Louis was leaning up against his wall in his room, just relaxing. His quills still were sore and his leg hurt from half digging half walking home and of course, his eye was sill blue and purple, the only change was that he could barely open it now. When he and Lori had walked in his brothers stifled a laugh and his mom glared at them.

Louis ran his hand through his hair.

Louis, what have you gotten yourself into? He thought.

He had no idea how Lori and the herd were going to pull off scaring his brothers into not beating him up anymore. Louis sat Indian style and stared up at the ceiling, which he could barely see.

Just then Louis' dad walked in. he looked a lot like Louis and had broad shoulders and brownish gray eyes, which made a very strange color combination. He was much taller than Louis and had hair that was just barely longer than Louis'. He also had small glasses that were carved out of a log, rather than like Brian's glasses that were made up of sticks, that covered about half of his eyes and stayed about halfway down his nose.

"Louis?" He said to get his sons' attention.

Louis looked up and his dad flinched sympathetically.

"Your mother told me they beat you up."He said sitting down next to Louis.

"Yeah." Louis said looking at the ground.

"They're just big bullies." Louis' dad said. "And they don't have a female friend to take care of them." He said nudging Louis' arm. Louis smiled.

"You're the first one that didn't say girlfriend." Louis said.

"Why is she your girlfriend?" His dad asked.

"No." Louis said way too quickly.

"Ok, ok, sorry I asked." He said surprised. He was silent for a couple seconds and looked around the room. Then back at Louis "Is she cute?"

Louis looked at him in a What-Did-I-Just-Say manner.

"Yes." Louis replied.

His dad chuckled.

"So you do like her?" Louis' father asked.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. That's for me to know and for you to possibly never find out." Louis said.

"Ok, well, goodnight buddy." His dad said getting up to leave the room.

"Goodnight dad." Louis said as his dad left.

VVV

It took Louis forever to fall asleep. His injuries keeping him awake. And even when he did fall asleep, He didn't sleep well.

Louis was somewhere familiar. That's it, he was at The Falls. However the last time he had been to the falls he was 20. This was all too familiar to the molehog. Peaches was standing in front of him and he felt warm. Uh oh, this was getting worse by the minute. Before he could stop himself he blurted out something he would regret for the rest of his life.

"I love you."

Peaches stared at him wide eyed and shocked. She picked him up, carrying him over to somewhere there weren't animals all around them. She placed him on the ground and he looked up at her in confusion.

"Louis." She said gently and slowly. "Some things aren't supposed to change, and I think this is one of those things." Louis looked up at her in disappointment and felt tears come to his eyes. His ears flopped down and Peaches looked at his sadly.

Suddenly he was in a different place, somewhere in the woods, and Lori was standing in Peaches' place. His eyes were still filled with tears that threatened to drip down his cheeks.

"Louis, I just don't feel the same way." She said looking in his eyes.

Louis rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"No." He whispered. "This can't be happening."

Lori took a step toward him and he took a step back then turned and tunneled away in the direction on his burrow, tears running down his cheeks as he sobbed the whole way.

VVV

Louis jolted awake with a yelp and quickly realized his face was wet. He rubbed his eyes. He must have been crying in his sleep.

He pulled himself out of bed and limped over to the tunnel to his room and quickly left the burrow and started walking and thinking.

Now there was no chance of him telling Lori how he felt. Maybe he wouldn't have to anyway. There was still a possibility that it would go away, right? Louis looked at his feet as he walked. All he could hear was the wind and the trees that it would move. He listened to the song of the wind and felt its gentle pull on his hair. The wind mixed with a gentle tapping sound was the perfect thing so soothe his spirits. Wait, tapping sound?

Louis walked into a little fuzzy individual that almost fell backwards. He looked up and saw Brian, whose glasses had popped off upon running into Louis.

"Oh, uh," Louis reached for the glasses that were now sitting on the ground.

He handed them to Brian who put them on.

"Louis, I didn't see you there. I'm so sorry for bumping into you." Brian said.

"It's ok; I wasn't looking where I was going either." Louis apologized. Louis started walking and Brian walked with him. After a couple minutes of silence Brian spoke up.

"So what are you thinking about?" He asked.

Louis was a little caught off guard by the question.

"Nothing." He said. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

"So, I-I was just wondering, y-you know you don't have to answer, but I was w-wondering, what's g-going on with you and Crash?" Louis asked.

"Oh," Brian said in surprise and thought about it for a little. "I am not completely sure, but we diffidently not friends anymore."

"Oh, that's great." Louis replied.

"What's going on with you?" Brian asked.

"Uh, not much." Louis said looking away.

"Ok."Brian said awkwardly.

Suddenly Crash popped out of a bush.

"Where have you been?" He asked Brian.

"Sorry, I was restless so I went for a walk."

"With Weiner?"

"I bumped into him on my walk." Brian said. "Literally."

Crash stared at Louis. "Sounds like Weiner." He said.

Louis rolled his eyes.

"Let's go back to bed." Crash said and he and Brian ran off toward The Oak Tree.

Louis continued walking and before long it was getting close to dawn. He had no idea where he was but he could see the lake a little so he had a good idea.

He was looking at his feet again as he walked. The birds were waking up and began singing their morning ballad. Louis, at that moment, realized how big his feet were compared to his legs. He looked at them confused and stopped walking for a second staring at them.

All of a sudden another small fuzzy thing ran into him, and hard. Louis almost fell back and looked up. He saw Lori who had been knocked to the ground in the collision. She looked confused and scared. Lori looked up at him and the cheeks turned a rosy pink color. Louis raised his eyebrows. Usually Lori was hard to embarrass.

Louis held out his hand and she pulled herself up.

"Sorry I ran into you." Lori apologized.

"It's ok. Uh, I know you usually wake up at dawn but, why are you all the way over here?" Louis asked.

"I was wondering around and got lost on my way back to my burrow." She explained.

"Oh, well I can show you how to get back." Louis suggested.

"Thanks." Lori said relieved. "I know it's kind of stupid, but I was a little scared." She said.

Louis smiled softly at her. "No, it's not stupid. Come on." Louis said and started walking in the opposite direction he had been facing. Lori walked with him as the sun was rising and the sky was getting lighter by the minute.

"So do you feel any better than yesterday?" Lori asked.

"Well now that you mention it my quills feel better, but I can still barely open my eye. Um, this is sort of random, but what were you doing?" Louis asked curiously.

"I was just…walking." Lori said.

Louis looked over at her.

"So um, what do you have in mind for my brothers?" Louis asked.

Lori smiled deviously. "Well I was thinking that a certain mammoth could take them for a swing through the trees." Lori said letting out an evil laugh towards the sky.

Louis looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she looked at him and mimicked his face, and they both laughed.

Hello again. this did not take as long as I thought it would.