Chapter 3: Bewilderment

Helllllloooo Fanfic Addicts! :D I decided to update a week earlier. This was planned a week later due to a vacation, but it was moved to next week. Which means another chapter early! :D Also, this is the longest thing I've written for a hobby so...yeah. XD Hope you enjoy! By the way, I dont know the exact ageing for mammoths. I presumed it would be a faster growth. Thats why Peaches and Roshan are the same age, but Roshan was born way earlier. Anyways, onto the story!

I do not own any of the Ice age characters. I only own the ones I made.

Manny jumped back to the sound of his family yelling and jumping out of their hiding spots.

"Ah!" He chuckled a bit after his scare. "Well, you gave me a scare!"

Peaches jumped up beside him laughing like crazy. "You're so funny Daddy!" She had a huge grin on his face. Manny was laughing as well and hugged Peaches with his trunk. After a few seconds, he let go and walked over to the others, who were laughing as well.

Ellie went to go get the big present they made for him. Well, it was big to Manny in a personal way. When Manny saw it, his eyes widened.

"Tadaaaaa!" Sid said using his hands to make it look like he was giving it pizazz.

"Well, Manny, what do you think?" Diego went up to him.

It was a huge timeline of Manny's life, made of shortened logs with one long on on top with strings connected to it. Each string held a cloth with a crudely drawn picture. It started of him when he first met Sid and Diego to the present day! Manny was in shock on how much detail was put on it. There were berries hanging off the side of it that added a nice touch to it. The way it was designed was also a special to Manny because it reminded him of his old home he used to live in before he met Sid and Diego.

"It looks perfect..." Manny said, a huge grin on his face. He looked at all of the cloths that had pictures of his life. "How...How did you do this?" Manny asked.

"Well, we just gathered materials while you were snoozing." Ellie said, with a playful smirk on her face.

"We did the pictures!" The possums said, almost simultaneously. They were obviously happy with themselves.

"I did the berrieths!" Sid said, wanting some credit for the timeline. The possums shot a pebble on Sid's head. "OW!" Sid yelled as rubbed the spot on his head where they hit him. Both the possums laughed quietly to each other. Manny just rolled his eyes.

Manny's eye caught something on the timeline. There was a small figure he started to reckognize on the drawing. It was Pinky on wrapped up in his trunk, sleeping. He suddenly realized how far back it was on the timeline.

"Wow. Has it really been that long?"

It's been nine and a half years since they returned Pinky. He replayed the events that happened those days in his mind. He remembered more about Pinky instead of Sid and Diego, which was strange him. He never did think about him. He was busy with having a family of his own to ever think of him. Diego noticed Manny what Manny was looking at.

"You know, I always wondered what happened to Pinky." Diego said, instantly bringing Manny out of his thoughts.

"I never really thought about him as much as I thought as I would. He's probably have a good life."

Little did they know how wrong they were.

"Daddy do you like it?" Peaches said, a big grin still printed right on her face.

Manny smiled as well, appreciating her daughters childish behavior. "Yes, I like it a lot." He turned to the rest. "Thank you for the gift guys!"

"You're welcome, Honey!", He heard his wife say. He smiled at her then contnued to look at the other cloths. the others looked at it themselves, appreciating the feedback they were getting from Manny.

After they were finished looking at the rest of the gift, Manny and Ellie carefully lifted it up and moved it into the cave. They put in between where the sleep leaning on the wall.

Sid saved some of the berries for breakfast for the herd. Diego went to go hunt down his breakfast as he does for every other meal of every other day. Manny and Ellie grazed on a prarie nearby. Afterwards, the herd continued on their daily activities. Ellie and Manny kept on eye Peaches as she played with the possums and Sid. It was a normal day...Besides the surprise gift and the herd saying happy birthday to Manny once in a while. It was after dinner and Peaches decided to go exploring.

Near the cave was a hill. It was quite steep and dangerous to travel on. It was covered in rocks and rough terrain. In front of it was about 20 feet of flat ground. Now, Manny and Ellie told Peaches to not play over there unless if the snow was deep since it was too dangerous and you could get hurt. Well, let's just say she wasn't really "paying attention". At about sunset, 10 minutes before she has to go to bed, Peaches decided to play over by the hill for a while since it was a bit farther away from the forest and she could have more space to play. She decided to explore around the area a bit. before she went on the bottom part of the hill, she decided to explore top of the hill. She imagined that it was a huge cliff and she and a friend...

