"we can stay here as long as it takes for you to heal, leaf." I stated firmly.

When leaf had tried to stand that day, we had found that his leg had been broken from his fall in the river. On further examination, we had found that he could not even set his paw on the ground without it paining him immensely.

Leaf sighed, exasperated. "no, we cannot. It will take months, dawn, see sense for once! Titan will find us long before I heal enough to travel. Go without me, for your own safety!"

"no. I will not leave you, leaf."

"why? Why do you care so much about me that you would risk your own safety, possibly even your life?"

"I do not know. What I do know is that I will stay with you!" I hissed.

Leaf stared calmly back at me, his green eyes showing no fear. "then I will leave."

I stopped abruptly. He could limp, yes, but not very fast, not very far. And he would make enough noise to draw Titan to him before I could get to him.

I was torn.

If he left, then I would have to either fend for myself, or give myself up to titan. I shivered. Inevitably, I would have to leave, because when Titan had killed him, he would no doubt follow his scent to the log. I was surprised that he hadn't already. Most likely he was too busy punishing dusk or whoever for a failed attack.

"you cannot hunt, leaf, not like that." I said, trying to reason with him.

"I will not need to hunt." leaf said. "you know as well as I do what will happen." there was tone of both sadness and sureness in his voice when he said that.

I would die without leaf, even if I didn't know why. This and only this I knew for certain in this world of chaos.

"But isn't there supposed to be a way to kill Titan?" I asked, frantically searching for an idea to grasp hold of. "you mentioned that there were dogs once, didn't you? Mutant dogs, like us? What if-what if we lured them to the family?"

leaf stared at me in disbelief, his green eyes slightly bigger than normal.

"dog bait." he finally said. "you want to be dog bait."

"yes." I replied, starting to feel nervous. My idea was the apex of insanity, but it was the best i could come up with on the dot.

Leaf shook his head. "it's crazy, stupid, and I think someone dropped you headfirst on a rock when you were a kit...but it just might work." he said.

I smiled. Things might turn out well after all.