Hey guys! I would've updated this chapter earlier, but some messed up crap happened with my tablet and I could go on with some lame-ass excuses, but I'm sure ya just wanna read my late update, so I'm gonna shorten this and skip the review replies. So I promise that I'll do them next update!
Oh, and as for the if I'm finishing this on Ice age 3 or Ice age 4...gonna wait until the next update. Cuz now, I'm gonna do a poll on my profile! PLZ VOTE THERE!
Italics means telepathic communication
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
True to Taura's word, she, Manny and Diego walked into the supposed 'summer camp' to find Sid in some sort of ditch while being squashed into it by a beaver girl bouncing on his head. Surrounding the tortured sloth were other kids of all kinds of species who were watching with childish amusement and excitement. Taura winced at their high and squealing laughter as they continued to watch Sid being buried; she really didn't like kids...at all. All her life, she has had bad experiences with them and plus, who wanted to have kids anyway? They're squirmy, icky and unsanitary! Who'd want to put up with that for the rest of their lives?
"Woah, woah!" Manny barged in, causing the beaver girl to hop off quickly and put her hand behind her, giving the three older mammals an innocent face. "Who said you kids could torture the sloth?"
Diego looked down at the buried Sid and smirked "Manny, don't squish their creativity." Taura rolled her eyes at his cruel sense of humor before walking up to Sid and shuffling some dirt off of his face so he can speak.
Sid sent a grateful grin towards Taura before beaming up at his two other pals "Hey Manny, Diego! My bad, mammal jammals! Wanna give a sloth a hand?"
Taura grinned back and shuffled to the side to let Manny help Sid out: he curled his trunk around Sid's neck and pulled him out, a strangled, eye-popping expression coming over Sid's face before Manny's trunk finally loosened and set him down on the ground.
"Look, I opened my camp!" Sid said excitedly to Diego, who looked at him with a deadpanned expression. "'Campo del Sid!' It means camp of Sid!"
"Congratulations, you're now an idiot in two lanuages." Diego congratulated him sarcastically, making Sid shush him as he eyed the kindergartners worriedly.
"Not in front of the K-I-D-Z!" Sid whispered not too conspiratorially to his saber friend before he looked happily at the kids, paticularly a turtle one. "These little guys love me! Right Billy?"
The turtle kid simply threatened him grumpily "Don't make me eat you!" making all the other kids laugh and giggle at the sloth again, while Taura winced again at their high-pitched squeals. Maybe if she stepped further away until she was next to Diego...
Manny rolled his eyes at Sid exasperatedly before scolding "I told you Sid, you're not qualified to run a camp!"
Sid simply waved his hand at him while commenting nonchalantly "Oh since when did qualifications have anything to do with child-care?" Taura gave Sid a weird look at what he said "Uh...pretty sure you need those to take care of children..." She snorted mentally before noticing the beaver girl tying up Sid's legs while he rambled on about how proud he was of his children "Besides, these kids look up to me! I'm a role model to them-OOPH!"
No sooner did he finish his sentence did the two kids shove him from behind, making him topple over and fall on his back. He looked up to find Manny looking at him with bored eyes, Diego still had his deadpanned expression with amused eyes while Taura gave him a sympathetic look as she tried to help him up.
"You guys think that I can never do anything," Sid huffed as he shoved off Taura's paw angrily, making her eyes flash with a hurt expression for a second before she snorted at him and backed off. "But I'm an equal member of this herd! I. Made. This. Herd!" He enunciated his words as he pointed at himself for emphasis then towards the others. "So you guys need to start treating me with some respect!" He then huffed angrily before hopping off with his nose in the air, giving the others the cold shoulder.
"Come on Sid!" Manny called while looking back at the retreating figure of the sloth.
"Sid, we were just kidding!" Diego tried to console, but Sid didn't turn back around. Taura looked worriedly between Diego and Sid. "Should I go after him?" Taura asked him, Diego simply shook his head at her. "Nah, he'll be fine." Diego said, before Taura gave him a sarcastic look with her eyes that said "Really? This is Sid we're talking about."
"Hey!"
The three mammals looked down again to find the little kids still there, only this time the beaver girl was upfront with a stick in her paws.
