What had he been thinking?

The sun was so bright, flecks of it were glowing from the snow around him – an entire plain alight like the almost-clear blue sky above it.

The storm had spent itself two days ago and left calm weather and common sense in its wake. Now Diego was on their trail and cursing himself for the slew of bad decisions he'd made in the mammoth and sloth's absence.

He should have stopped to let himself rest. He shouldn't have been trying to track in the middle of a raging blizzard. And he shouldn't have been so ready to pick a course. He'd already realized the last one, but it felt much more real – not to mention infuriating – now that his mind and the sky were clear.

Really, what had he been thinking? Trying to fight a snowstorm. It had gotten him nowhere, and now his shoulder just idly burned like the early morning embers of Sid's fire. A slow roasting, bright pain that just sat in the muscles and went on and on until Diego didn't think it would ever do anything else.

He'd been so confused, wandering out there in the snow. And it was hard to reconcile this weather with the too-close memories of endless flakes shadowing him across the featureless void that made up the bulk of the north. And the scents he'd thought he was catching were more than likely phantom smells that his delirious mind was mistaking for reality. There'd been no trail, no way he'd have ever found them.

None of that felt like reality now, especially his lines of thought. Panicking because he was alone, feeling like he was losing himself…again, he thought of how delirious he'd been.

He let himself let go of the memories, again, and raised his nose to the air.

His shoulder still hurt, but it was a thousand times better after a few nights' sleep in the slumbery calm that snowstorms tended to leave in their wake, and with the land around him unobstructed for miles, he could finally do what he'd been waiting for, for the last few days.

Unfortunately, his bone-headed route had put him a little farther east than he necessarily wanted to be, and as he traversed a wide plain that he'd only ever seen from afar, he tried to decide if he should double back and try to catch the tail end of the migration or go south from his current position and find it farther along its route. For the thousandth time that morning, he tried to figure how far south the storm would have reached. It had stopped of its own accord while he'd been asleep, so he'd never actually found the edges of it. All that fresh snow could potentially yield tracking markers.

If he could locate prints, that would be the easiest course of action. But if they'd avoided it completely, that would put him in the realm of smells and faint traces carved into the dirt, the trees, the edges of sources of water. Traces that could be completely buried by now and fading quickly. It would be much more difficult, and even though he felt better and more lucid than before, unsettled thoughts still nagged at him every once in a while. Much like his slowly-healing shoulder, his concentration seemed to be taking a while to completely recover.

Emptiness gaped inside of his mind for a brief moment, reminding him, again, that something was off. And he shoved it away. Again. He'd been so delirious. It was going to take awhile to readjust to all of this.

And he couldn't do that until he caught up to them. He had better things to do right now than get lost in his own mind. This new sinkhole in the back of his thoughts that he hadn't asked for could wait until he found his way back to what he had chosen – who he had chosen.

Now, with the sun lighting up the whole world like it was supposed to, he could finally do that.

000

It had been a week, and he was coming up with nothing. A week of going everywhere, trying everything he could think of. Doubling back for a couple of days, searching out remote areas, trying to parse the week-old mix of scents from the edges of the migration. He trekked every mile he could think of, tried every tracking trick he'd ever learned. But no matter what trails he followed, how far he pushed himself, there wasn't anything to find.

Eventually, he made his way east again, scouting for the long-gone migration into areas he'd never entered and that were just as empty as what he was leaving behind.

The North had never seemed like a desolate place the way it did now.

And there was something stalking his thoughts. The more he focused on what he was doing, the more menacing it grew. Waiting. Just waiting. And as the days turned into another week, and his shoulder healed just enough to let him sleep all the way through the night, he fell asleep trying to push the – now familiar – empty feeling away. He didn't know what it meant or where it had come from, but it always began in his mind and gave him the sense that his body was about to be swallowed by the ground under his paws.

