The next day, Astrid and Heather headed back to the island to try and find out what kind plant material the Mammoth eats. While Hiccup and the others stayed to watch her.

And when they got there, the weather has changed as well as the temperature has gotten colder. And 150,000 years ago, the world was at the full grip of the Ice Age. And Woolly Mammoths were everywhere, from the west of Europe, to the east of Asia. At that time, it was still another 50,000 years before they will crossed the Bering land bridge to North America.

Before long, the 2 Riders have reached the island and landed at an open grassland plain.

And below them, on the plain was a herd of Mammoths 20 of them, in fact this was the last remaining herd on Earth.

But luckily, the herd are still flourishing as best they can.

Like all Mammoth herds, they were made up of females and their calves. Astrid and Heather watched and noticed they seemed to be following one member of the herd in the front. The leading Mammoth is the matriarch, and she can be 50 or 60 years old. And the herd relies on her experience, they stop when she stops, they sleep when she sleeps, and they feed and drink when she does.

"Hey, maybe we should try somewhere down there." Astrid points to a distance.

Heather looks through her spyglass, and sees a patch of grass.

"Let's go." Heather said.

The 2 climbed onto their dragons, and flew off towards it.

Sometime later, they landed about 70 feet from the herd. And they watched as the herd walks by them.

And it was a beautiful sight indeed.

And then there was a commotion in the herd, as the matriarch starts leading them away. They looked around but there was no sign of a predator.

"Wait, what's that?" Heather noticing something.

Astrid brought out her spyglass, and looks through and saw a bull Mammoth nearby. And he's in musth, which means he's ready to mate. And when their in this state, they got 4 times the amount of testosterone than they normally have. His looking foe a female to mate with, and he can be very aggressive. And the male Mammoth is driving the herd away with loud trumpets. And he's investigating all the females, seeing if there's one that's ready to mate.

Sometime later, after losing sight of the bull Mammoth. Astrid and Heather arrived at the patch of grass, and the Mammoth herd is nearby. They saw them, and such an enchanting sight, it's like an extended family. There's mothers and calves, there's aunts, there's sisters.

And they all seemed to be thriving on their grassland diet.

Astrid and Heather begin to pick bits of grass, Mammoths can eat 400 pounds of food a day.

They may have come here to find out about their food. But they're learning a more besides. Just like Elephants, Mammoths seem to have a strong bond between members of the herd.

As they continued to gather some grass. They then noticed by the herd that a calf was struggling to climb out of a small pond. And before long, the matriarch noticed him, and starts approaching him. And soon, the matriarch was standing close to the edge. And soon, 2 other Mammoths noticed and started to come over.

Astrid and Heather were just about to get to their dragons. But then something amazing happened, the matriarch lowers down and wraps her truck around the calf and with her right tusk under as well. And then she pulls out and away from the pond.

The 2 Riders were amazed by this. And that's what the matriarch does, whenever there's trouble with the herd. She goes in to help.

And they watched as the matriarch and 2 other Mammoths checked on the calf.

And then they got back to gathering some grass. But they're about to find out, that Mammoths aren't the only creatures tucking to the rich grassland.

Then suddenly they heard a grunt behind them as they turned. And saw a large relative of the Woolly Rhino that Snotlout and the twins met. He is an Elasmotherium, twice as big as modern Rhinos and weighing 5 tons.

Astrid and Heather realized they are now trapped between the Elasmotherium and the Mammoth herd. And Stormfly and Windshear are at a distance that if they called them over they are likely to put the Rhino on high alert.

This Elasmotherium is only 1 of 3 surviving members of his species. His kind have been dying out as the climate got warmer, and his habitat disappearing.

Heather and Astrid remained as quiet as they can, luckily they were downwind of him so he won't smell them. And like all Rhinos, he has poor eyesight, he's got to get very close to see them.

He if he does, he could charge.

And he has a single horn that is formidable, it's as long as they are tall. Nearly 6 feet, and he would have no hesitation of charging and padding them with that. And that would really spoil their weekend.

And then, the Rhino looked as if he noticed them.

But then you wouldn't want to be trampled on by an angry bull Mammoth either.

As they slowly backed away, suddenly behind them the bull Mammoth from earlier appeared.

And soon they turned and saw the Mammoth approaching them.

They turned back and saw the Elasmotherium turning away and leaving. And then turned back to the bull Mammoth as he was now getting too close for comfort. And then without a second thought, the 2 girls quickly starting running, as the Mammoth charges after them and Astrid accidentally dropped her ax. And they managed to get onto their dragons, and took off at the last second as Windshear narrowly avoided getting hit by the Mammoth's tusks and the bull roars angrily.


Half an hour later, all though safe from the wrath of the bull Mammoth.

Astrid still needs to retrieve her ax.

They were on a hill, and they watched as the Elasmotherium approaches her ax and curiously looks at it.

Before long, a plan was made out of how to get it back.

But if means taking a huge risk, and using herself as bait.

The Elasmotherium turns and walks away from the ax.

And Astrid begins to approach her ax, and then the Rhino turns around as Astrid then quickly grabs her ax back. And then, the 2 were at a stare off and then before long the Elasmotherium charges and Astrid quickly started running.

But Astrid slightly underestimated him and was faster than she thought.

"Now!" Astrid yelled.

And then, from nowhere Heather and Windshear flew down and Windshear quickly caught Astrid and lifts up into the air just before the Rhino could hit her. The large male Elasmotherium came to a stop as Astrid jumps onto Stormfly's back and the Rhino looks up at them.

"That was close." Astrid said.

"Tell me about it." Heather said.


An hour later, they returned to the Edge and hoping they'll be able to get the Mammoth fed with the grass they gathered.

"Come on, girl." Heather holding some grass. "Come on."

The Mammoth turns to her, but is still not interested in eating.

Astrid sighed. "She just won't eat all way."

"There has to be something we can try." Hiccup said.

"It's sad to say this but, she looks lonely." Heather said.

The Mammoth was hanging her head downwards, almost looking sad. And the Mammoths that she saw, they were always in big groups. There was aunts, grandmas, moms, calves, and sisters. But her sister was killed by the hunters. And with Elephants, only the bulls live alone. The cows are always with other Elephants. So many she just needs some companionship.

Could that be the answer?

The reason that the Mammoth's not eating, is the fact that she's all alone.

And soon the Mammoth turns and walks away sadly.

And they watched as she did, and Heather can almost understand of what she's going through after losing her foster family.

Lots of creatures are used of living on their own, like some of the dragons and dinosaurs on the island.

But thousands of miles away on Africa and Asia, just as Elephants need to be close to their family. So do Mammoths.

And now, barely able to stand up. The Mammoth, is dying, of loneliness.