Ice Age: The Meltdown

Chapter 8

"Boy," Sid sparked up as he picked up rocks, "Manny sure took a big chance with Ellie today huh?"

"He sure did Sid," Hazel responded lowly with a yawn, resting her back on a rock.

"He stood on the edge of uncertainty and dove right in, Splassh, kind of brave huh," Sid turned his direction towards Diego, "the way he faced his, fear?"

"I wouldn't know," The male saber remarked, "sabers don't feel fear."

"Hard to believe." Hazel muttered, turning around on the spot to stretch, getting him to stare down at her.

"Ah, come on all animals feel fear, it's what separates us from say," He picks up a rock from the ground," rocks, rocks have no fear," He threw it over his shoulder into a small puddle behind him, "and they sink."

Diego turned his attention to the sloth during his sentence, eyeing him suspiciously. "What are you getting at Sid?"

"It may surprise you to know, I to have experienced fear,"

"No, you?" He questioned sarcastically as Hazel let out a small smirk at Sid's comment, trying to hold back chuckles.

"Oh yes," Sid replies, not catching the sarcasm, "yes as impossible as it seems,, the sloths have natural enemies that would like to harm, or otherwise 'kill' us."

"I wonder why."

"Well jealously mostly, but the point is, that fear is natural."

Sid quickly backed up as Diego walked over, baring his teeth slightly with a glare.

"Fear, is for prey."

Hazel winced slightly from the sudden tone, quickly getting up from her spot and walked over to them.

"Well then you're letting the water make you it's prey." Sid commented as he stepped back, quickly scattering away into the bushes, climbing onto a tree and standing on one of the trunks.

"Just jump in and trust your instincts." He jumped into the bushes, popping out briefly to look like he was swimming,

"You know most animals can swim when they are babies." He dove deep into the bushes, and quickly appeared on a tree.

"And for a tiger, it's like crawling on your belly to stalk helpless prey." He crawled from the bottom and across the branch before climbing up quickly.

Hazel nodded slowly, watching in keen interest as Diego just watched in irritation, until Sid appeared beside them wrapped in vines like a puppet, getting them to jump from his sudden appearance.

"But faster okay?; Now claw kick, claw kick," He explained, doing the actions he stated around Diego, who eyed him closely, "I'm stalking the preeey~ claw, kick,"

"Now I look back over my shoulder to see if I'm been followed, and I'm breathing," Still moving, he took two huge breaths.

"And I'm stalking, and I'm stalking, and I'm- AH!"

Hazel flinched as Sid landed with a loud "THUD" once Diego cut one of the vines that supported his weight.

"I'm falling,"

"Correction," Diego began, looking down at him with a smirk, "you're sinking, kind of like a rock."

He walked away, leaving Sid on the ground and Hazel to stand and think over the sloths words.

Was swimming that natural that even babies could learn about it? She just groaned with a shake of her head and follow Diego, leaving the sloth completely dazed.

"You know Sid has a very good point," She began once she was close to him, "We're more than just rocks who can't feel fear."

"Yeah," Diego groaned loudly, resting on top of a rock. "I got that."

"Perhaps we can all learn how to swim once we find a new place to call home." Hazel reassured with a smile. "It can't be that hard to learn right?"

Diego only kept to himself, gazing at her briefly before nodding slightly in response. Hazel decided to stop pushing the topic, not wanting to add more pressure onto him.

"I'll be with Sid to settle in for the night," She informed, "we'll be over there okay?" She gave him one last smile before racing back to where the sloth was, leaving the saber with his thoughts.

[ Time Skip as Hazel listens closely to Sid, who has recovered easily, explains how he creates fires whilst doing so ]

A little while later, Diego soon came back just as Sid got the fire started and it was burning nicely.
They all sat around it, getting themselves comfy for the night.

Hazel soon notices Manny walking up towards them from the forest. She was about to greet him but stopped and blinked at the expression he held. The other two soon noticed his arrival and looked up at him.

"So, how did it go?" Diego questioned curiously.

Manny flinched slightly, shifting his eyes before pulling a fake smile with a weak "Not bad,"

Just as he answered, Ellie stormed past, stepping into a puddle that'd splashed onto the fire, putting it out. Hazel just stared, exchanging a look of shock with Sid.

"Okay let's go!!" Ellie angrily called out to the herd before stopping to face them, mainly the male mammoth, "We've travelled with you all day, now you're coming with us at night!"

"But," Manny called out timidly, "we can't see at night."

"Then enjoy," Ellie stopped and turned back to face him, "the flood!" And continued walking away.

"I can't even look at him!" Eddie yelled, keeping his word as he didn't look back, unlike Crash who had and angrily yelled out, "Pervert!"

Hazel raised a brow with wide eyes as he gestured "I got my eye on you" before turning away, eyeing up at the mammoth who looked bewildered by the comment.

Sighing loudly to herself, she could only wonder what could've happened between the mammoths, especially for Crash to call Manny such a name.

Maybe she could ask Ellie about it, the mammoth beside her did looked guilty over... whatever happened, although it's not her business to ask about it, maybe they'll both resolve it on their own?

"Making friends," They group turned to Sid who waved his claw nonchalantly, "Everywhere you go, just making friends,"

They soon followed the other three who were pretty far ahead, pretty much been forced to travel with them for the night rather than sleeping through it.

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That's it, this is short (I think it is-) a lot of these chapters might as well be,
Also I couldn't come up with a better ending- in fact I got lost throughout this whole chapter and I don't know what to write-

But it's here and I hope you enjoyed! 💖