First off, thanks to everyone for giving me GREAT reviews for the last chapter! It's great to know you guys like my work :) Oh, and don't worry ICEAGEISAWESOME, Liberty was just playing along to gain Brownie points with Gutt XD

Liberty: Don't kill me! *panics*

Anyway, here's Chapter 9, in all its glory. ^_^

P.S. For future reference, Becca's name is now Becky because of the fact that MusicRocks owns an OC named Becca too so I didn't want the issue of being accused of plagarism, copying, etc. I will also change this in the previous chapters, more specifically the first, where she is mentioned the most.

Enjoy, peeps!

Charlie's P.O.V.

The next day was pretty much as boring as the previous one; I woke up as a human yet again, so frustrated I hadn't stayed as Taz that by this time I had actually hurled my pillow across the room and knocked several of swimming trophies off what should have been a bookshelf but had turned into a pedestal for random awards that I had gained over the period of my childhood. Mum yelled up to me asking what the thud had been about. I stayed silent and rolled out of bed to re-arrange them, acting as surly and moody as it was possible to be.

The day itself wasn't that bad, I guess; mostly consisting of flicking through different movies on the Disney and Family channels on Sky, playing Ice Age Village (on which I had reached Level 42 within 2 weeks, 3 days and 16 hours. Not that I counted, of course!) and occasionally logging onto my e-mails to check what was going on in the outside world that I refused to visit today. Nothing was particularly interesting - more replies from YouTube, several gaming sites sending me messages along the line of 'We miss you, come back so we can con you out of more money again!' as well as a few spam e-mails saying stuff like 'CONGRATULATIONS! You were the 100000th visitor to .com! Click here to mess up your PC!'. It was one particular message that caught my eye, to my surprise from somebody that called themselves 'Tasmin'. I knew that I shouldn't really check out e-mails from people I didn't know, but curiosity got the better of me as I loaded the page. What I saw then freaked me out. Someone had written:

'I know who you are. Why are you controlling me?'

Controlling? What the heck was this nutter on about? I hastily deleted the message, along with everything else in my inbox, and closed the computer lid, feeling a little paranoid. I pulled out my chunky old Samsung and sent a text to Becky:

"hey becks, jst got the creepiest msg thru my email xxx I think it might be a virus or something xxx wbu? check ur inbox now pls im feeling kinda freaked out. thx xxx"

A few minutes later, my weird ringtone went off and I grabbed the phone to search for a reply:

"Sorry, i did check but theres no weird message. What did you say this persons name was again? :o"

I looked from my laptop to my computer and was about to tap in T-a-s-m-i-n when I stopped, and dropped the phone. Was it a mere coincidence that this weird stalker person had sent me the message under that name? Or was this some kind of sign from the creators of life? I shook my head, and turned with a sigh to the pile of homework that I had not bothered to do until the last moment.

That night, I was actually able to refrain myself from passing out until I was in bed (which, bear in mind, was at about half past nine, since I almost couldn't wait to get out of my boring old body and return to the excitement of the Ice Age), which was a big achievement considering the first time this had happened it was roughly 4 in the afternoon.

The nauseous feeling overtook me again, and I tried to take my mind off it, but before I had the chance to fully carry that out I was surrounded by pitch black again while my transformation took place. I felt myself shrinking as my tail and fur grew. My ears crept up the sides of my head and my hair slowly faded to an almost ebony colour. All in a blink, my body adjustment stopped as soon as it had started, and I sat up, shaking, as if I had awoken from a dreadful nightmare. I could see it was quite early in the herd's world, as most of the others were still asleep, except for Diego, who had disappeared off to wherever. I had a feeling it associated with his eating habits, so I shivered and looked up at the sky in an attempt to take my mind off it.

I remembered lying on my back during particularly lazy childhood days, just staring at the clouds in an attempt to depict what shape they formed. Mostly I saw dolphins, every day objects like umbrellas, and an assortment of crazy-looking hats, but now my mind had developed the details of the wispy whiteness were much more sophisticated and defined. I saw a water nymph skirting across a pond, pursued by an angry-looking crow. I rolled my eyes at how petty that sounded and tried to look for something a little more my style. A saw something that looked a little like a bass guitar, but the wooden end with the pegs looked more as if it was a candyfloss-coated sorcerer's hat. Don't ask me WHERE that retarded idea came from, because my eyes must have been acting weird for some reason or another.

