Ƭħє ŞąЬяє'ƨ Şħąmє

Chapter Eight: Torn

Ray glanced up at the voice, finding an incensed-looking Damian staring at him. The other sabres were still asleep, for which he was incredibly thankful, but if any of them woke up, or if God forbid, Akira woke up, he was so utterly and unbelievably dead… Especially after he'd snapped at her like that.

"Damian, I know you hate me, I know you don't trust me, but just for once, listen to me!" Ray demanded.

Damian looked sceptical, already moving to wake Lars.

"Damian!" Ray pleaded.

There was a sudden silence, and then Diego snarled "Tell him and I'll rip your throat out."

Damian froze. "Okay… What the heck is going on here?"

Ray didn't reply, his face twisted in a silent howl of pain; Diego had struck him across his back, tearing a deep gash in it. While the younger tiger was still silent, Diego snapped "Don't listen to him!"

Damian demanded "What is going on?!?!"

Ray choked "We're hunting his herd," before collapsing, whimpering with pain. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.

Damian looked up at Diego. "So that's why you were… You traitor!"

"What?!"

"Let me get this straight. You betrayed your herd and now you're letting us hunt them down?!"

"Yes…" Diego reluctantly admitted, closing his eyes and waiting for the inevitable yell for Akira or the blow to his body. Instead, Damian whirled around and pounced on Lars.

"Wake up!"

Lars was almost instantly conscious, and he immediately asked "What's going on?"

"Diego's a part of the herd we're tracking!"

"No way," Lars took a step back, his face hardening. "You betrayed them?"

Betray. That word again. Diego groaned out loud. "Let me explain before you condemn me anymore!"

"Yes, because somebody who would just leave his friends and then agree to go and kill them is worth listening to!"

"It's not like that! Look, my herd… Look, my original pack went to kill them, and I helped the mammoth and the sloth to get away from them. Ever since, we've been together, and the other mammoth had a kid a couple of weeks ago. I lost control around the kid, and I attacked her.. I don't know what happened then, but when I came back around to my senses, I was here! I don't know what to do!"

"Shut up, for one!"

All three sabres whipped around. Silver's eyes were glowing slits in the night, and her voice was no more than a whisper. "Keep quiet, otherwise you'll wake everyone up!"

Diego groaned again, sliding into a lying position. "Great, just great…"

"Look, Diego, there are three ways out of your situation. You can leave us and never see us again, and take your herd out of the area. You can stay with us and kill them. Or you can leave both of us behind and live by yourself or with a new pack or herd. But you can't have both us and them, not while Alexia and Shi are alive. No matter how good your intentions are, they'll never live with a traitor, or let another loss happen in this pack!"

Damian and Lars prowled around so that they were standing behind Sliver, in an arrowhead formation. Silver kept talking, almost ignoring the other two, her voice gentle. "They don't mean to be like that, but they are. Those are the only choices you've got."

Lars asked quietly "What are you going to do?"

Diego closed his eyes and thought deeply for a few moments. In the end, there was only one choice he could make, wasn't there?

Clearing his throat, he said quietly "I'll leave."

"Your herd or us?" Damian demanded.

Diego looked up into their eyes, and told them.