In the ice age, volatile weather was becoming the norm, and with another snowstorm brewing, the snow-blanketed taiga that lay just south of the mountain range would soon be devoid of much activity, sans a few of the more weather-resilient beasts.

A small herd of saiga antelope had gathered around a fallen log, digging and searching for any vegetation buried beneath the thick white carpet, when some spooked birds flew out of the trees and one of the saigas raised its head in alert and sniffed the air, catching the scent of a large predator heading their way.

With long legs and a sleek build, this carnivore was built to run. A long muzzle sported powerful, bone-cracking jaws. Her brown fur and the lighter stripes lining her back, hindquarters, and tail didn't blend with this subpolar environment any better than the tawny pelt of a sabretooth, one of many relics from a time when this land was lush and green.

Sensing danger, the saigas bleated and scattered as a hyena leaped over the log, but she paid them no mind and continued running, for she wasn't the hunter but the hunted.

Hiding behind the trees, the antelopes were momentarily baffled until they heard a thunderous bellow, signaling that something even bigger was heading in their direction. But it wasn't a carnivore.

The hyena's pursuer was moving with great speed despite his 2-ton bulk and short legs. The grey-skinned giant was plowing through the snow like a prehistoric freight train and steamrolling smaller conifers in his path.

He rammed the log and easily knocked it out of his way, revealing a rhino with a wide, shovel-shaped horn, snorting the frosty air as if it were steam. Seeing this, the hyena yelped and whimpered in fear, with her large, pointed ears pressed against her head as she quickened her pace.

Spotting her fleeing form, Carl laughed in his deep, booming voice. "I gotcha now!" he exclaimed as he chased after the carnivore through the forest.

Carl narrowed his eyes and locked onto his target, knowing he was seconds away from scoring a touchdown, but every time he came close, the damn meat-eater made a sharp turn, causing him to slam into a tree. But Carl was undeterred and kept his eyes on the prize, less it vanished amid the sea of trees.

Of course, no game was complete without an opponent, and to the hyena's dread, she saw another huge, gray shape running admits the trees, this one sporting a Y-shaped horn. She halted and felt her blood freeze as he spotted her and grinned.

As he charged, the hyena barely dodged his swinging horn, lost her footing, and tumbled around. Scrambling to her feet and shaking the snow off her face, she saw the second rhino facing her and kicking the snow.

"Here, boy. Good, boy." Frank taunted her as he braced himself for another charge.

"Oh, no you don't!" Carl barged in, having no desire to come in second place. Neither did Frank.

"Ya snooze, ya lose!" both charged simultaneously.

Her eyes bulging, the hyena jumped out of Frank's path, who tried following her but spun out of control on the frozen ground.

Running at full speed, Carl almost rammed into the distracted hyena, only for his friend to collide with him, slamming their combined bulk into a tree and knocking it down. The hyena wasted no time bolting out of there.

Shaking their heads, the rhino duo saw their quarry getting away and grunted angrily.

"He's getting away!" Frank shouted, while Carl, lying on top of him, was the first to give chase.

Frank got up too and shook himself, before taking a different path, hoping to utilize the element of surprise, while his friend preferred the direct approach.

Meanwhile, a saber-toothed squirrel was skipping on the forest floor, too light to make any impressions in the snow, and sniffed it. Finding acorns was the only thing on his simple rodent mind.

As luck would have it, he smelled one and scampered up a tree at the edge of a steep hill. Scrat squeaked in delight as he found a single acorn stashed in a hollowed-out tree. Whether he stashed it there or not was unclear to him, as squirrels didn't have the best memory.

He squeezed himself through the hole to grab it but upon trying to get out, he found himself stuck and grunted irrtably while pressing his back feet against the bark, trying to push himself out.

The hyena appeared on a ridge, exhausted and struggling to see in the worsening storm. Taking one wrong step, she slipped, stumbled down, and slammed against the tree, just below Scart, who felt the tree shake but kept struggling.

Lying against the trunk, the hyena panted and tried to collect herself. What did she do to deserve this? Usually, her kind tried to hunt the big herbivores before the latter retaliated with murderous intent.

