A Mammoth Christmas Pt. 1

Sunlight streamed into the mouth of the deep cave as the celestial being peered over the horizon. The sun rays were just shy of touching the thick amber pelt of the Southern sabre inside. The beast was fast asleep but as the sun rose higher in the sky, his eyelids twitched. Some moments passed before they both fluttered open to reveal irises a beautiful mix of green, yellow and brown.

Diego huffed, groggy as he stood and stretched, yawning widely and clamping his jaw shut with an audible snap. He glanced around the cave, noticing quickly he was alone. He huffed at that, unsurprised.

Akira had developed the habit of letting him sleep in after they had an incident a few weeks ago. He had suffered a serious injury to his flank after a couple of rogue sabres had wandered onto their territory and the wound had been a bit of a hindrance for some time. Though he wasn't fully incapable, his mate still treated him like he was a newborn cub, much to his annoyance. She had him skip out on hunts, dragging whatever she killed that day back to their cave over several miles. She did all their patrols and protected their land, Percy sometimes helping if he wasn't visiting the sabress' former pack further North.

Akira did everything that was enough work for a minimum of three sabres and not once did she ever complain or even hint at Diego to work back into their previous routine. And as much as the Southern sabre wished they could, even he understood that he still had some healing to do. Until then, he had only small tasks he could help with. And complaining to Akira how she treated him like a newborn cub. She never gave him the time of day in regards to that, however, because she knew what Diego refused to admit: he liked how she treated him. It made him feel loved, cared for and all-around important. It was a feeling he had long since forgotten—if he had ever felt it at all—and Akira's naturally caring nature sparked that feeling within.

Diego stepped out of their cave and into the beaming sunlight and winter wonderland. It was late December, the season nearing its peak in weather and also, Christmas. In the village, talk about the holiday was nonstop and Manny led the charge. The mammoth never shut up, always telling stories to anyone that would listen—or pretend to. Diego did the latter a lot more than he cared to admit.

"Well, good morning."

Diego blinked away the light that reflected blindingly on the snow-covered landscape. Akira slowly came into focus, her green eyes as bright as ever and her silver pelt gleaming under the sun. Diego smiled at her, the action subconsciously done as it always was in her presence. "G'morning. How long you been up?" He neared her and nuzzled her head, the sabress returning the gesture with a rumbling purr of content.

"Long enough to have gone to the village and back. Manny's been impatient since dawn to show everybody his Christmas tradition."

Diego was baffled for a moment before it dawned on him. "Christmas tra—oh, the Christmas Rock?"

Akira nodded as she slipped her head from underneath Diego, nuzzling his healing injury for a few brief seconds before she pulled away, satisfied with the improvement in its state. "What else? It's all he's been able to talk about for weeks."

Diego couldn't disagree with her there—Manny sang praise about the rock that had been in his family for generations and admittedly, he was curious to see what all the fuss was about. Akira stepped in the direction of the village and he took the initiative, following closely beside her. She filled the silence as she often did and Diego attentively listened though he was more fixated on her voice more than what the sabress was actually saying.

Akira, a year old, laid low in the snowbank, verdant eyes trained on her prize. She readied herself and at a hair's trigger, she pounced and tackled her prey with an adorable attempt at a roar. The mammal beneath her cried out in surprise before it gave her a look of exasperation. She grinned toothily, flashing her little fangs at her brother. "Pinned ya."

Lucas huffed, pawing harmlessly at her flank. Akira hopped off before he could make contact, snickering as her older brother rolled onto his paws, shaking the snow from his fur. "That wasn't fair, I wasn't ready."

She snorted, rolling her eyes at his, "Excuses! You have to always be ready. That's what dad says."

Lucas opened his mouth to respond but a much younger voice interrupted their beginning banter. "Hey, you two hurry on up. Mom and dad will realize we're gone before we even get to the top of the hill." Lucas and Akira huffed at Jace, glancing at each other before they were trotting up the incline to join him.

