our paths will cross again someday.

Gabriel de le Poer · 05-26-2011, 07:24 PM

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During the meeting, Gabriel had sternly refused to look for his mother’s face. He might have, years ago, for he was her son and still relied on her for support. Time had changed these roles; he had become her superior in many ways. This was what allowed him to dethrone her, and this was what prevented him from looking for her in that crowd. He imagined her eyes would be mocking. The great, infallible Gabriel, bested by a wound won as a child, bested by something as silly as a rockslide. He had not lost his eye to war, not lost his position from an usurper—no, he had been defeated by his own pride once again.

The scar across his muzzle, carved by a man whose name he had since forgotten, tingled with the presence of this sin. Pride had always been his sin. He had been too proud to save his daughter before she had been raped, too proud to turn over a madman he kept in his house. Gabriel’s sin had cost the clan, cost his family, and cost the graying hybrid more than he wished to admit. The limp, though he made great effort to hide it, showed this with every step. Even now, he walked like a wolf. Even now, he walked with pride despite his removal from power.

When he had first given his elders a rank to retire into, he had not imagined joining them. The irony of it stung bitterly. His dark face crinkled at the thought, but dismissed it quickly. He had little desire to show this weakness, and now craved only rest and respite. Many times his mind drifted to Alaine, whom he sorely missed. He hoped she would come again, but he had seen the way his daughter’s eyes glittered with malice and knew she never would. Now alone, save a moody jackal as his most seen companion, Gabriel was free to do as he pleased.

Too much time had made him restless, and so he wandered. This was what led him past the main building of the Mansion, and past where his mother now rested. Gabriel hesitated.

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