Her break was short-lived, as she heard loud grunting and saw Carl appear around a corner. He spotted her immediately and with a gleeful grin, charged in her direction at full speed.

Screaming, the hyena scrambled out of the way while Scrat finally freed himself and held his precious acorn triumphantly, only to screech and have his eyes bulge out seconds before getting flattened by the rhino's horn.

Barely dazed, Carl fell on his rump and shook his head while the tree bent back, with a squirrel and acorn-shaped chunk of wood pushed out of the other side of the trunk respectively.

They fell out, followed by a dizzy Scrat and his acorn. The acorn promptly rolled down the hill, leaving behind a small skid mark, while Scrat rose up, yelped, and desperately reached out for the acorn, only to get flattened once more by the falling tree, with his tiny arm convulsing before falling limp.

Continuing to run, the hyena dared to hope that she finally gave her pursuers the slip, only to hear a guttural grunt and turn around just in time to see Frank's massive head emerge from the blizzard.

This time, she wasn't fast enough, as the rhino hooked her lower half and flung her into the air. She managed to land on her feet and tried to run, only to suddenly be struck by an immense force.

Squealing in pain, she was sent flying and then tumbling across the snow.

"He shoots, he scores!" Carl exclaimed while Frank glared at him.

"I got him first!"

"But I threw him further. Thirty feet I'd say!" Carl retorted. He wasn't wrong.

"Calf's play." Frank humphed. "I can punt a predator twice as far!"

"Ya can try, but remember the rules." Carl pointed out smugly. "If the predator's dead, it's an instant win."

The two approached the hyena's limp form and saw her breathing and sniffing.

"He's still alive!" Frank was ecstatic and nudged his companion. "You're getting soft, Carl."

"I was just getting warmed up." Carl scoffed indignantly before nudging the hyena with his snout.

"Come on! Move it, meat-eater! You've got a two-minute head start. Shoo, shoo!"

"Yeah, it's no fun if we can't charge at full speed." Frank laughed crassly. "Get a move on, fleabag!"

The hyena didn't move, whimpering and closing her eyes, much to the rhinos' ire. This wasn't supposed to be boring!

Tired of waiting, Frank hooked her with his horn again, forced her onto her feet, and sent her stumbling away.

She collapsed unceremoniously, so Frank growled viciously and stomped the ground as he charged at her, forcing her to flee. She got the memo and it terrified her. The hulking herbivores weren't going to make it quick, they wanted to toy with her until she broke.

"Time for round two!" Frank told Carl with a competitive glare.

"Bring it on!"

Disoriented and with her sides achings, the hyena lurched past some tree trunks, bumping against them in her punch-drunk state, until she suddenly found herself in front of a steep landslide overlooking a lake flanked by a cliff and waterfall.

Nearly walking off it, she jerked back before hearing Frank shouting, "Ready or not, here we come!"

Snapping out of her stupor, the hyena panted rapidly and glanced down the incline, trying to think of a way out of this. It wouldn't be a fun ride but it was either this or the rhinos, so she let herself fall and tumble down the cold, damp landslide, hoping the two brutes wouldn't be dumb enough to follow.

Carl and Frank were running towards her but came to a screeching halt as they realized what was in front of them. Looking down, they saw the now dirt-covered carnivore lying on her side at the bottom of the landslide.

"Doh! The dumb cur fell off! It's too steep and slippery to climb down." Frank lamented.

"Oh, well. Guess I win then." Carl shrugged not-so-humbly.

Seeing that the rhinos were losing interest, the hyena mustered up her remaining strength and staggered away. Frank watched her go before sending his friend a peeved glare.

"Oh, alright!" he begrudgingly conceded. "But I'll beat ya next time!"

"Ha, keep dreaming!"

The two meatheads then laughed in good fun and slammed flanks before walking in the opposite direction.

"Hey? Shouldn't we have been looking for shelter?" Frank realized as his body was cooling down.

Meanwhile, the hyena staggered through the blinding, bitting blizzard and collapsed in front of a spruce tree, wheezing and with tears in her eyes. She was bruised, exhausted, dirty, and cold. She had to get up and find shelter fast or freeze to death, but she struggled to find the motivation to do so.

