Wow! I uh, was honestly not expecting this many views! Glad to know that you guys like this story! I figured that since a lot of people like the Diego/Shira pairing that in the end you wouldn't bother reading it, but I stand corrected!

Anywho, I could just continue on with the story but now I'm just gonna ramble on some more and reply to ur reviews:

Shiego627: Haha, yep! Gotta luv that devious character! Hope this update is soon enough for u!

TimberPaw: Thanks! I worried a little bit thinking that I might have rambled on with the detail a bit too much, but I hoped that it would make it more unique and make it stand out more than the other stories. Hope u like this update!

Dodgerxrita: Yeah, that was the original plan. I don't exactly have a plan for how it would turn out, but I was just hoping that I would...y'know, wing it! XD

Btw, Italics means telepathic communication.

Warning: OC pairing, Don't like, DON'T READ!

Disclaimer: Don't own the Ice Age franchise or any of the characters in it; that all belongs to Blue Sky

As soon as dawn came, all hell broke loose.

Zeke and Lenny were fighting off the wolves that were set loose from their leashes, while Soto and Oscar fought off the humans who tried to spear their pack members from the back. The sound of roars, barks, human calls and clashing weapons were ringing in Taura's ears as she sneaked towards the chief's tent right behind Diego. In the beginning, Soto gave orders for her and Diego to sneak into the tent, snatch the baby and rendezvous back at the top of the waterfall while the other pack members distracted the humans with a full on attack. There was no point in the pack trying to sneak up on them, although their footsteps were as silent as the heartbeat of a mouse when they ran, because the wolves were able to sense them as soon as they touched the valley ground. In the end, the sharp and loud barks of the wolves woke the humans up to find a pack of sabers attacking their camp.

The fighting mainly commenced in the center of the valley next to the humans' tents; it gave Diego and Taura plenty of space away from the main tangle of fur and spears to sneak around the tent walls of the chief. Taura saw one of the wolves out of the corner of her eye race towards them, its teeth bared and lips drooling.

"Diego!" Taura warned as she turned around to face the incoming beast with her own long canines bared. Diego turned around a second later, just in time to see Oscar collide with the wolf and roll away back into the brawl that was still commencing in the center of the camp.

"Keep moving!" Diego whispered harshly as he pushed her towards the entrance. They both entered to find the baby tucked into a make-shift mini-bed made from tumbles of brown cloth and wool. The baby was wrapped in the same material very snugly with extra tooth decorations around him, unaware of the chaos that ensued outside. For a split second, looking at the adorable face of the human child that continued to sleep soundly, Taura felt a sliver of guilt bubble in her stomach. But then cast it aside when she felt the scarred lids of her left eye twitch, as if reminding her of why she was doing this in the first place: to avenge her brother.

Diego started to stalk towards the child, when it was suddenly snatched from its cot. Taura looked up to find that the human mother was still inside the tent, now cradling her child protectively. Diego and Taura started to growl at her, as if threatening her to give them back the baby. The female looked around the tent desperately with wide eyes for something to defend herself with as the two saber-toothed felines started to walk towards her. She suddenly grabbed a club from behind her and quickly whacked Diego across the head with it.

"Diego!" Taura cried in alarm, not noticing the human mother had already ran out of the tent.

Diego started to shake his head groggily and tried to stand up. "I'm fine, get the baby!" Diego yelled as he shoved Taura out the tent in a hurried manner to try and catch the she-human.

The mother sprinted like she was running from the Satan himself, and ran towards a ledge that reached all the way across the river and on the other side of the water fall, both sabers hot on her heels. As she tried to run up the bridge, Diego beat her to the top. Diego tried to swipe at the baby but the female quickly pulled the bundle away, leaving Diego with nothing but the tooth-decorated necklace between his clawed fingers. He growled in frustration, threw the necklace down to the floor and tried to catch up to the female again. The she-human then tried to run away through the underside of the ledge, but she was met with Taura cutting her off. The mother then hurriedly ran across the water and onto a rocky ledge that spiked out of the very edge of the gushing waterfall.

