(A/N: I'm wondering if anyone even reads my other books... Maybe I should try something new?... I don't know...
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A few moments pass and the herd (specifically Manny, Sid, Diego, and Redwood) set off to look for Granny. Though so far, they weren't having any luck in finding her.
"Granny?" Sid called out.
"Granny!" Diego did the same, followed by Manny and Redwood yelling as well.
"Granny!"
"Come out, come out wherever you are!"
"Come on, Granny!"
"Here, Granny, Granny, Granny. I have prunes for you! Just the way you like them!" Sid spoke before spitting up prunes, which were all chewed up and slimy from being in his mouth.
The rest of the group saw this and both Manny and Diego looked away in disgust, meanwhile Redwood gagged and almost threw up.
"I don't want to see that", Manny said before noticing something while he looked away. "Huh?" He saw Peaches and Louis heading to the falls and started to get upset at the fact that Peaches snuck off again.
Redwood recovered from gagging and saw Manny's expression before turning to see what he was looking at. "Oh no", she mumbled to herself.
"'Oh no' is right", Manny said.
Before he could do anything brash, Redwood stood in front of him. "H-hey! Hold up! There's a better way to do this, you know. How about you guys continue looking for Sid's Granny and I'll handle Peaches?" She suggested.
"Give me a reason why I should let you. If anything, you'll sneak off with her too!" Manny told her.
"But I won't!" Redwood denied. "Look, if she doesn't listen to me, I'll at least try to keep her out of trouble. No danger, no risk, no boys. Just supervision by me. I promise".
Manny looked between the falls and Redwood while thinking it over. It's not that he didn't trust Redwood, he just didn't want Peaches to convince her to join in on the recklessness like she normally would. But then again, Redwood wasn't always tempted to do 'teenager' things as much as Peaches. She was more well-behaved and understood better. (Mainly because she's never been around the other kids to be influenced by these things but he didn't think too much about that).
Manny then sighed and allowed it. "Alright, fine. But I'm sending back-up just in case you forget your job".
Redwood nodded and ran over to follow Peaches and Louis. Meanwhile Diego, (who was standing there the whole time), looked at Manny in confusion.
"What makes you think you can't trust her?" The saber asked.
"If you haven't noticed, she's getting dragged into things she's not supposed to do. Like sneaking out without us knowing", Manny told him. "She promised us before that she would be more careful and I was right to doubt her on that".
"But is she really doing anything terrible? Or are you just overreacting?" Diego questioned. "I know you want the girls out of trouble, and I understand why, but you can trust Redwood at least. I know I do".
Manny scoffs. "Well trust me. If you knew how it was being protective of your own kid, you'd be saying something different right now".
"Who says Redwood isn't my kid? I want her safe too, but I still trust her enough on her own".
"Okay, tiger. Let's see how long that lasts..... And by the way, she's my kid too, you know. We all raised her".
Diego rolled his eyes at Manny's response and the two continued their search of finding Granny.
*Meanwhile*
"Hey, guys!"
Redwood finally caught up to Peaches and Louis, who were surprised to see her.
"I thought you'd never show up", Peaches told her. "Did dad see you?"
"Oh, he knows I'm here... as a chaperone", The human smirked. The two girls hi-fived, meanwhile Louis looked more concerned.
"Wait, so you're here to watch over us?" He asked.
"Just to make sure nothing goes too crazy", Redwood explained. "It can't be that bad, right?"
"But you've never even been to the falls! You don't know how crazy it could get. What if something does go wrong? And what if your dads find out? I'm not as tough as I look!" Louis panicked a bit.
"Yeah, sherlock, no sh--"
"Shh!" Peaches held her trunk up and cut Redwood off. "Wait, do you hear that?"
She ran ahead to follow some music that she suddenly started to hear and her friends followed her as well. They shortly ended up near a ledge that gave a good view of the falls from high up.
The trio looked down over the ledge at their destination, which was actually a medium-sized area mostly surrounded by steep high walls of ice and snow. It was also right next to a small patch of steaming tar geysers, though they didn't seem too dangerous to be around.
