Later on, the herd continues to move, just as they heard an animal's scream echo through the jungle.
(A/N: We all know it's Scrat!)
"Sounds like a Jungle of Misery to me". Eddie says nervously.
Redwood takes out her parents' spear, feeling ready for whatever comes their way. She looks around and though their surroundings looked more than beautiful, she couldn't shake this eerie vibe she kept getting just by looking at even the smallest things like plants.
They all carry on as eyes appear out of plants around them and watch. Ellie stops, sensing they're being watched and looks back but the eyes quickly retract. "Hold on".
Manny rushed to her side immediately. "Why? What's wrong? Peaches?"
Ellie gave him a confused look. "What? No. It's just... I've got a funny feeling".
"Now that you'd mention it, I've got the feeling that we're being watched". Avery says.
"Me too". Redwood nods.
Manny doesn't pay attention and instead takes this in a different way. "You're hungry! Low blood sugar!" He looks around and spots a red fruit nearby. "Oh, there's some fruit!"
"No, Manny!" Avery tries to stop him.
Diego follows him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. This isn't exactly your playground".
Redwood walks towards the two with Avery next to her. "Besides, it could be poisonous. Or worse; a trap".
"Pfft. Like I'm gonna be afraid of a pretty flower". Manny grabs the fruit with his trunk and suddenly vines quickly wrap around his, Diego, Avery, and Redwood's feet.
"Bet you didn't see that coming". Diego says deadpanned.
The vines then lift the four into the air and dangles them upside down, making Redwood drop her spear in the process.
"Manny!" Ellie cries out.
"For the record, I blame you for this!" Redwood tells Manny frustratingly as they're lowered back down to the plant, (which has now become large). It swallows them up and traps them inside itself.
"Stop eating our friends, plant!" Eddie yells as he and Crash run to attack it, only for the plant to attack them with its vines, forcing them to retreat.
Avery hears everything happening from the inside and groans in annoyance. "Our heroes..."
Ellie then glares at the plant. "That's it! I'm tearing it up from the roots!"
Before she could charge at it, she's stopped by Buck, (who has seemingly appeared out of nowhere). "Do that and it will clamp shut forever". He tells her.
"What?!" Ellie exclaims.
"Alright preggers, don't get your trunk in a knot. I'll have them out of there before they're digested". Buck says.
"Digested?!" Manny shouts in fear as he pops his head out of the plant before being shoved back in.
"They'll be nothing but bones in 3 minutes. Well, maybe 5 for the fat one". Buck states while stretching.
"I'M NOT FAT!" Manny yells.
Meanwhile inside the plant, Redwood, Avery, Diego, and Manny are pushing the walls trying to get free when Diego suddenly stops for a minute. "I feel tingly".
Manny gives him a disgusted look. "Don't say that when you're pressed up against me".
"Diego, there's a child in here!" Avery glares at him.
"I'm not a child! I'm 14! Technically a teen!" Redwood reminds her.
"Not that kind of tingly". Diego clarifies.
Manny then stops next. "I can feel it too".
Avery looks down and gulps. "Guys! Look!"
They look down to see the plant starting to fill up with a green liquid, (probably stomach acid). They begin to freak out and Avery starts screaming for help. "HELP! SOMEBODY HELP US!"
Back outside, Ellie starts feeling anxious. "Oh! Hurry!" She tells Buck.
He grabs his knife and prepares to go in. "It's time to get.... Buck Wild".
Buck runs forward, dodging the vines and using one to fly into the air. He falls back down and heads toward the opening, intending to go straight through. But instead, he gets stuck.
"Who's fat now?" Manny mocks him.
"Still you! You're taking up most of the space here!" Avery counter-argues.
Buck ignores them and squeezes his way in. He heads to the bottom and removes a cover to reveal two wires; one blue and one red. Holding each one, he looks between them and eventually chooses to cut the red one which causes the green liquid to fill up faster and the plant to close up tighter.
