I stayed right by Ellie's side the remainder of the day. She asked me to fill her in on my story so far, so I began ad libbing and taking parts of my "life" from experiences as a human, though I tried to make it as plausible as possible for a teenage possum. The good thing was I could be vague as we collected berries and leaves for food since most of the energy I had was focused on reaching up to the highest parts of the trees, aided by Ellie's trunk, to find the most succulent and juicy fruits. This foraging took up most of our day, and by the time Peaches had returned from hanging out by the river with Steffie and co., it was almost dusk.
"Hey mom," she called, walking into the cave where we were situated.
"Hi hon," Ellie replied, "how was the river?"
"Great thanks!" Peaches exclaimed happily. She stopped short, however, when she spotted me sat cross-legged on her mother's tusks. "Uh, do you, Crash and Eddie have a long-lost sister or something?"
Ellie shook her head. "This is Taz. She was abandoned by her family, so we're taking her under our wing." I waved. Peaches eyed me cautiously, though I seemed to live up to expectations, thank goodness, for she suddenly smiled and waved her trunk back. "Hi," she introduced herself, "my name's Peaches. So, you're - Taz, is it?"
I nodded, and stepped off Ellie's ivory to transfer to Peaches' so as to get a closer look at her. "Yeah, that's me," I replied. In my head, it still felt a little bit unnatural to be called Taz, but still I attempted to convince myself that my days as Charlie, the odd, spacy schoolgirl who daydreamed too much, were over. She smiled again before looking over at Ellie once more.
"Oh, and Mom? Louis is staying over tonight. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure, sweetie. What time's he coming?"
"Who's Louis?" I asked, remembering I was meant to be new to all this. Inside, however, I was squealing with joy. I was actually going to meet him!
"Oh, you mean Louis?" Peaches responded to my question. "He's my best friend, but he's a molehog."
There was something about that last part that irritated me. "But he's a molehog." It sounded almost derogatory when my mind played the sentence over again. Molehog he may be, I thought angrily, but don't forget Louis has saved your sorry butt countless times, not to mention he still puts up with being friend-zoned by you! My expression must have given something away, because Peaches' ears lowered slightly as she took on an expression of concern. "Are you okay?" she asked. I was a little sick of being asked that too many times today, but I just shrugged and said, "Yes, it's just that I've never met a molehog before." Phew. Most of that wasn't a lie, though. I still felt the anger that had simmered down to pure annoyance right now, but in truth, despite having seen Louis in Continental Drift, it's not like I had ever interacted with him before.
"What's Louis like?" I enquired, trying to gain a view of what Peaches thought about him.
"Nice. He's quite brave, and honest." Peaches replied thoughtfully. I could almost see an image of Louis floating above her head in a miniature thought bubble. "He's a bit - you know, timid, but he can be a great friend once you get to know him."
"Right." I said, mentally shaking my head at the fact that she was missing out big time. Though, I guess if Louis had never told her about his feelings, she wouldn't really have taken it into consideration. Her love life was probably more focused on same-species relationships.
Slowly, other members of the herd trickled in, curling up by the steadily roaring campfire and chatting casually. I had recently discovered the use of my tail, and was practising swinging in a tree outside (which is a lot harder than it looks, actually, you have to build up muscle in the end of your tail) when Shira, accompanied by Diego, approached the cave. She nodded briefly in my direction (obviously, Diego had tipped her off about the new herd member) as they passed. I breathed a sigh of relief to know that if both sabres accepted me, I should be okay with everyone else.
I tried several bouts of animal aerobatics (succeeding occasionally, but failing miserably the rest of the time) before noticing a dug up path of dirt making its way towards my tree. A small "Ow!" was audible as it hit the trunk and the earth below crumbled to reveal Louis's head popping out. I froze. It was him! The cutest (in my opinion) little guy ever to appear in the Ice Age movies. If I was in my human state just then, I probably would have squealed and cuddled him for hours on end, but I had to remind myself that I, apparently, had never met him (as I told Peaches before).
"Hey, are you all right?" I asked cautiously.
"Yeah, I'm good," he replied, shaking the dust out of his crop of brown hair. I mentally sighed in a dreamy way... his hair is so nice... Climbing out of the hole, he looked up to see me dangling off a branch, fixing my gaze on him.
"Uh, do I know you?" he asked, squinting in the glazing sunset.
"Nope. Neither do I you. The name's Ch- I mean, Tasmin. But everyone calls me Taz." Phew, that was a close call!
"Louis." he told me his name whilst kicking some more earth back over the hole he had made.