Their little brother continued his climb as they began in his direction and he was the first atop the hill, settling on his hind legs as he peered down into the valley. Herbivores of all kinds; kangaroos, sloths, turtles and big birds were gathered together, parents, children and grandparents alike, all singing softly in the light of the early morning. The cubs camouflaged in the snow, though far away, could hear them quite clearly. It was as they did every year on any holiday they had. The mammals in the area favoured gathering in the same valley with friends to celebrate the seasons.

The sabre-toothed tiger cubs were never invited as many feared them, even though they were too young to be a threat, and so they quite often snuck away from their pack to watch from afar. It's not like their family did anything interesting enough in celebration. It was the same old, same old. Taking down a large mammal and taking it home for a feast.

"Maybe one day we can join them." Akira glanced at a hopeful Jace and shrugged, knowing better. Still, she said, "One day, Jace."

That day never came for him or Lucas. But Akira. . .

"Oh, Christmas rock, oh, Christmas rock. You're 30 tons of granite. And every Christ. . ."

Diego and Akira shared a glance as they approached, greeted by Manny's questionable singing. The latter snickered quietly as they reached the family of mammoths, Diego the first to speak. "You know you're singing to a rock right?" The eldest of the gathered group was a little sheepish, shrugging. "It's a Christmas tradition for the kids. Don't sabres have Christmas traditions?"

Akira hesitated, knowing her pack's traditions weren't exactly worth being relayed to exactly what they often hunted but Diego failed to reign himself in, in time. "Oh, yeah!" He gathered snow in his paws, patting it in the shape of their usual prey. "Every year my dad would bring home the biggest, fattest gazelles he could find and then we'd all rip into their. . ." Akira nudged the sabre harshly as he dug his fangs into the snow stag's neck. Ellie cleared her throat and gestured to a trembling and fearful Peaches. Diego quickly corrected himself. "—our presents! And we'd play games with the gazelles and dance with them and not eat them. The end." The sabre hurriedly finished, placing the severed head of the snow stag back on the body.

Akira shook her head softly, huffing in slight amusement. Peaches gave her an apprehensive look but she gave a warm, reassuring smile. "My brothers and I used to sing Christmas carols in the valley with the other herbivores in our territory every year." The young mammoth cocked her head curiously, wearing a small smile. "Really?" Akira hummed in confirmation. "Yeah, and after that, we'd go back home to our pack so our Elder, Sapienta, could tell us stories." Peaches looked as if she wanted to inquire more about the stories but that would definitely have to wait as Sid loudly clambered up to them, approaching Diego first and pulling him into an embrace much to the sabre's reluctance.

"Merry Christmas, my mammals." The sabre grunted and shoved the clingy sloth away. As Sid pouted, shaking a claw at Diego, he trotted over to Akira. The sabress was more inclined to hug him and as he pulled away, she chuckled when he poked curiously at her stomach. "Not yet, Sid." The sloth huffed in disappointment, about to voice this when he spun only to be greeted by the Christmas rock.

"Wow! That's some crazy rock." The sloth peered closely at the shiny granite but Manny used his trunk to pull him away. "Step away from the stone."

Sid pouted. "Why?"

Manny huffed. "You'll break it."

"Sid can't break a rock." Ellie defended the sloth as she approached, Crash and Eddie perched on her tusks.

Diego glanced at the clumsiest sloth he had ever had the pleasurable displeasure of knowing. "Don't tempt him."

Peaches intercepted Sid on the rock, hugging it close. "Uncle Sid, we need this so that Santa can find us tonight." Sid scrutinized the rock before shaking his head. "What, this? Oh, pfft. He could go right past it. You need something bigger, taller, sparklier. Something with a pizzazz. Um, a tree!" The sloth exclaimed, marvelling at a tall pine tree with a toothy grin.

Manny snorted, amused. "A Christmas tree? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?" Akira approached Sid's chosen tree, cocking her head up at it. "I don't know, Manny, it has a nice ring to it: Christmas tree."

Diego, sitting beside her once again, looked at the sloth inquiringly. "There are millions of trees out there, Sid. How would anyone notice this one?" Akira and Sid shared a look before the sabress spoke. "We could decorate it."