She briefly contemplated whether it was even worth it, whether she should just lay here and let nature take its course. Freezing to death was much a more peaceful way to go. No pain or anything, she just had to close her eyes and doze off, permanently.

In her state, it was a tempting thought but her keen ears picked up a faint sound, the sound of ragged breathing. Regaining some lucidity, she focused on it and it grew clearer, sounding as if it was coming right in front of her.

Opening her left eye, she blinked away her tears and saw the outline of a head, covered in snow but with two visible ears.

Scanning the rest of it, she made out a a wide nose bridge next, then the beast's muzzle, lined with whiskers and a flat, triangular nose, and finally, a pair of huge white fangs, jutting from a gaping mouth.

"TIGER!" she screamed inwardly and jumped to her feet, but she was still dizzy, stumbled, and fell back on her hindquarters.

Shaking off the snow that had accumulated on her own head, she made out the entire, snow-caked body of the big cat, lying against the other side of the tree.

Her natural instinct was to book it but the tiger wasn't moving at all. Was it dead? Maybe she had nothing to fear. No, it was breathing. Was it? Or was her delirious mind playing tricks on her? She didn't see its chest rising up and down. Maybe it really was dead.

Egged on by morbid curiosity, she gave the body a closer look. She'd never been this close to a tiger before, otherwise she'd be pushing up daisies. Big, muscular, definitely a male cat.

She leaned down and sniffed his flank, accidentally blowing away some of the snow as she exhaled. She flinched as the tiger's chest rose, slowly and rhythmically. He was still alive but unconscious.

The unnerved hyena wondered why she failed to pick up his scent earlier until she noticed the pawprints in the snow leading to the shore of the nearby lake, giving her a rough idea of what happened here. She also saw many claw marks lining his frame, from his shoulder to his heel.

She couldn't help but feel some sympathy realizing that the tiger somehow wound up taking an unwanted bath in the icy cold water following what must have been a brutal fight. Maybe he fell in the middle of the fight or was purposely thrown over the waterfall by his opponent. He had managed to haul himself back to shore but he was as good as dead anyway.

The spacing between the claw marks was quite wide, suggesting his attacker was much larger, narrowing it down to only one possible suspect; a short-faced bear. She grimaced at the thought of it before noticing a peculiar pair of parallel wounds on his chest. Those didn't look like the work of a bear.

"Poor thing. He's as unlucky as me." she thought while her teeth chattered from the merciless cold, the howling winds almost drowning out her thoughts.

Freezing her tail off, she tried leaving only to stop and look over her shoulder, knowing the tiger in front of her was taking his final breaths. His chances of living were nonexistent, but if he was taken out of the frigid weather...

"Don't be stupid!" she told herself, horrified by the thoughts she was indulging in. "It's a freaking tiger. They're cold-hearted, unfeeling killers who'd slay you just for fun. They toy with their prey just like those two rhinos!"

It wasn't her fault that he was at death's door, so she wasn't obliged to do anything. Taking a deep breath, she continued walking away only to have second thoughts once more and turn around.

Would his pack search for him? Would they even care? It then occurred to her that the fangs of a sabertooth could have caused those twin scars on his chest.

"Maybe he's an exile?" she thought, knowing what it felt like to be all alone and having everything out to get you. She had the fresh bruises to prove it.

After more deliberation, she forced herself to turn around and walk into the blizzard. If he was an exile, maybe he deserved his fate, maybe he was even more bloodthirsty and sadistic than the average tiger and they kicked him out for a reason? But what if he wasn't?

With an exasperated expression, the hyena emerged from the blizzard and inspected the body again, still seeing his chest rising. It was frankly miraculous that he was still clinging on, but he didn't have much time left.

The hyena desperately tried to convince herself to leave. She was being emotional and stupid, shortcomings she was well aware of and for which she'd always been chastised, and they would be her undoing. "Pathetic. You really are pathetic."

So what if she was? She had nothing to lose after all, and maybe, she could just find him shelter and leave him there, at least giving him the chance to recover without endangering herself. She was pathetic but not stupid. He probably wouldn't wake up for a while, if at all, but at least nobody could say she did nothing to help.

