In the Ice Age : In the Ice Age (9780307532497) (4 page)

“Wait a minute,” said Judy. “We’d better leave a note.”

She grabbed a reddish drawing stick. On the wall she wrote: “Gone to save the capybaras. Be back soon.”

She reached under her fur cape and pushed the stick into her pocket. Then they crept onto the cool blue path through the glacier.

When they arrived at the glacier’s entrance, Andrew poked his head out.

The Tick-Tox Box was still there. It was dark now, and it had shrunk to the size of Andrew’s bedroom closet.

From the glacier to the faraway trees, nothing was moving but Max. He plodded over to them with his ears spread wide.

meep …
“Max say ‘Hello’ with ears,” said Thudd.

Beeper stuck his thumbs in his ears and wiggled his fingers at Max.

Max touched Beeper with the tip of his trunk. He seemed to be sniffing him.

“Elephants have a gigunda sense of smell,” said Beeper. “Once a herd of elephants smelled my uncle from a mile away. They stampeded!”

meep …
“Elephant may be best smeller on Earth,” said Thudd. “Mammoth is great smeller, too. That how Max find Drewd and Oody. Drewd and Oody related to Unkie Al. Smell kinda like him.”

“Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “If Max tracked us, maybe he can track the capybaras!”

“Wait a minute,” said Judy. “When you want a dog to track a person, you have to let the dog sniff something that has the person’s smell.”

meep …
“Like stinky sock,” said Thudd.

“Hoo boy!” said Beeper. “That’s why Max found you guys so fast. You haven’t had a bath since the beginning of the universe!”

Judy rolled her eyes. “Well, you don’t exactly smell like a rose,” she said.
“You
haven’t had a bath in
three hundred million years!”

Andrew was looking at a patch of trampled snow. “I think these are capybara footprints,” he said.

“Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” said Thudd.

Andrew followed the footprints to a sheet of bare rock. He couldn’t find a trail.

“If we could get Max to sniff these footprints,” said Andrew, “maybe he could follow the trail of the capybaras.”

“Hooey!” said Beeper. He gathered a
handful of grass and held it near the mammoth’s trunk.

Max reached out his trunk. With two little flaps at the end of it, he picked a single stem of grass. He curled his trunk toward his mouth and chewed.

Beeper wagged the rest of the grass at Max, then spread the grass over the capybara footprints. After Max gathered up every stem, he sniffed the footprints. After a moment, he started following them!

“Hey! Wait a minute!” yelled Andrew.

He ran up to Max, stood between his enormous tusks, and held up his hand. Then Andrew raised his other hand from his waist to the top of his head.

Max touched Andrew’s chest with his trunk, then slowly wrapped his trunk around Andrew’s waist.

It’s like being hugged by a hairy snake,
thought Andrew.

Max lifted Andrew to the top of his head. Andrew grabbed Max’s hair and pulled himself onto the mammoth’s back.

Max’s hair was longer than Judy’s hair. It was longer than Andrew’s arm!

“Come on up, guys!” said Andrew, scooting backward. “We can all fit up here.”

“Yahoo!” said Beeper.

Max scooped him up, too. Judy was next.

“This is
not
comfortable,” said Judy, settling herself in front of Beeper.

“Poor Judy Patootie!” said Beeper. “They don’t make saddles for
mammoths!”

“Stuff a sock in it, Beeper Creeper!” said Judy.

The mammoth wagged its trunk across the footprints and lurched ahead. Andrew, Judy, and Beeper swayed with every step. The mammoth crossed a rocky field and crunched through patches of ice.

Sunlight glinted off the snowy ground.
Under Andrew’s cloak, his arms tingled with goose bumps.

“I liked Montana better sixty-five million years ago,” said Andrew

“Yeah!” said Beeper. “When there were Tyrannosauruses.”

“The Tyrannosauruses were good,” said
Andrew, “but I liked that it was warm, like a jungle. I wonder why it got so cold.”

meep …
“Earth have lotsa ice ages,” said Thudd. “Lotsa reasons. One reason is cuz Earth make different kindsa orbits around sun.” Thudd pointed to his face screen. “When orbit like circle, Earth warm. When orbit like
oval, Earth go farther from sun. Earth get cold. Ice not melt. Pile up. Make lotsa glaciers. Animals change. Plants change.”

Harooooo! Haroooooo!

The wolves were howling somewhere out of sight.

Max plodded down a steep valley and into a pine forest. The spiky branches snapped in the kids’ faces, and snow fluttered down from the treetops.

