Xion the Author: I am running…
ICE AGE JOURNEYS: RAISING A CUB
Chapter IX: Straying off the Path.
Sid opened his eyes to see the dark ice ceiling of the world of dinosaurs. For the first time ever in his life he woke up in the middle of the night, and looked around. The rest of the herd was already fast asleep. Buck seemed to asleep on top of a branch, resting as he lied down on his side with his arms down facing outside of the camp.
The tree sloth wondered what happened. It took a while before Sid remembered the entire event. It all struck upon him in an utter flash like a horrible nightmare struck upon him. It all became clear once more as to what happened. A cold breeze past through him and he shivered. He tried squeezing his arms around his chest to keep himself warm, but his body suddenly begat a mild shock around his body. He shrieked in pain the way always did. There were burns on his skin through his thick fur.
Sid vaguely remembered scenes of Buck dragging him out of the place. Once again, he felt ashamed to be saved once again. He hid his shame all the time when he was saved. He never showed it, yet the thought of not being able to take care of himself hit him with a wave of sorrow and self-pity.
It was always like this. And being saved again, while risking the life of another and jeopardizing a whole lot more just for him, was just the last straw. He no longer wanted to be responsible for any more trouble. He didn't want to involve anyone else into pain. He no longer wanted to a burden.
Then he looked at Manny and the rest; his herd. He finally recognized the truth of why he made the herd. It all started out of fear of being killed by something out there and staying beside Manny was the best choice of action for him. Then along came Diego, which turns out wasn't as half as bad as he first thought. But in any case, Sid thought he formed the herd out of either selfishness or complete foolishness. He had to admit that the past few years made him happy with them. But he thought it was time to set thing along on the right path.
Sid walked out of the safe clearing with hopes of a better life without shame and pity, for him and for everyone else.
Buck heard his slow footsteps as the sloth left. He got up to see if his suspicions of the sloth were true, and saw that he really was leaving the camp. He thought about trying to get him back and shrugged it off almost immediately. "The sloth ain't my responsibility if he wanna leave," thought Buck. So he let him walk away, into the deep regions of what he called paradise was known as hell to others.
"Come on guys, you're lagging behind!" shouted Eli with utmost enthusiasm, who was a few meters ahead of the group on a rigorous mountain trail. Flik was flying at a slow pace, and the twins were resting on Peaches' crown. It seemed as though the two were always asleep for most of their travels.
"Where does he get this energy from?" said Peaches who was behind along with the rest. "It's the middle of the night!"
"Some say wolves are more active during the night. You know, because of the moon," Flik replied, pointing his beak towards the great illuminating ball atop of the sky. And it was true. Eli was a lot more energetic.
"But he never acts this way back home," said Peaches, raising a brow.
"I've been to places back and forth a lot," Flik said, dragging his wings up a bit. "But I've noticed that for reasons unknown the moon seems to be brighter and maybe a bit larger here than everywhere else."
"Well... when you think about it, that does seem to be a bit true," said Peaches in agreement, also staring up at the moon.
"What's taking you guys so long?" yelled Eli, who was getting farther and farther by the minute and had to wait around a few seconds for them to catch up a bit every once in a while.
"Can't you just slow down?" Peaches shouted back. Eli raised his eyes up and shook his head optimistically. Part of him really wanted to walk more, in fact, to even start running. And so he walked on without pause, walking back and forth a whole lot of times.
Peaches watched him walk on by himself. Sometimes he never fully understood him, even as they grew like siblings. "You think we might be getting closer to other wolves?" asked Peaches.
"Not likely," Flik answered. "It's full moon. We'd probably hear them howling at this time of hour as well. But nevertheless, I'm sure we're on the right track."
A loud snore erupted from Peaches' head. A snore that echoed out in unison from the two possum twins sleeping on her soft fur. Peaches suddenly felt like yawning, in which then induced her to do so. "Remind me why we have to keep on moving?" she asked again in a sort of drowsy voice.
"Around us is no suitable place to hide. It's a rocky hill that's bound to get us seen. Our best choice of option is the keep moving to somewhere with at least a forest a good place to take refuge," Flik answered.
Eli walked on ahead with brimming optimism. His paws would tap on the ground distinctively as if enjoying each step. It wasn't long before Eli took the very first step on the beaver dam, the step that would change the course of their journey.
