Something that makes that scene even more heartrending: He-Is tries to thank Digger for the Mercy Kill before he fades, but Digger is so full of grief that she just tells him to leave her alone.
"I know you're a god or part of a god or whatever, but— I just want you to know, he was worth ten of you."
When Shadowchild leaves the group.
It's like the fantasy world counterpart of a mother watching their child leave after enlisting in the army... and realizing this may be the last time she sees them.
For some reason the scene at the funeral where Digger expresses some understandable concern about eating the dead hyena's liver (understandable in that she's not an omnivore and it comes across as pretty gross to her.) This line of explanation never fails to tug the heartstrings:
"We loved her. She made us strong. Would you rather we left her to rot in the dirt?"
It's just as heartwarming that Digger chooses to eat the liver in keeping with the custom, even though it later makes her horribly ill.
