06-23-2009, 04:06 PM
[html]
| 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 There was nothing left in Kaena; she felt rather hollowed and scraped clean, picked clean and dry by time and birds. Andre was gone, and she would never know him. The same with Rachias, the same with Arkham—indeed, the very same way that parts of Gabriel's childhood were gone, taken from him when Baneesh had died on the old beach. She stayed close to Gabriel for another long moment, and heard the reason why he'd killed Andrezej. That brought a different sort of pain to her, and as she drew back away from her embrace, she reached out to touch his fur lightly, running her fingers through the shaggy gold, charred at its edges and dusted with black. She did not know even his daughter's name, but she understood. In the same situation or even just a similar one, Kaena might have dealt the same punishment. Certainly, Kaena would have ousted him from Inferni, banishing him from even the hybrid clan for his crimes against his own blood. Vitium flashed through her mind, and Kaena almost missed her son, regretful that she'd had to exile him but still standing by her decision to do so. It might have been the same for Gabriel; certainly, she would have killed her brother in a heartbeat to save any one of her children. Kairo flashed clearly in her mind, and she visibly shivered, folding her ears back flat against her skull. She hadn't said his name in years and years—part of her feared his ghost, feared he might come back still, even eight plus years after he was dead and buried, his bones beneath the dirt. The coyote rubbed the fur beneath her eye, sighing at herself softly. She hated to cry, no matter how badly she felt on the inside, and she hated others seeing it even more. It was weakness, and the coyote loathed to show such things, even to her child. She looked away, again into the distance, remembering everything she could about Andrezej. She wanted to remember him as he had been in his youth—small, utterly defenseless, sweet-smelling. He had become a monster, if he was willing to do to his sibling what Kairo had done to Kaena so long ago. "You did what I would have," she said after a long pause, turning back to Gabriel. Kaena would not say Andre deserved it; she hurt for him too much. The coyote wondered if she had been in the position to mete out justice if she would have delivered the same fate to Andre. Could she condemn one of her children to death? A half-sibling, certainly—she felt no sadness for Kairo's death. But her child? The ashen hybrid was unsure, and she was relieved that she hadn't been here to make that decision. It was Gabriel's burden to bear, though easier, as Andre was only his half-brother, not his child. "I'm sorry you had to," she said, her voice still low. |