Chapter Text
The tender air is complimented by a cold winter breeze as Scratch digs his nose into the solid ice, in search of something to eat. Scrat follows along behind, valiantly drifting his snoot back and forth across the frosty stone-cold ground. Scrat periodically caught up with his son’s fast pace. Scratch was always a fast walker, although he never knew why. Scratch, in a stark exhale, pops back up to his bipedal form and begrudgingly gives up on his hunt for food. Scrat, seeing his son give up, additionally gives up looking for a snacc. Scrat unhurriedly follows along behind as Scratch hops across the icy terrain, looking into the seemingly endless landscape of frost and snow. In a gust of wild, the silhouette of a small tree appears in the distance. Scratch scurries toward the horizon to investigate the lone sapling. He soon was able to observe the plant’s pitiful form from a distance. It was a short acorn tree, barely taller than him, with one small, singular, solitary acorn hanging on the branch for no one to see, with the very last green leaf hanging on the end of the branch, carrying the entire life of the sapling on its shoulders. Scratch, ecstatic to finally find something to eat, dashed towards the tree to grab the delicious oaknut. Suddenly, an unforeseen gust of wind causes the leaf to start fluttering on its branch, and detach from the tree. Just as scratch was about to get up close to his meal, the leaf smacked into his face, blocking his view. He frantically tossed and turned around in the snowy ground, kicking up the snow into the chilly air. He rips the leaf off his face, gazing at the glorious acorn hanging above his head. In a stroke of luck, another breeze detaches the acorn from its wooden perch, landing it straight into Scratch’s arms. He gazed into its shiny surface, almost seeing his reflection in its lustrous shell. In the twinkle of an eye, Scratch gained an unbreakable bond to his acorn. He was filled with attachment and emotion like never before, he gave out an earnest smile as he gripped his acorn tightly. Nothing else mattered anymore, it was just Scratch and his acorn. Suddenly, Scrat appeared behind him, staring disapprovingly at his son. How could he get so attached to his food like that? In that moment, Scrat worried for his son. Would he end up obsessing over his nut, facing the same fate as his father? Would HE not matter in Scrat’s life anymore? Scrat snatches the acorn from his son’s arms and opens his mouth to eat the nut and end this whole ordeal. Scratch gasped at this attempt to destroy his precious acorn and seized the nut right back from his dad before he could bite into it, cuddling the beautiful oaknut once more. Scrat only becomes more concerned for his son as he watches him doting on his acorn. Scratch scuttles away into the distance to ram his acorn into the ground, and with a moment of contemplation, jams the nut deep into the ice.
Scratch leaps into the air and down on the nut, pushing it deeper into the ice with every forceful jump. Suddenly, the nut shifts deeper into the ground, and the frozen ground starts cracking in front and behind of him. Scrat facepalms as Scratch panickedly chases the winding ends of the cracks, covering them up with snow. Scratch successfully patches up the cracks in the ice and arrogantly huffs at Scrat, popping his acorn back out of the ice and sets off for another spot to jam it. He finds the perfect patch of ice and proudly wedges it back into the ground, but as he jumps on it, he hears the ice crack under him and feels the nut disappear. He apprehensively looks underneath his feet to see a hole in the ice. He peers into the hole to see the acorn falling into the lost world and disappearing into the trees. In a fit of vexation, he repeatedly smacks his lil hands all over his face, and screams into the void.
“This is going to be the most extreme stunt ever!” Crash hollered as he helped Eddie carry the bark sled across the snow. The eager possums hopped from glacier to glacier and catapulted up stray branches on the side of a snow cliff.
“Extremely dangerous!” Crash cheered.
“Super-duper Dangerous!” Eddie commented.
“Stupendously dangerous!” Crash hollered back.
They scurried up the steep snow dune, holding the sled high above their heads. Reaching the top of the icy mountain, they set down their makeshift sled on the peak of the towering dune. Crash got down on the sled with Eddie following after, squishing him. “That’s a long way down,” Eddie said as he looked at the view, lightly reeling back from the edge of the cliff. “Only if we make it to the bottom!” Crash added.
The two possums braced themselves for the thrilling ride downhill. At that moment, Ellie’s voice was heard from the bottom, “CRASH! EDDIE! Yall better not be doin’ something dangerous!” Eddie reels in frustration, having to give up on his marvelous stunt. “GAH!” He exclaims in annoyance. Crash gets back up on his feet, knocking Eddie off of him. He picks up the sled, when a thought comes to him. “You know… I’ve been thinking.” “What!?” Eddie blurted out. “Thinking!? When did you start doing that?” He said, his voice filled with concern for his brother. “Just this morning.” Crash nonchalantly replied. “-and you didn’t say anything!? How could you do this, Crash?” Eddie fussed. “Relax. I was just wondering, aren’t you always tired of Ellie telling us what to do?” Crash beckoned towards Eddie, who started thinking himself for a moment. “Yeah! ‘Don’t swing on your tails, don’t spit seeds at apex predators-’” “Don’t scale the edge of an unstable ten thousand foot snow dune,” Crash added. Suddenly, Eddie had an idea. “Maybe we can move out and live on our own! Without our sister! No rules, no responsibilities, just us bros out in the wild!” Crash loved that idea. “That’s perfect! We’ll be free spirits, on our own, with nothing to stop us… But first, we’re gonna go on that sled!” Crash and Eddie hopped back on the sled and Got ready for the ride of a lifetime.
“Crash! Eddie! Where are those two?” Ellie searched around for the possums. While she was looking for them, Manny was busy with other family members. “Hazel! Where are you?” He lightly called out. Shira was on the prowl for her daughter. “That cub is really good at hiding, I wonder where she could be…” In the blink of an eye, a silvery slate saber cub leaped out of the pine shrubs, playfully growling. “Wow, you really got me there!” Shira giggled. “Yeah, with hunting skills like that, you’ll be able to catch those gazelles in no time!” Diego chimed in. Hazel beamed with confidence. Diego turned to Shira. “You know, She gets a lot of her skills from you,” he smiled. “- And a lot from you.” Shira chimed back.
“No, nice kitty, nice kitty!” Sid tremored as he scurried up a rock. “LIAM! No, you can't eat uncle Sid.” Shira insisted. “I was just playing,” Liam moaned. “Oh, thank goodness. You better listen to your mama, liam. She knows best. It’sh called a mother’s intuition.” Sid said, cautiously backing away from the stripy maple orange cub. “I wish I had a family of my own.” He sighed. “Aw, Sid. Is this about Brooke?” Shira sympathized with Sid. “She’ll be back from the fountains soon, and you’ll get to spend the rest of your years together, just like us.” “I know, I just - was hoping her youth would be permanent the first time, now I’m all alone again.” Sid sulked. “You’ll get to see her in a day or two, and then you can stay off our tails.” Diego joked, when he heard a familiar mammoth approaching. “So now you’re finally getting into the domestic life, huh?” Manny teased. “Now you understand what the fuss was all about when Ellie was having her first baby.” “Oh, absolutely,” said Diego. “Not to mention their teeth coming in. I still can’t believe they’re already pouncing.” All of a sudden, the advancing galloping of mammoth feet could be heard.
“MANNY! DIEGO! AVALANCHE!!” Ellie said as she raced by. Just like that, they saw a massive horde of snow come plummeting down the hills, straight towards the herd. “COME ON DIEGO, LET’S GO!” Manny shrieked as he followed Diego and Ellie. Diego snatched Liam by the scruff of his neck and bolted away. Shira and Hazel both sprinted through the snow along with the rest of the herd. Up on the snow dunes, Crash and Eddie whooped enthusiastically on their sled as they zoomed through the frosty air. Ellie leaped over the edge of the plateau, with the herd following behind. Diego and Shira gripped their kids tightly, bracing for the impending destruction. In no time, a heap of snow and ice came barreling over their heads. After a while, Crash and Eddie came drifting down the snow, nailing the landing as they dropped right in front of the herd. Diego fumed with rage. “You guys had Hazel and Liam in danger! Do you have any Idea what you could’ve done to them!?” He roared to the possums. Crash and Eddie trembled in terror. “It’s about time I finish you two,” Diego snarled as he wielded a single claw. Just then, Ellie stepped in between the argument, protecting her brothers. The lucky possums blew raspberries at Diego, spitting in his face. “Great. Now I have rabies.” he added. “Diego, please.” Shira interjected. “Look at all this. It’s because of you that our habitat was decimated, and Diego’s cubs nearly got buried in an avalanche!” Manny bellowed. “Hazel and Liam are fine,” Eddie said, “We’re the fun uncles around here, they know we were just playing around.” He turned to see the cubs hiding behind Shira, clearly shooketh after the avalanche, and his smile faded. “Now Manny, It was just an accident. Let’s just find a place to sleep, and then you can yell at them.” The possums breathed a sigh of relief as they were freed from Diego and Manny's wrath. “You know, if it weren’t for your sister over there, you’d both be long dead.” Diego snapped. “If it weren’t for our sister, we’d both be out in the wild, free spirits!” the possums snarkily clapped back. “Oh, you’d be spirits all right,” Manny said, pointing his trunk to the possums, “you two should be grateful Ellie looks out for you. There is no way you’d be able to survive in the wild by yourselves.” “We could if we wanted,” Eddie sneered. “Ha! I’d like to see you try.” Manny growled. “Manny, stop egging them on.” Ellie interjected, “Nobody’s going anywhere.” “Why not?” Eddie whined. “ Because, you two can’t do anything for yourselves,” said Ellie. “You can’t clean up after yourselves, you can’t protect yourselves from predators, you can’t find your own food - You know, even though you’re my brothers, sometimes I wish you were a lot more mammoth and a little less possum.” Crash gasped in offense. “She just insulted our possumness!” “- A big part of who we are,” Eddie added. “That’s it! We’re done being treated like babies!” Crash snapped as he stomped his foot in the snow. Liam approached the possums, with something to say. “You’re not the fun uncles, you’re the stinky uncles.” “Yeah, you keep ruining our home.” Hazel added as the cubs stormed away. Crash felt dejected at the cubs’ responses. “Well, Whatever. It’s time we move out and get our own place!” “Good luck with that. You’ll be running back home by sundown.” Diego grumbled as he followed the herd back home to uncover the damage.
Late at night, The possums scurry up their tree to hang up for the night. Ellie watches from the ground, when Manny comes in, still frustrated about the avalanche. “Goodnight to those two troublemakers.” Ellie gives Manny an abhorrent look, he gets the message and turns around to fix his resting spot. “Look, I’m sorry about what I said to Crash and Eddie. It’s just that - Those two have been riding your tail since we met. All they’ve ever done is mess things up.” “ Riiiight. You don’t hear me complaining about your side of the family, do you?” Ellie reasoned. “My side of the herd takes care of themselves.” Manny tried to explain. “...And we both take care of Sid.” He turned to Sid, who was tossing and turning on his rock, sliding off straight on his head. “Everytime the possums make a mess of things, we always suffer the consequences. They could put Diego’s kids in danger. Don’t you think it’s time for them to, you know, grow up, find their own destiny?” “You’re not sayin’-” “They want a new life together,” Manny said, “we could always help them become more independent. Besides, Diego could use a safer life for his cubs.” Ellie understood what Manny meant. It wasn’t the first time she noticed their antics firsthand. “Listen, I’m just worried about how they’ll survive. They still need me.” Ellie explained, “...And I still need them. They’re my brothers, Manny. They’re the only family I have left.” She turned to the top of the tree, watching the sleeping possums in front of the starry midnight sky. “When I lost my family, Mama Possum raised me as one of her own. I finally felt complete. But when we lost her…” Ellie reminisced, “I had lost that part of me. After that, all we had was each other. I don’t want to lose that part of me again, Manny.” “Look,” Manny said, “I know you want them to stay with you because they’ve never learned anything from all the stupid things they do, but maybe that’s just because they’ve never been taught.” “Maybe.” Ellie muttered. Manny rested on his pile of maple leaves as Ellie jumped up to her tree to hang from her tail. “Goodnight, sweet possums.” She lovingly whispered into the night.
Chapter Text
As the sun rises over the icy hills, gleaming through the ice above the lost world, Scratch scurries through the vegetation, eagerly searching for his nut. He soon finds a lake where the nut might have fallen into. Taking a deep breath, he dives into the murky waters, seeing his nut at the bottom of the shore. He swims deeper into the water, snatching the nut with his little hands, when he hears a creature lurking behind him. A massive harajicadectes fish drifts by him, Circling the squirrel and his acorn. Scratch lets out a bubbly scream as he shoots straight out of the water, clenching his nut to his furry chest. As he suspends in the air, wrapping his body around his precious acorn, he gets seized by the bony jaws of a hapunngaka.
The terrified squirrel screeches as he leaps out of the pterosaur’s toothy clenches. He lands on the ground, with his acorn following behind. Scratch cautiously approaches the acorn and snags it from the leafy ground. He turns around to see a gigantic tree, wrapped in thick, wooden strangler fig vines that spiral around the trunk up to the leaves. He scurries up the tree, acorn in hand, and busts through the ice at the top of the tree. He makes it on the surface of the ice in one piece, breathing heavily as he clenches his acorn, shooketh after nearly getting eaten by a pterosaur. He finally got himself together and started hopping across the icy terrain, once again searching for a spot to plant his nut. He soon passed by Scrat, who was looking disapprovingly at his son. After finally finding the perfect patch of ice after scurrying up hills and crawling through ice formations, Scratch examined the ice’s perfectly matte surface, held the acorn high above his head, and jammed it straight into the ground triumphantly. He bounced on its wooden shell a couple times, pounding it deeper into the ice with each jump. In an instant, he felt the ice crack and the acorn shift into the ground. Scratch panicked as he hastily attempted to yank the nut out of the ice as twin cracks began to split the ice on either side of him. Scrat noticed his son’s ridiculous endeavors and watched from afar. Scratch finally managed to get his nut back out of the ground, yipping at his dad with pride after successfully getting his nut out of the ice. Suddenly, a thundering crack struck through the ice and a massive splash of lava burst through the ground behind the squirrel. The cavity in the ground separated a chunk of Australia into several little Islands, with one piece floating north.
Scrat stealthily escaped the disaster as Scratch dashed away, screaming. He ran from the impending doom until he realized… he left his nut behind! He skidded across the frosty ground, dodging the falling icicles and lava drops and barely snatching his acorn from the destruction. He managed to get far away from the lava burst, until an earthquake struck and new cracks in the ice began to abound. Scratch scurried past broken shards of ice until massive ice columns rose up from the ground, causing puffs of steam to shoot up from below. Scrat dropped his precious nut in shock, when two rising columns separated the two. Scrat screamed in concern for his acorn, hopping from one column to another for his nut. More violent vibrations rattled the nut from its perch, knocking it from one column to another as Scratch chased it. Finally, He was able to get ahold of his acorn, wrapping his body in a tight ball around it. Landing on the ground, Scrat unravels himself as he examines his acorn, checking for bruises. He then looks to the morning sun with hot geysers and crashing ice towers as far as he can see. He looks to the other side, where he sees Scrat walking away from the impending disaster. He follows his dad, hoping to forget about the little mishap he caused.
Ellie arose in the morning light, awaking to utter silence. She hops down from her perch and peers up to the tree where the possums had been resting the night before, but there was no one to be seen. Ellie gasped in a panic, frantically searching for where the possums might be. “Crash! Eddie! Where are you?” She called out. She suddenly turned to manny, an expression of vexation growing on her face. “Manny!” She called to her husband. “Uh, what is it, dear?” Manny said as he rose up from his leafy spot. Ellie had no time for a chat. “Crash and Eddie are gone!” She explained, “And it’s all your fault!!” Manny backed up as Ellie furiously approached him. “Me? I didn’t do this,” Manny said in defense. Diego took a morning stretch, overhearing the conversation. “Well, you did challenge them to go live on their own. They’re pretty much doomed.” Shira joined in the discussion, with Hazel curiously following. “Your brothers? They just left?” “Well - don’t worry, if Crash and Eddie get themselves into trouble, they’ll find their way back.” Manny interjected. “Find their way back!?” Ellie said, pointing her trunk to Manny. “The only thing worse than their survival skills is their sense of direction. Come on, we have to find them.” Ellie motioned towards the sabers. “Diego, can you pick up their scent?” Diego sniffed towards the tree where the possums slept. “Yeah, I got it.” He turned to Shira and the cubs. “Keep the cubs safe. We’ll go find Crash and Eddie.” “Okay honey,” Shira replied, “And, uh, take Sid with you, please.” With a feline nuzzle, Diego turned to Sid, knocking the back of his sleeping head. Sid jolted awake, “I’m coming,” he blurted as he got up from the ground. Diego set off for the hills, with the rest of the herd following.
