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

by Greenburg, J. C. ; Gerardi, Jan (ILT)

  “Wowzers schnauzers!” said Andrew. “We’ve got to get Max to a safe place, too!”

  “We’d better hurry,” said Winka.

  Winka and Uncle Al fitted everyone with capes and scarves. There were big pieces of fur to wrap around their waists like skirts. Then Uncle Al handed out small pieces of fur and leather strips.

  “Here,” he said. “Wrap the fur around your feet and tie it on with the leather strips. Not fashionable, but warm. Andrew, here’s an extra strip. You can make a little holder for Thudd and hang him from your neck.”

  “Where did all this fur come from?” asked Andrew.

  “I found piles of it inside the cave where I’ve been staying,” said Uncle Al. “They’re beaver skins, from giant beavers. The skins were collected by human hunters, but I haven’t seen them.”

  Beeper wrapped his egg in a piece of fur. Then they all hopped out of the Time-A-Tron.

  “Bye, Time-A-Tron!” said Andrew.

  “See you soon,” said Judy.

  bong … “Keep warm!” said the Time-A-Tron.

  Everyone, including Max, followed Uncle Al toward the glacier.

  Andrew’s breath made little clouds in the cool air. He could feel the hard, cold ground through his furry foot wraps.

  “Hoo boy!” yelled Beeper, who was straggling behind. “I almost slipped on some ice. I almost dropped the egg. Can I get a ride on Max? Please?”

  Uncle Al turned to Beeper and rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess we could arrange that,” he said.

  “Max!” said Uncle Al. He held his hand up. Max stopped. “Beeper, go stand in front of Max.”

  Uncle Al raised his hand from his waist to the top of his head.

  Max curled his trunk gently around Beeper and slowly raised him to the top of his head.

  “Hot doggies!” said Beeper, settling himself on top of Max’s head.

  Suddenly eerie sounds came from a distance.

  Harooooo! Wahoooooo!

  They gave Andrew the shivers.

  “Wolves!” said Winka.

  “Yes,” said Uncle Al, looking toward a line of trees. “Two kinds of wolves live here. Dire wolves are big with small brains. They’ll go extinct in a few thousand years.

  “Gray wolves are smaller and smarter. The gray wolves will be alive in our time, too. Those are the ones you hear now.”

  Judy walked closer to Uncle Al. “That sound gives me the creeps,” she said.

  “They’re howling to get ready to hunt,” said Uncle Al. “There’s no reason to fear wolves. They’re not interested in hunting us.

  “But if a wolf ever did attack you, you must never run. The creatures that stand and face the wolves survive.”

  “Even squirrels?” Beeper yelled from Max’s head.

  Uncle Al smiled. “It probably doesn’t work for squirrels,” he said.

  They arrived at a jagged crack in the glacier. It was as wide as a door.

  Uncle Al held up his hand to Max. He raised his other hand above his head and lowered it to his waist. Max reached his trunk up to Beeper and lowered him slowly to the ground.

  Suddenly an enormous zigzag of white light slashed through the sky! They hurried into the blue shadows of the glacier entrance, then peered out to see what it was.

  DOCTOR KRON-TOX!

  Floating outside was an enormous cube-shaped chunk of blackness. Lightning flickered around it and inside it.

  “It’s the Tick-Tox Box!” said Andrew.

  The Tick-Tox Box was Doctor Kron-Tox’s time-travel machine.

  “It looks a lot bigger now,” said Judy, peering over Andrew’s head.

  “The Tick-Tox Box grows to fit whatever’s inside it,” said Uncle Al. “Doctor Kron-Tox must be carrying a big load.”

  The lightning inside the Tick-Tox Box faded to a flicker.

  Suddenly a jagged crack split one wall of the Tick-Tox Box. Out of the crack stepped a tall, thin man in a black cape. Long white hair fell past his shoulders. His nose and mouth were covered by a white mask. In his fists he gripped fat chains.

  “It’s my uncle!” said Beeper, pushing in front of Uncle Al.

  “Creep-a-roony!” said Judy. “Why’s he wearing that stupid mask over his face?”

  “He’s allergic to many animals,” said Winka. “He wears the mask to keep from breathing in the dander.”

  meep … “Dander is little skin flakes,” said Thudd.

  “Like dandruff,” chuckled Beeper, pulling Judy’s hair.

  “Doctor Kron-Tox can’t control himself when he’s sneezing,” said Uncle Al. “He’s helpless.”

  Eeeeeeeeee!

  From inside the Tick-Tox Box came a high-pitched scream.

  Doctor Kron-Tox flung himself toward the crack in the Tick-Tox Box. He seemed to be struggling with something inside.

  Andrew heard a voice that sounded like a hiss:

  “Not time to go,

  Not yet, I say.

  Just two come now,

  The rest must stay.”

  Doctor Kron-Tox yanked the chains. A boulder-like creature on stumpy legs crept out.

  “What is that?” asked Judy. “It looks like a Volkswagen Bug with feet!”

  “Look at that giant spiky ball at the end of its tail!” said Beeper.

  meep … “Glyptodont!” said Thudd.

  “It’s a kind of giant armadillo,” explained Winka.

  “Doctor Kron-Tox must have stopped off in South America,” said Uncle Al. “That’s where those glyptodonts live.”

  Following slowly behind the glyptodont was a furry thing as big as an elephant. But it was standing on its hind legs. It was so tall, it could look into your bedroom window, even if your bedroom was on the second floor of your house.

  “Santa Claus on a snow cone!” said Uncle Al. “It’s a giant ground sloth. Look how slowly it’s moving.”

  meep … “Sloth mean laziness,” said Thudd.

