Hello everyone it's me again! Before I start this chapter, let me address a few problems I had with the first one…It seems as though you were confused when Diego referred to the human baby (Roshan) as "Pinky", well, I assure you that I knew what I was doing, and I DID mean to put "PINKY" as his name. Yes, I am aware that Roshan is his actual name, BUT he is known as Pinky to Manny, Diego and Sid.

The second thing is that I called Ellie's brothers Opossums when they are really just Possums, I am sorry for that error!

With that taken care of and cleared up…. You can now sit back, relax and enjoy;

Souls Connected Chapter 2; Painful Memories:

Ellie:

Ellie let out a sigh of exhaustion as she lay down on the ground and watched her brothers roll around in a dung heap. It had been a LOOOOONG day, and she was quite tired. Usually, she would rest by climbing a tree, wrapping her tail around a branch and hanging herself upside down, like a Possum. But this time, she just, didn't feel like that would do the job.

She smiled as she saw Crash throw a dung-ball in Eddie's face. She used to play this game with them when she was little, but not anymore. She would always get dirty and stinky and her mother hated having to clean her immense body. Therefore, one time, when she got VERY dirty, her mother forbade her from playing it again. Ellie smiled as she remembered her Possum mother, she was always so nice and kind to her. She always knew exactly what to say to cheer Ellie up. The moment that stuck out most to Ellie was when they competed in the Local Mother-Daughter Olympics once when she was five… They lost of course, because Ellie was too big to do the piggy-back. Her mother had come right up to her, hugged her trunk (for the other parts of her body were far too large to hug fully) and told her the words that she would always remember.

"There's nothing wrong with being big boned"

Their mother had started on the journey with them, but had been killed by a saber-tooth…. Ellie remembered how hard it was to continue on, she eventually had to pick her brothers up and start walking.

"CRASH!" She yelled as she caught sight of her dare-devil brother getting ready to jump off a 10 foot cliff into the dung heap… "DON'T YOU DARE JUMP! THERE ARE ROCKS ALL AROUND THE HEAP, YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF!" Crash just laughed at her, and jumped anyway… Ellie ran to grab him with her trunk, but missed, luckily, he DID fall into the dung heap… she sighed, wiped beads of perspiration off of her forehead and told the twins to get cleaned up.

As they were getting cleaned up, she looked at the sunset… 'So romantic' she thought to herself… 'too bad I don't have anyone to share it with' She looked down sadly… most of the girls she had played with or knew when she was little had by now found mates… not her… she was all alone in this world, except for her brothers… tears started to form in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them out. It wouldn't do for her brothers to see her cry; they always nagged her on until she admitted what was wrong. She looked up at the stars one last time, and walked over to the tree where her brothers, having cleaned themselves up, had now gone to sleep.

"22 Days" she told herself quietly, "Just 22 days left and then we will get there." She then got herself into the tree and fell asleep.

Manny:

It was a nice and sunny afternoon… and Manfred was exuberant… it was his and his mate Millie's 3 year anniversary today… and he was eager to see her. He had been on a trip with some of the other guy Mammoths to gather food and shelter logs for the long winter approaching, and as luck had it, he would be arriving home today, and neither Millie nor his 6 month old son Wallace knew. He smiled as he thought of his son, it had been absolute torture waiting for 22 months for him to arrive and when he finally came, he was so proud. He looked over to his side and saw Millie gathering flowers to decorate their cave. Manfred had a mischievous grin on his face as he very quietly snuck up to her.

"I can see you Manfred" she said smiling when he got about 5 feet away, then turned around, and gave him a look of great affection as she locked her trunk with his. Manfred's heart melted, he loved Millie more than anything else in this world, and nothing made him feel happier than when she locked her trunk with his. He unlocked the trunks and started to say 'Happy Anniversary' to her, when Wallace came running up,

"DADDY! YOU BACK!" He yelled ecstatically as he ran up to his parents and wrapped his tiny trunk around his father's massive one. Manfred in exchange wrapped his trunk around his son's neck. "Daddy, you come play with me?" Wallace asked hopefully, Manfred gave his son a huge smile.

"Of course buddy, just let me talk to mommy for a few minutes, then you can have me all to yourself." He said kindly as Millie looked on.

"Ok Daddy!" Wallace said happily as he ran off into the valley to play. Manfred smiled and turned to his mate…

"He really loves you, you know." She told him as she, once again, locked her trunk with his.

"I know… he's a great kid." He told her in response… he could not have been any happier, his life was wonderful. This day just could not get any better…

He was right… it couldn't get any better, but it was about to get worse… much, much, worse. Just as Manfred was thinking about how wonderful his life was, Wallace came running up to him and Millie with a terrified look on his face.

