"Do you really think he'll agree to this?" Ellie asked, point blank.

"Look at him," Manny griped, voice almost too low to hear. Neither of them were sure if it was enough. "Who walks like that?"

Up ahead, Bodhi was practically dragging himself along. He'd insisted on staying in the lead all day even though Manny had repeatedly checked in with him at different times to see if he wanted to stop for a while.

Now, her husband was glowering at the saber's slightly swaying haunches.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "He's not going to like this."

"Then he should have been planning ahead and accepting help so it didn't get to this point," Manny growled, and Ellie rolled her eyes again when he glanced her way. Just so he knew that she was on to him.

They'd been having this argument off and on since last night, and while Ellie had been surprised when he first brought it up, it wasn't like she hadn't been waiting for it to happen. Her husband cared about everything. A lot. It didn't surprise her that it had taken him all of a week to start trying to pull their new aquaintance into the family.

"And you think that you grumbling about it is going to change his mind?"

"I don't care if his mind has changed. It doesn't matter. He needs to get off his feet and start riding. Even if I have to make him."

"Well, look at that, you really are a mammoth." She watched him go back to glaring, probably having not even heard her, and shook her head.

If Bodhi did catch any of this with that sharp hearing of his, he hadn't reacted yet. Although she certainly wouldn't put it past him to be eavesdropping and biding his time. If their positions were reversed, she'd be doing the same thing.

But the truth was, their positions could never truly be reversed. And she couldn't imagine having to do what Bodhi was doing, even if that was technically how she'd found herself here to begin with. While her and her brothers hadn't been planning to outrun the flood with anyone else and a series of revelations with their new traveling companions had changed her life forever, at least she hadn't been doing it alone. And she hadn't had other commitments to think about.

Ellie glanced ahead to where Sid was moping along halfway between Bodhi and them. That was another thing they were currently fighting about.

"Talk to him!"

"Ellie, he's fine. Just leave him alone."

It was no secret that Sid wasn't happy about Bodhi's presence. And still Manny refused to confront him about it. And he'd absolutely refused when Ellie offered to talk to him instead.

"Give him space. He's fine."

Yeah right. Just like how you were "fine" when he found you, she'd thought to herself. But she'd dropped it for the night. She knew her mate well enough to know that everything was much easier if she just kept at him about whatever it was. He'd break eventually. And then he'd talk to Sid, and the problem would be solved.

"Guys! Keep up!" Ellie called when the sounds of her brothers in the trees were getting too far behind them, and soon enough the two were racing to catch up. A few seconds later, they tumbled down a tree trunk, rolling over and sprinting to join Bodhi at the front. Sid, who was either deep in thought or doing his best to fall asleep while walking, jerked back for a moment before his shoulders slumped and he pressed on.

"He's jumpy," Ellie needled sweetly.

"He's fine," Manny grumbled. But Ellie knew her mate wasn't watching his best friend. His eyes were still on Bodhi, watching how his already strained walking pattern shifted as the possums ran between his paws and talked at him excitedly.

"You are such a softie," She muttered, completely unsurprised when her husband didn't give any indication that he'd heard.

Unlike him, she had faith that all of this was going to work out just fine. It would be nice if she wasn't the only one who currently believed it, but she'd take what she could get.

000

"So, um…did you end up meeting with Brian?" Peaches asked because the silence was starting to seem like her fault.

If Mayim noticed, her expression didn't change. Which wasn't really surprising. Instead, she sighed emotionlessly and glanced up at Peaches once. "No. I know he's busy. Brian supports me as a leader, and I know he would have found the time, but I didn't want to take him away from everything else when I can get the same information from Dad. What about you?"

"About…about me?"

"Since you're not connected with his herd and you and Julian make decisions for yourselves. I'm surprised he hasn't wanted to meet with you."

"I'm not really a leader," Peaches mumbled, and let the silence come rushing back.

Mayim hadn't been kidding when she said "a couple of days," and now the five of them were horizon-bound on a frosty, too-bright morning. Peaches was exhausted from another early morning search through the territory. It had, of course, turned up nothing, except she'd had the added challenge of dealing with a polite and very interested Cam who'd noticed her milling around and kept asking if he could help at all or if she needed anything from him. She'd done about as well talking to him as she had with Shira, and she'd just been slogging angrily back into the clearing to rejoin a barely stirring Julian when the three of them had arrived.