She didn't know who to think of. She really never had any friends. Sid and the possums were pretty much uncles to her so she never knew what having a friend is like. This usually distracted her from playing sometimes. She would sometimes wonder where the rest of the other female and male mammoths are sometimes. They were living far from where the other mammoths were settling. She thought of this family as her own little "Herd". She felt special that she had her own herd, but she felt lonely sometimes. Now it was completely dark out and the moon was shining over the trees of the forest. She presumed that her parents already asleep and decided to stay up a bit later than she should. She mostly looked out over the hill and imagined sliding down it with a wood sled like they do when the snow is really deep.

Now she was starting to get tired and decided to head back into the cave. But, on the way back, She heard a scream. It sounded like a young...something? She couldn't really make out what it was, but it sounded almost like a young human. She was told to never ever go near an adult human since they would take her away. This was one thing she payed close attention too, but curiosity got to her and wanted to see if the young human wasw alright. She really cared about younger animals. If she ever found a wounded or young lost beaver she would always bring it back to her parents if she couldn't make it back or if she was lost. She didn't realize how far she actually was traveling.

That scream was really loud I guess. She thought to herself.

She stopped and realize that she saw a young male human with an adult male human. She hid behind some bushes to not be seen. She suddenly noticed noticed that she found a human village. Their homes seemed to be huge cloths with drawings on them. She noticed the young one seemed to be sad. He was also very young. She didn't know how ages worked in human ways, but she guess about nine. Suddenly, an older-sounding-human called the adult one. His voice sounded scary. The adult looked nervous just getting his name called. The younger one decided to come up closer to the huge white cloth that the adult entered. She presumed that the adult was the father of the younger one. He came very close to where Peaches was. She had to back up a bit more to not get seen. She could here the conversation going on in the big white cloth, but couldn't make out what they were saying, but she noticed the young one did. Whatever they said it made the boy cry and she felt bad for him.

Suddenly, the boy ran right past her. It made her jump how sudden it was. Peaches saw him run and she followed behind him. He was pretty far from her but he wasn't exactly the fastest runner she had seen. She could run faster than him herself, but she didn't want to be seen. She suddenly realized that he was going to go fall straight down the hill if he doesn't stop.

"WAIT!" She yelled, but he didn't hear her. He was too busy running.

Then. He fell.

By the time Peaches made it to the edge of the hill, she could see blood splotted over the hill. She saw the boy near the edge of the woods. She could see he was in a lot of pain. She also noticed how bad his leg looked. It looked all crooked and red. She saw him try to get up but he fell in a yelp of pain. She started to go around the around the hill down the safer part of it. By the time she reached him, he was passed out. For a second, Peaches just stood there, looking at him. He looked so dirty and red. She noticed a big cut on his other leg that was losing a lot of blood. She still couldn't look at the other leg. It was so badly damaged it made her feel sick just looking at it.

She knew she had to get Daddy.

She ran as fast as she could to the cave.

"DAD! DAD! WAKE UP!" She whispered loudly, which awoke Manny, but not completely.

"Peaches, what are you doing up past your bed time. You should be sleeping." Manny was way to tired to do anything at the moment.

"DAD! This is important!" Peaches could not wait any longer. The boy was dying. The importance in her voice instantly brought him to attention.

Manny suddenly realized how serious she was. "What happened!?" Manny was wide awake getting straight up on his feet.

"Just follow me!" Peaches led Manny to the bottom of the hill and showed him the young boy laying there unconscious. "We have to help him!"

Manny...just stood there. Completely confused.

He was lost in thoughts and questions in his own mind, completely blocking out the situation that was present.

H-How? There is no way...That can't be him. Wasn't he in back by Glacier Pass? Did he move?

"DAD!"

He snapped out of his state of mind. He saw the expression on Peaches face. He instantly picked up the boy with his trunk, placed him on his back and ran back to the cave.

Of all the birthdays he ever had, this was the craziest of them all.

Well, That was the longest chapter I've ever done...
I hope you like it and thank you for reading and please review!