"This is the best!" Eddie cheered as he let go of his tree catapult, launching a pinecone through a Y-shaped tree in the distance. “I don’t know why we didn’t leave home sooner!” “Well, there was the flood, the end of the world, the other end of the world-” Crash went on. “Well what’s next after this? I mean, we still need to find our super-cool man cave!" Eddie said. Crash walked to a nearby tree. "Anything we want, brother. We could try all the things we couldn't when Ellie was around!" "Hey, you're right!" Eddie said. Crash ripped a strip of bark from a nearby pine tree. "- and it's only the beginning! We're free, we can do whatever we want!" Eddie knew exactly what his brother was thinking. The two possums headed for the top of the tallest glacier they could see, scurrying up the side in the morning sun. Eddie brought a pine twig with him, using it to hike up the steepest parts of the glacier. "This is it. We've found our own destiny." Eddie proudly stated as he held the twig high above his head. "I claim this glacier in the name of possum FREEDOM!!" Eddie stabbed the twig into the ice, only to discover that it was all soft, fresh snow. "That's... not a glacier." Crash whimpered. In a flash, the entire snow dune collapsed, with the two unfortunate possums plummeting to the ground. "Hold me, crash. Hold me!" Eddie shrieked as the two headed for the hard ground. The possums landed deep into an underground cavity, the snow and frost covering them at every side. It was an eerie silence for a while, until it was broken with a call. "Crash!" Eddie called. "I'm here, brother!" Crash burrowed through the snow, searching for his brother's warm body. The two brothers finally found each other under all the ice and snow, trembling while stuck underground, with no end in sight. Eddie softly whimpered, "I miss home, Crash." Crash, in a desperate situation, thought. He thought about home, about life, about how to get out of this disaster. "We need to dig our way out of this," Crash said to his brother. He determinedly burrowed through the snow, until he found a sliver of light peeking through the endless frost. He made it out of the snow, tumbling on the ground in the middle of a dark cavern. Eddie followed, making his way through the tunnel. Crash grabbed his brother's arms, pulling him out of the freezing ice. "Where are we?" Eddie said, looking around the cavern.
"It looks like a super-cool crystal cave!" Crash said, gazing in awe at the crystal-littered tunnel. The possums explored the interior of the cave, breaking off chunks of the crystals and raising them high above their heads, watching how the light bends through them. Crash and Eddie almost forgot about their herd as they ran through the inside of the cave, having the time of their lives. As they got further into the cave, Crash noticed a familiar light at the end of the tunnel. "Wait, what's that?" Crash scurried towards the opening while Eddie curiously followed. They both made it through to the end of the cavern, finding themselves in one of the many cavities on a cliff in the lost world. The air was fresh and lively, with pterosaurs soaring over the towering plants, and brachiosauruses looming over the green trees. Crash knew what this meant. "Hey, the lost world! we can live here!" Both possums leaped off the cliff, landing in the leaves of a palm tree. they scurried down the trunk, making it to the ground. Eddie thought of all the fun they could have in the lost world. “We can have adventures fighting all kinds of dinosaurs! Big ones, flying ones, fluffy ones-” “fluffy dinosaurs? There’s no such thing as fluffy dinosaurs," Crash laughed. “Well, you never know what kinds of creatures might be living here,” Eddie said in defense, “there could be pterodactyls with saber teeth and-” “That’s ridiculous,” Crash stopped his brother short. At that moment, Crash had an idea. “Hey, buck lives here! We can live with him!” The two possums, rather stupidly, started calling out for the weasel, trodding through the foliage. “Buck! Buck! Where are you, Buck?” Behind them, the tapping of a creature’s legs could be heard. Crash and Eddie timidly turned and peered behind them to see a tremendously huge Redback Spider approaching them. The possums screamed as they tried to escape from the giant creature. They encountered a colony of brachiosauruses, when one of the dinosaurs luckily crushes the giant insect with its foot. The possums scurry up the tail of one of the dinosaurs, desperately trying to get away from whatever still might be chasing them. Slipping at the top of the beast’s head, Crash slides right off, flying in the air, with Eddie following after. Hurling through the tropical atmosphere, they hear a familiar call looming towards them. In the height of the moment, Crash and Eddie are seized midair by the claws of a purple pterodactyl, when straight in their view comes a familiar face.
“ ‘Ello, boys!” Buck calls. The possums are relieved to once again see their weasel friend. “Buck!” they shout in unison. The possums swing up and onto the back of the pterodactyl. “Buck Wild, at your service,” Buck greeted himself, “Will the rest of the herd be falling out o’ the sky, too? I don’t think I can catch the mammoths. One, maybe.” “Why were you flying through here, anyway, Buck?” Eddie asked. “Oh yeah, I was just cruisin’ to the plates ‘cause I heard some rumblin’ underground, that’s when I got ambushed by a pack o’ wild ‘dactyls-” Suddenly, Two wild pterodactyls swoop in chase of buck and the possums. “Mayday! Mayday! We’re coming in hot!” Buck cries. Crash and Eddie scream as they reel away from the incoming beasts. As Buck maneuvers his pterosaur through some trees, Crash and Eddie break branches off the trees, whacking them at the wild pterodactyls. “Bad birdies!” Eddie scolded. one wild pterodactyl snapped at the branch, leaving Eddie with a chip of wood. “RETREAT!” Eddie screamed as he crawled up the back of Buck’s pterodactyl. Buck knew just what to do as he skillfully maneuvered his pterodactyl through and around the trees, momentarily deterring the flying beasts. They flew to a giant stone wall with a crack that they could - just maybe - fly through. “Buck-” “-Crack!” Crash and Eddie called. In the nick of time, Buck wild veered the vine reigns sideways, their avian ride letting out a small squawk as it barely made it straight through the crack, with the two wild pterodactyls squashed on the other side . “That was… amazing!” Crash cheered. Buck was quite proud himself. “You’re riding Buck Air. This is your captain speaking. Please keep all arms, legs, and tails inside the ‘dactyl at all times,” he said as he carried on with the ride, seeking for a good landing spot among the trees. The possums were amazed at the beauty of the lost world, with its luscious trees and gorgeous rivers. “This is no place for a tropical vacation, mates.” Buck said, easing on the reigns of his pterodactyl. The pack lowered down to the ground, landing near buck’s burrow. “Alright possums, it’s been fun, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry. Now, go home.” Buck said, shooing the possums away to a nearby path. “But we don’t live there anymore,” Crash said, “we moved out.” Buck was skeptical of possums such as Crash and Eddie getting the green light to live on their own. “ Reeeally?” He said, eyeing the possums. “Yeah,” Crash explained, “Ellie was all like, ‘I don’t like it but I suppose it’s time, good luck out there,’ she hugged us, Sid scratched himself, and bingo-bongo in a congo we’re here!” Buck was still not convinced. “ Yyyou mean Ellie just let a couple o’ rusty buckets like you set off to live on your own?” He asked, leaning down to the possums with a piercing stare. “...Okay, we snuck out.” Eddie confessed. “-And when we tried to climb a snow dune it collapsed and we got stuck under here!” Crash stomped on his brother’s foot, irritated with him for ruining their mission. “YOU try to survive that look!” Eddie muttered. Buck had had enough of these jungle games. “I have to get you back ‘ome, possums.” Buck explained, getting ready to saddle back on his pterodactyl. “But-but-but-but-but Buuuck, we came here to live a life of adventure, just like you!” Crash begged. “You two are nature’s least likely to survive in nature’s most dangerous place,” Buck said, “I’m sorry, but you cannot stay here.” Just as Buck was about to put his foot down, the ground began to tremble. Buck turned to the far side of the lost world in horror. The rumbling grew into an earthquake. The possums looked disappointingly at Buck as he gripped the reins of his pterodactyl. “You two go!” Buck ordered as he flew the pterosaur to the skies. Crash and Eddie stood sadly on the ground as they watched Buck soar away into the incoming billow of dust. “Should we go?” Eddie sulked. Crash peered at Buck’s trajectory, then looked at a small tree. “Not without a fight.”
Buck soared through the forest of misery, guiding his bird through the dusty air. Suddenly, his flight was ambushed by a flying blur of fuzz. He caught back his balance, only to see two familiar faces. “Hehe, hi Buck…” Crash timidly chuckled. Buck was distraught, bamboozled even. “WHAT!?? How did you two get up ‘ere!?” He exclaimed. “Well, it’s actually a genius invention of ours-” “I don’t want to hear it,” Buck annoyedly groaned. “You two were supposed to have gone back down the trail.” That's when Eddie interjected with a warning. “Buck! Big dinosaur heads!” Eddie screamed. Sure enough, once calm brachiosauruses were galloping through the trees in panic. Buck dodged their heads flying by, looking for where the strange noises he was hearing were coming from. The farther he got, the thicker the air seemed to become. As the pack soared over the chasm of death, Shards of ice and sleet came shooting down. “Great Scott!” Buck shouted as he descended his ride over the plates of woe. Right when they reached the view of Lava Falls, Buck haphazardly landed the ‘dactyl on a high plate and saw the damage done at the wall of the lost world. Buck exhasperatedly turned to Crash and Eddie “Ugh, you two were supposed to have been home by now, now look at the mess we’re in! The lost world is falling apart, and I’m ‘ere draggin’ around two deadweights. I’m takin’ you to the wall, and you’re going back to your herd after this.” Eddie peered over to the falls. “Um, Buck?” he said as he pointed to the disaster. Everyone turned their attention to lava falls breaking apart. With a thundering crunch, a chunk of the lava falls broke off like a melting glacier and tumbled down the falls, splashing up lava. It rolled through the plates of woe, destroying everything in its path. With a puff of steam, it came to a rest right in front of the falls. In a flash, the Earthquake reached its height, with the tower of plates underneath the pack beginning to collapse. Buck whipped the reigns and drove their ride away from the destruction as fast as possible. Crash and Eddie glanced at the destruction behind them. The wall at the end of the lost world was falling apart, with lava falls getting the worst of it. Buck accelerated towards his burrow as the Earthquake eased, hoping to get away from the impending doom. Unfortunately, Geysers sprouted up at the worst moment, engulfing buck and the possums. The pterodactyl made it for a nose dive, sending the unfortunate mammals tumbling to the ground.
Somewhere, in a nearby forest, a lone possum trudged through the foliage, also inspecting the seismic damage. She wandered into a tunnel in the ground, looking for the source of the destruction only to see steam coming from under her. she had wandered right into a geyser. She froze on the bottom of the hole, trying not to disturb the ground below. Looking around, she cautiously lifted one leg. In a flash, the ground broke up and a column of steam shot the possum up through the tunnel. Unfortunately, she got stuck at the mouth of the geyser, holding back the explosion of steam. As the pressure built up underneath her, she ever so slowly shifted out of the hole. With the pressure peaking, she knew what would happen.
Buck rose up from the hard ground, wincing in pain from the collision. Right in front of him were the possums, waiting for him to get up. “What ‘appened?” Buck groaned. “We fell,” Crash said, unusually cheerfully. Buck looked around for any more damage. His pterodactyl was gone, but he could easily wrangle a new one. He yanked a vine out of a nearby tree, getting ready to find another ride. “Listen possums,” he confessed, “your herd is probably out there looking for you, just go follow the path back where you came from. I need to figure out what’s going on in lava falls.” Crash didn’t want to take no for an answer. “Buck, we can help you on your mission!” “Crash, Eddie,” Buck insisted, “You cannot survive in the lost world.” Just then, Buck twitched his ear backwards, hearing a strange screeching coming from the air. All three mammals turned to the far side of the lost world. There they saw a small mammal screaming through the air. It flew by a trio of tyrannosaurus rexes, who looked up curiously at the sight, as one dinosaur scratched his behind with one claw. As the flying fuzz got closer, Buck’s knife slipped out of his hand as he ducked under some wild plants, calling the possums under with him. In a puff of dust, a mysterious mammal plummeted straight for the ground near Buck and the possums. Buck shook the dirt out of his fur as he scrambled to inspect the fallen specimen. The possums followed behind, eagerly looking around for something interesting. Buck heard a rustle in the bushes and, instinctively grabbing for his knife, realized it was missing. Suddenly, a voice came out from the bushes as the haze lifted.
“Looking for this?”
The possum tossed Buck’s knife in the air, stabbing the ground right in front of him. Buck pulled the Knife out of the ground, cautiously backing away from the unknown creature. Crash and Eddie looked at each other in excitement, having seen evidence of a possum surviving in the lost world. The new possum elegantly released from the branch she was hanging on, flipped feet-first down on the ground, and inspected the mammals from a distance. She crawled up the Buck, sniffing his fur. Grabbing his big ears, she sniffed his hair and eye patch as well. She then turned to Crash and Eddie, who momentarily backed away. She circled the pair on her hands and feet, sniffing their fur. With a disgusted sneeze, she reapproached Buck, wielding a pterosaur beak knife with her prehensile tail. She grabbed her knife with her hand, approaching Buck to inspect his face once more. “Opossum,” she said, “Carol. Opossum. I come from the underground realm, a dinosaur world under the ice. Sort of like what you have right here.” Buck didn’t quite know how to react, but Crash did. “See, Buck? She’s a possum living in the lost world, just like us!” Suddenly, Carol fiercely scurried up the Crash, getting so close to him that their noses nearly touched. “ O … possum. ” she said in a stern tone. Crash backed away from the raging mammal, feeling a small amount of guilt. As Carol examined the possum’s appearance, she noticed some interesting features. “Wha- is that a-” she sniffed inside Crash’s ears, checked his arm length, and stretched his tail. “When was the last time you used this thing?” Finally, she noticed the most appalling detail of them all. “What are thooooose!??” She screamed, pointing to his feets. “Look at- is that- ha! The dweeb’s only got two hands!” She teased as she grabbed Crash’s hands. “Well don’t you have two hands too?” Crash said in defense. “Actually, Dingus, I have four hands, unlike you unevolved possums.” The possums were amazed with Carol’s hand-feet. “Who are these imps of yours, anyways?” Carol asked as she turned to buck. “Um, we’re possums, not imps. I’m Crash, the handsome one-" "-and I’m Eddie, the other handsome one!” The possums introduced themselves. Eddie beckoned towards his new friend. “-And you’re the possum who-” “OPOSSUM” Carol growled once again. “I’m an opossum…and don’t you forget it.” Buck finally summed up the courage to confront the new possum. “So, you’re a… um, opossum from the lost world? How’d a critter like you get ‘ere?” “The lost world, huh?” Carol replied, “Bit of a generic name, but it works. Anyway, I was wondering the same thing, one day I noticed an earthquake in the underground realm, and next thing I knew, my island just collided into… whatever this is.” Carol said, looking at her tropical surroundings. “Well, pleasure to meet you Carol.” Buck Wild introduced himself, “I’m Buck, short for Buckminster, long for… BUH. ” Carol gave the weasel a devious look. “Well, BUH, When the collision happened, the ground started forming some sort of massive volcano. It’s just south of here, if you go there you can see what’s happening.” Carol explained. “Wow!” Eddie said. “Another possum! You can live in the lost world with us too!” Crash added. Buck tried to stop the flood of ideas. “Whoa, whoa, WHOA. No one’s coming to live with anyone, especially me. You possums have someplace to be, and YOU,” he said, confronting Carol, “can turn right back around because the lost world isn’t big enough fo’ two mammals.” Carol was unfazed by Buck’s accusations. “-but the lost world IS big enough for two mammals. There’s a whole other island connected to it now. Also, in case you didn't notice, there’s a volcano in formation right in the middle that could threaten both our worlds.” Carol said. “YES!! Let’s go, Buckminster! We got a volcano to stop!” Crash cheered as he marched down the trail. Carol gave an exasperated sigh. “Are there any OTHER mammals I can work with? Stable ones, perhaps?” “Nope,” Eddie said, “It’s just us and Buck. He actually got married to a pineapple once, you know.” “Well, we aren’t together anymore.” Buck explained. “Fantastic. Now, you ready to come and help me out with this natural disaster?” Buck paused, thinking about the earthquake that had happened. “Alright. We can go check out this damage, but the possum brothers need to find their herd once this is all over.” Carol headed south, shoving her orange keratin knife point-up into her pouch. “Woah, girl pouch!” Crash and Eddie cheered in unison as they followed her. Buck paused for a moment on his journey as he stuck his head into his burrow. “Bronwyn, I’ll be gone for a while, so take care o’ the ‘ouse while I’m gone.” Bronwyn said nothing as she sat silently in her perch. “Alright, be that way.” Buck scoffed as he exited the burrow’s opening.
