Hey guys! And yes, you may clobber me, for I haven't posted a chapter in what feels like months when you're the author. But hey, I have the holidays to look forward to, so a lot of carrot and less of the stick to keep me going! Enjoy!

"Tas-min?" a voice asked. My eyes were glued together with sleep dust, and by ear I wasn't quite sure who it was. "Taz?" the voice asked again. I rolled onto my side, choosing to ignore whatever was interrupting my slumber. By now I think that it - whatever it was - was getting impatient.

"TAZ!" it yelled, and I jumped and forced my eyes open, waiting until they adjusted to the sudden daylight and realising who had been trying to wake me up.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead. And it's about time too." Peaches told me, grinning. I blinked the sleepdust out of my eyes.

"Sorry, Peach. I'm a heavy sleeper. I think I even snoozed through an earthquake one time." I said, staggering to my feet and realising that my leaf and grass bed hadn't been of much comfort, since my muscles were aching from being in an awkward position on the hard stone surface. It was then I also noticed Louis was there too (the REAL Louis, not one of my fanarts), and tried my best too look like I hadn't just been dragged out of bed (literally) by flattening my fringe, which was a lot bouncier than my human hair and was stuck up in some kind of crazy duck tail.

Peaches shrugged. "Nah, it's okay. It's not that late, but we're spending the day down at the river, so we'll grab something to eat once we're there. Sound cool?"

"Yup, that's good. I'll just tell you, though, I've not got very good stamina, so I won't be walking too far without faceplanting or something!" I joked.

"Oh! That's okay. You can sit on my back if you want to," she offered, taking me seriously. I shrugged looked over at Louis, who shrugged back.

"It might be a bit... um, jolty... but other than that, usually safe." he told me.

I bit my lip, but scrambled up onto the mammoth's back anyway.

"So, are we going then?" I asked, but apparently it was a useless comment.

"WOAAAHHH! SHUNUMBUNGERS!" I shouted as Peaches took to the trees, whooping, whilst instructing Louis' tunneling figure,

"I'LL MEET YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!"

I clamped my eyes shut again as I clung desperately to Peaches' neck fur, muttering under my breath, "Please stop, please stop, please!" as my stomach felt like it was going over about three thousand speedbumps. Apparently, mammoths have good hearing, for she swung down from the branch and allowed me to slide off onto all fours.

"Remind me - NEVER - to hitch hike - on your back - ever - again!" I groaned, gasping for breath. Peaches wore an expression similiar to that of a naughty schoolgirl. "Sorry. I wasn't trying to scare you or anything. It's just a habit."

I nodded, attempting a smile as I stumbled to my feet, using the tree that Peaches had just dismounted from as support, making a mental note as I did so: Never accept a lift on Peaches' back, because, boy, will you regret it!

By the time we had arrived at the clearing, I had fully re-gained my energy and was in a pretty positive mood for seeing the other Ice Age characters. My ears flickered towards sounds of laughter and chattering, plus whoops of enjoyment, so I peeked through the trees to see what awaited me. 'The River' was a pretty loose term for this latest teenage hangout, as a large gushing brook that trickled down from a cliffside met an almost reservoir-like expanse of water, where fellow animals mucked around in the water or chilled out on the lush grass bank while catching up on gossip.

"Pretty neat, right?"

I looked up to see Peaches standing over me, a broad grin on her face. I looked up to see who she was calling to.

"Steffie! Meghan! Katie!"

Three other mammoth heads turned towards us. Steffie, the leader of the three, called back,

"Yo, Peaches! How's it goin', girl?"

"Awesome, thanks," Peaches replied, as we walked onto the scene and met with the females of the Brat Pack. I stood behind Peaches' leg, trying my best to keep out of view. I was a little more than anxious. How those ladies saw me would basically put my popularity roots down, but as Peaches introduced me, I found they must have thought a friend of her was a friend of them too.

Peaches coaxed me from behind her.