"It's nothing. Just leave him at the nearest cave and be on your merry way. Simple, risk-free, and it won't weigh on your conscience ." she told herself as she made her choice and grabbed the tiger by the scruff of his neck and started dragging his freezing husk away as the blizzard turned into a full-blown whiteout.

"We'll give those invaders a lesson they won't forget."

"But Soto?"

"That was an order, Diego."

"Just do it, they're your enemy." he told himself.

"My babies!"

ROAR!

SCREECH!

SLASH!

Diego awoke with a start, breathing heavily.

"Just a dream..." he told himself. No, not a dream, but flashes of old, very bloody memories he would rather forget.

It didn't matter, it was ancient history; dead and buried and not worth dwelling on. He, Manny, and Sid still had a long journey ahead of them. Looking for his friends, the tiger lifted his head. His whole body ached, making him hiss in pain but he sucked it up and surveyed his surroundings.

He was in the middle of a small cave, with a domed ceiling barely 8 feet high. He was lying on something soft, which he realized was a makeshift bed made out of grass and branches. The mammoth and sloth were nowhere to be seen though.

The entrance to the cave wasn't far away and he could make out heavy snowfall on the outside. For a few seconds, Diego started to relax but quickly realized that this cave was hardly big enough to fit both him and his friends. Sid, sure, but definitely not Manny. Something felt off.

That's when his memory came flooding back; them passing through the gorge and seeing greener pastures, him and Sid falling through a pit that had been covered up by newly formed ice, the fight with the bear and him getting separated from Manny and Sid, and narrowly avoiding drowning.

But how did he end up in this cave? Who made this bed? Maybe Manny and Sid did find him and bring him here, but where were they now? Sid would surely not want to waltz around in a blizzard. He sniffed for any familiar or unfamiliar odors but found his nose to be clogged and his sinuses burning, no doubt thanks to his recent ice bath. Just great.

What was going on? He didn't have to wonder for too long. Though his nose was stuffy, his ears were still in tip-top shape and he heard someone stepping on the snow, getting closer and closer.

Having no idea what was going on, Diego opted to play it safe and narrowed his eyes into slits, pretending to be asleep while running through the possible scenarios in his head. Maybe somebody else took pity on him and dragged him to safety, or he was meant to be someone's dinner. To the cynical feline, the latter seemed more likely.

The unknown figure walked in and shook themselves clean of all the snow.

His suspicions were confirmed when he made out a silhouette with large, pointy ears and the figure touched his chest with their paws and started rubbing it for whatever reason, while grumbling to themselves, "Stupid, stupid. You, you're gonna get yourself killed."

Figuring his visitor wasn't eyeing his head, Diego peeked with his left eye and noted the brown, striped pelt. This had to be a bad joke.

"What a way to start my day." he thought sardonically. "Fighting off hordes of hyenas."

One-on-one, a tiger would easily trounce a hyena, but these mongrels had a crippling bite, and he had no way of knowing just how many hyenas could be waiting for him outside. One well-placed bite could cost him a limb. And why did they go through the trouble to drag him here? To have their feeding frenzy somewhere warm and secluded? That seemed the most likely.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he failed to react in time as the hyena shifted their gaze to meet his, and the latter's eyes widened.

A brief silence ensued as Diego got a good look at his foe's face, cursing at himself for being careless.

"Crap. Only one option left."

The hyena waved with her paw. "Um...hello-"

A fierce roar echoed through the cavern. With lightning speed, Diego jumped up and his paw connected with the hyena's face, knocking her onto her back. Within seconds, she found herself pinned under Diego, his paws pressed against her neck and claws unsheathed. His pupils were dilated and his lip curled back, showing off his teeth as he growled at the stunned hyena.

"Wheh ahm ahhh!" he demanded to know, earning an incoherent, anxiety-filled response from the hyena.

"Ahh sahd wheth ahm ahh!" he repeated angrily. "Wheth thuh rehht of yahr pachhh!"

"I...I..." the hyena struggled to collect herself before forcing a nervous smile. "Excuse me?"

Diego finally realized how nasally and incoherent his voice sounded and cursed inwardly. Damn cold completely undermined his menace.

