Follow the Light

Chapter 4

The trio move up the canyon towards their cave. Eep kicks a rock furiously, almost hitting Grug with it. He ducks just in time. "Hey!" He stays low for a beat before rising up a bit. There's a tension in the air that Luna is not particularly fond of. While it was amusing, she also deadpans at their behavior. Up ahead at the keyhole, the rest of the Croods can be seen.

"Eep! Luna!"

"Mom!"

"Auntie!"

Ugga checks up on the two of them, examining them for anything wrong. "Grug! What happened?" "You know what? I am so mad at Eep right now, I can't talk to her.""Eep?" Ugga questions with a warning tone.

Luna starts off for a softer blow. "You'll never believe it." "We found something...new." Eep brings down the axe hard. Luna facepalms internally. The Croods react in fear and disgust. "NEW?!" They all snatch a rock and form a defensive circle around the two girls. Grug is the first to express how he feels about "new". "New's a big problem!" Eep tries to and manages to squeeze out a bit. "Wait. Wait!" Ugga tries to get her back inside. "Eep. Stay inside the family kill circle with Luna." Luna tries to reason with the Croods by providing more details. "It wasn't that bad." Grug replied with, "New is always bad." "No, he was pretty nice to us." "What!? Excuse me? He?" Eep jumps in to help.  "Oh. Well, I he was a warthog, but then he into a boy." She said, twirling her hair. Luna peered at her. Was she perhaps... attracted to the boy? To be honest, she was also rather fond of him, regardless of the minimal time they spent together. Luna wondered if they would ever have the chance to meet again. Gran made an odd remark at Eeps information. "Strange. Usually it's the reverse." Thunk immediately takes the opportunity to tease his older sister. "Eep's got a boy hog! Eep's got a boy hog!" In response, Eep elbows Thunk in the back of his head. Luna cringes internally, oh, how that must hurt. 

"There was a boy. Watch, okay. I'm gonna call him." Eep was determined for them to believe her so she pulled out the shell that Luna had received from Guy. As she did so, the whole family backs off, save for Luna, as if burned by an invisible fire. Luna hadn't seen them move this quick in a while.

As soon as Eep had blown air into the shell, the Croods smack the shell away and smash it to pieces with their rocks. Eep is incredulous, almost ashamed at how her family was acting. Luna only looked on in horror as the precious shell was smashed, due to the ignorance and fear that infested in humans as a result of their harsh environment. While she knew she could do nothing, she still wished an object as beautiful as the shell wouldn't need to be destroyed purely out of apprehension. As the dust clears - the Croods are satisfied the aforementioned object is finally gone.

Eep and Luna gather the broken pieces and hold it close to them. Luna holds them close to her heart, wishing it was still in one piece to call Guy back. Eep is outraged at her family, disbelief and fury written clearly on her face. "What is wrong with you?" In Grug's view, they did nothing wrong. They were safer without it. "It was dangerous." Eep's anger seeped out at a much faster rate than Luna's. "It was beautiful. You want to see dangerous? Here!" She pelts Thunk's nose with a piece of the broken shell, originally aiming for Grug. His head snaps back from the force, hand immediately going to the targeted area. "OWWW! My sniffer!"

Grug and Ugga had had enough of Eep acting out. Grug decided to put his foot down here. "Okay Eep, that's it. We're back to the cave and you're to stay in there you're than..." He looks around and spots Gran, "her!" Eep's anger peaks at an all-time high. "What!? You can't keep me forever!" Throwing a display of her tantrum, she smashes a rock against the ground and it shatters into miniscule pieces.

When she finishes they hear ominous sounds coming. CREAK! A groan is heard from under the ground. Then a small amount of sand falls from up above. Luna looks to Eep with a look of fright and understanding, her grey blue eyes wide with terror. Luna opens her mouth and in her soft voice, "He said this happen." Grug lets out a surprised gasp. A crack splinters under their feet.

As large parts of the canyon start raining down, the Croods run for it. "Get to the cave! GO!", Grug demands. The Croods race throug as the canyon narrows, fighting their way through falling boulders and shifting ground, heading towards the safety of their cave.

They see the cave entrance but what they do not see is that the canyon walls above their home start to crack. Grug sees from above that the falling rock will crush the cave. "Look out! Stop!" He whips a rock towards the front, causing Thunk to trip and the Croods to tumble right after him. Grug sprints to the front and holds them tight, shielding them from the brunt of the debris.

The dust clears a bit to reveal the Croods in a tight ball covered mostly by Grug. As he lifts his arms off of them, they stand up. "Is everyone ok?" Grug asks, concerned. Ugga answers for them. "Yes." They look around at what used to be their home. "Grug, the cave, it's gone." Grug looks back behind him. "No." He says, almost in denial and certainly disbelief. rug the for any sign that the cave might still be there. He one handprint, in two. He fits them back together.  Emotional, he lowers his head.

As Luna steps forward, a shaft of light filtering through the dusty veil from the wreckage across her face - As the dust descends, Luna sees a new world beyond. "You really need to see this...", she breathed out. The dumbfounded Croods climb over the rubble and stare in awe at the beautiful world. The Croods look out at the new world.