In the falls was a bunch of (teenage) animals, all hanging out and having a good time. The place did seem kinda fun for the most part, but what really caught the group's attention was one person in particular.
Someone on the lower ledges tossed what looked like a ball to a group of other teenage mammoths. Only one of them managed to catch it, and that one turned out to be Peaches' crush, Ethan.
(Also it turned out the 'ball' was actually a Glyptodon that Ethan tossed away like it was nothing).
"Hey, look, there's Ethan", Peaches said with a smile on her face.
Other female mammoths, (presumably Ethan's friends), then crowded around him and began praising him, to which he soaked up the attention. Seeing this made Redwood shake her head in disapproval. This guy is the one Peaches likes? It felt like Buck and Avery all over again, only this time it was easier to tell that the guy wasn't good enough.
Just then everyone's attention was turned to where the trio was. Peaches, Louis and Redwood ducked so they wouldn't be seen, but then quickly realized everyone was actually looking at a deer near them. The deer then proceeded to jump from where he was and slide down the steep wall toward the falls, all the while cheering and having fun.
The trio went back to watching and Peaches looked at her friends with a calm demeanor. "See? Fun. No danger." She pointed out about the falls.
"No danger yet!" Redwood said.
"Check me out!" The deer shouted as he reached the bottom of the slide, which was curved up to where it made him go into the air. He used it as an opportunity to do the cool pose mid-air and everyone cheered... until one of the geysers went off and hit the deer, causing him to fall painfully on the ground next to the crowd.
"Told ya", Redwood gave an unimpressed expression.
"I'm sure he's fine", Peaches nervously smiled.
"I'm completely not fine!" The deer yelled, making her smile worse.
"Aw, you did not just do that! That was crazy!" Ethan fist-bumped the deer, to which his antlers disintegrated afterward. "Nice".
Everything from the falls just continued after that and the trio was still watching from afar.
"Isn't he perfect?" Peaches gushed about Ethan.
Louis on the other hand wasn't too thrilled about him. "Perfect. Yeah, it's such a strong word. Maybe adequate."
"I kind of agree". Redwood spoke. "This is maybe because I'm human, but even if I was a mammoth, I really don't see the appeal. Honestly, you can do better, Peaches".
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Crash and Eddie popped out of the bushes, surprising the others.
"Who are we stalking?" Eddie asked.
"Is it Ethan? I bet it's Ethan." Crash replied before he and Eddie noticed Louis next to them
"Oh hey, Weiner."
"What are you guys doing here?" Peaches asked the possums.
Eddie answered first. "Manny told us to keep an eye on you and to make sure Redwood does her job right."
"But not to let you two see us", Crash added.
"Under any circumstances", Eddie finished.
Not even 3 seconds have passed and they both already realized they screwed up their one job. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!" They start slapping each other and make it worse when they're fighting distracts them and forces them to leave the trio alone again.
Once they were gone, Peaches took this as an opportunity to prepare herself to go to the falls and talk to Ethan. "Okay, I'm going for it. Do I look okay?"
Redwood looked conflicted about this. "I don't know if you should do this. I promised Manny I'd supervise you and I don't wanna..."
"Please, Red", Peaches begged her. "I promise you won't get in trouble with my dad. He doesn't need to know about this. Please".
Redwood didn't respond. She wants to support her sister (despite how she already doesn't like Ethan), but at the same time, the last thing she needs is to get in trouble with Manny and have bigger drama happen.
She looked back at Peaches, who was giving her a pleading look. Telling her 'no' was either gonna get her mad at the human or just make her do what she wants anyways, but something worse would happen. Thinking about it a few times over, Redwood eventually decided to allow her to go.
"Ugh! Fine. But Manny can't know about this. So keep it on the down-low, please".
Peaches' face lit up. "Thanks, Red! You won't regret this..... Buuut you still didn't answer my question. Do I look okay?"
"Come on. You look great. Louis agrees with me on this too. Right, buddy?"
The girls turn to Louis, who seemed to be staring at Peaches with a dreamily dazed expression, complete with soft eyes and a warm smile. He didn't really say anything for a second, making Redwood call his name again. "Louis?"
