The high-pitched cries of many small rodents and the angered shouts of pirates echoed through the clearing, masking the sounds of heavy friction and creaking wood. Only one side was aware of the traps that lay waiting, their cries less angered and more victorious. They fell into giggles as their partners from above swooped down from the looming cliffside, gliding along the gentle breeze in a deliberately slow descent.
It was moments before a collision that would have certainly been bloody that the rodents and their steeds used their momentum and spears to propel themselves into the air, grabbing onto their designated glider. Their giggles became full-blown laughter, some blowing raspberries and throwing mocking noises to the bewildered pirates below.
Gutt snarled his confusion, whipping around to the herd that stood still and looming at the crest of the hill, the sun at their backs casting a harsh shadow. He didn't get a chance to so much as twitch forward when Squint sprinted, shouting all the while as he sliced and diced at the silhouettes. The brief occurring thought that maybe he and his crew had been baited crossed his mind before he heard the sound of something heavy but fast cutting through the air. Gutt bared his teeth, ducking low upon instinct and in a timely matter as the 'mammoth' exploded forth, imploded by a boulder that knocked Squint, Raz and Dobson askew.
The ape stayed low, reaching for the crushed piece of watermelon that had stuttered to a stop before him, rageful eyes flickering up to the 'herd'. A trick. A diversion that they fell for. His following growl shook his body as he smashed the chunk of watermelon beneath his fist, spinning on his heel with an order to return to the ship but the creaking of wood had finally pierced through his veil of fury. For this trap, Gutt had no time to duck from the rain of boulders, shouting in pain as one collided with his temple, knocking him down.
He rolled undesirably far and for much too long before he could right himself, dazed and positively furious. He swayed where he stood, vaguely aware of the trickle of blood that dripped from his forehead, leaking into his eyes and diffusing into a sheer curtain of red. It was through these split points of view did he see the wretched mammoth retreating downhill, screaming garbled words for his pack of nuisances down below. The pack of nuisances who were stealing his ship while his lay scattered, wounded or giggling like the brainless idiot they were.
Gutt reared up, roaring in anger as he seized Flint by the neck, stopping the buffoon's happy cheers in their tracks. He didn't bother hiding the murderous intent in his eyes or loosen his grip, revelling in the beads of blood that welled beneath his claws. "Stop them or so help me, I'll eat pieces of you while you're still alive and squirming."
"You are in so much trouble once this wears off." Akira hissed, hovering above Sid with a glare. His pack of god knew what was strapped to his back and knowing full well in her state there was no carrying the sloth on her back, the sabress ensured the vines were secured around the sloth before she latched onto that instead, dragging him along with little remorse for every pained grunt. It was the best and virtually the only thing she could lest leaving him behind and she was no Gutt—her herd members weren't replaceable in a blink.
Granny walked ahead of her, one wrinkly paw holding onto the rope the hyraxes were letting drag along for them. They had been trying to pull the old sloth up since she latched on but Akira supposed Granny's grip wasn't strong enough to be hoisted up. She growled under her breath, gearing to break into a job when she stumbled, nearly dropping Sid as a sharp pain ran through her lower half. A half-gasp, half-cry tore at her throat, her claws flexing with a spasm into the rock beneath her until the bout of pain passed. Her following inhale was harsh and deep, frantic in a way as the dull ache remained and an unwelcomed realization washed over her.
"No," she hissed in the moment she took the readjust Sid's pack in her mouth, her body trembling as she pushed it forward in the aftershocks, "no, no, no." she whined around her mouthful. The distinct feel of fluid leaking down her back legs was a haunting one that made her blood rush faster and run a few degrees too cold. "Tiger, what happened?" The rush of relief was nearly as crippling as the first contraction that had struck her as Sid was pulled from her grip, held by Manny as Diego flanked her vacant side, manhandling Granny onto his back.
"Sid, lotus berry, cubs are coming!" Manny's first quip of scolding Sid was halted before he'd properly spoken, he and Diego whirling on her and her pathetic excuse for a run in shock. "The cubs are coming?!"
"Yup, so we should—" she stumbled, barely catching herself as another contraction hit, "—should really get on that ship," Akira grunted through gritted teeth. Diego ran as close as he could alongside her without either of them falling over the other, "There's no way you'll be able to jump." Akira huffed because no, between her leg, bump and her muscles refusing the cooperate with anything other than contractions, she was not jumping. However. . , "Maybe she won't have to, the cliff edge keeps going—Tiger, if we time it right, you'd just have to step over."
