Sorry for the wait, I did try to write it as soon as possible! I have two weeks off for Easter, and since 'Carly' seems to cancel on me a lot in the holidays, I should have a lot of free-time! :D And hey, Money 100? All you need to do is create an account on here to post your stories (assuming they are Fanfiction, of course). If you create one I could always PM you the details on uploading and updating and stuff :)
Oh, and before I forget... I guess this doesn't matter much, but I know most people spell sabre as 'saber' but my spellcheck on my computer spells it the other way, so that's how I spell it. Just in case anyone was wondering. *shrugs*
Taz: I, along with Dex and Bronson, belong to scoobs5601!
Rebecca: And I belong to Blumacaw13!
Taz slowly sat up, rubbing the sleepiness out of her blurry eyes. She was very surprised to see Diego right in front of her, looking sleep-deprived.
"Gah!" exclaimed Taz, laying her paw over her accelerating heart "Dude, why scare me like that?"
"I need your help."
Taz waited for further explaination, and got none. "Okay so, a gentle shaking and 'Taz, wake up' wouldn't have been better than creepily watching me sleep for who-knows-how-long?!"
Diego shrugged. "It probably would've. But since I decided I needed your help at around midnight, I figured you wouldn't be best pleased to be woken up," he explained "And anyway, this way was more fun. I wouldn't have seen your highly amusing reaction if I'd just woken you up calmly."
"Son of a shunumbunger..." she murmured "So, what didja need my help with?"
"I need you to help me find Shira and the pirates," he answered, in that same annoying monotone. Taz pressed her forehead into her paw in frustration.
"And why am I your chosen help for this?" she questioned. He rolled his eyes.
"Because they may have gone back to the cave they first stayed in, and you're the only one who knows where that is."
"Diego, think about it," Taz propped herself up, which she could do, as Rhianne and Herbert had left the night before, so she was sleeping on a thick pad of moss "If she wanted to get away from the herd, she wouldn't want to go somewhere that anybody knew. She would've guessed that you would ask me where the old cave was, so she would stay away from there, right?"
"Right..." sighed Diego dejectedly.
"Sorry Diego, but none of us have any idea where she is or how to find her," said Taz bluntly. Diego growled.
"But we are going to find her!" snapped Diego firmly "There is no way I am going to pretend that I am okay with her disappearance, okay? Good."
And with that, he stormed off. Taz slapped herself in the forehead.
"Way to go Taz," she grumbled to herself "Anger the grieving sabre!"
Kate rubbed her eyes with her paws, yawning, as she'd hardly slept since Mikayla left. She'd only spent one night with the sabretooth, but she had grown quite attached, and now missed her terribly. Izzy, who had been up all night comforting the cub, was lying nearby, too deep in sleep to scramble to her paws and hug the young child again.
Oscar, on the other hand, was wide awake. Quietly, he padded over to the sad child, and gently held her against his chest.
"Hey, c'mon runt, no need to turn on the waterworks, eh?" he carefully wiped away her tears "There ya go, kiddo. Now c'mon, settle down, it's still pretty early, you can still get a bit of sleep before ya have to do anything."
She nodded, snuggling into Oscar, a small smile on her face. After making sure nobody was watching, he gave her a quick kiss on the head, before setting her down beside a still unconcious Izzy.
"I just hope no-one ever hears about this..." he muttered, returning to his place.
Several Hours Later
Diego lay underneath a tree, in a light sleep. He had eventually collapsed from tiredness, after wandering the woods, but now he had no idea where he was anymore. He was awoken gently by his old friends Manny and Sid.
"Hi!" chirped Sid rolled his eyes.
"Hi..." he murmured sleepily, still half-asleep. Manny shook the sabre's shoulder with his trunk.
"C'mon, we need to get back to the herd," when Manny got no response, he added "Ellie has a plan to find Shira."
Diego leapt to his feet. "Let's go."
Sid opened his mouth to start one of his made-up medleys, but Diego managed to silence him with a glare. Manny lifted the sloth onto his back, knowing that he would begin persistantly asking for a ride at some point.
They returned sooner than Diego anticipated, apparantly he hadn't run as far as he thought he had. The herd was gathered anxiously awaiting Diego's arrival so that Ellie could explain her master plan. Half of the flowers had fallen out of Peaches' hair, and she still hadn't discovered where they had come from. Ellie's had long fallen out, as had Meghan's, but her and Louis weren't there. Taz had run out to get them, as well as Rhianne and Herbert, and would be returning soon.
Manny dropped Sid to the floor, then stood beside Ellie, locking his trunk with hers. Sid got to his feet and took his place on a rock, luckily alone, as Granny was still napping, to his relief. Diego stood rigid, unable to relax as he wanted Shira back as soon as possible. Seeing the sabre's worried expression, Ellie cut right to the chase.