Above the ice, the herd searched for Crash and Eddie. “You know, they know fully well that they can’t really survive without you. They couldn’t have possibly wandered too far off.” Manny said, trying to comfort Elle. Ellie was having none of his tricks. “Listen big daddy, I know how much those two get on your nerves, but if my brothers get in trouble because of your coaxing, you’ll have nobody to blame but yourself.” Manny still knew he had some unfinished business. “Listen, I’m sorry about what I said to Crash and Eddie. I know they mean the world to you, It’s just that - you could let them face consequences every once in a while.” Ellie thought about that idea. “I’m just worried because their only defense is to play dead. Even if they do figure it out, I still… I still need them.” She explained as she trotted off. “You know, as a mother of three, I have tonsh of exshperiensh with letting your family go. You jusht gotta let them figure themshelves out, you know, get their own livesh.” Sid explained. Ellie disregarded Sid's advice and kept moving. Diego sniffed the ground for the stench of the possums, until he came across some interesting evidence. “Hold up, I found footprints.” Ellie perked up at his discovery. All around the snowy terrain were possum footprints. Ellie had no time to waste. “C’mon fellas, let’s go!” She said as she trampled off through the snow dunes. Ellie followed the direction of the tracks until she came across fallen chunks of ice around her. Worriedly, Ellie trekked further into the disaster, only to find a massive crater in the ground. “Manny! You need to come see this!” The herd came rushing to the site. It could be seen as clear as day that where the possum’s tracks ended, the disaster began. Ellie was heartbroken to think that her brothers might have gotten stuck under the snow, with no escape. Diego sniffed the center of the depression, and began scratching into the snow, digging closer to where Ellie’s brothers might be. Suddenly, the snow sank as Diego fell into a sinkhole in the ice. “Diego!” Ellie cried as she followed Diego into the ground. Manny followed behind as the two mammoths fell into a hidden cave in the ice. Sid slid down into the snow, following Manny. Manny dug through the pile of snow in the cave, realizing that Crash and Eddie must have made their way out of the disaster. “I can’t believe it. Crash and Eddie must have made their way out of the snow somehow.” “By themselves?” Diego said, “That can’t be.” Ellie noticed some scratched and broken crystals on the corners of the cave. “Look, these crystals were damaged.” “Yup, definitely seems like them.” Diego commented. The herd made their way through the crystal cave, to enter within the view of a familiar place. Sid gazed happily at the beautiful landscape, but Manny had other thoughts. “Oh no, those idiots went back to the lost world!” “That can’t be good.” Diego said. Sid, however, was more than ready to come to their rescue. “Oh boy! The lost world! I can finally come visit my kidsh again! Oh, I hope they remember me…”
Chapter Text
Scratch crawls through the icy terrain once again, searching for the nut he had just lost. He hops around, briefly sniffing the air, trying to detect the rich scent of his beloved acorn. He immediately spots his nut on the edge of a short cliff and, with a gasp of adoration, scurries up to his nut. However, when he reaches the top, he discovers the nut disappearing behind a tree sapling. Worriedly, Scratch rummages through the leaves surrounding the tree, until he hears another creature moving around the bend. Scratch wastes no time glaring around the tree to see what could have possibly snatched his precious commodity, until he lays his eyes on the most beautiful sight.
Another squirrel, just like him, stands proudly in his view. They stand tall with a glistening brown coat adorned with dark stripes going down their tail. The squirrel wipes their surroundings clean of leaves with their tail, elegantly flaunting their nose to the air, as if to show off a sense of skillfulness and passion in their work. Scratch feels stunned at the beautiful presence of this rodent. He doesn't know what to do or say, so he just timidly watches from behind the tree. The wild squirrel finally turns around, revealing an absolutely stunning face topped with a tuft of soft hair that smoothly bowed to the wind. Scratch feels lightheaded, gripping the tree tighter as he scans the wild squirrel’s glamorous form from top to bottom. Curling their tail around, they reveal Scratch’s one and only acorn. Scratch feels unreasonably nervous to take back his own acorn, but he creeps closer to the wild squirrel. To his surprise, The wild squirrel notices Scratch coming for his acorn, and generously picks it up and offers it back to him. Scratch pauses right in front of the rodent, staring at the gracious offering. The nut is right in front of him, but he can’t bring himself to get an inch closer. Mustering all the strength he can, Scratch reaches out his arm and grabs the acorn back, but even after getting what he wanted, he just doesn’t want to move. Looking up from what he came for, Scratch locks eyes with the new squirrel.
In the distance, twin geysers shoot steam into the air, creating a faint rainbow behind the couple. Scratch finally feels the passage of time and turns back, running as fast as he can from the squirrel. His name was Scratchel, a fine name for a beautiful rodent.
“So, what other cool things can your body do?” Crash asked, running up to carol. “For one, I can think.” Carol replied without looking back. “Oh yeah, thinking! I’ve tried that once, my thinking was actually the reason me and my brother ended up here in the first place.” “Okay, well, try thinking less next time.” Carol sneered, looking back at the possum. Crash ignored the comment, and kept chatting. “You know, my family’s probably looking for me right now,” he said, feeling a little guilty. Carol smirked at Crash’s thought. “Looking for you. Right. Well news flash, kid. Your pack probably doesn’t care in the slightest that you two decided to take the wild life.” Crash was surprised at Carol’s sentiment. “Our family would never do that. We always look out for each other, especially our sister.” Carol paused after hearing about Crash's family. “Oh…” she muttered as she kept on walking, “that sounds nice.” Brushing off her deep feelings, she quickly changed the topic. “You know, you guys are lucky to have a weasel like Buckminster to protect you.” “This is great for you, buck!” Eddie said as he caught up with the weasel. “You two can work together as a superhero team, Buck and the super-o possum!” Buck stopped in his tracks at Eddie’s idea. “What? Are you joking? Me? Working together with this pocket pet?” Buck exclaimed. “You’re dreamin’, mate. I only work alone. That’s how it’s always been wi’ me.” “That’s funny… that’s real funny, you know, seeing how you lost an eye with that stone spear of yours, maybe a partner would do ya some good.” Carol commented as she ripped apart some vines in her way with her own knife. “Bold claim, but both o’ these came from Rudy, the biggest beast in this world, and a dinosaur like nothing you’ve eva seen, fuzzball.” Buck explained. Carol glanced at Buck's tooth knife and eye patch, and thought that the weasel might actually have some toughness to him. Spotting a lone fruit on a nearby hill, Carol excitedly ran off the path. “Ooh, free fruit!” She said, abandoning Buck and the possums. Buck recognized the carnivorous plant, and how dangerous it was. “Watch out, Carol!” Carol, being none the wiser, yanked the fruit off the stem and took a large bite out of it. Suddenly, the hill’s surface peeled up to reveal five massive flower petals, revealing the presence of a carnivorous plant. Carol remained at the center, still consuming her snack as the flower’s petals enclosed her and squeezed together on its prey. Buck and the possums stared silently at the plant, with Eddie dramatically wailing on his knees at the loss of such an amazing creature. “Well, she’s dead.” Buck muttered as he got ready to continue his journey across the forest. Suddenly, the plant began to expand. To their surprise, a noticeable bulge appeared in the middle of the plant’s form. a loud ripping sound could be heard as Carol’s knife sliced open the flower from the bottom up. Carol emerged out of the carnivorous plant, throwing away the remains of the fruit she ate. “You know, for such a terrifying plant, it sure has some underwhelming bait.” Crash and Eddie were amazed at Carol’s ability to escape the flower’s slimy grasp. They had some experience trying to free their brother-in-law from the same plant, but their attempts had been unsuccessful. “Thanks for waiting up, Buck. Really appreciate it.” Carol joked as she passed by the weasel. Suddenly, she felt her knife being swiped by Crash. “We should get our own knives too! I can swing this thing way better than some old girl.” “Swing it the wrong way, and you’ll be a girl.” Carol grumbled as she swiped it right back. “So, this is what you left your pack for? Some superhero squad you can fool around with?” “Yup! Our sister was always telling us what to do, so we moved out. We’re… mature now .” Suddenly, Crash yelped in fear as he noticed something in the bushes. “AAGH! Giant bumblebee! Stop, drop and roll!” Carol watched unfazed as the possum twisted and turned on the ground, flailing his arms. “Maybe when you go home, you know, to your exasperated parents, you can ask them to give you your own knives. Maybe then you can say goodbye to your future kids.” Carol sighed as she picked up Crash. “Aw, thanks!” Crash cheered. “-but my parents are both gone. Our sister takes care of us now.” Carol paused for a moment. “No wonder you made it all the way here.” she muttered. Eddie was still pretty interested in the idea of opossumhood. “What other amazing skills do you have, opossum girl?” He asked, but when he looked to his side, no one was there. Suddenly, he was jumpscared by Carol popping in with a fruit in hand while hanging from a tree branch. “Climbing is one thing.” Crash was definitely impressed, but Eddie took the time to flex himself. “Climbing? Easy. You know, back home, we’re pretty much the masters of climbing.” Carol glared at the proud possum, passive aggressively snapping the branch back on Eddie’s face. “Well, have you got any of THESE!?” She said, wielding her scar-covered tail like a couple of nunchucks. Both possums jumped at the sight, but Buck was interested. Carol went on, “This tail right here has been through a lot. Unlike you, Opossums use their tails as a fifth hand, that’s why we never lose in a fight.” Carol let out a smile for getting to impress the possums once more. They were starting to become somewhat fun to have along. “Anyway, I’m not looking for one right now. Come on, Bucky, let’s go. And bring your kids too.” Buck didn’t let that last comment slide. “Hey, these two are NOT my family, you know!” He exclaimed. “Yeah, The only Family Buck has is his pumpkin daughter named Bronwyn!” Crash said. Carol paused as she turned her head around, giving Buck a puzzled look. Buck froze at her look of judgment, waiting for a response. “A pumpkin?” Carol said in concern. Crash backed up, exiting the awkward situation. Carol stared at Buck before releasing the tension. “So THAT’S why you left the pineapple!...You took the house, right?” Buck huffed in surprise. “That critter is just as nuts as you two!” he said to the possums. “I like her.” Eddie said as he marched southward. “Yeah, you’re gonna have to get used to her if you’re gonna be a part of our superhero squad.” Crash added. “Not so fast, mate. Once this little circus is ova’, you two nutjobs are going straight back home.” “Well, they surely won’t be missed.” Carol sneered. She kept her spear in hand as she made her way to the opening of the chasm of death, with the pack following suit.
Just off the trail, Scratch the squirrel pulled a small white flower out of the ground, hugging it lovingly to his chest along with his acorn. He turned around to discover a bright pink flower along with others growing on a vine. Scratch excitedly plucked all the pretty buds from their vine, holding them together in a bunch. As he looked in the bright faces of his bouquet,, he thought of Scratchel, the beautiful squirrel he met when he lost his acorn. Scratch sighed as he stared into the colorful faces of the flowers he had picked. Then, looking down at his nut, started thinking about how he felt for Scratchel.
For the first time, he actually felt the same way for another squirrel that he did for his nut. He didn’t even want to chase his nut anymore, all he wanted was to be with Scratchel and for them to collect nuts together. Looking back to his collection of flowers in hand, he realized what he felt was love. Taking a deep breath, Scratch dropped his flower collection and picked his nut back up. All he could think about Scratchel, and he wanted him to know it. He scurried south to the tallest tree in the lost world, determined to confess his feelings.
The pack walked to the edge of the chasm of death, waiting for buck to make the next call. “Well, this is it. The chasm of death.” Buck said as he pulled a couple of vines from the ceiling of the cave. The disembodied ribcage of a dinosaur rose up from the thick green gas, right in front of the cliff. “No eating, drinking, or electronic crystals onboard. Oh, and, breathe in the toxic fumes, and you’ll probably die.” Buck said as he climbed onto the ribcage. “Alright, who’ll be first?” Crash and Eddie hopped onto the ride, but Carol stayed behind. “Sorry, I’m going the opossum route,” she said as she grabbed her tail. Crash and Eddie looked at each other with excitement after hearing about another way to cross the chasm of death.
“This is amazing!” Eddie hollered as he zipped down the vines on his tail. Crash and Carol followed suit, zooming down their own vines. The green gasses flew by their faces as their fur fluttered in the wind. Carol held her breath while she was riding down, until Crash zoomed past her. “ʸᵒᵘ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʸᵒᵘ ᶜᵃⁿ ᵇʳᵉᵃᵗʰᵉ ᵗʰᶦˢ ˢᵗᵘᶠᶠ, ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ?” His voice squeaked before Carol tried breathing in the gas herself. “ʰᵉʸ, ᶦᵗ'ˢ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵖᵒᶦˢᵒⁿ!” she squealed. Carol gasped for a moment along with Crash, who found Carol’s voice amusing. Both mammals burst out in giggle fits, as Eddie joined in laughing. “ʸᵒᵘ ˢᵒᵘⁿᵈ ʳⁱᵈⁱᶜᵘˡᵒᵘˢ!” Crash wheezed. Buck watched from the flying ribcage as the possums had the time of their lives. He knew it would be dangerous for them to breathe in the gas for too long, but they would be fine as long as they came down quick enough. “ʸᵒᵘ ᵏⁿᵒʷ, ⁱ ᵃᶜᵗᵘᵃˡˡʸ ˡᵒᵛᵉ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᶜᵃᵛᵉ, ⁱᵗ'ˢ ˢᵘᵖʳⁱˢⁱⁿᵍˡʸ ᵇⁱᵍ·” Crash laughed as he swung along the vines. “ᴮᵉᵗ ⁿᵒᵇᵒᵈʸ'ˢ ᵉᵛᵉʳ ˢᵃᶦᵈ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ʸᵒᵘ!” Carol squeaked back. Crash nearly fell off his vine laughing, until he rammed straight into the dinosaur rib cage Buck had parked right at the end of the chasm. “ᵗᵒᴜgh luck, whoo!” Carol laughed as she jumped off her vine along with Eddie. Crash grunted in agony as he crawled back onto the ground. “Best get going, mammals.” Buck said as he anchored his ride to a tree stump. “Try to keep up, kids,” Carol joked as she followed him.