He finally responded, not taking his eyes off Peaches. "'Great' doesn't even begin to cover it."
Peaches was flattered by what he said, though oblivious to why he said it. "Aw, Louis. You're the greatest friend ever! And Red, you're the best sister ever!" She patted Louis' head with her trunk before leaving to see Ethan.
Louis' soft expression dropped once he heard the word 'friend' and he sighed disappointedly after Peaches left. "...That's me."
Redwood saw how his mood changed, and after thinking it over and remembering a few things that this moment reminded her about, she quickly pieced together why that was. A smirk then grew on her face and she crossed her arms as Louis turned to look at her.
"What?" He asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I saw that look. And I know it all too well", Redwood said.
Louis grew nervous. "W-what look?"
"You know what? I'm not gonna beat around the bush. You like Peaches! And I mean as more than a friend! There's no denying it!" Redwood grinned.
"W-what?! Where did you get that from?"
"Don't play dumb. I saw your face. Aside from it being adorable, it also kinda gave you away. Besides, I've been around Peaches' parents when they fell in love, plus an old friend of mine went through a similar situation. So I know a lovestruck look when I see one", She said with certainty in her voice.
Louis froze for a minute and began stuttering a lot while trying to come up with a stupid excuse. It was funny and cute seeing him try, but he already knew he couldn't dig his way out of this.
So after giving up during at least 5 attempts to come up with a cover story, he admitted defeat and his nervous face said it all. "Just... don't say anything to her. Please?" He pleaded to Redwood.
"I make no promises", she chuckled before pretending to zip her mouth shut. "But maybe just this once. For your sake".
Louis sighs in relief. "Thanks... But just to clarify... you don't find this weird? Me and her".
"..." Redwood didn't respond for a second. "Well... realistically speaking, I have some doubts about this happening... you know, species and everything. But that doesn't mean I don't support it. You're a great guy and I think you two would be cute together... But on the flip side that this doesn't work out, just know you'll at least still have a friend in us".
Despite a part of him agreeing with her about this not working out (mainly due to him and Peaches being different species), Louis appreciated the support Redwood was giving him. Plus the reassurance that they would remain friends gave him some form of comfort.
"Thanks, Red... Wait, am I allowed to call you that?" He asked. He's never really called her Red before due to thinking she only allows her family to call her that.
"Of course. Louis, you're my buddy and my bestie. Who says you can't use my nickname?" She told him before kneeling down to his level. "Listen, you can't be scared and timid about everything all the time. I should know because I used to be like that. You gotta be brave, be more confident. I know you can be. And who knows? Me being brave has saved my family from certain death, maybe you'll be able to do something similar".
"You put way too much faith in me", Louis remarked.
"Someone's gotta give you a confidence boost. You need it", Redwood gently ruffled his head. He tried looking slightly annoyed about it, but his grateful smile said otherwise. Plus he did feel a tiny bit more confident after that.
Seriously, how did he manage to get friends like Redwood and Peaches?
*Meanwhile, with Peaches*
The teenage mammoth made her way down to the falls, all the while poorly practicing how to talk to Ethan. "Hi, Ethan, my name's Peaches. What's yours?" She realized what she said and got frustrated with herself. "What am I doing?! Okay, just be cool, just be..."
Peaches, who wasn't paying attention to the path, suddenly slips on an icy log in front of her and starts to slide around on the steep wall. "Whoa! No! Whoa!"
This gets the attention of the other teenagers, including Ethan. "That's intense!" He says upon seeing Peaches get launched into the air.
Redwood sees this as well from the ledge and freaks out. "Ooooh! Manny's gonna kill me!" She runs off and takes a different path to the falls, leaving Louis by himself.
Meanwhile, Peaches screams as gravity brings her back down on the slide and causes her to go backwards this time. "Ow. Ow. This hurts so much! Ow!" She finally faces forward only to that she was heading towards the tar geysers. She gasps in fear at this. "No! No! No! No! Nooooo!"
