Okeyz, two things. One, this chapter, as the title suggests, focuses mostly (if not totally) on the pirates, and second thing, I came up with a cool idea for a Hunger Games fanfic I'm considering... would any of you guys be into that? Of course, I'm planning to finish off every Ice Age fic I've started beforehand, so don't worry about stories like this getting shoved to the side.
Money 100? You got an account? Cool! K'so, you know the page that comes up when you first log in? Well, go to Publish on the options, click New Story, then follow the instructions from there. Assuming, of course, that your story is already in Documents. If you want I can PM you the details if you've got an account now :)
Disclaimer: Rebecca and Diesel both belong to Blumacaw13, whereas Taz, Dex and Bronson belong to scoobs5601
I hope you enjoy! :D BTW, sorry about all the flashbacks.
Rebecca curled her knees to her chest, scrubbing harshly at her eyes to remove all traces of unwanted tears. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Lauren stood holding a large leaf.
"Need this?" the molehog asked softly, offering the leaf to Rebecca.
Still sniffling, she managed a smile. "Thanks, Laur."
"Not a problem," Lauren knelt beside Rebecca and squeezed her shoulders "What's the matter? Why're you cry- I mean, uhm…"
"Don't worry," she interrupted "I admit it, I'm crying, I'm a loser."
Lauren shook her head. "No, you're not. Everybody cries. That doesn't make you lame or a loser. It just makes you a mammal. Or an animal. Whichever you prefer. Point being, there's nothing wrong with showing emotions sometimes!"
Rebecca sighed. "Okay, okay, no lecture needed, Lauren!"
"Jeez, you honestly don't have a censor do you?" taunted Lauren playfully, to which Rebecca shook her head.
"Nope, never have, never will."
Lauren rolled her eyes. "M'kay so, what is wrong?"
Rebecca pressed her back against the tree-trunk she had been crying into moments ago, taking a deep breath through her nose and releasing it through her lungs, before crossing her arms over her chest and replying.
"Look, Gutt was my best friend when we were kids, but ages ago he left me for no reason. For years everybody in the village came up with stories that were weird, wacky and awful about what might've happened to him, and eventually I just couldn't take it."
Lauren wrapped her ferret friend into a hug. "What happened? What did you do?"
Shuffling out of the hug, as she wasn't comfortable with physical contact, Rebecca continued. "I left. I ran away from home. For seven whole years, I searched the world for Gutt, and at long last, I found him. I found him in a dreadful state, but it was still him. With the help of several other misfits, I cured him. We plotted and planned against the evil, traitorous crew that had hurt him like that, and we gathered a large group to help us carry out our plans. During this, we met you."
"Yeah, I remember…" sighed Lauren. "That was one weird day…"
Rebecca smiled. "Uh-huh…"
Flashback – Normal POV
A small brown ferret with blue eyes watched as her oldest friend staggered over to the large rock he was supposed to rest on for a while.
He had received a long, quite deep, gash on his back, and had almost lost his life from blood loss. It all would've been over for him if Rebecca hadn't spotted him while riding on Jasper the narwhal's back.
A kind rabbit doe named Izabella that Rebecca had encountered on land while she was building sand castles with a mountain lion cub, which Rebecca had thought strange but not commented on, had offered to help heal Gutt.
With some persuasion, Rebecca agreed to trust this female and allowed her to mix a herbal concoction that would heal the injured ape.
Kate, the mountain lion cub, wandered off into the forest, and as Izzy was busy with Gutt, Rebecca decided to spare the doe the increased pulse and find Kate herself. It didn't take long, as the cub had quickly got distracted by a dirt trail in the ground. She was poking and prodding away at it with her developing claws.
"Pity the poor sod down there…" mumbled Rebecca, but it was apparently louder than she thought.
"Muchas gracias," replied a Spanish female's voice from underground "Now, if you wouldn't mind helping me out here…?"
Nodding even though the unknown girl couldn't see her, Rebecca scrambled towards Kate, ushered the cub away from the dirt trail, and reached a paw down to help whoever it was out.
A paw clasped around hers, and Rebecca pulled a female molehog out of the ground. The girl had light brown hair, dark, smokey eyes, and a sweet feminine smile.
"As I said earlier, thank you very much," the molehog replied sheepishly.
"Oh, that's what you said. I didn't catch it at the time," explained Rebecca. The molehog chuckled.