Eddie yawned out loud while stretching his arms up in the air. He open eyed his eyes too see the brightly moonlit environment around them, and that his soft bed was rocking in motion. "Peaches, you're still awake?"
"Isn't that obvious enough?" she replied.
"I can't believe Crash can still sleep from all this moving," Eddie mentioned, before looking around near them. "H-hey, where's Eli?"
Peaches pointed her trunk. Eli was already half-across the dam while they were still beginning to cross. Loud turbulent sounds came from underneath the dam as Peaches walked. Flik became anxious. "Lady mammoth, I think you should slow down-"
"Didn't you say we should walk faster?" Peaches retorted with a cranky voice. The lack of sleep was getting to her.
More sounds started to occur, in fact even louder. Eddie suddenly realized their might-be predicament. "S-seriously Peaches, you should stop!" Eddie yelled quickly.
"What are you guys talking about?" complained Peaches. Being awake past her regular bed time was not a good thing.
It wasn't long before Eli noticed them arguing from behind. Eli turned around and walked slowly towards them. "What's the hold-up, guys?" he shouted towards them.
Finally a loud gurgling sound came out. Peaches and Eli finally noticed it when it was too late. Sprays of water suddenly leaked from small holes in the dam. Suddenly a huge burst of water sprang out of the dam, causing panic amongst the gang.
"Run!" shouted Eli. Peaches started to run back to land while Eli raced against time. The mammoth jumped from shock causing Eddie to lose balance and topple down from her. Eddie fell on a tall log of the wooden dam and held on to it in fear.
"Uncle Eddie!" yelled Eli as he ran towards the left-behind possum.
"Help!" he shouted. Eli reached towards him and paused to let Eddie climb up on top of him. But the next moment they tried running once again, the dam finally started to break apart. The logs in front of them broke apart from the water pressure as the water flowed out. The wolf quickly tried to turn but the logs behind them shattered into pieces with on step. Eli held on to a single log and Eddie clamped himself on his fur as they could feel the entire dam tilt, and before they knew it they were carried by the current downstream.
"Guys!" shouted Peaches.
"What's with all the ruckus about?" yawned Crash from his sound sleep. He watched the rest of the dam fall into pieces and water flooding the old river course. "Wha- hey, what happened?"
"We have to go help them!" said Peaches, ignoring Crash.
"Not after all this noise we're not!" Flik stopped her. "The Don had definitely sent out more men to find us, and I bet they won't think twice about coming here."
"But what about-"
"I know another way downstream," Flik replied swiftly. "Its rash but we might make it unseen if we move out now."
"Can somebody please tell me what happened?" Crash demanded.
"We'll tell you on the way," said Peaches before rushing off as Flik flew ahead to point the way.
"I don't like this place…" Sid muttered to himself as we traversed through the eerie night. He'd sometimes see glowing red eyes in the shadows and would try to convince himself it was his imagination before hastening his stride a bit.
The night was different from the back home Sid thought. The fear of becoming prey itself was deadly enough here.
"You're gonna be okay… you're gonna be okay." Sid muttered before hearing suspicious sounds from behind.
Something rustled about in the bushes behind him. Sid turned around frantically. He looked around him as the fear swallowed him whole. He himself swallowed dead air in quivered in terror, making a clear "gulp" sound.
His panic overtook him and he began to start running. The noises of footsteps and leaves rustling about got louder and louder. The sloth began to sprint as fast as he ever could. Expectedly, just a few moments of sprinting he began to slow down. But when he looked back, he saw shadows of creatures with glowing eyes following behind him.
He was about to scream but the moment he turned his face towards the front he bashed it into a tree. He toddled around dizzily trotting left to right, wearing a smile filled with bark, before collapsing on the ground.
"Hold on!" shouted Eli, who was holding on for his life on an unbroken log. It fell down from the dam and fell on the water safely. He navigated it through the swift current from jagged rocks and debris. They swerved from left to right smoothly until they had to move through sharp curves.
"Right! To the right!" Eddie shouted. Eli ran his paws on the log making it turn around and around until it curved to the right. Suddenly there was another sharp curve right after.