"Let's play 'pin-the-tail-on-the-mammoth'!" She called out with an evil glint in her eyes, before roaring out in victory and shoving the stick in the air. All the other kids yelled out 'yay!' before they started to charge at the three.
"SID!" The two poor males called out with panicked eyes at the sloths, while Taura quickly rushed off to find Sid.
"Sorry guys! You're on your own!" There was no way she was going to let those kids lay their icky paws on her fur coat!
Taura looked through every slide and every swimming pool, but she couldn't find the familiar sight of her green sloth. Plus, her being a mute didn't exactly make it easier, since she couldn't ask anybody if they've seen the sloth and she couldn't call out his name either. It wasn't until the sun was at its highest peak in the sky did she find Sid climbing up the stair case leading towards the...Eviscerator...
Taura quickly ran up a few steps before she tapped Sid's shoulder, causing him to yell out and jump in fright on Taura as they both tumbled down the stair case again.
"Taura...?" Sid groaned out from his upside-down position on her back. All he got was a painful moan in reply from the collapsed saber, who quickly stood up making Sid yell out in surprise as he plopped back to the ground. He looked up to find Taura looking down on him with worried eyes and a nervous smile.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" Sid mumbled out as he got up on his own, not meeting her eyes since he was still angry at the other herd members. Taura felt her claws dig into the ground angrily at his huffing expression before she took a deep breath through her nose and calmed herself down. She tapped his shoulder again and looked at him with questioning eyes as she gestured towards the eviscerator.
"Oh...that?" Sid chuckled nervously, before coughing into his paw and shoving her away hastily "Nah, it's nothing, but wait, is that Diego calling you? Oh I'm sure you have better things to do than look at me climb a few steps nowrunalongIhopeyouhaveagoodtimewiththekids BYE!" He rambled quickly before giving her one final shove and waddling away quickly. Taura stared ahead with wide confused eyes.
"Okay...he is definitely up to something...but what?"
She quickly padded off to find Diego and Manny, hopefully they would know what that sloth would be up to. Why would a lazy guy like him try to climb up the evicerator...unless...
"Oh no..." Taura's eyes widened in realization at what Sid was doing climbing up there, then she sped up into a sprint towards where she last saw the two mammals. Hopefully they'll be able to stop that idiot in time...
"Come on, don't listen to him! Fast Tony would sell his own mother for a grape!" Manny yelled out to the gathered crowd,
Taura found the two in the middle of a crowd that usually gather around to listen to Fast Tony's wacky ideas and products. Apparently Manny was trying to convince the audience that Fast Tony's preaching of 'doomsday flooding' was just a hoax. Taura tried to get Diego's attention by pulling on his shoulder, but he shoved her paw away.
"Not now Taura." Diego mumbled, not looking at her. Taura growled in annoyance and was about to pull even further until she heard some anteater call out.
"Hey buddy, not cast aspersions on your survival instincts, but haven't mammoths gone extinct?"
Manny looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"
The anteater snorted and retorted "I'm talking about you being the last of your kind!"
Diego and Taura looked up at Manny worriedly only to find him looking to the side nervously. "Uhh...your breath smells like ants!" He randomly blurted out. The anteater sniffed his breath for a minute before scoffing back.
"Be that as it may, when was the last time you saw another mammoth?" He smiled confidently,
Manny looked at him with wide eyes, having no answer to reply to for a moment. Taura scowled at the anteater angrily, didn't people these days know anything about sensitivity?!
"Nah! Don't pay attention to him Manny," Diego scoffed at the anteater, but Manny ignored him and tried to put up his own stubborn arguments.
"Mammoths can't go extinct, they're the biggest things on earth!" Manny retorted firmly.
"Well, what about the dinosaurs?" A female bird questioned,
Manny argued with a solid theory once again "The dinosaurs got cocky, they made enemies!"
"Look! Some idiot's going down the eviscerator!" Some bystander yelled out, causing the other animals to exclaim in surprise as they all looked up towards the giant waterfall structure. Taura's eyes widened in horror as she looked up to find Sid up on top of the eviscerator. "Damn it...I'm too late..."
"Oh please tell me that's not our idiot..." Manny annoyingly winced as he grumbled to Diego and looked up to find the shadowy silhouette of their friend on the top.
