Hey, I'm back! I know, I know, I ought to update Roshan's Return, The Girls In The Ice Age and Ice Age Interviews! Well, for Roshan's Return I don't know what's happening next, for The Girls In The Ice Age none of the original 'Girls' are really friends now so I'm stumped at the mo (if you guys are reading this I hope you feel bad about yourselves for fighting over NOTHING!), and for IA Interviews I just haven't decided who I'm gonna interview next. Probably whoever gets the most votes and/or questions sent in.

Disclaimer: Yeah, this is in the summary but Taz is in this now so I kinda have to put it in so that people don't think that the amazingly awesome Tasmin Possum was invented/is owned by me.

Taz: I belong to scoobs5601 and I'm from their story Inside A Red Notebook!

Me: Good girl! *pats Taz on the head and gives her lemon flavoured Fruit Drop*

Taz: Yay! My favourite! *eats Fruit Drop*

Me: And now I'm gonna stop this before it ends up longer than the actual chapter or something. Hope you enjoy!

Taz: Got any more Fruit Drops?

Me: *rolls eyes*

Diego lay on his stomach beside the river, watching his lonely reflection shimmer in the small ripples. He sighed miserably. The quiet of the riverside soothed him, the emptiness of the little clearing he was in calmed his nerves, the-

"WOO! I'M GONNA BEAT YOU GUYS!" came a very familiar cry from the trees. So much for quiet, thought Diego, rolling his eyes. Peaches burst through the trees, swinging with her trunk of course, Meghan running not far behind. At trail of dirt was visible, and soon Louis popped his head out of the ground, brushing dirt out of his hair. So much for empty!

"Okay Peach, you win!" sighed Louis in defeat, to which Peaches punched her trunk in the air excitedly.

"Ha! I told you guys that tree-swinging is the fastest way to travel!"

"I don't care whether it's fast or not, I'm not tryin' it!" said Meghan firmly "I'll stick with being slow, thanks!"

"I'm with Meg on this one, Peach," agreed Louis, calling the girls their nicknames having become second nature by now "I'd rather be late and well than on time and puking my guts out!"

"Nice. Nice mental image there, Lou," commented Peaches. The three had grown so incredibly used to each-other in the months after Shira's capture that they naturally called each-other by their nicknames. In fact, if they didn't, people got worried.

Peaches, Meghan and Louis all stood there, chatting about nothing in particular, for several minutes until Diego made any noise.

"I take you guys were all having some kind of race to decide who's the fastest, right?" he asked, sick of being ignored. Peaches nodded.

"Yeah, that's right!" she smiled. Louis and Meghan both waved at the orange sabre.

"Hey Mr. Diego!"

"Hi Diego!"

"Are you guys seriously just noticing me?" Diego knew the answer; he just wanted to hear them say it for some reason. Everyone, outside of the herd of course, ran off in terror when he was near them. No-one ever failed to spot him, but it wasn't so bad when he had Shira around too. It reminded them that he did have a soft side, even if they almost never saw it.

"No," lied Peaches smoothly "You just looked deep in thought so we didn't want to disturb you."

Silently, Louis mouthed "Thank-you!" to her, and Meghan nodded firmly. Peaches chuckled lightly and rolled her eyes at her best friends in the world.

"Okay," Diego pretended to buy Peaches's excuse "I guess I was." He sighed again "I miss her Peaches."

"I know," she sighed "We all do. But, I think we all need to get our minds off her a little bit. I mean, almost four months and we're all still depressed over it? There's grieving, and there's letting stuff hold you back. This, it's holding us all back."

Diego nodded, knowing she was right. Peaches comfortingly wrapped her trunk around her uncle's broad, orange shoulders, hugging him close. For once, Diego didn't care what anyone walking by would think of a mammoth hugging a sabre. He was just glad of some comfort that wasn't Mikayla's creepy attempts at not flirting or his awkward moments with Buck, who also needed consoling.

The weasel had yet to get over the death of Rudy, the white baryonyx who he always fought. Nobody knew the cause of his death, but Buck and the possums had found the body one day when adventuring in the woods. Same day Shira disappeared actually, so Buck and Diego were kind of in the same boat on this one.

"Hey, how about we have a little campfire tonight?" suggested Diego randomly after a few moments. Peaches and her friends nodded excitedly, as although the plans for their campfire party were approved and remained a secret, they wanted to test a couple of ideas, and what better way than at an actual campfire?

"Okay then, I'll go talk to your Dad about it," Diego grinned at his neice and her friends before turning and walking off into the woods. Waiting until he was out of hearing range, Peaches turned back to her friends.

