New chapter! Enjoy!

It was lunch time. Everyone was eating… except for Shira. She stared out at the landmass, they'd been goofing around on land again. It was lush and green, with thousands of beautiful plants, but she made a point to stay away from anything strangely colored, tear dropped shaped or shiny. She did not want a repeat of her encounter with poison ivy, and neither did anyone else, she was sure. It left them all scratching for five days. It was horrible.

Either way, her family still wouldn't let her participate, so she'd run off to play. She'd met up with another cat, a spotted leopard, she believed. She wasn't scared though, he was about her age, if not a smidge (meaning six months at the most) younger, or older.

They'd played together and had a good time, although he was astounded when she nearly hurled when he brought her over for lunch and saw them all tearing into something she refused to examine even long enough to figure out what it was. All she knew was that it was bloody and disemboweled.

His parents had kindly offered her some, then she really did lose her previous meal, thankful she'd had a light breakfast. After she calmed her upset stomach, she settled for a couple strawberries for a midday snack. Her mother always warned her not to spoil her appetite, otherwise it would be thrown all out of whack and she'd find herself hungry at the oddest times.

They had all stared at her like she was a freak, eating fruits and all, explaining she was a natural predator and ought to try their deer. She quickly refused, explaining that she had been adopted as an infant and raised by all vegetarians who didn't have anything else to feed her. They were sympathetic at the loss of her 'real' parents, which secretly made her temper flare. Raz was just as much her real mother as her biological one was! And she always would be.

Then she'd realized it was almost noon and went to find her family, promising Adam she'd come back to play later. Then he did something that really surprised and confused her, something she was contemplating asking her family about. Finally deciding on a yes, she rose and padded over to them.

They were all in various positions, talking and laughing. "Hey mom?" The six year old began. "Guys? Can I talk to you?"

Her mom took another drink of juice from the poor orange she'd punctured and nodded. "Talk away Sheila."

"Well, um- I was wondering…"

"Spit it out squirt." Squint urged gently, popping another grape in his mouth. He was never big on waiting. None of them were.

"What does it mean if a boy kisses you?" her mom did a double take and spewed her orange juice. Squint choked on his grapes, clutching his throat, coughing violently. Silas and Gupta fell off their perch on a large-ish piece of ice like a chair. Boris's eyes widened and his mouth fell open, Gutt looking the same. Flynn just looked around in confusion. Why was everyone acting so strangely?

"WHAT?!" they all exclaimed.

"I said, 'what does it-" her mother clamped a hand over her mouth, the other on her heart, panting in shock.

"We heardja, we heardja!" she managed, chest heaving from her heavy breathing and spit take. "Just… why? Yer too young t' be wondrin bout stuff like tha'!"

"Well, cuz I was playin with this boy I met earlier, and when I went to go, he kissed my cheek. What does that mean?"

Raz blinked, eyes becoming unfocused and swaying where she sat, a paw on her head, suddenly looking a bit dizzy and ill. Then her expression cleared and she blinked, hard, a couple times and rubbed her eyes.

She slid her paws into her pouch and curled her fingers around the familiar wooden handle of her favorite spiral shell sword. "Where is 'e?" she growled through clenched teeth. Whoever this boy was that had the nerve to actually kiss her daughter, and thought he could get away with it… he had another thing coming. It was called a sword to the throat and it was going to hurt. Severely.

Her uncles went into over protective mode and grabbed out their weapons. "Yeah…" Squint agreed. "Any guy that thinks he can actually…" he trailed off, making mental threats that were highly inappropriate to be heard by such a young child. "Hey. Who's up for buryin him and dancin on his grave?!" he asked excitedly.

Shira tilted her head, confused. "What d'ya mean? He's not dead silly!"

"Not yet, that's for sure." He growled.

Thankfully, in their blind, overprotective rage, Shira managed to slip into her mothers pouch before they went off. She managed to keep him from being slaughtered, but they were about two inches from attending her first funeral.

"Ok, note to self." She muttered that night after calming her family and making sure Adam stayed a safe distance from her when they played. "Stay away from boys."

So what'd you think? And I don't own Ice Age. More ideas please, from anyone.