Growling, he snorted and spat out the mucus to the side, making the hyena cringe. Composing himself, Diego resumed his death glare, accompanied by a fierce growl.

"I said..." he started in a clearer tone "...where am I! Where's the rest of your pack!"

"P-pack?" she stammered. "Oh, you mean-"

"Cuz if they think you can have me for supper, you have another thing coming!" he cut her off by pressing his claws tighter against her throat. "Where are they!"

Struggling to breathe, the hyena raised her paws in submission, and rasped, "There's no clan...pack. It's just-"

"Don't even think about attacking, or this one bites it!" Diego suddenly shouted at the entrance of the cave. The only sound he heard in response was the howling winds.

"No, you don't understand, there is nobody out there!" the hyenas cried out.

"Shut your trap, hyena!" Diego snapped at her. "I'm making an ultimatum!"

"You can't make an ultimatum, because there's nobody there." the hyena implored him. "It's just me."

Diego cocked his brow before sneering. "Am I supposed to believe that?"

"I'm telling the truth."

"Sure you do. And I'm actually a mammoth who lost his trunk." Diego snarked.

The hyena scowled at him. "You're being unreasonable."

Diego's mirth vanished and he pressed his claws against her throat again.

"Don't patronize me, cur." he said dangerously while considering his next course of action. He had to be under siege by now and make good use of his hostage.

The hyena coughed and managed to blurt, "If we wanted to eat you, why would we keep you alive?" This gave Diego pause.

"...alright, since I am such a nice guy, I'll give ya one chance to prove that you're not lying."

"Prove?"

"Call your pack!" the tiger demanded. "If they answer your call, you're dead, and the rest of your walking flea circus will be in for a world of hurt."

"Alright, I'll do it." the hyena obliged, much to Diego's surprise.

"I just need...to breathe..." she rasped while pointing at her throat. Diego loosed his grip.

Wheezing, the hyena eventually took a deep breath, snapped her head back, and let out a series of whoops, which made Diego's skin crawl.

"Such ugly sounds befitting an ugly creature."

Fixing his glare on the entrance, the tiger's muscles tensed as he braced himself for combat after inevitably slicing this lying hyena's throat, who whimpered as she felt claws digging into it again.

They waited...and waited...and waited...and waited some more. Nobody came, other than a cricket hiding somewhere in the cave.

"Ugghhh! What's taking them so long!?" Diego blurted impatiently.

"I told you, there's no clan. Just me." the hyena pleaded.

Diego didn't respond and just glared at her skeptically, allowing her to add. "And I wasn't planning to eat you, just look!" she pointed to her left.

Diego glanced in that direction and was surprised to find a dead, partially eaten saiga in the corner, neatly stacked on top of a flat rock. His nose really was clogged up as hell?

His righteous anger gave way to utter confusion as he glared down at the hyena. "Then why did you drag me here? What's your game!"

"I...I just stumbled across you, you looked half-dead and..." the hyena looked aside.

"And what?" Diego asked sharply.

"...I felt sorry for you."

His green eyes widened before narrowing into slits as the fur on his back bristled and he let out a low growl.

"I don't need pity from the likes of you." he growled.

"W-would you rather I left you to die?" she retorted. There was no snark to her response, just genuine fear and uncertainty.

Diego was vexed beyond belief. This couldn't be real. He was rescued by a freaking hyena? Part of him almost wished he drowned, this was so much worse.

Instead of answering the hyena, Diego leaped off her and trotted towards the entrance. He had no idea how to respond to this revelation, so he followed what his gut instinct told him; to get away from the striped mongrel.

"Stripes?" the tiger scoffed inwardly. "I wouldn't be caught dead with stripes."

Now that the adrenaline had worn off, he felt every fiber of his body aching but he ignored it. There was no way in hell he would show weakness in front of his current company.

The hyena rolled onto her belly and coughed, before seeing Diego about to leave.

"Where are you g-going?"

"Away from here." he replied brusquely.

"But you're hurt."

Diego snorted, not caring to look at her. "Lady, you don't know tigers-"

He was only halfway out before backtracking, with his head covered in thick snow.

"And there's a blizzard." the hyena added as Diego shook his head clean and growled in frustration.