"Okay, I think that if we split up into different groups, we may have a better chance than if we troop through the forest as one, because we will be able to cover more ground. Plus, there may be certain members of the herd who she would prefer to talk to than others..." Ellie didn't say it, but Diego knew that meant him.
Before the mammoth could continue, Mikayla interrupted by barging through the bushes, out of breath from running apparantly. "G-guys..." she panted "I... woods, S-Shira... found..."
It didn't matter that she couldn't speak properly, the herd understood the main message: She knew where Shira was. Diego ran up to her, eager to find his beloved mate.
"Where?" he demanded. Mikayla pointed into the forest, still unable to speak. She'd fallen asleep in a clearing, and ran none stop back to the herd, getting slightly lost on the way, but she had marked her way by clawing at a tree every now and then, so she knew where she was going to get back to the pirates.
Diego tried to bolt off, but Manny caught him with his trunk, lifting him off the ground. "Woah there ubertracker, you have no idea where you are going!"
"I'll... show you... the way..." managed Mikayla, to which Manny nodded.
"Alright, Mikayla will lead the way, Diego will follow behind..." began Manny, but Taz turned up right then with Rhianne, Herbert, Meghan and Louis, who needed to be filled in on what was going on. Then, Manny began his speech again. Taz, already bored with the mammoth's ramblings, had zoned out and was staring into space, but suddenly zoned back in when she noticed she was staring right into...
"Alright, any questions?" concluded Manny.
"Yep," replied Taz "Anyone else see the eyes in the bushes...?"
At the pirates' new home, everyone was awake minus the cubs, who were still dozing beside their mother. Raz had just returned from gathering food with Squint, but unfortunately the best she could do for Shira was a trout she'd grabbed out of the nearby pond.
"Sorry Sheila, this is the best Ah can do fer ya," she apologised, dropping the fish in front of the sabre.
"S'okay, I'm not bothered," she assured her, before turning away to face the back of the cave so her siblings didn't have to watch her eat. The rest of the old crew feasted on various fruits and vegetables, slurping down turtleshells of water as they ate. Squint slid Shira's over to her, not caring about seeing her eat the fish, as the grossest thing he could ever watch would be the birth of the cubs that he was forced to be the midwife for.
She thanked him, before lapping up the water and grooming herself. By then, the cubs had woken up and begun nursing painfully, satisfying their hunger also. Shira groaned, already sick and tired of the sharp teeth digging into her, but she knew to be patient; it would be months before they stopped, six at the most and three at the least.
After the group had polished off every last scrap of their food (well you can't blame them, pirating is a hungry job!), Squint was sent out to get rid of the skins and cores of the fruit, and the bones of Shira's fish. Shrugging, he dumped the waste parts of the fruit in a bush, and buried the fish bones in the ground, thinking nothing of it until...
"Ew, bones!" exclaimed a girly voice underground, causing Squint to whip around and head back to where he had buried the remains of Shira's breakfast.
"Hello?" he called, bending closer to the earth "Who's there?"
A female molehog scrambled out of the ground, wiping frantically at her left arm, presumably the one that had touched the bones of the fish.
"Ugh, did you bury them there?" she demanded, to which Squint nodded awkwardly "Why? What kind of idiot just leaves fish bones lying around underground? What if an innocent little molehog like me is passing by and crashes into them, eh?!"
"Well, I didn't know what to do with them and-"
"And what kind of rabbit eats fish anyway? I know a rabbit, and she eats fruit! Fruit, like what normal rabbits eat!"
"My sisters are a kangaroo and a sabretooth, clearly I am not a normal rabbit!" Squint interrupted her, waving his arms around to show his exasperation. The molehog backed up.
"Your sisters are a kangaroo and a sabretooth?" she questioned. Squint nodded.
"Yeah, it's kinda messed-up..."
"So am I correct to assume the fish was your Smilodon sister's?"
Squint nodded. "Got that right... so, what's your name?"
"Lauren," answered the molehog, before a small rock hit her in the back. "Ouch, Ashling!"
"Idiot..." hissed a voice in the bushes "Get back here! And don't reveal our identity!"
Squint's eyes widened; was this an attack?
...
Kenzie pressed her face into the palm of her paw in despair, while Alex rolled her eyes.
"Oh, Lauren..." sighed Alex.
"Can't you do anything right?" finished Kenzie, before she leapt out of the bushes with Ashling. Alex was more cautious, but she trusted Kenzie would protect her, so she followed the two predators out.
...
Squint jumped back in shock, two deadly predators with a herbivoire?! Then he remebered Diego and the herd, so he shook away his surprise, remembering it wasn't actually all that strange.
"Alright bunny, where's the sabre?" demanded Ashling, pushing in front of a somewhat offended Kenzie.
