"Dad... "

Ugh, I know that voice..I just don't want to..

"Dad wake up!"

I know why he's saying that...

"Dad!"

The nightmare.

Cody pushed on Diego's muzzle again, hoping that his quick movement would wake the shaking saber. This was the fifth night in a row. Always the same...

Always.

With a loud yelp Diego finally jolted awake, panting and scanning the area wildly, though he didn't really know why..

No.. He knew.

It's been three months since the incident.. Three months since that dreadful day.. And on a night like this?

Always.

He shook his head lightly, staring into the grey eyes of his mate, who was laying down in front of him, watching his every movement. Shira had been like that ever since that day as well. Not afraid, just worried. Of course he couldn't blame her, for he felt the same. As for Cody? Apparently he doesn't even remember.. though to Diego that seemed more like a defense against having the topic brought up.

It was cold.. Unusually cold tonight. Though he supposed every night had been like this.. There was always this sort of empty light to be found within the noiseless atmosphere. A creeping silence that seemed to snake it's way into their lives, drowning out all sense of endearment.

Always.

Three months. He scanned the area around him. It was so quiet, so.. Isolated. Whereas before there would be life all around him now he found only loneliness. Where there was once love and happiness he found only emptiness. Yea, they left.. He was alone with the only family he'll ever have..

The thought brought a welling sadness.. It shouldn't, of course he still has the love of his life and his son, thanks to..

A tear had escaped him. After everything he had been through... Everything he'd endured.. Everything he'd done to make sure this didn't happen, and yet it still occurs. Why?

What have I become...

Manny couldn't handle it. It was too much for him. After Diego found them, he needed only look at Manny to see the hurt.. The heartbreak.. Once again, the mammoth had lost a piece of himself. Once again, he lost another family member. Diego was hurt as well but... He could only imagine. A couple weeks after Manny came to Diego and told him the situation..

"I just... I can't.. You'll always be my friend and family, but I can't.. "

Diego understood. He felt the same way. It was tearjerking to see Manny, the strong hearted leader just... Break right in front of him. Both of them were hurt and in shock at the suddenness of it all.. One day Manny saw him, talked to him.. And the next.. Nothing.

Nothing.

They had decided, before departing, to spend at least one night together, just the two of them. They sat in the darkness.. the cold, unfeeling darkness, and lamented. Without the fire, they were filled with a cold only one person knew how to warm up.. But he was gone.

"I'll visit you sometime buddy, I won't be too far away. You know I love you, and your family but.."

Those were the last words Diego heard come out of the mammoth. Of course, Ellie, Peaches and the possums followed, being that they were all related.. And here he is now..

"It's alright, Manny."

My sweetest friend..

He got up, not even speaking a word. With a heavy sigh, Diego walked away, giving Shira a loving lick before heading into the darkness.

He loved the darkness of the forest. There was something felicitous about how he felt when he was in the cover of darkness.. No one could see him like this..

Broken, weak..

He took a path, one that has become all too familiar to him. It brought him back. Back to better days, when things were simpler. It's funny really, this was the path he had always taken with Sid to play hide and seek with Cody.

"Argh..." He stopped, the image coming back to haunt him.. As it always does. Why? Why did this have to happen? Why did he have to be so stupid...

"Sid! Don't you dare!"

The moonlight cast itself on him, giving way to an almost other worldly glow. Beneath him, a puddle presented itself, and he obliged. He studied his reflection, the scarred eye which was now becoming more and more useless as time went on, probably from the claw hitting it. The puncture wound in his paw.. The claw marks on his side..

The stupid sloth had actually jumped in the water, to save him. As Terra clawed Diego's back, trying to bring him down with her, Sid found the courage and jumped in the water on top of her, successfully knocking her off of Diego. And as Diego turned he only saw a flash of the two fighting before going over the falls. It was... Horrifying, to think that that's how it ended.

The thought was almost alien to him..All of those times he had gone out of his way to pick on Sid for screwing up, or being cowardly.. And Sid still commits this ultimate act of selflessness, knowing it would bring about his untimely end. He hated it, all of it. The way it makes him feel, as if Sid was a better friend than any one of them ever was to him..

Well.. There was truth to that. And as much as he hated to think about it, he could only come up with one conclusion to all of this:

You don't know what you have until it's gone..

They had been unable to find the body.. Unable to find any remains. The only thing that they found was a trail of blood that led into the forest, but as they followed it, Manny and Diego quickly discontinued the search, finding the broken body of Terra partially eaten as a sign to end it there.

He was happy they didn't find Sid. If Terra's body was like that..Diego, against his will, could only imagine how Sid looked. The thought made him want to puke... As he had done before.

He had made his way to the top of a hill, to Sid's favorite spot... You could see nothing but berry bushes and trees for miles.. He sat down, taking in the view under the starlight of the Milky Way, which stretched it's dusty rays across the moon lit sky. Under the light, the shadows stretched across the land, joining the saber in a confused and conjoined knot of blackness unspeaking. Millions of stars... Millions of animals.. And you had to be the one..

Everyone I know goes away..

"Hey buddy," Diego said to the stars. His voice cracked, breaking up as he fought back tears he felt unacceptable to let fall. "Just uh.. Checking up. Wondering how you're doing." Waves of emotion set in as he sat there, attempting to keep his cool. A cool breeze hit his shoulder, causing him to shudder a bit, but took it with a smile and tried to keep it going.

"Yeah, yeah Cody is doing fine. He doesn't remember a thing..." Another breeze, a little sharper, nipping at his skin. He sat in silence, trying to think of something to say. He had done this every night and every morning, going to watch the sun rise and set at this very spot, and under the light of the stars finding conversation between him and nothing to be almost therapeutic.

"You know, I can't thank you enough.. Even though what you did was extremely stupid, you-" He was interrupted by his inability to finish the sentence. Tears streamed down his face as he mourned, still in disbelief that his friend suffered such a fate.

That it had to be Sid instead of Diego tore him apart.

Diego shook his head again, trying to clear his head of such thoughts for a single moment. Trying to claim a fracture of a moment of peace...

"You saved us.. You saved me. Thanks." He cleared his throat, attempting to clear the knot in it.

"Listen.. can you do me a favor?" He waited a moment, as if allowing his friend to ponder an answer.

"Can you watch over Manny and his herd? I mean.. Manny can handle himself but, he needs you bud.. more than I do. So, can you do that?"

Diego looked down with a solemn frown spreading across his face. In front of him, a rock jutted out of the short grass, with writing sprawled along the front in thin white letters.

"SID"

He bowed his head, and let the tears fall. He didn't care about weakness, about pride or anything like that.. He just wanted his friend back.. but just like everything else, he knew the time would come. And as he regained his composure, Diego looked back to the stars.

"I'll see you later buddy.." Never a goodbye...

In the End...

This was pretty tough to complete. I had just lost a couple close friends of mine and this story reminded me of them, but I pushed through it. I did my best to keep it on topic, and I hope you like it.