Author's Note: I .. am so sorry.
Bros, you have no idea how shameful I feel right now. In fact, I'll make it a rule right now to stop eating cookies for a month to punish myself! I would give u excuses about how I wasn't able to update, but basically: Exams.
Anywhoots!
Let's get on with review replies:
TimberPaw: I think you meant "Taura's", as in to not be mistaken with the OTHER OC story, haha!XD But thank u anyways, and I shall ensure that the next chapter won't be a late update!
Yeeeaah: Gah! ... uh, thanks for the warning! Hope u like this chapter!
Optimus Prime's Daughter: I can't wait either! I'm glad u liked my special chapter, hope u like this one too!
Shiego627: No worries bro, and sorry for the long update, but hope u like this chapter!
Guest: Thank you! Here it is! Sorry for being late!
ArisuTamaZuki: Thank you! Hope u continue to do so!
Freddie: I HAVE~!
SecondaryPsychopath: I just did, sorry for the long wait! But thank u and I hope u like this one!
'Almost there... Almost There!'
It was like Manny's mind placed an automatic mantra into his head, no matter how desperate and dire the situation seemed. His flat, column-like feet where aching painfully as they hurriedly tried to catch up to the sprinting possums ahead; his eyes were a mixture of widened panic and narrowed determination. He felt the wind of the oncoming disaster pushing against his colossal body, his fur flowing and flying wildly like a repeated alarm reminding him 'it's coming, it's coming, IT'S COMING!'. Manny barely registered his two other companions barely keeping up with him as he tried to sprint as steadily as possible through the rocky cliff path; why was he acting to rashly? A part of his mind whispered harshly and rightly so. If anything, he should have respect Ellie's wish in ensuring her brother's safety and took them to the boat! Instead he was rushing head first into the direction of the flood, not knowing if and how he could possibly get Ellie out and even if he did, what then? They probably wouldn't reach the boat on time! However, Manny ignored the annoying harpy of common sense in his mind, along with the thundering hammering of his heart because either way, he already knew the answer to all those questions. Somehow and he didn't know when or why, Ellie and her brothers managed to earn their place in the herd... and Ellie in his heart. He didn't know when it started, but he eventually stopped looking at Ellie from his species' perspective and more from his own view of her; a sweet, caring female that he probably didn't deserve. And even if he was the only one who thought so, he'll be damned if he let Ellie drown now!
The possums assured them that they were almost there, but it almost seemed like the closer they got to Ellie, the more disastrous the weather got. By now, Manny could hear the waves' roar like a thunder cascading throughout the valley and the wind if possible seemed to grow even stronger and faster, forcing him to desperately and clumsily sprint even faster after the possums when suddenly...
"Gah!" Manny yelled as he tumbled into a halt just when a giant boulder crashed and rolled in front of them. The blood was now roaring in his ears, his eyes now wide in panic and impetuosity. He couldn't stop now though, the flood would be coming any minute now! And speak of the devil, just as Manny looked up towards the horizon where Ellie's cave was... a giant chaotic whirlwind wall of water flew up from behind...and crumbled the entire path with them all on it...
Water. Water everywhere. Drowning. Freezing. Tugging. Pulling. Everywhere.
Taura was sniffing for air as she tried to keep her head above the surface, the waves of the flood felt like a thousand claws tugging at her fur painfully. The fact that only one of her eyes functioned didn't help either as she rapidly twisted her head around, desperately trying to look for a piece of dry land she could land on; but nothing in the vicinity appeared, just water as far as her eye could see to the horizon. Even when she did find a jutting cliff, it would seem that the fates would play a sick joke on her and another wave would drown her below the surface again. Her bronze eye set wide in panic as she saw another wave coming in and her jaws clamped harder onto the clump of fur and skin in her clutches as she tried to paddle away. Unfortunately, Taura found herself tumbling painfully underwater again, but she still painfully bit down harder onto Kraz's shoulder, refusing to let him go. At some point when their mode of transportation to the boat got crumbled by the flood, Kraz must have hit his head hard against a boulder because the next thing Taura knew, she was biting down onto his unconscious form, trying to stay afloat. She tried to open her eye again to see where the surface was, but the salty liquid shoved itself directly onto the socket and she yowled with her mouth shut in pain.