It reminded him of being in the middle of the snowstorm. Like he'd managed to absorb a bit of its energy, and now it wouldn't stop building inside of him. He hated it instinctively, even though he didn't really understand why it made him so uncomfortable.

The bright days burned overhead as he steadily made his way south, falling into a routine of sleeping for a few hours at a time, tracking for as long as he could keep himself from getting frustrated, and then repeating.

It was getting slightly easier now that there was more low-growing scrub and patchy pockets of spindly trees. There was a higher chance that they'd come through this way as well as better options for food and shelter when he took a break to eat or sleep. It was also less exhausting than butting up against the constant emptiness that he'd dealt with in the northernmost areas. Now, he could relax a little and let his instincts guide him. Sometimes he'd think over everything that had happened, sometimes he was too busy taking stock of his surroundings. He'd never been this far east before, and even though the position of the sun and the features of the landscape told him where he was, it felt different than what he'd left behind.

Most of the time, he tried to steady his increasingly-flighty concentration and imagine what it would be like when he finally did pick up the right scent, find the right print. He sometimes caught himself sinking too far into wondering what he would say to them when they looked up at the sound of another animal approaching through the undergrowth. He supposed it would be something sarcastic, which wouldn't surprise any of them.

What would they say to him? That they were surprised? – That they couldn't believe it? – That they were really a herd now?

Sid's voice sounded in his head out of nowhere, That's it, you're outta the herd! And Diego stumbled a little over his front paws in surprise.

They'd been so furious when he'd first told them, but in the chaos afterwards, he'd unwittingly pushed it aside. Their anger felt remote, like his groggy thoughts after first waking up. He knew it was real, but he couldn't feel it the way he could feel the anger in his shoulder. He didn't carry it the way he carried his relief that they'd won. It had somehow taken second place.

But what if…what if they didn't want this? What if he got there and their faces fell at the sight of him? What if they had only said they forgave him because they felt bad he'd been hurt? What if they were still angry?

Something splintered inside of him like the multi-prong crack of lightning in a stormy sky, and he realized in a moment what had been following him all along. Doubt. Heavy, and all-too justified. It was so obvious…and he'd been so stupid not to see it until now. Of course they would say those things. They were too nice, too emotional to just walk away. And he'd never know that they didn't mean it. Maybe, for them, walking away from Half Peak had been the ideal end of it.

That bothered him. The feeling hit him so fast, he got vertigo. And somehow even worse, his immediate response still wasn't regret. It wasn't to take back Half Peak and erase everything until he rewound to a place where his body and mind didn't ache every second of the day. Where he hadn't betrayed his pack leader and thrown his own life into utter chaos.

No, it was an uncomfortable desperation to fix it. Because a part of him realized simultaneously that there was a good chance he couldn't fix it. Not if they truly were done with him. In fact, they could be sitting around a fire right now, glad to be done with the whole situation…

A fire!

His mind cleared instantly. He'd been focusing on the ground. But if they were lighting fires…the sky would tell him. Perhaps he'd gotten it all backwards. If he only tracked at night maybe he'd spot something clouding the stars or hear voices. His earlier nighttime tracking hadn't yielded much, but he also hadn't been specifically scouting for the signs that would lead him to a fire. Had he already missed clues that would have taken him in a different direction?

It didn't matter. He knew what he needed to do now.

But he didn't get more than two steps when there was the unmistakable sound of movement in the trees behind him, and he turned slightly just as two sabers padded confidently from the sparse undergrowth. He'd never seen them before, and both looked about as friendly as Diego would have been if he'd caught trespassers in his pack's area.

"Take one more step, and you're in our territory," one of them said. They didn't seem surprised to see him, and he knew that this wasn't a chance meeting. They'd found his scent and were following him. More than likely this 'warning' was more of an excuse to fight than an offer of goodwill.

Diego decided to try diplomacy anyway. "Understood. How do I get around it?"

"Twenty miles on both sides, ten south." The first saber spoke again, and Diego felt his jaw drop. Then he pulled himself together with a snarl while both sabers tried not to smile. Territories weren't that big. Smug little twits.

