Author's Note:

I'm sorry for the crazy amount of time between updates. When New England flooded a few months back, my fiance and I were hit very hard by the flood waters. It's taken some time to get life back to some strange semblance of normality, or what passes for normality. As things are, my writing time is at a savage premium these days. But I'm hopefully going to be taking measures to make that time more plentiful.

Thanks for your patience everyone, Ambrelle.

Rigel already knew what his father was going to snarl. He had returned empty-pawed, to the den rocks, doing his best to mask the limp in his front right leg. The tumble down the embankment, and the subsequent climb back up had taken more out of the proud saber than he cared to admit. His pack moved warily about him, dispersing slowly as they made their ways back to their own dens.

A few soft whispers rose in his wake. Cubs marveled at the amount of blood on his paws, while den mothers wisely reined the more enthusiastic youngsters back. Rigel's back and shoulders were still taut and strained from the adrenaline. Who knew what he would do to the cub that startled him?

Rigel's thoughts were turned so deeply inward, that he failed to notice when the last of his hunters had left him. Could he convince Kalek that the injuries the cub sustained were life-threatening? Or should he lie, and tell his own father that Kira was dead, thrown in the river and washed away? No. Neither story would satisfy the clan leader. Rigel had been given a job to do, and he had failed.

As he suspected, word had already reached Kalek of the hunters return. As he drew close to the Elder's gathering area, he noticed that they were all present. Rigel's stomach turned a flip. Kalek was standing on his outcropping, practically vibrating with rage. The Elders seemed impassive, but Rigel read the small cues in the way they sat. Tya was frightened; her blind eye caused Kalek to be invisible to her if she were looking at Rigel. Bane seemed just as angry as Kalek, ready to pounce upon the young hunter within a moment's notice.

"Explain yourself." Kalek demanded. There was no preamble. No greeting of father to son, only the cold, calculating voice of a clan leader. In that moment, Rigel found the courage to tell the truth, as the consequences for being caught lying to counsel would have been far worse.

Rigel's story spilled out in moments. He described how they had cornered her, how she fought. He outlined the injuries they had inflicted upon the cubs gangly body. He explained how she had fallen over the ravine, and nearly taken him with her. Somehow, he managed to leave out the herbivores, and the rogue saber. Perhaps it was best if Kalek wasn't bothered by that detail.

There was silence as Rigel wound down, finding himself breathless with the telling. Kalek slowly licked his chops, angling his head just so that his canines caught the fading light. "You will drag her back here, carcass or not." Kalek snarled softly. "You have two days to find her, and bring her back here."

Tya swiveled her head toward the clan leader. "Kalek, she is to be driven out, not slain. That was the counsel's choice."

Kalek only nodded. But Bane huffed under his breath. "If she attacks the heir again, he is within his rights to slay her."

Rigel allowed himself the smallest smile as he slipped away from the Elder's circle once more. He was still destined to take the clan from his father. Even the elders knew that.

------------ ---------------- ---------------- ------------------- -------------------- -----------------

"Mum? What's that?" There was a bright light far in the distance, a single prick of sunlight in the darkness of the cave. Except, this wasn't a normal cave, or perhaps it was Kira who was not normal.

A warm tongue rasped up against her, jostling her softly. She had the urge to stand up, to walk toward that light. But it seemed to flicker, like fire. Fire meant humans. And humans meant pain, loneliness, and loss. She turned her head to the side, seeking her mother's shoulder to bury her face against.

She was Rally's favorite cub, again. Her mother was whole and warm against her, smoothing her fur gently with a rough tongue. Kira wanted to sleep, to lean here against her mother's presence, and close her eyes. But that grooming tongue jostled her one more time.

She was a cub again. A true cub, short stubby legs, and a rough spotted belly full of milk. Wobbly steps were always a challenge, following Rally down to the water's edge was the other. Rally was a patient mother, and old mother. She had many cubs before Kira, but Kira would be her last. Her favorite. Her littlest baby.

Kira had just lowered her head to the lapping edge of the river to mimic the sleek tawny shape of her mother, when the spear landed with a dull thud bare paws-width from her head. Mewling in terror, Kira had run for the trees. Rally faced the human hunters in a stand-off, until one threw a rock that bounced accurately off the tigresses skull.

A sack of wolf-skin dropped down over Kira's head. Her cub-claws were not hard enough yet to pierce the leather. Her tiny teeth could not slash effectively. She was trapped.

"No! Mum! Mum!" Kira cried out, calling for Rally. Her cries changed as she sought to press against the steady presence in her dream. There was no furry shoulder to greet her nose in the darkness. There was only emptiness. The gripping terror of abandonment. She didn't want to remember… she didn't want to see it all happen again.