Her lungs felt like they were collapsing in on themselves, burning for another gulp of oxygen. Her mind was thinking at a million miles per minute of panic, with only a few words of alarm seeping through her brain consisting of 'Air! Hold On! Get Air! Find Diego! Surface! Surface! Find Diego! Where's Kraz?! Don't let go! Surface! It hurts! The Pain! Air! Hold On! Air! AIR! AIR!' Until she finally broke to the surface again, frantically trying to breathe in whatever air that can come into her nostrils.
Taura tried to blink her eye open again, however the area everywhere just looked blurry and unclear from how much water that got into her eye. She felt Kraz's head fall into the water again and felt her heart lurch in panic. She frantically yanked his head upwards with a sharp tug and pushed upwards with her aching legs, causing another jolt of searing pain through her body. Taura winced and growled as she started to panic and the feeling of dread from how hopeless the situation seemed started to sink in. It wasn't until she noticed a familiar shade of orange in the corner of her eye did she turn around and lo' and behold! From how relieved Taura became, you would think the heavens sent her an angel to coincidentally stand on a far away cliff on the horizon...
Diego stood there, his mind and his body at war with each other. Damn it! Of all times, why did this have to happen now?!
Luckily, when the flood waters finally crashed onto them, Sid and himself managed to halt to a stop right behind the crumbling path. Although Manny went down with the path as well, he was able to grab a giant tree trunk floating by just in time to stay afloat and try and jam the cave door open. However, Diego couldn't say the same for the possums... or Sid for that matter. While the possums managed to grab onto a bunch of branches just barely growing above the surface of the flood waters, Sid (being the genius that he was) thought it would be a great idea to dive head first (literally) into the flood waters to save them...only to crash head first into a floating ice block. Fortunately, the possums were able to grab onto Sid before he floated away. Unfortunately, now it was just Diego standing on the cliff with now THREE victims in need of saving.
He knew he should jump in to save them. He knew that the flood would get worse. He knew that if he didn't jump in soon, they wouldn't last long. He knew that if he didn't save them, he would never forgive himself. ... And neither would Taura for that matter. So why was every bone in his body saying NO?! He tried to run up to the edge and jump, but his claws instinctively unsheathed and pierced into the ground, grounding him to a halt. He knew that he just cannot STOP, but his heart lurched in natural fear when his eyes widened at the sight of the terrifying twisting waves of the water. Diego let out a frustrated growl and clenched his eyes closed as he hung his head.
"Okay, okay, okay..." Diego whispered to himself, he lowered his haunches and prepared to leap. "Jump in...NOW!"
...
The exact same reaction happened; Diego growled even louder and clawed at the ground in irritation. He hung his head low and lowered his body down, trying to will any form of bravery into his wussy cat system!
"Come on 'fraidy cat, COME ON!" Diego growled to himself, his teeth grounded together and his eyes narrowed in irritation. He nodded his head and chanted to himself "You can do this, you can do this, you can DO THIS!" as he felt his heart beat increase faster by the minute. He tried to fight his every instinct to not jump, but every time he did, he would get a pang of a headache, his heart would lurch painfully and his muscles would jolt and freeze into place; his frightful instincts seeming to take over his body. Diego hung his head in shame and let out a muffled roar of resentment and annoyance with his eyes clenched; 'JUST DO IT!' He yelled at himself inwardly, 'JUST DO IT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!'
Taura tried to kick her aching body as high above the surface as she could, feeling the full weight of Kraz's body dragging her down at the same time. Her throbbing legs felt like they were dipped in the fires of hell and were now still burning against the freezing cold of the waters below, along with them begging Taura to just succumb to the thrashing waves of the flood waters. Taura however just kept glaring with her one blurred eye at the glimmer of hope standing on top of a distant cliff with his back towards her; She didn't know how she'd get Diego's attention, all she knew was that it was her one chance at survival if she was going to survive along with Kraz!
