A human girl was walking alone through a snowy area. She has been traveling for over a few months, in search to find herself a home. It wasn't easy for her, but she had help from her friend Avery.
Avery was a weasel who lived with the girl for a good long while. Once the human turned 6 years old, they began fending for themselves for an unknown reason. Though Avery did more work on trying to keep the human safe and find shelter, the human girl would try to find food for both of them and even wanted to learn how to make fire.
One day they were both lucky and not-so-lucky. They found smoke coming from what they believed was a campsite with humans, but once they got there, tents were destroyed and objects were scattered.
The two split up and looked around to find anything that could help them. Looking around, the human found some old clothing. They looked big but she believed that they would be useful later. She then found something that was bed-like (A/N: I don't know what it's called). It was small and made her believe that it belonged to a baby since her parents had something similar like it before.
Meanwhile, Avery was trying to figure out where the humans might've gone. She knows that she wouldn't be able to care for a human child for too long before one of them ends up dead, so the first thing she wanted to do was find others to help her out.
Before she could continue inspecting, she heard screaming coming from a cliff side the campsite was near.
"AAAHHH!!! DON'T SPEAR ME!"
The human heard the scream and ran quickly to hide. She wasn't a fan of mammals, and especially the dangerous ones, so her first instinct was to wait for them to pass.
Meanwhile, Avery stood near the campsite and discovered that the screamer was a sloth, who seemed to be heading towards the camp with a mammoth and... a human baby? This was a shock to Avery. She thought the humans may have left already, but maybe they were truly that far after all.
She hid near one of the torn-up tents and continued to examine the mammals along with the baby they had. The sloth walks until the stick knocks him out. As for the mammoth, he was checking out what was left of the campsite. He then stopped upon the baby, who look into where the bed-like object was. He cuddled with it before turning to the mammoth and then falling into a basket.
"I told you they were gone", said a saber-tooth tiger that appeared near them suddenly.
"Well, look who it is. Don't you have some poor defenseless animal to disembowel?", said the mammoth.
Avery decided to come out of hiding and speak with the mammals. If they had a human baby with them, she thinks they might be able to help her out. If they can at least.
"He's not wrong, you know. I just came here myself not too long ago". Avery came out of the tent and introduced herself. "Hi, Avery here. And uh, quick question, where did you find that human child? That would be helpful for me to know".
"And why would you want to know that?" the mammoth asked.
"Funny you should ask. Wait here a second". Avery quickly went to one of the tents and called out in a gentle voice. "Come on out. It's fine. I promise you'll be okay".
The human girl hesitated but eventually came out of her hiding spot. This surprised the mammoth, sloth, and saber-tooth a bit.
"Gentlemen, I have a human child of my own".
The human girl did a small shy wave. Seeing two dangerous mammals (excluding the sloth) made her want to run away from fear. But she stood her ground despite shaking a bit from feeling scared.
"We've been on our own for months. We came here looking for more humans but they were already gone". she explains.
"They couldn't be far. I mean, they went this way... or this way?" The sloth said while turning in different directions.
"You don't know much about tracking, do you?" the saber-tooth asked.
"Hey, I'm a sloth. I see a tree, eat a leaf, that's my tracking".
"Okay, I've only been here for a few minutes, but based on what I found, we didn't miss them by much". Avery told them.
"She's right", the saber-tooth said while inspecting a stick. "It's still green. They headed north 2 hours ago".
The sloth sticks a couple of twigs in his mouth and mockingly repeats what he said, which causes the baby and girl to giggle at his antics. The baby then accidentally flings a fish at the mammoth's face.
"You don't need this aggravation. Give me the baby. I can track humans down a lot faster than you can", says the saber-tooth.
"And you're just a good citizen helping out? I didn't think sabers were that peaceful and kind", Avery said.
"For your information, I just know where the humans are going". he told her.
"And where is that?"
"Glacier Pass". The mammoth answered. "Everybody knows they have a settlement on the other side".
Avery gave a surprised look. She now had a plan on where to go not only to find other humans, but to find a place for the human girl to remain safe and maybe even find her family.
"Well, unless you know how to track, you'll never reach them before the pass closes up with snow. Which should be like tomorrow", the saber-tooth mentioned, which gave a worried face to the human girl and Avery. "So, you can give that baby to me, or go get lost in the blizzard. It's your choice".
The mammoth thought about the offer for a second before giving the baby to the sloth instead. "Here's your little bundle of Joy. We're returning it to the humans".
"Mind if we tag along?" Avery asked as she jumped on the human girl's shoulder.
"Sure. The more the merrier". the sloth answered, to which the mammoth glared at him. The human girl could tell he didn't seem to like the idea of extra company coming along. But she didn't want to protest and start a few issues, so she continued to keep quiet.
Meanwhile, Avery looked towards the saber-tooth and watched as the sloth provoked him a bit. "Awww, and the big bad tigey-wigey gets left behind. Poor Tigey-Wigey".
"Sid, Tigey-Wigey is gonna lead the way", the mammoth pointed out.
This worried both the human girl and Sid, so he tried to reason with him. "Uh, uh, Manny, can I- can I- can I talk to you for a second?"
"No. The sooner we find the humans, the sooner I get rid of Mr. Stinky Drool-face. And the baby too. Along with the uninvited guests you agreed to bring with us".
Avery scoffed, "Rude". She looked back as they began walking and saw the saber-tooth say something to Sid. She wasn't sure what it was, but it seemed to spook him. She tried to help by calling after him. "Hey, upper tracker, up front where we can see you".
The saber-tooth obeyed but Sid hung in the back of the herd a bit while carrying the baby.
The human girl was feeling uneasy over the fact that now she has to be stuck with two mammals she feared for the time being. But she trusted Avery and decided to go along with it. Besides, it's only for a few hours.... right?
END CHAPTER
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A/N: Okay, I took a little longer than I needed to for such a short chapter. I understand if it's bad, but I honestly didn't know what else to do for an introduction for these characters. Before anyone asks, I'm going to answer a few things...
1. The rest of the chapters will be longer than this one.
2. The reason I'm referring to Redwood as "the human girl" for now is because the others don't know her real name yet.
3. Her backstory will be revealed soon.
4. I promise to improve these two OCs if you dislike them now.
I regret a lot of things, but this story will maybe turn into something that isn't one of them. Who knows?
Anyway, please comment and tell me what you think of the chapter.
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The Herd's Growing Family (Ice Age)
FanfictionRedwood is a small human child who has been surviving on her own for months. While she had the aid of Avery, a weasel and the last of her family, she also managed to meet a bunch of animals who she began to see a her new family, as well as joining t...