Now, Cooper and Julian were giggling about something from their place in the lead, and Sidney was darting between Peaches and Mayim, the massive trees that rimmed their path, and up ahead of the boys. Which meant that Mayim had, for some reason, placed herself next to Peaches. They'd been keeping pace with each other since they'd set out, and so far…it was going about as well as Peaches had been expecting.

It seemed like the harder Peaches tried to think of something to say, they only made it a few sentences before the subject inevitably dropped off a cliff and they returned to taut silence. To make matters worse, Mayim would glance at her sometimes as if she was waiting for Peaches to say something, but she was never quite able to catch the saber doing it. Other than that, though, Mayim didn't seem more or less content with their current arrangement.

But the more topics Peaches tried – their trip (fine, nothing terribly exciting), growing up here (fine, it was a nice place), being a pack leader (fine, she liked it), and now, meeting with Brian (she hadn't, but it was fine) – the more this whole thing felt like an ill-considered disaster. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and let her panicking mind run wild on the off chance it would come up with something – anything – to say. Unhelpfully, most of her thoughts refused to stop repeating what she already knew about Mayim: She was tough. She was distant. She was hard to get along with.

Currently, Peaches was finding those facts hard to argue with. But she also knew that Sidney and Cooper wanted to be here. When they'd showed up an hour and a half ago, Cooper had this huge smile on as his face as he'd entered the clearing and asked, "Adventure?"

She'd been hoping to sulk and maybe go back to sleep for a few hours but, despite her exhaustion and ever-increasing sense of failure, Peaches had to smile back at Cooper's excitement. Because he was being open about his feelings, and she was so, so grateful for that.

So here they were. And for some reason, Mayim wanted to walk next to her. And even though she hated the weakness of it, Peaches wanted the other girl to like her. Or at least tolerate her a little more clearly.

"So…what do you think of all this?" Peaches finally asked, partly for something to say, mostly because she'd been genuinely wondering. And, inevitably, half a second later hoped that it hadn't come off as a poorly-thought-out nudge to get Mayim to divulge feelings she may or may not be purposely keeping to herself.

"All of this…?" Mayim questioned after half a second of thought, and it was Peaches' turn to glance at her a few times. Their eyes met as Mayim suddenly looked up at her. "Do you mean about Half Peak?"

"Well…yeah. You know, our dads and stuff," Peaches nudged.

"I'm glad," Mayim nodded, still looking at her. "I know Dad's happy you're here."

"How can you tell?" Peaches asked sarcastically, just to try and keep the conversation away from the ledge for a little while longer. The back of her mind was currently trying to work through the odds that maybe this was why the three of them had insisted on being around. Diego was happy, and his kids wanted it to continue even if they themselves weren't thrilled about the situation. That still seemed unlikely for Cooper and Sidney, but it wasn't hard for Peaches to believe that Mayim was good at having feelings without sharing them.

"He's cranky." Mayim said, jerking Peaches back. To her surprise, Mayim's face had crinkled up into a smile.

"So…this isn't weird for you?"

"To be honest, not really. We grew up with this story." Mayim glanced at her again. "We're not freaking out nearly as much as Dad."

"He keeps trying to kick us out." Peaches griped. This was the complicated part of the conversation that she didn't want to get into right now. Diego knew darn well how she felt at the deepest, most emotional level. And it was why he went into panic mode whenever the topic of how long they were going to stick around came up. It made her angry.

"Apparently you're driving him crazy."

"Well he's driving me crazy." Peaches snapped before she could stop herself. Mayim quirked one eyebrow. Peaches knew her eyes were wide and probably looked very, very guilty.

Cooper and Julian had all but stopped, and they were both staring visibly back at her and Mayim. The boys looked between the two of them a little too obviously and then returned to whatever they'd been talking about. But their voices lowered and Julian leaned closer.

Peaches made herself focus back on her more immediate problem. "I…I mean…"

"You don't have to explain yourself." Mayim cut in swiftly. "I don't think Dad really understands where you're coming from."

"Maybe if he'd listen to me he would."

"He's too close to the situation. And he knows it. Besides, your feelings are yours. Whether he likes it or not."

"And if I keep repeating myself and he never gets it?"

"Dad's stubborn, but he'll ultimately see reason."