"Louis. Okay, I can live with that." I grinned, dropping down from the tree and landing on all fours (I must have looked a bit daft), before drawing to my full height. It sounds grand, doesn't it, full height? That is, if you can call being three quarters of a foot tall. So impressive. *sardonic*
"Hey, would you happen to know a mammoth by the name of Peaches? She said she knew someone called Louis." I said casually. That seemed to get hisfull attention.
"I know Peaches, yes. She's my best friend." His expression softened like it often did in the films, and I had to use every ounce of self-respect I had to restrain myself from flinging my arms around him in a sympathetic hug. At the same time, my conscience sneered. Well, duh, he's not going to like you when he already has a crush. This isn't a fanfiction. *Even more irony* A felt a pang inside me, a pang that I shamefully ignored.
"I saw her arrive back from the river about an hour ago. She said you were coming over later." I informed him, as we walked inside the cave and settled down. Peaches was deep in conversation with Shira (who, I guess, was still adjusting to life in the herd) so we felt better not to disturb them. Besides, I had no intentions on getting on the wrong side of a sabre on my first night here!
"So you're new here?" Louis began questioning me. I nodded.
"Just arrived here today, actually. Manny kindly agreed to letting me stay here temporarily. And, to be perfectly honest, I think I prefer sleeping on the ground in here than on a tree. I prefer following the rules of gravity."
Louis let out a small chuckle. "I'm just used to sleeping in a burrow. You'd actually be surprised by how comfy dirt can be."
"Huh. I guess it depends which ground you're sleeping in." I replied, trying to imagine the different categories. Red earth, dry earth... I wasn't even sure whether those types were real. I'm no expert on nature to this day, actually, I can grant you that...
"I guess." He shrugged.
I pretty much let Louis do most of the talking after that, since I didn't really have much to say. I could make up a previous family and life, or whatever, but for some reason I felt really uncomfortable lying to Louis. I didn't like lying to Ellie, Manny, and everyone else, and I'd be damned if anyone found out about me as Charlie. However, if I made stuff up when I was with Louis I felt my brow furrow as guilt clung onto my insides, making me feel despairing afterwards, dying to tell him the truth. So, it was a lot easier learning about his life than my phony one. Most of me, I guess, just wanted to learn the stuff about Louis that no fan site or behind-the-scenes clip could ever tell me. I mean, he HAD to have some kind of family, even if, to my dismay, they were never mentioned in any reliable Ice Age information source.
In fact, as I found out, he had quite a large family, most of which consisted of cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, all of whom were avid diggers, as they were obviously entitled to be, being molehogs. He even had a little baby sister called Jessie (that being my middle name) who I was anxious to meet, since I was sure I would have a cuteness overload upon seeing her. I did try to create some kind of tunnel as well, Louis patiently instructing me, but my new claws her far too blunt and brittle for any kind of digging work. In the end we both had a laugh about my failing efforts.
By this time, it was pretty much dark, and a lot of animals outside were settling down to sleep. I jumped up on a large boulder inside the cave, arranging some blades of grass and leaves across the flat surface, thinking it might suffice as a bed. I was unaware that Peaches was watching me with interest.
"You don't sleep upside down?" she asked in surprise.
Shoot. I'd forgotten about that.
"Well... sometimes I do. The blood to my head makes me a bit woozy, thought, so most nights I just kip under trees and stuff, but not hanging off them."
She shrugged, and looped her tail over the oak branch outside next to her mother, who was already snoring soundly. A little below me, Louis had dug a hole in the ground, and as no sound eminated from it, I assumed he was just trying to get to sleep. I sighed happily. Becca and Kayla would never even believe the day I was having. They would probably report me to a psychologist if I told them I had passed out, re-awoken as a possum thousands of years before our time and met the Ice Age crew.
"Hey, Tasmin..." Louis' voice came from the hole in the ground.
"Mhmm?" I replied sleepily, poking my head over the edge of the stone to see my new friend's head emerge.
"Me and Peaches were going to go down to the River tomorrow... I was wondering, did you want to come with us and meet the other guys?"
I smiled. "Yeah, I'd like that."
Life was amazing.
So, third chapter up and running! Hooray! :D Yes, I know possums are supposed to be nocturnal, but human-possum-things are not, okay? Besides, Crash and Eddie couldn't keep awake on watch during IA3. Bwaha, scoobs triumphs again :)
Taz: I am going to kill you after the next chapter...
Me: Shh! NO SPOILERS YOU DUMBASS.
Taz: *grumbles* Was that really necessary?
Me: Yeah, because you were about to reveal the whole plot, idiot.
Louis: Guys, break it up!
I'm fighting with my own OC? Heck, I'm messed up.