The Herd's Growing Family (Ice Age)

Ellie's Past

Diego smiles at Redwood's support before Sid catches their attention while standing on a log. "Just jump in and trust your instincts". He jumps into the bushes and swims through them. "You know, most animals can swim as babies". He dives deeper into the bushes and appears on another log. "And for a tiger, it's like crawling on your belly to stalk helpless prey". Sid jumps off the log and appears beside Diego, Avery, and Redwood on vines. "But faster, OK? Now, claw, kick, claw, kick. I'm stalking the prey. Claw, kick. Now, I look back over my shoulder to see if I'm being followed and I'm breathing". He breathes in and out heavily two times. "And I'm stalking and I'm stalking and I'm... Aah!"

Diego cuts the vines with a claw and Sid falls to the ground. "I'm falling". He finishes weakly.

"Correction. You're sinking". Diego says.

"Kinda like a rock". Avery adds.

"Whose side are you on?" Redwood questions the weasel.

"No one's. I'm just here to see who's gonna fail first". Avery answers. "But I think we should get some wood for the fire now".

They all walk off, leaving Sid on the ground as he groans.

*Back With Manny & Ellie*

Manny and Ellie are walking back through the forest.

"Oh! Hey, do we do any special tricks like rollover, or do we just throw our weight around?" Ellie nearly knocks Manny over but she manages to pull him back with her trunk. "Oh. Oops. Sorry. I don't know my own strength yet".

"Ellie, do you realize that now we have a chance to save our species?" Manny tells her.

"Really? How are we going to do that?" She questions.

"Well, you know...", Manny tries to be subtle, but Ellie quickly catches on to what he meant.

"Oh, uh-uh. Did you just...!"

"I didn't mean--".

Ellie cuts him off, feeling upset. "I'm not a mammoth for 5 minutes and you're hitting on me?!"

Manny tries to justify himself. "I wasn't saying right now, um, in time. I was just saying that it's our responsibility".

"What?!"

"Uh, that came out wrong. You're very pretty, but we just met--"

"Responsibility?! Just doing your duty, huh? Is that it? Ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to save your species". Ellie says, now feeling very angry. "Well, I got some news for you; you're not saving the species tonight or any other night!" She storms off, leaving Manny alone.

*Back With the Others*

Sid, Diego, Avery, and Redwood are sitting by the fire to get warm when Manny arrives.

"So, how did it go?" Diego asked.

"Um, not bad", Manny responds, faking happiness.

Ellie walks past him with Crash and Eddie on her back, who are also mad with their eyes closed and arms crossed. Ellie steps into a puddle, splashing water onto the flames, extinguishing it.

"OK, let's go!" She orders. "We've traveled with you all day, now you're coming with us at night!"

"But we can't see at night". Manny points out.

"Then enjoy the flood". She walks off while Crash and Eddie upsettingly calls out to Manny.

"I can't even look at him!"

"Pervert!"

Manny got taken aback by this. Crash points two fingers at his eyes, then directs them at Manny.

"Guess that didn't go well". Avery comments.

"Making friends, everywhere you go. Just making friends". Sid said as they started walking, trying to catch up with the others.

Redwood then had a confused look on her face when she started thinking about what Crash said. "Hey guys, what's a pervert?"

"Uhhhh..." Avery looked at the rest of the herd, who shared the same awkward expression she had.

"We'll tell you when you are older", Diego finally answers. In reality, there was no way they were going to tell her what it meant.

END CHAPTER
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A/N: The last part wasn't necessary, I just wrote it because that's how it went when I asked the same thing to my parents.

Anyway, please comment and tell me what you think of the chapter.