"To the left, to the leeeeeeft!" the brown eyes possum cried quickly.
"Will you calm down?" the white wolf yelled as he ran his paws again on the log opposite than what he did before and it successfully turned towards the left. Eli tripped on the log and hit his belly right on the log making him whine in pain. The current seemed to slow down a bit which had them relax for a while.
But right after a few seconds of resting, the current somehow sped up again and a loud peculiar noise began to be heard.
"You've gotta be kidding me…" said Eli as they could see the water edge turn into a water fall. Half of all the fur in his body was already drenched with water.
"Here we go again…" muttered Eddie. The two began to shout again as they drifted slowly towards the edge. They closed their eyes and shouted as they fell. When the log splashed down on to the water safely after just a few moments, Eli opened his eyes and turned around to see it was just a meter high.
"Eddie!" said Eli. His uncle was still shouting with his eyes closed. "Eddie! It's okay!" his wolf nephew shouted. The possum slowly peeked through his eyelids first before widening his sight. But it widened a whole lot more than what Eli had expected.
"How is that okay?" Eddie retorted as he pointed forwards. Eli wondered and looked towards his front to see rapids, by the dozens.
The two began to scream again as they Eli navigated the log left to right avoiding the jagged rocks. Eli swerved through them without any difficulty and he began to feel slightly delighted.
"Hey! This is getting kinda fun!" shouted Eli in excitement. He anticipated every fall and rock there was and navigated the log without any difficulty. He kept on anticipating until he came across this time a real water fall. The log flew high up into the air, but as they looked down they saw the great distance of the fall they were about to experience.
"Still having fun?" Eddie said sarcastically before they both screamed even harder than before as they fell.
The log broke from the impact but thankfully Eli remained conscious as he plunged down into the water. He saw Eddie simply floating without any movement and grabbed him before swimming back to the surface. Thankfully, the current wasn't at all strong anymore.
"Gack!" Eli coughed out water after finally managing to get himself on land. Eddie slumped on his back almost lifeless of exhaustion. The only that got him active in the middle of the night was probably thanks to the moon being up. They both gasped for air after being taken by the river. Eli shook off the water from his fur before his legs trembled. He collapsed down on the ground tired and weary.
"We're safe..." heaved Eli. His eyes began to drop from fatigue and lack of rest. The water flowed back into the river it once was.
"I wanna go to bed again…" muttered Eddie.
Eli turned to face the moon. Its mystifying glow showered the world in a stream of bright moonlight. If it wasn't for the moon, they never would have seen as much from the event. He felt like thanking it, even though showing gratitude to a heavenly body was somehow idiotic. But without any other comment, the two fell asleep without even noticing.
Meanwhile, Peaches and the others were heading downstream in search of Eli and Eddie. They would glance at the river every now and then and would see debris.
"I hope Eddie is okay…" worried Crash after hearing about what happened. The two were almost never separated and the thought of being alone frightened him
Peaches felt the situation was getting more drastic. "Can you search for them in the air?" the mammoth asked.
"I guess I could try-" said Flik before cutting himself off. "-Wait, did you hear something?"
A loud squawk echoed in the air. Suddenly, two giant creatures swooped down from the sky and grabbed Peaches. They were even larger than her, and Peaches was almost half the size of a fully grown mammoth already. She screamed in unison with Crash, who was already on top of her.
"Peaches!" shouted Flik. He tried flying higher when suddenly two swift familiar shadows past by him.
"Going somewhere, Flik?" said Russel, blocking his way
"Where are you taking them?" Flik demanded.
"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," answered Butch with a grin.
"Yeah! Just follow us, and we'll make sure they're unharmed," said Russel before the two crows made and evil heartily laugh. Flik, who looked towards an almost impossible sight of a heavy mammoth being carried away in the sky, had no other choice than to follow. He looked towards the farthest distance of the river his eye can see.
"Please be okay, Eli," Flik muttered. And in a split second he followed after Peaches' captors.
Xion the Author: …out of ideas. ^^ In the original draft, the chapter was really really short so I had to lengthen it with the river scene. The idea actually just came to me while my fingers were on the keyboard. Plus, editing once again was not needed as much, so I added a few more dialogue and detail. But even after doing so, this once known to be long chapter is one of the shortest in the story :D