His body still ached, forcing him to hunker down near the entrance. He hated putting himself in such a compromised state but he knew from past experience that if he pushed himself further, he might collapse, and then what?

He had to keep his strength, and even more so his image of strength while in the company of the ravenous craven, less she gets any ideas.

Seething, he looked over his shoulder and asked, "How long have I been here?"

His tone was firm and demanding and the hyena flinched nervously before answering, "I...I found you yesterday, you've been out all night. The blizzard hasn't slowed down since then."

"Manny and Sid are grounded then, so am I." Diego realized with dread, looking away from the hyena, staring into the endless white abyss.

How was he supposed to find them, with his nose clogged up and the mother of all blizzards grounding him here? How were they supposed to find him?

They weren't trackers, not that even the best trackers in nature would have an easy time finding their way under these weather conditions. There was no option for him at the moment but to sit here and wait for the storm to pass.

"Maybe you shouldn't stay so close to the mouth of the cave?" the hyena suggested, her tone still shaky.

Realizing that he wasn't doing himself any favors sitting this close to the freezing winds, Diego got up and walked a wide berth around the hyena, avoiding the bed she made and the dead saiga. He hunkered down in a corner, crossing his paws and resting his chin on them.

He watched the hyena warily, taking note of and inwardly scoffing at the pathetic little fangs poking from her mouth and her chronically extended claws. What sort of predator couldn't retract their claws? What was the point of having them if you couldn't keep them razor-sharp? Hyenas were just put together all wrong.

His unwanted roommate was likewise resting, and shifting uncomfortably. She was clearly aware that she was walking on thin ice being this close to a tiger, and Diego greatly appreciated it. But he knew the hyena would sooner or later try to converse with him. Unfortunately, it was the former.

"Well...aren't you going to apologize?" she asked tentatively.

"Apologize?" Diego had not expected that. "For what?" he glowered.

The hyena frowned in an almost comical fashion, which reminded Diego a bit of Sid. "I...I saved your life and you attacked me and threatened my life."

Diego maintained his aloof expression, but on the inside, he was caught off guard. She was right. He would be dead if it hadn't been for her graciousness, which he repaid by slugging her and nearly clawing out her throat.

But his pride overruled common sense. He didn't ask to be saved after all.

"I'm a tiger, you're a hyena. Just what the hell did you expect to happen in this situation? That I wouldn't defend myself tooth and claw?" was his curt response.

It worked better than he had expected, as the hyena instantly faltered, lowering her ears and avoiding his gaze. It wasn't hard to figure out that she probably wasn't a high-ranking member in her pack, if she even had one. A natural submissive.

Her lack of confidence made Diego consider a possible motive behind her apparent altruism, remembering how Manny described his first encounter with Sid. Though the sloth was genuinely grateful to the mammoth for saving his life, he still wasn't above being an opportunistic little bastard.

He chuckled snidely. "I see what's going on."

"Huh?"

"Don't be coy with me, please. I know exactly why you "saved me"."

The hyena watched him with bewilderment.

"You're alone and you want a bodyguard to keep you from becoming someone's side dish. I'll give ya this, you picked the right one." Diego shrugged less-than-modestly.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a cat of honor. I'm obliged to repay you "generosity", and you're gonna exploit it, aren't you?"

"That...that wasn't my intention!" the hyena raised her voice indignantly, but quickly caved in and lowered her ears. "I told you...I just felt sorry for you and thought it was the right thing to do..."

Diego gave an unamused look but decided it was pointless to argue with a shameless liar, so he continued. "Be that as it may, I still owe ya...as much as that might inconvenience me, given that I'm looking for my he...pack mates."

"You have a pack then?" the hyena inquired.

"You sound surprised." Diego scoffed, making the hyena flush.

"No...it's just, you look like you've been through a lot of scrapes, and...and that wound on your chest. I thought you might be a rogue...or a..."

"This one." Diego looked to his side but grew nervous as he noticed various green patches all over him. "What's this?"

"Don't fret. Those are just healing herbs." the hyena assured him, sounding entirely sincere.

"Healing herbs?" the tiger asked incredulously.