"Then I guess I have some walking to do." Diego took a few steps to the side, as if he really was about to follow their directions.

Their smiles dropped, and one of them snarled in annoyance. The saber who hadn't spoken yet slid in front of him. He paused when he saw the warped mess of healing muscle and skin. Diego had purposefully kept his shoulder out of their line of sight, and he briefly considered using the moment of distraction it granted to get in a good swipe. But he really didn't want to fight, and Diego doubted he could have taken one of them let alone both right now. After a moment, the saber met his eyes commandingly. "We will escort you from here."

He sighed sarcastically. "I just want to get to the other side of your territory, I promise."

"Not without our pack leader's permission."

That was what he'd been afraid of. But Diego didn't bother to argue. "Fine. Then let me talk to your pack leader."

The saber in front of him turned to the other and nodded. Then they fell into step on both sides of him, walking close enough to easily take him down if he tried anything. The fact that they hadn't, in fact, attacked him unprovoked yet was promising. But every leader ran their pack differently, and this one obviously wanted utmost control of what went on in his or her territory.

Diego pretended not to notice the other saber eyeing his shoulder. Now that all three of them knew it was a liability, he'd have to be even more careful to let it fade into himself. The more comfortable with it he was, the less their pack leader would notice it. The thought that he needed to be exactly himself in this moment felt like a mammoth trunk to the face.

He frowned the rest of the way to the pack's sleeping area.

"Nate!" The saber on his good side bounded forward a few steps into the clearing, and Diego automatically stopped when the one next to him did. He raised his head a little, analyzing the scents around him as quickly as he could. The place definitely smelled like sabers, maybe about five, but it wasn't strong the way it should have been. The snow must have swept through here too, muting everything. No wonder he hadn't noticed anything strange when he'd first entered the area.

Then again, he'd also been a little preoccupied by his thoughts at that point. Diego huffed in frustration once, and just shook his head when the saber next to him noticed and turned to look at him.

A moment later, the first saber came forward followed by another one. He wasn't as stocky as Soto, not even quite as built as his two henchmen, but he had that aura about him. From the discerning smile on his face to the relaxed slant of his ashy-orange tail, this was, without a doubt, their leader.

"Nate." He inclined his head once.

"Diego."

"He wants permission to travel through our territory." The saber next to Diego said, the cocky lilt to his voice having magically disappeared now that his pack leader was involved.

"That's correct," Diego added quickly. He really wasn't interested in drawing this conversation out to a ridiculous length, and he was even less keen on Nate's lack of reaction to his glaringly-obvious shoulder. "I mean no threat to your pack. I simply want to take the fastest route south."

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"I see." Nate nodded a little, and Diego thought he could see the other saber thinking. Or at the very least, hesitating slightly. It was impressive how almost imperceptible it was. After a moment, he made whatever decision he'd been pretending not to make and nodded towards the trees around them, "Let's go talk."

That couldn't be good. But Diego supposed he didn't really have much of a choice.

"We're good here. You can go back to whatever you were doing before." Nate called over his shoulder at his packmates as Diego followed after him into the snowy undergrowth. To his surprise, after a moment, Nate purposefully slowed down until Diego was able to match pace with him.

They walked side by side in silence for a couple of minutes, and Diego tried to pretend like he wasn't swiftly memorizing every sight, scent, and swell of ground. It was starting to make sense how the land was changing from the far north. Using Half Peak as a static point to navigate by, he was slowly piecing together where he was in relation to it. This patch of forest would probably connect to wherever the migration had disappeared to.

Not that any of that would matter if Nate suddenly turned on him and went for a kill. For as much as their body sizes were more or less evenly matched, he knew the saber next to him was the leader for numerous good reasons. One of them was bound to be that he was a vicious and merciless fighter.