"Okay! I'm gonna jump on the count of three!" The echo-y voice of Sid called out from the top, He then started to shuffle nervously towards the edge of the waterfall with fear-stricken eyes. "One...two..."
"Sid! Don't move a muscle, we're coming up!" Manny yelled out to the sloth as he walked towards the waterfall structure. No sooner did he say that though did the audience behind the trio start to walk forward with eager faces as they chanted "Jump, Jump, Jump, Jump!" Taura was about to ignore them and run after Many towards Sid until she heard Diego chant along with them.
"Jump, Jump, Jump..." Diego chanted along with an excited face before he looked to find two pairs of eyes glaring at him. He then sheepishly looked to the side and apologized "Sorry..."
"Two and three one thousandths, Two and four one thousandths..." Sid muttered scarily, as his entire body hunched close in fear at the expecting leap.
It took a trio a while to run up the stair case, but when they climbed up, they didn't expect the sloth to still be at the top, counting at a very slow and un-eager pace.
"Sid!" Manny snapped at him, the sloth turned around sharply at the sound of the angry mammoths voice. Taura and Diego were also there on either side of Manny looking up at him. "What are you doing? Get down from there!"
Sid glared at the three and yelled back "No way! I'm gonna be the first to jump off the eviscerator and then you guys are gonna have to start showing me some respect!"
Manny narrowed his eyes even further at the annoying sloth and took a threatening step forward "If you jump off this the only respect you'll get is respect for the dead!"
"Come on Manny! He's not that stupid!" Diego scoffed at Manny while shaking his head at Sid, thinking that he didn't have the guts to do it. Sid turned his back towards the three and shook his hind, preparing for the leap. Manny's eyes widened in fear and he hurried forward to grab Sid, while Taura slapped her forehead in annoyance as she growled at Diego "You HAD to say that didn't you?!"
"Hey, I've been wrong before!" Diego retorted as he glanced at her with defensive eyes.
"Geronimo-OOMPH!" Sid bellowed as he jumped, only to get grabbed by the waist by Manny, who then chucked Sid over his head. Luckily, Sid managed to land right behind Manny, but the two then started to slide downwards...very fast...
"Hey watch it!" Diego yelled out as the two sped and crashed into him while Sid screamed in a feminine voice. Taura managed to side step out of the way only to watch as the three continued to slide until Diego was the only one left. It didn't take long for him to stop and collapse on his stomach.
"Diego!" Taura yelled out in fright as she ran up towards him. Diego quickly got up onto his feet with a groan off pain, while Taura looked him over from top to bottom. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah yeah, I'm fine." Diego brushed her off and was about to make his way towards the others until he noticed the ice crack beneath his feet. The two sabers looked down worriedly to find the cracks get larger and they both quickly bolted out of the way. Taura was right behind Diego, who was hopping around like mad and trying to get away from the cracking ice, and noticed that the ice gave away right behind him as well leaving an expanse of water. Taura took another leap after Diego only to then slip on one of the ice blocks and fall into the water. Even her frightened yelp didn't disturb Diego as he jumped at Manny's face.
"Uh, Diego? Retract the claws please." Manny grumbled at the feline who was clinging onto the mammoth's face while panting heavily and looking at the water with panicked eyes.
Diego instantly snapped out of his fear-stricken trance and unpinned his claws from Manny's face as he climbed down. "Oh, right, sorry." He muttered sheepishly until he finally landed down.
"Y'know, if I didn't knw you better Diego, I'd think you were afraid of the water!" Sid chuckled at the saber, until Diego decided to sharply strangle the poor sloth's neck with a threatening growl.
"Okay, okay, good thing I know you better!" Sid squawked with a strangled voice out as he tried to pry Diego's claws away from his neck. Manny ignored the two and helped the shivering female saber up with his trunk, who then plopped down onto solid ice and gulped in as much air as she could while glaring at Diego.
"Guys...Fast Tony was right..." Manny called out as he looked out to the horizon with eyes widened in horror. Sid, Diego and Taura walked next to him (both Taura and Sid glaring at Diego) and saw the same sight, all their eyes widening with the same expression. "Everything's melting..."
In front of them, as far as the eye can see, was an expanse of dark blue water, held up by the gigantic ice cliffs that they were currently standing on. There were random chunks and layers of ice scattered here and there, mostly clustered up next to the ice walls.
