Akira let out a distressed roar as she was thrown from firm ground by another breakthrough of the ice and held her breath as the shocking temperature of the cold water settled unwelcomed in her fur and chilled her to the bone. She resurfaced, looking for any signs of a solid surface. She noticed Diego as he stood unmoving on a floating piece of ice, the others safe on the frozen surface of the lake. For a heart-stuttering moment, Sid was nowhere to be seen. The sabress started toward land, ears rotating atop her head as she listened acutely for the sloth.
"AH! Akira!" She heard Sid's shrill scream to her far-right and swivelled her head to catch sight of the sloth paddling frantically away from a heavily gaining violet fin. On his own, the sloth was a goner as the nearest solid surface was too far away and the faster swimmer was not him. Sid screamed for help, thrashing desperately towards her and the sabress made a split-second judgment, growling under her breath at her final decision. She stood absolutely no chance yet she still paddled to save him.
As Akira reached Sid, he scrambled onto her back. Disoriented and drained, it was a wonder how she had the strength to endure, much less with additional weight. The sabress swiped a clawed paw at the creature's flank as she narrowly dodged its jaws, carving deep grooves into hard scales. The violet predator immediately turned away in retreat, diving deeper to recover from the blow and that gave them the time they needed.
Akira immediately began swimming to shore, catching a glimpse of Diego still on his chunk of ice, frozen in fear. The sabress could recall a time when she'd been there once but overcoming it had done wonders. Especially now for she had saved lives, her own included and she was about to add another to that list as she swam over to the immobile sabre. One more, however, could possibly equal one less.
"Akira, faster!" Sid screamed and she didn't have to look behind her to know that one of the creatures behind her was swiftly approaching. "Diego!" She snarled urgently as she reached the ice haven that was swiftly about to become his damnation. Sid hopped onto the slab and Akira turned to face the advancing water-dweller with wide, green eyes.
Halfway onto the ice slab, she hastily nipped Diego's leg, wary of her fangs. The sabre roared, more alarmed than in pain, and finally moved, hopping along the chunks of floating ice to safety. Akira was right behind Sid as he scrambled along. Just as the sabress went to jump to safety, however, she was sent flying when her makeshift float was knocked askew as one of the creatures rammed into it.
Once again, she was submerged in the freezing cold water. The sabress struggled to swim to the surface, slightly disoriented and lethargic as she spun in a full circle, looking for the closest refuge.
"Akira!" Manny was standing where the ice was thicker and much sturdier than it had been compared to that in the middle of the lake. It was much closer to where the frozen water met the land and naturally, it was shallower. Safety.
She was already swimming over, hastily so, and managed to haul herself up and dig her claws into the ice with an air of relief. She was about to draw her back legs out of the water when blinding white-hot pain stemmed from her right leg, in particular, blurring her vision for a moment. The thunderous roar that followed, torn forcefully from her throat, terrified the mammals within hearing range.
Manny watched, horrified, as jagged, razor-sharp teeth tore mercilessly into the sabress' hind leg. The mammoth surged forward, driven by adrenaline as he saw Akira's grip on the ice had begun to slip. The creature below the water that had latched onto her leg was determined to take the limb or the entire sabress with it and Manny would rather neither happen.
He wrapped his trunk around her middle and tugged lightly against the other predator, stabilizing a delirious Akira long enough so she had the time and energy to twist and slash at the scaly snout of the sea creature. The attack was weak but enough to startle the mouth into loosening a fraction. Manny wasted no time pulling the sabress out of the jaws of danger entirely and laid her down gently on the ice.
Akira groaned weakly as she felt the cold ice against her leg, the chill soothing to burning, hot agony. The sabress was trying her best to manage the pain and assess her wound when there was a splash and rows of teeth and a looming shadow coming right for her.
Akira braced herself for impact but was surprised when she felt fur brush her own and peeled an eye open to see tusks obscuring her vision. The violet water-dweller, in its greed, was caught on Manny's tusks with its mouth stretched wide. The mammoth narrowed his eyes at the creature in disgust, swinging his head and tossing the beast several feet away where it slid back into the water with furious eyes.
"Th. . . ank. . . y–o. You. . . di–n't. . . hav– to—" Akira could barely get a coherent word as her vision blurred, her mind hazy and her eyes heavy. "I. . ."
Manny eyed the two water-dwellers floating eerily on the surface of the water warily as he carefully lifted the sabress and deposited her as gently as he could on his back. He wasted no time turning around and headed toward the safety of solid land, glancing back once more just in time to see their attackers sink below the surface of the water.