"…Yeah." Right. Peaches had never been so grateful for awkward silence as she was in the solid minute of it that followed. Talking to Mayim was like talking to Shira, only a thousand times worse because she had absolutely no idea how much the other girl knew, or for that matter cared, about the whole Buck thing. Shira and Diego had obviously filled them in on what was going on, but she wasn't sure how much their conversation had focused on the details. "Can you…can you hear them?" Peaches finally asked, lowering her voice a little and motioning toward the boys, "Are they listening to us?"

"I can hear enough," Mayim answered tonelessly, and Peaches immediately got the sense that she wasn't going to be sharing whatever it was. In fact, she'd probably been listening to them the whole morning. Now, Mayim watched the two of them walking ahead, looking slightly annoyed.

"Dad is just stressed out with the pack and wants to make sure everyone is safe." Sidney's voice called suddenly, from nowhere, and a moment later she shot up from where she'd been lagging behind, investigating snow drifts. She kept pace with the two of them for a few steps, either purposefully ignoring the glances the boys were once again sending their way or not caring enough to look. "And with you guys here, he feels extra responsible for you."

"I guess," Peaches conceded, not trusting herself to say anything more.

"Plus, everybody's really freaked out about Merle," Sidney added and immediately cut across their path and disappeared into the trees on the other side.

"Is she always…"

"Everywhere at once? Yeah." Mayim had turned to watch as her sister swiftly blended into the snow-swept trunks. On the barest edge of the horizon, over the tops of the trees, there was a towering shape that hadn't been there a breath ago. "But she's right about Merle."

"Are you…what do you think about Merle?" Peaches asked before she could convince herself not to.

Mayim looked thoughtful but unsurprised by the question. She cocked her head after a second of thought. "I don't know yet."

"Jackson said he wasn't doing well."

"I have not been to see him personally, but I've heard enough rumors to tell me the gist. An unknown intruder at the edge of the territory. Ran off when it was clear that they couldn't take him down. Nobody knows how anything could have done that much damage. And, worst case scenario, he was prey."

No. Not worst-case scenario. "So no one really knows where to go from here."

"Exactly." Mayim's voice was neutral, and Peaches doubted that if Diego had said anything about her own strange behavior that Mayim would be able to completely hide it successfully. It wasn't surprising that he hadn't said anything. Especially since he didn't even take her seriously.

"I'm sorry that you came home to this." Peaches finally said after a brief rundown of other possible responses, none of which, she supposed, were ultimately going to be more than emotion-fueled nitpicking.

"I'm sorry that we weren't already here. And not just because of Sid."

When Peaches looked down at her in surprise, Mayim didn't look away from where she was staring straight ahead. And her pace hadn't changed. But there was an uncharacteristic tightness in her normally stick-straight posture.

Much like Peaches' own unplanned outburst, she doubted that Mayim had said that because she actually wanted to talk about it. "Are, um, are those the cliffs?"

Mayim looked to where she was pointing with her trunk. "Yes. We should be there soon. Another half an hour or so. Sid will probably come back soon and scout up ahead. If she doesn't finish checking the area first."

"Of all the things I hadn't been expecting about this trip, I think Sidney's the craziest. Uncle Sid doesn't do much except sleep and eat. And he doesn't know the first thing about tracking." Peaches thought for a moment about the conversations he and Dad would sometimes have. Or how Uncle Sid was always quick to back up Uncle Crash and Uncle Eddie when they were up to something Mom wouldn't like. Or how he smiled all the time and probably would have invited all three of the sabers to stay the moment he met them. "But other than that, he's basically your sister."

"Really?" Mayim asked and then added. "We have a family joke about how our parents named her that and it basically shaped her entire personality."

Peaches burst out laughing.

Mayim returned the smile obligingly, tone reverting from wondering to matter-of-fact. "But this won't go on forever. I hope you haven't felt unsafe here."

"We haven't." Peaches acknowledged, not making an effort to hold on to her smile as it slipped. "Julian is making a lot of friends. I'm, um, getting to know the area pretty well."