As she stood on the edge, she was met with her two chasers who both stalked towards her with bared teeth, like two predators cornering their trapped prey. Panic started to show in the mother's eyes as she looked back from the predators to the very tall fall behind her. She then looked towards her baby, the child that she has been raising ever since he was born. Right there and then, she knew what she had to do and even though the odds were against her, she didn't have a choice. The she-human looked back at her two chasers; this time, her eyes were steeled with determination. Taura and Diego didn't seem to notice and continued to walk up towards her growling threateningly with confidant smirks on both their faces.

The mother clutched her child towards her face very tightly and with one giant leap...she jumped. Both Diego and Taura stood there shocked, before hurriedly running towards the edge, as if making sure that by some miracle she somehow managed to still clutch onto the edge. When finding no mother or baby there, Diego growled in frustration and turned back towards the other side of the river.

"That's it?"

Diego looked back to find Taura still standing at the ledge, looking directly at him with eyes filled with all sorts of jumbled up emotions. She seemed to be resonating with anger and frustration, while her eyes seeped with panic and worry. "What are we going to do? Soto's not gonna punish us real hard if her finds us empty-handed" Taura said, looking right into his eyes as if he somehow held the answer there.

"No, he's not going to punish us," Diego said as he looked away from her distracting, imploring eyes. "He's going to punish ME. You go down to the cove behind the waterfall, I'll meet you there after I explain.."

Diego didn't get to finish that sentence when he was interrupted from a sharp pain on his shoulder. Taura dragged his shoulders to face her by biting on to it as she glared at him, her eyes still filled with worry.

"Are you crazy?! If Soto finds out he'll..."

"He'll be too desperate to try and catch that baby rather than be too busy punishing you," Diego heatedly said while glaring back at the stubborn female, "If he found BOTH of us empty-handed, he'll assume right away that it was you who slowed me down and end up punishing you for it. And what good would that do?" Diego's glare softened and he sighed deeply before continuing. "Look, just this once, do as I say. I'll be back before you know it."

Taura held her glare unto his hazel eyes before finally relenting by closing her eye and breathing deeply. She looked back up at him with a gaze that said 'Please be careful...' and ran downwards towards the cove. Of course, what with Diego always having to have the last word, he called out: "Don't worry, I'm always careful!" with a smug smirk. Her echoed giggles in the distance put only a little rest in his mind, but that was enough for him. He ran back to beginning of the ledge (which was the rendezvous point) and saw Soto call the others before heading towards him.

"Where's the baby?" Soto demanded as he panted heavily, too focused on looking for the bundle that Diego would've captured to notice that Taura was absent.

"I lost it over the falls," Diego growled aggravated,

"You lost it?!" Soto bellowed, his eyes now officially burning with rage. He then finally noticed another member of the pack missing, "And Taura too?!"

Before Diego could reply, a bunch of spears were launched at them, barely missing by an inch. They all looked towards a hill to find that the humans were chasing after them, now in bigger numbers. The pack quickly ran across the bridge, trying to put some distance between them and the humans.

"No, she went missing during the chase, must've slipped down the falls as well," Diego yelled over the sounds of the bellowing dogs as they ran, "But knowing her, she would probably survive that,"

"I don't care whether she's drown-dead or skewered alive on a rock!" Soto growled at him. It took Diego all of his strength loyalty to not pounce at his leader for what he just said about his friend. "I want that baby Diego, now get it!" He then turned on Diego, looking very intimidating with his bared fangs and glaring eyes, the rest of the pack stopping with them. "You'd better unless you want to serve yourself a replacement!" Soto continued, he then called out to the other members of the pack, "We'll go up to Half Peak!" Soto then looked back to Diego, "Meet us there...and it better be alive!" Soto threatened with a growling whisper.

Soto then ran away towards the valley exit, while Oscar looked at Diego with a mocking smirk. "Can we trust you with that Diego?" He taunted, earning a threatening growl from Diego who would've thrown at him a salty remark if he hadn't been interrupted. "Let's go!" Soto called out, causing the other pack members (including Oscar) to hurry and catch up to him. Diego ran the opposite direction of his pack members.

But little did he know, that Taura had already met the 'odd couple' below whom they would be spending a looong time with...