"So, I take it you two are sleeping over tonight, right?" Peaches turned to Louis and Meghan.

"Probably. But I ought to go check with my family first," answered Louis, and Meghan nodded.

"Me too. But after what happened at the Gyro-Drop a few months ago, my parents are cool with pretty much anything that keeps me away from the Brat Pack."

Since siding with Louis and Peaches, Meghan had started referring to Ethan and co. as the Brat Pack, which Louis and Peaches secretly found ironic, considering she was once a member. But neither would say it to her face, as the three had never once fallen out and they never wanted to.

Louis burrowed home to ask if he was allowed, but Meghan stayed for a little bit. Upon Peaches's encouragement, she attempted to swing on the branch of a nearby tree a couple of times, and utterly failed.

"HA! That's the patheticest thing I've ever seen!" laughed one of Ethan's friends, Drake. Peaches rolled her eyes, and Meghan copied her after jumping down from the tree.

"Drake, if you're gonna take the time to insult me, one of my BFF's, my Mom and two of my uncles, you could at least use proper grammar!" Peaches, after seeing the confused look on Drake's face, added "The proper grammer would be: the most pathetic, not patheticest!"

"In your own words: BURN!" Meghan grinned at Peaches's nod of approval. Then, they both swept their fringes out of their eyes with their trunks and walked off in unison. After getting out of sight and hearing range, they started giggling like idiots, holding trunks and squealing about their victory. I really, really, really hope he goes and tells Ethan all about it, thought Peaches, a grin spreading across her face, He'll think I'm soo awesome!

Diego sauntered off into the forest, pleased with himself. He'd checked with Manny, the 'leader' of the herd, and the campfire was approved and supported. He ran and ran for a bit, just burning off the extra energy he had for some reason, before his stomach started growling.

"Huh," he wondered aloud "I guess it's time for dinner!"

"Cool, mind if I tag along?"

Diego spun around, and was slightly surprised to see Mikayla standing behind him, panting a little.

"D-did you, follow me out here?" Diego asked her. She shook her head, but it was obvious she had. He rolled his eyes at her, but waved her along anyway. He didn't have an awful lot of friends, and he couldn't afford to lose another one.

"I. Am. SO. TIRED!" moaned Taz, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Why are you tired?! I've been carrying you this whole time!" Shira shook herself so that the small possum fell off her back. Lucky for Taz, Squint saw this coming and caught her just before she hit the ground.

"Phew, thanks Squint!" sighed Taz, before it dawned on her that Shira had purposely dropped her "Hey! Not cool, Shira!"

Shira chuckled to herself, but stopped abruptly when she felt something whip across her cheek. The sabre looked down and saw Taz, now standing on her own two feet, holding her tail in a threatening pose. When Shira growled at the possum, Taz struck the sabre again, but lighter, showing that they were only play-fighting.

This carried on for several minutes, and resulted in both of them rolling on the floor with laughter, while the other pirates just stood there and rolled their eyes at their younger sister as she laughed with Taz.

"Seriously though Taz, do you want me to carry you again?" asked Shira, still recovering from her laughing fit. Taz shook her head.

"Nah, I think I'll walk. If I'm gonna complain that I'm tired I might as well do something to actually make me tired!" The possum grinned up at the silver sabre. Their sweet moment was interrupted by Raz's pained gasp.

"Aw Sheila, your lil' ankle-bitah's are movin' around again!" the kangaroo complained. Boris had Lightning - who earlier in the day had opened his amber eyes - on his back, and Gupta was carrying Ghost, but Raz still had five of the seven cubs in her pouch and they wouldn't stay still. She didn't have any experience with joeys, so the only animals she'd ever carried in her pouch were Shira, Squint, Gupta and Boris when they were younger, and much smaller.

The poor, exhausted crew had docked late morning, and by now it was early evening, so despite her love for the little cuties, Raz was getting sick of carrying them. Shira sighed.

"Sorry Raz, we should be there soon!"

"You've been saying that all day," pointed out Squint "I think you're jinxing it or something!"

Shira glared at her brother, but she feared he was right, so she shut up quickly just in case. After around ten minutes of silence, they heard voices, one familiar, one new.

"That's Diego!" exclaimed Shira, referring to the familiar voice "See, I told you we were close!"

Then, without warning, she took off running. It took the crew and Taz a couple of seconds to process what had just happened, but when they did, Taz hurried after the sabre, muttering to herself about how annoying it was when animals ran too fast, with the crew trailing behind.

Shira ran and ran, hearing Diego and whoever he was with clearer as she got closer. Before long, she couldn't hear any more voices, but she knew where she was going by then anyway so it didn't matter.

