07-21-2009, 05:56 AM
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mall-caps;">In Character The hybrids and coyotes who made up Inferni were almost all related in some form or another, distant cousins and siblings and Kaena's own descendants. This bound them tightly, for all of her surviving children were born within Inferni's borders themselves. Kaena had done a damn good job of insuring that the generation of Lykoi following her knew their true home—Inferni. In a way, this insured at least some of them would return following their generally unavoidable first departure. The only two who hadn't returned at least once were Razekiel and Conway, and Kaena figured at some point they would return. Most of the others had, anyway. Even Anselm, though Gabriel was only his distant cousin. Kaena did not yet know that Ryan as Anselm's child, and Valkyrie was his grandchild. The trickster's grin didn't fade from the grizzled hybrid's face, and she nodded even as Anselm spoke, too eager to throw her own words about packs in with the de le Poer man's. She laughed, raspy and akin to a witch's cackle at his impression of the typical sob story at the pack borders. Too long ago, even Kae herself had told the same sort of story, believing since her father was a wolf and since he had provided the closest thing to a family and a real childhood Kaena had ever experienced, she thought to follow in his ways and attempt the life of a wolf. Wera and Narcyz's deaths spoke loudly of how well that particular venture had gone. "Inferni was almost short-lived," she said, recalling how Kidorah had told her how Inferni had dwindled to just one miserable soul by the time she found it. That was when Arlo had raped Kiriska, producing the father of Rachias, Arkham, and Andre. "But family ties us tight," she affirmed, that grin never fading from her muzzle. The hybrid's words surprised her, and Kaena wasn't absolutely certain she had a good answer for it. It was more like... what hadn't driven her away? Her father's death and her brother's abuse had insured the Lykoi woman ran far from her birthplace at her first opportunity, stopping only to slaughter the stepmother that had sent her gentle father into the afterlife. The ruthless murder of the alphas of her only pack experience had been enough to send her high-tailing away from that place, lest the entire pack descend on her and rip her limb from limb. There was a different smile now, far thinner than the one that had been there before it. "Since Zarah and I founded Inferni, I haven't thought of another place as home," she said, indicating that was what had driven her from every place she had visited since the two coyotes had met that night on the beach. "But when I was young, it was the usual story. Death and disorder, things of that nature. My immediate family died, so I had no reason to stay where I was born," she said, masking her tone with indifference so Anselm would be less tempted to ask about that part of her memory. It was even still painful to visit those places in her head. "Believe it or not, I tried to live the pack life, once upon a time," she said, shaking her head. Her presence here and her apparent dislike of pureblood wolves was evidence enough of how well that had turned out. "And you?" she asked, curious about the origins of this de le Poer before her. |