Ice Age: Unwanted Melting of Fate [Sequel to The Misfit Herd]

Chapter 1: When The Herd Breaks, A Sloth's Opportunity Shows

[A/N: 100% forgot to add this when I first published this- Happy [late] new years everyone!! I hope you guys had a good new years day celebration despite everything going on and that you and your loved ones are all safe and healthy. Here's to 2021, and hoping that this year is better than the last along with life going back to normal soon~! Sorry that this took a while, I celebrate a little too hard every time a holiday comes by XD XD but here it is the next chapter of the story, I hope you guys enjoy, I love y'all and stay safe! Also I am sorry but also not sorry for what I have done in this chapter. It was necessary for what I got set up, you miiiight thank me later. XD XD]

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Anger, frustration, pure distress, and a pinch of reality hit Diego the minute he could get himself. He was getting slower, it couldn't have been age he was about as young and healthy as a saber would be and it wasn't even that long ago when he was with the herd from the beginning. He was close to his dad's age the last time he saw them and they could take down a whole horde of animals on their own. 

He couldn't chase a freaking antelope!! How lame could he be?? That stupid jerk even had the nerve to taunt him and it still replayed in his mind,

("My hooves are burning, baby! They are burning! Look at this. I got to tip-toe! I got to tip-toe! Eat my dust, dingo!")

Diego roared in frustration and ended up hitting some rocks, a few scattering into a nearby pond, briefly getting his anger out but the water splashed, making him recoil back. 

'What is going on with me?? '

Diego didn't want to admit but maybe he was losing his touch because of the domestic lifestyle he was now living. He was losing his animalistic and feral instincts and that was dangerous, not just for his pride but for the fact he had to live by chasing some animal down for food. If he couldn't get his food source, that would be endangering himself further and he was already one of the last of his own kind, this was just further securing his lack of chance of survival.

Diego growled again to himself, shaking his head in disbelief. "I can't believe this..." Yet something came back to his mind in that moment. Jade's words then- 

["What's sadder? Sid being too slow to catch a couple of possums? Or possums able to make Sid chase them around like a weak saber after his antelope meal?"] 

It was almost like she knew but that was then- months ago. Could he really have lost his touch so quickly...? 

"Her knowing before me is just embarrassing" He grumbled, looking off to the distance. "I'm surprised she hasn't taken the chance to torture me with it..." It didn't make sense, however- Jade and him were practically doing the same, they didn't hunt animals as much as they did before and physical activity wasn't changed all that much yet he seemed to be the only one to be taking the consequences for it. The days they were together, he saw her in the same condition as she always was. She was fast- quick- and ruthless. From time to time, even she was stronger than him when they would spontaneously spar with each other. It just didn't make sense.

Whatever it was, it didn't make up for how horrible Diego felt. If he was getting weaker, especially weaker than Jade who was the only one to rival him, that was something he couldn't deal with. It wasn't pride, Diego's pride was disappearing slowly but surely as time went on but there was a very strong gut-punch that came with the thought Diego kept thinking on even as his body moved unconsciously from his spot in the outskirts. If he couldn't chase his own food, what could that say for predators?

Sure, the place the herd lived in was safe as safe could be but Diego knew there was still always a chance they could come face to face with someone much stronger, bigger, and dangerous than the herd combined. If the past two experiences were anything to go by, it wouldn't be long before the herd got themselves into another situation again. He knew it- he knew it deep inside himself that if he couldn't do so much as getting himself food, he couldn't protect anyone.