Sid grinned and clapped. "Crash! Eddie!"

The possums were excited, retrieving all the 'decorations' they could find at a moment's notice. As Sid struggled to lift a rock, Akira was about to go help but Percy was ahead of her, helping Sid lift the rock, pointedly throwing a glance over his shoulder at her. The sabress huffed, refraining from rolling her eyes at the young sabre. Underneath the rock, Sid gathered earthworms and as many colourful beetles as he could gather in his arms. He draped the worms on the inner branches and speared the beetles through the outer ones. Crash hung up fish bones and Eddie spiralled a spider's web around the tree.

"Voila!" As the possums returned to the ground, the mammals marvelled at it. Diego looked a little reluctant as he said, "Alright, it does look pretty good." Akira grinned smugly, snickering as Manny was even less willing to admit it. "Ah, it'll never catch on."

Oh, but it did. Peaches gazed up at the tree with childish wonder, green eyes open wide. "It's beautiful."

Sid nodded in agreement but he squinted at the bare top of the tree with a thoughtful look. "Hmm. It needs a certain razzle-dazzle on top. Something that says just like that, a tradition is born." In his want for that something, the sloth had found exactly that in his own Sid way. He had backed up into a tree, getting stuck to it by the sheet of ice that had frozen there. Upon tearing himself away, he was left with a star-shaped sheet of ice. The sloth was quick to scramble up to his newly-decorated tree and pierce the centre of the ice sheet with the tip of the tree.

Akira could sense the chaos about to ensue in the next minute and covered her face with her paw as she heard the tree groaning under Sid's weight. Sid's surprised yell echoed as did the ornaments moving against the tree as it righted its position. The sloth's shrieks followed him as he was thrown into the sturdy bark of a tree and then as he came tumbling down a hill, back towards them. The sabress peeked through her paw and winced as she saw Sid collide with the smooth ball of granite. The sloth righted himself, checking over the rock before grinning at the speechless mammals. "Seriously, what did you think was gonna . . ."

A lone crack ran down the rock. Many followed and in second, the Christmas rock crumbled into a pile of broken pieces. Diego hummed, "Yep. That says Sid, all right."

Akira spared Manny a glance, wincing again as she could practically see the steam coming out of his ears as he advanced on Sid. The sloth whimpered, stumbling back with his paws out hoping to placate the angry mammoth. "Okay, okay. Let's just keep it together. It really is about the spirit of Christmas, isn't it?"

Manny glared. "You're about to be a spirit of Christmas, Sid!"

The sloth whined, shooting forward to cling to Manny's leg. "Manny, please. I'm so sorry."

The mammoth scowled but suddenly, his expression relaxed, becoming smug. Ellie, Akira and Diego exchanged curious glances. It was obvious he had something planned. "You know what, Sid, I'm the least of your worries. You gotta answer to Santa."

The adults hid their laughs as Sid looked appalled. "Santa? Santa Claus?"

"He is never gonna forgive this. You just got yourself on Santa's. . . uh, ah, Santa's Naughty List."

Akira turned away to bury her face in Diego's shoulder to muffle her giggles. Peaches trotted forward, coming to stand by her father, eyes aimed up at him. "Santa has a Naughty List?"

Manny hesitated before he nodded, deciding to go through with his 'naughty list' talk. "Yeah! Yeah! And if you're not good then he puts your name on it."

Akira raised her head slightly, hiding her amused grin as she saw the dejected looks of Crash and Eddie. "We're never good." The latter shrugged as he tackled his brother. "Then why start now?"

Manny didn't spare the possums a glance, his attention on Sid still. "Well, if your name's on the Naughty List, you don't get Christmas."

Sid was horrified. "But no! Why me? Besides the fact that it's my fault." The sloth cried, the possums and Peaches crowding him.

Manny rejoined the sabres and his mate, sighing with a shake of his head though he wore a grin. Ellie was the first of the group to greet him. "The Naughty List? Where did you come up with that?" The mammoth waved his trunk dismissively, "Relax. Sid's gullible but he's not that gullible. He knows this Santa stuff is just for kids."