"Don't call me a bunny!" Squint yelled, his temper flaring up, despite how hard he had tried to keep it under control recently, what with the cubs and all. Ashling raised an eyebrow, trying to act cool and casual, but the 'we're so sick of you' expressions on Kenzie and Alex's faces sort of ruined it.
Raz sighed in frustration.
"Where 'as tha' bloomin' bunny got ta?" she grumbled to herself. "I' ain't like gettin' rid of scraps is 'ard!"
Shira chuckled softly. "I'm sure he just got lost or something Raz, relax. Squint's not an idiot, he's just..." she hesitated, childhood memories coming back "Okay, so he's kind of an idiot sometimes but he can handle getting rid of scraps."
"Alrigh', 'kay, Ah get i'..." she sighed "Ah'm just worried in case somethin's 'appened to 'im."
Before anyone could answer, two sabretooths leapt out of the bushes, one looking ready to kill, the other clearly just following the leader.
"Okay, here's how it's gonna go down," the leader cut to the chase "I'm going to puncture the lot of you with my teeth, with the help of my companion Oscar, except for the little silver girl and her cubs. Now-"
He was cut off abruptly when a fishbone sword narrowly missed his head and slammed into the tree not too far behind him. Shira looked up at Raz, who was standing with several weapons in her hands, panting slightly as she struggled to bottle up the immense anger that was surging through her veins. The rest of the pirates were also readying themselves to battle the sabres, even Gupta, who couldn't stand but still raised two fists, both containing a weapon of some kind.
"Why do they always want to do it the hard way?" sighed Soto to Oscar, who didn't answer, knowing the question was rhetorical.
Squint narrowly dodged Ashling's claws as they slashed through the air, before performing an almost break dance-style spin to get away from Kenzie, who had pounced. Lauren appeared in front of him, so he flipped backwards, but this landed him inside a tight circle formed by his rivals.
"Uh-oh..." he muttered, trying to think of a plan of defense. Suddenly, he realised he was standing right above where he had buried the bones. He jumped up and down a bit, which set the attackers on edge, and, since Lauren had been tunnelling underneath it, made the ground give way. He scrambled to pick up as many bones as possible, and get out of the hole, as Kenzie had come up with the idea of trying to bury him in it.
"Aw, man," she groaned, when her plan failed.
"Ha ha, you guys can't catch me!" bragged Squint, not noticing the shadow over him "You're not fast enough to..."
He slowly turned, and looked up to see Alex about to step on him. Crying out in surprise - he'd completely forgotten that Alex was even there - he somersaulted out of the way, whacking Ashling on the nose with a bone.
"Ouch!" she whined, rubbing her nose with her paw. Squint noticed how Alex and Kenzie had to contain their giggles, but he couldn't see Lauren... so where-
"Boo!" cried Lauren, launching herself out of the ground and coming at Squint with a sharp twig. Gaining confidence, Squint stood his ground, and simply caught the twig, pulled it away from her, and snapped it in half. She pouted for a moment, but Squint got distracted when Kenzie pounced.
"Woah!" Squint spun around, hitting the leopard with some bones. This annoyed both Ashling and Alex, but Alex was the only one who reacted. She ran at Squint, looking as if she wanted to kill him, so he dashed off into the bushes, abandoning the blunt bones he had collected so they wouldn't fall and leave a trail back to his family.
The herd retreated into the large cave that was originally for the pirates, fear obvious on everybody's faces. Manny, as the leader, remained outside, as he was bigger and stronger than the others.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" he called. Taz rolled her eyes.
"Right, like some master villain is just gonna go, 'yeah, I'm at the berry bush, wanna grab some lunch?' They wouldn't respond to that!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"That's one smart possum," came a voice from the bushes. Taz jumped deeper into the cave immediately, cowering behind Louis, who took up a protective stance.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" demanded Manny. A familar figure emerged from the bushes.
"GUTT?!" exclaimed everybody, minus Mikayla, who just gained an incredibly frightened look.
"Miss me, Mammoth?" he asked teasingly, twirling a fishbone sword. It suddenly dawned on Diego what must've really happened to Shira the day she said she was attacked by bears.
"Wait a minute... Shira was never attacked by bears... you attacked her!" Diego burst out of the cave, a ferocious snarl on his raised her eyebrows, peeking over Louis's shoulder.
"Huh, I always assumed that was Mikayla who attacked her," she commented. Mikayla glared and growled at the possum, causing her to duck down behind Louis again.
Gutt grinned evilly. "Congratulations tiger, you can put simple things together. So, you should be able to recognise my friends."
Two sabretooths followed Gutt into the clearing, causing Manny to shrink back a little too.
"Lenny? Zeke?" Diego sounded panicky now. They nodded.
"Hey Diego," Lenny greeted him, as Zeke was too jittery at the possibility of mauling someone. Mikayla tensed, knowing that those sabres wanted to kill Diego as much as Gutt wanted to kill Shira.