Andrew could hear the sound of water splashing. He heard another sound, too.

Unk … Unk … Unk …

“It’s the capybaras!” Judy cried.

Judy pointed to a clearing ahead.

A wide stream flowed from the bottom of a huge wall of ice. The ice wall was wedged into a rock canyon.

meep …
“Ice dam!” said Thudd. “Ice dam melting! Make stream!”

Capybaras were drinking from the stream. Some were pawing the snow and nibbling bushes.

“Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “This is what Uncle Al warned us about! Let’s get these giant guinea pigs moving and get out of here—
fast!”

Skeeeek! Skeeeek!

The sound came from the sky.

“What’s that?” asked Beeper. They all looked up.

High above the clearing, gigantic birds were circling.

meep …
“Teratorn bird,” said Thudd. “Biggest bird that ever fly. Long as two cars from tip of wing to tip of wing. Teratorn weigh more than Uncle Al.”

Two of the teratorn birds swooped down. The capybaras scattered.

“We’ve got to round them up,” said Andrew.

“We’ll be kinda like cowboys,” said Beeper.

Judy rolled her eyes. “More like
guinea pig
boys,” she said.

“Let’s get down off of Max,” said Andrew. “Judy, you first.”

“Great,” said Judy, creeping to the top of Max’s head.

Max understood. He wrapped his trunk
around Judy’s waist and gently lowered her down.

Beeper and Andrew followed.

“We’ll get behind the capys,” said Andrew, “one of us on each side.”

AGGGRRRRAAAAAGHHH!

A thunderous roar echoed off the canyon cliffs.

From the corner of his eye, Andrew caught a flash of tan on a ledge of the canyon.

“Yikes!”
screamed Judy, catching sight of it, too.

Crouched in the rocks was a giant cat with two huge curving teeth.

meep …
“Saber-toothed tiger!” said Thudd.

AGGGRRRRAAAAAGHHH!

Suddenly two more cats sprang down from a higher ledge. These cats were even bigger than the saber-toothed tiger, but without the gigantic teeth.

meep …
“Lions!” squeaked Thudd.

“Hoo boy!” said Beeper. “I didn’t know there were lions in America!”

Judy shivered. “I’ve seen lions in Africa, but these are bigger! We can’t run, because they’re faster than we are. We can’t even turn
our backs on them. Turning your back on a lion or a tiger says, ‘Eat me!’”

They all stood very still and kept their eyes on the cats.

The big cats crouched and flicked their tails. They were watching, too.

The teratorns were circling high in the sky.

“How about if we jump into the stream?” said Beeper. “Cats hate water.”

Judy shook her head. “Tigers
love
to swim,” she said. “Maybe these cats do, too. Do you know, Thudd?”

meep …
“Nobody know,” said Thudd.

“I’ve got an idea,” said Andrew. “Let’s throw some of the fur stuff we’re wearing at the cats. Maybe that will keep them busy while we escape.”

Judy patted Andrew’s shoulder. “It’s your idea,” said Judy. “So you get to take off
your
warm, furry stuff.”

Andrew unwrapped the fur scarf around his neck and handed it to Judy.

“You’re the best at throwing,” he said.

Judy dangled the piece between her fingers. “Look at the size of those cats,” she said. “They won’t even notice this.”

Andrew took off the big piece of fur wrapped around his waist.

Judy nodded. “That’s more like it,” she said.

“You can have this, too,” said Beeper, handing Judy a long, ragged strip of fur. “I’d rather be cold than chewed.”

The cats were watching them. Their growls rumbled through the chilly air. The teratorns swooped lower.

Judy wrapped the fur into a ball and threw it toward the cats. It landed on a ledge below the snarling animals. They jumped down and pounced on it.

Judy ripped a big chunk of fur into small
pieces and tossed them on the ground.

The teratorns began to swoop down and snatch them up.

“Woofers!” said Andrew. “Let’s round up these giant guinea pigs and go!”

Andrew, Judy, and Beeper got behind the herd of capybaras and started yelling.

“Head ’em up!” hollered Andrew. “Move ’em out!”

“Giddy up, li’l dogies!” yelled Beeper.

“Shoo!
Shooo!”
yelled Judy.

Unk … Unk … Unk …

The furry brown animals circled around each other. They began trekking into the woods.

Max followed behind.

KREEEEEEEEEK!
echoed a huge sound through the forest.

meep …
“Ice dam cracking!” squeaked Thudd.