Finding the relieving sanctuary of solid ground, he joined Diego, Sid, Ellie and the possums. "What in the animal kingdom was that?" Sid exclaimed, eyes wide as he glanced around at the herd. He had still yet to recover from his rush, especially when he witnessed Manny come face to face with one of them. "I don't know, but from now on, playing safe. Land, safe! Water? Not safe!"
Diego sniffed, mockingly making a face at Sid but tensed moments after. The smell of copper was thick in the air. "Manny, uh, is she—" He was interrupted by Ellie as she watched Manny with a strange expression. "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen," The shemmoth said and Manny averted his gaze, almost bashfully, momentarily forgetting the sabre bleeding profusely on his back. "It was nothing really, I—"
Ellie's eyes suddenly widened as she shook her head. "Oh, it's not a compliment. To a possum, bravery is just dumb." She turned and began walking along the path, her brothers trailing behind her. "Yeah! We're spineless, lily-livered."
Manny narrowed his eyes and huffed in mild annoyance, turning as he mocked the words of the female mammoth in a girlish voice. When they stumbled into a small clearing, one that looked safe enough for the time being, with extra care, he lowered a still inert Akira onto the soft ground.
Sid almost immediately stopped his teasing, gasping loudly. The sloth began muttering with a hint of panic, running off into the bushes with the sabre and mammoth glancing at him, concerned, before looking back at the sabress.
"How do you think she's doing?" Manny asked quietly, glancing at Diego. He wouldn't openly admit it because even though he wasn't too fond of people outside Diego and Sid, as annoying as the sloth could be, Akira had been starting to grow on him.
She did keep to herself and Manny hadn't minded it at all until he'd fallen in step with her, naturally at the head of the group, and she had struck conversation to fill the silence. It was interesting listening to her talk, to the stories she had to tell because there was a genuine light about the sabress one couldn't help but admire. Manny and Sid certainly did and Diego, though he would never admit it quite yet, did as well. "She'll live," The sabre said stiffly. His words weren't reassuring in the slightest.
Sid noisily re-entered the clearing and the waiting mammals looked at the numerous sticks and the tangle of vines he held, a dipping leaf filled with water balanced on his head precariously, the liquid sloshing with the slightest movements. "Sid, what are you—" The sloth shushed the questioning sabre, carelessly dropping the vines and sticks before he messily removed the bowl of water from his head. "We can't just leave her cut open like this, it'll get infected."
While they had to agree with him, they were rightfully concerned about Akira's well-being with Sid taking charge of it. "And what makes you think you can patch it up?"
Sid looked up at them, putting his thumbs in his mouth before pulling them out with a 'pop', "Opposable thumbs, my friends." Manny eyed how careful the sloth was as he poured water on the wound and washed away the blood, gentle around the deeper laceration and around the edges where the wound was tender.
Diego sat down beside him, hiding his worry a bit better than Manny. "How do you know what you're doing?"
"I call it sloth-stinct. Like instinct, only for sloths," Sid said, barely sparing them a glance as he worked. Manny and Diego glanced at each other uneasily. It wasn't like they could do anything more than Sid could—for once—as he was one of few with opposable thumbs and the other candidates were not necessarily trustworthy enough.
After wrapping the wound with broad leaves, the sloth slid two long branches on either side of the sabress's injury and wrapped vines around it, ensuring that it would let the leg heal properly. Manny and Diego were silently impressed at the work done by the normally cumbersome sloth. Diego padded forward and sniffed the wound, nuzzling it softly as he did. "Good job, Sid. You've managed to not screw it up further."
The sloth grinned, hearing the compliment behind the inferred insult. Manny nodded at the other herbivore and once again returned Akira to his back, turning to catch up with Ellie and the possums. Sid resumed his teasing, worry placated, but if any mammal had paid attention, they would've seen Diego's many looks at the still heap of gray fur on Manny's back.
When Akira came back to the world of the living, it was to joyous cheers. Groggily, she raised her head from the soft downy surface of where she lay and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as the ground was much farther down than she'd thought it should be. She took in her surroundings of forestry and realized she was on the back of a mammoth—Manny, to be precise. There was muffled talk all around her but before anything could register, her ride was suddenly moving quickly and she lowered her head, squeezing her eyes shut as her world lurched and spun violently.
