Akira was nearly asleep, tucked away in her hollowed tree with Diego guarding her as Manny, Granny and Sid milled about, restless. She had just been about to give herself up to slumber, her stomach churning with hunger when she heard the softest bit of chatter over the wind. The sabress perked up, furrowing her brows as she peered outside to see that neither mammal on their float had said a word or looked as if they had. "Did you hear that?" She inquired, inching out of the hollow just a smidge.
Diego glanced down at her, his expression bewildered as he lowered his head to briefly nuzzle her. "Hear what? Sid's whining?" Akira snorted, shaking her head as again, she heard the quiet chatter of voices. "That—" The sabre perked up just as she did, looking around. "Yeah, sounds like voices." It was reassuring to hear that she wasn't simply hearing things but as she went to fully exit her hollow, Diego nudged her back inside. "Just wait, we don't know if they're friendly." Akira hated that as much as it was valid, huffing as she curled back inside the tree, her mate turning to alert Manny and Sid to the approaching animals.
"You might be going a little cuckoo hearing voices," Sid said as he and Manny approached, Granny completely unbothered. Akira glanced up at the sloth, bright eyes unusually dull. "We're the sanest ones on this raft, Sid. And the ones with better hearing." He looked at her in obvious disagreement, ready to argue his point but Diego intercepted their bickering before it could begin. "Am I hallucinating or is that ice coming straight towards us?" Everyone turned to follow the sabre's gaze but Akira had to poke her head out of the hollow, barely getting a glimpse of the towering iceberg before Diego ushered her back inside. "If that's where the people are, we need to be careful."
Many glanced down, nodding in agreement. "It sounds like there're animals on it—we gotta make sure they're friendly before we let them see you. You and those cubs come first, tiger." Sid too nodded, paws on his hips. "Yeah, they might be the rainbow we're looking for but you know, we should make sure they won't eat us alive. Or dead." Akira glanced between the three, sighing heavily but understanding the precautions nonetheless. Didn't mean she liked them any more than necessary, however, feeling just shy of useless.
"I hear laughter," Diego said, head tilted as his ear flicked in acknowledgement of the very sound he was honed in on. Sid's grin was splitting as the sloth began prancing around, singing, "Yippee! We're being rescued, we're being rescued!" The sloth soon came to a stop, grin still in place, "Must be a party cruise." Akira, from inside the hollow, couldn't see the ship but slowly, the mammals surrounding her drifted from her hollow just as a voice called out, sounding far away. "Ahoy, down there!" Sid glanced at Manny, nearly looking over at Akira before Diego nudged him, the sloth obediently looking forward. Sid, hoping to hide his slip-up, waved with partially mock enthusiasm to the shadowed silhouette peering down at them from the ship. "Ahoy!"
"How lucky are you?" The voice was closer and this time they had a silhouette to match it. The creature was not a distinct predator, more ape-like than anything. "You know these waters are infested with pirates, right, boys?" The animals that lined the ship perked up, "Argh!" Akira, only having the audio, could tell that this company would turn out to be less than pleasant. She didn't know too much about pirates, her domain land rather than the sea, but she knew from stories that they were often the ruthless type, stealing what they thought belonged to them.
Sid took immediate notice of a particular pair of predators, his eyes widening as he squinted, getting a better view as the fog cleared. They were sabres—northern sabres to be specific and one of them had markings that specifically reminded Sid of Akira. He leaned over to Diego, "Hey, doesn't one of them look like you know who?" Diego's offending glare was immediate, Manny overhearing and about to bonk Sid on the head when the southern sabre faltered, "Wait, Manny, you see it too, don't you?" Manny had no chance to answer the whisper as the ominous voice aboard the ship ventured closer, though he was still hidden.
"Glad we found you before they did," A face peered into the light, matching the deep, ominous voice but all the more unpleasant. The ape was a weathered beast, larger than any the mammals had ever seen with an overgrown bush under his chin that had dreaded in the time it had gone unkept. "Captain Gutt, here to help." Granny peered up with narrowed, judging eyes before she huffed, nodding in oblivious satisfaction. "You know, that's a nice monkey."
Akira perked up at Granny's words, feeling some confusion that the supposed captain was a monkey. If it was the kind she was thinking of, small but mischievous to a fault, she wondered how much of a threat he really was and if it was his crew that warranted more concern. "Look, we don't want any trouble. We just need to get back to the continent." She heard Manny step forward in his placating, hoping the mammoth could appease and find some common ground with the captain.