The hyena nodded. "Yes, some herbs can help you heal quicker if you rub them on your wounds, or eat them."

Diego narrowed his eyes. "And you learned this...how?"

The hyena blinked and shrugged. "I dunno really...my clan's been doing it for generations, it never really occurred to me to ask why. It's practical."

Diego worried for a second if the herbs the hyena used had a different effect, i.e. trying to poison him, but rationalized that poisoning him was counterintuitive to him being her personal bodyguard.

"How did you acquire that wound...if you don't mind me asking?" the hyena asked, evidently curious.

Diego looked back at his wound and scoffed. "You're observant..." he allowed himself to complement her "...yeah, I got into a scuffle with my former leader."

"Former leader?" the hyena asked. Diego figured he might as well elaborate, not like he had anything better to do.

"Yup. Long story short, he was an arrogant idiot and we didn't see eye to eye. Things escalated, we fought, I got roughed up but he lost his life. You know how it is."

The hyena looked pensive. "You...killed him then?"

"Wish I had, but it was my friend who delivered the coup de grace." Diego admitted. "I'd be a goner if he hadn't stepped in. Ever since then, it's just been the three us...til we had a run-in with a bear."

"So it was a bear?" the hyena commented, to Diego's surprise. "I knew nothing else could have made those huge claw marks."

"How did she figure that out?" Diego wondered with growing irritation.

"Well...there's no shame in losing a fight."

Diego frowned. "Who said I lost it?"

The hyena blinked. "Eh...is that a trick question?"

Diego gave a peeved glare but couldn't think of a comeback. She had him there.

"Do you think your pack mates are okay?"

"Pffft...of course they are. They watched as the dumb oaf walked straight into a frozen river." Diego begrudgingly elaborated. "Unfortunately, I was right next to him when that happened and got swept away and hurled over a waterfall."

"Oh...so that's how it happened? I'm sorry." the hyena said sincerely. "I know how you must feel, being by your lonesome. I got separated from my clan days ago."

Diego honestly wasn't that curious about her backstory but supposed it was only courteous to ask about it after telling her his own, minus a lot of important details. This was already an uneasy truce, no reason to make the hyena think he was a mad beast.

"And how did that happen?"

"We got caught in a blizzard like this one. We were searching for the migrating herds but couldn't see our own noses in front of us..." the hyena chuckled awkwardly before her expression turned grim "...then two hippos showed up out of nowhere."

"Hippos?"

The hyena nodded and looked aside. "I'm terrified of those things. I ran for my life and got myself lost. Been searching for my clan for five days now but the snowfall covered their tracks and their scent."

Diego could tell from her tone that she felt ashamed of herself, that she was expecting him to laugh at her. But he didn't, for this was common sense more than cowardice. From what he knew, hyenas and hippos hated each other with a vengeance. He could relate to that, for saber-toothed tigers had their own sworn nemesis.

"I see...you made the right call, those mad brutes would have torn you apart. I wouldn't fancy running into one of those, especially under these conditions."

The hyena watched him with her amber eyes, clearly taken aback by his response. His tone didn't convey sympathy per se, as much as simple understanding.

"Guess there was nothing I could have done..." she mumbled to herself.

Diego, meanwhile, mulled over his options. As much as it pained him to admit it, he was in pretty bad shape, even worse than before with his stuffy nose. And he was separated from his "pack". He had to recover first before trying to find Manny and Sid, but to do that he had to stay alive.

And he still owed a debt of gratitude to this filthy hyena. He had to be the better beast, it was simply expected of him. But maybe he could work with this? Though he detested the idea, keeping the hyena around wasn't the worst thing, given the circumstances. He was in a very compromised state, with his cold impairing his tracking skills. He could kill two birds with one stone.

"Pardon me asking, but you hyenas have good sniffers, right? You know how to track?"

"Yes?"

"Then how about we cut a deal." Diego narrowed his eyes and wiped some mucus from his nose. "I'll be the muscle, you'll be the eyes and ears, and the tracker. We keep each other alive long enough to find our packs."

The hyena looked unsure. "You want us to travel together?"

Diego gave her a smarmy look. "Don't act like this is my idea. You want to reach warmer climes in one piece, right? And I have a debt to pay, so I can help ya find your pack."

