The Urbem (Completed)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Decisions

(Lyra)

I was awoken by the sudden commotion coming from the ground floor of camp. There was a lot of talking, shouting, and perhaps most worryingly, screaming.

'Lyra,' Dolosus said urgently the second I opened my eyes, but I cut him off.

"Hold on." I stood up, walked to the window, and nearly facepalmed myself as I beheld the scene unfolding on the ground below. Almost every single person in the entire camp was gathered by the eastern entrance, mobbing around something... I looked closer and saw one of the shapes at the center was quite obviously Imara, so I could only assume that the figure standing next to him was Nephele, but there was another... And I had a feeling I knew who it was. "Oh, dear god..." I growled to myself, getting a very dreadful feeling in my stomach.

'Lyra, we need to get down there,' Dolosus urged, moving toward the doorway.

"Yeah," I agreed, nodding and following him. I was down among the congregation in less than a minute. "What is going on here?" I asked loudly over the crowd. At the sound of my voice, they all parted like the Red Sea, giving me a path to Nephele. I stopped right in front of her, very much annoyed. What I saw made me unbelievably angry, but I tried my hardest to hide it as I had a very strong control of my temper... Regardless, what I was seeing made want to harm Nephele...

Nephele was standing next to Imara, who seemed to be limping on what I was surprised to see was a bloody leg. She was holding a piece of string and on the other end of it was Stella, putting all her weight on one leg while the other had been reduced to a bloody, mangled mess. It was a gunfire wound; I recognized it instantly... I bit back an exclamation of disgust at the damage I knew Nephele had caused.

"What do you think you're doing, exactly?" I hissed at her. Her response was hostile, as I had expected, but it wasn't directed at me for once.

"This...This thing!" she spat, kicking dirt at Stella. "She is a betrayer and a liar." Part of me wanted to argue because I wanted to say I trusted Stella, but the more professional voice in my head told me that something was wrong... Stella was looking defiant, which made me very suspicious. Defiance wasn't something that innocent people often showed...

"What happened?" I asked Nephele.

"I tried to tell you!" she ranted, straying from my question. "I tried to tell you all along, but you didn't listen and now we are here, in this situation. Imara is shot, she has lead them right to us, and now you look a fool in front of your entire camp!" I heard some muttering in the background; obviously, my comrades were unsettled by the possibility of being attacked by Uxor-Russia... Although not the most skilled, Russia had the biggest army in the world and they could overpower us easily from sheer numbers alone. Normally I would have been annoyed by Nephele's insults, but something she said bothered me.

"She shot him?" I asked, completely outraged at that idea.

"Just look at his leg," she said. "Its bleeding..." Her voice became softer and she stroked his cheek gently. I shook my head violently and turned on Stella, grabbing her chin in my hands and glaring at her.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" She gave me a defiant grin.

"I am a true Uxor, unlike any of you."I tightened my grip on her and pull her closer to my face.

"Listen to me, you little skank, I don't give a fuck if that liger was a second from ripping your head off; you have no right to ever kill an animal in this camp. You don't have the right to even consider it!" She spat in my face. I chuckled darkly, shoving her back with distaste and wiping my arm across my forehead. "I wouldn't be so arrogant if I were you, fool. I'm the merciful one, but I don't think you're in a position deserving mercy."