The pack maneuvered through the thick leaves, still moving southward to the plates of woe. “We’re here,” Carol said, lifting up a large leaf to let the rest of the pack members through. Buck introduced the new place, “The plates of- WOAH.” the moment he stepped foot into the plates, he knew something was amiss. “The plates…” Buck gasped, “they’ve been melted over with lava.” Carol cautiously tapped the black ground with her foot. Walking on the obsidian floor, she investigated what seemed to be the toasted skeleton of a Guanlong. Crash and Eddie, seeing that the ground was safe, hopped onto its solid obsidian surface. “Wow, the ground is so shiny!” Eddie said as he got down on the ground. He sniffed its pungent surface before licking the smooth obsidian. Crash watched as Carol inspected the dinosaur skeleton, until he heard an ominous rattling coming from the rock formations around him. “What was that?” Crash said, backing from the sound. Carol crawled up to the sound that was coming from the dark. The rattling grew louder and closer as Carol let out a small snarl. Suddenly, a living Guanlong leaped out of the shadows, snapping at the opossum. Carol ducked out of its trajectory, just missing its incoming jaws. More Guanlongs accompanied the dinosaur as they set out to eat the mammals. Buck leaped into action with his knife, he had to get the possums out of danger, and as for Carol, she would have to either show her fighting skills or die. “It’s time to get… Buck Wild!” Buck Scurried up a shriveled tree as he eyed a cluster of ammo berries. Grabbing the yellow bunch of fruit, he leaped down to the ground, soaring straight for the possums. Buck ripped the stems off with his teeth, and braced for impact. “TAKE COVA’!” he yelled as he launched each berry for the ravenous beasts. The Guanlongs recoiled when hit, but still persisted. Meanwhile, Carol was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, the scream of an unknown animal could be heard. The mammals turned around to see Carol scream as she fought up a storm. Using her tail to reign in the dinosaurs, Carol hopped across the raptors’ heads as she managed to pull down an entire formation of plates down on the Dinosaurs. Breathing heavily, she made a run for it as even more Raptors came her way. “There’s too many!” She screamed as she passed Buck and the possums. She gracefully scurried up a plate formation, getting away from danger. Buck agreed that it was getting a bit much to handle, and if the pack needed to get away, they had to get to higher ground. Buck scurried up a dead tree, calling for the possums. Crash ran to the towers of plates, but a guanlong knocked him to his side. He slid to the ground, painfully tumbling across its smooth surface. All was a blur until a thundering explosion could be heard. As he opened his eyes, he faced the volcano in lava falls. He felt the ground tremble as a barrel of smoke puffed out of its mouth. Crash froze in fear, he didn’t play dead, he didn’t run, he just froze in front of the sight. Suddenly, the silence was broken by Buck wild appearing to save Crash from the raptors. Buck aggressively yanked Crash’s hand, pulling him up from the ground. “LET’S GO!” Buck yelled as he ran ahead of Crash. Crash got over his shock and bound for the plate towers. Eddie managed to make it up the plates, but his brother was still struggling. “Crash, up here!” Carol called. Crash put everything aside and climbed as hard as he could. With a single raptor at his heels, he needed to get away. He remembered how Carol would climb, and tried to leap off of each rock. He reached for the dead tree that was in his reach, but a stray Guanlong coming after him started toppling the plates he was on. As the stack began plummeting to the ground, Crash bravely leaped onto the tree, and managed to use his tail to swing higher. Before he knew it, he was dashing up the rock formations at the speed of wind. While he got closer to the cliff, Some Raptors were still hot on his tail. “Up here, brother!” Eddie called at the top of a cliff. Crash had to get up, and he had to get up quick. The plates were sliding fast, and he had to hurry. After climbing to the top of the tree, Crash made one final leap to the cliff. As he hung in the air, Carol and the pack were just in view. He extended his arms out to the edge of the cliff, but failed to reach the edge as he began to descend. luckily, he felt Carol’s feet grab onto his hands. Crash managed to make it away from the raptors. He, a possum, had survived. Buck looked over the edge of the cliff, seeing the boulder that had destroyed lava falls, sitting coldly in front of the volcanic destruction. “That boulder completely demolished the falls,” Buck grumbled. Carol pulled Crash onto the cliff as she looked further to the horizon. “Um, what falls?” Carol asked. Buck looked up to the falls to see a massive volcano that had sprung up in place of lava falls. Buck and Carol gazed worriedly at the sight. Above the pack, the cawing of pterodactyls could be heard. Buck turned his attention to the sky, and knew what to do. “I can reign in a pterodactyl. YOU stay he-” but Carol was gone. Buck suddenly heard Carol screaming in excitement as a pterodactyl came flying up the cliff, flashing a gust of wind in Buck’s fur. Buck sighed in mild frustration, but almost chuckled at Carol’s initiative. Carol made a daring landing on the cliff, with her pterosaur reigned in with a couple of vines. “You coming?” she joked to buck. “What kind of bird is THAT!?” Eddie said, pointing to the toothy beast Carol was riding. “Well, this is just a Thapunngaka.” Carol said. “I actually know one who likes to hang his head wherever there’s smoke, just watch out for him.” Suddenly, a column of smoke blasted a screaming thapunngaka into the air behind her. “Yup, that’s smokehead.” “Wow, can we ride one too?” Crash asked. Buck sighed as he grabbed both possums by the arm and jumped off the cliff. He successfully managed to reign a pterodactyl with the possums tagging along. With their rides secured, the pack set off for the new lost world.
Just north of the pack, the herd were close behind in the jungle of misery. Sid was taking the lead, searching the forest for his kids. “I just know my kids are here shomewhere,” he said as he looked under the leaves for his adopted family. “You do realize those dinosaurs are probably grown up by now, right? They probably don’t even remember you.” Diego said. “Never undereshtimate a mother’s intuition, Diego.” Sid advised as he kept looking for his kids. Diego sighed as he kept on sniffing for the possums. Suddenly in his search, he came across some tracks in the ground. “The possums were here,” he said as he examined the tracks from afar. After sniffing some more tracks, he came to a relieving conclusion. “They must have run into Buck somehow.” “Really?” Manny asked. “That’s great! That means they have someone responsible to look out for them.” “I wouldn’t exactly call Buck… responsible.” Diego added. “Well at least we know they’re safe.” Ellie interjected, “Now we just need to find Buck.”
As the herd got deeper into the forest, it seemed that there was evidence of mass destruction all around them. That was definitely a good sign of the possums being near. Suddenly, Diego paused at the sound of a dinosaur walking through the forest. “Wait guys, I hear something.” Diego announced to the herd as he listened. Sid decided to think positively at this moment. “It must be my babies coming to see their mama!” Sid cheered as he ran up to the noise, “Come here, baby-” but out of the bushes came a pack of troödons running for their lives. Sid shrieked as he recoiled from the incoming beasts. One troodon ran right into him, fearfully wrapping around his body. However, the dinosaurs wanted nothing to do with the sloth. They instead, were running from something. Sid let go of the dinosaur as it scrambled for the trees. A massive creature was running through the jungle of misery, and it was getting closer. “I don’t think that’s your kid, Sid.” Diego warned as he ran away from the incoming beast. As the body drew closer, even Sid knew this was a serious situation. He ran out of the animal’s trajectory, bracing for the worst. The beast came out from the trees, revealing themself to be a pack of young tyrannosaurus rexes on the hunt. The T-rexes had failed to catch their prey, but stopped short in front of Sid. The dinosaurs were bright orange-red, each with their own markings. The dinosaur in front had a sleek red pattern and sharp blue eyes along with feathers that looked like a puff of hair. The one to the left had the darkest shade of red, along with short, fuzzy feathers and brown eyes. The third T-rex had light red freckles along with brown eyes and a neat tuft of feathers on her head.
Sid held eye contact with the dinos, feeling his ‘mother’s intuition’ that he was talking about. In a heartbeat, he knew who these dinosaurs were. “Eggbert? Shelly? Yoko?” He named each of his adopted children. His dinosaur kids dropped everything about the hunt and recognized their mother. “MAMA!” they roared as they all got down to embrace their mother. “My kids! My kids!” Sid cried as he hugged his now teenage dinosaur kids. “You’ve all gotten so big! Aw, I can’t wait to meet your mother!” “Well, at least we have protection.” Manny commented, “Especially the one who needs it most.”
Chapter 4
Notes:
I imagined the fruit crash ate to have the looks and taste of a Rose Apple, fyi.
Also,CROCODILES CAN RUN.
Chapter Text
Scratch hops across the icy terrain, holding his nut tightly to his chest in anticipation of the risk he was about to take. As he laid eyes on Scratchel, still organizing the leaves around the tree, a wave of uneasiness took him over. Breathing heavily, Scratch gets himself together as he scuttles up to Scratchel, preparing to confess his feelings. Scratch positions himself right in front of Scratchel, getting ready to make his offering. Scratchel notices him there, and smiles to see him again. The smile pierces Scratch's heart with feels, only making it harder to confess. With a nervous squeak, Scratch turns around and frantically scratches the surface of his acorn with his claw, putting focus and precision into each mark. With a deep breath, he turns around and lifts the acorn into scratch’s view to reveal a heart carved into it. Scratch hides his face behind the nut, preparing for the worst of reactions. Scratchel smiles at scratch’s message of love, and in a moment of acceptance, grabs the top of the acorn with one hand. Scratch uncovers himself from behind the acorn as he looks into the eyes of his newfound lover.
Scratch and Scratchel spent their day together around the lost world, canoeing in the river, sharing a meal in the jungle, and dancing in front of the view of the volcano. It was there that Scratchel revealed to Scratch that he was a flying squirrel.
A caw could be heard as Carol haphazardly landed her pterodactyl on the ground. Buck followed behind, making a smooth landing with the possums excitedly leaping off their ride. “If we’re going to stop a giant composite volcano from blowing our world over, we’re going to need some stock. Welcome to my world, fellas.” Carol said as she pushed aside a leaf, revealing an entire new world. The possums gasped as they gazed at the beautiful world full of cliff sides and waterfalls. The world was filled with so many new creatures they had never seen before. Even Buck couldn’t help but be amazed at the beautiful landscape. “They say the entire place is out to kill you at all times, so you better get going if you want to live,” Carol explained as she stormed through the bushes, wielding her knife. Crash and Eddie excitedly followed Carol as she crawled under leaves and hopped over logs. Suddenly, the rustling of leaves could be heard from afar. As it got closer, a coarse roar could be heard from the bushes. Crash and Eddie were up for adventure, but their instincts got the best of them. In the heat of the moment, they let out a gag and played dead. Above their heads, a Galleonosaurus passed by. “It’s just a Galleon,” Carol said as she bent over the dead possums, “Man, you two are a hive-mind, aren’t you?” Eddie quickly got up from his dead position and shook off his fur. Crash opened his eyes. “Hive mind? What’s that?” Carol helped the possum get up. “It means your sorry self can’t think- you know, like an individual.” Crash thought for a moment as Carol kept explaining. “A true opossum can think for themselves.” Eddie thought about what that meant. “You mean like- getting your own ideas?” “Yeah,” Carol said to Eddie, “Not like you’ll ever be able to achieve that. Also, playing dead isn’t going to help you. Possums are omnivores. You don’t have to act like prey all the time.” This idea surprised the possums. All their lives they had been fighting for survival like herbivores, but to be hunting and not hunted? That sounded like a dream. “Wait…I’m a predator?” Crash said. “Amazing! Watch out, Eddie, I’m going to take you to see my puppies!” Eddie screamed as Crash wrestled him to the ground. Carol groaned as she kept moving through the path.
Eddie hopped across a mossy log, following The rest of the pack south. He momentarily slipped on its slick surface, until he hopped it back down to the ground. Suddenly, he heard a creature turn around with a growl. He sheepishly turned around to see a crocodile bigger than any he’s ever seen. The creature swung around its elongated jaws with insanely long fangs that shot out of his mouth, and stomped its long, muscular legs that towered over the possum. Eddie screamed as he tried to catch up with the pack. Carol, seeing Eddie in distress, turned around to find the great big beast galloping straight for them. “You woke the boar croc,” Carol said in horror. She sprinted away from the beast, holding her knife tight in her hand. “Follow me!” She said as the possums followed along, including buck. In her sprint, Carol yanked a vine off of a tree. She searched the sky for anything that may be helpful for them. Spotting a flock of pterosaurs, she knew what she had to do. Stuffing her dagger into her pouch, she wrapped Crash’s body with her tail and Eddie with one arm. She whipped her vine into the air, launching all three possums away from the Boar croc.
The Croc took one final leap towards the flying possums, clamping down his jaws while soaring in midair. Luckily, Carol and the possums barely dodged its impending jaws. The beast landed on the ground, furiously roaring to the sky, when it was caught in the tangle of a couple of vines. “Take that, butchy boy!” Buck shouted as he wound the vines around the Croc’s jaws. With one large pull, he managed to bind the Croc’s jaws together, but not for long. He had to get out of there, and fast. After tucking the end of the vine in to seal the bind, Buck jumped off the Croc’s nose and dashed away from the beast, until he heard the possums from above. “We’re up here, Buck!” Eddie said from a wild pterosaur. Carol emulated a motor sound as she guided the pterosaur down to the ground. “I hope we lost him.” Carol huffed as she gathered her reigns. Suddenly, she turned to see some trees swaying aside in a pattern that led right to the pack. “He’s still coming!” Warned Carol. Out of the trees came the gargantuan form of the Boar Croc coming straight for the mammals. “Woah!” Buck yelped as he retreated and let Carol do the work. Carol put away her knife in her pouch as she got ready for the fight of her life. “Easy, buddy.” The brave opossum ran underneath the beast, guiding it away from the other pack members. With the gator distracted, the mammal made a sound like heard from no other possum. It was a fierce hiss, something that nearly hindered the giant beast. Carol almost seemed to transform into a completely different animal as she leaped straight into the croc's face, perfectly reigning him with her vines. The beast roared with fury as Carol guided it through the trees. The animal galloped through the forest, knocking the trees aside. “Right… here.” Carol said as she led it straight to a flat area amongst the trees. Buck looked behind him for the possums, but they were nowhere to be seen. Crash and Eddie followed Carol on her Boar Croc to the flats. The area was filled with columns of steam, and dusty sand all around. The Boar Croc kicked up sand as Carol pulled the reins back. The Croc trampled the ground in circles, angrily roaring as it raised its jaws to the air. Suddenly, the weight of the animal’s feet led it straight into a hidden cavity in the ground. Cracks sprouted up in the ground as pieces fell out of the ground’s surface. With a bellowing roar, The Boar Croc sank straight into the ground as the seam rose up from below. Buck started to worry about what happened to the opossum. “Carol!” he yelled as he bound for the disaster. He pushed the possums aside as he looked into the dust and steam. Luckily, Carol came flying out of the smoke cloud on the end of a vine attached to a smoky thapunngaka. Managing to land safely on her feet along with her knife, she grabbed some spare vines and shoved the bundle in her pouch. “Did that smokehead shark-o-dactyl just appear out o’ the smoke?” Buck chuckled as he watched the bird clumsily soar over the flats with twigs tangled in its beak, trailing dust and soot into the air. Carol looked up at the peculiar sight as well. “Yeah, that one can be a little weird. It’s like he craves smoke or something… Did you miss me?” Buck gave Carol a suspicious look before turning away. “Miss you? I’m not your mate, mate.”
“-but you just called me mate, mate.”
“I’m not a part o’ your pack, Pockets.”
“See? We’ve already thought up cool names for each other! We’re like… solid. ”
“Okay, Okay. Whateva. Don’t you have your own possum crew?”
Carol paused for a moment, until Eddie leaped into the scene. “That was AMAZING! Especially when you hissed like- hiiissss ” Eddie cutely emulated Carol’s hissing. “Real cute, goobers. Come on, my den’s this way.” Carol laughed as she guided the possums to the tallest tree in the lost world.
The screwball pterosaur wobbled through the air, until it smacked straight into Shelly’s face, leaving a smoky imprint on her forehead. Shelly annoyedly shook off the dust on her face, rolling her eyes at the psychotic bird. Below her, Sid was sharing some thoughts.. “Boy, you’ve all gotten so big! Looksh like you’ve all been eatin your veggies. Lasht time I shaw your faces you were still cute little dino babies-” Sid rambled on to his triplets. Manny had enough of his reminiscing and jammed some leaves into his ear. “I left my wife and kids… for this.” Diego complained. As the herd got closer to the plates of woe, Diego noticed some massive dinosaur footprints around the trees. Pushing leaves aside, Sid tried not to tear up as he locked eyes with His long lost love. “OH, mama!” Sid embraced momma dinosaur as she licked Sid with adoration. “I love what you’ve done with the place while I was gone. Eshpecially the black stone covering everything” “I’m not so sure she did the lava, Sid.” Diego told Sid as he inspected the smooth, black ground. “Well you can’t jusht give all the credit to someone elshe-” Diego turned Sid’s head around to face a red glow coming from the distance. “-Oh.” Momma dinosaur was definitely distressed from the flow of lava. “Don’t worry about it, mama. Red is very in-sheashon this time of year. Beshides, you have me.” Momma dinosaur smiled as she looked into Sid’s eyes. She had forgotten about how great life was with him taking care of the kids. Diego looked to the ice above and noticed the shift in color of the sky. “It’s getting dark. We should stay with Momma,” he said to the herd. “No, we have to keep going!” Ellie cried. Diego looked straight into Ellie’s eyes. “Ellie, if we run into Rudy, there’s no saving us. We need to stay safe. Buck can take care of your brothers.” Ellie looked up at the ice, now gleaming a peach glow down on the ground. “Okay,” She sighed.
It was getting dark in the other lost world, and Carol knew she had to get the pack to a safe place if they wanted to stay away from the dangers of the night. “This is the path that leads to my den.” Carol introduced her new mates to the place. As she got to the forest path that led straight to her home, Carol let out a gasp as she came across some rotten luck. “Oh no…” Carol huffed as she stopped short in front of the sight. The entire path was blocked by a huge legion of fluffy striped tails hanging from the trees. “They’re brooding.” “Alright,” Carol explained to the pack, “There’s a flock of leaellynasaura through here. Just please follow my lead and don't. Touch. The tails.” Carol crawled underneath the fluffy striped tails as Buck cautiously followed behind. Crash and Eddie crawled behind, curiously observing the soft, light feathery danglers all around them. Eddie almost reached out to touch one, until Carol caught him, deterring his action with a growl. Eventually, the tails had reached cowering level and the pack could walk bipedally through the fluff. Suddenly, a rosy-peach fruit dropped down on the ground. Seeing its beautiful glossy skin, Crash didn’t hesitate to pick it up. The moment Carol heard the fruit drop, she turned around to see Crash just getting ready to bite into it. “No!... Put. That. Down.” she snapped as she looked straight at Crash. Crash stared at Carol, and then the fruit. He knew he had to put it down, but it just looked too delicious, so he devoured it as fast as he could, tossing the remains behind him. Suddenly, the cooing of a creature could be heard. Everyone looked at the sight with horror. One of the dinosaur tails started vibrating, as the annoyed trilling of the dinosaur could be heard. Crash ran for the fruit as he picked the remains back up, hoping to keep it away from the beast. The fluffy dinosaur dropped to the ground, puffing its hackles up as it screeched at Crash. “Give it back the fruit!” Carol yelled from afar, not too loud as to alert the dinosaur coming for Crash. “No! I will not give up my snack for you, adorable fluffy bird!” Crash snapped at the leaellynasaura.