"Mommy, Daddy, HELP! Hunters!" he yelled frantically… Millie looked at Manfred with a terrified expression on her face, he knew what she was thinking, she had had her gorgeous, ivory tusks taken out by hunters… she had managed to escape, but was now pretty much defenseless against any new attackers that came her way.

"Millie, you get Wallace out of here, I'll take care of the hunters!" He said bravely as she looked at him with a scared face.

"Manfred… Don't" She told him, "It's not worth it, just let it be." He looked at her with a determined look on his face and pushed Wallace towards her…

"I don't want you two getting hurt, get out of here! I'll find you later!" She regretfully grabbed their son and ran towards the nearby cliff wall… Manfred got ready to defend himself against the hunters, when he heard Millie give a trumpet of fear, he looked back to find her sitting, backed up against the cliff wall, holding Wallace tight in her arms… he then saw the small group of hunters above them on the top of the cliff, holding boulders… He tried to get to them, but the hunters had surrounded him, there was nothing he could do except sound out an alarmed trumpet and watch helplessly as the hunters threw the boulders down the cliff, and onto his family…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Manny woke up with a start, sweat pouring down his head and breathing heavily… He looked around to find that his friends had gone out to search for food in the late evening, which was one of Diego's favorite activities; Manny enjoyed the activity because Diego usually brought Sid along so that he would be tired the next day and wouldn't annoy them as much. "It was just a dream" he told himself as he weakly stood up, he had this same dream at least once a year, always around the time when the incident happened, as if his old family was wanting him to remember…. He walked out of the cave and onto the small cliff outside of it and looked at the stars above him, and started to reminisce once again;

The hunters immediately ran away…not wanting to face the wrath of an upset Mammoth… Manfred immediately ran up to Millie and Wallace praying the entire time that they were ok…

The sight that he saw when he got there would stay in his memory forever… His son looked like a bloody pulp… two of his four legs was broken, as well as most of his ribs, he also had a very bad gash across his face…

"Daddy…" he struggled as tears came out of his face… "It hurts".

Manfred tried his best to keep the tears in… but it was to no avail, he gently pulled the rock off of his son, tenderly picked him up with his trunk, and started to rock him.

"Man-fred" Millie called weakly from the 2 boulders she was locked under… He very slowly walked over to her, put Wallace down and tried to remove the boulders, but they were too big, he couldn't… the tears came out of his eyes more quickly now and he soon realized that his mate and child were going to die. He gently nudged Wallace close enough to Millie for her to wrap her trunk around him. "My boy" she strained as she held him close… she let the remaining segment of her trunk lock with Manfred's, and he locked the remainder of his around Wallace, praying that somehow, they would get better. Millie looked at Manfred with overflowing eyes… "I love you" she struggled as she closed her eyes for the last time…Manfred's eyes clouded over… she was gone, his Millie, gone… never to be seen again. Millie's trunk slowly unlocked with Manfred's and unwound with Wallace's… Wallace looked at his dad with tearful eyes.

"Daddy" he asked weakly… "Am I gonna die?" Manfred's eyes overflowed… he held his son close, once again praying that, by some miracle, he could be saved. It was to no avail… All he could do was comfort the young boy as he passed on. Once he realized that his son too had died, Manfred slowly lay him next to his mother and put her trunk around his… hoping that they, at least, could be together…

"I love you." He told them both as he tearfully turned around and walked away… he never went to that spot again.

Manny's tears were now flowing freely down his face as he remembered the pain of loosing his family…. He had been alone and grumpy ever since then. He looked up at the sky with his tear-filled eyes…. He missed them, he only wished that he could have them back, but his brain knew better. The rest of his family had died about a year after that from yet another hunter attack. He wiped the tears out of his eyes with his trunk… and took one last look at the full moon before reentering the cave and getting a much needed rest before restarting on his 32 day journey to Acorn Valley. Unbeknownst to him, Ellie was looking at the same moon as she walked with her nocturnal brothers, continuing on their journey…. heading to an adventure that would change the lives of all 6 of these creatures forever.

Well, that's it for this chapter! I don't know about you, but I am EXTREMELLY proud of Manny's side in this chapter! I've always wanted to write my own rendition of that cave painting scene, and now I can! I am EXTREMELLY fond of this and it really gives me more input on that scene (I won't be able to watch it again without crying!) I would like you to notice that I referred to Manny as Manfred during the flashbacks, considering he was probably only known by that name then… it was shortened to Manny once he met Sid. I will try to put up the next chapter soon, maybe next Monday, I dunno… probably whenever I get a new idea! Either way, reply please! I want to know what you thought! Oh, and I checked, the baby IS a boy… it is finalized in the second movie, he refers to the baby as "our son" which means, it was A BOY! Please let me know what you think! I am eager to hear your thoughts!

Taffyabc (A.K.A. Funkywatermelon's assistant)