A nauseous feeling settled in her stomach as Manny came to an abrupt stop. The talking grew louder and more frantic before the yells quieted or grew farther away—whichever happened, Akira wasn't able to pay much attention. Not when pain surged through her body, spreading like a wildfire that first began in her mangled leg. She glanced down at it, whimpering weakly at the dizzying feeling but felt a spike of warmth as she saw it had been wrapped.
Not only had the beast that had attacked her nearly ripped it to shreds, but it had also fractured a bone. She could only guess the decently wrapped twigs in the vine were to help set the bone back in place and help her heal the best she could. Whoever had done it knew what they were doing to some degree. And had the appendages to do it. It wasn't the work of tiger paws or mammoth trunks, for sure. She smiled slightly realizing it was Sid who had come to her rescue.
"Akira?"
She raised her head gingerly at her name, looking down at a blurry Sid and Diego. "How you doing, Tiger?" Manny's voice reached her ears and she glanced at the head of the mammoth.
"The pain's bearable. I can walk, Manny." Limp was more like it. The mammoth shook his head, however, as Diego glanced up at her. "Hey, it's not often he's willing to do something like this; take some advantage. . . kitty." Akira smiled before her expression soured. Her glare was half-hearted and Diego gave her a sly grin before he vanished from her sight as she laid her head down on her forepaws. She murmured a soft thank you, purring loudly though briefly to show Manny how thankful she was.
The mammoth cracked a smile feeling the sabress purr above him. He liked the sense of importance he felt being able to care for Akira. Of course, he always had to take care of Sid and look out for Diego occasionally but with the sabress, it was a different feeling. It reminded him of the protective feelings he'd had when he'd had a family. His eyes suddenly darkened and the mammoth closed his eyes briefly, breathing deeply as he started off in a direction, Diego and Sid hurrying after him.
The group travelled for a while more, arriving at more rocky terrain only this time, their path was obscured by fallen trees. There was an easier path to take, the possums had discovered but it would hinder their arrival by a few hours. Crash, Eddie and Ellie were playing around in the mess of dead trees, scrambling up and through gaps. Manny paved a path using sheer strength, refusing to force his body through the small gaps; partially to avoid hurting Akira and because he was a mammoth, not a possum.
Said sabress was still awake but she was drifting in and out of consciousness as she had been for the past couple of hours. The pain in her leg had dulled to a throb but it flared up with the slightest movements, limiting her greatly. "She's not half bad, crazy and confused, but, sweet," Diego's voice floated up to her. She glanced down at him and Sid, wincing sympathetically as the sloth wasn't knowledgeable to duck when Manny turned to look at Diego, tree trunk in, well, his trunk.
"So?" The mammoth tossed the tree behind him, taking another from their path. "So what's holding you back?" The sabre questioned softly, Akira herself curious. Sid was nice enough to fill her in Manny's little crush on Ellie much to the mammoth's annoyance. "My family," Manny said, almost pointedly, a tinge of sadness detectable in his voice.
Sid scrambled up a log Manny was holding and poked his head out the top so they were eye-level. "You can have that again, you know," The sloth said and the mammoth scowled. "No, Sid. I can't!" He went to throw the log away but the desperate cries of Sid made him pause. "Okay, okay. But. . . but—but, think about it! I mean if you let this chance go, you're just letting your whole species go! And that's just—that's just. . . selfish!"
Akira figured there was a better way to put it as she watched the log with Sid sail through the air, landing far away with a loud thud. The sabress looked down at the mammoth as Diego left to check on Sid. The mammoth turned his gaze to Ellie who was playing with her brothers and Akira was quiet, giving him a moment before she decided to speak up. "He's kinda right, Manny."
The mammoth didn't move to look back at her though his trunk twitched, a tell that she was heard. "You don't know anything." The words were lacking the proper bite Manny had attempted to put into them and he scowled. "I don't but Sid is right. You had a family before and with Ellie, you could have that again. I don't know you as well as I'd be lucky to but I know you deserve to be happy, knowledge of your past or not. Let the past go, because your future," She looked at Ellie who was stuck between a gap in the logs. The sabress chuckled softly, "Is right there. Bright and bold. You just have to go get it."
He seemed to hesitate, still watching at Ellie. Akira gathered all her strength and stood on her forepaws, pulling herself up onto a log, digging her claws into the tree with a quiet hiss of pain as the movement caused agony to flare in her wounded leg. Manny instantly looked up at her with narrowed eyes, concerned but she waved him off with a dismissive paw, hiding a grimace. "Stop stalling. I'll be fine. Go get her."