He felt the sudden unease of imagining Manfred and Sid accidently stumbling upon this pack. Which, of course, led straight back to his earlier storm of thoughts. After this brief distraction, he was shocked by how much it hurt. Could they really be happier without him right now? Of course they would. It wasn't really even a question.

"So, why are you here?" Nate's polite voice pulled him out of his thoughts so violently that Diego involuntarily jumped and whipped around to look at him. The other saber raised his eyebrows, having taken a surprised step back.

Diego pulled himself together in an instant. "I'm headed south, like I said. I would have gone around if I'd known there was another pack in the area. I'm not looking for a fight."

Nate shook his head. "I know that you intend no harm. I'm just wondering what brought you here in the first place. I want to make sure that I know who's in my area. That's all."

"That's all," Diego echoed, unable to stop the hard edge in his voice.

"It is." Instead of going on the defensive, Nate's expression turned compassionate. If Diego hadn't spent so much time around Manfred and Sid in the last few days, he wasn't sure he would have recognized it for what it was. And it was somehow worse. "You don't seem to know anything about the area, so where are you from? Farther north?"

"Half Peak." Diego answered carefully. He doubted news had spread too quickly, but if he'd found no signs of Manfred or Sid, he'd really found nothing to indicate where his packmates had gone. They could have already passed through the area and stirred up trouble or turned any sabers they found to their side of the story.

Nate didn't seem to attach any special meaning to that location, though. Instead, his gaze finally shifted to Diego's shoulder. "That looks pretty painful. What happened?"

"My pack leader. It was a kill move for a mammoth."

"And your pack leader's eyesight was that poor?"

"I jumped in front of him." At first Diego was sure Nate was about to continue with, "So your eyesight was that poor?" But at the last second, he watched the slap of cold understanding that stopped the words and widened the other saber's eyes.

Nate really looked at him this time. Hard.

Diego met his eyes levelly, waiting.

"You jumped in front of the mammoth to stop your pack leader."

"Correct."

"And you're not dead."

"The mammoth didn't let him finish the job."

"The mammoth didn't…what?" Nate's face was incredulous, and Diego could see that this was exactly what the other saber had already sensed and had been searching for. He'd known that something big was brewing under everything Diego wasn't saying, and he knew enough to take it into account before letting a stranger enter his territory.

"The humans attacked our pack. My leader, Soto, wanted to pay them back for it." So Diego went through the whole story. What else was he supposed to do? Nate was quickly exposing himself as the type who would rather fight his battles across a variety of mediums. And there was a part of Diego that liked the fact he asked questions first.

Finally, he reached the part of the story that they were both waiting for. Diego relived the fight in its real version this time and forced himself to focus on the facts instead of Manfred's look of betrayal in those moments before Diego went on the defense. He also glossed over their conversation after Soto had been killed, skipping to waking up and heading into the snowstorm instead. "I think the rest is fairly self-explanatory."

They'd both laid down facing each other over the course of the story, and now Nate looked like he wasn't sure what to do with himself. Finally, he managed to say, "Your pack leader died because of that mammoth."

He had. It hadn't been part of the plan, but he had.

"You were his second in command; you betrayed him."

"I don't care."

Nate hesitated at the unapologetic look on his face, and Diego briefly wondered if that would be enough to let this conversation end. The likelihood of the other saber attacking him was definitely higher than it had been before. Still, he hoped Nate would just send him on his way with a good riddance and a growl.

"Again, I mean your pack no harm," Diego nudged.

Nate wasn't as quick to agree with him this time, and instead gave him another searching look. They both waited in silence for him to finish thinking. "I don't like what happened back there," he finally said, but then switched to a slightly more put-together tone. His mildness seemed to be more of a continuous façade than anything else. Even his pleasant tone returned. "You may travel through my territory. But I request that you wait until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"It's dusk now. I'm not totally sold on your intentions, and I'll feel a lot better if you're out of my sight when it's broad daylight."