Akira was about to comment on the mammoth's faith in Sid's gullibility when a quiet voice filled with disbelief sounded behind Manny. "What? You don't believe in Santa?"

The sabress frowned at the calf's betrayed look as Manny stumbled over his words, searching for an answer. "Um, I, well. . ."

Ellie sighed, stepping forward hoping to salvage the situation. "Of course, he believes, That's the magic of Christmas."

Peaches shook her head, glaring at her father. "If anyone deserves to be on the Naughty List, Dad, it's you!" With that declaration, the calf turned and stormed off in whatever direction the possums, Sid and Percy had disappeared in.

Ellie chuckled, amused by Peaches' words. "She sure told you, didn't she?"

Manny 'hmped'. "Well, too bad, I'm a grown-up and they don't believe in the Naughty List."

Akira glanced at where the kids, possums and Sid had disappeared, a frown on her lips. "I feel like this is gonna blow up in our faces."

"I'm not getting Christmas!" Sid wailed.

The opossums grimaced, the brothers exchanging a glance. "Don't cry, Sid." Crash said, his eyes flickering to the sloth's feet. Or sheer lack of.

"Why not?" Sid sniffled, failing to notice he couldn't feel his lower appendages until the brothers pointed out that he'd cried so much, they'd frozen. That fact only made the sloth cry more, however. "Why am I on Santa's Naughty List? Why? Why?" The mammal cried pathetically, the possums watching on with sympathetic expressions before the trio's attention was pulled towards Peaches and Percy as they approached.

"Pull it together, Uncle Sid. We've got work to do." The mammoth calf announced her presence, interrupting Sid's pity party with determination written all over her face. "But I'm still sulking." The sloth gave a pointed, trembling pout as his eyes glistened with new tears. "No time. We're going to the Pole." Peaches said, standing tall.

Percy sputtered at her announcement, turning on the mammoth with narrowed eyes. "Hey, hold on. This is not what we agreed to." Sid bypassed Percy's disinclined shock and Peaches' stubborn insistence. "Pole? The North one?"

The calf made a show in turning away from a disapproving Percy to face her reckless uncle. "Yep. We're gonna find Santa so I can prove to my dad that he's real. And we're gonna get you off that list."

The possums perked up, their eyes gleaming. "And us, too!" Crash exclaimed, Eddie nodding in agreement. "We may be naughty but we still want Christmas."

Percy groaned, interrupting the conversation. "Listen, the North Pole isn't exactly on the other side of our nearby lakes or at the bottom of that hill over there. It's a long journey and we're not exactly equipped for it."

Sid nodded in support of Percy's statement and the sabre was relieved for approximately a second and a half before Sid did as Sid did best. Spout discernible information obvious to a blind mammal whilst agreeing to do exactly what he shouldn't. "Peaches, honey, you can't come with us. This is a very dangerous journey. The North Pole is a desolate land of ice and snow."

The sabre nearly jammed his head into the snow beneath his paws and the possums gave a pointed look at their surroundings. "This isn't exactly Miami."

"Come on, Uncle Sid, Perce, I want us all to have Christmas together." Percy narrowed his eyes at the mammoth calf, heaving a sigh as she widened her verdant green eyes, pleading. He gave a quiet groan, another sigh shaking his slender body as he straightened up, blue eyes narrowed on Peaches. "Fine, but everyone listens to me—to Sid," he corrected when the sloth exclaimed his displeasure, "and we all stick together."

The group gave him collective nods and small smiles though Peaches' was the brightest. Sid smashed his claws into the ice frozen around his feet and stood, "It's wildly irresponsible and impulsive but let's do it! Northward, ho!" And off they went in the wrong direction.

"Ho ho ho!" This time, for a brief moment, Percy did submerge his head in the snow for the sloth started marching left, the possums following confidently after. Peaches' trunk brushed the scruff of his neck and he raised his head, the two exchanging knowing looks before the calf spoke up. "Uh, guys, let's follow the northern lights," she pointed to the very luminous, colourful lights that lit the blue sky. "North. Get it?"