"Well yes, it was in Spanish."
"Oh right… that's probably why then…" muttered Rebecca, embarrassed. She smiled.
"Don't worry," she held out one paw "I'm Lauren. And you are?"
"Rebecca," answered the ferret, gripping Lauren's paw in a firm handshake. "So, got a family? Home?"
"Nope," replied Lauren "No home for me, or family. You?"
"Uhm…" Rebecca didn't know whether or not to call her little crew a 'family' or not "Kinda. Hey, wanna come back with me? And the little energy ball over there?"
Kate looked up from the butterfly she had been chasing. Lauren looked hesitant.
"A-are you sure you want me to…?"
"Yeah, why not?" Rebecca shrugged. A wide smiled broke out over the molehog's face.
"Muchas gracias, amigo!" exclaimed Lauren in happiness. Upon seeing Rebecca's confused face, she added "That means 'Thank you very much, friend' in Spanish."
That night
Rebecca trudged through the undergrowth, Lauren tunnelling in front of her. As the crew were new to the island, and Lauren had been there a while, the molehog volunteered to give Rebecca a miniature tour of the immediate area.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca spotted a plant with several weir-looking berries on it. Walking over, she reached out and turned one over in her paws.
"Oy, Diggy," she called, referring to Lauren and her digging habits. The molehog's head popped up from underground.
"Sí?"
"These toxic?" inquired Rebecca, tossing one of the smallest berries to Lauren, who caught it agilely. She sniffed it for a moment, broke the skin with her claws, inspected the dribble of juice that fell to the ground, and eventually shook her head.
"Nope, not toxic, completely safe to eat."
"Awesome…" muttered Rebecca, plucking another off the plant and stuffing it into her mouth. She found it was very chewy, but she really liked it for some reason. For one thing it occupied her mouth.
As Lauren tunnelled on, Rebecca snatched a few more berries from the plant and followed the dirt trail. Suddenly, they came to a clearing. A gazelle was stood in the centre, surrounded by four sabres.
"Kenzie!" she screamed "KENZIE! HELP!"
One of the sabres chuckled evilly. "None of your little deer friends are gonna help ya now, venison!" he spat. She rolled her eyes, trying to appear over-confident.
"She's a gazelle, not a deer, morons!" came a voice. A female Lynx landed in front of the gazelle, in a protective stance.
"First of all, thank-you, and second of all, well done!" the gazelle grinned at the Lynx, who returned the gesture.
"Sorry I was late, bit of traffic on the way," she joked, which only irritated the sabres further.
"You must be Kenzie," hissed the leader of the small pack. He was covered in various fading scars, and he had the slightest limp, implying he was a casualty in a fierce battle long ago.
"Yeah, and this is Alex, my best bud," Kenzie shrugged. "Who're you?"
"Soto," replied the leader harshly. "And these are Oscar, Lenny and Zeke."
"Uhm, hello?" Alex attempted to be nice. Zeke growled.
"Can we maul 'er? Can we maul 'er? Can we maul 'er? I wanna maul 'er!" he whined.
"Oh my gosh…" Lauren whispered to Rebecca "That guy has serious problems."
"Uh-huh," Rebecca nodded. Suddenly, Izzy scurried up to them, catching the unwanted attention of those in the field.
"Rebecca, Lauren, Gutt wants you two back at base, A-SAP!" she informed them, unaware of the eyes watching her from behind.
"Uhm, Izabella…?" Lauren tried to warn her, but she kept on blabbering.
"Izzy!" snapped Rebecca.
"Sorry, but he wants to get started on the revenge plan. He knows he wants to kill that traitor First Mate of his, whatever her name was, and that Diego sabre, but he doesn't know-"
"Wait," everyone turned to Soto "Did you say Diego?"
"Yeah…"
"Is he an orange sabre with long canines?" questioned Soto. Izzy wasn't sure.
"Well, I haven't seen him, but I think so. Why?"
Soto looked to his pack for a minute, and then turned back to the three small animals. "How about we join you in this attack? We have our own bone to pick with Diego…"
Rebecca looked to Izzy and Lauren for help, but both pretended to be utterly fascinated with the particles in the air, looking this way and that, doing everything possible to avoid Rebecca's eyes. Finally, she shrugged.
"Guess so. If the boss don't mind."
"Could we come?" asked Kenzie "We could use a bit of protection…"
Rebecca didn't even bother trying to get help from her friends this time; she knew she was on her own for this. "Well, why? What use would you be to us?"
