents had left to go get food without me, which they often did, but I guess it was migration season and, well... they moved on. So, from there, I kinda raised myself."
"Really?" Squint gasped "Wow, that msut've been hard!"
"Nah, it's actually not that hard," replied Taz "You just need food, water, and a good place to kip each night. Nothing fancy, just practical. I sorta learned to defend myself too, self defence was kind of my depression and stress vent."
Squint nodded. "That's one of the reasons I liked being a pirate, the raids were a great stress relief, and a good way for me to take out my anger about what happened to Izzy."
He smiled at her, and Taz smiled back. They sat there in silence for a moment, neither sure what to say.
"Hey, should we uhm... head back to camp?" asked Taz, saying the first reasonably un-lame thing she could think of. Squint nodded, so they both got up off the rock and headed back to the herd's home.
When they got back, Squint insisted on checking on the patients again, and Taz didn't argue, she just went to find Rhianne and Herbert, who's fur she liked to sleep in, because it was warmer and more comfy than leaves. Squint saw that Gupta was okay, and sleeping soundly, so he looked over to Shira, and discovered she was snuggled deep into Diego's chest, with the cubs napping against her stomach.
"Aww, Shira... I'm so glad she found him again..." Squint sighed, he'd heard more than enough stories about Shira's 'long-lost friend' ('Dreams' reference) back when they were kids, so he was happy that she had been reunited... even though the orange sabre was once an enemy... and, he had to admit, a small part of it was that he'd just about had enough of her talking about him when, by the time she was a teen, she barely remembered his name, so it was just 'my old friend'.
Squint silently exited the cave, smirking at how things had worked out for his little sister. Not long after, Diego stirred, and had a small panic until he realised Shira was still cuddled up close to him. He calmed down, and gently kissed her nose, sighing. Okay Diego, he thought, Just relax, stop freaking out, and quit talking to yourself before you go completely insane.
Unknown to him, Shira had woken up during this, and was just remaining quiet to see what Diego would do. At first he nibbled lightly on her ear, but that soon escalated to him pressing his lips firmly against hers. She giggled, alerting him that she was awake, so he pulled away, very embarrassed. There was a moment of awkward silence, until Jade woke up, whining.
"Shush, sweetie, you don't wanna wake your siblings, do ya?" whispered Shira gently, stroking the young cub. Jade nodded, as if she was saying she did want to wake up the others. Shira chuckled softly, which soon became proper laughter when Diego randomly began to tickle her. She batted at his face with one paw, but it didn't get rid of him, just annoyed him a little. Diego finally released her when Ranger and Kendall both woke up from the sound of her laughter, and helped her calm the young children down. Soon enough, Ranger, Kendall and Jade had all fallen back asleep.
"Now c'mon Kitty," Diego teased her "You need your rest, that's why Squint put you to sleep in the first place!"
"Okay, okay..." muttered Shira, tucking her head under his chin and closing her eyes "You nag too much."
"And you get hurt too much," commented Diego "Now, go to sleep. Or else."
"Or else what?" asked Shira with a smirk, opening one eye.
"Uhm..." Diego hadn't actually expected her to ask "I don't know, but I'll come up with something!"
Shira giggled, snuggling into his fur again. Diego watched her fall asleep, gently licking her face, before closing his own ears and pressing his nose into her silver fur, inhaling the familiar, sweet scent of his beloved mingled with the strange smell of the leaves that covered her wounds. He came across that little vine and pouch again, and was tempted to wake her and ask, but didn't. It could wait until she healed.
Peaches woke up, and instantly looked to see what had disturbed her. Absentmindedly, she noticed that she still had Dahlia flowers in her hair, as did Meghan and Ellie, and she remembered that she'd been wanting to ask her aunt about that, in case she'd seen whoever had brought them. (Do you guys still rememeber the flowers? Back in Chap 9? Wow, that feels like a lifetime ago!). She was surprised to see, at the entrance of the cave, a bouquet of blossoming red roses. Attached with a piece of bark, was her initial 'P', carved out of the skin of an actual peach, so she assumed it was for her. Leading away from the bouquet was a trail of various petals, heading out of the clearing.
Now, Peaches wasn't a dumb kid, she knew it wasn't often wise to venture out of her home following random petals when a member of her family was recently attacked, but she couldn't ignore the fluttery feeling in her heart at the romantic prospect of the petals. Besides, she wasn't going to go far from home, if the petals lead too far she'd just go home again. Tip-toeing so as not to wake anyone, Peaches crept out of the clearing, not knowing that Taz was wide awake and stealithly watching. But Taz had no intention of telling anyone, because despite her general rebellious streak in her nature, she'd seen who'd left the petals anyway...
Smiling, Peaches continued to follow the petals, wondering where they would lead her to, or more importantly, who they would lead her to. Out of anyone she could've guessed, he was certainly near the bottom of her list, as she realised when he called her name.
"Peaches, over here," came a familiar voice. Peaches turned around slowly, and was surprised to see who she saw.
"Ethan?" she asked, suddenly wishing she hadn't come alone "What's going on?"
He took a step closer, but she took a step back. He sighed. "Look, I've been thinking about what you guys said to me and the others yesterday and-"
"Hold it right there!" interrupted Peaches "If this is some dumb lecture that I'll end up falling asleep in could we just cut to the chase? I'm proud of what we did yesterday, you deserved it!"
"Yeah, I did," Ethan's comment threw Peaches completely "I've been a total jerk to you and your family, you should be proud of what you guys did. Honestly, I think it was pretty impressive."
"You do?" asked Peaches, her heart getting that fluttery feeling again "Why?"
