Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Chapter Seven: The Plates of Woe

The next morning the herd got an early start while the mist of the dawn was still around them. Buck led them down through the trail until they came upon a clearing.
"Everybody stop!" Buck ordered and the herd halted. "I smell something...," the weasel knelt on the ground to try and find the origin of the scent. Sassy sniffed the air and immediately found that familiar, putrid smell. She never thought she'd be so glad to smell that odor again. Buck stabbed a tuft of fur with his knife and sniffed. "It smells like a buzzards butt fell off...ugh and then go' sprayed on by a bunch of skunks!"
"That's Sid." Diego confirmed.
"Mammals, we hav' ourselves a crime scene! Tuft of fur...half eaten carcass, hunk of....oh no! Broccoli!" Sassy thought for a moment Buck was gonna throw up. "'Ere's wot I think 'appened. Dinosaur attacks Sid. Sid fights back with broccoli, leaving dinosaur...a vegetable."
"Are you insane? Sid's not violent, or coordinated." Diego said.
"Yeah and where's the dinosaur?" Manny asked.
"Alrigh' Alrigh' good point. Theory two! Sid's eating broccoli. Dinosaur eats Sid. Dinosaur steps on broccoli, leaving broccoli...a vegetable."
"Buck when exactly did you lose your mind?" Sassy asked.
"Hmm...three months ago. I wok' up one mornin, married ta a pineapple...an ugly pineapple! Ah...but I loved her." Buck said dreamily.
"Uh Buck, I think you might've missed a little clue over here." Diego called. Sassy ran to his side and sucked in a breath. Buck came up next to her.
"Well, your friend migh' be alive but not for long. Rudy's closing in."
"Whoa." The twins said.
"You got it, the Plates of Woe. Or wot's left of them." Buck cautiously led the herd down to the nearly destroyed platform of flat rocks. "Single file everyone! Head for Lava Falls!" The wind whisked around them and the twins shuddered.
"What's that noise?" Crash asked.
"It's th' wind. It's speaking to us." Buck responded mysteriously.
"What's it saying?"
"I don' know. I don' speak wind." Sassy looked back at Ellie and noticed she was grimacing and holding her tummy. Sassy halted and ran back to her.
"Are you alright?" She asked, concerned. Ellie gasped and Manny looked over his shoulder.
"Ellie?"
"I'm alright don't worry about me, just taking my ti-ahhh!" The rocks under the females shook and came loose.
"Ellie!" Manny yelled and the rocks gave way, separating Sassy and the pregnant mammoth from the males. "Get to the ledge!" Sassy pushed Ellie to the ledge before the rocks crumbled beneath their feet. Sassy lept to the ledge and the two watched helplessly as the males went sliding down on the rocks slide. When the dust cleared they heard Manny and the opossums calling for Ellie.
"It's ok! I'm up here!" Ellie yelled.
"Sassy!?" Diego yelled.
"I'm fine, I'm with Ellie!" Ellie groaned and her legs shook. Sassy's senses went on high alert. Ellie was in labor...of all the times for a baby to come. Suddenly a roar cut through the air and a chill went up Sassy's spine. That had to be Rudy. A scream followed it and she immediately recognized Sid's panicked wail. Ellie began panting.
"I gotta tell Manny...," she gasped. Sassy nodded.
"He's gonna flip but we need him up here."
"Manny! Pineapples!" Sassy jerked her head to stare at her large friend. What in the world was she talking about? "Pomegranates! Grapefruits? Nectarines!?"
"What are you doing!?" Sassy asked incredulously.
"Come on think...," Ellie murmured to herself. "...PEACHES!!!" She yelled. After a moment Sassy heard Manny going crazy down on the rocks. Apparently that was their code word for when the baby was coming. She rolled her eyes. It was probably Manny's idea.
"Can you try to hold it in!?" Eddie called. Sassy would've murdered the opossum in that moment if she could get her fangs into him.
"Can someone slap him for me?" Ellie said.
"Hold on Ellie I'm coming!" Manny yelled. Sassy urged Ellie away from the edge of the ledge.
"I gotta say sweetheart, you sure got timing." Ellie said to her belly as she laid down. Sassy licked her trunk comfortingly and hurried around to watch Ellie's process. She caught a wiff of a nearby dinosaur and her fur bristled. Seconds later a smaller, blue Dino appeared on the ledge. She hurried in front of Ellie, her hackles raised and her lips curled back into a snarl. It hissed at her but before it could charge, Diego leaped up from below tackled the lizard, knocking it over the edge.
"Woo!! My paws are burnin baby, they're burnin!! I got tiptoe...tiptoe tippytoe....,"
"Excuse me twinkle toes, giving birth here!?" Ellie snapped, grunting in pain. Sassy glared at the male. He grinned sheepishly.
"Uh right, sorry. Are you...alright?"
"Am I Alright!? Do you know anything about child birth!?" Sassy could've laughed out loud in that moment. Diego shrank back a little.
"Uh no, not really but Manny's coming!"
"Where is he now?" Sassy asked.