"We can fight," said Alex hopefully, eyes wide with pleading. Rebecca shrugged again.
"Whatever. But I can't promise you'll be safe from the carnivores, gazelle."
Alex seemed worried, until Kenzie nudged her. "Don't worry, I can," she promised. Rebecca rolled her eyes, and tapped Lauren on the shoulder.
"Yo, tour guide," the molehog whipped around to meet Rebecca's gaze "Show us how to get back, wouldja?"
Lauren nodded. "*Spanish word for yes*, follow me."
End Flashback
Both chuckled as they thought back on that day.
"What a weird day that was…" giggled Lauren.
"Yep," agreed Rebecca. "I just… can't believe Gutt changed so much. I mean, when we were kids, sure he was one of the more violent kids, and he always had to be the captain when we played pirates, which was all the time, but…"
"I know," Lauren took Rebecca's paws in her own "You are upset because he is no longer what he once was. But you need to move on; you deserve better than him."
"Thank you, Lauren."
Dex the wolverine and Bronson the musk-ox were standing together, discussing everything that had happened in the past few days, when Squint came up, dragging Izzy by the paw.
"Uh-oh…" muttered Dex, recognising Izzy and Squint.
"How dare you?!" snapped Squint "How dare you-" he pointed at Dex "-just stand by when an innocent life could've been lost!"
Dex sighed, feeling the slightest bit of guilt for the first time since he could remember.
Flashback
A young Shira lay on the deck of an ice ship (not one of Gutt's though), a cut on her side bleeding into her fur. A honey coloured rabbit with dazzling lime eyes hurried to her side, despite Squint's shouting of various warnings.
A wolverine stood over the sabre, that same smirk on his face. A mammoth moved to where Squint's younger sister was tending to Shira's wounds. Shira protested, knowing she would survive just fine, but the doe persistently tried to heal the tiger.
The mammoth lifted her, carrying her to the very edge of the ship, before he let go.
End Flashback
Izzy gasped. "That was you? Dex? It was you who hurt Shira?!"
He lowered his head. "Yes…"
"Y-you… and you never told me? Never apologised?"
"Apologies aren't my thing," Dex was biting back his temper at this point; he didn't like it when things didn't go his way. Sensing this, Bronson tried to help.
"Yeah, he never says he's sorry. Once when we were kids on the ship he puked on one of the crew members because he was seasick and then-"
"Bronson!" snapped Dex, not wanting to be embarrassed in front of Squint and Izzy, who now wore her signature smug smirk.
"No words needed," she stated, flipping her long ears back over her head. Dex growled, but suppressed his anger for the moment.
"Look, Squint, if you'd been in my position, would you have been able to stand up to Gutt?" he asked. Squint closed his eyes because he knew the wolverine was right; it's very hard to stand up to a powerful captain.
"Okay, okay…" he sighed "I guess it's unfair to blame you for something your captain did. But if you hadn't hurt Shira than Izzy wouldn't have run in to help her, so the captain wouldn't have got her."
"I know," admitted Dex "But it was an order. And anyway, he would've probably just tried to throw Shira overboard instead, which would've been worse, coz she's scared of water and-"
"For the record," Izzy butted in "I'd like to point out that at the time I was fairly afraid of water too!"
Squint slung his arm around his little sister's shoulders, then gave a faint smile. "It's okay, I get it. I was just kinda blinded by my grief, I think… I kinda went a little crazy afterward…"
"A little?" the four turned to see Boris stood there "Squint, you went absolutely mental!"
"Details, details…" he tried to dismiss the subject, but Izzy wasn't having it.
"How mental?" she inquired, with an evil grin. Despite Squint's signalling of 'no, no, stop!', Boris continued.
"Well, he went a little demented, always wanting to slice and dice pretty much everything… once, he even-"
"Boris!" shouted Squint "Stop it!"
"Actually, it's Dobson. You know Gutt changed it to Boris!" he corrected.
"Ugh, Dobson, Boris, whatever! Just stop embarrassing me in front of my sister!"
He smirked evilly. "No, I'm good. Anyway, Izzy, feel like taking an embarrass-ya-brother-walk with me?"
"Do I ever?!" she exclaimed, excitedly clambering onto his head, resting her feet on his snout and holding his ears "M'kay, tell me everything!"