"SHIRA WAIT UP!" yelled Taz, scampering after the sabre.

"Sorry!" panted Shira, slowing down ever so slightly "I'm just excited!"

Taz finally caught up with Shira, and hopped up onto her back as all the running had tired the little possum out. Shira didn't object, because this meant she could speed up again. She raced up to the clearing where the voices had been coming from, and would have crashed straight through the bushes, but she had a bit of a Louis moment and failed to see the rock in front of her. It was only small, but it was enough to make her face-plant the ground in a very undignified manner.

"Ow.." she muttered, getting up and rubbing her cheek "Well, that hurt."

But she shook it off, and for once Taz didn't take the opportunity to tease someone about falling, as they were right in front of the bushes now. Cautiously, Shira parted the bushes with her paw so that she and Taz could see, and guess what they saw? Diego and Mikayla. Kissing.

Shira's jaw dropped open, Taz's eyes grew wide, and both felt frozen with emotion. Taz was worried for Shira, and she had to admit she pitied the sabre for having to see that on her first day back. Meanwhile, Shira herself had a strange mixture of anger, hatred and heartbreak. When her blue eyes filled with tears that soaked into the soft fur on her cheeks, Taz decided the poor sabre had seen enough and closed up the gap in the bushes, sealing the new couple away.

"Look, Shira I-"

"Let's go," Shira interrupted her, starting to walk back to the pirates, a depressed look on her face.

"Uhm... maybe it wasn't what it looked like?" suggested Taz, but you could tell by her voice that she didn't believe that was true.

"He's replaced me," breathed Shira "He's actually replaced me."

"C'mon, I'm sure it's not like that," Taz tried unsuccessfully to lighten Shira's mood. Seeing that her attempts were fruitless, and watching Shira sink down to the ground beside a large oak, breaking down in silent tears, suddenly the possum's vision turned red. She whistled a complicated tune loudly, and Shira paused to listen as it echoed through the forest.

"What was that about?" she asked, her voice shaking with sadness.

"You'll see."

Mikayla and Diego pulled apart at a strange sound echoing through the forest.

"What's that noise?" asked Diego curiously, as Mikayla had been on the island longer than him.

"Oh, that happens every once and a while. Some sort of signal I think, but it rarely happens. And anyway, there's no danger to worry about."

Diego nodded, and before he knew what she was doing she had leaned in for another kiss, and for some reason he didn't push her away, despite how wrong it felt to actually kiss her.

Two young snow wolf cubs were playing together in a field, when they heard a familiar sound echo through the trees towards them.

"Ugh!" moaned one of the cubs "Why does Tasmin always call right when we're having fun?!"

The other shrugged, not realising it was a rhetorical question, and they took off into the trees.

The pirates joined an impatient Taz and a sobbing Shira just in time to see two wolf cubs charge through the trees. Tasmin leapt to her feet, as she had apparently been waiting for them.

"Rhianne, Herbert!" she exclaimed "What took you guys so long?!"

"Sorry Taz," the oldest, Rhianne, rolled her eyes "Our teleporter broke down so we couldn't come as soon as you wanted us."

"Whatever," muttered Taz "Rhianne, Herbert, this is Shira, Squint, Raz, Boris, Gupta, Silas and Flynn. They're pirates. Guys, this Rhianne and Herbert. They're, umm... some old friends of mine."

Taz didn't really want to explain the real story to the pirates just yet.

"Uhm... cool. So why are they here?" Squint said, trying not to offend them. Taz grinned evilly.

"They're excellent prankers. And they're gonna help us get revenge on that fudgebag of a sabre!"

"No!" everyone turned to look at Shira, who'd managed to stop crying long enough to talk "They're not."

"But Shira they're really good at pranks!" insisted Taz. Shira sighed.

"Look, no offense to them, but I don't care how good they are at pranks!" she sounded kind of despairing now "If Diego wants that-" she jerked her head in the direction of the clearing "-Then I hope he has a long, happy life with it!"

"Are ya sure, Sheila?" Raz lay a reassuring hand on the sabre's shoulder "Coz they seem like they know wha they're doin'. An' tha sabre deserves wha he's got comin' if ya ask meh."

"No," Shira repeated, shaking her head "I'm not getting revenge."

Raz nodded understandingly, and Rhianne slowly padded up to Shira, followed by her brother.

"If you change your mind, I'm sure Tasmin can teach you the whistle," she said kindly, licking Shira's cheek. Shira nuzzled both the wolf cubs, before letting them head back home. Silently, the pirates settled down beside Shira, comforting her, Taz deciding to lay down between her ears. The seven cubs lay down beside her stomach, hungrily nursing.

