Disclaimer: I don't own Ice Age.
"My feet hurt! Woe is me!" Sid wailed annoyingly.
Although he himself wasn't complaining, Manny was aware that he was also exhausted. Fortunately enough, Howie wasn't the type to push anyone too hard.
"Okay, we'll stop here for the rest of the day. You didn't really have any breaks last night anyway."
Tanner moodily looked at the stub where his paw once was. He was currently sitting on Ellie's back, now that he couldn't go two feet without tripping over himself. "This is humiliating…"
Diego, having grown tired of Tanner's tirade, announced, "I think we should just take a break for the day…"
Everyone else was glad to hear that, as the tight pinch they had with the plants had worn all of them out. Tanner was especially happy to get off of Ellie's back.
"Tada!" Sid proclaimed proudly, admiring the fire he created. "Perfect warmth!"
"Sid, it isn't that cold," stated Manny.
Sid frowned at him. "Hey! Howie's cold. Right Howie?"
"I'm a zombie, so I can't tell temperature. Sorry."
Sid pouted. After a few minutes of silence, he couldn't take it any longer. "How'd you die?" he blurted out.
"Sid…" Manny hissed quietly.
Luckily, Howie didn't take any offense. "To be honest, I don't even know the answer to that. I was pretty little when I died, so I don't remember much about what happened."
Manny thoughtfully frowned.
"Wait, if you died as a kid, then why do you look so big now?" Sid asked, utterly confused.
"This is what I would probably look like if I was still alive, save for the scars and the missing eye, at least. It's not like I actually grew, but it's just a representation of the age I'm supposed to be right now… Did that make any sense?"
Sid shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry, but no."
Manny, deciding to speak up at that moment, said, "Howie, maybe…we should talk."
Sid was about to ask Manny if he could join the chat, but the mammoth, eying him knowingly, added, "Privately."
"So then Wiener came in and took on the hairy ape Gutt!"
"Who knew that kid had it in him?"
Louis blushed in embarrassment at the exaggerated stories and the rare praise he was receiving from the possums. Diego and Tanner were listening, and both were impressed, to say the least.
"So Little Moley did all that?" Tanner smiled for the first time since the loss of his paw.
"I…I only did what I did to protect the ones I care about, " Louis said modestly, avoiding eye contact with Peaches, who was smiling proudly at him. "At that moment, I never thought about the possibility of dying; I just acted on instinct."
A small flicker of a smile escaped from Diego's mouth. "That's what happens when you put others before yourself. Common sense tries to stop you from going out there, but what your heart truly wants always wins," he sighed, before getting up and walking off.
Crash and Eddie stared after him, with the former asking, "What's with him?"
Tanner looked uncomfortable. "He's been through a lot, so you might need to give him some time…"
"Time?" Shira repeated. "I already gave him some time; heck, we all did. I've noticed something up with him the second I saw him, but he only keeps on dropping occasional hints that don't help much at all. I know that he's known us for barely a day, but he knows that I suspect something, so I don't see what the point is in trying to keep whatever he's hiding a secret."
"He's not telling you guys anything because he's afraid to!" Tanner exclaimed exasperatedly. "Look, it's got something to do with that mammoth and sloth you're looking for. That's all I'm gonna say. This is a story that's supposed to come from him, not from me."
The herd fell silent, and Shira quietly got up and went in the direction Diego headed to. She found him not too far away, gazing out at the nothingness of the landscape. She broke the silence.
"You know them."
Diego looked at Shira from a side glance, not all that surprised to see her.
"You shouldn't just bottle up your feelings like this," she continued. "I'm here to listen. Whatever you say, I won't make any judgments."
He still didn't say anything, which Shira took as a invitation to add on.
"Do you want to know how I met Manny and Sid? I wasn't a lonely saber in search of a pack or anything. Instead, I was a pirate – first mate, as a matter of fact – on Gutt's crew. Long story short, I found out that he didn't have my back like I thought he did, so I joined the herd." She gave a slight chuckle at the memory. "But my point is that I know how you feel, not knowing who you should trust. Whatever happened had something to do with that Soto guy, didn't it?"
