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Leaving

Frida sighed as she walked with Diego. He had made up his mind. They were leaving the herd and that was his final decision. Frida looked at him worried. This was a big step for both of them.

"Diego, Frida", Manny smiled. "There you guys are. You missed the big surprise."

"Oh yeah", Diego said. "Forgot. We'll check it out later."

He totally forgot about the surprise for Ellie. Manny had built a playground for the new baby. Remembering his past, he was going overboard by covering up and removing sharp points that he thought could possibly hurt the baby.

Diego went on ahead for some time by himself. Frida sighed as she turned and walked toward Manny and Ellie.

"You know, I think there's something bothering Diego", Ellie said.

"Nah, I'm sure everything's fine", Manny shrugged.

"You have no idea how bad he's feeling", Frida said. "I'm so worried about him."

"Maybe you should go talk to him?" Ellie suggested, nudging Manny.

"Guys don't talk to guys about talk problems. We just... punch each other on the shoulders."

"That's stupid", she rolled her eyes.

"To a girl", Manny teased. "To a guy, that's like six months of therapy."

"Well why don't you two manly men go punch each other so he can feel better?" Frida sighed rolling her eyes.

"Okay, fine", he sighed walking toward Diego.

The two girls shook their heads as they walked, letting the guys talk. Men were so immature, rather avoiding the problems than confronting them. Frida smiled as she put her paw over Ellie's stomach. She couldn't wait till she and Diego had cubs someday.

"So do you know what's bothering Diego?" Ellie asked.

Frida looked at her and looked down.

"I was so scared", she said. "Diego and I were hunting earlier. He was fine for a minute, but he looked like he was going to pass out from exhaustion. I've never seen him like this before."

"Maybe he was just tired?" Ellie shrugged.

"No. He's so out of shape. Have you seen him lately? When I saw him trying to catch his breath, I saw his ribs! He's not the same tiger I met. He's... I don't know, but he can't keep this up."

They walked ahead to see Manny looking angry with Diego. He turned away and walked back to them.

"You see?" he asked. "This is why guys don't talk to guys."

"Why, what happened?" Ellie asked.

"Diego and Frida are leaving."

"What? Leaving? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I hoped Manny would be able to talk him out of it", Frida sighed. "But I think this may be best for him. I need to go with him to make sure he'll be alright. He could get back into shape and maybe he and I can take our relationship more seriously."

"Fine then", Ellie glared. "Go and leave me with all these boys."

She huffed and turned away, joining Manny. Frida looked down feeling hurt as she joined Diego who was trying to convince Sid that this was for the best. Manny and Ellie were having their own family. They didn't need them anymore.

"Are we leaving yet?" she asked.

"We are now", Diego said. "Let's go."

"So it's just the three of us now?" Sid asked.

"No, Sid. It's not the three of us."

"Crash and Eddie are coming with us? Just Crash? Just... Eddie?"

Diego and Frida sighed. Sid always had to make things hard.

"Bye, Sid", they said as they walked away to begin life on their own.