Evidently, they did but for the reason that was their brains were made of cotton and often, one could just puppet the sloth and possums into most things.

"On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me nine fleas a-biting," Sid sang into the frigid daytime air.

"Eight pounds of ear wax!" Peaches vocalized.

"Seven frosty fingers—" Eddie's eyes widened at his frostbitten fingers. "Six frosty fingers!"

"Five rotten. . . eggs. . . what's the hold-up?" Sid questioned as he nearly bumped into Percy's back. The sabre had been their guide as he was better built to travel through the snow unrestricted with his sharp ears, keen nose and acute sight. Sid stepped around the Nothern sabre and his eyes widened at the vast wasteland of white that stretched on before them.

"I think we just marched off the Earth." Eddie murmured as he scrambled up onto Percy's back, his brother perched on Peaches'. The mammals continued, consciously grabbing a hold of each other as a fog crept upon them. "No, it's a white-out. Akira told us about it one time." Crash said as the quintet continued along, a clear path in mind until the air around them thickened so much, they could barely see the respective members of their group.

"We'll be safe as long as we all. . . stay together." Somehow, they lost each other. Percy found his eyes and nose useless, his senses muted in the obscure fog. Only his ears served him well but it seemed the voices of his herd sounded all around him. "Uncle Sid? Percy!" A voice to his left, then another to his right. "Peaches, where are you? Perce?"

"Uncle Sid?" In front.

"Peaches?" Behind him.

"Eddie? Where are you, Eddie? Oh, wait. I'm Eddie."

Percy groaned, deciding to try and follow Sid's voice out of the four that called out. He had barely been tracking it for a minute when he knocked over a figure and four 'oof's followed. "Well, found you." He spied a few grins in the heavy fog as he helped Sid and the possums up, Peaches already on her feet.

"Okay," Sid gripped Percy's scruff with a gentle paw, holding his other out for Peaches' trunk. The calf complied as the brothers hopped up onto her back. "Everyone, grab hold of your buddy and follow me. I have an excellent sense of direction." Percy's gaze rolled skyward as he reluctantly trailed after Sid. This just spelled absolute disaster in the making. "Wait." The sabre, mammoth and possums froze, expecting the worse but the sloth only sneezed. Percy sighed.

"Bless you." The remaining three chorused.

"Thank you." No sooner than they had stepped forward had the ground disappeared from beneath them, screams echoing in the frigid atmosphere as the group was split during the fall over the cliff, thrown far and wide and severely disoriented, a few bruises acquired on some. The mammoth, sloth and possums landed relatively close to each other but the sabre found himself alone by the sheer cliff face.

Percy groaned as he rolled onto his stomach, flexing his paws, shoulders and legs and grunted as there was a brief flare-up of pain in his back left paw. "Great." The sabre muttered as he stood despite his aching leg. He looked around, able to see for miles ahead of him yet not a single mammal or object was to be spotted.

It wasn't looking very good for him, that was until he heard Sid's shrill scream. Oh, how he could always count on Sid.

The very last thing Sid expected to see in all the years he'd been on this very Earth was a flying reindeer named Prancer. His group giggled hysterically at the deer's name but the sloth was more composed. "Oh, don't listen to them. You saved our lives and we'll never forget you. Have a Merry Christmas."

Prancer gave them an odd look as the sloth began on his way in a seemingly random direction, the others following easily. "Are you sure you don't need my help?"

Sid shook his head. "Oh, no thank you. You've done more than enough. Look, we'll take it from here. Still got a friend to find." The sloth was barely making his own decisions for three seconds before he nearly rammed into the cliff's rockface. He would have certainly collided with it if a soft-furred, sleek feline body hadn't been there to stop him. Sid glanced up and grinned at the unimpressed blue eyes staring down at him. "Perce! I was looking for you."

"Oh, were you? Sorry, the fall off the cliff might've separated us. You know, the one you led us off of." Sid gave a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, uh—" The sloth had no chance of finishing his sentence and a head of antlers nudged him back with the possums and Peaches' and he was face to face with a floating reindeer. "Hey, back off, sabre! These mammals aren't food."