Far from the flock, the terrified screaming of a possum could be heard as he bound away from an angry leaellynasaura. “Crash, just give up the fruit!” Carol ordered. “I can’t! It’s too delicious!” Carol paused her running to vent her frustration. “Everybody loves lotus,” she grumbled. Climbing up into the trees, Carol had the speed advantage as she jumped from tree to tree, hoping to ambush the raptor from above. Eddie followed from the ground, trying to save his brother. Crash continued yelling at the hungry beast. “You’ll never catch the pos-” his teasing was cut short by ramming straight into a cliffside. Suddenly, Crash was cornered. The leaellynasaura was inching closer with every step, and Crash had no one to save him in this moment but himself. Carol was coming, but not fast enough. The creature bared its spiny teeth, rattling its long tail in the air and seemed to grow as it fluffed up its thick, stripy neck floof. “You have to protect yourself!” Carol screamed as she gasped for air on her chase. Crash tried to climb up the side of the cliff, but slid down to the ground as he kicked up dust. The leaellynasaura inched closer, and in the height of the moment, Crash stopped trying to run away and got back on his feet. He took a deep breath, and recoiling from the beast, let out the most terrifying hiss, like no sound he’s ever made before. Crash raised his hackles as he snapped back at the leaellynasaura. Carol stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Crash defending himself. Eddie, seeing the dinosaur back up, ambushed the dinosaur from behind. The now intimidated raptor had enough and scrambled away. The proud possums gave each other a high-five, when they heard Carol climbing down from the tree. She said nothing, but they could tell how astonished she was. Finally, Carol spoke. “Good job, opossums.” Crash and Eddie were honored to be called opossums, their faces lighting up with excitement. “Come on, boys, you don’t want to be out here after dark.” Carol said as she collected some spare vines for the night.
The pack approached a thick tree that appeared to be covered from root to leaf with strangler fig vines. It was enormous, with a canopy that had branches that poked through the surface of the ice. One root was massive enough for the mammals to go inside of it. Around the entrance was a continuous vine covered in multicolored flowers. “Oh, forgot to maintain the yard lights,” Carol giggled as she grabbed a pitcher plant, dabbing some of its liquid into each flower with a pine twig brush. Buck and Eddie looked at each other in bewilderment at Carol so happily dancing in the nighttime air as she painted each of the flowers with a stroke of yellow sauce. A swarm of fireflies were attracted to the flowers, and got stuck inside the little plant traps. The bugs transformed the flowers into fairy lights that illuminated the outside of the tree. Carol stood outside the giant root, welcoming the pack in. “Who's first?” Crash ran straight into the den without hesitation with Eddie following behind. Buck took time to appreciate the beauty of the atmosphere before ducking into the burrow himself. The inside of the den was filled with tools and resources of all kinds. Carol spared no time running up to one of the windows of the tree and coming back down with a dinosaur egg. “Who’s ready for dinner?” Buck was quite alarmed at the sight of a dinosaur egg being used for food. “Whoa, whoah, whoa. Where’d you get this egg right ‘ere? Doesn’t it belong to someone?” Carol picked up the egg with her feet as she balanced on her tail. She rapidly sniffed every corner of the egg’s surface as she spun it around. Finally, she came to a conclusion. “Not today, Joe, this egg right here is deader than a dodo. Besides, we opossums are meant to eat eggs.” In a swift movement, Carol scraped an incision into the egg with her tooth as she spun it around. Prying the top clean off, she set the egg on a small furnace. “Tonight I’ll be making some egg soup. It’s a specialty of mine, if I do say so myself.” Carol dug a black stick in and out of the furnace, sparking the inside to a smolder. “You can ask some questions, If you like.” Carol said as she zipped from one wall to the next collecting herbs and spices. Crash looked at his brother before sitting down on a log and asking the first question. “How did you get here?” Carol dropped a load of spices into the eggs, sniffed the simmering soup, and turned to Crash. “I used to live above the ice with all kinds of possums. Fluffy ones, tiny ones- Opossums like me were a lot different from them, though." She picked up some salt rocks and chipped off some grains over the soup. “I couldn’t handle the temperatures of the ice age when I was living above the ice, so… I came to live in the underground realm.” She said as she stared into the egg for a moment, “Unlike my family… Well, soup’s ready.” Carol cheered as she grabbed a couple of dinosaur egg bowls. Heaving the giant egg in her arms, Carol managed to share some egg soup for the whole pack. “Alright, I have a question.” Buck said, sipping his bowl of soup. “If there’s a volcano right in the middle of our worlds threatening to cook us like a couple o’ trilobites, how are we gonna stop it?” Carol thought for a while while drinking her soup. “I’m… still figuring that out. All we know is, we need to control the eruption if we want to save our worlds.” Just then, Crash enthusiastically raised his hand. “Yes, Crash?” Carol groaned as she barely looked up from her soup dish. Crash proposed a new pastime. “Do we get to tell campfire stories?”
“So, just as everyone had lost hope, I swooped in with the hundred-pound crystal that was needed to attract the asteroid and flung it into the air with my tree catapult, straight into the leak in the volcano. The volcano blew the rocks into the sky, sending the asteroid away from the ground. And just like that, me and my brother saved the world! And Julian said we were the most awesome uncles he ever had!” Crash took a bow over the blazing furnace as Buck and Carol stared in plain disbelief. “Yeah, no way that could ever happen.” Carol chuckled. “Wait, wait, wait. You didn’t do any o’ that.” Buck interjected.”Oh yeah?” Crash pridefully huffed, “How do you know that? you weren’t there.” “Uh, yeah. I was. I pulled the crystal up the hill with the dino-birds while you hid behind Ellie.” Having been disproven, Crash angrily ate his roasted mushroom off the end of his stick. “I liked it,” Eddie said in a effort to cheer up his brother. Taking a big bite out of her chicken of the forest s’more, carol blew out the small furnace. “Alright, possums, sleep time. You guys have been up all day.” she groaned. Soon the pack members had all hunkered down for sleep, with Crash and Eddie hanging on a decorative vine for the night. Crash was ready for a full night of sleep, until he saw Carol climbing across the vine he was on. “Hey,” she whispered, “sparky.” “Yeah?” Crash asked, curling upwards to see Carol hop onto the tangled wall of wooden vines. “I want to show you the best part of living in this tree,” She whispered to the possum, looking up to a window, “But you’ll have to keep up.” Carol swiftly leaped around the walls, with Crash trying to follow behind. “Down low, too slow,” Carol laughed as she climbed up the wall. Crash had enough. He noticed a branch sticking out of one wall, and got an idea. He pulled the end of the branch down, and launched himself straight up to the window, leaving Carol stunned. “In space, in your face!” Crash joked back. Carol Growled as she climbed past Crash, suddenly brushing off his prank. “That’s the wrong window, genius.” she haughtily laughed as she climbed even higher up the tree. Crash followed along until both mammals reached an opening at the top of the tree trunk. “This is my favorite place,” Carol explained, “in the underground realm.” Crash climbed out to the outside of the tree to reveal a wooden cliffside covered in grass. It had a view of the entire lost world. The chasm of death, the jungle of misery, and the underground realm on the other side of a burning volcano that glowed in the midnight landscape. “Wow…” Crash gasped to the silent jungle air. “Beautiful isn’t it?” Carol whispered as she walked further on the branch. The two mammals sat down on the edge of the grassy ledge, looking to the beautiful landscape.
if this soundtrack makes you cry... sorry not sorry! 😜
Carol looked up at a flock of pterosaurs flying over the flats, and broke the silence with some feelings. “That’s the best place in the world to be,” she muttered, “Whipping down a pterosaur and riding on the end of the vine through the air. Truly something you’ll never forget.” Crash looked at the pterosaurs as they dived down to the ground to catch their prey. “Can a possum do that?” he asked. “You know,” Carol started, “when I talked about how possums are different from opossums, there is one thing I didn’t mention.” “What’s that?” Crash asked. Carol took a deep breath as she gazed at the glowing volcano. “You may be an unevolved possum, I mean, You don’t even have four hands, but you can still be an opossum even with a body like yours. It’s about not just thinking… but thinking for yourself. It’s about being your own possum.” Crash thought about those words. “Really? Well, I guess I should start thinking more often.” Carol smiled at Crash’s growing ability to think back. “You know, you're a pretty special kid. You can do anything if you’re motivated enough. And you facing up to that leaellynasaura… that was something special.” Crash looked closely at the landscape of the underground realm from above. He saw the burning volcano that illuminated its surroundings with its red glow. “Carol, I-” Crash confessed, “Me and my herd have saved the world together multiple times, with me and my brother doing some of the work, but when I saw that volcano, and how it could have wiped us out…” Crash turned to Carol, “I felt… afraid. ” Carol got close to Crash for a moment. “So you experienced the basic living desire to not die for the first time, huh? Sounds rough. One of the most important things of being an opossum,” she explained, “is facing your fears. Being afraid is the only time you can be brave.” Crash thought about Carol’s words. “Yeah, well… I’ve felt scared before, but this was the first time I’ve felt… so in danger.” “It can feel like that. The first time is always awkward, you know.” Carol ingenuinely grinned to lighten the mood before going back to her point. “You can only be an opossum if you learn to face up to your fears. Playing dead is a good tactic, but a true opossum rises in the face of danger.” Crash looked down to the ground in thought. “Ellie never told me that. She never taught us… any of that.” Carol curiously leaned towards Crash. “Hm, unprogressive much? Um, so what is she like?” Crash smiled as he reluctantly thought back to his life with Ellie. “Ellie is pretty fun sometimes, but sometimes she just ruins our fun,” Crash explained as he looked down at the view below. “Like when you try to disrupt each others’ hunts by flinging your butts fifty feet into the air?” Carol said plainly. Crash shrugged. “I’ve never hunted before.” Carol just dodged that remark with a simple “oh.” She sighed as she turned away from Crash. “You have it good, kid. At least you have a family that didn’t just stop caring about you because you made decisions in life that they didn’t understand,” she sadly mumbled as she curled her legs up to her face. “Well, when we’re gone, Buck will be your family, right?” Crash said. Carol looked up, a tender smile growing on her face. Even after losing everything she ever had, she was going to have a new future with the weasel. “Yeah, you’re right.” She shifted closer to Crash and rested her head on top of his, in a caring gesture. “We’ll figure out a way to fix this, and then we can get you back to your family.”
Inside the tree, Crash climbed back down to the vine where his brother was resting. “Eddie,” Crash said as he hung himself back on the vine, “I was talking to Carol at the top of the tree, and she said some interesting things.” “were they things that made you think?” Eddie coldly said as he turned away from his brother. “Yeah!” Crash went on, “It was there that I learned… we can become opossums, all we need to do is show bravery.” It was then that Eddie paid attention. “Really?” he whispered, “That’s great! We’ve already been brushing off danger for our whole lives now.” Crash hung himself back onto the line, and gave a hearty stretch. “You know what that really means, right?” Eddie turned to his brother in curiosity. “You see, Ever since I got attacked by those dinosaurs in the plates, I’ve been getting this feeling, like I was… fearing for myself.” “You were afraid?” Eddie asked. “Yeah, I guess being an opossum can come with its own feelings. Didn’t you feel it too? I mean, we’re living around an active volcano we don’t even know how to stop… I just…” It was then Eddie got something off his chest. “Yeah, I’ve been feeling the same thing. I guess we both learned something though.” “Eddie…” Crash added, “I just want to say, I’m sorry for dragging you into this.” “Sorry? Living here has been awesome!” Eddie smiled. “We got to see fluffy dinosaurs, fluffy dinosaurs! How often do you get to see that!?” Crash chuckled at his brother’s enthusiasm. “You know, we both got ourselves into this mess. I guess we just need to keep figuring this opossum stuff out.” Eddie muttered. “Yeah. I’m just glad we could get to live a life of adventure together.” Crash said. Eddie smiled at his brother while half-asleep. “Goodnight, brother.” He yawned as both possums slept for the night. Below the possums, Carol was sleeping in a crevice in the tree’s interior. “Goodnight, Crash and Eddie,” she whispered into the night. Suddenly, she was approached by Buck Wild. “Uh, ya got a place for me to sleep?” Buck asked. Carol looked to crevice above her. “Yeah, there’s a hole right above me.” Buck climbed up to the hole as he snuggled up for the night. “Thanks, mate.” He muttered. “Good night, Mate.” Carol smiled. Buck paused for a moment after realizing the new bond he had made. Things were sure going to be different that night forward.
Chapter Text
At the top of the tree, in a small knothole, Scratch rises up from his nest, yawning cutely. He looks down to see Scratchel still sleeping at his feet, with his fluffy tail still wrapped around his body. Scratch smiles as he looks at his partner’s beautiful face. Scratchel’s presence was all it took to brighten the squirrel’s day. After shaking off his fur, Scratch sniffs into his partner’s ear to get him to wake up. Scratchel heaves up from the nest, waking up in the morning sun bright and gay. The squirrels look into each other’s eyes, for they know what needs to be done that day. Scratch holds his partner’s paw, as they scurry out of the tree knot and up to the surface of the ice.
Scrat dutifully sniffs the ground as he searches for some more nuts to harvest, when he suddenly hears another squirrel moving behind him. He gets up and turns around to see Scratch behind him, nervously holding his own hand. Scrat is overjoyed to see his son again, and runs up to Scratch to hug him. Scratch is glad to see Scrat again, but is still nervous to make his confession. Scratch makes it out of Scrat’s grasp, taking a deep breath as he motions for his partner to come out from behind a tree. Scratchel excitedly hops into the scene, carrying Scratch’s acorn with a heart carved into it. Scratchel hugs and nuzzles Scratch as he holds his carved nut in Scrat’s view. Scrat is stunned at what lays before him. His own son had not only hoarded a nut for himself, but fell in love… with a male squirrel!? This was ridiculous. How could he love someone like this? Scrat stands in silence with his eyes wide open. He thought that maybe Scratch would find a young, bashful girl rodent to love and caress, and hopefully live with so he can fulfill his natural pleasures and give Scrat some grandchildren. But all those dreams are shattered right before his very eyes, as his son holds hands with a squirrel of its own kind. In a frail heartbeat, tears well up in his eyes, until Scrat was wailing in the loss of his dreams for his son.
Scrat can’t bear the sight of his son in the kind of relationship he was in. He sadly turns his back to him, trying not to show his pain. Scratch is heartbroken to have lost his relationship with his own father, and drops his nut as he shamefully turns his head to the ground. his loving partner strokes his fluffy face and smiles for him in an effort to bring him back to his cheerful self. Scratch can’t help but smile when he sees his partner’s face, and he knows that even without his father, they would have each other. Scratchel gives Scratch a loving hug as the two squirrels hop away, leaving Scrat alone with his own emotions. Scrat turns back around to see his son running away with the boar squirrel. Scrat longed to see his son, but at what cost?
Scratch and Scratchel went back to the tree sapling where their nut first grew, and scurried down the hole in the ice back to the lost world. There they settled back to their nest in the strangler fig tree.
On a faraway cliff, Carol jabbed her knife into the grassy ground. “Alright, this is the cliff where I usually go to harvest dinosaur eggs.” Crash and Eddie cautiously looked over the edge of the tall cliff, seeing nothing but fog clouding the view. Carol runs up a tall tree, deliberately breaking off a bunch of large leaves that she lays down on the edge of the cliff. “And this,” Carol explained, “is our ride.” The pack all look at the leaves in confusion, hoping that Carol didn’t mean what they thought she meant. “Any takers?” She offered. “What about you, Crash-test? Come on… ” Crash nervously stepped forward onto one leaf, looking down at the view. It was an endless slope with fog clouding the bottom. He hoped this wasn’t a trick to get rid of him. “Um, ladies first?” He bashfully offered. “I couldn’t agree more!” Carol exclaimed as she kicked Crash down the cliff on his leaf. Eddie Backed away, knowing for sure that he was next. “Come on, Ed. Your brother can’t face his certain demise alone.” Carol cheered as she grabbed her own leaf and slid down herself. Buck and Eddie looked at each other in bewilderment, but they knew what they had to do.
