Ƭħє ŞąЬяє'ƨ Şħąmє

Chapter Four: Faux

Alexia crept into the herd, moving with exaggerated stealth that in reality, was louder than her normal walk. She knew it would be just loud enough to wake the herd up, possibly attack her, and then let her pour out her sad story – one which would have them swinging off her words, and invite her to stay with them. She was accustomed to herds like this, albeit not in such a strange mixture. A sloth, two possums and three mammoths. Strange… There had to be a story behind that, but at the moment, she wasn't interested in it. All she had to do was get them to trust her, and that was more than easy enough.

She was in the middle of the herd when it happened. The father mammoth woke up, saw her, and then slowly –or at least, she thought it was slow, he probably thought it was fast – used his tusks to throw her against the wall and trumpeted a warning to the rest of the herd. Alexia hit the wall and fell to the ground, pretending to fall unconscious for a moment. While she was 'knocked out', she heard a feminine voice ask "Who's that?"

"I don't know, but she was coming towards us, like she was going to attack. I don't want any sabres here! Not now!"

"Manny, you don't even know if she was coming after Peaches."

"I don't care!"

"She could be hurt!"

Manny seemed to relent. "Fine… What do we do now?"

"Apologize and see what she wants."

"And if she attacks? Ellie, we don't know…"

"Hit her again," Ellie said simply. Alexia knew all she needed to at that point, and feigned weakly groaning and stirring slightly, before opening her eyes and taking in the scene.

The two mammoths were watching her closely, their child behind them. A sloth was sleeping over to the right, and two possums were over to the left. Manny, the male mammoth, demanded "What were you doing?"

Alexia let out a low moan of fake pain, then said groggily "I … what?"

"What's your name?" Ellie asked softly.

"Alexia." The female sabre replied, then let her eyes fall on Peaches, and said gently "You have a beautiful daughter. What are your names?"

"Ellie, and this here is Manny."

Alexia nodded and stood up. "I guess you want me out of here."

Manny began to say something, but Ellie cut him off. "What were you doing here?"

Alexia shrugged sadly. "Just admiring your family. It amazes me how beautiful families can be when they're all together, and your daughter is truly gorgeous. I mean, after my family tried to kill me, and my pack abandoned me, maybe I'm just going soft, but –"

Ellie cut her off. "Your family tried to kill you?"

"Yeah. Called me a wimp… And then the pack told me not to come back to them." Alexia's tone was dripping with sadness and hurt, and she sighed. "I guess I'd better be going." Her luminous, dreamy eyes locked onto Peaches. "But you really do have a beautiful daughter."

With that passing comment, she shrugged, and began to limp away, knowing full well that the soft-hearted prey would stop her. They did.

"Alexia!"

The sabre turned back, looking half-hopeful, half-worried. Manny slowly apologized "I'm sorry for hitting you. I just saw you there, and after Diego… Well, I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"Diego?" Alexia questioned, genuinely curious now.

Ellie replied "He used to stay with us, but he attacked Peaches –my daughter– and then ran away. We haven't seen him since."

"Maybe he wasn't that good of a friend, then?" Alexia asked. Manny looked torn between defiance and doubt, and he eventually settled on saying "He was, until yesterday."

Alexia shrugged, and sounding genuinely caring, explained "Sabres often lose control of themselves to their instincts, especially around families and food."

"Like you?" Manny asked wryly.

"Family, yes. You've seen that already. But when it comes to food, I'm totally in control."

Ellie nodded once, then hesitantly asked "Would you like to stay for a little while longer?"

Manny shot her an uncertain look. "You'd trust her…?"

"She said it herself, Manny. She's in control."

"The last sabre who said that attacked my daughter," Manny muttered, taking one threatening step towards Alexia, who allowed herself to look pathetically helpless, tripping over her own paws and locking eyes with him.

"Please, Manny. I know what I can and I can't do." Her eyes bore into him, carrying a sweet illusion of trust with them. "Give me a chance. I don't have anyone else to turn to…"

Manny stopped short, and Ellie came up behind him. "You heard her, she's not going to hurt us. You're welcome to stay if you want, Alexia."

The sabre's icy heart came close to shattering when she saw the ultimate trust in the mammoth's eyes, but she steeled it in under a second and put on a happy face, inwardly shaking her head in disbelief at the mammals naivety.

Sweet, blissful ignorance…

Sweet, blissful blood…