Ice Hearts 2: Drifted

1. Gone

The herd had found a place to call home, for the time being. Manny and Ellie were in their honeymoon phase, Diego and Kiara were doting over their daughter, and Sid was being Sid.

One warm, sunny day, Diego was sleeping on a boulder, with Diara beside him. When he felt sudden water on his face, Diego jumped to his feet, ready to defend his baby. Instead, he was met with a lick to the cheek.

"You've got another kitty in your life, you know," Kiara teased him, rubbing her face all over his neck.

"Really?" Diego quipped, followed by a playful attempt at biting her. Kiara giggled and pulled away, running off.

Diego started to give chase, but stopped once he was off the boulder. To his luck, Sid was coming back from one of his expeditions. He left Sid to watch Dia as he went after his mate.

"Yeah, yeah. Leave Sid to watch the kid. I should charge a fee for this service!" Sid lamented.

After some time, Dia woke up. She noticed Sid doing something nearby and decided to prey on him. She crouched on the boulder, following Sid as he circled the rock. Once she was set, Dia jumped and pounced on him. Both of them were almost the same size, so they tumbled to the ground instead.

"Hey. Hey!" Sid warned as he managed to pry her off. "I am not food! I'm your uncle Sid! Come on, say it with me now: uncle. Sid."

"Sish!" Dia responded.

"No, no! Sid. SiDH! Let's try it together: un..."

"Un," Dia repeated.

"Cle."

"Cuw!"

"Yes!" Sid cheered, close enough. "Uncle Sid!" He said quickly.

"Uhwuh fish!" Dia quickly said back.

Sid sighed and flopped against the boulder. "It's okay. We'll try again next week."

The next week was quite busy as something was abuzz in the area. Things kept going missing, or broken, or something or the other. But it was not normal. Of course, the gang was on the case. Unfortunately, that meant they had less attention on their own things.

One afternoon, Diego had overslept in the cave, and Dia wandered out on her own. She stretched her back and was ready for... stuff. She took one step forward and rolled to the ground. Once down, she shook herself up. Well, that was embarrassing. To make up for it, Dia decided to go get her own food, since she was hungry. She looked around her and noticed the way her parents used to go and come back with food. Excited, Dia ran far from the cave and into the forest.

"Diego!!" Diego was stirred awake by someone shouting his name in his face.

"What? What's wrong?!" He jumped up

"Where's Dia?" Kiara asked him stressfully.

"What do you mean, where's Dia?" Diego leisurely stretched. "She's probably playing with-"

"She's not there! Diego!" Kiara told him and exited the cave in a rush. Now Diego was alert, and quickly followed after. Apparently, he was the last to know.

"She's not where I looked," Ellie told her.

"Not my place either," Manny added.

"She's just a cub! She couldn't have gone far! We'll hunt her down," Diego went back to the cave to pick up her scent, then ran out, following his nose. Kiara ran beside him as the rest of them followed.

"It stopped here," Diego said as he skidded to a stop.

"Then she must be around here somewhere," Kiara said. "Fan out!" And they all spread in different directions, looking for Diara.

They ran far and wide, often crossing paths, but there was no sign of the little saber. At one point, Diego and Kiara began looking together, even towards the water. They didn't find their daughter, but found other distressed pairs of animals.

"He was right here! In front of me! How could he have just disappeared?!" A female capibara cried.

"Who disappeared?" Kiara asked out loud for anyone to hear.

"Our children!" Some male answered.

"They can't just disappear! There has to be some explanation," Diego came beside her.

"They didn't. The sky swooped down and snatched them away," a hare told them.

Kiara didn't need to hear more as she immediately ran up the nearest tree.

"Kiara!" Diego shouted and followed her on the ground. She managed to make quite the distance but eventually Diego knocked her down.

"No! We have to get her back! She's in the sky!" Kiara challenged as Diego kept blocking her way.

"Kiara, stop!" Diego pounced, pinning her beneath him. He sighed, defeated. "She's gone."