Ice Age

Tiger Ambush

The next morning, the group approaches Half Peak. Silver and the rest are getting closer. Sid was cleaning up Roshan for a while by fixing his hair with his spit.

"All right, let's get you all cleaned up," Sid said. "I mean, what's your daddy gonna say when we go back smudgy and stinky like this? OK. Let me just clean that up. That looks good. A little bit here." He turned to Silver, who seemed very excited to find her clan. "And did you hear that Silver? You're going home!"

Silver smiled as she hugged Sid. She seemed so excited that she can now see her tribe again.

"You clean up nice, little fella," Manny said, smiling.

"I think he started to look like me. Hey, Diego, what do you say?" Sid asked.

There was a silent moment for the young male tiger. He was stopping right behind the group as snowflakes fell from the sky. Nervously, Silver wondered why Diego was sensing something. She is certain he must be leading them to a dangerous path since the cave in and the harsh snow storm they had to get through.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this."

"Why not?" Sid asked, confused.

"Because if we save them, they'll grow up to be hunters, and who do you think they'll hunt?"

"Maybe because we save them, they won't hunt us," Sid complained.

"Yeah, maybe he'll grow fur and a long skinny neck and call you mama!"

"What's your problem?" Manny asked, concerned about the tiger's behavior.

Diego hesitated. "Nothing. Let's go. I'm freezing my tail off."

Silver didn't notice that someone was watching them, having a bad feeling in her spine. She began to think about the other tigers who attacked and killed her mother and got seperated from her tribe. She can smell something in the far distance. Tiger scent, unfamiliar tiger scent from a mile away. She turned to Diego who stopped. Manny and Sid turned and wondered why Diego was nervous.

"Hey, Diego," Manny called. "You've frozen back there?"

For a moment, Diego urged the others to hide. "Get down!"

"Wha?" the other mammals wondered as Silver held Roshan in her arms, very concerned.

The tiger ignored them as runs ahead of them. "Shh! Get down and follow me."

"Hey, hey, what's going on?" Sid asked, confused.

"At the bottom of Half Peak, there's an ambush waiting for you."

"What?"

"What do you mean ambush?" Manny wondered.

Silver froze, her eyes wide with fear and her muscles tensed up. She realized why an ambush was coming. Diego led her, Sid and Manny to his pack, just to kill her little brother.

"You set us up," Manny glared.

"It was my job!" the tiger shouted. "I was supposed to get the baby, but then..."

"You brought us home for dinner!"

Silver was totally right all along because she knew the tiger was part of the sabers and tricking them, from the beginning

"That's it," shouted Sid, "you're out of the herd!"

Diego lowered his head in shame. "I'm sorry."

Manny pushed his trunk at Diego by the throat. "No you're not. Not yet."

The sabertooth struggled to get the tusk out of his neck so he could tell them, "Listen, I can help you."

Silver shivered in fear as Sid held her close while he held Roshan.