She gets launched from the slide yet again but thankfully she misses all the geysers. Unfortunately, her luck didn't last too long as Peaches crashed into Ethan and had him break her fall.
Once that disaster was over, everyone took a better look at Peaches and realized who she really was.
"Gross! It's that weirdo who chills with possums!", One of Ethan's friends mentioned, causing everybody else to recoil in disgust.
"Isn't she also sisters with that strange human?" Someone else added, making the disgusted expressions worse.
"What just happened?" Ethan was in a dazed state as he got up with Peaches.
"Oh, no! Ethan, I am so sorry. I..." Peaches stopped mid-way through her apology to admire him for a moment. "Wow, you're even better looking up close. Phenomenal. I mean--!"
Ethan tries getting a better look but due to his dazed state giving him blurry vision, he instead saw 2 of her. "You have a twin sister?"
Once his vision cleared up properly, it turned out the 'twin sister' was actually Manny.
"Am I interrupting something?" He said, sounding very angry about the whole thing.
"Dad!" Peaches freaked out upon seeing him and she and Ethan struggled to move away from each other due to their tusks being stuck together from the crash.
After a few attempts, Manny grabbed Ethan and pushed him away from Peaches. "You! Keep away from my daughter."
"Wait!" Redwood makes it to the bottom but sees she's too late. "Manny, listen, I can explain everything! You see, it was all just--!"
"You told me you would keep her out of trouble and now look what happened! You promised to be more careful and you broke it!" Manny scolded her.
"I'm sorry, okay? I only--".
"No! I trusted you to have things under control! Now I'm wondering if I should trust you at all!" He told her before turning to Peaches next. "And you, you're grounded!"
"But I didn't do--" Peaches wasn't allowed to finish.
"Grounded!"
There was a minute of silence before Peaches turned to the other teenagers that were watching them. She even heard some of them mumbling comments to each other.
"Loser alert".
"Ouch, that's their dad".
"Seriously, that's embarrassing".
"What a freak".
Feeling terribly embarrassed, Peaches runs off from the falls. Manny and Redwood ran after her with Manny now trying to be reasonable.
"Peaches! Peaches, come on. Let's talk about this!"
"How could you embarrass me in front of my friends?" She exclaimed angrily, which started to lead to an argument.
"You deliberately went where you weren't supposed to!"
"Ugh! You can't control my life!"
"I'm trying to protect you! That's what fathers do!"
"Well... I wish you weren't my father", Peaches stated.
Hearing that one sentence made Manny's eyes widen in shock and heartbreak. He then looks to Redwood for some help, but she stays quiet and walks away just as the others came in.
Sid and Diego saw her expression and tried to comfort her. They expected her to shrug off their help but she actually accepted it, which was nice to know since that meant she either wasn't too upset or preferred the support rather than coping alone.
Ellie walked in as well, but seeing how Redwood was being handled, she decided to do the same for Peaches and Manny. "She's just upset, honey", She tells Manny before turning to her daughter. "Peaches! It's not the end of the world."
Just as she said that, the loud rumbling from before happened once again, only this time everyone noticed it and it felt more like an earthquake.
"Whoa. Excuse me", Sid said to the others.
"I don't think that was you", Diego told him.
"At this point, is it ever him anymore?" Redwood asked.
A large crack then suddenly appears in the ground between the herd, with Manny, Sid, Diego, and Redwood on one side and Peaches and Ellie on the other.
"What was that?" Ellie questioned.
"I don't know. Stay there. I'll come to you". Manny made his way towards Ellie, trying to be cautious about the crack. But before he could reach her, the crack got worse and caused Manny's side to forcibly separate from Ellie's.
Seeing this happen, Manny and Ellie's first instinct was to lock trunks and keep each other from moving away any further. (Meanwhile, Sid's first instinct was to cling onto Diego and Redwood out of fear).
Sadly, Manny and Ellie's strategy was only temporary as the crack split more apart and forced them to let go of each other.
"Ellie!"
"Manny! No!"
Peaches saw what was going on and ran next to Ellie. "Dad! Redwood!"