Kira lurched to her feet, and half-ran, half-limped to the tiny mote of light in the distance.

-------------------- ------------------------- -------------------- ----------------------- ----------------

The light hurt. Kira wanted to cover her face with her paw, but she found that she couldn't move. She was stiff, sore. It felt like something was caked over her left leg, and most of her rump. She couldn't even flap her stumpy little tail. She waited for a few moments, and then slowly opened her eyes again.

The painful light was from a fire that burned merrily a short distance from her face. The warmth was pleasant but entirely cheerless. Fire meant humans. And anywhere with those ghastly two-legged barbarians was the last place that Kira wanted to be. Her ears ached in a sympathetic response to the memories the fire drew from her. She tried to pick her head up and look around, but found that even her neck refused to obey her orders.

She must have let out some sort of sound, because suddenly there was motion all around her.

"She's awake! She's gonna eat us!" Two clarion voices shouted. The sound sent daggers of pain through Kira's skull, and she closed her eyes again. They were speaking. Which instantly ruled out that her captors (saviors?) were human. The ground seemed to vibrate beneath her body.

A groundquake? She thought the last of those had passed before her birth. Surely the Elders had always told the cubs stories of how the ground would shake and split. Finally she labored to open her eyes again, squinting against the brilliance of the fire. Her amber gaze was greeted by the sight of a single, shaggy leg the size of a tree trunk. With her next breath, she recognized the heavy musk of mammoths, in particular, the cow who she had alerted the hunters too; and the bull who had rose to her rescue.

"Good morning, sleepy head," the bull said, as his trunk moved slowly over the wounds on her shoulder and hips. Kira realized then, that the stiffness was partially due to the layers of mud that had been slathered over her wounds.

"What? She'sh awake!" A new voice, slurred and reedy, made Kira really want to crane her neck around. "How come I get left o—?"

"Sid. Shut up." Now that voice Kira recognized. The rogue. She cast her eyes about, until she found him lingering behind the mammoth's great legs. He watched her carefully, as though he expected her to attack them all. "You're hurt pretty bad, kid. Just take it easy."

That was that. As soon as the words were out of the rogue's mouth, Kira knew that she couldn't just lie here. She had to get up. She watched him carefully as she summoned her strength. She had vast reserves of it; she was, after all, Rally's daughter. After those few moments, she shifted, levering her good shoulder beneath her as a brace. Her left paw still curled uselessly, but somehow she managed to get her right leg up under her, pushing herself into a half-seated position.

"Kid, don't," the rogue came forward, pushing past the two mammoths. Kira caught the glance shared between the two large prey beasts. "Lay back down before you hurt yourself any more."

Kira narrowed her eyes in stubbornness. Her breath whistled in her nostrils, while she refused to pant from the exertion. Finally through ground teeth, she managed: "I didn't ask for your help." The two sabers locked eyes for a few more moments. Kira gave first, her eyes suddenly dilating to slits. She swayed precariously for a moment, her gaze going glassy and unfocused, before she went down again, hard.

Everyone gathered around her winced in sympathy.

---------------------- --------------------- -------------------- ---------------------- -------------------

"And she's down again," Manny sighed, heavily, before reaching up into a nearby tree with his trunk to strip off some leaves. The leaves he automatically shared with Ellie; their trunks twined together momentarily as she deftly plucked the choicest bunches. Shoving what was left of his snack into his mouth, Manny chewed thoughtfully before figuring out his next words. "So, do we stay here another day? Or carry her, again?"

Ellie had finished her bunch as well, and stripped a branch of her own to share with Manny. He repeated her part of the earlier exchange with a slight smile. But instead of eating her share, she chose to shake it in Diego's direction. "You still haven't explained how you know that big tiger from the hill."

"Oh, yeah," Diego has honestly hoped that they had forgotten. "He ran into me while I was eating. Told me he was looking for a cub," here, Diego waved a paw toward the slumbering form of Kira. "and threatened me with my life if I didn't leave their hunting lands." He sighed then. "They must also think you two are pretty easy pickings. Two lone mammoths…"

Manny grunted, and turned quickly to the saber. "Alright, alright, I get your point. We'll keep moving… just until sleeping beauty here wakes up again… she's giving my trunk a cramp."

Manny slipped the young cub back into the cradle of his trunk. Ellie stepped up beside him, and offered her help, but the stubborn bull refused once again. Once more they were off. Sid continued to ramble relentlessly to anyone within earshot, while Diego did everything he could to get away from the sloth. It was life as usual for the demented herd.