“Brotherrrr!” Eddie screamed as he slid down the cliff’s edge on his leaf with the wind in his fur. Pretty soon the fog cleared to reveal Crash having the time of his life. “This is awesome!” He yelled as he maneuvered his leaf to a bump, launching himself into the air. “Is this wha’ you do every morning?” Buck laughed as he slipped down the hill. “Only on lucky days, most of the time I just harvest live animals.” Carol explained to the weasel as she leaned down, speeding up her ride. Buck wished he hadn’t asked that question, but continued his slide down the cliff. Crash and Eddie attempted all kinds of tricks on their leaves, with Crash even doing a loop on a circular rock formation. “Hey boys!” Carol called. “Try this on for size!” In one swift movement, Carol did a jump on her leaf and grinded on a vine. Crash and Eddie watched in astonishment as they tried doing the same. Crash jumped straight over the line, while Eddie managed to zip down it with his tail. “This is awesome!” Eddie hollered as he used his leaf to paraglide himself down the hill. He turned to his side to see the most amazing sight. “Woah…” Eddie gasped as he saw Buck hanging eight on a strip of bark, paragliding along with the possum. “Buck?” Carol laughed. “A weasel’s got to have fun too, mate.” Buck said. Eddie looked down to the ground to see Crash riding another piece of bark. “Ellie can’t stop us now!” He cheered. Eddie released himself from the vine and hopped onto the ride. The two zipped through the tropical air as the wooden sleigh pulled up dust from the ground, never before have the two felt so alive, so free. Crash accelerated the ride as he guided the sled past buck, skidding it on its side as he made the turn. Buck watched on from behind, until he noticed someone next to him. “Fantastic moves, mate.” Carol chuckled as she sped by. Buck wasn’t one to form bonds so quickly, but Carol’s remark couldn’t help but make him grin.
Pretty soon Buck made it to the bottom, sliding on the grassy flats with the possums following behind. Crash and Eddie slid along on the grass, laughing in sheer enthusiasm. Eddie jumped up from the ground, bursting with excitement. “WOW! That was awesome!” he yelled. “If you liked that, just wait ‘till we get into those eggs.” Carol commented as she leaned against the sled. Crash got up from the ground as well, breathing heavily. “Ellie NEVER let us do stuff like that! Living here is-” it was then that he paused for a moment. He felt like his sense of adventure was stunted when he lived with his sister, but here in the lost world, he felt like he… belonged. Carol turned back to the possum, she could tell something was up. “You love living here, don’t you?” She said. Crash silently nodded. “I know I have to go back to my family, but… living with you and Buck and getting to have all these adventures, I feel… at home.” Carol actually sympathized with the possum. “Me and my good packmate here could welcome you anytime for a visit… a short one, preferably.” That caught Buck's attention. “Packmate? Well- I’d prefer the term- you could- Yeah, It’d be nice to have you around.” he said, turning to Crash. Crash and Eddie were more than excited to have a pack that they felt like they belonged in. Just like that, the pack got ready for their breakfast hunt. Carol got down on the ground, sniffing the grass for any traces of dinosaur remnants. “This is the place where the dinosaurs drop off any miscarried or abandoned eggs. It’s the perfect place for collecting food.” Carol explained as she scanned the horizon. “Gotta be careful of the lone male dinosaurs, though. They’ll do anything for a meal.” Crash and Eddie loved a good easter egg hunt, so they didn’t hesitate to start looking for fresh eggs. As Eddie was looking for some eggs under the bushes, he found a hollow stick laying in the grass, which reminded him of one of his favorite memories. “Hey, remember this game?” Eddie called to his brother as he waved the stick in the air. Crashed gasped at the sight of the stick his brother found. Carol also caught wind of the conversation. “Is that a self-defense trick you guys made up?” She asked. “Well,” Eddie explained, “When our sister and us first met our brother-in-law, we played this game where we shot spitballs at Manny’s friends.” Crash started to remember the fun time they had. “Ha, remember how we got Sid and Diego all tangled up?” He laughed. Carol thought for a moment as she picked up some seeds from the bushes. “Show me what you got, spitter.” She said, offering a handful of seeds. Eddie proudly took the seeds and stuffed them into his mouth, getting ready to show what he was made of. With a precise position of his stick, Eddie shot a triple barrel of seeds straight at a berry tree, hitting a bunch of explosive berries that popped in a cloud of yellow dust. A couple of bunches fell to the ground, when Buck picked some up and stuffed them in his pouch, and continued searching in the bushes for eggs. Carol stood astounded at Eddie’s skill. “Wow. That's pretty cool.” “Have you tried it too?” Eddie said. “Oh, no way.” Carol replied. “I have terrible aim.” “So does he,” Eddie said, pointing to Crash. “Be sure you two keep those shooters.” Carol said as she turned to the foggy distance, and entered the bushtrail she went through when getting eggs for the morning. “‘Ay! Possums!” A voice called. Carol turned around to see Buck inspecting a clutch of oblong speckled leaellynasaura eggs. “These ones look ripe,” Buck said as he picked up a couple of the tiny eggs and plopped them in his pouch. “Oh, boy! Eggs!” Eddie cheered as he ran to Buck with his shooter in hand. He looked around the area for more food, until he spotted something moving in the fog. Eddie darted for the foggy area, before tripping and disappearing into a ditch. “Brother! No!” Crash cried as he ran into the fog. “My partner in crime! My ringmaster of chaos! Gone!” Crash immediately fell into the ditch along with his brother. “You know, sometimes I think those two share a braincell.” Carol sighed. “-and it ‘ardly ever gets used.” Buck laughed. “You don’t… think they’re kinda fun though, do you?” Carol asked. Buck was taken aback by Carol’s sudden question. “Well, they can be a bucket o’ nuts at times, but… were you really serious when you wanted ‘em ova?” Buck replied. “Well, yeah, kinda. I mean… It’s nice having a pack you can always come back to.” Carol said as she ran towards the fog. When she made it through some bushes, she found out that they had landed in a deep dinosaur footprint in the ground. “Whose is that?” she asked as she peeked through the foliage.
When Buck discovered the footprint, he realized what the evidence meant. “Rudy…” He gasped. “Rudy?” Carol asked. “RUDY!” Eddie wheezed as he jumped up from the ground. “Rudy must have made his way into your world,” Buck explained. The pack suddenly heard a distant roar echoing through the lost world. “Let’s just get the eggs and go,” Carol said as she ran farther into the bushes for more eggs. Sure enough, she found a fresh, brown Australovenator egg resting right in the middle of a circular clearing. Eddie also spotted the egg, and confidently ran right up to it. “This is perfect!” He said as he lifted the giant egg with all his might. Suddenly, he heard the hoarse breathing of a dinosaur in the bushes. Dropping the egg, Eddie cautiously scanned his hazy surroundings, trying to find the hidden dinosaur. “Hello?” He sheepishly called out. Carol approached the possum, hoping the sound wasn’t what she thought it was. “There could be male dinosaurs around here, stay low.” She whispered to Eddie. Both mammals heard the eerie trilling of a dinosaur deep in the bushes. Eddie clutched his stick in terror as he looked up to see a striped brown dinosaur rising up from the foliage. “The rapator,” Carol gasped. The dinosaur stared down the two mammals. He was going to get that egg at any and all costs. With a loud screech, the dinosaur snapped down at Eddie, who narrowly escaped the beast’s jaws. Carol knocked the egg to its side, and tried rolling it away from the deadly raptor. The dinosaur caught wind of her actions, and began dashing in her direction. “Eddie! Use your seed shooter!” Carol yelled to the possum as she dodged the rapator’s teeth. Just as she tried to guide the egg out of the clearing, Crash came running out from the bushes. “Run! Dinosaur!” He screamed as he gasped for air on his run. Just like that, another bloodthirsty rapator came plummeting through the bushes. Now the mammals had to deal with two apex predators. Carol knew what she had to do. She abandoned the egg and ran for a pod of seeds in the bushes, grabbing a handful of pointed ones. She tossed the pod to Eddie, and rolled the egg far from the dinosaurs. “Get shooting!” She yelled as she handed another pod to Crash. Crash and Eddie smiled and nodded to each other as they climbed into the tallest trees they could find, and, with a deep breath, pelted the dinosaurs with a rapid fire of seeds. The rapators screeched in fury, but the possums didn’t discontinue their attack. They swung through the treetops, hitting the dinosaurs from every angle. “Come on, help me get this egg out of here,” Carol frantically told Buck. The two got to rolling the brown egg away from the site, while Crash and Eddie were hard at work deterring the rapators. With one deep breath, they both prepared for their ultimate attack, when they both let out an empty puff of air. The possums were out of seeds. The dinosaurs finally recovered from the attack and headed straight for Carol and Buck. “Carol! Watch out!” Eddie screamed as Carol turned around to see the Dinosaurs in hot pursuit of the egg - and them. “Hold ‘em off,” Carol ordered Buck as she ran for some plants with large leaves. With all her strength, she bit down on the plants and snapped off the hollow stems and flung them to the possums. Buck kept the rapators at bay as he whipped his vine in their faces. “I need your berries!” Carol yelled as she ran towards Buck. Buck quickly searched his bag for his explosive berries, and got out two bunches of them. Carol swiped the bunches and hurled them to crash and Eddie. “Get firing!” She yelled as she pointed to the possums. The possums took another deep breath and shot the berries in the faces of the vicious dinosaurs, stopping them from getting to Buck at every angle. Carol and the weasel “Ready?” Eddie called to his brother as they prepared for their signature move. Carol and Buck Carried the egg together away as Crash and Eddie bound for the tops of the trees. With a daring jump in either direction, Crash and Eddie pelted the rapators with a ton of berries from above. The dinosaurs were absolutely clouded with powder and, feeling suffocated in the dust, made a run for it. Crash and Eddie made a perfect landing to the ground with their shooters in hand. “No wonder you guys are single!” Eddie teased. They were ready to celebrate their victory some more, but the echoing roar of a rapator deterred them. The possums scrambled to the rest of the pack, hoping the rapators wouldn’t be coming back. “You’re gonna love these kinds of eggs,” Carol said to Buck, “egg soup out of these is something you’ll never forget.” “Well that’s nice,” Crash said, “I’m not very good at remembering…”
Diego sunk his teeth into a fresh hunk of meat as he pressed his paw on the bone. Sid passed him by, waving at Momma Dinosaur. “Thanksh for lettin’ ush shtay here, Mama. I’ll jush’ be taking the kidsh out for a couple daysh. We should be back shoon.” Momma dinosaur growled in concern, but Sid was confident with his parenting skills. “Oh, don’t worry about it. The triplets can take care of themshelvesh. I’m really leaning more toward free ranging them now that they’re older.” Suddenly, Sid could feel Manny’s trunk directing his head towards lava falls. “We need to get going, Sid.” Manny grumbled. “Alright, come on, kids.” Sid called as his triplets followed. “Woah, woah, woah. You’re taking the dinosaurs?” Diego interjected. “Well, they’re not just dinosaurs, Diego.” Sid said as he patted Eggbert’s toe. “They’re my own children. After Brooke had to go to rehabilitation, they’re all I have left - and I’m gonna make sure you get to be a real part of the family now.” Manny stopped in his tracks. “Wait. You’re not taking them up to the ice are you? Sid, you know what happened last time they were up there - and that’s when they were small!” “I mean, just for a visit,” Sid explained, “I just… really miss having someone.” Ellie came by to comfort sid. “This is where they belong, Sid. Even if Brooke isn’t around, you still have us.” Sid sighed as he looked up to his triplets. “You’re still bringing Crash and Eddie back up though, right?” Ellie paused for a moment. Her brothers weren’t as dependent as she made them out to be. They still did something right occasionally. “Yeah, well, hopefully Buck doesn’t teach them too much and they still want to be with us.” Manny was taken aback at her words. “Ellie. Really? You know, it would be great for Crash and Eddie to learn a thing or two. Are you really going to just hold their lives back if it means you get to keep your adopted family?” Ellie held her husband’s trunk in remorse. “They were the only ones who could comfort me after my loss. They’re still important to me.” She sadly muttered. “But anyway, There’s no way I’m letting those boys live without me, let’s go.” Ellie and the herd set off for lava falls, hoping that Crash and Eddie got stuck there and could be rescued.
Ellie trekked through the forest of misery, around the chasm of death, still worrying about her brothers. “Diego?” She sheepishly asked. “What are the chances my brothers are safe out there?” Diego thought about their chances. “Do you want a friend answer or a daddy answer?” Ellie thought about what kind of answer she really wanted. “Daddy answer.” “Those two are probably at the end of the cave looking for you right now,” Diego said with a smile. “Take it easy, Ellie. We’ll find Buck, he’ll reunite us with Crash and Eddie, and we get out of here. Buck knows how to deal with ‘em. He’s done it before.” Ellie was still worried. “But their only defense is to play dead, I mean, they never learned any survival skills since my mom was around to teach us, and now… who do they have?” “They’re older now, Ellie.” Diego said. “They’ll probably learn a thing or two about survival from Buck. It’s never too late to let them go off to start new families if they want to.” “-But what about me and my family?” Ellie asked. “You still have manny, don’t you?” Diego said. Ellie looked to her husband, and realized that she already had a real family with the herd, even if her brothers wanted to break up, she would never be alone. “Let’s just hope Buck knows his stuff.” “Oh, totally. You know, that Buck Wild is one mysterious weasel,” Sid said as he pushed aside some leaves. “You never know where he could be-“ his voice was cut off by him tripping over a pile of roasted dinosaur bones. He turned over to discover an entire guanlong skeleton laying charred on the ground. Sid yelped as he jumped away from the burnt monstrosity. Diego sniffed the sooty evidence for any trace of the possums. “Crash and Eddie might have been playing with this thing,” Diego concluded. “Uh, Diego?” Manny said as he looked up to the horizon, “You need to see this.” Diego and the herd looked up to see an obsidian landscape leading up to a massive volcano. Lava falls was no more, but was wiped out in place of a mega-volcano that stood in its place. “The possums must be trying to escape that,” Ellie remarked. “They’re probably somewhere beyond lava falls.” Ellie and Diego looked at each other with concern. They knew they had to find the possums, but no one knew what was beyond the falls.
Eddie licked the remains of soup off his eggshell dish. Carol was right, Lovenator eggs for breakfast is truly something you’ll never forget. “Finish up, boys. We got a long journey ahead of us.” Carol announced as she marched for her tree. She spied up the top of the strangler fig tree, with its winding vines and mossy branches. Buck picked up his knife as he followed Carol to the tree. “I know the perfect route to the volcano,” said Carol, “and it starts right at the top of this tree.” She got a head start up the tree’s trunk, with cash and Eddie excitedly following behind. Buck smiled at the possums having so much fun and planted his knife into the tree’s trunk as he climbed up to the top. The possums raced each other to the top of the tree until they reached a lush grass patch on the end of a branch. Carol loomed over the edge of the miniature cliff, seeing a trail of tall trees. “That right there’s the treetop trail. It’s pretty far for a vine swing, though.” Crash pondered the dilemma, until he spotted a branch sticking up from the ground they were on. He turned to his brother as he bent the branch down to his feet. “You thinking what I’m thinking?” He excitedly asked. Eddie’s face lit up as he turned to the rest of the pack. “We can launch ourselves with this branch!” Eddie cheered. Carol’s face was etched with both excitement and concern. “Pretty smart, guys. Uh, why don’t you demonstrate how it works?” She politely asked. Eddie held down the end of the branch as Crash proudly explained, “It's a simple yet genius innovation of ours: you just let go of this branch and launch yourself to the other side. Pretty advanced, I know, but it’s quite easy to get for someone such as us.” Crash leaned forwards as he gave Eddie his signal. “FIRE!” Eddie let go of the branch’s end, sending his brother flying through the air straight towards the neighboring treetop. Carol and Buck looked at Crash in amazement. He actually found a viable solution to one of their problems. “Alright, who’ll be next?” Eddie asked as he bent down the branch once more.
Crash brushed off his furry arms as he got up from the ground he was on. He found himself standing on the edge of a forest canopy with leaves so thick that it had created a biome of its own. The island was filled with vines and mushrooms, with a variety of bugs and flowers that brought the atmosphere to life.