"If you need anything-"

"I'm…We're fine." Peaches hadn't even been ready for her own straightforward statement, but Mayim simply nodded, and they returned to silence for another few minutes. This time, Peaches hoped it would stay that way. She'd been starting to have fun, just now. Talking to Mayim had felt really good. But the truth was, everybody here already knew who she was, and she needed to stop kidding herself that they were going to take her seriously. Besides, this wasn't even really about them. This was about finding Buck and figuring out what the heck was going on. Before it was too late.

And if Mayim was stepping in to try and shelter her too, either because of Diego or simply because she was one of the leaders, Peaches would rather not continue these exhausting interactions. They both had better things to do, and no amount of empty small talk was going to change that.

"We're almost there!" Sidney shot from the trees into the silence, easily outpacing Julian and Cooper. "Race you!"

"Hey, no fair!" Julian cried and immediately took off at a run after her. Cooper looked between his sister, who had become an almost invisible blur against the snow, and Julian, scrambling as fast as possible in a futile attempt to catch up, before taking off after them.

"Wait up!"

"Mayim." Peaches said as soon as she was sure Cooper was too far ahead to hear and unlikely to turn back. She stopped walking, and when Mayim noticed, she immediately did too. They faced each other, and Peaches forced herself to look the other girl in the eye. "It's okay, you know, if you don't want to be around all the time or anything…I just…this is your home, and we just showed up here. I won't be offended if you guys want to do your own thing. It's okay. We're okay."

Mayim stared at her for a moment, expressionless, and then nodded. "I know."

"Okay."

They started walking again. Just as Peaches was starting to wonder how she was going to break this news to Julian – starting to wonder how he would have handled this, Mayim's voice pulled her forcefully back. "I don't know if Jackson's mentioned it to you yet, but there's a meeting tomorrow about the newcomers. There are enough animals arriving for Brian's meeting that we need to formally discuss how we're splitting up the territory space. The meeting is set to start in a month, so there will be even more showing up soon. You may want to come."

"Jackson?"

"I know you said that you don't think of yourself as a leader, but you basically are. And since Dad mentioned you two are friends, I wasn't sure if he'd talked to you yet. He should be keeping you in the loop, especially if he knows that Dad isn't."

"He hasn't mentioned it," Peaches murmured before she could let too much emotion creep into her voice. She hadn't talked to Jackson since Shira had interrupted their conversation the other day, and she doubted that he'd been missing their on-the-down-low meetups. And now that Mayim brought it up, the hurt that Peaches had been carefully denying in his absence flared up. They'd had an agreement, been partners. Not friends. And she shouldn't feel so bad about the fact that he hadn't sought her out since. Or that it suddenly made her feel like they'd just arrived here all over again.

"I'm not surprised. He's been taking more solo patrols lately." Mayim went on, and Peaches retraced her thoughts to figure out what in the world they'd been talking about.

"He's taking…wait, what?"

Peaches hadn't been able to keep the emotion out of her voice this time, and Mayim glanced up at her. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet; he's been gone every time we've checked in with Mom and Dad, but based off of what Cam said he's been doing checks when he can. Mostly perimeter."

Did that mean…? No, of course not. Jackson was busy, and he was probably putting out a dozen fires continuously because that seemed to be all Diego was ever doing too. Shifting rotation schedules to compensate for newcomers in the area, calming those newcomers down when they realized how close they'd be living with predatory animals for the next few weeks, coordinating with Brian's herd, and overall trying to wrangle, as Diego liked to say, a ludicrous number of sabers into doing what they were supposed to do.

"Either way, we need to talk," Mayim added. "It will be easier to coordinate with him than Dad since he knows the pack's schedule better. Although I'd prefer not to have to track him down."

"I'm sure he's doing something important?" Peaches tried.

Mayim looked like she believed her about as much as Peaches believed herself. And in a moment of panic, she imagined Mayim, blissfully unaware, talking to Diego about where his second in command was and the situation spiraling from there.

"I asked Jackson for help." Peaches said quickly, and when Mayim stopped and tilted her head up so that their eyes met, Peaches took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. She wasn't going to get this right, but she knew she had to at least try, "I'm looking for Buck. I think he's right about a dinosaur attacking Merle, and I think that the only way to fix all this is to find him and get his help. But he left the area before I could talk to him the day he was here. I've been wandering around trying to find where he comes and goes from, and I asked Jackson to help me."

"Did he assign rounds to check specifically for that? Or someone to track with you or to rotate?"

"Um, not exactly."

"Did he do anything?"