Akira looked ahead where the cliff edge did not continue to the boat—at least the one on their side. To simply step onto the boat, they'd have to cross the ocean and somehow climb because the platform on the other side was higher than they were now and there was no option to double back. "Manny, how—oh my god."
The mammoth skidded to a stop, narrowly avoiding a cutting peck from Gutt's gull, to a pillar of rocks. "You're not serious." She hissed, realizing he intended to time the fall with the collision of a slab floating by. The momentum would get them to the other side but it would also hurt like hell. "Mammoth!" Akira glanced over her shoulder to see Gutt tearing for them. She looked back at Diego and Manny. They had little choice. Hell would be incomparable to the pain Gutt would inflict upon them, upon her. . . upon her cubs.
"You got this, Tiger. We're with you." Manny reassured, Diego's muffled as Granny had taken her cane and manhandled it into the sabre's mouth as leverage for the impending jump.
It was only by the adrenaline rushing through her body that had her scrambling up onto the rock pillar and peering down at the ocean below. Sharp eyes watched the various ice slabs float by until one big enough caught her eye. "Okay, three. . . two," she glanced briefly from where they came to see Gutt uncomfortably close, "Now!"
Manny and Diego grunted as they pushed, the pillar taking a few moments before it began to fall. The second she hit the ice, Akira dug her claws in despite the jolt that travelled through her body on impact. Her body protested but other than a rising bruise or two, there were worse fates. And speaking of, a fate certainly worse than death stood where they once did, snarling down at them.
Gutt whistled sharply as Manny assessed their situation, pausing his surveillance as twin whales with sharp tusks rose from the water's surface, advancing quickly without so much as a stutter as Gutt leapt from the cliff's edge onto their backs. "Manny!" She shouted but the mammoth remained calm, "Get ready!"
Akira scrambled for purchase when Manny tipped the ice so the tusks of the narwhals slammed into the bottom of it, propelling them forward onto the jut of land that formed the curve in the river of current that led out to sea. The platform of rock and ice led right to the ship, cutting their journey short but not short enough for some.
When their float collided with the edge of the ice, the mammals went sliding along but where the sloths, sabre and mammoth continued along the incline where they would easily land on the ship, Akira slammed into a chunk of ice and rock, coming to an abrupt stop with a groan.
All the chaos seemed to halt around her. As the pregnant sabress staggered to her feet, able to feel the heat of the forming bruise along her side and back, the cries of anguish and anger and the rushing water of the sea were lost to her as she broke into an uneven and slow run forward, slipping every now and then from the loss of grip on the ice or an unpleasant contraction.
White noise echoed in her ear until the moment she stepped onto rock and it all came back at once, slamming into her like an angry mammoth. Akira exhaled heavily as she pushed past her body's protests, feeling an old, familiar ache from a wound once healed but there was no slowing now. The ship was almost out to sea and the path would end soon. If she didn't make it now. . . she was as good as dead. Her cubs—.
A rather brutal contraction hit and slowed her enough for a body to tackle her to the ground, pulling painfully at the muscles in her leg and alighting another set of bruises. The sabress roared in protest as she and the enemy rolled and rolled until she was trapped on her back by a weight amplified by momentum. "No," she growled, blindly snapping at who pinned her—at Shira, she realized. "Don't—you can't. . . you know they'll die. He'll kill them. He'll kill my babies, please, let me go. Let them go, they're barely—they haven't even—" She was babbling, she knew, but Akira couldn't comprehend anything outside the fate of her cubs.
Nearly her whole life, she'd gone without purpose, the middle child that could truly choose where her life would go and had not a single clue. Then came the avalanche and she'd been more lost than ever before she found her herd. Found Diego. And then, came some semblance of belonging, a glimpse of a future she wanted to establish. One where she left something important in this world, where she made a difference and at first, Percy was her difference. And then her cubs were meant to join him.
They were meant to live, to go out into the world and make the difference she had. Change lives tagging along with a group of mammals worthy to be called family. Go on outrageous adventures no one else would ever believe. Expand their weird little herd with fossilized reptiles truly older than them—and bigger. Explore and maybe find Santa Claus again or maybe the Easter Bunny this time around.