"Because like I said, we were all horrible to you, but I was probably the worst," admitted Ethan "And you guys came up with a really original way to tell us that. Y'know, that new aunt of yours isn't half bad, she actually seems kinda cool."
Peaches was blushing, but she didn't know why. "She is, she's great fun. You should meet the cubs, they're really great..." Peaches trailed off, wondering how she could forgive him so fast. She hadn't even consulted the others, was that wrong? She hoped it wasn't.
"Actually Peaches, I'd love to meet the cubs. And Wei- I mean, Louis's new friend... Taz, is it? She seemed pretty awesome, and dang that possum can act!" Ethan grinned "Anyway, I'd like to meet your whole family properly, the way Meghan and Louis have, as a friend. Could we be friends again, Peach?"
"Uhm..." Peaches urged to say 'yes', but she wasn't sure how the others would take it. Trusting her heart, she replied "Yeah, I think we can."
"Thank-you," sighed Ethan "But I've been thinking and thinking about everything that happened in the past, and there's something I gotta say before we start fresh. I'm sorry, for everything."
Now Peaches actually had a reason to blush. "Apology accepted, you sound sincere enough, and if the roses and petals don't say sincere, nothing does!"
"Hey, speaking of flowers, I love the Dahlia's in your hair! I mean, I barely noticed them yesterday because of the whole ghost-prank, but they're seriously pretty!" Ethan stopped before he messed up again, then continued "Where'd you get 'em? They don't look like the type Steffie wears."
"They're not," answered Peaches "But I honestly don't know where they came from. This is gonna sound crazy, but yesterday morning they just appeared in my hair! Meghan has one too, and so does my Mom, it's so strange..."
"Seriously strange," agreed Ethan "So, do you wanna hang out tomorrow? Or, later today, really..."
"I dunno, I might be stuck in family-mode for a couple of days, what with Auntie Shira coming back and all, but I'll see what I can do," promised Peaches, before bidding Ethan goodbye and heading home, following the petals again so she didn't get lost. She really couldn't afford to, one of the family trackers was injured, and the other most likely wouldn't leave her side 'till she was healed.
Luckily, Peaches made it home without any trouble at all, plus she didn't get caught. At least, not by Manny. Let's just say she was somewhat surprised when a weasel with one eye and a possum suddenly appeared hanging in front of her face. The dramatic effect was quickly ruined by Taz, though, when she cried out,
"Dang, blood rushing to my head again!"
Smirking, Peaches lifted the possum off the tree branch, leaving her Uncle Buck casually dangling in mid-air.
"So lass, where were ya at this time in the morning?" asked Buck, swinging a carving of Rudy by the neck in one hand for no apparant reason.
"Oh, I, uhm..." Peaches tried to think of an excuse, but her search turned up empty "I got nothing."
"You weren't, sneaking off, were you?" Buck smirked knowingly; Taz had told him where Peaches had gone so he wouldn't wake Manny.
"And you wouldn't happen to be following flower petals to a certain male mammoth, would you?" added Taz, grinning as Peaches blushed a deep red.
"Yeah, yeah, ya got me," sighed Peaches "How'd ya know?"
"Uhm... girl's intuition?" suggested Taz.
"The unbreakable bond between an uncle and his niece?" offered Buck.
"An amazing sixth sense?" Taz was barely stifling laughter at this point, knowing they obviously weren't anywhere near convincing Peaches "Okay, fine. I saw you sneaking out-"
"And when I woke up and noticed you were gone," Buck continued.
"- I told him what happened so he wouldn't wake your Dad," finished Taz. Peaches smiled.
"Thanks guys," she stroked one of the flowers in her hair "You know, for coverng for me."
"No problem," replied Taz and Buck in unison. The weasel then added "Now go get some sleep, kid, it was a long day yesterday, and you had an early start today."
Peaches nodded, and was about to hang upside down on her branch, before Taz stopped her. "Hey, you might not wanna hang upside down. Y'know, with the Dahlias and everything."
Again, Peaches nodded, before lying down beside a still sleeping Meghan. She fell asleep fast, not thinking to move the petals and roses. Luckily, Taz, Buck and Squint (who hadn't fallen asleep yet because he was busy thinking) did, and by the time the sun properly appeared in the sky, there wasn't a trace of flowers left. They hadn't thrown them away, just stowed them in a hollow tree for the time being.
Bidding goodnight to Taz and Buck, Squint headed back to the other pirates, who were sleeping in Diego and Shira's cave for the moment, just until Shira was healed. He was out like a light, exhausted all of a sudden. Rhianne and Herbert were staying in the mammoth, possum, weasel cave for now, as was Tasmin, so the small possum returned to the cave with Buck.
The weasel clambered up the tree and into his bed of... whatever kind of plant it was, near where the possums hung upside down. Taz, meanwhile, cuddled into the fur of her two favourite snow wolves, letting herself nap peacefully. Buck grinned as he watched Taz fall asleep, rolling his eyes at her, before falling asleep himself.
Man, I miss Rudy... he thought, absentmindedly hugging the wooden carving he slept beside, it was the first carving he'd ever done of his favourite dinosaur, and now he was gone, Buck wanted to let his memory live on forever.
Okay so, I did this as fast as I could, but I had some trouble coming up with a decent story for Izabella, but I already knew Taz's story. BTW, I didn't come up with her past either, scoobs5601 told me about it a while ago through PM, and it took me like half an hour to find it, coz the chat was so long, lols. :)
Oh hey, this is so random but I am majorly happy right now because we just started a new topic in Maths and I a)understand it and b) actually enjoy it, haha, there's a first! Anyway, thanks for reading and please review! xD