Percy grimaced at the implication he'd eat his family—Sid, especially and for completely different reasons. "Who are you?" He asked calmly, recalling Akira's insistence to be patient with mammals, reptiles and avians because of the natural fear that came to prey upon any interaction with their species. It applied to the reindeer before him, even if by some miracle it was airborne without wings. "Prancer, and it'll be over my dead body you'll get a bite out of this. . ." he cast an uncertain glance behind him, "really weird herd."

The sabre huffed as Sid poked his head out from behind Prancer. "Percy? Eat us?" The sloth pat Prancer's side reassuringly. "Oh no, no, no. Not our dear Perce. Diego and Kira raised him better. He's family."

The reindeer frowned, a bit bewildered by the appearance of friendship between predator and prey. "Uh, what?"

Sid nodded with a grin. "Yup. This is Percy, Prancer. Percy, Prance. Now that everyone's acquainted, I think we'll get on our merry little way. Bye, Prancer!" And off he went in the wrong direction still.

"Sid, the other way."

Percy and Peaches exchanged a glance. "Yeah, the reindeer is coming with us." The mammoth declared.

Back home, the adults had yet to notice the absence of the other half of their herd, assuming Sid was still grieving the addition of his name's to the so-called naughty list and the kids, Crash and Eddie were helping him cope. They were a little busy, all except Ellie, helping Manny put his shattered Christmas rock back together. So far, it was a tedious and miserable process.

"Uh, what do you think?" Manny asked after his fifth attempt. The rock looked better than most of the other times but it also looked like it was barely holding itself together.

The sabres exchanged a glance. "You want an honest answer or a Christmas answer?" Diego inquired as they turned back to Manny, Akira giving the rock a pitying look.

"Uh, Christmas answer."

"It's gorgeous." Akira snorted at Diego's blatant lie to make Manny feel better though the mammoth was less than amused, especially after his rock fell apart at the softest gust of wind. "Sixth time's the charm." The sabress gave a reassuring, warm smile and Manny gave a heavy sigh.

"Manny?" The sabres and mammoth looked up toward the voice of Ellie calling for her mate. "Have you seen Peaches? I can't find her anywhere. And Sid, Percy, Crash and Eddie are gone, too!" Akira, without much thought, knew immediately what had transpired because it had been exactly what she'd been half-expecting.

"Last I saw them, they were trying to figure out how to get off Santa's Naughty List," Diego recalled. Akira looked up at the sky, taking note of the Aurelia Borealis and which direction it was in.

"What Naughty List? I made it up!"

"Well, you put a little too much faith in Sid's ability to tell reality apart from fantasy. They went off to the Noth Pole, naturally, to get Sid off the naughty list." Akira declared as she stood and stretched. It had been some time since they'd travelled far—even her parents weren't so far out.

"They did what?! How do you know that?" The parents demanded and the sabress held no annoyance in the stare she levelled them with simply because she understood the instinctive worry in a parent of a runaway child. It happened often because Sid happened to be very reckless and frequently, Percy was pulled into his little stunts, Crash and Eddie usually at the helm of the ship.

"It's Sid, it's not hard to put two and two together. I'll bet he cried about wanting off the naughty list, Crash and Eddie tried to cheer him up and there was Peaches, swooping in saying they needed to get his name off the list and prove to Manny that Santa's real. As usual, Percy's the poor, unfortunate soul who got dragged into it because no way in hell would he let Peaches go alone with Crash, Eddie and Sid of all mammals." She motioned North, already starting in that direction for she didn't doubt her theory—especially not when she could scent Sid's very distinct scent. "Come on, we got some catching up to do."

Diego was the first to follow after her, glancing apprehensively ahead. "You sure this is where they went?"

"Nothern lights, Diego. North. I mean, we can always sniff Sid out?" Akira snickered when the sabre instantly grimaced, shaking his head with a dramatic shudder. "Yeah, no thanks."