He noticed Carol drop in from the air, followed by Buck, who had Eddie wrapped in his furry clutch. “Wow, your fur’s so soft,” Eddie said as he rubbed up against Buck's chest. Buck knew he couldn’t be seen cuddling another mammal, especially one he didn’t even like. “‘Ay, off the fluff, mate!” Buck exclaimed as he reeled away from the possum’s reach. Suddenly, Buck felt something stroking the top of his head. “Wow, you really are soft.” Carol whispered in ecstasy as she felt Buck's tuft of hair. Buck whipped his head away from Carol’s hand with cat-like reflexes. “That goes for you too, possum-o.” Carol shrugged with a taunting smile as she walked to the opening of a leafy tunnel. “The volcano is just through this holloway, but it’s pretty dangerous,” Carol explained with a subtle smile, “It would really take a brave, tough opossum to take this path.” Like a gust of wind, Crash and Eddie flew past Carol and straight into the holloway. She peered into the shadows as she raised an eyebrow, waiting for the sound of the possums. “Good,” She said, “The spiders aren’t brooding this month. Brave opossums indeed.” Carol motioned for Buck to come along too as she happily walked through the canopy forest. “Woah, what’s that!?” Crash called from the other end of the tunnel. “It’s our next stop,” Carol said, “And we use these - to get there.” she said as she pulled down a bunch of hanging vines from the emergent layer of the tree. Buck was first in courageously swinging straight to the other tree. Crash held onto his vine nervously, pulling it back. He ran for the edge of the tree’s canopy until he felt nothing more beyond his feet. He opened his eyes to see the steep view from the top of the tree as he clinged to his vine. In an instant, he made it to the other side in one piece. Seeing how easy it was, Eddie didn’t hesitate to pull his vine back, getting ready for his eventual propulsion. “Alright, get ready,” Carol guided him through the process. “Fire!” She yelled, signaling Eddie to get running. In a flash, Eddie was flying by the end of his vine. Unfortunately, the vine snapped, sending Eddie hurling forward with a fragment of it. He crashed on the other side, where Buck and Crash were. “Uh, tough luck, Eddie,” Carol nervously shouted to the other canopy. She swung to the next tree with ease, and got started towards the next landmark. “How can I swing like you?” Eddie asked. “Well, Eddie,” Carol explained, “You need to be more evolved, like me. I have a reflex that wraps my tail around anything I climb, like those vines. It stops me from falling off whatever I’m on, like you.” Eddie thought about Carol’s suggestions and excitedly jumped up into the vine-covered treetops. Securing a vine to swing on, he latched his tail to the end, and prepared for a perfect swing. “Geronimo!” He laughed as he launched himself through the holloway. “Hey, with skills like that, maybe you do have a chance at evolving!” Carol cheered. Immediately after, she could hear Eddie knock straight into something in the bushes, echoing a painful crunch through the canopies. “-aaaand it’s gone,” Carol muttered.
Carol pushed aside the foliage to find just the landmark she was looking for. “The spine bridge…” she confidently muttered. Hopping on a facet, Carol spied her surroundings. Connecting her to the next tree was a fossilized dinosaur spine that stretched across the air. It was covered in vines and plants of all kinds, disguising its bony appearance. Below was a beautiful lake of geysers, filled with bacteria that painted the lake with stunning rainbow hues.
“Alright, we gotta get to there, so just be careful and don’t fall.” Carol announced to the rest of the pack. Buck held both arms out, carefully balancing on the spine’s facets. Crash and Eddie raced past him With their tails high in the air. “Down low, too slow!” Eddie teased as he excitedly hopped across the bridge. Carol felt the bones rattle with each treacherous hop the possums took. Suddenly, she heard the slipping of possum feet and the momentary yelp of Eddie falling. With a subtle groan, Carol snatched Eddie’s tail from the air and planted him right back on the bridge. “You have a tail,” Carol grumbled, “USE IT.” “How do I use my tail to climb like you?” Eddie curiously asked. Carol didn’t hesitate to demonstrate. “You use your hands and feet for jumping, and keep your tail straight out for balance.” Carol elegantly hopped across each facet, making it to the end with no problems. “So now you’re helping ‘em?” Buck teased. Carol looked back at Buck, thinking of a reason for her generosity. “Well yeah. They could use all the help they can get. Besides, maybe they can help you or me out sometime.” Carol sneered. “How could they help you, by swooping in with a ‘dactyl if you fall?” Buck laughed. Eddie tried using Carol’s climbing technique, and succeeded in making it through. Suddenly, he noticed a rib bone hanging from one vertebrae. Looking around to see if anyone was looking, Eddie slid down the bone, getting close to the surface of the geyser. Carol noticed Eddie, and with a heavy sigh, scurried back to the middle of the bridge, hoping he wouldn’t get himself into trouble. Eddie looked into his reflection in the bright blue water, appreciating the steam spewing majesty of the rainbow lakes. Seeing Carol waiting for him, Eddie scurried back up the bone, wasting no time in continuing his journey across the bridge. Crash also made it across safely, followed by Buck Wild. Carol gave Eddie an affirming pat on the head for his skills, as Buck passed by the two. “Come on, Carol. And, uh, bring your kids too.” Carol perked up in surprise at Buck’s remark, realizing the bond she grew with these two imbeciles. Retrieving her pocket knife with a playful scowl, she continued through the forest. She approached the end of the holloway, and came to the view of the brewing volcano. Suddenly, She could feel the approaching eruption of the volcano as the tree began trembling from the seismic action. “If that thing erupts, the lost worlds will be blown over with smog.” Carol said as she gripped onto one of the tree’s branches with her tail and one arm. Buck stared in horror at the smoking volcano. “The ash comin’ out o’ that pipe could wipe out the dinosaurs… They already faced extinction once, and I’m not lettin’ that ‘appen again.” Carol rested her hand on Buck’s shoulder. “ We’re not letting it happen again.” Buck looked into Carol's eyes. It was then that he knew how much Carol truly cared about both of their worlds. She pulled down a vine from the canopy, and tied it around a blowgun she had in her pocket.
“Alright, Eddie. Since you’re the berry shooter in the family, you’re gonna shoot this spear.” She said as she handed Eddie the blowgun. “I need you to shoot that dart down there and penetrate the ground.” Eddie held the device in hand, intimidated by the task. “I’ve never penetrated anything before,” he said. “Oh, believe me, that was obvious the moment I first saw you.” Carol laughed. “Now shoot!” With a precise movement, Eddie aimed for the ground and forcefully shot the spear to the ground, carrying a line that attaches it to the tree. “Come on, possums. We’ll zipline down this vine.” Carol said to the possum brothers. With a maneuver of her tail, Carol zipped down the vine, with Crash and Eddie following along. With a playful sigh, buck slid down the vine with his knife. Carol made a graceful landing to the ground, with Crash and Eddie following. Buck valiantly swung off his vine, landing safely on the ground. “So, how are we gonna stop the volcano?” Crash questioned. “With the power of friendship, of course!” Eddie cheered, raising up his brother’s hand. “No, you idiots,” Carol grumbled, “We need to stop it from-” Her voice was cut off by the sound of the ground falling apart in the distance. Everyone looked to the volcano, to see a bundle of smoke puffing out from its mouth. The air went silent for a moment. “Do you hear something?” Buck muttered as he cocked his ear to the air. A rumble could be heard ringing through the ground, along with the slosh of molten magma. It got closer to the pack, until the chasm in the flats spat lava and smog into the air. Carol subtly smirked at the sight, as excitement began to grow on her face. “The chasm… It connects to the volcano!” She said, holding her head in a moment of realization. Buck began thinking about how he could Divert the volcano’s eruption. “The chasm!!” Buck exclaimed. He leaped on top of a rock to explain the plan. “If we plug up the mouth o’ this volcano, we can divert the smog and lava into the chasm in the flats!” “-And fill it up with lava!” Crash added. “-AND SAVE THE LOST WORLD!” Eddie triumphantly roared. Immediately after came the roar of the distant volcano. “We’ll need to hurry,” Buck warned the pack. “But how do we plug the volcano!?” Carol frantically asked. Buck thought back to The things they had seen in the lost world. “Wait,” Buck said, “There’s a boulder in the plates of woe, we can use that to stuff up the pipes o’ that volcano!” Carol excitedly jumped into the trees for some vines. “We need to get going.” Carol announced as she turned to Eddie. “YOU wait he-” When she turned to her side, she realized that Eddie was already climbing up the tree, and managed to whip down a thapunngaka from the air. He managed to whip down his own Thapunngaka to ride. Clumsily landing it to the ground, he offered Crash a seat. “Hop on brother.” Buck watched in amazement as Eddie flew the pterosaur into the air, along with his brother. He wasted no time reigning in his own avian ride. “Well what are we waiting for!? Let’s go!” she hollered as she reigned down a pterodactyl from above.
Chapter Text
Scrat sadly walks to his Home under the tiny oak tree. Under the tree was his rock bed, the same bed where he first looked into the eyes of his son, the same bed where he had changed so many diapers, the same bed where he taught his son how to eat an acorn, and the same bed where he had died and resurrected himself. Scrat sat himself down on the side of his bed, looking miserably to the ground. It was there that he saw the drawing of him and his son that was engraved into the ground when he had eaten his nut. In the corner of his view was a stick. He picked it up and began drawing into the dirt, continuing from the engraved picture. He drew the moment when he first met his son, when he discovered something that made him even happier than hoarding nuts. He began drawing all the times he had with Scratch, changing diapers, going fishing, playing in an ice cave, all treasured memories. With an irked sigh, Scrat moved his stick to the side, drawing the future his son would have with this new squirrel. He drew them chasing nuts together, running up trees, and of course, planting those nuts in the ground. Scrat dragged his stick across the chilly ground, and began drawing his son’s soon to be family; the two squirrels together in their nest, their stash of nuts, and all the abandoned baby squirrels they would have found in the wild and adopted. When he looked at it all, Scrat noticed how lovely it all seemed. That was when it hit him. His son was still a squirrel like any other, one to be loved and respected. Scrat looked to the horizon to see the nut his son had left behind. He rushed to the acorn, picking it up. That was when he noticed a heart carved into the shell. He let out a compassionate gasp, tears filling his eyes. Scrat had to show his son that he accepted him for who he really was, and he had to do it fast before he lost the one he loved the most.
In the lost world, Carol descended her pterodactyl to the shiny black ground, skidding its sharp claws across the obsidian surface. In the middle of the now ruined plates of woe was the boulder they needed to save the lost world.
The pack stood in the middle of the plates of woe, preparing to execute their mission. Buck got started with his orders. “Alright, mammals. Here’s the plan:”
“We need all the vines we can get for this. We can’t afford any of our reigns breaking.”
Crash and Eddie Swung on their tails, flinging themselves into the treetops as they collected a bounty of vines. Eddie ripped down a flowering vine, revealing Scratchel wrestling Scratch, holding his arm up as his partner pinned him down from behind. The two squirrels yelped as they were exposed from under the flowers.
“We need to tie up this boulder with as many vines as we have!”
Crash and Eddie happily ran around the massive rock holding their vines, as Carol helped tie the ends together. “Having four hands sure does come in handy,” she laughed as she wound the vines in and out of each other.
“Secondly, we need strength. We have to harness the power of every dinosaur here.”
Crash rode the back of a gobbling leaellynasaura, waving a lotus fruit at the end of a branch. “Everybody loves lotus!” he called as a flock of leaellynasaura chased after the fruit. The colony of miniature dinosaurs attracted a horde of rapators and Guanlongs out of the bushes. Eddie shot a round of berries straight at the raptors, and took the chance to reign them in with several reinforced vines. “Perfect!” Carol hollered as she flew by on her pterodactyl. Now all she had to do was attract the pack of raptors with her bird. Descending the pterosaur over the flats, she pulled over all the dinosaurs, who tugged the boulder forward. Flying past the volcano, she saw the boulder barely slide across the smooth floor. She landed her ride, and reported the progress to Buck. “It’s not nearly enough,” She huffed, “we need to reign in something bigger.” “But those dinos are all we’ve got!” Buck exclaimed. After thinking for a moment, Carol came to a realization. “Rudy!” she cheered. “Rudy!?” Buck exclaimed. “Rudy!” Crash said. “Didn’t you say she’s the biggest thing out here?” Carol explained, “We can reign Rudy in to move the boulder!” “Are you joking!?” Buck hollered. “He’s also the most dangerous creature out here. One wrong move, and we die.” “There's no other way, Buck.” Carol pleaded. “Rudy’s the only one strong enough to get this thing going.” Buck looked at Carol, and then the possums. “... Okay,” he sighed. He pulled over the opossum brothers to either side of him.
“Possums, are you ready for the adventure?”
“Yes sir!”
“The danger?”
“Yes sir!”
“The death!?”
“SIR YES SIR!”
“BUT,” Carol interjected, “You’ll need this.” she handed Crash her blowgun, smiling at her newfound packmate. “You’re a part of the pack, Crash.”
Buck flew his pterosaur through the forest, looking for a certain dinosaur. “Heeere, Rudy, Rudy, Rudy…” He called out, “Oh, I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Once he called out, he heard the roar of a familiar beast. “ …Rudy,” He whispered. The Baryonyx turned to Buck with his piercing red-eyed stare. In a flash, he came sprinting for the weasel. “Come ‘ere, old girl.” Buck whispered. Accelerating His bird forward, Buck prepared his whip. “Here he is!” He hollered to Carol, who was flying across from him. Buck whipped the other end of his vine over to Carol, Who flawlessly caught it with her foot. The two fliers caught Rudy’s attention, and with a vengeful roar, the Baryonyx bound for buck and Carol. In one swift movement, The quadruple reinforced vine caught in her mouth, and Buck had Rudy right where he wanted him. “Tie-rs! Over here!” Carol called. Crash and Eddie swooped in with their vines, and tied their ends to Rudy's reigns. “We need to get out of here,” Carol yelled as she maneuvered her pterosaur away from Rudy, who was pulling on the reins with all her strength. Rudy snapped his jaws down on Carol’s ride, but just barely missed her as she diverted the bird’s flight out of his reach.
The herd made their way around the volcano, still looking for Crash and Eddie. Right above them, the pack was flying their pterosaurs back to the plates. “This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done!” Crash yelled as he threw his pterosaur for a loop. Below them, Diego picked up on the sound of Crash’s scream. “Wait a second, I hear Crash,” Diego announced as he cocked his ear to the air. Ellie listened for the sound of her brother, and with a gasp, said “I can hear him screamin’!” Everyone galloped for the plates, with Diego flying past the mammoths. Sid’s daughter let Sid ride her back across the forest.
Carol accelerated her pterodactyl around the volcano, squinting her eyes as the smog hit her face. Suddenly, she pulled back on the reins a little too far, stalling her pterodactyl upwards, sending the unfortunate opossum flying. All was a blur until she found herself falling over the rivers of lava around the volcano. She clenched her rein with her foot for dear life, but the vine snapped. Carol let out a desperate cry as she fell over the rivers of lava flowing out of the volcano. Suddenly, something swooped in to save her. Carol hung from the feet of a pterosaur, looking up at who was flying it. As the smog cleared up, two familiar faces came into view. “Hello, Carol!” Crash and Eddie cheered in unison. Carol hung from the pterodactyl’s feet, staring in awe at the possum’s miraculous rescue. “You… you saved me,” Carol muttered. “Well, someone had to save your butt,” Eddie laughed. “Thanks, opossums.” Carol said as she hopped onto the back of the pterodactyl. As the three opossums descended over the plates, Crash heard a familiar voice calling him. He looked down to see two galloping mammoths in the trees. “That’s my sister!” He gasped. “Your sister!?” Carol exclaimed as she looked over the edge of the pterosaur. Crash descended his ride down to the plates. Skidding his ride on the ground, he found Ellie galloping towards him. “Crash! Eddie!” Ellie yelled as she embraced her brothers.