"I just... feel kinda bad not telling the herd I'm back," she sighed, after several moments of silence.

"Well, why don't we go and see them then?" suggested Flynn, ever happy as always. Shira sighed.

"Because I wouldn't know what to say to them. And anyway, I don't think I could stand being near Diego or that little witch after what we just saw."

"So, it's basically just Peaches and Louis that you miss most, am I right?" asked Squint, to which Shira nodded "Okay then, let's just go visit them!"

"No, they'll be with the rest of the herd by now," Shira closed her eyes to hide her tears "Besides, I still wouldn't know what to say. I mean, I can't just walk in there and be like 'Hey guys! I'm not dead, I have cubs now, and I've brought the pirates too!' Yeah... I'm sure that would go down well."

"Okay, good point," admitted Squint "But still!"

"Ah have an idea!"everyone looked at Raz "Why don'tcha jus' leave the kids a lil' present or somethin'? Ya know, jus' ta ease your mind 'bout not tellin' em yet?"

The crew made no noise for a minute or two as they processed the idea, but when Shira enthusiastically nodded and started grinning it was pretty much confirmed.

"Great idea!" Shira's face suddenly fell "But, what would I leave for them?"

Silence fell over them for a couple more minutes as everyone thought about what Shira could give to the kids as a present. Suddenly, Taz leapt to her feet as an idea came to her, startling Shira, whose head she was still on.

"Oops, sorry Shira!" Taz apologised quickly "But I have an idea! There's a Dahlia field not far from here! We could pick some flowers for Peaches!"

"Alright, but what about Louis? I can't just forget about him!"

"I agree, but I'm sure you'll figure something out."

"Okay, but you do know you're helping me with this, right?"

"Aw, nuts!" sighed Taz "Okay, okay, I'll help. But we'd better get going. The field's close, but I have no idea where this herd lives, so we should hurry to make sure we get there on time."

Shira nodded, but looked down at the cubs cuddled against her stomach. They weren't hungry anymore, but she still felt bad leaving them.

"Don't worry Shira, we'll babysit ze little ones for you," said Silas, earning him a lick on the head from his youngest sister. She thanked them, then headed off into the forest with Taz.

A few hours later

The herd's campfire was just about coming to a close. They were just finishing their 'campfire karaoke' thing, but it hadn't been the same without Shira there. Little did they know, she was hiding in the bushes with Taz. Louis could've sworn he saw a pair of glowing blue eyes in the bushes, but dismissed it as his imagination.

"Okay, one more song before we hit the hay?" suggested Manny. No-one objected, so he took that as a yes. "Alright, any requests?"

There were none, so it became obvious to everyone what song they were going to sing. Not needing a cue to know when to start playing, Louis been banging on rooks to create music.

"We are, we are, not your ordinary fam-mily but we can all agree that we are, close as close can be!"

"That's too close!" interrupted Granny.

"I wonder who's gonna sing my lines?" Shira muttered to herself. To her anger, Mikayla stood up to sing:

"So it don't matter what it looks like, we look perfect to me! We got every kind of love I feel so lucky indeed!"

Shira stopped growling as Ellie sang:

"They can keep on talkin', it don't matter to me coz, we are, we are-"

"Family!" everyone finished the sentence. Peaches smiled as she sung:

"Okay, so the links in our chain, makes us strange,"

"But really they make us stronger!" sang Ellie firmly. Peaches nodded.

"And I wouldn't replace not a thing! Mother-"

"Or father!"

"Go Manny!" laughed Sid.

"Coz we come from everywhere," sang Meghan.

"Searching for one's who care!" Louis hugged Peaches and Meghan's trunks as he sung.

"Somehow we found it here," Crash, Eddie and Buck grinned at each-other, proud of their singing.

"We found us a home!" sang Mikayla, much to Shira's chagrin.

"We are, we are, family!" everyone finished the song, and although no-one could hear her, Shira sang the last line.

One by one, the herd headed off to their caves, but Shira and Taz still gave it a couple of minutes to make sure the herd were asleep before sneaking out of the bushes. Shira started with the sloth cave, as it was the closest and her conscience had convinced her she should give Granny a gift too. She carefully knotted the long stalk of a flower around Granny's cane, muttering about the annoyingness of conscience's.

To get to the mammoth's cave, she had to pass the cave she used to share with Diego. She saw them sleeping next to each-other, not on the rock - as Diego still refused to sleep there without Shira - but it was enough to annoy her anyway. After a bit of nagging from her conscience, she decided she ought to leave Mikayla something too. She slipped into the cave, stuck the smallest flower between Mikayla's paws, and darted out again quick as a flash.