Somewhere over in the corner of the clearing a purple lump of rock caught my eye, and a raised a questioning eyebrow at it. The rock, or whatever it was, had made a low rumbling sound like a grumpy old lady. I cautiously got up and poked it, but flinched back when I realised that was a bad decision, and that it was a grumpy old lady! Granny! I almost groaned. How could I forget?

"Ouch!" Granny yelped, sitting up and rubbing the affected area where I had poked her. "What's the bid idea, Floppy Fringe? Can't a lady take a nap round here without gettin' jabbed in the ribs?!"

Floppy Fringe? Seriously?

"Sorry, ma'am, I didn't realise..." I quickly tried to explain.

"Yeahhh, well, watch what ya realise before I poke ya back!" she snapped, waving her cane around. I jumped back to avoid being whacked, and scurried off into the forest, away from the scene of the crime.

After a while of aimlessly wandering, I curled up at the foot of a tree and began skimming small rocks across the ground, just thinking about life. With each throw I imagined it was somebody I didn't like, such as my Physics teacher, or the chavvy girls in my class who took the 'No Make-Up' rule and stomped it into non-existence. I didn't see much point in make-up, anyway. Why couldn't people just accept themselves for the way they look, without having the daub chemicals on their faces and clog up their skin pores? Didn't they KNOW about the bacteria in that expensive mascara they wore?

I was so pre-occupied with my ticking mind that I failed to notice the something was watching me until it popped up in front of me and stared in interest.

"AHH!" I yelped, backing up against the trunk, until the light focused in more and I realised it was only a Hyrax. I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, little guy. I didn't realise it was you."

"Gibogeehaaa..." he sniffed me curiously.

"Hey, what're you doing? Gerroff!" I exclaimed, attempting to roll out of the way.

The hyrax ignored my shouts of protest until it had fully discovered what I was. It nodded and beamed at me, chattering something out to a fellow creature, who scuttled out of the darkness to meet me. "Oh, look, we've got another pipsqueak here. Don't tell me YOU want to examine me too," I rolled my eyes, and then realised how stupid it was to talk to animals that couldn't understand me. Although, I guess, considering I was an animal, it wasn't that crazy.

Suddenly, another voice made me jump, although I realised who it belonged to this time.

"привет, Tasmin Possum. I apologise for my Hyrax friends. They are very fascinated by other people." Liberty chuckled, and turned to the two gerbil-like creatures. "уняться, young ones. Go find your mother."

They gibbered in an excited fashion, and trotted away to carry out her orders.

"Oh! Hey, Libby," I greeted her, flattening my hair as they scurried into the distance. "Had a good sleep?"

"It was okay. Thank you for asking." her smile faltered a little, eyes flickering away from my gaze. I cocked my head.

"Something up?"

"What?" Liberty looked startled out of her thoughts, "No, no! All fine! What about you?"

I shrugged. "Fine... I'm still pretty zonked, though."

"Ah." she nodded. "You are a light sleeper?"

I contemplated her remark. "You could say that."

"I am too, I share your feelings," she chuckled. "I will stay up until the moon is gone but I am almost impossible to wake."

I rolled my eyes. "Ugh, tell me about it!"

After our little random chat, the topic somehow changed to me. "What about your family, Tasmin? I barely know anything about you."

I froze. "I, uh... there's not much to say, really..." I scratched the back of my neck nervously.

"Nonsense. There must be something you can tell me."

"Well... I lived on my own with my mum and a few other siblings, until a while back when I woke up and they were gone. End of."

Liberty raised an eyebrow. "Really? What an interesting life tale, to be told within five seconds."

"Libs, can we just drop the subject?" I was beginning to feeling a little agitated by now. She was prying too deep into my business for my liking.

"Okay..." she shrugged, "but you can't avoid the past forever. Sometimes it turns round to bite you on the behind."

Interesting analogy, I rolled my eyes, but kept my lips sealed.

Out of nowhere, a large shudder shook the ground below us, so sudden that I promptly fell over in surprise and Liberty shot up the tree, eyes wide with uncertainty and panic.

"What in the name of life on earth was that about?" I thought aloud, once the shaking effect had completely died out.

"Uh... probably just an aftermath of the continents splitting," Libby mumbled shakily, jumping out of the branches. "I - I have to go. Goodbye," she gabbled, picking up the pace until she was sprinting away from me.

"Libby, wait up! What's the..." but I was too late, because she had already taken a right turn into the foliage and disappeared. I shook my head. What the heck was up with that rabbit?