  Unk … Unk … Unk …

  Grunty noises were coming from the Tick-Tox Box.

  “No! NOOOOO!” screamed Doctor Kron-Tox.

  Suddenly a crowd of furry pig-sized animals poured out of the Tick-Tox Box.

  “Hoo boy!” said Beeper, sticking his head out of the doorway. “They look like guinea pigs—gigunda guinea pigs!”

  “In a way they are,” said Uncle Al, pulling Beeper back inside.

  meep … “Capybara!” said Thudd.

  “Right!” said Uncle Al. “Capybaras belong to the same family of animals as guinea pigs. They’re rodents, like mice and rats and squirrels.”

  The capybaras seemed frantic to get out. They were climbing over each other. They were climbing over Doctor Kron-Tox!

  “Back, back, you pigs,

  Into your pen!

  You brats

  Will never eat again!”

  The capybaras got tangled in Doctor Kron-Tox’s chains.

  “AKKKK!” he cried as he toppled over and let go of the chains.

  The glyptodont scuttled down a hill and out of sight. The sloth lumbered slowly toward a pine tree.

  Doctor Kron-Tox picked himself up, dusted off his cape, and yelled after the escaping animals.

  “Go on, you beasts,

  Do as you please.

  Without my help,

  You’ll starve and freeze!”

  Doctor Kron-Tox caught up with the sloth. He grabbed its chain and tugged the enormous animal toward the glacier. He pulled something out of a pocket and pressed it. A huge slab of ice slid aside, revealing a secret door.

  EGGS-SPLOSION!

  “I’ve got to go after Doctor Kron-Tox now,” said Uncle Al. “He’ll lead me to where he’s hidden the other animals. I want you all to stay in my cave till I get back.” He pointed to a path leading into the glacier. “You’ll be safe and warm.”

  Uncle Al slipped out of the crevice and hurried after Doctor Kron-Tox.

  Winka, Andrew, Judy and Beeper made their way deeper into the glacier.

  “The light is blue i
n here!” said Andrew.

  Winka nodded. “It’s like the sea,” she said. “Light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow. As you go deep into water or under ice, blue is the only color that gets through. All the other colors get filtered out.”

  Krik … krik … krik …

  “Hoo boy!” said Beeper. “My egg is cracking! It’s gonna hatch any second! Hey, I can see its teeth!”

  Judy patted Beeper on the back. “Even the little ones will try to eat you,” she said.

  They came to a low arch and crept under it. On the other side was a rocky cave. In the middle of the floor burned a small fire. Smoke curled up to a crack in the ceiling.

  “It’s cozy here,” said Judy. She squinted at the walls. “Look at this,” she said, tracing her fingers along the dark stone.

  The walls were covered with drawings!

  “Neato mosquito!” said Andrew. “I found a herd of galloping horses!”

  Winka pointed out long-horned bison drawn in brown and black.

  “Hey!” said Beeper. “I see a camel!”

  Winka came over to look. “Yes,” she said. “Camels lived in North America during the Ice Age. Look, there’s the beginning of another animal here, but the artist didn’t finish it.”

  Winka leaned down to examine a stone bowl on the floor. “I’ve found the artist’s tools!” she said.

  She held up fat sticks of black and red and brown.

  “The black one is charcoal,” said Winka. “The red and brown ones are made from a mineral called hematite. Hematite has lots of iron in it.”

  “Here’s a really strange picture,” said Judy. “I can’t figure it out.”

  Winka came over to see it. It looked like two mountains. Between them was a white wall with a zigzag crack. Giant waves were painted all around it.

  “That must be the ice dam your uncle Al told us about,” said Winka.

  “Ouch!” yelled Beeper. “The Tyrannosaurus nipped my neck!”

  He held the cracked egg as far away from himself as he could.

  Winka hurried to a heap of fur scraps in a dark nook. “We need to wrap up that little guy to keep both of you safe,” said Winka.

  KREEEEEEEEEK!

  The cave trembled and the fire flickered. The baby Tyrannosaurus kicked off its broken egg and scrambled into Beeper’s arms.

  meep … “Sound of glacier ice cracking,” said Thudd. “Ice crack. Ice move. Glacier noisy.”

  KREEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

  The cave shook again. Bits of rock fell from the ceiling.

  “Down, boy!” said Beeper to the Tyrannosaurus baby.

  The Tyrannosaurus sank its teeth into Beeper’s cape, leapt out of his arms, and scampered out of the cave.

  “I’ll get it!” said Winka, chasing after the little dinosaur. “You stay here till I get back.”

  Judy rolled her eyes at Beeper. “Nice work, Bozo-Boy,” she said.

  Beeper picked up one of the colored sticks. In big letters on the cave wall, he wrote “I LOVE DINOSAURS!” Then he drew the head of a Tyrannosaurus.

  “I’m worried about those capybaras,” said Andrew, pacing the stone floor. “It’s too cold for them outside. Maybe we could find them. Then we could bring them back here where it’s warm.”

  “They were pretty cute,” said Judy. Her eyes had a faraway look. “They reminded me of my guinea pig, Nibbles.”

  “I remember Nibbles,” said Andrew. “He liked to eat my shirt.”

  meep … “Not supposed to leave cave,” squeaked Thudd.

  Beeper stopped drawing. Andrew, Judy, and Beeper looked at each other.

  “Uncle Al and Professor Winka wouldn’t want the capybaras to freeze,” said Andrew.

  “For once I agree with you, Bug-Brain,” said Judy.

  “Hookay!” said Beeper. “Let’s go!”

  ON THE TRAIL OF THE GIANT GUINEA PIGS

  “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.

  LIONS AND TIGERS AND TERATORNS!

  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.