“Carol, this is our sister, Ellie.” Eddie said as he turned to his friend. Carol stared at the sight in bewilderment. “Th- That’s your sister? Uh, yeah, yeah, I definitely see the resemblance.” Crash and Eddie hugged their sister, feeling remorse for leaving. “We’re sorry for leaving without saying goodbye-” “-and you came all the way here to find us-” “-You put yourself in danger!” “And… we’re sorry.” Crash and Eddie frantically apologized. Ellie looked into the eyes of her once lost brothers, smiling. “It’s okay, boys. All that matters is that you’re safe now.” Ellie explained as she enveloped the opossum brothers in a hug with her fluffy trunk. “Ellie, we’re so glad to see you, but now we need your help,” Eddie explained, “Yeah,” Crash chimed in, “there’s a volcano about to erupt and we need to plug it.” Ellie looked to the volcano in lava falls that was spitting smog and ash. “Alright, I’ll help.” “Fantastic,” Carol said, “We could use a little mammoth strength. We need to harness the power of all these dinosaurs to get this boulder up there.” Ellie and Manny nodded as they ran for the boulder, using all their mammoth strength to get it up the edge of the volcano. The rock slid across the ground, inching it closer to the volcano. Feeling less tension on his reigns, Rudy pulled the rock up the hill, letting out a ferocious roar. Manny and Ellie Cheered as the rock pulled itself up towards the mouth of the volcano. Suddenly, Ellie’s voice alerted a tied-up guanlong, who didn’t hesitate to charge straight for the mammoth. Ellie shrieked as the blue raptor rattled its feathers and bared its sharp teeth as it pulled on the very end of its reins. Eddie caught wind of the attack, and swooped in to save his sister. Landing his pterodactyl, he bolted for the dinosaur on his four legs, hissing back at the beast. “Bad birdie!” Eddie snapped as he wielded his vine whip, “stay back!” Ellie reeled back in shock, mostly because the brother she always protected was protecting her. The tired Guanlong growled as it went back to hauling the stone. Still in shock, Ellie watched her brother wind up his vine and reigned his bird back in. “Thank you…” Ellie timidly whispered. Eddie gave a dutiful salute as he steered his pterodactyl towards the herd. “Anyone in need of shome dino strength?” Sid asked as he rode on the back of his daughter. “Absolutely!” Buck said as he flew by on his pterosaur. “Get those dinosaurs to help move that boulder!” Just as Shelly was headed for the boulder, Eddie flew into the scene, bursting with excitement. “Wow, Sid! Your kids are so big now! Can I ride them?” Sid paused for a moment. “I think these dinos are better with their mama-” Just then, Eggbert curiously raced up to Eddie, who flawlessly unwound his rein from his pterodactyl and hopped onto Eggbert’s neck. “This is awesome!” Eddie hollered as he guided his Dinosaur ride through the plates of woe. Sid saw how much his son helped the possums, and made an offer. “You know, as their mama, I’m willing to let my kidsh help you possumsh get around. They’re yours.” Crash excitedly got on Yoko’s back, and followed his brother to the boulder. “Can we really?” He asked. Sid smiled at the two. “Alwaysh trust a mother’s intuition, Crash.” “Thanks!” Crash said as he rode off into the dinosaur battlefield. “-And that’s Opossum to you!”
Crash and Eddie rode on the dinosaur brothers as they helped move the boulder. The mammoths stepped aside as Eggbert pressed his forehead into the rock, moving it up the hillside. Yoko roared at the tied up raptors, and the threatened dinosaurs got hauling with every last bit of strength they had. Once the stone was at the peak of the mountain, Rudy’s power was all it took to get the boulder in. “Alright, free the raptors!” Buck yelled to Carol. “Come on, Kitty!” Carol ordered as she swooped in with her knife on her foot, chopping off every reign the dinosaurs had, except for rudy. Diego herded the dinosaurs off the mountain with his fierce roar. Everyone got far away from the volcano as seismic activity began to pick up in the ground. “The eruption’s coming!!” Buck shouted as he accelerated his pterosaur to the ground. The T-Rexes got down from the mountain, and the mammoths ran for the trees along with Diego. The boulder teetered on the edge of the volcano’s opening, as the herd watched in suspense. It hung just over the splashing pit of lava, ever so slowly moving forward into the hole. With a loud creak and a crunch, the rock fell straight into the volcano, perfectly sealing off its mouth and burning off Rudy’s reins. It shifted deeper into the crevice, building up pressure in the ground. The herd hid away in the trees as they braced themselves for the coming eruption. Suddenly, a surge of vibration rang through the ground as a puff of ash blew out from the side of the volcano. “There’s a leak!” Ellie yelped as she pointed to the volcano’s side. Crash looked at the volcano’s opening, and thought of how to plug it. He turned around to see a cluster of Amethyst crystals in the ground. Suddenly, he had an idea. He rushed over to the cluster, wedging his body between the crystals. He tried pushing them apart, but couldn’t get a piece to break off. Suddenly, he felt the crystal behind him move. Yoko happily helped pull out the biggest crystal from the cluster. “Thanks a lot, Rex. You’re the best Nephew I’ve ever had.” Crash Rolled the crystal over to the herd, and proposed his plan. “I can launch this into the volcano’s leak!” he said to the herd. “And how are you gonna do that, genius?” Manny hollered to the opossum. “I don’t suppose you have an idea, do you?” Suddenly, a voice could be heard from the trees. “It’s a genius innovation, really.” Carol said from the top of a tree. “You just bend down this tree, let go, and you can launch yourself pretty much anywhere. Pretty advanced, I know, but easy to figure out for someone like these guys.” Crash smiled proudly at Carol’s comment, and looked at the features of the tree. It was a limp, dead tree, but it would be perfect for launching. Crash excitedly rolled the gem towards the tree, but was stopped short by his sister’s foot. “You cannot plug that volcano, Crash.” Ellie said sternly. “But Ellie,” Crash pleaded, “This is the only way to save the lost world. I have to get that gem up there.” “No, Crash, I can’t lose you again,” Ellie cried, “It’s too dangerous, let’s just… find another way. You’re just a possum, Crash.” Crash wrapped his arms around Ellie’s trunk, holding it up to his chest. “I’ve learned a lot of things while I was here, Ellie. But what I learned the most was that I can be more than just a possum, I can be an opossum.” He explained. “But… I’m afraid you won’t make it.” Ellie confessed. Crash thought for a moment. “And… I am too, Ellie. But I learned that being afraid is the only time you can be brave.” “But you can’t just be doin’ things like this, I need you to be safe.” Ellie said. “-And
I
need to do this. To show you that we’ve changed.” Ellie sniffed for a moment, thinking about what she should do. Diego came up to her, giving her encouragement. ”Ellie… he can do it.” Buck bent down to the ground, listening to the seismic activity below. “It’s almost eruption time, we need to hurry.” Crash rolled his gem over to the tree, as Manny bent it over for him. “Ready for launch,” he announced, smiling at his little brother-in-law. Crash hopped onto the end of the tree, with the crystal on board as well. He looked at the line shooter from Carol he held in his grasp. He got ready for the launch, until he felt the gem shift in his grasp. He turned to see someone by his side. “I’m not doing this without my brother.” Eddie said confidently.
“Ready,”
“Aim…”
Ellie covered her eyes. She couldn’t bear the suspense of the moment. The air went silent as manny shifted the end of the tree towards the volcano’s side. Sid’s kids moved closer together in fear of the eventual disaster. After a precise aim, the signal was heard.
“FIRE!!”
Crash and Eddie were sent flying into the sky on their gem. “I love you, bro!” Eddie whimpered. “I know!” Crash whimpered back. After a couple seconds they reached the volcano. Releasing their tails, the opossum brothers prepared for their move. “Ready?” Eddie asked. Crash nodded as they both got ready. In a flash, they both jumped into the air, sending the gem down into the volcano’s crevice. The possums flew over the chasm in the flats, just as the volcano began rumbling. In a flash the eruption hit, and the chasm filled with a splash of lava, sending a gigantic cloud of ash into the sky that engulfed the opossums.
Ellie uncovered her eyes to see her brothers disappear into the smoke as lava splashed up from the chasm. “They’re gone,” She whispered, tears filling her eyes. Diego snuck closer to the view of the chasm, squinting at the smoking sight. “Wait… what is that?” The herd, along with Buck and Carol, looked anticipatingly to the horizon. A triumphant scream could be heard as out of the smoke flew a mysterious silhouette. A dizzy smoking Thapunngaka held a stick stuck in its mess of protruding fangs as he dangled two opossums on the end of a vine. Ellie cheered as she ran up to the flying opossums. “Smokehead!!” Carol shouted with a triumphant fist to the air. The dazed Thapunngaka dove to the ground, along with the two possum brothers. Both possums ran up to Ellie as she wrapped the opossums in a warm hug. “You did it,” Ellie cried, “You both did it.” “That was… amazing.” Diego said in disbelief. “It’s pretty easy when you’re an opossum, like us.” Eddie said. “Yeah, we know the ropes around here.” Crash chimed in. “Well, I guess you’re ready to come home with us now, aren’t you?” Ellie said as she traveled north to the wall. Crash and Eddie excitedly followed Ellie back north, but their smiles faded as they turned to Carol and Buck. Carol gave a sad smile as she nodded to her newfound pack members. Ellie looked back to see Crash and Eddie stop short. “Yeah,” Crash muttered, “About that-” Buck interjected with something to say. “‘Ello mates! This is, uh, Carol; a protector of the lost world and a very good friend of mine.” Carol smiled at Buck and waved politely at the herd. “Wow,” Ellie said, “You’re a possum too?” “ O -possum, actually,” Eddie interjected. “They’re like possums, but so much cooler.” Buck gave the two opossums a big hug. “-And I bet you two are more than ready to get back home with your herd.” The possums reluctantly turned to their sister, who gave them a loving smile. “Um, Ellie…” Crash explained, “we’ve been thinking…” “-which is something we’ve been getting a lot better at,” Eddie added. “...we like it here in the lost world. I know you want to keep us safe, but we came here looking for a life of adventure, and this, this is exactly what we’ve been looking for… our life here with Carol and buck.” Crash went on. “Yeah,” Eddie said, “We’re opossums now, just like Carol.” Carol smiled to see the opossums having learned so much. Ellie knew the opossums would be happier in the lost world, so she made a tough decision. “It seems like just yesterday we were just kids. I thought we’d always be together.” Ellie sighed. “Are you sure you’re happy living here?” she asked. “Yes!” her brothers said in unison. Ellie took a deep breath. “Then I’ll be fine.” Crash and Eddie looked back to Buck and Carol. “Well, opossums, are you ready to leave the herd and join the pack?” Carol asked with open arms. The rest of the herd turned back to see Crash and Eddie’s faces light up with excitement. “Woohoo!!” Crash hollered. “We’re stayin’!!” Eddie cheered. Crash ran up to Carol, giving her a hug. Carol paused for a moment, and in a burst of emotion, gave Crash a big hug back. Buck and Eddie joined in the group hug. “Wow, your fur is soft,” Carol said. “Yeah, I know.” Buck chuckled. “I’ve been alone for too long,” Buck Wild said, “It’s about time I start a pack of my own.” “Welcome to the pack, possums.” Carol said as she patted Eddie on his head. “I’m an Opossum,” Eddie said as he crossed his arms. “-and don’t you forget it,” Crash added. “Relax, It’s a nickname.” Carol laughed. She hugged Eddie, who smiled as he hugged her back. “You guys are the best packmates I’ve ever had.” Ellie held Carol’s hand with her trunk. “Take good care of them for me,” She whispered. “I’ll always be there for them,” Carol replied. Crash and Eddie hugged their sister’s trunk. “Thanks so much,” Eddie whispered. “Just make sure you visit often,” Ellie requested. “Soon you’ll be ready to start families of your own before you lose your chance.” “Yeah…” Eddie awkwardly chuckled, “that ship sailed a long while ago.” “I… can’t believe I’m saying this but,” Manny reluctantly confessed, “I’m gonna miss you two.” “Us too, Manny.” Crash said. Eddie excitedly ran up to Carol. “-so do we get our own weapons now?” “Hmm, I’ll think about it.” Carol said. “-In about five or six years.” Buck added. “Well, your lost world just got a whole lot bigger,” Carol chuckled. Crash and Eddie watched Ellie walking north along with the herd. “Diego?” Crash said. Diego turned to see Crash waving. “Take good care of the cubs for us.” Diego smiled as he caught up with the herd. Meanwhile, Sid turned to his children as he patted Shelly’s snoot. “You guys better shtay out of trouble, and don’t forget to help these guys if they need it.” Sid said to his triplets. “You know, you were a good parent to those dinosaurs, Sid.” Manny said. “Yeah, for a day.” Sid said. “They’re better off living with Crash and Eddie. I’m just glad I got to see them again.”
Crash and Eddie happily looked to Carol opossum, who tossed them some vines. The four climbed up to the top of a tree, and whipped down some pterosaurs with their vines in midair. flying through the lost world while dangling on the ends of their vines, Crash and Eddie Whooped with excitement. “YEEE-HAWW!” Buck hollered into the tropical air. Crash and Eddie knew they were going to love their new life in their new world.
Above the Ice, Diego treks through the snow, when two familiar cubs pounce up to hug him. “Daddy’s home!” Hazel and Liam cheered in unison. “Where have you been, tiger?” Shira asked. Diego chuckled. “Do you want a husband answer or a daddy answer?” “Husband answer,” Shira replied. “Well, It took a lot of searching, but those guys found their way home.” “You mean Crash and Eddie are coming back?” Liam groaned. Just like that, the mammoths started making their way over the hill, along with sid. “Wait, where are the possums?” Shira asked when she saw Ellie come alone. “They’re where they belong now, In the lost world.” Ellie replied. “Okay, explain to me exactly what happened.” Shira said. “Well,” Diego explained, “Crash and Eddie learned a couple things about life on their tropical vacation. They wanted to stay, so Ellie said goodbye, Sid scratched himself, and bingo-bongo in a congo we’re here.” “-and you wouldn’t believe who I shaw!” Sid cheered as he made his way over the hill. Shira turned to Sid with some news. “Hey, sid. There’s someone who came to see you.” Out of the snowy hills came Brooke, back from the fountains and as youthful as ever. “Brooke!” Sid cheered as he hugged his girlfriend. As he looked closer, he noticed something was different. “Brooke?” Sid’s fiancee had a whole new look, for her long, flowing fur dress was cut in favor of bright orange fluffy leggings, and her locks were wrapped up into a convenient bun. “Oh, You know, all those days rehabilitating in the youth saunas led me to go for a new look,” Brooke giggled. “You’re just as beautiful as ever, Brooke,” Sid said as he gave Brooke a loving kiss. “Oh, you wouldn’t believe the adventure I had today. I actually got to see the kids I adopted all those years ago.” Manny looked up to the tree where the possums had slept just two nights ago. “The possums finally found home.”
Below the ice, Carol and Buck Wild Whooped in ecstasy as they pulled on Rudy’s vine reins. Rudy let out a roar that echoed through the canopies as she galloped through the forest. Following the dinosaur were the T-Rex triplets as Crash and Eddie led them through their new home.
In their nest in the strangler fig tree, Scratch and Scratchel Set up the interior of their cove, decorating the inside with moss and flowers. Scratch gazes at the beauty of the decoration, when he hears Scrat approach him from behind. The two squirrels make eye contact, as Scratch waits for a reaction from his dad. With a remorseful sigh, Scrat pulls out the nut his son had left behind, showing him the heart carved into it. Giving his son a smile, Scrat opens his arms for a hug. His son doesn’t hesitate to rush in for a hug. Scrat could feel his new bro-son hugging him from behind. No matter what, Scrat loved his son for who he was, and with a new addition to the family, things were going to be even better.
Of course, this is an Ice Age movie, so you know I couldn’t leave it at that.
Suddenly, all three squirrels hear the sound of an insect crawling behind them. They turn around to see a dung beetle crawl over to Scratch’s acorn, rolling it across the floor and out of the crevice in the tree. Scrat and Scratch leap out of the tree and crawl down the trunk, followed by Scratchel flying down the tree in search of the nut. Scrat finds it on the ground in one piece, and happily runs up to it. Suddenly, a stray geyser shoots the acorn out of the ground. Letting out a frantic shriek, Scrat runs through the bushes in search of the precious acorn. Scrat and Scratch follow the nut as it flies through the air, while Scratchel flies towards the nut. The nut lands in the canopy of a tree, knocking out some leaves. Scrat, Scratch, and Scratchel scurry up the tree as they search for traces of the acorn. They found the nut resting in a flower that was growing on a vine on a skeleton bridge. Scrat stretches out his paw, but the moment he presses his weight into the bones, the skeleton shakes and rocks the flower back and forth. In fear of dropping the nut into the geysers below, the three squirrels carefully crawl across the bridge in unison. Just as Scrat inches towards the flower and reaches out to grab the nut, a giant bumblebee buzzes by and lands on the flower, teetering it towards the geysers below. As the bumblebee flutters its wings, the flower wilts downwards, dropping the acorn into the heart of the geyser that shot up a puff of hot steam. The three squirrels stare down to the lake in dismay, and in a fit of frustration, all scream in unison.
