Ice Age: The Next Generation

6 Months Going On 19

AN/ The picture is Freya, the second born pup.

6 months later

"Can't I just give birth yet!?" Peaches whined as Ellie and Sassy took her on a walk to stretch her legs. Sassy scoffed.
"Ellie was pregnant with you for a full two years! You've got at least a year left, maybe a year and a half." Peaches whined some more and Ellie laughed, patting her daughter sympathetically on the shoulder with her trunk.
"I know it's rough sweetie, but the baby is going to be so worth all the struggles of pregnancy! You won't even be thinking about it when you're holding your little one for the first time." Peaches's shoulders slumped.
"I guess you're right. I'm just not looking forward to over a year of food cravings and getting fatter and fatter-,"
"And don't forget nausea."
"And swelling ankles!"
"And-,"
"Ok ok I get it!!!" Peaches covered her ears with her trunk. Sassy and Ellie snickered. "Where's Aunt Shira, doesn't she have a comment to add to the pot?" Peaches asked, rolling her eyes.
"Shira and Diego should be back with the kittens any day now, shouldn't they?" Ellie asked Sassy. Sassy nodded.
"They've been in the mountains for almost a month teaching the kittens how to hunt. I've missed them something fierce but this experience has been good for the kittens and for Diego and Shira. Good quality family time." Her nose wrinkled. "Now if I ever get my claws into Denali I'm gonna make him do the same thing." The mammoths laughed heartily. Later, Sassy returned to her cave only to be ambushed by her children. The twins jumped out of the bushes on either side of the entrance and raised their hackles.
"Freeze strange wolf!" Laila and Ylva said in unison. Sassy smothered a grin. This was a game she and the pups had developed. She forced her hair to rise and playfully growled.
"What are two children like you doing near my home!?"
"Children!?" Came a deep shout. Sassy whirled around to face Haken, who had emerged from behind a tree and was slowly slinking towards her. "Who are you calling children?" Children indeed. Her pups were only nine months old and were already as big as she was.
"I think this wolf needs to be taught a lesson." Freya emerged on Sassy's left, a cocky grin on her maw.
"I quite agree my dear sister." Sassy's head wheeled to the right as her eldest, Rorik, sauntered towards her. Now Rorik...Rorik was fixing to be bigger than his father. He already dwarfed Sassy and his sisters and just kept growing. Sassy grinned and eyed her children closing in around her.
"Or maybe I'll have to teach you puppies a lesson. Cause that's all you are...pups." Growls sounded from her every direction and she braced herself to launch. As she predicted, her pups all pounced for her at the same time. They still weren't the best at coordinating an attack yet. She easily dove through a space between the twins and laughed as they all landed on one another and clonked heads. She heard Denali come up behind her and he chuckled at the sight of 5 wolf pups that were too big for their age arguing and moaning about their heads.
"Another ambush?"
"Hey at least they're trying. They just...well...they should just avoid group hunting." Denali laughed out loud and licked his wife on the cheek. The twins bounded over to their daddy, nuzzling his neck as the other three sheepishly approached Sassy. "You guys need to have a plan of attack! Don't just launch all at once or you're going to end up harming yourselves more than your prey!"
"Sorry mom." Haken said, lowering his head. Sassy chuckled and licked between her son's ears. He was just as big as she was and probably wasn't done growing. Freya grumbled something under her breath but Sassy didn't pay her too much mind. Freya was a loner at heart and rarely gave into her siblings pranks. She was as big as her mother as well, but her eyes were ice blue, as were Rorik's. Their eyes hadn't changed to amber for some reason. Sassy wasn't complaining though. She knew soon that suitors wouldn't be complaining either; her two eldest were quite the attractive wolves. Haken, Laila and Ylva were going to be in for it too some day soon.
Sassy knew that pretty soon she was going to have to have a serious talk with her daughters but especially with her sons and husband. They needed to be ready for when young, roaming males smelled the scents of three young females and came a running. Haken and Rorik would have their share of females to choose from as well. Rorik was going to be trouble. He already flirted with anything female that moved so she could only imagine what he would be like when mating season rolled in.

Rose slinked into the herd's camp, determined to find Rorik and teach him a lesson with her new and improved hunting skills. She'd be on him before he could count to three. She and her family had been gone almost an entire month and during that time she had a growth spurt. It wasn't much but she was now only slightly smaller than her mother and her claws and fangs had come in fully. She had been a slow grower. She and her brothers were 11 months old and the boys were almost fully grown by 7 months while she still straggled behind, nearly half their size. It was infuriating. But, during the past two months she'd started to show some promise and her daddy said that getting her into the mountains and engaging in real hunting and exercise had made her shoot up and out.
She stifled a giggle as she moved silently through underbrush, spreading her large paws out for balance. She came to Rorik's favorite spot; a small cliff that was mostly covered by pine trees and overgrowth. He didn't know she knew about this place, and he'd probably kill her later. But for right now, she didn't care. She just flattened her belly onto the ground and waited patiently for her prey to appear.
She wasn't disappointed. Rorik soon wriggled his way through a small opening in the heavy thicket and walked onto the stone, looking out over the valley. Rose's breath hitched as she saw him for the first time in a month. She wasn't the only one that had a growth spurt. Rorik was huge. Obviously bigger than Aunt Sassy and maybe even bigger than Uncle Denali. His grayish, black fur was full and long and fluffy, dipping down his broad chest to form an elegant and incredibly attractive mane. Brownish patches and stripes graced his fur in several places, creating beautiful swirls of colors in his coat. His ears were coal black and at attention and when he sat down on his haunches, then laid on his belly, she watched as the chords of muscle rippled under his fur.
Rose shook her head, trying to knock herself out of a daze. What in the world was she thinking!? She was ogling him with her jaw hanging open like a fish out of water. He was practically her cousin for goodness sake! Although...she had to admit, it certainly didn't feel like that now. She mentally slapped herself and raised her haunches, getting ready to leap...when he suddenly stood up and walked back to the thicket and squeezed back through the opening, his bushy tail flicking behind him. Rose slapped the ground with her paw in anger. If she hadn't been gawking at him, she would've pounced and had her quarry on his back, her paw at his throat. While she was busy giving herself a lecture, she lost focus and didn't hear the very slight rustling behind her. Suddenly a heavy body collided with hers and she screamed. They rolled head over tail all the way to the edge of the cliff where Rose landed on her back, the wind knocked out of her. But it wasn't because of being tackled. It was because she was staring into the icy, penetrative, gorgeous eyes of her "prey": Rorik.