"He asked his packmates to be on the lookout for anything strange." Peaches had to restrain herself from pouring out a long explanation. "And we met up every few days to talk about anything we might have found. Which was basically nothing. I told him he didn't need to worry about it anymore and that I would keep looking on my own. I know he's busy."

"And my dad?"

"I talked to him about the fact that I was actually born down in Buck's world – it's a long story – but since I don't have any direct memories of it, he thought it was just a story that my parents made up. He wouldn't listen. And that's when I went to Jackson."

Mayim's frown deepened. "Fine. We'll take care of this when we get back."

"When we…what?"

Wait, did Mayim actually look…guilty? Was that her guilty face? Peaches was so busy trying to figure out the sudden weird change in her expression that she almost missed her answer. "Since we're almost there, I don't know that it's worth it to turn back now. And Cooper will be pissed if he doesn't get to actually get to the cliffs. Not that this is more important than finding Buck."

"Do you…agree with me?" Peaches finally figured out how to ask.

"Of course. Jackson is acting like a fool." She growled, as if that was that, leaving Peaches to practically trip after her as she resumed walking.

"He agrees with me that something weird is going on." Peaches offered quickly, feeling the need to shift the conversation slightly back in his favor. He had agreed to help initially after all.

"But he's not doing everything he can." Mayim growled. "Apparently no one but you is."

"So…you're not going to tell your dad?" she finally asked breathlessly once she'd caught up to her.

Mayim looked at her sharply, and Peaches' heart leapt at the sight of the shrewd fire in her eyes. "Absolutely not."

"Thanks."

"Of course. I can't believe Dad completely dismissed you." Mayim shook her head and, once again, went back to walking in stoic silence. Peaches felt like she'd just run two miles and spent the next fifty steps trying to get her breathing back under control. This was so not what she'd been expecting. So, so, so not what she'd been expecting… "Thank you for doing this anyway."

"Yeah, um, sure. No…no problem." Peaches tried to take big, steady gulps of air and ignore how winded and stupid she'd just sounded.

"And now you definitely need to be at this meeting." Mayim continued, glancing at her again, much the same way she'd been doing so far. But her expression hadn't changed. If anything, it was almost like she'd expected as much. Which was impossible because she clearly hadn't known anything about this.

"Mayim, I don't know that I necessarily have anything to add."

"I mostly just listen." Mayim met her eyes and nodded once. An offer of reassurance and point-blank encouragement. "You'll be fine."

And it hit Peaches all at once that she'd been doing this wrong. Mayim wasn't here to keep an eye on her siblings or please her parents. She was making an effort. She was trying to befriend Peaches. And this was her way of doing it. Her emotionless, direct, confusing effort at connecting.

And it made Peaches feel better all at once. It would be a lie to say that most of it wasn't caught up in the realization that Mayim didn't hate her. Sure, it was nice to have her on her side about Buck. But, just for a moment, Peaches let herself feel into how good it made her feel to know that Mayim was here for her. That she wanted to be here for her. Just…because.

Mayim jerked her head toward the steadily growing mass of rock, "I suppose we'd better catch up with them."

Peaches took a moment to get her emotions back under control before matching Mayim's slightly faster pace. "Yeah, sounds good. Let's go."

000

The cliffs were too sheer to climb. And really, it was just one big cliff that stood about three evergreens high, it's thin lip a cut against the icy blue sky. But it went on forever, right in the middle of what seemed to be the hilliest part of the forest.

The other three were already standing at the base when they joined them, and all five of them looked up.

"It's…flat." Peaches finally said. She was still trying to pick out any coherent routes up the face of it. From afar, it had seemed to be mostly outcroppings and fissures, easily climbable, but it was smooth up close, made of a slick black stone, and the light reflected off its wet-looking angular edges.

"Sorry." Julian offered when she finally gave up.

She grinned at him. "It's fine."

Cooper looked between the two of them suspiciously for a moment and then shook his head, "Peaches, the cliffs are to look at and play tag and stuff near. We don't go up them. There's no way to go up!"

"Also, Cooper is afraid of heights." Sidney added before Peaches could plunge into doing something reckless just to prove him wrong.

"It was your idea to come here!"

"To come here. Not to die trying to climb up there!" He shouted back as Mayim and Sidney looked at each other.

