Hello, it is, at long last, me. I would have updated sooner, but I wasn't feeling very motivated. That and my new obsession with Artemis Fowl was keeping me distracted. I actually tried to write yesterday, but Fanfiction crashed and didn't save. D'arvit. Toffee to anyone who got that reference. Anyway, thanks to TimberPaw for reviewing! Also review, reviews are motivation! So please, just press those little buttons on your keyboard, and write a few words. It will only take a few seconds of your life. It won't kill you. I sound like a Christmas charity ad. Maybe it's getting to my head. Shoot, this author's note will probably end up longer than the entire story if I don't shut up. Sorry!

Adsila curiously watched the strange group of animals. There was one old purple sloth. Adsila couldn't remember Gutt mentioning her. Maybe she was a relative of Sid's. There was also a short, golden-brown molehog with huge chocolate-coloured eyes. He gave the spies a shy wave, which Adsila returned, and Mia gave him a small smile. The two other mammoths waved and smiled too. They were both female, presumably Manny's mate and daughter. The older one had too possums perched on her head. Adsila thought that was odd, but didn't comment. Finally there were two saber-toothed tigers. Adsila had definitely heard of them. Both traitors. Gutt and Soto had particularly nasty deaths in store for them. The entire herd were staring at the newcomers curiously.

Manny cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention. They all looked up at him expectantly. The mammoth cleared his throat and spoke. "Okay, everyone, these are some guests. I met them in the woods today. The saber has an injured leg, so I decided to help." Sid coughed pointedly. Manny rethought. "The saber has an injured leg, so me and Sid decided to help." Sid grinned proudly.

Manny continued. "Any objections or questions?" One of the possums raised a hand, looking at Manny as if he'd just turned into a pixie and started spouting Gnommish*.

"Won't the saber eat us?" Manny rolled his eyes.

"I clearly said that her leg is injured. She can't walk, let alone chase you guys."

"Like I'd want to eat you rats," Annabeth muttered under her breath.

"Charming, isn't she?'' Adsila whispered to Mia, smirking.

Manny apparently hadn't heard, as he continued on. "So, we all need to introduce ourselves," he looked at the spies," You want to go first?" they nodded.

Adsila started. "Uhm, hi. My name's Adsila. I'm fifteen years old, and, uh, that's about it. Any questions?" Every hand, trunk and paw went up simultaneously. She randomly pointed at the old sloth.

The sloth smacked her on the head with a cane. "Where'd you learn to talk, huh?"

Adsila winced. That would bruise. "I was raised by animals. They taught me their language. Anything else?"

Everybody's hands, trunks and paws had dropped when she answered the question, so they moved on to Mia."Uh, hi. My name's Mia,'' she started in a tiny, barely audible voice. ''I'm from Europe** originally, but I've lived on the Continent nearest to here for most of my life." Nobody really had any questions, so they moved on to James.

The red deer was a lot more confident. "Hello, I'm James. I was born in Ireland, but I moved in the Drift when I got stuck on an ice floe." He grinned cheerfully at the herd, who grinned back. Adsila could already see James was going to be popular; he was just naturally friendly. Unlike Annabeth, who kept her introduction 'speech' to about ten words.

"My name's Annabeth. I'm from a desert in the continent. Questions?" Nobody had any. Frankly they were quite scared.

Jackson still didn't speak. Adsila wasn't even sure he could. James did his introduction for him. "This is Jackson. To our knowledge, he can't talk, but he could just be really antisocial. Because of this we don't know anything about him. Anyway, enough about us. Introduce yourselves."

They started with the older female mammoth. Her name was Ellie, and she seemed quite nice, saying she was pleased to meet the spies and smiling. Adsila and James had grinned back, Mia had given her a shy smile, and Annabeth and Jackson gave her death glares. Ellie's daughter was named Peaches, and the molehog was her friend, Louis. Both were about Adsila and Mia's age and also seemed pretty friendly. The purple sloth was referred to by everyone as Granny, even though Ellie explained that she was only Sid's biological grandmother. She was absolutely crazy. She had already nicknamed everyone, calling Annabeth 'Fluffy'. The look on the tigress's face when she had first been called that was pretty hilarious, actually. She had threatened to the sloth she would ''strangle you with your own intestines'' to which Granny had responded,'' whatever, Fluffy. I'm going to bed. Sidney, carry me to the cave, I don't wanna walk!" despite the cave being only a metre away.

The two posssums were called Crash and Eddie and they were apparently Ellie's brothers. Confusing, but they had promised to explain everything later. Finally, the two saber-toothed tigers were called Diego and Shira. They looked like they might be a couple, but were denying it every time the possums threw a teasing comment at them.

"So," Manny smiled,"that's all of us. Welcome to the herd."

*Yep, an Artemis Fowl reference. Yay! Pixies are short, cute creatures with cute names. Gnommish is their language.

** I know animals wouldn't call it Europe, but what else would I call it?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, R2R, people!