"I suppose... I'm probably the lucky one," Coli added with a timid giggle. She was anything but good company; always extra awkward around men, backpedaling her words and stepping on eggshells. Sankor Koios and Henratha Gyrkin, those two both had the patience to deal with her, but they were long gone anyway. No one put up with her for too long. It was chance that she and Anselm had met at all, and it was unlikely that their paths would cross again.
"I... I could tell them you said hello, perhaps?" she offered, tilting her head with a touch of helplessness. She had not met either of those two, but everyone seemed sociable in these parts, so it was inevitable. "Do you know if Zana is doing well?" she asked in return, remembering the time she'd spent with the little 'yote pup. She had a few friends in Inferni as well, albeit the social outcasts of the clan.
His reaction to her tail invoked a bitter half-smile, her best attempt to humor him with a reply. "I was... made an example of," she said stiffly, trying to keep her tone indifferent, without the anger or the fear creeping into her shaky voice. He had every intention of killing her that day, had even wheedled her into letting her guard down before he made his move. It was only when Anu had swept in to rescue her that he had settled on a mere trophy - a severed piece of his daughter's hide. She had the sick feeling that her tail was not the only one Haku had claimed, that it was some sort of bizarre obsession he formed after whatever accident had shortened his own. She hadn't even paid it much attention as a pup, but now it seemed glaringly obvious why he had defaced her...
"I suppose it was a f-fair exchange... I get to live here now, after all." She darted a shy glance at Anselm, lingering on his blood-red eyes. How would he react? Would he immediately guess the full story? Would he press her for details, or immediately change the subject, like her relatives so often chose to do? She swallowed nervously, shuffling her paws as she began to regret breaching the topic. Haku was omnipotent. Somehow, somewhere, he would find out that she blabbed. If he punished Anu or Conor for it, she'd never forgive herself...