Diego kept quiet for another minute, before finally speaking. "Okay. I'll tell you my story. About Soto, Manny, Sid, and me. Everything."
"I once had a mate and son before I met Ellie," Manny began. "They were the most important things to me back then. We were one big, happy family."
Howie nodded slowly, soaking it all in. He wasn't sure why Manny was telling him all this when they barely even knew each other. However, he decided to let the other mammoth finish.
"We were migrating one year, and unfortunately, humans were camping nearby. They must've thought we would've made good fur coats or something, so they attacked us."
Howie's eyes widened slightly. He couldn't sworn that seemed familiar…
"There were a bunch of them, and they knew how to put up a fight. I told my family to run and hide, while I did my best to fend them off."
Howie's head suddenly started overflowing with memories. "Ginny, take Howard and find shelter!" "But…" "Now!"
"That was a mistake, because then they were completely unguarded. The next thing I knew, both my mate and son were gone forever."
He felt a spear pierce into his side, and he fell, slowly slipping into unconsciousness. The last thing he saw was the blood pouring out from his side…
"Those humans were merciless; they tried to kill me too, but seeing my entire family suddenly disappearing from my life put me into a blind rage. I fought back as hard as I could, and I think I might've even killed a couple, but I didn't care what would happen at that time."
"GINNY!"
"After they fled, I didn't know what to do with myself anymore, until I met Sid. He managed to pull me out of my depression. Not completely, but it was enough for me to stop contemplating suicide ten times a day. I finally moved on when I met Ellie, but that doesn't mean that I ever forgot about my first family."
"HOWARD!"
"…I'm sorry," Howie mumbled at last. "You were really affected by it, weren't you? And that's why he's promising you right now that he'll make it up to you. He'll do his best to reunite you with your new family, no matter what it takes."
"Soto wanted revenge on the human tribe that had slaughtered half our pack by kidnapping and eating the chief's baby son. I didn't say this before, but I was his second-in-command and the only one he trusted, so he told me that I was in charge of nabbing the baby during our ambush. I tried to do exactly that, but I should've known that the mother wasn't going to hand over her child so easily. So I chased her out of the settlement and cornered her at the top of a waterfall. But instead of just simply giving the baby up, she jumped over the edge. When I went back to my pack empty-handed, Soto was furious with me. He sent me to go find and retrieve the baby, and the next time I saw him, he was with Manny and Sid, and they were trying to find a way to return him to his herd."
Shira listened intently, word for word. What she had been trying to dig out of Diego was finally digging itself out.
"I don't know exactly how he ended up with them, but that's not important. Anyway, I managed to convince them that I could help track the humans down for them, when in reality, I was trying to lead them to another ambush from my pack. But…" Diego suddenly sounded slightly on edge. "Manny…did something for me, so my conscious kind of sprang up, so I, uh….betrayed my pack mates and decided to help Manny, Sid, and the baby escape. They weren't too happy when I fessed up at first though," he added, wincing at the memory of Manny pinning him against the wall.
"So you risked your life for them and got scarred fatally across the shoulder by Soto?" Shira quickly caught on.
"Uh, yeah, that's pretty much it."
"…Wow," was all Shira could say at first.
"You could tell them if you want," Diego said, breaking the awkward silence, referring to Ellie and the others. "Now that you know, I don't really care if your friends know too." He started to walk back to the group, but stopped when he heard Shira say, "I know I already said this, but thanks for saving me back there."
Diego turned back around with a smile – not a sarcastic smile, or one of his annoying smirks that always sent Shira over the edge each time, but a true, genuine smile. "No problem," he simply replied, and then he was gone.
Shira didn't move from the spot where she stood, mentally berating herself for thinking what she thought when Diego had smiled at her: He's actually kind of cute.
Despite this, however, she subtly smiled to herself. Maybe he's not as big of a freak as I thought he was…
Yup, confessions in both groups. Howie turns out to be Manny's dead son, and Diego finally reveals what was bothering him all along. I hope that didn't come too suddenly, but I really wanted to get it over with so I didn't have to worry about it later on…
So, as you noticed, there's been a slight relationship development between Diego and Shira. In case you're wondering, yes, those two will start getting along better now, though they might still have their little spats from time to time.
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