Gutt grinned, yellowed, sharp teeth bared. "The continent? That pile of rubble?" Laughter followed his jab but none of the mammals below found any hilarity in the situation. Not when they had family and friends on said pile of rubble and currently, it was the only piece of land they knew and were in desperate need of with cubs on the way. "My family's there, so if you could just—"
"Your family? That is so sweet. I hope you said goodbye because there's no way back." Gutt's voice darkened towards the end, crushing any hope the mammals had for just a moment until the animal beside him—an elephant seal—spoke up. "Yes, there is. Don't you remember, Captain? You can sail to Switchback Cove and catch the current back from there. It's like a steel trap, this noggin is."
Akira sunk onto the floor, feeling a sudden ball of anxiety rise to a simmer in her chest. Gutt knew a way home for them but withheld it, obviously wanting them for something none of the mammals present would be able to return home for. Either for recruitment, for food. . . or to kill. And neither were scenarios Akira could afford because there was nothing for her cubs on that ship if she survived long enough to give birth. She wouldn't live in a place where her cubs could be eaten by the animals aboard the ship and she wouldn't lay down to be killed either. She had a sloth, sabre, mammoth and three cubs to return home to the family that awaited them.
As her stomach rumbled, however, Akira felt as if the pirates would be the least of her problems. The longer she went without food, the weaker she got and the more she and her cubs were put at risk. She was too close to giving birth to not have access to any food. She needed to eat—and drink—soon or someone would be lost once the time came for her to give birth. In her mind for a minute too long, Akira surfaced to terrified screams from Sid before they cut off abruptly.
Worried, she peered out of her hollow, seeing all at once the chaos happening around her. Sid was being restrained by an entire elephant seal, the beast giggling happily at its accomplishments. Manny was knocked unconscious, remnants of a shattered ball of ice laying around him and Diego. . . he was being pinned by a sabre—sabress. Akira looked at all three members of her herd, unsure of where Granny was before she made a choice. The sabress was distracted, snarling down at Diego and so she didn't hear her approach. Not until Akira had taken a leap that took nearly all of her strength, tackling the sabress to the ground. Her weight worked in her favour, knocking the breath out of the sabress beneath her.
"What the—!" Akira bared her fangs at the nameless sabress, flexing her claws so they were positioned by the main artery in her jugular. A move too quick would dig the point of her claws into the artery and the sabress would have minutes before she bled out. A simple thought like that had Akira practically salivating. She could smell the metallic scent of blood and it made her stomach turn in demand for that very blood to fill it. The cubs writhed inside her, almost as if they sensed the close proximity of food.
"There's a fat one!" And just like that, her choice of meal changed, especially as she heard the softest sounds of movement behind her. Akira used her momentum to roll off Shira, the creature sneaking up behind her slamming into the sabress as she sprung up with Akira no longer hovering over her. There was a hog charging at her, smaller than she thought pirates would keep—she could hear a bigger one still aboard the ship—and with ease, slammed it underneath her palm in a swift move. It squealed bloody murder as she dug her claws into its flesh, drawing blood.
It murmured some incoherent words as it took its last breath and Akira felt no remorse for its death, realizing it was the mammal that had had the audacity to call her fat. "Will!" Her head shot up at the voice, her eyes widening as her maw parted in a gasp. The pig was gone from underneath her paw as a force slammed into her and for a few too long moments, they tumbled along the ice until Akira was underneath the sabre, a male and northern and familiar.
Akira knew who he was, even as there was no recognition in his eyes as he glared down at her. She knew the sabre that still failed to keep his weight on his paws so his prey stayed down. She knew the sabre who, when they played, could never successfully pin her down for that very reason. Akira dug her lower half into the ground and surged up, dislodging the sabre and rolling them over. Their positions switched and she did exactly what he had failed to do, looking down at him in wonder. "You're supposed to put your weight in your paws, Jay."
Eyes of molten silver stared up at her, wide with disbelief as the fight left his body like a wave that had crashed into the shore. "Oh my God. . . Akira?" Taking notice that all the animals not belonging to her herd had stopped their chaos to watch the scene unfold, she felt safe enough from an attack and stepped back, allowing Jace to rise to his paws. "God, you're alive and pregnant and you're here." Akira laughed as her personal space was suddenly violated, forgetting about the situation at hand for a few seconds as she hugged her brother close. "I knew you weren't dead. Mom and dad. . . Luke. . . they thought we were both gone but I came back. You. . . you never went down without a fight, I knew you had to be okay, too."
Jace was smiling as he pulled back, "They're okay? Oh G—you have to tell me everything since we got separated. It's been, what, twenty years?" Longer, Akira thought to herself, ears falling back at as Jace looked up at the ape—not monkey—watching them with interest. She was all too aware that Diego was restrained again, Manny was still knocked out and Sid was muffled beneath the elephant seal, Granny standing beside him content to be left alone. "Captain? She's family, not a prisoner."
Akira felt slightly nauseated as Gutt leaned forward, the gleam in his eyes predatory and his grin hungry. "What's yours is mine, first mate. Welcome aboard, Akira."