Ice Age

Into the Wilderness

Silver and Nadia lifted up their heads after they fell in, slowly waking from from their unconcious state. Silver was okay, even Roshan. But her mother wasn't. She was injured, must have landed on the ground hard, breaking a few bones. With her vision slowly adjusting, Silver looked up to where the tiger wasn't following them. She will be safe for a while but not too long. She looked again and saw a huge brown mammoth and a ground sloth looking back at them on the shore. Silver wrapped her mother by the shoulder, who was still holding Roshan to the water's edge. She pushes her son to the edge carefully, but Roshan begins to slip. The mammoth pulled him back on the safe from falling into the water.

Silver was next. She begins to climb onto the ledge as her mother pushes her up. Silver panted lightly as she looked at her mother. She was glad both her children were safe. The mammoth pulled his trunk away for Roshan who opened up his eyes, cooing happily. Silver crawled onto the rocky edge and looked up at the mammals, soaked and wet. She breathed heavily, her hair completely covered with wet water before she opened up her eyes fully. For her first time ever, Silver saw the mammoth close up. The mammoth, so powerful that the tusks and hold objects and defend themselves, the brown wool so thick it may look like a hueg blanket to cover her up in whenever she felt it. She never believed that she was seeing one for the first time.

The sloth slowly approached them and then, spoke. "Look at that. They're okay."

Silver sighed in relief, she was still alive, but she can't believe that this sloth had talked to her. She thought that she had been hallucinating but she wasn't. She turned around and saw that her mother was gone, probably drowned from the freezing river. Following her gaze at the river, the mammals knew that her mother was gone as well.

"She's gone."

Silver looked up and saw the mammoth beginning to leave. The sloth started to take notice. "Hey, Manny. Manny, aren't you forgetting something?"

The mammoth shook his head. "No."

"But you just saved them," he protested.

"Yeah, well, I'm still trying to get rid of the last thing I saved."

"You can't leave them here."

Silver watched as the sloth picked Roshan up, carefully. She can tell some mammals are quite dangerous but some seemed friendly enough. She looked up at the sloth who offered a hand up.

"It's okay. You're safe now," he said.

Silver was starting to understand what he was saying. Carefully, she lifted her hand up gently and began to grab the sloth's hand. It was soft and warm just like a human. Also, they do act like people. Silver gently got back up to her feet and took a few careful steps before she was back up again. Looking up, the sloth can see smoke coming from above the mountain.

"Look, there's smoke!" he called, pointing to where her camp is. "That's their herd right up the hill. We should return them."

The mammoth, Manny turned and glared at the sloth. "Let's get something straight here. Okay? There is no "we". There never was a "we". In fact, without me, it wouldn't even be a "you"!"

"Just up the hill?"

"Listen very carefully," he warned, using his trunk. "I'm... not... go-ing."

Silver didn't like the attitude of that mammoth.

"Fine, be a jerk," the sloth replied, upset. I'll take care of him."

"Oh, yeah, that's good."

Of course, Silver was certain that not all mammoths travel alone, if only one does. She watched as the sloth headed to the mountain.

"I'll return you," he told him. "We don't need that meany-weeny mammoth, do we? No, we don't."

Silver and the mammoth watched as the sloth walked to the cliff and began to climb up. He wasn't good at climbing though, also he's trying to jump on the ledge while holding Roshan in his paws. He jumped once to get the edge, then twice, and then he managed to grab onto the ledge while his feet scrambled onto two walls of the mountain. He slowly begins to climb to the top awkwardly while trying to hold the baby in his arms. Silver sighed, embarrassed.

"You're an embarrassment to nature, y'know that?" Manny reminded him.

"This is cake," the sloth said before he felt scared. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm gonna die."

Manny looked up below as the sloth began to climb. But Silver saw that the bundle was getting loose, and Roshan began to slip. The sloth quickly grabbed Roshan by the foot. He started to panic.

"MANNY!" he screamed.

The sloth lost his grip and Roshan started falling. Manny tries to catch him but an orange blur jumps in and grabs him by the teeth. It was one of the sabertooth tigers. He was ready to eat him. Manny grabs Roshan out of his teeth. The tiger swiped a paw but Manny growled. Desperate that her baby brother will be killed, Silver jumped right at the tiger and snarled, pressing her dagger at the tiger's throat.

"Whoa! Easy there!" the tiger began to speak. "Be careful with that thing." Silver didn't care. She snarled at the tiger for trying to get Roshan. "Why is that kid angry at me?" he asked.

"First of all, I really don't think she likes you and second, that pink thing belongs to us," the sloth reminded him, slipping and falling off the cliff, landing on his head. Silver looked back at him and then released the tiger.

"Us? You two are a bit of an odd couple."

"There is no us!" Manny glared at the sloth.

"I see," the saber said, regarding the child in Manny's trunk. "Can't have one of your own, so you wanna adopt."

"Look, I'm sorry to interrupt your snack," the sloth, Sid, reminded him, "but we gotta go."

"The baby?" the tiger raised an eyebrow. "Please. I was returning him to his herd."

Sid rolled his eyes, thinking the saber was trying to trick them. "Oh yeah, nice try, bucktooth."

"You calling me a liar?" he glared.

"I didn't say that."

"You were thinking it."

Sid turned to Silver and Manny with a worried look on his face. "I don't like this cat. He reads minds," he whispered.

Silver felt the same thing too. Sabertooth tigers are predators and unlike these two herbivores, they are friendly, well at least the ground sloth is.

The tiger lifted his head up before he introduced himself. "Name's Diego, friend."

Silver began to ponder about the name, not a bad one.

"Manfred. And I'm not your friend," Manny said.

"Fine, Manfred," the tiger growled.

Silver had a blank expression on the tiger and she did not trust him at all before she backed away from the feline.

Diego turned to the others. "If you're looking for the humans, you're wasting your time. They left this morning."

Silver's eyes went wide. Her family left her behind? Man, this is the worst day of her life. She's all alone and now she is with wild animals.

"Thanks for advice," Manny said to Digeo. "Now beat it!"

He then turned to Sid, motioning him that they should go. The ground sloth begins to follow after him, holding Roshan in his arms. Silver came along as well, hoping to stay safe before she stared back at the tiger, who was still watching them go. 

"All right, I'll help you bring him to his herd," Manny promised Sid, "but promise me that you'll leave me alone after that?"

"Okay! Okay, deal!" Sid said with glee. "Hey, what's your problem?"

"You were my problem."

"Well, I think you're stressed. That's why you eat so much," Sid informed. "I mean, it's hard to get fat on the vegan diet."

"I'm not fat. It's all this fur, it makes me look poofy."

"All right," the sloth shrugged. "You have fat hair but when you're ready to talk, I'm here."