[p] so sharpen your teeth or lay flat

Ithiel de le Poer · 03-15-2012, 06:43 AM

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Ithiel is by Kitty!

Her questions were frequently of such a disturbing nature -- pitting one distasteful option against another, equally distasteful option and forcing him to choose. The dusky coyote had at first found such behavior childish, but he was beginning to see the point of her game. He looked at her with morose crimson eyes, seeming almost to glower at the red-haired woman. I never said I did not have emotion, he protested, his gaze moving toward the snow between them. It was beaten down into the earth and brown in patches where the underlying mud had come up.

Of course not, she said, and not in an unkindly way. But you try to act like you don't have emotion, and therefore can't understand anyone else's. Ithiel's frown deepened, and the coyote peered at her with something akin to disagreement on his face. As he opened his mouth to protest, she shook her head. You do, she insisted. And maybe you really do feel you don't get anybody else's emotions, but it's not that hard, she said, shrugging a shoulder. Nobody's really good at it anyway, we're all just fakers.

The dust-colored coyote drew in a breath, regarding her with those strikingly red eyes. They were the color of blood, and just now they were shadowed with doubt. So why can't you just get over this... your... he faltered, hanging his head in an uncharacteristic gesture of something akin to defeat. If she truly thought he was capable of understanding the motivations and restraints of others, she was sorely mistaken. He was stunted and withered, meant for a soldier's life -- there was no love and no family in his future. He was meant to die young or fight until he was too old and broken to consider a life of normality.

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