Guys, we've finally done it! THE FINAL CHAPTER OF ICE AGE 1 ! XD Thanks for all ur lovely reviews, couldn't have done it without u guys! Hope to see u at Ice age 2, which I hope will soon be updated! So no need to wait for long!
And normally, this is where I reply to all ur reviews, but I really need to get this chapter up quickly so again: THANK U ALL SOO MUCH! WILL BE CONTINUING AND PLZ KEEP UP UR LOVELY REVIEWS, CUZ THEY MEAN THAT MUCH TO ME!
Btw, Italics in the first part will mean a flashback, in the next one it'll be normal.
Warning: OC pairing, Don't like, DON'T READ!
Disclaimer: Don't own the Ice Age franchise or any of the characters in it; that all belongs to Blue Sky
Taura whimpered faintly as she nudged Diego's head again as he started to close his eyes again. He glanced at her and gave a her small smile of gratitude.
"Thanks...for coming..." He said faintly, his croaking voice making Taura wince even further. He sounded so weak...Taura responded by giving him a small grin that almost resembled a grimace, but her eyes still held their miserable look.
"Like I would ever leave you to your own stupidity..." Taura murmured, finally removing her head away from his but remained close as she sat next to him.
"We were...some team, huh?" Diego sighed as he looked at Manny, who stood next to him with miserable brown eyes.
He then put on a forced smile and tried to encourage Diego "Were? Come on, we're still a team..."
Diego didn't return his smile and placed his head back in the snow as he sighed again in defeat. "I'm uh, sorry I set you up..."
Sid shuffled towards him and placed the kid next to him, his usually smiling and optimistic face now set with a sombre frown. "Ah, you know me. I'm to lazy to hold the little runt..." Sid said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. The baby crawled towards Diego's face and placed his hand against his nose, whimpering sadly at the weak saber, causing Taura's heart to crack even further.
"Hey, knock it off squirt!" Diego jokingly-scolded faintly, his voice growing sore. "You gotta be strong. You gotta take care of Manfred and Sid...especially Sid. And as for Taura...well, she can take care of herself." Diego ended his sentence with a tight-lipped smile towards the said female who sat next to him,her eyes blinking from un-shead tears.
"Come on, you can lick this!" Sid whined, trying to sound encouraging as he closed both his claws into fists "You're a tiger! Look, I'll...carry you! Come on, what do you say?"
Taura tried to not look at the hopeful face of the sloth, as she knew that it was no use and that Diego was too hurt to be getting up anytime soon. She kept staring at Diego, who lay there rather still, his eyes closing shut every now and then as his breaths started to sound raspy.
"Come on, Diego, come on!" Sid said, then looked up at Manny with his sad hopeful eyes "Tell him he's gonna be okay Manny!"
Manny didn't reply and kept staring at Diego with a heartbroken expression, who met his gaze with a serious face. The baby glanced up at Manny with innocent red eyes, as if hoping that his favorite mammoth would be able to heal him.
"Listen, you'll have to leave me here." Diego told them, gesturing towards Glacier Pass in the distance "If those humans get through the pass, you'll never catch them."
Manny stood silent for a moment before muttering with a cracking voice "You didn't have to do that..."
Diego then looked up at Manny with another faint smile and replied "That's what you do in a herd..." before finally laying his head in the snow and shutting his eyes for the last time. Taura shut her eyes tightly and ducking her head, trying to hide the tears that had finally flown down her cheeks. "If I just made it sooner...if I just didn't leave them..."
The baby tried to reach out for Diego again, but Manny held him back and curled his trunk around his waist, picking him up off the snow floor at the same time. Manny and Sid stayed there for a while, staring at their friend...their herd member, with miserable, weeping eyes, as if mourning for their friend. Manny stopped staring at Diego for a while before setting his eyes on the very still female saber, who sat with her back turned towards them.
"You don't wanna come with us?" Manny asked her, his voice barely louder than a whisper. When Taura turned her head, her crying, puffy eyes and trembling lip was all that Manny needed to know her answer. Sid glanced at her with shocked eyes; it was very surprising to see their favorite female feline, who was usually bouncing with happiness, with wet cheeks and silently sobbing in front of her weak companion.
"Come on Sid," Manny said, gently pushing the sloth's shoulder. "We'll have to go."
Sid glanced worriedly from Manny back to Taura, wondering if she was going to come with them. When she didn't respond to the feeling of his eyes staring at her with concern, Sid finally shuffled off with Manny, quietly making their way to their final destination. When Taura heard their final footsteps finally reach out of her hearing distance, she was left to her now much louder thoughts that were buzzing with unanswered questions:
"Is this it? Am I gonna be left along again? Where will I go? Do I go with them? Will Diego die...here?..." After crossing through every single question in her head with misery and nostalgia, she suddenly had an epiphany. Taura's eyes widened in realization as she felt her scarred eyelid twitch at the memory she thought of. Taura quickly wiped away any tears soaking her cheeks and stood up with a new burst of determination. Taura's eyes were burning with self-assurance and her mouth stopped trembling and was set in a firm line. She looked one last time at Diego's still form and glanced at his chest that was moving up and down.
"Still breathing...good." And with that Taura quickly sprinted as fast as she could towards the different caves of Half Peak that weren't as affected from the cold weather, praying that Diego would hang on a little longer. "You better stay alive, or I'm going to bring you back from the grave and kill you myself!" Taura growled in her head as she sprinted even faster, heading towards the familiar sights of the infiltration troop caves.
