06-19-2009, 04:03 PM
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| http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/ ... tblood.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:248px; padding-left:25px; padding-right:25px; padding-bottom:10px;"> mall-caps;">In Character Though they spoke, Kaena did not allow herself to be taken completely away from the scenery. All the while, her head swiveled away from Gabriel, inspecting the territory and the trail as they walked along. This was home now, and she would be silly not the start learning its details now. Mostly they had just passed over plains land, dotted with the occasional rock pile. The path they walked was well worn, and seemed too meandering and curvaceous to be a path created by a canine. Perhaps it had been a hiker's trail long ago, or a deer path. In her youth, Kaena had thought the Lykoi blood was not long for this earth. After the mess of her stepmother, half-brother, and her father, she thought she was the only one left, and in her recklessness and anger she had vowed to be the last one. Zulifer had changed that for her, and it was all downhill from there. There were probably twenty Lykoi descendants, perhaps more—if seven lived here and there were thirteen born of her own body still breathing, then there were more than twenty. She listened intently to Gabriel, surprised—so Vitium, Ahemait, Samael, and the Aquila himself had given her grandchildren, nine that Gabriel knew of. It was at once elating and disappointing to learn Ahemait and Stygian had formed their own clan—it meant they likely would not return here, but it also meant there was an outpost of Lykoi elsewhere, perhaps an entire branch of family to develop on its own—and Kaena knew Stygian brought something damn special to the bloodline. She remembered his father clearly. Hollow Nothing had been a force to be reckoned with, and Stygian was just as dark-hearted as his father. It was a surprise to learn that Corona had been here for any stretch of time, and the Lykoi frowned at that. Again, she'd missed her daughter—Ahren had taken her to Chimera in her youth, and the Lykoi had always felt distanced and separated from her sun-furred daughter. The next part of what Gabriel said made the Lykoi's pace slow to almost a halt for a moment, her ears folding back and her head dropping a good foot. In pursuit of that fucking devil-child, she'd lost the whole rest of the litter—she'd never even really known them. They were too young when she'd left, perhaps three or four months old, and now she never would know Andre. "How did Andre and Sam die?" Her voice was low and hurt, wavering as she said their names. She knew better than to ask where Rachias and Arkham had gone—if the tawny hybrid knew that, he would have said it. The muscle in her chest felt heavy, and ached dully—all she had given up and lost for Eris, and the devil-child couldn't have even bothered to stick around for Kaena when she was dying. |