"Cooper's mind works two minutes ahead of him."

"More like thirty seconds."

"And he's still alive?"

That made both the girls grin as Cooper huffed a dramatic, "Hey!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Julian asked motioning for them to lead the way. "Let's explore!"

"Good idea." Cooper rallied. "Come on! We didn't get to go this way last time."

He took off with Sidney close on his paws, and Mayim broke into a lope after them. When Julian turned and stretched out his trunk to her, Peaches gave him a warm smile in return, wrapping hers around his, and they took off at a run together.

000

They'd wandered the base of the cliff for a little over an hour until Mayim checked in with Sidney about their location and she reported they'd only made it about a fourth of the way around the massive formation. They decided it was time to call it quits and start heading back.

Sidney and Julian had gotten wrapped up in a teasing argument about whether or not exploring required tracking skills, and now Sidney was crouched playfully in an attack stance, daring him to keep arguing with her.

"I don't fight my family members," Julian announced diplomatically before his tone turned goading. "So I respect your incorrect opinion."

He grinned as Sidney's slight growl turned into a low, reverberating rumble.

Half a second later, a paw-sized lob of snow hit him right between his eyes, and soon all of them were chasing each other along the cliff wall and into the trees, throwing snow whenever they could and screaming as they got pelted in return.

Peaches made an easier target than the sabers, but every time a clump of packed snow came her way, she swiped up a huge amount with her trunk and sent it flying in that direction. Surprised yelps usually resulted, which probably meant they were about evenly matched.

She was just about to target a clump of bushes that was too saber sized not to have one of them hiding behind it when Julian stumbled through the trees, bucking wildly with Sidney clinging to his back and scream-laughing as she was tossed around with his momentum. Peaches paused, watching her husband frantically spinning in circles and melting into a fit of giggles when he eventually tripped over his own feet and hit the ground.

There was a sudden sound behind her in the silence, barely within hearing, and she spun around and grabbed Cooper before she even knew what she was doing. Suddenly she had him wrapped up in her trunk and dangling above her head. All she could do was blink at him for a second as it sunk in how much her searching had changed the way she noticed her environment.

Then she laughed, because Cooper looked extremely uncomfortable. "What's wrong? Too high?"

"I will not hesitate to throw up on you." His eyes had narrowed.

"Do it." Peaches smirked back.

"Fine," he snapped after barely a second of deliberation. "But we negotiate surrender with me on the ground."

"Way to concede gracefully Cooper." Mayim trotted into the clearing. Little bits of snow were stuck in her fur, winking along her back in the sunlight.

"Deal." Peaches lowered him down slowly. Partly to rub it in his face. Partly because, even if she'd never tell him, she did believe him about the potential for throwing up. Best to take it slow and then bail and drop him the rest of the way if that didn't work. "You really weren't that high up," she said as his paws touched solid ground again.

"Shut up," he grumbled.

The three of them glanced over to Julian who was still flat on his stomach with his legs splayed out around him. Sidney had thrown herself flat as well near the top of his head, her face buried in the tuft of longer fur at the crown. "Did you just…whisper that I lost?" he asked a moment later, cocking his head slightly to one side.

A muffled giggle answered his question.

He beamed.

After taking a few minutes to regroup, the five of them headed back to their initial starting point and sprawled out in the snow at the footings of the cliff.

"This area reminds me of how Dad talks about Half Peak." Sidney said after a while from somewhere to Peaches' right. She'd practically buried herself in the snow, and her voice was quiet and muffled.

"What else does he say about Half Peak?" Peaches asked softly, staring up at the saturated blue sky above them. It seemed shallow, like an iced-over puddle, white-tinted on the peripherals and thin enough that she could easily crack its surface.

"It was the pack's home base." Cooper answered in a sleepy voice. He was to Peaches' left, and if she turned her head far enough, she could just catch sight of his outline, the orange fur on his back half buried in the snow as he, too, stared skywards. "It was big, bigger than it looked at a distance. But even before the migration there weren't too many animals around, so they had to venture closer to the humans' temporary camp to hunt."

Julian, who'd gotten as much detail as Peaches could remember from her conversation with Diego but otherwise hadn't been told anything else, shifted his weight, making the frosted snow around him crunch. "Was it hard for him? The humans killed half of the pack, right? It seems really sad."