That was so not the answer Diego had been anticipating. And he almost didn't agree to it. He needed to keep going, and he needed to track at night so that he could catch signs and smells of smoke. But he also didn't know how far down Nate's pretend calm went. Perhaps, instead of making yet another rash decision in the face of something inconvenient, it would be better to agree to the terms and go on his way with a slight delay. Still, he bristled at the thought of how much farther apart this could potentially put them.

"Fine." He finally said, and Nate's face didn't change, but Diego could have sworn he saw the other saber read his mind in that moment. At least, as far as trying to track down Manfred and Sid.

"Let's head back then and get settled for the night." Nate rose to his feet and waited patiently for Diego to get his good paw steadied and ready to bear his weight. Once again, they kept pace with each other back to the pack's clearing.

This was a good tactical move on Nate's part, placing a strange saber directly under his nose. They both knew Diego wasn't in fighting condition, and he wouldn't be able to do nearly enough damage to make it worth ambushing the pack members during the night. Plus, Diego suspected that Nate believed him more than he wanted to. There was no reason for him to wander into an unfamiliar place and attack sabers he didn't know. This was more of a precaution than anything else.

He wondered if Nate would say anything to his underlings when they got back. Most of the time, sabers that weren't attacked on sight ended up joining the pack whose territory they found themselves in. Perhaps Dumb and Dumber from earlier were already expecting it and trying to decide whether to accept his presence or "accidentally" dispose of him. They certainly hadn't been happy about Diego calling their bluff.

Yet another thing he definitely wasn't sorry about.

Groggy doubt stirred in the back of his mind then, reminding him of what he was currently sorry for and how much bigger of a mess it may turn out to be.

He couldn't help it, he glanced at Nate briefly as they walked. The other saber didn't notice, or at the very least didn't bother to respond. But a very small voice in the back of Diego's mind pointed out that this, too, may be an alternative. It was a miracle he'd found a pack leader willing to listen to his side of the story and let him keep existing. Maybe…

Diego regathered his focus as they reached the sleeping area they'd departed from. The rest of the pack appeared to be back, and there seemed to be four in total. Nate, the two boneheads, and a female saber that smiled at her leader when she caught sight of him. Nate nodded at her in a less-than-subtle way that was clearly meant to be both loving and noncommittal at the same time.

So he had a mate. Diego made it a point not to notice her as Nate introduced him to the three of them. "Ames, Cole, you've already met Diego. Rowan, Diego is traveling through our territory and will be staying the night with us."

"Sounds good to me." Diego didn't even bother to look at her as she responded in a lighthearted tone and went over to claim her spot on the hard-packed dirt.

"Sleep where you like." Nate turned to look him in the eyes once and then went over to lay next to Rowan.

Ames, or maybe Cole, he wasn't sure which one was actually which, just raised their eyebrow at him and then turned and disappeared into the trees to take first watch. The other one waited for Diego to pick a spot – which he did by backing up a few paces before sinking down – and then laid down in what appeared to be another well-used spot diagonal to his leader.

It was going to be a long night, and Diego didn't even bother trying to fall asleep. His mind was too busy working through everything that had happened in the last twelve hours. It was hard not to want to occasionally open his eyes and search the sky for signs of life. But that would be a big mistake, and instead he stayed still, trapped in an ever-growing feeling of hopelessness.

Okay, so maybe his panic during the snowstorm hadn't been entirely unjustified. His earlier dismissal of those feelings felt silly and desperate now. And before he could stop himself, he wondered if he really had just torn his entire life apart. Even more, if the alternative he'd been giving it up for was really even his to claim.

It had been easy to care when he thought they cared too, but for a moment, all he wanted was for it to go away. If they really were glad to be done with the whole situation – him included – then that's how he wanted to feel too. He wanted to let them go and move on. But no matter how hard he tried, it stuck like sap to his insides. Willing it to leave did nothing, and he couldn't stop the thought that this was too big of a mistake for him to fix. That maybe he'd feel the repercussions in worse ways than a throbbing, messed-up shoulder.