"But we're not the only ones around," Gutt continued, gesturing to the various animals coming out of the bushes. Dex and Rebecca, who carelessly spat the berry she was chewing into the grass, stood ready to attack, Hollie fluttering above their heads.
Rhianne and Herbert hid behind Mikayla and Diego, hoping that the sabres would protect them. Manny had backed up so much he was practically inside the cave now, and Ellie calmingly linked her trunk with his to relax him. It didn't work.
"Well..." Gutt prompted "Get outta that cave and face us you cowards!"
Sighing, Manny advanced further out of the cave, the rest of the herd following suit. Rhianne and Herbert shivered with fear, as they had never come across an evil force that was trying to kill them before, because they were so young.
"Alright, we might as well cut to the chase," Manny shrugged. Gutt smiled.
"I agree completely. Crew," he turned to his companions "Attack!"
And then, Gutt and his crewmates surged forwards, and the herd hesitantly adanced also. Gutt produced a wide array of sharp weapons, highlighting the fact that the herd had none, causing them to retreat into the trees frantically. Gutt and hsi companions chased the herd back to the waterfall that the cae was hidden behind. All a part of Gutt's plan.
Squint launched himself into the clearing that contained the pirates' new cave, and was unpleasantly surprised to see two sabres attacking his siblings.
"Help!" he cried, dodging yet another slash of Ashling's claws. Boris instantly appeared at the rabbit's side, ramming into Ashling, which resulted in her toppling backwards into Kenzie and Alex. Lauren still advanced, but she avoided Raz and Shira, as they scared her, even though the sabre was anchored to protecting her cubs inside the cave.
"Get away from me!" she snapped, snarling at Soto, who was trying to get the cubs "Leave me alone!"
"I don't want anything to do with you!" replied Soto, just as irritably "I only want to kill Diego's children!"
"Why?" she hissed, pushing Ranger back, as he was trying to get in front of Shira to protect her.
"Because I have unfinished business with him, and killing his children - and hopefully fatally wounding you in the process - will be my revenge," explained Soto, rolling his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Shira backed up instantly, but was still confused. "What 'unfinished business'?"
"Did he never tell you?" Soto feigned surprise "Oh, I would've thought he'd bragged hopelessly about how he abandoned me and my pack for that mammoth and sloth, then impaled me cruelly with icicles to save a human child."
Shira's eyes widened, as she knew nothing of the story about Roshan. Diego hadn't told her it in case she disagreed with him and thought him a heinous killer for murdering Soto. Raz suddenly appeared at her side, grabbing the cubs and piling them into her pouch in a random order, which meant they didn't fit as well as they did last time she carried them, leaving Kendall's head poking out.
"Daddy?" he looked around, clearly wanting Diego "Daddy!"
Soto grinned maliciously, and began to advance on Raz, before Shira pounced and sank her teeth into his shoulder. He roared in pain, but the wound wasn't fatal, so he pushed Shira away by kicking her in the stomach. As the cubs had been nursing quiet a lot from their mother, the blow to her stomach hurt badly, leaving a stinging sensation in her body.
Raz gently placed a hand between Shira's shoulder blades, rubbing the sabre's back to release the tension. Shira smiled up at her sister, before pressing herself against the cave wall and baring her teeth at Soto, who was readying himself to attack. The sisters glanced at each-other, before bolting out of the cave and into the trees.
"Retreat!" declared Raz, vanishing into the forest. The pirates followed their sisters, Flynn carrying Gupta, whose heart was pounding with fear. The attackers dashed after them, determined not to lose their targets.
As they were running, Shira decided to try and go a bit further to the side, so the enemies would lose her and she could pounce, taking one or two down. Raz noticed, and warned her against it, but Shira didn't listen. Suddenly, she stepped on a weak patch of earth, which gave out under her weight. The sabre tumbled down, alarming everybody.
"Silas!" Raz looked up at the bird "Follow 'er an' keep 'er safe!"
Silas nodded, flying down into the hole in the ground after Shira. The attackers didn't want to fall down too, so they avoided the hole also.
Shira's body slammed into the ground, hard. Tears sprung from her eyes, despite how much she didn't want them to, but the impact had forced them out. Suddenly, she felt a feathery wing on her head.
"Silas?" she mumbled.
"Oui, ma soeur," he replied, stroking her neck.
"So, where are we?" she asked, sitting up. Silas, who was perched on her paws, shrugged.
"I don't know, Shira," he sighed "But I zink it is necessary zat we get outta here soon."
She nodded, nuzzling the bird she had grown up with, thankful that she wasn't alone in this strange place.
So, where do you think Shira and Silas are? Okay, yes, it's kinda easy to guess, but I didn't put many clues in. Again, sorry for the wait, hopefully that won't happen again... for 2 or 3 chapters at least. Thanks for reading and please review! xD