"So, Prancer, how long will it take us to get to the, uh, North Pole?" Asked Sid as they trudged onward on the land of ice and snow the sloth had previously warned them about. Percy led them, Prancer flying about in the air with Peaches carrying the rear with Crash and Eddie but at Sid's question, the reindeer floated down to plant himself in the sloth's path. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! You can't walk to the North Pole. It's too far." Percy glanced back with a frown, agreeing the pace was rather slow but how else were they going to get there?

Prancer had the very answer to his question but it wasn't exactly the best suggestion. "I can fly you there. No sweat, on Air Prancer." Percy's eyes widened slightly at the offer. "Uh—"

"Oh, oh, no, we couldn't," Sid said, one of many intuitive decisions he'd actively made but as usual, the sloth was never good sticking to them.

"No, no, no, no. My family raised me to be good to strangers and there's really no one stranger than you guys."

Percy snorted as Sid, Peaches and the possums immediately jumped for the offer. Prancer gave him an uneasy glance and the Northern sabre waved a dismissive paw, "Yeah, no, thanks. Fly low enough and I'll follow along. I'm a pretty fast runner."

A reindeer had never felt such relief as Prancer did.

Akira had known well that a journey to the North Pole wouldn't be an easy one but the severity of the current blizzard was absolutely ridiculous. "Peaches! Peaches!" It numbed all her senses, including the usefulness of her ears as all she could hear was the angry wind. It drowned out their cries for their absentee herd members to mere whispers.

"Manny, Akira, where's Diego?"

The sabress frowned, glancing around in the blizzard and finding her mate nowhere to be seen. There was no shock of his orange coat in the harsh, white background and obscuring snowfall and Akira grew worried until she saw an oddly shaped pile of snow just a few feet away. Shaking the building snow off her coat, she bounded over to the figure and nudged it, laughing quietly as Diego's head poked out of the mass. "I stopped for a second." The sabre huffed, shaking his body loose from the piles of snow.

"Diego! Buddy, are you okay?" Manny inquired as he and Ellie rushed over, anxious. They were all a little blind in the blizzard and had probably wandered in circles rather than make progress.

"I'm a little chilly." Diego huffed, shaking another round of gathered snow off his back. "Where are we? Where are the lights?" The Southern sabre questioned and Akira helplessly shrugged as he looked to her, the mammoths doing the same in response.

"The sky isn't exactly on display, right now. And our prints. . ." Even if they wanted to backtrack, there was nothing to retrace.

And Manny noticed this and his mind went to the worst. "Oh, well, that's just great! We're completely lost, my little girl is missing and. . ."

Akira padded over to the mammoth, placing a reassuring paw on his leg as Ellie leaned into his side. "Manny, honey, everything's gonna be fine."

"How?" The mammoth questioned, distressed.

"Just believe in the magic of Christmas." Ellie insisted.

Akira was a bit caught off-guard but what more damage could it do? Half their herd, including their kids, were missing and they were lost. turned around in a blizzard. "Yeah, Manny. It can only get better from here."

Ellie gave her a grateful smile and Manny frowned momentarily before he sighed. "Fine. I'm doing this for Peaches but other than this, it's just silly."

"Understandable." Akira agreed as she moved away from Manny, turning to place a paw over a skeptical Diego's eyes and close her own. "We gotta have hope, D. Indulge us for a bit, we gotta find Perce."

The sabre heaved a sigh, nodding imperceptibly. "I believe."

"I believe." Manny chorused shortly after.

"I believe." The mates of the mammals said.

For a few moments, the blizzard continued on, the wind roaring in their ears and the snowflakes stinging their eyelids with force before the harsh wind grew soft and the hovering gloominess vanished as the clouds parted. Light poured in as the blue sky peered through and Akira peeked through one eye, grinning at the sight of the very lights they'd been following previously.

"Guys, look! The northern lights!" Ellie exclaimed, as visibly excited as Akira was.

Diego and Manny peeled their eyes open, both looking doubtful but with a glimmer of hope. " Um, that was just a coincidence, right?"

Ellie and Akira exchanged glances. "Who cares? We'll take it. Let's go."