06-23-2009, 05:36 AM
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mall-caps;">Out of Character Agh, I am making the assumption that somewhere along the line Kaena did realize it was Laruku, though I don't exactly remember if that was roleplayed out!? D: I suck, wow. mall-caps;">In Character The coyote watched Rachias's face, emotions flashing past like a time-lapse video, swirling behind her turquoise eyes. There was no one single feeling overwhelming her features, and she merely seemed confused, undecided as to which to follow. Kaena supposed that was a good sign—by far better than immediate screaming and anger. Kae herself didn't know how to feel. There was a restless awkwardness creeping through her chest. How could she tell Rachias what she had done? I left you for her? the coyote inwardly lamented, once again taken with her daughter's beauty. She had all the dainty features of a coyote and the size of a wolf, her highly mixed percentage giving her a perfectly exotic look, elements of wolf and coyote clearly present but melded perfectly. It made sense—Gabriel seemed surprised. It was more common for canines to just disappear, never heard from again. They were always presumed dead, weren't they? But without proof, one could never know. Hell, Kaena's grandparents on both sides might still be alive, and she might have uncles and aunts, fifty cousins and second cousins she didn't know about. She never would know unless they came to her—that place had never been her home. Though Kaena was a Lykoi by name, her breed here was probably a far cry from the Lykoi that defined her father. Hell, they were trying to extinguish hybridization, and here Kaena had hand-crafted a flood of halfbreed children and grandchildren. She had carried the surname far from its origin, and warped the meaning entirely. She supposed she was one of the few who definitively knew that "Lykoi" meant wolf, though anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of etymology would be able to infer its definition. It was not so much a dark secret as something intentionally not mentioned. There was too much that she had missed—it was just shy of two years now that she'd started staying away from Inferni, just a year and a half ago that she'd up and left, but it seemed like forever, and so much had changed since then, even the very ground Inferni walked on. The Lykoi didn't care so much about the change of scenery, but she wanted to devour all of the knowledge possible about her family; she wanted to know everything anyone could tell her. Kaena herself was not so unfamiliar with the kind of children Rachias had, though Kairo was only her half-brother, Kae was not so lucky as her daughter to have viable children the first time, and the second litter was intentionally abandoned by yearling Kaena, too terrified of her father's reaction if she brought him home pups that were at once her nieces and nephews and her children, pureblood Lykoi grandchildren. Now, Kaena might relish that kind of Lykoi, in a twisted sort of way. The coyote's head bobbed slightly at Rachias's statement, and she again sighed, though it was smoother this time, acknowledging something Kaena did not wish to think about. Her mortality was a subject she had done well to avoid in the past, and the number of times she'd danced with the reaper and toed that thin, bloody line echoed again in her mind. "I will die here," she said, and it was not so much an affirmation as it was a promise, something Kaena had long thought about. Her long journey had been her last—she was too old to survive in the open wilderness alone again. It had taken a lot out of her, and Kaena was not yet fully recovered. A few of her ribs shone through along her sides, though she was nowhere near as emaciated as she had been at her worst, and she was clearly underweight, though she was clearly rippled with no small amount of muscle. Kaena had never been hulking, but walking endless miles had toned her and replaced some of her lost weight with muscle. The youth's next words struck Kaena in a way that she hadn't thought they would. She hadn't guessed Laruku had died, but neither had she assumed she would find him here, waiting for her to perhaps rekindle some kind of relationship. They'd never, ever been like that—Kaena didn't even really get along with the real Laruku; she rather preferred Ryoujoku. At least his demon had been fun, but learning he was dead... Kaena's head spun for a moment, and she almost whined. She had planned to see him again, at least once—more, depending how well he received her. She had run off with another man, but they were never actually in a real relationship... so why would he be angry, why would he have given a shit what she did? It should have been a goddamn relief when Kaena stopped hanging around when he came to see the children, she just left him there alone with them while she went to see Astaroth. She reached out to touch Rachias at long last, her fingers just lightly brushing the girl's hair from the side of her face. The ashen hybrid didn't know how close Laruku and Rachias had become after she left, but at least there was closure—at least there was no ghost to come haunting years later. "He was good to you?" she asked, her hand falling back to her side after a moment, hoping the answer was yes. She didn't know if her children knew their father's other side, the one that Kaena had been seduced by, and she knew Laruku was no outright danger to them, though he might have been apathetic toward their existence and stopped coming around after Kae wasn't there anymore, who knew? The silver canine certainly didn't, and that brought the ache back into her heart. The hybrid's gaze fell to the floor again, her coal-colored ears falling back into her shaggy silver hair. It wasn't as if she hadn't had a choice in the matter—for sure, Eris was not a favored child, having been stained from the moment Kaena laid eyes on her. But there was still love; Eris was still her child, despite her wretched blood. Kaena couldn't let Astaroth simply run away with her. "I didn't want to leave you three," she said softly. She didn't want to, she didn't have to—but she did. She had thought of them often while tracking Astaroth, sore from their absence and wondering how big they were growing, all the while chasing a monstrosity that should not have existed. |