Maybe…his feelings weren't reciprocated. Maybe it was all for nothing no matter what he wanted.

His mind went on like this for an indeterminate amount of time, and he didn't remember when he finally slid into an exhausted sleep filled with empty holes and angry mammoths trumpeting.

000

He'd never admit it to Nate, but it was nice to wake up and not be alone in the morning. Opening his eyes and seeing where he was, was a good distraction. Diego was even happy to see Ames and Cole curled up near each other a few feet away.

They were both asleep, and Diego put his head back down and let the sun work its way up his body as it rose. No sense in waking anyone up right away. Instead, he let himself float in denial-ridden peace until there were more sounds of life, and he looked up and blinked as Rowan rose and stretched herself carefully. She gave him a little smile before turning and leaping into the trees. In his spot, Nate shifted a little, sleepily searching the spot where his mate had just been.

Diego looked back at the other guys, and a few moments later Nate quietly spoke up, "I suppose you're ready to get moving."

"I am." Diego turned his attention back to him. He tried not to let his thoughts from the night before show in his eyes.

But Nate just nodded and stood up.

"Don't bother, we're going." A yawning voice interrupted, and then Ames and Cole were both getting to their feet. One of them glanced at the spot where Rowan had been and frowned in annoyance before saying to Nate, "We'll track for a while and stay out of your fur."

The two of them left, the other grumbling to his friend about how it wasn't fair "how early she always gets up….makes us look bad…so annoying…"

Diego couldn't help himself, he shot Nate a surprised look. But the other saber just looked amused. He really did give his pack a fair amount of freedom. It made Soto's tight grip seem a little ridiculous. Then again, look at what had happened.

"You kept your word, and I expect that it will stay that way. You are free to travel and hunt on your way through my territory." Nate turned to him.

"I appreciate it." Diego answered, feeling a heavy weight between the two of them.

The sting of everything he was currently failing to make right hit him particularly hard as Nate said, "And, just so you're aware, we have not seen a mammoth and sloth pass through here together. I would suggest sticking to your original plan to go straight south. Most of the migration is well past the areas that I know by now."

This was, more than likely, his only chance to do this. And Diego started talking before he could decide against it. "You're a good leader. You run your pack fairly, and you care. That's rare. If you're interested, I would be grateful to accept a place in it."

"And when you decide that I'm no longer a good leader?"

"Soto never was in the first place."

Nate just looked at him for a moment, more than likely trying to decide whether or not he wanted to bother bringing up the obvious: that Diego wasn't the leader and it hadn't really been his choice to make in the end. He'd wrested power from where it should have lied, and it had played out in the worst possible way.

"I still don't like that situation." But he said it in a way that implied it wasn't just Diego's actions he was unhappy with. Maybe. It was difficult to tell for sure. "I'm sorry. You're unpredictable. I can't put my pack in danger like that. The answer is no."

"I understand." For as much as he'd thought he wanted this a moment ago, he was incredibly relieved. He would keep going and keep looking. No matter how much he wished that he knew what he was walking into with those two, he needed to at least try. After all, his "herd" may be waiting for him somewhere after all. For as much as it hurt to even think about trying to make things better, he couldn't bear to think of what would happen if they did want him to come back and he never showed up.

Diego didn't wait for Nate to say anything else, and simply nodded to him a little lower than necessary. Just enough to show respect and gratitude without implying that they weren't equals – a strange, strange feeling that Diego couldn't decide how he felt about since he'd never supposed himself equal to a pack leader in his entire life – before he turned and left.

The geography of these movies is…a little all over the place. Of course, there was the really great Stonehenge gag in the first film, and that placed them in England. However, I'm imagining much of this story taking place in Canada/the US. Once Continental Drift happened, I think most of it became kind of obsolete anyway. And these animals are traveling really long distances, so it works better to give them a larger space to roam.

Thanks for reading!