Ugga

When Dawn found Ugga, she was grooming Sandy. Sandy had become a lot more docile since they had planted themselves at the coastline. Well, as docile as a human baby can be. She still liked to bite a lot, but she was spending more times toddling around on her feet instead of crawling about on all fours, and she seemed to have taken a liking to Backpack.

Speaking of, the toddler's face lit up when she saw Dawn and Backpack, reaching out with her little arms and babbling nonsense Dawn thought was a greeting. It took a lot of willpower not to coo at how cute she was right now, so she dropped Backpack on the toddler to keep her occupied, who gave the sloth a owlbear-hug. While Backpack acted all tough and bothered by the baby's affections, Dawn knew Backpack secretly loved it.

"Hey Ugga, can we talk?"

"Sure, honey. What's on your mind?"

While Ugga liked Dawn same as the rest of The Croods, there was a subtle shift in Dawn and Ugga's relationship after Grug came around. Ugga once thanked Dawn for providing so much for her family, and now Ugga seemed to want to give something to Dawn.

Now that the Croods actually had stocks for food (and the surplus of food to fill those stocks), Ugga would occasionally ask Dawn if she had been eating enough and offered to fix something for her. One time, Ugga had dragged her to the side for "girl-time" and Dawn's hair had never been braided so well.

While Dawn wasn't that receptive to Ugga's caveman-brand of tactile affection, she was touched all the same. One time, she caught herself before she called her "mom."

She wasn't ready for that. Not yet.

"I-uh," stammered Dawn. "I just..."

While Sandy walked off, having grown bored when her mom stopped picking ants from her hair, while Ugga patiently waited for Dawn.

"I was hoping we talk about... about someone else."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Ugga moved aside and patted the patch of dirt next to her. Dawn sat down.

"So, I've been spending a lot of time around this person and... I've been feeling different."

"Different? Different how?"

"I don't know," said Dawn as she lied down on her back, staring up at the light peeking through the tree above her. "It's just that... something happened. I don't know what, but whenever I'm around them, my hands get all sweaty and my heart races and at first I thought I was sick or something, but it goes away when they aren't around. Then when I start thinking about them and it starts all over again."

While Dawn stared out into the nothingness of her confusion, Ugga's hands slowly moved to covered the lip she was biting. She knew exactly what Dawn was going through and she thought it was the cutest thing. She also knew who she was talking about. It was easy considering their limited social group, and Eep was the Crood Dawn spent the most time around. Ugga knew that if this was going to work out, she'll need to play her playing-leaves right.

"Dawn."

"Hmm?"

"What do you think you should do about this?"

"I... I don't know. Should I stop hanging around them?"

"Do you want to, though?"

Dawn fished her brain for a response and came up short.

"Dawn, if you really like Eep like that, I think you need to talk to her about it."

"I know, but I'm worried that if I do, Eep might--" Dawn sat up and looked at Ugga, her face a burning red. "I mean... what? What about Eep? I'm just talking about a general person that's definitely not Eep."

"Dawn. It's okay. I know exactly what's going on."

"You do?"

"Yeah. You like Eep."

"Well yeah. Of course I like Eep."

"No no, I mean like Eep."

"I don't know--"

Something in Dawn clicked into place. Her blush came back.

"B-But... you can do that? With a girl?"

"Well, yeah. That sort of thing happened all the time back at the old valley. You know, before they all died," said Ugga. "My Uncles Adam and Steve were like that. Those guys were a lot of fun. But enough about them. Let's talk about you and Eep."

"But I don't know if Eep likes me that way!"

"Well how can you be sure if you don't ask?"

"Because it would be... weird. If I ask and she doesn't feel that way, then we'll just be having that hanging over us for the rest of forever. And don't get me started on what Grug would do if he knew..."

"Let me worry about Grug," said Ugga.

Like Ugga, Grug had really come around when it came to Dawn in the end. She didn't know what went on between the two when they were stuck in that tar pit, but Ugga couldn't help but notice how different Grug acted around her. Grug would go on the occasional hunting trip for some "daddy-daughter bonding" and he would invite Dawn to come along too, or Grug would put his arm around her shoulder and try to give her poorly thought-out advice. Dawn didn't have her parents to impart wisdom onto her and look out for her, so it seems that both Grug and Ugga had the same idea of filling that missing part of her life.