He was lying in the snow a few feet away from Peaches at an angle that prevented her from being able to look at him. But he sounded a little more awake than her and Cooper.

"Honestly, not really."

"Packs aren't like herds." Mayim added. She hadn't said much since they'd all collapsed here, other than to fill her siblings in on what her and Peaches had been talking about. Now, she was lying on her stomach a few feet away parallel to Peaches' head.

"Packs are usually about survival. Sometimes they're more, but it's not the rule." Mayim went on. "That's why Dad was so surprised when Manfred went back for him during the lava geyser disaster."

"Mayim prefers to use the term 'disaster' to characterize it because she maintains that she would have been smart enough to get a running start." Cooper drawled.

"Pack leaders need to be good at thinking ahead."

"So what you're saying is that Dad is technically underqualified for his current position." Cooper returned easily, as if this was a usual topic of conversation between them. "But to answer your question Julian, no not really. Not the way you would feel if it happened to your herd. But I do think it affected them. And Soto was the worst off. It kind of took him down. Not that he was all that great to begin with. Most pack leaders aren't."

"Stop looking at me meaningfully." Mayim snapped a moment later.

A giggle came from Sidney's pile of snow.

"I think you're a good pack leader Mayim." Julian added.

"Don't patronize me."

"I would never…"

"I just can't believe Merle knew about all this and he didn't even tell Jackson to do something about it. That he didn't even agree with Jackson about it." Cooper repeated suddenly for at least the third time.

He and Sidney had also completely agreed with Peaches' side as soon as they'd settled down enough to stop giggling and randomly tossing out empty threats of revenge.

"I can't believe Jackson didn't take any initiative and Peaches had to drag him into it." Mayim returned to her own personal sticking point.

"Just remember, Dad will be really angry with you if you kill his temporary second in command." Cooper's head swiveled in their general direction.

"Shut up."

Peaches laughed at their bickering, facing skyward and closing her eyes contently. It felt like she was floating there in the snow. Although, that was probably the slowly diminishing adrenaline from earlier.

"Either way, Peaches is right about Buck." Mayim was saying in response to Cooper's half-serious, half-teasing questioning about what she was going to do if Jackson still refused to help. And when she turned her head, Mayim nodded to her. "We need to find him."

Peaches gave her a smile in return, not surprised or bothered when Mayim simply dipped her head in acknowledgement.

She went back to facing skyward, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. This was one of the best days she'd had in a long time. And very different from other days she considered high points. It felt good.

"We need to start heading back." Mayim said after another few minutes of blissful silence. Almost immediately Cooper was on his feet and going over to dig Sidney out, who'd apparently fallen asleep in her snow cave sometime in the last five minutes.

She mumbled and batted at him as he started nudging her with his nose trying to get her to wake up. Julian had twisted around to look at the scene, and he rolled back and forth a few times until he'd regained his feet. "I've got her."

He reached down into the pile, and picked her up, holding her around the middle with his trunk as he swung around-

-and promptly dropped her in a nearby snow pile.

Her head popped up a second later, and she grinned evilly – at least, as evilly as she was probably capable of – and scrambled out of the drift after him. Soon, he was yelling about getting revenge as she chased him through the snow.

"Guys, come on, I'm tired!" Cooper whined but starting loping after them.

"Yeah, she's exactly like him." Peaches turned to Mayim when it was just the two of them again.

The other girl glanced over at her, the smallest of smiles stealing over her face when their eyes met. Peaches grinned back, nodding.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's head home."

I wanted to get this out so badly last weekend (and the weekend before that), but it still wasn't there yet. It's been a bit, huh? I promise I've been working on this, but these conversations were tricky to balance. I literally have a notes document for just this chapter that's longer than the finished chapter itself. *Facepalms*

I also don't think I've ever had writer's block quite like I've been experiencing in these last two months. It's amazing what unrelated projects I find to work on when my brain's like, "We have free time! Are we going to write now?" My introvert brain likes being inside and forgoing social interaction, but my creativity runs on being able to physically sit in Starbucks, so…yeah. Plus, I've been trying to take some time and space away so that the entirety of my living space isn't only a working/furiously-typing-away-on-my-computer-after-working zone.

That being said, I hope you're all doing well, staying safe, and doing the activities that make you happy! Thanks for reading, and hopefully it won't be another two months!