Chapter 4
"Diego," Sid said, walking nervously up to the tiger later that morning. "I'm really sorry I didn't come back. I probably should have. You're right about how I'm really more a member of this herd than the other one."
"It's okay," Diego said, not looking at him. "It was just weird, you know. Not having you around."
"Yeah," Sid said, letting his guard down and sitting beside him. "It was different, living with them instead of you guys. Tell you the truth, I was planning on coming back after just the first day."
Diego looked at him. Studied him. "Why didn't you?"
"Well," Sid said, squirming. "It was a different kind of life, you know. They treated me different than you did. They loved me. They were nice to me, they gave me stuff, they did whatever I wanted them to. So, I started to...have doubts...wonder...'did you guys even want me back?'"
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not," Sid said, looking at the ground. "I mean, I'm not asking you guys worship me or anything, but just...with them, I could tell that all of them really loved me and wanted me in their pack. And with you guys, it's just, it feels like you're always on my case about something, so it made me kind of think you didn't even want me in your herd."
"Sid..." Diego started, but couldn't think of anything else to say.
"And really," Sid went on, "It's really you most of all. That's one of the reasons I was so surprised when you were taking me. Out of everyone in the herd, it seems like you're the one that doesn't like me most."
Diego didn't know what to say. Nothing could be further from the truth, but Sid didn't know that. Sid never would know that. No one would.
"You know," he continued. "Since you're the one who's always 'don't touch me,' you imply I'm not smart, you threaten to eat me." Sid ticked them off on his fingers. "You tease me a lot, you know. And it makes it seem like you don't like me."
Diego wanted to tell him that he was so tough on Sid because he liked him, but he couldn't find a way to word it without using the exact phrase 'I like you.'
"Sid, just because I give you a hard time doesn't mean I don't want you in the herd, okay? If I hadn't wanted you back, I wouldn't have gone to get you last night."
"Yeah, I guess," Sid said. "Thanks for that."
"Sure," Diego said, lying back down, tired. "No problem."
Sensing that Diego wanted to be alone, Sid wandered away. A few minutes after he left, Diego went for a walk. He had some things he needed to think about.
ATTENTION to the four of you who reviewed and anyone else who might have read my story:
The reason I have not updated in a week is because my story was on my laptop computer. I had chapters 1, 2, and 3 saved to a jump drive, but only those chapters. On Sunday, the first day that would let me upload a document since I was a new user, my laptop computer crashed. I couldn't do anything with it. I wanted to start publishing my story to so I used my jump drive to upload the first three chapters on a different computer. My dad took my laptop computer to get fixed, and now, a week later, he says it's dead. Nothing on my laptop computer can ever be recovered. Including the rest of Frozen Fear. Since a couple of people seemed to enjoy it, I will attempt to re-write the rest of it. I can't guarantee that the re-written version, with no reference to the original except the first 3 chapters, will be as good as I thought the original was. But this means that it will take longer, of course. I'll do my best, and I hope that the rest of the story will be as good as it was before. To everyone who reviewed, thank you so much for your support. It made me feel really good to write something and have people I've never met say they liked it and give me constructive criticism. Thank you, and I will update as soon as I can.
George Stark II