Taura suddenly felt a chill going through her spine and looked around to see any imminent danger...and sure enough, there was a giant clump of bushes and logs heading straight towards her! 'Oh god no...please no!' Taura whimpered in her mind as she looked down worriedly down at Kraz, his eyes still shut and his giant squarish muzzle already bearing a few bloody wounds from the crash. Now that there was a giant piece of shrubbery tumbling straight towards her and Kraz, she knew she didn't have time to improvise a plan to get Diego's attention... Taura instinctively tried to swivel to the right and looked sideways to find a giant, crackly cliff wall towering above the flood waters by a few yards or so. She coordinated her two front paws in between Kraz's giant muscular frame and tried to paddle towards the wall without kicking her elbows at his unconscious form. Eventually, when she was only a few inches away from the wall, she took one final painful leap and threw herself onto the cliff wall. She unsheathed her claws and dug them excruciatingly onto the cracking, rocky brown surface while clenching her eyes shut from the pain. She looked behind her with despairing tearful eyes while trying to press Kraz's body onto the wall as well; the giant cluster of foliage was now only a few meters away and if anything only got larger! Taura's heart took a giant leap to the side, as if it was trying to escape the crisis itself! However, out of all reactions to panic, what Taura did next surprised even herself and would remain in her memory for the rest of her life.
She didn't know how she did it, she didn't know what was the main cause for it; the fact that it was Diego who could save her, or maybe it was just the bleakness of the situation? She didn't know why it suddenly happened, and now out of all times! But it did; she remembered instinctively taking a giant deep breath, widening her jaw so widely, along with her eyes as she felt tears start to well up in them. She looked directly at her life long companion... and maybe soon someone who would soon mean more to her...and she yelled.
"DIEGO~!"
At first, Diego stood there frozen; his face the very epitome of shock. 'No...' He thought, shakily turning his head around frantically in search of that voice...that familiar, sweet voice... 'It...it can't be!'
Sure enough, after only a few seconds of him looking around, Diego spotted Taura far away on another cliff wall, hanging on with all her might and...was that another sabertooth with her?! Diego would've thought that hearing Taura's voice (albeit how loudly voiced itself) would've relieved him, knowing that she was still alive! ... But it didn't. If anything, it made him even more frustrated and confused and panicky. Diego quickly looked towards the possums and saw that they were barely hanging to the branches while Sid was starting to slip away from their tails' grasps; Diego felt his muscles clench in alarm and his eyes widen in frenzy. However a voice in the back of his head hysterically demanded him to go for Taura and Diego quickly looked back to where he saw her; she was barely clinging on and the waves causing her to slip a few times and back up more onto the wall. Her paws looked like they were bleeding profusely through her wet fur, her teeth just barely clinging onto the tuft of fur of... whomever it was she was carrying!
Diego didn't understand however! Why didn't she just swim towards him?! A large groaning sound answered his question. He looked lower down stream to find giant clusters of broken down trees and wood heading straight towards her through the strong current; 'at this rate, she would either drown, or be impaled by all those branches!' Diego thought in panic, but he looked back at the other current victims in equal distress and thought again that he couldn't just leave Sid and the possums! He looked back at Taura and started to feel even more alarmed. Her eye started to almost shut in exhaustion, the only thing keeping it open was its ever gazing stare at Diego, which sent a cold feeling slivering through his abdomen. The sheer desperation, the fear in those eyes made Diego feel terrible and yet... the complete and utter plea and trust in them... just made in feel all the more horrible.
However, another voice in the back of his head demanded 'So? What are you waiting?! Are you really going to stand here and let them all drown?!'
Diego's used to be wide eyes... now narrowed in determination. His claws that were clutching onto the ground in fear (a word that he felt ashamed that it was even running through him in the first place, especially in a dire situation where Taura was in danger!), now grasped at the ground for a better launch and conviction.
"Trust your instincts!" He growled at himself with new-found boldness and courage, "Attack the water!" He felt the familiar instinct of the hunt take over him, the all too familiar rage fueling his frozen muscles into submission, "I am not your prey! I am not your prey! I AM NOT! YOUR! PREY!"
And with one giant roar... Diego leaped.