This squeezed everyone closer together and made Buck accidentally drops his knife. He got stuck between Manny and the wall, his knife almost out of his reach and him not being able to move at all. While everyone else still struggles to push against the walls and free themselves, Buck tries to grab his knife to cut the other wire.
Avery (who is closer to the knife) notices this and uses her leg to push it toward Buck. He manages to grab it and looks up to see Avery nod at him before reaching as far as he could to cut the blue wire.
Just as he was doing so, Redwood started becoming light-headed from the lack of oxygen and her pushes were starting to become weaker. She never held her breath for this long. Even when the flood happened when she was 10, she wasn't underwater for this long. Soon, her lungs couldn't take it anymore and her eyes started to close as she passed out.
Manny, Avery, and Diego saw this and pure terror was all they were feeling right now. Redwood was going to die if they didn't get out now!
Buck looked over and saw Avery's expression. The fear on her face was all he saw... or so he thought. As she was the next one to lose breath and started fading as well. This made him more determined to get them out as fast as he could. So once his knife reached the blue wire, he gritted his teeth and forced it upwards using all his strength, until finally, he manages to cut it completely.
For a brief moment, everything froze...
Then suddenly the plant started growing bigger and bigger before finally bursting open, covering Crash and Eddie in green slime and shooting everyone that was inside into the air. Manny falls from the sky and lands on the ground, followed by Diego who lands on his back, and Redwood whose unconscious body thankfully landed in a nearby soft bush.
Meanwhile, Buck uses a leaf as a hand glider and floats down gracefully. He then looks at both Manny and Diego before scoffing. "Pfft. Tourists", he smirks.
Buck then heard Avery screaming and looked up to see that she was the last one falling from the sky. He smiled as he took one step back and held out his arms, catching her easily before she could hit the ground. Avery was clinging onto Buck but was unaware it was him since her eyes were closed from fear.
"You can open your eyes now, love. You're safe", He told her calmly.
Her eyes shot open the minute she heard him call her 'love'. She felt her face heat up a bit and her heart rate beat slightly faster, but it only got worse when she realized that he was holding her bridal style. Avery then looked up at him and cleared her throat, trying to hide her embarrassment. "I-um... Thanks... again".
Instead of saying anything, Buck just stood there with a stupid smile on his face and a half-lidded eye, gazing at Avery for longer than what she was comfortable with.
"Uh... Buck?" Avery's embarrassment was replaced with confusion when he still didn't respond. She then waved her paw in his face. "Earth to Buck. You can put me down now".
Buck shook his head and snapped out of his trance. "Oh right! Sorry about that". He sets her back down on her feet and is the one to clear his throat this time. He continues to stare at Avery while trying to act like his normal self again, despite his own racing heart, (although he didn't know if it was from the danger that just happened or... something else).
"Well! Just... stay out of trouble, miss...?" Buck just realized he didn't know her name yet.
"Avery. The name's Avery", She properly introduces herself as she puts out her hand (er... paw) and shakes his. "And sorry, but trouble is all that this herd gets into, as you can tell. Hehe". She smiles warmly.
The two weasels were then taken out of the moment when their attention was turned to Redwood, who had woken up and started coughing loudly from where she had fallen. She got off the bush and fell onto her knees, trying to catch her breath by inhaling deeply.
"Oh my gosh! Redwood!" Avery quickly runs off to the human in worry and checks her over before hugging her tightly. She mentally scolded herself for forgetting about the kid. "Thank goodness you're alive!"
"Now I understand why Diego hated water before. I should really learn to hold my breath for longer than that", Redwood says.
"Or Manny should learn to be more careful about his surroundings!" Avery turns to the mammoth. "We could've died!"
"I'm sorry, but I didn't expect that to happen!" Manny argues back.
"Barfed on by a plant", Crash said, looking at the slime that he and Eddie were still covered in.
The two brothers then grinned at each other. "Awesome!"
"Yeah, 'awesome' is not the word I would use to describe a gruesome near-death experience". Redwood said while standing up and walking over to pick up her spear from where she dropped it. She saw the green slime covering it and wiped it off, feeling grossed out. "Eww!"