As those thoughts crossed her mind, she realized that she wasn't answering the bigger question. The question wasn't whether Diego was going to die or not. The real question was: Was she going to just LET him die? And she sure as heck knew that she wasn't going to let another person she cared about die in front of her again. She kept repeating to herself that Diego was going to make it over and over again as she gathered as much of the dry pieces of leaves and grass into her mouth, while running back to Diego and while she patched up his beaten up shoulder and neck.
"Diego...are you SURE you're able to walk?" Taura asked for the thousandth time, her eyes glancing worriedly at Diego's now patched-up shoulder.
Taura made sure to use the medicinal grass and blended it with the snow in her mouth before applying it on Diego's wound. She then wrapped it up with the giant banana leaves that she used last time on Diego's wounded leg. Later on, Diego started to blink open his eyes to the sight of a very euphoric Taura who hugged him very tightly as soon as he woke up. She finally let go when he complained of lack of breath, but only ended up being punched on the head and threatened that if he ever did that again Taura would "rip your tail off and shove it down your throat!". Of course, Diego knew that was just her way of saying "I was really worried, glad you're alive!" so he just smiled at her and thanked her for healing his shoulder.
Soon, Taura helped him up and let him lean some of his weight on her as they both walked towards Glacier Pass. But along the way, Taura kept glancing with concern at his patched up shoulder, now wrapped up in a leaf, and kept asking if it didn't hurt or if it needed any tightening up. He would always reply with an annoyed roll of his eyes that it was fine and she didn't need to worry about it.
Diego, again, rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly "Yes, for the last time, it's fine Taura! Stop worrying about it!"
Taura was about to retort, but when they walked to the top of the snow dune that they were on, she grinned very widely at the sight of their two favorite herbivores. Manny was staring at Diego in surprise with a very big happy smile, but Sid was too busy waving away sadly at the baby and blubbering out goodbye's while sniffing away. Just as they both came up, they saw the baby cover its eyes and then flash them open, doing the same 'peek-a-boo' trick Diego did with him. Diego smiled softly at the little baby and replied with the same gesture with only one of his paws before waving the baby goodbye, who then finally disappeared into the distance.
"Goodbye..." Sid blubbered one last time, with his back turned towards them.
"Save your breath Sid," Diego said as he walked up towards them with Taura in tow "You know humans can't talk."
Sid stood up straight in surprise and turned around to see his favorite tiger standing there in the flesh. "Diego?! YOU'RE OKAY!" Sid yelled out in happiness with a big grin as he ran towards them.
Diego smirked cockily before yelling back "Nine lives, baby!"
Taura rolled her eyes at him but didn't fight off the happy smile that came across her face when she saw that familiar arrogant glimmer in his eyes once again. But what Sid did next caused her smile to widen into a full-blown grin as she started to giggle at the hilarious scene that started to unfold.
Sid ran headfirst towards Diego and jumped right at him, causing them to tumble back before they both stood up again. This time, Sid had a hold of Diego's head while he gave him a noogie and grinning very widely before punching Diego's shoulder in happiness, causing the saber to yell out in pain. Taura growled warningly at Sid for punching the same shoulder she worked hard to heal back to health, but the sloth ignored her and before you know it...he starting kissing Diego's forehead.
"I could kiss ya! Mwah, mwah, mwah!" Sid exclaimed with his same idiotic grin as he kissed away, but soon realized his action and jumped away from the cat as he started to spit away the fur and wipe his tongue with his claws. Taura stood back and laughed silently at the whole thing, not sympathizing at all with the abused Diego as he glared at Sid with a disgusted frown. Manny walked up towards them both with a blissful smile, just happy that Diego was walking and alive and that Taura was coming with them.
"Well welcome back you two, want a lift Diego?" Manny offered as he gestured towards his back,
Diego held up his finger as he shook his head "No thanks! I gotta save whatever dignity I got left!" Diego declined as he smiled at Manny.
"You're hanging with us now buddy!" Sid proclaimed happily as he beamed at the two sabers "Dignities got nothing to do with it! But I'll take that lift!" Sid then added innocently as he pointed his hand upwards eagerly at Manny. Taura shook her head at her favorite sloth, anticipating that Manny was going to decline but was surprised when the mammoth actually let the sloth clamber up his shoulder and sit on his back.
"Yeah, climb aboard!" Manny said with an easy-going grin as he leaned down and let Sid climb up.
"Yeeha! Mush!" Sid yelled out as he sat on Manny's back, pointing his finger up ahead like some captain. Manny glared up at the sloth warningly, causing him to shrink back his arm.
"Or uh..don't mush! Either way!" Sid chuckled nervously as Manny walked ahead, while Diego and Taura shook their heads at the two as they followed along. Taura stared fondly at her three companions, now thinking for sure that there was no other herd that she would rather travel with for the rest of her life.
"This is gonna be the best migration ever! I'm gonna show you all my favorite water holes! And I turn brown when all the fungus dries off!" Sid rambled
"Sounds very attractive" Manny sarcastically replied,
"You know, this whole Ice Age thing is getting old. Ya know what I would go for? Global warming!" Sid proclaimed,
"Keep dreaming..." Diego drawled,
"No really!" Sid yelled out defensively,
"Something tells me, that this is going to be one LO-ONG migration..."