"Peaches, get back!" Manny shouted. The ground on his side roughly shifted upwards and caused him to slide back. He then tried to run and get back to Ellie and Peaches' side, which was getting farther and farther by the second.
"Hurry, Dad! Hurry!" Peaches yelled.
Unfortunately, Manny didn't make it on account of Diego knocking him over before he can even jump over the crack, which at this point turned into an enormous gap between them and the others.
"Diego!" Manny fumed over his actions.
"You never would have made it!" Diego explained to him.
Manny tried standing up again, only for small pieces of the platform to fall into the gap, which was so deep that the ocean could be seen at the bottom. Not only that, the entire area on Manny's side started to completely fall apart and things were only getting worse from there.
"Ellie, behind you!" Manny called out, spotting a giant wall that started to form on Ellie and Peaches' side. And scaringly enough, it didn't stop moving.
"What's happening?" Peaches freaked out.
Looking around for a solution, Redwood turned to her side and noticed an ice bridge in the distance. "Guys! Look! There's a bridge over there!" She pointed. "Would that help?!"
"That's the land bridge!" Diego exclaimed as he saw what she meant.
This gave the human an idea on how to help the others survive this. "Ellie! Peaches! Round everyone up and get to the land bridge!"
"Redwood's right! You'll be safe on the other side!" Manny added.
"No, Manny! No!" Ellie reached out to them, not feeling so sure about this plan.
"We'll meet you there!" Manny told her just as the platform shifted upwards again.
This time, Diego, Redwood, and Sid lost their balance and the 3 of them were tossed backwards. Diego used his claws to not completely slide off the platform and Redwood did the same by shoving her spear into the ground and tightly gripping onto it.
Sid on the other hand had to grab onto a tree to avoid going any further. But grabbing it gave him a terrible view and made him realize that they were about to fall right into the ocean.
"Manny! No!" Ellie cried out again.
"Ellie, you have to get out of here! Go! Go now!" Manny told her.
His platform eventually reached the ocean, bringing him, Diego, Sid, and Redwood along with it. They all thankfully survived however, and are brought back to the surface, but that was only to see the final large pieces of the platform land into the water. The force of how they landed caused Manny's platform to be pushed away deeper into the ocean, completely separating the herd from the others.
Peaches and Ellie watch on as Manny, Sid, Diego, and Redwood floated away into the water, with Peaches tearing up and yelling her loved ones' names. "Daddy! Redwood!"
Hearing her voice, Manny shouted back to his family. "Stay alive! No matter how long it takes, I will find you!"
This didn't cheer Peaches up however and she started to full-on cry about what happened. "Mom, this is all my fault. If I had just listened..."
"Peaches! This is not your fault, okay?" Ellie tells her daughter.
"What if I never see them again? And the last thing me and dad did was fight! And how I got Redwood in trouble!"
"Hey, your father is the toughest most stubborn mammoth I've ever met. And your sister has faced deadly challenges just to protect this herd. They'll come back for us. That's a promise". Ellie pulled Peaches in for a hug to comfort her.
She doesn't know how, she doesn't know when, but she was certain that the herd, and especially Manny, would find their way back to them.
*Meanwhile*
Manny, Sid, Diego, and Redwood were continuing to drift away from the land. In a desperate attempt to get back, Manny yanked a large piece of wood out of the platform and tried using it as a paddle.
"Come on! Help me turn this thing around!"
Diego tried helping by using his paws to paddle with him. Redwood joined in and used her spear, and Sid used a twig (which really didn't help especially since it looked like he wasn't putting in any effort).
END CHAPTER
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A/N: I'm adding a lot of extra scenes between characters because honestly, I just love writing connections between people. Also, weirdly enough, I'm a little sad that Louis' feelings for Peaches wasn't explored as much. Even if he doesn't end up with her, it would've been nice to have some closure.
And I took notice of the sister reverse role for Peaches and Redwood. By that I mean it's usually the older sibling who gets the younger one in trouble, but here, it's reversed. (Or maybe it's normal too. I'm an older sister and my younger one gets me in trouble 😭T_T)
Anyway, please comment and tell me what you think of the chapter.