"Fighting off those things." Diego replied. Ellie groaned again and Sassy hurried around to check her progress.
"Ellie I can see the head. Mammoth births aren't exactly my specialty but I'll try and walk you through this."
"How much different from a wolf can it be?" Diego asked. Sassy glared at him.
"You mean other than size, number of babies and time of labor and contractions?" Diego wisely shut his mouth and refocused his attention on Ellie. The female groaned again.
"Diego, I'm scared. Can I hold your paw?"
"Uh sure....," a contraction hit and Ellie nearly squeezed his paw off. "Just...go..with...the pain!" Diego said through gritted teeth. Ellie let go and screamed. "It's just a contraction." Diego lamented. Sassy could've killed him.
"No...AHHHH!!" Ellie screamed again, pointing behind the tiger. Sassy looked and saw another Dino on the ledge. Diego growled and dived for the creature, forcing it to tumble off the ledge.
"Ok Ellie I'm going by instincts here I need you to push." Sassy said, her voice even and calm. Ellie did as instructed and squealed at the pain. The head pushed out a little further. A few more pushes at the right times and the trunk would be out. From there Sassy could easily pull the baby out. She could hear Diego reassuring Ellie up front.
"You're doing fine....it's going great. Uh....excuse me for one second." He ran to the ledge and knocked a Dino on the head but was dragged off the ledge by more of the oversized lizards. "Keep breathing!" He yelled as he went over the edge.
"Diego!" Ellie said weakly.
"Just breathe that's the important thing!" He said as he smacked two Dinos together. Sassy shook her head and told Ellie to push again. Diego got back up on the ledge with more Dinos hot on his heels. "Uh Sassy!?" He called. She leaped over Ellie in one bound and right smack dab into a lizard, keeping it from snapping Diego's foot off. The two predators stood in front of Ellie like sentries, ready for war. Several rushed them at once and Ellie grabbed a log with her trunk and tossed it at them. It only rolled back and came between the predators and the dinosaurs. Sassy wasn't sure how exactly it happened, but within thirty seconds she and Diego were pushing with their hind legs against the log to keep the dinosaurs back.
"Come on push!" Ellie urged.
"I can't do it!" Diego groaned.
"Just one more big push!"
"You have no idea what I'm going through!" That earned a death glare from both females. "Ok forget I said that. Let's do this together!" All three shoves with all their might and the log with the dinos went flying off the ledge. Sassy hurried back behind Ellie and saw the trunk.
"Push Ellie!" She ordered. Ellie did so and the head came out fully. Sassy gingerly wrapped the little ones trunk around her paw. She could hear Diego and Ellie doing breathing exercises up front. "One more push!" She did so and Sassy tugged at the same time. The baby came sliding out and hit the ground and cried. Sassy smiled and nudged the baby into Ellie's trunk as the beaming mother turned her head back to see. Sassy walked up next to her and smiled at Manny as he approached. "Congratulations daddy. It's a girl." Manny was immediately enthralled by the little princess and Sassy stepped back with Diego to give the new parents room with their daughter.
"She's perfect." Manny said, holding his girl. "I think we should call her....Ellie. Little Ellie." The mother smiled.
"I got a better name. Peaches."
"Peaches?"
"Why not? She's sweet and round, and covered with fuzz!"
"Peaches....I love it." Sassy heard a sniff and turned her head to catch Diego lifting a paw to his glistening eyes.
"I saw that tough guy." Ellie called him out.
"No no that last Dino caught my eye with a claw and....," he looked at the smirking wolf beside him and sighed. "Alright so I'm not made of stone." She laughed and nuzzled him happily in the neck.
"Nothing to be ashamed of tiger." He smiled at her and they heard a whoop from up above. A pterodactyl flew above them, holing a floppy green thing in its talons.
"It's Sid!" Manny yelled. The sloth was cast unceremoniously onto the ledge and looked up from his face plant right at Peaches.
"It's a boy!"
"That's it's tail."
"It's a girl!!" He stood and hurried over to them. "Oh she's so beautiful! Oh she is! She looks just like her mother...thank goodness. Oh no offense Manny, you're beautiful on the inside!" Sid insisted. Manny just grinned and rubbed the sloth on the head with his trunk.
"It's good to have you back Sid."
"I never thought I'd say this but...I missed ya buddy." Diego said, coming along side. Sassy nuzzled Sid, welcoming him back, to which he hugged her neck in response. Peaches wobbled out of her mother's arms and stood up. Sid touched her trunk.
"Aw I wish my kids could've been here. You could've been friends!" He said to the baby girl.
"Ellie!" Crash and Eddie ran over from the edge where Buck was standing, a silent observer. Sassy left the group to pad over to the weasel.
"You know we can't thank you enough for all you've done." She said. Buck waved her off.
"Ah ''twas no trouble! Gave me somethin ta do otha than chase Rudy around down 'ere all th' time!" Sassy smiled and walked back to Diego's side. Buck matched up to the group. "Alrigh' mammal! Let's get you's home."