"It's all gonna flood..." Manny mumbled solemnly before his eyes steeled up and hurriedly started to head towards the exit "Come on, we've gotta warn them."
Sid stood there while scratching his belly with a pondering expression "Hmm...maybe we can rapidly evolve into water creatures?"
Diego rolled his eyes at him before drawling out sarcastically "That's genius Sid..." before walking away after Manny with Taura following him as she shook the water off her fur.
Sid apparently didn't get Diego's sarcastic remark and replied with a smug grin "Call me squid!" before shuffling after them. Taura heard Sid mumble something or other about their home being a dump, but didn't pay attention until she heard him bang against the ice floor, causing a giant rumbling noise to erupt throughout the bridge they were walking on. The trio looked down in panic before looking at Sid with angry eyes.
Sid gave them an innocent, questioning look "What?"
Unfortunately, they didn't have time to answer that question before the ice gave out beneath them entirely...
CRACK!
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Soon, they were all falling along the waterfall and heading down at a rapid pace towards the pond below while they screamed their lungs off. Manny was skidding against the water on his back while Sid clung to his trunk and Taura and Diego were hanging onto his tusks on either side. As they hurtled towards the bottom, Taura clung harder onto Manny's tough fur and clenched her eyes shut as she waited for them to plummet to the ice below the water. Only, instead of feeling the chilling cold, Taura continued to feel them skidding across the water surface and eventually slide to a stop. Taura blinked her eyes open to find them...in the exact same position that they were when trying to convince the audience of Fast Tony's lies.
Speaking of the armadillo, he peaked his head out of his protective shell-hunch position to find the mammoth upside-down and then hopped into the air and landed on his feet standing before proclaiming out into the crowd once again "Ya see?! This is exactly what I was talking about! Giant balls of furry lava, the size of mammoths, raining from the sky!"
The crowd simply laughed at him as they started to disperse with bored expressions, one of them even called out "Go suck air through a reed!"
Manny quickly lowered them down and stood up on his own feet before yelling out with a panicked tone "You've gotta listen to him! He's right about the flood!"
"I am..?" Taura heard Tony mumble quietly before he quickly yelled out confidently "I mean, yes! I am!"
"Wait a minute!" One deer called out skeptically "You're the one who said there wasn't going to be a flood, why should we listen to you?!"
Manny yelled at them all exasperatedly "Because we saw what's up there! The dam's gonna break, the entire valley's gonna flood!"
The others simply shook their heads or laughed them off mockingly at the mammoth, until a certain accented voice spoke up.
"Flood's real alright..."
Everyone looked up to where the voice came from, a lone tree, to find a scary-looking vulture sitting on one of the boulders. He had the usual bald features with a hooked beak and a flat head. He smirked at the animals below him creepily before gesturing to the area around them.
"Look around, you're in a bowl!"
They all then looked around them to find that what the vulture said was true: encircling the entire melting area were big colossal walls of ice like a giant bowl. The animals then started to look at each other fearfully at the realization.
"Bowl's gonna fill up...ain't no way out." The vulture stated simply, making the animals yell out in fear with statements like 'what are we gonna do?' and 'how are we gonna survive?' before the bird interrupted again "Unless! You can make it to the end of the valley...there's a boat. It can save you."
The audience then looked at each other skeptically while one called out 'I don't see anything!'.
"But...y'all better hurry..." the vulture warned them scarily with narrowed eyes "Ground's meltin', wall's tumblin', rocks crumblin' ! Survive that, and you'll be racing the water! 'Cuz in three days time, it's gonna hit the geyser fields...BOOM!"
The last word the vulture yelled out exaggeratedly, making some of the audience members jump and yell in fear. One of them even fainted! "Oh please!" Taura scoffed mentally as she shook her fur dry...again! "Pretty sure this bird-brain is exaggerating 98% of this...I hope..."
"There is some good news though..." The bald-headed bird added in, before creepily stating with a scary smirk "The more of you die...the better I eat!" which caused the fainting audience member to faint again. He then stated with a defensive tone "I didn't say it was good news for you!" before finally flying off. Of course, we can always count on Sid to add in a very poor attempt at comedy...
"Oooh! He must've been a real pleasure to have in class!"
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