"C'mon Taz, these guys don't bite," she said, rolling her eyes.

I jokingly poked a tongue back at her, before turning to wave at Steffie, Meghan and Katie.

"Heya guys! Name's Taz. I'm, um, new to these parts."I bit my lip as the part lie escaped my mouth. Sure, I hadn't been here before, but I knew exactly where we were, as well as how all of these people had ended up here; all of them, that is, except the hyraxes.

I didn't like to cover up my identity - in fact, it brought me great discomfort and thorough guilt - but I knew it was probably the only way to be accepted and not be treated like I had a few screws loose. I know, I know, I've been over it before, but seriously, think about it: Would you be comfortable fibbing about your whole existence?

Steffie smiled a genuine smile at me.

"Heya, nice to meet you, dudette! I'm Steffie."

We exchanged a quick high five, before I was introduced (even though I actually knew them already) to the other two mammoths. They took me under their wing pretty quickly, but I guess it felt like that because I was being WAY more level headed than I ever was as a human. I have to admit, though, that wasn't stop me from doing crazy possum stuff.

Peaches and Louis (though mainly Peaches) had been lingering around Ethan and his crew, with whom Peach still had a good friendship, whereas I'd pretty much spent a lot of the morning exploring. Even though I was pretty sure that I could and couldn't eat, I was pretty sure that there were some perfectly juicy berries lingering on a bush until Louis pulled me out of the way abruptly and explained that they were Lotus berries! I felt like such a dumbass not to have recognised them.

I climbed up onto the edge where everyone was stood. Peaches waved me over. "Hey, come look at the view from here! You can see the entire forest!"

"Really? Cool!" I exclaimed, scampering (as it had become my new gait of movement) over to where she was. I looked over the edge of the cliffside.

It wasn't that far from the lake-ish bit, actually, but when you're small like I am, it can see a pretty long way. About the kind of drop you would expect for a 5-10 metre diving board. Speaking of which, I had a little bit of a Crash and Eddie moment at that time. If I peered over the edge, I could see the lake was pretty much at the foot of where we were stood. If I jumped off now, I'd just land straight in the water. I could always dry off on the way home.

"Well," I shrugged, as the sun began to move from its highest point, casting shadows onto the jade-coloured grass, "In situations like this, there's only one thing for it: CANNONBALL!"

With that, I proceeded to throw myself into a divebomb down to the bottom of the lake.

My feet stung as I hit the surface with such large force, and I could feel the water plastering my fur to me. I squinted as I took in my surroundings under the water. It was pretty clear, and I could see loads of little minnows darting around in their aqua home. Some of them came too close to nibble the soles of my feet, and I let out a giggle, after which I choked as my windpipe was filled up and I urgently pulled myself up for more air, coughing some of the water out.

Up above me, to my blissful ignorance, there was a little bit of commotion as I didn't come up straight away. "Is she okay?" Peaches fretted. I looked up and saw about six sets of eyes staring down at me.

"Come on in!" I shouted up to them. "The water's really nice!" I dived under again to prove my point, swam about a few metres before coming up again for oxygen. I saw Peaches shrug, as she leapt off the cliffside with the others to join me. I yelled as the force of several mammoths hitting the lake reached me, drenching us all through to the skin.

CHAPTER 5! OMG! I did it!

Taz: That's not much of an achievement, y'know, MusicRocks is on Chapter 13 of a Second Chance. She tells more story about me than you do, and you're my owner!

Me: Yeah, well, I procrastinated, okay?! And that goes for a lot of my homework as well!

Well, I have some good news and bad news. The good news first - it's the HOLIDAYZ! *dances weirdly*

Taz: And the bad news?

Me: Uh... I have 2 pieces of project work to do as well as 7 more questions in French to finish off.

Taz: Ugh! *slumps*

Me: Meh, Well, at least I finished the chapter. Right, guys?

Bit of a random one, this, but hope you liked it anyways! ^^;