Boris nodded, and walked off. "Sure, where do you wanna start?"
"Uhm…" Izzy chewed her lip, before replying "Why don't we start with the first time? No, the funniest! No, the wackiest! No, the-"
Boris chuckled. "I'll go with the first one. Okay, we were docking on an island…"
Squint watched until he couldn't see or hear them anymore, frozen in utter disbelief. He gestured to Dex and Bronson in astonishment, clearly confused as to whether or not that seriously just happened. Realizing it had, he growled and ran after them, leaving Dex and Bronson alone to be confused.
Holding a vine in his mouth, Silas flew back towards the other side of the cave. The vine was wrapped around a rock, and he was moving it so that Gupta's leg was more comfortable. The injured badger had been set up inside the same cave as Raz, and Shira was hopefully to be moved there that night by Ellie and Manny, who could lift and carry her without jostling her wounded leg thanks to their trunks.
Raz groaned in pain, clutching her pouch, or trying to, but the thick moss padding made it difficult.
"Ugh, this bleedin' moss is stoppin' me gettin' ta mah pouch!" she complained. Silas rolled his eyes.
"Zat is ze point, soeur," he told her. "It means zat you can't get it infected."
Raz muttered something inaudible, but Silas was kind of glad he couldn't hear it; he had a feeling it wasn't something pleasant.
"Why must you complain so? Gupta has not said a word zis whole time!"
"Gupta ain't conscious, Sil," she pointed out, indicating to the sleeping badger. This time it was Silas's turn to utter something unpleasant. Smirking triumphantly, Raz closed her eyes and sipped at the turtleshell full of water that was lying next to her.
As Silas finished securing the vine, Gupta stirred and tried to sit up. "Vhat's going on?"
"Nothin' Gup, jus' go back ta sleep," Raz answered to save Silas the trouble, her eyes still remaining closed.
"Medicine time!" chimed Flynn happily, bouncing into the cave with two hollow rocks of liquid. Golden eyes open, Raz reached out and gingerly took the medicine, taking small sips because she didn't like the taste much.
Personally, she preferred Squint being in charge of medicine, as he added a little bit of sweet fruit juice from the fruit none of them could identify, but Alex wasn't bad at it. If Raz recalled correctly, Kenzie and Ashling were helping her by gathering ingredients and finding bandages.
"Y'know, this medicine isn't as bad as I thought," commented Gupta.
"I'm sure Alex will appreciate that!" laughed a voice from outside the cave. They turned to see Hollie the Hummingbird fluttering at the entrance.
"Hi!" Flynn greeted her.
"Hey," she replied "Jasper sent me down. He wanted to suggest a campfire party down by the waterfall tomorrow night. You guys up for that?"
"Sounds cool, but zese two will not be able to attend as zey cannot move, and neither can Shira, ze sabre girl," explained Silas, knowing that Hollie probably wouldn't know the herd yet.
"Oh, right…" Hollie mentally slapped herself. "I hadn't thought of that…"
"S'okay, ev'ryone makes mistakes, Hollie," Raz consoled her "Hey, can't Jasper jus' swim up the river ta the lil' pond nearby?"
Hollie shook her head. "No, he wants to stay at the waterfall for some reason. Oh well…"
"Guys!" Peaches hurried into the cave, Meghan at her side and the possum twins on her head. They'd left Louis and Taz outside to cuddle and 'be adorable', as Peaches had put it. "Dad says, that since everything's been so scary and tense lately, that we can have a campfire party tonight!"
"It's gonna be awesome!" added Meghan "Think karaoke, tasty food, juicy gossip and family fun time!"
Everybody else laughed, but Raz had to suppress her laughter as it would hurt her wounded stomach.
"And we're gonna have it right here in front of the cave," Eddie shoved Crash down to the ground to pat the ground to illustrate his point "So you guys can be involved!"
"Vow, sounds great!" said Gupta, smiling. There were various murmurs of agreement from the others, causing Peaches to grin.
"So… I'll tell Dad we're all in for tonight?"
"You betcha," Hollie finally spoke when the others didn't. Peaches exited the cave, Crash and Meghan following her, Eddie on her head.
Tonight is gonna rock.
Okay, hope you enjoyed :) Should be updating soon, have the next chapter started off already.
Second to last official chapter done :( But there's still the next chapter, and the Epilogue to look forward to... *tries to hide tears*
Thanks for reading and please review! :)