"Clan." the hyena corrected.

"Whatever... if we find the migrating herds, chances are your buds will be on their heels, same for my guys." Diego continued.

He hoped that Manny and Sid, if they failed to find any trace of him, would continue their journey south as planned, in the hope that Diego would catch up with them in due time. Even if they thought the worst had happened to Diego, it was still the logical thing to do, like when they left him in order to catch up with Pinky's tribe at Glacier Pass.

If luck would have it, Manny and Sid would catch up with the other migrating animals and, in Diego's absence, mingle with their own herbivorous kin. And a massive, multi-species caravan of megafauna shouldn't be too hard to spot.

"Sounds like a mutually beneficial truce, so what do you say?"

"I...thank you. Eh...glad I managed to talk you into it." the hyena smiled, looking like a huge burden was lifted off her chest. "I'll do my best to uphold my part. But you...you're still weak..."

Diego scowled a bit. "I just need a good night's rest, that's all. And I know how to put on a convincing bluff."

"Okay then..." the hyena mused. "Do you need food? I can catch more antelopes as soon as the blizzard clears."

"I'm good. You don't have to fuss over me." Diego said irritably. Sheesh, did all females have to be like that?

"It would help you recover quicker." the hyena tried to reason, and Diego's rumbling stomach reminded him how undernourished he was.

"How much have you eaten lately? I know pickings are slim with this ice age and every animal running away south."

"I had a reindeer three days ago." Diego said and his stomach rumbled harder.

"Ehh...fine, just this once. I can catch my own food from then on." he added, his tone defensive. Hyena or not, he refused to have someone feed him like a defenseless cub.

The hyena smiled and got up. Diego watched her warily as he walked over to, and brought her kill to him. "You can have this. You must be starved." she offered.

"Thanks but no thanks. I don't eat scraps, and I ain't that hungry.." Diego shoved the half-eaten antelope back, despite his gut strongly disagreeing with him. Maybe...just maybe he could have a nibble when the hyena was asleep.

"Are you sure?"

"Try to stay focused..." Diego said gruffly as he lowered his head to rest "...once the storm passes, we are heading south, no breaks. I've wasted plenty of precious time as it is."

The hyena saw no reason to argue and smiled in understanding. "You're right. My name's Audrey by the way. I don't think I caught yours?"

"That's because I didn't give it to ya, hyena. Nor do I have to."

"Oh, I get it. You're one of those mysterious, enigmatic types?"

The tiger groaned. "It's Diego."

"Oh...that's a...unique name."

Diego rolled his eyes. This was going to be a long journey.

So if it's not clear, what are called "hyenas" in this story are actually Hyaenodon, an ancient, vaguely canine-like type carnivore from the Late Eocene and Oligocene, who are no closer to true hyenas than to cats, dogs, bears, seals, weasels or pangolins, but of course in the Ice Age franchise, or at least in the original movie, the logic is to call prehistoric animals by their nearest modern counterparts; so Smilodon are called "tigers" (short for saber-toothed tiger, even though saber-toothed cats are no closer to tigers than to any other living feline) and brontotheres are called "rhinos" (even though they are actually closer to horses than rhinos), so the same applies to Hyaenodon. Audrey specifically is a Hyaenodon gigas, the large, tiger-sized species known from Asia and her appearance is a homage to the design for H. gigas in Walking with Beasts, which I always thought was a really cool look but also a somewhat cartoony one, with the big ears and the small fangs.

And I brought back Carl and Frank. They won't be prominent characters in this but I will likely use them again down the line, there just isn't enough pop culture representation for these Eocene rhino relatives XD As is evident from the first movie, these brontotheres clearly don't value life much, given that they were willing to kill Sid over minor grievances instead of just beating his ass, so I can imagine that they wouldn't hesitate to maim and kill "evil carnivores" just for sport. There will likely be more herbivore xenophobia in this story.

Writing Scrat is kinda hard, since you have to come up with wacky and inventive slapstick, but I opted to keep things relatively grounded, more like how he was portrayed in the first film (sans the opening and ending), compared to his near-world ending shenanigans in Continental Drift and Collision Course.