Ellie then walks over to Manny, who was still on the ground with Diego on his back. "Say something". She tells him.
Manny groans before speaking to Buck. "Uh... thanks for saving us".
"Buck", Ellie caught his attention. "Will you help us find the floppy green thing?"
Manny quickly stood up causing Diego to fall off his back. "That's not necessary!"
"Yes, it is". Ellie countered.
Buck thought for a moment before walking back to the herd. "Alright, I'll help ya. But I've got rules.
Rule number 1: Always listen to Buck.
Rule number 2: Stay in the middle of the trail.
Rule number 3..."
He does an intense dramatic pause, leaving the herd in suspense before speaking normally again. "He who has gas travels at the back of the pack".
Eddie then sulked and reluctantly headed off to the back of the group.
"Really?" Redwood looked at him with a deadpan face.
"Come on then. Chop-chop". Buck grabbed his knife and began leading the way.
"We should all have our heads examined". Manny grumbled as the herd began to follow the weasel.
"That's rule number four!" Buck exclaims. "Now let's go find your friend".
As they walk off, Redwood sighs before turning to Ellie. "If we almost died from a plant, I'm scared to imagine what Sid could be going through right now with all these death traps".
*Meanwhile*
Momma T-Rex walks through the jungle, still carrying Sid and the baby dinos in her mouth. The sloth is asleep but soon wakes up and sees Momma T-Rex's feet below him.
Sid yelps before looking around to see the baby dinos whimpering and about to cry. "No, no, no, it's okay. Don't worry. We're gonna be fine". He tries to comfort them but stops for a minute. "Please stop swaying. A little nauseous". He covers his mouth to stop himself from barfing.
Momma T-Rex soon stops and lowers them down to the ground. Eggbert, Shelly, and Yoko get out of her mouth onto the ground and Sid tries to follow them. "See? She's putting us down-- AHHH", He screams as Momma T-Rex lifts him back up, intending to eat him as revenge for taking her eggs.
Sid quickly grabs onto a vine, in an attempt to pull himself away from her. "No! I'm too young to be eaten!" The vine snaps and he gets stuck in her nose. "Whoa! Nice mucus! And I don't say that to everyone".
Momma T-Rex tries to get him out only to suck him further into her nose. She tries again to get him out, this time proving more successful by spewing him out onto a tree on a rocket of snot, much to the baby dinos' disgust.
Sid falls onto a branch and opens his eyes just in time to see Momma T-Rex's jaw coming towards him, ready to eat him again. Yelping in fear, he dodges out of the way and grabs another branch. "Aaah! Listen, families get complicated! Maybe we can work something out!"
He tries to make a deal with Momma T-Rex, only to dodge her again from eating him every time. "I can take them Sunday to Tuesday! Wednesday to Friday?! Weekends?!"
Momma T-Rex tries to eat him again but misses. Sid then falls onto a branch, bounces off it then falls towards the others as the baby dinos hurry out of the way, but Sid gets tangled up in some vines on the way down.
"It's okay. Momma's okay!", he reassures his kids.
Momma T-Rex approaches him again, but this time Sid couldn't dodge her. "If you eat me, it will send a bad message". He tries to reason with her.
She ignores him and gets ready to eat him again, but she stops this time when Eggbert, Shelly, and Yoko rush in front of Sid to protect him from her.
"Hah! Score one for the sloth!" Sid said smugly.
Momma T-Rex just growls and instead whacks Sid with her tail, sending him spinning around a branch and getting tied up with the vines.
"And the score's all tied up", he says in pain.
END CHAPTER
_______________________________________
A/N: Let me tell you, writing that plant was intense for me, considering how two people almost died from a lack of oxygen. (Which is one of my biggest fears since that has almost happened to me when I was 10 and I was at a beach)
But still, nothing says starting a romance like your love interest saving your life. Am I right Disney?... or Dreamworks... or... wait, which studio does it again?
(Before you say anything, I'm aware that "Ice Age" was made by "Blue Sky Studios".......... R.I.P.)
Anyway, please comment and tell me what you think of the chapter.