I promise everyone that I have not abandoned 'Midnight Menagerie'. I just got this idea after watching the 3rd movie and had to write it. This was originally meant to be a one-shot, but I think I'll make it a two chapter story. I loved Diego's angst and just had to add to it. If you've seen the movie, you know just what I'm typing about.

WARNING: SPOILERS!!!

A mere week and a half had passed since the herd's dinosaurian adventure and Peaches was growing up fast, though she was still quite delicate. Manny treated her as if she were a thin piece of glass. Crash and Eddie kept the young mammoth occupied while Manny and Ellie supervised. Sid also tried to play with the trio, but the possums were relentless in their abuse of the ungainly sloth. Diego had been…distant and the only ones who seemed to notice were Sid and Ellie. Manny was oblivious to his friend's problems.

As the sun began to show its golden rays, Diego rose from his place beside Sid and proceeded into the snowy prairie. He tracked a young bush-antlered deer until he could just see the light brown and white-striped pelt of the animal. The animal was large, but still young enough not to have learned how to use the many pointed antlers upon its head efficiently.

Diego slipped into a hunter's crouch and began to creep along the rocky and snow-dusted ground stealthily. A rock slipped from under his paw when he was only half the distance from the deer that he needed to be. The deer leaped high into the air instantly at the sound. Diego cursed his bad luck and sprang forward with a roar. His paws moved in that rhythmic pattern that he so relished. The terrible fatigue that had once overtook him at such exertion no longer seemed to pester him. Though, he was still a saber and stamina during the chase was not part of his species' abilities. He had to end this quick or the deer would win, again. He was not about to let that happen.

When he was nearly upon the animal, he took his last reserves of power and launched himself onto the back of the young buck. That's when a flash of orange-brown fur caught his eye. Unfortunately, his short lack of attention gave the young buck enough time to throw back his head and near-skewer the saber's paw on his sharpened tines. Diego released the buck with a growl and hiss of pain, along with another growl of indignation when he was unceremoniously dumped from the deer's back.

Diego struggled back to his paws, hissing in pain when he stepped on his injured paw. He looked around to see what had caught his eye and spotted Peaches. He froze when he saw the look of terror on the young mammoth's face. Just then, Crash and Eddie ran up to stand between the two. Diego blinked a few times but still couldn't find words. Much to Diego's horror, Peaches cowered in the long brown grass behind the possums. Crash and Eddie saw this and both adopted very confused expressions.

"What happened?" Crash asked.

"Yeah and why's Peaches all scared?" Eddie added, cocking his head to the side in confusion.

"Peaches! There you are! Where did you get the idea that it was okay to ditch Crash and Eddie?" Manny cried, half-heartedly chastising his daughter.

"Daddy, tiger bein mean to deer." Peaches exclaimed, running to her father for comfort. Diego looked down in shame. He knew he shouldn't feel ashamed for being what he was, but with this herd he couldn't help it. He always felt like the odd one out. While the others were happily munching on leaves and dandelions and rotten fruit, he was busy watching the other animals in the area and licking his lips.

Diego turned and walked away, hoping his limp wasn't too obvious. "Where're you going?" He heard Manny ask and flinched.

The saber looked back over his shoulder at the bull mammoth. "I'm gonna go try to eat something."

"With that limp, you're not gonna catch anything but a snail." Manny responded, almost as a joke.

"Or a sloth!" Eddie added with a high-five to his brother.

"Very funny, I'm off." Diego muttered and limped away with all the grace he could muster. Manny, to his displeasure, did not understand Diego's dilemma and watched his friend go in confusion.

"What's eatin him?" Manny asked with a chuckle at his own pun. Crash and Eddie watched their friend go sadly; knowing part of what was bothering the saber. The two possums shook their heads at Manny's cluelessness as well.

Diego trudged through the snow up to his favorite thinking place. From there, he could look out across the entire valley. Manny had insisted that the herd stay in the safety of the valley until Peaches was much older and the decision was seriously decreasing his chances of a successful hunt. The other animals knew there was a saber in the valley and they stuck together.

The tawny-coated saber sighed as he sat back on his haunches on the cold stone and stared out upon the snowy plain. As he watched, deer and aardvarks and glyptodonts grazed happily on the new growth that spring in the Ice Age was slowly bringing.

How could he stay with his 'herd' when he could potentially hurt the baby that Manny would so willingly die to protect? The longer he stayed the more danger the young mammoth was in. He just couldn't trust himself around the child and he knew Sid and Ellie were beginning to notice his distance. He had also promised Manny that he wouldn't leave them again. He was not one to go back on his promises.

He lied to Manny when he told him that he wanted to leave before because he wanted more adventure. That may have been part of it, but the main reason was his predatory instincts.

He slowly limped his way back to the camp with a resigned feeling in his paws and heart.

"Manny," he tried to catch the mammoth's attention as he bustled around the makeshift playground "Manny, I need to—"

"Not now, Diego! Peaches is gonna come to the playground for awhile and it has to be perfect!" Manny hustled around relentlessly, creating more mess than order.

"It's already perfect. Will you please just listen to me for one second?" Diego was beginning to get frustrated and that wouldn't be good for either of them. He took a deep, calming breath and leaped gracefully onto a rock that set him at shoulder height to the mammoth.

Manny turned on the saber and poked him roughly with his trunk. "No, I'm busy. Don't you have some poor defenseless animal to disembowel?" This comment stunned Diego into silence as he knew Manny had said something similar to that some time before…when Diego had been an enemy. Diego's ears went back and his eyes went down. He turned and leaped from the rock. He jumped the short fence encircling the playground and limped away, not looking back to see Manny's reaction to his sudden departure.

I do love Diego's angst. I'm trying to think if Manny did actually say 'Don't you have some poor defenseless animal to disembowel?' I skimmed through a script I found for the first movie online and didn't see it, but I'm pretty sure he said it somewhere.

For those of you who have been loyally following 'Midnight Menagerie', this is just a plot bunny that attacked me while watching the movie.

-Phantom