Akira was meant to see their little faces and hear their soft cries as they took their first breath. She was meant to make it home to Percy, with his siblings bundled up for him to meet. She was meant to find a new home with her herd, find a cave for her, her mate and her babies and spends days settling back into normalcy—back into her family, old and new.
She was meant to do so much. . . but Gutt was going to ruin all of it. He was going to take her away. He was going to cut her babies out before they could even comprehend their loss—make sure their first breath was her last. She wouldn't go home to her oldest. Wouldn't see Ellie again, or Peaches. Worst yet, Akira didn't think, that after Gutt was done with her, there'd be anything left of her to mourn. No more than mere memories.
"He'll kill us both if—" Shira cut herself off as she sent Akira's thoughts screeching to a halt. The sabress was drawn back to the present, deciding on a different route that would give her the upper hand. She was on borrowed time. "Not if you come with us," she gritted her teeth through another contraction, breathing harshly, "I-if you come with us, we can—he won't kill you—can't. You'll be safe with us, just, please, we have to go now."
It felt like a lifetime she lay there, lower half aching, head spinning, but really, all it was was mere seconds before Shira nodded, steely determination in her eyes as she let up off her before nudging her side to help her onto her feet. "Lean against me, come on!" Akira didn't need to be told twice, staring blearily ahead to see Manny had somehow managed to lodge a tree trunk into a crevice in the rocks, stalling the boat long enough that realistically, between Shira and now Diego practically carrying her, they could make it. Barely, but they could.
The ledge of the boat grew closer and Akira dared exhaled in relief. She dared hope. And that was her first mistake. They were so close, Manny urging them on beneath the strain of holding the ship still but they'd been so slow. Too slow. Akira was so close to feeling the chill of ice beneath her paw when pain blossomed in her leg, the sabress stumbling to the ground with a pained roar. Diego and Shira were knocked aside as Gutt seized her back legs and pulled, the pair tussling for dominance. Akira clawed and snapped her jaws blindly because her life depended on it but the ape countered her attacks almost mockingly, deliberate with a swipe across her face that turned her vision red and useless.
Gutt's resulting grin was maniacal and crazed as he bared his yellowed teeth, leaning back ever so slightly. "You look so good in red, don't you? Why, I should—" He didn't get another word out but did cry out in agony, a shout escaping him before he was rearing back, clawing blindly at a weight on his back. Akira's good eye caught a flash of white as she pulled herself to her feet, vaguely aware of the sabres back at her side again, ushering her over the growing gap between rock and ice.
Jace. It was Jace on the monster's back, his fangs buried deep in Gutt's shoulder, his claws dug so deeply that when he was finally dislodged, blood splattered on red rock, oozing down the ape's back. "Jace," Akira rasped, falling onto her side—she narrowly avoided her bump, barely registering the need to avoid further trauma to it. "Jace!" Her call for his name was a scream now, catching both the attention of ape and sabre.
One pair of eyes were terrified and the other. . . the other was murderous. Akira watched, horrified as Gutt lowered himself to all fours and began bounding towards them, towards the gap big enough for him to leap across with his agility. He would make it. He would make it and he would slaughter them all. He would—a white blur leapt up and collided with him before he could get off the ground, the ape was knocked off balance and sent tumbling off the rocky ledge to a sheet of ice below.
He landed on his back with a sickening crack, a pool of blood beneath him from his wounds. At the sight of him, bloody and defeated, Akira wanted to be happy. She wanted to be relieved. She wanted to know some semblance of peace but raising her gaze to the two sabres now on the wrong side of the growing void between them. . . she knew she couldn't.
Gutt wasn't dead. Not yet. But for helping them, for nearly killing him. . . the sabres would be. For the first time in a long time, as Akira met her brother's resigned gaze, she knew for a matter of a horrifying fact that it would be the last time she would see him alive.
Bloody and in pain, the sabress pushed herself half up-right, as much as she could with how little strength she had, and projected a low, guttural call into the ocean breeze. She filled it with her anguish and pain and her regrets. Filled it with her goodbyes. When Jace echoed her, her following call cracked partway as she collapsed once more, sobs forcefully ripped from her body.
Now, and only now, could she truly mourn her brother for there was no escape from his fate this time, and all because he'd given his life for hers.