She hurried to the mammoth's cave next, being careful not to make any noise. She went to the tree where Ellie was sleeping first, and delicately braided a flower into the her hair. Next, she turned to Meghan, and tucked a colourful flower behind her ear. Lastly, she padded over to Peaches, who was asleep on the ground as she had friends over, and carefully arranged a few flowers in the mammoth's brown hair. Pleased with her work, she left the cave, and would've disappeared again, if she hadn't heard a voice behind her.

"Shira?" the voice repeated. Shira didn't need to try and work out who the voice was, as she recognised it immediately. She turned and saw Louis standing a few feet behind her, having obviously watched her the whole time.

"Hey Louis," she replied, trying to sound casual. His eyes grew wide, and Shira felt her heart melt.

"H-how are you here?" he asked, sounding confused "Y-you were... and Gutt took..."

"Louis," he looked up at the silver sabre "I'll explain it all, but let's go outside first. So we don't wake the others."

He nodded, willing to go along with anything she said at that point. He followed her outside, to the still-burning fire, where a small, slender possum sat, warming her paws.

"Ready to go?" asked Taz, springing up off the rock she was perched on, not seeing Louis.

"Well, uhm... you see, there's been a slight delay," Shira sighed, and stepped to the side, revealing Louis, who had been hiding behind her leg "Taz, this is Louis. Louis, this is Tasmin. Or Taz, for short."

"H-hi, Louis," stammered Taz nervously, brushing her fringe out of her eyes "Nice to meet you."

"You too," replied Louis with a grin, shaking her paw. Taz blushed a little under her fur, but Louis didn't notice. "So, Shira, how did you get here? When did you get here?"

"I got here this morning," answered Shira with a smile, accidentally-on-purpose nudging the two closer together after seeing the sparks between them "And I got here with some help from Taz and," she took a deep breath "The pirates."

Louis shuddered at the mere mention of Gutt and the crew, memories of that day when he had faced the monkey rushing through his mind. Sensing this, Taz gently guided him towards the rock she had been sitting on earlier, wrapping an arm around his shoulders for comfort. She knelt beside him as he slowly sat down, squeezing him gently. He smiled at her gratefully, his big eyes making her heart melt slightly.

"Sorry Louis," sighed Shira "I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't," assured Louis "I just, uhm..."

"I get it. That monkey's freaky, right?" said Taz with a grin, shaking her fringe out of her eyes again. Louis raised one eyebrow.

"You know Gutt?"

"Oh yeah, I've faced him too. Man, that dude was so creepy..."

"Was?" questioned Louis. Shira and Taz grinned at the same time.

"Let's just say he's pillaging in pirate heaven," explained Shira. Louis's face lit up.

"Awesome!"

"I know, right?" Taz smirked, her eyes meeting his. Shira let them stare at each-other for a little while, before she remembered how late it was and that her cubs would need her. She considered leaving Taz with Louis, but she wasn't convinced she knew how to get back to the pirate's without Taz's help.

"Uhm... Taz?" Shira tapped Taz on the shoulder "We, kinda need to... you know, get going."

"Oh right, yeah," sighed Taz "Okay so, do you think we could come back sometime soon?"

"Well duh!" laughed Shira, nuzzling Taz and Louis "I couldn't stay away from these guys for long!"

"Good," Louis smiled "Wait, why don't you just stay?"

Shira sighed "It's kind of a long story. I'll explain another time, but part of it is Softie and his new Kitty."

"Ugh," scoffed Louis "I hate Mikayla."

Shira grinned at him, before waving with one paw. Taz smiled awkwardly up at Louis for a moment, before giving him a gentle hug and standing up again. She helped him up, and waved as he walked back to the cave, not wanting to tunnel as it would leave evidence he'd been outside in the night. When he got to the entrance, he turned around again and saw Shira and Taz standing side-by-side near the fire. They both waved, and he smiled at them, before going back inside and settling down to sleep.

Shira and Taz smiled at each-other, and ran off into the bushes, as an un-said race had been declared.

So, whaddaya think? Yeah, little bit of LouisxTaz there. I know a couple of you have thought I was trying to start a TazxSquint thing... well, that wasn't on purpose, but I have an explaination for that now. It'll be revealed in later chapters.

Thanks for reading and please review! BTW, you guys probably won't care about this, but I went to see Les Miserables yesterday and it was AWESOME! I ended up crying for a lot of it though... yeah, I'm a wuss, so what?